ayo, got another one ready!
hope you enjoy!
"Another C-Rank?" Kakashi's eyebrow raised at the Hokage. Sure, his team had done a wonderful job at completing their first mission outside the village, but he had figured the Hokage would give their team some time off to train before being sent out again.
"Technically, this would be their first C-Rank, the mission to Wave was officially classified as an A-Rank," Hiruzen's smirk was cheeky, "Your team has proven itself capable, and this mission has no chance of going as poorly as that previous one."
"Famous last words," Kakashi mumbled to himself as he read through the scroll Hiruzen had handed him, the mission seemed simple enough, only needing to find and clear a bandit camp near the border between The Land of Fire and The Land of Fields. The maximum threat came from the bandit leader who was at most chunin level.
Kakashi had no doubt that his team could handle the mission, having seen as much from not only the previous mission but Sasuke's newfound determination to work with his team to grow stronger.
It had barely been a couple weeks from when they had returned from their mission to Wave, Kakashi and his team had spent the fortnight completing regular D-Ranks and further training their chakra controls or reserves. He had Naruto work mostly on her control, Sakura on her reserves, and Sasuke a bit of both. He had also begun showing Sasuke how to better utilize his sharingan.
All three were making great strides, but Kakashi could also tell that being cooped up in the village wasn't doing any of them any favors either, so he could see where the Hokage was coming from to give them another mission outside the village.
But that wasn't the only reason he was concerned about leaving the village for an extended period of time again,
"Lord Hokage, isn't the Chunin Exams starting soon, I was hoping to nominate Team Seven. I believe they are ready."
Hiruzen stroked his beard thoughtfully, "The mission shouldn't take more than two weeks including travel, we still have a month for the exams to begin. Even if you get delayed due to any unavoidable circumstances, you should have plenty of time to return and rest up before the exams."
Hiruzen then said after a beat, "But ultimately, I'm going to leave the decision up to you. I didn't brief your entire team this time so that Naruto won't get a chance to sway your judgment."
Kakashi sighed and resigned himself to his fate, only hoping that this mission could stay a normal C-Rank, but knowing his team and luck, anything could be possible.
"Very well, I will let them know and we will prepare to leave by daybreak tomorrow."
Kakashi left the Hokage's office with a curt bow, heading to the training grounds to let his team know.
"How many hours d'ya think Kakashi-sensei is gonna take to show up today?"
Naruto looked ridiculous as she asked this. She was standing on her hands on the water "practice" she had called it.
"Naruto, please stop performing hand-stands when you're wearing a skirt."
Sasuke's face flushed a deep red and he avoided looking in her general direction.
Naruto pouted, "Why not?"
She did not stop.
"I- just… Nevermind," Sasuke gasped out.
Sakura ignored her two teammates for the most part, nose buried in a book Kakashi had recommended she borrow from the library.
It was a book contain information about nature and shape transformation of chakra, Kakashi had mentioned that it would be important for the next leg of their training, and he simply did not have the energy to try and convince Naruto to read a book, so he had asked Sakura to read up so that she could help him out.
Sakura couldn't help but become absorbed in the book despite the fact that it was only intended to be a training aid. She found the way chakra interacted with the different elements and the process to mold it into the desired form extremely fascinating.
"Sakura, help!"
Sasuke's cry followed by a splash snapped Sakura out of her literature-induced stupor.
She blinked twice at the sight, "Why is Naruto doing cartwheels on the water?"
The rambunctious blonde was literally spinning circles around Sasuke, who was just trying to practice his chakra control by balancing a feather on his forehead while sitting on the water's surface. It was a decent method, all things considered, having to not only focus on the feather, but also not neglecting to stay afloat.
At least it would have been if Naruto hadn't broken his focus, leaving him only halfway over the surface of the water.
"I'm helping his concentration!" Naruto called out, not stopping.
Sakura jumped off the tree branch she was sitting on and smirked at the boy, Sasuke had mellowed out considerably since they had returned from their mission, only half his vocabulary was replaced by grunts and the sulking had dropped a good forty percent. He had also grown twenty-seven percent more tolerant towards Naruto's antics, but Sakura supposed that even he had a limit.
