Tsunade looked up from her work and glared slightly, "Yes he did. The brat had twelve cases of Firebrand sake and he didn't even invite , how rude is that?"
XxX
After receiving his scroll detailing his mission he made his way to the gate to et his assembled team. By the ti he arrived he found three n waiting to depart alongside an elderly man. The first man had brown hair with one bang covering his right eye. He had his hitae-ate on in a bandanna and wore the usual outfit for Konoha shinobi. Naruto knew this man as one of the chunin that usually guarded the main gate of the village, Izumo Kamizuki.
Nearby was his usual partner, Kotetsu Hagane. He had a bandage on his nose, wild spiky black hair and a goatee. He was also dressed in the usual garb of higher-up shinobi.
The final escort out of them was Genma Shiranui, the man that Naruto rembered proctored the final stages of the chunin exam before the invasion. He had brown hair that reached his neck, a bandanna-style hitae-ate that he wore backwards, the standard ninja outfit, and a senbon in his mouth.
The man they were to escort was an older man with grey hair, a beard, glasses and what appeared to be a perpetual frown on his features. Naruto knew this man as one of the Sandai Hokage's teammates, Homura Mitokado. This was one of the two elders that Naruto didn't like. The old woman, Koharu Utatane, Naruto sowhat liked, she had sothing of a more group before one person mindset, but when he was an academy student visiting the Hokage she at least treated him like a regular little kid. Back when he was in Root he rembered Danzo telling him when conversations would begin to revolve around him during council etings and in most of them Homura was biased against Naruto, which was weird since he usually sided with Danzo, however when it ca to anything involving Naruto his mindset was to keep him weak. He was against him entering the Academy after the sealing, he was against him graduating after the incident with Mizuki, and he could only imagine how he bitched about Naruto's promotion following the events after the chunin exams.
If ever there was a ti for the emotionless mask he harnessed in Root he'd be damned if this wasn't one of those tis... Hopefully he wouldn't have to speak to the old man. Naruto walked up to the only jounin out of the group, Genma, to report in, "Chunin Naruto Uzumaki here for escort mission to Kumogakure."
Genma turned a lazy glance to Naruto and smiled as he rembered exactly who it was, "Good to see you again kid. So you're the last mber of my team huh?"
The two elder chunin smiled when they saw their young, scar-faced companion. They headed over to Genma and Naruto while Kotetsu waved to him, "Hey Naruto! You're coming on this mission?"
Naruto let the emotion seep back into his eyes when he saw how casual the others were being with him, "Yeah I am. Are you two actually doing sothing other than watching the gate for once? When was the last ti you two even had a mission outside?"
Kotetsu groaned as the bane of his existence, guard duty was brought up, "Don't remind kid... Izumo seems to think there's nothing wrong with gate-watching, but I say to hell with it, I'd rather be in the field."
Izumo sighed and shook his head, "There's nothing wrong with that job Kotetsu. We're protecting the citizens of Konoha, there isn't a more important job for us to have." He turned to smirk at Naruto, "Maybe we'll get to see you cut loose on this mission. I know you were holding back during your test and nobody saw you beat those Oto ninja that almost killed Genma, so I'm curious as to how you fight."
Genma stepped in to defend himself, "Hey, it was four-on-two. Raido and I were winning before they used their cursed seals... they didn't annihilate us or anything. Anyway, enough chatter, it's ti to get on the road." He walked over to Homura, "Elder Homura, my entire team has assembled. Are you prepared to leave?"
Homura's eyes panned across the amassed squad and he nodded to Genma, "Yes, let's set out for Kumo. It should take us around one week to arrive." As they exited the main gate there was a carriage waiting that the elderly man sat inside with Genma seated in the driver's seat.
Kotetsu took up position in the front of the vehicle while Naruto and Izumo went along the sides. The group of chunin ran along in stride with the carriage as they made their way through the countryside. A little while into the trip Naruto let out an audible groan, "Damn it, I never turned off all of the stuff in my house. I never went ho last night." He imdiately made a Kage Bunshin that went sprinting back the other way.
