A Change of Roles

Chapter 2: A Surprising Mission

Team eight went about there duties as they always did, a tad bored. D Rank missions were fine, since they paid okay, but they tended to be just plain boring. I mean who wants to weed a garden or walk dogs over and over again for two weeks. In that span of time Team 10 had completed over 15 D missions.

This morning however when they arrived at the tower instead of the two D Rank scrolls they were normally given, only a single scroll was passed to Kurenai. She recognized the color of the border as being a C Rank mission, she grinned knowing her team would be pleased.

Gaara Looked to their leader and saw an odd expression on her face. She seemed to be smirking.

"Congratulations team. They seem to think you have completed enough missions to qualify for a C Rank mission."

Gaara turned to his team with a grin and saw that Hinata shared his smile. The only change noticeable in Shino was a slight shift in his posture which the rest of the team had come to know as meaning he was pleased. Gaara turned back to their instructor.

"So what is it?"

"Escort duty. A Caravan of supplies going to wind country. We have to guard it till it reaches the edge of our borders then we will be turning its protection over to a team from the Sand. We are leaving in four hours, so go pack and tell your families that you will be gone for one to two weeks. Shouldn't be too much trouble so it should be an easy job but there are reports of minor bandits in the forests around the border. Everything understood."

All three Genin nodded.

"Good. Meet at the west gate in four hours. Dismissed."

The three left the Hokage tower and once outside went their separate ways to go get ready.

Gaara ran quickly to his house where he found his mother. His father was out on a mission so he wouldn't be able to see him before he left but he told his mother about his mission. She did the typical mother action and said how proud she was of him and all that. Once she finished she hugged him and let him go so he could pack and prepare.

He packed all his equipment as well as a few extra things that his father had given him for missions. He took an extra set of clothes, some extra food, and a few other things he thought he might need. The last thing he grabbed was a loose picture he kept. It was from one of his birthdays. All his friends and family were seated around a table having a wonderful time. It was one of his fondest memories.

Once packed, which had taken about an hour he returned to the Hokage tower to learn where his sister and her team were for the day. He was told that Ino was getting groceries for an old lady who no longer could herself, so he took off for the market area to find her. He found her lugging two huge grocery bags down the street.

"Hey Ino. Sis wait up."

Ino turned at the sound of her name being called to see her brother running towards her with a backpack on his back.

"Hey bro. Don't you have a mission today?"

"That's why I came to find you. We got our first C Rank. We're gonna be gone from the village for a week or two on guard duty."

"Awesome, congrats little brother. So you've got some extra time right now huh?"

"Yeah, I don't have to be at the gate for another two hours."

"Good then you can lug this other bag for me."

Gaara smirked at his sister, but still took the bag anyway.

Once they dropped off the groceries the two said their good bye's and Gaara made his way to the gate.

Right on time the rest of his team arrived. And they took off to meet up with the caravan.

About a day out of Konoha they met up with the caravan. And then the journey slowed as they had to cut down to speed of the carts instead of their own much greater speed. It was three days after this that the first attack occurred.

It had been a simple plan. And if their had not been Shinobi guarding the caravan it might have worked. These bandits had dragged a large log into the middle of the road and were seated around this log waiting for anyone traveling to come along. And when the three oddly dressed kids came forward and told them to get out of the way they had laughed. And charged. And immediately turned tail and run as the kids proceeded to beat the tar out of those who reached them first.

By the third such attack the three kids ceased even bothering with jutsu's. And by the sixth, they just started taking turns.

But it was the eighth such encounter that things changed. This time they only saw one man. He was standing in the middle of the road seemingly with his eyes closed. And he was huge. Even sitting you could tell he was nearly 7 feet tall. And his entire body seemed to be nothing but muscle. And instead of a normal skin tone, his seemed to be a dark grey color. None of this really affected the Genin much, they had fought some weird characters during this trip. Most of which had simply been that…weird.

Gaara looked over at Shino.

"Hey man, I think it's your turn."

The quiet boy nodded to Gaara and leaped down from the carriage he was riding on as the caravan came to a stop. He slowly made his way towards the man, who at Shino's approach, stood up.

