The Color Blue

*~~*

"Where have you been?" Kakashi asked coolly, though he was obviously angry. "I expected this from Naruto, but not from you two. You're supposed to act like jounin," he glared at his team angrily. Neji stood nearby with a passed out Kiba hanging off his shoulder and a worried Ino pacing next to him. The Guild ninja had already left.

"Don't blame them, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto interrupted. "I went out, and they were bringing me back." Kakashi turned his glare on the blonde, and noticed the outfit for the first time.

"I see. Sasuke, Sakura, take Kiba to his room. All of you go back to your rooms," Kakashi pointed down the hall. Naruto remained rooted to the spot; he knew the jounin wasn't done with him.

"You're irresponsible, Naruto," Kakashi said coldly. "You could have gotten lost or injured in this strange place, or endangered the mission. One day in a new place, and you're already out drinking with strangers. If I catch you breaking the rules again, I'll walk you back to Konoha myself." Turning on his heels, the jounin retreated to his room to cool off.

Angry, Naruto punched the wall, leaving a large dent and crumbling plaster. Upset, he went back to his room, locked it, and went to sleep for the night.

*~~*

Naruto slept through breakfast and lunch the next morning, and Kakashi sent no one to retrieve him. The copy-nin figured the blonde needed the time to think things over, and left him to sulk. Even though it was three the next afternoon, no one had come for the leaf-nin.

Rather than cooping them up, however, Tigerdragon sent someone to let them out into the training fields out back to practice.

Once everyone was out back, Naruto snuck out of his room and made his way over to the large chamber with the locked door. Pulling a key from his pocket, he popped open the door and locked it behind him. Sitting in the main throne on the dais was Tigerdragon.

"Ah, Fox, nice you could make it," the older man called from his seat with a smirk.

"It's been a long time, sensei," Naruto smiled as he approached the dais.

"It's good to have you back, Fox. We really needed you here to help out." Tigerdragon rose, and Naruto followed him into a side room. Inside the room were several bookcases and a desk littered with papers. Guild's leader lifted several papers off the desk and handed them to the blonde.

"Have you decided teams yet? Or names? It would be best to initiate the others as soon as possible. It's impossible to tell when Destruction will attack, and we'll need all the backup we can get." Tigerdragon searched through stacks of papers on his desk.

"Here," he handed Naruto a folder.

"What's this?" the blonde set the first papers aside and opened the folder.

"Loose ends from when you left. Here," he pushed the folder out of the way and handed Naruto back the original papers. "First separate the leaf ninja into groups so that we can start training them to fight properly."

Naruto nodded, grabbed a pen, and walked back into the main chamber with the papers and the folder. He sat down on the marble table, setting the folder aside, and began separating the leaf ninja into groups.

As Naruto quickly finished the paperwork, Tigerdragon sat down in his throne.

"So I hear you started some trouble?" the leader smirked as he lounged in his chair.

"Heh, a little. Went out drinking with the others after Sparrow told everyone that we weren't supposed to leave the house. Got chewed out when we came back. I lost my temper." His pen flew as he filled out the paperwork.

"I'm used to the dents, I assure you," Tigerdragon drawled.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to bust the wall. I've been having trouble getting my sensei's respect lately." Naruto chewed on the pen as he contemplated placing himself in a group or not.

Tigerdragon said nothing, but frowned and motioned for Naruto to come over. The blonde rose, grabbing the folder and the papers, and sat in the second throne.

"Here," Naruto handed the completed paperwork to the leader and opened the folder again.

As Tigerdragon perused the paperwork, Naruto went through the papers in the folder, alternately frowning and grinning.

"Well, sensei," Naruto said sarcastically, "you've been busy. You kept my bank account open? But no one's allowed to go to my house? Or my original room at the squad house?" He frowned at the older man.

Tigerdragon chuckled and handed the forms back to Naruto. "You have a lot of secrets, and I thought it best they not be discovered. And besides, I thought you might need the money from your account."

"I haven't been here in years! How is it fair for me to get a paycheck if I'm not here?!" Naruto gestured at his bank statements wildly.

"Temper, temper," Tigerdragon chided, waving his finger with mock shame. "You've been doing important paperwork by mail, haven't you? That's still work."

Naruto snorted and put the folder on the floor with disgust. "Didn't feel like work, sensei."

