The morning couldn't have come sooner for her. Sakura as soon as the sun got up instantly rolled out the bed and began her daily perpetration for the day. Today would be the day that she would ask one of the Yamanaka clan on how to deal with her teammates. She was pretty sure that she and Naruto could get along since it seemed that all he needed was something to concentrate on. Also since she'd paid attention to Anna-senpai she'd gotten an idea on how to deescalate a situation with the boisterous blonde. Now it was just Sasuke that she was unsure of how to deal with. She wanted to be an asset but how would she do that with her feelings for him? It seemed to annoy him instead interest him. Hence why she was taking a different approach while incorporating what Anna-senpai had told her like now for instance she was walking up early so she could get some training in before they had to meet up.

She quietly went downstairs and took some small snacks she could eat and drink on the way and went out the door. It was a calm morning with some night crew coming back to their homes from work and those early birds going to their work. Sakura quickly made her way through the crowds and headed towards a training ground. She made it to one that had several target ranges. Good she could work on...

"WHAT A FINE DAY FOR SUCH YOUTHFUL EXERCISE!"

Sakura jumped a foot into the air and turned to see...what was that?!

It was a tall bowl cut man with impressively thick eyebrows dressed in evergreen spandex with orange leg warms, a Konoha flak jacket with sandals that looked very scuffed up and well used. His hitai-ate was tied around his waist. Beside him was a boy dressed similarly excluding the jacket and his eyes were bigger and his hands were covered with bandages. The two were staring at her with huge smiles that could've been considered inspiring...if it wasn't so random and so early in the morning.

"SUCH A YOUTHFUL SPIRIT AND FINE DEDICATION TO THE SHINOBI ARTS IS QUITE A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT!" He smiled at her giving her a thumbs up...did his teeth just sparkle? WHAT WAS THIS?!

"Eh?" Was the only thing she was capable of producing from her mouth at this time her mind was still trying to comprehend the sight that was before her.

"HER SPIRIT IS ENRAPTURED WITH SUCH YOUTHFUL VIGOR! WITH SUCH BEAUTY AND SUCH DEDICATION!"

"AGREED GUY-SENSEI," the boy beside belted out equally as loud...it was far too early in the morning for this kind of shouting. "SUCH BEAUTY IS TO BE ADMIRED! I BELIEVE I'VE FOUND THE LOVE OF MY EYES!"

WHAT HUH?! Sakura backed away with leery look. Noticing this the older of the two lessened his intensity and gave her a much more calm look.

"You'll forgive us, we choose training grounds at random and today happened to be this one. We usually..."

"Guy, are you trying to scary my poor student?" Kakashi's voice interrupted him. Looking to her left she saw Kakashi-sensei standing at the entrance of the field looking exasperatedly at him.

"KAKASHI MY ETERNAL RIVAL!" Wait this was rival Anna-senpai talked about?! Good grief she'd take Kakashi's antics over this guy. "IN FACT SHALL BEAT YOU IN ONE OF OUR CONTESTS! MAKE MY WORDS I SHALL PREVAIL! IN FACT I CHALLENGE YOU TO A RUN OFF AROUND KONOHA!"

"Eh?" Kakashi nonchalantly pulled out an orange book with the words Make-Out Paradise on it and began reading it. "Sorry what was that you said?"

"OH YOU ACTING SO HIP AND COOL IN THE FACE OF MY CHALLENGE!" Guy shouted pointing at the very nonplussed Kakashi. Sakura had to admire his calm. Sakura was still bit flatfooted around this guy.

"Don't you have a student train?" Kakashi asked looking up from his reading. "I'd suggest you do that. You're burning up precious morning time. We can settle our ties and contests later."

"YOU ARE RIGHT MY ETERNAL RIVAL WE ARE WASTING TIME. LEE LET US DO OUR HUNDRED LAPS ON OUR HANDS AROUND KONOHA!"

"YES GUY-SENSEI!" the boy evidentially named Lee answered looking as fired up as his teacher.

"THEN LET US GO MY PUPIL!" With that he did a flip and two began running off...on their hands...okay that happened.

"He's...a bit much," Kakashi said stowing away his book and looking apologetic at Sakura. "But well meaning."

"Who was that?!"

"Mighty Guy and I'm guessing that's his student Rock Lee," Kakashi answered easily. "But I have to ask what are you doing here? I'd expected to see Sasuke or Naruto this early training."

