AN: 300 follows…. I have a story with 300 follows and 190 favs….. holy crap. oh, I don't own Naruto.

I cut Zetsu (thank you who ever reminded me about him) because I don't want anything to do with bunny goddess power wank or whatever that was at the end of Naruto. Because no. Just, no.

Reader responses

iyaoyas: thanks for you your service and for your review. The tips on grenade launchers are very much appreciated. The M14 can be accurate at that range without a scope?! Holy shit, I passed it by based on the wikipedia stats, thanks for the tip! You are correct the next handgun will be be the M1911. I would have already introduced it but, well, quick draw scene. I have to do at least one.

Botsboy408: I've got at least one idea for an original weapon. Don't worry they won't be literally gunning down all the competition, though I may do one or two fights like that…

paladin303: I believe there is a misunderstanding. NONE of the weapons being used run on a gas recoil system. I'm calling Hinata's rifle a M1 because the M1 has the statistics and look that I want.

Publicola: I love that idea

The newly formed team seven waited in the shade of the forest, each working at their own task. Naruto had disassembled his sniper rifle (M40a3) and was cleaning and oiling the components. Hinata was practicing a Juken kata and Sasuke was trying to soak up as much knowledge as he could from Naruto about the new type of weapon he would soon be learning to use.

This was the scene which Kakashi took in as he appeared in the middle of the clearing amidst swirling leaves.

"Yo, sensei! We were expecting you an hour ago, something keep you?" Naruto called out as he began to reassemble his sniper rifle.

"Mmm, a bird decided to nest in my hair, so I had to find him a new home before I could get here."

The three teens gave their sensei measured looks as they tried to determine if he was insane or simply messing with them. After a moment of awkward silence Kakashi coughed into his fist and resumed speaking.

"I tend to be about an hour late for most things, sometimes more, sometimes less. It's one of my…" Kakashi trailed off lazily spinning his right hand as he searched for the appropriate word.

"Nurosies?" Naruto offered with a grin.

"Sychosis?" Sasuke opined keeping his face admirably blank.

"Peculiarities?" Hinata suggested demurely.

"Let's go with that last one." Kakashi said brightly as he snapped his fingers. "You all will find that a lot of the stronger ninja, or even just the ones who have served the village for a long time tend to pick up, quirks. Some of these quirks are clan specific. It's an ingrained mentality which gives the individual something concrete and absolute to fall back on in times of mental stress. For example the Aburame's logical thinking or the Inuzuka pack mentality."

"The Hyuga stick of propriety shoved up the ass." Naruto muttered darkly. Kakashi ignored the interruption.

"These absolutes give them something to latch onto and emulate, even as their self image takes a beating from the horrors they will experience, and commit. Of course it's not perfect, but it can help, those are more exception than the rule though. Most ninja don't have that though we do all share in a sense of comradery which is also helpful. Regardless the pressure can affect us in strange ways over time. One of mine is showing up late. I don't expect any of you to understand it, just accept it. You should also spend that hour productively. Morning warm ups, practicing one of your skills, or studying a new skill are all acceptable."

The teens nodded. They had heard most of this before at one time or another from the psysch nins or the academy lectures on psychological stress. If they had to spend the first hour or so of their day working without their sensei, well there were worse things in life.

"Now then!" Kakashi clapped his hands together as he gave the teens his trademark eye smile. "This will be our schedule for the time being. Every morning we will work together in pairs helping each other to develop some of our own skills. For example today I will work with Hinata and work on her Hand to hand. While Naruto will help Sasuke with his stealth. Tomorrow Hinata will go over the tactics she and Naruto have worked on in the past with me so that I can better understand them and help look for flows while Sasuke will help Naruto get a better feel for jutsu combat. The next day we will switch partners and so on."

The three students nodded. It was a simple subtle reinforcement of the concept the Hokage had laid down the day before; the simple act of treating all three as equals in terms of what they brought to the team quelling any unfriendly rivalries before they were even given chance to take root. Assuring that each would give their all to bring the others up to a reasonable level of skill in the domains they were most comfortable with.

