Four- Are All Bridge Builders Assholes?
"Sakura, reporting in at point B."
"Sasuke, reporting in at point C."
"Akemi, reporting in at point D." Pause.
"... Naruto, reporting in at point A."
"You're slow, Naruto. Okay, Team 7." Came the familiar voice of Kakashi-sensei over the earpiece.
"The target has moved! Quick, follow it!" Ordered Kakashi-sensei, and there was a rustling in the leaves as we started the pursuit.
"I see him." I whispered.
"Over there." We all moved a few trees closer to the target.
"Distance to the target?" Kakashi-sensei asked.
"Five meters. I'm ready to go." Said Naruto, and we crouched.
"I am too." Answered Sasuke.
"Same here." I answered into the mouthpiece.
"Me too." said Sakura.
"Okay." Pause. "Go!" And then we pounced. Naruto quickly wrapped his arms around the cat.
"Haha! Got you!" Naruto yelled as Tora squirmed.
"Does it have a ribbon on it's right ear? Is it Tora?" Our jonin sensei asked.
"Yup. It's our target alright." I said as I dodged one of Tora's paws.
"Okay, Operation 'Rescue Tora the Lost Pet' is complete." As Kakashi-sensei said that, Tora dug his claws into Naruto's face. I winced.
"ISN'T THERE A MORE INTERESTING MISSION FOR US TO DO?!" Yelled Naruto and I sighed; It had been about a month since the training exercise with Kakashi-sensei, and missions had been… boring, for lack of better word. Last week it had been weeding Mr. Hatabe's garden and babysitting Mrs. Fujioka's five children. Five. This week it had been picking peaches in Old Man Furui's Peach Orchard and once again finding the Fire Daimyo's wife's cat, Tora. I had to say, when I had joined the academy to become a kunoichi, this was not what I had in mind.
"Naruto has a point, Kakashi-sensei. When will we stop doing chores for people and actually do something with a little more dignity?" I asked, exasperated.
"Hopefully soon." Replied Sasuke, since Kakashi-sensei hadn't replied (Naruto had probably made him deaf). I found myself nodding in agreement.
()()()()
I winced as the woman hugged 'Tora-chan' to her chest. The poor cat looked terrified. I looked over to my teammates and found they all had similar expressions. I knew what we were all thinking; Poor cat. A month had gone by since we became Team 7, and we had all grown a bit closer. I had made good friends with Naruto, and Sasuke seemed to not hate me (It was hard telling with him; I think he was neutral with me). Sure, some things had changed, but some things hadn't. I still didn't like Sakura (it was bordering on hate) and she still didn't like me, and Kakashi-sensei was late as always.
"Oh, Tora-chan! I was so worried about you!" Exclaimed Lady Shijimi, the Fire Daimyo's wife.
"No wonder he ran away." I said quietly, and Naruto and Sakura nodded. We winced in unison as she hugged the cat tighter.
()()()()
"Now then, Team 7's new mission is..." The Sandaime looked over the list in his hands.
"Watching over Yojyu-sama's boy," My eye twitched.
"Grocery shopping in a neighboring town," Twitch.
"And digging potatoes up at-"
"No!" Yelled Naruto and we stared at him in shock.
"No thanks to all of those!" I nodded.
"I want a more exciting mission!" He continued.
"Choose something else!" To my left Sasuke nodded, and Sakura looked pissed at Naruto; I scowled. Naruto was finally voicing something we all agreed on and she was getting mad at him. What the hell was wrong with her? Kakashi-sensei just sighed. Iruka-sensei stood up and slammed his hands down on the desk.
"Idiot! You are still a novice shinobi! Everyone needs to start with easy missions to gain experience!"
"Naruto has a point though. We've been doing nothing but boring missions for a while now. It's not just him that wants something more interesting." I said, defending Naruto and attempting to get a better mission.
"Yeah! We've only been doing dumb missions lately!" He yelled, and Kakashi-sensei hit him on the head.
"Cut it out."
"It looks like I need to explain to you all what missions are. Listen, a lot of clients come to this village every day. They request things ranging from babysitting to assassinations. On the request list, all their requests are ranked A, B, C, and D according to difficulty. In this village, we separate the shinobi into jonin, chunin, and genin according to abilities. We higher officials assign missions to shinobi according to their abilities. And if we complete the mission, we receive payment from our clients. You all have just become genins, so you get D rank missions…" Hokage-sama continued, but we had stopped listening awhile ago. We knew how missions and shinobi were ranked, and were now being distracted my Naruto telling us about ramen.
"I had tonkotsu ramen yesterday, so I'm going to have miso ramen today." He said.
"Mmm… tonkotsu is pretty good, but I like miso better." I replied, thinking about Ichiraku.
"Listen!" Yelled Hokage-sama.
"Oh, uh, sorry, Hokage-sama." I replied awkwardly.
"You always lecture me like that, Old Man." Naruto said, and I stared at him. Old Man? Yeah, the Sandaime was old, but I wouldn't go calling him that.
"But I'm not the kid who plays pranks anymore!" Naruto said, and turned away from Hokage-sama and pouted. I put a hand on my mouth to stifle laughter and Kakashi-sensei rubbed his head and sighed.
"Okay, I understand." We all looked up at the Hokage.
"If you insist, I will allow you to go on a C rank mission." I grinned widely, and I'm pretty sure I almost hugged Sasuke and Sakura in joy. I would've hugged Naruto too, but he was sitting down.
