So I decided my characters needed a bit more development. That's mostly what this chapter is. No Minato decisions here, but a lot of important information.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Lifeline

Tekuno-sensei's test was easy. He laid out a field of traps for them and they needed to work together to get through them. Each trap had two hidden points that needed to be disarmed at the same time to get through. Essentially, Ino and Naruto had taken to the trees to disarm the traps so that Chouji, who had no experience with traps, could get to their sensei within the allotted period. Tekuno had said that it was stuff like this, the ability of Konoha ninja to fight as a team, that made them truly the best ninja in the world. They passed with flying colors.

This is when the D-ranks began.

BREAK

As of late, the Hyuuga had become more on edge. There had been two nearly flawless infiltrations of the village in the last decade, one where one of their own had almost been taken, and another where a clan head had been murdered. As such, security measures of the Hyuuga were increased, as was the standard training regimen for all ninja.

This in particular was an issue for one Hinata Hyuuga. Never outgrowing her shyness is one thing, but failing to perform in training was quite another. She was put on a team with an Uchiha and had lost a spar with him, humiliating the clan before the last of their great rival. It was unacceptable. And now, the child had disappeared. She missed clan training in her techniques and was off gallivanting about with Inuzuka Kiba, a wild beast of a boy if ever there was one. Not even of purest blood.

At least, these were the enraged thoughts of Hyuuga Hiashi. He let himself into her room and took to looking about. She had always been very private, even as a young girl. She cried the one time she suspected he had read her diary, although when she was so introverted she wouldn't speak he'd taken to using his Byakugan to read as she wrote from outside her room. How else was a father to keep track of his daughter?

He puttered about a bit more until he ended up sitting on her bed, staring at various knickknacks from around the room. One new one was the obsidian kunai sitting in the bottom desk drawer. It must have been from Namikaze's store, bought probably just so she could see her crush. He knew of the crush she had on Naruto, and admitted it wouldn't be an awful match. After all, he was the son of the Yondaime. If he turns out even half as strong it would be good to marry her off, especially since her eyes weren't as strong as even his younger daughter's.

Hiashi soon saw Hinata enter the compound, walking towards her door. She waltzed in, then looked shocked to find her father there.

"You will make it home on time in the future." He warned. His gaze held no room for argument.

"Yes Father." Her tone reflected no defiance.

"And I better not find out about anything unprofessional happening on your team."

"Yes father." There it was again. That pitiful submission. She was a main branch Hyuuga damn it. She should have a spine.

"And nothing unprofessional with Naruto either." That shocked her. Her eyes flew up at hit, locking. She was bright red, but clearly angry. She must have immediately guessed how he had known.

He stalked over to her and handed her the kunai. "Quite an expensive one. I trust you'll pay it off when you earn wages." She was still too young to be chasing after boys. "Do not dishonor us again."

Hinata looked down at the floor ashamed. "Yes father."

He walked out the door and slammed the door behind him. She cringed at the impact.

BREAK

Sasuke was not having a good time. He was on a team with Hyuuga Hinata and Nara Shikamaru. Somehow they had passed their genin exam, and their academy exam. Hinata was the best of the girls, with her sharp mind and brilliant taijutsu, at least in comparison to most other people in the class. However it still couldn't hold a candle to the interceptor style Sasuke had perfected, learning from Itachi when he was younger. Shikamaru was the dead last, too lazy to get anything above the absolute minimum passing grade. He'd aced the final exam, which was just enough to bring him over the limit. A smart guy no doubt, but useless for Sasuke's purposes.

Sasuke needed strength and whatever he got from training with Naruto and his mom was insufficient. He needed more power and he was going to get it, one way or another. After all, vengeance is the one true path.

Plus doing these D ranks was infuriating.

BREAK

Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji sat on a hill overlooking their clan lands. Shikamaru was never around anymore, and Naruto had grown colder the last few years. Sakura was busy and it seemed like for all the world, only she and Chouji really had time to waste and reflect. Ino hated to reflect but admitted it's value when she found the extra time to spend thinking about hair products and clothing. It was a fun exercise at least.

Ino turned to Chouji and snatched the chip bag out of his hands, taking a few for herself. "You eat too many of these" she said, munching away.

