A/N: Thank you so much for the lovely feedback! This chapter and the next will be covering the Land of Waves arc, but I have changed some of it given that Sasuke has grown up with his family present. As per usual, I do not own Naruto! Please read and review!
Chapter 2: The Genesis of Team Seven
Five years after the attempted kidnapping of Sasuke, the Uchiha clan had miraculously made some amends with the village. Uchiha were no longer restricted to living within the compound after many were relocated after the assault on the village, and the police were met with less resistance from the villagers. In fact, many of the villagers were sympathetic towards them since their second heir was almost taken. There was also a new rumor going around that the mystery invader may have been involved with the Nine-Tails attack as opposed to the Uchiha. Overall, the Uchiha had repaired some of their relations with the village.
As expected, Danzo was not happy with these turn of events. The Uchiha were less scrutinized and more trusted. Even more infuriating was that he had sent some of his Anbu Root members to assassinate Orochimaru, and they were all unsuccessful. He needed to find a way to turn the village against the Uchiha again or vice versa. Perhaps, he could find a way to deal with Orochimaru and the Uchiha. He was slippery to deal with, but Danzo had done it before.
X
It was a typical evening at the Uchiha main household. The family of four was sitting down for dinner and enjoying each other's company. Mikoto and Fugaku had made a point to spend more time as a family since almost losing their youngest. Fugaku had even taken it upon himself to train Sasuke more and give him credit when credit was due. Today was a special occasion since Sasuke had been assigned to his genin team today, so his mother prepared his favorite meal of onigiri and roasted tomatoes.
"We're so proud of you Sasuke! This is such an exciting time. You have your own team, and your first real mission is tomorrow!" Mikoto was thrilled that Sasuke would be getting the typical shinobi experience as opposed to Itachi who did not. Everything was early and almost rushed for the Uchiha heir. He graduated from the academy at six and was an Anbu captain by thirteen. Her youngest may feel behind and somewhat resentful now, but he would appreciate it later in life. She didn't want him to have to grow up as quickly as her older son.
"I guess," Sasuke responded as he picked at his food. Fugaku didn't think much of his son's disaffected tone, but Itachi and Mikoto noticed it.
"With Kakashi as your jounin-sensei, you have the opportunity to learn quite a bit. He is one of the best shinobi in the village, and he can help you with your sharingan," Fugaku added.
"I'll admit that he's the best I could get for a jounin sensei, but there are still my teammates." Sasuke was pleasantly surprised to have the chance to study under the copy nin, but he was immensely dissatisfied with his teammates. He would have prefered to have another Uchiha on his team, but he was the only Uchiha in his year.
"What of them little otouto?" Itachi inquired with an arched eyebrow.
"Naruto is a moron, and Sakura is annoying. We were lucky to pass our genin exam." They were a nuisance and would only hold him back. Naruto was a whiny brat who was the bottom of their class. On the other hand, Sakura had no aptitude for combat despite her academic intelligence. Plus, she seemed to have some sort of crush on him, which he did not reciprocate. He didn't see how he could benefit from being paired with the two.
"Ah, the infamous bell test. That makes you three the first to ever pass it," his brother replied. Kakashi had a reputation among the more experienced nin so his incredibly difficult test. For years, none of the genin who had tried could pass it.
"Barely," Sasuke replied with a huff.
"Give them a chance. You've only been a team for one day," the matriarch pressed. Years ago, she had promised her good friend Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mother, that their sons would be friends. However, with the Hokage's gag rule in place, she couldn't tell her youngest and risk exposing Naruto's lineage.
"Keep in mind that it's good practice for the future. You seldom get to choose who you work with whether it's clients, colleagues or clansmen," Itachi sagely added. His brother snickered, and Fugaku snorted. He could do without some of the more disagreeable and unreasonable council members, including his grouchy mother-in-law Kana.
Mikoto gave all of them admonishing looks. Such talk, while somewhat truthful, was not polite at the dinner table.
