The Hokage was true to his word, Kuushou found, as less than two hours later he was meeting his "observer" in order to begin his first C-rank mission. The Hokage had also been persuaded to include a set of C-rank ninja gear, so Kuushou was finally equipped with a set of kunai, ninja wire, rations, and all the other odds and ends that made up the basic ninja field pack. It was still a far cry from what he normally carried, but much better than what Naruto had kept in his apartment.
Kuushou had spent his time crafting a wide variety of seals, using up all of the ink and paper he had available. He now had storage scrolls, a small set of exploding tags, paralysis seals, a couple of basic security seals, three sets of proximity tags, and one chakra dampening tag.
His decision to take over one of the small, unoccupied tables around the edge of the mission office had also paid off. One of Konoha's rookie seal crafters had seen him at work and asked to study the storage scroll. This particular chuunin apparently had enough humility that he didn't care if he was learning from a ninja several years his junior. A few minutes of negotiating later and Kuushou had secured a source of free sealing supplies in exchange for a couple of lessons and some sample sealing arrays.
Kuushou was once again stretching his senses trying to identify the ninja he had known in his own world that appeared to be missing in this one. The Hokage had explained the situation with Tsunade and her apprentice, but Kuushou hadn't dared ask about Dragon, as he had no way of explaining how he knew the ANBU Commander was missing. Hinata's mother appeared to be absent as well, leaving him to wonder if they had died during his attack in this world.
"So, brat, I hear you think you're hot shit," Anko said as she approached. Kuushou had to give credit to the Hokage for his choice – Anko was one of the few who knew that he was not this world's Naruto, which would simplify their relationship immensely.
That didn't mean she couldn't be incredibly grating at times, especially when she put her mind to it. He hadn't interacted with her often prior to this, but their meetings had been... memorable.
"What mission are we taking first?" Kuushou asked, ignoring Anko's taunt.
She smirked slightly, then held up a green scroll tied with a blue ribbon. "Border check-in, quick and dirty," she responded. "We take messages and supplies from here, run to the border, deliver them, get any messages they want to send, run back. Think you can handle it?"
Kuushou just raised an eyebrow. "Do I need to be awake for this?"
Anko barked a laugh and shoved him towards the door. "Not bad, brat. We'll see if you can back that mouth of yours up."
"Are we the only ones working the entire fucking border?" Kuushou shouted as he danced around a lance of water and retaliated with a kunai that lodged in the Kiri missing ninja's throat.
"-son of a fucking goddamn goat-sucking-" Anko continued to yell as she directed her snake summons to harass their other opponents while she made short work of an Iwa missing-nin.
"I know standards have slipped, but you'd think something as simple as 'don't let them cross that line' wouldn't be so hard, right?"
"-two-bit back-stabbing scab-covered leech-infested-"
Kuushou's eye twitched as he felt another missing-nin closing in from the south.
The two of them had reached the border yesterday, only to quickly discover that something was wrong. The guards at the camp they were supposed to report to had hastily vacated the area at least an hour before their arrival, though not before killing a few missing-nin.
Anko had insisted on tracking down the missing team to see if they needed support, but that plan lasted all of thirty minutes before they found themselves fighting a group of bandits, then low-ranking missing-nin, then more bandits. It had taken nearly an hour before they had managed to figure out that word had gotten out about the theft of the Forbidden Scroll and that everyone wanted to get their hands on it.
To make matters worse, all of the would-be thieves apparently felt that any battle was a sure sign that that group had the Forbidden Scroll and that they merely needed to kill everyone else to claim it.
Anko had initially insisted that he stay back and allow her to handle any ninja they wound up facing – that had lasted until she found herself facing off against seven different missing-nin from three different groups, all of them apparently attracted by the chakra being thrown around.
