Ghost Wolf: Well, here we are again.

Quote the Speechless: Oh, give it a rest. Don't you ever have anything positive to say?

Ghost Wolf: I am trying to be positive but it's not easy when everyone complains. Thanks to everyone who enjoys the story though.

Quote the Speechless: We haven't gotten that many complaints, but we have gotten a lot of positive reviews.

Ghost Wolf: Well then, thanks to all the positive reviewers. I am just sorry that Nonsooth couldn't be with us.

Quote the Speechless: Yes well, she is here in a way. She is the one that edited the chapter and corrected all of my grievous errors.

Ghost Wolf: I could say something about your spelling… But I won't.

Quote the Speechless: … Shut up…

Legal: I do not own Naruto. I am just a humble writer.
Time passed. Naruto was bored and Kyuubi was frustrated because Naruto was bored. Sasuke was agitated as well. Only Sakura and Kakashi didn't seem to be affected. What was the reason for all of this? Two words: yard work. It was the sixth D Rank mission they had taken, weed Mr. Sono's garden. Naruto hadn't been expecting anything big, but this was lower than he had expected by far.

Their first 'mission' had been to deliver some scrolls across the village. They took it very seriously until they found out the scrolls were only cooking recipes. The second was to walk a large set of dogs around Konoha. In truth it was more like the dogs dragged all three of the genin around the village. The third had been to help a librarian reorganize the books. Naruto enjoyed the feeling of being back in the library, as it had been one of the places he used to hang out in before he had been kicked out of the orphanage.

So far the worst task had been the fourth, babysitting a set of five-year-old triplet boys. They were nightmares, each of them. None of the three genin could keep up with them, they didn't seem to need words to know what the others were thinking. At first it was little things, like confusing Sakura by switching names and getting 'upset' when Sakura couldn't get them straight. Then they moved on to Sasuke, pushing him to the limits by asking him inane questions without end, such as 'why?' When they finally moved on to Naruto, he thought he was prepared for them. He was wrong. He should have known that Tag was probably not the best idea when they looked at each other and smiled before running away from him while he counted to twenty. When he started looking for them, he could have sworn they were ninja by how well they hid themselves. Then one would pop up from behind a desk suddenly and disappear just as quickly when he jumped after. By the end of that 'mission' Sakura was on the verge of ripping her hair out, Sasuke had a twitch in his left eye and would reach for his kunai holster if he heard the question 'why?', and Naruto was exhausted and ready to swear that there were six of them, instead of three. Kakashi just chuckled and wished luck to the one that had to teach them when they became ninja. The mere thought caused the others to shudder.

By contrast, the fifth mission was a walk in the park. Literally. They had to deliver some tools from a woodworking shop to another. Along the way they walked though one of the most beautiful parks in Konoha. It was a beautiful day and they all enjoyed it. So here they were now, weeding Mr. Sono's garden. But Kyuubi was tired of having Naruto doing such menial tasks and Naruto was eager to agree.

"Gods and Demons, kid, you're making slower progress now than you did when you were in the academy," the demon chided Naruto as he pulled up a dandelion and threw it into the pile. "Next time you go to get a mission try and get a better one than just one of these stupid weeding jobs again." Naruto nodded and kept working, it was a hot day and all three of the genin were sweating. It was too hot for them to even talk with each other, so they continued to work in silence except for the occasional mumbled threat against weeds or grumbles about how much longer it was going to take.

It was not quite true what Kyuubi said. Naruto and the others were improving quite quickly, but only in certain areas. The main thing that Kakashi focused on was team work. When they didn't have a mission, he would take them to their training grounds and give them a task to accomplish, like taking the bells from him, or keeping him away from the bells. Naruto was still training hard with the demon on different techniques and he spent time every night working on the stances for the Element Styles.

But it was also true that on the skills that Kyuubi focused, he was not improving as quickly as he had before. Naruto kept adding weight to his jacket. Once a week, he would increase the amount by one more step. Currently, the combined weight was around 300 lbs, causing him to expend chakra to keep from showing how much weight he was carrying around. The constant use of chakra tired him, but made him stronger.

