An Alternative Path
Author's note: Chapter Ten! Yes, double digits! Do you remember how turning ten was so cool 'cause it was double digits? Maybe that was just me. This chapter sucks xD or maybe that's just me too. The next few chapters should be better though. This one was tough cause of the emotions. At least the omakes are good, if a bit long. The next omakes should be shorter xD
IMPORTANT: This story is AU. That means ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. That means I can do whatever the hell I want and you have to suck it up and deal.
Pairings: Jeez, some of you people are serious about your pairings. I've even gotten some P.M.s about it. I wish to reiterate, FRIENDSHIP is the strongest influence in my manga. The romance will typically be the 'squint hard to find it' kind.
BTW: I don't own Naruto!
C-Rank Mission Finale
It was two days from Kando and everyone was getting grouchy from the thick rains that had started the day before, and hadn't stopped since. It was actually a surprise when the water first fell. It usually only rained a few times a year in Fire Country. Because of this, paths that could have been laid in rock were in dirt, so the trails were turned to mud, leaving everyone soaked and muddy, despite rain slickers, and in a foul mood.
For the third time that day, one of the wheels of the merchant carts got stuck in the mud, leaving Kakashi, Gai, Lee, Naruto, and two of his clones to dig it out.
After lifting the cart up out of the mud, which gave a sick slurk sound as it came loose, Kakashi observed their wet traveling party.
"Alright, why don't we just go ahead and take a break. Eat lunch and try not to get any muddier." Kakashi sighed before quickly leaping into the trees of a nearby grove, wanting as much shelter as possible from the annoying shower.
"This sucks." Naruto grumbled for the ninth time that day.
"We know it sucks, baka, we have to put up with it too." Sakura grumbled back at him, lacking even the motivation to yell.
Everyone had by this time moved to the trees for their meager protection; the carts lined up carefully by the side of the road. The clients were all huddled up together, attempting to eat swiftly while staying standing.
"Oh, ick," Commented Tenten out of the blue. "I don't even want to know what just found its way into my sandal." She made a face down at her foot.
"I gave up trying to keep things out of my sandals hours ago," Sakura told her dully.
The shinobi began to eat their rations quickly, sitting on semi-dry branches up in the trees.
"It must be Kami-sama." Naruto called suddenly as a cold wind blew through the trees, dousing him in a fine spray of water, "Kami-sama must hate me."
"Probably," Sasuke told him. Naruto shot him a half-hearted glare, too miserable to continue the fight.
"Well it's not like he only hates you. He must hate us all." Sakura mumbled loud enough to be heard by everyone.
"Yeah but he hates me most of all!" Naruto argued back, not quite sure why he was bothering to, but he so bored that anything was interesting at that moment.
"That's obvious." Sasuke replied to the air, but Naruto heard and sent another glare at the dark eyed boy.
"You can just shut up," Naruto sneered at him.
"I could, but then who would put you in your place?" Sasuke sneered back, much more successfully too.
"You wanna fight?" Naruto stood on his branch in the tree and was joined a second later by Sasuke who was on a parallel branch.
"I swear to WHOEVER, if you two start fighting AGAIN I'm gonna kick BOTH your asses!" Sakura snarled ferociously at the two boys and they then promptly sat back down. Sakura sighed as she popped another piece of her rations into her mouth. She felt a little bad about threatening Sasuke-kun but she was just so miserable right now that she couldn't help it. Those two always gave her headaches when they fought, plus if they got hurt they'd expect her to heal them.
Below them the clients were now glancing nervously at Sakura, who they had thought was very sweet, but who they now saw was actually pretty scary.
"Heh, thanks for stopping them Sakura-chan," Tenten laughed nervously, trying to break the suddenly thick atmosphere. Across from them Kakashi was ignoring a loud Gai as Neji was doing the same to Lee.
"Yeah, I just wish I could get those four idiots to shut up." Sakura glared at said idiots. Kakashi and Neji shivered a little at the sudden rise in killing intent but Gai and Lee both seemed not to notice it.
Five minutes later everyone looked up simultaneously as the rain suddenly ceased.
"IT'S A MIRACLE!" Naruto whooped from his tree.
"YES! THE YOUTHFUL SUN HAS SHOWN ITSELF TO US AGAIN!" Gai called loudly. "Like witnessing a stream in the middle of the desert; it fills me with hope again!"