She hadn't actually asked for help even then – nor, if Kuushou was honest, did she really need it given the caliber of her opponents – but she certainly hadn't complained when his Earth Style: Skewering Spire technique took out two of the ninja attempting to flank her. She hadn't said a word about him staying out of the battles after that.
There had been lulls, of course; sometimes they didn't have to fight anyone for several hours. Inevitably, however, either he or Anko would detect another group trying to sneak across the border. It was during the first lull that they found the slaughtered remains of the border patrol they were supposed to meet, the ninja skewered by a seemingly endless number of senbon needles.
Anko's banter had stopped at that point, vanishing to reveal a shockingly serious persona that Kuushou wouldn't have believed her capable of. She had swept over the scene of the battle swiftly and thoroughly, then summoned one of her snakes. She had paused, staring at him contemplatively for several seconds, before nodding to herself and sending her snake out of the clearing to follow the trail.
Kuushou's respect for the kunoichi had gone up several notches once they had caught up with the ninja who had killed the patrol.
Kuushou and Anko sat high in the trees above the clearing, stealthily observing the three ninja who were making camp below. They appeared to be Ame missing-nin judging by their forehead protectors and gear. Kuushou signaled to her using ANBU code, startling the tokubetsu jounin slightly before she responded in kind.
Attack, Plan, Question, he signed.
Wait, Sleep, she replied. A moment later she added another sign, her movements sharp and emphatic: Mine.
They continued to wait until two of the ninja had retired to their bedrolls and only one remained awake to patrol the clearing. Anko shimmied down the tree quickly and silently, using absolutely no chakra to betray her presence as she did so.
She waited for several minutes, silent and still, for the patrolling ninja to move closer to her. Once he was in range, she struck, plunging a senbon deep into the ninja's neck then carefully easing the suddenly limp body to the ground.
Kuushou was surprised to find that the ninja was still alive, and for a moment believed that the woman intended to capture the ninja for interrogation.
That belief lasted until she had similarly disabled the other two ninja and arranged them all in the middle of the clearing. She stuck each with another senbon, and after a few seconds their eyes fluttered open. Their bodies remained still and they made no sound, however.
"I don't have time to do this properly," Anko said. "We've got a lot of other fish to fry, it seems. Still, I have long enough to make my point."
She ran through a series of handseals and summoned up a small snake. This one seemed to have scales covering every color in the rainbow and shimmered in the dim light as it coiled around itself.
"It has been a long time, Anko-sama," the snake hissed quietly.
"That it has, Itami," she said. She pulled out another senbon, fingering it slowly as she stared at the paralyzed ninja.
"For your crimes against the village of Konoha, you are hereby sentenced to death," Anko told them. "Execution shall be carried out immediately." She glanced at the snake coiled at her feet. "Bite each of them once, in the foot."
"As you wish, Anko-sama," the snake hissed before slithering forward. After the snake had administered the bite, Anko stuck each of the ninja with the senbon.
"You bitch," one of the ninja growled as he began to regain control of his limbs, "I'm going to kill you for this."
"Why did you release them?" asked Kuushou curiously.
Anko's eyes were dark as she stared at them, unconcerned as they slowly struggled to their feet. "So I could hear them scream," was her answer.
A moment later, the ninja doubled over and an agonized yell tore its way out of their throats. They collapsed to the ground, rolling back and forth as their cries slowly died off.
"Don't fuck with Konoha," Anko spat once the last of them had stopped moving.
Her viciousness in reacting to threats was almost inspiring, and reminded him of his own responses at times; she seemed quite loyal to Konoha, however, which was a shame.
After that she had returned to her previous persona and they had tracked down as many of the bandit groups and missing-nin as they could. They had definitely stayed longer than their mission called for, but they had been far from idle. During the first day they had taken out three more bandit groups and an even dozen missing-nin, the majority of them C-rank but with two B-rank mixed in.
