Hello and welcome back. So we are going into my first oc arc here. So I please ask you to be kind and I hope you all enjoy.

As always please enjoy

Hidden leaf village, a few days after team 7 return

"Man I hope we get a good mission this time, all we've had since the wave is more D-ranks and that C-rank with that paranoid merchant guy where nothing happened the entire time." Naruto complained as he, Satsuki and Sakura waited for Kakashi as always, honestly next time the three had agreed in solidarity that they would start showing up just as late, not point wasting precious time for their beyond tardy sensei.

Naruto turned to Satsuki and spoke to her.

"So no luck with your Sharingan?" Naruto asked her, the day after the first Naruto and Satsuki had gone back k to searching the archives but found nothing. They gave up after that and Satsuki decided to focus her energy on other things, hoping her Sharingan would come with time.

An example of what she was doing right now. She was making use of her time by holding leaves between her index and middle fingers and concentrating and burning the leaf to a crisp with her chakra.

"No, no be quiet. I'm focusing on doing split second nature manipulation." She spoke as she burned another leaf, it was clear she was trying to burn it instantly to practice her fire style. She had just recently mastered a new fire jutsu and she had her sights set on another, however it was definitely more advanced then what she was used to so the extra mastery of her fire nature would be useful.

"Man, that's so cool how you can just make fire from anywhere, I need some cool nature jutsu of my own." Naruto lamented, Sakura was up for much conversation also. She had her nose buried in a book about medicine, it seems to have piqued her interest.

"Sooooo…book going okay Sakura?" Naruto asked her.

Sakura came back to reality as she looked up from her book.

"Huh? Oh yeah sorry. It's really fascinating, it was written by the legendary kunoichi Tsunade during the second great ninja war, man she's so cool, while Satsuki is amazing, she's a completely different league of kunoichi." Sakura said as she closed the book. In truth the girl had looked up to powerful kunoichi since she was a child, it's part of why she looked up to Satsuki so much, she was already so much closer to reaching great heights of ninja prowess then she was, but one day she wanted to be acknowledged by Satsuki and others as a great kunoichi like Tsunade.

"Urrr Tsunade? Who's that again?" Naruto said blanking on the name, it did sound familiar.

"You numbskull! Tsunade Senju is one of the Sanin, the legendary three ninja named such by the warlord Hanzo the salamander in the second great ninja war. Not only is she the granddaughter of the first Hokage but she's revolutionized medical ninjutsu several times over and is perhaps the greatest medical mind ever and also is probably the strongest kunoichi alive today! How could you not know who she is! I mean being Hokage is your dream! I'd make sense you'd know who she is considering her grandfather was the first Hokage, her great uncle the second and she was trained by the third Hokage." Sakura ranted at Naruto, insulted that he didn't know who her idol was.

"Right right right, think she was on a test or something sometime…maybe." Naruto said, now that Sakura mentioned that this Tsunade lady was close to three of the four Hokage, he did feel a bit stupid for not knowing her.

"You probably failed that test then." Sakura jabbed at Naruto.

Naruto decided at this time to look over his new blades he had gotten the day before.

Flashback to the day before, Uchiha clan archives

Naruto had shown up the day after for a second attempt at finding any information to help Satsuki activate her Sharingan but before they started Satsuki had a gift for Naruto.

"Here. Take these." Satsuki said as she tossed two objects to Naruto.

He caught then to see they were a pair of paired blades, however they were much better quality and were definitely not normal swords.

"What are these?" Naruto said as he unsheathed them.

"Paired Kodachi from the armory, should fair you much better, not too big like those other ones and they are much higher quality, everything in that warehouse is a land of Iron import, can't ask for better quality blades." Satsuki said simply.

Naruto looked over to see a fine steel blade more straight then curved, the handles were textured for increased grip and the end of the handle had a small hole that he could fit a finger through to spin it around, on the top of the handle there was the symbol of the Uchiha clan with a smaller version engraved on the blade, anyone would see they were a very fine piece, a true quality weapon that would last a ninja most of his career.

"Wow these are you nice Satsuki. Are you sure you want to give them to me?" Naruto asked, not sure if he should accept these, I mean his previous blades broke and his entire interest in kenjutsu was dismantled by Zabuza, a true master of the art, but these would cost a fortune.

