Hello and Happy New Year to all my readers. Though it's a bit late now.

This chapter has a reason for being as late as it is. I will explain it at the end notes.

There is also a minor rant at the end notes, you can skip it if you want. Which you probably want to.

In chapter 14, I had asked you to tell me who would you want Rock Lee to be paired up with. I only got a two answers for that. Well, I got another similar question. I also have Shino and Haku who, obviously, were not paired in the canon. Just like Lee, I also have someone I want to pair them with, but I want to hear who you want the girls to be. The Lee poll is still on too, so do answer. The rules are the same as before.

xhope14x, TheWateringWizard, GunBlade2018, Bloody Rogue dragon deity king: Thank you for your reviews. I already had Tenten planned and I had anticipated Yakumo's name over there. I have to look into her.

Darkjaden: You are right, I will try and fix it in the future chapters. Thanks.

sultryvoice: Thank you very much for your wishes. I am trying to improve my writing as I move forward, so I hope the chapters don't have repeated mistakes. If they do, feel free to point them out.

KingRyu: You're right. It isn't or you could say it hasn't been clarified yet. But according to the chapter you are referring to, it is mentioned that the Namikaze was a new clan that was to be formed because Kushina was announced pregnant and there was a future Namikaze on the way. I am sorry if I couldn't make that perfectly clear in the chapter.

Guests: First for the Sasuke enthusiast. Influenced by the cursed seal? Do you see Anko going out of the village to seek further training from someone in order to take revenge on Orochimaru? Activation of Mangekyou Sharingan? Do you see Itachi coming back to the village to kill Danzo in revenge for ordering the death of his clan? Manipulation by Tobi comes in the play long after he had already gone rouge so that doesn't count at all. Victim of tragedy after tragedy? I don't see any tragedy happening to him after the massacre of his clan. Itachi killing himself (Yes Sasuke was NOT strong enough to kill him, it was basically Itachi committing suicide.) can be called a tragedy, but by then Sasuke had again already gone rouge, so moot point. To me Sasuke is nothing but a spoiled boy blaming the world for the problems, many which he or his own clan created. He is not a sad boy who needs love. He had everything in the village to fill his life with. People still acknowledged him at least. He was no monster to people (Again Itachi's doing). Danzo lived through three wars, saw his friends and senseis sacrifice themselves for him. He is the one who faced tragedy after tragedy. Of course he was also one who caused most of the tragedies. I'm not saying Danzo was a good guy or anything, but he had more realistic view of the world that Sasuke. So Sasuke is the last guy in Naruto, who I would count had a hard life.

Sakura and Hinata did follow their guys with devotion. But the way they did it was completely different. Hinata planned to stand beside Naruto the whole time and sought to better herself for that. Sakura realized that she needed to do that AFTER Sasuke had already left. Before that, she was just following the crowd. Thought you are right, Sakura did become USEFUL in the Shippuden. But not strong. Maybe she can crush boulders with her hands. But that is not the only thing making a shinobi strong. Though her merit as a medic ninja cannot be faulted.

Romantic death? To Sasuke? Sorry. NEVER. The next death I have planned for both Sakura and Sasuke are quite gory. Please be sure to skip it. It's not in this chapter though.

So yeah, I do hate Sasuke. But I will not let that affect my story because I do believe Sasuke could have been redeemed beforehand, like I'm trying to. That's why I have kept the 'bashing' in the Omakes.

Okay, that was longer than I had planned, but anyways, I do not own Naruto. Now let's start.

Chapter 16: "C-Rank? Surely you are jesting."

Somewhere in the mountains in the Land of Rivers

Tenten sighed. She was 12 when she was assigned to Team 3, better known as Team Guy, and it had been a year since then. To her though, it felt a lot longer than that. It felt like she had sighed more times during that year than she had ever before. And most of the time, the reason was the same.

The so-called reason, or reasons were walking in front of her and her - dare she say- only normal teammate. Walking was also a word she used very loosely there. While they were indeed walking, it was not on their feet, but on their hands. Each of them had offered to carry her and Neji on their foot too. Obviously, both had rejected.

