The Deception, gone awry

by defiasstone2

On the night of his graduation, Naruto worked out why most people in Konoha didn't like him, and what impact that would have on his life going forward. But Naruto has never been one to accept things because of 'fate' or 'destiny', and you would be surprised what a determined young man can do with a forbidden jutsu and a pranksters mindset...

16. The first mission revealed

Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:

"Fine you win Nami-san, I won't call you chan if you don't imply this is a date to Ayame-chan, I have enough women on my... Tenten-chan! I need to find her before going to see the Hokage, otherwise she probably really will have my head for missing out on our training." Nami quirked her head to the side in a questioning manner.

"Is this the girl who you had one of your shadow clones imitate? She should be relatively easy to find." Naruto looked at her, what was she talking about? He didn't officially know where she lived, and it would be really bad if she thought he was stalking her. Nami smiled slightly again and pointed to the north. "It sounded like she is on Maito-san's genin team, and they are up every morning early and away from central Konoha on the Hokage's orders, something about noise complaints from all of the civilians around the city outskirts complaining about 'youthful noises.'" At Naruto's slightly confused nod she leapt off with him following behind, unable to shake the feeling that he was about to enter a situation that he would never be able to forget...

Chapter 16: The first mission revealed and Developments

It took them five minutes to travel to the training ground administrators office, a small building to the northwest of the Hokage mountain which was used as the booking point for the main training grounds that Konoha maintained for its ninja to use. Of course, not all ninja could be bothered with the paperwork of officially booking a training ground and instead just used the 'communal' training grounds that were available to all ninja of any rank. Naruto had been fascinated to find this out and had stated his improved opinion of Kakashi who he assumed had actually gone and booked the training ground for them, which was more than Naruto had expected possible from the lazy jounin given what he had seen thus far.

His newfound respect was shot down a moment later when Nami responded simply that all genin teams that pass their jounin instructors tests are given a training ground of there own for 6 months without having to do any paperwork, and that the booking of the training ground was handled by the academy rather than by the jounin sensei in question, meaning that Kakashi had not done anything and wouldn't have to do any work on behalf of the team for some time. The Information was still useful for Naruto to know, as it meant that he could book a training ground for his own private training if he ever wished, and it also meant that it took them no time at all to find out where Tenten's team, officially team 9 were based, their sensei having booked one of the outermost training grounds for the next 6 months.

Looking at the map that was in the office, Naruto was surprised how much land Konoha technically comprised when the training grounds were included, it would take him easily an hour to get from one side to the other even with the forced speed training that he had been doing over the last few days. The training ground that Team 9 was based at was to the North of the Hokage mountain, meaning that it was about a forty minute round trip for him to get there and then back to the Hokage tower for the meeting that the Hokage had asked him to attend at 9am. This meant he could spend about half an hour with the team before he would need to leave, he just hoped that was enough time to calm Tenten down, in case she reacted in the same violent way that she had with his clone.

Leaving the office Maki smiled at him before speaking in the same professional tone she had been using when they were out of earshot of anyone else. "Now I must take my leave, I have a report to make before I head to the tower for missions. I assume you can get yourself to the training ground by yourself?" He nodded, not liking the glint in her eye, which seemed to indicate that there was something she was not telling him that she was finding highly amusing, but he knew asking about it would not get him anywhere so he saved himself the effort of losing another conversation with a girl. Instead he stepped forwards and pulled her in a hug, smirking as he felt her stiffen slightly at the contact, try and out prank him would she?

"Thanks for helping me Nami-chan, I will make it up to you at some point I swear. How about we save that ramen until you are back from whatever mission you have?" She nodded slowly and then extricated herself from his arms with surprising skill, the light colouring on her cheeks the only indication that he had managed to affect her with his actions.

"Of course Naruto-san, I will come by your apartment on my return so that we can discuss things and I can tell you some more about myself, if you wish to know of course?" It was obviously a loaded question and he was more than happy enough to acquiesce to the subtle insistence in her tone.

"Sure thing Nami-chan, I always want to know everything about my friends and I am sure that Umi-chan would love to meet you, after all if we are going to be hanging out together all the time its time I introduced you to the others." Nami's smile widened for a moment and he could not work out why, but she waved goodbye and disappeared into the trees before he could ask about it any further. Grumbling about annoying anti-social kunoichi Naruto readied himself before taking off into the trees himself, heading North as fast as he could, he would like to also be able to fit breakfast in before getting the Hokage tower.

He almost surprised himself with his speed when he actually paid attention to it, obviously Himako forcing him to run to his limit too keep up with her for so long had helped him with his speed, not that he would willingly submit himself to that kind of training again if he could help it. He made good progress through the training grounds, only having to move around two of them as they were obviously occupied, the last thing he wanted to do was be caught in the crossfire. He arrived at what he thought was the training ground he was aiming for, though as he entered he couldn't see any activity that would indicate that team 9 were present.

Stepping through into the wooded area of the training ground he was about to call out to see if he would get a response when a hand covered his mouth and he was pulled behind a tree, a familiar voice whispering in his ear being the only thing that stopped his reflexes from going on overdrive to try and escape. "Don't ruin things now Naruto, this is a training exercise and I really want to win this time." The grip over his mouth tightened as Tenten's voice hardened slightly "And then I am sure you can explain to me why you didn't turn up to our training as you promised, understand?" Naruto nodded as best he could considering the hold she had his head in and after a moment longer she released him, though he was still trapped between the tree and her as she looked around cautiously. "It's a game of hide and seek mixed with capture the flag, me versus my two teammates, so if you can produce solid clones as you claimed that might prove to be really handy at this point."

