AURA
by Random Writer 46

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Wow... the list of plotholes and sloppy writing just seems to get longer and longer doesn't it?

Well, first issue here I have to address. To the guy that asked if the Hakkyokuseiken clan taijutsu is the same as Fatal Fury's... well, I only have one thing to say to you. Double Reppuken!

Second issue, mostly caused by sloppy writing, is the second member of Team Kurenai. Sasuke is one of them, and Mononoke, who is never ever going to show up is the second, and the third? Well, I only mentioned her once in the last chapter, and that was all due to forgetfulness and playing videogames while writing. It's Sakura.

As for the five-man team thing that a reviewer sent in... It's really more of a six-man team, since you haven't counted Kurenai, and anyway this isn't a recon mission. This is a bodyguard mission, where the shinobi have to send their target to a destination safe and sound. So that means the more bodyguards there are, the more likely the mission is going to succeed. But I do concede, I should've thought out the team placements a bit more. It was a mistake on my part, but what's done is done, and it'd be impossible to change it all. Anyway, I think these teams work out fine. Fine in the broadest sense of the word of course.

The thing about the cultist guys being named after the days of the week... Well, that's true. Though my teacher taught me that it was Kaiyobi, instead of Kayobi. Thanks for the tip, though I think I should stick with what I've got since I've already written it down. Still, thanks.

Keep the reviews coming people! And the obsessive behaviour too! (If I get enough people addicted to the story do you think they'll start paying me to write this stuff?)

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Chapter 7

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"Alright then!" Tazuna cried. "We're all ready, right?"

Both Kakashi and Kurenai nodded, and made a motion for their students to follow. They exited the gates of Konoha quietly. It was now around two in the afternoon. Naruto hadn't packed much, just his essentials and a few books and scrolls to pour over when bored. He couldn't tell what Kiba had packed, but there was this funny smell of dog food in the air. Shino had packed nothing, and Hinata carried only a small backpack. Sasuke was shelfing along a pack roughly the size of Naruto's and Sakura was carrying a small suitcase. Neither Kakashi nor Kurenai seemed to be carrying anything visible, but Naruto credited that to elite jounin skills.

Tazuna was bumbling along, and the rest of them just followed obediently. After a short while however, Naruto was beginning to find things rather boring. There was really nothing he wanted to talk about with Kiba, Shino was just really silent, Hinata was still too shy to make any interesting conversation with, and the encounter with Sasuke really left him feeling a bit weird. There was still the itching feeling that there was something more to do with the Uchiha's urge for betrayal than just the simple need to pay somebody back.

Kakashi and Kurenai were talking with eachother, so the only one that was left was to talk with Sakura. (Sorry about last chapter, I meant to tell everybody that she as going to be a part of Sasuke's team but then I forgot.)

"Sakura-san." Naruto piped up beside her, and broke Sakura out of her thoughts. "Since we're going to be working together on this mission, and probably on more missions in the future, I thought I might introduce myself. Yaiba Naruto."

Sakura smiled.

"Haruno Sakura. Dozo." She said, and put out her hand. Naruto shook it. "I've never seen you before. Are you new?"

Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, Iruka-sensei said it didn't he? I used to be a wander-nin along with my father." Naruto said. "This is my first time in a community of shinobi. Actually, the Wave used to be my home."

"Oh, sorry." Sakura apologized. "I was kinda distracted then."

Naruto thought back to a few days ago when Sakura had been duking it out with Ino over the seat next to Sasuke and grinned.

"Yeah, I see." Naruto said, sagely. "Love conquers all, eh?"

Sakura had the decency to blush, and then, as lady-like as possible, sent him flying with her patented Cherry Tree Blossom Mega Punch.

---

"Ow... Sakura-san can really hit hard." Naruto said, rubbing his face gingerly.

