Disclaimer:
Dialogue
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 16: Let's get to work!
Three days later, Naruto was walking through the streets of the village by himself.
It was early in the morning but many civilians were already out, doing their early chores.
Most of them gave him some nasty glares as they passed by, but since he had become an official ninja, they had at least stopped with the offhand nasty comments.
Naruto was mostly used to their rude attitude by now. And at least he understood the reason for his treatment.
He had read all about the events that occurred fifteen years back. The demon known as the Kyubi attacked the village, killing thousands of civilians and hundreds of ninjas. It was the worst massacre the village had ever suffered.
The Kyubi was only stopped by the sacrifice of the beloved Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato.
This also made very clear to Naruto who was the one responsible for putting that demon inside him. He didn't know the details behind the Fourth's death. Either he died as a side effect of the sealing or he had suffered mortal wounds during his fight with the demon. But it was clear he had been the one who performed the sealing.
People later on found out that the Kyubi didn't actually die but was instead placed inside the body of a young boy known as Naruto.
Civilians didn't have much knowledge about the inner workings of seals so they all interpreted it in their own way. While some understood that the demon was merely trapped inside him, others believed that he was some sort of human reincarnation of the demon himself.
Whatever the case, most of them appear to have decided to vent their anger and frustrations about the loss of their loved ones… on him.
There was not much he could do about it without breaking the village laws. That was the only thing stopping him from crushing the skull of the next idiot who called him 'demon boy' or something like that.
But even if he wanted to ignore them, it was very difficult to perform any kind of shopping in the village. Half the shops refused to sell him anything while the other ones would overcharge him.
Now he understood why the previous owner of this body would only eat ramen and had barely any clothes.
Naruto did find a solution to the shopping problem though. He would use the Transformation Jutsu to adopt the looks of Sasuke when going out to buy supplies. The villagers' attitude would take a complete turn, and not only would they sell to him but also give him discounts.
Apparently, the Uchiha clan was very much liked by the villagers and now Sasuke is the only one left so they all treat him like he is some sort of member of the royal family.
He moved his eyes around the place.
'I'm almost there.' Just one more turn and he would reach the entrance to Training Grounds number 3, where they were meeting with their new, Professor.
They had been given three days to rest before officially beginning their jobs.
Naruto had used this time mostly to peruse the Ninja Library, now that he had permission to use it as a proper ninja.
He was disappointed to find out that he only was granted access to a small portion of it with his status as Genin.
This made sense to him, as his old sect had the same type of distribution where the outer disciples could only read the low-rank martial arts and cultivation techniques. But it was still frustrating.
'If I want to learn everything in there, I would need to reach the rank of Jonin, and I better get there quickly.' He did not want to stay here forever, but he was still too weak to venture outside and this village contained all the resources he needed to grow in power.
"Okay… here we go." Naruto walked past the entrance to the training grounds. His life as a ninja starts now.
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"This is really not what I was expecting…" Naruto complained again.
"Shut up! I can't hear anything!" Sakura shouted.
"Maybe keep silent and you will…" Sasuke groaned.
The three genin were standing on top of some branches in the middle of a forest. All of them were wearing hearing devices attached to their ears.
"Can you copy now?" The voice of Kakashi reached them through the devices.
"Yes, we hear you, Professor," Sakura answered.
"Good, now… can you see the target?"
"I can see it," said Sasuke.
"Distance?"
"Ten meters. I'm ready to go."
"I'm ready too!" added Sakura.
"Me too… I guess…" Naruto sighed.
"On my call… three… two… one… GO!" Kakashi ordered.
The three genin jumped from the trees and pounced on their target, who was smelling some flowers, completely unsuspecting of the incoming attack.
"Mewww?!" The large cat yelped as Naruto grabbed it from behind.
"Naruto got it!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Are you sure this is the target? I swear if we get the wrong cat again…" Naruto was ready to snap the cat's neck at any moment.
"It has the red ribbon on the left ear… there is no doubt, this is the correct one," Sasuke observed.
"Good job!" Kakashi spoke through the communication devices. "Search mission 'Lost Pet Tora' has been successfully completed. Just bring the cat back to the Hokage's office. The client will be waiting there."
"Fine, let's get this over with. Here, Sakura, you carry this thing." Naruto handed the cat to her.
"Ahh!" The cat immediately started scratching her before she could get a good grip.
"Naruto!" She growled at him.
He was not paying attention to her at all. It had been a week since they started doing missions but all they got so far were nothing but chores. This was truly nothing like what he expected they were going to do.
Even the impassive Sasuke could not hide his disappointment.
"What do you think, Sasuke? When are we getting a decent mission?" Naruto asked him.
"Hmmph…" The boy just grunted.
Naruto was starting to know him enough to interpret his noises. That was the grunt for 'I don't know'
"I see… well, let's hope it's soon… I can't ta—"
"Ahh!" Sakura screamed when the cat scratched her face. "Noo!" She then screamed again when the cat escaped from her hands.
"It's getting away!"
"That's it! I'm killing that beast!" Naruto decided.
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