When Nawaki's mother had told him about doing missions, she'd never mentioned D-Ranks.
It turns out there was a reason for that. D-Ranks were terrible. Seriously, why did shinobi need to catch cats? Or paint fences? It was completely stupid. Two weeks had passed since the bell test and Nawaki had done nine D-Ranks. The one he was currently doing was his tenth. The three genin were were cleaning a local lake, while Konahamaru sat on a chair 'supervising' them. Nawaki was pretty sure that he could find some jutsu to clean the lake, but he said it was a 'learning experience' for the genin.
Nawaki was getting impatient. He wanted an escort mission or something that would allow him to leave the village for at least a full day and night. His mother had promised to visit him when he got a C-Rank, and these D-Ranks made him even more irritable.
He kicked a plant in frustration. He missed his mother. He missed Crescent Moon Island. He would rather be back in his home than doing this. But Nawaki wasn't a person who complained and did nothing, so he resolved to clean the lake as fast as possible.
He grinned. It was time to show off his skills.
He pulled both his feet out of the water, and filled them with chakra. It had been a while since he water-walked, so his balance was a bit off but he managed to stay steady. He grabbed his net and began to run, dragging the net along behind him. As he ran, he looked at his team. Konahamaru and Oki were both staring at him in amazement, while Hisa was glaring at him. He was pretty much used to her glares, so he ignored her and smiled at Oki instead. Part of him was extremely glad he was better than Hisa at something.
Suddenly, his net caught on a rock and he fell into the water with a splash. He choked and spluttered until someone yanked him out. Hisa stood over him smirking, while Oki stood next to her giggling. Nawaki flushed in embarrassment. He grabbed his net and continued to clean the lake the normal way. It seems that today was not the day to show off his skills after all.
They finished two hours later and made their way to the Hokage's office. Naruto was throwing kunai at the wall, but when they walked in he hurriedly pretended to be looking at some paperwork.
"Hey Team Seven." he grinned "I suppose you finished cleaning the lake."
Konahamaru began to talk, but Hisa interrupted him.
"Yes Father we did." she said stiffly "But may I suggest giving us a more difficult mission? We are the best and most promising genin team you have, and it would be a shame to let us go to waste."
Nawaki was surprised at her outburst. It seemed he wasn't the only one who was sick of D-Ranks. He had to give her some credit. She had guts to speak to the Hokage like that, father or not.
Naruto looked at Konahamaru for advice. He just shrugged.
"I swear I didn't put her up to this. I don't see the harm in a simple C-Rank."
Naruto sighed.
"Fine, I'll give you a C-Rank. But Hisa, you'll have to tell your mother yourself. There's no way I'm going to explain this to her."
Nawaki grinned as Hisa flushed in embarrassment.
"Very well Father I accept your conditions." she held out her hand.
Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"There's no need to be so formal. If you want to seal a deal do it with a fist bump, not a handshake."
The rest of the team laughed as Hisa scowled.
"Alright guys, I have the perfect mission for you!" Naruto said.
He reached down onto his desk, picked up a piece of paper and glanced at it, before flinging it over his shoulder. "Not that one." he muttered. This happened eight more times before he finally found the right mission.
"Here it is!" he said brightly "A C-Rank find and deliver mission. All you have to do is find a weird looking blue diamond for a small village. They even gave you a map! The village is pretty near to the Hidden Mist so it'll take you around three days to get there."
Nawaki smiled. If he could, he would be dancing around the office. Finally! A real mission!
Konahamaru took the paper and glanced at it.
"Seems pretty average to me." he said "The village is pretty near to the Wave village. Do you want me to get some stuff from Inari while I'm there?"
Naruto nodded. "That would be great. Tell him I said congrats on his engagement."
Konahamaru nodded, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"I hate it when he does that." Hisa grumbled. "Can we go now?"
"There's one last thing." Naruto said. "They specifically said that they wanted Chunin or higher, so I'm giving you all ANBU uniforms, minus the mask and tattoo. If anyone asks you're a special branch."
Hisa frowned. "Why would you give us ANBU uniforms?"
Naruto shrugged.
"It was the first idea that popped into my head. Plus I've always wanted to see little kids dressed like ANBU. Promise me you'll take a picture so I can show Gaara and be like 'My village is more advanced than yours'!"
None of them really knew what to say to that, so they just grabbed their uniforms and walked out of the office. The minute Nawaki was alone, he broke out into a dance.
"C-Rank. C-Rank, yes!"
He noticed some people staring at him, so he quickly made his way back to his apartment so he could celebrate in private.
The next morning, Team 7 stood ready at the gates of Konoha. All of the genin were wearing their fake ANBU uniforms. Nawaki understood what Naruto had meant, the uniforms made them look badass.
"Smile." Konahamaru said as a photographer took their picture. Oki and Konahamaru smiled, but Nawaki accidently stood on Hisa's foot, which caused her to elbow him. They both ended up glaring at each other.