They had been given a C-rank mission to take care of some bandits at a local gold mine. This was not their first C-rank, but still she thought it was prudent to keep vigilance and not fool around.

Their sensei, Might Guy, thought so too. The green wearing man, whose Lee looked like a clone of, may have been walking on his hands and teaching his student at the same time, but he still kept his senses sharp. After all, he did have some idea of who his team was going to face. His name at least. He still could not remember the significance of that name. Their mission required them to take out that man along with some goons he was apparently able to gather.

But before his team would be able to do that, they would need some nutrition to fuel their youth. And that's where he was taking them. He looked ahead and saw his destination approaching.

Guy leapt up and landed on his feet, his clon- student followed him. "Alright, my students, we are at our first stop of this mission. Before we begin showing our youth to the unyouthful bandits, we should fill ourselves with it. With that in mind, I think you would be able to do that in this shop. The owner of this shop makes the most youthful curry that is called "The Curry of Life"." He said while pointing at the shop.

While Lee already knew of this shop, his teammates didn't. Tenten and Neji looked at each other and shrugged, they were hungry, and it was almost time for lunch too. So, they followed their sensei and teammate into the shop.

The shop was small, not unlike Ichiraku Ramen in Konoha. But unlike a typical ramen bar, this place had sitting arrangements similar to how a small restaurant would. There was not much for staff though. There seemed to be only an old lady who owned as well as worked the shop.

Guy, already familiar with the place and owner, greeted her, "Good day to you, Sanshou-san. I and my students are here to have some of your youthful Curry of Life."

The owner, Sanshou, greeted back, "Ah! It is Guy-san and Lee-kun. And I see you brought your other students with you today too. Please have a seat, I'll have your curry ready right away." After which she started working on the curry.

While the curry was being made, Lee started telling his teammates how he and his sensei found this shop after running a marathon for three continuous days. Tenten and Neji were only able to sweatdrop at that.

However, during his retelling, Lee found someone missing, "Grandma Sanshou, I don't see Karashi around. Where is he?"

Sanshou made a sad face, "Oh! He was very moved by your work ethic and began attacking life with a new vigour. So much that he left the shop and left for town. I shouldn't have pushed him so much, always telling him to be strong, 'I'm going to be a man.' He said, 'Part of the Kurosuki family.'"

The whole team was shocked to hear that. Kurosuki was the name of the leader of the bandit group they were supposed to eliminate.

Sanshou continued, "But don't worry about it. I'm not blaming you. He made his own decision. Here, your curry is ready." She placed a plate curry rice before everyone.

Before anyone could start eating though, Lee raised his hand, "Guy-sensei! I request to incorporate the rescue of Karashi into our mission." He asked.

Guy gave his student a thumbs-up, "Of course Lee. Trying to save your friend and correcting your mistakes is as youthful as it gets." He said before focusing on the rest of his team and continuing, "We will use Sanshou-san's shop as a base of our operation while we locate this Kurosuki family. But before that, let's dig in this Curry of Life and fill ourselves with youthful energy." He said before taking the spoon and digging in.

This was the first time Tenten and Neji noticed the curry in front of them, and immediately regretted their decision to follow their eccentric teammate and sensei.

The curry, unlike a normal brown or yellow, looked black with bubbles popping out it like it was lava. They shifted their gaze back to their other teammates and saw them eating their curry with a vigour, all the while being completely red in the face. They looked at each other and shrugged again. 'Might as well try'. They thought.

As soon as they took a bite in, both of their faces turned red. The amount of spice in the curry was unbelievable. Neji felt like it was burning his insides. Like both his cousins, Neji also had a sweet tooth and preferred sweet foods. What he didn't have was a tolerance to spicy food. As soon as the extremely spicy taste of the curry hit his tongue, his eyes, which had unconsciously activated, rolled over and he fell back unconscious.

Tenten had more tolerance to spice than Neji had, but still not enough to fight this Curry of Life. 'Curry of life….hah! It…should be called Curry of Death instead.' She thought, before she grabbed the glass of water and downed it in one go. Sadly, it didn't do much and it was just one spoon. The whole plate was still left. Looking at the unconscious Neji beside her and the green wearing duo in front eating away at the impossibly spicy curry, she resigned to her fate, and started eating the curry equally fast as the two before her, so as not to give her tongue enough time to taste the spice. She was fighting a losing battle there though.

