Ok, first off thank you all for the reviews. Keep them coming feedback, suggestions, and questions are always welcome. Well here is ch. 11 I hope everybody enjoys it.
As always I don't own Naruto in any way shape of form, but if I did this is how it would go.
INTRODUCTIONS
Kiba had come around quickly after reaching the veterinarians office, Shino and Hinata had quickly explained to him what had transpired. Jiraiya had luckily been with Akamaru in another room when Kiba came about otherwise they might have had a harder time calming Kiba down and explaining what had happened. He had been really distressed at the fact that he had been separated from Akamaru, but after some convincing believed their story. Once everything was settled Hinata offered Kiba a glass of water and excused herself. She said she would check on Akamaru and Jiraiya and see how they were doing. They still didn't know who Jiraiya was so they simply referred to him as the target. "Be careful Hinata we still don't know much about him." Shino warned. Hinata nodded respectfully and headed to the door.
As she reached the door, it flew open. Standing before her was Jiraiya accompanied by Akamaru. "So how is everything, I see our sleeping beauty is finally awake." Jiraiya was being energetic and carefree as usual. "This guy here is doing ok. It wasn't anything serious. He was just knocked out." he said referring to Akamaru. Akamaru let out a bark, he seemed to have no problem getting along with Jiraiya. Kiba noticed this and it made him forget his negative feelings towards this stranger. "You should get ready so we could head out to the hokages office." He noticed Hinata standing right in front of him. "Whats wrong?" He asked, he couldn't really interpret her look, but she didn't move so he naturally got curious.
Hinata reached into her pocket and wrapped her hand around something she had be holding onto and answered in a soft respectful voice. "I was going to check on you, but everything seems to be ok. I think I will wait for you all outside the hospital." Jiraiya nodded his head and seeing nothing wrong with that moved aside so she could make her way out, Akamaru also moved out of the way.
After Hinata had passed and made her way out Jiraiya poked his head into the room and told Shino and Kiba. "I'll wait for you two out here while you two get ready." He withdrew and closed the door.
Hinata walked outside of the building and let out a long breath. She didn't mind the mission they had been given, but she had wanted to give Naruto her gift. She was still holding it in her hand and now brought it out of her pocket and lifted her hand near her face. She opened her palm to inspect it and make sure nothing had happened to it. She let out another deep breath. She wondered what Naruto would think, hopefully he would like it. She had no idea how she would react if he didn't, she thought she might just shatter into a thousand pieces if he said it was ugly. "No. That won't happen." She said out loud, referring not to Narutos reaction, but to herself breaking down. She may be shy, but she was not weak and she was determined to do what she wanted to do and if it went bad she would have to move on. Breaking down was not an option. She put the gift back in her pocket and looked up and down the streets wondering what he was doing at the moment. It was hard to keep herself from hoping she would see him walking down the street and presenting the perfect opportunity to present her gift to him. She guessed it was that hope that had really brought her out here, but she wouldn't ever admit that, not even to herself. After a couple of minutes passed the door of the building opened and out stepped the rest of team 8 accompanied by Jiraiya.
Kiba looked at his team mate and smiled broadly. "Hey Hinata, you ready to get this damn mission over with? Now that I'm ok we can take this old geezer to the hokages office." He said energetically.
Jiraiya looked at Kiba and his eye twitched. "What the hell is that supposed to mean you bastard. I could have killed you or left you for dead. You should show a little more respect for your superiors."
Kiba looked at Jiraiya forgetting all about Hinata. "What did you say you old bastard, I'll beat that attitude out of" before he could finish Hinata had snuck up right behind him and smacked him hard in the back of the head. "Oww, what the... what was that for Hinata." Kiba asked, he turned to look at his team mate and shrank back a little bit when he say the look on her face.
Hinata, usually calm and collected saw what Kiba was doing as an act punishable by death. He was once again delaying the meeting between her and Naruto. That bastard she thought, first he gets beat so they have to take him and his puppy to get checked up and then he wants to waste more time fighting the target who has proven he is superior to him. Hinata's anger was not like Sakura's anger though that just exploded to the surface. The only real sign you could tell that she was angry was that her eyes seemed to go a shade darker, even then it was hard to know, because you would think that it was a trick of the light. "Don't be foolish Kiba." Hinata said in a low intense voice. "This man has already shown he can defeat you. Why don't you just accept it an let us get this mission over with." Kiba now pressing his back up against the wall weakly nodded his head.
"S-sure thing Hinata." Kiba had seen this look only once or twice and it still scared him. He knew better than to think it was a trick of the light after the time he encountered it. "Let's get going then."
