How to make a genin team with two genins and a chunin

by Haely Potter

Naruto graduated the Academy at eight and was placed as Kakashi's apprentice. A few years later, Kakashi finally passes a genin team.

2. Chapter 2

A/N: It's been warm here for the past few days. Normally we don't hit 25 degrees Celsius until mid-June, maybe later! But now it's been 25 degrees Celsius in the shadow for two days! It's making me drowsy.

Anyway, thanks for all who read, reviewed, favorited or followed the story.

I'm gonna go take a nap now before hitting the books again. Wish me luck for the entrance exams!

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Naruto's experience from D rank missions were mostly of things he could do alone, such as baby-sitting one child, catching Tora-the-demon-cat or shopping. He'd never done things like painting a fence, since the fences that needed painting were always too long for only one person. He'd never weeded the main fields of Konoha. He'd never cleaned up an entire park. He'd never been entertainment at a birthday party.

Now though... Now he had a team that had to start with D rank missions and Kakashi-sensei had forbidden him from just sending a kage bunshin in his place. To be fair, his advanced chakra control exercises helped during the missions (and after, Sasuke-chan had demanded he teach him, which had given Naruto an excellent way to bond with the emotionally stunted boy), but they were dead boring and Kakashi-sensei refused to teach him anything the genin couldn't learn (which meant nothing, for the moment, so Naruto concentrated on his seals and chakra control which could always be better).

But he'd had enough. A month of chores was more than enough for him. He needed to get out of the village. The oppressive atmosphere was becoming too much again. A long-lasting, slow, low-level, easy C rank mission that took him outside again was what he needed. Some escort mission somewhere in Hi no Kuni or Cha no Kuni or Udon no Kuni would hit the spot.

This was what Naruto had in mind when he went through the pile of missions to be assigned that day before the rest of Team Seven came back from finding Tora-the-demon-cat. Against Kakashi-sensei's orders he'd left them with a kage bunshin but he justified it to himself with the fact that he was looking for a more interesting mission.

Then he hit the jackpot.

A bridge builder needed safe passage to Nami no Kuni as well as protection while finishing his bridge. At civilian pace, it'd take a week, a week-an-a-half to get to Nami no Kuni, it'd take, two-three weeks to finish the bridge and a few days back by shinobi pace, possibly thee or four, depending on Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan's stamina as well as the weather. A month out of Konoha all-in-all! Perfect!

"I found the perfect mission for my team, dattebayo!" he proclaimed to Hokage-jiji and thrust the scroll to the old man. "Give them a little real life experience! Maybe fight a few thugs. It might be the wake-up call they need! And – and traveling broadens the mind, doesn't it? I bet Sasuke-chan hasn't been outside the walls since his family died!"

Hokage-jiji chuckled and took his pipe out of his mouth. "Calm down, Naruto-kun. We'll see then," he said and looked down at the scroll, skimming over the mission details. "Indeed, it looks perfect for a first C rank mission. Except that... we haven't heard much from Nami no Kuni lately. Normally they request assistance for something almost once a month and this is the first mission request in close to a year."

Naruto perked up. "Oh! I know! I know! Me and Kakashi-sensei can do recon on the side! See what's really going on there! See if they've started sending their missions somewhere else! I need a few more recon missions before becoming jounin, don't I? Please, jii-san!"

"Uzumaki-san!" snapped one of the chunins on mission desk duty. He had his hair in a tight ponytail and a horizontal scar ran across his nose. If Naruto remembered correctly, he was Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan's Academy teacher, Umino Iruka-san. "Please show the Hokage-sama the respect he deserves!"

Stamping down on the rising resentment, Naruto adopted Kakashi-sensei's Gai-is-here-act-all-hip-and-cool posture, slouching his shoulders and putting his hands to his pockets before lazily turning to the other chunin. "Huh? Did you say something?" It might be a lame prank, but he could never resist it. It made everyone react one way or another.

It didn't let him down either. Umino-san's face flushed red and anger sparked in his eyes, which was better than the cold indifference in his eyes before. "Uzumaki! That isn't how a respectable shinobi behaves!"

"And I'm not one of your Academy students," Naruto drawled. "I graduated four years ago. Also, I'm sure Hokage-jiji would tell me if he wanted me to call him Hokage-sama. Though... that might make the weekly Friday night dinners rather awkward..."

"Now Naruto-kun," reprimanded Hokage-jiji with an amused chuckle. "Don't antagonize Iruka-kun, it's not good for a future Hokage to be on bad terms with his shinobi."

