Chapter 11
She had sensed them yet she merely assumed they were in a different are to where she was headed. Minato, Kakashi, Obito, Rin and all of her jonin instructors from her time were there.
She stood next to her teammate Shisui. They were supposed to go in groups of three however a large amount of kids had caught a virus that was going around the village so they made it so there was two per team.
They walked upon team Minato and Naruto tried to ignore Shisui's behaviour yet she wasn't that courteous, "What's wrong? You seem… shifty?"
He looked at her, slightly startled as if he hadn't expected her to speak up, "I… noticed we're going to where your brother is…"
It took Naruto a few moments to figure out what he was trying to get at causing her to scratch the back of her neck, "Ah… It's fine. It was just an argument. Things are tense but I've been in more awkward situations."
One particular awkward situation was when Sasuke tried to kill Sakura as she tried to kill him, Kakashi trying to stop them from killing each other as Obito disguised as Madara, and Naruto arrived saving Sakura whilst getting poisoned. She tried her hardest to hide her awkwardness with her drive to bring Sasuke, but of course the bastard couldn't see it and left with his psychopathic relative.
She was bought back to reality as Obito jumped on her back, causing her to stumble forwards and she would have landed on her face had Kakashi not reached out his hand to grab a hold of her arm. She looked at him, giving him a smile, "Thanks." She then looked to Obito, ignoring the fact Kakashi was glaring at him as he crossed his arms. Obito deserved it this time.
She was about to speak up when she noticed Shisui looking to Minato and decided to talk to him instead, "Hey, aniki." She gave him a smile which she hoped had more happiness than she felt. She was still sore about the whole incident but was mostly over it. Besides, graduation was only a few months away so it was some relief.
He gave her a bright smile in return and ruffled her hair when he saw she didn't move from him, clearly happy about the sudden change in her behaviour to him, "How are you, Naruto?"
"I'm great! Are you guys staying for the survival lesson?" she asked, genuinely curious about what they were doing there.
"In a way. All genin and myself will be taking part to make it a three man cell whilst we get experience being with people outside of our team, under our care who are less experienced than us." Explained Kakashi as he dragged Obito away from his cousin who looked thoroughly harassed.
It was a fun sight to be held, Shisui no shunshin puffing out his cheeks which were pink as he pouted with crossed arms.
"Um… so does anyone know who's going with which team?" asked Shisui after he received a light pat on the back from Rin.
They were interrupted by a kunai flying their direction, thankfully this time Minato caught it. They all looked up to see Anko causing Naruto to hide slightly behind Minato's leg. She was not afraid, not at all, she was simply making a tactical decision to hide from a bomb.
For her part, Anko blushed a deep red as soon as she got to them and noticed who it was Naruto was hiding behind. Everyone refrained from raising their brows or even questioning it, however there was someone there who didn't have the same level of intuity as the rest of them did, "Heh, Anko. What's with the red face?" the comment got him a fierce glare from the snake sennin's apprentice as she took a step forward as a warning.
Naruto, understanding the tense air spoke up, "I'm sure it's because of the sun. It's a lot hotter here than it is in Taki or Ame. In fact, it rains like all the time in Ame." She rambled as she made random gestures with her hands. Her distraction worked as everyone forgot the previous conversation and moved back to her original conversation.
"Well, Rin is going to be with Umino-sans team, Obito with Akimichi-sans team, and Kakashi is going to be with the two of you. Who will you be with Anko-san?" spoke Minato as he looked to the girl which made her blush again.
"I'll uh, I'll be paired with Izumo and Kotetsu. Those guys actually fought to be on the same team."
This caused them all to chuckle expect for Naruto whose eyes were full of mirth as she regarded Kakashi. The silver haired boy caught her look as looked at her wearily, "So… senpai… should I call you… Kakashi-sensei?" Obito, Minato and Shisui stifled their laughs behind their hands as they looked on to see Kakashi's reaction.
"You will do no such thing. I wanted no part of this before, if you call me that, I'll want to take part in it less."
She pouted as she jumped on his back, arms around his neck making him hold onto her legs for fear what his sensei would do if he dropped the man's only sister.
"You're no fun, sensei. You need to let loose!" she chuckled into his ear causing him to grit his teeth.
"Naruto." Spoke minato. It was amazing how one deadpan voice could catch everyone's attention. "I think you've been spending too much time with Jiraiya sensei… he most certainly has been having a bad effect on you…"
"No I haven't! And don't blame ero-tousan! He's perfectly innocent!" once the words came out of her mouth she shook her head. He was not innocent. "Okay. He's innocent when he isn't staring at large boobs, flirting with women or writing his hentai. But other than that, he's innocent!"
