A.N. You all have my sincerest apologies for posting this chapter 5 days later than scheduled. Lets just say school is hellacious and I barely have enough time to write as it is. I hate writers who make false promises saying that they'll have a certain chapter up by a certain time, then take way longer than they say. I promise that this is the last time this will happen. If I dont know if I have enough time to write a chapter, I just wont specify a date. Anyways, hopefully you enjoy this chapter. It was pretty half-assed and rushed, but I hope its not noticeable. I know that its troublesome, but if you can leave a review with constructive criticism (or even praise) on my work. It REALLY helps me out. Thanks guys. Enjoy!~
Naruto had arrived at the mission assignment office only to see a lone Chunin sleeping on a desk laden with scattered scrolls and documents. All official missions were separated by rank in bins. There were what seemed like thousands in the D-rank bin, Hundreds in the C and B-rank bin, A little less than 100 in the A-rank bin, and only about 20 missions in the S-rank bin.
"Hey… um… sir? Can ya wake up?" Naruto asked politely, gently nudging the man.
"It's kind of urgent, wake up please." Naruto said a bit more abrasive, still to no avail.
"WAKE THE HELL UP!" Naruto wailed at the Chunin.
The Chunin jumped awake and took in the scenery, realizing he was still at work.
"Hello." The man greeted politely.
"Hi. 50 D-rank missions please." Naruto asked as politely as he could, but still managed to sound rude.
"Isn't that a bit much? They're pretty easy, but 50 is quite a lot kid." the man asked.
"Just get me the missions." The blonde said, clearly fed up with the Chunin.
The man almost mechanically reached into the bin containing all of the D-rank missions, and pulled out 50 mission scrolls that were admittedly difficult to all carry at the same time.
"I'll see you in a week or so." The man said expecting all of those missions to take a while to complete as he gave the scrolls to the Uzumaki who waved and exited the premises.
"Finally." The chunin said as he once again drifted off into the realm of sleep seconds later.
Naruto, from outside the office conjured up 50 clones exactly and accordingly handed a scroll to each of them.
"Get going." Naruto commanded.
The clones scattered into many different areas of the village to complete their missions, which ranged from simple gardening, to troublesome pet retrieval and everything in between.
Over the next few hours, the clones reported in and dispersed giving him the ability to write mission reports from the memories they passed on to him. Naruto hated making so many clones that didn't disperse for long periods of time as gaining over hour-long memories from 50 or so clones around the same time gave him one hell of a headache. However, a man had to do what a man had to do.
By the time that every clone had finished his individual job and the mission reports were all filed by the main Naruto, it was late afternoon and the sun was at twilight.
Once again returning to the mission hall, he found the same Chunin sitting at the desk, now awake, but with an immensely bored expression. He gave an "ahem" to alert the man of his presence, and piled the mission scrolls on the table.
"All done." Naruto said with a noticeable tone of conceit and a laugh.
The chunin said nothing as the boy left the room. All he could do was stare at his back in amazement. He eventually filed every last report and added it to the boy's record. He was amazed that a boy who had been a genin for no more than a few hours already had this many missions done.
"Naruto Uzumaki…" the man thought to himself.
Naruto was abnormally giddy at the fact that he won his bet with Kakashi, and gained a hefty amount of money doing so. He was bummed that he wouldn't be able to tell him until tomorrow due to simply being unaware of his whereabouts, but he tried to be patient. The look on his face, or the small part of his face that was visible, would be priceless.
He decided to celebrate his success with a bit of his favorite thing to eat, Ichiraku Ramen.
As he made his way to the small Ramen shop, he was delivered the usual glares and "Demon!" taunts from the villagers. He knew why they thought of him so poorly, but he honestly couldn't care less. The nine tailed fox hadn't bothered him for his entire life and sometimes he even forgot it was inside of him.
When he was Hokage, they'd respect him and that was all that mattered. So for now, all he had to do was endure.
Naruto finally arrived at the ramen shop and walked in to see a man in a white chief outfit cleaning a bowl. His hat spelled out in red letters, "Teuchi".
"Heya old man." Naruto said enthusiastically.
"Well if it isn't my favorite customer! What can I get ya Naruto?" the cook said happily.
"I'll have the super teriyaki chicken beef combo ramen, to go please." The blonde said politely.
"To go? You don't say that often. In a hurry kid?" Teuchi asked.
"Not really. I'd just like a change of scenery while I eat, no offense." Naruto explained.
"None taken. I'll get right to it." the chief said as he began preparing the ramen.
About two minutes passed as Teuchi finished concocting the ramen and handed it off to Naruto.
"Thanks old man. See ya." The genin said as he departed the shop.
Teuchi waved the boy as he walked off and began washing dishes again.
Naruto continued on into the rear end of the village until he reached the hokage monument that displayed the four hokage.
