"Mikoto, thanks again! If you ever need any help, don't be afraid to ask me." Naruko said. She had just gotten to the Uchiha house and dropped off Haku. The boy was excited to be staying a week at his friend's house. She was worried though, what mother wouldn't be? She was leaving her son for a week and she was going to miss him terribly.
"Don't worry Naruko. Now go! Don't want to be late, do we?" Mikoto said.
"Thanks! Bye!" Naruko said as she ran off.
Over the past week, Christina was able to beat the habit of being on time into Obito. For this, everyone was grateful. Now they wouldn't have to wait forever anymore!
Naruko was running, although she failed to notice the fact that a young Uchiha boy was in her path. She tripped right over him, sending them both to the ground. The boy looked up at the girl that had just tripped over him.
"Hey, Lady! I know I might be small, but I'm not small enough to not notice in the middle of the road!" He yelled.
"Sorry Kid! I'm really distracted and I have to get to my mission on time." She said as she stood up. She looked at her watch. 2 minutes and the Hokage Building was 5 miles away. Great. "Sorry again, gotta go bye!" She rushed out in an instant. She sped off at full speed towards the Hokage Building. There was no way, she wasn't going to make it unless she did one thing. She didn't want to do it, but she was told that the client was extremely impatient and none of them could be late. At this rate, she would still be 10 minutes late. That was it, she had to do it.
She entered her biju mode and glowed an intense orange-red-yellow color. She looked like it had engulfed her in flames and she had black markings that went up her legs and chest. She shot off at a speed that would rival Christina's or her father's Hirashin.
Christina and Neji were standing at the front gate to the village with the client walking towards them. The rest of the team was standing near her, well, except for Naruko. They felt her use her biju mode. They had been so used to the feeling from the war that they would recognize it anywhere. Their heads snapped up in the direction that it came from.
Christina groaned. "Great. What did she do now?"
"I don't see why she would need to use that. Is she really that paranoid about being late or did she somehow tick off someone that was extremely powerful?" Neji said.
"What? What is that?" Kakashi asked.
That's when Naruko was suddenly in between the team and the client. Well, she was more so right in front of her team. She slid down on her knees and thrust her hands up into the air.
"SAFE!" She called out. Of course, she was still in her biju form, so it sort of freaked out everyone except Christina and Neji.
"What... Why the hell do you look like a bonfire?" Obito asked.
"Huh? Oh this. Well, ya see, it's sort of complicated." Naruko said. "I'll explain later." She then turned off the biju mode and stood up next to her comrades.
The clients walked up.
"Well that was quite a show. How did you do something like that?" The older man asked. He had a young boy about the age of 8 next to him. What was presumed to be his wife stood next to him and his little 4 year-old daughter stood behind the woman's legs.
"It's an S-rank secret, sorry, can't give it out." Naruko said. Technically she wasn't lying, it's just that in the future it happened to leak out.
"Well, let's leave for Suna. Team, I want Kakashi, Rin, Naruko, and Obito to take the first round of carrying the carriage." Minato said. The four nodded and picked up the poles on the ends of the carriage.
"Neji, Christina, since you two have to best defensive skills, you two will be protecting the clients in case of attack. We'll be taking a break in a few hours. Then, we will switch around tasks, got it?" Minato said.
All of his students nodded and the group walked away towards Suna. After a couple of hours, the clients got tired, so they stopped so they could eat lunch.
"Alright kids, I want you guys to collect some food for us and the clients. Some of you catch fish in the river, presumably the boys, since the girls won't exactly want their clothes to be wet and become, er.. well, see through and they don't want to strip. Girls, divide up the task of finding different berries, nuts, and fruits. I'll start the fire, go!" Minato said to his team. They all jumped off after nodding.
Minato started collecting sticks from where they were stopped. After about 5 minutes, he had a good pile of kindling and set to work with the fire after rolling over some logs for them to sit on.
"You've got a very good team here. Seems like they'll do what you ask and not once have I heard them complain about anything." The man said as he sat down on a log.
"Yes, they're a very good team, I'm extremely proud of them. Though that's not why I'm proud of them. After all, it should be expected of them as ninja not to complain and follow orders. I'm proud of them because they are all very accepting of each other, even though they each have different personalities. They also love and care for each other as brothers and sisters would, they may get on each others nerves occasionally, but if you hurt one of them, you better expect to have all the others on you hands as well." Minato said. "I'm sorry, I never got your name, what is it?" Minato asked
"Kenji, and yours?" The man asked.
"Minato." He said as he shook the man's hand.
"Minato? As in Minato Namikaze? Well I'm honored to have you protecting me." Kenji said.
Minato laughed, "Well, I'm not even the best on my team. The brown-haired boy, brown-haired girl, and blonde-haired girl on my team have all surpassed my skill level." Minato said.
Well, now Kenji was confused. "But, they are younger than you. And besides, if your the sensei, then how are they stronger than you?" He asked.
"It's a very complicated situation, but they are some of the strongest people I have ever seen. The blonde-haired girl, she just may be the strongest shinobi in the world at this moment. Not to mention that the others on my team are extremely strong as well, they are no doubt destined to be one of the strongest genin team ever. " Minato said.
That's when the guys returned. They had a bucket full of fish and were sopping wet, which they did not look to happy about. That's when one of the fish flipped up and landed in Obito's hair. He freaked out of course. He raised his arms to get it out of his hair, which successfully gave Kakashi and elbow to the face. On pure instinct, he reached for his face, dropping the bucket of fish. Neji reached out to grab it, but of course, it was upside down by this point, and the fish fell all over his arms.
