I don't own Naruto this chapter either. My kid says she has dibs before I can

The Missions Begin

Three ninja chased their quarry through the brush and out into an open field. In a flash of chakra smoke, the fleeing enemy was surrounded by a horde of blonde haired ninja. The orange highlights on the black clothing gleamed in the sunlight as all the blondes converged on the target. The cornered prey readied its weapons, as it knew it was caught. It would not go down without a fight. Death would be preferable to returning to that hell prison and its warden. It had been able to escape many times but it had been always caught and returned. One of the blonde hunters was in striking range. The weapons struck outward in a vain attempt to regain freedom.

"OWWW, that cat has sharp claws. It feels like they were dipped in acid or something," Naruto complained. "Now I know why Kiba claims it was so tough. Maybe it is not just a plain old cat like people claim." Hinata giggled as she carried the captured Tora back toward the Hokage's office. The cat seemed to like her for some reason as it purred in a contented fashion.

Sakura had looked over the scratches Naruto received and pronounced them as not serious and that he should quit whining so much. "You should have used your shadow clones to make the capture, Naruto."

"I did, but that demon cat destroyed 3 of them before I could get my real hands on it. I even know where it tore into the clones. I know Jiraiya-sensei said I would learn whatever the clones do but I didn't think I would feel like that. It feels like I was in two places at once if I think about it too hard."

Anko looked over the genin team as they all walked toward the tower. "The feeling you get from it is one reason why so few jonin like using that technique even if more know it than will admit to it. Without your stamina and insane chakra levels, you would not be able to use more than a few at once. Still, the cat does seem a little meaner its grandfather. I had to catch that one at least a dozen times. I should have let my snake summons eat it back then and saved generations of genin this mission."

Anko slowed a bit to watch the team from behind. They were coming along nicely. 3 months of intensive physical training had left all three genin in near peak shape for their age. Their endurance and chakra levels outmatched some chunin teams. The teamwork training had gone equally as beneficial as they functioned as a unit more often than not.

The individual training was showing good results as well. Sakura's progress was making Tsunade glad she had come back to Konoha. The girl simply was amazing in her control and with the physical training increasing her chakra capacity daily; Sakura would soon be approaching Shizune's overall level of power even if overall knowledge lagged by over a decade.

Hinata was coming along nicely as well. She was still raw in terms of her developing taijutsu style. Finding a properly balanced feel for it was very tricky for Anko. Anko had wanted to teach the girl a lot more of her personal style. Since that was learned from the Traitor, Anko knew it would not go over well with the Hyuuga or the village in general. Hiashi had said straight out that he would remove Hinata if Anko tried to make his daughter into her clone in the manner Gai had done with Rock Lee. The few snake-based jutsu the two were incorporating into the new Water Style Gentle Fist style were going to be quite a shock for opponents when used.

Naruto was a puzzle. In overall knowledge, the girls made Naruto seem slow until all 3 teachers realized the boy had never really learned a lot of basic things in his youth. Social skills that most took for granted were things he had never learned because they all had family and friends to teach them. The boy was crude and rarely took the time to groom himself past washing up everyday. At first, he would belch and pass gas like they were the funniest things in the world then laugh like he was a toddler.

The girls had him whipped really quickly in regard to appropriate behavior near them. Sakura got mean and scary to him, but he took that in stride. However, when Hinata gave him a sad look after he put out a monster belch at lunch; he blushed down to his neck and apologized in a very contrite voice. When he made a mistake and disappointed someone who was kind to him; he felt deeply ashamed and regretted his actions. Naruto had only a few people who looked out for him until the past year or so. Until he made himself into a hero, a good portion of the village had simply pretended he did not exist. His lack of manners had been another way to draw attention to himself. Few had been overtly cruel to the boy but many had simply ignored him. He did not want to lose those people who cared.

'The boy has a quick mind. He learns the first time you show him something. He could read things multiple times and never get it. He could have it explained to him and he had a better chance of learning. But show him something then have him go back and read about it, he had perfect comprehension. Jiraiya said the boy learned shadow clones from him in under an hour. In battlefield tactics, the boy was a genius. In the weeks since learning the shadow clone, he had incorporated it into his fighting style. Shadow clones would scout out ahead of the team and become instant fodder to probe for weaknesses in the training sessions against the teachers or whoever was their opponent for that day.

Overall, the team was more than prepared enough for the most boring part of a genin's existence; the D rank missions. Tsunade pulled rank in the hospital to avoid running the team through this first one. Jiraiya would be handling about half the missions but he had to deal with informants outside of the village this week. That left Anko to handle the group's first mission as jonin sensei. Of course, if would have to be the infamous Tora right off the bat.