They were sitting in their tent in the middle of a clearing. It had been determined that the girls got one tent, the boys got one tent, and the last tent would be occupied by both Kakashi and Tazuna, to sense out any would-be hired swords ready to slit a throat in the middle of the night.

Currently, they were opening up their sleeping bags, and were starting to settle down. Each one of them was fully dressed, of course, and had their weapons at arms reach. There was no guarantee that they wouldn't be attacked in the middle of the night, after all, and bandits were usually underhanded where shinobi were concerned.

"That's cause you pissed her off!" Kiba yelled from his place, where he was using Akamaru like a pillow. The dog had already gone to sleep. "What'd you expect?"

"I dunno..." Naruto said. "I didn't expect her to punch me."

Sasuke felt inclined to speak.

"...She's not always so violent." Everybody turned around to hear the usually silent Uchiha talk. "She's only like that to people that she feels comfortable with."

Kiba turned back to Naruto.

"That means she's okay with you, eh?" Kiba grinned. "You lady-killer, you!"

Naruto's frantic denial was completely overcome by Kiba's wild laughing. They spent the rest of the time before sleeping talking about various things, from the type of food that they liked to the best way to employ chakra in battles. Naruto also managed to find Kiba's hidden stash of Ninja: The Gathering decks, and played with each other a few rounds. They were tied at eight rounds won each before Kakashi practically yelled at them to sleep.

---

"Look them down there..."

Four shadows stood on top a branch overlooking the clearing that housed the tents and their occupants. The moonlight flashing down on them revealed their shinobi attire and the steel armguards tied together with silver chains. They wore hitai-ate that had the emblem of the Hidden Mist inscribed on them, though there was a large gash along each of the signs.

"Unsuspecting... Easy hunt..." The second shadow agreed.

"Ready, brothers?" The first asked. "Two jounin there, bunch genin."

"Yes." Another one, the third, said. "Can't get too hard."

With a silent hand signal, all four shadows flew into the air and landed beside the tents. They were here for the bridge-builder.

---

"Wake-up, Naruto."

The blonde fox-nin heard the sound of Shino's voice, and woke. He didn't dare move however. The only reason that Shino would be waking him up would be to warn him of something dangerous, and it might be a good idea to stay silent and still at the moment.

"Shino?"

"My bugs have detected intruders within our camp." Shino said silently. "I've already woken Kiba and Sasuke... they've gone out to intercept the enemy before they reach the tent where Kakashi-sensei and Tazuna are sleeping. We should be as quiet as possible."

Naruto nodded, and moved out of the sleeping bag without making a sound. He took his kunai pouch and strapped it to his leg immediately.

"What's the plan?" Naruto asked. "Should we help them intercept?"

"No, we're going for a pincer maneuvre right now... this is they need us to do..."

---

Kiba and Sasuke moved silently through the tall grass. Through the darkness of the night their improved ninja sense could see the faint movements of dark silhouttes against the night. Kiba could feel the intense need to engage them in battle, yet Sasuke's cooling presence managed to keep those feelings in check. There would be a time to engage them, and that time wasn't right now.

Silently, they crept after the shadowy missing-nin, prepared to fight at any moment if they even showed the slightest indication that they had noticed their presence.

"What you say, brother?" One of the shadows said, and Kiba had to strain his ears to hear what he was saying.

"We set them up the bomb." Another shadow said, and Kiba looked to Sasuke incredulously. The black-haired boy shrugged. "They have no chance to survive."

"Set them up the bomb now, make their time."

"That... that's Japanese, right?" Kiba whispered to Sasuke.

"Yeah, something like that." The avenger noted. "What kind of accent is that?"

"That's not an accent!" Kiba whispered savagely. "That's just really, really bad Japanese! What, did their moms drop them on their heads as children or something!"

"Shut up, idiot!" Sasuke said, but the damage was done.

The shadows turned around, staring the two genin in the face. Kiba noticed that they looked remarkably alike. Almost like... carbon copies...

No way... quintuplets!