Naruto couldn't help but smirk as she finished explaining, this sounded exactly like the sort of exercise he would be good at. "What's the target and where is it? And do you have to be the one to grab it or do you just have to end up with it?" Tenten quirked an eyebrow but didn't voice the obvious question about what he was planning, simply waiting for him to continue, leaving him to sigh slightly in order to explain. "Right, well here is what I had in mind..."

Timeskip 15 minutes

Naruto was grinning despite the pain he felt in his now limp left arm, courtesy of the chakra infused strikes of Hyuuga Neji, the rookie of the year from the previous years genin graduates. The plan that he had worked through with Tenten had been a simple one where she drew her teammates away from the flag she was meant to grab with the help of some of his clones, before he went in under a henge to grab the flag which he would then bring and give to her, completing the exercise. Looking over at Tenten who was stood, flag in hand with grin on her face, he reflected that even if everything hadn't gone quite to plan, it had worked out fairly well in the end regardless.

*Flashback*

Naruto looked into the clearing that Tenten had informed him about, the flag clearly visible in the centre of it, around which were stood Tenten's two teammates, Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji both of whom Naruto remembered from his second attempt at graduation as very strong taijutsu users, which in this case would be an advantage for him and Tenten as they would not be able to keep his clones at bay very easily. A kunai whistled into the clearing aimed for Neji who batted it away easily with one hand from his sitting position, opening his eyes as he looked in the direction the kunai had come from. "That was foolish Tenten, you have now revealed your position to us and fate dictates that you will lose this exercise, Lee lets go."

The green clad boy looked a little unsure at the order, looking round the clearing for a moment before raising his question. "But what if this is a trap or diversion my youthful rival? If both of us leave the flag then Tenten might be able to slip round us to get it, meaning that we would be left with a very unyouthful defeat." Neji simply turned his gaze to Lee with a frown. "She is not fast enough to get away from either of us, so as long as we do not let her slip away this will be over with shortly and I can get back to some actual useful training." Lee still looked a little disgruntled but said nothing as the two of them moved towards the trees Tenten had fired from at impressive speed.

Once the two were gone from sight the clone that Naruto had created started making its way into the clearing and had nearly made it when Neji suddenly reappeared at the edge of the clearing, glaring imperiously at the transformed clone. "Step away from the flag whoever you are, no animal has that much chakra so it was obvious what you were doing when you entered the range of my byakugan." Naruto kicked himself for forgetting about the Hyuuga clans Dojutsu, he was on a team with the only remaining Uchiha, he should be more prepared for facing people like this. The clone burst into action now that its cover had been blown, breaking its henge and sprinting for the flag, reaching it even as Neji started running towards it. It was clear the clone was not going to be able to outrun Neji, so it did the next best thing which was to throw the flag like a javelin towards Naruto before turning to face the oncoming hyuuga.

The clone was hopelessly outmatched, but he managed to slow the hyuuga for a couple of seconds, which allowed Naruto to leap out of the tree and intercept the flag before it disappeared into the trees and form the seal he needed for his ultimate escape tactic. "Kage Bushin no jutsu!" Dozens of clones burst into existence around him, each armed with a flag of there own to add to the Hyuugas difficulty in determining the real Naruto. All of the Naruto's lowered the flags like spears towards the other side of the clearing, through the Hyuuga incidentally, before charging forwards in one mass. Naruto's idea proved a good one, as though Neji was faster and more skilled than he was, he could still only take down so many clones so quickly, allowing almost a score of them to make it through to the forest on the other side.

This was where Naruto ran into a little problem, which was that he had no idea where Tenten was, and Neji was hardly going to give him time to find her. He created another forty clones and had them spread out to look for signs of fighting, but then Neji was amongst them and he had to move quickly to avoid becoming the Hyuuga's focus. One of the scouting clones yelled out that he had found a trail before turning to engage the rapidly approaching Neji, who dispelled the intervening clones in two or three strikes despite their use of the flags as polearms and spears in an attempt to make him keep his distance. Without speaking a word most of the remaining clones turned and charged Neji in an attempt to slow him down whilst Naruto and three other clones moved towards the tracks, the signs of combat becoming clearer with disturbed earth and kunai littering the ground.

His sixth sense screamed at him and he dodged to the right, though too slowly to completely avoid the lunging strike of Neji who had stormed through the clone assault to try and slow the escapees. The strike hit his arm just below the shoulder joint, causing his entire left arm to go numb and flop listlessly to the side. He didn't have to worry about a continued assault however, as the clones that were meant to be slowing Neji dogpiled the Hyuuga a moment later, allowing Naruto to flee away before he managed to use Kawamiri to escape the clones and come after him again. It took another two minutes, but he was soon able to hear the sounds of fighting in the distance and with a quiet command the three clones took off ahead, allowing him to follow at a safe distance. In the clearing Lee was dodging around attacks from Tenten, who had gotten a Naginata from somewhere and was swinging it with great skill, keeping the faster boy on the defensive. The three clones charged into the clearing, surprising Lee enough to make him cartwheel backwards away from the attackers, allowing Naruto to sprint into the clearing and hand the flag to Tenten before Lee finished off the three clones, leaving her with a big grin on her face even as Neji reached the tree line, scowl set upon his face.

*End Flashback*

Still trying to shake some movement back into his left arm, Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud voice bellowed out from behind him. "A very youthful win Tenten-chan, using a friend of yours in the exercise was very clever, especially one with such interesting clones!" Turning round, Naruto found himself looking at one of the oddest people he had seen thus far in his life in Konoha, and that included his porn reading cyclops of a sensei. Taller than every other person that Naruto had met with a bowl cut of black hair that seemed to mix indiscriminately with the mans gigantic eyebrows, the green spandex outfit only added to the bizarreness of the mans posturing, stood as he was with a giant sparkling grin on his face and thumb up and outstretched in Tenten's direction.

