Naruto: Alone

by Arganaut

The meeting between the council and Sarutobi did not go as planned.... how will Naruto survive growing up without the help of the Third?

18. Chapter 18

Naruto: Alone

Hey there people, its me Arganaut, and I'm here to provide you with the next chapter of Naruto: Alone! Anyway, I suspect I know what you all are expecting from this chapter. You're expecting the beginning of the Wave Arc. Well, I'd hate to tell you, but you're not going to get it, so ha!

Instead I'll be going into some detail concerning chakra, Team 7's first missions, and team to team relationships for the next few chapters (don't worry, I've plot it all out, you'll only have to wait 3 more chapters before the Wave Mission begins). I also hope to begin really chiseling out my images for Team 7, and its individual members.

NOTICE:

Also, I'd like to make a few quick honorable mentions in this chapter. The first of which are four authors: Zoneshifter D, FictionReader98, Paintball-Gamer, and Son Kenshin. Now, you might've seen these guys' stories around the community, or even seen them reviewing (or beta-ing) my stories. I like these guys, they're good authors, and people I've had conversations with before. They're good guys with creative ideas, and I have enjoyed their stories for a while now.

I know it might seem weird for me to be doing a plug, but these guys don't get a lot of reviews or hits to their stories, and some of them are somewhat discouraged. They have excellent ideas, they just need a kick in the pants to get them going. Now, what I'm asking isn't a lot, I'd just like it if you would stop by their profiles, check out their stories, and see what you think of them. Leave a review, tell them what you liked and didn't like. You won't regret having taken the time out of your day to do so.

Another thing I'd like to mention are my other stories. I'd like to ask you all to check out the others to see what you think. Your reviews and views on Alone have really helped to spur me into a writing spree recently, but I would like to have some inspiration for the other tales in my archives. So, if you would, stop by, review, say what you like and don't like, if you would ^^ Much appreciated.

So, with that done, before we go into this next chapter, let's get the reviews for the bell test chapter out of the way (I'll also splice in some of the reviews from the April Fool's Chapter):

GraityTheWizard- I'm surprised you think of this chapter as such a downer for Naruto. However, yeah, life will improve for him, steadily, as time goes by, just don't expect jumps in quality.

VFSnake- Its wrong if, really, Naruto doesn't have the skill or ability to do so. In my story Naruto is very much outclassed by Kakashi, so it wouldn't be prudent, or good for continuity, for something like that to happen this early.

And, maybe the next time I do an April Fools chapter I'll have Naruto get Kakashi back.

FictionReader98- Thanks for leaving such a well-written reviews of the chapters, very much appreciated. As for the submissive nature of the team at the end, well, think about it. They threw their absolute best at the guy all at once and pretty much got rocked anyway, even if your ego is as huge as a parade blimp, that's a pretty hard pill to avoid swallowing.

And as for the holes in my April Fools chapter, yeah, I was kind of rushing to get it out, so I'll probably fill those in the next time.

soundless steps- That's always the funny part of writing a story, some people will say he was too submissive, others will say he's too arrogant. Dah well. Anyway, thanks for writing a review, I hope to hear more responses from you as time goes by, and welcome to the insanity.

Also, you're not the only one who was satisfied with the prank ending, in fact, a lot of people voiced support over that.

justanotherguyathiscomputer- I'm more ashamed by the fact that I took time to come up with that omake idea... anyway, if you think you're ashamed now, just wait, I have dozens more coming.

Dragon Man 180- Well... just wait and see.

And yes, Hinata is an excellent prankster.

Epicweaver- Well, I'm very glad that my early parts of the work didn't scare you off. I hope to keep you more properly engaged, and hopefully well entertained, in the future.

Paintball-Gamer- Thanks man, and yeah, that's one reason why I did the new type of omake, cause its never been done before.

spiritwolf32- Well, it might suck he's still on the street, but I'm just not ready to realistically get him off of it. Don't worry, its coming, but it just won't be soon. On the issue of the 4th, no, just no. The big reason why I didn't name him at all during the earlier chapters of the story was so that I could find out his real name. So I'm not going to use the fanon name. As for updating, just be patient dog, it takes a while to outline the plot and then write the chapter, in the end I think you'd prefer good chapters that take a while to write than bad chapters that come in rapid succession.

Also, yeah, not a lot of people liked the fact Hinata was almost pranked, my bad.

Well, these should answer questions a lot of you have, if not, then my apologies. But, I'll make up for it by getting to what you all really want: the next chapter of Naruto: Alone!

Chapter 18: About Time! Team 7's First Missions!

---------- Five Weeks After the Bell Test ----------

As the sun steadily rose above the Hokage Monument it signaled the beginning of a new day. Though, a much earlier signal would've been the amount of people who were already out and about. The Genin, once again, were on their way to their training grounds, ready to begin yet another day of monotonous and exhausting training. Having finally settled into a routine, the Genin had very few problems getting themselves up early in the morning. They awoke either through helps from their parents or, if the Genin were lucky enough, the natural beams of light from the sun piercing into their homes, forcing them awake.

One Genin, however, was in a very difficult position. This Genin was both on his own when it came to where he lived and also lived in an area where sunlight wouldn't reach until noon, at the very least. This Genin, Naruto Uzumaki, had suffered many 'close calls' in the early days of his Genin-dom, almost failing to make it by the preset time of day his sensei, Kakashi Hatake, set for him and his team. However, it would be worth mentioning that the blond was also quite resourceful when it came to solving this problem, and quickly found a way to make sure he would wake up at the appropriate time. In fact, if we quickly head to Naruto's hideout, we can see his system at work.

In his den, Naruto laid sprawled on top of an old mattress in the middle of the area, snoring loudly as he slept. As the seconds went by, the sun's rays slowly began moving over the top of the hideout, before it happened upon a piece of broken mirror which had been precariously placed on the roof, positioned so that it would slowly reflect light down into the hideout. That reflected beam of light happened upon a new piece of mirror, which reflected it to another piece of mirror, and then another.

After a few more seconds of light traveling through the hideout by means of reflection, a shard of a mirror sent beam of light right onto Naruto's face, the Genin groaning as he placed his hand over his face, slowly sitting up out of the mattress. About ten seconds later, more out of annoyance than anything, Naruto threw a kunai at the original piece of mirror way up above him, shattering it completely.

"... Not my preferred way of waking up... but gotta do it till I get used to waking up this early." Naruto said in the middle of a great yawn, remembering how difficult it was for him to get acclimated to waking up for the Academy, which the Academy Students didn't even begin to arrive at till about two hours from then. Still, it was time to get up, he had about a half hour to get to his meeting place, and he had somethings he needed to get done. Naruto stood up and stretched out his back, his hideout still hidden from the early morning light. Truly not much had changed since the last time we have seen the hideout.

More or less the big changes were that his supplies and gear was all organized better, his various pieces of ninja gear placed up on the wall, alongside clothes of his, the items connected either to pieces of metal jutting forth from the walls, or from various other sharp objects Naruto himself jammed into cracks in the walls. Naruto yawned as he collected his dark green and brown set of clothes for today, the dark green jacket with a red spiral on the back, a brown shirt and some darker brown sets of pants. He quickly slipped on black ninja sandals to complete the set.

The blond Genin flexed his muscles a bit as he jumped around in the clothes, cursing a bit under his breath as he noticed how tight they were. "... Going to need some new clothes... I've had these for a year or two now..." Naruto said as he yawned, quickly picking out some kunai and shuriken to fill his weapons pouch, not exactly expecting there to be much use for the rest of his gear.

Training hadn't really required Naruto to dig deep into his trap making abilities, something he hoped would change soon. After all, long running sessions, heavy weight lifting, sparring, and other such training sessions were fine, but they were wearing thin on him and his teammates.

'They're probably at the bridge, now that I think about it.' Naruto began as Sakura and Sasuke entered his thoughts. 'Better get going before I run out of time.' Was the last thought that left the blond's skull as he hastily made his way out of the hideout, upon making it to the main streets he stole a piece of fruit from one of the street vendors who just so happened to not be looking in his directions. Hey, he still wasn't being paid, so he still needed to get his food through less than legal means.

As Naruto munched on what he considered to be breakfast, his mind wandered to his two teammates. It was no secret that the three didn't exactly have great chemistry before they became a team, hell, back them he absolutely despised Sasuke and Sakura for their roles in making him miserable during the old days of the 'Sasuke Uchiha Fan Club', and the feeling was returned, though Sasuke's had more to do with Naruto's near equivalent skills than they did with the club. Sakura and Sasuke were hardly better off when it came to chemistry, as despite Sakura's repeated attempts to get a good relation between her and Sasuke were shut down by the Uchiha before they even began.

It wasn't much better the day their team was announced, truth be told for a better part of twenty-four hours it only made the way they viewed each other degrade .

Then came the Bell Test, and the quick trip through Hell that made up most of it.

It really was then, even above the quick knock out Ebisu gave him when he first met Konohamaru, that made Naruto realize how limited his skills as the Street Fox were. Kakashi kicked his ass up and down the training field, and effectively forced Naruto to seak refuge in the river. After the blond made his way back into the forest, he ran back into Sasuke, who had also gotten his butt beaten... and despite how badly they had been beaten the two immediately began arguing over who was better suited to beat Kakashi.

Sakura, his third teammate, stumbled into their midst a few seconds later... and scared the shit out of Naruto. Not literally mind you, but Naruto was pretty well scared straight by her rant against him AND Sasuke. Hell, only reason why it truly affected him was because Sakura, the girl he had passed off as a pink-haired pain in the ass fan girl, actually bit Sasuke's head off along with his! It was the moment right afterwards that the three of them came up with the plan that, ultimately, won them the test, though they wouldn't know it at the time.

