A few weeks later
Naruto slipped in through his perpetually open window and slipped his equipment off onto the battered chair in his room. It occurred to him that he didn't actually know what colour it was. Still, why should he? Colour didn't really matter that much to him.
The mission he'd been on had been forgettable, and he remembered he had a mission report to create for it. The sooner he put it on paper the sooner he could stop holding the active information.
Good thing he could write legibly in the dark. He reached for the pad of paper that he'd obtained for this purpose and a pen, and began to write.
'Mission Report: Uzumaki Naruto
Mission: Escort medical convoy to outlying villages
Rank: C
Status: Successful'
He paused. What else was there really to write? He opted for the direct approach.
'The mission was completed without any need for my aid or intervention, and the convoy was not followed or intercepted by any form of enemy forces.
It was undertaken over a period of two weeks and 3 days, with 5 of those days being stationary within the villages the medical convoy was visiting to allow for treatment to occur.'
He realised he was finding this task interesting. It took his mind away from the dark things he had been mentally staving off ever since he re-entered Konoha. He applied pen to paper with more energy.
'The convoy was greeted with enthusiasm in each of the villages, with vocal and body language positives from all the convoy encountered. Although only three emergency cases needed immediate care, the presence of medical staff away from Konoha appears to have brought happiness to the populace. This thus increases the farming and production output, and helps Konoha directly.
One particular incident involved a young girl who...'
He paused. The words just seemed to come to him sometime. Even if what he was writing was beyond his remit, he felt almost compelled to...to.
There was the sound of a senbon needle hitting a wooden board outside his door. Baka was learning then.
He walked up the walls and crouched upside-down in a dark upper corner. Eventually the door squeaked open with the sound of dying cat. Baka shut the door gently and waited. For a few seconds before walking forwards. A clumsy foot hit the report on the paper.
He picked up the report and moved towards the light switch. Naruto dropped and grabbed the hand just before it made contact, moving it up behind the boys back.
"No kunai this time?"
"I don't have any reason to kill you."
"You're going soft."
The voice sounded amused.
"What?"
"It means you're becoming less...spiky in your greetings. As in less bladed weapons involved. Could you let go, it is still quite painful."
Naruto relinquished the hold.
"You're back. How have your missions been?"
"Dull. Yours?"
Naruto remembered that dull was another term for lacking in deviation from the norm.
"Similar. I'm writing the report for mine at the moment."
"Can I see? Well I won't be able to in the dark actually. Can you read it to me?"
Naruto knew the answer to that.
"Yes."
A small silence followed with Baka letting out a gentle sigh.
"Will you read it to me?"
"I could, but why are you interested?"
"Well, you're a good ninja. I want to get better, so getting to know how you think would be a good idea. Kakashi-sensei said it would be good for me to calm down in my approach to combat, and well, you seemed like a good person to talk to. Ero-sennin is too wild. You're calm, logical. I need some of that."
"That makes sense. You're improving."
"You know it. I'll be better than you soon."
"Our fields of expertise are so different that any such comparison is useless."
"You're no fun. Can I hear the report now?"
Naruto began to read the report. He'd already half committed what he had written to memory anyway in case he was called to talk further on it. He doubted he would, the Hokage seemed wary of him, distrustful. Probably a difference in philosophy about how they were shinobi.
"Keep going."
He realised he'd finished reading the report.
"I haven't written any more. Your arrival meant I stopped."
"Oh. Narrate. Tell me what you would write as you write it. You have a nice reading voice as well. Guess you've never heard that before either huh?"
"Indeed."
He retrieved the pad and pen and paused to catch where he left off.
'...young girl, who was suffered a severe injury during a game of 'Ninja'. The intelligence of her jump must come into question, but the medics involved took no heed of this and immediately began a healing jutsu.
I was sceptical of this action, as the medic in question had not compiled a full list of the ill and injured in the town, and his attention might have saved other lives in a hypothetical situation. However, they continued regardless, and had soon stabilised the girl's condition.
From there, they held an open clinic for all in the town. Having saved the girl, trust had been gained, and a large number of complaints, ranging from serious to imagined were soon diagnosed and treatment begun.
I suspect, although proving such a thing with so many additional human factors...'
"What? Human factors?"
He felt a buzz of annoyance at the interruption.
"Things that a logical analysis of a situation with humans does not seem to account for. Where the optimal outcome is missed due to an illogical decision."
"Like?"
"Ok, you are in a skirmish with a superior opponent."
"Right."
"A situation within the battle arises where you can save one of your two teammates. Which one do you save?"
"So pick Sakura or Sasuke?"
"Yes."
"For a pure skirmish situation?"
"Yes."