"Gai-sensei, that was AMAZING!" Lee said looking up in admiration to his idol.
"THANK YOU, LEE!" Gai screamed.
"GAI-SENSEI!"
"LEE!"
The two jumped from their trees to run to each other.
"Ah man! If you two 'guy-hug' again I'm gonna lose it!" Naruto covered his eyes with his hands, the rest of the ninja similarly blocking their vision. The clients however watched as one might a train wreck—in horrid fascination.
After the two had separated, and Naruto had finished making gagging noises from behind his hand, they set off again down the muddy road.
An hour later Sakura (and Neji) were desperately wishing for the rain to come back. The sun had returned with a vengeance and the heat had swiftly climbed, leaving the air incredibly muggy and Sakura's (and Neji's) hair to frizz.
"That's it; this mission is officially going in my book of missions that sucked! Right in between The Cat from Hell and the Wave Mission." Sakura mumbled looking at her usually silky pink locks in despair.
---
Two and a half hours from the village Jyukin, a one day's travel from Kando and where the traveling party was going to spend the night, Sakura noticed Naruto was doing something weird.
He'd moved back some time ago to once again practice his Rasengan. He would form one in his right hand and hold it there for a couple of minutes before letting it dissipate, after a few minutes rest he would start the process over again. Now though he'd been holding one in his hand for the past ten minutes.
Sakura supposed he could have just been practicing something new about the Rasengan, but the way his eyes kept darting to the trees on the left side of the road made her think something was up.
Turning to face where Kakashi and Sasuke were she noticed that Kakashi had surreptitiously lifted one of his hands to his hite-ate and Sasuke's shoulders were stiff. She swung her head to look over at Team Gai, aside from Gai who was slowly clenching his fists none of them were acting odd.
Sakura casually swung one of her hands as she walked to land on her kunai pouch and reached one finger in to hook around the ring of a knife. She wasn't quite sure what was going on but she would be prepared for anything.
A loud cry pierced the air behind them, causing everyone to whirl around to face it, twenty feet behind them Naruto stood under the branches of a particularly large tree, a tree that someone was jumping out of. Right as the attacker attempted to slash at Naruto's throat with a large knife Naruto side stepped, brought his arm up and rammed his Rasengan into the left shoulder of his attacker.
The Rasengan blasted the man back with a loud crack of what the medic-to-be and kunoichi recognized as breaking bone and a sharp screech of pain. This bandit had friends though, a lot of friends. Before he even hit the ground the rest of his gang flew out of the trees and attacked.
Sakura threw her kunai into the knee of one, running to where Naruto was near the rear as Sasuke and Kakashi both leapt up to avoid three others, Sharingan exposed. She couldn't see Team Gai behind her but she assumed from the many loud thunks and thwaks, and the cries of various bandits that they were doing okay.
Reaching Naruto, she just about got pulled off her feet when a particularly ugly bandit grabbed her hair and held tight. Sakura bit off a scream and winced as she felt several strands rip out.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried when he saw her head being forced back. He tried to move to help his teammate but was pushed away and closer to the thick of the fighting by several arrows suddenly striking the ground before him.
Sakura grit her teeth, yanked her hair out the ugly man's grasp, and spun on one foot, delivering the other straight to his chest. A loud oomph sound came out of the bandit's lungs as the air was knocked from him. Stepping back, Sakura bent her fingers swiftly into the seals, casting a Genjutsu over the unsuspecting man and forced him to sleep.
She then turned back to see how the rest were doing. Roughly a dozen bodies, all bandits, lay strewn across the ground, unconscious. And yet another dozen were still fighting over their fallen comrades against her teammates and Team Gai.
"What is this? A bandit convention?" Naruto yelled as he punched another one in the face. Sakura would have winced if she had not been used to her blonde friend's brash style of Taijutsu. That man's face would never be the same again…
"You shouldn't talk in the midst of battle." Neji told him before delivering an open palm strike to the chest of another thug.
"You're talking." Naruto murmured as he started the hand signs for a jutsu. "Fuuton: Suko-ru!"
The Suko-ru had enough chakra to blast two bandits back, flinging them heavily into two trees that shook from the impact. The men hit the trees with a shudder and fell to the dirt, knocked-out from hitting their heads against the solid trunk.
