Both Naruto and Sasuke decided to ignore Sakura, who was kind of wallowing in misery over the events of the previous day. Naruto was feeling kind of upset over his bodyguard not using the enhancement spell he'd cast over him to, just as an example, keep him from getting slammed into a tree hard enough that he'd just woken up this morning.
Sasuke was upset over Sakura turning into a rabid fangirl with her brain shut down. Something that happened with girls a lot around him, especially since the fanclub had started up, and that annoyed the heck out of him.
"So you work metal?" asked Sasuke eventually.
"Yeah, I find it really relaxes me to pound things out in the metal," said Naruto, fumbling around in a pouch. He eventually drew out a thin metal bracer.
"Well, guys, I was delayed by helping a little old kunoichi with her groceries," began Kakashi as he poofed in. He stopped when he noticed that everyone was paying more attention to some odd metal trinkets that Naruto was pulling out of various pouches and setting out.
"This is beautiful?" asked Sakura, holding a bracelet up to examine it. She wasn't questioning the metal bracer's attractiveness, nor the odd tribal-looking designs on it - it was the whole 'Naruto made something like this' part that was still blowing her mind.
"Hmph," said Sasuke, looking over a long single-edged knife. "You've enhanced the metal? How?"
"Oh," said Naruto. "When I was folding and heating the metal, I used Coeur Blanc to weave in some reinforcement magic. Then I slapped an enchantment on it during the engraving process that made it more permanent. So it won't rust or get dull now that it's been sharpened. Blood or mud or whatever won't stick to it. Just that kind of thing."
"Mind if I keep this?" asked Sasuke, making a few trial passes in the air with it. It wasn't a disposable weapon like a typical kunai, but it did have a nice feel to it.
"I suppose," said Naruto, torn between the desire to hold onto some of his stuff as opposed to helping his team out. Team won. "It's not like I got a place to do this stuff anymore - is all."
Kakashi went over to the little pile of metalcraft and eyed them, finally picking up a little metal sculpture of a dog. Small but with good detail, little scuffs and marks on it even giving it the impression of fur.
"What does this do?" asked Sakura, holding the bracelet up.
"Oh, that was practicing a defensive enchantment," said Naruto. "It didn't turn out right though. The old scrolls I was using said it would protect the whole person like a suit of armor but that only puts out a defensive field about the size of your forearm.
"So, Kakashi-sensei!" said Sakura, putting the bracelet on and changing the subject so that Naruto might not remember to reclaim it when he remembered being knocked out by her failing to protect him yesterday. "What's our first mission going to be like?"
Kakashi looked over the odds and ends that Naruto had made, glanced at Naruto, then down at the scroll in his hands. "Naruto. If you can do things like this, you need to mention it."
"Well, it's just a hobby," said Naruto. "Gal down at the TSAB said it was important for warriors to have hobbies and stuff like that."
"That might be the case," said Kakashi, "but there are missions we could accept where special skills in odd areas would actually be required."
"Oh," said Naruto.
"Nice to see you've recovered from Sakura letting you get hit yesterday," said Kakashi.
"Urk," managed Sakura as Naruto glared at her.
"And it's nice to see Sakura's recovered from trying to use your staff while you were unconscious," continued Kakashi. "Especially after she nearly failed both of you."
"Urk," repeated Sakura, getting glares from Sasuke and Naruto both.
"Sakura, I just wanted to tell you, you're on probation," said Kakashi.
"It won't happen again!" promised Sakura.
"So," said Naruto, turning his attention from Sakura and deciding not to comment on the pieces now missing from his collection, "what's the mission?"
"A farmer isn't able to dig up all the potatoes on his farm, so you get to do it," said Kakashi.
Naruto sighed. "You know, I could have become a wandering sorcerer. Stayed with the TSAB and explored strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new jutsu. No, I had to come back here and become a ninja. So that I could apparently go dig up root vegetables."
Sasuke considered that for a moment, then nodded. "Got a point."
"Well," said Sakura, deciding to try and be cheerful about this. "At least nothing can seriously go wrong with that."
Several hours later:
"Okay," said Kakashi as he exited the hospital. "Sakura's resting. Fortunately, she was wearing that bracelet and that kept her arm intact."
"Hmpfh," managed Sasuke.
"Well, I honestly can say I did NOT expect that," said Naruto. "I thought picking vegetables would be pretty damn boring."
"It WAS boring," said Sasuke. "For the first couple of minutes. Until Sakura got blown up by a potato."
"I don't think I've ever seen a D-Rank mission go quite that wrong that quickly," admitted Kakashi.
"Why were there paper bombs buried in the field anyway?" asked Naruto. "That's not normal, is it?"
"No, no, that's the first time I've run across that," said Kakashi. "It's in the report I'll hand in to the Hokage, so I expect he'll have an investigation. In the meantime, we're going to have a substitute filling in for Sakura."
"Oh?" asked Sasuke, hoping it wasn't a fangirl.
"Her codename is 'Saber'," said Kakashi.
"'Saber'?" asked Naruto, perking up. "Real name Arturia? Boyfriend's name is Shiro Emiya?"
"I don't know about the boyfriend, but yes," admitted Kakashi. "You know her then?"
"Yeah," said Naruto. "She's with the TSAB. She's a swordmaster, I learned a few things from her while I was there."
"Swordmaster?" asked Sasuke, perking up a bit himself.
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(Posted Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:20)
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