Disclaimer : The boring stuff. I neither own nor probably will ever own Naruto series. They are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. Does anyone know any real mind-controller ? I need to be taught by one so I could finally own the Naruto franchise insert mad laugh here

Chapter 4 : Preparations for the mission

The day after, Kakashi informed his team that he will start teaching them how to survive in wilderness, as well as the basics of camp making, tracking and hiding.

"We have to cover this before we are both able and allowed to perform C rank and higher missions. I trust that all of you are tired of D-ranks. Or am I wrong ?"

Angry mutters answered him.

'I thought so. Well, the sooner we do this, the sooner we can do the more interesting missions. So let's get down to it !"

For 7 days, Kakashi taught his students in the vital skills of survival during field missions. However, his students proved to be a constant source of frustration. It was only with inhuman persistence that he finally taught Naruto patience so that he could track decently, Sakura how to ignore filth and hide properly and Sasuke how to 'reduce himself' to building campsites. Not truly sure that the trio learned their lessons, he nevertheless decided to ask Hokage for a C-rank mission. 'After all, they would benefit more fully from practice in an actual forest several days distanced from a town.'

However, when he did ask the Hokage for a C rank, the old man only replied that it was still early and promptly gave them an another D rank mission. Disappointed, Kakashi decided that it was high time to teach his students a chakra exercise so that they would grow more adept at efficiently using their chakra. And they were in dire need of greater control. Sakura not so much, but Sasuke and Naruto needed as much practice in control as they could get. And he had a perfect chakra exercise ready for the fresh genins.

"Today, I'll teach you how to climb trees." Announced Kakashi cheerfully the day after the end of lessons in tracking and stealth.

8 hours later …

"They are still at it ?"

"Yeah."

"I can't believe those two ! I finished that exercise in half an hour ! How can they not do something so simple !?"

Kakashi, having heard and replayed this particular part of conversation with Sakura several times this day, thus greatly annoyed, settled for a biting remark :

"Well, I guess it has to do with your chakra levels. The more chakra you have, the harder it is. So I guess that you have a seventh of Sasuke's chakra, and I won't even try to measure how much more chakra Naruto has than you. Your chakra levels are not even completely equal to that of an average genin."

Sakura, hearing this, immediately stopped complaining and looked somewhat humbled. 'Good, I couldn't take anymore whining.' While Kakashi realized somewhere deep inside himself that he was somewhat harsh with his only female student, he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. 'She is a kunoichi, it's time for her to grow up.' But, after several minutes after his burst of anger, he found himself feeling somewhat guilty. Seeing Sakura's still somewhat sad face, he told her :

"Listen, Sakura, don't worry about having so little chakra. You have improved greatly since you graduated from the academy. Your chakra has increased at least six-fold. And it will continue to increase if you continue training hard. I am sure that right now, you are stronger then Ino." said Kakashi and then eye-smiled.

Sakura, hearing this, immediately brightened.

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei. Say, should I give some pointers to Sasuke-kun and Naruto ?"

"Sure. As long as they want it. And they certainly do need it." 'And it will better their teamwork and friendship if they help each other.'

It turned out that both of the boys refused Sakura's help. Naruto's unfriendly demeanor with Sakura hadn't changed in past several weeks so he uncaringly turned her down, while Sasuke was as prideful as ever and thought himself above the tips from a girl he considered weak. Sakura was quite hurt by their callous refusal and was both angry and exasperated with their still slow progress. Kakashi, seeing this, only face-palmed. 'Well, it seems that we have issues other then shinobi competence that we have to work on. It seems that me and the boys are going to have a long talk.'

"Sakura, training for you is over, you can go back home."

"But what about those two ?" asked Sakura pronouncing the last two words bitterly.

"Don't worry about them, Sakura. As soon as they finish, they and I are going to have a conversation concerning spurning one teammate's help."

One hour later, when the last vestiges of the day escaped, Sasuke and Naruto had completed their task and were feeling quite satisfied with themselves. That is, until they noticed their sensei's angry one-eyed glare. In a blink of an eye, he surrounded them both with wires and bound them to the nearest tree with cold harshness after making them collide with the named tree. When the two boys glared angrily at Kakashi and Naruto opened his mouth to shout, both were stopped cold by Kakashi's face that looked carved in stone.

"So." The word echoed sinisterly.

"So, you two. I want to hear explanation as to why you refused your teammates help and why you returned her helpfulness with insults ? You have hurt her, do you know that you two ? Or do you simply do not care, as it looks ?"

The two were quiet for several moments, then Sasuke said :

"I don't need her help. I don't need help of anyone as weak as her. Besides, she's a ninja, if she is hurt by a simple refusal what will she do when she is forced to actually fight or kill ?"

