Chronicles of the Dragon Ninja

Chapter 6: A New Mission

AN: Hello all, it's been a while. Here is another Christmas present for you guys, to go along with the update to Devil. Anyway I have a lot of ideas in my head right now so don't be surprised to see new stories popping up from me in the future. That said here is the chapter.

Start Now:

The Ryuu Jyou was a massive construct, a palace built in the traditional Japanese style; the home of the Uzumaki clan was a place fit for kings. However it was also a fortress with plenty of defenses which now included fuinjutsu of such high level it could withstand the bijuu. Naruto having grown up there wandered the halls with familiarity; however unlike when he was a child and in training he wore a rather stylish grey hakuma along with a dark blue kimono top underneath which was a white one. At his side the Ryuken rested calmly within its sheath yet still drew the eyes of those he passed. Despite the fact that he had long since healed from the misfired jutsu he had still spent the past three weeks sequestered within the walls of the castle. With Sasuke still on the injured list his team was officially shelved and as such all three genin had been reined in by their respective clans to learn about the responsibilities that they would eventually inherit.

With his mother having given up her right to claim leadership Naruto had been named as heir apparent of the Uzumaki clan. With this seemingly god given time off Kentaro had thought now would be the perfect time to introduce him to his duties. The paperwork had been a major annoyance for the first hour and a half before he had gotten fed up and summoned half a dozen clones to help him go through it. The look on his grandfather's face at his answer to the bane of all leaders had been well worth the annoyance. As he was barred from any high level physical training he had put his focus into his fuinjutsu studies astonishing many of his clan members with just how quickly he blew through the intermediate level seal work.

He had also delved into learning the next level of his chosen taijutsu style slowly going through the katas so that they would become familiar to him. At the moment he was taking a break from his work in order to clear his mind of its burdens. He had been tasked with going over all of the domestic reports of the clan for the last month. He had sorted everything by weeks and summoned a trio of clones to help him go through it quicker. He had gone through the finances juggling people's wants with what was truly needed. In an effort to build their numbers back up to what they felt was suitable the number of children per family had been lifted for the time being. He had been part of the first surge and was one of only twelve. Kenshin however had been part of a surge of one hundred the highest they had recorded. Because of this the hospitals maternity ward was always the first priority.

Under Tsunade's direction Uzushio's hospital and medics were the most renowned in the world even if they were keeping themselves in seclusion still. Oh the world at large knew they were still around but many believed they were a shell of their former selves. However for a clan that boasted 3000 as a small number they were still a force to be recognized. In truth many of the older members of the clan regarded the fact that the village had been attacked as an eye opener. As they hadn't involved themselves in the shinobi or clan wars their numbers had been allowed to flourish and not even five percent of that number had been active shinobi. That however was no longer the case and many were itching to show the world just who they were dealing with.

As such the gear for their shinobi was the next important thing to deal with. This was done by bringing in a clan of blacksmiths in the Muramasa clan who had been just as reclusive as the Uzumaki. Income came in mostly through exporting goods as Uzu no Kuni was filled with a wealth of resources allowing them to be entirely self-sustaining. Using connections that had been gained while the clan had been scattered they had set up trade deals in several major ports throughout the Elemental Nations.

His thoughts on the matter were cut off as he came upon the sight of a teen wearing a dull grey kimono/hakama combination along with a pair of glasses. He appeared to be about 17 maybe 18 years old and stood at a height of 5'9. Most girls that Naruto knew described him as being very handsome, with a long, youthful face and short brown hair cut neatly in back but with a distinctive fringe of permed bangs falling in front of his face and parted in the center though he was oddly twitching noticeably as he approached. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the continuous twitching but figured the man had simply ingested too much of that coffee stuff that all the adults were drinking now. He went by the name of Takato, an adopted member of the clan having been found as a child and taken in by an Uzumaki who'd been hiding out in the land of Honey. As he moved to past the man fell into step beside him successfully brining a halt to much of his twitching.

"Naruto-sama a missive has arrived from your father. He will be coming to retrieve you in a few minutes." Stated Takato

"So soon, normally he'd give more of a warning." Stated the blond.

"He did, you weren't in your office." Stated the man

Naruto nodded his understanding but did not volunteer where he had wandered off to. In truth he had left the castle entirely in order to have a look in on his brothers training with the legendary swordsmen that he had managed to get himself apprenticed to. From what he had seen the boy was struggling through what appeared to be chores but he wasn't complaining so Naruto was reserving judgment on the matter. Still that was beside the point as he was still in the midst of a conversation.

"I see, then I will have to wrap up all matters quickly. I'd hate to burden you with an extra workload." Stated the blonde.

"Speaking of work I have the report on that matter you wanted us to look into." Stated Takato.

"Good I'll look it over later and decide where to go from there. Is there anything else?" questioned the boy.

"A number of betrothal proposals have come in from many of the lords. I've already sent out the usual response." Said Takato.

