The forest was silent as a lone creature stalked through the bushes. Pausing to sniff the air, the creature's ears perked up as it checked its surroundings. It was alone, or so it thought. Hidden among the trees, three pairs of eyes bore down on the creature.
"Team 7 reporting in, we have eyes on the target." Sasuke whispered into his radio.
"Acknowledged Team 7." Kakashi's voice said through their earpieces. "Are you close enough to engage?"
"Negative." Sasuke replied.
"Sorry." Chimed in Sakura.
"I'm close enough." Naruto whispered from his hiding spot, directly above his prey. "Just give the word."
"Naruto, wait for the others to get into position." Kakashi ordered, a few moments of silence passed before Naruto acknowledged his order. Carefully Sasuke worked his way from branch to branch, moving slowly to cause as little noise as possible among the hundreds of leaves. Not too far behind him Sakura did the same. A loud SNAP echoed through the quiet forest as a branch Sakura grabbed onto broke from its trunk.
The creature on the ground turned to the sound and looked up into the trees. Its mouth pulled back into a snarl, revealing several gleaming white fangs. The creature loosed a hiss before it started to turn and run.
"Oh no you don't!" Naruto shouted jumping from his perch, and diving right towards the beast. His arms wrapped around the furry body and with a cry of victory the blond hoisted the rather large house cat into the air. The cat was unamused as it turned in Naruto's hand and proceeded to rake its claws across Naruto's face.
While Sakura tried to help Naruto get the beast under control Sasuke radioed Kakashi. "We got it Kakashi-Sensei."
"Can you confirm a red bow tied around the right ear?" Kakashi's voice inquired.
Sasuke turned to examine the cat just as it finished scratching Naruto's face to high hell and turned its aggression on Sakura. Sure enough there was a red bow attached to the cat's right ear. He had to quickly turn around to hide the smile that sprouted across his face at the sight of his teammates having so much trouble with a housecat. "Yeah it has the red bow. It's the right one."
"I hate this damn cat!" Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison as they fought to pin the feline to the ground.
A half hour trip to the Hokage's Mansion and dozens of scratches later found team seven handing the cat over to his owner Madam Shijimi, who proceeded to squeeze the cat rather tightly to her face. As the cat struggled in vain to free itself from the woman's grasp, Naruto pointed and snickered at the creature while Sakura began to feel some slight sympathy for the thing.
"I think I see why it ran away." She muttered as the woman left the room. Naruto was still snickering to himself as the Hokage presented them with their next assignments, which consisted of babysitting, gardening potatoes, grocery shopping, or…
"No way forget it." Naruto suddenly announced cutting the old man off. "We've been genin for months now and so far all of our missions have sucked. Why don't we ever get any interesting missions?" Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura all sighed at Naruto's outburst. They were all expecting an outburst like this eventually, and with Kiba Inuzuka loudly announcing how his team was going on a "very important C-rank mission" recently, they all figured it would be sooner rather than later. The Third Hokage pinched the bridge of his nose as Iruka tried to explain to Naruto that Team 10 had shown exceptional teamwork in their previous missions and their own sensei, Kurenai Yuhi, told them that they were ready for the C mission.
"That's total bullshi…" Naruto's curse was cut short by hard fist to the top of his head, courtesy of Sakura.
At this Sasuke spoke up. "Iruka Sensei, as much as I hate encouraging him like this, our own team has shown exceptional teamwork since day one. Kakashi Sensei told us so himself."
The Third Hokage and Iruka both looked expectantly at Kakashi, "Well Kakashi, do you believe that your team is ready for their first C-ranked mission."
Kakashi pretended to think it over, but in reality, he was going to suggest a C-rank for his team even if Naruto hadn't thrown his fit. "I think they're ready for some slightly tougher missions." He finally said, allowing Naruto to release the breath he wasn't even aware he was holding.
"Very well." The Hokage said while rolling up his scroll of D-ranked missions. "Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, please leave the room, give us about a half hour to select a suitable mission for you."