Jiraiya had simply shrugged not entirely sure of what was going on and decided it was no big deal and set out with team eight in tow.
Now here they stood in front of the hokages office. It was the moment of truth Jiraiya thought. Time to see what evil plan Tsunade wanted to set in motion. He took a deep breath after being assured his companions would not leave him here by himself. The ninjas guarding the hokages office opened the door for them and they walked through. The door was then shut behind them.
Tsunade looked up from her paperwork. So they finally made it she thought, its about time. The thing she noticed though was, "You're late Jiraiya. I told you I would make you sorry if you were late didn't I." She eyed him menacingly.
Jiraiya let out a nervous laugh and put his arm around Kiba. "What had happened was, well you see this young boy was hurt and I couldn't in good conscience leave him so we took him to the clinic to get checked out." He looked to Shino and Hinata for confirmation. They both nodded their heads in agreement. Jiraiya let out a breath of relief. He had been prepared to use Kiba as a shield if anything happened and he kept his hand where it was just to be safe. He had no reservations about throwing Kiba in the line of danger in order to make his getaway.
Tsunade had lifted an eyebrow. "If you say that's what happened and these guys corroborate your story than I'll let you slide this time." She directed her next comments to Shino, "You and your team did well." At these words Hinata turned and made to leave, but was stopped by the hokage's words. "Where do you think your going. I am about to give all of you your new mission."
In unision Kiba, Hinata, and Jiraiya all exclaimed, "NANI!" Jiraiya was outraged. "What the hell is the meaning of this. I'm not somebody you can boss around. You can't just give me missions whenever you please."
Tsunade's anger erupted upon hearing Jiraiya's audacious comments. She rose to her feet with blinding speed and slammed her palm on her desk. She had inadvertently put to much chakra in her movement a the desk shattered under the impact. "How dare you, you are a Sannin!" Tsunade roared. There was rage and fire in her eyes now. "You have a duty to your village and I am the hokage of this village so you have to answer to me." Jiraiya's grip on Kiba's shoulder tightened. "Now look what you made me do, that was my favorite desk you bastard."
"Calm down, Tsunade-san, the desk was all you. I had nothing to do with that." Jiraiya said as she stepped over the remains of what used to be her desk. She starred daggers at him and made her move. She flew at him ready to land a blow that would send him flying through the building. Jiraiya reacted before she could get to him. He swung Kiba in front of him and grabbed him with both hands. Holding him in front of him. Jiraiya knew that this would still hurt like hell, but at least Kibas body would lessen the blow. He prepared himself, but nothing happened. Only a breeze reached him. He put Kiba down and Kiba immediately slumped to the ground. The breeze had apparently come from the velocity of Tsunades punch. Fortunately she had stopped before her fist connected with Kiba, unfortunately the punch had created enough force to knock out Kiba.
"Dammit Jiraiya, sometimes I think you really are scum." She leaned down to revive Kiba. "I haven't even told you your mission and you provoked all these events." Jiraiya was about to open his mouth, but Tsunade raised her hand to stop him, and continued. "I've known you since we were kids and the thing you do best is piss me off. Sometimes you shock me by acting nice or normal, but what do you expect, don't answer. Thats a rhetorical question." Kiba inhaled a sharp breath of air and coughed a few times before opening his eyes. Tsunade had regained some semblance of her composure as she rose to her feet. "Listen to me before you go off. As far as you are concerned I know you do what you can to help the village. When you first got back from this recent trip was the first time I spoke to you face to face in a long time and only received messages from you once in a while." She walked back to her chair and sat down, Hinata and Shino meanwhile went to check on Kiba to make sure he was all right. "The mission I will assign is directed at Kurenai's former group moreso than you." At these words Shino and Hinata looked up. What was she talking about they wondered.
Elsewhere, Shikamaru and Temari were walking out of the ramen stand. Temari stopped and looked around, when she saw nobody was around she turned to Shikamaru and smiled. "You know Shikamaru, that was nice. We should eat here more often." She said.
Shikamaru was speechless. Was she being serious or was this some kind of twisted joke. Either way he felt a slight blush and answered. "Yeah, that might not be too troublesome." He hoped she was being honest he honestly had a good time with her today. He was about to say so when he heard a faint whistling sound growing louder. He turned to see what was making that sound and Temari followed his gaze. At first he didn't see it, but then all of a sudden it jumped into his field of vision. It looked like a kunai from this distance, but it was traveling at ungodly speed and growing larger by the second. He saw the trajectory was headed right for Temari. He barely had time to react, but he was able to push her out of the way as the object flew past her and embedded itself into the ground. She had been to slow to react and had it not been for Shikamaru she may have been killed just now. "What was that!" Shikamaru asked nobody in particular, but when he looked down and saw the look on Temari's face he wished someone would answer.