Naruto gave him a thankful look. Not that he wasn't flattered by the requests but not only was he not interested at the moment but he would not take a wife who did not happen to meet his standards. Aside from that he already had someone in mind, though his feelings were nowhere near that type of level at this point.

"Tsunade-sama has sent you a package for graduating."

Naruto nodded his understanding, every year Tsunade left and spent three months travelling with her apprentice Shizune before the two would return. They had left a few weeks before his graduation so at this point they'd only been gone for a little over a month.

"We've also located a boy who possesses trace amounts of Kyuubi's chakra." Said Takato getting the blond to actually stop and face him.

"Retrieve this boy and inform our top sealers we'll be transferring that chakra into my seal." Said the Uzumaki heir

"That may be a problem as he is staying within the Fire Temple."

"Approach the Fire Daimyo first then and explain to him the situation. After which you will escort the boy back here for the duration of the transfer after which he will be escorted back to the temple."

"Very well I will make haste and call for you upon my return." Said Takato.

With that the elder teen smiled down at the younger before turning and taking his leave. Naruto knew he would first report to his grandfather and inform him of the situation who would probably add something onto the orders before giving the go ahead.

"Chiyome-sensei, would you mind escorting Takato?"

At his question a woman appeared leaning casually on the left wall just ahead of him. She stood at the height of 5'7 and wore a pair of deep dark red tights for pants with a matching long sleeved shirt. Metal guards covered both her forearms and shins and her long red hair was held in a tail that reached past her waist. The woman gave him a single nod before vanishing in a cloud of smoke. As she left Naruto did likewise continuing in his walk through the castle until finally he entered a rather large room which was his bedroom. Changing out of his clothes he quickly stepped into a pair of dark blue pants and put on a long sleeved mesh shirt. Over this he added a sleeveless V-neck shirt of the same deep blue coloring as his pants.

Placing on a long scarf around his neck he used it to secure the sheathed blade on his back. Finally he reached down onto his bedside table and grabbed his hitae-tae and secured it to its place over his forehead. As he left his room he nearly ran head first into his father's chest. After their small reunion the duo were greeted by a clone of the younger blonde which handed the original a scroll which he quickly slipped away before dispelling the clone. Before he could even fully sort the memories of the clone Minato placed his hand on his sons shoulder before they vanished the familiar feeling of travelling through time/space overcoming them.

When they appeared within the Hokage's office Naruto was greeted to the sight of his team standing around the room while the Sandaime was painting by the window. Looking upon his teammates he could see that both of them had changed their appearance somewhat, Sakura wore a black version of her dress with a red trim along the sides and her hair cut down to her shoulders. Sasuke appeared mostly the same with the exception that he had swapped out his shorts for pants of the same color. His attention was pulled however to his father as he sat down behind the desk and all attention went to him.

"Now that everyone is here I will get straight to the point. As of this morning team seven has been pulled off the shelf and cleared for active duty. Normally due to the situation I would suspend you all from missions so that you could focus on your training and bring your teamwork up to a decent level. However you three for some reason after your first few drills always seemed to work well together. According to Iruka's notes any time he paired you all together you all seemed to mesh well even after long breaks from the academy or after you spent time working with others. The three of you over your tenure in the academy developed a cohesiveness only surpassed by team ten. Aside from that each of you demonstrate a range of skills unlike the other two teams. Combined the three of you form a team that is very rare and coveted, a type of team that we would be remiss to ignore." Finished Minato

"You're talking about first response." Said Naruto after but a moment.

"Yes." Stated Minato.

"Um, Hokage-sama what exactly is that, I've never heard it mentioned at the academy." Stated Sakura nervously.

"For good reason. Teams mainly consist of tracking, capture or assault types. A first response team has all of these facets rolled into one. However there is also a central figure needed for a first response team that is generally unavailable, a medic nin." Explained Minato.

"Medic's take much time and effort to train and as such are generally unavailable to fit into your standard teams, much less into gennin teams." Stated Hiruzen joining the conversation and subsequently bringing attention to himself.

"Back during the war Tsunade proposed a program that would make it so that all the teams on the active roster would eventually have a medic on the team. Unfortunately it would take time and manpower to implement, time and manpower that we just didn't have to spare. Over the last few years we have taken steps to implement that program making it a part of the curriculum when the academy was restructured." Finished the Sandaime before taking his pipe and lighting it with a quick application of fire chakra.

"Now that is just the basic idea. Kakashi can explain everything in greater detail." Said Minato clearly ending the conversation.

Not long later found team seven as they walked through the village before ending up within the training ground where they'd had their test. Once there Kakashi motioned the three to take a seat against the training post.

"Alright before we get to anything else why don't you three tell me what you've been up to in our time apart." Stated Kakashi motioning to Sakura to start.

"Um I've been studying so that I could get my certification as a field medic."

Kakashi nodded in understanding, for a bookworm like Sakura being a medic was the perfect way to go as it gave her an excuse to read a lot which she loved to do. Plus it took advantage of her chakra control which as her chakra pool grew and with work would remain very high.

