Danzo's Team

by kosmos00

Danzo asks to be Team 7's Jounin. Follows Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke as they grow into their positions. Kakashi is still in the fic. A more military take on the Narutoverse, will try to focus on ninja using tricks instead of brute force. strong!team.

4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The trials and tribulations of a dirty bridge builder.

Danzo sat in one of the hokage tower's larger meeting rooms struggling to understand Naruto's nigh incomprehensible hand writing while waiting on the other jounin with a rookie genin team. Naruto had submitted a rather interesting analysis of the limitations of the body-flicker and substitution techniques including the reasons they were of limited application in combat and how to overcome those limitations. Unfortunately it was all written in a chick-scrawl. Danzo was convinced that if they could train the rest of the leaf ninja to read Naruto's writing then they would gain a totally secure method of communication.

For frustrating minutes later the hokage entered the room and Danzo gladly closed the scroll before making a mental note to forward it to ROOT's cipher and decryption department. Danzo stood with the other two jounin and saluted the hokage, "Sir!"

"At ease." Sarutobi waited for Danzo and the others to return to their seats before he continued, "Since this is the first quarterly report and you have not had your genin team's the entire quarter I want a general overview of your team's status before you begin to report on specific members. Who would like to go first?"

Asuma and Kurenai both started to speak then looked at each other and blushed. Danzo allowed himself an eye-roll at the lover's moment and waited for them to figure out who would report first. Finally Asuma began, "Jounin Asuma Sarutobi reporting for team ten. Team ten has completed seventeen D-rank missions and one C-rank mission since its formation. Like their parents, the team is best suited for a capture and interrogation role and I am training them in that direction. As expected from the second generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio the team possesses notable teamwork."

Asuma looked at his father to see if the overview was sufficient before continuing, "Genin Shikamaru Nara defaults into the leadership role in combat situations, though he is unwilling to be assertive outside of combat. I am leaving most of his training to his clan and instead focusing on helping him develop mentally. I circumspectly tested his IQ and he is a genius."

Sarutobi looked at his son sharply and asked, "So were the academy results incorrect?"

Asuma shook his head, "I doubt it. He probably thought it was 'troublesome' and didn't put very much effort into academy assignments. That kid is like an old man. He likes to take things slowly."

Danzo wondered if that was a nice way to call a student lazy before asking, "So what is his projected development?"

"He has mastered the Shadow Bind to Yoshino-san's standards and she currently has him working on mastering the Shadow Imitation. Otherwise she is focusing on increasing his chakra capacity by making him capture deer for the clan pharmaceuticals. I intend to enroll him in the ANBU investigations course the next time a session begins if he meets the requirements or you will waive them hokage-sama." Danzo resisted a snort, it was obvious which of the two would occur. Even with their checkered past Sarutobi wouldn't refuse his son something like that.

"I will consider it. What of the other members of your team?"

"Genin Chouji Akimichi is the team's sole heavy combatant. Physically he is a monster, his raw strength is chunin level easily. Unfortunately he lacks the confidence to use it effectively so his taijutsu is mediocre for a genin. He can currently perform his clan's multi-size technique and calorie control technique, but according to his father he is a long way from achieving mastery of either. When the team confronted a pair of yakuza toughs during our c-rank protection mission he utilized one of his families food pills to augment his strength."

"Aren't those extremely dangerous?" Kurenai interrupted.

Danzo's kept his face calm but wondered, 'What were you doing during this?'

"I have been assured by Chouza-san that although the food pills are dangerous, the first pill won't cause any lasting harm. According to him the pill get their bad reputation because consuming the third food pill is tantamount to opening the eight gates. I intend to let Chouji to continue training in his clan's techniques. I am trying to boost his confidence and am giving him supplementary taijutsu lessons."

"As you know my third genin is Ino Yamanaka. She is suited for reconnaissance and espionage; she is extremely effective at getting information out of people, though I would recommend against formal interrogation training at the moment. Among my three genin she is best with the standard academy ninjutsu, but her taijutsu is … lacking. Her chakra pool is larger than Shikamaru's but smaller than Chouji's."

"During the fight with yakuza she used her clan's mind-body switch technique to sow confusion, but left her body vulnerable. Her teammates were forced to divert attention between protecting her and the client. Her father is helping her learn her clan's techniques and her mother is giving her an education in basic poisons and antidotes. I am offering to help her improve her taijutsu, but she is not currently interested in additional physical training." Asuma looked over at Danzo and added, "Oh and she has a crush on your prize student Danzo-sama."

"...I see."

Kurenai smiled and asked, "I guess I'm next?" After a nod from Sarutobi she continued, "Jounin-sensei Kurenai Yuhi reporting for team eight. Team eight has completed twenty six D-rank missions since its creation. The team is best suited for reconnaissance and tracking. The team recently was asked to help in the the second stage of the hunter ninja selection trials as one of the pursuit forces and were able to successfully eliminate twelve of the hunter ninja candidates from the running. The team shows an acceptable degree of teamwork for a group that has only been operating together for two and a half months. They also display an unexpected degree of proficiency at taijutsu."

Danzo wondered if team eight's impressive display in the hunter ninja trials was the result of the team's unexpected prowess or of slipping standards. He made a mental note to have someone at internal affairs look into the matter before returning his attention to Kurenai's speech.

"-She exhibits an almost crippling lack of confidence. Her taijutsu is, as expected of a Hygua, above average. When she spars against me she preforms at the level expected of a chunin, but when against her teammates she falls to about mid-genin proficiency. She also display's an unexpected knowledge of herbal remedies and medicine. Due to her position as a clan heiress she has an exceptional knowledge of etiquette and ceremony."

"Her father has assured me he will supervise her education in the gentle fist style and has asked me to make time for his instruction. I am focusing my instruction on improving her confidence and ability to work with the rest of the team. Because of her byakugan, she does not need instruction in breaking genjutsu so I am focusing on increasing her teammates proficiency in breaking genjutsu before advancing all three of the to more advanced instruction."

