Hey guys!
So here's today's chapter! I hope you like it and don't worry if it it boring, next one will be the start of the chuunin exams!
"I thought being a shinobi would be more entertaining." Shikamaru said, continuing to eat after talking.
Asuma had taken them to eat to the same restaurant he always took them to after their third mission as a team. He wanted to celebrate every single mission, as he always noticed how much their friendship and skills improved with every single mission. There something that always surprised him, though: Gohan never struggled much with strength-related tasks. He also noticed how Gohan showed great experience in fighting when he sparred with his teammates.
"Don't expect to have higher ranked missions if you're still Genin." Asuma replied.
"Team 7 did get a high-ranked mission." Gohan reminded, making the Jounin cringe.
"Well, that's true." Chouji admitted as he took a bite out of his meal.
"I think we should go and ask the Hokage, just as Naruto did." Ino suggested, taking a sip of water before continuing to eat.
"I don't think-" The Jounin was interrupted by Gohan, who spoke up.
"That's a good idea." The half-saiyan reaffirmed.
"I'm dead." Asuma said to himself as he looked down at the floor in defeat. "Let's go, but you ask him, not me."
"Alright!" Ino yelled as she started celebrating. Then, she beckoned everyone to follow her towards the Hokage Tower. Everyone left their meals there, but Chouji took it with him, completely ignoring fact
"Again?" The Hokage thought as the Genin of Asuma's team complained of the little difficulty of their missions. "Please understand that you're Genin, I cannot give you missions with a higher rank than C."
"What about a B ranked mission? I don't think that's too much for us." Ino suggested as her teammates supported her. Asuma was about to faint from his nervousness and anxiety.
"I would have to check-" The Hokage was interrupted by a Jounin that entered the room at that moment. He wore a headband that covered most of his head, letting 3 locks of hair go down to his face; his face made him look as if he was sick.
"Hey, old man, I'm back." The Jounin said.
"Hayate! You arrived just in time!" The Hokage excitedly replied.
"Uhh, why's that?" The lizard-lover confusedly asked as he scratched his head.
"This kids were just asking if they could get a higher ranked mission, and I figured that you could help them." The old man explained, smiling afterwards.
"Asuma?" Hayate confusedly asked as he noticed his old friend's presence and also of some young kids.
"Oh, by the way, have you made the report of your missions?" The Hokage asked.
"Yes, sir, I have it here." Hayate said, handing over some papers to the old man.
"Alright, then." The old man replied as he took a look at the papers. "You can help this kids now, you're free."
"Sigh, Whatever." The sick-looking man said as he turned to look at the group of kids, and then at Asuma. "Do I have a limit of rankings I can take them to?"
"Yes, B, now go." The Hokage quickly answered as he started to check on the reports he'd just been given.
"Alright, alright." Hayate said. "Let's go, I'll get you a mission."
"I'm not actually 'free', so you'll have to help me with something." Hayate said as he walked through the halls of the Hokage Tower. Behind him, 4 genin and Asuma were following him.
Some of the shinobi Hayate walked past gave him weird glances or raised their eyebrow. It was quite a rare thing to see him with some kids, you would regularly see him hanging out with friend or with Yugao, maybe even alone, but it sure was weird to see him with kids.
"So what is your mission about?" Asuma asked. He was obviously concerned about his students, so he wanted to see if they were prepared enough for the mission they were going to do.
"A diplomatic meeting to increase our relations with the Sand." Hayate explained as he took one of his lizards out, whispering something to it. The lizard was a bit bigger than a normal one and his skin was blue, making it even rarer; it wore a green vest similar to the one of the jounin uniform, but way smaller. As soon as it left, Hayate continued walking.
"Lizards?" Gohan curiously analysed the how the lizard ran away and how it seemed to also have certain ninja skills as it had a kunai pocket behind his vest.
"To the Hidden Sand?" Ino asked, raising one of her eyebrows. "I thought every hidden village were enemies."
