"Alpha in position. Target is ten meters to your right Gamma." Naruto spoke over the head set as he could see his target shrouded in the shadows.
"Roger that Alpha, I see him. Beta, come in from behind and capture the target as we get its attention." Chouji responded before sending a message to their other teammate.
"I'm set here with Omega. Ready when you are Alpha and Beta." Hinata confirmed over the radio as she and Kurenai were ready to strike.
Hearing this, Naruto was the first to react as he jumped out of his hiding from behind a tree and pointed both of his hands towards the shadowed target, focusing right below it. "Shinra Tensei!"
The sudden explosion right underneath it forced the target to jump into the air and hiss wildly at Naruto, seeing the fox-like blonde.
Before it could react, Chouji chose that exact time to use his favorite jutsu, Bubun Baika, and expanded is arms in an attempted to grab the target. The said target simply used the extension of his arms to land on them and jump once more.
However, it suddenly found itself in a flowery field with insects galore. It suddenly began pouncing on the said insects before suddenly being picked up by a young girl with short blue hair.
"Mission completed, Kurenai-sensei." Hinata stated as she stroked the cat's back in a loving manner, making Tora purr happily as he curled into her chest.
"Great! Now we can go get another mission!" Kurenai chirped as her team successfully caught the cat for the second time that week.
"Yay..." Naruto commented with less mock thrill then boredom. He much rather be training then doing the mediocre tasks, that they called missions, they were assigned.
Kurenai simply bonked him on the head as she rolled her eyes.
"Ah, another mission completed for Team Eight. Well, I must say you are well beyond the rest of the teams. They haven't even completed half the amount you four have." Sarutobi stated with a smile as he looked over the team while Iruka filed the papers as he was basically the Hokage's secretary when the academy was out.
"So boring... Even your training has never left me this miserable." Kyuubi commented blandly as she was really, really bored with what Zagger and Naruto called training. Though of lately she did like it as it was mindless destruction as Naruto was attempting to use Shinra Tensei for offense...
Kurenai simply smiled at the Hokage as she beamed proudly at her team as he went through the mission to find another. Seeing this, she spoke up as she noticed he was looking in the D-rank folder. "Lord Hokage if I may, I believe my team is more then ready for a C-rank mission."
"What?" Iruka commented as he looked up from the mission report he had just filed and looked Kurenai in the eyes, knowing the kunoichi quite well as they were both teachers at the academy at one point. "It hasn't even been a month yet, Kurenai. I don't think..."
"Umino, may I remind you of your place?" Kurenai stated in a deadly tone, not liking that Iruka was trying to overrule her command of her newly instated team.
Sarutobi sighed as he was quite use to this as it often happened when a jounin instructor thought their new team was ready while the teacher thought differently. "Kurenai, there is no need to pull rank here as if that is the case, I would win every time. Now you may finish as I know you had a bit more to say about why your team is ready for a C-rank."
While Iruka was a little miffed, he didn't let it show as the Hokage did have supreme power over them and he would be damned to challenge his authority.
Kurenai simply nodded before giving the chunin a long glare telling him there would be more later. "Well, while I admit it hasn't even been a full month, this team is far better then I expected. They show outstanding team work even in the most menial tasks and help each other to complete them faster."
"Also in terms of abilities, I believe my team, not to brag, is the best gennin squad in Konoha. From what I heard from both other senseis, their teams don't click as well as ours not to mention each has grown leaps in bounds since graduation. ...Honestly, I am ready to nominate them for the chunin exam in a few months. I just need to see what they do in real life scenarios." Kurenai finished strongly as she looked over her team as she had seen what each could do.
Nodding as he understood this, Sarutobi caught an extra glance of Kurenai's and saw it was upon Naruto. He had a feeling she wanted to say that if anything bad were to happen, Naruto happened to be a very powerful trump card. Still, he wasn't so sure on Chouji's and Hinata's abilities being quite up to par for the chunin exams.
