I did not expect to get this much into this small a chapter. It just...fast.
Tora the Deplora(ble) (also the demon brothers)
"Greaseball one this is Fox one, please report."
"Naruto, what are you-"
"Codenames, greaseball!"
Naruto heard a sigh through the speaker.
"Greaseball one to Fox one, where exactly did you get this radio system?"
"That's simple, Greaseball." Naruto replied. "I took my frog purse with all our d-rank pay to the fancy electronics store,"
"Uh huh."
"and then I stole the radios from ANBU headquarters."
"For fucks sake Naruto-!"
"Fox one to Bat one, do we have eyes on the target?"
"This is Bat one to Fox one," at least Hinata was getting into things, "the target is approximated forty metres southwest of your position."
"Excellent! That's uh..."
"Make a quarter turn left from your current heading." Greaseball one supplied. "No, left, Naruto you aren't this stupid-"
Three figures darted across Konoha's rooftops. Their feet made nary a sound, their forms were blurs against the weak, early morning light. Their prey never saw them coming. Stealthy as, well, ninja, they converged in a dark alleyway, pinning their target against the wall. He looked back at the three, and hissed. And so began a cacophony of shouts, bangs, and meows.
Many years before.
An eight year old Neji Hyuuga didn't look up as the door opened. Why would he? The view outside was prettier anyway. And he'd committed years ago to leaving his Byakugan on at all waking hours. He watched the sky while his 360 vision watched the man entering the room.
"Neji?" Said the teacher, quietly.
"Yes, Sensei." Neji acknowledged.
"I've come to discuss your unique situation." The teacher was offput, as usual, by Neji's demeanour.
"In which you restrict my progress?" Neji requested confirmation.
"Yes." Said the teacher, nervously. "As a matter of fact, I have a solution."
"Does it have to do with the Uchiha waiting outside?" Neji asked. He wished the man would get to the point.
"Yes, Neji. Itachi, would you come in here?"
Neji turned then to get a proper look at the boy who walked in. He knew Itachi. Everyone knew Itachi. In fact, Neji had always wanted to meet him; they seemed to have a lot in common. Both the same age, both wielders of a dojutsu, both geinus sons of a powerful clan. But while Itachi was the heir to the Uchiha's leader, Neji was the son of the leader's younger brother. A branch family member. Suffice to say, one boy was not as well known as the other.
Neji stared at him. "Hello."
"Hello." Itachi stared back.
"Itachi's team has come upon some...unexpected changes." The teacher explained. "He needs a new teammate. And you need a team."
"What happened?" Neji asked Itachi.
"We were ambushed." Itachi responded. "My team is dead. Chunin exams are in two months and there are no vacancies on other teams for me."
Neji looked him up and down. "You are eight."
"As are you."
"Do you think you will pass?"
"No."
Neji knew it wasn't the 'pass' part Itachi was denying.
"Do you know you will?"
"Yes."
The Hyuuga tilted his head. "Do you believe in fate, Uchiha Itachi?"
"No. I believe in me." Itachi responded.
Neji focused on the teacher, who was standing in an incredibly awkward manner. "Do you have a third teammate for us?"
"Er, no." The man said. "You would have to function as a two-man team."
Neji looked back at Itachi and smiled. "I'm confident we'll manage."
Present day, at the Hokage's office.
"That was a paaaain." Naruto groused, sucking the cuts on his fingers. "And they call me a demon. If that cat didn't run away and give genin missions on a bi-weekly basis I'd have scratched it back. Harder."
Hinata looked up, concerned. "Did it hurt you, Naruto?"
He grinned back at her. "Nah, I'm a ninja! I'm not going to get taken down by a cat with an attitude problem."
"Given some Inuzuka I've seen, that might not be quite true." Chuckled the Hokage, smiling benignly at the three. "I have in fact heard what I'm sure are baseless rumours about where the Daimyo's wife purchased Tora...in any case congratulations on your tenth successful D-rank mission. I trust you aren't finding them too difficult?"