Naruto took another bite of the fruit as he continued to think. All three of them had been training together for a few weeks now... and, really, overall his opinions were still somewhat the same. Sasuke was still a bit of a moping, 'holier-than-thou' ass, and Sakura was still a pretty huge fan girl. However, even the Street Fox could admit, he had somethings had changed.

For one, Naruto was no longer looking over his shoulder for the knife in the back he expected from the two when they first became a team. So long as he and the Uchiha didn't argue in excess, Sakura wouldn't explode into a rage... a lesson both Naruto and Sasuke, once again, learned the hard way. Also, so long as he and Sasuke didn't pick at each other, no major fighting would occur, hell, the smug son of a bitch actually 'condescended' to giving him some real answers, like yes or no, rather than just grunt or stick his nose up at him in a repugnant manner, and so long as the two of them didn't fight, the pink haired kunoichi wouldn't get on his case.

Though he really didn't care for them, Naruto couldn't deny that the current set-up was probably as comfortable as it could get at the moment, especially considering that, if they ever got into trouble again, the blond had little doubt they could, possibly, pull back together and pull a trick like they did during the test.

With that, Naruto swallowed the last of the fruit he had picked up and began sprinting, trying his best to get to the bridge.

---------- Team 7's Bridge -------

Meanwhile, at the bridge, Sasuke and Sakura had already arrived, standing in relative silence as they awaited the arrival of their third teammate, Naruto.

Like Naruto, they had gotten somewhat used to the morning routine of arrival. For Sakura, either the sun would wake her up or her mother would, for Sasuke, well, the young boy was already very used to waking up extra early in the morning for training, so the only thing he had to worry about was being able to wake up even earlier to get his extra training in. They would both await Naruto's arrival, and when he'd arrive, they'd wait a few more hours for Kakashi to arrive, with Sakura immediately chiding him for his lateness, Naruto jumping in from time to time as well.

For the onyx haired boy and the team's kunoichi, their views of the team were similar to Naruto's, but also very different, with Sasuke's initial view on the team happening to have been very similar to Naruto's. The Uchiha remembered the rage that flowed through him when he first heard the team announcement, and the absolutely disbelief that he could possibly be stuck on the team with Sakura and Naruto. Sasuke shook his head, however, as he had already brought these thoughts up one too many times since the actual event occured. Besides, though stubborn as he was, he was willing to admit that he had been wrong about a few things.

Probably the first thing that had surprised him was Sakura's actual use to the team. Though when the team was first announced, he rolled his eyes and ground his teeth at the idea of basically being forced to carry his 'fangirl's' weight around, seeing as how Naruto wouldn't get, or be allowed, within ten feet of her. However, her actions during the Bell Test did impress, if only mildly, Sasuke. The pink-haired girl not only was useful in their plan to beat Kakashi, but she also was the one who managed to bring the three together... he wasn't so much frightened by her sudden rage explosion as he was surprised... though, he'd probably never admit to anyone that he had felt either emotion in any amount. Ever.

The second thing that had gotten his attention was Naruto. Now, this surprise wasn't so much an instantaneous thing as it was progressive over the past few weeks. Sasuke had expected nothing but constant annoyance and aggravation from Naruto. In one moment, the Uchiha had thought, Naruto would be constantly spouting off about how much of a 'jerk and 'fucking stupid' Sasuke was, and in the next, would be running circles around him in certain exercises, while Sasuke would just respond with how 'stupid' and 'annoying' Naruto was while kicking his ass during sparring matches.

Though Sasuke's expectations had turned out to be quite true for the first week... Sakura's rather sudden temper explosions put a quick end to those arguments. Since then, Naruto and Sasuke had made a silent deal; don't annoy me and I won't annoy you. In all honesty, it worked well. Though Naruto and Sasuke talked sparingly, if at all, it was no longer in the near-constant stream of insults they'd throw at each other... though, there would still be shouts of 'Teme yarou' and 'Dobe' every once in a while when tensions would run high during training sessions.

Combine with this Sasuke's slow acceptance of the fact that Naruto's own skills went well with his, as seen during the bell test, the stress formed by their 'tie' slowly evaporated.

While Sasuke was still rather silent to both, he was actually willing to spare words to both of them. Though he usually only gave one-line answers, Sasuke thought that even that was quite a bit for him to be handing out.

Of course, Sakura, who was just standing across from Sasuke, was very happy with that development, along with a few others. The pink-haired girl, out of all three of them, was probably the one who started off the most satisfied. After all, she had gotten on the same team as Sasuke, and that alone was enough to balance out Naruto being on her team. She had thought that the team dynamic would always be Sasuke and herself working together, while Naruto just kind of did thug things every now and then... and boy did the Bell Test prove that theory wrong immediately. After all, during the test she had worked with both Sasuke and Naruto, an event that she could've seen coming.

What surprised her the most, however, was the she had been the one to get the team working together in the first place. Though she hadn't said so out loud to them, Sakura was also freaked out by her explosion of anger towards her crush... Naruto wasn't so unexpected. She was even more surprised when the three came up with a plan that had actually hit Kakashi pretty hard.

When they had actually managed to impress Kakashi and pass the test, she was completely stunned... though, not to the point where she was above celebrating. She couldn't believe how well they had worked together, and it brought her a certain degree of hopefulness to her, not just with Sasuke, but the idea that Naruto might be even somewhat bearable. Though, of course, the complete unity the three had felt in that moment didn't stay completely intact. Things slowly headed back towards the way they were; Naruto and Sasuke argued, Sakura didn't respect what Naruto referred to as his 'lifestyle', and Sakura still asked Sasuke, and Sasuke continued to shoot down her requests.

However, she could still recognize some differences. Even though she liked Sasuke, recently, she wasn't above shouting at him should both he and Naruto let an argument go on for too long. Such outbursts were still foreign to her, though they didn't' happen so often now that Naruto and Sasuke actually began not arguing. In fact, even that was something that was still foreign to her, Naruto and Sasuke not arguing.

Before at the Academy the two would constantly be insulting each other over every little dispute, something that, until now, hadn't bothered her. Now the two barely talked, and if they did, it wasn't to argue, it was just with ninja stuff... it might've seemed off, but even to Sakura, it seemed like a step in some sort of good direction.

Then there was her relation to Naruto in this team... she didn't like him stealing, she didn't like it at all, and that was still clear. However, with the stress between the blond and her crush going down, she didn't feel all to inclined to go on the offensive against Naruto anymore, so things had steadily cooled between them.

Though, the biggest thing to come out of this was that Sasuke was actually answering her questions almost all the time now. The moody-ninja no longer just grunted out a response or flat-out ignored her, unless it was early in the morning, now he actually gave responses, both to her and Naruto. Sure, it was mostly one-liners; yes, no, whatever, don't care, but this excited her nonetheless.

However, both Sakura's and Sasuke's pondering was cut off when, suddenly, Naruto made his way onto the bridge, yawning quite loudly as he picked pieces of fruit from his teeth.

"Morning." Naruto said off-handedly, almost drowsily, as he shook his head a little, Sakura waving a little as Sasuke just nodded in his direction.

"Morning." Both responded as the three began waiting patiently. Of course, it'd be a few hours before their sensei, Kakashi Hatake, arrived, but if they didn't arrive exactly when he told them too, well, punishments were promised. It irked all three of them that they had to be on-time, but he could be as late as he wanted, however they suspected that the punishments would only irk them even more.

So, the three waited; keeping themselves busy with idle, if shallow, conversations, and other various activities for the next few hours. When the sun finally made its way to the quarter-point of its journey across the sky, a small explosion of smoke appeared at the end of the bridge, drawing the Genin's attention.

"Yo." A mono-toned voice spoke out as Kakashi made his way out of the smoke, his eye curved as he looked at his students.

"What's the excuse this time Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked with an almost bored look in his eyes, Kakashi chuckling as he pulled out six paper cards.

"Well, I was on my way to the Hokage Tower to pick up some elemental testing cards for the three of you, but when I found out they were out of stock I had to go run to pick up the next shipment early." Kakashi said in a much lighter tone than earlier, as the three low-ranked ninja merely waved him off... before immediately snapping their necks towards him so quickly it nearly caused whiplash, a shocked look gracing each of their faces.

"Th-that's actually a plausible excuse!" Sakura exclaimed in a surprised, in fact almost horrified, manner as she stared at her teacher. Sasuke merely nodded in agreement, though he was more stunned than 'horrified'. Naruto himself was about to say something ironic, before he caught the earlier part of Kakashi's sentence.

"Wait, elemental testing cards?" The blond asked in a manner that could only be described as 'cautiously curious', the question itself calming both Sasuke and Sakura as well. The scarecrow Jounin merely chuckled as he nodded.

"Yep, just follow me to the training grounds and I'll explain." Kakashi said as he turned and began walking, the three Genin merely following after him, though with a little more distance between them and their sensei.

Kakashi had to admit, he wasn't planning on testing their chakra elements so soon, heck, he hadn't even gotten them on more advanced forms of chakra control techniques. However, he couldn't lie, they had progressed quite nicely these past several weeks. He liked to think that it was entirely because he beat some sense into them during the Bell Test and made them take their jobs as ninja more seriously, but it was also clear to him that these three had an overwhelming amount of talent stored up in them that he was just barely tapping.

