Machinations of a Divine Being: First Missions
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other crossovers I may put into this work of fiction.
Reviewer's Corner (From Ch. 7):
13: I… don't know what to make of this. I'm just not interested in incest. Kyuubi isn't technically a person anyways.
What: 1) I don't know about that. 2) No
Meech Macko: 1) I don't know if I'm writing what your reading. 2) How so? 3) Exactly. What is evil? What is good? I don't know why a woman would fall for an evil person.
4) Thank you
Please Read and Review
Start
The Tower – Meeting Room…
After making his decision, Naruto was invited to return to the palace. He accepted the condition as long as long as he could still remain as Kururugi Naruto. Atsuro spoke, "We'll see what we can do. You will have to stay at the palace for tonight until we can arrange for living conditions… unless Genbu still wishes to keep you."
Naruto waved his hands, "Please don't mind me. I've saved up enough so that I can live on my own." After a few seconds, "Well, if that's all, I'll leave now. I'm sure you all have lots to talk about." He hurried out of there, as he could tell the mood. Most of them followed after, except for Kushina and Atsuro.
He stood up and fidgeted with his glasses, "He's growing up to be a right young man, isn't he?"
Kushina smiled and nodded, "He has, hasn't he?" She pressed a button on the bottom of the desk, in a secret compartment. Through a series of semi-complicated machinery, a miniature portal appeared out of the floor tiles. A light appeared from the portal. A voice soon sounded, "Hello. You're rather early."
A dark area…
In an area, nearly devoid of life, a man peers into a portal. A voice calls back, "It's been a while." The man seemed to smile, but it was difficult to say. "A while indeed. Where are we now?"
She silently laughed and seemed to be in her own world, Atsuro responded, "We should be in phase two. Our first squads are ready to go." He smiled slyly. He turned to Atsuro, "Excuse me, but I was speaking with Kushi-chan."
Atsuro continued smiling, "She seems a little distracted for the moment, so I'm afraid we'll have to finish discussing this on our own." He looked to Kushina, who was still slightly dazed, "Our people are ready as long as you're willing to continue." He pocketed his hands.
"But of course." He quickly undid the portal. Kushina seemed to escape from her stupor, "It's over?" She yawned, "How did it go?"
Atsuro smiled, "It was short, quick, to the point, and slightly confusing. Just the way I like it." They both shared a laugh, "Are you sure you can trust him?"
She put her palm to her face, "We've worked together for the last five years. I have no choice unless there's a better solution." She shrugged, "But it's not like he untrustworthy, I just believe that he thinks that destruction will be a means to an end."
Atsuro smiles, "Well, we're going to hell, let's enjoy life while we're at it." The door opened and it showed Shoji. "What are you two laughing about?"
Kushina responded, "Our insane plan is actually coming into fruition. So… what can I do for you?" Shoji scanned through her documents, "It seems that the Shomonkai are acting up again."
While Kushina seemed to grit her teeth at the word, Atsuro said, "Ah, those guys. They're not too much of a problem." Shoji nodded and looked again, "Well, we're having some minor technicalities with the first squads, but other than that…" She quickly left. Atsuro followed closely behind her, leaving Kushina alone in the room.
"What can I do now?"
The Palace – With Naruto…
After his conversation, Naruto had taken his stuff from Genbu's manor, with the help of palace attendees and his uncle. During that time, he had explained some of the situation with Haku and Ayame, although they knew that he was a prince.
They continued to speak at the palace, "Oh yeah, Zabuza told me. He's not into secrecy." He chuckled, "I just hope I can train with you guys." Ayame silently nodded, not knowing what she could get into.
At that point, Yamaki had overheard their conversation. "Ah, Haku and Kururugi Ayame, it's wonderful to see you. Please, call me Yamaki." He shook their hands, "I recognized you from your files. They're very interesting."
Ayame looked him up and down, "Are you part of Narutos' new training regime, Yamaki-san?" He scratched his head, "Not explicitly, but yes."
