The Last Mission - Naruto Undercover

Chapter 14

For the nth time, sorry for the extremely unreasonably late update.
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Naruto flinched. His eyes trembled, and he paled, falling back a little before catching himself. He shuffled a few steps back to get a better look at the merchant. Even with half the face covered in scars, and missing an eye, Naruto could tell.

After all, he taught Naruto and inspired him to make "never give up" his moto in life. He was there when Naruto threw his guts up after his first Shunshin, and he smiled-a doting smile you would think could only fit on a mother's face-when Naruto begun to match his speed. He didn't leave when Naruto broke down in front of him, and he stayed by his side even though Naruto didn't, even remotely, imply that he wanted, no, needed his company.

Naruto wanted to reach out. He wished, countless sleepless nights he spent on wishing, that he will wake up and find himself snug in the arms of the man he found himself looking up to as his closest friend, mentor, and sometimes he caught himself thinking that maybe he could be something more. And all hope was destroyed when rumors of his death spread. Even so, he held on to that slimmer of hope that he was alive somewhere and well. Hoping that it was all a stupid prank blown way out of proportion. Praying that he will pop out, laughing that carefree laughter that was a relieving constant amidst blood and carnages, laughing at their reactions towards his death.

But that day never came. Instead, his name appeared on the memorial stone, near Obito's and Rin's. How much Naruto must have wished for everything to be a genjutsu, where a simple 'kai' could solve all the problems. He screamed and screamed. He begged in front of the memorial stone. He bargained, he swore to whoever was listening that he will give everything and anything he has and can get, just get spent a little more time with him. Just for the chance to say a final 'goodbye' and 'thank you'.

Countless days passed, the name didn't disappear from the memorial stone, and Naruto finally gave up. He cleaned up the grave, placed a bunch of pink and yellow roses beside it, and he sat staring at the flowers. And somehow, the childish colours of the rose didn't look out of place beside the name.

Uchiha Shisui
1975-1988
Died a Jonin of Konohagakure

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"Sensei, do you know when is Naruto gonna come back? I'm sick of training every single day, Ino's team already finished 4 C-ranks!"

"Hn"

Kakashi sighed. That pink haired brat has been on his case non stop for the past week. It's not like he can magic Naruto back, as much as he wanted to.

"Maa maa," a half hearted groan later, "let's wait for a while more, once we complete this exercise, I'll ask the Hokage to put us on the roster. Now, get back to those exercises."

Sakura muttered darkly under her breath, and even Sasuke huffed his protest. They were attempting-the key word attempting-to climp a tree. Or walk up a tree actually, but who cares about these details. The point is that they are failing, so horribly that Kakashi fought back a grimace. This batch of genin was worse than he thought. He had expected Sakura to pick up chakra control quickly, and to the girl's credit, she was faring fine until Kakashi made her walk on her hands up that damned tree. Sakura swore that the bastard of a tree was gonna appear in her dreams tonight.

Dusk approached quickly, and Kakashi made the two kids go home before he finally allowed his tense body to relax fractionally. The jounin appeared to be in deep thought for a moment, he suddenly sighed as if resigning to whatever's gonna come next before his hands moved to a 'ram' sign and shunshined away

He reappeared outside the Hokage's office, forgoing the usually entrance through the window. Kakashi reached out his hands in a fist in preparation to knock against the door to announce his presence but stopped before his arms were even fully stretched out.

Hiruzen felt Kakashi's chakra appear before he actually saw the man, but chose to ignore the fact that the Jounin has been standing outside his office door for a good 10 minutes. He knew that Kakashi has been intensionally avoiding him, and the same could be said for the rest of the former Anbu team 7, after the team disbanded. Serving directly under the Hokage, team 7 had been a close-knit team, not a family-definately not-but more than teammates and a little more than friends. There wasn't a word Hiruzen could use to describe them, and he too was reluctant to break up the team. It was understandable that Team 7 didn't want to be reminded of the things that happened in his office.

(The announcement of Shushui's death, the elimination order, then the final separation. So much happened in this office that to team 7, the Hokage's office was like an omen to them.)

Kakashi breathed in deeply. He knew he had to go in soon, and chances are that the Hokage already knew if his presence given that he wasn't trying to conceal his chakra. He signed and knocked on the door before letting himself in.

"Hokage-sama" Kakashi greeted with a slight bow.

Hiruzen placed his pen on the table, secretly heaving a sigh of relief that Kakashi had finally chose to enter his office.

"Hatake, it's been some time." Hiruzen paused, waiting for Kakashi to say whatever he came here for.

"I request for permission to carry out missions as a 3 men team."

Genin acting as a 3 men team with their Jounin instructor was unheard of, and usually not allowed. The point of having a Jounin was to train the teamwork between the 3 teammates, so the whole purpose of this training would be gone if one of their teammates were missing. And this was the reason why Kakashi has been making his team train instead of carrying out missions. But Naruto is gone for longer than he had expected, and the Chunin exams will be around the corner soon so Kakashi cannot afford to wait any longer.

"I approve, but nothing more than D-ranks before Naruto comes back." Hiruzen studied Kakashi carefully, wondering when was the man gonna ask him about Naruto.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi started, "About Naruto. How much longer will his mission take?" He phrased his words carefully.

"I can't—no, I'm not able to tell you a exact number of days. We'll just have to wait." Hiruzen sighed. He had been reluctant to send Naruto on this mission to begin with, and Naruto probably didn't have to go if not for Danzo's suggestion.

Kakashi wasn't satisfied with the Hokage's answer but nodded his head nonetheless, dipped his head and prepared to leave before pausing for a moment.

"Hokage-sama, Naruto is only twelve." Kakashi took a breath to continue, but sighed, and decided against it. He bowed his head and turned, leaving through the door.

Hiruzen stared at the door for a long time after Kakashi left.

"The wheels are already set in motion," he frowned. "It's too late for anything to change."

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Recently I've been applying for the course I wanted to take next year, its my dream course and I just received the news that I was rejected at the second round of selection. I literally sobbed my eyes out this afternoon :)

Okays, enuf of that, as always thanks for reading, please do vote and leave a comment, constructive criticism is always welcomed.

Zzz