Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... irritatingly. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei and a number of other people. So don't sue me. I write this for entertainment purposes only and not for monetary gain.
Now on to more pressing matters. To all the readers, sorry for this stupidly long wait. I am a weak soul and get easily distracted, thus I was never able to get going on this chapter. Please forgive me and continue to review. Thank you very much.
Chapter 3: To the land of Waves
Little Naruto was ecstatic. Earlier that day, Yogensha had come to visit him and instead of playing with him like he usually did, the odd speaking stranger had lifted naruto onto his shoulders and just started walking out and away from the orphanage. He started to laugh when Naruto asked what was going to happen. Yogensha spoke slowly, his grasp of Nihongo not quite there yet.
"Naruto, you are going to live with me from now on." His accent was thick and it took Naruto a moment to understand. When Yogensha's words finally sunk in, Naruto screamed with joy and hugged his new guardian's face. Yogensha, now blind, tried to pry the child off his face. He finally succeeded in removing Naruto when a new character entered the scene.
"Ahhhhh, Kakashi. How good to see you." The now ex Anbu just waved. Kakashi's lack of response didn't deter Yogensha one bit. He continued on talking. "See Naruto, this is the other man who'll be staying with us. His name is Hatake Kakashi and he's a powerful ninja." Yogensha flexed his arm for good effect. Now Naruto didn't get Yogensha's entire sentence, but what he did was a name, and the fact that he was a ninja (something he'd never seen up close before). Naruto launched himself from Yogensha's shoulder, landed on the ground and fell down, but immediately got back up to admire the Ninja up close.
To say Kakashi was uncomfortable was an understatement. For a man whose last few years of contact with living humans dealt usually with terminating said humans, having a little four year old fawn over you was a bit much. He wasn't really sure what to do. The other human contact he had was with his subordinates, or his superiors, and he was pretty sure that was not how he was supposed to treat the kid. He might have just left under any other circumstance, but he was under orders. So he did what he saw a bunch of other adults do to kids. He reached down and ruffled Naruto's hair.
The Present Day
At midnight, off the coast of the country of fire, a small boat crept up to the shore. Three people were aboard. One man signaled to the other and the engine was cut. The boat glided into the shore. Once stopped, the third man got out into the waste deep water. "Are you sure you want to do this sir?" asked one man. "The Ruh'Fei did not give his consent to this mission." The man in the water reached back in and pulled out a sheathed sword and a bag.
"I'm fine. The Ruh'Fei won't punish you two for this. He knows how I operate. It's far better this way. If he tried to oppose me, I probably would have stolen a Jinrad, and I'm positive that would have pissed him off more. So don't sweat it, all I'm doing is following the instructions of Prophet anyway." The two crewmen hesitated but they knew he was right. "Now get going, before the coast guard arrives."
The two men saluted. "Good luck commander Devar." Devar pushed the boat off the sand bank, waiting in the cold water until he heard the faint sound of an engine moving back into open sea. He walked to dry land and sat under a tree. He used Tanrin to expel the water from his clothes. Now dry, he got up and traveled along the beach. It took him a few hours, but he finally made it to a small fishing village. It consisted of only a few hundred people, but it had an Inn and that was all Devar wanted. He bought himself a room and enjoyed every minute of it. After a quick power nap, he pulled out the scrap of paper he had carried for months now. The paper had only one sentence. "Find the land where the waves rule."
'What the hell.' He thought, 'where in the world do the waves rule the land.' It was only after a quick look at the map that he slapped himself on the forehead. He muttered,
"To the country of Waves it is then."
In Konoha
Musha sat hidden in the bushes, growing more irate by the second. Their Sensei just sat on a log reading, not a care in the world. It had been almost an hour since the exam had started and still nothing had happened. Musha decided to rectify that.
