Chapter 4: Not according to plan
Kagome bit back a wince as pain traveled through her right arm and all the way to her shoulder thanks to the strength she'd used to pull her kunai out of the wooden target.
It was a known fact that civilian raised children had a much harsher time when pursuing a career in the shinobi field when compared to clan kids.
As much as some civilians would like to think the reason their children had such a difficult time rising through the ranks was the influence the older clans had over the council, the truth was favoritism was the last thing they could factor. When talking about promotions in the ninja world undeserved preferential treatment would only lead to literal bloody ends. It was just a simple fact of life that those with better chances to earn the rank of jounin or ANBU were those who came from clans and that was due to a very simple reason.
Training.
Sure, the shinobi academy did teach the basic skills anyone looking to become a successful ninja needed to master. There were civilian born shinobi who achieved great success and recognition but the starting time from the two groups had a huge gap. Children entered the academy at age 7, meaning civilian raised kids weren't exposed to the kind of physical requirements the job entailed until then. Without extraordinary talent, few could catch up to the level expected for each class without spending years getting into form. Clan children, on the other hand, would usually start their training years before that. And while the scope of the abilities and skill sets that were trained varied depending on the clans (from teaching only the basics of a clan's specialization, to mastery of their bloodlines or the all-around training the Hyuugas and Uchihas preferred) the common factor in all of them was all of them gave a clear advantage. And with it came faster promotions.
As someone raised under the Uchiha main family household, Kagome began her training almost as soon as she was able to walk and in about as many fields a child of her size could begin to learn without risking heavy injuries. Tiring physical training was just another everyday thing for her. The regimen Mikoto-sama designed for her was constantly adjusted to keep her from becoming lax. Even after the incident, Kagome made sure to keep up the same rhythm while taking care not to over-exert herself...most of the time. She could've certainly tried harder to get both herself and Sasuke to rest, every minute the boy spent in the training ground the first couple of months after being released from the hospital (and after the feeling of being watched from across the rooftops disappeared as well) was one she spent alongside him during his obsessive phase with training. Collapsing in bed right after getting back home was something she'd done often enough back then.
All in all, Kagome considered herself to be in fairly good physical condition. Sure, her endurance was lower than Naruto's but the blue-eyed girl sincerely doubted there was a single human being with better stamina than her blond childhood friend. And Sasuke could still beat her when talking about pure brute strength, but out of the three of them, she had an advantage in both speed and flexibility. She might not be the best but she was good enough to hold her ground.
Or so she thought before graduating.
So either her observations had been woefully wrong and she'd blatantly underestimated the average training regimens most people used...or...their new sensei was secretly trying to work them to death...
The way even her fingers were screaming in protests as she closed them around the kunai's hilt in her attempt to dislodge the weapon in one go and the memory of coming across a few of her former classmates looking fairly energetic (or just as lazy) and fresh during the last week strongly suggested the latter. Even the hyperactive blond looked ready to fall at the end of their training sessions.
"Alright, alright. Well done all of you."
The obnoxiously cheerful voice of their teacher snapped her back to the present. She could feel her brow twitching at the sight of the little orange book in the man's hands. Idly, Kagome wondered if she would develop a nervous tick whenever that stupid book was concerned thanks to how often this was beginning to happen.
"Well, most of you." A single bored eye traveled to the wooden target at her right, Naruto's target was almost completely covered with kunais and even the tree beneath it had the occasional stray weapon piercing its bark (not that surprising since the blond's accuracy only got worse the more bored he became and spending the last 45 minutes doing the same thing over and over again wasn't the most exciting exercise). "In any case," he continued, ignoring her teammate's irritated shout. "I don't know you but this is getting boring," He ignored the annoyed grunt to her left just as easily. "so today we're doing something a little different. Now, what you'll be doing today is climbing up those trees!"
"We already know how to climb trees!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, how in the world he managed to push away his exhaustion in the span of a second the girl would never know.
"Oh, then can you please climb without using your hands?"
The man had to be laughing at the incredulous looks Kagome was sure all of them were showing right now. because was he really planning to start with some new exercise after hours of physical exhaustion. Even Naruto couldn't retort with anything more than a "Tha...how..."
"Quite simply, really, like this." The jounin brought his hands together for a second before walking towards one of the surrounding trees. "All you need to do is mold a little chakra on your feet and walk, running helps too."
