Chapter 7

How Strong Am I

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto

So I've been thinking about it and I came up with List of summons, please vote/choose one, the one with the most votes will be the summon he gets. Please give your suggestions now, I plan on giving it to him soon.

SUMMONS= fox, Wolf, Raven, Phoenix, Eagles and dragons

Last thing I want your help with, parings. Here is what I have in mind, vote for one...please

PARINGS= Tamari, Kurotsuchi, Samui, Fu, Yugito( younger)

Special thanks to YokoNoDara for helping me out with this chapter.

"Target is in my sight" a voice said on the radio

"Wait for the others to get within striking position" a female voice responded back. They were silent before another voice spoke up on the radio

"I-I can see the t-target" a few seconds and another voice spoke.

"I am within range"

"Ok then team 8...move in!" instantly the sounds of fighting/scrunching could be heard, there were a few shuffles before everything went silent

"Report"

"Target captured" an annoyed voice replied of the radio. Three figures walked out from the bushes, all of them with a few scratch marks somewhere on their bodies. Kurenai nodded head and looked away from her team, hiding the small laugh that was about to escape from her lips.

Team 8 walked into the Hokage's office with a fighting Tora being held tightly by a very annoyed Naruto, who looked just about ready to kill the struggling cat at any given second.

"Team 8 reporting in for a mission success Hokage-sama" Kurenai said bowing her head slightly and receiving a smile from the Hokage who nodded his head. A woman who had been seating on a chair in the office suddenly sprung up from her seat and with speeds that a normal civilian should not posses, plucks the now shaking Tora from Naruto and started to squeeze the life out of it with her hug.

'Now I understand why it was fighting to stay away so much'

'P-poor kitty

'BZZZZT! Shh I will not let her take any of you'

"Ohh my poor Tora, I was so worried, never run away from mama again" the woman cued, rubbing the poor cat to her face. Ignoring the scene in front of him, the Hokage addressed the team.

"Congratulations team 8, will you be taking any more missions?" Kurenai looked at her team; they were already done with today's training and needed some rest, catching Tora had not been easy.

"No Hokage-sama that will be all" the Hokage nodded his head and team 8 proceeded to walk out of the office.

"Ok team 8, that will be all for today" Kurenai said as they walked down the hall way. They all nodded their heads and upon exiting the Hokage building were about to go their separate ways when Shino spoke up.

"Naruto" Shino called out as Naruto was about to walk away. Naruto stopped and looked back at his teammates, they were still standing at the exit door, and raising an eyebrow he turned around and walked back to them.

"Yes?" Naruto responded when he was close to them

Hinata looked nervous and hesitated before speaking "We are going to eat at a restaurant and wanted to a-ask if you would go with us" she blushed at the end and look down to hide her blushing face.

For a few minutes Naruto was silent, he looked at his teammates a part of him wanted to go but another part of him reminded him that he had some training to do today, he was close to mastering that new Fire jutsu, maybe he could go out with them next time.

"I'm sorry...I can't, there is something I need to do today" Naruto said with a small sigh, earning a frown from his teammates

"Some other time then?" Shino said with a hopeful hint in his voice, he had been hoping that his best friend would come with them, lately he had been seeing less and less of him, this was his opportunity to spend some time with him.

"Yes...some other time" Naruto said and with that he walked away from his disappointed teammates. All three of them did not notice an invisible figure hidden behind a genjutsu watching them. Kurenai frowned as she looked at Naruto; her team was not bonding together as she had hoped.

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Naruto walked towards the empty training ground he always used to get some private training. The training ground was near the uchiha clan compound, it was a small clearing surrounded by several trees, at the end of the clearing there was a lake. Closing his eyes only to open them a second later, though this time with his sharingan activated. He walked towards the centre of the clearing.

He closed his eyes once more, this time in concentration, taking in a few calming breath 'NOW!' he shouted in his mind, at speeds that would make a few jonin gape, he opened his eyes with his hands flashing through hand seals in a blur.

"Fire Release; Hellfire Clap!" at first northing happened, it seemed as though the jutsu had gone wrong but then the temperature in the area started to rise, a circle composed of pure fire formed on the ground surrounding Naruto before it rose until it was covering him completely. With a final 'CLAP' the wave of destructive fire spread out in a circle, searing through anything it came into contact with. The fire spread for about 9 metres from Naruto before burning out.

