Chapter 6:
She hated it when Naruto was away on a mission.
Mikoto would never admit it out loud – mainly because she'd never hear the end of it – but she'd grown so accustomed to Naruto's presence in her life that she found she had little else to do with her spare time that didn't involve the young man in some way.
Whether it be a pleasant chat out by the fish pond in her garden, or just some much needed company when she was feeling lonely, she could always count on Naruto to breathe some much needed life into her dull existence.
True to form, with no company this evening, Mikoto found she didn't know what to do to pass the time. She had contemplated going into town and seeing what Konoha had to offer in ways of night-time entertainment before immediately trashing the idea. The only thing more depressing than realising she relied on an eighteen-year-old for entertainment was being constantly reminded of the fact by the young and happy party-goers she'd no doubt encounter should she venture out.
With an uncharacteristically girlish giggle, Mikoto wondered what it'd be like to throw all caution to the wind and waltz into town on a certain blonde brat's arm, smirking provocatively at the men that would ogle her and grinning superiorly at the women who'd glare jealously.
Oh well, if only she were ten years younger.
Shuffling over to the oven as a pleasant aroma began to pervade the air, Mikoto hunched over and peered through the foggy glass at the cake reaching completion inside.
No, she couldn't go out and paint the town red with her more than willing 'partner in crime' – despite how much the thought caused her to giggle like a prepubescent girl. So instead, she'd be content with baking cakes and attending to her garden to pass the time.
Sighing, Mikoto reached over to the egg timer and set it for five minutes before resting her hands on her hips and staring at the oven sourly.
"God, I'm so pathetic," she exclaimed warily before moving over to the drawer in which she kept her oven mitts. "What happened to my life?"
That was a rhetoric question if she'd ever heard one.
Pausing in her wiping down of the bench, she reconsidered the question. It wasn't as clear-cut as she originally thought. Sure, before that horrid night which seemed like an eternity ago now, she may have had little in the way of spare time on her hands, but that didn't necessarily mean she was happy with her life.
Then again, she mused, it probably had little to do with her monotonous life as a house wife, and more to do with the absence of a certain someone.
Mikoto's back suddenly stiffened as she felt a slight change in the air. She'd grown so accustomed to the feeling over time that she was hardly surprised by it anymore.
Discreetly sending Chakra to her eyes and activating her Sharingan, Mikoto slowly turned to eye the four ninja suddenly crowding her kitchen with a raised brow. They were each dressed in civilian clothing and had no weapons to speak of, but she knew they were ninja. Having lived around ninja for her entire life, she could easily tell if a person was a ninja by their stance alone, especially if they telegraphed the fact like these four did.
That, and who else would be stupid enough to enter her house uninvited?
Mikoto herself, tensed. Just because they weren't carrying any weapons of note didn't make them any less dangerous. Ninja – especially ones trained for assassination – were trained to kill. To think that elite ninja were restricted to using weapons to kill was foolish, naïve, and a mistake that had almost cost Mikoto her life the first time this happened.
"We were not informed that the target had a fully matured Sharingan," the leader, Mikoto guessed, observed curiously as they each moved to surround her while blocking any means of escape. "This is indeed interesting and certainly merits report."
"Pfft," one of the man's subordinates scoffed arrogantly. "A house-wife, Sharingan or not, is still just a house-wife. Let's get this over with."
"Pretty arrogant, aren't we?" Mikoto observed idly as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the kitchen counter with an air of indifference. "Do you honestly think this is the first assassination attempt I've had the displeasure of encountering?"
"The first of which at the hand of your son, no less," the only woman of the group pointed out coldly. As much as she tried to resist, Mikoto couldn't help flinching; Touché.
Sighing once again, Mikoto looked up before speaking, "Get it over with."
"I thank you for not resisting," the leader said gratefully. "This is nothing personal, I hope -"
"I wasn't talking to you," Mikoto interrupted with narrowed eyes, her Sharingan still spinning madly as she addressed the assassins. "You four were finished the moment you entered my home."
The woman frowned before grabbing one of the kitchen knives on the bench beside her and launching it at Mikoto. Though her Sharingan could easily track the fast-moving projectile, she knew she had no reason to deflect it.