Not stopping or faltering for even an instant Kakashi-sensei kept on walking when he reached the tree, or more like he continued walking up the tree as if gravity meant nothing to him.
Relief welled up inside her, finally, finally, after two and a half months of constant, grueling physical training the man was at last willing to actually teach them something. Of course, tree walking was not really all that special and honestly there was no need to have them go through such an extensive taijutsu training before being able to do what was really a pretty basic chakra manipulation technique in the big scheme of things, and Kagome was certain they could've begun learning this the same day they graduated and...
The girl shook her head if there was one thing she'd learned in their two and a half months of being official genins was that their sensei seemed oddly smug (or as smug as one could look with most of their face covered) whenever any of them actually went and complained out loud.
If she hadn't been sure it was some kind of emotional manipulation thanks to her classes with Mikoto-sama then the deliberate picking of increasingly gross D-rank missions every time Naruto lost his temper would've done the trick. Not that knowing he was baiting them into remaining quiet made the situation any better. All members of Team 7 had the unfortunate similarity of having a bit too much pride if in variant degrees. Between the man's perpetual laziness and that annoying little graduation test not one of them was willing to give him the satisfaction of lodging an official complaint against him.
"Here." Three kunais pierced the ground before their feet with a wave of his hand. "You can use this to track your progress, you have until noon. We have lots of missions to tackle after all."
With a forceful shake of her head, Kagome pushed back those words to the corner of her mind she was thinking about labeling the 'violence-inducing corner' and focused her attention back to her sensei. The man was making a show of reading while standing upside down, his feet glued to a tree branch. At first, it looked quite simple, just as he'd said. What she remembered about chakra manipulation however told her their so-called teacher was once again skipping one or two teeny, tiny, important details.
"Alright! I'll get this first try!"
The blond didn't bother to wait before molding some chakra and taking off at full speed towards the nearest tree. His first step held, the second made a cracking sound, the third was less of a step and more of a stomp that left a literal crater on the trunk forcing him to jump back and land near her.
"Right, first try," Sasuke scoffed.
"What, think you can get farther than me?"
"I know I can."
"Yeah, well, I don't see you climbing."
To be fair, Sasuke did make it farther, even if his whole run went on for less than a meter. The tension in his shoulders however made it clear he wasn't really seeing the silver linings here.
Stifling a laugh at the predicted rivalry Kagome moved to the back. For now, the insults and barbs were fairly tame but experience taught her she better figure out just how many steps their teacher was hiding from them before frustration drove them a bit too close to the edge between friendly rivalry and just plain bitter rivalry. In all honesty, the girl was still surprised the boys managed to remain friends as long as they had without actively trying to kill each other. Regardless the faster she could refocus their energy on training (and actually making some progress) the better.
Stopping in front of a tree Kagome thought back to the little demonstration Kakashi-sensei gave them, she had the sneaking suspicion that it was way more useful than his actual instructions.
A quick glance confirmed that the boys had taken to sprinting their way up, their slow-and-almost-painful-to-watch way up.
He'd walked up the tree though, speed couldn't be the key element here. Choosing to focus on the chakra manipulation part of the whole thing the girl closed her eyes and concentrated in the feeling of chakra pooling at her feet. Unsurprisingly, the jounin conveniently forgot to tell them just how much chakra was needed so Kagome settled to go for the middle ground.
Azure eyes opened and the girl walked to her chosen tree, even just walking she could already feel some differences in the way the soles of her feet were moving against the grass. Slowly placing one foot in the bark once again she closed her eyes, concentrating solely on the flow of energy. A few seconds later she began to slip. Curious the kunoichi did nothing, three seconds after that, gravity was pulling her foot back to the ground. Again she molded chakra and placed a single foot on the tree, this time when the flow began to weaken she sent another wave. The bark underneath her fractured in protest as he chakra became too much for the plain wood to withstand.
So that was it.
With her eyes still closed, Kagome began to walk.
The feeling of changing her center of gravity was weird, to say the least, but somehow she managed to keep calm and continue walking. That's when it clicked, the trick was a constant flow of chakra. Kagome was moving at a relatively slow pace so she could pay proper attention at how much energy she kept sending to the tree trunk and so far she had no big issues with keeping the flow stable. Had she been running though...
