Danzo Hokage

First Solo Mission

Chapter 15: First Solo Mission.

AN: So this chapter has been edited, more or less completely reworked, and then edited a few more times. So it's fair to say this chapter has seen a lot of revisions and edited to what you see before you now.

AN2: Sasuke gaining a vast was more or less due to the fact that while he did lose the fact is he lasted a fair bit of time. This added to the success rate of team seven basically made his promotion fairly easy. I see no reason why he shouldn't be made a Chunin as he has no reason to leave and he shows the skills needed for the rank. He only needs time to truly show off his skills.

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A few days after the Chunin Exams had ended Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and the other leaf Genin all stood at the ready awaiting the announcement of who if any would be promoted to the rank of Chunin and be allowed to wear the green-colored vest. Naruto for his part was sure he would be promoted not because he was arrogant of his own skills and abilities but because it only made sense seeing as he had won his fight as easily as he did. Ino for her part was busily eyeing him though she did her utmost to hide such facts. It wouldn't do to have him think of her as up to something, especially considering his recent accomplishment in the exams. Even so, the fact was he was a shoo-in for a vest. His win over Sasuke had been fairly one-sided and that more than anything else was likely what was going to see him with a new vest by the end of the day's proceedings. In a way, she was kind of jealous seeing as she, a clan heiress was bested by of all things a civilian born girl who's clan was fairly insignificant in the day to day operations of the village. But she would do her best to prove that she truly did belong among the ranks of ninja that all wore the leaf emblem proudly on their headbands. Her father had seen to it that she did all her training both with her team and at home. A fact that had seen her look all the worse over the past few days. She was, after all, a mind walker, not a frontline fighter, her body was by no means used to such a brutal training regime but if she ever dare dream of ever wearing the vest of the next level such things were a necessary sacrifice.

"At attention"! Came the yell of a Chunin who looked ready to rip anybody who was foolish enough to test him today. At once everybody stood at the ready as the Hokage walked inside complete with his trilateral hat and robe. As he walked in he could see the ramrod-straight posture of all of the Genin. He couldn't help but find the whole thing somewhat comical as this show of professionalism would do them little good to see them promoted. Their showings and their mission success/ failure ratio would do that, not some last-minute showing of being a good ninja to their kage. Brown-nosing was always seen as a detriment and always made their odds drop substantially as a result. As such it was an unwritten rule that brown-nosing would almost always result in not getting promoted unless in times of war.

"Be at ease". Danzo said as he turned to face the assembled youth. He could see in each of them the love and devotion to the village seen in all the ninjas that called the village home. He knew that so long as this love existed the village had very little to fear from any would-be invaders. Still, a love for one's home village wasn't why he was here. No, he was here to promote the most recent up-and-coming ninjas to the next level. Looking around he could see many young faces he knew were going to be great in the coming years and others that were already well on their way to said greatness. But above any of them stood Naruto. A prodigy unseen since the days of his father or Sasuke's own brother. He was in a way the poster child for what one would look for in a chunin or above. So when his name was called it took nobody by surprise. What did however was when Sasuke's name was called and he was gifted his own vest. When he asked the Hokage Danzo merely nodded his head and said he would understand in time before moving onto the next name on the list. All in all out of the fifteen who stood awaiting their name only seven would be promoted. Out of the ones left at the lowly rank of Genin stood Ino. But she understood why. She was next in line to take over a major clan and to lose to a non-ninja girl was something unbecoming of a Chunin level ninja. Should she be allowed to wear the vest after such a showing it would be seen as weakness by the other great villages and that was never allowed. Her only hope now lay in a field promotion or the second Chunin Exams in six months time in Sunagakure.

Weeks later Naruto was eyeing his pray down below. This mission was his first solo B-ranked mission and so it was fairly straightforward in its goals. Kill a businessman named Mokashi Aik who had been selling highly classified village secrets. How such a man could even gain such things was something he didn't understand but he wasn't paid to understand how the man had gained them, he was paid to kill him for having them. With but the smallest poof, a second Naruto formed and rushed forward to act as a scout. Clones were so useful in jobs like this he sometimes forgot most couldn't use this particular jutsu so freely or carelessly. But most people didn't house a demon with the powers of a god. Seconds later the clone popped and he knew where his prey was heading. The dockyard was fairly dark at this time of day and was likely why he was going there. Giving away classified village secrets was best done in darkness after all. Jumping over rooftops and on the tops of trees, Naruto raced to the area as fast as he could without blowing his cover. All the while making sure his prey was never out of his sight. Once he had arrived at his destination he found himself a nice dark secluded part of the docks and awaited the arrival of his prey. Mokashi Aik soon walked into view eyes moving left then right and back again in a frantic motion. But never once did he ever dare look up. Nobody ever seemed to understand that in a world with ninja sometimes looking upwards was a good habit to have especially when you were trying to give away village secrets. Even more so when that village was best known for housing ninjas. Naruto was about ready to jump down and kill the man when his eyes landed on the man's contact.

"Shit"! Was the one thought that passed through Naruto's mind as he saw him. He was none other than Mishimoto Isekai an A-ranked missing-nin that Danzo had sent dozens of hunting nin to kill and who had all failed to kill him. He was said to be unkillable and otherworldly. Of course, Naruto never believed in nonsense like that. People die it was just a fact of life. Nobody was ever unkillable. Maybe hard to kill but nobody was ever truly unkillable. Thinking about his options at the moment he decided the best course of action was to retreat and report back to Danzo. He was skilled but a Chunin level ninja knew when to engage an enemy and when to retreat. This of course didn't mean he intended to allow that information to escape his grasp. He would just have to do so at a later point was all. Jumping back to the treeline he watched as the two men departed. One going west to the red light district to no doubt enjoy the nightly pleasures of women. The other heading south to the Land of Stars. Naruto on the other hand headed east to his camp when he would report the most recent developments.