One Month Later
"This is Sasuke, I am now at Point B." Said Sasuke into his ear piece.
"Sakura here, I am at Point C." Said Sakura.
"This is Naruto here, I'm at Point A." Said Naruto.
"Alright squad seven. . . WAIT, the target has moved. All of you follow it."
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura followed there Sensei orders. They chased after the target that has alluded them for the past three hours.
All three Genin see that the target starts to run toward the bushes, intending on trying to hide. They sneak up to the tree line that was closest to the bushes. But far enough so that the target would not suspect them to be so close.
"All right you guys. The target is over there in those bushes." Told Naruto to his friends.
"What is your distance from the target?" asked Kakashi. This is a very important mission. So he did not want his students to fail it.
"We are five meters away, Kakashi Sensei. I can jump him at any time. Just give the signal." Naruto was already about to jump on the suspected target.
"I am ready also Sensei." Said Sasuke. Who was standing right beside Naruto.
"Me, too!" Sakura also said. She was standing on the left side of Naruto.
"Alright team... Do it!" Kakashi yelled into his earpiece.
All three ninja's jumped at once to get the target. The target on the other hand was not expecting this at all. Plus it was cornered, so it had no place to go.
Naruto, being the fastest out of all of them, reached the target first. Acting fast he reached for the scruff of its neck and hold it in the air. Away from him of course. Otherwise his face would be scratched to bits.
"I got him!" Yelled Naruto. Letting his team know that he has captured the target.
"Does he have the ribbon on his right ear" Asked Kakashi, who was referring to the target.
"It is the target Kakashi Sensei." Sasuke told Kakashi.
"Alright, the mission to capture lost pet 'Tora the cat' is complete! Good job every one." Kakashi congratulated his team. Of course, he was not expecting to be yelled at through his ear piece.
"Isn't there a mission with a greater sense of urgency?! I hate cats! Foxes are more my style! Yelled Naruto.
Only thing for Kakashi to do was to take out his ear piece and let Naruto rant away. He knew that the boy is smart, but he is still a hyperactive person. After when Naruto was done, he puts the ear piece back in. "Naruto will you calm down. Okay team, lets head back to the Hokage Tower."
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Hokage Tower.
All three ninja's, including there Sensei, looked at the scene with a sweat drop appearing on the side of there heads.
"Ohhh! My cute Tora! I was so worred to death. Why do you keep running away all the time." The person who is now hugging the cat, whose eyes were about to come out of its head, is the Wife of the Land of Fire's Daimyo. Her name is Madame Shijimi.
"Hahaha. Stupid cat, he deserves that type of punishment." Laughed Naruto. Naruto did not like cats what so ever. He knew why he didn't, but he just preferred foxes other than cats. However, Naruto did not know weather or not that it is the Kyuubi's influence that makes like foxes more.
"Wow, if I was that cat, I would have ran away too." Said Sakura. She did feel sorry for the cat though.
The Hokage then coughed to get every ones attention. Once all people were looking at him he spoke. "Alright then, Squad Seven. The next mission for you is. . ." He then brough out a list of missions. "Lets see what we have here." The Hokage looked at the paper with a little bit of confusion. "An errand to the town over, to baby-sit the chief Councilor's little girl. . . Helping his maid do the shopping. Helping with digging out of the garden for vegetable..." All of a sudden the Hokage is interrupted.
"Nooooo!" What kind of mission are those Old Man. We have been doing those stupid mission for over a month now. Shouldn't we at least be able to go on a C ranked mission now." Complained/Suggested Naruto. Naruto was fine and all with doing mission. But when it came to doing them over, and over, and over again. It starts to get really annoying.
"I have to agree on Naruto on this one. We have been doing basically the same mission for over a month now." Commented Sasuke.
Every one at the table looked at Team Seven with a questionable glance. Did they just hear there precious Uchiha agreeing with the demon boy? (All except the Third.)
'I though it was about time for them to get a little tougher mission. They have been doing exceptionally well will all of there mission.' Kakashi was proud of his team. After all of the little missions that they had to do, he did not hear them complain once during the mission.
Of course not everyone thought like this. "You fool! You are still fresh out of the Academy Genin! Do you really think you can get a more serious mission just after graduation. Like everyone else, you will start from the bottom of the latter and work yourselves up! That way, you will be able to develope your skills!" Yelled Iruka. He did not want his favorite students to be going on such missions right out of the Academy.
"Iruka Sensei. All we have been doing is mission that do not give you field experience. The only way to get that, is to actually go out there and do it. That's the way it is." Naruto told Iruka with a calm look.
The Hokage just kept watching Naruto and Iruka go back and forth with their argument. Each one gave very good reason for both sides. But still Naruto and his friends are still fresh Genin. "Naruto. I do agree with you. But, you are still a Genin. You need to learn a little bit more about being a ninja before you can take on a higher ranking mission."