They had spent the night in the wilderness, taking turns keeping watch and remaining wary of even more missing-nin attempting to enter the Land of Fire. Kuushou didn't particularly care either way, but this mission was proving to be very useful in impressing his observer and would likely remove any doubts as to his abilities. The night had passed without incident, but the next day had revealed that the previous encounters were only the leading wave of opportunistic bandits and ninja scouring the Land of Fire for any sign of the Forbidden Scroll.
And now they were in the middle of an increasingly absurd battle as ninja and bandits targeted them and each other in an attempt to seize control of an object that wasn't even there. None of them were particularly skilled or dangerous, but sheer numbers and and chaos sufficed where individual merit did not. With yet another ninja charging in to join the battle, Kuushou had had enough.
He dispatched the closest enemy to give himself time to prepare, then knelt down and gathered up a handful of earth. His chakra was hard at work condensing and hardening the dirt as he rapidly repeated the gesture several more times. Once he was satisfied, he shoved the pellets into his mouth and swallowed them.
"-maggot-ridden pathetic shriveled excuses for ninja who couldn't-"
"Duck," Kuushou said almost lazily before taking a deep breath. Inside his body he was hard at work compressing the air he was drawing in and reinforcing his body to properly support what he was about to do.
Anko didn't bother to question him, instead kicking her opponent away and dropping to the ground.
A series of sharp cracks filled the air followed a moment later by a high-pitched whistling sound. All across the battlefield bandits and ninja alike found themselves struggling to adjust to the new holes their bodies had acquired and failing miserably - nearly a quarter of the enemy collapsed following Kuushou's rapid barrage.
Unfortunately, the ones who were not targeted turned their attention to the greatest threat. An understanding seemed to pass between the many different groups involved in the battle, and as one they all focused their attacks on the Konoha ninja.
"Great plan," Anko said sarcastically. "Got any other brilliant ideas?"
Instead of answering, Kuushou stepped closer to Anko and slapped his hands on the ground. A dome of earth rapidly formed around them, intercepting kunai and arrows aimed at the two of them.
"And now we're trapped," Anko observed idly. "I trust that's not all of it?"
"Hardly," Kuushou said, focusing. He made sure to run through handseals this time to maintain appearances; the other jutsu he could claim to have enough experience with, but not this one.
"Earth Style: Thundering Rampart," he intoned, once more placing his hands on the ground. His entire body began to radiate chakra as he poured more and more power into the technique.
Anko eyes narrowed for a moment as she recalled everything she knew about that jutsu, then widened when she took in the amount of chakra he was giving off.
"That'll work," she muttered lowly before sinking into the ground. "I'll take care of anyone that's left once you're done," she said, then submerged completely.
Kuushou grinned. He could definitely get used to working with Anko – even when he pulled out something that should be unexpected like this, she just took it in stride and adjusted her own tactics to match.
With another surge of chakra, he released the jutsu and the dome exploded outwards into thousands of sharpened rock spikes. The enemies who had surrounded the dome and were trying to force their way in were devastated by the attack, those closest to the dome getting ripped apart entirely while those further back were merely impaled several times over.
Roughly fifty feet out the attackers had enough time to react or at least had a chance to survive. Of course, Anko made short work of the remaining ninja when she popped out of the ground next to them while they were still trying to recover. Kuushou didn't waste any time either, charging into the fray to finish off the few remaining opponents who had survived that onslaught.
A few seconds later the battlefield was completely still.
Anko began to move around the battlefield, systematically beheading the fallen ninja and bandits and sealing their heads into various scrolls. Kuushou mirrored her actions on the other side of the battlefield, realizing she was making sure all of their enemies were actually defeated as well as preparing to claim any bounties any of them may have had.
They met in the middle of the field, each covered in blood but without any significant injuries of their own.
"Not bad, blondie," Anko said, grinning at him.
"Not brat?" Kuushou asked sarcastically.
"Nah, a brat would have been puking their guts out or cowering behind a tree somewhere."
