Author's notes:
This chapter might portray Sakura a little bad but it was not bashing. This is done to show how she redeems her character later. One of the things I cannot agree with Naruto series is that Sasuke and Sakura never apologized to Naruto for treating him that way. Despite they liked Naruto later, it was important to convey their apology. I hope to rectify this and make characters both real and fictional, in balance. While the cast's skill may not be relatable, I want the cast's character to be relatable.
CHAPTER 7
Sasuke and Sakura were the first ones to arrive at the gate. Tazuna was already waiting, looking sober than the last time they had seen him. Kakashi arrived next much to the surprise of two green genins.
"Maa, maa, don't need to look surprised. I am not that bad", Kakashi defended.
"Liar", Sakura shouted and Sasuke conveyed the same with his look.
"Let's go", Kakashi said ignoring the accusation.
"Naruto-baka isn't here sensei", Sakura reminded.
"What are you saying Sakura? He is sitting on the tree. Naruto, come down", Kakashi called out and Naruto jumped down.
"Why didn't say anything earlier?", Sakura asked and attempted to punch Naruto. Sasuke glared at him. Naruto side-stepped and didn't bother to answer her. Sakura shouted again for ignoring her making all the four other gender and one particular fox, wince.
Sasuke got angry at himself for not detecting the blonde until Kakash pointed out. He was also slowly agitated with the subtle changes in Naruto. He could see Naruto was improving though the blonde had yet to catch upto Sasuke. Sasuke vowed not to lose to the blonde orphan.
"Let's go", Kakashi instructed and they started the journey.
Tazuna looked at the orange clad ninja who was on the rear. "What is your name, shortie?", the bridge builder asked. He couldn't help but think of the tone and look the boy used when he warned him earlier. It was in sharp contrast to how his teammates treated him.
Naruto was looking at the surroundings when he heard the question and didn't answer immediately. That was because he could not get over the feeling that they were being watched. He was about to use his sensory capabilities when Sakura yelled at him again to answer.
Naruto was irritated at being interrupted but answered, nonetheless.
"Ano, This was the first time leaving Konoha. I was distarcted. My name is Naruto Uzumaki", he answered. Well, it was technically true. This was the first time he was formally outside of Konoha.
'Uzumaki huh', Tazuna mused.
Sasuke was irritated by Tazuna's interest in the blonde and decided to prove himself superior in this mission.
"Did your parents born in the leaf village or they joined later?", Tazuna asked making both Naruto and Kakashi alert.
"He doesn't know his parents. He is an orphan", Sakura replied making the former two stiffen. Even, Sasuke wanted her to shut up. She didn't know her audience, did she? Sasuke was an orphan too, currently , at least. So did Kakashi.
"Oh. That is bad. Sorry", Tazuna apologized making Naruto wave him 'it is ok' in return.
Tazuna truly felt sorry for the boy. He also didn't want to offend the help that was responsible for his safety.
"If you are anything like your clan people, you will become a great ninja", Tazuna supplied.
Already irked by the actions of Naruto, Sasuke couldn't let it go. His jealousy got the better of him.
"As if the clanless orphan dobe can become great! He can't even hold a kunai right", Sasuke retorted and Sakura agreed and praised her Sasuke-kun.
Kakashi could not help but think Sasuke's arrogance and clan pride would come to bite his ass back one day. He turned to see Naruto's reaction only to see Naruto logged out of conversation and was looking into his surroundings again.
He was about to question Naruto when Sakura said something that made Kakashi wanted to stab the poor excuse of the kunoichi.
Sakura , in the middle of nursing the bruised ego of Uchiha, went too far.
"I know his parents must have betrayed their village and joined Konoha and did something bad. That's why whenever we go to D-rank missions, Naruto was hated and called monster. They even said he was responsible for killing their family. This baka is not capable of killing anyone. I was right. I never believed Naruto said it was because of the pranks he pulled. It was because of his parents. I am right ne, Sasuke-kun?", Sakura said believing it to be right. It must be, after all, she was the smartest in her class next to Sasuke.
