Chapter 11: The Encounter

While Naruto was having his world turned upside down at the team placements, both his and Aoki's older sister Natsumi was on a different kind of headache. Earlier in the day, Minato had her take on a team to go on a simple bandit mission near the border of Wind country. It seemed simple enough as the group was mainly comprised of men and possibly a rouge Kunoichi as the boss of the whole operation. The team was informed to take out the bandits and find this Kunoichi as the trade from both Suna and Konoha were being affected by these people. Simple right?

So much for that.

Much like her younger siblings, Natsumi had grown as well along with being promoted to Chuunin in the time Naruto and Aoki were in the academy. She had let her blond hair grow and kept it tied in a ponytail. She was taller than her mother, Kushina, by a few inches and definitely looked more like a mirror image of her mom, Minato, aside from her own lavender eyes. She wore a simple white shirt with the Uzumaki symbol stitched into the back with black thread, curtesy of her little brother, and tight, black Anbu pants and black sandals. She wore the standard Chuunin vest that hid her impressive bust for a fifteen-year-old. She also wore fingerless gloves with the right one being black and the left being white.

The team that she was in charge of was none other than Team Gaia sans Might Gaia of course. The eccentric sensei was tasked with a S-Rank mission along with Kasumi and Aika the day before.

First was of course, Gaia's little mini me, Rock Lita. She wore the same green spandex as her sensei and had the same hairstyle as well along with bushy eyebrows. She had on orange leg warmers that hid her weights and bandaged up her hands all the way down near her elbows. The biggest difference between her and her sensei was the orange scarf she had tied around her neck. It was a normal scarf that could use some care as there were tears and cuts and scruffs to it, but Lita kept it close at all times for some reason not even her sensei knew of.

Next to her was TenTen, the resident weapons specialist. She wore her standard Chinese style outfit equipped with a special scroll that housed many of her weapons within. Out of the three on Team Gaia, she was not a heavy hitter and instead focused on supporting the team.

Last was of course the prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, Noa Hyuuga. She was wearing a tan, short sleeved coat to cover her impressive bust and black biker shorts that showed off her thighs and rear end well. She also had wrappings around her left arm and leg. Her long black hair was tied at the end and kept out of her face with her headband.

Right now, the group of four were making their way to the border through the trees. It was a fairly standard trip that would take only a few hours to get there.

"So, miss Natsumi," Lita started in a respectful tone, "what can we expect from these un-youthful group once we encounter them?"

"From the reports, these bandits mainly consist of men and one kunoichi." Natsumi answered. "We don't know much about her other than she leads this group to disrupt caravans of supplies that go to and from Suna."

"Does that mean we may have issues with Suna?" TenTen asked her with mild concern in her voice.

"I highly doubt that." Noa interjected. "It's not like Suna would do something as foolish as to get in our way."

"Don't be so sure of that Noa." Natsumi spoke up as she stopped on a branch followed by the rest.

"Why?" Noa asked her with a raised but furrowed brow. "Fate has already decided how this mission will go. That is certain."

Natsumi huffed at that, gaining their undivided attention as they could see a fairly large group of bandits waiting at the border and several tents there as well. "Fate is a concept that holds very little standing in this life Noa." She turned towards the Genin. "Life has this strange and vague ability to change people in ways that even they don't realize until it's practically smacking you square in the face. Something my mother taught me." She turned back to the bandits and searched for the kunoichi. "Speaking of which. Noa, you stay here and use your Byakugan to find that kunoichi along with giving us a number on these bandits."

"R-Right." Noa stuttered a bit, a little shaken from that statement Natsumi said to her. She activated her Byakugan and began searching.

"While she's doing that," Natsumi looked to the other two, "TenTen, I want you to set up a perimeter of traps and choke points. Anyone that gets to those choke points, Lita, you take them down as quickly as possible. I don't want any of these bandits to get away."

Both TenTen and Lita nodded as they left to do their tasks.