He reached into his side pouch and drew out his shurinken and set to work. Twenty minutes later, Musha sat in a completely different place, with five multi colored marbles sitting in the palm of his hand. "Now to have some fun." He laid out the marbles on a flat rock, side by side, and then, without pomp or ceremony, crushed one. An audible twang resounded out from across the field as number of Shurinken flew out of the woods. Kakashi, still sitting on the log, nonchalantly moved over two feet and the projectiles flew wide. Musha, grinning, crushed the second marble. This time, Shurinken came out of two different places, forcing Kakashi to abandon his log. As Kakashi moved slowly away from the log, his face still buried in the book, Musha crushed the third marble. More shurinken flew out of the trees forcing Kakashi into the position he wanted him in. Musha, picking up the two remaining marbles, seized his chance when Kakashi was near enough. Racing out of the woods, Musha made a grab for the bells.
"No beating around the bush, eh? Nothing wrong with that though." Commented Kakashi as he dodged all of Musha's swipes with very little apparent effort. Much to the detriment of Musha's control over his anger, Kakashi continued to read his books. Kakashi was quick to note that Musha's attacks were becoming more and more centered on attacking his person rather than going for the bells. "You should really learn to calm down. It won't do you any good to get angry." These comments would only improve Musha's current disposition, naturally.
"Shut up!" By this time Musha had forgotten about getting the bells and was focusing only on Kakashi, launching kick after kick and punch after punch while his sensei only blocked or dodged. Unfortunately, one of his kicks took him too far and Kakashi, having side stepped it, ended up behind him.
"Lesson number one," intoned Kakashi, "Taijutsu." He closed his book and put his hands together in the seal of the tiger. Musha didn't have time to react as Kakashi yelled out, "Hidden Leaf Ancient Taijutsu Supreme Technique 1000 Years of Pain." And so it was that Kutsu Musha was on the receiving end of the world's greatest ass poke. Yowling in pain as he flew threw the air, he landed in the nearby stream. At the bottom of said stream, still angry but common sense returning, Musha decided on a tactical retreat.
Moving over to the stream, Kakashi looked into the water. "Hmmmm…"
'He seems to have retreated. I guess he's not a total idiot.'
Up in the trees, Sasuke finally saw it. Kakashi had let his guard down. He wasted no time in throwing quite a few shurinken and kunai at his white haired sensei. They smashed right into Kakashi as the throwing weapons dug deep into flesh. For a second, Sasuke felt triumph, but that quickly evaporated with the same poof that revealed his kunai and shurinkens had hit a log. 'Crap. A kawarimi. He knows where I am now too.' Sasuke, like Musha before him, was forced to retreat to another position.
'Where's Sasuke?' wondered Sakura as she raced through the woods. 'If I can just find him then, we can…' but her thought process was interrupted by a voice from behind.
"Hey Sakura." She was horrified to see it was Kakashi. Sakura came to a minute later.
'Did I pass out? Where is Sensei?' She could have sworn she saw him a few seconds ago. The rustling in the bushes behind her caused her to whip around.
"Sa…sakura…help me.?" Moaned a mutilated Sasuke. Sakura, the image in front of her being quite graphic, screamed and fainted.
"Lesson number two, Genjutsu." said Kakashi reading his book. Lying on the ground, eyes blank, Sakura's mouth began to produce an obscene amount of foam. 'Hmmm, maybe I went too far?' He peered at the boy across the clearing. "Sakura easily fell for it."
"I am not the same as them." Answered Sasuke, with his back to Kakashi.
