Something Precious

Chapter Twenty Two

"You're late." was the greeting they got from Kakashi as they walked up to meet them by the front door of the red Hokage building. As Naruto gazed at it he felt a rush of nostalgia, it reminded him of his genin days with the Old Man and later Lady Tsunade once he had passed on. It reminded him of his Kakashi -so different than the small chunnin that was before him -, so clearly he could picture him sitting in the Hokage's chair surrounded by paperwork sleeping or reading his perverse novels, that is what could have been had the war not taken him away from the village constantly. But most of all it reminded Naruto of his failure as Hokage, how he couldn't protect the Leaf even though he had sworn to do so with his life.

Naruto drew his eyes away and as he looked at his Uchiha companion he could see Obito's temper immediately flare as he opened his mouth to deliver an angry excuse, his face going red as the tower, but Naruto beat him to it, speaking in a nonchalant - nearly board - tone. "You see I had never been to the Uchiha district before and I got lost, and on our way we ran into Mikoto Uchiha along her son Itachi and the kid was just so adorable that I just had to meet him." Naruto said while thinking that Kakashi-Sensei would've been proud, but the Kakashi infront of him didn't look impressed at all.

"Tch, you're just like Obito, if you're going to be late the least you could do is own up to it without making dumb excuses." he scolded the nineteen-year old as if he was the elder of the two. Minato gave Kakashi a sharp look before turning to Naruto apologetically.

"Ah, sorry Naruto, Kakashi can a little. . . blunt with his opinions." The blonde shrugged and led the way into the building and to the door which led to Sarutobi's office. Kakashi didn't have time to be offended as he was dragged by Rin into pace behind him with Minato and Obito following.

Naruto knocked and waited politely for a reply. A muffled "Come in" was heard from the other side and Naruto pushed the door opened. He saw several of the ANBU that were hidden in the rafters, stiffen. They probably remembered him from last time.

Naruto looked up at them and gave them a smirk. "Miss me?" he asked. The ANBU shifted slightly, that being their only sign of agitation, though he suspected he was on the receiving of several deadly glares. The Hokage couldn't contain a chuckle, the rest of Team Seven just looked confused which was becoming a new normal when it came to their fifth member.

"You had a mission for us?" reminded Minato, dismissing the odd behavior. The Hokage's smile faded and he turned serious, his face almost aging before their eyes as it did when discussing a topic that troubled him.

"Yes. I hate to send you out on a mission so soon after returning from your last one, not to mention you just received a new member, but we are short on available squads at the moment so I'm afraid I had no choice. There are rumors of Cloud ninja set up in a village just on the border of the Land of Fire. I want you to go investigate and report back to me. Do not engage unless absolutely necessary." he ordered while he handed the mission file to Minato. "One more thing, the rumors say that one of the ninja is the Eight-Tails jinchuuriki."

As he said this he kept his gaze on Naruto who stood frozen on the spot. Well now he knew the real reason they were chosen, guess it wasn't team building after all, but that didn't mean they couldn't use this to that advantage.

So he was going to see Killer B again? He wondered how he would react to seeing his mentor, he didn't even know. He only hoped he could keep from treating him as a friend or ally, he was supposed to be the enemy after all, but Naruto knew he wouldn't be able to face him in battle even if he may currently be threatening his nation, if he was it was under A's orders, maybe he could somehow sway A into just leaving peacefully, break out the old therapy no jutsu, as Sasuke always called it.