Sasuke calmly rested, a pack of ice on his thigh, as he watched the others in his team continue with their daily training, before they performed missions with their sensei. He would arrive sometime soon; they'd do a mission, and then train a bit more with his supervision. It was the dobe's idea to practice instead of merely waiting, and Sasuke at first thought it would be pointless. Naruto proved him wrong of course, using his natural aptitude to overcome even Sasuke's taijutsu ability. Though he's come far since then, he couldn't help but notice that since their graduation the tables had shifted. The skill level of their team had gone from himself, Naruto, and then Sakura to Naruto, himself, and then Sakura again.

Though he could easily tell that the Sakura now would have stood a chance against him, from when they graduated, thanks to Naruto's speed, they had significantly improved their ability to fight faster opponents, and he made sure to be open with them, so that he was teaching Sasuke and Sakura as much as they taught him. Kakashi had been impressed, and though in an overall fight, he said that Sasuke was the stronger in combat, outside of combat Naruto outclassed their entire team. He'd been including himself, and Naruto was quick to explain the numerous things that seals could do, and while he was far off from being a master, or a combat seal user, he was one of the best in the village. Kakashi made sure to chime in that he was the third best dedicated seal user, out of the four dedicated seal users in the village.

Sasuke had been angry, impressed, and happy all at once. He tested his arms, where Naruto had place chakra storage seals, chakra draining seals, and on his wrists storage seals for his weapons. The first seal allowed him to push excess chakra away for when he needed it, the second constantly drained his chakra, and thus allowed him to grow his reserves as if he was doing chakra control exercises. The last was obvious. Naruto had also mentioned some others he was experimenting with, but he wasn't ready to share them, as they were untested and thusly dangerous.

Sasuke had seen Naruto's own seal network on his arms, and legs. He was far more advanced in his seal use then he'd let Sakura, or himself get to. Some of it is common sense, and other parts were merely the hopes of a legacy. Sasuke could understand the need of family secrets. He had many as well. However, Naruto's chakra storage seals, chakra draining seals, and storage seals were obviously different than his or Sakura's. He didn't really understand it, but he got the feeling that, if he hadn't stepped up his training, he'd been left in the dust over the past three months they'd been a team.

"Sasuke-kun! A-are you…f-feeling up to taking my s-spot?" a panting, exhausted Sakura asked, knowing that if she didn't rest that she'd collapse from sheer exhaustion. Sasuke nodded as he stood and handed over the ice pack, and she gratefully took it, pushing a bit of her chakra into the seal, so that the ice within didn't melt. Naruto was smiling brightly, and though he was obviously working himself hard, he wasn't tired yet, and had yet to release any of his draining seals, or storage seals. Sasuke slipped into his typical taijustu stance, and watched as Naruto took a slightly more offensive looking stance, that he'd seen Kakashi teaching him. Though Sasuke had heard that Naruto wasn't suited to direct offensive combat, quite as well as the more dexterous forms of combat, Kakashi had no other forms he could teach him.

"Ready, teme?" Naruto asked with a playful smirk.

"Always, dobe." Sasuke replied as they charged each other.

Sakura watched in near awe, at the pair's skill level, how far behind she was compared to them, and just how different it all was from when she had graduated. She never thought she could respect Naruto, or even think of him as anything but a loser. Man, he'd beaten that idea straight from her head. Now it was like watching an action show, two warriors squaring off, and the ground was taking the most damage as they continued to counter, dodge, and block. Naruto's speed giving him the advantage in number of blows, but Sasuke's technique was still far beyond the blonde's.

"They are truly an amazing pair of students, with a good head behind them; I don't doubt they could do amazing things. Don't you agree, Sakura?" the lazy, but proud tone of their sensei rang in and Sakura nodded agreeing with her sensei. Kakashi for his part was watching the movements of his two star pupils with interest. Naruto's speed was much slower than in his fight against himself, but it was more controlled as well, as he had acclimated to it well, and no longer damaged himself. He'd rank the boys speed as mid-chuunin. Overall, Kakashi say his team as becoming chuunin (in practice, at least) already, and had decided to test them out. "Call them in. It's time for a mission."

