Chapter 33

"I know what I saw. I would have been able to react in time to save myself had he been armed, but imagine if this would grip him with one of his fellow gennin? It came completely without warning, no trigger that I could tell, he could very much kill one of, or both."

Sarutobi shook his head. "I understand the concern, and I'm inclined to believe you. But again, you have no evidence but your suspicion. I'll inform Orochimaru and emphasize his need to observe Naruto more closely, if he finds anything amiss then we have more grounds to act but for now I have no real grounds to removehim as a gennin.

She nodded. "I understand." She stood bowing respectfully. "I'll keep my eyes on him for a while longer with your permission."

"You were supposed to be reassigned months ago. Two years with no incident, You and Kakashi are some of my best and its a waste of resources. Its been a waste of resources for a year now. I've kept you on because I felt you needed the vacation.

"It will be on my own time." She assured.

The old man let out a breath through his nostrils. "Tell you what. I'll let you stay on his detail until the chuunin examinations. At that point Orochimaru should train them to be sufficiently strong enough to compete and Naruto won't need you as his protector anymore.

"I thought the exam applications wouldn't be open for another month? We haven't even found out where they're going to be held."

"You really think Orochimaru isn't going to get those kids ready just to show up everyone else?" He deadpanned.

The door suddenly opened much to the protests of his secretary and both of the rooms occupants looked and found that speaking of the devil, did indeed make him appear. Orochimaru and his team marched into the Hokage's office. The two girls looked stiff and nervous. Naruto followed easily.

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair.

Itachi's eyes found Naruto who tensed a little at the sight of her before offering a smile and a wave.

She eyed him for a moment, almost checking to see if all was well, before nodding in greeting.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Sarutobi asked as he began to light the tobacco in his pipe.

"After much debate on the state of my own bank account and rapidly diminishing sense of charity I've decided we need a C-rank mission. Hopefully one a little on the high end, payment wise."

"You're asking for a C-rank and you've yet to take a single D-rank assignment in nearly three months since this team was formed?"

"Partially formed, we only acquired our latest member less than a day ago.

"Which means the teamwork on this team is handicapped until she acclimatises, which D ranks are meant to do."

"D-ranks are plebeian assignments made by people too lazy or busy to cut their own lawn. She's an experienced gennin, already participated in a chuunin examination, Naruto and Ryoko have been teammates for several months Ryoko's shown aptitude for teamwork and personal sacrifice in her gennin examination, there's no reason-"

"For you to avoid the D-ranks I've been looking to paste you with since I heard you wanted a team." Now the old man was grinning smugly.

Orochimaru snarled. "You've been dreaming of this haven't you?"

"With a huge smile on my face." The sadistic pleasure was almost palpable.

The Sannin worked his jaw, staring into the old man's eyes as if he was willing him to burst into flames.

"Alright what the hell do I have to do to get out of this?"

Sarutobi rocked in his chair, looking for all the world like a gentle lounging old man. "Nothing. I just really want to see you slog through these plebeian assignments." He smiled.

"How about I owe you a favor?"

"You still owe Tsunade two."

"She hasn't banked them. And that's not even relevant."

"Ok I'll tell you what. I'm, quite frankly, dying for a vacation. I'll give you your C rank. In exchange after these next chuunin exams, I go off on a sabbatical for a week or two, or three, Tsunade will be left in charge and you will do absolutely everything she says during that time to help her out."

"Shouldn't she be banking on her favors for that?" He asked.

"She'd try." He said, raising his hands in a shrug. "But by the time she gets everything sorted, realizes and is willing to admit she needs help my vacation will be done or you'll have skipped town on some pretense or other."

"You know between you and her I'm gonna get a complex that no one trusts me around here."

"We know you better than that." He smiled, pulled out a scroll and tossed it.

Orochimaru eyed it and felt his lips curl in distaste.

Sarutobi chuckled. "Yes. I recall what wonders it does to your skin my boy."

-0-

A few days later they were standing on a sand dune.

While all of them wore some desert adequate clothes, heavy cloaks, light colors and such, one of them...

Kyofu was blinking at a body huddled beneath layers of heavy cloth. Truth be told, if not for the eyes peeking out from under them, it would look like a mound of discarded fabric. They could barely make out the shape of a human body under there.

"You're being ridiculous you know?" The mocha skinned girl drawled.

Orochimaru ignored her and kept walking.

Kyofu heard her teammates muttering behind her and looked to see Naruto and Ryoko's faces twisted with malicious glee.

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