A\N: Thanks for the review. Sorry about the typos, I hope I got them all but I doubt it.
Chapter 3
Naruto wiped the sweat of his face with a damp towel. This was the second mission they had done today, and he was winded which was something that was strange altogether. Ever since he was a kid, he just never seemed to get wore out, and it was a strange feeling to be a bit winded. He was still in better shape than his other teammates. Hinata had her back leaned against a tree enjoying the shade. It was extremely hot outside this day, and the different in temperature from the sun to the shade was nearly thirty degrees. Shikamaru was leaned against that same tree, he had downed two bottles of water in the five minute break they were taking.
"Break is over guys." Kakashi walked out of the small house they were at with a glass of lemonade in his hand. Naruto really wondered how much of pain it was to drink with that mask on.
"Easy for you to say, Kakashi-sensei." Hinata whined. They have been working on this old man's yard for four hours. This wasn't why they wanted to be shinobi. They weren't expecting to have to pick weeds and do yard work for the first month of their careers.
Kakashi made what appeared to be a smile at the young Hyuuga before handing her the glass of lemonade, which Hinata nearly drank in one gulp. "Not much more work to do." He tried to motivate them. The three genin weren't moving. "I'll take you out for lunch afterwards." The three of them sighed and stood up to start the work again. Naruto was digging holes to plant some bushes. Shikamaru was cutting the grass with one of this shadow techniques, and Hinata was in the garden picking weeds. It wasn't the most exciting mission for sure, but it still paid.
"Oi! Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called out getting the attention of the jounin lounging under a tree reading his book. "Isn't there some jutsu you can teach me to dig these faster?" He hadn't learned a new technique since he was put on this team. The ones that Jiraiya had given him were rather complex, and he was having trouble with them.
Kakashi thought of a proposition for the young genin. "If you can finish this work in the next hour, I will teach you all a new jutsu." Naruto's eyes lit up.
"Is it a cool one?!" Naruto shouted as he started to frantically dig the remaining two holes for the trees. Kakashi smiled as the blond ran around with renewed vigor. Five minutes after he finished his work, he was in the garden with Hinata yanking out weeds left and right. Shikamaru finished up cutting the grass just as Naruto pulled the last weed, and it was just a matter of cleaning up. Twenty minutes later Team 6 was walking into a causal sit down restaurant.
After everyone had eaten, Naruto found himself seated next to Hinata in the booth by themselves. Shikamaru had gone home complaining that missions were very troublesome, and Kakashi had excused himself because he had to finish the paperwork for the two missions they had completed. Hinata leaned back in the booth, her muscles ached with a dull constant pain. Naruto found it strange, he had been only slightly winded when his teammates had to lean against a tree to keep from falling down. Kakashi had told me that he just had better endurance naturally but something still seemed off. Hinata thanked the waitress as she filled her glass with refreshing water.
"So, how long do you think its going to be until we get more interesting missions?" Naruto attempted to make idle conversation. He liked being around the girl seated next to him, and he justed wanted to sit here a little while longer.
"I enjoy these missions. They are relaxing for the most part. No really urgency involved." Hinata took a gulp from her water.
Naruto nodded his head. "Yeah, they are nice, but I want a little adventure ya know." Hinata just nodded her head, she just like being wherever Naruto was. As Hinata just sat there enjoying the company of Naruto next to her, she found that her head was resting on his shoulder. When she realized what she was doing, the girl pulled her head away instantly.
"Sorry, Naruto-kun." She apologized to him.
Naruto just smiled. "I didn't mind, Hinata-chan." The embarrassed girl gasped at his reaction. Of course Naruto wouldn't mind, he wouldn't do anything to hurt her. Naruto put an arm over her shoulders and pulled her into his body. Hinata wanted to melt from his touch, if she could freeze time she would just sit here forever.
