Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon?
Chapter 4- Missions
"Alright, available D rank missions are walking the Inuzuka dog's, pulling weeds for Mrs. Masuda, catching Tora..." The Chūnin at the mission desk tells them.
"We'll take..."Kakashi thinks.
"I'd rather walk the Inuzuka dogs than those other ones" Naruto comments.
"Okay, what about the two of you?" Kakashi asks.
"Tora" the enigmatic Uchiha answers.
"Tora" Sakura immediately answers following her crushes lead as she looked for his approval.
"Catching Tora it is" Kakashi says.
Naruto had really grown to dislike his team. Kakashi was all about team bonding and deciding things in a way that was democratic instead of authorative, which was liked by Naruto except for the way things worked out. Kakashi had a decidedly hands off approach to his team to everything including their training except for things he deemed crucial like team work exercises and drills that were completely useless. Sasuke pretty much got his way because anything he said or did Sakura acted like was perfect and if he spoke out against it she was prone to react violently no matter if he tried to be tactful or not or if he was right or not. Kakashi just stood by not saying a word unless it was to tell him to try to get along better with his teammmates.
"Alright since you got to pick the mission Naruto get's to choose the code names again" Kakashi says trying to be fair.
Sasuke and Sakura both looked at him as they walked out of the assignment room.
"Let's just go with the same ones from last time" Naruto says already tired of this mission and being with his team.
"I've already explained this to you several times Naruto, even if we have done this mission a few times already new code names are essential because we are technically on a new mission. If I allowed you to get away with being lazy on a simple D rank mission like this it might happen on more important or dangerous missions where a reused code name could get you or your team mates spoted and into trouble" Kakashi lectures.
"Fine, then your mystic, she's blush, he's coal, and I'm straw" Naruto says after a few moments.
"Now your roles on this mission will be..." Kakashi starts.
Of course the roles were always the same. Sasuke got to flush the cat into the open, Sakura made a half hearted attempt at actually catching the cat, and if he was slow to run up and grab the cat or Sasuke got scratched up instead of him well Kakashi would scold him about his lack of speed and Sakura would try to do what the cat always does and that is to scratch, claw, and try to pound him into the dirt. This was the first time they did the mission where it didn't go as normal.
"Coal here, target sighted" Sasuke says as the three genin moved into position.
"What's your distance from the target?" Kakashi asks over their head sets far from them.
"It's 5 meters away" Naruto answers.
"I'm ready" Sasuke says confidently.
"Me too..." Sakura chimes in.
"Straw?" Kakashi asks.
"Ready" Naruto answers.
"Okay... DO IT!" Kakashi orders them.
Naruto was gone before Kakashi said 'Do' and had managed to with speed and precision land on top of the cat and knock it out with a swift and strong blow to the back of it's head before it could turn and proceed to bite or cratch him off.
"Naruto!" Sakura yells.
"Huh?" Naruto questions.
"Why are you being so rough with that poor kitty!" She yells.
"Because the poor kitty as you call him, likes to bite and scratch when I don't" Naruto argues.
"That's still no reason..." Naruto tunes her out, which was damn hard to do as he hands her the cat.
He watches as she pets and holds the cat now that it's knocked out, but notices she dares not try to wake it. Kakashi arrives shortly there after.
"Good job, but next time Naruto try to be gentler" Kakashi says to them.
Naruto also ignores him and they are soon off back to the missions desk. Of course Naruto thought they should have waited until the cat woke up before presenting it to it's master, but he was vetoed because Sasuke wanted to hurry up and take another mission and Kakashi just wanted to go back to reading his book. So what happened, Madame Shijimi the bloated wife of the Daimyō railed mostly at him since his team threw him under the bus before he or anyone else (i.e only Iruka) could say anything in defense of knocking the cat out she wanted him arrested and she threatened to take her business elsewhere and have her husband reduce his business with Konoha if she wasn't satisfied. The solution, his pay was severely docked and the 'woman' walked off happy forgetting about her threats as she coddled 'crushed' the already near lifeless corpse of the cat.
"The next mission for Kakashi's squad seven is... an errand to the neighboring town... to baby-sit the cheif counsilor's boy... helping with digging for potatoes, eh..." The hokage continues listing D ranks they could do.
'Man these missions are so boring. I want a tougher mission, something that would challenge me. I've gotten so much stronger thanks to my training with Neko-sensei and even Iruka has helped me every now and then when he has a free moment, but I haven't got a chance to show it yet!' Mentally shouts a frustrated Naruto.