Neji was sealing off chakra points wherever he could and dealing damage to kidneys, livers, and lungs, causing bandit after bandit to fall at his feet hacking up blood.
Sasuke was electrocuting any bandit he could touch with a particularly nasty lightning jutsu Kakashi had taught him.
Kakashi and Gai had calmly stepped back from the fray, intent on gauging their students' success in dealing with the onslaught. Occasionally a bandit would turn their way only to be swiftly dispatched by one of the two.
Tenten was throwing kunai after kunai, hitting legs, hands, arms, and causing most of the bandits to drop their own weapons. Using these resources, the brunette would snatch them from the fallen men and use them against others, never pass up a good source, right?
Lee was simply beating them into submission with superior speed and strength. Can't beat the classics…
Naruto had hit two more with Rasengans and was now engaging another in Taijutsu, although his style was still crude, his speed was still better than the thugs that had no training.
Sakura had moved back towards the others and was also using Taijutsu—plus a fun little Genjutsu that made her appear three inches further to the left than she was—to take care of her opponents, who couldn't figure out how they kept missing her…
Sakura was glad that they were just common bandits and not ninja. A shinobi—even a completely inept one—would be able to recognize that something was off with their perception and then realize the Genjutsu, but not these bandits. Although the number of them was quite irritating, they weren't much of a threat.
Sakura had just jumped and kicked a bandit in the face (and was happy to see his face was just as deformed as Naruto's victims) when something hit her in the back of her head. The blow wasn't hard enough to knock her out, but it unbalanced her enough for the attacker to get his arm around her shoulders and pull a sword up to her throat. She felt her eyes widened. 'STUPID!' she heard her inner self cry. 'YOU GOT CAUGHT!'
"Stop now, or the girlie dies," The man holding her snarled. He hadn't seemed to realize that the others had already stopped, having run out of bandits to fight.
Now they stood unmoving, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto with murderous expressions on their faces.
"Your friends are all beaten. You're all alone now. I wouldn't do something stupid if I were you. You kill Sakura and you'll have nothing to stop us from killing you," Kakashi spoke calmly yet there was no mistaking the threat in his voice.
A reverse-grip kunai was clutched tightly in Sasuke's hand, poised to attack at the man's first opening.
Naruto had no weapon but Sakura could have sworn his canines had grown longer and his nails looked sharper. He raised his head slightly and Sakura nearly gasped, despite the death grip the bandit had on her, which was cutting off her air. His eyes were red!
"Just let her go and you won't have to die." Kakashi was saying calmly but his eyes were no longer on the bandit. They had slid sideways to watch Naruto.
That's when Sakura felt it; the sudden wave of killing intent that came washing over her in thick waves. The bandit behind her shivered and flinched and Sakura took her chance, biting down fiercely on his arm and slamming her foot into his, all her body's force thrown into the kick. She winced slightly from the pressure put onto her sprained ankle, but pushed it aside for the moment. The bandit dropped his grip on her instantly and Sakura fell face first onto the ground, her ankle giving out on her.
Seeing their opportunity, both Sasuke and Naruto rushed the bandit while Kakashi grabbed Sakura and carried her closer to the other Konoha shinobi.
As the bandit (through what Sakura believed was sheer luck) managed to swing his sword around to block Sasuke's kunai in time so he could keep his head on his shoulders; Naruto slipped in under his other arm and hit him straight in the heart with a fully formed Rasengan. Rather than sending him flying back, like all previous Rasengans had done, the swirling ball thrust straight through his chest, causing the man to choke and cough up blood with a rather amusing shell-shocked expression on his broken and ugly face.
Sasuke stared at the body a little surprised. None of Team 7, besides Kakashi, had yet to kill anyone on any of their missions.
Naruto, however, had turned away before the body could even hit the ground and was running towards where Kakashi had carried Sakura with a concerned look welling in his once again ocean-blue eyes.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Naruto asked her once he reached them. Team Gai and the various merchants and family members had gathered around Sakura as well but were now looking at the blonde a bit oddly.
"Yeah," Sakura breathed out, still recovering air from the hold the man had on her and then the fights, and then barely breathing watching Sasuke and Naruto fought. Her mind started to reel back into motion when she glanced once again at the body. She took a shaky breath and tore her eyes from her former captive and back to her blonde teammate. "Did," she cleared her throat to rid the slight crack in her voice, "Did you kill him?"