Sheepishly Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a forced chukle. "I'm sorry Umino-sensei, I didn't mean to offend you."

"And Iruka-kun," Hokage-jiji said, turning to Umino-san. "Naruto-kun doesn't mean anything by it, he just shows respect differently. I quite remember another young man paying his respects to the late Hokages by paint bombing the Hokage monument."

Umino-san flushed even deeper and lowered his face. Naruto looked on in interest. The tight laced chunin had once been a prankster? Who knew?

"I..." Umino-san began. "I accept your apology, Uzumaki-san. I would like to apologize too. It just... most of my students were your age..."

Naruto grinned. "Think nothing of it, Umino-sensei! Water under the bridge! Besides, I know what you mean, Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan can be a little thoughtless at times, but I'm working on that."

"Back to the mission, Naruto-kun," Hokage-jiji said and put his pipe back to his mouth. "Your recon mission would be B rank, so be ready write an appropriate report and include everything from the general financial situation to the political atmosphere and social standing. You last recon mission report was slightly lacking in the political department, but I'm sure you can do better this time. Also, you'll have to convince Kakashi-kun to take the missions. If he comes in and asks for another D rank, that's what I'll give him and Gai-kun's team will go to Nami no Kuni."

Naruto snapped to attention. "Sir, yes sir!" he said with a grin and saluted cheekily, turning around and going off to find his team.

He didn't get far unti he came across his team making their way back to the Hokage tower to return Tora-the-demon-cat to the Fire Daimyo's wife. With a yell he attracted their attention and jumped down from the roof. He landed in front of them, the kage bunshin dispersing itself now that it wasn't needed anymore.

"Hey you two cute little genin!" he greeted them cheerfully. "Hiya, Kakashi-sensei! Guess what, guess what? I found us a perfect mission, dattebayo! It's low C rank with lots of time to train! It's an escort-and-protect mission to Nami no Kuni, lasting for about a month. Say," he turned to Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan, "are you two ready for a C rank, do you think? I bet you're getting bored of these chores, aren't you? I mean, I am, and I can enjoy watching you two struggle with the chakra exercises."

"Hn. I suppose I'd like to try a C rank mission," Sasuke-chan finally grunted when their pink haired team mate looked indecissive.

Sakura-chan nodded determinedly now that Sasuke-chan had agreed. "Yeah, no more weeding or cleaning a park for me, please. I get dirt under my finger nails!"

Naruto stared at her. "You do know that on C rank missions there is a threat of being attacked by common thugs and robbers. That means you'd have to fight. And in a fight, you might even break a nail."

Sakura-chan huffed. "I know that, Naruto-baka!" she said forcefully. "I'm sure I'd be okay," she said more softly and glanced at Sasuke-chan, a blush dusting her cheeks.

"Ne Kakashi-sensei, can we take it?" pleaded Naruto. "I really want to get out of the village, it's boring here, nothing ever happens, dattebayo!"

"Except that chunin traitor a month ago, wasn't it, Naruto-kun," said Kakashi-sensei and turned a page in his book.

"I don't count him," Naruto answered. "He had clearly looped the loop, going on and on about the Kyuubi and Orochimaru and the Yondaime," he said and shook his head. "You know, Ibiki-senpai let me witness the interrogation. I never knew you could do that with pencils."

Kakashi-sensei eye-smiled. "I'd hoped you wouldn't for another year, but the learning experience must've been good for you."

"I don't know about that, but can we do the C rank? Hokage-jiji already agreed! He said it was the perfect first time C rank! Please? Even Sakura-chan and Sasuke-chan want it!" Then Naruto grinned mischievously. "I also have a few experimental attack seals that I don't dare to try in the village in fear of blowing them up."

Kakashi-sensei sighed and threw up his hands in surrender. "Fine! We'll do the C rank mission. Now lets get to the tower to return the lost pet and meet the next client! Also, Naruto-kun," he said as Naruto was doing a victory dance but froze at his sweet tone, "you'll be on cooking and dish washing duty the whole journey since you left a kage bunshin with your team against my explicit orders."

Naruto slumped. He absolutely hated dish washing duty on the road. "Yes Kakashi-sensei," he muttered under his breath and began leading the way to the Hokage tower, shoulders slumped.

At least it wasn't bathroom duty. (Not that it was really needed on a C rank mission anyway. There wouldn't be any pursuing enemy trackers that might smell the crap.)

