Training the next morning started with Kakashi not being there once again. Still quite unsure about how these things worked, team seven decided to fetch their new sensei from his apartment seeing as they had done so the day before and there hadn't been any ground rules established as of yet.

Sure enough they found him in his apartment groggily waking up at the crack of dawn. "What is wrong with you kids?" he managed before slamming the door in their face while he dressed. He emerged only a few seconds later fully dressed and ready to go. The cardio back to the training ground wasn't fun and Sakura once again collapsed after the run.

Team seven gathered together on the memorial stone while they waited for their sensei. Taking a seat across from them on a tree stump, Kakashi looked them over and sighed. "Let's do introductions then."

"Don't you know our names already?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi scratched his head. "Well yeah. But tell me about yourselves. What you like, what you don't like, your dreams. Stuff like that," he suggested.

"You really want to know such useless information?" Sasuke asked, trying to act cool.

"All information is useful if you know how to use it," Kakashi said. "Now who wants to go first?"

Sakura, being the Hokage wannabe, took initiative. "I'm Sakura Haruno. What I like is already known to everyone present thanks to Naruto," she said, sending daggers Naruto's way. "I don't like being weak and I'm going to be the first female Hokage."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, last remaining descendant of the Uzumaki clan. I like sealing and learning about sealing and cup ramen. I don't like it when my limbs go missing in the middle of a fight and my dream is to restart my clan by becoming the best sealing master in the world."

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha. I don't have time to like or dislike anything. I have one goal and that is to avenge my clan so that I may be able to raise my clan in peace one day."

"Sasuke's just a kidder," Naruto interjected. "He really likes tomatoes and hates my cooking."

"And I'm Kakashi Hatake. I like some things, I dislike other things and I suppose I dream sometimes when my sleeping patterns are irregular," Kakashi said. "Now that we know each other so well let's discuss training. From what I can tell one of you knows something about sealing, one of you can use your chakra in fire jutsu and one of you needs more cardio training. What can you tell me otherwise?"

Naruto and Sasuke met each other's eyes. With a nod from Sasuke, Naruto spoke. "I heal really fast and I have lots of energy. My chakra control sucks though."

"I have the best chakra control the academy has seen in some years," Sakura added proudly. "At least that's what I've been told."

"I'm a prodigy," Sasuke said.

Kakashi looked them over. "Sounds good. So for now we're going to work on rounding you all up to average then we can start working on your individual skills. For Sakura that means a lot of cardio, for Naruto I'm thinking chakra control training and for Sasuke, we're going to work on your pride."

Sasuke huffed, Sakura groaned and Naruto's face fell. Why did they want a sensei so badly again?

In the next five minutes Sakura was outfitted with weights and sent jogging around the village, Naruto was given the task of sticking water drops to his fingers with chakra and Sasuke was set to spar with Kakashi while he read his book. All in all it may or may not have been a productive day, either way it was hard to tell especially seeing as Naruto hadn't managed to succeed once.

The next few days were split up into half training and half doing D rank missions. So far they had cleaned up litter, built a fence, cleared out the rats in someone's attic, made deliveries, helped move a refrigerator and caught a cat multiple times. When they trained they trained hard, Sakura had started seeing some improvement in her stamina level and Sasuke was finally getting the training he wanted with a jonin at that. Only Naruto failed to see the results of his training and it bothered him.

He had tried asking both Sasuke and Sakura for help but their descriptions were mostly useless. It was just like when he had been learning the clone jutsu, the description just didn't make sense to him, he was doing everything they said and it wasn't doing anything. Eventually the moment came that he had to approach his sensei as nothing else seemed to be giving. Swallowing his pride, Naruto approached with his question in mind.

"Umm sensei, I don't think the exercises are working," Naruto said to Kakashi after a particularly long D rank. "I mean I guess I shouldn't expect much, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong, so I don't know how to correct it."

Kakashi tapped his chin for a few moments. "Do you know any Hyuugas?" he asked finally.

Naruto nodded, not sure where this was going. "Yeah, Hinata. Why?"

"She could probably help you if you manage to find her."