Trying to run up would make it almost impossible to keep control of the intensity of the chakra flow. Sure if you were in a position you actually had to use something like this going slow was probably not the smartest way to go about it but things like speed came easily enough with the right amount of practice. Now that she thought about it wouldn't trying to sprint only send you crashing back down from either crushing the tree or plain slipping without giving anyone any time to realize why they were falling...for someone still learning wouldn't that just make it harder?
With clenched fists, Kagome pushed those thoughts to the 'violence-inducing' corner and focused on what she was doing, emotions could affect chakra input after all and...
Something touched her nose.
Azure eyes opened wide only to find a branch poking her. Surprise and shock spread through her and suddenly gravity was pulling her down like it was always supposed to.
A small cry she'd never confess to letting out escaped her as she turned her body in midair. Sighing in relief as she stuck her landing the girl finally registered the slow clapping sound behind her. Predictably despite having his eye glued to the stupid little orange book their sensei had seen everything and was giving her some halfhearted praise.
"Good, good. You didn't mark your place though." Kakashi-sensei said, unmotivated as always. Like what she'd done didn't involve having to ignore the man's own instructions and figure things out from just one showing and her own independent reading.
"That was great! Nee, Kagome-chan how did you do it?" Naruto asked, jumping up to her, behind him she could see Sasuke making his way to them with a slow pace. "You'll tell me, right? Right?"
The excitement in the blond's voice helped soothe her wounded ego a little. Right, this was why she was trying so hard to figure out the counterproductive instructions. To help her hotheaded teammates. Besides if the man was finally willing to do something other than basic training then finishing with this soon would be in her best interest. Maybe they could actually move on to learn real ninjutsu.
Not that finishing earlier would help them escape the rest of their missions but Kagome was always the kind to see the silver linings.
There were many things and places he disliked. The academy had been overly loud and almost useless, he had no interest in crowded markets where obnoxious girls would try to sneakily follow him to find out his preferences, and as much as he hated to admit it the compound still triggered some afterimages from time to time. Still, Sasuke never thought there would ever come a time when the remaining Uchiha would come to despise and dread the sight of the Hokage tower almost as much as he did the Konoha Hospital.
Every single movement he made triggered another sting of pain, which in turn added just another thing to be irritated about. If they got the stupid cat mission again he wasn't sure he'd be able to deliver the fat feline still breathing. And honestly, he doubted any of his teammates would really try and stop him. Even Kagome was beginning to run out of pity for the annoying menace after that one time the cat's claws came too close to his eye for comfort just because he'd been the one unlucky enough to be holding the thing when Naruto approached them causing the idiotic cat to go ballistic in his attempts to escape.
Not that any of the other potential D-rank missions were much of an improvement in his opinion. Just thinking about the potential contents of their next batch of missions was enough to sink his already bad mood to new lows. In his haste to prove himself, he'd allowed himself to be baited into running up the stupid tree and as much as he despised having to admit it, he could've kept up all day before noticing the fake advice mixed within the explanations. Not that the blond prankster would've noticed the trick before him but letting himself become blind enough to not even think twice about following the instructions of the shady jounin still stung.
Unwilling to give the man any extra satisfaction the Uchiha kept his expression calm and bored even when they entered and he could hear Naruto begin to grumble about their former academy teacher, the Hokage himself and whatever batch of shitty missions they were about to be assigned.
"Ah, Kakashi's Team 7, I was wondering when you'd be arriving today." There was faint amusement in the old Hokage's voice that did nothing but sour his mood even further.
Trying to force back his irritation Sasuke tried to focus on the scrolls they still had to go through back home. Just because their teacher spent months refusing to teach them any actual jutsus didn't mean they were ok with falling behind in their training. The whole thing was probably taking them longer than it should but considering how tired they ended up after a day's work he supposed it couldn't be helped. Pushing himself until he couldn't stand was one thing but letting Kagome liable to injuring herself was another issue entirely.
So far they'd stuck to fire-based jutsus since the Uchiha clan tended to have a natural affinity for that element and the girl had taken to them without much trouble but maybe it was time to try and expand their slowly growing repertoire. There had to be some chakra paper somewhere around the compound, looking everywhere would be tiring but...
