YES!!! I've got another chapter up and it has only been 10 days -10 DAYS!!!- which is really good for me as of lately .


Sasuke's P.O.V.

"How far away is the target?" our sensei's voice asked over the headset.

"Five meters and closing. How much longer do we have to wait?" a high-pitched girl voice was heard right after.

"I'm in position," a calmer but still cheerful voice was heard despite a loud yelp in the background.

"So am I," I finally spoke, waiting for orders on what to do next.

"GO!" I heard our other sensei, and my cousin, yell over the headset and I heard the others dash forward, towards the assigned target right behind me. Yet the target jumped to the side and escaped that way. Luckily, Naruto had seemed to think ahead and Kyuubi was already positioned in the only area that we were not guarding. Though I think that scared our target even more, seeing the canine and all. It jumped towards the nearest one of our team, which was Sakura, and clung to her for dear life.

"I got the cat," Sakura said as she looked down at the cat in her arms.

"Remember our quarry has a ribbon its right ear that says 'Tiger' and make sure that there is no mistake," I heard Obito speak to all of us once again.

"Target confirmed," I spoke into the headset, wondering why both Kyuubi and Naruto seemingly tried to stay as far away from the cat as possible. Kyuubi, I could see, since he was of the canine family and canines and felines most definitely did not get along. Naruto, on the other hand, I still could not figure out why exactly. Though I would not tried not to think about it, since I was trying to distance myself from him.

"Good, then mission complete, let's return to the Hokage Tower then," Rin said over the headset before clicking it off, but I briefly registered it in the back of my mind as I began walking towards the tower, my mind still on Naruto. After my talk with Obito about my crush on my blond haired teammate, I began to really thing about what I was getting myself into if I were to go after Naruto. I know I like the blond, but everything I have ever cherished dearly has been taken away from me and the one to take it away from me was my very own older brother.

The bastard had taken everything I had ever held dearly and would always do so if I knew him, which I did. If he ever found out about my caring for the Naruto, he would take him away from me too, in the worse possible ways. He would probably kill the innocent boy right in front of me or torture him all because of me and I will not do that to him. I knew that by distancing myself from him, nothing bad would happen to the boy, which was why I was doing so.

However, Obito was starting to notice that I was distancing myself from the boy and I knew he would want an answer and that he would think that what I was doing was ridicules. He would not understand though, he is the only precious thing that Itachi had left me and that was only because Itachi forgot about our cousin. Also, Obito could protect himself from Itachi, Naruto could not, and I was not strong enough to protect him yet. Until I was, I would have to distance myself from Naruto.

'Besides, it's just a crush, I might not like him in the future and he may not like me in that way at all either,' I reasoned with myself. However, for some reason, my heart dropped at the very thought of Naruto not returning my feelings.


Regular P.O.V.

"Poor Tiger, good little kitty-kitty. I was worried about you, I could have died!" Lady Shijimi cooed whilst smothering the poor little cat. Team 7 just watched as the cat owner was torturing it after being just 'saved' by them. Rin and Obito had turned in Team 7's mission assignments and were talking with Sandaime Hokage when Lady Shijimi had rushed into the room unannounced. Looking around the room, the woman squealed with delight once she saw Sakura holding her cat and the next thing Team 7 knew was that the Lady held the cat in her arms and was half way across the room. "Let's go little kitty-kitty." Then they were gone.

"Well that was weird," Naruto said, being the first to break the silence the whole room had fallen into once the Lady had entered.

"Agreed," the whole room said simultaneously, including the Sandaime. Kyuubi had even yipped his agreement from his position in Naruto's arms.

Clearing his throat, and gaining the other's attention around him, the Sandaime picked up a piece of paper that had a list of missions available and read it. "Baby-sitting for the council elders, run errands for neighboring villages, or to help dig up sweet potatoes… Now are there any preferences on what mission do you want or do you want me to decide for you?"

Looking towards Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto left him to answer for him. Somewhere along the way, in their short period of being a team, the small group had elected Sasuke as their team leader. Actually, it was more like when Kakashi mentioned that having one of them as a leader would make things easier, Sakura immediately elected Sasuke and Naruto did not object to it, so the rave became the leader. The young Uchiha was, also, given the position of negotiator slash diplomat, given that he was technically the head of the Uchiha clan and knew how to deal with nobles and other higher people.

In addition, Sakura took on a as well position, after having a personal training session with each of their sensei. She became their genjutsu expert and was dabbing in some med-jutsu in her spare time. So far, Sakura was excelling at the basics of genjutsu, but she was having problems with learning the fundamentals of med-nin jutsu. Sadly, Naruto and Kyuubi did not have a potion of their own on the team yet, though the blond tried not to care. He just went on being his normal happily self, not showing that it had effected him any. Which it did hurt him, deeply so, but he would not show it to the rest of his team. His family, yes; his team, no.

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, we have been doing D-rank missions for three months without complaint. Over this time period we have gotten to know one another better and have developed our teamwork," Sasuke started calmly, making sure to keep eye contacted with the Sandaime, this allowed him to show the elderly Hokage that he was confident and assure of himself. It was a trick his father had taught him, it showed pushy nobles that he was not going to be pushed around at all. "We have also training individually to work on our own skills if we should need to fight alone. Nevertheless, with plain D-rank missions we cannot test ourselves and continue to grow if there are no harder challenges to over come and obstacle to beat. What I am saying Hokage-sama, is that with your consent, we would like to be given a higher ranked mission."

The elder Hokage of Konoha, sat there patiently, hands folded and chin resting on top of his hands in front of him. With a watchful eye, he analyzed every detail about Sasuke and his teammates as he spoke. It was true this group of students had grown, but they still had a lot more to learn come time for the Chunnin Exams, if Arashi and the others felt like they could handle it and the only way they could learn what they needed to know was if they had higher ranked missions. Nevertheless, it was not his decision to make, but Arashi's.