Neji scoffed and pointed accusingly at Naruto. "He had no right joining in that exercise, Tenten wouldn't have won if he hadn't, fate dictated it." Now Naruto remembered how much of an annoying prick Neji was pretty much all of the time, but before Naruto could respond the man turned to Neji with a frown on his face. "Neji, do not let your flames of youth be diminished by being such a sore loser, this will teach you not to be so overconfident next time. If you had followed Lee's youthful suggestion then this would not have happened." Lee suddenly appeared next to the man with a giant smile on his face. "That advice is so youthful, Gai-sensei." The now identified Gai and Lee suddenly started hugging each other, shouting loudly each others name as a sunset appeared in the background and the training ground was converted into a sandy beach with lapping waves not far from where they stood.

Thoroughly weirded out, Naruto stared in horror for a few moments before Tenten grabbed his hand and pulled him away from them, breaking whatever genjutsu they had placed and allowing him to turn and face her, eyebrow twitching slightly as he gestured over his shoulder at the two of them. "Does that happen often, you don't seem to be affected by it at all." Tenten nodded, shuddering slightly as she did so before replying. "More often than I would like if I am honest, but Gai-sensei is a very good teacher despite his...habits. However, I dragged you away so that you could answer the questions I asked earlier, and if I don't like the answers I can always put you back to watch them some more, they can be like this for almost twenty minutes sometimes..."

She trailed off and he gulped audibly at the smirk she was wearing, raising his hands appeasingly. "Lets not be hasty Tenten-chan, I have a very good reason for not being able to come to your training session I swear." And as such the story of the previous days test came out, shortened of course otherwise he would be late for the Hokage. He noticed that Gai and Lee had stopped hugging in order to listen to him speaking whilst Neji had moved off to the other side of the training field in order to train, but he continued speaking, happy to see that Tenten's look had softened as he got to his injury and hospital stay and when the story drew to an end she reached up and patted his shoulder with a smile on her face. "That definitely counts as a good reason, though I somehow find it hard to believe that you managed to wound a jounin during your genin test, I have never heard of that happening before."

Gai interrupted before Naruto could reply, his giant grin back on his face. "You are the one that injured my eternal rival? He refused to tell me how it happened but it was the talk of the jounin lounge yesterday evening, that is very impressive for a fresh genin, you must spar with my youthful students so that we can measure your flames of youth!" Tenten was now gazing at him in shock as he reached up to scratch the back of his head in an embarrassed fashion. "Unfortunately I can't right now Gai-san, the hokage has requested my team to report to him at the tower at 9 and I still have not had breakfast, so it will have to wait until later." Gai seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding.

"Very well, we shall head to the Hokage tower as well to pick up the days missions, the earlier we arrive the better after all, Tenten I know you have not eaten this morning, why don't you go with Naruto-san whilst Neji and Lee clean up the training grounds as a reminder for them to be more youthful next time." Lee, rather than looking disheartened beamed at this statement, and started spouting off stuff about youthful challenges, though Naruto didn't catch what he said as Tenten dragged him away hurriedly. "Trust me, you do not want to be there when Lee gets in a mood like this, its not pretty to watch. Now, where did you want to go for breakfast?"

Contrary to popular belief, Naruto did not just live off ramen all of the time, though there were times where he really wished he could. Whilst the Ichikaru ramen shop were the only civilians that did not try and overcharge him or give him bad food, the ninja owned establishments such as the Akimichi bakeries and food outlets were far more fair with him and as such it was those places that he usually frequented for food when Ichikaru was closed or he was in hurry. He directed them to one of his favourites, a small bakery shop that made wonderful breakfast sandwiches and pastries. To his surprise Tenten ordered almost half as much as he did, which was lot in comparison to the food he saw Sakura and the other girls in his class eat on a daily basis.

She obviously noticed his shocked look and chuckled at him. "You realise how much energy I have to expend every day just to try and keep up with Gai and Lee right? I definitely couldn't get by with the 'diets' that some of the other girls have used in the past, i would collapse by lunchtime every day if I tried." He blushed slightly at having been so obvious with his surprise even as they grabbed the food they had ordered and moved to a table. It took him a minute or two but Naruto realised that he was still trying to employ the table manners that he had been utilising the other night at Ayame's instruction, but seeing that Tenten wasn't particularly rushing her food, he decided to try and keep the manners going, he needed to be a good role model for the twins now after all.

They finished breakfast with time to spare, Naruto ordering some more pastries for later and made their way over to the hokage tower, talking with each other primarily about weapons as that seemed to be a favoured topic of Tentens, though he didn't mind as he was learning a lot about the different types and styles of weapons as they talked. Arriving at the tower, Naruto was surprised to see Sakura and Sasuke already there, and from the looks of it they had been there for quite some time, Sakura looking like she was ready to drop off to sleep at any moment. Spotting him she seemed at a loss whether to shout at him or ignore him, seeming to compromise in the end by waving weakly at him. Walking up to them he waved back at Sakura with a smile before nodding at Sasuke, who returned it sluggishly as Sakura started the talking with small sigh. "Naruto, where have you been? Sensei said we were meant to be meeting here at 7 for some reason."

