Part 9

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"good work team 7" the Hokage congratulated the team infront of them but was only met by complaints from the knucklehead ninja of Konoha. "it was just a damn cat!" he yelled out in frustration. He wanted tougher missions, he was so tired of them! Honestly they were below him, he wanted an A rank mission. "and yet there are several signs of cuts on your face" the hokage replied wittedly causing everyone in the room to burst into soft laughter. "It was a very wild cat!" the blond replied causing everyone around him to burst into laughter once again. Hiruzen smiled at the blond, it had been about 6 months since the incident that fatal night. The following week he was drafted into a team with Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke as well as their jounin leader being Hatake Kakashi. Very 'fortunate' how the blond was with both his long time associates.

"anyway I want a harder mission! One that requires actual shinobi-ing" Naruto stated grabbing the attention of the hokage, "hm?"

"We need harder missions, it's way to easy" the Uchiha nodded in agreement, speaking of the Uchiha the boy had shown increased development and was still getting better, at this moment Naruto was quite far away from matching him not to say that Naruto was bad. He had actually surprised him with his rapid growth, he was probably 10x stronger than he was that night. The weakest link among the team was probably the girl. His concerns still remained on the Uchiha who's bond with Naruto seemed to decrease more and more as timed passed or so it seemed maybe a little rivalry isn't bad.

"Kakashi" the masked ninja looked in the direction of the Hokage, "do you believe this is true?" the hokage continued. In the mind of the masked ninja he did believe that it was about time for mission upgrade and if he didn't agree with it Naruto would end up nagging about it. "Yes I do, un upgrade will be much complimenting for their level"

"yes! Yes!" Naruto jolted up and down in excitement from the encouraging words of his sensei, finally a higher ranked mission. 'finally he'd be fighting enemy ninjas with exceptional jutsus and that good stuff' "no you won't be doing that Naruto" the hokage told him as if reading his mind "I'll find you a mission to fit your caliber soon-"

Just then a man bursts into the scene stumbling, probably a bit drunk the Hokage and Kakashi noted. He bowed infront of them, "sir Hokage" both Naruto and Sasuke grinned as the man greeted the Hokage as they knew what was coming.

Naruto exited the tower with a huge smile on his face, finally a mission that wasn't about chasing cats or some sort of domestic animal. Honestly why would they flee from their owners and home, it made no sense. Well it wasn't like it was hardest mission ever, they just had to escort some bridge builder back to his village. It wasn't too hard but still he lose focus! Maybe if they good enough they'd be bumped up another tier again and these missions would become normal. Now though he had to prepare for the mission. It was a few hours away so he'd have sometime to make adequate preparations. But first he'd have to go see Yugao before he leaves.

Speaking of Yugao, what was she doing at this moment? Well she was returning from a date, yes another one. She'd never imagined that she would have so much fun in a relationship. It was refreshing and she didn't admit it back then but she needed love in her life and someone was always there for her. Although he was dull, he knew how to make her happy and that was enough for her. Hell she was sure she wanted to marry him but she's only 15! Imagine a letter version of him and her wandering around, she hoped they were as optimistic as Naruto is or at least was when she first met him. Now it was as if he was never really happy, not since that evening 6 months ago but he always forced himself to be happy so others wouldn't worry about him. However his since then his growth has rapidly increased and doesn't seem like he's slowing down either. As if by fate she noticed blond spiky hair pass through a crowd, she immediately scanned through again but he'd disappeared or so she thought as she had to dodge a sneak attack trying to be made by the blond. Key word tried, she easily caught him mid air and locked him down.

"Nice try! But you'll never catch me off guard" she giggled at the small pout that appeared on his face but she quickly changed her facial expression to a confused one when the blond began grinning as he disappeared in a puff off smoke and the real blond tapped her from behind. "jokes on you" the blond grinned as he noticed the look on her face, "is it really though?" she replied as a huge ramen noodle tied the blond up. "a genjutsu?! Damnit!" he looked at the kunoiuchi who had a pleased look on her face, she dispelled the Jutsu causing Naruto to sigh in relief.

