AN: I'm setting the exchange rate at 100 ryu = £1. (Or $1.5/€1 now thanks to the genius that is Gordon Brown.)
Therefore some quick maths: If Anko eats ten Dango's a day for two year, at let's say £1 each. That's around 730,000 ryu for Naruto's bounty.
Make sure to read the Author Note at the bottom and vote!
Puppet Legend
Chapter 8 – Team Kakashi
Naruto dismissed his clones and looked around wearily. He was done, reached the point where he couldn't improve anymore alone or without further equipment. He'd handed over his last rent payment, had a final bowl of ramen, and killed the final bandit on the island.
He wouldn't miss Yokohama, with its poor, boring people, or its bleak weather, but he did feel a sense of nervousness. He was leaving the safety of the island, and entering the real world again: Hunter Nin's, Missing Nin's, evil group of Bijuu hunting lunatics and all.
Sealing the last of his possessions, Naruto locked the front door of the bungalow, hid the keys under the doormat as agreed, and made his way to the coast a few miles from the house. e HeHe
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu." A fifty foot long Salamander appeared out of the smoke in front of Naruto. It had brilliant blue scales, and was at least twice Naruto's height.
"Naruto-sama, why did you summon me?"
"I'm travelling back to Konoha, and it would be a great help if you would take me to the main land. Also I thought it could give me a chance to get use to riding on you."
"Of course Naruto-sama." The Salamander waiting until Naruto had landed on his back and crossed the sandy beach in a few strides. He entered the water till all but his head and the ridge of his back was submerged, and pushed off from the sea bed in the direction of fire country.
Two month earlier:
"Kakashi-sensei, is it true? Has Naruto become a Missing Nin?"
"Yes Sakura" Kakashi sighed, closed his book, and looked up at the pink haired girl in front of him.
"Serves the baka right. He shouldn't have chased Sasuke off, and leave me with no team. How am I going to impress Sasuke when he comes back now, when I'm going to have to stay as a Genin."
"How do you know Sasuke is coming back?"
"We're destined to be together, he's come back for me when he's killed his brother, then we'll live happily ever after and revive his clan." Sakura almost shouted, hearts shinning in her eyes.
"Anyway." Kakashi quickly added, changing the subject. "Two new Genin are being assigned to our team, and we'll be taking the Chuunin exams in a year."
"Who are they going to be, there were only nine graduates, and none of the others have run away, or got injured." Sakura asked, thankfully Sasuke was temporarily forgotten.
"These two graduated early from the academy."
"WHAT! I have to be on a team with two arrogant brats from the academy." Sakura shouted at Kakashi. "Even Naruto would've been better...well, maybe not but still. I'll never become a Chuunin and impress Sasuke now."
"The Council and the Hokage's advisers are sponsoring them, so I doubt their brats." Kakashi answered mildly before adding quietly. "However you are right in that they will probably be arrogant."
"Will Konohamaru and Hanabi please stand up?" Iruka stood at the front of his class looking in confusion at the piece of paper he'd just been given by a Chuunin messenger. "You two have been sponsored by the council to become Genin. You will meet the third member of your team and your Jonin Sensei in the Hokage's office in fifteen minutes.
There were a couple of groaning and complaining from the rest of the class, especially from the duo's respective fan boys/girls, however there was little love lost between the arrogant top two of the class and the majority.
Fifteen minutes later in the Hokage's office, Sarutobi removed the pipe from his mouth and looked down at the three Genin's standing in front of him. Silently he counted down, three two one, as Kakashi sailed through the open window into the room and landed silently behind his team. Usually he was three hours late, however after one day a particularly worked up Sarutobi had lost his temper, and now whenever he was seeing the Hokage he only arrived two hours late.
"On the council's demand you will now be a team." Sarutobi started, making his disgust at the decision plain. "You will train from seven in the morning to three in the afternoon when you will take on three D-rank missions. On the weekends you will take a C-rank mission decided by the Council and every month they will monitor your progress."