Kakashi and Neji slowly turned their heads towards the now fish-free Obito. They gave glares that could rival that of Choji's when you ate the last bite of his food.
"OOOOBBBIIITTTOOO!" The two bellowed.
Minato burst out laughing and that's when he heard laughs identical to his from behind him. He turned, still in a fit of laughter to see his three female students behind him, cracking up.
They stopped laughing after a minute and looked at the boys, who were all grinning evilly. Neji spoke first.
"So, you think this is funny, do you?" He asked. Christina and Naruko stopped dead in their tracks. They knew that look all to well, that's the look Neji got when he was about to get some sweet revenge for a prank they had pulled on him.
"Hey guys, if they think it's so funny, why don't we show them just how funny it was to be in our positions." Obito said. That's when Minato and Rin stopped.
The guys each picked up fish and smiled at them. The girls ran shrieking. The guys ran after them and soon, all of them were gone and off into the woods. Minato sighed in relief. They had forgotten about him.
The girls were still running and ran back into the camp. That's when the boys appeared in front of them and poured fish all over them.
"Ewww!" The girls whined. They were covered in fish slime! Gross! The boys laughed at that. Then then the girls stopped them and whispered in their ears. They all gained devilish smiles after that. They each picked up some fish and quickly did a substitution with something behind Minato. They put the fish all over him.
He got up and shook the fish off of him. He turned to his students. "Alright guys, very funny, go change." He said.
They headed back to their tents and changed. After a few minutes, they were all standing outside again. But, where was their sensei? They looked around and that's when Minato jumped on top of all of them and gave them a huge, slimy, fishy hug.
"Oh how I love my students." He said as he covered them all with fish slime.
"Minato-sensei!" They all yelled. They had just changed their clothes too!
He laughed and told them that they could change again and this time he wouldn't do anything. They went back and changed.
The guys were sent back to get more fish, since all of the previous ones were ruined after all their pranks. The girls went with them this time though, so they could use the stream to clean all their clothes.
They set to work and within a half an hour, they were back at the campsite again. The boys set to work on cooking the food while the girls put up a clothes line to dry everyone's clothes. Then they sat around the fire, and decided just to talk.
Christina and Neji were nestled up together on one log. The next log over, Kakashi had sat next to Naruko, and much to everyone's surprise, put an arm around her shoulder. She replied by resting her head on his shoulder. Obito had sat next to Rin, and she was realizing something.
She had always liked Kakashi because that's what all of her friends did, and she didn't want to feel like an outsider. So she had pretended to like him. She had tricked herself into thinking she had liked him, but she would never really go for him. He was too cold to her, she needed a guy with a big heart. A guy that would always be there for her and cheer her on. A guy like Obito.
She leaned her head on Obito's shoulder and put her arms around his waist. He was surprised and ecstatic. He hid it though, and simply put an arm around her waist as well.
They started talking and were sharing stories about their past days. Of course, Naruko got an idea, and she smiled.
"Hey 'Kashi, Rin, Obito, there is this great place that Lee showed Christina, Neji, and I. We should really take you to it." Naruko said.
"What place is that Naruko-chan?" Rin asked.
"It's this small little shop called 'The Curry of Life Shop'." She said.
Christina and Neji froze. Oh they remembered that shop well. More than they wished they ever had. The thought of eating that godawful curry again and got a shiver up their spines. No, they wouldn't take that chance with their lives again. They had already been forced to eat it twice or three times in Neji's case they wouldn't eat it ever again if it was up to them. Besides, what if that woman made them try that red curry this time! No, they wouldn't go back there, no way in hell.
"Why, is it super good?" Obito asked.
"Oh, totally! Just ask them." Naruko said, gesturing to Christina and Neji.
"Naruko-chan, have you developed a sudden hate for them?" Christina asked.
"No! It's good, don't ya think Neji? I mean, I bet you would love to go back there!" Naruko said.
"Nope, I'm not going anywhere near that shop again. I had three near death experiences there, I'm not having another." Neji said.
"What do you mean? Is the curry that bad?" Rin asked.
"No, it's not bad. It's just extremely spicy. Neji couldn't move until I I force fed him water, well, the second and third time he just passed out. Naruko fell backwards and then she basically shot out flames the second time. I froze for a minute the first time, and the second time, I was in a unconscious state and it brought me out of that, and I kinda dry heaved for a minute. Lee was the only one who could actually eat it, and somehow, he ate large quantities of it and thought it was delicious. He ate as much of the curry as Naruko does ramen." Christina said.
They laughed and checked on the fish to see them done. They called over the clients and their sensei and all of them ate. They got up, they still had half of the day to get through. They switched positions, only Naruko staying to carry the carriage, and they set off.
When they were about half an hour close to when they'd stop for supper and sleep, Naruko felt a chakra signature come up from behind her. She motioned for everyone to stop immediately and they turned as the enemy came into view.
They dropped down from the tree and got into battle positions. While they did this, team 7 got into battle positions as well. Naruko had her kunai raised and her eyes flicked around to all of the faces. Then she lowered her kunai and arm to her side.
She stood there, dumbstruck. Her eyes as wide as a deer caught in the headlights. She blinked once and stared ahead, not believing what she saw. There was a man she had gotten so close to. Sadly, he had died during the war though, but yet again, she was meeting him in the past.
"K...Killer Bee?" She asked.