"All of us have early mornings, so let's get to bed soon." With his mother's order, Sasuke turned in for the night. Tomorrow was his first mission. It was a D-rank mission, but he would strive to do his best. From what he had gathered from other nin, teams were assigned more serious missions after they successfully completed some lower rank ones. D-rank missions tended to be odd jobs like babysitting or finding lost pets. Essentially, they were tasks that any freshly graduated genin should be able to complete with relative ease. With the number one knucklehead one his team, it might not be the case.
Kakashi had told Team Seven to meet in front of Hokage Tower at 8:30 AM where they would formally receive their first mission from the Sandaime - a longstanding tradition in Kohona. Sasuke arrived precisely on time and was greeted by the sight of his two other teammates.
"Good morning Sasuke-kun," the pink-haired female said shyly.
"Hey," he responded as he leaned against the brown fence and crossed his arms. His other teammate scowled at him and looked away, but Sasuke ignored it.
Ten minutes went by, and their sensei hadn't arrived.
"I guess his tardiness isn't a one time thing," Sakura stated in reference to their first meeting with the missing man. Team Seven was the last team to meet their sensei as Kakashi showed up an hour late to their introduction.
"If he doesn't show up soon, we should go get our assignment without him!" Naruto proclaimed with his fist raised.
"Naruto! That's a terrible idea. We couldn't even get into Hokage Tower without Kakashi since he has the summon scroll." The village tightened security following Orchimaru's attack. One of the new protocols was requiring documentation to enter or leave certain buildings such as Hokage Tower or the police station.
"She has a point dobe."
"Well, then what should we do?" the blond asked in a frustrated tone.
"Wait," the Uchiha responded. Sakura sighed, and Naruto groaned. "This sucks," the blond murmured.
After another ten minutes, Kakashi appeared from a puff of smoke.
With a wave he greeted, "Yo."
"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto yelled simultaneously. Sasuke remained impassive, but he thought tardiness was not an acceptable behavior, even for someone of Kakashi's standing.
"You see, I got distracted on the way here helping a beautiful lady carry some furniture." His excuse was vague and far-fetched to everyone except Naruto who was instantly distracted by the mention of a girl.
"Woah! You'll have to tell me about this girl after our mission Kakashi-sensei!"
"Sure," the copy nin said as he laughed. He signaled for the genin to follow him to the guarded entrance of the building where they presented their identification and scroll. They were permitted entry, and climbed up several flights of stairs and arrived in front of the Hokage's office. Kakashi knocked.
"Come in," a familiar voice ordered. When Team Seven entered the room, they saw the Hokage and much to their surprise, Iruka-sensei. Naruto's face lit up at the sight of his old teacher.
"Team Seven, you are officially assigned your first mission. You will be helping your client with her garden. She has requested you to collect some herbs and weed the garden," the Hokage instructed.
"What kind of mission is this? A five year old could do this!" the blond nin complained.
Shannaro! You can't speak to the Hokage like that, Sakura thought.
What an idiot, Sasuke thought.
Kakashi inwardly sighed.
Without missing a beat, Iruka scolded him. "You became genin yesterday, so this type of mission is perfectly suitable to your skill level. You need to prove yourself before you're given more difficult ones." His critical words and fierce look silenced the knucklehead.
The Sandaime sighed and beckoned Kakashi to come to his desk and recieve the mission file. Then, he sent Team Seven on their way with wishes of luck for their first mission.
Shortly after arriving at their client's house, they were put to work once she gave them some further instructions. They were to remove all of the weeds in the square plot and place any shiso herb in their respective bucket. The old woman went back inside while Kakashi supervised the genin from the porch.
