A/N: Heres the latest chapter, I hope yall enjoy.


After her first frustrating encounter with Kakashi-sensei, Ino couldn't quiet her mind long enough to get a decent amount of sleep. Deciding that some snooping would help her sleep, and also give her an advantage for her first team meeting. Which, taking a quick glance at her alarm clock, was going to be happening in about four hours. Seeing as the only information she had readily available about him was his name and his ninja ranking, Ino knew she needed to learn more. Information is power afterall.

Kicking off her purple comforter and changing into her ninja gear she slipped on her sandals and exited her room. Making her way silently through her house, she eventually made it to her clan's library. One of the many perks to being the heir of a clan filled with mind readers primarily focused on information gathering. Was that we always had extensive bingo books lying around from the oldest copy to the latest, updated publication. Smiling to herself, she tied up her lose hair into her signature high pony-tail and began her search. Finding the section of the library that housed her clan's bingo books with ease, Ino picked the most recent book and flipped through the pages until she landed on Kakashi's entry page.

Engrossing herself with all things 'Kakashi', she was both impressed and mortified at the new information she had on hand. "The Copycat Ninja" she whispered as she closed the tiny black book with a soft thump. Searching the walls for a clock, she was shocked to see that she was almost two hours late to her first team meeting. Hurriedly placing the book back where she found it. She rushed out of her house with one final thought crossing her mind as she raced to training grounds. 'Copycat Ninja or not, I'm going to get him back for that blondie comment."

Skidding to a halt, Ino rested her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. She had made it. Her first official team meeting as a ninja, albeit two hours and 20 minutes late, but that didn't matter to her. "Er...I'm so sorry that I'm late Sensei it will nev-" she gushed out sincerely, hoping that her Sensei was the benevolent type. Pausing she looked up and glanced around her surroundings for the first time since she arrived.

When she realized the only team members present were Kiba and Sasuke. Her sincerely apology soon morphed into anger as she yelled, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? TWO HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES AFTER OUR MEETING TIME AND HE'S STILL NOT HERE!?" she crossed her arms around her chest and cursed Kakashi's name up and down.

Covering his ears, Kiba let out a growl as Ino's voice quickly rose several octaves as she yelled her frustations out. "Heyi! I don't know why you're yelling Kakashi-sensei isn't even here yet." Sporting a grin he continued, "besides I bet your morning beauty routine was the reason you were late today anyways."

"What did you say to me!?", Ino screeched marching up to Kiba cocking a fist back ready to pulverize him, but before she had a chance to land a blow she felt a hand being placed on her shoulder.

"I see someone is eager to start the survival simulation." Kakashi said as his one visible eye crinkled. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves though. I'll explain the rules quickly since we've already lost about two hours of time, since some people decided to be late."

Taking a step back Ino lowered her fist and visibly blushed feeling guilty, but then remember that Kakashi himself was late. "Wait a minute, I wasn't the only one late! You were late too!" She said, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

Putting his hands up in defense he pulled out two silver bells from his pocket, "Now that, that's settled, lets begin shall we? Kakashi pointedly ignoring Ino's last statement as Sasuke walked up to join the group, eyes fixed on the silver bells.

"The rules of this exercise are simple. The main perogative is to steal these silver bells from me", tying the silver bells to the front loop of his pants. "You will have approximately three hours before a timer goes off signifying the end of this exercise. At the end of the exercise, anyone of you without a silver bell will be sent back to the academy, permeanently. Oh and I suggest you come at me with the intent to kill. Any questions?"

Lazily getting into a stance, Kakashi continued without giving them time to speak up in protest "Good, the exercise starts now."


Its been a week since Naruto's been assigned to his genin team, and its quickly become the norm for him to be the first one to show up to the training grounds. Sighing in content, Naruto plopped down in the middle of the training ground. Figuring that he might as well get some practice in and meditate, while he waited for the rest of his team to show up.

