A.N.: *sigh* I'm really not motivated to write this chapter, but I'm doing so anyway. Anyway… This officially starts my C-MISSION ARK! It's kinda like the c-ranked mission in the Manga/anime, but this is my own design! It's, well, you'll just have to wait and see! XD

My Protector

Chapter 9 – Mission to Rice!

A knocking at my door drew me out of checking over my knuckles. They were completely healed from yesterday's abuse, and it only took me a moment to figure out that it was because of the Kyuubi's chakra. I wandered over to my front door, opening it to reveal my best friend.

I invited him in silently, not knowing what to say. I knew he was still worried about me; heck, I'd be worried about anyone who almost punched their way through a log.

I turned to him awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot. I might as well just say it, I thought with a sigh. "Lee, I'm sorry about yesterday. I was just… venting feelings."

He nodded unsurely, opening his mouth to speak. "Are you okay now, though? Gai-sensei and I were worried about you after you left."

I smiled, glad they cared about me so much. "Yes, I'm fine. I just needed some time to myself is all."

He nodded again, more firmly this time. I was glad that he understood that there were some things I had to sort out on my own, and that I was absolutely fine now.

I grinned at him, linking my arm with his, and dragged him out the door. "Now, let's go find the rest of our team and get some more wonderful D-rank missions, shall we?"

He grinned back at me, any uneasiness he had disappearing. We chattered on the way to our training grounds, eager for another day of training and missions.

(1 Week Later)

"Team Gai has arrived!"

The loud proclamation from my sensei alerted all within the vicinity that my team was here for missions. I followed the green clad man into the mission room with my teammates, sighing at his over-enthusiastic behavior.

All the chuunins looked at him strangely, while the Hokage just chuckled at him.

"Hello, Gai. And what type of mission would you like today?"

"A C mission today!" our sensei exclaimed, surprising us all.

"A C mission?" the aged Hokage asked, "Are you sure your team ready for that?"

"Yes! They have been genin for a while now, and I think their teamwork would benefit from a C-class mission."

The Hokage looked over us all, examining us carefully. I wasn't sure if we could do a C-rank mission, but by the looks on my teammate's faces, they thought they could. I took a deep breath, telling myself to have faith in my team. Besides, Gai wouldn't let us die or anything... I think.

"Alright," Jiji's voice interrupted my musings, "I have a simple escort mission here for them to do. You will escort a man from Rice back to his homeland with this cart of goods. Bring him in."

A side door opened to reveal a tall brown eyed man dressed in civilian clothes. He smiled kindly at us, looking over team Gai's faces.

"Are these young ninja going to be my escort? I'm honored to have such well prepared looking ninja accompanying me on my travels." He said politely. He seemed a nice enough guy.

I nodded at him, silently thanking him. "YOSH! We shall leave at midnight!" shouted Gai, striking a 'nice guy' pose. I sighed at my sensei again; it seems I do that a lot.

"Maybe we should ask him when we're leaving, sensei." I said, gesturing to the client.

The man just smiled at us. "Dawn is fine."

I nodded again, "Right." Then asked, "And may we know your name?"

Hey, someone has to be the mature one in our group for now. Well, besides Neji, he'd probably just say something about 'fate' and then insult the client or us.

"Takishi. And may I know the names of my guides?"

"Well, I'm Uzamaki Naru." I said.

"Rock Lee!" Lee promptly filled in next.

"Hyuuga Neji," Neji said flatly.

"And I am their Jounin sensei, Maito Gai! Pleased to meet you on this most youthful occasion!" … Do you even have to ask?

Takishi nodded, "Well, I'll meet you at the gate at dawn tomorrow?"

"Yes sir." I responded, seeing Gai was still hung up about meeting at midnight.

Once I told Gai that 'dawn is a very youthful time of day' to get him to stop being weird about meeting at the dead of night, he said to us, "Yosh! You are right, Naru! Thank you for reminding me! Now, pack all your supplies and portable food for a week. I expect you to be at the gate in time to watch to beautifully youth-filled sunrise!"