"But, Old Man. . ." The Hokage interrupted him.
"Requests pour into our village ever single day. Some times to the point to where there are over 100 of them per day. They range from the babysitting little kids, to assassinating some one. All of these requests are then put into a system and placed into the Ranked list. The Ranks are, A, B, C, and the last, D ranks, in order of the difficulty of the mission."
"In the village, every rank that is below Hokage is ranked up by the ability in order of Jonin, Chunin, and last Genin. Below Genin is the Academy."
"We at the highest level of ranks, distribute the requests as mission to Ninja's who have the best abilities to accomplish the mission. And if the mission is a success, then the client will pay us a certain price, depending on the rank of the mission."
"Nevertheless, you three are still have just become Genin. So D Ranks is about the only thing you are able to do. . ." Then Hokage then stops and sees Team Seven.
"Yesterday, I was in the woods and there was this baby fox and. . ." Naruto, who was explaining to his team about a fox he had seen. Of course all of them, including Kakashi, was listening to Naruto and paying no heed to the Hokage's lecture.
"Listen to me when I am talking to you!" Said a now aggravated Hokage.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you say something?" Asked Kakahsi. Who was rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. But the Hokage only let out a sigh. The Hokage was about to say something when Naruto spoke up.
"Old Man, you are always lecturing me. You know as well as my team, that I am not the little prankster that I pretend to be. And you know that we are capable to be trusted with a C rank mission." Naruto commented.
The Hokage then starts to laugh. Which confuses everyone in the room. "So Naruto. You think that you are ready for a higher ranking mission. Okay, fine." All three of them look at the Hokage with shocked faces. They did not think that they could get a higher mission. "If you insist, I'll will give you a C Ranked mission. How does that sound?"
The Hokage was then met with three sets of smiles. He then continued, "You will be body guards for someone."
"Who are we going to be guarding, Old Man?" Asked an excited Naruto.
"I will introduce you to him now." He then looks at his secretary. "Could you please send him in."
The secretary then left. It was about five minutes later that the door opened again. A man walks in with a bear in his hands. He seemed to be half drunk. The man looks and sees a few kids standing in front of him. "What is this? Are these supposed to be the ninja's that are going to take me back to my home land? They are just some snot nosed kids." All three of them took some offense from what he said.
"Especially the small one with the stupid look on his face. Are you really going to expect me to believe that you are a ninja?" He was referring to Naruto.
Of course Naruto did not like this man at all. But he was going to be professional about it. He did not want to look bad in front of the council. "Excuse me sir? Just because we are small, doesn't mean we are not deadly."
The man however just looked at Naruto with a scowl on his face. He though the little kid was going to blow up in his face. He then looks at Kakashi, figuring that he must be the leader of this team. "I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder. You'll be risking life and limb, even your life, in making sure that I return home safely. So that I may complete the bridge that I am working on to help free my people."
'Even our lives? Something does not make since here.' Thought Naruto. But he decided to wait and see what the drunk man was talking about.
"Alright. Lord Hokage, we accept the mission." Kakashi then turns towards his team. "Everyone, go and pack your things for a long term mission. We will meet at the front gate in one hour. And this time, I promise not to be late."
All three of them nodded their heads and went to their houses and packed.
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One Hour later. At the Gate.
"Finally! We have our first C Ranked mission!" Exclaimed Naruto.
"Naruto? Even though I am also happy about this. Why are you getting so excited about this for? It is just a simple C Ranked mission." Sakura was excited that she, and her team finally have an actual mission. But she did not understand why Naruto was being so over joyed about it.
"Well you see, this is the first time I have ever been out of the village. Before whenever I tried to go outside of the gates, some Ambu ninja would stop me. So now that I can finally get outside of the village, i just can't help but be happy." Explained Naruto with a smile on his face, while basically dancing around.
Everyone on Naruto's team looked at him with a sad face. After half way though the month of being a team, Naruto told them that he had the Kyuubi sealed inside of him. When he told them, both of them were completely shocked. For Sakura, everything made perfect since. Like as to why her mom kept telling her to stay away form him. When Naruto finished telling them his story, the first thing Sakura did was run over to him and hug him. She kept telling him that she was sorry for treating him the way she did. But he told her that it was alright.
For Sasuke, it was a little different. To him it seemed that Naruto had the same amount of pain that he did. Maybe even worse. Sasuke could not believe what it would be like to be mistreated by the grown ups ever single day. But seeing that Naruto went though all of it and kept his cool through the whole thing. Sasuke respect for Naruto grew a little that day.
"Hey! Am I really okay with being around this kid? he does not look like he could even hurt a fly." Said Tazuna, while looking at Naruto with an upset look on his face. Hearing this however, Naruto stopped in his tracks.