Hours later the ninja surrounding the carriage started to converse with one another as they stopped for the night. Homura had long since had his tent set up and had retired for the evening. It was mostly Izumo and Kotetsu kicking old stories between them, but for Naruto it was a welco change from the monotony of simple travel, "Hey Izumo, do you rember back in the Academy when we made those fudgesicles out of dog shit and one of the senseis ate one?"
The man in question snickered at the mory when he recalled who else was in attendance, "Hey Naruto. How did you pull off painting the Hokage Monunt in broad daylight? You hadn't even graduated yet and you got past everyone and outran all of the ninja sent to chase you for like an hour."
'I guess I was subconsciously drawing on so of my training in Root when I did that... Huh, I seem to have done that a lot...' Naruto shrugged, "I've done better things than that since then. You guys know about all of the stuff that happened the week before my test?"
Genma decided to speak up from his position on top of the carriage, "Everybody rembers that. There wasn't anyone that knew sobody that got away untouched during that whole thing. Are you saying you did that stuff?"
Naruto grinned and chuckled, "Well when you put it like that it seems like you don't believe ."
Kotetsu almost choked up, "Wait you did do that? How the hell did you go about doing that? So people said it was probably you since you disappeared, but there were too many hits in too many places at one ti for you to do it alone."
Genma shook his head in good humor, "And what exactly is the kid's specialty? Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. I heard he could make a ton of them but sothing on that scale is ridiculous..." Naruto waved it off, "Oh it was all in good fun. Everything I did didn't leave any major property damage and at the most required a few good minutes of work to redy."
Izumo chuckled, "You seriously pissed off the Hyuuga clan with that flashbomb stunt. That was truly priceless."
Genma looked at the group of chunin under his command, "Naruto. We don't know too much about you except for the little bit of you we've seen and I don't like going off of gossip so why don't you tell us a little about yourself. Why did you want to be a ninja in the first place?"
Frowning slightly he thought about what he should say, 'Well, the reason I beca a ninja shouldn't really be too surprising considering how I used to be.' He scratched his head, "I guess I can tell you that. You know how you would always hear so loud kid shouting about being Hokage? Well I wasn't always like that. As a matter of fact I didn't give a damn about being Hokage until then. I wanted to be a ninja before that though. The reason was because I just wanted to be acknowledged for sothing."
He looked around at everyone that was with him, "I know you all know about what I carry and I know you've all at least heard a smattering of remarks about that aren't too positive. Well, when I was a kid I didn't know why people treated so badly, but I saw the ninja of this village, and everyone held them in such high regard, and I wanted that. Now I realize how childish that was, but I never regretted anything. I an, how boring would my life be if I wasn't a ninja, and what else could I have possibly done except be a shinobi of Konoha? I'm its jinchuuriki! What, was I going to be a shopkeeper or sothing?"
A round of laughs from the adults around him loosened him up a bit when Izumo voiced his own question, "Hey actually I want to know... what's it like holding the Kyuubi? I just couldn't imagine sothing like that being inside ."
Naruto looked up at the night sky as he thought about an answer, "Well... Aside from the glares, people pulling their kids away from you on the playground and all of that jazz, it's not really bad."
Eyes widened all around when Kotetsu spoke for the group, "Really?"
Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I an since I've learned about it there are tis when Kyuubi just won't shut the hell up about stuff, but other than that little negative aspect there isn't really anything negative that I can think of. I can use chakra three tis as potent as human chakra whenever I need to, it's damn near impossible to kill without a one-shot one-kill maneuver to finish off with, I heal ridiculously fast from just about everything, and the Kyuubi is a decent source for a different point of view while in combat. If it weren't for all of the village stuff that I have to deal with on a regular basis I would say that it's pretty cool."
The group sat in silent contemplation until a scowl ca across Naruto's face, "My Kage Bunshin is an asshole."
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