Disclaimer: Isn't it obvious that Naruto isn't mine? I'm not really that desperate to claim Naruto as my own, you know.

Author's Note: Okay, this is part 9. Hopefully you'll like it!

Part Nine

Naruto opened his drawers and took out some sets of kunai, shuriken, explosive notes, clothes, and other things he felt would be useful. He went to the kitchen and got some bottles of fresh water. He almost took some food too, but decided against it since it would just weigh him down. He could go on without food for days and if he felt hungry he could always hunt for his own food.

Grabbing his backpack, Naruto exited his apartment, but not before forming seals and placed them to protect his house from unwanted intruders that were surely will try to invade it when he went away. If they dared to break into his house, well let's just say that the result wouldn't be pretty…for the intruders of course. He didn't place any prank trap there to avoid suspicion. Don't want anyone relate him with the infamous and mysterious prankster, of course.

With a nasty smile imagining what the intruders would appear after they received his surprise, Naruto ran toward Konoha's gate.

He found out that he was the first of team 7 to arrive there. Tazuna was already there and he fidgeted nervously when the blond walked toward him. Apparently he was anxious for the prospect of being with him, especially if they were alone. Not that the genin blamed him for being frightened of him. Naruto sent a smirk to the old man and saw him flinch.

Damn! But it was really funny.

5 minutes later Sasuke arrived to the spot only to see the bridge builder trying to stay as far away as he could from his teammate. Tazuna's eyes darted occasionally (almost every 5 seconds) to the blond, who leaned to the wall behind him casually, to make sure he didn't come closer. Feeling a bit annoyed that it was Naruto that made the man frightened and not he, the vengeful avenger, Sasuke put himself between them to make sure the other genin didn't kill their client before the mission even started. It would be his first C-class mission and he didn't want to fail, just because the not-so-dead-last decided to kill the bridge builder.

Kakashi joined them a minute later. He glanced at his blonde student and then checked his watched before sighing in relief to note that there was still 1 minute until the designed time.

Seconds later, Sakura ran toward them panting. They let her regained her breath for a moment before they departed from Konoha. Kakashi was in the front with Tazuna a step behind him. Sasuke was behind them followed by a happy babbling Sakura. Naruto yawned as he watched their backs boredly. He smiled when he saw a reddish brown fox followed him from the corner of his blue eyes. He gestured the fox to join him. It yipped happily and dashed toward him. Naruto grabbed the fox's body before it had a chance to bump his legs. He put it on his shoulder, letting the fox licked his face and purred.

"Ne, chibi-chan," its eard perked up. "Will you hunt for me?" it yipped again and nodded before it jumped down and ran. Naruto raised an eyebrow when he watched Sasuke narrowed his onyx eyes on him, completely ignoring the pink haired girl that glomped on him and was trying to strike a conversation with her Sasuke-sama. Naruto smirked mockingly infuriating the dark haired genin. Sasuke glared, turned his back and started to walk faster, amusing the blue-eyed genin.

There was no interesting event that day except for the occasional complain from Tazuna claiming that he was tired. The group stopped and camped for the night in a small clearing near the road. The jounin instructor told the genins to set up their own tents and gather wood for fire. Naruto simply sent a bunshin to collect the necessary wood. He didn't need to set up a tent because frankly he didn't bring any tent with him and he was used sleeping outside. Beside Kyuubi would keep him warm when he felt cold, so he didn't need to worry about catching cold. The fox he had sent to hunt has come back with a brown rabbit on its mouth. Petting its head, he took the rabbit from its mouth and skinned it.

"What're you doing with that poor rabbit?" Sakura shrieked accusingly, apparently she has just finished setting up her tent and was on her way to gather wood when she saw the furry animal on Naruto's bloody hands.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'm playing with a dead rabbit," he sneered. "What does it look like, pinky?" he snapped irritably.

"How could you! It's just a poor cute animal," her eyes were full of tears right now. The other members of the group glanced at the two.

Naruto looked at Sakura for a moment with disbelief plastered on his face. "Damn, and you call yourself a kunoichi? My, my, it seems that Konoha's shinobi's standard has become so low that they allowed a pathetic girl like you to be a shinobi. If those other shinobis in Konoha are like you, I have no doubt that it will be reduced into nothing soon. If you meet enemy shinobi, what will you do? Pout at them and ask them to leave you alone?" he snorted. "Unlikely, Haruno. If you can't do something simple like this you should quit being a shinobi. You're a nuisance. Shinobi world isn't for a naïve girl like you who only care about your hair, clothes, oh and not to forget: love," Naruto said the last part mockingly. Sakura was pale and gaping at his sharp words. She looked around and tried to find someone to help her, but she found Tazuna covered his face with his straw hat and turned around, while her silver haired sensei nodded at Naruto's word. Her heart sank when she saw her crush narrowed his eyes, staring at her as if she was a trash. Crying harder, she ran to the woods.

