Chapter 4: D-ranks have a novelty worth of zero. In other words they suck

"Hello, Iruka, anything exciting lined up for us today?"

If anything, Iruka's smile was just as enthusiastic as the one Kakashi was wearing beneath his mask.

"Enough that you can pick your favorite one!" he replied, beaming at the emotionless expressions he was getting from the three genin in front of his raised desk. "We need a fence painted, a warehouse organized, litter picked up, and…" He paused for dramatic effect. "Babysitting!"

"You suck, Iruka-sensei," said Naruto flatly.

"Karma's a female dog, Naruto," Iruka said bluntly, face decidedly smug. "Maybe in your next life you won't prank people so much and have some respect for a formal education."

Much to everyone's silent amusement, Naruto groaned loudly, hands grabbing his hair in aggravation as he slumped to the floor.

"Sensei, isn't there anything else we could do?" Sakura asked, her voice somewhat strained. They had, after all, done nothing but D-ranks all week. Four a day as a matter of fact. "We've done over twenty missions already…"

Twenty! Sakura was almost beside herself with irritation. They'd barely done half that last time and they'd gone to enter the damned Chunin Exams right after! Months later! This Kakashi was crazy!

"I'm sorry Sakura, even though your team has an excellent record so far, you haven't been together long enough to qualify something outside of the village," Iruka explained, much more willing to talk to one of his best and most attentive students.

"What about something inside the village then?" asked Sasuke, pushing his annoyance away with a sigh. "There must be something more challenging than painting people's fences."

"Well…" Iruka paused to give Kakashi a silent question to which the man shrugged apathetically. "I suppose I do have something you could do. I normally would give this to a more veteran Genin team but why not? Against all odds, I've actually heard really good things about your teamwork and maybe you'll learn something too." He shuffled through a pile of scrolls before tossing one to Sasuke.

"What is it?" asked Naruto dejectedly, finally coming out of his inner turmoil.

"There's been a request for a team to assist with training newer reserve forces. As I understand it, one of their Chunin is in the hospital for something and they didn't want to slack off."

"Demonstrate what a functioning Genin team looks like," Sasuke read off the scroll before snapping it shut and stowing it away. "Easy."

"Anything's better than what we're doing now," Naruto groused. "Ji-ji!"

The boy suddenly lit up as the Hokage walked into the mission dispatch room. There was a low "Hokage-sama" that came from the room at large, most everyone bowing to some extent in respect, particularly the handful of civilians who were in the room being assigned escorts. The various Chunin, used to seeing the Hokage fairly regularly, went back to their business quickly.

"Naruto, be respectful you're a Genin now." Sakura prodded the beaming blonde on the side of his head lightly, a far cry from the usual wallop he'd until recently come to expect from her. "It might of been different when you were a civilian, but he's your commanding officer now."

"Well said, Sakura," the Hokage said with a smile, approaching Iruka's position. He nodded at their team leader. "Kakashi."

"Yo."

Sakura sighed, bringing the heel of her hand to her forehead.

This is literally the reason he has no respect for the chain of command.

"Ji-ji, I get that you can't give me the big missions yet, but you'd better hold one of the princess-saving ones for me. I know you get them!" he said with an accusing finger.

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at that, because Naruto was actually entirely correct.

"Of course, Naruto, I'll be sure to keep an eye out," the Hokage said in good humor. "Have they taken a mission, Iruka?"

"Reserve training," he said with a nod, already returning to his usual grind.

"Oh, an excellent task," the Kage said in approval. "In that case, work well."

"What do you say, team?" Kakashi said expectantly.

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei," the three Genin chorused. At least this time it didn't sound like they were all dead.

"There we go."

Xxx

It was with fairly wide eyes that that the three genin entered the fort that was training ground one in the center of the village. Hundreds of teenagers stood in formation, all wearing a variation of a flak jacket and dark pants, as they went through the forms of what was often improperly referred to as academy style taijutsu. A lone Chunin stood at the head of the formation, watching them all with a critical eye.

"Strike!"

"Haa!"

"Strike!"

"Haa!"

Further on the field was split into a large number of smaller sections that allowed for team training as well as anything extra involving the team composition. As Kakashi explained earlier, training field two was exclusively reserved for jutsu.

Naruto did not have to do much of anything to fake his amazement. While he was more than aware of what his village fielded in military strength, he'd never been exposed to this side of it before. That could actually be said for a lot of things on the village. It was like much of his life had been spent as the main character of a deranged writer's story.

...Wait a minute...

"Yo, Kurosaki."

Kakashi's voice brought the blonde out of his thoughts. A jonin with spiky, orangish hair had approached them from the nearby building, regarding them with a confused expression. The man was missing the sleeves on his uniform, exposing his well defined arms.

