Yo, people! Early update this week—why? I'm in good old Mapleland (Canada) holiday for a while. This'll be the standard time for chapter updates for a teeny bit so you North Americans can rejoice! ^^

If you want to read up to nine chapters ahead, head over to the Patréon [/eternalyujin]. You can find my discord server here: jzkdR72jTR

Note: Everything on there will be public eventually.

Chapter 3.2 [25]

As far as expectations went, the first few months of genin life were underwhelming. On our initiation day, we all met up in our homeroom and people vanished in groups of three when the different teachers arrived to whisk away their new charges. I expected Asuma would have some kind of trial lined up for us to see if we were cut out for shinobi life, but I should've known better.

He shrugged and told us to meet up at the Academy's front gate in the afternoon only to take us out to eat some barbeque—not that I didn't like it. The days following were slightly better. We met up at 8 AM for morning training on weekdays where Asuma would dedicate the majority of his focus to Choji and Hinata.

Meanwhile, I either focused on keeping my taijutsu sharp, training my chakra control, or trying to master the few jutsu I knew. Wind Release: Frequency Disruption was the most versatile jutsu I had. It used air pressure to screw with sound waves and depending on how much chakra I used, I could obscure more than just the sounds I was making.

Asuma was pretty up-front about our team's purpose and even though we weren't a stealth team, with Frequency Disruption and Hinata's Byakugan, we'd be able to sneak up on targets with ease. Today, our teacher had gone against the grain by instructing us to gather at the village's North Gate at six in the morning. He didn't tell us what for, but before anyone could ask, Maito Gai and his team appeared.

Introductions apparently didn't exist because the minute the man saw us, he threw out what was meant to be a motivational speech and took off running.

"How the hell am I supposed to run towards my youth?" I frowned. "Surely running forward means you're getting… old?"

Asuma laughed. "Don't try to think about it, just run."

I tried to figure it out for a few moments longer but gave up and chased after the pack. Gai's continued and fervent encouragement drifted from some unknown distance ahead. The remaining seven of us trailed after him at various paces. Lee was doing his best to stay within arm's length and failing, though he was a sizeable distance ahead of Tenten and Neji, who ran at a constant but enduring pace.

And then there was us.

Choji and I ran side by side and our breathing remained even as the run approached the twentieth minute. Our teacher, meanwhile, made a show of running at our pace to watch us suffer Gai's supposedly light morning runs.

I looked to my right where Hinata soldiered on, red-faced. Her pace was by no means slow and her stamina was superior to the vast majority of fresh genin but she was the most unconditioned out of everyone here. Choji and I had been going on regular runs for about two years and even he wasn't having the best time.

In comparison, Team 3 had suffered their teacher's training regimen since last year—and the two jonin were… well, they were jonin. At the pace we were running, we'd reach the western gates in another twenty minutes and still, Team 3 showed no signs of stopping.

"Why," I huffed, looking back at Asuma, "in the world would you subject us to Maito Gai's insane training in the first few months of our careers?"

Asuma snorted. "How do you know about him anyway?"

I shrugged. "What's with his mini-me? Because last I checked, he didn't have any kids."

He chuckled a little, inclining his head in agreement.

"H-How long's left?" Hinata gulped down a breath. "Because… this is a bit much."

I grimaced sympathetically for the girl. I'd slaved away for three years and was a freak of nature to begin with but Choji and Hinata hadn't trained at Team 3's pace before. Then again, neither had I, but almost all of the training I liked to do was constructed with my inhumanely stupid recovery in mind and I had a lot of energy to begin with.

My two friends… not so much, but the run continued anyway—I pulled ahead, edging closer to Neji and Tenten while the gap between my team and me widened. Asuma remained at the very back, padding behind Hinata and Choji, which was reassurance enough to press on.

I got close enough that my footsteps registered in the two's ears, though Tenten was the first to turn. She filled out a grey vest and her arms were corded with a surprising amount of muscle. The veins standing out on her forearms were evidence enough of the rumours I'd heard about an upperclassman who'd wield a different weapon every day of the week and still thrash their class.

"Didn't expect you to be able to keep up," she said, her brown eyes looking me over appraisingly. "Were you the Rookie of the Year or something?"

Neji sniffed without looking back. "No, that was Sasuke Uchiha."

