Halo here. I'm sorry this is so late, but I've been trying to get accustomed to school. So far, so good… but only barely… Anyway, one thing. I know that the traditional Ryou was worth a lot of money, being 16 odd ounces of gold. However, in my story, like the United States, the Elemental Nations stopped using gold coins, opting for less precious metals and printed paper. The reasoning was… well… with the drastic influx of money from industrialization, there just wasn't enough gold to make the money needed. So, the made the currency the currently use. Of course, because it wasn't gold, it was subject to inflation. And that's what happened. In my story, I don't care if 500 of the traditional ryou could allow one to live comfortably for months, here it's approximately worth $5 U.S. dollars. One ryou will be approximately worth one yen in my story. End of story. No flames please, I know how picky some people are about traditional values, but look at the value of the Dollar. If each and every dollar was backed up by a specific amount of gold, like it's supposed to be, it would be worth a lot more, but its not. Why? BECAUSE THERE JUST ISN'T ENOUGH GOLD TO GO AROUND! So, yeah… sorry about the ranting and the outburst. See what three days of school does to me? Even with a weekend in between, it just turns me into a little emo bastard that shows too much emotion. Like a mix between Sasuke and Naruto, only with less orange and no talk about 'Avenging' Yeah, in case you haven't guessed, I'm weird. Anyway, I gotta get back to writing. Thx for bearing with me!

Chapter 7

Naruto was getting his pack ready. After nearly a month straight of D-rank missions, the team was bored out of their minds. Finally, Naruto snapped and 'requested' a much more challenging mission from the Hokage.

(Flashback.)

The three Genin and their sensei sat in front of the Hokage's bureau. Naruto, despite having been coached by the Hyuuga to remain impassive at all times, had a strange twitch in his eyebrow that he couldn't manage to get rid of. Just the mention of the Daimyo's cat seemed to aggravate his condition. It didn't help that the subject of their conversation with the Hokage was that particular problem.

"… Wife's cat has escaped again. It was last seen in the vicinity of the Hokage Monument Lookout Point."

"Excuse my interruption, Hokage-sama" Naruto said. "But I believe that at the rate we have been accomplishing our missions would leave few or none for the other Genin teams. That would be both unjust and anti-productive. Is there, by any chance, a mission that would be a bit more of a… challenge for us?"

Sandaime Hokage raised an eyebrow at Naruto's behavior. 'His manners certainly have improved since he started living at the Hyuuga compound.'

"I'm sorry to say that the last low C-ranked mission was just given to Team 8…"

It was then that the gods decided to pity the plight of Team 7 and arranged for their wish to be granted. The door to the Hokage's office burst open and a Jounin ran up to the Hokage's desk to hand him a sealed scroll.

"Hokage-sama, we have received word from one of the Chuunin Border Patrol teams. The team in charge of sector 15 on the border of Fire and Rice countries had suffered a casualty. They send a report via summoned hawk, and their report is in here."

With that, the man bowed and walked out, closing the doors behind him. The Hokage opened the scroll and read the report. Although he held his face in a sort of apathy, the look in his eyes seemed to tell both Naruto and Hinata, who have been trained in the Hyuuga way of reading emotions, that something was amiss.

"Well, Team 7, you are in luck. One of the Chuunin has been injured, and will require medical treatment. His injuries are severe enough that the team's Medic Nin cannot completely heal him. He will have to be brought back to the hospital. You are to escort the team of medics to the site, meet up with this team, and your team will support the other two Chuunin in their task of border patrol. This is a mid C-ranked mission, and there may be contact with enemy ninja in non-combat situations. Will you accept this mission?"

The three looked at Ibiki-sensei and nodded. Ibiki, in turn said "We accept this mission. When will the medic team be ready to leave?"

"They will leave by noon. That gives you 4 hours to prepare and meet them at the hospital entrance. Bring enough supplies for a two week stay. That is all."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" the three Genin said in unison.

(End flashback)

Naruto studied himself in the mirror. His off-white, almost cream colored jacket would not blend well in the green of the trees he would be patrolling in. He smiled and reached into his closet to pull out his new outfit he had recently acquired…

(Flashback…. Again…)

The day before their meeting with the Hokage, Naruto was taking a couple hours to relax. Not content in the stuffy Hyuuga compound, he decided that he would go shopping. Strange thing for a man to do…

In any case, mostly he just browsed the venders that had set their wares up on the side streets. There were some interesting trinkets, but unfortunately for both Naruto and the vendors, the Hyuuga pride had really begun to rub off on Naruto. 'These things are only semi-precious stones set in common metal. Not something a Hyuuga should wear.'

