" So what's the plan?" Naruto asked, circling his teammates up. Asuma had taken them to their starting point and told them that there would be a starting signal in five minutes.
" We get a scroll. Weren't you listening?" Kiba stated. Akamaru, Naruto, and Hinata sweat dropped.
" I'm saying how do we do this. You know, guard the scroll and find another group?"
" We should avoid Neji's group." Hinata said quietly. " Since they are the most experienced group they will be the hardest to fight."
" Yeah." said Naruto, nodding. " Good thinking Hinata. I don't want to have Lee beat the snot out of me today." Hinata blushed slightly at the compliment.
" Hey, Akamaru can guard the scroll for us." Kiba said, face lighting up. " There's a family jutsu we use for sending messages. Give me the scroll."
Naruto handed the scroll to Kiba. He tossed it to Akamaru, who to the horror of the others, snapped it out of the air and swallowed it. It was amazing the small dog could swallow something like that.
" Kiba-kun!" Hinata said, shocked.
" It's okay. He can cough it up later and it'll be mostly clean. And watch, use your Byakugan."
Hinata activated her eye and looked at Akamaru. To her surprise she could not see the scroll anywhere.
" Even we get beat, they won't find the scroll. Only someone with a Inuzuka nose could tell."
Akamaru smiled up at them, looking extremely proud of himself.
" All right, that means were mostly safe. I guess we want to find another group now. I have a plan."
" Really Naruto-kun?"
Naruto smiled foxily.
" Yep. First, I need to make some clones."
He performed the jutsu and twenty five Naruto's appeared. They got into groups of four and performed the transformation jutsu, taking on his teammates appearances, as well as having one take on the form of the scroll. It now looked like there were six of their team.
" All right, you guys head out. They are going to patrol the forest. Asuma sensei told me if a shadow clone is destroyed the other clones and I learn what it knew. It they find another group, we'll go for them. Plus, if someone sees us, they might ignore us because they think were just clones. Also, they might think we hid the scroll with the clones and keep it. If they do, the clone will transform back and help when we fight them."
" Hey, good thinking." Kiba said, looking at Naruto with surprise.
" Next, lets head to the center of the forest. Hinata, watch for people with your Byakugan. Once were in the center, you can take a break. Kiba, when she is resting, watch with you nose. When we meet someone, I'll distract with clones while you two head in with your jutsu. Lets go!"
Hinata, Akamaru, and Kiba followed in awe, surprised at the speed Naruto had come up with the plan.
" Oh! Almost forgot!" Naruto formed another group of clones and had them run in front of them. " These guys will trigger traps for us.'
The clones seemed unsure of the idea, but the others thought it was simply genius.
---
" Kiba?" Naruto whispered.
" No one." Kiba replied.
They had reached the center, going though three groups of clones to pass the traps. They hadn't seen anyone other than one of their clone groups, and none of the clones had been destroyed yet.
Hinata scanned briefly with her Byakugan, but didn't see anyone.
" I didn't see anyone either." She whispered.
" Man, its been almost a hour. Where are they?" Kiba complained quietly.
They sunk back into the small copse of bushes they had hidden in and waited. Several minutes later memories flooded into Naruto.
" Hey! I found Ino! She's south of us. They got the clone of me. The others are running towards us."
" All right. Get ready Akamaru."
They sat and waited for a moment, the clones and the other team coming into view quickly. The clones shot past the bush and Naruto leapt from it, creating a dozen clones and diving at Ino and Shikamaru, who were leading the attack.
" Got ya!" Naruto yelled as he tackled them. Shock was written on their faces. However, Choji immediately began smashing though the clones. Before he freed his teammates, Kiba and Akamaru, having used the Human Beast Clone, smashed into him, knocking him back.
Hinata activated her Byakugan and searched the other team for the scroll. She found it on Shikamaru.
" Naruto! Shikamaru has the scroll!" Three clones held him down while the other searched. Shikamaru struggled, but was pinned. Suddenly, one of the clones holding Ino jerked up and began to hit the others.
Kiba dodged a punch from Choji and came up with a swing, delivering a uppercut. Choji was easily the strongest of the genin, but he was slow. Unfortunately, despite how he and Akamaru were wailing on him, Choji seemed barely effected. Choji backed away and formed a hand sign, suddenly ballooning into a large round ball. It began to roll at Kiba, who leapt over it. With the force Choji was moving at, there was no way they could hurt him now.
