“Naruto and Sasuke are actually getting along?” Shikamaru asked in disbelief, eyes wide at my revelation.
The three of us, being Shikamaru, Chouji and I were seated just along the backyard of the Nara compound, a nice and chilly area that had enough shade to block the late afternoon summer sun. It was a complete coincidence that I happened into the two of them when I was shopping at one of the Nara’s clans medical outlets for more materials.
One thing led to another, and I found myself here, playing a game of shogi with Shikamaru in exchange for a little bit of discount off the products that I was buying. Of course, it was mostly for the conversation that we actually came together for.
To be honest, I was surprised that today’s conversation was about the others. As far as conversations with Shikamaru went, it was normally about politics, history and other stuff that was too complex for the other kids our age to even have an interest in. Still, they were enjoyable, which was one reason why I was still ‘friends’ with him
“Somewhat, but yeah.” I nodded as I slid my shogi piece forward, snapping it onto the board to bring Shikamaru’s attention to it. His eyes narrowed as he contemplated my move, though hopefully he did not notice the trap which I was laying down for him.
“Well, at least they aren’t arguing anymore.” Chouji mumbled from his spot beside us, munching on a packet of crisps. I found myself agreeing with him. Naruto and Sasuke were supposed to be the people that would be keeping me alive during missions. It would be best if they were to actually work together.
Mmmmh, another idea for when we were done with the Tree-Walking technique.
“Yeah,” I muttered, as I watched Shikamaru deciding to spring the trap I laid down for him and snap up the piece I moved forward. I looked at my formation with a judging eye, trying to see a weakness in it. After all, why would Shikamaru spring it?
“Still, at the very least, I’m glad that things are peaceful in the village.” Shikamaru mumbled, “Can’t say the same for outside though, dad says that a storm’s brewing.”
“Why?” I asked, deciding to continue with my plan and slid my lance forward to capture his bishop.
“Apparently, communication with the Sand’s been troublesome.” He drawled.
“Uh huh, everyone knows that.” I mean, Suna and Konoha had been at each other’s throat since the second shinobi war. It was only in the recent years that a truce was finally established. Obviously, the current relationship was rocky at best, after all one could hardly expect the relationship to suddenly sweeten overnight.
“Yeah, but I heard that they want to push for an alliance.”
“Uh huh.” Not exactly uncommon knowledge either, considering how the Wind Daimyo had been forwarding missions to Konohagakure in an attempt to gain the fire country’s alliance. Sunagakure’s economy really depended on the support of Konohagakure at this point. I rolled my eyes as he moved a single piece on the opposite side of the board forward. Not really news either, the push for alliance was just a matter of when at this point.
“Still, it’ll be really troublesome if war suddenly springs up.”
“Doubt it.” I replied.
“Yeah,” Surprisingly, he agreed with me, “Suna’s military might isn’t what it used to be.” He yawned, “a fight against Konoha is just asking for it.”
“Things might change if they get an ally, however.” I frowned as I prodded my rook forward into his formation and promoted it.
“Really?” Shikamaru replied lazily. “Any of the great nations in mind?”
“Nah, a small one might be enough- Damn.” I cursed as he dropped one of my captured pieces onto the board. “That was dirty.” I gave him the stink-eye.
“Well, if it’s troublesome, you can just concede,” He smirked.
“Which one?” Chouji suddenly interjected.
“The move, or the country?”
“Country,” Chouji clarified.
“Any one would do.” I replied even as I contemplated how the hell I was going to get myself out of the mess that Shikamaru had thrown my formation into. “They just need one that’s close enough for them to reinforce, and with enough manpower to harass us so that we had to split our forces.” Like Otogakure. It had not escaped my notice that Orochimaru-sama’s country was one of Konoha’s allies. It was a masterful move, if you would, and I could definitely appreciate how he had stayed under the radar for so long.
“Wow, you really thought this through, huh?” Chouji mumbled. “And yeah, I don’t think any of the other countries in the alliance would want to risk it.” He stuffed another handful of chips into his mouth, “I mean, why bother? Konoha’s way better as an ally.”
“Yup,” I nodded. It always baffles me why the other kids always picked on Chouji. For all that he looks, the boy was actually rather smart. He was the heir of one of the Four Noble Ninja Clans, after all, and was definitely being groomed in clan politics. Not to mention that he was hanging out with the only boy in our class that could keep up with me in proper conversations.
In all seriousness, it was a wonder that Shikamaru got as low as he did in the written tests. He was a lot smarter than me, a fact that I had to grudgingly admit to a year ago.
“By the way,” Shikamaru looked up, “Ino was a little out of sorts today. Any idea why?”
I winced as I remembered. “Probably because of Sakura-chan.”
“How so?
“Well, remember the test that you have to take when you become a genin?” Shikamaru nodded, but I decided to explain either way when Chouji gave me a confused look. “You guys probably didn’t have it because you are the Ino-Shika-Cho of our generation, but the rest of us had to pass a test set by our jounin.” I grimaced as I remembered our bell test. Not-really-good-times. “Sakura’s team failed theirs.”
“Ah, so they are to go back to the academy?”
“Nope,” I made a face. “Worse.”
Shikamaru nodded, “The Genin Corps.” He said solemnly.
“Yup.”
Poor girl was distressed, and no amount of consolation from Ino had been able to set her right. She had even explicitly refused to see us at first, but Ino got through to her in the end and was still meeting her from time to time. Me? I deemed for the best if I avoided her for the time now, especially considering that I was on a team that passed and had the crush of her life on it as well.
Not to mention that she was sort of… useless to me right now too.