"I eat the right amount for my size thank you very much" Chouji replied. "I'm just big boned is all."

"Yeah right. You're fat."

Soon a giant Chouji-like ball was racing down the hill after a whooping Ino, finally getting a decent work out for the day.

BREAK

Ayane felt the change in the air. It was as though the day itself were telling her something was amiss. All throughout the day things kept feeling more and more wrong, as though someone were stalking her throughout the village. When she went to the Hokage she almost jumped in fright as a hand crept out from the darkness, but it turned out to just be a genin arriving to receive their mission.

The last few years had been tougher, ever since Gin died. She would not claim she loved the man, but she did care for him deeply and carrying out her assignment had been one of the tougher things she'd had to do in life. Worse, despite all their checking and set up, a man looking almost like the Yondaime come to life, had appeared out of nowhere and almost ruined their plans. He blew Gin's head off like it was nothing at all and had almost disemboweled her. It felt like the angry ghost of the Yondaime, coming to prevent them from killing his son.

And yet, she hadn't even been planning to kill him. It was just supposed to traumatize him so he'd forget the details. He had the Kyuubi, surely he wouldn't have died from just a stab wound.

Now, three years later she still had no idea who it was who had done it and had nearly convinced herself it was an angry ghost, and that ghosts were real and had a thing against her.

Her motherly duties on hold, she thought back to her mission plan for the fiftieth time that day, simply wondering if there was a detail she'd missed in the planning stage.

FLASHBACK

Tsuri Ayane stood before her two co conspirators, the snake nin of konoha and Danzou, the head of Konoha's Root division. It was unofficial, but necessary. She almost sighed at the surname she'd had to adopt. A former Konoha ANBU off the books with a last name meaning 'tree'. Yeah, that wasn't suspicious.

Danzou outlined the plan. Their ultimate objective was to get the forbidden clan techniques from the Uzumaki and pass them on to Orochimaru in exchange for his support in the information war against Suna. The Snake Sannin had already shown that his spy network was sufficient to provide, down to the last detail, the status of the Sand's ninja force. Danzo knew they plotted to escape their alliance agreement and this it wouldn't take long now, what with the maturing jinchuuriki in their village.

Of course this hardly justified working with one of Konoha's traitors, Ayane felt, but she was just a member of ROOT, coming out of it to get close to the scroll.

"Now remember, all you need to do is find a way for him to leave the village of his own free will. Orochi-san will take care of the rest."

Danzo laid out Gin's life for her, and let her pick apart what made him tick. It soon became apparent that the man was desperate for real love. Thus, one night she found herself going home with him. She commented, complimented, cooed and cared for him for three years until finally the day came. She went out on a mission and came back the sole survivor, after informing Orochimaru of Gin's departure the following week to Kiri. The trap was set.

FLASHBACK END

No, she still couldn't see where she went wrong. Throughout her mission she'd been discreet. She was sure no one picked up on it, and clearly no one knew she plotted against eh boy, or they wouldn't have allowed her to care for him following Gin's death. She remained the closest person, relative or not, to the Kyuubi' container, the last living legacy of the Yondaime Hokage and the one whom he held the most loyalty, as the love of his father's life.

Tsuri Ayane was indeed an important woman and three years of being this was really too stressful. She knew the next part of the plan, at least for Orochimaru, held something bad for the village and she didn't want to be anywhere near it. With Naruto becoming a genin and the danger of him being exposed to the outside world increasing exponentially, she really didn't want to be around.

And so it was that Tsuri Ayane finally did something suspicious. She reached out to her contact through a local grocery store that was actually a front for ROOT operatives. A man soon met her in the street and led her nonchalantly down a back alley and through a hidden door in the brick wall. Within minutes she was standing before Danzou.

"I request to withdraw from the remainder of the mission. I don't know what is supposed to happen next, but I don't intend to find out, particularly with the information we gave away. Naruto is a genin now and his loyalty is to his clan, he needs no further incentive from me to stay. Please."

She momentarily cursed herself for letting emotion seep into her voice in front of Danzou. She knew he didn't respect that.

He looked thoughtful a moment. The spoke. "Tsuri-san, is his loyalty guaranteed? If you left, or were to die what would hold him to the village?"

