Ignis Bellator

By Mexicano27

Chapter 4: The Inverse Ninja Squad

"So," said Kakashi to Iruka quietly over the table in the missions room. "Do you have any, you know, good missions for my team to do?" Iruka smirked at the Jonin.

"Oh, you mean the famous Inverse Ninja Squad?"

Kakashi sighed. If he had been given a penny for each time he had heard his team called the "Inverse Ninja Squad" for comprising of two girls and a boy instead of the other way around, he would have been able to buy a pirate ship and sail the seas to look for treasure. Hadn't Iruka been the one to organize the teams in the first place? What was he doing teasing Kakashi about it?

"Yes, for the Inverse Ninja Squad," answered Kakashi, doing his best to keep his voice neutral. The missions room was mostly empty at the moment; their last client, the plump and extravagantly-dressed Lady Shijimi, was walking out the door with her scrawny cat Tiger. Kakashi didn't particularly mind these tasks, even if they were a dramatic departure from the combat missions he had done since a child. Tracking down a missing pet cat in the middle of a forest was really nothing more than a chore, but it gave Kakashi a chance to relax and read a book while the Genin did all the work. Ironically, the mission might have ended a bit quicker than he would have liked thanks to Hinata succeeding in quickly locating the feline. As Naruto angrily complained about the mission being a waste of time and Sakura grumbled about scratching her arms in the thick foliage, their teammate had just quietly got to work.

These sorts of missions taught the Genin a sense of duty, and that they wouldn't always (possibly ever) get assigned the sort of mission they wanted. If the last few weeks had been any indication, the Hyuga had a jump on her teammates where that was concerned.

"Let's just see what kind of mission would be good for the Inverse Ninja Squad," said Iruka, a grin on his face as he checked his clipboard. "Well, here we have some flower arranging chores, maybe you'll be able to find an arrangement of flowers that are…opposite? Or here's a good one…" Iruka went on, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Iruka," said a stern voice, "That will be quite enough." It was Sarutobi, the Third Hokage and most respected man in the village. He had a voice that sounded warm and friendly most of the time; however, it could sound icy-cold if he wished to. Right now, it was commanding and unyielding. "Kakashi, your team's missions are already set," he said, picking up a sheet of paper. "Your first mission is dog walking, then you have some errands to run over at a neighboring village, then you'll have some babysitting…"

Kakashi sighed and was grateful that he had left Team 7 out on the last mission they had received so far, which was pulling up weeds. If Naruto had been in here and heard that they were getting more D rank missions, he would have thrown a fit. Kakashi cringed at the thought. He couldn't really say that he had experienced a similar life, having passed the Chunin Exams at age six. However, he could still sympathize with the boy and his teammates.

"There isn't, by any chance, a C mission available, is there?" asked Kakashi, interrupting Sarutobi as he read off the list of missions. He hoped that there was something that would turn up. Sarutobi looked confused.

"You want a C rank mission for yourself while your Genin do their missions?" he asked. If that had really been the case, it certainly would have been a strange request indeed. What would a Jonin want a C rank mission for?

"No," answered Kakashi. "I mean, are there any C rank missions that Team 7 could be given? Surely all those other mundane chores could wait until we got back, or perhaps you can make one of the two other Genin teams do it."

Sarutobi sighed. "Kakashi, we do have several C rank missions that need to be tended to, but I highly doubt that your team is of high enough skill to be entrusted with one. We can't favor any one Genin team, especially with something like this."

"If I may, Lord Hokage," interjected Iruka, now serious, "but didn't you send Team 8, Kurenai's team, on a C rank mission?"

"Well, yes, but I trust that her team is of high enough skill to accomplish their mission successfully," said the Third. "I am still not sure what you were thinking when you formed two completely reversed teams, Iruka," he went on. He talked as if this were something that had been bothering him for a while, and he now had the opportunity to scold Iruka about it. "Having two males and a kunoichi in a Genin team has proven time and again to lead to success. Having so much testosterone in Team 8 may have been a bit of a mistake on your part."

"Yes, well, I had figured that Kurenai would balance that out when I formed the teams," Iruka lied. He would never tell the Third that the only reason he had switched the teams at all was because he had been too soft on Naruto when he had objected to being put in the same team as Sasuke. In hindsight (which was 20/20, as they said), he probably should have actually paid attention to who he was putting into what team. Had he replaced Sasuke with Shino instead of Hinata, he would have served as a nice counterweight to Naruto's rowdiness. Aburames rarely allowed any nonsense to get in the way of a mission. Team 8 would have wound up being Hinata, Kiba, and Sasuke, and all of them were from clans. Iruka cursed himself for not looking past the first person on the list and doing such an insensible thing as making the two teams off balance. Now the carefully-planned order was irreparably ruined, and there was nothing that he could do about it.

