I am a lazy ass, and so it takes me a long time to update. My writing sessions pretty much happen whenever the mood strikes me, which isnt often. Sorry, but it is who i am.
Rokudaime's Legacy
Chapter 6: The Merchant
Naruto almost giggled with excitement as he waited for his instant ramen to be done. He had been waiting a long time to enjoy this fine delicacy. Between the shortage and Ino's insistence that ramen was not healthy this amazing culinary creation had been very hard to get a hold of. That's why he was eating it at his office before leaving for home, if Ino found him eating ramen he would be in very big trouble.
He actually did giggle as the timer went off letting him know his food was done. Slowly picking up his chopsticks Naruto prepared to savour his meal to the fullest.
Knock Knock
"Just a minute!" Naruto began shovelling the ramen into his mouth at speeds that would have amazed an Akimichi. Wiping his mouth with his sleeve Naruto threw the evidence out the window and began to compose himself to look like a Hokage should.
"Come in."
As Neji stepped inside he took a minute to survey the room. His eyes went from the empty ramen cup on the ground up to the closed window and then finally to the blonde Hokage.
"Lord Hokage, I hope I am not intruding but there are a few things I wish to discuss with you."
"Of course!" A wide grin split Naruto's face. "Discuss away!"
Neji nodded. "First I would like to remark on a strange occurrence that happened about a month ago. For a while it almost seemed like Alex and Mika were afraid of Rin. They absolutely refused to go anywhere near her. Of course it didn't take Rin long to beat this out of them but still those couple of days were fairly odd. You wouldn't know anything about this would you?"
Only a couple of days? Damn, looks like I will have to have another little 'chat' with the boys. "No I don't know anything about it. That is odd though." Naruto replied smoothly while already planning the boys next torture session.
Neji was not fooled but he kept his face impassive anyways. "So then I guess my words would be wasted if I were to tell you that on many occasions Rin has beat up both Mika and Alex and so is not in need of protection from them."
"Yes those words are wasted."
Neji continued to stare knowingly at his Hokage for a minute before continuing. "There has also been another strange occurrence that started a couple of weeks ago. Whenever my students see me drinking tea they all burst out laughing. I suppose you wouldn't know anything about this either."
It took every ounce of self control he had to keep Naruto from laughing. "No, I wouldn't know anything about that either."
-Flashback-
Team 8, Tenten, and the Hokage all sat together in a booth at a smal Barbecue place at the edge of town. Tenten was there to tell stories about her old teammate and team 8 was there to hear them. Why was the Hokage there you ask? Well no one really knows.
"Okay, this is the best story yet." Tenten started. "At this time we were all getting a little tired of Neji's holier than thou attitude."
"Gee wouldn't know what that's like." Mika received a slap upside the head from Rin for his comment.
"So we came up with a way to bring him down a notch." At this point Tenten was fighting very hard not to burst out laughing. "So we spiked his tea. Three or four pots later he was drunk out of his mind. So we took him shopping."
"Shopping?" Asked a very confused Rin.
"Yeah." replied Tenten. "We took him to a woman's dress shop. We found the frilliest dress in the entire place. Next we convinced Neji that it was the latest fashion for men, and as a member of the Hyuga clan it was his responsibility to be wearing the latest fashions. So there's Neji wondering down the street in a pink dress with the dopiest smile you ever saw."
The entire table burst into uncontrollable laughter as they tried to picture Neji in a dress.
"Wait till you see this." Tenten reached into her pack and pulled out a picture. She then placed it onto the table for every one to see.
The picture showed a teenaged Neji with a sloppy grin on his face as he waved at the camera. He was wearing a frilly pink dress.
-End Flashback-
"Nope nothing at all." Said Naruto as he fought to keep the laughter bottled up.
Neji stared suspiciously at his Hokage for a moment but evidently decided to let the matter go. "There is only one more thing I would like to say. You cannot protect her forever."
A puzzled look appeared on Narutos face. "What do you mean?
