"Alright, team. That's the last D-rank you'll ever have to do," Kakashi said. It had been a month since he'd passed the three genin in front of him, and while they hadn't changed all that much, he was happy enough with their progress. They looked incredibly bored in the hospital's featureless white corridors, but at the thought of new missions, all three were excited. Naturally, Naruto was the only one who showed it.

As they turned to walk towards the Hokage tower and sign off on their delivering of fresh food to the hospital, Kakashi carefully considered each of his charges.

Sasuke was starting to care more about his team. For whatever reason, he'd stopped seeing them as just a burden (although, Kakashi considered, there was still a little of that attitude left) and no longer chafed at the bit like a racing horse that wants to slip the harness and run. He'd mostly been practising with his two swords. He didn't have a great deal of natural talent with them, but he seemed to enjoy using them anyway.

Sakura's self-consciousness was starting to become a problem. She always tried to avoid becoming a sweaty mess, or covered in dirt, at the cost of her training. When she was angry she was incredibly competent, but she was so rarely angry that it didn't help her much. On the other hand, she was very diligent when it came to independent training. He'd observed her once or twice and she spent hours practising genjutsu at home, trying to catch her parents as well the local wildlife. Hopefully, she'd learn to take her physical training as seriously – often the first mission with combat in it straightened out new genins' priorities, according to some of the other jonin he'd talked to.

Naruto was enthusiastic but cared about too many things at once. He'd start something, put it on hold for a second while he did something else, and repeat the process until he was a quarter of the way through fifteen different training exercises. Kakashi wasn't looking forward to teaching him ninjutsu, but according to the boy's former instructor, Iruka, Naruto had improved a lot already. Maybe there was hope for the future – after all, Naruto had somehow managed to learn the Shadow Clone technique in a single night. He'd slowed down a bit since then, but was getting rather handy with throwing weapons. Using his clones, he could hit a hundred targets in just under three seconds. The potential there for mass destruction was quite nice, although Kakashi supposed it was nothing compared to the Kage or Sannin.

And he'd changed a bit himself, Kakashi reflected. Not physically – he wasn't going to start climbing mountains one-handed, or any of the other crazy physical stunts he'd used to pull – but emotionally; he tended to be less melancholy when drunk, and pickier when the bars closed and he was about to go home.

The chunin at the mission desk were kind enough to reserve the delivery mission he wanted. It was a routine transport. Team 7 would be taking a load of weapons and rations outwards to an outpost, and a prisoner escort back, which Kakashi hoped would be uneventful enough to calm Sakura down while giving him opportunities to train all three. He'd also be able to show Naruto a little of the world outside Konoha. And he could read while he walked.

He made sure to tell Naruto twice about the gear he would need, since he'd be sure to forget otherwise, and then wrote it down for him anyway. Sakura, on the other hand, needed to be reminded of what not to bring, since she had a habit of over-planning. Sasuke was organised enough to bring only what he could comfortably carry. After being corrected the first time he'd been so embarrassed that he'd not made a mistake since.

-O-

On the way home, Naruto took a side trip to tell Iruka about his mission, but couldn't find him at the Academy. After spending half an hour trying to track him down, one of Iruka's neighbours told him that the chunin was out on a mission and wouldn't be back for the next few days, but promised to pass on a message. While not exactly what Naruto had hoped for, it was still better than nothing.

"Hello."

Naruto jumped. He hadn't realised anyone was approaching him at all, and Shino was creepy enough that he was a bit worried by him suddenly appearing. The rooftop he was standing on wasn't on any major route through the city, and far enough in the mostly-civilian section that ninja who didn't live there (which meant almost all of them, except Naruto) had no real reason for being there so late anyway.

"Hi Shino! What are you doing here?"

"I saw you and wanted to talk for a bit." That didn't answer his real question, but Naruto figured there was no point trying to press Shino on it. Besides, that was more words in a row than Naruto could remember hearing from him. Ever. Naruto would have to carry the conversation, most likely, but getting any input at all from Shino would be interesting.

