Chapter XIII: New Mission

Since Kakashi's team seven had the week off Asuma had decided to have Kakashi help train Menma.

Kakashi was sitting on a tree branch watching Menma train.

Menma was in the training field working on several different shinobi aspects. He had summoned around one hundred clones to help him and had them divided into groups of twenty five. Kakashi clone training method was crazy but genius.

The first group was working on chakra control, from what Menma's clones had read yesterday, the whole reason he could not do a standard Bunshin was because he had extremely large reserves and next to no control, at least, that was the theory Kakashi had come up with from what he read. So he would need to fix that by getting better control.

Right now they were working on the lightning kunai exercise, the first exercise. It was basically applying lightning style chakra to a kunai and throwing it at a tree to try and gey it to cut through the tree. It was just in one hand at the moment, but Menma eventually planned on increasing the amount of kunai that he could throw, figuring that the more kunai he could apply lightning to and throw at the same time, the better his control would be. It was not in the scroll he had read, but Menma had always been innovative when coming up with new jutsu, and that ability was easily carried on into other aspects of his life and career if he actually set his mind to it. He wanted to at some point be able to throw a kunai through two trees, rather than one, which was the next exercise he saw when he had skipped to the intermediate chakra control book, just to see what it held of course.

Right now he was learning a new taijutsu style called Muay Thai, a style that relied on stand up striking along with various clincher techniques. The taijutsu was also known as the 'Art of Eight Limbs' because it relied on punches, kicks, knee strikes and elbow strikes rather than just fist and feet. So far this style was the one he was most comfortable with, since it was a more of a straight forward style and Menma was always a bit of a brawler. Once he got this style down he would start building his own around this one once he started adding other styles to it.

Another group of clones was working with his sword jutsu's, he had found an old kenjutsu scroll and had decided that a good weapon would help him get stronger. He had decided they would work on more ways of using Zabuza's blade. Like his taijutsu clones they were going through the style katas slowly at the moment, making sure that the muscle memory would be engraved in their minds for when they transferred.

There was only really one problem with using Kage Bushin to train in a physical activity like taijutsu and weapons training. They could learn the kata's of a style due to the fact that muscle memory was a mental faculty, but without a proper sparring partner it would only do so much. He could completely master all of the kata's in a style, yet even then, if he were faced with an opponent with more experience than him, he would lose. Still, at the very least this would mean that he could make his taijutsu as impeccable as possible before he found a sparring partner to really get better.

His last group was divided into two. One group was reading, most of it was on chakra theory, the use of hand seals, trap making, fuiinjutsu and various other shinobi aspects, all of them were beginner books written to teach the basics. The other group was working his calligraphy.

Menma had decided that he was going to be better than any other swordsman, and had figured that surpassing every swordsman would be the best way to show how just how awesome he really was. The first thing Menma had learned about the complex art of sealing was that it required a steady hand, and absolutely perfect brush strokes. One wrong mark on a seal and the results could be... explosive. This meant he had to work on his calligraphy, because even if he did not want to admit it, his hand writing sucked.

So Menma had been forced to delegate a group of clones to getting better hand writing. It was a basic skill he needed to learn, and while it sucked, he remembered Sarutobi's advice about basics being the fundamental stepping stone into more advanced stuff.

At least he was pretty sure that was what he had said. The man had talked so much when he had been giving advice that Menma was not sure he got it all.

Meanwhile Menma himself worked on the physical aspects of his training. He would start off with laps around the training field he had chosen, training ground forty three, a training ground right next to the Forest of Death, not that he knew that, since it was completely secluded. He was currently doing twenty laps around the training ground, with his added weights which were at twenty pounds for his wrist bracers, and thirty pounds for his legs, even he got tired. He planned on increasing the amount of laps he could do within one hour to increase his speed. He also did fifty push-ups, fifty sit ups, fifty pull ups on one of the trees, one hundred squats, one hundred log punches with each fist and one hundred kicks with each leg.

Kakashi sat up in a tree branch watching over Menma's training. Kakashi knew that Menma was only going to get stronger and stronger the boy didn't know it yet but Kakashi did, Menma was probably already the best swordsman and one of the best Lightning users in the Land of Fire not that the Land of Fire had notable swordsmen but still this statement was very true. It only made sense though from what he knew about Menma, he was trained using swords since he could walk. Menma was sent to the Land Iron and was pretty much raised and trained by the Samurai because of the fear that other hidden villages would want to attack Konoha if they found out that they had two Jinchuriki in Naruto and Menma. Even though Menma was sent out of the village to the Land of Iron rumors about another Jinchuriki in the Land of Iron seemed to spread which is what led to Kiri sending Kisame and Zabuza to the Land of Iron to capture Menma. The attempt failed but Menma was sent back to Konoha.

Another thing that Kakashi had noticed was how tailed beast seemed to have an effect on what chakra affinities you have, when Menma first used the chakra papers to see what chakra affinity he had it showed Lightning and Water but when he applied his tailed beast's chakra to the paper it turned to ash which technically ment that Menma had three chakra affinities Lightning, Water, and Fire. Kakashi had told Asuma to try this experiment out too with Naruto and the same thing happened.

______________________________________________________

The week of Team 10's sensei prescribed 'downtime' had come to an end and before long they were right back to work, as all three of the young genin-class shinobi had incentive for wanting to get stronger. Ino, for wanting to provide more than a mere support role to the team. Shikamaru, so that he could find himself capable of going through with his own plans instead of having to use his teammates as living chess pieces as well as bettering his strategies that his father showed him he was still lacking somewhat in. And last but not least Naruto, who believed that he wasn't strong enough to still be accepting of his role as the team's direct conflict fighter and overall self-professed guardian of sorts. But with him, things were coming along smoothly especially after the little boon bestowed upon him by Asuma during their down week.

(Flashback - Three Weeks Ago - 4 Days Into Team 10's Break)

Naruto sat cross-legged on the ground in front of Asuma under the shade of the single tree in their team training ground's clearing against a rock. The man himself was leaning against the tree trunk itself with a very satisfied smile on his face, "It's really a good thing for you that I'm your sensei. I think I'm the only other wind user in Konoha other than you now."

Naruto nodded and stayed silent for the time being, he was aware of elements at the very least. Like for instance he knew that Sasuke shot big-ass fireballs around at his leisure, something that Naruto actually wished he could do. Why couldn't he have been fire-natured? That seemed so much cooler than wind. I mean who didn't like fireballs and explosions? And when he set the explosion he would just turn around and walk away, because after all, everyone knew that cool guys don't look at explosions. He tried practicing his 'not-looking-at-explosions' cool guy gestures when he first joined, but Asuma didn't want him using explosive tags like that... and he didn't want him turning the training ground into a cratered mess.

Asuma gave Naruto a deadpan look as he could see Naruto had stopped paying attention and had a glazed look on his face with a content smirk, "You were thinking of the 'cool guys don't look at explosions' thing again weren't you?" Asuma said, getting Naruto to snap out of his daydream, "It's all over your face. And now you have that look of 'why didn't I get fire or something so that I could make explosions like Sasuke'."

Naruto just chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck, "No... So come on and tell me already, what's so great about wind and what can I do with it?"

Asuma sighed, having to defend his best element to this kid wasn't how he anticipated his training to go, "Alright, wind in my opinion is the best element for you out of them all. Fire is too wild for someone like you, lightning is too precise, water is too loose and flowing, and earth is too straightforward and set. With wind it's the best for the way that you fight, close-to-mid range."

"How?" Naruto asked him skeptically, "Won't wind just blow stuff away from me? That's cool and all I guess, but it won't really beat anyone. I need to be close for my taijutsu to work and everything."

Asuma shook his head, "That's a misconception. While a lot of wind ninjutsu blow things around there are more of them suited towards cutting things." He pointed to a nearby tree and pulled out one of his trench knives, "You see that tree?" Naruto nodded and Asuma threw it.

As the weapon stuck itself into the tree, Naruto waited for something to happen but it never did, "That's it?" He said, turning back to Asuma, "If I knew how to throw that thing I could have done that."