Somewhere in Konoha, Shikamaru suddenly started sneezing.
It took everything in Naruto not to react to the comment Sakura made. Sasuke was disappointed with Sakura about the remark about parents. It hit too close to home. He didn't how correct he was. Sasuke thought if people from other villages see him, might think the same thing about him. 'She is becoming more annoying', Sasuke thought.
The fox didn't care about Naruto's parents, so it didn't react. But same can't be said for Kakashi. Kakashi was a loyal hound to Minato and Kushina. He might have let down them in more than one way but he would never stand for them being called traitors.
"Sakura, shut up. Don't talk carelessly when you know nothing about it. The Uzumaki clan the old man referring to became extinct after series of attacks for decades. And Naruto's parents died during nine-tails attack. That's what hokage told. If you have doubts why don't we confirm with him when we return back", Kakashi voice was stiff as a stone. He leaked some of his KI. Sakura shrank back and Sasuke was scared too. He noted not to anger his sensei carelessly.
Naruto was touched. Kakashi didn't lose temper easily as far as he knows. This really comforted him. Kakshi wanted to but scared to look at the reaction on Naruto's face about Sakura's statement. He was not ready to face his own guilt so he concentrated on his orange book.
Tazuna helped by continuing. "Your sensei is right. They became extinct and the surviving few joined other villages".
No one said anything for some time. Sakura wanted the uncomfortable silence to end.
"Hmm.. Tazuna-san, don't you have ninjas in your village?", Sakura asked. It started a series of conversations with Kakashi offering input here and there to reduce the tension.
Meanwhile Naruto sensed two chakra signatures far ahead. They were at mid-chunin level.
Naruto was happy the last week because he made enormous progress in learning new techniques from the Senju-Uzumaki library. He also found notes on the jutsus he already knew. The detailed notes made him understand and use the jutsus to higher levels.
One important thing impressed him in Tobirama's notes was that the Nindaime found way to compensate for the weakness of the jutsus he used. The simplicity didn't escape his attention either. The first and second hokage knew and invented number of jutsus but used only few of them. It depended on the time to make the hand seals and their mastery to pull them off. By mastery, Naruto meant whether it was a single attack that ends the battle or it was used in series with other attacks. They used short-hand seals to no hand seals. Not all jutsus could be used in series effectively. They should not null the effect of each other.
He was also getting good at seals, but he was still not at a place to counterseal the second hokage and Mito Uzumaki, his ancestor and first hokage's wife, seals. But he found her ability to sense negative motions interesting. Chakra sensing was different from emotional sensing. If he could master this skill, it would be easy to find enemies and traitors. He could already guess thanks to his crappy childhood. Now, with the help of certain fox, he was improving greatly. He could sense lot of negative energy in his fox partner as well. He hoped one day he could help the fox to get rid of them.
He also made huge improvement on chakra storage seals. They were almost complete and safe to use. He found Tobirama's notes on how he simplified Mito Uzumaki's Strength of a Hundred seal. Naruto knew Lady Tsunade, one of Konoha's sanin and student of Sandaime, had mastered strength of hundred seal. She had a blue rhombus shaped mark on her forehead proving it. But he didn't know that could be simplified from the books he found in the jonin senction of the ninja library.
But the second hokage simplified the seal and found a way to store chakra in the markings on his cheek. This helped the Nidaime have enough chakra to fight for three days against enemy clan during his last fight. Tobirama Senju might have large chakra reserves but he didn't have fast charka regeneration like Naruto, courtesy of his clan trait and a certain fox. Naruto found the formula for the seal and had been combining it with his own and found a seal that could be used perfectly. But it was only almost complete, because right now, it still could not be used by others. There was a reason only Senju or Uzumakis could do it effectively. The same reason why only Uzumakis were jinjuriki of nine-tails, large chakra reserves and strong life force.