"You keep saying that she is weak Sasuke, but she had completed the chakra exercise far faster then you. If we were to measure strength by that, it would seem that she is much stronger then you."

Sasuke merely scowled.

"And what about you, Naruto ? You also think that she is weak ?"

"No. I just don't want her help."

"Why not ?"

"I don't want help of anyone who considers me a moron. I don't want to owe anything to someone like that."

Kakashi sighed and then released their binds.

"You free to go. However, in not so distant future, we'll have a long conversation about teamwork and relations between teammates. All four of us."

Naruto grumbled while Sasuke had his usual scowl on hi face. Kakashi shook his head 'What I am going to do with these tiring students of mine ? They cannot function as a platoon until they deal with their differences. I just hope that I can get rid of that harmful tension and foolish behavior tomorrow …Wait, I have a plan ! It could work, but I must work out some details. Yes, it could definitely work … '

And with those thoughts in mind, Kakashi started to forge his clever plan. In the meantime, Naruto and Sasuke returned to their homes exhausted and at unease.

Tomorrow morning. Kakashi looked as all of his students arrived. He was, for the first time in over 13 years, early. Since he had taken up team 7 he had reduced his ordinary lateness to 'only' half an hour. Now, however, he had an important things to set in motion, and the survival of Team 7 depended on it. He observed the faces of his students. Naruto had an uneasy expression on his face which held a somewhat broody undertone. Sasuke's face was a cold mask while Sakura was trying her best to ignore her teammates. 'Yes,' thought Kakashi sadly 'The future of team 7 may very well depend on my plan whose first part must be set today.'

"Since each and every one of you lacks ninjutsu proficiency, even you Sasuke, I have decided to teach all of you a jutsu so that you could increase your versatility and allow you to have more abilities at your disposal."

"A jutsu !? Great ! What is the jutsu, Kakashi-sensei, huh. ?"

Taking in his student's expectant faces, Kakashi slowly answered Naruto's question :

The jutsu I will teach you is a rather basic one, but then again you three are still only genins, rookie genins at that. You have to start small. The jutsu is a katon one, or otherwise known as fire style jutsu. It's called "Katon, Fire Stream" and can be used both in and out of combat. You can light a bonfire with it, or you can simple burn your enemies. It's a D rank jutsu, but if you put enough chakra in it, it becomes a C rank. But I am getting too far ahead, I should probably start by teaching you the basic facts of ninjutsu art. Most of it you probable heard in academy, but it won't hurt to hear it again and in a more focused and 'concentrated' lesson. You may also hear something new, something you will need later on in shinobi life. And you will need to know these basic facts if you are ever to become a proper shinobi.

Sasuke looked disappointed by the jutsu Kakashi was going to teach them, but his expression said that he agreed to listen to his sensei's lesson, as it may give him an useful piece of knowledge. Sakura looked eager to both hear the theory lesson and to learn the basic fire jutsu, while Naruto was ready to endure the 'horrible agonies' that the lesson will give him, s long as he got to learn the new jutsu ! It didn't matter that it was a basic one, basic ones can also be very useful. Besides, this one looked very useful.

"Okay, here we go. We'll start from chakra. Chakra is an unique formation of energy that is created when the body energy, a vital force which is generated in the cells of living organisms, and the spiritual energy, the willpower and the force of mental fortitude, are combined.

Chakra is used in enormous varieties of situations. Without the ability to mold and harness chakra, which is the basis of all the jutsu we perform, shinobi wouldn't even exist . Chakra can also be used to enhance the body's basic functions. For example, Kiri shinobi have the ability to reinforce their lungs with chakra so that they could stay far longer under water than humanly possible. Or you can simple use chakra to increase the speed and strength of your limbs and so on. Once created, chakra moves about the body to any of its 64 release (Chakra) points, utilizing a network of passages not unlike the circulatory system. Chakra is molded and manipulated by various means, out of which the hands seals are by far the most common ones. There are 12 ordinary hands seals, which respond to the 12 animals of the zodiac. However, there are more hand seals, but we won't go into those. Depending on the ratio in which physical and spiritual energy is mixed, different types of chakra can be formed. It can be elemental chakra, healing chakra, and ying and yang chakra. The chakra that interest us at the moment is the elemental chakra. It is used almost exclusively for ninjutsu. As the name says, elemental chakra is used to perform elemental jutsu. The elemental jutsu are divided into 5 known elemental natures : Fire, wind, lightning, earth, water. Most ninja have a natural affinity to one type of chakra, while there are some who posses two chakra affinities, and in very and extremely rare cases, 3 affinities. Regardless of the affinity, every shinobi has the ability to perform jutsu of every common affinity. The only difference is the difficulty of learning and performing a jutsu that is not an affinity to said shinobi. Each element is both stronger and weaker against another. The order is fire, wind, lightning, earth, and water, with each being weaker than the previous and stronger than the next. Water loops back into fire. For example, a lightning based attack would be very effective against an earth based defense, but easily countered by a wind user. However, if said lightning based attack has a substantial larger amount of chakra than the wind one, the lightning based one will prevail. Additionally, elemental techniques can be countered by techniques of the same element, provided the technique being countered is of equal or lesser power."

