Chapter: 8 (Training, and Waves)
Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise, It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, also note this chapter will contain what some might consider to be mild Kurenai bashing. I'm not doing this because I hate her or anything. I just want to have some conflict between her and Naruto for the time being. Also please note that I started a forum related to the discussion of this story.
It was a calm and peaceful day in Konoha. The sun was shining, the air was neither too warm, nor too cool, and a nice breeze was blowing. Truly it was the perfect day.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Screamed Ino as she ran from a rapidly attacking Fencer slashing at her back with it's rapiers.
Okay... Maybe not "perfect" for everybody.
Hinata was sparring with Naruto, while he used Fencer to spar with Ino. Hinata was getting frustrated, every time she got close to landing a blow, he'd not only manage to gracefully evade it, but countered with a quick spin kick in retaliation.
"At least Hinata-chan is fighting back now." Naruto thought with a grimace. "All Ino-chan has done for the last fifteen minutes is run away screaming." Losing his patience Naruto yelled out. "Ino if you don't start fighting back, I'll have Saba Simba join the fight!"
That made Ino change her tune, whipping out a pair of kunai, she quickly began blocking, and parrying Fencer's attacks as best she could. The puppet managed to score superficial blows to her arms and legs, but they did no damage since Naruto had replaced it's regular fencing swords with blunt-tipped training swords for this spar.
After a few more minutes of this, Naruto stopped, and shouted. "Enough! That it for Taijutsu practice." Pulling out two scrolls he then tossed them to the girls. "Each of these scrolls contain the instructions for three separate Ninjutsu, I want you to study and practice them in your spare time." Ino, and Hinata both nodded at Naruto, for they knew he was just trying to help them."
It was at this point that Kurenai showed up. Kurenai had obtained a new outfit after her old clothes were destroyed, during the Gennin exam. She now wore a shin-length red skirt with a thigh-high slit on the right side, along with a loose red shirt, with a long right sleeve, and a short left sleeve. She completed the look with a green Jonin vest and a new pair of ninja sandals that were black. All in all Naruto thought it was an improvement, in terms of attractiveness, and durability. (But about the same in terms of practicality.)
She looked at the girls, and knew that Naruto had put them through some training of his own. This was not pleasing to her, ever since they became genin, Naruto had basically taken both girls under his wing, and shut her out for the most part. The worst was that outside of missions he would almost never acknowledge her. She had cut him some slack on account of him being Minato's son at first, but now she was getting annoyed by his cold shoulder.
"Okay Team are you ready to start missions?" She asked them to which she got the following responses.
"Hell yeah!" Yelled Ino
"Yes Sensei." Responded Hinata politely.
Naruto simply nodded while giving her a slight glare. That was the last straw for Kurenai, she was going to find out what was Naruto's problem right here, right now. "Alright Hinata, Ino head straight for the Hokage Tower. Naruto stay here I need to talk to you."
Ino, and Hinata looked confused, for a second, but they quickly brushed it aside and walked off. After they were gone Kurenai then turned to Naruto. "Alright I want to know what is your problem. Ever since I became your teacher you've done nothing but undermine, and disregard me. I want to know why."
Naruto sighed. He didn't mean to be so blatent in his troubles with her, in fact at first he didn't have any. But then he remembered what he saw in her file, when he snuck into the records. He couldn't just ignore what he saw. He had to confront the issue before it tore at his soul, and drove him to do or say something stupid.
"Before us... Before this team... You had another student." Naruto stated.
Kurenai froze "Yes... I did." She said pretty sure that wherever this was going, she was not going to like it.
"Tell me... if things get rough... will you abandon the three of us... like you did to HER!?" Naruto shouted getting angrier with every word.
"Naruto... listen... back then I had to..." Kurenai tried to say.
"SAVE IT!" Naruto yelled. Naruto then froze, and took a minute to compose itself. "I'm sorry Sensei, but I have lost my respect for you, and I don't know if I'll get it back. I can't get over the fact that I have a Sensei that would give up on a student."
"It's not like I wanted to." Kurenai said with her head down a bit trying to hide at least some of her shame.
"Even when things were at their worst Sasori-san never gave up on me." Naruto thought out loud.
FLASHBACK
Naruto was trying to perform the Kugutsu no Jutsu on a simple training puppet. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't get the puppet to move. It had just begun to turn dark when Sasori came up to him.