Soon, he decided to visit a weapons shop. Usually, he went to the one that was run by Tenten's family, as she was a good friend of Neji-nii-san. Today, however, his eyes were caught by a different store.

He entered the small shop and subtly admired the decent display of weapons around the walls and aisles. What really caught his eye was the glass counter and what was held inside it. The sign on top of the counter read 'Customized Forehead Protectors available here.' Naruto was instantly intrigued.

The owner of the store was, rather unfortunately, one of the few people that didn't believe the Sandaime when he announced Naruto's heritage and the fact that Kyuubi was no longer part of this world. However, this was offset by the fact that Naruto was not only a Main Branch member of the esteemed Hyuuga clan, but also held in high regards by Hiashi-sama.

"Excuse me, sir, but how much would it be to customize a headband from scratch?"

After a moment of mental debating, the shop owner replied in a rather neutral voice.

"That depends on what you want to put on it."

Naruto nodded and took a moment to think.

"Then I would like to purchase one."

The man nodded and pulled out a slip of paper. "And what would you like to put on it?"

"First, I want the metal blackened and unable to reflect light. Next, carve the Leaf symbol to the left side of it and the Hyuuga flames on the right. The only shine should be in the carvings themselves."

The shop owner wrote down the instructions and mentally tallied up the price.

"…The price will be…approximately 8,950 ryou."

Naruto dug out his wallet, thankfully not Gama-chan this time. He pulled out a 10,000 ryou note and handed it to the man, who got his change and handed it back. Before Naruto left the store, he asked the man one final question.

"When is the soonest I can it up?"

"Ah… for another 1,000 ryou, I can have it finished by 6 o'clock tonight."

Naruto smiled and flipped him two 500 ryou coins, which the man caught before smiling and wishing him a good day.

Naruto was in a particularly good mood, and decided to stop by a ninja outfit store that had been highly praised by several Branch members. Apparently, the shop was new in town, and the owner was from Wind country. He had a fair amount of interesting outfits in a style from an ancient civilization known as the Paashan. Making his way across town, he finally stopped by the store. Before he went in, his eyes were yet again drawn to a window display.

The mannequin that stood there had on the outfit that had caught Naruto's eye. It was completely black, and didn't reflect any light whatsoever. The pants looked to be skin tight, but were in fact quite comfortable, and near the bottoms of the legs it seemed to be tied by black bandages. The shirt was very much the same, but only the arms were tied. The pants and the shirt were held by a black sash that was barely visible, but seemed adjustable. The entire head of the mannequin was wrapped and the only place showing was a small slit for the eyes. Each of the wrapped areas had tails at leas a foot long that Naruto could imagine would flutter quite intimidatingly in a slight breeze. It almost looked like shadows were rolling off the outfit, giving it an extremely cool look. (Imagine the Sand Wraith Prince, from Prince of Persia, Warrior Within, only with a wrapped head instead of a mask.)

Naruto instantly went into the store and had his measurements taken for an outfit identical to the one he saw. He paid the shop keeper a rather sizeable tip to have it finished by nightfall, and of course the man complied, as he did not have too many orders at the moment. This was only his first week open for business, and word had not spread around to overwhelm him with orders. Naruto did, however, take the long piece of cloth used to tie his head up before leaving the store. Making his way back to the weapons shop, he instructed the man to put the customized headband on the black cloth so that it would be on Naruto's forehead when he wore his outfit. Looking around the weapons shop again, as it was around 5:30 already, Naruto decided to stay until his headband was finished. Strangely enough, today seemed like a rather compulsive day for Naruto, as his eye was again caught by something.

A small black box was sitting in the corner of a room. A thin layer of dust covered it as it had not been opened in a while. Carefully lifting the lid up, Naruto peeked inside. In black velvet, there sat two of the most exotic weapons Naruto had ever seen, along with an old looking scroll. The weapons themselves were familiar to Naruto, as they were merely a short sword and a dagger. It was the fact that they were both strangely shaped that caught Naruto's eyes. Both were completely black, but they had silver accents along the handle and guards. The hilts were inlayed with obsidian stones that seemed to shine with an inner darkness. Strange as it sounded, it's the only way Naruto could describe it.