“Can’t be helped,” Shikamaru sighed as he dropped another of his captured pieces onto the board. “Her attitude wasn’t right.”
“Sadly.” I agreed as I moved another piece, my knight, forward to threaten his position. Don’t get me wrong, I like the girl. It’s just the fact that being a kunoichi requires you to actually put in the effort and not be sidetracked by things as frivolous as ‘love’.
Yes, ‘love’ was stupid. And yes, I still dislike that stupid pegasus.
“At least the Genin Corps’ not a real dead-end if you put in the effort.” Chouji added. I rolled my eyes. He was right, except that promotion from the Genin Corps to the Chunin Corps was rather skewed. A constant factor in all of the Chunin Exams was the tournament at the end where all the finalists would be pitted against each other and would be evaluated by the judges. Now say if a Genin from the Genin Corps was pitted against one from the Jounin Course. One had nno proper instructor while the other was tutored by a Jounin. Well… It was obvious who would have the advantage right?
Still, polite as I am, I declined to comment, instead choosing to move another piece of mine forward. I did not miss Shikamaru’s smirk when I did so. That rose my suspicion.
I looked once more at the board, eyes narrowed, scanning it for any flaw in my formation. That was when I saw it, a single piece that I had somehow overlooked. Well shit. I sighed.
“I concede.”
“Yeah,” Shikamaru nodded. “Checkmate in six.”
“Six?” I raised an eyebrow and looked at the board again. “I count four.”
“Four moves?” He narrowed his eyes, studying the board for a bit before smirking at me. “Yeah, four.” He held out his hand. “Thanks for the game, Kyoku.”
“You as well, Shikamaru-kun.” I shook it.
I’d beat him, one of these days.
Unlike my teammates, I had always felt that D-ranked missions were a godsend. Sure, they were boring work, but were hardly physically intensive and the pay was actually decent, ranging from five thousand ryou to around fifty thousand ryou. It was no wonder that the teams from the Genin Corps could subsist themselves off doing around four of this just to pay off their daily expenses.
For me though, who had been living off of Shiratama’s job expenses, the things I could do with the extra money nearly had me drooling. (For the record though, I don’t drool.)
Not to mention that the missions were often ones that can be easily solved with more manpower, courtesy of Naruto’s shadow clone technique, hence we could easily complete our quota of two missions a day. That allowed me with plenty of extra time after missions each day to complete the rounds that ‘father’ set for me and improve my skills in general.
Truth be told, I would have been content to stay in such a state.
Unfortunately, good things were not built to last.
“No! No more!” Naruto complained.
We were standing in the Mission Desk of the Ninja Academy, having just finished the infamous ‘Tora’ Mission. It was a rank D mission that involved searching for the Daimyo’s wife’s pet cat, which had a habit of going missing every once in a while, and was practically dreaded by every Shinobi of Konoha. Having done that mission three times over the course of the last four weeks, I could understand that sentiment. That little devil was just that, a devil, and given the amount of scratches that I had endured from it, I would say that I felt no shame in taking pleasure from the scene of it being roughly adored by its owner.
Still, while I could understand Naruto’s sentiment, part of me wanted to punch him for acting the way he did. We were in front of the Hokage after all.
“Naruto!” Iruka-sensei chastised. “You are only a beginner, you need more experience if you want to take on more difficult missions!”
“But we have only got boring missions~” Naruto whined.
“He has a point.” Sasuke said quietly. Iruka-sensei’s mouth dropped wide. Given that he knew about Naruto and Sasuke’s famous rivalry, no doubt that he found it extremely out of place for Sasuke to support Naruto of all people. I smirked, even I would not had thought it possible for the two of them to even get along.
Small win for me I guess, since it was mainly my effort to improve their relationship so that they would stop giving me headaches.
Still, that did not mean that I condone their actions, of all things.
“Forgive them, Hokage-sama.” Kakashi said hastily, giving the two boys a quick smack on the head.
I looked at the Hokage, who seemed more amused than anything. Privately, I wondered if the power of a shinobi was inversely proportional to how harmless they seemed. Especially when considering the likes of Kakashi-sensei and the third Hokage. Seriously, for intents and purposes, the third Hokage felt no more different than an elderly old man. Still, I was not fooled. Hiruzen Sarutobi was christened as a ‘God of Shinobi’ in his youth and had been a force to reckon with. Sure, age may have weakened him somewhat, but he was still Hokage for a reason.
“Well,” the Hokage chuckled as he laid his pipe aside. “I suppose it couldn’t be helped.” He took up a scroll and looked at Kakashi. “Do you think they are ready for one, Kakashi?”
Kakashi-sensei looked surprised for a moment, but quickly composed himself. “Well, they really do want one.” I tensed, surely they couldn’t mean? I looked at Sasuke, he was smirking. Surely he had figured it out as well.
“Want what?” Naruto asked, clearly being the only one to had not know what was going on.
“I will permit you to take a rank C mission.” The Hokage announced, tossing the scroll to Kakashi-sensei.
“Really?” Naruto leapt up, exploding with joy. “What is it? Come on, tell me!”
“Now now, patience is a virtue of a shinobi.” The Hokage smiled. I had a suspicion that he was enjoying keeping Naruto in the dark. Probably a small form of revenge for all the pranks that Naruto played on him.
“Ehhhhh…” Naruto groaned. I almost felt pity for him. Almost.
“You will be escorting a certain individual.” He said after taking another puff of his pipe. “And you will be tasked with his protection and wellbeing as he journeys to the Land of the Waves.” He looked up and called out.
“Tazuna-san, if you would please enter.”