Review Shoutouts

FANATIC1229: Yes it would be pretty hard to pull off. I'm going to steer clear of that route. And the snakes from Anko's coat are still a summon/jutsu, it's Sen'eijashu (Striking Shadow Snakes)

underaged: You can have a job and still be broke as fuck… trust me.

Elemental Dragon Swordsman: Shush son! You know I can't tell you that shiznit… trying to spoil my flow…

Jyuubi6: I wasn't saying terminographical. I was making a play on the word terminology, which is a fancy way to say how something is worded. Sometimes I'm too much of a smart-ass for me and my readers' own good. *Sigh* It's my curse.

ChaosKid0: I can't in good conscience tell you that. Read onward and learn.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I used to own two dogs, but then they ran away… Probably to Kishimoto *sniff*. I love my dogs WAHHH! Why can't I own anything I love? WHY!

Chapter 14: Cutting Your Teeth

"Are we there yet?"

"No Naruto-kun."

"Are we there yet?"

"No Anko we aren't."

"…Are we there now?"

"Do you see buildings yet Naruto?"

"I see a lot of things I shouldn't."

And so Rin, Anko, and Naruto had been driving to Suna for two days. Naruto had chosen to sleep in the car rather than stay in a rented motel room with Anko and Rin, mostly because of Anko. And as we join the contingent of mercenaries we find them on the outskirts of Sunagakure.

As they drove through the city Naruto was stunned by the way it looked, he had never even been outside of Konoha before let alone inside another country. The buildings were traditionally lower to the ground and made of a more weathered looking material than the buildings in Konoha. The buildings looked sturdy and well built in addition to sharing the colors of the arid environment they found themselves in.

Naruto looked on as they drove through the town, "Hey Rin-neechan, why are the entrances to the buildings sunken into the ground?"

Rin looked to see what he was referencing, "Oh, well you know how hot it is right? Well being partially sunken makes the insides of the buildings cooler, kind of like a built in A.C."

Anko chuckled at the look Naruto was giving his new environment, "Kid, Suna is a lot of sand and heat. Trust me, you'll be sick of this place by tomorrow I'm sure. I just hope our hotel room has A.C."

Naruto scoffed, "I don't care about air conditioning. I don't have it at home so why would I care if I had it here?"

Anko laughed loudly at Naruto's proclamation, "That's right, Rin turned on the air in the car the second we crossed the border. Well just wait until you get outside then gaki."

As they arrived at the hotel Naruto jumped out of the car in a hurry, "Kami, my ass is asleep!" Naruto began doing meager stretches until he started smacking his lips and pulling at his open button-up, "Why is it so hot?"

Anko rolled her eyes as she and Rin exited the car and headed inside, "Gee I don't know, maybe because we're in the middle of the desert or something?"

Naruto growled, "This is going to be a long mission…"

XxX

After dropping their stuff off in the hotel room Rin and Anko went to go get the specifics of their mission. They had told Naruto not to come, as having the client see a kid as one of the people he hired wouldn't have gone over so well. So this left Naruto to his own devices to explore and get a feel for the new city he was in, "What the hell do they expect me to do all day, watch the squiggly heat wave lines?"

Naruto had long since ditched the orange button-up short-sleeve shirt he had been wearing, leaving him in a black undershirt. Taking his skateboard out of storage he left to find a useful endeavor for the day. Walking around was starting to work on his nerves as he had yet to find anything worth wasting time on and Anko and Rin hadn't summoned him yet, "Why the hell do people have to live where it's so hot? Seriously!"

In an effort to cool off Naruto had found a convenience store and bought a soda before continuing a search for anything worthwhile. Getting sick of walking through the town he went to his old stand-by, skating through traffic, vehicular and human. Not having any hills however made this mostly him pushing every eight seconds, however this gave him decent speed anyway. Despite not being able to find anything productive to do he was having a blast making himself a nuisance to the citizens of Suna.

The blonde boy grinned to himself as he ducked from sidewalk to street, dashing through people and cars just for kicks, 'Geez the way they're looking at me you'd think they'd never seen a skateboard before.'

