Yep. Another chapter. I figured I owed it to you all to post one sooner rather than later after giving you a long wait last time. I will be busy with even more exams very soon, so I want to progress the story while I can.

Now, on to the story.

All rights to those who earned them first.

Rekindle: Introducting of Team Nine

Shino watched the others out of the corner of his eyes from his side of the campsite. He would have offered to help them, but it was his turn on watch and he was intent on making sure he didn't miss anything in the surrounding forest. No one on his team was stupid, they all knew how much danger they were in. Though the part that worried them the most was that perhaps the danger wasn't from anything that might stumble on them in the night, but their own so called protector.

It was never a good thing when the Hokage himself decided to accompany a Genin team and their brand new Jounin Sensei on a mission.

Shino wasn't foolish enough to believe that Tenten, Kiba, or himself, could hope to detect any questionable activities from Orochimaru, but they would be even more foolish to not guard themselves against it all. It had been an unspoken agreement that they would take turns at watch, and be prepared to fight or flee at a moments notice.

Though he doubted they would make it very far with such a bizarre new Sensei assigned to them for this mission and the Hokage after them.

Shino sighed, making sure to hide the action within the neck of his trench coat. In a village where people regularly wound up dead, sometimes in their own home or on simple missions, it was a small comfort to have some way to hide his tension.

Returning his attention to his surroundings he noted that the others had finished preparing the camp, and was pleased to see they had by unspoken agreement placed the Hokage and their teachers tents away from their's and in plain sight of whoever was on watch. He didn't doubt the Hokage would notice their actions, but if they didn't bring attention to it, he saw no reason for them to object.

He didn't move when he saw the others move to sit with their backs against his on the rock he was sitting on, leading to them sitting in silence for a few minutes. Even though Konoha wasn't what one would call a very fun place to live, they were often a lot more lively than this, and it was odd to not have them bickering with each other, even if the silence was necessary. They hadn't discussed the fact that the Hokage had told them he would be accompanying them at all, but they all knew the rumors of what happened to poor Genin teams that had him visit. Only the elite managed to survive what was officially mentioned as enemy ninja attacks in several mission reports. It was said that other ninja villages had attacked due to the Hokage being relatively unguarded and only surrounded with a Genin team he felt he personally wanted to deem ready to be promoted or not.

What those who cared to pay attention would notice is that it was often only those teams with multiple children of bloodlines or exceedingly special talents that received such an "honor" of his presence. No one ever spoke of the possible connection, or if they did, they had been silenced before news reached his ears of it.

Tenten finally spoke up, "Do you want some company for awhile on your watch Shino?" Shino was just about to decline when he felt the other two stiffen against his back, and he was ready to turn and attack when he felt the overwhelming chakra of their Hokage. He had used bugs to try and keep guard over areas he wasn't currently watching, but when he extended his consciousness out to them he felt nothing, a sign that they had probably be destroyed. He felt a tendril of anger creep up in him, directed at the man who should have realized what those bugs were, but kept a tight leash on it. Now was not the place to forget logic and give into emotion.

"Shino should be all right alone Tenten. You should worry more about yourself, unless there is some sort of weakness of Shino's you are trying to cover for?" Shino felt Kiba tense up to yell something at the man, most likely in his defense. Even so, he moved just enough to jab his shoulder blade into his back, making him stop. It wouldn't do to antagonize a man who could kill them before they could even see the attack coming.

Tenten's voice was low, and Shino guessed she was bowing her head. "No Hokage. I was merely trying to be helpful, but you are correct." Shino was glad for her apparent humility, as Orochimaru's chakra lessened, making it easier to breath and think clearly. "Indeed," he drawled. "Unfortunately, I must leave your team for a time as something has come to my attention. You shall continue on with the mission and we will meet in Wave country." With that he left, taking his chakra with him and not even waiting for a response. He wasn't sure if it was just a ruse to keep them at ease as he observed from afar or the truth though, and didn't intend to let his guard down long enough to find out.

Turning to face the other two, they all shared a look that showed just how relieved they were with the Hokage gone. Turning back around, they just leaned back into one another again and kept watch until their Sensei came back and forced them to leave Shino alone in the night, his imagination conjuring images of snakes in the night.

X X X

Orochimaru sneered as he ran through the trees. He was well aware that the brats were suspicious of him, but he didn't care. It was good that they were not as foolish as some of the other idiot Genin's he had wasted his time on. They had blindly trusted him and rightly met their end when he had tried to place the curse seal on them. It made no difference to him if they were not blindly obedient to him now. Once he had them under the seal's influence such matter's would be inconsequential.

