"Naruto, can you sense our target?"
Naruto sighed, leaning down to place two fingers against the ground. It didn't take long for him to find the chakra signature of their target, despite the fact that it was so small that it might as well have been nonexistent. After so many times, the sensation was practically ingrained into his mind. He couldn't count the number of times he'd sensed the damn thing entirely by accident.
"Yeah, Bakashi-Sensei, Tora's just hiding from us in the forest," Naruto reported dully. "He's hidden under a bush next to a tree. If you'd just let me use my-"
"Nope," Kakashi interrupted with a bored voice. "Not until after you become chunin. Your choice, not mine."
Naruto groaned and sent a glare at a smirking Sasuke. "You know you and Sakura are gonna have to catch the little shit, right? Since I'm the one who tracked him down and all." Sasuke's smirk fell and Naruto couldn't hold back a grin. "And remember, no Sharingan to dodge her claws."
"I never thought I'd hate a cat so much," Sasuke muttered.
"It isn't fair that you get to avoid chasing her just because you tracked her!" Sakura protested. "You're a sensor, that's totally unfair! At least if you get scratched you'll be healed by the time we get back to the mission assignment room!"
"Sakura, missions are all about teamwork," Kakashi reminded. "Sometimes one of you will have an advantage in a specific area, but that doesn't make it right for that person to do all the work."
"But-"
"Have you forgotten the mission where you all had to grade the academy students' assignments?" Kakashi continued. "You breezed through your part because you remembered everything perfectly, and Naruto and Sasuke took much longer because they had to repeatedly check the answer keys. But I didn't give you their part of the work, even though you would've gotten it done faster."
Sakura sighed. "I understand, sensei."
"Good." Kakashi eye-smiled at them, then gestured towards the forest. "You two should probably get going before Tora moves."
After two more groans, Sasuke and Sakura both left towards where Naruto could still sense the cat. It left Naruto alone with Kakashi, who promptly buried his masked face back into the orange book he always carried around. Naruto screwed his face up at the sight of it.
"Why do you read that smut all the time?" Naruto asked bluntly, never one to beat around the bush. "You don't seem like a pervert but-"
Kakashi looked up from the book with a glare that sent shivers down Naruto's spine. "It's a good book."
"Uh, okay," Naruto said, making a mental note to never insult Icha Icha in front of Kakashi. "Maybe I'll, uh, read it sometime."
Kakashi paled. "No."
"No?" Naruto echoed.
"No," Kakashi repeated. "Your- uh, the Hokage would murder me if I got you into these books. If you ever read it, it's not because of me, okay?"
Naruto stared at him for a few seconds before nodding slowly. "Yeah, okay," he agreed easily. He hadn't been planning on reading them anyways, he just hadn't been sure how else to respond to Kakashi.
Kakashi sighed like he'd just been saved from a death sentence. "Good."
Naruto was about to question Kakashi, but then he heard a shout of "Got you!" ring through the forest, closely followed by "Ow!" Both sounded like Sakura, which was confirmed when Naruto heard her shout, "Sasuke, get her!"
Sasuke wasn't loud enough for his response to carry to where Naruto and Kakashi were, but Naruto would bet money on it being a grunt. When Naruto molded his chakra to see if Tora had escaped again, he was glad to sense that the cat was being held by Sasuke. Capturing Tora wasn't hard, necessarily, but every other genin Naruto had talked to over the past month agreed that it was by far the worst D-rank. Even worse than painting old peoples' fences or babysitting their grandkids.
A minute later, Sasuke and Sakura stepped out of the forest. Tora was being held by Sasuke like Naruto had sensed, but Naruto couldn't hold back a laugh when he saw how scratched up his two teammates were.
"Shut up," Sasuke snapped, Sharingan spinning to life in his eyes as he glared at Naruto. He held Tora still by the scruff, but the scratches up and down his arms were evidence he'd managed that the hard way. "I will throw this cat at you, idiot."
Kakashi tsked. "Your eyes, Sasuke."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and deactivated his Sharingan. "Whatever."
"If you were going to break Kakashi-Sensei's rule anyways, you should've done it when we were catching the stupid cat!" Sakura exclaimed. Her arms were scratched up even worse than Sasuke's, and, for possibly the first time ever, she was actually glaring at Sasuke. Naruto couldn't believe his eyes. "You could've saved us both from Tora's claws!"
Sasuke just grunted. "Let's get this cat back to her owner."
As Madam Shijimi left the room with her squealing cat held in a death grip in her arms, Kakashi deftly avoided the pleading gazes of his three genin.
They'd been Team Seven for a month now, which meant a month's worth of D-ranks. Understandably, the genin weren't happy with that. No one enjoyed D-ranks. Kakashi had been more or less able to mollify them with training for the first couple of weeks, but that came with the unfortunate effect of making them even more overprepared for any possible C-rank they went on.
All three could walk on trees and water, though the boys got electrocuted a few times in the process when Sasuke slipped up and infused Raiton into his steps. Kakashi had gotten Naruto started on the basics of kenjutsu, and then Sasuke too at his insistence to not fall behind Naruto. Both showed a strong aptitude for it, which wasn't all that surprising considering their families, but where they really excelled was ninjutsu and taijutsu.
He'd offered kenjutsu training to Sakura too, but she declined in favor of focusing on her taijutsu skills. She had a strong aptitude for a style he copied from someone during the war, which was good because Kakashi was of the opinion that the academy style was too well-known to rely on solely. Admittedly, though, Kakashi was increasingly unsure whether he was the right one-on-one teacher for Sakura. Her perfect chakra control would be ideal for medical ninjutsu, an area he was admittedly lacking in.
