AN: hi all, Gomen, sorry I don't know what came over me! In my defence I was thinking about the martial arts heroes of the Kung Fu movies I watched as a child when developing Naruto's new haircut, which I have since deleted by the way, and it wasn't until a number of reviews pointed out that I had technically given him a MULLET haircut that I realised just what I had done. I am sorry for perpetrating this horror and promise to be more careful in the future. Gomen. (Author bows low in contrition.)

In other news, last chapter's humour seems to have gone over very well so please expect more in the future.

From the reviews I also realise that some of you may have found the fight scene a little short, sorry but this will probably be a bit of a trend at least for the next few chapters for a number of reasons. One, I'm really new at writing fight scenes (the last chapter was my first) and so I'm not really going to be very good at it till I get more practice. Two, really long fight scenes bore the crap out of me. Three, Naruto has had literally years to plan out each fight he has/will be in, as such he has formulated plans to have the fighting end quickly so as to conserve energy but also so nothing unexpected has a chance to occur and thus reducing the risk of injury to his friends and precious people. After all he plans to change the future for the better which includes saving his precious people from unnecessary injury where he can. Fights should become a little longer as the story strays more from Canon and the opponents become more unpredictable.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto; I just think he's awesome.

Warning: May contain spoilers and/or clichés, if you are bothered or offended by either; why are you reading fanfiction?

'thinking'

"speaking"

jutsu

demon speak

Chapter 16.

"Report."

"Team One: Fail."

"Team Two: Fail."

"Team Three: Fail."

One by one the prospective Jonin instructors stepped forward to deliver their verdict to the Hokage.

"Team Seven: Pass." reported Kakashi and was met by shocked whispers from the other Jonin in the room. A team had finally passed Kakashi's test! For the first time a Genin team had managed to pass Kakashi's rumoured impassable test! Not much was known about the test, previous failed hopefuls had been too embarrassed by their failure to tell anyone what it entailed, and given Kakashi's choice in reading material, rumours were rife amongst the shinobi force leading to the current avid interest in what exactly his new team had done to impress the man.

"Team Eight: Pass." continued Kurenai after the initial hubbub had passed.

"Team Nine is still in active service." murmured Iruka-sensei from beside the Hokage. He had volunteered to help the Hokage complete the necessary paperwork so he could hear how his students had done on their real tests.

"Team Ten: Pass." drawled Asuma as he slouched forward and took a drag on the cigarette hanging from his mouth.

"Thank you," said the Hokage as he signed the last form passed to him, "Those with failed teams may now leave… Please take a seat." he invited the three remaining Jonin as the door closed after the last of the dismissed shinobi.

'Asuma?" he queried smoothly as he sat back in his chair and puffed on his pipe, "Please report."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," began his estranged son, his manner strictly professional, "Team Ten performed admirably. The combination of Ino-Shika-Cho is strong in this next generation. The team has obviously worked together before, understandable given their families' close ties. Shikamaru Nara, despite his somewhat lacklustre Academy results, exhibited signs of extreme intelligence in keeping with his Nara roots and a firm grasp of strategy. Ino Yamanaka, showed a respectable amount of control over her family jutsu for a Genin of her age and, though not on par with her male teammates, showed a surprising amount of physical strength for her age. Choji Akimichi was the least surprising of the prospective Genin, as he exhibited expected traits of an Akimichi of his age, but was the most well rounded in terms of strength, jutsu and overall ability. As such I found no reason to fail this team."

"Agreed," seconded the Hokage as he stamped Team Ten's form and placed it in the tray for later filing. "Kurenai?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the tall, red-eyed woman straightened in her seat as she began, "Team Eight also performed very well. They all exhibited traits in keeping with a tracking and intelligence gathering team and performed well together. Though their families are not close, they also exhibited behaviour that showed they had often worked together to achieve a common goal. I was most impressed with Shino Aburame who showed excellent control over his family's jutsu, as well as strategic thinking and the ability to subtly lead. Kiba Inuzuka, though rough about the edges, showed a lot of potential and displayed signs of respect not only for his companion, Akamaru, but also for the rest of his new team. Hinata Hyuga followed directions well and exhibited exceptional control over her dojutsu, though she may need a little work on her self-confidence, she seems to be able to draw strength from her team. All in all I found no reason to fail this team." She ended with a smile.

"Agreed," said the Hokage as he smiled and repeated the procedure with Team Eight's form. "Kakashi?"

