You guys haven't abandoned me! (Or so I assume)

Here is the next chapter, finally. As of right now, I have no idea whatsoever when the next post will be. But, the pace of action should finally be picking up now, plus my Spring Break is next week (College is finally useful for once!) so really, who knows?

As for the mystery of Naruto's origins...I am not going to do a big 'Naruto's the son of the Yondaime' reveal thing. The father of my version of Naruto is safely anonymous. His other parent, on the other hand...I might do something there...

(No, I'm not going to make him related to Tsunade either. I know what you're thinking!)

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine

Claimer: This VERSION of Naruto is mine!

They were supposed to leave Konoha early in the morning. Unsurprisingly, Kakashi showed up at the meeting place late. Considering that this was a C-ranked mission taking them outside of Konoha, it was probably a good sign that the Jounin was only an hour late instead of three. That didn’t mean the genin had to like it, and Kakashi was treated to some harsh glaring when he finally strolled into view.

“Yo,” Kakashi waved at them, “Sorry to be so late.”

“No you’re not,” Sasuke muttered.

Sasuke hadn’t exactly been trying to keep himself from being overheard; still, none of them were in the least surprised when Kakashi nodded in agreement.

“What excuse this time?” Naruto asked, curious despite his annoyance.

Kakashi usually had some kind of weird excuse for being late. They tended to be strange and idiotic. This one was no exception.

“Well, I was up late last night redecorating the Hokage’s office for him, so I overslept this morning,” Kakashi replied.

There was a pause as Kakashi was stared at by his genin. Wondering if their Jounin-sensei had finally gone off the deep end was becoming a regular part of this morning ritual for them.

“…You were?” Hinata finally asked.

“Nope,” Kakashi said, “Ah, and here comes our client now. Good morning, Tazuna-san.”

The man Kakashi was addressing was the paunchy, grey-haired man that Team 7 had been introduced to the previous afternoon. The first words out of the man’s mouth (once his sake bottle had been removed) had been unpleasant:

“The hell? Why am I supposed to be wasting money on these little runts?”

Now, upon seeing his escort, Tazuna brought his point back up.

“I still can’t believe that I’m paying you ninja all this money just so that a pack of bratty little runts can have a field trip,” Tazuna grumbled, “I came to Konoha in order to hire someone to guard me and protect my life, not to hire kids that I need to change diapers for. This village must have gone way downhill if this is what I’m supposed to make do with!”

During this little verbal assault, Sasuke’s expression showed his growing contempt. If not for the fact that this was going to be a real mission, he would have felt some serious temptation to inflict third-degree burns on some sensitive areas of Tazuna’s person. Hinata, not entirely used to hearing such words from a complete stranger, stared down at her feet and waited for the man to finish.

Naruto, oddly enough, seemed unaffected by the diatribe. He was staring off into the far distance; hands folded behind his head and face blank.

“I can assure you, Tazuna-san,” Kakashi responded calmly, “All three of my students are fully trained shinobi.”

“Hmph,” Tazuna grunted, “Whatever. Just listen, and listen good. I, Tazuna, am a bridge-builder of world renown! I am going back to my home country in order to build a bridge, and I expect all three of you runts to protect me to the death until it is completed. You got all that?”

With that stirring speech, they were off. As if in consolation, it was a beautiful day for traveling. It hadn’t rained in a few days, and it was warm, though not too warm.

None of the genin had ever left Konoha before, and under any other circumstances, this would have been a great experience for all of them. Tazuna ensured that these were not those circumstances. The man would just not stop complaining.

Tazuna complained about the road – he claimed it was too dusty. He also complained about the weather – Tazuna said that it was far too hot, except for the moments when the sun retreated behind a cloud. Then it was too cold and drafty for his tolerance. He complained about how unbearably long it was taking them to travel. Tazuna also demanded frequent rest breaks, complaining about how his aging constitution could hardly handle such a cruel, harsh pace all the while.

After a few hours of this, however, Tazuna seemed to have used up most of his complaints and was finally quiet…well, mostly quiet. He kept demanding rest stops, but since Tazuna was also drinking at an almost astonishing rate, that wasn’t really so surprising.

…

Hinata wondered at how Naruto could keep his composure. In between the regular rest breaks - Tazuna-san insisted on them, and no one had tried to argue - the older man had loudly speculated about the skills he expected their team to possess. None of these speculations was highly positive.

Sasuke, obviously infuriated at Tazuna-san’s various insinuations against his skills, had taken it upon himself to take point for their group. Unfortunately, being in this position meant that it was impossible for Hinata to miss how Sasuke’s shoulders made a violent twitch with every comment Tazuna-san threw at his back.

Hinata herself was just behind and to the side of Tazuna-san. She should have been walking directly alongside Tazuna-san – that was how this formation was supposed to go – but when she had tried doing so earlier, Tazuna-san had wondered why ‘they even bothered trying to train such frail little girls’ which it was ‘obvious that they weren’t good for anything, let alone being ninja’.

This ran a little too close to some things that Hinata herself had wondered about, causing her to drop back to her current position. As miserable as she already was, Hinata did not fancy herself a glutton for punishment; thankfully, as soon as she was out of his immediate sight, Tazuna-san had stopped taking any notice of her.

Truly, the only one on their team that Tazuna-san wasn’t complaining about was Kakashi-sensei. Kakashi-sensei was trailing directly behind Tazuna-san, reading his book and saying nothing. Either Tazuna-san thought it unwise to poke fun at a high-ranking shinobi, or perhaps the older man had simply forgotten that Kakashi-sensei was even there.

Tazuna-san had definitely not forgotten Naruto. When he wasn’t speculating on Naruto’s shinobi skills – or rather, the apparently obvious lack thereof – Tazuna was questioning Naruto’s health, his mental status, and eyesight. Tazuna seemed to believe that Naruto was colorblind, because in Tazuna’s mind, that was the only reason anyone in their right mind would even go in arm’s reach of such a ‘disturbing and hideous jumpsuit’.

In fact, the only thing Tazuna wasn’t loudly wondering about Naruto was his gender. Sasuke, on the other hand, started twitching twice as violently when Tazuna began referring to him as a ‘pretty little girly brat’.

At this rate, Sasuke might need restraining before he did something rash. What was Kakashi-sensei expecting them to learn from this? Their sensei, odd as he was, liked to turn everything into a lesson – usually by explaining where and how they had screwed up afterwards in excruciating detail – but what could this be about?

When Tazuna took his next rest break, Hinata found herself standing next to Naruto. His face was just as impassive now as it had been when they had left the village, but he didn’t seem to mind it when Hinata tentatively offered her idea that Kakashi-sensei was trying to get them to learn something from this experience.

“Naruto sure knows what Sasuke’s gotta learn,” Naruto said, a mischievous expression flitting across his features, “Either Sasuke needs to not listen to those stupid things or else he’s just gotta stop being so pretty.”

There was a faint choking sound from Sasuke’s direction at this last part. Naruto ignored it, raising a finger and waving it at Hinata in fashion that somehow reminded her of Iruka-sensei.

“Hinata-san, Hinata-san needs to learn something important too! Hinata-san is smart; she can figure it out easy!”

“…I can?”

Hinata wondered at Naruto’s confidence in her, but her teammate nodded.

“Yes! Hinata-san is smart! That’s why she is a very good shinobi! So Hinata-san shouldn’t let some stinky guy tell her otherwise!”

Much to her embarrassment, Hinata felt her face heat up. Naruto really thought that? Hinata knew her face must look awful, turning bright red like that. She turned away, hoping that her blush hadn’t offended Naruto. That would be terrible, especially right after he’d said such a nice thing as well!

…

Well, it was hard to help that they were little idiots.

Kakashi felt something like fond amusement as he watched the interplay. Sasuke was, of course, standing to the side and ignoring everything. Hinata was staring down at the ground, fingers twisting together nervously and face red. She was completely oblivious to the very perplexed look Naruto was giving her from behind.

Even if they were little idiots, they were his little idiots. At least, they would be his little idiots until he got them up to Jounin level and cut them loose to terrorize a new generation of genin.

…Of course, Kakashi sighed to himself, first he’d have to get them through this mission. Even if it was technically a C-rank…Kakashi had snapped this one up the second he’d gotten a good look at Tazuna.

Well, a good, violent shock might be just what his three little idiots needed to get some real progress going…

…
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