UZUMAKI: AKAGE
(Chapter 3: Fumetsu Bounty Association)
(3 Days since Incident at Hosomen)
Naruto looked around, despite having been on the road for a while, he still had stars in his eyes. It had been a long time since he had left the village, and even longer since he had been in Konoha, a place he had very few good memories of. He spent the time on the road thinking of his dreams, but also trying to figure out about the Red Chakra that had leaked out of him during their fight against the Salamander guy.
'Perhaps it's an Uzumaki thing… Although with how strong the Chakra was, I think someone would'a warned me.' he shook his head and decided that there was no reason for him to worry over it, 'After all, I already know someone, if he doesn't know. Then no one does.'
He kicked a rock down the road.
Sasuke was far more focused, he was always a calm and collected person, and anyone would be hard pressed to find a smile on the young Uchiha's face. He was mainly wondering about The Salamander, and who had tried to kidnap them.
The two were brought out of their thoughts as they heard a voice from the side of the road,
"You two look like you're heading to Konoha, eh?" A man said with a low-pitched, almost theatrical sounding voice.
The two boy's looked over and saw a cloaked figure sitting alongside the road, unable to see his face, the teens proceed cautiously.
"And If we are?" Sasuke said tensely, seeming ready for a fight at any moment, hand steadily heading for a Shuriken
The Figure also got up and reached into his cloak,
"You Want to know what I do with people who go to Konohagakure?" The man said as he seemingly grabbed something.
Sasuke and Naruto also seemed to grasp their weapon, and the Tension could be felt in the air, with the boys both having sweat rolling down their forehead.
The man moved first, dramatically pulling out… something.
"What I do is…" He said, his voice seeming to get even deeper, and more menacing, Sasuke and Naruto, both sensing his movement, quickly threw their weapons, but before they could get out of their hands, the man revealed his… Weapon?
His hand dramatically moved, revealing a Picnic basket, and a blanket.
"I will have a Picnic with them!" he said in a playful voice, his words causing the boy's to lose focus and completely miss their target with the weapons. The Movement also caused the boy's to see more of the man's features, it seemed he was wearing a face mask that covered his eye, along with that, he had crazy white hair.
"Picnic!? Who the hell do you think you are old man!" Naruto yelled, Sasuke also looked dumbfounded, although still suspicious of the man, he decided not to make another move for a weapon, as he felt uneasy about challenging this man, for an unknown reason.
"Tch, who are you?" Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes at him.
The man offered up an odd smile that he made with his eye. He also held up two fingers as he said
"Just your friendly Neighborhood Kakashi!" that only aided to Naruto's confusion though
"Hells a Kakashi?" Naruto said, pointing accusingly at him. Causing the man to laugh.
"It's my name, Idiot." he said to the Red-Head, "Anyway, sit down and eat, I'm not going to bite." He signaled the two to sit down as he laid the blanket down and put down the basket.
Naruto, now thinking about lunch, sat down. Sasuke scoffed, but followed
"You force every fool you come across to eat lunch with you?" Sasuke asked Kakashi
"Yep!" The man said back, continuing to smile. "People who decide to become Shinobi usually have interesting dreams, and I just want to figure out who dreams the biggest."
Naruto, who was in the middle of his sandwich, choked, having to take a drink, he then looked at the older man with starry-eyes.
"Biggest dream?" he said excitedly, earning a nod from Kakashi "Yeah? What's the biggest dream you've heard someone say?" He stared into Kakashi's soul. Kakashi, who hadn't even eaten yet, just went into a thinking position.
"Ah, you know. War hero's, Kage's, legends. the average." Kakashi said with a shrug, "What about yours? He asked the Teens, pointing to Sasuke first.
Sasuke's eyes widened for a second, not going unnoticed by Kakashi, but quickly went back to normal "My dream is…" he looked off into the distance, without answering, causing Kakashi to sweatdrop at the kid who was now in his own world.
"Sasuke! Stop spacing out!" Naruto said, bonking him on the head. "Sorry bout' him, he's just shy about his dream." Naruto said to Kakashi. "Don't worry, I understand, some people usually have more… Personal dreams" Kakashi said, slightly surprising the boy's
He turned his attention to Naruto now. "What about you, Tomato?" He said, surprising the Red-head as he hadn't been called that for years, he decided to ignore it though.
