Thud. Thud. Thud. The sound of stacks of paperwork keep on piling over the old wooden desks distracted him from his reading. Glancing back again at the scroll before him, he tried to focus on its contents but this turned out impossible with all the chunin running around the place that kept catching his attention. The fact that every couple minutes someone occasionally bumped him was not making it any easier either.
Naruto let out a sigh with barely repressed anger as he took on the scenery around him. Here he was, along his team, in the Mission Assignment Tower where they would choose the first mission to complete together as a team.
The building was quite big, and when Naruto first saw it from outside he couldn't understand why they would want so much space. But when he saw the utter number of people there he understood. Hopeful, inexperienced genin as him, the veteran chunin who carried themselves with a sort of normalcy to the situation, and the occasional jounin who guided those that were still a bit confused about the situation. All the shinobi ranks were present there.
Naruto hadn't been expecting that receiving a mission would feel so… intimidating.
'I also didn't expect how much these missions would absolutely suck!' Naruto thought once again that day as he read yet another mission for babysitting.
Right now he and his team were trying to decide on a mission, and they had been going at it for 10 minutes already.
'Which doesn't make any sense! Why can't we choose one at random and be over with this?!' Naruto screamed inside his mind as the impatience kept building inside him.
The continued thuds, the always changing scenery and the occasional bumps were starting to make him crazy. His senses were so overloaded in that moment he wouldn't mind one of the fox's illusions just so he could catch a break.
Fortunately, before Naruto could explode in anger and make a scene in front of the rest of their shinobi peers, the monotonous voice of his sensei broke through the confusing sounds of the place.
"Alright guys, our first mission will be to deliver some groceries for the Yuki couple. This will teach you how to treat with clients, which is very important for the village to keep getting missions." Naruto's head lowered in disappointment at the mission they would be doing, having hoped their sensei would be able to find something interesting.
"Anyways, before we go do that, I will explain in more detail how choosing missions and getting assigned missions work." That took Naruto out of his thoughts about how much missions suck.
"As a beginning genin, I will mostly be choosing the missions we do as a team because I'm more mindful of your skill levels related to the mission, so we will be doing the most 'interesting' ones as a team." Goya-sensei said as he uncomfortably accentuated the interesting part.
"But that doesn't mean you can only do missions as a team. As an individual you can also participate in other missions even with other people that aren't strictly from your team unless strictly specified." Naruto perked up at that.
'So, could I just do missions as a group of twenty people and complete a hell of a lot of them in a day?' Was Naruto's immediate thought, although he wasn't sure why he would wanna do that.
"Do note that the pay will be divided evenly amongst all members and that your variety of missions isn't much right now due to your rank." And that last bit of information served as enough of a detriment to Naruto.
"Now, as you keep progressing through the shinobi ranks you will be able to take on a bigger amount and more dangerous missions than before. You will also have more priority when ordering missions"
"What do you mean by that sensei?" And to Naruto's surprise, the question came from Michiya.
'I thought they both already knew all of this.' After all, when they didn't show any reaction at all to everything that had been said before, it was only logical of him to think that.
"It means that if a jounin and chunin request the same mission, the jounin will be given it instead of the chunin. It's one of the incentives the village has in place for people to not get stuck at the same rank. Even if this system could be exploited, like some jounin could only take the easiest missions of high rank to make them have a better reputation."
'Huh.' Was all what passed through Naruto's mind, because he wasn't sure if that was good or bad.
"Anyways, that's all there is to missions you choose. Now about the missions assigned to you, they are non-negotiable. You can try and argue with the Hokage about it, but he has the final say on the matter."
'So that explains why the old man has so many meetings in a day.' Naruto thought as he snapped his fingers at that mystery being solved.
"If you dare refuse the mission, you will be sanctioned and depending on the veracity of it, you could even be accused of treason."
Treason. That's something the three genin had learned very well during the Academy. Even Naruto knew it was bad if you were accused of it. It was the highest shame a shinobi could receive, with some even comiting suicide over it.
It was also dangerous. Tortures, intense interrogations, threats; all of those were done in order to provoke a lasting loyalty in the shinobi's heart that would not break again. Konoha didn't hold back when it came to those things, as the explicit and detailed excerpts they had read in the Academy made clear. And if the traitor in question tried to flee or broke its loyalty to the village for a second time, death would arrive to them.
That's the fate they would have to go through if they chose not to accept a mission, a mission that very well could include hurting one's loved ones, or damaging people completely unaware and innocent. Could they really be able to live with either choice?