However, time would have it at just that moment, the Yellow Flash of Konoha walked into the room while yawning. The sleep deprived Yondaime looked as if he was about to fall over from exhaustion, but somehow managed to stay up right. No one could blame the man seeing that he had just spent last night and a good portion of the morning making sure that everything was set and in order for the up coming Chunnin Exams that as of yet, only chunnin and higher shinobi knew about. What he was doing there instead of going straight to bed, was beyond any of them, but Sarutobi could not help but silently thank him for coming in just when he was needed.

"Aw, just in time too," Sarutobi, commented as the sleep deprived Hokage sat in the chair right next to the elderly man and almost fell asleep.

"In time for what?" the confused man asked tiredly, yawning once again.

"Team 7 has just politely asked for a higher ranked mission," the Sandaime answered his question while gesturing with his hand to the team, waiting patiently with two of their sensei for their answer themselves. "And since they are your and your students' students I think it's fitting that you make the decision. Don't you agree?"

Listening to the old man, Arashi's mind suddenly started to work in overdrive. A grin suddenly spread over his face as a plan formed inside his mind. Grapping two of the scrolls sitting in front of Sarutobi, the man began to skim through the missions on the D-ranked scroll before skimming over the ones on the C-ranked scroll. Finding one he approved of, and would work for his plan, the young Kage handed the scroll to the older Kage and pointed to the mission he picked out. Looking at the mission, Sarutobi nodded his head in agreement, which seemed to cause the rest of Arashi's sleepiness to dissipate.

"I grant you your request of a higher ranked mission and give you a C-ranked mission, usually reserved for at least chunnin or higher, to escort a certain individually back to his home," Arashi announced and saw the happy looks on all of Team 7's faces, even Sasuke was slightly smiling.

"When will we meet our client?" Sasuke asked in a dignified matter, all earlier traces of his smile gone.

"You can meet him now," the Sandaime spoke, motioning with his hands towards another door, one that was adjacent to the one Arashi had entered from previously. "Please send him in."

The group turned towards the door and saw it slid open to let a middle age, border-lining old, man into the room. Gray hair with a matching gray facial hair and beady eyes made the man look older than he actually was. He had what looked to be a rope tied around his forehead and small-wired rim glass had slid down his nose. His clothes were different from what they had around Konoha, but the half-drunk sake bottle was one from the stores somewhere in Konoha.

"Are these the ones who are all supposed to escort me back home?" the half drunken man asked taking another swig from his bottle and continuing where he left off, not really giving anyone the time to answer him. "They look like a bunch of snot nose brats, especially the little runt and the rodent he's holding."

"Kyuubi's not a rodent! He's a fox!" Naruto defended his little kitsune friend before defending himself. "And I like being small, even though it has a few disadvantages, there advantages as well."

"Yea right, what could possibly be positive about being a runt or a rodent?" the man shot back, not liking how the kid was disrespecting him openly and in front of others as well.

"A lot of things, like being able to sneak around with no one noticing you," the blond boy countered again.

"Any tall person could do that as well," the man replied hotly. Obito and Rin were about to step in and either calm the boy down or divert the conversation, but they were actually wanting to know how the young boy would defend himself. Arashi also wanted to help the boy out, but he was doing a damn go job of that himself and it was also quite amusing to watch.

"But in plan sight Tazuna-san?" Naruto asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"No body could do that, no matter if you're tall or short!" Tazuna said hotly, before rethinking what the boy had just said and narrowing his eyes at the boy and the fox that was sitting on his shoulder. When exactly had the fox even gotten on his shoulder? The last time he really saw it, the thing was in the blond runt's arms. "How did you know my name runt? I don't remember telling you my name."

"You didn't, but you can learn a lot from people when you have their wallet," the Pure One said grinning, holding up a poorly made brown wallet that looked like it was about to fall apart.

"What-? How-? When did you get that?" Tazuna asked stunned, while the others were wondering the same thing as well. They had never seen him move and inch since he began the verbal fighting with the man and now he had the man's wallet. However, it did have the desired effect of proving Naruto's point. Now if they only knew how the boy had done it, the group would be very satisfied.

"I didn't, Kyuubi did," Naruto said smiling and patted said fox on the head while it gave a happy yelp of his own. Walking up to Tazuna, Naruto held the wallet out to the man with a friendly smile on his face. "No hard feelings?" the boy asked innocently.

A barely noticeable smile formed on the man's face as he took his wallet back form the boy. "I miss judged you, you're a pretty good kid after all, even though your still a runt," Tazuna told him and Naruto excepted it, knowing that was the best he would get from him right now. "As the runt said, I'm Tazuna. A bridge builder of ultimate renown and until we're safely back in my own country, where we'll be completing my next bridge, you're all expected to protected me, even if it costs you your lives!"

"Being a little melodramatic aren't we?" Obito mumbled to himself, but Rin heard and she tried to stiff her giggles. Hearing this caused the older Uchiha smile at making the girl, he still had a crush on, smile.

"Are you sure these kids can protect me?" the bridge builder asked the two Hokages hesitantly, "no offense, but their still pretty young."

"There's no call for concern," Arashi said, standing up and walking over to the bridge builder to stand right next to him, fox like grin back on his face and a twinkle in his eyes, "since I'll be along too."

"NANI?!" the Sandaime exclaimed, shocked. Though now he understood why the blond man had perked up once he had told him about Team 7's request for a higher mission. "You can't do that, you still have a lot of paper work to file and fill out as well as other Hokage duties."

"They take care of them for me," Arashi said, grinning madly, hooking his arms around Rin and Obito.

"WHAT?!" the two jounin shouted surprised.

"See, they'll do it," the blond man said before turning around to his younger team and addressed them, "we'll meet at the western gate of Konoha at seven o' clock sharp, until then get a good night sleep, eat well, and pack a bare minimum of essentials, cause we'll have a long walk head of us."