Neji's eyes seemed to pierce right through into Naruto's mind. "Your daughter. You cannot protect her forever. Eventually she will have to leave the village."
A deep frown appeared on Naruto's face. "I see what you mean Neji, but it doesn't mean I have to like it."
Alex ducked under Rin's kick before jumping backwards out of range. Rin followed and the training continued. Rin launching every possible attack while Alex blocked and dodged them all while maintaining a crystalline column of water above the river that ran beside their training field. This was Rin's solution to Alex's taijutsu problem. She said that it would increase his concentration and that after this training he would be able to block and dodge while completing his jutsu at the same time. Personally Alex thought she was doing it just to get a chance to beat the crap out of him without having to worry about him hitting back.
Across the river three of Rin's clones sat practicing a minor wind jutsu from a scroll that Alex had obtained. After a month of training Rin had mastered the physical recomposition of chakra and had learned two low ranked wind jutsu. In addition to that Rin and Neji had been secretly working on a new style for her, what it was nobody knew.
Finally Rin broke through Alex's guard and sent him smashing into a tree with a well timed kick. The column of water came crashing back down from above the river.
"Ha only three minutes this time, well I guess you're improving a little." Rin stood with her hands on her hips and a cocky grin on her face.
"Hn, I would like to see how long you would last if I was fighting back." The two stretched before settling down in the early morning sun to await the arrival of their teammates.
Most distant observers would say that team 8 was mismatched and didn't get along very well. But those who knew them best knew that this was not true. Team 8 had developed a form of comradeship and an awkward friendship. Mika often liked to say that their relationship was full of love. Rin loved to beat up everybody, Alex loved to make veiled insults, and Mika just loved to laugh at everybody else.
The silence was broken by the arrival of Mika and Kira. The Inuzuka and his dog joined his teammates and a loud conversation immediately sprang up. Mika and Rin supplied most of the conversation while Alex and Kira spoke only rarely. They all seemed to agree that the day was going to turn out to be another useless one. They would most likely end up painting a fence or two before they started their real training.
Neji watched the easy banter of his students from his perch in the tree tops. He allowed a small grin to appear on his face, knowing that no one would see it and even if they did he would deny it. Today his students would finally fully enter the world of the ninja. Today they would finally receive their first real mission.
Neji rearanged his face until it had adopted the blank expression for which he was famous before he jumped down to meet his students.
"Yo, teach!" Rin said with a grin, followed by the respectice greetings of Alex and Mika.
"Good morning." Neji greeted. "Today I have taken the liberty of already accepting a mission for our team. The Hokage has decided that we are finaly ready for a c-rank mission."
Rin and Mika leapt into the air and gave out whoops of joy while Alex remained sitting, waiting to hear the rest.
"Our mission is to escort a merchant and his wagon of cargo to a small town just inside our border. It will take five days travel to get there and two days back. But make sure to pack extra supplies in case of unforseen delays. We meet at the west gates in exactly one hour." Having finished Neji stared at his students. And his students simply stared back. "Well? What are you waiting for? Go pack!"
For Rin it had been a very long and painful hour. To her great surprise when she had gotten home it was only to find that both her parents were there waiting for her. Then they had both insisted on helping her prepare for her first long range mission, offering the benefit of their many years of experience. If that had been the extent of it it would not have been so bad. Instead they had acted like Rin was leaving for good. Ino had almost broken down and cried five times. But the worst of it had been when Naruto had taken her aside for a little chat. Her father had decided to give her some advice on how to discourage unwanted... advances from her male teammates. If that had not been the most embarrassing moment of her life she did not know what was.
Rin let out a loud sigh as she continued towards the west gate. She could already see the rest of her team gathered beside a small wagon with the back covered in cavas, hiding whatever goods were there. Hitched to the wagon was a single ox. A short and pudgy man with short cropped black hair sat at the driver's seat of the wagon. Obviously he was the merchant they were to escort.
