Tardy Without Reason

Goku was tapping his foot impatiently. It was very early in the morning, and the only people at the village gate were the keepers and himself. The majority of the village hadn't even woken up yet, and the only reason he was here was because he was instructed to, "Where the hell is K?" He wondered aloud and got no response. His sensei didn't even appear in the signature crackle of electricity and comically say 'right here,' like he wanted him to.

The Gateskeepers watched Goku stand there losing his mind while waiting on the man. They both laughed to themselves, one of the men turning to look at the other. "Didn't he just get promoted to Genin yesterday, how the hell is he already leaving the village?" The man tried to ask under his breath.

The other keeper shrugged and made an unintelligible grunt, "He's special, I think." They both looked Goku over and tried to see just what was so special about him, and the men both stopped and locked onto the monkey tail that was swinging happily while the boy waited. "I think that might be what makes him so cool, dude, look. He has a fucking tail, what kind of Kekkei Genkai is that?"

"I don't know, but it'd be damn cool to have it," The gateskeeper was jumping up and down like a child. "I wouldn't be stuck in this fucking booth with you if I could swing from trees like a super shinobi monkey child!" His voice got a little too high, and Goku quickly turned and shot them a surprisingly menacing glance. The man stopped goofing off and actually started doing his job at that moment. Even though the kid was harmless, he couldn't be trying to roam out of the village unsupervised, so he left to the booth to go talk to him.

"Who are you calling super shinobi monkey child, huh?" Goku asked as he walked up to the much taller Gateskeeper and punched his fist into his open palm. "I'll have you kno-"

"Chill little dude," The keeper smiled at the boy, "I didn't mean anything bad by it. I actually think you're pretty badass, but I still need to know what you're up to right now."

The child placed his hands on his hips and pouted, "I'm waiting for my sensei, K." The other keeper and come out to join the conversation, and they both raised a brow upon hearing the name K, "Yeah, yeah; the Limitless K." Goku rolled his eyes since he knew what made them react like that. At first he was impressed by his sensei's achievements, but now he was just annoyed.

"You're K's student? You must be special," One of the keepers said in awe. "I've never seen him be late for a mission, though." He looked to his partner for agreement, and he nodded.

Goku kicked up a small amount of dirt and frowned, "That asshole does a lot of things apparently," but the moment Goku voiced his distaste for the man's tardiness; a crackle of electricity sounded behind him, and he knew that he had arrived. Goku turned around to face the tall figure, visibly showing how upset he was. The boy pointed at a non-existent wrist watch, "Do you know how long I've been waiting!?"

"Thirty minutes," apparently he did know. K folded his arms, "Goku, I don't like impatient children."

"I don't like irresponsible adults either!" Goku pointed at K with a shaky finger, "I don't even get an excuse!?"

"I don't feel the need to give one," K replied smoothly as he started walking off. "Just be glad I'm here."

The alien's face was red from holding in his anger, but he stomped behind K regardless. He was mad about the man being late, yes, but he was still extremely excited to be leaving the village for the first time. He waved bye to the Gateskeepers, while he and his sensei began their journey to Iwagakure.

Naturally, he had questions, and K knew the impending storm was upon him, so he prepared himself for the rookies barrage of questions.

Goku opened his mouth almost as soon as they left out of the gate, "Sensei, I thought I was supposed to go on D-Rank missions before I ever hit the field. This seems a little weird."

"Well, Goku...," K tried to explain it in the best way possible, "You and I are a special team, far more skilled than our counterparts. We were put together to handle special situations, to say the least."

The boy was extremely satisfied with that answer, "Hm, must mean I'm important, right?" He grinned at his jounin sensei, and the man gave him a half hearted nod. That was enough to appease his initial question, but more still lingered in his mind, and K was full of knowledge. "When are you going to teach me my first technique? Ooooh, will it be lightning style? When will I be able to teleport? Can I even do tha-"

"All of this will come soon, but for now we must focus on the mission at hand," His head was already starting to hurt and he hadn't even been traveling with Goku for ten minutes. Maybe he truly wasn't cut out to be a sensei, because this kid was going to drive him up a wall. "When we get a chance to set up camp, then I will I teach you everything you need to know for this mission."

The extraterrestrial nodded in understanding, but then his face went blank. "What exactly is this mission about again?"

"God damn it, Goku." The man rested his head within his palm and mentally cried. He wasn't a big fan of outward emotion, other then that expression of frustration he let slip. "As I said yesterday, we are delivering a parcel to Lord Tsuchikage as a show of good faith. We hope to create an ally, by giving them a crutch to their otherwise failing economy."

