There were times that Iruka felt upset. This however was one of the times when he felt angry as opposed to upset.
"You can't be serious Hokage-sama!" came his outraged cry at what he was hearing, "there's no way they're ready for a C-rank!"
"I'm sorry, Iruka but my decision is final, team 7 is to travel to the small town of Asahi and eliminate a small bandit camp that has settled in that area," the aged leader ordered while puffing his pipe and passing the mission scroll the Kakashi, who accepted it calmly.
"Hai Hokage-sama, team 7, pack for a one week trip and meet me by the gate in one hour," the lanky man ordered them before disappearing with a shunshin.
"I can't believe I forgot to ask him to teach me that," Naruto muttered quietly, earning nods of agreement from his teammates before they left the room in order to prepare for their first mission.
"I can't believe you're sending them on a C-rank already, what if something goes wrong?" Iruka asked the shinobi no kami as he wondered what the old man was thinking.
"Iruka, do you have any idea how much those three have grown in the past month?" the question was simple but it caused the Chūnin to stop and think for a few seconds.
"Not enough to let them take a C-rank!"
"What if I was to tell you that Naruto can defeat Kakashi in Taijutsu, Sakura can beat him in genjutsu and Sasuke has attained the eyes that allowed Itachi to slaughter an entire clan?" the aged leader asked, smirking a little at the shocked expression that appeared the pineapple haired man's face.
"What? Are you serious? There is no way they could've grown THAT much in just a month!" the scarred instructor stated trying to convince the aged leader otherwise.
"And yet they did," Sarutobi stated, "now that is enough arguing, there are others that require missions."
XXX XXX XXX
"So your first mission is to slaughter a group of bandits, sounds fun," came a familiar voice within Naruto's head as he proceeded to pack for the mission.
"Perhaps, however I believe the old man is giving us this one to get us used to killing more than anything else," Naruto replied as he placed several kunai within the pouch he kept under his cocoon.
"Ah yes, I forgot that humans need to adjust to killing others," Kyūbi said as she remained in his head. The first time he had heard her outside of her enormous state he had needed to do a double take. Despite the amount of power that could be sensed in the voice, it was shockingly… non masculine, if anything her voice sounded closer to that of the girls in his class than the women he had heard talking around the village.
"Yes, and please remember that I'm still human right now," Naruto told the kitsune, earning a small sigh off the vixen.
"Yeah…" the silence that followed was both unexpected and concerning for the blond as he finished packing his equipment and deciding that he would go to the gate before trying anything within his mind.
XXX XXX XXX
Within his mind, closed off from his conscious another conversation started as Hōgyoku decided to get answers from her roommate.
"Explain," was all the dark haired orb said as she looked at the small red fox in front of her.
"Explain what?" Kyūbi asked wondering what the higher being wanted to know.
"Why you keep distancing yourself from Naruto," the inverse eyed woman stated, earning a look of surprise from the bijū as it wondered what she meant.
"What do you mean by that? I'm letting him in MUCH further than any other human would get a chance of getting," the chakra construct said with a hint of indignation in her voice.
"Perhaps, but you are still being very picky about what you let him know about you… is there something you are trying to hide from him?" the indestructible orb asked wondering if her roommate was hiding something that she thought would change the blonds opinion of her.
"You forget the difference between us orb," it was a simple statement that made the dark haired woman pause for an instant as she thought over the differences between them and what could possibly change the fox's openness, "I'll give you a hint, it's what you do naturally."
Hōgyoku instantly realised the difference the Kyūbi was speaking of as soon as she said that, while Hōgyoku could read hearts, Kyūbi could only sense the darkness in a person's heart, however the source of that darkness was a complete mystery to the nine tailed vulpine.
"So you don't trust him yet?" the way she said it made it unclear if it was a statement or a question, however just to make sure the being understood, Kyūbi nodded her head in affirmation.
"He might not have a lot of darkness in his heart but it is focused, that's all I can tell… but I wouldn't be surprised if it was directed at me, after all, it was my presence that made his life as hard as it was," the red eyed vixen stated, earning a minor change in expression off the pale woman.
"I see. If I was to tell you that the darkness is not directed at you, you wouldn't believe me would you?" it was a simple question and the response was the one that the orb expected.
"Of course not… it's obvious that you are biased towards the child, I have no proof you haven't been conspiring with him to try and hurt me," the bijū stated calmly as she lay on one of the sofa's happy with the comfort it gave her.
