Naruto: Paws and Whiskers

Naoki Gekko gritted his teeth, his mind racing as he tried to reconcile his frustrations. "I'll write down every detail," he muttered to himself, glancing toward Takeshi, the black-furred feline companion. "Including this cat's unpunctuality and unruliness!"

Yet as the thought lingered, Naoki hesitated. If he wrote down every trivial detail in his mission report, his role would seem insignificant—an assistant taking notes, not a seasoned ninja. 

This mission wasn't about babysitting a cat, even one as peculiar and capable as Takeshi. To establish his value, Naoki had to uncover something meaningful. Something actionable. Reporting on a teammate's antics without solid contributions of his own would only expose his inadequacy. He sighed, rubbing his temples. He needed a breakthrough. Something critical to prove his worth.

Just as Naoki pondered his next move, the sound of claws scratching against a nearby wall broke his concentration. His sharp eyes darted upward, locking onto Takeshi, who perched on the wall's edge, his tail swaying lazily. The cat's green eyes gleamed with an air of superiority.

"Wasn't I just a little bit late? How could you accuse me of being unpunctual and unruly!" Takeshi's posture seemed to scream indignation, even though he didn't speak. Naoki groaned internally. Even without words, the cat was unbearably expressive.

As teammates, they really shouldn't be at each other's throats like this. He was just trying to get some points from him, Why make such a fuss? Thinking about it carefully, Takeshi realized he was also wrong.

Takeshi leapt down with a soft thud and padded toward Naoki. The ninja stiffened as the feline raised a paw, patting his shoulder with surprising solemnity.

"Follow me," Takeshi said in a smooth, unbothered tone before leaping away.

"What did you find?" Naoki asked, his voice low and cautious. 

After a short trek, Takeshi stopped abruptly and turned to face Naoki. "Meow~ I found a hidden base," the cat declared.

Naoki's brow furrowed. The statement was delivered so casually that it took a moment to register. When it did, his incredulity flared. 'Found a hidden base overnight? Are you kidding me?!'

Takeshi's unblinking gaze and slight nod only fueled Naoki's skepticism. But before he could question further, Takeshi continued, "In addition, I plan to unite all the cats in the village this afternoon. Meow!"

Cats in the whole village... Naoki felt a chill run down his spine as he heard this, as he was having difficulty handling this cat on his own.

His mind spun. Takeshi was a ninja cat, yes, but the thought of organizing an army of ordinary cats was ludicrous. Yet, the more Naoki considered it, the more unsettling it became. Who would suspect cats—seemingly harmless creatures—of being informants? Takeshi's ability to understand their unique language gave him an unparalleled advantage in reconnaissance. 

He didn't expect that this cat had helpers behind the enemy lines. Thinking about it carefully, who would suspect ordinary cats of nefarious deeds?

(E/N: Nefarious for ninjas, cat's default mode is nefarious!)

Takeshi outlined his plan, detailing the specific pattern of the Iwagakure forehead protector for the village cats to memorize. Naoki's disbelief gave way to reluctant admiration. The method, though unconventional, was clever. 

Then Takeshi gave directions to the location of hidden meeting room before jumping away.

Left alone in the alley, Naoki crossed his arms and stared at the moonlit sky. His thoughts grew heavier with each passing moment.

'What am I even doing here?' he whispered. This wasn't the first mission where he felt overshadowed, but it was the first time the shadow belonged to a cat. In previous missions, Naoki excelled at espionage, providing critical intelligence that allowed his team to execute excellent strategies. But now? He felt like a glorified scribe.

He scoffed bitterly. 'How the turn tables', indeed. It was a phrase coined by a mad Chunin he once knew. Despite the man's eccentricity he was oddly competent. 

Naoki sighed. 'Maybe I am just an assistant.' The thought stung, but self-pity had no place on a mission. He straightened his posture and resolved to contribute meaningfully. Takeshi's unorthodox methods might seem ridiculous, but they had yielded results. Naoki needed to adapt.

Meanwhile, Takeshi wasted no time executing his plan. The village's cats were surprisingly cooperative—though not without some coaxing. A few playful pranks and shared scraps of food worked wonders.

He got this idea by teaching a cat to prank a civilian before meeting Naoki.

One cat tilted its head, its ears twitching as Takeshi carefully drew the Iwagakure forehead protector's symbol in the dirt. The cat sniffed the drawing, meowed in acknowledgment, and darted away to relay the information.

Iwagakure ninjas usually hid underground and would mainly come out to either collect supplies or meeting with the people who are pushing for war against Konoha.

Unfortunately, the economy of the Kusagakure Village was not as good as that of Konoha. Cats and stray cats population was not even one-third of Konoha.

Actually, after thinking about it, this can be attributed to resident cat lover clan. Not every village had Uchiha's. The Uchiha clan members really loved cats. It's a pity that cats are more arrogant than Uchiha.

Despite barely having Genin level combat ability, they will never sign a summoning blood contract with Uchiha.

Fortunately, this worked to Takeshi's benefit, 'Otherwise, how could I have such a good worker.'