Haku asked, "Will we be training with the other squads' or only Gensai-senseis' squad?" He seemed to be wondering, "Due to the nature of your heritage, you will be training with Gensais' squad. You are all familiar with each other, and it would be prudent to not have other genin join in at the time. They seem to be not on par with your skills." He waited a few seconds, "Will that be all?" He moved on to another section.
Ayame finally asked, having inspected the man, "Are you sure it's good to train under him? He seems pretty shady." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "I've seen a lot of shady people come see my mom when I was younger. It was just a feeling, but I've never seen not to distrust my mothers' judgement. I think we should do this. It'll benefit us in the long haul."
Ayame seemed slightly worried but was relieved by Haku, "If you trust him, I guess its' okay. We're friends, and friends should believe each other." After a bit of consideration, she agreed with Haku.
Naruto smiled, "Than I guess we'll start training tomorrow. Come on, let's enjoy the rest of the day." They quickly cheered and ran with Naruto.
Another area in the palace…
Kaito was speaking with Genbu. "You've had Naruto for a few years. What's your opinion on how he developed?" He was curious, as he hadn't been with his nephew for the last three two years.
Genbu had to consider his words, "To cut to the chase, he's a free spirit. He's quite intelligent, but he makes idiotic moves sometimes and got in trouble on occasion because he doesn't have a filter on his mouth. I suppose Gensai might feel it to be a bit endearing, but it's not up to me to say. Why do you ask?"
He put his hands to his head, "I feel like he may have been channeling a bit of both his parents." He smiled slyly, "I just feel a bit jealous as I don't seem to be having too much of an effect."
Genbu was about to make a remark, but decided against it. Kaito saw the look on his face, "I'm afraid I can't tell you who his father is. That would be against the rules." Ever since a spy had been found, apprehended, and taken back to his master, security had to be tense.
It was easy for some people, but others seemed to have a harder time. "What can we do about it? It seems that spies are more common than ever before. We found two spies within the last month. Thankfully, we had removed them before they learned of anything important." The two men laughed.
Konoha – Uchiha Household…
Sasuke was called by his sister, Itsuko, towards their uncles room, who was working. After thanking her, he walked in and knelt on the floor. "Is anything bothering you, uncle? Itsuko-chan said it was urgent." He was slightly worried.
Keisuke looked up from his work, "It's nothing, I just feel some stress piling up. Please, worry about yourself." After a moment of silence, "I understand that you've passed?" Seeing Sasuke nod, he answered, "Why that's wonderful! We should have a little celebration."
Sasuke seemed to blush, "It's nothing. Please don't go out of your way for me." Keisuke waved his hand, "You say that with a straight face, but your heart says different. It's important to get recognition for a job well done once in a while. If it doesn't happen, you'll start looking for it in your own way and well… that's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?"
Sasuke gave in, as his uncle wouldn't be the one to back down from pointless arguments. "Alright, where should we go?" Sasuke was given a flier, 'Gins': A great place for celebration!' "Gee, I wonder where we're going?"
Keisuke stood up, "I've already made reservations there. It's a pretty big place and it has a large room for such occasions. Plus, I have to meet with Gin as well. You'll also have to speak with him as well." Sasuke was confused, but agreed nonetheless.
As Keisuke put on his white jacket, "Oh, and tell your friends to come along with their parents. I'm sure they have nothing planned as well."
So, in a matter of a few minutes, the Uchiha family met with the Harunos' at Gins' for a drink (and a party). Once inside, they met with Aya, who invited them to the private room, with Haru already there.
"We were ecstatic when we heard that Sakura had graduated with the Genin of the Year. She seemed so happy when she told the news!" Her mother seemed to be on cloud nine, which was also embarrassing Sakura.
"Haru is also very happy, as she'll be working so closely with her best friends. She talks about the two all the time." Aya also seemed very happy, already knowing of their history. In the end, everyone left.
After the first hour, Itachi and Keisuke rose from their chairs. "Please excuse us, but we have a meeting to attend. It was wonderful meeting the two of you." He shook their hands gratefully.