Temari was still on the ground staring at the Kodachi sticking out of the ground. She had recognized it immediately and the thought that the kodachi was here in front of her made her instantly start to worry. She started reaching absently for the hilt when she saw that a note had been attached to the hilt. She knew only Hirai would do something like this, but that she had done it over such a great distance impressed and worried her at the same time. She worried because she didn't know what could possibly make Hirai take this action. She untied the intricate knots tying the note to the hilt. Had anybody else done it they may not have been able to read the note because the manner in which they were tied if untied wrong would destroy the note. Shikamaru was now standing behind her watching her with an alert expression. She opened the note and read it, disbelief spread over her face as she read it. She read it three more times to memorize the words and realize that this was not some sort of joke or delusion. She was stunned by the news and couldn't react. Even when the news settled in it felt to surreal for her to really show emotion. She slowly turned to Shikamaru and in a mechanical voice said. "I need to talk to your Hokage. Right now." She didn't even look at Shikamaru as she got up, she then bent down and pulled Hirai's kodachi out of the dirt. Shikamaru knew the situation was serious by the way she was acting and simply nodded. When she straightened up they left to head to the hokage's office.
Back to the Hokages office. Tsunade had finished explaining what the mission entailed. Shino asked a question "Is there another purpose for giving us this mission. No disrespect intended, but I believe the three of us may be overdoing it." A huge sweat drop appeared when he saw the expression Tsunade was making.
Tsunade was trying to hold in her laughter, but to no avail. She started laughing histerically. At this point there were sweat drops on everybody's heads. They were all wondering about the hokages sanity. Once she regained her composure she looked at them still stifling burst of laughter and spoke. "You-you think that you three can handle this oaf, oh man I needed a laugh." Tsunade had another laughing attack, this one only lasted a few seconds though.
Jiraiya grumbled to himself in a barely audible voice. "I'm not an oaf, why are you always so mean baa-chan."
"Now look," Tsunade said. Oh no Jiraiya thought did she hear me. Tsunade continued "This guy, is a very powerful ninja. He will be a handful, but he can also teach you three much, that is one reason that I am sending you with him. Another reason is so that Kurenai will be free to perform other duties for me." Tsunade was once again being serious she crossed her arms across her chest and finished off by saying. "Not that I need to explain my motives to you three or you Jiraiya. Now that that is taken care of I believe formal introductions are in order." She looked at the young nin and gestured to Jiraiya as she spoke. "You three may have already figured this out, but this guy is Jiraiya one of the legendary sannin."
Shino and Hinatas eyes showed some recognition at this comment. Kiba looked as lost as ever "What does that mean." Jiraiya had been standing proud and when he heard these comments he slouched a little bit.
Shino put his hand on Kiba and told him he would explain later. Tsunade looked at Jiraiya and said "These three are, what." she asked Jiraiya was waving his hand at her as if saying she should stop.
"I know who they are already my student told me all about them." He cleared his throat and pointed at Kiba, "You are Kiba, the dog bastard." Kiba reacted strongly wanting to lunge and attack Jiraiya. Shino put a hand on him though to prevent any abuse Kiba would suffer from another encounter with Jiraiya.
"Why you, I'm not a bastard." Kiba snarled.
"That's the way my student described you to me, so next." he pointed at Shino "you are Shino, the creepy bug dude." Shino raised his eyebrows interested in who Jiraiyas student could be that he would say things like that about him and his team. "aannnddd you." He said pointing at Hinata "are that weird girl with cool eyes, Hinata" The rejection gong sounded for Hinata and she was in her own little world. She couldn't believe what Jiraiya had said and asked herself, 'why do people think I'm weird'.
Tsunade watched as the introductions finished, then spoke. "Now you have your mission and have been introduced you can leave and commence your mission." Jiraiya nodded and went towards the door. The former team eight slowly followed all wondering about Jiraiya's student. Jiraiya opened the door and walked through it.
Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura were almost to the Hokages office when the door opened in front of them and out stepped Jiraiya. A broad smile plastered itself on Naruto's face and he approached Jiraiya. He yelled "SENSEI!" to get his attention. Jiraiya turned towards Naruto and started smiling as well.
PREVIEW
What will happen to Naruto? Finally the long awaited meeting between Hinata and Naruto will she work up the courage to face him or walk away? What is going on with the sand and is Kankarou ok? Oh yeah the suspense is in the air. I should take my time for my next update huh? Let the suspense build, when will the next update be posted? stay tuned only time will tell.