Kakashi paused there and gazed at his students. All of them, even Naruto, were carefully listening.

"Although I said that there are 5 elements, that isn't completely true. There are more elements, that are formed by combining the five common ones. However, not anybody can use these elements. Only those with a kekkai genkai, a bloodline limit that enables the offspring of a certain line to use and have special abilities, can use them. The jutsus are divided in 6 ranks :

E rank : the jutsus that academy are teaching you, as well as certain minor jutsus that are used in making camp and other things outside of battle …

D rank : The genin jutsus

C rank : The upper genin to low chuunin jutsus.

B rank : Upper chuunin to low jounin jutsus.

A rank : Jounin jutsus.

S rank : Kage level jutsu. Almost every one of them is also a forbidden one, a kinjutsu.

Kinjutsu or "Banned techniques" are those jutsu from the three main categories which have been declared forbidden by the village Kage. This can be because of the toll it places on the ninja, or the evil nature of the technique used.

Well, that's enough for now, time to actually show you the jutsu."

Naruto and Sakura leaned forward in eagerness, while Sasuke remained impassive.

"Here are the hand-seals. Got them ? Good. Now practice doing them without molding chakra, and when you can perform them without pausing and quickly, tell me."

Almost immediately, Sasuke finished. He was quickly followed by Sakura, and finally, after 6 or 7 minutes, Naruto was satisfied with his hand-seals.

"Okay then. First, you convert your chakra to fire elemental chakra. Then, you mold it in a 'stream'. After that, you direct the 'stream' to your mouth and exhale it. It should exit your mouth as a stream of fire, hence the technique's name "Katon, Fire Stream". Bear in mind that the longitude and the size of the stream depends on the amount of chakra put in the jutsu. Try it."

Sasuke managed to create a decent stream in his first try, Sakura created a small stream that almost immediately failed while Naruto exhaled a huge cloud of smoke.

"Good work, Sasuke. Continue to practice and try to create streams of different size. Sakura, put more chakra into it and also practice. Naruto, you didn't transform your chakra completely. Try again."

After Naruto's second unsuccessful try, after which he created only more smoke, Kakashi decided to help more actively his student.

"Okay, Naruto, come here. Do you know what are you doing wrong ? No ? You put a large amount of chakra in the jutsu, but you don't transform all of your chakra that you put into it. Now, try morphing your chakra longer and let's see what happens."

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei." Said Naruto with a determination in his eyes. After several more tries, Naruto finally succeded to create a fire stream, although it was an uncontrolled one. Because of that, Kakashi had to dodge to keep himself from burning.

Sasuke, watching all of this since he had 'mastered' the jutsu in his opinion, decided to voice his comment

"What a dobe. You can't even perform correctly a jutsu as easy as that ? You are disgrace to the shinobi name."

"Quiet." Kakashi's voice cut through Sasuke's voice like a sharp knife. He didn't like Sasuke's words or the tone in which they were delivered. They reminded him painfully of his own to Obito long time ago. Even the same disdain was seen on Sasuke's face as he insulted Naruto.

"Naruto, continue to practice. Sasuke, show me what did you do during the time I helped Naruto."

"Yes, sensei." Answered Naruto angrily, all the while glaring at Sasuke.

"Fine." said Sasuke somewhat grimly with an ugly sneer on his face.

After seeing that Sasuke, had indeed improved somewhat and had done what Kakashi had told him to do, the jounin-sensei of Team 7 turned to his only female student.

"What about you, Sakura ?"

"Okay, sensei. Here !" excitedly said Sakura, as she produced a thin, but steady stream of flame.

"Good. Now listen up, you three. I want you to practice this jutsu for an hour. Try creating smaller and bigger flames, shorter, longer, experiment with your new jutsu. After the one hour is up, we will hold a contest of a sorts. So, I recommend that you still practice, even if you think that you have 'mastered' it. Yes, that means you too, Sasuke. Well, what are you waiting for ? Begin !"

Kakashi patiently waited for an hour to pass, before he announced.