"No other things around? Noone else to help? I make one decision?"
"Yes."
"Sakura-chan."
He realised he'd been half expecting the answer not to be the one he'd have chosen.
"Why?"
"Sasuke is more likely to survive the situation, so I would save Sakura. Plus umm, I have other reasons to."
"See, that is a human factor. Your affinity for her leads you to make a sub-optimal choice. Sasuke is clearly more combat effective than Sakura is at this stage."
Baka sighed.
"But you don't get it. Given the choice, same situation, between saving a young child or a shinobi, which do you save?"
"The situation would be unlikely to arise for me."
"Choose."
"The shinobi."
Baka slapped his hand off his head with a smack.
"And you are the only person on this planet that would choose that path. You save the child. You save the damn child. Only a heartless person would do so."
"It would be inefficient to have such a party in combat. If the situation developed, I would have to fight more defensively to protect the child."
"You save them. Always. Get them to run, die if you have to to save them. Children are not simply sacrificed for efficiency."
That made sense. Anko had mentioned something like this before.
"The human factor."
"If that is what it is then I am glad I have it."
The boy's voice had risen from the whisper he used in Naruto's presence to a low growl. There was determination etched into every line of his face. Naruto memorised it like he had Hinata's. It was there in both. Determination. Raw untempered drive. Even if his face was only cast in shadows due to the darkness, it was still clear.
The boy backed down under the one eyed gaze, looking away slightly.
"Sorry, keep reading."
'...my conclusion is that the actions led to a greater number of people coming forwards. As such I commend them for their actions. I am unaware of the name, but the serial number was 001654, and the man was middle aged with grey hair.'
Baka muttered something so quietly that Naruto barely heard it. It sounded like something about names.
'The only other personal observation of note was that on the twelfth morning, there was a sunrise that consisted of several colours, which melded perfectly with the autumn leaves that were present in the forest at this time. The contrast with the evergreen leaves from the other trees was something I found interesting. However, I did not have much time to observe the variety of reds and yellows as the convoy broke camp at its regular early time.'
"You too?"
Naruto tried to understand the sentence. The grammar was wrong. Baka rolled his eyes.
"You like sunsets and sunrises as well? The Wave country had some really nice ones."
"I...find them interesting. The gradient mixing of the light may provide some use in terms of shadow camouflage, or a form of genjutsu I could use to better blend my shadows together. Furthermore..."
"You find them pretty?"
"I find the aesthetic aspect to be a minor bonus when compared to the uses that such phenomena could have."
Baka almost laughed.
"Right, I challenge you, next time you see a really good one, just to look at it like a picture. Just look at the prettiness instead of the practicality. I dare you."
"I accept this training."
Baka yawned. Night had been well set by the time he had arrived.
"I gotta go, early morning training with Kakashi-sensei. See you next time Naruto."
"You too Baka."
The boy left via the window, clumsily only just making it to the rooftop as tired feet slipped a little on the window ledge.
Naruto turned back to the report, considered anything addition, then folded it neatly for submission to her intray the next day. He'd probably just get in at four, and then wait to see if anything came up.
He silently yawned and paused as the implications hit him.
Whilst yawning was not unusual, this one felt like it had drained him. His eyes caught the dim outline of his bed in the corner and the implication of softness was inviting. Very inviting.
When had he last slept properly?
He checked the moon and guessed the time to be about midnight. That gave him a four hour window where sleep was possible.
He slumped onto the bed and crashed into a gloriously dreamless and undisturbed sleep.
He had once more been hanging from the ceiling of the mission hall when a sign finally appeared that he would have a more interesting mission.
A very obvious sign. In fact, it was a literal sign. The Hokage had finished dismissing the team for their missions, and held a piece of paper upwards with the words 'Office, two hours' written on it. She'd held it for a couple of seconds before crumpling the paper up and tossing it into a bin behind her with practised ease. The paper didn't touch the lip of the bin on it's trajectory.
So now he found himself standing in the office with some familiar people. Specifically, Talon and Anko.
"Right, the Daimyo has requested that we make some kind of impression on Suna to prove that we are not weak from Orochimaru's attack. Even if we've countered every border feint they make, we are supposed to make an impression by striking back, even if the assault is small. Given we have a lot of specialists as opposed to a large number of regular forces, I've decided to make a little surgical strike."
Anko bounced up and down a little.
"Who's the target?"
"Patience Anko. There's a reason you're here. We have intelligence that indicates they are close to appointing a new Kage, but that the Wind Daimyo is cautious about him. I think we should shake him up, prove that we can hit anyone, anytime we want. If that keeps the Daimyo from making a decision, Suna weakens more."