Kuushou chuckled for a moment, surveying the blood-stained battlefield around them. "Quick and dirty mission, eh?"
"Well... it was dirty at least, right?"
"Definitely that," Kuushou paused then, his head cocked to the side. "What rank would you say this mission qualifies as now?"
"Definitely A, even if most of the enemy ninja were pathetic..." she trailed off, eyes widening as she realized why he was asking. Then she burst out laughing, Kuushou joining her after a moment.
Which is how the Konoha reinforcements found them when they arrived a few minutes later.
Kuushou walked through the Konoha gates a few hours later, ignoring the shocked and disbelieving looks he was drawing. One item he had neglected to bring on the mission was a change of clothing, so he was still wearing his slightly ripped and much more than slightly blood-stained orange jacket and pants. Anko walked beside him looking fresh as a daisy, arms tucked behind her head and chatting animatedly about the glorious wonders of the dango she was going to be consuming soon.
"Geez Naruto, what happened? Sharp kunai too much for you?" came the amused remark from Kiba. Despite his taunting words, there was a tinge of concern in his voice. As far as Kuushou knew the Inuzuka had gotten along well enough with Naruto, even if they hadn't exactly been friends.
Kuushou just shrugged in reply. "Just got back from a mission; it turned out to be," he paused, turning to Anko, "dirty, was it?"
Anko's eyes gleamed. "Very, very dirty," she purred, slinking up to his side and draping an arm around his shoulders. Kuushou stifled his laughter as Kiba's jaw dropped; it may be a different world but he was still just as amusing to mess with.
"And that bit, at the end there," Anko continued, her voice rapturous, "that was just... explosive," she crooned, wrapping her arms around herself and swaying in place.
"You... she... but...," Kiba stuttered, his eyes wide.
"I'm hurt," Kuushou said, following Anko's lead, "I thought there were plenty of good bits in the seventeen hours before that."
"Oh, there were," Anko replied, having trouble containing her laughter now, "but none of that quite compared to the... finale."
Kuushou took one more look at the poleaxed expression on Kiba's face and lost it, bursting out laughing. Anko followed a moment later, and they ended up leaning on each other for support.
"Ah, screw you," Kiba snapped, realizing that they were messing with him. "Like you could actually get a mission anyway. You were lucky you managed to graduate at all."
Anko sobered quickly, her gaze snapping to Kiba. "Watch yourself, genin," she growled. "Blondie here has shed blood in defense of this village, which is a hell of a lot more than you can say."
"Yeah, right," Kiba said dismissively. "And who are you, anyway?"
Anko's eyes narrowed, but Kuushou waved her off before she could reply. "It's much more amusing if you let him dig his grave first. He'll just keep digging deeper and deeper and deeper, which makes the moment where you shove the dirt on top of him all the sweeter," he said lowly... though not so lowly that Kiba couldn't hear.
Anko's expression cleared, the amused glint returning to her eyes. "I like your style, blondie," she said. "Tell you what, you can treat me to dango."
"You mean you'll treat me to dango," Kuushou corrected as they walked away from Kiba, ignoring the Inuzuka's spluttering.
"I know what I said."
A few hours later a freshly bathed and fed Kuushou was standing in front of the Hokage along with Anko. The Hokage was currently rubbing his temples with his fingers and sighing.
"Tell me again why you felt it necessary to continue pursuing the enemy, Anko?" the Hokage asked plaintively.
"I made a judgment call in the field, Hokage-sama," Anko replied calmly. "I dispatched a messenger snake to alert Konoha about what we found at the rendezvous site, then set out to find the missing border patrol. Once we determined that the border patrol had been killed, we focused on tracking down those responsible to bring them to justice."
"That's the part I don't understand," the Hokage said. "You had a genin with you and were about to engage an enemy that had taken out a full team of chuunin."
"Naruto had already proven himself in combat by that point, Hokage-sama," Anko said calmly. "I had no qualms about taking him into battle with me."
