A/N: This is the last chapter I've finished. The next chapter is one I'm struggling with because I'm struggling with Garaa's characterization.

Please be aware that the title of this story has been changed from Sasuke Uchiha to Uchiha Clan, Doing Better. I was always planning on changing the title when I worked out what I wanted it to be called, and this was what I settled on.

Chapter 14: Fit for Duty

Returning to Konoha, the team was shown straight to the Hokage as was procedure when a mission was suddenly up-classed the way theirs was. Kakashi gave a quick, verbal report, on what had happened before the genin were dismissed.

"Why didn't you turn back when you knew the mission was no longer a C-rank?" The Hokage frowned in disapproval.

"Because I knew my students could handle it." Kakashi stood in his habitual slump before the Hokage, not feeling threatened despite how angry his Kage was. "Sasuke and Naruto are both only genin in name. Having now seen him in combat, I would put Sasuke at low Jonin in everything except experience. Naruto has solid Chunin skills. Again, only lacking experience. If either of them had been allowed to show their true skills during the Academy they would have graduated early. Instead, Naruto was insulted and held back by prejudices actions, thinking he wasn't good enough and not realising he learnt differently. Sasuke, well he just didn't want the lime light."

Kakashi frowned angrily. He wasn't great with emotions or social situations, but he was a skilled and experienced infiltrator. He was used to reading the situation, and he had been reading his students for the last month.

Sakura was the easiest – she was a girl who had forgotten her motivation for becoming a ninja, focusing on her appearances and getting a husband instead of improving herself. But, with Sasuke's careful words and actions, she was slowly improving both her physical strength, and adapting her mental process by discovering why she wanted to be a ninja. By the end of the next month, he predicted that Sakura's motivation to be a ninja will no longer be dependent on romantic motivations around Sasuke.

Fun loving Naruto was the next one he had gotten a read on. He was motivated by his desire to be acknowledge, to prove the civilians wrong about him, to protect his precious people and to be strong – to be the strongest. He had been insulted, bullied and ignored by the civilians and his teachers for so long that he had missed out on the basics skills until someone stepped in and gave him journals. But, even then, he was still missing small bits of knowledge that would trip him up every now and then. He was determined to overcome his own limitations in chakra control and prove that the faith Sasuke had put in him was worth it – especially now, since Sasuke's life had been put in danger because of his inaction and he hadn't had the chance to directly make up for that.

Sasuke was the hardest of the three to understand. He carried a lot of trauma, but he didn't let it effect his ability to function in day-to-day life. Sasuke had dedicated his life to improving his abilities – his fighting skills and his life skills. Kakashi hadn't gotten a true hold on Sasuke's intelligence, but he did know that Sasuke was able to understand the world to a level equivalent of an adult, seeing connections and future possibilities with ease. And he could compartmentalise in a way which Kakashi had only seen with experienced ninja's and ANBU – hell, he was handling the mission after effects better than Kakashi himself had when he was twelve, because he had simple shut off all connections of his emotions whereas Sasuke allowed himself the opportunity to feel. He also had faith in his teammates – faith that Naruto could become the Hokage, and that Sakura would be a great medic-nin.

Outside of the team, Sasuke also had a strong connection with a Nara, likely the heir, and no other close friends. No other connections holding him to the village, but that didn't stop him from having a very strong Will of Fire – which saw him looking for the best for the village; which was why he had asked about Kakashi's training. With one sannin a traitor, one a self-mandated outcast, the other the spy-master who would never take the hat, there was very few candidates left who were strong enough to become the Hokage when Sandaime retired (again) or died, and Kakashi knew he was one of those candidates. Hell, he was the most likely candidate. After being forced to retire from ANBU two years ago, he had allowed his skills to fall until he took on his team and saw how much work Sasuke put into improving his own skills and the skills of his team. That had motivated him into doing more of his own training, pushing his own limits so that he could help his team when they were promoted and started taking on more dangerous missions.

"Once my team have past their psych evaluation, and they will pass, I will be taking them on more missions so that Sasuke and Naruto get the experience they need, and Sakura doesn't back slide in her training." Kakashi didn't ask permission to take them out the village, he simple informed his Hokage of what would be happening. He had been given responsibility and control of his three students and he wouldn't let anyone else determine how he trained or looked after them.