Naruto thought about it for a moment and then realised what must have happened, doing his best not to grin as he replied. "Sorry Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei didn't tell me anything, the Hokage told me he wanted to see our team here at 9... You haven't been here for nearly two hours have you? I wouldn't put it past Kakashi sensei telling you to be here early so that he could be late for us but not the Hokage." Sakura's face shot up at this and an angry look entered her eyes, though it disappeared as she sighed and leant back against the wall she had been leaning on when Naruto had arrived.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised after the last two days, he is such a lazy sensei after all. Sorry Naruto for not being more conversational, but I am not in the best of moods. It is good to see you properly recovered after yesterday, the med-nins must have worked their asses off to get you recovered properly in such a short time." Naruto chuckled and nodded his head, best to let her think that for the moment at least, she probably wouldn't be able to handle the truth right now. He ended up sacrificing his pastries to Sakura who revealed that she hadn't managed to grab breakfast with the early meeting time. It took a little convincing to get her to consume the 'fattening devil food' as she had termed it when he had first brought them out, but her rumbling stomach had eventually won over her reservations and she wolfed two of them down at a pace that would have impressed Chouji if he had been present.

She had rather hesitantly thanked Naruto for the food and promised to pay him for it, causing him to reach up and scratch the back of his head a little awkwardly at the offer. As if sensing he was going to refuse the money offer she became a bit more serious and grabbed his hand. "Don't try and be a gentleman here Naruto, I know you need the money more than I do at the moment, especially seeing as we seem to have to waste two hours every day waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show up." As if on cue Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves nearby, eyesmile in place as he looked at the four of them, noting the slightly hardened look on Tenten's face as Sakura hastily let go of Naruto's hand and hid it behind her back. "Good morning little ones, though I notice that there is one more of you than I expected, who is your friend Naruto-kun?" Naruto just shrugged, he knew that trying to talk right now wasn't worth it, not until...

"YOU'RE LATE!" There it was, he had seen Sakura building up for the shout so he had waited to let her get it out of her system at Kakashi rather than at him which would probably have happened if he had tried talking. He raised his hand as Kakashi started to respond and smiled at him as he waved off the excuses. "Kakashi-sensei, don't bother its really not worth the effort as I know we were meant to be meeting the Hokage at 9, so trying to claim otherwise will just annoy those two. And this is Tenten, who is a member of his team." He pointed over his shoulder as he finished, having spotted the approaching dust cloud surrounding two figures in green.

Kakashi turned and his eye widened even as the two figures came to a stop in front of him, Gai giving a wide smile as he gave another thumbs up, an action that Naruto got the feeling was a particular favourite of the green mans. "My eternal rival, it is good to see you and your youthful students here so early! Your student Naruto inspired me to get my team starting their days missions early as well, I will not let you overcome me so easily! Whoever gets their mission done first today wins another round of our eternal challenge." Kakashi seemed to have calmed down slightly now, having drawn out his favourite orange book and was looking at it whilst Gai had been talking. When Gai finished he looked up and eye smiled once more at Gai. "Sorry Gai, did you say something?"

Gai turned red in the face and danced on the spot yelling about his hip rival, Tenten leaning in to whisper into Naruto's ear. "Are all high level ninja as weird as these guys?" Naruto thought for a moment, he certainly wouldn't say that Yugao was weird, and whilst the Hokage read porn and smoked heavily that was hardly out of the norm for ninja, unlike Kakashi he at least did it in private. He shook his head and replied, not knowing that he was cursing himself for the foreseeable future with his reply. "No, I don't think so, and I doubt many ninja can have as bad a habits as these two seem too..." Without looking at the two jounin he turned to the others, noting that Neji had arrived at some point after the other two and was standing off to one side looking stoic as he always did. "Shall we go inside, it is nearly 9 o'clock and you guys can get your mission whilst we talk to the Hokage."

He grabbed Tenten's hand and started walking inside, not noting the slight blush on Tenten's face when he did so. Kakashi seemed to have been listening to him however and turned to face him with a small eye smile. "Taking the lead already Naruto-kun? It's almost like you don't want me to be on the team with all the awesome training I can give you." Naruto recognised the jibe as what it was, having had Ayame make similar comments about his ramen habits at times, and managed not to give in to his inner desire to start jumping up and down at the thought of training. Instead he decided to be a bit cheeky and once again do something that Kakashi had done, turning to the man with a small smile and asking.

"Sorry Kakashi-sensei, did you just say something?" The shocked look on Kakashi's face as well as the giggles from the two girls present more than made up for any punishment the man would come up with later he was sure. Kakashi obviously decided to quit whilst he was ahead and started moving into the Hokage tower, the rest of them following behind him talking amongst themselves for the most part, though Neji and Sasuke seemed to have devolved into a staring contest as they walked, neither missing a step or struggling to avoid any obstacles or people that were in their path as they climbed the steps to the third floor where the mission hall was and where they had been told to meet the Hokage.

It was a fairly large room, enough to fit a dozen desks around the edges with space left in the middle for the teams to move from one to the other depending on their needs. There were already several jounin or chuunin at various desks in the hall talking with the administrators on the other side of the desk about missions, though the big surprise was that the Hokage himself was sat behind one of the desks at the far end, and he noticed their arrival with a smile, calling out to the two teams as they approached. "Team 7 you are right on time, and you have brought team nine with you? That is quite fortuitous. Both teams over here, you are just what I needed for this mission." Reaching the desk everyone bowed in respect to the Hokage, Naruto deciding to try and be a bit more serious after the results of the prank.

