Chapter 9

There are good people who are dealt a bad hand by fate and bad people who live long, comfortable, privileged lives. A small twist of fate can save or end a life; random chance is a permanent, powerful player in each of our lives, and in human history as well.-Jeff Greenfield

"Good morning everyone!" I looked up to see Kakashi-sensei leaning against the lone tree in the center of the training ground. "Sorry I'm late but I was helping an old lady cross the street."

Both Sakura and I leapt to our feet and shouted "You liar!"

I glanced over at Sakura in mild surprise. After our talk she had seemed to be in a gloomier mood than usual. A few hours to herself looked to have shaken her out of it.

Maybe what I'd told her had sunk in. Or, more than likely, she had rationalized away what I'd said. But that was fine. I didn't expect to sway her over to my way of thinking after only one conversation.

Kakashi-sensei either found our reaction's amusing or didn't care about them because he didn't react to it at all. "Alright then, today we're going to be going on our first mission. Let's go to the Hokage's Tower."

I didn't know whether to be pleased or annoyed. On one hand I was bored and wanted to actually do something other than just sit here and let time pass. On the other hand I knew what to expect from most D-rank missions and wasn't sure if they would be better or worse than boredom.

In the end there was nothing I could do about it either way, so I placed my book in my pouch and went to grab my bag.

"Alright, finally!" Sakura exclaimed.

Sasuke just grunted like usual but it did sound more pleased than normal.

I had to shake my head at their enthusiasm. They were going to be so disappointed. But I didn't say anything. I was too busy picturing the look they'd have on their faces when they found out the truth.

We made our way over to the mission's office at Kakashi-sensei's average speed, so about as fast as a snail on a slow day. I didn't care overmuch but I could see the way that it was grating on Sasuke and Sakura's nerves.

When we finally did get to the mission's office I watched with amusement as my prediction came true. As the Hokage read off a list of possible missions we could take Sasuke's eyebrow kept twitching which was his way of saying he would rather be anywhere else. And as for Sakura, she was openly gaping in disbelief, although to her credit she schooled her features pretty fast.

'God I wish I had a camera.' I thought to myself. 'That would have made a great picture.'

Seeing as neither one of my teammates looked like they were up to the task of talking at the moment, and with Kakashi-sensei looking as though he wasn't even paying attention, I turned to the Hokage and said, "We'll help out with shopping."

At the very least it sounded like the easiest one available. And as necessary as missions were, these low level ones basically amounted to chores and I didn't want to waste a lot of time on them.

The Hokage nodded. "Very well." He said as he marked something down on a paper in front of him. "Squad Seven accepts the mission to help the chief councilor's wife with the shopping." He held out the mission scroll and looked at us expectantly.

I glanced at the rest of my team to see if any of them would accept it. Surely Kakashi-sensei at the very least…? He didn't even raise his head, opting to turn a page in his book instead.

I shook my head. Real team of go-getters here. I raised my hand and, almost resigned, said, "Here."

I was starting to get a little annoyed at being the only member of my team that was actually willing to take the lead.

Without another word the Hokage tossed the scroll in my direction and I caught it, one handed.

"Alrighty then," Sensei said as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "Let's get going."

When we got outside Sakura finally lost her composure. "What the heck kind of mission is this?!"

I chuckled a little as I cracked the seal on the scroll and opened it. Despite caring so much about her appearance and what other people thought of her, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind.

"It's a D-rank mission," I told her as I scanned the instructions. "There all basically grunt work. Until we get some experience these are the kinds of missions they'll have us do."

"I couldn't have put it better myself," Kakashi-sensei chimed in. "You've only been out of the Academy for two days. It's going to be a while before you're ready for more advanced missions."

Sakura sighed in defeat. "I know, and it's not like I thought they'd start giving us dangerous missions right off the bat, but I was expecting… I don't know. Something else, I guess."

Sasuke looked indifferent. Now that the surprise had worn off he probably just thought that this was a waste of his time. Still, at least he wasn't complaining.

Following the instructions on the mission scroll, we soon found ourselves at the chief councilor's house. His wife met us at the door, looking pleased to see us. "Squad Seven reporting for shopping duty," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

She smiled back at us and in short order we found ourselves at the leaf villages shopping district with several different lists. After a few minutes of arguing over what we should buy first, we split up the list into thirds to save time and each went our separate ways. Less than an hour later we regrouped, everything on the list bought and paid for, and made our way back to the chief councilor's house.

