29. Heading For Colder Climates

Previously:

As the ribbon at the finish line fell to even louder cheers, Naruto mused on how good it felt to be doing this kind of mission again. Hopefully things would continue to remain this calm for a while yet.

Story Start: On The Way To The Land Of Snow

Naruto was an idiot. He should have known not to tempt fate like that. Four days after their race mission and two days after Kakashi had returned from his mission, the reunited Team 7 was once more leaving their country of origin behind them. Naruto would have been perfectly fine with that to be honest, more missions meant more money earned which meant less worrying about feeding him and his partners after all. However, it was the objective of the mission that had him silently fuming.

Said objective was escorting Yukie Fujikaze, a pretty famous actress thanks to her playing the title role of the Princess Gale films. But as phenomenal an actress as she was on set, the woman was very much a rude and standoffish sort off of it. And before the mission could even properly begin she had pulled a runner. Unfortunately, though also quite amusing in hindsight, her taking off with a horse to flee to who knows where had lead to several of the extras, still in armor from their last shoot, to take off after her in pursuit and Team 7 had thought that she was in actual danger and responded appropriately.

Thankfully, lethal force had NOT been used, something which was sadly quite possible with Sasuke's temperament, but Yukie was in the wind. At first, Team 7's younger members had just assumed that since she had obviously been escaping a kidnapping attempt, she went under ground to a preselected safe house and would return once word had reached her that the would be kidnappers had been apprehended. Then the director and her manager explained what was really happening and Naruto made two whole squadrons of shadow clones for the express purpose of all of them plus the original slapping their foreheads with the palms of their right hands, slowly dragging them down their face to blankly stare at said manager. Incidentally, Sakura came down with a bad case of the giggles at the sight her teammate made.

Being the one with the jutsu specifically made for scouting purposes, Naruto was sent out by Kakashi to track their wayward charge down. Naruto had sent out his already formed clones with explicit orders to bring Yukie back undamaged and to not go off on any side quests. The clones probably would have resented that last point if they didn't have memories of what had happened the last time Naruto had sent out a large clone force. Two hours later, they teleported back with said actress. She was bound at the ankles and wrists, had a cloth stuffed in her mouth sealed with tape and she was doing her best to spit hell fire at the clones as she thrashed around. At both Kakashi and the original's flat looks, the leader of the group explained how the actress had tried to mace the lot of them then resorted to making as big a ruckus as she could while trying to use the bit of martial arts training she had for her roles to take the clones out.

Sighing, her manager had taken Yukie under his charge, leading her away once she was freed. Once the clones had all dispelled and Naruto had gone over their memories to verify their claims, he and Kakashi had had a rare moment of symmetry as they dropped their heads into their right hands and said as one "It's going to be one of those missions." This of course had set Sakura off again while Sasuke had merely let out an annoyed grunt.

That incident would have been bad enough but Yukie wasn't a woman to be denied and she made a second attempt in transit from the Village to the port where they would depart for the Land of Snow. Kakashi dealt with that one, using some sedative or another to keep her knocked out until they were well out to sea.

Now Naruto was rubbing at his forehead as the actress' loud ranting could be heard from across the deck. She had been going on for ten minutes already ever since she had woken up and tracked down her Manager and incidentally Kakashi who had been once again speaking with said Manger in a secretive manner. Those two had history together, Naruto could tell but if Kakashi wasn't going to bring it up then Naruto was content to just consider this mission a case of a return customer who had been happy with their original shinobi and made a specific team request. Wouldn't be the first time that happened after all.

Naruto was brought out of his minor bit of brooding by Sakura stepping up next to him and said in a non carrying tone of voice "Man, I thought escorting an actress would be awesome. Instead we've got a…" She paused trying to find a non-insulting term and Naruto snorted as he finished for her "A spoiled brat throwing a tantrum?"

"Well, yes." Sakura said sheepishly rubbing at the back of her head.

Naruto sighed and said "I think I know now why they say to never meet your heroes." He perked up suddenly though and turning to Sakura with a grin, he said "Hey Sakura, this is an escort mission right? Don't you think we should be having someone scout out the route we're taking to make sure our clients are safe? And since you never send one person out if you can avoid it…"

Quick on the draw, Sakura smiled and said "I believe you're right Naruto. Excuse me while I clear it with Kakashi-sensei." The pinkette spun on her feet and quickly but non-urgently made her way over to their teacher and tapped his shoulder. Naruto watched as she and Kakashi spoke amongst each other for a moment and Naruto couldn't help the grin spreading on his face as Kakashi somehow conveyed amusement without changing his body language. A moment later, Sakura practically skipped back up to the prow and said "Kakashi-sensei agrees with your reasoning. He also said that he doesn't think it would be too harmful in this case to leave scouting clones when we come back."