"Ah. You must be the Runner-up then. What's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki," I supplied. "And you two?"

"I'm Tenten. The guy next to me is Neji Hyuuga—which you'd probably figure out if he turned around, but he's shy like that." She snorted when Neji gave a protesting grunt—though he continued looking straight ahead. "That's enough chat for now. We'll see if you can keep up until the end of the warm-up."

Accepting the dismissal for what it was, I brought my focus back to the run, squinting at the distance to see how far ahead of us Gai was. Somehow, his encouragement came at us loud and clear.

"THAT'S IT, EVERYONE! KEEP AT IT!"

Upping the pace with snort, I veered around Tenten and Neji, the former warning me not to overdo it. I chuckled as the distance between me and Lee shortened with each stride. Even if I did overdo it, I'd be as right as rain tomorrow morning. When I was within arm's reach, I tapped his shoulder.

"You have been training hard, Neji," said Lee, not looking over his shoulder. He turned around and almost jumped away but regained his composure quickly. "...You're more impressive than I've heard, Naruto Uzumaki."

"And what have you heard?" I asked

"That you lost the Rookie of the Year position to Sasuke Uchiha." Lee's eyes were intense before his face broke out into a grin. "But the Academy is not all-knowing, right?"

"Right on." I smiled back and we shared an amused silence. "What's your name, friend?"

He grinned and stuck out his thumb. "I am Rock Lee."

"Good to meet you. You already know my name, so there's no point in introducing myself. Instead, how about we have ourselves a wager? Whoever catches up to your teacher has to do an extra set of whatever exercise he makes us do."

"Deal," he said with a smile. "I'm quite confident in my physical ability, you know."

Grinning, I counted us down, taking a lungful of air before blasting off. I was expecting him to be slower but he was slightly ahead of me, his long strides taking him further than mine could.

Maybe he hadn't started training for the Eight Inner Gates yet.

I kept up and we continued sprinting after Maito Gai in the distance. He led us out of the village, turning right to come off the beaten path straight ahead from the gate and we hugged the side of the village's outer walls, padding through the tall grass. Green-vested chunin patrolled from above, their idle chatter drifting to the grass below.

Gai raised an arm to the sky. "Morning all!"

They laughed together, one shouting back, "Are you training your genin again, Gai? If so, you might want to look back before these two get lost in the grass."

His friends laughed and Gai turned back, his thick eyebrow disappearing into his bowl cut.

A challenging smirk crawled onto his face and he upped the pace. Lee and I abandoned all attempts to conserve our energy and ran after him as fast as our legs would carry. A few minutes in I could taste blood, my rapid breaths rising above the rustle of grass in my ears, only second to Lee's encouragement as we came out onto a field.

Gai stood a few metres away, shining with sweat. He fixed a proud grin as Lee and I thudded to a stop before him, panting and heaving. "Well done, boys! I'll admit, I did not expect you to be on par with Lee, young Naruto."

I looked and used my shirt to wipe the sweat off my face. "T-That a fact?"

He nodded firmly. "Lee, you also did well. Training harder than last time is a must and so now, we will now do two hundred pushups."

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" Lee straightened. "You're welcome to join us, Naruto."

I stepped back. "...Is that all at once or in sets?"

"All at once, of course," said Gai. "The pain shall stoke the fires of your youth and elevate you unto greater heights!"

"Uh…" I looked back to see whether everyone else was any closer to arriving. They weren't so I sighed and assumed the push-up position. "...Alright, let's do this."

Tenten and Neji arrived at the twenty push-up mark and joined in after taking a few breaths. Hinata, Choji, and Asuma arrived another twenty pushups later, but the three of them decided to sit under the shade of a tree while I went at it. I didn't really blame my two friends but Asuma?

"You're not going all the way down!"

I glared at him and blinked away the sting of sweat from my eyes.

He jutted his chin and lit a cigarette while fighting an amused smile. Thankfully, they joined in once we were done with the pushups, jogging at a relaxed pace behind Gai as he led us to the next spot. This time, we were grouped up together, hanging back a decent distance from Gai to avoid tiring ourselves out.

Tenten was sandwiched between Hinata and Neji, looking pretty uncomfortable. It wasn't like the two were being hostile to each other or anything, but there was an air of awkwardness between them. What could it be about? Hinata had grown a lot over the past few years, which should have led to a better relationship with Neji… right?