-o-
Naruto sighed as he stared at his new seal. "Why isn't this working?" He complained albeit with less enthusiasm than usual.
Today had not been what he envisioned. Being a shinobi was not what he had dreamed of, and the missions were an absolute joke. Dealing with civilians that only complained as you did menial tasks for them was not how he wanted to spend the day.
Where were the bad guys to fight, the princesses to save, the towns to fix? Why did he need to wait more before he even stepped foot outside the village? And it wasn't like he could train much on his own, the only things coming to mind were his fuinjutsu and tree walking, and there was only so much he could advance in those two.
"Maybe I should ask Iruka-sensei another time, after all his main reason for not helping me train was because of his injuries…" Naruto muttered in thought as plans started forming in his head. Which only contributed to the slight headache he had been having for a while. Serving as one more drop on the flooding cup that was his mind.
He shook aside the painful stream of thoughts going around in his head as he focused once again on the seal before him.
The Seal of Storage! Or basically what seals were invented for. It served as the very basic of sealing seals, and could only contain small physical objects.
Sounds simple, right? Even when he had read the formula for it he thought the same. Only a spiral that had some curly things to it. But for some unknown reason it didn't work! He had tried to infuse it with chakra in every spot imaginable, varying the amount, and even using other stuff to seal other than his ramen cup.
Angrily flipping through the pages of the book, Naruto skimmed over it trying to find at least a helpful hint that would allow him to make a breakthrough with it, but there were none. It only contained a basic description of it, its function and a drawn formula on it.
"Damn this book and trying to make me figure stuff by myself…" Apparently the ability to have an intrinsic understanding of fuinjutsu rather than the memorization of other arts was the only way to make use of it effectively. However this understanding did not make the task any easier, after all he already struggled when the answer was given to him, and now he needed to find it?
Naruto vigorously shook his head at the self-defeating thoughts. There was no way around this, he would find the key no matter what!
And with a blue aura strongly emanating from him, he crossed his fingers and smoke erupted in his room.
"You know what to do, right?" Naruto asked at his newly created replica.
"Yes boss!" The copy loudly answered and a moment later they both began infusing the seal with chakra, every time with more chakra and more frequently.
A flutter of chakra infused fingers started jabbing the ink formula, almost as if it was an attack. Fah, fah, fah. The continuous sound of the paper getting attacked was heard, but both blonds didn't stop.
Gradually, the seal started shining, emitting an ever brighter light that soon illuminated the whole room, but they didn't stop. With a final push, both Naruto stuck with their entire palm covered in chakra, completely covering the formula.
Suddenly Naruto was taken aback by a loud light that completely blinded him, and in that state both he and his clone fell from the bed they were practicing. Ignoring his replica's unfortunate death, Naruto came closer to inspect the seal once the light had vanished.
Rubbing his eyes, Naruto noticed something. Something new. First, the ramen cup he had been using to practice was gone. Second, now on the seal was a new character inscribed in the middle. A character that meant his success.
"Yes!" Naruto shouted his lungs out, reveling in his achievement.
Thinking about what had made it work could wait, the blond absentmindedly though as he continued his celebration.
-o-
Short and simple. No mistakes or setbacks had been made. As expected of a shinobi, an efficient shinobi. Kotone repeated this little summary for some moments as she walked the empty streets to her home. It was expected of course, almost all the people were on missions or in the Academy by this hour.
The mission hadn't been special, as any other beginning shinobi's one should be. Doing menial labor for the civilians of the village.
Walking through the gates that separated the clan from the village, she felt the same cold that remained there as it ever was even when the sun was out. Her glance passed through the children performing different katas to connect them with the water, because everyone there had that affinity.
She wondered if that was true, having been told by the clan elders time and again even if they hadn't tested it with the chakra affinity papers. Because those were expensive, and unnecessary expenses over an already known outcome would be fruitless. They had also said.
Reaching her house, she quickly set out towards their training ground that occupied over half the space.
Looking at the river, she stepped on it with one foot first, and then the other. Water walking, a necessity if she were to become a proper shinobi, a proper Manami.
She shrugged those thoughts off as she dipped into the strangely cold water, distracting herself wouldn't do, especially because of it.
"Kotone, you can't still be struggling with this if it is on your team." The reprimanding voice of one of the elders came unexpectedly behind her. This came as yet another reminder to keep attention at all times.
Instead of answering, she just nodded as she continued the exercise. Focusing on the small ripples of the water rather than on the elder lady's lecture.
She knew, she already knew she had to get better fast. Faster than she had up to that point. Because fate had presented her with an opportunity much earlier than she had expected.
