DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does. I don't own Hikari Aino.

A/C: Constructive criticism is warmly welcomed and appreciated, as well as readers' suggestions/ideas. (Particularly when it comes to Lemons – I really suck at those! :S) Flames and mean comments are not welcome – saying 'no offence' means squat. If you don't like what you're reading don't leave a comment!

MISSIONS

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision.
The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives.
It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

The next few months were one boring blur after another as the Hokage assigned us with 'missions' that was about as fascinating as watching paint dry.

One 'mission' involved undergoing home maintence for an elderly Villager. The mission started off well - we greeted the client and he gave us our instructions of what he wanted to happen - except that Naruto was slightly late, a fact that Sakura immediately pounced on and ridiculed him for, before both Sasuke and I pounced on her for bullying him.

But it went down hill sharply when it turned out that the Villager was one of the ones that loathed Naruto - for reasons we had no idea about - and Naruto ended up getting the worst of the jobs assigned. The Villager couldn't be more courteous and fawning over Sasuke - which pissed him off.

And it definitely pissed off both Sasuke and I when we saw the hurt, outraged expression on Naruto's face at the unfairness - especially when he had no idea why almost everyone hated him. And it happened to be convenient that Kakashi-sensai was also as usual, very late, when the spiteful villager took that opportunity and ran away with it. But we completed the mission, albeit begrudgingly and later bitched to Kakashi-sensai about the unfairness being shown towards Naruto.

The Villager somehow got into trouble with the Hokage when the sandaime had 'conveniently' found out that Naruto had been mistreated, much to Sasuke, Naruto and my delight (and extreme confusion). Later on, Kakashi-sensai would be seen with a completely 'innocent' expression on his face as Team Seven was brought in so the Hokage could personally apologise to Naruto for the disrespectful Villager and his actions, and to compliment us on being such loyal friends.

Revenge is sweet.

Today, it was a typical beautiful sunny day in Konoha, and all I wanted to do was spend it with my best friends relaxing underneath the shade of a tree somewhere and doing absolutely nothing (maybe some training). But my plans were scraped when Team Seven was brought in for another 'mission'.

"Sasuke, I'm at point B."

"Sakura, I'm at point C."

"Naruto, I'm at point A, believe it!."

"Hikari, I'm at point D."

It was a retrieval mission.

At least it was more exciting than the last mission we had which was helping a villager maintaining their vegetable crops. Naruto and I were convinced that this villager didn't have 'all the sheep in his top paddock' because he, for some reason believed that using farming props like Hoes and Gardening Forks were a torture device for the Earth and made all four of us plow the earth with our hands - much to Kakashi-sensai's evil enjoyment.

The four of us ended up glaring murderously at our teacher and I don't think my skin would ever be the same colour it was again after I spent three hours scrubbing the dirt off my skin, and from underneath my fingernails later on that night.

"Move slow, Naruto." Kakashi said into his ear piece.

"Okay, squad 7, hm? The target has moved!"

Something small and agile with glittering green eyes jumped out from the trees.

"Follow it!" ordered Kakashi.

Immediately, we tore off after our target.

"Over there," Naruto whispered, and everyone moved to the same tree for a closer look..

"What's your distance from the target?" asked Kakashi, patiently.

"Five meters," Naruto replied. "I'm ready, just give the signal."

"I'm ready, too," Sasuke said.

"So am I!" said Sakura.

"I'm ready when you are," I echoed.

Kakashi focused on our target and was annoyingly silent for several minutes.

Any day now…

"Okay…NOW!" signalled Kakashi.

It was every person for themselves. The target screeched with fright and zipped off - with Team Seven in close pursuit. Finally, Naruto launched himself and pounced on the target…a brown tabby cat. And a very angry one at that. When it finally caught a glimpse of Naruto it screeched very loudly and started clawing at him.
Sakura and I crowded around Naruto, cooing at the irritated cat.

"Aw! Isn't she cute?" I squealed.

"Yeah, and that bow is adorable!" Sakura agreed, patting its fur. The cat hissed.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Then placed a finger on the speaker hidden in his ear, listening to what Kakashi had to say.

"Can you verify the mission status? Can you confirm that it is the target?" asked Kakashi. Sasuke took a quick glance at the snarling cat still caught in Naruto's death grip.

"Affirmative." replied Sasuke robotically. "We've got a positive ID."

Sakura stopped looking at the cat long enough to smile sweetly at Sasuke when he reported in to Kakashi. Sasuke ignored her waiting to hear more instructions from Kakashi.

"Right," We heard Kakashi say and then some sounds of him getting to his feet.

"Lost pet, Tora, captured. Mission accomplished."

