Chapter 6
Timeskip- 5 days later
It has been five days since the final match of the chunin exam held in suna. Naruto and Izumi woke up a couple hours after their matchup and were greeted by their respective mothers. They then left for home later that day and arrived in Konoha three days later. We now find our favourite genin team inside the hokage's office awaiting the results of the exams as they were told to be here this morning.
"Ah team 11, welcome. First of all, I would like to congratulate you on not only making it to the finals of the recently concluded chunin exams but also for having two members of our village fight in the last match. Also you three put on quite a show and as such I believe that you three deserve this. So without further ado, I promote you Takeshi Hideyo, Izumi Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki to the rank of chunin here are your chunin vests, wear them with pride and please report to the chunin barracks for a detailed explanation of your new duties that come with the rank," said the hokage as he passed them three scrolls containing their chunin vests and location of the barracks.
"Thank you hokage-sama" was the reply of the three newly minted chunin. They then exited the room along with their sensei Mikoto. The team then went to the BBQ joint for their last team meal for a while since their new duties would hinder them from meeting up often. During the meal, Takeshi expressed his desire to join up with the medical core while Izumi and Naruto wanted to get more experience as a regular chunin taking missions while Mikoto assured them that they can still come to her with any issue even if they were no longer a team. After their team lunch, they dispersed to their homes but not before promising to meet up the next day to head to the barracks.
The next day, we can find the members of team 11 in front of the chunin office where they would get details on their duties as chunin ranked ninja of Konoha.
Timeskip- 6 months later
It has been six months since Naruto became a chunin. In that time he has been on multiple missions of b-rank and c-rank and even three a-rank missions. He even had the opportunity to lead some of the c-rank missions with some of the genin teams that were around. One of the major issues he faced was the fact that most of the people on his team were older than him and questioned his abilities. Needless to say that their questions were worth salt as he swiftly proved that he was not one to be trifled with and his skill was good enough to lead them and he gained a small reputation amongst the other chunin and some of the newer jounin of always having every team member return from any mission he leads alive and relatively uninjured.
Today was a special day, it was to be Naruto's first mission with a Kushina. It would just be them alone as they were being sent to the border outpost to provide relief for a team nearby. At the gates we can find both Uzumaki ensuring that they have sufficient gear and supplies to last them their mission. "Are you ready Naru-chan?" inquired kushina. "I'm ready" replied Naruto. They then dashed off towards the location of the mission.
As they approached the outpost, they found the team that they were supposed to provide backup for looking worse for wear. They dropped down from the trees and identified themselves to the jounin in charge of the others. Afterwards, kushina asked what had happened to them to which the leader replied that they were involved in a scuffle with some swordsman from kiri and they were just able to flee but not before one of their own was critically injured and died when they made camp here. The leader said that he had already sealed the body away and were going to take it back home for a proper burial. Inquiring as to the nature of their mission, they were informed that they were on a supply run to the outpost and were almost there when they were attacked. The leader also mentioned that the kiri ninja had possible allies and were in the way between them and their objective which was why they requested assistance.
Taking all the facts into consideration, Naruto suggested that they scout ahead to confirm enemy locations and numbers. Looking at him, kushina agreed and said to him to use the kagebunshin to see what is up ahead. Nodding to her, Naruto made four clones which he then sent to scout ahead while he went to get water and set traps around their location as they would be staying there overnight.
After two hours the clones dispelled giving Naruto the information he required. He immediately reported his findings to kushina who, in collaboration with the team leader, Naruto and another chunin in the team, made a plan of action. After making their plan and finalizing any details and setting up a guard rotation, all members of the clearing went to sleep for the night.
The next day, after having breakfast and cleaning up the clearing, the team set out to complete the mission objective. As they got closer to the outpost, they were ambushed by two squads of kiri nin who were led by two of the seven swordsman of the mist: kushimaru kuriarare and jinpachi munashi. As they faced off in the clearing, kushina and the leader jounin decided to take one each of the swordsman while Naruto and the other members of the team had to take on the other six members of the ambushing squads.
