Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me and no money was made from this piece of fanfiction…unfortunately.
"Human talking"
'Human thinking'
"Demon or Summon talking"
'Demon or Summon thinking'
Jutsu will be underlined
{Non-verbal speech}
Three months after the bell test. Hokage Tower:
"Kami I hate this cat!"Sasuke shouted in exasperation as he held a hog tied Tora. "It really did a number on you this time Teme" Naruto laughed. "Team 7, Hokage-sama will see you now" said man's secutary informed them. They entered the Hokage's office and gave the customary bow before being addressed. "Ah, team 7 you've captured Tora even faster than your record setting time last week, congratulations" Hiruzen stated.
"Thank you Hokage-sama" said Kakashi as he took the cat from Sasuke and placed it in a pet carrier held by Iruka. "Kakashi, because of the current situation at the northwestern border I would like to issue Team 7 its first C-rank mission a little earlier than we discussed." "I believe that they are ready Hokage-sama."
"Good good, while I would have preferred to brief you all myself I'm afraid that I have a Jonin council meeting to prepare for. Iruka will take you to a conference room in the floor below and give the briefing instead. Kakashi, as soon as he is done I expect you come to the meeting as well" Hiruzen ordered and after receiving hai's from the shinobi present, left via Shunshin.
Team 7 followed Iruka to room 108. A small room with no tables and only three chairs, however it did have a dry erase board with a map of the continent taped in the center. "Alright you guys have a seat and we'll get started" Iruka stated in a worried but resigned tone. As soon as the three genin were seated with Kakashi leaning on the wall behind them he began the brief.
"There have been a few reports of bandit attacks and kidnappings around Otawara village. Your mission is to investigate these reports and if they have merit, wipeout the bandits and recover the missing villagers." Iruka then turned to the map and picked up a ruler to use as a pointer.
"Otawara village is located in the Tochigi region of the Land of Fire which is between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Waves. It is highly possible that the bandits are from one of these countries but team 7 is not authorized to cross either border at this time. If you find that the bandit camp is outside of our country you are to send up a sitrep (situation report) and wait for further orders. Do you understand?" "Hai" everyone replied.
"You are to leave no later than 0900hrs tomorrow morning, questions?" The three genin shook their heads as Kakashi walked to the door and turned to address them. "Since I don't know how long this meeting is going to last you are all released for the rest of the day. Don't engage in any strenuous training and be at the southern gate by 0730 with your packs laid out for pre mission inspections" and with that he left his genin to their own devices. "Be careful you three." Iruka said as he left the room.
"Didn't expect to get a mission outside the village so soon, I need to buy some more supplies anyone want to come along?" Ino asked. "I have plenty of supplies in the compounds armory, why pay when you could just borrow some stuff from me?" Sasuke asked. "Because a lot of your gear is old and outdated and I don't want to use up the gear that's not." Ino answered thinking of all the times she and Naruto had borrowed or broken the left over supplies of the nearly wiped out Uchiha clan. While Naruto didn't seem to be bothered it felt too much like grave robbing to her.
Unfortunately the Uchiha air only focused on the first part of the girl's explanation and caught something of an attitude. But before anything could become of it Naruto defused the situation. "She just wants to go shopping" Naruto stated standing up and walking towards the door. "Besides you don't have any rebreathers and southern fire country is filled with marshes and swamps let's go by the Harashi place and see if they have any in stock." As the three left they failed to notice a gnat fly out of the rooms cracked window.
Upon entering Harashi's weapon supply their arrival was announced by the bell hanging above the door causing the nearest employee, a teenage girl about 17 years old, to turn and automatically recite "Welcome to Harashi's how may I help you?" "Um we'll look around for now thanks" Ino responded with a smile, politely dismissing the girl.
As they walked around Ino noticed that while the quality of the weapons and other merchandise was very high, the stores atmosphere was a little on the cold side. There were no bright colors to attract you to sales, no music playing over the loudspeaker system and even the other customers seemed to show little emotion.