Naruto looked back at the body and then shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess so," he said as Sasuke walked back to join them, his face schooled into a blank expression, eyes dark and haunted, seeing things that were not there.
"Oh." Sakura said mildly, trying to get her act together. "Um, is anyone else hurt? I could treat it," Sakura didn't quite know what to say or even what to think about Naruto killing someone (Naruto killing someone for her, her inner voice said) so instead she changed the subject.
Tenten sensed that Sakura wanted to distract herself from the whole mess and held out her left arm which had a very shallow cut on it. "One of them got me in the arm." She said lightly, gaining the other girl's attention.
"Okay, let me just go get my bag and I'll heal that for you." Sakura retrieved her bag from where she'd dropped it when the fight had begun before treating Tenten's wound.
"Alright. Sasuke, Naruto I want you two to secure the unconscious bandits while I deal with the body." Kakashi told them. The two nodded before gathering up some rope and setting to work.
"Neji, you and Lee check with the clients, make sure no one is hurt and nothing is missing." Gai told his students before following Kakashi to dispose of the body.
---
They ended up camping in the woods again. They had been delayed by the fight, two sprained ankles and a broken nose that the clients had to have treated by Sakura, all injuries sustained by them trying to run, and repacking an overturned cart. They'd only traveled 5 miles from the site of the attack before dusk was on them.
Lee and Naruto had set off to find sufficient kindling that might have been spared from the heavy rains as everyone else began setting up tents or preparing dinner.
"It's just not natural," Sakura overheard the wife of a merchant named Toriyami say in a hushed whisper. She couldn't help but eavesdrop a little after that.
"How could that child just kill someone like that and not even look like it bothered them?" Sakura then realized they were talking about Naruto.
"What are they teaching these children? It's like they're making them into monsters." That was beyond enough to Sakura who suddenly snapped at the blatant insult to her teammate.
"Don't you DARE call Naruto a monster!" Her voice must have been louder than she wanted it to be because all work around the camp ceased and everyone looked their way. "You don't know him at all! Naruto is a great shinobi and you're just some civilian!" She was broken from her tirade when she felt a hand on her shoulder, only to find that it belonged to Kakashi.
"Sakura's right." The girl couldn't help but glow at the man for reprimanding their employers, "Naruto is a great shinobi and one day he's going to be the Hokage, it would be best if you didn't insult him where he could hear you." Kakashi nodded his head to the left, where both Lee and Naruto stood, arms full of thin pieces of wood.
"That kid? He'll never be Hokage." The eldest son of Toriyami scoffed, even civilians knew what being Hokage meant.
"Naruto! How long have you been there?" Sakura asked at the same time as the civilian did.
"Long enough," He shrugged before dumping his wood near the fire.
"I'm sorry," Sakura said sadly. Naruto looked up at her with wide eyes.
"Why? You didn't do anything." Naruto told her, confused by his friend's actions.
"But, what she called you..." Sakura was embarrassed to feel the tears come to her eyes. It had been a long day and she had proven to be useless once again. Now she had to get saved again, and now her teammate, her friend, was being called a monster, it was just too much!
"What? No! That's not.. I mean.." He waved his arms around anxiously, not able to handle a crying girl. "It's not like I've never heard it before." He finally sputtered out before his brain could process it.
"What? Why?" Sakura asked him. Sure, Naruto was annoying, and stupid, and a pain, but he'd never done anything to deserving being called a monster.
Naruto shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I don't know." He finally muttered out unconvincingly.
"It doesn't matter," Toriyami snapped. "Just keep that murderer away from my family."
"Hey!" Sasuke snarled at him. "You hired shinobi to protect you. That's what we were doing."
"Sasuke-kun is right. Surely you had to have known that something like this might happen?" Gai tried to cut in diplomatically, hoping to still the angry crowds.
"Yes, but that kid…he acted like he didn't even care that he had killed someone!" Toriyami argued back, glancing nervously at the boy, like he would attack at any moment.
