I do not own Naruto. If i ever bother to buy the rights, im going to eat them up and fart it in Saugay's face.
Chapter X: Mission Denial
Naruto woke up at 6 AM, later then usual thanks to the fiascos of the last couple of days. He stretched in bed, rolling out the knots that had formed in his sleep. Despite roughing it out for the last seven years, he was used to dodging kunai and sfhuriken thrown at him by Kunoichi, not the Kunoichi themselves.
Rolling out of bed, Naruto yawned and stretched some more. He stalked off to the bathrooms, still grumbling about the previous day.
Shutting the door behind him, he quickly took a shower, brushed his teeth, shaved the stubble off of his chin, and dunked his head into the ever present bucket of ice water.
"AHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Déjà vu, isn't it? Needless to say, Naruto was now fully awake.
Naruto bypassed his daily bowl of instant ramen in favor of Ichiraku's Breakfast Ramen, which according to Choji, tasted as good as the normal menu. He grabbed his jacket, slipped on a new hat, disabled the security on the gates, and walked out into the street.
He was just about to transform into an unsuspecting Chunin when a cough behind him stirred him out of his reverie.
Naruto turned around slowly, half scared at what he might see. He froze, half surprised, half angry.
Hanabi and a whole platoon of Hyuga, all teenage girls, were trapped in the netting that hung in the courtyards. He had instructed his shadow clones to set them up yesterday, knowing that there was the chance that Hyuga could break through the defenses and lie in wait for them there.
"Hmm… now how did you get there?"
Hanabi glared at him. "How do you think, you baka?"
Naruto scratched his head, shrugged, and headed back out the gates. "I don't know, but you'll tell me when I get back. For now, I'll leave you some company." He made six shadow clones and instructed them to stand guard over the girls.
He stopped again when Hanabi yelled at him.
"HEY! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO BE BACK?"
Naruto turned around, shrugging. "Don't know. Baa-chan didn't come here last night, so I'm going to her. It could be in minutes, if I have to catch that damned cat, or it could be never, if I get killed. Either way, don't bother trying to cut those nets with the gentle fist. I made them Hyuga-Resistant, since I had a feeling that you would try this. Oh, you can break through them," he said, seeing the look on Hanabi's eye. "If you and those fangirls of yours hacked at them for three weeks nonstop, I suppose."
He chuckled at the look on Hanabi's face.
"But… are you just going to let us starve to death?"
Naruto pointed to the shadow clones. "What do you think those are for, decoration? They'll feed and water you, just be sure not to make them angry or they might stop, and who knows when I'll be back. The Hyuga can't step into this courtyard without setting off dozens of traps, so they can't help you."
At this, he punched one clone with a scowl, who was ogling the girls. Why was there always a perverted one in the bunch? The rest of the clones looked up from their game of 'Go Fish', shrugged, and went back to playing.
"Got any twos?"
"Nah, go fish."
The sight of five Narutos playing go fish only seemed to infuriate Hanabi again. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! I AM THE HEIR TO THE HYUGA CLAN! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!"
Naruto shrugged again. "I have every right. You're trespassing on private property, and since we are ninja, I have the right to detain you. The law doesn't say how long, but that's up to my discretion. But you're the heir to the Hyuga Clan now? What about-"
"Hinata has the cursed seal branded on her. She just hides it with a Genjutsu."
Naruto scowled and shrugged. "Well, let's change that, shall we?"
Hanabi seemed to deflate. "Y-Y-You can remove the cursed seal?"
He nodded. "It's not that complex of a seal, to tell you the truth. I'm really surprised that the Raikage and the Mizukage, along with Orochimaru-teme haven't gotten their hands on it already. Anyway, I've spent enough time talking to brats. Later!"
With that, he Haraishined away to god knew where. The girls sat back in their net disappointed, watching the Naruto clones fight each other over who got to deal the cards next.
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Naruto reappeared next to Ichiraku's ramen, where he had sent a transformed clone to notify Ayame to have a bowl of ramen sitting on the counter downstairs, ready for his quick morning consumption. However, what he didn't count on was the amount of fangirls already lying in wait for him at the shop, bowls of untouched ramen sitting in front of them.