Strength exercises, speed races, teamwork exercises, they were all fine, and good to build them up physically and mentally, but he knew that if he was going to really tap into their full potential, he had to get started on more specific training courses. That meant finding out their chakra types, so he could help them mold their chakra to the best of their abilities. Inwardly, he was a bit enthralled as well, as he was quite curious as to which chakra each of them had... though, it'd have to wait till he fully explained some things.

As they made it to their training grounds, Kakashi motioned towards the area beside the river.

"Sit." Kakashi said quite simply as he stuffed the cards into his pouch, his three students merely nodding as they made their way over to the trees, and either stood or sat against them as they eyed their sensei carefully. Kakashi took a deep breath, as he looked back at them with a curved eye. "Right, so as I explained, I brought some chakra element testing cards today. This is because today I'm going to test which elemental affinity your chakra is." Kakashi said, all three Genin perking up, Naruto going so far as to raise his hand, before Kakashi shook his head.

"Hold on Naruto, I have to explain a few things first." Kakashi said as he walked over to the river, and made the cross-seal. "Shadow Clone Jutsu." Calmly left the Jounin's lips as, suddenly, five exact clones appeared beside Kakashi, all five relaxing their bodies as the original Kakashi stepped forward, looking back at the five clones.

"Now, as I'm sure you three are aware, there are five chakra elements that act as the base for almost all jutsu." Kakashi began his lecture off, as his clones flashed through several seals.

The first Kakashi pulled down his mask slightly, though not enough for Sasuke, Sakura, or Naruto to make out his face, as the clone looked straight up, and blew a stream of fire into the air.

"Fire."

The second Kakashi finished his seals and began moving his hands around, streams of wind following his hands as they moved.

"Wind."

The third Kakashi finished up his seals, and pointed his fingers towards the air as, suddenly, a bolt of soundless lightning bolted straight up into the air, scaring all three Genin, if temporarily.

"Lightning."

The fourth Kakashi merely sighed as his seals ended. He quickly dropped his heal onto the ground, forcing an orb of earth about twice the size of Kakashi's head was forced out of the ground, and was kicked away by the same Kakashi.

"Earth."

The final Kakashi ended his seal series, as he waved his hand from behind to in front of him, a jet of water following his hand movements as it sprayed from the river behind the clone, to the dry land in front of him.

"Last, but not least, Water."

The original Kakashi stated, before all six of him looked over at the Genin and curved their eyes. "As you can see, each element is very different from each other, and some are toxic to each each other." He said, as the original glanced at his clones.

Suddenly, all five began using their jutsu again, but kept up a constant stream of each element. The fire wielding Kakashi moved his fire over above the wind wielding clone's head, said clone blasting the wind straight up above him, causing the size and rang of the stream of fire to greatly expand.

The wind wielding Kakashi then moved his wind over into the path of one of the lightning bolts the third Kakashi was using, causing that particular bolt's energy to be instantaneously dissipated. The fourth Kakashi slammed up an orb of earth and kicked it away, and in the next instant the lightning wielding Kakashi blasted it with lightning, causing the boulder to burst into pieces.

The fifth Kakashi began forcing water out of the river in a stream, but the earth wielding Kakashi merely kicked a boulder into the part of the river the stream of water was being forced out of, interrupting the jutsu.

Finally, the water Kakashi blasted the stream of fire produced by the first Kakashi clone with a burst of water, immediately extinguishing it. The five Kakashi clones then placed their hands in their pockets, as the original Kakashi began speaking up again.

"Of course, this is what you'd read in a textbook." The Jounin said as he cracked his neck. "In real life, the 'Wheel of Weakness', as some nickname it, is about as useless and outdated as slamming two rocks together to make fire." He said, as all the clones once again began flashing seals.

The fire Kakashi began blasting fire into the air again... which suddenly extinguished. Looking to its left, the first Kakashi noticed that the wind Kakashi had created a vacuum instead of blowing wind, sucking the air out from the fire attack.

The wind clone blasted wind towards the lightning clone, only to see that, instead of a singular bolt of lighting, the clone's fist seemed to glow with the lightning energy, the wind forced to divert around the concentrated ball of electricity.

The third clone blasted lightning in a bolt towards the earth clone, said clone merely producing a wall of earth, mud, and dust in front of it. As soon as the bolt of lightning hit the wall, it instantly disappeared, nullified by the earth.

The earth clone tossed a boulder out into the open, the fifth clone blasted a torrent of water towards it. At the last minute, the torrent began to tighten and focus, before it began spinning, condensing into a drill of water. As soon as the water drill hit the boulder, the orb of rock was destroyed.

For the final piece of the puzzle, the water clone a huge torrent of water into the air, the first Kakashi clone taking a deep breath and then releasing it, a giant fireball flying from his lips, evaporating the water almost instantly, though the fireball was somewhat smaller than it had started out.

The clones instantly disappeared after this small show, Kakashi looking over at his Genin team who, much to his amusement, were staring at him with unconstrained amazement.

"As you can see, which elements are useful against what varies greatly, depending on how you use an elemental jutsu. A lot of time it'll also depend on the strength and power of the jutsu." He said with a chuckle. "You'll be hard pressed to find an C-Rank elemental jutsu that could cancel out, or outright nullify, an A-Rank elemental jutsu." He said as he walked away from the river, sighing as he scratched his temple. "Now... there's something else I'm supposed to cover..." The scarecrow muttered to himself, before snapping his fingers. "Oh, right." He said as he placed his hands to his side.

"Now, on top of being able to do certain jutsu easily, having a certain elemental chakra also helps with chakra recovery." Kakashi said with a 'as-a-matter-of-fact' tone. "Now, the best way to recover chakra is always to lay down and rest, however, if you find yourself in a tough spot, there are different ways of recovering it." He said, pointing straight up at the sun.

"For example, a person with the fire element can convert heat from the sun absorbed from their skin into chakra." The Jounin said, before taking a deep breath. "Wind element ninja can reabsorb chakra by filtering it from the very air they breathe." Kakashi said before shaking his head. "I'll give you lightning last, believe me, its a treat." He said with a chuckle.

"For earth elementals, its as easy at eating something from nature. A wild fruit, herb, or a vegetable, or anything else ripe from the earth." Kakashi said, before continuing. "Water element ninja, all they have to do is drink water from a river, a lake, a stream, or any other large body of water." He said, before shaking his head. "So long as its straight from that natural body of water." Kakashi said, before finishing up.

"The idea behind these four elements is that everything in nature, from the sun we bask in to the air we breath, has a natural source of chakra in it that a ninja in tune with that specific part of nature can pull out in a time of need, though admittedly in very small amounts." The silver-haired Jounin stated, before cracking his neck. "Lightning element... well, that's a little more complicated." Kakashi said as he flashed through seals.

Suddenly, he began blasting several bolts of lightning up into the air, the very charge of the electricity of those bolts could be felt in the air. "Ninja for the longest time had pondered how lightning element specialists could possibly recover lightning chakra, since the act of getting struck by actual lightning only killed them." Kakashi said with a somewhat dark chuckle, as he flashed through seals again. "Then, however, they noticed something." The Jounin moved his hands through the air, little sparks of electricity appearing between his fingers.

"They noticed that whenever they used lightning jutsu, there was left a little bit of charge in the air that felt unnatural." He said, as those sparks of electricity became constant streams. "They discovered that by flashing through the seals again..." He said as the electricity that streamed between his fingers overtook both his hands, growing larger and more wild. "And gathering this charge from the air..." Kakashi said in a strained tone as he slapped his left hand onto his right wrist, the lightning gathered in his left hand transferring to his right, causing a massive ball of electrical sparks and whistles to form in the palm of his right hand.

"They could re-use the energy in another jutsu, in a sense recycling the old energy." He said as he let loose a breath, the lightning in his right hand slowly dissipating into nothing. Kakashi's eye once again curved as he looked at his students, who's jaws had gone completely loose. Even Sasuke had his mouth gaping open at the display his sensei had just shown him, his, and his teammates', eyes as wide as plates.

"The energy you recycle can even be used for even the most advanced of lightning jutsu, like the one I just used." Kakashi said as he reached into his pocket, pulling out the six cards again. "Now, here's how we're going to test you for your chakra type. I'm going to give you each two chakra cards, one for each hand. I want you to focus your chakra into both cards, if you feel like you can separate your chakra into two distinct types, then do so and put one type in each card." He said as he gave the Genin each two cards. Before his students could even raise a question, Kakashi continued his lecture.

"You do this because there's a slight possibility that you may have more than one chakra type." He said, as he stood back and looked over his students. "A very slight, very slim possibility." The Jounin said as he curved his eye again. "Now, go ahead and do it, I'll tell you your chakra types when you're done." Kakashi said as all three Genin nodded, and began focusing their chakra into the cards.

Sakura was actually the first one done, as her cards both quickly disintegrated into dust, and that dust fell to the ground. Naruto came next, when both of his cards were cut right in half. Sasuke was the last, and was in for a bit of a surprise. The card in his right hand burnt up into ash, the card in his left hand crumpled up. The three Genin looked at their own cards and at each others, before looking back up at Kakashi, who merely nodded.

"Alright then..." Kakashi began, pointing at Sakura, then Naruto, and finally Sasuke, in a successive order. "Sakura, you're a earth chakra type, Naruto you're a wind chakra type, and Sasuke pretty well hit the jackpot, he has both fire and lightning chakra in him." Finishing up, the three Genin looked pretty satisfied with their chakra types.

"You hear that Naruto, two chakra elements." Sasuke goaded a bit with a small smirk, Naruto sticking his tongue out at him.

"Whatever, all I have to do is breathe to get my chakra back, you can't do that now can ya?" Naruto teased back, Sakura sighing as she shook her head. Kakashi himself was chuckling lightly as he watched them.