"Genin Kiba Inuzuka is at times distressingly brash and overconfident, but listens to his teammates when they speak up. His taijutsu when working with his partner, Akumaru, is exceptional. He has yet to lose a taijutsu spar with either of his teammates. In fact, I would match him up favorably against most new chunin in a taijutsu only spar. He has an exceptional amount of chakra for a genin and the worse chakra control I have ever seen, though I hear one of your students is worse Danzo-sama."

"I haven't heard that."

Danzo watched Kurenai flush a bit before continuing, "He is learning collaboration techniques from his clan, but according to Tsume-san, Akamaru is currently too young to learn most of the more powerful clan techniques. I am working on his attitude and trying to get him to think before he jumps into a situation that he can't handle, but it is a slow effort. His poor control makes the genjutsu release technique extremely difficult for him and I am spending a great deal of time trying to bring his skill with it up to par."

"Unlike the other two Genin Shino Aburame is a bit of a mystery. When I received his profile from the academy I almost complained of negligence. They had him listed within two spots of dead middle in every category. Every teacher's comment in his file can be summed up as 'he is quiet'. I'm glad I didn't complain because in these last two months I haven't done much better. He responds politely when spoken to and volunteers nothing."

"So he is like his father."

"I don't think that is a fair comparison. While he shares many traits with the rest of the clan, such as his love for observing insects, I doubt he acts in such an unusual manner because of Aburame logic. I don't know why, but Shino is paranoid. He marks everyone he meets with his bugs and hides his skills whenever possible. I know his mother has been training him in the Aburame clan style since he was six, but he only uses the academy style in taijutsu spars."

Kurenai realized how fair off of topic they had drifted and returned to addressing her genin's skills. "Shino may be my strongest genin. The level of taijutsu he has displayed is mid genin, but I believe his actual level is somewhere between high genin and low chunin. According to his father Shino can use several of the clan techniques including the insect clone. In mock combat his use of his clan's bug techniques shows a level of tactics and planning rarely seen in genin."

"Since he possesses the necessary degree of chakra control I plan to start giving him basic instruction in genjutsu once Kiba masters the release technique. I hope that by learning some genjutsu he will be able to overcome a few of the standard Aburame weaknesses. Otherwise I am leaving his instruction to his mother and father since he will not allow me to gather enough information about his current level to give him meaningful instruction in other areas. Since his supposed paranoia is not negatively impacting the team I have no plans to address it."

"Thank you Kurenai-san." Sarutobi took a breath before asking. "And team seven?"

"Jounin-sensei Danzo Shimura reporting for team seven. Team seven has completed nine D-rank missions. The team is best suited for heavy combat. At its formation team seven possessed a notable lack of teamwork." He shot Sarutobi a glance and continued, "In my opinion they would have failed sensei's bell test. This is no longer the case." Danzo turned to look at the other two jounin-sensei's and continued, "Though their teamwork isn't at the level of the famous trio or even exceptional they work together well enough. I have dedicated most of the past two and a half months to training certain members up to the level they should have possessed when they graduated from the academy."

"Genin Sakura Haruno was a fan girl somehow labeled the top kunoichi of her class, which makes me grieve for today's youth. After two and half months of exercise her physical condition is comparable to a middle of the class academy student."

He looked at Sarutobi in time to catch the old man signing, "What are you doing?"

He signed back, "After." before covering the pause by saying, "Physically your grandson would beat her, though on a purely technical level her taijutsu is probably mid genin. She knows no worthwhile ninjutsu. However, Genjutsu is a bright spot. I have managed to teach her the hell viewing technique and the false surroundings technique. In addition Kakashi taught her the mist servant technique. She has also learned a bit of medicine."

"I am currently working on improving her chakra capacity, another area where she is currently inferior to your grandson hokage-sama. When she has the chakra capacity to support it I will begin instruction in more advanced genjutsu and maybe a few defensive ninjutsu. When the hospital begins another course on medical jutsu I intend to enroll her."

"Genin Naruto Uzumaki is dead last of his class. It showed. I am proud to say that he has grown up a bit over the past two months, though his teammates still haven't gotten him to burn that jumpsuit. His physical strength is in line with a genin, but his taijutsu isn't. In fact I'm fairly sure he skipped several of the more important academy taijutsu lessons, like the ones where you learn how to punch and kick." Danzo watched the other jounin try to decide if he was making a joke or not before continuing, "Since joining team seven his taijutsu has improved markedly. Now he can probably beat your grandson in a fair fight. Of course any genin would trounce him. When he graduated his control could be charitably described as horrible, after months of hard work he has improved it to merely bad but he still can't perform the basic clone technique"

Danzo suppressed a smile at the dirty looks he was getting and said, "For the foreseeable future I will continue to help him improve his taijutsu and control until they reach the standards I expect from a genin. At that point I will help him learn a few supplementary ninjutsu."

Danzo made a mental note of Kurenai and Asuma's relieved expressions when he started, "Genin Sasuke Uchiha was the top rookie of his class and continues to demonstrate why he deserved that title. His taijutsu is solidly low chunin. When I received him his chakra capacity was chunin level; he had enough to perform the grand fireball technique. However his large capacity came with the standard control issues, so we have mainly worked on the basic chakra control exercises. He has completed tree climbing and water walking though I wouldn't say he has mastered either. He has not unlocked his sharingan and lacks the control required for genjutsu without it, so after teaching him the release technique that subject has been largely left alone."

"For the immediate future I intend to help him continue improving his control. Kakashi plans to help him learn a few other ninjutsu to improve his library, but he has been having trouble teaching techniques he copied in the first place. I assume that problem will disappear when Sasuke unlocks his own sharingan. Once I am satisfied by Sasuke's control I intend to start him on elemental manipulation." He paused a moment in thought then added, "I know that if he has lightning Kakashi wants to teach him the chidori."

Asuma protested, "You intended to teach a genin elemental manipulation?"