Naruto climbed up onto the Hokage monument and sat on top of the stone head of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
Naruto had always looked up to the man, not only because he was cool to him, but due to the fact that he died protecting the village, like a true Hokage. He was quite an admirable man in the boy's eyes.
Naruto gazed at the sunset in awe. He always admired the sun as it set. The vivid colors of yellow, orange and red always blended in so beautifully. He really liked how those colors looked together.
"Today was a good day," the blonde mumbled aloud with a smile as he laid back. The stone was rough, but it wasn't much worse than the boy's low quality mattress so he didn't mind too much.
Naruto ate his bowl of ramen as he admired the sunset and fell asleep right on top of the monument without a care in the world.
The next morning…
Naruto awoke from atop the stone head and stretched about. He almost forgot that he fell asleep on a rock due to the fact that his mattress was pretty low quality and a bit too hard, so sleeping on a rock wasn't much of a downgrade.
"At least I'm not late…" Naruto grumbled as he judged the time by the area the sun was in. He had about an hour until he was due to arrive at the hidden leaf gate and meet up with his comrades.
The boy leapt down and made his way to his apartment so that he could take care of his morning hygiene.
Elsewhere...
"You mean… he actually did it?" Kakashi asked, more disappointed than he was surprised."
"Yeah, he came from out of nowhere asking for 50 missions. Then, before I knew it, he came back having completed them all! They were all D-rank, but that's still quite a lot." The man explained.
"I see…" the spiky haired man said disheartened.
"You've got one hell of a student on your hands." The chunin added.
"I suppose I do." The cycloptic man began.
"3 C-rank missions please." The jonin asked.
About 45 minutes later…
Naruto had taken care of his morning duties and packed up his supplies for the upcoming C-rank mission.
The blonde had arrived at the Hidden Leaf gate to see that Shino, Hinata, Sasuke, Sakura and Kiba were the only ones that had arrived. Shino and Hinata were standing uniformly near the wall while Sasuke leaned against the gate with his eyes closed; likely in deep thought. Sakura was standing a little too close to him with a noticeable blush on her face. Lastly, Kiba was sitting Indian style on the ground petting his puppy on the head.
"Hey." Naruto greeted aloud to no one in particular.
Shino turned to Naruto and nodded his head in the form of a greeting.
"G-G-Good m-m-morning N-N-N-Naruto…" Hinata stuttered as she fidgeted her fingers.
Sasuke glanced at the blonde for a few seconds, and then turned away.
Sakura scanned the boy, but desperately avoided all eye contact. She eventually turned away when Naruto looked back at the girl with an apathetic expression.
Kiba turned towards Naruto and semi-sarcastically asked, "Did that plan of yours work?"
"I told you I had it covered didn't I?" Naruto responded smugly
"What!?" Kiba the boy.
Sasuke snapped out of his trance and asked the blonde "Does that mean you actually did it?"
"What do you think?" Naruto asked tauntingly.
"You're lying, no way you did 50 missions in one day!" Kiba declared.
"If you say so." Naruto replied.
"How did you do so much in such a short period of time?" the bespectacled youth spoke up.
Naruto didn't say a word and simply placed his hands into the clone hand seal and conjured up about 100 clones.
'I wasn't aware he could conjure up this many. Interesting.' Shino thought to himself.
Sasuke said nothing but felt slightly inferior in the back of his mind.
Hinata said nothing due to her infamous shyness, but pondered how much chakra the boy really had.
Sakura already disliked being close to Naruto, but being near this many made her anxiety skyrocket; though she didn't show it.
"Well you're not so bad after all. I bet I could still beat you no sweat though!" Kiba taunted.
Naruto simply grinned at the boy's statement before dispatching all of the clones creating a large smokescreen for a few seconds.
"What's with the smoke?" A familiar voice asked.
Shikamaru and Choji walked up alongside each other with the ladder being the one to ask the question.
"He was probably showing the group his ability to conjure up many clones, thus explaining how he completed all of those D-rank missions. Am I right Naruto?" The Nara asked.
"How'd you know?" the blonde asked.
"It was pretty obvious. During the bell drill when you used clones you weren't fatigued at all. That was a dead giveaway that you're able to make much, much more." Shikamaru explained.
"You're as smart as ever." the blonde complemented earning a shrug from Shikamaru.
'I never knew that kid was that bright; all he does is sleep…' the Uchiha pondered.
Minutes later, a blonde girl approached the gate, looking groggier than usual. Due to disliking and/or barely knowing almost all of her teammates, she didn't feel the need to greet the bunch and just stood by the gate.
"Well good morning to you too." Naruto said sarcastically as he turned to the other blonde.
"Hi…" Ino said awkwardly.
Naruto turned away and continued to wait for his sensei along with his comrades.
Eventually, Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai all arrived at the gate with one scroll in each of their hands.
"Morning everyone." Kakashi said.
"I see you're finally on time." Naruto taunted.