"Thought that was you," he said, stopping in front of them. "Sup, Kakashi? Showing your squad around?"

At this Kakashi gave Sasuke a meaningful look, nodding at the jonin. Understanding what he wanted, Sasuke fished out the mission scroll and held it out to the jonin.

"Team Seven, reporting as requested."

"I thought you had a team of rookies," the man said, casting the three of them a critical look as he glanced over the scroll, eyes lingering on the seal at the bottom that authenticated it as a village D-rank. "As in graduated last week rookies. No offense, but we specifically asked for a team with more field experience. Any field experience."

"None taken," Kakashi returned with an eye smile. Somewhat disarmed, the jonin just sighed, returning the scroll to Sasuke.

"Whatever, if it doesn't work out we'll just request another team. Follow me."

Either unaware or uncaring of the disgruntled expressions the genin were giving him, he led the four around the field.

"You should already know this, but the majority of Konoha's ninja forces are trained here before they get assigned somewhere. The academy is made to build specialist teams. We still put most children who want to become shinobi through there but we simply don't have the jonin to field four-man squads with all those genin and take care of the higher ranked missions the village is given. Only the very best get them and everyone else trains here. Eventually they get put on teams working under experienced Chunin until they can get promoted and join Konoha's main military force. It works pretty well, all said and done. They aren't neglected here after all."

"How much time do they train a day?" Sakura asked in curiosity. It was one thing to know about it from class, but another entirely to see it. Training ground one was walled off from the rest of the village, so there wasn't really any reason to enter unless she had business there. Admittedly most of her previous youth had been spent stalking a revenge obsessed emo boy.

"About half of their day is spent here," Kurosaki said. "Like I said, they aren't neglected, but if you're going to take care of a bunch of people you may as well get your money's worth."

"Ma, Kurosaki, you've become so good at explaining things," Kakashi said blithely, giving the man another eye smile. "At this rate I'll have nothing to teach them by the time we leave."

"You guys must have terrible luck, getting this guy as a sensei," Kurosaki said to the three genin, ignoring the one eyed man. "He's just gotten worse since we were kids if you ask me. At least back then he was kind of serious."

"I don't know, he's only kind of late and reads porn all the time," said Sakura after some thought. Honestly the thought of having someone other than the white haired jonin as their sensei was a sad one.

Kakashi, who had already taken out his Icha Icha, simply smiled and put a hand on her head, rubbing it absently.

Of course this had the effect of completely messing up her hair.

"Sensei!" she whined, producing a brush from seemingly nowhere and attacking her hair with it immediately. Okay, so having near waist-length hair again had brought around a sense of vanity once more. At least she was more than skilled enough to prevent from it being used as a weapon against her. Though she suspected that just might be a holdover from her twelve year old self that she'd seemingly merged with. Did she mention how much that part of her sucked recently? It really sucked. Having half your impulses driven by inane preteen nonsense in the beginnings of puberty was positively maddening. Not to mention the whole boys thing. Did she mention boys yet? Ugggghhhhh…

"Sure, kid," Kurosaki said with a smirk. "Anyway that's about it for this place. Any questions?"

"Are you strong?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Is water wet?"

"Can we not do the mission and fight you instead?" he continued.

Sasuke gave the blonde a look before considering the Jonin before them. Hmm…

Sakura was just shaking her head in exasperation. This happened way too much in all honesty.

"Oh?"

Suddenly there was a burst of incredibly dense chakra from directly in front of them. It crashed over them like a full lake of water. Kurosaki was now looking at them with interest, his expression settled into a toothy grin.

"Well, l suppose I can spare a few seconds. Every moment is a teachable one, apparently."

And suddenly his arms were out, each hand catching the wrist of Sasuke and Naruto who had attempted to drive kunai into his left kidney and right lung respectively, stopping the attacks just short of their marks. His head ducked forwards as Sakura's kunai barely missed the back of his head, the girl following shortly after.

The second move was just as quick as the first. Naruto and Sasuke had their own weapons used to block the second attacks being made with their other hands. Sakura however, had slightly more luck then her teammates. Her mid air roundhouse kick had been dodged as well, but it seemed Kurosaki hadn't anticipated there being a knife tip extending from the top of her shoe. The resulting contact across his left cheek drew a bright line that left all who were watching stunned.

Freed, the three Genin regrouped to see the Jonin hadn't moved from his position after being hit. However instead of blood they saw blue flickering flames dancing along the point of contact in a thin line.

"Chakra?" Sakura said in surprise.

"Yo… Kakashi."

Kurosaki straightened and ran a thumb along the score. When he lowered his hand the Chakra was gone, not a single indication he'd been hit remaining.

