Author's Note
I'm back, folks. After an almost a week of busy student and work life, I finally get enough free time to start writing. I don't have enough free time to finish quickly though. I did a little revision on Chapter 4, but nothing too major. I just removed a duplicate flashback scene, so anyone who continues reading from here should have no problem.
So… Ikuze!
Disclaimer: Why would I be posting stories here for free if I owned Naruto or High School DxD?
Chapter 6: Meetings and… a mission?
"Hello." talking
'Hello.' thinking
"Hello." Kyuubi talking
'Hello.' Kyuubi thinking
*Knock* Sound effects
"Bunshin no Jutsu" Jutsu
It was a bright sunny day in the village known as Konoha. The streets were bustling with people trying to get to their jobs. Among these people, several individuals could be identified to be completely different, and yet the people paid them no heed. These people were ninjas, the main driving force of the village. Two such ninja were currently strolling down one of the streets of Konoha.
"Naruto." called the girl of the duo. She was wearing a pair of black trousers and a navy blue top which ended above her navel, showcasing her well toned abdomen. A dark red jacket was tied to her waist by the sleeves, almost completely obscuring the weapon pouch hung from her belt. Her jet black hair was tied up into a pony tail, making sure that none of it got into her even darker eyes. A Konoha headband secured her bangs in place.
"What is it, Misaki-chan?" replied the boy in question. His spiky blond hair seemed very hard to manage, and his headband only managed to get them out of his vision. His sparkling blue eyes gazed through a few wild strands of hair. He was wearing a dark blue trouser that had orange flames rising up the side of the legs. His white jacket was tied to his waist as well, revealing his wire mesh undershirt. One could see a weapon pouch hanging from his left thigh.
"How did we get stuck with running this boring D-rank while Sasuke gets 1-on-1 training with Kakashi-sensei?" whined Misaki, a look of clear discontent on her face.
"You do realize that he is probably going through countless near death situations in order to get stronger?" said Naruto, not so much pleased with the situation either.
"I know… But still, I'd prefer that over running these errands." grumbled Misaki.
"Yeah, me too." agreed Naruto. "Although… we might find something interesting soon." He said as they entered an alley, only to be surrounded by several masked figures. They all were wearing the standard Anbu gear; however, their masks were all blank.
"What do we have here?" wondered Naruto aloud. One man stepped forward, and handed a black mask to Naruto.
"Uzumaki Naruto; You have been summoned to the office of our leader."
"Summoned?" mused Naruto. "Not even asked or requested? You know it's very rude to order someone you don't know. And what about this beautiful lady?" he asked, all the while playing with the mask in his hand.
"She is to finish the D-ranks that you were assigned."
"What? No fun for me?" pouted Misaki.
"Not my fault. And it's not like I'll be going anywhere fun either. Especially while wearing masks." grumbled Naruto. He then put on the mask, and motioned forward.
Naruto was pretty much manhandled like a sack of potato throughout the journey. He tried to keep track of where they were taking him, but with all the twist and turns they took he soon lost all sense of direction. They soon stopped however, and landed Naruto on his feet. He could feel the stony floor and decided they were inside; probably underground. Someone lifted his mask, and he found himself inside a stone chamber.
The room had absolutely no windows, and the only means of entry seemed to be behind him; the door which was seemingly used to bring him in. The room itself was devoid of furniture; the only thing inside was a large desk and a high backed chair, which was turned away from him. It seemed to be occupied, though.
"We have brought him." said the masked men while kneeling.
"Good. You may leave." replied a female voice from the chair. Once the men left, the chair revolved around, revealing a stunning beauty in her early 30s sitting on it. She was wearing a black dress that hugged her entire body, emphasizing on the curves. It showed plenty of cleavage, making sure that all the males would have their gaze stuck there. She had her hair tied up into a bun with a black ribbon. She was also wearing black spectacles, through which she gazed with her brown, intelligent eyes.
"Kurokami Madoka." stated Naruto, looking slightly surprised. "It's so nice to finally meet such a legend in person."
"Oh, you are flattering me." chuckled Madoka.
"So… why have I been brought to meet you?" inquired Naruto, a serious look donning his face.
"Straight to the point, I see." said Madoka. "I like that. But since you asked so nicely… I want you to do a job for me."
"A job?" asked an incredulous Naruto. "Don't you have to send it through the Hokage then? I am an active ninja. I can't go around accepting job requests from everybody."
"Oh, so you even know your boundaries I see. Don't worry. It wouldn't be anything out of your power. In fact, it has something to do with your next mission." replied Madoka slyly.
"How do you know anything about my next mission at all?" asked an increasingly suspicious Naruto.