Naruto: Shinigami's Folly

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Naruto was awaiting his orders within the mission office, and of course his eyes were wandering around as he continued to think, his mind a whirl of ideas. Some he'd never considered until he finished the second to last of the books the Hokage had given him. It was a complex theory book on several subjects, handwritten by a village leader of a place Naruto hadn't ever heard of called the village hidden in the whirlpools. The author's name was obviously important as it had been obviously changed to call him, the leader of the village, or some kind of thing to that effect.

His attention was slowly drawn in as he listened to the mission briefing. It was a C-Rank mission, he was beaming. They were the first of the rookies to receive a C-Rank, or so the Hokage had told them. He looked to his two teammates who were also silent but obviously proud to be done with the simpler missions and of course…Tora. The hellish D-Rank that should be A-Rank, sometimes he thought that Tora had even given Kakashi the slip at times.

"This is your client." Then a door slid open, and an elder man, though still bulky, and stinking of booze. He looked as if he was going to complain, but the looks that the three Genin were giving him, made him freeze. He'd seen the eyes of many a man and woman. Those weren't the eyes of a group of innocent children; those were the eyes of three soldiers. "Everything looks in order. I plan to head out in two hours' time. I am heading to Wave country so I'll be at the southern gate." With that the man turned and walked back the way he came and out of the building. Naruto however, could smell something was off here, but he kept it to himself for now.

Kakashi was observing his Genin closely and noticed the slight movements of the usually hyper shinobi, and smirked. He'd noticed it as well. That Naruto was doing much better than he expected to notice the queues of a man hiding something. Kakashi wasn't too surprised. Missions were rarely as simple as they seem, if they were always so up front then a Jonin wouldn't be needed on mere C-Rank missions. "Let's go team, you heard the client. Two hours. South Gate. Come ready for a long trip. I'd say three weeks maximum." The Genin left without a word, and Kakashi smiled a bit before looking over to the Hokage his single eye seemed to darken.

"He's definitely hiding something Hokage-sama. Should I find that he is hiding something that is exceeding mission parameters?"

"I'll leave it in your capable hands to decide Kakashi-kun. I am certain that you can handle it."

"Of course, Hokage-sama. Consider it done. See you again soon, sir," then Kakashi was gone, a puff of smoke as his only sign of being there.

"Do you really think they are ready?" the worried voice of Iruka broke the moment of silence.

"Don't worry Iruka-kun. I am certain that those three are ready to see what the world really holds," The Hokage's wise words did little to calm Iruka's worries but it was too late to argue now, so he went back to sorting scrolls.

[Fire Country Roads]

'You must be aware at all times. Even if you think you are safe, and sound. Keep your eyes open, be aware, and be detailed. Consider the facts. For instance. When was the last rain? Some time ago. Why are there two large puddles?' Naruto frowned as his inner voice of reason noticed something out of the ordinary due to his increased awareness. Ever since his battle with Mizuki he'd found that he'd had this little voice in the back of his head giving him a hand, pushing him to his potential. Naruto reasoned that it was merely something all shinobi possessed. Instinct. His was just latent from his lack of education at least that was his thought.

He was walking on the right flank, Sasuke on the left, with Sakura taking the rear, and Kakashi in the front. The center was held by Tazuna, their client. Naruto, and Sasuke shared a look, before they both checked back with Sakura. Just a moment later, a pair of ninja exploded from cover, and Kakashi was their target. The Elite Jonin was unbothered, and prepared to be 'cut' to pieces. He was, however shocked when both shinobi were caught. One by Sasuke, and the other by Naruto. Their chain based weapon collapsing to the dirt.

The fight, if you could call it that lasted only a moment longer as the boy flipped each of the chuunin class enemies into each other with a racket of noise they each collapsed unconscious. Kakashi was both pleased, and a tad annoyed. He'd planned to observe how their attack pattern worked to determine if they were after them or the bridge builder. They were alive however, so such investigations were still completely possible. "Well done. Sasuke, your technique has improved, as has yours Naruto. Sadly we will have to head back to the village."

The three Genin and the bridge builder were in shock. "Why!" the four shouted, and Kakashi merely pointed at Naruto's hand. Naruto looked down to see the slim cut on his hand, and his eyes widened. Mist Shinobi were well known to be masters of poison use. How could he have been so careless! Kakashi was, however preparing the pair of shinobi for transport and then interrogation.