Asuma pulled out his other trench knife, "Fair enough, okay you see this one?" Naruto again nodded, but with less enthusiasm this time, "Move." Naruto raised an eyebrow but got up and moved towards Asuma who threw the trench knife against the rock that Naruto had been standing by. The weapon split right through the stone, kicking up dust from the destroyed stone.

Naruto pulled his goggles down over his eyes and pulled his headband in the style of a bandanna up over his mouth and nose until the dust cleared, "That was awesome! Teach me how to do that!"

"Can't yet." Asuma said, "Learning how to manipulate the wind chakra you have takes work. You can't even generate your chakra the way it's supposed to be for that to even work." He told Naruto as he walked over and picked his trench knives up.

So he couldn't learn how to cut through a rock like butter right off the bat. Okay, he could deal with that for the moment. Walk before you run after all...

"So if I'm not going to be doing that-." Naruto said, pointing at the destroyed rock, "Then what am I going to be doing?"

Asuma turned his head up, "Get a leaf." Naruto shrugged and ran up the trunk of the tree they were under to retrieve a leaf as instructed before jumping down again, "Now split it in half." Asuma fought the urge to facepalm when Naruto just ripped the leaf in two, "Okay, that was my fault... I meant with your chakra."

Naruto tilted his head hard to the right, "Okay... how do I do that?"

Another leaf fell to the ground nearby and Asuma picked it up, holding it out for Naruto to see, "For you, take your chakra and mold it into a cutting form. Just will your chakra to cut through the leaf. Because you've got the wind element that's how it will work for you." He saw Naruto nod, "Now it won't be as easy as it sounds, but you have your Kage Bunshin, so I believe you'll be able to cut the time that you'd normally need to do it down by a large amount."

"Alright." Naruto said before rubbing his hands together and forming the cross-seal, "Let's do this, Tajuu Kage-."

"Hey." Asuma cut Naruto off from forming his clones with a frown on his face, "What did I tell you five days ago?" He asked Naruto in a voice that sounded almost like he was scolding.

"Nothing." Naruto replied, "All you told us to do all week long was to take the week off and rest."

"Exactly." Asuma said with his arms crossed over his chest, "That wasn't just limited to doing missions and training exercises I'm meant to give you, that was also meant to mean that you aren't supposed to train at all."

"What?" Naruto couldn't believe that, "I can't train at all?"

"Yep." Asuma said, "But it for more than just making sure you get your rest. When we start training again I'm going to give each of you solo tests to see where you've grown as individuals since I already gave you your team test before we took our C-rank mission." He saw Naruto grumble about the order he was given, "I didn't say you can't do anything, I just said no physical training. Let your body rest for a while. All you do is kill your body when you train, you're only human kid."

Naruto still didn't like it, even if it was just for the rest of the week, "Well what am I supposed to do for the rest of the time off then?"

"I don't know, I can't tell you what to do for the rest of the time." The older man said, before contributing a thought, "Why not take up a book or something?" He noticed Naruto glaring at him, "What? What's wrong with that?"

Naruto kept up his heated look at the jounin, "You were trying to be funny just now weren't you?"

(End Flashback)

And for the last few weeks in the time that he and his team hadn't been working on their missions or going with exercises that Asuma had given them to improve as a team, Naruto had been doing his best to split a leaf when they were given time to train on their own things, which was what he had been doing at the moment. Yep, him and about thirty clones all with leaves in their hands.

Naruto and all of his replications were focusing hard on the leaves in their hands. The one thing Naruto could say after a few weeks of on and off working on his elemental manipulation training was that it was a lot of standing around and concentrating... but if doing this would lead him to picking up a new move or two he would do it. Not everything could be exciting and over-the-top awesome all of the time.

With a grunt of exertion, Naruto stopped generating chakra and heaved out a few heavy breaths, looking over to where he saw the rest of his team sitting about. Naruto narrowed his eyes and walked over, getting a small chuckle out of Asuma, "That's another reason why I felt that your elemental training would go faster than most. Because first learning how to use your element takes a lot of chakra, something you have no shortage of most of the time." He never looked up at Naruto as he had his eyes on a shogi board sitting between him and Shikamaru.

'Not this stupid game again.' Naruto thought to himself. Okay, so he was kind of biased since he couldn't really play it. He understood the rules, but shogi just wasn't the game for him. It took too much patience and he was too impulsive. Most of the time when he would play Asuma or Shikamaru he would walk right into their traps that they had been setting up for ten turns while he had been going around the board trying to pick off officer pieces. He could beat Ino more often than not however, he had a habit of pulling off some surprising gambits that actually worked against someone on his own level, "What are all of you doing?"

"Reading a book, my clones are over there reading a scroll on Kenjutsu." Menma replied.

"Kicking Asuma's ass." Shikamaru replied as dryly as ever as he moved another piece, putting a frown on Asuma's face, "Your turn."

Asuma scratched his beard as he looked over his pieces, "How in the hell have I not beaten you once yet?"

Menma stopped paying attention to them and looked over at Ino who was laying out on the ground as if she were sleeping, "Great... yeah. I didn't know 'free training day' to me meant 'chill out day' for everyone else." He said as he walked over to Ino and crouched down in front of her, waving his hand in front of her face and getting no reaction, "Ino... Ino wake up."

"Ino is awake Menma." Asuma said, scowling over how Shikamaru was working him into a corner on the shogi board, "She actually is training right now."

Menma blinked before opening his mouth in understanding, "Oh, her clan jutsu. But where did she go? There's nothing around here." Just when he said that, a bird landed on him and pecked at the top of his head three times, "Oi!" He almost managed to swat the bird, but it managed to fly away first.

After a moment once the bird landed in the tree that marked the center of their training ground Ino's body then began to stir on the ground, "Ugh, you're so lucky that you didn't hit me while I was in that bird Menma..."

Menma looked at her as she sat up rubbing her eyes, "You can hit birds with that move?"

Ino nodded, "Well it didn't know I was coming, it's not that big of a deal." She then noticed that Naruto had stopped training and popped up to her feet quickly, "Oh, there's something that I've always wanted to try Menma and I need your help! Make a Kage Bunshin."

Menma quickly did as she asked of him and in a matter of seconds a second Menma was standing right next to the original, "So what's up? What did you need?"

She made the hand-seal for Shintenshin no Jutsu, "I wanted to see if I could take control of a clone, but you're the only person I know that makes tons of them the way that you do. You Kage Bunshin and most other solid ones have consciousnesses, that's why they can follow orders, I just want to see if this would work." Menma nodded and moved away from his clone, "Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Switch Jutsu)!"

Menma's clone's head snapped back in an alert motion before slumping down while Ino's body fell back down to the ground in a heap. Even Naruto, Asuma, and Shikamaru stopped what they were doing to watch. Asuma was only thankful that Ino hadn't tried to take the real Menma's body, but what would happen in a clone body?

Ino inside of the Kage Bunshin started looking at herself in Menma'sform, flexing the fingers and testing out the basic motor skills, "Wow, Menma's body is really rigid and stiff. And why do this swords weigh so damn much?"

Menma gave her a dry look as she continued to go through the motions in his clone's body, "Well what did you expect Ino? You're a girl, you're way lighter than me, and all of that other stuff."

"Yeah, yeah I know." She said as she kept looking at her hands, "But I can just feel how much stronger your body is than mine, it's kind of cool. I feel like I can lift anything right now."

Naruto chimed in, putting his training on hold for the moment, "I really wouldn't do that though Ino. Menma's clones are pretty fragile, too much strain on one and they'll pop. Then what will happen to your mind?"

She looked over at Naruto and blinked, "Well it depends on what happens to the clone. If I just get punched or something then I'll go right back into my body, only my body will take the damage from the punch. If I get stabbed or burned or whatever then that will happen to my real body too."

That made Menma pale slightly. His clones took obscene amounts of punishment of the fatal variety. They were his buffers, and they were subtly how he knew what to avoid himself when he took to directly fighting his enemies. In Nami no Kuni Sasuke must have killed like thirty of them at least in rather heinous fashion, "Okay... I don't think you should try to use my clones for your jutsu Ino. Get out of him now." Ino put her hands on her hips... which looked really weird inside of the body of one of Menma's clones, but did as he asked and released her jutsu, allowing Menma to dispel the clone.

"What's the worst thing that could happen?" Ino asked once she returned to her own body and sat up to look at Menma.