Well at least until Sasuke realized he had absolutely nothing to teach Kakashi, unless there were secrets about the sharingan he hadn't worked out on his own hidden away in the Uchiha clan compound. Which was possible, but not something Kakashi counted on. Realistically the copy nin was banking on the fact that Sasuke could take the other two apart in close or mid range combat to keep his pride from feeling too wounded.

And realistically Naruto and Hinata would only be teaching him how to handle a new type of weapon. Tactics were going to be something the whole team had to experiment with. What worked for one or two might not work for four, or it might work better. Regardless that would be more mutual than anything so within a few months Kakashi fully expected to be lording the fact that he was the only one with anything useful left to teach over all three.

With a self-satisfied giggle Kakashi directed the groups apart and got down to work on refining Hinata's hand to hand combat, switching from one style to another every so often to force her to adapt and keeping her on her toes.

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"Right first thing about stealth is the terrain matters. I use a different type of camouflage for the forest the mountain and the town. If I walked around town looking like a bush I'd stand out. Let's start with the forest." Naruto said and pulled out a storage scroll.

With a small burst of smoke two green grassy ghillie suits appeared between the two boys.

"This is one of my best creations. They have seals to eliminate scent, and to hide your chakra. We're going to play hide and seek with around the clearing." Naruto was grinning goofily as he started to slip into the ghillie suit. Sasuke on the other hand seemed to choke on nothing.

"You have to be kidding! Hide and seek?! We're supposed to be training, not playing kids games!"

Naruto for his part looked flummoxed before he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Alright tell you what." Naruto began in an overly reasonable tone, like one trying to explain something to a small child. "I'm going to go hide in that field." Naruto hiked a thumb over his shoulder to a field of tall grass "I'm going to go hide in there and you come try to find me. I'll show you exactly what I mean by hide and seek."

Sasuke looks the blond over skeptically before shrugging. With a chakra aided leap Naruto launches himself into the field, and vanishes.

Sasuke gives the blond a thirty second head started before launching into the trees for a bird's eye view, and finds no trace of his blond partner. Now with slightly more caution and appreciation for Naruto's tactics Sasuke begins to wade into the waist high grass. His ears and eyes peeled for any possible clues but he hears and sees nothing.

Sasuke quickly begins to grow frustrated but keeps his temper in check. For close to twenty minutes the raven haired teen searches fruitlessly before in an instant his feet are pulled out from under him and he feels a cold touch of steel at the back of his neck. Adrenaline runs through his veins, instinct screams to fight and years of training urge him to move! Then the moment passes as Naruto removes the training blade from his neck and stands.

"See, this is why stealth is important. You can take me apart in a straight fight, but a bit of stealth and a few moves for quick takedowns and I don't even have to fight. Since our job is going to call for a lot of sneaking both skills are really important. So we're going to practice by playing hide and seek." Naruto finished his impromptu lesson with a grin.

Slowly gaining control over his heartbeat Sasuke nodded his understanding. With new found appreciation for stealth Sasuke took the offered hand and hauled himself to his feet ready to try being on the other side of the knife.

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After a modest lunch the group of genin found themselves in the mission assignment room from which Kakashi collected three courier bags and a mission scroll before ushering them outside.

"Alright," Kakashi began with his standard good cheer. "For the next three weeks we are on low priority courier duty!"

"What?" Naruto asked, summing up his teammates thoughts nicely. "I mean I get that it needs to be done, but isn't this something a civilian could be paid to take care of?"

"Ah, good question. Most of these documents aren't important but with enough of them a spy could collect a great deal of information on some of the village's day to day business which can be dangerous. So while a civilian could do it, it remains a mission for security reasons as well as for training purposes."

At the mention of training the teens exchange skeptical looks.