Neji was blissfully unaware of the fight his female teammate was fighting against the terrifying curry of death, all the while dreaming about blonde haired girls, feeding him his favourite food.

Somewhere on the road

The said blonde haired girl was unaware of her presence in someone's dream, obviously. But even if she was aware of it, this was not the time to think about it. She and her team were currently facing someone she shouldn't have to on this mission.

Earlier that day, the Hokage had finally relented on giving them a C-rank mission. It really was a simple mission on paper: Escort a bridge builder to his home back to the land of waves and guard him till he finishes the bridge. Such a simple task. Obviously, since the task was to guard him, there was bound to be some danger to his life, otherwise there was no need for them. But those 'dangers' were supposed to be bandits and such. The two standing in front of her were no mere bandits.

These two were able to 'take down' their sensei. Right after they passed a puddle, which probably was the worst disguise they could come up with since it hadn't rain at all lately, both of them undid the disguise and wrapped their sensei in a chain that was connected to the huge clawed gantlets on their hands. They followed it up by yanking the chain and ripping him to pieces. That ended with up with she and her two teammates stuck trying to protect their annoying client from them, 'alone'.

Not wanting to waste any more time, one of the enemy ninja sped straight towards them. But instead of engaging them directly, he threw two kunais at their client. Shino, who was guarding him, wasn't able to react in time and got stabbed in the chest with one kunai while the other pierced their client's head.

The other enemy ninja looked at his brother's handiwork and smirked, "Hah! That was too easy. I knew these tree huggers were just a bunch of weaklings."

His celebration was cut short when he saw a fireball coming towards him. He jumped up to dodge the fireball, which made him unable to dodge the projectile speeding towards him. It slammed into him and in turn making him slam into the tree behind him.

He shook the cobwebs from his head and looked at what had gotten him into this position. He was shocked to see it was none other than his brother whose eyes had already rolled over, showing his state of unconscious, courtesy of a light punch from Namiko when he was distracted celebrating like his brother.

Before he could move his brother away though, both of them were tied to the tree by a glowing chain, wrapping around them. He looked at the source of the chain and saw it coming out from the back of the blonde girl, who was joined by her dark-haired teammate.

He sneered at them, "You may have defeated us, but our work is already done. The bridge builder is dead."

Namiko gave him a confused look, "You mean that bridge builder." She said while pointing at the tree behind her. The ninja was shocked to see not only the bridge builder alive but the third brat as well. But he was terrified to see their sensei materialize just behind the girl.

"Nice work team. Handled everything phenomenally." Kakashi said smiling at his team. The three were joined by their client and Shino, before Kakashi brought out a book, "Hmmm, let's see. Missing-nin from Kirigakure. Alike looking, so probably brothers. Aha! Here they are. You two are Gouzu and Meizu, Chunins from Kirigakure, also known as the Demon Brothers."

The only conscious brother was gritting his teeth, 'What the hell are these chains? I can't move a muscle. And what happened to Meizu? How was he knocked out so fast? Was it the Jounin?' He was desperately trying to free himself.

Namiko, being the originator of his bindings, felt his struggles, "Give it up, these chains have a special binding property that can hold even a Bijuu in its place. Someone like you has no chance of even moving." She turned to her sensei and asked, "Are you sure they are Chunins, Kakashi-sensei? They don't seem like it."

"Hn!" Sasuke voiced his agreement.

"Well then, isn't it just that my cute little Genins are stronger?" Kakashi answered all the while eye smiling.

"Namiko-san and Sasuke-san are the strong ones, why you ask? Because I didn't do anything." Shino intoned.

"That's not true. Shino-kun was the defending the client, that was most important. You were the one who substituted him as well as yourself with your bug clone, right?" Namiko said trying to encourage him. While it was indeed true that Shino didn't do much, they had assessed that their opponents were close range fighters. And the best way to protect someone from close range fighters was to keep away from them, which in turn was best done by a long-range fighter like Shino.