Hearing the familiar pitter patter of a leaky pipe, Naruto reopened his eyes as he looked around his mindscape. Sadly he hasn't been able to redesign this dry and lifeless sewer that was his mind, despite all his attempts to redecorate it. Although his mindscape may not be the prettiest, it definitely gets the job done. While Naruto wasn't able to restructure his mindscape, he was able to expand upon it.

One of the first things you learn as a Yamanaka is how to construct mental barriers and defenses to protect your mind and thoughts. After those lessons, Naruto realized that his primary defense against mental attacks should include the one thing that sets him apart from all other Yamanakas. The Kyuubi. By elongating the Kyuubi's prison, it would have free range to attack any unwanted guests. Luckily for Naruto, the Fourth Hokage's seal inhibited the Kyuubi from hurting Naruto... well physically atleast.

"Oh look who decided to grace me with their insignificant presence. Came to play interior designer again?" growled the Kyuubi, as he opened his piercing red eyes, illuminating the sewer in a red glow. "Maybe this time you can conjure up a clone of yourself in here so I can finally rip your tiny human body to shreds."

Ignoring the jab at his failed attempts of trying to redesign his mindscape, Naruto rolled his eyes and countered with "maybe I should conjure up a muzzle, then I could finally get some peace and quiet in here."

"Heh...gutsy brat, without me in here it be too quiet, since all you think about is ramen and that one kid." The Kyuubi said, smirking down at the blonde haired boy.

"S-shut up", Naruto blushed as he went back to working on his mental defenses. While the Kyuubi made for a good defense mechanism, it never hurt anyone to have more things set in play. Besides that stupid fox didn't know what he was talking about, he thought about way more than just his crush and ramen. By the time Naruto finished fine tuning some surprises within the pockets of his mind, and was going to continue his banter with the fox, he felt someone tap him on his shoulder.

Re-opening his eyes, Naruto looked up to see that Choji was the one who tapped him on the shoulder and that the whole team was here. Flashing everyone a smile, "Hi guys, Good morning Asuma-sensei!" Naruto said while standing up, eager to get started with the day.

Asuma rustled Naruto's hair as he took a drag from the lit cigarette held between his lips, "Good morning kid I hope everyone is ready for our next mission, its of the upmost importance."

Shikamaru tsk'd and muttered, "troublesome..." as he expected the blonde boy, standing to his right. was going to explode in a burst of energy at any moment at the prospect of an exciting mission. To prove Shikamaru's intuition correct seconds later, Naruto couldn't contain his excitement as he jumped up and down with stars in his eyes as he pelted Asuma with questions.

"What type of mission is it! Are we gonna be saving a princess?!" punching the air for emphasis "Oh I know the Hokage is gonna send us on a super secret top mission because he knows how awesome we are! Right Shikamaru aren't you excited!? What about you Choji?!" Naruto said as he wrapped his arms around his long time bestfriends turned teammates.

"I bet we're gonna have to stop an multi-million drug ring and save a country from poverty and his terrible reign." Choji said playing into Naruto's fantasties and he couldn't help but get caught up in Naruto's excitement."

"Well hopefully the mission isn't too bad and all we have to do is cut grass or something." Shikamaru chimed in with a sigh.

"Aww c'mon Shika. Live a little why don't cha! Picture us, team 10 kicking ass and taking names!" Naruto said with enthusiasm.

Asuma held in a chuckle as he watched his team interact with eachother. He really lucked out in terms of their team dynamic, he didn't have to drive teamwork and loyalty into these three they already had it. Now he couldn't wait to see their downcasted faces when he told them what their big mission was going to be. With a big grin, Asuma held out a scroll with a flourish "Now the mission you've all been waiting for is...we've been assigned to catch Tora, the wife of the fire daimyo's cat!"

The look on Naruto's and Choji's face as they realized they were stuck with another D-rank mission was priceless. Asuma wouldn't trade in the satisfaction for anything in the world, sometimes being a sensei definitely had its perks. "Now lets start the search, Tora's already been missing for an hour and Madam Shijimi dislikes being kept waiting."