Unknown to her, the owner of the store Isao Harashi , was a supporter of Root who had contacts in the continental black market. Isao started of as a bandit and made the evolution to arms dealer in his early twenties. By the age of 45 Isao had become one of, if not the most influential arms dealers in the elemental nations. But with success came paranoia and he started looking for a way out of his trade.
He was approached by Danzo and offered plastic surgery to change his appearance and false paperwork establishing his new identity as a blacksmith from tea country looking to move to Konoha. In exchange for this all he had to do was supply Root with high quality weapons and equipment and inform Danzo of all the major weapon deals in the Elemental Nations. Naruto, while unaware of just how important the man was to Root, saw the man's merchandise as having the organizations seal of approval.
"Look, the rebreathers are over there" Sasuke announced pointing towards the back of the store. They walked over to the display and saw that the breathing devices seemed to be of a new smaller design with seals instead of mini-tanks on the side. Naruto picked one up and read the back of the devices packaging. "Looks like the tanks are inside the seals making the device lighter."
"Yeah but they cost 16,000 Ryo each. That's like three D-ranks! I'm not sure I want to spend that much on a piece of equipment that we might not even use." Ino said biting her lip. "The dobe and I are both buying one. It's a good tool to have especially considering where we're going. " Sasuke reminded. "Fine" Ino sighed in defeat.
When they went to the counter to check out Isao was at the register. Sasuke and Ino paid first and left to wait for Naruto outside leaving him alone with Isao. "Make sure to check that receipt carefully those new rebreathers don't always ring up right." Isao advised. Naruto did as he was told and saw that the item number for the rebreather was actually a numeric code used by Root. {Beware assassin during mission.} "Looks good to me, have a good day Harashi-san" Naruto replied waving on his way out of the store with his thumb, pointer and middle fingers extended signaling that he understood the message.
Next day 0710 Hrs Southern Gate:
Naruto and Sasuke arrived at the gate at the same time and when they started laying out their gear Naruto spoke to Sasuke in a hushed tone. "Conserve chakra during this mission. I got a bad feeling about this one." Sasuke simply nodded resigning himself to ask Naruto what he meant when they were in a less open area. Ino appeared via shunshin and hurriedly laid out her pack grumbling about cheap alarm clocks. Kakashi arrived at exactly 0730 much to his genin's surprise and started going through their equipment. 'Rebreathers didn't expect that.' "Alright pack up and lets go."
With that they showed their mission pass to the guards at the gate and took off in a light run down the road leading from the village. After about half an hour Kakashi decided to see what his genin could do and jumped from the road, tree hopping at low-chunin level speeds to take a more direct path to Otawara village.
8 hours later he was pleasantly surprised that his fresh from the academy genin were able to keep up, only needing to take a handful of short breaks. It was on one of these breaks that the wind changed and Kakashi caught the scent of big spray and sweat. Team 7 had taken repellant pills earlier in the day so the smell of big spray wasn't coming from them so he decided to find the source.
Silently moving to the edge of the wood line and pushing a bush partly to the side he saw that the area's wooden terrain was starting to give way to salt water marshland. He also saw a family of four hurriedly moving down a series of man-made bridges. "Why are they speed walking sensei?" Ino asked.
"Salt water marshes are tidal so when high tide sets in a few hours from now those bridges are going to be underwater." Kakashi explained pulling his map from his pack and after some quick terrain association pinpointed there position. "The village isn't too far away. If they keep up that pace they'll probably beat the tide, we'll henge and shadow them to make sure they get there safely."
Kakashi ordered taking the form of a man in his mid 50's. Ino followed suit taking the form of a woman of 27 or so who bore a resemblance to Kakashi's new form. Sasuke and Naruto took the form of twin brothers of about 7 or 8 years of age. They had been following the family for about 40 mins when they saw two men with katana on their hip standing on the last bridge connecting the marshes edge to flat land.
They channeled chakra to their ears and heard the families' father arguing with the swordsmen. "I've been to Otawara before and there wasn't any toll, especially one that cost 2500 Ryo." He said. "Sorry but the mayor and the village elders have…" The shorter of the two started but was interrupted by his partner. "You know what, if anyone asks you paid us alright? Now you better hurry before the tide comes in." Not needing to be told twice the family took off entering the wood line in short order.