"Absolutely correct Namiko-chan." Kakashi agreed.

The bridge builder decided to butt in there, "Says the one who was the first to be sliced into ribbons. How did ye' survive anyway? And if you did why didn't ye' help 'er students?"

Kakashi suddenly lost his cheerful demeanour and gave his client a piercing, "That was to see who they were targeting. Were they ninja targeting other ninja? Or were they after someone else? Tazuna-san, the mission details told us you may be attacked by bandits. These two are Chunin level ninjas. They are without a doubt led by a Jounin or two. My students may have been able to handle them easily but a Jounin is a completely different story."

The bridge builder, now known as Tazuna, was sweating, "W-what has that do with this?" He asked shakily.

"Tazuna-san, this is no more a C-rank mission. Only the presence of these two bumps it up to a B-rank and depending on whoever is waiting ahead for us, it will be further increased to A-rank. So, tell me. Why exactly are there ninja after you and why did you hide the fact?"

Tazuna was now afraid. He had to tell them, but he was not looking forward to what will happen after he told them.

On the road to the Land of Tea

While Team 7 was busy interrogating their own client, they at least knew who the client was, Team 8 sadly didn't. Their mission was to guard a racer during a race that was held as an event of some kind in his town in the Land of Sea. But sadly he had escaped from his own escorts before they could reach the leaf village and only his escorts and the mission parameters had reached there. The six people who were supposed to bring him to the village said it was normal though. So now they were walking inside a diamond formation formed by Team 8 with Kurenai at front, Kiba on the left, Akamaru and Sakura on the right and Naruto bringing up the rear, back to the Land of Tea.

Sakura, curious about the main person they were supposed to escort, asked the others, "So, this person who is going to run in the race, don't we need to find him before he is attacked or something?"

Her teammates were also keeping their ears open for that answer. One of the guys, apparently the leader of the band replied, "Tch! Idate? Knowing him, he has already returned to the village. He vehemently opposed the idea of hiring ninja to guard him for some reason. And when he heard that the Boss was going to ask Konoha, he just turned tail and ran. We had to drag him as far as he came, before he somehow disappeared."

Sakura tilted her head in confusion, "Isn't there any chance that he was kidnapped on the way or something?" Her question while asked with complete innocence obviously brought some worry to the others.

All the six people looked at each other before the leader shook his head, "No. It is forbidden to act against the racer before the event. Even if the Wagarashi family hired ninja themselves, there is very less chance that they would act before the race. It would jeopardize their position in front of the district Minister."

Sakura nodded. A sudden sound caused every one of them to tense and take ready positions, before they looked in the direction the sound came from and saw Kiba sweating slightly. He had also taken a fighting stance, but the others had already figured out the source of the sound. Kurenai's glare got him out of his stance, "Kiba. Didn't you eat before coming to the mission?"

Kiba, seeing no way to get out said sheepishly, "I uh…I…had a uh…late start today…so…I kinda…skipped breakfast."

Kurenai's glare just intensified. But a similar sound again made her look at the other perpetrator. It came from one to the people they were escorting.

The guy looked embarrassed, "Umm…well we didn't have enough time in the leaf village to eat too, so…."

"There is a tea shop just ahead on our way. I think we can stop there for some snacks." The leader of the group suggested being hungry himself.

Kurenai sighed, "Well, I guess we can do that."

It turned out the tea shop was not so far. It took them hardly 10 minutes of walking before they reached it. When they went to enter it, the leaf shinobi weren't surprised to see it being occupied by only one person, but the group they were escorting were.

"Idate!" The leader yelled, which compelled the person sitting inside to look at him and click his tongue.

"What are you still doing here?" Idate asked the man.

The leader walked up to him and grabbed him by the collar, "What are WE doing here? What are YOU doing here after leaving us midway? You are supposed to be our candidate for the race. We went through the trouble of hiring ninjas to guard you during the race. And what do you do? Disappear. What would have happened if something happened to you? What would Boss Jirocho say, huh? What would we tell him?" He yelled at him.

