The Fox of burden: Why is you annoyed!

sniffles Oh well... And don't worries, all will be explained...

Riyo-sama: Ow.

Wolfgirl13: Do ya... REALLY MEAN THAT!

Yay! shoves bags of cookies to you. Man, I really hope I don't disappoint you!

Raikage Yondamie: sticks out tongue

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Shuriken 5: Heading Out at Last! Sound nins attack!

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Story Start!

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What the hell were Sound nins doing here? Hunter frowned behind his porcelain mask.

There were eight of them - jounins and their teams.

"Ishikawa! Let's get a move on!" one called.

"I don't like this," Ishikawa muttered to the speaker. "We shouldn't even be here!"

"You heard the Master. Just this one training exercise and we're home free."

Training exercise? Hunter thought scornfully. Please. They should know better than that. What are you doing, Orochimaru? Weakened or not, you know better than to lose ninjas to the Leaf -- especially now that they kill first and ask questions never. And if those two are jounins, then they have information in their bodies that Tsunade would love to get her hands on.

As Hunter, the shinobi had no affiliation to any village. He went were he was needed, and fixed things. He was forbidden to directly interfere unless it was necessary, and for that it had to be something pretty extreme.

The position of Hunter was more philosophical in nature than aggressive. It wasn't uncommon for centuries to pass by with nothing to do except study the Prophecies.

For a legendary immortal, those were the worst times: just puttering about the world inventing techniques.

It sucked so much it wasn't even funny.

But now that Orochimaru had made his move...

It wasn't that Hunter had wanted the Leaf attacked; he loved the Leaf, just like he loved all the other villages. But if he had had to go through one more century of nothing but seals and scrolls, he'd lose what little there was left of his sanity. Which there hadn't been much of in the first place.

Hunter knew he wasn't "sane" in the way other people thought of the word. In fact, if he let his true nature show through, he'd probably be put in an asylum pretty quick. He could always break out of course, but it wasn't really worth the effort. Besides, Hikari would get mad.

Hikari was the Light Awareness - and Hunter had given him the name.

One of the best perks of this job, he thought, is that I can annoy him all I want.

There was a low growl from a small corner. "I'm sure you're having fun Hunter, but please, do us all a favor, and get a move on."

"Okay, okay. Geez Hikari, you're in a foul mood today."

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Oh? What happened?"

"I said I don't wanna talk about it!"

"Oh, alright..."

Hunter stifled a giggle.

Hunter attacked the Sound as they began to near the village.

The fight was short and ugly, and the outcome was predictable. Hunter only felt sorrow as he killed the Genin. They were all so young, with hopes and dreams that had been crushed when his slender chain cut into their necks and lopped off their heads.

Shaking his head, Hunter sent up a flare for ANBU. They would come and pick up the bodies; in the meantime he had a team and its surrogate Medic ninja to follow.

Strange how Godaime was only just now putting the Chuunin's healing bloodline limit to good use.

They were a day out of Konoha when they were attacked. Six Sound-nins came out from all sides when it happened, slamming Naruto and Sakura out of the trees.

The two fell heavily to the ground. Ears ringing Naruto struggled to get up, only to be knocked back to the ground. The blonde stayed still, playing dead as best he could. His mind reeled, but he made it still. Now was not the time to think. He rolled to his feet as quickly as he could and then ducked. The whistles of the kunai overhead let him know how close he was brushing death.

Naruto promptly disappeared in a puff of smoke; he arrived high in a tree, much higher then a Sound-nin would go. He hoped.

"Naruto, stay there!" Naruto immediately recognized the voice of Kakashi-sensei, and he resolved to follow his orders to the letter. It was made a bit difficult however, when Iruka-sensei slammed a heavily maimed shinobi against the tree trunk. The tree shook violently from the impact, and Naruto almost fell.

Wearing a disgusted expression, Iruka-sensei withdrew his kunai from the shinobi's neck, and the corpse slumped lifelessly to the ground. Naruto swallowed. He'd seen dead people before, but not actual killing. It distinctly unnerved him.

"Did you have to kill him?" Kakashi asked sourly.

"I didn't have much of a choice."

Kakashi sighed. Then he turned to look at the remaining bleeding/bruised Sound ninjas. "Any suggestions about what we should do with these?"

"Why not just drag them back to the village?" Sakura asked. "It wouldn't take that long, would it?"

Kakashi and Iruka exchanged looks. They hadn't had much time to brief the children, and they couldn't very well do it here...

"Let's leave them and send up a flare," Iruka said. "ANBU will pick them up in an hour or two."

The three Sounds looked distinctly uncomfortable at that.

"Anou sa, anou sa, Iruka-sensei," Naruto chirped. Now that the danger had passed, he was back to normal. "Why didn't we take those ninjas back to the village?"

"This is a B-rank mission, Naruto. We can't go back just because of a scuffle." Suddenly Iruka's expression became slightly impish. "Of course, that's not the real reason you want to go back is it?" He continued over Naruto's splutters. "This is serious, Naruto. Your personal life aside, this mission could become an A-rank at anytime."

Naruto had regained control over his mouth. "What are we doing, Iruka-sensei?"

"We're going to the Western Continent."

"Magakichi!"

"Yes."

"Isn't that were the crazy king lives?"

"He's not crazy Naruto. He has...issues."

"It's the same thing isn't it?" Naruto sounded skeptical.

Iruka sighed. "Naruto, you're talking about a distant relative of mine. Please show more respect."

"Distant relative! You two are related!"

"Only very distantly. I'd prefer it if you didn't noise it around."

Naruto snapped his mouth closed. Then he said, "Why are we going to Magakichi Iruka-sensei? There isn't anything over there for us, is there?"

"That king you were making fun of just now-" ("Hmph!" Naruto said) "-has always wanted to take over our continent, Katotashira. The only thing keeping him in check has been both the presence of the shinobi and the amount of demons running around." Naruto made a face at that. "But he seems to be getting a lot of courage lately. He's been mobilizing his troops, and promising people that if they join the military they'll become wealthy."

"And we're supposed to find out why he suddenly has such a stiff spine?"

"Exactly."

"How is that B-rank?"

Iruka silently sighed at Naruto's incomprehension. "If the one sitting on the throne decides to invade us, things will get sticky for a long while. Orochimaru wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of our distraction, and we'd be fighting a war on two fronts."

Naruto shuddered at the mere thought. Iruka gave him an encouraging smile. "If we do our job right then it hopefully won't come to that."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

Ahhh... Finally, a new chapter! I'm sorry about the insanely long delay, but it was unavoidable. Also, with the onset of the years, I have been constantly been interrupted by a phenomenon known as "Real Life," and "School."

Shocking, isn't it?

So, these, coupled with other things, has severely restricted the time I have on FF(dot.)net.

And I wish they would allow URLs.

Heh heh, hope you guys enjoyed the story.