"Ok, let's talk. Oh! You see that house down there?" Naruto pointed to a particularly large two-story building, with white plastered walls and red shingles on the roof. "I put some frogspawn in the water tank a few years ago. And four doors down and across the street, I plugged up the drainpipe with her rubbish, because she wasn't recycling properly. And there was another house that's been torn down now, where I painted a giant turd on the roof and they never even knew. And one time I shaved that guy's dog and dyed his name on its' side, because he let it crap all over the streets. Hey, that gives me an idea – "

"Informative as this is, that's not what I wanted to talk about. How are you adjusting to ninja life?" Shino asked.

"It's not bad, but the training is quite boring. I know it's supposed to make me strong, but surely there's a better way? Like, more interesting. And I've not done any proper missions yet, but our first one is tomorrow. But Kakashi said it would be quite boring and straightforward."

"I've found a shortcut for quickly gaining strength. You should try it too, at some point." Shino showed Naruto a small pottery jar with a wide cork stopper in the top. There was a bright red hazard sign on the side. "I have to be very careful with it. It's completely safe as long as you don't have any cuts on you, but if it gets in a wound it's lethal. I don't have an antidote yet. However, it's very useful for trapping foes. A simple caltrop can kill if it's coated in this, and I can produce a large amount using an insect colony I possess. You should attempt to secure your own supply of something, as you possess a talent for stealth, subterfuge and trapping."

The poison vanished back into Shino's coat. Naruto was speechless. He'd known that he might have to kill at some point, but to plan out deliberate traps like that was cold-blooded murder.

"What if someone you don't want to kill walks into a trap? Like, some farmer or merchant or something? You said you don't have an antidote."

Shino was silent for a moment. "I am careful to only place traps where there is a low chance of collateral damage, and remove them afterwards."

"Low chance!? You'd risk killing off a bunch of innocent bystanders just so you can play around with poisons, or what?" Naruto was furious. He'd once been suspected of poisoning a merchant in the village, as the man's death had happened a few hours after Naruto had been seen sneaking chilli powder into his tea. When the real culprit had been found, it had turned out to be an assassination attempt that had hit the wrong target.

Shino stood up. "You may come and apologise to me after you have enough experience to understand what you just said." His voice was frosty and he turned to leave. "One last thing. Be very careful on your first proper mission. The first C-rank mission for new genin is the career step with the single highest casualty rate. Don't be overconfident."

Naruto watched him leave, still angry but also slightly impressed that Shino had done so much homework. He leapt off the building, taking to the streets for the last stretch on his way home. He'd had enough stress for one day. And Shino would have to apologise to him first.

-O-

As Sakura headed off to join her team, ready for the day's mission, she saw Hinata on the other side of the street. The shy girl was slowly going the same way and dithering on every corner, so Sakura went over to walk with her. She had enough time, and it looked like Hinata had also passed her second test, if her shiny Konoha headband was any indication. The village put a high priority on close bonds within teams, but really, Sakura was a bit lonely sometimes, with only two teenage boys and an unreliable older man for company most days. A little inter-team bonding sounded pretty good, especially since she hadn't seen Ino in almost a week.

"Hey Hinata, what a surprise to see you here!" called Sakura. "I'm about to head off on a mission, but if you walk with me we can chat for a bit."

"Sure." Hinata's voice was steady but quiet enough that Sakura had to strain to hear her.

"So what have you been up to lately?"

"I've been training with my team."

Sakura soon realised that talking to Hinata about anything was an uphill struggle at best.

"That sounds good. We've been doing a load of physical exercises, and it's a real pain. What sorts of things have you been doing?"

"Chakra exercises mostly, and tracking practice. And a little bit of physical training."

"Chakra exercises? I've done some of those too. If you show me which ones you've done, we can swap tips."

Hinata looked around and grabbed a leaf from a nearby bush. "You take the leaf, and you stick both hands to it, and then pull." Hinata demonstrated it. The leaf was glued firmly to her right hand and her left was empty. "If you do it right, you rip the leaf because your chakra grip is stronger than the leaf is."