A yellow blob descended from the ceiling and landed before Mikoto, obscuring her form the assassins' visions, before batting away the knife with one of its leathery hands. The yellow blob revealed itself to be a toad easily the size of a fully grown adult male with yellow skin and clad in a karate gi.
So shocked were the assassins by the appearance of a human-sized toad that they were caught by surprise when a large scimitar pierced the heart of the, up until now, silent assassin.
"Toads?!" the arrogant assassin bellowed incredulously as the yellow toad before them charged.
The leader of the group spun around to find the source of the scimitar that had pierced his comrade, only to find an empty kitchen.
"Take care of the frog," he instructed brusquely as he gave chase to the murderer of his comrade.
"Your best chance was to run when you had the chance," the 'frog' informed them stoically as he dropped into a Taijutsu stance with his leathery hands and feet evenly spread.
"If Jiraiya of the Sannin is around, we're in trouble," the woman informed her arrogant comrade in a troubled tone as her other comrade bled out on the floor. "We are not equipped to handle such a foe."
Their opponent smirked, apparently in on a joke they had no idea about. "Perhaps you should deal with me before worrying about future opponents, hmm?"
The woman threw the basket of apples on the kitchen bench at the toad's large face before quickly flashing through sand heals in preparation for a technique.
"No time!" her comrade warned as the toad was on them in an instant, covering the short distance between them before the woman could complete her technique. Landing in a crouch between the two, the toad punched the man with his left hand and kicked out at the woman with his right leg.
The man was sent tumbling into the living room from the force of the punch as the woman nimbly dodged and countered with a series of kicks that were all aimed at what she assumed were weak points on a toad's body. She only hoped that, while this creature was obviously a toad, that it shared some similarities, other than its size, with humans.
Unfortunately for her, the toad expertly blocked every kick until he found an opening in her defence and used it to push her off balance as the woman's comrade finally rejoined the fight by throwing an expensive looking lamp at the toad's unprotected back.
Spinning quickly, the toad caught the lamp and set it down carefully on the nearby table as an enemy closed in on each side with intend to kill. As they neared, the toad deflected both of their strikes away from his body and continued to do so as they both released a flurry of punches that were almost impossible to detect with the naked eye.
As one of the man's speedy punches were sent past and behind his target's head, the toad quickly placed its large leathery hand on the back of his neck and pushed down hard, trapping the appendage in place and forcing him into a painfully submissive position.
The toad then sent a powerful kick towards the woman who crossed her arms and attempted to block the strike, only to be sent flying backwards several feet for her efforts. He then delivered a series of solid punches to the trapped man's face before pushing him firmly down onto the ground and rolling over his back. Being that the man's arm was still trapped, the roll caused his arm to snap like a twig, earning a howl of pain from the unfortunate assassin.
The woman, having finally regained her bearings and angered by her teammate's defeat, charged at the toad and delivered a flying kick aimed at the creature's face. The toad easily hooked its large arm under her leg, caught her, and threw her to the ground before delivering a stomp to her face that would have easily snapped her neck had she not exploded in a cloud of smoke, revealing only one of the kitchen stools in her place.
Turning quickly, knowing exactly which stool the woman had used to replace herself with, the toad leapt through the air and spun sideways in the assassin's direction as she hurled every sharp implement in the kitchen she could reach at him with deadly accuracy.
The nubile amphibian dodged every makeshift weapon save for two, which grazed his cheek and shoulder respectfully, before landing in the woman's immediate personal space and delivering over a dozen lightning quick punches to her torso. The punches followed her slow decent to the ground until she was lying on her back and looking up at the toad in defeat.
Through the haze of pain, the woman idly wondered it was a hail of boulders, and not an oversized toad, that was delivering the punches - it certainly felt that way.
The toad had orders however, and thus, was not done. Continuing his flurry of punches, he made sure to deliver several to her face as well as her severely damaged torso as the woman had little choice but to pass out, unconsciousness a blissful escape from the pain.
The toad left the woman bruised and bleeding on the floor as the remaining assassin, unable to use one of his arms, charged at him with a kitchen knife held in a reverse grip in a desperate attempt to end the fight.
