People are saying I seriously under-powered Itachi in the last chapter. I've been thinking for awhile and yes, I did under-power him a lot. I might be re-writing that chapter in the future, but until then, Itachi will be way stronger than that in the next few chapters when he takes on enemies. Enjoy this chapter.

"Sasuke. I'm in Point B."

"Sakura. I'm in Point C."

"Naruto. I'm in Point A, believe it!"

"Go slow, Naruto. Okay, Team 7..."

A shriek pierced the air.

"Target has moved! Follow it!"

Naruto winced at the shout from Itachi shooting through his ear. He chased after the target, and found himself on top of a tree, with Sasuke and Sakura below him. The blonde ninja landed on the ground softly, and Team 7 approached cautiously.

"What's your distance from the target?" Itachi's voice came again.

Naruto glanced forward. "5 meters." He prepared himself. "I'm ready, just give the signal."

"I'm ready too!" Sasuke announced.

"So am I," came Sakura's voice.

"Ready..." Itachi stared at the target intently, waiting for it to move if it did. "... Now!"

Team 7 sprung from their hiding places. The three Genin swooped down on the surprised target.

"I got him!" Naruto yelled, grabbing onto the furry creature. "I got him" He repeated, now clutching onto the cat, who was desperately struggling.

"Right ribbon on its right ear?" Itachi asked, through the earpiece.

"Yep," Sasuke confirmed.

"Righto. Lost pet, Tora, captured. Mission accomplished," Itachi replied cheerfully.

The Uchiha then winced as Naruto's voice screamed into his ear, something about stupid missions and hating cats.

"Hahaha," Naruto chuckled inwardly, as he watched the wife of the Fire Daimyo hug her lost cat. Tora glared hatefully at the blonde.

When the woman had left with her poor cat, the Third Hokage read off a list. "For Team 7's next mission... we have a few D-Ranks available. Babysitting a three-year-old, picking up potatoes..."

"Noooo!"

Sasuke and Sakura turned in surprise to look at their teammate. Naruto was glaring at the Third.

"I wanna go on a real mission!" He demanded.

Itachi stared at his student, before glancing up at the Hokage. "Uh... please excuse Naruto, Hokage-sama."

"I need something challenging and exciting, not this little kid stuff! Come on, old man!" The Jinchuriki shrieked.

"Hm. He's got a point," Sasuke voiced his opinion, and Itachi shot him a look telling his younger brother to shut up.

Sakura joined her sensei in staring at her two teammates in disbelief while softly sighing.

Iruka then yelled at Naruto, and the latter yelled back. Itachi smacked the blonde's head lightly, a clear sign that ordered him to shut his mouth.

"Listen, Naruto..." The Third sighed. "We have tons of requests that come into our village everyday, from babysitting to assassinations. These requests are carefully recorded, analyzed, then ranked A, B, C, or D, depending on their difficulty..."

Itachi nodded sagely.

"Ninja are also ranked, like Kage, Jonin, Chunin, and Genin at the bottom. Genin are expected to clear up the D-Ranks while Chunin are eligible for C-Ranks and B-Ranks. Jonin do the toughest ones, the A-Ranks. When we complete missions, we receive a fee, that helps to support the village."

Naruto didn't look convinced.

"Since you are untried Genin, just starting down the shinobi path, you are given D-Rank missions, of course."

The Third continued to drone on, and when he'd finished, he stared at the sight of Team 7 having a casual chat over Naruto's obsession with ramen. Frustrated that no one had listened to his long explanation, Sarutobi ordered them to be silent.

"Argh, stop lecturing me like you're my grandfather or something! I'm not the little brat who used to play pranks anymore! I'm a ninja now!" Naruto declared.

The two Uchiha brothers looked away, and so did Sakura. They were all thinking the same thing.

Hahaha, not the little brat who used to play pranks anymore. Yeah right.

"Right right right," the Third had an amused smile on his face, and so did Iruka. "You want us to know that you're not a brat anymore, but a former brat, and you want a mission." Naruto scowled at the description. "So be it."

This time, the spiky-haired boy's face brightened up.

Sasuke also had a grin on his face, while Sakura had an expression of surprise. Itachi had a passive look.

"You'll be given a C-Rank mission." The old Hokage read off a list. "To be bodyguards on a journey."

"Ooooh!" Naruto was getting excited. "Who are we guarding? A princess?"

He was answered when an old man, though not as old as the Third, stepped into the room. He carried a beer bottle in one hand, and spared Team 7 an unconvincing glance.

"You really expect me to believe these three snot-nosed kids are ninja?" The drunkard asked in disbelief. "And you, the little one with an idiotic look on your face... you look nothing like a ninja!"

"Huh? Hahaha!" Naruto broke into a fit of laughter. "Who's the little one with the idiotic look-"

His two teammates stepped in to emphasize the three's height difference. Naruto was the shortest of the three. Cursing, the blonde started yelling.

"I'll demolish you!"

Itachi pulled him back with a sigh. Naruto was harder to deal with than his younger brother! "You can't demolish the client, Naruto," the Jonin reminded. "It doesn't work that way."

Team 7 were soon at the gates of Konoha, with their client, whose name was Tazuna. He had explained that their mission would be to protect him while he returned to his country - the Land of Waves, to work on some bridge that would supposedly change their world.