"She has a point you know, if you can learn to ignore her, you could do anything."
At this point, Naruto stopped, turned to Sakura and pouted. Her hair had grown slightly damp from sweat and the occasional splash of water, her face was flushed and her big eyes flashed with mock hurt, "Why would he want to ignore me?"
Sakura rolled her eyes, "Stop being so dramatic," she beckoned Naruto closer, "C'mere, let Sasuke have some brooding time to himself, I'll show you some new chakra control exercises I learnt from this book," she waggled said book to get her attention.
The blonde bounced her way over to Sakura, one last backflip in Sasuke's face for good measure. The boy grumbled to himself then went back to focusing on the leaf, rebalancing himself on the water.
"Whaddya wanna show me Sa-ku-ra?"
Naruto was beaming and still filled with energy even after spending the past thirty minutes annoying the life out of her teammate, Sakura had no idea how the blonde could muster this much energy at the crack of dawn.
While she was someone who one could consider a morning person, she couldn't dream of having this much energy before her shower and breakfast. Nowadays, she usually skips her morning shower in favor of having one when she returns from training before they head off to start their daily missions.
"Let's try some chakra control exercises like what Sasuke's doing, you've gotten a lot better, but it wouldn't hurt to practice some more."
Naruto gave Sakura her undivided attention, it wasn't exactly unnerving but Sakura wasn't too used to someone being focused this heavily on her, it made her a little self conscious and she almost ended up fumbling with her words.
"I want you to try doing pull-ups on this tree, but only use chakra to adhere your palms to the branch. Don't grip it."
Sakura demonstrated by walking up the tree with ease and hanging from one of the branches, glued to the tree with the chakra from her palms. She pulled herself up, without losing control and dropped back down. She tried not to let the effort she expelled show on her face. She really needed to work on her physical strength, keeping a grip on the branch wasn't troubling in the least, but having to pull her body weight up put a strain on her muscles.
"Once you think you're ready, stop using your palms and try holding yourself up with just your fingertips."
Naruto nodded excitedly and hopped up the tree, dangling from the same branch Sakura had demonstrated the exercise from. She was wearing a familiar blue tank top and orange skirt, shorts underneath. Her brows furrowed with concentration as she focused to maintain the right amount of chakra to keep her attached, but not too much to blow herself off the tree.
Sakura loved how enthusiastic Naruto could get while training, and it definitely helped that her enthusiasm rubbed off on her and Sasuke as well, heck even Kakashi seemed more motivated to train them when she was around.
She sat back down, leaning against the tree as she continued reading, sending out an occasional pulse of chakra as Kakashi had demonstrated to hopefully build her reserves. From what she had read, the constant use of her chakra encouraged her body to generate more, slowly but surely building up her pool.
It wasn't simple to focus on the words while simultaneously being mindful not to pulse her chakra too quickly or more than she intended to, but she was able to draw closer to the sweet spot with each passing day. She wasn't yet certain how much, if any, improvement she had made to her chakra reserves, but she reasoned that it was best to not find out and pass out from chakra depletion because she had witnessed the damage it had done to Kakashi's body when he had run out of chakra back when he first battled Zabuza.
If only there was a way to store her excess chakra and call upon it when she needed, without having to worry about expending too much at once…
And so, each one of them trained by themselves as they waited for Kakashi to show up. Sasuke eventually swapped with Naruto, attempting the chakra pull-ups himself, while Naruto tried her hand at balancing the feather while on the water (and yes, she was still on her hands, shorts visible to the world).
The sun was a decent way across the sky when Kakashi finally showed up, he always told them to gather at dawn but never showed up earlier than three hours later. Well there was that one exception where the three of them had decided to show up late, only to have Kakashi track each of them down and have them do the most menial of D-Ranks as punishment.
"Yo," one hand was raised in a 'V' while the other gripped his favorite novel. Sakura once had the displeasure of looking up what it was about, and she had left the library, face as pink as her hair from embarrassment.
"Glad to see the three of you hard at work." He smiled at them with his eye.
Team Seven assembled before him, excited yet apprehensive at what missions they would have in store for them that day.