The next day just as promised Kakashi started to teach his team a new technique. Kakashi explained that the new technique was a Earth type jutsu. When Kakashi performed the technique, he made the hand seals and coughed up a brown liquid on the ground in front of him. The brown liquid solidified and burst into a massive wall of earth. Naruto's eyes widened.
"That is awesome!" Naruto shouted as Kakashi walked around the wall, it was about as tall as the jounin and a few feet wide.
"Now this is a B-rank jutsu, I don't expect you to learn it right away, but it will give you something to practice." Kakashi explained. A few minutes later after fielding a few questions Kakashi watched as his team attempted to preform the technique. Just like he thought, they weren't quite ready for it. Hinata actually came the closest in complete it, which also didn't surprise him. She had the best chakra control of the whole team. Naruto was trying to force it into working by pouring as much chakra as he could into it, but he had to learn that some techniques require finesse. Shikamaru had attempted it a few times before calming it was troublesome and giving up. It was disheartening to Kakashi to see someone with as much potential as him seem to waste it.
Kakashi observed Hinata attempt it one more time, she preformed the hand seals and felt the liquid forming in her stomach. With a cough it poured out onto the ground and hardened almost instantly. The mud shot up into the air forming a jagged wall about three feet tall. The young Hyuuga jumped back with a gasp. Naruto saw Hinata jump back and he noticed the wall of stone in front of her.
"Way to go, Hinata-chan!" Naruto ran over to the startled girl. Kakashi looked at the wall. While it was far from perfect it, it was the best any of his students had done so far.
"Well done, Hinata." Kakashi's compliment caused the girl to blush. "Naruto!" Kakashi barked at the young man jumped at his name being yelled. "Let's do some agility exercises with Shikamaru." Naruto's eyes lit up. Kakashi had made a game out of one of Shikamaru's shadow techniques. Naruto attempted to dodge the shadow as Shikamaru tried to grab him with it. There were some simple rules to this game though. Naruto could only have one hand or foot on the ground at once, and Shikamaru was only allowed to catch Naruto in the technique if he was on the ground.
Kakashi took this time to help Hinata out with her taijutsu. Starting a few weeks ago, the jounin had observed Hinata and Naruto sparring. Naruto had picked up on some of the techniques used in the gentle fist style and was the best partner for her to practice with. Kakashi had decided that he would watch Hinata with his sharingan to get a rough understanding of the style, and then he would help her perfect her style.
Later that night, Naruto was in the backyard of his house attempting the technique that Kakashi had taught them. Every time he tried, he either used too much chakra or not enough. It was clear that his control was not where it needed to be. He was the number one genin this year, but his chakra control was the area that he scored the lowest in. After trying the jutsu a few more times, the frustrated genin threw a kick into a nearby tree that put a crack up the center of it.
"What did that tree ever do to you?" Naruto heard his father's voice come from a few feet away. Minato could see his son was angry. "What's wrong?" The forth took his son by the shoulder and led him to a bench.
"My chakra control sucks!" Naruto sighed.
Minato nodded his head. It seemed the kyuubi did have an effect on his chakra control. While he was better then he had been, he still had a long ways to go. But the forth Hokage knew of a way to help his son out. "You have a lot of chakra. More than most of the jounin in the village as a matter of fact. That much chakra can help you train faster than anyone." Minato explained.
"What? How?" Naruto wasn't convinced.
Minato thought of the best way to do this. No one had told Naruto about the kyuubi yet, and he didn't want his son to find out. It would happen eventually, but right now wasn't the time. "There is a training method that I have used in the past. It uses a jounin level jutsu to do it." Minato told his son about the shadow clone technique, and he also thought he would have no trouble performing it. The forth did the jutsu and a pair of shadow clones came into existence next to him. They appeared to be just regular clones to Naruto.
"Aren't those just bunshins?" Naruto walked around the clone to inspect it.
