Son of the Titania

By: InuYasha'sReincarnation

Summary: When trying to stop the Tower of Heaven, Erza Scarlet was thrown into a dimension where ninja ruled the lands. Meeting a blonde haired man, she fell in love and bared a son; Naruto Scarlet. Ex-quip!Naruto NarutoX?

I don't own Naruto or Fairy Tail

Chapter 5: Missions and the Demon

Sarutobi sat quietly behind his desk with his hands folded in front of him as he listened to his jonin finish his report. "So this…person," the hokage spoke not fully believing what was said, "called herself Naruto's...fairy godmother?"

"Yes, sir. She got quite a laugh when she called herself that." Kakashi replied with a nod. It was quiet shocking to 'hear' her explain who she was. Of course the silver-haired man could not hear what she was saying, but lip reading was an excellent trick for ninja to learn, and the extra help from the sharingan made it relatively easy to communicate with the woman. "What shall we do about it?"

The elder man sat back in his seat and let out a deep sigh as he thought. This was one scenario he never thought possible. He knew there were ways to bring back the dead, even as forbidden it was, but for an actual ghost to been haunting around the village was something completely different.

"Keep this a secret from him for now, Kakashi," Sarutobi spoke after a few moments. "I have no control over the dead, but this information does not need to be known by the boy at the moment."

"Well this mission sucks," Naruto stated as he slowly ran the paint brush over the fence. After the first few days of Yugao putting them through the paces so she could get an accurate account of their skill level, the newly formed team finally started missions. Sadly for them instead of something exciting, they were thrown into what amounted as chores.

'I'm seriously going to kill Tenten for not warning me about these.' He could almost hear her laughing at him. It had been nearly a month since they had graduated and the team had fallen into a routine of training and random missions that were mind-numbingly boring.

"Focus, Naruto," Yugao called out as she watched the three, "Keep even strokes, up and down," she repeated for the genin for what seemed to be the hundredth time, "and make sure to switch hands. Don't want you getting tired and taking longer."

Grinning as she watch the three work, Yugao could not help but be somewhat happy that she was a genin towards the back end of the third shinobi war. And as such she and her team got to miss most of these lesser missions in trade for what counts now as lower end C-Rank. But it was the way missions would go in peaceful times at such as these. Fresh genin would go through these lower end jobs to raise money and hopefully gain teamwork and trust between them.

There were a few times she thought about putting the trio through the glory of chasing down the Fire Daimyo's wife's cat, as that would be closer to some missions that they could do in the future. But then she remembered she had two students who liked sharp objects and a third that like to hit things really hard. As such, Yugao decided that it would not be in Konoha's best interest to turn those three on the hell-cat known as Tora.

Luckily the teamwork aspect seemed to be growing within the three. Slowly, but at least it was something. Naruto and Sasuke had a mutual respect for each other that allowed them to work together, but they often butted heads and tried to fight each other during training. That was not that shocking as Yugao knew of their rivalry and quasi-friendship.

No, the real surprise was Sakura. From the reports she had gotten from the academy about the girl, Yugao expected a young girl to be less enthusiastic about training and having to work with someone other than Sasuke. It seemed that when she started training with the tonfas it had gotten through to her about the need of trusting other.

Of course it made sense. Using tonfa would put the girl at a disadvantage in combat. Not only would it limit her as a close range specialist, it would also limit her use of jutsu by having her hands busy. There were ways around such a limitation but that would take years to master, and right now Yugao only wanted the pink-haired girl to get use to the weapons first.

It did not take long for the team to finish painting the fence. It would have gone faster if Yugao had allowed Naruto to use his clones, but the jonin felt it would be better if they did the work themselves. The jōnin did not want to know what the boy would become if he relied too much on that jutsu. As powerful as that technique was, there was no strategy in just throwing a mass of clones at something.

"Alright team," she spoke as the three finished putting away the materials, "I will report back to the Hokage about our mission being completed. And while I do that I want you to run to our normal training field and start your physical practices."

She could not help but chuckle at the groan that escaped from the three. If there was one thing they hated almost as much as these D-rank missions, it was the days their sensei put them through physical training. While the three were physically fit from the academy training and what they did on their own, they were nowhere near what the purple-haired woman wanted them to be at.

"Now, now, don't be like that. If when I get back you three are working hard I might teach you a new technique." Finishing with a grin as she watched all three heads shoot at that. "Now go."

"Yes, Sensei," the three genin coursed as they shot off towards the training ground.

"Ah, so easy." Dangle a new skill in front of them and they would do anything asked. But who was she to argue about them wanting to learn.