Danzo kept the annoyance off his face and answered, "Yes."

Sarutobi broke the awkward silence, "Thank you for your time. Shimura-san will you stay behind a moment please?"

Danzo watched Asuma and Kurenai file from the room and wondered if they had drawn the conclusions he wanted them to. Sarutobi was kind enough to wait for them to leave completely before asking, "What was that about?"

"If my team continues to progress at this rate they will be ready for the chunin exams should they want to compete. No point in tipping off the competition."

"So you lied to my jounin so your team would gain an advantage in an competition they might or might not be in?"

Danzo put on his 'I'm innocent' and said, "Lied? I'm not sure why, but his taijutsu really is that bad, and he is improving slower than I expected. Worse, I might have been overly generous when describing his control." Sarutobi did not look amused. Danzo finally admitted, "I just might have forgot to mention a few things he excels in."

"So how much have they really improved?" Danzo pulled out the written assignment he had given to Naruto and handed it to Sarutobi. He pulled open the scroll and spent a couple minutes frowning at the scroll before saying, "You taught them cryptography?"

Danzo ruthlessly suppressed a chuckle. "His hand writing is that bad." He frowned a moment then made a mental leap, "When I start Sakura on seals I'm going to include Naruto in the lessons. He doesn't have the math background for it, but he might have inherited the Uzumaki talent and even if he has no aptitude for it his hand writing will improve."

"Oh your going to teach the two genin you made out to be worthless something as complicated as sealing without offering it to your prized student, the Uchiha?" He joked, when it didn't elicit a response he continued, "Have your worries about his mental stability panned out?"

"Actually that's something I'm still confused by. After their first mission he totally reversed his stance on his teammates. I know he's still obsessed with killing his brother, but somehow that obsession has helped the team stabilize. Also watching him try to set up Sakura and Naruto as a couple is one of the funniest things I have ever had the pleasure of watching."

Sarutobi coughed and returned to the original subject, "So how is Naruto?"

Danzo quirked an eyebrow, "Oh so you don't want to hear about Sakura?" Sarutobi gave Danzo an irritated look, so he answered, "I have been working on covering the holes in his academy education, he is up to where he actually should be in history and math now. As I mentioned, his control is still bad. This is mitigated by the fact his reserves are at least high jounin. Kakashi thinks that Naruto has about twice as much chakra as him. Naruto can waste charka every time he uses an technique and he will still last hours longer than his teammates."

"He is also getting smarter about how he uses his techniques. That nigh-incomprehensible scroll in your hands is his answer to a question I posed in the team's last group meeting. I asked the team to examine the faults of the substitution technique and how to overcome them. From the small patches of his answer that I can read he drew a rather interesting parallel with the body-flicker technique."

"According to Naruto body-flicker is widely considered a showman's technique that is useless in a fight because it takes three seconds to form the chakra required for a jump. But then someone came a long and figured out how to cut that time down to a little over a second. Suddenly you have the combat juggernaut Shisui of the body-flicker."

"To Naruto substitution is the same sort of technique. Currently substitution is almost useless in a fight because you must prepare something like a log to substitute with in advance. Naruto's solution was simple; just make something during the fight."

Sarutobi's face lit up in realization. "Shadow clone."

"When Naruto masters the reduced seal version of substitution no genin will ever be able to touch him."

"All that with terrible taijutsu and bad control."

"He is working hard at improving all of his faults." Danzo paused a moment then said, "Sakura's solution was almost as interesting as Naruto's. She followed the same logic as him but came to an entirely different conclusion. She decided 'why not just substitute with something that is already there?'" Danzo grinned and delivered a little bombshell, "She managed to substitute herself with a pocket of air."

"What?" Sarutobi looked at him with undisguised shock.

"I will have a copy of her solution passed along to you, but don't get your hopes up, no one has been able to duplicate her trick yet. And she is not going to demonstrate it again until she can do it without giving herself chakra exhaustion."

Sarutobi paused a moment to digest that then asked, "I am curious, what do you actually plan for your team?"

"If they complete their tenth mission to my satisfaction then I will recommend them for their first C-rank mission."

"Are they ready for that?"

"Everyone but Naruto can water walk and he will have it down in another week or two. Working together they are a match for any chunin, and they all … fulfilled my other requirement."

Sarutobi's irritated frown was back. "Naruto was inconsolable for days after that."

"Better here than in the field. You heard your sons report, his genin were not willing to kill their foes, and they were driven to the point where they had to use something dangerous to capture a pair of yakuza. Team ten should have won that fight easily."

Sarutobi changed the subject, "How does team seven stack up against the other two teams?"

"Well I don't know that much-"

"I know you have ROOT reporting on the other teams."

"Why would I do that...I just had internal affairs give me a copy of the relevant files." Sarutobi fought back a smile and Danzo continued, "It wouldn't be a contest. They are without a doubt the strongest team of their generation."

"So what D-rank do you plan to send them on tomorrow?"

Danzo's face twisted in an evil grin. "I do believe that it is time for Madame Shinji's cat to make another daring escape."

"You didn't."

"Ah the joy's of running ROOT."

DTDTDTDTDT

"Kakashi has not returned from his mission yet, so I will be pretending to supervise you on today's mission." Danzo pulled out a red D-rank scroll and said, "We have been asked to retrieve Madame Shinji's lost cat, Tora. He can be identified by the red ribbon on his right ear. Sasuke you are the team leader for this mission." He paused a moment then added, "Dismissed."

"Yes, Danzo-sensei." Danzo gave his team a small smile and sat down on the bench. According to Sai, Tora was in fine form. He would have time to grade those essay's on the implications of different types of terrain.

Naruto waited for Danzo to be out of earshot before asking, "So what's the plan?"

Sasuke shrugged then said, "Not a clue. Do you know anything about this cat?"

Sakura looked like she wanted to say something then sighed and admitted, "Nope." Naruto just shook his head.

"We could just do what we do every time."

"Have stupid throw shadow clones at the problem until it goes away?"