"You are blocking our path, please get out of our way."

"And if I choose not to move?" the voice that came from the man was deep, gravely, and dripping with sarcasm.

"Then I shall be forced to move you."

"Ha. Go ahead and try boy."

Shino took this at his cue and threw several shurikens at the man. The man didn't bother to even move. The throwing stars simply bounced right off of him. As did the kunais that followed shortly after. Seeing that this type of attack wasn't working Shino called on the trait of his family and began using his particular fighting style. But again his attacks seemed to have no effect on the mighty giant. So far the man had barely even moved. But move he did when Shino moved into close range. The mans arm became a blur catching Shino in mid attack and launching him flying backwards. He would have slammed into one of the carts had it not been for Kurenai moving to catch him.

The moment Shino was struck Gaara and Hinata charged in to attack. Gaara with his staff and Hinata with her sword. Both were rappelled quickly but were able to keep the big man busy. They even forced him to actually defend after he felt one of Hinata gentle fist strikes. After what seemed like a long time but was actually less then a minute, the combatants backed off.

"I'm impressed children. A few of those hits actually hurt. But if you think you can beat me you are sadly mistaken. I am Tessai. Formerly of the Hidden Stone village. None there could beat me. So I don't see how you ever could."

While he was talking the two Genins were having a hushed conversation.

"Hinata, can you shut him down?"

"He's too fast he could probably dodge most of my strikes. If he was slowed down somehow I could do it."

"Now that I think I can do. Keep him busy. When I give a shout, shut him down."

With their conversation over Hinata charged in to attack again, while stood back. Quickly he began going through a series of seals. When he completed the seals his focus turned to the ground underneath Hinata and the rock guy.

"Hinata NOW!"

Hinata jumped back from her opponent sheathing her kodachi as she did so. When she landed she dropped into a deep stance with her hands open and arms extended on either side of her body.

"64 Hands of Hakke."

Tessai saw her attack coming and attempted to dodge it. However when he tried to move he found that his legs would not respond. When he looked down he saw them encased in mounds of sand. He looked up just in time to see Hinata land her first strike. At around the 16th strike he knew no more.

When the man hunched forward Gaara relaxed his control. And Hinata moved to the side as Tessai's body fell.

Kurenai was still standing next to Shino who was nursing his possibly broken ribs. She had watched her other two students take down a man she knew to be at an A-Class Missing-Nin. She had prepared an attack of her own but found it wasn't necessary as her students had it well in hand.

Once the missing nin was dealt with they actually had no more trouble for the remainder of the trip to the border of the wind country. There they were met by a team very similar to their own. It contained one Jounin and three kids who were most likely Genin. Kurenai recognized the Jounin.

"Greetings Baki. It's been a while."

"A Kurenai. So you've been promoted I see. Last time I saw you, you will still a Chunin. Congratulations."

"Yes, I was promoted last year. So how are your kids doing?"

"Fairly well. This will be their tenth C-Rank mission."

"Impressive. This only my teams first, but then yours have been doing missions longer."

"True. Well we must be going. See you in a month or so."

"Yes. See you then."

Gaara had been listening to their conversation but he had also been taking in the sight of the other three kids. One was a blonde girl in white with a large black thing strapped to her back. Another was a guy wearing all black from head to toe and he to had a strange object affixed to his back. The last one however interested him the most. The boy had blonde hair like the girl, but his eyes were a searing red color and they seemed to have an almost feral gleam in his eyes, though he seemed calm. He seemed to feel a kind of connection to the boy. Though at the moment he wasn't sure what it might be.

It wasn't long before they were making their way back to the Leaf. It may have taken some time to get there with the caravan, but for a well trained ninja it was only about two days travel time. So in what seemed like no time to the three students, they were home.

A/N: I know at the moment that the fight scenes are lacking but at the moment I am just not that good at them. I am currently practicing. There should be some decent ones during the Chunin exam.

Also a friend who read this was confused why I gave Hinata a weapon. I had been watching Rurouni Kenshin recently and I thought about how the style the Aoshi Shinamuri started off using would work well for a Hyuga, using a Kodachi for defence and still have the freedom to use her Jyuken techniques.