"He loves his clan… and he knows that the Yondaime is his father. Betrayal is the last thing on his mind." That wasn't necessarily true, the boy had at once point asked where her loyalties lay and why. She'd said to her family, to him and to the village that accepted her as one. That should have been enough to concrete his intentions.

"Many who love their clans defect, even sometimes to defend them. That is not enough, he is the jinchuuriki and he has lost a loved one, or more. He is unstable, he will need you to be his, shall we say, root."

Danzo finished with a smile. "You are not relieved from duty. You will remain in the Namikaze home and breed his loyalty to the village. If you ever feel your work is beyond you again, make contact for requests only, not relief from the mission. You've completed your missions well so far, I have faith that you can complete this one."

Ayane sighed. That's what being a part of ROOT meant. Unless it was harmful to Konoha, the mission always came first. She'd been undercover among the Namikazes for six years now and it was obvious there was no one else for the job. And so, she would remain his motherly figure and pray to the gods if there was any justice, he would be left alone.

She left the compound in emotional shambles. She thought of Gin who had truly loved her, then of Naruto who saw her as a mother. She was his rock, and like it or not, scared or delirious, she was in it for the long haul.

Tsuri Ayane headed for home. She didn't want any part of this anymore. She didn't want to feel the ghost at her back and the fear of being discovered ached more than ever. Worse, if Naruto ever found out she had been a part of Gin's death, he might kill her himself. She had no delusions about fighting a demon.

BREAK

Minato sighed as he watched Ayane leave the ROOT headquarters, or former headquarters. It was always hard to tell with Danzo. At least now he had a lead on where they might be if he needed Danzo in a hurry. Ayane really was a good woman with a good soul, she was just a pawn in the larger game being played around her. Orochimaru scheming with the forbidden scroll, Danzou moving her close to breed loyalty, and Naruto relying on her like his own mother. He couldn't blame her, but was glad his instincts had been right about her. He kind of wished he'd managed to kill her that night and that Naruto had found comfort in true loyal ninja like Tenten and his other clan members, but it was too late for that. He just had to accept that Naruto's motherly figure might very well be a traitor in times to come. She wasn't trustworthy, that much was certain.

BREAK

After the third week of D-ranks, Naruto found himself spending more and more time reading in his father's library.

Naruto read a lot of mission reports in the library and tried using them to get to know his biological father. Unfortunately, Minato seemed like the perfect ninja. Whereas some of the early report had jokes scribbled in the margins, the later ones were simply facts and kills. The only documents in which his old man seemed to show any emotion were in his fuinjutsu, his seals. He had a seal for everything: storage, explosions, food, flashbangs, smoke, chakra elements, bijuu sealing and more. There was literally hundreds of pages on just sealing and they all had handy notes, tricks, pneumonic devices and songs written in them just to help his old man remember what they all did.

A few months of work with his mother and the scrolls and he was an amateur seal master. He had storage scrolls tattooed on his skin in chakra ink. It wasn't even painful because all he'd had to do was perform the correct seals and the ink crawled onto his arm as though it belonged there. He had three of them, one on each forearm and another on his right hip. Each of the ones on his forearms contained weapons he'd been learning to use, in case he needed one in a hurry. His left wrist, when he channeled chakra, summoned a Kusari-gama like the one his cousin Tenten liked to use. The other contained his first forged monstrosity: the war hammer.

Little did Tenten know, but part of working for the store required learning how to use the forges. She'd never been too interested in forging her own weapons, more entertained with finding new weapons to try out. Also, when Naruto went to the forges right after he turned twelve, she was already a genin and didn't have the time to join him.

Working at the forges had been a novel and enjoyable experience. Naruto wasn't very good at what he did, but he had figured out how to make a decent enough hilt to a sword. His problem was getting the blade of the sword to be sharp. One day, frustrated with the forge, he'd figured he'd just dump in way more liquid metal than he needed to be using and ended up with a long pole attached to a hilt. Before it was all the way solidified, he decided it may as well be used for something and forged a shoddy blob on the end of it. Roughly cylindrical, it was solid metal and way too heavy to be used quickly. Although, if he ever need to bash in someone's skull, the incredibly overweight 4 foot mallet would do a good job.