Menma just deadpanned at her, "Do you pay attention to the things that my clones do? They die harder than any real person does." She gave him a confused look, "The way you just talked about my clone getting set on fire like it's not a big deal proves my point."

Ino blushed when she realized that everyone had just been playing off the amounts of damage that Menma's clones took regularly. Everyone on the team had been responsible for killing more than their fair share of them since the squad's inception, "Sorry Menma."

"It's okay, I'm just looking out for you." He reassured her before grinning at her, "After all, you wouldn't wanna make your idiot companion mad?" He said in humor, remembering his run-in with Ino's dad.

'Damn it, that better not stick with him.' Ino thought to herself, although she could see that he was teasing her. If she reacted to it angrily or something then he definitely would have kept calling her that just to mess with her. He was just being good-natured when he said it the way he was at the moment. Still, he'd better not start seeing her like that for real.

"Checkmate." Shikamaru said to Asuma before yawning.

Asuma looked at the board from every angle he could find as he tried to figure out an excuse of some sort, "Maybe if I-."

"Nope." Shikamaru said with finality, cutting off whatever he was going to say.

"Yeah, but-."

"It's over Asuma." Shikamaru started putting all of the pieces away, "Lose with some dignity why don't you?"

Asuma finally sighed and conceded that he was still unable to beat Shikamaru at shogi... what was with that kid? He had an answer for everything. It hadn't taken him long to figure out that Shikamaru was a genius, but to put it into action at a young age like this was something else entirely, "Fine... dismissed for the day." He said in a defeated manner, "We'll be taking another mission tomorrow." Asuma said as he slogged away in a dejected fashion.

Ino looked at Asuma slowly leaving the training ground and turned to Shikamaru, "I think you broke him."

Shikamaru picked up his shogi board and smirked, "Well it was only a matter of time. I've beaten him like thirty-seven times already." He started walking away as well, "I'm going to go see if Chouji is done for the day too and see if he wants to hang out for a bit, do either of you want to go?"

Ino shrugged, "Why not? I was just going to go home, but all I was going to do was start to dip into my extra training... and I could do that anytime tonight for what I was going to do for it. Sure."

Naruto shook his head, "Nope, sorry not this time." He said, dispelling his clones and dropping to one knee because of the backlash. He quickly shook it off due to it not being that many and turned to his teammates, "I've got to figure out how to cut this stupid leaf, it's killing me."

"Okay." Ino said, unsure of Naruto's intentions to keep training with something so hard after being dismissed for the day, "If that's what you want we'll see you tomorrow. What about you Menma?"

"Sorry I can't, I have to train with Kakashi"

Menma smiled at both of them before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Shikamaru just shook his head, "Show-off... Is he still trying to look cool like on the first week? I thought he knew by now that guys like us aren't supposed to look cool when we do stuff."

Ino shook her head, swinging her ponytail back and forth slightly as she followed, "A little effort wouldn't kill you. Maybe you could pull it off if you tried. Menma's starting to anyway."

"Nah." Shikamaru said, shooting down her comment, "For what? It's not going to help me any in the long run. Who cares if anyone thinks I'm cool, it's troublesome."

XxX

(Later - Konohagakure Ninja Academy)

Konohamaru stood outside by a large bag of erasers as he clapped two together repeatedly, coughing every now and then, "I said I was sorry Iruka-sensei... That pepper extract fell into your mug by accident."

Iruka stood nearby against the wall of the school overseeing his work, "And why did you even have it on you in the first place?" He asked with a perturbed look on his face. It hadn't even been six months since his last prankster had left the Academy, he'd be damned if he'd let another one start honing their skills on his watch. No way, not again.

"Lunch?" Konohamaru said desperately, "That's a no go huh?" Iruka nodded and the boy sighed, continuing to clap erasers and cough until a hand pulled the goggles on his forehead down over his face, "Huh?"

"So you can at least see what you're doing without getting dust in your eyes." Konohamaru looked up and saw someone else with goggles over their eyes and a bandanna around their nose and mouth with the village insignia on a metal plate, "If I said that this was half of the reason I bought goggles in the first place would that seem like it was about right Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka smirked and chuckled, "Well how am I supposed to know what made you go out and buy those weird things one day?" He said as he walked from the wall over to Konohamaru, "Long time no see Naruto."

Naruto pulled the cloth down from his face and grinned widely, getting Konohamaru to point up at him suddenly, "Whoa! Boss what's with the new look?"

"It's not really new." Naruto said, pulling his goggles back onto his forehead and tugging at the bandanna around his neck, "I just thought this would be more useful if I wore it this way."

"No way, not just that!" Konohamaru said abruptly, "I haven't seen you in forever and you've got this new look and everything, with the clothes and all of that! Just because you look stronger doesn't mean anything, I'm still going to beat you really soon, you'll see!" He waved his little fist at Naruto aggressively.

Naruto shook his head in amusement and turned to Iruka, "Iruka-sensei I was just wondering if you could help me really quick."

Iruka saw how serious Naruto's face was and he looked down at Konohamaru, "Alright Konohamaru, you're done for today since this was your first offense, you can go home. And there'd better not be a next time or else I'll have you clean every last eraser in school." He threatened to the small boy who nodded fervently.

"Okay." He hurriedly dropped his erasers in his hands and ran towards the edge of the schoolyard before stopping, "Hang out with me soon Boss, I've got some people that want to meet you!" He said before taking off, not really into the whole 'staying afterschool' scene.

Iruka sighed as he watched his current student leave the grounds, "It hasn't even been a year yet and I can already tell he's going to be a handful. Not as much as you, but still..." He turned to Naruto, "So what is it that you need Naruto? Do you have my jutsu down?"

Naruto grinned, "Yep. I'm getting better with it, I can sense stuff that's like 100 yards away, and I can even read signs and other stuff too." It then fell from his face, "But that's not why I'm here Iruka-sensei. I was wondering, what do you know about training an elemental affinity?"

Iruka smiled when he heard what Naruto was practicing, "That's a pretty advanced form of chakra control. You're saying you can water-walk and all of that?" Naruto nodded and Iruka let off an impressed sound, "Well this coming from the kid that couldn't focus for long enough to balance a leaf on his head. Good for you." He then pondered Naruto's question, "Well, something like this isn't supposed to happen overnight."

Naruto nodded, "I know, and I already know what I'm supposed to be thinking about when I try creating the wind chakra; my chakra as sharp and as thin as I can make it, like the edge of a blade."

Iruka scratched the scar on the bridge of his nose as he thought of how to answer, "Well, there aren't any tips on how to get it down faster. It is what it is, all you can do now is work until you get it."

Letting out a sigh, Naruto placed his hands behind his head and squinted his eyes, "Yeah, but there are so many people out there stronger than me Iruka-sensei. I mean, just on the last big mission I had, it was a close call... if we were fighting a different person then Ino and Shikamaru might have died." By now he was over it, way over it. It had happened, they actually all walked away from the fight in one piece, there was nothing more to dwell on. That still didn't mean that he couldn't use it as a lesson that there was still going to be people out there stronger than him.

Iruka placed his hand on top of Naruto's head, "You're still a rookie Naruto. You've got all the time in the world to get better and from the looks of things you're improving quickly. Just take your time. There's no rush at all, I don't want to see you go overboard and burn yourself out."

Naruto moved Iruka's hand from his head with a smile, "Alright Iruka-sensei, but you won't ever have to worry about me burning out. I can't stop until I get to Hokage can I?"

Hearing the confidence that had seemed lacking earlier slip back into Naruto's voice after his question time was done, Iruka smiled back at his former student, "Of course you can't. Good luck, and remember you can always come back and ask me anything." Naruto nodded and gave Iruka a two-fingered salute before making the ram seal and disappearing in a puff of smoke, "He can do that already? Whoa..."

(The Next Day)

Asuma and his team stood in the room where missions were accepted and he noticed his team's eyes harden as they were handed another C-ranked mission from the pile, 'Calm down you guys, this is C-ranked, not A-ranked like the backup mission we went on.' Asuma took the scroll provided for them and led them outside where he stood in front of them and read the mission to them, "Alright we'll be back in a week just like how we were supposed to be the last time." He heard Ino scoff, "I said like how we were supposedto. Anyway, this one should be pretty easy."