"I want a full written report, and I expect to see their psych evaluations before you return for a new mission." The Hokage sighed tiredly, knowing better than to argue with his elite jonin.

"You might want look into the Academy, I think the students are being sabotaged." Kakashi advised before he left the office – he had three appointments to book.

Once they got back to the village, Sasuke slept one night in her own bed before she went in search of Shikamaru. She had made a promise to herself to confide her secret in him because he was her closest friend and the only person, she believed, who could understand her present situation and viewpoint. He knew she had a secret, one she wanted to tell him, and so it was no surprise to find him waiting in their normal training ground.

"Hi," Sasuke flopped against a tree, indicating they wouldn't be doing any training just yet. Shikamaru let out a sigh, which distinctly conveyed his thoughts of 'troublesome' before boneless flopping down next to her.

"How was your mission?" Shikamaru questioned.

"Long." Sasuke answered simple at first as she put her thoughts in order. "Our mission was up ranked to A. I was forced to kill more than four hundred men, with two of those being B-rank ninjas. Naruto killed twenty, Sakura killed nine."

Sasuke had gotten the details on what had happened with Naruto and Sakura during the debrief they did the day after the assassination mission. That was the first, and last time, the two of them put into numbers the men they had killed, especially since Kakashi made it clear that remembering them in such a way would weigh them down with guilt and would do them no good.

"Kakashi sensei is definitely maintaining, and I think improving, his training in order to ensure his S-rank status. He was able to bring down Zabuza Momochi without using his Sharingan eye or overly exerting himself." Sasuke immediately added on information about her sensei to make it clear to Shikamaru that she didn't want to discuss those kills in anymore detail.

"Zabuza Momochi, A-class missing nin from Kiri. Known as the demon of the mist for killing his entire graduation class, he is one of the seven swords of the mist. He was declared nuke-nin after attempting to kill the Mizukage." Shikamaru listed of the important information in Zabuza's bingo book entry.

"Yes, that's the one." Sasuke confirmed.

"Well, at least you know your sensei is up to scratch. How are Naruto and Sakura coping?"

"Naruto, I think he'll be fine. Determined to never let me go into battle alone again and become strong enough to stand at my side. He's struggling with the reality of going on the offensive and killing, but I have no doubt that he will come to terms with it. Sakura, I am not sure about her. She was quite on the way back, especially when she realised we'd been abandoned by Chunin of the village because it was a team with Naruto on who had asked for back up. I think that she's finally accepted that she needs to do more to stand besides me and Naruto, and that the ingrained prejudice she had against Naruto wasn't founded on anything." Sasuke hummed thoughtfully.

Kakashi had tasked the chunin team with effectively doing D-rank missions for Wave, helping with the rebuilding of buildings and farming. They would face further punishments when they got back to the village – likely being benched or demoted by the Hokage, who had looked very displeased when Kakashi had reached that point in his report. Especially since it had led to a genin committing mass assassination – something that a ninja shouldn't have to be faced with until they were jonin or ANBU (which could happen at chunin level).

"And you, are you coping?" Shikamaru questioned.

"I'm accepting what I had to do," Sasuke said delicately. "I am glade that I was the one who had to complete the assassinations instead of Sakura and Naruto."

"Yes, I can see that." Shikamaru hummed.

"When your team accepts a mission outside of the village, I hope it doesn't go to shit like mine did." Sasuke said sincerely.

Although Shikamaru was physically stronger and faster than most Nara's, he was still an intelligence specialist and he was still growing and so unable to master his family technique as he is showing signs of doing. As an intelligence specialised, on an infiltration and intelligence gathering team, he wasn't expected to engage in front line combat like Sasuke's team and when faced with a situation like they had done, would immediately call for Jonin level back-up while they gathered information and remained out of sight.

"I've begun looking into poisons to help me take down large numbers. I'll begin getting my team to get a poison immunity." Shikamaru admitted.