In the centre from where the fire had come from, an unscathed Naruto stood panting slightly looking at the destruction caused by his jutsu. The once beautiful green small clearing was now covered in black scorch marks and ashes from burned grass and a few shrubs.

'9 metres' Naruto thought with a slight frown on his face, the jutsu he had just done was an A-ranked chakra consuming defensive jutsu, from what he had read the diameter of the jutsu was 15 metres from the caster, so far the best he had been able to push for was 7 metres, 9 counting today.

Now one might wonder how and why Naruto knew an A-ranked jutsu, the reason was simple actually. When his parents had told him the limit amount of justu that he was allowed to learn, Naruto had made sure to copy as many jutsu as he could. It was not to spite his parents or anything, no, the reason he had done it is because, he had reasoned to himself that they might come a day and time when he would need to able to cast one of those jutsu, either to protect himself or his family. Call it paranoia but after that day they had almost been killed, he was not taking any chances

Thank Kami for the photographic memory of the sharingan; otherwise he would never have been able to remember any of those jutsu. He was thankful that he had been copying those jutsu because had he not he would never had been able to after the Uchiha clan had been massacred. The whole place had been locked and no one was allowed to enter the compound.

'All those jutsu and information lost' he thought sadly.

After mastering the jutsu he had chosen to learn, when his parents had given the chance to learn only a selected amount of jutsu, Naruto had decided to 'experiment 'or so to speak, with the other jutsu he had copied. It had started as more of an act of curiosity of a little boy wanting to see just how far he could go with what he knew, that soon turned into him wanting to master everything in his knowledge to not only make his dream a reality but to also protect himself and most importantly to protect his family.

Of cause his parents didn't know about what he was doing, so he had trained those jutsu in secret and he prayed to Kami that they never find out, especially his mother. There was a very, and I mean VERY few things that scared Naruto and those things were, Ghosts, if pocky was to ever be stopped produced but most of an angry Kushina.

CLAP, CLAP " I must say Naru-kun, I'm impressed" a voice said a few feet behind him, a voice he instantly recognised all too well. Naruto froze; his legs started shacking slightly, sweat poured down his forehead.

'It can't be! Kami let it not be her, anyone but her!' he prayed and with very much reluctance he slowly turned his head and what he saw made him whimper. There standing with a sweet devilish smile on her face was none other than his mother. He backed away from her, his heart now beating so fast and so hard he could actually hear it.

"So Naru-kun, mind telling me what that was?" Naruto gulped audibly, 'Kami must really hate me' he whimpered.

"Kaa-san, funny seeing you here, what can I do for you?" he chuckled nervously rubbing the back of his head.

Kushina inwardly laughed, she loved watching her son break from his usual serious exterior and actually acts like a normal child. That was why she made sure to get him as railed up as often as she could. She held her serious expression wanting to see for how long he would take before he broke.

"Nothing much, what was that?" she asked again pointing at the charred ground and adding a bit of KI to make him sweat even more.

Naruto wanted to shout out in frustration, of all the people to catch him why her. Why couldn't it be his father? His sisters? His grandmother? Anyone but her. How had she found him anyways, he had made sure to find the most private training ground around, he was sure that no one save a few ANBU and some members of the Uchiha clan members knew about this training ground. How had she gotten so close to him without his notice? His sensing range was not that wide but it was wide enough for him to notice when people are close.

'Well she is a jonin and an S-ranked kinoichi' he answered his own question. Calming down just enough to face her Naruto braced himself and spoke

"A jutsu?" he said testing the waters.

"I can see that, what kind of jutsu?" her KI increased slightly

"A-A fire jutsu?" a tick mark appeared on Kushina's forehead

"What kind of fire jutsu?"

"An A-ranked jutsu" Naruto admitted finally preparing himself for what he knew would be the scolding of his life, imagine his surprise when instead of shouting or a fist to the head his mother moved in front of him and gave him the biggest hug she had ever given him.