Looking up he saw the Hokage quickly cover a small frown with a smile at what he had done, but the man had set the line between them so Naruto was going to stick to it whether he liked it or not. The Hokage faced all of them and grabbed a scroll on his desk. "I have a specific mission for team 7 that i was not prepared to send them on alone considering their lack of experience, which is why Gai's team will be part of the mission as well." Neji scoffed and stepped forwards waving dismissively at team 7. "Why should we need to accompany them on this mission if they are not experienced enough for it? We can complete this mission by ourselves Hokage-sama, I am sure that there is some d-rank that these rookies can complete instead as I refuse to babysit them."

Gai stepped forwards to drag Neji backwards, and even Naruto was slightly shocked at the blatant disrespect that Neji was showing to the old man by questioning his orders, even he wouldn't have done that in front of everyone, or at least he didn't think he would. The Hokage waved him off however and smiled at Neji in the same way that Iruka would deal with a petulant first year at the academy. "The reason that team 7 will be taking this mission Neji-san is because the client specifically asked for one of their team to be on the mission, and I am loathe to break up a team so soon after their formation. So seeing as they need to go on the mission and you refuse to 'babysit' them as I think you said it, I will find another team to go in your place and I can give you the tora mission for the day, one with your vaunted experience and skill should have no difficulty with the task no?"

Gai stepped forwards and gripped Neji's shoulder firmly in warning as the giant of a man spoke quickly to stop the situation escalating any further. "No need Hokage-sama, I assure you that my team are more than up for the mission you have assigned us. I will talk with them later to ensure they know what is expected of them in these situations. What is the mission and when does it begin?" He stepped back, dragging firmly a furious Neji with him, though the Hyuuga said nothing as the Hokage replied. "Of course Gai-san, the mission is an escort mission to the capital of the land of Rice and I will inform the employer to meet you at the western gate in at half past ten, that should be enough time for you to pack for a week long mission or so. Kakashi as it was your team that was requested, I will give you the mission statement, make sure you are not late this time..." The Hokage trailed off and Kakashi nodded lazily. "Of course Hokage-sama, I will make sure that we are all there on time."

Naruto and Sakura chuckled slightly at the irony of the statement and even Sasuke produced a smirk but none of them said anything as they bowed to the hokage and turned to leave the tower, Gai pulling his team aside for that talk that he had promised them which would most probably be directed at Neji for the most part. They were just leaving the tower when they ran into Hinata and a beautiful tall raven haired woman with red eyes who were waiting at the entrance of the tower. The woman called out to Kakashi as they approached, her eyes passing over the group in an assessing manner. "Good morning Kakashi, got your teams first mission already? I didn't think that after yesterday's happenings your team would be ready for some time." A boisterous voice heralded the arrival of Kiba as he landed in the courtyard in front of the woman. "Yeah, after Naruto got himself in hospital like the dobe he is I am surprised that he is in any condition for a mission."

Before Naruto could gear himself up to retort he was surprised when Sakura stepped forwards, waving her fist threateningly at the dog owning ninja. "And what would you know about that Kiba-baka, Naruto managed to catch Kakashi-sensei off guard and injure him, which is probably a lot more than you can say you managed in your test." The two jounin had moved to the side at this point, talking with each other quietly as the genin continued to stare off at each other, well Kiba against Sakura and Naruto anyways. Hinata stepped in between the three of them trying to diffuse the situation. "Now Kiba-kun, lets not start something here, I wouldn't want Kurenai-sensei to be angry with our behaviour."

Shino's voice spoke up as he stepped from the shadows behind team 7, causing Naruto to jump slightly and spin round to face him in a defensive stance. "That is true enough Hinata-san, Kiba you do need to be less brash about things, I would have thought Kurenai-sensei knocking you out twice yesterday with genjutsu would have taught you that. But he does have a point, with Naruto-sans injuries I am surprised that you are capable of performing on a mission to your fullest so soon." Naruto shrugged, he assumed that nobody knew the full extent of his injuries here other than Kakashi and probably Kurenai, so he simply responded with. "Medics are awesome, they healed me up and cleared me this morning, I am as right as rain! And besides Kiba, I have had worse injuries than that before, this was nothing."

Whilst not entirely true, it relaxed the tension somewhat between the teams for a few seconds before Kurenai's raised voice brought the attention back to the two jounin. "A C-rank! It's your first day as a team, surely there has been some mistake?" Kakashi shook his head and then pointed at Naruto. "Afraid not Kurenai-san, the Hokage gave us and Gai's team this mission personally so there is no mistake. And having read the mission request I think young Naruto is the one who got us this mission." This brought all eyes resting firmly on Naruto once more, though Sakura seemed to realise why after a few moments and snapped her fingers. "An escort mission to the land of Rice, our team specifically requested? You are probably right Kakashi-sensei, it is probably to do with the caravan people that Naruto saved from those bandits."

Never let it be said that Sakura was in anyway slow, and with her being the only one to know the full story present it was hardly a big surprise that she worked out who it was fairly quickly. Naruto's grin widened as he processed what she said and realised she was probably correct, doing an internal victory dance that he had been the one that had gotten his team an awesome mission so early in their ninja career. On the outside he simply settled for turning to Sakura and trying to be cool about the situation. "Lets not be hasty Sakura-chan, it is more likely they wanted Kakashi for some reason than us, I mean we are just fresh genin."

Sakura looked at him confused for a moment before holding her hands up in a seal. "Kai!" a small wave of chakra hit him from Sakura who looked even more intensely at him when nothing seemed to happen. After a moment she sighed and shook her head. "You really have changed in the last couple of weeks Naruto, I expected you to be crowing about this from the rooftops by now." That comment and the fact that she had thought it wasn't him because he had behaved better hurt slightly, but it at least showed that she was noticing his change in attitude, so he didn't let it affect him too much. He grinned round at them all and then noticed the time on his watch. "Okay, well it was good to see you guys again but I really need to go pack and tell some people about the mission, if I don't they will kill me when i get back. It was nice to meet you Kurenai-san, good luck with your first mission!"