"What good is that gonna do?" Goku itched his head idly.

"Having an eastern ally with a military as strong as ours could only benefit us. In recent years, Iwagakure has had a strong foot hold over that region, but it's no secret that that area as a whole is not experiencing any economic prosperity," K explained to an eager Goku. "With their help and cooperation, we could have the east and west locked down in less than a decade."

"Eh, that sounds like you guys are getting ready to start a war," The boy admitted uncomfortably. He had some violent tendencies as child, but growing up with a man as peaceful as Gohan, it slowly worked its way out of his system, or so he thought. The prospect of war made him feel uneasy.

"We are."

. . .

(Days Later / Konohagakure no Sato)

The Copy Ninja of Konohagakure had finally made it home after days of rigorous travel. He had been followed by more Kumogakure shinobi, and ended up handling them like the others that were sent for him. The man was going to need some time to get his mind right after being away for so long, and killing all of those enemy ninja. It had been close to two months since he had slept in his actual bed, and not living his undercover life as a Kumogakure Shinobi.

When he entered the gates, he was greeted by the almost infamous duo of Kotetsu and Izumo. The man with the bandage running across the bridge of his nose spoke up, "Yo, Kakashi! How'd it go?"

The Jounin walked into the village with his hands stuffed into his pockets, "Some might say bad, but I made it away with the information, and I'm alive." That was as much as he would share, continuing into the village, so he could debrief with the Hokage himself. The intel he had picked up was extremely sensitive information, and how they responded to it could change the world for the better part of the next decade. Looming thoughts of war seemed to trouble his conscious, as he was exerting a rare unpleasant aura as he made his way to the Hokage's office.

It was one of the biggest buildings in the in village, located right in the center. The Hokage's office was right above the ninja academy, and he offered a slight smile under his mask to the younger children playing in the court yard. His expression got serious when he walked inside the building and made his way up to one of the most important men in Hi no Kuni's office.

The door was wide open, and Kakashi saw that the Hokage had been waiting. He was an old and experienced man, who was currently smoking out of pipe. The man exhaled deeply and let out a cloud of smoke release from his mouth, he sat up in his chair when Kakashi had arrived. He set his pipe down in a respectful manner, "It took you longer than I expected," The Hokage opened the conversation, "But seeing that you're standing before me after two months must mean you were successful."

"I may have gotten a little side tracked, if I do say so myself," Kakashi admitted, the sound of the door sliding to close was in the background. "But I left with what exactly what we wanted. I'm assuming you looked over the light report I sent with my ninken." Hiruzen nodded his head and grinned lightly, "I tried to leave in the most discreet manner possible, but Son Gohan of Kumogakure sensed an oddity within my squad, and they weren't so polite with our late friend Kage."

"I see.. I'm simply glad you made it back, but what of ...," It took the legendary ninja a moment to recall the boy's name, but it finally came to him, "Goku, what else did you learn about him?"

"As mentioned in the report, Goku is indeed from another planet. He arrived in Kumogakure ten years ago via an aircraft that was created by otherworld technology. It's far more advanced than anything we've seen here on Earth, and if replicated; could cut the time it took to travel to other countries in half... Possibly even greater," Kakashi made sure he didn't waste any details from his two months of research. "The now deceased Son Gohan was the one to discover him and pry him from the hands of rogue shinobi. They had a very personal relationship, and according to him; it was never in his intentions for Goku to be a military weapon."

"What then?" Hiruzen asked with a furrow brow, "If not a weapon, then what is he?"

"His goal for Goku was to be revered as a legendary shinobi, he believed the boy to be more than just a weapon, and a figure that could one day change the world. Despite his rather touching speech, all of the evidence still pointed to Goku being a hidden trump card," Kakashi partially believed Gohan's ideals, but he still had to go with the information he had acquired. "The true plan that the Raikage and his council saw for Goku was him to be the same type of weapon that a Jinchuriki would be, and he certainly has to the potential to do so."

The Hokage nodded in understanding, taking all of this new information in quite easily. The previous report he received from Kakashi hit all of the major points, but he was now receiving the small intricacies that he couldn't fit in due to his time frame. The man interlaced his fingers and instantly started plotting, "So they basically have another nuke-level weapon under their belt, I see. I noted that they trained him like a clan noble, so I doubt he'll fail in realizing what he could become." The man shook his head, "If we eliminate him now, we could eliminate any future threats." It was one of the more brash approaches he had taken in a while, almost sounding like one of his long time friends.

