"You're late!" Naruto screeched. I blearily lifted my head to see a blur that I assumed was Sensei. Seemed about right, so I dropped my head back down.

"There was an old lady that needed my help with her groceries," Kakashi-sensei started as I decided whether it was worth it to fully wake up. Sometimes, if I hadn't slept particularly well the night before, I'd take a quick nap while waiting for him to arrive. Most times though, I went through my stretches and tried to mess with my range a bit. I was making progress, I thought, inch by painful inch.

"Liar!"

"Sensei, when's your birthday?" I asked. He blinked at me, confusion written across his chakra. "I'm getting you a watch, since you clearly have no sense of time." Sasuke made a noise that could be interpreted as a snort of amusement. Excellent.

"Ah, Inoko, your cruelty is too much for the tender heart of your sen-" I threw my shoe at him.

"You pest!" Sensei waited until I had put my shoe back on before speaking again.

"I was thinking that we would and do some more D-ranks today," he said lazily. Naruto and I groaned loudly as Sasuke sighed heavily. D-ranks were… necessary, but awful. I understood why we had to do them, but they were absolute hell. There were so many other things we could be doing instead of painting fences.

"Can't we do some training, Sensei?" Naruto whined. "We've been doing nothing but D-rank missions ever since we became genin."

"True," I nodded. I tried to contain my excitement at the prospect of actually learning something useful. "Every bit of training counts, Sensei." Kakashi watched us with a look that I couldn't quite read.

"Very well," he sighed, snapping his book shut. "Let's go over what you already know. I presume that you all know the Academy kata?"

"Duh," Naruto rolled his eyes. "We wouldn't be here if we didn't, dattebayo."

"Well, that takes care of taijutsu then. Am I right to assume that none of you know genjutsu?" I awkwardly raised my hand after a few moments of silence.

"I can dispel them? Dad said I can't learn to cast them until I graduated though." Genjutsu were fairly easy to sense, not quite as easy to dispel, though knowing is half the battle when it comes to genjutsu.

"Hm, yes, I saw you doing that during your test." He glanced at me, then up at the sky. "Well, Sasuke, do you know any elemental ninjutsu other than the Grand Fireball?" Sasuke didn't say anything, and he looked a little embarrassed.

"... no."

"Well, that's ok, students rarely graduate with an elemental ninjutsu under their belts," Sensei said, scratching his head. "Naruto?"

"N-No," he said, looking away. "I know the kawarimi, henge, and the kage bunshin."

"Don't feel bad, Naruto," I said, patting his shoulder. "Sensei's just getting an idea of where we're at so he knows what to teach us."

"I wouldn't put it like that, but sure. What about you, Inoko?"

I wasn't tempted to throw my shoe at him again. I really wasn't. I'm trying to help you connect here, Sensei. "I know the Academy three, and a couple earth jutsu that one of my cousins taught me, not to mention my clan jutsu," I said, blinking slowly. It was appearing I knew the most actual jutsu compared to my teammates. Maybe we could put that to use; Naruto could easily become a taijutsu monster with his shadow clones, and Sasuke seemed to be more of a midrange/close quarters fighter. I could provide backup with my own jutsu from long to midrange distances...

"Whoa, really?" Naruto gasped. "How many?"

Oh, this was embarrassing. Naruto and Sasuke were both looking at me with a bit of surprise. I'd always been a bit lazy at the Academy, yeah, but I certainly worked my ass off at home. I nervously scratched the back of my neck and said, "Three. I've been working on them for a few months, and I'm just ok at them." Naruto's eyes became huge.

"Wow! And Sasuke only knows the one!"

"Tch. Like you have room to talk." There was a trace of annoyance in his voice and his ears were turning red. He was giving me a strange look, as if… I was the one to surpass. Well, shit. We couldn't have that. That was. Bad. In a lot of ways.

He was 'an avenger' who had to be the best. And here I was with more jutsu under my belt than him. Sure, he could destroy me when it came to an actual fight, but if I had the distance advantage and could keep it, I had more than a decent chance of winning. Trap him partially in a headhunter jutsu and while he was trying to get free, zap him with the mind transfer. Though what I'd do after that is less certain. Give him over to Naruto to tie up?

"What did you say?!"

"You don't know any elemental jutsu."

"Yeah! So what? I know the kage bunshin, and Iruka-sensei says that it's a really high level jutsu!" Oh great, they were fighting, all up in each other's face and ready to throw the first punch. Internally groaning, I looked at Sensei, hoping he'd end the fight. He seemed just as unsure as I felt, and ended up pulling out his book again. … Really?