With that, the Yellow Flash made do with his namesake and disappeared in a yellow flash of little, leaving the rest of the room stunned for a few reasons. First, he had gotten out of Konoha while he had a lot of paper work to do and did it right under the Sandaime's nose. Secondly, he had some how conned two of his older students to do the work he left behind for him. Finally, he had done all of this and got away with it without any consequences.

With that, the members of Team 7, and their sensei that were there, all left, bidding the Hokage and Tazuna good-bye until their next meeting. After exiting the Hokage Tower, the group parted ways for their individually training sessions with one of their sensei. Sasuke going with his cursing cousin, who was still mad at the Yondaime for have him -and Rin- do his work for him while he went out on an easy C-ranked mission without any worries of anything-bad happening. Sakura went with Rin to practice on her genjutsu and see if she could actually use any of the med-jutsu she had been practicing. Leaving Naruto and Kyuubi by themselves. It was the Yondaime's turn to teach Naruto, but he had already left, leaving the boy alone.

Sighing, Naruto began walking home, thinking he had been forgotten, with Kyuubi on his heels. He had made it to the middle of the road when a yellow flash speed by and when the light was gone, so was the little blond boy and his blood red fox.


In a clearing not to far away from Team 7's meeting place, a flash of yellow went straight to the middle of the clearing before stopping completely. As soon as the light was gone, a man appeared with a fox kittling in his arms and a blond boy that looked like the exact replica of him was hanging by his arms wrapped tightly around the man's neck, as if he were going to die if he let go. The blond man just chuckled and set the fox down, who wobbled on his feet for a few seconds trying to walk straight before falling on the ground. After that, he had to pry the boy's hands away from his neck to set him on the ground and chuckled even more when the boy let out a yelp his eyes even further clutching close than they already were.

"We've stopped, Naruto, you're not falling," Arashi explained to the frighten boy. After doing so, the Yondaime watched as Naruto slowly opened one of his eyes and then both before looking around to make sure he was safely on the ground. When he was satisfied that he had not actually fallen, the boy calmed down and looked over in the direction of his shaken familiar to make sure he was alright as well. "You didn't think I forgot about you, did you?"

"Um," Naruto did not really know how to answer that, since he actual did think he had been left behind and merely tried to avoid eye contacted with the man. Kyuubi's ears laid flap against his head from where he laid on the ground and it did not seem that the kitsune was going to get up anytime soon.

"You really think that lowly of me? I fell hurt," the blond haired man whined playfully.

"Sorry," the Heir of Foxes apologized to the man, but Arashi just waved it off. He was just fooling around anyways and did not really mean what he had said. Though the Yondaime was wondering how the little fox was doing, seeing as he was just lying there and not moving an inch. He did not kill the fox, did he? Nay, Naruto would be more worried about the fox if he had done so. See! Kyuubi just moved! He just tried standing up, but fell back down. Maybe he was sick?

"So what do you want to work on today, maybe taijutsu?" the Yondaime asked the boy, turning his attention to the boy instead of his fox. He also did so knowing Naruto's taijutsu was not good at all. His style was that which the academy taught to everyone. The boy's movements were jerky and awkward leaving anyone with the ability to know his next movements before he even preformed them. He left openings in his stance and his attacks rarely connected when used. Overall, Naruto needed major help in taijutsu, which Arashi helped him with when it was his turn to train the boy. Though he did not only know about the little boy's taijutsu, he knew what the others were teaching him as well.

His genjutsu, which was what Rin was to teach all of Team 7, was below average, but really thought out to make ever thing realistic. The boy's problem was he could not keep the genjutsu he was learning up for long. Naruto's kenjutsu, left up to Obito to teach to everyone in Team 7, was pretty good. He usually hit the target eight out of ten times when throwing shurikens and nine out of ten times with kunai. Obito was also teaching the boy the art of traps, otherwise used for the art of pranks. Which left Kakashi teaching Naruto and the others ninjutsu. Sadly, Naruto was not that good at that either, he had difficulty performing the simplest of ninjutsu. While both Sasuke and Sakura were moving on to more advance jutsu, he was still on the basic jutsu.

"Actually," Naruto fumbled for words, looking down at the ground whilst digging his shinobi sandals into the dirt absent-mindedly. "I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor."

Arashi's eyebrows rose into his hairline and looked at the boy surprised. Was this really the same boy that he hand been training for the past few months? The boy that refused any food offered to him when he had none? The boy that never asked for anything, even help, when he needed it the most and could not handle it on his own? The boy that tried not to be a burden to others when he was anything but and anyone was happy to help him? Now here he was now asking for a favor? Was this truly the same blond haired boy?

Hell, he would do anything the boy asked of him now, as long as it was legal.

"Which would be?" the Yondaime asked and listen as the boy quickly blurted out what he wanted. Yet, so in a rush to get out what he had to say, Naruto made it impossible for Arashi to understand what he had just said. "Excuse me, come again?"

Sighing, Naruto took a deep breath and repeated what he had just said, but more slowly and able to understand. "I was wondering if I could borrow one of your kunai, the ones you use for Hiraishin technique, please?"

"Uh, sure," the man said confused, pulling out one of the three pronged kunai that he used for the jutsu and handed it to the boy. The boy than studied the kunai very carefully before handing it back to him, grinning happily. "What was that all about?"

"I'd tell you, but where's the fun in that?" Naruto replied smiling, "so I'll show you, but first we need to go to my house."

No sooner had those words left the boy's mouth then a yellow flash of light lit up the area again before dying down and the occupants of the clearing were gone. However, a few seconds later they reappeared in front of the old run down home of the Uzumaki household. The blond boy once again hanging on for dear life to the older blond man and the red fox shaking in his arms, both had their eyes tightly closed and where whimpering. This time, instead of setting the fox down and having him fall down, Arashi held onto him and set Naruto down first before handing the fox to him. Once the boy was steadily on his feet, he glared whole-heartedly at the man.