He scowled, transformed into a nondescript genin, and walked inside, avoiding the glares from the fangirls. They were pretty sure that it was him, but didn't want to make a mistake and start glomping an innocent kid. So, they let him pass to the bar, where he slipped across a strip of paper to Ayame, who nodded and got his bowl of cooling ramen out.
Naruto ate as quickly as he could without attracting attention, which was slow by his and Choji's standards, but would have been blazing for anyone else watching. Luckily, no one else was watching, since all of the fangirls were staring at the door, waiting to pounce the moment that Naruto poked his head inside.
After finishing, he rushed out the door and jumped onto the nearest rooftop before transforming back into himself. The morning dew was still clinging to most of the grass and trees, giving them a reflective look. He breathed in deeply. This was the village that he remembered in the morning.
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Tsunade was not in the best of moods. She had gone up to Naruto's door and pressed the intercom for half an hour before he had come out. Once there, the 'Naruto' told her that the real Naruto was asleep. It just had to be a shadow clone, didn't it?
On top of that, Shizune was harassing her about finishing her paperwork, drinking less, and to quit gamboling so much. In other words, the daily shouting. Not that she would pay attention, but it did make her assistant feel better about herself.
She had just taken another sip of sake, this time disguised as a western drink- coffee, when three extremely loud bangs came through the door. She sighed and said, "Come in."
Naruto bounded in with a grin on his face and two bowls of ramen held out as a peace offering. They had no doubt come from his stash in the scroll. When she refused, he shrugged and downed both bowls of noodles, summoned two clones to take them back, and sat down in front of the Fifth Hokage.
"Well, Baa-chan? How did I do?"
Tsunade considered punching him as hard as she could, but the shockwave from that might level a quarter of the village, so she refrained. "Brat. You haven't changed one bit in these last seven years."
Naruto grinned. She had left herself wide open for this one. "And you haven't changed one bit, for a sixty-year old hag."
Shizune, who had just walked in, caught the last bit of that sentence, and froze. Her fear was well warranted. Tsunade had shattered the mug in her hand without thinking, and her eyes had turned red. Hell, her entire body turned red. Naruto neglected to notice this fact as he turned around to greet Shizune.
"Yo! Long time no see, Shizune!"
Shizune just gulped and swiftly backed out of the room without saying a word.
Naruto turned around just in time to get a face full of Tsunade's fist. This time, without anchoring himself with chakra and without a counterattack, he went flying. Literally. Tsunade had punched him even without using chakra, but it still had him spinning nearly two hundred feet in the air.
Quickly realizing that he wasn't in the Hokage's office anymore, his mind automatically returned to his training, and he stabilized his flight with bursts of chakra. Naruto slowly floated downward, as if he had a parachute.
By the time that he had gotten back to the office, Tsunade was sitting there as if nothing had happened, calming sipping her drink. Shizune had also plucked up the courage to come back inside.
Naruto landed in his chair with a soft flump, as if he was just floating in for a casual greeting. Tsunade scowled into her drink again and Shizune just gulped. She thought that he was crazy after landing that casually after being hit by Tsunade.
Tsunade, on the other hand, put her drink down and pulled a package from under her desk. It was bulky, since it contained his Jonin Vest, but it also had some other things that his parents had wanted him to have when he had achieved the rank of Jonin. They had thought that he would be ready for their identity to be revealed by then.
But of course, it had been revealed much earlier then that, thanks to Jiriaya. He and his scrolls had taught Naruto much of what he knew, but the price was revealing the secrets that he wasn't ready for. She handed the package over, knowing that it would only bring more pain.
Naruto snatched the package and tore it open. He looked confused at the sealed boxes, but smiled at the Jonin Vest. However, he refused to touch the Konoha Headband. Tsunade watched as he transferred the myriad scrolls from his old jacket to the new vest.