"Jerk." Naruto tried to scowl at Sasuke but despite his efforts one side of his lip kept ticking upwards into a smile.

For a moment his teammates stared at him. Then Sakura bust out laughing. A moment later Sasuke and Naruto joined in. When they recovered Sasuke instructed, "Ten pairs of two, have them sweep the village from the North. Meanwhile the three of us will go to the market district and ask around."

Naruto spent a moment carefully metering his chakra, trying to minimize the amount he wasted, before shouting Shadow Clone. Twenty copies of Naruto appeared in puffs of smoke around him. At Naruto's urging the clones lined up and he gave them a few additional instructions. "Alright, when you find the cat one of you dismisses after you grab it. The other gets to hold onto it until we come pick it up and deliver it to Madame Shinji ourselves."

"You guys might as well relax, since we're going to find it in moments. Believe it!"

Sasuke watched the Naruto clones run off towards the Northern edge of the village for a moment then said, "Did your clone just try to one up us?"

Naruto shrugged. "Want to take them up on that offer Sakura-chan?"

She equivocated "Sasuke-kun is the team leader."

"Well what do you say oh great team leader?"

Sasuke frowned a moment and thought, 'If Danzo-sensei catches us screwing around on a mission; he might not let us go on a C-rank, and I can't put up with D-ranks any longer. Somehow he always catches us too. How does he do that?' Sasuke forced himself back on to the subject at hand before he got too far onto a tangent and said, "We can grab something quick if we do it while asking about the cat."

Naruto's eyes lit up, but Sakura interrupted him before he could open his mouth, "No ramen!"

"Sakura-chan that's heresy."

Sasuke decided, "Dango it is." before Naruto began to extol the various benefits of ramen.

They made it to the market district before Naruto asked, "So who's buying?" He spent fraction of a second looking at his teammates expressions before shouting, "Not it."

Sakura gave Sasuke a set of puppy dog eyes and said, "Will you do it Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke resisted the urge to rub his temples and said, "Why don't we play rock-paper-scissors for it instead." He might not have his sharingan, but he could still read hand motions better than the other two members of team seven.

All three members of team seven chanted, "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot." And signed while trying to read their opponents. Naruto's hand reached the center a fraction of a second before he could finish changing his rock into scissors, leaving him the loser against his Sakura and Sasuke's last second decision to both choose paper.

He hung his head in defeat and asked, "So what do you want?"

Sakura handed him a few bills and said, "Chestnut please."

Sasuke paid him and said, "I want soy, remember to ask the owner about the cat."

Naruto sighed, he wouldn't be able to find chestnut flavored Dango at one of the street vendors. He would have to go visit that specialty shop at the end of the street.

The shop was small but well furnished with small booths separated by paper hangings. He ignored the seating and walked over to the takeout counter. The owner of the shop saw him come in and met him at the counter a second later. The owner stared at him a moment before finally asking in a gruff voice, "What will you have?"

Naruto was about to ask about the runaway cat when he saw a flash of purple hair that blasted the question from his mind and made his eyes snap wide open in shock. That crazy exhibitionist lady who had slammed his clone into her cleavage was sitting, fully clothed, calmly eating dango in a pretty pink and white kimono. He stuttered, "Anko?"

"One order of red bean paste coming up."

That snapped Naruto out of his shock, he quickly corrected the owner with a gesture to a pretty purple haired kunoichi, "No I meant that Anko."

"Oh, Mitarashi-san. What about her?"

He waived his arm's wildly as his powers of speech failed him. "She's...kimono."

"Oh that. Her tea ceremony club meets today." He looked at the line building up and gave Naruto an irritated look before asking, "So what will you have?"

Naruto answered, "Two chestnut and a toasted soy please." as he tried to understand the implications of Anko being in a tea ceremony club. By the time he collected his order, Naruto had realized that he knew almost nothing about the purple haired kunoichi and resolved not to form opinions off of a single meeting. He frowned, 'Danzo-sensei would be disappointed in me.'

The sudden burst of memories from a dismissed clone forced him to shift attentions. He ran to where Sasuke and Sakura were talking to a street vendor and said, "They found it."

Naruto and Sasuke started running, leaving Sakura behind when she paused to bow before the vendor and said, "Thank you ma'am," before chasing after her teammates.

When Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura were about to turn into the ally they heard Naruto's clone shout in pain. The members of team seven all abruptly stopped. A second later a brown cat with a red ribbon sprinted from the ally. A Naruto clone stumbled out a second later and said, "That isn't a cat, it's a demon," before vanishing into a cloud of smoke.

Sasuke spent a moment wondering, 'How did a cat beat a ninja?' then suddenly realized their quarry was getting away and shouted, "After it!" Sasuke and Sakura started sprinting after the cat. A moment later Naruto pushed away the sudden phantom pain's assaulting his face and joined the hunt.

Sasuke reached the cat first and made a lunging grab. Tora jumped in time to slap Sasuke in the face with his bushy tail. That proved to be a mistake on the cat's part, Sakura managed to grab a hold of the tail before Tora could withdraw it. Sakura squeezed hard and yanked the cat back when it tried to jump away.

The cat made a pained yelp and turned on Sakura. For the first time since Danzo had decided to give them mandatory uniforms, Sakura was completely and unabashedly grateful for the heavy green jacket. Tora's claws couldn't pierce the heavy green fabric, so he sent an angry swipe at her face. Sakura dropped Tora and grabbed where the little demon had scratched her cheek. Tora tried to dive through Sakura's legs while she was occupied, but Naruto was waiting on the other side. Tora performed an abrupt about face to dodge the blond and ran write into Sasuke's waiting arms.

Sakura glared at the cat Sasuke was holding tightly while Naruto rubbed antiseptic into her wound. She managed to suppress the urge to twist Tora's little neck and thought, 'That little demon made me look bad to Sasuke-kun, I have to make it pay.' When Naruto finished taping on a small piece of gauze she rapidly form a series of hand-signs and whispered, Demonic Illusion : Hell Viewing. She watched with satisfaction as Tora's body went stiff. When the little beast started twitching an malicious grin spread over her face.

