Chapter - 1

Moegi returned Konohamaru's pout and sighed loudly. "What do you expect? We're just Genin. There's no way they'd trust us with any important missions, especially now."

"What do you mean, 'especially now,' Moegi?" he asked, walking slumped so his arms dangled limply in front of him. "It's not like we're fledglings. We've been at this for a while. They've got to start trusting us with better missions."

"I think she means after the whole war thing," said Udon. "There's not all that much for us to do these days. All the important stuff's over with."

Konohamaru spun around to stand in front of his friends. "What do you mean? After the war is the best time for missions because of all the clean-up. Like repairing the damages and stuff like that. Rebuilding."

"All that stuff's gone to the older shinobi who know what they're doing," said Udon.

"We've had to repair fences before, you guys."

"But those things were minor," said Moegi. "Mending a fence is a bit different from building a house. They don't let kids do that stuff."

"They'd entrust us with their lives but not building a house?" Konohamaru scoffed and turned up his nose.

"We're not trained to build houses," pointed out Udon.

"And you complained when we did have to mend a fence," added Moegi. "There's no pleasing you."

"It's just that during the war, we had to help the civilians evacuate and that was a super important job. Everything's been quiet after that."

"Be happy about that," she told him. "And while it was important, it had nothing to do with fighting the bad guys like you seem to want."

Konohamaru had been so relieved after the war was over and things started to get back to normal. He truly was grateful, but after weeks of quiet, he was itching for some action. That was why he became a ninja, after all. So far, their only missions had consisted of finding lost animals which was no different from what they were doing at the beginning of their shinobi career.

At that same moment, Naruto had been given a break from his studies and was on his way to the ramen shop when he overheard Konohamaru complaining about how he wanted adventure. It sounded awfully familiar to him for some reason.

Honestly, Naruto had been missing having people look up to him the way Konohamaru seemed to. Lately, everyone had been telling him what to do like he was a newbie. It seemed like just last month, people were putting him on their shoulders and parading him through the streets, hailing him a hero. Partly because it was only last month.

It would be nice to have some nostalgia right about now. Having Konohamaru and his friends hanging on his every word like in the past. He mostly just wanted the attention.

"There's got to be something going on that needs our attention," Konohamaru went on.

Naruto stood behind him and smiled. "Hey, guys. What's going on?"

"We haven't been getting any good missions lately," Konohamaru told him. "I'm so sick of chasing animals."

Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, I remember when I had to do that stuff as a Genin."

"You still are a Genin."

Naruto grimaced.

"It isn't fair. Even Naruto gets to do more important things than us."

"Well, I am more experienced than you are," said Naruto.

Konohamaru rolled his eyes. "Please. While it was awesomely cool of you to save the whole village and all, it doesn't make you more experienced than us."

"It kinda does..."

"We have gone on important missions, too, you know," Konohamaru defended. "It isn't all chasing cats. We had to evacuate the whole village while you were out fighting."

"Yeah, that is important," agreed Naruto. "But..."

"And we have actually had to fight off bad guys from time to time. Which is really no different from what you've had to do."

"Well, I…"

"And we even had a mission turn into a second mission one time. After we finished one mission, it became more complicated and we had to do more. That's hardcore, right there."

Naruto frowned in annoyance. This wasn't going the way he planned at all. "Well, you know, Konohamaru… There are…"

"We've even had to work when our sensei was out of commission," Konohamaru said with a smug nod of his head. "Guy got a nosebleed on this one mission and we had to pick up the slack while he recovered."

"Well, that…"

"We can take care of ourselves. We proved that on that mission and others. If we can evacuate an entire village and protect the people, we can handle anything. We should be allowed more missions."

"You know, Konohamaru," said Naruto, trying again to get a word in edgewise, "a lot of those are basic missions. And you can't look at one and say you know it all. Even similar missions vary."

"I know they're different but they're still basically the same," said Konohamaru smugly. "And we know how to fight together. We can handle anything."