"Ahem," coughed Kakashi as he martialled his thoughts, "Team Seven overcame their differences and worked together to pass the bell-test. They managed to co-ordinate their attacks to keep me on my toes, though admittedly I had limited myself to low Chunin strength and techniques, resulting in them claiming the bells only seconds before their time was up. Sasuke Uchiha exhibited mastery over fire jutsu and strategic thinking expected of an Uchiha Clan member of his age and status. Sakura Haruno displayed surprising physical strength, given her obvious fan girl tendencies, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of trap techniques, though most of it seemed to be academic rather than practical knowledge she was still able to direct her teammates as they set up multiple traps. Naruto Uzumaki was the most unpredictable of the group, he managed to distract me for quite some time with his use of the Shadow Clone technique allowing him to not only talk his team into working together but also for them to plan their strategy and set up elaborate traps. He showed strategic thinking and flashes of what I would call genius, in stark contrast to his Academy results, as he managed to alter the clone technique, which he learnt only a few days ago, to a surprising extent. As such I found no reason to fail this team."

Smiling proudly the Hokage confirmed Kakashi's assessment and stamped Team Seven's form. Clasping his hands before him the Sandaime leant forward and contemplated the new Jonin-senseis, "I know you all understand the importance of your new responsibilities. Please remember you are now guiding the future of our village and act accordingly. You are training ninjas so there is no need to coddle them but keep in mind that they are still children. That being said your duties begin tomorrow, sleep well and report to the Mission's Room in the morning. Please try to present a good example." this last was directed to Kakashi for some reason, "Dismissed."

The days and weeks follow the real Genin test quickly fell into a routine of team training and D-rank missions. Having extensive, previous experience in numerous rebuilding efforts, Naruto had little difficulty with the simple missions and was enjoying the nostalgic feelings they were providing, though he was thankful for his closer friendship with Kiba and the introduction to animal behaviour this brought him when it came time to again walk the Inuzuka dogs.

Sakura and Sasuke on the other hand, having been somewhat spoilt by their families, were having much more trouble with the unfamiliar chores and found that the physical conditioning they had undergone at the Academy did not quite prepare them for the muscle strain and callouses caused by physical labour.

"Urgh," cried Sakura in disgust, "Just look at my hands!" 'Cha, Sasuke-kun will never love me if I have ogre hands. A beautiful Kunoichi such as myself shouldn't have to put up with this,' ranted her internal self.

"Here," offered Naruto as he passed her a pair of combat gloves which were surprisingly in her size, "Just spread some hand lotion on your hands before you put them on every morning." He instructed as he turned to walk back to the flower bed he was currently weeding.

Surprised as she was it took Sakura a moment to call a soft, "Thank you." After her team mate, perhaps he wasn't as bad as she had always assumed.

Kakashi who had been watching the whole event from his comfortable perch on the branch of a nearby tree, smiled to himself as he turned a page in his book. He had been pleasantly surprised by his team, one of the reasons it had taken him so long to pass a team was because he had been dreading the incessant whining other Jonin instructors had complained about with their teams, but other than the occasional outburst from the team's female member the expected complaints had been few and far between.

Sasuke, the ever stoic Uchiha, had of course been silent during most of the team's interactions, though the tic mark he had developed over his right eye and his increased tendency to brood may be an indication on his true feelings about the continuous chores, but at least his complaints were internal. Sakura wanting to impress her crush had remained largely composed, with the exception of the occasional temper explosion, but even she was showing the strain of keeping her tongue after six straight weeks of D-rank missions.

Naruto on the other hand seemed to be revelling in the missions which he completed with a smile on his face and a spring in his step, perhaps this was because he always found some way to make the chor… missions fun. For instance when the team had been assigned a D-rank fence painting mission; Naruto had painted the battle of Misted River on his section of old man Ichimaki's fence all in monochrome, using some black paint he had conveniently sealed away to form the shadows.

Just as Kakashi had been about to reprimand the boy and tell him to stick to the mission parameters the owner had appeared beside him and had started to enthuse about how wonderful it was to have his very own 'Natsey', the name the villagers had given to the large number of graffiti artworks that had appeared throughout the village and that always incorporated a 'N' and a 'T' somewhere in the design, and how appropriate the image was as his own Grandmother had been a shinobi who had fought in the battle. The team had even received a bonus from the client.