"Ah well..you see..." She stumbled over her words before taking a deep breath and plunging into it. Might as well.

"I want to train and get strong so I'm not a liability but an asset to the team."

"I see...did Anna-san spark this idea?"

"Well not completely," Sakura admitted. "But she did say to become an asset to the team and upon reflection about fighting yesterday I realized that I didn't do much."

"Really? So who's idea was it to come to the training field early and set up traps?"

"Well mine but the boys..."

"Didn't think of it," Kakashi finished. "So I'd say there's a contribution right there."

"But Naruto has his jutsu and Sasuke-kun is well...Sasuke-kun," Sakura argued wringing her hands.

"So you feel like lacking?" Kakashi raised and eyebrow.

"Well yes," Sakura replied sagging. "I don't feel like I can offer much."

"You offer ideas," Kakashi shrugged. "That's something. Not everyone has to be a powerhouse you know."

"But how's that an asset?"

"You're the thinker and the boys are the doers."

"But...I want to help fight," Sakura countered. "I don't want to be a damsel on the sidelines."

"Hm..." Kakashi rubbed his chin seemingly giving her protest some thought. "Well I suppose I could teach you how to climb trees..."

"Um Kakashi-sensei we know how to do that."

"Oh?" Kakashi looked at her. "Without hands?"

"Without hands?" She repeated as if it would make sense. Was he thinking like that Guy-san guy? If so she wasn't sure if she wanted to know.

"Without hands," he parroted back walking up to a tree and...walking up the tree. Sakura stared slack jawed he continued going up until he reached one of the higher branches. "Like this." He crowed at her shocked face.

How did he do that?! Sakura stared at him as he turned around and walked down the tree with the absurd ease.

"I applied chakra to my feet and used it to anchor myself to the tree," he said answering her unasked question. "It should take you a bit to master so let's see how far you can make it up the tree eh?"

Sakura at first felt a flutter of her unsureness before she shook it away. She nodded firmly and adjusted her chakra through mediatating. Once she'd gotten adjusted she walked up the tree. Her first step slipped but she quickly adjusted, the second she felt a slight crackle of the bark and adjusted again, third was a slight slip and by the fourth step...it worked. She stuck to the side of the tree and impossibly she walked up the side to one of the higher branches before she felt her reserves dipping. She turned and then sat on a branch sticking out her tongue in triumph.

"Well well, you seem to have the best control," Kakashi complimented her smiling at her with his visible eye. "And here you were thinking that you had nothing to contribute. That's a good thing to contribute. You've got control, you've got smarts. Sakura-chan you're hardly a burden."

"You mean I'm an asset?" Sakura called down breathless with excitement.

"Yes, you are, all you need is some refinement and you'll be fine."

Sakura smiled with happiness. She wasn't useless after all.

"But you must keep improving yourself," Kakashi said interrupting her thoughts. "Don't even get complacent. You must always work harder and always strive to improve yourself otherwise you will become a liability, understand?"

"Yes Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura said her face taking on a determined look. "Could you teach me?"

"The basics yes, but I'd suggest finding a suitable teacher to help you out more and I've got just the jonin in mind for you..."

"Anna-senpai?"

"Well her too but I was thinking more so of Anko-san since you wanted to work on combat experience."

"Anko-san?"

"Mitarashi Anko is a combat specialist that could help only if you want her too."

"I'll do it."

"Then I'll contact her, now come on we've got to get to office now."

"Of course Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura was now excited for what that bring. If Kakashi-sensei trusted her then she would help her. This was going to be great!

Naruto skipped happily to the mission office. He was a ninja. An official ninja. This was great, sure they missions would suck for a bit but he has a good grasp of his teammates now and would work with what he had.

"Eh what's the loser doing here?!" Hibachi asked as he approached with no hitai-ate that Naruto's eyes could see.

"Going to work what are you doing?"

"I'm-"

"Being a pest it would seem." The two looked behind themselves and Naruto saw Nara Etsuko with her brother Satoru and Aburame Yuudai. Etsuko was naturally the one that had spoken. Her brother was talking to Ito Kayo. That wasn't surprising since Satoru wasn't one to indulge in verbal smackdowns. That he left to Etsuko was more then happy to dish out the snark.

Out of all of Anna's friends Satoru was the most closed off of them whereas the rest were pretty open. He wasn't nasty just cold and distant. He seemed to like being around Naruto since he often helped Naruto with understanding some of the concepts.