"W-What?" Naruto stuttered in surprise after she had let him go

"You mastered an A-ranked jutsu silly" she giggled "Not even I could do that when I was your age, Ohh this calls for a celebration, let me treat you to as many poky sticks as you want" Naruto's mind, which had shut down from shock, finally rebooted enough for him to talk

"But aren't you angry?" shouldn't she be angry? He had basically gone behind their backs and did what they had told him not to do, learn more jutsu.

"Of cause not, why would I be angry when my little boy has just done something as amazing as this?" she waved her hand indicating the damaged done by the fire

"I went behind your backs" He said blankly with a deadpan expression

"Well we knew you would learn other jutsu, so you technically didn't do anything wrong"

"You knew?"

"You had access to an enter library full of powerful Ninjutsu jutsu, we would be stupid to think that you wouldn't try and learn more"

"But why didn't you stop me?" Kushina smiled

"We wanted you to learn to gain your own strength without anyone to hold you back and we were hoping that you would be able to tell us on your own" Naruto flinched at that, he had never thought about telling them or anyone for that matter.

His eyes widened slightly in realisation, he had wasted a lot of time wondering whether or not he should go ahead and try to master some of the other jutsu he had seen without his parents concert and even after he had decided to he had held back and only practiced a few jutsu for just in case he had been caught, then he would just say all he managed to learn was a few jutsu and none of them were too dangerous, his punishment would surely have been less severe.

Aside from the original amount of jutsu he was supposed to learn he had only learned a total of 7 jutsu, 2- D-ranked jutsu, 3 C-ranked jutsu 1 B-ranked jutsu and 1 A-ranked. All in all that brought him to a total of 5 D-ranked jutsu, 8 C-ranked, 2 B-ranked and now 1 A-rank.

D-RANKED=Replacement jutsu, Clone jutsu, Fire style: Cinder Technique, Water clones Jutsu, Earth style: Earth clone jutsu

C-Ranked= Mythical Fire phoenix jutsu, Fire style: Dragon Fire, Fire style: Aerial Explosion, Fire Style: Bed of fire, Water Style: Evil Windmill water shuriken, Water style: Water Chains jutsu, Earth style: Mud river, Earth style: Earth Dragon blast

B-Ranked=Fire style: Great Dragon fire, Fire Style: Hellfire Whirlwind

A-Ranked= Fire Style: Hell fire clap.

After mentally checking the number of jutsu he knew he smiled proudly, after many burned clothes, throat, mouth and chest, he could proudly say he knew how to do many fire jutsu, a few water and earth jutsu, but that did not matter. He had tried doing a few wind and lighting jutsu, he had not only found it very hard, but they drained a lot of charka from him, after countless tries and neither successes he had given up on them and moved on to other things.

Earth and water jutsu were and still are slightly difficult and take at least double the chakra required for a fire jutsu but with his large chakra reserves and very good chakra control they did not make that much of a dent on his progress for him to deter from learning them.

Fire jutsu, he had to smile at that, fire jutsu were by far where he truly shined at. From the very beginning he had felt drawn towards the fire element and could honestly say he loved them, sure he had been injured trying to learn them but hey who ever said power came at a free price, like they say, no pain no gain. Another thing he loved about fire jutsu was because they did not drain his chakra a lot, in fact he hardly ever realised the chakra drain from using D-ranked fire Ninjutsu. That was also why he had learned so many fire jutsu, they were simply too good to pass up.

Looking at his mother Naruto wanted to test something that had been bugging him ever since he had started training. How strong was he, he wanted to test himself against someone powerful, to see whether he was making any progress in archiving his dream of surpassing all the Hokage's, to see whether all his hard work was paying off. This was his chance, his mother was a very powerful person, he wasn't arrogant enough to believe he could actually defeat her, or land a hit on her for that matter, but he knew if there was anyone he could test himself it was her. He would have asked other people like his father, grandfather or grandmother however all of them had their own...disadvantages

His father was a very busy person and spent most of his time at work, his grandmother much like his father spent most of her time at the hospital and with the way she treated him, he doubt she would actually hurt him. his grandfather was always out of the village, he rarely ever visited so that was another dead end. There was also Kakashi, he often came to the house to talk with his father or at times, play with him and his sisters, but the guy was so lazy and don't even get him started on his lateness tenderness. The only person left was his mother, she was strong, she definitely wouldn't hold back on him, she was always around so the choice was obvious

"Kaa-san" Kushina looked at him

"Would you fight me" a smile suddenly made its way across her face, she had been waiting for him to ask her sooner or later. Both Hitomi and Hikari had already done the same, they had asked her to fight them separately and give them pointers and tell them exactly how strong they were. From their fight she had deduced that both girls at most were mid chunin level, bordering high Chunin level. That was the reason she had actually come to her son's 'private' training ground, to test him as well, as luck would have it, he was the one to ask her instead.