"Your point of view is understandable, however I must ask what it would take for you to truly open up to Naruto," once again the ancient being asked a question that the fox found difficult to answer.
"A pure heart."
XXX XXX XXX
Sakura's heart was beating faster than normal, she was finally going on her first C-rank mission, far earlier than most genin teams she had heard of. She knew her history and a genin team starting C-ranks in just a month after graduation only occurred in times of war when everybody was needed on the front lines as opposed to gaining a little bit of money here and there.
Just like the entire team, she had known that they would be starting on C-ranks instead of the usual D-ranks that most teams did, she didn't mind, she and her teammates were more than strong enough to deal with any non-ninja threat, though she was also certain that she was the only one on the team that would have trouble if a nuke-nin showed up.
That is provided the enemy was no higher than B-rank in the bingo book. Both Naruto and Sasuke had unique enough abilities that they could probably hold their own against an A-rank if worst came to worst. In other words, as long as the opponent wasn't a fully fledged Jōnin or a Kage level ninja they should be capable of winning, even if she was certain Sasuke would have to use his Mangekyou to do so.
At one point she would have packed her bags differently, putting more clothes than necessary in case she needed to change, however her recent training regime had changed her significantly from how she was upon leaving the academy. Back then she cared about three things, her grades, her looks and Sasuke. Everything else took a back seat including her training.
And now she was finally trying to pay off the debt her idleness had built up during her education. It was anything but easy, trying to build up a strong body after several years of doing nothing but diet and groom herself was proving to be even harder than she had anticipated, however she was an official konoichi of Konoha and giving up now just wasn't an option.
Finally finishing her packing, she said her goodbyes to her family and left for her first mission.
XXX XXX XXX
Naruto was partially surprised that he was the first to reach the gate, not that he was complaining but he had expected to see Sakura already there and waiting, however he wasn't caught off guard by the simple fact that she lived further away from the gate than he did.
He had simply assumed that she would have been fully packed and ready to go as soon as they had received the mission. Of course he was allowed to be wrong.
Calmly taking a seat leaning against the gates that were currently wide open, Naruto proceeded to think of the mission the team had been given. It was a C-rank which meant that they were only expected to deal with bandits as opposed to nuke-nin, however just because they were only supposed to deal with bandits didn't mean that there wasn't a possibility of a nuke-nin having a place within the group.
If so then there was a possibility that the group might be more dangerous than expected and the mission would therefore have the potential to escalate, if the identity of their sensei didn't cause that to happen anyway.
It was something that many people forgot to factor into a mission, the team being sent on it. He knew about Kakashi's fame, which meant that there was a high chance that a team of Iwa ninja would stop to try and kill them if they ever saw the team, if anyone knew of Sasuke's heritage as an Uchiha and had spies within Konoha then it was possible that a team of kekkei genkai procurers might be sent to capture him.
All in all there were many possibilities for things to go wrong and only one of them could be predicted, only the possibility of there being a nuke-nin among the bandits could be prepared for, the other possibilities could happen but didn't occur often, meaning that for the most part they would only really have to worry about the mission.
At the same time however, he still felt bad about not knowing exactly what would happen on this C-rank.
XXX XXX XXX
Arriving at the main gate, Sasuke wasn't surprised to see his teammates already there and waiting for both him and their sensei. Unlike them he didn't simply pack and leave for the gate, he had spent what time he could spare searching his home once again, this time however, he had actually found something.
His father's journal. He had originally not thought much of it, however then he realised just how well hidden it was. Anything that well hidden was bound to have some secrets stored within its pages and Sasuke would be damned if he didn't at least try to discover those secrets. Besides, they would be away from the village for about a week if what Kakashi told them was accurate, so he could do with some reading material.
The team was fully expecting to have to wait for several hours before their sensei showed up, however much to their surprise he arrived dead on time… and boy did they let him know it.
"Alright! Who are you and what have you done with Kakashi-sensei?!" came the stern shout from the pink haired member of the team as the cycloptic Jōnin showed up significantly earlier than they expected.
"What are you talking about Sakura?" the lack of amusement present in the older man's voice did nothing to betray his emotions as he was accused of being an imposter by one of his own students.
"You are on time, that is all the evidence we need to know that you are not our sensei," Naruto interjected, causing the man to roll his eye at the statement.
