Naruto's Best Friend

Tazuna

"Squad seven will be getting a C-ranked mission. You'll be bodyguards on your journey." The Hokage said, trying to make the mission sound cool yet vague enough to get Naruto interested.

And he was interested, indeed.

"Who?! Who?! A princess or some counselor?" Naruto yelled, excited to get his first real mission as a ninja.

"Send in our visitor." The Hokage called out, a man walking through the door a few seconds later.

He held a bottle of alcohol in his hand, speaking in a slightly drunk voice.

"What the...? A bunch of little snot-nosed kids?" He took several gulps of his sake, some dripping unattractively onto his beard.

"And you! The little one with the idiotic look on his face. You really expect me to believe you're a ninja?" He leaned against the wall for support as his face flushed from the drink.

Ryoko growled as Naruto looked around to see who fit that description. She crouched down, ready to pounce as her paws and tails lit on fire.

Tazuna looked frightened as the giant saber cat's red eyes glared at him, shaking in his spot as she growled louder.

"I'll demolish you! Let me get my hands on you!" Naruto yelled, being held back by Kakashi Sensei.

"You can't demolish the client, Naruto. It doesn't work that way." Ryoko took a step forward before the smell of onigiri hit her nose, causing her to bound towards the Hokage who held the food.

A loud thud sounded throughout the room followed by a bell, Ryoko sitting on her butt as she waited patiently for the food to be given to her.

"No hurting the client, Ryoko, even if he isn't your client." The Hokage passed the onigiri to the cat, who began eating it right away.

"I-I am Tazuna, the master bridge b-builder and I must return to my country. I'm building a bridge there that will change our world. And I expect you to get me there safely, even if it costs you your life." Tazuna spoke, still a little shaken up about the giant bipolar cat.

"Alright, everyone, pack up and get ready for the mission. The land of waves is pretty far." Kakashi said once we were all outside the building.

Naruto hopped on Ryoko, still having a little trouble with getting on because of his height, but managed to get on nonetheless. She took off, flying into the sky and heading towards the apartment.

Once they got there, Naruto headed inside and packed up everything he could think of needing all while grumbling curses under his breath about the bridge builder.

Ryoko chuckled at the boy and laid down outside, waiting for the blonde to be finished packing up his ninja supplies.

The blonde shut the door and locked it, climbing on Ryoko's back easily now that she was laying down. She ran towards the front of the gate, let Naruto slide off her back, and walked side by side with the boy a little ways past the gate.

When Tazuna insulted Naruto's dream, she smacked the back of the old man's head with her flaming tail, giving the grey-haired man a bald spot.

She watched the group head towards the land of waves, Naruto turning around to wave goodbye at his best friend.

The cat waved back with her two tails, a closed eye smile on her face.