"Ok Naru-kun, I want you to come at me with everything you have, don't hold back on anything" she jumped away to create some distance between them, with a kunai already drown

'Don't worry I wasn't planning to' Naruto thought with his sharingan already active spinning slowly in preparation for the battle.

HOKAGE OFFICE THE SAME TIME

Minato looked at the crystal ball on his table in rapt attention he was not alone, around him were Tsunade, Kakashi, Shizune and Kurenai. When Kushina had told him that she was going to test the children, he had made sure to view all the matches on the crystal ball, Tsunade who happened to have over head the conversation by chance had made sure to not miss the fights. She had also invited Shizune who had happily come, he had told Kakashi because he was basically family.

Kurenai had just been invited to watch the match between mother and son because she was after all Naruto's jonin sensei and the better she understood her teams abilities, the better she could determine how best to implement them into their missions and teamwork.

"This ought to be interesting" Kakashi said pocketing his book, which actually surprised everyone in the room though no one made a comment about it. Everyone was silent as they gazed at the crystal ball

Breaking the silence "How long do you think he will last?" Tsunade suddenly asked. Minato thought about it for a few seconds, Hitomi had lasted 13 minutes; Hikari had lasted 14minutes so Naruto would last for at least 17 to 18 minutes.

Not looking away from the crystal ball he answered her "17-18 minutes...give or take" she nodded her head slightly.

Kurenai who had been listening in to their conversation could not help but wonder why they had sat such a small time limit for the 'test'. Surely Kushina was not going to fight a genin with her full strength was she? Voicing her question she asked

"Kushina-sama won't seriously fight him will she?" they all turned their heads towards her; she could not help but blush at the sudden attention.

"We'll let you see for yourself" Kakashi was the one to respond mysteriously. She was about to ask what he had meant by that but was cut off by the Hokage's voice

"Shh they're starting"

BACK AT TH CLEARING

Kushina was the first to first to move, in a show of impressive speed she disappeared from her position. Naruto had only a second to dodge a fist that appeared right where his face had been, his sharingan had picked her movements and warned him about the strike. Sensing another attack he raised both his hands just in time to block a kick to the head, unfortunately for him he had not anticipated the strength of the kick which sent him skidding for a few feet, coming to a stop he almost yelped at the pain in his arms

'She's strong, I can't match her in speed nor in strength, maybe-'

"Fire style: Dragon fire jutsu!" a stream of fire came out from his mouth, unlike the other times when he had made it into a dragon head this time the fire blow out from his mouth like a frame thrower. He held the jutsu for a few more seconds before stopping; when the smoke cleared a chard burnt body could be seen lying on the ground.

With his sharingan Naruto could see that the person lying on the ground was indeed his mother but something about it felt wrong, he was about to throw a kunai at the body when it suddenly exploded into smoke. His eyes widened a clone?

'What type of clone was that?' he bit his lip to prevent himself from screaming when a fist buried itself into his stomach. Kushina smiled but that smile turned into a frown when she saw the 'Naruto' she had hit smirk at her, she had no time to react when the 'Naruto' suddenly exploded. 'Explosive tags' she noted, before she disappeared in a smoke explosion

"I must say Naru-kun, I'm impressed, you've managed to fight me at Jonin level, How about we tune this up some more" Kushina shouted looking directly at her son who was hiding in a tree. Multiple shuriken suddenly appeared headed straight for her but to her surprise none of them were on target. She looked on quizzically wondering what he was up to, her eyes caught a silver glint trailing the shuriken

'So that's his plan' .

In mid air the shuriken turned around and all of them spun round her, strings they were attached to encasing her, binding her enter body. Naruto appeared in front of her with his hand flashing through hand seals.