She had been naive, she now realized, but condemning herself for not considering this possibility wouldn't help.
"If only Satoko had been in that team instead of you, Kami knows she would already be setting a plan in motion to get it killed." Kotone almost frowned at yet another comparison to the genius of her clan, but thankfully stopped herself short of doing it in front of other people. That wouldn't do. Especially in front of someone from her clan.
'Just be patient, the opportunity will present itself and you just need to be ready.' She reminded herself as her body relaxed. If she just did that, she could accomplish her objective soon enough.
To kill it; the one of nine, that stands amongst the other eight, and the one that leads people to craze about it. The Kyuubi, the reason for so much death and insanity. The cause of the now barely occupied establishments of the clan and silent hallways. Why Konoha was no longer the strongest village without contention.
And the one who had led her father to commit the unnameable act for its presence was too much. It was luck that it was now chained to a carnal being, that it was now reduced to mortality. She would forever be grateful to the Fourth for giving her that possibility. All that remained to do was to kill that Uzumaki, which would be quite hard because of the Third's protection.
But Konohagakure didn't reach all, and so his death would come in the near future. Just not for now, she reminded herself. Not for now...
And down she went again to the shivering cold water. She shouldn't be thinking about plans for vengeance while training.
-o-
Michiya skipped across the street, happily bouncing from step to step as he reached his house's door. With a quick and fluid motion, he entered the key and made his way inside.
He was quickly met by the familiar scent of cooking, for which he stood for a moment to appreciate it before he made his way to the kitchen.
There, in casual wardrobe accompanied with a cute apron you wouldn't expect from a man of his job, his brother stood with his unmissable smile as he watched him expectedly.
"Well? How did your first day as a genin go?" Came the question that was all Mixhiya needed before blurting out all his thoughts.
"It was amazing! Sensei taught us all about the system to get missions, and we even did our first one as a group! I can't wait to help more people like you do brother!" Michiya said with excitement as he gestured at the discarded Anbu mask on the table, which was quickly put out of sight by the bashful man in question.
"Hey, you know I need to keep this stuff a secret. I hope you didn't spill out my identity to your new team, did you?" Which was met with an equal amount of bashfulness by Michiya.
After one long sigh of semi serious disappointment, his older brother out once again on his custom smile. "Let's forget about that for now, so… how's your team like?"
"It's great! Goya-sensei seems to be very experienced in the shinobi career, so I'm sure we will be competing in the Chunin exams sooner than later. And Kotone comes from a super clan and she is very strong on her own!" Michiya quickly responded with his usual jittery.
"So you haven't had contact with the Uzumaki as I told you, right?" And at that Michiya firmly nodded, he wouldn't disobey an order of his brother.
The man sighed in relief at the answer. "Good. Look, I'm not telling you to outright ignore him, he is going to be your teammate for quite a while, just don't get too close to him. I've observed him some times and there's just… some freaky stuff that happens around him." His brother looked aside for a moment as he said that, as if he tried to remember something obscure out of his mind.
"Understood!" And with that said, Michiya went up to his room to wait for dinner.
Maybe his team wasn't very normal, but that would only add up to the fun! After all, how many people can say that their teammate is a jinchuriki?
-o-
"Do we really need to do this without chakra?" Naruto asked once again at the uncaring jounin that was his sensei.
"Yes, it's good for you to develop muscle strength and get accustomed to a sore body. You will be feeling that too much when on long missions." Goya answered without even turning to look at his student, preferring to keep reading the scroll before him.
Once again being ignored, Naruto kept his grumblings to himself as he forced his strained body to lift another heavy box that was filled to the brim with vegetables.
Day two now was, and they were in the middle of completing the first mission of the day. Just two more missions like this and he could go back home and do whatever he wanted.
"Come on brat, I'm not paying you for daydreaming!" Naruto's brow furrowed at another complaint of the civilian that had hired them. Thankfully when he became chunin he wouldn't deal with annoying clients anymore. At least he hoped so.
Ignoring the old man as he made his way to transport the box in his hands, Naruto glanced at his teammates' progress. Kotone was surprisingly done, and was now glancing at a puddle of water in the street with disturbing concentration. Weird.
Looking toward his other teammate, he saw Michiya happily talking to the old lady who was also one of their clients. How someone could enjoy so much menial talk with complete strangers was a mystery to him. Ignoring the nagging on his mind that told him someone was watching him, Naruto put down the last box he had been tasked with.
As he massaged his exhausted arms, Naruto couldn't help but wonder how the hell he would endure months of this.