The statement caused Shisui to blush and for everyone else to blink twice before they all check their ears to make sure they didn't hear her wrong. They looked at each other and noticed they had in fact not heard her wrong and the six year old had just said all of that.
Before any of them could berate her or Jiraiya the teacher began to speak, "Welcome, everyone, to training ground 44. Also known as the forest of death! In this forest you will spend a day getting from one point in the map to the other point! You must also find and bring back one item that is on each of your maps! There are three items on each map, giving you plenty of options to choose from.
"The jonin instructors have allowed us to these young genin and chunin in this lesson. Make sure to listen to them! They will complete the three man cells as well as ensure you have a qualified leader! Team leaders, please go to your designated teams and the three of you will line up and collect your things!"
With that everyone bid their farewells and scattered to where their teams were.
"So, we're supposed to be looking for a golden kunai… where do people come up with this sort of stuff?!" yelled Naruto as they passed the next golden item. So far it had been over an hour and they had seen three golden items, none of which happened to be a kunai.
"Well, we're also looking for a blue and black sea shell with the konoha symbol carved on it." Spoke Shisui, as if it actually made things any better.
"And that's another thing! If they wanted us to look for stuff, why couldn't it be something interesting like a sealing scroll or, or a scroll of jutsu! That would be a lot more interesting than a bunch of shiny things!"
"Naruto, you need to keep your voice low. There are a lot of creature here in the forest that can kill you, and if you die Minato sensei will make my life an absolute hell." Spoke Kakashi as he glared at her, he seemed to be in a fouler mood than usual today. Most likely due to the fact he hates kids and other people in general. That and Naruto sure as hell was talking a lot.
She chose to whisper to Shisui about how she could imagine Kakashi as an Uchiha, both sniggering as they thought of it.
They made it to the river and it didn't take them very quickly where they found their sea shell, Kakashi putting it in a sealing scroll before they started hiking up the mountain to where the kunai should be. Key word should. There were lots of things in places where they shouldn't be meaning someone had tampered with the field, making everyone's life a lot harder than it had to be.
Once they reached the top, Kakashi ducked and Naruto shoved Shisui to the ground as three kunai came their way. Naruto and Shisui grunted as her eyes turned yellow, yet she managed to keep Kurama from unleashing his chakra, it would do none of them any good right now. That of course did not stop the ninja from grabbing a hold of her and holding a kunai to her neck.
So original, She though sarcastically with an eye roll/
"What are Iwa ninja doing in Konoha?" asked Naruto as Kakshi forced Shisui behind him.
There were two men and one woman, all wearing Kumo headbands but she knew they were from Iwa. They wreaked or the Tsuchikage and the smell of Iwa as well.
"Now, what makes you think we're from Iwa? Our headbands clearly state we're from Kumo." Spoke the woman, in a teasing condescending voice making Naruto wish she could rip out her vocal chords. Just because she was in the body of a child does not mean she needed to be treated like one.
"You smell of Iwakagure as well as the Tsuchikage. If Onoki has a problem with Konoha's children, tell him to come here himself instead of sending his people to attack us." Kakashi at this point was inching his hand closer and closer to his tonto but knew he couldn't draw it out, not without them most likely cutting her throat.
They dug the kunai deeper into her neck, "Shut your mouth, little girl, or we'll show you what Iwa are really capable of." She lady hissed, Naruto fought back a flinch as it was digging into her skin without breaking it.
"OH I'm shaking in my sandals. You've come to attack children. Children. None of us are even ten, and you want to kill us. I take that as a sign of weakness. Why didn't you try to kill of our elder chunin or jonin? Because you don't have the will of stone that your kage preaches of." She taunted as she discreetly released some Ki, hoping someone would notice and come help.
That comment caused the lady to break her skin, "Shut up! What does a little wet nose brat know of our people? The will of stone is forever! It shall never perish! We are the will of stone!" spoke the man with short brown hair. He was clearly on something since no one can be a will of anything. Sure, you can be an example of it, but not be a manifestation of it.
"To think, that someone like you calls himself the will of anything. It's not only ridiculous, it's pathetic!" she unleashed seven of her tails to wrap around their necks, mindful not to let the chakra touch her. She and Kurama had been practicing, as long as he didn't coat her in too much chakra she was okay so unleashing the tails alone had been their agreed plan for a situation like this.
"Naruto!" yelled Kakashi and Shisui, eyes wide as they looked at her.
"Like this, it's fine. As long as I'm not shrouded." They both looked uncertain as they gave a small nod in her direction, both coming to stand beside her.