"Why did you let them go Harou?" "Look at that next bunch. The old man will put up less of a fight than the guy we just let pass and the woman is hotter than that chubby bitch. Plus the two identical twin boys will fetch a higher price than those other kids." Harou explained in a near whisper. Kakashi covertly signaled Ino to see if she could sense anyone else in the area to which she simply replied "No".
"Take them alive." Kakashi ordered dropping his henge and taking of in a sprint quickly closing the 60 ft distance followed by his genin. "Shit they're ninja, lets get out of here brother!" The shorter and still unnamed of the two yelled while turning to run only to be grabbed by his sibling. "We can't out run ninja, use the drug!" He ordered taking a small flask from his jacket pocket and drank the contents in two quick gulps. He then drew his sword and rushed to meet Kakashi at high-chunin level speed.
'Is he a shinobi?' Sasuke wondered to himself as he and Naruto broke off to engage the other swordsman who was also drinking something. Kakashi met Harou and was about to parry the man's katana with a kunai when the man channeled chakra into his blade and quickly changed the angle of his attack. Kakashi dodged accordingly ducking the blade and then jumping back to reassess his opponent. Ino who had decided to aid Kakashi stopped running and drew her hatchets when she reached his side.
"Ino report on their chakra output" Kakashi ordered. "Their chakra was of high civilian level consistent with martial artists before but when we dropped our henges they apparently stopped suppressing themselves because his chakra jumped to chunin level and the other one's to mid-genin" Ino informed. "Did whatever they drank cause the chakra increase?" Kakashi asked but before she could answer Harou interrupted her.
"No, the drug should be kicking in right about….now!" He yelled as his chakra level jumped again as his skin tone darkened slightly and his vines bulged. Kakashi lifted his forehead protector and opened his implanted sharingan eye to better analyze his opponent and what he saw shouldn't have been possible.
'Three of his Celestial gates are open and there's some type of foreign chakra present in his system. If this drug has similar effects on the other one…' "Ino go help Sasuke and Naruto. Tell them not to hold back against their opponent." The seasoned Jonin ordered his student who nodded and shunshined further down the bridge to relay the message.
With Sasuke and Naruto:
Clang! Clang! Clang! Naruto's new Uchiha made straight sword clashed angrily against his once grossly inferior opponent's blade, receiving nicks and cracks with each exchange. 'I'm channeling wind chakra while he's just sending raw chakra through his blade and yet my sword is the one that's about to give, time to change tactics.' Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by Ino's arrival and the relaying of Kakashi's new orders. "Okay new plan, attack pattern bravo!" Naruto yelled out causing Sasuke to smile as he had so far taken a back seat to Naruto in the battle; but his role in attack pattern bravo was the most important of the three.
Naruto jumped away from the swordsman who would have given chase had the need to deflect and evade the kunai and shuriken Ino and her single water clone were rapidly flinging at him not arose. "You think this is enough to stop me!" He roared, former fears forgotten as the power the drug provided started to effect his thought processes.
He charged the genin despite Ino's efforts only to be blown back by a jutsu from the blonde boy."Wind release: Great Air Breaking Bullets!" Naruto yelled thrusting his palms forward while simultaneously spitting four balls of compressed air at the sword slinger. The attack lifted the man off his feet and the air bullets all found their mark keeping the man from correcting himself while airborne, he landed awkwardly on his head with his neck seemingly broken and his legs in the air.
"You did it Naruto." Ino yelled victoriously only for her celebration to be cut short by insane laughter. "Ha Ha HA! Yeah Naruto you really did it. YOU'VE REALLY PISSED ME THE FUCK OFF!" The swordsman screamed as he stood up, grabbed his head and snapped his neck back into place with an audible CRACK!
"Two words dude situational awareness." Naruto said to his opponent who had felled to sense Sasuke's shunshin. The raging swordsman wiped his head to the left then to the right finally seeing a dark haired boy standing the railing of the bridge eye level to him just out of range of his blade. As he moved to cut the boy down he made the mistake of looking him in the eyes.