"Sheesh, what a waste of time she is," Naruto scoffed, not feeling a bit guilty at all. He continued skinning his rabbit and gave some of the raw meat to the waiting fox that happily tore it. Sasuke has already gone to fetch the wood Kakashi requested.

"You shouldn't say that, you know" the jounin scratched his hear.

Naruto snorted. "I only told her the truth. Whether or not she can accept it is her own problem," his bunshin appeared with the woods on its arms and it soon started the fire.

"Yes, but don't you think that it was a bit too much?"

"Just because she's smart memorizing all theories doesn't mean she is a good shinobi. If she can't face the reality when it faces her, it would be better for her not to become a shinobi. She can't fill her life with false hope and fantasies and she should've known it before she even decided to become a shinobi," Kakashi sighed and decided not to argue with the blond anymore.

Tazuna stayed silent as he neared the warmth of the fire, but still kept his distance with the genin who was roasting the rabbit meat. His stomach growled at the sight of Naruto who calmly eating his roasted meat and Kakashi who ate from his food can. Both shinobis raised their eyebrows at the blushing client.

"Er… do you by chance have other food for me, Kakashi-san?" he asked, feeling quite embarrassed.

Naruto shook his head in annoyance and continue eating his rabbit not caring that the old man's eyes were fixed on his meat longingly. Kakashi scratched his head and put down his food can pn the ground and rummaged his bag before giving another food can like his to the client. The Wave's citizen eyed the offered food before looking at the jounin.

"I can't open it," he said bluntly. Kakashi took a kunai from his pouch and opened the can easily.

"With our speed right now we will arrive at a small town tomorrow afternoon. You'd better buy your own food. Our mission is to escort you to Wave country, not feeding you," Tazuna could detect a small annoyance in the shinobi-s tone and quickly nodded. "Good!" Sasuke was back with an arm full of woods. He put it on a pile near the fire and ate the onigiris he brought from Konoha in silence. There was still no sign of Sakura anywhere.

Finishing his food quickly in a secluded area where the others couldn't see his face behind the mask, Kakashi decided to search for the girl. It would be bad on his record if he let one of his first genin team died in her first C-class mission because she was lost and got eaten by wild animals. Naruto eyed the leaving jounin for a moment before snorting to himself and went back to his own food. His fox that already finished its own meal yawned and settled itself in Naruto's lap. Tazuna looked at it in disbelief, wondering why a cute animal like it could be so comfortable in the devil boy's presence.

When the Kyuubi boy finished eating he licked the blood on his hands, which was a lot since he hadn't wash his hand after he skinned the rabbit, making Tazuna went all green and put down his food can. His appetite was killed the moment he saw it. Sasuke looked unnerved for a moment before composing himself.

Naruto settled himself on a strong branch to sleep, while the fox was already gone on its own merry way. Two of his team members still haven't come back yet, but he could have careless with that, so he closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

2 hours later, he was awake when Kakashi called his name. Naruto landed on the ground smoothly and walked toward Kakashi's voice.

He found all members of team 7, including the red-faced girl (because of crying, not blushing), and Tazuna have already gathered around the fire.

"Ah, Naruto sit down," Kakashi said to his student. The blond sat across him. "I gathered you here to tell you the night shift for our journey."

"Let me be the first guard," the blond said firmly.

"…Alright. Whose next?" he asked the others.

"I will," Sasuke informed. Kakashi raised his eyebrow curiously. The Uchiha boy never volunteered for anything before.

"Okay, then Sakura will be the last one to guard," the girl shrank on her seat. Kakashi rolled his eyes inwardly. Apparently Naruto's words still have gotten her down. "…with me," she flashed a relief smile to the silver haired shinobi.

The son of White Fang really didn't need a low esteemed student right now. Hopefully she wouldn't be reduced to something like the Hyuuga heir who was under Kurenai's watch. Now THAT would be a problem! He has met with the Hyuuga child and to say that she was shy was an understatement.

"Alright, let's sleep now. Naruto wake Sasuke up after 3 hours."

"Yes, yes," he waved his hands lightly.