"I said they were a gift, yours broke and not to mention these are more suited to your size, besides, not point in just letting them sit in the armory gathering dust, consider it payment for your help searching if you want." Satsuki said, a slight dusting of pink in her cheeks because she had honestly not given anyone any kind of gift in years, also it was safe to say Satsuki's social skills were a lot less developed then her shinobi skills.

"Thanks, I really mean it, I'll look after them." Naruto said as he attached one to each waist.

"Just don't look like an idiot when using them, they bare the mark of the Uchiha clan after all, I'd dishonor my clan if you use them." Satsuki said as she started to shift through new scrolls to look at.

Naruto simply nodded, promising to himself not to disrespect the dead with this gift.

Flashback end

Naruto spun it in his hand a few times, it was incredibly well balanced, he hadn't really gotten to fight anything with it yet so he was excited to see how they would hold up in a real fight.

"Ah, you're all here, good." A lax voice said as Kakashi appeared out of nowhere on a tree branch overlooking the three.

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura yelled at it, while Satsuki just burned her current leaf and shot a glare at her sensei for his tardiness.

"Well I got lost on the road of life, anyway, I got a new mission for us, a C-rank. We are to go to a small village near the border with the land of steam where some disappearances have been reported, we are to investigate." Kakashi said as he held up an unfurled mission scroll.

"Missing people? What could have happened?" Sakura pondered out loud.

"Well we are going to find out, but most likely it's a pack of animals that moved into the area, the land of steam is notoriously passive so there is little chance of any enemy ninja. Let's set out." Kakashi spoke, his team followed him to the gate and they set off on the road to their destination.

"Man, if it's just hunting some wild animals this is gonna be majorly boring." Naruto complained as he jumped from tree to tree along with his teammates.

"you're not wrong." Satsuki said blankly, if this really was some wild animals running amuck it wouldn't be a proper test of her skills, she needed to push her limits again, hopefully that would lead to her Sharingan maturing more.

"Well I'm quite glad for the more normal mission, while I'm very happy that he helped all those people in the land of waves. The stress of it all probably took years off my life." Sakura said with a sigh, she'd always look back on the wave mission with pride but God if it didn't stress her out.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, stopping for a short time so rest a bit and eat, Kakashi catching two fish each from a nearby river to quickly cook and eat.

Eventually they reached the village, shown by a small sign that read 'Tokai Hoseki village'.

"Hidden gem village? Why call it that? Is there some sort of mine nearby?" Sakura asked as she looked at the sign.

"Not exactly, apparently this place is a small but very popular tourist attraction, hence the name, but their business has been hit with the rumors of disappearances. I suspect they have some kind of hot springs as they are so close to the land of steam. Maybe we'll get to enjoy then after we are done here." Kakashi explained. That background information had been in the small briefing he received in the mission scroll.

"Now the client is apparently the elder of this village and owner of the inn here, so let's go." Kakashi said, his team nodded and they started to walk through the village.

As they walked Kakashi was nose deep in his book Sakura was doing the same and Naruto and Satsuki looked around, for a small yet popular tourist attraction.

Many windows and houses seemed locked up in the middle of the day, Satsuki caught a young girl looking at them from a slightly open window, only for the girl's mother to grab her and take her away from the window and bolt it closed.

"Whatever it is. It seems they aren't just rumors, something has them spooked, no doubt about it." She thought as she looked around and saw the signs of a clearly terrorized group of people.

As she was at the back of the packs he poked Naruto's back and leaned in to whisper to him.

"Hey, loser, you seeing this?" She whispered into his ear.

He turned back.

"You mean all the people scared of their own shadow? Yea I see em. I'm not sure some wild animals could do this?" He said back to her.

"I agree, watch yourself, there's another layer to this." Satsuki whispered back to him, both nodding to one another.

They eventually reached the inn and entered to see a young woman minding the counter. She had mint green shoulder length hair and was wearing a similar colored kimono that hugged her body and showed off her cleavage slightly. As they entered he rested her hazel eyes on them.

"Oh hello. Welcome to the gemstone Inn, do you need rooms?" She asked kindly to them, something felt…off however, Satsuki wished she had her Sharingan, she could read her smallest micro expressions like a book then, she'd have to hope Kakashi was picking up on this too, but with his work ethic? Let's just say she had doubts.

"No not exactly, we are here to see the owner, we are ninja from the hidden leaf responding to his mission request.