He also had to put Iruka's fears to ease as he knew the young teacher didn't like any of his students to get hurt and want all of them to be safe. It was even more so for Naruto as he knew that Iruka was very empathic towards him due to their similar upbringings. The only thing the dolphin didn't know was that Naruto's power was far beyond what he thought...
His problem of what to do was instantly solve as the boisterous and flamboyant Gai entered the room in an enthusiastic fashion with his gennin team not to far behind. "Lord Hokage! We are finished with our mission and request another one! The rank doesn't matter, just as long as we are out and showing off our youthfulness!"
As he struck the 'good guy' poise along with a miniature version of him, the other two teams simply sighed. Kurenai and Naruto simply groaned as Hinata and Chouji blinked, not sure what they had just seen or if this guy was real.
The Hokage, however, was glad that Gai had arrived. "Ah, thank you for being so timely Gai. Thanks to your arrival, I believe you just helped me solve the conundrum I'm in."
While mostly everyone looked at Sarutobi as if he was insane, Gai simply beamed at him. "Then I shall do five thousand hand stand jumping jack if I can't help you solve your problem, Lord Hokage!"
"No need for that Gai and you really don't need to do anything so drastic. However, both Iruka and I are not sure if this new team is ready for a C-rank mission while Kurenai believes they are ready and wants to see how they will fair in live action." Sarutobi explained the situation, allowing all in the room to get where he was going at.
Switching to enthusiastic mode to serious mode, Gai thought on it for a moment before nodding. "Well, there is two, no three solutions to your problem. One is that you can send both of our teams on a C-class mission, my team being there for back up while I evaluate there performance."
"The second is to allow a friendly spar between her team and mine to see how well they fair. Finally, you can keep them here for a little while longer so you can personally supervise them to see if they are ready. I would go with either the first or second, maybe even both as you have a lot of work, Lord Hokage." Gai stated, still in a serious but thoughtful tone as he knew the Hokage didn't mind his eccentric nature but now wasn't the time for it.
While Kurenai looked a little shocked that Gai could act seriously and think thoroughly, Sarutobi liked the three options Gai gave him. Not many people knew it, but Gai was quite brilliant and it really showed off through his training as the man was very, very thorough and followed through with his plan. "I believe, in this case, that the first would be the best option, however, I do not have a C-rank mission at the moment."
"I will, however, have one tomorrow. So I want both of you and your teams here at exactly noon. You may have the rest of the day off to get to know one another. Dismissed." Sarutobi stated as he came up with what to do before realizing he had a meeting with his former teammates about some trivial matter that apparently needed his undivided attention. How he hated his job at times.
"Hai, Lord Hokage." Both Gai and Kurenai saluted before Sarutobi flickered out of the room, leaving Iruka alone to man the mission handouts.
Soon as he did, however, Kurenai gave him a frightening glance. "Iruka, I would like to talk to you later about what happened here."
Iruka gulped and shakily nodded his head. He knew whatever was in store for him was not good. He had undermined Kurenai's authority not only right in front of her team, but in front of the Hokage. Oh, how he knew that he was going to be in store for a lashing.
Gai didn't even bother to ask what happened as he knew Iruka had a tendency to be very finicky about letting newly release gennin taking C-rank missions. He could understand his reasoning all to well as gennin had the highest fatality rate of all ninjas, but if a team was ready for a mission was entirely up to the jounin in charge of the squad.
"Well, I believe getting something to eat so our team can introduce themselves to one another is the best, I believe." He stated out loud, far more boisterous then he had been moments before but still in a somewhat serious tone.
"No need." Naruto stated as his Rinnegan gazed into the long haired boy's pale, pupil-less eyes. "Neji and I go way back, isn't that right?"
Neji merely growled at Naruto as he glared right back into Naruto's gaze. He said nothing as he knew whatever he said, the blonde would find a way to throw it back on him and make him look foolish as he did when they were in the academy together.
