What An Excellent Plan
Part 4.3

Kakashi
カカシ

He wasn't too sure how he ended up here. Oh wait, yes he was. Both his team-mates had abandoned him for a promotion, and his sensei was overseeing said path to promotions. As a Chũnin under the age of twelve, Kakashi was forbidden from taking an C-rank outside of the village on his own. Which had resulted in him taking up the only possible C-rank on offer.
Stood before the Uchiha main-house door, Kakashi sighed, scowling ever so slightly because this would be awkward. He'd never had need to come over to the Uchiha compound without Obito or Naruto with him, until now that he'd taken the mission to look after, and subtly train the two year old heir. Only subtly, because the head didn't want his wife to know he was pushing Itachi towards the path of a ninja already. At least, not as strong as he was currently doing.
The mission was a C-rank because Itachi was a high profile target; being heir to the Uchiha clan did that to your status. He'd already had one kidnap attempt, so it was obvious as to why he was assigned Chũnin protection whenever both parents weren't at home.

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Which was where Kakashi was now, stood on the porch with one hand raised to knock against the wood.
Before he got a chance though, the door was pulled open and he found himself face to face -well, at his height it was more face to torso- with the current head of the Uchiha clan. Fugaku Uchiha looked down at him, to the scroll clutched in his hand before the man sighed.

"Well, at least Itachi knows you," he grumbled, pushing past the silver haired boy and gesturing with one hand for him to enter the home, whilst he left to take care of whatever had his current attention.
Fugaku was only back from the front-lines for a week so that he could sort through the clan casualties these past three months, so the man was probably quite stressed. His wife had already started running some extra shifts at the academy, no doubt to help the next generation of ninja's when they hit the battle-field.

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Taking the fact he'd been very much left alone as an acceptance, Kakashi made his way into the house, slipping off his shoes and tentatively calling out for Itachi. He knew the little two year old would be around somewhere, he just wasn't sure what the boy would be doing.
At two years old, Kakashi had been introduced to his first set of wooden kunai, and had been steadily increasing his accuracy with them. Not exactly normal behaviour, or at least, that's what his team-mates had told him.
Obito had quite proudly announced that he'd been clinging to a plush dinosaur at that time, whilst Naruto had just frowned and muttered it wasn't normal.

For a moment, Kakashi had wondered what the girl had been doing in her years before meeting Jiraiya -was she a genius like him, or a hard-worker like Gai?- and then he'd quickly dismissed it, because it didn't matter.

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The pitter patter of tiny feet let Kakashi know his young charge was approaching, and he directed his gaze down as Itachi came toddling into view.
The little boy's eyes landed on him, calculating as they took in his lonesome appearance.

"Where's Naruto and Obito?" He questioned, cocking his head to a side, one hand still curling around a dinosaur toy. Not the herbivore kind that Obito had described, this one was obviously a carnivore going by the teeth.

"Off in the Chũnin exams," Kakashi muttered, watching the boy. If he was right, Itachi was soaking up knowledge, so he might even know what the rank of Chũnin meant. His thoughts were verified when the young boy nodded, making his way over before pulling on the hem of Kakashi's shirt so the silver haired boy would drop to his level.

Itachi leaned over, cupping one small hand around Kakashi ear as he whispered, "will there be a fight for people to watch? Like my dad's?"
So Fugaku had been telling Itachi about his Chũnin promotion? No wonder the boy knew about it.

"Yes, there probably will be now that we're sort of at peace with Cloud."

"Take me to watch it?"
Looking at the kid and his oh so serious eyes, Kakashi fought a frown from behind his mask. Naruto had said it wasn't normal to push kids so young towards being a ninja, but Itachi was quick literally asking. And, wasn't that part of his mission right now?
So Fugaku would approve.

"Okay then."

Naruto
ナルト

Capture someone else's team-mate, and then take them to the tower as a prisoner within five days. Looking for a captive, but also having to stop yourself from becoming a captive. Tricky, and nothing like her own Chũnin exams had been.

