Author's Note: *Coughs nervously* Ohaiyo readers~! So, um... It's been...a bit over six months since my last update. *Shaky laughter* I do have a reason for it though! That would be the forty or so chapters I've written for a Planetary Annihilation multi-cross on SpaceBattles* and SufficientVelocity* that I'll put up here at some point along with seven or eight chapters for a Worm/Arpeggio of Blue Steel crossover I've also written. So in short, I did get distracted. But I'm back! Sadly this chapter hasn't been beta'd.

Also, HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

936 favorites, 1,158 follows, and 321 reviews?! I honestly never expected to break 1k in any of the statistics but you guys have proven me wrong! So thank you all so much for the attention. It just gives me the warm and fuzzy feelings to know that so many people enjoy my story. Now, enough of my blathering, on with the chapter.

*-If you want to find me on either one, my username is Battleship_Fusou. It would be here too, but some dead account has it at the moment.

The mission to Wave.

Fucking finally.

That was the only thought running through my mind as I walked beside Kakashi towards the Hokage's office, Sasuke and Sakura tagging relatively close behind as we went. The secretary waved us in with only a minor glance in my direction as I passed by her desk, she was likely the most tolerable person that Jiji had found to be his secretary, only shooting me occasional looks and never really going out of her way to make my life hard.

'Kami that's just sad. Do I really expect everyone to be assholes?' I thought for a moment before pausing to consider my answer, 'Yes. Yes I do.'

Further musing was cut off as we walked into the Hokage's office, a pleasant smile quirking my lips as I met Jiji's eyes and saw the slight smile he wore.

Once we were only a few steps away from the Hokage's desk, the four of us came to a halt as Kakashi gave a nod to our village's leader before he spoke.

"Hokage-sama, I was told you had a mission you wished to give us?"

"Indeed, Kakashi," he replied warmly, "While they may not speak much of it to you, at least some of your team believes themselves to be capable of taking a C-rank mission."

As both his and Kakashi's eyes turned to me and I replied with an easy smile and a shameless shrug.

"Should you think they're ready for it, I have a mission that I was thinking would fit your team rather well." He continued.

Kakashi was silent for a moment, but he did take in the eager expressions building on Sasuke and Sakura's faces as I let my grin widen.

With a sigh of defeat the jounin gave in as he said, "I suppose I can't really argue with this. They're about as good as they can get without experience outside the village."

"Alright, please send in the client," Sarutobi called, answered a moment later by the opening of a side door to admit the entrance of a short, rotund, old man. Instantly I felt my nose crinkle in distaste as the scent of old sake assaulted my nose. "Kids?! I pay for ninja and you give me a group of brats that don't look like they've even started puberty!" He complained.

Loudly, I might add.

Fortunately no one noticed my tiny wince at the client's overly noisy entrance as Sarutobi continued unabated saying, "Team 7 this is Tazuna, a bridge builder from Nami no Kuni, you will be protecting him on his journey home and as he finishes his current project."

"Fucking charming..." I muttered, just barely loud enough for Kakashi to catch as Tazuna haughtily looked at us. Our teacher decided to ignore my muttering though as he replied, "I assure you, Tazuna-san, that Team 7 is more than qualified for your mission."

Sarutobi nodded in agreement as he said, "You leave in the morning. I wish you the best of luck."

Tazuna just snorted and replied, "Right, just try not to be late, I'm an important person."

For all the truth of that statement, I couldn't help but roll my eyes as Tazuna, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura turned and left the room, only my sensei casting a glance at me as I instead approached the Hokage.

"Hey Jiji, could we talk in private for a few moments?" I asked softly.

I saw his eyes widen almost imperceptibly before he nodded and made a hand signal, sending the various attending chunin and ANBU out of the room. Once the doors were sealed, I flooded the room with my chakra to ensure we were free of eavesdroppers before nodding as I pulled my energy back under control.

"You've had another vision I take it, in addition to the first one?" Sarutobi asked softly.

Pausing for a deep breath I shook my head slightly -to his surprise- and replied, "As I told you before, our client has lied, we're going to face the Demon Brothers on our way out to Nami and then we'll end up against the Demon of the Mist, Momochi Zabuza once we actually get to Nami. However, I think...I think that if I play it right I can get a much better resolution than my vision had."