"I've also revealed my desire to broaden my poison portfolio to Kakashi-sensei, so I'll be joining you in this." Sasuke nodded her head. Poison could be very effective when outnumbered, as long as they didn't use a common poison which most ninja's have an immunity to.

They were sat in silences for a long moment as they simple relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. The both of them were quite people by nature, and long-drawn-out conversation when a few words could achieve the same effect, was very tiring on the both of them. So, sitting in quiet for a while before moving on to a new subject was very normal for the both of them.

"I've been keeping a secret my entire life," Sasuke finally announced, causing Shikamaru's sharp eyes to lock onto her immediately. "My brother, and his cousin Shisui, decided it wasn't safe for anyone to know, so they used a very powerful genjutu to make the few who knew the truth forget. Tying the truth to myself and Itachi, but on the night my family died, the secret was given to me. Only I can end the genjutsu and reveal the truth to the world, when I am ready."

"You wish to tell me this secret?" Shikamaru divined the obvious.

"Yes. I'm not ready for anyone else to know, but you… you've been my friend for so many years, even when I wasn't sure who I was anymore or how to interact with people. I've already given you parts of a greater secret, one you have helped me manage, and I think its time someone else knew this truth about me." Sasuke admitted, looking up at the to sky as she tried to explain her reasons for revealing what she was to Shikamaru, and he understood.

In the five years since his clan's death, Sasuke had revealed to him that the massacre had been authorised by someone in the upper tier of Konoha's government – not the Hokage, but someone on the council. He hadn't been able to work out which, or how many, of the council members had been involved, or indeed, who else might have known, but he did know that who ever it was had not only betrayed the Uchiha clan and the Hokage, but Konoha itself. With what he, and Sasuke, had been able to work out, they had been involved in a lot of things going wrong in the village – including the kidnapping of orphans. The weight of this secret was something that he would normally reveal to his father so that he could deal with it, but such was a very dangerous solution when the Hokage was already aware that he had been betrayed, and he had chosen to do nothing. And if the clan heads knew what had been done to the Uchiha, and that their Hokage had turned a blind eye – well an uprising or mass moving out of Konoha would be more then expected.

Holding this grave secret beside Sasuke was a heavy burden, but one he had taken because Sasuke needed someone to confide in, and someone to help him plan and work – especially since they were working to the goal of seeing Sasuke's brother returned to the village in honour. Taking, and holding another secret which had been forced onto Sasuke without his consent, would not be a burden for him. Perhaps, it might even bridge that final distance between the two of them. Despite how much trust Sasuke had been building with him over the years, the time they spent training and planning and the secrets shared, Shikamaru had always felt that the other boy was holding them at a slight distance.

"I'm under a very complex, physical base, genjutsu henge which changes my body and looks. I don't know, and have never known, what I actually look like. Hell, no one has known what I truly look like since I was two weeks old." Sasuke laughed, a slight note of self-deprecation and hysteria to it.

She tried not to think about this very often, she'd already had to handle the dissociation when she took on the memories of Jane, and was very much aware how odd it's going to be to one day look into the mirror and not see the face and body she had grown with. She assumed that Shisui and Itachi had referenced not only her own underlining bone structure, but that of her parents, in order to ensure that the differences were minimal, but she didn't know that for certain. As far as she was aware, everything could be completely different about her – from eye shape, to the size of her nose and lips, perhaps even the shape of her chin and placement of her cheek bones. Despite being in the body of a boy, she liked her current face and body. She had worked hard to get the muscles and shape she currently had, and she had no idea if dropping the genjutsu would mean she was going to have to learn how to move with a new centre of gravity, different sized limps and, of course, the change in genitalia and the addition of breasts.

Dropping the genjutsu wasn't just going to mess with her mental proception of self, but also her physical abilities until she had time to adapt her movements. If she dropped it now, it wouldn't be such a big deal because she was young enough that there wouldn't be much difference between a boy's body and a girl. But she wasn't ready to drop the genjutsu – her village still had rotten roots and she had promised herself to not reveal the truth until Konoha stood tall, proud and whole without the infestation.

