DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own. PLEASE REVIEW! I will take advice and suggestions from my readers while continuing the story.

Thinking

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

Naru didn't remember the exact words she'd used the first time, but after taking a shaky breath, she smiled as genuinely as possible at the elderly man who meant so much to her. "Ne, JiJi: isn't it about time for us to be moved up to a C-rank mission?"

Naruto walked away from the Tower, arguing with Kurama within her mindscape. Once again, things were different but still somehow on track - and that couldn't be good… She needed to talk to Shikamaru. Making sure that no one was within hearing distance - even hearing enhanced with chakra - she held her earring tightly and focused on her - oh crap - her orange-haired brother. "I know you're there."

"You troublesome blonde, do you realize all the crap that I went through today? And it all stems from your actions, damn it!" Shikamaru gritted out in a slightly whiny voice. "Get over to the house and undo whatever the hell you did… please?! I even went out and bought hair dye, only to find that it didn't make a difference after I rinsed the shit out! And it smelled, Naruto: gods, the stink!"

"No can do, Aniki," Naruto began.

"BULLSHIT! Ouch!" Naruto heard him moan. "Sorry, Ma…"

"Seriously, Shika: listen up! We're off to Wave tomorrow."

"No way - well, I guess that's… good?" Shikamaru grumbled something she couldn't interpret, and Naruto could just picture him placing his hands in his old-man thinking pose. She finally heard and nearly even felt him sigh. "Troublesome. So it looks like things may be finally starting to happen as they did before, ne?"

"Yeah, maybe. Well... Crap. Sakura's coming, gotta go, Shika." Naruto tuned him out and continued walking forward slowly, lost in her thoughts and the plans she and her brother had made for this trip. It was different now - and there were two improved players on the board this time - so they all should be okay. They should survive with no problem and perhaps even without injury this time, considering that there would be a second rather elite Jonin as well as Sai, who had to be easily Chunin level, accompanying them. Naruto still felt fear, though - and had nearly avoided asking for the mission.

What other team could accompany the old drunk, though? That had been her thought. She should have more faith in her comrades, but it was a C-rank. C-ranks generally went to veteran Genin or available Chunin, but the Wave mission had gone so badly in her last timeline. There was a reason that it was reclassified as an A-rank, and they'd all been lucky to escape with their lives - even Kakashi. I wonder what Kakashi's going to think? And why the hell is Sakura following me? Oh well... At least those ROOT jokers didn't seem to be around.

Tazuna had been straight out plastered in the Missions Office when they met him, and Iruka hadn't even been there accompanying her grandfather-figure. Naruto let out a sigh that ended in a bit of a snarl. I'm sure Iruka was there last time. She distinctly remembered her Academy sensei arguing with Kakashi about something. Maybe it happened on a different mission - or before the Chunin Exams? Kami, Kakashi wasn't even there with us to accept the mission! Tenzo had accepted it without any worry it seemed, so everything should be alright.

I even gave the drunk coot a chance to reclassify the mission! And still, Tenzo didn't seem to think anything of it! Maybe last time they got the Wave mission the day after Drunk-san arrived in town? To think that he was in fairly decent shape when I first met the man! Dear gods, Tazuna had been barely able to walk this time! The Hokage had sent the two Chunin that were present at their briefing to accompany the old bridge builder to a hotel and to "sober him up." She'd given the old man the hangover medicine ball Sasuke had refused earlier, and what did she get for being so nice? The old man had spit it out on her!

"Whada hell? Tha' thing's like a… chewin' yur own damn tongue!" Tazuna yelled in disgust as Naruto wiped the chewed remains off her top while scowling at the spitting man.

As if I didn't know that! It's not like she hadn't tried to improve the formula! At least they worked and didn't taste as horrific as the ones Sakura made all those years ago. "What's up, Sakura-san?"

Sakura flinched a bit. She wasn't sure when she went from being referred to as Sakura-san rather than Sakura-chan, but she understood why her blonde teammate referred to her more formally than she had at first. She hadn't ever been exactly friendly to Naruto Uzumaki, and it made her feel bad - especially now, after hearing some odd things in the growing kunoichi community about the council's meddling in her life.

Mother, both Sakura and Inner Sakura thought grimly. Gods, her parents were being such a pain in the ass! No - that's not fair. Her father only bugged her about telling him all about her day, every day, and made his stupid jokes about everything under the sun. But her mother was different.

Dad even said that he felt sorry for Naruto that time… And what did he say? Something like, they should be glad it wasn't their child, considering… What? She didn't understand why her parents had occasionally been either bitching or arguing about the blonde - especially considering that they were civilians. The one thing that Sakura knew for a fact was that her mother absolutely detested the blonde, as did her mother's family. What could Naruto have even done? She's really not a monster… The blonde was scary sometimes, but she seemed to have a good heart, maybe. She even...

"Sakura-san, what's up? I know you've been following me. I - uhh - don't think the Bastard is still around," Naruto said while looking around and scratching her cheek.

"CHAA! You better believe my Sasuke-kun isn't around you, bitch!" Oops! Getting in control of Inner Sakura, "outer/real" Sakura finally responded. "Gomen, Naruto-ch -er, -san." Sakura noticed that Naruto had waved her hand at the honorific uncaringly. "Ano, you - you use storage scrolls to carry your things, ne?"