"Would you stop doing that?" the boy asked before adding, "And how do you do that anyways? It is not the Hiraishin, I know that for sure. However, it's still too fast to be Shunshin technique, than what is it than?"

"Actually, it is the Shunshin technique, but a side effect of the Hiraishin is that, somehow, it supper charges the Shunshin and makes it faster than normal," Arashi explained to Naruto as he followed the boy around to the back of his house were there was a warn out looking forge and some slabs of metal stacked next to it. He watched as Naruto set Kyuubi down next to him gentle before he lit the forge and put two slabs of metal inside to heat up. "What are you doing? And are you going to tell me why you wanted to see my kunai?"

"I'm making a katana for Sasuke for his birthday. Obito told me it was going to be in a few days, so I thought I had time to make him something later. However, since his birthday will be during the mission, I have to make it now if I want to give it to him on his birthday," Naruto explained to the Hokage.

As he explained to Arashi about what he wanted to do, Naruto has started to collected items from around the area that he would need to make the katana. The Hokage watched the boy wondering why he would do such a thing, because as of lately, Sasuke had been avoiding the boy in the littlest ways. It was quite strange, since Obito had told him that his little cousin had a crush on the blond, but Arashi did not have time to ponder over the fact as Naruto went on.

"The reason why I needed your kunai was to see how you placed your seal on the metal. I needed to know if it was engraved into the metal itself or painted on with a brush and some ink."

Listening to the boy, Arashi found what he said to be very interesting, but he found one thing strange. "Why do you need to know about how to place seals into weaponry?"

"Well, all Uchihas are known to use Katon jutsu, some very powerful and hot, meaning they will melt the metal blade of the katana if they were ever used together. So if I set the right seals and ruins on the blade, it should keep it from melting and I was hoping to try to make it as hard as diamonds to keep the blade from either dulling, chipping, or breaking," Naruto explained, using an old worn out bellows to feed the flames and burn hotter.

"Naruto, how long have you been working with seals?" the Yondaime asked, not wanting to burst the boy's idea by telling him that a beginner working with seals wouldn't be able to do something like what he was talking about. Seals, unlike genjutsu, taijutsu, or ninjutsu that the user did not have to know how they worked to use them, a person that wanted to use any type of seal had to know everything about them before they could even try using them. Nevertheless, Naruto sound in high hopes of trying to do something and he did not want to crush his hope.

"Since I was five, I think, maybe four," the blond boy said, turning around to look at his sensei, confusedly, wondering why he was asking. However, a thought crossed his mind and the Heir of Foxes seemed to brighten up. Turning around to face the shocked Hokage, Naruto smiled at him brightly. "Would you like to see some of my work, Arashi-sama?"

Dumbly nodding his head, Arashi watched as the boy checked his forge once again before he ran inside his house. A few minutes later, the boy came running back out with a small scroll in his hands. Plopping down on the ground, Naruto set the scroll down with a spiral seal face up and made a strange seal with his hands. Whispering a few words, the spiral on the seal glowed before unwinding and becoming a straight line. The scroll then slowly unrolled itself to show a verity of different seals, some Arashi had seen before and some he had never laid eyes on.

Handing the scroll to Arashi, Naruto watched as the Yondaime looked over his seals with a calculating eye. Out of everyone that knew him, only Kyuubi had seen inside that scroll. No one else knew about his knack for seals, saving his family. This would be the first time that he would have anyone's opinion on the seals inside his scroll. He really wanted to know what the other blond thought, but he was not sure what his reaction would be. Seeing the man's eyebrows knit together, Naruto knew he was about to comment on his work and was not sure it was going to be good or bad.

"Naruto, what's with this seal? It has only three parts, but it's supposed to have six," Arashi asked, pointing to the seal he was talking about with his index finger. Looking at the seals, Naruto scrunched up his face trying to understand what the man was saying, but then realized what he was talking about and instantly understood the confusion.

"No, it has six parts. Seeing here, here, and here," the blond said pointing to three different parts of the seal in question, "these are the other three parts, but I've combined them with the exterior of the seal to make it more efficient."

"But by doing that, you're weakening the interior of the design," the Yondaime reasoned out.

"I already took that into consideration, that's why the first three parts are interloped to strengthen the interior of the seal," Naruto pointed it out on the paper. Looking at the seal again, more specifically, at how the interior designed, Arashi studied the seal once more. Finding what he was looking for, the Yondaime looked up and looked the boy in the eyes.

"Ya know what Naruto? These are really good, do you have any more that you can show me?" Arashi asked with pure curiosity, which seemed to brighten Naruto's smile even more. The rest of the evening was spent discussing Naruto's seals and other seal designs. After the Yondaime left to get a good night sleep for the mission tomorrow, Naruto went back to making Sasuke's birthday present, since the metal was now hot enough to work with. Though, as he was about to begin working the blade out, Dei came running into the clearing with a small bundle in her jaw and a note.

Taking the bundle from the vixen, the Pure One patted the fox on the head and thanked her. Yelping her reply, Dei licked the boy's cheek before trotting over to the sleeping Kyuubi and woke him up by starting to give him a bath with her tongue while he whined like a new born kit. Reading the letter, Naruto smiled and silently thanked Inari-kaasan for her kindness and help. Opening the bundle, the Heir of Foxes gasped at what was inside. Inari-kaasan had given him some stones to put into the design of the katana, but not just any stones, stones from their immortal world.

The rest of the evening and well into the night, Naruto spent working on the Sasuke's birthday present.


The next morning, Kakashi and Arashi found Naruto, holding a sleeping Kyuubi in his arms, talking to Tazuna whilst waiting for the others. Seeing them, Naruto waved enthusiastically and invited them in on his and Tazuna's conversation. Which they joined, while waiting for Sakura and Sasuke. Once the last remaining members of Team 7 showed up, the small group officially began their mission first C-ranked mission.