"Noriko," the Hokage growled worriedly, "The ending from before was good enough, what could possibly possess you to change from that?"

"I know," I replied softly, easily spotting the worried concern in my surrogate grandfather's expression before I sighed and ran my right hand through my spiky red hair. "Jiji," I began, "I wouldn't have let my team take this mission if I didn't think that we could and I didn't think it necessary and I wouldn't try and change it if I didn't think I would succeed. Important events, things that absolutely must occur, happen during the trip that much I can assure you. Kakashi will be more than capable of handling Zabuza, of that I'm sure, and even if he can't, I am certain that I can."

The Hokage's gaze became razor sharp as he focused his entire attention on my form before he asked, "You certain that you're strong enough, Noriko?"

I grimaced a little before nodding reluctantly as I replied, "The only thing I truly lack is combat experience against A and S rank foes, I am absolutely certain that in terms of strength, speed, and skill I am at least an A-Ranked ninja, bordering on S."

"How in the world..." Saurtobi began only to sit back in his chair and laugh softly, "You figured out the trick to the Kage Bushin, didn't you?"

I couldn't help but grin as I replied, "Got it in one, Jiji, and with my reserves I can easily make several dozen clones."

Shaking his head, Sarutobi reigned in his chuckles as he said, "And using your inheritance in turn would mean that you have truly become quite formidable, hasn't it?"

"It has," I replied with a grin and a nod.

The silence that followed for several moments held as Jiji looked upon me with pride, a warmth suffusing my face in mild embarrassment at his approval before he broke the silence and asked, "You're certain that you and Team 7 can handle this mission?"

"I am, Hokage-sama," I replied formally, letting him know I was serious about the matter, "If it follows my dream, then Sasuke and Sakura will learn about mortality and being willing to kill and Sasuke will unlock his Sharingan." -Even though he actually already had it, only no one but I knew about it, he might have to use it on the mission and I wanted a cover for the two of us if he did- "If I can swing it though, Sasuke will still get his Sharingan and I'll take up my role as head of the Uzumaki clan. And if things go perfectly, we'll get all of that and I'll be bringing back at least two retainers for my new position."

"And if things don't work out, Noriko-chan?" Hiruzen asked archly.

"Then we come back injured but wiser, and I have a back up method to ensure that Sasuke still gets his Sharingan if nothing else," I replied tersely.

The Hokage shook his head before giving a soft chuckle. "Between you and Konohamaru I'm going to lose that little hair I still have, Noriko-chan." I groused good naturedly.

"Oh hardly, we'll just make it all turn white instead of grey Jiji," I joked in return.

The old ninja rolled his eyes before making a shooing motion. "Get moving Noriko-chan, I've got other teams to take care of before the day is through." He said, a warm tone to his aged voice.

"See ya when we get back Jiji," I replied just as warmly, my husky, raspy voice coloring my reply just as much as my emotions before I turned and vanished in a Shunshin of wispy blue fire.

The next morning found Sasuke and Sakura waiting at the village gates alongside Tazuna, my too teammates looking rather restless as they waited for Kakashi and I while Tazuna looked more nervous than anything.

From my position atop the open gates I watched as they grew more and more irritable until Sasuke finally threw up his hands demanding, "Where the hell is Kakashi-sensei? It's already been two hours!" His exasperation was clear and I internally chuckled as I watched things play out as Sakura spoke up as well.

"And where's Noriko anyways? She's just as late as sensei!" Her voice wasn't raised too much but the shrill tone still bothered my overly sensitive ears even with my transformation.

Sasuke's response though was a snort as he rolled his eyes and replied, "Knowing her she's already here, just out of sight Sakura."

Oh how right he was, no sense in making him look foolish then.

A quite shunshin deposited me right behind Sakura as I raised a hand in greeting and spoke up.

"Sup."

Instantly Sakura leaped away, turning around in midair as she reached for a kunai before she calmed down as she saw who I was, instant irritation flaring on her face.

"Don't scare me like you baka!" She shouted.

I gave her a tiny glare as I met her eyes and replied, "You've made progress in being a decent kunoichi over the last month Sakura but you still need to pay more attention to your surroundings."

And it was true, with Kakashi-sensei actually teaching and my own efforts to get her to improve Sakura had advanced, at least physically, by leaps and bounds. Her mental state was still dubious. The fact that Sasuke and I counted each other as friends seemed to cause her no end to consternation as she believed I was edging into her territory.