'I REALLY should have let that snake eat its grandfather,' she thought once more as she realized she had slowed down enough for the team to notice and stop to wait for her.

Sasuke sulked as he noticed 'Team Apprentice' walk toward the Hokage's office with the demon cat. He really should have killed that thing the first time Team 7 had to capture it. Kakashi would not allow it as the owner was a steady source of income to the village genin. He really disliked the forced days off that had been implemented by that advice of that Sannin, Tsunade. He needed to train MORE not sit around and get weaker. People like that loser Naruto were starting to pass him up. 'Ever since the loser got lucky and hit me in the Genin Exam, people have been giving him praise that should be mine. He has nothing going for him and he gets a Sannin for a teacher instead of someone from a clan who deserves it.'

Even the pink haired harpy was getting stronger while he languished under the barely there training of Kakashi. He did not need teammates to slow him down like this and team drills were more bothersome than days off. He glared at the team once more before turning his attention back to the jutsu scroll from his family library. At least they could not stop him from learning by reading about new jutsu.

'Can't they see I have to get stronger? I have to make Him pay. No matter what it takes.' Sasuke thought as his soul slipped further into darkness.

The remainder of Team 7 and all of Team 10 were at that moment enjoying a day at the community pool together. Even Shino had come today. That in itself seemed a reason to celebrate. He remained covered by his coat and sunglasses but he was with them. Kiba was romping around the pool with Akamaru. Choji practiced doing cannonball dives from the high platform in between bags of chips. Shikamaru watched the clouds roll past and just shut his eyes when the sun shone down on his face. Ino had tried to gather some attention to herself by wearing a bikini. Her early developing figure got the attention of most of the guys up to about age 15 until some 17-year-old chunin girls had arrived. All the boys who had been offering to help her with lotion followed the older girls like Akamaru after a free steak. Now bored, she tried to talk about events with her friends.

"Kiba, didn't you invite grumpy face to this little party?"

"Yes, I told him about it. He said he had 'better things to do'. The idiot wants to go out training on his days off. He only works on jutsu and weapons when he is by himself anyhow. Me and Akamaru followed him one day. For hours, he kept trying to do some fancy stunt stuff with kunai and he looked exhausted after. I would try telling him to work on his physical endurance but he would likely claim I was trying to say he is weak. It's not like he does a whole lot when we do train anyhow. He only does the minimum Kakashi tell us to do on drills and tells us we are wasting his time. I really just want to smack the guy but he still can beat me in a fight in spite of his attitude."

Shino spoke up "The Uchiha could be a great ninja. He prefers to think that strong jutsu and individual effort will always be better than teamwork. It does not make sense. The combined effort of several working together towards a common goal will always be greater than the sum of individual efforts."

"I know Shino, "Kiba said back. "One wolf cannot take down a bear but a pack can. The thing about him that pisses me off is he never really works as hard at things. He gets it in one attempt and wants to work on something else while we need a bit more effort to get up to the same results. Then he just stands around sulking while Kakashi gets us up to speed on any new training. He never does anything physical while waiting like Kakashi suggests. He doesn't see that he is letting himself stay the same while we get stronger. Then he blames us for holding him back when its all him."

Choji sat down on his deck chair dripping from his latest plunge. "Don't just blame him for everything, Kiba. He was not always like this. Back before his clan was killed off, he was a very different person. He smiled and laughed and enjoyed himself. I know you came into the class after that so you did not see the same change in him I have."

"Sometimes you have too big a heart Choji. Every time we try to be nice and include him like you want, he just throws it back in our face. I know he had a rough time losing his clan and all. That still does not give him the right to be a jerk to everyone," Ino countered as she stole a handful of chips from the bag the plump boy had just opened. "It's been years since then and all he does is keep wallowing in self pity and talk about revenge. 'I must get stronger to avenge my clan.' Geez, if he says that one more time to me when I invite him to these get-togethers; I am going to possess his moody butt, dress him up like Naruto used to and let him hang from a light pole." She got quiet as she began munching on the chips.

Choji looked at his now half empty bag and back at Ino before sighing and began eating again. 'It's time to change the topic. Talking about Sasuke brings everyone down.' "At least you are not dieting all the time anymore, Ino."

Ino paused in her munching. "Well, the new physical standards Tsunade-sama got passed for all kunoichi are really high. The day off from training is really nice but all the stuff we girls have to do now is harsh. I don't even need to diet anymore. I work it all off in sweat." Ino made a face at that. "the only upside is it lets me eat more and still keep my hot figure." She paused to pose for a second in front of the boys. The boys all just looked at her clueless for a few seconds in silence before Ino yelled, "Compliments please." The boys stuttered out a few lame compliments before she could hit them.