The first half an hour of the trip was a silent one. Arashi was leading the group with Naruto and Kyuubi right behind him. Directly behind those two was Tazuna with Sasuke and Sakura on either side of him for protection. Bringing up the rear, Kakashi lagged behind, reading his newest Icha Icha Paradise. All this done to make sure Tazuna had maximum security from bandits and other low-level thugs that would try to kill the bridge builder.

However, after the first half an hour of silence, Sakura decided it was too quiet and wanted to make conversation. At first, she tried talking to Sasuke, but all her efforts failed, horrible. Therefore, she tried making conversation with their client. That was only because she knew she couldn't talk to Kakashi, since he was currently reading his new book and she was still uncomfortable talking to the Yondaime, even though he was her sensei, he was still the Hokage and the strongest person in Konoha. This left Sakura to talk with either Naruto or Tazuna. She chose Tazuna.

"Tazuna-san, you come from the Land of Wave, right?" Sakura asked, the slight pause in Naruto's step at the mention of the name on where they were going went unnoticed by all.

"Yea, what of it?" Tazuna said in a gruffer voice.

"Are there any shinobi in that country too?" the girl asked, what seemed like curiosity, but she was actually just being nosy.

"No, there isn't any shinobi in my country, save for the missing-nins that hide out there or the ones that are just passing through," Tazuna said, taking a big gulp of his sake, downing about half of it. "Shouldn't you be asking your teacher this stuff?"

Blushing she looked towards both her sensei in turn and surprising Kakashi's head was not stuck in his book, but listening to their conversation. Seeing her gaze, Kakashi smiled at her, or at least it looked like he was smiling at her with his only visible eye up turned. The rest of his face covered, his black mask and forehead protector making sure of that. Marking the page he was on in his book, the scarecrow put the book inside his shuriken holster and pulled out a small scroll.

Handing it to Sakura, Kakashi started on his mini lesson about the different countries and what not. "Nami no Kuni, as Tazuna said, doesn't have any shinobi, but as a general rule, even with all the differences that exist in local customs and cultures, most other lands have their own hidden village where all the shinobi clans reside."

As her silver haired sensei talked, Sakura unrolled the scroll bestowed upon her before looking inside. Drawn on the inside of the scroll was a map, which was labeled with symbols and had been color-coded as well. Upon unrolling the scroll even further, the cherry blossom found the key for the symbols and colors and their meanings. The map was divided up into many different countries and islands; however, there were five countries with landmass far greater than any of the other areas shown on the map.

"For most of the countries on this continent, the shinobi villages serve as military force," the scarecrow continued. "They protected their own people and handle the ongoing relations with neighboring countries. Yet, the villages do not answer to the rulers of their native countries. Instead, they are on an equal footing with their government. In the case of very small island nations where an invasion would be difficult to mount, a shinobi village is regarded unnecessary. Among the various shinobi villages, in particular, those locations in the land of Konoha, Kiri, Kumo, Suna, and Iwa are large and their strengths immense. Those are called the five great lands of shinobi. They are the only places where the shinobi leaders call themselves Kages. Do you know what the five Kages are called?"

"Well, I definitely know the Hokage, meaning Fire Shadow, and since you mentioned Kiri, Kumo, Suna, and Iwa, those Kages have to been named similar to their villages," Sakura pieced together. Seeing a nod from her sensei, the pink haired girl continued. "So, I'm guessing that there's a Mizukage, or Water Shadow, for Kiri, a Raikage, or Lightning Shadow, for Kumo, and a Kazekage, or Wind Shadow, for Suna. Leaving Iwa with a Tsuchikage, or Earth Shadow, right?"

"Correct," Kakashi said, patting the girl's head. "Together, the Five Shadows are known to shinobi everywhere as the five commanders of all the tens of thousands of shinobi throughout the world."

"So I don't have to worry about encountering any foreign shinobi?" the slightly scared girl asked, rolling up the scroll and handing it back to its owner.

"Nope, you won't have to face any foreign shinobi while handling your C-ranked mission," the scarecrow reassured the girl, the grimace coming from their client not going unnoticed by the man. Seeing this, Kakashi took it upon himself to keep a closer eye on their client and their surroundings, seeing how something was definitely wrong with the man and he seemed to be hiding something.

Feeling someone right beside him, Kakashi turned to see his sensei walking right beside him. Looking forward, to where his sensei should have been, the scarecrow saw that Naruto was now leading the group and his sensei was not. Something that should have been apparent, seeing how he was walking right next to him and not up in front like he used to be. However, he ought to be use to it by now, seeing how the Yondaime would be nowhere in sight one second and right next to you the next. That or he was right next to you whilst you were talking and when you turn he was gone. It was something that he did often and it was something Kakashi should have grown used to, but it still always startled him when the man did it.

"You saw it too?" Arashi asked Kakashi in a low whisper while looking forward the whole time, not taking his eyes off the bridge builder. Seeing the jounin nod his head out of the corner of his eye, the Hokage went on. "He's hiding something and what ever it is, isn't going to be good for us."

"Do you think they can handle it?" the scarecrow whispered back, eyeing each of their three students in turn.

"I'm not sure as of yet, but there's something else I need to talk to you about. I think there is more to Naruto than he lets on," the blond man replied, his voice dropping even lower, if that was even possible. Turning his head to face his sensei, Kakashi saw that the man's eyes were focused solely on their blond student, whom was currently petting Kyuubi in his arms, leading the way to Wave. A tiny detail that Kakashi did not notice, that Arashi did, was that no one told the boy, or any of the genin, where Nami no Kuni was located and how to get there, yet Naruto was leading them the exact way without making any wrong turns.

"What do you mean sensei?" the jounin asked quietly.

"Kakashi, how good are you at seals?" Arashi asked, catching the scarecrow off guard. Were they not just talking about Naruto? What did his ability with seals have to do with anything?