"Genjutsu." Stated Sasuke

Once again Kakashi understood as genjutsu was something he could focus on without aggravating his injuries. He would become dangerous with the ability once his Sharingan manifested and he could use them just by making eye contact. It was also good because he knew that genjutsu was the one area where Naruto was absolutely hopeless. Genjutsu were chakra sensitive constructs and Naruto's chakra pool was so large that he couldn't really use such low amounts at the moment.

"Fuinjutsu."

At that Kakashi had to withhold a giddy laugh. While with his blond hair and blue eyes he may not look it Naruto was an Uzumaki to his core and had taken to fuinjutsu like only an Uzumaki could. While he normally didn't have time to do so he could create some beauties if given enough time or he was just bored. He had used plenty of seals during his time pranking during the academy, one had even held people suspended in the air after they had triggered it. He'd heard a rumor that he'd made a desk attack a teacher, Mozuchi, Motachi or whatever his name was. One guy who had been mean to Kenshin had become a living magnet as every piece of metal that wasn't bolted down had decided to attack him. The fact that the man had been a jounin had only made it funny as no one had made a single move to help him. After that though his parents had decided that he had a bit too much free time on his hands and his pranks had come to nearly a complete halt.

"Well I'm glad all of you found some way to keep yourselves busy while we had our little break." Stated Kakashi causing the three to deadpan as it hadn't really been a vacation.

"Now as you were informed our team is a first response team. What this means is that our team will be the first to be called on in any given situation, especially emergencies. Because of this a first response team needs to be able to perform the duties of all other teams. However before we get into that any further we'll start with your first exercise." Stated Kakashi causing all three to look up expectantly.

"Run."

As Kakashi said this three huge dogs appeared from out of the foliage surrounding the team. Unlike Kakashi's personal summons that he spent most of his time with these were pit bulls that even on all fours stood at four feet in height. The dogs were covered in either black, brown and one even had white and grey fur but all of them had a mouth full of salivating choppers that they were staring them down with. Sakura took a small step back and immediately the dogs shot towards them and the three gennin took off on a dime. Watching them go Kakashi found he was quite pleased with himself as he sat down to relax atop one of the post orange book in hand, after all the kids got some training and he got to catch up on his reading, life was good.

Quite some time later found the trio of gennin panting and covered in sweat as they all lied on the ground. Kakashi watched them doing his best to hide his mirth at finally seeing Naruto in such a position. Of course the blond had run his poor ninken ragged and they had been exhausted before Pakkun had appeared out of nowhere and pounced on the blonde's face bringing an end to their little game. Despite this however his ninken had appeared quite pleased as it had been some time since they'd been able to actually enjoy a chase and as such been forced to actually work for a victory. Sasuke and Sakura hadn't given them anywhere near as much trouble, Sakura had lasted all of twenty-five minutes before exhaustion had overtaken her and Sasuke had lasted only twenty more. Still he had forced them to keep going or rather his ninken had after the first one had tried to take a bite out of Sakura when she had thought that she was safe.

"Alright good work guys I've got a decent estimate of both your speed and stamina now." Stated Kakashi as he stood over the exhausted gennin.

"As it stands right now Sasuke is the fastest among you while Naruto holds the most stamina. I'll be working with all of you to increase these levels over the next few months. However before we get to that and since your all tired now let's move on to our next exercise." Stated the jounin pleased when the kids all focused up at him.

"As you all should know by now chakra control is a skill necessary for success in the ninja world. The Leaf Concentration exercise you learned in the academy is only the first step in learning to control ones chakra. What you will all be learning now is called the Tree Climbing exercise, it is the next level up from leaf concentration and will teach you how to better focus your chakra."

As he said this Kakashi withdrew a trio of kunai and tossed them to the ground one before each of the three gennin, each of whom looked up at him in confusion. At their looks Kakashi thought back to when he himself had first learned the exercise and wondered if he had actually had that same stupefied and confused look on his face.

"In order to complete this exercise you must channel a certain amount of charka to your feet and use it to walk up to the very top of the three or at least as far as you can safely go up before it thins out too much. You will use those kunai to mark your progress and we will devote training time every day to this exercise until all of you can effectively reach the top of your respective trees. As a hint you will need to find an amount of chakra which will enable your feet to adhere to the surface of the tree and maintain your hold on that amount. Too much chakra and you will be blown off and two little and you will slip and fall, so let's get started."

Though tired from the previous run the three gennin climbed to their feet each of them grabbing a kunai and turning to the thicket trees that the dogs had chased them into. Naruto having the most energy was the first to give it a try summoning his chakra and after focusing it to his feet took off towards a tree at a run going up its surface about four steps before he was suddenly blasted away from the tree. Flipping in mid-air he managed to land on his feet though still was forced to skid back a couple of inches. Seeing this both Sasuke and Sakura grabbed a kunai and set about picking their own tree to give it a shot, for Sasuke the results were similar though he made it about another two steps before he was blasted off and Sakura made it nearly to the first branch before her chakra gave out however instead of falling she leapt and grabbed hold of the branch before pulling herself up using it to rest.