Three of us grunted in confirmation. Suddenly, Naruto's voice blared through the ear piece.

"Can't we get a better mission than this? I hate cats!"

I glanced back at my blonde haired best friend who looked extremely crabby and winced at some particularly deep looking scratches on his face. I pulled a clean handkerchief from my pocket and started dabbing at a particularly gruesome wound.

I hissed in sympathy.

"Ouch. That's gotta hurt…" I commented wincing.

Naruto flinched slightly, but smiled at me.

"Thanks…" He muttered.

I smiled back then gasped when Naruto's wound started healing before my eyes. As I watched the wound healed enough that it looked days old instead of minutes old.

"What?" asked Naruto, seeing my awed look and frowning.

"Whoa." I breathed and raised my hand towards his face and gently prodded the wound I had been trying to clean.

"Does that hurt?" I asked still prodding.

Naruto shook his head still frowning, while struggling to maintain a strong grip on Tora - who was still trying to get away.

"Weird…" I muttered still examining my friend's scarred face.

Naruto then paled slightly and an embarrassed smile spread across his face. I looked at him questioningly.

"What?"

Naruto looked at the ground, flushing slightly.

"Uh, Sasuke's glaring at us." He replied looking over my shoulder.

I frowned slightly and glanced over at Sasuke who looked slightly hurt and was glaring angrily at both of us. I folded up my handkerchief and replaced it back into my pocket just as Kakashi arrived to escort us back to the Hokage Tower to deliver our bounty.

"Okay, team let's go…" He said, pulling out his Orange Book and burying his nose in it. I started walking, avoiding looking at Sasuke whose gaze I could still feel burning into the back of my head. What the heck did I do?

"Hikari?" I glanced up at Kakashi who had spoken, but realised that he was still reading his book.

"Yes, Sensei?" I asked pleasantly.

"Word of advice…" he began, his voice asking me if he could continue. I nodded.

"As much as I love romance, please try not to make Sasuke jealous. I need him to be focused on his missions." Kakashi requested, innocently and friendly.

My face twisted in surprise. Jealous? I glanced over at Sasuke and felt my heart lurch a bit when I saw the possessive look in his eyes. The look made my cheeks burn uncomfortably and I quickly looked away, but secretly was feeling excited.

My feelings for the Uchiha were being reciprocated and a small smile grew on my face. We all jumped when we heard the cat screech again, and then Naruto suddenly snarl in anger.

"OH! C'MON!"

I frowned at the cat.

Surely that cat is over reacting. What could possibly be so bad about its owner?

I had apparently spoken too soon.

We entered the Hokage's office with a struggling, panicked Tora scratching up Naruto even worse. Sitting in the chair opposite the Third Hokage was a rather fat, overly made up middle-aged woman named Madame Shinji - who was waiting for her cat. The moment we walked into the room she shrieked with glee and eagerly snatched up her cat from a relieved Naruto's arms and promptly smothered the poor thing against her buxom chest.

Everyone winced.

I see why that cat fled…

Naruto smirked unsympathetically at the cat.

"Stupid cat, that kitty deserves to be squashed!" Naruto joked as Madame Shinji beamed gratefully at us and thanked the Hokage before walking out of the office.

"No wonder he ran away!" Sakura exclaimed.

I hummed in agreement and we sauntered over to the Hokage's desk for our next assignment. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sasuke deliberately stand next to me and gave Naruto a 'back off, she's mine' glare which prompted Naruto to raised a confused eyebrow at him as he came over and stood on my other side. I flushed in embarrassment, feeling uncomfortable about being the ham in the sandwich.

Sakura, oblivious to this banter, sidled up to Sasuke (actually the correct term is velcroed) and waited for her next mission. The Sandaime gave us a grandfatherly smile before speaking to us.

"Now then, for Squad 7's next mission, we have several available tasks. Huh?"

I silently breathed in, hoping the mission would be a bit more exciting than the last one - not that I have anything against finding Tora, of course.

"Among them we have babysitting the Chief Councilors three year old, helping his wife to do the shopping, digging up potatoes and-"

I deflated a little.

I knew it was too good to be true… I thought miserably.

But my reaction was nothing compared to Naruto's reaction.

"No!" Naruto yelled, crossing his arms.

Everyone jumped at Naruto's naturally loud voice. Although when I jumped I instinctively grabbed onto the first thing I could find which happened to be Sasuke's wrist.

"May I help you?" Sasuke muttered with this amused voice.

I glanced over at him and saw him smirking. Confused, I looked down and realised that I was holding his wrist. I felt even more embarrassed when I realised that he was certainly not objecting and I blushed and discreetly removed my hand and turned away from him.

Smooth…

The sandaime looked at Naruto with a raised eyebrow.