"Bakashi-Sensei!"
"Hm?" Kakashi asked, looking up from his book to see Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura staring at him. "What was that?"
"Tell the old man we're ready for a C-rank!" Naruto pleaded. "You know we're ready!"
Kakashi met the Hokage's questioning gaze, ignoring Iruka berating Naruto for his lack of manners and respect. Were they ready?
Skill-wise, the answer was an unquestionable yes. Hell, Naruto and Sasuke were probably already ready to bulldoze their way through the Chunin Exams. Sakura wasn't on the same level as her teammates, but Kakashi didn't think it was his bias speaking when he thought that she'd improved significantly over the past month. Sakura was a fast learner and soaked up knowledge like a sponge. Altogether, Team Seven was probably the strongest genin team of their generation.
But there was more to being a shinobi than skill. Shinobi needed a specific mindset to go far, one he wasn't sure his team had yet. They had the teamwork down, at least; Naruto and Sasuke were a nightmare when working together, like they instinctively knew how best to assist the other, and Sakura's intelligence in so many different areas made her an invaluable addition to any team. But Naruto and Sasuke were already traumatized severely, and Kakashi was well aware of how even a single mission could worsen that.
Then again, C-ranks were meant to be a relatively easy bridge into the harder aspects of shinobi life. If Kakashi coddled them for too long, it'd only be worse when they were inevitably faced with something he wasn't able to prepare them for.
"I believe they are ready, Lord Hokage," Kakashi said, interrupting Iruka's speech on the importance of D-ranks. "I may have over-prepared them, if anything."
The Hokage chuckled. "I think you and I both know you can never be too prepared, Kakashi." Kakashi hummed his agreement as the Hokage searched through mission scrolls. Eventually, the Hokage made an approving noise and held out one for Kakashi. "That should do for a first mission."
Kakashi put Icha Icha away and grabbed the opened scroll from the Hokage, quickly reading through it. The mission was to travel to the Land of Mountain Streams, a country that was about a two day walk from Konoha and on the border of the Land of Fire without its own hidden village, and investigate reports of wild animals attacking a town. A pretty standard C-rank, and a good chance to teach the kids about hunting and camping out.
"Team Seven accepts the mission," Kakashi decided, handing the mission scroll to Sakura so she and the two pains in his ass could read it over.
"Good," the Hokage said. "You'll leave in the morning. For now, you're dismissed."
"Woohoo!" Naruto cheered. "C-rank! C-rank! We're even leaving the country!"
Kakashi smiled under his mask at Naruto's enthusiasm. "Yes, we are," he agreed. "The Land of Mountain Streams is two days by foot, and we may have to be there for a while, so I suggest you pack accordingly."
Naruto's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Two days…" He abruptly whipped his head to look at Sasuke. "You gotta help me pack! I've never even left the village before!"
"Neither have I," Sasuke admitted. "We'll just have to pack together."
Naruto nodded and turned to Sakura. "You wanna pack with us?" he offered. "If we all pack together then we won't bring extras of stuff we don't need, y'know."
As the kids talked, Kakashi looked back over at Iruka and the Hokage to see both were smiling proudly at the three. If either was surprised at Naruto so effortlessly roping Sakura into his and Sasuke's friendship, they didn't show it.
If nothing else, the team certainly had teamwork going for them.
"Not to be overdramatic," Naruto started, his voice distinctly overdramatic, "but I think the world might be ending."
Sasuke rolled his eyes at his friend. "Again?" he asked drily. "What is it this time? Did I forget to call you an idiot today? If so-"
A fist sailed towards his arm, but Sasuke was too used to it by now and effortlessly ducked under it. "No, bastard, look at the gate!"
Only a little begrudgingly, because that was where they were walking anyway, Sasuke looked over at the gate.
And froze.
"Okay, you might be right this time," he conceded, half tempted to activate his Sharingan to check if he'd been caught in a genjutsu. "The world might be ending."
As if on cue, Kakashi looked up from his book and waved at them from the gate. Sakura was standing next to him and waved at them too, but Sasuke had expected her to already be there. Kakashi, though? As long as Team Seven had been a thing, Kakashi had never been on time. Not even once. At best he was an hour late, at worst he was hours late. One memorable time he'd been five hours late to training and had the lamest excuse yet: "Sorry, I tripped getting out of bed."
But it was 8:05, only five minutes after they'd been set to meet up at the gate, and the man was already there.
"Oh, no," Naruto muttered. "If Bakashi-Sensei is there before us and it's already past eight…"
"That makes us the late ones," Sasuke finished. A thought struck him and, before Naruto could inevitably have the same one, he said, "Latest one loses."
Sasuke bolted towards the gate at top speed, even pumping chakra into his legs so he could run faster. He heard Naruto start running a second after him, but it was too late; they were too close in running speed for either to win with a slow start. Of course, that meant Sasuke reached Kakashi and Sakura less than a second before Naruto did.
Smirking, he shoved his hands into his pocket and turned to Naruto. "I win. That makes it twenty to nineteen in my favor."
"Damnit!" Naruto swore. "I'm gonna win the next-"
"You're both late," Kakashi interrupted drily. "Any excuse?"
Naruto stared blankly at Kakashi. "Uh, we got lost on the road of life?"
Kakashi hummed consideringly. "Reasonable enough to me," he said eventually. "You have everything packed? Sakura said you two would be coming with all of it, but I don't see any bags."