"Sasuke…" Shikamaru frowned thoughtfully. "Are you telling me you're a girl?" It's the only thing he could think that someone would want to hide about another's physical appearance when they were so young. At two weeks old, it couldn't have been Sasuke's eyes which were being hidden (as he had first thought), which left only one other option. If the unrest Sasuke hinted at within her clan had started as far back as suggested, then it would make sense that being the daughter of the Clan Head would put her in a very precarious position and Itachi had loved his little sister with everything he had.

"You always were the smartest person I know, Shika." Sasuke smiled, eyeing her friend in half amusement and half worry. She doubted he was going to take it badly, Shikamaru wasn't that sort of person, but there was still a little bit of doubt in the back of her mind that maybe he would question their friendship now he knew.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed, flopping back to lie completely against the ground and stare at the sky. "Only you can cancel the genjutsu?"

"Yes. My brother used to have the key as well, but he turned it over to me." She wasn't able to hide the sheer sadness at this.

Itachi had handed control over because he was saying goodbye. He hadn't known if they would ever be able to meet again, and so he had taken the last thing connecting the two of them and given it over to her. The key, they had discovered, let her feel it when the holder died – a spark and intense pain in her chakra. It was how Itachi had arrived at the cliff top before Shisui went over – she had told him because she could feel the fading chakra from the older boy. Itachi hadn't wanted her to feel his death as well – not after everything she had already been put through. And especially not if she was becoming a shinobi because she might have been on a mission when he perished and something like that could easily lead to a deadly distraction. Despite having no way of knowing if her brother was dead, Sasuke held out hope that he was still alive – he was an S-ranked Shinobi at only thirteen years, after all.

"The Council are going to be very disappointed when you refuse to take a wife after you become a jonin." Shikamaru smirked wickedly as the thought occurred to him, causing Sasuke to burst into surprised laughter. He had accepted her secret, and he wouldn't push for any more information, but he would support her.

Sasuke mental evaluation was the last one to take place and the results were exactly what she had predicted – she was coping admirable well with the realities of being a Shinobi and had found safe outlets for any dark emotions (she had decided to focus on pottery, being able to use fire jutsu to process the pottery meant she didn't need a kiln, and a secondary consequence of choosing pottery was the target practise and satisfaction of breaking something). Once she was cleared, the team immediately picked up more missions – typically doing four C rank mission each week, with three D rank missions thrown on the end, unless those C-rank missions took more than a day and a night.

Before their mission to Wave, they had done 42 D-rank missions. Sasuke was keeping a detailed record (which included coded, after action reports for each mission) since she knew that the criteria to become a Chunin including completing a minimum of 60 D-rank missions and twelve C-rank missions, as well as making it to the final round of the Chunin exams and demonstrating a set number of skills and traits. If she didn't make it to the final round of the Chunin exams (as doubtful as she found the prospect), she needed more C rank missions on her record and to have demonstrate all required sills in the first two rounds, which was harder to achieve. Once she was a Chunin, she would need to complete 80 C-rank mission, leading a minimum of 20, take part in at least 10 B-rank missions and gain two jonin recommendations.

Of course, field promotion was a thing at all levels, but very difficult to obtain outside of war time settings.

Keeping track of their missions, not only allowed her to see how close she was to these minimum requirements, but also allowed her to have 'intelligence reports' on team mates (more important for the future when she wouldn't always be paired with Sakura and Naruto), fellow ninja and civilians of her village and anything she might notice outside of the village walls during the process of completing the mission (like the state of Wave, and the questions that had been raised about nobody noticing). As she moved up through the ranks, these reports would become more in-depth and important to not only her continued survival and progress, but also the survival and progress of her fellow ninja.

Mission 43: Construction is a possible career choice (d-rank)

"Team 7, reporting for a mission." Kakashi greeted the Chunin at the mission desk with a smile.

"We have a construction, D rank mission available." Kakashi accepted the scroll and opened it.

"Hmm, we'll take it, and the second part as well." Kakashi hummed.

"You sure? These are quite physically intensive missions." The chunin hesitated.

"I'm sure. My cute little genin will manage it." Kakashi eye smiled at the chunin until they handed over the second mission scroll.

"So, what are we doing, sensei?" Naruto asked, bouncing excitedly on his toes. This was their first mission since getting back from Wave and he was eager to prove they were ready to get back out of the village.