The only reason he hadn't voiced said opinion out loud was because of Neko sensei's lessons/torture on proper shinobi ettiquette. Unfortunately Naruto had not been paying attention when once again Sasuke chose the next mission, which if he had been aware he would have heard Kakashi say it was because Naruto's carelessness with the client's object and nearly cost them all to have a failed mission and no pay instead of only Naruto having reduced pay.
As Team 7 was leaving to dig for potatoes Team they passed Team 8 heading in to report on their mission, but from the looks of it didn't go well.
"These missions suck ass!" Kiba yells
*Bark!* cosigned his partner Akamaru.
"Kiba calm down" Kurenai seemed to try to get the genin to relax.
"I demand better missions!" Kiba yells.
Kakashi shook his head.
"I knew she wasn't ready to lead a team" Kakashi comments as the doors close.
"I'm sure it's not Kurenai-sensei's fault. Kiba has always been like that, all bark and little bite except for his puppies" Sakura says demeaning the loud boy.
The Uchiha nods, but then looks at Naruto.
"I'm a little surprised he was the first looser to crack" Sasuke says with a smirk.
At this Kakashi and Sakura both look at Naruto, before they resume their track.
"Some people just have no training" Sakura goes on to continue belittling Kiba.
Naruto meanwhile knew what those looks were and it pissed him off not that he would give them the satisfaction. He was also getting the distinct impression that as Sakura was bad mouthing Kiba she was also remarking about him despite the fact that he hadn't bothered her at all in the last month after he realized she still hadn't change her opinion on him while he tried hard to leave her be.
'I hate this... team' Naruto thinks wishing the day was over already so he could return to Orario.
Team 7 spent the rest of the day digging for potatoes... well Kakashi mostly watched and Sakura mostly complained about getting dirty and despite the fact she and Sasuke received tools to dig with she complained about getting dirt under her nails. While Naruto was forced to use his hands to dig into the soil like some kind of animal, thankfully it was warm out and the ground was relatively easy to dig through. There had to be a technique he could learn to make it easier.
Hours later Naruto heads home exhausted, aching and hands were bloodied, bruised, raw, and hurting from hours spent digging for potatoes. He was thankful that for whatever he thought about Sasuke, he was a hard worker. Problem was is that he and Naruto were the only ones. They spent the better part of the entire afternoon digging and Sakura dug up a handful of the dirty tubers while complaining about how he was supposedly not working hard enough despite the fact Naruto managed to dig up a hundred and thirty or more of the crop compared to Sasuke's 80. And what was his thanks for his hard work, the client backed Sakura's complaints of him being lazy and said he intentionally bruised and damaged the potatoes saying that his pay should be docked to compensate for their losses which Kakashi only gave apologies and did what the client wanted while giving him that stupid half assed eye smile saying it was better to comply with the client rather than cause a fuss.
'I want to murder them all' Naruto thought as he looked at the pocket change he was given for his efforts that day.
'Next time I will be lazy. Let Sakura and Kakashi do some work for these 'people'. Nothing has changed since the academy' Naruto thinks.
Honestly he didn't even feel like turning on the computer. He just wanted to lay down for a moment and heal, but he knew that he owed it to Amaterasu-sama plus once he was there all his anger and aches would go away so he turned on the machine and disappeared. Unfortunately a few hours later several knocks would go unanswered at his door.
"Welcome home Naruto-kun" Amaterasu greets as he wakes up refreshed in the other world.
"Amaterasu-chan, were you waiting for me long?" Naruto questions as he refocuses.
He'd sort of gotten used to the transition, but it still felt a little wierd to wake up in a different world. Not to mention she was always there for him, honestly this felt more like a home than Konoha ever did.
"No. Naruto, once your done in the dungeon I want you to come straight here" Amaterasu directs him.
Naruto nods in compliance.
"Okay, now run along I'm sure Bell is anxiously awaiting you at the dungeon" She tells him.
"Hai!" Naruto yells as he gets ready for another day of adventuring.
'This was more like it' Naruto thought.
He and Bell quickly met up and decimiated the first couple of floors. They rushed through the third and beat the fourth level with Naruto's doppelganger. They were now standing at the precipice of the fifth level. The normally light blue wallks that signified the first four levels became to blend into a greenish color. Before them stood a light green hallway partially lit and they could see a goblin of all things teetering just at the end of their vision.
"Come on Bell, we've come this far" Naruto conjoles his friend hoping he will joing him on this new adventure.
"But...but... that's the 5th level Naruto. We've never gone that far and Miss Aina told me monsters spawn a lot faster than on the first four levels" Bell warns.
"It's just a Goblin, trust me Bell come on I'll even switch my doppleganger into adventurer mode instead of supporter mode" Naruto says trying to intice him to act.