What he had told them was not a lie, however, though he enjoyed their momentary look of distrust when he had stated he was leaving. They had hid it well, but they practically smelled of their fear, and the sudden confused twist in their chakra was enough to tell him they hadn't believed him. An even better sign for their being useful pawns someday, even the girl who had no apparent bloodline. She had been highly recommended for her weapons abilities, and he could put her to use for as long as she survived the ordeals placed before her.

For now though, his goal was ahead of him, a few days hard run even for him. There had been rumors of a clan that had perished in a nearby country, and he had never forgotten his goal to learn every jutsu there was to learn. If he were lucky, this would prove to be a more fruitful trip than he had expected.

X X X

Hinata was turning the fish over the fire when she heard Naruto and Shikamaru walking back towards the camp from a nearby river where they had been washing up. Placing the last fish on it's side, she turned to face them. Shikamaru gave her a small nod before walking over to the fire and taking a seat on the log they had rolled over. Naruto gave her a big grin and walked over, "Are those the fish we caught earlier?" She nodded, "Yes. I salted the rest while Tazuna went into his tent to rest. I don't think he's used to the pace we set."

Naruto grinned, "Well, that shows him for underestimating us, then." Hinata just nodded a bit and kept quiet. She had been working hard at what she and Temari had spoken about, but she still found it hard to be so relaxed with Naruto.

She was shaken out of her thoughts before they went any further when Naruto poked her. "Umm, Hinata? I know I'm not a good chef and all, but is the fish supposed to smoke that much?" He pointed to the campfire where some of the fish had begun to burn, and making a small sound in surprise she rushed over to take them away from the flames just in time to save them from being ruined.

Bowing to the other two profusely they waved it off while taking their portions and began to eat, ignoring her stuttered apologies and digging in. Seeing that they weren't too upset, she smiled slightly to herself and began to eat as well. She was no where near as good as Minato at cooking, but she was glad they enjoyed it none the less.

They talked for a time about various things, training, Suna, and anything else that came to mind. Hinata was about to ask about Shikamaru's training with Temari when they all stopped what they were doing. It was a subtle change in their environment, but enough to set them on edge. The various sounds of nature had suddenly stopped, leaving them in an eerie unnatural silence. Nodding slightly to the other two, they began talking again while Hinata lowered her food and hung her head, using her bangs to hide her eyes as she activated the Byakugan.

She counted four men around their camp, all of whom were just sliding into place for whatever it was they had in mind. Two were across from them on the far side of the tents, and two directly behind it, possibly hoping to sneak in to attack Tazuna.

She looked up and gave the other two a big smile, and with a big nod in the direction of one of the men across from them. "We should decide on guard shifts for when we reach wave. Starting from noon, one of us should be on guard, and another one at 5 pm. From there I say we have 2 of us at 8. Don't you agree?" Shikamaru lifted an eyebrow, taking a moment to let his eyes drift to the mentioned positions. "Four Shifts? Sounds like a lot of needless work, then. Do you think it will be that difficult?" She shook her head, and exchanged a glance with both of them. They had worked out various ways to pass messages with Jiraiya, and by the looks on their faces she was confident they understood the message.

Naruto grinned at her, "I guess we should begin that right away, huh?" They both nodded, and with that Naruto disappeared in the direction of the tent while Hinata and Shikamaru went after the two single opponents hidden closest to them.

She could see the look of surprise on the faces of the men they were attacking. Despite their ability to get relatively close without causing much of a disturbance, they didn't appear to be particularly powerful. Probably bandits with limited ninja training who were either not allowed, or were unable, to go any further than the academy level. It still made them more dangerous than the average bandit, but not at a level that a real ninja would need to worry greatly.

Putting on a burst of speed she appeared in front of the man she had been chasing. He was large and muscular, and someone who probably did body building for sport, rather than building muscles through useful exercises. He stopped and glared at her, "So they stick me with the little mouse of a girl huh? I can take you." He cracked his knuckles and kept his body squared, trying to look intimidating as she slid a foot back to get into a better stand, arms up protecting her body and face, the chakra gathered just below her skin.

The man waited a moment and seeing she wouldnt react, snarled. Angry that his threats didn't work, he made a mistake with the first attack, stepping through with a punch aimed to take her head from her shoulders. With moves like that, she wasn't surprised that he hadn't made it as a ninja. Ducking her head under the punch and weaving to the side, she used the palm of her outside hand to push his attack off the line, adding enough chakra to it to render the arm useless for hours, and brought her other hand up to slap him lightly in the stomach with chakra pooled in her palm. She pushed back just in time to see the look of surprise on his face as he coughed up blood and collapsed.

Kneeling by him, she made sure none of the wounds were fatal before tying him up to a nearby tree and using her Byakugan. She saw the boys already tying up their opponents as well, and both appeared unharmed. Sighing in relief, she headed back to camp just in time to see an angry Naruto and Tazuna yelling at each other.