"Say that after you get the bells." Sasuke turned to face him. "An Uchiha and the class genius. This could be interesting." They stared each other down, and then in one quick move, Sasuke drew and threw his shurinken towards Kakashi. Kakashi dodged quickly. "Such predictable attacks are useless Sasuke. You of all people should know that." He saw one the shurinken cut a rope. 'A trap?' His inner question was answered by the number of kunai that came at him, and he was once again forced to dodge. Sasuke came at him again, with a vicious kick to the face. Kakashi caught the foot and held it, but Sasuke was hardly finished. He twisted around to deliver a punch, but it was caught as well. However, Sasuke tried to deliver another kick but that was again blocked by the hand gripping Sasuke's fist. Sasuke was now where he wanted to be, upside down and with his spare hand within reaching distance of the bells. He made a fast grab for them. 'WHAT, the bells.' Sasuke was fast, but Kakashi was far faster. In fact Kakashi had moved away so fast Sasuke was still in the air. Twisting himself around in time, Sasuke landed on his feet. 'Incredible. I didn't even get a chance to read Come Come Paradise.' "I'll acknowledge that your different from the others"
Sasuke ignored the comment and began doing the seals. Kakashi also realized what was happening. 'What! A genin shouldn't have enough Chakra to perform a jutsu like that.'
Goukakyuu no jutsu. The powerful fireball Sasuke unleashed engulfed the entire area Kakahi had been occupying. When the flames disappeared, Kakashi was nowhere to be found. 'Crap, where is he? Above? To the sides?' He couldn't see him.
"Below you." Sasuke felt a hand grab his ankle. Doton. Shinjuu Zanshu no jutsu. Sasuke glared up at the suddenly reappearing Kakashi, as he was now neck deep into the ground. "And that Sasuke, is lesson number three, Ninjutsu. I must say that your heads above the rest in this area." Kakashi turned around and walked away "But hey,they say an exposed nail should be hammered in." Kakashi laughed at his little jokes and began reading his book again. Sasuke could have sworn he heard a giggle.
'Damn it, there's still such a large difference between us.' He didn't have along time to think since Sakura, who had long since recovered, soon barged out of the bushes and her eyes fell on Sasuke. She screamed something incoherent about severed heads, collapsed on the ground and her mouth once again began to produce an obscene amount of foam.
"Now isn't that a beautiful sight." Commented Musha coming out of the bushes from a different direction. "It seems like Kakashi got the better of us all."
"What do you want?" he growled.
"I want to discuss a way to beat Sensei." Answered Musha.
"And how do you expect to do that?" questioned Sasuke while pulling himself out of the hole.
"All three of us got our buts kicked, and that tells me that we can't do it alone. So instead, lets work as a team."
"I don't need anyone's help, I'll get the bells on my own." Sasuke had almost totally removed himself from the whole.
"Don't you think it's a bit odd." Sasuke looked at Musha again. "The fact that for each one of us, he stays one step ahead. He lets us get close and see the bells, and makes us think we have a chance of getting them, but he keeps them just out of our reach. It's almost as if he's pushing us towards something." Sakura, who had by now woken up again, was also listening. "I think its teamwork. He wants us to work together as a team to beat him."
Sakura was still unsure. "But there's only two bells. Not of all of us can pass. Why would he do that?"
"Probably to make us fight amongst ourselves. It's to impede our willingness to work together." Answered Musha, having already thought of that.
"Where are you getting these ideas." Sasuke had decided to stay to here the guy out.
"I take it you guys watch movies. This always happens. The bad guy will force the good guys into a situation where they start to fight amongst each other but only through working together will they beat him." He sighed. 'And here I thought that everyone knew that. Just my luck to be stuck with the only two kids in the world that don't watch movies.' He stared at their faces, and found they were still unconvinced. 'Kuso. Well, time to seal the deal.' "How about this, if in fact, only two of us get to pass, you two can go on ahead and I'll go back to the academy." As Musha expected, it sealed it.
"Fine, lets do it." Grunted Sasuke, and once Sasuke agreed Sakura was quick join up too. Neither of them could see any downsides to it though they did wonder why Musha was so willing to let go of his chance at passing.
"Okay, were going to have to think of a plan to beat…" A loud ringing rang throughout the area and they realized their time was up. The realization that they all had failed hit them hard, and they dejectedly moved back to the place where they had begun the day. Kakashi, along with Naruto, were waiting.
