At the Temple of Hibiki nearby the mountain to the northwest border of Land of Fire, both Shisui and Yumi sparred together in one of the temple's training rooms as they attacked each other with kunai and shurikens, at the same time mocking one another.

"Your shuriken throwing sucks."

"But I know mine is good as yours too."

Shisui retorted to Yumi's ridicule and pulled out a small blade of the scabbard from his left hip. Immediately, she drew out another kunai and successfully used both knives to block his attacks. As they blocked, Yumi activated her Sharingan and kicked Shisui's leg. As he fell, she gave him a knee to the face, but he flickered and she then saw four of his afterimages standing around her.

"Hn, wanna dance with me? Alright, I WILL DANCE WITH YOU!!!"

Yelling viciously at her opponent, she jumped over in a back flip to exit herself from being surrounded by Shisui's afterimages. As she landed, she threw many shurikens at them, causing all of them to dodge out and they began charging at Yumi at the same time. Yumi liquefied herself into a body of water as two afterimages of Shisui pierced through her and she then formed a spherical water to trap these afterimages. The afterimage clones disappeared as Shisui himself flickered out of the trap. After appearing again as she solidified into her true form from the water, two of Shisui's afterimages ran to her from behind as she just so happened to look to her back.

Everything then moved in slow motion for her as she used her Sharingan to focus very attentively on her opponent when both afterimages were going to stab her with the blades. She could see Shisui moving rapidly from left to right and right to left over and over again and just as he was moving to her right, she caught on and quickly hit the blade he was holding with her kunai, disarming him the process and grabbed him in the throat, causing the other afterimage to disappear as she was now in physical contact with the real one. She swept off his leg to make him fall to the ground as she choked him.

Shisui grabbed her right arm that was choking him in the throat and released electric currents to electrocute her. Yumi immediately jumped out to avoid further her body from being further electrocuted and though she escaped the jutsu, her right arm was rendered paralyzed for the next three minutes as the electrocution temporarily shut down the chakra flows in the arm.

"Konoyaro..." Yumi growled in frustration as she grabbed her right arm. She drew out another kunai and charged at Shisui again.

After sparring for a long while, both Uchihas rested on the floor in exhaustion, neither of them proclaim victory over each other.

"This time it's a tie..."

"I don't think it is, you bastard..."

Shisui looked over to Yumi who was lying next to him. Feeling flustered from looking at his face directly as she saw him, Yumi slowly stood up to walk away, only to stop as he sat straight up to hold her right hand.

"No, I guess this time, I won."

Yumi looked at him in disbelief of his words, and angrily asked him, "What the fuck did you just said?"

Shisui pointed at a nearby mirror, signalling her to look at herself from the mirror. She rushed annoyingly and looked. She saw her own face being beaten up even more so than Shisui, who seemed to suffer less damage than her. Added to the point that her right arm had once been paralyzed by him for a short while and it was now covered in bruises as the result of the prior electrocution. Sighing off, she turned to him and conceded, "Fine, you won."

Shisui laughed for a bit as he stood up and approached her, "That's right, girl. This time I won, so right now we are in 22 to 19, with you still being in the lead of course."

Gosh, he could be more childish... Yumi thought as she smirked. "So what's your plan for me now that you've won?"

"No plan, because I'm afraid that I might use my chance to do nasty things to you."

Yumi stuck her tongue out playfully, "Like you'll even have a chance to fuck with me before I kick your ass again."

A tall masculine figure appeared from the entrance to them. Shisui quickly greeted the man, "Jiraiya-sama."

"Good morning folks, it is I, Jiraiya the Gallant!" Jiraiya posed as he jumped to approach them on one foot with the other one above the floor, embarrassing the two Uchihas. Shisui sweatdropped while Yumi showed clear annoyance on her face as she groaned in disdain.

"Can't you just walk normally and stop acting like an old idiot, you pervy old fuck."

Jiraiya's ears turned red after Yumi had just roasted him, and decided to walk properly, rubbing his head sheepishly, "Hai..."

