CHAPTER FOUR
In our midst, part 1
Nine months later
"We can rest here for the night"
The order came from Masashi Kubo, leader of the infamous Byakuya gang. Self-proclaimed noble thieves, they had made a name for themselves over the past few months, conducting daring heists all over the land of fire. They claimed their mission was to redistribute the wealth they believed was unfairly hoarded by the high class in the kingdom, and they made sure to share the spoils of their activities with the less privileged, gaining themselves a considerable fanbase as a result.
Today the latest victim of the Byakuya gang was a bank located just outside of Konoha. The mission had gone smoothly, the bank was very lightly defended and the loot was significant. Masashi and his men made their way towards a small village on the outskirts of the country to rest for the night and count their spoils. They made it a rule to rest at a different location each day, making it harder for them to be tracked by leaf shinobi. Their relative popularity meant it was never too difficult to secure a new resting spot for his men from willing civilians. Masashi smiled to himself with satisfaction from the results of the days work. They had enough to lay low for a while and hopefully throw off any trails they guessed Konoha had on them.
"This looks like a suitable resting spot, it's getting dark and we can continue to Akira village by daybreak" Masashi instructed to his men. The gang started to prepare their resting spot, setting up tents and starting a fire while lookouts spread out to their assigned positions to keep watch over the campsite.
Naruto quietly observed his surroundings from a treetop, doing his best to remain undetected. A loud rumble drew his attention….to his own stomach. It was the third time it had done that tonight. It was a miracle someone else hadn't been alerted by it, he thought to himself. Naruto and his team had been assigned on a long convoy escort mission for the daimyo's youngest daughter for the past five months. The young girl requested the village hero's services in particular to provide security for her group as she went on a lengthy diplomatic trip to the various outer villages in the country. He assumed it was due to his combat prowess and fame he built up in the war 2 years prior, but a part of him guessed the teenaged daughter fancied him for…other reasons. Certainly her persistent flirting throughout the journeys played a part in him developing those suspicions. He wondered when the constant bombardment by young ladies was going to end, it was no secret he was already in a relationship but his fan girls were relentless.
Another fierce rumble from his belly reminded him of the fact he hadn't had a meal in over a day. Upon completing his escort mission, him and his team were reassigned on another mission as they made their way back home. This time, they were ordered to intercept and shadow a large group of criminals. Their orders were to not engage unless acting in self defense and relay the gang's position to headquarters until their backup arrived. Everything had gone smoothly so far but their backup was taking a bit too long to arrive on scene. Naruto looked at his watch impatiently. It was already midnight, the next morning would make it two days since his last meal. He regretted not packing more supplies from the daimyo's daughter and her group when their last mission ended, his team was already running on empty. But to his defense he didn't see this new assignment coming.
Another hour ticked by with no sign of his backup and Naruto decided he had had enough.
"Hanabi, come in" he whispered into his radio. "How many lookouts have you spotted so far?
"There are three men to the north, east and west of us, and a large group further north, though they look to be mostly resting " came the crackling voice from the radio.
"Naruto, how's our backup looking? Are they here yet?" Konohamaru's voice came from the radio on Naruto's flak jacket.
"Negative, but we don't need to wait for them any longer"
"Naruto-sensei, Lord sixth told us to wait for reinforcements" Moegi was the one speaking now.
"We're done waiting, and I'm not your sensei anymore" Naruto replied. "We're going without them team". "Conceal your movement, maintain radio silence and avoid engagements. We will meet up at the oak tree 100 metres to our north west and wait for my orders"
"Yes sir"
Naruto switched off his radio and made his way to the meet up point. He avoided using the body flicker technique due to the poor visibility and the chance of him unknowingly passing by any patrol without him noticing. After a few minutes, he arrived at the oak tree to find Moegi waiting for him.
A few moments later, the rest of the team gathered around and waited for his instructions.
He gave his team his orders and they set off in the direction of the first lookout. He was quickly dispatched with a non lethal poisoned dart fired by Konohamaru. The next lookout fell not long after. Both unconscious bodies were bound and hidden in some bushes. Soon, they found themselves observing the last one from a tree branch a few metres from him. Naruto raised his hand, signaling his team to stop at Hanabi's request.
"Another man has joined him" she whispered, her dojutsu focused on the two individuals before them. Naruto nodded and signaled Moegi, who nodded in understanding and dropped below, followed by Hanabi. Two muffled cries could be heard two minutes later, followed by Hanabi's voice crackling from the radio.