She tossed the three files to all three of them with a nonchalant flick. If you could do it with shuriken, well, files weren't too different.
The man had no real distinctive features that Naruto cared about. He memorised the picture anyway. He was a target.
"I'm just sending you three in. Your job is to infiltrate Suna and its hidden village, find the Kazekage candidate, and either kill or frighten him, preferably the latter. Ideally you could capture him, humiliate him, and then give him back to them."
Talon tossed the file aside with an even more casual flick than the Hokage's.
"Sounds cruel of you to order Hokage-sama."
"We are at war, even if it is only unofficially. The Fire Lord desires the lands for himself, although I'm not entirely sure why."
"More land, more money I guess."
"That sounds about right. Dismissed, good luck. This is going to be a difficult mission."
The three of them left the tower and regrouped at its base. Darkness was beginning to fall over Konoha, the sunset burning a dull red in the distance. It wasn't interesting enough for Naruto's taste.
"I'm guessing you both came fully equipped?"
"Yes Talon-kun."
"Yes."
Talon's mask gave no indication as to annoyance or not.
"Right then, let's move out to Suna."
Naruto once more found himself bounding to try and keep up with the older shinobi. He was still not built for fast travel at long distance, but he kept the pace that Talon set.
He stared out into the desert from the edges of the dead forest. He felt the place was deadly in more ways than he expected. He noted it down as a place he could flee to if necessary.
By day, the desert was possibly the greatest defence that Suna had. The nearly endless desert, combined with the scorching heat and tiring conditions made it difficult for outsiders to operate at full capacity.
With oasis's hidden by genjutsu, the locations known only to Suna shinobi, water was even harder to come by. Get lost, or travel too slowly through the desert and you were dead.
They were going to wait until night fell. The clouds remained free from the sky, and the light of the moon would be able to guide them forwards. But night was when the Suna shinobi would have the best chance of spotting and ambushing them. It was a price worth paying to avoid the burning heat.
There was very little cover, and nothing but sand and the occasional venomous creature.
All in all, the place was horrible.
Naruto found himself almost admiring the way that nature crafted its own perfect death trap for people to just walk into.
He glimpsed out using his Byakugan at the desert and found possibly the most wondrous sight he'd ever seen,
The desert was glowing under the vision. Glowing. A weak signature, like that off a civilian crowd, but it was there. That meant the desert, the entire desert was charged with chakra. He wanted to stare and stare at it. Then he knew he had to say something because it was something exceptional.
"Talon-taicho, Anko-chan, the desert is charged with chakra."
"As in someone is using a large slow jutsu?"
"No, the entire desert has chakra. Every grain of sand has been charged."
"That is...unprecedented. Any ideas as to why?"
"The only logical conclusions are that someone immensely powerful has cast a large scale jutsu over the desert area within my sight range along the border, or that a Bijuu is reforming."
Anko looked at Talon, a look of worry on her face.
"How far is your sight range Naruto?"
"Roughly half a mile."
Anko raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Suna don't have anyone that powerful at the moment do they?"
"No. That means the one-tails is reforming in the desert."
"Shit."
The word summed up the idea of a tailed beast reforming in the desert on their borders. But it did create a vast array of idea for Naruto.
"The purpose of this mission is to prove Konoha's superiority to Suna is it not?"
"And to weaken Suna as well. You have a plan?"
"Somewhat, I have an end goal and a part of the means devised."
Talon's voice was firm, all humour lost.
"Share."
"The reformation of the one-tailed beast will cause Suna alarm and they will seek to both save themselves and to capture the beast. The sealing will likely involve several high ranking Suna shinobi and seal masters. If we act at the right time, we could cripple their strengths and prevent them taking the beast. We won't even have to go into Suna to kidnap them."
Talon considered the plan.
"Devious. How long until it reforms?"
"Not sure, I would need to observe the desert for a much longer period of time to observe the effects of its reformation."
"Estimate."
"I cannot with any degree of accuracy."
Talon sighed. They were on the border, which was a couple of days away from Konoha. Ideally, he'd send word back and get a whole platoon of ANBU and Jiraiya ready for this. He didn't know if he had the time.
"Right. This mission just hit S-rank. We need to get additional backup."
Naruto shook his head.
"If we miss this opportunity, Suna will be much more dangerous."
"Darkie-kun has a point. I'm not leaving."
Talon sighed.
"Well, we have to get backup, and unfortunately none of us has a summon animal suitable for message carrying. I'm heading back; I should be back in two days max. If it does start reforming, do what you can but don't take any risks."
"Hai."
He left at speed, chakra enhanced muscles propelling him towards Konoha once again.
A/N Ghost just exceeded The Damaged Network in terms of reviews. All of you are awesome!