"Really? I can recall four times that I was on time for your training sessions," the silver haired man replied, earning a chakra infused glare off a certain Uchiha as he contemplated burning the older man… or maybe…
Just as Kakashi was about to tell the last Uchiha to turn off his Mangekyou, he eye went wide in fear as the worst possible scenario happened… his favourite little orange book burst into black flames in the middle of his hand, causing him to drop his precious piece of literature in order to save his fist from the all consuming flames.
Both Naruto and Sakura could do nothing but stare in shock at the scene before them, Sasuke had literally decided to incinerate their sensei's most prized possession with his Amaterasu, it was proof of two things… one, Sasuke was suicidal and two, it really was their sensei if the amount of killing intent the man was releasing was anything to go by.
Kakashi was seeing red. No one harmed his books and got away with it, even the Hokage knew that damaging Kakashi's collection was the sort of thing only someone that wanted to die did and just now this brat he had spent the last month training had dared burn his book.
Sasuke wasn't as stupid as he seemed however, despite what the rest of his team had seen his sharingan was capable of much more than just burning things and placing a small genjutsu to imitate his Amaterasu was a simple feat, however he was beginning to think his plan wasn't going to work… at all.
He barely had a chance to react as his sharingan predicted his sensei's movements, allowing him to dodge the grab aimed at him by the skin of his teeth as his sensei prepared himself to punish the boy for 'killing his precious'. It wouldn't have mattered as much if it wasn't that particular copy, it was his sensei's last present to him before the Kyūbi attack twelve years ago so that particular book had extra significance to him.
Of course no one except Maito Gai knew that little titbit of information and despite his belief that the book was 'unyouthful' he respected that Kakashi was attached to it due to its significance as the last present from his second father.
Sasuke had to admit he was very grateful the silver haired Jōnin had drilled speed and reflexes into him through the month of training, otherwise he was certain he would be getting seriously hurt right now.
Finally managing to manoeuvre himself and his sensei to the same area the 'burning book' was located, he immediately ducked down and picked the novel off the floor before dispelling the genjutsu and placing the hardback in front of himself like a shield.
Instantly the Jōnin stopped his assault as the most precious object he owned was used as a shield. His rage died down significantly when his brain finally processed the reality, he had been tricked by a genjutsu… he was beginning to feel like an idiot, his only comfort being that he usually relied on his sharingan to see through illusions, having only minor skill in that area, sure he was better than quite a lot of Konoha's ninja but he was still no expert at counter genjutsu combat without his doujutsu.
"You little bastard, did you think that was funny?" the masked man finally asked as he grabbed his book from the boys hand, finally back in control of his emotions.
"No, but you deserved it after the past month," the last Uchiha replied seriously, earning nods of agreement off his teammates as a sweatdrop appeared on the older man's head in response to his students hostility towards him.
"Alright, just know this, if you ever harm my book, last month will seem like heaven compared to what I'll put you through," the coldness in Kakashi's voice could have frozen a volcano and team 7 received the full brunt of the chilling tone.
"H-hai Kakashi-sensei," it was extremely unlike him to call someone with an honorific, however right now he would swallow his pride because the man before him was both scary and extremely dangerous.
"I think it is safe to assume that we shouldn't do anything to piss off Kakashi-sensei during this mission," Naruto muttered to his pink haired teammate earning a nod of agreement off the girl before the masked Jōnin turned to them, causing both of their bodies to stiffen in the hope that he wouldn't take any of his anger out on them.
"Alright team, Asahi should be approximately one day away from here, if everything goes right then we will arrive at the village around midday tomorrow. Once we get there, we will start searching for the bandits main camp before strategising appropriately. Once the bandits have been dealt with, we will track down any survivors and eliminate them before returning to the village to report the status of the bandits to the mayor before returning to Konoha. Any questions?" it was a simple explanation with the length their journey should be taking into account their physically weakest teammate who despite her intense training was still not at the boys level in terms of speed or stamina.
"I do Kakashi-sensei," the blond of the group stated as he tried to collect more information about the possibility of things going wrong, earning a blank look off the Jōnin, honestly he just wanted to get this mission over with as soon as possible, "what is the likelihood of there being a nuke-nin in the camp?"
"Hm, according to the information we've received concerning the tactics and skills employed by the group, it is safe to assume that even if there is a nuke-nin among them, they won't be much of a threat," the silver haired man replied, he had forgotten that Minato's kid wasn't the sort to ask completely pointless questions, "if that is everything, move out."
And with that, they were gone in a blur, all of them heading through the trees towards the small town of Asahi and their first mission as team 7.