The Third took his pipe out of his mouth and blew out a cloud of smoke. He appeared amused at Iruka's explanation. "Really? You think that Kurenai would be able to handle three boys if they were to become insubordinate?" he asked, grinning.

"Kiba is the wild-child in Team 8," countered Iruka. "Both Shino and Sasuke know how to follow orders. They would be able to keep him in his place if he stepped out of line."

"And if Shino or Sasuke suddenly had a new outlook on life?"

"Why are you giving me these scenarios?" asked Iruka, having no counter argument and growing red in the face. "You talk as if there is the constant threat of our shinobi deserting us. If that were the case, then I doubt that the presence of a kunoichi, or lack thereof, would make much of a difference!"

"I just wanted to prove my point Iruka," said Sarutobi. He sighed and stuck his pipe back into his mouth, clamping down on it with his teeth. "Next time, try to keep the teams a bit more balanced."

Iruka didn't point out the fact that, even though two of the teams were not of the basic two-male-one-female structure, they were two of the only three teams to pass their Jonin's test.

"Well, threats of betrayal from within aside, do you have any C rank missions Team 7 could take on or not?" asked Kakashi, sounding annoyed. Iruka looked up at him. Somehow, he had completely forgotten that the Jonin was in the room.

Iruka turned to look at Sarutobi. "What do you say, Lord Hokage? Do you want to give them a bit of a challenge?" The Third sighed and adjusted his headdress.

"What mission had we sent Team 8 on? Do you remember?" asked Sarutobi resignedly. Iruka looked at his clipboard.

"They had to track down a low-risk escaped convict. Both Kiba and Shino are adept at tracking, which gave their team a bit of an advantage. I think that's why we chose them in the first place, wasn't it?" Sarutobi thought briefly, then nodded. That had been why Team 8 was chosen. Team 7, on the other hand, specialized in… What did they specialize in? The team was comprised of a loudmouthed boy with his head in the clouds, and two kunoichi without any particular talent.

"I do suppose that the D missions can wait," said Sarutobi. He looked at the list of uncompleted C rank missions in front of him. He needed to find something that would appease to Naruto's senses, since he seemed to be the biggest complainer on the team. Something that seemed important, but had no real risk…

"Here," said the Third, finding a mission that fulfilled all of the prerequisites he had set for Team 7 (meaning that Naruto wouldn't fly into a tantrum when he heard his next mission). "An escort mission to the Land of Waves. You have to protect an architect as he journeys back to his village to complete the construction of a bridge. It says that you'll have to stay until the construction of the bridge is complete, which probably means that he'll want you to watch out for vandals during construction." The mission was perfect: who on earth was trying to kill an architect? The man, or whoever was paying for the mission, was probably (almost certainly) wasting their money. By all appearances, it was the easiest mission carrying the rank of C.

"Thank you, Lord Hokage," said Kakashi, bowing his head. "I'm sure that Team 7 will love to hear that the Hokage thinks that they're worthy of tougher missions now."

"Indeed. However, don't expect a favor like this to happen again any time soon, especially if I find out that your team's behavior on the mission turns out to be most unprofessional."

"I'll have to tell Naruto to keep his head when he eventually finds out that this mission doesn't have any serious risk or glamour," said Kakashi thoughtfully. "But then again, hopefully Hinata and Sakura will be able to convince him to keep his shirt on. They don't seem to care much one way or the other about the rank of their missions."

"Well, I suppose that if you fear Naruto going crazy with boredom while on the mission, you could just tell him that the bridge is under threat of attack from missing-nin, or some other nonsense," Sarutobi joked. "I'm sure that when he comes back, he'll claim to have scared them all away by his mere presence!"

Kakashi laughed as well, something of a rare occurrence. Whenever he laughed, it was usually at his Genin team's misfortune. "Thank you for the advice, but I'd rather tell my team the truth rather than some make-believe story. If Naruto finds out I was just waving a carrot in front of him the entire time, his reaction will be a lot worse than it would have been normally. Thank you for this favor, Lord Hokage. I'm sure that Team 7 will not let you down." He bowed his head again, and left the missions room, probably off to tell his team the news.

"Iruka," said the Third, "find me a good C rank mission for Asuma's team. I wouldn't want to make them miss out on the fun."

"Asuma's team?" asked Iruka. "His team is weaker than the other two, even though they have two boys and a girl!"