When he finished, he folded his old jacket, sealed it inside yet another scroll, and stuck in his shuriken pouch. But the headband just sat there in the paper, not touched. Tsunade noticed this, frowned, and was about to ask why when Naruto beat her to the punch.
"I'm not putting that on. Yes, I am a Konoha Shinobi. Yes, I am from this village. But I'm merely a Jinchuirki, a weapon to be used by the village as it sees fit. Most of the villagers already hate me as is, so I'm not about to make that even worse. I'll wear it if you order me to, but not before."
Tsunade looked shocked by his revelation. Naruto, according to Iruka, had been begging for a headband at one point in his life. Now he was turning one down? Just how much had he changed?
She coughed and motioned for his attention. "Now, as per Konoha regulations, the first mission after a three year-span must be a D-rank. Naruto, I think that you'll like this one. You mission is to capture-"
Inside, both Naruto and the Kyuubi groaned. Please don't let it be-
"Tora the cat." Tsunade finished. Naruto face vaulted.
He got back up, spluttering. "TORA THE CAT? THE LAST TIME I GOT NEAR THAT DAMN CREATURE, IT DAMN NEAR SCTRACHED MY EYES OUT!" He coughed and continued. "Anyway, shouldn't that be given to a genin team? I mean, they need to practice their teamwork, right? I mean, I'm a jonin now, so I really shouldn't have to go find that cat, right?"
Naruto was babbling. Of course he didn't want to go find that accursed cat. No one did. The only reason that they kept on accepting the mission was because of the hefty fee the lady paid for its retrieval. And since the cat escaped on an average of eight times a day, it was good money. Any normal person would have been broke long ago, but she was the daimyo's wife, so all was good.
However, it wasn't how many times the cat escaped; it was the injuries that the unfortunate genin would often come back with. Without fail, each of three genin, and sometime the jonin as well, would arrive with many scratches and bruises, occasionally a more serious one if something happened during the chase.
Tsunade wasn't about to let Naruto back out of this one, however. After nearly killing himself as he counter her blow, and the 'Thousand Years of Death', she wanted to get him back.
Grumbling, he stood up and made six shadow clones. With a soundless signal, they hopped out of the window in search of the accursed cat.
"Now, next mission please, baa-chan."
Tsunade sweatdropped. That wasn't really her idea of a punishment. Sending shadow clones would make the clones themselves grumble, but any injury they suffered would only be broadcasted back to Naruto as information, not the actual pain. It was a good thing to, since if it did relay back pain, Naruto would be a basket case by now.
Before she could look at her book of higher-ranked missions, Naruto cleared his throat. Tsunade looked up, confused.
"Hokage-sama," He began, and that alone scared the shit out of Tsunade. He had always called her 'Baa-chan' or 'that old lady'. Never before in an honorific. "I need to request a mission of the utmost importance."
She nodded for him to go ahead, still stunned.
"Before the Pervy Sage died," He started, and she relaxed. Naruto was back to his normal self. "He left me a scroll that detailed Akatsuki's real plans. However, the last page of the scroll is missing. I think that the plan is on that page. The perv probably just wanted me to go to the trouble of retrieving it."
Tsunade was mystified. "Do you even know where the missing page is? I mean, this might all just be a wild goose chase for a piece of paper that we're not even sure that exists."
Naruto shook his head, fully serious now. "It exists. I've seen an old picture of it, but the part I needed was conveniently smudged and illegible. The document is actually a copy of the mission statement that Akatsuki first made. Pervy Sage managed to steal a copy, and it shook him up so bad that he tore it in half and had the Fourth Hokage seal it away with his blood. After that, it was placed in the most inaccessible place he could think of, only unlockable with that family's blood. They like their blood, so was and is next to impossible to get it open."
Tsunade paled. "You mean…"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I need Uchiha blood. For that, I need Sauske. The last part of the scroll is hidden… inside the abandoned Uchiha Manor."
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Naruto strode out of the Hokage's office, ears still ringing. Tsunade had cursed him, Akatsuki, and most of all, Jiriaya. She also cursed the fact that Naruto had come forward with the information, seven years later, when two more cycles for his possible possession had passed. If he had been possessed, then they would have to turn to the other survivor of the Uchiha Massacre, Itachi.