Or like on the Babysitting Mission for the Yamamichi triplets, who had run Sakura and Sasuke ragged, but who had sat spellbound by Naruto for hours on end as he told them the tall-tale of how he almost single-handedly saved a Princess from the Land of Snow from a dastardly tyrant and magically returned spring time to the land through the use of a ball of swirly rainbow coloured chakra, of all things. He had even acted out parts of the tale with the use of his Shadow Clones and the Transformation Jutsu much to the children's enjoyment.

All in all the team was preforming surprisingly well given that Kakashi had been ready for their diverse personalities to clash horrendously given Naruto's exuberance, Sasuke's Uchiha superiority and Sakura's temper, but surprisingly the team got along well or at least functioned and this, Kakashi realised, was almost entirely due to Naruto. The boy seemed to have an innate ability to diffuse negative emotions and to inspire co-operation in his teammates with the use of random comments and actions that at the time seemed innocuous but in hindsight showed a deep understand of his team's mindset and capabilities.

"Kakashi-sensei? We've finished do you want to inspect our work?" Kakashi was jolted from his thoughts by Sakura's voice and looked up to find his three cute little Genins standing before him at relaxed attention.

Kakashi jumped down from his perch and looked over the flowerbeds, "Very good. D-rank Mission: Weeding Yamanaka Flower Field, Complete. Wait here while I get the client to sign the form and we'll move on to our next mission."

"What's next Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto excitedly.

"Well," Kakashi teasingly drew out the word, "Let's just say we're going on a cat hunt."

The smile on Kakashi's face widened under his mask as his Genin all groaned in unison, 'Ah teamwork, it's music to my ears.'

As Naruto watched his teammates move stealthily through the trees ahead of him he found himself thinking about how pleased he was with his team's progress in terms of both working together and building their individual strength. Though they listened to his suggestions as well as they did in the last timeline, he had found that by goading and challenging Sasuke to compete against him, knowing that where Sasuke lead Sakura would follow, he was able to convince them both to train every morning as a team.

Wanting to prepare his team and make them as strong as possible he had managed to convince them to utilise the inevitable three hours they had to wait every day for team training by the simple tactic of ostentatiously training before them and waiting for their pride, or rather Sasuke's pride, to force them to take part. Of course he had only completed about a quarter of his morning training routine with them but it was still enough to leave them gasping for air by the time Kakashi-sensei turned up, while the training had also resulted in a dramatic increase in their overall strength and stamina which Kakashi was quick to praise, which only fuelled their determination to train harder.

'And they're going to need that strength, cause if my calculations are correct then today should be the day we get the Wave Mission.'

"Grey Leader to team do you copy?" came the disembodied voice of Kakashi-sensei through the earpieces they all wore.

"Black Genin copy," Sasuke reported back.

"Pink Genin copy," Sakura seconded.

"Golden God copy," reported Naruto.

"Baka, you're code name is Yellow Genin! Get it right idiot!" Sakura screeched causing all three males of her team to quickly remove their earpieces and rub their ears to relieve the ringing.

"But Sakura," whined Naruto once he had replaced his earpiece, "Golden God reflects my awesomeness better."

"Maa, maa," Kakashi calmly intoned hoping to head off another round of screaming, "Sakura please remember that the earpieces are right in our ears and moderate your volume appropriately. And Naruto please use the code name assigned to you."

"Hai Kakashi-sensei," his two contrite students chorused together.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, if we complete this mission quickly do you think we'll have time to ask for another this afternoon?" asked Naruto as the team continued to sweep the area for the target.

"I suppose so," mused his teacher, "Why do you ask?"

"Ah well, I got a couple of bills to pay this month and I'm a little short," Naruto confessed embarrassment dripping from his tone.

"You really need to lay off the ramen if you can't even afford to pay your tab, Naruto." Sakura injected snidely still smarting from Kakashi's reprimand.

"Well it's not just my ramen bill Sakura, there's also the rent, electricity and gas to pay. They all seem to come in at once, if I didn't know better I'd swear it was a conspiracy!" exclaimed Naruto.

"Why would you need to worry about that?" asked the girl in confusion.

"Well I'm an orphan so I live alone and now that I'm a ninja I'm legally an adult and so I have to pay my own bills as I don't fall under the village's Orphan Trust anymore." Naruto explained calmly to be met by a quiet "Oh," from his teammate.

"So can we Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto once more.

"I don't see why not, but only if we can complete this mission quickly. Now, what's the distance to the target?" asked their Team Leader.

