-Two weeks later-
Her feet silently glided across the grass of the graveyard as she walked around the numerous tombstones, before finally ending up standing in front of one that already had a person next to it. Naruko silently waited as Kakashi remained staring at the tombstone engraved with the name 'Rin' before after a few minutes his eye turned towards her. "Maah, how nice of you to visit Rin Naruko! I'm sure she'll be overjoyed."
"I'm sure she will, but you won't be." Her tone was dry as she slightly dipped her head to the gravestone. "After all, you're about to be assigned your favorite mission."
Kakashi's eye widened before his face rapidly paled. "No... Hokage-sama and I agreed that he'd never try that again!"
A smile cracked on Naruko's lips as she hummed in agreement. "Of course, but nothing says you can't be a temporary Jonin-sensei for a week or two, ne? After all, you wouldn't want me to bring poor Sakura and Sai onto a battlefield, and you certainly wouldn't want me to bring the last Uchiha, poor Sasuke - may his family rest in peace, and potentially die? What would happen if poor, poor Sasuke were to run into the Raikage? How could we ever forgive ourselves if he were to be killed or worse?"
Kakashi slumped slightly. "I could always go on your mission instead. Really, who did you say the Raikage? I'm sure that'd be fine." His eye began darting around, "In fact, I think I should head there now just in ca-"
"Fuinjutsu: Reverse the Heavens" Her foot gently tapped the ground, and up became left, left became down, forward became sideways, and the ground became the sky. Reality within the Fuinjutsu warped, and instead of Kakashi rushing away, he instead began to rush towards the area where her team's training ground was, only for a moment later to stop.
"Maah! Naruko-chan, we can talk about this. Listen. How about ramen? Do you want ramen? We can get some ramen."
Raising a hand up into the air with a small wave she'd turn around, "Have a good time with my team Kakashi. The Fuinjutsu will wear off whenever you decide to go to them. You can freely ignore the ever-so-slightly growing nauseating feeling, and also the itching. Don't worry! It's a perfectly normal side effect that just gets worse every minute."
She flickered off into the distance, ignoring the truly pathetic cry of suffering as if she had just stolen his Icha Icha. Looking down at her hand she'd freeze. 'When did I take this?' Staring baffled at the orange-covered book, eventually she just shrugged and flipped it open. "Aah! Yana-chan my sweet, we meet again. Perhaps this time your ending will be different..." Crocodile tears fell out of her eyes. 'No! She can't die this time! Yana-chann!!!!!!'
Walking out of the gates she ignored Kotetsu and Izumo who saluted the book in her hand and instantly began flickering through the trees. 'Ignore the logs. Ignore Kotetsu and Izumo. Ignore the worship of Icha Icha! The three great tenants of Konoha!' A chuckle escaped her at that thought. 'Now, let's see the Border Commander is meant to be Jiraiya, but with Orochimaru being active, it's mostly been that old guy Kosuke Maruboshi.' She aggressively flipped to the next page. 'Jiraiya... ugh. It doesn't matter that he's not actually a Genin-level Shinobi. You can't just fuck off to deal with Orochimaru and constantly give command over to a Genin. It doesn't matter if the older crowd respects him, when you get new people coming in there will always be issues.'
Shaking her head, she'd dive into the book shoving away all of those thoughts. 'Doesn't matter. My job is just to throw a few punches if the Raikage or Killer Bee shows up so that everyone else can escape.'
-Sai-
"Naruko-sensei is really late..."
Looking up from his sketch he blinked confusedly at Sakura. "Naruko-sensei isn't coming, she's on a mission. She said she was going to get someone else to teach us and lead us on a mission, but I guess they're late. Did she not tell you this?"
The sound of branches cracking, a muffled shout, and then something slamming into a tree was heard in the area. Sasuke twitched, Sakura turned around eyes wide, and Sai sighed. "Kakashi-senpai." Closing up his sketch pad he stood up and slowly looked towards Kakashi, only to find him covered in leaves, a red mark across his visible face, and a wild look in his eye. 'Aah.'
-Naruko-
Having arrived at the base camp that rested at the border of the Land of Hot Water, she had been escorted inside by the guards and found herself in the center of the camp. 'He stops any fights and any insubordination by good cooking, doesn't he?' Looking at the aged genin, a twitch developed above her eye. 'I know I shouldn't be so critical. But still. Kosuke has practically no reputation, is labeled as a Genin, and the first thing someone comes into the camp sees is him cooking for everyone. What should newbies coming to this front of the war think?'