I held in a sigh and shook my head as I spoke -in a very clear and loud voice- and simply said, "Hopefully sensei will stop hiding now since I showed myself, I really wouldn't want to have to go burn his books for being late."

There was an instant of silence before Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves as he greeted us.

"Yo." He said simply.

"Oh good, looks like I won't be burning your books sensei," I said nonchalantly.

"Indeed, I would hate having to burn your copies in retaliation Noriko-chan." He replied with an unhappy glare as I snorted.

"You couldn't get your hands on mine unless I willingly handed them over sensei," I retorted.

"I-" Kakashi began only to be interrupted by an irritated Sasuke.

"Can we get the hell on with the mission you two? We're already late." He growled at us.

I smiled in reply and nodded as Kakashi replied in his usual careless way and finally lead us out of the village after we signed out with Kotetsu and Izumo and finally got going on the road. Both Sasuke and Sakura looking at least a bit excited to be leaving the village for the first time.

I hardly noticed, I had been escaping the village as Ryuukoe for years now, it was hardly a new experience. Sadly my lack of reaction seemed to draw Kakashi's eye as I rolled my own in response when I caught his stare.

"It isn't that special, sensei," I said in a bored tone as I shrugged, "the outside doesn't feel much different than the wilder training grounds."

He stared for just a little longer and I guessed that he was figuring out which training ground I was referring to when his eye widened and I chuckled in return as I took my position around Tazuna, letting everyone else move in silence as we walked along.

There were a few attempts at small talk over the hours as we walked along, most of them made by Tazuna to break the silence that he seemed rather uncomfortable with. Personally I was debating whether or not it was a good thing when Sakura had managed to get into an animated discussion with the drunken old man about the construction of bridges, something that Tazuna seemed able to expound upon ad nausium in response to the pinkette's prompting questions. An hour into that discussion, I spotted a rather suspicious looking puddle ahead in the road and forced down the grin that wanted to spread across my face at the fact that the action would be starting soon.

Not to mention that my own machinations, clumsy as they were, would hopefully start coming to fruition.

A brief look to Kakashi with a slight tilt of my head confirmed that he had indeed noticed the enemy ninja when he slightly inclined his head in agreement. At that acknowledgement I did grin, my lips curving up in an almost feral smile as I mentally readied myself for the fight, no matter how brief it would be.

Kakashi wasn't quite sure what Noriko had planned for their ambushers as grin full of barely hidden blood lust broke over face before turned her head back to face forwards. Really, he almost felt pity for the two ninja he could sense were laying in wait for them to pass by. His sensei's daughter could keep up with him when he wasn't going all out and even then he could tell that the girl was holding back tremendously. So when the two enemy ninja leapt up from the puddle after they had passed it, he happy made use of a bunshin illusion and a kawarimi to escape the attack and watch his little students respond.

And respond they did.

The entire group had whirled to see what had happened, with Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna all looked wide-eyed at his apparent death. Noriko meanwhile, had barely glanced at his hiding place in the trees before leaping into action. The ambushing ninja, the C-Rank Demon Brothers he noted, had just barely managed to say "one down" before she had retaliated. In an instant, Noriko had vanished from her spot close to the brothers only to reappear as the group's eyes caught up at the tail end of a whirling round house kick to the chest of the brother on the right.

The blow echoed with the distinct cracking of bones before the targeted nuke-nin had been hurtled off his feet and into the foliage where he impacted a tree and collapsed unconscious. The second ninja hadn't had time to even take that all in though before the chain that connected the pair had gone taught, hauling the man off his feet with a yelp to go crashing into the underbrush after his brother. The reprisal had certain caught most of the group off guard as Sakura and Tazuna stared in amazement at the attack Noriko had landed before being distracted as Sasuke shot forwards with a kunai, meeting the charging return of the second brother as he returned to the fight after releasing the chain connecting him and his sibling and recovering from the unexpected trip.

A series of rapid fire blows flew between the pair before Sasuke landed a hard punch to the nin's gut, knocking the air from his lungs and pushing him back as he struggled to catch his breath before Noriko reappeared behind him and dropped the man with a chop to the neck. Deciding it was time to give up the act lest he endanger his precious books, Kakashi reappeared in a swirl of leaves as he eye-smiled at his students.