All adventurer mode meant was that Naruto gave his sword to the doppleganger and took out a second sword from a pack the doppleganger wore, that Naruto began to carry after learning it was something supporters did to support their teams, and then switched with his second regaining his sword again. The sword the doppleganger now weilded was a scimitar Naruto found late one night when he decided to explore Orario after leaving the dungeons and Bell had left him on his own to speak with his Goddess. He found it after he had unwittingly stumbled into the Pleasure District but to his surprise the first thing he saw upon entering was his own goddess entering a shop. Naruto had decided to follow her and also entered the shop, but was shocked to not find his goddess. What he did find was a store selling weapons. Now of course the better weapons were far out of his price range, but there was more affordable options mixed in with a couple of cheap ones and a few that had 'see the owner' on it that looked deadly and strange.
It was at that time the shop owner a woman of what Naruto found out was Amazonian lineage with light brown skin, lightly muscled, and crazy amber eyes boring into him. Long story short he bought the scimitar and was prompltly shown the exit. He never noticed the hidden area in the shop behind the courtain the woman had come from. Naruto continued to try and find his goddes with interesting to results but those stories are for another time.
"Fine, but we're not going too far tonight" Bell says getting his courage up.
"Sure" Naruto says knowing Bell would follow now.
Naruto and the doppleganger raced forward towards the Goblin with Bell trailing slightly behind them watching out for traps or other monsters. Naruto easily reached the goblin not giving it a chance to fight back as he sliced it from head to toe in an instant as it poofed out of existence. However, they weren't given much time to recover as two more goblins appeared and attacked. This time Bell attacked one of the two goblins as his sword sliced into the goblin killing it and Naruto and his doppleganger easily teamed up to kill the third.
"That was exciting" Naruto comments.
"Wasn't it crazy the way those two goblins seemed to pop up out of nowhere?" Bell questions.
"We are on the 5th level. I imagine we haven't seen anything yet" Naruto's double answers.
As if on cue, monster shrieks and calls echoed in to the hall and they all noticed red eyes watching them.
"Let's go back" Bell says suddenly not feeling too confident about going any further.
"Come on Bell, it's just some goblins and kobolds at this level ... maybe some killer ants if we go far enough" Naruto responds.
"I'm sorry Naruto.. but I'm not ready" Bell responds meekly.
Naruto now noticing the look on his friends face backs down. They could always try again another day when they were even stronger. He didn't want to force his first true friend into something he didn't want to do.
"Okay, let's go back" Naruto says.
He takes the scimitar from his doppleganger packed everything up and switched his dopple back to supporter mode.
"Are you sure?" Bell asks as they walk back towards the thankfully still close fourth level cooridor.
"Yeah, come on buddy. We have plenty of time to reach the 5th level" Naruto muses with a smile.
"Yeah" Bell responds with a similar smile.
But in the back of his mind 'I have to get stronger so I don't hold Naruto back' was his actual thoughts. Bell and Naruto fought for another couple of hours on the 4th level before making their way back to the town. Naruto went straight home after leaving the dungeon, which Bell understood and also went home after stopping at the Guild building.
"Goddess Amaterasu, I'm back" Naruto calls out.
"I'm in my room Naruto" She tells him.
Naruto makes his way to her room finding the door open and the goddess sitting on her bed in an empty room.
"What's going on?" Naruto answers confused seeing none of her things where they used to be.
"Naruto I made a deal with the Goddess Ishtar" She informs him.
"Who's that?" Naruto questions.
"I know you followed me into the Entertainment District the other night..." She reminds him.
"Ughh... I..." Naruto stammers.
"Relax Naruto-kun, her familia runs the Entertainment District" She informs him.
"Ohh" Naruto responds.
"She has allowed me to purchase a home on the outskirts of her territority not far from Babel" She says.
"Cool, will I have my own room?" Naruto questions.
"Of course my champion and there will be a few more surprises the next time you visit me including some new guild members" Amaterasu tells him.
"We're getting new guild members... where are they are?" Naruto questions.
"You will meet them when you come back... I think you will like ... at least one of them" She responds.
"Them?" Naruto questions.
"All in due time. Now is the time for you to sleep and go back to your old world" She tells him.
"Okay" Naruto responds as he turns to head for the couch.
"No Naruto-kun, stay here and sleep on my bed" She says getting up to make room for him.
"Are you sure?" Naruto questions.
She nods. Naruto walks over to the bed and without getting under the covers or taking off his clothes lays down. It wasn't long before he began to smell a couple of scents. The bed smelled of cedar and embers and ... cinnamon. The smell managed to arouse several things in him while also calming him and making him drowsy.
