The sealed kunai

Chapter 20: Follow the Breadcrumbs

"Well Naruto is this familiar or what?" Kakashi said as he gave the young blonde an eyesmile.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Yeah Kakashi, real familiar, except we aren't going to Nami no Kuni this time, we're going to Mizu no Kuni. I still have no idea how the hell we're even pulling this one off. Isn't there a civil war going on right now?"

Kakashi nodded, "Well it's mostly over. The anti-bloodline forces were all but wiped out, now it's mostly just cleanup duty for the victorious side. We should be just fine. The new Mizukage sent out a message of goodwill to the other villages so nothing should go wrong."

Naruto sighed, "Kakashi what's my track record with you when it comes to easy detail missions?"

Kakashi raised a finger in dispute, "We've only had one true easy detail."

Naruto snapped his fingers, "There you go. One for one, that's one hundred percent on the bullshit ratio. That's why I brought a shitload of explosive notes." He then fished through his gear and pulled out a fat stack of explosive notes, flipping through them like paper money, "Oh yeah... fuuinjutsu is the greatest thing ever."

Kakashi sweatdropped, "And what pray tell are you going to do with-." Kakashi lifted his hitae-ate to use his Sharingan for a quick count, "-34 explosive notes?"

Naruto grinned at him as he put them where he got them from, "Any damn thing I want, I have 34 explosive notes!"

"Troublesome... Why am I here again?" Shikamaru stated as he caught up with Kakashi and Naruto, "You took me away from my team and sent me on a mission that has a high probability of the you-know-what hitting the fan. What did I do to you guys for this?"

Naruto glared lightly at the lazy chunin, "You made me do an entire day's worth of menial labor without the use of Kage Bunshin. I didn't forget that, but Kakashi was the one that requested you, so deal, or would you rather be on gate duty like Kotetsu and Izumo."

Shikamaru yawned, "Actually that sounds right up my alley. Doing nothing all day, sure beats traipsing off to Kami knows where with you."

Tayuya walked up and looked at Shikamaru with a scoff, "How the hell did your lazy ass get promoted to chunin?"

Naruto and Shikamaru looked at each other before Naruto pointed at Shikamaru lamely, "Uh, he's really, really smart?"

Tayuya frowned and looked Shikamaru over, "Can he beat you shithead?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know, the last time we were supposed to fight he just quit. I guess he was just too unmotivated to go up against me."

Shikamaru palmed his forehead, "Don't make me out to be like that Naruto. You broke my Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possesion Jutsu) without even trying. Remember, I tried it the second the fight started."

Naruto scratched his nose and looked up at the sky, "Oh, so that's why it was so damn hard to move my arm... or anything in general... I swear, I had a crick in my neck that was totally stifling."

Shikamaru face-fell and jumped up with the quickness, "So you're telling me that you had no idea that you were caught in my jutsu?"

Naruto grinned, "Nope! I just thought you were being a lazy-ass and didn't want to fight. I didn't say anything because by the time you came out to fight I was sick and tired of beating up all the genin. You actually made my job easier."

Tayuya barked out a laugh, "Shithead bluffed you into quitting a fight without even knowing that he did it! That's great. So what are we doing anyway? I doubt we're going to Mizu no Kuni to see the sights after the civil war."