Shikamaru by now was skeptical of whenever anyone said that things would be easy by now, because nothing was ever easy... at least by his standards, "So then what are we doing?"

"It's just another simple little transport job. Nothing out of your scope to be able to handle." Asuma said, motioning for them to follow him, "Let's go get what we're supposed to be taking."

XxX

Naruto, Menma, Ino, and Shikamaru were all positioned in front of a large cart hauling hundreds of pounds of lumber. All four genin were pulling the materials down the path towards where they were going. Naruto grunted in exertion before speaking, "Where is this farm?"

Asuma walked alongside the cart keeping watch for any signs of someone looking to boost their hardware for a quick buck, letting his eyes drift towards his genin team every few moments, "You guys holding up okay? Do you need a break?"

"Yes." Shikamaru said immediately, getting a glare from both Menma, Naruto, and Ino who weren't about to be stuck doing this for a few more extra hours because one of them was lazy. The sooner this ended for them the better.

"No." Naruto, Menma, and Ino said simultaneously. Even though in all honesty she could have used one after pushing the cart for several hours, Ino wasn't going to stop first. But looking over at Menma, other than the act of actually forcing the cart to move which was at this point basically them using their momentum, Naruto and Menma didn't seem fazed at all by the rather hard physical labor. They were always like that, and the other day when Ino took over Menma clone's body... well she had never felt so much chakra in her entire life. Inside of his body there was so much energy that she couldn't even stand still, which was why she kept looking all over the body spastically. She was about to take off into a run and do something in it until Menma asked her to go back into her own body.

And the thing about it was, that Kage Bunshin required him to split his chakra evenly between the clones that he made, which means that the single clone he made had half of his chakra... which meant that all that energy she felt wasn't even all of it. She couldn't imagine how Menma felt all of the time if that were the case, no wonder he thought he could have kept training after they were dismissed that day.

Naruto and Menma chuckled as he continued to keep the cart moving forward alongside his teammates, "Come on Shikamaru, it's just walking. We're just dragging stuff while we're doing it."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "Do you not feel the 400 pounds that we're dragging behind us?" Oh who was he kidding? With all three of them pulling it at the same time of course they didn't feel it. Both he and Ino could carry at least a good 100 pounds all on their own each, Menma and Naruto were at least three times as strong as they were. Not to mention the fact that he had more energy than Konoha's power substations on his worst day.

Where the hell did they get so much energy? It was always that way, even back in school. They were never seen training to get their stamina up above anyone else's but they were just able to purely outlast everyone else during the physical exercises that they did to condition the students for the things they would do as shinobi. Naruto and Menma were giving him a headache making him think about all of this stuff, but since all they were doing was hauling a cart he had plenty of time to think.

"It's good for you." Asuma said, about them dragging the cart, "When was the last time you all did anything physical like this anyway? Just think about how good the trip back will feel without the cart and that will make you feel better."

With that being said, the only sound coming from the immediate area was the sound of the cart's wooden wheels bumping along the road. After a few minutes, Menma and Naruto sighed and spoke again, filling in the silence of the ordinary C-rank mission, "Seriously Asuma-sensei, where is this farm?"

__________________________________________________

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato - Hokage Tower)

Hiruzen looked over the correspondence from the message that had been sent to Kusagakure. It was much the same as the responses that he had been receiving from other villages, the idea of carrying out the chunin exams in Konoha this year did not appeal to any of the other villages and there was no other location that the villages could all agree upon. None of the five major villages felt like going to any of the others this year to allow their genin to compete.

The old man furrowed his brow as he tried thinking of a solution, as the location had to be finalized within the next month or else this time around it wouldn't be happening as at least another month would be needed for preparation, 'This won't do. All of this back and forth over the matter won't solve anything. What is needed is a neutral site for the exams to take place this time around. A place that none of the other villages can complain about, and joint proctors can be provided from each village. A place that won't tolerate anything other than complete impartiality over the issue.'

This might solve another problem of accused bias from the hosting villages that inevitably came through year after year and in all honesty quite a bit of it was well-founded. Even if it hadn't been intended there was never really a level playing field. Whenever coded messages were used that needed to be deciphered it was always a code that the host village was already well versed in. Battlefields were usually well suited for use by the hosting competitors' genin due to how they had trained for the duration of their careers. There were a myriad of ways that each time bias was founded, and sometimes a genin passing the exam and getting promoted wound up being because of the village they were in to take the exam in the first place.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was better than arguing back and forth and wasting valuable time that could be better served to set things up. Now even if the proposition was accepted it would still need to be cleared with a third party, the country that would be the host of this exam. If everything fell into place as it should then the plans could be finalized in a matter of around two weeks, leaving six-to-eight weeks for everything else to come together. Plenty of time.

Hiruzen smiled triumphantly, it would go through as no one would have any reasons for things not to proceed as he would suggest. After all, there was no more neutral nation around than Tetsu no Kuni (Land of Iron). He only worried if Menma had recovered from his PTSD from what happened back in the Land of Iron.

With this fact in his head, Hiruzen began writing out a reply to continue correspondence and a proposal to all of the villages that would potentially be sending teams. With things the way they were now, this had the potential to be the largest chunin exam that had ever been put together.

A letter needed to be put out to all of the villages now. This could be a major event seen worldwide, a boon to each participating villages' economy and then some. A true joint meeting of the best of the best from the future shinobi of the Elemental Nations.

XxX

(With Team 10 - Within Hi no Kuni)

It had been a day of travel as the genin team and their jounin sensei continued on towards their destination. And even though Naruto's clockwork cry of "Where is this farm?" was starting to grate on more than a few nerves, Ino and Shikamaru had to agree with him in wondering just where the hell this farm was. And their moods didn't improve in the slightest when they found that the farm they were meant to bring lumber to... was positioned in the middle of a rather plentiful forest. It was like a slap across the face to the three kids hauling the materials, especially Shikamaru who had actually deemed it necessary to exert himself dragging that crap all over for an entire day.

"Where is this farm damn it?" Naruto growled out for what seemed like the thousandth time for the span of their mission.

Asuma still stayed supervising the trio of genin as they dragged the cart along a forest road, "It's close, just keep on going. If you look hard enough you can see it through the trees. And it's more of a ranch Naruto."

Naruto mumbled as he kept on working, this was like a D-rank mission except they actually had to travel a ways outside of the village to get it done, "Farm, ranch, whatever. I can't see anything Asuma-sensei... I can't even get anything with Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu (Chakra Echolocation Jutsu). All I get are trees. These woods are pretty thick."

"Which brings us to part two of our mission." Asuma said as he pulled the scroll dictating their mission parameters, "After we deliver the lumber we've been hired on to transport, we're to stay back and protect the livestock and other animals until they can put up the fences that they need to build. That should take a few days."

Shikamaru sighed in relief. That sounded good to him. Just watching animals for a few days and nothing else sounded pretty laid back to him, thank goodness the harder part was about to end.

And just as Asuma said, it didn't take much longer for them to finish making their way through the forest to find themselves in a clear-cut area, rather large, with a pretty good sized house in the middle of the property near a farmhouse. Near the farmhouse there were tons of penned animals; cattle... a lot of cattle.

The team finished pulling the cart up to the front of the farmhouse as a young looking black-haired man in a plain brown shirt and tan pants walked outside overlooking the genin bringing things to a stop. As soon as they stopped pulling the cart, Shikamaru walked out away a few feet and fell out directly on the ground staring up at the sky from his back, "Finally done..."

The man they had brought the materials to chuckled as he walked towards them, "Well you Konoha ninja sure work fast. I wasn't expecting you all here until at least this evening. You all got here bright and early this morning."

Asuma grinned at his team, Ino leaning against the cart, tired from dragging that thing for over a day, and Naruto who yawned as if that was just his warm-up for the day and he was still waking up, "Well there's no reason to go slower if we can actually keep a faster pace, right? It wasn't that far out from Konoha."

The man rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, but I don't have any workers here except for me and my little cousins, and they would have been all kinds of useless when it came to dragging that stuff, even though they're just as old as your team here." He extended his hand to Asuma, "By the way shinobi-san, my name is Kojima Katashi. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise." Asuma said, grabbing his hand and shaking it heartily, "I am Sarutobi Asuma, and these are my genin; the boy on the ground is Nara Shikamaru, the girl is Yamanaka Ino, and the blonde boy and Black haired boy is Naruto and Menma Uzumaki."