Even though he was displeased with the low level mission, Naruto took it upon himself to do better than Sasuke. If he finished before him, maybe Sakura would notice him and Sasuke would recognize him as an equal. That's what he really wanted. He really liked Sakura, and he thought the way to her heart was to show her that he was better or at least just as good as Sasuke. All of the girls fawned over Sasuke because he was the top in their class. It was ridiculous and a complete waste since the stoic boy never showed any interest in girls. Sakura was really pretty, extremely smart, and occasionally nice to Naruto. He'd show her that he was worthy of her.
Hours later, their client came outside to check on them. In trying to outpace Sasuke, Naruto had mixed up the weeds and the herbs.
"I told you to keep the weeds separate from the herbs! I don't want to accidentally put weeds in my dinner!" With her hands on her hips, she gave Naruto a mean frown.
"Sorry lady! I'll sort them correctly. Believe it!" His enthusiastic words somewhat soothed her mood, so she returned inside.
"Nice going dobe," Sasuke remarked with a smirk.
"Shut up teme!" Kakashi noticed the bickering. He lowered his orange book and gave the duo an inquisitive look.
"Be quiet you two!" Sakura hushed. They stopped fighting but wordlessly picked up their pace in weeding the garden. An hour later, they were finished, and their client was somewhat satisfied. The buckets belonging to Sasuke and Sakura were perfectly sorted, but Naruto's had several weeds among the herbs, some of which were tarnished from his harsh handling.
"I should have enough shiso for my soup between these two buckets, no thanks to you," the client added with a not so subtle jab at the blond genin.
Kakashi's eyes crinkled as he smiled nervously under his mask. "Sorry for the trouble. Have a good evening." Team Seven left the small cottage and went their separate ways.
Every day the next two weeks went the same way. Team Seven was assigned a D-rank mission. Naruto somehow messed up the task by trying to outdo Sasuke. The two argued until Kakashi or Sakura broke it up. Then, they returned home only to repeat the process, until one day Naruto protested the Hokage.
"What? Another D-rank mission? C'mon old man, don't you have something a little more challenging for us?" Instead of being annoyed with Naruto's complaints, the Hokage chuckled.
"As a matter of fact, there is a C-rank mission I could assign you."
"Yeah!" the knucklehead cheered.
"I'll go get the client," Iruka stated with a sigh. The other members of Team Seven were secretly thankful that Naruto had somehow convinced the Sandaime because they were equally annoyed with their trivial missions.
Moments later, the chunin returned with the client in tow. He was a tall older man with a sturdy build. He wore a sleeveless white shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals. He also carried a towel around his neck and wore a pointed hat.
The Hokage introduced them and informed the team of their objective. They were to escort their client, Tazuna, to the Land of Waves, so he could finish building a bridge that would connect the island to the mainland.
They left the village and began their journey to the mysterious land. Several miles out from the village, the group entered a small clearing to take a short water break. Meters behind them, two cloaked nin emerged from water puddles. Each wrapped a chain around the copy nin. The chains tightened until they squeezed Kakashi to a pulp. Sakura and Naruto were instantly terrified and scared thinking that their sensei had been killed.
The two nin appeared behind Naruto who was too shell shocked to move. Sasuke noticed his comrade's frozen state, and he entered the fray. He pinned the chains to a tree with a kunai and shuriken. The nin were caught, so the Uchiha jumped on top of the chain contraptions on the nins' forearms. Using his previous momentum, he jumped up and struck each nin's heads. They pulled on their chains until they snapped. The nin were now free.
One ran towards Naruto, and the other headed for the bridge builder. Sakura leapt in front of Tazuna with a kunai in hand. On instinct, the Uchiha jumped in front of her. The nin approached at a break-necking speed towards the three. Before the nin could strike, Kakashi cuffed the enemy under his arm along with the second one.
Sakura gasped in wonder, astonished that her sensei had saved them just in the knick of time. Sasuke felt perturbed as Kakashi had stolen his thunder. Once Kakashi approached Tazuna and Sakra with the unconscious nin under each arm.
The raven haired nin glanced at the surprised Naruto and smirked.