"What rank would you give his combat ability?" the Hokage asked.
"Triple-B-rank, sir, at least. It could be higher, but we didn't actually fight anyone who would merit it."
"Really," the Hokage said slowly. Kuushou noticed the old man's eyes looking at him appraisingly, but didn't respond.
"Yes, sir. He could still use some polish and refinement, but he has excellent situational awareness and does not hesitate to do what needs to be done. His use of ninjutsu coupled with his reserves is... well, lethal."
"I see," the Hokage said slowly. "And what happened when you found the group responsible?" he continued.
"Executed in the field, sir."
"Was it not possible to capture them?"
"I do not believe so, sir," Anko said firmly. "Given that the border had been essentially overrun, I deemed the area to be hostile and had no compelling reason to take prisoners under those circumstances."
"Why did you not return directly to Konoha after that?"
"I had already sent a message to apprise Konoha of our situation. After taking Naruto's combat ability into account, I believed we would be of more use neutralizing any enemy forces who attempted to enter the Land of Fire."
The Hokage sighed again. "I can't argue with the results," he said finally. "Initial reports indicate that your section of the border had the fewest number of successful incursions, and clearly both yourself and Naruto-kun survived the experience.
"I will credit both of you with a successful A-rank defense mission in addition to the C-rank you initially took," the Hokage continued. "For Naruto-kun, I will treat that as the two required B-ranks for his full promotion, which just leaves his C-ranks."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," both Anko and Kuushou replied.
"Unless there is anything else, you are dismissed."
"Actually, Hokage-jiji," Kuushou said quickly, "there is one thing. What is the normal mission level to kill or capture a missing-nin?"
"It depends on the rank of the missing-nin," the Hokage said slowly. "An A-rank missing-nin would equate to a A-rank mission, and so on."
"In that case, I would like to turn in all of the bounties I acquired in the course of the mission now."
The Hokage's face was torn between amused and chagrined. "How many would that be, exactly?"
"Based on the latest copy of the Bingo Book, seven C-rank missing-nin and two B-rank missing-nin."
The Hokage just sighed again, while Anko burst out laughing and clapped him on the shoulder. "Congrats on the promotion, blondie!" she chuckled. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to get rid of me!"
Armed with a sudden excess of cash, Kuushou had acquired much better and more thorough equipment along with a change of clothing. The black shirt and black pants topped by his new chuunin flak vest also had the side effect of rendering him almost completely unrecognizable, if the lack of reaction he received as he moved around the village was anything to go by. Apparently the old Naruto had worn the orange clothing so long that people didn't think about what he looked like wearing something else.
That had also proven useful in acquiring different lodgings, as he had already moved into an apartment complex in the Shinobi Distict, only a few blocks away from the Yamanaka's house.
Some people could still recognize him easily enough, though, Kuushou noted sourly as he consumed another bowl of ramen; sitting next to him was the med-nin who had administered his test during the Hokage's evaluation. She had proven most tenacious about hounding him to come work for the hospital while simultaneously pulling yet more medical knowledge out of his head.
"I had the opportunity to try the technique you described on a patient yesterday," the woman, Mareko, said. "It worked perfectly, and I had to explain to the other surgeons that I hadn't come up with the technique myself. Now all of them want to meet you, so you really should stop by the hospital soon. Think of all the lives you could save with what you know and could teach us!"
Teuchi just looked on, a bemused smile on his face as he served up another bowl of ramen. Kuushou hadn't volunteered an explanation as to why he knew so much all of a sudden, and Teuchi hadn't asked.
"I'm saving lives out in the field as well," Kuushou pointed out. "The presence of a combat medic raises the survival rate of allied ninja sevenfold."
Mareko frowned. "I know that's what Tsunade-sama's research says, but not all med-nin's have her level of combat ability to go with their medical skills. Enemy ninja prioritize med-nin's and you're far more likely to die out in the field."