"In the morning between seven and ten, Kakashi will be late. Therefore each of you will have individual training. Sakura, you will go to the Hospital and learn how to become a Medi-Nin. Just give your name to the receptionist, and someone will be assigned to teach you. Hanabi, you will be taught by two Hyuuga in the ANBU, who will teach you the clan's most advanced Jutsu's. And finally: Konohamaru. Ebisu will continue your training; however once a week my old teammates will give you lessons in politics and diplomacy."
"I'm sorry for doing this, but the Elders, the Council and even the fire lord are united. Now get out of here and go introduce yourself or whatever shit you guys get up to nowadays. I'll see you at three for your first D-rank mission." For the first time in the meeting the elderly Hokage smiled. "Oh dear, I think I just heard Tora the cat escaping again. At least I still get to choose what missions you guys do." He chuckled quietly to himself till the doors had closed, and slyly reached under his desk for a little orange...pile of paper work. He nodded. Defiantly a pile of paper work.
"Orochimaru-sama, what can I do for you?"
"Are the sound four back from their mission yet Kabuto?"
"They got back in yesterday sir, the assassination went as planned, and their fully rested and ready to go as you command."
"Excellent, tell them to leave for Konoha immediately. I want to know if they've retained the Kyuubi yet, and are keeping it from me. If we don't have him in ten days, get your team ready to leave for Konoha. You need to get there by the time the Chuunin exam nominations are handed in."
"Of course Orochimaru-sama. Is there anything else?"
"How are the science experiments coming along?"
"Two have survived."
"Excellent, add a random Genin to their team, give them a Jounin sensei, and get them ready to leave shortly after you. I need one of them to get through to the final: The Suna Yondaime still has his uses."
"It will be done Lord Orochimaru."
"Before you go Kabuto, how is Kimimino doing?"
"He hasn't got long left, I've estimated six months."
"Such a shame, he would've made a perfect vessel."
"Thank-you Shansho, catch something to eat before you go if you want."
"I will Naruto-sama, good luck." The salamander waiting until Naruto had disappeared off into the trees, then sunk back into the water.
One month earlier:
"I guess the dobe's team couldn't make it." Kiba commented as the doors to the exam room shut.
"Didn't you hear?" Chouji said, overhearing Kiba, and wandering over from where team 10 were standing. "Naruto and Sasuke have left the village."
"You mean they've become..."
"...Missing Nin's." Chouji finished. "Where've you been, he's been in the bingo book for a month now, Asuma-sensei showed us."
The rest of Chouji's team had come across now, and the six Genin were drawing a lot of attention to themselves.
"Training." Shino answered, the usually mute Genin asked, looking confused, if that notion were possible to the bug user. "A month, how hasn't he been caught yet?"
"Well it's obvious, no-one can be bothered going to get him. He probably has a lower bounty than a D-rank mission." Kiba injected scornfully. He and Naruto had spent years bunking off at the academy together, but Naruto's skills were the class joke, and Hinata was his teammate. It was as if nothing he did ever impressed her, all she thought about was the dead last.
"He's listed at three quarters of a million ryu." Ino replied smugly, Sasuke's only worth a hundred thousand, and he's to be brought back unharmed. Naruto-kun's says still breathing next to it."
"Sorry about her." Shikamaru muttered, waiting till Ino was completely caught up in her fantasy about a tattooed beefy Naruto beating up all the Hunter Nin's in the world to come and rescue her...
Team 8, weren't allowed to voice their surprise at Naruto's status or Ino's apparent crush as at that moment a cloud of smoke revealed a scared Jounin who glared round at the group of Genin.
"The exam starts now. Go through to the next room and find a seat."
Five days later:
"Sakura."
"Ino, what are you doing here? It's five in the morning."
"I know, but your new team means you're never around, besides, don't you want to hear about the Chuunin exams."
"Wait a moment." Ino heard some scrambling around, and a minute later Sakura opened her front door dressed in her usual pink dress.
"Where are we going?"
"Hot springs, I need a good soak after what happened."
"What did happen?"
"Well, first there was this test. I managed to find someone who knew the answers, so took over his mind, and copied his answers." Ino began as the two friends set off down the road in the direction of the hot springs. "Then the weird examiner did some weird question and we passed."