"Both of you shut up!" I shouted, hitting them both upside the head. Naruto was used to me lightly hitting him as a reminder-warning thing when he was being particularly loud and/or obnoxious, but Sasuke looked at me like I had just murdered a puppy in front of him. Not sure why, it wasn't exactly the first time I've hit him. "Naruto," I said, turning away from the whipped puppy look, "don't rub things in Sasuke's face. No one likes that, and people with bigger egos hate it even more. I know more jutsu than Sasuke because my cousin is determined to make me worthy of being the daughter of a clan head." Also worthy of being alive in the first place, but who cares about that! Not me! Definitely not me! "I also have a lot more time on my hands because I'm an insomniac." I gave him a flat stare until he squirmed and looked away.

"And you, Sasuke." I spoke with the finality of a ruler handing out an execution. Reign in your imagination. I sighed and softened my expression and words a little. "Be kinder to others. Don't rub in their shortcomings, and pull them up instead. That's why we're on a team." I poked him in the cheek. He drew away and swatted at my hand, glaring at me. So that's how it was going to be. Shame that I could out-glare him any day of the week. I clenched my jaw. Fine. We could do this the hard way, if that was what he wanted. "So you were at the top of our class. Big freaking whoop. We're not in the Academy anymore. We graduated. This is the real world. So leave behind your petty grudges," I finished, poking him in the chest roughly and staring into his eyes. "And get over yourself."

Both of them had huge eyes as they watched me stretch and turn to Sensei. I internally groaned. I probably should have waited to lecture them until we were all closer, but they were driving me nuts! Maybe it's for the best. "Sensei~" I said sweetly while glaring at him.

"Hmm?" he responded while flipping a page. He's not even looking at me. My eye twitched just before I jumped on his back and put him in a mock choke hold. To my surprise, he actually let me.

"You're the adult here, not me!" I shouted as he tumbled forward. Ok, definitely just humoring me. Eh. I'd take it as progress. "You should be dealing with the little monsters, not me!"

"Hey!" they shouted together.

I jabbed a finger at them. "Teamwork, mother duckers! Do you speak it?!"

"... what?"

"A-Aye aye, Inoko-sama!"

"And you, Sensei! I have more important things to be doing then breaking up their fights all the t- ooh." My hand brushed the silver mop on his head. I paused my rant before gently patting it. "You have really nice hair, Sensei. Really soft."

"... you're going to get me in trouble. Like. Big trouble."

Nothing really got done that day. The next day, though, things got serious.

Sensei clapped his hands and eyesmiled at us. "Alright, ducklings~ Let's get started today, shall we?"

Sasuke bristled at the nickname. I just cackled. What an amazing nickname for us.

Sensei eyed my thermos. It took me a moment to realize what he was probably thinking. I clutched it to my chest. "It's green tea!" I yelped. "Green tea with some honey and lemon and ginger because I have some sinus drainage! That's it!"

He looked at me for a moment longer before nodding. I sighed in relief. If he took my precious tea from me, I thought I might cry. My throat hurt and I needed my tea. Delicious, precious tea.

"Naruto, my main focus for you today will be your taijutsu," Sensei finally explained, finally getting serious. "It's barely acceptable for a genin. Barely. I want to get your taijutsu up to my satisfaction before we take any serious missions."

Huh. Maybe my words at the memorial stone had some effect.

"Inoko, I'm going to give you a genjutsu to learn. Every shinobi should have at least one genjutsu under their belt before they go out on their own."

I nodded. Made sense. Sensei handed me a scroll. I was too engrossed in it to really listen to what he was telling Sasuke. Something about teamwork and attacking Sensei.

I ended up sitting under the shade of a tree while Sensei made a clone to work with Naruto. The real Sensei had stolen a couple of Naruto's clones, and now Sasuke was fighting alongside them against Sensei. Interesting.

Whatever, I had something far more interesting. Overall, it seemed pretty simple. It basically dampened all sound around the target. They couldn't hear anything, and nothing around them could be heard.

I glanced up at Sasuke.

… no, it would be rude.

… it would be really funny though.

Learn the genjutsu before you prank people with it, girl.

There were ten hand seals to complete the genjutsu. I made sure to carefully run through them several times before imbibing them with any chakra. Like with any jutsu, I had to get used to the signs before I even began to introduce chakra into the mix.

Yeah, I had learned that lesson the hard way. Kosho hadn't stopped laughing at me for a solid twenty minutes.

Once I was sure I had the hand seals down, I went back to the scroll. Genjutsu tended to mess with the brain, and if I knew one thing then I knew that you didn't mess with the brain lightly. That was just begging for trouble.

I decided to put off the whole pranking thing for now. Eventually, just. Not now. I'd honestly rather do this under Sensei or Dad's supervision.