Beside him was Aichi Kayo from Naomi's old team as well as Aburame Yuudai who at the very least offered him a polite nod which he returned. Aichi-san ignored like he wasn't even present but that was normal for her. Aichi-san was in strictest kinda like Sakura only not really. While Sakura was from a civilian clan trying to become a ninja one Aichi was a lesser ninja clan. She was dismissive and downright rude. Her teammate Takahashi Junpei was hardly any better. Ultimately they were a team that he remembered Naomi was cordial too but not close too. They didn't like her clan much and while they worked with her they didn't consider her a friend. Naruto hoped that he would avoid that situation with is own team. All others were close to their teams and tried them like extended family. But then again their clans did tend to be close in the case of the Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi or just open to others like the Inuzuka were or in the case of the Hyugas just that branch of the family.

"Who the heck are you?" Hibachi leered not getting the fact that he was within sights of Etsuko which never boded well for the person usually in the verbal sense. Etsuko was very sardonic with a sarcastic rapier wit. Satoru was more of the quiet snarker but his attention was on Aichi-san.

"A ninja and you're not. Now unless you've got business here then get lost," Etsuko said her glare getting colder at the boy. Hibachi then realized that he was in over his head and backed away. Once he'd backed off sufficiently she walked up and ruffled his hair affectionately. "Hey there Master Prankster, so you got yourself a hitai-ate or did you steal Anna's?"

"Ha ha ha," Naruto laughed flatly batting away her hands playfully. "No way I earned it dattebayō!"

"Really? Congrats kiddo," Satoru said as he walked up. His conversation with Aichi-san evidentially finished since she was now just heading into the building.

"Good job MP."

"Thanks...hey you guys...do you..."

"Well aren't you articulate this morning."

"Do you hate me because of my tenant?" It was a testament to how serious the question was to them as Etsuko's trademark smirk vanished from her face and Satoru's eyes focused on him.

"How did you find out?" Satoru asked taking charge.

"Um well Mizuki told me. He was using it to turn me against the village I guess. Dunno, maybe he just hated me. But the point is do you hate me?"

"Are you a monster?"

"No," Naruto blinked confusedly at Etsuko's question.

"Then I don't," Etsuko said with a serious look on her face which was pretty rare sight to see. "You're the MP. I care about you. You didn't kill Tou-san."

"Agreed. You're not the monster," Satoru nodded firmly. "You were worried about that?"

"Yeah," Naruto admitted as they started walking towards the office. "I mean the other guys said it was fine but I wasn't too sure about you two since you lost your dad and well that whole fiasco."

"You're lack of faith in us is disturbing. Of course we don't hate you."

"You're hilarious," Naruto snarked back at Etsuko relieved that they didn't hate him. Now the only one that he cared about was Kenta-tou-san's opinion.

"Seriously that wasn't your fault. Besides the instigator is dead anyway," Satoru said putting hand on his shoulder. "I don't hold you responsible for that."

"Okay," Naruto sighed relieved as they walked into the office. The Mission Office was of course open at this early hour due to the twenty four hour nature of ninja work. Sasuke was already inside waiting along with Sakura-san and Kakashi-sensei?! He was late?

"Tsk tsk, you're late Naruto."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?"

Sasuke snorted at Naruto's horrified and infuriated expression as he stomped into the room. To be honest he wasn't expecting Kakashi to actually be punctual but he did come in with Sakura oddly enough in tow who looked extremely happy. Oddly for her she didn't bug him about a date and said nothing more then a "Good morning" to him before they settled in to wait for Naruto.

His late arrival wasn't a big since he was maybe a minute or two late. Now the team was assembled. The two that had accompanied him walked off with man ruffling his hair affectionately. After grumbling he walked up to them and fell into line.

"Who were those two?" Sakura asked looking the two people curiously.

"Oh that was Nara Satoru and Nara Etsuko, they're Anna-nee-chan's friends. They just came back from a mission," Naruto shrugged.

"So that other people we'd just saw were their teammates or one of their teammates?" She said gesturing to other two people waiting in the entrance for them. The girl in particular looked cross and had a steely look aimed at Naruto. Why was that? He'd always wondered why adults had glared at the boy. Well most did with others were more dismissive towards him.

"Aichi Kayo and Aburame Yuudai were temporary. The Nara's teammates are Yamanaka Kaede-nee-san, Yamanaka Ichika-nee-san, Akimichi Mikio and Hyūga Chiaki-nee-san."