"No, really. All of the messages go to important parts of the village. In the event of an attack you may be ordered to report to a certain location. I know you have all memorized the village layout, but in combat with adrenaline and fear messing with your head you don't want to have to stop and orient yourself to figure out where you need to go. So for the next three weeks I'll be calling out a location off the list while we deliver the messages it might be close or it might be far away and we will move at a good speed to whatever destination I choose. By the time we pass the mission on to the next team of genin I expect all of you to be constantly aware of the position of these locations relative to yourself without thinking."

With understanding dawning in their eyes and protest dying on their lips the trio got ready to move.

"Alright first delivery, let's see… Ah, how about the armory!"

Without complaint the team jumped to the roofs and made tracks for their destination. Kakashi allowed a small smile to tug at the corner of his lips as he watched his students launch themselves into their task with all the energy of you-. And Kakashi quickly cut that thought off while making a mental note to spend less time hanging around with Guy.

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"The trick to fighting with jutsu is to either make the signs and channel chakra on the move, or complete the signs fast enough that standing still doesn't leave an opening." Sasuke explained to his blond training partner. "The best way to look at it is high risk high reward. The right move can shape the battlefield or kill an opponent with overwhelming force, but speed, timing, and accuracy are critical. It's not as big a risk against non ninja, but against a trained ninja you have to judge exactly how fast they can close the distance versus how fast you can complete your hand seals. Most often if an enemy sees you going through seals they will start to counter or evade, but not always. If they think they are fast enough they might launch an attack to break your concentration or kill you." Sasuke lectured his blond teammate.

"Alright, so basically I have to be able to blow through hand signs faster than an enemy can get to me?"

"Right but it's not just your opponent charging you that you need to watch out for. You also need to worry about thrown weapons. So this is what we'll do; I'm going to stand however far away I feel like off to your side. When you start going through signs I'll either charge you or throw a training weapon at you. If I throw something you move and keep going through seals. If I charge you stand your ground. If you don't manage to fire off your jutsu before I reach you… I'll whack you with this stick." Sasuke finished holding up a short oak stick with a small malicious grin.

"What?!" Naruto squawked. "Why the hell do you get to hit me with a stick?!"

"Motivation." Sasuke responded still sporting a vicious grin. "Now let's get started."

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"Alright Hinata, what are covering?" Sasuke asked.

"Hmm well, how much of the combat medic class do you remember?" Sasuke held out a hand parallel to the ground before wiggling it.

"I remember the stuff about pressure bandages and the basics but I'm a bit iffy on the specifics for chest and belly wounds."

"Alright we'll go over those for now then if we have time I'll go over the indicators that someone's been poisoned.

{}{}{}{}

"OK, so, sensei… you remember those equations from the academy about projectile trajectories that no ninja is ever going to use in the field?"

"Of course, Naruto."

"Yeah we'll you're going to need to learn to do those in your head on the fly and they're going to be more complicated and precise than the ones the academy uses; rough estimates won't cut it." Kakashi's only visible eyebrow quirked up slightly before he nodded and allowed Naruto to launch into a lecture on ballistic calculations.

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"Alright, Sasuke, sensei, remember to take you time and stay calm, rapid heartbeats will only throw your aim off."

Nodding the pair took their first shots with their new weapons, aiming for targets only 100 meters down range. Both of their shots went wide. And so the lectures pointers and practice began.

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"Kakashi-sensei, what is our new mission?"

"Well Hinata, we are all going to be on guard duty patrolling the top of the village wall. For the first week we'll do this as a group. For the two following weeks we will work in pairs."

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The crack of rifle fire was steady and calming in its repetition as Naruto looked down range using a small telescope to track Kakashi's shots.

"Pretty tight grouping sensei. I think we need to start switching between targets, get you used to adjusting range quickly."

"Hmm I suppose so. I have to say this is starting to feel easier."

"That's good. Once we start working on moving targets we'll be ready to use them for real."

"Shadow clone simulations?"

"Yeah it's a pain at first but not too hard to get the hang of, especially with a spotter backing you up."

"Mmm"

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"Alright gang, this mission is going to less tedious, but more difficult, well annoying at any rate." Kakashi said with his normal laid back tone.

