twenty-one
Naruto carefully ran the oiled cloth over the metal, avoiding the sharpened edge. He was finally starting to feel like the blades were becoming an extension of himself, just like Hayate-sensei said they should. The sword gleamed in the early morning sun and fresh spring air curled over his seated form as he worked on his weapons.
He tried to spend as little time in Sasuke’s flat as possible, knowing his teammate’s patience wouldn’t last forever. He was still surprised that he let him stay past one night but he wasn’t willing to push it. He wasn’t going to spend his saving on an inn and with the occasional rain showers, he also didn’t fancy sleeping in the forest. He was full capable, he had all of his camping equipment for missions after all, but he would be too on guard to sleep properly and it was just a hassle he didn’t need right now. He only really went to Sasuke’s to sleep but the arrangement was working.
It was actually working a lot better than he thought it would. He’d always thought he would hate sharing space with someone else but Sasuke was quiet and tidy and they only spoke to talk about training or shinobi related stuff. He didn’t try to pry or make Naruto spill his guts and that was all he wanted. He dumped some tomatoes into Sasuke’s fridge every so often and cleaned up after himself so he supposed that was enough to keep Sasuke from kicking him out.
He hadn’t told Kakashi about his change of address and he hadn’t registered it with the records department either. No one had come looking for him and Sasuke wouldn’t say anything so it was a non-issue. He didn’t see the point in trying to find a new place when he was going to be leaving soon anyway. He’d organised his gear and his savings with storage scrolls so his entire life currently fit into one rucksack. Whenever they finally got a C-rank out of the village, he was ready. There wasn’t really anything left for him in the village anyway.
Gai-sensei had his team. Sasuke had his whole ‘kill his brother’ ambitions. Kakashi would have one less student to worry about. Hayate-sensei wouldn’t be that bothered since they hadn’t known each other that long. He no longer had a landlady to worry about and he didn’t have roots with any part of the village. The villagers would probably hold another festival when they found out he was gone. The old man would be pissed and send the ANBU after him but the risk was worth it. He was suffocating in this place. He didn’t belong here and there was a whole world out there to explore. The short time he’d spent in the Capital during his own first C-rank had never left him and every opportunity he’d gotten to leave the village had only fed his desire to see what was out there; a world where nobody cared who Uzumaki Naruto was or about his past.
He took the cloth off the blade and inspected it carefully. The metal was designed to be able to tolerate chakra and since Asuma had shown him how to generate fūton blades, it had quickly become his new obsession. His bloodline limit worked well with kenjutsu and this was just a sharper, deadlier version of kenjutsu. He hadn’t been sure about Asuma at first but the man was even more laidback than Kakashi and he didn’t try to abuse his authority or anything. He taught Naruto what he needed to know and left him to it; he liked that in a teacher. He hadn’t shown Hayate-sensei yet, knowing that the man would tell him that he had improve his basic skills first and master the foundation before he went adding shit. He’d gone through this before with Kakashi and adding ninjutsu to his taijutsu but he would rather practice it now so it was usable for when he struck out on his own.
Kakashi had been better recently about the training but Naruto couldn’t bring himself to fully trust it. He was being allowed to train more to his actual level and he was no longer forced to go on D-ranks with his teammates. Sasuke had made it a point to let Naruto know how stupid D-ranks were every evening and Naruto shared his own horror stories from when he had to do them alone with Gai-sensei. Kakashi had also stopped the teamwork exercises which had been a huge relief to Naruto but he couldn’t help but feel it wouldn’t last. Something would come up to ruin it all; whether it was being barred from the chunin exams yet another year or Sakura never managing to reach a level where they could work effectively as a team he didn’t know. He just knew this couldn’t last.
Kakashi was trying; he had to give that to the man. He’d trained with him for a long time and he knew him well. This teamwork thing was always going to explode in their faces and Naruto was no closer to whatever Kakashi wanted from him. He was never going to be what Kakashi wanted him to be and that made it even easier to leave.
“Oi, dobe.”
Naruto peered over the edge to see Sasuke glaring at him.
