Summary: Last chapter Naruto set out for Tea Country together with Team Gai. On the road they were attacked by bandits but managed to fight them off.
Satisfied that their mission was complete, Gai gave his team permission to fall out. "Yosh, with the burning flame of youth you have completed your mission. Now go and enjoy your free time, we leave tomorrow at noon."
Without so much as a glance the Hyuuga turned around and left, Naruto presumed to train. TenTen was torn for a second between the rest of her team or following the silent Hyuuga. With a small nod towards the blonde ninja she turned around and hurried after the Hyuuga.
People should give that stuck-up Hyuuga the personality award of the year if you ask me.
Or take a photograph of him dressed in a teddybear pyjama, and put posters of him all over Konoha.
Still snickering the Kyuubi vessel also left, not wanting to be alone with those freaky guys. Glancing around, just to make sure he wasn't followed or anybody was watching him, Naruto briefly formed a seal and the blonde disappeared in a small cloud of smoke only to emerge from it as an old man with a gnarled walking stick.
Hobbling up the street, Naruto made one last glance around him before he ducked into an old rickety herb shop. A shrill bell sounded somewhat muffled when he opened the door, and dimly he heard someone screech "Coming! Feel free to look around."
Doing just that, Naruto almost missed an old woman with greying hair enter the shop through the curtain that was hanging behind the counter. Choosing some herbs that, mixed properly, would make a powerful sleeping solution without taste or colour afterwards.
"I'll be wanting these. It's kind of funny you know? I expected Tea Country to have much more teahouses but I could only find five." Inwardly Naruto smiled when he couldn't detect if the old woman had recognised the password or not. With a firm voice the belayed her appearance she replied, "Most teahouses move to other countries, they can get better prices there."
"Do you enjoy the tea they make here?" The question was asked innocently but the answer would make all the difference for Naruto.
The old lady smiled a shark-like grin and replied, "I like sake." And with that the old woman closed down the shop and motioned Naruto to follow her through the curtain.
Taking a seat on a chair that must be as old as the woman, Naruto waited until the woman had prepared some tea and was seated. Whilst gratefully accepting the steaming cup, Naruto observed the room they were in. Except for a table, three rickety chairs and a small kitchen it was bare. Concluding she must sleep above the shop, Naruto focussed on the woman again, who was watching him like a hawk.
"Maranna-sama, I have been ordered to expand our humble network. You know just as well as I do that promising teahouses are sent to all different countries. I need your considerable knowledge on which owner to approach."
Letting the old woman think, Naruto drained his tea and patiently waited. After a minute or so, Maranna spoke up. "Jinobi is a good lad, honest but in need of some starting money. He has the skills."
Nodding and committing the name to memory and waited for the old woman to speak up again.
"Then there is Tatsuo of course" a scowl flashed across her face as she spoke his name. "He has heavy debts and that could be your way in, but I wouldn't approach him personally. He is not reliable enough for that, but you could use him for a while."
Seeing the old woman was out of names, Naruto stood up and bowed. Silently accepting an weathered scroll on cooking recipes Maranna pushed his way, Naruto swiftly left the herb shop behind him.
His mind was racing. He would approach Jinobi personally, in disguise of course but send one of his street urchin contacts to talk to Tatsuo. Absentmindedly playing with the scroll he had received. It was in code of course and instead of cooking recipes it was a detailed report on the suspicious movements of certain mercenary groups and shinobi in Tea Country.
After releasing his disguise in an alley, Naruto headed for the inn to get some sleep and then contact his informants.
Dismissing an all-jounin team to take care of a rather nasty A-ranked mission, Sarutobi was quite unaware when a black raven flew in through the open window and stole his pipe. To stupefied to move, the Third Hokage watched in wonder as the raven was enveloped in a smoke cloud and a grinning Uzumaki Naruto emerged.
"Not bad eh, old man. It's some kind of an advanced henge form that Jiraiya taught me. After a stern look from Sarutobi a chuckling Naruto handed the pipe back, together with a bunch of small notes.
Seeing the questioning glance, Naruto explained. "Those are the additional information you'll have to provided some teams. Minor occurrences that is just nice to know for the squad leader." Pausing to rummage around in one of his pockets, Naruto withdrew a sealed scroll. "This one is for your eyes only, this scroll contains the teams that will be requiring back-up."
Sighing Naruto took a seat. "I haven't managed to place eyes and ears in a hidden village yet, but if you'll give me a month I might be able."