"Possibly," he began, but was interrupted by a voice from outside the stand.
"Naruto!" Kiba called out. "I'm totally calling your bullshit! You didn't even show up for team assignments and your name wasn't called for any of the teams, so there's no way you were out on a mission before!"
"That so?" Kuushou replied, his tone clearly amused. Kiba apparently hadn't noticed his forehead protector or chuunin flak vest yet.
A squeak drew his attention outside the stand, where he saw Hinata blushing furiously and poking her fingers together. Shino stood beside her, his hands tucked into his coat and his face hidden by his collar as always.
Shino at least seemed nearly unchanged from his own world; his reserves were still smaller compared to the one Kuushou had known, but not nearly as much as compared to the others. For that matter Kiba was also closer to what Kuushou would expect compared to the others, though he seemed more aggressive and impetuous.
Hinata, on the other hand, was astonishingly different. It was fairly obvious that this one also had a crush on him, but it seemed far more debilitating. Her reserves were a fraction of what he had expected, and the feeling of her chakra was... oppressed was the best way he could describe it. Her stutter seemed to have grown worse here, rather than vanishing almost entirely as it had in his own world.
"A-A-Are you... alright, Na... Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked slowly, finally managing to look directly at him.
"Of course, Hinata-chan," Kuushou replied. "Why wouldn't I be?" The girl didn't reply, instead squeaking again and ducking her face behind the collar of her large jacket.
"You appear to be wearing a chuunin vest, Uzumaki-san," Shino observed quietly.
"What?" Kiba barked. "That's bullshit!" Akamaru yipped in apparent agreement.
"Indeed I am," Kuushou replied, nodding towards Shino. He didn't say anything further.
"Who is this... rude person, Naruto-san?" Mareko asked, sniffing slightly.
"Kiba Inuzuka, a former classmate," Kuushou answered easily, smirking slightly.
"Well, Inuzuka-san, if you don't mind," Mareko bit out, "I was having a discussion with Naruto-san and don't appreciate being interrupted."
"There's no way you're a chuunin!" Kiba snapped, pointing an accusing finger. "You graduated dead last!"
Mareko stood abruptly, reaching into her pocket and setting a few bills on the counter to pay for her meal. "I suppose we shall have to continue this another time, Naruto-san, in more pleasant company. I'll be looking forward to it."
She then turned to Kiba, glaring. "For your information, Inuzuka-san, I took part in Naruto-san's evaluation and can tell you for a fact that he more than earned that rank on the basis of his medical knowledge alone. 'Dead last' indeed," she sniffed, and stalked out.
"But... he did!" Kiba said plaintively.
Kuushou laid a much larger stack of bills on the counter and stood himself. "Just keep digging, Kiba," he said. "I'll see you soon, Shino-san, Hinata-chan."
As he left, he heard Hinata remark, with much less stuttering, that "Naruto-kun seems different."
Neither of her teammates replied.
A/N: Decided to go ahead and post the next chapter. I'm still not sure about the darker tone with the flashback, but there are other moments in the story that are going to be far worse than that as I have things planned out now, even if overall it's still relatively light. The reaction I get here will help determine how the rest of the story goes.
All of the genin teams, as you may have guessed from seeing Team 8, are the same as in canon. The third member of Team 7 will not be Sai, despite that being a rather common way to handle that. Instead I'll be using an extremely minor OC from TEC, Ogawa Kensuke - he was mentioned once as one of the members of Asuma's team in that story. Here he's high in the rankings in the Academy but was placed on a different team in canon and ended up not making a name for himself compared to the Rookie Nine. He's not going to be a major character in any fashion, but he might prove to be a minor character of note under Kakashi's tutelage... bwahahahhaha. Oh, I crack myself up sometimes.
Yeah, he's screwed.
Revised: 02/04/2012 - number of required B-ranks mistake - thanks to Zealot for pointing out the error!