"Sensei!" Naruto shouted, holding a flailing brown cat three sizes too big in his arms, "I demand a C-Rank. We've been doing this for a month now and I'm sick and tired of catching this damned cat every other day."

Kakashi smirked, though none of the three gathered genin could see. Over the month his team had completed 42 D-Rank missions, two each week day. One in the morning, followed by teamwork training -which worked wonders for Sasuke- after which came lunch and the second D-Rank. After the mission they'd spent two hours working on one of the three core shinobi skills. Monday and Wednesday were spent working on Taijutsu. Kakashi would create two clones and helped the Genin develop a Taijutsu style that would match their strengths -Ino began learning the Serpent Style, Sasuke learnt an ANBU style that focused on ending the fight as fast as possible, and Naruto was learning Minato's patented Hiraishin Style, though it was quite hard for the blond to do without knowing the Hiraishin himself. Tuesdays were for Ninjutsu, or gaining mastery over the few they had at their disposal at least. Thursday was Genjutsu day. Naruto worked on breaking Genjutsu, as he had nowhere near enough control to use them, while Ino and Sasuke learned new Genjutsu or worked on mastery of their existing repertoire. Fridays were spent on each genin's chosen specialisation. Ino had chosen two, medical ninjutsu and sensory abilities. Naruto had chosen infiltration, and Sasuke had chosen assassination.

"Alright Naruto. Let's go ask Hokage-sama if we can have a C-Rank." The Jonin said.

Naruto's eyes lit up. "REALLY‽"

"Yup"

"What are we waiting for then?" Ino spoke up, "We can finally leave the village!" She said, bouncing slightly.

Sasuke's eyes held excitement as well, which was a rare sight.

"Alright. We'll go right after lunch." Kakashi said, "Last one there is paying." He said, vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto smirked and pulled out three bento boxes, "I guess he's paying. Let's go to the park by the tower." He said, leading the way to the park.

-DATTEBAYO!-

Tazuna was a grumpy man. He berated Naruto and Ino for their blond hair and brashness -though the gray haired man was no better in the brashness department, especially when drunk- though he seemed to like Sasuke for whatever reason.

"I thought I hired some super ninja not a bunch of brats!" Tazuna slurred as he took another large drink from his bottle. He then pointed at Naruto, "I mean, look at this kid, he's barely at my waist! What could he do against another ninja?"

Kakashi furrowed his brow at this but said nothing, his genin would catch on.

"It's a C-Rank. We don't have to deal with other ninja." Sasuke huffed, "Unless you're lying to us." His eyes darkened.

Tazuna instantly sobered up at this, furthering Kakashi's doubts that this was a simple C-Rank. Things were never that easy for any of Team 7's incarnations.

"O… Of course I didn't lie. But there's always a chance that we meet other ninja isn't there?" The bridge builder stammered.

Ino and Naruto locked eyes and the Yamanaka heiress nodded.

"Let's just drop it. Who cares." Naruto said, "I'm plenty strong enough as is. I don't need to prove myself to a drunk."

Ino subtly took a step closer to Tazuna as they walked. Kakashi -who stood at the back- noticed this and sighed.

"Ino!" Kakashi said, voice noticeably stern, "Can you tell me why Tazuna hired ninja from the Leaf instead of from Wave?"

Ino stepped away from Tazuna, Kakashi had noticed her plan it seemed, "Because Wave doesn't have a ninja corps and we're the closest to them other than the Hidden Mist. But they're in the middle of a civil war currently."

"Very good." Kakashi said.

After another few minutes they walked by a puddle and Ino immediately turned to Kakashi, who nodded subtly. Ino stopped, causing the other two genin to stop as well.

A shout of pain erupted from Kakashi, who had been wrapped up in a chain and squeezed, leaving nothing left except for a splash of red liquid.

"Kakashi-sensei…" Naruto fell to his knees. Standing there were two ninja dressed in black. The one on the left had unkempt shoulder length brown hair, a rebreather on his face, and a large metal gauntlet -presumably poisonous- on his right hand.

The other ninja had the same color hair, though his was straight as. He was wearing the same outfit, though his gauntlet was on the left hand. In between the two metal gauntlets was the chain that had killed Kakashi.

