Chapter 7: Konoha's Mundane D-Rank Missions

Team 3 had been an official team for about five weeks now and had done nothing but D-ranks and physical workouts, with some team building exercises thrown in too. True to her word Hanabi focused mostly on taijutsu for her three genin, needing to give the most advice to Ichi. The boy had no real inability to learn hand-to-hand combat; it was more like he didn't have the stamina to keep it up, even for the academy standard. Boy must have passed based more on his academics than physical skills.

Akane and Noburo were doing well and had stamina to spare. Hanabi had already gotten a good enough overview of Noburo's clan style that she could give him helpful advice without just winging it. And she managed to get him to improve it by trying some techniques from Gai (thanks to Neji) that wouldn't require him to use his hair or stay in one place to fight. For Akane, the girl had a good understanding of the juuken but didn't use it as well as the Hyuuga heiress and was more comfortable using a feral brawler style similar to Naruto's. Hanabi only really needed to give her advice on how to maximize damage to others while minimizing damage to herself.

The worst part of their training was without a doubt the missions. Since Hanabi preferred taijutsu, she only got them the D-ranks that required a lot of physical effort. She at least didn't give them any weights to wear, at least not yet. But for now she made sure they got lots of exercise in various ways. "Keeps the body guessing" was the excuse she gave her students when they asked why she was doing this. Sometimes they got a chance to practice their ninjutsu to make the job easier, but Hanabi often told them specifically not to do so.

This time however would not be one of them. "Okay team, the mission we got now is to paint this old couple's house for them. They were kind enough to already have the supplies taken care of so we'll handle the labor."

"You mean we'll handle the labor while you sit back and watch right sensei?" Akane asked with narrowed eyes.

"Basically. I'll jump in if I feel one of you really needs a break, but only then. And for this job, you can use ninjutsu to make it go along faster. Try to be creative with it." Hanabi added.

"Why are you helping? You're part of the team too so shouldn't you have a part in this?" Noburo asked.

Hanabi shook her head. "Nope. Once I became a jounin I said goodbye to doing D-ranks ever again. Ask any jounin you know and they'll tell you the same thing."

"Not Gai-sensei." Noburo countered.

"So your best example is someone most people consider a little mentally off? Good argumentative skills kid." Hanabi replied sarcastically. "Now hop to it." She added seriously.

In no mood to keep arguing, the three genin turned away and each grabbed a brush. Akane was the first to incorporate ninjutsu into the job by creating over two dozen shadow clones and turning some of them into brushes and had some of them sit on the shoulders of others. Noburo briefly took his headband off and let his hair grow out four meters before putting it back on. He then used a jutsu that made his hair as usable as an octopus limb and grabbed several brushes, using his hair to reach the high places. Ichi didn't have any jutsu to make this job easier so he settled for personally taking care of the spots his teammates weren't focusing on.

'This could take a while.' All three thought simultaneously.


Two hours and fifteen minutes later they were done and feeling sore all over. Noburo felt the least sore since his hair did more than his body did, but he did feel somewhat chakra-depleted. "Hey, anyone know where sensei went off to?"

Akane and Ichi looked around, but didn't see her anywhere. "No. I didn't even notice she left."

"That would be a big mistake if you were on a riskier mission." Hanabi said as she approached from the other side of the house. It was upwind too so Akane couldn't smell her. "Before you ask, I was getting the signature to show we completed the mission and get you all something to drink." She gave them each a soft drink she knew they liked and all three guzzled them down swiftly. "Ready for another one, or some more regular training instead?"

"Day off?" Ichi weakly asked.

Hanabi shook her head. "Sorry kid but Labor Day's not for a few months. Got to keep doing something if you want to get any better."

"Yeah but we're not in any hurry are we?" Ichi asked.

"In a way you are. You wanna get to doing the more exciting stuff right? Then you need to hurry and get better." Hanabi responded.

"Don't forget we only have so long until the chuunin exams." Akane pointed out.

"Already thinking of being in that? My, eager aren't we?"

"You bet I am."

"You are aware you need my approval for entering, aren't you? And for the whole team nonetheless?" Hanabi asked.

"Yeah, and I fully intend for us to get it in time." Akane replied in all seriousness.

'Heh, Onii-san were you like this when you were a genin?' Hanabi asked herself, thinking about Naruto for a moment. "Anyway, regarding today, you guys up for another mission or just some workouts?"

"What kind of mission?" Noburo asked.


"Have you found it yet?" Noburo asked Akane, who was using the jutsu that enhanced her senses but required her to blindfold herself.

"Yeah, the target should be to our right inside the hollow part of a tree." The redhead answered.

"Piece of cake." Ichi commented as he walked to the mentioned destination.

"Um Ichi-kun, I didn't tell you which tree yet." Akane told the ROOT reject as she unblindfolded herself, making him stop in his tracks. "And we need to move quickly before it does."

Ichi sighed, then agreed, hoping this mission would have been easier on his body. "Why don't you get it? You're the fastest."

"Yeah but this is supposed to be a team effort." Akane countered. "I did the tracking so you two could at least handle the catching."

"You can draw it out while I trap it." Noburo said to Ichi.

"I see, but I still think my idea's the simplest." Ichi stated.

Akane sighed. "Fine, I'll do it all, but you owe me some ramen mister."

Ichi shrugged. "Fine." Akane then disappeared in a red blur.

"Dude, this is gonna cost you. I had to buy ramen for her once; cost me two week's allowance." Noburo warned his teammate.

'Maybe I made a mistake.' Ichi thought with a small amount of worry.

"Got it." Akane said as she swiftly returned, carrying a white cat with a little black around it's left back paw. "Definitely the one we're supposed to find."