After dropping the items off and giving back the leftover change we went back to the Hokage's Tower to report mission complete. Even with travel time included our first mission had taken less than two hours total to complete so we were offered another one.

I nudged Sasuke's arm to get his attention and, voice low so only he would hear me said, "Pick one."

His raised an eyebrow at me. Keeping his own voice low he asked, "Why do I have to pick one?"

I gave him a flat look. "Because I had to pick the last one. It's your turn."

He looked at me for a moment longer and shrugged. Turning to the Hokage he raised his voice and said, "Well take dog walking."

And so it went. After we finished that mission we went back for another, Kakashi-sensei trailing after us the entire time. This time Sakura stepped forward to accept a mission. She ended up choosing babysitting and we spent the afternoon looking after a civilian family's two year old.

After we reported in a success for that mission, Kakashi-sensei dismissed us for the day. I thought about asking Sasuke and Sakura if they wanted to go and get something to eat, but there was such a thing as being too overbearing. We did have plans to spar tomorrow after all.

'Not like I can't go get something myself.' I mused. And besides I might meet up with Naruto again.

With a plan in mind I headed in the direction of Ichiraku Ramen. I wasn't planning on eating there myself. As good as the stuff was I couldn't eat it every day. But it was the most likely place to run into Naruto so it was worth a quick look inside.

Passing by the stand didn't yield any results however. Not too surprising, really. As much as Naruto loved ramen, he couldn't possibly eat it every day any more than I could.

'At the very least it would end up costing him too much money.' I thought, thinking back to the tower of bowls he had standing next to him yesterday.

I shrugged, pushing the thoughts to the back of my head. If Naruto was a no-go then it was off to the barbeque place.

But before I managed to take two steps towards it someone collided with me, almost nocking me off my feet, and grabbed onto my arm. I sighed in resignation not bothering to turn my head. There was only one person who would do this.

"Hi Ino."

"Ryusei!" She said with far too much cheer in her voice. "I haven't seen you since we graduated! How have you been?"

"I'm fine. And it's only been two days."

"A lot can happen in two days. Oh, I know! Why don't I take you out so you can tell me everything that's happened?"

"Maybe another time. I was just on my way home." I wasn't but I would take any excuse to get out of this situation.

"Ah, that's too bad…" I felt her grip on my arm loosen a little and I felt a glimmer of hope. A glimmer that was summarily crushed when her grip tightened a moment later. "I'll walk you home then."

For the first time since she had latched onto me I looked down at her and saw it in her eyes. The reason that she and Sakura were still friends and the very thing I had been trying to ignore for the last few years.

To put it simply, she had a crush on me. I had my very own fangirl.

I looked up into the sky and thought, 'Why me?'

Don't get me wrong it was flattering and sort of cute, but she was twelve! Even thinking about it made me feel uncomfortable. If she still felt this way a few years down the line, then maybe. But right now? No, just… no.

"Ino, let go of me."

She just smiled at me and said, "What if I don't want to?"

And to think I used to make fun of Sasuke for having to put up with this.

Without another word I started walking in the direction of the Senju clan compound, hoping I'd be able to ditch Ino somewhere along the way. It wasn't that I particularly disliked Ino it's just that her fangirl tendencies made trying to be her friend a difficult prospect.

I couldn't even have a proper discussion with her because she just agreed with everything I said. I was really hoping that graduating and becoming an official Ninja would help mellow her out a bit. Or at the very least without classes to make sure we saw each other almost every day, that some time apart would help her get over her crush.

As I made my way home with Ino tagging along, she talked my ear off. Every topic from her lazy teammates to how boring D-ranks were to her new training was brought up. I only half listened, making an affirmative sounding grunt every now and then to show I was still paying attention.

Ino actually reminded me a little of Sasuke before the massacre. She seemed perfectly willing to hold up both sides of the conversation so long as I was at least present.

Finally my house came into view and I felt the sudden urge to jump for joy.

Before I could make an excuse and ditch Ino, she raised an arm and started waving. "Hi Senju-san! How have you been?"

I looked in the direction she was waving and saw my mum walking towards us. Taking advantage of Ino's distraction I managed to disentangle myself from her grip.

My mum waved back as she approached. "Just fine Ino-chan, thanks for asking." Stopping a few feet away from us she suddenly turned and pointed at me. "And you! You should have told me you were bringing a friend over!"

I raised my hands in the universal gesture of innocence. "She just walked me home. She's not staying."

