Starting over

#69 Tazuna

Timeskip 1 week

Naruto POV

Arriving back in Suna Temari and I smiled as we walked through the lively morning streets of the small village hand in hand. We were greeted by many of the merchants and salesman, that knew us from numerous delivery or escort missions we had done with our team. Smiling we walked through the streets, on our way to the kazekage's office.

As we walked into the office, Gaara was already there as was Baki. Walking in we were greeted by our two teammates and Rasa, who was looking over some papers. "Alright, now that everyone is here, we can start. I have an escort mission for your team, it involves a group of clients from the land of water who want to be escort from here to Konoha and then to a small village in the land of water.", the kazekage said while giving his Anbu a sign to let the clients in. I smiled, recognizing the trio from my previous life. "Hello, I am Tazuna, this is my daughter and her son; Tsunami and Inari.", he introduced himself and his family to us.

"Hello, I am Baki and this is my team, Naruto, Temari and Gaara.", Baki spoke up.

"We'll meet in half an hour at the gate. Be ready for a month long mission.", Baki said, dismissing us.

Baki POV

I looked at the bridge builder with narrowed eyes. "Why do you need the help of shinobi to bring you through fire and water country? You have already conquered Gato and his henchmen.", I asked, wanting to know as much about our eventual enemies as possible.

"Well you see, you are right that Gato was killed by Zabuza after betraying him and his partner Haku. But the bridge that I had built while protected by the Konoha shinobi, that I had hired for that job, has been destroyed again by the man that has taken over Gato's empire, so I again need protection, since I am planning on rebuilding it. But this trip is just for the permission again and to order the supplies.", Tazuna explained, while his daughter and her son were looking around in the office, obviously uncomfortable. I nodded, deciding not to ask anything else. At least now I knew, that we would most likely run into high ranking assassins, since the organisation that Tazuna was working against had definitely the means to hire them.

Timeskip 1 week

Naruto POV

We arrived at Konoha's gates, stopping in front of them. Tazuna looked at us with a questioning look in his eyes. "I am kind of not really allowed to step into Konoha.", I admitted, rubbing the back of my head sheepishly. Tazuna's eyes widened at that. "You go ahead, we will wait for you here. After all, you are safe inside of Konoha's walls.", Baki said, ushering the old man and his family into the city.

We settled down in the woods, not far away from the road, waiting for Tazuna to come back out of the village.

It was late at night and I was out, on watch duty, when I noticed someone sitting down next to me. I looked to the person and smiled, recognizing my girlfriend. Taking my hand of my sword, I pulled her into a hug and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. Temari smiled and yawned a bit before, laying her head down in my lap, quickly falling back asleep. Smiling, I let my hand run through her hair, while watching the surroundings and listening to the breathing of the blonde girl slow down. "Sleep tight.", I mumbled. After a few minutes I felt her moving again and looked down, expecting her eyes to be open, but apparently she was still sound asleep as she turned around, putting her arms around my stomach and pulling herself closer to me. Mumbling something she smiled and stopped moving, although her tight grip on my body didn't go. I smiled and looked through my pockets for my sealing scroll. Once I had found it, I unsealed a blanket from it and carefully draped it over Temari. Listening to the sounds of the night, I waited for the sun to rise up again.

As the sun rose I saw some people walk down the road towards our meeting point with Tazuna. Quickly waking Temari and then the rest of my team, Baki and I went ahead to the rendezvous point as Gaara and Temari stayed behind and removed every trace of our camp.

"Ah, I take it, you have finished your business in Konoha.", Baki commented as Tazuna and his family arrived. "Yes, we are done there. By the way, you are not by any chance Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, are you?", Tazuna asked me directly. "Why yes, I am.", I replied, smiling at the old man and his family. "Wow, I was already wondering why you were banished from Konoha, but that explains it. There had been rumors about you and your appearance at the chunin exams has ignited them again.", Tazuna said, while Tsunami looked stunned at me. "Wait a minute, didn't the leader of the team that had protected us a while back say something about a Naruto Uzumaki?", Inari asked with a confused look on his face.

"Yeah, he did. I remember it too. He said that he should be an inspiration to everyone since he never backed down and always held his head up high, even in the most dire situation. I think the name of the man was Kakashi Hatake.", Tsunami added.

I smiled at the praise from my former sensei. "Yeah, he was the student of my father. He always watched over me, back when I was in Konoha.", I said, still smiling.

"Alright, we are ready, let's go.", came Temari's voice as she appeared next to me, tossing Baki a scroll, where his tent was sealed away. We nodded and went on our way towards the small village where Tazuna came from.