"Alright, alright boys you can discuss who got the better chakra types later..." He said, remembering his own little tussle with Obito over their chakra. "For now, we have to get to business..." The scarecrow said as his team sighed and stood up. "Why so down, I thought you all would be excited over getting to do your first missions?" Kakashi said with a smirk hidden under his mask, as suddenly all three youngsters looked right at Kakashi, eyes widening considerably as Naruto shot up first.

"Really, you mean it, a mission!? As in I'll actually get paid!" Naruto shouted as he practically got face-to-face to Kakashi, causing the Jounin to not so discretely push Naruto away from his a little bit.

"Yes, Naruto, you're going to go on your first missions today." Kakashi said as Naruto began jumping around, Sakura and Sasuke standing up afterwards with small smiles on their faces. "Now, seeing as how these are your very first missions, I want you to do as many as you can today, just to get a feel for them. So, today we'll skip training and get right to the missions." Kakashi said, all three Genin nodding quickly to acknowledge his statement.

"Follow me to the Hokage Tower." The scarecrow said before running off, the Genin following him as quickly as they could.

---------- Hokage Tower ----- A Few Minutes Later ----------

Nearly as soon as they had departed, Team 7 arrived in front of the Tower. Naruto, excited to get his first mission, was just about ready to burst through the door, when Kakashi held him back by the collar of his jacket. "Hold it Naruto, hold it." The Jounin said in a calming manner, as Naruto looked back at him in confusion, along with Sakura and Sasuke. "Its always been tradition that for the first missions, the Jounin goes in and picks them up without the Genin... make your missions a surprise." Kakashi said with a with a smirk hidden underneath his mask, as Naruto nodded in understanding.

"Alright, then go in there and get it!" Naruto said, a little anxious to get the missions started. Seeing this, the silver-haired Jounin just chuckled as he walked into the towards, Naruto turning to his teammates as Kakashi walked out of sight.

"What do you think our first mission's going to be!?" Naruto asked, excited to the point of bursting out of his skin. "I hope we have to rescue some rich person, that'll probably get us a lot of pay!" The blond said, chuckling to himself, while both Sakura and Sasuke sweat dropping at Naruto's rather one-track mind.

"Whatever...." Sasuke said with a small sigh as Sakura just shook her head at Naruto.

"Seriously, Naruto, I don't think something huge would be good for us yet – we're just Genin." Sakura said as Naruto shook his head.

"Oh come on, think big! We could be famous if we get a really good mission!" Naruto began, but before he could get much further, Kakashi came back out of the Tower, holding three scrolls in his hands. Naruto immediately looked towards Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke turning a little more slowly. The silver-haired Jounin coughed into his fist as he opened up the first scroll, reading over it, before closing it, giving the three of them a serious look.

"Alright, this is a mission from the Land of Fire Daimyo's wife herself." Kakashi stated, Naruto heard whispering 'Jackpot' under his breath. "She said she lost her 'baby' earlier today, said he ran off into the woods while she wasn't looking... our mission is to find him and return him to her." He continued, as Naruto was practically shaking.

"Alright, where is the little twerp?!" The excited blond nearly shouted as Kakashi merely curved his eye... oh boy was Naruto in for a bad surprise.

"Last time he was spotted was out in the woods, east of here. Now then, remember, you don't hurt him, no matter what." Kakashi added as all three Genin nodded in near unison. "Alright, the mission has begun, get going... I'll just wait here for you three to return..." Kakashi said, chuckling to himself while his students began sprinting off in the direction indicated. The silver-haired Jounin stared off after them, still laughing to himself.

"Oh they are going to hate me after this..."

---------- Konoha Woods ----------

Several minutes after the mission began, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto found themselves in the middle of Konoha forest, Sasuke and Sakura readying themselves for the mission while Naruto looked around at the surrounding area, looking for any trace of the target. Sasuke looked over to Naruto and sighed... he was the one who had the most experience in tracking...

"Naruto..." Sakura began before Sasuke could begin to speak, allowing Sasuke to keep some of his pride. "You said during team introductions that you ate all sorts of animal meat... still gross by the way... you probably hunted all of that... which probably makes you best suited to tracking the kid down..." Sakura relented, as Naruto nodded, still sifting through the bushes.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." Naruto said off-handedly, causing a small vein to pop up in her head. Before should could reprimand the Street Fox, however, Naruto began talking. "I think he was through here... but the signs he's been leaving behind are pretty small..." He said, picking up a rather small piece of the bush that had broken off... that had been the only broken piece. "Not to mention the marks he's leaving behind in the grass are a little small and far away from each other..." He said as he tapped his toes to the ground. "Almost like he was running on his toes, like us." The blond said as his more moody teammate raised his eyebrow.

"You mean this kid might have ninja training..." Sasuke said, not in a questioning manner, but in more of a 'this is going to be a pain in the ass' manner. Naruto shrugged as he stood up, brushing grass off of his knees.

"Does it matter? We can catch him." The blond Genin said with a smirk as he cracked his knuckles, Sakura and Sasuke nodding slightly as all three suddenly jumped up onto the branches of the surrounding trees. The three jumped along, keeping their eyes open for the target, while Naruto simultaneously looked for possible indicators of where the target may have gone. Suddenly the group heard some movement in the bushes, and looked down below them. The leaves of the plants shuffled and rustled as something small moved through it.

"I think I see him!" Naruto shouted suddenly they all maneuvered around to pursue the target. As suddenly as Naruto shouted, the rustling in the bushes began to run away from the group, while also staying in the bushes for cover. Naruto nodded to both Sasuke and Sakura who pulled out a few shuriken and began tossing them into the bushes. As the shuriken hit the bushes, and then the earth, the rustling patterns in the leaves merely moved around them, turning at a dime's notice every single time.

"Looks like we were right, this kid's been trained..." Sasuke muttered before Naruto shook his head.

"Whatever, let's just trap this kid in the bushes and tackle him!" The blond shouted suddenly as he pointed to the bushes, the target having suddenly stopped just before the edge of the flora. Sasuke and Sakura nodded with Naruto as all three of them drew four kunai. Team 7 threw the kunai in precision, striking either to the left, to the right, or behind where the bushes had moved, forcing the target to move in the only available direct. "I got him!" Naruto shouted as he sprang from the branch he was on, diving right towards the clearing right in front of the bush where the target had tried to run into.

After a bit of a rough landing on the ground, and on the target, Naruto could feel something moving between his arms. With the rest of his momentum, Naruto rolled right onto his feet, holding his catch up in the air like a trophy.

"Yeah, I got you know you little br-" The excited ninja exclaimed, before actually looking at what he caught. It was a brown with greyish-brown stripes going across its back. It was a little bit fat, easily seen as the collar around its neck had little bulges of skin going around it. Another odd characteristic of the cat was a little red ribbon on its right ear. "-cat?" Naruto finished as he and the cat stared back and forth between each other.

Suddenly the cat freaked out and began scratching Naruto's face with his claws, causing the blond some major irritation. "Ah! Stop you mangy furball!" Naruto shouted as he tried to throw the cat away, only for said cat to latch onto his head and begin scratching his entire head. "AAH! I swear, I've eaten bigger things than you!" Naruto shouted as he tried pulling the cat off his head. "Don't think I won't turn you into stew just cause you're someone's pet!" The erratic blond continued to scream, before suddenly his teammates showed up.

"Nice catch dobe..." Sasuke taunted a bit as Naruto glared at him... well, as well as he could with a cat on his head.

"Shut up bastard! I don't where the hell this cat came from, but I know where he's going!" The 'Great Street Fox' shouted as he finally managed to pull the cat off his head, putting it in front of him as he reared his leg back. "Sayonara!" Naruto shouted as he attempted to punt the cat, before suddenly Sakura pulled the cat from Naruto's grip, causing him to fall when he attempted to kick the air, an act that caught a few small chuckles from Sasuke.

"Sakura, what the hell?!" The irate Uzumaki shouted, before noticing his pink-haired teammate just staring at the back of the cat's collar. "Sakura?" He asked again, before standing up and walking behind Sakura, an act copied by Sasuke. All three Genin looked at the back of the cat's collar... and immediately Naruto and Sasuke took on the same surprised look Sakura had plastered on her face.

On the back of the cat's collar, the words 'Tora, property of...'

"Oh this better be some kind of joke...."

---------- In Front of the Hokage's Tower ---------

It wasn't.

Currently all three Genin of Team 7 stood beside their sensei, watching the Daimyo's wife nearly crush the cat, apparently named 'Tora' within a bear hug, the cat crying out in pain as tears filled his eyes. All three Genin would've been a little sympathetic... if they weren't so angry at the moment.

"Tora! I missed you so much, don't you dare ever leave mommy again!" The daimyo's wife shouted as she continued to squeeze Tora, the cat looking like he was going to break in two. The woman suddenly looked at Team 7 and bowed her head. "Thank you so much, I don't know what I would've done if I lost him forever." She said before tightening his collar a little more, causing the cat to make suffocation sounds. "Its a good thing you didn't slip your collar off this time Tora, or else they might not have known who you belonged to." She said with laughed as she began dragging the cat away, Tora reaching his paw out for Team 7 as he cried out.

Still, despite this, Team 7 held no sympathy for the cat. Instead, they now turned their attention to their sensei, looking up at him with a small glare.

"... Kakashi-sensei... what the hell?" Sasuke started off first, sparing few words as he quite simply asked the question all three of them were wondering. The scarecrow merely looked at all three of them and shrugged.

