Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters or techniques associated with Naruto
Reviews Recognition:
: thanks for the suggestions and you can rest easy as I am probably going to kill Sakura off or maybe just have her striped of her rank and have her chakra sealed(never did understand why the fangirl became the next Tsunade I mean I thought all serious Kunoichi hated fangirls), though with Karin I am not sure, she may be part of the same clan but there is little chance of her and Naruto being that closely related not to mention the whole marrying in the clan to keep it pure thing that you see in clans, so I'll apologize if an Uzumaki ends up in his harem.
AmbertheCat: no I don't have all the info settled for the harem, so thanks for the suggestions, and I try to update when I can, so I hope this came fast enough to appease your hunger for more
Thoughts: 'like this'
Speech: "obviously like this"
Time skip, flashback or location change: like this:
Kurama/Kyuubi/nine-tailed fox speech: "like this"
Kurama/Kyuubi/nine-tailed fox thoughts: 'like this'
Writing: like this
Jutsu: like this
Seal speak: 'like this'
Important info at the bottom, please read it.
Now on to the story!
Chapter 7: CHORES, MISSIONS AND NEW PLACES
The training Asuma gave turned out to be chakra exercises (both Ino and Shikamaru had the tree climbing exercise down and have started water walking, and I had already mastered one beyond the water walking exercise but am pretending to be having trouble with tree climbing still) and battle strategy for the first couple weeks, in which I managed to fix my mistake and Jiraiya's (who had told me how he accidently spilled the beans right there in front of everyone, he can be so loose lipped about my training.
Flashback to the day after the true genin test:
Asuma had pulled me over after the days training and missions before I could leave but after my teammates left.
"Say Naruto what training did lord Jiraiya and lady Tsunade give you?" Asuma asked, with a curious expression on his face.
"Oh, well Jiraiya didn't really train me per say so much that he helped me with a few prototype seals I was working on and Tsunade taught me how to keep a straight face and how to bluff with the best of em, now I can win even more at the table!" I exclaimed with ryū signs in my eyes
"Uh, that doesn't sound like ninja training to me?" Asuma said slightly perplexed as to what kinda training that was.
"Ninja training? What are you talking about?" I said, tilting my head to the side a little.
"Well didn't Tsunade train you in the ninja arts?" he questioned back, completely confused now.
"Uh, no. she taught me the art of gambling" at that Asuma looked a little down
"Oh" he said sadly, as if he were a kid who was told that a piece of candy that had caught their eye was really a vegetable.
Flashback end:
the missions we received were all D-ranked and boring, such as finding and catching tora, painting a fence, finding and catching tora, babysitting, finding and catching tora, walking dogs, finding and catching tora, weeding a garden, and finding and catching tora, again, just recently, in that order. If it wasn't for the fact that we got paid for it I might have been complaining, a lot more then I already was. Even so if I had to catch that cat again I might just break its neck.
"Team ten reporting back from the successful mission to catch tora" Asuma said
"Good would you like to take another mission, if so we just got in a bunch of new D-ranked requests in" the Hokage said, and my eye started to twitch "let's see, there's painting a fence, building a play house for a couples kids, cleaning a restaurant before they open at five" at that moment a call of "Tora come back" "and it looks like tora nee-"
"That's it, no more d-ranks, give us a c-ranked one or I will unleash a hell that you will not be able to cope with. That's right more paperwork then you could possibly handle" at this the Hokage seemed to lose a little colour to his face and genuinely scared of that and even seemed like he would have started groveling at Naruto's feet right then and there "and don't think I can't, I have been pretty tame with the pranks you have seen so far, but I can always brake out the ones that'll cause a paperwork overload"
"N-Now N-Naruto, t-the-ere's n-no n-n-need t-to g-g-go c-c-crazy n-now" this was something that Asuma had never seen before, a scarred Hiruzen Sarutobi, and he didn't know what to think.
