Chapter 70: CH 70
Tsunade looked up from her work and glared slightly, "Yes he did. The brat had twelve cases of Firebrand sake and he didn't even invite me, how rude is that?"
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After receiving his scroll detailing his mission he made his way to the gate to meet his assembled team. By the time he arrived he found three men waiting to depart alongside an elderly man. The first man had brown hair with one bang covering his right eye. He had his hitae-ate on in a bandanna and wore the usual outfit for Konoha shinobi. Naruto knew this man as one of the chunin that usually guarded the main gate of the village, Izumo Kamizuki.
Nearby was his usual partner, Kotetsu Hagane. He had a bandage on his nose, wild spiky black hair and a goatee. He was also dressed in the usual garb of higher-up shinobi.
The final escort out of them was Genma Shiranui, the man that Naruto remembered proctored the final stages of the chunin exam before the invasion. He had brown hair that reached his neck, a bandanna-style hitae-ate that he wore backwards, the standard ninja outfit, and a senbon in his mouth.
The man they were to escort was an older man with grey hair, a beard, glasses and what appeared to be a perpetual frown on his features. Naruto knew this man as one of the Sandaime Hokage's teammates, Homura Mitokado. This was one of the two elders that Naruto didn't like. The old woman, Koharu Utatane, Naruto somewhat liked, she had something of a more group before one person mindset, but when he was an academy student visiting the Hokage she at least treated him like a regular little kid. Back when he was in Root he remembered Danzo telling him when conversations would begin to revolve around him during council meetings and in most of them Homura was biased against Naruto, which was weird since he usually sided with Danzo, however when it came to anything involving Naruto his mindset was to keep him weak. He was against him entering the Academy after the sealing, he was against him graduating after the incident with Mizuki, and he could only imagine how he bitched about Naruto's promotion following the events after the chunin exams.
If ever there was a time for the emotionless mask he harnessed in Root he'd be damned if this wasn't one of those times... Hopefully he wouldn't have to speak to the old man. Naruto walked up to the only jounin out of the group, Genma, to report in, "Chunin Naruto Uzumaki here for escort mission to Kumogakure."
Genma turned a lazy glance to Naruto and smiled as he remembered exactly who it was, "Good to see you again kid. So you're the last member of my team huh?"
The two elder chunin smiled when they saw their young, scar-faced companion. They headed over to Genma and Naruto while Kotetsu waved to him, "Hey Naruto! You're coming on this mission?"