"Not exactly." Hayate stopped walking and turned to the kids. "You see. The Hidden Leaf has always had a better relationship with the Sand than the rest of hidden villages, but it has been getting worse recently."
"Yes, the Kazekage hasn't accepted any meetings with the Third, recently." Asuma added as he scratched his chin. "But why now?"
"I don't know, I don't trust them." Hayate explained. "That's why I will use your help."
As Hayate gave them a really big smile, Asuma was scared by it. The Genin just felt awkward because the man's smile was quite weird.
"But won't it be too dangerous for them?" Asuma asked after calming down a bit.
"Come on! We're 2 Jounin, we surely can help them escape." Hayate eagerly answered as he continued walking.
Asume cringed at his friend's odd energy, maybe he was just nervous or something. Meanwhile, the 4 genin became more eager to leave every second the conversation continued.
"I'm getting bored going so slow." Hayate said with a dull tone, suddenly starting to run really quickly after finishing his phrase. "How about we hurry up?"
"Did he find anything new?" Yuichi asked. He was sitting in front of the Hokage's desk, drinking a cup of tea.
"Yes, apparently he's close to finding Orochimaru." Hiruzen said as he took his hat off.
"Do you think he'll be able to find him without being killed?" Yuichi asked again, taking a sip of tea after finishing his phrase.
"He's Hayate, I trust him." The Third said as he gave a strong look to Yuichi.
"He's a jounin and he can use the sage mode." Yuichi said, stopping to get one more sip of tea before continuing. "But we're talking about Orochimaru."
"Yes, but I'm sure he can manage to escape." The old Hokage replied. He wanted to trust in Hayate's great speed and agility, but he was perfectly conscious that Orochimaru would easily kill him.
"I think that all the villagers are watching us." Ino uncomfortably said as she turned to look to every villager that walked past her.
Hayate was the only one of them that was calm, even Asuma was nervous about the situation. The Sarutobi was ready to attack anyone suspicious that got close to them with his blade.
"Is that the Kazekage tower?" Gohan asked as he pointed at a tall building that was also made out of sandstone, just like the rest of the buildings.
As Hayate nodded in response, a group of at least 8 Jounin surrounded them. Asuma took his blade out without even thinking twice, making the genin react in the same way.
"This is a diplomatic mission, remember?" Hayate gave them a disappointed glance. He raised his hands before turning to the one who seemed to be the leader. "We're from Konoha! The Third Hokage told us that the Kazekage would be open to negotiations with our village."
"Well, we haven't been informed by the Kazekage." The leader said. He stood out from the rest of the Jounin as he wore a turban-like head gear and a sheet that went down to cover the left side of his face. He also had two red marks in the visible side of his face.
"Why don't you ask him, then? I've been told by the Hokage that we were supposed to be negotiating today!" Hayate started to get nervous, a couple drops of sweat going down his face.
Asuma sighed as he started to get ready for the inevitable fight. Gohan noticed the tension that was surrounding them and decided to feel the energy of the Jounin of the Sand, noticing that Hayate seemed to be stronger than the majority of them.
"Alright, we'll ask him." The leader said. "Please stay here while we go."
The man left 3 men with the shinobi from the Leaf, obviously making sure that they would not leave. Hayate knew that there was something going on and took the decision to abandon the mission. He wouldn't risk the lives of 3 kids just to see what happens.
"Asuma." Hayate softly called his partner.
"Hm?" Asuma answered softly.
"Leave and take the kids with you, I'll get you time." Hayate said, turning his head back to Asuma, showing his concerned expression.
"Why? What happened?" The Sarutobi asked as he got ready to leave.
"There's something wrong here and I don't want to risk anyone's life, so go!" The Sarutobi and the kids quickly ran, making the jounin of the Sand try to follow them. Hayate got in front of them as he got his sword out.
The Lizard expert threw his sword to the air and grabbed it by the blade, hitting the other Jounin with the other part of his sword and knocking them out without major struggle. He then ran towards the direction Asuma and the Genin left.