"I don't think we should take the offensive just yet, because I think we have a solution right here in our village," Kakashi grinned at the Hokage, as seen by his eye squinting slightly.

"The solution being?"

"Naruto, our superweapon," Kakashi had thought about this during his journey for the last few days. "Goku is leaps and bounds ahead of him right now, but if we gave Naruto the same treatment; he could be even better. Goku's potential strength is only scary the because he's young, from another world, and houses an abnormal amount of power already, but he's still no jinchuuriki."

"I agree with Kakashi," Another voice entered the conversation. Both shinobi looked toward the window to see a man with long white hair tied into a ponytail and a serious expression on his face. He also had distinctive red lines on his face that went down his cheek, "Naruto could go down in the history books in terms of strength if you guys actually paid him some attention. I'm tired you people retarding his development by treating him like an outcast!"

"Nice to see you too, Jiraiya," The elder man nodded at the suggestions from both of his shinobi. "I understand you both completely, but I trust Naruto's development with very few people in the village, and both of you are very busy men. It'll please you to know that Kakashi will be his sensei in the near future."

Kakashi nodded to acknowledge the statement and looked at Jiraiya, "Today is actually the day." For the first time in a while, Kakashi felt butterflies in his stomach at the thought of taking on such an important set of kids, "Seeing where the world is headed, I think the pace we use with Naruto needs to be picked up. He's a smart child, but he's very misguided."

Jiraiya visibly frowned when he heard Kakashi would be meeting Naruto today. He now fully entered the building and closed the window behind him. "I'm glad to hear that, and I'm happy for you, Kakashi, but this conversation needs to be shifted else where." Both of the men present raised a curious brow and stared at him, patiently waiting for what he had to say next. "With the news of this new child, Goku; I decided to look further into it than Kakashi did. My spy network has found out about similar situations in Tsuchi No Kuni."

. . .

(Tsuchi No Kuni)

Goku whistled a jolly tune while he trailed K through lands unknown to him. He enjoyed taking in the sights that the new lands offered during his journey. The boy was also freely spinning a kunai around his index finger without a care in the world, "If this is what shinobi's do all day, this is EASY!" He laughed to himself, but his mood was killed once K shot a stern glance at him. Goku quieted down and continued to follow.

"Don't be foolish," K told his student as they passed through the less populated areas of the country. Parts of it was just a wasteland that he moved through cautiously. Ever so often, him and Goku would set up camp, and he trained with the boy like had promised, but he hadn't taught him that technique that the boy was nearly demanding every day he didn't have it.

The two were walking for hours through the country, and starting to get close to their destination. They would have to pass through a few more towns, but it wasn't something they couldn't cover in a day. The area they paced through at the moment was more desolate, and of course, had large boulders and rocks everywhere.

They were however approaching a large mountain, that separated the desolate area from what looked like to be a small town on the other side. There was a small cave passage that led directly through the mountain, and K found that very convenient. The duo entered the mountain and intended to calmly pass through, but he slowed his walking as pebbles started to fall from the ceiling.

He stared for a moment, and before he knew it; the whole cave was starting to collapse in on itself. The man quickly grabbed Goku and started running to the other side where they had come from. The boy was surprised, "What the hell is going on?"

"The cave is collapsing," K thought it was obvious, but Goku was a little . . . slow, to say the least. The Limitless K thought he would be quick enough to escape, but pebbles from the cave turned into whole rocks, and eventually large amounts of debris began falling that held the place together. It had the entrance completely blocked, and he had no choice but to drop Goku to the ground. The boy thought he was being abandoned and scrambled right after him.

"YOU'RE JUST GONNA LEAVE ME, DUDE!?" Goku yelled, but realized what was going on, as the man coated his fist in chakra and tried to force his way out of the cave. It was to no avail, and the team was stuck within the passage. Goku frowned and crouched down on the ground, "What are we going to do?"

"You thought I would just leave you?" K wasn't one to really have a sense of humor, but this almost made him crack a rare smile. He didn't . . . But it's the thought that counted right? The man folded his arms and walked up to the where the passage originally started caving in at. That side was blocked in by debris and oversized rocks as well, and for the moment it looked like they had no way out. "I've been in worse predicaments, don't worry Goku."

While Goku was crouched down on the ground, a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. At first he thought it was because he was nervous, "Is it me, or is it getting hot in here?" A wave of heat washed over the area, and Goku thought his eyes were failing him, but ground was literally bubbling. He looked at K with a puzzled face, "What's going on?"