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Naruto seethed as he walked, glaring at the ground even if he wanted to glare at the worst client ever.

Tazuna-san had been drunk when he was introduced to Team Seven, meaning he easily shattered all Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan's notions of escorting Princesses and saving countries. Then again... Naruto doubted Sasuke had such notions at all. In fact... he probably had the most realistic notion of the newly made genin of what being a shinobi really meant.

But that wasn't why Naruto was so angry at Tazuna. No, it was because the old man had questioned his skills as a shinobi. His! Of all people! He was a chunin, Kami damn it! His trap setting skill were on a low jounin level! His stamina and chakra levels were on and beyond Kage level! He was still learning fuinjutsu (you never finished learning fuinutsu, just like ninjutsu, there was always something more to learn and discover)! He could overpower any genjutsu, as there were few people with more chakra than him! He could hide from the most experienced trackers and sneak up on most paranoid old ANBU.

Was it the orange that made people question his legitimacy as a shinobi? But really, those that you noticed were the worst and the best. It were the mediocre ones that were never seen or heard and Naruto wanted acknowledgement! He wanted people to see him! Always had. That was why he'd first taken orange as his signature color. It stood out, no matter what it was paired with. Also, in the animal world, those who wore bright colors were the most dangerous of them all, screaming with their colors that they were dangerous, poisonous, would-wake-them-down-even-after-they-were-dead. Granted, he was never one for poisons, he was much too up-front for them, but even he knew to coat his mission weapons in poison, even if it was merely a paralytic in stead of a lethal one. Slow or paralyzed enemies was easier to kill or capture.

But really, was it the orange? Didn't anyone understand the meanings of colors anymore? Maybe he should just make orange feared, like the Yondaime had made yellow. He knew people in Iwa still flinched when someone mentioned the Kiiroi Senko. Yes, he already had a small name in the other villages, but it was nothing compared to Kakashi-sensei, the Yondaime or even Gai-san.

He thought of the entry on him in the Kumo bingo book that someone had managed to pilfer. He'd been ranked a B rank threat, his customized, orange flak jacket had been used as his identifying object and it had listed Kakashi-sensei as his most likely companion. His mastery of henge (not just that he could perform it adequately but actual mastery) and frequent usage of kage bunshin and fuinjutsu had also been mentioned, but nothing too damaging had been written. There was nothing of his unusually fast healing rate, or his immunity to most poisons or his inability to use genjutsu. It had been recommended that only jounin engage him in battle, or at least more than four chunin. How many other chunin could say that? But then... he didn't plan on being a chunin for the rest of his life, now did he?

Anyway, back to the sucky client. It wasn't enough for him to question Naruto's abilities as a shinobi, no. He had to mention his height. If there was something Naruto hated, it was being called short. It wasn't his fault he was a late bloomer, damn it! At least in the height department, he was perfectly mature in every other way, thank you very much.

Yes, he was, no matter what Kakashi-sensei might say. He was even mature enough to notice the threat to the client even when he was mad at said client.

Besides, he was the stealth master, not these two wanna-bes who decided to hide in puddles when it hadn't rained for close to two weeks. He'd noticed them half-a-mile out of Konoha, though he had a feeling they'd been there straight from the beginning a day and a half ago, but this was the first time they made a move to attack.

Kakashi-sensei of course would have noticed them. Subtly he flared his chakra in a questioning pattern that amounted to What are you going to do (about the enemy)? Naruto knew many hidden Villages had their own patterns and didn't bother learning them all (as the knowledge changed right away when it was known that some other village knew the meaning of some pattern), so he felt safe asking Kakashi-sensei in that manner.

Without outwardly reacting, Kakashi-sensei flared his chakra back in the Konoha patterns scheme and genin and kawarimi and then separately a questioning target?, which Naruto thought meant it was time to test the cute little genin and their reactions to a surprise attack, as well as to find out who was the target of the attack.

The group walked past the puddles, Naruto absentmindedly kicking a pebble into one, just to see if it had any effect on the jutsu. (It didn't.)

Naruto felt the faint release of chakra when the two shinobi emerged from their jutsu and prepared his sealless kawarimi. It was useless in a battle as it took more concentration than the normal kawarimi, but in fooling the enemy to thinking that you were unaware of their presence and making your escape when they were attacking it was great. Sure it took a little more chakra, but hey, he had the chakra to spare. Maybe he'd teach the cute little genin the advanced kawarimi... or make Kakashi-sensei teach them while he studied the new scroll on sealing he'd found in the Konoha public library.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he felt the burst of chakra most chunin used to speed up themselves for a short while in a fight. From the corner of his eye he saw Kakashi-sensei wrapped in a metal chain, his visible eye wide with shock.