I grinned as a thought occurred to me. I couldn't use this jutsu for a prank, but there was one that I certainly could use. Plus I'd be finally getting revenge on that stupid birch tree.

After all, revenge was best served cold. Or hot, in this case.

I was still giggling as I watched Sensei put out the last of the fires. Did it get a little bit out of hand? Yes. Was it worth it? Also yes.

"Inoko terrifies me sometimes," Naruto confided to Sasuke.

"Hn," Sasuke said, but this was more of an agreement sound, so I thought it all worked out pretty well.

"I'm confiscating all of your explosives."

"... all of them?"

"Yes."

"Damn."

"Amaterasu save us, where did she get those?"

"... I have no idea. Inoko! Give those to me right now!"

"Die, birch scum!"

6/24 Naruto is making good progress with his taijutsu. He's also learning to not jump into combat at the first opportunity, and actually think first.

Sasuke is slowly and very begrudgingly learning the value of teamwork. It frustrates him to no end most of the time, but I truly think he's beginning to take it to heart.

Someone won't stop giving Inoko explosives. I don't know where she's getting them and it scares me. She's getting creative with them too. Either someone is giving them to her, or Okami forbid, she's making them herself.

… Okami save us all, she's making them herself.

Dad looked up from a letter and gave me an unamused look. "What's this about you nearly destroying three different training grounds in the past week?"

Ino nearly choked on her noodles. I worked through my current mouthful as slowly as possible. "Lies and slander? I offered.

He raised an eyebrow. "Try again."

"Experimentation with highly combustible incendiaries around flammable organic biospheres?"

"The Three preserve us," Mother muttered, rubbing her temples. "Inoko, stop making explosives. You're going to give your sensei an aneurysm."

I pouted. "What about little explosives?"

"No," Dad and Mother said at the same time.

"Little explosives with Sensei's supervision?"

"Inoko."

"Fine, fine."

We ate in silence for a little bit.

"I'll just distil more poisons then," I reasoned.

"Inoko. No."

In three different locations across Konoha, the other members of Team Seven had chills run down their spine, and weren't sure why.

I closed my eyes and reached out with my senses for our target. He was moving fast, but not too far away from me. Perfect. Touching the mic on my throat, I softly said, "Inoko at Point C."

It only took a moment to hear in my earpiece, "Sasuke at Point B." Several seconds passed before I heard Naruto check in.

"Naruto at Point A, dattebayo," he finally said.

"You're slow, Naruto," Sensei scolded. "Ok, Team Seven. Target has moved!"

"Acknowledged," I replied, jumping from the tree and moving towards the chakra blip. It was still fairly unaware of the people following it. "In pursuit."

"He's over there," Naruto said.

"What's the distance to the target?" Sensei asked, a trace of amusement in his voice.

"Five meters, ready to go, 'ttebayo."

"I am as well," Sasuke put in. I touched my throat mic.

"Six meters, ready to go."

"Ok. Go!" I jumped clear of the bush, seeing Sasuke and Naruto just a little ahead of me. Naruto reached the target first, diving and wrapping his arms around it.

"I got you!" Naruto shouted, thrusting the target of our mission into the air. The cat screeched in rage and began scratching him.

"Does it have a ribbon on it's right ear?" Sensei demanded. "Is it our target Tora?"

"Brown fur with a pink ribbon on the ear," I said, amused. "Fairly sure it's Tora. Naruto, that's not how you deal with a cat. Let me have him."

"Good. Operation "Tora the Lost Pet" complete."

Naruto gratefully handed Tora over, nursing his wounds. "Ne, neko-chan, was the orange monster mean to you?" I cooed, moving Tora into a more comfortable position while holding his paws. Such soft, pretty fur, supple toe beans. Man, I wanted a cat so bad. "You don't want to go back, do you? I know, pretty kitty."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at me and snorted. "Tch. It can't understand you, you know."

"It's the tone that matters, duck boy. Just be gentle with the prettiest kitty and tell him what a baby he is, aren't you?" That got me a strange look. Tora was relaxing in my arms and beginning to purr.

"Isn't there a more exciting mission we can work on?!" Naruto shrieked through the radio. I yelped as Sasuke yanked the earpiece away as fast as he could.

"Have a thought for our hearing!" I shouted, trying to pull out my earpiece. Tora wriggled free from my arms and bolted into the underbrush. "We can't be ninja if we've gone deaf in one ear! Shit! Tora!"

"Sorry!" he wailed, and we were in pursuit once more.

"Ooh, my cute Tora-chan!" the daimyo's wife, Shijimi-sama, squealed. "I was so worried about you!" Tora yowled and was doing his best to get away from the overly affectionate woman, who was doing her best to squeeze the life out of her cat.