Naruto was also happy Kakashi cared enough to get him groceries.
When they accepted the mission, Naruto was eager to be out of Konoha. He had gone out of Konoha, handful of times, not far away, but enough to return before his clone could dispel and people started to search for him.
Now that he could, he was actually trying to see if he could connect with the trees outside of Konoha border like he did with the ones inside. But he was getting interrupted constantly. He was still not great in interacting with the trees. The trees understood him anyways. He found the trees provided a natural barrier whenever he trained out of Senju compound in his training place after their interaction. He also found the trees reacted to his emotions. This made him feel less lonely, like whole Konoha cared for him. Someone was looking out for him. Now, he had numerous friends, family even. This made him love the trees more. He learnt anything and everything he could find about different trees and plants.
The tress also bestowed him few other surprises. Naruto liked the flowers. He was impressed how they could be comforting and deadly. He also found numerous medicinal plants and poisons. When Naruto found pictures of plants in a book, the trees and plants showed him where to find them in Konoha. Let's say, training ground 44, as Konoha ninjas lovingly called, 'Forest of Death', was his farmland currently, unknown to certain Snake mistress of Konoha. The trees helped him escape being tortured by her.
The trees of Konoha were different from other trees. Most trees in Konoha were cultivated by the Shadaime, Hashirama senju. When he formed the leaf village Konoha, he re-levelled the place and developed it into the village now. Since Naruto was related to Mito Uzumaki, he thought they trees considered him a Senju. He still didn't believe he had 'Moukuton' abilities. He wanted to confirm it by interacting with the trees outside Konoha. He also had plans to test his ability during this mission away from the eyes of his team. It would not be too hard. Sakura was obsessed with Sasuke and Sasuke was obsessed with himself to care about Naruto. The only person he had to shake off was his incredibly observant, grey-haired sensei. He could do that during shifts to keep watch tonight during night camp.
They started afternoon after their D-rank mission earlier. Now the daylight was almost gone. The two chakra signatures Naruto sensed earlier had yet to act. He would like them act to now or after they made camp. That way, Naruto could send a clone to deal with them. It should not be too hard considering Naruto's strength. But, if they choose to attack at a bad time, like when Sakura was keeping watch, when she would most likely fall asleep, it would be a mess. Kakashi could cancel the mission or ask for back up. It would damper Naruto's plans.
Suddenly he felt the two signatures were moving towards them. It seems they were in urgency. To die. Naruto rolled his eyes internally. They must have wanted to complete the mission and get paid and move on. Naruto decided to play his dead-last part. He knew Sasuke and Kakashi were more than enough. He didn't want to gain more attention from Kakashi during this mission. He had plans to take care of.
They had casted a worst genjutsu Naruto had the luck of experiencing. Even, Naruto who had less yin energy, could cast better genjutsu. They created two pools of water in a dry road, where it hadn't rained in weeks. The two nins appeared and started attacking as expected.
What Naruto didn't expect was Kakashi being ripped by chains. He knew Kakashi pulled a kawarimi and it was just a clone. But the sight of seeing your precious person die, even as a joke, after not able to speak to him for eight years, made him stiffen in shock.
'Move yourself, idiot', Kurama supplied.
Sasuke was already dealing with one of them and Naruto intercepted the second who went for Sakura who was guarding Tazuna.
When he subdued the second one, the first one was overpowering Sasuke. Before Naruto could help, Kakashi intercepted and killed the enemy nin with a Chidori.
'Overkill', Naruto thought.
"Scaredy cat, you are slow", Sasuke taunted Naruto unable to accept the fact that Naruto knocked out his enemy while Kakashi had to help him. He could only arrive at the conclusion that Naruto's enemy was weak.
"Sensei, you are alive", Sakura exclaimed happily.
Kakashi didn't say anything and turned to Naruto.