"NO! No! Thanks but no! We've had more than enough!" Naruto's shrill yell finally managed to gain his attention.
For years Sasuke had developed the ability to block out any absurd noise coming out of the blond. Respecting the boy's loyalty to them and actually subjecting himself to the torture that was listening to his whining did not go hand in hand so when Naruto grumbled complaints morphed into loud screams the Uchiha couldn't help but be surprised.
Then again, he supposed it was only a matter of time before one of them snapped. Judging from the way Kagome stayed calm and refused to make a move to reprimand the blond it was clear she felt the same way.
"We deserve a more amazing mission!" Naruto crossed his arms, nose high in the air. "Find us a better one."
He hated agreeing with the moron but...at this rate we'll spend a year in nothing but D-ranks...
"You idiot! You are just a rookie!" Iruka-sensei screamed back, finally losing his patience. "Everyone starts with the same simple duties and work their way to the top."
Their former teacher sent Kagome a look, probably looking for someone to back him up. The girl had this habit of trying to keep the blond out of trouble and that often included helping their teachers in trying to reason with Naruto. Sadly for the man, she was just as irritated as the blond. After two seconds of being ignored Iruka-sensei turned his gaze to him, he repressed his scoff, barely.
"But he always picks the crappiest ones!" At this, the boy pointed an accusing finger at the albino. "Besides, we've done twice as many missions as any other team. At the very least!"
Anger rushed through him at that little reminder. The first time they were allowed to take missions a week after the stupid test had been...
They'd been naive, even after learning what their teacher was like it seemed none of them had the man properly pegged. When Kakashi-sensei asked for six missions all at once they'd been surprised bit still thought the man had picked tasks they could accomplish in a reasonable amount of time. Foolishly they tried to complete one task at a time only to end up in a mad dash all around the village trying to finish the absurd amount of work he'd assigned them. Not that they still weren't running around half-crazed most of the time anyway thanks to the stupid number of missions they had to do at the same time.
"Be quiet!"
"No, it's okay. They have done more than their quota of low ranking D-missions" The Hokage stopped Iruka's new rant. "If you want it so much I can get you a C-rank escort and protection detail."
Dark eyes narrowed at that, despite the blond's loud cheering and his own relief at being spared of another evening cleaning the river-bank while trying to babysit four hyperactive brats and still needing to help finish painting and repairing several walls from the poorest parts of town, he highly doubted the Hokage was about to reward them for Naruto's loss of self-control. Ninjas were supposed to be in control of their emotions, not the other way around.
The door behind them opened with a loud bang and as if to confirm Sasuke's suspicions an old man with ragged clothes and classless posture entered. The stank of booze reached them in a waft despite being in the middle of the room. The Hokage's amused look left no questions as to who this was.
"Huh? These are the ones supposed to be protecting me? " The clearly drunk man shambled into the room. An ugly expression in his face "They're all a bunch of brats. Especially the shortest with the stupid face."
A soft touch on his right hand had his anger simmering down, not a great idea to try and throttle their new client, right. Someone who stunk of alcohol from such a distance was definitely not worth the effort.
"I'm the great bridge builder Tazuna, I expect you to provide me with protection until I get back to my country and finish the bridge."
The soft hand suddenly gripping his in a vice squeezed hard in a silent reminder. Right, anything was an improvement over the stupid cat mission, and if he silently agreed with Naruto's mad sprint to punch the old man, well, no one had to know that.
A second look at their client did nothing to better his image of him. The old man still had a sake bottle in his hands and judging from his gait they could expect this afternoon to be nothing but a slow walk.
"If we finish this mission fast enough and with good results, we should be able to get something other than D-ranks more easily," Kagome said, a forced smile in her face as her left hand left to play with the long dark purple sleeve of her dress.
They'd forgone their usual training clothes in favor of more civilian looking ones. Not that they were of course, for all the inconvenient looking parts of their attire the fabric was in fact reinforced and counted with a multitude of hidden pockets where their gear had been strategically placed. In Kagome's case, even the long sleeves and skirt could be pulled open with a single movement and give her back the mobility it would've usually restricted.
Just because it's unlikely we'll get attacked it doesn't mean we shouldn't take every advantage we have.