Noting that all of them already slept, Naruto took a scroll from his backpack and read it. He already scattered his bunshins around to be on the look out, so he didn't need to worry about any trespasser. When 3 hours has passed, he woke Sasuke and went to sleep.

The next morning, the blonde genin stirred when he heard the birds chirping loudly. He yawned and jumped down from the branch he slept on and stretched his muscles. He walked to the fire only to find Kakashi was reading an orange book, giggling shamefully, and Sakura was… sleeping. Checking his watch, he noted that it was half past five in the morning.

"What the! She should be guarding right now, not sleeping!" Naruto shouted loudly, waking the others up, including the kunoichi. "Oi Haruno, what the fuck are you doing?" he glared at the guilt stricken girl. "Right now is still your shift. Are you so useless that you can't do something like this right?"

"Maa, maa, she's tired, Naruto. So I let her to sleep," Kakashi tried to dissuade the situation, only to find his plan backfired.

"You what? God dammit, Hatake, you should make her do her own job. If you don't start to handle her hard, she would be even more useless than now. And I have no use for a nuisance like her," she was sobbing right now making Naruto roll his eyes in exasperation.

Was she such a crybaby before this? It seems that she became worse as time went on. If she didn't stop her useless crying right now, he'd kill her himself and used her as food for his pets, especially Kibi that would no doubt accept it eagerly.

He saw Tazuna went to go to the wood possibly to take a pee. "Ah, old man I have planted—"

A scream cut the air and scared birds away.

"…put traps there, so you should be careful…" Naruto continued. His warning came late.

Team 7 (except Naruto who shrugged as if it was nothing to worry about) dashed toward Tazuna, hoping that Naruto's trap didn't kill their client. Thankfully, none of the kunai hit the bridge builder, but one came close to the spot between his legs. It was easy to say that he was mentally scarred for life and started to act even edgier toward the blond genin, if that was even possible.

The journey continued and after days in the road Naruto had to watch his temper. His patience limit was being tested. It was a miracle that he still had patience dealing with the useless girl and didn't kill her right in the spot. Stupid sandaime and his promise not to kill any Konoha people who didn't attack him!

He raised an eyebrow when he spotted a suspicious looking puddle on the road. He almost laughed at the pathetic attempt of genjutsu, but held himself. It seemed that he would have a new toy to direct his anger on.

Smiling he casually took a small tube from his pouch. It was filled with red powder. He poured half of it on the puddle and waited for any reaction patiently. The others still walked in front of him.

"UUAUARRRRGGHH!" 2 hidden shinobis shrieked. The group turned around when they heard it and all except Kakashi looked surprised to see them. The 2 shinobis scratched their bodies hard and rolled on the ground painfully.

"Naruto, what did you use on them?" Kakashi walked closer.

"Just some combination of my own made itching powder plus poison that will make their skins become more sensitive. Quite handy! Want to try it?" he brought the tube in front of Kakashi's eyes.

Kakashi took a glance at the screaming shinobis and then at the red powder. He was really glad that the blond didn't use it on his traps on their meetings. "Are you not afraid to touch it yourself? Do you have an antidote?"

"Why should I? I'm immune of it. I don't make something that I couldn't handle on my own and let others use it on me. If the other people couldn't handle it, it's their own problem not mine, but I do have an antidote."

"Could you use it on them? We need to interrogate them," Kakashi was careful not to touch the remaining powder in the 2 shinobis' bodies while he tied them with ropes.

An evil smile plastered on Naruto's face. He took out another tube from his pouch. It was smaller and instead of powder, there was bluish liquid inside it.

"Do you want this? It is the antidote for the poison I used on you," the two nodded furiously. "BUT you have to tell us everything you know, oh and you have to choose one of you…" Kakashi raised any eyebrow curiously. "I only have an antidote for one.single.person," he finished with a smirk. "So you should choose carefully. Your life or your comrade's? I need to remind you that if the poison stayed on your body longer, you will die, rather painfully and slowly I might add."

All of them, including his own group especially Sakura and Tazuna looked horrified at the revelation.

Naruto only chuckled.

TBC…

My Naruto version is really evil, ne? Oh and this version of itching powder is even more itchy than the one Naruto used on Sasuke. Add with other combination that makes victim's skin more sensitive, it is quite painful and is a rather dangerous substance. Definitely not to be used on prank, except if they want the victim suffer, of course.

R&R! R&R! R&R!

You read, you review!

Next would be the battle between Zabuza and team 7! Wait for it!