The leader of the Sand Jounin went out of the Kazekage Tower with 7 more Jounin. He became angry when he saw his men knocked out in the floor.
As Hayate ran through the streets of the village, he remembered when he looked up to one of the highest windows of the Kazekage Tower. There was a kid, and he saw that he had some Jounin in his room apparently taking care of him. Hayate grinned as he found out that his mission hadn't been a total failure.
"So he is the jinchuuriki..." The man increased his speed as he reached the gates of the village and quickly went through them. The guards tried to follow him but they just weren't able to get even close to him.
"That was such a weird and suspiciously short mission for it's rank, wasn't it?" Shikamaru said as he scratched his chin.
"Why?" Naruto asked as he scratched his head.
Both teams had already come back from their respective missions and they surely had gotten some experience out of them. They were now reunited in Gohan as the saiyan wanted to meet them all. Although to everyone's surprise, Naruto and Sasuke appeared to be friends now.
"Well, yeah, but just as that Hayate guy said something went wrong." Gohan explained.
"Hayate? That weirdo that always looks as if he's sick?" Sakura asked.
"Maybe, but he's quite fast and strong." Ino, who was sitting next to Gohan and Shikamaru, said.
"Whatever." Sasuke said. He didn't think of Hayate as someone strong, he was just one ninja more. "He isn't that strong."
"You're going to continue with that?" Shikamaru rolled his eyes as he expected the same speech.
"What? Are you still not able to admit that Daichi is the strongest ninja of the village?" Sasuke tried to mock the Nara, but he couldn't care less.
"The fact that you're the last 2 Uchiha don't make you stronger than the likes of the Hokage." Chouji intervened.
"Wait, the last two?" Gohan asked as he was totally confused.
"Oh, right, you're new..." Shikamaru remembered, coughing a bit after saying that.
Chouji started to eat his chips faster as he was getting anxious of how Sasuke could react.
"My clan was massacred." The Uchiha explained, making everyone shocked as he managed to keep calm. "By my own brother." Gohan's eyes widened in horror as the young Uchiha finished his last phrase. He wished he'd read a bit more of the history books before leaving for the village.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Gohan tried to say before being interrupted by Sasuke. The saiyan had a difficult childhood himself and he knew what remembering that type of things feels like, so he imagined it would hurt even more to make him remember something even worse than his own.
"Don't be sorry, you didn't know." Sasuke replied. Everyone was totally shocked, even Naruto, at how comprehensive the Uchiha had been.
"What happened to you?" Shikamaru asked as he still had his surprised expression.
Sasuke did not answer, but was clearly annoyed by this as his eyebrow started to tick while a vein showed up in his forehead.
"Anyway, How was your mission?" Gohan asked, smiling nervously and trying to save Shikamaru's ass.
The Genin were really busy recently and so Konohamaru had to enjoy the most time he had alongside his good friends Naruto and Gohan.
"So, how's the academy been?" Gohan asked as he remembered the extremely short time he spent there.
"Good, I guess, I'm one of the best students." Konohamaru answered. He appeared to be happy at first, but then he turned serious. "Although it appears not to be enough for my grandpa."
"One of the best? That's awesome!" Naruto cheered, helping the Sarutobi be happy again. "I foresee that we'll have a really close competition for the Hokage position." Naruto said, trying to imitate the voice of an old man.
"Nah, I'll definitely beat you." Konohamaru said with a serious tone, but then laughing along with his two friends. "What about you? Has it been fun?"
"Sometimes it is and some others it is either boring or really hard." Gohan answered as Naruto just remained silent while remembering Zabuza and Haku.
"I see..." Konohamaru said before apparently remembering something. "Oh! Sorry, I have to leave!"
Both Gohan and Naruto confusedly saw as Konohamaru left Ichiraku and his bowl of ramen for whatever he needed to leave.
"Well that was weird." Naruto admitted as Gohan nodded in agreement.
"Totally." The saiyan added as Naruto continued to eat his bowl of ramen.
So that was the chapter. I'll try to have the next one by tomorrow.
Anyway, see you soon!