Easily dodging the wild stab, the toad delivered a solid punch to his abdomen, followed by a quick chop to the back of the assassin's neck before spinning around and trapping him in an over-the-shoulder headlock.
Before the assassin could even think to use a Replacement Technique to escape, the toad spun around once more, headlock still in place, causing the man to spin also and end up between the toad's long legs.
His face stoic, the toad gave the assassin the same treatment he gave his comrade by delivering five powerful punches to his face, each of which striking with the force of a jackhammer, before he too, passed out from the pain and damage to his head.
The sound of the toad's deep breathing was the only thing audible in the messed kitchen until Mikoto stormed back in, an annoyed frown on her face.
"Why must they always make such a mess?" she fumed, her Sharingan long deactivated as she sought to picking up all the utensils-turned-weapons from the floor.
The toad dropped down beside her and aided Mikoto in her task as he chuckled sheepishly, "I tried to minimize the damage to your home, just as the boss requested, Mrs. Uchiha. I apologize."
Letting out a frustrated sigh, she waved him off and continued the conversation as if speaking with a talking toad the size of a human was a normal thing. "Don't worry, you did fine. Thank-you for saving that lamp by the way, it was a gift from my mother."
"I'm aware," the toad gave a smirk with its wide lips. "The boss specifically pointed out that nothing is to be damaged less we be forced to spar with him when he returns."
"That doesn't sound so bad," Mikoto frowned as the toad visibly shivered.
"You can say that because you have not sparred with him," he pointed out as he stood and tightened his gi. "I assure you, it is something I tend to try and avoid at all costs. It ends up being little to do with sparring, and more to do with a beat-down."
"I've seen you fight Gamarokku, surely it can't be that bad," Mikoto reasoned as the last of her expensive knives were put away where they belonged.
"My grandfather has taught many of my family the Toad Fist Style, refusing to even consider teaching outsiders for as long as I could remember," the newly dubbed Gamarokku began nostalgically. Mikoto, not having heard this story before, listened intently as the egg-timer finally went off. "That all changed when Uzumaki Naruto arrived at Mount Myobokuzan and demanded to see the Toad Sage. Such impudence would normally mean instant death, but the Master Sage only laughed and demanded he fight my grandfather to prove his worth."
Mikoto gaped at Gamarokku incredulously. "Naruto didn't start summoning Toads until he was fourteen . . . are you telling me a fourteen year old stormed into the home of all Toads and demanded something of their leader?!"
Gamarokku chuckled before nodding. "Toads of all sizes and ages came to watch the fight between grandfather and Naruto. It lasted for many hours with both side giving it their all and not holding back even one iota. Each had a point to prove, and neither would budge an inch."
"What happened then?" Mikoto asked in amazement. It was incredibly rare for Naruto to even mention anything about his past. To have a detailed story such as this told to her was both amazing and incredibly intriguing.
"They both passed out from exhaustion with grins on their faces," Gamarokku informed the woman with a smirk. "Naruto is the only human grandfather has ever respected, and, thus, is the only human to ever train with him."
"So Naruto knows the Toad Fist Style too?" Mikoto inquired as she removed her cake from the oven and winced when she heard a small explosion outside. "If that moron damages my garden, he's not getting any cake."
Grinning, Gamarokku shook his head before continuing, "Know the Toad Fist Style? The boy mastered it and incorporated it into his own style in only a year, so I suppose that would be an accurate assessment . . ."
Shaking her head in amazement, Mikoto grit her teeth in annoyance when another explosion shook her house to its very foundations. Ripping open her window, she leaned out and hollered at the scimitar wielding, haori clad toad in her backyard squaring off against a panting and severely bleeding assassin.
"Gamakishin, I swear to god, if you destroy my garden I will chop of your legs, cook them, and feed them to you!"
Visibly shivering, the bright orange toad turned and chuckled nervously at her before turning back and rushing at his opponent, his large scimitars ready to slice him in half. The assassin quickly replaced himself with one of Mikoto's pots and attempted to escape, but before he could even regain his bearings after using his technique, he was run through with two large swords.