As she silently stood there taking in the scene.... BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! *Crackle* "Enemy shinobi en route, I repeat enemy shinobi en route!" A loud alarm blared through the area, before crackling over a nearby speaker came the voice of a Shinobi.
Immediately, the crowd of Shinobi that had been chatting, eating, or waiting for food stood up and began to rush around, and Kosuke gently snuffed out the fire, before his eyes widened. "Aah! You must be Naruko Uzumaki. Thank you for coming, but I'm afraid we're in a bit of a hurry. If you'd follow me? I'm Kosuke Maruboshi" His voice was old, and rushed, but still kind.
Naruko nodded. "Of course." Striding forward she'd follow after him as he ran towards the border. 'Definently not a Kage-level Shinobi. A dangerous game you're playing Jiraiya. It doesn't matter how experienced one is in the face of overwhelming strength. I see why Gramps wanted me here.'
Matching Kosuke step by step, she found herself on top of wooden walls staring down at the flatlands in front of them, with no trees, or grass in site. Staring forward she raised an eyebrow at the site of no one being visible. "That voice we heard, they were a sensor?"
Kosuke nodded his head. "Yes, every guard shift has sensors on duty. Whether they're Hyuga, Yamanaka, Shimura, or a gifted non-clan affiliated Shinobi."
She hummed at that. "They should have been clearer about whose coming, but perhaps they just sensed a huge chakra presence and that was that." Her eyes stared off into the distance where no figures could be seen - yet with her Mind's Eyes the presence was obvious. "We're quite lucky I came at the time that I did. You should get your Shinobi to back away, this isn't an invading army, it's instead a pair of S-class Rogue Nin."
Having said that she jumped down to the ground and began to walk forward, and at the same time shouted orders came out from behind her. "Everyone back away! Our reinforcement came at the perfect time, the oncoming Shinobi are both Rogue Ninja rated at the threat level of 'S' no one is to engage! Defensive positions only!"
Tuning out the responses she maintained a slow pace walking forward. 'These chakra presences... one is Kakuzu - it's a strange chaotic chakra presence that could only be him - I sense all five chakra natures but they're different, yet also the same. As for the second one... This somewhat familiar feeling, but different. That titanic chakra. That nature - is it who I think it is? If so why are you here?' Her hand dipped into her kunai pouch, gripping numerous tri-pronged Kunai, and sweat slowly beaded down her neck.
It was as she grabbed hold of the Kunai that the pair became visible. A tall man, around 6 feet tall (1.87m) with vibrant green eyes, red sclerae, nearly his entire body covered, and a crossed-out Takigakure headband. He was wearing a black robe, with red clouds all across it. She ignored him. He was irrelevant.
Instead, she stared at the white being wearing that same cloak. His face had one black hole for an eye, and the rest of his face was in a spiral shape, with that same spiral shape being seen across the visible parts of his arms and legs. Naruko's knuckles turned white as they clenched around the tri-pronged Kunai. "Ooh! Ooh! Look Kakuzu! Tobi is a good boy! Tobi spots the nine-tails. Do you think she poops?"
"Shut up Tobi. Of course, she does."
'Tobi' nodded his head. "Of course! Do you think we should capture her Kakuzu? Tobi wants to impress the leader!"
Kakuzu had a considering look, "She has quite a bounty on her head, and if we were to take her in, the Kyuubi would reform in a few years..."
Naruko's eyes were still locked onto 'Tobi', "Oi, oi! Kakuzu, I'm getting scared! Look at how she's looking at me. She's completely ignoring you."
"Leave. Now." Her voice was sharp and to the point, still completely ignoring Kakuzu in favor of the actual threat.
Kakuzu stared at her for a moment, before looking at Tobi. "Her bounty would only go up eventually if we left now."
"Awww! But Tobi wanted to be a good boy. Tobi wanted to show off for leader-sama! Maybe leader-sama will give Kakuzu money?"
Kakuzu's eyes flashed with greed and he nodded. That would be the worst mistake in his life. In a blur, Naruko's hand rushed out of her pouch and flung the tri-pronged Kunai she had gripped, five flying forward - 3 towards 'Tobi' and 2 towards Kakuzu. "AAAAAH! Scary!" As Tobi ducked and weaved, Kakuzu simply dodged out of the way. 'Mistake number two.'
"RASENGAN!"
Naruko appeared directly next to Kakuzu, a Rasengan already in hand, slamming directly toward Kakuzu's chest.