"You are bleeding Naruto. They kunai he used must be poisoned", Kakashi observed.
Fearing they might be suggested to go back, Naruto plunged his own kunai into the wound.
"What are you doing, Naruto?", Sakura screeched and Sasuke's eyed widened slightly.
"Bleeding the poison out. I swear on this wound, let's finish this mission. I will not let any harm befall us", Naruto said seriously still remembering Kakshi's clone being ripped.
Kakashi sighed and went to wrap bandage Naruto's hand. He saw the wound was already healing due to fox's chakra. He still wrapped it anyway.
"Now, let's question two people here", Kakashi said and Tazuna started squirming.
Kakashi was approaching the enemy nin, who was coming to consciousness. He was about to bind him, when the enemy ninja pulled out an explosive tag. Kakashi noticed it and was about to evade when that ninja put another explosive tag on the vial he took out secretly and threw it to Kakashi. The vial had poison, if it touched the skin, would kill them. Right now, it could kill both Kakashi and the enemy ninja.
Kakashi didn't see the another explosive tag attached to the seal. Naruto noted it and threw a kunai between Kakashi and the enemy ninja. He pulled Kawarami and replaced himself with it. Naruto pushed Kakashi away and got caught in the explosion.
Kakashi was thrown to the ground at least seven to eight metres away.
"Naruto", he yelled. 'No, no, no, it cannot happen again. I cannot fail again. I cannot lose the only remaining family I have, no matter how I screwed up earlier. I can't lose another teammate'.
Kakashi didn't want to remember what happened when he was pushed away by one of his teammates. He was not ready for the history to repeat.
'Maybe Naruto will be alright. He said he is immune to poisons. The nine-tails can heal him. Naruto still has chance to live', Kakashi's thoughts were spiralling and he ran towards his blonde student.
Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna were too shocked to move seeing the explosion.
"Naruto", Kakashi came to his blonde student only to see he was standing still. There was no physical damage to the naked eye but he appeared to be not moving.
'Maybe the poison had some side effects', Kakashi thought worriedly.
Kakashi put hands on Naruto's shoulders and shook him. "Naruto, are you alright?"
Naruto flinched and removed Kakashi's hands. He refused to look at him. Kakashi attempted to turn Naruto's face towards him but Naruto moved away from him.
"What happened Naruto? Say something. Are you hurt?", Kakashi was worried and Naruto wasn't helping.
Naruto looked at the ground and whispered something. Kakashi didn't hear it clearly.
"Say it again. Louder", Kakashi almost pleaded. Almost.
"Sorry, I am sorry, sensei. Are you alright?", Naruto said and bowed to Kakashi.
Kakashi was confused and shocked by Naruto's behaviour. His knucklehead blonde was being unpredictable again. Well, if he was talking, might be the poison didn't affect him badly.
"Stand straight first. I am alright because of you. What are you sorry about , Naruto?" , Kakashi wanted to know.
"It is my fault", Naruto announced standing straight but he was still looking at the ground.
"What is, Naruto?", Kakashi couldn't understand what his student might have done that needed an apology. If anything, Kakashi should thank Naruto for saving his life.
"You almost died. It is my fault", Naruto raised his volume and Kakashi was beyond confused. He could not think of anything Naruto did that caused this incident. Naruto wasn't looking at him still.
"Maa maa, Naruto. What are you talking about? You saved me. I would be dead if not for you. Look at me first. I want to know if the poison spilled on you", Kakashi told his blonde student.
"You don't understand. If I bound him with rope he would not have pulled this stunt. You would not have been in danger. It is my fault, dattebayo", Naruto shouted and Kakashi stared for a moment. Kakashi really wanted to open the blonde's brain and see how it worked. How could Naruto twist this thing and blame himself. This blonde had lot of issues, thanks to the Konoha villagers. Kakashi sighed.
"Naruto, it is not your fault. This is your first serious mission. I should have been careful. Now, let me see if you are hurt", Kakashi said and Naruto shook his head.