"If I were to grieve about every time I had to kill some one I could not remain a shinobi. We have to remember that while none of us have the right to take away another's right to live, nor do we have to stand helplessly by as our own lives and our loved ones lives are threatened. Be sorry when you take a life but do not grieve, you'll never be happy that way." Everyone turned to stare at Naruto who only shifted the weight of the firewood and blinked in memory. "The Old Man, the Third Hokage, told me that the day after I killed someone for the first time." Naruto turned at that and walked away to set up his tent.
"Kakashi-sensei, I thought this was the first time Naruto killed someone." Sakura said to Kakashi softly, trying not to offend Naruto.
"No. Remember at that time against that Suna-nin, he said as much." Neji spoke solemnly.
"That's right. 'People like us can't live as long as we have without killing someone' or something like that is what he said," Tenten murmured.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura questioned to her mentor.
"I think he was six the first time he was forced to kill someone." Kakashi told her. The people around him reeled back in shock, except for Gai, Sasuke idly noticed. "I remember how furious the Sandaime was that the ANBU had failed to guard him." He watched with his one eye Naruto's clumsy movements with the frustrating tent.
Kakashi just turned his attention back to his comrades. "We should all eat and get some rest." With that the conversation was closed.
---
Naruto had been given first watch. First and last watch were the most sought after ones to have, for it meant a less-interupted sleep. The last few nights they'd been given to Sakura and Tenten, but tonight Kakashi had given it to Naruto. Naruto had the feeling that Kakashi knew he wouldn't be sleeping tonight anyway and wasn't expecting Naruto to waken anyone for their turn anyway.
The blue eyed boy sighed as he poked the bright fire with a long stick. He hadn't meant to kill that man, but he'd been angry and scared and his Rasengan was more powerful than he'd expected it to be. Jiraiya would be angry at him, Naruto thought bemusedly. He'd lost control.
Naruto turned his head to a shuffling sound coming from the tent Sakura and Tenten shared, only to see a pink head pop out. He didn't speak until she sat down next to him.
"What are you doing up?" He poked the fire again.
"Well, I couldn't sleep." She shivered a little and Naruto poked the fire a few more times to conjure up a larger flame. "I kept replaying the events of the day in my mind and I realized I never thanked you."
"For what?" Naruto asked, still confused by how Sakura was acting today.
"For what you did. You killed that bandit," Sakura said, her voice hitching only a little at the word killed.
"I didn't mean to. It's 'cuz I was weak." It was still for a moment before Naruto turned his head around to see Sasuke silently come up on his other side to sit. "What are you doing up, Teme?"
"What did you mean, it's 'cuz you were weak?" Sasuke ignored his question/jibe.
Naruto shrugged as he stared back into the fire. "The Old Man, Ero-Sennin, and even Baa-chan have all told me that it's easier to kill someone than to merely stop them. That's why so many people die, they said, because others were too weak to do anything but kill them. I'm weak, so I lost control, and I killed that man even though I didn't mean to."
The three sat in silence for a while, listening to the crack of the fire.
"But…doesn't getting strong mean you'll have to kill more people?" Sakura asked, breaking the calm with the question both she and Sasuke wanted to ask.
Naruto blinked slowly. "I'm going to try to become as strong as I can while killing as few as I can so that I'll be able to protect as many people as possible. It's why I want to be the Hokage."
Sakura quirked a smile, "Hey, you become Hokage, and I'll become the director at the hospital and we'll be able to help and protect everyone."
"Me too." Sasuke suddenly said. The others turned to him. "I'll lead the ANBU or maybe start up the Military Police again and then we can all three protect everyone."
"But what about your ambition? To avenge your clan?" Naruto asked him quietly, not wanting to set the boy off.
"I'll do that too, eventually, but it's not like my parents can care anymore whether or not they're avenged today or years from now." Sasuke paused. "This doesn't change anything, you're still a loser, but everyone else seems to think you can become Hokage some day, so maybe you can. If you do then I need to do something equally impressive. I can't be left behind by the dead last after all." Sasuke smirked at him and Naruto glowered as Sakura laughed.
--
Hidden in the trees above them, Kakashi smiled. His team was finally getting it.
---
Six days later, they were finally entering Konoha again. Sakura had the world's biggest headache at the time, Lee kept trying to get Neji to fight him, Neji kept trying to goad Naruto into fighting him, Naruto kept accepting before Sasuke would hit him in the head and tell him to stop and Gai kept going on and on about youth and springtime even though it was not spring.
