Read ( +30 ) advance chapters on Patr.eon.
p.atreon.com/wwwpatreoncreativvefactory
....
The two of them looked up into the sky, expecting thunderclouds to ave gathered while they had been immersed in their conversation. However, there was not a single cloud in sight, so it just wasn't possible for there to be thunder, let alone lightning.
At least, not naturally. That could only mean...
"That sound came from the southern sector!" Narumi spoke, now on guard for anything that came their way.
"That's Nii-san's sector! Let's go!" Natsuki responded, earning a nod from her sister.
After they had come to an agreement, the two Uzumaki-Namikaze sisters bolted towards the direction the thunderclap came from. They would have normally just Shunshined there, but they were in the northern-most section of the eastern sector which meant it was too far of a distance to do so and repeated use of that particular jutsu would be too chakra intensive. And judging from the amount of chakra the was being emitted from the southern sector, they would need every last drop.
{Western Sector - Minutes Earlier}
Completely opposite of Natsuki and Narumi, Satsuki and Mikoto were actually quite adept in this field of work. As of now, they were currently exploring the further outskirts of the western sector.
They had determined within the first hour that not one of their targets had been foreign shinobi, it seemed Obito had just been paranoid after all, therefore they had decided to scout and explore the entirety of their sector since they had never seen a town of such a design, aside from the movies.
They had been casually walking through the mostly vacant streets of Banaro Town for the last hour and had finally made it to its border. It had been just over two hours since they had separated from the rest of the team and they still had two hours to kill before they were required to be back at the meeting place.
The two female Uchiha briefly pondered as to why Naruto had given such a long timeframe for the mission before realizing that it was most likely because Natsuki and Narumi were utterly inexperienced in this sort of task and may need a lot more time than would be expected to recover the necessary information.
Though even then four hours was a bit much, even for those inexperienced in the area of information gathering a task this simple should take no more than two hours. Perhaps the extra time was mean to deal with any unforeseen circumstances. Though they had to admit that their job would have been a lot more time consuming if they had actually found any foreign shinobi that needed to be dealt with.
Their targets had been quite easy to mark since their sector was comparable to that of a ghost town, with only having passed a few dozen other people aside from their targets. Out of the three sectors that had been assigned, the two of them had received the most unpopulated.
Naruto tasked himself with the largest sector and the one with them most targets since his sensor capabilities would make the job much quicker where it would have taken the rest of the team the entire four hours to investigate the targets due to the sheer number of people within the southern sector. Though the reason as to why Natsuki and Narumi received the second most populated area was still a mystery.
On second thought, they probably were assigned that sector because it was the perfect balance between the southern and western sectors. They would no doubt fumble a bit with there task, so if they were in a vastly unpopulated area tailing their targets, they would end up standing out quite a bit. If they were in an area where the population was too high, then they would have a much harder time even finding their targets, much less validating them.
Naruto really had thought of everything.
Though, not everyone seemed to realized how much planning he had gone through for such a mission...
"How'd we get stuck with investigating the ghost sector anyways?" Satsuki complained as she interlocked her fingers behind her head. "I'm bored! We finished scouting out the area over an hour ago, we've just been wandering around since then! Why couldn't we have gotten one of the more interesting areas?"
Mikoto sighed exasperatedly at her daughter's antics. The younger Uchiha had been complaining for the better part of the last hour, though Mikoto had been tuning her out and simply letting her rant, but now it seemed like a good chance to intervene. Satsuki had never been the patient type, so walking around and doing nothing didn't fit her usual style.
Sticking to the shadows, tailing targets, the typical nature of these mission she was quite skilled at, but aimlessly walking through the empty streets of an unfamiliar town didn't exactly pique her interest.
"Because Naruto-kun was doing his duty as a team leader." Mikoto answered Satsuki, causing the younger female to look towards her mother with a confused expression. "We were selected for this area because he knew we would be able to stay inconspicuous even though the low population of this area would cause more attention to befall any outsiders. He got the most populated area because his sensor abilities would make it easier to find his targets and track them. Narumi and Natsuki are unfamiliar with this kind of work, so they would need a perfect mix of the two in order to come out successful."
Satsuki took in all of her mother's words before huffing in annoyance. It seemed she didn't like the fact that she overlooked such an obvious answer.
Though that was just a front, as internally she was thinking over all of her surrogate brother's actions and decisions since they left the village. Every single action as a team leader was flawless, as if he was born to lead and take command of those willing and unwilling to follow him. It only cemented the feeling that she wasn't cut out for a position of leadership as she would have never thought of some of the plans or decisions that he had made.
"Are you starting to understand the reasoning behind his actions?" Mikoto asked in a tone that suggested she was scolding a child.
"I guess, but it still irritates me that those two always get special treatment."
It was true, the Uzumaki-Namikaze princesses did get special treatment from the entire village, but Satsuki was referring to their mission records and incompetence at almost everything they had been assigned through the course of this mission. Back before the chūnin exams, they had always been assigned easy escort and delivery missions where they really didn't have to do anything resembling shinobi work in the slightest. It was as if they were too precious and pure to get their hands dirty, as deemed by their senseis and the Yondaime Hokage. Meanwhile, Team 11 had been basically forced to pick up all the slack that the Hokage's children left because their team had the best mission record. To her, Team 7 was nothing more than a group of spoiled children.
Though she knew that Naruto wasn't showing them special treatment because of who they were. It was the exact opposite really. She had seen the look of annoyance that made its way onto his face whenever he was forced to make decisions regarding the mission. It was because of how pampered and inexperienced the two girls were that he had to make sure they got assignments where it was hardest to screw up.
"You know that's not how it is right now." Mikoto sighed, trying to come up with an explanation for the two Uzumaki-Namikaze girls. Now that she thought about it, their parents and those close to them did spoil them far too much. "...er...um, sure they're given preferential treatment by their parents and people like Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, but that isn't by Natsuki and Narumi's choice. They were born into their family just how you were born into the Uchiha clan...While you may not be their biggest fans now, you're all still young and have plenty of room to grow and mature. I'm sure that one the three of you mature and get past your differences, you could turn out to be great friends. So don't be too hard on them."
Mikoto knew that besides Naruto and Hana, Satsuki didn't have very many friends. While the bond between the three of them was stronger than even family, that didn't mean she should limit herself to having only two friends. Mikoto understood that her daughter really couldn't stand a majority of her graduating class for various reasons such as them being annoying girly fangirls, cocky, annoying, arrogant, silent, lazy, and so on, so in reality Natsuki and Narumi were the only other girls that Satsuki could possibly form a friendship with.
Mikoto's only real friend that was still alive was Kushina. But she had begun to distance herself from the redhead ever since she found out about how Kushina had treated Naruto when he was a child. In fact, the first time they had talked in ears was at the chūnin exams and that was only since Kushina had decided to sit next to her and reminisce about the old days when they were on the same team and taking part in those exams. When most of your other friends fall in combat or for whatever other reason, it can certainly become lonely. Mikoto didn't want her daughter to feel the same way that she had over the past few years.
"I don't ever see the three of us being friends, but I guess you're-"