Summary: Recca, Kagero, and a SI are placed in the world of the Nine Tails

Crossover: Flame of Recca, Naruto

Disclaimer: I don't own what other people do. I do own me, though.

Feedback: Sure thing... I like hearing how I can improve :) I also like hearing people's opinions on things.

Pre-fic Comments:

I've been playing Hitman: Contracts recently, so unless someone makes a case otherwise, you might be seeing Mr 47 in this fic.

ranma hibiki: While that would be fun, it would be even more fun to use the Thousand Years of Pain on someone else... in public... hehe. Also, you need to be a bit quicker than your opponent to use it, otherwise the other person gets the hell out of the way, unless you judge them stoopid enuff to actually stay where they are. Hmmm... just thought of a good omake.

Alex DarkFire: It won't be quite as bad as in canon -- ninja in Naruto are loyal to a concept (their village and kage) rather than a person, meaning that part of Fuuko's impetus to beat Recca is gone. And as for Kakashi's teaching... nothing in the manga to suggest that he took the time to teach them while they took the D mission, and he was pretty damn prejudiced in favour of Sasuke. (Doesn't Ebisu's arrogance wanna make you pop him one, right in the kisser? And the way Kakashi brushed Naruto off to him seems like he was trying to say "Go away kid, yer botherin' me!")

Night-Owl123: Thanks for the encouragement... came right when I was starting to get bored :)

"Hey, bro," Naruto began. "You read heaps -- can you teach me?"

I yawned, looking up from where I was working on that genjutsu I had thought up so long ago. The problem wasn't so much getting to talk to the Morino Clan as it was talking to them. Old man Morino liked to play the cryptic asian gentleman, and Morino Ibiki was a plain pain in the ass to get to, working in ANBU and all. So while I got a fair amount of tips, hints and cryptic riddles I had to figure out the actual jutsu myself.

"What do you want to know?," I asked.

"Ninjutsu," Naruto said, as if it were obvious.

"Well," I mused, picking up a few closed scrolls. "I found some scrolls hidden at the Library... here's a scroll I found on Taijutsu, the Thousand Fist Mountain, and there is also a scroll on advanced bunshin here..."

Naruto hated taijutsu. Mainly because it involved actual physical training. He took the bunshin scroll. "Hmmm... what's Kage Bunshin?"

"I dunno," I said, waving him away. "Shoo. Go on, geddoutta here."

I paused, running over what I said a moment ago as Naruto wandered off, reading the scroll with a stupidly wide grin on his face. Bunshin? No, before that... ah! The Yama Sen Ken. Where had I heard that before?

I knew it wasn't in this life. The problem was that as time went on, it was harder to remember details from my previous life as an anime geek. Anime... martial arts... that was it! Ranma! I slapped myself on the forehead, cracking open the Yama Sen Ken scroll.

Well... damn...

I then rolled it back up again. I needed to get my arm speed up to do some of the techniques for that... stupid vacuum blades. I'd have to remember to show it to 'kaasan, ask her about some of it.

"Hey, 'kaasan," I said over breakfast.

"Yes, Matora?," Kagero-kaasan asked.

"I've been saving up my pay from my Genin missions, and was wondering if you could order a custom weapon from the weaponsmith?"

"What kind?," Naruto asked.

"A zanbatou," I beamed, saying it as if kids /always/ asked for swords longer than a grown man was tall.

"A zanbatou?," Kaasan asked, eyebrows raised. "Are you strong enough? You are twelve, after all."

I grinned. "If I'm not as a human, I can change!"

"Let him," Shigeo-tousan said from where he was working his way through some miso. "It's his money."

"Okay, okay," Kaasan said, accepting the bag of dosh I'd been saving up. "I'll go see the shop before work."

"Alright!," I cheered. I handed Kagero-kaasan a sheet of paper. "Here's the basic plan I want, nothing fancy at all."