"What? I said you were returning the Daimyo's wife's 'baby', and she considers Tora her 'baby'. You all made the assumption that it was a child of hers." The Jounin said as his eye curved, all three Genin glaring at him angrily before merely sighing out their frustration.

"Fine... so, what's our next mission?" Naruto asked quickly, all three of them quickly looking back up at Kakashi as he pulled out the second scroll. The silver-haired man coughed into his fist as he unrolled the mission scroll, read it over, and then closed it.

"The next mission is a break-in for the three of you." Kakashi spoke while pointing towards one particular apartment at the top of a building a few blocks away. "I'll go with you this time: the mission specifically asks for you three to get into that apartment by any means needed, clear?" Kakashi stated more than asked, as his students merely nodded... okay, this couldn't be so bad if Kakashi had to participate in it, right?

"Understood." The three Genin said with some excitement, though they were far more weary than before... well, Sasuke was already as weary as he could get, but now now Naruto and Sakura were getting down there with him.

So, with that, the entire team began running off to that apartment, all four of them keeping their eyes forward right on their target. Eventually, they arrived at the target's apartment, the four of them crowding around the door. Sasuke reached forward and tried to open it up, finding the door locked. The black-haired boy sighed as he stood to the side.

"Either one of you know how to open a locked door?" He asked, as Naruto quickly raises his hand, Sakura raising hers. "Sakura?" Sasuke asked more out of surprise than anything.

"Well... since we need to get in fast, and its locked, how about we just kick the lock in?" Sakura asked quickly, Naruto merely laughing at her suggestion.

"Sakura, I think I should be the one doing the breaking and entering, my plan is far more subtle." The overly proud former thief said as his pink-haired teammate merely glared at him a bit as she stood out of the way. Naruto smirked as he cracked his knuckles, pulling out a kunai and a straight piece of metal as he walked up to the handle and locking mechanisms. Naruto then knelt down and immediately began picking the lock.

" Let's see what we have here..." Naruto whispered mostly to himself as he tried to use both the kunai and the metal in a coordinated effort with one and the other. For five minutes the blond ninja jimmied the lock, trying to force the metal piece into the lock with the kunai... after that five minutes the straight metal piece broke in two, and Naruto just began trying to stab the lock open with the kunai.

"ARGH! This hunk of junk lock!" Naruto shouted as he continued stabbing it for a minute, before pulling the kunai from the lock. He looked at the metal blade and grunted in annoyance, noticing a lot of rust on the tip of it. "Jesus... how old is this lock..." Naruto said to himself as he put the kunai away, before looking back at his team... all three of them looking like they were on the verge of laughing at the 'expert thief'.

" Don't give me that look!" Naruto shouted as he glared back at the lock. "Screw this!" Naruto shouted as he brought up his leg...

A second later, Naruto's foot collided with the door's handle and lock, knocking both right out of their positions. A second after that, the door slowly swung open, revealing Naruto standing there, his foot still up. Kakashi sighed while Sasuke just rolled his eyes. Sakura, in the meantime, stuck her tongue out at Naruto and pulled her eyelid down, all three looking at him with the very same unimpressed look in their eyes.

"Subtle." All three stated, nearly at once, before Naruto looked back at them with a glare.

"Hey, it was a really old lock, I couldn't pick it so I might as well kick it in!" Naruto shouted as he pointed in. "Now, let's get in there and..." The loud blond began, before being stunned into silence again. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stared into the room with their jaws hanging open, as they saw nothing more than an old man sitting in his rocking chair, rocking back and forth as he looked over at his door.

"Oh, hello there youngsters, what're you doing here?" The old man greeted, as the three Genin merely stared on. In the silence of the moment, Kakashi walked into the room, waving his hand at the older gentleman.

"Hello there Mr. Tanaka, how are you today?" Kakashi asked, as the old man, a Mr. Tanaka, looked up and smiled at Kakashi.

"Oh, hello young man, I'm quite fine, how are you today?" Mr. Tanaka responded, Kakashi just curving his eye.

"Oh, I'm good and dandy sir, just taking my Genin team out for a mission..." He said, before snapping his fingers. "Speaking of missions, we were sent here to answer your request for..." Kakashi said, pulling out the mission scroll again. "Someone to clean your house." Kakashi said, causing all three Genin to face vault.

"Ah yes, I really need someone to help me out around the apartment." The old man said as he stood up, a few of his bones popping as he did. "I just can't reach some places or clean them like I used to when I was younger, so I need some young blood to help me out." Mr. Tanaka then went over to his closet and pulled out a broom, plus some tools, throwing them over to Naruto, pulled out a dish towel, and threw it to Sasuke, and then picked out a brush, and threw it to Sakura.

"Now... I need you to sweep up around here... and while you're at it fix my door." Pointing to Naruto. "I need you to wash my dishes." Pointing to Sasuke. "And I need you to scrub the floors." Mr. Tanaka finished off, pointing to Sakura. "Now, please, the quicker you start, the quicker you can be done." The old man said as he sat back down in his rocking chair, all three Genin looking towards their sensei for some kind of reprieve. The Jounin merely shrugged as he continued reading his book.

"Hey, you heard the man." Kakashi said in a blunt manner, all three Genin just sighing as they immediately began going about their jobs...

----------- Back in Front of the Hokage Tower ----- About Two Hours Later ----------

The Genin members of Team 7 all stood outside the Hokage Tower. Naruto was covered in dust and dirt and all different kind of things he didn't even want to think of being on him, Sasuke's hands were as wrinkled as Mr. Tanaka's face, and hands looked like they were stuck in the brushing position they had been in for the better part of two hours.

Each and every single one of them absolutely irate and angry, and for good reason. They had been given two missions that, by the looks of it, were absolutely meaningless and, by Naruto's measure, not really worth any money.

"... I'm almost ready to say that I prefer training to this..." Naruto said quite bluntly, his two teammates nodding in agreement as Kakashi re-emerged from the Hokage Tower, immediately all three sets of angry eyes on him. The scarecrow looked at his students and noticed the frustration in their eyes as they stared at him point blank.

"... I'm going to guess that you three aren't exactly ecstatic with your missions, are you?" The Jounin asked them, as Sakura's left eye twitched.

'Oh no Kakashi-sensei, I'm ready and excited for the next mission...' Sakura thought... but what she said:

"OF COURSE WE'RE NOT ESTACTIC, THESE MISSIONS ARE CRAP!!!" Sakura shouted out loud... which immediately drew the attention of not only her teammates and her sensei, but also everyone around them. The pink-haired kunoichi immediately blushed and lowered her head, trying to not look anyone in the eyes after her rather sudden explosion. It was silent for quite a few moments, before Naruto coughed into his fist, trying to break the uncomfortable atmosphere in the air.

"Right... well, Sakura's right; these missions have been bad..." Naruto said a little more softly and certainly with less anger than Sakura moments earlier, not wishing to set her off again. Kakashi merely shrugged as he pulled out the final mission scroll from his jacket. The three Genin watched Kakashi, all excitement from their previous scroll banished from all three of them, as he read over the contents of the scroll, and then closed it.

"Alright, this last mission will require us to guard a business in this city from possible brigands who'd want to steal from it..." Kakashi began, while Sakura and Sasuke tossed a glance over at Naruto, whom merely looked at the two of them and raised his hand. "And no Naruto, not you." The Jounin said with a small laugh, the ex-thief in the group merely relinquishing a breath of relief as he motioned for Kakashi to continued.

" At any rate, I'll show you the business, and when the owner is done with us... or, since I'll be reading, you, the owner insists that he'll pay you himself." Kakashi finished, Naruto's eye immediately glinting in a bit of excitement at the mention of 'pay'. "So, let's get over to the business." The scarecrow Jounin added, as he began walking along the street, the three Genin looking at each other and shrugging, confused by Kakashi's rather slow pace, before following him.

A few minutes later, and less than two blocks away, the Genin team all stood still and stared up at the name of the business they were supposed to 'guard'....

Ichiraku Ramen.

The person who was the first, and most negative person to react, was Naruto, still remembering his bad run in with the solid blocks during his first day at the Academy.

"What the hell is this!?" Naruto shouted as he looked at Kakashi. "Why the hell do we need to protect this place, all they have to do is put out some of their nasty food and that'll scare off whoever'd want to steal from them!" The blond ranted while Kakashi merely sighed out loud.

"Because Naruto, they've paid the Hokage's office to do this mission, and after we're done, they're going to give you payment..." This immediately shut Naruto up as he just resigned himself to pouting about the situation, his two teammates just shaking their heads at his display.

"Whatever, let's get this over with..." Sasuke spoke up solemnly as the other three nodded and entered the ramen stand, where suddenly they ran right into the owner of the food stand, Teuchi Ichiraku.

"Welcome to Ichiraku's Ramen!" He suddenly shouted, causing all three Genin to jump back a bit, not expecting the older man's energy. Kakashi only sighed with a quick wave as he flipped to the next page in his book. "I suppose you all are the ninja I hired-" Teuchi began, before suddenly hearing a coughing noise behind him. All five persons turned to see Teuchi's daughter, Ayame, standing there, crossing her arms as she raised an eyebrow at her father. "I mean, the ninja that my daughter hired..." The older man corrected as Ayame just smiled and waved at the Genin.

"Welcome, glad you could come." Ayame said quickly, before returning to the task of cleaning the bowl, while Teuchi nodded.

"Yes, we're both very glad you could come, we've been needing some help with a particularly bad bunch of thieves." Teuchi began, as suddenly Naruto and Sakura raised their heads, hoping he was actually being serious.