Tazuna was red faced and glaring down at Naruto. "So what?! I hired you just in case something like this happened. What, were you scared by your first real opponent little boy?"

Naruto stomped his foot and returned the glare in full, "I've faced children who are a shit load scarier than those wannabe ninja old man! What I want to know is why Gatou, who even I know is someone not to cross, is after you!"

Shikamaru nodded and stepped forward, "I could ask the same thing. I'm guessing you questioned one of them too?" Naruto nodded and Shikamaru turned to Hinata who hung her head and shook her head, "The fight was over too quickly." Shikamaru shrugged, "No difference. So do you mind explaining why one of the most notorious leaders of the black market is after your life?"

Tazuna looked down and Hinata could see his jaw tighten in anger or frustration. Stepping forward, she placed a hand on his forearm. "We are not saying we won't protect you, but we have to know what it is we are up against."

Tazuna's demeanor relaxed, and he slumped down against a nearby tree, looking his age for the first time, and incredibly tired. "Wave has never been a very large or rich country, and since you seem to know of Gatou, you can guess what that might mean to him. We were far too easy to control. A few promises of help here, a sponsored project there, and he had us wrapped around his little finger. Now that we've learned what he's really like, we have to find someway to support ourselves so we can be rid of his influence." He looked up and just stared at them for a moment. "I won't doubt your abilities, but you're too young to know what it is like to see everything you've ever worked for crash down around you. Your family constantly in danger, friends disappearing day in and day out. Hopefully you'll never know, but I do, and that is why I have to finish that bridge. If I can just open up a new trade route, we have a chance of ending this whole ordeal, and maybe we can stop Gatou from bleeding us dry."

He sighed, "But I knew Gatou wouldn't let me, so that's why I came to Suna. I had thought of going to Konoha for it's strength and being closer, but it would do us no good to shake hands with another devil to be rid of Gatou. So I came to Suna and tried to make it sound less serious than it was, since we can't afford anything more expensive."

They looked at each other and Shikamaru sighed. "How troublesome." He turned to face Naruto and Hinata, "I know what you are thinking Naruto. You would help Orochimaru himself if he told you he was in trouble. What about you Hinata?"

Hinata looked at Naruto for a second, regretting what she was about to say. "I think we should contact everyone back at Suna and let them know." She saw Naruto hang his head at that. He had been really looking forward to showing how much they've grown and were happy when they were allowed to do a special favor to Suna and perform a mission for them. She didn't like seeing him so disappointed, but it was the best choice they had.

Shikamaru shook his head. "If we do that, they'll cancel the mission. It may be troublesome, and everything I hate to do, but I don't fancy the idea of letting Tazuna here die because we wouldn't help him. I say we just make sure to use our emergency precautions in the worst case scenario." Naruto perked up and Hinata felt her stomach sink. She should have thought of that, and not made Naruto think she was against them going onward.

Naruto ran over to find out more from Tazuna as Shikamaru came over and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry. He doesn't hold it against you. He probably understands better than any of us how much we risk doing this." Hinata nodded, and Shikamaru walked off to go get comfortable for the first watch of the night.

X X X

A few days later found Naruto and the others in front of a comfortable looking home, hand built and obviously well made. Tazuna was explaining to them how many hours he had put into building it for his family, but to Naruto, it was just another house, and his attention was elsewhere. Seeing that they were about to enter the house, he made a quick decision.

Taking off his pack, he threw it at Shikamaru, who caught it and looked up in time to see Naruto already running off. "NARUTO! Where are you going?!" Naruto turned around and yelled back, "Learning the lay of the land and all that. You guys protect the old man, I'll be back in a bit!" He ran off before Shikamaru could find something to yell back at him or a way to stop him. He knew it wasn't the brightest thing to do, but they WERE supposed to recon wherever they went, so he didn't worry about it for long. Instead he got onto the road heading into town and cut down on his run to a jog. It would still appear fast for a civilian, but it wouldn't bring to mind ninja when someone saw him.

He slowed down when he got into town, and eventually came to a halt when he got to what he thought was the town's center, surprised at how few people were around. Even the businesses that one would expect to be open in the smallest towns were shut up tight. If it weren't for the few people dragging their feet throughout the town, he would have guessed he were in a ghost town.

Walking around a bit further, he found a market that appeared open, and looking at the starved figures and sunken faces of the people, bought as much food as he could to take back with him. He was just walking away with his bags past a small playground when a couple children came up to him. They too were starved looking and scarily quiet for children. They looked up at him with a pitiful look that he couldn't resist, and taking out two loaves of bread and some hard cheese he had bought, broke it up to hand out to the kids. He was just about to ask them some questions when he felt people turn the corner nearby and head towards them.