The pair of chunin kunoichi from earlier strolled by. Ino noticed they were both a head taller and a couple of cup sizes bigger than she was. She looked down at her own chest and sighed before munching on the chips again. Sometimes it sucked to be only 13.

'Team Apprentice' got many D rank missions over the next month. Naruto wanted to use his shadow clones for them but the teachers would not let him. Delivery missions at least allowed them to pretend the jobs were important even if they never left the village. Jiraiya tried to make the assignments more interesting by bringing in some training concepts. Gathering leaves could be accomplished by using simple wind jutsu. Repairing damaged training fields was made easier by using low level earth jutsu to fill in holes or to dig up and replace training logs. Herb gathering became a way to expand the genin's knowledge of plant life.

Things were going well until the day the team was assigned the task of trash cleanup at the river below the waterfall.

Anko was in charge of the team that day. Jiraiya was supposed to be back from an intelligence trip tomorrow. She had the genin walking out on the water and looking on the bank for rubbish. She kept things lively with the occasional thrown kunai. Naruto generated several shadow clones to retrieve them for her. Naruto would move aside when the kunai came at him; as did Sakura. Hinata would lean her body slightly or just move her head to make the knives miss. Out on the water, it seemed more like she was dancing than avoiding.

A clone went to go fetch a kunai that went into the bushes on the far side of the river. It searched around trying to find the kunai when it heard a slight giggle nearby. The clone stood still and in a few minutes another giggle sounded. The clone crept closer to the source and heard the waterfall getting louder. Now it could hear splashing and laughing further out and another giggle close by. The clone used Naruto's stealth jutsu and moved closer still. Peering through a bush, he saw Jiraiya looking out at women playing under the waterfall.

"Sensei, aren't you supposed to be out of the village today?" the clone asked

Jiraiya jumped and saw Naruto standing behind him. 'Crud, how did he find me out here?' Jiraiya thought quickly.

"Sensei, why are you hiding in the bushes peeping at the women?" the clone's voice kept getting louder as he went on. "It's bad enough that you write those perverted books but to be peeping on women is disgusting!"

"I need to do research to be able to write my books. Besides, I have seen you checking out Hinata during training. All those shy looks over at her. Bet you have all kinds of perverted thoughts running through that blonde head of yours," Jiraiya retorted.

The clone went white faced for a moment as what Jiraiya said registered before turning a deep red in anger, "I DON'T THINK ABOUT HINATA LIKE THAT! I ADMIT SHE IS GORGEOUS AND THE CLOSEST THING TO A PRINCESS THAT I HAVE EVER MET BUT SHE IS MY BEST FRIEND IN THE WORLD AND I DON'T LIKE HER LIKE THAT!"

In the silence following the clone's shout, Jiraiya heard a whimper. He turned to see Anko and the genin team. Both Naruto and Hinata were deep crimson. The clone just muttered, "Uh, oh crud" and dispelled.

Hinata looked at the cloud of smoke disperse then at Naruto. He rubbed the back of his head as he seemed to blush even harder. A tear ran down Hinata's face followed quickly by several more. She bit her lip before turning and running off sobbing. After a moment, Sakura ran after the fleeing Hyuuga.

Anko stepped past the genin up to Jiraiya and began beating on him.

Naruto just stood there as Hinata fled. His face quickly paled, as he looked at the retreating girls then to Anko beating on Jiraiya.

He had no idea what to do now.

Next Chapter: Errors, Embarrassments and a Rescue in the Wave Country

Review Notes:

Finding character development for Sasuke is a difficult task in the first part of the manga. In the episodes I have seen, he shows no redeeming factors in his personality. He is arrogant, selfish, has no respect for others and does not hide his disdain for anyone. The only time he showed a glimmer of something worthwhile was in the flashbacks of prior to his family being killed. The anime showed more but I think that was more from it being a kid's show than anything else. His hitting Sakura upside the head as he was leaving Konoha ruined a moment when he might have shown something. You cannot tell if he was truly feeling gratitude or just using the moment to get inside Sakura's guard. I do feel he is not beyond redemption but it would take something massive to shock him into realizing where he is taking himself.

Naruto is not over his fear of fire. He is learning to cope with it but will not be over it any time soon. As far as the idea of using a genjutsu on him would be a serious betrayal in the trust he has for his teachers. After what happened the past 2 chapters with Jiraiya, I think Naruto' trust in the man is seriously shaken as it is.

My posting has once again caught up to what I have already written out. It might be as long as a week to get the next chapter up. The kiddo has a school chorus thing all day on Saturday so my writing time will be seriously cut down. The downside of only owning a desktop computer I guess.