"Oh, I have my sources. All I need you to do…" said Madoka while fishing out a scroll from a drawer, "is to do your mission exactly as it is. This…" Madoka threw the scroll at Naruto, which he caught expertly "is just a bonus mission that you can do while on it. And no one will blame you for doing it. I'll pay you handsomely if you do this for me."
Naruto opened the scroll carefully, before scanning its contents. "How do I know that you are not setting me up?" asked Naruto.
"Because we are the same, Naruto-kun. I know about your 'condition', both of them in fact. I wouldn't harm a comrade like that." she said with a wink. "So… will you do it?" she asked.
"I'll think about it."
Naruto was walking towards the Hokage tower. He was still thinking about his bizarre meeting with the village legend known as Kurokami Madoka. The fact that he managed to meet someone who supposedly ran the entire Konoha underworld was fascinating and worrying at the same time. Even more worrying if the same person wanted something from him. He couldn't refuse her outright; that could spell to be the death of him. No, he would rather see this out and find a solution.
He soon spotted Misaki waving at him. Beside her was standing Kakashi-sensei, and beside him was… Sasuke? It was pretty hard to identify the pompous and arrogant Uchiha that once was. His clothes were torn at several different places, and lots of bruises and burns showed through the holes. His face was beaten up as well, not at all helping his look. He could barely stand, and had to lean on Kakashi with one hand to even stay upright. For once, Naruto felt guilty for leaving the bastard alone with Kakashi on one of his sadistic days. At least on the plus side, his fan girls couldn't recognize him anymore. Naruto could swear that at least 3 fan girl walked past him without noticing him. The only reason Naruto recognized him was because of his arrogant smirk.
"Naruto, hurry up." yelled Misaki. "We are getting another mission."
Team 7 was currently at the mission desk waiting for their next mission.
"I am pleased to inform you that Team 7 currently holds the highest number of D-ranks completed among the rookie genin." said the Hokage. "I believe that it is time that you were given a harder mission to prove your mettle. What do you say Kakashi?"
"I think that my team can handle a C-rank just fine." replied Kakashi, a hint of pride lingering in his voice.
"That's what I expected. Now let's see here…" said Sarutobi, while searching through the mission scrolls, "Aha! This one will be perfect." Sarutobi handed the scroll to Kakashi. "An escort mission to break them into the C-ranks."
"Who do we have to escort old man?" asked Naruto, jumping about trying to get a glance at the scroll in Kakashi's hand, and failing miserably.
"Tazuna-san, would you please come in." asked Sarutobi. A door opened, revealing a completely drunk old man holding onto a sake bottle. "Tazuna-san is a bridge builder who is building a bridge to connect Wave with the mainland. Your job is to escort him to wave and protect him until the bridge is completed."
Tazuna looked at the team that was assembled to protect him through hazy eyes. "Are you sure they can protect me? These brats don't look like they can protect themselves, let alone protect me."
The temperature of the room suddenly dropped. The Hokage and his assistants looked almost fearfully at the trio of genin, all of whom were radiating and immense amount of chill. Sasuke was looking plain murderous, the amount of emotion shown on his face was more than his usual daily emotions put together. Misaki was releasing enough killing intent to freeze Tazuna mid-step, and he did just that. Naruto on the other hand had his head lowered, his hair covering his face. Everyone expected an outburst from him, so the fact that he was trying to contain it was good. He wasn't very good at it, though. This resulted in an extreme amount of anger radiating from him, causing Tazuna's hair to stand on ends and he almost wet himself.
"I believe my Team can protect you just fine." said Kakashi through his teeth. "And even if they can't, I will be there, so you don't have to worry about anything." he finished with an eye smile that made Tazuna visibly cringe.
"So, you are accepting the mission?" asked Sarutobi.
"Of course." replied Kakashi, before turning towards his team, "I want you to pack for a week long mission and meet me at the village gate in 2 hours." He then disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Tazuna took this chance to get away from the scary genin. The genin then left the room one by one, with Naruto being the last one. Just as he was about to go…
"Naruto." called Sarutobi. Naruto looked behind his back at the wizened Hokage. "Make sure that your team comes back in one piece, will you." said Sarutobi, a touch of concern in his gaze.
"Yeah, sure." said Naruto, before leaving the office.
Uzumaki Naruto was walking towards his apartment in order to pack for the mission that he had just been handed. He was thinking about his trip to Wave, and the request by the local mafia boss.
"Stop over thinking things brat." growled the Kyuubi. "Since when do you think anyway?"
'Ha ha. Very funny.' grumbled Naruto. 'You could help me with my predicament. But no. You had to be the sarcastic little furball.'