"No missions today," He said, noticing their expressions. Instead, reaching into one of the pockets of his flak jacket he pulled out a mission scroll, it had an upper-case 'C' printed on it.
"The Hokage has offered us ano- ahem," Kakashi cleared his throat, "Our first C-Rank mission, so we will spend the day training, wrap up early, and pack for a two week mission near the Land of Fields."
He handed Sakura the scroll.
"Our mission will be to track down the bandit camp that has been causing the local merchants trouble, potentially having to eliminate the leader who will be the only real threat," Sakura summarized for her team.
The air buzzed with nervous excitement. All three were apprehensive due to how their last mission turned out, but excited nonetheless to test out the fruits of their training.
"Now, as for what we will be learning today," Kakashi pocketed his novel and reached into another one of his pockets and pulled out four blank cards.
"What're those?" Naruto interjected.
"Shut up Naruto, he would have explained by now if you didn't interrupt," Sasuke scolded.
Naruto only grinned sheepishly.
Kakashi waved off the bickering, "There are five basic types of chakra used for jutsu," he began, "Mind helping me out here Sakura?"
Sakura perked up, this was exactly what she had been reading up for, "Fire, Wind, Water, Lightning, and Earth are the foundation for all jutsu," she explained, "And the reason the five great countries are named as they are."
Kakashi continued, "Most people's chakra naturally leans towards a certain nature, the Uchiha Clan for example," he turned to Sasuke, "Were full of people with an affinity towards fire and thus were exceptionally skilled with fire element jutsu, as Sasuke demonstrated during the bell test."
The boy had stiffened at the mention of his clan but did not interrupt.
"Those with an affinity towards wind are good at wind element jutsu and lightning with lightning."
Kakashi handed the three each a card, keeping one himself.
"This is a unique paper that reacts to even the slightest amount of chakra. It's made from trees that are fed and nurtured with chakra for a long time."
Kakashi's card then crumpled.
"If you're lightning natured, the paper gets crumpled," Sakura explained at Naruto's shocked expression, "Wind cuts the paper in half, Fire it burns, Water makes it wet and Earth turns it to dust."
Kakashi smiled, "Very good Sakura, that's right!"
Sakura blushed at the praise.
"As you can see, I've got an affinity for lightning. Let's see what you three get, channel some of your chakra into the paper and we'll know its nature immediately. Sasuke, you can go first."
Sasuke's card crumpled like Kakashi's had.
"Oh great, looks like we share the same affinity, it should make it a lot easier for me to reach you."
"But Kakashi-sensei, if Sasuke's for lightning, how come he could use the fireball jutsu?"
Kakashi smiled, "That's actually a great question. You see, your affinity doesn't determine the only element you'll be able to manipulate, just which one is going to be easiest."
Naruto let out an "Oooh."
"Naruto, you go next."
Naruto's card got sliced cleanly in two.
"Looks like you've got wind. I'm not incredible at wind jutsu, with it being the opposite of lightning but I'm sure we'll work something out. Wind is actually incredibly rare here in the Land of Fire."
"Opposite of lightning?" Sasuke questioned.
"Oh my all of my children are coming to me with such great questions today!" Kakashi said gleefully, "Each element has one that it's good against and one that it's weak against. Lightning, for example, is weak to Wind and good against Earth. Similarly Fire is weak to Water and what not, I'm sure you'll get it eventually with practice."
Sasuke nodded.
"Sakura, how about you go now?"
Sakura did as was asked and channeled some of her chakra into the card.
Kakashi blinked twice, lifted his headband to reveal his sharingan, rubbed his eyes and blinked again.
Confused at what could have stumped her sensei, Sakura looked down at her card.
The card had turned to dust, but that wasn't all,
the dust had turned damp, almost soil-like. From the soil sprouted-
"Is that a flower?"
so um, i might've done a thing :D
i honestly wasn't sure if i should give sakura mokuton or not but i kinda just did it on a whim ehe
plans are for the weak :)
hope I can get the next chapter typed up at a level that doesn't take six months eheheheheheh
leave like reviews or something to make me happy
byeeeee!