"One down," one of the attacking shinobi said, pulling the chain taut, slicing through Kakashi-sensei.

Even though Naruto knew his sensei had used kawarimi before getting caught, the bloody mess of the after-image looked so real he wanted to throw up. Well, throw up and kill the attacking shinobi, but no, he couldn't, he had to follow the plan and let the genin have their first blood.

So he made a desperately clumsy attempt of attacking, "accidentally" winding up tangled in the chain and kawarimi'ing out the millisecond he felt the chain tighten.

"Two down," the other shinobi said.

From the trees he watched as his "attack" had apparently been enough to shake Sasuke-chan out of his shock and begin the counter-attack by the clever usage of some shuriken and kunai to secure the chain to a tree.

Of course the attackers, who Naruto now recognized as the chunin level Oni Kyodai Gozu and Meizu of Kirigakure no Sato, weren't a one trick wonder and released their chain rather than trying to yank it free. One of them engaged Sasuke-chan in taijutsu, the other darted past him to attack Sakura-chan and the old man. Sasuke wasn't doing too badly against his opponent even though it was obvious he was outclassed at least in speed if not strength and skill, but Sakura-chan barely managed to deflect the first three blows before getting kicked in the ribs and out of the way to the old man. The Oni Kyodai, Naruto wasn't sure which was which, then went for Tazuna, confirming him as the target of the attack.

With that, Naruto moved.

He knew Kakashi-sensei would take the one that threatened the client, so he intercepted the attack on Sasuke-chan, getting slightly scratched by a claw in the gauntlet when he deflected the blow meant to kill Sasuke. Ignoring the burning sensation in the cut that mean the claws were poisoned, Naruto flashed through hand seals, sunk to the ground, grabbed the other chunin by his ankle and dragged him underground. He emerged quickly behind the attacker and jabbed a pressure point in his neck, making his trashing and cursing captive fall limp in his earth prison.

When he looked up, he saw Kakashi-sensei standing before Sakura-chan, the other Demon Brother slumped under his arm. He eye-smiled at Naruto.

"Good work, Naruto-kun," he said. "That cut okay?"

"Burns," shrugged Naruto. "The toxin's not that bad, it's something I'm immune to, dattebayo!" He turned to Sasuke-chan. "You okay, Sasuke-chan? You didn't get scratched by those claws?"

"Hn, no," answered the genin with a slightly resentful tone, eyebrow twitching at the -chan in the end of his name. For some reason it annoyed him when Naruto called him Sasuke-chan, which was exactly the reason Naruto continued to do so. "What did you mean, something you're immune to?"

Naruto shrugged and crouched to drag the unconscious Demon Brother up from the ground. "I'm immune to most poisons and have less sever reactions to poisons I'm not completely immune to. At worst I might get tired of lethal poisons, or get an upset stomach of those not-so-lethal. We've yet to find a paralytic that works on me, dattebayo! I guess that's the advantage of being poisoned so many times when you're young."

Sakura-chan moaned, holding her ribs as she sat up from where she'd been kicked to. "You bastards... you were alive the whole time?" she demanded as she stood up shakily. "We could have been killed!"

"Maa, Sakura-chan," Kakashi-sensei said lazily as he walked over to the largest tree, putting his captive down to lean against the tree. "We had the whole thing under control. Besides, maybe this is the wake-up call both of you needed in regards to the shinobi world. Naruto, secure the captives."

"Got it, sensei," answered Naruto and hefted his prisoner to the tree. He took out a few seal tags, smeared the Oni Kyodai's blood on them and stuck them to the tree with chakra, activating them. The higher seals drew in the wrists of the captives and the lower seal drew in the neck.

"The shinobi world isn't kind and cool," Kakashi-sensei continued talking to Sakura-chan and Sasuke-chan. "It's bloody and dangerous and you can get dropped on at any moment. You need to be aware of your surroundings at all times. Had you been paying attention, you might have known these two have been tailing us since we left Konoha. Now Naruto, what did you use to restrain them?"

"You remember those seals I used on the bell test day? I told you I had a version for every bone in the body. The seal at the neck targets C7 in the spine," Naruto grinned, showing his teeth in a slightly blood thirsty manner that he'd learned from Anko when he'd been thrust upon her for week when Kakashi-sensei had been on a solo mission just when he'd made chunin. "If they struggle too much, their C7 will break and render them motionless neck down."