Yugao took her time getting back to her students. She trusted them enough to start their training on their own that there was not real rush. Besides the only thing she would have to really worry about was if Naruto and Sasuke started getting into it again. But that was part of the reason she chose the training ground father out from the rest. She had seen the destruction that Naruto's mother could create and knew that Uchiha's were powerhouses in their own right, and she really did not want to pay for repairs if they caused too much damage close to the village.

Luckily for her pocketbook, the trio was following her instructions. Each of her students were already well into their conditioning as she approached. Gazing around the clear she watched the three training in separate areas. While teamwork was a theme of Konoha forces, it was best at the moment to for them to work on physical aspects separately at the moment.

They each had things they were better at than the others. Naruto's strength, Sasuke's speed, and Sakura's flexibility and as such each had gotten their own training regimen to complete to not only improve what they were best at but to also balance their overall skills.

Taking notice that there was another person in the area, the purple-haired woman started moving over to figure who was leaning against a tree off to the side of the field. It was easy to tell who it was with the hair and his nose stuck in one of his favorite orange books.

"Kakashi? What are you doing here?" Yuago asked as she walked towards the silver-haired man. "I did not ask you to help out today." Not only was that strange, he was also here not as his Inu personality and not in the ANBU gear he normally wore when training with them. Instead he was in the standard jōnin attire: a Konoha flak jacket, dark blue pants and a long-sleeve shirt.

She was planning to have him join in with teaching the youngsters, as he was better suited to deal with teaching more advanced jutsu. Helps being a man of 1000 jutsu, or so the rumors say. And while Yugao knew many jutsu herself and could get the team started, if she really wanted the trio to grow they would need to be well balanced. And while it was uncommon for jōnin to do so she was smart enough to put her pride aside and ask for help in areas she was not an expert in.

The man just looked up from the orange book he was reading and gave an eye smile with his visible eye at the woman. "What? Can't a teacher wish to work with a student whenever he wants?"

"True, but it is just strange for you to start this now." Eyes narrowing at the man trying to figure him out. "So why are you really doing this?" He was not a man do to things without reason. Kakashi pushed himself off the tree while sliding the book into the pouch on his right leg.

"Well, let's just say that I have enough ghosts hunting me that I don't need one that can actually appear mad at me," the silver-haired man said off-handedly as he moved back towards the trio of young teens leaving a confused Yugao behind.

Quickly regaining her composure, she followed the man trying to get him to explain what he had said. Instead he ignored her questioning and focused on what he was planning to start teaching the young team. Quietly bouncing ideas off and on with the purple-haired woman he was happy to hear that she was already planning on teaching them what he had planned for the day so there would be no need for a change of plans.

Yugao called the trio of genin together and introduced them to her fellow jōnin /ANBU. While Naruto knew the man's alter personality, he had not met the man behind the mask yet. As was the norm with most ANBU ops to keep the identity of the shinobi reasonably safe when not in the field.

Naruto eyed the man in front of them, "I've met you before, haven't I?" There was something very familiar about him, and the hair was a major flag.

"Oh, I'm sure you have never seen my face before," Kakashi replied with an eye smile.

'We can't even see your face now,' was the thoughts of the four others around. The silence was almost deafening as the four gave the masked-man a flat look not believing he said that.

"Anyway," Kakashi spoke breaking the silence, "I have asked to help around and give pointers to the new genin. And also to assist in case a jōnin is needed for another job. But for today, we will begin with chakra control exercises." Taking a look at the three genin seeing their clothing already drenched with sweat from their training. "Luckily you already have worn yourself down physically with will make it harder to focus."

A common misconception was that one should train in chakra control when you just begin to be use to your full reserves. And while that way held merit for most, it was always better for the long run to train when worn down or even depleted as it will teach you to know how to work and perform with as little as possible. That way one could prolong their effectiveness in battle.

"Now then to start, you three are going to learn a very useful technique for all shinobi." The three young shinobi's eyes widen in excitement as they heard him speak. "Yes, you're going to learn how to climb trees." Watching the three face-fault as he finished, the jōnin thought that he should have tried to a little harder to become their sensei; just for moments like these.

"Umm… Kakashi-san," Sakura spoke up, "How is tree climbing going to help us with chakra control? We already know how to climb trees."

"Ahh, but do you know how to without using your hands?"

It did not take long for the three to learn the technique. Sakura had gotten it down first and had spent most of the time training with it to master her control and enlarge her reserves. Naruto and Sasuke took a bit longer to get it down, as they had larger chakra and less control at the start. But even then it only took them a few days to get it down. It would have been done sooner, but Yugao had forbidden them from training throughout the night and until they passed out.