Cutting through the crowd of people on a sidewalk he never saw a leg stick out before he could dodge.

Naruto spilled from his board and rolled along the dusty sidewalk before coming to a stop, groaning while laying on his face, 'Alright who's the dead fuck that did that?'

Naruto slowly stood to his feet to see a boy a few years older than him smirking smugly. He had brown hair sticking out from under a black bandanna on his head and a decently large pack on his back. For some reason despite being in the desert he was wearing all black clothing.

Naruto rose to his feet, dusting himself off, "What is your problem? Do you always trip random people or do you just have some sand in your vagina today?"

The boy sneered at Naruto's vulgar insinuation, "I have a problem with annoying punks disturbing my peace, that's my problem."

Naruto walked over to his fallen skateboard and picked it back up before giving the newcomer a narrowed-eye glance, "I was just skating. If people doing things on a public street make you angry then maybe you should just stay inside huh?"

The boy chuckled, "You're not from around here are you kid?"

Naruto shrugged, "So what? Common courtesy is universal knowledge."

The boy spit on the pavement, "You know you're starting to get on my nerves kid."

Naruto put his board down and crossed his arms, "Well then do something about it. Or is tripping a guy standing on a narrow piece of wood the only way you can look tough."

Having enough of the new mystery kid, the black-clad boy dropped his pack from his back. Naruto noticed the thump it made, 'That can't be good.' "Hey are we actually going to fight out here? What about cops or something man, I really don't feel like getting tossed into a Suna prison."

He unfastened the top of the pack, "Don't you worry about that. Fighting doesn't get you anything out here, it's the way we are, it's how a lot of us settle things around here. Prison is the least of your worries, try not to die okay?"

With the pull of a rope on his pack the entire thing fell apart as a figure rose from it. Naruto took a good look at it, seemingly made of wood it resembled a three-eyed, four-armed humanoid with jagged teeth and spiky black hairstyle protruding from the top of its head and framing the sides.

Naruto raised his finger to point, "What in the sweet frosty hell is that thing?"

The Suna-boy patted the figure, "I guess a puppet is an unusual weapon. This is Karasu, my puppet outfitted for combat. And I'm Kankuro, just so you can remember the guy that kicked your ass today."

Naruto upon hearing the word 'weapon' set himself in his fighting stance, "Kankuro huh? Well after today you're gonna have to remember the name of the kid that rolled you up and smoked your ass on your own turf, Naruto Uzumaki. Now enough talk, let's see what that glorified splinter can do."

Kankuro began laughing, "You really have no clue what you're getting into do you? Why do you think the streets cleared out?"

Looking around brought attention to the fact that the second Kankuro brought out Karasu people got the hell out of dodge, even the traffic in the street, leaving the two alone on the road. Kankuro flexed his fingers forcing a chattering noise to come from his puppet, "Nobody wants any collateral damage from my puppet."

Naruto went into the pockets of his lined cargo pants only to find that he had no weapons with him, 'Fuck! I left all of my combat stuff at the hotel, I'm screwed!'

Kankuro noticed the shift in Naruto's stance, "Alright let's get this over with." And with that he sent his puppet flying at Naruto. With the cloak obscuring the body of Karasu his only first warning was a gleam from the sun. Naruto jumped into the street just in time to avoid a close shave from the blades in the puppet's arms.

Naruto gulped as Kankuro turned Karasu towards him, "Damn me and my lack of diplomacy…" Karasu opened a compartment and fired darts at Naruto who dodged and allowed the darts to hit the ground. As he dodged he noticed the liquid soaking from the blades in the ground, 'Poison… This just keeps getting better and better.'

Naruto took his chances and decided to simply attack Kankuro head on, but his use of Karasu wouldn't allow Naruto to get close as the wooden assailant relentlessly kept on the boy to keep him from getting the time to launch a head-on attack.

Naruto began getting angry at his inability to create any space, "It looks like I have to break your little tinker toy to get rid of you."

Kankuro laughed out loud, "You can try. By all means, go ahead and try to attack Karasu and see where that gets you."