Why was she making such a big deal out of this? With how often she got on my case for not having any friends you'd think if I actually did bring one over she'd be happy.

She stared at me for a moment before deflating with a sigh. "I thought you were finally ready to start being a productive member of society. I was ready to start celebrating…"

Oh, that's why. I felt my eyebrow twitch.

I wasn't that bad.

My mom adopted a thinking pose before smiling and clapping her hands together. "I know! Ino-chan, how about you stay over for dinner!"

What did she just say?!

"That would be wonderful Senju-san! Can I really?" She sounded so excited, she reminded me of a puppy.

"Of course Ino-chan. In fact why don't you help me prepare it?"

She glanced in my direction with a wide smile on her face before she turned back to my mum and excitedly said, "That would be great!"

And without another word she bolted inside. My mum turned to me with a smile and said, "She's such a sweet girl. You should invite your friends over more often!"

I gave her a betrayed look and whispered, "Why?"

She smiled at me and patted my shoulder. "Don't worry about it Ryu. You'll thank me for this someday."

'I highly doubt that.' I thought, as she followed Ino into the house.

As they started talking about what they should cook I contemplated sneaking off while they were distracted. But as much as I wanted to escape this situation I knew it would be better in the long run to just grin and bear it. If I tried to circumvent my mother's will, she could be… scary.

Yeah, let's leave it at that.

With a last longing look at escape I slowly trailed after the two of them.

My alarm clock went off and I just laid there for a minute listening to it, and thought about shutting it off and going back to sleep. Dinner had been taxing, with Ino sitting next to me trying to draw me into a conversation the whole time. And with both my parents there I couldn't just pretend to ignore her like I usually did so I was forced to participate against my will.

And that's not even counting the knowing looks that my parents kept shooting each other, when they thought I wasn't looking. Whatever they thought was going on, I was certain they were coming to the wrong conclusions.

When Ino finally left late into the evening I collapsed into my bed and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Dealing with kids was exhausting, and as mature as training to be Ninja had made them, there were times when their age still showed through.

Wanting to go back to sleep but knowing better I reached up to shut the alarm off and forced myself to get up and start getting ready. Less than an hour later I got to the training grounds and started working on changing my chakra's nature. After how hectic last night had been this sort of training where all I had to do was sit and focus was almost cathartic.

I kept on practicing until I felt a pair of familiar chakra signature's approach. Every signature felt different but that didn't mean it wasn't difficult to distinguish between them, especially if they belonged to strangers. Thankfully I'd had years to get used to my teammates signatures, having spent many a class practicing my chakra sensing as opposed to paying attention. And right there, just on the fringes of my range limit, I could feel Sasuke and Sakura approaching.

I crushed the half formed stone in my grip and let the dirt pour through my fingers and fall back to the ground, as I stood up to greet my teammates.

Sakura was focused almost entirely on Sasuke, as usual, so it was the latter that spotted me first.

Raising a hand in greeting I waved at them. "About time you two got here! I was getting bored waiting by myself."

Sakura took the time to wave back but Sasuke on the other hand, actually looked genuinely happy to see me. In fact, he almost looked excited. It was more emotion than I'd seen on his face in a long time.

And considering his usual emotional range was somewhere between 'neutral' and 'brooding' seeing him look so happy was actually kind of disconcerting.

Not even bothering to return my greeting Sasuke smirked at me and asked, "Ready to lose?"

"Ha! In your dreams, Sasuke." I grinned back at him, just as excited for a rematch as he was, especially since we didn't really get a chance to determine a winner yesterday.

Before we got things rolling however, I had to ask Sakura a question.

"What about you Sakura? Ready to join us today?" I doubted the one conversation we'd had was enough to convince her to join, but on the other hand she did say she'd think about it.

So naturally, I was caught off guard by the determined look in her eye. Maybe what I'd told her had sunk in after all?

"I want to join." She started, "But I have a rule I want us all to follow."

Okay, I was starting to get a bad feeling.

She looked between Sasuke and me and said, "No kunai or shuriken, and we limit ourselves to academy level jutsu."

I bit back a groan of frustration. If we did what she was asking us to do then we'd still be sparring but she was missing the whole point of the activity.

I opened my mouth to reply, but she cut me off. "And Ryusei I know what you're going to say. I remember what you told me yesterday and I understand your reasoning. But you need to remember-" she turned to Sasuke and sent him a light glare, a far cry from the one's she usually sent my way. "Both of you need to remember that we're only Genin. It's going to be years before we'll need to know how to fight like that."