After the team adjusted to a new training regime that pushed them to master the tree walking exorcise, their sensei introduced them to Team Eight and their sensei, Kurenai Yuhi. The red-eyed sensei was the jonin in charge of teaching Kiba, Shino, and Hinata from their graduating class. Naruto was happy to join in the team training as he had not seen Kiba or Shino often since the group had graduated. And to be able to train full out against each other was an added bonus.

From talking with Kiba, he had learned that the jonin was an expert in genjutsu and was an extremely skilled teacher. Naruto had accepted long ago that the only thing about genjutsu he was any good at was dispelling them. Other than that he was hopeless on them, but maybe the woman could help him.

After nearly a week of training with each other, Team Seven found that Kurenai was extremely strict when it came to doing what they were told and she was not afraid of putting the boys in their place if they got out of hand. Thought that was usually only on Kiba when he was wanting to show off.

Over all the two teams got along well, except for Sasuke preferring to be alone and on his own when the teams broke for breaks. Once the teams had gotten used to working together they were called to the two jonin after their warmups for instructions.

"Alright," Yugao announced, "Today we will be having a team on team match. Your job will be to capture the flag of the other team."

"But," Kurenai, in her normal red mesh armor blouse with white sashes resembling bandages, spoke cutting off the genin before they started getting to into it, "We will change it up to work on different aspect that you will come across in the field. As such one team will have two on defense and one on offense, and the other team will have two on offense and one on defense."

"Tsk, this is useless," Sasuke grumbled as he crossed his arms, "Should be me getting the bell." He could understand the concepts of this exorcise, but it was a waste of his talent to be put on defense. He should be on the attack, not sitting back waiting for something to happen.

"Or me, but it doesn't matter," Nartuto said as he sat on a high branch looking out into the trees. He was assigned to watch the flag and he was not going to fail. "This is the orders we were given so we have to follow them. Just leave it to Sakura."

"No matter how much she has trained, there is no possible way Sakura is strong enough to get the flag alone," Sasuke said flatly. While the Uchiha had to admit the pink haired girl had improved she was still weak in his mind.

"Just believe in her Sasuke," Naruto replied as he jumped down from his branch, "As seriously as you take this it is still training exorcise built to improve our skills and our teamwork."

"I don't need teamwork, I just need to get stronger otherwise I'll never be able to avenge my clan." The dark haired boy stood straighter locking eyes with the blond. "And sitting here playing games will not help."

Both boys stood quiet for a moment staring each other down. Naruto opened his mouth to retort and hope to persuade his friend from the path he was on again. He knew it was getting harder to do with each time he tried, but there was no way he was going to let a friend be alone forever. But he fore he could speak he was cut off as the sound of a branch snapping broke the silence of the clearing.

The two instantly moved into a defensive position turned towards where the sound had come from. All awhile keeping their eyes active looking for any other movement in the trees. Not a moment later Naruto acted and summoned a kunai and tossed it into brush. Grinning as he heard a yelp of surprise as the kunai hit near the intruder.

"You can come on out now," Sasuke spoke aloud taking charge of the area much to Naruto's annoyance.

There was silence for a moment before three figured landed on the far side of the clearing. Taking a look Naruto and Sasuke stood across from Kiba, Hinata, and the small white pup, Akamaru.

"Ha, always knew sneaking in wouldn't work on you two." Kiba grinned at the two as he got ready to go full out and really show how much he improved since the academy. Next to the boasting, Inuzuka, the young Hyuga sunk back as she noticed Team 7 staring at them, or more precisely Naruto watching them.

"Should have known you wouldn't have a plan, Kiba," Sasuke spoke. He could almost laugh, to attack a pair of shinobi that are already known to be stronger and not knowing how much that they have improved was just idiotic. "Never was too bright in that aspect."

Kiba let out a growl in reply at the insult. "That doesn't matter; I'll kick your ass anyway. I'm far stronger than I was back them!" The dog themed boy slid into a stance. Silence followed the boy's declaration.

Staring down the two genin and small dog in front of him, Naruto grinned ready to test how much they all had improved. "Alright Sasuke, we got to stick together."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, "I'll take Kiba." Next thing anyone knew the Uchiha shot forward and put the young Inuzuka on the defensive. Unfortunately for the blond, Sasuke was taking his fight farther away and deeper into the woods.

"Sasuke, wait!" Naruto called out trying to stop the dark haired boy from getting separated. But it was to no avail as the two boys vanished into the tree line with Akamaru following quickly to help his master.

The sword wielding boy cursed to himself as he turned back towards Hinata. They were supposed to defend the flag together. Not going on the offensive and getting pulled away from the flag. 'Will have to think about that later.'