Kakashi-sensei looked mildly impressed. "And I guess you deactivate it with chakra? What if the captive channels chakra to it themselves?"

"Nah, it won't deactivate from the chakra of the target," Naruto shook his head. "The seal got an example of their chakra in the blood, so it will reject it. It was bloody hard to get it to work right and that week some months back when you were in Kaminari no Kuni I walked around with those seal tags all over me because I couldn't deactivate them myself. Finally Izumo and Kotetsu got so annoyed that I rustled when ever I moved that they agreed to deactivate them for me when we had the gate guarding duty together."

Nodding slowly Kakashi-sensei tried to move the captive on the right a little, but stopped when he couldn't move him easily. "They seem to be working like you said," he finally concluded. "I knew you had long since surpassed me in fuinjutsu, but I never thought I'd see such instinctive use of seals again."

"Heh, well..." Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head, pleased with the praise Kakashi-sensei was giving him, "it's in my blood, after all."

Kakashi-sensei looked at him sharply, his visible eye narrowed slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I did some research on seals and seal history and guess what? Fuinjutsu was practically invented by the Uzumaki!" answered Naruto happily, though Kakashi-sensei's reaction was confusing. "It originated in this place, Uzu no Kuni that was the home of the Uzumaki clan. But for some reason, I can't seem to find any information on Uzu no Kuni or Uzushiogakure no Sato after the second shinobi world war. It's not marked on any map that I can find."

"I've never heard of Uzu no Kuni or Uzushiogakure," said Sakura-chan, joining the conversation.

"Maa, let's leave the history lesson for later," drawled Kakashi-sensei and applied a weak suiton jutsu to wake the two up. "We've got two chunin level captives. According to the Bingo book they're Kiri missing-nin and known to fight until death."

"How did you know we were there?" asked the one on the left.

"Naruto-kun here is a budding sensor," he said lazily and gestured to his apprentice. "He's known you were following us half-a-mile out of Konoha. Me... well... I'm a jounin, I wouldn't have survived the third Shinobi war if I hadn't known when enemies were tailing me and the problem with your jutsu was that it hasn't rained in a few days so a puddle struck out like a sore thumb."

"Why did you let the brats fight if you knew that?" Tazuna asked, turning slightly to him.

"If I was up to it, I could have killed these two in the blink of an eye without breaking their genjutsu and Naruto-kun could have killed them in three seconds," answered Kakashi-sensei. "However... I needed to know who was their target," he said and glared at the client from the corner of his eye.

Tazuna looked up. "What do you mean?"

"The target could have been anyone but Sakura-chan," elobrated Naruto. "So we had to see if it was one of us or you."

"We have not heard anything about you being targeted by ninja," Kakashi-sensei continued. "Your request was to protection from armed robbers and gangs of thugs. You being targeted by ninjas means that this mission is above B rank. Our job was to guard and protect you until you'd finished your bridge. If we had known you were targeted by ninja, this mission would have been an expensive B rank mission assigned to a group of chunin or a jounin. It looks like you have your reasons, but it only makes our job harder if you lie about the job description. This wasn't part of the mission."

"This mission is out of our league?" asked Sakura-chan, worry in her voice. "Let's quit! It's a miracle only Naruto-baka was hurt and that he's immune to poisons. Had it been anyone else, we'd have needed to go back to the village to take out the poisoned blood."

Kakashi-sensei looked troubled and while Naruto was brimming with desire to continue with the mission (it had just gotten interesting! Enemy shinobi!), he knew Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan weren't quite ready for this type of mission. Since the Demon Brothers were chunin rank, the next opponent was likely to be jounin rank and might even give Kakashi-sensei some trouble. Oh, Naruto had all the confidence that Kakashi-sensei would emerge victorious, but what if there were more than one enemy? He could easily hold back chunin level ninja, as well as low jounin, but anything higher and Sasuke-chan and Sakura-chan would be in danger.

But then... most missing nin who were above chunin didn't like working with others. What were the chances of that the missing nin they'd be against would have underlings or partners? Maybe a few untrained civilian thugs, but even freshly graduated genin could take care of them with little problem.

Naruto turned to look at Tazuna who was sweating. "So, why did you lie? I mean, you don't seem stupid enough to lie for no reason."

Tazuna licked his lips nervously. "It began some years ago when Gato arrived to Nami no Kuni..."