“Good morning to you too.”
“We’re going to be late.”
“What a travesty. How will Kakashi ever forgive us?”
“You agreed to lightning tag yesterday, remember? We can’t do that around Kakashi-sensei.”
Naruto blinked. He’d totally forgotten about that. Since Sasuke had started training his raiton affinity, he’d gotten a lot faster. It was something that Naruto also needed to train so they’d come up with ‘lightning tag’. It was essentially Sasuke chasing him to electrocute him with raiton jutsu and Naruto practicing evasion and using his fūton chakra to shield the parts of his body Sasuke was targeting. It had been a rough learning curve at first but it was great training. They weren’t sure if Kakashi would allow it, especially since there were a lot of injuries at first, so they just did it before he got there; might as well take advantage of their teacher’s chronic lateness. Sakura had started turning up only half an hour before Kakashi, working on her own training somewhere else, so they had plenty of time to do their own thing.
“Fuck,” he swore, sheathing the blade and slinging both on his back. “You still owe me a new pair of pants for last time.”
“You should have dodged.”
“That’s not what you said when I shredded your jacket.”
“That’s because I’m meant to tag you, not the other way around!”
“You got way too close. Next time don’t land on me!”
Naruto followed the other genin down the side of the building, bickering all the way down. There might be some things he would miss about Konoha.
Naruto crossed his arms, tapping his foot on the wooden floor as they waited to receive their mission. They should have had a C-rank by now; it had been a few months since graduation and he was itching for a mission. Every day in Konoha felt like another day for someone to figure out his plans and keep him in the village permanently.
“Next is Team Seven, we have a painting mission, gardening, babysitting…”
“No way.”
Naruto stepped forward, holding the chunin’s gaze. It was the guy that accused him of stealing the Forbidden Scroll, with the scar across his nose. It had been a shit night and after being rightfully cleared by the interrogation unit and flipping the chunin the bird, he’d had to go back out and find the stupid cat. He did not have fond feelings for this chunin and he was not about to put up with this bullshit.
“Give us a C-rank.”
“Naruto…” Kakashi started.
“No, Kakashi.” Naruto whirled around to glare at the jounin-sensei. “We’ve been doing dumbass D-ranks for months. We’re ready for a C-rank.”
“I know you are,” Kakashi sighed.
“Sasuke could beat half the chunin in the village and Sakura is not as useless as she was when she graduated,” Naruto continued. “We are all ready for this so just fucking let us.”
Kakashi blinked. Naruto knew what he’d said could be taken as the first and only compliment he’d ever given his female teammate but C-ranks weren’t that hard; even Sakura should be capable of making it back alive.
“I guess we’re going on a C-rank then,” Kakashi eye-smiled.
“Okay then,” Naruto nodded, not sure what to do now. He’d expected more of a fight.
“Can I say something?”
Naruto frowned. He didn’t think the chunin got an opinion on this.
“I just wanted to apologise to you, Naruto,” Iruka continued. “I made assumptions that day that were unfair. I promise to try and be better in the future. I haven’t seen you since then so I wanted to take this chance to apologise now before you head out of the village.”
Naruto froze, not sure what to do here. Why the fuck the guy would even apologise was escaping him and he wasn’t sure what to say in return. It was unlikely that Iruka meant it; the question was why even do it at all.
“Here,” Iruka handed Kakashi a scroll, stealing a look at a silent Naruto. “You will escort Tazuna, a bridge-master, back to his home in the Land of Waves. It should take about a week to get there, so prepare for two. The rest of the information is in the scroll.”
Naruto grinned. This was it. This was his chance. Sasuke shot him a look but he ignored it.
“Let’s go then!” Naruto clapped his hands. “Where is this guy?”
The door behind them slammed open and Naruto watched an old guy stumble in. The stench of alcohol was almost overwhelming. He clutched a brown bottle in one hand as he leaned the other on the doorframe. Bleary, dark eyes glared at them over the rim of thin, wire glasses and his grey beard did nothing to hide the sneer he sent their way. His olive tunic was dishevelled, barely tucked into loose tan trousers.