His hip storage seal contained all the stuff a ninja needed, everything from Tekuno-sensei's checklist: tent, bedroll, cooking supplies, medic supplies, etcetera. When he'd first come to practice with the tattoos Ino had immediately questioned where he'd gotten them, then asked to have one too.

Naruto could admit to having been a little cold lately and he wanted to connect with his team, particularly Ino, but he just didn't have the guts to tell her that a storage tattoo like his needed to be applied directly to the skin and that she would need to remove her shirt. He went red in the face just thinking about it. He knew he'd have to tell her sometime though.

He'd identified the feeling he had towards her, he definitely had a bit of a crush. In his father's scrolls he could see where he'd scribbled love notes to his mother, a woman named Kushina. He had similar feelings whenever he was around Ino; butterflies in his stomach and wanting to hear her laugh more, but he just didn't know how to go about it. He was hoping Ayane, although not his true mother, would be able to help.

Fortunately he heard a sound from upstairs. His mother had come back from grocery shopping. He raced up the stairs to meet her and helped her load the food into the refrigerator. He sat at the counter as she began putting food in the freezer, and sighed.

"Mom? Do you know a lot about girls?"

That was certainly not a question she'd been expecting. Still, a teasing mother façade would not kill her, even if doom felt like it was around every corner. "Oh, Naruto-kun. Is there a girl you like? Hmmm?"

Naruto blushed a bit. "I think so."

"You think so. Well I'm sure she'd be glad to hear it. You are my special little boy." She said with motherly affection. She finished loading food into the freezer and cabinets and walked over, sitting at the counter across from the boy. She ruffled his hair.

"But, I'm not sure how to talk to her. She's on my team and-"

"Ahhh the Yamanaka. She is quite the looker isn't she. I can see why you'd like her."

"That's not the only reason!" He said a bit too hastily. His blush must have been suffocating by that point. "She's just, happy and I like her laugh, and… whenever she's around I get butterflies in my stomach."

"Naruto, those are all natural reactions to liking someone. I think if you feel that way about her, you should try to hang out with her more, but as a friend. It's not enough to just like someone, you should get to know her."

Naruto looked up. The thought of spending time with her as a friend hadn't even occurred to him. "But she thinks I'm a coldfish."

"Now why would she think that?" His mother chided.

"Because… well, whenever we get to practice, I always think of Gin… I can't help it." Naruto looked like he was about to cry.

"Now now, strong boys don't cry over every little thing. It's okay to miss someone you loved, but isn't it more important to focus on what you have now? Gin would want you to be happy. And didn't you always want to be a ninja? Become a strong one, so you won't ever have to lose a loved one like that again. Losses come, but you'll always remember the people you love and if you get stronger for them, I'm sure they'll smile on you from above".

"I guess you're right." The boy conceded. The tears that had been threatening to fall disappeared. He walked over and hugged his mom, the went back downstairs to read.

His resolve strengthened. 'I'll become strong enough I won't have to lose anyone… I'll protect you mom.. and Ino'.

BREAK

The next day, Naruto and his team found themselves in the Hokage tower, awaiting another D rank when Ino cracked.

"NO. NO more painting. No more walking dogs, no more finding cats. No. We want a real mission." She all but screamed at Iruka. Chouji looked unconcerned and Naruto agreed, they were better than that. Tekuno-sensei had given them enough harsh training in Taijutsu, stealth and weapons to last a lifetime and if he made them do one more 'stealth mission' catching a damnable cat he'd probably go insane.

Iruka looked at her angrily and began explaining why they were doing D-ranks, but Ino clearly didn't care. She was about to shout angrily over him when the Hokage walked into the room.

"I have been informed by my secretary that you wish to do a C-rank. All I can tell you is your eligibility is dependant on Naruto, and for a very important reason. Team 6, if you will all follow me?"

It was phrased as a question, but he was Hokage. So it really wasn't.

The trio and Tekuno-sensei all followed him into his office, where the Hokage sat down to face them. "As I was saying, a C-rank for you is contingent on Naruto. The reason is there is a very high bounty on Naruto due to his status as Namikaze heir and the reputation of the Yondaime. Understand that any mission you take out of the village may be forfeit at a moment's notice, should it become apparent that the mission is a play for Naruto's life. This is a very serious situation. While I'm sure you as a team are more than capable of taking on a C-rank, particularly under Tekuno-san's tutelage, it is not for me to decide to risk a young man's life if it's not necessary."