Naruto nodded and released Charizard. Turning to his flyer, he said "Care to spread your wings buddy?"

"I'm always up for a flight." Charizard said with a nod.

Naruto nodded again before he turned into an Altaria, which would be a much more comfortable form for Sakura to ride on for a while than another Charizard or other Dragon/Flying type. Sakura climbed on and said "Wow, these clouds sure are soft."

Naruto chuckled and said "Just don't fall asleep back there." Charizard let out a chuckle of his own before the two fliers lifted off, circling the ship twice as they gained height before they headed out.

In the crow's nest Sasuke scoffed at the sight his two teammates made muttering depreciative things under his breath that would have made Sakura feel awful but Naruto would most likely have scoffed at. Down on the deck, the director watched the pair of fliers leave with stars in his eyes as he said "What wondrous specimens, we HAVE to get footage of them at some point!"

Kakashi chuckled and without an ounce of regret threw his student under the metaphorical bus as he said "Oh, Naruto has a whole lot more forms than just that he can take."

Grinning, the director leaned forward rubbing his hands gleefully as he said "Tell me more."

Unaware of what his fate would be upon their return to the ship, Naruto set an unhurried pace of twenty miles per hour and turned his head back as he said "I think half an hour out then coming back should do."

Sakura gave a nod before she looked down with a smile and said "I know it's really just ocean right now, but this really is quite the view." Grinning, she looked back up at Naruto and said "You know, you could probably make a fortune if you had your clones give people rides like this."

Naruto hummed as he turned his head forward and said "Something to consider when we get back though considering the reception Charizard and the others got back during the Chunnin Exams I doubt there'd be many takers from the civilians."

Sakura let out a huff and said "I don't know what their problem is with you but if they don't come then that's their loss." If she was being honest with herself, Sakura was more than a little ashamed of herself due to how she had been part of that crowd during the academy years and when Team 7 was first formed but being part of Naruto's team for so long had shown how stupid that way of thinking really was. True, Naruto was a prankster at heart but that didn't mean he was a bad person. A traitorous part of her mind reminded her how he was much more personable than Sasuke ever was as well. Sakura was quick to shush that part though.

Naruto let out a hum at her statement but didn't say anything in response, instead turning the conversation to which Princess Gale movie they thought was their favorite. Hey, just because the star of the films was rather prickly off the set didn't mean the films were any less good.

After thirty minutes had passed, Naruto created a squadron of twelve clones. Eight of the clones switched from Altaria to Fearows, spreading out in a wide line and maintaining their relaxed speed with their wide wings in order to serve as a relatively close early warning system ten miles ahead of the ship. Naruto was now capable enough in the Psychic type to be able to check on them every half an hour or so to make sure they behaved themselves.

The other four clones were what he was taking a bit of a gamble on, the four ship flight of clones turning into Pidgeots and rocketing forward from their starting positions quickly breaking the sound barrier as they went. Those clones would be flying another ten miles out before beginning to fly a massive circular perimeter to hopefully give the shinobi an even earlier warning system. The fact that they were traveling over water rather than land gave Naruto hope that they wouldn't get into any unauthorized trouble. That and Naruto couldn't remain wary of using the Shadow Clone Jutsu for the rest of his career, it was just too useful to have in his line of work. But he wasn't just going to trust them whole hog either, baby steps first.

With search patrols in place, Naruto and Charizard turned and began making their way back to the ship. The break from Yukie had been nice, and Naruto would certainly remain up in the air for a bit after they got back, but they really did need to make sure that the ship wasn't without full protection for too long.

Time Skip: Three Hours Later

Naruto had been having a discussion with the director about what Pokemon forms they could add to the current film being made, after haggling over how much of the film's earnings he was entitled to of course, by a member of his Pidgeot squadron creating and dispelling another clone sending the memories to him. Most of it was just boring patrol, but the last few minutes was rather interesting. It showed an extremely long range view of a submersible that looked to be about the same size of a Wailord surfacing before three shinobi leapt off of it and began forming a massive iceberg even as the submarine dove out of sight again.

Humming, Naruto excused himself from the director and went to find Kakashi. Something told him that that iceberg was soon going to be Team 7's latest battlefield.

END

Author's Notes

There is an Update Schedule and a Poll on my Profile, please take a moment to look there.

So, I am once more covering the Land of Snow movie. I've planned to cover this pretty much since the start of the story. Personally, I think it'll be interesting to see how a non Navy backed Team 7 handles this. I think after this arc is done I'll cover a few more 'filler' episodes then skip the second film and take a crack at the third movie, after which we shall reach the time skip where we'll finally be getting answers about how three Pokemon and a Pokedex wound up in the Shinobi world. I can't wait to write that part, but I must pace myself. Arriving at that point to quickly could sully what I have built so far. So for now, please look forward to the fight that is about to commence. Tac, signing out.