Now that he looked at her, she looked stunning in the black dress she wore, it brought out her nice hair, pretty face, sweet lips and body….. shit he was doing it again. "earth to blondie" he shook his head and looked to her, "sorry what were you saying?"

"I asked what you were doing?"

"oh well I was actually looking for you? We got a C rank mission, we were leaving so I wanted to inform you before we left"

"Your first C rank mission! What's it about?"

"You know I can't tell you that"

She smiled, it seemed like he was finally catching on, "well what do you say if we grab some ramen before you leave.

The 3 of them waited quite longer than they expected too, not only Naruto was late but Kakashi as well. Sakura jumped as swirl of leaves appeared around them revealing the half eyed jounin, he was about to make up an excuse but his one eye didn't see Naruto around. "where's Naruto?" he asked his young genin but instead Tazuna the bridge builder bursts out in anger. "is this some kind of joke? What did I hire you for! Two of your genin showed up before you dammit and the last one is nowhere to be found" the two of them stood there startled looking back and forth between the adults. "sorry, I got lost on the path of life" Kakashi told the man with his eye smile causing his students to fall over and Tazuna to sigh. "Look, I'm in a rush, I'll just cancel with you-"

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late" Naruto screamed running with a huge smile plastered on his face, Kakashi smiled at his timed entrance giving a look to Tazuna who frowned and picked up his bag. "you're late you Idiot" Sakura lashed out hitting him on his head, "sorry, I ran into a friend-"

"save it!" the three of them yelled in unison, "I've heard enough of the lame excuses, let's just be on our way" the bridge builder yelled as the team followed behind him. The mission so far had been quite uneventful, Sakura thought which meant so far so good. Kakashi was speaking to Tazuna, whiles Naruto seemed to be talking to Sasuke however seemed much disinterested, why couldn't Naruto take the hint that sasuke doesn't want to be his friend. He thought everything was a joke and about games, he should try to be more serious. Just then Naruto noticed some rustling noises in the bushes around them, he signals everyone to stop and closes his eyes. There was a short silence as all eyes were on the blond, before anyone could speak up he threw a kunai into one of the bushes. Everyone tensed up as the bushes stopped rustling, they all walked towards the bush and all sweat dropped when they saw a kunai two inches of the head of white fur'd rabbit. Sakura bonked him on the head for 'animal cruelty', Kakashi placed his hand on his chin. 'snow rabbit? In summer'

"nice try! Naruto" Kakashi commented causing Sakura and Sasuke to giggle at the blond but like normally he didn't laugh with them his eyes became hard as steel and focused and his face indifferent. Sakura looked at him with a red flush on her face, "we're in the summer but this is a winter rabbit, meaning it's been trained by enemy ninja" as if triggered by command two ninjas jumped the team, flying at them before their blades impaled the other's were sasuke and Kakashi using their Kunai's to deflect the blade. Naruto creates about 10 clones, 5 of them run ahead of the remaining 5. The 5 ahead engage the ninjas in hand to hand contact whiles the remaining begin to weave hand signs for a technique all to familiar to sasuke and Kakashi.

[wind style : Great breakthrough] in a matter of seconds the builder and Sakura watched as the two men were blown into the air by the gust of wind being released by Naruto, The blond nodded at Sasuke who started to weave signs of his clan's signature jutsu [fire style: fire ball jutsu] Sakura could feel the heat emitting from Sasuke's flame as it engulfed the two enemy ninja, she wiped her face dry from all the sweat it caused. Kakashi watched as the two ninja fell from the sky with their bodies turned to crisp by the duo.

Sakura nearly threw up at the gory sight infront of her, two people who were just alive minutes ago turned to crisp infront of her in a matter of seconds. "Are you okay, Sakura-chan" she nodded slowly as he helped her up to her feet, she looked into his face that moment, it was hard but still soft and caring. Her face flushed when their eyes met, he grinned at her receiving a heavy punch from her. "ow" he moaned as the whole team gathered around.

"I think you got some explaining to do" Kakashi asked Tazuna. The bridge builder began to reveal the truth to them, meanwhile Naruto could feel his breathing become ragged and his eyes beginning to shut themselves. "so basically this mission just got bumped up!" Naruto asked once again in his hyperactive mood, Kakashi confirmed this with a small nod but he noticed something was off about Naruto. " Naruto are you okay?"

