Naruto was overjoyed. After two months of training under Ibiki-sensei and his Jiji, the Hokage had finally deemed him ready for C-rank missions.
The boy had, on his own request, invaded the Hokage's office and helped the Old Man with his job over the past two months and as such, he knew C-ranks were nothing really exciting. A C-rank mission was, by definition, a low-risk job that took place at least two days away from the village. The contractors were more often than not one-time clients and the pay was only little better than D-ranks mission and the contents barely more stimulating.
The real money was made with B and A-ranks, which were often very long term contracts and deals between Konohagakure and various merchants, towns, and of course, the Fire Lord. Those were the mission with the dangers and the action.
Naruto didn't care about all that. For the first time of his life, he'd be allowed outside of Konoha and that was worth anything. He couldn't wait to travel around Fire Country and see so many sights.
The blond had obtained his "C-rank pass" after single-handedly trashing team ten and team eight. The Inuzuka, Aburame and Hyuuga trio had opposed good resistance but their sensei Kurenai had made one mistake: she had given Naruto three days to prepare when the blond had asked only for one.
The Great Clans of the Warring Era had a wealth of information on many clans of Konoha and even if it was mostly basic intel, Ibiki had drilled Naruto into using the bare minimum to counter his enemies. After allowing team eight to express themselves in a bout of taijutsu - and Naruto had to admit all three were good and truly pushed him, contrary to team ten - the Uzumaki had taken things in his own hands. Perfume and pepper bombs planted on a shadow clone for Kiba, low yield phosphorus tags and a neurotoxin-based insect poison for Shino and a reverse-harem jutsu for Hinata and team eight had been out for the count. The Inuzuka had protested the outcome, saying it hadn't been a fight and Kurenai had smacked the brash boy on his head and reminded him he was a ninja.
If he wanted to fight fair, he could resign right now. That had shut Kiba up for a second before he challenged Naruto for a re-match, taijutsu only, which the blond had accepted, on the condition that Kiba couldn't use any of his clan ninpo and Akamaru couldn't fight with him. After all, "taijutsu only" meant "taijutsu only": no jutsu, no tool and certainly no ninja pet.
Kiba had refused, apparently offended by the idea of fighting without his canine companion. The Uzumaki had then said to the Inuzuka boy in no uncertain term that "taijutsu only" was a retarded stipulation anyway because, as Kurenai-sensei had said, they were ninjas.
As payment, Kurenai had helped him come with strenuous chakra-control exercises and helped him with genjutsu. Creating one was still a bit too delicate for Naruto but he could recognize and get out of one without much trouble by now.
Naruto would have liked to test himself against team seven but the Hokage judged it unnecessary and did not relent at Naruto's protest, arguing that the boy just wanted to show up to Sasuke.
Which Naruto admitted was entirely true but still. The Uchiha bastard needed someone to show him he wasn't all that, in the Uzumaki's opinion. The Old Man was strongly against this sentiment and had even ordered Naruto to never engage in a fight with the Uchiha outside of a regulated and sanctioned spar.
Naruto had learned, among other things, to see underneath the underneath with Ibiki and he understood he would never have the opportunity of a regulated and sanctioned spar against the Uchiha.
He didn't know what his Jiji was afraid of. It couldn't be the fear of Naruto losing: the blond had lost more than anyone else in the Academy, including to Sasuke. Naruto loathed the feeling, hence part of his drive to be better, but at least he was used to it. So it meant that the Hokage was afraid of Sasuke losing, which simply comforted Naruto's opinion that the Uchiha heir was a fragile prima donna.
The Uzumaki centred his thoughts as he entered the Hokage Tower and made his way to the mission office. His Jiji hadn't been forthcoming as to which team Naruto would join for his first mission, only saying that it would be an experienced team so the boy could better learn.
Naruto thought it was a good idea, as joining any of the team of his generation would be quite uncomfortable at the moment. Ino was insufferable, Shikamaru eyed him like he was a very complicated puzzle, Kiba was being Kiba and Hinata now fainted at the mere view of him. Only Shino and Choji were normal around him but Shino was cool as a cucumber so he didn't really count and as long as an Akimichi had food, they were mainly unphased.
Naruto was a bit worried about Hinata though. That girl had a problem and he wasn't happy to think he might have made it worse with his reverse-harem jutsu.
Entering the mission office - a very large room that occupied almost the entire ground level of the tower - Naruto waved at his surrogate grandfather. "Hello, Hokage-sama."
Ibiki had also drilled a vague sense of decorum into him. It had been a painful experience.
"Hello, Naruto-kun. Thank you for coming," the Hokage greeted with a smile before he gestured towards a team whose members were standing to the side. "Let me introduce to team Gai. You'll accompany them for this mission."
Naruto turned towards his temporary teammates and blinked.
Green.
Ah, no, correction, two genins were normal. He forced his brain to get back to work and bowed. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, genin, on a special assignment under Ibiki Morino. Please take care of me."
