Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 3: Vitamin D-Rank
It was six in the morning and Team 7 was congregated in front of the Hokage's Tower waiting for their sharingan wielding sensei to show up. "Ugh… he's not going to be on time is he," an exasperated Naruto sighed, " I mean really, here we are, amazing ninjas waiting about to do our first mission that is probably super important for the village and our sensei is late!" "Hn… I just wish I slept in more if he planned on being late again," commented Shikamaru as he leaned against the building. Ino was lost in thought wondering how if she and her team completed an important or difficult mission she might finally win Sasuke's heart. She was tempted to broach the subject with her teammates, but seeing as one of them was the object of her affections brother she decided to leave it alone and save herself the embarrassment that would surely follow. Resigning himself to his fate of waiting for his teacher he reminisced about the previous afternoon and what Itachi had showed both of the younger boys.
/Flashback/ Uchiha training grounds
Naruto and Sasuke watched their older brother as he set up various targets in the wooded part of training grounds wondering what he was going to show them. The boys watched with bated breath as they waited to see what their brother did next. Walking slowly to center of all the targets, some of which were obscured from his line of sight by either trees or mounds of earth, he smirked slightly already envisioning how the two of them would react after seeing what came next. Leaping into the air, Itachi appeared about fifteen feet above them and was in mid flip and completely inverted when he pulled out two handfuls of kunai before flinging half of them with blinding speed. Time seemed to slow down for two young boys as they watched with awe-struck faces as the seemingly improperly aimed knives where slammed into by a second volley of kunai, ricocheting off of each other before burying themselves in all of the targets. Itachi landed on the ground on one knee, eyes still closed.
"That… was… SO COOL!" the blonde genin exploded and proceeded to launch a million and a half questions at his older brother, with Sasuke doing the same. Itachi just laughed lightly as he observed his siblings antics before he explained the mechanics of the technique. "But why did you close your eyes? I mean I get the idea of knocking them off of each other to hit the hard to get places, but why close your eyes?" Naruto asked confused. Sasuke inwardly thanked his adopted brother for his never ending stream of questions as he was wondering the same thing, but didn't want admit that he didn't get it. "Well, you can't rely on your eyes for everything, and if you are so focused on watching the kunai to try and make them hit you aren't focusing on the throw itself," Itachi explained calmly, "It's all about KNOWING where your targets are. If you know exactly where your throws have to go you don't need to see to hit your target." "That's right," Sasuke agreed with his brother smugly. "Baka! You didn't know either!" Naruto responded indignantly.
Laughing at the two he took them to the kunai posts and showed them exercises to increase their ability hit their targets without sight. Sitting back he watched the boys with blindfolds on taking turns throwing at the post and shaking his head with a smile on his face as he watched them miss every throw. "You have to see it in your head," Itachi threw out off-handedly as he pulled out an orange book he had received for his last birthday by his ex-ANBU captain.
/Flashback end/
Smiling to himself as he remembered how both he and Sasuke began to get better at hitting their targets without being able to see them, he was pulled out of his thoughts by Ino. "What are you so happy about Naru-Chan?" Ino asked smirking at the blonde boy who glared back at her. "Nothing that concerns you Ino-BUTA," Naruto responded coldly to Ino. He remembered the conversation the two of them had a day before and was still pretty miffed with her. "What did you just call me?" Ino asked Naruto in a voice so cold it could flash freeze on of Itachi's Grand Fireballs. "You heard me Ino-pig, or do I have to say it in your language?" Naruto replied and then further antagonized his teammate by making oinking noises at her before she responded by smacking him in the back of the head hard enough to put him face first on the ground. Still fuming at him she heard Shikamaru mumble something about 'troublesome blondes' before she rounded on him to give him a piece of her mind.
"Yo!" Kakashi called out to his students as he saw Ino tearing into Shikamaru who had a slightly apprehensive look on his face and saw Naruto on the ground with a sizeable lump on his head. 'Jeez, and I thought Naruto was the hot head of the group,' the copy ninja thought to himself as he put his smutty book away. Springing up from the ground, Naruto regarded his sensei ready to get this mission going. "So Kakashi-sensei, are we gonna do some super cool mission today?" Naruto questioned his sensei. "Oh yes, the most important, it's so important that the Hokage himself is going to assign it to us," Kakashi responded with an only a tinge of sarcasm that the blonde boy clearly missed. "Oh boy! I totally bet Old Man Hokage has heard how much I've been training and wants to give me a chance to prove myself!"
Hokage Tower, Daily Mission Assignment Notification room (D.A.M.N. Room)
Team 7 was currently assembled in front of the Hokage as well as two Chunin that were handling the paperwork. "Team 7 led by Hatake Kakashi reporting for duty," Kakashi stated to the aging man in front of him. "Ah! Team 7, ready to begin missions I see." Hiruzen stated while eyeing over the genin. "Lay it on me Old Man! What do you need my amazing ninja skills for today? A princess that needs to be rescued, or let me guess… a foreign dictator that needs to be removed," Naruto offered some ideas of what was needed of him. Hiruzen chuckled lightly at the enthusiastic genin he was so fond of. "You are very close young man, while it isn't a dictator that needs to be removed, it is a very large amount of dog excrement that needs to be removed from the Inuzuka kennels." "Of course, you can count on my amazing shinobi skills to complete… wait YOU WANT ME TO CLEAN UP DOG POO?!" Naruto shouted pointing at the Hokage. "Why yes young Naruto, that is exactly what I want to do. Be careful though, I have heard that those kennels are quite formidable, I don't want you stepping on any landmines," the Hokage replied cryptically. "Landmines? Why would the Inuzuza put landmines in their dog ken- OH GROSS! I JUST GOT THESE SANDALS!" Turning to his sensei with a betrayed look, "You said that it was an important mission!" "It is Naruto, it's vital to the village. When I was a genin I had to do the same kind of missions," Kakashi stated with his trademark eye smile.
Remembering another story from when Kakashi was a genin, Naruto turned his frown upside down confusing everyone in the room with his attitude's 180. "I guess you are right sensei, it could be worse," Naruto told the silver haired ninja. Kakashi had long since learned not to look a gift horse in the mouth and took his pupil's change of heart as a blessing, "That's right Naruto it could be worse." "Yeah, I mean at least we aren't going on some kind of Information gathering mission," Naruto said while looking deviously at his sensei getting confused looks from both his teammates and the chunin. "Where we might have to get information from a geisha that had more than just secret document as a surprise," Naruto continued while Kakashi paled, "You know Kakashi sensei? The kind of surprise that is HARD to take." Kakashi instantly covered the young boys mouth before giving the Hokage an impromptu salute before dragging the blonde boy out of the room with Ino and Shikamaru in tow. The team could hear the raucous laughter of the Hokage all the way until they left the building.
So that's the next chapter, I know it's short but it was meant more as a filler. Please review and I will be attempting to pump out a few more chapters out while I have a few days of nothing to do.