"of course I am!" Naruto waved them off causing Kakashi to catch a glimpse of a kunai wound on his hand, "no, you're not you've been cut and poisoned" he watched the blond's face go from cheerful to distraught in a matter of seconds as he scampered back and forth around the place. Finally calming himself he stabbed himself in the hand with a kunai, for a moment everyone stood in awe at the cool scene they'd just witnessed.

"well it was cool and all how you got rid of the poison but if we don't get you patched up you're gonna bleed out and die" Naruto's face paled up as his body began to tremble and within a second everyone had forgotten how cool he was. 'typical' he told himself as Kakashi bandaged his wound. Kakashi finished dressing the blonde's wound and gave him a look before getting up to attend to hid other students, 'yep, he totally gave me the don't think you're immortal look' Naruto said as he sighed to himself.

"I apologise for getting you wounded" Tazuna told the blond as he sipped from his bottle, "erh, it's nothing I've been through worse! Besides it's self inflicted"

"hm, I guess so" The bridge builder replied.

"Break's up, we have to be quick on our feet" Naruto sprung up as soon the one eyed jounin commanded. A few hours later, The man and his escorts were nearly at the destination according to the man due to a certain blond who kept on immaturely asking if they had arrived yet, probably just to spite everyone.

[nothing really changes on from here, The Zabza vs Team 7 is practically the same so let's fast forward to the final battle on the bridge. I want the story to pick up the pace as it's a bit slow now so forgive me if I don't include detailed writing of everything that happened in the manga/anime]

Naruto and Sasuke were trapped in that jutsu the woman weaved, she proceeded to hurl kunai at them from every glass mirror. They did their best to avoid them, it was quite a task though even with Sasuke's sharingan. In a matter of seconds they were hit by an incoming wave of kunai, unfortunately getting impaled by a few. Naruto looked at Mirrors, how could he defeat this jutsu, maybe the answer lied in raw force….something so strong it shatter the mirror but what? What about the blast with the kyuubi chakra! Yes it would probably destroy it easily but it could in turn give him control or I go beserk.

"you're not wrong! Weak jutsu like this wouldn't be a challenge..It's just depends on if you want to die or live" the words of the fox echoed in the back of the blonde's mind and after taking a glance of the Uchiha he knew what needed to be done. He backed into the Uchiha, catching a kunai that was aimed for his head. "I've got an idea to destroy everything" Sasuke nodded as he flung his own kunai deflecting the opposing one from the blond. "Well then what do I have to do?"

"Nothing just cover me! I'll handle the rest myself" he wanted to retaliate but assessing the situation he was nearly out of chakra and his eyes hurt from the use of the sharingan he'd have to trust whatever Naruto had planned.

"whatever… loser" Naruto smiled as he closed his eyes and formed a diamond with his fingers, with the index and thumb of each hand touching eachother. Sasuke stared back in confusion, but shook his heard dispersing those thoughts, right now it was him vs the kunai. Naruto couldn't see anything but he could hear several clangs of kunai's being deflected, in his mind two orbs with tubes connected glowed one orb red and the other blue. He began to focus more on the red, it was if he watched himself receive the chakra in third person then as if on cue the fox glowing in an orangish yellow color swallowed him and everything was dark…

In real time Sasuke was almost of breath from dodging, deflecting and even taking blows himself but he still held his head high. "your stamina was impressive and so is your loyalty to your friend but everyone's ends here" suddenly there was a rumble and the bridge shook managing to even wrong foot both Kakashi and Zabuza. Haku looked at the blond who now had red eyes instead of blue and sharp fangs as well as nails, she immediately threw 10 sebon to hit him but the blond disappeared within a flash using a gust now hovering over her various mirrors with the Uchiha in his arm. Letting out an explosive roar as a silhouette of a fox head appeared behind him releasing a roar that shook that bridge and blew the jutsu's mirrors to bits.

"Dammit! He used it" the one eyed jounin moaned as he picked up himself from the ground.

Thanks for Reading