Before he could fully assimilate it was happening, a young boy with dark hair in a bowl cut and very bushy eyebrows of the same colour, decked in a green onesie, shook both his hands vigorously. "That was a most youthful introduction Naruto-san, please allow me to do the same. My name is Rock Lee and I'm a member of Team Gai. Maito Gai is our sensei and these are my two teammates, Neji Hyuuga and Tenten."
The Hyuuga, a boy with gentle features and long hair kept back by his forehead protector, gave him a haughty nod while Tenten, a girl dressed in a qipao with her hair tied in two buns, waved at him with an apologetic smile. Naruto wrenched a hand back under his control and waved back before he smiled to Rock Lee. "A pleasure, Rock-san."
"Please, my friends call me Lee and I'd be my honour if you were to call me that."
Naruto's smile got larger. "Sure Lee but then please drop the "san" too. It's only fair."
"How youthful! I'll do just that then."
Suddenly, a booming voice interrupted any attempt at further conversation. "What a youthful meeting it is! Naruto-kun, please feel free to call me Gai-sensei for our mission! Now let us go: our youthful Hokage-sama has already briefed me about our mission it suffers no delay thus let us be quick! I'll inform you of our task en-route!"
Naruto only had time to think it was lucky he had sealed two weeks worth of supply on his person already before he had to run after team Gai.
The mission was a routine delivery of goods to the garrisons of the Fire Lord's army that kept the border between the land of Fire and Rice and Hot-Water Country. Gai-sensei had a sizeable scroll strapped on his back; Naruto had been told it was full of letters destined to the soldiers sent by their families. Konoha took payment for renting the large sealing scroll and delivering it safely.
The mission was sure to be boring, as no sane bandits would dare attack a genin team, given a jounin always accompanied the young ninjas. Also, bandits didn't bother attacking sealed goods. After all, they were after gold or anything they could sell back. With a sealing scroll, not only was it delicate to open for improperly trained people, one couldn't even be sure what it contained.
Naruto had asked his Jiji why merchants didn't simply lock everything away in secure sealing tags and the Hokage had explained to his surrogate grandson the ratio-law: a limit of fuinjutsu that basically required the scroll used to contain the goods to grow exponentially with the amount it sealed. At one point, it wasn't even worth it anymore. When Naruto argued that the merchants only had to pay for several little scrolls, the Hokage mentioned the price of sealing-grade ink and paper.
The Uzumaki was glad his grandfather was paying for his foray into fuinjutsu. He was even more impressed by the fact Tenten was apparently doing fuinjutsu herself.
"So, you basically seal loads of weapons in these two scrolls?" Naruto asked the girl who nodded.
"Yup. I'm working on a special attack that…" The girl began explaining with enthusiasm before she cut herself off. "Ah, I apologize but I shouldn't reveal this."
The blond smiled. "No problem, I understand. I'm simply amazed you do fuinjutsu. It's complicated stuff after all."
"I've no doubt it would be for someone like you." Neji bit out.
The blond turned towards the Hyuuga with a raised eyebrow before he made a show of cleaning his ear with his pinky. "You said something?"
"So hip!" Lee shouted with a look of admiration. The Uzumaki grinned.
"For your information, Hyuuga-san, I'm myself a practitioner of the sealing art," Naruto informed the haughty boy. "I've no doubt you're quite excellent yourself. Say, what do you think of a triple layline crossing over a kibaku design by its quarter counterpoise? The result should be quite interesting, wouldn't you think so?"
As Neji's face scrunched up in anger, Tenten's eyes widened. "Wait, you're already studying counterpoise-layline interactions?!" The girl asked with wonder in her voice.
Naruto smiled at her. "Sure. You aren't there yet?"
"Well, yeah, but I understand nothing!"
"Oh, then I can maybe help you if you want?"
Tenten beamed and suddenly, she was in front of the blond, shaking both his hands while her eyes were shining with determination. "Yes, please!"
"How youthful!" Lee shouted, manly tears streaming from his eyes.
The journey continued pleasantly, Gai sometimes pushing the four genins into a run to "test their youthfulness", as he called it. Naruto soon saw the gap between him and a team a year older. In spite of his own formidable endurance, he finished each run sweating and panting, pushed to a rhythm and a speed he couldn't quite sustain as of yet. It was never said out loud but he knew he was the reason Gai called for the breaks. The boy couldn't even imagine keeping up just two months ago before he had taken to run the chuunin course.
Seeing how Lee and Gai-sensei seemed always fresh - Tenten and Neji did get tired but much slower than Naruto still - only pumped Naruto's determination to equal them and the blond soon discussed training regimen, endurance and weights with the two Green Beasts. Naruto was immediately invited to run with them in the morning and the boy duly noted the time and meeting place down all the while thinking of a way to repay them.
Neither Gai or Lee were obligated to help him after all and he honestly appreciated that they offered it without hesitation.