Since the three were sitting closely, they whispered, "What do you think they're talking about?" Sasuke thought about it, "Well, since uncle is there, it must be pretty serious. Although I don't know why Itachi is there. He doesn't seem to be doing very much these days. Aside from the training, he hasn't been out of the house too much."
Sakura thought up a possible reason, but Haru spoke first, "It might be the deal you and Gin from a few years ago. Do you remember it, Sasuke?"
He nodded, "Of course I remember, you big dope." He said it affectionately. Sakura saw the two and her mouth puffed up, but changed her thinking. "These two were friends long before I met them. I don't have a chance."
Sasuke noticed the sadness from Sakura, but said nothing. He instead, put an arm around her, attempting to comfort her. She felt flustered, but made no movements. Haru silently smiled from a distance.
He noticed again, but he sighed inwardly. "It's damn difficult to play a crowd." He couldn't make everyone happy, so he could only do the next best thing: Help his friends out as best he could.
In another room…
The night was pretty quiet compared to other nights, where the night would be filled with rowdy drunks, only to be kicked out by the demon of destruction in a bartender suit.
Gin was in the room first, greeted by both of his friends, Itachi and Keisuke. "How's the night? Enjoy your food, drinks, and party?"
The two smiled, but Itachis' was smaller than Keisukes', "It was pretty fun, but you aren't expecting me to pay for this, are you? Money has been tight for the last month, and…" He was nearly punched by Gin, "You don't have to be such a stuck-up; I kid."
As they sat down, Itachi started, "What did you want us to talk about, Eiji?" He asked, chuckling. It was a well-known fact that he wasn't too fond of his birth name, but he didn't mind if it was brought up too much.
After a huge sigh, he said, "Alright, that's two. One more, and your out of here." He brought two glasses out and poured some wine in all three, as his was already placed there. "Let's talk about Haru and Aya."
After taking their respective sips, "Is it that time already?" Gin nodded, sadly. "But I thought you were going to get married?" He lowered his head, and put his hands on his knees. He seemed to start to tear up.
He looked up, a slight weary look on his face and tears, "I had to face the music sooner or later. She was a withdrawn girl from the first day I met her. She would keep these little secrets, but I was fine with it. When we got together, words couldn't describe. It was also pretty amazing when we hooked up, but… that's another story." He seemed to laugh at his 'joke' (but I digress).
As he cleared his throat and wiped his tears, "I've gotta call in the promise. Her condition is worsening, and the only thing to do is to have you guys take her and Haru in. Meanwhile, I've got to leave." He sat there, awaiting an answer.
Keisuke spoke, aware of the situation, "But surely this can't be. Although you're not officially a ninja, you must report to Hokage-sama." As if he took the words out of his mouth, he was presented with a note. "This should give you guys some indication of what I'm allowed to do now. I went over a few days ago and gave him most of the details."
The two peered at the note, verifying that it indeed had the Hokages' stamp of approval. "I hope you know what you're doing." Gin nodded, "Of course." They decided to end the meeting early, as there was nothing else to gain.
At that point, Sasuke was called in from the main room, accompanied by Haru and Sakura. He and Gin shook hands, possibly for the last time, "It's time to call that deal in, young man."
Sasuke looked to Haru, and gave a half-smile, "Sure, old man, I'll take it." Gin smiled, although obviously peeved by that old man comment. He grit his teeth and shook Sasukes' hand. Sasuke smiled mischievously as well.
Itachi and Keisuke sensed the tention between the two and split them up, "Alright now, that's enough shaking hands." Gin stroked his hair back slightly and stated, "Well, I'm counting on you, boy. I hope you can uphold your promise." He left the room smiling.
Sasuke was mystefied about what was happening, but nodded anyways. "Well, it's your turn to act now, brother; Let's go." They followed Itachis' decision and left the room. Sakura held Haru back for a bit, wanting to talk.
"So what's up with the promise between Sasuke and your guardian?" At this point, she didn't have too much information about Harus' home life. Haru looked to the side, "Well, I don't know what to tell you, but…" She gave Sakura most of the details regarding the promise. Sakura stood back, almost shocked, "What!" Haru smirked and left the room, "Let's go!"