"Why's that sensei?" Hinata asked, while swatting her boyfriends hand from her shoulder.

"Well… we're on cat catching duty… for a week…"

"...Run that by me again sensei. All those years of listening to fan girls scream in class must have left permanent damage. I could swear I just heard you say we're spending the next week catching cats."

"Funny, Naruto. The Daimyo's wife summers in the village. Her pet cat Tora is part nin-cat and part bobcat… it tends to escape. A lot, and between the nin-cat instincts and the bobcat genes making it bigger and faster…"

"This has to be a joke." Sasuke deadpanned.

"It's not." Hinata sighed rubbing the side of her head. "My cousin came home ranting about demon cats last year not long after he graduated."

"For real? Damn."

"Don't worry I'm sure you three will figure something out."

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Sasuke was doing his best not to laugh. Honestly he was. He wasn't really succeeding but he was trying.

"How has that thing not mauled the Daimyo's wife yet?!" Naruto shouted as Hinta fretted about applying disinfectant and bandages to his face and arms. "Ow! Dang it that stings!"

"Stop fidgeting, it's only disinfectant. I have to get these cuts clean." Hinata scolded her boyfriend with a stern glare.

"Fine, whatever, can I please shoot the fur ball? Did the mission specify that we had to bring it back alive?"

At Naruto's question the other two froze before looking to Kakashi who tossed Sasuke the scroll without looking up from his book. The raven haired teen quickly scanned through their mission before giving a depressed sigh.

"Failure to return the cat Tora alive and relatively unharmed will constitute failure of the mission. Sorry Naruto, looks like we can't just kill the cat." The boy read.

"Naruto, have you had any luck with the"

"No, Hinata. I still have not had any luck with the kami forsaken non-lethal bullets." Naruto grumbled before breaking off into a muttered rant about impact force and something about paralysis seals.

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For the final time team seven dragged their vicious feline target into the mission's office. This time they had managed to completely wrap their target in ninja wire preventing it from moving.

"Little much don't you think?" Asked the bemused chunin manning the desk. The trio of angry glares from the bandaged genin was his only answer.

Collecting their mission pay the team made their way outside.

"...Say, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes, Naruto?"

"Are there any jounin with a genin team that happen to have a grudge against?" Everyone stopped to give the blond bemused looks.

"I can think of one or two I might want to get one over on. Why?"

"Oh I was just thinking, obviously we wouldn't want a black mark on our records from something as stupid as being unable to catch a cat alive… but if say we were to have a hunting trip, to practice marksmanship you understand, and if a certain cat was unlucky enough to be mistaken for say a bobcat, or a raccoon and killed... Well it's certainly wouldn't be our fault we made an honest mistake, now would it?" Naruto explained his tone smoother than silk.

"Naruto…" Hinata said, her tone dripping with disapproval. She might not like the cat but their ordeal was over and done with now that the mission had passed onto the next poor team.

Sasuke on the other hand was sporting a small vicious grin as he contemplated putting down the creature which ruined a pair of his pants only just missing his gonads. Kakashi was giving Naruto a contemplative look having actualy put away his book for this conversation. Finally Kakashi started to chuckle lightly. Those chuckles grew slowly into a full blown laughter which quickly died back down into light giggles.

"Oh? You're getting eager now are you, Naruto? Ready to put your skills use eliminating targets?"

Now for a moment Naruto paused as the full implications of that question washed over him. Memories of a bloody knife and a bloodier body resting on a plush bed flashed through his mind, but he shook those thoughts away. He knew it would come again in time, now or later it made little difference. This was his suggestion to begin with regardless. If he shied away from killing a cat he may as well turn in his headband now and save time. So with a cocky grin Naruto throws the ball back into Kakashi's court.

"Targets, sensei? I don't know what you're talking about. I was just suggesting a simple hunting trip to practice hitting live targets. Though I suppose if you wanted to targets a certain animal to simulate a real world mission..." Naruto trailed off grinning like a loon.