Nodding, Sarutobi opened the scroll and took a look at the teams. Impressed with what Naruto had managed to do in a short two weeks, the Hokage made his decision. "Well done, I'm giving you a week off from your duties." Raising his hand to stall the protests, he continued. "Use this time to train and perhaps take a few missions with some genin, get to know them."
Seeing that protesting would be futile, Naruto simply bowed and left as he had entered.
As was their tradition, the four jounins came together at the end of the week to exchange training methods, and of course gossip. In the jounin lounge they boast about their students or just lounge.
At the moment, Gai and Kakashi were in one of their stupid games, while Asuma and Kurenai were discussing the finer points of throwing a twelve-starred throwing star. It wasn't until a grumpy Anko entered that Gai stopped talking because everybody knew that a grumpy Anko was a deadly Anko.
Shortly after the snake-specialist had taken her seat, a smirking Ibiki entered. Ignoring the death glare Anko sent him, the head of interrogation also took his seat.
The silence lasted until Kurenai was too curious and asked what was wrong. It was a smirking Ibiki that answered her. "Our esteemed Hokage was right, and Anko was wrong." Seeing the questioning look in everybody's eyes, the special jounin sighed softly and explained.
"Anko and her team were sent to pick up a man that wished to be escorted. However, before they left Sarutobi-sama declared the mission to be a trap and handed in over to the ANBU. Of course Anko didn't like this at all and loudly complained. I believe she used the words 'Pipe-loving monkeyface' and 'spineless banana eater'."
Chuckling softly, Ibiki lapsed into silence. "And?" Gai asked, rather curious.
"The information was correct." Ibiki deadpanned. Nodding slightly, Kurenai also spoke up. "Now that you mention it, I heard of a chuunin squad that was reinforced the other day because the area they were going through had a high chance of enemy encounter. The information was correct."
"Seems like Jiraiya's been busy with expanding his network." Kakashi concluded. Accepting that as a valid explanation the jounins lapsed into silence, all with different thoughts.
"Gai, how was that C-ranked mission you went on?" A curious Asuma asked. The self-proclaimed Green Beast of Konoha came out of his thoughts. "Everything went fine, save for an ambush of mercenary bandits."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, asking his question through his mask. "So your team got some field experience, how did they perform." The fact that Gai hesitated with answering drew everybody's attention. "Well, the bandits never really reached us." Seeing everybody's questioning faces, even that of Kakashi, the jounin continued. "The new guy, Naruto used Kage Bunshin and held them off."
Knowing that his fellow shinobi's would not be satisfied with such a short explanation, Gai launched into a blow-by-blow account of the fight.
Naruto cursed. Somewhere, somebody was talking about him, causing him to sneeze once every ten seconds. Normally this wouldn't be very bad, but in this exceptional case it was. Cursing again, Naruto thought back to how he had gotten himself into this sticky mess.
FLASHBACK
Naruto was about to head out to Ichiruka to grab some lunch when with an ominous creak, one of the previously sealed doors opened. After a brief internal debate the Uzumaki chose to explore.
He found an empty corridor that was lighted by eerily glowing orbs. Taking a few steps into the corridor, Naruto was unpleasantly surprised when the door suddenly slammed shut.
After a few tries, the ninja came to a conclusion; he was stuck.
"Well, seems like I can only go forward."
No really, whatever gave you that luminous idea? Came the unwanted and sarcastic reply from the Kyuubi.
Just as Naruto was about to make a scathing reply, his practised eye spotted the soft glint of a tripwire reflecting light. Instantly he froze.
Moving as little as possible the Kyuubi vessel examined his surroundings. Now that he was looking for them he spotted a multitude of traps all the way down the corridor.
Pit traps, fire traps, prank traps, traps triggering jutsus, log traps, shuriken launching traps, funny traps, deadly traps, pathetic traps. He had encountered them all. And he was only half way the corridor.
END FLASHBACK
At the moment he was disabling a trap that, if triggered, would singe his eyebrows right off. The fact that he had a sneezing fit wasn't exactly a gift from above. Handling volatile liquids while not in complete control of your body's reflexes wasn't something one should try at home.
"Well, at least I managed to brush up my trap disabling skills." Naruto mumbled out loud as he disabled a complicated pit trap. "At least it can't get any worse than this."
Oh no. Don't tell you just said what I think you did.
The slightly apprehensive tone of the Kyuubi made Naruto reply.
What are you talking about?
Listen Gaki, I'm Kyuubi. A freakin' demon. I fear nothing and nobody, I'm almighty but even I don't say what you just said.
