Hello again! Sorry this took so long, but I'm a slow writer to begin with and, to be honest, I spent most of my time writing and brainstorming for my new story, Naruko: The Toad Queen. Go check it out! There weren't any questions in the reviews so, I guess we'll just move straight to the fic! Oh, and keep in mind that last chapter wasn't really meant to be as short as it was. I posted it when I did to make sure I let you guys know I wasn't dead as quickly as possible. So this chapter is more like the second half of the last one, and will also be on the shorter side.

Disclaimer: I Don't own Naruto. I do own a jar of nutella and a loaf of bread though, so I'm pretty content about it.

Chapter 10: Career Kick start

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Unknown location
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In a dark cavern somewhere in the bowls of the elemental nations, one injured form crouched on top of a finger of a massive statue. This statue was of a strange, many eyed monster, and its hands were raised, its fingers splayed so as to form platforms for the shadowy group to stand on. As the crouched figure shuddered in pain, seven humanoid but oddly colored shapes blinked into existence, standing atop the other fingers.

"Deidara, where is Sasori? And why do you appear to not possess the Sanbi?" Came the dangerous voice of the group's apparent leader. Deidara stood up shakily.

"The sanbi? Are you kidding? I'm lucky to be alive! Sasori is dead, and Konoha has the Sanbi."

"Konoha? You'd better explain why you have failed me so completely."

"R-right, leader-sama. It was the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and Jiraiya of the sannin. The two of them showed up and fought us for the bijuu."

"Jiraiya... I see. That is most unfortunate."

"Hehe, that Sasori went and got himself killed? who would've thought?" This from the tallest figure, with the unsettlingly sharp teeth.

"Do not underestimate Jiraiya of the sannin. No two of you, even with the element of surprise, stand a chance against that opponent. In the future, if you see him you are to run. Do I make myself clear?"

"Hai, leader-sama." came the collective response of the projected group.

"If I may, leader-sama?" The form of the ring-eyed leader nodded. "It wasn't Jiraiya that killed Sasori. In fact, we never fought him at all. He spent the entire fight holding off the sanbi while the brat took down Sasori and injured me. I barely got away with my life, yeah."

"The Jinchuuriki? Explain."

"There's nothing else to say. That kid is insanely strong. He took Sasori down with ease yeah. We didn't stand a chance, yeah."

"That is... troubling. Zetsu, you will investigate this unexplained strength the Kyuubi holds. As for the rest of you, continue as planned. As for you, Deidara... Did you manage to save Sasori's ring?"

"No, leader-sama. But as far as I know, Konoha has no idea of its significance."

"I see... Zetsu, while in Konoha you will try to regain the missing ring. I will not allow these failures to continue. Dismissed."

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Konoha, Hokage's office
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"Team seven reporting in." Naruto announced lazily. Since that day when Sasuke had been... tested, if you wanna call it that, team seven had been put through the ringer. After she woke up, Naruto brutally informed Sakura that it was unacceptable how little chakra she still had, and had her doing rigorous chakra exercises. Kiba's performance had been declared 'acceptable, but sloppy' and had been put through even harder training. As for Sasuke, it took him a long while before he finally got out of that bed, but when he did he jumped immediately and zealously into his training. Amazingly, it only took three weeks before Naruto declared him ready to receive his new bloodline limit. It was the most painful thing he had ever experienced, and he was certain he was going to die.

Luckily, he did not, and even more amazingly, the ordeal, or perhaps the fuinjutsu itself, had also unlocked his Sharingan. Sasuke had never felt more powerful in his life. Not only did his eyes now award him most of the same abilities his teammates' fuingan had, he also now had regeneration powers which he was using to great effect. Now that it took mere minutes for his muscles to heal from intense training, and only a few hours at most for a broken bone to feel good as new, Sasuke had done almost nothing but train in the past several weeks. He even felt as though he had more chakra then he ever had before, which he did, in fact, as he gained a second sea of chakra. After testing it, Sasuke was disappointed to learn that both of his natural affinities were fire, but Naruto had expected this.

Sasuke no longer needed to even weave hand signs to perform the two fire jutsu he knew, and they were bigger than ever before. Sadly, as most of his training revolved around his taijutsu and increasing his chakra capacity, he had yet to learn any new jutsu. What he had learned, however, was exactly what it felt like to open several of the gates and become stupidly powerful as his teammates had that first day. He also learned why he should only do so in an emergency, as it took him three days to recover from doing so. Overall, Sasuke was amazed at how much stronger he had become in such a short period of time, and was thoroughly satisfied that Naruto was upholding his end of the bargain they had struck. Now, two months later, team seven was prepared for their first ever mission.

"Ahh Naruto-kun. I was wondering when you would finally show up. Now then, let's see what we have available. There's walking the Inuzuka hounds, painting an old man's fence, catching Tora the cat..."