"So I guess it is just you and me," Naruto spoke as he slid into a defensive stance. He could not help but notice her cheeks reddening as he said that but chose to ignore that for the moment.

The two jonin moved quickly thought the trees as soon as they had heard one of the students call out for them.

"That sounded like Naruto," Kurenai said as she pushed off a branch her dark hair flowing behind her. "Wonder what happened."

"Hope he did not overdo it and hurt someone too badly," Yugao replied. That was always a worry when training with teams you are not use to working with, but was an occupational hazard. Still she did not ones this young to get hurt too badly when training with others.

Only moments later did the two women land near the young boy. Catching the sight of another on the ground in front of him, they moved forward to evaluate the damage. The sight of the tan jacket made it easy for the two to identify the downed party. Kurenai more worried for the young girl she cared for moved to Hinata's side to check on her with Yugao following behind.

"Sensei," Naruto called out as he kneeled next to the collapsed girl, "Hinata just fainted."

Leaning down and checking on the girl, Yugao and Kurenai had to hold back a chuckle knowing the girl was fine. "Now, Naruto what happened?" Yugao asked looking at the boy a slight smirk on her face.

"Well, Sasuke took off with Kiba leaving me to fight her. I wasn't going to let her get the flag so I said I wasn't going to take my eyes off her," the blonde spoke recalling the events, "and she went all red in the face and collapsed. Is she alright? She's not sick, is she?" Finishing his description in worry for his friend. He knew that she had fainted a few times before when he tried talking to her and everyone said she was fine, but he did not believe them.

Kurenai gave the boy a smile as she stood up. "Yes, Naruto, Hinata will be fine."

"But why does she keep fainting?"

"That will be something she will have to tell you herself."

It was not much longer until the drill had ended. Sadly for the teams their sensei's called it a tie as with all the 'attacking' forces neutralized there was no chance for victory. Of course this did not sit well with Sasuke and Naruto as they were both still able to compete while Shino, who had drained Sakura of her chakra, stayed silent.

But their complaints were for not as Kurenai explained that they were to follow the orders given to each member of the team, which meant that they were the defense force and could not lead an attack on an enemy base. Begrudgingly the two were forced to accept the draw.

"Greetings, Yugao," the Hokage spoke as Team 7 entered the mission room. While he did not do it often, the elder man did enjoy being the one to hand out lower ranked missions to teams at times. It allowed him to get to know each team more and allow them to see him outside of his office. "Looking for a new mission for today?" Reaching for the tall stack of D-rank missions and picking up a few as smoke rolled out of his pipe.

"Actually sir," Yugao spoke halting the aged leader from choosing a mission, "I believe that my team has shown enough to be allowed a C-rank mission."

As the words left her mouth, the three youngster's eyes widened as they looked at the purple-haired woman in shock. As much as they wanted to be done with the choirs and on to real missions, they knew it was not their call. But to hear their sensei recommend them for a high challenge was amazing to hear.

"Now, wait a minute!" Iruka spoke up from his spot from beside the hokage. During time off from the academy the brown haired man took jobs to hand out missions for extra pay. "I know these three are talented, but they are still rookies barely two months removed from the academy." The scare-face academy teacher informed, as strong as he knew the three genin were they were still far too inexperienced for the next lever.

Yugao stood quietly as the chunin expressed his concern. She knew from reports that he was an academy teacher that truly cared for the students instead of trying to just push them through the system like some had tried to do over the years. She even knew that he had a close relationship with the blond on her team. But he needed to know they were no longer his place.

"Iruka-san," the jonin said calmly, "I believe that you are no longer in charge of these three young ninja, correct?" Earning a slight nod from the man, she continued, "While your concern is appreciated and shows your care for your former students, they are now ninja under my command and as such it is mine and the Hokage's opinion that matter in terms of what they are capable of doing."

As much as he wanted to argue, Iruka knew he had no place in their assessment now. He could prepare them and much as he could in the academy but now it was out of his hand in their training. And he had no idea how much they would have grown in the last few months. He let out a sigh in acceptance as he sat back down. "I understand, Yugao-san, I just want them to be fully prepared from what higher classed missions pertain."

Sarutobi sat quietly as he watched the exchange while puffing on his pipe. He knew that the academy teacher had some merit in his worry, but he had put this team together in hopes they would advance quickly and become a strong force for the village. "Alright, Yugao, if you believe they are ready," the Hokage spoke shuffling though the paperwork to find the mission, "Here I have the perfect mission for your team."

The aged man reached over and pulled out a sheet of paper from a pile nearly as large as the D-rank missions. "This one has been sitting for a bit for a good team to take." Looking the paper over the hokage gave a nod as he held the sheet out for Yugao, who took it from him. "This mission will be a protection mission where you will travel and protect the client from threats."