Why not?
Because when you say that something always goes wrong.
Ignoring what the crazy fox was mumbling about Naruto turned to the next trap with an audible sigh. He was allowed a minute of tedious work when Kyuubi interrupted his concentration again.
I told you so. Hehehe, you're in for it now Brat.
More alarmed by the glee in the demon's voice than what it was saying, Naruto looked around him. Roughly around the same time, a sound reached his ears that made his eyes widen slightly in alarm. It was the sound of metal spikes shooting out of their sheaths.
Swivelling around Naruto, at the very beginning of the corridor, something that made cold sweat break out. Metal spikes were protruding from odd and impossible angles all around the entrance door. Anybody standing there would have been skewered, there was no way to dodge being shish-kebabed as the spikes came from all sides.
What made the situation a real situation was the fact that the deadly wall of metal was slowly moving towards the Uzumaki was standing.
Naruto was trapped in a trap riddled corridor with inevitable death slowly gaining on him. Squashing the urge run around in circles screaming his head off in panic, the blond ninja did the only thing his upbringing and current jop allowed him to do; he doubled his efforts to clear the traps.
Kuso! Alright, think Naruto. Options…Clones are out of the question, the corridor is too narrow. Any offensive jutsu will just trigger the traps and that's something I want to avoid. Kawarimi? With what? Kuso!
I told you so. The smug tone of the Kyuubi interrupted Naruto's train of thoughts.
Shut up Furball, I'm trying to save our hides here. A swift glance told him that the spikes were seven meters away from him and every three seconds they would gain one meter on him.
Glancing ahead, towards the end of the corridor of death as he had mentally labelled it, Naruto saw that he had twelve more meters too go.
Time, I need more time.
Nimble fingers diffused a smoke bomb. Next trap.
Why am I doing this? What is the use.
Mechanically he cut the wire that connected the pressure plate to the jutsu paper. Next.
Think!
Next trap.
The first thing I learned was not to let my guard down.
Glance. Five meters to go, three behind him.
Then this is a lesson as well.
Pouring some chakra into a complicated trap countered the burst of water that would otherwise erupt.
This is an obstacle course…with pressure. Time pressure.
Glance again. Three meters and only one meter left.
That's it! It's an obstacle course on speed. RUN!
Sarutobi was puffing contently on his pipe, the old man deemed that he had worked hard enough to have a small break now. His break however was rudely shattered when a grumpy Naruto opened the door and slammed it shut.
"What happened to you?" The Hokage asked. The Genin in front of him was covered scorch marks, cuts, and his clothes seemed to be hopelessly torn.
"I was training" came the grumpy reply. A raised eyebrow sent his way prompted Naruto to elaborate. "It was an obstacle race where I had to use speed to outrun the obstacles. As you can see, these particular obstacles were rather lethal."
Absorbing the information Sarutobi suddenly remembered the improved Henge Naruto had shown him. "Couldn't you have just transformed into a raven and flown over the course.?"
Grinning ruefully Naruto shook his head. "Improved Henge is a useful skill but the form takes a long time too learn, which means that it isn't a very useful skill for improvisation. And besides, cheating would have ruined the effect of training. And an Uzumaki never cheats."
Ending with a smile, Naruto suddenly remembered where he was and why he had visited the Hokage. "However much I like training, I believe that a mission is less lethal for my health and my clothes. So, old man, give me a mission." With a comic grin on his face, Naruto nursed some of his wounds to emphasise his point.
Ignoring the playful jab Naruto had sent his way, Sarutobi checked his mission roster. "Genin Uzumaki, here is your mission." Using his best 'Hokage' voice, the Professor handed Naruto his mission.
Playing along, the blond mock saluted, quickly read the mission and set out to find the team.
We're going on a mission Kyuubi
Really? Your ability to state the obvious has me completely baffled.
That would mean that you'd actually shut up for once.
I'll let you know that us demons are extremely intelligent and completely superior to you humans.
Continuing the mental 'debate', Naruto quicklytook to the roof and bounded away to meet the team.
And that's it people. I had intended to write some more but somehow it turned out this way, I'm not complaining.
I'd like to thank everybody for their reviews which spurred me to write faster than usual :) So arigato!
Wolfkun: Of course it's normal that Kyuubi is your favourite character grins I like to make him as sarcastic as possible.
DeathAngel-Lavenda: You raised a good question. I haven't yet decided on pairings, but I'm open to suggestions, the girl with the most 'suggestions' might be paired up with Naruto.