"How are you gentlemen!" One of the shadows shouted, pointing towards them. "Take off every shuriken!"

"They are on the way to destruction!" Another one of them said. "Move, brother, for great justice!"

Sasuke grit his teeth, and decided it was now a good time.

"INTRUDERS!"

Instantly, the shadowy figures were stuck down to the ground by kikkai bugs.

"What... what happen!"

"Somebody set us up the trap!" Another one of them cried. "We get insect!"

"Shut up, dammit!" Kiba cried. "Learn proper Japanese or die!"

"You shut up, ugly face dog!" The one in lead yelled. "Break out of bug formation, scatter!"

"Ugly face dog!" Kiba roared in outrage. Sasuke was prepared to yell at his dog-like teammate for blowing their cover, but thought better of it. He had a reputation to keep, after all. "That's it! You're asking for it!"

With a burst of chakra, each one of them blew the kikkai bugs off their legs, and prepared to make towards the tent where Tazuna was being held. They would've gotten away with it too, had a bunch of Bunshin not appeared right at that moment and beat the one in lead to the ground. The rest of the brothers stared at the one in lead, before pulling out their shuriken and prepared to throw them at the Naruto clones.

They were not prepared for the fire ball that came crashing into their backs.

"KATON: GOUKAKYU NO JUTSU!" Sasuke cried, and launched the attack. The grand fireball slammed into the intruders, and sent them tumbling to the ground. The real Naruto appeared out of the midst of clones, and tied the intruders down to the ground with a chakra net.

Kakashi emerged from the tent he had been napping in, and stared at the Mist missing-nin.

"Wow... I catch up on some well-deserved rest for a second and a party starts without me."

He was treated to several ugly glares, courtesy of the boys.

"I've fallen and I can't get up!"

---

"So, you're here for Tazuna, then?" Kakashi asked.

They had moved the intruders from their place facedown on the ground, and had tied them to tree trunks with the help fo chakra ropes. The Mist missing-nin were glaring at them with the utmost hatred in their faces, and Naruto would've been intimidated had their hard command of the Japanese language not been so goddamn funny.

"Not tell, even get threat of death." The one in lead growled.

Kakashi rubbed his forehead. Yep, this was definitely it. The illiterate Demon Brothers of the Hidden Mist, famous for being impervious to torture and never leaking information out. The only reason that they had never let information out was mostly because nobody could ever really tell what they were talking about. Actually, that was the only reason that they had even been promoted to chuunin at all, they were still really just genin level. It was just his luck that they had been sent to try and take Tazuna.

"Even if you set us up the bomb."

Yep, he could really feel a migraine coming along. It was just like his terribly cruel students, leaving their poor jounin-sensei to deal with these tyrants. Nevermind the fact that they had risked life and limb to bring these guys in while he had been sleeping away without a single worry.

Kakashi got up from his position on the floor, and summoned up Pakkun with a touch of kuchiyose.

"Waddya need me for?" The little brown dog asked. Kakashi wrote a small note and passed it over.

"Please get this note back to Konoha, missing-nin department." The silver-haired jounin said. "We've found something that might be of interest to them."

Pakkun took a look at the beat missing-nins, and nodded.

"Alright then."

---

"Izzat it?" Kiba asked. Naruto nodded.

Last night, after the attack, Kakashi had made Tazuna spill everything. The silver-haired jounin was considering dropping the mission, but a good-natured Kurenai and Naruto had convinced him to at least assess the situation (and the guilt trip that Tazuna put them through was no motivation at all, of course). They were currently travelling on the river, courtesy of a friend of Tazuna's. The Wave was starting to come into view now...

"So, what's it like returning to the place where you lived all your life?" Sakura asked.

Naruto felt a little uncomfortable. There was a whole lot of attention being placed on him right then.

"Um... I dunno." Naruto said. "It didn't really feel like home anyway. We didn't really mingle with the locals."