Looking into the yellow eyes of his killer, the assassin felt the cold arms of death slowly begin to drag him into the underworld as his life slowly begun to fade away.
"You never had a chance, fool," the toad spat as he removed his swords and decapitated his opponent as he fell to his knees, the swords no longer supporting the man's weight.
Following the delicious scent of Mikoto's freshly baked cake, Gamakishin replaced his swords on his back and carefully re-entered the kitchen.
"Hey guys, you miss me?" The orange toad asked jovially.
"You know the boss' orders," Gamarokku pointed out dryly as he devoured the piece of cake Mikoto had given him gratefully. "He will not be pleased that you turned Mrs. Uchiha's garden into a battlefield."
"In all fairness, it was the assassin who did that," the toad pointed out unhelpfully. "I minimized damage where possible!"
Gamarokku looked over the seething Mikoto's shoulder to see several of her flower beds still smouldering from when some fire attack must have hit them.
"Could you not have used your water techniques to stop any flames from destroying the garden?" Gamarokku asked with a raised brow. "Or better yet, not let him use any techniques at all?"
Gamakishin chuckled nervously once again as Mikoto rounded on him with a murderous glint in her eyes, "He was better than I thought! I'm very sorry Mrs. Uchiha! I didn't mean it! And, well, if I used water techniques, I'd have had to drop my swords . . . and . . . well . . . I don't like dropping my swords . . ."
Realizing he was just digging his own grave, the orange toad tried to discreetly make his exit. As he passed by Mikoto's freshly baked cake however, he tried to snag a piece with his long tongue, only to scream in pain when Gamarokku slammed his tongue into the bench with his large, leathery hand, stopping it from obtaining its prize and, most likely, covering the cake in slobber.
"No cake for you."
Hideaki slapped his forearm once again as another mosquito tried to suck some of his blood. They had been travelling for a few hours after disembarking from the cruise ship once arriving at Haha Island.
Upon arrival, the captain had been kind enough to give them directions to the village where they would find their client. Unfortunately, as Hideaki was now finding out, the road cut through a jungle that was filled with all manner of creatures that made the journey unpleasant.
The incredibly hot and muggy weather wasn't really helping matters.
"Are we nearly there?" Hideaki asked warily. "We've been travelling through this jungle all day and I don't see a way out anywhere soon."
Letting out a frustrated groan, Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a rolled up wad of cash before tossing it at Sakura. The girl was grinning smugly as she counted her money while Sasuke and Hideaki looked on in confusion.
"You should never bet against Sasuke," Sakura advised sagely. "You'll always lose."
"Oh come on!" Naruto exclaimed angrily. "If he weren't still so pissed off, he'd have complained about the weather making his hair frizz ages ago!"
Sasuke, walking in the back of the group, took a quick moment to smooth out his hair while nobody was looking.
"You still lost; Hideaki was the first to complain!" Sakura pointed out smugly as she pocketed the cash.
"Don't worry," Naruto assured her with a smug grin of his own, "I'll get that back with interest by the time we're back in Konoha."
"You just can't lose gracefully, can you?" Sakura asked with fake disappointment. "Oh well, this is payback for not letting me use the pool back on the ship."
"And somehow, I still feel like the one better off," Naruto pointed out smugly. It was Sakura's turn to grumble sourly.
"Err . . . Hello?" Hideaki jogged ahead of them and interrupted the two with a wave of his hand. "I'm so sorry to intrude on the moment you two seem to be having, but I asked a question."
"Are you afraid of heights?" Naruto suddenly countered, completely throwing off the Fire Lord's son.
"What has that got to do with anything?" Hideaki asked crossly.
"Well, your answer will adversely affect the answer to mine," Naruto pointed out slowly as the group came to a stop. Realizing that Naruto was asking the entire group, and not just Hideaki, each Genin shrugged and answered in the negative.
Fishing into his backpack, Naruto retrieved a map and a compass before beginning to examine both while whistling a merry tune.
"So, this shitty map has no scale," Naruto pointed out merrily as he crouched and placed the map on the ground. "How far do you think the village is away from our position?"