"Come Naruto, night is upon us, you must rest." Sasori said.
"But Sasori-sensei, I can get it to move, I just need a little time. Please just a little more."
Sasori stood there in silence for a moment before saying. "Very well. I will give you another half of an hour, no more." He said as he slinked away.
For the next twenty-eight minutes Naruto worked even harder on the jutsu. Finally at the last minute Naruto finally got a chakra string to conect to the puppets hand and make it's finger move a little.
"YES! I did it!" Naruto yelled just as Sasori's voice came calling for him. Satisfied that he had at least gotten a finger to move, Naruto packed up, and headed back to camp.
END FLASHBACK
"I'm sorry." Was all Kurenai could say.
"Don't apologize to me. You need to apologize to Miss Karuma. Now if we're done here, can we please join Hinata-chan, and Ino-chan in receiving our missions?" He asked her.
"Yes... We may." Kurenai said as she began walking to the tower. "Yakumo, I promise I will do you right, and Naruto I promise I will earn your respect back." Kurenai thought to herself in an attempt to strengthen her resolve.
(At the Hokage Tower.)
As Team Eight entered the Hokage's office, Sarutobi looked up at them. "Ah good morning... After much consideration I have decided that you are ready for a C-rank mission."
"Finally!" Ino shouted in elation. "I was getting so sick of those dumb chores!" Although Naruto chose to remain silent for now, deep down he was thinking the same thing.
"Glad to see you're exited. Send him in!" Sarutobi shouted. An old, obviously drunken man entered the office. "This is it?" He asked. "These little brats don't look like they could protect a pile of shit, let alone me." He slurred.
"WHAT DID HE SAY?!" Ino yelled as she tried to lunge at him, only to be held back by Naruto, Hinata, and Kurenai. "LET ME AT HIM! LET ME AT HIM!"
"Sorry Ino-chan but your anger leaves me no choice." Naruto said as he began rapidly tickling Ino's sides. In seconds Naruto had her on the floor laughing her head off, and begging him to stop. Naruto then let her go, and stood up with her following, much to the bewilderment of everyone in the room.
"My point still stands." The man said to the Hokage.
"Mr. Tazuna, I assure you that despite what have you just witnessed, these four ninja will be sufficient for this mission." Sarutobi said to him before turning to the team. "Your mission is to accompany Mr. Tazuna back to Wave Country, and protect him until he can complete working on a bridge. Understood?"
"Yes Hokage-sama." The team all said in unison.
"Good." The Hokage said. "You leave in two hours, prepare yourselves, then report at the village gate at that time. Dismissed."
(Later at Naruto's appartment.)
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with Gaki?" Kyuubi asked Naruto as he packed up.
"No Kyuubi-hime. I'll be just fine on my own this time." Naruto said to her as he walked up, and gave her a hug. "You sure you'll be okay by yourself? I mean I don't know when I'll be back."
"Don't worry Gaki, if I need to leave the house for anything, I can always henge." She reminded him as she gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
"Thank you for understanding Kyuubi-hime." He said as he kissed her back on the lips. "There's just one thing I want to ask you."
"Oh really?" The Kyuubi said with a smirk as if she knew in advance what he was going to ask of her.
"Would you please look after Mikoto-hime while I'm gone?" He asked.
"You really care for her don't you?" The Kyuubi asked.
"Yes... I mean at first I thought she was just this really nice lady, then the buissness with Itachi happened, and after that she became like a mother to me, but now... Now I have other feelings, like an emptiness that will only fill when I'm in her presence. She was the first woman I met who ever cared for me, and if something happened to her while I was gone... I'd never be able to forgive myself." He said sadly.
"Tell me." Kyuubi began. "Your feelings for her, are they greater than your's for me?"
Naruto answered in less than a second. "I honestly don't know. All I know is that I would gladly die to protect either of your lives."
"Don't worry Naruto." Kyuubi said getting Naruto's attention as she usually just called him "Gaki". "I'll protect her until you get back. You have my word as a great demon lord." She said.
"Thank you Kyuubi-hime. I'll try to be back as soon as I can." Naruto said as he finished packing, just as he was about to head out, Mikoto entered the room. "Oh thank goodness, you're still here I came as soon as I heard you were going on a mission." She said.