The three genin were all happy about getting a chance to prove themselves on a larger scale. Each of them were hoping for someone important like a princess or a lord of a foreign land. Their heads turned towards the sliding door as they heard it open once the Hokage called for the client to enter.

The three genin face faulted as they caught sight of an elder man in a black sleeveless shirt and black pants. The gray-haired man brought the bottle of booze in his to mouth and took a drink. Wiping his mouth with his wrist as he looked over the team.

"What's this?" the man grumbled as he leaned against the door frame, "This what I paid for? A bunch of brats."

"I assure you sir," Yugao spoke calmly assuring the man, "My team can handle anything a low class C-rank mission can produce." The visible flinch from the client was not missed by any of the adults in the room. "Unless there is a need for higher security…" Yugao trailed off eyes narrowed at the man seeing if he would challenge.

"Fine, the brats will do," the older man said with a displeased look across his face. The elder shinobi shared a quick glance at each other as the client spoke. While it was not uncommon for some clients to complain about having young genin as protectors, many accepted it with ease due to it being something they waved off as a shinobi thing.

"Alright team," the purple haired jonin said turning towards her genin, "We will meet at the gate in one hour. Pack light as we will be traveling a good distance, but also make sure you are ready to last at least a month." Getting nods and affirmatives from the three, she dismissed them to get pack as she turned back to the client to ensure that he would be prepared for the trip.

Standing under the shadow of the large gate, Yugao sighed as she watched Naruto walk up to the group. 'Should have known.' She inwardly thought cursing herself for pushing back teaching them how to create and use storage seals. Yugao knew that Sakura had already the basic knowledge about them as she had to use them to stare her tonfas and Sasuke looked to pack the bare minimum, but apparently Naruto never had that taught to him.

"Alright, Sensei, ready to go," the Scarlet spoke with a grin as he stopped in front of the group.

"That brat serious?" Tazuna asked as he pointed towards the boy. Or more precisely what was behind him. Being pulled behind the young blond was a small cart loaded up with many different boxes and containers.

"Naruto, Yugao-sensei said to pack light," Sakura

Blinking in confusion, Naruto looked back over his shoulder at the cart with his luggage. "Huh? What are you talking about? This is light." His statement causing his fellow genin to face fault and their sensei to plant her face in the palm of her hand.

"Naruto," Yugao spoke up regaining her composure, "Weren't you told how to pack for missions in the academy?" While the standards for graduation and overall evaluation had fallen over the last few years, the basic teaching of mission supplies was one that was guaranteed to be still taught.

"Yes I was, Sensei," Naruto replied not sure where this was going. He was told they had to pack the basic to last for a month long mission and had done as such.

"Then what's all that?"

"Supplies for the month. Mostly food and such."

"Naruto," Sakura said gaining the boy's attention, "We will only be traveling for a bit over a week to get to wave and once there we will be staying in the village. As such we wouldn't need all those supplies."

The boy's eyes widened as if that thought just came to him, but before the Scarlet could reply Yugao stepped forward next to the boy. "Well no arguing about it now. It is partially my fault for not teaching you the storage seals to take care of this," she said with a sheepish grin, "So I will take care of it this time." Pulling out a scroll from the small bag that she had over left shoulder and unrolling it.

She quickly worked through the process and finished sealing Naruto's belongings into a scroll with the promise to teach him that skill once they get back. "Alright team, let's head out," Yugao spoke as she handed Naruto the scroll with his belonging, which the blond quickly shoved into one of the pockets on his dark gray cargo pants, she turned back towards the gates and started heading out.

"So Tazuna," Sakura spoke up trying to create some form of conversation. The silence in the group had been getting to her a bit too much and was putting her on edge badly. "You said you're from Wave, right? Do not have ninja there?"

"Ninja are mostly for larger villages," Yugao spoke keeping an eye on their surroundings, "Many smaller villages are not able to train people in the ways of a ninja, but instead create their own militia or create a trade agreement with larger villages to help with protection."

"That's why Tazuna has us helping him with this," Sasuke said putting the thought together, "Wave and Konoha have an agreement put in place to be beneficial to each other."

"Correct," Tazuna answered, "Konoha helps when we need missions that involve ninja and things like that, and Wave provides an access for trades from the ocean front that are hard for villages that do not use waterways as much. That's part of why I am building the bridge. It would allow faster trade between us."

The team nodded in understanding as Tazuna had told them as they left the village about the bridge and how they were to protect him until its completion. It would make sense for a smaller village to create treaties with larger villages for protection and a way to sell their goods.

