Chapter seven-

General POV- next day at the village gates

Kakashi is waiting by the gates while Naruto, Nikita, Sakura and Sasuke are walking towards him. Naruto trips over at seeing Kakashi and points at him yelling.

"Kakashi sensei's here before us!"

"Cha of course he is Naruto! Even sensei isn't late for a mission." Sakura yells at him while Naruto looks like he's seen a ghost.

"That's not what I ment Sakura-chan. I ment that he's here before us rather than arriving here as we get here." Naruto mumbles in a voice just above a whisper but Sakura hared this.

"Naruto, you seem to forget that Kakashi-sensei is also a Jōnin and probably has other things to do." Sakura says and Kakashi sweat drops. He proceeds to walk up to them pushes everyone towards the gates.

"You guys are my cute little Genin so I would appreciate it if you didn't talk like I wasn't here. Anyway this reason I beat you here was because Tsunade called me to give the last details of the route we are taking. Now lets get moving." Kakashi answered making everyone go silent and start walking towards wave country.

"Kakashi-sensei way are we heading to wave country? Wouldn't it make more sense to go a more direct route?" Sakura asks. Kakashi waves his hand.

"It is where we are getting our boat from and the reasons from going from there are not important really, just that it is more reliable." Kakashi answers.

Flashback

Kakashi is standing in the Hokage tower in front of Tsunade. Tsunade takes out a map.

"Kakashi in regards to the mission of team seven escorting Nikita back home the actual threat level should be around C-rank as no one should know anything about this mission other then your team, us and Nikita. However the importance of this mission is more along A to S rank as it has the potential to gain Konoha a potentially powerful ally or make them even more weary of us. You will be getting there via wave. This whole mission is requires you to not draw attention to yourselves. I know the longer route will make it harder for you to do this but as you know our relationship with Kumo is not the best so we do not want to add risk to the mission by going near lightning country let alone in it." Tsunade explains gesturing with her finger from wave along the route the boat will take among the islands to the main island.

"Wouldn't it make sense to have Anbu do this mission rather than my team then?" Kakashi questions looking at the map.

"Usually yes but Nikita's village would easily guess that one of our motives for this is a alliance proposal. Besides we need Naruto's unique ability for this very mission." Tsunade answers pulling out more papers.

"Wait you don't mean his tenant do you?" Kakashi questions as Tsunade hands him some papers.

"Oh no not that. I mean his truly unique ability to makes friends and change their views and actions with a single meeting by just being himself." Tsunade smiles but then her look changes into a serious one.

"Anyway. These papers are the ones you need to show to the captain to get you on the boat. Other than that I need you to do two things. One) I need you to quickly go to the area outside the gates before your team gets there and check the surrounding area within a certain distance to make sure no potential ambushes are lying in wait for your team. I want this done as soon as this meeting is over. Two) before Nikita even reaches the gate I want you to place a genjutsu over her headband to hide it. We don't want to draw any attention to her. That's all now get going." Tsunade finishes.

Flashback end

"So Nikita when Sasuke-Kun insulted you, you said he was just like them. What did you mean by that." Sakura asks while standing to Nikita's right. Nikita looks up and puts her hands behind her head.

"Well as you know I wasn't able to summon Syfurrem in till recently which caused people to make theories about it. Some of the other students in my class came up with theories. Some said I was too weak, committed a crime against the elders or was a spy since I couldn't summon him. People would constantly come up and ask me about it but the thing is no matter what I said they would either ignore it or say I am laying. No matter what I did they wouldn't listen or stop. So you could say as a result a have got fed up with it. Nikita explains looking at Sakura.

"Oh ok but that still doesn't answer why you snapped at Sasuke-Kun." Sakura replies.

"My guess would be that I didn't fully register I wasn't in my village anymore since it is a long way to get carried in a storm." Nikita replies.

I took team seven about a week to get to wave travelling at civilian speed. During that time there were no ninja attacks, bandit ambushes or problems unlike the last time they had gone to wave.

"Kakashi-Sensei cant we just stay at Tazuna's for the night." Naruto asks while there setting up camp.

"No Naruto we can't because that would draw attention to us and Tsunade said draw as little attention as possible. Thus we are setting up camp. I know you want to see Inari but it's only been a few months since you last saw him and Wave is doing better now so he is fine." Kakashi replies and they finish setting up the camp. Syfurrem lands next to the camp behind Nikita.

"So Nikita what is your village like?" Sasuke asks.

"Well I can't say much since after you guys left Syfurrem ripped me to shreds about being too friendly with you guys considering we're from different villages I was a bit naive and careless. However it is nothing like you guys have ever seen." Nikita explains nervously.