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Stood before the gates to the forest of death, Naruto shuffled, trying to get the images from her head. Orochimaru using the nine-tails chakra against her with the five-point seal. Sasuke getting bitten. Kabuto. Growling and slamming a palm into her forehead, Naruto forced herself to focus.
Rin was stood beside her, a pack and medic kit on her back, which would be exceedingly helpful should Obito get injured. Her own cuts and scraps would heal long before Rin could do anything for them, but still, it was comforting to know someone was there to patch Obito up should he need it.
Dancing from one foot to the other, Naruto let out a slow breath before rotating her shoulders.

"How are we going to do this then?" Rin asked, turning her bright brown eyes on Naruto at the blonde grinned sheepishly. The three of them -when they'd all been let out for lunch- had stopped by the ramen stand. And Naruto hated to admit it, but the girl was growing on her. There just wasn't anything that she could fault in the girl's personality other than the fact she kept letting Obito down. It'd been a string of misfortune events, played on by the fact Obito liked Rin. And that Rin liked Kakashi. And Kakashi...

Naruto frowned, thinking of her silver haired team-mate.
Well, Kakashi didn't really like anyone. In a romantic, or a friendship way.

Scratching at the back of her head, Naruto shrugged.

"We'll just grab the first person we come across."

"We can always aim for a water-fall or grass shinobi," Rin mused, inspecting the contents of her hip pouch for the last time, "they won't be as well trained as a cloud shinobi or one of our own."
Obito nodded his head in agreement and Naruto followed up after it.

"Yeah, I guess. That's smarter than my plan."

"Your plan?"

"Never mind," Naruto grumbled, not wanting to admit her plan had been to spam her shadow clones till she got someone. Rin's was a tad more thought out than hers, so she'd give the girl her credit. It wasn't possible to hate her, even if Obito's love for her had completely ruined Naruto's life.
Well, that and Madara, but Madara had been ruining lives for years now.

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Somewhere in the distance, a cannon went off and Naruto smirked, leaping into the now open gate with her two team-mates following behind her. The three of them kept a good pace, Naruto leading them towards the river because it was were most people would want to make camp, if you discounted the outskirts of the tower that was. Which meant there would be ample targets for them to collect.
The sun was starting to dip now, retreating from the center of the sky and heading westwards. Naruto liked to think that they had a lot of time left, but in actuality, a lot of it would fly by. They needed to be at the tower sooner rather than later. Because if they weren't, there would be guard shifts, and that would tire them out. And tired out ninja's made easier targets.
Forming her favourite hand-seal, Naruto let a clone pop into existence, already mentally ordered to find a place to lay low and gather some natural chakra. It wouldn't hurt to have some back up power hidden away.

Obito didn't question her, but Rin lifted an eyebrow as the clone disappeared, asking, "what are you doing Naruto?"

"I've got some back up power to gather, but it only happens when I stay still. Which the clone is going to do for me. If I need it, the clone will pop, and I'll get the power saved up."

"That's thinking ahead," Obito mused, a smile, almost proud, on his face, "you gotta teach me that."
Naruto laughed under her breath, shaking her head as she did so.

"Oh, I don't think you'd like it. You can end up turning to stone if something goes wrong."
That shut Obito up instantly.

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They arrived at the river twenty minutes into the test. Dropping down onto a thick branch on one of the steadier trees, Naruto held out one hand to slow both her team-mates. Below them, was a group of grass genin, who'd just appeared to have made it into to the water-front surface. Grimacing, Naruto turned to look at her two comrades before running a hand through her short hair.

"I can knock them out, but it'll effect you both too if you're not far enough away. Get about fifty feet back. You'll know it'll work because you'll feel it, okay?"
Obito looked like he was going to protest, so Naruto placed a hand over his mouth, effectively silencing whatever rant he was going to fire off before he could even start.

"Obito, do you trust me?"

Obito
オビト

Running alongside Rin back from the river clearing, Obito frowned. He was not comfortable with leaving Naruto to work, but he did trust her. One hundred percent, there was no way that she'd get captured, of that he was sure. That one training session where Kakashi and Minato had tried pushing her limits came to mind. He'd had to run to the third and inform him that the invasion of blond girls were all their team's fault.
Three thousand clones, and Naruto hadn't even passed out from chakra exhaustion. Instead, when they'd all popped, the resulting head-ache had seen her drop onto of Kakashi, which had been hilarious. The so called genius had been at a loss of what to do.