The bun haired girl merely sighed as she quickly stood in-between the two of them. "Naruto, stop gloating in front of Neji. I know you are going to say he does it to other people, but just drop it. Neji, stop acting so hostile. Like or not, we're going to be together for a little while."
Being the first to back down, Naruto nodded as he turned his gaze to the girl. "Fine. But if he treats my team with any, and I mean any, disrespect expect me to defend them, Tenten."
"Naruto, how do you know them so well?" Kurenai asked in confusion as they were a full year older then he was and it wasn't in his record that he could have graduated early.
It was the miniature Gai, also known as Lee, that stepped out and announced how they knew Naruto with a fervent passion. "Naruto was in our class last year! Our teacher said he would have been the rookie of the year if he hadn't skipped class if he wasn't caught up in his heated and youthful training!"
"In fact, if I remember correctly, you stopped showing up to class after you narrowly defeated Neji after he challenged you to a fight." Tenten added on, trying to solve something that had been puzzling her. "Did something happened that make you unsure of yourself during that fight?"
"As much as I love to answer your questions, I believe the man said we should get something to eat and I'm hungry." Naruto stated as he pointed over to Gai as he didn't want to answer her question just yet, especially as he hadn't even explained that one to his closest friends.
Gai nodded before beaming a smile as everything was settled with very little interference of the jounin. "You are right my young friend! Now away we go!"
Suddenly, Gai, Lee, Chouji and Naruto disappeared into the great yonder leaving the rest behind, all wondering how Chouji and Naruto were keeping up with the pair of green beasts.
"Okay, this is definitely making me regret coming here." Tenten stated as she watched Lee attempted to keep up with Naruto and Chouji as they went through plate after plate of barbeque.
Asuma, who was seated nearby with Shikamaru, Ino and Kiba, shook his head and laughed. Ino merely sighed before she pulled out two stones from her pouch and hit both of them square in the forehead. "Stop eating so fast you two! We have company!"
"Well, isn't this a surprise? We're all here." Kakashi stated as he walked in with Sasuke, Sakura and Shino directly behind him.
Kurenai simply nodded as she sighed, figuring they would all be here the one time Naruto and Chouji didn't pick Ichiraku's. While she didn't mind being around Asuma, Gai and Kakashi, she just hated that the latter seemed to pick on her and was the original one that started calling her the Ice Queen. "Seems so, Hatake."
"Oh, cold shoulder again, Ice Quee..." Kakashi tried to state before he suddenly found himself in a world of pain as it felt like someone came out of nowhere and kicked him in every man's one true weakness.
As Kakashi bent over in pain, Kurenai handed a few ryo under the table to Naruto before she whispered into his. "Thank you. I feel better already."
"No problem." Naruto softly said as he pocketed the money while everyone that knew of his power simply glared at him, knowing he was at fault for Kakashi's pain.
It seemed that Kakashi knew as well as he stood up before sighing out loud as he sat next to Asuma. "Damn, it is going to be no fun with him around. I can't poke fun at Kurenai anymore without being blind sided by some invisible force."
"Yes, how fun that is." Asuma muttered as he refrained from punching Kakashi in the face for hitting on his fiancé. While only his father knew of their relationship, he still didn't like it when Kakashi and other shinobi tried to hit on her.
Seeing Asuma giving him a cold shoulder too, Kakashi was even surer something was going on between him and Kurenai then before. Now all he needed was proof. Maybe Naruto would have some; the boy did seem to have dirt on everyone he knew.
Shaking his head of that thought, Kakashi yawned out loud before turning to the rest. "Seeing as we are all here, anyone have any stories to tell?"
"You mean like how I burned your regular edition Icha Icha collection after you started that false rumor about Sakura and I going out?" Naruto stated loud enough to make sure everyone heard him.
