Naruto: Paws and Whiskers

As Takeshi exited the tent, he wiggled and crouched, pouncing on Naoki Gekko, striking him three times in quick succession.

To Takeshi's surprise, Naoki didn't seem annoyed by the playful tickling. Instead, he lazily smiled, stroked Takeshi's head, and said, "Let's have good teamwork."

The Land of Grass is relatively small, and the early stages of spying involve exploring the situation within the Kusagakure. 

This task doesn't require a large team; one person and a reliable cat should suffice, given that the cat is reliable.

Is Takeshi reliable? If someone asked Minato, he would say, "Takeshi can be relied upon most of the time. He fails occasionally, but most of those failures are not critical." 

Nevertheless, Minato is still worried. 'Takeshi is still so young...' At that moment, Minato had the mentality of an old father.

"Don't worry, when you were only a bit over ten years old, didn't I let you go on a mission alone? According to the age comparison between cats and humans, he's almost an adult." Jiraiya patted Minato on the shoulder, understanding his concerns.

When the Third Hokage asked Minato to carry out a mission alone for the first time, he also quarreled with the Third Hokage for hours, fearing for his disciple's safety.

However, letting Naoki follow wasn't for Takeshi's safety. While this cat is inherently deceptive, Takeshi's capabilities and wisdom are reliable. If he doesn't reveal his ninja abilities, it's impossible for people to suspect he's a ninja cat.

Jiraiya sent Naoki along simply because he didn't want to follow Takeshi's wishes. He knows he cannot let his guard down with this black cat.

"I understand, Sensei." Minato lowered his head, still worried, and began to think about how to explain the mission to Rin. The mission is confidential, and details could not be disclosed.

'Oh Kami! This situation is so annoying!' Although Rin is considerate and will definitely understand, Minato still didn't know what to say. After all, Takeshi is only one year old.

Naoki quickly brought Takeshi to the border of the Land of Fire. "Don't take the main road, meow?"

"There are our ninjas on the main road, but there may be ninjas from the Kusagakure secretly monitoring. If we go there, the possibility of being exposed will be very high," Naoki whispered.

"Meow~ But I can blend in easily." Takeshi's forehead protector and ornaments had been put away. Now he is no different from an ordinary cat.

No one would care about an ordinary cat running through the woods on the main road. At most, they will think this stray cat wants to wander from the Land of Fire to the Land of Grass...

Naoki pondered for a moment then nodded and said, "Then you take the main road, I'll follow behind, sneaking, and keep walking this road. We'll meet up in the Land of Grass."

"Meow?" Takeshi sighed in his heart. He initially thought he could slip away. It seems that this Special Jonin is worthy of being a Jonin. Even though there is 'Special' as a prefix, that doesn't mean he can be underestimated.

Takeshi patted Naoki on the shoulder, pressed a mark, and quickly jumped down, walking on the road.

On the way, he deliberately used the transformation jutsu to disguise himself as a poor cat with patchy fur. The main road is the business road they passed last time.

The terrain here was changed by the previous battle, but most of the soil and rocks were cleared by the ninjas, so it was not much different from before, but many trees were still damaged, and there were fewer places to hide.

As Takeshi walked, he kept sniffing around. As expected, as Naoki said, there were many grass ninjas hiding here.

As he continued, he would definitely be noticed, but not many people would care about a stray cat.

Crossing the border, Takeshi officially entered the Land of Grass. Naoki did not show up, but Takeshi knew he was by his side, because the Special Jonin did not hide-his-breathing.

For a Special Jonin who is good at assassination, breathwork is a very important part. Naoki must have mastered this ability.

So, he likely did it on purpose to alert him. Still going according to their plan, Naoki's experience of infiltration and spying was indeed rich. Takeshi complained slightly in his heart and then followed slowly.

Maybe Naoki wanted to test Takeshi's ability. At the beginning, the breath was still stable and consistent, but afterwards it became uneven. Naoki didn't know that he was marked with the Ninja Cat version of Flying Thunder God.