He scowled when Tsunade had refused his request, her reason being that "Sending you within Orochimaru's or Akatsuki's grasp right now is just plain stupid. According to you, Akatsuki has already collected eight of the nine bijuu. What would stop them from capturing you? No, I'll send an ANBU team to Oto and do some recon. No point going there if Sauske isn't himself anymore."
Naruto scowled and stalked past a group of fangirls, his killer intent repelling them. No one dared to approach him, so he got past relatively easily. The only person that he saw that he knew was Kakashi, who was literally camping out in front of the bookstore, hoping that the newest copy of the 'Make-out' Paradise series was out.
He grinned for the first time since leaving Tsunade's office. He's in for a really long wait.
Naruto stalked past Ichiraku's Ramen, not bothering to transform himself to avoid notice. The fangirls did notice his presence, but were too scared to approach him. Everyone, including shinobi unfortunate enough to catch his killer intent, flinched. Only one person had enough devotion to him, though he didn't know it, to approach him.
Of course, we all know who it is.
"N-N-Naruto-kun?"
Naruto stopped and turned around at the sound of his name. He glanced at head height, expecting some fangirl to try to glomp him the moment he did so. When he saw nobody, he looked up, expecting a jonin to throw a sleeping dart at him. When nothing was there, he looked down.
"Oh hey, Hinata."
Hinata just blushed and poked her fingers together. "U-U-Um, what are you doing right now?"
He shrugged. "Nothing really. Just pissed at Baa-chan is all."
"W-W-Why?"
Naruto sighed. "There's something really important to me that needs to be done, and Baa-chan won't let me go do it. I asked for a week. Was that too much to ask for?"
Hinata just turned even redder. Her inner self was roaring at her to ask him what it was that is so important.
"Umm… what is so i-i-important?"
Naruto sighed, even deeper this time. "I need to find a certain someone. This person will affect how I live the rest of my life."
At this, Inner Hinata swooned. Oh yeah! He's looking for someone! Now, Hinata, take him as your own!
"W-W-Who?" She managed to stutter out.
Naruto sighed, looking away this time. "Sauske Uchiha."
At this, both Inner Hinata and Hinata simply crumbled. So it was true… he is gay!
Naruto was thoughtful enough to notice the expression on Hinata's face. He grimaced at his poor choice in words. "I mean I need his blood to do something."
Her hopes were immediately relit. Seeing her expression clear up, he laughed. "What, did you think I was gay or something?"
She froze. That was exactly what she had been thinking. But if she told him, would it offend him? Would he tell her to never look at him again?
"N-N-No." She stuttered.
Naruto, despite being dense enough to be used as ballast in most situations, saw through her lie immediately. "Uh-huh." He muttered. "I'm going to take that as a yes, and run with it. You aren't the first and you certainly won't be the last. If I could get my hands on Sauske-teme…" He trailed off, hands making a very violent motion.
Inner Hinata and Hinata both breathed a silent breath of relief. That was one potential disaster avoided. Now all she had to do was to end this conversation without passing out.
He noticed that the color was creeping up her cheeks again. Frowning, he reached out his hand to feel her forehead for a temperature. However, Hinata simply turned redder at this, and closed her eyes.
His hands however, were still shaking and overheating from his anger. Unable to gauge an accurate reading, he pulled back his hand and frowned again.
Hinata, by some miracle or force of nature, did not pass out. Her inner self cheered her on as she swayed gently, but managed to stay on her feet. However, Naruto's next action would completely overwhelm any self-control that she had and would make half of the village jealous at her.
Naruto had rushed over to a nearby rain barrel, quickly washed and dried his face, and then jumped back over to Hinata, who didn't seem to realize that he had been gone. He used the age-old method of checking for a temperature. He touched his forehead to hers.
Now, you could say that Hinata fainted. That would be inaccurate. Despite the fact that she could now handle Naruto's hand on her forehead, she was nowhere near ready for forehead to forehead. No, it would be more accurate that she slipped into a comatose state.