"You've still got a lot to learn, Konohamaru."

"I know I'm no expert, but I know we can handle tough missions. You were doing a ton of them at my age and look at you. Minus an arm, but you're good. The hero of the Leaf. I want people to admire me, too, and not just because of who my grandpa was. I want to be taken seriously and be allowed on more important missions."

"The missions we've been going on are important," said Moegi. "They serve a purpose."

"But Naruto is far ahead of me and I'll never catch up if we don't start getting better missions. And it's not like he's been doing anything we haven't been doing."

Naruto could no longer tell if Konohamaru was praising him or criticizing him.

Konohamaru was a kind of rival to him but also a friend. He would try to impress Naruto with new jutsu and brag that he was on the verge of surpassing him while also seeming to hold Naruto in high regard. This conversation was making Naruto wonder if Konohamaru was losing respect for him.

"Hey, I've been going on really tough missions, too, you know," Naruto pointed out to impress Konohamaru. "All sorts of missions."

"Yeah, I know. But they're all similar to what we've been doing."

Naruto couldn't let Konohamaru think they were even. He didn't want their relationship to change or have the Genin think he was either on par or better than Naruto. Like a lot of shinobi, Naruto was pretty competitive. Of course, one could also call this childish, making sure his pedestal was higher than a twelve-year-old's.

"Actually, I've had to go on some pretty dangerous missions."

"A lot of missions are," said Moegi. "It's pretty standard with our profession."

"A lot of it's kinda the same," said Udon. "Either find something, protect something, fight something or fix something. A lot of missions are doing similar things in different places."

"Which proves we're ready for bigger stuff," said Konohamaru. "After the stuff we've seen during the war and even before that, not too much can surprise us now."

Naruto frowned. What happened to the kids who were so easily impressed not too long ago? They couldn't have been that desensitized. They were just children, even if they were shinobi. This could have just been arrogance. Or their way of trying to prove they were ready for anything.

Though he liked their confidence, Naruto was worried something might happen to his young friends, especially if they believed nothing could surprise them. That all missions were the same after a while.

Naruto cracked a smile and raised his brow. "You sure about that?" he asked slyly.

Konohamaru nodded up and down, but his friends stood silent and curious, wondering what the look on Naruto's face indicated.

"There are numerous things to take into consideration while on missions," said Naruto, still smiling. "What you see on the surface might not be what is actually going on."

"We know all that. We're always suspicious. Always on guard."

"Yeah..." said Naruto, gears turning in his head. "But sometimes people mess up."

"We know that, too. Accidents happen. You forgive them. And we know an accident could lead to something bad, so we got to help recover and pick up the slack."

"Uh-huh. But I've had missions where it's not always the mission itself but what you bring back from the mission."

"Like experience?" asked Udon.

"That. But I was thinking more along the lines of something that happened not that long ago after we came back from a mission. The mission itself went well, but…" Naruto shook his head. "Well, it could have crippled the village and it did end up being something me and my teammate didn't foresee… But I doubt you'd be interested in something like that. How a simple thing could become a whole adventure long after the mission's done. And in this village, too."

Konohamaru raised his brow. "How?"

Naruto's smile widened. "It was something we've never had to deal with before. Something that sounds so unbelievable that it just had to be true. A good shinobi has to be openminded. And know that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should."

"Well, we know that part. But what were you saying? About the thing crippling the village or almost doing it?"

"Oh, my teammate brought back something from a mission and it created chaos in the village and rendered a bunch of shinobi helpless." Naruto grinned at them. "Did you want to hear about it?"

They nodded, but Konohamaru did so a little less enthusiastically, trying to be cool.

"You won't go telling people about this super-secret story, will you?" Naruto asked.

Without promising anything, they Genin asked to hear the story. "Tell us. What happened?"

This was the attention Naruto had been missing.

"Ok," he told them. "It's about the time Sakura intentionally brought a love potion back to the village with unintended results."

They gathered around to hear the story.