"I wanna go on a real mission! Something challenging and exciting, not some little kid stuff! C'mon old man!" Naruto said.

Sasuke, Sakura and I nodded in agreement while Kakashi sighed - knowing he was gonna get it later on for his Team's insubordination. We all backed off slightly when Iruka-sensei's face turned red, a danger sign that he was about to lose his temper. Naruto naturally was oblivious to this.

"How dare you!" Iruka yelled from his spot next to the Hokage.

"You're just a brand new Genin with no experience! Like everyone else, you start with simple missions to develop your skills and improve yourself."

Way to go, Naruto. We're in for it now…

Naruto's face fell at his former teacher's words.

"Are you serious! Babysitting is not a mission, it's just a stupid-gah!" Kakashi hit him on the head.

"Would you put a lid on it?" Kakashi muttered with exasperation.

However, the Hokage suddenly chuckled at him. That was unexpected.

"Naruto! It seems you do not understand the tasks you have been given."

We Genin blinked at him in confusion.

"Listen. Many different kinds of requests come into our village every day. From babysitting to assassinations."
He took his pipe out of his mouth.

"These requests are carefully recorded, analyzed, then ranked A, B, C, or D, depending on their difficulty. We ninja are also ranked on our abilities. Hokage at the top, Jounin, Chuunin, and Genin at the bottom."

He paused to take a generous suck at his pipe before exhaling.

"At the highest level, we select the missions and assign them to ninja who have the appropriate skills and experience. If the mission is successful, we receive a fee that supports our village and our work."

He paused briefly to let the information sink in before continuing.

"Since you are untried Genin just starting down the shinobi path, you are given D-level assignments of course. Hm?" He turned back to address us and sweat dropped.

Naruto was on the ground, babbling to us.

"So I had this Taikatsu Ramen yesterday, and I'm thinking Miso Ramen today-"

"Silence!" the Hokage ordered.

Everyone turned to him, looking guilty.

"Oh, sorry," Kakashi apologized, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Naruto frowned at the information he had just received from the Third.

"Argh, you always lecture me like you're my grandfather or something! But I'm not the little brat who use to pull pranks all the time. I'm a ninja now, and I want a ninja mission!"

Naruto looked like he wanted to stomp the ground and pout like a VERY young child. He was certainly acting like one. I glared at my best friend, feeling mortified that he was disrespecting the Hokage like this. I heard Kakashi groaning. When the Hokage started laughing, we looked at him in surprise, thinking he was going to yell at Naruto in anger.

"Naruto wants us to know he's not a brat, he's a former brat, and he wants a mission. So, be it."

Naruto's head shot up.

"Huh?"

"Seriously?" I asked slightly sceptical.

The Hokage nodded.

"Since he's so determined, I'll give him a C-rank mission. You'll be body guards on a journey." He told us.

Naruto beamed happily.

"Really? Yes, yes! Who are we guarding? A princess? A busy councilor?"

The Hokage frowned at him.

"Don't be so impatient. I'll bring him in now. Send in our visitor!" He called out.

A tan man holding a bottle of liquor walked in. He had graying spiky hair, a beard and glasses.

Okay? This should be interesting…

The man fixed the four of us with a calculating glance, before taking a hearty swig from the liquor bottle.

"What the? A bunch of snot nosed kids?"

I felt my best friends stiffen at the 'snot-nosed' term and I felt awkward.

"And you, the little one with the idiotic look on his face. You really expect me to believe that you're a ninja?" He asked staring at Naruto with a hard look.

I frowned slightly at the man before feeling Sasuke discreetly grabbing my upper arm and pulling me backwards with him and Sakura, just as Naruto suddenly smiled - obviously not realising that the insult was directed at him.

"Gyah-ha-ha!" Naruto burst out laughing.

"Who's the little one with the idiotic look on his-"

Naruto suddenly realised that his teammates had gotten behind him to let to let him process the fact he was laughing at himself. I watched Naruto think long and hard at what the man had just said. He looked at Sasuke who had a sardonic smirk on his face, Sakura who rolled her eyes and me who shrugged sympathetically as he compared our heights and eventually realised the insult.

The cheerful expression on his face suddenly dropped and anger appeared.

"I'll demolish ya!" Naruto growled while Kakashi held him back.

"You can't demolish the client, Naruto, it doesn't work that way."

The man stopped drinking long enough to face us, apparently oblivious to Naruto's anger.

"I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder and I must return to my country. I'm building a bridge there that'll change our world, and I expect you to get me there safely, even if it means giving up your life."

We froze.

Were we really prepared to sacrifice ourselves for this rude man? Within the hour, everyone started to exit the village gates…