"You can't abandon me now! You're my only hope!" Kakashi looked at the man with a gaze that spoke of his uncaring nature towards the client, or this client at least. These were chuunins! This was at least a B-Rank mission. These two were specialists as well, he wouldn't continue with a wounded comrade either, not for this liar.

"Sorry, but with Naruto poisoned it's an additional dangerous liability. You should have told us the truth; this is above and beyond even what I thought you'd bring to bear against us. Missing Ninja of the Mist." He didn't mention the fact that he knew these two worked with someone else, though the name slipped his mind, he knew that it was a truly deadly opponent.

Naruto looked on, as he saw Tazuna's face slowly twist into one of despair. It was worse for Naruto; it was a moment of fear, of hesitation that caused his to get cut. He cursed himself, how could he be so weak! He'd made a promise to protect this man, and he'd let his fear take over.

"No. I won't allow this. I won't go back on my word. I won't run away!" Kakashi turned to reprimand Naruto, on his foolish choice to move on while poisoned. Even if they could remove it, the supplies to do so would take hours; hours that could kill him. Instead he was frozen. Naruto had bit his thumb, and was doing something Kakashi had only seen a handful of times. His hands were blurring through the air, chakra glowing on his fingertips as he finished an array above his wound; the blood literally floating as if it was written on paper, and then pushed more chakra into it activating the seal array. A moment later a spray of blood flew from his hand and hit the ground, before the wound closed up.

'That was…combat seal use!' Kakashi thought, as his student looked up to him with a weathered look and smiled tired from the obviously large amount of chakra he'd wasted from inexperience with control, and using combat seals. Still Kakashi was blown away. He'd seen dozens of people attempt such a thing only to lose limbs before they even make the first symbol. Special Jonin and Jonin no less! For a Genin it was unheard of. Only in one place, in one small village, where sealing techniques were their most precious secret was such a thing even considered possible. "Naruto…"

"Come on, Sensei! We can't give up on the poor guy! He needs our help." Kakashi sighed a bit and smiled as he nodded, using a shadow clone discreetly to gather the information, as he turned away from them, the clone well hidden.

"Ma, fine then. Tazuna-san. It seems that unless we have any objections, we will continue to escort you." Sasuke and Sakura were already back in their positions, and Kakashi smiled brightly. He'd taught them the meaning of never abandoning those who needed them, a bit too well perhaps. "Then let's be off."

It was a couple of hours later, while they were walking that Kakashi decided it was time to speak with Naruto. The formation was close enough that he could talk to him discreetly, and he looked at the blond. He seemed to have recovered his stamina greatly, and really didn't seem to be any worse for wear. "Naruto. How did you know how to do that with your seals?" Naruto looked to his sensei, his blue eyes confused for a moment, as he tried to recall how he'd done it, and merely smiled a bit. He couldn't remember, and even if asked to do it again he doubted he could.

"Instinct sensei," he responded with a bright smile, before all the hair on his neck stood on edge. "Why? Was it a bad thing?"

"No. Just…don't mention it back at the village. It's a rather rare skill, one that shouldn't be spread around just yet." Naruto blinked before nodding quickly, noticing they were coming up on the boat across the river to the Wave country.

"Hai, Sensei."

[Wave Country]

It wasn't too long after they'd reach the shore of wave and continued onwards, that something began to nag at Kakashi's sixth sense, which alone was usually not a good sign. The fact that his Genin seemed to be feeling the same, was just as worrying. It was then that he felt it, something was off right-

Thunk

Kakashi stopped on guard as he looked at where Naruto had thrown his kunai; a frightened white rabbit was skittering away. Naruto was sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, obviously the dreary mists were getting to him, or so the Genin had thought, as Kakashi frowned. 'A winter rabbit…strange. Its coat should have changed by now unless…'

Then he felt it, and with a quick look he shouted over the childish one sided argument between Sakura, and Naruto. "Get down!" he ordered and everyone obeyed, in the same instant, even Tazuna hit the dirt along with them as the dirt was kicked up by a massive sword swinging over their heads, and slamming into a large tree, hitting it hard enough to actually stick into it. Kakashi recovered first, and his single eye narrowed. His memory suddenly slipping into place, as he looked over his opponent.

"Zabuza Momochi. The Demon of the Mist."

"Hmm. Kakashi Hatake. The Legendary Copy-Ninja, this should be interesting indeed."