"When you return, you will be in your new home and room and meet your team. I know you and Hestia's boy Bell have established a friendship but he's destined for different things. I want you to be right there with him, but Bell will form a team and you will also need a team of your own" Amaterasu tells him.
"Y..e...s God...d..ess" He mutters sleepily.
"Oh and before I forget when you wake up remember to hold on to your sword and don't forget about Taki on your mission" She tells him.
"Mi...ss..i" Was all he managed to get out before he was out and back in Konoha.
"Sure you want to trust Ishtar?" A new voice asks her.
"Ishtar is fine as long as you don't cross her or say anything about Freya in her presence" She answers.
"Yeah, but bringing a boy like him into that den of ... will he really be okay?"
"The thing I like most about Naruto-kun is the way in which he endears himself to almost everyone. He won't fall prey to her charms. I'll make sure of it" Amaterasu answers.
Meanwhile back in Konoha
Naruto was immediately woken up buy loud pounding sounds on his door. He groggily got up and went to the door in his boxers.
"Hey! What's with all the pounding. Trying to break..." Naruto never got further as he was clocked by an irate pinkette.
"Damnit Naruto! Put on some clothes! And Hurry up!"Sakura shouts.
"What?" Naruto questions as he regains focus.
"Thanks to you loser, we had to delay our mission" Sasuke says cooly.
Naruto now notices his entire team was at the door.
"Where have you been Naruto?" Kakashi questions no book in sight.
"Huh?" Naruto questions.
"We came to your house yesterday several times looking for you including a couple of night visits but you weren't home" Kakashi tells him.
'shit' Naruto panics before calming and remembering yesterday.
"Well excuse me, but after digging with my bare hands because the client decided I wasn't fit to use her tools to dig her stupid potatoes up I was exhausted and fell asleep" Naruto responds back angrily.
Kakashi gave him a searching look like he didn't believe him but then focused.
"Alright, but you need to get dressed and packed for a mission" Kakashi tells him.
"Oh boy, what is it now. Catching that stupid cat again or maybe this time it's digging for carrots this time" Naruto says with a yuck face.
"No, loser. That other loser Kiba and his team are in trouble and need our team to go and back them up" Sasuke responds before Kakashi could say anything.
"What?" Naruto responds unentiligently.
"Yeah, and thanks to you we're really late. We should have been running to back them up yesterday" Sakura scolds him.
"I..."
"Naruto, just hurry and get dressed and pack for a mission like I showed you" Kakashi says.
"H-h-hai" Naruto responds confused and still unsure.
It took Naruto half an hour to get cleaned up, dressed, and packed. It only took half an hour because Neko sensei also stressed the importance of being prepared and gave him a method of packing quickly and being readied for everything. Naruto and his team were out of the village within 45 minutes when he answered his door. Naruto was wearing his black clothes and jacket with his sword on his back, but also now wore a balaclava face mask that covered his lower face and neck since this was going to be his first mission outside of the village and Neko stressed the importance of not showing everything in enemy territority. He just thought she was being crazy and over protective which also showed that she cared which is why he did it.
They had run 50 or more miles from the village and crossed over a small bridge before they were forced to stop. Sakura collapsed exhausted from running for so long.
"Alright, let's rest here for a few minutes" Kakashi says having sympathy for the girl knowing she wasn't ready for traveling at speed for long distances yet.
"I...I'm s-sorry...ju-st...giv-e me... a minute" Sakura struggles to get out between breathes.
"Is everyone else okay?" Kakashi asks as they all look toward Naruto.
Naruto was of course just fine and not even sweating which pissed Sakura off.
"How can you...be okay... Naruto" Sakura voices not even able to muster up the energy to shout at the boy.
Naruto just shruggs.
"I run everyday and faster than what we were doing" Naruto says asbsentmendly.
Kakashi eyes Naruto as do his teammates. For Kakashi this was another thing to add to the list of growing concerns over Naruto since last night.
"Why is everyone looking at me? Sasuke doesn't seem tired either?" Naruto questions.
Of course Naruto couldn't know it, but this just angered, saddened, and made Sakura question her position on the team for the first time.
"Calm down Naruto, no one is questioning your physical abilities" Kakashi tried wanting to calm things down.
At this Naruto wanted to be a brat and point out that they had all questioned his abilities and not just his phsyical abilties, but having had a few conversations with Neko had basically told him it wouldn't be a good thing to do on a mission especially there first non-D ranked mission.
They gave Sakura a few more minutes before they pushed forward not going too far before reaching the area where Team 8 had camped. The first one to greet them was Kiba.
"What are you doing here?" Kiba gruffly asks.