"Doesn't look like such a terror." Ichi stated. The cat was resting peacefully in Akane's arms, completely countering it's reputation as the bane of today's D-Rank acceptors.

"I've got a way with animals." Akane told them. "C'mon let's take this guy back and collect our pay. And you still owe me some ramen for making me do all the work Ichi-kun." She licked her lips to show she wasn't kidding.

'Considering the alternative, it may be an even trade.' Ichi thought, glad he didn't have to deal with the hassle of this mission.

This particular mission had been officially declared as 'Retrieve the Fire Daimyo's Wife's Cat Unharmed' and had been around for ages. The original cat involved, a black one named Tora, had died years ago, although no one really believed it had died of old age. The pudgy woman who owned it had gotten a new cat, a white one she named Shishi, and it quickly took Tora's place for Akane's generation. Although in all fairness, Shishi and Tora weren't the only cats genins had to chase down. Sometimes the Anbu let a cat lose into the forest on purpose just to give the genin something to do, calling it a rite of passage mission. The daimyo cats were simply the most famous/infamous of them all and no one really wanted to deal with them.


"Here's your pet." Akane said to the Fire Daimyo's wife as her team entered the hokage tower. The cat started to squirm at the sight of the porty woman with a vicelike grip, but Akane managed to hand it over before it could dart out of her hands.

"Oh thank you. I just hate it when my little Shishi scampers away like that." The royal woman replied kindly as she started hugging the cat, not realizing she was inadvertently crushing it.

"Um ma'am, if you stop trying to kill your cat like that he might stop trying to escape you." Akane said somewhat bluntly but as kind as she could.

"What?" The daimyo's wife asked, as if she had heard wrong.

Everyone in the room started to pay attention now. Everyone of them had been thinking what Akane just said, sometimes more than once, but out of fear of offending an influencial person with powerful connections they never actually said anything on the subject. And now one genin had the courage to do it? It looked like Akane was just as surprising as her father.

"She meant no offense ma'am." Hanabi said, trying to salvage the situation. Noburo and Ichi wisely chose to keep their mouths shut.

"I'm just saying that maybe your pet runs away because he doesn't like how tight you hug him. It does look more than a little painful to me." Akane added, ignoring her teacher's efforts.

'Akane-chan you better know what you're doing here.' Hanabi thought. 'This woman comes here every two weeks to ensure the village is going smoothly and ensures we keep our funding from the daimyo himself. Offend her and we may lose a lot of finances.'

"You've got some nerve telling me the way I treat my Shishi is wrong little girl." The daimyo's wife stated with a small frown.

Akane looked undaunted. "Tell me, is that a living animal you're holding, or a stuffed animal?"

The royal woman blinked several times in confusion. "Living, of course."

"Then it can feel pain and discomfort. It's not a teddy bear where you can squeeze it all you want and it won't mind. That cat's a living creature and maybe you should start taking it's own comfort into consideration too if you want it to stop running away." Akane responded.

"I do. I make sure he's fed well and has a comfortable place to sleep." The daimyo's wife countered irritably.

"And that's it? As long as it's not starved or something you think you're doing a great job at taking care of it? If that were true, then why does he keep running away?" Akane asked, and got no answer. "All I'm asking is that you at least hold your pet like you would your child. Then maybe he will want to stay with you."

The portly woman just kept frowning at the redhead, and then Hanabi butted in again. "Sorry to bother you, but could you sign this saying we completed the job?" She offered up the mission scroll and got it signed. The daimyo's wife then walked away and Hanabi turned to sternly look at her student. "Do you have any idea what you just did?"

"Yeah, I hopefully made it so we and the other teams won't have to deal with 'Capture the Cat' so much anymore. After all, no one really likes that job."

"Hey, little girl." One of the chuunin who handed out mission assignments to genins said as he casually approached her. "I just gotta say that was great. I've never seen anyone with the guts to tell that woman that. You're going to do just fine if you've got that kind of nerve."

"Don't encourage her." Hanabi told the chuunin.

"Did you forget who my father is sensei? I don't need help to be encouraged." Akane replied.

"In that case I think you need one more for today." Hanabi told her niece then looked to the chuunin. "Got any more for today?"

"Well, off the top of my head, one woman wants her garden weeded, and a farmer wants some manure shoveled and taken to another farm. Let me check the rest."

Hanabi smiled a wicked grin. "Maybe the manure one would be good for them."

They all looked horrified, but Akane was the most bothered. "Pleases, anything but that sensei. It'll be murder on my nose."

"Sometimes you gotta deal with inconveniences when you're on the job kiddo. We'll take it."

Akane frowned. 'Oh, you are so going to pay Obasan. You're definitely my next victim.'


"I'm back Otou-sama." Hanabi said as she entered her house later that night.

"Welcome back Hanabi. Everything go okay today?" Hiashi asked, marking his place in the book he was reading.

"Sort of. Akane-chan actually backtalked to the Fire Daimyo's wife about how she treats her cat."

Hiashi arched his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yes. And even thought she only said what we all were thinking, it was a bit unorthodox and risky. So I had her handle manure as punishment, considering how good her nose is." Hanabi answered with a smirk, then quickly lost it. "Speaking of which, if you don't mind I would really like to take a bath so I can get the odor off myself as soon as possible."

"Go ahead." The Hyuuga head said.

Hanabi went to one of the bathing chambers, undressed and scrubbed herself, and then soaked in the furo. "Ahh... so much better. But it could be more relaxing." She grabbed a container of bathing salts and poured some into the water.

Meanwhile, a young girl dressed in red watched all this from a branch with some binoculars, and smirked mischieviously. 'Ha. Gotcha Obasan. Let's see how you like bathing in itching powder.' She then dashed out of there before anyone could stop her.