And then he turned away and jumped off onto the roof tops, determined to get to Ichikaru's as soon as possible, if he was going away he would need to charge Umi up with chakra for some time as well, which meant that he would be cutting it close to make it in time for the mission. Someone fell in step beside him and he saw Sakura running beside him smiling at him as she spoke in answer to his obvious unspoken question. "We live in the same direction, don't you remember Naruto, I might as well join you for this trip until I get near mine." That made sense and the fact she had caught up with him rather than staying with Sasuke a bit longer meant a surprising amount to him as they continued travelling in silence for the rest of the trip, content with each others company as it was, no further conversation required.

Timeskip: 1 and a bit hours

Walking up to the gate with Umi and the twins and backpack firmly in place, Naruto couldn't help but smile as the three girls recognised the people who were currently interspaced between the three caravans that they seemed to have obtained from somewhere and ran towards them shouting greetings left right and centre. He left them too it and walked up to the other genin who were stood nearby. He was the last one there but it was not quite half past ten, so it wasn't like he was late or anything. He had sent some clones ahead to pack his equipment once he had dropped Sakura off at hers whilst he went to Ichikaru's to tell Ayame about the mission. She of course was both excited and worried for him, and it had taken him a lot of effort to get her to stay at the stand rather than come and help him pack, which would have made his refuelling of Umi somewhat more difficult than it had to be.

She had eventually sent him on his way with a kiss on the cheek and a hug, both of which left him red in the face and mumbling even as she laughed him off with a wave and a smile. Dealing with Umi had been a little more complicated than he had anticipated, especially when he brought up Nami and what had been happening that she had not known about. His clone had been surprisingly angry with him about her and it had taken him a few minutes to calm Umi down and find out why, though once he found out that Nami had been impersonating her whilst he had been injured and Umi having no idea who she was he could understand why to a certain extent.

She had calmed down eventually and Naruto revealed the plan that kyuubi had mentioned when they had discussed the problem with keeping Umi charged with chakra. Creating 5 clones, so that in theory each held a sixth of his chakra, they were to stay in her apartment and do as little as possible other than provide chakra for Umi when she required it. It was not a perfect plan but it was the best he and the fox could come up with without further research, something he would be doing in his free time when he was back in Konoha after the mission. The twins had bunked school for the morning when they found out that he was leaving on a mission, and considering his own past habits of skipping the academy to go pranking he didn't feel right in telling them off for it.

A small cough brought him back to the present and he looked up to see Sakura looked at him with an expression on her face that was somewhere between exasperation and disappointment as she pointed to the two girls who were currently hugging the legs of what Naruto remembered to be the caravan leader from Umi's descriptions. "Naruto, aren't they meant to be in school right now?" He shrugged, answer pre prepared because he knew someone would bring it up at some point. "This is the last chance they will get to see these guys for some time, I didn't want their last memories of the caravan and its people to be those of the bandit camp, so if they have to miss some school because of it I doubt either I or they will lose any sleep over it."

Sakura's expression changed at that comment and she looked at him with something akin to the beginnings of respect, causing Naruto's heart to quicken slightly as he realised it was him she was looking at like that. The mood was ruined however when Sasuke snorted from behind her and her attention was instantly focused on the Uchiha once more, her posture that of a lovestruck schoolgirl once again. "That almost sounded wise and intelligent from you dobe, should we be worried that you have hit your head too many times recently?" Naruto resisted the urge to start shouting at the boy, knowing it wouldn't look good in front of the others. He noticed out of the corner of his eye the caravan leader approaching with Umi leading him towards them.

He stopped in front of Naruto and bowed deeply, before wrapping him up in a giant hug. "So you are the one that found our kidnappers and rescued us from the camp, Umi-chan and the twins have told me a lot about you Naruto-san. I must admit when I went to the Hokage to ask specifically for you as an escort back to the land of Rice I didn't expect him to tell me that you were only just a graduate ninja, but I suppose rank doesn't account for skill and honour in this world." The mans words caused Sasuke to growl almost silently, and Naruto couldn't resist the pleased grin that passed over his face at the praise the man was giving him.

The noise Sasuke made brought the man's attention to the rest of the group and Naruto found himself quickly introducing them all to him before he stated that they would be leaving shortly to Rice and that Naruto should say his goodbyes to Umi and the twins. Naruto nodded and walked over to Umi, Aiko and Yuna, choosing first to kneel so that he was looking slightly up at the two young girls and grabbed one of each of their hands with his own. "Now, I want you two to be good for Umi-neechan whilst I am away okay? No more skipping school okay?" Both of them nodded, tearing up slightly as he brought them into a quick hug, which then turned into a longer hug as both of them refused to let go of him as he tried to extract himself from their grips.

It was only when Umi coughed in a warning manner did the two girls let him go, stepping back and bowing their heads towards the girl-clone slightly shamefully. "Sorry Umi-neechan, bye Naruto-niichan/kun." It was surprisingly Yuna that referred to him by the very close and affectionate suffix, causing her to turn red as Aiko turned to look at her with something akin to shock and possibly betrayal. Naruto chose not to comment as he instead tried to ignore the slightly embarrassed blush that reared on his cheeks as he turned to Umi, who didn't wait for him to initiate the hug as she stepped forwards and hugged herself tightly to him, head resting on his shoulder. The feeling that such a hug produced were surprisingly new to Naruto, it made him feel at ease and content, and it was hard for him to try and pull away from the girl.