"Earth Style: Mud river:" he pressed his hands on the ground and soon it began to liquidity turning into mud, the attack continued until the ground under her too turned into mud much a sank her into the ground, till her chest. Naruto gathered more chakra into his lungs and flashed through another set of hand seals and heaving a mighty breath

"Fire Style: Bed of fire" he spew out an oily substance that spread on top of the mud river till it covered the whole surface area. As soon as the area was covered Naruto willed the oily substance to ignite, the effect was immediate, it resulted in a carpet of flame that spread out where the oil was.

When the fire cleared what remained was the ground now solid hard, in the middle was an empty body sized whole. Naruto panted, he was getting tired, if things went like this he wouldn't last for any longer.

"Phew that would've hurt" Kushina said appearing on top of a tree, her clothes were burnt slightly and a small patch of her skin was charged slightly.

'Time to try a different approach' Kushina was about to attack when her surroundings started to shift, 'Genjutsu' she thought and brought her hands to gather and gathering her chakra

"Kai!" the illusion easily dispelled. Kushina attacked, disappearing in a blur she appeared in front of Naruto cocking her fist she let go and was surprised when her fist passed right through Naruto.

'What' she thought in surprise, she attacked again and was surprised when the same result happened. She looked at Naruto and saw that he was looking directly at her, with his sharingan active. She almost hit her head with her palm, of cause never look at a sharingan user directly in the eyes, she had not anticipated that he had gotten that far with his sharingan. She gathered her chakra once more and in burst broke the genjutsu, when the illusion dispelled what she saw surprised her.

There stood Naruto, his back was hunched backwards, a large amount of chakra gathering in his chest

"FIRE STLYE: GREAT DRAGON FIRE JUTSU!" 5 large dragon heads, easily twice as big as a normal fire dragon jutsu lounged at her with great speeds, upon contact a fiery explosion unlike any other shook the enter training ground, the shock waves from the explosion sent Naruto flying away into the trees.

When the explosion died down a large crater was formed, several trees were blown away and a few trees had been burnt till only the brunches and stumps remained.

Naruto staggered as he stood up, he had used almost every amount of chakra on that attack, his sharingan was slowly spinning until it stopped and his eyes turned back to their normal darker shade of blue. He looked at the centre of the attack but could not see clearly as it was obscured by dust and smoke.

The dust slowly settled down and behind it was a cocoon of golden chains, the chains started retreating into the ground and he could clearly see his mother. She was not injured aside from the previous burn marks and slightly charred clothes there was no new injuries on her form. She gave him an uploading smile before disappearing only to appear a second later in front of him with her knee buried in his stomach.

He hunched forward in agonising pain, before he could recuperate she disappeared again and kicked him in his chest, sending him flying into the air, he blinked when a red blur passed him, he didn't see anything but something akin to a very large metal bar hit him in the back sending him straight to the ground. When he crushed into the ground a small crater formed where he had hit, his vision blurred and the last thing he saw was a red blur picking him up before the world went black.

Kushina looked at her son with a proud look on her face, he had done exceptionally well. She had not in all honesty expect him to be this good, and to think he had even pushed her far enough to use her chakra chains. Even though she had not been going all out, she was still impressed at how strong and how well he had used his jutsu in conjunction. She picked him up from the small crater and carried him bridal style, and disappeared in a leaf Shunshin.

HOKAGE OFFICE

Everyone in the room was silent with different expressions on their faces, Minato had a surprised and proud look, Kakashi eye was slightly widened, Shizune

"I didn't expect him to that strong" Shizune mumbled under her breath but everyone heard her, and all of them could not help agree

"How strong would you say he is?" Kurenai asked still shocked from what she had seen.

"High chunin, bordering low jonin" Minato responded proudly, he knew his son was strong, from the very day they had begun to teach them Naruto had shown prodigious skills at everything he did. He had been worried when Naruto had told them about what he had found in the Uchiha clan library, he was worried that his son would become power hungry and eventually follow in his predecessor Madara foot prints. That was why they had set a limit for the number he was allowed to learn.