The group fell into a silence as they continued the path. As they walked each of the ninja glanced around the group and took in the surroundings of the bright spring day. None of the younger ninja really noticing the puddle in the middle of the path as they stepped around it.

Suddenly the silence of the area was broken as two voices cried out. Turning around the three genin and Tazuna turned in time to watch a chain wrap around Yugao by two figures. "Haha, got the bitch," one of the two shouted as he went to pull the chain along with his teammate. "One down!"

Shockingly the Uzuki just grinned as they pulled, "Sorry boys, I don't play nice." In a flash faster than anyone around could see, Yugao sliced though the chains and stood in a stance between the two. "Well if it isn't the Demon Brothers."

The two cursed as they watched the purple-haired woman escape their trap and damage their weapon. The chain now left each with roughly a third of the original length attached to their gauntlet. As they stood off the group got a good look at the attackers with each having long black hair and in gray clothing. Their hitaiate covering their foreheads with horn like decorrelations and a four water drop image with a line scratched through it.

The three genin instantly sprung into formation to protect the elder man as they each slid into a stance. Naruto summoning a single katana while Sasuke and Sakura drew out their own weapons. The three stood in a triangle formation with Susuke at the front and Naruto and Sakura at each side of their client.

"Damn it," one of the Demon Brothers spoke as he kept his eyes on the jonin. As much as he hated it he knew their plan was in trouble as soon as their first attack failed. But he was not going to let that cause them to fail their job. He did not want to think about what would happen if they returned as failures.

"Gozu, go get the target," the one with the twin horned headband called out as he shot towards Yugao to buy time for his partner to complete the job.

The one now identified man just nodded and turned towards the genin and retracted what was left of the chain into his gauntlet. In a flash he took off towards the group aiming to take them out with ease. Thinking it would be an easy kill with just having to deal a bunch of children, Gozu shot his right hand forward ready to rip through them with his gauntlet.

With a clang, the missing-nin was shocked to see his progress stopped by the blade of the Uchiha hitting the metal glove. The man cursed out loud as he jumped back dodging a swing from the blonde genin.

"Damn, brats," the ninja growled as he glared at the two.

The two genin stood side by side as they looked at the attacker. Sharing a nod, they chose to form a semi-team in dealing with this.

"Naruto, I can deal with him on my own," the dark hair boy announced. "You just sit this out."

"Not a chance," Naruto retorted, "Bet I could finish this before you could."

"Hn, fine," the last Uchiha, "We'll take him on together, should be easy enough." Even though both of the boys believed that they could take on the missing-nin, Sasuke also knew that it would a terrible idea to underestimate an opponent. Something that Yugao had knocked into him a few times in practice by letting him think he had an upper hand before pulling the rug out from under him.

Shifting their stance the boys got ready to face their first real opponent. "Sakura," Sasuke called out, "Protect Tazuna, we'll deal with this one." The boys then charged forward not waiting for the girl's reply. Sakura just nodded as the two shot off and moved into a defensive stance in front of the old man as she kept an eye out for any other threats.

Sasuke was the first to reach the rouge ninja and attacked with an upward slash by his short sword. The missing-nin just knocked the blade to the side with his gauntlet as he threw a kunai with his other hand. Before the small blade could hit its target a second blade deflected it causing it to hit the ground harmlessly.

Naruto eyed the older male as he shifted his stance, bringing his blade back to position after deflecting the kunai. Sending a slash, Naruto grinned as the man parried the attack while Sasuke moved to flank from the right. It was a simple tactic that the two had been working in while training. Luckly for the two genin the missing-nin seemed to be a lot slower than their sensei. As such they felt they were better prepared for such a fight. Launching forward the blond swordsman attacked from the front as Sasuke used his speed to break down the older ninja's defenses.

Without a word the two genin on instinct switched styles with the dark-haired team being the primary focus of the attack. Unfortunately for the two the missing-nin seemed to highly adapt to fighting swordsmen and was able to hold them off from any major blows.

"Will admit you brats have some skill," Gozu spoke as he used his gauntlet grabbing hold of Sasuke's blade, "But you are far too green to defeat someone that's faced real swordsmen." With a push, he forced Sauske off balance and kicked him into Naruto sending both the young boys to the ground. Gozu grinned as he quickly flashed through hand signs. "Water Release: Water Pellet." Five blobs of water formed in front of the man and shot towards the two genin with high speed.

The two quickly moved apart and avoided the attack as the fist sized pellets crashed into the ground. Planting and charging again the two worked in tandem in attacking forcing the man back. Reaching out Naruto summoned a second sword to attack while the Mist-nin counted with an extended kunai to block along with his gauntlet.