"Who's outside?" A youthful male voice called out from inside the house as footsteps sounded out towards the front door.

"And these are my cousins that I had been talking about." Katashi said, gesturing minutely towards the door. The first person outside was a boy around the kids' age with black hair and a straw hat on his head. He wore blue jeans and a dust colored shirt that had the look of a poncho, "This is Shigeru." He looked towards said male younger cousin, "Where is your sister? It's about time to start for the day."

"She's inside, do you think she'd actually be out here or somewhere else?" Shigeru said as he walked down the stairs of the porch, looking at the new arrivals, "Who the hell are they?" His eyes stopped on Ino however, who wasn't paying the least bit of attention to him beyond seeing who had asked about them.

Katashi pointed at the Konoha ninja with a smile, "These are the shinobi I hired to bring the lumber up here and watch over the cattle until the fence is built since you and Kiyomi fought so hard to not drag last of the stuff that I had to buy back here." He finished chidingly.

"That was a seriously long trip back here!" Shigeru complained, "And you wanted us to drag that stuff all that way? What are we, the cattle we keep?"

"Oi!" Naruto and Ino replied indignantly at being compared to cattle. Shikamaru didn't respond because he was busy catching up on the sleep he had missed that morning... right there on the ground, "Who's cattle?"

Shigeru waved his hands in front of his face indignantly and hurriedly made his way over to Ino, "I didn't mean you of course. No way! I was just saying..."

"Why is he trying to apologize to just her?" Naruto said to himself, "He insulted all three of us, right Shikamaru?" He looked over at Shikamaru who was on his back with his eyes closed on the ground, "If you don't stop acting like you're asleep I'm going to draw on your face again."

Shikamaru immediately sat up with a groan, "Damn you Naruto. Can't a guy take a break?" His response was a fleet kick to his side from said blonde, "Bastard..."

"Yes, I'm a bastard." Naruto said, shrugging his shoulders and kicking Shikamaru playfully three more times, "Or have you met my father?"

Katashi turned towards the house and yelled through the open door, "Kiyomi get out here already! I already let you two sleep late today because supplies were still getting here!"

"I'm coming!" A girl's voice yelled from inside before rapid footsteps made it outside. A girl with black hair like Shigeru and Katashi appeared on the front steps only hers had been done in twin braids down her back. She wore jean shorts that came to her thighs and a white shirt over a jean vest to go along with white boots and gloves, "Is it time to work already?" She said, blocking a yawn from coming forth.

"You've got it." Katashi said, "Meet the group of ninja that will be keeping watch over the cattle until everything is done. The leader Asuma-san, and the genin under his command; Ino, Shikamaru, Menma and Naruto ."

Shigeru grinned at Ino lecherously, "So your name is Ino is it? It's fitting for someone as pretty as you."

"Yeah... I guess." She said with a sigh. It really didn't as far as she was concerned and she could tell already that this was going to be a long few days.

Naruto grabbed Shikamaru by the back of his vest and yanked him to his feet, "Say hi Shikamaru. Even you can do that."

"Whatever..." He muttered before stepping back as he found the girl Kiyomi danger close to him, "Um, can I help you?"

Kiyomi had a light blush on her face as she studied Shikamaru, "So you're here to help us out for a few days?" Shikamaru looked over at Naruto who gave him a look saying that he was just as lost as he was, "So what can you tell me about yourself? Like what do you like to do?"

'Who cares?' Shikamaru thought as he took a few steps back, "Nothing. I don't like doing anything." He said.

Kiyomi frowned when Naruto spoke up, "He's seriously telling the truth, he doesn't like doing anything." He then recoiled slightly when he felt the girl's glare on him.

"I wasn't asking you." She growled out before changing back to a sweet tone and looking at Shikamaru, "I was asking Shikamaru-kun here."

Naruto felt rather offended at how he had been treated not even five minutes into meeting these people, and then finally noticed Shigeru hitting on Ino as she steadily ignored him and tried blowing him off. With a sigh he walked over to Asuma and Katashi shaking his head, "This is going to be a long goddamn mission isn't it?"

"Sorry about that." Katashi said to the shorter blonde boy, "My aunt and uncle gave me the money to buy this land and cattle to start my business on the condition that I would take my little cousins and show them the concept of hard work. It hasn't really worked though since they're both kind of..."

"Brats?" Naruto suggested, turning around to see his two unfortunate teammates and the two siblings that had apparently found love at first sight. Asuma palmed his face at Naruto's choice of words, "What? We were all thinking it, I just said it out loud."

Katashi crossed his arms over his chest, "Well he's not really that far off with it to be honest. But today they're going to be working their tails off because now that we have all of the lumber I sent out for we can get to building the property gate around the farm."

Naruto looked up at Asuma who knew what Naruto wanted to ask, "No, he didn't pay for you guys to build the fence as well, he just paid for us to transport the materials and guard the cattle until everything was all up."

Hearing that, Naruto's eyes lit up, "So other than watching the cattle we don't have anything else to do?" If all he had to do was babysit some stupid cows for a few hours and in return he could do whatever he wanted then maybe he could get in some training and make this trip a little productive.

"That's right." Asuma said before he found that Naruto had darted away to the pen holding the cattle shouting that he had the first watch shift at the top of his lungs, speeding past his teammates.

"Wow." Katashi said as he could still see the dust that Naruto had kicked up from running towards the pen, "Good little ethic in that one." He scratched his head and called out to his cousins, "Shigeru! Kiyomi! Help the Naruto kid get the cattle out to graze around the area and then you can help me get to work on putting up the fence around the property!" The two younger family members of Katashi jolted to attention and ran off to do as instructed.

Asuma called his genin over and gave them the rundown of how things would go, "Naruto's watching the cattle first while they graze. It'll be either one or the other's job after that this afternoon and early in the evening. Any questions?" Ino, Menma and Shikamaru shook their heads to show that they didn't have any, "Until then you two can do whatever you want, just be ready for your shift. You can both decide who gets that one."

Shikamaru waved and went off to find a quiet spot, "What was that Asuma? Did you say, 'Go ahead and find a quiet spot to catch some z's Shikamaru. Naruto will find you and kick you awake when it's your turn.'? I'm way ahead of you."

Ino watched her lazier teammate leave and she turned her attention back to Menma, "Well while I'm waiting for something to do I think I should test out a poison I made on myself."

Menma looked up from his book and went wide-eyed at her, "You made a poison?" He then picked up the second half of what she said, "You're going to test it on yourself? What the hell's wrong with you, you're on a mission. This is no time to build up an immunity to something."

Ino laughed slightly, "It's a weak numbing poison Menma. I wouldn't use anything worse than that. I can't even make the good stuff yet." She then scowled, "Though maybe I should use the hallucinogen... It would really make dealing with that punk Shigeru more amusing later."

Menma weighed the benefits of Ino walking around until her shift either physically numb, or mentally out of it and figured that the latter was more dangerous for everyone, "Why don't you save that second one until you get back home." He didn't want her to potentially go berserk because she was building an immunity to something, "You can use the first one if you're sure it will wear off by the time you have to go on watch."

Ino nodded brightly, "I'm not sure how long it will take to wear off since I don't know for sure, but it won't last any longer than a few hours I'm sure. Maybe a day."

Asuma then chimed into his student's conversation on second thought, if Ino were out of commission for a bit then Shikamaru would have to do actual work. "Do you have the antidote?" Ino pulled it out of her supply pouch and presented it to him, "Then you might as well do it now." Asuma shooed her off and rubbed his temple, "A slacker with a genius IQ and no desire to actually use it, a loudmouth that can steal your body and then poison it, a perverted swordsman and the single most impulsive genin in Konoha... ladies and gentlemen let me present to you Team 10." He said, starting a slow clap for the benefit of no one.

Katashi sweatdropped and gave him a dry look, "Are they really that bad?"