After approaching close to them, he cleared his throat and began stating, "So, Itachi informed me that he's going to linger around outside for a bit more. He said he needs to keep track on the Akatsuki's movements."

"Dang, first the S-rank mission and now this? He really is a busy guy..." Yumi shook her head as she complained in discontent.

"Should we help Itachi? I mean, he's all alone in investigating them though."

"No, Shisui. I have already sent help. My shadow clone should be with him shortly."

Meanwhile in the territory of the Land of Rivers, Itachi was sitting on a tall tree within a forest as he examined a seemingly suspicious cave with his Sharingan. A shadow clone of Jiraiya hopped from trees to trees until he reached Itachi's position.

"There you are, Itachi."

"Right on time, Jiraiya-sama."

"Saw anything?"

Itachi glanced over to the Sannin, before looking back again, "I suppose we both can go inside that cave. That must be where one of their hideouts are located."

Jiraiya gave a nod of acknowledgement, and body flickered to the cave's entrance along with Itachi.

"Slow and steady, we do not want to alert any one of them," Jiraiya warned.

Both wore their masks respectively as a mean to conceal their identities and entered the cave sneakily. As they roamed around inside the darkness of the cave for a while, they spotted a light from a distance, hinting a rendezvous.

"Jiraiya-sama, there is a light."

"Yeah, I know. Let's check it out."

Both followed the light until they stumbled upon a rather more organized space that had several torches in place on the wall to illuminate the area. Itachi and Jiraiya's shadow clone hid behind a rock as they saw several holographic figures belonging to the Akatauki members.

"So, all of you have failed in capturing the remaining tailed beasts, all because of this unidentified group that was protecting them?"

"Yeah, I have no idea who these guys were. But one thing for sure is that they seemed to be very powerful."

"We were about to capture the Five-Tails when one woman freaking sabotaged us, hmm!"

"The both of us too failed in capturing the Seven, all thanks to these men and Hidan's stupid ritual."

"Teme Kakuzu! Don't you fucking mock my ritual! I did this for the sake of Lord Jashin!"

"Yeah, yeah. I agree with Kakuzu. You are

the shithead that's always doing rituals that take like forever."

"Fuck you Deidara! I swear I will fucking take your blood and inflict pain upon you!"

"Like you would even have a chance to kill me. My art will explode your ass before you could even do so!"

"ALRIGHT, ENOUGH!"

The leader yelled out to end the argument between his subordinates, resulting a shockwave followed by a minor earthquake throughout the area. Regardless, both Itachi and Jiraiya stayed still as they spied on the meeting to avoid alerting their enemies.

"Any idea of what they all looked like?"

"They all wear the cloaks that look like ours, except that they do not have these red clouds on them, and they wear masks that are normally worn by Anbu shinobis."

"I see... Alright, since we are now receiving less missions at the time being, you all are going to find out who these guys are. And if you happen to stumble upon them, kill them. At the same time, capture the remaining tailed beasts if you guys have a chance."

All of holographic Akatsuki members vanished as they disconnected themselves. Without any moment of hesitation, Itachi and clone Jiraiya quickly exited the cave.

"So, what are you going to do next?"

"Inform the others that the Akatsuki are now targeting us."

"Is that it, Itachi?"

"I am also planning to capture one or two of their members, so that we could get a lead on where their leaders are."

"Wait, don't be hasty, kid. If you wanna do something like that, wait for me to make up some plans."

Itachi got quiet for a moment in response, and thought thoroughly as he ran.

"Right, let's group up together first, and see what we will do."

"Meet me at the Temple of Hibiki, Itachi. I'm out."

Jiraiya's shadow clone unexpectedly disappeared in a puff of smoke, startling Itachi for a bit Kage bushin...

xxx

Several explosions went off in the middle of the forest, forming a thick layer of smokes as it covered an area within the forest. As the smoke slowly cleared, Sakura was seen panting heavily, and seemingly injured, with two kunai knives held on both hands in cautious. Later Naruto appeared in a flicker in front of the pink-haired kunoichi, with some visible bruises on his face as well.