Then they all heard a series of scratches and bumps, and out of the ingredient cupboard a large raccoon jumped out, carrying between its teeth some meat and vegetables.

"Come back here you giant rat!" Teuchi shouted as he suddenly picked up a customer's ramen bowl and threw it at the raccoon, only to have the furry animal jump out of the way of the bowl, and exit through a small hole in the wall. Teuchi sighed, as that customer, and many of the other customers, left the stand, after having seen what rolled around in his ingredient cabinet.

"You see, that's the problem right there. Every single time Ayame and I set up traps, or repair holes in the walls, one of those giant rats just sneaks in while we're working, without us noticing, and makes another way in." The old ramen chef said before smiling. "However, now that you three are here, things will be easier. You three are going to stand outside the building and make sure that the raccoon dogs don't sneak in while I set up traps and repair holes in the walls which will, hopefully, keep these little pests out for good." Teuchi said with hope as all three Genin just sighed again.

"By the way... this job could take me till the end of the day, so you're going to be here for a while." He quickly added, which caused both Naruto and Sakura to face vault, Sasuke merely settled for a grunt of annoyance, and Kakashi, who already knew the situation, inwardly chuckled at his student's reactions.

" You've got to be kidding! This is going to eat up the rest of our day?!" Naruto shouted as soon as he stood up, only to have the solemn stare from Teuchi straighten him out immediately. "I-I mean... happy to oblige..." Naruto said, catching himself as Teuchi once again began smiling.

"Good, now then, go ahead and get out there and keep watch, I'll shout for ya when I'm ready to give you all your pay." Old man Ichiraku finished as all three Genin just nodded and ran outside of the building, Kakashi merely following them slowly. They all stood outside the main entrance and sighed, Sakura pointing over to Naruto.

"Alright, Kakashi's not going to do much, so I don't know about you two, but I don't want to be scrambling around every single time we see a raccoon. Naruto, how about you create some Shadow Clones to keep watch over some of the high points in the building while we keep around the base of the area." Sakura suggested, the blond boy nodding slowly.

"Right..." The blond he said with a half-sigh as he made the cross seal. "Shadow Clone Jutsu." As suddenly as he said the name of what was slowly becoming one of his signature jutsu, at least a dozen Naruto clones popped up in front of the group, Naruto looking over each of them before nodding. "Alright guys, get going!" The ex-thief ordered to his clones as they nodded, jumping up all around the building and landing on certain look out points.

"... This sucks..." Naruto said quite bluntly as all three Genin and their teacher began making their way to the back of the ramen stand, Kakashi following them to keep an eye on them. "I mean, oh joy of joys, we're going to watch out for raccoons, right after busting into some old guys house, after catching a cat... yeah, this is exactly what I imagined when I was convinced to be a ninja..." Naruto said in a disappointed manner, Sakura and Sasuke quickly glancing at each other, before looking at their teammate with raised eyebrows; Kakashi himself peaking up from his book to watch the oncoming conversation.

"What do you mean convinced?" Sasuke asked first, wondering exactly what Naruto had meant by that. The blond looked back at the two, shrugging as he began walking backwards so he could get a good look at them.

"What do you mean 'what do you mean'? The old man had a ninja drag me to his office, told me about how if I became a ninja I'd be able to live comfortably for once, and I believed him." Naruto said with a bit of a grunt, causing Sakura to blink.

"What old man?" The pink-haired girl inquired, though in the back of her mind she already had a good guess as to who.

"The Hokage." Naruto stated as if it was no big deal... before noticing the rather shocked expressions on his teammates' faces. "Isn't that normal?" He quickly asked, only to receive a quick shake of the head from each. "Oh..."

Honestly neither Sasuke nor Sakura had known that the Hokage himself had gotten Naruto to attend the Academy and become a ninja. For them both their parents merely signed them up to attend the Academy and that was that. This of course, brought several questions to the pink-haired kunoichi's mind.

'How the hell did he catch the notice of the Hokage... why did Hokage-sama want to make a thief a ninja... what did the he see in Naruto... is there something we don't know?' The questions fired off rapidly in Sakura's mind as one by one came to her.

Sasuke himself was shocked for a few moments, before he sighed and shook his head. 'I remember now...' Sasuke thought to himself, as the days of his youth returned to his mind. The Uchiha's had been in control of the Konoha Military Police Force before... well, before the Massacre. Sasuke could remember days when his relatives in the Police Force would come home, and complain to everyone about 'that brat, the Street Fox'.

It had been the first time he had ever heard of Naruto, or his nom de plume, 'The Street Fox'.

'Obviously... Hokage-sama made him a ninja because of his exploits against the police force...' The onyx-haired boy thought with a shrug. 'Whatever... old news now.' With that, Sasuke dismissed the thoughts from his mind.

Kakashi, meanwhile, had merely gone back to reading his book. The Jounin had known for a while the various reasons why Sarutobi had made Naruto a ninja, and really, he couldn't argue with any of them, and at this point, after seeing Naruto in action, wouldn't. After a few moments of thought, the team made it to the back of the building, Naruto yawning out of boredom as he sat on top of a trash can.

"Well, might as well get comfy... this is going to be a long day..." Naruto said, looking up to see Kakashi already on top of another garbage can a few feet away.

"Way ahead of you..." Kakashi said idly as he flipped the page he was reading, giggling in a perverted manner as he read the next page. This of course caused the Genin to sigh, before taking their own relaxed positions behind the shop, Naruto's Shadow Clones keeping a lookout position almost everywhere else. Suddenly, however,Team 7 heard a small shuffling a few yards away and looked towards alley opposite the one they came in to see a raccoon moving along, getting closer to them.

Sasuke picked out a kunai from his back pouch and immediately threw it into the ground right in front of the furry little animal, causing it to yelp in terror, and run back the way it came.

"Wow... if they scare that easily, the old guy and his daughter must not be all too terrifying." Naruto commented idly while Sasuke nodded in agreement, Sakura given a soft 'aw' look towards the running raccoon, feeling a tad bit sorry for it. However, whatever empathy Sakura may have felt for the raccoon disappeared as soon as it came back... along with fourteen of his friends.

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and even Kakashi, looked on at the large number of raccoons in surprise, unable to believe they were seeing such a large number of them grouped together. "... Do they normally do stuff like this Naruto?" Sakura asked timidly, Naruto shaking his head side to side.

"I've seen a few together at a time... but never this many together." The 'hunter' of the group said with a bit of a shake.

"... You've got to be kidding me..." Sasuke said after a few moments, his jaw still hanging open slightly as all fifteen raccoons began moving in on their position.

"I guess these little fellas have learned to use a group dynamic in order to help get into the ramen stand... perhaps while trying to catch them you three should pay close attention to their methods." Kakashi added at the end with a curved eye, his students glaring at him for a moment before turning back to the raccoons.

The fifteen animals looked down at the ninjas with small amounts of growls and hisses, Naruto whistling as suddenly his twelve Shadow Clones jumped down right beside or behind the three Genin, equaling out the numbers between the two groups. As soon as the Shadow Clones made their appareance, the raccoons immediately ran for the Genin and the clones.

The two groups collided, the raccoons immediately jumping up on their 'adversaries' and either scratched at their faces, or bit them in areas no one wants to be bit.

"AAAAH! Get 'em off me! Get 'em off me!" A Naruto clone shouted as he tried to ply a raccoon from his face, only to have another one to jump up and bite him on the rear. "AAAAAAAAAH!" The clone shouted as he exploded into a cloud of smoke, those two raccoons moving onto another target.

"What the hell is wrong with these things?!" Sakura shouted as tried to kick a raccoon off her leg, only to have it stay on her leg and begin biting at it. "OUUUCH!" She screamed as she tried to ply the little pest off of her leg.

Sasuke merely growled as he tried again and again to activate a Fire Jutsu, only to have his seals ruined each time by an attacking raccoon, one on each of his arms.

The real Naruto had it rough, as each of the Naruto clones that were destroyed had their raccoon attack the real blond. "Help me, for the love of Kami!" Naruto shouted as he was practically crawling with the pests.

Kakashi, in the meantime, stood on top of a fence ledge, watching the chaos below him with a bit of a shrug. 'Their mission, their problem...' Kakashi thought to himself... though he was actually chuckling while he watched the scene, this being the most entertaining thing he had seen since the release of Make-Out Paradise's sequal.

Suddenly, Naruto, the real one, once again made the cross symbol, managing to quickly shout the name of his technique before a raccoon completely ruined the seal. Suddenly twenty Naruto's appeared, trying to help Sasuke, Sakura, and their creator out... only to be slowly destroyed by the raccoons.

"THESE RACCOONS ARE FROM HELL!" Naruto shouted as he made more clones to try and compensate for the clones that were destroyed...

---------- Behind Ichiraku Ramen ----- Several Hours Later ---------

A quick knocking from the back door of Ichiraku Ramen was heard, when suddenly Teuchi emerged from the door, a few nails between his teeth and a hammer in his hand. "Alright ninjas, I'm done!" The old man shouted as suddenly the fifteen raccoons ran away, leaving in their path of destruction three badly scratched up and bitten Genin. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all stood looking completely out of it as they looked over at Mr. Ichiraku. "Hey... where's the guy with the mask?" The ramen chef asked, only to have his question answered by said Jounin.

"About halfway through the attack of the raccoons... Naruto threw one of the little buggers on me..." Kakashi said as he walked out from behind the open door, showing a few scratch marks around the exposed part of his face and the edges of his mask, the pages of his book also being a bit torn, as he stuffed it back into his pouch. Teuchi merely sweat dropped as he looked at the team of ninja, before pointing back into the building.

