"And here I was so certain you would have wanted it." Sarutobi carried on speaking to himself, pretending not to notice Naruto's reaction as he looked over the scroll in his hand. He let out what was clearly a fake sigh.
"But I suppose there is nothing I can do about it. As you had so adamantly pointed out to me, I cannot force you to take such a dangerous B-rank mission."
...
From the opposite side of Naruto, I saw Shikamaru stir. He was still in his slouch but his eyes no longer held their glazed disinterested look. It was a subtle thing, the way his eyes swirled onto the Hokage, but to anyone who knew him could tell he was paying attention now.
Naruto, on the other hand, looked like she just found out that her favourite pet had died. "But...But...you didn't say anything about a B-rank."
"I was going to but you never let me finish." Sarutobi tried to reply nonchalantly, but as he caught sight of Naruto's devastated expression he had to lower the brim of his hat to hide his smile.
"Then again, I cannot rightly blame you for refusing to accept the mission if you felt you were not up to it. Rather, I must commend you for it. Knowing what your limits are and refusing to take a mission that you felt was beyond you took a level of maturity I did not expect from you Naruto. Well done."
"Still," He admitted as he pulled open a drawer and began to lower the scroll into it. "It is a pity that after all the trouble I went to set it up for you, you'd reject it. I suppose I must look for another more qualified Genin team to complete it instead-"
Naruto's hand slammed her onto the Hokage's desk so hard it bounced off the ground.
"Give it to me." My blonde teammate spoke, voice devoid of any emotion. "Give it to me now."
Sarutobi paused to look up at Naruto with feigned surprise, completely disregarding the deadly look she was giving him. "But Naruto, I thought you didn't want it."
"Don't mess with me old man!" Naruto growled as she inched her way closer to the Hokage. And by that I didn't mean she walked around the desk, the girl was literally clawing her way over the desk on her hands and knees in an attempt to get to him. "Give me that damn scroll!"
The Hokage soon found himself gripped by the front of his robes by four and a half feet of enraged blonde. Despite being manhandled by a Genin – an act that would have been considered high treason in any other situation – Sarutobi just chuckled affectionately at the girl.
"I take it that you've changed your mind then." He tipped his hat back, "In that case allow me to ask you again. Team 7, will you accept the B-rank protection mission to the Land of Waves?"
"YES-YES-YES! WE'LL TAKE IT!"
The windows literally rattled in their frames, sending a flock of birds fleeing to the air from a nearby tree and caused what sounded like every dog in the village to howl in pain.
Years of experience from hanging around Naruto gave me a rough idea of what to expect from the blonde when she heard the offer, so before she had a chance to so much as open her mouth I already had both my hands firmly pressed against my ears.
And if the way Shikamaru winced in pain and clutched his ears was any indication, it was a good thing that I did. My fellow teammate shot Naruto a half-hearted glare before he looked away, muttering something under his breath about loud women and hearing loss.
Had it been any other time Shikamaru would have found himself receiving a cuff to the back of the head from Naruto for the comment, but our resident blonde either didn't hear him or was too excited to care from where she was standing before the Hokage.
"Naruto, calm down." The ageing Hokage gave his surrogate granddaughter an indulgent smile, "I know you're excited but you can't just accept a mission without thinking about it."
"What is there to consider?" Naruto shot back, grinning way too widely at the news, all her previous anger gone like mist under the morning light. "It's a B-rank mission, Jiji, a B-rank! Of course, we'll accept. Why wouldn't we?"
"Because this is a B-rank mission Naruto. I don't need to tell you that it will be nothing like you've ever experienced before. The danger is real and it won't be you alone who would be put at risk. Therefore the decision is not yours alone to make," Sarutobi removed his pipe from his lips and pointed the stem at the rest of us, "It is your entire team's. As such, I will not approve of this mission unless every member of Team 7 agrees to take it."
Immediately Naruto released the Hokage to leap off the desk before turning to face me, wearing the most pleading, puppy-eyed look she had. Her eyes actually seemed to grow a couple of inches in size as she looked up to me, teardrops reflecting off the sunlight glistening in her eyes.