Kakashi nodded to himself as he had expected results such as these, Naruto's chakra capacity was huge and had already surpassed his own, and Sasuke had a capacity that outstripped what rookie gennin usually had and as such it was no surprise they had been thrown from their trees. Sakura was a bit of a surprise, not in that she'd made it to a branch as he'd expected as much, however what was surprising was that she'd actually managed to pull herself onto it after her chakra gave out. From her records one would have just expected her to simply slide down as she wasn't supposed to have the strength to pull herself up as tired as she was. The fact that she had managed to do so however had pleasantly surprised the jounin with her level of strength. As they kept up the practice the jounin leapt up to a branch himself and pulled out his book, he had a bit of time to read a few chapters before he had to do anything.

Several hours later an exhausted Naruto found himself stumbling into his home nearly collapsing almost as soon as he made it through the threshold if not for his mother catching him. As she supported her son and brought him into a room to rest she couldn't help but wonder what type of training had reduced him to such a state. She knew for a fact that her son's energy level was off the charts and he recovered from exhaustion quickly. Thankfully she had taken the day off from the office having realized her house needed cleaning and as such at this point had no problem settling him down on the couch which she'd already covered with a sheet, though she did remove his shoes after settling him down; after all she'd just cleaned the carpet and there was no way she was letting it get messed up right after she finished.

Of course Naruto had a reason to be exhausted she found after she discovered just how low his chakra was, as it had been brought down to a gennin's level which meant he'd been put through quite a lot during the day. Channeling some of her own chakra through her hands into his seal she found that already the Kyuubi's chakra was at work on trying to replenish his energy stores and he only needed a bit of rest to recover.

"So I take it your first training day was productive." Stated Kushina knowing her son was still awake.

"I have never been this tired in my life." Stated the blond smiling despite his state of exhaustion.

"Well think you can handle learning one more thing today?" questioned Kushina causing her son to turn a questioning look her way.

"We haven't been completely honest with you in regards to our bloodline. There are certain things that we keep only to members of the clan that are shinobi and now that you are I can straighten a few things out." Informed Kushina.

Truth be told Naruto wasn't surprised. He knew that most shinobi clans kept information classified to only shinobi members of the clan mostly due to the fact that civilians tended to talk and some things were not meant to be common knowledge. The vast majority of what he knew was stuff that was pretty much common knowledge within the world at large though some of it was written-off as hearsay something that they put no effort in stopping. Seeing her son's acceptance Kushina was pleased to see he was focused upon her so that she would not have to repeat herself.

"As you know our chakra is very potent, more potent than any other clan can boast giving us superior physical ability over other ninja and boosting our life force. The truth of the matter is that this is due to the fact that our chakra naturally shifts towards Yang chakra. It is said that the usage of Onmyoton allows one to make fantasies come to life, for instance if someone wanted to say bind one of the bijuu…" said Kushina purposely leaving her sentence open and was pleased to see her son's eyes widen in realization.

"Your chakra chains!" exclaimed the blond actually sitting up due to his surprise.

"Yes contrary to popular belief, I did not seal any chains in my body. The truth is that by manipulating my chakra I'm able to create the chains and bring them to life in the real world." Explained the woman.

"Are you going to teach me that?" questioned the blond causing Kushina to laugh.

"Sorry, you're far too early in your training to try something like that. Aside from that everyone in our clan has a different ability that they naturally manifest. Your grandfather can create chakra swords and I make chains, I have no idea what you will actually be able to do." Informed Kushina causing Naruto to frown.

"Well Kenshin better not be able to make chains. He was lucky enough to get your hair he can't have the chains too." Said the blond causing his mother to laugh before pulling him into a hug.

For the next three months the members of team seven were focused on a set training schedule and it was no strange thing to find the three stumbling into their homes dead tired. Despite this none of them were complaining as they were learning much under the guidance of Kakashi. Unlike most jounin instructors Kakashi had once been an ANBU captain and as such had a higher expectation and acceptance level for his students. Because of this he pushed his students often past what others would consider their limits were, however the results showed themselves well. By the end of the third week not only could all of his students climb to the top of a tree in one go but if needed to they could effectively fight on the surface of the trees and the same could be said for being on top of water. Of course Kakashi had to make it harder on him as he could already do the exercise so he had to not only climb the tree but do so while sticking a leaf to his forehead, and following this both his hands.

After working on their chakra control he had wanted them to learn their elemental affinities. Sasuke had discovered duel elements of lightning and fire, and Sakura had earth. As an Uchiha, Sasuke's fire affinity wasn't actually surprising unlike his lightning likewise neither and he was simply surprised that Sakura even had an affinity as most often when dealing with first generation shinobi like Sakura they had to develop an affinity over time. However despite the fact that they'd tested their affinities they hadn't actually taught them any ninjutsu and as such each of them had taken to that particular skillset in their own time.