"Touch one." Minato told him. Naruto reached a hand out to touch the clone, when his hand met the clone and stopped Naruto pulled his hand back quickly. "Kage bunshin is different from regular bunshin. These clones can actually fight for you and can absorb attacks."
Naruto had heard all he need. "What is the hand seal again?" Naruto asked his father who just gave him a grin. Minato went into explaining the technique to his son, and after about an hour of trial and error, Naruto was ready to try it. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as he formed the seal. There was a large blast of air followed by a even larger cloud of smoke.
Minato's eyes watched the smoke closely, and when it finally cleared he was staring at an uncountable number of Narutos. Minato's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, he tried to count how many there were, but he lost count at fifty. "Well done, Naruto." Was all he could manage. The many faces of his son grinned.
"So dad, how does this help me train?" What he assumed was the real Naruto asked.
"Well, start by releasing these." Minato ordered and Naruto obeyed. When the smoke cleared only one of his son was standing by him. "Now, make only one clone." Minato watched Naruto's reaction. Naruto's brow scrunched for a moment before he attempted to make the single clone. A single puff of smoke appeared and one shadow clone appeared. Minato nodded his head approvingly.
"Now what?" Naruto asked as his father made a clone too.
"Have your bunshin follow mine." The Minato clone walked off with Naruto's following.
"What is the point of this?" The real Naruto asked. Minato didn't reply he just waited. With the clones out of view, Naruto had no idea of know what was going on. Suddenly Naruto appeared like he had just been punched in the face. He took a step back to brace himself.
"So, what did our clones do?" Minato spoke with a raised eyebrow.
"You told me that the real me would know what the clones did." Naruto gasped.
"You get it now, don't you?" Minato smiled as his son realized what was going on.
"I learn anything my clones learn?" The possibilities of this were endless. Naruto's mind raced as he thought of the things he could do.
"Yes. If you have one of your clones ask someone a question, when that clone releases you will have the knowledge the clone had learned. For you, this mean you can train with hundreds of clones doing different things and when you release them all-" Naruto jumped into the air with excitement.
"This means I can train much faster!" Naruto ran around the back yard.
"But!" His father shouted to catch his attention. "You have to be careful. Making too many clones and releasing them all at once can cause you to pass out with the influx of knowledge." Minato warned. Naruto nodded his head in understanding, but there was one question on his mind that need to be answered.
"How come I can make so many clones?" Naruto innocently asked. It was a question that Minato did not want to answer.
"Work on your jutsus and we can talk about it later." Minato promised and headed back into the house. As he entered the building, he heard Naruto create a batch of clones. It looked like about one hundred. The real Naruto ordered them in groups of ten to work on different things. Chakra control, Taijutsu, ninjutsu, everything he could think off. Minato had a smile on his face. "I've created a monster!" He chuckled before closing the door behind him. A few hours later when Naruto hadn't come back in the house, Minato went out to check on his son. He found the boy lying on the ground passed out. It appeared that he attempted to release all the clones at once and it was too much for him. With a smile Minato picked his son up and carried him to his room. Just as Minato set his son in his bed, Naruto's eyes slowly opened.
"Dad?" His voice was strained.
"Just relax Naruto. You released to many clones and your mind couldn't handle it." Minato pulled a blanket over the genin and left the room.
Team six met up the next morning at their normal time of 9 A.M, and just like usually Kakashi was two hours late. Naruto had taken the time to tell Hinata and Shikamaru about his new training his father helped him with.
"And when the bunshins release I have all their memories!" Naruto finished as Kakashi arrived. Hinata was smiling at Naruto and Shikamaru seemed mildly interested. Him being interested in anything was amazing enough.
"Yo!" Kakashi threw a wave to his team. Naruto started again on his story this time to Kakashi. The jounin was a bit surprised to hear that Minato had taught him how to make shadow clones, but he also knew that with the Kyuubi it was possible for the genin to learn much faster this way since he had the chakra to make so many. After going through their morning exercises, Kakashi led his team to the Hokage tower to get a mission for the day.