The photographer smiled. Ah, memories.
Just as Nawaki was about to set off, Oki tapped him on the shoulder.
"My parents want to meet you." she said, her cheeks going red. "I'm not sure why, maybe Dad saw us in the restaurant and got the wrong idea."
Nawaki froze. He felt like he was slowly crumbling apart. Sai knew. He had no doubt about this now. What could he do?
He realised that he couldn't do anything except meet with him and try to convince him not to tell Naruto or Sasuke. Please don't let him tell Sasuke.
Trembling, Nawaki made his way over to where Sai was standing with a beautiful blonde woman. This must be Ino. Nawaki thought. Of course Sai would have told Ino. She was his mother's best friend.
When he reached them, they stared at each other. Nawaki wasn't sure what to say. Luckily, Ino started talking.
"So this is Nawaki huh," she said, scanning him from top to bottom. Nawaki began to feel very self-conscious. Finally, she stopped scrutinizing him and nodded appreciatively.
"Sakura and Sasuke did a good job. Of course, it's basically impossible for Sasuke not to be good at anything, so I guess I should have expected this."
Once again, Nawaki had no idea how to respond to this. Sai smiled at him.
"Please excuse my wife." he said in a detached voice. "She sometimes makes horrible first impressions, but I assure you, she is actually a normal enough person."
Ino punched Sai in the face, then she turned to Nawaki with a smile.
"You don't have to worry," she chirped "We won't tell anyone about you."
"You won't?" Nawaki said in confusion "Why not?"
Ino shrugged.
"We figured it was best to let Sakura go ahead with her crazy schemes without getting involved. When it comes crashing down we'll do our best to bail you out, but until then we're just going to enjoy the show." she laughed and nudged Sai. "Let's arrange a meeting between Nawaki and Sasuke. It'll be hilariously awkward!"
"Please don't." Nawaki mumbled worriedly. This woman was slightly crazy.
Sai gave him a creepy smile. "We'll let you go in a minute. There is just one last thing. As a father, I believe I should give some kind of speech about staying away from my daughter. Isn't that what fathers are supposed to do?"
Nawaki went bright red at this. Once again, he had no clue what to say.
Ino rolled her eyes. "They're only seven Sai, it's not like he knows how to do anything except blush at her."
She noticed Nawaki getting more and more uncomfortable. "You can go now." she said. "Oh, and when you see Sakura tell her that Oki is our daughter. She'll like that."
This made Nawaki even more confused, but then again, this whole conversation was both embarrassing and confusing. He ran away as quickly as possible. My mother has a strange taste in friends.
They soon set off on their mission. As they walked, Konahamaru explained a bit more about their mission.
"It's a pretty standard mission." he explained "Some village are in debt and they want to find this diamond to save them. Apparently, it has some sort of power that other villages are after. According to legend, the diamond once belonged to this village but the village leader hid it away so that enemies couldn't steal it. Now they want it back, but they're all too scared to try and get it. Apparently there are a lot of traps and dangers leading to it."
"So they get us to do it for them." Nawaki grumbled. "How nice of them."
Konahamaru grinned. "Exactly. Most of them are too scared and the rest are too lazy."
They decided to take to the trees for a while, as they had enough chakra to stay fairly energised. As they travelled, doubts began to creep into Nawaki's mind. Would his mother really come? How would she know where he was?
As the night began to fall, they reached the border of the Fire Country.
"We'll camp here for the night." Konahamaru announced.
It took them half an hour to get their tents up. They only had two tents, so Hisa and Oki were sharing one, and Konahamaru and Nawaki were sharing the other. This was a problem for Nawaki. If his mother came, he would have to sneak past the jounin. He didn't think that would be the best idea.
"Can I sleep outside?" he asked.
The others looked at him curiously.
"Sure. But why?" Konahamaru asked.
"I like looking at the stars. They remind me of my old village." he explained.
This wasn't exactly a lie. He had spent many a night on the beach, in Crescent Moon Bay. His mother had taught him most of the constellations.
"That one is called the Six Paths. Do you see the way the stars form a semicircle? It's the shape of the Sage of Six Paths' necklace. The star next to it is the brightest star in the sky. I call it the Naruto star, if you ever meet him you'll see why."
As he lay on the grass that night, he was able to see the Naruto star. He knew now why his mother called it that, he really did shine brightly compared to everyone else.
He lay on the grass for another two hours, finding all the constellations he knew. His eyes got heavier and heavier, and in the end, he nodded off.
She's not coming. he thought sadly.
He didn't know how long he slept for. It seemed like only a few minutes before someone was shaking him awake.
"I'll be up in a minute Hisa." he mumbled sleepily.
"Who's Hisa?" a voice he knew very well asked
His eyes flew open and he jumped to his feet.
"Mom!" he cried, flinging his arms around her.
Sakura Haruno smiled down at her son.