As he went on, team seven stared in horror at their leader. These were ninja missions?! What kind of bullshit...

"Actually, Hokage-sama..." Aww hell. Naruto never called him 'Hokage-sama' which could only mean that he wanted something. "I was thinking that due to the... special circumstances surrounding my team, you would be willing to give them a C-rank."

"On their first mission? Come now Naruto..."

"Hear me out here. These missions are meant as team building exercises, for the most part, and it makes perfect sense to keep fresh genin out of danger. However, my team isn't exactly normal, I think you'll agree. I've been putting them through intense training these past two months with the express intention of putting them directly into C-ranks, both to give them some real experience, and to show them what real battles are like. This team isn't like others, a lot of expectation has been put on them. I think that, to put it bluntly, D-rank missions would simply be a waste of valuable time in an investment Konoha has put into them."

Naruto made a point of not directly mentioning the plan with the sanbi, not knowing if all the chunin in the room knew about it.

"Hmmm... well I certainly have faith in your ability to protect them, if nothing else. Alright fine, I'll give you the C-rank. However, you will give a very thorough report on this mission, and if I feel that at any point any one of your genin were in over their heads, you'll be getting nothing but D-ranks for at least six months. Am I clear?"

"Of course, Hokage-sama..."

"Hm. Very well, send him in!" From a door off to the side of the room, an old man reeking of sake stepped forth. "This is your client, Tazuna-san. You will be escorting him to wave country and protecting him from bandits while he builds a bridge to the mainland."

"What, these are my ninja protectors? they're a bunch of kids! Look at that one, he doesn't even come up to my knees!"

"I assure you, Tazuna-san, that these three are more than capable of protecting you from any threats that may come your way. In fact, that boy you just insulted is a jonin, despite his age. Please do not allow appearances to dictate your judgments."

"Right... well, what are we waiting for? I've got a bridge to build."

Naruto merely raised an eyebrow at this... man he was to protect.

"Right then. Let's head out shall we?"

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Road to Konoha gates, thirty minutes later
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Thanks to their jonin sensei being the greatest seal master in the elemental nations, the genin didn't even have to prepare for the journey. Everything they needed was sealed away on their persons at all times. So, in a silence that made Tazuna noticeable more nervous, the group of four children and one drunk old man trekked on towards wave country. As they walked, Naruto was paying close attention to Tazuna. The old man was keeping his head on an untrained but no less paranoid swivel.

"What's he so worried about... Ah, that. I see."

Just as he thought that he saw them, two chunin level ninja disguised as a puddle. A puddle on such a sunny day when it hadn't rained all week was suspicious, but Kiba was right in his assumption that Naruto never actually turned his fuingan completely off. So to him, they were clear as day. Deciding to make the encounter something of a test for his genin, Naruto substituted with a clone and waited.

"ONE DOWN!"

Came the shout from behind as the three genin turned, only to see Naruto wrapped up in a strange bladed chain and ripped to pieces. All three of them had, upon seeing danger, activated their Dojutsus however, and weren't even remotely concerned by this turn of events. Their attackers were a pair of cloaked ninja with rebreathers on, both wielding large metal gauntlets attached by a chain that appeared to be made of shuriken. Wasting no time, Kiba launched himself forward and grabbed the middle of the chain.

"Harden!" Kiba shouted just before his hand touched the unusual weapon. The action caught the enemy ninja by surprise, which was only doubled as Kiba became hard as granite and their chain was jerked in the wrong direction, pulling the two brothers on a collision course with each other.

They were prepared. They flipped a bit in mid air, ready to land on each other's feet and kick off. What they weren't prepared for, however, was for Sasuke to suddenly appear between the two and kick them both in the face in an impressive feat of flexibility. Recognizing that their strategy wasn't working, the two disconnected their gauntlets from the chain and bolted for the bridge builder.

"Shock." Only for a small pink haired girl to grab them both by the leg and turn herself suddenly into a human taser. Caught completely off guard, the enemy combatants fell like sacks of potatoes, completely out for the count.

"Well now, good work you three. That was perfectly executed." To the surprise of no one but Tazuna, Naruto appeared behind everybody, calmly assessing his team's performance. "Now, Tazuna... care to explain why two C-rank missing ninja just tried to kill you? I believe this mission was supposed to only be a protection detail against bandits and other non-shinobi threats."

The old man looked so nervous now Naruto was concerned he might just have a heart attack.

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To be Continued...
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I know, this is even shorter than last time. But not only is this chapter more like part two of last chapter in the outline of things I have in my head, but I also wanted to upload today for IRL reasons, so I kinda rushed. Oh well. I did post another story though, so if you're dying for more, go read that :D Also, review please.