Though like the prodigy he was, Naruto had quickly mastered the set of jutsu he had chosen, he had at times wondered whether or not to learn more, when he chose to learn more, Minato had wanted to stop him but Kushina had stopped him before he could, stating that they should not try to hinder their son's growth, that they should not decide for him what to and what not to learn. In the end he had given in though he kept tabs on his son using the crystal ball.

-Two Months Later-

Two months had passed since Naruto had faced off against his mother. Once he had woken up in the hospital from the beating she had given him, he recalled the end of their battle. He went straight to her, to ask her about how strong she thought he was.

He couldn't stop the proud smile that had made its way across his usually stoic face when he heard what she had to say about him. It was like a small amount of weight had been removed from his shoulders. He was strong and was getting stronger. All those hours spent training had been and was still paying off, immensely. After that, he had thrown himself more and more into his training. He still felt that the gap between how strong he was and how strong he wanted to be was still too wide, infinitely wide.

During his time with Team 8, they would spend two hours working on their team work. Then Kurenai would have them work on some obstacles, and make them do a few rounds, around the training ground. Finally she would have them work on their chakra control. After that she would work with each of them individually, and then they would take a single mission. After the mission she would let them go home or in Naruto's case go to get some more train.

That had been their team's routine for the past two months, so when they arrived at the Hokage's office they were all surprised when instead of requesting a normal D-ranked mission Kurenai did something different.

"I would like to request for a C-ranked mission Hokage-sama" Everyone, even the Hokage was surprised

"Oh? Are you sure?" the Hokage asked, after all Kurenai had only had her Genin team for 2 months. Most Jonin didn't take any missions above D-ranked until after at least 7 months, from the time they had become true Genins.

Kurenai looked at her team and nodded her head, "I believe my team is ready for a C-ranked mission Hokage-sama" Minato looked at the mission request on his desk. His eyes lit up slightly when he found a perfect mission for them

"Here is a C-ranked mission" he grabbed a file and handed it to Kurenai, "Your mission is to deliver an important scroll to a Sand Nin, who will be waiting for you at the border between Konoha and Suna. Do you except this mission?" Kurenai looked at the mission details before nodding her head

"Hai, Hokage-sama" she said bowing her head slightly, before turning to her team

"Go and pack for a two day journey. Make sure to bring essentials only, and meet me at the gate in 1 hour" the Genins nodded their head, and walked out of the office

"Naruto!" Minato called out at his son who was already at the door.

"Tou-san?" Naruto responded and turned around to look back at his father.

"Be careful out there ok, and good luck"

"I will, thank you" he was about to walk out before Minato spoke again

"Don't forget to tell your mother and grandmother about where you are going. They would be hurt if you didn't" Naruto froze and a small shiver went down his spine, he was not looking forward to that.

Minato watched, with a proud smile, as his son went out on his first C-ranked mission. He looked at a picture he had on his desk. It was a picture of him carrying a 3 years old Naruto on his neck. He was wearing his usual Hokage robes and Naruto was wearing some orange pyjamas with green toads on it.

'They grow up so fast' He thought to himself, returning to his paper work.

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Naruto walked towards the gate, and was not surprised to find everyone else waiting for him.

"I'm sorry I'm late." He said, not giving them a reason as to why he was late. Kurenai raised an eyebrow and gave him a questionable glance.

"Were is your back pack?" she asked, seeing that the only thing Naruto had on himself, aside from his usual clothes was a kunai pouch. Naruto raised his hand slightly, and shuffled his jersey slightly to show his arm. What drew everyone's attention, was the seal that was written on his hand. He added a little chakra to the seal and a puff of smoke appeared. When the smoke cleared, his small back pack could be seen on the ground.

"I keep all my things sealed on myself. It is far easier and way more convenient this way" he explained, showing another seal on his hand.

"How does it work?" Shino asked curiously.

"The seal creates a pocket dimension where everything I seal in it is stored. By adding a minuscule amount of chakra to the seal, the items are brought out from the seal" His parents were both seal experts and so he learned a thing or two from them, however he was not as interested in seals like they were. That was more Hikari's forte than his.

Kurenai gave Naruto an uplifting smile; her student was proving to be more surprising as time went on.

"Can you do the same for me?" Shino asked, seeing the benefits of having his items sealed. Not only would it provide him with less weight to carry, which could potentially and possibly fatally slow him down, but the likelihood of his items getting lost or stolen was reduced to near none existent.