"What's wrong scaredy cat?" Naruto's shock turned into anger as he growled at his teammate. Naruto bled out the poison he had received by stabbing his wound with a kunai, swearing upon the pain in his hand never to freeze up and leave his friends to fend for themselves ever again. Upon the scuffle, he received a scratch from one of the foe's poisonous metal gauntlets. He bled out the poison by stabbing his wound with a kunai.
"I swore on this wound that I will never freeze up and leave my friends to fend for themselves ever again." Sasuke and Sakura paused at the severity of his claim. Friends. They were friends who had each others' backs.
Kakashi beckoned the two over to a nearby tree where he tied up the enemy nin. He turned to Tazuna to confront him. He questioned him about the chunin after him and explained that this occurrence was beyond the scope of a C-rank mission
"My land has been taken over by the shipping tycoon Gato. He has bankrupt our nation, so I couldn't afford to hire more skilled nins, so I lied. We're desperate. I need to finish building the bridge, so it will put Gato out of business and drive him off the island."
As squad leader, Kakashi had the final say about the matter. This mission was getting dangerous very quickly, but they didn't have time to go back to Konoha and get more help. If they didn't help, Gato would continue his reign of terror upon the Land of the Waves. Kakashi was familiar with the man, and he was a complete scumbag. He was as selfish as they come, willing to do whatever necessary to make a profit.
"Come on Kakashi-sensei! We gotta help him," the blond argued.
"Yeah! This Gato character sounds terrible," Sakura added. Sasuke nodded in agreement with his teammates.
"We will continue the mission, but you must be on your guard and follow my every instruction. Got it?" The genin nodded ready to help the man and his village.
X
After more walking and a boat ride, they were in the Land of Waves. However, it would be an hour on foot before they arrived at Tazuna's home.
Naruto threw a kunai into the bush, and a white bunny came bounding out of the shrubbery. He took Kakashi's order to be extra vigilant to heart, and he was hell bent on outdoing Sasuke after his mean remark.
"Naruto! You almost hit that poor bunny!" Sakura chastised while she smacked him on the arm.
"Ow! Sakura-chan! What did you do that for?!" He could have sworn that there was someone behind the bushes.
Naruto ran up to the frightened bunny and stroked its head and apologized. While the others dismissed his antics, Kakashi noticed something strange about the rabbit: its fur was white.
"Hm. That's odd you don't see that type of rabbit at this time of year," Kakshi mused aloud. Snow rabbits were only white during winter, meaning that this rabbit had been raised indoors and therefore belonged to someone nearby.
"Duck!" the copy nin yelled. A giant sword spun past them, but it instead hit a tree. A huge nin jumped onto the hilt, clearly intent on killing Tazuna. Kakashi, recognised this man as the notorious missing nin Zabuza.
"Looks like I'll be needing this," Kakashi said as he lifted his headband to reveal a sharingan.
Zabuza, honoured by Kakashi's willingness to go all out for their battle stated, "It will be a testament to my own skill to kill you Kakashi."
Using a ninjutsu, the opponent summoned a thick veil of mist from the nearby lake, which successfully hid him from the formidable doujutsu.
"Mangi formation! Protect Tazuna and don't disturb us," Kakashi instructed as he prepared to face off against Zabuza. Team Seven leapt into formation ready to protect the bridge builder.
"Hmph. It's no use," the Mist nin commented as he appeared in the center of the genin's formation. Zabuka lifted his sword, prepared to strike, but the copy nin stabbed him in the stomach. His body dissolved into a puddle of water while the real Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi.
He sliced Kakashi in half, but his body also turned into water. The copy nin had used Zabuza's move against him with his sharingan's ability to copy jutsu.
"It's over,"Kakashi said from behind Zabuza. However, a second Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and grabbed him. The first Zabuza reverted to a pool of water as it was just another water clone.
Kakshi tried to wriggle free from Zabuza's grasp, but he was thrown into a nearby lake. As he emerged, Zabuza rushed after him.