Luckily Umi did it for him, pulling her head back to look him in the eyes for moment before he heard her whisper to herself. "Aww, why the hell not?" And she then darted forwards and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips for a second before pulling back and smiling shyly at him. Naruto was left dazed at the rash action and could barely compose himself to say goodbye to Umi, whose face now sported a deep red blush as big as his own probably was, causing Sakura to grab him and drag him forcefully after the carts that were now leaving the village, mumbling something about 'idiotic knuckleheads' the entire time. He roused himself from his thoughts enough to turn and wave at the three people who were still stood at the gate, a pleasant feeling spreading throughout his chest as they returned the waving, Aiko tearing up as she did so.

Turning back towards the road, he noticed Kakashi walking beside him and Sakura, visible eye fixed on Naruto with an amused aura surrounding the man. "So Naruto-kun, who is this little girl that seems to have put your head back in the clouds?" Naruto groaned even as the others chuckled at Kakashi's question, this was obviously the mans revenge for his earlier comment. It was strange that they weren't even out of sight of Konoha's walls yet, and he was already hoping for a bandit attack, simply to take the attention away from what had happened between him and Umi. Doing his best to ignore the man Naruto focused on the fact that Sakura still hadn't released his arm from hers in an attempt to focus on the positives that a week away would bring, though it would be an embarrassing week regardless...

Persona change: Umi Kaitoma

Reaching home after returning the twins to school, Umi could still not control the flush on her face as she unlocked the door to her apartment and headed inside her apartment. The look on the boss's face when she had finally plucked up the courage to start the next stage in their little plan had been more than worth the needling that Aiko and Yuna had given her after Naruto and the others had left. The fact that the Tenten girl had looked angrily at her after she had kissed him hinted that the older girl might like Naruto in a slightly more than platonic manner was something she should probably tell the boss about. After thinking about it for a moment she chuckled and shook her head, it would be more fun to see him find out for himself.

A now familiar voice spoke from the shadowed corner of the room furthest away from the door and Umi merely jumped slightly before relaxing to listen to what was being said. "Interesting way of seeing your creator off Umi-chan, you do realise you will have to slow things down a little, unless you want people to get suspicious of you of course?" A girl stepped from the shadows, matching the description of the Nami girl that Naruto had mentioned previously, dressed in ANBU fatigues and a hooded cloak once more. Without waiting for a reply the woman continued, reaching into one of her pouches and pulled out a book. "I noticed the clones that Naruto-kun left behind, probably to act as chakra refillers for you I imagine? This book will probably be of interest to you and Naruto-kun upon his return, it would certainly give you an easier way around your problem than leaving clones that can be detected quite easily."

Umi nodded her head in thanks, before she got a small grin on her face and looked over at Nami with a cheeky question in mind. "So its Naruto-kun now even when you aren't pretending to have known him for ages? I would almost think you are getting attached to the boss..." She cut off when Nami was suddenly in front of her, Katana resting lightly against the transformed clones throat. When Nami spoke there was a hint of fire there that surprised Umi considering that Naruto had told her how hard it had been for him to get the real Nami to react in the slightest. "I do not get attached to anything clone, and you would do to remember that. You are not to tell Naruto anything about this meeting other than the book do you understand?"

Umi nodded slightly fearfully and Nami stepped back, releasing her grip on Umi and sheathing the katana once more, taking a moment to collect herself before speaking once more. "Now, in addition to helping you in regards to the chakra problem, my organisation has found an opening that we think that would be advantageous for both your cover and Naruto-kun's future growth..." Deciding not to risk bringing up the woman's return to the affectionate nickname for her creator as that would probably not end well for her, Umi looked at her suspiciously with a caution that would certainly have surprised anyone that knew she was actually a clone of the happy go lucky guy she called boss.

"My first question is why are you helping us so much? Naruto told me the reasoning you gave him and I don't buy it for a moment, this low level revelation to the Hokage of the villages weakened security is certainly not worth risking your true identity as you have done, especially as you seem to be related to someone important if Naruto's telling me of Yugao-chan's reaction to you is true. I love the boss dearly but he is a very trusting idiot when it comes to women, which is not how you will find me I promise you. And secondly, what is this job that you have planned for me? And how will it help both me and the boss?"

Nami raised an eyebrow at her and Umi couldn't but help feeling that the woman was slightly impressed with her questioning even as the woman strode past her into the kitchen. "It would be best if we discussed this over tea I think Umi-san, then if anyone comes calling you can pretend that you were informing me of Naruto-kun's mission. In regards to why am I helping so much? There is a surprising amount you and your master need to learn I think..." Nami trailed off and though Umi couldn't see her face, she could only picture the smirk that was covering it at this point, and it was not reassuring to her in the slightest...

Location Change: Unknown

In the darkness of the subterranean base that had been built with the blood and lives of dozens of slaves over the last few years, a cloaked figure was waiting patiently, looking down at the bandit that had just run into the room and was doing his best to recover his breath. After a few more seconds the bandit recovered enough to stand and speak, bowing hurriedly in respect before he did so. "Ronin-sama, I am afraid that Takota's base has been compromised and nearly all of his men have been captured or killed by Konoha shinobi." The cloaked man didn't react for a moment before a deep voice echoed round the cave room.

"That much was known to me, though your enthusiasm to inform me of news as soon as you find out is laudable. There is nothing that can be done about that for the moment, though we will need to increase our other operations to make up for this loss. I wouldn't want for my clients to become... impatient with their requests. Have the others reported on their takings for the month?" The bandit had shivered at the mention of their clients, the one that had visited in person had given the entire camp the creeps from his mere presence.