"I'll leave you two alone." The Kyuubi said as she walked out of the room.
"I heard you were leaving, and I just wanted to wish you luck." Mikoto said with a bit of a sad smile.
"Don't worry Mikoto-hime, I'll come back I promise." He said as he hugged her briefly, which she returned. "Goodbye." He said as he ran out, and away on a new journey.
(A while later on the road to Wave Country.)
The group had, been on a pretty uneventful walk, until Naruto, and Kurenai both spotted a puddle on the road. "That's weird it hasn't rained in days. Must be a trap."Both thought. As they passed by it, two ninja wearing gauntlets connected by an edged chain emerged from the puddle, and charged wrapping their chain around Kurenai, they then yanked on their chain hard tearing her body to shreds.
"SENSEI!" Both Hinata, and Ino shouted in horror. Naruto just casually stood there. "The infamous Oni Brothers of Kiri. Missing-Nin. Looks like I'll have two sets of brothers in my collection."He darkly thought. The brothers then charged at Tazuna, ready to have him meet the same fate as Kurenai. However they were cut off as Kyuubi Cerberus was quickly summoned, and grabbed the chain in it's jaws, then stabbed the two brothers in numerous places with it's tail spikes. Killing both brothers.
"Fools..."
Naruto thought. "If they hadn't have been so eager for blood, they might have had more of a chance. But I guess you have to take any victory you can get." Just then Kurenai emerged. "Nice work Naruto, although we could have used one being alive for interrogation."
"Yeah, sorry about that Sensei." He told her.
"In the meantime." Kurenai said as she turned to Tazuna. "You have some explaining to do."
(A few minutes later.)
"This was not what we signed on for Mr. Tazuna. Regardless of your country's problems. This mission is officially over. We're going home." Kurenai said.
"No." Naruto said making everyone stare at him. "I'm not leaving this man."
"Naruto..." Kurenai began. "I am the squad leader, and I'll say whether or not we keep going."
"Fine go ahead. Sensei. Turn your back on this man, that seems to be what you're best at!" He yelled. Ino, and Hinata were dumbfounded. Kurenai looked like she wanted to slap him.
"Sensei..." Hinata began. "I want to see this mission through to the end."
"Yeah... If we abandon these people in their time of need, that will reflect badly on the whole village." Ino added.
"Sensei... I will continue this mission with or without your approval. It's your choice." Naruto told her.
Dejected Kurenai lowered her head, then she turned to Tazuna. "If we help you complete this bridge, are you sure Wave's economy will improve enough to pay for a higher ranked mission?" She asked.
"Oh yes. I'm staking my entire life on it!" He said.
"Very well. Let's move out, we've wasted enough time here."
"Yes Sensei!" Hinata, and Ino yelled. Naruto didn't answer he just walked over to the bodies of the Oni Brothers, and sealed them into a scroll.
"Naruto-kun... What are you doing?" Hinata asked.
"These bodies have use to me... I'm sorry Hinata-hime, but for the sake of preserving your innocence, I can tell you no more." Naruto told her as he began walking along, and everyone followed.
(Several hours later.)
The group had just gotten off a boat on the shores of Wave Country, and were now proceding to walk towards Tazuna's house.
"Hinata-hime." Naruto whispered to her. "Use your Byakugan to scope out the area around us. An attack could come from any direction.
"Alright Naruto-kun." Hinata said as the bulging vains around her eyes signified the activation of her Doujutsu. No less than five seconds after she yelled out. "Everybody get down!" Everyone hit the floor just as a large lightning bolt flew past them. It collided with a tree blowing it into a million pieces.
"Damn you were able to dodge it." A man said as he stepped onto the scene, he was carrying two strange-looking swords, and appeared to have some sort of large satchel on his back. "No matter, if you put up some resistance, that makes it all the more fun."
Kurenai's eyes widened at the sight of the man. "Sensei who is that!?" Ino yelled in a panicky manner.
"Raiga Kurosuki." Kurenai answered. "One of the Seven Swordsmen of Kiri."
And so ends another chapter of this story. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna turn some people off with this little development. Don't worry about Zabuza, and Haku. I have other plans for them. Needless to say the history in this fanfic will be different than in regular cannon. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. I'll try to have the next chapter up by October.