Sasuke and Naruto stared at their teammate's smile before independently coming to the same conclusion, 'Scary...'

Naruto recovered first, "Sakura-chan did you really just put that cat in a genjutsu?"

That grin didn't change, "Yes, yes I did."

Sasuke looked down at the twitching bundle of fur in his hand then back up at his unexpectedly vindictive teammate before finally saying, "You know you have to cancel this." When he saw Sakura was about to make the release gesture he interrupted before she could finish, "But we need to find a cat carrier first."

DTDTDTDTDT

Naruto woke up with a big grin splattered across his face. It was time for his first real mission. He dressed quickly while mumbling a list of things he would need for the mission, "Ramen, ninja wire, explosive tags, maybe a few of those paint tags Danzo-sensei made us practice with...Hmm I was saving those for a prank though... Oh well, I'll bring them anyway, and I definitely need ramen, shuriken, kunai, and a couple of those folding shuriken that Sasuke gave to me."

Naruto had found about half the items on his mental list when a loud knock on his door interrupted the search. "Who is it?"

Sakura's voice called back, "Kohona sanitation department come to condemn your room."

"Morning, Sakura-chan."

"Open up stupid." Naruto unlocked the door and Sakura walked into his messy apartment. She sat on the edge of his bed and said, "I came to make sure you didn't pack a bunch of stupid stuff."

Naruto shot her an excited smile, "That's so sweet Sakura-chan!"

Sakura blushed and replied, "I can't let you drag me and Sasuke-kun down because you are too stupid to pack correctly."

Naruto pulled out the last of his emergency ramen supply and sat it on top the stack of ninja supplies. He pointed and said, "I think I did fairly well."

Sakura suppressed a sigh, "So where are your spare clothes? What about your weapon maintenance kit or your first aid kit? You didn't even bring a waterproof tarp." Sakura suppressed a giggle as Naruto dramatically hung his head in front of her. "Come on, I'll help you pack properly." She looked around and said, "Where is that sealing scroll that Danzo-sensei gave you?"

"Oh yeah I forgot about it!" Naruto started digging junk out from underneath his bed until he pulled the scroll out with a shout of, "Yes!"

The quickly separated the supplies into a pile of spare ninja supplies, a pile of ramen and explosive tags and a pile of everything else. Naruto shot Sakura a curious glance at the organization and she replied, "Remember Danzo-sensei said we can't seal consumables into these scrolls since they are cheap. And its bad policy to seal explosive tags inside a scroll, they can accidentally trigger when you unseal them."

Naruto sealed most of the supplies away and slipped the scroll into a waterproof case before packing his bag. He stuffed the first aid kit into the big pocket on the leg opposite of his kunai holster, then made sure he had the correct amount of shuriken and kunai immediately available. Dying because all of your kunai were sealed away in your backpack would be humiliating. He smiled contently at Sakura and threw on the ugly green jacket Danzo had made the team's mandatory uniform. After he strapped on his arm guards and his forehead protector he spent a moment looking in the mirror, then grabbed an old sock to try to polish out some of the scuffs in the armor.

He stopped when Sakura started giggling. "I never thought I would see you preen in the mirror like Ino."

"Hey, I'm not that bad! And Danzo-sensei say's looking good when you meet clients is important. We are the face of our village, if we don't look professional then no one will take the village seriously."

Sakura looked at her own arm guards, which she had polished until they shown a deep green and decided to not push the issue. "Your right. So do you think Captain Kakashi will be on time since its our first C-rank?"

"If I thought he was going to meet us on time I would have gotten up an hour ago."

"Hmm, I still think we should go with Sasuke-kun's plan and make the scarecrow wait on us. It would be funny to tell him about how we 'got lost on the road of life'."

"Yeah right up until he reported us to Danzo-sensei. That man has no sense of humor."

"You're just mad he knew the shoes were your fault. Though I must admit; I am curious how did you get Kurenai-san to put that genjutsu on him?"

"Trade secret. I'm still mad you and Sasuke ruined it by asking why his shoes were squeaking."

"How were we supposed to know he couldn't hear it. You should have trusted in your teammates more."

Naruto threw on his pack and opened the door for Sakura before following her out and locking it behind them. "So what kind of mission do you think we will get?"

"I hope we get a patrol mission, I want to see some of the other cities."

"I'm hoping for an escort mission. I heard that team ten was assigned to protect a poor rice merchant and ended up overthrowing a yakuza group that tried to strong arm their client."

"I doubt that. There is no way the mission office would assign something as dangerous as that to a bunch of rookie genin. More likely their sensei beat a couple of yakuza up at a bar and they tried to get revenge later only to miserably fail." Sakura saw their third teammate and shouted, "Good Morning, Sasuke-kun."

"Morning. Where is the scarecrow?"

"Haven't seen him yet."

While team seven waited on the bench outside the mission hall for their Captain to surface, they checked each others pack and traded theories on what they would have to do on their first C-rank mission. They all froze when a voice called out behind them, "Well, I think you all will receive the C-rank mission of babysitting Ibiki's four year old daughter. It used to be a D-rank assignment, but the last group of genin that got tricked into playing with her..." Kakashi shook his head then added, "That poor dog was never the same."

Sakura recovered first, "Captain, does Ibiki even have a daughter?"

"Nah, I was just screwing with you...Though he did marry a cute Nara girl last year." Kakashi took in the three disbelieving expressions and changed the subject, "Lets go get your mission." He lead them into the mission hall then added, "Oh, Danzo-san says you are the team leader for this one Naruto, I won't intervene unless I have too."

Before Naruto and Kakashi could get in line, the chunin running the mission desk called out to them, "Since this is team seven's first C-rank hokage-sama wants to see you personally. Head over to his office for your scroll."