Shifting the bags so he could drop them and defend himself quickly, he turned to see three kids all around his age coming over. Judging by their looks, he knew they weren't from Wave either, and they appeared a bit nervous, though if they were they were hiding it well. Deciding to have a bit more faith first, he smiled at them. The girl in buns gave him a smile back, where as the boy with a dog on his head simply smirked and the boy in the trench coat inclined his head.

The girl walked past him and knelt by the kids, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out a few candy bars which she passed out to the kids. "Make sure to eat those AFTER dinner, okay?" For once the kids gave smiles that seemed more natural on a child's face and they nodded. The boy with the dog on his head took it off and put it on the ground close to the children, who all rushed over to play with it.

Stepping back, he stood next to the newcomers, and grinned at them. "Thanks. I was beginning to wonder what it would take to get them to cheer up a bit." He extended a hand out towards the girl that smiled at him before, "Name's Naruto."

She took his hand and shaked, "Tenten. The quiet guy is Shino and our little puppy here is Kiba. The dog's name is Akamaru." The boy named Kiba puffed out his cheeks in anger, "Oy! I told you to stop calling me that!" She nodded, "All right All right, the annoying puppy here is Kiba." The boy stepped up into her face and after a short yelling session in which he had earned himself multiple bruises on the head, she turned back to Naruto, who had put some room between him and the carnage.

The girl named TenTen gave him a smile, and he laughed nervously, whispering to the guy in the trench coat next to him. "They always like that?" The boy nodded, and Naruto gulped a bit.

Tenten just waved it off, "Don't worry. He deserves it. Anyways, judging by your looks, you're not from around here, what brings you to wave? It doesn't seem like the hotbed of tourism, ya know."

Naruto forced a scowl onto his face, which wasn't hard surrounded by the poverty and sad faces all around them. "Not by choice. Some new guy took over my families old town, and he had something against my old man, so we had to leave. We're just wandering for the moment, and sort of winded up here." Naruto knew he wasn't a very good liar, he tended to speak his mind too much, but he knew the backstory well enough, and he kept the story true, just misleading, so it would mean less chance of making a major slip up. "What about you three? I could say the same thing, you stick out as much as I must."

The boy in the trench coat spoke, making Naruto jump. "We're apprenticed to an architect. He is taking us around the countryside and showing us various things. We heard of the construction and came to witness the bridge being built first hand."

Naruto smiled, now there was something he knew about. "You mean old man Tazuna's bridge?" The boy who had been beaten up before, groaned and rubbed his head, getting shakily to his feet. "If you're new here too, how do you know him? He's been out of town for a few days."

Naruto tried to hide the sudden surge of panic he felt. He had already messed up the lie by showing he knew someone here. He wanted to groan, he hated all this secrecy. Instead he just said the first thing that came to mind. "Friend of my dad from a long time ago. I guess that's why we came this way, me and two others who came with us are staying with him while my parents look into where to go next."

The three looked at each other for a moment, before Tenten gave him another sweet smile that didn't quite reach her eyes this time. "Do you think you could introduce us to him? We were hoping to drop by later and formally get to know him, but if you already do, it's that much easier." Naruto looked between the three of them for a second, and couldn't see a reason to refuse. He didn't want to be downright rude and make them suspicious of him, but something didn't seem to be adding up here, but seeing as he couldn't place it, he just nodded. "Sure. But um first, we might want to finish up here."

The girl blinked at him for a second as he pointed behind her at the group of children, surrounded by candy wrappers and looking up at her with big eyes begging for more. Tenten groaned as the boy named Kiba snickered, and Naruto just looked between them for a moment, confused why he felt so anxious about the situation. He would be careful, but for now he would just go with the flow of things. For all he knew, they really were apprentice architects and would be the first people in days who would find one of Tazuna's stories interesting.

X X X

For some reason I don't feel pleased with this chapter, even after proof reading it. But given how little time I have in the upcoming week, I wanted to get it out there. I dislike posting things without stricter quality checks, but this is a bigger issue than some proofreading will fix. I feel like my scenes are still way too short. In the sense that I introduce the scene, things happen at break neck speed, then it moves on to a new scene. Ah well, I will try to find a nice medium as I keep going.

As for the story, this is the reason I asked about pairings. Since I got a vote for this pairing,this is the one featured. I actually really like the team dynamic for this group. Tenten is a bit older and seems perfectly capable of whipping Kiba into shape. And Shino...well, he will just be Shino. He fits in in most groups well in my mind.

As for what I am doing, if you think I am a mean horrible bastard to Naruto and the crew, well, you haven't seen anything yet. It will only get worse. So keep reading to find out when you bring over unwilling assassins for tea at the house of their victim. :)