When the clones on Ino were gone, the errant clone disappeared. Ino, who had been motionless, snapped up and raced to Shikamaru. Hinata, however, dropped in front of her, Byakugan active. Ino swung a roundhouse kick at her, but Hinata leapt an delivered several Jyuuken hits to Ino's leg, freezing the chakra flow and paralyzing it. Ino gasped as she fell to the ground, unable to stand. She began to form a jutsu, so Hinata hit her hands with more Jyuuken strikes, preventing her from drawing the chakra for the jutsu.
" I got it!" Naruto shouted, springing away with the scroll in hand. Kiba and Akamaru took the opportunity to abandon their fight with Choji and followed. Hinata raced over to Shikamaru and sealed the chakra points on his hands. The clones holding him down nodded to her, and she ran off with her teammates.
---
After they were sure they had hidden their tracks, they found another copse of bushes and hid in it. Kiba and Akamaru dug the ground out a little, letting them sink lower.
" All right, since we have the scrolls we need, we just want to keep hidden." Kiba whispered.
" Why? We could get the others?" Naruto seemed eager to face someone else.
" Naruto, a bowl full of dry food now is better than the promise of a steak later. We don't want to risk losing." Kiba whispered back, trying to sound thoughtful.
" Is everything you say dog related?"
" Shh." Hinata shushed them. She activated her Byakugan and scanned around. " We should stay quiet for now. Ino's team will likely pursue us." The boys nodded and lay silently, listening and looking for pursuit with all their ability.
Several hours passed. All the clone groups had taken a casualty or two, so Naruto had a decent look at all the other groups. Ino's team was searching around without much luck. Sasuke's team had hit the clones fast, so his read was not very accurate, but she thought he had seen some scratches. Lee's team had split up, and had chipped away at the various clone teams. They seemed largely unaffected, though Lee had a bump on his head.
Hinata conserved her chakra for another fight, using her Byakugan only occasionally. They had to rely on Kiba's nose for warning. Sasuke's team came within thirty meters of them once, looking like they had been though a hard fight. However, while Hinata had been assessing their state she saw they had two scrolls. She had been certain she saw Shino look her way, but they had continued on their way.
Then sun was just beginning to set when Kakashi appeared in their midst.
" Yo." he said pleasantly.
" Shh! You'll blow our cover!" Naruto said rather loudly.
" Actually, the test is over. Your team passed!"
Hinata activated her Byakugan. It was Kakashi, not a trick, so she relaxed.
" All right!" Naruto said as he leapt up.
" Sweet!" Kiba stood and stretched. " Lets he'd back. I'm tried from all that hiding."
" Kakashi-sensei, how did the other teams do?" Hinata inquired, brushing dirt from her jacket.
" I don't really know. We'll find out back at the clearing."
He led them back. They arrived at about the same time as the others, each led by a jounin.
" Hey!" Asuma said, smiling at his students. " Way to go!"
" Thanks sensei!" Naruto replied, smiling broadly.
" All right everyone, hold out your scrolls." Kurenai said. Akamaru coughed up the hidden scroll and Naruto took out the captured on. Sasuke's took out two scrolls, and to Naruto's confusion, Neji and Ino did as well.
" Wait…I thought their were four." Naruto said blankly.
" There are." Ten-Ten replied, seeming proud. " We gave Lee a couple fake scrolls and sent him to accidentally get beat by the other teams. He couldn't find you guys though."
" Why?" Naruto asked, more confused than he had been.
" So you guys would think you had our real scrolls. It didn't really work though. The only group we could find was Ino's and they already lost theirs."
Kurenai had them all show her their scrolls. She dispelled the jutsu disguising them. The one that Sasuke's team had captured and Ino's teams were fakes, to their disappointment.
" All right, if you don't have a real scroll, line up with me!" Guy proclaimed loudly. Ino's team walked over dejectedly. Ino stopped by Sakura and said something. Then, they ran off.
" Well, that's it for today. See you tomorrow." said Asuma, dismissing them. Sakura ran over to Hinata and Naruto. Naruto's face lit up as she did.
" Naruto, could you make a clone real quick?" Naruto looked confused, but at Sakura's request did so eagerly. Sakura then grabbed the clone and Hinata's hand and ran off. The real Naruto sulked and walked away.
" What's going on?" Hinata asked as Sakura come to a stop. The clone looked equally perplexed.
" Well, since you can't tell the real Naruto, I thought it would be good for you to practice with a clone." Sakura said with a smirk. " He's not the real one, so you don't have to worry."
" Huh?" the clone asked.
" B-but a shadow clone learns everything the original knew." Hinata explained. Sakura blinked.