"Nonsense, it was important," Tigerdragon insisted. Naruto shook his head in disagreement as the door to the chamber was pushed open. An apologetic Sparrow entered and quickly shut the door behind her.

Tigerdragon straightened on his throne and asked the distressed girl what was wrong.

"Well," Sparrow smiled nervously, "the leaf-nin just discovered they can't use chakra. Their leader is outside and he wishes to speak with you."

"Uh-oh," Naruto chimed melodically in mock concern. Forms in hand, he walked over to the girl. "Don't worry about it, Sparrow. We'll deal with it." He shooed the girl to the door.

Looking back over her shoulder, she gave the blonde a grateful smile and walked out the door. It was only moments before she re-entered, Oriole, Fennec, and the Konoha ninja at her heels.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Kakashi asked coldly and suspiciously, giving Tigerdragon a harsh look. Tigerdragon remained silent, letting the copy-nin finish.

"Why is our chakra being blocked? Sakura was almost severely injured!" he pointed at the pink-haired kunoichi to emphasize his point. The girl looked pale and shaken, and had several deep scratch marks all over her body. She was leaning against Sasuke for support, and looked like she might fall over any second. The other ninja were crowded closely together, as though they were protecting the girl.

"She was going to do a replacement jutsu, and was almost speared by several dozen kunai." Kakashi finished, spying Naruto standing off to the side of dais and looking worriedly at Sakura.

"I'm sorry that the girl was injured," Tigerdragon calmly met Kakashi's eye. "But here in the Quadgram, no one can use chakra, not even us. There is a machine deep underground that surrounds the city about half a mile out, and it blocks a set amount of chakra. If you have less than that set amount, you can't use chakra at all."

The upset leaf ninja looked at each other worriedly.

"Why did you commission ninja if you knew we couldn't use chakra? And why didn't you tell us about this right away?" Kurenai asked angrily.

"I expected ninja who were skilled in all areas, not just ninjutsu," Tigerdragon answered calmly. "And because I intended to have you all trained to fight in these conditions, I did not expect a lack of chakra to be such an immediate problem."

"Should we pull out of this mission?" Gai turned to the other jounin-sensei worriedly.

"It's not that we can't pull this off, Gai. But we could be seriously injured. Most of us aren't taijutsu experts," Asuma whispered.

"But they are going to train us," Kurenai added.

"And Hokage-sama will likely lose her temper if we back out of the mission," Kakashi pointed out.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted from the side of the room as he ran over to them. "We can't just give up! We can do this; we've done tougher things, right?!" He grinned widely, boosting his friends' morale.

"Remember when we thought the chuunin exams were tough? Well this is a cakewalk compared to that! Come on, one accident and we back down?! No way! We can do it!" he shouted encouragement loudly, getting his friends to agree. Assured that the others wouldn't back down, he laughed and danced around the group.

"So you will be staying?" Tigerdragon inquired, still very calm.

"It appears so," Kakashi answered, frowning in disapproval at the ditzy, blonde boy dancing circles around their group.

"Then I should assign you to your groups and code names, while you are here."

Naruto, realizing that he still held the forms, stopped dancing and walked up to the dais, a serious look on his face.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled angrily, despite her condition, "what are you doing?" The jounin-sensei, worried that the blonde's arrogance would offend their client, darted forward to stop him. Suddenly, the four found kunai at their necks and froze.

"Don't touch him," Sparrow whispered dangerously as she adjusted the kunai at Asuma and Kurenai's necks. Oriole held a kunai to Kakashi, and Fennec held one to Gai.

The leaf ninja looked at the Guild ninja in surprise, and then the students rushed forward to help their sensei.

"Stop!" Naruto turned and yelled, and the leaf ninja froze, though Sasuke had managed to get a kunai to Sparrow's neck. Slowly, the Guild ninja lowered their kunai and backed away from the jounin.

The three girls bowed, walked over to a wall, and lounged against it, anger smoldering in their eyes. The Konoha ninja stared, and Fennec gave them an evil, menacing smile.

Sighing and shaking his head, Naruto stepped onto the dais and sat in the empty throne. Worried, the leaf ninja stared at their client to gauge his reaction. Tigerdragon started to laugh, startling the commissioned ninja.

"I would like to introduce you to my second," Tigerdragon grinned brightly, "My student, Fox." He patted Naruto on the back proudly.

Naruto smiled widely as the leaf ninja stared, utterly confused.

*~~*