Naruto hauled me to my feet. "Come on, we'll be late!"

The sun found me yawning as we waited (again) for Kakashi. Naruto, of course, was disgustingly active considering it was early in the morning at nine AM. I shifted slightly, black boots grinding the dirt under my heel. I also had on an Iron Maiden tshirt. Well, and the normal shuriken holster and general tool bag, of course.

"I did it, bro!," Naruto crowed. "I did that technique!"

"Great, good for you," I said. "Wake me up when pervert-sensei turns up."

"Oi oi oi, look!," Naruto said. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Sasuke's attention was drawn as twenty Naruto's appeared behind the original. One hyperactive Naruto was bad enough, Sasuke paled at the thought of more than one. "W-where did you learn that?!"

"Matora lent me this cool scroll," Naruto said, in a twenty one piece chorus.

"Please stop that," I said. "I need to get to bed earlier."

"That's what you get for staying up late," Naruto retorted. "Hey, did you get that genjutsu figured out?"

"I think I've worked it out," I yawned. "I just need to refine it, so it doesn't use up so much damn chakra."

"What's this genjutsu?," a familiar voice asked.

"YOU'RE LATE!," Naruto and I chorused, Naruto's kage bunshins disappearing in clouds of smoke.

"Nothing important," I said dismissively. "So, what are we doing today? Painting fences?"

"No, you should like this one, Matora," Kakashi said happily.

"I bet we're cleaning the Library then," Naruto predicted gloomily.

"Nope! We're looking for the Daimyo's wife's cat," Kakashi said. "He ran into the woods, and is lost. He has brown fur all over, a red ribbon on his left ear, and a scar on the top of his head."

Kakashi paused for a moment, a satisfied grin growing beneath that mask of his. "And his name is Tora."

I rolled my eyes. "Ha, ha. Which direction did the cat run in?"

"What's the distance to the target?," Kakashi asked over the radio headset.

"Five meters," I said in a low voice, almost a purr due to the fact I was in my hybrid form to use my sensitive nose. (It's only cheating if I'm not doing it. Ninja, not samurai, after all.)

"I'm ready any time," Naruto said immediately.

"So am I," Sasuke agreed.

"Me too," I chimed in.

"Okay!," Kakashi said approvingly. "Go!"

I leapt forwards towards the cat, which immediately ran in the other direction. (Hey, wouldn't you if a tiger leapt out at you?) Luckily, Naruto and Sasuke were in wait there for it, and Naruto promptly grabbed it.

"Gotcha!," Naruto said triumphantly.

"Ribbon on the left ear... are you sure this is Tora?," Kakashi asked, voice crackly.

"Yeah, we're sure," Sasuke confirmed over his headset.

"Good," Kakashi said, satisfied. "Lost pet 'Tora' search mission... complete!"

"You know, it isn't really complete until the cat is back in Lady Whatshername's arms," I pointed out as I detransformed back to human.

"Matora, shut up!," all of the three others yelled.

"Ohhh, my cute little Tora-chan," Lady Shijimi cooed, holding the cat 'lovingly'. She looked like she could give Elmira from Tiny Toons a lesson or two. "I was so worried!"

Personally, I thought the cat had a valid reason for legging it.

"Now, Kakashi's Team Seven," Hokage began, looking over the D-Rank mission list, "your next duty is... hmmm... babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping in a neighbouring village, and help with the potato digging."

"We have to be able to do Bunshin no Jutsu to dig potatoes and go shopping now?," I asked mildly. "Attaaaaaack.... of the killer potaaaaatoes!"

This didn't cheer Naruto up. It only made him madder. "NO! NO! NO! No thank you! I want to do, you know, a more incredible mission! Find us a better one!"

I groaned. Yelling at your superiors hardly ever did much.

After a short argument between Iruka, who was helping Hokage today, and Naruto, followed by an explanation by Hokage-sama about how missions worked (the salient facts of which were 'Genin get the crappy ass ones'), Hokage-sama relented.