By the time the two left the room, the main room was almost empty, except for some drunks. Everyone in the party had already left, except for Gin, who was minding his bar. They said their good-byes and left the bar.
Morning – Konoha…
As per requested, team 7 had met together pretty early in the day. Although it was against common sense, they met at the appointed time anyways, but they took a detour instead.
"Why do you want to visit the Konoha Monument?" Haru was curious about the stone since she had never seen it, even though she lived in the village for the last five years.
Sasuke sighed, "There's not much to say. It's just a stone with the names of those who died over the years in wars and battles. I guess its' pretty interesting as far as I'm concerned." He smiled, "Are you up to seeing it?" Sakura looked at him oddly, "Well, why not? Let's go!"
They walked towards the stone and saw two people standing there; a silver haired man and a cloaked man. They must have been having a secret conversation, since once in a while, one would nod his head, while the other seemed to chuckle silently.
They noticed the team immediately, "Oh, hey guys." Kakashi put up a hand. The other person was Gin, in a traveling cloak. "Hey you three. Are you going to come over here or just stare?" Haru ran over and hugged her guardian, perhaps for the last time. "Are you leaving today?"
He pat her on her head, "Yeah, but I'll hopefully be back soon. There are some things I need to take care of. I just wanted to see this place before I left for a while." After a short time, he left waving good-bye.
"Well, since we're all here, should we get a mission?" While they were all enthusiastic about getting their missions, Sakura was the most. "Yeah, let' go!" Kakashi laughed slightly, "Well then, let's go."
They hurried towards the mission center, which had the other teams, with their jounin-senseis'. Upon hearing the door open, everyone turned their heads and saw team seven.
"Hey guys, how's your day so far?" Kakashi decided to open the line of dialogue. One of the teachers, a bearded man walked up to Kakashi. "So, this is your team, Kakashi?" The only female teacher walked up as well. "It's been a while."
"Hey Asuma, Kurenai." While they were having their own conversation, the teams started their own. "How's life?" Sasuke took the plunge first.
Choji moved his hand in a line, "Not too bad. Have you gotten any missions yet?" Everyone on team 7 shook their heads. "We're getting our missions too."
Kiba got into the conversation, "We're going to get in a good mission because we're so great!" Everyone, aside from him, thought it was impossible, since it had only been a few days since they graduated. "Don't push your luck, Kiba, or you'll get hurt."
He looked to Sasuke, who made the snarky response, "Oh yeah! I'll get you good, pretty boy!" He raised a hand, but was held back. "Shino? What are you doing?"
He pushed up his sunglasses, "You guys shouldn't fight now. It's pointless." He pointed to Iruka, who waved oddly to them. Someone coughed awkwardly.
After the jounin-senseis' were finished talking, they walked back to their respective teams. "So, do you have any missions for us?"
Iruka looked through a stack of papers, "Well…" He gave out a list of 'missions', which were more akin to chores rather than real tasks.
Most of them were taken aback, but those more in the know were aware, although they didn't feel the need to tell their friends. "Although they don't feel like missions, they're supposed to help our team building other than real experience. It's also good for the money, I guess."
Iruka sighed, "Although your right, you don't have to say it like that. For now, you genin are only able to take d-rank missions, which help the village economy and allow you to work together better." They accepted his reasoning, but still didn't like it.
They just went with whatever the easiest mission was, the hardest being fixing a roof. It was annoying work, but it had to be done.
That same day – The Tower (Underground)…
Within the Village Hidden in the Whirling Tides, in the administrative building known as the Tower, underground, experiments were underway. They wanted to make the ultimate weapon, and they succeeded (sort of). The head scientist was there barking orders, telling others what to do.
Both teams were led down to the room with their teachers. "So, what is this room for?" Although Naruto was informed, he didn't have all the details. Zabuza shrugged, "It's a specially installation for making the ultimate weapons/armor. It was made by the rich and for the rich, or people who can support the place."
They made it downstairs shortly and were welcomed by a scientist. "Please follow me this way to Director Yamaki." They followed the man, seeing all the fascinating things inside the lab, especially the creatures inside the test tubes.