"If that's the case then how do you know them?"

"Aburame-san used to be on Naomi-nee-san's team and Aichi-san used to be nee-chan's class...Well let's just say that she really didn't like nee-chan that much," Naruto replied. Sasuke could guess as to why since he was giving her a dismissive and angry look. Well then Aichi-san just earned herself a black list as far as he was concerned.

"Naomi?"

He didn't answer her immediately instead he looked over to Sasuke who give him a nod. There was no harm in her knowing. It was common knowledge among her age group in either case so it wasn't a secret. Now the Incident at the Massacre...Anna-chan's tale to say. Although he did like hearing it. It was nice that man got a nasty shock during that night.

"Uchiha Naomi, she was one of my biggest sister's closest friend."

"Oh," Sakura was mercifully quiet after that letting Kakashi take the lead as he picked their first assignment. It was babysitting. Oh good grief Naruto was right, this was going to be a pain.

Kakashi didn't mind the milk run assignments although he could see that his students looked annoyed about it. Give them time and they'll look fondly on it. He snorted as they reached the client's house and began babysitting the kids. Sasuke was completely out of his element and his panicked expression just looked hilarious. Sakura looked more like in her element. Naruto looked a little flat footed but he was trying to connect with the kids. Soon the little ducklings were watching over the kids to varying degrees of success. It was amusing.

Finally after a few hours there were allowed to come back to the mission office for another assignment. Kakashi this time chose helping elderly lady with her shopping. This was going to be easy.

Anna was heading back home when she ran into Naruto or rather Naruto ran up to her. Naruto looked like he was ready to explode.

"Fun day?" she asked.

"I have D-Ranks," he grumbled falling into step beside her shoving his arms into his pockets with an angry huff.

"Naruto..."

"I know why the exist but it's just so tedious! Babysitting, helping old ladies with groceries, painting fences...UGH!" Naruto threw up his hands with frustration. "When are we going to get something interesting to do!?"

"Probably soon, but I'd say be careful what you wish for," Anna cautioned him. "You wanna know what happened with my C-Rank?"

"Which was that?"

"The caravan one that I didn't want to talk about when I came back."

"Oh that one? What happened there?"

"Well it was supposed to be a simple escort mission with another team but as it turned out one of the merchants was carrying contraband and was smuggling it away from Taki...Least to say they didn't take it well. They sent a Striker squad after us. We lost two people and were nearly killed. It was only Fumiko-sensei and Ito-san that saved us from being dead all together."

"WHAT?!" Naruto stared at her bug eyed. "WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME THAT?!"

"It's not something to bring up in causal conversation Naruto, what can one say? "Oh hey Naruto, guess what? I nearly dead"...You were six remember?"

Naruto snapped his mouth close his indignation vanishing as the full implications sank in.

"Is that why...Is that why you hugged me so hard?"

"Yes," Anna admitted easily. "That's why and that's why I'm saying that you should be careful what you wish for in this case okay? Take as an opportunity not as a burden."

"So what do I do?" Naruto asked.

"Train," Anna said. "I can train you in some taijutsu and teach some trap techniques I've learned. Heck you can work on teamwork with your teammates."

"So I ask them to work together?"

"Just think of D-Rank of as trial run of a mission. Think of babysitting not as looking over a child but watching of diplomat. Gardening is search and retrieve. Painting fences could be improving infrastructure. As sensei would always say, it's all in the way you approach something. If you approach in a shallow sense then you'll be frustrated but using at as way to use in your ninja career."

"Huh," Naruto had a thoughtful look on his face. "So it's all how you look at it?"

"Exactly."

"So...I guess we could use our waiting time as...teamwork time? Yeah...Yeah that'd work. Thanks sis. Hey, maybe later you could tell me more about your missions...the none classified ones okay?"

"Sure, no problem," Anna smiled at him. "I know it's frustrating now but if you use it as a opportunity it'll seem less troublesome. I know you can do it."

"Okay...Yeah...HEY I GOT IT I'M GOING TO TELL THE OTHERS ABOUT THIS IN THE MORNING DATTEBAYO!"

"Good idea, just keep the volume down okay?"

"Oh, sorry nee-chan," Naruto embarrassed rubbed the back of his neck.

"Just don't scream into my ear dum lillebror."

"OI!" Naruto snapped playfully at her before smiling as they headed home readying themselves for some good times and fun.

Norwegian translation:

Dum lillebror- silly little brother