Naruto smirked as his eyes became slitted, "Oh I will." He let his claws grow out and took a swing at Karasu, "Fungeki Kiritsukeru (Fury Slash)!"

The wave of energy from his claws collided with the puppet, sending it flying backwards. Kankuro let surprise show on his face for a moment, "You know jutsu?"

Naruto sent a fanged grin his way, "Would I have stuck around after you pulled that frightening bastard out if I didn't?"

Kankuro nodded before sending back a grin of his own, "I think this will be pretty fun." With that being said he pulled Karasu back to his feet, chattering all the way.

When Karasu launched back in to slash at Naruto Kankuro found that Naruto's evasiveness had been heightened. After Naruto had put some distance between himself and the killer puppet once more Karasu launched a ball at him. Naruto saw the incoming projectile and formed a blue flame on his fingertips before throwing it at the orb.

Upon contact the two attacks exploded. Naruto looked over at Kankuro, "What exactly was in that thing?"

Kankuro chuckled as he brought Karasu back to his side, "More poison."

Naruto slapped his forehead, "Hey! I know you said fighting was legal in Suna, but I know flat-out homicide is illegal everywhere! Stop doing stuff that can kill me!"

Before Kankuro could respond he was bashed in the head with something heavy that forced him to drop to the ground holding his noggin.

Naruto saw a girl with four blonde pigtails standing over Kankuro holding a massive fan, obviously the source of his enemy's pain. The girl had on a light colored shoulder cut dress with a red sash that stopped at her knees. Under the dress Naruto could see a mesh suit around her shoulders. It was clear to him that this girl was also older than him.

Kankuro jumped to his feet glaring at the girl, "What the hell did you go and do that for Temari?" Kankuro flinched when she made a threatening gesture with her fan again. Noting this she huffed, "You idiot, stop fighting in the street. Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

Kankuro rubbed his head, "It wasn't much of a fight… We didn't even scratch each other by the time you got here."

Temari growled at him, "That isn't the point fool." She turned her attention to Naruto across the street, "And you. Who are you anyway and why were you fighting my brother?"

Naruto lifted an eyebrow, "Your brother? That guy is your brother? No offense but he's kind of a douchebag, and you're really hot. How is that possible?"

Temari blushed but squashed that thought, "Answer the question already?"

Naruto sweat-dropped, "Nevermind I can see it now. I was skating down the street when this guy tripped me up for no reason. I don't let stuff like that slide and then we started to get into it and then you showed up to smack the fuck out him before it escalated."

Temari looked over at Kankuro who nodded in agreement, "Wow, how long was the fight?"

Kankuro shrugged, "I don't know, maybe five minutes or so."

Temari looked back over at Naruto, "That's kind of impressive, you fought with Kankuro for five minutes and didn't get hurt or poisoned or anything."

Naruto's eye twitched, "I'm no lightweight damn it. If I was weak I wouldn't have even fought in the first place."

Temari nodded, "So are you a merc?"

Naruto's jaw dropped, "If I was I couldn't tell you!"

Temari rolled her eyes at the foreign boy, "Relax, first of all no one else is out here but us. Second of all even if we cared about that we're mercenaries too idiot."

Kankuro chuckled, "Yeah, you think random people on the streets carry around shit like this?"

Naruto retracted his claws and turned his demonic powers off, "So are we done? Or do I have to fight you both now?"

Temari shook her head, "I came to get this idiot, we need to go get our assignment today and here he is messing with some kid."

Naruto let out a breath, "Good, because I really didn't feel like fighting two-on-one."

Kankuro waved half-heartedly and walked off as Temari followed behind, "Later kid, maybe I'll see you around sometime."

Naruto walked over to his skateboard and picked it back up, "I just keep on meeting weird people don't I?"

XxX

After his fight in the street Naruto returned to the hotel room to wait on Rin and Anko, whom he had not seen in hours. He was currently laying on a bed watching television and waiting for his wayward superiors as night fell, "Suna TV sucks worse than Konoha TV…"

The door opened to reveal his partners Rin and Anko. Anko grabbed the remote out of Naruto's hands, who did not protest, and plopped down next to him, "What's on TV gaki?"