Ino and Chouji looked shocked at the news of the bounty, while Tekuno just nodded. Naruto figured as much, his mother had told him something similar once.

Seeing their understanding, Sarutobi continued. "What I recommend is that you continue to train with Tekuno-san until such a time you think you could each handle yourselves against a chuunin level opponent. If you need time off of D-ranks to meet this requirement, I can arrange for paid leave. On the other hand, if you believe you are ready now, there is a C-rank available."

Ino looked at the floor, she didn't want to pressure her teammate, although she was excited. Chouji looked a little scared at taking on a chuunin, and Tekuno remained impassive.

"Sorry Hokage-sama. I think we need to train a bit more." Naruto finally admitted. He didn't feel he could take a chuunin, or that he should force his team into it should there actually be ninjas after the bounty.

Ino sighed and the team trudged out while Tekuno-sensei made his goodbyes. They were soon back at their training field, Ino grumbling all the while.

"As you just heard from the Hokage, our new plan is not to make you capable gennin, but to bring you up to chuunin level. As your captain, I intend to bring you there as quickly as possible. Starting today, mandatory stealth training. You will become an assault team capable of working together to bring down enemy shinobi before they even know you're there. No flashy jutsu, just expert precision."

Chouji's face held a dumb look. Ino's downtrodden features lit up a bit. At least she'd beat forehead girl by the time this was done.

"Now, the key to stealth is…" Tekuno sensei began to drawl. The three of them sighed, it was the same speech as usual. Thirty minutes later he was having them run through trap mazes together as per usual, then when they completed them, the team packed up to go home.

And were stopped. "You are not training to be a genin team working together anymore. You are going to become chuunin as fast as possible, and I WILL get you there." The fury in his eyes felt penetrating.

"You will begin with running. Chuunin have the stamina to run all the way to Suna and back, stopping only for sleep. You will run laps around the village until you can't run anymore, and I'll be watching. If I think you slack even a little bit, you'll get a taste of this!"

A poof of smoke and a wicked looking crossbow appeared in his hands. He took aim with it at a nearby tree and shot off the pre-loaded bolt. They all heard a hissing noise and saw the bolt explode and decimate the tree. Tekuno grinned.

They took off running.

(Three Hours Later)

"Is that all you can do?" he bellowed at Ino. Chouji had fallen by the side of the path an hour ago with cramps and had been forced to do pushups in place until he could run again. Tekuno left a clone to watch and continued to follow Ino and Naruto.

"This is pathetic. If this is all the heiress of the Yamanaka clan has, you'll never make chuunin." Tekuno had long since realized that despite Ino's vigor, she didn't have the strength to keep up yet. Every time he challenged her however, she seemed to renew her efforts.

Naruto, who had lapped them both, came upon Ino at just this moment and heard his sensei's words. 'No one puts down Ino like that'

The blonde leapt in front of Ino and shouted at his sensei "Who are you to judge. She's trying her best, that's all anyone can do and I won't see you make fun of her for it" The wrath in his voice and bit of killer intent was meager, but Tekuno wasn't one to argue.

He pulled out his crossbow and pointed it square at Naruto. "Shouldn't you be running?" He asked, although obviously a threat. Naruto just stared straight back at him.

His sensei fired, a grazing blow that would brush past the boy's cheek. It was so fast he didn't even see it, and a trail of blood marred his cheek. Looking scared, he pointed at his sensei and shouted "Evil sensei"

Tekuno just cocked a new bolt. Naruto took off running, but with baggage. He'd picked up Ino bridal-style in his arms before he sprinted off, although much, much slower than before. The two were not even half a mile away when a bolt shot past them into the tree, cracking the bark.

Ino was screaming. "Put me down you idiot! Pervert!" She said as she hit his face weakly. She was too drained to put in much force.

"No. Sensei will just end up being mean to you again. You don't deserve that." He said honestly, looking where he was going around Ino's hands.