"The targets have been dealt with"
Naruto and Konohamaru regrouped with their squad mates and quietly set off in the direction of the Byakuya gang's main camp.
Masashi lifted his pipe to his lips and took a generous puff. He bent over to resume his task of examining the expensive contents of the wooden chest in front of him when one of his subordinates rushed into his tent.
"Boss, we haven't heard from squad two in a while"
Masashi readjusted himself on his chair and looked into his man's eyes.
"Well, what if they fell asleep?"
"All three of them at the same time? I doubt it sir….we may be under attack"
Masashi grumbled to himself and got up immediately, barking orders at his men.
"Get everyone on high alert! Put out the fire and form a defensive perimeter and let no man move on his own!"
"Yes sir!"
Masashi cursed himself for his luck. His informant revealed Konoha's plans earlier and it led to the capture of five shinobi from the hidden village the previous night. He wondered how they were able to call in reinforcements and how they arrived this quickly.
Outside, in the encampment, two gang members dashed to a nearby tent they had converted to a makeshift armoury.
"Toriyami! I need a sword!" one of them called out.
No reply came.
"Toriyami?" both men carefully approached the tent and stood at the entrance. One of them gave his partner a signal and both men lifted the blinds and rushed inside the armoury to find a man laying motionless on the ground.
"My goodness, Tori-"
The gang member was interrupted by a figure who had suddenly dropped behind them. He turned around to get a look at him but a powerful chop to the neck sent him to the ground next to his unconscious friend. The second gangster tried to pull out a kunai but their attacker was quicker, disarming him with a kick and sending him flying to the back of the tent with another one. He had no time to recover however, as he caught a glimpse of a leaf shinobi headband before a sharp pain in his neck caused everything to go black…
Naruto observed the three unconscious men on the ground and waved for his squad mate to step out of the shadows at the back of the tent. Moegi silently made her way next to him and waited for instructions. Naruto reached for his radio and spoke into it
"Hanabi, scan every tent in this enclosure with your dojutsu and tell me what you see"
"Yes sir" came the reply from the device.
A few moments passed before the radio crackled to life again.
"There are about thirty armed men in total, but I see a few of them that look to be guarding a tent with about five tied up men inside"
Naruto felt the hair on the back of his neck stand.
"Are they shinobi Hanabi? The bound men I mean"
"Yes sir….Konoha shinobi to be specific"
Moegi sighed at the news. "Looks like our backup came after all"
Naruto couldn't help but facepalm. Great, this was going to be a rescue mission. The after report paperwork was going to be even more insane. But there was to time to waste moping, he had work to do.
"What do we do boss?" Konohamaru's voice came from the radio.
Naruto thought up a plan for a while but then changed his mind. It was getting late and he was cold , tired and hungry. He really wasn't in the mood to sneak around for hours to rescue a few of his colleagues caught lacking by low level gangsters. This had to end quickly.
"Hanabi, I want you to direct me to the tent holding the hostages"
"Okay Naruto"
He turned off his radio and looked at Moegi.
"Follow me"
Both shinobi stalked out of the armoury after helping themselves to some weapons they felt would come in useful. With Hanabi guiding them all the way, they successfully made their way to their target undetected and huddled together at the side of the tent, in the shadows. There were two guards standing in their way.
"When I make my move, I want you to disable the guard on the left and make your way inside, don't let your guard down"
"Yes sir"
Naruto snuck up behind the guard on the right, raised his hand and counted down to three before covering the man's mouth with a cloth doused in a powerful sleep inducing liquid. He looked to his left in time to see the second guard silently tumble to the ground. Once he made sure the coast was clear, he signaled Moegi and she darted into the tent in an instant while he kept watch outside. The signal for all clear came from inside the tent a few minutes later.
Satisfied with the securing of their comrades, he decided it was time to make their escape. And he planned to do it with a bang.
"Intruders! Near the armoury"
An alarmed voice rang out at the sudden presence of a shinobi from Konoha in the Byakuya gang's encampment. Masashi ran to the source of the commotion, axe ready in hand to defend himself. However, his heart immediately sank once he caught a glimpse of the greenish brown Jonin flak jacket and short, spiky blonde hair of the figure staring down at him.
For standing on the roof of the armoury was none other than the hero of the Fourth great ninja war himself, Uzumaki Naruto.
Arms crossed on his chest and sporting a bright smile, the hero cleared his throat to speak. "By order of the sixth Hokage Kakashi-sensei, I place you all under-"
A barrage of thrown weapons flying towards him prevented him from completing his announcement.