Hinata huffed in exasperation while Sasuke and Kakashi rewarded the blonde's antics with small chuckles.

"Well then I suppose a hunting trip could be a good exercise. Why don't you give me some time to pick out an ideal date and I'll get back to you all on that. Setting that aside for the moment, our next mission is to do inventory of the shuriken in the armory. It's a mind numbingly boring task but we have to do it every so often. Go get some sleep, can't have you lot losing count because you're tired after all."

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"Naruto, I am not OK with this!" Hinata hissed into her radio.

"Hinata, what did you think you would be doing with that rifle, eh? It's only good for one thing and you know it." Naruto answered back feeling rather tired of this debate.

"This isn't for the village though! It's not a mission; we aren't getting paid to do this, Naruto!"

"She does have a point." Sasuke chimed in. "You think if we get the cat stuffed after this? We could sell it to one of the other genin teams it mauled."

"That is not what I meant and you know it, Sasuke!" Hinata fumed.

"Look, Hinata, I get what you're saying." Sasuke answered. "And if we were going after a person I would agree with you. But we aren't killing a person, just the demon spawn masquerading as a cat. It nearly took my balls off!"

"So you're going to kill a cat that we don't even need to deal with anymore because it nearly hurt you? Sasuke, are you sixteen or seven? We're ninja, you should be more mature than this."

"Come on Hinata-hime." Naruto said letting his pet name for the girl slip in an attempt to calm her down. "The cat mauled all three of us, and it ripped your favorite jacket. Think of it this way we're giving Sensei's rival's team a black mark on their records, and it's Neji's squad! I know you want to take that prick down a notch, and let's not forget all the other genin we'll be saving from the nightmare of dealing with that cat!" Naruto argued.

For a time the line fell silent.

"Fine, whatever. We kill the cat. But you owe me, Naruto!"

While he thanked her Naruto was busy internally wincing at the prospect of how many cinnamon buns he would have to buy, and how many back messages he would have to give.

"You know," Kakashi's lazy drawl filtered through his earpiece. "If I didn't know any better I would say you too are a bit more familiar than just friends and teammates, Naruto, Hinata…"

"For fucks sake…. Damnit…." Naruto said letting his eye drop from his scope to bang his head against the ground. Sasuke whistled over his mike.

"No, kidding? How'd you manage that one mister sharp shooter?" Sasuke teased.

"Discretely, that's how. How long have you known sensei? I thought we were doing a good job of hiding it?" Hinata asked with just a touch of venom.

"Oh I've suspected for awhile now." Kakashi admitted with a chuckle. "You did do a decent job of hiding it, but I caught both your eyes wandering from time to time. That and a few conversations tipped me off."

"Alright, I'll bite." Naruto grumped. "If you've known for awhile why bring it up now?"

"Oh that's easy. I was getting bored and thought your reactions might be amusing!"

Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle as the radio was consumed with Sasuke's chuckles and Naruto's cursing. Teasing his students really was a great pastime Kakashi mused, almost as good as Icha Icha. Shame even he couldn't read and scan for his target at the same time, speaking of which.

"I see the target." Instantly the line went silent. "500 meters out, only a slight cross breeze, it's moving slow. Easy shot."

"Take your time sensei you've got this." Naruto murmured across the radio.

Ignoring the well meant but unnecessary commentary from his student Kakashi took a moment to run through the calculations in his head. At this range he would barely have to lead the target. Taking calm even breaths Kakashi gently squeezed the trigger. The result was rather more spectacular than he had expected.

The bullet took the oblivious feline in the head. Blood bone and brain matter exploded across the green grass of the field in a small but spectacular triangle of gore.

"Target eliminated everyone. Let's meet up Ichiraku's, given how much they love Naruto I'm sure they would be more than willing to be our alibi for when Guy's team finds the cat."

Chuckling to himself Kakashi sealed away his sniper rifle before moving off into the trees. If nothing else being a sensei was proving to be amusing.

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