Sometimes it was easy to forget that Sakura came from a civilian family. She was smart and knew how to put everything she'd learned in the Academy to use but there were a few fundamental's that she hadn't grasped yet. For instance she still thought of kunai and shuriken as dangerous weapons only meant to be used in life or death situations, or when we were told to use them.

But to me and Sasuke and really any other Ninja born into a clan or Ninja family they were just tools. True, they could be dangerous and needed to be used properly with care and attention, but still they were just tools.

Hell, I can still remember when I had turned three my parents had given me a set of rubber kunai for my birthday. To me they were a part of everyday life that I'd grown accustomed to years ago.

What she was asking us to do, sparring on this level, probably had us taking fewer risks than we had back in the Academy.

"Sakura…" Sasuke sounded annoyed, and looked as though he was about to shoot down Sakura's suggestions. But even if she was being a little naïve about it, Sakura had agreed to spar, which was a step in the right direction and I didn't want to discourage her. Besides, I didn't want to miss a chance for some team bonding for the third day in a row.

"What's wrong Sasuke?" I asked, my tone slightly mocking. "Don't think you can beat me unless you're going all out?"

I was just teasing him a little, but I knew he wouldn't back down. One of the things I'd learned about Sasuke was that he was never one to back down from a challenge. He wasn't the kind of person to rush in without taking stock of a situation and knew when to call it quits if a fight was unwinnable, but if you wanted to rile him up questioning his strength was the way to go.

As I expected he bristled at my words before glancing in Sakura's direction, before he turned back to me. "You really think sparring like little kids is going to be useful?"

Which wasn't a 'no' I noticed. "You already know my reasoning. If we had it my way there'd be no restrictions whatsoever."

A moment later I shrugged. "But it's not like we won't be getting any benefits from this. In fact learning how to spar with restrictions like this could teach us more than if we didn't have them."

He furrowed his brow in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

I noticed that even Sakura was looking a little confused. Happy that she was getting her way, but still confused.

"Knowing how to use Ninja tools, and Jutsu, in combat is important," I explained, "but in a real fight it's just as likely that we'll be separated from them or run out and I doubt our opponents will stop and let us collect them. That means we need to be ready to fight without them just as much as we need to know how to fight with them."

Sasuke looked like he was thinking hard to himself for a moment before he nodded.

"Fair enough." He said.

Sakura looked like she had won a personal victory and cheered. "Alright! So how do you guys wanna do this?"

I smirked a little at her enthusiasm. She was the picture perfect example of a control freak. Willing to put up a fuss like there was no tomorrow, but as soon as she started to get her way it was smooth sailing.

Sasuke was actually the one to answer her. "It's going to be a free for all. We stay in the clearing and anything goes. Anything within the rules that is." He tacked on that last bit after Sakura cleared her throat.

"We're allowed to call a time out whenever we need one." I added after a moment. "And we stop before we exhaust ourselves. We do have a mission to do afterwards."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "You really think we'll have any trouble with them? There pathetic."

"And how fun do you think they'll be if were worn out from sparring?" I countered.

He thought about it for a moment and then nodded. "Fine"

He walked a little ways away from me putting the three of us in a rough triangle, before turning around and falling into his preferred fighting stance. "You two ready?"

I grinned, slamming a fist into my palm. "Oh yeah."

Sakura just nodded before getting ready herself.

Without any signal to speak of we jumped into action.

Sparring this way was interesting. Without combat Jutsu or Ninja tool's my options were much more limited than usual. But so were theirs. Punches and kicks came in at odd angles that I wasn't expecting and more than once two of us would team up to fight whoever was left over only to turn on each other the moment an opportunity presented itself. It was far more chaotic than what I was used to.

We kept at it for nearly an hour until I called for a stop. My chakra levels were at about half what they normally were and I was pretty sure theirs weren't any better. Considering I had the most chakra out of the three of us it was probably safe to say theirs were even lower.

We spent the next little while discussing the spar, critiquing each other's combat forms and strategies. Sakura even went into a little speech in the different fighting dynamics that went into a free for all fight as opposed to one against one fights. I was actually a little surprised by her insight into how they were so different.

Granted her lecture might have been a little more effective if she hadn't kept glancing at Sasuke. She spent way too much time trying to earn his approval. It was a poor outlook for a Ninja and for life in general. It seemed like she needed to spend some time away from Sasuke as much as Ino needed to spend some time away from me. But still, she'd agreed to spar in the first place and had brought up some good points afterwards so I wasn't going to point it out to her. Not today anyway.

