Second Chance

Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Of Bugs and Family
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As Naruto waited for the Sandaime's decision he began to contemplate his next action should the Sandaime refuse. He knew that the man was trying to find a way to control him and he would not allow that. His actions and ulterior motives for allowing the trip to Uzu had told him as much as he needed to know. How the Sandaime had gotten away with pretending to be someone he could trust for so long still alluded the blonde.

"Surely you understand Naruto that the rules state that you are to receive no less than three days off as a way to help you recuperate from your mission injured or not, right?"

"Surely you understand that rule only applies to village missions and not clan based missions right?" Naruto countered the Sandaime making him flinch. He had somehow outsmarted him without even trying.

"What is so important that it can not wait for you to get some rest?"

"As I said before the well being of a clan member." As the two locked eyes and began an intense staring match Kakashi merely nodded in confirmation to the unspoken question on Zabuza, Haku's and Kurenai's minds. Yes, this had become the norm between the two.

"With or without your permission I can go. I merely decided to try and go about this without forcing the use of my clan's name. To many people do that lately thinking that their clan is more important than who they are." Naruto snapped at the older ninja. Everyone in the room was silent as they watched the verbal war between the two.

"Be that as it may, you are still a genin and as such you are forbidden from the leaving the village on your own. Kakashi would be sent on a village mission to escort you and as such I can not send him and I refuse to take the jonin from any other team so that you can go for two weeks." Hiruzen fired back.

"You don't need to. As a genin I may be forbidden from leaving the village on my own however, as a foreign diplomat of Uzu, so long as there are shinobi from Uzu to escort me you can't stop me from leaving nor can you retaliate for me leaving. If you hadn't noticed, there are two Uzu shinobi behind me." Naruto countered once more. For once the Sandaime didn't reply right away as the laws were turned on him and he was left staring at the blonde before him. How had he gotten so proficient with the laws regarding the line between clan, village and foreign affairs? How had he not noticed this?

"Very well. However, I want you back in..." The Sandaime never finished as the blonde cut him off once more.

"You can not place a time constraint on a clan matter nor can limit how much time I have to spend on a mission not involving Konoha." Gritting his teeth the Sandaime scribbled a quick note and handed it to Naruto who looked it over, nodded and then made a copy. As soon as the copy was made he gave it to Sasuke for safe keeping. Sasuke just nodded and slipped it in his hip pouch sealing it in a storage seal as soon as it was out of sight.

"Zabuza, Haku let's go." Naruto said turning and leaving the room. Nodding they followed after the Uzu prince.

"Hinata, Sasuke, Shino you are free to go. Kurenai please wait outside while I discuss a few things with Kakashi." The Sandaime ordered and the aforementioned ninja bowed and left the room.

"Well? What did you find? Did you discover anything?" The Sandaime said as soon as the door was closed.

"Just that the port villages that used to work with Uzu have absolutely no love whatsoever for Konoha or its shinobi and believe that the village had something to do with Uzu's destruction. Naruto is very clever and highly observant when it comes to traps and the invading forces left almost nothing to salvage. Most of what we managed were, as I said before, clan census records and a family tree. Outside of the headbands that Naruto scavenged out of what was a store house there was nothing left. The whole place is a wreck and I think it was picked clean at one point." Kakashi lied smoothly. He had been trying to come up with a viable lie that would work with the Sandaime ever since he found out about Konoha's role in Uzu's destruction.