"I bought us storage seals to make it easier on all of us," Sasuke explained. Naruto still swore he was going to learn sealing one day, but he hadn't started yet and Sasuke had plenty of money to spend on things like pre-made seals.
"Ah, smart." Kakashi turned away from them and held up a hand to grab the attention of the two chunin who guarded the gate. "We'll be leaving now!" he called out, starting to walk out of the village. The genin all quickly followed. "If the Hokage asks why we're a little late, make sure he knows it's the boys' fault and not mine!"
"Ah, shit," Naruto mumbled. "Hopefully the old man isn't mad."
Sasuke grunted. It'd probably be fine. The Hokage treated Naruto like a grandson, and he'd always treated Sasuke similarly. Sasuke was named after his father. He wouldn't be upset that they were just five minutes late, right? Especially considering they'd made the completely logical assumption that Kakashi would be three hours late and a few minutes wouldn't matter. "It'll be fine."
"Just blame Kakashi-Sensei for giving you bad habits," Sakura suggested. "It only makes sense for us to pick up some traits from our sensei, right?"
Naruto laughed loudly and high-fived Sakura. "Genius! Then it's Bakashi-Sensei's fault."
Kakashi sighed. "Betrayed by my own team. I was never this rude to my sensei…"
Sasuke's ears perked up. "Your sensei?" They barely knew anything about Kakashi, other than the fact that he was an extremely powerful shinobi who liked to read smut in public and constantly arrived everywhere late. No one seemed to want to answer questions about him either. If they could find out who taught him, at least... "You've never mentioned them before."
"I haven't?" Kakashi looked over his shoulder at them and eye-smiled. "Then I'm not gonna start now."
Sasuke's eye twitched. An extremely powerful and extremely annoying shinobi, he mentally corrected. It was good, all things considered, that the man could hide everything so easily, but it was damn annoying. They hadn't even learned why he covered his eye and most of his face! He'd most likely lost his eye somehow, but was the how connected to why he covered his face?
"What'll it take for you to start telling us about your sensei?" Naruto asked, just as curious as Sasuke and a lot more blunt about it.
"Hmm." They walked in silence for a little while, and no one was surprised when Kakashi just shrugged. "I don't know. I don't particularly feel like ever telling you."
Naruto and Sakura groaned simultaneously. Sasuke shared the sentiment, but Kakashi wasn't quite annoying enough to warrant a full groan from him. That level of annoyance was usually reserved for his idiot best friend.
"So how hard do you guys think it'll be to deal with the wild animals?" Naruto was never one to be quiet, something Sasuke didn't mind as much as he'd initially expected when they first started training. "And how many do you think they'll be? I hope there's a lot! Then we can compete to see who gets the most!"
"I don't think missions should have competitions," Sakura said. "Wouldn't that get in the way of teamwork?"
"Actually, it isn't uncommon for shinobi to compete to see who's doing the best. It's one way to ensure everyone works their hardest." Kakashi looked over his shoulder again and gave both Naruto and Sasuke a stern eye. "As long as you don't let the competition interfere with the mission, that is."
"Yes, sensei, we won't!" Naruto promised.
"Hn," Sasuke agreed. "I won't need to sabotage Naruto to beat him."
Naruto laughed. "Keep telling yourself that, bastard. It'll make it even better when I wipe the floor with you!"
Sakura's legs were screaming at her by the time they stopped to make a camp for the night.
Her stamina had grown by leaps and bounds over the last month thanks to all of Kakashi's training, but she'd never had to walk nonstop for over twelve hours before. The fact that they were far outside of the village and the sun had set hours ago didn't help. She knew her team was strong, and that Kakashi wouldn't let anything bad happen to them, but walking under the dim moonlight somewhere she'd never been before still had anxiety creeping up on her.
Unsurprisingly, at least to her, neither of her teammates seemed to share her exhaustion. Naruto had practically endless energy reserves, apparently due to being a Senju, and Sasuke had been training with him daily for years. It'd take a lot more than a day of walking to tire them out, but Sakura knew better than to compare her physical abilities against theirs. The fact that she'd improved over the past month was what mattered.
"Naruto, Sasuke, you two set up the tents," Kakashi ordered. "Sakura-"
"Actually, sensei, I have a better idea," Naruto interrupted.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"
"Well, since we're in the wilderness and no one is around for miles…" Naruto trailed off, forming the snake seal; the one he seemed to use for all his Mokuton jutsu. "I figured I could, y'know, Mokuton us a place to sleep in. It'd be way more protective than any tent and we'd all have plenty of room!"
Kakashi put his hand to his chin thoughtfully. Sakura expected him to veto the idea, since he was usually against Naruto using Mokuton anywhere but the designated training ground, and she was surprised when he nodded. "You're sure you have enough skill to make a house that wouldn't collapse on us in our sleep?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah, totally!" Naruto nodded vigorously. "I can make pretty much anything I can imagine, and Sasuke made me memorize a bunch of architecture stuff for exactly this."
" 'Architecture stuff' ," Sakura echoed. "Do you mean, like, blueprints? Architectural plans?"
Sasuke grunted confirmation. "The first house he tried to create collapsed within an hour so I made him read to make sure it wouldn't happen again. He's built more since that didn't collapse."
Kakashi's lone eye narrowed. "And where have you practiced this? Because I don't remember you creating any houses."
Naruto and Sasuke shared a look. It always felt like they could communicate silently, whether they were in the middle of a spar or doing nothing at all, and the only reason Sakura didn't feel left out by it was the knowledge that Kakashi was just as clueless as her. Eventually, Naruto explained, "There's this hidden forest clearing we used to train in all the time."
