Naruto, having for the most part turned away from pranks with only his sarcasm and occasional torturing of Sasuke and Sakura being the closest thing that could be considered as such, had put his pranking mind to other uses. One of those had been to help Tenten design new weapons or improve old ones. They had come up with several different weapons, a few of which Tenten's father was in the process of making and a few that were unfeasible for the moment and had been put on the shelf.
After dinner they had walked around one of Konoha's parks before Naruto escorted Tenten home, getting a kiss on the cheek good night, much to Kaito's, who had been watching from inside the shop, disgruntlement. After that Naruto went home, knowing that he would need a good night's rest for whatever mission he had to go on tomorrow.
The next morning Naruto found his way into the Hokage tower. He paused and thought for a moment, should he go through the front door, or the window? Making a decision he channeled some chakra through his feet and jumped up all the way to the window to the Hokage's office. "Good morning baa-chan!" Naruto greeted, ducking under an empty jar of sake.
"Good morning brat/Hey what's up brat!"
Naruto blinked when he heard the other familiar voice in the room, "Anko-nee-chan?" A grin worked its way on his face as he saw the purplette. "Hey! What's up? Am I going on the mission with you?"
"Yes you are," Tsunade interrupted before Anko could say anything, causing said woman to pout. "You guys have two more people who are going to be going with you. We just need to wait for them."
As if on cue the door opened and two people walked in, "Hokage-sama, Izumo and Kotetsu reporting for a mission."
"Izumo? Kotetsu?" Naruto looked at the pair as he scratched his head, "You two are finally getting away from your gate guarding duty?"
The pair looked over at him before grinning, "Hey Naruto." Kotetsu scratched his cheek with his index finger. "I guess we are. A good thing too, I was getting bored guarding that damned gate all day every day."
"I don't see how you can complain," Izumo shook his head. "Guard duty is an important job. We're protecting the citizens of Konoha every day, you should be proud of that."
"Is that what you tell yourself to go to sleep at night," Naruto grinned at the brown haired Chunin. "Seriously dude, I don't know how you people can sit there day in and day out. The monotony must be killer."
"Ahem," Tsunade coughed into her hand to get everyone's attention. "Now that I have your attention." The busty blond woman tossed a scroll to Anko. "Your mission is to escort and guard the Daimyo of Kiba No Kuni (Land of Claws) to Tatsu No Kuni (Land of Iron) and then guard him during a negotiation process he is having with the Daimyo of Ta No Kuni."
"Isn't Tatsu No Kuni that Samurai nation?" Naruto commented as he tapped his chin and looked up at the ceiling in thought. "The one that's managed to maintain its autonomy through all three great shinobi wars?"
"So a B-rank then?" Anko pocketed the scroll. "Well it's not exactly what I had in mind, but I suppose it will do."
"Actually due to the oddity of this mission it will be considered A-rank," Tsunade corrected, getting Anko to turn back to her. "You see the Daimyo from Ta No Kuni has hired bodyguards from Kumo. As you know it's something of an oddity to have two different ninja villages on the same mission, and while we are not on unfriendly terms with Kumo anymore, I certainly would not call us friends either."
Anko hummed for a moment, "I suppose that makes sense. Still I can't see anything going wrong."
"There are a lot things that can go wrong on a mission like this," Naruto gave the woman a smirk. "I mean you're going on this mission right?"
"Oh ho, looks like the brat's grown a pair since he became a big bad Chunin," Anko grinned, licking her lips a tad. "Looks like when we get back I'm gonna have to take you down a peg or two."
Naruto gave a grin to match the purple haired snake summoner, "You think you can still beat me like you used to? You're welcome to try, just don't complain when I kick your ass six ways to Sunday."
"Ha! We both know that you're a thousand years to soon to beat me."
"You know you keep lengthening the amount of years it's gonna take me to beat you every time you say that. You must be in need of an ego boost if you're expanding your yearly limit like that."
Tsunade received several tic marks on her head as she continued listening to the two bickering, and a part of her wondered if it was a good idea to send them on a mission. Meanwhile Izumo and Kotetsu were looking back and forth between the pair, placing bets on who would win this war with words.
"Oh for the love of- Will you two shut up!" Tsunade shouted, her anger getting the better of her as she threw a paperweight at Naruto and a sake bottle at Anko.
Both of them ducked under the thrown objects and turned to look at Tsunade, "Sorry about that boss lady/ baa-chan."
Tsunade rubbed her head as she felt a serious headache coming on from the pair, "Just go…your employer will be at the North gate within the next two hours."
"Alright! Everyone get your shit together and meet by the North gate in two hours!" Anko shouted, raising her fist in the air.
"I'll see you all then, Later Baa-chan!" Naruto grinned as he towards the open window and jumped out. The others left in their own way, Anko shaking her head and leaving in a Sunshin while Kotetsu and Izumo left through the door.
Tsunade sighed and pulled out a bottle of sake, "maybe it was a mistake to let those two take a mission together."
"Curse that damned brat!" Orochimaru cried out, taking deep heaving breaths as the pain in his arms and now his whole body felt like it was on fire, "Damn him! I'll kill that stupid blond Genin the next time I see him!"
"Orochimaru-sama you must calm down," Kabuto entered the room, frowning at the way his master was thrashing about. "If you keep moving so much you're going to injure yourself even more."
"Kabuto-kun, what have you found out for me?" Orochimaru gasped as he ignored his subordinate's words.
"Not much I'm afraid," Kabuto pulled out a scroll and unsealed the files from it. "This was all I could get, and there was nothing here on Naruto. It seems all information on him is kept completely confidential. Only the Hokages themselves can access those files and with the Sandaime gone…"
"The next one in line is to be Tsunade, and I doubt she would let me look at them," Orochimaru finished Kabuto's sentence in a murmur, his mind working at the possibilities that this new information might hold. "And what of Sasuke-kun?"
"It seems we have some more troubles here as well," Kabuto pushed up his glasses before looking at the information that had been given to him by Orochimaru's mutually beneficial partner. "It seems that Naruto managed to combined two Fuja Hoin seals together to create a more powerful seal. I am sure you have noticed that you can barely even feel the power of the curse mark you placed on him."
Orochimaru nodded, "Yes I had been wondering about that. After finding out that blond brat managed to get rid of his own, I tried connecting to Sasuke's only to feel just a small pulse. Are you telling me that in addition to getting rid of his own seal, he also managed to completely seal off Sasuke-kun's?" The thought left a bad taste in the Snake Sannin's mouth and served to aggravate him further.
"Well not completely, as you said you have been able to feel small twinges from the seal," Kabuto said.
"Hmmm…" Orochimaru frowned as he tried to sort things through. If the seal was closed off as much as he thought it was, then controlling Sasuke from here would be a problem. However, by that same token he knew that there was no feasible way to get him out of the village. Even if he came willingly they would still have to deal with that blond brat, and Orochimaru was not willing to waste valuable resources until he was sure he could procure Sasuke. "For the now there is nothing we can do about Sasuke-kun, not until we find some way to slip him out of Konoha without anyone's notice." The pale skinned man paused. "I want you to gather a list of our shinobi who are not listed in Konoha's registry."
"What do you plan to do Orochimaru-sama?" asked Kabuto.
"Kukuku, you'll see Kabuto-kun, you'll see."
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