"Oh yes, we've been expecting you, let me bring you to grandfather." The woman spoke as she got up from the front desk and led them through the inn.

At a quick glance it was a really nice place, fine wooden walls and tatami floors it even had its own symbol, a gemstone soaking in steaming water, if they weren't here on a mission, Naruto would love to spend some time here to just relax, maybe once they completed their mission Naruto could come back here some time and get a discount.

Satsuki, while not really a vacation or relaxation person in general, had a similar thought, she was pretty sure the last time she spent time at a hot spring was with her mother, so she definitely hadn't been in a while.

They were brought to a room with a finely designed sliding door, the young women opened it to show an old man drinking some green tea calmly.

"Ah Minami. What do you need my dear?" He said kindly, placing his tea down, he was a withered old man in a brown kimono that hung loosely over him, he had a kind smile and was completely bald with the same hazel eyes as his granddaughter.

"Grandfather, these are the shinobi from the hidden leaf that responded to the mission request." The now named Minami said as the group of ninja walked into the room and sat down.

"Ah! Wonderful. I'm so happy your finally here. I'm Gonjo Hoseki the owner of this inn and elder in this village, my family first settled this little bit of paradise. However that paradise has been disturbed. I said in my request there have been a string of disappearances, mostly young women and teenagers but also some of the young men and boys. When the pattern became clear we ruled out a wild pack of predators, then we got this note." Gonjo explained as he reached into his kimono and presented a crudely written note.

Kakashi took it and read it out loud.

"Listen up. We have your sons and daughters, pay just fifty thousand ryo per head if you want them back! And no funny biz with mercs, or we'll send them back in pieces.` Kakashi said verbatim.

"Bandits." He said simply as Gonjo nodded.

"Yes it seems so, obviously we have denied their demands by hiring ninja, but we hope with your abilities of stealth you can sneak in and take care of the problem before they harm any of the captives. There are sons and daughters at risk here, sir shinobi, I beg you on behalf of our small village, please save them." Gonjo said bowing deeply so his head touched the floor.

"Don't worry. We got this!" Naruto said enthusiastically, eager to go save these people.

"Yes yes, calm down Naruto. Now do you have any location about where their camp is or where they are holding the captives? Or numbers anything that could be of use?" Kakashi asked, wanting to gather as much information as he could about the enemy.

"Well I'm not sure how many, but I believe some of them skulk about in the woods, constantly keeping an eye on us, as soon as they leave they may attack us. I think the camp is a bit northeast of here." Gonjo said, wishing he could be of more help to them.

"Well that's an issue…Satsuki, you'll guard the town." Kakashi said suddenly.

"Eh?! Kakashi-sensei, we'll definitely need her help to beat those bandits!" Sakura yelled at him, if anything she should stay behind.

"No, out of the three of you I trust Satsuki by herself the most, if a secondary force attacks she'll handle it. We'll be fine taking on the main camp with just you, me and Naruto." Kakashi explained.

"I don't like it but fine, I just hope I don't get left out." She spoke, leaning against the wall, while she wanted to take part in the main event to test herself if it was just some bandits she wouldn't really be challenged at all, hell just Naruto and some clones could probably deal with this.

"Alright, we'll set off immediately, the safety of the captives is paramount and there's no telling if anybody saw us enter the village, it's best to act fast. Satsuki, I leave things here to you." Kakashi said in a tone fitting of a team commander, it was clear to see his experience just from his words.

Satsuki nodded to the rest of her team as they set off.

"Ah it seems I got the perfect shinobi for the job. Tell me Miss Satsuki, would you like some tea?" Gonjo asked the young shinobi kindly.

"Sure, why not. I doubt my team will take long." Satsuki said as Minami went off and brought back a fresh cup of steaming tea for her. She muttered a quick thanks and sipped the tea, this wasn't bad stuff, the aroma and taste soothing her mind.

With the rest of the team

Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura silently crept through the woods in the direction Gonjo had given them. Kakashi had ordered them to move in total silence, if any sort of attack was revealed there was a chance the captives could be killed right then and there, so everyone was on high alert.

Eventually Kakashi smelled burning wood, which meant a campfire. He held up his hand and gave some shinobi hand signals, which Naruto somewhat understood, luckily Sakura anticipated this and mouthed what Kakashi signed to him.