Everyone snickered at what Naruto stated seeing the shocked look on Kakashi's face while Sakura gave him a very dirty look and was ready to kick him for real. Regaining his honor, or what was left of it, Kakashi sighed. "Dammit Naruto, can you leave those stories out? I don't need anyone knowing about those. I could lose my cred, man!"
"Kakashi, please stop talking like a gangster. Naruto, stop making fun of Kakashi. However, I want to here some of these stories later." Kurenai stated with amusement written in her voice as she liked seeing Kakashi squirm.
Seeing Naruto nod and Kakashi wince, Kurenai smirked. Who knew that Naruto would be such a trump card that she could wield him over Kakashi and make him buckle?
"Gees Naruto, is there any shinobi you don't know is this village?" Kiba asked as he rolled his eyes as he ordered the barbeque plate as he planned on eating a lot to, especially because he wasn't paying.
"Eh, probably, but so far, none that I know." Naruto stated as he started eating at a much slower pace, not wanting Ino to peg him with another stone.
"Hey, that reminds me. How do you know Anko? I remember you squirmed when I mentioned her name in our introduction at the academy and I want to know why?" Kurenai suddenly remembered and was very, very curious to know how he knew Anko. Having ammunition against her best friend really couldn't hurt.
"Ano... That was because of Ino, Sakura and me." Hinata spoke very softly as a very large blush crept on her face until it became entirely red as everyone's attention was on her, except for those who were involved in the said incident.
Blinking a few times, even more curious as to what happened, Kurenai tried to help her female student and figure out what happened. "Go on Hinata. Tell me more..."
"You see, what happened was that Sakura and I were fighting over who liked Naruto more." Ino stated with just as great blush scorning her face as she was forced to tell the story now that Hinata had revealed that they were involved but couldn't as she just didn't want people to know.
Sakura, being the least bashful about the entire event, sighed before she continued on for he two fellow Naruto fan club members. "Well, Hinata heard what we were arguing about and joined in as we had, at the time, recently created his fan club, which as of now is currently the largest fan club in Konoha with Sasuke in a close second and Kakashi-sensei in a distant third."
"Damn, I lost my crown to kids." Kakashi muttered as he order some sake as he felt like getting a little drunk as it seemed everyone was going to be telling stories.
"Hey, at least you didn't lose it to Gai, though I heard he is gaining on you." Naruto interrupted everyone as he heard Kakashi's muttering and couldn't resist poking fun at the Cyclops.
Gai simply gave a shifty eye look before he lightly kicked Naruto under the table, letting him know not to say a word about that. He didn't want his star pupil to know what he did in the red light district at night.
Coughing to gain attention back onto the story, Ino sighed before Hinata suddenly continued for her, still madly blushing. "After that, we k-kind of got into a fight. Since it was raining, not many p-people were out and while we were fighting. As it escalated, I kind of threw Ino... into a mud puddle. The said water splashed and... hit Anko who was w-watching our fight."
"Then I whisked all three of them to the forest of death to deliver swift and just punishment when the damn blonde haired brat suddenly jumped in to defend them." Anko suddenly stated as if she was there, walking into the restaurant before scooting in next to Kurenai, a shit eating grin on her face.
All three of the younger kunoichi paled along with Naruto, who was looking for a way out as he was now sitting right next to the snake mistress and wanted nothing to do with the woman.
Seeing this, Anko merely smirked before stealing Kakashi's bottle with a replacement and downing the entire thing in one gulp. "Anyways to end the story, the brat and I ended up fighting and now that said part of the forest we fought is now a wasteland. Waiter! More sake! And bring me dango until I tell you to stop!"
As everyone sweat dropped at the over simplification of went down in the forest of death, Naruto and the three younger kunoichi breathed a sigh of relief as they didn't have to let it be known what exactly went down in the forest.
But before Naruto could even move from his seat, Anko suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck before laying her head on his while pressing her chest into his face. "Uh-uh. You aren't moving, pillow. You still owe me for removing those poisons from your body."