Sasuke's incredulous "D-ranks? Difficult?" Was overlaid atop Naruto's "Any morning we don't spend with Gai is an easy morning."
Hinata nodded her own approval.
The third looked up. "Kakashi?"
Their sensei was leaning against the corner of the room.
"They're ready, gramps." He agreed. "And they've been pestering me about getting a C-rank since day three."
"You believe it will be good for them?" The Hokage asked.
"I 'believe' they're going to get cabin fever if they don't get out soon. Konoha starts to look pretty small at their age."
Hiruzen nodded slowly. "Very well. I believe I have just the thing."
Naruto's eyes sparkled. "We're getting a C-rank?"
The third nodded. "There is a bridge builder named Tazuna who requires an escort to the land of wave, a small island near to our shores only accesable by boat, though I believe he intends to change that. Your job is to travel with him, protect him from any threats, and guard him while he completes his construction work. With Kakashi to protect you, there shouldn't be anything you can't handle. Not that I doubt your progress, of course."
"Woo!" Naruto jumped up and cheered. "Actual ninja mission! Sasuke are you excited?"
"I guess." He shrugged.
"Hinata?"
"I am, Naruto." Oh God weeks in the wilderness with Naruto yes yes yes-
"Kakash-actually never mind. When do we start?"
The third squinted down at his papers. "Lets see...ah yes, you have thirty-five minutes."
After a few seconds of silence, the three genin sprinted out the door, leaving a smiling Hokage in their wake.
They met Tazuna at the gates to Konoha. He was...about what they had expected.
"Aw great. Children." The elderly man growled, taking a swig from a flask of alcohol. "I request ninja and I get toddlers."
Hinata's eyes flashed. How dare he insult Naruto-"You stand in the presence of a member of the Hyuuga clan and her teammates. Show some respect, commoner."
Tazuna looked down at her, noticing her eyes. "A Hyuuga, huh? I suppose you're not so useless."
"And I am the heir of the Uchiha." Sasuke said, beside her, not one to be outdone. "Same sentiment."
Tazuna looked down at him. "Really? Aren't you supposed to have red eyes?"
Sasuke blinked. "I...haven't unlocked my Sharingan yet."
Tazuna rolled his eyes. "Suuure you haven't."
"Are you doubting my lineage?"
Tazuna shrugged. "What's there to doubt?"
"You son of a-"
"Now now, Sasuke." Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder. "Please do not swear at, nor murder our client." He looked up to Tazuna. "And I assure you. My genin are quite sufficient for your needs and better than what you deserve for your pay. After all, it's not like we'll be up against ninja."
"Right. Of course we won't." Said Tazuna, not looking confident of that at all.
The demon brothers waited. The jutsu that hid them in bodies of water was holding, and had for the past two hours. Patience was an important tool for a ninja, especially when setting up ambushes or scouting targets. Patience was a virtue, and they had it in spades. It was a virtue the genin walking up the road towards them did not appear to share. They veritably skipped around their Sensei and their charge, not paying any attention at all to their surroundings. The aforementioned Sensei would be more of a problem; but even he didn't look to have caught on to their presence. No matter how skilled he was in combat, he was still human. A knife to the head would kill a jonin just as easily as a civilian. The two missing-nin decided in sync that the left one should make the first throw, and he palmed a kunai.
That was when the group of four was obliterated in a fireball. Both brothers immediately leapt out of their respective puddles and dove sideways, hurling themselves to either side of the road. The hurry to escape the massive ball of death meant they weren't able to set up their spiked chain, leaving them separated with nothing but their gauntlets. That was when they got jumped. A boy with black hair landed on the left brother's back and straightened his legs, slamming the man's body into the floor and probably breaking a few ribs.
A girl with blue hair landed beneath the right brother in a split and struck out at his knee with a palm. That leg went numb, and the girl straightened as he fell and struck out once towards his temple. He fell unconscious immediately.
