A figure appears in a dark room... The figure looks around for a moment...
Existence: "Where... where am I?"
Snipa walks into the rooms: "Ah, you're the one I took out."
Existence turns to snipa: "Took out?"
Snipa points to a bookshelf filled with mangas: "Yeah, read the Naruto series, you'll see what I mean."
Existence stares at Snipa, but then turns to the manga collection... Existence pulls the first one down and starts to read.
Snipa sits down at his computer, cracks his knuckles and starts playing ace combat OSTs in the background while typing away.
AN: To the people who thought the one I took out was Madara Uchiha. You're wrong.(and I was also working from the assumption that tobi = obito... to bi... bi to... yeah, so nothing has changed in the plotline anyways.)
–
It's amazing how different the world is with this one less existence. Tides have turned. People lived that weren't supposed too. Wars changed. And a boy's destiny is altered.
Instead of becoming the jinchuriki that everyone knows of, he was raised by his mother and father. He gained a little sister. He was never beaten, ignored, or glared at by the average citizen.
And most of all, he gained an education. Something his other self never had.
But everything isn't all rainbows and sunshine in this boy's life.
Destiny is a cruel mistress, and she is willing to prove it...
–
Sugakure no Sato: Village Hidden in the Nest.
A prosperous town of well over a quarter million people. The exact population size? Only a select few people know this answer. A calm and peaceful place, this village has been all but destroyed by war. The blood shed for this village was staggering in the amount, but the price was always worth it to its inhabitants.
The village has lived through three full blown wars. The heroes from the Age of the Foundings still live on in the design of its people.
However, the inhabitants of this village are wary of another war. They simply want to live in peace.
That is where their military force thrives.
Instead of training their shinobis to kill mercilessly like the village in the mist, they train them to protect what is precious to them...
–
Naruto and Minato touch down in front of the massive green wooden doors that signify the entrance to Sugakure no Sato.
"Welcome back, Kokage-sama, Naruto-san," a chuunin announced. He along with three others guard the only entrance into the town. Instead of having multiple entrances, which require more manpower, the shodaime kokage decided that only one is needed, which requires less people to defend the city properly.
"Good to be back, Kotestu-san," Minato answered back while showing his identification.
"Thank you, Kotetsu-san," Naruto responded in a cheer while doing the same.
Once both were cleared, the two walked into the gates then sprinted onto the roof tops to get to their home faster.
"We're home," Minato exclaimed as he walked through the doors.
"DADDY," A high pitched yell echoed through the house. Around the corner came a small three year-old girl. Minato kneeled down and scooped up his daughter. The girl hugged her father around his neck as Kushina came around the same corner.
"Welcome home, boys," Kushina smiled. "She missed you two."
"Aww," Minato started, "Did my little girl miss her big strong daddy," he asked as he rubbed his nose with the girl.
The girl giggled as Naruto walked up to his mom and hugged her. "Good to be home mom. Grandma may come over later 'cause she wants to see her granddaughter."
Kushina smiled even wider, "Great." She looked back up at her husband, "So how did it go?"
Minato stopped playing with his daughter as he put her down, "Good. They accepted the proposal, and they're working on the seal to do it right now." He glanced at his son when he mentioned a seal, but looked back before Naruto could notice. The two kids were laughing as Naruto mocked chased the girl throughout the home.
Kushina sighed in relief, "Well, I guess I should start working on my end, right?"
Minato smiled, "Don't worry, we'll get through this." Minato walked up to his wife, and embraced her.
Kushina smiled, "I know." She leaned forward to kiss him.
The two kids made 'yuck' faces as they watched their parents kiss from behind a corner.
"Grown-ups are weird," Mito said.
"Agreed, imouto-chan," Naruto responded.
The two adults laughed when they heard this.
–
"Let's see here," Minato said as he looked through papers on his desk. In front of his desk stood three figures. "I have a C-ranked guarding mission."
"No," the first figure replied.
"A B-ranked patrol mission," Minato continued as if uninterrupted.
"Hell no," the second called out.
"A B-ranked intelligence gathering mission."
"Maybe," a feminine voice answered from the third figure.
"A B-ranked escort mission, possible A-ranked due to intelligence gathered that will turn into an intelligence and assassination mission towards the end," Minato looked up.
Nartuo, the first figure went into a thinking pose. "Maybe that one. What do you two think?"
To Naruto's immediate right was a male teenager standing about 5'6"(167cm). He wore a green chuunin vest over an indigo haori. He wore a black hakama for his legs but were tied around his ankles. He had the standard blue shinobi sandals on his feet and a single simple bracelet on his left arm. His platinum blond hair was tied into a ponytail but the front portion curved around the front of his face. His eyes had such a deep green that it looked like he had no pupils. "Meh, could be worse. I'll go for it."