" Really?" Sakura asked. Hinata nodded. " Oh. Well…you could tell him anyways."
Hinata began to blush deeply and was unable to make eye contact with the clones. She had to. She knew she had to try. She began to open her mouth as the clone, becoming bored, leaned against a tree.
There was a swish as the clone was dragged upwards by his foot. It had stepped into a rope snare.
" Wait! Naruto, you idiot!" Sakura cried out. The clone flailed in mid air before bonking his head on a branch and disappearing in a puff of smoke. The two girls stood in silence for a moment.
" Sorry." said Sakura nervously.
" No, thank you. It was a good try." Hinata said, trying to be polite. It wasn't Sakura's fault she didn't know all of the jutsu's effects. With a promise from Sakura to come up with a better plan, the girls departed.
---
For the next few days they continued to train and do missions. After catching the cat for the fifth time, however, Naruto and Kiba were ready to throw a fit.
" Come on! We're ready for something real!" Naruto whined.
" Yeah!" barked Akamaru. Kiba nodded in agreement to the dog.
" Well, there's not anything else really to do. I think you guys are ready for a C rank, to tell you the truth, but all there is available are D ranks." While Asuma's confidence in them was nice, it was still disappointing. " Anyways, see you four tomorrow." Asuma waved and walked off.
" Well, I'm going for ramen." Naruto stated. " See ya!" He waved as he raced of.
" Hey, Hinata, if you two start going out, make sure he eats something else. He's going to kill himself." Kiba teased. Hinata blushed and looked away. " Anyways, we're off too."
Kiba and Akamaru walked home, enjoying the evenings cool air. To their surprise, they found Kiba's mother waiting.
" Hey mom!" Kiba said, walking up. She smiled to him. " What's up?" he asked.
" The clan has a mission they'd like to send your team on."
" Really" said the boy and dog in tandem, dumbstruck. " That's great! Asuma-sensei said we were ready for C rank but there weren't any left!"
" Well, come on in and we'll tell you about it. Tomorrow you can tell your team and see if they are willing."
---
" You'd better have a good reason for this." Naruto said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. It was barely five in the morning, but Kiba and come by and roused him and brought him to the restaurant Asuma was always taking them to. Hinata and Asuma, looking equally sleepy, were waiting with Akamaru.
" Come on!" Kiba said loudly, waving them towards the doors to the restaurant. He pulled on the handle, but the door didn't open."
" Kiba-kun, they aren't open this early." said Hinata, stifling a yawn.
" The ramen stand is!" said Naruto. The others sighed.
Several minutes later they were seated at the ramen stand. The old man was as happy to see Naruto as ever and had praised him for bringing more customers.
" So Kiba, what's this about?" said Asuma as he picked at a small bowl of ramen disinterestedly.
" Well, I wanted to tell you guys, last night the Inuzuka clan gave me a courier mission to the Hidden Stone village. I was supposed to see if my team could go, and my mom said buying you guys breakfast would be a way to help convince you."
" Your buying?" said Naruto eagerly. " I'll take a double beef ramen with as many eggs as I can get next!"
" A courier mission to the Stone village? What's the delivery?" said Asuma, mulling it over. " The Stone village and the Leaf are at peace for the moment, but there's a lot of bad blood between us."
" Actually, its really safe. There's a clan in the Hidden Stone which also raises dogs, though they don't use them as companions like us. We're trading some medical documents. There's a type of flea that's usually only from around here that they are having trouble with, so they asked us to pay back a favor."
" Hm." said Asuma. " That sound's alright. I'd have to check the mission file, but I don't see anything too dangerous about it."
" All right! Finally a real mission!" Naruto cheered between mouthfuls.
" Well, its just a C rank." said Kiba, rubbing the back of his head. " Its mostly just going there and back."
" Well, I'm going to the Hokage's tower to check out the details. Here." Asuma handed Naruto his untouched ramen. Naruto looked to him gratefully. " Meet me at the training ground at nine with your full gear and supplies for the five days its will take to get there. Unless I see anything I don't like, we'll be leaving then."
The genin nodded and set to having a good breakfast before going home to gather their supplies. Kiba ecstatically told his family his team had accepted and got the documents. Hinata informed her sister she would be gone for a week or two on a mission. Naruto grabbed his stuff and went back for more ramen.
At nine, Asuma came walking up, laden with a backpack full of supplies.
" Were heading out." he said.
" Yes!" Naruto cheered.
" After I check your gear."
Naruto grumbled as he and the other genin began to unpack their backpacks.