"NARUTO!" The blond was brought from his stupor by Ino's shout. He looked towards the two and knew that he had to dodge, but had no time to react as the chain slammed into his stomach less than a second later, knocking the breath out of him.

Before the two could wrap Naruto in the chain Sasuke acted, throwing a kunai into one of the links and digging it into the ground. Though this did cause the blades to be ripped from Naruto's stomach, which was left bleeding from the puncture holes.

The two missing-nin detached their claws and the one with shaggy hair ran towards Sasuke while the one with straight hair turned to Ino.

'Hey, they think I'm down. Kyuubi should heal this in no time.' Naruto thought. As the second ninja reached Ino, Naruto leapt up and threw a kunai into the back of his head, dropping him.

Sasuke ducked under a jab from the large claw, sweeping his opponent's legs out from underneath as he did. The Uchiha then leapt upwards and quickly went through the hand seals for his family's signature jutsu, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" He shouted, exhaling a large ball of flames that engulfed the man, leaving a charred corpse.

Sasuke landed and couldn't move, he could only stare at his fallen opponent.

"I… I killed him." Sasuke managed to mutter, not reacting in the slightest when a firm hand squeezed his shoulder.

'Well done Sasuke. You've taken one step closer to Itachi.' The deep voice said. Sasuke ignored it. The shadow that spoke was nothing new, not since the night of the massacre. It was there always, most of the time silent and observing, but whenever Sasuke reached a new milestone in his shinobi career the voice spoke of Itachi.

"Good job Sasuke. I know how hard a first kill is." Kakashi's voice came, snapping Sasuke from his shock.

"He's dead…" Was all the prodigy managed.

"I'll give you a few minutes. But we'll need to go back to Konoha." Kakashi said, "Seems the parameters were wrong. This is at least a B-Rank mission now."

"Please!" Tazuna shouted, "I need your help. I didn't want to lie but Wave doesn't have enough money to pay for an A-Rank."

"It's policy I'm afraid. We'll have to turn back and head to Konoha." Kakashi said.

"Let's hear him out." Naruto said.

"Thank you." Tazuna said, "You see this man, Gato, he's take control of Wave country, completely stopping outgoing and incoming business by stopping us from fishing. This bridge I'm working on is our last chance. The country is living in a state of poverty, the dead pile up each day. Please… I have a family, my daughter and grandson need this bridge, my country needs this bridge."

"I'm going to help." Naruto said, "Kakashi-sensei you can bring the other two back if you want, but I won't go with you."

Kakashi sighed and summoned a small white dog, quickly scribbling a note and sending it off towards the Leaf.

"Let's get going then. Hopefully reinforcements arrive before it's too late." The silver haired jonin hoped for the first time that Gai wasn't on a mission.

-DATTEBAYO!-

The next few days were uneventful. There were in Water Country now, and only two days from Wave. Kakashi hadn't received a response to his message yet, but they continued on.

"So we're gonna see the ocean huh?" Ino mused as they walked. There was a large lake to their left, with a sprawling forest on their left. Ino was on the left side of Tazuna with Naruto on the right. Sasuke walked ahead of them, eyes peeled for any enemies.

"DUCK!" Ino shouted, jumping and taking down both Tazuna and Naruto before rolling into a crouch with a kunai in either hand. A large blade was halfway into the tree with a large man on top of it. The man, obviously a ninja, was tall and muscular. His light gray skin and black hair stood out against the pristine white bandages he wore around his face like a scarf, hiding up to his nose. He wore a black one piece suit with a pair of cobalt leg warmers. On his head was a tilted forehead protector.

"Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Hidden Mist." Kakashi said, locking eyes with the ninja, "A-rank missing-nin from Kirigakure."

"Ahh, Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja." Zabuza said, stepping down from his sword and pulling it from the tree, causing the massive log to fall over with a crash.

"You three guard Tazuna, I'll handle him." Kakashi said, lifting his forehead protector and revealing a red eye with three black asterisks.

The beginning of the battle was faster than the genin could keep up with. Trees shook and clangs of metal on metal rang out through the clearing. Bursts of wind buffeted the genin and suddenly the lake exploded, a large pillar of water erupting from the center.