"They have Ronin-sama, and both are reporting that they have higher than their quota of slaves, though Oni-dono lost almost a dozen of his men when a patrolling chuunin came across one of his raiding parties before they managed to kill the man. Ronin-sama, should we not be worried about Takota-dono? I mean those ninja freaks are pretty good at getting information out of people and he does know our location. " The cloak shifted in what the bandit assumed was a nod and the bandit quieted hurriedly in case he had angered the man with his question.

"Do not be afraid of that, one of our clients has already offered the services of one of his men to deal with that little problem, so the chances are that Takota is already incapable of telling the ninja anything by this point. What is more worrying is Oni's encounter with that chuunin, it means that there will be increased patrolling in that region for the near future which will impact on our operations. Did he dispose of the body and cover all signs there had been fighting there?" The bandit looked uncertain and shook his head. "I am unsure Ronin-sama, there were no further details in the message he sent us, though I can go to ensure that those details are obtained now if you wish?"

The cloaked figure nodded once more and the bandit bowed once more before quietly leaving the room, leaving the man alone once more. The cloaked figure stalked over to where there was a satchel open on their desk, the contents spread across it with the information the figure required to understand what had gone wrong with Takota's operation, courtesy of their little friend back in Konoha of course. After a few minutes of skimming the official report on the mission, they found themselves turning to the profile of the ninja who had been the key to downfall of his little operation.

'Uzumaki Naruto, you now have my attention and I will ensure that I monitor your actions from here on in, after all if you bring anymore trouble to my operations I will have no choice but to ensure that an accident happens to you..' The figure chuckled to themselves for another moment before shaking their head and placing the contents back in its satchel for their later perusal, brushing a strand of long brown hair back behind their ear as they did so. They had orders to give and paperwork to do now before the figure could truly finish its day.

Location change: Hokage tower, 7pm

Persona change: Hiruzen Sarutobi, third Hokage of Konoha

Sarutobi was sat at his desk having finished his paperwork for the day, though the meetings that he now had to deal with almost made him wish for more paperwork instead. Anko had just finished giving her report about the information that the T+I department had been able to glean from the captured bandits and something had happened that was making the situation far more complicated. "So the leader of the bandits, this 'Takota', died in custody before he recovered enough from the injuries he sustained in being captured to be interrogated?" Anko nodded but she seemed to want to say something herself but was unsure whether to or not.

Sarutobi waved his hand indicating that she should speak her mind, which she did after another moment of unsureness. "Hai Hokage-sama, and I don't mean to throw the word around easily considering my past, but it seems possible that Naruto-kun might be right with his guesses about a traitor working in Konoha." She paused for a moment but Sarutobi had no intention of interrupting her thoughts and merely waited until she continued. "The bandits themselves didn't say anything specific about the idea, though they say that this Takota and the guy Naruto killed called Hochi seemed to always know when a caravan was coming and when to strike, which is not something they could do easily to say the least. And then there is Takota dying as he did, his wounds were certainly not enough for him to die on us as he did, so I imagine someone did something to silence him before he had the chance to talk."

Sarutobi sat back and hummed to himself, that was most certainly unwelcome news, the fact that this spy would have had to be able to infiltrate the T+I headquarters to carry out this murder was most troubling and definitely pointed to a ninja rather than a civilian. Then again it was better to err on the side of caution and assume it could have been anyone rather than narrow the search field in case he was wrong. Looking over at Anko he sighed, this was going to be an awful lot of work for him to sign off on. "Right, well Anko-san, I think that the only thing we can do is have every person that exited and entered the building around the time of Takota's death looked at as a possible spy until we can prove otherwise. I will authorise any paperwork that you need in order to do this."

Anko shuddered at this and Sarutobi could understand why, there were easily 400 people who worked in the T+I building all day and almost a 100 ninja and civilians that visited there every hour for various reasons, so the number of people to investigate was staggering, and until she could clear some people of possible guilt, it would have to be a solo job for her to complete. She didn't complain however as he quickly signed the necessary form for her to start investigating her department colleagues and permission to access their records from the private records office, merely standing to attention and saluting before asking. "By you leave then Hokage-sama?"

He nodded and she was gone in burst of speed, leaving him alone apart from his ANBU guards once more. He looked over the report for a few more minutes, wondering what else was going on his village without him knowing about it, especially with the news that he had received this morning. That was the cause of the next meeting of the evening he was having, and pressing the intercom button on his desk he indicated that his secretary should let his next guest enter the room. Looking up as they entered he decided to not use his usual approach of kindness and instead stared sternly at them as he spoke. "Chuunin Nami Shimura, come and have a seat, there is a lot we need to talk about it seems..."

AN: *Insert evil laugh here* This chapter was so much fun to write, and it being my longest chapter by far is also something I am proud of. I am trying to make the chapters longer so that the story can actually start to progress a little, though I have revealed a lot of plot thus far there actually hasn't been much story development. Though the fact that I have team seven out on a c-rank straight away is going to either get me a lot of good reviews or a lot of flames, along with the fact that Sakura is actually acting like something of a normal person as opposed to a screaming banshee as she is often depicted these days...

Another reason for this chapter is that I dislike the fact that in anime that despite Naruto failing the academy test twice he seems to know no-one in the two years he had been in, so I have changed that with team Gai, showing that whilst they hadn't been friends or anything he still knew something about them. I will also create another team for the Team Gai's graduating class at some point, but that is some distance in the future so I won't spoil the surprise.

Please leave a nice or constructive review on your way out, you guys/girls are the reason that I write this stuff so i like to know what you think. :)