Idate sneered at him, shoving himself away from the man, "Oh yeah! Well I didn't tell you or the Boss to hire ninja for the race. I can win the race by myself." He looked at the ninja they had hired, "And what's more, you hired these weaklings from leaf village. If they are going to be my bodyguards, then I am better off by myself." He said before running out of the shop.

The leader tried to stop him, "Wait! Idate!" but he was already gone.

Naruto could still sense him, but he had to give it to the brat, he had ran quite far away in this short time.

While Naruto keeping a track on him, the leader was apologizing to Kurenai. "I'm very sorry for his behaviour. He has always hated ninjas for some reason."

Kurenai waved him off, "Don't worry, we come across many people like him. Though I think now that we have found him we should not let him wander alone, right Naruto?"

Naruto only nodded and disappeared from there.

Everyone other than Team 8 were looking at her incredulously, "Umm…While I know you are ninjas, but Idate was specifically chosen for the race because of his speed. He is very fast even by shinobi standards." The leader told Kurenai.

She, in turn, just smiled at him, "Is that so? Well then you will find that Naruto tends to not follow shinobi standards."

All the six people from the Land of Tea looked at each other doubtfully.

Idate was still running away from the tea shop at high speed, when his got foot caught on a stray tree root and he was flung quite far because of his speed, making him end up hanging from a tree branch.

"*sigh* All that speed won't matter at all, if I don't watch where I go." He said to himself before he leapt down from the tree and was going to continue before he was stopped by Naruto.

"You sure are fast for someone who is not using chakra to enhance his speed. Reminds me of someone from the village." He said.

Idate was shocked, this guy had caught up to him faster than he thought he could. Before he could reply something fell off of the tree and landed in front of Naruto.

"Huh, what's this?" He went to pick it up but it was snatched up hastily by Idate.

"Hands off. This is mine." Idate said. He bent down and unlatched something on his legs and took them off. He held them in his hands and counted, "Ready. Set. Go!" before letting them fall to the ground. Both of them proved to be heavy because as soon as they touched the ground, they formed a dust cloud, using which, Idate ran away again.

Naruto stood there for a while, surprised, "Hmm, leg weights. He reminds me more and more of Lee. Obviously unlike him, this guy gave up at some point of time." He said before following him.

Land of Tea

Idate had finally made it back to his town, the Degarashi port. He made his way towards the Boss's, as well as his own, house. He went to the Boss's room and knocked to be granted entrance. On been given permission, he slid opened the door only to be surprised. Naruto was sitting in front his Boss.

"What!? How did you reach here before me?" He said while pointing at Naruto.

He was answered by his Boss though, "Idate! Naruto-kun here told me you left the group I sent to escort you, and when they found you, you ran away again. What is the meaning of this?" by a question.

Idate tried to deny it, "H-he's lying. I didn't do anything like that. In fact he left his team back to reach here ahead of me."

Jirocho Wasabi looked amused, "Hoo! Is that so? Then where are they? I don't see anyone with you."

Idate could not come up with an answer. He glared at Naruto who was grinning at him. However, Naruto straightened his face when he was addressed by Jirocho, "By the way Naruto-kun, where is the rest of your team?"

"They should already be on the way here. The envoy you sent didn't get enough time to refill themselves before heading back, so they had to take a break to eat something." Naruto answered. He looked towards the wall on the left and added, "In fact I already sense them, they should be here in 10 to 15 minutes."

"I see." Jirocho said while again glaring at Idate, "Well, you probably know what your Team's mission is, but of course I will elaborate as soon as your Team reaches here. Till then, why don't you tell me how Tsunade-hime is doing? It's been a long time I've seen her."

Somewhere in a random village

Asuma with his team was walking alongside a man named Tofu. Apparently he was an ex-member of a bandit group, which was terrorising the local population and stealing their harvest every year. This time though when the village elder refused, the leader of the bandit group, Baji, kidnapped his granddaughter as a hostage. So the village was forced to hire shinobis to deal with them and rescue his granddaughter. And Tofu was like a guide who offered to show them where the bandit's hideout was. His team's mission was to rescue the girl and neutralize the bandit group if possible.