"Oh, I haven't seen that one before. My favourite at the moment is one you do with your eyes. You have to cast out a sort of thin string, and stick it to something, then try to move the string's end. Apparently, it's the first step to doing genjutsu just by eye contact. It's quite hard, but really worthwhile if I can get it to work."

Sakura realised that she hadn't ended her last sentence with a question, and so Hinata wasn't going to talk. "So we're about to reach my team. It's Sasuke and Naruto, and our jonin is Kakashi. You have… Kurenai, right?"

"Yes. I wish I were with Naruto, though." Hinata's voice was stronger than it had been at any other point in the conversation so far.

"Why, though? He's not that skilled, and he's clumsy and unfocused. I like the guy, but he's not that great a ninja. And Sasuke is better eye candy, anyway," Sakura whispered conspiratorially.

"Naruto's not that skilled yet, but he will be. He never gives up and he won't ever stop unless he reaches his goal. And", Hinata looked around to make sure no-one could overhear, then leant in, "have you seen Naruto shirtless before?" Sakura shook her head. "You're missing out big time. Just keep an eye open, you'll see what I mean."

There was no chance for a rebuttal because they'd turned the last corner on the way to the gates and could see Sasuke already waiting. Naruto would probably cut it very close, and Kakashi would be a bit late, but Sakura had only been the first person at a team meeting once, and that was when – she remembered with a slight flush of shame – she'd gotten the time wrong by a full hour.

The two girls walked over, and Sasuke and Sakura discussed the mission details they'd been given, while Hinata stood around quietly and watched for Naruto. He came barreling into the square thirty seconds before their planned departure time, followed almost immediately by Kakashi, who scooped his team up and manoeuvred them out the gate and onto the road so quickly that it left their heads spinning.

One last shout of "Bye Hinata!" from Naruto, who'd apparently never heard of social decorum, and they were off on their first real ninja mission, walking as a squad of four down the paved path leading to the north, trees towering over them and surrounding them in a leafy embrace. Shadows shifted in the undergrowth and the branches around and overhead restricted their view to the narrow and winding road.

Sakura suddenly felt incredibly exposed and vulnerable.

-O-

It was noon. As Team 7 rested by a stream, Sasuke watched them. Each of them had got on his nerves in a different way during the morning's travel.

Sakura had decided to practice her genjutsu. That alone wasn't so annoying, but the fact that she was focusing on her appearance, rather than something useful, made him want to say something sarcastic and biting. 'Why don't you spend time learning to be useful instead of trying to look it?' would be good. Her hair had gone through every colour of the rainbow, and now she was working on her nails.

Worse than that, she'd been trying to mess with him and Naruto. The third time he'd caught himself tracing her delicate earlobe to the shining and (at the time) blond tresses that flowed down her back like a waterfall, offset by her perfect green eyes, he'd realised that he didn't usually think in poetry and someone was fucking with his head.

His answering illusion had put phantom insects on her back that he only moved when she tried to talk or cast genjutsu. Petty, sure, but it put him in a much better mood for around two minutes before she broke it. It hadn't worked the second time he'd tried it.

Naruto was incapable of being quiet. He was clearly almost as bored as Sasuke, but rather than gritting his teeth and bearing it, he started talking about whatever was going through his head. Sasuke had learned more (probably incorrect) information about Konoha, ninja life, the Hokage, Naruto himself, and ramen in one morning than in a whole month at the Academy. He'd also tried to juggle a pair of Kunai. The constant sound of him dropping them, stopping to pick them up, and scrambling to catch up was irritating enough on its own, but he'd also cut himself twice. After the second time, he'd put them away, at least.

Kakashi, despite theoretically being the most experienced and strongest ninja there, was the worst of the lot. He read as he walked, showing no awareness whatsoever, and Sasuke had to constantly look for threats and ambushes. If Kakashi seemed even slightly more organised, Sasuke wouldn't need to be so paranoid and might be able to focus on some sort of training or practice. He couldn't even do any chakra exercises without risking a knife to the back of the head from a hidden attacker.

