Chapter 6: After the Test

Musket was in his hotel room bed, snoring loud enough that the whole village could hear, as he dreamed about the night before with an extended belly filled with some of the best food he ever had.

Flashback

Musket had made it to the ramen stand that Kushina had wanted to go to, a small stand named Ichiraku Ramen that was owned by a nice and understanding man named Teuchi, Who welcomed everyone who came in.

"Welcome back Kushina. How have you been?"

"Good old man, as always. Oh and we brought a guest." Kushina turned to Musket who had just entered the small stand through the flaps at the entrance.

"Well hello there. If you're a friend of Kushina, you're welcome here anytime." Teuchi said with a kind smile as everyone sat down. "So what would you like?"

Musket looked at the menu while Kushina gave some of her own recommendations.

"Shrimp ramen huh? That sounds pretty good actually."

"I know right! It's one of my favorites, though the chicken is pretty good too. Oh, and the beef too!"

"Kushina I think he already chose, don't you think maybe you should just stop before you confuse him?" Minato asked her when he saw that Musket was starting to get overwhelmed by her suggestions.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help."

"No, it's fine. You're excited I get it."

"Well yeah! Why wouldn't I be? It is the greatest food to ever be made."

Musket chuckled at this as they all placed their orders and talked to one another while waiting for their food.

"So Musket where are you from anyway?" Tsume asked while drinking some tea she had ordered.

"Well let's just say that's a little complicated to say the least. But I can definitely say I'm not from this continent. Heck as you all heard I don't even have chakra so I can't even say I'm from this planet."

Everyone looked at him as if he was crazy before remembering that he was right and remembered that Fugaku had seen no trace of chakra on him and they realized he may have actually been from some far off world, as crazy as that sounds.

"This is weird." Tsume said with a frown.

"You're telling me." Musket said before tasting some of the tea he ordered. "Hm, not bad."

The ramen was brought to the bar as everyone ate with Kushina seemingly inhaling it with everyone seemingly not even noticing but Musket clearly looked terrified at the sight in front of him before looking at Minato who shrugged and continued to eat like nothing wrong was happening.

Sighing and giving a shrug, Musket was about to taste his ramen. Suddenly he heard an angry voice from behind as he looked to see Fugaku with a face of pure terror.

"I thought you had a mission!"

"I can explain." Fugaku said in a high pitched wail.

Kushina had turned around at this point with some long noodles hanging out of her mouth before smiling at her old friend. "Hey Mikoto!"

Musket had turned around as well to see a fair-skinned woman with black straight hair, two bangs on the side of her face similar to Kushina, and black eyes, in a dark purple shirt and brown blouse with an expression on her face of pour rage while holding a small boy no older than 4.

"I thought you said you were on a mission!" Mikoto repeated while still looking at Fugaku.

"Well we just finished. Sorry I didn't tell you. Kushina brought us here once we got finished."

Mikoto looked at Kushina with a hurt face upon hearing this. "Why didn't you tell me? Just because I have a baby doesn't mean I can't hang out with you anymore."

Kushina gave a sheepish look at seeing her friend's hurt expression. "Hey that isn't true, I mean Tsume's here."

"Don't pull me into this!" Tsume yelled to her redheaded friend.

Kushina was trying her best to not get pulverized by her best friends before Mikoto heard a small voice in her arms ask her a question.

"Hey aunt Kushina, who's that?" the small boy in Mikoto's arms asked while pointing to Musket.

Mikoto had heard her son and looked at the person he was pointing to as she looked at someone she didn't recognize. "Who's that?" Mikoto asked Kushina who she was currently holding the collar of their shirt with her free hand.

Kushina looked to Musket before realizing she had a way out of her current situation. "This is the guy we had to test for our mission. Mikoto meet Musket. Musket, this is Mikoto and this little one here is her son Itachi." Kushina pointed to Mikoto, who let go of her to wave to Musket, as she then ruffled Itachi's hair while introducing him.

"Oh, uh. Hello. Nice to meet you. I'm guessing you're related to Fugaku over there seeing how you yelled at him."

Mikoto chuckled when he said that before answering him. "Yes, he's my husband."

"Wait really? Honestly, I thought you were single." Musket looked to Fugaku upon hearing this news.

Fugaku's scowl came back upon hearing this. "Why did you think I was single?"

"Sorry, you just look like someone who wouldn't care for the whole family life thing, you know."

Everyone chuckled upon hearing this as Mikoto spoke up. "Well he wasn't the biggest fan at first seeing he was a little of a party animal when we were younger, but when we had this little one he seemed to change his mind about it." she patted Itachi's head while explaining to Musket.

"Ah I see. Well good for you two then."