Naruto brought it up when the three met at the bridge. "I am so tired of these stupid missions," Naruto said as he lay down under a tree. The other two joined him. Sasuke did so more to get out of the sun than anything else. He still disliked working with the two, but he didn't show it as much as he had before. Sakura sat down close to Sasuke. She would have sat with him anyway, but it was nice to get out of the sun.

"But what can we do? We're just Genin," Sakura said. Of the three she was the most resigned to the small time missions. Though she didn't show it, her inner mind was screaming to get out and get away from the petty missions.

Sasuke just snorted. He hated the missions. He had to train, that was the only way to get stronger, and these small time missions were doing nothing for him.

"I say that today, when we see the Hokage, we demand a better mission." Naruto looked at the other two to see their reactions. Sasuke perked up for a moment at the thought of a higher rank mission. Sakura looked torn. She knew she wasn't strong, and her fighting skills were far below those of her team mates, but when she looked at Sasuke she knew he would protect her, and so if he wanted a tougher mission, she would want one to. They both looked at Naruto and nodded. "Alright, here's what we do…" and the three of them leaned in, planning on how to get the Hokage to give them a better mission.

Deep inside Naruto, the Kyuubi grinned. With any luck they would get a mission out of Konoha and then he would be able to get Naruto to practice more with his demon senses, something they had been severely lacking in.

Kakashi arrived last, as usual. As he took the three genin up to the Hokage's office he noted the difference. They acted as though they were planning something. The Hokage was sitting behind his desk as usual when they arrived. Today, Iruka was with him, handing out the mission assignments. As their next set of duties were being read off, Naruto looked at the other two and rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on!" Naruto complained. He usually wasn't loud, but he felt it was necessary in these circumstances to get what he wanted. "All we've been doing is these stupid little things. Why can't we get something bigger? We're ready for it!" The other two genin nodded in agreement. Kakashi just groaned to himself, he was going to get in trouble for this, he just knew it.

"You IDIOT," Iruka yelled at Naruto. He was not pleased with the outburst, especially when it was his turn to be working with the Hokage. "You're just Genin, and even with Sakura and Sasuke, you aren't ready to take on even a C Class mission." Though he probably didn't mean it this time, that comment really got under Naruto's skin.

"You think I'm useless, is that it?" he spoke softly, but with an edge on it that reminded some of the ring of steel as it slid out of a sheath. When he looked up at Iruka, his eyes burned with cold contained anger. "I am NOT useless, and I could prove it if you gave me a chance." This action startled Sakura and Sasuke, it wasn't in the plan at all, and they had never heard Naruto speak like that before. It shook them deeply. Kakashi was tensed and ready to step in if something happened, when a little laugh from the Hokage completely broke the mood.

"Alright," he chuckled from under his large hat. "You others agree with him that you think you are ready?" Naruto just stared at him as Sasuke and Sakura nodded in turn. "Then you'll get your C Class Mission. Your mission is to protect a Mr. Tazuna on his trip back to the Wave Country. From there you will protect him until the completion of the bridge before returning."

"But Sir," Iruak interrupted. "They're just Genin!"

"Everyone deserves a chance Iruka, remember that," the old man smiled around his pipe. Naruto smiled back at the Hokage, he was getting not only a better mission, but a mission outside of Konoha. "Now show in Mr. Tazuna, so they may meet the one they are going to be looking after." Iruka nodded his assent, finally giving up the point as he got up and went to the door. Opening it, he ushered in a man in his late fifties holding a bag on his back and a bottle of Sake in his hand.

"These shrimps are supposed to protect me?" he asked, his voice only slightly slurred by the sake that he had drunk. "They look like a bunch of brats to me, especially the short one."

Naruto frowned at the man, already he didn't like him. He was supposed to spend time protecting him? This was going to be a long mission. The fact that Sakura giggled at his comment about the 'short one' was not helping at all. Naruto knew he was short.

"Many surprises come from the least expected source," Naruto said. The man stopped the bottle halfway to his lips and looked at Naruto, a slow grin spreading across his face.