Kakashi took out his tonto as he looked at them with cold eyes, "Now, really. Why are you here?" he didn't get a chance to hear the answer as they all began screaming in agony, Kurama's chakra burning them from the outside in. she released her tails and they all fell to the ground, yelling in agony.
Their yells must have been very loud as not even a minute later the ANBU were here. As she thought about it, she assumed they left their posts due to her sudden burst of chakra and KI.
"Naruto, care to explain this?" asked the ANBU in the panda mask.
"They tried to kill me and my defence mechanism activated and wrapped around their throats, burning them in the process." she asked more than stated causing scepticism to cover their eyes before looking to Kakashi who gave them a nod, confirming that that was what had happened.
The ANBU took them and allowed them to carry on with their task, collecting the shell they had come up there for.
As they carried on walking they heard a loud scream that was fading before hearing a loud splash.
They all turned around and saw Obito leaning against the waterfall, struggling with something. They went to him to see what was going on, ignoring Kakashi's dispute on how it was a set mission for each individual to take control of.
Obito was in fact trying to pull up Doto Akimichi, however due to his heavy mass Obito seemed to be struggling. "Hey Obito… need any help?" asked Naruto as she leaned forwards to help pick him up.
"Never mind the two of us, if none of you mind, someone help the genin that fell in the water, I don't think he can swim properly since he's got an injured arm."
The three of them looked at each other before Naruto dove straight in, causing both boys of her team to yell at her. She dove in, head first before reaching out her head to breathe.
She looked for the person Obito was talking about and saw that he was trying to keep a hold on a boulder that was in the river. The current was strong so she didn't have to put much effort into making it over to him. She stopped at the boulder, however with the strong current it caused her to hit her arm against it.
Ignoring the sting of pain it bought she yelled, "Hey, I'm here to help, okay! Just hold on tight whilst I try to tie us up!" she reached down for the rope in her pocket. As she did so a sharp object cut her leg, making it bleed but it started to heal almost instantaneously.
She saw Kakashi walk down the waterfall and over to them so she spoke, "Kakashi, I need you to take this rope and help pull us out the water! If not, tie it onto something so we can pull ourselves out!" he nodded and once she had the rope tied around her classmate whose name she didn't remember he took the rope and tied it to a tree, helping to pull the other girl out of the water.
Once she was out, Kakashi threw the rope over to her and she gripped it tightly, pulling herself out as Kakashi and the girl tried to get her out. It was a lot quicker than getting the shorter female out as there were more people helping this time, however that didn't stop them from groaning. They were all wet, and most likely, by the evening they would all have fevers as well. Minus Naruto who never got sick.
Obito, Doto and Shisui made it to them not long after as they were still catching their breaths, "Are you guys alright?" asked Obito as he rubbed the back of his neck.
When no one replied he started inspecting each of them hurriedly from top to bottom, making sure they were alright as he spoke so fast that Naruto couldn't make such sense of what he had been saying.
What she did understand was that he was very embarrassed for needing their help, and was very pleased Kakashi had helped despite him being a baka. In fact he had a complete new word just for Kakashi, Bakashi. Oh she was so going to use that when he's being an idiot. Or not.
The girl who had fallen in the water was called Mikasa and she was an orphan, who was also at least two years older than them and was highly embarrassed for having to be saved by people younger than her. To which Kakashi had to point out Obito was their leader and technically needed help from two students as well, causing the two of them to argue as a storm suddenly befell the forest.
Naruto sat up with a jolt. They had taken a rest to dry up and other things, yet she hadn't remembered falling asleep. She looked around to see others had also fallen asleep, minus Kakashi who was watching over them.
"You alright there senpai?" she asked quietly, knowing he would hear her anyway.
He gave her no reply but both of their attentions turned to a moan of pain that sounded from Misaki. Brows furrowed she leaned over to where she was, next to Doto, and touched her and was very shocked to feel she was very warm. If something felt very warm to Naruto it was most likely hot due to the fact that she ran on a high temperature anyway.
She looked back to Kakashi and spoke, "Can you come and check her temperature? I think she has a fever." Kakashi stood up promptly and checked her forehead, nodding to Naruto that she did indeed have a fever.
She sighed and ruffled through her bag to see if she had any pills in her scrolls, but no such luck. She hardly needed medical treatment outside of Kurama so she never felt the need to carry any. That and Sakura and her could heal almost anything without the need of medication.
She asked Kakashi to see if he had any yet he had said he hadn't packed any, thinking it wouldn't be necessary for such a short journey.
Making sure she was the only one who had a temperature, Naruto groaned when Kakashi stated that Doto and Obito also had fevers, Obito's however was a lot cooler than the others and would most likely be fine after a short nap.
The rain hadn't let up, they were wet in the middle of the forest of death and they had three men down.
Great.