Naruto nodded his head happy to help out his best friend/teammate. He channelled chakra to the seal on his wrist and a scroll appeared; he opened the scroll and another seal could be seen written on it. After channelling chakra to the seal, some writing tools appeared.

"Where would you like me to place the seal?" Naruto asked, dipping the brush into a pot of ink. Shino pulled the sleeve up on the right hand of his coat.

"There is a limit to the amount of thing you can seal; you will know the seal is full when you try to add more things and nothing happens." he added lastly.

"How do I seal my things in it?" Shino questioned.

"Put the things you want on the ground, focus a small amount of chakra into the seal and the rest will take care of its self. To unseal them just add some chakra to the seal and say, 'Kai' and they will be unsealed".

Hinata looked at Naruto nervously; she wanted to ask him to do the same thing as he did for Shino, but was too afraid to ask. What if he said no? Naruto and Shino had been friends for a long time and she, well she had hardly ever spoken to him. Even though they were teammates, Naruto was a very silent and distant person. In the two months they had been teammates, he had only hung out with them twice. Even then it had been Kurenai who had convinced him to go with them, on the grounds that it would help build their team work. He hardly said anything that time, and had Shino not been there, it would have been very awkward.

Truth be told, she had no idea where she stood with him. Sure she was best friends with his sisters, and they were teammates, but that was it. She was shaken from her thoughts by Kurenai grabbing her shoulder. She looked up in confusion, and saw Kurenai giving her look that said 'Go ahead' She nodded her head slightly, and gathered her courage

Hinata gulped slightly "Naruto-san, could y-you do the same for m-me?" She finished, looking at the ground, and poking her fingers together. Naruto looked at her with a raised eyebrow 'What is she so nervous about?' he mused internally, and shrugging his shoulders, he dipped the brush into the pot of ink and approached her.

"Where would you like me to put it?" Hinata blushed, and rolled up her sleeve to show her pale, white skinned, left hand. Nodding his head, he held her hand with his and started to work. He did not notice Hinata's blush intensify tenfold at the contact, and if he did, he did not show it. Seeing that Naruto was done Kurenai took charge.

"Ok team let's move out. Naruto you take point, Shino and Hinata walk a few paces behind him, and remember even though its only a C-ranked mission anything can happen, so be on your guard"

"Hai!" Three voices cried out at once, and with that Team 8 went on their first C-ranked mission...a mission that would change their lives.

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5 HOURS LATER

Team Kurenai walked silently on the dirt road headed for the border between Suna and Konoha. Kurenai, who was walking behind her team, noticed that her team was all getting tired and looking worn out, Hinata was the worst of all, she was sweating, her walking speed had slowed down visibly, but she was forcing herself to walk. Shino was next, not physically showing him being tired, but her trained eyes could easily pick up on the small details on him that clued her in. There was sweat glistening on his skin, and the large coat he was wearing was not helping him at all. His feet were slightly prodding down the road, and other than that nothing else was showing.

Naruto though, was not showing any signs of being tired, His pace had slightly decreased, yes, but nothing else indicated that he was tired. 'Probably because of his Uzumaki heritage' Kurenai thought to herself.

"Let's stop here and take a 30 minutes break" Kurenai said. They all stopped walking, immediately, immensely relieved.

"Hinata, can you tell me if there is anyone near our position?" Hinata nodded her head.

"Byakugan!"

"There is no one close Sensei" Kurenai nodded her head and indicated for her team to follow her. They followed her until they reached an open area.

"Rest up. I'll scout ahead" With that said she disappeared into the trees, leaving the team on their own.

Naruto looked at where their Sensei had just disappeared from with a raised eyebrow. Hadn't Hinata just checked for people just now? 'Maybe she had something else she had to do...?' he thought to himself. He rolled up the sleeve of his jersey, and adding chakra to the seal on his hand, he unsealed the one thing he had been craving since he left the village...pocky. Finding a spot to sit down, Naruto did just that and enjoyed the Kami given food that is pocky.

"Mind if I join you?" He looked up from where he was sitting and saw Shino holding a bento box.