The two were not letting the man have a change to go on the offensive as they attacked with alternating blows.

Gozu grunted as he felt an edge of a blade run across his arm. It was only years of experience that had kept him from losing it and instead only taking a glancing blow. Whipping his gauntlet around, he shot out the bladed chain forcing the two to jump back giving space.

The man panted as he held his bleeding arm thinking of a new plan of attack. The two in front of him were better than he originally thought and it was showing with the cuts that graced his skin. Suddenly his thoughts were cut short as he felt a blow to the back of his neck.

Naruto and Susuke blinked in surprise as the man dropped to the ground and reveal Yugao standing behind the missing-nin with her hand raised in a chopping position.

"Good job you two," she said with a smile. The two genin pouted as they were unable to land the finishing blow themselves and claim the first real victory between them.

Looking at each other, the two boys just gave a silent promise that it was not over and went about cleaning their blades. As they cleaned the boys and Sakura kept a look out around them as their sensei tied-up the missing-nin to a large tree next to the path. Making sure that there were no other threats in the area, the three slightly lowered their guard as they secured the surroundings.

Once the two men were tied up, Naruto squatted down next to the two tied up missing-nin and took a closer look. Giving a nod the young boy reached down and started fidgeting with his back turned away from the rest of the group.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked as she watched the blond.

"These are cool, so I'm going to take them," He replied holding up one of the gauntlets before moving to remove the other one.

The pink-haired girl stared at him for a moment not fully believing he could just go and take another ninja's weapon. Turning towards Yugao she asked, "Yugao-sensei, can he do that."

Their sensei finished cleaning her blade and slid it back in her sheath. "I do not see why not. It is very common for a victor to take weapons or trophies from the fallen," the purple-haired jonin replied, "Besides these two are missing-nin and as such will be taken care off once returned to their village. So there should be no problem."

"Would the village also want their weapons back too?" Sasuke asked as he stood near the client keeping an eye out. It would make sense, most weapons could be counted as part of village secrets and they would not want them falling into the hands of enemies and used against them.

"Sometime they would, and the weapon would have its own bounty on it for its return, but that only is for more powerful weapons. But those are rare and doubt you will see any of those around any time soon."

Naruto grinned at her words and removed the other one and got Sakura to help him seal them in one of the scrolls. 'Really need to learn how to do create those,' Naruto thought as he put the scroll in his bag. 'Mmm maybe figure out how to store it with my other weapons.'

While he knew about being able to store extra things into his pocket dimension from his talks with the hokage, he did not know how to go about it quite yet. It was something that had not came up before as he spent most of his time training to try and master what he already could re-quip. Unfortunately so far he had not been able to draw upon any of the battle armors, but he was amazed with the many different weapons there were.

"Now then," Yugao spoke as she turned towards the client as Naruto finished up, "Mind telling us why you were a target of a couple of B-class missing-nin?" She narrowed her eyes and gave a look that promised pain if he did not comply to her question.

The stare alone from the woman caused the man to break as he sat dejectedly cross-legged on the ground. He should have known that this would happen. While he knew getting attacked was a given due to his goal, there was a reason why he held off as long as possible on returning to Wave without the best team he could. He may not have been able to pay for a higher class mission, but he be damned if he was going to head back without the best protection he could get.

Unfortunately he could no longer hold off returning to his home land and as such needed to take the next team assigned. No matter how untested they seemed to be.

"It is a long story," the old man said as he let out a sigh.

"We got time," Yugao's voice was icy as she moved closer looking down at the man. It was one thing to lie about a mission as it often happen to try to rip off villages from paying the correct amount. But this put her genin in danger and she was no happy with that.

And with that the man told the team about the troubles of his village. Tazuna explained that the Land of Waves had been taken over by a shipping magnate called Gatō, who had bankrupted all the people of the country. And as such, the only way to revitalize the economy was by building a bridge to the mainland that could render moot Gatō's monopoly that he was forcing on them.

"Gato, as in the Gato Shipping Company?" Yugao asked earning a nod from the man, "There were rumors and stories about him dealing in the black-market, but there hasn't been enough evidence to take him down." Not only were there rumors about him, every time a person was willing to come forward they disappeared before they had the chance. Which in this world everyone knew what happened to them.

Sighing Yugao looked over her team in thought. "Alright, this mission is no longer a C-class rank," she spoke as the three genin listened to her, "And as such I do not believe we should not continue given the new information."

"What!" The three young shinobi cried out in shock. Behind them Tazuna's shoulders slumped as he figured this is what would happen if the truth had come out. And now he was either going to have to continue on without a guard or go back to Konoha and explain to the Hokage about why he did not explain everything truthfully. Neither sounded like options he wanted to take.

