Alrighty then! Previous chapter hasn't been posted an hour yet, and I start this one already! Progress! Let's see if my brain (and good ol Lady Luck) decide to cooperate!
Previously:
Hokage: "Mission profile, blah, blah, blah, I got freaky eyes and tongue, more blah. Do You Accept?" (nice recap, eh?)
In the barely lighted room, 4 figures are seen standing in attention in front of a slightly darkened fifth figure. As the fifth figure leans forward on his desk, we await expectantly so as to see what will happen next.
"Hell yeah we accept old man! What do you think we'd say? After all this time fighting for a better mission than rescuing dogs and cats that keep (justifiably so) running away from fat ladies? And you even have to ask? You must be going soft in the head in your 'golden' days!"
"Naruto, please remember you still owe me a favour," replied Orochimaru while smiling a bit too sadistically for Naruto's taste. "I can always change it to something you might like a whole lot less….. something involving Ichikaru's perhaps?"
Following a few seconds of silence, a pale-faced Naruto stammered, "N-no Ho-hokage-sama, that won't be necessary. Pardon my outburst… it's just… that… I'm excited you decided to give us this chance to prove ourselves!" and if that doesn't work… weeelll…. We'll see if that 'crouch of the mighty white tiger' technique I read on THAT scroll really works as promised! Don't want to do the 'all you can eat' night again! Last time was enough for me, thank you very much!
Yes dear reader, a psychic author! Don't ask to go into Shino's or Orochimaru's thoughts though; I'd have to change the rating of the fic! New ratings and all, it not being possible… whatever, so, returning to the scene before us (hit's the play button on the remote control).
In the darkened room, barely lighted by the strange glowing globe in front of him, Orochimaru pondered the on the fate of a blonde haired genin and came to a sudden conclusion! Trix are for kids! That's why they kept asking him to sent genin teams to recover the damned cereal from that blasted rabbit! Not really. He decided to show mercy (plus get an autographed copy of the latest book of his favourite series FREE!) this one time. "Very well, Naruto-kun, I'll forgive your outburst," relief, "for now." back to walking on eggshells, oh well, "Let's move on shall we? Since you have accepted the assignment I will now explain it in more detail. Now, as I have stated before, our client is a merchant of fine cloths who came over here to sell his wares at our market (with huge success if I might add). He has requested our services since his village is some 2-3 days journey from here and along the way a band of robbers recently appeared. They tend to rob at night, when their victims are asleep, so there is no overt danger, just a guarding of our client's money and merchandise." This speech was received by 3 rather impassive figures (hell, when are Itachi and Shino not impassive?) and a finger twiddling, constant gaze shifting and slightly blushing (she was standing next to Naruto-kun! He looked so confident in himself, so sure of his abilities, so… so… blush…) Hinata, all of which did not escape Orochimaru's gaze. –Hmmm… I'm going to have a talk with Itachi about Hinata's attitude. I thought having her, the heir of the Hyuuga, training under the heir of the Uchiha along with the number-one-loudest-ninja-of-Konoha would help her out, but it appears she has a crush on Naruto…. And is scared half to death of Itachi, maybe he reminds her too much of her father? Could be, both are cold, removed and highly demanding authority figures in her life…. Oh well, might as well let the situation keep developing,after all it's still too soon to say how this situation is to end.- "…and that's about all you need to know of the bandits, the area, and the mission. Now to introduce our client…. Shino, pleashe show Mr. Tatewaki in."
Shino quietly walked over to the 'client doors' (ya know, client doors are doors leading to waiting areas where clients usually wait their turn, whereas staff, workers and non-client personel tend to use other, more discreet entrances so as not to disturb the clientele, or not be disturbed by them as may be the case) opened them and proceeded to announce the name of his intended Employer. Following that a majestic)that's what he thought, at least) figure entered the dark room. "Stand aside knave! For I, the noble Kuno Tatewaki-sama can ill afford to lose time with the likes of you! Ah, Hokage-sama, has the elite team of ninjas you intend to assign me arrived? I requested members of both the Uchiha and Hyuuga Families to accompany me! I hear that they are your best fighters. I hope to get both I and my merchandise safely to my stately mannor! I expect nothing but the best! Now, normally I would not endeavour in the acfcruement of ninja bodyguards, my skill with the boken being, after all, legendary, but the fiendish ways those cowardly evil bandits adopt force me to do so at this time and-" At this point, with a raised hand, Orochimaru interrupted, briefly annoyin the brightly clad buffoon…. Err, merchant who regretted the room was not properly lighted so that his bright yellow, red and purple attire could not be properly appreciated by those present (thank god for small favours, eh?).
"Yes, yes, these 4 standing before me are your team. It consist of one member of the Uchiha clan, another one of the Hyuuga clan, as you requested, plus they are both the heirs of their families, the progeny of the Uzumaki clan (his father is the Kyuubi-slayer) and the Aburame clan. They all belong to some of the best known and most respected families of Konoha, and they will see you safely to your home, Mr. Tatewaki, protecting you from…. Ah…. 'cowardly, evil bandits' and what not. They are ready to leave inmediatly."
At this, Mr. Tatewaki answered, "Well, I must say this team is satisfactory, and I must thank you Hokage-sama for doing all in you power to-"
Abrupt Scene change!
A man naked, but for a towel around his midsection, is doing the chicken dance while people all around him laugh and drink merrily.
Random guy #1: "See, I told you this place was great, didn't I? That guy does the Chicken Dance every time! Though last time he had a bit more clothes on… anyway, what could be better than this?"