"Hentai!" She screamed and managed to hit him in the eye. Naruto stumbled and tripped, landing in a heap on top of her. When he looked up he saw she was bright red with fury and trailed his arm to where his hand lay, resting on her right boob. He squished it experimentally… which was a mistake.

"HENTAI NARUTO!" She screamed, summoning feminine righteous fury and hitting him so hard he fell off backwards into a tree, unconscious.

BREAK

The next day Naruto walked over to the training grounds holding a swollen black eye. It should have normally healed much faster, he'd always healed quickly, but his mother decided to enact a plan. After he told he what had happened and she stopped laughing, she took a look at his eye and found it was already getting better. With a little medical ninjutsu she slowed down the healing to what would be normal and told him of the pity plan.

Hence Naruto approached the clearing holding an ice pack to his eye and looking downtrodden. He walked over to Ino who was already there and apologized loudly and explicitly. "Hi Ino. Sorry about yesterday, I didn't mean to fondle you."

Chouji's eyes went wide as he hadn't even heard of that and Ino just turned bright red, and turned away from him. Naruto stood nearby and kept the ice on his face. In about five minutes, Ino had walked over to Naruto and started talking to him again.

Naruto grinned and internally thanked his mother for the plan. Within a few minutes the three genin were laughing together, all tension long since broken. After all, how could Chouji not poke a bit of fun at the two. It was funny to see Naruto, ever the serious one for the last three weeks, turn bright red when he asked how it felt.

Soon Tekuno-sensei showed up and began them on their hell menu, consisting mostly of chakra control exercises and genjutsu, focusing on stealth techniques. Ino caught on quickly, while Chouji and Naruto struggled. However, that was made up for the following day when they focused on taijutsu and weapons. To give them each a bit more range, he began training them in kenjutsu, acquiring a steel spiked bat for Chouji and a Wakizashi for Ino. The next day was spent working on ninjutsu for each of them, wind techniques for Naruto because of his weapons and elemental affinity, earth techniques for Chouji and Ino because of their affinity. Besides the elemental techniques they also worked on essential ninja techniques: Shunshin and various ninpo for use in any situation. For Naruto this included kage shuriken on jutsu, which made his skill for trick throws much more deadly.

This became their schedule, a four day rotation of conditioning, genjutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu.

BREAK

After two weeks of hell training, Team Six was finally used to it enough that they weren't basically dead at the end of the day. Hence, it was about time they all got a meal together. After practice Naruto and Chouji were arguing about what to get, Ramen or Barbecue, until Ino decided she would decide for them.

She voted on a traditional place near her home and with a smile at Naruto, Chouji found himself outnumbered 2 to 1. Naruto's crush on Ino was blindingly obvious and she knew something of his feelings, but she continued to act as boisterous as ever. She led them through the streets to the place and got them a table in seconds.

Ino ordered the traditional for all of them and they soon found several platters of food in front of them, all types of fish with seaweed to wrap it and rice. Chouji ended up signaling a waitress to get a whole platter of meat to himself, after Ino threw him an angry look for snatching the last piece of salmon.

About an hour later, Ino and Chouji stood up from the table and walked to the 'bathroom' leaving Naruto stuck with the bill. A frazzled looking Naruto looked upset as he left the restaurant, but was surprised from behind by Ino hugging him and Chouji hitting him on the shoulder.

"That was for taking to long so be friends with us again." Ino said. Chouji nodded, then held out one of his bags of chips. The blonde took it with care and stored it away in his hip seal for a later time.

"You still need to get me one of those." Ino reminded. Naruto blushed. It was about time he said something.

"You… you don't want to get one. Trust me." The blonde replied shyly.

Ino just looked a tad impatient. "And now why not? We've seen you use them plenty of times. What, do they make you weigh more? Are you gonna go all Chouji on me?" Ino teased.

Chouji looked miffed but didn't stab back. "I'm just big boned..."

Naruto looked at his annoyed friend, then back to Ino. Suddenly, a thought came to him.

"Fine. You want one, let's go get you one. To the training grounds!" Naruto said with uncharacteristic resolution. He leapt off for their training grounds and Ino and Chouji following, the latter burping and rubbing his stomach as they leapt off.