When they walked into the room, Naruto noticed that the pile of d-ranked missions was nearly gone. Hope filled the genin, today may be the day they get a c-ranked mission. Minato's eyes glanced over the team in front of him. Hinata was standing up straight with a smile on her face. Naruto was bouncing on the balls of his feet, and Shikamaru was slouched over in the corner looking out the window. Maybe they were ready.
Naruto watched his fathers hand headed towards the few d-ranked scrolls still on his desk and let out a sigh. They had done twenty D missions, and Naruto was getting fed up with it. Naruto pouted and walked to the window as his father started to talk to Kakashi.
"You leave tomorrow. You are going to Suna. There is a merchant there from Konoha that has made a few... bad choices in the city and is afraid to make the trip by himself. I don't expect you to run into any trouble, but just be prepared." Minato finished by throwing the scroll with the mission data to Kakashi.
"Yes, Hokage-sama." Kakashi bowed his head and gathered his team. Naruto ran from the room pulling Hinata by her hand. While she was used to him touching her, it still put a blush on her face.
"A c-class mission!" Naruto jumped through the door with a terrified Hinata behind him. When he landed on the dirt path outside, Hinata crashed into his back causing him to take a few steps forward before spinning around and picking the poor girl up by her waist and spinning a few more times.
"Naruto-kun!" She gasped as she was lifted into the air.
"Naruto! Calm down before you hurt someone!" Kakashi ordered. Naruto put the blushing girl on the ground and grinned sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Since we are leaving the village tomorrow, we will just do some light sparing and you will have the rest of the day off. Make sure you have anything you will need. It will take about three days to get to Suna, and I bet about a week to come back with the merchant. Pack accordingly." Kakashi led them to their normal trading ground to have some light exercise, and after they were finished he told them they would be meeting up at 6 A.M to leave.
Naruto once again found himself alone with Hinata after his sensei and other teammate had left to prepare for the trip. "Hinata-chan? Wanna go get some ramen?" He walked over to her. She was sweating a bit and Naruto could tell she was favoring one of her legs. "You OK?" He asked kneeling down next to her. Her left leg was a little swollen.
"I blocked one of Kakashi-sensei's kicks with that leg and hurt it a little I guess." She blushed as Naruto inspected it
"Looks like you should stay off of it." Naruto suggested. Hinata slowly nodded her head.
"I guess we should head to our houses to prepare for tomorrow?" She bowed to her teammate and started to limp towards her house.
"I'll help you home." Naruto took her arm so she could put some of her weight on him to help her walk. After a long fifteen minute walk of being so close to Naruto when they arrived at the house Hinata looked like she was sunburned on her face. Naruto helped the girl into her house when they were confronted by her cousin, Neji.
With an arrogant smirk on his face, he walked past the two bumping into Hinata causing her to put some weight on her leg. The girl grimaced in pain and Naruto spun around and glared at the older boy. "I apologize, Hinata-sama." The condescending tone of his voice was impossible to miss. Naruto walked to a chair in the hallway and had Hinata sit down.
"Naruto-kun, don't do anything." She begged. Her heart melted when he placed a hand on her cheek and gave her one of his grins. Naruto's face turned from a happy grin to a determined look as he faced Neji, who was now causally leaning against a wall.
"Can I help you, friend of Hinata-sama?" Naruto could literally feel the sarcasm on his words. Naruto walked to within feet of the genin and stood face to face with him.
"You can help me by kindly leaving her alone." He spoke in a tone Hinata had never heard him use. It scared her, but at the same time she was happy to have Naruto defending her. When Neji pushed himself off the wall, he was a few inches taller then Naruto and that just added to the arrogant way he was looking at him.
"You think because you are the son of the Hokage you can just boss me around?" He was daring Naruto to make a move.