"Found her." Noa spoke as she raised a brow. "But there's something else approaching her."

"What's wrong?"

"Something is slowly entering her tent and surrounding it completely. AHH!" Noa shut her Byakugan off and grabbed at her eyes in pain.

"Noa!?" Natsumi placed a hand on her back to comfort her. A faint, red glow came from her hand as the pain in Noa's eyes started to fade. "What happened?"

"I-I think someone is already here." Noa looked up at her with strained expression.

Suddenly, the tent that had the rogue kunoichi twisted with sand and quickly engulfed it, swallowing the whole tent. There was a loud scream followed by an even louder squishing sound as blood seeped from the sand. The men saw this and began to panic as their leader was killed so suddenly, and they began to run away in different directions. Unfortunately for them, they just as easily set off the traps TenTen had set up, cutting their forces down by half. Lita took out several and was later joined by a strange woman in a cat suit and makeup using chakra strings to control a puppet. TenTen was using her weapons for range and was suddenly joined by a blond on a giant fan that was using wind jutsu. Natsumi and Noa jumped down to join in and they all quickly ended the bandits lives with no issue.

A few minutes after they finished off the last bandit, a tall, tan woman wearing a Suna Jonin uniform and had half of her face covered appeared.

"Good job you three." She started as the blond and the one in the catsuit walked over to her. She looked around for a brief moment as Natsumi was doing the same. "Where's Gaara?"

"Present." A voice spoke up behind the woman that caused her to jump ever so slightly. This got the other two to burst out laughing at their sensei's reaction while the third voice simply giggled and stepped over to the other two.

"You've gotta admit Baki sensei that that was funny." The one in the catsuit said through gasp of air as she couldn't stop laughing.

The now named Baki regained her composure and got their attention. "Alright. It seems this mission is a success. Well done you three."

"It seems Suna was also sick of this group disrupting their supply lines." Natsumi spoke as she and her team walked up to the Suna group.

"You would be correct by that statement." Baki started as she walked forward and introduced herself with a handshake. "You can call me Baki, and this my team."

Natsumi accepted her and nodded. "Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze, and this is my team."

"Wait a minute," the blond started with wide eyes. "You're the daughter of Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage, right?" This caught the rest of her team's attention.

Natsumi scratched the back of her head sheepishly and chuckled a bit. "She is my mother, yes, but please don't let that change how we can just speak normally to each other."

Baki breathed a sigh of relief as they parted and decided to introduce her team properly. "Well, if that is the case, then allow me to introduce my team." She pointed towards the catsuit one first then making her way down. "This is Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara. Also known as the Sand Siblings."

The three bowed lightly to the group, but for Natsumi, her attention was focused solely on Gaara as she felt something familiar about her. It was a slight tug at first, but now that they were standing right in front each other, it was more of a pull than anything. It was almost similar to how she felt when around her siblings but nowhere near as strong as that. That pull to be closer to them than anyone else in the room, or more specifically, to her brother, was sometimes too great for her to bear. She quickly shook those thoughts from her mind and began introducing her own team.

'She's almost like me, isn't she?' Gaara asked Shukaku as she could feel that vague aura just like that night all those years ago.

'It's similar kid, but not exactly like before.' Shukaku could tell that this girl was a container like Gaara was, but she was different. She only had part of one of her sisters, so who had the other parts. 'I would advise being a little cautious of this one kid.'

'Why? Aren't we the same?' Gaara asked as she looked to Natsumi intently.

'Not exactly. I'll explain when we get back home.'

Gaara agreed with this just as Baki and Natsumi finished discussing things and began to bid each other farewells. As the groups went their separate ways, both Natsumi and Gaara couldn't help but feel that this would not be the last time they saw each other.

The next chapter will skip straight to the beginning of the Wave arc. Really excited about writing that part.

Time to watch the Superbowl. LET'S GO EAGLES!

Anyway, stay awesome and as always...

PEACE!