"You know what I want" was all Naruto said, and the Hokage paled (so pale did he turn that a certain snake looked up and said "who is trying to steal my look"), right in front of their eyes, as he saw that Naruto was dead serious and he gave in
"F-fine" he cleared his throat a bit "I have one C-ranked at the moment, I was planning on giving it to team seven but, uh, the circumstances seemed to have changed. You will be guarding a bridge builder on his way back home, as well as while he finishes the bridge he is constructing there, and yes you are to protect the bridge as well as the bridge builder. The rest of the details are in this scroll. Carol please send in the client from Nami" he said well handing the mission scroll over to Asuma, while saying the last bit into the intercom.
A few minutes after that an old drunken man stumbled in and took a look around, "so where's the team that is going to protect me, all I see is a lazy kid, a girl with a fashion obsession and a blonde haired kid who looks like he wants to kill something but isn't capable of doing it, and some guy who looks really cool with a cigarette in his mouth"
"That is the team guarding you" the Hokage said
"Oh… well at least one of them look like he would be a good guard"
"Rrrrrriiiiiiggggghhhhhttttt, well we will leave in two hours, grab what you need and meet at the west gate"
Two hours later at the west gate of Konoha:
I had arrived first to look through an underworld bingo book, which is pretty much the same as any other bingo book except the targets are people that someone in the criminal enterprise wants dead, that I had went and gotten from the yakuza boss of konoha, who was a friend of mine from way back heck I'd even call him a father figure and he was one of the few who helped and taught me a little as a kid, before coming here. I didn't need to pack because I carry everything I need with me, all my weapons, medical supplies and extra gear, so I really just needed to go to the gate. Anyway I was looking through the new addition because I could have sworn I saw the name "Tazuna" in the last one, so I just wanted to make sure that A) the name was there in the first place, and B) that it's the same guy….and low and behold it is, 'hmmmm, it seems someone named Gato wants him gone and that he wants a pretty specific type person to do it. Suspicious, it's almost like he wants the demon of the mist specifically. I better look into this'
Just as I finished that thought everyone else starts to arrive. When the last person arrives, Asuma, our Jonin sensei turned to us.
"Okay, before we head out I want to check your packing jobs, so hand me your bags" he said, I just brought out a scroll from which I unsealed a bag that I had prepared for this occasion a long time ago. He started with Ino's bag first, which had everything that a C-rank mission would normally require, with a few extras like a few more clothes then necessary, a hairbrush and a lot of make-up. Next came Shikamaru's, which was neatly packed with everything he'd need and nothing unnecessary.
"Well your mom did a very nice job, Shikamaru" Asuma said before moving to mine. When he opened my bag, all everyone saw was scrolls, which Asuma attempted to sort through, key word "attempted" he didn't get much farther than the forth scroll before being zapped by the fifth.
"Ouch, what the hell was that?" he swore. I glanced at the scroll he dropped on the ground before picking it up and responding
"a security seal I designed that's coded to my biometrics, this specific one caries some cash" as I talk I walk over to my bag and rearrange it back the way I had it before taking out another scroll and sealing the bag back up, of course that was just to keep up appearances, in reality all the scrolls were fakes and held nothing and all my stuff was in a special seal on my back and all I had to do to grab something from it was reach either behind me or into a pocket where a relay seal was located while thinking about the item or items I want, but no one but me needed to know that.
"Okay then…. Well anyway let's start walking in a diamond formation, Shikamaru on the left, Ino on the right, Naruto up front and I'll take the rear. We have a bit of a journey but we should be able to get to Nami by lunch time tomorrow" and with that we started our journey
The end…
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JUST KIDDING
We had traveled until just before sunset, and had encountered nothing unusual as of yet, and decided to set camp for the night. Shikamaru set up the tents while me and Ino collected wood for the standard smokeless fire and hunted for food, we caught a couple rabbits that I made into a stew, and Asuma watched the client.
"So, Tazuna, how far along is your bridge?" I asked trying to get a time frame for the mission, as all that was stated was that we were to stay until the bridge was done.