"It's to escort a certain person." At this, Naruto's shock seemed to have wore off.
"Really?! Who? Who? A Daimyo? A princess?" I chuckled.
"Jeez, calm down Naruto. It's probably not a Daimyo or a princess." I said, smiling.
"I'll bring him in now." Said Hokage-sama.
"Can you please come in now?" The door opened.
…
"What? They're all kids?" Said an old man, a bottle of booze in his hand.
"Well, he's not a princess." I said to Naruto.
"Oi, is the short one with the stupid face really a shinobi?" Said the man, taking a swig from his bottle. Naruto laughed.
"Who's the short one with the stupid face?" He said with a grin. I stuck my hand out, sticking it on top of his head. I moved my hand over to my head in a straight line, showing that I was at least a good three inches taller than him. I was a about an inch taller than Sakura, and about an inch shorter than Sasuke. He seemed to get it now; Naruto was the shortest one, so he was the one with the stupid face. The blonde's face contorted in rage as he launched himself at the old man with shrieks of 'I'm going to kill you!'. Fortunately, Kakashi-sensei held him back.
"I am the great bridge builder Tazuna. Once we have returned to my country, you will protect me with your life while I complete the bridge." He introduced himself, and my eye twitched; I didn't like this guy.
()()()()
I was in the kitchen finishing dinner when I heard the door open.
"Honey, I'm Hoooooooooome!" Came the familiar joking voice of my uncle.
"I'm in the kitchen!" I yelled as I turned off the stove. I heard his footsteps as we walked into the tiled room and turned around to greet him.
"How was the mission?" I asked with a smile, grabbing the pan of Unadon.
"Good, good… The client was a real bitch though. Oooh, is that Unadon?" I grinned; my uncle loved anything with eel in it. He immediately leaned down and tried to grab a piece, forcing me to pull the tray away from his hands.
"You better back off, or no Unadon for you." I teased, and he took a step back.
"Now now, no need to be so extreme." He said.
"Where's Suzu?" He asked me, pulling on his grey facial hair in thought.
"She's upstairs playing with her dolls. Go get her for me, will you?" I asked, carrying the tray to the dinner table. Uncle did just that. I went back into the kitchen from the dining room to grab drinks.
Our house was pretty big. It was the main family's home in our compound, made for the clan head and their family. Since we were the last of the Hato clan, now we were the main family. Our compound wasn't as big as the Uchiha's or the Hyuuga's, but it was nice. It had a library, several homes, a forge, and a training area. It was hard for me to imagine the place bustling with people that looked like me. You could recognize a Hyuuga by their eyes, an Uchiha by their pale skin and dark eyes and hair, an Inuzuka by their dogs and face paint, and you could recognize a Hato by their grey hair. Our hair was typically a light grey, usually a shade or two lighter than the Hatake's hair. There was a rumor that the Hatakes were related to the Hatos, but it was just a rumor; I was sure that I wasn't related to Kakashi-sensei.
Our clan's skill was kenjutsu. We had our own style of sword fighting combined with jutsu. Fortunately, all Hatos had either wind, fire, or lightning chakra, sometimes two of the three. I myself was blessed with a wind and fire affinity, which was lucky since fire and wind worked extremely well together. My uncle Noboru had wind and lightning, and Suzu… we didn't know about Suzu. I didn't even know if she would choose to be a kunoichi like me. She seemed too kind hearted for that, just like my aunt.
()()()()
I leaned back in my chair, belly full. I let out a contented sigh. Uncle let out a loud burp to my right and we laughed. I playfully reached over and slapped his gut.
"Oi, I'm close enough to smell that, y'know.." I pinched my nose and looked up in mock disgust.
"Oh, my deepest apologies, Madame." Uncle said sarcastically, and I chuckled.
"I have a mission tomorrow, so you'll have to take care of Suzu." I said, voice now semi-serious.
"How long will you be gone?"
"I don't know. We're guarding a bridge builder until the bridge is finished, so I'm not sure. Maybe a week, maybe two weeks. I need to go get my stuff together." I said, walking into the kitchen to rinse my plate in the sink, my family's laughter ringing in the air as Uncle messed with Suzu.
()()()()
"Yosh!" Yelled Naruto as we stepped out of the gates of Konoha.
"Let's go!" He yelled with a happy grin.
"What are you so excited about?" Asked Sakura
"I've never been out of the village!" Replied Naruto and I frowned. Surely, someone had taken him out of the village before, right?
"Hey, will a brat like this really be capable of doing a mission?" Asked Tazuna, and I scowled.
"Why does it matter to you? All we're doing is guarding you. It's not like we have to be very skilled." I growled and saw a faint flash of fear in Tazuna's eyes. What was that about?
"It matters if the shinobi are completely incompetent." He bit back and I glared.
"There's no need to worry. I, a jonin, will be accompanying you." Answered Kakashi-sensei
"Oi! Old man! Don't say bad things about great shinobi! I'm the shinobi who will one day become the greatest Hokage! The name is Naruto Uzumaki! Remember it, dattebayo!" Yelled Naruto, who was pissed at being called incompetent.
"Hokage is the title of the great shinobi in the village, right? I don't think you can do it."
"Shut up! I'm willing to go through any hardships to become Hokage!" Naruto yelled back.
"When I become Hokage, you'll have to notice me!" Naruto yelled back.
"I won't,kid. Even if you become Hokage." Tazuna replied.
"I'm going to KILL YOU!" Naruto yelled, trying to jump at the bridge builder yet again.