"I agree with blonde number 4," the female said with a cheery voice. Standing about 4'11"(150cm), the girl had dark blond, bordering on black hair. She wore a grey sleeveless Chinese dress tied with a green obi around her waist. From her wrists to the middle of her upper arms was a pair of fishnet clothing that ended with a black band at both ends. For pants she wore dark green slacks that were tied off around her ankles. On her feet were a pair of standard issue green shinobi sandals. Her black eyes and a sizable bust of a C-cup finished off her look.
"Why am I always blond number 4," the male asked in an indignant tone.
The other three occupants, this includes the Kokage, responded at the same time, "Because you just aren't as Awesome as we are."
In response, the poor male stood in the corner and whimpered about how he was cool too.
"Alright, enough fun," Minato said with a smile and then pushed a button on his intercom, "Could you bring in Tazuna, please?"
A few seconds later, a slightly drunk man walked through the door. He looked a bit drunk and much older then everyone else in the room. The man took a look around the room before speaking, "The hell? I get a brat, a depressed teenaged boy and a girl that looks like she should be two rack sizes smaller."
Minato grimaced. Oh boy. This will not turn out well.
True to Minato's thoughts, the room suddenly got many degrees colder as the girl in question grew many tick marks on her head. Standing beside her was an equally ticked off Naruto.
"Naruto, Tanami," Minato said from behind his desk in a pleading tone, "Try not to kill our clients, please."
The two calmed down as they closed their eyes and took a deep breath. When they opened their eyes they were battle hardened shinobi. "Pleased to meet you as well sir," the girl started, "My name is Tanami Senju, Daughter of Mishino Senju who is the head of the Medical squads that were created by her mother and my grandmother Tsunade Senju." The title, while long, was a subtle threat. Tsunade was the world famous medic who is now retired. The woman was known for her brash attitude and her super strength. "My rank is Tokubetsu Jounin, and I'll be the leader of this mission."
"My name is Naruto Namikaze. Son of the Yondaime Kokage Minato Namikaze, and the former head of the ANBU Black Ops, Kushina Namikaze. Nice to meet you sir," Naruto said as he bowed slightly. "My rank is Chuunin."
"Hello, kind sir," Tazuna turned to see the platinum blond teenager behind him with a creepy smile. "My name is Idayomo Yamanaka, third in line of the Yamanaka clan. My rank is Chuunin." The tone he used was cheery, but the depressing aura around the boy made it all the more creepy.
"N-nice to meetcha," Tazuna stuttered, suddenly completely sober. These were real people in the ninja system. "My name is Tazuna the Master Bridge Builder. I need your super strength to escort me back to my village and protect me while I supervise the construction of my super bridge!" Tazuna smiled nervously.
"Good. When do you need to leave," Tanami asked.
"I need two hours to gather the last of my supplies that need to be delivered. Meet me at the gates in two hours," was all Tazuna answered. He turned around and left the office. Oh shit, he almost pissed off the Kokage's son! Better keep a tighter lip then usual.
–
Tazuna had seen a lot of things in his life. Being that he's an old man, that's pretty much a given. And with experience, not much can surprise the man.
That being said, this was definitely one of those moments.
He's never seen a person that's able to dance the entire "Thriller" song while walking backwards. "Is... is this.. err, normal?" the question was a given during this situation.
The only female on this expedition sighed as she responded, "Yeah. That's Naruto for you though. He can't stand being bored so he took up wancing."
"'Wancing'," he asked as the kid was now doing the robot... on his hands.
"Walking while dancing. It can get pretty cool though, especially when he brings out the 'Evolution of dance' routine," the Yamanaka cut in. "Keeps the kid entertained and we don't have to listen to him whine about moving at civilian pace. Kind of ingenious really."
Tazuna just walked along while he stared at the brat doing multiple flips. "So, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you three?"
The Senju snapped her fingers."Ah, I figured we left something out of our introduction. Well, Naruto's ten. I'm sixteen, and Ida here is fourteen."
"Aren't you three kinda young to be doing this level of a mission alone," Tazuna asked.
She shrugged, "In our village we're known as "Team Blond" given the main feature all three of us have. Since we've been together for the past, oh two years or so. We have many B-ranked missions under our belt as a single team."
"Wait, you're telling me that the kid here became a ninja at age eight," Tazuna just couldn't believe that.
They shook their head and Idayomo spoke, "No, The squirt here only graduated seven months ago."
Tazuna lifted his eyebrow, "What d'ya mean then?"
Tanami explained in a lecturing tone, "In the ninja academy, some students are allowed to have real time field experience. Meaning they are allowed to go on C-ranked missions with experienced teams that are missing members. We were down one at the time Naruto had passed the field recommendation test, and ever since then we've been working together."