"Hmmm, fairly far. If I had to say it's probably a month from completion at best and four at worse, why do you ask?" he responded then shot a question right back.
"Just trying to get an idea on how long the mission could take, why such a wide gap between the timeframe though?" at this he seemed a little nervous, like he was trying to think of a way to answer that wouldn't reveal a secret.
"Well the timeframe can change depending on a lot of factors, like whether we have all the necessary materials, if a natural phenomenon happens that damages or completely destroys the bridge, if we have enough men to work on the bridge, the condition of the equipment, you know stuff like that. Though the… bandits don't help things" I don't know about the others but I definitely noticed the pause when he said 'bandits', as if he was going to say something different, yet similar.
"Hmmm, sounds like a lot you need to do, if you want I can put some seals on it to help keep the bridge standing long after it should have crumbled to dust, as well as some special features to allow a ship to unload cargo though a spot in the bridge, a seal to allow the bridge to self-repair, and a few other things like that. With all of that it could be a great symbol for your country, a symbol representing great strength and courage to stand up despite others telling you to crumble down to the ground, you know" 'god dammit, I thought I got rid of that'
"Obviously not, and it still makes you sound like an idiot"
'I know right' I look over at Tazuna and see him with tears streaming down his face and a look of admiration on his face as he opens his mouth,
"Thank you that would be really appreciated, and would mean so much to me and my people, especially with what's happened there lately" he said before he realized that he just let slip something he probably shouldn't have.
"Oh, and what's been happening lately exactly?" Asuma asked, speaking for the first time since we settled on this spot to rest for the night.
"Uhm, uh, I uh well you see with all the recent bandit activity recently we've been unable to continue properly, yeah that's what's going on" he stuttered out, un aware that he was lying worse and worse by the second and all ninja present knew it too.
"Yeah that was one of the worse lies I have ever heard, and I heard a guy who can't physically lie without harming himself lie" I said well deadpanning, and getting Tazuna to look down dejectedly that he failed that badly
"Ah well, not like I didn't already know what I was walking into before we left" I say nonchalantly well leaning against a tree.
"Wait what!?" everyone shouts out right on que, even the four hiding in the tree didn't stay quiet when I said that, and when I heard them I open one I looking directly at the spot that the four strangers were hiding in and said
"Oh, hello Zabuza and co, what brings you around these parts, after some kind of bounty maybe?" I ask as if it was an everyday occurrence to run into missing Nin and their accomplices.
Zabuza, who was still wholly stunned that a genin not only found where he was hiding, made him brake cover and knew what he was doing there, answered completely truthful, and in a stunned voice "uh, yeah some sleazy business man named Gato is offering a reward for the old man there, I normally wouldn't have taken it but it sounded exactly like something I would like, and the pay wasn't too bad either, so I thought eh why not take it, you know"
"Yeah I happened to read the entry to and thought it was something you'd take on, but I found it a little strange that it seemed to fit you and you alone, almost like someone custom tailored it to bait you into a trap, or something, it just seemed a little to fishy you know" I said still as nonchalant as when I first started talking to him, before internally flinching and thinking 'dammit'
"Now that you mention it, it does seem like something someone who wants me dead would do….nah best not think about it" he stated, finally snapping out of his stunned mind frame, before throwing something on the ground which burst into a bright light that emitted a loud noise. When the light faded and the ringing in our ears stopped Zabuza was gone without a trace.
"Hmm flash tag, smart move Zabuza" I mutter to myself, though the other ninja of my group heard and were confused by this.