The following half hour was one of the longest of Naruto's life as he excitedly paced up and down the hallway, anticipating his new mission. "What kind of mission do you think they'll give us?" he asked his teammates sitting on the bench outside the office. "Maybe it'll be an assassination mission." Unlikely, hell even impossible, he knew but hey a kid could dream.
"Quit being stupid Naruto." Sakura admonished, "There is literally no chance they would give a group of new genin a mission like that."
"More likely we'll be sent on some sort of escort mission." Sasuke reasoned.
"Sasuke's right." Sakura instantly agreed, eliciting a roll of Naruto's eyes. "It'll probably be something relatively simple so we won't crack under the pressure." But Naruto had stopped listening, instead opting to imagine who they would be escorting and where.
'Maybe it'll be a beautiful princess whose kingdom is in the middle of a civil war and we'll have to help her retake her throne.' Was one such fantasy, 'Or maybe we'll be guiding a wise old sage on some spiritual journey and he'll impart some ancient wisdom and power on to us for assisting him.' Several more such fantasies had arisen when Kakashi called them back inside the office. Once back inside Naruto noticed someone new was in the room. After a moment of initial confusion Naruto realized that the stranger must have walked past them while he was busy fantasizing.
"Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke," Iruka started addressing the three genin, "This is Tazuna, master bridge builder of the Land of Waves." The man turned to look at the three genin. Naruto felt a number of his fantasies die as he beheld a bottle of sake clutched in his gnarled old hand. He wore plain clothes and a hat, and stared at them through round glasses. "You'll be escorting him back to his home country."
Naruto felt the rest of his fantasies perish when the old man opened his mouth, "You're kidding me. These three brats are supposed to be my protection? They're all still wet behind the ears by the look of it. Plus the small fry looks like a dumbass."
"Hey, Sakura's the smartest genin of our year." Naruto challenged, defending his teammate. A thump on the back of his head was his thanks. When Naruto turned to confront Sakura about the unjustified hit, he noticed for the first time in his life, that he had to look ever so slightly up to meet her eyes. A quick glance over to Sasuke revealed the same scenario, Naruto had to look up to meet his eyes. "I'll kill him!" Naruto declared once the epiphany sank in.
"No, no we don't kill the man we're supposed to protect." Kakashi calmly corrected as he held on to the collar of Naruto's orange jacket. For their part Sasuke and Sakura did their best not to laugh. "In any event, it's nice to meet you Mr. Tazuna. I'm Kakashi Hatake, and despite being a little rough around the edges these are the best genin of their year. I can assure you that you'll be perfectly safe under our guard." Tazuna scoffed as Kakashi turned Naruto around and ordered him to calm down before Kakashi turned back to the older man. "When would you like to leave Mr. Tazuna?"
"First thing in the morning." Tazuna answered as he took a large gulp of sake.
"Very well, Team 7 meet at the village gates at six o'clock tomorrow morning. Pack for a long trip."
Naruto arrived at his apartment just as the sun was beginning to set. He paused in front of the door and knocked a rhythm on the wooden door. A few seconds passed as various locks clicked out of place. When the door finally opened Naruto found himself staring at himself.
"What the hell happened to you?" the other Naruto asked.
"I hate cats." Was the original's reply. "So did we learn anything new from Arashi?" The clone nodded as he held up a one handed Tiger seal. The clone disappeared in a puff of smoke and Naruto felt the knowledge appear in his mind. Whatever his clone learned during its "life" Naruto learned once the clone was destroyed or released. It was neat trick and Naruto had been using it to learn all he could from Arashi's scrolls. Unfortunately due to the chakra splitting nature of the shadow clone jutsu, Naruto found himself with less energy than normal on days where he did this. Still the payoff was worth it for him and it was good practice in making his clones last longer.