Naruto nodded and ran off towards the Hyuuga compound. She was probably out on a mission right now but he figured he would be able to catch her on her way back. Sure enough he did see Hinata catching up to her as she was on her way home. "Yo Hinata. Good job on passing the final exam. Can you help me with something?"

Hinata seemed startled at his presence which was surprising seeing as she was a byakugan user, but then again what did Naruto know? "Oh umm, hi Naruto. I might be able to help you," she mumbled.

"Ok great," said Naruto enthusiastically. "Can you turn your byakugan on? I'm going to do some chakra control techniques and you can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Ok?"

Hinata nodded, still looking slightly confused, but activated her byakugan nonetheless and paid close attention to him.

Breathing deeply, Naruto pooled his chakra to make water stick to his fingers while brushing them against a wet surface. It failed abysmally. "Can you see what I'm doing wrong?"

"Hmm, it looks like you're using too much chakra," Hinata said. "Maybe try using less."

"Try using less? I'm barely using any," Naruto said, quirking an eyebrow.

Hinata shrugged. "I suppose I could be wrong," she mumbled.

"No no. It sounds good Hinata. Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it," Naruto said, plastering a wide smile on his face.

Hinata blushed. "It was no problem," she mumbled, but it fell on empty ears as Naruto was already gone.

As he ran through the forests back to team seven's usual training ground the question raced through his mind, how could he use less chakra? Thankfully Kakashi was still there.

"Hinata told me to use less chakra," Naruto said to Kakashi's querying stare.

"Sounds good. Do it then."

"Ok, so how do I do that then?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi scratched his head. "Just use less."

"Yeah, but how?"

Kakashi sighed. "You're going to be trouble, aren't you" he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Imagine your chakra as flowing like a river through your body. Can you feel it?"

Naruto closed his eyes and nodded. "Okay. Now when you use your chakra you're kind of diverting some of that flow with a log or something."

"A log?"

"Yeah."

"Fine."

"So all you have to do is make sure that you're not diverting so much anymore," Kakashi finished.

Naruto scratched his nose. "That sound great and all but how do I do it?"

"Didn't I just tell you?"

"Not really."

(O_O)

No one in team seven wanted to bring it up, but it was pretty obvious, D ranks were becoming, as Shikamaru might say, a drag. Even Kakashi seemed to be less motivated than usual and he didn't even have to do them, but Naruto supposed that with the amount of times he had read through that book of his he was probably more bored than the rest of them. Where catching that stupid cat before had been a nuisance it had now become a chore and a tedious chore at that. It was why when Kakashi suggested doing a C rank mission they all eagerly accepted before asking for any more details. They were much less excited when they found out the details.

"A few months?" Sakura exclaimed. "What type of mission takes a few months?"

"Most missions actually. It's not all assassinations and thefts. We're going to be acting as bodyguard for a bridge builder in the Land of Waves. If he is able to finish the bridge it will make them a much more viable trading outpost, allowing more import and export in the Land of Fire as a result," Kakashi explained.

Sakura silenced. She was a sucker for anything politically related, especially if it made becoming Hokage easier. Naruto and Sasuke however weren't buying it.

"You've barely taught us anything. How can you already think that we're ready for a C rank?" was Naruto's question.

"This mission is below us, why can't we do a B rank?" was Sasuke's question, revealing that his humility training hadn't done any wonders.

"Listen, do you want to go back to doing D ranks or not, because if you don't do this mission then that's what you'll be doing. Besides with all the free time you'll have on this mission I'm sure I'll be able to find some good training exercises for you. We leave tomorrow at dawn, make sure to pack enough to last two weeks. If we're away from civilization for longer than that it's because we're either all dead or the mission suddenly became A rank. Thankfully none of those things are likely," Kakashi said before disappearing in a scattering of leaves.

(O_O)

Team seven met up at the front gate, noting that the only occupant besides for the gate guards was a middle aged angry looking man weighed down by his pack. Sasuke and Sakura both had their packs, looking just as big as the man's and were handling the weight just as well. Naruto was however loaded down with his usual training backpack and nothing more.