The two tomoe in the left eye and three in the right spun madly as darkness enveloped the area causing the swordsman to lose his sight. Realizing that he was under a genjutsu he attempted to manipulate his chakra to escape it like his brother had taught him but failed due to the drug disabling his finer chakra control. 'Pain!' he thought to himself and bit down as hard as he could on his left pinky finger and jerked his head to the right dislocating the digit. His sight returned to him just in time for him to dodge and parry strikes from all three genin who had seemingly closed in on him.
However the three genin were actually about 15 feet away, watching the man fight phantom opponents. "A double layered genjutsu with just one look, your becoming one scary teme." Naruto complimented his friend. "So do we kill him or what?" Sasuke asked, brushing the compliment off because of his friend and rivals genjutsu immunity.
"Kakashi-sensei will probably capture the other one alive. We should take this one out and recover the flask he drank out of." Naruto suggested. "But he's trapped in a genjutsu and I can feel that he is running out of chakra shouldn't we show mercy?" Ino asked not wanting to kill someone when there were any alternative measures that could be taken.
"So what are we going to do Ino drag him and his brother around for the rest of the mission? I'm finishing this now." Sasuke declared but discreetly looked to Naruto with his peripheral vision to see if his friend was in agreement. At the wind user's barely visible nod the young Uchiha went through a slightly long set of hand seals and called out his first original jutsu (though Naruto had a hand in its invention).
"Fire release: Beheading Arrow!"Sasuke expelled an arrow of fire whose tip was about eight inches wide and was as long as he was tall. The arrow moved at an absurdly fast velocity that put the great fire ball jutsu to shame. The technique struck in between the C3 andC4 vertebre of the spine and exited through the man throat burning the nerves away causing instant, painless death.
As the three genin turned around they saw their sensei walking towards them dragging the unconscious and now right handless elder brother behind him tied up in thick ninja wire. "Good job team, once I seal up the one you killed we'll get out of this marsh before the tide comes in." Kakashi ordered.
Next day 0723Hrs:
Team 7 reached Otawara village shortly after the battle at the bridge and Kakashi ordered the genin to check into the hotel while he interrogated their prisoner. What he discovered was extremely troubling. The two brothers were low level samurai from the Land of Iron who had been banished from the country for insubordination.
They had been living as bandits for the last couple years before they were approached by a scientist from the Land of the Sea to kidnap civilians and take them to Rumo port for not only money but for a new drug that could turn anyone able to channel their chakra into a juggernaut. The brothers were planning to save enough money to bribe their way back into their own country so that they could use the drug to get revenge on their platoon leader whom they blamed for their banishment.
It was known to those in Konoha's black ops community that Orochimaru has or at least had a hidden base somewhere in the country. While the description of the scientist didn't sound like the snake sannin Kakashi's gut was telling him that the legendary ninja had something to do with this. The mission would require further investigation but with its possible connection to Orochimaru it now exceeded the scope of a C-rank and Kakashi decided to inform the Hokage of this development sooner rather than later. He had summoned Uhei the fastest of his ninken (ninja dog) familiars to run the scroll with the dead samurai, as well as a sitrep back to the village.
Now he was just waiting for a team of anbu to arrive and take over. As he turned the page of his beloved Icha Icha he sensed four incoming chakra signatures, one of whom he recognized and turned to his team. "Pack up and be ready to roll in ten. I'm going to the roof to address our company."
Upon reching the roof Kakashi met with the four Anbu and addressed the one he knew. "You guys got here a quick what's going on Tenzo?" Kakashi asked. "We had just left the village on a mission to aid genin team 8 and were still within radio range of Konoha when we intercepted your summon and called up your sitrep to the Hokage who then ordered us to take over your mission and send your team plus our medic, boar on ours." Tenzo then handed Kakashi a scroll and finished speaking. "Senpai, you're going to Wave."
A/N: I'm back. Sorry about the long absence only to return with a filler chapter but I didn't like the idea of jumping right from the bell test into the wave mission. Plus I wanted to introduce the drug (open to suggestions on its name) which will play a major role in my story. This should be the last unbeta'd chapter since Bottle Glass has agreed to help me out. Next chapter will be posted on (but maybe before) 8-9-12. As always please review!