Then again, her not being a pushover would only fuel his destiny schtick. I gave the two a second look and Hinata caught me staring, shaking her head. I sighed and caught up with Choji and Lee.

"Where are we going?" I asked Lee. "These are the shinobi training grounds, right?"

He nodded. "There are several dozens of them behind Hokage Mountain, serving different purposes. The ones closer to the waterfall are mostly for chakra control training but it's also useful for Water-Release users."

"What about the one we're in now?" asked Choji.

"Isn't it obvious?" Lee grinned and patted his bicep. "Physical training! But there are other grounds too. Like forests with canopies so thick, it's always dark. We had a week-long survival training a while ago. There were snakes and everything…" He gave a small shudder. "Today, it's all about physical training."

"Any sparring?" I asked, slapping a fist against my palm.

"Unfortunately not. Sparring was yesterday and we need to do a D-rank today."

"Damn. Same here—on the mission count, but we're probably going to spar in the afternoon."

Choji groaned.

Lee patted his shoulder. "Don't be like that, friend. Every spar is a chance to grow."

"Don't let him fool you," I said with a smirk. "He's plenty strong and has giant fists and everything. If he hits you with a solid one, the fight's over."

"So?" Choji twisted his neck and glared. "How am I meant to land anything when you hang back and knock me on my ass all the time?"

"See, that's when—"

We came to a stop and Gai clapped his hands, spreading out his arms with a wide smile. "We are here!"

I stepped onto the rubber floor, enjoying the way the ground absorbed my weight. Our next training spot was an entire callisthenics gym, equipped with bars… and there were a lot of them—bars for pullups, dips, and ground-level ones for pushups. A set of monkey bars boxed in the rest of the equipment, containing us under a massive rectangle.

"What are we doing here?" I asked. "There any particular routine?"

Gai snapped his fingers. "There is indeed and it goes by the name of circuit training—everyone pick a number."

Team 3's responses were lightning-quick.

"Three," said Tenten.

"Four," said Neji.

Lee grinned and gave Gai a thumbs-up. "One."

I looked back at Asuma and he shrugged. "I guess I'll take two then. Choji?"

"Five."

Each of the numbers corresponded to a particular exercise and over the next three minutes, we rotated between them, taking a minute of rest after each one. By the end, I was feeling a pleasant burn across my body and my shirt was an entire shade darker. Gai hadn't declared any real end to the circuit so I assumed we were meant to continue until complete failure.

Choji was the first to go after about twenty-five minutes, followed by Hinata not too long afterwards. Neji was next, lasting barely five minutes after Hinata and he seemed pretty annoyed about it too. Me, Tenten, and Lee were going strong for a long while after them, alternating between the exercises. Eventually, Tenten threw in the towel and I followed after her, seeing no real sense in going until I dropped involuntarily.

Lee, on the other hand, continued until he was barely able to move. Gai pulled several bottles of water from his duffel bag alongside orange sweat towels. He wandered about, ruffling everyone's hair. No one protested because we were simply too tired to do anything beyond existing.

"Good work today, everyone," said Gai. "You have a good bunch, Asuma. Feel free to join us in morning training whenever you'd like."

Lee nodded. "It's nice to meet new friends."

"I don't mind," said Asuma, smirking at us. "It all depends on what these three say. What do you think about training with Team 3 again?"

Choji gave a feeble-sounding groan, lying down on the warm rubber floor.

Hinata wiped her face. "I… wouldn't mind but maybe we should wait until we're stronger?"

Neji snorted, but when we all looked at him, he grunted and refused to say anything.

"What about you, Naruto?" asked Lee. "Would you like to train with us again?"

"Why not?" I ran a hand through my hair. "Choji and I are up at six for my morning run anyway and my team meets at eight so we can swing by. I've got a couple of hours to kill so why not?"

"Then join us," said Gai. "Today was a special occasion because of the joint training but Tenten, Lee, and I go on our morning run at six regardless."

"What about Neji?"

The ivory-eyed teen looked at me directly for the first time, tilting his head to this side as if he didn't know what to make of me.

"Neji does not go on the runs, but he trains with us afterwards," said Lee, placing a hand on my shoulder. "But I look forward to running with you."