Naruto and Tazuna had gotten into another argument already, with the Genin proclaiming he would become the next Hokage. Tazuna had laughed his comment off, indicating how the Hokage had to be smart and wise and that Naruto was puny and brainless.

The team and Tazuna soon set off on their journey toward the Land of Waves.

Soon, Sakura had struck up a conversation with Tazuna about the Land of Waves.

The chat had led to Itachi assuring the pink-haired Genin that battles on a C-Rank mission was unlikely, so everyone could relax.

However, Sasuke noticed how Tazuna had tensed up at his brother's words. Shaking the thought off, he continued with the team on their way.

The five had soon walked past a puddle.

Itachi frowned, staring carefully at it.

"Is there something wrong, big brother?" Sasuke asked.

"No, no, no," Itachi smiled reassuringly. "I'll take care of this."

"Huh?" Tazuna looked back at his four bodyguards.

Sasuke gasped, as his brother activated the Sharingan.

"Big brother...?"

"Itachi-sensei! What's up with your eyes?"

As if on cue, two men arose from the puddle and leaped at Itachi.

Naruto took a step back, while Sakura gasped. Sasuke's eyes widened.

Chain ropes wrapped around Itachi, and the next moment he was sliced to pieces.

"No... big brother..." Sasuke had a cold feeling in his stomach.

It died down when pieces of a tree log fell onto the ground.

The two men looked back, just as Sasuke realized them as ninja from the Hidden Mist via their forehead protectors.

Itachi was standing behind them, Sharingan activated. It then turned into the Mangekyo.

"Shit..." One of the Mist ninja shuddered. "That's... that's... Itachi Uchiha... of the Hidden Leaf!"

"Who?" His companion asked curiously, as he spared the Leaf Jonin a glance.

"I think we should leave."

"Without completing our mission? No way." The man of the Mist snarled, and lunged towards Tazuna. The second man followed suit.

Sakura jumped in front of Tazuna protectively, drawing a kunai, but she didn't need to. Sasuke had jumped onto one of the men, kicking him right in the face.

Naruto took care of the other one, punching him right in the jaw.

"Good moves, Naruto, Sasuke," their sensei called. "The Demon Brothers of the Hidden Mist. Gozu and Meizu, correct?"

Gozu and Meizu looked back at Itachi, with the one called Gozu producing a look of fear.

"That's right! That's who we are! What are you going to do about it?" Meizu snarled, obviously not getting who Itachi was.

"Stand down, Meizu..." Gozu warned his sibling.

"I've seen enough," Itachi nodded. "Tsukuyomi."

A second later, Meizu had passed out on the ground after a violent fit of screams.

"Crap," Gozu got up, hauling his unconscious brother away.

However, Itachi was above Gozu in an instant, and kicked the Mist ninja in the head, causing him to stumble backwards.

"Any last words?" He asked.

"Have mercy!" Gozu begged, but Itachi shrugged.

"No? Tsukuyomi."

Gozu screamed. Naruto and Sasuke looked on in awe as the Demon Brother continued screaming his lungs out at Itachi, before passing out.

"Argh," the Uchiha Jonin put a hand up to his eyes. "Using that technique twice always hurts..." He deactivated his Mangekyo.

"Th-Thank you," Tazuna stuttered.

"Don't worry about it," Itachi replied. "We need to talk, though."

Tazuna gulped.

"The Demon Brothers, Gozu and Meizu..." The Mangekyo wielder frowned. "Two Chunin-level shinobi from Kirigakure. Chunin-level shinobi," he repeated, eyein the drunkard, who was now looking nervous. "You applied for a C-Rank mission to enlist ninja for protection against robbers and highwaymen. If you had told us there would be ninja hunting you down... this will be turning into a B-Rank, or even an A-Rank, if they send higher-level ninja at us."

"Yeah!" Sakura looked towards Tazuna. "I thought Itachi-sensei was saying earlier how C-Ranks had no enemy ninja involved!"

"Care to explain?" Itachi asked.

Tazuna looked down at his feet. The ground had suddenly become much more interesting.

"The Land of Waves is a poor country..." He looked up nervously. "I didn't have the money to pay for a B-Rank or an A-Rank. I'm sorry." The old man then looked at Itachi with a small amount of fear in his voice. "Are you going to leave me here and abandon the mission, then?"

"If we do this by the book," the Uchiha heir nodded.

Good call, Sakura thought. Only Itachi-sensei could beat up those Chunin ninja so effectively! If we run into a Jonin...

"A ninja never turns away from anything!"

Everyone looked up in surprise and turned towards the direction of the voice. Naruto was looking back at them with a determined look on his face.

"I am going to be the Hokage," the Tailed Beast container proclaimed. "And a Kage will never give up, no matter the circumstances! We'll help the old man and return him to his village, and take down any stupid enemy ninja that tries to get in our way!"

Tazuna breathed a sigh of relief.

Itachi and Sasuke had small smiles on their faces at the boy's outburst.

"Alright," Itachi nodded. "Let's continue."

What? Sakura had a surprised look on her face. Well... Naruto has a point.

I'm actually starting to believe he's going to become the Hokage, Sasuke chuckled softly.

"Okaaaaay!" Naruto yelled.

"Full speed ahead!"

In the next chapter, Team 7 face the Demon of the Mist - Zabuza Momochi. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading!