Chapter 21
“alright, that’s enough for today”, Naruto says and instantly, Sakura falls to the ground exhausted.
During the whole day, they’ve been practicing chakra control and jutsus, more specifically, Mito and Sakura where going at each other, Mito attacked with water release and Sakura defended with earth release.
Mito was also training Sakura in water release, seeing that the girl had affinity with both earth and water release.
“your reserves are still shit, but your control is impeccable”, Mio says whipping the sweat from her frown.
“not everybody can be an Uzumaki”, Sakura grumbles in a good natured manner.
“I know, we are awesome”, Mito quips back.
“that wasn’t a compliment”, Sakura says.
“it is if I take it as one”, Mito completes turning to Naruto, “anyway, what’s for tomorrow chief?”.
“tomorrow we go hunting”, Naruto says, with a smirk.
“why?”, Sakura asks confused.
Chakra control, taijutsu and cardio, she could understand, she really needed to get stronger as the gap between her and her classmates became very visible during the three weeks she was training with Naruto and Mito,
But hunting…
“you are progressing nicely tough the training, especially after you ditched that brain dead idea of dieting”, Naruto says.
Oh yeah, dieting, the second thing to die after her training began, she wouldn’t be able to diet even if she wanted since after every training session she felt like she hadn’t eaten anything in weeks.
“now we need to work on the basics of your other skills and hunting is perfect for it”, Naruto continues.
Seeing that Sakura was still confused and that Mito was as well, he lets out a sigh.
“stealth, tracking, target practice with moving targets and so and so forth”, Naruto says as the girls realize what he meant, “hunting provides all of that”.
“ok, I understand, but don’t we need a permit or something?”, Sakura asks, a legitimate question.
“if we were to hunt a seasonal prey, then yes, but we are going to hunt wild pigs”, Naruto says, “they are an invasive species and a pest, so as long as we are genin or higher they are game the whole year around”, Naruto explains.
“and they are delicious”, Mito completes, drooling a little.
“that too”, Naruto agrees.
The next day at the ass crack of dawn, Sakura meet her teammates for the hunt… after she was nearly strangled by a cranky Mito.
“so, we are here, what we do now”, Sakura asks, after setting her equipment down.
“first things first, run a check list”, Naruto explains.
They do and when they are finished, Naruto pulls up a map.
“second, we analyze the info we already have”, he opens the map and points to some areas circled in red, “these areas have the largest amount of sightings, so we are going to head there”.
“good, so what’s next?”, Mito asks, looking at the map.
“next, I’m going to teach you both a very funny jutsu”, Naruto says smirking.
Asuma was not having a nice day.
Sure, he enjoyed a nice walk through the woods, but right now he wished he was somewhere else.
“Asuma-sensei, why are we here again?”, Ino asks, for the umpteenth time today, “couldn’t we have this training somewhere that is not damp and filled with mosquitos?!”.
“for the last time Ino we have a mission”, Asuma says, tired of the arguing.
“a bogus mission”, Shikamaru chirps in, “troublesome”.
For once Asuma agreed with him.
“a mission is a mission, we are have duties to fulfill”, Asuma reassures them.
“what’s the mission again?”, Choji asks as he snacks on some chips.
Before Asuma could answer, Ino cuts him.
“did feel that?”, she asks, sounding a little antsy.
“feel what?”, Shikamaru asks, when he suddenly feels a shiver down his spine, “what was that?”.
“all of you, with me!!”, Asuma orders and they obey, forming a defensive circle.
There’s creak and the sound of leafs hustling, then an unholy screech when suddenly a giant feral pig comes barreling through the woods.
Asuma was bracing for a fight when suddenly the pig falls dead by the means of a kunai trough the ear.
“nice shot Sakura!!”, comes Mito voice from… somewhere.
“ha!”, comes Sakura triumphant laugh, “suck it, mine is bigger!!”.
“that’s what he said!!”, Naruto voice as he punctuates things with a crude joke.
All the time, the voices where coming from the woods, but they could not see from where.
“oh hey, it’s Asuma-sensei”, Sakura speaks again and jumps from her spot on the woods and becomes invisible, “oh, Ino-pig is here too”.
“can it forehead!!”, Ino screeches back, “what the hell are you doing here?”.
“and why are you invisible?”, Choji asks.
“we are training”, she answers.
“we?”, Asuma asks.
“yes, we”, Naruto suddenly materializes next to Sakura, “sup!”.
“kya!!”, Shikamaru yelps like a girl as he feels a hand grazing his butt.
“meh, four out of ten”, Mito says, turning herself visible and walking to join her group.
“troublesome”, Shikamaru mutters, freezing when he notices Naruto there, smoking his pipe.
“aren’t you too young to smoke?”, Asuma asks.
“aren’t you too lazy to teach?”, Naruto retorts.
“touché”, Asuma agrees, if he had his way he wouldn’t be teaching, “so, training…”.
“more like hunting, but it’s a good training, after all if you look it the right way, we are doing shinobi work, the only difference is the kind of pig we are striking”, Naruto says, puffing some smoke.
“I can’t disagree with that”, Asuma says, that was awkward, “do tell, that invisibility jutsu, it wouldn’t happen to be…”.
“hiding with camouflage? Yes, it’s not a complicated jutsu and it’s very practical”, Naruto admits.
“and you know that because…”, Asuma asks, curious.
“jiji tough me”, Naruto completes.
“the pig is on the scroll”, Sakura says, rolling the storage scroll and outing it back on her shuriken pouch.
“well, see you guys later”, Naruto says turning around to leave.
At that, the three of them leave.
Meanwhile at the office, Minato was right now thinking he should retire and run.
“Minato, what’s wrong?”, Kushina asks as she goes to deliver a lunchbox to her working husband.
“I fucked up, big time”, Minato says, looking at some papers while sweating cold.
“what do you mean?”, Kushina asks, confused.
“do you remember those loans I took with the Uzumaki?”, Minato asks, “you know, to bring the essential infrastructure of the village up to date”.
“yes I do, I was there”, Kushina says, “I helped you strike the deal for them and the value of the installments we send to Uzu to repay it”.
“well…”, Minato says, “turns out, not a single one of hose had made their way to Uzu in the last year…”.
“WHAT?!”, Kushina scremas, snatching the paper from his hands.
“I’ve got a letter last month, I didn’t believe it, but after an investigation…”, Minato says with a sad expression, “turns out it was truth and now they are demanding payment with interest”.
“how much?”, Kushina asks in a ghostly tone.
Minato doesn’t even bother mustering words, he simply takes the scroll and hands it over to Kushina and when she sees it, her eyes almost fall off her face.
“this is… THIS IS BULLSHIT!!”, she screams, her hair waving like the tails of a tail beast.
“I know”, Minato agrees with a whine.
“this is nearly twice the whole village’s yearly budget!!”, Kushina continues her rant.
“I know!!”, Minato agrees again with more pain in whining.
“where that money go?!”, she asks, still angry.
“oh, hat’s the funny part”, Minato says, “the money was used by the civilian council elders to build vacation home in the Beach Country”.
“are you shitting me?!”, Kushina exclaims.
“the elders involved are being executed as we speak”, Minato says, “I ceased all of their assets but that’s not nearly enough to start repaying it”.
“can this get any worse?”, Kushi asks.
“yes, it can, they are demanding we either repay the missing installments or we hand over what we promised as guarantee”, Minato says and he can feel the room’s temperature dropping drastically.
“they… we can’t”, Kushina starts getting hysterical.
“they are demanding Naruto”, Minato says, he himself was unhealthily pale.