"Likewise." I tilted my head down and emptied the rest of my bottle over the back of my head. I shook out my hair and Choji recoiled, showing more energy than ever. I laughed. "It's just a bit of water."

He huffed and eyed the distance between us warily and after a little rest, we returned to the village and entered the nearest breakfast place. We ate in complete silence for the most part. After a training session like that, there was no room for chatter. The only thing anyone cared about was refuelling. As hungry as I was, I made sure not to overeat, tapping out once I'd had my fill anymore and chasing down my meal with a glass of water.

All in all, my first meeting with Team 3 had gone about as well as it could have and I was looking forward to training with them—even Neji, as sour as he seemed because with the Chunin Exams barely half a year away, training with Gai would always be welcome.

My team and I arrived near the Academy later in the afternoon, returning from a successful but mind-numbing D-rank. The missions office was a massive open room on the top floor of a small building attached to the Academy. There were other offices around the village for genin, though. It was half the school's size and there weren't any windows. When it rained, the wind swept in the water at an angle and when it didn't, there was the wind to contend with.

The missions office was—as the name suggested—where the vast majority of general shinobi missions were issued. The village's various departments had their missions delegated to them directly by the Hokage and were almost always B-rank and above. X-rank missions were a thing, but only ANBU did them.

Probably because they were suicide missions where death wasn't just expected, but the entire mission's purpose. Thankfully, the ones in the mission office were plentiful but pretty incredibly easy to complete. The only good thing about them was that they provided genin with a livable wage. Weeding gardens was a small price to pay when people had bills to pay.

That said, the odd C-rank floated about every so often.

Generally, C-ranks were about as difficult as missions issued here got. Of course, in the real world, nothing was assured, so some mission ranks were adjusted retrospectively as well. Asuma had stated outright that he didn't think we were ready for a C-rank mission yet because missions above D-rank came with the implication of shinobi combat—not always, but sometimes.

Asuma's refusal to put us on one for the time being left the Genin Corps' chunin-led squads to swoop in and nab those C-ranks for themselves. I'd had my eye on an escort mission from the Leaf to the Land of Hot Waters for a while now but it seemed some other squad had poached it.

…Not that I'd had any particular claim on it in the first place, but it still annoyed me.

I grumbled down the stairs, lamenting yet another boring menial job ticked off the monthly quota. The genin life was pretty fun until D-ranks came around. I swear, the things felt like they were made to kneecap my progress. There wasn't a single thing about them that felt like an accomplishment and it wasn't like I didn't understand their significance either.

Understanding why they made us kids do them only annoyed me more because I was the last child anyone in this village wanted to see. Asuma pretended not to notice me using the transformation jutsu, which was nice. Hinata and Choji hid their pity by getting me to show off with the jutsu, which was a pretty adorable gesture, to be honest.

But I was even beginning to get bored with the D-ranks where I didn't have to hide my identity. With all the jutsu I knew, I was itching for some kind of yardstick to match myself up against. There was only so much sparring could do because the only way to judge my performance was active combat.

At the same time, part of me was terrified of having to point my weapons at another living, breathing human being. A human being with people who cared about and relied on them—and to snuff out their life knowing that? It… it didn't eat at me, but it was there: cold and hard in the pit of my stomach. No shinobi went through life without killing because if you weren't willing to kill, then you died.

Something solid struck the top of my head. Asuma slipped the rolled-up mission request into his flak jacket with a grin.

"What's that?" I nodded at the request he'd pocketed.

"Don't worry about it," he said, placing a guiding hand on Choji and Hinata's shoulders. "This afternoon, we'll be doing some more joint training."

"With who?" Choji asked.

Asuma shook his head. "Not telling. That'd spoil the surprise."

"We seem to be doing a lot of joint training today," said Hinata, twisting back to raise an eyebrow at our teacher. "Is there any particular reason why?"

"There is, but you'll find out during the training."

I pressed the back of my index finger to my lips in thought. "...Is it Team 3 again? Lee said they were going to do some training in the afternoon."

"Nope, but good try." He walked past me with a frustratingly knowing smile, pushing Hinata and Choji into an alleyway. "Come with me and you'll find out."

