Okami

I was trying to meditate in the class room while Shikadai and I waited for whatever jonin we were supposed to end up with. Whoever he was, he was already two hours late, but that wasn't the kind of thing that made me mad. I was more upset about the student that had gone out of his way to insult me, my father, my uncle, and my abilities. Still, it was important to control my anger.

Shikadai snored softly, and his calm breathing helped me to settle my own. I didn't need to breath fire or beat up a training dummy if I could learn to meditate the anger away. Thus far, it wasn't looking good. The wolf boss's chakra wasn't helping anything. It seemed to make the flames of anger burn hotter as though offering them fuel. Still, I did my best to force the rage down into a manageable space in my core, ready to be unleashed if I needed it in a fight.

Finally, the door to the classroom slid open, and there was Hatake Kakashi, rubbing the back of his neck like he felt bad for being so late. I nudged Shikadai just hard enough to wake him up.

He took in our sensei as quickly as I had, and both of us waited for the legendary Copy Nin to speak first.

"Yo," the man greeted after a moment, "I am Hatake Kakashi, your new sensei."

I bowed my head slightly, and Nara waved lazily.

Six Months Later

Shikadai and I were sparring while we waited for Kakashi-sensei to arrive. Surprisingly, after walking with me to my house a few times after training, Shikadai had become less lazy, telling me, "Whatever it takes to get you out of there, we'll do it."

We both paused in a middle of a rapid series of attacks and dodges when we sensed unfamiliar chakra along with Kakashi-sensei's familiar repressed coils. I focused hard on it, but I couldn't get a read on it at all. That wasn't unusual. I was still in training, but I had a pretty good sense that they weren't from a major clan.

Kakashi-sensei arrived along with another man. Sensei did not seem very happy that the man was there at all.

"Hello," the man greeted in a sickly-sweet voice, "I am Danzo."

The name clicked with information I had heard from my father about members of the village council, so I inclined my head slightly, as did Shikadai.

Danzo continued, "Your jonin-sensei thinks you need some more time, but there's a chuunin exam coming up very soon, and many on the council think you deserve the…"

"If sensei doesn't think we're ready, then we will wait," I informed him, cutting him off easily. I wasn't a whisper in the night yet, and I had a feeling I would want a summon for the last stage of the exam.

"There you go, Danzo," sensei offered with a bright grin, "They don't want to try it yet."

I got a sense of killing intent before Danzo disappeared, and I imagined if I were really a wolf, my hackles would have been raised.

I remarked, "I don't like that man."

"He's creepy," Shikadai agreed.

"You'll have six months until you have to deal with him again," Kakashi-sensei offered, "Although I was hoping to wait to have you take the chuunin exams until they're held here in Konoha."

I thought about what little research we had managed to do. One year wouldn't be too much of a setback. As long as I could make jonin before I was thirteen, I would be alright. That seemed to be the average cut off, although some people got sharingan earlier and others later. Thirteen was average though.

Kakashi-sensei continued, "Anyway, we have a mission today to find some missing vendors that were supposed to arrive two days ago. Intel in the area suggests bandits, so it's a C-ranked mission. Be careful, and don't go running off." He turned to lead the way out of the village.

A Few Hours Later

Shikadai

"Not, C-ranked," I complained to myself, trying my best to grab onto my enemies' shadows. Okami was attempting to fight off a large crowd of bandits, while sensei was fighting one on three with a group of missing nin, one of whom was definitely in the bingo book if his kekkeigenki was anything to judge by.

Okami was getting mad, which was good. An angry Okami was a fast, powerful, destructive beast that could take down more opponents than a normal Okami. The only dangerous part was the lack of chakra control and lack of plans, and as long as these guys went down quickly, that wouldn't matter.

I managed to get a few bandits wrapped in the shadows, so I made them all freeze, which let Okami slit their throats. I helped him with the next few, but there were just so many. My chakra reserves weren't yet high enough for me to grab all the shadows, and even doing the trick one more time might make me pass out. Okami breathed fire at them to make them back off, but I could tell he was getting tired.

My eyes flickered around, a sudden thought letting me quickly formulate a plan.

"Light the ground on fire between us and sensei, then disappear," I ordered, and I waited for him to do so, which distracted the bandits long enough for me to start setting up traps in the spaces between the trees so that none of the men would escape.

Okami asked, "Plan?"

"Make it dark," I ordered, "I think… I'm going to try to get them all at once."

Okami nodded, and he pulled out the scroll that had his camping gear in it. He set it on the ground next to me, then started moving through the tree tops quickly with ninja wire, making a web of support for the awning he was about to give me. He didn't have enough wire to blot out the sun, but then he returned and grabbed the scroll with the camping gear. He bit his thumb to open the seal, then brought the tarp for the tent, his sleeping bag, and the tent itself into the trees with him. In moments, the shadows had grown thicker on our part of the clearing, making it easier for me to grab all the men at once.

My chakra was quickly draining, so I turned all the men towards the center, and had them all use their weapons on the person next to them. Okami dashed into the clearing to take care of the few remaining men, even as I fell to my knees, feeling exhausted.

One of the missing nin noticed that Okami was distracted with the last of the bandits, so he dashed away from sensei to take care of him. I had no chakra left, but I still had my voice, "Look out!"

Okami moved faster than any civilian could dream to move. The other ninja, expecting a chakra depleted genin distracted by bandits, was instead met by a vicious shinobi that bared his teeth as he slashed the missing nin's throat. He continued forward, flaring the flames he had created as a distraction, and then cutting down another missing nin.

Kakashi-sensei finally finished off the one with the kekkeigenki, and not a moment too soon, as my own vision was started to fade, and Okami fell to his knees when he tried to step towards me. I saw him pass out just a little before I did. He always did have to go first.

Kakashi

I moved faster than I probably should have after using my sharingan to collect the bodies of the missing nin into a scroll and then pick up my two students. They'd done better than any other genin could have, and I couldn't imagine Team 7 doing any better than they had six months into being a team. It was good they were small, as it meant I could carry them both at once as I rushed at top speed back towards the village. Hopefully, it was just chakra exertion, and the boys were just coated in the bandit's blood.

Shikadai's plan had probably saved all of us, since it let Okami kill the weaker ones among the three missing nin. I rushed straight into the hospital, not even slowing down enough to greet the men working at the gate so that they didn't send anyone after me. I only slowed down once I was in the emergency room of the hospital, surrounded by medics, doctors, and nurses that were quickly starting to check the three of us over.

The boys were taken from my arms, even though I was reluctant to let go of them, and then Naruto was there in front of me, worry etched into his face. I repeated the sentiment both of my genin had said at least three times during the fight, "That wasn't a C-ranked mission. We're lucky to be alive."

"What happened?" Naruto asked, "Please don't tell me it's my fault, or Itachi and Sasuke are going to work together to kill me as painfully as possible."

"No, it seemed normal. There were more bandits than expected, but we wouldn't have engaged them if I didn't think we could handle it. There were missing nin though, and then I couldn't help with the bandits," I explained as quickly as I could.

Naruto concluded, "Then they were sent after you guys or they wandered by and decided to try their luck. Where are they now?"

"In a scroll," I informed him, "I'll turn it over when I debrief officially. The Uchiha are going to want to kill me again."

"That's a constant," Naruto joked with a grin, obviously trying hard to cheer me up.

I replied, "Fugaku didn't turn against the village for that boy. I think this is a little more serious."