"The Hokage told us he made sure no one stumbled across it once he learned about Naruto's Mokuton," Sasuke continued. "Since no one was ever waiting for us at home," Sakura winced in sympathy at the reminder that neither of them had parents, "there were days that we just passed out there. Eventually, Naruto learned he could create a house that we could sleep in for the night."
"Can't really make bedding though," Naruto added. "Just the house itself. Not as good as a place with, like, actual electricity and stuff."
Kakashi hummed understandingly. "Alright then. Go ahead, but don't make it too large. That way you can get rid of it quickly if we need a quick getaway."
Naruto grinned. "You three stand behind me," he said, walking over to the side of the clearing they'd decided to make camp in. Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi all listened without question, more than aware of how dangerous Mokuton could be. After glancing back to make sure they were all behind him, Naruto ran through a series of hand seals that started and ended in the snake seal. "Mokuton:Wooden Cabin Style Three, Medium Version!"
Sakura winced at the name. One thing she'd learned about Naruto was that most of the jutsu he created himself had long, terrible, or over-complicated names, which were many of his Mokuton jutsu since he didn't have anyone to learn them from. It wasn't somethiny she dwelled on for long, because the sight of the Shodai's legendary Mokuton always caught her at least a little by surprise.
In wonder, she watched as wood spontaneously sprouted from the ground, almost root-like and alive as Naruto grew a mass of it to work with. Once there was enough, it began to take shape, the root-like wood flattening into the stereotypical log walls of a cabin. A trianglular roof grew to cover it, peppered with green leaves growing all over, and a chimney stuck out of the top. Even a porch formed at the front of the houss, complete with wooden chairs next to the empty frame for a door and windows. Naruto must have saved those for last, because once the rest of the cabin settled completely, a sliding door grew to fill the doorframe and shutters grew to block the windows.
The end result was a stereotypical log cabin about nine meters wide and long, with a sliding door in the center of a short porch. If it weren't for the leaves covering the top that almost always accompanied any of Naruto's larger more complicated creations, and the fact that the windows lacked actual glass, Sakura would've thought it was a professionally designed cabin.
Naruto looked back at them, still grinning and not looking tired in the slightest, and waved them forward. "Follow me, I wanna show you the inside!"
Sasuke and Kakashi both followed him without pause. Sakura stood there for a moment, still marveling at both the house and the casual usage of the Shodai's legendary bloodline, before shaking herself out of it and following.
The wooden door didn't slide open as easily or quietly as most, but it was still fairly quiet for one that was made out of solid wood. Inside was pitch black, which wasn't really surprising, and a lit candle soon appeared in Sasuke's hand to light it up. With an ease suggesting he'd done it before, Sasuke then walked around the cabin and deposited lit candles on premade candle holders.
Now that they had light, Sakura looked around the cabin. The door entered to a room on the left and a wall on the right, bare save for a few random plants grown out of the walls and ceiling. The wall on the right had another sliding door, and there was a small looking hallway at the end of the empty room they were standing in.
"I made three rooms for people to sleep in," Naruto explained. "That one," he pointed at the sliding door, "and then two more on both ends of that hallway over there. This room is just for us to hang out in."
"Three rooms?" Sakura frowned. "But there are four of us."
"He usually just makes a small cabin to put our sleeping bags in," Sasuke explained with a shrug. "You and Kakashi will both have your own rooms though."
"Oh, okay." Sakura had known she'd have her own tent when they went camping, but her own room? Ino would be so jealous when Sakura was finally allowed to tell her.
"Well done Naruto," Kakashi praised. "You could probably make a fortune selling places like this."
Naruto laughed. "Yeah, but then I'd have to figure out, like, electricity and plumbing and stuff, y'know, which would be super annoying."
Kakashi hummed in agreement. "Well, even without amenities this place is nice for C-rank travel lodging." He clapped Naruto's shoulder. "You're gonna be very popular once you become a chunin. There'll probably be fights over who gets to go on long-term missions with you."
A wistful smile broke out on Naruto's face. "Ya think?" he asked, his voice uncharacteristically soft.
Sakura was suddenly reminded of the stares Naruto always got when they were walking around the village, and the similar way he'd been treated by everyone, herself included, before he and Sasuke had become friends. For the life of her, she'd never been able to figure out why he was treated that way. No amount of harmless pranking could warrant that much notoriety.
She'd asked her parents about it, once, but the only answer she'd got was that 'people can be stupid.' Which, as true as the statement was, answered very little. And the one time she'd worked up the courage to ask Naruto and Sasuke about it, they'd been just as clueless as her.
"Definitely," Kakashi confirmed. "Anyone with a brain would want to go on missions with someone who can create houses to sleep in."
Naruto grinned proudly. "My ability is pretty awesome," he agreed. "Can't wait to see the crowds' faces when I finally reveal it."
Kakashi ruffled his hair. "You and me both, kid."
"You should bring a camera to take pictures of the reactions, Kakashi-Sensei," Sakura suggested, while Naruto narrowed his eyes at Kakashi and fixed his hair. "Since the three of us will be in the competitor's box and all."
The first time they told her of their plan to enter the next Chunin Exams and then reveal their kekkei genkai to everyone during the finals, Sakura had been extremely stressed by the idea. They'd just become genin and she hadn't been training intensively for years like Naruto and Sasuke had. But Naruto's confidence and determination were infectious, and somehow she'd become determined to become a chunin with them.
Kakashi eye-smiled. "If you all manage to make it to the finals then sure, I'll bring a camera."