"Okay, time's up. Let's see how much have you improved. I will now hold two contests. One is to see who can produce a biggest stream, and the second who can the thinnest. The first contest measures your force, other your control. The winners will, as a reward, be taught a new C-rank jutsu. Understood ?"

"Yes !"

"Okay, let's get started. First contest is simple, just the thickest stream of fire you can."

"Hn. Easy. Katon, Fire Stream !" shouted Sasuke and produced a stream that was thick at least 50 cm. Sasuke, after seeing the size of it, just smirked.

"Not bad. Sakura ?"

"Yes, sensei." said a somewhat subdued Sakura. A thin stream that hadn't even 20 cm in width exited her mouth.

"It's okay, Sakura, you'll do better some other time. Practice some more. Now, Naruto, your turn."

Naruto was feeling nervous, but he shook it off and gathered as much of his chakra as he dared and concentrated with all of his power on creating fire chakra and molding it correctly. After several seconds, he finally thought that it was ready and yelled :

"Katon ! Fire stream !" and as soon as he said that, a huge stream left his mouth. It was at least as twice as big as that of Sasuke, maybe even more.

"So, we have a winner." said an unshaken Kakashi. Truthfully, he expected Naruto to win this competition. It was one of the reason he chose the competition to be in pure force. Naruto's teammates however, were flaggerbasted.

Not giving them the time to recover, Kakashi continued.

"Now, the other contest. Make your stream as thin as possible ! Naruto, you first."

Unfortunately, Naruto seemed incapable of producing a stream smaller than Sasuke's 50 cm one. Sasuke, determined to win at least one competition, succeeded in reducing his stream to mere 5 cm. However, even that was not to be, as Sakura succeeded in reducing her stream to about 2 or 3 cm.

"Well, it seems that Sakura and Naruto will be taught another C rank jutsu tomorrow, while Sasuke won't."

Sasuke was furious. How did that dobe did better than him ? Or that pink-haired weakling ? He was the last Uchiha, a shinobi genius, an epitome of everything an aspiring shinobi should be. Then how ? Beneath his anger, however, there was also some disappointment and a tiny speck of hurt, a long-forgotten remnant of an often-ignored child. His teammates however, were full of happiness. Even Sakura, seeing her crush upset, couldn't entirely shake off her satisfaction at defeating the young genius.

"However …"

That one word stopped cold both Naruto's and Sakura's happiness and Sasuke's anger.

"If you apologize to your teammates, I'll be willing to teach you the jutsu. But only, and I do mean only, if you put some effort into really apologizing to them for insulting their capabilities as shinobi. After all, they proved that they aren't such as you thought them to be, so I guess they owe an apology from you."

Sasuke seemed to weigh his options. To 'humiliate' himself but get a new jutsu or not and get nothing. But in the end, desire for the new jutsu prevailed. After all, as much as he hated being humiliated, if it was going to help him fulfill his vow, he will endure as many humiliations as he had to.

"I'll … apologize. I am … sorry for mocking you." said Sasuke almost muttering under his breath and looking everywhere but his teammates.

"No, Sasuke, not like that. Meet their eyes and apologize."

Sasuke glared heatedly at his teacher, but Kakashi remained unfazed.

Sasuke sighed and tried again :

"I am sorry for dismissing your worth as shinobi. Is that good ?" asked Sasuke with a scowl on his face. This time, he looked his teammates in the eyes, and apologized loud and clear.

"Much better. Well, we still have time for a D rank mission."

He was met with angry yelling.

"Well, since we have already done about 26 missions, and we need only 30 missions to be allowed a C rank one, let's ask the Hokage. Maybe if we do only this one more, he'll give that mission to us."

It was only after the Team 7 agreed to do two more D rank missions, that the Hokage gave them a C-rank one.

"Your client just arrived this morning. Since he is currently too tired to greet you and discuss the details of the mission, I have decided to postpone the start of the mission to tomorrow 11 o' clock. He will expect you at the eastern gate. Use this time that you have left to gather your supplies and prepare yourselves for a mission that might take two weeks or more. Farewell and good luck.

Oh and I almost forgot. The client's name is Tazuna."

This chapter has been a monster to write. Over, 3.750 words, phew ! Well, I had done my best and succeeded in finishing this chapter before the start of the New Year, so I am asking of you to please review if you like this story. While hits and alerts are good, reviews are what essentially keeps me writing. So please read and review ! I would be deeply grateful to you if at least some of you reviewed this story. And if anyone's interested, I'll be updating my other fic next. I won't update this story until I have updated the other one unless there are lots of reviews asking for it. Also, Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, and all that jazz … bye !