It's Raining!

After taking on several months of class D missions, Kakashi finally decided his team was ready for a C level mission. He had carefully watched them over these crucial first months to see if they were developing the skills they needed which would help them to become productive ninja. The newly made ninja were never told, but the real reason they went on easy D level missions was to test the teams out to see if they worked well together. A team which did not work well together could easily mean the death of a teammate or the people who they were supposed to be protecting.

His team was…interesting, to say the least. The family backgrounds of the three combined had enough complications to fill several books. First there was Sasuke, whose brother had slain his entire clan. Tragedies such as this were often enough to make many full grown ninja quit their job, but young Sasuke had only resolved to try harder at becoming a ninja. The ice cold personality which Sasuke had developed as a result of the death of his clan had worried many of his teachers and also worried the family which he was staying with. When Iruka had learned that Kakashi was taking on Sasuke as one of his students, he had worriedly come to Kakashi to talk about Sasuke.

"Sasuke has never really been interested in anything but techniques" Iruka had said to Kakashi.

"Is that a problem?" Kakashi had asked, "Usually a large amount of focus is an asset in a ninja."

"Normally we don't get concerned about that sort of thing, but since his family was murdered… well, all of the teachers have always been a little worried about him." "Especially" added Iruka "since Sasuke never showed any sadness about the whole thing."

"Mmmm, keeps it all inside maybe?" Kakashi asked.

"That's what I think" Iruka confirmed.

Kakashi had turned towards Iruka with a knowing look. "And I suppose you want me to try to get him to open up to me, eh?"

"Well… both of you have a tendency to keep your thoughts hidden from others, I thought maybe you might be the best person to understand him" Iruka had said.

Kakashi had grudgingly promised Iruka to see if he could get the boy to open up to him a little.

Naruto was the next member of the team which puzzled Kakashi. Everyone knew about Naruto, who had a tragic past to rival Sasuke's. Instead of becoming withdrawn, like Sasuke had, Naruto had become the exact opposite. He jumped into everything with enthusiasm and energy, and nothing seemed to get him down. When they were doing the D missions, Kakashi had to admire his unending energy and fanatic devotion to the mission, even if the mission got a little boring.

Sakura was the last member of his team. She seemed to be pretty happy, but something that Iruka had told Kakashi after their conversation about Sasuke kept surfacing in Kakashi's mind. Iruka had told him Sakura's family was going through messy problems, whatever that meant. Kakashi had told Iruka he would keep an eye on her as well as Sasuke. After this statement, Iruka had playfully pointed out to Kakashi he really did not have any eyes to spare, since he kept his sharingan covered most of the time. In response, Kakashi had casually tried to push Iruka off of the building they were sitting on, but Iruka gracefully dodged, laughed, and waved to Kakashi as he left.

All of these things were in the back of Kakashi's mind as he informed his students about the mission which they would be going on.

They were all very excited to finally be getting a C mission, but rather incredulous when they learned what exactly the mission entailed.

"Delivering mail is a C mission?" Naruto suspiciously asked when Kakashi announced their mission.

Kakashi sighed. He had been expecting this sort of reaction of disappointment from Naruto. Naruto had probably been expecting something much more exciting. As he was about to explain why mail delivery was ranked as a C mission, Sakura did it for him.

"Naruto, mail delivery to neighboring countries is very important" Sakura said. "It helps to keep diplomatic ties open and if any of the important letters are stolen, in the worst case it could lead to a misunderstanding which could cause a war."

"Exactly" Kakashi said and nodded. "This mission is more important than it seems. We are unlikely to run into any really big trouble, but it could be quite dangerous." "Anyway" he continued, "be sure to pack carefully since we'll be going into Water country and the rainy season should be starting soon." All three of his students nodded.

"How long do you think this mission will take?" asked Sasuke.

Kakashi thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "I'd say no more than several weeks" "Most of that time will be taken up by traveling from here to there." "Are there any more questions?" he asked them. They shook their heads, although Naruto looked like he wanted to say something about mail delivery not being important enough for a C mission. "Alright then, I will see you here on Thursday at the usual time" he said.

As he left the training area, Kakashi thought to himself: this mission can't go that badly wrong. Can it?

To Be Continued…