"It's nice to be back isn't it?" Tenten commented a little dryly, just sick of all the male's antics.
"Tell me about it. I can't wait to go home, take a shower, and most importantly get away from these boys." Sakura moaned.
"But first we have to go see Tsunade-sama." Tenten laughed at her in pity for them, wholeheartedly agreeing with the girl.
"Great! Now I have to listen to Naruto and Tsunade-sama go on and on." Sakura groaned this time, wondering what would happen if she just didn't show up at the Hokage's Tower.
"Cheer up Sakura, it won't take long." Kakashi told her without looking up from his book. Sakura just smirked evilly at the man. She was waiting for the day he ran into a pole while reading that smut…
They were quickly ushered into the Hokage's office by some stressed looking guards.
"It's about time you all got back. The past two days all Hokage-sama has done is asked if you got back yet and threaten us with bodily harm if we didn't tell her the moment you stepped foot into Konoha." One of the guards told Kakashi with a twitch of an eyebrow.
"Heya Baa-chan!" Naruto cried as he strode into the room, banging one of the doors into the wall. A desk clock flew out of nowhere and hit him square in the face before he was snatched into a bear hug.
"Don't call me that you twerp." Tsunade spoke even as she was holding Naruto a foot off the ground in her arms.
"Ox-oxygen…" Naruto gasped and Tsunade promptly dropped him onto the ground with a thud.
"I see you all made it back in one piece." Tsunade said with the utmost dignity and everyone knew that what they had just witnessed was never to be spoken of again. "Well, let's get this over with." She moved back to her desk and began shuffling things around. "Dammit where is it? Why does Shizune always have to be off somewhere when I need something?" She murmured, now lifting things up off her desk in no order.
Both Team 7 and Team Gai sighed lightly, they all had a feeling that scenes like this would become commonplace in the Hokage's office from then on.
Naruto mumbled something that sounded vaguely like 'Incompetent old hags' (which the Hokage thankfully did not hear) before walking over to a shelf near the doors. Once there he found the proper folder and carried back over to the Hokage's desk.
"Here, this is it," He told her monotonously.
"Ah, thank you. You know maybe you should help me out here sometimes, I don't know what the hell I'm doing and Shizune's always over at the hospital." Tsunade mentioned as she flipped the pages in the folder until she found a blank one. "Okay, Gai and Kakashi, I need you to give me your written reports by tomorrow but until then I just need a rough outline of what occurred."
Kakashi and Gai glanced at each other before Kakashi stepped forward and began to narrate what had occurred, glossing over the clients reaction to Naruto having killed someone. He just had this hunch that the Fifth would not appreciate one of her favorite people being called a monster. She'd read about it tomorrow anyway, when he was far, far away…
"And that's all." Kakashi finished dully.
"I see. What would you say is the likelihood that they will hire Konoha again?" Tsunade narrowed her eyes. This mission sounded like it had been an unqualified disaster!
"Well, they probably won't hire our teams again." Kakashi replied blandly.
"You all need to work on your public relations." Tsunade sighed irritably as she made a note in the file. "Naruto, how are you feeling, this was your first mission kill, correct?" She knew it was correct, Tsunade had read everything she could find on Naruto the day she'd been instated.
"Yeah, I guess." Naruto shrugged. "I'm okay though, it's, well, it's not that big of a deal." Naruto finished lamely.
"I see." Tsunade sighed again. She'd been doing that a lot lately. "Well you are all free to go, but Kakashi and Gai don't forget that I need those reports!" As they all turned to leave however she spoke again. "Naruto, you stay here." Her voice was hard.
Sakura turned back, worried that Naruto was going to get in trouble for something. Looking through the opening of the door right before Kakashi shut it however, she saw Tsunade wrapping Naruto back into a hug as he hugged her back. Sakura turned back around with a small smile on her face.
Things were going to be okay.
---
Omake 1: The Ramen Eating Competition
What started out as a typical Wednesday afternoon training with Kakashi soon devolved into a gathering of the Rookie Nine. Asuma had come to speak with Kakashi about something, dragging his team behind him, not that Ino minded, as she got to see Sasuke-kun, and then Kurenai had come to speak with Asuma bringing her team along as well.