"Which is what I was doing, idiot. Stop making things more complicated. Did you forget your meeting with that bastard?"
'Don't remind me. He was the worst kind of opponent for me. I had to scrape through my knowledge just to survive against him. But you are right about the over thinking part, I suppose.'
"Of course I am. Now before you go back to your gloomy self, you do realize we will be leaving Konoha for this mission?" asked the humongous nine-tailed demon fox.
'That's right!' Naruto exclaimed, 'I got to pack properly. I haven't exactly gone that much away from Konoha before. This will be my first excursion outside; into the world. Thanks for reminding me, fuzbutt.'
"My pleasure brat." said the Kyuubi, before going back to its nap.
Uchiha Sasuke was struggling. He was having a hard time figuring out his own worth. Before he became a genin, he used to be the strongest of his age. He could beat anyone when they sparred. He could even take two or three academy students together on his best day. He even was the rookie of the year. So how the hell was he being beaten by his teammates?
He had expected Misaki to be strong, but not on his par and certainly not better than him. In all of the one-on-one spars he had had with Misaki, he had his ass handed to him. He had not been beaten so overwhelmingly by anyone else, not even by Kakashi. And she even had activated her sharingan. This only added to his humiliation. Not only was he weaker than her on normal means, she also managed to get the coveted clan dojutsu to activate before him.
Naruto was a complete wild card. He knew that the boy had talent; he had deciphered that much from his spars with him at the Academy. But the fact that he can outmaneuver him in a spar now is alarming. The boy was practically the dead last. And the moment he graduated he becomes better than him. That is just outrageous. At least he could match the boy most of the time. He had also been increasingly able to win against him; and he soon hoped to match their win: loss ratio, which currently hung towards Naruto still by a big margin.
Now, he was forced to go through training which was torturous in order to become strong enough to beat them. He was not going to be the weakest link in the team, no way in hell.
That was when he saw the time.
"FUUUUUUUCK."
Hatake Kakashi was at Team 7's regular training ground, a little far away from the clearing where he made them go through the bell test. He was standing in front of a small monument, one which held lots of names written on it. He just stood there, looking at the names of the people who died in battle. His gaze lingered on two different names for a long time. He crouched down, and with one hand traced one of those names.
'My Team got their first C-rank mission today.' thought Kakashi. 'We are going to Wave in order to protect a bridge builder named Tazuna. I hope they can handle themselves properly. It's an ugly world out there. Don't you agree, Obito?'
Uchiha Misaki was going through her backpack, making sure that she had gotten everything she needed for a week long mission.
'Change of clothes, check. Weapons, check. Healing kit, check. Food, check. I guess I don't need to take anything much, except for maybe a tent and a sleeping bag.'
She grabbed the tent and sleeping bag, stuffed them inside her bag, and headed out for the village gate. While she walked, she looked around, taking in the views of the village that was Konoha. She was going to leave it for the very first time, and she was going to take a few memories of it with her for sure. She could never go to the field trip from the Academy which took them to a nearby place outside Konoha. Her family wouldn't let her go somewhere that might endanger losing the sharingan. And after the clan was brutally massacred by Uchiha Itachi, the village council wouldn't let any means of reviving the clan leave the village that easy.
As she admired the views, she soon spotted Naruto running over the top of the roofs, looking pretty flustered. Before she could call his name however, he landed on the roof of the shop beside which she was standing, slipped on pretty much nothing, and landed headfirst into the pavement.
"Naruto!" yelled Misaki. "What the hell are you doing?"
Naruto pulled himself up from the small hole that he created on the ground. "I was already late for the meeting. I was trying to get there on time, when I slipped." He explained, dusting himself off as he spoke.
"What do you mean by you were late? There's still plenty of …." Misaki trailed off as she noticed the time on a wall clock hanging inside a store. She stood still for a moment, before grabbing Naruto's hand and making a break for the gate.
"Wha-ha-at the-e he-e-el-ll…" screamed Naruto, as he literally flew in the air behind Misaki.
Tazuna had been waiting at the village gate for about half an hour now, but there seemed to be no sign of the team that was supposed to protect him. He was beginning to doubt his decision for coming to Konoha. If this was the kind of protection he was going to get, he would have gone somewhere else. But, he didn't have the time. He had to get out of Wave quickly when he left, and the closest place with ninja was Konoha.
If the team assigned to him was this unprofessional, he could pretty much kiss his life goodbye. This was why he had been taking large swigs from his bottle of sake. He needed something to drown the twinge of guilt that he felt at the bottom of his stomach. If those brats died protecting him… No. He wasn't going to let it get to him. As he was making his mind up…
"Watch out!" yelled a voice. Tazuna looked up, and saw two people running at him… Actually, it was one girl running at him while dragging a boy behind him. He quickly jumped out of the way as the duo ran straight through the place he was standing in before ramming straight into a wall. As the two picked themselves up, he recognized them as the genin that would protect him. The black haired girl was named Misaki, he recalled, and the blonde haired boy was called … Fishcake?