"Better be a nice one." Sasuke's eyes bled red. "You'll have to capture everyone's reactions to more than just Mokuton."
"Maa, Sasuke, I know," Kakashi said drily. "Your Sharingan is pretty cool too."
Mokuton and Sharingan, brought back to the village in one day. Sakura could only imagine the uproar it'd cause. No offense to the Hyuga Clan, but they were both Konoha's most legendary kekkei genkai, especially because people thought they were both gone. She could definitely see why Naruto and Sasuke hid them for so long; if even half of what was written about them was true, people from all over would want their hands on both.
She didn't miss the fact that people going after Naruto and Sasuke would inevitably end up involving her in one way or another. That'd been some extra and terrifying motivation to train harder.
A yawn escaped her mouth and she blushed a little when the three turned to look at her. "Uh, sorry, my mom made me wake up extra early this morning so she could be sure I'd be ready," she said, a tad awkwardly. It always felt a bit weird to mention her parents around her team, but sometimes it just slipped out. "And I'm not really used to walking for so long."
"It's probably a good idea for you three to get some sleep," Kakashi suggested. "I'll take that room," he pointed to the door they were standing near, "because it's closest to the door."
Sakura nodded in understanding, a second yawn escaping her mouth. As if it were contagious, Naruto and Sasuke yawned in unison after her. "Here," Sasuke said, handing her a storage scroll. "Your stuff is in there."
"Thank you." Sakura glanced past them, at the other two doors down the hall. "I guess I'll take the room on the left, if that's fine." Since Naruto was the one who literally created the cabin, he'd probably want first dibs. "Unless you two want-"
Naruto shrugged. "All the rooms are basically the same bland wooden box, honestly." He gestured around them. "I don't have much control over the interior when I'm creating things yet. But I'm working on it, believe it!"
"You've been saying that for months," Sasuke said drily. "And all you've managed to do is add candle holders to the interior."
"It's hard, okay?" Naruto sighed heavily. "I have to, like, perfectly imagine what I want to create, which is hard when I can't see it."
"It's still really cool," Sakura offered, earning another proud smile from Naruto. "I'm gonna go get set up to go to bed now," she continued, stepping past them a bit awkwardly. "Goodnight."
"'Night, Sakura!" Naruto said brightly.
"'Night," Sasuke and Kakashi both echoed, oddly in tune and a lot more quietly than Naruto.
Giving them one last wave, she headed into the empty room on the left so she could start unloading stuff from her scroll.
Naruto jolted awake to the sound of banging, instinctively grabbing a kunai he'd taken to falling asleep next to.
It took him a moment to place his surroundings: a bare wooden room, remnants of his chakra still filling the structure, with only his sleeping bag and a second one beside the opposite wall to fill it. Sitting up in the other, a kunai also in his hand, was Sasuke, his eyes a deep red.
They shared a look, Naruto vaguely recalling that they were away from Konoha on a C-rank and not just sleeping out in the forest, and both turned to the door at the sound of more banging. Naruto furrowed his brow in concentration for a second, then sighed and lowered his kunai when he felt the chakra on the other side of the door.
"It's Bakashi-Sensei," he told Sasuke, before calling out, "Hey, what gives?!"
"It's time to get up!" Kakashi explained. "Be glad I let you sleep in until seven!"
Naruto's jaw fell open. Clasping his hands in the snake seal, he forced the door open to glare at Kakashi on the other end. "You count that as sleeping in?" he asked, aghast. Seven was early! "What do you count as waking up normally?!"
Kakashi, entirely unaffected by the door spontaneously slamming open, just rubbed his chin. He was already fully dressed, forehead protector and all, and Naruto suddenly felt disappointed that he hadn't even tried to catch a peek of what Kakashi's face looked like when he had the chance. "Well, when you're on a mission there's no such thing as waking up early." He eye-smiled at them. "If I were you, I'd just be glad I wasn't woken up at five. Anyways, time to get ready. We have another long day of walking ahead of us."
Naruto sighed and forced the door to shut again, turning to Sasuke. More banging sounded outside in the hall, but it was obviously against Sakura's door. Naruto's hands never left the snake seal and he asked, "Want me to just put up a divider so we can get changed?"
Sasuke grunted his agreement, putting his kunai down and grabbing a clean set of clothes, and Naruto willed a divider into existence in the middle of the room.
They both changed quickly and Naruto receded the wooden divider back into the floor, then they habitually put away all of their stuff and left the room. Both of them were careful not to leave anything behind, since whatever remained inside when Naruto got rid of the house would be buried and probably violently crushed.
If Naruto ever figured out how to make a house quickly enough, they'd make for a good trap.
Kakashi was leaning against the wall by the exit, reading Icha Icha like always, when they made it to the main room. A small part of Naruto sort of wanted to read the book the more he thought about it, if only because Kakashi seemed so determined he shouldn't, but at the same time, Sasuke would never let him live it down if he was caught reading that. But why did Kakashi seem so against him reading it?
"Didja wake Sakura?" Naruto asked, yawning and putting his forehead protector on. His hair was getting kinda long after a month of constant training and D-ranks without much free time, but as long as he had his forehead protector on it wasn't usually annoying. And he kinda liked it longer. It made his hair look a little more like the Nidaime's, if yellower.
"We'll see," Kakashi said. "If not, you think you could bury her room without crushing her to death?"
Naruto blinked slowly, still-groggy mind trying to make sense of his sensei's words. "Uh, mayb-"
"I'm up, I'm up!" Sakura called out, rushing out of her room with her stuff shoved in her arms. "Don't you dare bury me, Naruto!"
