The trip to Kuminari no Kuni was highly uneventful. Naruto ended up getting on even better terms with his older comrades, who seed to genuinely like the boy's company. Up to this point however, Naruto had been having a minor stroke of luck, as he hadn't had to interact with the Konoha elder that they were escorting. The man usually relayed anything he had to say to the team through Genma, who was the leader of the mission anyway.
Naruto had taken the Kage Bunshin training to heart. He was told that the thod wouldn't allow him to increase his physical attributes, so he put that on hold for the ti being, it wasn't like he could train on that while he was on a mission anyway. Instead, when he woke up in the morning he would create a few dozen clones and send them off to the most remote location that they could find to train in waves. While one dozen clones would train, the rest would sit and watch until the first wave dispelled themselves. After the influx of information the next wave would train, and so on and so forth until nightfall. This allowed him to get down three more of his lost ninjutsu during the week long trip to Kumogakure no Sato, much to his delight. It seed that the trip wouldn't be a waste of ti, at least during the traveling period.
Naruto didn't expect much of a chance for combat here, but Kumogakure was the second most militarized of the five major hidden villages right behind Iwagakure for a reason. He wasn't sure how peaceful things would be and he wasn't looking forward to seeing whether or not his team could run all the way to the border and stay in one piece, and he didn't want to rely on Kumo wanting to avoid a war, Konoha was still weak from the invasion and no amount of bravado by still taking the sa influx of missions could mask that against a shrewd strategist. If Kumo wanted to provoke anything, Naruto's team might have to simply bite their tongues and take it at this point in ti.
As they reached the top of the mountain the carriage ca to a stop at the main gate of the village. Instead of two guards there were two complete squads keeping watch, showing exactly how many ninja Kumo had to spare if they could use that many just to watch one entrance.
As Genma moved forward to get them all inside, Naruto elbowed Izumo and Kotetsu, "You guys getting gate envy here? Getting a familiar feeling?"
Izumo shrugged Naruto off of them, "Very funny kid. There's nothing wrong with watching the gate. Soone has to do it."
Naruto nodded, "Yeah I know. I hope I never end up drawing that job, gate watching is the D-rank mission of chunin-level ninja."
Kotetsu sighed, "You're telling ... I'd rather do border patrol than watch that gate one more ti. I die inside a little every ti I sit in that fucking booth. I think that thing sucks chakra or sothing."
Izumo rolled his eyes, "Stop complaining... You're on a real mission now so shut up. And look alive you guys, here cos Genma." Right on cue, Genma ca over and jumped back onto the carriage, "All right. We're going straight to the hotel they've booked for all of us and then we'll get our marching orders from Elder Mitokado when we get settled in."
The three chunin under his command nodded and set their usual position around the carriage as they made their way through town. Kotetsu and Izumo were no strangers to Kumo, having been there during the chunin exams, but seeing that Naruto wasn't even looking around to get his bearing of the village. What they didn't know was that Danzo had all of his ninja morize the general layout of all of the major shinobi villages, since none of them ever deviated from the basic plan that had been in place for certain villages since the Second Great Shinobi War, where Danzo got all of his information on the village layouts. Kotetsu tried to make conversation with the younger boy, "So Naruto, you've never been this far north before have you? How you dealing with the climate change?"
Naruto had been that far north before... but he didn't need them to know what had happened the last ti he was there. The less people that knew about that the better... seriously.
Naruto kept a vigilant eye out as they walked the streets, they weren't 'safe' until he was told to ease off by his commanding officer, "The climate isn't bad at all. It's not freezing cold out here, it's spring so it's pretty good up here to ."
Izumo gave a short glance over at Naruto, "Naruto it's fifty degrees right now and you're wearing a sleeveless muscle shirt, you don't even have your vest on you. You're telling you can't feel anything? At all?"
Naruto shook his head, "Nope. And I do have the vest on , it just isn't on right now. And it's not that cold up here, man up, you're older than and you're borderline bitching about a foreign climate."
Izumo mock glared at Naruto which went largely ignored by the blonde chunin as they made their way to the hotel. As per the course Elder Mitokado got a VIP suite and the other four were to share rooms. Izumo and Kotetsu, being the most familiar with one another, took one room, while Genma and Naruto took another.
As they all got themselves settled in the rooms Naruto finished first, as he didn't have anything to check or unpack, "So Genma, what are we doing first?" Genma turned to Naruto and rolled the senbon in his mouth, "Well we were told by Elder Mitokado to accompany him to his first eting with the Raikage." He saw Naruto stand up to prepare to leave, "By us I an , Kotetsu, and Izumo."
Naruto's jaw dropped before he set his face in a stone-like form, "And I'm not going because...?"
Genma sighed, he didn't hate Naruto he actually liked the kid, a lot. He was good, he had heard from others what the boy had done to Orochimaru's bodyguards when they ca to extract Sasuke Uchiha and he had to say that even he would have been hard pressed to do as much, he actually fought them beforehand and lost. However this was an order from the person that was the point of the mission. Homura Mitokado didn't want Naruto there, and Genma's hands were kind of tied in this instance, "It's a command from our boss Naruto... It's not , trust ."
Naruto shook his head, "What do I have to do for old goats like that to get it through their heads that I'm not a demon? If I was, if I was really a demon or so kind of monster, then I would have started killing them by now. Kami knows I'm strong enough... You've seen the forest of bone right?"
Genma nodded, "Don't talk like that kid... I can understand, but still. There are so things that you shouldn't say, especially to the higher ranked person handing out the orders to you on this mission. Just calm down, get so rest. If we need you we'll get you, just think of this as so rest after the trip up here." Naruto ran his fingers through his hair, "Alright fine... You're right I guess. I shouldn't have said that, I would never do anything like that to Konoha no matter what." 'I've already done too much for that place to let one old man get to .'
Genma stood up and prepared to get Homura so that they could escort him to the eting, "Okay kid, do you have any questions before I leave?"
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