This water is dense, Kakshi thought.
"Water Prison Jutsu!" Kakashi became entrapped in an orb of water. Kakashi was immediately worried for the kids and their charge who were left to deal with the water clones. They weren't equipped to battle against a ruthless jounin like Zabuza.
"Run!" Kakashi yelled at them.
"Pathetic," he spat. Sasuke groaned in pain from the crushing weight of the nin's foot.
Running wasn't an option for Naruto. He vowed to protect his friends and their charge with life, so he entered the fight.
"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto completely surrounded the water clones with his own clones. Zabuza's clone swung his sword, and the shadow clones scattered and disappeared.
The blond only had one option left. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a fūma shuriken and gave it to Sasuke.
I see, the Uchiha thought. He threw the fūma shuriken at Zabuza, who easily grabbed it from the air.
"Cheap moves like that won't work on me," the giant nin proclaimed. To his surprise, a second shuriken was hiding in the shadow of the first from Sasuke's Shadow Shuriken Technique. Zabuza was forced to jump over it. After passing Zabuza, the second shuriken turned into Naruto. He threw a kunai at Zabuza, who was unable to dodge it while maintaining the Water Prison Technique. Thus, he was forced to release Kakashi from the jutsu in order to avoid the assault.
Sakura briefly mused to herself that Sasuke and Naruto worked pretty well together, when they weren't fighting with each other.
With the copy nin free, Kakashi continued his battle with Zabuza. They traded water jutsu until the grey haired nin gained the upper hand using the Mist nin's Water Dragon jutsu against him. As he was about to strike the final blow, senbon impaled Zabuza's neck. A masked nin leapt down from a tree.
"My name is Haku. I am hunter-nin from Mist who was sent here to dispose of Zabuza," he claimed.
"He's all yours," Kakashi responded. The masked nin nodded and left with Zabuza's body.
X
While en route to the bridge builder's home, Kakashi momentarily fainted from over-using his chakra. Currently, he was on bed rest until he recovered. His thoughts wandered to the suspicious masked nin. Hunter nin usually destroyed their targets on the spot, but this one didn't. The use of senebon was also unusual because this type of weapon was used to knock a target out, not kill. He called the genin into his room and presented his deductions.
"That's why I think Zabuza is alive and working with that masked nin." Naruto and Sakura were visibly shocked while Sasuke's visage remained impassive.
"What? How?" the blond inquired.
"Naruto, I'm not explaining it again. All you need to know is that you have some more training to do. We'll leave after breakfast to do work in the forest." The nin had some ideas for what his team needed to work on. With the masked nin added to the equation, Team Seven had some major work to do.
"We? Kakashi-sensei, you're still recovering," Sakura said, concerned for her sensei's health.
"Don't worry. I'll just be supervising, and I'm able to use my crutches," he explained. He had been on bed rest for a few days, so it should be ok. Plus, Naruto and Sasuke had become a little stir crazy which resulted in ridiculous competitions like who could eat the most and who could do chores most quickly. This left Sakura to deal with the testy nin, and she was so frustrated that she had even yelled at her beloved Sasuke-kun. He was surprised, but he respected her speaking her mind.
Naruto had also gotten into some spats with Tazuna's younger grandson over his ability to stop Gato. Tazuna and his daughter Tsunami told them the tale of Inari's brave father Kaiza. He was a village hero who would have sacrificed his life to defend the village against Gato. He was publicly executed for his rebellion. Sasuke and Sakura couldn't imagine the grief they would feel if their fathers were killed, so they could sympathize with Inari's outburst. Hearing this story motivated Team Seven even more to bring down Gato and protect the small island.
Kakashi led the team to some nearby woods for chakra training. Their objective was to learn to climb trees without using their hands.
"That's impossible!" the blond declared.
Kakashi, with use of his crutches, walked over to a tree and climbed it with ease.
"See? The key is to focus chakra in the soles of your feet," Kakashi stated. Naruto looked puzzled.