"If you forgotten, you were the one that injected them into me in the first place! That kind of negates the me owing you part!" Naruto yelled out loud, looking for some help in some form or fashion as he attempted to pull his face out of her bosom.
Luck was shining on him as the man of Anko's fancy walked into the door; one Umino Iruka. The next instant, the said purple haired jounin was at his side, ready to pounce on him like a horny dog. Breathing a sigh of relief, Naruto's head hit the table before him as he felt like passing out. "This is too eventful for my tastes..."
"...I don't want to agree, but I have to. This is just too weird for me." Neji agreed with Naruto despite every bone in his body not wanting to. This was just way too weird for him to be around all of these people. It didn't help that Hinata was here either as he detested the girl for what she was.
Naruto had caught onto Neji's glances at Hinata every now and then, but didn't say a word about it. He knew there was something going on but he would confront the branch house member about that later. He didn't like what he was seeing so far, but the Hyuuga wasn't vocalizing his disrespect so he would let it go for now.
"This is actually kind of funny. This is the most any of us have learned about you, Naruto." Kiba grinned as he took a bite of his food. Even Sasuke looked semi amused at the events unfolding.
Naruto simply twitched at his response and had pointed his hand towards the chop sticks behind Kiba before Kurenai suddenly slapped his outstretched hands. "Don't even think about it!"
Groaning and placing his head back into the table, Naruto was ready for the day to end already as it wasn't going to well. Then it just happened to be worse when Shikamaru walked over and sat beside him. "Naruto, I can't keep covering for you. Both mom and dad know someone is stealing the deer meat they store in the outside freezer. And low and behold, you're one of their top suspects, especially with your cerberus' appetite..."
It was at this, Naruto began to bang his head into the table, constantly, hoping his head would break open so he wouldn't have to deal with this.
"Oh no, no, no. If you break your head open, I'm not healing you." Kyuubi cruelly added on as she did not want to heal Naruto after trying to find an escape from his just deserts. And she just happened to like seeing Naruto squirm.
At this, Zagger decided to come to the rescue, or so it seemed. "Look at it on the bright side; you didn't have to give the details of what happened in the forest. And there are a few stories even more embarrassing then that one that could have been revealed."
This only dropped Naruto's mood further and he was ready to scream and pull out hair. And in his distressed state, Kakashi just couldn't help but adding onto his torment. "So Naruto, how did your latest dates with Ino and Sakura go?"
Naruto's head nearly went through the table as Hinata's, Ino's and Sakura's attention were keenly onto him, making everything so much worse for him.
It was at that moment Naruto went psychotic as he pointed his hand towards Kakashi. "Cyclops, we're going to the hospital. Now."
"Why? I don't see... Oh fuck." Kakashi slowly realized what was going to happen and dashed out of the diner with Naruto hot on his heals.
"SHINRA TENSEI!" Was the last thing any of them heard before a loud bang was heard thorough Konoha.
"Now what have we've learned, Naruto?" Kurenai stated as she came to pick Naruto up from the hospital as it wasn't quite noon yet and Naruto had just been discharged. Both Chouji and Hinata were waiting with Gai's team in the mission hall for her to get back with Naruto.
"That Kakashi is a bastard and he needs a swift kick in the nuts and someone to burn his entire limited addition collection of Icha Icha." Naruto stated as his button his white cloak on and over his pure white, almost ethereal, wardrobe.
"Exactly." Kurenai responded with a wide smile before patting him on the shoulder. "By the way, I heard Kakashi has to stay here for a few days after the kunai with a flash tag suddenly and magically gave him a Thousand Years of Death. And I hear when he gets out; he'll be walking bo-legged for weeks."
"Hurray." Naruto stated with false enthusiasm as he wanted to do so much more damage to the silver haired jounin. The damn bastard had evaded almost every single attack until that final one that only landed due to Anko's intervention, scaring the crap out of the scarecrow.