And right on cue... "Whoo!" Naruto yelled, waving a machete around wildly as he chased a herd of cattle out into the open fields with a bunch of his Kage Bunshin, "I've been drinking green tea all goddamn morning! I pray to Kami every goddamn Sunday, you're gon' bring out the demons in me! Yah bitch, yah!"

Asuma didn't even visibly respond, having become more or less accustomed to it by now, while on the other hand Katashi was staring at Naruto and clones in horror, "Naruto don't you injure any of those cattle with that damn thing, that's money you're scaring the hell out of!" Asuma yelled to him before placing a cigarette in his own mouth and lighting it.

"I know!" He yelled back at his sensei before turning a manic grin to the cattle, "I want some steak with my next meal damn it, dattebayo! Get. In. My. Ramen!"

Turning back to Katashi, Asuma offered him a cigarette only for the man to robotically shake his head as he saw his cousins walk after in an effort to keep pace with Naruto, "I wonder how well he can even use that thing... He's never asked me about it." He mused mostly to himself.

Katashi waved his arms frantically at his cousins, "Get the horses! Don't try to follow them on foot you guys, that ninja kid is way faster than you, don't let them run free like that!" Anime tears started streaming down his face, "Why is good help so hard to find?" He cried desperately.

Asuma blew out a plume of smoke and patted the younger man on the back, "Because first of all you aren't paying for it. Cheer up, it's not that bad."

XxX

(Hours Later)

Naruto stood by the grazing cattle with a leaf in his hand while the sounds of stakes being hammered into the ground rang out. While Katashi would dig holes for the poles Shigeru would set them and hammer them in and Kiyomi would place the fence portions in while they kept working, "Why isn't ninja boy here helping us? He's about as useful as a poop-flavored lollipop." Shigeru said out loud.

"Because we didn't pay him to, so this isn't his job." Katashi said as his shovel kept forming holes for the fence posts, "All he's doing is making sure the cattle don't wander off while they graze and get hurt. Those clone things of his are doing a great job of that. If he wants to stare at a leaf he can do that."

Naruto got a tick mark on his head, but they weren't shinobi. How would they know that he was training? All he had to do was focus on his training. Split the leaf. Sharper, thinner, get his chakra the way it needed to be. He was going to get this down in no time, he just knew it.

Shigeru then commented again, "I wish his teammate was here, the hot one, Ino." Menma then peeked up from his book and rolled his eyes and tried to ignore him, "Did you see her playing hard to get?"

"I wish my Shikamaru-kun was here." Kiyomi said rather dreamily with a sigh, "His attitude is so hot, he acts so detached but I know he's a softie. And I know he'd help us out without any questions."

Naruto's eye started to twitch, 'I'm not getting paid for this, and I don't like any of you enough to help, except for maybe Katashi. He's alright.' Besides, if that girl thought Shikamaru would lift a finger to help out she obviously didn't know a damn thing about the guy. She'd probably be one of those girls that went gaga over Sasuke back in Konoha if she thought Shikamaru's attitude was cool.

"Alright, focus on the job you guys." Katashi said as he moved onto digging another hole, his pace far outworking the others by this time, "The faster we work the sooner we finish up. As long as this fence isn't up the cattle can wander off easier in the middle of grazing, and from there who knows what can happen to them."

Kiyomi shook her head as she went to grab some more lumber, "I don't know why you decided to do this with your life Katashi. Our parents would have kept supporting you, we never really saw why you wanted to raise cattle like this."

Katashi frowned, "Because I wanted to make my own way in the world, not ride along on my family's coattails. How could I mooch when your parents did so much for me already after my own died? I'm going to make my own money and I'm going to pay them back for everything they've done for me. You've got to learn how to do things yourself once in a while."

"I still don't get it." Shigeru whispered to his sister who nodded, "He doesn't have to do this, it seems really useless to me."

"He's doing it for himself." Menma and Naruto said to the both of them, surprising them that he had been listening, "He's trying to prove that he's his own person and that people can rely on him. We kind of know where he's coming from on that."

As they thought about what Naruto, Menma, and Katashi said, Shikamaru came up and tapped Naruto on the shoulder, "Hey, your shift is over. I'm taking the late afternoon and early evening shift."

Naruto looked at Shikamaru and tilted his head, "Really? You're actually taking a shift? Did Ino threaten you?" He questioned.

Shikamaru frowned, "Hardly. Is it really that unbelievable that I came here all on my own?" Naruto gave him a deadpan look in return, "Okay, Menma is sleeping, and Ino can barely move because she's apparently building up an immunity to something. It's not close to being fatal, but she has terrible mobility and wouldn't be any good trying anything with herding these cattle back into the pen."

Naruto grinned and patted Shikamaru on the shoulder, "Well in that case have fun looking out for the cows. You saw them all on the way here, and I'm just going to dispel my clones because I'm training. I need all of that chakra." Naruto almost skipped away, he was so happy to leave the area.

"Shikamaru-kun!" Kiyomi shouted out to him, waving happily, "Would you mind helping us out with this?"

"Yeah I would." Shikamaru said as he turned around to watch the cattle graze. This wouldn't actually be that bad until it was time to put them back in their pen. Watching these cattle would be right up his alley he thought to himself as he sat down in the grass and watched. He had a lot of things to ponder about anyway, like Narutoand Menma. After months of being on the same team he had yet to figure out what made them tick exactly. Those two were a mystery and there were no clues in his reach.

"He's so cool..." Kiyomi said, getting his attention, "So calm and aloof. I wonder what he's thinking." Shikamaru heard her say.

XxX

(A Hidden Location - Hi no Kuni)

"D'ya know how much money all of that guy's cattle'll bring us?" A man said before cackling manically, "He's just a baby rancher, the guy probably doesn't even have the heart to brand any of those things. If he's the guy runnin' the place then taking those stupid things'll be like taking candy from a screamin' brat."

Another more gruff voice spoke up in response, "Be quiet Kei. Don't think about the money we'll get until we take the livestock. Then once we've sold them off you can think about it."

"Mou, you're so boring Manabu." The cackling voice of Kei said again, "Can't ya let a guy fantasize about living large for a moment? Ya big stick in the mud."

"Now, now brothers..." A third calm and authoritative voice said, getting the other two to pay attention to him, "It won't matter after tonight because Kei's daydream will be real. This little ranch hand and his little brat cousins won't dare raise a hand against the Yunokawa Brothers."

"Sure thing/Yes Satoshi-oniisama." Both Kei and Manabu said respectively.

Satoshi chuckled softly, "Now my dear little brothers. Prepare for tonight, we move on that little ranch then."

XxX

(That Night - Kojima Ranch)

"Stop messing with that blade Menma." Ino said in a rather strained voice as she slowly stood up from the kitchen table inside of Katashi's house. Menma was sitting down across from her trying to apply lightning to the Kubikiribōchō without using hand signs, "You've been trying to do that all afternoon since you came back in."

Menma looked up from the blade at the blonde girl sitting across from him, "Yeah, well you've been sitting there all day doing nothing."

Ino's eye twitched as the feeling started coming back to her body quicker than before, "I used more poison than I thought. You should have known that when you sat here and tickled me for ten minutes when you first walked in you bastard." And there had been nothing that she could do since he and her were the only ones in the house, yelling for Asuma wouldn't have done any good. A seductive smirk came over her face after thinking about it for a moment, "Did you like touching my body like that Menma?"

Menma's face started turning red, "Y-You're wearing bandages under your clothes. I didn't really touch anything." He muttered, turning away from her.

Ino batted her eyes at him to tease him further, "That's no excuse you liar... If you couldn't feel anything then you wouldn't have done it for so long. Even when you do stuff like that you're so gentle with me, it's so sweet how you take care of your Ino-chan. I always knew you were the more responsible one to put in charge of my body." Tickle her when she couldn't fight back would he? It's a good thing that no matter what she could always push his buttons like this.

"Stop saying stuff like that damn it..." Menma said, pulling his black hood down over his face to cover his red cheeks, "It's not fair. I can't do this kind of stuff to you."

Ino sauntered over to him as he had his back turned and draped herself over his back and the back of his chair, "Why? What's wrong with touching me?" She then lowered her voice to a whisper as she pulled his hood down to his neck, "You've never done anything naughty with my body while I wasn't in it have you Goldie-kun?"