"It seems that you guys failed to get the bells," said Kakashi, "and that means that you guys fail." This was what they had expected to happen.
"Wait a minute Sempai, I think they did rather well. Maybe you should pass them." With Naruto's suggestion, the genin's hope was refilled. They had a chance.
"Nope, they failed, pure and simple." Once again, their hopes were dashed and their faces fell, Kakashi and Naruto hid their grins.
"Ah, but I have evidence." Naruto drew out his tape recorder. His students hopes were refilled again. He played it, and they heard the conversation between Sasuke, Musha, and Sakura.
After hearing it Kakashi sighed. "I guess I have no choice," he whipped around and got right into his students faces, "but to pass you guys." It looked like he was smiling beneath his mask and Sakura and Musha cheered. Sasuke just smirked.
"So the purpose of the exam was teamwork sensei?" asked Sakura.
"Exactly." Answered Naruto.
"We didn't have any teamwork though." This time it was Musha.
"Ah, but you guys had settled your differences and were beginning to plan. Its unfortunate that time ran out. Anyway, teamwork is essential to all Shinobi missions. Without teamwork, no matter how powerful a ninja, the mission will fail in some fashion or the other. Just because you succeeded in completing the goals, it doesn't mean that it was a success. If for example, you were ordered to assassinate a man and you succeed in killing him, but you and your team are killed in the process, then that, in my books, is failure." Naruto just looked over at Kakashi who continued.
"Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash. But you know what, those who don't take care of their comrades," he tilted his head up to look at the sky, "are lower than trash."
A few days later
A twenty something year old man walked out the liquor store, his age hard to discern. Anyone who saw him would just as soon forget him, and those who did remember him would find their memories of the man just a blur. Or at least, that's what the genjutsu was supposed to do.
"Aren't you a bit young for drinking Naruto?" asked Sarutobi from behind the man. There was a poof, and naruto stood their, grinning sheepishly.
"Oh come on Old man, why do you care if I drink or not?" Ignoring Naruto's protests, he snatched the bottle out of the young jounin's hands.
"One, it's too early for drinking, and two, knowingly letting a minor like you drink would be murder on my conscience. Besides, where is the rest of your team." Stated Sarutobi as he put the bottle away.
Naruto put on a bored look. "Out fetching the Lord's wife's cat again. I mean, can't the woman keep a hold on that bloody cat. I've heard it's the sixth time this month." Sarutobi was not about to tell him that it was actually the eleventh. But seeing how the woman treated it, he was surprised it hadn't done it more often.
"Now Naruto, the Lord's family is one of our village's greatest patrons, and it would not bode well to speak ill of them."
"I'm getting bored Old man. Can't you give us a C ranked mission. I mean, team seven has two jounins, it's not like anything will happen on a C that we can't handle." Sarutobi considered it. Naruto's argument made sense and it wouldn't hurt to let team seven have a little more varied experience. He motioned Naruto to follow him back to the Hokage's tower. About an hour later, Naruto watched as team seven returned, Musha looking particularly scratched up. He also bore witness to the reunion between the cat team seven had just caught and the Lord's wife. He gave it a day before the cat tried to escape again.
Sarutobi looked over at team seven. "Well team seven, it looks like it's your guys lucky day. Naruto here has impressed upon me the idea that you guys are ready to try a C ranked mission. It's to protect a certain individual." He tossed Kakashi the scroll and looked towards the opening door.
A man stepped through the door and looked at team seven. "What's this, are these the people who are supposed to protect me. They're just a bunch of brats." He took a swig from the bottle of Sake he was carrying.
"And who are you sir?" asked Sakura politely. Kakashi meanwhile passed the mission scroll to Naruto.
"I'm the super expert bridge builder, Tazuna. I expect you guys to give me super protection until I get back to my country and finish the bridge I'm building." He finished his speech with another drink of Sake.
Naruto stared at the writing on the scroll. 'To the country of Waves it is then.'