"We were sent to backup your team in this mission, now take us to where Kurenai and the client are" Kakashi says delrailing any attempted conflic by Kiba or Naruto.
"Fine, come on but do try to keep up loser" Kiba says before taking off into the trees.
"Why that..." Naruto starts to say getting aggrivated.
"Naruto, calm down and don't start anything in front of the client" Kakashi warns.
His teammate seemingly ignore him and follow behind Kakashi as they jump into the trees following Kiba.
'I wasn't going to start anything. I did not need the reminder. Neko-sensei instilled in me the need to be proffesional in front of all clients...' Naruto thinks as he too takes to the trees.
Turns out they weren't far from Kurenai's group as they had set up camp a mile off the road hidden by one of the many forests that encompased Fire Country and walking distance from a stream.
"Kakashi-sempai... they sent you?" Kurenai questions as Kiba and Team 7 came into view.
Kakashi just nods. They all group together with the client joining them.
"They sent another bunch of brats... I really made a mistake when I chose the Leaf village..." Tazuna laments.
"HEY!" Kiba yells.
No one chose to admonish the Inuzuka member since they all were slightly angered by the comment.
"If you hadn't lied about the mission we wouldn't have had any problems in the first place!" Kiba yells at the old man.
At this Tazuna had the decency to hang his head a little.
"What happened, exactly?" Kakashi questions.
Kurenai goes into detail in their fight with the demon brothers. Kurenai being a genjutsu master noticed the sloppy attempt by the brothers and when they moved to ambush her she gave them a view of hell and then easily bound them after Shino drained them of chakra with his kikaichū. She then tells Team 7 what they managed to get out of the brothers and the client.
"This is more than a C-rank mission Kurenai, you should have called the mission off and returned to the village" Kakashi admonishes the rookie instructor.
"Hai" Kurenai admits a bit somber and angry.
"Hey! We chose to continue the mission and called for backup. The drunks a liar, but we believe what he told us about this Gatō person and couldn't abandon a client!" Kiba argues loudly.
"Kiba!" Kurenai yells at her short tempered genin.
"K-K-Kiba does... not mean... t-to be r-rude" Hinata tries to quietly appologize for her teammate.
"However, he speaks the truth. Our two teams combined should be more then enough to escort Tazuna-san home and protect him while he builds his bridge" Shino comments.
"That's not the issue here..." Kakashi starts to say.
"Come on sensei, they have a point. Why does it matter anyway, yeah he lied but apparently it wasn't to be malicious and he risked his own life as well to get this far" Naruto voices his opinion.
Kakashi looked at the other two members of his team.
"Do you two agree with Naruto?" Kakashi asks him.
Sasuke quickly nods. This mission sounded exactly like what he's been looking for, not that he wanted to agree with either loser. And with him co-signing Sakura quickly nodded her approval. Although she was worried, having another team and jōnin did calm her.
"Alright, but this was your mission Kurenai so you should take the lead and I will back you up with my team" Kakashi says after a moment of mulling it over.
She nods and then looks over the genin.
"Why don't we have Sasuke paired with Kiba upfront scouting the way ahead and Naruto with Shino trailing the client in case something else happens" Kurenai says.
"Sounds good" Kakashi agrees.
Naruto didn't care as long as he didn't have to deal with Kiba. Sakura was upset she wouldn't get to be with Sasuke, but this was a mission so she didn't voice the thought. She wasn't the only girl saddened by the pairings, but she was just happy getting to go on a mission with her crush. Kiba was both happy he didn't have to deal with Naruto, yet irritated at having to work with the Uchiha who thought he was better than everyone. Neither Shino or Sasuke cared much. Sasuke only cared about getting to fight in this misssion and Shino was ... Shino.
They soon set off with Hinata and Sakura on either side of Tazuna with the pinkette asking whatever questions popped up in her mind occassionally. The two jōnin trailing the group.
"So Kakashi, mind telling me why your group is just now showing up. that call for backup was a full day and a half ago?" Kurenai questions.
"One of my team was a bit hard to get a hold of" Kakashi answers his lone visible eye clearly focusing on Naruto.
"Huh, I have been told he's been a bit hard to find at times lately" Kurenai says cryptically.
"Where did you hear that?" Kakashi questions.
"It doesn't matter...the point is, that it's been noticed" Kurenai says.
Kakashi nods only breaking to field a couple of questions Sakura asks.
This marks the Fourth chapter of this crossover story. For dropping off the map everyone. I have no excuse and can't say it won't happen again. Anway next Chapter will either be the Wave Mission or a synapsis of the mission as told by Naruto.
So thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Until next time dear reader :-)