Then Zabuza was in front of the genin, blade flying through the air towards them.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, creating a dozen clones that jumped at the blade with kunai drawn, slowing it just enough for the blond to push Tazuna to the ground before the blade passed through every clone and ripped into his arm, slashing the bone in half.

Naruto screamed in pain, holding his left arm which hung on by tendrils of muscle. Sasuke jumped at Zabuza, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower!" A dozen fireballs slammed into the jonin and caused him to melt into a puddle of water.

"It was a water clone!" Ino shouted, kneeling over Naruto and healing his wound though progress was slow. She looked around and saw the real Zabuza holding Kakashi in a ball of water in the middle of the lake.

"Ino stop. Defend Tazuna." Naruto said, his eyes full of determination, "Teme, you and I are gonna save my brother." He said, crimson chakra swirling around his wound and closing it instantly.

Sasuke nodded, eyes not leaving the spot where the wound had been, not that you'd ever know for there wasn't even a mark. A shiver ran through the Uchiha as he realised how powerful the Kyuubi truly was. A career ending wound closed in less than a second, and not a scar left behind. How powerful was Minato that he faced that thing alone and managed to seal it? How strong was Itachi, who was likened to being on the same level.

With a nod from Naruto Ino ran through hand seals and connected the minds of all of Squad 7.

Alright Teme, here's the plan. Naruto sent thoughts into Sasuke's mind and Kakashi smirked a bit, he raised a good ninja.

Naruto ran forwards, throwing shuriken and kunai towards Zabuza, who raised a wall of water to block them.

Sasuke shot off two consecutive fireballs, creating a wall of steam.

Suddenly Zabuza's eyes widened and he ducked, a windmill shuriken zooming passed his face, out the corner of his eye he saw a second shuriken and jumped over it. He turned to the genin and laughed. "It was a good try, would've gotten a lesser ninja." He called out. Then he noticed Naruto wasn't there. His eyes widened and he ducked, his hand leaving the water prison that held Kakashi as a kick split the air over his head.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" Kakashi shouted, a large fireball slamming into Zabuza's side and sending him flying away, skidding onto the field near Ino and Sasuke.

Sasuke threw two kunai at the rolling ninja, though they were blocked by two needles that flew from the nearby brush. The Uchiha spun to look at the thrower and found a girl wearing a blue kimono and a Mist-Hunter ninja mask.

"Shit. Naruto! Kakashi-sensei! We have an issue." Sasuke shouted.

The two were beside Sasuke in a second, the three of them facing the two Mist-ninja.

"I wish you no harm. Just allow me to take Zabuza away." The girl said.

"Not gonna happen." Kakashi said, "He's a dangerous opponent I'd rather not deal with later."

The girl shook her head, "I will ask one more time." She said, "I came here to tell my master that we are no longer to eliminate the bridge builder."

"What do you mean?" Zabuza questioned the masked ninja.

"Gato has hired another ninja to eliminate us. His price is much lower than ours apparently."

"Dammit, Haku how did you figure this out?" Zabuza asked.

"I overheard Gato speaking with the other hired nin." Haku responded.

Zabuza growled, "Did he look familiar?"

Haku hung her head, "No, but apparently he is an S-Rank missing-nin."

Zabuza stood up, "There aren't too many S-Rankers, and none that I know of who'll go for a low price without some ulterior motive." He turned to Kakashi, "Well, I have no reason to fight you now. If you'd like to continue though I wouldn't mind slicing you up."

Kakashi waved his hand, "Nah I think I'm ok. But if you'd like to help us defend the bridge builder here I'm sure he wouldn't mind paying you for your troubles."

Tazuna paled at this while Ino and Naruto grinned.

A sly expression crossed Zabuza's face, "I wouldn't mind."

-DATTEBAYO!-

So this chapter is finally done. Took a long long time I know but stuff happens. Got into a relationship and moved out and then twice more and now I'm finally in a stable home again so yay! Anyways hopefully there'll be more uploads faster. I know I said I'd upload it arc by arc but this way you guys will actually get to read something. I haven't abandoned any of my other stories either for anyone who's reading them, I just haven't had a lot of time to work on them. Next upload will probably be for my Gohan; Chosen of the Dragon God story so look forward to that.