Kakashi quickly gave up training after Ino attempted to glomp Sasuke and Sakura screamed at her for messing with her teammate. Naruto had been laughing at the look on Sasuke's face and Sasuke was trying desperately to get Ino off him. Shikamaru had wondered over to the shade under a tree with a mumbled 'Troublesome' under his breath and Chouji followed him smiling and munching on chips.
When Kiba arrived he began mocking Naruto as Hinata timidly muttered a hello, Shino also wondering over to the tree, not so much for the shade but for the caterpillar climbing on it.
Somehow, and Sakura still isn't quite sure how it happened, they all, including the sensei, ended up at Ichiraku Ramen. Sakura just knew Naruto was somehow involved.
"So, Forehead-girl, how's training?" Ino turned to Sakura after Sasuke had made it abundantly clear that he was going to ignore the entire populous of Ichiraku's.
"None of your business Ino-pig," Sakura told her blandly. The two instantly engaged in a staring contest.
"Oy! How about some more ramen?" Naruto called out, waving a bowl around.
"Coming right up, Miso Pork okay?" Old Man Ichiraku said with a smile. Naruto was his favorite customer after all.
"Yeah!"
"Me as well, and make it two bowls." Chouji added in. Suddenly a spark seemed to fly between Naruto and Chouji.
"Hey, give me three more bowls." Naruto cried.
"Four."
"Five."
"Ten!"
"Twenty!"
Everyone had turned around to stare at the two.
"Heh heh heh." Naruto chuckled darkly. "I CHALLENGE YOU TO A RAMEN EATING CONTEST!"
"I ACCEPT!" Chouji agreed equally as loudly.
"May the best man win!" Naruto said as the two shook hands.
The ramen vendor was in heaven just thinking about the profits this would bring him.
The members of Team 7 and Team 10 were all shaking their heads in exasperation as Team 8 looked on in bewilderment.
"ITADAKIMASU!" A joint cry rang out as the two competitors began eating.
---
Three hours later, as Team 7 supported the now overly stuffed and swirly eyed Naruto and Team 10 supported the bloated and moaning Chouji, and Team 8 simply sat open mouthed and aghast at what they'd seen, the competition was called a tie at 57 bowls each.
The ramen vendor was planning his next vacation.
--
Omake 2: Naruto Helps the Hokage
A week after returning from his joint mission with Team Gai, Naruto found out that Tsunade was indeed serious about having Naruto help her in the Hokage's Office.
Tsunade had appeared at his apartment that morning and dragged him off to the Tower, despite his protests that he had to train with Ero-sennin.
"Jiraiya can wait. Think of this as training for when you become Hokage." She told him as she deposited him in one of the chairs in her office. Already two Kage-Bushin Tsunades were hard at work filling out various forms and whatnot.
After the training for Hokage comment Naruto was more than willing to help Tsunade.
Within an hour, they had tamed the haphazard mountains of paperwork into neat orderly stacks, while the clones busily set to the completion of uncompleted forms. Tsunade was ecstatic to realize that much of the papers floating around were simple notices and memos of things going on in the village and she didn't have to actually read them.
"Anything on blue paper can just be tossed. If it's white you should get around to it within a week. Yellow means that it should be looked at before two days are over. Red means it's urgent and should be attended to first." Naruto explained calmly.
"Wait! I got a whole stack of those red ones! They're urgent?!" Tsunade's eyes widened.
"YES! Didn't one of the Chunin assistants explain this all to you!?" Naruto begin shuffling around various stacks looking for the red notices.
"NO! I fired most of them for being idiots the first day. Mostly Shizune has just been helping me." Tsunade too began searching around, although less orderly than Naruto as she was just flinging papers around wildly.
Naruto cursed loudly.
---
Another hour and they had found the stack and dealt with most of it. It was eight in the morning by this point and time for teams and ninjas to head in for mission assignments.
Tsunade dispelled her two clones before settling herself behind her desk. Naruto was still running around in the background organizing forms.
The first team to come in was Team 10. They all looked at Naruto oddly.
"What're you doing here dobe?" Kiba said voicing the unspoken question.
"What does it look like I'm doing Dog-breath? I'm organizing things around here since Baa-chan's incapable." The desk clock suddenly appeared out of nowhere and struck him in the side of his head.