The Genin all approached the map and took turns in discerning the distance for themselves after Naruto pointed out their general current position.
"Looks like thirty kilometres to me," Sakura pointed out with a shrug as Naruto rolled up the map and replaced it in his bag. "That'll take us hours if we keep walking like this!"
Naruto shrugged nonchalantly, "It'd take a lot less time if you babies stopped whining and started running again."
"We've been training non-stop for the past two days!" Hideaki protested incredulously. "Forgive us for not having an unlimited amount of stamina."
"You're forgiven," Naruto shrugged as he held up three fingers. "We have three options here: Option one is to keep walking and get there by midnight. Option two involves you three to stop being babies and start running, and we'll probably be there within the hour. Option three, however, is the reason for my question about heights, but we'll be there in five minutes."
It was a no-brainer, as far as the Genin were concerned.
"Whatever, anything that gets us out of this forest as quickly as possible," Hideaki said while his teammates nodded in agreement.
"Alright," Naruto relented as he approached the Genin. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Warn us? Warn us about wh-hey!" Hideaki was cut off when Naruto unceremoniously picked both boys up and carried them like sacks of potatoes before motioning for Sakura to take his back.
"You're gonna want to stop struggling," Naruto pointed out as the girl warily approached her temporary sensei and mounted his back. "You don't want me to accidently let you slip with option three."
"What are you -?" Before Hideaki could finish his question, Naruto crouched low, gathering a massive amount of Chakra in his legs, before leaping.
Neither Genin was ashamed to admit that they screamed their lungs out when they realized they weren't landing anytime soon. The nearby scenery passed by in a blur as the quartet soared through the air at high speeds.
"What the hell is happening?" Sakura screamed over the roar of the wind. Her face was buried into her sensei's back as she clung on for dear life. All she received in terms of response though was a boisterous laughter barely audible over the howling wind as they continued to fly through the air.
When they finally started to descend, the Genin's screams began anew as the ground began to rapidly approach. With a thunderous crash, Naruto landed in a crouch as a large crater formed around his landing site, a result of the force of his landing.
Before either Genin could comprehend what had just happened, Naruto was off again with another monstrous leap, blissfully ignoring their screamed protests.
Several leaps later, and after the Genin had screamed their throats raw, Naruto grinned as the ocean's calm surface, and not the ground, looked to be their final landing site.
He wasn't the only one who noticed.
The Genin had their eyes screwed shut as the surface of the water came closer and closer. No doubt expecting to crash into the crystal blue water with the force of a cannonball, they were rightfully surprised when, instead, they were showered with a powerful spray of water, but not submerged upon his landing.
Slowly opening his eyes, Hideaki yelped when he noticed his face was being held barely a foot above the surface of the ocean. His reflection stared back at him with a blank look for several moments before he looked up at his grinning sensei, eyebrow twitching in annoyance.
"What the fuck was that?!"
"My, my, such improper language for royalty," Naruto exclaimed with a mocking tone. "What would your parents think?"
"How are you doing that?" Sasuke calmly asked as his Sharingan stared intently at Naruto's feet. The Jounin was standing atop the surface of the water like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Naruto pondered his answer before grinning down at the two boys still being held under his arms. Both boys sighed in unison, knowing that grin promised nothing fun in the foreseeable future.
"I'll tell you what," Naruto began, adjusting the shocked silent Sakura on his back as she began to cling around his throat a little too tightly. "The first one of you back to shore gets to learn the mysterious and highly valued art of water walking!"
Before either could even utter a protest, Naruto unceremoniously dumped the both of them into the water before skipping off merrily towards the shore.
Resurfacing quickly and taking several gasps of air, both boys floated in place for several moments before fully comprehending the situation. Slowly turning around so they were now facing the shore – which looked to be roughly one hundred meters away – and the retreating back of their idiot sensei, they glared at each other out of the corner of their eyes before facing the shore once again.
"I'm not gonna lose," Hideaki pointed out firmly.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted, not deeming the challenge worthy of a verbal response.
"Regardless of what happens though," Hideaki began, now facing Sasuke fully. "Are we in agreement that we've got to get him back for this?"