As they reached the training grounds they say a large scroll already laid out on the ground, and several copies of Naruto running around it with ink and brushes, painting a pattern of circles and symbols. It looked like a much larger version of what Naruto had on his wrists.

"Well come on Ino. Sit over here." He said, pointing at a stump by the scroll. She missed his mischievous smile and just muttered to Chouji "Oh look, more of him."

Chouji however caught the smile, and looked on with interest as Ino sat down. He saw the script on the scroll start to move, and what looked like tendrils paused near Ino's legs.

"So Ino, where do you want it?" He asked cheekily. "You could put it on your butt, put more junk in that trunk." Naruto teased. Ino growled.

"Yeah, in your dreams. Let's just put it on my arm. My left one, just under the shoulder." She knew her dad would think it was a tattoo. Although it sort of was. Her dad's expression would be priceless.

"Are you sure?" Naruto said, the hinting in his tone taken with annoyance.

"Yes." Ino sighed. She suddenly felt something wrong. Her legs couldn't move, she was stuck on the stump.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" She inclined her head a bit, but unease was welling up in her chest.

"I'm applying the seal. Once I begin I can't stop, so I can't have you moving away. It's just a precaution." Chouji could see this was headed in an interesting direction.

"I've already started, I'll need your full cooperation Ino-chan. Now to start with, I'll need you to remove your shirt."

Ino turned bright red. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" She screamed. She saw the scripture on the scroll start to move towards her, almost threateningly.

"You need to take off your shirt or the seal won't imprint properly. It can be very dangerous." Well, that wasn't really true. It would stain her skin improperly but he could remove it afterwards with little trouble.

Ino looked horrified, and looked Naruto in the eyes. His mischievous smile still played on his lips. "You planned this" she all but hissed.

"Thanks for the black eye, Ino-chan. Calling people perverts isn't nice."

Ino blanched. 'This is all for that? Why would someone hold such a grudge!'

As if reading her mind, he continued "Now if you had said you were sorry…." He let the pause carry. Ino looked displeased and started trying to break free from her restraints. However, the tendrils were made from chakra and were not so easy to break.

"Ino if you don't take off your shirt soon, I'll have to cut it off you. This is a dangerous procedure and you're acting so ungrateful. I prepared it all for you!"

Stalemate. Ino didn't want this pervert to see her, but she had signed up for this. She should have known there would be a catch, especially after they'd made him pay for dinner. Still, boy could Naruto hold a grudge. Two weeks of training together. She'd have to make sure she wasn't on his bad side again.

Ino reached up and slowly pulled down the top half of her dress. She was almost at her bra when she noted Naruto had stopped working on his seal and was staring at her.

She also then noticed that when Naruto stopped working on the seal, it began to retreat back to the parchment. An idea formed in her mind. She turned away from Naruto and did a few handseals, weaving a genjutsu over her. To Naruto, Ino had just pulled the entire top half of her dress down, revealing her black bra. She then stood up and walked over to him, escaping in the seal and moving into his personal space. She then leaned over to him and was about to kiss him on the lips when suddenly something felt wrong.

His vision was partly correct. She had escaped the tendrils of the seal. She walked over to him just in time to see a trail of blood trickle out of his nose. Rearing back she took her time to place her punch, then socked him as hard as she could, breaking the genjutsu and giving him a new black eye.

"PERVERT NARUTO!"

Chouji, who had not been subject to the genjutsu, looked at the scene with a bag of popcorn, glad he had such entertaining teammates.

BREAK

It was only another eight weeks of team 'bonding time' and training hell that their genin cell, Team Six, accepted a C-rank mission. With all the extra training with his mom and his team, Naruto felt like he could take on two chuunin at once. Chouji had learned enough of his clan techniques that he could enlarge his right arm, a technique sufficient enough to take out most chuunin according to his father, and Ino had learned enough genjutsu, stealth, and mind techniques to probably take on most of the village's chuunin if they didn't know what was coming. All they had to do now was get combat experience, and that wasn't something you could learn just by sparring.

And so it was that Team Six received a C-rank, and for good measure was sent along with another genin squad: Team Seven consisting of Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Hinata and Nara Shikamaru.

Their mission was to escort a delivery from the Namikaze ninja company to Wave, where they would provide it to their client: the shipping magnate Gato.