"So, you guys too?" asked Kakashi of the other two jonin.
"D-Rank missions?" asked Maito Gai, unusually sober.
"D-Rank missions that suddenly and unexpectedly blew up into full scale disasters?" clarified Kurenai Yuhi.
"What happened to your genin?" asked Kakashi. "Mine were injured when the building we were assigned to destroy turned out to have explosive tags hidden in the walls."
"Kiba Inuzuka was practicing with Akamaru, leaping from tree to tree, when he found a wasp nest with an unusually aggressive and virulent species of wasp," said Kurenai Yuhi. "He and Akamaru are still recovering. Shino Aburame, on the other hand, was on a cat-retrieval mission when he discovered the cat hiding in the woman's bath section of the hot springs. As Hinata was unavailable that day due to injuries received in special training from her father, Shino went in loudly declaring his intent to just retrieve the cat. Unfortunately, he was either not heard or misinterpreted. I myself was visiting Kiba at the time since Shino had been able to accomplish the mission on his own before."
"They are getting rather violent over there at the hot springs lately," admitted Kakashi.
"My team," said Gai. "Neji Hyuga was supremely confident in his ability to accomplish a certain mission and stated that the others would simply slow him down."
"Oh, I bet that went over well," said Kurenai.
"Yes, well, it WAS a fairly simple mission," admitted Gai. "He was in a mood, he frequently has those - in this case wanting to be alone and brood in a most unyouthful manner. He was simply to inspect a dam being constructed along a nearby river for structural problems, as the client felt that one of the builders might have been skimming funds."
"Okay," said Kurenai. "That sounds simple enough, and Neji being a Hyuga would be ideal for something like that. How did it go wrong?"
"Squirrels," said Gai with a frown. "Apparently trained attack squirrels."
"Neji Hyuga, the prodigy of the Hyuga house, rookie of the year of his graduation, was felled by squirrels?" asked an incredulous Kurenai.
"Don't underestimate ninja attack squirrels," cautioned Kakashi. "One of my genin was traumatized by a similar attack."
"Lee, on the other hand," continued Gai, "was assisting the bakery that makes that melon bread."
"The one near the East gate?" asked Kurenai.
"That is indeed the one," agreed Gai. "Slipped on a rolling pin. His face was caught in the assembly line."
"Ouch," said Kakashi. "How bad?"
"He lost his eyebrows but his eyes weren't damaged, the medics had to reconstruct his face a little though," said Gai.
"So each of us has exactly one genin still on the active list," noted Kakashi.
"Exactly," said the Hokage, as they'd figured out why they were all here together. "As you know, Naruto Uzumaki is a new kind of ninjutsu specialist."
"I know that now," said Kakashi.
"He is?" asked Kurenai.
"He is?" asked Gai at the same time.
"Doesn't anyone read the ANBU reports?" asked the Hokage. "I did have it put out that there had been changes."
Several embarassed looks were the reply to his question.
The Hokage muttered something about complacency and pride going before falls before getting back onto the subject. With this sort of attitude no wonder a failed Academy student could sneak into his tower and steal an S-rank scroll and then get away. "Naruto has a rank outside of Konoha, as an operative and agent for a group called the Time/Space Administration Bureau. Essentially a police force that deals with problems that go beyond the scope of a single country."
"Is that all right?" asked Kurenai. "It's not exactly standard protocol for any ninja, much less a genin fresh out of the Academy, to have a loyalty to anything besides his own village."
"Special case," said the Hokage. "Part of the agreement they came to regarding such was that any work they had for Naruto had to be placed as a ninja mission. Even if the rest of his team would be ill-suited for such work."
"Sounds like a compromise solution that the council had their hand in," said Kakashi.
"It is," agreed the Hokage. "Captain Harlaown?"
A door opened and a woman with long green hair entered. "Please, call me Lindy. I have a mission for Naruto to perform, and I understand that this has to be presented as a team exercise."
"One of you three will have to be the jonin instructor on this mission," said the Hokage. "It will be considered a C-Rank for purposes of pay and records."
"What is the mission objective?" asked Kakashi.
"Diplomatic," said the Hokage.
"Naruto made several friends and associates during his year with us," began Lindy.
"Year?" asked Kurenai.
"Time compression," said Lindy. "He would have been gone less than an hour here. It's not normally done, but happened in this case."
"It actually was just over a minute," put in the Hokage. "Which everyone would have noticed if they'd read the report."
"So, the mission objective?" asked Kakashi, not wanting to dwell on his own regrets in not having spent the time to check out the ANBU reports.
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(Posted Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:34)
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