"What's catra?" he inquired. The other members of the team sighed at the blond's oblivious.
"Don't worry Kakashi-sensei. I got this," Sakura said before she launched into an efficient explanation of chakra.
"Ok! I got it. Thanks Sakura-chan!" The blond now seemed less confused. Even Sasuke was slightly impressed by her ability to get someone as dense as Naruto to understand a complex subject.
The three genin all made an attempt to climb the tree. Unsurprisingly, Naruto, not using enough chakra, took only one step before falling back to the ground. Next, Sasuke made it a half up the trunk, but he charred part of it as a result of using too much chakra. Most surprisingly, Sakura made it to a high branch on her first attempt.
"Not only can Sakura explain chakra control. She perfectly executed it! Well done!" Kakashi praised. The three continued the exercise, but Naruto was still struggling.
"Um, can I have some advice Sakura-chan?" the blond asked. Sakura nodded and went over to the blond and gave him some tips. Kakashi looked on and noted that the blond was starting to understand teamwork.
At midday, Kakashi told Sakura to go back to the house and escort Tazuna on his errands in town. The boys were to still keep training.
With more knowledge from Sakura, Naruto was determined to improve, and he did. He was close to catching up to Sasuke which agitated the Uchiha. Naruto prepared to run at the tree another time and remembered Sakura's words of wisdom to be calm. Before he charged, Sasuke called out to him. He lost focus and tripped on the ground.
"Um so, Sakura gave you some advice -" his eye twitched, "What did she say?"
Naruto gave Sasuke a suspicious look and then smirked.
"I'm not telling you anything," he replied. Sasuke's eyes nearly bulged from his head. Naruto was such a loser.
X
Naruto stayed up all night climbing trees, so Sasuke took it upon himself to fetch the idiot before he got himself hurt or killed. He passed a strange looking girl on his way, but he eventually found the blond sitting in a small patch of forest.
"Hey dobe! You missed breakfast. It's rude to skip a meal that someone has prepared for you," Sasuke chastised. He hit Naruto on the head to get his attention since he seemed to be daydreaming.
"Ow! Teme!" Naruto grabbed his head. On the way back to the house, Naruto thought of his discussion with the guy he met in the woods. They had discussed their dreams. Naruto talked about wanting to be Hokage, and the boy wanted to protect his most precious person. He was still slightly embarrassed that he thought the boy was a beautiful girl, but his words struck him nonetheless. Who were Naruto's precious people?
"Hey teme!" Naruto spoke.
"What?"
"Do you have a precious person?" he asked. He figured Sasuke had to care about someone, despite his attitude, given his large family.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke inquired slowly.
"Someone that you couldn't live without and someone you'd protect with your life," the blond elaborated.
"I wouldn't say that I have just one precious person. There's my mother, my older brother, my cousins, and even my father, who can be difficult. Everyone in my clan is precious to me," he answered. Sasuke regarded family with the utmost importance, but he regretted his answer as he looked at Naruto who now looked sad. He knew that Naruto was an orphan, so he didn't have the comfort and love of a family.
"What about our team?" Even though they fought and clashed, Naruto considered all of Team Seven to be his family and thus his precious people.
Sasuke remained quiet, afraid to reveal too much. He didn't like being sentimental.
"All of Team Seven are my precious people because we're all friends," Naruto boldly proclaimed.
"Well, I guess I would consider you guys my precious people," the Uchiha revealed.
Naruto chuckled. "You have to at least consider me as one since I saved your butt from Zabuza!"
"I could say the same to you. Who's had to save you from falling off a waterfall or from those mercenaries?" The banter began, but this time it wasn't serious. Naruto and Sasuke were starting to become friends.
In fact they trained together the next day until dark when both of them had reached the top of their trees. They returned with Sasuke helping to carry the blond. In that moment, Sasuke was reminded of his older brother. He wondered if this is how Itachi felt with him, several steps ahead but still learning.