Menma was about to yell at her, but found that he couldn't muster up the voice to do it. Just the tone of voice Ino used made him shiver. In his opinion she just had to find a way to use that in her fighting... although maybe he was the only person that it would work on.

"I'm not hearing a no." Ino chided further, right next to his ear, "You big perv."

"Not a perv..." Menma growled out as footsteps from upstairs eventually led to Kiyomi walking in, and Ino slipping back into her seat almost unnoticed by Menma. The lack of her pleasant scent in his sinuses was his only initial indication. And the extremely satisfied look she had on her face due to making the last few moments very hard for him was very hard to ignore, especially when she winked at him.

Kiyomi walked in and placed her hands on her hips with a pout, "Where is Shikamaru-kun? He should have come in by now. Even Katashi came in."

Naruto, Menma and Ino both frowned at her, Naruto's was far more pronounced though. Katashi had let them stop for a short rest and for a little snack and they had never gone back outside, even when he did.

Ino stood up from her chair and headed towards the outside, "He's probably bumming around somewhere outside. I'll go find him. I need a walk anyway." She said, cracking her back, stiff from her numbing poison, "I'll just stretch my legs a bit."

"Go ahead. I'll just keep trying to split this-." He looked at the leaf in his hand, crumbled from when Ino had been making him hot under the collar, "Goddamn it..." He muttered before standing up and leaving Kiyomi in the house as well as he went out the back, "If you see him tell Asuma-sensei I went to take a walk and get another leaf. I'll be back in like ten or twenty minutes."

XxX

(With Ino)

"Come on you lazy jerk where are you?" Ino asked rhetorically, not really expecting any kind of answer as she walked outside. She had gone all around the pens and she already knew that Shikamaru wasn't in the house, "Are you really going to make me look all over for you?" He hadn't been seen since he somehow got all of the cattle back into their pen, though she was sure that Katashi did most of the work there.

As Ino walked out away from where the cattle pens were placed away from the barn and ranch house out into the open fields, she figured he must have taken the time after putting the animals up to hang out and look at clouds, 'He probably fell asleep outside or something.' She thought with a humored smile.

"Well hello there Ino-chan." She cringed once she heard that voice, "What are you doing out here all by yourself?"

Ino turned around and put a strained smile on her face, "Hello Shigure. I'm just taking a little walk, stretching my legs out a bit." She said, but her thoughts were quite different, 'Go away! You're not nearly good looking enough to make up for the fact that you're a brat and have a shitty attitude.'

Shigure walked around with his hands in his pockets trying to look cool, "Yeah, I guess if I had to deal with that swordsman and the blonde all of the time I'd want to take a break when I could too. You had to spend most of the day with those guys, I could barely take four hours around them." Ino got a tick mark on her head when she heard him start talking about who she knew to be Menma and Naruto, "They are so weird, and I can't even believe they are ninja. They're shorter than me." He said with a small laugh, "I don't know how someone like you could stand being around those two."

'I can stand being around them because they are friends. I can stand them because they make being on this team fun, because they think we're more important than them. Menma's ten times the man you'll ever be you stupid punk, shorter than you or not, and it's not by that much! We're not old enough for it to matter!' Ino thought to herself as she held her teeth tight.

Shigeru obviously didn't sense Ino's disdain for him, "So why don't you spend your time with me? You shouldn't be all by yourself even if I could understand why you'd want to be."

Ino furrowed her brow rather angrily. Didn't this guy get it yet? If she had given a damn and had shown the least little bit of interest in the jerk she would have said something hours ago, "Look, I'm really busy right now. I can't really socialize, I'm on a mission."

"Hey! Now wait just a damn minute!" Shigeru said forcefully, reaching out and grabbing a hold of Ino's arm, "You should listen to me, I can-." And laying a hand on her was his mistake.

When fighting Menma she was outclassed, but that was Menma, and she'd pay money to see any genin go head-to-head with Menma and see how they did. Shigeru wasn't Naruto, he wasn't even close to being as strong, and his grip was like someone wrapped a cobweb around her wrist.

Without even registering what had happened, Shigeru found himself face first against the ground with a mouthful of grass and dirt as Ino had a knee in his back and his arm bent behind him, "Don't touch me you toad. I don't appreciate you trying to cut down my teammates, and I don't want you hitting on me. Now go back to the house before you get yourself hurt and stop thinking with that thing between your legs. We're twelve you idiot." She said as she let go of him and walked away. She almost snapped his arm like a twig, what the fuck was he thinking trying to lay a single hand on her.

Shigeru sat up, spitting out the soil he had taken a big bite out of when Ino slammed him to the ground, "What's your problem you bitch? I'm going to-." He shut his mouth when a kunai neatly deposited itself blade first in the space between his legs on the ground.

"Please go back to the damn house and leave me alone." Ino said to him in a sickly sweet voice that actually put a chill down his spine. She had her back turned to him although she didn't walk forward another step, "Now."

She didn't turn around to see, but she could hear him clamor to his feet and run away from her at full speed. Once she was sure he had gotten far enough away she let out a sigh and brushed her bang out of her face, "Okay, now I really do need to take a walk. If I see that asshole again when I go back to the house I might do something I'll pay for later." She took pride in her appearance as did many kunoichi, but the phrase 'look but don't touch' could never have been more fitting for another group of women than female ninja.

What exactly was Shigeru's grand plan, hope she didn't tell anyone after he tried to force himself on her? Even if she hadn't been able to defend herself there was still the fact that after he had gotten away with taking advantage of her; Asuma, Shikamaru, Naruto, and especially Menma would have ripped his innards out with their bare hands for it. They were paid to protect the cattle, not the punk kid that was supposed to work on the ranch.

Ino stopped walking and stewing in anger when she heard a squish under one of her feet. She looked down and paled when she saw that she had stepped in something dark brown that she hadn't seen due to it being dark out, "Eww... That better not be what I think it is. Stupid ranch." She lifted her foot only to find it stuck fast to the ground, "What the-?" It was at that point that she began to hear cackling from the open space, "Who's there?"

"Well I was hoping to get one of those rancher brats as a hostage to make sure we got away clean or at least use my jutsu to slow down any pursuit attempts, but it looks like I caught somethin' way prettier." A man said as he walked over to Ino with his hands in his pockets. He had long spiky brown hair that travelled down his back all the way to his knees and he seemed hunched over somewhat. He wore no shirt and loose brown pants with black sandals on his feet.

"Who the hell are you?" Ino asked him, trying to buy time as she was still trying to pull her foot free from whatever it was stuck in. Maybe she could get enough time to shimmy her foot out of her sandal.

The man stopped and grinned manically at her before bowing in a grand gesture, "Where are my manners?" He said before breaking into rather wild laughter, "Kwahahahaha! My name is Yunokawa Kei; rogue ninja and all around friendly guy at your service."

Ino narrowed her eyes at him, 'Another nuke-nin?' She opened her mouth to keep him talking, "What do you want? Why did you want a hostage?"

Kei cackled again, "Well me and my two older brothers were looking to liberate these lovely cattle from this upstart wannabe rancher punk, ya know? Get 'em with someone that properly deserves the profits they'd net. Like us. Kwahahaha!"

"You're a thief." Ino accused him, still trying to subtly work her foot free.

"Thief, bandit, crook, outlaw... I personally prefer being called a desperado quite personally." Kei said as he held back his laughter, "I swear... You and your brothers steal a few kinjutsu from your village and suddenly it gets so hard to make a living. Though I guess the people trying to kill you would do that, huh?" He pulled his hands from his pocket to reveal a claw weapon on his right hand, "Now it's time to come with me and all of that livestock my brothers made away with my dear."

"Yeah, I'll do that." Ino said just as she finally worked her foot free of the substance she had been caught in and she drew a kunai, "Not!"

"Ooh feisty." Kei said as he jumped back to stay away from Ino, "But do ya think I anticipated someone walking into that exact spot only? Keep your eyes open girlie." Ino looked down and saw that she was about to step in another pile of whatever it is she had stepped in the first time and stopped abruptly. Kei smirked and took advantage of her misstep, driving a kick hard into her body that sent her flying back across the ground, "Oops, I guess ya shoulda been looking at me after all. Sorry!"

Ino attempted to get back up only to find herself stuck to the ground by her forearm that held her kunai, "W-What now?"