"Five metres and closing," Naruto informed the man, "You guys want to stay back for a bit I want to try something." Naruto told the rest of his team as he surged forward and landed silently in a clearing just to the left of where the target was hiding. Sitting down, Naruto removed a small pouch from his pocket and laid the bundle before him before closing his eyes and entering a mediative state.

Sakura jumped into a nearby tree and stood beside Sasuke on an overhanging branch as they looked down at their teammate. "What on earth is he doing?" the girl whispered.

"Hn," replied Sasuke disinterestedly, though he too didn't know what the idiot was up to.

Silence enveloped the clearing as the whole world seemed to take a breath and in the next moment Naruto disappeared from their perception, "Where'd he go?" Sakura exclaimed quietly as she turned her head this way and that.

Just then their target came slinking from it's cover and cautiously approached the unattended pouch lying forgotten in the middle of the clearing. Sakura felt Sasuke tense as the feline seemed to catch a scent from the small bag and leapt forward, only to be caught at the nape of the neck by the still seated Naruto who was suddenly there once more.

"Wha?" cried Sakura as she jumped down to confront the boy, "How did you do that?"

"I just suppressed by presence for a bit so he wouldn't be afraid," Naruto explained with his head tilted to the side as he looked up at the girl.

"But, but, you disappeared!" she cried.

"Hey Dobe," called Sasuke suddenly from right beside her, "Could you always have caught him that quickly?"

"Well sure," said Naruto with a shrug as he stood cradling the strangely affectionate cat in his arms, being careful to hold the mysterious pouch near its nose.

"You mean all those times we spent half the day chasing that hell cat, you could have caught it in less than five minutes?" his black haired teammate asked carefully.

"Well yeah, but you guys wouldn't have had all that awesome evasive tracking training if I had."

"You mean to say we could have evaded all the scratches and the mud and everything else, all nine times we received this mission?" clarified Sasuke rigidly calm as a tic mark started to throb above his eye.

"Um, Sakura I think you should hold Tora for a bit," said Naruto as he passed the cat to the confused girl, "Here just keep the cat nip under his nose."

"I'll kill you!" cried Sasuke at last as the tension broke and he lunged after his now madly laughing teammate, "It's NOT funny! Get back here you idiot. I had mud in my hair for three days Naruto, three days!"

Sakura stood staring after her team as she cradled the cat close to her chest and jumped only slightly when Kakashi-sensei landed beside her. "Yep that's the target all right, "Kakashi confirmed as he fingered the bow on the animals left ear, "Well we better get going, by the looks of it the boys are heading towards the Tower. Shall we?" he asked as he offered an arm.

Sakura absentmindedly took it as they started forward, whilst internal she thought a thought that had become common place after being placed on a team with Naruto, 'What exactly just happened?'

"Now Kakashi's Team Seven your next duty is … let's see," mused the Hokage as he looked through the D-rank scroll that he held in his hands, "Hmmm, babysitting an Elder's grandchild, shopping for a noble family in the next village, helping with the potato digging…"

"No, no, no, no, no!" exclaimed Naruto waving his hands before him in a negative gesture, "None of those missions are incredible enough for a ninja of my capabilities. Give us a better mission Old Man!" he demanded, sidestepping the indignant swing Sakura made at his head for his supposed disrespect.

"Idiot," shouted Iruka-sensei from beside the Hokage, unable to contain himself, "You are just a rookie! Everyone starts off with the simple duties and work their way up!"

As Iruka's last class had just graduated he had been rotated back to being the Home Room teacher for the new first years and as such was required to work in the Mission's Room whilst his class was occupied by their other specialised teachers throughout the day.

"Perhaps I need to explain to you just how this all works Naruto," lectured the Hokage as he sat back in his chair, "Every day the village receives numerous requests from babysitting to assassinations. These requests are written down on lists and divided into an A, B, C, or D rank based on their difficulty. Shinobi of the village are similarly divided in terms of skill and missions are then handed out by us to these ninja based on their abilities. You guys just recently became Genin which means that D-rank missions are perfect for you."

"I know all that Hokage-jiji," huffed Naruto with his arms crossed, "I have been in and out of the Mission's Room since I was six you know. But if you would just look at our Team record you would see that as of this last mission we have completed the required number of D-rank missions to qualify for a C-rank. Also we, as a team, already work well together and have exhibited the appropriate skill set."

The Hokage smiled proudly in response to Naruto's mature rejoinder and looked at Kakashi from the corner of his eye who nodded slightly.