Naruto grinned his true grin. It wasn't the stuck up Hyuuga 'I'm better than you' smirk, nor was it the 'I'm completely happy, nothing is wrong' grin he had used as a child. This was a foxy grin that, should anyone have seen it, would have made people shudder at the killing intent behind it. Naruto was imagining himself in his new outfit, wielding these strange looking weapons. He assumed that the scroll was a learning course on how to wield them properly, and he guessed correctly. Glancing at the clock above the counter, he picked up the box and headed back to the register to await the store owner.

Several minutes after 6 o'clock, the man finally stepped out of the back room, holding the customized Forehead Protector that Naruto had purchased. The man was smiling to himself as he saw the box, thinking 'Finally, someone takes an interest in those weapons. I was beginning to think no one would buy them. Let's see if I can't drive the price up a bit…'

"Ah, I see you've found something that caught your eyes?"

"Yes, I have."

The two spent nearly an hour haggling a price, and the Icy Hyuuga Glare no jutsu that Naruto used was rather effective. 'Gotta thank Neji for teaching me that one…' Thought Naruto as he paid a decent 16,500 ryou for the box and its contents.

'He he he, I doubled the money I spent buying this from that traveler. Life sure is good… especially when rich people are involved!' The shop keeper was grinning happily as Naruto left the shop with his purchases, heading back to the cloths store to pick up his outfit before finally going back to the Hyuuga manor and almost literally falling into bed, fatigued from a long day of shopping.

"Dammit, where's Naruto. He's usually not the late one. Hinata is missing too…" An annoyed Ibiki paced in front of the hospital. The medics and Chouji fidgeted, completely aware of how… testy Ibiki was when annoyed. One of the medics had to patch up a POW that Ibiki had 'interrogated' on a bad day, and she shuddered at the memory. To put it lightly, the skin was hanging off the man's face by a whisker, quite literally.

Hinata landed in the middle of the group and self-consciously brushed the dust off of her usual training cloths. "Gomen, everyone. Naruto told me to go ahead. He said he'd be a few minutes behind me. He was still in his room when I left…"

Ibiki sighed before speaking. "It's ok, Hinata. He'll be here soon, I hope."

At that moment, a figure seemed to melt out of the shadows. Shadow seemed to roll off of him and mix with the ends of the black bandages that floated around him, despite the fact that there was no wind at all that day. A small dagger was at his right hip and a hilt was visible over his left shoulder. (In my fic, Naruto is gonna be left handed, like me! ) Two black shuriken and kunai holsters were tied to the man's legs, as a usual ninja's were. The head was completely wrapped, only the eyes showing. Three strands of blonde hair partially obscured the man's left eye through the slit between the wrappings. The sight was so intimidating that killer intent rolled off the man, despite the fact that he wasn't consciously emitting any. Everyone there seemed to freeze up, except for Ibiki, who was used to these things. They half-relaxed at the sight of the modified Konoha Forehead Protector with the Hyuuga symbol next to it, but still kept their guard.

"Nice to see you, Naruto. I'm liking the new outfit." Ibiki said, dispelling the tension immediately.

Naruto put a hand behind his head, and a grin was visible behind the mask, as his eyes curled into their upside down 'U' shape, much like Kakashi's.

"It's not too much, is it?"

Hinata blushed because the suit showed off Naruto's well toned body. Chouji just grinned and kept munching his chips. Ibiki grinned in malicious pleasure as he said "It's great. I'd be useful to be able to intimidate this much during interrogation without even trying…" Ibiki drifted off, many of his favorite interrogation techniques running through his head.

"Thanks, Ibiki-sensei. Anyway, I'm ready to go." He shifted the pack on his back, also colored black. It blended well into his form, so much that it wasn't even apparent he was wearing one only after he shifted it. The small Genjutsu on it helped as well.

The group ran across the rooftops of Konoha and into the tops of the trees after they passed the gates. For almost the rest of the day they ran. Luckily, they had packed light, so they weren't too fatigued to set up a decent camp. That night, they took shifts watching and sleeping as they were nearing the border, and to watch for bandits.

The next morning they set out as early as possible. Few words were said in trade of better efficiency in their work. Small hand signs were their only communication as they ran. They ate lunch on the go, opting for highly nutritious and surprisingly tasty field rations and water from their canteens. Around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, they reached rendezvous. The two uninjured Chuunin were guarding the injured one, and jumped as the group entered the clearing.

"State your name and your business with us" One said, while drawing a kunai.

"Morino Ibiki, I'm the Jounin instructor for Team 7, and we're escorting the medic team and replacing your downed comrade for the duration of his recovery or until another can replace us. Here are our documents."