Naruto himself hadn't yet taken the test for his affinities. While it would be good to know them he'd actually forgotten about it due to some of the other training he had been doing. Over the time that had passed he and his mother had been working to discover just what it was that he would be able to create with his chakra. While Kakashi could have administered the test himself he wanted to focus on his strength and speed. The fact of the matter was that he was primarily a close range combatant and he didn't at this point put much stock in ninjutsu, whereas Sasuke actually preferred using jutsu.

As such the only one who actively got jutsu from Kakashi was Sakura and the jounin's reasoning was actually quite simple and understandable. Naruto and Sasuke both had clans and parents more than willing to help them with that portion of their shinobi skills and libraries to take advantage of. Sakura wasn't the same as she came from a purely civilian background as such Sakura now had a single Doton ninjutsu that she was learning, that being D-ranked the Doton: Shinju Zanshu no jutsu (Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique) other than that however she had taken and passed her exams with high scores earning her certification as a field medic.

Sasuke had unsurprisingly begun carrying around a sword, a chokuto to be exact. Though known mostly for their ninjutsu prowess the Uchiha clan was not unfamiliar with the art of the sword and their Sharingan only helped with matters. Though he had yet to activate the fabled doujutsu his mother had begun teaching him about kenjutsu during his last year in the academy and as a graduation present had gifted him with the blade. It had a white scabbard with black stripe running down the middle continuing up to the handle only broken by the Uchiha crest before the line continued. The blade itself was two tone black and silver and unlike a katana did not possess a curve. Overall the sword was 40.25 inches with 27 inches being taken by the handle. Of course just having the sword wasn't enough instead the Uchiha Matriarch had gotten it custom made for Sasuke by Muramasa Tenchi who had crafted the blade with both chakra conducting metal but had even gone so far as to use special wood for the handle to make it not only handle stress better but allow for smother transition of chakra into the blade.

However Sasuke was nowhere near Naruto's level when it came to kenjutsu. Kakashi had the two of them spar a few times and the end results were never pretty for the Uchiha as Naruto would eventually put him in a position that would leave him either crippled or killed if he had actually followed through with the strikes. Despite that downside the Uchiha was improving at a rapid rate that quite frankly surpassed anything that the jounin had ever seen. Of course that was to be expected, people who trained with Naruto tended to improve at rather rapid rates.

Then there was Naruto himself who like his teammates was also improving at an impressive rate. With the help of Kakashi's ninken his skill with tracking had risen greatly as they had taught him how to track by scent. They had learned that when channeling chakra Naruto's senses actually improved to surpass the Inuzuka clans. His training with Kakashi however was to get him more used to the teamwork aspect as Naruto as good as he was worked by himself for the most part. Training in Uzu had taught him a variety of skills but had never put much focus on the teamwork aspect of the job. The good news however was that Naruto was open to working with others as he'd always known he would eventually have to and the drills in the academy had taught him that there would be others that could cover his weaknesses.

Other than that he had branched out and learned a few wind techniques along with a few water techniques. However his primary focus was on fuinjutsu and that was what took up most of his time even when not with his team. No one, not even his mother or brother knew exactly what it was he was working on but whatever it was had managed to capture his attention to the point that he was completely focused on fuinjutsu. It was to the point that many thought he was trying to figure out the Hiraishin but those close to him knew better than to follow such a thought. Those thoughts were brought to a halt as his office door was opened and Naruto walked in a giddy grin on his face causing Minato to close the folder that he had been reading.

"I need you to see this."

Raising an eyebrow as his son handed him a scroll and seeing the excited and hopeful look in his eyes the Yondaime did as asked. Unrolling the scroll he almost immediately figured out it was a fuinjutsu formula, or rather it was encoded to appear as a fuinjutsu formula. It had been quite a while since the last time he'd read something written in the language of seals, something which only the Uzumaki clan, himself and his sensei Jiraiya could read to his knowledge. Now even more interested he delved in his eyes pausing as it regarded a particular note only for him to double back and reread it. As he finally finished he turned to regard his son who was sitting upon the edge of his seat.

"Do you know what this means?" questioned Minato.

"That I've finally found a training partner that can keep up with me." Said Naruto grinning.

"This is much more than that. Naruto what you've done here is something that every leader of every shinobi village has been trying to do for ages, you've found a permanent solution to rid me of paperwork." Said the Hokage with anime tears running down his face

"Isn't that what you've been using the shadow clones for?" questioned the younger blond.

"Sparingly. Despite the fact they help with the workload the cost of maintaining the clones is quite high so it only really gives me about an hour before I have to get back here. If I had the reserves of an Uzumaki that might be different but at the moment using them to complete my job for me is actually impossible." Explained Minato dejectedly before life came back to his eyes.

"If this works correctly then you've just came up with a way to create not only a more durable, but a self-sustaining clone and even get memory transference upon dispelling it." Said Minato eyeing the seals designed for the technique.

Of course the seals themselves were nothing more than lines with no power to them whatsoever due to the fact that the boy had used a pencil as he went about its designs but once active and with a few tweaks here and there the Yondaime was sure that this could actually be doable. Reading further along he found something else that made him raise a rather curious eyebrow at this new discovery that actually had nothing to do with fuinjutsu he found himself looking upon something that he would have to see produced soon and placed into the equipment stashes of the ANBU. Reading further still he paused and raised an eyebrow before turning to his son with a pair of amused blue eyes.