Sasuke smirked in response, "Agreed."
Without so much as a warning, Sasuke took off towards the shore like a rocket. Temporary alliance against Naruto aside, he would not lose.
"Get back here cheater!"
"This is a good apple," Naruto commented idly as he bit into the crunchy fruit with Sakura following closely behind him. "Want a bite?"
"I don't want a bite of your apple!" Sakura exclaimed for what she felt was the hundredth time.
"Your loss," he shrugged nonchalantly. "You really should though, it's really good."
Eager to change the subject before she kicked something, anything nearby out of sheer frustration, Sakura remembered their earlier method of transportation.
"How did you leap so far before?" she asked her sensei. "I know you had to have put chakra in your legs, but no one should be able to jump that far with just applying chakra to their legs."
"That's because I didn't just apply chakra to my legs, obviously," Naruto pointed out bluntly, ignoring Sakura's annoyed expression in favour of another apple. "Man these apples are good. You think the weather wouldn't suit growing them; goes to show what I know about fruit."
"What did you do then?" Sakura asked as patiently as she could. Talking to Naruto felt like talking to a toddler sometimes, as she constantly reminded herself not to snap at him, he was retarded, after all. He had to be.
"That's a secret," Naruto informed her with a grin. "Besides, even if I told you, you couldn't do it."
"How do you know unless you tell me?" Sakura attempted to coax the answer out of him, only to frown when Naruto let out a loud guffaw.
"You are way too underdeveloped to even come close to being efficient with that approach," Naruto informed her in amusement. "Come back when you're a 'B' plus and have a nice, round ass – excuse me sir, could you tell me where I could fine Mrs. Nojima?"
Sakura's face flushed in indignation and humiliation at her sensei's callous remark. She was beginning to like him less and less as the days went on.
The man Naruto had asked for direction, a bartender resting against the counter of his outdoor bar, gave them some easy to follow directions as Sasuke and Hideaki caught up with them, panting and soaked to the core.
"Oh you two finally made it did you?" Naruto asked uninterestedly as the boys glared at each other. "Took you long enough."
"Being fully clothed and still wearing a backpack will do that to you," Hideaki pointed out sourly as Naruto chuckled.
"Fair enough, and who won?"
"I did!" both boys shouted in unison before resuming their glaring contest.
"I won by a clear meter!" Sasuke countered challengingly as he continued to glare at his teammate.
"You had a ten meter head start!" Hideaki countered fiercely.
"Calm down Hideaki, there's no shame in losing to someone like Sasuke," Sakura pointed out in a tone that she must have assumed to be diplomatic, much to Naruto's amusement.
"If I wanted a one-sided and uninformed opinion, I would have asked you, fan-girl!" Hideaki snapped.
"I think you should listen to the 'so called' fan-girl," Sasuke pointed out sagely. "She seems to know what she's talking about."
"She didn't even see the race you idiot!"
"Oh well, it looks like I'm going to have to teach you all the water walking technique," Naruto exclaimed with a sigh, only for his eyes to widen comically when his three Genin spun in his direction angrily.
"Shut up!" they shouted, as Naruto did so.
"Well!" Naruto exclaimed to himself as he took another bite of his apple. "That was just rude."
It took them another ten minutes to make it to the client's house. It was a modest, two-story home that was a carbon-copy of every other house on the street. The only thing separating the house from the sand of the beach was the small road that led right back to the marketplace from whence they had came.
Naruto admired the sunset as he knocked on the client's door. The large orange sun was slowly disappearing over the horizon to the west and cast an impressive orange glow over the ocean that caused it to sparkle like a sea of diamonds.
"Talk about location," Naruto breathed out quietly, as the Genin followed his line of sight and shared his sentiments.
"Daddy!" a young girl who couldn't have been older than three opened the door and greeted them with a large, radiant smile. She had light brown hair that was tied up in two pig-tails and dressed in a yellow summer-dress. Her smile suddenly dimmed when she saw Naruto and the Genin standing at the door and looking at her with bewildered expressions. "You're not daddy . . ."
Her lips and chubby cheeks trembling as tears gathered in her eyes, the little girl slammed the door shut and re-entered her house.