"He wouldn't have been if we didn't force him out here. We practically had to drag him out here." Kurenai exaggeratingly said.
"Can we start the missions already!" Kiba complained.
"Fine with me." Asuma agreed.
"Alright everyone, I'd assume Naruto filled you in on our bet?" Kakashi asked gaining nods from several others.
"Well, then you should know he came through and won. He finished 50 D-rank missions yesterday all by himself. So, in return, we'll all partake in C-rank missions today. I hope you're ready."
The three Jonin opened the mission scrolls and began to recite the teams and missions they would partake in.
"Sasuke, Choji and Hinata, you're with me. We'll be going off into the land of chi to perform business negotiations with an upcoming village in hopes of forming an alliance early in the village's lifetime." Kurenai announced.
"Sakura, Shikamaru and Shino. We'll be hunting and neutralizing the giant moose-bear that's been terrorizing the civilians of our own home village. However, we'll need to travel all across our territorial borders to do so." Kakashi informed.
"Ok, Naruto, Ino and Kiba, we'll act as bodyguards as we escort a man back to his home in the land of waves to keep him safe. It's quite far from here, so we'll be there to protect him from robbers and wildlife. Nothing serious. We're set to meet him right here in 15 minutes." Asuma said.
'Not the most exciting mission, but a hell of a lot better than all of those damn D-ranks…' Naruto mentally concluded.
'I get the fat idiot and the girl who cant finish a sentence without stuttering. Great.' Sasuke thought.
'Oh no, I'm not on a mission with Sasuke! Well, at least I don't have to be with Naruto.' Sakura pondered.
'How troublesome… Kakashi could do this himself with low difficulty. Why do I have to tag along…' Shikamaru mentally complained.
Choji simply pulled out a bag of cheesy onion potato chips and began munching on them.
'The land of waves; that's too far! My feet will probably get blisters from walking that much!' Ino thought.
'Bodyguard Kiba. That has a badass ring to it!' Kiba thought with a grin.
Hinata wished she was on the same mission as Naruto, but was glad she had an easy mission where she couldn't get in the way.
Shino thought nothing in particular.
"This way guys." Kurenai said as she signaled her trio to follow her.
Kakashi simply walked off, leaving his trio to use their common sense to follow him.
Naruto, Kiba and Ino stood at the gate for about 10 minutes until a grey haired bespectacled man with a large beard walked up to them. He wore a sleeveless grey V-neck shirt, pants and a pair of sandals. He also wore a towel around his neck and a large pointed hat on his head.
"What the!? My life rests in the hands of a bunch of brats and their babysitter! Good job leaf village." The man said as he began clapping.
The man had an alcohol bottle hanging out of his left pocket. He was clearly tipsy.
"What was that!?" Kiba aggressively said with his fist in the air.
"Relax Kiba." Asuma said as he put a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder.
"You must be Tazuna. I'd rather we skip the formalities and just get going." Asuma directly insisted as he began walking with Naruto, Ino and Kiba following.
After mumbling under his breath for a few seconds, the man followed the bunch as they began their long trek to the distant land.
20 minutes later...
The group walked in a horizontal line staring with Kiba on the left, Naruto beside Kiba, Ino in between Naruto and Asuma, and Tazuna on the right.
"So Asuma-sensei, the land of waves is a passive village with no ninjas right?" Ino asked.
"Yeah, that's the only reason this mission is only a C-rank. If there were ninja assassins after us or something then this would easily be an A-rank mission. The odds of us being attacked at all are slim to none. We were only hired because Tazuna here is paranoid of getting mugged, right?" Asuma said with a chuckle while jokingly patting the man on the back.
"Y-Yeah. I got mugged once 20 years ago and never walked alone again. Heh…" The older man replied
Tazuna was visibly sweaty in which Naruto and even Asuma picked up on, with the latter dismissing it as nothing.
As the group walked on, Ino stepped in a deep puddle that she stopped the group to complain about.
"Its inside my sandal!" the girl whined.
"Its not that serious…" Kiba complained.
"Who cares if you got your foot wet! Lets keep moving!" Tazuna grunted.
Naruto, ignoring Ino's admittedly annoying whining, glared at the puddle then turned to Asuma. The bearded man had the same susceptive look that Naruto did and gave the boy a slight nod.
"Tazuna's right. Lets keep going." Asuma demanded, forcing Ino to reluctantly keep walking.
Suddenly, two bodies rose from the puddle and shot long shuriken chains towards the group, one aiming for the genin, and the other aiming for Asuma and Tazuna.
A.N. Like I said, an uneventful and rushed chapter. I really hope that you could still enjoy this. On a brighter note, as you can already tell by the team set up, the wave mission will go down quite differently from canon. No Kakashi, Sasuke or Sakura on this mission. Thanks for reading, and i'll see you at chapter 4! (hopefully :P)