"We've been trapped," K shook his head, as the ground beneath him started to melt, and he was begin to lose his footing to the quickly forming magma. He was as calm as ever, while Goku was flailing his arms wildy as he sunk into the ground, and his skin was burning in the process. "Don't panic, Goku-kun, it's just an illusion. You're not actually being hurt." Seeing that his advice didn't do much for his pupil he sighed, "Just do what I do and dispel the genjutsu, Goku." The man withdrew a kunai, and was pleased when Goku did the same.

They both made a single hand sign, "Kai!" The sensei-pupil duo said in unison, as reality was slowly being restored. K had the kunai to defend himself from whatever reality had in store for him, and he wanted Goku to be ready as well. He expected to be subdued, harmed, or at least stripped of all his equipment, but he was completely free. The only thing that let him know of an enemy was the eight shinobi that surrounded them.

One of the members of the group spoke up, "I'm surprised you escaped the genjutsu that fast, we didn't even get a chance to tie you down," He, and the rest of the shinobi drew a kunai in unison.

Goku jumped into position behind K to cover his backside, "Let's kick some ass, sensei."

"Just wait, Goku," K looked around at the eight shinobi that were slowly moving in on him and the boy. "State your reason for doing this," He stayed alert through all of this, gripping his kunai tightly.

"We are Takigakure shinobi," The same man spoke up. All eight of them wore the basic Takigakure uniform, and face masks that covered part of their nose and mouth. "We were simply told to kill the Kumogakure shinobi, which is you, once they crossed Tsuchi no Kuni's borders. I'm not one to question orders."

"I understand," K looked at Goku from the side of his eye, and the boy met his glance. He gave a simple nod, and the both of them leapt out to engage the eight shinobi in battle.

K was almost offended that such a low level of shinobi was sent to kill him. When he jumped into the fray, three shinobi jumped right back at him, and he quickly disposed of them by twisting his body mid-air and releasing wind chakra from all of his tenketsu. They were sent flying in different directions, but each of them smashing into the wall of the now bigger cave.

Goku's approach to the battle was quite different, going for the more gory kills. He charged head on at the first shinobi quick enough to keep up with him, and jammed his kunai knife right through the man's chest. The other three shinobi were surprised by the boy's natural strength and quickness, but still moved in for the kill nonetheless. The alien quickly withdrew his hand from the new dead man's chest, and threw the blood stained kunai at one of his approaching enemies.

It was easily deflected by the shinobi in the middle, and he was the first to try to engage Goku. He slashed at the boy fast and tried to leave no openings for counter, but apparently the genin from Kumogakure was flat out quicker than he was. Goku ducked and then slid across the ground to sweep the man off of his feet. He jumped back up into the air and flipped, landing on the man's back with a large amount of force. The child grinned when he knocked the wind out of the man's chest, and heard a loud 'oof' sound.

The boy wasted no time stealing the man's whole equipment pouch, which was attached to the back pants. He found all kinds of 'goodies' in there, explosive tags, ninja wire, senbon, and anything else you could think of. Deciding to use the ninja wire to his advantage, he jumped off of the man's back and stood to wait for the attackers to make their move. They didn't notice Goku weilding the wire, and ran right in to try and kill him.

Goku danced around their attacks, slowly circling them, and weaving between the two. The attackers were confused when they saw the smile on the boy's face, "You know, you guys make this too easy!" Goku yelled as he jumped away and gave the wire within his grip a powerful pull. The two men yelled out as they slammed into one another and realized they had been trapped. Through the corner of his eye, he saw that K had finished off his enemies, "Yo, sens-"

The man already caught Goku's notion, dashing across the cave and cocking his arm back. K let his chakra flow accelerate in his arm, and it started to glow blue in color. With one last nature transformation, his arm looked like a spinning vortex of wind to Goku, "Fuuton: Fu-Ken (Fist of Wind)!" He thrust his arm forward and got a direct hit on the two Takigakure shinobi being held together by Goku's wire strings. Not only were they sent flying and smashing into the cave wall, but his wind coated fist had left deep cuts all over their body.

"Sensei, that was awesome!" Goku cheered while pumping his fist. "They didn't even know what hit 'em!"

"Now's not the time for celebration, Goku," K let his hands fall to his side, "We have to keep moving."

"Why did they attack us anyway?" Goku asked his sensei, while the man was now leading them out of the cave passage like before.