"How's she gonna do it?" Rin asked from beside him and Obito smiled a little, because Rin was talking to him. And then he frowned.
Naruto's words, from where they'd sat on that hill-top and eaten a lunch the day Jiraiya had left her rang through his head. Yeah, sure Rin was talking to him, but she talked to everyone else didn't she? It was no big step forwards, and Naruto had been sort of right. He liked Rin, but was it love? He wasn't sure, and since he didn't have the answer to that, he couldn't answer.
And thus, he wouldn't be moving forwards on the relationship front any time soon.

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All thoughts were thrown out the window when the biggest, greatest killer intent began pressing down on them, like thousands of stones falling from the sky and coating them, forcing them into submission. Beside him, Obito could make out Rin, her eyes wide with panic and her face twisted in terror; he bet his was no better.

And then, as sudden as it had appeared, it was gone.

"Naruto!" Obito hissed as his mind came back to him, leaping to his feet and barrelling through the bushing in front of him.
He didn't register that Rin was behind him, possibly alone if she wasn't following him. His team-mate, the girl that'd stuck up for him and declared him her 'epic rival' was closer to whatever that was than they'd been.
And it'd almost had them wanting to kill themselves.

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Bursting through the shrubbery, Obito skidded to a halt, breath almost knocked out of his lungs as relief flooded him. Naruto was stood in the clearing, unharmed.
She was bent over ever so slightly, knelt on the ground and the Uchiha boy made his way over to get a better view. Two of the grass genin were lying on the river bank out cold, probably unconscious from the looks of it. Obito wasn't surprised. Any closer and he and Rin might have been in the same state.

"What was that?"
Naruto looked up, blinking her wide blue eyes before a smile blossomed across her face. She tightened the rope she was holding, the rope that was holding their prisoner before she stood up, calmly brushing down her shorts as she did so.

"That Obito, was killer intent. I've learnt how to make a lot of it."
He'd say. To think, that deadly kind of feeling had come from the little blonde girl before him. If she hadn't been training with a sannin since she was four, Obito would have been jealous.

Behind him, Rin crashed into the clearing, looking around and them slumping when she realized they were both fine.

"Well come on then, let's get to the tower."

Some day, these chapters will stop being so short. Well, anyway, here's the next update, seeing as I've had the day off work today I was able to sit down and get this cracked out. I hope you like it, added in some Kakashi because I just can't leave him out, period.

If you've got any questions for the cast of this story -not quite sure why you would, but I've had some already- head over to my profile and you'll find a tumblr link on there. This blog with have an ask section and I'll be putting up special one-shots on there. So yeah, that's where all the goodies will be going so they don't clutter the main story.

I'm sorry it if seems like I'm being mean to Rin, I actually love her character, but I'm still trying to work her into the plot and I'm getting a bit out of it in regards to writing her. I don't like bashing anyone, and I'm desperate to avoid it. So Rin will be getting her own Part dedicated to her and Naruto interacting. I promise.

SOME shameless self promotion too, because I've got another FemNaru timetravel going now, called 'Bone of Contention' which is Naru travelling back to Madara's time to sort things out from the start. So, erm, if you like this, you might like that?

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So does Naruto have a Samui hair-cut?
No, it's more like how it's cut in the manga on the 12 year old Naruto. That kind of short.
I just wish there was more Kakashi!
You'll like part 5 then, there's gonna be more Kakashi than Obito in that one -no romance though-.
When will Naruto and Obito get together?
Not for a while yet, because Naruto is still mentally sixteen. She won't even be able to think about Obito like that till he's at least fourteen.
If we do not hear from you before your holiday-
I'll leave a notice to let you know that it'll be the last chapter for a while, promise. And thanks.

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WHAT TO DO IN FLORIDA?

I mean, I know there's the theme-parks and the shops and all that, but my dad's asked me to ask you guys if there's other stuff to do. One year we visited a fort on the coast, my dad like's that kind of stuff, so if you could just drop an answer, I'd be greatful.

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Well, that's all for now, thank you so much for reading,

Tsume
xxx