Starting over

#21 Briefing

Naruto POV

"So you are my personal summon.", I said looking at the little tiger that stood before me. "Yes, I am to stay with you wherever you go and to try and aid you however I can.", Akira said bowing slightly. "No need to be so respectful. I really don't like to be treated that way.", I said earning a confused look from the tiger girl.

"Okay.", she said after a moment before suddenly shrinking to the size of a rabbit and jumping onto my shoulder.

She sure takes this 'not so respectful' serious.

Yeah but it's alright, after all she will be with me for the rest of her life.

Yeah I guess so.... On another note, when you are free again, come to me, i want to talk with you about something.

Yeah sure, but can't we do that now?

Not when your sensei is coming, it will take a while.

Ok, I'll come when i have time.

I shook my head at the mysterious Fox before looking in the direction where I could feel Baki's chakra signature coming towards me. Akira glared at him and growled silently, which actually sounded way to cute than to be somewhat intimidating. "Hey, calm down, that is just my sensei.", I whispered while scratching the little tiger behind her ears. A second later Baki stood in front of me and looked confused at my new summon. "I will explain when Temari and Gaara are here, no need to repeat the story unnecessarily.", I said dismissing his questioning look for now. "Well then let us find them, I really wanna hear this.", the man said before jumping away from the training ground.

"And that is why I have my new partner.", I finish telling my story to my team smiling. Gaara and Baki nod contempt while Temari just keeps looking at Akira. "How can a tiger be so tiny? I mean look at her, she is so cute!", she squealed, which earned her a shocked look from her brother and sensei, since she absolutely never does. I just laughed it off and winked at Akira before letting her jump of my shoulder onto the floor. Gaara looked at the tiger confused whilst Baki knowing more about summons just watched curiously and Temari slowly calmed down and observed the tiger with more interest. Then suddenly Akira began to grow, causing Gaara's and Temari's eyes to widen. When she stopped growing she was around as tall as Gaara, who was the smallest one of us at 5 feet. "Do I look capable enough now Temari-san?", Akira asked in a deep yet somehow feminine voice. Temari was too shocked to answer her and just nodded, which caused Akira to grin widely, showing off her fangs. "Great! Remember, never judge a book by its cover.", she said before shrinking back to her earlier size and reclaiming her spot on my shoulder. Meanwhile Gaara got out of his shock and watched the tiger interested as she snuggled into my neck and closed her eyes. "Wow.", was all that came from Baki, even though he knew about the ability of some summons to manipulate their own size, he obviously never had witnessed it himself which lead to him underestimating it severely.

"Okay, now for the main reason we have all gathered here. The Kazekage has entrusted us with a mission. We will be away for quite some time, approximately three weeks, and we will travel through the Land of Stone into the territory of the Land of Earth to gather information and if possible assassinate a rogue ninja that has been terrorizing the farmers around Iwagakure.", he explained. "But why do we have to do this, Iwa has its own shinobi-programm and won't they be mad when they find out that we were doing a mission in their territory, which on top of that was also brought to us by their people?", Gaara asked looking at our sensei in confusion. "Yeah, under normal circumstances it would, but Iwagakure has already lost four teams to this particular bandit and their daimyo forbade that more shinobi go after him, as not to weaken Iwa's strength. And after hearing this, the farmers sent a messenger to us, asking for assistance. We will head out in an hour. Other questions?", Baki explained, ending with him looking at us. "Actually I have one. If this man has single handedly killed 12 shinobi of Iwagakure, why does Rasa send a fresh Genin-team to investigate on this instead of a battlehardned team of Chunin or Jonin?", I asked, earning nods from Temari and Gaara. "Well, we are far from your ordinary Genin-team. Gaara was on countless missions before and always has proven to be quite skilled in the ways of a shinobi and you two have tracked down an Anbu and managed to kill him by yourself. So I would say that you guys are more than ready for this mission.", Baki said, not without pride in his voice. "And we will always have a team of our Anbu at the ready, so we only need to send a message and they will be there.", he added smiling at the three of us. "Fair enough.", I said standing up. "Then, I'll meet you in an hour.", our sensei said before vanishing in a cloud of sand.

Temari and Gaara looked at Akira with a devious glint in their eyes. "Since we already have packed we have more time to spend with you.", they said almost in sync. Akira squealed fearfully and pressed herself into my neck. "Okay, that's enough! She is not some toy you can just cuddle with, she is a living creature!", I said taking a step away from my two friends. "Besides I need to get some stuff for our mission, see you at the gates.", I said quickly and disappeared in a cloud of sand.

"Thanks Naruto.", Akira mumbled while I sealing some supplies into a storage scroll. "No problem, they have to realise that you are not a pet, but a partner.", I said before sealing a wooden katana in a separate scroll so that I could train with the kenjutsu katas which I had found in the scrolls from my mother. "I look forward to seeing you in action.", Akira said before I headed out to the gates to meet up with my team.