31 Chapter 30 (1/2)

We were having a good dinner that night. Naruto surprisingly was eating the healthy food so well. Perhaps he really did change for the most part. I knew better since Torune and Fu reports had been immensely comprehensive. His behavior, demeanor and trademark knuckleheadedness seemed to be toned down now. Though his appetite didn't but never mind that since Hitori would always love an excuse to cook food. She was happily chirping in the kitchen doing dishes while letting us have a serious talk. The house had been well sealed by Hitori's barrier jutsu so, I guess that it's okay to really talk.

”Naruto-kun, now that you know that I am the ROOT director, I am really curious, to what extent do you had learned from them?” I inquired. The blond seemed to be a bit taken aback but he recovered nonetheless.

”Seriously, I was surprised to know that, y' know? Let's see, I finished with that scroll, Torune-Nii, and Fu-Nii along with Ero Sennin pretty much taught me all they can--ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, and fuinjutsu, under the ROOT Director's explicit order they said. Stamina training on every other day, shinobi history once in a while, not that I like it anyway. But, yeah, it seems that studying wasn't that hard after all. Don't ask me to do genjutsu though, I suck at it,” he explained in a serious tone. It was pretty much as what the report had said and had not said. My blonde, knuckleheaded best friend had grown up and he was consciously trying to speak properly too despite the unconscious outbursts.

”Eh, man, I missed the old you,” I droned out while smiling indulgently.

”Well, we promised, didn't we?” the atmosphere seemed to go dark for a brief moment before he changed the subject. ”How about you? Where did you get these muscles?”

”Oh? Well, let's see. I trained with Tsunade-senpai along with Sakura. Though I don't get the medical ninjutsu so well, I can really say that the woman was a physical training sadist,” I shivered along with Naruto. ”The ROOTs had taught me too--classified kinds of stuff but you know the usual humdrum of a shinobi life in the shadow. I trust that you know some of the ROOT jutsus too?”

”Yeah, that Shichu Shibari was a pain in the butt to learn because it wasn't my natural chakra affinity. I remembered when Fu-nii used it on me during my training to use the idiot fox chakra. Damn, it hurts!” Naruto shuddered as he said that. My eyebrows raised at that fact.

”How much did you really know?” I questioned. He rubbed the back of his head and grinned.

”Everything, I managed to make Ero Sennin fessed up after I pressed him on and on about my parents,” he smiled after he finished and naturally, his happiness really did was infectious.

”My best friend, the son of Yondaime Hokage. Should I call you 'Naruto-sama' now?” I joked knowing he would outright retort it seeing his newly found self.

”No, Hikari-kun. It would make them worst,” he hung his head as he said that.

”Before, it was that bad, huh? Sorry that I arrived late to this village otherwise, I would slice them up and drink their blood for old times' sake,” I said sullenly.

”The fu...” Naruto gave me a knock to the head. ”Don't say that, you crazy bastard!”

”What the hell was that for, idiot?” Holding my head, knowing that it would bruise for the whole night. ”Seriously though, you know you got me, bro.”

”Preciate that,” he gave me a small smile before he evaded a plate that was flying at him from the kitchen.

”Do that again at my Hikari,” a voice said from the said room. ”I dare you. I double dare you.”

”Aww don't get angry at me, Hitori-neechan. I really like to eat your food more now that I got a good taste of em. I wanna eat them more than ever,” Naruto begged aloud with puppy eyes and all to which to my surprise, Hitori replied with 'Fine.'. It was rare to see Hitori acted like that. Then again, my best friend here did have an effect on people. I mean right now, I felt like I was wanting to deserve to follow him. I wouldn't be surprised if he would be replacing Tsunade-senpai anytime soon. Then again, he is still a genin. I chuckled at the thought.

”Guess it's time to leave then. Thank you, bro, for everything. See you tomorrow, then?” he asked as he rose from his seat.