"Me? I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be the Strongest Shinobi in history, the Kami no ShinobI!" he said with 100% conviction in his voice, raising his fist to the air.
Kakashi's normally lazy posture perked up as he heard the boy "Eh? You want to be that!? Only the strongest person alive can be called that, are you sure that you have the kind of strength for that?" he said, waving off the boy's dream 'This kid!' he thought.
Naruto, just let off a 'tch' In response, not liking when someone doubted his dream, so he got up off the ground and put on a completely serious face as he looked at Kakashi narrowly "You think I don't know you need to be strong, I will be Kami no Shinobi!" he said, staring into the older man's soul, to the point where even Kakashi was slightly unnerved by the Aura the kid was outputting 'You remind me a lot of…' he started before shaking off the thought in his mind. 'Out of everyone, I was most excited for these two, and they sure don't disappoint.'
"You might just do it kid…" he said quietly. Only loud enough for everyone to pick up on.
"Huh?" Naruto said, wondering if he had heard the man correctly, as most people would never say that. He looked over bug-eyed at the grey-haired man who was staring at his food lazily "Eh? I said nothing kid, Although, now that I think about it… There was another kid who came by and said he wanted to be Kami no Shinobi, and he was also just as stupi- I mean Serious" he said to the boy, slightly surprising him, as well as Inspiring him. "Eh! What did he look like?" Naruto asked, shaking the man by his shoulders, Kakashi put his hand on his chin, going back into his thinking position, "Hmmm… Absolutely don't remember." He said, causing the boy to fall back out of shock, before he fired more questions about this new rival, Sauske stopped him
"Just finish your food, Naruto." Sasuke said. Although slightly shocked at what the man had said to him about his dream as well as Naruto, and the other person with his dream. 'What an odd guy.' he said, peering over at the Man, who turned his head away from the boys when he ate, not allowing them to see his face. 'Definitely more to him than just this…' Sasuke thought.
After a while, everyone finished their Lunch and Kakashi stood up, pulled out a book, and yawned 'Well, boy's. It was nice meeting you. Unfortunately I've just remembered I had to be at work by 12:00, and I'm pretty sure I should get going. Perhaps we'll meet again" he said. Earning a Raised eyebrow from Sasuke "Eh? It's 2:00" Sasuke said, Earning another smile from Kakashi "All the more reason for me to go now." Kakashi said, reaching back into his pocket he threw something at Sasuke, "It's a Map… Safer than sorry!" he said before strolling down the road, although before he was out of sight he looked back at the boys.
"Ah, That reminds me…" he yelled, "You're only another Four days out from Konoha at your pace, But be careful! You'll have to enter the Land Of Waterfalls for a brief time to get around a mountain, it's not as safe as the Land of Fire so be Careful!" he said before turning around and walking, successfully hampering the two boys' mood Four Days! We're never going to make it!' Naruto thought with a sigh.
As he walked off into the distance the masked man pulled down his mask from his eye, and put on a headband with the symbol of the leaf village 'You boy's really are the most interesting… I can't wait till' we meet again.'
(Elsewhere)
A man sighed as he walked down a path, he had been truly embarrassed, by children no less, despite his own failure, he still walked with confidence in his step, 'Never again..' he whispered to himself as he arrived as his destination after day's, he reached for the door, but stopped himself, he was sure news of his failure had already arrived, he knew that failure was looked down upon here, but with a band of sweat rolling down his still hooded face, he opened the door,
As he walked in the room, it was revealed to be a bar, obviously full of criminals and Shinobi alike, although they all had one thing in common, 'Fumetsu' The Strongest Bounty Hunter Guild made of Thousands of Shinobi, from everywhere throughout the world. This place also happened to be one of the Many bases of the Fumetsu
"Bahahahaha!" The Salamander heard a man laugh, just the man he needed to see. And he started walking towards the man, who was a scruffy, unkept, dark-haired man with a bandage covering half of his head, drinking in a corner booth.