N-N-No w-w-way… t-t-too s-s-soon… her regular conscious managed to think before she passed out. Her inner self, however, was in a completely different position. Hell yeah! This is the first step! Take that, you stupid fangirls! I got to get close to him, and you didn't! In your face, bitches!
Naruto knew something was wrong when Hinata's temperature started to drop rapidly. He opened his eyes to see her swaying, first away from him, then toward him, and finally into his chest.
He managed to catch her before she slumped to the ground. Sighing, wondering as always if he had gotten her sick, Naruto picked her up and jogged back to Tsunade's office, flaring his killer intent if any fangirls got too close or gave Hinata the death glare.
When he got to Tsunade's office, he barged right in without knocking. He didn't care about any guests that she might have had, he just wanted her to cure Hinata of whatever she had. What he didn't count on were the people inside the office. And it couldn't have been a worse combination.
The old Team 8, their sensei, Kurenai, Hanabi, Neji, and Hinata's father were all inside, glaring at him. Kiba and Hanabi looked shocked at the sight, Hanabi at her sister's daring, and Kiba at Naruto's daring. Shino and Neji just looked on impassively, though he could have sworn that they broke into small grins. Kurenai and Hinata's father both looked like they were about to explode in fury. Tsunade just glanced at him, bemused.
"Quick, quick, baa-chan! Help her! I think I broke her somehow!"
That got everyone up, except for Shino, who was still sitting there, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. Tsunade rushed over, beat Neji, Kiba, Kurenai, and Hiashi, took her from Naruto's arms, cleared her desk, and began running a diagnostic jutsu. Everyone except for Naruto and Shino rushed back to the Hokage's desk, worried about Hinata's fate.
"What did you do to her?" Tsunade asked sharply.
Naruto backed away slowly. "N-Nothing. Just checked her temperature is all. I swear."
Tsunade frowned. "Alright everyone. Thanks to the maverick here, I'm putting this meeting off until tomorrow. Now, everyone. SCRAM!"
Everybody besides Naruto, including Shino, high-tailed it out of there. When she turned back around, he was still staring. She scowled and punched him out of the office again, this time in a trajectory so that he couldn't float back down into her office.
When his shouting had finally left her field of hearing, she focused her energy into reviving Hinata from her comatose state. It was no mean feat to do so. Somehow, Naruto had, in his haste to see if she was sick, completely shut her down. It was quite amazing really. No mental or external damage, yet still in a comatose state.
When she finally started to stir, quite some time later, the sounds of fangirls chasing Naruto all over the village could be heard through the open window. Even from this distance, she could clearly hear his swearing as he dove through the smallest of openings to get away from them.
"W-Where am I?"
"Oh, you're finally awake, are you? About time too. You've been out for over three hours. I mean, I know you like Naruto and all, but is this really necessary?"
Hinata didn't reply, and nor did Tsunade expect her to. What was there to say? A crush that spanned over a decade without telling the person in question was unprecedented. It was hardly surprising that she kept on passing out.
"Listen, Hinata. I would be careful if I were you. If the news of what happened today ever gets out, you'll soon have hundreds of bloodthirsty fangirls on your tail. Any one of those girls, including my apprentice, would kill to be in your shoes right now."
"Why? I'm not that pretty…"
Tsunade snorted. "Don't ever think that if you want to get Naruto. They would kill you because you are pretty, and you have one trait that will greatly help you get Naruto. Do you know what it is?"
"W-What?"
Tsunade snorted again, jerking a thumb out the window at the same time. In the distance, two dust clouds could be easily seen. One was Naruto, scrambling for his life, and the other was a horde of fangirls. "He doesn't run away from you."
Hinata smiled and chucked. "Yes, Naruto-kun does seem rather desperate to get away from that group of girls."