'On the hindsight, they should have contacted the village the moment the bandits started harassing them.' Asuma thought.

After some more walking they reached a place which looked like an opening to a cave.

Tofu turned towards them while pointing at the cave mouth, "The hideout's located in a natural fort. It's deep inside this cavern that branches like an anthill's passage ways. There's only one way to get inside and they have three forts guarding that route. But the trickiest obstacle of all is Baji's intellect. He's very hard to outsmart that's why people fear him so much."

Asuma nodded. It seemed to be a tad bit difficult for a first C- rank mission for his team, but he had prepared them for this as much as he could in a month. And he believed they could pull this off.

"Okay. So our primary mission is to rescue the hostage and that will involve a confrontation with the gang." He said before turning to Shikamaru, "Shikamaru, what do you think of this situation?" He knew Shikamaru had the capability of becoming a tactician of a level as high as his father. This was the best chance to test how good his tactical skills were at the moment.

Tofu was surprised by this though. He thought being the Jounin leader of the team, Asuma would be the one to form all the tactics and not the green-behind-the-ears genins.

"Hmm, it's unfortunate that we only have one way in, but we won't be moving a large force through. Since it's only a four of us, maybe get can get past the forts, undetected." Shikamaru said.

"However," He continued, "I'm sure they've set up numerous traps to defend it, since that's the most obvious plan of attack. That route is still our best chance to escape without fighting back after we've made the rescue. At the very least, we need to confirm that there is a safe passage back."

"I see. Unfortunately we are just one team, so we don't have a choice to split up. Otherwise we could have formed two teams, one to rescue the hostage and the other to secure the exit." Asuma said.

"Actually, I think you should go in undetected for the rescue, while we hold the passage back safe." Shikamaru suggested.

Asuma looked conflicted, "That's a very dangerous plan. You still haven't fought anyone another than genins. While I believe you can handle mere bandits, their numbers could prove to be a problem."

"You are right, but you are our safest bet in rescuing the girl, since that is a more delicate job and we cannot afford to screw up. Fighting the bandits does not need such subtlety." Shikamaru argued.

Asuma didn't look completely convinced, but had to agree to the plan, "Okay, I guess you are right. But don't come inside until you get my signal." He ordered.

"Hai." The whole Team exclaimed.

Land of Sea

Looking over at the different islands that made the Land of Sea, Anko got a very unpleasant feeling. No, unpleasant would be the wrong word. She was in pain. The pain originating specifically from the back of her neck, where her cursed seal was. For some reason, it was flaring up every now and then, causing her a great deal of pain. Along with that she was getting flashbacks of what seemed to her like memories from her past. It seemed she was brought here by her traitorous sensei, but when and exactly what happened she couldn't remember. And these were happening more frequently as she and her team got close to the Land of Sea.

That's right, her team. It was their first mission outside the village. Their first C-rank mission. Over the period of one month, since the team was formed, they had been able to find a good synchronization with each other. Unlike the other teams, her team was formed almost arbitrarily, an heiress of a clan, an emotionless former ROOT and an orphan taken in by a Sannin. It really looked like a team hastily put together. But still they were able to find their own place in the team and could now work together sufficiently.

That's why Anko had requested a C-rank mission. To actually start on their path of becoming a ninja. The mission could be called a bit harder than what a normal first C-rank for Genins would be, but not by so much. They were supposed to escort a ship carrying a monetary shipment to the Land of Water. Now ninja's were not hired for this purpose frequently. The waters were safe enough for aptly armed men to transfer the shipment. But recently there have been attacks on shipments such as this, by something people described as a sea monster.

For civilians, a Genjutsu cast on them would make anyone seem like a sea monster. At the same time it could be like a mutated fish or an animal, like the ones in the Training Ground 44 back in her village. But this uncertainty of what they were facing, made Anko think that it was a tad bit harder for a first mission outside the village for her team. Not to mention, this sudden pain caused by her curse mark.

But she endured it. She looked at her team and said, "Okay. We will go to the captain of the ship we are supposed to guard and get the mission details. After that we will find an Inn to rest for tonight. There is no need for training right now, since we are uncertain of what we will face and I want you completely fresh, understood?" She asked.