Not-so-random guy #2 answered without hesitation, and all the conviction in the world. Matter-of-factly if you will. "Cheese."
Some other dude #3: "Heh, you and your cheese Glen, ever think of anything else?"
Not-so-random guy #2 aka Glen: "Crackers. Well, crackers with cheese on them, but crackers all the same."
This was immediately followed by a face fault from his companions. OK, and leaving the group of people Randomly chosen for a lil' refreshment to the almighty muse of this story (tell ya later guys, Pinky promise and stuff) we go back to the subject at hand.
A few hours have passed since the meeting in the Hokage's office with their client, but for Naruto it felt like an eternity! –Evil, fiendish, sorcerous demons this; almighty, just and noble, virtuous boken wielding samurai that; XXX rated rewards by the beauteous, virginal and lovely maidens in distress so courageously saved by the Magnanimous, awe-inspiring heroic Samurai (damn, this guy could help out Ero-sennin with his books…); blah; blah; BLAH! Ladies (well, lady in this case) and gentlemen! The one man freak show that would not shut up! No one has ever seen him be quiet! Many have tried but all failed thanks to the quality and range of his rants which he spouts all about! Come right up! Come right up! Ignore the dried up skeletons to your left! Just some poor ninjas hired to safeguard this freak among freaks! - But wait! Salvation might be possible, well if not that, a stay of execution mayhap!
"Ne, Itachi sensei! I see smoke up ahead, is that a village?"
Not letting his sensei answer, and without missing a beat, Mr. Tatewaki answered, "…surrounded by the mighty-incredibly-evil-about-to-be-smitten-by-my-righteous-sword dragons, yes, that is a village, in fact, that's where we will rest up tonight and sell some merchandise, Naruto-kun; and not being frightened in the least bit by such a terrifying sight I boldly charged ahead, sword swinging…"
"Thank god! I can't stand a minute more of this!" a well placed elbow to the stomach staggers our heroic-blond-overtly-bright hero (damned Tatewaki's rubbing off on me!) courtesy of a certain red-eyed Jounin, "I'm starving and I wanna buy some ramen once we get there. You in on this Hinata?"
"G-go eat ra-ramen with you Naruto-kun?" – He's asking me to eat with him, could this be a date… a date with Naruto-kun? Could it be? (At this point I'm tempted to put up an Inner-Hinata doing the V-sign shouting "Hell yeah, love conquers all!"… meh, maybe I'll do it later.) – and with a blush (always blushing!), "Sure Na-Naruto-kun." While she did this she was making sure not to look at him, anywhere else but him! "If… if you really want to that is…" Finally looks up at him expectantly with all her hopes up… only to see him pestering Shino to go too.
"Awww, c'mon Sunglasses! Come get some ramen with us! Don't you want to eat some ramen with us once we get there?"
At this, Hinata looks dejectedly at the ground thinking – Not a date….-
"Yosh! We're there! C'mon Hinata-chan! Sunglasses Shino! Let's go look for some ramen!" And thus, grabbing both their arms, the brightly-orange-clad-nin breaks into a run looking for ramen, trusting his natural depredator instincts and his nose to lead him true.
Shaking his head and muttering something about thinking with their stomachs instead of with their heads, aside from abandoning their mission, Itachi addressed his, now, only present travel companion. "Well Mr. Tatewaki, what shall we do first? Go sell some of your merchandise or go look for a place to sleep?"
Sometime Later, in an encampment within a forest glen…
"Finally some news! The target has finally left Konoha and is heading this way! We must be ready before they get here. Send a pigeon to our informer. He must also be ready for when we strike! Fallen but not forgotten!" At this cry, multiple voices answered back from the darkness, "Fallen but not forgotten!" Slowly the light given off by the fire starts fading off and we start losing sight little by little of the scene. The darkness with it's myriad of stars above us is the only indication we have of the scene before us, and one by one they start going out. And that's how this chapter ends.
Dang, wrote this thing up in 2 different parts, just about halfway through I hit…. Not a block, more like a part where I knew what was coming up, and the non-surprisiveness of it robbed me of any and all will to write that up. Yeah, had to do the chicken dance part to gain momentum, it has 0 to do with the story (as of right now that is, might change later on) so you could ignore it. OK. Now review related rants! (Note to self: re-read reviews to freshen up later on…. Oh, and erase this parenthesis when typing this up! Yes, this means you!)
Figment of my Imagination #1: Heh, yeah, loved your review, funny as hell! And yeah, you are right about the whole fire deal, but hey, had to give this a different kind of spin. Specially on the whole Uchiha perception part. Trying to challenge that. Anyway, thanks for everything else and I also hope more real guys/gals review just so I don't have to make replies to imaginary reviewers. Thx!
Max Knight: Hey Max, Mr. Tatewaki indeed! And well, being a Knight of the Square table, I had to do a character insertion of sorts. Hope you enjoy, and maybe the other Knights too. Later! Good luck on the website man!
Sirael Lythling: Heh, good voice? Good, gonna have to work up on the audio recording of this next… writes in notepad good voice, heh, thx for the reviews, oh, and don't worry bout the accents, they change from operating system to operating system, and keyboard setting to keyboard setting, it get's frustrating. Podes practicar Español escrito conmigo, no hay ningún problema con eso, pero el hablado seria con alguien que viva más cerca, ¿no crees? Suerte con eso, ¡espero ver mas reviews tuyos!
Next up! Suspense! Drama! And General Insanity Ensues!
The author is sent to the mental institution!
Heh, Kidding. Next Chapter: Underneath the Underneath.