Naruto awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Uh, I wouldn't unless Bakashi-Sensei told me to?"
Sakura glared, but Kakashi ruffled Naruto's hair. "What a good little subordinate," he said fondly. "Now! Since everyone's awake, we should get moving for today. Everyone have all their stuff?" They nodded. "Good. If you leave anything behind, I won't let Naruto waste time trying to get it back."
"That's good, 'cause I'm not sure I could," Naruto admitted. "Anything inside would just get crushed, y'know."
Sasuke and Kakashi looked unperturbed by that, but Sakura's eyes widened. She quickly looked through the stuff in her arms, put them away inside her storage scroll, and then ran back to her room. When she returned, she was in the middle of sealing a few more items away. Naruto cringed at the thought of how mad she would've been had he buried her sleeping bag.
Kakashi didn't let them waste any time before leaving, apparently determined to make it to the village they'd be staying at during the C-rank by the end of the day, and Naruto made sure to get rid of the wooden house as quickly as possible. It was something he was getting pretty fast at, which was good because he had to do it a lot.
With two hand seals, ram and snake, Naruto channeled his chakra into the ground and the cabin. Since the cabin was actually created by his chakra, it responded to him easily as he willed it to deform and recede into the ground. His experience with Doton let him control the earth to completely smooth over the area it receded into, and a touch of Mokuton spread grass over what would have otherwise been a large stretch of dirt.
"Done!" he announced, though he really hadn't needed to.
Kakashi observed the clearing with an experienced eye, and Naruto thought he looked a bit impressed. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think nothing had been in this clearing for a while," Kakashi said. "Good job, Naruto. I'm glad you can see the importance in covering your tracks. The grass is a nice touch."
Naruto beamed. "Thanks!"
Sasuke, of course, had to cut in with, "He used to not be able to match the grass's growth to the rest of the area and always ended up making everything in the vicinity overgrown."
"Hey! I have a lot of chakra, okay?" Naruto crossed his arms stubbornly. "You try controlling all of it. It's really easy to overuse!"
"Understatement of the millennium," Kakashi muttered, shaking his head. "Well," he continued quickly, "we should get going. We have a long walk ahead of us, kids."
With that, they got going for the day.
Like the day before, Kakashi had Naruto routinely stretching out his senses to detect anyone in their vicinity. He assured them, much to Naruto's disappointment, that they wouldn't be running into any other shinobi during their mission, but said there was always the chance of bandits or other threats trying to attack them as they traveled. Naruto hoped there would be some, because he was bored of just walking, but he'd yet to sense anything other than a handful of other travelers the day before.
As boring as it was to walk endlessly, Naruto couldn't help but feel excited when he saw the environment start to change. There were still plenty of forests around them, but the terrain got more and more mountainous as they continued forward. Even if he expected it, considering the name of the country they were traveling to, the sight of new terrain was still fascinating to him.
It was the same for Sasuke and Sakura, so at least Naruto wasn't alone in his fascination. Sasuke, like Naruto, had never even left the village before, and Sakura had only ever visited villages close to Konoha with her parents or with Ino and her family. The sight of the trees thinning out and mountains in the distance was new to all of them.
Naruto was so caught up in the sights that he nearly missed a dozen chakra signatures ahead of them. Since his full range sretched out so far he'd be sensing people too far for it to matter, he'd been limiting himself to what he thought was two kilometers, and they were just at the end of his senses.
"Bakashi-Sensei, I can sense a dozen people two kilometers ahead of us," Naruto reported. "I don't think they're moving, it seems like they're just sitting there."
Kakashi hummed consideringly. "What's their chakra like?"
"Small." Naruto narrowed his focus to where he could sense the people ahead. "They feel kinda like civilians but," he frowned, trying to think of how best to word it, "more honed, I guess? I don't really know."
"Probably bandits, then," Kakashi guessed. "Untrained in using their chakra, but more accustomed to fighting than civilians." He'd been reading his book while they walked, but put it away and looked between the three of them. "What do you three think we should do?"
"Well, since we know they're there, couldn't we just avoid them?" Sakura asked. "We could just walk around and they'd probably never even know we were here."
"Probably," Kakashi agreed. "But that'd leave them to cause trouble for anyone else who comes down this path, and the next people may be civilians who don't have the ability to protect themselves or their cargo."
Naruto could see Sakura and Sasuke didn't like that idea any more than he did. "We could just take them out," Sasuke suggested. "It'd be easy if they really aren't well-trained, and we'd be able to turn them in to local authorities so they don't cause anyone else trouble."
Kakashi gave Sasuke a signature eye-smile. "A good idea. And on top of removing potential threats to civilians, turning them in brings the added bonus of making sure the people around here know they can call on our village for help if they ever need it."
Naruto held up a fist for Sasuke. "Great idea, bastard! We get to fight bandits and help our village!"
Sasuke smirked and fist bumped him. "We can't all be idiots. Sakura and I have to pick up the slack from your plant-filled brain."
Naruto scowled. "You're lucky you said that after fist bumping me. If you'd said it first, I would've broken your hand!"
"I know," Sasuke said drily. "That's why I waited."
"Well, you better watch out 'cause-"
"Uh, guys, Kakashi-Sensei is gone."
Naruto and Sasuke both looked over at Sakura in surprise, then at where Kakashi had been standing just before. Like she said, their sensei was gone; even when Naruto tried to sense Kakashi, all he could sense were remnants of his chakra. Naruto still wasn't sure how Kakashi always managed to hide from him.