Positive reinforcement and all that.

However the best thing to happen was all three of us agreeing to spar more often. Sasuke looked more pleased with the fight than I'd thought he would, considering how I'd had to cajole him into it, and Sakura was happy to participate so long as we kept things safe.

Yes! Part one of plan 'keep Team Seven from falling apart' had been achieved. Now to think up part two.

It was right around then that Kakashi-sensei showed up, book in hand and smile on his face. "Good morning everyone! Sorry I'm late but a spider kept me trapped in the bathroom and I had to wait until it crawled away to get ready."

There was a half seconds pause before both Sakura and I shouted 'LIAR!' but our hearts weren't really into it. Not only were we getting used to our sensei's horrible excuses but we were still in high spirits from how the spar had gone and didn't want to ruin the mood. Or at least that's how I felt. Sakura could have just been happy from spending so much time talking with Sasuke, for all I knew.

"Alright, then!" Kakashi-sensei said, with far too much enthusiasm. "Ready for more D-ranks?"

And that was how our first week as Genin went. I'd wake up early to train and when Sasuke and Sakura showed up we would spar. Sasuke still occasionally grumbled a bit about holding back but didn't make an issue out of it. After sparring we'd either dissect each other's performances during the spar to try and think up new strategies, or we'd drift apart and rest until Kakashi-sensei showed up. After that it was D-ranks until he dismissed us and we'd part ways for the day.

The only real difference in our day to day routine was the different kinds of missions we accepted. Sometimes we'd do several in a single day and sometimes only one or two depending on how long the mission we'd chosen ended up taking.

There were plenty of D-rank missions available but there was only so much variety that could be worked into them. Consequently we ended up doing the same mission's several times in that first week. With the notable exception of tracking down Tora the cat. After the first time Sasuke picked that one, we made sure to steer clear of it whenever it cropped up.

After we were dismissed I'd head home to do some more training on my own. Specifically I was continuing to train in chakra nature transformation. Training to change my chakra nature to earth wasn't exactly tiring, just time consuming. But I was optimistic that I'd see results faster than when I'd learned water transformation. When my parents first began teaching me to change my chakra's nature to water they had eased me into it, only letting me train for short periods of time before stopping me, and only a few times a week.

Maybe they were just being careful or maybe they had another reason. It didn't matter overmuch to me because I trusted their judgment. But regardless, compared to the first time I was getting in much more training, much faster. And I could see the results. Every day the exercise felt a little easier and every time I stopped, the stone I was trying to form was a little sturdier.

It was on the following Monday, two weeks after graduation that our schedule changed. We turned up bright and early at the mission's desk (or at least Kakashi-sensei's version of bright and early, so just before noon) and got a surprise announcement from the Hokage.

"Squad Seven has been quite productive." The Hokage said, looking us over. "What do you say, Kakashi? Are they ready to tackle a C-rank mission?"

My eye's widened in surprise and I heard both Sasuke and Sakura perk up at the Hokage's words.

'A C-rank mission?' I thought. 'Already?'

As one the three of us turned to Kakashi-sensei to see what his response would be.

His visible eye crinkled in the way that let us know he was smiling. "We'll I don't know… maybe a few more weeks of D-ranks will help build their character."

Before that moment I'd never seen an expression change from hopeful to horrified quite as fast as Sakura managed to pull off. And for a split second I was certain I felt Sasuke's chakra spike with killer intent.

"But on the other hand, they have been working quite diligently." Kakashi-sensei continued. "I think their up to the challenge."

My teammate's relief at his words was almost palpable.

Well this was a little surprising. To be honest, without Naruto on the team to demand one I'd thought it would take a lot longer for us be offered a C-rank. But in the end, it's not like it really mattered. I was sure the three of us could handle whatever they threw at us.

The Hokage nodded, a pleased look on his face. "Very well then, if you're sure there up for it." He moved a couple papers around on his desk before picking one up. "This should do. Squad Seven is assigned as bodyguards on a journey to the Land of Waves."

…

Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

AN: I am tentatively starting to use honorifics. I was originally planning to only use things that appeared in the English Dub of the show because I've always found that using Japanese terms in an English story to be annoying. I've tried using them before and they've always bugged me. There kind of like inside jokes. Great for the people who get it and bad for everyone else.

But that being said, phrases like Mr. and Mrs. Senju just don't feel like they belong in Naruto. So there not going to be everywhere, but I will be using honorifics in certain situations from here on out.