They saw the director speaking with a bunch of scientists. "This all looks very good, but we need to get the right formulas." They took notes, as they saw the two teams. "Welcome. Alright, we'll talk about this next time." He handed his clipboard to a fellow scientist. "Hows' your tour so far?"
"Actually, we haven't taken a tour so far." He looked around the basement, "Well, I'm afraid you won't get one for a while. This place is a work in progress, but I digress." He showed them to another area of the room.
The area he led them to was a large chamber in which contained weapons and armor. "I was told to arm you for a future battle. I did everything I could, but as you can see, it's not a complete collection. I hope its' to your liking."
They all took a weapon suited to their particular styles, except for Naruto and Ayame. "What's wrong, are they not to your liking?"
He shook his head, "No, it's just that I never liked to use weapons. Maybe a pair of gloves, but that's it." As for Ayame, she only wanted an adjustment on her blade. She didn't mind keeping the same weapon. Haku decided on a number of sleeve daggers and needles.
Yamaki pursed his lips, "We'll have to make some changes, but I'll see how it goes. Until then…" He produced a pair of armored arm guards from his jacket. "Take these, they're made from a special material harder than most metals. They should suit you in your endeavors." He took them, "Wow, these look great. Thanks." Yamaki smiled towards the boy.
He walked to another area and opened up a door, which produced a rack with a number of black jackets. "These are the uniforms you're required to wear. I hope you enjoy them." There were exclamations of "These are nice!" and so on.
After a few minutes of changing, they got out of their respective changing rooms, and spotted their teachers. "You all look very distinguished. I'm impressed with you work, young man." Yamaki raised his glasses with a finger, "I'm glad your impressed, Nobuharu-san. I hope you'll want an improvement one day." He nodded.
After the two groups left the Tower, they walked towards the mission center. Upon nearing the door, two people walked out and handed their sensei's, Zabuza and Gensai, each a piece of paper. "Well, son of a bitch."
Gensai laughed heartily, "It seems we have a pretty interesting mission!" Zabuza, on the other hand, seemed to frown, "Well, looks like this'll be a pain."
Seiji shot Naruto a look that said, "Sucks to be you!" He ignored the goad, but couldn't help wonder what he meant. Zabuza through away the paper when they headed outside, "Well, we won't be able to start the mission until next week, so, let's get some training done." They all agreed as they needed to learn about their new toys, especially Haku.
A week later (Konoha)…
After a week of meaningless missions, ranging from yard weeding to farm tending, especially the most famous, "Catch Tora" mission. All teams, especially Team 7, were tired.
On the way to the center again, "I hope we get a better mission. I can't take too many more of these D-ranks." Sasuke looked up from a pamphlet, "As far as I know, we shouldn't have to take too many more D-ranks, or at all. Our next mission should be C-rank." The two girls were ecstatic.
Upon entering the door, they saw an old man speaking with the Hokage. "Ah, Team 7, I'm glad you've made it. I'm pleased to say that I've got a mission for you." He presented the man who looked like the client, an old man holding a bottle of alcohol.
"What's this? I asked for a proper ninja escort (hiccup) and all I get is two teams filled with little kids that look more like midgets then anything else? And what's with the kid in the cloak? He looks like he's trying to act cool." He laughed out loud.
As Sakura was about to assault the man, she was suddenly pullet back. "We're not supposed to attack our clients, even if they are pretty annoying." She nodded, understanding his reasoning.
The Hokage explained their mission, which was essentially to take the drunk, Tazuna, back to his homeland, the Land of Wave. He was to be protected until he finished building a bridge that he designed. "This mission should last for about a few weeks. Does this sound good?" Everyone nodded, understanding the situation.
Kakashi told them what to do next, "Alright guys, go pack up necessary supplies and we'll meet up at the entrance of the village. We'll leave than, okay?" They left to go back to their respective homes.
End
Another chapter done, finally. I'd like to apologize if some parts are confusing since I'm not too great with small talk, but there it is. Thanks for reading!