Naruto shrugged and said, "Guess Danzo-sensei told them ahead of time." The door to the hokage's office at the mission hall was left open for team seven. The hokage smiled at them when Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke filled into the room. Naruto shouted, "Hey old man, the lady running the desk said we have to come to you for our mission."

Kakashi sighed at the disrespect and was about to scold Naruto when the third cut him off, "Yes Naruto, I want to make sure you are really ready for this mission. C-rank missions have killed promising young ninja in the past. Why should I give a C-rank to your team?"

Naruto glanced at his teammates. Sasuke looked like he was about to shout at the old man and Sakura looked like she had been betrayed. Naruto looked back at the third hokage and calmly told him, "Because we are ready."

The third stared at them a moment longer and then admitted, "I guess you are." He pulled a scroll from his desk and tossed it to Kakashi before saying, "A am assigning team seven a C-ranked escort and protection mission."

"Really! Who are we protecting?" Naruto interrupted.

"I was about to introduce him." He turned to the door to the civilian waiting area and said, "You can came in now, Tazuna-san."

Sakura cringed when a middle aged man with gray hair who stunk of sweat and booze stumbled into the room. He took one look at his escort and grabbed his sake bottle. After a couple drink's for fortification he finally asked, "What's this?" The took another drink and shouted, "They are all a bunch of super brats." He wiped the trail of sake running from his lips with the towel he had around his neck and turned to the hokage, "Especially … The shortest one with the stupid looking face." Naruto watched with bile fascination Tazuna swung around and shouted, "Are you really a ninja?" When Naruto didn't respond he took a step and shouted, "HEY?"

Suddenly Naruto realized something and asked his teammates, "I'm the shortest one, aren't I?"

"Yep"

Sasuke grabbed onto Naruto's wrist before he turned the drunk into a pincushion and angrily whispered, "We can't kill the person we are supposed to protect idiot."

Naruto clinched his teeth and managed to nod when Tazuna continued his drunken rant, "I am the super expert bridge builder Tazuna." He took another drink and mumbled, "I expect you to provide me with super protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge." Tazuna walked from the mission hall, and after a moment team seven followed him.

As Naruto was about to step out of the office, he turned and told the hokage, "Just so you know old man, in revenge for this I'm teaching Konohamaru how to use explosive tags the next time I see him." With a flourish Naruto strode out from the room leaving a shivering hokage behind.

Team seven walked in silence to the village gates as their client ranted about how super he was. Sasuke was seriously reconsidering his decision to stop Naruto from killing the moron. Sakura happily zoned the old man out and was looking forward to seeing another country for the first time. When they walked through Kohona's massive gates Naruto turned to his teammates and said, "You know this is the first time I have ever left Kohona."

Unfortunately he said it loud enough for Tazuna to hear. The man stumbled over to Kakashi and shouted, "Am I really going to be safe with this brat?"

Naruto clenched his fists and managed to calm himself enough to think, 'I'm the team leader, I have got to stop this. He is disrespecting us and our village, how would Danzo-sensei handle this?' He couldn't think of anything so he just decided to go with threats. Naruto took a deep breath and walked over to where Kakashi was placating Tazuna. When the drunk turned on him, Naruto hit him in the gut and sent him sprawling across the ground. He looked down at the bridge builder with his best sneer and said, "Let me make something very clear. We are ninja. We will protect you until our contract runs out, now shut the hell up and let us do our job."

The bridge builder looked like he wanted to protest when Sasuke broke into the conversation, "Team leader could just kill him and hide the body. Unfortunate accidents happen all the time."

Tazuna was mouthing team leader when Sakura added her two cents, "Why do it ourselves? If he's paying for protection some petty crook or another wants to kill him. We might even make some money turning him over."

The drunk's eyes when wide open and the flush vanished from his face. He stuttered, "You...wouldn't do that … Would you?"

Naruto looked at Kakashi a moment then said, "We are ninja." Before helping the drunk onto his feet. Naruto turned to his teammates and said, "We will stay in close formation with Tazuna-san, I will create a few shadow clones to scout the area around us and have a decoy group of clones stay about five minutes ahead of us on the road. Any suggestions."

Kakashi thought a moment and said, "Anything I can think of would be excessive for this level of protection. Are you sure you can handle the strain of maintaining that many clones?" He was mildly disconcerted by the three enigmatic grins plastered on the faces of team seven but brushed it off.

After Naruto made his clones and put them into a decent patrol route the team set off towards wave country.

The walked quietly a long ways before Sakura finally broke the silence. "Tazuna-san you're from wave country right?"

The bridge builder grumbled, "What about it?"

Sakura was put off by the man's attitude and turned to Kakashi and asked, "I can't remember from Danzo-sensei's lectures, do they have ninja's in that country too?"

He looked at Naruto a moment before giving her a smile and replying, "Not anymore." Sakura caught the hint and dropped the subject, but made a mental note to privately peruse it later. If it involved her teammate she needed to know.

Naruto froze. "Two mist ninja just ambushed my decoy clones. They use a chain and claws in combat and targeted your clone first Captain. Friends of yours?"

Kakashi swore and said, "I don't recognize them."

"You don't have time to look through your bingo book. They just finished off the last of my clones and are headed this way." As if to accentuate Naruto's comment a swarm of kunai exploded from the tree's around them. Naruto and Sakura closed in on each side of Tazuna and swatted the kunai that would hit him out of the air, leaving Kakashi and Sasuke to fend for themselves.

Naruto shouted to Sasuke, "Flush them out." In response Sasuke rapidly signed Fire Style: Great Fireball. Naruto waited a second then inhaled deeply and signed Wind Style: Gentle Breeze. When the wind technique caught up with the fireball it went from a bright orange to a dark, barely visible blue for a fraction of a second before it exploded into the woods with a bass thump.

Sakura looked at the devastation and asked "Do you think-" when a pair of mist ninja shot from the ground. One jumped high, dragging a the sharp chain which connected him to the other ninja into the air with him, when the other charged the group. Naruto met the one that charged head on with a brutal kick. The mist ninja countered with a vicious jab from the heavy metal claw he wore on his right hand. When Naruto ducked under the blow he brought the claw low and tried to wrap Naruto in the chain.