“What’s this? It’s just a bunch of darned squirts!” he slurred. “You’re so tiny! Are you really shinobi?”
Naruto clenched his fists but kept his opinion to himself. He couldn’t afford to lose this mission, even if he had to put up with this pathetic geezer.
“I can assure you that there are wonderful shinobi,” Kakashi replied cheerfully. “They are more than capable of protecting you.”
“The short one looks like he would rather stab me,” Tazuna waved a bottle in Naruto’s direction.
“That’s just what his face looks like.”
Naruto scowled, unimpressed.
“We can meet in front of the front gates in half an hour,” Kakashi continued. “You guys know what to pack.”
Naruto took the chance to leave, Sasuke and Sakura not far behind him. He could do this. He just had to put up with the old man long enough to find an opportunity to slip away. A smile found its way back onto his face as he realised this could very well be the last time he would step foot in Konoha. He had to do this; this would be his best chance to finally escape the village once and for all.
Sakura hefted her backpack to rest more comfortably on her shoulders. They’d been walking for days now, Konoha long faded behind them and she’d finally begun to relax. She’d been so nervous, leaving the village for the first time and on a C-rank mission too! She wasn’t sure if she was ready for it but she couldn’t speak up and let her teammates down. She was more than aware that she was the weak link in this team and while she had been working hard to try and change that, she knew she still had a long way to go.
Her physical training was paying off at least as she’d been able to keep up the whole time. They were walking a civilian pace due to Tazuna-san but she didn’t feel very tired and knew she could probably keep walking all night too. It was nice to see her training finally show itself after so many gruelling hours of working on her own.
She’s also expected a mission outside the mission to be more exciting. It had been day after day of walking and the scenery was starting to blend together. She knew she was supposed to be on alert as part of the body guarding mission but it was hard to maintain that after days of nothing. The most entertaining thing had been watching Naruto hold himself back from lynching the bridge-builder who’d done nothing but drink and complain the entire journey. It was actually quite nice to see his ire directed at someone else, especially since she had also grown tired of listening to their client whine.
“Did the scroll say we had to deliver him alive?” Naruto hissed beneath his breath.
“That’s a given on a body guarding mission dobe,” Sasuke-kun muttered back although he didn’t look happy about it.
“I would help hide the body,” she offered, smiling awkwardly as the two boys looked at her.
Naruto’s blue eyes watched her for a moment before he nodded slightly, his eyes turning back to the road. It was such a minor thing but Sakura couldn’t help the glow of pride. It hadn’t been easy to get Naruto to acknowledge her and he still hadn’t really but she could tell that he respected her efforts in training. Despite first impressions, Naruto wasn’t a mean or malicious person. He didn’t suffer fools and would not tolerate someone who tried any less than their best; it had taken some time for Sakura to see that.
She was actually sort of grateful to him. He had pushed her in a way the academy and her teachers never had and she could feel the difference in herself. She had by no means given up on winning Sasuke-kun’s heart but she’d realised that Sasuke-kun valued strength above everything else. She suspected it was why he and Naruto got on so well although she knew that they’d known each other for much longer than they would admit.
It made her feel like the odd one out. They trained together, leaving her out, and it was frustrating. She felt like she couldn’t ask to join; she would just slow them down as she was now. It was a weird combination of feelings. She often found herself wishing she’d put in more effort in the academy. She was the top kunoichi but she knew it was her paper test scores that had pushed her into that position. She was passable in the practical shinobi arts but knowing what she did now, she’d barely scratched the surface back then. She had never pushed herself enough.
It was hard but she was trying to make up for it now. Their team dynamic had settled into something that wasn’t uncomfortable, like it had been in the first few weeks. Sakura knew that her teammates didn’t see her at the same level but they didn’t put her down or tell her she couldn’t do it. Naruto wasn’t nice about it and Sasuke generally didn’t acknowledge her existence but she knew they accepted her efforts. It wasn’t anything like she’d imagined her team when she’d been in the academy but there was still time.