Again, we exited the village through the western exit—this time following the path out from the gate. A dozen or so metres in, it forked out into two paths: one went straight ahead, and the other curved right. Asuma led us down the second path, jumping a barbed fence spanning as far as the eye could see and breaking out into a sprint the minute we touched down.

I wasn't sure which training ground this was but there was nothing but tall grassland all around. Then, we reached a second fence and crossed into a thick forest. Instead of tree-jumping like I thought we would, Asuma kept us low to the ground. I could hear the low gurgle of a river somewhere nearby.

"Asuma?" I asked. He didn't look back but grunted curiously. "Are you taking us fishing?"

"Fishing?" He chuckled. "Not today but thanks for reminding me. I need to do that with these two."

If he was going to say more, he would have—but he didn't. Our footsteps were all out of sync, creating a discordant set of rustles as we trampled over dead leaves and the earth below. Seeing that I literally had nothing else to do, I made my hand seals, infusing a decent bit of chakra to expand the jutsu's range.

Its effects were obvious almost immediately. Our footsteps noticeably dropped in volume and were no longer distinct from one another.

Choji stumbled forward. "What the hell?"

"What did you do, Naruto?" asked Hinata.

"I used a support wind jutsu—Wind-Release: Frequency Disruption."

"Why?"

I shrugged. "Boredom, training, to start a conversation. Take your pick."

"How long can you use it for?" she asked, clutching her chin in a hand. "Does the jutsu take a flat amount of chakra to activate it and continuously drain chakra to sustain itself?"

"Yeah, but it's fine. I've got heaps of chakra anyway and if nothing else, it keeps my chakra network active. Say we're out on a mission, I can use Frequency Disruption to make us harder to catch and if we end up getting caught anyway, there's no need for me to warm up my chakra network."

"Standard practice is to keep your chakra network active anyway," said Asuma. "Still, it's a good idea, kid."

Choji grunted. "When do I get a cool jutsu, huh?"

He turned around and smiled. "Weren't you the one who said you want to get a good handle on the Expansion Jutsu before I throw nature-release ninjutsu at you?"

"...Doesn't mean I can't grumble about things."

I laughed and patted his shoulder.

"Hinata," said Asuma. "Have you changed your mind about picking up any ninjutsu from me? I've mastered wind and fire but I can get you access to any other jutsu you'll need."

"Wait." I reflexively raised my hand like we were back in class again. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't?"

"You said we've got the same primary, right?"

He nodded. "Wind."

"But you've mastered fire—wind's direct counter?"

"I have. It was a bitch to do, but I got it in the end and even created a jutsu. I used to be a stubborn little shit so it was the next element I picked up after getting good with wind. My old man said I wouldn't be able to so I wanted to prove him wrong." Asuma snorted and shook his head wryly. "If nothing else, it gave me the patience I'll need for the other nature-releases. I got down fire, so the rest will be a breeze. What do you think, Hinata?"

She looked away into the thicket surrounding us. "...I'm sorry. My clan is very… particular about making the Gentle Fist the centre of my arsenal. Nature-release ninjutsu is—I wouldn't say looked down upon because the older clan members use it, but young Hyuuga are generally dissuaded from learning it too early."

"That's…" I grimaced. "...okay, I'm sorry, but that's stupid. I ain't looking down on your clan or anything, because the Gentle Fist is scary, but if you're going to learn it anyway, what's the difference between then and now? No one said you can't learn both together, did they?"

She sighed.

Asuma rubbed the back of his head and hummed. "...Okay, how about genjutsu or medical ninjutsu?"

"Those are fine." Hinata perked up at his words. "Are you proficient in either of them?"

"I'm not, but I know a genjutsu specialist." Vaulting the fence in front of us, we landed on a field of grass once again. "Speaking of the devil, we're here."

There was a wide river a good distance ahead of us with a tall stone slab planted on a raised platform on its banks. Though that wasn't the first thing any of us saw. I grinned and waved at the four people sitting in front of the stone slab.

Choji squinted. "...Is that?"

"It is," said Hinata, affirming his suspicions without the need to activate her Byakugan.

I jabbed Asuma's shoulder. "You couldn't tell us we were training with our old classmates?"

"I could've, but where's the fun in that?" he replied, ruffling my hair. "Go on, kids. We've got about five minutes till training begins anyway."