"Are you sure you have enough in there?" Sakura asked, ever the team leader.

Naruto wordlessly handed a scroll to Sakura and another to Sasuke, both of whom nodded their understanding, sealing their bags into the scrolls and handing them back to Naruto.

"Are you our employer?" Naruto asked, brandishing another one of his sealing scrolls.

"I would hope not. I employed ninja, not kids," said the irritated looking man.

"Well are you paying for a C rank?"

"Yes."

"Then we're your ninja," Naruto said, pointing at his headband. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Can I carry your bag?"

The man handed his bag to Naruto, paling as he did so. "Tazuna. Are we waiting for somebody?"

Naruto nodded. "Our sensei. He's what you might call a real ninja. If anything comes up that my team can't handle then our sensei will get it done. So don't worry."

Tazuna looked like he wanted to say something but held his tongue. They waited for another fifteen minutes before Kakashi showed up. Naruto suspected that the only reason he was up so early was because he was worried that his team was going to wake him.

"Sorry for being late. I had to help an old lady with her shopping," he said upon arrival. "Where are your packs?" he asked a moment later.

Naruto answered the question by offering a sealing scroll to Kakashi. Kakashi didn't take the proffered scroll. I prefer to carry my bag. True shinobi would do the same," he directed to Sakura and Sasuke.

Grumbling they both took their packs back from Naruto, unsealing them and handing back the scrolls.

"You too Naruto," Kakashi said.

Naruto shook his head. "I'm carrying Tazuna's bag."

"…Fine."

"Are we all set?" Sakura asked. Receiving nods she headed forward. "Team seven let's move."

Tazuna looked on with something akin to worry. "She's the leader?" he asked disbelievingly as he watched the pink haired girl skipping out of the village.

"Yeah," said Kakashi. "I don't really get it either. But if it's not broken. . ." he trailed off. "Let's catch up before they take us the wrong way."

(O_O)

The journey was longer than it should have been. The land of Waves was close to the Hidden Leaf and the journey should have lasted three days at most. However due to travelling with a civilian the journey was more than doubled. Seven days just to walk across landscape that they could have been leaping across with ease. Besides for Tazuna and Kakashi they were bored and Naruto didn't know who Kakashi was fooling with that book he was always reading but it wasn't him. Kakashi had suggested a training exercise for whenever they stopped, being that they would try to stick to the ground as they moved, to give themselves sand boots. It was an interesting exercise that tended to show the massive difference in their abilities. Sakura got it the first time, Sasuke didn't seem to get it and Naruto managed to make the sand implode whenever he tried, creating a dust cloud. Still there was gradual improvement and Sakura had already been started on tree walking. If Sasuke was resentful that Sakura was improving quicker than him, he didn't let on much. He did seem frustrated though and Naruto could understand why. When it came to learning new things he felt like he was standing still compared to his teammates, especially with chakra control.

Sasuke wasn't exactly able to release his pent up frustration as the journey required them to be on guard consistently and if they weren't hunting, setting up camp, sleeping, or walking then they were staying guard which consisted of a whole lot of nothing with the addition of keeping their eyes open and staying paranoid.

For the first few hours of the journey, team seven had been fascinated by their general surroundings. Never having left the village before the outside world seemed dangerous and fascinating to them, filled with mystery. Even Sasuke was unable to fully act as if he wasn't partially interested. That had been the first few hours. Now it was three days later, the foliage had shifted into a constant background, they had gotten used to the world outside quickly, realizing that besides for the lack of the hustle and bustle of the city the outside world wasn't all that different to large portions of Konoha itself. Three days into the journey and they were bored and tired.

The few travelers they had come across had eyed them suspiciously, avoiding them if possible, even going so far as to take a large detour around them. It seemed that no one wanted to get close.

For Naruto the journey was a good chance for thinking, seeing as all Sakura liked doing was talking about politics and Sasuke was taking the opportunity to brood. He needed time to contemplate as he hadn't had a sealing lesson in a while and he needed to do some revision. Going through each image in his notebook he would make sure he remembered how to draw it exactly, the mathematics behind it and things that could be changed within the seal without either blowing himself up or making the seal fail. In general his memory for seals was good though and the revision wasn't entirely required, but it definitely helped pass the time.

