Naruto: Systematic Shinobi

Chapter 23: Waterfall 2

Not long later, they were on the road, moving at a slow pace along the path heading out of Konoha and through the huge trees along the way.

'Why are we walking though?' Daiki had to wonder. No seriously, why? He could understand if Shibuki was a civilian, but he wasn't, he was a shinobi!

"So Shibuki," Sakura struck up conversation not long after leaving the village, "Since you're the leader of your village, doesn't that make you the Takikage?"

"Um.." Shibuki blinked, "I suppose so?"

"Wow, and you're so young!" she praised him, making the man laugh sheepishly.

'Honestly, calling him a kage is insulting to kage.' Daiki resisted the urge to snort.

Instead, he slowed down a bit and dipped to the back of the group, so he didn't need to talk to anyone, guarding the rear with Sasuke.

If things were going to go pair shaped on this mission, then he wanted to be as prepared as possible.

And there was one technique he could work on, that shouldn't be too hard. Naruto got it down instantly more or less after all.

With a small flare of chakra, a small puff of smoke erupted from his right palm, and suddenly he was holding a white hilted tanto.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, but said nothing.

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Hours later, Daiki had to wonder, 'Is Naruto really a damn prodigy after all?' because, he'd expended a decent little chunk of chakra, and all he'd managed to do so far, was coat the sword in his chakra.

…It was a lot harder to convert the flowing chakra into the lightning element. He'd briefly got it to spark for a bit, startling the others with him…but he hadn't been able to hold it.

He was missing some, a spark of knowledge, the trick to keeping it going. He knew he was on the cusp of it though, it was like having a word on the tip of your tongue, but just not remembering it.

Typical.

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Why couldn't things ever be easy for him?

Deciding to chuck it in for now, and recover his chakra, Daiki sealed the tanto back in his palm, 'No matter, I just have to grind more.' he nodded to himself.

The grind would never betray him in the end.

"Giving up?" Kakashi asked, eyeing him with amusement.

"Just taking a break to think," the genin rolled his eyes, "You already know what I'm missing anyway, why not just tell me?" the asshole had been peeking over his shoulder at him struggling along with the Chakra Flow technique, before giggling and going back to his smut.

"Ah, but then I'd be depriving you of a wonderful learning experience." Kakashi eye-smiled.

Prick.

"…I hate you." Daiki deadpanned.

"And thus my day is complete." Kakashi snorted, turning back to his book.

Hate him, hate him so much.

A pat on his shoulder distracted him, and he looked to see Sasuke giving him an understanding nod, "You see why I'm beginning to envy you?" he asked dryly.

Yes…yes he fucking did. Daiki nodded.

Somehow…just the fact that there was a guy who knew all the answers he needed, that was right there and able to help him easily, yet for his own amusement, not doing so-

Somehow made the gains even slower.

He was clearly a heretic to the grind.

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It wasn't long later, that they arrived, more or less at their destination. It would have went much quicker, even with walking, if Shibuki wasn't jumping at every shadow and hiding behind Sakura…multiple times, after birds made loud squawking noises above.

Kakashi had went into an explanation, when Sakura asked, about Shibuki's father, the old leader of Taki. A man who fought off the current Tsuchikage to protect his village, and losing his life later in the process after the fight.

…Shibuki wasn't even worth calling him a shadow of the man.

Daiki shook his head, and instead focused on the absolutely massive waterfall cascading down the side of a huge mountain, it was quite a view, he had to admit.

Maybe even worth putting up with Scrubuki.

"Shibuki-sama!" two kids rushed over just as they stopped at the base of the waterfall, carrying rubbish bags.

"Hey, hey don't come co close," Shibuki rebuked them, when they stopped in front of him, "I'm the village leader you know!"

Daiki resisted the urge to snort.

Instead, he sat down on a nearby tree trunk, "We're out here cleaning up the river you know!" the small, cute girl of the two, wearing her brown hair in tow pigtails and with her bangs combed over one eye responded.