"HA! I like you kid, that was a good one. I was half expecting you to fly off the handle." He laughed and tuned to look at the Hokage and then Kakashi, "Well? When do we leave?"

Kakashi turned to the Genin. "You have twenty minutes to get packed for a four day trip. Don't take anything you don't absolutely need. Meet at the East Gate with your bags ready."

"Yes, Sensei," they chorused before running out.

Naruto ran back to his little apartment, grabbed his stuff, and shoved it into a backpack. Grabbing all his Kunai, Shuriken and Senbon needles, he packed some into the bag and put the rest into his secret pockets in the jacket and pants.

"Relax, kid. You're not going to war here. This is just a guard mission. And you're going to spend it training," but Kyuubi laughed. "Pack half of your Shuriken and Kunai, don't worry about the needles. Besides you aren't as good with them as you are with the others. Don't bring any medical stuff, either. I can heal any injury you sustain." Naruto nodded and took the demon's advice, packing only as instructed. A change of clothes, along with the weapons, went into his bag. He also brought the forearm bracers, and at Kyuubi's instruction, a pair of sunglasses and a bandanna. "I'll explain later, Kid, when you need them."

With everything packed, Naruto ran to the East Gate. The others were already there. "Sorry I'm late," he apologized. "My apartment isn't that close to this gate."

"You're not late, you're actually right on time," Kakashi said, as he stood off to the side with Tazuna. "Well, time to go." And with that they all started walking east, towards the coast where Wave Country was located. As they walked, Kakashi explained to them a little about the other ninja countries. "Many countries have Hidden villages, so they aren't reliant on the Five Great Shinobi Countries. Examples of this are Hidden Waterfall and Hidden Grass. Wave Country currently doesn't have the infrastructure to bring in the things necessary to make and sustain a Hidden Village."

"So, these other Hidden villages, do they have Kage? I mean is there is Kusakage in Grass, or a Takikage in Waterfall?" Sakura piped up, curiosity getting the better of her shy nature.

"Nope, only the Five Great Shinobi Countries have Kage to lead them. The villages just have an elder or powerful ninja to lead them, but they do not have the title of Kage. To get the title, they would have to be recognized by the other Great Countries, and there are some standards and things that are too boring to get into."

Naruto was walking ahead of the others. It was a bright day, so when he put on the sunglasses no body thought to question him about it. He started to focus Chakra into his eyes as Kyuubi instructed him. At first, nothing happened but then differences started to appear. The trees became greener, they seem to blur, as if the outline was solid but the colors started to bleed, mixing and interacting with the colors surrounding them. It wasn't just the trees but every living thing. A bird stood out in the tree as a vibrant ruby as it sang. Naruto had to restrain himself from trying to understand the song. If his ears changed it would be a dead giveaway as to the change that had come over him. Overall, the feeling from his surroundings, from the trees, was contentment. There was plenty of sunlight, and water under the ground for them, the soil was fertile and they had all they could need.

He glanced back at his teammates and teacher. Sakura's aura was pink with a tinge of blue that only spread a little way from her body, not as free as the trees auras. As she glanced over at Sasuke the intensity of the pink increased while the blue almost disappeared. Sakura blushed and looked away and slowly the colors returned to as they had been.

"The different colors represent the different emotions," Kyuubi said. "Depending on the intensity and color, you can see how a person feels and how strongly. This is the first level of the Demon Eyes. The pink of the girl is her affection for the other boy, the blue is her confidence. When she looks at the boy, her affection grows but her confidence disappears to almost nothing. For now, use the colors to identify emotions, but by the end of this trip, you should be able to work without the colors and know instinctively what a person's aura is."

Naruto nodded and turned to look at his other teammate. Sasuke shocked him. There were no bright colors, only very dark ones. Black, dark blue, and dark green surrounded him. Black was the greatest color, blue the second, and the dark green last. As Naruto looked more there seemed to be another color, covering the others. It reminded him of the shifting colors that one sees when looking at oil.