He was so preoccupied that he didn't notice the puddle until he had stepped right in it. Groaning he pulled his foot out and shook his leg about while simultaneously stashing his notebook away. Glancing at the puddle he felt that something was off, there was something strange about the puddle but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Shrugging, he moved on, listening to the squelching his foot made every time it pressed down against his footwear. Only a few seconds later a chain erupted out of the puddle narrowly missing Naruto and encircling Kakashi's limbs, trapping him. Two figures, armored from head to toe in spiky armor with clawed gauntlets and one with a gas mask, followed the chain, both attached from either side. They headed in opposite directions and tore Kakashi to shreds.

Having been in far too many fights, Naruto realized that the lack of massive blood spray meant that Kakashi had likely swapped out with a clone in the meantime, probably mud from the viscosity. Glancing at his teammates he saw that Sakura was nearest to Tazuna, leaving himself and Sasuke to handle the two lookalikes. Nodding to Sasuke he charged forward, aiming for the center of the swirling chain. It was such a brazenly stupid move that it most likely caught the two by surprise and they were slow to react, slow enough that Naruto was able to tangle his arm in the chains and lock it to the ground with his kunai. The chain cut into his flesh right down to the bone, but it wasn't anything that wouldn't heal quickly, besides for which he had just bought Sasuke his opening, whereupon he sprinted to the left of the two and drove a fist into his stomach forcing him to double over.

The one to the right of Naruto had the quick thinking to disengage the chain and change tack, breaking off from the attack and heading towards Sakura and Tazuna. With a yell, Naruto reached for a kunai and threw it in his direction. It only slowed him down, but it was enough for Sasuke to tackle him by the legs. In the meantime, Naruto was able to pull his arm out from the chains, admittedly at the cost of some skin and managed to put himself in between the attacker and Sakura. The attacker shoved his gauntlets forward, plunging them into Naruto's shoulder. It didn't have the desired effect though and instead of jumping away or collapsing, Naruto gripped his arm, pushing the gauntlet deeper and shoving his other hand forward to collide with the attacker's face. The punch was mostly ineffective if not for Naruto getting his blood in the attacker's eyes. It distracted him though and Sasuke brought the handle of his kunai hard against his temple.

The attacker collapsed, pulling his claws out of Naruto as he fell. Tazuna was looking at Naruto as if he had sprouted a few extra limbs which wasn't all that strange in the shinobi world. The large amounts of blood running down Naruto's body probably didn't help anything.

"Ar. . .are you feeling alright?" Sakura asked.

Naruto nodded, then looked down at his clothes. "I think I'm going to start wearing red. . .or orange," he said lazily.

Kakashi chose that moment to appear out from behind a tree and moved over to the groaning attacker that Sasuke had incapacitated first and started tying him up. "Sakura get the other one."

Sakura nodded her head, gathering some rope from her bag and moving to the unconscious attacker and tying him up with a cold calculated efficiency. Tazuna watched her go, turning to Kakashi with a questioning look. "Why didn't you help them?" he asked.

Kakashi shrugged, grunting slightly as he pushed his prisoner against a tree and circled the rope around him. "They had it handled. I would've stepped in if I thought they needed help."

"That kid got stabbed," Tazuna exclaimed, although he didn't sound very worried.

"He'll be fine."

"Actually sensei," Naruto said. "I am feeling a bit woozy." He stumbled and then fell into a sitting position. "I think I'm gonna take a nap," he finished, before his head hit the ground and he promptly passed out.

"Does that always happen?" Tazuna asked.

Kakashi moved over to the chain and smelled it. "Poison."

"That's not good," Sakura said.

"Eh, he'll be fine," Sasuke said.

"If you say so," Kakashi said, before turning to the prisoners and waiting until they woke.

(O_O)

"Ugh. What happened?"Naruto asked rubbing his eyes as he was shaken awake. "Are we there yet?" Looking up he saw the two attackers of the previous day tied to a tree. "I guess not."