"You've been watching those Disney movies again haven't you?" questioned the man causing Naruto to smirk.

"Keep reading."

Doing as asked the man looked back into the scroll soon enough however amusement melted away and the man was soon reading through the notes intently as he went over everything that was penciled in before him. Reading everything over about this last subject the man found he was actually impressed, not only was it well thought out and put together it was explained in detail and the man had to admit it would be cool.

"Alright you've impressed me. Your mother and I will be going over this clone technique you've come up with later tonight as while it's good a few tweaks are needed to make it workable I think. This little toy you thought of will be going to Tenchi for mass production for use with the ANBU and Oinin. Since you designed it yourself sixty percent of the proceeds for these will go to your account while the remaining forty would go to Tenchi for making and distribution." Said Minato getting a nod from his son before handing him a slip of paper and getting a confused tilt of the head from the boy.

"Channel some chakra into that for me." Stated the man.

Shrugging Naruto did as told and after a few moments was surprised as the paper almost immediately reacted with the paper being split in half before. However as if that wasn't enough one half crumbled into dirt upon hitting the floor while the other Naruto picked up revealing it had become a soggy mess as if water had been spilt on it. Seeing the reaction Minato actually blinked in shock before sitting back in his seat.

"Okay what was that?" questioned Naruto breaking his father from his stupor.

"Well as you know everyone there are five basic elements that shinobi can summon by use of chakra, and each person is born with a particular element that they lean more favorably towards. What you just did was take a test which shows a person's elemental affinity. In your case it showed three, the first is wind which the paper showed when it split in half. It also shows you have strong secondary affinities for both Earth and Water, which is incredible as its unheard of for someone your age to possess so many elemental affinities and they not be part of a Kekki Genkai." Informed the Yondaime surprising his son.

Standing from his seat the man moved over to the coatrack behind his desk removing a scroll from one of the pouches of his jounin vest. Unrolling it he made quick work of biting his thumb and running the bleeding digit along a select portion of the scroll. There was the customary plume of smoke which quickly cleared, blown out the open window to reveal another scroll sitting upon the man's desk. Picking up the unsealed scroll he fingered it for a few moments before tossing it to Naruto who caught it reflexively.

"Within that scroll are instructions to begin the first step to mastering your elemental affinities. As you and I share the same affinity for wind, that is one I can help you with. For water I'm sure your mother would be more than willing and Earth I'm pretty sure you can get Sarutobi-sensei to give you a few tips. Since wind is your primary however that's the one I want you to focus on first. Wind is known as the rarest of the basic chakra natures especially here in Konoha. As of now there are three shinobi within the entire village who possess that specific affinity they are myself, Sarutobi Asuma and finally you. Wind is also known as one of the greatest offensive affinities one can have and is also most used for short to mid-ranged combat. It will be especially helpful for you as wind chakra enhances the cutting power of bladed weapons." Said Minato causing his son to only want to learn it more.

Before either of them could speak anymore however both blonds stopped and looked over as the door was suddenly opened and a chuunin messenger rushed in. Raising a curious eyebrow the Yondaime read over the note he was presented with before quickly creating his own and handing it over dismissing the chuunin.

"Neko." Called the man.

Not a moment later the form of a Neko masked ANBU member appeared standing at attention in front of the desk. Looking her over quickly Naruto knew exactly who she was the moment he spotted her purple hair, as that was a rather rare coloration but he said nothing about it.

"Have Kakashi retrieve his students and get over here within the next fifteen minutes."

"Hai Hokage-sama." Stated Neko before leaping out the window to do as commanded.

"You know we really need to come up with something to better disguise our ANBU. The hair gave away that was Yugao." Stated the teen after a few moments.

"Ah I knew I forgot something!" said the man before rummaging in his desk.

This was the scene Kakashi and the rest of team seven arrived to as they entered the room. Naruto sitting in a chair smirking while the Yondaime himself was digging through the desk a pile of stuff growing steadily behind him. Finally he apparently found what he was looking for as he came up holding a scroll up almost victoriously. Looking over just its outward appearance everyone could tell it was rather old due to the large amount of dust that had collected over it. However seeing as the room was now full with the people he'd summoned the man placed the scroll on his desk and faced them all with serious eyes.

"Kakashi is your team ready?" questioned the Yondaime.

Kakashi was silent for several long moments as he thought over the man's words before nodding once decisively.

"Very well then I have a mission for you. Early this morning I sent Team Eight led by Yuhi Kurenai on what was believed to be a routine C-rank guard detail for a client in Nami no Kuni. However this morning she sent word requesting for back-up after her team was attacked by a pair of low level nuke-nin that were after their client." Explained the man before stopping as Naruto had a look of shock on his face.

"Something wrong?" questioned the Yondaime.