Through the mark, he could clearly sense the location of Naoki—that guy is behind the bushes not far ahead.

If he wants to play a game, Takeshi is happy to play along. Just as he was about to reach Naoki, Takeshi acted like he had lost the-tracking of Naoki and began to wander around.

Naoki stood there, getting a bit anxious, wondering if his breathing pattern wasn't clue enough. He slowly began to release a scent to attract this cat... 'Still not finding me? Even the dog of the Inuzuka clan would've found me by now.' He began to doubt.

However, in the blink of an eye, he found that the cat was gone. 'Where did he go?' Naoki rushed out immediately, looking around carefully, and saw that there was a cat of the same color as the surrounding hiding in the bushes. 'I was fooled by the cat...'

The camouflage cat came out and shook its head leisurely. "Meow~ There are two teams in total."

"Two teams, the Kusagakure is spending so much resources..." Naoki complained while whispering.

As Kusagakure is a tiny ninja village, there are not many ninjas within, and barely a handful of high-ranking ones. Eight ninjas are here just to observe the road to the Land of Fire. 'Don't they have anything better to do?'

From this, it can be seen that the attitude of Kusagakure in regards to their faith in Konoha.

In Takeshi's opinion, this is normal. After working in a company for several years without a salary increase, it is normal to change jobs to increase value.

However, if the company employee is switching and gets defeated by the old employer, it is reasonable to suffer more than before. Everything has risks.

"Where are we going next?"

"Pretend to be a local and go around the town. We will go separate ways temporarily, but we can't leave the same town. Do you understand?" Naoki knelt down.

Unlike before when Naoki was still acting casual and jovial, he was completely serious right now.

Takeshi nodded. When going out to do missions, he must abide by certain rules. Even if he is short of points, he can't joke about this matter. Otherwise, let alone being promoted to Jonin, he would be lucky if he didn't get demoted from the position of Special Jonin.

"Good, there is a town ahead. We will separate here and meet over there."

"Meow!"

Naoki nodded, then made a "disperse" gesture, and left in the blink of an eye with Shushin jutsu.

However, Takeshi could sense that he didn't go far. He just used the Shushin jutsu to speed up his departure, while hiding a bit ahead with some kind of genjutsu and breath-concealing technique.

'Alas, why bother!' But Takeshi could understand the desire to show off, especially as a veteran Special Jonin, it is natural to show off one's abilities in front of the newcomers.

If it weren't for the spatial mark of Flying Thunder God, Takeshi might have been really fooled. 

Although he didn't have the heart to expose it, for the sake of points... Takeshi ran a few steps past Naoki's position, making Naoki happy for a few seconds, and then suddenly turned back and jumped into the air, landing right on Naoki's shoulder.

"..." Naoki appeared expressionless, acting casually said, "Very good, now I am completely relieved that you have good sensing abilities. Let's meet at the restaurant on the north side of the town, around the time when the villagers over there have dinner."

"Meow~" Takeshi called out happily and then ran ahead.

Naoki felt hurt, not physically but emotionally. This time he hid very seriously.

In order to avoid being discovered again, he changed his walking method to prevent the sound of his walking from exposing him. He ran a few steps, stopped, and hid nearby, but he was still discovered!

'How!? Is this cat really that capable?' He stopped where he was and doubted his life.

After half a minute, he sighed and chased after Takeshi, but after following for a while, Naoki found a very fatal problem-he lost the cat.

'Forget it, let's meet in the town as planned, it will find you anyway.' Naoki was helpless but also adaptive.

Since he couldn't find Takeshi, he didn't look for the cat. The top priority is the mission, anyway. The plan has already been discussed, and the meeting time was clearly stated, so there shouldn't be any problem.

Naoki, having-no experience with Takeshi, didn't realize the naivety of his thoughts. If Kakashi or Obito came along, they would directly tell Naoki not to trust the cat's sense of time, especially Takeshi's.

While in case of emergency this cat is reliable, but would definitely fiddle with small matters and unimportant meeting times, such as meeting for dinner, and it is possible that Takeshi might not come until midnight...

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