"What lottery did you win to get these three?"

"I must have been a great person in a past life I guess," he said with a shrug.

No you weren't, the three simultaneously thought.

"Wanna trade?"

"Pass. Honestly Kurosaki, are you trying to scare them to death?" Kakashi asked, absently thumbing a page of his book. Kurosaki looked from him to the three serious looking genin and back before Kakashi lifted a finger to point over the man's shoulder.

Nearly all of the trainees were shivering on the spot, frozen in place. The ones closest certainly were getting the worst of it.

"Aaah, oops. My bad, guys." He let the chakra go with an awkward chuckle. "Carry on then."

Most of the trainees collapsed to the ground with various levels of groaning.

"Chakra freaks…" Kakashi muttered, turning another page. "No offense, Naruto."

"None taken, Sensei," the blonde returned after a second.

"Maybe you three won't be so bad for this after all," Kurosaki said with a grin, looking between the Genin. "Come see me after you finish your job here."

With that he continued to lead them to the very back of the field before flickering out of sight.

Looking at the place he'd been standing in last, Sakura asked, "Sensei, what's his full name?"

"He just goes by Kurosaki," their sensei answered with a shrug. "We're not allowed to talk about it."

Sasuke just shook his head.

"Whatever, let's get to work."

Xxx

"You've got to be kidding me."

Of the thirty or so genin who were there to work with Team Seven, one was pointing directly to Naruto with a dull expression.

"You actually got on a team? How the hell does my life suck so much?"

"Oh, didn't see you there," said Naruto in surprise. "Hey Taki."

"It's Takashi!"

"Eh, my bad…" Naruto scratched a whiskered cheek. Turning away from the despairing ninja to the chunin of the group he continued, "Anyway, we're Team Seven. Sasuke?"

"Here," he said, holding out the mission scroll.

"Thanks for coming," the chunin said with a nod, taking it and putting it in his pocket. "Let me explain to you what's going to happen while you're here. These genin," he jerked his thumb at the assembled group, "have been recently promoted and are soon going to be put into squads of three like you already are. However, they'll need to show they are ready for that to happen, and one aspect of that is showing they can operate successfully on a team in different situations."

"Makes sense," Sakura said with a nod. She pointed at the amassed group of new genin. "Did you want us to fight them all?"

"No, we want them to watch you in action and reflect on what they're seeing. Your team will need to recover a package from a facility."

The three members of Team Seven traded surprised looks.

"Do you think Iruka sensei knew that before he gave us the mission?" Naruto posed.

"Not likely." Sasuke gave the chunin a satisfied grin. "When do we get started?"

The Uchiha caught a scroll that was suddenly thrown at him.

"Now. Genin, report to the viewing room. One last thing, Team Seven." As the group hustled away, the chunin regraded them impassively. "Don't destroy any cameras you find. That is how the we will be watching your progress. Everything else is fair game."

And with that the chunin vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Xxx

"Um, Hatake-san, shouldn't you be out there with them?"

Kakashi looked up from his book. One of the genin from the viewing group seemed was giving him a curious look, mirrored by those around her.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, as the sensei of Team Seven, wouldn't you help guide them for missions?" she continued. "We would be working with our Chunin captain in the same situation."

"Ah, well to be honest they told me I could relax up here. They're such great kids," he said with an eye smile.

"What he means is that they don't need him in the slightest."

The genin strand to attention at the sound of the new voice.

"Kurosaki-Taichou!"

"Relax, kids, just here to watch," said the jonin, waving their salutes away with a hand. He looked up at the large screen against the far wall, split into dozens of smaller sections for each security camera. "We recording this?"

"Of course, Taichou," said one of the chunin posted at the station.

"Good, this should be entertaining."

Kakashi's book snapped shut, drawing all eyes to him.

"What did you do?"

His question was directed at the orange haired jonin. Kurosaki just grinned.

"I made this worth their time."

Xxx

Team Seven sat in relative ease a few hundred meters from the group of buildings they knew their objective was located in. There was no time limit and this was a first for the team in general. At least as far as any of them thought.

"Read the objective one more time, Sakura," Sasuke said, eyes still fixed on the buildings.

"The fire daimyo's daughter has been kidnapped by a force of unknown size and affiliation. Unpayable ransom has been demanded. Primary objective is to recover the VIP and extract her. Secondary objective is to gain intel on the group upon retreat or optionally crush them. We are free to act as we see fit," she finished. "Failure if the VIP is killed."

"Um, I know I'm usually fired up about this kind of stuff but… would a team of genin ever get this kind of a mission?" Naruto asked, already knowing exactly what the answer to his question was.