"You did good, Sakura-chan. Let's call this a day, okay?"

Sakura hummed in agreement, and kept her weaponry as the training stopped, retaining her neutral stance. Naruto proceeded to pick up all of the Yondaime's Flying Raijin kunais from the ground and from nearby trees, with Sakura also helping him to collect them.

"You know, your ninjutsu has been getting really good-ttebayo. However sometimes you could be too reckless and utilizing wrong jutsus at the wrong situations."

"Well, I know. That's why it appears to me that this might be one of my biggest weaknesses in combat. But I promised, next time I will be more careful."

Naruto paused to look at her, before grinning and giving her a thumbs up, "I know you would dattebayo!"

Sakura approached Naruto to return his Flying Raijin kunai knives, and soon after he stored all of them into his bag, then taking out a bottle to drink water. Sakura did the same, but found out that her bottle was empty. Sighing off, she asked if Naruto could let her drink his water, to which he agreed in no time. Just as he handed her his bottle, Naruto leaned close to her ears and whispered, "It would be an indirect kiss for you, Sakura-chan."

"B-baka!" Sakura scolded in embarrassment, and Naruto giggled childishly much to his amusement. After drinking it, she returned the bottle and they proceeded to walk together to exit the forest.

"Ne, Sasuke and Hinata are both acting weird together ever since we teamed up dattebayo," Naruto said as he held his arms behind his head. Remembering about the conversation between her and Sasuke on Sasuke's love for the Hyuga, Sakura had wanted to tell Naruto about their relationships, but chickened out and pretended to ask, "What's weird 'bout it?"

"They are always very close, and spend lots of time together. Back then Sasuke wasn't interested in girls and Hinata was too shy to make friends. But after thr formation of our team, Sasuke and Hinata would regularly spend time together. Perhaps they are both in love?"

"Hmm... wouldn't it be normal?"

Naruto blinked in response, and looked toward her in a slight confusion as she stated.

"What do you mean by that dattebayo?"

"Well, it's normal for a chemistry between two persons to happen when they got close. Sooner or later things might get clear enough between them."

"Just like me and you," Naruto reached out and wrapped his arm around Sakura's shoulder, pulling her close to him. Sakura was dumbfounded by his move, but when she saw him smiling at her childishly, she sighed in a blush, "You are an idiot, Naruto."

"Can't help it 'cause you are mine!" Naruto and Sakura continued goofing around with each other, until Sasuke appeared to them.

"Oi, what the fuck are you two doing?!"

"Ah, Sasuke?! The hell you doin' here?"

"The Hokage has just summoned us to the office. We must go now."

"Alright, you go first Sasuke. I will catch up later."

Sasuke soon flickered away, and Naruto put his hand onto Sakura's shoulder, "Let's get you back home now." The couple teleported away without leaving any trace.

At the Hokage Building, Hinata was walking together with Kakashi who was otherwise reading his Icha Icha Innocence. The young Hyuga had always been curious on the book he always read, and had wanted to know why he was so fond of reading it. In the other day, she and Sasuke had asked Naruto about the book, but Naruto kept quiet and was seemingly unsettled by their question, reminding them that they were not ready to read the kind of book yet. She thought of asking the jonin about the book, but decided to keep to herself to avoid getting awkward.

"Hm? What are you looking at?" The white-haired jonin asked as he saw Hinata looking at his direction.

"Ah, nothing!" Hinata quickly faced forward before things tense up. Just as they were reaching the Hokage Office, Naruto suddenly appeared in a flash in front of them, followed by him greeting, "Yo, Uzumaki Naruto is here dattebayo!"

"Hmmm you're early here, Naruto."

"And you too, dad," Naruto teased Kakashi as the jonin was always late for the gatherings. Kakashi shrugged and asked, "Now where is Sasuke?"

"Who knows... Ehhh???!!!" Naruto entered to see the Uchiha already in the office before them. Sasuke looked back to see his teammates at the door.

"Hmph. Seems that you still need to work on your Flying Raijin Jutsu."