"Tell me Ino, we're taking that test in half a year, and I need to become a Chuunin to impress Sasuke-kun."
"I can't see why your still interested in him, Naruto-kun is so much cooler, but if you really want to know." Sakura held her tongue. She wouldn't get the necessary information if she pointed out to her poor deluded friend how much cooler Sasuke-kun was. No, she'd let her finish then point it out.
"He said if you failed the tenth question you could never become a Chuunin, so loads of people left, but really there was no question, it was about Chuunin having to take risks on missions."
"Right, I have to take risks." Sakura summarised to herself. "What happened next, you can't have been gone for nearly a week and look like that just from some exam."
"Yeah, so then some crazy lady came in. Kept muttering about stupid Missing Nin's and Dango. Anyway, she took us to this huge forest, and gave us one of two scrolls, and said we had to get one of each and get to the tower in the centre. Anyway, we found two teams fighting, and waiting till they were finished, and tired out. Then followed them to where they made camp for the night. I managed to invade the mind of the guard to keep him quiet, while Shikamaru stole the scroll."
"When we made it to the tower we had these preliminary rounds because there were too many people for the final. I was drawn against this evil girl from Suna, and didn't have time to perform my Jutsu because she kept attacking me with that huge fan of hers."
"How did all the other people in our academy class do?"
"Oh, Skikamaru got through, and Kiba and Shino form Team 8. Then there were this other team that were a year older than us, and two of them got through, Hinata nearly got killed by this guy whose her cousin, and one of his teammates, this girl who throws weapons got through. The rest were two guys from Sound, and the whole team from Suna."
By this time the two girls had arrived at the Hot springs, and were stripping off in the nearly deserted changing rooms.
"So what happens now?" Sakura asked.
"Well those ten get a month to do some training, and then they have to fight in a tournament at the stadium in front of a huge crowd. How's your team going?"
"A bit better, the others are finally beginning to acknowledge me. On a mission last week Konohamaru got stabbed in the chest, and Kakashi-sensei said if I hadn't been there he could've died. Also I managed to land a hit on him in a spar we had the other day. It's a lot more serious than when Naruto and Sasuke were around, and the Hokage even came down to watch one of our training session. Kakashi teaches us a lot more and we get to go on better missions."
"Sounds fun, what's the hospital like?"
"It's great, the patients are really nice, and if I pass the test on Friday I'll get to train to become a field medic..."
It is unclear as to what the duo would have said next, because at that moment a very loud sneeze sounded from just behind the fence enclosing the female half of the baths.
Five minutes later, the Hokage sat behind his desk looking pleased with himself for once, Kakashi standing to one side casting sympathetic looks towards his hero. "We were just talking about you Jiraiya."
"Yes." He groaned, and took one had away from between his legs to rub his head. "I noticed that."
"Well, it's been eight days since I called you, why are you so late."
"I came here as fast as my old body, and the hot springs alone the way would allow."
The Hokage cleared his throat awkwardly. "Yes, well, what have you got to report?"
"Orochimaru. He's formed an alliance with Suna, and is planning an attack on Konoha."
"When?"
"Chuunin exam finals, and he's got himself a Bijuu."
AN: Important Poll: Should the Pairing be Naruto/Kyuubi, Naruto/Kyuubi/Anko or Naruto/Anko. Please leave a review and give your opinion and maybe a reason why, that'd be awesome, and really help me decide. As well as or otherwise you could vote on my profile page, but unless there's a huge majority, I will probably not pick the pairing on the winner alone...if you get what I mean.
This is the point in the story where the pairing will affect the plot, so I need to decide before I write the next chapter.
Extra Note: Due to all the new functionalty fanfic's been putting in, which on the whole is great, I can't see whoes review's I've replied to, so sorry if I've missed someone or replied to you twice. I read and apprecate every review I get, and love you guys for it!!
Since I hadn't updated for absolutely ages, I thought I'd update again in quick succession, but this time I really will have to update again after my exams in a couple of weeks. Till then.
Sorry to all those not interested in football, but before I leave you, three words: Man Utd lol!