Her team nodded, "Okay then let's go."

Shigaraki Inn

"I'm responsible for guarding the ships collecting funds, my name is Hitode." Said a bearded and bald man, wearing something similar to samurai's clothing.

Team 11 was sitting in front of him in this Inn, with two other members of Hitode's crew.

"I'm glad that our request was acknowledged with a fast response. It is really good to see you here so fast, especially since there has been a change in the schedule of the shipment." He continued.

Anko was surprised, "Change?" She asked.

Hitode nodded, "Now we are scheduled to depart tomorrow morning as opposed to the day after. I apologize for the late response, but the higher ups find the relationship with the Land of Water very important, so we had to push the departure forward."

Anko nodded, "Understandable. As long as we have tonight to replenish the energy we spent to get here, it is okay. So, we'll meet directly at the port tomorrow morning."

Hitode bowed his head, "Thank you for your co-operation." He raised his head and added, "Just one more thing. You've probably already seen, our country is not a rich one. Fishermen and us, both have been worried about the disturbances caused by this 'Demon of the Ocean'." He and his colleagues bowed their heads before he requested, "We will greatly appreciate your help in resolving this problem."

Anko did not want to put her Genin in unnecessary danger, but not accepting this request would look bad on her village, so, "I understand. We will try our best." She replied.

After booking two rooms in that same inn, the Genins of Team 11 set out in search for food for dinner. Seeing as they were in a town, it would be a waste to let go of the chance to eat proper food and instead eat a ration bar. Anko had decided to go off on her own to gather some information on the Demon of the Ocean, which she advised her Genin to do as well.

Hinata was looking at all the shops along the streets. While she would have liked to cook her dinner herself, her room unfortunately didn't come equipped with a kitchen, and while she could cook outside, she would rather not do that when she already had a room. So they had decided to opt for a restaurant or such to have their dinner in.

"Hmm…there aren't any ramen shops around." Hinata let out unconsciously.

Haku caught on it immediately, "Scouting for places to go on a date with your 'Boyfriend', Hinata-san?" He said slyly.

Hinata 'eeped' and pressed her fore fingers embarrassingly, "N-no. It's j-just that…I l-like ramen and I don't like sea food, so I thought that would be the best choice."

Haku grinned at the lack of response on his 'Boyfriend' comment, "Hmm…You hate sea food? Your 'Boyfriend' is named 'fishcake' you know?" He continued teasing her.

Sai, while now aware of Hinata's and Naruto's feelings for each other, still was not good with complex verbal tricks like teasing, "But Haku-san, I think Hinata-san is talking about her tastes in food. Naruto-san being named on a food item made from sea-water fish wouldn't affect her feelings. Since she probably doesn't plan on eating him."

Haku started at him awkwardly and then sweatdropped when Hinata's face became even redder than before. Is that blood coming out of her nose?' He thought. Their banter was cut when they reached a fish shop.

A girl, mostly wrapped up in bandages, was selling some fish -that she had probably caught herself- to the shopkeeper. Haku noticed that the amount of money paid back to her was really low against the quality of fish sold to him. So he walked up to the shopkeeper and said, "Excuse me. I'm sorry but I couldn't help but notice that you are paying very less for what is obviously high quality fish."

The shopkeeper looked slightly troubled, "Oh well uh…look…I'm not underpaying her. It's just with all this uproar caused by the Demon of the Ocean, customers are completely staying away. This is the market price around here."

Haku nodded, "I understand, but that fish is rarely…" He was cut off by the girl running off with whatever money she got.

Haku's team meanwhile had caught up to him.

"I wonder what happened to her. She had a lot of bandages. Is she injured?" Hinata wondered aloud.

The shopkeeper answered her though, "No, she has her reasons. You see, she is a diver from a small town on the Cape of Mother Island."

The team got surprised, "Why would a diver from Mother Island transfer islands on purpose?" Haku asked.

The shopkeeper kept the fish he was sold away and explained, "That's because the island people won't do business with her. That girl, in the past, she was spirited away."