"Very well then, if you insist and if your team is in agreement?" Sakura and Sasuke nodded cautiously, not quite believing that their teammate was getting away with it, "I'll give you a C-rank mission. It's a protection mission of a certain individual."

"Who is it?" exclaimed Naruto, suddenly all boyish charm, "Is it a princess, or a beautiful priestess or a beautiful princess priestess?"

"Not quite," answered the Hokage highly amused, "Send him in!" he called out and soon after the door opened to reveal a rather dirty old man who literally stank of sake.

"What's this? They're all a bunch of super brats!" he cried derisively, "Especially the blond with the stupid-looking face. Are you really a ninja?"

As one the rest of the people in the room turned to look at the singled out Genin expecting an explosion of self-righteous anger to be directed at the man, only to immediately sweat-drop as they beheld him crammed face-first into the corner with a dark cloud over his head as he mumbled to himself, "It's not my fault I look like this, it's genetic. I can eat all I want to grow taller but I can't change my face. And anyway it's a good face, stupid old man doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Ahem," coughed their new client, "I'm the super expert bridge builder Tazuna. I expect you to provide me super protection until I get back to my country and complete my bridge. We leave tomorrow morning."

Sakura and Sasuke were waiting patiently at the village gates early the next morning for the rest of their team and their client to arrive. On their backs they both wore small white backpacks that contained everything they should need for a month long mission.

"Hey Sasuke," Sakura began unknowingly causing the Uchiha to curse internally, "Are you excited to do this mission? I mean do you really think we're ready?"

"Of course." answered Sasuke shortly.

"Okay if you think so," said Sakura somewhat reassured, "Sasuke? Do you see what I see?" she asked cautiously after a moment.

"Hn," the boy agreed as he stared at the apparition in front of him. There not ten minutes after the designated meeting time was Kakashi-sensei.

"Yo," he called out to his shell shocked Genin, absurdly amused by their gape-mouthed expressions. "Where's Naruto?" he asked as he looked around.

"He's not here yet," intoned Sasuke as he noticed their client coming up behind his sensei.

"Well he better get here soon," said Kakashi sensei, "There's nothing worse than to be late for a meeting." causing both of his students to double-take at his audacity.

"WAIT!" called out the voice of Kakashi's wayward student as he came racing up the street towards the group. Bending over slightly to catch his breath as he halted before them, he apologised, "Sorry I'm late, I had to drop something off at Iruka-sensei's before we left."

"We only just got here ourselves Naruto so don't worry. But make sure not to make a habit of it," Kakashi instructed the boy. "By the way where is your pack?"

Indeed the boy's back was noticeably free of a backpack of any kind. "Not to worry Kakashi-sensei," Naruto reassured the man as he patted himself on the chest, "I have everything I need sealed in here." and so saying he held open his jacket to reveal the many pockets on the inside.

"Okay then, well if Tazuna is ready?" he asked turning to the man who nodded slowly, obviously the worse for wear after a night of heavy drinking.

"Yosh!" cried Naruto as he straightened and moved towards the gate, "So what are we waiting for, let's go!"

"Oh boy!" breathed Sakura as she moved to follow, 'I hope he's not like this for the whole trip.'

"Hn," Sasuke agreed.

"Oww," Tazuna groaned, "Does he need to be so super loud."

Four hours down the road, Kakashi watched as Sasuke and Sakura took point in front of the group and was pleased by how professional they looked. He was glad that they were taking their first C-rank so seriously and felt nostalgic as he remembered his own first mission.

Tazuna, who had spent the last four hours walking in silence, sidled up to the Jonin and casually asked as he gestured behind them, "Is he super okay?"

Both men stopped as they turned to contemplate Kakashi's other student who was ambling some five metres behind them with one hand in his pocket and his jacket tied around his waist. For reasons known only to himself the rookie Genin was humming what sounded like a children's counting song to himself as he walked and was inexplicably eating an ice-cream cone.

Finally sensing the two men's regard, Naruto looked up at them and, after taking a lick from his ice-cream, asked, "What?"

"Naruto?" Kakashi cautiously asked not sure if he wanted to know, "Where did you get the ice-cream?"

"Stasis seal." the boy answered as he took another lick, "Do you want one? I have enough for everyone."