Naruto kept his eyes glued to the screen, "Total shit." Anko began flipping through channels, snapping Naruto out of his trance, "So what are we even here for?"

Rin sat on the other bed in the room and sighed in exasperation, "They're really playing their hand close to the vest. All we learned from the meeting was where we're supposed to go for a meeting tomorrow."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "So basically this mission will consist of you two repeatedly being led around town by a paranoid douchebag while I end up gallivanting around Suna for an entire month… Good times, what a way for me to earn a paycheck."

Rin mock glared at the boy who had just gotten kicked off of the bed by Anko, "If they don't give us our real mission at tomorrow's meeting we're leaving immediately. There isn't any reason to stay here."

Naruto stood up groaning as he stretched himself back out, "No I'm fine, no one hurry over and help me too quickly now."

Anko grinned at him, "I know you're a tough kid gaki."

Rin sat cross-legged on the bed, "So Naruto-kun, I didn't see what you could do at your entrance test. What do you do? As in what skills do you have?"

Naruto walked over and sat on Rin's bed, "Well I have Kawarimi and Henge from the scrolls you gave me when I was little. I have Teppodama no Jutsu and Kage Bunshin from my birthday scroll. I'm scrappy in a hand-to-hand fight, really unpredictable. And I have some other stuff that makes me more of a direct combat kind of fighter."

Rin nodded, "Well Anko is an assassination type, more of the one-hit one-kill types." Anko waved at Naruto in confirmation, "And I'm more of a support type. I can fight if needed and I have medical ninjutsu, but I'm more or less used for diplomacy. I usually work with Kakashi-kun and Obito, because those two idiots need someone to patch them up."

Naruto stroked his chin in thought, "So in case of a direct fight I'm basically playing 'human-meat shield' while you two do… whatever it is that you do."

Anko brightly chirped, "Yep! You're our expendable little rookie! Won't that be fun?"

Naruto sweat-dropped, "Yeah, fun like Hepatitis B."

Rin giggled, "Don't be like that Naruto-kun, you have us with you. We won't let you die or anything."

Naruto shook his head, "I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of getting my ass kicked and having it made public knowledge so Obito and Kakashi can fuck with me."

Anko pointed to herself smugly, "Then stick with me and listen to what I say kid, I was born for this job."

Rin narrowed her eyes, "Certain parts… When it comes to the part where you don't take the knife and stab it into the bad guy's neck you're about as skilled as a tube of toothpaste Anko."

Anko waved off Rin's comment, "Subtlety is so boring Rin-Rin. Why talk when you can beat someone up and make things go so much faster or pull out a knife and threaten them?"

Rin gave her a dry look, "Because doing things like that gets your team in over their heads…"

Naruto flopped back and landed his head in Rin's lap, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. All I hear is 'blah, blah, stab people,' and 'blah, blah, talk it out,' I'm too tired to deal with being mediator tonight."

Rin ran her fingers through Naruto's hair, "Well if you're sleepy then go ahead and go to sleep Naruto-kun. We need to get up tomorrow anyway."

Naruto yawned and shut his eyes, "Alright Rin-neechan, I'm crashing out for the night."

The peace was disturbed as Naruto found himself deposited on the floor once more, "What the hell? Rin-neechan why?"

Rin smirked at Naruto, "We're ladies Naruto-kun, we need the bed and you're too young… actually you're too old to get away with sleeping with me, you might try something perverted."

Naruto rubbed his back as he sat on the floor, "Bullshit! Where the fuck am I going to sleep then?"

He turned to Anko who had still been watching TV, "Not a chance gaki, you've got to earn the chance to sleep in my bed. You're just a green little rookie. Come back in five years why don't you?"

Naruto's eye twitched, "Fucking fantastic. You two suck you know that?" He was answered by two pillows to the face.

XxX

The next day the two elder mercenaries elected to bring Naruto with them to the contact point this time. As they entered a small diner on the outskirts of Suna Naruto's eyes widened as he saw two familiar faces sitting in a booth. He kept quiet however as Rin walked over to the man across the table from them, "Hello again Baki-san. Are we to do business today or are my team and myself to take our leave of Kaze no Kuni?"