"Break's over! Let's get back on the road. We're only an hour or so away from the outpost now," said Kakashi. Sasuke leapt to his feet. He was eager to finish the mission and go back to training, or get more serious tasks – preferably with combat in them. Right now it seemed he was standing still while his peers caught up and his target got further and further away.

"Kakashi, what does pleasures of the flesh mean?" Naruto asked. He'd just gotten a glimpse of the back of Kakashi's book.

"It's how you prepare fruits that are very rich and juicy, like peaches. Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'peach flesh'?"

"Does that include plums?"

Kakashi nodded with a serious expression. "Most soft fruits, I suppose, as well as some vegetables. Tomatoes come to mind. Think of anything that splats nicely when you drop it."

Sasuke tried his best to ignore them. He didn't care whether Kakashi read cooking books or not.

The woods soon sped by, a blur of green and brown. This early in the year there were no fallen leaves covering the ground, and so Sasuke could run as fast as he wanted without risking slipping. The point of the outpost they were resupplying was to patrol this stretch of the border, after all, and there was no need to be cautious in case of ambush. Team Seven arrived in a spray of dirt, having raced the last stretch. Kakashi loped in at the same pace he'd had the whole day, uncaring about being in last place, while Sakura and Naruto bickered about who'd come second and who'd come third. Sasuke ignored them, secure in his position as the fastest genin.

The three wood and stone huts in front of them didn't look like much. Sasuke recognised the temporary jail by the iron bars over the windows and the thick pillars of chakra-compressed stone that couldn't be destroyed without ninjutsu or explosives. The barracks, he guessed, could hold up to twenty people, but it would be easy to put together space for several hundred, judging by the size of the clearing and the amount of seasoned lumber stacked nearby. It was on the side of a hill, but the slope was so shallow that it didn't offer much protection from attack.

The watchtower was built over the last hut, which probably held supplies and weapons – although Sasuke supposed right now it wouldn't be holding much of anything; that was why they were resupplying it, after all. It was almost as sturdy as the prison but smaller. The tower was made of bare logs. They were stripped of bark, and then simply bound together to make the frame of a building. A small wooden platform on top, higher than the treetops below, would watch over the road and the forests for miles around. Two ninja with Leaf headbands were watching them – no, that wasn't right. One was watching them, and the other was looking for a potential ambush they might be trying to distract from.

"Konoha ninja bearing supplies!" Kakashi called out. "I'm supposed to hand them over to Rabbit."

"That's me." Rabbit came out of the barracks room. He was a small man wearing a rabbit mask, unsurprisingly, but if he was a member of ANBU, which seemed certain judging by the codename, he'd be very dangerous. Sasuke turned his thoughts to something else – they weren't here to fight over the outpost, after all.

The conversation between Kakashi and Rabbit was quite dull, so he looked more closely at the edges of the clearing. He spotted a few of the more poorly hidden traps. There were a lot of sharpened stakes and tripwires, but the really dangerous stuff, like exploding seals, would be buried in hard-to-find places and nearly impossible for him to see.

"Alright, team," Kakashi said. "We're going to rest here overnight, and head back tomorrow. There are five prisoners we'll be taking back to Konoha to stand trial."

Sasuke wasn't surprised at the extra delay, but that didn't make it less irritating.

-O-

On the way back, Kakashi went out of his way to look alert and vigilant. It was fine to appear unprofessional in front of his genin, but the prisoners were dangerous. All five were facing execution if they were found guilty, and as far as he could tell it was a fairly cut-and-dried case of banditry.

They looked the part, as well. Covered in scars, with lank and greasy hair falling in long curtains over their faces, it was all too easy to imagine them clutching swords and bows and threatening travellers or demanding money.

He'd made sure Naruto and Sakura understood the dangers. Explaining the reasons behind why Konoha had to try them if they were definitely guilty took a while, but after Kakashi explained that unless they'd been threatened directly (or paid, if it was for a mission) Konoha ninja shouldn't kill in cold blood he thought it had taken hold. Sasuke was paranoid enough, Kakashi knew from the outward journey. However, the other two were still children in a lot of ways, and they didn't understand how easy it was to be hurt or killed if you let your guard down.