He patted the spot next to him, indicating for Shino to sit "Go right ahead." Naruto looked at Hinata, and saw her sitting a few feet away, alone.

"Hinata" He called her. Her head whipped up so fast, that he was surprised it didn't fly right off her neck.

"Come sit with us" He waved a hand, indicating a spot next to him and Shino.

"T-Thank y-you" Naruto waved her off.

"Don't mention it, we are teammates after all" her cheeks reddened, and the ground suddenly became interesting.

30 MINUTES LATER

Kurenai arrived at the small clearing, to find her Genin team sitting together on the ground talking, which surprised her. She coughed lightly to get their attention.

"Time to go" They all nodded their head; they had already packed up everything after they had finished their meals.

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NEXT DAY

LOCATION; BOARDER BETWEEN KONOHA AND SUNA

Kurenai had taken point as the team continued on with their mission; they could see the desert about a half a kilometre (500 meters) from where they were.

"You all stay here while I go ahead and meet the Suna ninja; Naruto I'm living you in charge. Hinata keep your Byakugan active, and scout for any signs of trouble". Seeing as they all understood their positions on what to do Kurenai continued walking towards dessert, where she knew the Suna ninja would be waiting for her.

Team 8 watched as their Sensei walked towards the desert. They saw her stop right on the area where the desert and the forest separated. She waited for a few minutes before a man appeared in the distance, walking toward her, and due to the distance between them they couldn't see the man's face or what he was wearing.

Kurenai and the man spoke to each other, before Kurenai reached into her pouch and pulled out what looked like a scroll, and hand it to the man. The two exchanged a few more words before the man departed and Kurenai walked back towards them. After some time, Kurenai arrived back to where her team had been waiting for her with a smile on her face.

"Mission complete, let's head back home" Everyone looked disappointed at that, even Hinata. 'That was it?' They all thought. Naruto knew about missions and how they were ranked. He also knew the likelihood of meeting any dangerous hazards on a C-ranked was very little, but in all honesty, he had been hoping they would run into some gangs or even missing nins. He could not help but be put off when they spent the entire day walking, only for the mission to end so, so...easily.

Unknown to him, his teammates were all also thinking the same thing.

Kurenai saw the disappointed looks on her Genins face and smiled in amusement. She knew why they were all disappointed; after all she too had once been in the same situation. When her Sensei had told them they were going on a C-ranked mission, she like any other naive Genin thought they would fight bandits/missing Nins and even save countries and princesses. Imagine her disappointment when she discovered, that the mission was to guard a merchant headed to a town a few miles away from Konoha.

The team continued walking for 4 miles, by then the sun was high in the sky, making their journey that much harder. As the team was walking, Kurenai was walking behind them, with Shino and Hinata walking a few paces in front of her side by side, and Naruto taking point. Kurenai had instructed Hinata to constantly activate her Byakugan, at random intervals to check for any signs of any trouble.

In mid-step Hinata froze, drawing both Kurenai and Shino's attention

"S-Sensei there a-are some people ahead of us" they all stopped walking

"How many do you see?"

"8 of them, five are hiding and the other three a-are waiting on the r-road" Hinata said shaking slightly; Kurenai silently cursed.

"Can you tell me their ranking?" All members of the Hyuga clan were taught how to identify a person's strength/ranking by their by the amount of chakra they possessed, though this was not always correct because in some cases, at times a Jonin could have a small amount of chakra; this was because they specialized in something like Kenjutsu or Genjutsu and some Genin could have more chakra than a Chunin or Jonin.

"2 Jonin, 3 Chunin a-and 3 G-Genin" Hinata answered, Kurenai cursed again. They couldn't go around them, because judging by the way they were waiting for them, they had already seen them coming. The situation was not a good one. They were outnumbered, and their enemies had more fire power than them. The only way for them to have any hopes of surviving this, was for her to cast a strong enough Genjutsu that would hold them long enough for Shino to drain their chakra and for Naruto to finish them off with one of his fire Ninjutsu.

With her plan in mind, Kurenai looked at her team. They would survive this, she vowed, all of them!

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End of chapter.

Next chapter Naruto realises he can use mokuton so stay tuned in

Read and review please

Oh and please check out my new story 'Lost Namikaze' , bye!