"Well... I'm done so you can come in and collect your payment at the front of the restaurant." The ramen chef said as he went back in, Team 7 walking around the outside of the building, all four of them trudging along slowly. They all remained silent, as none of them could even stand to move their mouths to talk thanks to the scratches. They finally managed to get to the front of the stand and then walked inside, seeing it empty of customers. Ayame and Teuchi stood behind the bar, smiling at Team 7 as they bowed their heads.

"Thank you for your help, thanks to you father was able to make this place airtight. No more raccoons should be making their way into the ramen stand from now on." Ayame said in a light tone, raising her head to look at the ninja.

"Yes, they've been costing us costs in food, cooking supplies, and customers that have been run off. Thanks to you we won't have to worry about these costs anymore." Teuchi said as he too raised his head, reaching deep into his pockets. "Now, for your pay." The ramen chef quickly added, Naruto perking up as he watched the old man's hands anxiously. Suddenly, Teuchi got out four slips of paper, handing one to each to each of the Genin, and to their sensei.

"For your help, you'll get free Ichiraku Ramen for a month!" Teuchi shouted as Ayame smiled, all four scratched up ninja just staring blankly at their coupons. Naruto, however, stared at his coupon while also twitching out of rage. Suddenly, Naruto's scratches began to heal up, as his rage began expressing itself on his face. Before the blond could shout out at the ramen chef, Kakashi covered the blond Genin's mouth, chuckling lightly as he looked at the coupon.

"Well... seeing as how we've just been scratched up by raccoons and I don't think any of us have eaten since this morning... I don't think a bowl of ramen would be out of the question." Kakashi said slowly, both Sasuke and Sakura slowly nodding in agreement as they sat up on a stool. Naruto glared at Kakashi who merely forced Naruto up on the stool, the Genin sending a look at his sensei that screamed 'I'm so going to kill you later'.

A few minutes later, four orders of miso ramen had been placed, though Kakashi ordered for Naruto seeing as how he couldn't take his hand off the boy's mouth without the blond going berserk. Naruto just sat there, trying his best to bite Kakashi hand as he watched Teuchi get out some of those nasty blocks.

'This is so stupid! I swear this stuff is nasty as hell, why the hell is he making me ea- wait, what's he doing with the blocks?' Naruto thought to himself as Teuchi placed the ramen blocks into a pot of water, and then placed it onto a wood-lit stove. 'He's... boiling it?' Naruto thought curiously as suddenly Kakashi took his hand off of Naruto's mouth, allowing though Naruto remained silent. The blond tried to look over Teuchi's shoulder by sitting up out of his seat, trying to see how the ramen was made, before he was forced to sit down by Sakura.

"Not in the mood Naruto...." The pink-haired girl whispered in a low manner as Naruto merely nodded his head in fear, sitting still in his seat while waiting for Teuchi to finish the ramen. About ten minutes later, after some intense stirring and the adding of the ingredients, Teuchi brought out the pot of cooked miso ramen, pouring out a bowl for each of the ninja.

"Itadekimasu." Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi said slowly before they began eating the ramen, Naruto staring blankly at the bowl of noodles in front of him. He got out a pair of chop sticks and began poking at the noodles, finding them very, very soft. The blond raised an eyebrow as he grabbed a small bunch of the noodles and brought them to his lips.

'Okay, so they made it soft... there's still no way this stuff is good...' Naruto thought to himself, though he was a little less sure of this statement than he was previously. Naruto stared at the noodles for a few more moments before tossing them into his mouth. Naruto sat there for a second, taking in the flavor of the noodles before swallowing them, blinking a few times as he stared at the bowl of ramen for several seconds...

Before immediately attacking the remaining noodles and broth in the bowl. As Naruto devoured the contents of the bowl, Kakashi just stared at his blond student with a raised eyebrow, sighing a bit as he inwardly smiled. 'Just like his mother...' The silver-haired ninja thought to himself with an inward chuckle, just as Naruto finished the bowl.

'Oh sweet Kami!' Naruto thought as he stared at the empty contents of the bowl. 'Why has this been kept from me for so long!' The blond immediately held his bowl up to Teuchi, a grin on his face.

"Yo, ramen guy, another bowl please!" He said with gusto, which made Teuchi laugh a little.

"Now that's the spirit!" Teuchi said with a laugh as he immediately got another bowl of ramen ready for Naruto, who sat excitedly in his seat for the next bowl. Sakura and Sasuke both looked over at their blond teammate with some confusion, after all, earlier in the mission he had stated that all you had to do to scare off thieves was to set ramen blocks in from of the restaurant.

Still, both were too tired to really care, so they just went about finishing up the rest of their ramen while Naruto started up on his second bowl.

---------- 10 Minutes and 4 Bowls of Ramen Later ----------

They couldn't believe, they just couldn't believe it. Six bowls of ramen... six bowls of ramen and he was only just now getting full. Even Ayame and Teuchi who had seen many a people eating ramen in their stand... but they had almost never seen someone stomach six bowls at once... well, unless they were an Akimichi. Naruto, not noticing the stares, merely sat there, patting his stomach as he picked at his teeth.

"Okay, it might've started out bad, but this mission didn't suck after all..." The stuffed blond said as he released a content burp. "Oh yeah... this is the most I've ever eaten in one sitting... ever..." Naruto said in an almost dreamy matter, once again causing eyebrows to raise all around him.

"... Seriously, this is the most you've eaten at once?" Sakura asked first, Naruto just nodding as he continued picking his teeth.

"Well, yeah. Its not like I could steal this much food and get away... and I wouldn't eat all of the animals I caught... so I could never really come close to this kind of meal." The blond said with a bow of his head. "Thanks, I'll be sure to come around again soon!" Naruto said with a smile, one that was returned by Teuchi and Ayame.

"We hope so." The two said with their own bow, before Naruto got out of his seat.

"Alright, let's get going." Naruto said quickly as he began walking off, the rest of the team following him rather slowly, as the raccoon marks were still getting to them.

'I can't believe this is the most he's ever eaten... what was the most he's eaten before this... what has he had to eat to survive... how many days did he not eat anything...' Sakura's mind once again was at work, producing question after question as she thought about what the blond had said. Though she wasn't completely above his status as a crook... she was beginning to wonder just how much more there was to her thieving teammate than she, or others for that matter, knew.

Sasuke, while slightly disquieted by what Naruto said, wasn't exactly stuck on those thoughts. 'Its not all that surprising really...' The black haired boy thought to himself in all honesty. Truly it wasn't surprising, after all, one could easily suspect that food wouldn't exactly come readily to a street orphan... still, the news itself was unsettling, even for the Uchiha.

Kakashi just sighed as he once again pulled out his book. Though the Jounin had not known exactly how limited Naruto's food gathering was, he, like the Uchiha next to him, easily suspected Naruto eating habits, or lack thereof. The kid reeked of animal blood, and Naruto's first theft on file was the for a loaf of bread. Still, Kakashi began wondering just what kinds of food Naruto came across. The scarecrow looked down at his blond pupil, before turning his eyes back to his book, after all, this silence was golden for reading, and it wouldn't last once they arrived at the Mission Station....

---------- Mission Station ----------

"YOU!!!!!" And wouldn't you know Kakashi was right. Almost as soon as they walked into the Tower, the mood amongst the team dropped again. Despite Naruto having found the last mission's end well, the memory of the previous two missions were still fresh on his mind, as well as Sasuke's and Sakura's. Though the Jounin would've never imagined it, he finally saw that the rumors he heard from other Jounin were true... first mission days were a nightmare.

It only got worse when all four of them actually got the mission desk, and Naruto laid his eyes upon not only Sarutobi, but also Iruka.

"Do you know just what the hell we had to do today?!" Naruto shouted as Kakashi's level of embarrassment, as well as Iruka's, rose. After all, Naruto wasn't shouting at just anyone, he was shouting at The Hokage! However, what Iruka and Kakashi didn't notice was that Sarutobi actually looked... well, entertained by Naruto's display.

And he was. The old man knew this day was coming, the day when that excited little kid he brought into his office would become a ninja, and experience his first D-Rank missions... and immediately shout him down for not having told him about the missions. 'His father was almost as insulted his first time around...' Sarutobi thought with a chuckle as he popped open an eye at Naruto. 'Though, he's acting far more like his mother in this instance...' The aged Hokage thought with an inward chuckle as Naruto kept on ranting.

"And another thing!" Naruto shouted again, Kakashi quickly moving over to slap his hand over Naruto's mouth again.

"So sorry Hokage-sama... the team just had a particularly bad patch of missions, he meant you no disrespect." Kakashi said with a sweat-drop, noticing Iruka giving him a 'oh yeah, we can tell' look as he sighed... just before Sarutobi began chuckling, catching everyone's attention.

"Its quite alright Hatake-san, many Genin are frustrated by their first D-Rank missions, its hardly unusual....." The old man stated as he took a deep breath on his pipe, before blowing out a cloud of smoke. "Though, I have to admit, this is the first time I've actually had a Genin shout at me." He added with a a shake of his head before motioning for Kakashi to come over. "Now, if you would just come over here and give me the scrolls so that I can file them later."

Kakashi merely nodded as he let go of Naruto, the young boy nearly beginning his rant anew before both Sakura and Sasuke, punched him in the back of the head, temporarily silencing the boy as he nursed the small lump that came from the strike. As he approached the desk, Kakashi reached into his flak jacket and pulled out the mission scrolls, handing them to Sarutobi, who took them and slipped them into his robes.