"Never thought you would be the early bird today."

"Mah, looks like your entire team has gathered, now listen and allow me to explain your new mission."

The team stood in line as Sandaime began his briefing on their new mission.

"Kakashi, this mission that I'm assigning this team for are B-rank."

Team 7 members were surprised by Sandaime's decision, and Kakashi gaped in shock. While Naruto and Sasuke were happy in this case, with Naruto pumping up in joyq, both Hinata and Kakashi expressed horror and thought of the kind of mission was too dangerous to perform as they were still genins and were not experienced enough to take such task.

"You cannot do that, Hokage-sama! These kids are still genins and they are unfit for this kind of mission!"

"Well... I had been watching your team's training for a while now. And truthfully I was quite astonished by the result your team had produced. None of the other genin team did the same to impress me like this so far. So I thought of giving a higher ranking mission to you guys."

"But Hokage-sama, this is too.."

"Consider this as a test for your genins, Kakashi. They are going to take the Chunin Exam anyway. And also, it was Naruto and Sasuke who requested me to give them this kind of mission the other day."

FLASHBACK

"So, you two want me to assign a more challenging mission to your team?" Sandaime asked as he smoked.

"I believe that we have the strength to perform even A-rank missions. Even though we are still genins, both D and C-rank missions are way too easy for us to do. So me and Naruto here request you to give us a higher ranking mission."

"Yeah, just this once dattebayo! Sandaime-jiji!" Naruto begged with both his hands held together in desperation.

Flashback ended

Kakashi looked toward his male genins, with Naruto scratching his head and grinning sheepishly while Sasuke put up a smug face.

"Do you guys know what kind of danger you put yourself into?!"

"Just this once-ttebayo, dad!"

"Let them be, Kakashi... Clearing throat Anyway, let me continue. In this mission, you all will be infiltrating a town to locate this Kumo's rogue-nin named Shigeru who works for another rogue nin that came from our village. As you tracked him down, capture him and bring him back to Konoha alive. We need the info out of him regarding our enemies."

"Any detail about the mission?" Kakashi asked.

"Shigeru is noted to be a experienced rogue shinobi with proficiency in genjutsu. And in his own hideout, he could be setting up traps around and having guards to protect himself. Aside from that, when you guys captured him and were escorting him back here, you need to watch out for any potential threat as he works for our enemy and could very well be alerting them anytime. So be really careful when you guys are dealing him. Do not utilize dangerous jutsus as he needs to be captured alive. Taijutsu or genjutsu are two of the best approaches but do not go overboard."

"Hai!"

After dismissing the team, the genins headed out together, but Kakashi stayed still in the office facing the Hokage, remaining dead silent for a moment as he apparently was in a distress until he straightened up to confront Sandaime.

"I know myself that out of all the genin squads that our shinobi forces currently have, my Team 7 is by far the strongest. But Hokage-sama, the danger and risk of this mission are still too great for us to handle!"

"You cannot ask me simply to cancel the mission that I've already given to your team, can you?" Sandaime deadpanned, looking at the jonin with a stern look, prompting Kakashi to feel taken aback again by his straightforward words.

"Trust me, Kakashi. I have looked into each of their capability very carefully and I know that they could successfully complete the mission. And again, it was your stepson and Sasuke who requested it. So just this once, and I won't give you guys anymore risky mission until they passed the Chunin Exam."

Kakashi clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes in stress, then proceeding to exit the office without saying anything more to the Hokage.

xxx

At the main gate, the Team 7 genins had already gathered together while Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. Hinata had asked Naruto about his stepfather's whereabouts, to which Naruto simply replied that he had no idea as Kakashi almost always did things that even he himself did not have the chance to know.

"There's no other choice for us, so let's just wait for him. He's always freaking late even for a mission," Sasuke suggested, to which the others agreed to.

Meanwhile at the training ground, Kakashi stood beside the Memorial Stone where Obito's name was engraved onto. The white-haired jonin was obviously under stress as his genin team had just been assigned a mission that was supposedly unfit for them perform, and he kept asking his deceased best friend on what and how he should do to avoid anything bad happen to his genins, since the mission could potentially take their lives if they were not careful.

