Hello and welcome to chapter eight of Son of the Fox! This chapter marks the end of the prologue and the beginning of the first arc, the Wave Arc. I've receiveda couple of really cool suggestions for things to do for this arc from both pm's and reviews and some of those ideas will be used or incorporated in someway into this arc.

I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed or favorited this fic, you guys are awesome! Now without further ado, here is chapter eight.

After Hinata's declaration things settled down somewhat. "While it is nice to see two genin so fired up about improving themselves perhaps we can finish things up here?" Came the voice of the Hokage.

"Right! Team meet at the village entrance in one hour. And Mr. Tazuna, don't worry my team will keep you safe." Kurenai assured the crying drunk. He didn't seem too convinced but still left to get his stuff so it wasn't her problem anymore.

"Before you go, Naruto I need you to stay behind for a moment." The Hokage spoke as Team 8 began to leave. Waving at his teammates Naruto looked towards the old man. Once everyone cleared out and the door shut the Hokage spoke again, "So what is this I hear about you telling your team about your mom?"

"Uh, uhm." Naruto began only to be cut off by the Hokage.

"I do believe I told you to keep that information private, didn't I?" The Hokage asked in his authoritative voice.

"B-but since they're my team shouldn't it be ok for them to know?" Naruto asked, having forgotten that he was suppose to keep his mom's name a secret. To be fair he doesn't get to talk with people very often outside of Anko, who already knew, and the Old Man so it's not a rule he thinks about too often.

"I see, so you think you can trust people with information that might endanger your life because they are your team?" The Hokage asked, hiding his smile behind his crossed hands. Letting Naruto stew for a moment he then said, "Good! It is important to trust those you are fighting alongside but remember you must be careful where and to who you divulge information. Your genin team will hopefully in time form bonds that will last a lifetime but you should always be thoughtful of who you trust, understood?"

"Yeah, understood." Naruto said uncomfortably, not liking the idea of his teammates betraying him or him betraying them.

"I'm glad. Now have you opened your mother's second scroll yet? I must admit I've been expecting to see you carry around some of her gear." The Hokage said, glad to talk about a much lighter topic.

"Well I was going to open on my first mission outside the village, I sort of thought it would be sooner than this though." Naruto explained, finishing with a mock pout.

"Aw, I suppose that makes since. Your first C-rank is something of a milestone, so perhaps I shouldn't keep you hmm?" The Hokage said with a smile. "Go on and get packed. And don't just pack ramen."

"You got it Old Man, I'll only mostly pack ramen!" Naruto yelled with a laugh as he turned and ran out the door.

Once at his apartment Naruto quickly gathered his things. He grabbed his clothes, ramen, chakra ink, paper, and extra kunai and he sealed it up in a storage scroll. With his packing done he picked up the red tagged scroll that was filled with his mom's ninja equipment. Unsealing the scroll created a burst of smoke.

Once the smoke cleared several items were visible on the ground. The most notable was a nodachi, the blade was in a dark red sheath and had a similarly colored handle. The handle also featured a swirling pattern that ended with a snarling fox head at the pommel. Over all the sword was beautiful and it was as long than Naruto was tall.

Other than the sword there was a case of shuriken and kunai, a number of smoke pellets, a maintenance kit for the sword, ninja wire, and a black headband with the Uzumaki symbol in place of the leaf. Naruto lifted the headband from the floor to look at it more closely in reverence. This was his mom's headband, one she wore to remember her lost home!

Wanting to show pride in his family's lost home, as his mom had apparently done, Naruto replaced his headband with his mom's. Though he realized he should still wear the headband of his home so he tied the headband Iruka had given him around his waist like a belt. He nodded to himself happily as now he could honor his clan and look cool with two headbands!

The rest of the of the stuff was added to either his belt or his storage scroll except for the nodachi. It was not a sword he knew how to wield, though after this mission he was determined to find Yugua and see if she could teach him.

With that decided Naruto sealed the sword back into the scroll and hid it with under a loose floorboard, he then activated a security seal over the board. Standing up, sure that the scroll was secure, he gathered his storage scroll and left the apartment.

Naruto got to the meet up point five minutes early, despite that his team was already there. "Ah, hello Naruto. Now that you are here we can head out." Kurenai said with a hint of pride, she had been drilling it into her team's head (Naruto's) to always be on time or early if possible.

"Yeah! Let's do this!" Naruto replied enthusiastically. The other two, Hinata and Shino, nodded their agreement and team 8 along with Tazuna began there trip to Wave.

The gate guards waved them off as the team took their first steps outside of the village walls. The worn stone road leading them off into the wider world. On either side of the road was the forests that gave Konoha its name, filled with tall, ancient trees.

The team was mostly alone on the road and so began to talk amongst themselves while keeping an ear out for trouble, not that anyone expected it so close to the village. "Naruto I notice you are wearing a different headband?" Shino asked, though it could be interpreted as a simple statement.

"Yeah! This was my mom's, believe it!" Naruto exclaimed. "It was the symbol worn by the shinobi of Uzugakure, the village my clan founded!"

"T-that's great Naruto, it must mean a lot to have something of your mom's to remember her by." Hinata said quietly, thinking about her own mother's garden that she now cares for.

"Yeah, I even have her sword but I'm not really any good with such big blades." Naruto said.

"You mentioned your clan founded a village, has something happened to it?" Shino asked.

"Oh, well back during the Second Great Shinobi War, a joint army of Iwa and Kumo forces attacked Uzu. From what mom said in her journal Uzu was outnumbered by about three to one counting the non shinobi citizens. Don't know what happened during the fight but only about a hundred Iwa and Kumo shinobi survived and the village was left lifeless." Naruto said soberly, he might not have seen the city or known the people but they were family.

"I see, I should apologize. Why? Because clearly this is a sore subject and I should have been more tactful." Shino said as he walked. Naruto just waved him off his apologies.

"Don't worry about it. You didn't know and honestly it happened nearly twenty years before I was even born. No use wallowing in the past when you can make tomorrow awesome instead!" Naruto exclaimed, trying and succeeding to bring the mood back up before it could get too down.

"A good mindset to have Naruto. But keep in mind that if you need to talk I'm always willing to listen. That goes for all of you." Kurenai said from behind, she was bringing up the rear of the group to observe how her genin acted on the mission and to better pick up any signs of danger.

"Thanks Kurenai-sensei." Naruto said with a smile directed towards the jonin.

"No problem. What kind of jonin-sensei would I be if I didn't make sure my genin were able to talk to me?" Kurenai said with a smile.

As the conversation moved on among her genin Kurenai saw a puddle in the road. A puddle that had no place being there since it hadn't rained in over a week. With an internal sigh Kurenai prepared for the mission to get more complicated.