"Neji!" A harsh voice thundered across the room. In an instant the arrogance that was on this face of the Hyuuga genius was gone. It was replaced by fear.
"Hiashi-sama." Neji's knees hit the ground and he pressed his forehead to the floor.
"I expect better from you." Was all the head of the Hyuuga said before leaving the room. Naruto figured that was punishment enough and help Hinata to her room. Just before Naruto rounded the corner that led to Hinata's room, he saw Neji stand up.
"Hiashi-sama won't be there next time." He spit out before storming off. Naruto walked with Hinata to her room and helped her sit down on the bed. The room was rather spartan. That was how he thought it would be. Hinata didn't seem like one to have luxuries for her own amusement.
"Don't let Neji-nii-san bother you." Naruto couldn't believe she was defending him, but he decided not to push it. He always knew that her family wasn't the greatest but she honored them anyway.
"He's still a jerk." Naruto gave a quick nod. Hinata giggled at his apparent attempt to make a serious face. Hinata pulled herself onto the bed and kicked her sandals off. Naruto just sat there as she made herself comfy. "Can I get you anything?" He asked. He hated to see people he cared about in any kind of pain.
"I'm fine, Naruto-kun." She gave him a weak smile before she leaned back and closed her eyes.
"I'm gonna head home and prepare for tomorrow." He touched her arm causing goosebumps to form. She nodded her head with her eyes still closed. Naruto nodded and made his way quietly from her room and the Hyuuga compound.
Kushina sat and listened as Minato explained to her why he was sending her child out of the village on a mission. He knew that there was some secret group of missing-nin after him. He knew that people hated him because he held the kyuubi. He knew that she would kill her husband if anything happened to her baby.
"I understand your concern." He had been saying that all day. "But he is a shinobi of the leaf now. We can't confine him to the village for the rest of his life."
"Why not?" Kushina retorted. Minato let out a exasperated sigh.
"I can't be everywhere at once to protect him. He is going to have to fend for himself some day." It was hard convincing his wife see anything when it came to their son. She had nearly died in childbirth when she had Naruto. He held a special place in both of their hearts.
"You can too be everywhere." She countered. Her husband gave another sigh, but she had a point. At any moment he could be anywhere one of his scrolls was.
"I don't want to argue." He sat down in a chair in front of her. He love his wife more then anyone in the world, but sometimes she drove him crazy. "Naruto is ready for this. His team is ready. There is only so long that he can weed gardens and rescue runaway cats." Minato pleaded with his wife.
Kushina narrowed her eyes for about the umpteenth time during this exchange, but Minato appeared to get through to her as her glare dissipated. "I just.." She couldn't finish the sentence, but he knew.
Minato rose from his chair and walked to her side. The forth knelt down next to her and wrapped his arms around her chest. "I know. You don't want him hurt, and neither do I." Kushina let out a dry sob. She couldn't believe that her baby was growing up so fast. It seemed like just last week he was entering the academy and brought some little Hinata-chan. It made her sad to see him grow up, but she was also proud about the kind of man he was becoming.
"Kakashi will be there, right?" Kushina pulled her face away from her husband's tear stained shirt.
"Of course. He is his sensei." Minato knew he had convinced her now. Even she knew that Kakashi wasn't a man that would be defeated easily. "I promise that he will be OK, and if I feel the kunai I gave him fly I will be there in a heartbeat." Minato had given his son one of his three pronged kunai the day he graduated from the academy. He had told him if he was ever in a life threatening situation he should use it.
Kushina looked into her husband's blue eyes. Every time she did she could just melt. She gazed long in hard before closing the distance between them and engaging in a deep kiss. "I love you, Namikaze Minato." She whispered as she broke the kiss.
"And I love you, Uzumaki Kushina." Minato felt her sigh and she put her head on his chest again.