Naturally, I knew she was faking. And just as naturally, I folded.
"Fine," I caved, any lingering doubts I had about involving myself with Danzo disappearing in the face of eagerness. "Well take the mission."
"Alright!" Naruto cheered, proving my suspicion correct as her pitiful expression was immediately replaced with excitement. "We're going on our first B-rank!
"Wait! I object!" Shikamaru interjected, raising his hand in the air as he did so. "I don't remember agreeing to-"
Without even bothering to look his way, Naruto raised up her foot off the ground and stomped down.
Hard.
A tremor ran through the entire room, sending all the furniture shaking. When they finally stopped rattling a couple of seconds later, Shikamaru slowly lowered his sights and glanced downwards, just in time to see Naruto remove her foot off the ground, revealing a rather detailed impression of the soles of her shoes imprinted deep into the stone floor.
Looking down at the crater – only millimetres away from the edge of his toes – Shikamaru swallowed loudly and, very wisely, lowered his hand. "...I withdraw my objection."
"Excellent." The Hokage said, easily ignoring the blatant strong-arming of our teammate. I suppose he had his share of experience with dealing with unmotivated Naras. "Then seeing that you are all in agreement, I hereby assign Team 7 to the mission."
At this point, Kakashi finally glanced up from his book. "Wait, doesn't anyone want my opinion?"
"No." Naruto, Shikamaru, me, and even the Hokage replied as one, all of us giving the grey-haired man a deadpanned look. Hell, I think even Tora glared at him. No matter what, we all knew we'd be better off without asking for his input as Kakashi would somehow find a way to make things even worse.
Seeing this, Kakashi just shrugged and returned to his book.
"Now Team 7," The Hokage turned to address the rest of us, "your assignment will be to escort the client, a bridge builder by the name of Tazuna, to the Land of Waves-"
The Hokage spent the next several minutes going over the details of the mission with us, and I wasn't too surprised to discover how different it was from the show. After everything I had gone through so far, I would have been astonished if it had gotten it entirely accurate rather than the other way around.
On the surface, it wasn't too different from what I remembered but the more I listened, the more apparent it became that for all the superficial similarities this was an entirely different ball game.
For one thing, Konoha was very much aware of Gatō's involvement in the Waves, along with his desire to prevent the bridge from being completed at any cost. Another difference was the overall objective of the mission. Rather than simply guarding Tazuna, our primary objective was to secure a trade route between the Land of Fire and the Land of Waves. And with Gatō's chokehold on the ports, the only way that objective could be completed was via the construction of the bridge that Tazuna had been working on.
I paid rapt attention to all of this, mentally noting all the differences and filing them away in my mind so that I could better scrutinize over the changes later in private.
"-you are to meet your client at the main gates tomorrow morning at 7 am sharp." After finally providing with all the basic information he felt we would need, Sarutobi began to wrap up the briefing and held out the mission scroll towards our Sensei, who had been engrossed with his reading the entire time. "All the necessary details for the mission have already been written in the scroll."
Snapping his book shut, Kakashi pushed himself off the wall and approached the waiting Hokage at a lethargic pace. Slipping his book into his side pouch, he reached out to the offered scroll with his other hand-
*BANG*
- Tora sat up straight, startling all of us as she slammed her ass onto the desk so hard it rattled. Kakashi paused for a moment to glance at the cat, only to find her blankly staring back at him with wide-open eyes. After a second our Sensei shrugged and took the scroll from the Hokage's outstretched hand, easily ignoring Tora's behaviour.
It wasn't as if this was the first time Tora behaved this way around Kakashi, and I doubted it would be the last.
It seemed that Kakashi was the only person who still seemed able to scare Tora anymore, as whenever he got too close to her, she would immediately press her ass against the closest solid object she could find.
Not that I could blame her. If I had gone through what that poor cat had, then you'd bet your last dollar that I would make sure I had something solid between my anus and Kakashi's fingers whenever he was around.
…What the hell is wrong with my life that I can think of that sentence and be completely serious?
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