"A client needs a pool built for the fourth distract. The area has already been marked out we just need to dig the hole, tile it, put in the pump and filtration system, and paint it." Kakashi smiled brightly at them.

"Oh, is that all." Sakura shot him a glare. "Does anyone actually know how to set up a pump and filtration system?"

"I know." Naruto informed them brightly.

"Really?" she questioned, surprised.

"Yep." Naruto said happily. "I needed to know for one of my pranks, I didn't want to destroy something important."

"Well, you can teach us something then." Sasuke smiled happily at Naruto, glad they didn't have to send someone to the library to look it up and possibly make a mistake in the fitting process.

"Great, let's go." Naruto cheered, jumping up onto the roof so they could run to their destination. They had a lot of work, and only a day to get it done in – a very ambitious time line.

Mission 56: Deliver to Shoma (c-rank)

Having done a series of D-ranked missions and proven beyond doubt that their team was ready to head out of the village again, they were finally given a C-rank mission. It was a simple delivery mission, a ten hour round trip so they set out just after the sun rose.

Fire country had plenty of rich and fertile land so they didn't have an issue growing the crops they ate, fishing was plentiful in the Naka river and in the two port villages, but the one main resource the village needed but they did not have access to was steel and iron. So, every two weeks a run was made to Kochi, their northern port city (the other being Shimizu), in order to collect the supply of ore and iron sand brought from Lightning Country (the small constant shipments were less suspicious compared to large quarterly shipments, and it also meant that their stocks were being constantly added too).

To help further disguise the supply of metal, the boat also brought spices which couldn't be grown anywhere else.

All this was explained to the team, by sensei, as they ran through the tree tops. Sakura was at the front because Kakashi wanted to test her speed and stamina, followed by Naruto and then Sasuke, with Kakashi taking up the rear. Running in a straight line like this disguised their numbers, good practise for when they were moving through hostile territory or when they were carrying sensitive information or supplies.

Mission 61: Dame it, Naruto! (A-rank)

The bandit elimination mission was typically taken by new genin teams so that they could get their first kill out of the way. Since their team had already made their first kills, they were given this particular bandit elimination missions because reports from the villages that were being affected by the group indicated that they were more organised then was typical and had more than twenty members. Due to the organised nature of the bandits, and their number, a more experienced genin team should have been sent, but Team Seven counted as such due to the number of missions they had taken.

They tracked the bandits to their camp, and broke up to surround them. Kakashi was hanging back – assessing how they handled a tracking mission, and their communication as they moved to surround the bandits and engage. They were all wearing radio coms so they could discuss the plan if they needed to, but they had chosen to perch high in trees in line of sight of each other but not the bandits.

'Hold' Sasuke sign, frowning down at the bandit. Something was wrong. There were eight guards – station in pairs at each of the cardinal points of the camp. These guards had weapons out and were alert. The tents were put up in a square, one metre apart from each other, and the canvas was too thick to see through. They'd already observed three people enter and exit from tents, but they hadn't been able to tell there was anyone in those tents beforehand. Which meant, their count of the number of bandits was based on Sasuke's sensing ability.

'Thirty civs.' Sasuke signed. 'four genin level…' Sasuke paused as she noticed something else. In what appeared to be the leading tent – it was larger than the others and had fur over the canvas – there was three signatures which were more powerful and controlled than any of the others. Power and control were good indicators of skill level and amount of ninja training – it only got hard to tell level when dealing with Elite Jonin or infiltration specialists who learnt to hide their signature and imitate civilians. These three signatures were similar to what she was used to feeling from Jonin level ninjas.

'Pull back' Sasuke signed. This changed the parameters of the mission and they needed to talk it through with their sensei.

Before they could pull back, one of the signatures she had noticed in the tent stepped out, Naruto sneezed and all hell broke loose.