Naruto pretty much understood what he was meant to do when he saw Sakura's mouth take the form of 'stay here, sensei go look.'

Kakashi did so and looked over the camp.

There seemed to be lookouts and four more sitting around a campfire with an iron pot containing some kind of stew. He got a good look at the captives, five of them, their hands and legs were bound and they were blindfolded, three women from around fifteen to nineteen and two young men, one about fourteen and the other seventeen.

Kakashi deliberated on a course of action, while he could do all this himself it was maybe better to give Naruto and Sakura a shot, after all a major part of the lower ranked missions was to give experience for more important operations.

Kakashi backed up to the two genin and very quietly briefed them.

"Here's what we'll do, I'll deal with the lookouts, Naruto as soon as I make my move, you and some clones are gonna take out the ones by the campfire, Sakura you get to the hostages and free them. Any questions?" Kakashi told them as quietly as he could.

Both shook their heads, Naruto quickly did the shadow clone hand sign and quietly muttered. "Shadow clone jutsu." And three clones appeared around the original and all four gave a thumbs up.

"OK, let's go, and remain calm, if there are any issues, I got your back." Kakashi spoke as he took out six kunai.

He stood on a branch and saw Naruto was poised to move at any moment. He concentrated and challenged lightning chakra into the kunai and launched them all, the lightning enhanced blades pierced through the three lookouts with ease, then hadn't hit the ground before Naruto jumped into action and in coordinated taijutsu took down the four by the fire before they could notice their comrades death and Sakura was standing by the hostages untying them quickly.

"Oh thank God, someone finally came!" The oldest young man yelled out as he took off his blindfold and looked around, Naruto and his clones were sitting on top of the men he'd defeated and Kakashi was collecting his kunai from the people he'd struck.

"*cough hack* you b-bastards." One groaned out, barely alive.

"Well when you threaten people's children and thus their futures, they'll go to any lengths to get them back." Kakashi said to him, leaning down to put him out of his misery.

"Hahaha! *hack* you know nothing. Kakashi of the Sharingan." The man said cripticly as he started to melt into mud along with the ones Naruto was sitting on and even the captives.

However it only got worse as the mud clones were all filled with paper bombs and in puffs of smoke a ring of paper bombs appeared around the camp.

"NARUTO SAKURA!" Was all Kakashi managed to get out as an loud *BANG* rang through the forest.

Luckily Naruto managed to use his clones to springboard himself but he was still caught in the explosion. He could barely move but he managed to see the ground collapse around the camp leading to a large hole in the earth that was filled with sharp rock spikes.

Naruto's consciousness was fading as he heard slow footsteps approach.

"Well well well, it seems one of the kids survived, I was expecting all of you to bite it and I'd lose good product, but that damned copy ninja is out of the picture so that's what matters. You won't be worth as much as my newly acquired golden ticket but product is product." He spoke as he picked Naruto up by his jacket and took him away.

A little while earlier

Honestly, a part of Satsuki hoped for some kind of attack from the bandits. They had a smaller chance of killing her compared to dying of boredom, at least they had good tea.

Just as she took another sip the old man…Gonjo? Was it? Walked in and sat down with a kind smile on his face.

"I must thank you leaf ninja again for your help, it's a true pleasure to see skilled shinobi to help out less fortunate folk like myself, even if we are paying you *chuckle*." The man spoke. While Satsuki really didn't want to socialize right now it would be rude if she didn't.

"It's fine, taking on missions is the duty of ninja, besides, me and my team need the experience." She spoke…man she was tired, she let out a yawn as she sat there and took another sip.

"Yes indeed, your lack of experience…is very helpful." Gonjo spoke as Satsuki's eyes closed and she fell to the floor, out like a light.

"*dark chuckle* I'm surprised it took that long. Oh your going to make me a very rich man…little miss Uchiha." Gonjo spoke sinisterly as he moved towards the last Uchiha.

I'm very sorry to say but I'm going to end this one here. I know the last two chapters have been much shorter but I ask that you please forgive me, next one will definitely be longer but I felt leaving it on this cliffhanger is the best move creatively.

So we kick off our first oc arc . I hope you're all excited to see the true nature behind this mission and what fate awaits Naruto and Satsuki.

Just a quick note, the Kodachi's Naruto now has are based on the design from modern warfare 2019 with a few alterations as described.

I hope you all enjoyed this admittedly small update and I'll see you in the next one.