Here's the next chapter. Some cool changes to the plot take place here and next chapter.
From a young age, Naruto had learnt to restrain his negative emotion sensing ability and keep it to a small area. He had resolved to not have to feel that unbearable sensation ever again. Now, he'd decided to shatter that resolve. He took a deep breath and let go.
And he felt it all. Every negative emotion from every single living thing around him.
He felt their sadness. He ignored it.
He felt their hate. He ignored it.
He felt their anger. He ignored it.
He felt their fear. He ignored it.
He heard Shikamaru and Ino call for him, their voices tinged with worry. Had he been screaming? It didn't matter. He ignored them.
He ignored everything, until...
"I found her!", he yelled out, before collapsing on to the ground.
He forced himself up.
Ino asked him, "Are you alright?"
He growled out "Just Peachy, thanks.", his voice dripping with sarcasm. Which maybe wasn't fair to her, but he felt like hell and couldn't care at the moment.
Ino followed up with "What exactly did you do?"
He replied, "Doesn't matter, let's get going already." because he really didn't want to explain.
To his surprise, Ino didn't budge. She said, "Naruto, you were screaming. As your teammates, we deserve to know."
He glared at Shikamaru with a yell of "Oi, Shikamaru! Tell her to stop."
The lazy bastard just drawled out "You heard her."
Fine. They'd probably just be terrified anyway.
He growled out "I can sense negative emotions. Emotions like pain, fear, anger, hate. I just combed the area for something coming from sensei. Are you happy now?"
Surprising him yet again, Ino's response was bonk him on the head and yell "You idiot! Why would you subject yourself to that?"
Confused, he just said "Hey Shikamaru! Help me out here and tell her to stop."
Yet again, the lazy bastard just drawled out "You heard her."
Now that was just annoying. He yelled out "is that the only thing you know to say? I thought Nara were smart."
Shikamaru relented and said "We can talk to him about this later Ino. What's done is done. Let's just pass this stupid exercise."
Ino huffed but she accepted that choice. She did give Naruto a look that screamed 'We're talking about this later.'
Oh joy. He'll have to talk about his feelings. What a pain.
After having Naruto point out her location on the map, and looking over it carefully, Shikamaru shared the plan.
Maybe she'd gone little too hard on them. But she did want to check their determination. And they were doing well in that regard. They had run around for 30 minutes straight in this hot and small forest. Even Shikamaru seemed to have been trying so far. Maybe he was more of a sore loser than she expected.
From what she understood, Naruto's ability could find her, though she didn't think he would use it that way. It would be painful. Just as she was contemplating ending this exercise, she heard Naruto yell "I'm coming for you sensei. You're going to pay for all the crap you put me through."
She could just trap him in a powerful genjutsu to knock him out, but her not using any offensive genjutsu and using only c-rank and lower supplementary genjutsu and traps was part of the test. So, she just cast a quick disorienting genjutsu and ran. Naruto was the fastest of the 3, so as long as she kept him off it would be fine. She backed into one of the exits she'd prepared. Just ten, she heard the sound of a chain whipping towards her and ducked. To her surprise, Naruto was behind her. Did he learn the shadow clone jutsu ? She kicked him to the side and turned around to almost step into shikamaru's extending shadow. She leapt back, only to find her body taken over. Ah, the first Naruto was Ino in disguise. She broke free in a few seconds but found herself bound by shikamaru's shadow and naruto's chains.
She smiled and said "Well done all of you. And Naruto, I'm assuming you used it."
As she saw Naruto nod with some sadness in his eyes, she wondered just how painful the experience was. Maybe she shouldn't let him use it anymore.
At this moment, Ino turned to Naruto and said, "Oi Naruto! You need to answer my question. Why did you go through that for a training exercise?"
To which Naruto gave the vague answer of, "Because I'm going to be Hokage, and the future Hokage can't fail here."
She wondered if Naruto was truly that desperate to be Hokage, or if his self-worth was just that low. It was probably some combination of the 2, but Naruto was too closed off, and wouldn't say anything more.
Ino seemed to realize this as well and settled for that answer. She snarked "I guess you're an idiot after all. Go ahead and torture yourself, you masochist."
As Naruto continued bantering with Ino and Shikamaru was muttering "Troublesome" while laying back and watching the clouds, she smiled to herself. This was going to be a great team.
As she stared at the two former kiri chunin in front of her, she couldn't help sighing. How did it come to this? This was supposed to be a simple c-rank mission, to escort a normal bridge builder. Now it was a potential A-S rank mission.
From interrogating Tazuna, she'd learnt that Gato was behind this. The 5th richest man had probably hired someone dangerous. If she was on the level of some of the stronger jonin she knew, like Kakashi or Guy, she might have risked it. But she couldn't now, especially since she had genin with her.
"We're abandoning this mission."
She silenced the grumbling and complaints like "But we have to help his family and the Land of the Waves! We can't leave them to Gato" from Ino and Naruto. They were nice sentiments, but they couldn't throw their lives away for it.
"Ino, go through the minds of the two Demon Brothers over there and see if you can find anything."
It was good for her to get some practice after all.
After Ino managed to get the name Zabuza momochi out of them, she decided that was good enough. After getting back to the village and sending the kids back home, she dragged Tazuna with her to the Hokage's office and explained the situation.
After hearing everything, the Sandaime sighed heavily. He seemed tired, but of course he was from carrying the weight of the village for so long. After thinking about it, He made his decision and said, "This mission will be cancelled, and an escort mission of appropriate rank will be arranged for. Till a team capable of carrying out the mission is available it will be put on hold. We will also look into the criminal activity of Gato, and deal with the matter appropriately. As punishment, Tazuna will have to work for the village every day till the mission is carried out, and any remaining payment will have to be paid soon after."
The Sandaime gave Tazuna a stern look to shut down any complaints and said, "That is all. You may leave."
A/N
We'll see what happens to Zabuza and Haku next chapter. It's going to spiral out in some interesting ways. See you next time.