Sasuke followed the one that jumped and mentally judged he didn't have time for another fireball so sent an trio of kunai towards the mist ninja before jumping up to meet him. The ninja brought the gauntlet on his left hand down in a hard chop as soon as Sasuke was in range. Sasuke accepted the blow on his arm guards and twisted underneath the mist ninja the second before they landed. The mist ninja rolled the second they hit the ground, dodging Sasuke's attempt to put a kunai in his back.

Then Sakura finished the last sign and whispered, Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing. For a fraction of a second Naruto's foe froze before clasping his hands together and dismissing the genjutsu, but that was all Naruto needed. As soon as the opening came Naruto stepped inside the mist ninja's guard and sent him to the ground with a crushing series of blows to his knee chest and head. For a fraction of a second he paused, deciding whether or not to finish off his dazed foe. That was all the other mist ninja needed to hit him from behind.

Sasuke's opponent saw his brother go down and sent a kick at Sasuke. It was blocked easily, but it was enough to give him some room. He yanked on the chain connecting him with his brother hard, sending him flying towards Naruto's back. Naruto heard Sasuke shout in supreme and barely turned fast enough to avoid being skewed. He brought his arm guards together and blocked the claw, leaving him wide open to the mist ninja's hay maker. Naruto was sent flying and Sakura desperately whispered Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings. She barely made it in time to save Naruto from the mist ninja's follow up attack.

The mist ninja snarled as the leaf ninja who had hurt his brother vanished from view and stabbed where he thought the brat had fallen. He would have killed Naruto if the blond genin hadn't rolled away a second before. When his claw didn't contact anything the mist ninja spared a second to cancel the illusion and resolved to kill the pink brat who kept throwing up genjutsu. He made it two steps before Kakashi decided to intervene in the fight.

Kakashi appeared suddenly in front of the arranged mist ninja and sent a sudden strike to the ninja's leg. Their was a sickening crack of breaking bone and the mist ninja was on the ground. The ninja tried to roll away, but froze when he felt the sharp point of Sasuke's kunai against the back of his neck.

Naruto picked himself off of the ground and wiped the trail of blood dripping from his mouth before asking, "So friends of yours?"

Before Kakashi could answer Sakura interrupted, "Their weapon's were poisoned. You and Sasuke-kun need to take the general antidote in case you got nicked."

Naruto crunched the antidote pill and waited while Kakashi flipped through his bingo book. "The Demon brothers, Gozu and Meizu, are missing ninja from the hidden mist. They graduated the academy at twelve and were promoted to chunin at eighteen." Naruto nodded and began to disarm the one Kakashi indicated was Gozu while Sasuke worked on Meizu. They had them both tied up by the time Meizu recovered consciousness.

Kakashi gestured for Naruto to begin while Sakura dragged a scared Tazuna from the area. Naruto gave them a fake smile and ran everything Danzo-sensei had taught him about a field interrogation before he said, "Lets keep this simple, we are all professional's here. You Gozu will tell me what I want to know or I kill your brother."

Meizu spat at him, "You don't have the gut's brat."

Naruto gestured to Sasuke. Meizu was sent sprawling with a vicious kick to the back of his head. When he tried to rise Naruto stepped on his head and growled in his ear, "I wasn't talking to you."

Gozu decided to intervene before the blonde one killed his brother, "Ask, then I'll decide if I want to answer. You don't have time to interrogate us and protect Tazuna."

Kakashi's eyes widened a bit and Naruto's smile was back, "You just told me everything I needed to know. Sasuke can you watch them for a bit? The Captain and I need to have a little discussion with Tazuna."

Sasuke asked, "Why don't we just kill them?" but their wasn't really any force behind the question.

"Their alive bounty is higher."

"Fair enough."

Tazuna was waiting with Sakura a bit up the road. Sakura saw their serious expressions and wondered what they had learned. Her question was answered a moment later when Naruto asked, "Tazuna-san would you kindly explain why two missing ninja from the hidden mist are trying to kill you?"

Tazuna started to sweat a bit and denied, "They didn't have anything to do with me."

"Oh, then why do two missing ninja know your name?"

Tazuna's mouth worked like a fish for a moment then he sighed and said, "A super dangerous man is after my life." Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura gave him very level looks. Tazuna winced, then continued, "You have probably at least heard of his name. The wealthy shipping magnate...A man named Gatou."

"Crap."

Naruto gave Sakura a strange look after the unexpected outburst then asked, "Okay what do you know Sakura-chan."

"He was on that list of people that Danzo-sensei made me memorize. He is an incredibly rich man with no allegiance or moral framework. Sensei's notes advised that if we needed supplies and are unable to use the normal sources Gatou will sell almost anything for a price."

Tazuna picked up where Sakura left off, "He spent years selling illegal items like drugs and slaves, but a year ago he decided to expand his business. He hired a bunch of thugs and mercenaries along with a few ninja and quickly took over Wave's shipping industry. Besides a few smugglers he controls everything that goes in and out of the country."

The bridge builders face twisted into a smile and he grandstanded, "The only thing he fears now is the completion of the bridge. If the bridge falls then so does wave!"

"This mission is at least B-rank. Why did you knowingly hire us under false circumstances?"

"Wave country is super poor...We don't have enough money for an expensive B-rank mission. But don't worry if you abandon me now I will certainly die! My cute grandson will only cry for a few days. Oh yeah, and my beautiful daughter will spend the rest of her days hating leaf ninja! But it won't be your fault at all, so don't worry."

Naruto felt bad for the bridge builder but couldn't help but mutter, "Sob story," after the over the top presentation of his troubles.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted. Evidently she didn't agree. "We can't just abandon them."

"Sakura remember what Danzo-sensei said and get a hold of your emotions. If Gatou is as rich as you say then the next attack isn't going to be a pair of chunin. It's going to be jounin. I don't want to be responsible for your death Sakura-chan."