At an unseen signal, Naruto dashed forward and met with his opponent who seemed to be a chunin from the mist. Drawing his blade, he slashed at his foe who blocked with a blade of his own. Grinning at Naruto, the kiri nin introduced himself "I'm Juro apprentice of kushimaru and next in line to wield the nuibari after my master." Responding, Naruto introduced himself to his foe and the clash continued. Jumping back, juro made handsigns and called out 'water style: water pulse jutsu' which Naruto dodged by avoiding the jutsu and responding using 'wind style: pressure shot'. Juro jumped back but got hit with one of the shots and flew back into a tree. Gathering himself up, he used 'water style: water colliding shockwave' to try to get Naruto off guard. Seeing his foe's attack, Naruto used 'wind style: wind wall' to attempt to block the jutsu but only managed to lessen the effect of the technique. Seeing his opponent distracted, juro dashed forward with his blade drawn intent on killing Naruto. As he reached Naruto, he was blocked by naruto's blade and pushed back slightly. Pressing his advantage, Naruto coated his blade with wind and sliced at his opponent and was successful in decapitating juro thus concluding their fight.
As juro's head rolled off his body, the jounin in charge of the Konoha team was currently struggling against jinpachi. Meanwhile, four of the other five members of the ambush squad were already locked in battle while one of the Konoha chunin was having a hard time with his opponent who, as it turns out, was the apprentice of jinpachi. Momentarily overpowering his opponent, the kiri nin swiped at the Konoha chunin and caused him to fall to the ground. As he was moving to end the life of the chunin, he was interrupted by Naruto who blocked the strike with his blade. Grunting, the kiri nin smiled maliciously and proclaimed himself as jinpachi's apprentice- mizuro. Giving the same courtesy, Naruto introduced himself as well and turned to the fallen ninja and told him to go see if he can help out his jounin captain as it seems he could use some help. Nodding, the fallen chunin picked himself up and moved towards the captain to see how he could help.
With kushina, she was going at it with kushimaru, neither giving the other a distinct advantage at the moment. With each clash of steel of their blades, both sword wielders attempted to get an advantage against the other without much success.
Back to Naruto and mizuro, steel meeting steel could be heard as they engaged each other in kenjutsu. Jumping back, mizuro used a water jutsu to attack Naruto who countered using a wind barrier technique. At this stage, mizuro used a mizubunshin to overwhelm Naruto but was met with no results as Naruto just slashed his blade sending out a wind slash which took care of the bunshins. Running forward, Naruto attacked mizuro aiming to take his head, as with the other apprentice he faced. However, mizuro replaced himself with a mizubunshin who took the decapitating strike. As he saw the failed strike, Naruto immediately made some distance with the kiri nin.
Deciding to end his match, Naruto sheated his blade and charged up his Power of Destruction into his fists and let loose his destructive fist attack which caught his opponent off guard and completely eradicated him. By this time, the other members of the ambush squad were all dealt with. Three of the remaining four members were dead while the final one was injured critically, loosing his left arm. While on the Konoha side, the jounin captain had some gashes and some first degree burns on his skin while his uniform was singed from the blasts of jinpachi's sword and kushina was just about to get kushimaru into a position where she could finish him off but as luck would have it, jinpachi leapt towards her forcing her to jump back. Looking around and seeing that they were outnumbered, the two kiri swordsmen along with the injured chunin retreated from the battle and back to kiri.
As she sheated her blade, kushina looked around the battle site and immediately went to check on Naruto who indicated that he was fine and not in need of any medical attention. The jounin captain, on the other hand, would require some attention which he received from one of the chunin who was present on his team.
As soon as he and the other members were looked at, the Konoha ninja proceeded to go to the outpost to complete their mission objective. They arrived at the outpost within two hours time and delivered the supplies and collected the report for the hokage. They stayed overnight and left the next morning for Konoha where kushina elected to give the report with Naruto while the other squad gets themselves checked out at the hospital.
To be continued