The Best Shinobi

Guilt

Menma and others were told to prepare essential needs within an hour and meet at the gate of the village. Menma went straight to his home. When he opened the door, he saw his mother sitting in the living room in a meditative stance.

"Menma, you came right in time. This thing isn't working." Yuki slowly opened her eyes and lifted a scroll in front of her, passing it to him.

Menma took the scroll and sighed heavily.

Seeing her son a bit depressed, she got up and patted his head.

"Don't worry, you have been working on this for a while. You will definitely succeed. You wait here, I will make something for you."

"Mom, I am going on a mission. Can you prepare some extra food?" Menma asked as he put away the scroll.

Yuki nodded her head and walked toward the kitchen while asking.

"So, what kind of mission is it?"

"Hehe! You won't believe it. It's my first A Rank mission."

Ding!

When he said that, he heard the sound of utensils colliding to the ground. Yuki rushed out of the kitchen and held his shoulder.

"What did you say? Why did Hokage give you an A-Rank mission? Only Jonin receive such a mission and even they go in a group."

Seeing his mother in such worry, he shook his head and said "Don't worry, mom. We will have three Jonin and all three of them Elite Jonin. Genma Sensei, Kakashi Sensei, and Guy Sensei."

"And besides that, we also have all of the members from these groups."

"But still. An A-Rank mission is an A-Rank. You don't know how difficult it is. Even I haven't performed a single A-Rank mission and I still fear some of the B-Rank missions." Yuki didn't seem to be convinced but her fear did calm down a bit.

"Don't worry, mother! The place where we will go has a Sealing Jutsu user. As long as I can get their help, I will be able to learn more about Sealing Jutsu." Menma continued to convince her.

In fact, he was a bit surprised by this mission. He knew Shinga only appeared in a game that wasn't canon to the original story. And, Shinga only made a move nearly three years later, not now.

He felt like his existence was slowly molding this world to shift its pace from the original plot to a new plot. He didn't fear it. Instead, he was excited about it.

He knew his peers managed to graduate at the age of ten which was two years earlier than the main timeline. This alone changed a lot of things.

After his mother calmed down, she started preparing food for her son. At the same time, he started sealing weapons and everything he needed into the scrolls.

It was a normal Weapon Sealing Jutsu. But after he got a bit of free time, he took out the scroll that his mother returned to him saying that it was a failure. He opened the scroll and looked at dozens of different symbols created in the middle.

After thinking for a while, he put the scroll back.

'Maybe it wasn't a failure. I hope I will get a chance to test it. And, I also need to finish another Jutsu. Fortunately, there are still two years for the main plot to move on.'

'Even if there are some changes, something might never change unless I actively try to change it. So, I need to prepare for that. Two years, I only have two years in my hand.'

After half an hour, his mom passed him a few tiffin boxes and a few bottles of water. He put it inside the scroll and bid goodbye to his mother. After leaving the compound, he slowly walked toward the gate.

He still had around ten minutes left. So, he wasn't in any kind of hurry.

Exactly Ten Minutes Later,

"Menma, why did you take so long? We almost left." Naruto complained as soon as he saw Menma. Everyone except for him was already there.

"A shinobi who can't arrive in time isn't worthy to be a great shinobi." Sasuke felt like this was the first time he would get a chance to show off in front of Menma and didn't lose it.

But, Menma lazily took out an hourglass and said.

"I am on time."

The last few bits of sand finally fell on the bottom part. Seeing Genma heavily sighed.

On the other hand, Sasuke's expression turned green seeing the hourglass. Because Shinobi tend to do things faster, they normally are ahead of time for everything.

"Alright everyone, we have an important mission on our hands. Let's head out. It would take nearly a week for us to reach there." Kakashi intercepted as he gave out the order to move.

"What a week?" Naruto suddenly panicked.

'Oh my god! What should I do? I only packed food for three days. Would I have to go hungry for four days?'

Menma patted his shoulder and said "Don't worry, Sensei should have some food pills that we can use. And, besides we can still have BBQ once or twice in our journey."

Kakashi nodded his head and they finally moved out. As ninjas, they were clearly fast in each step but after running for nearly eight hours, they decided to take a break since it was already getting dark.

They set up a fire and everyone took out their own bento. Even Naruto wasn't eating Ramen. Although he loved Ramen, Menma forced him to give up packed Ramen and focus more on normal food like rice and meat.

While the Genin were sitting on one side, Jonins were a bit far from them. While eating their food, Kakashi spoke.

"Although we still have six more days before we reach Tsukigakure, we should start making plans right now. After all, Shinga was someone who managed to escape from Itachi's hand and other Anbu members."

"We can assume that he has grown stronger in the past few years and with the massive amount of Chakra he could have with the help of that tree, we might face a serious threat."

"Since his specialty is Genjutsu, I suggest we can start teaching Genins the way to release out of Genjutsu."

Hearing Kakashi's plan, Genma and Guy nodded their heads.

"Chakra control, is it? Well, Menma has good Chakra Control after all he can perform the Mystical Palm Technique. Although I haven't tested his Genjutsu skills, he should've learned a way to snap out of it." Genma spoke.

"Neji with Byakugan should be able to snap out of Genjutsu." Guy spoke as well.

"Well, it seems like only my team is lacking behind. I should train them to walk on trees and water. It will sharpen their Chakra Control but training them at night would be much better since we still need to move during the day." Kakashi sighed.

Guy suddenly shook his head and said "Kakashi, my eternal rival, I don't think your team is that far behind. From what Tenten told me, Menma, Okinawa, and Murasaki had been teaching Naruto Chakra Control for a year now."

"Although it is a lot harder for him since his chakra pool is truly immense, a year of training should give him more advantage in learning Genjutsu Release."

Kakashi nodded his head and said "I did notice that while I was testing them. Naruto's Taijutsu is far superior to any Genin I have seen. Probably only Lee from your team can match him in Taijutsu."

"He has also mastered Wind Style and showed one Ninjutsu during the test. I am still not sure of his full capability, but he should be stronger than Sasuke and Sakura."

At this moment, Genma who was a bit silent for a while suddenly asked "Do you guys think Menma knows about Naruto's identity?"

Hearing his questions, both Kakashi and Guy got confused.

"Are you talking about him bearing the Nine tails? Even Tenten knows that." Guy asked.

Genma shook his head and said "I am not talking about his Jinchuriki identity. I am talking about his parents. You know Naruto is the son of Lord Fourth and Lady Kushina."

When he mentioned those names, Kakashi's expression darkened a bit.

"When I asked him about his dream, he said he wanted to become the Best Shinobi like Lord Fourth. But, he was only born when Lord Fourth died which means he must have found out about Lord Fourth from the library."

"He must have studied Lord Fourth a lot. For someone who is as smart as him, it shouldn't be hard to figure out the connection between Lord Fourth and Naruto through Lady Kushina's identity."

"When I looked a bit into his past, I found that he was the first person who became friends with Naruto and he also encouraged his closest friends to become friends with Naruto." Genma spoke.

Hearing his words, Kakashi's mood worsened. Why wouldn't he understand what Genma was trying to say? Unlike Genma who was only Hokage's guard, he was Lord Fourth's disciple. And, as a disciple, he not even once tried to be close to Naruto.

Even after becoming the leader of Team 7, he was completely focused on Sasuke.

At this moment, Guy shook his head and said "I know what you are talking about and I am not surprised that you will feel guilty. But, there is nothing you can do about it. Naruto's identity was used to shift the blame of Nine Tails' attack."

"This was the decision made by higher-ups, we can't do anything about it. So, instead of feeling remorse, you should try to make your relationship better with him from now on."