"How was it a smart move Naruto-kun, isn't he walking right into a trap?" Ino asked
"In a matter of speaking yes, but in actuality no. you see now he knows what's going on, unfortunately he can't give up the mission, it would be bad for business, but that doesn't mean he's still targeting Tazuna here" I replied
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at this "I don't think I understand, it sounds like your saying that he's still targeting Tazuna but at the same time not" Shikamaru stated not quite getting it
"that's exactly what I'm saying, he can't go back and say that he changed his mind cause it'll sound like he was scared off by three genin and a Jonin, but he doesn't want to continue the mission now that he knows he's not getting payed after, so he's going to continue until he can find a way out that means he and those he works with are still alive after. You can tell that's what he plans to do cause he could have had the others in the trees attack us by surprise instead of leaving and completed the mission but didn't which means that he's not interested in the mission anymore, but he also realises he can't just high tail it out of here cause it'll ruin his reputation which will make it impossible to get a job in this line of work in the future. That leaves only one choice, wait until the most opportune moment to stop the mission"
"Wait you said that you read the entry, what entry and how did you read it and why did you not tell us?" Asuma questioned, both curious and angry.
"I'm afraid I can't answer the first to questions without betraying someone close to me, as for the last, I didn't want to not be on this mission because of unconfirmed info, after all how was I to know that he would show up so soon" I stated with an innocent look before continuing "If I had revealed the info back in the village or too close to it, one of a few different scenarios would play out, if we were in the village the mission would be cancelled or reassigned or no one would believe me forcing me to reveal the source of the info which would cause questions I would be unable to answer truthfully do to reasons I cannot get into, if we were out of the village you would have forced us back despite the fact that he may not have even showed up. The way I did things means you have no choice but to continue the mission and if he was here then I could make it where he wouldn't be as much of a threat"
"You are very manipulative you know that" he replied seeing I was right.
"Only when it involves someone I don't have mutual trust with" I shot back, causing a hurt look to flash across his face.
"You don't trust me, I'm your sensei you should trust me completely"
"I trust you to do what you were assigned to do, and to act in a way that'll make sure we don't bite off more than we can chew. On the other hand you can't trust me as you haven't seen how well I can handle different level missions, and you don't want us on too high a level mission" I shot back again, causing him to look down again, while Shikamaru just watched the sky from his tree across the campsite, and Ino looked in thought from her position by the fire. "Didn't I already go through this though?"
"Yeah," he said dejectedly before adding "but I thought that it had been a long enough time for you to realize that you could trust me with anything"
"Well that's stupid, I don't trust anyone that much, and I doubt any other ninja would trust anyone that much. It's just not a good idea, some secrets can be shared with a select few, sure, but others need to be taken to the grave and some you need permission to give out. Do you not agree Asuma-sensei?"
"Well uh, yeah I guess that does make sense" he said honestly "Anyway the watch for the night will be Naruto, then Shikamaru, then Ino, and I'll finish up"
"Hai sensei!" we all replied before getting ready for the night
Skip to Naruto's watch after everyone fell asleep:
"Hmm I wondered how long it would take him to send someone my way" I said quietly, so as not to wake my companions, as a figure stepped from the trees and into the light of the moon, revealing what appeared to be a Kiri hunter nin but in actuality was a companion of Zabuza's.
"How did you figure out it was a trap, and why did you warn us? These are the questions he wants answered" the masked Nin stated
"Wwweeelll, anyone who has not been blinded by desperation could see that trap, and it was in both of our best interests to warn him, after all how can I give him a job if he's dead" I say well looking at the Nin across from me in a dead serious kinda way.
And there you go the end of the first chapter of the wave arc, and already you can see some major differences compared to the narutoverse your all use to, yes I'm aware this is shorter then most of the other chapters but this is still the end of this chapter. Thanks to all those who were waiting patiently for me to regain my muse, for whatever reason it likes to disappear weird, and for those wondering why I asked you to send me a list of what nine girls you would like Naruto to be with as well as who you don't want to see and the reason behind why you don't want them, it's so I can compile a list to turn into a pole later on or if there's not that many names to take the most popular ones off of the compiled list and use them(whatever happens first), I'm gonna wait two more months just to be safe though, so we'll see what happens between now and then
Till then I hope everyone finds something nice to read and to those who write also I hope the plot bunnies find a much needed home in your heads