"So, what about your sensei," Tazuna asked. "I know you birds have a three member and a jounin system."
"Ah, yes. Our sensei is Hiruzen Sarutobi, you would know him as the Third Tree Shadow," at this Tazuna's eyes widened, "Due to the fact that our sensei is officially retired, we do missions without him, and so far, we've been just fine."
Tazuna nodded at the explanation.
Yanami looked at the man. "Before we go too far, Tazuna-san, I would like a thorough explanation of the mission details. Most of what I got was that the enemy is under the employ of Gato. Oh, and Naruto stop wancing. You need to hear this as well." The kid stopped in mid-step before walking normally.
Tazuna was quiet for a moment before going into full details about how Gato of the Gato Trading Corporation was draining the country of wave dry. He confirmed to them that the man is indeed rich, but only because of his underground black-market operations. He had put taxes on the income of every import to the country and then had his thugs destroy most of the country's agricultural productions. In the end, the place was becoming poorer each day. In desperation, the people of wave pulled their money together to help pay for a high B-ranked mission. If they had waited any longer then they wouldn't be able to pay it and probably have to lie to the Kokage saying it was a C-ranked mission.
All three ninja were quietly taking in the information. Finally, after Tazuna was done explaining, Tanami spoke up, "What do you two think?"
Ida spoke evenly as he looked deep in thought, "Given from what Tazuna-san has explained about Gato, I would suspect that the man to be extremely stingy with his money. Therefore, the threat of an A-ranked opponent is low since those type of shinobi are hard to come by and are often pricy."
Tanami nodded as she looked to Naruto who was walking a good bit ahead of the group. He was currently walking backwards as he gave his thoughts, "There is that, Ida, but he could also be pulling a backstab routine of pretending to pay them after the job is done but instead have someone else kill them off."
Tanami spoke up, "True, and if that were the case, not only would he not pay but he would probably get a cut of the share as well. If this scenario is true then, then all of our opponents will be rogue ninja."
"So we have two scenarios. C-ranked or lower opponents that are from an official hidden village, or the more likely of the two, a high B-ranked missing-nin that will most likely be betrayed at the end of the job," Ida said.
Naruto spoke up, "Both scenarios have their up and downside."
Tazuna interrupted, "What do ya mean? Wouldn't the less likely scenario be the one you hope for?"
Tanami shook her head, "No, due to the fact that killing our opponents could lead to more tension between our villages, though not likely. Even worse is that said ninja could be from an allied village, in which case would lead to many problems."
Ida then added his input, "The other scenario would mean that we would have to fight much tougher enemies and will be battle hardened shinobi that will know how to, above all else, survive. Missing-nin are constantly tracked down by Oinin, or hunters, from their home villages all the time. Usually, a B-ranked missing-nin can be just as strong as a low jounin, and an A-ranked missing-nin can easily rival, if not overpower, elite jounin."
Tazuna paled, "I didn't know it could be that bad."
–
Two days had passed since the group had left Sugakure for Nami no Kuni.
"Are you sure you aren't compensating for something, old man," Naruto asked in a deadpanned tone as he stared at the progress of the massive bridge.
"I'll have you know, brat, that this bridge will be my life's greatest work. It's six weeks from completion at this point. That is, if my builders aren't dead yet," Tazuna said.
"Quiet," the boat rower hissed out. "I'm putting a great deal on the line getting you three across. I do not want to be turned into mince meat because you we were overheard."
The group quieted after that as Naruto looked back to his team. He had been with them for almost 2 years now, and he's been loving it ever since.
Team 9, which was their official team name on paper, was one of 4 "ladder" teams. All of the teams numbers 7 through 11 were like this.
Like normal teams, Ladder teams are teams that are comprised of three members and a jounin instructor. However, the difference in this case is the ranks of the team members. A Genin or an academy student who has past field testing are the lowest level members on the team. After that, there is either a tokubetsu jounin or a chunin that is close to becoming a jounin is the highest ranked member. In the middle is a low chunin as well or a genin close to chunin promotion.
When the higher ranked member, the high chunin or tokubetsu jounin, gets a jounin promotion, a new member is added to the team, usually a fresh out of the academy genin. Of course, there are variations to this system. Usually it happens when one of the members progresses at a faster rate then the rest of the team. Like team 10. Naruto shivered. Poor them. Two genin and a chunin stuck with Maito Gai. It sucked to be them.
"We're here," the rower's voice jostled Naruto out of his thoughts.
The boatman pulled his boat up to the shore. All of the occupants got out quietly. "Tazuna, I hope you know what you're doing. And good luck." With that, the rower left the shore on his boat, and disappeared into the thick morning mist.
–
To be continued...
Yeah... that went better in my head. Oh well, I'm too lazy to try and type anything out again... and this one is kinda short for my normal length chapters... meh.
See ya later folks.