Sakura, who had been shaking him sighed in relief. "You were poisoned," she said.

"Oh," Naruto said. "That would explain it."

"But you're fine now," Sakura said, still in a slight state of disbelief.

"Yeah."

"That's crazy."

"Yeah."

"You've been unconscious for two days. We had to make camp here because we weren't sure if you were going to be okay," Sakura said, standing up and moving over to the campfire. "Now that you're awake you can take over watch from Sasuke for the rest of the night."

Groaning he pushed himself up. "I guess I deserve that."

"Yeah."

Sauntering over to the two prisoners, Naruto tapped Sasuke on the shoulder and replaced his place on the log he had been sitting on. "You guys ok?" he directed to the two prisoners. They were gagged of course so they couldn't answer but Naruto felt that the thought counted. "I guess you guys were supposed to kill the guy we're protecting. Money must be hard to come by if you have to resort to killing old civilians. He probably didn't even have guards on the way to Konoha. It's almost like you want to be noticed."

The prisoners said nothing.

"Have they been feeding you?" Realizing once again that they weren't going to reply Naruto sighed and rested his head on his fist. It was going to be a long night.

(O_O)

The team was up at the crack of dawn and they didn't look happy. In fact there seemed to be some animosity between the team and Tazuna. Naruto wasn't entirely sure what the drama was about but with the looks they kept on sending the prisoners' way it had something to do with the ninja that had attacked them.

"The demon brothers," Kakashi explained to Naruto as they ate. "Chunin, known to work with Zabuza Momochi, one of the seven swordsman of the Mist. Very strong, very scary. Don't want to get on the wrong side of him. And from what our dear employer has told us, some big gangster named Gato has hired the lot of them."

"Ah," said Naruto putting the pieces together, lowering his head for another bite from his bowl. "We can't fight this swordsman, can we?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Definitely not you three. I might be able to go up against him but I wouldn't take my chances. This is an A rank mission."

"What happens if we leave?" Naruto asked, finishing his food.

Kakashi thought about it for a moment. "Likely the bridge builder will get killed. Either that or he'll dish out enough money for an A rank and probably starve."

"So we have to do it then," Naruto said.

Kakashi stayed silent.

Naruto stared at him for a while before brightening. "There's always another way," he said slowly, coming to a realization.

Kakashi sighed, pulling out his book. "That's not up to me, it's up to your team."

Naruto turned his head to look at Sasuke and Sakura, both avoiding Tazuna on the grounds of his deception. Standing and approaching them, he seated himself in between them. "How do you two feel like doing an A rank mission?" he asked brightly.

Both of them looked at him as if he had gone insane. "Have you gone insane?" Sakura asked.

Naruto shook his head. "I have a plan. Just hear me out."

Sasuke groaned. "I'm not going to like this. Am I?"

"Eh, maybe," Naruto confirmed. "I'm thinking that these guys," he nodded to the so called demon brothers who were out of earshot. "Are primarily being sent by Gato to assassinate Tazuna and prevent any more bridge building and from what we understand he'd hired ninja which makes this at least a B rank and probably an A rank. There's no way that our team can carry out the original mission parameters. So I'm thinking that we change the mission parameters. We'll send Tazuna back to our village with sensei, taking him out of harm's way, then we'll head to the land of waves and try to get rid of the problem while not being targeted by Gato."

"How is this going to help me get stronger?" Sasuke asked, ever the selfish one.

Naruto gave Sasuke a look that expressed his deep lack of interest in his concerns. "Ninjas don't just fight head on you know," he said. "Deception is half our job."

Sasuke grumbled but didn't respond.

"It sounds risky," Sakura said uncomfortably. "We don't know that we wouldn't be targeted and we would be going in with almost no plan."

"You're the team leader," Naruto said. "It's your choice."

"I think we should do it," Sasuke said finally. "It sounds like a good challenge."

Sakura looked at both of them and sighed. "Alright, let's do it, but we need to come up with at least something of a plan for once we're there. And we're bringing them," she pointed to the demon brothers. "Now how good is your henge ability Naruto?"