Choji had run halfway to the river in the time it took me to question Asuma. Hinata and I walked at a relaxed pace. I took the time to look over our old classmates—they hadn't changed much. Granted, we hadn't been on our teams all that long, so I didn't know what I was expecting.

"Jonin Yuhi," I said with a nod.

The red-eyed lady smiled pleasantly at us. "Nice to meet you three at last. Shikamaru has said a lot about you three."

Hinata blinked at our friend in question. "You have?"

"Don't get excited," he drawled.

I shook my head with a small smile. "We've missed you too, man."

"If that's the case, then I'm worried about you—it's only been five days since we last saw each other."

Raising my hands, I back off, leaving Hinata to deal with him. Kiba and Choji were skipping pebbles across the river and since I had nothing to do, I decided to join them.

"Hello, Naruto!"

I paused mid-step. "Hi, Ino."

The blonde-haired girl smiled pleasantly at me. I turned around to face and she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "That forehead protector looks good on you."

I huffed. "I got the black one thinking it was like the standard blue, just darker. The cloth is too damn long and now I'm running about like an idiot."

She giggled. "It's not that bad."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Really," she said, hiding the smile behind her hand. "You'll grow into it."

"Hello, Ino," said Hinata with a strange lilt to her voice. "What are you doing?"

Ino turned around and smiled. "I'm talking to Naruto. How've you been Hinata?"

"I've been well, thank you. I was talking to your sensei earlier."

"Why?"

"I think I'd like to learn genjutsu—not to become a specialist but because I can't just rely on taijutsu. After that, some medical ninjutsu would be nice."

I slowly walked away, easing out a breath as the two engaged in weird double speak. For me to not recognise that the two of them had varying degrees of crushes on me would be moronic. Hinata wasn't very obvious about it because she valued my friendship first so it took me a few years to notice. It was easier to deal with her than Ino—the blonde made it painfully obvious in the last year of the Academy.

She didn't ask me out or anything, but she'd sit with us at lunch and break and whatnot. She and Hinata got on surprisingly well, to be honest, even if their weird double-speak was awkward to sit through. I'd got a lot of practice feigning obliviousness when those two were together.

Asuma raised an eyebrow when I returned to him. "What's the matter? Girl trouble?"

"Girl trouble?" Shikamaru looked over at Hinata and then Ino. "Ah. Sucks to be you."

I sat down beside him. "Don't you start, lazybones."

"Lazybones?" Kurenai said with a small snort of laughter. "I think I'll start calling you that, Shikamaru. It sums you up almost perfectly."

He threw his head back and groaned towards the sky.

"See?" I pushed his shoulder playfully. "Someone agrees with me."

"Shut it, Naruto."

"Whatever you say." I laughed and leaned forward, crossing my legs. "Asuma, you said we have five minutes till training starts. It's been five minutes."

Kurenai wrinkled her nose. "Leave it to him to be late."

"Don't tell me you didn't see this coming, Kurenai?" Asuma smiled.

"I did, but I'm going to complain regardless." She tapped her chin and then whirled on Asuma. "Oh, you should've brought Gai and Team 3. That would have made him come here on time."

He shrugged. "My lot and I already trained with Gai this morning. I didn't want to be a bother."

I felt a sudden rush of cold wind at my back before something knocked me over. I opened my eyes to a mass of pink hair in my face. "...I think I'm gonna hurl."

"If you are, don't do it on me," I said, gingerly lifting them off me to see who it was. I already had my suspicions but I had to be sure. "...Yep, hello, Sakura."

Kakashi Hatake stood over us, his grey eye narrowed pleasantly.

Asuma patted his shoulder. "You didn't have to use the Body Flicker Jutsu, Kakashi."

"Without it, I'd just be late," replied the man.

"But you're late already. What's the difference?" asked Kurenai.

He turned his head to her. "I'd be fashionably late."

She put her hands on her hips, a few degrees away from openly glaring at him. I lifted the man's charge out of my lap waiting for the immediate spell of dizziness and vertigo to run its course. Sasuke and Shino gave me two identical nods that I returned, though Sasuke broke eye contact to scoff at Sakura.

She scrambled away from me and scowled as if I'd done something wrong.

"That's cold of you." I shook my head. "I stop you from cracking your head open and I don't even get a thank you? See if I try to help you next time."

She sighed and bowed. "Thanks, Naruto."