"I'm not that good at them, you know that sensei, why?" Kakashi asked what little part of his face that was not covered scrunched up in confusion.

"And you've been working on them since you became a jounin up until now and you still suck at them," the Yondaime went on, ignoring Kakashi's question.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," the silver haired man grumbled. It was not his fault that he was not really good at seal, they were more complicated than any other shinobi art put together. Not only did he have to know all the inner working of the seal before using them, he needed to have precise chakra control, like a med-nin needed to have, to even make the seal. He could do small seals and some mediocre seals, but anything beyond that, Kakashi was completely hopeless; Arashi on the other hand was master of them. "You'd have to be a freaken genius to work with seals."

"Which is my point," Arashi said seriously, turning his head and looking the silver haired man straight in the eye. "Naruto is just below, or even on par, with me in seals."

"What?" Kakashi managed to choke out, almost screaming his disbelief. On par with the Yondaime Hokage? The greatest Hokage in Konohagakure's history. The man that designed a seal in just a day to hold the legendary Kyuubi no Kitsune on a fly where it would take even the most skill seals master two months to do something like that. The man said to be even beyond the level of a master when it comes to seal making. Moreover, Naruto was on par with him? What the fucking hell?

"You heard me, Uzumaki Naruto is on par with me in seals. Just look at this scroll he gave to me," Arashi said, handing over a smaller than average scroll with the Kazama clan emblem on it. Trying to open the scroll, Kakashi found that he could not do so and every time he tried, a small electric shock zapped him. Looking up at his sensei, he saw the man tap his new hitai-ate's symbol and sensed a little chakra flowing to the Yondaime's fingertips. Looking back down at the scroll, Kakashi let chakra flow into his pointer finger and slowly outlined the Kazama emblem.

When he finished tracing the emblem, Kakashi watched in wonder as the scroll unrolled itself and lay peacefully in his hands, as if it was not trying to shock him to death a few seconds ago. The seal holding the scroll close and zapping him, little was simple enough, since it was the first seal he had even learned to use correctly, excluding the electric shocking part. However, the seals that lay within the scroll made the seal on the outside look like child's play. There were so many different styles and complexities inside the scroll that made his seals look like a baby with some ink and a brush had drawn them.

"Arashi-sensei, how likely is it that Naruto just copied these seals down and used them?" Kakashi asked weakly, already knowing the answer. Since, unlike jutsu, seals could not be copied or used without knowing the seal inside and out.

"Zero to none," the Yellow Flash of Konoha replied.

"I thought so," the scarecrow replied weakly.


After Arashi had gone to the back to talk to Kakashi, Naruto had taken over the duties of leading the group to Wave. When they had first started on the mission, the blond boy did not know where they were going. Yet, when he heard where they were going when Sakura was talking to Tazuna, a feeling of dread over took him. He had only been back to Wave after his grandmother's death only once, because it brought up to many memories that he did not wish to have. The only time he had went back to Wave was after he had gotten better form his time with Kyo. However, it was only for Naruto and his brothers to pay his respect to the grave his uncle had made for Hoshi and collected anything they could carry from their old home. Other than that, he had not been back to Wave, fearing the memories that came with going back.

To pass the time, Naruto had taken up examining his surroundings. It had been awhile since he had been outside of Konoha and traveling around from country to country with his family and he missed being out the road with his family. He liked meeting the new people and making friends with them. Seeing the countries and learning about their culture was also fun for him too. The whole experience was something that he enjoyed and missed dearly.

A gust of wind blew and whistled about the group, but the Heir of Foxes did not hear it that way. He heard something entirely different, just like the night when he meet Haku, Naruto heard a voice. The voice of the wind. It talked to him, told him thinks, though it was only in bits and fragments that he had to piece together or riddles, but he did not mind.

Danger…No Rain…No Water…Danger, the wind warned. At the same time, Kyuubi started to growl threateningly from within his arms before jumping out. Getting in a predatorily attacking position, the little kitsune's body hovered close to the ground and his hair was standing on end. Halting in front of the fox, Naruto looked forward to see that a puddle of water was right in the middle of the pathway and pieces together the warning. This caused him to be instantly in on guard.

Naruto opened his mouth to warn the others when Sakura ran into him from behind.

"Naruto, don't stop in the middle of the path-" Sakura started to scold the boy. However, she did not get to finish her comment. It all happened so fast, one moment Sakura was standing there scolding her blond teammate and the next moment she was being thrown out of the way, Naruto yelling at her.

"Get Down!"

The next thing that the cherry blossom knew was that she was rolling on the ground and splashing of water and clanking of chains could be heard. There was then a yelp of pain from what she could only assume was Kyuubi and a chocking noise. She heard shouts come from the others, but then there was no signs of any movement. Something that went unnoticed by the girl. Coming to a stop, Sakura quickly scrabbled to her feet and looked around her. What she saw frightened her to no end.

Kyuubi lay on his side, no movement coming form the usually hyperactive fox, not even a few feet away from her. Both of her sensei were wrapped up in chains, back to back as two mist ninjas pulled on the gauntlets that connected the chain to both the mist shinobi. Sasuke stood protectively in front of Tazuna, kunai in both hands, looking back and forth between where his sensei stood captive and where she once stood, where Naruto still stood. However, what frightened Sakura the most was what was happening to Naruto. He stood where she once had, the same two guys that help their sensei captive, held him captive as well.

Yet the chain was holding him in a much different way. The chain that connected the Kiri nin together was wrapped tightly around the blond boy's neck. His hands were clawing at the chain, trying to get it away from the delicate skin. Blood leaked down from his neck and hands as the barbed chain dug into his flesh. Naruto tried with all his might to gasp for air, but failed miserably. He looked on with sad eyes, pleading with the others for help.