Kakashi looks and the client with a serious look on his face. "Mr. Tazuna, please do not insult my student. Just because he is acting hyperactive does not mean that he is an exceptional ninja." He then lets his serious face fall and turns into sad happy smile. (Only way you could tell is by his upside down U for an eye.) "Besides, give him a little slack. This is the first time he has ever been allowed outside of the village walls."
Tazuna was a little taken aback by the seriousness the Jonin put on. He did not want to make this guy mad. "Fine. But I expect him to protect me with his life."
"Do not worry, Mr. Tazuna. He will not let his first client die by a bandit's hands. Trust me." Said Kakashi with an eye smile.
Of course though, Naruto had to put his two scents in.
"Mr. Tazuna?" Naruto waited until the guy was looking at him. Once he noticed that he has his attention he continues. "Do not mock a ninja that you do not know. It can be a really big mistake if you do not know who you are saying it too. One day I will become a strong ninja. One who will be able to protect all of those that I care about. So remember this, when that day comes, you will give me the respect that I deserve. Just like how I am respecting you right now."
Tazuna, on the other hand, did not believe a word at what Naruto just said. "A powerful ninja huh. You do not look like you could even come close at becoming such a ninja."
Naruto was really having a hard time controlling his emotions right now. "Mr. Tazuna, you are really trying my patience here. I will become a strong ninja. And when I do, every one in this village will show me the respect that I deserve. Including you."
The man just looked at Naruto with indifference in his eyes. " I will never acknowledge you, you little pipsqueak. You could even become the leader of this village, and I still would not acknowledge you." Tazuna was about to say something else, until he felt a little bit of killer intent that was sent his way.
"Mr. Tazuna. I told you, do not mock my students. If you do it one more time, I will end this mission for verbal abuse to our Genin and head back to the village. Do I make myself clear?" Said Kakashi in his serious tone.
Tazuna reluctantly nodded his head.
"Good. Now lets get this show on the road." Said Kakashi, back to his normal tone.
Unknown to all of them. They were being watched by two other people.
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Three Hours Later
The team, and Mr. Tazuna, have been walking for over three hours now. Sakura decided that now would be a good time to get to know the client a little bit better now. "Mr. Tazuna?
The man looked at Sakura with a frown on his face. "What do you want." He did not want to be mean to the little girl. Just in case that their leader would call off the mission.
"The place where you come from, is The Land of the Waves, right?
"Yea, what about it?" Not really getting at what the girl wanted to know about it.
Sakura being curious, looks at her Sensei. "Hey, Kakashi Sensei? Is there any ninja that are in The land of the Waves?
Kakashi then enters into his teaching mode. "No Sakura. There is not any ninjas in the Land of the Waves. But in other nations around the world, while cultures and customs are different, hidden villages exist. Just like ours. There are a total of five hidden villages. And inside of each of these villages, plus many other villages, have ninjas."
"To the many nations that are located on this side of the world, the existence of Ninja Villages is basically a measurement of the nation's military strength. In other words, this is how other nations maintain a relationship with other surrounding nations. But even so, the villages themselves are not under the control of the nations. So this means that they have equal rank."
"Now on a small island like the Land of the Waves, where it is extremely difficult to be influenced by the other nations. So basically there is no need for it to have a ninja village."
"So among the the respective nations that do possess a Ninja Village, are the five nations of "Fire," "Water." Lightning." "Wind." and "Earth." So because of there large territory and immeasurable power, they are called the "Five Great Nations."
"The land of Fire has the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Which is the place that we call home."
"The Village Hidden in the Mist is located in the Land of Water."
"The Village Hidden in the Clouds is located in the Land of Lighting."
"The Village Hidden in the Sand is located in the Land of Wind."
"And last is the Village Hidden in the Rocks. Which is located in the Land of Earth."
"Only the Leaders of these great village are able to be called Kage, which means Shadow. The "Hokage"(Fire Shadow), "Mizukage"(Water Shadow), "Raikage"(Lightning Shadow), "Kazekage"(Wind Shadow), and "Tsuchikage"(Earth Shadow). These are the leaders of each of the great villages. And they rule over thousands of ninja that follow under them."
"So don't worry, there are no ninja battles in a C Ranked mission. Maybe some bandits here and there, but nothing to serious." He said while looking at his team. However, Tazuna looked a little bit nervous when hearing this.
They all went back to walking. It was a couple of minutes later that they come up upon a puddle in the middle of the road. The three Genin glanced at the puddle, but kept waking. All three of them looked at each other. They turn back to their Sensei, who interns makes a not so noticeable nod. They then looked forward and kept walking. But at the same time, all of ninjas thought the same thing.
'Looks like things are about to get interesting.'