"Alright, now I do believe the matter of your pay is in order..." He said, speaking more specifically to the Genin as, quickly, Iruka produced three bags, and threw them over to the Genin. Sakura and Sasuke easily caught their bags with ease, while Naruto, who was still nursing his wound, got clunked on the head while not paying attention.

"Hey, what's the big id-" Naruto started off as he looked down at what was thrown at him. The Uzumaki immediately silenced himself as he looked down at bag, noticing little glimmering things coming out of it. He knelt down and picked up the bag, pouring as much of the contents that would fit into his other hand as he could. Naruto stared wide-eyed at the small coins that filled the palm of his hand. Most of them were small, circular copper mon, but there were some ovular, silver cho-gin in their as well. Naruto counted up all the coins and actually smiled a little bit, he'd never had this much money at once in his entire life.

Naruto immediately stood up straight and quickly nodded in his head. "Thank you Iruka-sensei, thanks old man!" Naruto shouted, ducking before he was once again clubbed in the back of the head. Iruka and Sarutobi merely shook their heads at Naruto's display while smiling.

'You're welcome Naruto.' They almost simultaneously thought as the blond was slowly dragged out of the room by Kakashi, Team 7 waving goodbye to the pair as Iruka and Sarutobi began getting ready to close the station for the night.

Once they excited the Tower, Kakashi dismissed the team for the rest of the day. "Remember to be at the bridge on time tomorrow..." The scarecrow said before finally disappearing in a puff of smoke. The Genin members of the team looked at each other and waved goodbye before heading out, Sakura and Sasuke to clean up their still stinging raccoon wounds, and Naruto to finish some business...

---------- A Few Minutes Later ----------

The owner of the old tailor shop in Konoha yawned as he sat behind his desk. It had been a long down with few customers, and he was just waiting for closing time to come around so that he could start heading back home. Just as he was about to yawn again, he suddenly heard someone enter his shop. He looked over with one open eye... and saw no one. Surprised, the tailor stood up and checked around, only to still see absolutely no one person. Suddenly, he heard clothes being taken in another row, this time spying a certain spikey, blond head moving amongst the racks of clothes.

The shop owner immediately got out his broom and ran for the area he saw the spikey blond hair, and was prepared to pummel the person he suspected of being Naruto Uzumaki... only to find absolutely no one there, again. In a hurry, the tailor ran for the door, looking outside to make sure that he didn't escape while he was getting his broom...

"Hello?" He heard from behind him, turning around quickly... to see the blond boy... standing at his desk with a bunch of clothes on top of it. The tailor did a quick double-take as he rubbed his eyes, not entirely sure if he was hallucinating or not. Passersby who had just happened to peak into the shop window also immediately stared at the sight. After all, this was the first time anyone in Konoha would have seen Naruto Uzumaki, the Street Fox, actually making a purchase versus just stealing the goods he needed.

The tailor immediately went up to the desk, still staring very cautiously at Naruto, as he slowly counted up all the clothes he had taken off the racks. When he was finished he looked down at the Street Fox, still watching every single move he made.

"That would be about... four cho-gin." The tailor said cautiously, as Naruto reached into his pocket, pulled out the coin bag, and got out exactly that, four cho-gins. The tailor thought this was all just some sort of dream as he felt the cool metal fall into the palm of his hand, bringing one of the silver pieces to his mouth and biting it to be sure it wasn't a fake.

"Thanks, bye!" Naruto shouted as he ran off, the tailor even more surprised that the cho-gin was real. Naruto walked down the street with his new clothes in tow, smiling a bit as he slowly slid into an alleyway, leaving behind him a street of citizens who were still trying to grapple with this new development.

'Eh, today wasn't so bad after all.' The blond thought to himself as he put his bag away, chuckling as he heard the jingle of the coins inside of it.

----------------- Author's Notes --------------

Mon- Japanese Currency circa 1600s and early 1700s, a round copper coin.

Cho-gin - Japanese Currency circa early 1700s, a silver piece shaped like your pinky.

I never really liked the idea of paper money in Naruto, it just didn't seem... well, right. So, for my purposes, I decided to replace it with a few older pieces of Japanese currency: the copper Mon, the silver Cho-gin, and the Gold Ryo. If you want to see what these look like in more detail, check out my profile page.

OMAKE (Special Shout Out to Robot Chicken and Ted Turner)

Team 7 sat in their clearing, relaxing after a particularly rough training session, when suddenly Hinata Hyuga ran up to them, a worried look on her face.

"Hinata, what's up?" Naruto asked as Hinata tried to catch her breath, pointing out towards another part of the forest.

"Gai and Lee are knocking down trees for training!" She shouted, as suddenly Sasuke stood up and pounded his fist into his hand.

"That burns my ass!" The black-haired boy shouted as Sakura held onto his shoulder.

"Forget it Sasuke-kun, there's nothing we can do..." Sakura said as suddenly Kakashi stood up triumphantly.

"Maybe we can't... but Captain Planet can!" Kakashi shouted, as suddenly all four Genin looked up at him and smiled, each giving a quick 'Yeah!' shout as they got together. "Alright, let's do this!" Kakashi shouted as Sakura started them off.

"Earth!" She shouted, as Sasuke quickly followed up.

"Fire!" He shouted, quickly followed up by Naruto.

"Wind!" The blond declared, soon followed by Hinata.

"Water!" The shy girl said, as Kakashi prepared to shout... only to be interupted by some South American Kid.

"Heart!"

PUNCH!

Ma-Ti was quickly punched in the jaw by Kakashi, who stared angrily at the boy.

"Get the hell out of here Ma-Ti, nobody likes you!" Kakashi shouted, Ma-Ti just glaring back at him as he walked away, muttering something about 'nothing ever changes'. With that done, Kakashi merely coughed into his fist and then went on.

"Lightning!"

"GO PLANET!" They all shouted at once, as suddenly their chakra jumped out of their bodies, combining together as a lone figure appeared in the midst of the chakra.

"With your powers combined..." A voice form the figure began, before suddenly the chakra disappeared, leaving.... Ted Turner, covered in blue paint, dressed up like Captain Planet? "I AM CAPTAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN PLANEEEEEEEEEET!"

Naruto stared at the crazed man for a second before shaking his head. "Noooo... you're Ted Turner..." Naruto said slowly as Turner looked his way.

"No! I'M CAPTAIN PLANET!" He shouted back as Naruto shook his head again.

"No, you're Ted Tur-" And just before Naruto could finish that statement, Ted Turner gave Naruto a solid kick to his privates, leaving the blond in a fetal position on the ground.

"CAPTAIN PLANET!" Ted Turner shouted as everyone slowly began backing away from the crazed man... only to have Ted Turner run up to Hinata. "NOW WHY HAVE YOU CALLED CAPTAIN PLANET?!" He shouted at the shy girl who nearly fainted thanks to the shock.

"Ummm... Ga-Ga-Gai and Lee are... knocking down tre-" Hinata began, only to have Ted Turner suddenly run from her, heading towards the direction of Gai and Lee.

"CAPTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN PLANEEEEEEEEEEEEET!" Ted Turner shouted as he ran through the woods, being sure to avoid every single tree and plant in his way. On his way, he ran by Asuma, who was smoking a cigarette in the forest. As Ted Turner ran by, Asume blew out some smoke and dumped some of the ashes on the ground.

Ted Turner immediately returned, looked at the ashes, and then looked at Asuma...

PUNCH!

"CAPTAIN PLANET!" Ted Turner shouted at an unconscious Asuma, before running off again.

Suddenly we cut to Gai and Lee, who were currently kicking down trees in an attempt to improve the strength of their leg muscles.

"Lee! This training has been most helpful for our purposes, I don't know why we didn't think of that sooner!" Gai declared loudly to his pupil, Lee nodding vigorously.

"Yes sir- wait, who's that?" Lee started in a startled manner, pointing where Ted Turner was running from. Gai looked over at Ted Turner and smiled, before looking back at Lee.

"That's Ted Turner Lee, a man who's flames of youth have led him to environmental protection. Yes Lee, Ted Turner is a man we should all look up t-" Gai began, before suddenly both he and Lee were stabbed in the arm with kunai, courtesy of Ted Turner.

"CAPTAAAAAAAAAAAIN PLANEEEEEEEEET!" Ted shouted, as suddenly Lee poked him on the shoulder.

"You got a kunai in my arm!" Lee complained, Ted Turner laughing as he sneered at Lee.

"AND MY FOOT IN YOUR GUT!" Ted Turner shouted as he kicked Lee in the stomach. "CAPTAAAAAAAAAAAIN PLANEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!" Ted Turner shouted as he began dragging both Gai and Lee... to the Hokage Tower.

--------- Top of the Hokage Tower ---------

"WHAT DO YOU WANT MR. TURNER, PLEASE?!?!?" Gai shouted as Ted Turner held both Gai and Lee by a rope, leaving them hanging above the streets of Konoha. Ted Turner merely laughed as he pulled out a piece of paper, and put it in front of both Lee and Gai.

"JUST SIGN THIS PLEDGE NOT TO KNOCK OVER ANYMORE TREES AND I'LL LET YA GO!" He shouted as Lee and Gai nodded, signing the paper with pens that Ted Turner had supplied them.

"OKAY OKAY!" Gai shouted as they finished, Ted Turner looking over the document.

"This looks to be in order..." Ted Turner said silently as... he just let Gai and Lee go drop to their deaths. "CAPTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN PLANEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!" Ted shouted as Gai and Lee fell, Ted hearing a distant 'splat' before he turned...

To look at each and every single one of YOU!

"PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT, OR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! CAPTAAAAAAAAAAAAIN PLANEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!"

R&R