”Yeah, it's been a while, and now we can finally do missions together again,” I grinned before he teleported out of the house.

”Konoha's new Yellow Flash? Lightning Flash? Yellow Blizzard?” I mused silently before I called Hitori back to our bedroom. I had to have an early start for the next day, so I need to have a good rest that night.

My teammates and I were waiting for our scumbag of a sensei who dared to stand his student up for a good two hours before he finally showed up. I had to arrive a bit late since I had to do some minor paperwork at ROOT HQ. But still, to think that Kakashi still had to spend his morning moping at a piece of stone is really not necessary. Was he still depressed about it? I didn't think so.

”You're late!” Naruto yelled when our sensei had finally shown himself. The man rubbed the back of his head and smiled. At least I knew that he was judging by his closed eyelid.

”Well, this time I was delayed by filling out the paperwork for the new team...” he explained. This man never ran out of excuses, it seemed.

”Today we start our first mission as a new team,” Naruto scolded the man. ”Be enthusiastic!! Kakashi-sensei! You've been like that for ages!”

”Oh, let it go,” Sakura was clearly annoyed wasn't having that. ”There's nothing he can do about the fact that he has a face devoid of any enthusiasm!”

”A Jounin nonetheless....” I droned before I heard a hawk cried above us. Kakashi-sensei and I looked up and noticed that that's Takamaru, Suna's fastest hawk. It could be nothing important to me at least since Sai didn't show up. Didn't I mention that Sai was the best ROOT encoder that Konoha? I believed that I did? Or maybe not? We made our way to the mission assignment hall when Kakashi-sensei snapped me back to real life.

”Ehh!! That mission, no thanks!” Naruto refused angrily. My face paled of what's to come I instinctively ran in front of him. Then I heard a tongue clicked. I could only think of one thing, 'we're fucked.'.

”Ehh! What kind of response is that? Well?!” senpai asked, annoyed? Maybe? I couldn't tell, better be annoyed though. Kakashi-sensei seemed to be on my track and Sakura too now that she was grinding our idiot's head with her fist.

”Gah... Naruto... you haven't mentally matured at all, have you?” Iruka said while he groaned.

”Sor... Sorry, sensei!! I'll sort him out,” she said, sweetly. I bet Inner was going crazy by the minute. Then a puff a smoke appeared in the hall revealing the familiar Ninneko.

”Important,” Juzo said simply as the familiar scroll immediately puffed into existence just in time for someone to barged into the doors. I took the time to read Itachi's important message.

”Kazekage is in danger. You are the nearest. Deidara and Sasori.”

”The sand's Kazekage has been taken by an organization called Akatsuki! We just received the message!” the women from the Intel Corps finished. Everyone was clearly agitated except for Senpai and me.

”It's confirmed. S-rank?” I asked my senpai before turning the scroll on fire and Juzo expertly disappeared on the right moment. She took the papers from the woman and read it. Tsunade-senpai then nodded at me. I then silently summoned two of my trusted ROOT into the hall.

”Right, Team Kakashi, I will tell you your new mission. S-Ranked at that. You are to go immediately to the Sand, find out the situation and relay it to Konoha. After that, follow the orders of the Sand and back them up,” Senpai ordered before another puff of smoke exploded in front of us and from it the idiot's two brothers appeared, kneeling and unmasked.

”Director,” they said in unison.

”S-Rank, Sunagakure. With us, immediately,” I simply said and they both nodded. Naruto expectedly brightens at the sight of them and Torune immediate ready to flick Naruto's nose in a flash.

”Shut it, brat! I have hangovers,” he threatened but I joined on the fun.

”Did you two gays go out on a drinking spree? The long lost couple finally reunited, eh?” I joked as I took the intel from senpai's hand to read it and the room was practically silent. ”Come on, it's a joke. Geez, we have feelings too, you know?”

My team, senpai, and Shizune-neesan already know it too well, still, the rest was still getting used to the fact that ROOT had been flipped over upside down or was it downside up? Don't know, don't care.