Nodding as she led Naruto out of the hospital as it was a flicker free zone, Kurenai had one thought that kept bugging her. "Naruto, what did you mean that Gai was catching up to Kakashi in fan clubs. I know, despite him being a damn open pervert, Kakashi is considered one of the best looking and most interesting guys in Konoha."
Naruto only smirked as he stretched out a little as it felt good that he was one of the few that actually knew of Gai's dirty little secret. "Oh, just trust me on this. Gai is a stud when he wants to be or isn't trying to impress his students. I think he could pick any woman in Konoha up if he wanted to."
Kurenai's jaw dropped for a moment before she raised her eyebrow, not believing that Gai could be called anything but an eccentric freak. "Somehow, I seriously doubt that. I know the man well, Naruto, and I've seen him be nothing but who he is around his students."
"Have you ever seen him after ten at night in the red light district, especially at the Woman's Club?" Naruto stated with a dark grin as he refrained from bursting out laughing seeing the utter shock on Kurenai's face after what he said.
Being disturbed for more then just imaging Gai on a stripper poll, how Naruto knew of that place and why had he ever been there, Kurenai recovered slightly before speaking in an amazed tone. "I'll have to see it to believe it. Now let's go, we'll be late."
Seeing Naruto nod in agreement, Kurenai flickered to the mission hall with Naruto only moments behind her. She noticed that Iruka was giving her a frightened glance, but he had good reason as she chewed him out last night and then handed him over to Anko. Even she shivered at that, not wanting to know what Anko did to the poor dolphin.
Sarutobi seemingly entered the room at the same time, exiting a room that seemed to contain a weird clear orb in the middle, with a slight look of shock on his face. It quickly, however, disappeared as a look of seriousness crossed his face. "I've just received a C-rank mission from our ally, the Hidden Village of Waterfall."
Taking a small puff of his pipe, Sarutobi continued. "They apparently need some help in recovering an important artifact from a thief that slipped in when the majority of the jounin were out of the village. Because of this, Lady Fuu has requested our help as she is having a difficult time defending her village among other things. There is, however, a catch."
"Gai, Kurenai, due to circumstances I need you two along with Kakashi and Asuma here in the village as I've received some Intel and need you four here to sure up Konoha's defenses with me." The third finished as he took another puff as he looked over at both.
"Wait, are you saying you want our gennin to take this mission on there own?" Kurenai stated incredulously as she gave the Hokage a flat stare while Gai could only stare at him with her.
"Good heavens no, I wouldn't allow a gennin to go unsupervised on a mission as important as this." Sarutobi shook his head at both before suddenly looking over to the door as it open, revealing a young woman with light green hair. "Lady Fuu here will be the one to lead the team as she is a capable shinobi along with one of my personal students."
Glancing over at the young woman that opened the door, almost every male's jaw dropped except for Gai, and Kurenai as well, who eyes widened hearing the third mention one of his students. She was drop dead gorgeous!
Her skin was slightly tanned while her clothing barely left anything to imagination as they hugged tightly to her curves. Her hair, held up by slightly by a golden pin on the right side, flowed to her shoulders and covered her ears. While her chest was small, her figure more then helped boost her up in their opinions.
Her eyes pinkish-orange eyes gazed over them gazed over them before she sighed, glad that her pack was behind her as almost each guy was trying to check her ass out. Turning to the Hokage, she noticed he was as well.
Coughing to get all of their attention away from her body, Fuu spoke. "Are these the two gennin teams you promised me, Lord Hokage? And where is the toad hermit, I thought he was apart of this mission as well."
"Did you visit the bath houses?" Sarutobi answered in what seemed to be in a very perverse tone making everyone wonder if he was serious.