"Yea one of the reports I went over this morning was dealing with our shipping in Nami no Kuni or rather the lack of shipping from there in the last few weeks as the place has suddenly locked down. I was going to have some people look into it but this way I can look into things myself." Stated Naruto frowning.

"So I take it you want us to link up with Kurenai's team and provide back-up." Stated Kakashi breaking the silence.

There was a time when such a thing would have been unthinkable, sending in a gennin team to handle such a mission. However with the success of the training program the academy now had they were now putting up with rookie gennin with the ability of chuunin in other villages. According to the report he'd received from Kurenai her team had rather easily dispatched the attackers and she was simply waiting for word on whether or not she should continue the mission or return to the village. Aside from that he knew this group was quite capable over the last few weeks he had given them a few missions to clear out small bandit camps and each mission had been accomplished flawlessly without any interference on Kakashi's behalf. According to Tazuna, this Gato character had many such bandits working under him so sending a team with experience against such foes would help. There was also a chance that the mission could experience problems from jounin and while he had faith in Kurenai she was the one who asked and sending this team would allow him to send Kakashi, one of the village's top shinobi.

"Correct. Furthermore once you arrive in Nami I want you to find out all you can about why Nami has suddenly gone dark. Once that is done I'll leave it to your discretion how to proceed." Stated Minato getting a nod from Kakashi.

"Dismissed."

In the next instant as a unit all four were leaving the room Kakashi lingering only a few moments longer sharing a look with his sensei before following after. As they cleared the entrance of the administrative building Kakashi gave the trio of thirty minutes to pack anything they needed and meet at the village gates before dismissing the group. Naruto wasted no time taking to the rooftops and moving at a brisk pace to get home. Because it was technically his teams day off he hadn't had any of his gear on his person and had really only rushed out so that he could show his dad what he'd come up with. It didn't take him long to cover the distance and reach his home not bothering with the door he leapt and ran up the wall leaping into the bedroom window he'd leapt out of in his excitement.

In seven minutes he'd swapped out his green cargo shorts and white t-shirt for blue pants and sandals, a long sleeved fishnet shirt with a dark blue one over it. He made quick work securing his hitae-tae to its place on his forehead. Moving quickly over to his dresser he pulled open the top one and quickly grabbed a sealing scroll before tucking it away. During the beginning of their time training Kakashi had made it a point to always have supplies ready in case of an unexpected mission; as such he kept his gear sealed away for easy transport. Grabbing Ryuken from the sword rack he secured it to his back by usage of shoulder straps that blended in seamlessly with his shirt.

With everything collected instead of moving back out the window he closed and locked it before leaving his room a few quick steps and he was leaping over the railing for the stairs landing easily on his feet and out the door. Nearly ten minutes later he slid to a stop just before the gates with Sakura and Sasuke sliding to a stop just a few moments later. They waiting for only two minutes before Kakashi made his appearance walking up to the gates almost lazily with his stare focused directly into his book only for it to be snapped shut and slid away as he stopped in front of the trio of gennin. They were idle just long enough for Kakashi to check them out with the gate guards before they headed through the gates and immediately leapt up and into the trees.

"Alright kids quiz time, what do we know of the Oni Kyodai?" questioned Kakashi as they leapt through the trees.

"They actually are brothers and a pair of chuunin level nuke-nin from Kiri." Stated Sakura getting a nod.

"They were a part of an attempted coup de ta against the Mizukage and after it failed were forced to flee. Despite this they are rather low ranked as far as nuke-nin are concerned." Stated Sasuke.

"They specialize in assassination usually working in coordination with each other. Their weapon of choice is a pair of gauntlets one worn by each of them connected by a shuriken chain. The claws on their gauntlet's are also noted to be poisoned." Stated Naruto wrapping up the assessment.

Kakashi nodded pleased with what he was told. During the last few months he'd given each of them a copy of Konoha's Bingo Book and informed them to commit it to memory and to keep it with them whenever they headed outside of the village. Due to the nature of their team's designation he figured that it would only be a matter of time before they begun to run into nuke-nin during the course of their missions and as such had taken steps to prepare them for that. Travel after that was made in silence but they weren't dumb, under Kakashi all of them realized that after the failure of the Oni Kyodai this Gato would have to go for a jounin if his pockets were deep enough.

By the time they caught up with Kurenai and team eight the sun was only just nearing its apex. Looking upon the group Kakashi could see that the gennin looked like no harm had been done which was pretty good considering it was only their first run in with enemy shinobi. As he moved to speak with Kurenai, Naruto took that moment and made a beeline for Hinata the worry he had felt evaporating instantly at seeing that she was okay. The two of them had always been rather close and their mothers often joked it wouldn't be long until the two of them were married something that never failed to have Hinata blushing and twiddling her fingers, which he'd secretly always found kind of cute.

Removing a scroll from his pocket from another seal on the underside of his left arm he handed it to Hinata and motioned her to open it. Doing so Hinata was enshrouded in a plume of smoke yet even before it cleared had squealed a sound that stopped everything as she literally leapt out of the smoke and onto the blond giving him a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek in her excitement only to quickly move back to the scroll the smoke clearing to reveal an open container with a large cinnamon bun within it.