He vaguely remembered her as well.

Well whatever, Daiki tuned them out.

He continued ignoring them even as Shibuki roped them in to help them clean litter out of the river, as an extra D-rank mission and Kakashi agreed, much to Naruto's vocal annoyance.

He was quick to give in though when the kids thanked him. Ever eager to please others who were nice to him, or stroked his ego.

Kakashi sat on a rock to the side of him with Shibuki, "You know, you should help them as well." he beckoned at the three of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura at the river surface, picking up trash and loading it into bags.

"I would, but it would deprive them of a wonderful and fulfilling experience of community service," Daiki responded dryly, "Besides, I only signed up for this mission, and you aren't my sensei, so you can't make me do it like them."

"Ah, frustrated at your inability to succeed? I see, I see." Kakashi nodded sagely, before turning to Shibuki, "So, what do you make of the recent rumours of suspicious activity going around in this general area lately?" he asked, ending his conversation with Daiki.

…Fuck Ranmaru's eyes, maybe plucking that eye out of Kakashi's head and killing him would be worth going Missing Nin?

A small grunt at his other side made him look to the girl, Shizuku, to see her struggling to drag the trash bag off to be disposed of.

"Here, I'll get it." Daiki offered, standing u and grasping the opening of the bag and easily hefting it up.

"Ah, thanks onii-chan!" she smiled at him brightly, "You're so strong!" she praised.

"I am, from a lot of hard work." he agreed, and promptly flashed a middle finger over his shoulder at Kakashi when the man snorted, "So, can you show me where to get rid of this Shizuku-chan?"

"Sure, follow me!" skipping forward happily, Shizuku gestured for him to follow her.

He was led through the forest to what looked like a dumping ground. Shizuku helpfully informed him, that everything pile up there was destroyed completely at the end of each month, though, she didn't actually know how, so couldn't tell him the exact details.

'Why don't they just seal it all away?' he had to wonder. Storage scrolls were piss easy to make, he'd learned how to do so in roughly two weeks or so!

And they couldn't tell him they had no sealing expertise in their village. They had Fu, didn't they? The Seven Tails Jinchuuriki, someone in there had to have sealed the Nanabi into her.

…Man if only he could examine Fu's seal. It was bound to be much weaker than the Eight Trigrams Seal, yet at the same time, much easier to learn.

He put that out of mind, and walked Shizuku back to the river front, though he was a bit surprised about a certain someone being gone.

"Where's Kakashi?" he asked Sasuke who was his way with a bag held over his shoulder, as Shizuku shipped back over to help the others continue cleaning up the trash in the river.

"Who knows," he shrugged, "He got a messenger hawk, then rushed off somewhere. Told us to head back to Konoha once we're finished cleaning up this trash."

Giving him a nod, Sasuke trekked down the path Daiki just came from, muttering under his breath about Kakashi all the way.

….Kakashi just left? Left the last Uchiha and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, alone, outside another village?

'Bullshit.' Daiki narrowed his eyes, making his way back over to sit down on the tree stump he'd claimed.

Something was clearly going on behind the scenes, clandestine and something that was to be kept off the books.

'Kakashi must have another mission in the area and is using us as a smokescreen.' he mused.

He also couldn't be sure the Hokage actually signed him off for this mission. Kakashi clearly saw how strong he was, and perhaps fibbed a bit to get Daiki to accompany him so he could work as back up for Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura. And there was no point in even bringing up those suspicions with the Hokage either, because if the mission was as important as it was for Kakashi to ditch Naruto and Sasuke for a bit outside the village, then the Hokage would totally cover for him.

Well, whatever.

He just had to be ready for when whatever enemies in the area attacked. Besides, this would be another good test for how much he'd progressed.

At least there was entertainment in the meantime.

Like Naruto annoying Shizuku by making fun of Shibuki, and her pushing him straight into a piece of dog shit.

It was the little things that mattered in life.

In the meantime, he ran his hands over his wrists and ankles, sealing away his weights for now.