I nodded to him, ignoring the part about the sunrise. My sensei is so weird.

I turned back to Takishi, "We'll see you then, sir."

I then left with my team, heading back to our houses to gather our supplies.

Maybe we are ready for this mission.

I jumped when someone knocked at my door. I put down the kunai I was currently packing to head to the door.

I opened it to find someone totally unexpected. Kakashi in all his masked glory stood in my doorway, reading his orange book. I blinked at him, confused as to why he was at my apartment. He looked up at me, lowering his book slightly. He then 'eye' smiled at me, lifting up a hand.

"Yo."

I blinked again. "Uh, hi?"

"Gai asked me to come here to teach you a new jutsu of my choosing. He said you looked anxious today when you were assigned a C-rank mission. He said if I taught you a new technique it might help."

I scratched the back of my head; was I really that obvious? Jeez. "Um, you don't have to…"

He shrugged. "Nah, it's okay. I don't really mind. You're a hard enough worker and you pretty much get concepts right away, so you're not all that hard to teach."

I smiled, grateful for the compliment. He turned around then, heading off in a random direction. I quickly followed after him, making sure to lock my door.

He brought me to the training ground that we trained in before, where he taught me the Kage Bunshin. I wondered what he'd teach me.

"Right," he said, turning to me, "First of all, I want you to pump your chakra into this. It will determine what technique I teach you." He held out a piece of thick paper, which I took into my hand.

I looked at him quizzically, wondering what the point of this was. Then I shrugged, figuring I'd find out. I pumped some of my chakra into the paper, watching as it took on a slight glow. Suddenly, it split in half, and the edges dampened slightly. I looked back up at Kakashi, wonder what the heck that meant.

"What you just pumped your chakra into was a special paper made out of trees that were grown with chakra, so the sheets are extra sensitive to people's chakra. What I had you do was an elemental affinity test. Basically, whatever happens to the paper determines what elemental affinity is most apparent in an individual." I nodded, understanding so far. I remember faintly talking about something like this in class. "So, your paper split in half, indicating that the wind element is strongest in you. However, you also have traces of water. That is extremely rare for any genin your age, but not impossible."

"Anyway, since your wind element is strongest, I'll teach you a wind style move, since it will be the easiest for you to learn." He put a hand to his chin, and for the first time I noticed that his book wasn't in sight. I waited patiently for him to decide, or at least somewhat patiently. Finally, he spoke up again.

"Ok, I'll teach you a C-rank jutsu, and then maybe when you get back from your mission I can teach you a higher level. Well, it's called Futon: Daitoppa. It basically is a huge gust of wind coming from the user, flattening almost everything in its path. Here, I'll show you."

He did some handseals, then shouted the name of the technique. I had to hold onto a nearby tree to avoid being blown away. It was a pretty cool technique, I had to admit. Once the jutsu ended, I stood up straight again.

He then proceeded to show me the handseals, Tiger – Ox – Dog – Rabbit – Snake.

By the time it was dark, I got the jutsu for the most part, though I have to practice it more to master it. I bid Kakashi goodbye, then headed to my apartment to finish packing and get some rest before tomorrow.

"Good morning my youthful students!" Our sensei yelled joyfully, walking up to where we all were waiting.

"Morning sensei," I said, yawning.

"Morning!" yelled Lee, chipper as ever, while Neji just glanced over at him.

Takishi waved at him, standing next to his cart. The oxen in front were shuffling about themselves.

"Okay, Team! The plan is to get Takishi to Rice safely, making sure he and his goods are safe from bandits." We all nodded in reply.

But as we set off sown the road, talking among ourselves, somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that things wouldn't go according to plan.

A.N.: Hey all! I'm sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but I was trying to get it done before I have to leave for California today. Anyways, remember to review! Peace, yall!