Slowly, a grin spread across Naruto's face. "He-"
"He wants us to take care of the bandits ourselves," Sasuke interrupted. "That way we won't be able to rely on him to correct us in the moment and it'll just be us three against the bandits."
"Hey, I was gonna say that!" Naruto exclaimed. "You stole my line!"
Sasuke just smirked and then turned to Sakura. "So what's the plan?"
Sakura blinked. "Wait, you want me to come up with the plan?" she asked disbelievingly. Sasuke nodded, and so did Naruto when she looked at him questioningly. "But you two are- Don't you guys fight each other all the time? Wouldn't you be better at plans?"
"My plans usually just involve trying to create specific scenarios that allow me to use specific abilities or prevent ones that'll put me at a disadvantage," Sasuke said. "I analyze more than anything while fighting and adapt to what I see."
"I don't really plan either," Naruto admitted with a shrug. "I do what Sasuke does, I guess. I just come up with stuff when I'm in the middle of fighting, y'know? The only time I really plan before the fight is if I have a new awesome jutsu I wanna show off."
"Oh." Sakura looked between them for a few seconds, then down the road where Naruto had said the bandits were. "Well… Since Kakashi's gone, they'll probably assume we're just kids right? What if we…"
Hidden from sight, and from Naruto's sensory abilities, Kakashi watched as his three students walked towards the dozen bandits.
While facing bandits wasn't a technical part of their C-rank mission, Kakashi was unsurprised to have run into them. He was glad, too, because it gave his students the chance to fight some opponents that weren't their allies. Granted, facing off with bandits likely wouldn't count as a real fight for any of them; he was sure Sakura alone could have handled them without injury, including Naruto and Sasuke was just overkill. But it would still be an easy introduction into life outside a hidden village.
Despite the fact that they easily could have handled the bandits in a direct fight, it seemed Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura chose to go with a more solid plan: their forehead protectors and more obvious ninja gear was hidden away, making them look like three random preteens. Though it was entirely unnecessary, Kakashi was still impressed that they thought to come up with a plan.
One of the bandits, a lookout if Kakashi had to guess, pointed down the road at the three pre-teens and alerted the rest of the bandits to their arrival. There was some whispering about why there were three kids all alone, seemingly without any adult supervision, but they were still foolishly off guard as the three approached.
For the genin's part, it looked like they were actually putting some effort into their disguise beyond just hiding their gear. Naruto's usual cocky grin was gone, replaced by a look of fear Kakashi might have actually believed if it were on anyone else. Sasuke was still relatively unexpressive, but rather than brooding-angry he looked brooding-afraid. Sakura was the best actor of the three, by far; she was holding herself and subtly shaking, walking just a step behind the boys.
All genin got a few acting lessons in the academy, since it was a necessary skill for any shinobi to have, but Kakashi would guess that Naruto and Sasuke didn't care for them that much. They probably didn't see how acting would help their respective goals. Sakura, on the other hand, had probably been determined to learn everything she could in any subject at the academy, and her natural gifts meant she likely got more out of the less blatantly useful lessons than either of her teammates.
When the three kids stopped just a little bit ahead of the bandits, doing a good job of projecting fear, one of the bandits slowly approached them. "What're you doing out here, kids?" a gravelly voice asked.
The kids looked between each other before Naruto stepped forward slightly. "U-uh, we were all traveling with all of our p-parents but we got lost when playing and now we d-don't know where they are," he stuttered. "A-and this is our first t-time so far from home and we d-don't know where to go."
Maybe Kakashi's initial assessment was wrong. Naruto was a pretty good actor too, and the bandit he was talking to certainly bought it. The bandit's face didn't soften, exactly, but his scowl lessened some. "Do you remember which way you all came from?"
Naruto shook his head sadly. "N-no," he admitted, averting his gaze and staring dejectedly down at the ground. "But!" He looked back up at the bandit with a desperate look, grabbing Sasuke by the shoulder to push him forward. "My friend's parents are really rich! They could pay you well if-"
"Rich, eh?" another bandit asked, joining the first in standing in front of the kids. A woman this time, her voice nearly as rough as the first's. "How rich?"
The first bandit gave her a look, but didn't comment. "Really rich," Sasuke said. While he didn't stutter like Naruto, there was still a shaky quality to his voice, tinged with the pride Kakashi heard whenever he spoke of his clan. "I'm the heir to a very important family in our village. My family would pay you well for rescuing us."
Kakashi smiled underneath his mask. Sasuke was the worst actor of the three, but the story they'd chosen filled in any potential holes in his acting. The best lies had a kernel of truth, after all.
"And how well do ya think they'd pay us if we kidnapped you?" the second bandit asked, pulling out a knife.
The first bandit sighed in annoyance at the second, but still pulled out his own knife. "We could've kidnapped these kids without violence, you know," he pointed out tiredly. "Do you always have to resort to attack?"
The second shrugged, grinning cruelly. "It's more fun this way," she said bluntly.
All of them looking sufficiently terrified, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were grabbed by the two bandits and brought to where the other ten were waiting to be tied up. The bandits' greed was practically tangible at the sight of Sasuke, their supposed money maker, but Kakashi watched it slowly shift towards annoyance at the second bandit when the kids acted too afraid to even tell them their names.
Just as annoyance was winning, the second bandit on the receiving end of most of it, Naruto sighed dramatically. "You guys really suck at teamwork, y'know." His fearful act vanished entirely, usual confidence surging back in full force. "Where we come from, we're taught to work with our partners!"
"They'll never make any money like this," Sasuke agreed, smirk back on his face. "They didn't even check us for weapons."