"Ah, good job my little genin. If you're willing, please go round up our attackers while I have a few words with our client, would you?"

Noriko snorted in amusement before she stalked off the path to retrieve the first brother she had incapacitated while Sasuke almost literally dragged Sakura along to help him deal with the second one. In the meantime, he chose to loom ominously over Tazuna as he waited to see what secrets the man would spill.

-break-

"So basically our client lied, we've got a ridiculously rich shipping magnate hiring missing nin, and a potential humanitarian crisis in Wave. Did I miss anything?"

My sardonic drawl broke the tense silence that had fallen after Kakashi had laid out the facts about how Tazuna had lied about the details and danger level of the mission and now everything was arse over tit. As everyone looked at me for my weird turn of phrase, I simply shrugged in indifference before Kakashi briefly cleared his throat and replied.

"No, I'm fairly sure you covered it all. The question now is do we continue the mission or do we return to Konoha?"

Sasuke and Sakura both looked a touch unsure, the latter far more so than the former, but eventually Sasuke nodded to our sensei and voiced his opinion that we continue. Something which Sakura proceeded to nervously support a moment later. As their eyes turned back to me again, I made a considering hum before I replied.

"Well if we don't go, we can pretty much be assured that Tazuna and likely everyone in Wave will be dead before the month is over.-" No one looked pleased at that, particularly the sudden nauseous Tazuna off to the side. "-If we do go, we'll be against unknown numbers, a man more than willing to likely hire additional mercenaries."

I held my hands out and raised and lowered them in a parody of a set of scales as I hummed with supposed thought before shrugging as I seemingly made my mind up.

"Let's go to Wave, I'm bored and were wasting time here. Besides, as team leader, this was your decision in the first place sensei."

Tazuna gave an audible sigh of relief as Kakashi arched an eyebrow at my antics before shrugging and gesturing for us to move out. As I started to move towards my position, I felt contact on the back of my head as Sasuke landed a dope slap.

"Quit being so damn dramatic, Dobe," he said with a roll of his eyes, though I spotted the small smirk curling the edges of his lips as he ignored the glare I sent him in return. With a huff of annoyance, I ignored Kurama's snickers in the back of my mind as we got moving again.

The trip to Wave would take three days, leaving Kakashi and his team on the road for two nights which meant sleeping in the wilderness. To a degree he was thankful as it gave him a bit more insight into his gennin then he had been able to gather prior to accepting his assignment. For while information on Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke had been easy enough to come by, hard facts about his sensei's daughter had been rarer than one of Tsunade's successful bets.

There had been the academy reports that painted her as nothing but an idiot and a troublemaker, but he had known for a fact that those were false. The privacy and security seals that filled his student's apartment told a very different story, one that said Noriko was ridiculously paranoid, even beyond the standard of normal ninja. While Kakashi certainly wasn't a seal master himself, one didn't hang around Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina without learning something about seals. The seals that Noriko used to defend her apartment were honestly terrified him from what he could understand. He saw sections that deduced the intention of those visiting, parts that altered and blurred the view of what happened inside, and chunks that obscured chakra signatures. But most of the seals were beyond him.

So he was now forced to use this C-Rank mission as a way to find out more about Noriko and the others, hopefully without the possibility of being suck into a storage seal before being ejected inside out. And while Noriko had put some alert seals down in the area surrounding their camp, there was nothing particularly mean or obscure in her defenses. So now he got his first chance in several years to see how she behaved while asleep.

Of note, his sensei's daughter eschewed sleeping on the ground in a bedroll to instead curl up in the crook of a tree branch high off the ground. She was also incredibly high strung, as he nearly lost a hand to her kunai when he attempted to wake her for her shift on watch. The speed with which she had wielded that diminutive blade was way beyond any gennin, including that lunatic Gai's student. Were it not for his ANBU skills he probably would have lost at least a few fingers, but as it was, he had managed to escape unharmed and had simply received a warning from his student to be more careful waking her.

So as the trip progressed towards Wave, Kakashi was finding only more questions where he had been looking for answers.

Author's Note: So new poll up on my author page: Do you guys want chapters to stay this long, or would you rather I do shorter 1-2k chapter at a likely higher frequency?