"You're welcome," I replied.

Finally, I turned my attention to Kakashi, who seemed to be looking at me again. I honestly had forgotten all about him, probably because I'd never seen him before until today.

I didn't know if I should've been feeling angry at him or not. As the closest person to my parents, he should've made an effort to be in my life but he was fourteen when they died and then a few years before their deaths, one of his closest friends jumped onto his attack and killed herself.

Was it wrong of me to feel a sense of relief that he wasn't part of my life earlier? Not because he was a bad omen but because neither of us was in a good place, mentally speaking.

"I've heard a bit about you, Naruto," said Kakashi, placing a hand on Sasuke and Shino's shoulders. "From these two."

"Really?"

He chuckled at the disbelief in my voice. "Well… Shino more than Sasuke."

"That makes more sense."

Sasuke snorted.

"I hear you and Sasuke have a bit of a rivalry going on."

I shrugged. "I like to think we get along well enough, but it's something like that."

"I see. Well, today's training will let me see how true that is." He nodded at Asuma and Kurenai. "Let's get this started."

All of us genin stood assembled in a row before the jonin, waiting for instructions. I'd done joint training twice before—in the morning with Team 3 and then earlier on with Team 8. The fact that we were all top ten graduating students in our respective classes wasn't lost on me either.

"Afternoon, all," said Kakashi. "I'm sure some of you are wondering why you're here—why, it's for training, of course, but think of it like an assessment as well"

"What will you be assessing, sensei?" asked Sakura.

"Whether you guys are ready for out-of-village missions."

I could feel our collective attention fix on the man and seeing his weird eye smile thing, that's exactly what he'd intended.

Asuma took over. "Don't get ahead of yourselves. The missions might still be D-ranks, but for all you know there's a decent likelihood that you'll run into non-shinobi combatants—ronin, bandits, yakuza, and the like."

"Nice!" Kiba pumped his fist. "Man, I'm psyched!"

"Which brings us to today's exercise," said Kurenai with a smile. "Each of our teams serves a different purpose. Team 10 is a frontline vanguard team, Team 7 is a saboteur team, and Team 8 is a hunter team. So, here's what's going to happen," She turned to address her team, "Team 8, you have one hour. In that hour, you need to capture a specific member from each team and I'll inform you who they are shortly."

Kakashi clapped his hands. "Team 7, your job is to protect said teammate from being captured for an hour. Your teammate will not be able to use chakra at all, so you'll have to take that into account. Oftentimes, saboteur teams will also work on extracting hostages in enemy territory alongside the usual pesky stuff we get up to. With that in mind, you'll know the fellow member that Team 8 is hunting."

Asuma gave the three of us a wide grin. "And now, it's your turn. One of you is a second target that Team 8 has to capture but from a certain point of view, you guys are the most screwed. Since we're a vanguard team, fighting in completely unknown situations is going to be something you'll just have to get used to."

"I don't like where this is going," muttered Naruto.

"Team 10, you will not be told which one of you Team 8 will be hunting." He chuckled at Hinata's disbelief. "Yeah, I hear you but here's where you'll get a leg up: said teammate won't be prevented from using chakra. Keep that teammate safe for an hour and you win."

"Sensei," said Hinata. "Doesn't that mean any of us could be the target and we wouldn't know?"

"Mhm."

I looked at Team 8's huddle a few metres to my right; Shikamaru caught my eye and smirked. Kakashi pulled out what looked like a prisoner seal that restrained a person's ability to mould and therefore direct chakra. The surprising thing wasn't that he had one of them—a saboteur team having prisoner seals made sense.

It was who he'd applied the prisoner seal to.

"...Guys, this just became a lot harder than I thought. Sasuke's the target on Team 7's end."

Hinata pinned the top of her thumb between her front teeth. "Team 8 has Shikamaru, Ino, and Kiba. If I'm judging this right, Shikamaru is going to plan, Kiba's going to be their muscle, and either he or Ino will restrain the target with their jutsu. We don't know who they'll be coming after."

I slung an arm over both their shoulders and brought them into a huddle of our own. "But we know they're after Sasuke, so here's what we're going to do…"

A few minutes later, we stood assembled in front of the jonin, who gave us one final smile.

"Teams 7, 8, and 10… disperse!"