The little troupe travelled for three days like this, camping during the night and Naruto could experience for the first time how tiresome guard duty could truly be. During the morning of the fourth day, however, they reached their first destination.
The border fortress of Koutetsusei.
They were welcomed, after a thorough control at the door, with happy cheers from a few soldiers. Naruto glanced around. The fortress was an imposing, labyrinthine complex of towers and dungeons linked together by high and steep walls, where numerous warriors were patrolling. Despite the acclamation they were given, the boy knew the professional soldiers of the Fire Lord were trained to use chakra according to the rules of the Bushido. Any of them could hold up to a chuunin in a straight fight and the bushijous, their officers, could hold themselves against jounins.
In theory. The comparison was a bit moot as ninjas were employed as elite forces and didn't fight at all the same battles as a bushi. Still, it was interesting to see a few of them practice in the yard. Apparently, a basic team was made of five people and they favoured a kind of long yari as their weapon of choice when they weren't firing a bow.
A few soldiers were apparently on their off-time and they had been the one greeting the ninja team with enthusiasm. In spite of the training going on, the atmosphere seemed rather relaxed yet Naruto almost immediately saw the officer with the grave visage. The man lost no time and made a beeline to Gai, whom he bowed to.
"Gai-san, a word with you, if you please."
Seeing the sombre manners of the officer, the jounin lost his ever-present smile and nodded once. "Katsuo-san, is it?" The officer nodded briefly. "Yes, of course, please lead the way. Genins, take the scroll and begin distributing its content."
All four genins saluted before Tenten and Lee caught the large sealing scroll. Another officer, probably lower in rank, reasoned Naruto, immediately came to them.
"Please follow me. We will unseal what goods are destined to our garrison in the supply office."
Meanwhile, Gai was quickly led to the fortress governor's strategic room, where several officers were already vehemently discussing something.
"Maito Gai, jounin of Konohagakure!" The officer who was leading Gai announced, silencing the room.
"Gai-san, it's a relief you were the one given this mission this time." The commander said in lieu of greetings. "We have a problem with Rice." A few officers nodded.
Gai cocked one eyebrow. "Rice? They are a peaceful country," objected the jounin. "They don't even have armed forces, even less a ninja village."
The grim visage of the commander was already telling but then, the man fished for something tied around his belt. Gai paled when he saw what the object was.
"A forehead protector," whispered the jounin. "I don't recognize this insignia."
The commander threw the piece of armour on the large table that occupied the centre of the room. "Neither do I but it's bad news-"
"If I may, how did you obtain it?"
The commander grimaced. "We got last night. A chuunin from Konoha with patrol order fifteen nine nine got here in the night, bloody and delirious. We treated him as best as we could but the man died this morning at ten. The only thing we could get from him was this," the man explained, pointing at the forehead protector.
Gai motioned to take the piece of metal and looked at the commander. "May I,"
The officer nodded. "Of course."
The jounin took the protector and peered at it attentively. "It has traces of battle. The steel was bent by the slash of a tanto after a fire jutsu weakened it. The holder died a painful death, of that, I have no doubt." The jounin turned towards the commander. "I trust you have sent words to Konoha already."
The man bristled mildly. "Of course but our best runners cannot equal yours, jounin-san. You ninjas are swifter on your feet than us."
"My apologies, I wasn't insinuating anything," answered Gai with a slight bow. "Could you remind me what is the mandate of patrol fifteen nine nine?"
The commander motioned for one of his men to step forward. The man bowed and gestured towards an unfurled map.
"My name is Watanabe Hiro, I'm in charge of intelligence and recon. Fifteen nine nine allows a team of chuunin to cross the border and gather intelligence within this marked zone," the man explained while pointing at markings on the map. "This is basically a corridor fifteen miles wide that follows the border. The patrol is supposed to last nine days and go through these nine checkpoints."
"Checkpoints?"
"Traps," Hiro explained. "Flare mines to be precise. Should they be set off, they are powerful enough to inform us that something large is coming. They date back from our war against Lightning."
"Something large?"
"It's a complex trap and it can only be sprung if several conditions are met almost simultaneously. They were devised to inform us of an army coming, basically."
Gai nodded. He had been young during the Third War but he knew similar traps had been created in Grass Country to defend against the armies of the Land of Earth. Each had been tagged by the Yondaime's famous Hiraishin.
Whatever the case, if a group of ninja were attacking the patrols of Konoha and possibly disarming their defences, it was bad news. Gai knew he had to act and the question was, could he wait for the Hokage to answer and what would he do with his genins?
AN: I don't speak Japanese but it's one of these languages where you can basically combine words to create bigger words. Like Kishimoto invented genin, chuunin and jounin (low, mid and high ninja), I allowed myself to cobble together bushijou (from "bushi" and the "jou" of jounin: high warrior).
According to the challenge's rules, I'm not supposed to do Wave so I'm not. I hope you'll enjoy what I cooked for you instead.
You may leave a review about the cliffhanger. ;-)