With his hands placed behind his head, Asuma marched forward with a chesire grin as his genin dejectedly shuffled to find the missing cat.

*Two Hours Later*

Team 10 was standing in front of the Third Hokage, scratched perfusely except for one lucky Naruto Yamanaka who was unconscious draped over Shikamaru's back.

Clearing his throat, Asuma spoke up "Team 10 reporting another D-rank mission a success. As you can see Tora is safe and found", gesturing towards the calm cat being held by Choji.

"Very well. Congrats on another finished D-rank mission team 10. I'm happy to see that Tora has been retrieved...and under three hours at that." Hiruzen praised them as his aide went to fetch Madam Shijimi who had been pacing worridly outside of his office."

Soon after, the door to his office were pushed open by Shijimi herself as she entered the room "Where is my precious baby?! Where is my Tora?!" She said, before spotting her precious cat in Choji's arms. Rushing towards him she roughly plucked the cat out of his hands and aggressively stroked it. "Oh thank you so much, I don't know what I would've done with out my sweet sweet Tora! You all will be handsomely compensated." The Fire Daiymo's wife gushed as she left the room.

"Man now I know why that stupid cat runs away all the time." Naruto grumpled as he awoke from his time spent inside Tora. "Shika remind me never ever to possess that demon of a cat again", he pouted as he tugged the boy's hair. Not once noticing he was still being carried by the lazy boy.

"Hey Naruto get off my back why don't cha." Shikamaru tried to catch the Yamanaka's attention, but was ignored and spoken over by the very same boy.

"Old man you gotta stop giving us these lame missions. I mean don't you think we are more than ready to take on more than simply running errands and catching runaway cats. What do you say gramps?", Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head and gave the Hokage a big grin.

Smiling down at Naruto, Hiruzen was impressed with his guts. It took guts to ask for more food from the hand that was already feeding you. Bemused by the genin's antic, Hiruzen smiled wishing he could give them a C-rank mission, but unfortunately he didn't think they were ready just yet. "Well Naruto-kun I would love to give your team a C-rank but sadly I gave the last one away." fibbing a little bit, but seeing Naruto's downcasted look, he quickly back tracked. "I promise that when we recieve the next one, your team will be one of the first teams I call. In the meantime I have your next mission. Team ten I task you with watching my grand-son Konohamaru and his friends."

Beaming up at the Third Hokage, Naruto was ecstatic that his team was going to be getting his first C-Rank, but in the mean time he guessed babysitting a bunch of brats could have the potential to be fun.


He was wrong. Babysitting those snot nosed brats was complete torture. Kicking a stray rock from the road, Naruto stopped with a huff. Atleast the day was finally over and he coould pick up his new puppet. He'd been waiting a week to grab his new addition to his arsenal. That was the only highlight to this terrible day...from dealing with the demon cat Tora, and to babysitting Konohamaru and co. Naruto could use a break, a well deserved break.

Opening the doors to the Higurashi weapon shop, Naruto spotted the familiar brown hair girl that had taken his order the last time. Walking up to the counter he waved his hand in front of her and said "Hey, I'm here to pick up my puppet its been a week is it ready?"

Looking up from her work of polishing a set of Katanas, the brown haired girl gave him a smile, "Yeah it's ready, let me grab it from the back" before she disapeared behind a pair of curtains. Soon after returning with a simple wooden puppet with a red "X" plastered across the head. Sealing the puppet within a small scroll she held it out to him and said "I hope you enjoy your purchase, and continue shopping with the Higurashi family."

Grabbing the scroll from the girl, he said "Thank you...er" trailing off as he realized he didn't know the cashiers name.

"Tenten", the girl supplied.

"Right..." scratching the back of his head. "Thanks Tenten, I really appreciate that you were able to make it in such short notice!" Bowing his head, before he walked out of the shop and towards his family's compound.

Once he reached his door, Naruto was giddy with excitement, ready to tinker with his new puppet the whole night.