"We'd advise you not to move, if you do, we can't insure your teammates' safety," the two pair of mist ninja holding Kakashi and Arashi spoke and to prove their point, both pairs of ninja tightened their chains holding their captives. It had no real affect on the two older captive, since it was wrapped around their bodies and they had clothing and armor underneath protecting them. Naruto on the other hand had nothing protecting his neck save for his hands trying to dislodge it from his throat. However, both his hands and neck were already covered in blood and pieces of ripped off flesh and the blood only started to flow faster when the two tightened the chain.

"Stop it!" Arashi growled out watching the blood flow from faster from the blond boy. "Stop it and we'll give you what you want!"

"You can't do that!" Tazuna shouted from his spotted from behind Sasuke, cowering from the mist ninja. "I hired you to protect me from danger! You better do so!"

"We're hired to protect you from bandits and thieves, not shinobi, if there's something you're not telling us, I'd sure like to know. Until than I'd rather save Naruto," the Hokage snapped.

"I'll tell you everything you'd like to know, after these mist shinobi are long gone," the bridge builder said on edge.

"Deal," the blond man said quickly, "Sakura, guard Tazuna, Sasuke get rid of the mizu bunshin holding Naruto."

Hearing the go ahead, Sasuke immediately jumped to Naruto's aid. His heart was already pounding a mile a minute from the adrenaline caused by the battle or seeing Naruto being hurt by the shinobi's mizu bunshin, the raven did not know. Nevertheless, what he did know was that he wanted to rip the Kiri nin into pieces. Throwing two shuriken at the first mizu bunshin, he was satisfied when the clone turned into water with a splash. Hurtling himself at the other clone, Sasuke stabbed it with a kunai and watched as that one dispelled as well.

Yet Sasuke did not have time to rejoice over his small victory. Right as he finished dispelling the second mizu bunshin, the Uchiha ran towards Naruto's falling body as fast as he could. He had enough time to break the blond's fall by putting himself underneath the blond, which saved the boy from even more pain. Though it would not matter if the blood flow did not stop soon or else the boy would die of blood loss.

Ripping one of his armbands off, Sasuke pressed it against Naruto's throat, trying to stop the blood flow. Yet the blood soaked into the white cloth way to fast and did not do any good. The blood keep on coming and coming and coming and it scared the raven. He had not seen this much blood since the Uchiha Massacre and that was still pretty fresh in his mind. He had never wanted to see another one of his precious people die, that is why he distances himself from the blond boy and look where it got him! The blond was still dieing in his arms and there was nothing he could do about it!

Feeling someone presence beside him, Sasuke turned to see the Yondaime kneeling right next to him, grimacing. Turning his head further, the raven saw Kakashi tying the two original mist shinobi together, both unconscious now. Feeling Naruto's weight being lifted off him, the Uchiha turned to see his blond sensei pulling the boy into his lap and taking the blood soaked armband from the boy's neck and looked over the wound. A green light surrounded the Hokage's hand and he quickly ran it over the bloodiest areas of the blond's neck.

Working quickly, Arashi silently thanked Tsunade, yet again, that she forced, literally, him to learn some medic ninjutsu as he accelerated the healing of Naruto's neck. Though it was hard to tell if he was doing any good at all since he could not see the boy's wound with all the blood. He could feel the loose pieces of skin hanging off of the boy's neck when he ran his hands over the bloodies area of the wound and shuttered at the mere thought of the pain the boy had to be going through. The Yondaime was so focused on healing the blond, that he was startled when a small bloody hand caught his wrist and stopped him from helping the blond anymore. Looking up, blue eyes meet matching blue eyes and the smaller blond weakly smiled at him with a genuine smile.

Naruto let go of his sensei's wrist and struggled with himself to stay awake. A buzzing noise in his ears rang out unnaturally from losing excessively blood and his throat hurt badly. His eyes were going in and out of focus and he felt horrible in general. Naruto tired to speak, but quickly stopped when a soaring pain went through his body. Vaguely the blond boy felt the Yondaime healing his bloody hands, before he passed out all together.

Arashi sighed, in relief or fear he did not know himself but sighed all the same. Naruto had finally fallen unconscious and thanked that very thing since he would not be able to feel any more pain, or so he hoped. Leaving the blond in Sasuke's care to clean up the blood and make sure he had not missed any wounds, the usually cheery man walked over towards Tazuna with a not so cheery smile on his face. Now the man held up an emotionless face, devoid of all emotions that might cloud his judgment and stop him from making the wrong choice just because of what his emotions wanted to do. He usually only reserved this face while talking to the council, nobles, and other higher ups he was not on friendly terms with.

"I believe you owe me an explanation," Arashi said, no motions evident in his words which seemed to cause both Tazuna and Kakashi to flinch. Tazuna because he couldn't tell what was coming to him for lying to the Hokage of Konohagakure, which ended up getting one of his subordinates hurt very badly and Kakashi because he knew what that voice meant, being on the receiving end of it once when he was younger. Slowly Kakashi backed away from Tazuna and went over to where Sakura was told to watch over the two unconscious mist shinobi, so not to get into the crossfire if there was going to be any and help the shaken girl out.

"Wh-ha-at d-do y-ou nee-ed to-o kn-n-now?" the bridge builder asked out, frightened beyond what he even knew was possible. He had lied not only to the entire village of Konoha about his mission report, but to the Yondaime Hokage, the man that was renowned because of the Konoha-Iwa War. Tazuna did not actually think he was going to meet the guy and have to lie to his face, though he had feared of doing just that. Yet not only did he do just that, he also had the man assigned to protect him on the mission he had lied about. Fate did not seem to be on his side today.

"I want to know why two chunnin level mist shinobi are after you. And not any mist shinobi, the Demon Brother that are renowned to fight on until their mission is accomplished, even at the cost of their own lives," the man said impassive, "since they were obviously watching and waiting for us. Your request for a mission, that I read over may I remind you, asked that you have an escort to protect you against any bandits, thugs, or other such people, not protect you against any shinobi of any other village. This is obviously even higher than a regular B-ranked mission is.