"Black is anger and hatred, undirected and wild, the most dangerous kind. That boy has a lot of it. I wonder what could have made him that way." Kyuubi sounded a bit intrigued but moved on to the next color nonetheless. "Blue, as I said before, is confidence. As you know, he is very confidant in his abilities and strength. Green is envy. This is a curious boy. He seems to have everything, and yet he is full of anger and envy. Just one more thing, that shimmer around him, that is the Aura of Madness. This boy is not the most stable of people mentally, be careful of him in future if you see that aura increase."

"What are you looking at?" Sasuke snapped at Naruto, he had apparently noticed him looking and was not pleased. Naruto just smiled and turned around, he would look at Kakashi later if he could.

Naruto kept his Demon Eyes activated as they kept walking, it was then that he noticed the puddle. It was about twenty feet ahead of them and it shimmered blue, with some of that Aura of Madness. There was a new color as well, a shimmering purple. And when Naruto looked closer he saw that it was not just one, but two Auras.

"Killing intent, that is the purple color. Be careful, those are human auras. Someone is hiding there, and laying in ambush. You most likely will be attacked, be on Guard."

They walked past the puddle without event. It wasn't until after they had walked past the puddle that they were attacked. So quiet that not even Kakashi seemed to notice a figure rise from the puddle, another person on his back. They both had metal gauntlets on their arms, one had it on his left hand while the other had it on his right. Oddly, the gauntlets were connected by a long spiked chain.

Naruto whirled around at the sound of metal rattling. He grabbed a set of Kunai out of his holster and got them ready, but it was too late. Kakashi was wrapped fully in the chains.

"One Down," said the one with the gauntlet on his left hand. Both figures yanked on the chain and it shredded through the figure of Kakashi. Next, both figures appeared on either side of Naruto.

"Two Down," said the other. But it was not true. Sasuke jumped into the air. He threw a shuriken and pinned the chain to a tree, then a kunai through the hole in the shuriken so that the chain could not be removed. The nin tried to pull free but could not. As Sasuke came down, Naruto spun chakra around the Kunai in his hands as Kibou taught him and stabbed both the attackers in the elbow of their arms that had the gauntlets. The point that he aimed for was one that Keito had taught him with her Lightning Style. He managed to completely immobilize their arms while the chakra cauterized the wounds so they wouldn't bleed to death.

Sauske came down, grabbed the gauntlets, one in each hand, and turned. Then he kicked his feet out behind him and kicked the attackers in the face. It was at this point that the chains broke away from the gauntlets. The two were fazed for a moment by the kicks, but it wasn't enough to stop them. One attacked Naruto while the other rushed at Sakura and Tazuna.

Naruto only had a moment to bring his arms up. With his good arm, the attacker spun a kunai out of the pouch on his leg, seeming to ignore his inability to feel anything below the elbow of his other arm other than burning pain. Naruto felt the sting of his attacker's Kunai across the back of his hand before there was a black blur and the attack on him stopped.

Sasuke landed and saw one of the ninja launching himself at Sakura and Tazuna. He wasted no time in putting himself between the attacker and his apparent target, the bridge builder. But nothing happened. In a blur of black, Kakashi appeared, under each of his arms was one of the disabled ninja. What they had thought was Kakashi before was instead wooden logs that had only appeared to be him. Kakashi wasted no time in tying both of the attackers to a nearby tree.

"It seems that we have several problems currently. These are Mist Chuunin, from what I saw their target was Mr. Tazuna. Now through the mission grade selection process, the worst that can be expected for a C Class mission is occasional bandits. Only in A or B class missions are the enemies expected to be other ninja."

"Kakashi Sensei," Sakura said in a pleading tone. "We aren't ready to fight other shinobi."

"But we already accepted the mission. But that leads to another problem. Naruto has been injured, and the Kunai used against him was most likely poisoned." The others turned to look at Naruto and at his cut hand.

Naruto looked down at his hand where the cut was, it was not healing and already he could feel a burning sensation eating its way up his arm. Thankfully, Keito had insisted on teaching him at least a little first aid. With the others watching, he pulled off his jacket and grabbed the bandana from his bag, quickly using it to tie a tourniquet around his upper arm.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked him. The sight of blood still dripping from his hand was making her a little sick.

