A/N
Second chapter. It's likely that all the chapters will be fairly short. Hope you all don't mind.
"It's been raining for seven days!"
"Four." Sasuke said wearily. Naruto had been complaining about the rain for days, and it was about to fray Sasuke's last, sane nerve.
"We've been on the road for a week! When are we gonna find this stupid village?" Naruto griped.
"Tsunade-sama said the village was only a week trip. We should see it any time." Sakura's voice sounded depressed. She was wilted like a blossom that had gotten too much water.
Kakashi tried not to let his complaining students bother him, but the rain was putting him in a sour mood as well. He was beginning to have resentful thoughts on Naruto's punishment. Why did they have to deliver a package to a village that didn't even have a name, anyway?
Suddenly, Naruto bolted off into the forest alone.
"Naruto! Get back here!"
"I'm going to find that stupid village and—HEY! A field! With plants!"
"Fields have plants, stupid!" Sasuke yelled back as they doubled their pace to join up with the rogue gennin.
"Not full of vegetables, stupid!" Naruto called triumphantly. He was sitting on a fence post when they finally caught up with him.
"Wow, this place is sheltered. The trees come all the way to the fence. It must have taken forever to dig up all the stumps." Sakura observed. She took a quick scan of the area. "No workers."
"Probably taking a day off from the rain." Kakashi said, looking about for any sign of life. "The fields are too well tended for wild plants."
"So where are the people?" Naruto jumped down from his perch. "Should we follow the fence?"
"Probably. Keep an eye out, though. Villagers in small towns tend to protect themselves against raiders, so they may attack any strangers."
Just as Kakashi finished speaking, an arrow whistled through the air and dug itself into the piece of fence that Naruto had been sitting on.
The shinobi threw themselves flat behind the fence, using it as a cover.
"Where did that come from?" Naruto hissed.
"From a tree on the other side of the field."
"Good eye, Sakura."
"He moved, Master Kakashi."
"Why didn't you warn us beforehand?" Sasuke demanded.
"It looked like a bear!"
"He's wearing some sort of animal camoflauge. It looks real enough." Kakashi commented. The other two gennins finally managed to see the offending person.
"…Bears don't usually have bow and arrows, do they?" Naruto asked quizzically.
"You are such an idiot."
"Quiet. I'm going to sneak back around. You three stay here." Kakashi inched backwards on his stomach, swiftly doing a teleportation jutsu as he moved. He transported to the trees just behind his students, and quickly moved around the perimeter, keeping an eye out for others in animal camouflage.
There were two on the ground several trees away from the first archer, both in bear suits. The only indication they weren't bears were the bows they were holding as they took aim at his students.
He jumped down between them and gave them both a sharp rap with the butt of the kunai, then snuck off to take care of the last one.
The last bear archer got the same treatment as the other two, and Kakashi tied the three to a tree and set the weapons well out of their reach before retrieving his students. When he got back to where the three bear people were tied, two had come out of the stunned state they were in.
"Wow." Naruto got in close. "I wonder who made these. These are so real looking." He touched one of the costumes. "You can barely see the seams."
"You'd better watch yourselves!" A whiny, panicky voice said. Kakashi located it as the voice of the smallest archer. "We have traps of torture waiting for you in our forest! Fear the bear men!"
Obviously, Kakashi mused, these were not the brightest of archers.
"Bear men?" Naruto cocked his head. "You're just a guy in a suit."
There was an awkward silence, then the small archer puffed up. "We have the great inventor Nani behind us! You may have defeated us, but never will you defeat the great Nani!"
"Nani? I don't get it." Naruto said. "Why is your inventor a question?"
"Don't make fun of the inventor!"
Kakashi rustled in his bag for a minute and pulled out the small, envelope shaped package. He had seen the word, 'inventor' before.
"I have a package for your inventor." He showed the archers the address. "See? It's addressed to 'Inventor Nani'."
The two conscious bear archers looked at each other. Then they both looked at the package again.
"Is it real?" One demanded.
Kakashi did his best to stifle a groan.
"We shouldn't keep Inventor Nani's package waiting." The other said worriedly.
"Untie us, we'll take the package."
"No way! I want to see this Inventor you guys praise so much! Then I get to see if this crap is worth it!"
"Naruto!" Sakura gasped.
"You wish to see the great Nani! Very well, we'll show you to Nani's house." The small archer said proudly.
Kakashi couldn't decide whether the bear archer was planning something or incredibly stupid. Perhaps he had decided the package was real, and doing this service would put him in favor with the 'Great Nani'.
"You can walk like that." Sasuke said evilly.
"We cannot! Untie us!"
Kakashi could not wait until this mission was over.
Please leave any reviews on the way out, and thank you for reading!