"Now, I'm going to give you some advice on how to get Naruto. First of all, quit passing out. You're supposed to your inner self every once in a while, and this is one of those times. Yes, I know all about the inner self. I've got one too, so you haven't gone crazy. Second, pay attention to what he likes. The ramen business has always been good as long as Naruto's in town. Also, we've been importing a lot of orange things and marine animal sleepwear since he returned. However, those are just superficial. I gave Sakura the same advice, but she didn't want to listen to me. Changing your wardrobe wouldn't hurt either. Naruto would never like anyone who backs off at the first sign of trouble. You earned points with him today, even if you didn't know it, by approaching him when he was pissed at me. But a word of warning. Even Naruto has his limits. Eventually, one of those fangirls is going to get through his defenses and he'll consent to a date. If he falls for someone, then that ballast head of his will never turn away. So move quick, and get out of my office!"
She shouted the last bit. Hinata jumped off of the desk, bowed to the Hokage, and charged out of the door.
Tsunade sighed. Great. I just had to play matchmaker for a shy mouse and a piece of ballast. What else could go wrong today? At that, a messenger falcon dropped in. She opened up the message, and spat out the sake that she had just taken a sip of. Me and my big mouth. She thought.
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Naruto tore through the streets for the thousandth time since he got back to Konoha. Fuck! I mean, I wanted to get some training done, but this is ridiculous! It was getting harder to avoid them by the day. The fangirls were wising up. Instead of just chasing him like a mob, they would split up and try to surround him. Luckily, every time they did so, Naruto would just hurl a marked kunai as hard as he could in a random direction away from the fangirls, Haraishin there, and continue running.
However, he was starting to run low on chakra. Like Kakashi's Sharingan, the Haraishin caused him extreme fatigue if he used it too much. He wasn't a full Namikaze, being half Uzumaki, so it cost him more energy to perform each movement. He had done the technique several dozen times already, add that to his meager breakfast and being almost dinner time, he was hungry.
His stomach rumbled as he made a shadow clone and had it run straight ahead while he Haraishined into Tsunade's office to take refuge again. However, when he took a glance at Tsunade, he immediately knew that something was wrong.
"Baa-chan, what's wrong?"
Tsunade bit her lip. She really didn't want to tell him, but he would find out anyway. "The ANBU recon squad I sent in was ambushed. We're presuming that they're captured, if not dead."
Naruto bristled at this, his good mood gone, replaced by fear for the ANBU's fate and anger at Tsunade for disregarding his advice. "You actually sent in a squad? Do you have any idea how advanced their tracking systems are nowadays?"
"Just how advanced are they?"
Naruto scratched his chin. "Hmm… how should I put it… let's just say that Oto's tracking system could pick up on one of Akamaru's fleas doing an infiltration mission. You have to tune to your chakra to a certain frequency range to stop them from noticing. Most ninja can't tune their chakra levels, so they get detected. Who was on the ANBU team, anyway?"
Tsunade swallowed. She was not going to like his reaction. "Rock lee, Sakura Haruno, and Shikamaru Nara."
Naruto froze, his expression darkening. Before she could even draw breath, he made a shadow clone to go fetch his stuff. "Baa-chan, I'm going after them. Don't try to stop me. Mark me as a missing-nin if you will, but that's not going to slow me down. I'll just head back to my hideout if that happens. Get the rest of the Konoha eleven together, I'm going to need some backup."
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Author's Note
Heyo!
Whats up people? Just had to get this chapter out. if i had kept it any longer, it would have started to spoil.
Now, to adress some issues that people have had with this story.
Frist, for those of you who think Naruto is overpowered, trust me, he isnt. Yes, he may be only using a fraction of his power, but the rest of it comes at a terrible price. Also, you should see how overpowered i made the enemies. Sauske could take out the rest of the Konoha eleven without even blinking an eye. Sorry, but its only fair.
Second, when will the fangirls leave him alone? Thats a question that im still working on solving. But, as you can see, Hinata has made progress. Thats generally a good sign.
Third, i am well aware of all of the possibilties of the shadow clone, as well as every other jutsu. Naruto just likes to have his shadow clones report back in non-battle situations.
Well, thats all, i think.
Until next time, please, Please, Please, Please Please, PLEASE, review Review Review, Review, Review, REVIEW!
Till next time,
Xingster