"Poor baby, I'm starting to see why he ran away in the first place," I muttered in a low voice to my team. Sasuke snorted while Naruto giggled a little.

"That cat's getting what he deserves," Naruto whispered back.

"You just don't know how to treat a cat. Granted, neither does she." Sensei nudged us both, then moved to the table where the Hokage and Iruka-sensei were sitting.

"Now then," the Hokage said, puffing on his pipe and looking through some papers. "Team Kakashi's next mission… babysitting Yojyu-sama's son, grocery shopping for an elderly couple, help dig up potatoes at -" With every mission option, our shoulders slumped more. Sure, having some extra pocket money was nice, and the boys used it for groceries and rent, but in exchange, I was being bored out of my mind. At least with this mission, Sensei taught us to use radio transmitters.

"No!" Naruto howled. The Hokage glanced up. "No thanks to all of those! We want a more exciting mission! Choose something el- ack!" I put him in a chokehold and looked down at him with what Ino had dubbed my 'I-will-eat-your-soul-if-you-don't-stop-right-now' smile.

"Naruto. You are speaking to the Hokage," I stressed, "and you will use proper respect." He nodded frantically. I knew that he and the Hokage had a friendship, but Naruto was still technically beneath him. There was still a status quo.

"Thank you, Inoko," Iruka sighed, rubbing his temple as he was wont to do around Naruto. I released him from the choke hold, giving him a warning look to behave. "You're still just a genin, Naruto. Everyone starts with D-ranks to gain experience."

"But we've only been doing dumb missions lately!" My eye twitched, but Sensei beat me to the punch and hit him in the head.

"Cut it out, Naruto," he said in a tired voice.

"Naruto," Sarutobi said, placing his pipe down. He somehow managed to convey all of the power his title meant and a bit of a grandfatherly vibe in a single word. Not going to lie, I was impressed. Charisma certainly wasn't his dump stat. "It looks like I need to explain to you what missions are, since you clearly weren't paying attention during that particular lesson." My mind drifted off as he lectured on missions, wondering what I should have for lunch. Unlike Naruto, I had paid attention, plus I had the added benefit of growing up in a clan with all of those terms being part of casual conversations. I'm craving ramen, but if I get some, then Ino will lecture me for an hour. Decisions, decisions.

"What kind of ramen should I have today?" Naruto wondered out loud. Even Kakashi-sensei was paying attention to him. "I had tonkotsu ramen yesterday, so I'm going to eat a miso ramen today."

"Miso ramen is good, we should get some later," I agreed. "Sasuke, you should come with us, it'll be nice."

"Listen!" the Hokage barked. Whoops.

"Sorry," Sensei said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"You always lecture me like that, old man," Naruto complained. I resisted the strong urge to sigh and looked away at anywhere but my team or the table in front of us. "But I'm not the kid who used to play pranks anymore!" He then proceeded to turn around and sulk like a child. Kakashi's chakra felt a little annoyed and downcast, whereas the Hokage and Iruka felt more amused than anything else. That was good, at least; we probably wouldn't be punished for Naruto's outburst.

"Very well then," Sarutobi said after some thought. "If you insist, then I will allow you to take on a C-ranked mission. It is an escort mission." Wait a minute.

"Really?" Naruto asked, delighted. "Who is it? Who is it?" This is way too familiar for my taste. "The daimyo? A princess?" The door slid open, and I could smell the alcohol from my position. The slight shudder from Sensei told me he smelled it clearly too.

"What?" Tazuna the bridge builder slurred, clearly drunk despite the fact that it wasn't even noon. "They're all kids!" I gagged a little as he chugged a bottle of sake. "Is the smallest one with the stupid face really a ninja? And the girl looks like she's about to fall asleep on her feet." Oh Three, kill me now. Just end me. Send down a bolt of lightning and end my suffering. Why me? Why did I have to be punished with the Plot?

"Haha, who's the small one with the stu-" Naruto laughed, looking around at us, then realizing that he was the shortest of us three. "I'm going to kill you!" he shouted as Sensei held the back of his jacket with a long suffering expression. To my credit, my internal screaming only came out as a drawn out whimper. Surely there's better people to take this mission? But who would believe me if I told them it was probably going to go mildly FUBAR?

"Don't kill the man you're supposed to escort, idiot," Kakashi-sensei sighed.

"I am the bridge building expert Tazuna," he said. "Once I have returned to my country, I will have all of you protect my life with yours while I complete my bridge." I guess there's no going back now. I can only move forward and maybe derail Plot enough to keep us all safe.

"Sounds troublesome," I drawled. "Let's do it."