Kiba poked him in the shoulder.

"Yeah, but you've lived here all your life, right?" Kiba said. "There's gotta be some attachment here!"

Naruto thought about this for a few seconds.

"Nope, not at all." Naruto said. "Heck, I didn't even know things were going so bad here. My dad was the one that got most of the supplies. I was mostly confined to the house. The only time that I ever really went out was on missions and stuff."

Sakura blanched. Kiba nodded.

"That's gotta suck." Kiba said, sagely. Naruto shrugged. It didn't really bother him that much.

They landed in the harbour, and each one of the shinobi and Tazuna got off. Standing around, they looked at their surroundings. The place was really broken-down now. Where there had probably been white, polished marble there was now just dirtied bricks. The streets were littered with filth and dirt, and children on the streets begged for food from the more fortunate ones.

"This... this is worse than I thought." Naruto said.

Kiba nodded.

"Yeah..."

"So you see?" Tazuna said. Kiba and Naruto turned around and stared Tazuna in the eye. "Gatou controls the Wave now... He doesn't care for its inhabitants. He realizes that the Wave is going down, but he doesn't care. But the inhabitants, people like me, we do. We will take back control from Gatou, and we will re-establish hope. And to do that, we're gonna need to finish the bridge."

He put his hands on Naruto's and Kiba's shoulders.

"I understand that you guys are a bit low-leveled to do a mission like this, but I'm begging you. The whole village together only managed to raise enough money to pay for a C-rank mission. If you guys don't protect us, this place is gonna die. Please."

Kiba didn't seem to know what to do, but Naruto had expected something like this.

"All you have to do is to build that bridge, and then the Wave can bloom, right?" Naruto asked.

Tazuna nodded.

"Yes."

Naruto thought about this for a bit.

"So, once you get the Wave back on its feet. Youll be able to make enough to cover the price of a B-rank mission?"

"Definitely, so you'll..." Tazuna could see where this was going, but wasn't willing to raise his hopes.

Naruto held out three fingers.

"On two conditions." Naruto said. "You pay back all the money, in little increments if you want, but it has all got to be there."

Tazuna nodded eagerly. All traces of the drunken old man was gone now.

"And the second condition?" Tazuna asked.

Naruto took a look at their surroundings again. The children begging on the streets, the rotting food that he could smell from here... There was bad feelings all over the place. How could he have not noticed all this. Deep within him, he felt a tinge of guilt and regret. If he had noticed all of this, maybe he could've helped...

"Actually, no." Naruto said. "Scratch the first condition. You don't have to pay us anything."

Both Kiba and Kakashi looked at Naruto sharply. Naruto just raised a finger to his lips. The sign for silence.

"My only condition, is that you will run for mayor." Naruto said. Tazuna looked at him, shocked. "You're doing this, risking life and limb to save this village, because you love it, don't you? The Wave needs somebody like that to help it get back on its feet when Gatou is dealt with. Nothing's going to be alright if you don't have a strong leader. The Wave needs somebody that loves their village, after something like Gatou. Those are my conditions, do you accept?"

Tazuna nodded, still in shock. Dimly, as though he wasn't there at the moment, he invited the ninja towards his house.

"What are you doing?" Kakashi asked Naruto as they passed.

"You can take it out of my pay."

Somewhere a little bit away...

"Naruto's a really nice guy, isn't he?" Sakura asked.

Kiba nodded.

Sakura thought about this for a bit, and smiled. She turned her eyes, back towards the black-haired avenger. She had realized it after all this time, why she was attracted to him.

She took a look at her surroundings, the way Naruto had done, and compared the looks on the people to the look on the Uchiha. She had looked beneath his mask, and had been surprised at what she had seen. Outwards, he was an glacier, cold and unmoving. Inside, he was a raging tornado, hurt and confused. She had seen Naruto talk to him, and she knew he was right.

He was hurting, and she wanted to help.