"Oh, men of action I see" Naruto proclaimed while remaining rooted to his position, unflinching even as several deadly projectiles soared their way towards him.
As if on cue, a blue rotating force field suddenly appeared around the Uzumaki, causing every single weapon to clang harmlessly against it and drop to the ground before it dissipated, revealing the silhouette of Hanabi Hyuuga now standing in front of her squad leader.
The figures of Konohamaru and Moegi dropped on both sides of Naruto with their weapons drawn.
"Naruto, all the hostages have been moved to a secure location, they were all unconscious though" Moegi reported to her leader.
"It looks like we'll have to do this on our own" Konohamaru stated, drawing out a smoke bomb from his pouch.
Below them, the gang members had begun to enter a state of panic. They had no way of knowing if there were other shinobi lurking in the shadows and had started to give in to fear. It was beginning to look like the end for them.
Naruto raised his hand to signal his team and brought it down again, and all three chunin sprung into action.
Konohamaru rushed first, leaping into the air and releasing several smoke bombs into the fidgeting crowd of enemies below. Their vision blocked, the gangsters struggled to perceive their surroundings, them suddenly, several of them started dropping to the ground in quick succession. A man raised his sword, preparing to bring it down on the slender silhouette in front of him incapacitating his comrades when he found his weapon lodged in-between two Sai belonging to Moegi. The young girl deflected two more blows from the larger man before twirling away just in time to avoid his downward slash. The gang member tired to raise his hands again but several precise strikes to his shoulders cut off all feeling in them. He turned to his right and caught a glimpse of a pair of pale lavender eyes before they vanished back into the smoke. Seizing the chance, Moegi positioned herself on the man's lifeless hands pinned to the ground by his sword and sent a ferocious kick to his jaw, sending him to the ground.
Behind them, Konohamaru was leaping from enemy to enemy, dodging and parrying several attacks from them. He jumped up to avoid a sword slash and immediately leaped off a nearby tree as another gang member rushed at him, weapon hanging over his head.
While in mid air, Konohamaru twirled around and sent two shuriken flying towards his assailants.
[Shadow clone shuriken jutsu]
His two shurikens suddenly multiplied into several dozen, immobilizing several of his foes at once. Konohamaru seized the opportunity to call for help
"I need backup here guys!"
But he soon found out he didn't need to, as his squad mates had already arrived on scene to finish off the immobilized and injured gang members.
Once the dust settled, the three teenagers regrouped at the armoury.
"That was great guys, we totally destroyed them" Moegi said with a bright smile on her face. She turned to Konohamaru. "Kono, you have got to teach me your jutsu someday, you were amazing"
Konohamaru placed both hands on his waist and smiled with pride from Moegi's compliment. "All in a day's work" he paused before looking at Hanabi with a smirk on his face "Maybe a week for princess Hanabi"
As expected, Hanabi's reaction to his teasing was priceless to him "You would've never even found the camp without me Konohamaru!"
"What good is finding the camp if you end up doing nothing when it matters most?" Konohamaru coolly replied.
"No, no, no, I am way too hungry and tired to get in an argument with you tonight Sarutobi, I just want to head home and hibernate till next week " Hanabi raised her hands in defeat and turned away with her statement.
"Ughhhh, me too" Moegi agreed with a tired expression on her face. "Where is Naruto-sensei even? He just disappeared"
Konohamaru corrected his teammate, "For the last time Moegi, we're not genin anymore and Naruto isn't our sensei. Remember what Lord sixth said, we're all teammates now"
"Right, right I forgot"
A few weeks after they returned to Konoha, team 4 had received surprising news. Turns out, it was decided that the first and second teams were to be promoted to chunin, but the team that finished first could also select another team from a different village to be considered for promotion. Unsurprisingly, Kumo's team 7 had picked their team and it was decided that they were worthy of promotion.
"Also, don't pick fights with ladies Kono" Moegi scolded her teammate with a whack on the head, which he didn't like at all.
The sound of approaching footsteps drew their attention to Naruto, who was accompanied by a leaf shinobi with his hands bound. The man was pushed on his knees by Naruto and ordered to remain silent as soon as he started pleading.
"This is their informant, he's the one that led out reinforcements into a trap"
Konohamaru walked closer to their prisoner to inspect him.
"I wonder how much they paid him"
Hanabi took one look at him then turned away, uninterested. "Well I don't care, let's go home already".