"Tell me, Obito. Is there anyway to prevent this tragedy from happening again? I've read details about our target on the Bingo Book and found out how exactly dangerous he really is. This is crazy, it should be A-rank, not B-rank! I am starting to suspect that this could be a setup, Obito. Please give me some ideas on how I could help my team to successfully complete the mission without major troubles..."

Kakashi sighed disappointingly, lifting up his chin to look at the blue sky, then down to his friend's memorial again as he muttered, "I really want to voice my objection to Sandaime again, Obito. I will have to go back to the office to try and convince-"

"Kakashi?"

A feminine voice called and interrupted, prompting him to look back to see Kurenai behind him along with two of her genins, Shino and Kiba, with Sakura nowhere to be seen.

"Kurenai, what's up?"

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here standing beside the memorial? Aren't you supposed to be in a training or in a mission with your team?" Kiba asked curiously.

"Kiba, Shino. You two go and train yourselves first. I need to have a moment with Kakashi."

Their sensei instructed with authority, and they heeded without a second thought and proceeded to the training ground for their training. Kurenai then approached Kakashi, standing beside him and prayed to the memorial to pay respect for the fallen heroes of the village. After praying, she turned to ask, "Something's wrong? You clearly look troubled."

"The Hokage... He just sent my team to a mission."

The jonin let out a disappointing sigh, and had gotten quiet. Kurenai read his expression, and was able to analyze his emotion even though all of his face with the exception of his right eye was hidden beneath the mask and the headband.

"Are you guys being assigned a B or A-ranked mission?"

"Ah, hmmm... Yeah, a B-ranked." Kakashi admitted, and Kurenai chuckled, much to his confusion as he asked, "What's funny 'bout it?"

"Is that why you are sad about? Oh come on, Kakashi..."

Kakashi was unsure of her remark, and thought that she was either kidding or teasing him. At the very least, that's how he thought about it. Silence briefly occurred between them before she talked again.

"Are you afraid that your team might end up repeating the same tragedy as before?"

Kakashi's right eye glanced to her, then nodded admittedly. The crimson-eyed jonin giggled again, and Kakashi showed slight annoyance in response, having thought that she was either mocking him or whatever reasons there might be. She stop giggling when she noticed his glare, and her face turned sympathetic.

"You always wear those usual boring faces whenever I see you. But deep down you are actually thinking a lot, am I right?"

xxx

Itachi arrived at the Temple of Hibiki as he manifested out of the crows, where he saw Jiraiya and the two other Uchihas already standing at the main entrance with their belongings.

"So you guys have already packed your things?"

Itachi asked, and Yumi tossed his backpack and the other smaller one at him, "Here, catch."

The most powerful Uchiha caught his bags with ease, and proceeded to wear them. Jiraiya stepped forward and shouted in a goofy pose, "Alrighty, my fellow nomads, let's leave this place and travel around the world again!"

Itachi smiled embarrassingly, Yumi sighed off and rolled her eyes. Shisui chuckled and reminded, "Jiraiya-sama, it's not like we are bunch of globetrotters though. So don't get too excited... 'kay?"

"Ah, my bad... Alright, let's head off to our next destination before the Akatsuki comes barging into this temple."

The group proceeded to follow the Sannin as they quickly left the temple.

xxx

Kakashi was again seen approaching his fellow genins who had been waiting for him at the main gate. Naruto stood out to throw tantrums at hia stepfather.

"You made us waited an hour and thirty-eight minutes, dad! This is a B-rank mission that we are supposed to b-"

"Yeah, yeah I know that you can't wait no more, but seriously Naruto, calm your nerve you airhead."

Kakashi walked past the genins without saying any further. Looking at him slightly hunching his back and sticking his hands into each of his pocket, they realized that he was apparently in a state of a bad mood.

"Whatcha y'all waiting for? Come on now."

Kakashi ordered and the genins followed him out of the gate in obligation.