The man, known as Baki turned his half-covered face to Rin before sighing, "This really isn't a mission I have a good feeling about. I had to ask my boss if we could go and get help with this because I didn't think my team alone could handle it, and then he sends me you two and a kid."

Naruto snorted, 'And exactly who are the ones sitting beside you? Yeah, Temari might be all woman, but hey, Kankuro is a brat like me.'

Ignoring Naruto's belligerent noise Rin kept on, "Be that as it may, in the end it's our choice to go forward. We want to get paid, we accept the mission. This is now a joint operation with Kaisha Seidou (Bronze Company) and Kaisha Hien (Flying Swallow Company)."

Baki nodded as he finished the drink at his table, "Very well. You, your older teammate and myself will go over the true nature of this assignment while our younger charges will go about their own business until we summon them to begin."

Temari and Kankuro rose from their seat and headed outside with Naruto in tow as Anko and Rin took their seats.

As they walked outside and began walking down the street Temari thought to make some conversation, "Hey, sorry about Kankuro yesterday. He's kind of thick headed and short fused."

Ignoring Kankuro's cry of protest Naruto grinned at the siblings, "It's cool. It seems that I end up with a positive relationship with tons of people after we trade blows for a while, it must be some kind of guy thing or something."

Kankuro smirked at that, "Well I hope we can count on you for this one kid. If Baki says we can't handle it alone then chances are we might be royally screwed on this one."

The three young mercenaries walked through the city in silence before Temari decided to speak up, "So, Naruto was it?" Naruto nodded signifying for her to continue, "What made you want to be a mercenary in the first place?"

Naruto chuckled, "Why did I want to be a mercenary? Because I can't sing or dance and it beats fucking working for a living."

Kankuro broke out in laughter as Temari blinked at him, "R-really? That's why you chose to do this?"

Naruto chuckled to himself before closing his eyes, "Not really… You'd probably find the reason why I do this stupid."

Kankuro's laughter died down, "Try us, you never know."

Naruto nodded and he took a deep breath, "Honestly, I saw it as my way out."

Temari and Kankuro looked confused, "Your way out? What do you mean?"

Naruto motioned for them to sit on a ledge by the sidewalk. As they sat he began to collect his thoughts, "I'm the bottom of the food chain so to speak. The lowest of the low; ghetto, low-class, orphan trash." He shook his head, "I was sick of being poor, sick of never having anything. All the kids around me lived comfortably, and even if they didn't live as well as others, it was better than me, at least they had parents that would do anything for them."

Naruto chuckled mirthlessly, "Did you know that I tried to get a job at a grocery store when I was 8? I was sick of living off of the barest of minimums, barely scraping by, I wanted to make some fucking money."

Naruto ran his hand through his hair as Kankuro and Temari were listening intently, "I had these friends man… Rin was one. They were mercs, they told me, they showed me their base, and they all looked so cool. None of them seemed hard-up for cash or anything. I saw a few of them sparring and practicing, they looked untouchable to me. I wanted that, I wanted to have a good meal whenever I wanted, to have my own cool things, to get some damn respect from someone."

Naruto looked at them seriously, "I remember how it used to be. I remember, and I swore to Kami and myself, that I would never, ever let myself go back to that again. Being a high-class mercenary seemed to be the straightest path out of poverty. After all, the social and financial ladder isn't as mobile as the people in power would have you think. Behind every great fortune is a great crime, and if I have to get my hands dirty to get a little piece of the good life, so be it."

He looked up and blocked the beating desert sun with his hand, "If you're wondering about the killing I put it like this; it's either you or me, and the way I see it, it might as well be you."

Naruto shot a lazy glance their way, "Sorry about the soliloquy there… So what about you guys? What brings you into our little slice of anarchy?"

Temari smiled, "Our father."

Naruto nodded, "Your dad wanted you to take it up huh?"