Mission 67: Well, it could have been worse? (b-rank)

Considering who was on their team, and the way their first mission had gone, the Hokage had avoided giving them protection missions for a short while. But they couldn't avoid protection or escort missions forever – their team was a good poster team in order to draw in new clients. So, the Hokage had assigned them a 'safe' escort mission of three young ladies and two young lords who were from a civilian noble family in the village and heading to visit the hot-springs in the Land of Hot Water. They would be protecting the lords and ladies during the trip, the five days they were staying at the Spa resort and the trip back.

Sakura was quite happy with this assignment, as it meant they would have to go into the Onsen with the Lords and Ladies – Sasuke was less happy about the mission. She had avoided going to a public bath for a very good reason. She wasn't body shy about herself, very much aware that what everyone saw was not her true body and the scars that were visible to the world were ones she had earned in training or missions (Itachi had hid the other scars she had gained because they couldn't explain them without creating an awkward situation for their father). She was however, uncomfortable with the idea of seeing men naked because it felt like she was perving on them because they didn't know that a woman was among them. Maybe, if she was attracted to woman she wouldn't feel as awkward about it, but she wasn't.

Naruto, upon learning what their mission entailed, was also quite happy since he had never been allowed into the onsen's back in the village before he became a genin, and he hadn't tried to go since earning the title. Upon seeing Naruto hanging onto Sakura's every word about her onsen experience, Sasuke's heart twitched. If he truly ended up enjoying the experience as much as she thought he would, Sasuke made the mental promise to escort him to a ninja friendly onsen in the Village so that he knew he was welcome. She would go just the one in Village, for Naruto. But that was in the future, first she needed to get through this mission without letting on that she was embarrassed. Hopefully, sensei would not join them in the onsen's – he didn't seem like the sort of person who would go to public onsen's unless it was required of him in a mission and he could pass that duty onto his genin.

The journey to the Land of Hot Water was quiet, nothing out of the ordinary happening. The nobles had booked an apartment hotel, which meant there was three bedrooms attached to a living room and small kitchen. Very luxurious, very expensive. Two of the noble girls took a room, one of the young lords took a room to himself and the remaining two (a married couple) took the remaining room; which left the others camped out in the living room. Sakura took the sofa, while the rest of them settled out on the floor.

Sasuke endured two days of onsen visits, before things started going wrong. Upon leaving the hotel room, she noticed some characters on the streets who didn't really fit in. Kakashi also noticed this, because he directed them to a mix-gender onsen and he joined them – something he had avoided doing before then. Sasuke made a conscious effort to avoid looking in her sensei's direction, preferring to keep an eye on their surroundings.

It was as they were getting changed, that things exploded into chaos. Smoke was thrown into the changing rooms, and the attacks used the lake of sight to grab the nobles. Sasuke managed to henge herself into one of the lords and get grabbed instead.

Intermission: Cats

The moment they got back to the village following their protection mission to the Land of Hot Water, Sasuke had signed the cat contract. She'd immediately set to training with five main cats: each of them with different specialists. There were other cats she could call upon, and she did have three house cats out at most times within the village, but those five were the ones she was most likely going to call upon during missions.

She wasn't ready to use any of them in missions yet, but she'd let Kakashi know what she was doing so that he was aware of this additional skill set in her arsenal and also so that she could ask for advice in training since he had trained his nine main dogs. He had been surprised when he discovered that she knew how to activate a summoning contract since the hand signs weren't something that was typically taught unless someone was passing a contract along to their student/family and she hadn't had anyone to teach her. Sasuke explained about Itachi and the crows – she'd seen him summon his partners enough times to have committed the hand signs to memory.

When she let Kakashi know about the cats, it had been a week since she signed the contract, and during the one-on-one training session which he arranged for Sunday afternoons (Naruto had Tuesday afternoons and Sakura had Thursday).

"Cats? Your family contract is cats?" Kakashi spoke slowly, projecting distaste at the thought.

"Cats have been the family contract for over 800 hundred years. It was the Uchiha family who built Sora-ku, we still own the land where the derelict city stands. The cats that live there are descendants of some of the summons. Because the cats are so picky, potential summoners have to meet a certain criteria in order to sign their contract. It's because of their pickiness that the family had more people sign the eagle and crow contracts. Cats are proud creatures, just as my family were proud." Sasuke explained.