"Definitely not," Sasuke said, shaking his head. "This stinks. The daimyo's daughter? D-rank my ass."

"I agree. I know we told Kakashi-sensei to go, but we could have used him," Sakura said with a long breath. Why couldn't they just get a regular C-rank mission like normal advanced genin teams? Where was her Wave mission, dammit!

"Doesn't matter." Naruto "There are going to be times that we'll need to do stuff without him. Is there a description of the target?"

Sakura showed them both a detailed color sketch of an attractive young woman with long hair in a kimono.

Not the prettiest princess I've seen, but still cute, Naruto mused.

"There are a number of problems we have facing us," she said as the two memorized her appearance. "We don't know where she is, how many we face, what their abilities are, or anything about the buildings. We'll have to assume they'll kill her if there's no way out for them. We need to get some intel first."

"We should draw them out," Sasuke proposed. "Pull their attention in one direction while we get the target from another." He turned to Naruto. "How many clones can you comfortably make?"

"Three words: One man army."

"Should we do that though?" Sakura asked. "It'll definitely get a response, but it'll put them on guard if they feel threatened."

"Hn…" the Uchiha frowned, looking between his two teammates. His gaze stopped on Naruto, who just waited patiently for once. What would the Naruto he grew up with do in this situation?

"Actually, I've got an even better idea."

He pulled in the other two and whispered rapidly.

"You won't."

Naruto was looking at Sasuke with wide eyes.

"I'm the least suited to this mission, so I'm the obvious choice," he said with a shrug. "I'll leave her to you?"

"You can count on us," Sakura said with a nod. "Let's clear this mission!"

"Alright. Team Seven, move out!"

The three vanished.

Xxx

"Man, where the hell are they?"

"It's been nearly thirty minutes already, did they just give up?"

"Come on you know that wouldn't happen."

"I keep thinking I see something but it's the captive just playing with her hair."

"Doesn't anyone else think this mission is a bit above genin level?"

Kakashi yawned, his eye making the same circuit of screens for the six-hundredth time. His team was nowhere to be found, which meant they'd either spent quite a while planning their operation, or were still preparing yet. And of course…

He looked over at the only other jonin in the room. Kurosaki was still watching the screens in patience. Kakashi certainly was not happy that he'd messed with their mission just because the kids had potential. Not was he blind to what was on the screens. A captive? Dozens of ninja, many of who he recognized as chunin and even some jonin? He knew they stood virtually no chance of successfully completing this objective. What was Kurosaki's real aim?

"There's something at the front of the building!"

All eyes were drawn to the main monitor, which zoomed in to the line figure who approached at a steady walk. It was not, as they expected, one of the three genin from Team Seven.

It was a samurai.

Wearing simple but distinctive gear, the samurai moved closer across the wide open space that faced the front of the building. Through the other cameras the viewers could see the ninja that controlled the building were repositioning rapidly to his presence. Eventually he stopped, a couple dozen or so meters from the front door where they could get a good look at his face.

"Damn. He's hot."

The words, spoken by the genin who had questioned Kakashi earlier, drew two general responses from the group. Agreement from the girls, and annoyance from the boys, though some admitted he looked cool. Kakashi only just prevented himself from rolling his eye.

"Bandits!"

The samurai's voice rang out clearly through the speakers, deep and confident.

"I have journeyed through many lands to stand at your door. Slain many foes to bring you to your end. For I am a hero!"

"Is this guy serious?"

"I am Kenjiro Masame, and for the love of the princess…!"

He drew his sword with a ring of steel in the air.

"I will save her!"

XXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Hey all, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Really liking these short chapters, it's been fun.

I realized from some responses so far that my lack of being very specific about when the three were in the canon future was pushing people in the wrong direction. I don't inherently consider this to be a flaw of the story, as the context clues would build this out with enough chapters and I'd suggest against making assumptions in any story you read, but I'll draw a hard line just for clarity.

Neither Naruto, Sakura, or Sasuke were married or close to being so when the time skip back happened. It happens a few years after the 4th shinobi war ends. So however that actually works out in the canon (as I just don't know the ages of the characters well), in my mind the three were around 21 when it happens. Don't sweat the small stuff here, it'll take away from the experience.

Why does it matter? Well as far as relationships went, no one was married, and none of them had children. So you won't see any kind of reference to them at all.

Another thing: I occasionally thrown cameo characters in stories because a friend of mine enjoys it a lot. Sorry if it bugs you.

Last thing: My brain when it comes to the words genin, chunin, and jonin, etc. Sometimes I capitalize them, sometimes I don't. Just don't pay it any mind, it's my own brand of proper noun crazy I shift in and out of from page to page.

Let me know what you think. Cheers