The trip home took longer than the outward trip. The prisoners walked slowly, sullenly. Despite otherwise wearing little more than rags, they all had solid leather shoes, which was a small blessing. Kakashi supposed that the outpost had supplied them, much like the manacles they were bound by. The two women in particular seemed to struggle under the weight of all that metal, but Kakashi knew that it didn't weigh anywhere near enough for that. He let the charade go on. It would keep them busy.

Having to set up camp for the night was new for his genin, but he easily kept them focused by mentioning the crimes the prisoners were accused of. He'd hoped to have a bit of a lesson on camp craft and hunting, but it would have to wait until they weren't also in charge of a prisoner transport.

There were enough dry rations remaining for nine people if they reached Konoha in two days, which would be easily done at their current speed. Kakashi could hunt or gather if necessary, but if it was optional he'd rather keep a closer eye on his team, which meant always being at the very back of the convoy or the highest point in the overnight camp.

He tied the manacles to each other and a thick tree trunk, and then set up a watch schedule. The night went by without incident and he started to relax – breakfast was straightforward and by midmorning, Konoha was only an hour away. Sasuke had drifted off to the side to 'scout'; now that they were in patrolled territory, he probably felt safe enough to go and explore. Naruto had held out ten minutes before his boredom overwhelmed his desire to not copy Sasuke.

Sakura was leading the small convoy when she spotted the corner of a shuriken that had broken off and was now sticking out of the surface of the road. It was probably, Kakashi guessed, from a training exercise or careless ninja in a hurry. She stopped and knelt down to get a better look while Kakashi kept everyone moving.

The last prisoner, right in front of him, stumbled and landed heavily on her chains. Her moans of pain distracted Kakashi for a split second and drew Sakura's attention.

As the leader, a whip-thin man with a ruined eye and burns on both hands, walked by, he took two swift steps to the side and struck at her. While stepping in, he'd drawn a sharp splinter of rock from under his coat. Kakashi moved to intercept him but the captured bandits tried to block him. He walked through them, casually killing as he did. As he reached Sakura he sliced open the man attacking her before turning and cutting down the last prisoner.

More puzzled than shocked, Kakashi wondered what the point of it had been. There was no chance of any of the prisoners succeeding, no way they had outside help this close to Konoha, and even if they had managed to kill Sakura they would just have died more painfully. He looked down at her, still crouched in the road.

She was bleeding from the side of her head. Half her ear was missing, and there was blood slowly trickling along her face and hair. One of her eyes was gummed shut and she sobbed in a rather pathetic way.

Kakashi knelt down beside her. "It's safe. Don't worry, they're all dead. We're almost in Konoha and we can get that ear repaired easily enough." As he tried to calm her down, he carefully bandaged up her wound. "There's no-one left to hurt you, and if you walk next to me you'll be in no danger at all." His voice was soft. He had a lot of practice when it came to battlefield first aid, and a calm voice helped a lot if the subject was in shock. Kakashi took a moment to appreciate the detachment he felt.

At that moment, Naruto and Sasuke both scrambled out of the undergrowth, out of breath. They stopped, shocked at the dead bodies and blood splatters.

Naruto, predictably, started talking. "What happened? Sakura, are you OK? Are you- are you bleeding?" He walked over and tried to hug her. Kakashi was quick enough to catch her reflexive stab, and when Naruto put his arms around her she clung to him like a flea clings to a dog.

Meanwhile, Sasuke stared at the corpses that were scattered on the forest floor amongst the dead leaves. His eyes were wide enough that Kakashi could see the whites all the way around, and he was hyperventilating. He reached for a kunai with fingers that were trembling too hard to grip it properly, then gave up and sat down with his back against a tree.

Of course, this had to happen too, Kakashi thought to himself.

-O-

A/N: The next update will be in one week's time. Also, as a heads-up – pairings are going to be fluid, and while some will stay constant throughout the story, others won't.