By sunset, Takeshi had mobilized nearly every cat in Kusagakure. Their orders were simple: observe, listen, and report any signs of Iwagakure ninja activity. 

Back to the yard, Takeshi found Naoki quickly. This guy still wanted to hide to appear in cool manner, but there was a space mark on his body, which helps Takeshi detect him immediately. Therefore, his endeavor at entering in cool manner was doomed to fail.

Naoki despite his performance for this mission is still quite powerful and has earned his rank. The points received from him, added up to more than 2,000 during this period.

(E/N: For those wanting a refresher, the more negative emotions he generated from people the the more points he gets, the and power of his victims have multiplier effect.

So if he ate Genin's lunch and made him angry, he might get 10-50 points depending on how hungry the Genin was, but if the same degree of anger was achieved from Kage that would be in thousands.)

Now Takeshi could have nearly 6,000 points. It's all Naoki's credit. Takeshi was very grateful for this. Because at that time, this kind hearted colleague volunteered to team up. If he had to work with an old teammate like Kakashi, he wouldn't have gained so many points.

"Is this where the Iwagakure ninjas and the Kusagakure ninjas met?" Naoki did not go to the basement, but stayed inside the house in hiding.

For some ninjas, any slight change in the room would attract their attention, so he would not go in and expose his presence before those people came back here.

"Meow!" Takeshi nodded. The issue now was that he didn't know how frequently the Iwagakure and Kusagakure ninjas often met.

Now they have 2 avenues for collecting information, his cat minions and them meeting up here again, he could only wait and see.

Naoki had no choice. He's not good at earth release, so he could only stay here and wait for them to show up.

Takeshi had nothing to do anyway, so he asked him to write another report and use the same method by pretending to use summoning jutsu to send it to Rin.

Unlike before, this time they received a reply back. This was the note sent back by Minato, with only the words "annihilate" written on it.

According to Naoki, this was Jiraiya's handwriting. This meant that the Iwa and Kusa Ninjas who are colluding together had to be completely wiped out.

But the problem was that neither Takeshi nor Naoki had the whereabouts of the Iwa and Kusa ninjas. So they had to wait for an opportunity.

Back at their temporary base, Naoki stared at Takeshi, who lounged lazily on a windowsill. For four days, they waited the two of them either wandered around the village or stared blankly in the house. Takeshi did have food, but Naoki could only eat soldier food pills every day. Fortunately, he brought a lot of ration pills, otherwise it might not be enough.

Naoki, accustomed to the patience required for espionage, passed the time reviewing intelligence and refining strategies. Takeshi, however, grew increasingly restless.

Occasionally, the cat disappeared, returning hours later with scraps of information gathered by his network. On the fifth day, a breakthrough finally arrived. Takeshi had located a small hideout used by the Iwa ninjas. The discovery reignited their momentum.

With the help of cats in the whole village, Takeshi found an Iwa Ninja hideout. Although there were only two ninjas there, for him, it was progress nonetheless, so he took pictures of them first, and then decide to either keep following them or assassinating them afterwards.

It's not possible that there are only two Iwa ninjas, some of them might be handling some other tasks nearby. The issue isn't Iwa ninjas doing something, it is that they wouldn't do anything and keep hiding in their underground hideout, the inaction of Iwa ninjas is wasting Takeshi's time from getting points. As long as they move Takeshi and Naoki will have opportunity to take care of them one by one.

Takeshi presented Naoki with photos taken using a specialized miniature camera—an invention from the Cat Castle. Naoki raised an eyebrow, impressed despite himself. 

That night, the two devised a plan. When the Iwa ninjas reconvened with their Kusa counterparts, Naoki would hide within the cellar to collect intelligence from their talks, while Takeshi handled the assassinations. They anticipated resistance but hoped to catch the enemy off-guard. 

When the chakra fluctuations signaled the meeting's start, Naoki moved into position. His years of experience allowed him to remain undetected as he slipped into the shadows of the cellar. 

Below, he spotted the Iwa ninjas—but something was off. Through his years of assassination experience, he could discern whether a person was clone, He could tell that all the Iwa ninjas present were Earth Clones. Only the Kusa ninjas were physically present.

'Where were the real Iwa ninjas?'

Naoki's heart raced. The Earth Clones have a big flaw compared to the Shadow Clones. It cannot act independently, especially since they want to exchange valuable information, so the main body must be nearby.

Takeshi didn't know the situation below, but when he saw the meeting had started, he immediately used Flying Thunder God to go to base of the Iwa ninjas here as planned.

With there being only two Iwa Ninjas, Naoki and Takeshi didn't have issues defeating them. Atleast that was the plan.

If they waited for rest of Iwa Ninjas to finish meeting and group up, even Takeshi probably wouldn't want to fight them. But to Takeshi's surprise, there were not two, but three, at the Iwa Ninja's hideout. Two were in the open, and one hidden inside.

The one in the dark was also a familiar face, and he was good at hiding with camouflage.

Takeshi didn't recognize him at first, but after looking carefully, he felt that this should be the Jonin Taiseki who appeared briefly in the anime.

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