"Spirited away? You mean she suddenly disappeared, right?" Haku asked again.

The shopkeeper nodded, "That's right. In the past, a lot of island people disappeared from being spirited away. The story is that out of all those people, she was the only one who suddenly returned. It's a small village, so everyone felt it to be creepy for only her to return. They say she lives alone at the edge of the island. With all those bandages she is many times called a monster."

"I see. I feel sorry for her." Hinata said in a sad tone.

Haku looked at the retreating form of the girl more intensely. The Team left the shopkeeper and returned to their task of finding a place to eat. Suddenly Haku asked, "Hinata-san, can you check where that girl is headed?"

Hinata looked at him confusedly, "I can but why do you want to check on her?"

"With the people calling her a monster and her being a diver, she could have some useful information about this Demon of the Ocean." Haku explained. What he didn't tell her was that he felt a slight kinship to the girl. Before being found by Jiraiya, he was also called a monster because of his Kekkei-Genkai. Even his own father tried to kill him and his mother, calling them monsters for having a bloodline. He shook his head to clear all those depressing thoughts of the past and saw Hinata nodding.

Hinata whispered a small Byakugan causing veins to bulge at her temples. She looked through the buildings that were in the way to search for the girl. She gasped when she found her.

"She is being attacked by two people, who have at least high Chunin-level chakra!" She exclaimed in alarm.

With a nod to his teammates, Haku and the rest sped towards the girl directed by Hinata. They reached her just as they say one of the assailants punch her in the stomach. Before they could do anything further, Haku threw a senbon at the guy who had punched, causing him to dodge and backtrack. The team went and stood in a protective formation around the girl to defend her. But the enemies just stepped back and disappeared.

Hinata turned to the girl on the ground and helped her up, "Are you okay?" She asked.

The girl gave a small nod before she looked at the people who had helped her. She show the leaf insignia on Hinata's forehead protector and thought, 'Ninjas.'

She quickly gathered the things she had bought and ran away without saying anything.

Team 11 decided not to follow her this time.

"Shinobis. Land of Sea is not supposed to have a hidden village. And with at high Chunin-level chakra, you say Hinata-san?" Haku asked.

Hinata nodded. Haku looked at Sai and nodded as well before stating, "We have to inform sensei about this."

Neither of his teammates had any objection to that.

AN:

There is actually an Omake connected to this arc, but I decided to move it so that people can relate it with the fic, so it will be in the next chapter.

As you would have already figured out, these five missions will more or less go parallel. The reason it took this long for me to write this chapter, is because I had to research a lot to find the correct mission for everyone as well as the mission specifics. I decided to use already formed missions, canon or filler, so that it would be easy to follow, without much useless repetitions. I hope I was able to make every mission clear, though I left out the main details out purposefully.

RANT START YOU CAN SKIP FROM HERE

I watched the respective episodes to write these missions. I must say in first part of the series it felt like they tried to make anyone else not Sasuke as pathetic as possible. Especially in the fillers. In the Isaribi arc, Naruto just runs at the mutated Amachi like a common brawler. Not once, but thrice and end up with the same results, that is being thrown back. They were not even trying to make him look like a ninja. Akado tries to attack Ino and she just braces herself and tells him to not come near her. The hell? Is she really supposed to be a ninja? And then at the end, Naruto summons Kyuubi's chakra to fight. Like he has no strength of his own at all. They try their best to make it look like Naruto was able to live upto the Shippuden solely by relying on the Kyuubi. Which I find really pathetic.

That is one of the reasons I had stopped watching that midway and directly started with Shippuden. Another reason was that I was watching it in English dub and that 'Believe it' every five seconds was annoying as hell. 'Datte'bayo' is better or if you want English then 'You know' sounds better.

Kishimoto-sensei didn't try to change thing about Naruto's reliance on Kyuubi much either. While others Shinobis like Minato, Jiraiya, Third Hokage, Tsunade etc become as strong as they were without any bloodline or outside ,or in Naruto's case inside, help. Even now, Naruto summoned the Kyuubi's chakra to fight a child like Shin Uchiha.

Well enough of that. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you in the next one.