"Okay," he said, "if you want it that much... I'll give you a C-Rank mission. It's the protection of a certain individual."

"Yay!," Naruto cheered from where he was sitting on the floor. "Who? Who? A Lord? A Princess?"

"Calm down, I'm about to introduce him," Hokage said wearily. "Hey, will you come in here?"

My sensitive nose smelt him before I saw him. A blast of alcohol laden air, mixed with a certain scent indicating too much time on the road and too little time in the bath house. The man was dressed simply, had glasses on, and a backpack. He held an open bottle of sake in one hand.

"What's this?," he asked. "They're all a bunch of super brats. Especially the shortest one with the super stupid looking face. Are you really a ninja?"

As you can imagine, Naruto didn't really appreciate that, and would probably have maimed the man if Kakashi had not held him back. A stream of invective followed, before Kakashi bopped him on the head and told him to shut up.

"I am the super expert bridge builder Tazuna," the man said. "I expect you to provide me super protection until I get back to my country and finish the bridge."

"Sure thing," I said. "Just one thing..."

"What?," the man snapped.

"Can you take a bath before we go? Please?," I begged. My nose was still near tiger level, so soon after being in hybrid form.

And so we walked out the big, wide open gates of Konoha. Naruto was even more excited than usual, this being the first time he'd been out of the village without Okaasan to hold his hand. I didn't tease him about that, since he'd turn it on me, and Sasuke didn't know.

And, about halfway down the road, he began squabbling with Tazuna after the man baited Naruto, claiming that the blonde was a useless ninja.

"I'll kill you!," Naruto roared, after Tazuna had said that even if Naruto did become Hokage, he still wouldn't acknowledge him.

Teasing Naruto is second only to teasing Kiba, when it comes to having fun. Oops... third, sorry, I forgot about Fuuko and Domon trying to beat Recca.

"I said stop, moron," Kakashi said, clamping down on Naruto's head.

"Oi, Tazuna-san," I said, trying to change the subject, "You're from the Wave Country, right?"

"What? What about it?," the bridge builder asked. He still had his bottle of sake open, and he still stunk to the high heavens.

"Are there any ninja there? I mean, are we gonna have to fight ninja from other countries?"

Sasuke perked up at this. He'd been looking distinctly bored.

"A small island country like the Wave doesn't have a hidden village," Kakashi explained. "Don't worry, there won't be any ninja combat in a C-Rank mission."

Something pricked at the back of my mind, as we side stepped a puddle of water. I was forgetting something again... what was it?

I frowned, staying close to Tazuna.

The sound of chain rattling made itself known through my musings, as we all spun to find Kakashi bound in a length of chain held at each end by freaks in camo pants and black capes. The Demon Brothers. Damn, knew I was forgetting something. I drew a kunai, holding it as a dagger as I stood in front of Tazuna.

They drew their chain taunt, ripping Kakashi-sensei apart in a spray of blood and body parts.

"Kyaaa! Ka... Kakashi-sensei!," Naruto cried out, paralysed as he panicked.

"Two down," one of the Demon Brothers whispered, as they moved to take out Naruto.

Sasuke leapt up, throwing a kunai that nailed the length of chain to a tree as he kicked the two missing nin in the head, holding onto their arms both for stabilization during the kicks and to try and hold them still. As the chain end tied to each one's gauntlet broke, pulled beyond maximum extension, they ran, claws on their massive gauntlets outstretched to take out Naruto that way. To my surprise, Naruto seemed rooted to the spot in panic.

Another ran towards me, and my grip on my kunai tightened as I protected Tazuna. The sharp, undoubtedly poisoned metal claws arced towards my head -- but I couldn't run; they'd take out the client, then. I held my kunai to parry the claws.

Wasn't I lucky, then, that the real Kakashi turned up about then to lay the smack down?

I hoped.