Kei laughed loudly when he saw her stuck again, "My stolen jutsu; Takumina Nenchaku Hisan (Skillful Sticky Splatter). I can form a material inside of my body and then use it to set traps or hold my enemies down or whatever I want. It's like rubber cement, ya won't break it by just pulling on it!" The way she was trapped, her kunai was stuck as well so she couldn't even try to cut herself free.

Ino slipped her trapped arm out of her arm-warmer , 'Okay, this isn't good. I'm far away from the house. There's got to be some way to tell my team where I am. In the meantime he's so much faster than me though, I have to slow him down somehow.' She thought as Kei ran towards her again.

Kei had his claw drawn back, ready to strike, "I'll cut a few chunks out of that body of yours! It doesn't matter as long as you're alive to be a hostage for us!"

Ino would often hide it with her evasiveness in spars, but the fact was that she had no business in a taijutsu battle, and now instead of just having to deal with fists she had to contest against a claw. No thank you, she didn't want any part of that. Ino, now disarmed, had to find a new way to fend off a few strikes from the berserk Kei who took a sniff of the air and grew more depraved looking than before, "A blonde, from Konoha by the looks of the thing around your waist, and ya smell heavily of flowers of all kinds seemingly mixed together. Ya wouldn't happen to be a Yamanaka by any chance would'ya?"

"Why do you care?" Ino said as she backed away from him and watched his eyes shine over in delight.

"That's great!" He shouted, licking his lips, "A big time Konoha clan like that would probably have tons of money to pay for ya if we could catch ya. And even if I killed ya I'm sure we could sell your corpse to some other village for big bucks! Hey, another hidden village would probably pay more for ya if we left ya alive! Those clan secrets of yours and all." Ino took a step back as his body started to shake as if he were having a small seizure, "Okay then, no more holding back on ya sweetie! Here's the scatter-shot, Takumina Nenchaku Hisan (Skillful Sticky Splatter)!"

Ino watched Kei jump into the air and spin rapidly as he began to shoot brown globs out of his mouth at a fast pace all over the place. The ground was littered with brown stains from the jutsu and after all was said and done Ino even had taken a few direct hits with the stuff, "So gross..." She said to herself as she had to keep from trying to wipe it off of her clothes lest she wind up sticking her hands to them. Kei then landed directly on the ground, grinning madly at her, 'That bastard can't even catch himself in his own stuff! That's so unfair!'

Not only did Ino have to watch her own step lest she get caught again, her opponent didn't have the same issue and he was already faster than her to begin with. Ino dodged a few more swipes until another splat noise told her she had caught her bare foot in the substance. Keeping her eyes on the entire field and her enemy at the same time was very tough for her to do.

"Gotcha!" Kei lunged towards her in a stab with his claw intending to go right through her. Ino slid back on her free foot with her other one stuck. She placed herself in a split, dodging the stab of the claws and saw an opening that she just couldn't pass up. She cocked her right hand back and let it go just as hard as she could right into Kei's proverbial 'twig and berries'.

Kei let out a breathless gasp and backed away, holding his goods with a look of horror on his face. Ino smirked at getting a momentary reprieve, but that wouldn't keep any ninja worth a damn down for any good length of time and her leg was still stuck. She reached for the supply pouch she kept on the back of her hip and felt around for a kunai to try and cut herself free with while she had the chance.

"You little bitch." Kei growled as he stopped dry heaving over his testicular damage, "I'll ransom you back to Konoha in pieces! 10,000 ryo for a finger, 50,000 for a limb, 100,000 ryo for your head!" He yelled as he ran towards her, swinging his claw wildly in rage.

'Come on!' Ino's hands fumbled around in her pouch before she finally grabbed a kunai and pulled it out in a vain attempt to try and defend herself from her place on the ground.

"Ino!"

Two masculine voices yelled out before a loud clang of metal rang out in front of her. Ino blinked at the sight of an orange short-sleeved jacket, the back of which had a swirl emblem on it set in front of her.

As she focused what had been her moments-before-death-tunnel-vision back on the wide scope of things she saw Menma standing in front of her protecting her from Kei's claw, "Are you alright?" She heard him ask her.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." Ino replied, grateful for the timely intervention, "How did you know I was here?"

Menma struggled against Kei as he answered her, "Me and Asuma-sensei showed up just in time to find Shigeru-teme complaining about you putting him face first in the dirt. I went looking for you and found Shikamaru and Naruto who heard what had happened too, and when I tried sensing you out I felt someone else with you fighting you."

"The cattle are gone." Ino said as she tried in vain to pull her leg free.

"We know." Naruto assured her, "A clone already went to tell Asuma-sensei and Katashi."

Menma's attention was then fully on Kei, whose stab attempt he had blocked by holding his machete up holding the weapon in place between the claws, "This guy probably stole them didn't he?"

"Got it in one runt." Kei taunted as he tried to push down and drive his claws into Menma, "The cattle belong to me and my brothers now so why don't ya just give it up."

"Oi, Ino did he hurt you?" Menma asked.

"Only a little I'm fine though." Imo responded clutching her bleeding arm.

Menma's face began to almost twist with frustration and anger. With one motion he brought out his Kubikiribōchō applied lightning style chakra to it and slashed at the Man in front of him.

Kei yelled out in pain as the giant blade embedded in his shoulder slicing off his left arm. Menma was breathing heavily as his pupils began to glow blue with slits in them.

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

Kei cackled, "It's too late now! With my brothers' abilities they've gotten the animals far away from here by now! I'll never tell you anything! It was always going to be death for us, we're missing-ninja! Nothing you do to me would get me to sell out my own blood! My only allegiance is to Satoshi-oniisama!"

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head, "Man, you're going to make this hard... we're going to find them anyway. Unless they're herding them through the thick woods there's only one way they could have used to take the cattle and we have a walking sonar with us. We don't really need you..."

"And you're expendable." Menma growled to him, holding the Kubikiribōchō to his neck close enough to draw blood with Naruto holding him back trying to stop him from killing him since they kinda did the information.

Naruto didn't really want to kill anyone though, "Ino can you read his mind?"

She shook her head side to side, "No. That's a super-advanced technique that daddy didn't let me learn yet, he says it's for people that intend to go into interrogation. I don't know it."

"Well we can't just wait..." Shikamaru tried to think about how they would handle this.

'Oh for fuck's sake...' Kei thought to himself as he rolled his eyes. Stupid brats... he was caught by a bunch of genin. Didn't they realize that the longer they waited the further away his brothers would get?

Shikamaru finally let out a sigh after thinking for a bit and looked at Menma, "Are you good to go?" Menma nodded firmly as he began to calm down and then he looked at Ino, "Ino turn around right now." Ino did it with a frown on her face, averting her eyes from Menma and Kei, "Go ahead Menma, we're wasting time with this guy."

"There's is a reason why this is called the executioners blade." Menma said.

Kei's eyes widened as he felt Menma draw the blade across his throat cleanly, 'So the brats had the sack to go through with it after all...' His body was being held up by Shikamaru's jutsu keeping control of his body as he steadily lost blood from his neck and choked on it. Eventually he let off a death rattle and Shikamaru let his body drop to the ground, free of his jutsu.

Ino kept her eyes shut until she felt Menma grab her ankle and cut her leg free, "Thank you Menma." She said, getting a nod from him as Shikamaru threw her the missing sandal that he had managed to cut free in the meantime.

To date, Menma had been the only one out of them to directly kill someone, and now that count was up to three. From the way he wiped his blade clean on the grass and sheathed it, it was obvious that even though he clearly didn't like it he could and would do such. They all knew how to kill, but watching a person die was way different than watching the small animals they had been forced to put an end to in the Academy in preparation.

"Let's go." Naruto said once he saw Menma was finished and ready to continue on, "They could have only taken the main road out of here with all of those cattle, and we can't wait for Asuma to get here, whatever he's doing. As troublesome as it is, it's up to us for now."

Ino finished securing her shoe back onto her foot and stood up, ready to keep going, "Right." She had been saved yet again. It was time to show that she could be useful when it counted. As a member of this team she had to better carry her own weight, "Um... does this still qualify as a C-ranked mission?" She asked Shikamaru absently.