"Oh! Oh yeah, absolutely! I make my own because they can be so expensive, right?!" Sakura nodded her head a bit and looked embarrassed for some reason. "Do you want one? This one's a pretty good size, and I've got extra at home, and…"

"Hai! Thank you so much, Naruto-san," Sakura said with a tiny bow as she looked at the given blank scroll. "This will really help me carry my stuff. I really appreciate it."

"Meh - it's no biggie. What are comrades for, right?" Naruto asked as she looked away from her again.

"Yeah, comrades…" Sakura bit her lip. "And… ano, friends, right?" Inner Sakura raged at her for offering up a friendship to her rival for Sasuke's love and attention, but Sakura decided to try… Naruto's eyes lit up almost like twinkling stars and she nodded eagerly, which only made her feel worse over some of the things she'd said to her blonde and extremely endowed teammate. Inner Sakura went off on a tangent about both girls' bodies again, but Sakura clenched her fists and refused to let her take over. She listened to Naruto's friendly instructions about how her storage seals were a bit different, and how much she could add to the scroll.

"You might not want to bring too awfully much, Sakura. You know the pretty-boy Bastard will no doubt be analyzing every move we make," Naruto could almost see Sakura's fight taking place with that other personality of hers at her chosen words, so she continued quickly. "Tch. You're too good for him anyway, Sakura-chan; he's a bastard. ANYWAY…" I just don't want him to hurt you again, you pink pain-in-the-ass!

"Oh! You might want to bring some food and stuff. I heard Wave is in a horrible economic state right now… I wouldn't doubt that people may be starving and stuff," Naruto continued sadly as she drew her hand through her long hair, inwardly recounting how bad the citizens and especially children had it when she was there in her first lifetime. Things had been deplorable.

Sakura was shocked at that news but also grateful for the advice. She thanked Naruto again and headed home, wondering what in the world was going on in Wave. Her uncle had been trading there for years, and she never ever heard him complain about it. In fact… didn't he mention a few months back that the "New Wave" was coming along "splendidly?" She decided to ask him about it before she left in the morning but would pack extra tonight just in case.

Crap.

As much joy as he'd taken in extending what was sure to be fellow discipleship to the glory of Icha-Icha with the weird ROOT kid, Kakashi wasn't happy now. A C-rank… Why in the hell did Tenzo agree to such a thing? Sure, their team could definitely handle an actual C-rank, but he considered those missions to be classified as "C" for "Cursed!" Surely, many of those missions went off as planned, but so, SO many C and B-ranked missions went haywire or were total duds.

Maa, considering the Sandaime's placed Chunin to ensure the client isn't still wasted in the morning, things should be alright. The other thing that was concerning was the time-sealed additional mission he would apparently be taking alone - and why the Hokage had been oozing regret and guilt as he handed it over. Probably an assassination. He knew the old man had been trying to get him out of that business for years, but he was also probably the best at it. Kakashi sighed heavily.

Who knew that he'd be somewhat enjoying teaching a group of brats? Well, a group of very strange brats plus his little wife. Well - sort of teaching: he mainly pounded on them and let Tenzo-kun do the teaching while observing the group from behind his beloved book. And forcing Tenzo-kun to do things he didn't like was fun in itself, of course.

He summoned Pakkun. "Yo! Who's with Naru-chan now, Pakkun?" Pakkun didn't respond until Kakashi finally took a treat out of his jacket.

"No one," he finally answered and watched as his boss' eye nearly popped out of his head. "Just kidding. She just got home and showered. She's probably packing up right about now." Pakkun chewed his meaty treat and licked his little black lips as he took in Kakashi's relieved, wilting form. "My, my, we're protective over our little vixen, ne?" Kakashi scowled at him, as he knew he would. "By the way, Boss, she smells worried. Smiling and full of pets and love - but worried nonetheless. We could all tell."

Kakashi figured that his wife was just overly-concerned about their newest mission, which was good: it was always best to be as prepared as possible and to take every mission seriously. He listened as Pakkun complained about his packmates as they made their way toward the Memorial Stone, so he could let his old teammates know that he'd once again be heading out of the village for a while. He never noticed a man in a mask observing the Hatake and his summons from a distant tree. When he and Pakkun did sense someone nearby and quickly turned, the man had already teleported away.

Wave, huh? Obito smirked under his orange mask.

Naruto was already asleep by the time Kakashi got home and cleaned up. He ate his warmed-up dinner before wandering over to his wife's bag and storage scroll. Opening it up to see if she had everything necessary, he wondered why in the hell she would take so much food - and not all of it was even ramen - plus candy. She doesn't even like this kind... And SEEDS?! Continuing to peruse his odd little wife's scroll, he found that one compartment of the scroll was blood-bound. Well, that's no problem...

Pakkun watched in slight disgust as Kakashi smiled to himself and pulled out a tiny vial of blood that had been attached to the back of his Icha-Icha drawer. "Don't ask," Kakashi ordered. Pakkun rolled his beady eyes. His summoner was such a weirdo and always had been.

After putting on a plastic glove, the Jonin let out a small amount of his wife's blood and dabbed it between his fingertip and thumb. He smeared the blood over the last part of the scroll and scowled at what he found. There were three scrolls, all with time-release seals, and two of them looked exactly like the one the Hokage had given him. Without realizing it, he growled - it was low and menacing, coming from deep in his throat.

Something bad was up, and the Hokage was being less than genuine in dealing with at least two members of Team 7: of that much he was certain.