Naruto held a small pad of paper in his hand. He looked at the paper and then looked at the objects he had on his bed. "Kunais. Check. Shuriken. Check." One by one he went down the list marking off everything he had. When he reached the ended he nodded his head. "Looks like everything." He walked to the small desk in his room. The scrolls that Jiraiya had given him where arranged in order of difficulty. There was one S-ranked technique that had a note on it that told him to not let his father know about this one. There were three A-ranked jutsu. One water, one earth, and one wind. The rest of the scrolls were a few C and D ranked techniques. None of them were entirely interesting to Naruto right now. Perhaps when he got back he would look them over.
Seeing as they were about to go into the desert Naruto picked up the water A-ranked and the S-ranked scrolls and headed out to the back of the house. Once in the back and a reasonable distance from the house, the blond genin performed his now favorite technique.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He shouted as he made the hand seal. When the smoke cleared there were about fifteen Naruto's standing in the yard. "You guys are going to work on this one." He threw the A-ranked scroll to his clones. "Each of you look it over and start practicing."
As his clones started, Naruto unrolled the S-rank scroll for the first time. He read the title of the technique and nearly dropped the scroll. Ero-sennin really gave him this? If this fell into the wrong hands, all sorts of bad things could happen. Naruto decided against trying this one right now, and as his clones worked on the water technique he ran back into the house to put this scroll away.
"Whatcha got there?" Tami poked her head into his room as he was searching for a place to hide the scroll.
"What? It's nothing." He tried to act cool His sister would rat him out in a heartbeat.
"Nothing, huh?" She squeezed into his room. Naruto moved his hands behind his back to guard the scroll from his annoying sister. "Why are you trying to hide it then?" She was pushing him.
"I want some privacy, can you please leave?" He tried to be polite, something that his sister normally didn't react too. Tami held her ground in his room. "I can force you out if I have to." Naruto made a passive threat.
"Fine." She turned around to leave. "But there is nothing you can hide that I can't find." Tami walked out of the room and Naruto closed the door forcefully behind her. He looked around again, he knew just the spot. There was a board on the floor that when he was younger he knew he could remove. It opened up a compartment between his floor and the ceiling below. He knelt on the floor next to his bed and with a kunai he pried the board loose and put the scroll in the opening.
Naruto had become distracted after his run in with his sister. He had been rearranging his furniture for nearly an hour to attempt to hide the spot on the floor he had mess with when he was hit with the memories of his clones. The first one he saw was a mass of water blasting into them turning them instantly into smoke.. He searched the memories for the clone that was successful in performing the technique. The blond rushed from his room out the back door of his house and saw the destruction his clones had caused. There was about a foot a standing water in a indentation in the yard. Grass had been torn up and there was a tree that had been knocked over with its roots still attached.
Naruto ignored the damage while he attempted the jutsu himself. "Water Release: Torrent!" He made the correct hand seals as he shouted. The result was a blast of water that seemed to come from no where that shot in front of him. The water rushed forward tearing up grass and plants in its path for about twenty yards before it lost its speed and the water lost its form.
Naruto surveyed his surroundings. This technique was a bit uncontrollable from what he could see, but that could just be from his lack of chakra control. Performing another kage bunshin, Naruto set them to work on fixing the yard. With his clones at work, Naruto ran in the house when he heard his mother call him for dinner. He want to eat and goto bed early with the mission tomorrow.
The next morning Hinata found herself rushing through the house to get prepared for her mission. It was 5 A.M, an hour from the time she was suppose to meet her team. She knew that Kakashi-sensei would be late, but she still wanted to be on time. Last night after Naruto had left, she quickly fell asleep and managed to sleep through dinner. She was in the kitchen trying to prepare a quick breakfast before she had to go.
"Hinata-sama?" A voice called out from behind her. It was one of the branch family members.
"Yes?" She spun around to face the woman.
"There is someone at the door for you." The older woman bowed before she left the kitchen. Hinata left the food she was preparing to see who was at the door.