"I know," said Sarutobi, sighing. He adjusted the brim of his headdress again, a habit he had gotten into even though it rarely required to be moved. "But still, it would be unfair to even give the other teams the pretense that they're skilled enough to take on dangerous missions, and leave out Team 10. They need a self-esteem boost as much as anyone else."

"Sure thing, Lord Hokage," said Iruka, and began looking for a C mission that would be easy enough for Team 10, knowing that it would not be an simple task. If only we could have sent them on this bridge mission and Team 7 on another one, he thought glumly.

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Hinata was initially excited when she learned about Team 7's mission to the Land of Waves. It was their very first C rank mission, and a bit of a milestone. Sakura hadn't seemed very excited about it, but Naruto looked ready to run around in circles. They had yet to meet their client, whom Kakashi had said was a man named Tazuna. Hinata hadn't exactly been expecting another party for getting a C mission when she got home, but her father's negative reaction shocked her.

Hiashi had been inexplicably infuriated when he had learned that her Jonin sensei would be Kakashi Hatake; as soon as he learned that Naruto was in the same team, he exploded with rage. Hinata thought that it was odd that he would have such strong opinions about the two of them, though she wasn't surprised that it seemed more like he had some sort of grudge against the two of them rather than concern for her well-being.

Upon finding out about her mission to the Land of Waves, he had told her to not get in everyone's way all the time, the way she did at home. When Hinata had decided to ask him why he hated Naruto and Kakashi so much, all he told her was that the boy had done something terrible a long time ago and she wouldn't be able to remember, and that the Jonin was a disrespectful, incompetent, and pretentious shinobi. His comment about Naruto confused her: if she and Naruto were the same age, how could he be blamed for doing something as a baby? Whatever it had been, he really couldn't have known better, could he?

When Hinata had once described her dream to her father, his reaction had been even worse. He had demanded to know exactly how many tails the "fire fox" had possessed, and what it had been doing in the dream. When she described the snake to him, he expressed no interest in it. He only cared about the fox, and what was her business dreaming about it. She told him that the fox probably had around ten tails, maybe nine or eleven. Hiashi had exploded at this, grabbing her by the shoulders and demanding to know where she had heard about this fox before. To him, she needed to have heard about the fox before she could dream about it; he didn't believe her when she told him that the fox was a being of her own creation.

Hiashi eventually gave up trying to find out where she had learned about the fox or who had told her, but it was obvious that he still didn't believe her. Team 7 was to leave on their mission the next day, and Hinata was in her room, packing her things, when her little sister entered and closed the door behind her.

"What did you say to Father to get him so upset?" asked Hanabi, looking up at Hinata with her large, pale eyes. The two sisters rarely talked anymore; Hiashi seemed to discourage it, as if the virus of incompetence would spread to the younger of his two daughters.

"I don't know," said Hinata sadly, a response that she was able to honestly use for many questions she was asked. "All I did was tell him about a dream I had, and he…didn't like it."

"What did you dream about?"

"It was about a fox and a snake… They were fighting. The fox had a lot of tails. I think that that's what made him the most upset, when I told him that the fox had nine or ten tails."

"The Kyubi?"

"The what?"

"Kyubi. Nine tails. You dream about the Kyubi?"

"What is the Kyubi, exactly? How do you know about it?"

"I overheard a couple of adults talking about it once. They were talking about it like they both already knew what it was, but I figured out that it was a fox with nine tails after listening for a little bit. It sounded like it was very powerful."

Hinata's brow furrowed. "Very powerful" was an accurate description of the fox in her dream. What was this Kyubi? Was the Kyubi in her dream the same one that the villagers were talking about? "Were they talking about the Kyubi as if it were real, or as if it were imaginary?" she asked.

"They sounded like they thought that it was a real thing. Or at least that it had been a real thing once. They said something about the 'Uzumaki boy,' too, and they kept on calling him Kyubi. That's what got me really confused."

Hinata's mind was reeling, trying to digest all of this new information that had previously been denied to her. Naruto the Kyubi? None of this made any sense…

"So that's the only reason that Father was upset? Because of your dream?"

"Pretty much, yeah," said Hinata absently. Her father's anger… A powerful demon that no longer existed… Naruto? Did Hanabi say good night and leave? Did Hinata respond? Or was that all a figment of her imagination? She wasn't sure, but when she looked up, Hanabi had exited her room, the door closed behind her.

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Quote of the Day:

"I hear that you're using your paper, not for writing, but for rolling doobies! Now, you're going to be doing a lot of doobie rolling when you're living in a van down by the river!"

- Chris Farley (Matt Foley SNL Skit)