"Really that didn't stop you before." Sasuke says and looks at her blankly.

"Now, now Sasuke don't be like that. I'm surprised that Nikita was this open with us in the first place. Remember Sasuke despite the fact that these are times of peace it might not always be that way. Imagine if this mission went so badly as to start a war and Nikita revealed information that could be used against the village. That would be an absolute disaster for her village however this also applies to villages your allies with. The invasion of sound and sand at the Chūnin exams are a perfect example of this, yes they may have been tricked however they were still our allies." Kakashi finishes and returns to reading his book. Syfurrem cranes his neck to look at Sasuke.

"Your teacher's right children. Friends won't always be friends. Allies won't always be allies. Nikita was careless in what she was telling you and is still too careless for me to leave on her own. Regardless of what anyone says there is always a motive like your village's motive is to create an alliance. I know how the villages work. The leaf is no different other then hiding your motives behind a civil front that's more refined then the others. Now I believe it's time to sleep." Syfurrem stops speaking and lays his head to curve around to be in front of Nikita. Nikita looks at everyone before Naruto gets up and stops over to Syfurrem.

"Now hold on a darn minuet! First you say all that crap about our village then call use children all before going to sleep. As soon as we graduated we became adults and if you are so high and mighty, where were you when Nikita was alone in her village? Where were you when she was trapped under all that rubble? Where were you when she needed you?!" Naruto yells and points at Syfurrem. Kakashi gets up to intervene before it escalates any further but he is too late. Syfurrem uncurls himself and looks directly into Naruto's eyes.

"All humans are children to dragons such as my self we are not considered adults until we are over a hundred years old however that varies from species to species. As for the rest I could have let her die during that storm; I could have let her get hurt in her fight with; I could of let more rubble fall on her. As for not being here in the beginning that is none of your business." Syfurrem angrily hisses at Naruto and goes to turn away but Naruto shocks everyone.

"Is the reason you weren't there in the beginning because you felt you weren't strong enough to protect her?" Naruto asks honestly.

"No! Naruto, dragons are very prideful creatures!" Nikita yells out but it's too late. Syfurrem hits Naruto with his tail.

"What did you just say brat? I've always been strong enough!" Syfurrem roars before charging at Naruto.

"Syfurrem stop! You started this Naruto was only responding to what you said." Nikita yells running after them to find Syfurrem breathing not fire but molten metal at Naruto who turns out to be a Shadow clone. Naruto dodges Syfurrem's tail and claws and proceeds to punch him in the eye. As Syfurrem prepares another breath attack Kakashi is about to intervene but Nikita jumps in the way.

"I said that's enough. Both of you stop this right now. Naruto thank you for trying to get answers about why he was never there but that is my task and mine alone. Syfurrem… your going to have to swallow your pride. You started this by insulting them I know you're not that fond of me let alone other humans but your going to have to hold your tongue. I will be asking you why you where never there when we get back… that will be certain." Nikita goes silent. Naruto looks at Syfurrem and walks back to camp while Syfurrem looks at Nikita and flies off leaving Nikita on her own again. When she gets back to camp she see's everyone has prepared lunch. When Naruto looks at her he smiles and scratches the back of his head.

"Sorry about earlier Nikita. So did he leave you alon again?" Naruto asks but Sakura punches him.

"Naruto you idiot I don't think that Nikita wants to think about that right now. Do you?" Sakura gives Naruto a disapproving look and then smiles at Nikita.

"Sorry about earlier Nikita. Naruto needs to learn to calm down. I think we've had enough excitement for one day so everyone it's time to go to bed." Kakashi says. Nikita looks up to the stars.

"Don't worry about it was probably bound to happen anyway." Nikita replies but doesn't go to her tent which Kakashi notices.

"Nikita that means you too." Kakashi walks over.

"Yeah I know but I've noticed something about Naruto. It's that it doesn't matter what you do he won't back down if he thinks it will help a friend and that he has an uncanny way to change people even if they don't want to change." Nikita says as she gets up.

"Yeah well that's Naruto for you. He learnt early that just standing there wont do anything and as for changing people he's just that sort of person I guess. No one will ever truly know how he does it. Now off to with you." Kakashi finishes and gets in his tent.

Unknown place

That blond brat has really gotten to me. I've never seen a human like him before. He's not like Nikita. We will never have that sort of bond but to have the balls to stand up to me like that is something I've never encountered in a human before. I sense that this Naruto will change everything weather it be for better or possibly worse. I doubt that he'd let it be for worse though.