"Come here Tora." - says Naruto in a quiet voice to a brown cat with dark brown stripes on her body, sharp teeth, and a red bowtie.
As the cat walked into Naruto's arms, Naruto took off towards the Hokage tower to report the success of yet another D-rank mission.
After handing off the cat Naruto stared at Hiruzen and then opened his mouth. "Jiji, I beg of you, give us a mission that doesn't contain of me picking up feces or running after that demonic cat, just an escort mission or something of the sorts." - begged Naruto, earning a chuckle from Hiruzen and Kakashi.
"Kakashi, what do you think? Is Naruto ready for a higher rank mission?" - asked Hiruzen.
For the past 2 months that Naruto has been doing D-rank missions, on the side, Kakashi has been training Naruto in his wind element where Naruto is working on the second stage of it. Kakashi has also taught Naruto a few wind element jutsu and are slowly working on the water element as-well. On top of that Kakashi has been helping Naruto with making his taijutsu style more efficient for Naruto and Naruto has also advanced a level with his fuinjutsu.
"I believe Naruto would benefit from some experience outside of our sparring sessions and he would need to take his first life soon as well." - replied Kakashi to which Hiruzen nodded.
Hiruzen started looking through the papers to find a suitable mission for Kakashi and Naruto but suddenly a clone rushed into the office.
"Jonin Aobi, reporting from duty." - said the man. "Continue." - said Hiruzen.
"Me and my genin team were sent on a recon mission to Mugenki no Kuni ( Land of Infinite Trees ) but we were suddenly ambushed by one of the seven swordsman called Raiga Kurosuki. We managed to eliminate his partner who was called Ranmaru and with teamwork, we managed to drive him back, but I believe it's likely we will be ambushed by him for personal vendetta." - explained the man.
"So, you are requesting for backup I assume?" - confirmed Hiruzen, earning a nod from said man.
"Alright, I will send Kakashi and his apprentice Naruto with you since I was already going to send them on a B-rank mission." - said Hiruzen.
"All due respect Hokage-sama, I am well aware of the skill of the Hatake, but the boy seems no older than six, what could the boy help with." - asked Aobi.
"My apprentice might be six but he is easily at chunin level, if needed he can push himself to a level of low-jonin as well so I assure you that he won't drag you down." - responded Kakashi to which Aobi reluctantly nodded.
"Ight Naru, go pack for a week, the mission might drag on longer, meet us at the gate." - commanded Kakashi to which Naruto nodded, using 'Shunshin' to get home.
At his house, Naruto sealed kunai and shuriken in his storage seals positioned on his wrists.
An hour later, Naruto had reached the gate where he met Aobi and Kakashi. Aobi then lead the way to his team's current location.
After a day of traveling, they reached their team's camp, where the Aobi dispelled itself.
At the camp, they met Aobi's team of three. There was a black-haired Hyuga girl who had a very cocky attitude.
The second person was a blue-haired civilian boy who was very shy, and lastly there was a blond female Yamanaka who was very friendly.
"How is the little brat backup?" - was the first thing the Hyuga said.
"Great to meet you too..." - responded Naruto with a non-caring attitude.
"Hello, my name is Akiko Yamanaka." - said the blond girl extending her hand towards Naruto which he shook with a smile.
"My name is Naruto Namikaze." - Naruto introduced himself, getting wide eyes from everyone other than Kakashi.
"N-Namikaze?" - asked the blue-haired boy called Shiro to which Naruto nodded, not wanting to talk about it.
"I would like for you to explain the situation now." - declared Kakashi, breaking the awkward silence. As they started explaining what happened and started forming possible ways to eliminate the swordsman.
A few days later, all five of them were making their way back to the leaf. They had been camping out and waiting for Raiga's ambush but since it never happened they thought it's best if they start heading back to Konoha.
'BOOM!'
Suddenly all around the five explosions went off. Everyone got into a formation and prepared to fight.
Then in a blue blur, Raiga charged at Aobi and tried to slash at his neck, which he barely blocked with a kunai, before Aobi could react Raiga sent a kick at his ribs which Aobi wasn't able to block and was sent flying through the trees.
"SENSEI!" - yelled the three genins but before they could get their focus back onto Raiga, they found him already coming at them.
'Clang!'
As Raiga tried to cut off the Hyuga's head, Kakashi managed to block the sword with a kunai and land a hit on Raiga, causing him to jump back.
"Sharingan no Kakashi, I will enjoy claiming your bounty." - declared Raiga in a furious tone.
As Raiga was finishing his sentence, he was attacked by five clones of Naruto, which he dispelled with relative ease, but the clones were a cover for Kakashi to send a fireball going towards Raiga.
When the fireball was flying towards Raiga, Naruto was making hand seals of his own 'Tiger → Ox → Dog → Rabbit → Snake' 'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!' - yelled Naruto, sending the jutsu directly where the fireball was headed, amplifying the strength of the already massive fireball.
"Shit!" - thought Raiga seeing the massive fireball, as he substituted himself with his swords and used the timing to attack Naruto but Naruto being prepared he managed to block the kick flying at him, although the strength behind it certainly injured his arm.
Naruto managed to push him back and stalled enough of time for Aobi to get back up and for Kakashi to send another jutsu at him.