"Accept my apology first", Naruto argued.
Kakashi rolled his eyed at the blonde. Well, eye at the blonde. Naruto was stubborn.
"Maa, maa, apology accepted. Now, answer me", Kakashi was exasperated.
"I am not hurt sensei. I created a shadow clone before pulling kawarimi. I am alright", Naruto replied now the worry gone.
'Ah, he did the same thing he did during Bell Test'. Kakashi couldn't help but proud of his sunshine student. His little fox was really cunning when he fight. He ruffled the boy's golden locks and chuckled.
"Naruto-baka, can't you do anything perfectly? Why are you always messing up?, Sakura opened her big mouth.
"Usurantonkichi (You are useless/ Dead-last)", Sasuke scoffed.
Tazuna didn't agree with them though. He thought this team has some serious psychological issues. The only student who was good was the blonde shortie, but he had serious confidence issues. Other two were blind to their own faults. He pitied their jounin sensei.
"Maa, maa, enough. All three of you did your job. Good", Kakashi praised them.
"Now, let's have a talk with our client", Kakashi said and turned to Tazuna.
Tazuna swallowed hard and was about to lie.
"Don't bother. I already know you are the target. Why ninjas are targeting you?", Kakashi asked single eye fixated him. Tazuna could tell this wasn't the time to lie.
"I have death threats from Gato. I am building a bridge connecting wave country to main land. But Gato didn't want me to complete it", Tazuna replied.
"Gato from Gato industries, business magnate?", Kakashi asked and Tazuna nodded. The mission just became complicated.
"Why wouldn't he want you to complete?", Sakura asked.
"He is exploiting us for transport services. If the bridge is completed we won't need him. He didn't like it. He hired some goons first. But I didn't give in. So, he hired ninjas", Tazuna explained.
"Why didn't you explain this to hokage?", Sasuke, rich boy with clan money, asked.
"We don't have money", Tazuna started and continued the sob story for some time. At the end, Sakura was almost teary-eyed and Sasuke's cold heart moved a little.
Kakashi's was thinking about further complications that could arise if they continue the mission.
Naruto was the one, who is known for is naivety and kindness, interrupted him.
"You know, if you have explained this, our hokage would have agreed for a payment plan. He would have offered extra help and agreed to be paid after the bridge is completed and your trade picked up again", Naruto told and everyone looked at him.
"I couldn't take that risk. I was desperate for help", Tazuna replied and Sakura's expression said she understood.
Tazuna continued his emotional manipulation using his grandson and widowed daughter which played the hearstrings of his audience.
"Do you guys want to continue the mission? There can be other ninjas ahead. They will be stronger than the earlier ones", Kakashi asked.
"Let's continue", Sasuke said excited to fight strong opponents.
Sakura hesitated but agreed with her crush. "We have to help him sensei".
Kakashi turned to Naruto. He thought the blonde would agree immediately.
Naruto already started thinking about the consequences if they continued the mission. Sasuke and Sakura didn't stand a chance against whoever came next. Kakashi won't be taken down by surprise attacks anymore. But those two will hold him back.
Naruto with his façade could not take down enemies and support Kakashi explicitly. On Kakashi's view, Naruto was a mint genin and a liability. Naruto will also be responsible for his teammate's lives no matter how annoying they were. He would have to sneak around without them knowing.
But to real Naruto, this mission was simple. He wanted to help the wave country people especially after he found out Uzumakis were friendly with them. They might also know more about his ancestors. Naruto also has improved 'chakra storage seal' which could help his clones's life and henge longer. Deciding all he needed to do was create shadow clones without Kakashi knowing, Naruto decided to proceed.
So, when Kakashi asked, Naruto mused for a moment and agreed to proceed with the mission. "Let's go sensei. They need our help. We can't delay further".
Kakashi agreed to proceed the mission and Tazuna exhaled loudly.