With the muted colors and hidden clan emblems, it would be harder to be identified as shinobis, meaning if confronted they'd likely be underestimated as defenseless children. Kagome's argument to put the extra effort was an easy one to agree to.
"Right," he sighed, handing over a sealed scroll.
Azure eyes examined the offering for just a second before her expression brightened. "Oh, thanks. I was wondering if I'd brought enough with me."
She gave him a radiant smile, a genuine one, hiding the scroll on one of the many pockets in her sleeves. Unlike kunais and shurikens, the long needles the girl was fond of were easy to lose and easy to break. Even when using their usual training grounds there were times they were forced to return home without the full set and for as cautious as Kagome was, he knew she'd been a little too nervous while packing so he'd simply went and added a couple of sealed scrolls carrying her favorite weapons.
"Oi," The old man whined, "Where's the shrimp, we're wasting time here."
The soothing calm Sasuke had managed to recover turned to irritation once again. Yes, Naruto was cutting it close but comparing the fully trained shinobis capable of running for a full day without needing to stop and an old man who was still drunk as he leaned on the gates there was no contest on who was really going to be slowing the group down.
"Alright!" A familiar obnoxiously loud voice reached them. "Let's go!"
The blond arrived still running, a quick glance at the sky confirmed he'd barely made it in time.
He almost sighed at the sight of his teammate. Kagome had insisted on buying the prankster similar infiltration clothes for the boy's birthday some months ago but no matter how much either of them or the store's clerk tried to make him understand just why orange was not exactly the best color to use when you were actively trying to be overlooked proved to be an impossible endeavor.
At least, he thought as he eyed the bright orange form almost jumping in place, they're going to target him first.
They fell into form even as the moron continued to argue with the client. Loathe as he was to admit it the relentless morning training had worked for something, they stepped into formation surrounding the builder with disturbing ease.
Naruto and Kagome walked side by side with Tazuna, Kakashi-sensei a meter or so in front of them and Sasuke brought up the rear. Nothing overly complicated, a standard formation they'd practiced over and over, using one of Naruto's bunshins as their pretend client, and allowed to protect him with only taijutsu and their usual weapons as their teacher took them out one by one. Kagome had gotten a good deal of injuries to practice her healing after those lessons.
"Say, Tazuna-san," his attention snapped to the trio in front of him the second Kagome's voice interrupted the building argument the Uchiha had been ignoring. Something about her tone wasn't right. "you come from Wave country, right?"
"What about it?" Tazuna answered dryly but clearly grateful to have an excuse to stop listening to the blond.
"What kind of plants do you have back home?"
"Plants?"
If he hadn't been sure there was something off before it was clear now that the girl was trying to get his attention with the too-sweet voice she used and the out-of-nowhere topic.
"Yep, gardening is a bit of a hobby of mine, I was wondering if perhaps I could bring some seeds back with me." Kagome smiled, an innocent expression on her face.
Like she hadn't just spouted a bunch of nonsense in a voice far louder than her normal volume.
"Hmm, Wave country is surrounded by water, there's also a lot of fog most of the time so we don't have all that many pretty flowers..." the old man trailed off before starting up again. Apparently, Kagome's charm worked even on annoying old men. "We do have some that can be used for medicine I guess, some of the trees are also a bit different, might look nice in a garden."
"You hear that?" She cheered and slowed down until she was at his side, her right hand grabbing his arm and clenching around him thrice in quick succession. It took considerable effort not to let the tension suddenly filling him be seen. "Do you think we can bring something back home? As a souvenir?"
He smiled back at her, left hand moving to grab her own in a casual movement to anyone who didn't know him. "Sure, we can make some space in the front yard, or would you prefer to have them in the back?"
"Hmmm, maybe some pots in the house I think, though some in the backyard would be nice as well."
Kagome smiled at him once again before walking ahead to as Naruto for help with her future gardening project.
We're being watched. They're close. We'll pass them soon enough.
Back when they were around four the two of them decided to create their very own secret code after hearing a certain story. Nothing too complex or particularly special, they needed to be touching and long messages were too complicated to pass along. The whole thing was mostly a game done so they could complain without his parents noticing. As the years passed they decided to add some extra phrases and change some of the most useless ones but at the end of the day it was still a game. Even then the one thing she managed to pass along was the one that mattered.
They were being watched.