Temari laughed, "Fuck our dad. He wanted us to be his little bodyguards."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Bodyguards?"

Kankuro picked up after her, "Yeah, the asshole got us trained up right out of the cradle. He's the guy that runs this city, and he wanted us to be his perfect little soldiers. The way things are now I wonder if we should have done it…"

Temari clinched her fists, "That son-of-a-bitch… After he realized he'd failed to get us up to snuff as his little killers he ruined our little brother."

Naruto shifted on the ledge, "Ruined him? What happened?"

Temari wiped her eyes, "He did something to him while he was in our mother's womb. We don't know what, but it didn't just affect him, it weakened our mother. She died giving birth to him."

Kankuro gritted his teeth, "Our brother… Dad treated him like a leper. He never spoke to him, just worked him and worked him. He never even called him his son. And he finally got his weapon, at the cost of our brother's humanity."

Temari looked down, "He never had a friend, he never even had us. Dad kept us away from him, saying his weapon didn't have any need for us. He took Gaara with him everywhere, and he would force him to fight against his enemies and their underlings. He's been killing since he was six Naruto."

Naruto's eyes widened, he himself had gotten his first kill at ten, but that was a different story for a different time.

Kankuro spit on the ground, "He broke him kid, he fucking broke our little brother… He's a psychopath now. We finally got to see him, finally got to speak to him freely and do you know what the first thing he said to us was when we saw him?" Kankuro put his arm around Temari as she started to break down, "He looked at our dad and he asked him, 'Am I supposed to kill them too?'"

Naruto clicked his teeth, "Okay I think I want to go and kick your dad in the balls now."

Kankuro chuckled, "Us too kid. But you'd never even get close… Daddy's little weapon would crush you before you even made eye-contact with him."

Naruto scoffed, "How can he get away with that shit? That is the most inhumane thing I've heard of short of any physical abuse."

Kankuro looked at him, "Like I hinted at before, Suna doesn't really have cops. If you have a problem, you have to solve it yourself. Might makes right around here."

Temari dried her eyes, "We do this so that one day we might be able to get rid of that son-of-a-bitch ourselves… But as long as he has Gaara we never will. Heh, even if we did kill our dad, then what would Gaara do? All he knows is how to kill. He's broken Naruto, he's broken and we don't know how to fix him."

Naruto put a hand on her shoulder, "Look, I'm going to give you two my number. I may not look like it, but I'm the best there is at what I do, and what that is isn't pretty at all. If you even need my help, for anything, if you need an extra blade, or you just want to talk, call me and I'll see what I can do."

XxX

Baki, Rin, and Anko had long since left the very public diner for a more discreet locale, namely the roof of the visitors' hotel.

Baki looked out over the city, "When I said this was way over our heads I kind of meant it. This is straight assassination ladies, as simple as that. No parameters and only one secondary, and optional, objective." Baki then laughed humorlessly, "But as closely woven as the two objectives are we probably aren't going to be doing one without completing the other."

Baki tossed a folder at the women that was caught by Anko, "The target is Sabaku no Kesei. He pretty much runs this city. He isn't really the mayor, but that's really irrelevant at this point."

Anko passed the folder to Rin, it being full of info on Kesei, "What of his protection detail?"

Baki shook his head, "Not really a detail. It's just one person, but damn is it one person." Baki pulled a second folder and threw it over, "This guy is the most terrifying figure in Sunagakure history. I can't even begin to tell you how important this person is to Kesei's rise to dominance. If this guy wasn't around we wouldn't even be talking right now."

XxX

Naruto looked over to the brother and sister, "So… What's your brother's name anyway?"

Temari looked down, "Our brother? His name…"

XxX

Rin opened the second folder and began to read, "Hmm, his bodyguard…"

XxX

"Sabaku no Gaara."

OOOHHHH SHIT! Not really. You probably all saw this coming the second I wrote the 'going to Suna' part. I don't care. My story, I do what I want. I'm going to have some fun with this one though.

Time to go sit down and keep on waiting for UFC Undisputed 2010 to come out… This is a long-ass week yo.

Kenchi out… Snootchie-Bootchies…