"Here she is now." She could hear Neji say as she approached the group. "This is the last member of our team, and your escort, Uzumaki Rin. Rin this is Takamichi, the merchant we will be escorting."
"Well." Takamichi said in a cheerful voice. "Shall we get going then?"
Neji passed a careful eye over his team to make sure they were ready before nodding and leading the way out of the gates.
The first day of travel was uneventful, boring even, and passed very slowly for the three genin. They walked in tight formation constantly moving around the wagon. As the day wore on the only ninja still paying close attention to their surroundings was Neji. Even Alex had become bored and had given up looking for enemies that did not exist.
About an hour before sunset they stopped to set up camp. The mood around the campfire was cheerful as many stories and jokes were told. Only a couple of the party's members remained silent (guess who).
Before going to bed Neji set up equal shifts so that the ninja could take turns keeping watch and took the first one for himself. The next morning they were up before dawn, packing and preparing for another day of travel. Around midday they stopped for lunch, and half an hour later they were travelling again.
Roughly an hour after their stop Neji, who was in the lead, came to a sudden halt. The rest of the party stopped behind him. A little ways in front of them stood a foreign shinobi. The teen looked to be just in the middle of developing, with recently developed curves. She had long chestnut hair that hung loosely down her back. Her bangs were kept out of her brown eyes by an Iwa forehead protector and she wore the vest of a chunin.
"Guard the merchant." Neji did not need to look to know his team had taken up defensive positions around the wagon. "I will go see what she wants."
Neji began to walk forward calmly. Suddenly he sensed movement and heard the clash of metal behind him. He turned to see Alex at his back with a kunai in hand and a shuriken falling to the ground. Activating the byakugan Neji saw his would be assassin hiding in the trees behind the wagon. He also saw the chunin charging towards him. Turning he ducked under her kick and struck her midsection with a chakra strike sending her flying. She landed on her feet and took off into the trees.
Neji waited a long while to make sure their assailants were gone before deactivating his byakugan and turning to survey his team. Mika and Rin were stunned, probably still shocked that the battle had started and ended so quickly. Alex was as calm as he usually was almost as if he had done it a million times before.
"Good job, your reactions were good for your level of training. We will travel for another hour before setting up camp."
"Wha... what were they after?" Asked an ashen faced Takamichi.
"I don't know." Was Neji's dour reply. "But it is best we move on for the moment. Everyone stay alert."
They started moving again, but their rate of progress greatly decreased as they moved forward more cautiously.
That evening Takamichi turned in early, forgoing the cheerful conversation of the night before and leaving Neji and the three genin to discuss the day's events.
"Well? Neji asked. "You have had time to think it all over. What do you think?"
Rin surprised them all with the first insight. "It looked like they were after you, Neji-sensei."
"Maybe." Came Alex's reply. "But it seems more likely that whatever their target was they knew they would not be able to get at it with Neji-sensei here."
Neji nodded. "Alex is right. We have no way of knowing what their target was. What we do know is that they are likely to be come back. They caught us...me...off guard. We will have to step up security. There will now only be two shifts of watch and we will take them in pairs. Alex and Mika, you will take the first watch. Rin and I will take the second."
Yuna huddled close to the campfire to ward off both the cold and the dark. She looked over to her partner as he sulked over the day's loss. Kimari's long scorpion tail peeked over his shoulder from where it was attached to his lower back.
"We underestimated them." Yuna observed. "That kid is stronger than he looks. Both he and the Hyuga will have to be dealt with separately before we can get to the girl." Kimari only nodded.
"So it's Rin you were after."
Both chunin jumped to their feet, weapons in hand, and turned to watch the shadows beyond the light of their fire.
"Attacking me would be a very bad idea." Alex observed as he stepped into the fire light.
With a fierce battle cry Kimari charged.
Dun dun duuuuuuh. I am very proud of mysefl for this cliffhanger.
Ill try to update quicker but i make no promises.