"How does your contract work? Do you have a main summons or a team you work with, or do you summon as needed?" Kakashi questioned, accepting the explanation as to why it hadn't been known that the Uchiha held the cat contract.

"I have a team of five: Nyx, Trix, Des, Pan and Zak. Do you want me to summon them?"

"Yes." Kakashi took a step back.

Nodding, Sasuke focused. She normally only summoned two or three at a time, this will be first time she was summoning all five of them which would drain her chakra reserves down to just under half: something she wouldn't normally do in a battle situation unless she had no choice until she improved her current reserve size.

Quickly, she bit her thumb before running through the hand signs Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey and Ram and slamming her hand down on the ground. There was a large puff of smoke and her summons appeared around her. All of them were settled in a relaxed, seated position when the smoke cleared because she had forewarned them that she was going to be summoning them to meet her sensei. She'd introduce them to Shikamaru and her team later. Well, all of them were seated except for Trix who was leaning against her leg and demanding attention.

"Sensei, I would like you to meet my partners: Nyx my battle partner." Sasuke pointed to the large black cat who was three and a half metres tall despite only being eight months old and so having another twelve months of growth ahead of him. Despite being her battle specialist, Nyx was still training under the other battle specialists who were older and more powerful than him.

"Then we have Trix, my stealth specialist." The smallest feline of the group, the lynx looked like a normal domesticated cat except for her slightly longer ears which she could lie flat on the back of her head to disguise her species. Her fur was a dark burgundy, and she was quite fast, something Sasuke was working on improving. As her stealth specialist, speed was very important. She was also working on improving Trix's sense of smell, hoping to add 'tracking' to her specialist title – training which she would need Kakashi help with since she was still trying to improve her own tracking skills.

"Des who is my intelligence and poison specialist." The she-tiger yawned, showing her glistening teeth. Sasuke hadn't asked how, but some how she was able to hold a deadly poison in her mouth without causing herself any harm. If her teeth weren't deadly enough, Des' claws were about three inches long, extremely sharp and also poisoned. Unlike her teeth, the claws had paralytic poison so that she could bring enemy shinobi in alive if necessary.

"Pan and Zak come as a pair, my extraction and team battle specialists. Pan is the cheetah, while Zak is the leopard." Sasuke introduced the last two, who were leaning against each other, watching sensei with lazy eyes.

"They are all young." Kakashi observed. He ran through the summoning technique and called upon all nine of his dogs without any problems.

"Let's see how good they truly are. Pakkun you will be working with Trix. She claims to be a stealth specialist, lets see how she holds up against your nose. Bull and Shiba you're with Nyx; test his battling abilities, see how he can handle you alone and as a team. Uhei and Guruko you're with Des, test her knowledge. She's an intelligence specialist. Urushi, Bisuke, Akino you're with Pan and Zak. Test their combination battle techniques and independent battling." Kakashi partnered their summons off.

"Sasuke, walked me through your training with them and how you'd work with them." Kakashi requested as their summons went off together.

Mission 86: Why us!? (a-rank)

Sasuke was starting to think their team was cursed. They'd done a few normal C rank missions, and all of their D rank missions had been normal, but the up ranking was starting to really annoy her. This was supposed to be a tracking mission of a missing farmer, and now she and Naruto were trying to hold off eight Kumo-nin while hoping that Kakashi noticed their fighting and came to back them up. Naruto had managed to get one of his clones out of the ambush and sent in the direction of where Kakashi and Sakura had been searching.

"Sasuke, we got a problem." Naruto announced, lunching himself up and left to dodge an earth spear.

"Another one?" Sasuke questioned, getting in close to one of the Kumo-nin and managing to get a slash at his arm before doing a back hand stand to get away – kicking out to make sure the Kumo-nin didn't follow.

"Kakashi's engaged with another group. I counted five before my clone was popped trying to alert sensei to our situation." Naruto explained as Sasuke managed to stand back-to-back with him.

"Only five? He'll be here soon. Did you see Sakura?"

"She was re-treating with the farmer. Unharmed." Naruto reassured her.

"Alright then, we just need to hold out long enough for sensei to get here. Double-team left?"

"High?"

"Low." Sasuke confirmed.