She blushed a bit then said, "Despite the lies if we abandon our client in the face of adversity it looks bad for the leaf."

Naruto nodded then said, "Sakura-chan can you grab Sasuke? He needs to be involved in this discussion." He waited for her to get out of earshot before he asked, "Captain what's your opinion? You have a lot more experience at this than us."

"You did all did well in the fight against the demon brothers, and you handled yourselves well after it."

"I hesitated, it could have cost me my life."

"It was your first time in combat."

"It was a mistake."

Kakashi opened his mouth, then closed it and conceded the point. After a moment of thought he said, "During that fight and after none of you have acted like I expect genin to. You all act like a team of chunin even if your abilities aren't quite their yet, and if I was leading a team of chunin I would say go ahead on this mission."

Naruto saw Sakura and Sasuke walk towards them and said, "Thanks, Captain." When Sasuke arrived Naruto asked, "Has Sakura filled you in?" Sasuke nodded and Naruto put a smile on his face, "So how did you like the warmup?"

Sasuke smirked and answered, "If jounin aren't any better they might as well go ahead and name you hokage."

Naruto muttered, "Danzo-sensei is going to be furious." Then looked at his teammates and asked, "Are your ready to continue this mission knowing that we will be a serious risk to life and limb."

The responses were immediate and unfaltering, "I am."

"Well Captain, it looks like your soldiers are ready to march."

Kakashi paused a moment then answered, "I will protect you even if it kills me. I don't let my comrades die." He didn't want to know what Danzo would do to him if he lived after one of them dying. When it came to team seven the man scared him even more than normal.

The were all silent a moment until Tazuna asked, "So what are you going to do with the two you caught?"

Naruto looked at Kakashi for confirmation then answered, "We confine them in a hidden area with a few clones as guards and send a clone as a runner to leaf for a retrieval team."

After Naruto finished making the necessary clones they set off again. The walked quietly, each lost in their own worries and responsibilities until something occurred to Naruto. "If Gatou controls all of the shipping into and out of Wave, how are we going to get in?"

Tazuna looked at the blonde genin in disbelief and said, "For a team leader you sure are ill informed about the mission."

Naruto gave him an ugly look and answered, "And whose fault is that?"

Kakashi intervened before Naruto tore into the man, "Mine. The mission scroll details the route, sorry for not sharing."

Sasuke watched as Naruto reigned his temper in; he waited for Naruto to look relatively calm before he asked Kakashi, "So how are we going to get into Wave without Gatou knowing Captain."

"This road leads to one of the fishing villages that Gatou nominally controls, but in reality a few smugglers operate out of it without his knowledge. We will meet our ride about a mile south of the village and ride a boat to Wave's main island, from there it is a short walk to Tazuna's house."

The promised smuggler was a gruff man in his thirties who hid as much of his face as possible underneath his hat. The man nodded to Tazuna and escorted them onto his boat without a word. Naruto tried to find a comfortable seat among the tackle the man had left lying in the bottom of the boat.

With a nervous glance about the man pushed off the shore with his long paddle and started the engine. A moment later they were speeding out into the sea. The smugglers spoke abruptly, "Gatou changed his patrol boat's routes. I'm going to run us out into the tear instead of following the coast. I'll take us under power all the way to North branch, then I'll kill the motor and drift us down the straight. We will come into the main channel as late as possible then cross it quickly near your bridge. Once we're at the wave break we will take the route with vegetation in case we're being pursued. I'll use that abandoned dock near your bridge Tazuna."

Naruto wondered if he was the only one that had no idea what the smuggler was talking about, but decided against asking questions when Tazuna nodded and said, "Thanks."

The smuggler gave him an irritated look and said, "Thank me when you get there, if we see one of Gatou's patrols you are all swimming."

The bridge was one of the most impressive structures Naruto had ever seen. He decided he might even take the drunk's 'super expert bridge builder' remark seriously. When he had heard Tazuna's story he hadn't realized the scale of the project. He idly wondered how a poor island nation could afford a giant bridge but decided against asking. A moment later they were close enough to the bridge for him to answer his own question. The stone used in its construction was obviously salvaged from somewhere else. Many blocks had streaks of old paint on them, and the stone was occasionally engraved with symbols, one in particular occurred over and over. A circle with four points on the inside surrounding a spiral.

The fog rolled in when they reached the island's wave break. Naruto grimly smiled, the fog would make it harder to find them. The smuggler took them through one of the wave break's tunnels. Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto stood and took in their first view of Wave.

A few moments later the smuggler pulled them up against and abandoned dock. They disembarked quietly. Once they were all off the smuggler looked at Tazuna and said, "This is it for me, goodbye and good luck."

Tazuna smiled back at the smuggler and replied, "Thank you so much." The smuggler pushed off the dock and revved the motor. In another moment he had vanished into the vegetation.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

This time my comments are in bold. I saw someone else do this and for me it made it easier to see where the story ended. Hope it doesn't annoy you to much.

Sorry for cutting this off right before the first Zabuza fight but I try to keep my chapters around 10k words. If I had included the first Zabuza fight I would have been well over that limit. I ended it with them getting off the boat because I detest cliffhangers and this was the least cliffhanger place I could think of to end it.

Hey at least this is a week earlier than I thought it would be.

I decided to explain what happened in the gap between the previous chapter with a meeting because I couldn't think of a way to actually show the events that occurred without either going into far to much detail. Did the meeting work? Or was it detracting to the flow of the story? Do you think I should have spent a chapter or two to detail what occurred instead?

I have decide to not list jutsu at this point in time since most of them are self explanatory. If (when) I start throwing more complicated jutsu into the plot I might revise this opinion.

I thought about taking team seven on a different mission but then realized Zabuza is one of my favorite characters.

I have two exams next week then spring break, so I won't update for two weeks at least. Luckily I'm not driving on spring break so I will probably have some time to work over it.

Thanks for reading!