Chapter 3: taming of the demon cat, and first C-rank, or is it?
The next day, they waited for two hours again for Kakashi. Naruko had a book out, which was becoming customary. Sasuke was leaning against a tree, studying the entrance, and Shikamaru was apparently sleeping, but sighed, and walked over to 'him'. "what are you reading?" he asked. "B-battle stratagy f-from the great w-wars." she responded, blushing a little without looking up. "wow, isn't that a little, uh, advanced? Even I couldn't understand that." Shikamaru said. Naruko blushed, and looked up, " y-you of all p-people should know n-not to u-underestimate people." and she went back to her book. He just shook his head blushing and muttered "troublesome." then leaned against a near by tree, and fell asleep again. Sasuke looked over there and smirked, then went back to studying the entrance. Thirty minutes later, Kakashi appeared and said, "Sorry, I got lost on the road of life." "thats a sorry excuse." Sosuke said blankly. Kakashi just eye smiled at them and continued, "We will have our first mission today. Meet me in the hokoges office in ten minutes for the mission asignment."
When they got there, Kakashi pulled out a slip of paper. "This is our mission. For the first few months, we will be doing D-rank missions to build teamwork.
Then we will do C-rank missions. When you make chunin, we will be able to do B-rank, and when you make jonin, A and S-rank missions will be avalible. But for now we do D-rank." "O-ok, thats f-fine, but if we c-can prove ourselves, c-can we do a C-rank e-early?" Naruko asked. "Only if you prove that you can work well together." Kakashi responded. "Now for your mission, the demon cat mission!" Kakashi said with an evil smirk."This mission is every genins nightmare, and for good reason. You must recover The dynamos wifes cat, and do so without harming it, or killing it."
One hour later, they returned to the office with the supposed 'demon cat' purring in Narukos arms, without a single scratch on any of them. To say that everyone in the room was shocked was an understatement. When they walked in with Tora the demon cat, purring like a kitten, Sarutobi almost fainted on the spot. Even Kakashis jaw droped. "I t-thought that t-this was supposed to b-be a 'demon cat' " Naruko said while cooing at the cat. The guys in the group stared at 'him' strangly when 'he' started cooing, but looked away quickly. They knew that the cat had been about to claw their brains out, when it saw 'him', so they were fine with anything Naruko did to keep it from changing its mind. "W-w-well d-d-done, Team seven. Y-you may p-pick up your payment at t-two o'clock, a-and you have the r-rest of the d-day off. Naruto, you g-get a bonus for being able t-to subdue the dem-ah Torra so q-quickly." Naruko nodded hapily, and continued to coo at the demon cat torra.
One month later, Team seven was in the mission assignment room, and they were shocked by what the hokoge had just told them. "S-say that again?" Shikamaru said, not realy beliving what they had just been told."I said that you will be taking a C-rank mission today, why? Do you not want it?" he said with a hidden smile. "O-of course, but are you sure that we're ready?" he said, looking at Kakashi. "From what I have seen, you are more than capeable, you could probably handle a B-rank, acually." Kakashi said with a kind voice. Naruko nodded, and asked "W-whats our m-mission?" "Hehe, you will escort Tazuna, a bridge builder, back to his home in the land of the waves. Come in Tazuna." They all turned to the door, when a man walked in, holding a bottle of sake. "These three are my body guards? They don't look old enough to be out of their diapers, let alone guard me, especially blondie over there." Naruko frowned at him, slightly annoyed, but he just snorted at her. "Tazuna, you hired us for a C-rank mission, you should know that we send our genin on them when they have proven themselves." Sarutobi admonished. "Well, I suppose that the one kid with black hair looks a little intimidating. And besides, their sensei is coming too, right?" Tazuna reasoned, and Kakashi responded with a nod, and slight eye smile. "Ok we'll meet at the front gate in Two hours, pack for a Two week trip."
Four hours later, Sasuke arrived, walking right behind Kakashi, who aparently didn't know he was there. Shikamaru tried to hide a smile, while Naruko giggled. When he got there, he said "Good to see you are here, I'm late because a lepracon told me to stay away from his lucky charms, but where is Sasuke?" "RHAAAAAAAAAA!" Sasuke screamed. "AIIIIIIII!" Kakashi 'shouted' in suprise. "hahahaha y-you haha scream l-like a hahaha girl, sensei!hahahaha!" Naruko got out in between giggles, the others couldn't talk at all because they were on the ground from laughing so hard, and Naru soon followed them. Kakashi just grumbled something about teenagers who were to silent, and had unnatural stealth skills for their age. When the genin calmed down enough to stand on their own, they set off. Naruko pulled out another book, this one on seals, and she even tried out a few that had detailed instructions. "By the way Naruto, where are your supplies?" Sasuke asked, curious as to why he had no pack. "O-oh, I have m-mastered the seal for t-the sealing scrolls, so I just s-sealed away all the f-food I could get, along with c-clothes, weapons, a-and a few other things w-we might need, like m-medicine, and even crutches." she said while blushing slightly. "Wow, thats cool. But why bring crutches?" Shikamaru asked. "W-well... I don't k-know. I just felt that they m-might be needed f-for some reason. I-I have very good i-intuition though." she said, and stoped walking. Everyone else stoped too. "I-I'm getting a b-bad feeling, something is g-going to happen s-soon." she said, uneasily.
They continued walking for five minutes, when all of a sudden, two ninja came out of no-where, and crushed Kakashi in a chain. after two seconds, Naruko recovered from the shock, seeing the gore change into splinters of wood, and charged the rouge ninja. While she was fighting, she felt one of their weapons graze her side, but she ignored it for the time being, and took them both out, before Sasuke and Shikamaru could even recover from the initial shock. After she tied them up, with their own chain even, Kakashi came out of the woods, claping. "that was very good, Naru. Sasuke, Shikamaru, you will have to do a lot better next time. You're teamate could have been killed, if he hadn't had such skill, and a level head." They bowed their heads in shame. They heard rustling, and saw Naruko franicly looking through 'his' pockets for something. "Naruto, what are you looking for?" Shikamaru asked. She apparently found what it was, because she took out a vile of antidote, and quickly spread some across her wound, and drank the rest. Kakashi gasped, realizing why she had to do that. "The blade was poisoned!" he exclamed. Sasuke stared in shock, along with Shikamaru. "I-Its ok, T-Tazuna must h-have had a good r-reazon for lying about t-the rank of the mission, r-right?" Naruko said, smiling a little at the man. Tazuna sighed and said "Gato, a crime lord in our area, has monopolized our economy, and my home town is broke. We have been trying to build a bridge to the main land because he only controls the sea, but he has been attacking us on site of the bridge. We need protection while we build the bridge, so that we can finish, and free our land from his influence. Before you ask, he has a whole lot of mercenaries, and has threataned our government, so they can't do anything about him. My daughter and grandson will most likely die if you don't help me, my son-in-law was killed two years ago for standing up to Gato. he was publicly exicuted, and his son was forced to watch. Now poor little Inari is convinced that there is no such thing as a hero, and is depresed." "w-we'll help, I-I was going t-to help anyway. I-It's just a s-scratch, I'll be f-fine." Naruko said, while glaring at anyone, as if daring them to argue. "I vote we help." said Shikamaru. "Hn, sounds like fun." said Sasuke. "...Looks like I'm out voted, ok we set off now." Kakashi said, shaking his head.