"Orders from their leader apparently," That question troubled him more than before. He was carrying a large amount of money within his parcel, and if this loan were to be successful; it would mean hell for the minor villages surrounding Iwagakure. Perhaps they didn't want this deal to go through? K mentally sighed, "Regardless, we keep moving toward Iwagakure."

Goku grinned cheekily, "I hope more of those guys show up, I want to kick their ass again."

"Don't be foolish, Goku."

. . .

(Konohagakure no Sato / Rooftop)

Three genin sat next to each other, all giving their new sensei a blank stare. One boy had blonde hair and odd whiskers on each side of his face, while the other had black hairs and onyx orbs to match, and the girl among them had long pink hair and large green eyes that were locked onto the jounin.

Kakashi Hatake smiled back at his otherwise unimpressed Genin, "Why don't we all introduce ourselves?" He looked at the blonde, "You can start us off, Naruto. State your name, interests, distastes, hobbies, and goals."

The boy scratched his head, "Okay, uh ... My name is Naruto Uzumaki: I like ramen, Ichiraku Ramen to be exact, and I hate when ramen takes too long to warm up. My hobbies are pulling pranks and watering plants!" Kakashi looked slightly displeased with the boy's answers, "When I get older I want to become the Hokage so I can finally get the respect and attention from the villagers!"

The man was now impressed with Naruto, giving the boy an eye-smile, "Very good, Naruto. Sakura, how about you go next?"

The girl didn't let a word escape her lips, but said so much with a simple glance at the boy sitting next to her. She was in complete love with the brooding child and it was evident to Kakashi that everything she liked, disliked, and wanted in life sat right next to her.

"Ok.. How about you, Sasuke?"

"I only have one desire, and that's to kill a certain man," The boy said with his arms folded and his head hung low.

Kakashi was starting to have his doubts about his team, but wouldn't shy away from a challenge. He clapped his hands together and stood up, "Excellent, now that we've gotten to know each other a bit, I think we can jump right into the fun stuff."

"Fun stuff?" Naruto jumped up almost instantly, "Are you going to teach us how to set shit on fire, and jump through diemensions!?"

"I like your enthusiasm, Naruto, but no," Kakashi wagged his finger, "I will be giving the three of you a test to see if you're truly worthy of being called genin. Meet me at the training field in one hour." Before any further questions could be asked, the man disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Tch, another test?" Sasuke asked no one in particular, as he pushed himself up and made his leave.

"Yeah, we're gonna do great!" The girl exclaimed as she hurriedly followed behind the boy.

Naruto was left alone to his own devices. He jumped up and ran to the edge of the roof top, getting a nice view of the village where he stood. A smile crossed his face, "I should probably get some equipment and head to the training field," He reminded himself as he turned around to make his leave like the rest of his team.

"Halt," a voice appeared on the roof, and the boy stopped in his tracks. He had never been so startled in his life, but he calmed down. The man standing before him wore a cat ANBU mask with green and red markings on it, "Uzumaki Naruto, you have summoned to see the Hokage."

"Huh?" Naruto didn't remember getting in trouble recently, so he wondered what the Hokage wanted with him. He shrugged his shoulders, "Okay, I'll go see jiji after I take my test with Kakashi-sense-"

"You are to see him right now," The ANBU disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Shit.. I must really be in trouble."

. . .

(Tsuchi No Kuni / Cave)

The man took a the last drag of his cigarette before dropping it to the ground, and exhaling smoke calmly. What he had walked into slightly displeased him, "Wow, these fucks really got their asses handed to them," He took note of the bodies that were neatly piled on top of one another. "Shibuki's an idiot for sending for these grunts." He folded his arms over each other and kicked one of the lifeless bodies, "Any of guys worth anything still?"

There was no response.

"Fuck it," The man ran a hand through his spiky brown hair and let out a sigh. He had fair skin and strong facial features. There was a light amount of stubble on his face, and he wore a high collared white button down jacket with black pants. His forehead protector was worn around his arm, and it had the Takigakure insignia on it, "I'll avenge you shmucks, don't worry." He laughed to himself as he continued through the passage.

When he exited the passage and saw the other side, he was in a large town that was full of lights, markets, restaurants, and hotels. The man was supposed to be hunting down Kumogakure shinobi in this big city? He placed his hands on his hips, "I think I'm going to need another cigarette."

. . .

I've been vibing out to DS2 lately, I think that's why I'm getting shit done. Next Chapter: Serious Business