“So how did you two actually meet?” Sakura asked. “You’ve never actually said.”
“I told you,” Naruto replied, appearing as bored as her. “I didn’t drop him off a building.”
He answered her! Without any reluctance or insults! He must be more bored than she thought.
“Like you could’ve if you’d tried,” Sasuke-kun rolled his eyes.
“I took you up that building and I was more than capable of throwing your ass off,” Naruto retorted but it was more…playful than anything? She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen that from him before. “You were only a baby academy student back then.”
“You’re younger than me, dobe.”
“What’s your point?”
Sakura watched the exchange, things even less clear than they were before. She may never get to the bottom of this. She stepped over the puddle absentmindedly, frowning at the ground. Would her teammates ever let her in? How hard did she have to work before she was seen as one of them?
They’d only taken a few more steps before there was a splashing sound behind them. She started to turn and only managed to catch a glimpse of two figures dressed in black before a long, spiked chain wrapped around Kakashi-sensei, trapping him in place. Two foreign shinobi held the ends of the chains out of matching metal gauntlets and Sakura’s heart leaped into her throat as they pulled. Blood splattered onto the road as their teacher was torn apart with a horrifying squelch and Sakura felt the burn of bile in the back of her throat as she stared in horror.
The two shinobi barely paused as they flung themselves towards Naruto, the chain held between them to capture her teammate just like they had Kakashi-sensei. Naruto looked unphased by their teacher’s death and had already drawn his dual blades when she hadn’t been looking. It was the calmest she’d ever seen him. There was no scowl or frown and sneer; just focused blue eyes that tracked the deadly chain closely.
Naruto suddenly swung one of his swords into the chain and rammed it into one of the trees next to the road, the blade and chain sinking more than halfway into the thick trunk. It caught the enemy nin off guard as they were suddenly pulled to a halt, the chain pulled taunt and pulling them off balance. Sakura barely had time to blink before Sasuke suddenly appeared, landing on their shoulders. She watched as he gripped their arms, kicking back into their faces. The chain detached from their gauntlets and they dove to either side. Sasuke landed gracefully into crouch where they’d been stood only a moment ago.
Her gaze was torn from her crush when the enemy nin flanked and ran towards her. She pulled a kunai from her pouch, assuming a defensive stance in front of Tazuna-san. She may not be as strong as her teammates but she could do this. She had to protect Tazuna-san.
She had a few seconds to get a good look at them. One was covered by full-length, ragged black cloak while the other had a baggy, tan tunic over camouflage trousers. They both had a black gasmask over their lower faces and their Kiri hitai-ate had metal horns attached, keeping their long, greasy black hair out of their faces. They lunged at her, clawed gauntlets outstretched. Sakura barely had a chance to take a swipe at them with her kunai when blue filled her vision, Sasuke-kun’s back blocking her view. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see Naruto swing his remaining sword, sinking it into the side of the enemy nin with the ragged cloak.
Naruto tore it free with a spray of blood and kicked the nin to the side, before spinning to target the second. She’d never seen him work with his blades before; he had another teacher for that and he practiced different skills when he was with them so she hadn’t realised how skilled he’d become with them. He moved the sword like it was an extension of his arm and he turned on his feet like gravity didn’t affect him. She caught the flash of silver in his eyes as he swung the sword up, intent on finishing the fight then and there.
A forearm reached across the enemy’s neck and jerked him out of the way of Naruto’s blade. Sakura felt a lump in her throat as she saw their teacher, alive and well. She didn’t know how but right now, she didn’t care.
“Now, now, Naruto, we need to keep at least one of them alive for questioning,” he drawled, as if he hadn’t been torn apart in front of their eyes.
“The other one is still breathing,” Naruto argued back, wiping the blood off his blade with said shinobi’s cloak. He wasn’t moving and Sakura didn’t think he would be breathing much longer.
“You guys did well,” Kakashi eye-smiled, dragging the limp body in his arms over to one of the trees by the side of the road. “Your speed training is really paying off and you did well to stand your ground.”
