Chapter 17: Hunters

"You are hunter ninja of the cloud?" I asked the first ninja Fujino.

"Yes that is correct. Before anything else" Fujino let out a powerful fire jutsu burning Yoshihara's body to ash. If I didn't have my system that would have been a good way to tell that they are who they say they are. Hunter ninja deal with the body straight away.

"Now then who are you?" the second ninja asked.

"My name is Light, I am a free ninja currently on an escort job we were ambushed by this rogue cloud ninja. We fought and I managed to gain the upper hand."

"He is a lair, Yoshihara's head was cut clean off he doesn't have any weapons on him"

"Errr excuse me, but I can guarantee that he is telling the truth." Ida had appeared and was standing up for me.

"Then where is his weapon?"

"What does that matter?" I asked.

"Enough!" The first hunter shouted out. "It matters not, he is dead and our job is done"

"No quite" I said. They seem to have forgotten about something.

"Oh how so?"

"If I'm not mistaken every time a ninja goes rogue their village put a bounty on their head. I had just killed him yet before I could take in the body as proof you destroyed it. How do you expect me to collect the bounty now?" No village would want their rogue ninja's running amuck so they always put bounties on them, collecting that bounty could help me immeasurably.

"haha you killing him is already suspect but you expect us to pay you for it?" The second hunter rudely called out.

"That is how it works" I stated.

"I say we put his skills to the test if he wants to prove he killed Yoshihara" The second hunter pulled out a short sword from his back.

"I wouldn't if I were you" I pulled out my sword from my chest and readied myself for a fight.

Both hunters became silent. If I could see their faces, I would think they looked shocked.

"Toma that is enough, we don't want to cause any trouble." Fujino appeared in front of me. "Here take this" he passed me a small scroll. "If you take this to the hidden cloud village you will be able to claim the bounty there"

I moved the scroll behind my back and stored it in my inventory.

"Thank you"

"Would you mind if I took a look at your sword for a second?" Fujino held out his hand.

I placed it in his palm, it's not like he could run off with it or kill me with it. He gave it a few swings, and inspected the blade. "What is it called?"

"It doesn't have a name yet"

"Hmmm interesting, who made it" he passed it back to me.

"I did" Technically true, it was made from my chakra.

He looked at me suspiciously but didn't say anything more about it "Impressive, I hope we meet again Light" Both hunters disappeared. I could still feel their chakra nearby, it seems they want to keep an eye on us for a while.

Ida had moved back in to view. He had his head down to floor apologising for all the trouble he had caused.

"Don't worry about it, but next time you hire someone, you let them know about all the dangers before they show up trying to kill you ok" It would have been classed as a B or A rank mission if he had.

We arrived at Shimogakure within a few hours and Ida had held up his end of the bargain, he paid up in full the amount of the mission. Now that the mission was complete I headed back to the leaf village. Thankfully moving by myself I was able to get back much faster.

I had moved all night and reached the leaf village at the crack of dawn. I headed towards the Hokages building when I heard a voice calling out.

"Hey, Hey Light!" a blond streak came towards me rushing through the village.

"Hey Naruto, what's up?" I was always in awe of his chakra, he was just a large and powerful beacon lighting up the village.

"Where have you been Light, it's been ages"

"Sorry kid, I was on a mission" I patted him on the head.

"A mission? did you become a ninja"

"I was always a ninja I'm just not a ninja that belongs to the leaf village"

"Cool, so what happened on your mission huh come on tell me, tell me" He had stars in his eyes.

I sat down with him at Ichiraku's treating him to some ramen. Telling him the story he was even more excited to be a ninja, he always wanted to rush straight through training and get right in to it.

"I can't wait to start my ninja missions"

"You need to pass through the academy first"

"I'll do it in record time believe it"

"Your already too late to beat the record kid, I believe the youngest kid to every graduate was six years old" I believe that was the age Kakashi graduated.

"Waaa, really, who was that?"

"I think it was Kakashi Hatake"

"Errrr who's that?"

"Really kid, you need to look up who the famous ninja of our village are at least. He is one of the strongest ninja of the village, he is know as the copy ninja, it's said he has copied over a thousand jutsu"

"Whoa, really that's amazing"

"Seriously do some homework once and a while" I sighed.

"I can't, I've got to train to become a strong ninja"

"You'll never change" I laughed.

I paid for the ramen this time and headed off to the Hokage's office. Arriving at his door I gave it a small knock.

"Come in"

"Hey old man, here this mission was complete, although there were a few complications" I placed the payment on his desk.

"Complications? how so?"

I told the hokage the whole story, from running in to the bandits then the rogue ninja and the hunter ninja from the cloud.

"I see, well your mission would have been considered an A-rank mission as such I can pass this over to you" He handed me a scroll, I looked it over and it was the technique for Mystical Palm.

"Thank you, do you have any other missions for me?"

"Not right now. I will send someone over if we have anything"

"Very well" I left the office and headed home.