"Yeah, that's fine." Said a boy with blond hair, approaching from further down the road with his sensei and escortee "I'll just use my shadow clones as the diversion again."
"That was...impressive." Tazuna allowed, as the group stopped to tie up the attackers. "How did you manage to detect them?"
"My Byakugan could see their chakra from well over fifty metres away." Hinata replied. "Not to mention they were hidden in two puddles when it hasn't rained in weeks."
"Really?" Said Naruto. "That's awesome, Hinata!"
She blushed.
"Did you see that great fireball jutsu?" Sasuke chipped in, casually. "That was the signature technique of the Uchiha clan, right there."
Tazuna shrugged. "Don't you live in the land of fire? I doubt it's exclusive."
"You refuse to believe I'm from a great ninja family don't you?"
Tazuna 'hmm'd, then shook his head.
"Alright, that should do it." Kakashi spoke up. He tightened one last rope then straightened, putting his hands together and muttering "shadow clone jutsu."
An identical copy appeared next to him and, without preamble, picked up the two hostages.
"Where did that come from?" Tazuna asked, still unused to the concept of ninjutsu. "Is it real? What's it doing?"
"It's real enough to go drop these two off back in leaf and cash the bounties in." Kakashi replied.
Hinata looked at him. "It will last that long?"
"I gave it half my chakra and it uses that up moving. It'll last about a month if I leave it, but it'll probably dispel soon after getting back." Kakashi explained.
"It's well programmed enough to do that?" Hinata asked.
"It's not programmed. It thinks." Their sensei replied. "It's pretty much a carbon copy of me but it blows up when you hit it."
"That sounds useful, which explains why Naruto uses it..." Hinata mulled. "Teach it to me."
"Maybe when we get to wave." Kakashi replied. "Now then." He turned on Tazuna, glaring. "Care to explain why we just got attacked by two infamous chunin level missing-nin?"
The bridge builder paled.
What followed was a ten minute explanation-slash-tirade-slash-pity-bait about how some merchant lord was bankrupting his country, and was sufficiently cross about Tazuna's attempts at freedom to send assassins after him.
"If I can't get this bridge finished," he concluded. "We're doomed. We've barely got any hope left. I can die, it doesn't matter. But if this bridge isn't built before-"
"You're repeating yourself." Kakashi supplied.
"Everything will be horrible and my grandkids will be depressed and my dead family will go unavenged and puppies will be kicked. Which is why I had to lie about how dangerous it could be. I could barely afford you as it is." Tazuna finished.
"Vengeance is important." Sasuke empathised.
Hinata nodded, solemnly.
"Uh huh." Said Kakashi. "Those are very honourable reasons, and I applaud you. But you've dealt with us in good faith and put my genin in danger, so standard procedure says we're going to have to ditch you."
"What?"
Kakashi turned. His three students were looking at him with outraged expressions. "...Am I to understand you disagree?"
"We can't give up because of a challenge." Sasuke growled. "This is my first real mission. I won't go home and say it was a failure."
"I need to grow stronger." Hinata stated. "This is a perfect opportunity to test my skills."
"Do any of you actually care about the sob story?" Kakashi asked.
Naruto tentatively raised his hand.
The jonin sighed. "Really? You're all dead set on this?"
"I, for one, am not abandoning the kickable puppies." Naruto admitted.
Kakashi sighed again. "I suppose, the fact that you finessed those two just now suggests they aren't really much stronger than what you'd expect for a mission like this..."
They cheered. Well, Naruto cheered, and the other two had self satisfied looks on their faces.
"Alright alright. Hinata, take point. We've still got another three days to go before we reach wave. If you're determined to risk your lives let's limit how long it takes, shall we?"
Flashbacks, wave, and setting up a running gag I am on fire this week.
Next saturday (provided the return of school doesn't crush me *shudders*) we get the introduction of Zabuzza and best boy Haku to try and steal Naruto's love away from the person who, let's be real, he's actually going to end up with.
Sasuke.
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