"I'm a little disappointed they didn't," Sakura added. "I was kinda relying on them doing that to kickstart the plan."
The bandits all looked at the kids in confusion, but they didn't have any time to ask questions before the three revealed they'd broken out of their bindings.
"How'd you escape?" one of the bandits demanded.
In lieu of a response, the three kids reached into their clothes and pulled out their forehead protectors. Kakashi could pinpoint the exact moment the bandits realized they messed up.
"Shit!" one swore. "They're Konoha ninja!"
Naruto grinned toothily. "Not just any Konoha ninja, you're looking at a future Hokage!"
Kakashi sighed while Sakura and Sasuke just rolled their eyes. One of the bandits, either braver or stupider than the rest, shouted, "They're still just kids! And we outnumber them, we can take them!"
The shout broke the brief standoff.
Pulling out weapons, swords and knives and various other blades, the bandits tried to attack the kids. Unfortunately for the bandits, all their weapons made contact with were blocks of wood the genin replaced themselves with. Kakashi instantly spotted where his students reappeared, each standing alone at different spots around the bandits.
It took the bandits a few seconds to realize what happened. When they did, they chose the most foolish option of attack: splitting up into three groups of four to attack the kids.
Sticking together would have at least given the bandits the chance at overwhelming their opponents, even if their odds of winning the fights were an unchangeable zero with Kakashi watching. But instead they broke themselves into easily manageable chunks, falling squarely into the trap Team Seven set.
None of the fights lasted long.
Sakura soundly defeated all four of her enemies with just taijutsu, perfectly making use of the copied style Kakashi had given her. She was improving with it impressively quickly. The style itself was vaguely similar to how the Hyuga fought, but rather than using chakra control and the Byakugan to shut down tenketsu, Sakura used her perfect chakra control to flood her opponent's muscles with chakra. It required a lot of knowledge of the human body, something Kakashi had her studying.
Sasuke chose to make use of his kenjutsu skills, unsealing his sword and meeting his opponents in a contest of blades. Unsurprisingly, they didn't stand a chance. Sasuke effortlessly disarmed all of them without even cutting off their fingers; the kid was going to be a monster with a sword once he got some more experience under his belt. Even without his Sharingan active, Sasuke fought fluidly and rarely ever wasted movement.
Naruto… Kakashi sighed. Naruto wasn't even trying to make the fight look like an actual fight. Instead of using taijutsu or kenjutsu like his teammates, he chose to rely on ninjutsu. One bandit got hit with a Water Bullet packed full of enough pressure to send him flying into a tree hard enough to knock him out, another got buried up to his head, the third got taken out when Naruto reshaped the remaining water from his water bullet into a clone that knocked them out from behind, and the last just surrendered.
At least one of the bandits could tell when they were outmatched.
With the fights over, Kakashi flickered over to where Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were gathering. "Nice job," he praised. "You got them to lower their guards, split them up, and dealt with them without injuries."
All three jerked in surprise before turning to him. "Bakashi-Sensei!" Naruto shouted.
Kakashi eye-smiled. "Got it in one," he agreed. "So which of you came up with the plan?"
He had his suspicions, and they were confirmed when Naruto and Sasuke both looked at Sakura. "I did," she confessed. "I figured they'd jump at the chance to ransom children off to supposedly-wealthy parents, and then we could be sure that the dozen who were there were working on their own because they'd have to contact someone else if they weren't."
"Very well thought out." Kakashi ruffled her hair, which earned him a heated glare. That made two of them that he could affectionately annoy by ruffling their hair; he'd have to see if it worked on Sasuke, too. If there was one thing every jounin sensei agreed on, it was that annoying genin was fun. "Have you thought of a way we can get them to the nearest village for incarceration? Since there are only four of us, they may try to escape during the walk."
Realistically, Kakashi doubted they'd try. The two that Naruto left conscious, the one who surrendered and the one who was buried up to his head, were both staring at Kakashi in abject terror. Kakashi had a reputation that could even reach non-shinobi, and the bandits would be reluctant to try and escape Cold-Blooded Kakashi. Especially after they were beaten so soundly by a group of twelve year olds.
But right now, Kakashi was a teacher. He needed to make sure his team had problem solving skills before they took the Chunin Exams.
"I could make a few clones to flank them so they wouldn't try to escape," Naruto offered. "I think a tenth of my strength would be enough to stop them."
Not for the first time, Kakashi considered teaching Naruto the Shadow Clone Jutsu. If nothing else, it'd make his clones even more of a threat and asset. Wood Clones would be just as good, if not better, but Kakashi would need to either ask Tenzo to create a scroll for that or introduce him to Naruto, and he thought it was still a little early for the latter.
"That'd work," Kakashi agreed. "Sasuke, Sakura, you two round up the bandits while Naruto creates some clones."
While the genin got to work, Kakashi pulled out Icha Icha to distract himself from the question of whether or not to teach Naruto new clone jutsu. The answer would come to him in time, right?
A/N:
Infamous first C-rank begins!
I don't know what to say about it without giving things away, but I'm enjoying writing it. I'm having a lot of fun with one character specifically. There is a lot of brainstorming I've put into this arc with a friend, so hopefully it'll be enjoyable and entertaining. It's pretty long too, so Chunin Exams likely won't start until around chapter 20? This arc should end around 18-19, but it may get longer depending on how long some chapters end up & how things might change
Spring semester starts soon, so I may get slowed down by that, but I'll post 11 in a week or two no matter what. If/when I think I might disappear for months again, I'll leave off the most recent chapter with a note