”Pack your bags guys, we are traveling fast, so don't bring too much stuff. Gather at the gate when you're ready,” Kakashi-sensei lazily said to dispel the mood before all of us shunshinned back to our respective places and hurriedly get ready for our significantly important mission to date. I gritted to myself after running out towards the gate when I finished saying my goodbyes to Hitori. How could I let that happened so easily? I should've placed my ROOT there for Gaara's sake. It was careless of me as the ROOT Director, naturally, I felt responsible. It took a while but all five of us were ready.

”Well, off we go!” Naruto said, serious.

”Ok, Tsunade-Shishou, off we go,” she chirped and salute her master and Iruka-sensei that was seeing us out. The latter man was uncharacteristically silent and not to mention, frowning.

”Do your best!” he said to Naruto and the blonde said yes confidently. Jiraiya had appeared by then, now that his crappy spy network had finally got wind of things. I took the chance to converse with my sensei and ROOT brothers.

”Who do we have as a back-up?” I questioned the two.

”Not many as we like,” Fu explained.

”The Jounins and their teams are also out of the village too,” Kakashi-sensei rubbed his chin as he said that as did I.

”I say the ROOT will take point to assess the situation and then, we can call out reinforcement that was only necessary. It's another nation we're talking here. We can't afford to have too many of us there anyway. Deidara's a Bakutsu Butai of Iwa, long ranged bomber so to speak, his technique is a form of Earth-Fire kekkei genkai of sorts, weak against lightning, and Sensei you can handle that area. Akasuna no Sasori, Kubutsu Butai, multiple puppet users and we need a subject expert on said technique,” I suggested before they all nodded. ”Other than that, I do believe that those two scums wouldn't stand a chance with us.”

”They aren't going to know what's coming,” Torune said, gleefully.

”That's what she said,” Fu answered monotonously.

”I can't believe you said that out in the open,” Kakashi mocked disbelief.

”Says the pervert who reads porn in front of children,” I retort and Kakashi-sensei was about to reply but I cut him off. ”UNDERAGE CHILDREN.”

His shoulder slumped in defeat before he tiredly ordered us to begin our journey as my two teammates already went ahead of us. We immediately took off following their trail. We ran at a faster pace than we used to as a genin and I had really hoped that we make it in time. It wasn't long that I noticed a chakra signature in front of us.

”Temari-san is up ahead,” I announced while I turned off my Byakugan for the moment.

”Shannaro, she won't be liking this too much,” Sakura gritted and I could only nod. Best leave that to her, one woman to another. A few moments and then we finally made contact with her.

”Temari-san!” Sakura loudly called and then she did the deed, the bearer of bad news of Temari's year.

”What?! Gaara!” She exclaimed and then she fell silent. ”I've had a bad feeling.”

”It'll take three days to reach Sand from here. Let's hurry,” Our resident Ex-ANBU had always been the most focus-driven ninja among us, team 7. Well aside from Torune and Fu that is. Kakashi insisted that we shouldn't waste any of our productive time dawdling in the woods so we continued our journey non-stop. Predictably, while we were running, Naruto was behaving a bit impulsive that day.

”Naruto, just because I said to hurry, you shouldn't split up the team,” Kakashi-sensei reminded him. ”Don't get so heated. Didn't Jiraiya-sama just tell you that?”

”I can't stand it!” Naruto gritted. ”Even I knew why they're after me and Gaara!”

”You still don't know, do you, Sakura-chan?” Naruto asked. Unbeknownst to him, I had already told our bubble-gummed-haired teammate the whole deal about Naruto.

”I do, Hikari told me during our therapy,” Sakura began and needless to say, Kakashi-sensei was a bit shocked. ”I am sorry that I was never there before...”

Words couldn't describe how happy the blonde looked that day, he brought Sakura and me to a hug whilst still running.