"To protect you from ordinary dangers until you complete the bridge you are currently constructing would be a simple thing. Nevertheless, if you expected to be a target of a ninja assault then it is beyond question that this would be classified -and priced- as a mission from jounin. You may have had your reasons, but it is never a good idea to conceal the facts when you are asking for help. As it is this mission falls far beyond the boundaries of the mission, we were assigned. Now, we need to go back to Konoha to get Naruto proper medical attention and you better have a good reason for lying or else I'll have you imprisoned in Konoha's jails for life on the account you withheld information and were the indirect cause of the near death of one of Konohagakure's young shinobi."

Taking a deep gulp and trying to get over his nervousness, so to actually sound somewhat refined, Tazuna tried to calm his racing mind. Remembering why he had lied to Konoha in the first place help a lot. Also thinking what he would be lost if he did not get the bridge that he was currently constructing help a lot too. If he did not finish the bridge, Nami no Kuni would end up like Sunagakure had, though their village had started to prosper in the last few years, he did not want his home to end up anything like what Suna had. He would not stand for his homelands to turn into one big black-market.

"As you've guessed, this mission is more dangerous than you and your students were lead to believe. There is a real scary man that wants to see me dead. You've probably heard of him, since he is a billionaire in the field of marine transportation," Tazuna explained, his voice serious for one and the bottle of sake normally in his hands gone. It made him look a lot older and worn out, but Arashi was not in the mood for melodramatics today. He probably had a lot worse things happen to him, like losing his son and wife in the same day, but Naruto really needed medical help and the blond man did not want to listen to the melodramatics now.

"You mean Gatou," Arashi stated bluntly and Tazuna nodding his head confirming the blond's suspicion. He had heard of the man only by the word of others. He was said to be one of the riches men in the world, if not the richest. The man owned a shipping company named Gatou Shipping and Transport, but Arashi heard that there was more to the man than just that. He heard that the man was no good, but never investigated further on it, for the man had nothing to do with him or his village so Gatou was not any concern of his. However, he might have made a mistake on not doing so.

"Correct. On the surface Gatou looks like he is a legitimate businessman," the bridge builder went on to explain. "The truth is that he is a ruthless murdering criminal that employs gangs and renegade shinobi to traffic in drugs and contraband. The man starts up with taking over companies and ends up with ruining entire countries. The man lives by every low and vicious trade known to man. It was just one year ago, that he set his sights on the Land of Waves and infiltrated our lands by coming under a guise of a business venture. Then the violence began and in no time at all, he had taken over our entire marine transportation and shipping industry, and we were all under his thumb!

"Gatou now has a stranglehold on all forms of transportation, the lifeblood of an island nation, and a stranglehold on all the wealth. The only thing he has to fear is what has been underway for some time…the completion of that bridge! The only reason I lied was because Nami no Kuni is not a really prosperous land. Even our lords are poor and I have no money at all. I could not afford a higher ranked mission. I'm very sorry that I've lied, but Wave really needs that bridge complete. It's our only hope."

"I see where you are coming from, being the leader of my village and all, and I would help you," Arashi spoke with authority, which got Tazuna's hopes up, but they quickly came crashing back down at the man's next words. "But as I've said before, Naruto needs medical attention, more so than I can provide him and we have to take him back to Konoha to be properly treated."

Tazuna looked crestfallen at hearing the man's decision, but an idea popped up in his mind. "Yondaime-sama," the bridge builder spoke up hesitantly, not wanting to get on the man's wrong side anymore than he already was and trying to get the man to seriously consider what he had to say. "We are already more than half way to Wave and it would take even longer to get to Konoha than Nami. If you would consider on continuing on, I can promise you when we get to Wave my daughter can treat Naruto. Please consider that if we turned back now, the bridge will never be complete and Wave will become another destroyed country by Gatou."

Looking at the man, Arashi considered what he had to say before he turned his back on him. Walking over to Sasuke, who had just finished cleaning up the blood around the blond's neck with his other armband, the Yellow Flash could see the area where the chains had dug into his throat since it was an angry pink color. Though he knew that the boy looked like he was fine on the outside, the Hokage knew different. The blond boy had lost a lot of blood and there might be something wrong with his vocal cords, seeing how the boy could not speak when he tried.

Taking Naruto from the Uchiha, that seemed unnerved, Arashi situated the boy in his hands before giving the rest of his team orders. "Sakura, go retrieve Kyuubi and make sure that nothings broken. Kakashi, send one of your dogs back to the village to get an ANBU squad out here to pick up the Demon Bothers for integration. Sasuke scout ahead some, but stay in hearing range, we do not want to be caught off guard again. As for you Tazuna, you better stay close, we won't want you to die on us now, your country depends on your bridge after all and we intend to get you there safe and sound."

"You mean-?!" the bridge builder asked in surprise not being about to finish his sentence.

"When I start to do something, I intend to finish it, for that is my nindo, that is my shinobi way. What I say, is what I do, this is who I am, and this is what I've become fighting for what I believe in. Fighting for what's right and this is what is right."


I just realized that Naruto is going to have a lot of bad things happen to him before anything really good... I've been in a happy and a depressed mood while writing this, I think you can tell where I was happy and where I was depressed... Again it is not beta-ed, but that's because I'm hopeless when comes to finding a beta.

And as anyone else notice that the SasuNaru/NaruSasu fanfictions have been lacking in the originality as of lately? All the fanficts have been the same ideas only done the authors own way. And there has been a lack of good fanart of SasuNaru/NaruSasu as well. The only reason I mention this is because when I don't feel like or have the no motivation to write I read fanfictions and look at fanart. The later of the two usually gives me ideas if the picture are interesting enough and then my motivation for writing comes back and I get my fanficts done.

Anyways, thank everyone for reviewing, I really apprecitiate all of the reviews and everyone that listen to me rant and raving. Thanks again.

Shi no Tenshi 902