However, Fuu simply nodded before shaking her head. "Yes, he wasn't there. I even took a dip to try and entice him to come by, but he still wasn't there. This boy, however..." At the end, Fuu lifted Shino up by the ear as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"SORRY! I DIDN'T KNOW... BUT MY KIKAI THOUGHT... OW, I'M SORRY OKAY!" Shino yelled out in pain while all the gennin looked at the bug user in shock, not believing he would be the one peeping in on someone.
"Something tells me he's normally not one of the men you have at the bath houses peeping, so this is only a warning." Fuu responded to his comment as she looked over to the Hokage before letting go of Shino, satisfied he learned his lesson.
The said bug user left the room immediately, glad he was let off with nothing seriously damaged. The Hokage simply shook his head before sighing. "Yes, but I'm still worried about Jiraiya, he normally never..."
"Someone mention me?" The said pervert stated as he jumped through the window and landed next to the gennin.
This was a mistake as he caught Naruto by surprise and being defensive about his power and what he was, he yelled out loud before a sudden bang was heard and Jiraiya shot off into the distance.
Looking at the smoking crater where the toad sage had landed, Fuu blinked a little before her eyes turned to the blonde haired gennin. Noticing his eyes, she froze for only a second before returning to normal before turning to the Hokage. "You didn't inform me that your village possessed that bloodline."
"We don't as it cannot be passed on to future generations. The bearer simply chooses who is next to receive it." Sarutobi responded as he knew she meant the Rinnegan from her stare at Naruto after he blasted Jiraiya out of the room.
The said hermit crawled back into the room, this time through the door, groaning the whole time. "Ow... That felt like one of Tsunade's flicks of death. Warn me before I do something like that again, sensei."
"I would, but you sudden appeared in the room and I didn't know where you were before hand as you weren't at the bath houses." Sarutobi told Jiraiya off as he rolled his eyes at his pupil.
Jiraiya, however, blinked at him before raising his eyebrow. "What do you mean, weren't at the bath houses? I was there taking notes as always, this time on Lady Fuu here. It isn't my fault she could see me or sense my presences; I'm just that good when I want to be."
Hearing this, Fuu gave over towards Jiraiya before a sudden Herculean punch connected to the side of his head, sending him through the wall. "Damn pervert..."
"Is it me, or is this trip going to be even weirder without Gai?" Tenten asked Neji, who simply nodded as he rubbed his forehead as a headache was well on the way.
It was bad enough that he had to be around Naruto and Hinata, but now this white hair pervert that seemingly couldn't keep his mouth shut and was constantly being hit by someone or something. "It seems so. This will be a long trip, if our senseis agree to it."
As if responding to his question, Kurenai spoke out to the Hokage. "Lord Hokage, if I may, I really would like to be with my team..."
"I already know Kurenai, but this will be their evaluation as Jiraiya here will be with them. If they succeed and pass Jiraiya's evaluation then when they return and are ready, I will hand out a C-rank mission to your team, if that is acceptable." The third stated as if he had already prepared an answer for her.
While not liking that she wouldn't be there with her team, Kurenai sighed before giving in knowing that the Hokage really needed her to stay for what he wanted. "Hai, Lord Hokage."
"Lord Hokage, I just have one question. What exactly is the mission objective?" Gai asked, wanting to know what his team would be helping Kurenai's team.
"They will be helping me retrieve the Horn of Shichibi." Fuu responded before the Hokage could answer the taijutsu master. This caught both jounin's and Naruto's attention. All three knew a little more of the reason why the gennin, the blonde in particular, were being sent.
Seeing their looks, Fuu quickly continued as she had more about what happened. "Normally, the Horn is in my possession at all times as I am the beast's vessel; however I left it unguarded in my office. Jiraiya has already informed me that it was only a simple thief and nothing more sinister, but there is a light chance for ninjas to be involved so that is why he is coming with us."