"Watch it twerp!" Tsunade snapped at him. She turned back to Team 10. "Now, what can I do for you?" She said sweetly while smiling brightly at them.
"Er, we would like a C-rank mission." Kurenai told her feeling uncomfortable in the attention of that smile.
"Right. Naruto, C-rank!" Tsunade barked. Naruto moved to a stack of files against the far wall and looked briefly at the tabs. Finding one appropriate for a genin team he snatched it deftly out of the stack.
"Here." Naruto sent it flying expertly across the room into Tsunade's hand.
"Well, let's see then…" Tsunade murmured opening the folder.
---
Three hours later and teams had stopped coming in for missions.
"Time for lunch!" Tsunade called cheerfully as she stretched in her seat. Reaching down she pulled a large jug of sake out of her desk. "Sake for lunch. Perfect!" She took a swig.
"You call that lunch?" Naruto stared at her incredulously.
"What do you think constitutes lunch?" Tsunade gave him the stink eye.
"… What does 'constitutes' mean?" Naruto asked her blankly. Tsunade sighed and rubbed her temples.
"What do you think makes up a good lunch?"
"Ramen!"
"Of course." Tsunade mumbled as she put away the bottle. "Well let's go get some ramen then, but we need to come right back!"
Naruto was already out the door.
---
After lunch, they went back to the office. Tsunade made a couple of clones and she and her doubles started filling out whatever paperwork Naruto handed them.
Naruto meanwhile, was disposing of outdated paperwork and piling everything else in stacks according to importance and subject.
It was dusty work and Naruto was soon covered in grime.
"Urgh, I don't think this place has been cleaned out since the Shodai." Naruto grumbled as he found a stack of halfway completed forms dating back 50 years.
"Just keep cleaning. I'll give you C-rank mission pay if you can get this place organized." Tsunade told him.
---
A few more hours later and Naruto had lost track of time completely. Tsunade was in rapture. They had completed most of the backlogged paperwork and the office was looking better than ever. Tsunade was almost at the point of giving Naruto A-rank pay.
A small knock sounded at the door and Tsunade hastily dispelled her clones before the door opened. It was Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke.
"Ah, I thought so." Kakashi said. Naruto looked over his shoulder from his place at a bookshelf.
"Kakashi-sensei? Why are you here?" Naruto asked shoving another bound volume onto the shelf.
"Naruto… you forgot about team training didn't you." Kakashi told him with a sigh.
"What? What time is it?" Naruto cried dropping another volume onto the floor.
"It's 5." Sakura told him.
"Sorry. He was here helping me." Tsunade laughed joyously. "Look at this place. It's so clean and I got so much paperwork done." She spread her arms out to gesture around the room.
"That's okay Hokage-sama." Kakashi said. "We'll just go now. Naruto can help you for as long as you want."
"Great." Tsunade smiled. Only Naruto noticed it looked slightly evil…
---
A few more hours later, Naruto finally crawled into bed, exhausted. That was tougher than even the Tora the Cat mission!
Author's Note Reprise: Well, as you can see, by looking below, at least Snicky likes this chapter. I'm starting to fear that all my chapters will start being this long, which means fewer updates cause long chapters means more time to write. ANYWAYS- You guys rock so hard with all the reviews, although the alerts are still beating them out by about 100. Anyways I upped how many reviews it takes to get an Omake. Keep reviewing! I didn't respond to reviews this time cause I was out of town, but I will do so for this chapter.
Also: According to Snicky I don't but enough Sasuke in. Mostly cause he's hell to write. grumbles but I will try to pay him more attention.
Snicky's Note! My goodness! BOW DOWN TO THE AUTHORESS, she hath given ye SEVENTEEN PAGES of AAP greatness! Sooo long:cries: This chapter was PURE genius! But look! The preview! Read it! Have you read it yet? Yes! You may scream! Can you SEE how awesome Zessei is? She says it may take a tad longer than usually, but seriously, peoples. Can you already not see its greatness?
Jutsu Notes: None!
PREVIEW:
"I sure you can all guess why I've summoned you here." Tsunade rubbed her temples as she looked around at the milling Jounin. "The Chunin Exams are to be held in Iwa in a week. I've called you here to tell you that only one team will be allowed to participate this time."
REVIEW OR I'LL EAT YOU! RAWGH! 45+ Reviews Gets An OMAKE!