"I knew from how early it was you hadn't had one today and with the duration of the mission I had Akane make you another fourteen that are sealed inside so you should have more than enough to hold you over." Said Naruto to the girl who paused in her feeding just long enough to beam up at him before going back to it.

Looking at the sight from a bit of distance both jounin could only chuckle at the scene. Of course neither of them would comment as the two got enough teasing from their moms but Kurenai could definitely see the two of them together in the future. For her part Hinata was in heaven, she hadn't seen Naruto in weeks and he was her best friend and this surprise meeting had seriously brightened her mood, and not only that but he'd come bearing gifts. As a Hyuga despite the fortune she lived a pretty modest lifestyle and as heiress everything she ate was monitored for the good of her health and body. The cinnamon buns were her only deviation, and her guilty pleasure and everyone close to her knew that. Her father had made it a rule to have her intake monitored after she said she wanted to open a bakery just so she could make and eat cinnamon buns all day instead of being a kunoichi. Seeing her finishing her snack the two jounin took that moment to move back over upon finishing their conversation.

"Alright people listen up." Called Kurenai getting the groups attention.

"There's been a slight change of plans. Hokage-sama has decided to make this a joint mission between us and team seven. As Kakashi-san has seniority he will be in overall command for the duration of the mission; understood." Stated Kurenai getting nods from her team, though Kiba looked slightly confused he didn't say anything.

"Okay firstly before we go any further Tazuna-san we need you to answer some things for us." Stated Kakashi turning his gaze onto the client.

Turning towards him team seven found that the client Tazuna was a grey-haired, bespectacled man with a large beard and dark eyes. He stood at 5'8" and was large in stature with muscles that was obvious came from years of manual labor. Nodding his understanding Tazuna was surprised when it was not Kakashi who spoke but Naruto surprising many.

"Tazuna-san my name is Namikze-Uzumaki Naruto, I am the son of the Yondaime Hokage, and heir of the Uzumaki clan of Uzu no Kuni. It has been brought to my attention that many of our ships have been unable to make port in Nami no Kuni for some time now. Furthermore one of the members of one of Uzu's most prominent clans had been living in Nami no Kuni and we have lost all correspondence with him. I would simply like to know the current state of Nami no Kuni." Said Naruto and causing the man to sigh as he sagged in on himself.

"I see. The truth of the matter is that Nami no Kuni has been taken over by a man by the name of Gato." Said Tazuna causing Naruto's frown to deepen.

"You're not speaking about the owner of Gato shipping are you?" questioned the blond.

"One in the same. A few months ago he arrived in Nami and opened up a depot for his company. We thought it was great as it would create more jobs for the people. However before he ever opened he began buying up other businesses along the port. Those that refused to sell were soon forced to sign over everything willingly or were victims of 'accidents'. Soon enough he owned every business and as such gained control of the ports. Along with him he brought along a crew of mercenaries who have been enforcing his will on the people. We are a small shipping village so we never had anything like a militia in place as we never needed it. My son-in-law Kaiza had been looked at as a hero in the village and to break the will of the people Gato had him jumped, and beaten before he cut off his arms and finally had him executed in front of all of the townspeople. Since then he has taken everything from the people and has been running drugs and other illegal goods through the ports. The bridge we've been building is the only hope we have on breaking his hold on our country by connecting us to Hi no Kuni."

As Tazuna finished a scowl could be seen on several of the shinobi's faces, none more prominent than Naruto's who unsealed his wallet and removed a picture before handing it to Tazuna.

"Is that Kaiza?" questioned the blond getting a nod from the man only for Naruto to curse rather fluently.

"Naruto, what's going on?" questioned Kakashi.

"Kaiza is a prominent member of the Muramasa clan, he is Tenten's uncle, Tenchi's younger brother and one of the best forgers the clan has seen since his father. More than that he was a shinobi of Uzushio assigned to watch over the port and ensure that the shipments were picked up by Hi no Kuni's Daimyos representative. The last shipment is currently unaccounted for and neither is its payment altogether almost 834880000.00 yen (eight million dollars)."

As Naruto said this several eyes widened in shock while both Kakashi and Kurenai paled. As jounin the two knew exactly what Naruto was getting at, if a deal had been struck between the Daimyo and the Uzumaki clan head and either thought the other had done something foul they could soon be sitting on a real powder keg. And with the death of what was a prominent member of one of Uzu's biggest clans the shinobi of Uzushio would be out for blood, and Naruto just mentioning that the man was a shinobi told both jounin that Uzushio was past the rebuilding stage if they were sending out active undercover agents.

"Alright we will head to Nami no Kuni. Each day one team will guard over Tazuna-san as he builds the bridge while the other will do everything they can to learn everything there is about this Gato and his dealings. Let's move out."

AN: That's it chapters done. It's been a while so I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. That said thanks for reading, please review. Till next time LATER.