"This mission has been compromised and far more dangerous than originally stated. Thus it would be better for us to return to Konoha and scrap the mission."

"There is no way I'm gonna give up, Yugao-sensei," Naruto said, "We can't just abandoned Tazuna and Wave just because there is a little unaccounted trouble."

Sasuke stepped forward next to the blond. "I agree. It would no due for us to fail our first time out to prove ourselves." Sakura instantly followed suit nodding her head in agreement with her teammates. While she was a bit more scared than she was showing, there was no way she was planning to be left behind.

Part of her as proud to see them standing up for this, but it was still a great risk that they would be taking by continuing. "You do understand that Gato will send stronger people to attack and you will be put in life threating situations?"

"Occupational hazard" Naruto replied with a small grin.

Looking down at her three genin, Yugao could tell that they were all-in on wanting to complete this mission. She could just pull rank and force them to return back to the village. But she also knew that doing such a thing would shatter their trust in her and hurt their own self confidence which you hinder them in the long run.

"Fine, we will continue," she finally stated after a few moments of thinking. "But," Yugao continued cutting of the three from celebrating their small victory, "I will be sending and update to the Hokage on this matter. And if he decides to have us not complete the mission; we will do so without complaint. Got it?" She finished seriously staring down the three young ninja causing the three to nod quickly in response.

Ten minutes later the team was on their way towards Wave while keeping a more detailed eye out for their surroundings. A message already on its way back to the village on the wings of a carrier pigeon that was assigned to the team.

Thankfully, as Yugao thought, they had not run into any more trouble as the crossed the waterway to get to wave. She knew that if they were going to be attacked it would be soon as they would be in the relative safety of the village soon and as such a bit harder to get too.

Soon they caught sight of the large bridge that was in the process of being built. The ninja looked up at it amazed at the sight. It was easily one of the biggest structures that they had ever seen.

"Why is it so large, Tazuna?" Sakura asked as they docked and got off the small boat they were using. They were quite lucky that there was someone that was willing enough to transport them to wave. Enough of the sailors had heard what was happening in Wave and had chosen to avoid the area completely.

Tazuna gave thanks to the man that ferried them across before turning back to the pink-haired girl. "Had to be. Otherwise Gato could easily damage it and we'd be right back to where we started."

Nodding in understanding, Sakura took to the man's left side for protection as the group made their way from the dock they stayed relatively silent while keeping watch. Since they were now in Wave country they took to a silent approach to better hear their surroundings and not have their attention split.

"We should almost be to the village," Tazuna spoke breaking the silence after a while of walking and thus letting his protectors know that they were close.

The group nodded as they continued down the path paying greater attention to the area around them. If they were getting attacked it would be soon. Without saying a word Naruto summoned a kunai in his hand and focused on bushes that were along the dirt path.

"Sensei," he spoke quietly alerting the others, "We're being watched."

He was not able to pin point where the feeling was coming from, but he could sense there was someone else in the area. It was something that he had picked up through the last couple years to be able to tell when others were around. Though he did not know if it was their chakra he was feeling or just a sixth-sense, but it did come in handy with some of the villagers.

"Everyone down!" Yugao called out and she pulled Tetsuna to the grown while her genin followed her command. As soon as they hit the ground the sound of something flying over their heads filled the area until the sound of it hitting a tree.

Quickly getting to their feet and ready for another attack the group took sight of a large sword embedded in the tree. Naruto eyed the sword in slight awe as it rivaled some of the blades that he could wield. But another part of him just knew that the wielder of that blade was a master of it by the way it flew and landed perfectly in the tree.

Suddenly a man appeared standing on the blade looking down on the team and old man. He was a tall and muscular man with pale skin, short spiky black hair, brown eyes, and small eyebrows. His forehead protector sideways on his head and was shirtless, with his chest only covered by a belt, wearing baggy striped pants and a set of wrist-warmers extending up to his elbows, with matching leg-warmers.

"Hmm, if you wish to live," The man said though the bandage-like mask on his face, "Then you best hand over that old man."

((AN: Sorry this one took so long, I had a hard time finishing this chapter. That and lost my flash drive that had the story on it for a couple weeks did not help either.

As I said before I know that some will be disappointed with following along with the Wave arc, but I feel it is far too important to the character development to leave out. But there will be changes to the arc and some major differences.

Also for fun I will be dropping small easter eggs from other forms of entertainment. Some will be obvious others will be more hidden, but I will try to work them into the story so they will not seem out of place with either the action or communication. ))

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and New Year to all

More Reviews the better…Thanks