Author's Note: My brain won't shut up so you guys get a chapter early. I appreciate all reviews/favorites/alerts, but please feel free to review more. I like hearing from you guys ^_^ Enjoy.

Chapter 5

"We should be meeting her here," Kakashi said warily. He didn't like this one bit, not one thing about it. Not only were they going on another traveling mission after the last fiasco, but this time they had a defenseless kid with them. He couldn't leave Hiroshi home by himself, especially since this mission looked as though it could last up to two weeks, and he didn't know anyone he could trust to watch him, so he had to come. Iruka assured him that this wouldn't end like their last long distance mission and that they background checked everything and there should be no problem.

"She needs to hurry up! I want to get out of this village," Naruto said as he paced in front of the door. Before he paced a trench into the ground, the old woman walked over to the group. Her brown eyes crinkled in the corners as she smiled at the shinobi. The bent over woman slowly walked over with her cane, with every step an irritated sigh came from one of the four shinobi. Hiroshi just stayed quietly behind his dad, not sure what to think of the woman.

"So you are the shinobi who will be walking me home?" she asked in that sweet old lady voice.

"Yes Ma'am," Kakashi said.

"Good, you all seem capable," she said with a smile as she walked over to the gate. Knowing they couldn't turn down the mission now, the group followed her. They all walked in silence until Hiroshi pulled out his notebook and ran up to the lady.

"Hey Lady," he started. "What's your favorite color?"

"Hiroshi, leave the woman alone," Kakashi said with warning in his voice.

"Oh that's alright," she said to Kakashi with a wink. "My favorite color is burgundy." Hiroshi hesitated, staring at the lady.

"I don't have that color," he said bluntly.

"Red then," she answered cheerfully. "Is that your father?" she asked Hiroshi, pointed her hand back at Kakashi.

"Yup," he said as he started walking backwards again. Kakashi could sense the shock in all three of his genin, but none of them said anything. He was sure he'd get drilled about it later, but not in front of the person they're supposed to be protecting.

"It was nice of him to bring you on a trip. You must be a good boy or he would've left you at home," she said to the overly excited boy. "Is this your first time out of the village?"

"Oh no," he said, almost giggling with excitement, "I've been out of the village before. I just like adventures!"

"Most little boys do," she said with a smile. Sakura 'awwww'd while Sasuke mumbled with irritation under his breath and Naruto enjoyed the sense of adventure as much as Hiroshi was.

Hiroshi skipped his way over to the genin while Kakashi moved closer to the older woman and they moved further from the village. Crayons ready, the young boy started asking his signature question.

"What's your favorite color?" he asked Naruto. Enjoying his enthusiasm, Naruto shot him a grin.

"Orange, can't you tell?" he said excitedly, pointing to his jumpsuit. Hiroshi fed off of that, writing something on his notebook and then skipping over to Sakura.

"What's yooouuurrrr favorite color?" he asked, making her 'awwww' again.

"Pink," she said happily. Hiroshi frowned because he didn't have a pink crayon.

"I don't have pink," he said, staring at his sorry crayon collection.

"If you color lightly with red, you'll make pink," the old woman said, adding her two cents. Hiroshi's face lit up again as he made note of that in his notebook. Finally, he skipped over to Sasuke.

"What's your favorite color?" he asked. Sasuke ignored him, pretending that the little twerp didn't exist. Hiroshi wasn't having it. "I SAID what's your favorite color?" No answer. With an angry huff, Hiroshi skipped back up to where his dad and the old woman were. "Remember how you said your favorite color is red?"

"Yes," she answered, not seeming the slightest bit annoyed.

"My favorite color is red too," he said with a giant grin.

"Is that so?" she asked. "Do you have a favorite animal?"

"Pandas!" he said excitedly. Kakashi gave him a look, telling him to quiet down a bit. "Pandas," he whispered, making himself smaller when he said it, as if that would make him quieter.

"Did you know there are red pandas?" The old woman whispered to him. His already big eyes became wider.

"COOL!" he yelled excitedly, but then remembered he was supposed to be quiet. "I mean…. Cool," he whispered. The next few hours went without incident, but they eventually had to rest because the old woman couldn't walk too far for such a long time, so they found a shady opening within the woods and all sat down for a little break.

Hiroshi's enthusiasm was beginning to wear off, mostly because he was exhausted. Being that he hadn't felt that excited since before his mother died, he wasn't use to acting like a six year old boy. Almost as soon as they sat down, he fell asleep, leaning against Kakashi.

"I'm sorry about him," Kakashi said to the old woman. "He's too young to leave home alone and-"

"Oh no, it's fine. If anything, I enjoy his company," she said with a smile as she pulled some bread from her pack. She looked over at Sasuke. "You know, I think I may be able to walk further distances if I don't carry my pack. Do you think you could carry it for me?" Sasuke nodded, knowing it was his job to take care of this old lady until they dropped her off at her house.

"So, you said your family is in the tea country right?" Sakura asked as she took her sandals off and relaxed. The old woman nodded. "So what were you doing in the fire country?"

"Believe it or not," the old woman started, "I use to be shinobi, just like you all." All four of their interests were instantly peaked. "I was one of the first kunoichi in Konoha and use to work for the ANBU."

"But how did your family all end up in the tea country?" Naruto asked, confused.

"Well, being a kunoichi may have been one of the most rewarding things I'd ever done, but, like most girls, I fell hopelessly in love. I was actually on a mission, delivering important scrolls to a village in the tea country, and that's where I met the man I eventually married. As soon as I came home from that mission, I resigned as a kunoichi and moved to the tea country," she said, her eyes glazed over as she remembered. "I'd left all my friends behind. My parents had been dead for a while… both dying on missions, so I guess I didn't have them to miss, but I still missed my friends. I waited until this year to finally return. My children are all grown up now and are having children of their own, my husband is dead, and now I get to do all the things I wanted to do when I was younger. So, on the top of my bucket list was to come and see my old friends, and that was worth it."

"Were you able to find any? I know there aren't that many older shinobi still around," Sakura said, careful with the words she chose.

"Oh yes, I found a few of them, although there were a decent sum who were dead, but I figured as much," she said as she took a bite of a slice of bread. "It was so strange being back in the village though. It was almost as though I'd only been gone a few days….well, except I looked a lot different back in the day."

"But Granny, if you're a ninja then why did you want us to guard you?" Naruto asked, still kind of confused. She smiled, leaning back against the trunk of a nearby tree.

"I remember being a genin and having horribly dull missions. All we ever did was clean up trash, walk people's dogs, build things, and weed gardens. I can remember as if it were yesterday that antsy feeling of needing to get out of the village and just do something a little different, so I decided that I would let some genin get to do that and sign up for a D ranked guarding mission. To be honest, there shouldn't be any danger, and if there is, it probably wouldn't be anything I couldn't handle, but you all are being paid for your services and it's nice to have the company," she said, her voice trailing off a bit. "We'd better start moving again or I'll fall asleep right here." She stood up, putting her extra bread back into her pack and handing it to Sasuke. Then, she pointed the shinobi in the proper direction and they started walking.

Kakashi had to carry Hiroshi since he was still fast asleep and showing no signs of waking up. He didn't mind though since the boy weighed less than his backpack and it was nice to have a reason to hold him. The old woman drifted back to stand at Kakashi's side and tapped his shoulder.

"That boy of yours," she said, "is going to do something amazing. I just know it."