"I'm going to draw out the poison. I refuse to be the weakness that makes this mission turn back." He twirled a Kunai in his other hand and brought it down, cutting it diagonally across the back of his cut hand gritting his teeth against the pain. Soon the burning sensation lessened and completely died away.

"That's all very good Naruto, and you did the right things, but… that cut is too big and too deep. If it isn't treated properly, you could bleed to death." Naruto wished he could hit the man, but he was right. The cut was too deep, and for a normal person that could have meant a long slow death of blood loss. Naruto was not a normal person. Without saying anything, Naruto reached up with his good hand and untied the bandana from his upper arm. He started to tie it around his hand to stop the blood loss.

"Naruto that…" Kakashi's voice trailed off as he reached out to stop Naruto. But what he saw made him pause. The cut that Naruto had made was already healing. By the look of it, there wouldn't even be a scar. Kakashi looked up to find Naruto staring at him, challenging him to say anything. There was coldness in those blue eyes, which made Kakashi take another moment to think. "… that should do it, but I'll have to examine the… cut later."

"Alright, Kakashi Sensei," Naruto managed a small smile as he looked at the Jounin in front of him. He still had some reservations about him, but maybe, just maybe, he could trust this man enough to let him into his life. Naruto took that moment to finish tying the back of his hand off with the bandana though it was almost unnecessary now, and to examine the Aura of his teacher.

He didn't even bother trying to identify the colors but instead just tried to identify the feelings that came from each color. Currently, at the top was a lot of curiosity mixed with a little apprehension. But there was a great deal of confidence and much like the trees, there was the green calm.

Kakashi turned back to their attackers, only to find them glaring at him. His response was to start ticking off on fingers.

"Sunny day, plus no rain for days, equals… no puddles." He smiled at them. "Well, we'd love to stay and all, but we have to be going. Someone should be along to pick you up in a little while." He then turned to Tazuna who was looking more than a little worried. "Now that Naruto has been taken care of I have some questions for you."

"Please, I beg you, just take me to my village, I'll explain everything. Just please get me home to my daughter and Grandson," Tazuna pleaded with Kakashi. "Wave Country, my home, is failing. This bridge is its last hope. Ever since the crime lord Gatou set up business. He's the one in charge of the shipping between the islands of Wave and the mainland, among other thing. The rates he charges are severe, but that is not the only thing. Since he started, he's been moving in Drugs and other things, and the Mercenaries that he uses to guard them are scaring away all the people who have enough money to get out.

"All I ask is that you get me to the site. It's true that I lied. Gatou will do anything to see that I die and that the bridge is left unfinished. Please, get me there. Give my people a fighting chance." Naruto examined his aura and noticed he was telling the truth and he was sincere about his feelings.

"I don't know about you two," Naruto said as he cleaned off the Kunai that he had used against the Ninja. Everyone turned to look at him. "But I say we finish the mission. Besides, it might be interesting to fight some ninja from another village." That comment really sparked Sasuke's curiosity, and through him Naruto knew that he had Sakura hooked. Sakura really looked worried about the prospect of facing against other ninja but she would follow Sasuke to the depths of hell, so eventually she agreed.

"That's settled, come on," Kakashi turned and with Tazuna and the three Genin they headed down the road and onward to Wave Country. Everyone stayed on higher guard throughout the rest of the journey. Well, they presumed Kakashi was on higher alert. It was hard to tell when he was reading his book and giggling every few minutes.

To be Continued…

Quote the Speechless: Well it seems that Nonsooth has graced us with her presence. Any words of Wisdom from our Great Editor?

Nonsooth: Babysitting is Lots of fun. Except when it's not. Getting your ass kicked is also not fun (I speak from personal experience). Recent Experience too. As in Yesterday.

Quote the Speechless: Ah yes, the Joy of Contact sports. Rugby in this instance.

Nonsooth: And no padding.

Quote the Speechless: Thank you for editing the chapter. I am sure that the readers also appreciate it.

Nonsooth: Yea those run on sentences tend to be headache inducing after a while. To Readers: I suffer so you don't have to.

Quote the Speechless: And I'm sure their appreciation of you has risen to new heights.