'Earth Release: Rock Shuriken' - said Aobi, as he made a rock levitate and threw it at Raiga who was busy dodging another lighting jutsu from Kakashi so he got hit by the big rock.
Suddenly, you could hear the sound of birds chirping and electricity crackling from behind Raiga, where Kakashi could be seen forming a blue electric sphere in his hand.
'Chidori!' - shouted Kakashi, piercing Raiga with the blue sphere through his heart, ending his life.
After they confirmed that Raiga was dead from having his heart pierced by a menace like 'Chidori', Kakashi sealed his body in a scroll and everyone started making their way back towards Konoha, hoping to arrive there by nightfall.
When they arrived, Kakashi told Naruto to meet him at their training ground the next day and he went to report to the Hokage along with Aobi.
The next day, Naruto met Kakashi at the team seven training ground.
When Naruto arrived, Kakashi was already there and threw Naruto an envelope.
"What's this?" - asked Naruto after catching the mysterious, bland white envelope.
"We are splitting the bounty i received from killing Raiga, he had quite a bounty on his head as well." - responded Kakashi.
"But why? You killed him, I just helped a little, I didn't even do anything major." - retaliated Naruto but Kakashi insisted on Naruto taking the money so he caved.
"So, why did we meet here so early? I would expect you to want to sleep in like usual." - asked Naruto.
"Well, we have a C-rank mission today, we are to exterminate bandits from a camp that blocks the trade to Nami no Kuni ( Land of Waves )." - informed Kakashi to which Naruto got excited.
"Are we leaving right now?" - quickly asked Naruto, excited to go for a mission where he can be of help but not any menial labor.
"Yeah, I assume you have all your stuff already with you?" - queried Kakashi to which Naruto nodded.
"Alright, if that is so then we will move out right now." - commanded Kakashi as they started moving towards the gate to leave the village for their mission.
It was currently early morning and the sun was still rising. The sunlight shone on the trees giving an eery feeling. Rustling could be heard from inside the forest where two people were jumping from branch to branch moving towards a camp set up by multiple bandits.
You could see three bandits already being awake and keeping a lookout while the rest were still in their tents, likely sleeping.
As the duo got close to the camp they hid in the trees.
"So, do I just rush in and take them all out like a barbarian?" - inquired Naruto, to which Kakashi chuckled since he found it funny how easy-going Naruto was in the current situation. He was also interested in seeing how Naruto will react after taking his first life.
"You can do whatever you see fit for this mission, they certainly can't compare to a chunin level ninja so you should be able to handle them with minimum effort." - answered Kakashi to which Naruto nodded and prepared himself mentally.
"They are bad people, it's kill or be killed and it's the life of a ninja to kill others for their village." - thought Naruto, trying to justify the fact that he is going to kill others.
Naruto jumped down from the tree and sneaked up behind one of the men and slit his throat with a kunai, he then blitzed at the second man and stabbed him in the heart.
The third man, not being able to react fast enough just tried to run at Naruto but he received a kunai through his skull.
Naruto then made the 'Ram' hand seal. 'Wind Style: Pressure Damage' - shouted Naruto as a massive wind sphere formed around all the tents, the sphere then pushed all the tents flying away along with the people resting inside the tents, killing them all.
Naruto stood there for a moment and then felt the urge to puke. "I won't react in an abnormal way, it's just the life of a ninja, I don't have to like this, I will just have to get used to this." - thought Naruto as he pushed the thoughts aside and retreated where Kakashi was positioned
"So, how you feeling?" - asked Kakashi.
"Like shit." - replied Naruto as they started to run through the trees, going back to Konoha to report yet another successful mission.
When they got back, Kakashi went to report the mission while Naruto headed home to get some training in for the day.
When he got home he made fifty shadow clones and ordered half of them to go work on chakra control and elemental manipulation while the rest went off to work on the 'Rasengan' which he was close to getting the jutsu down.
[ Six months later ]
The sun was setting and stores were closing. It was soon going to be night as Naruto was rushing towards the Hokage tower after being called there for a last-minute mission.
"I'm here, I'm here." - said Naruto as he appeared in the Hokage's office.
"Hey, Jiji! What did you need me here for? I was supposed to be on a break, wasn't I?" - asked Naruto. He was a little annoyed since he was in the middle of training and was about to reach the sixth level of fuinjutsu, something he has been working on for the past four months.
"Naruto." - said the Hokage in a strict tone.
Naruto nodded as he started listening to why he was called here, he noticed that Kakashi was here as well so he assumed it was a mission that he was being sent on.
"You are to escort the Wind Daimyo's right-hand man Naoko Renjiro to Kaze no Kuni ( Land of Wind ) and make sure he is safe, wouldn't need a conflict between the two villages, right Naruto?" - commanded Hiruzen in a strict tone to which Naruto nodded.
"Yes Hokage-sama, it shall be done." - he responded as he and Kakashi left to gather supplies for their mission.
•2036 words.
[ Alright, I'm ending the chapter here, where I sat up the next 'Arc' for my fanfiction. This chapter didn't have a real purpose or anything too important to the story since currently for the next four-five 'Arcs' I won't have any big story-related stuff, just setting everything up for the main story which will begin after a time-skip. ]