Picking himself out of the wall with ease and without a single injury on him, Jiraiya nodded as he noticed Naruto instantly freeze as he heard Fuu declare herself a demon vessel. "In case of an upgrade in the mission, I will send all six of you back here with Fuu as this is also an escort mission. But not to worry, there shouldn't be any problem as I've found the thief..."
"Then why in the hell do we have a mission?" Naruto stated, his eyebrow twitching as a smidge of dirt got onto his cloak and with a simple flap, it was gone.
Jiraiya nervously chuckled before his eyes started shifting around. "I... um... Had other business to attend to."
Fuu twitched at this before growling as her entire body shone with an eerie green light. "Pervert, if you got distracted by a bath house, so help me..."
"No, no! Nothing like that... For once." Jiraiya innocently stated before adding the last part as if it was normality that he got distracted by women in bath houses.
Shaking his head, knowing the reason, Sarutobi sighed deeply. "That is true Lady Fuu and is why I need to have a discussion with Jiraiya and my top jounin. ...If you would please step out and get them prepared for the mission, Jiraiya will be out soon enough. You too, Iruka."
Catching his drift and knowing it had to do with Konoha's security if the best of the best were going to be called into the meeting, Fuu nodded in understanding. "Hai, Lord Hokage. Thank you for your time and assistance once again. If there is anything my village can do for you, just ask."
Exiting the room with the gennin in suit, although not entirely pleased for different reasons, Fuu turned to the gennin as the exited the tower. "Alright you six, we'll get to introductions later once we are on the way. Please go home and inform you parents of your mission out of the village and pack proper equipment for an escort and tracking mission."
"Pack only essentials as this is should only take two weeks at max. Be at the main gate in one hour as their meeting should be over by then." Fuu requested before glancing over towards the Hokage's office, wondering what exactly was their security emergency.
As everyone nodded, both Hinata and Neji headed to the Hyuuga mansion while the rest except for Naruto quickly raced to their homes, excited about having a mission out of the village. Naruto merely stayed as he kept himself composed as he gazed at Fuu, not sure what to say.
"You could say bend over and take it like the bitch you are." Kyuubi state humorously, wanting to humiliate a vessel of one of the lower beasts. She didn't care how; she just wanted the rest of the eight to know she could still beat all of them, even with an imperfect vessel.
Both Naruto and Zagger ignored the fox demon, both remembering to get her back later for her comment.
Fuu, however, was getting annoyed by the blonde's gaze and slightly disturbed by his eyes more and more. "What do you want kid? You're creeping me out just like that bug kid."
"Shino is his name." Naruto corrected her, before stretching his hand out to her. "And it is just nice to meet another demon vessel like myself."
"Ah, the Kyuubi vessel." Fuu said in understanding where he was coming from before giving him a flat stare as she slapped his hand away. "Don't take this personal, but I've ran into the rest of the vessel before and I didn't like any of them. So chances are I won't like you either. Now go get your things packed, kid."
"Kid? She isn't that much older then you from my perspective..." Zagger questioned, not processing why she was calling him a kid despite being only a few years older, maybe a little more.
"Human emotions, don't bother analyzing them. You'll just end up malfunctioning." Kyuubi answered before yawning as she was quite bored and wished her vessel had listened to her and taken the bug vessel like the beast she was.
Naruto shook his head before cutting the link between the two as they were quite distracting. "The name is Naruto by the way... Just don't call me a vessel in front of my friends; I don't want them knowing yet."
Fuu simply yawned making him sight before shaking his head and flickering away leaving Fuu with a raised eyebrow. "Hm, he has some skill. Now what are you up to by sending the nine tailed vessel with me, Hokage?"
Jutsu Translations
Shinra Tensei - Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God
A/N: Well here is the second chapter. Sorry for the delay, however my flash drive was broken and there wasn't anything I could do about it. Most of this was to show more of Naruto's back ground and allow Naruto to interact with the other shinobi. If you have any questions about this chapter or just want to say have, leave them in a review and I'll get back to you, probably.
Peace Out.