Naruto walked over the two men and called over the rest of the team. "Here hold this," he said as he handed Sakura his half eaten cone much to her distaste. Reaching into his jacket, Naruto then pulled out a scroll which he unrolled over his knee, "Let's see I have strawberry, vanilla, green tea, ramen…"

"Ramen isn't an ice-cream flavour Naruto," said Kakashi as he swapped looks with the rest of Team Seven, "Where did you get the stasis seal?"

"Made it." Naruto answered absently as he looked around for somewhere to lay out the scroll so he could unseal the contents, "It was in that lot of intermediate books Jiji leant me after I became a genin. I thought it would come in handy. It's intended purpose is to transport body parts, you know like severed heads and the like, as it's designed to stop the degradation of the sealed contents which can sometimes happen with the normal storage seal. But after a little experimentation I realised that you could also use it to store food as the seal keeps things as you seal them by incorporating a temporal disturbance in the sealing matrix, so hot food stays hot and cold food stays cold. Thus Ice-cream!" he crowed triumphantly as he finally spied a likely looking rock.

Kakashi hit his forehead in exasperation as he and the others followed the unpredictable Genin over to the rock. Why hadn't he thought of that? 'Just think no more ration bars ever again! And hot meals even when it's unsafe to make a fire!'

"All right everyone!" Kakashi called out as he looked around, "This looks like as good a place as any to have a rest stop. We'll stop for half an hour. I'll have a green tea Naruto thanks."

"Strawberry for me," called Sakura as she put down her backpack under a nearby tree.

"Vanilla," stated Tazuna shortly as he mopped his brow with a bandana from his back pocket.

"Hot isn't it?" asked Naruto as he handed the older man the ice-cream cone he had just unsealed, "I noticed the fields are looking a little scorched."

"Hmm, yes," agreed Tazuna as he took a cautious lick, "Hottest it's been in a while and that's not the worst of it. It's also super dry. Hasn't rained in over a month." So saying the man moved away to sit down on a nearby rock, four hours is a long time to walk in such heat.

Naruto turned to look at his last teammate, "What'll it be BB?"

"Hn, don't like sweets," the boy mumbled, "and don't call me that."

"Well green tea flavours not that sweet, neither is the ramen flavour or I have tomato flavour if you'd prefer?" Naruto asked slyly with a fox like grin.

Sasuke's eyes lit up at the last suggestion before he controlled himself, "Fine tomato will do."

"Oh Sasuke," sang Naruto as he handed the requested cone to the boy, "Are you sure YOU'RE not a Tsundere too?" and then he laughed at the simultaneous growls that followed caused by the boy in front of him and the beast within.

A couple of days later the heat continued to be a problem as did the pace which travelling with a civilian required. The journey that took only half a day for a shinobi to complete, took at least a full week when forced to keep to the plodding gait of a normal person.

Naruto sighed as he looked off into the forest to his left, though he was enjoying the first real break he had from his intensive training regime since he was five years old, the forced inactivity was starting to prey on his nerves a little. As was being forced to interact with his team twenty-four, seven. So desperate was he for some positive interaction by this point that he was reduced to playing eye spy with his tenant.

'I spy something green.'

'Tree.' guessed Naruto thoroughly bored.

'No, guess again.'

'Kakashi's vest?'

'Nope.'

By this point Naruto was almost ready to cheer as he heard Sakura start to question Tazuna about the existence of ninja in the Land of Waves. 'Finally,' he thought, 'Not long after this is when the Demon Brother's attacked the first time.' Carefully the blond unsealed a kunai from his pocket and held it concealed within his sleeve as he absently listened to the conversation.

"No Sakura," Kakashi-sensei was saying, "There are no ninja in the Land of Waves, though there are hidden villages throughout the five nations."

"Well there used to be ninja near Wave, not too long ago but they were all wiped out," Naruto interjected as he opened his senses to feel around the immediate area.

"How did you know about that?" asked Kakashi taken aback.

"I'm a level one Journeyman Kakashi-sensei it's really hard to find any Fuuinjutsu scrolls that don't at least mention Whirlpool or the Uzumaki." he answered the man, not really thinking about what he was saying.

"Ahem, well be that as it may there are no more ninja in the Land of Wave so don't worry Sakura," Kakashi explained as he laid a hand on the young girls head, "There won't be any ninja combat on a C-rank mission."

"Then we won't come in contact with any foreign ninja?" she asked excitedly, obviously seeking reassurance.

"Ha, ha, of course not," the Jonin answered her with his trademarked eye-smile not noticing Tazuna's obvious guilt-filled grimace.

Some ten metres up ahead, in the middle of the road, lay a puddle.