Toshimoto was the relatively young jounin that had been placed in charge of one of the lead companies of ninja from the second battalion. He had standing orders that if they met any resistance on the way to Konoha, his unit would be the first to engage. The previous day they had been forced to remove a squad of leaf chuunin, but their far superior numbers allowed for a fast and one-sided fight. Only one of his men had been injured in the engagement, but he knew that once the now dead teams check-in was missed the leaf would send another team to check on them.
"What?" He responded rather snappishly to his subordinate.
"There's something in the clearing ahead of us that I think you may want to look at Sir."
Toshimoto sighed,
"What is it, another team from the leaf?"
The chuunin shook his head,
"Not really, at least I don't think it is."
Toshimoto sighed and stood up, motioning for the rest of the company to get up and ready as well.
"So what is it exactly?"
The chuunin almost looked embarrassed by what he was about to say.
"Well Sir, to be honest it's a blonde kid playing shogi with what appears to be a frogà"
Several minutes later Toshimoto was standing in a large tree at the far end of the large clearing looking down at what was indeed what looked to be a teenage blonde kid sitting at a small table smoking a pipe and playing shogi against an orange frog.
"Have you checked the area for any traps?" he asked the chuunin standing next to him.
"Yeah, there's nothing that anywhere, just a kid playing shogi."
The jounin looked at the scene in front of him for a couple of seconds before motioning to several of the other ninja.
"Ok, we'll go see what's going on down there. I want you." He pointed at the chuunin who first told him about the kid, "To go make contact with the jounin in charge of the battalion and let him know what's going on. The rest of you keep your eyes open for any foul play. Something isn't right here."
With that the jounin leapt down from the tree and began walking slowly into the field where Naruto was calmly sitting playing a game of shogi. He tensed briefly when he saw Naruto's hand suddenly disappear into a bag at his side, only to relax when he saw him just repacking his pipe and lighting it again. Keeping his eyes wide open looking for any traps or foul play he approach Naruto slowly until he was only ten or so feet away.
"How's it going Sand-nin-san?" Questioned Naruto without ever having looked up from the table as he calmly reached across and moved his rook.
"Ummà Pretty good, how about yourself?"
Naruto shrugged,
"Meh, not bad I suppose."
The jounin stared at the scene in front of him, not entirely sure how to comprehend what was going on.
"Ummà If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing?"
Toshimoto watched as the orange frog thing calmly picked up a pawn and advanced it.
"I'm playing shogi." Was Naruto's rather short reply.
The jounin looked over his shoulder to the group of chuunin standing behind him. All of them looked just as confused as he was. The kid in front of him was obviously a shinobi, judging by the hitai-ite tied securely around his arm, but here he was confronted by nearly twenty heavily armed ninja and not even batting an eye.
"I can see that, but why are you playing against a frog?"
The kid moved another piece before responding,
"Toad"
"Huh?" Was the jounin's intelligent response.
"Gamakichi is a toad, not frog." Finally Naruto looked up from the game and surveyed the group of Sand-nin standing in front of him.
"So what is a large group of Sand-nin heading towards Konoha for?"
Gathering his wits, the jounin responded,
"Well we're going to watch the Kazekage's children fight in the tournament."
Naruto nodded his head sagely,
"Ah, that should be a couple of good show. Did you bring your tickets?"
The jounin was surprised that his story was accepted without any questioning. Something was incredibly off with this whole situation, and that toad set off a small red flag in his mind.
"Umm, no, we were going to buy our tickets when we get there."
"I see," Naruto responded. "But you would be disappointed. The arena sold out of tickets last week and the Hokage does not allow standing room tickets to be sold. You are making a trip for nothing. Perhaps you should turn around and return to the Wind Country."
The sand jounin was getting more confused as this conversation went on. The kid in front of him had gone back to watching the shogi board not even sparing a glance back at the group.
"Ummà I guess I should go tell the guys then. I guess we're going to be pretty disappointed then huh?"
Naruto shrugged,
"If you turn back you'll just be disappointed, but if you go beyond me, you'll wind up just like them." Naruto said while he idly moved another piece on the shogi board.
Just then the breeze picked up slightly and the smell of blood assaulted the jounin's nose. Looking past the kid he could see the four dead bodies of his advance unit lying in various positions on the ground. He had no idea how he and his entire team had missed the obvious corpses. Looking back at the teen, he saw that he was still only paying attention to his game.
"What happened to them?"
Naruto looked up and smiled widely,
"No tickets."