"Hmm." Misaki said, dusting herself off. "Oh, look Naruto. No one else is here. We must be early."
"EARLY!" shouted Tazuna. "I have been waiting half an hour for you." he fumed, wondering how irresponsible these brats were.
"Yeah, no kidding. I almost thought I was going to be chewed out by Kakashi-sensei." mused Naruto, completely ignoring the drunken bridge builder's outburst.
"Oi, stop ignoring me!" complained Tazuna. He was about to say something else, when …
"Get out of the way." came a shout. Tazuna turned around, only to be almost run over by another person, who somehow managed to dodge him, with extremely fluid movements, by a hair's width, only to plow straight into the hole in the wall created by the duo before him.
The boy pulled himself out of the crater and gave him a glare from the corner of his eyes. Tazuna shivered, remembering his previous encounter with the team at the mission office. He quickly regretted ever doubting these brats. Unruly they might be, but they were damn scary when they were pissed.
"Sasuke!" yelled Naruto. "You're later than us. What the hell were you doing?"
"It's none of your damn business." growled the said Uchiha.
"Were you… you know…" hedged Misaki, fidgeting like a certain Hyuuga heiress.
Somewhere outside Konoha, Hyuuga Hinata sneezed.
"I know what?" asked a confused Sasuke.
"Were you…. watching porn?" whispered Misaki.
"What the hell!" yelled a bewildered and embarrassed Sasuke. His cheeks heated up, and showed a faint pink color. "Why would I be doing that? No. NO. Just no." He sputtered.
"Really?" asked a visibly deflated Misaki. "I thought all boys watched porn."
"Maybe he was masturbating?" piped Naruto, causing another outburst.
"Why would I be doing that before a mission you idiot?" yelled Sasuke.
"Yo." said Kakashi as he arrived at the scene half an hour even later. He found Tazuna holding onto his head while squatting down, empty bottle of sake strewn around him, showing clear signs of a hangover. His genin were bickering among them. Sasuke was pretty flustered, having flushed up and stuttering every once in a while. Naruto seemed to be engrossed in whatever it was that they were arguing about. Misaki seemed to be completely enjoying the show that her teammates had put up. "What's going on?" He asked.
"Oh, we were just talking about whether Sasuke was gay or not." replied Misaki nonchalantly.
"Am not!" yelled an adamant Sasuke.
"But the way you run away from all those fangirls, and finding other boys and showing your 'dominance' over them is clearly because you bat for the other team, right?" questioned Naruto.
"If you tolerate those annoying fangirls, you are free to do so. But I am not going to be 'taken' by any one of those manic buffoons. And you know better than anyone else why I want to be stronger than others." protested Sasuke.
"If you really are straight, I dare you to go and find yourself a date." challenged Naruto.
"I accept." said Sasuke.
"Now, now." interrupted Kakashi. "We can have a discussion about Sasuke's sexuality after this mission is over. I want all three of you to take this mission seriously and protect Tazuna-san here with your life."
"Yes sir." chorused the three together, showing a rare moment of seriousness.
"But we wouldn't have to do much because this is a C-rank escort mission. So no pressure." said Kakashi.
"Ikuze!" yelled Naruto, leading the group as they left the village, with an almost knocked out Tazuna being carried on the shoulder by Kakashi.
Omake
Andrew: Alright, we are done with another installment of Blonde Haired Devil.
Naruto: Yippee.
Andrew: This time, it's more than 3500 words. I hope I did a good job this time around.
Naruto: Shouldn't you be making the chapters bigger?
Andrew: It's hard, okay. I am not that used to writing, soI can't write 10000 words without breaking a sweat.
Naruto: But still, you could've added our journey to Wave in this chapter.
Andrew: You have my life to thank for that. I'd rather do the Wave Arc separately in a big chapter. I'll start writing as soon as I can, so you guys don't have to worry much.
Naruto: At least you are writing again. That's a plus.
Andrew: Always is. Now take it from here.
Naruto: Next time on Dragon Ball… oops, wrong story. Next time on Blonde Haired Devil.
Andrew: Naruto on gang go to Wave in order to protect a drunken old bridge builder named Tazuna. What adventures await them there? Who is Kurokami Madoka? And what is the secret mission that she gave Naruto? Will Naruto do the mission? Find out…
Chorus: Next time on Blonde Haired Devil.