"I'm so hungry I could eat a bijuu" Naruto stated while holding his rumbling stomach.
Oi, watch your words brat
Kurama's voice startled Naruto, it had been a while since the fox spoke to him.
"Look who finally decided to wake up", Naruto found himself in his mind plane speaking to the giant red fox in front of him. "Hey can't you learn how to make me not feel hungry anymore? You don't do much these days you could try to make yourself useful y'know?"
Sounds like a personal problem. Kurama scoffed at him. You better hope the Hyuuga girl remembered to prepare a proper meal for you. If I see you at that stupid Ramen place I will possess you in your sleep and make you regurgitate everything
"Hey, you can't do that!" Naruto protested
Watch me! Kurama barked at the Uzumaki. Do you know how much it stinks in here after you eat that disgusting slop!
Naruto folded his hands and looked away. "Sounds like a personal problem to me"
With that, he found himself back in the real world, booted out of his mind plane by Kurama.
Naruto ordered his squad to bind the unconscious gang members and moved them into a large tent with his shadow clones. By daybreak, backup finally arrived from Konoha and they were relieved of their duties and were free to go home. As they hopped from branch to branch in the direction of Konoha and as his belly roared in anger reminding him of his condition, Naruto's mind went back to the fox's words from a few hours ago. Hinata was probably expecting him, but this surprise mission had prolonged the couple's reunion by two days. He had missed her badly throughout the duration of his mission, and was particularly happy at the prospect of reuniting with her after so long. She was probably worried about him and his team, he thought. He hoped deep down that she would surprise him with a meal, though he wasn't counting on it. Naruto smiled to himself as he remembered their last interaction before he left on his mission….
"You really didn't have to do this y'know" Naruto said as his girlfriend offered him a reasonably large parcel.
"I wanted to, it's a long trip to Fuji village and I don't want you guys getting hungry along the way" Hinata said as he took the packaged meals from her.
"It's your favourite" she added, beaming a smile at him which he promptly returned.
"Thanks Hinata". He took her hands in his as she looked into his eyes. He was about to set off with Konohamaru, Moegi and Hanabi on a lengthy escort mission. Five months Kakashi had estimated. There was a level of risk involved in the mission but it wasn't anything his team couldn't handle. What Naruto dreaded more was the fact he'd be away from home for that long.
"I'll miss you Naruto-kun" she whispered, still maintaining her gaze.
"I'll miss you too Hina, but don't worry, I'll be back before you know it"
Finally breaking eye contact, Hinata looked at their interlocked hands and muttered, "Five months is a long time….y'know" She felt her cheeks turn a shade of pink as she found it harder to look him in the face. Naruto's verbal tick had started to sneak it's way into her vocabulary, much to Sakura and Kiba's displeasure in particular. But it couldn't be helped, not especially when they spent so much time together. She suspected he had started picking up habits from her too.
Naruto raised her face to look at him with his bandaged hand. He could see liquid gather in the corner of her eye and he wiped it with his thumb. She mustered the effort to flash him another of her beautiful smiles, sending warmth to his cheeks. Naruto couldn't help but lean forward to give her a kiss, which she returned eagerly.
"Naruto! We don't have time for this!" Konohamaru's voice rang from outside the gate, interrupting their moment.
"You should get going" Hinata whispered to Naruto. "Be safe"
"I will Hina" Naruto gave her another kiss and pressed a small object into her hand. "I want you to keep this, you might not really need it but consider it my own parting gift"
"I will cherish it" came her reply, without even checking to see what the gift was. Naruto finally turned around to meet up with his team.
"No parting gift for your own sister?!" Hanabi called out to Hinata as Naruto finally released her from his embrace and made it to her side. "I could use a kiss too you know!"
"You're late Hanabi!...and I gave your stuff to Naruto" Hinata replied with a laugh before adding, "Good luck on your mission, I love you both!" then she blew a kiss towards both of them. Konohamaru was about to say something regarding that but Naruto lightly bonked him on the head with a scroll, silencing him.
"You want your own kiss? Get your own girlfriend"
Hinata stood at the front gate and watched them wave back at her and head off till they were finally out of view. She fumbled with Naruto's gift in her hand, which turned out to be the key to his apartment. She smiled to herself as she looked at the piece of metal in her hand.
He had finally made a spare after her months of advising him to.
And now he had entrusted it to her. And she was going to make the most of it.
Hinata turned around just in time to catch Sakura and Ino waving at her. She returned the gesture and ran across the street to meet them.