Today the clone had managed to open up one of Arashi's jutsu scrolls. Several techniques were listed inside. Water Release: Raging Maelstrom, Wind Release: Jetstream and others. However there was one that stood out for Naruto, Wind Release: Wind Claws. Naruto smiled as memories of Arashi trying to perfect this jutsu flashed through his head. The concern when he messed up and cut his fingers to ribbons and the excitement once he successfully performed the jutsu. Naruto remembered asking Arashi to teach him the jutsu right there only for Arashi to tell him, once again, "When you're older." Well he was older now and he would learn this jutsu first.
"Thank you brother." Naruto said to Arashi's shrine as he grabbed the scroll with the jutsu inside it. "I won't let you down."
In what remained of the Uchiha Compound, in the very dojo where he had fought Naruto when they first met Sasuke and Kakashi faced one another. "When you fought with your team you matched your movements to theirs and coordinate your efforts." Kakashi stated as he stood across from his pupil, "However when you fight alone, you're too aggressive and direct. We're going to fix that. Get ready."
Sasuke slid into a ready stance and slowly inched towards Kakashi. The jonin made no move to indicate whether or not he was ready. With a low growl Sasuke threw himself at his teacher, opening up with a kick at Kakashi's right leg. Kakashi stepped back to avoid the kick and punched towards Sasuke's forehead with his left hand. Sasuke's hands shot up and grabbed the jonin by the wrist. Stepping to the side Sasuke forced Kakashi's arm down, bringing the jonin to a knee. Before Sasuke could capitalize on his temporary advantage, Kakashi pulled his arm in and Sasuke was pulled off balance. Before the genin could right himself Kakashi delivered a kick to Sasuke's gut. The genin flew back and landed with a loud thump.
Sasuke quickly got back up and was on top of Kakashi again. This time attacking with an axe kick. A quick step to the side saw Kakashi to safety and a quick sweep with his foot had Sasuke on the ground again. Sasuke rolled to his feet and tried to jab for Kakashi's hip. The jonin counterpunched and struck the Uchiha square on the bridge of his nose.
"You're too aggressive Sasuke." Kakashi scolded, "What are you going to do if you rush headlong into a fight against someone who's faster than you?"
Sasuke rushed forward, his eyes flashing crimson. "Then I use these." He growled while punching for Kakashi's face. With his sharingan active he saw exactly what Kakashi would do. He would grab Sasuke's punch and twist his arm behind his back, then he would force the boy to the ground and pin him there. Even though Sasuke saw all of this clearly he was still powerless to stop Kakashi from doing just that.
"Just because your eyes can follow and even predict my movements doesn't mean your body is fast enough to keep up with them." Kakashi instructed as his forced Sasuke's face onto the mat.
The memory of his first lesson with Kakashi was still fresh in Sasuke's mind as he found himself once again pressed to the mat. "You're doing better." Kakashi complimented.
"Then why can't I beat you?" Sasuke asked as Kakashi helped him up.
"Because I'm your teacher." Was Kakashi's infuriatingly simple answer. When he saw Sasuke's irritated reaction he added, "But give yourself some credit for lasting as long as you did. I am quite good you know." Sasuke was about to say more when the alarm clock rang signaling the end of the training session. "Well I'll be you seeing bright and early tomorrow morning." Kakashi said as he turned to leave the dojo.
"Sensei." Sasuke started. Kakashi paused and looked at his student. "Why are you doing this for me? The private lessons I mean."
"Well before you let it go to your head, I alternate between the three of you. I help Naruto with ninjutsu, Sakura with genjutsu, and you with taijutsu. In time I'll switch around what I teach you so I can get a real grasp of your talents and adjust accordingly."
"Do you chastise them too then?" Sasuke pressed, hoping for a yes.
"Nope, that is specially for you."
"Why's that?"
"Because you remind me of myself at your age. You don't want to be that. Now good night Sasuke."
Sasuke watched Kakashi leave and stood alone for a few moments before whispering, "Thank you sensei."
While off on their first C-Ranked mission, Naruto and his team find they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Next Time: The Demon of the Mist.
Shorter chapter is shorter, sorry about that. Hope you enjoyed what there was and please leave a review. Thank you for Reading.