The sealed kunai

Chapter 9: Oh No You Didn't!

Naruto had cut a hellacious pace through the desert and was out of Kaze no Kuni in one day. The trip through the forests of Hi no Kuni were much easier for him, thus his pace picked up and he stopped for the night only a few hours away from Konohagakure.

The next morning he barreled into the village, dodging civilians and took to the rooftops to arrive at the Hokage Tower swiftly so he could rest or get another mission before it got to be the afternoon.

As he got close to the door he saw Shizune running all about the tower with a frantic look on her face. Raising an eyebrow at her behavior he tried to get her attention, "Um, Shizune-chan. You're moving kind of fast this morning aren't you?" He noticed that she looked somewhat fatigued, "Is there something wrong? You look like you barely slept if you even did at all last night."

Shizune stopped and looked at him, eyes widening when she saw it was him, "Naruto-kun! Thank goodness you're here! You got done fast... Whatever, Tsunade-sama needs you now!" Shizune grabbed and shoved Naruto into her office and shut the door before he could even speak.

He rubbed his arm, "Damn Shizune-chan... Grip." Naruto looked at Tsunade's desk to see her drinking sake and looking down at some kind of papers. Naruto fished in his pocket and walked up to her desk to place the scroll from Suna down.

Tsunade's head snapped up as she had just noticed Naruto right then and her eyes lit up, "Naruto!"

This once again confused him, "Yes, me! Are you and Shizune feeling okay baa-chan? You never call me Naruto to my face and you're both freaking out about something."

Tsunade grabbed Naruto by his cheeks and pulled him halfway over the desk, scaring the crap out of him. Tsunade shook him, "I need you to go back up a team."

Naruto looked confused, "Now? Damn, I just got back. What is it? And who am I going to meet up with?"

Tsunade let go of him and sat down, "I know it's sudden, but I sent out a team of genin to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha from a group of Oto ninja sent to take him to Orochimaru."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Did he leave with them or did they kidnap him?"

Tsunade shrugged, "We don't know, but either way we can't let Orochimaru have the Sharingan, that would be catastrophic for Konohagakure." She sighed and looked at him seriously, "Naruto, I'm sorry to send you out so soon after you got back, but your next mission will be to give assistance to the retrieval team of chunin Shikamaru Nara, and his squad consisting of genin Neji Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, Choji Akimichi, and Rock Lee."

Naruto took on a stone-like visage and nodded, "Hai Hokage-sama."

Tsunade blinked in surprise, "Pretty professional brat."

Naruto didn't flinch, "There's a time for being goofy, now isn't the time. I'll leave on your call."

Tsunade nodded, "Go, and hurry and catch up with them, Orochimaru wouldn't have sent anyone weak to bring Sasuke to him. I would send a team with you but we don't have anyone on reserve right now, I'm sure you can tell due to such a high-profile retrieval team being made of genin and a newly promoted chunin."

She remembered something before he could exit, "Naruto wait!" He turned in time to catch a bag with a few soldier pills in it, "Take care of yourself brat. Don't go overboard out there and help those kids get out alive, I'll send back-up as soon as I can."

Naruto saluted Tsunade with a smile and left the office and building in a hurry to rush to his former classmates' aid. Naruto tore through the town at a breakneck pace, completely bypassing the gate altogether in a yellow and red blur.

Sakura, who had been sitting under a tree nearby the gate ever since the retrieval team had left early that morning, had gotten a glimpse of the figure in red and yellow causing all of the ruckus throughout town, "N-Naruto...?"