He was looking at Sakura with that last statement and she felt the warm glow of pride wash over her. She had protected Tazuna-san; she may not have done any of the fighting but she hadn’t frozen up or held the team back. Naruto tore his second sword out of the tree, the chain falling to the ground with a loud clank. Sasuke-kun shoved his hands into his pockets beside her but she caught the way he was looking at Kakashi-sensei. He wasn’t as unaffected by their teacher’s trick as he wanted to act. She’d been watching him long enough to know.
“Was the whole dramatic death scene necessary?” Naruto asked, slinging both his sheathed swords back into a cross on his back. “It was a little much.”
“I wanted to see how my cute little genin would do on their own,” Kakashi-sensei replied casually, like he hadn’t added years of stress onto Sakura. He had tied up the remaining chunin and Sakura was making a point not to look at the prone body in the middle of the road. “The real question is why two high-level chunin would be targeting a bridge-builder, especially on a C-rank mission.”
All eyes turned to the sweating bridge-builder.
Naruto frowned as the old man finished his tale of woe. So this bastard Gatō, who was some sort of big, important business guy, had pretty much taken over the Land of Waves and sucked all the money out of them ‘cause he had control over the water and no-one could really sneak a boat past him. So they were gonna build a bridge? The bridge would mean they could get other business that didn’t involve Gatō so he wouldn’t be able to continue being a bastard but Gatō knows this so has been threatening people into giving up on the bridge using some second-rate thugs.
“So you want us to protect you while you build the bridge?” Naruto concluded.
“Yes,” Tazuna nodded, having sobered but considerably since the attack of the Demon Brothers. “We’ve made a lot of progress but people are scared.”
“The problem is, Tazuna-san, that you lied to us,” Kakashi drawled but Naruto could tell he was actually pissed. “This is a B-rank minimum, maybe an A-rank. You only requested a C-rank which is why they sent a genin team. This mission is out of our current capabilities.”
“We could only afford a C-rank,” Tazuna pleaded. “Please, we need your help.”
“I say let’s do it.”
All eyes turned to Naruto.
“We’re already here,” he continued. “They need help and we can do it. There’s no point in going all the way back to Konoha to send another team that they can’t afford anyway.”
“That’s…nice of you,” said Kakashi, but he was looking at Naruto a little too intensely.
He prayed that the jounin wouldn’t figure him out. They couldn’t go back to Konoha. He’d already made it this far and this mission was the perfect opportunity to leave Konoha in the dust. There was also a small part of him that wanted to stick it to this Gatō guy. Naruto knew rich bullies and he hated them with every fibre of his being. Continuing the mission was a win-win for him.
“I’m with Naruto,” Sasuke spoke up, crossing his arms. “We can handle it.”
They looked at a nervous Sakura.
“I…” she hesitated. “I’m with my team. We should continue with the mission.”
Naruto honestly hadn’t expected her to agree. He thought this mission was a bit much for her at her current level but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“We all agree,” he said, meeting Kakashi’s eye. “We’re continuing the mission.”
Kakashi met his gaze for a long moment before blinking, looking over to Tazuna.
“You’ve still got us then.”
Tazuna grinned.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
“What should we do with them?” Naruto waved a hand over the enemy nin. One was definitely dead by now and the one Kakashi had tied up and interrogate didn’t look like he was going to wake up any time soon.
“We can collect their bounties when we get back,” Kakashi shrugged, throwing a scroll over to Naruto. “He was your kill so you can take the bounty.”
Naruto grinned. The money would come in handy. He should probably feel something more after taking a man’s life but it wasn’t his first; that had been not long after he’d started C-ranks with Gai-sensei. He couldn’t even remember the man’s face.
“Nice!”
He ignored Sakura’s ill look as he stored the body into the scroll, Kakashi doing the same with the other chunin.
“We’re not far from the boat now,” Tazuna said. “We can make it by nightfall and use the darkness as cover from Gatō’s men.”
Naruto shoved the scroll into his backpack and moved to follow his teammates back down the road. Things were still going to plan.