"Hey, Hinata-chan!" Naruto stood in the foyer of the house with his pack on. He had all his supplies ready.
"Morning, Naruto-kun!" She smiled at him.
"I was stopping by to see if you wanted to grab some breakfast before we left." Naruto asked. Hinata agreed to it almost immediately and excused herself to grab her bag for the trip. As Naruto waited in the foyer, the boy that he encountered the day before was on his way out the door.
"Greetings, friend of Hinata-sama." His voice dripped with arrogance.
"Good morning." Naruto reply showed no emotion on how he felt. From what he knew of the boy, he was a very good shinobi. Hyuuga Neji was just like him in the fact that he was number one in his class from the year before.
"I wish you good luck on your mission." Neji told him before he walked out of the room. Naruto promised himself right then that one day he would make that arrogant asshole eat his words.
"I'm ready to go, Naruto-kun!" Hinata's voice wiped all of the anger from the blond's face. Naruto gave her one of his trademarked grins, and they walked from the house to his favorite ramen stand.
"They are open this early?" Hinata wondered why a ramen stand would be open.
"Well, they are open almost 24 hours. Most of their customers are shinobi who come and go at all times of the day, so they are open to feed the ones that return and the ones leaving." Naruto explained as he offered a seat to Hinata. The young Hyuuga put her pack at her feet and jumped onto a stool at the bar.
"Yosh! Naruto!" The old mans voice called out from the back of the kitchen. "What are you two having!" Naruto quickly ordered several bowls of ramen of all different flavors. Hinata settled for a single bowl of beef flavored ramen.
"I got a cool new jutsu that I'm dying to use on this mission." Naruto attempted to make causal conversation. "It was on a scroll that ero-sennin gave me." Hinata's brow scrunched at trying to figure out who ero-sennin could be. It could have been Kakashi-sensei given how many of those dirt books he read, and there was no way that Naruto-kun would call his father that.
"Who is ero-sennin?" Hinata whispered.
"Oh thats right, you've never met the old pervert!" Naruto grinned. "It's Jiraiya. One of the sannin." Hinata felt like she was going to have to pick her jaw off the ground at hearing that. Not only did Naruto get private lessons from the forth Hokage, he received scrolls from one of the legendary sannin. He was comfortable enough around him that he called him "ero-sennin".
"Naruto-kun, you have some amazing teachers!" Hinata said as their ramen was placed before them.
"You think so?" Naruto pondered what she had said. He hadn't really thought of it, but he was amazingly lucky. After Naruto finished his fifth bowel of ramen it was getting close to the time they had to met Kakashi-sensei. Although he wasn't particularly worried about getting there on time, Hinata was insisting that they did just in case this was the one time Kakashi would be on time. Naruto made sure to pay for all the ramen even when Hinata argued with him, he put her money in her pocket and threw his own down.
It was a short walk to the west gate where they met of with Shikamaru, and just like Naruto had suspected Kakashi wasn't there yet. Shikamaru eye's were closed as he sat on bench as his two other teammates arrived.
"Morning, Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted startling the other boy.
"You are very troublesome this early in the morning." Shikamaru yawned. It was another hour before Kakashi arrived.
"Yo!" He waved at his team as he walked up towards the gate.
"You are always late, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted at the gray haired jounin.
"I had to help an old lady across the street." Kakashi smiled as Naruto was restrained by Hinata.
"Liar!" Naruto shouted as he fought his teammates grip on him. Kakashi just walked by the struggling Naruto to the gate.
"It will take us three days to get to Suna. Let's get going." Naruto stopped trying to pummel his sensei after Kakashi said that. Naruto ran to the open gate that lead to the west.
"Let's go!" He shouted before he ran out of the village. It was a rather exciting time for him. It was the first time that he was leaving the village. It was his first true mission as a shinobi.
A/N: This chapter was pretty tough to write. I knew what I wanted in it, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Drop some reviews, lemme know your thoughts.