Dark eyes scanned the view in front of him, the road was empty and looked normal enough. Not your run of the mill bandits then. The sky was clear, the trees and bushes didn't look like they were tampered with...his eyes passed over the innocuous-looking puddle and swallowed back a laugh. Ninjas they may be but considering it'd been days since it last rained they couldn't be all that clever.
Idly he wondered if they should do something to warn Kakashi-sensei before dismissing the thought. If the man couldn't notice something so obvious then surely he couldn't still be alive today.
None of them stopped as they passed the fake puddle. Scoffing at a random comment the blond made the Uchiha crossed his arms. His right hand sneaking through his black sleeves already taking hold of a kunai.
He barely had time to register the sound of the chains before their teacher was tied up in them. Not clever but certainly fast. Lunging forward he grabbed the back of Tazuna's shirt shoving the client behind him.
Crimson blood filled his vision as the bladed chains cut through the jounin's skin. A loud shout in front of him made him frown. So Naruto failed to catch Kagome's coded warning. And he seemed to have frozen up. Great.
"One down."
The two unknown ninjas were moving fast towards them. No, towards Naruto. Shit. His kunai managed to back the deadly chains shortly before a reiki charged senbon cut through the metal without any effort.
"What?"
Taking advantage of the confusion Sasuke moved. Jumping into the air he landed on top of their still extended arms. Get their attention. Keep them away from their client. Away from Kagome. A swift kick to both their heads was all he could get before moving back again.
"Naruto-kun get back!"
The girl screamed as she pulled the boy back with her. The rough touch seemed to do the trick as the moron finally got out a weapon and stopped trembling. Really to freeze like that now of all times.
"Kagome."
Just one word was enough to let her know what he wanted to do. She didn't like it, he knew, but out of all of them, she was the one with the best long-range attacks. He turned back his attention back to the fight. No need to look back, Kagome was going to protect the client.
It didn't take long for their enemies to recover and move again. A closer inspection made it clear that even without the chains they were far from unarmed. His gaze stopped at the symbol carved in their equipment.
Mist shinobi.
Their eyes were locked on the old builder, they were trying to pass them. Naruto was back in fighting condition though and having Kagome behind them would ensure the boy kept his head cold. Even if the moron got distracted again Sasuke knew Naruto was willing to do anything to protect the first person who showed him any sort of kindness. The Uchiha could concentrate on his own fight.
A volley of shuriken pushed the foreign ninja back, Sasuke moved forward, regaining his attention. Good.
These were not genin. He frowned while dodging an angry swipe. Getting cut no matter how small the injury was probably not a good idea. A yell from his left forced him to turn.
Shit.
Naruto had been cornered against a tree. The blond was already gaining back terrain though and Sasuke just lost his balance.
I'm going to take a hit.
He raised his arms. The reinforced clothing wasn't going to stop the metal claws, it would still be better than nothing.
The arm coming at him with deadly force stopped. Frozen halfway to his crossed arms. Three long needles piercing his enemy's neck. Kagome was standing behind him, more to the right than she'd been, a terrified Tazuna at her back. So she dragged him with her to change her position.
"Maa, went a bit overboard don't you think Kagome-chan?"
Their dead teacher was standing in the middle of the clearing, the enemy Naruto had been fighting tied up at his feet. His tone had the same fake, cheery quality he used when reading the shitty D-rank missions he picked.
"Any other targets had a higher risk of missing, sensei."
Kagome smiled a beatific smile, she was calm, her right hand beginning to twirl a senbon between her fingers. A quick glance at the ninja who'd collapsed a second or two ago was all he needed as a confirmation. He'd practiced with the girl long enough, had seen the way the human-shaped targets of the compound looked like after training. Kagome's aim was never wrong. All three senbons had hit their target. The carotid artery had been successfully perforated.
Getting closer to the corpse Sasuke leaned down, his hand quickly grabbing the projectile weapon with caution. The tips on the needle a warning of what the rigid complexion of the body hinted at. She'd used one of the poisoned sets then.
Clever.
These people were obviously after the builder, had they managed to pass them Kagome would've been an obstacle in their way and the two mist shinobi had made it very clear what they did with hindrances. Uncaring the Uchiha dislodged the needles. real blood sprayed and poured out of the puncture wounds, pooling fast around the corpse. A disinterested swipe got rid of most of the crimson sticking to the weapons.
"Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"
Azure eyes were focused on him and he could feel a smile tugging at him. Her attention was fully focused on him, the client and their teacher forgotten in favor of making sure of his well being. Worry painted clear on her face as she got closer to him. She could've gotten a non-lethal hit, they both knew it. The risk she wasn't willing to risk was him getting hurt. To say he was pleased was an understatement.
"Not even a scratch."
Her smile was bright as she took the offered senbons. After giving him another look over to make sure he wasn't lying the girl allowed her focus to move to their remaining teammate.
"Ah, Naruto-kun, are you hurt?"
Dark eyes narrowed as he glanced at their teacher, the man was keeping an eye on her. Clearly, the jounin wasn't expecting any of them to go for a fatal hit. The Uchiha heir frowned, they trained to kill for years in the academy, that most of their classmates were too naive to notice didn't matter, an elite shinobi shouldn't be surprised at them for doing what they were taught in the first place.
"Eh? none of you are worried about your poor sensei? I'm hurt you know." He added apparently coming to a decision.
"Oh that's right, how did you do that sensei?" Naruto called from the back.
"Kawarimi," he answered with a scoff, that was a basic skill, how could the blond have forgotten about it when it was used against him constantly during training Sasuke wasn't sure he wanted to know.
The blond turned to see the pieces of the log the albino had used to replace himself. Either the two mist shinobi had been stupid enough not to notice the difference between cutting down a human and a piece of wood, or the man had done something else right before the change. There was a significant lack of crimson liquid surrounding the scattered wood.
"In any case, good job everyone. Though, Naruto you have to be faster, freezing in battle like that and making your teammates cover for you can put them in danger."
For once the prankster didn't grumble, simply nodding stiffly before turning his face to keep praising Kagome's aim.
Idly he considered adding to the scolding with his own taunts and reprimands before deciding against it with a suffering sigh. Naruto was a moron, yes, but a moron who cared too much. The chances of him freezing up like that again and placing Kagome in danger were ridiculously slim. Plus if he tried to antagonize him the girl would surely jump in defense for the blond and in this situation, he'd have considered giving him a pass regardless. For all his faults the loud prankster had simply taken a look at the three needles sticking from the corpse's neck, blinked a couple of times, and went straight to singing her praises. That alone was worth some leniency.
"Tazuna-san"
Kakashi's voice cut the conversation short, they'd never heard the man sound serious.
"What is it?"
"I need to talk to you." The jounin pointed at the still breathing ninja."These look like Hidden Mist ninja. These shinobi are known to continue fighting no matter what..."
"How the hell did you read our movements?"
Kakashi-sensei sent an unamused stare at the tied Mist nin for the interruption and stopped for a second before answering.
"On a sunny day like this when it hasn't rained for days...there's not going to be a puddle in the middle of the road."
"If you knew that why did you let the brats fight?" Tazuna's voice was strained, was the old man trying to get out of whatever trap Kakashi-sensei was lying by changing the topic?
"If I'd wanted I could've killed these two instantly but...there was something I needed to find out...who were these two after?"
"What do you mean?"
Sasuke felt his anger grow at the implication in his teacher's words and the old man's response. Either he was actually that much of a fool or he still thought he could pretend it didn't matter. But the truth here was that they were now involved in something they weren't supposed to be prepared for.
"Meaning I wanted to know if they were after you or one of us." the jounin continued with a lazy drawl. "We weren't informed that shinobis could be after you. Our mission was simply to protect you from thieves and gangs, that's a big difference you know. This has become at least a B-rank mission.
"This was supposed to be simple protection detail until you completed the bridge if it was known that other ninjas were after you...this assignment would've been set as a far more expensive B-rank. Look, I'm sure you had your reasons but Tazuna-san, you need to understand it causes a lot of problems for us when you lie about the specifics of the missions. We are now operating outside the parameters of our duties."
A/N: So here's where things will start to differ. To begin with al three members of team 7 are more or less on equal footing and I don't plan on having someone do literally nothing more than stand back for basically every fight. Also Kakashi is more willing to actually train them this time around instead of just messing with them. Having them capable of working in a team did wonders for his opinion on them.
Thank you so much for reading, and any review is greatly appreciated.