Ibiki slowly pulled out the specially sealed scroll and tossed it to the men. After they made sure it wasn't booby trapped (they're on the border and have an injured comrade, not to mention out numbered already. They're being very cautions) they opened it and read it, confirming Ibiki's report. They relaxed slightly, and the medics moved to treat the injured man.

"What are your usual patterns?" Ibiki asked the team leader. After they were explained to Team 7, the Genin team and their sensei took off to take over the patrol until the other two had a chance to rest, namely until tomorrow morning. The day was rather uneventful, consisting of little more than moving through the treetops and undergrowth about two miles back from the border, looking for any intruders. Hinata's Byakugan was more than helpful in their task, and the group didn't have to risk being revealed to look through rather thick branches or overgrown bushes. Naruto's bloodline was just as effective, but he didn't detect any human chakra other than their own and that of the Chuunin patrollers.

For the next week and a half, Team 7 fell into the rhythm of their mission, eventually earning the respect of the two Chuunin. The two had asked to spar with them, but found that they were on the same level as Hinata and Chouji. In other words, it was a long, hard sparring session between them, but it all came down to Endurance. Here, Chouji shone, while Hinata had to consume an almost dangerous amount of soldier pills. In the end, Chouji won, but Hinata only tied. The two didn't even want to try to take on Ibiki, and Naruto looked much more intimidating than the Interrogation Specialist. Eventually, they started taking shifts for their patrolling. The Chuunin would patrol from sunrise to about 3 in the afternoon. They would return to camp and eat with the just waking group two, which were Ibiki and Chouji. They would, in turn, patrol from 3 until around a little after nightfall. Then, they would return to camp and eat, only to be replaced by Hinata and Naruto. They would then take their turn patrolling until around sunrise, when they would return to camp and wake the two Chuunin and eat breakfast.

Right now, Naruto and Hinata were just waking up for their 3 o'clock lunch. Naruto yawned and stretched, using a combination of a low level Suiton jutsu and a low level Katon jutsu to make himself a hot shower outside the camp a ways. Now, usually one wouldn't think that a Hyuuga would be a… umm… well, they will never be called that, but lets just say that Hinata seemed to take after Jiraiya. With the Byakugan, it was more than easy to peek in on Naruto taking a shower. Ibiki knew what she was doing, but the others were still confused about her getting red in the face and springing a small nose bleed each and every morning… but they stopped worrying about it after the first few days. Naruto, of course, had no idea he was being spied on. Drying himself off, Naruto dressed and entered the camp. After a decent breakfast, the Chuunin went to bed, Ibiki and Chouji left to go on patrol, and Naruto and Hinata stayed behind.

This was Hinata's favorite time of the day. Her and Naruto could be alone from now until nightfall, and they usually spent it talking, sparring, working on jutsu, or just sitting quietly. Now was one of their quiet moments.

Hinata was, of course, in a mental battle. 'Come on, just gotta come out and say it… No, I'll look dumb. I gotta get him in the mood… but what if he gets uncomfortable? GAH I just gotta do it! Come one…come on… come on… Say it!'

"Naruto… I…lo….. um… never mind."

'Gah, why can't I just do it!'

Naruto, of course, had a much different thought process.

'I wonder when she'll tell me. I mean, come on, I'm not really that dense. There are only so many things I can ignore. I was taught the Hyuuga art of facial reading, there's only so much I can take. I swear, as soon as this mission is over, I'm going to take her out, maybe that'll get her to confess. KAMI-SAMA this is driving me nuts! Dammit, FUCK IT ALL! I'm just going to tell her I know.'

"Um… Hinata…" Naruto's voice trailed off as a large explosion could be heard in the distance. They both turned to the direction it came from to see a large pillar of dust and smoke rise over the tree tops. The two instantly jumped into the branches and started making their way to the battlefield.

DUN DUN DUN! Lol, Halo here. Sorry about the cliff hanger. A little bit of fluff there. I'm not very good at it, though… bare with me, I'm still exploring the world of literature. Anyways, sorry about the wait on this. School has been boring, but I still have homework. Sienoritis has set in… Meaning, I'm getting lazier and lazier each day. Not that I wasn't lazy before… but now I make Shikamaru look active. lol. Although, I do like a good game of Shogi every once in a while. I'm still not very good. I cant even win one game against the computer on the easiest difficulty and all the handicaps giving me the advantage. Yeah… Meh, oh well. Thanks for reading, REVIEW! (hears rumbling in the background, only to see a crowd of eager readers and some yaoi fan girls attracted by the filler) AHHH! ILL POST RIGHT AWAY, DON'T KILL ME, AHHHH! ( takes off running)