"Thanks. Now where was I? Oh yeah now I remember." Mikoto gave Itachi to Minato who turned his stool so the young boy wouldn't see the carnage that was about to unfold before she grabbed Kushina and Fugaku by the collars, taking them out of the stand to an ally on the side of the small building as all that could be heard was the screams of two small school girls. Coming back out and sitting next to Tsume, Mikoto ordered a bowl of pork ramen and smiled at Itachi who was eating some of the ramen Minato had given him. She then looked to Musket who was looking in the direction Fugaku and Kushina had supposedly been horribly maimed.

"Oh don't worry about them, they're fine." She said with a slight smile. "So you gonna eat that cause he's been staring at your bowl for a little bit now." she said while pointing to Musket's side.

Musket turned to see Itachi staring at his bowl as he finally remembered the ramen he ordered and took a slurp of his noodles.

Musket immediately stopped moving as his bangs moved over and shadowed his eyes.

Everyone around him looked concerned before they were shocked out of their daze as Musket scarfed down the bowl and slammed it on the counter as he asked for another bowl.

Teuchi smiled at this before going to make another bowl. "Looks like we got another Kushina, huh Minato." he smiled at Minato who laughed at the older man's joke.

"This won't be good for me will it."

"What won't be good for you?" Kushina asked as she and Fugaku came back to the stand.

Kushina looked at the stand as she then saw Musket and his eight empty bowls. "Oh no you don't." Kushina immediately sat down and ordered even more bowls to stop Musket from out eating her.

XXX

They both collapsed onto the counter as stacks of bowls surrounded them.

"I win." Musket said with a noodle sticking out of his nose, blacking out moments later.

"NO I WON!" Kushina yelled out before blacking out herself.

Minato laughed at the two as he and Itachi looked to Mikoto who had 27 empty bowls and not even a look of exhaustion on her face.

Flashback End

Musket looked at the ceiling with a look of sadness on his face.

"Damn it. How did she even do that? She didn't even look full."

Upon saying this he heard a knock at the door as a voice came from the other side.

"Sir Musket? I'm here to bring you to the Hokage's office.

"Alright give me a sec." Musket got up and got to the door to open it as he saw a masked man standing at the door. Nodding to them, they grabbed his shoulder as they both vanished in a gust of leaves.

XXX

Hokage Office

In the Hokage's office Hiruzen is continuing to look at his old enemy, paperwork.

"I'm getting too old for this damn it. Why can't this ever get any easier."

Hiruzen was about to start on his first paper before two people came into the room in a gust of leaves.

"Oh there you are. Thank you hawk."

The Anbu bowed before disappearing as Hiruzen looked to Musket.

"So I see you had fun last night." Hiruzen said with a smile.

Musket rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah I guess you could say that huh."

Hiruzen chuckled before putting on a serious face as he looked at Musket. "Ok, well now let me explain your rank. Now usually someone like you would be recommended to Jonin, the highest rank one can normally become in this business, however none have been made this rank without at least some amount of chakra control. However, since you have abilities that resemble abilities that use chakra I believe I can make a compromise. You see there is a rank for special cases like you. It's called Tokubetsu Jonin, it's used for those who have the potential to become Jonin but only in certain skills while the rest of their skills are those of Chunin. Now this doesn't mean you will be considered less than a Jonin and in fact you have many of the privileges of a Jonin."

"Ok then. That seems understandable considering my condition. Is that all sir?"

"Well actually there is another thing to talk to you about. While it isn't crucial for Tokubetsu Jonin to train a team, some do but since it isn't a requirement you won't have to worry about it for now but I will talk to you about it later on in your career."

"Alright then. So do I have a mission yet or will I have to wait for a bit?"

"Actually I do have a mission for you. Now usually you would just come to me to get a mission if I don't call you for one but right now the mission I'm sending you on is to teach you how they can work. Speaking of which, your teammate should be here right about…"

On que a knock on the door was heard as Hiruzen called them in to have Minato step into the room.

"Well look at that. It's been so long man, how have you been?" Minato asked with a slight smirk.

"Oh hey nice to see you too. Wow, I haven't seen you in, 12 hours right?" Musket gave a smirk to Minato.

"I think so. Man does time fly." Minato looked to Hiruzen "So what do you want me to do Lord Third? I do have to train my team in an hour so if I need to I can call off training for today."

"Actually your team will be both of your missions for today." he looked at the two men in front of him who had confused looks at what he said before he elaborated. "You see, I want you to watch over Musket and teach him the basics on what sort of responsibilities he has and what he can do as a Tokubetsu Jonin."

Minato nodded as he looked at Musket "Well I guess you're meeting my team already huh? Is that all sir?"

Hiruzen nodded his head as Musket and Minato left his office to go to Minato's team.

End of Chapter