"I'm bored," Naruto complained as she shifted around, trying to get into a more comfortable position against my back, only to shift again a moment later.
Naruto never could sit still for long, the girl had way too much energy to manage that. However, with an ease born from years of friendship coupled with the experience of raising two energetic toddlers, I managed to push her out of my mind as I focused on my task.
After a minute of blessed silence, Naruto spoke up again.
"Hey," I felt more than saw Naruto shift her head to turn and look back at me. "When is the Scarecrow supposed to get here anyway?"
"Kakashi told us to meet him in about," carefully setting down the kunai, I glanced up at the sky and tried to judge the time. The sun had yet to fully clear the horizon which meant, "oh, in about ten minutes or so."
"Which means he won't be here for another hour," Naruto muttered despairingly.
I nodded. "Pretty much."
"Then why are we here so early instead of staying in bed for an extra hour?"
"Because," I began as I picked up another kunai from the pile, "I wouldn't put past Kakashi to arrive early just to mess with us."
"...Our Sensei's such an ass."
I snorted. True words have never been spoken. "Yup," I replied with a sage nod.
Naruto released a drawn-out sigh as she slumped deeper against my back and lulled into silence.
To our far right, the great double gates of Konoha stood wide open, revealing the lush green forest that surrounded the village and which it was named for. It was just beginning to get late enough that other people could be spotted wandering about the village but nowhere near the amount we were used to seeing.
For the time there were only the four of us in the area if you excluded the guards. And by us, I meant Naruto, Shikamaru and me along with the client, Tazuna, and we were all sitting off to one side of the road just a stone throw away from the gates as we waited for our wayward Sensei to appear so that we could begin our first real mission.
It was standard procedure for Shinobi to meet up with their client within the boundaries of the village whenever they were assigned an escort mission. It wouldn't do to make our clients wait outside only to find out they had already been slaughtered by the time we got there. Hence, our current situation.
Unfortunately, as much as I'd have loved to use the spare time to just sit back and relax, I no longer had it in me. After a decade of spending every spare waking second I had working or training, wasting time had become almost antithesis to me. After just a few minutes of waiting for Kakashi to appear, I felt my hands begin to itch, eager to work on something. It was like I was now hardwired to work. So in an attempt to keep my hands busy, I decided to go over our supplies.
Sitting on a patch of grass with my legs crossed with a long scroll unfurled before me, I stared down at the row of gleaming Kunai that sat across its surface as I carefully began the slow process of looking them over for any flaws. Directly behind me was Naruto who slumped tiredly against my back while a little further away Shikamaru lounged under the shade of a tree, slumbering the early morning hours away.
I had to admit, I had been more than a little bit stunned to find him here before us. Naruto and I had gotten up extra early just to be safe yet somehow Shukamaru out of all people had managed to arrive even earlier. And here I had been half convinced that I would need to send one of Naruto's clones to drag him out of bed.
Of course, my surprise only lasted until I talked to one of the guards manning the gates and found out that Shikamaru had been there all night.
It seemed that our slothful Nara, in his usual blend of efficiency and laziness, decided it was far too much trouble to go home at night only to have to wake up super early in the morning and drag himself all the way back here, only to be kept waiting for however long it took for Kakashi to get here so had instead opted to simply to crash out here for the night and gain a couple extra hours of uninterrupted sleep.
I honestly couldn't decide if it was genius or idiotic.
Not too far away from him, a bleary-eyed Tazuna lay slumped against the bark of the tree, fighting back a yawn. The old man looked as if he was about to fall asleep any minute. Thankfully, though he appeared tired he didn't seem drunk or hungover. I didn't know if that little detail was just an embellishment Kishimoto had added to the show or if Tazuna decided to sober up in time for the trip back home and honestly, I didn't care. I was just happy I didn't have to deal with someone who was either constantly drunk, hungover or in the process of becoming either for the entire trip.
Turning my attention back to the row of kunai, I reached out a hand and picked one up. The deadly instrument gleamed in the dim morning light, its razor sharp edge reflecting the sun's rays and looking every bit as deadly a weapon it was. I took a second to look it over, searching for any flaws or imperfections on its edge. Satisfied there weren't any, I flip the Kunai once to test its balance before setting it back down in its place among the others on the scroll and picking the next one up.
Truth be told, the odds of a flawed weapon ever making its way into my weapon supply was slim to none. Not only did it have to pass the infamously high standards of Konoha's weapon inspectors before it could even be sold on the market, but it also had to pass the scrutiny of my clan's own armourer.
And if you took into consideration how good the eyes everyone in my family had, spotting a defect in a weapon became child's play. It was a rare day indeed when even a single piece of shoddy equipment ever made it into the weapon stockpiled of my clan's armoury.
But rare didn't mean never, there was always the chance that a defective weapon could slip past the cracks, no matter how slim. Not to mention all the wear and tear it could potentially acquire over the course of the mission, so it never hurt to spend a bit of extra time looking them over.
It was a good habit to have if nothing else. You never knew when your equipment could end up saving your life. Besides, it wasn't like I had anything better to do while we waited for Kakashi to arrive.
"That's wrong."
"Hmm?" I hummed, turning to look back at Naruto who had at some point spun around and draped herself across my back, an arm looped around my neck as she stared over my shoulder and watched me work.
I swear Naruto was more part cat than fox sometimes.
"There," she pointed, "That's off."
"Where?" I asked, turning to look at the row of kunai, trying and failing to spot anything.
"There," she said, reaching forward to point at one of the kunai sitting at the end of the scroll. "Right there."
Looking at where she was pointing at, I frowned. Weird. I was sure I just checked that piece a minute ago. There was nothing wrong with it but maybe she saw something I couldn't. So I reached out to the kunai-
"No, not that," She said just as I was about to pick it up, she pointed at the kunai again "That. Under it Hikaru."
"Under it?" I parrot, glancing down at the kunai. "Naruto, it's set on the ground."
When I turned to look at her, I was met with a pair of exasperated eyes staring back at me. Rolling her eyes before setting both hands on my shoulders, Naruto pushed herself up and leaned forward. Hand stretched towards the kunai she, to my surprise, flicked it one side instead of picking it up before tapping the scroll. "Here. This parts wrong."
It took me a second to realise what she was getting at.
Lines of black ink strained the otherwise pure white surface of the scroll, swirling and bending in a chaotic blend of curves and sharp turns. At first glance they almost appeared to form words, symbols, or even numbers but the longer you looked the more obvious it became that it was nothing but nonsensical patterns.
Fuinjutsu.
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The art of sealing.