"Phew," Naruto exclaimed with a sigh of relief and a nervous chuckle. "Thank god for that, she scared the shit out of me!"
The door opened again to reveal an apologetic woman, obviously the girl's mother, who smiled at them and ushered the ninja in. She was extremely pretty with short brown hair tied in a pony-tail and a beautiful smile. The obvious signs of depression, however, stopped any ideas Naruto had of flirting in their tracks as he entered the woman's home.
"I'm sorry for that," she apologized as she ushered the ninja inside. "Mikan really misses her daddy; she's been incredibly depressed since . . . since his disappearance."
"It's fine, no harm done," Naruto assured her gently with a smile. "I take no offence to being mistaken as such a beautiful little girl's father, regardless the reasoning behind it."
Said girl was hiding behind her mother's leg shyly as Naruto directed his smile to her. Mikan was glaring at Naruto defiantly for having the audacity to not be her daddy when he'd knocked.
"Hey Mikan, want to see a magic trick?" Naruto asked the glaring girl with a charming smile. The Genin watched with fascination, already shocked by their sensei's unusually tame and charming behaviour, as he reached into one of his rear packs and pulled out a single seed.
The little girl looked up to her mother as if asking for permission or assurance. The woman nodded and motioned her towards the Jounin who showed her a pair of empty hands before smiling and cupping his hands before her eyes.
"Do you like flowers?" he asked her conspiratorially. The plastic flower hair-ties in her hair already held the answer to Naruto's question, but he still asked for effect.
Shyly nodding in acquiescence, everyone in the room, especially Mikan, gasped as a small vine with a sealed bud on its end wormed its way through the small gap in his cupped hands and grew upwards until it was at the girl's eye level.
"Oh-oh, it stopped growing," Naruto exclaimed in faux alarm. "Quick Mikan, blow on it before it withers!"
Gasping and eyes wide, the little girl hurriedly blew on the bud and, much to the shock of those in the room, a beautiful orange and red flower blossomed from the bud right before their eyes.
Eyes wide, Mikan reached out to the flower, scared to touch it and eyeing Naruto warily.
"Go on, you can touch it," Naruto encouraged her. "It's yours, after all."
Eyes wide and a wide smile on her face, Mikan gently pried the flower from Naruto's cupped hand with her pudgy fingers and held it to her chest in wonder.
"You might want to plant it or put it in some water quickly before it wilts and dies," Naruto advised the little girl sagely who nodded and turned her large puppy-dog eyes onto her mother in askance. The woman chuckled before taking her hand and leading her to the stairs.
"Alright, but it's bedtime for you," she warned her child. "I'll put it in some water and you can see it tomorrow if you're good, okay?"
Nodding, she handed the flower to her mother before scrambling up the stairs, a wide smile now replacing the frown that had marred her face only moments before.
"Sorry, I'll put her to bed and be right back," the woman called over her shoulder as she ascended the stairs after her child.
When both were well and truly out of ear-shot, Hideaki felt safe to voice his thoughts.
"What the fuck was that?!" he whispered harshly.
"What?" Naruto countered innocently, the look not working at all on him.
"You know damn well what mister Magician!" Sakura exclaimed in an accusatory tone. "What the fuck was that?!"
"Oh dear," Naruto sighed melodramatically, a small grin tugging at his lips. "I'm having a bad influence on you all."
A/N: I figured this was a good point to cut off the chapter. I'll be finishing this mission in the next one most likely, and you'll get to see Naruto fighting properly for the first time in this story.
I enjoyed writing the fight scene with the with the Wing Chun toad in the beginning, however, words don't do what I saw in my mind justice. YouTube 'Ip man' and look for the fight scene with Yip fighting off ten black-belts to see some of the moves I wrote about, it's awesome.
I didn't go into detail on Gamakishin's fight because I thought the scene had gone on for long enough as it was.
Once again unbetad, and my beta seems to be really busy as of late. So if you want to volunteer, I'll take a second. Leave a review, or PM or something.
There's a poll on my profile page concerning my next story, check it out and give me some feedback on that too.