The Obviously drunk man saw the man walk towards him and went into another fit of laughter "Bwahahahaha! Is that who I think it is! The boy who never lost a battle, the up and comer star who was being built up as the future of the bounty association!?" The Salamander only let off a sigh as he got ready to speak "Look Ryōhō What the he-" he was interrupted as the man was set into another fit of laughter and the man, now known as Ryōhō continued from his previous words, now with the attention of nearly everyone there "And here's the best part!" he said holding up one finger "After all of that…" he said, and everyone leaned in intently to his words, "He Lost to a KID!" He said, sending everyone in the bar Into Hysteria. "Look, Ryōhō" he said, grabbing the drunk man by his shoulder, "You're going to tell me who gave that mission, Now." He said as his eyes narrowed at the man
In response, The Drunkard slapped his hand out of the way "Look here Tamashi Kotei I outrank you, and will not take your orders, kay, kid?" The man now known as Tamashi took off what still remained of his mask, revealing his young face, Blue eyes and Long brown hair, which was kept in a bun.
Tamashi simply let out a sigh "Please, Ryōhō?" he said to the man.
"Look, Kid." Ryoho said looking at Tamashi with an obviously tired face, "Even If I wanted to help you Which I don't" he said with tact, "I couldn't, the order was anonymous, Originally I was just going to throw it out since we only do orders for people who have y'know Bounty's but one of the higher ups said that I had to assign it for some god unknown reason." Tamashi's eyes slightly widened, as it was unheard of for the Fumetsu to take on a non-bounty, "Do you know who ordered it to be assigned?" Tamashi asked his superior, who only gave a raised eyebrow In response, "Don't know…Don't care." He said before taking another drink Tamashi simply gave a sigh before walking away
'I can certainly understand why they were wanted, that boy, an Uchiha. And the other. He must be a-'
"Bah! Tamashi, Wait!" He was broken out of his thoughts as he heard Ryoho yell for him. "The hell you want Ryoho?" he asked the man "The Higher-ups wanted me to remind you that failure isn't tolerated for anyone, especially not for someone under your conditions." He said, With Tamashi's eyes slightly widening with the last sentence. He gave a small grunt before storming off to the front of the bar and sat on a stool. He ordered his drink, 'Those damn higher-ups, if I wasn't stuck here I would make them regret crossing me.' he thought as he looked around, seeing who was here this late. While he figured most, he found two main exceptions that were always here, as the bartender, a kind old man, gave him his drink, he said
"Hey Gurē, where's those two fishing-rod idiots?" Tamashi said, with a questioning look. "You mean Kyatchi and Riru?" he said as he looked at Tamashi, "They got a Bounty Job… at least that's what they said." Tamashi nearly fell back as he heard the man "For those two idiots to get a job, It must be pretty low level, someone put a bounty on their lost dog?" The bartender only shook his head as he chuckled "I've seen their true strength Tamashi, don't underestimate them." Tamashi just waved it off though. "You know what job they got, old man?" he asked.
The old man just gave a sigh and thought before giving an answer "It was definitely an odd one, something about Kidnapping a girl from Takigakure, apparently it was given to them by the higher-ups, the odd part is… she has no bounty."' Tamashi's eyes widened and he nearly jumped out of his seat 'Another kid without a bounty, and from Taki? No doubt about it now. If she's anything like him, then I gotta warn those Idiot's' he immediately paid for the drink and got moving, 'Plus… there's something I need to see for myself.' he put his cloak on and ran out the door.
(Meanwhile)
Our protagonist and his friend sat around a fire, Naruto looked at Sasuke and yawned "So, what's going on for the road tomorrow, Sasuke." Sasuke just looked down at the map that Kakashi had left them with and sighed "Tomorrows the day we need to be extra careful, it's the day we end up crossing the border into the Land of Waterfalls Although since we should be safe since we're only going to be in there for an hour or two,"
Naruto just looked up into the stars "Land of Waterfalls, eh? Isn't that where Takigakure is?" He asked his friend "Yes." Sasuke said In return
"Interesting…" Naruto said still focused on the sky.
"Indeed…" Sasuke Said as well.
(Next Chapter: Omshui: The Entrance City)