Well, that was a bit of a break...uh, let's see...47 days-ish...don't blame me. It's the tornado's fault. Ruined my first con (colossalcon 9).

Oh, and some other stuff. Y'know, very vague.

D-rank missions. The foundation upon which all future development would be built, teaching all of the basics that a squad would need to know to survive: teamwork, coordination, and trust. The spot where every professional ninja truly begins their career. On top of this, it serves as a transition period, allowing genin to go from civilian to ninja.

At least, that's what Iruka had said. To Naruto, it went back and forth between laughable and boring. This wasn't what he had been expecting when he graduated. He had yet to leave the village, let alone to fight someone...unless you counted that fat woman's cat. It had put up a surprisingly good fight, though the reason was now perfectly obvious. The daimyo's wife was a pretty abusive owner, even if it was on accident. Still, when he was told he was given 'a dangerous mission in the service of the daimyo's wife,' that was not was he was expecting.

"Now then." Sarutobi stared intently at the list in front of him. "your next duty is...babysitting an elder's son...shopping in the neighboring village...help with the potato digging..."

"NO NO NO!" This was it, the last step. He had finally had enough. "Find us a better mission!"

Kakashi and Sarutobi sighed simultaneously. Should have seen this coming...

"Naruto, this village gets all kinds of missions, from assassination to babysitting." Started the old man. "These requests are given a rank from A to D based on difficulty. Your still a genin, so you get the D-ranks, and work your way up." Naruto, however, seemed completely oblivious to the old man.

Man...I'm gonna get chewed out for this for sure... "Naruto." Kakashi looked back towards his blond student, who was trying his best to completely block out all outside noise. "You can at least pretend your paying attention."

The hokage smiled slightly. No matter how much time passed, the boy never seemed to change much. "Alright. I'll give you a C-rank mission...this time." Naruto's head span around, while Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi's eyes seemed to widen. "You'll be guarding an important individual."

"WHO! WHO IS IT! C'MON OLD MAN, SAY IT!"

"These all look like a bunch of idiots to me, are you sure there even ninja?"

To Naruto, this felt oddly like his last few missions. When someone else tries to explain what he was supposed to do, it sounds extremely exciting. And then he gets let down. Horribly. It seems about right that 'guard an important individual' would become 'help the seemingly drunk old man.'

"Especially the shortest one with the stupid looking face."

Who's that... Naruto turned his head to the sides. Nope, Sasuke's to tall. Is he grinning? Weird. Wait, was he insulting Sakura! No...so who is...oh. Figuring it out, he was forced to take a deep breath. Must...not...kill...drunk...

"They may not look like much, but they are ninja." Said Kakashi, hoping to cut off Naruto before he exploded. "Besides, if anything serious happens then I'll be there."

The old man just sighed. "Well, I guess that's better than nothing. Well, I suppose I should introduce myself now. I'm Tazuna, expert bridge builder, and..." His tone suddenly took a nose dive as he finished, "...I expect each of you to protect me with your lives." Naruto could only gulp.

Man, the old guy can be scary when he wants to be...

For Naruto, this was a big, no, HUGE step forward. Sure, he got a crappy mission defending a rude drunken old guy from...well, he had no idea... but it marked his first real mission!

"Well, we're all here, so we might as well get going." Stated Kakashi, standing underneath the severely oversized gates of Konoha. After a few minutes of walking, Sakura's turned to Tazuna, intent on breaking the silence.

"So, are there any ninja in Wave?" The old man turned towards her.

"Nah. If there were, I would have asked them." He turned away for a second. "Would have saved me from walking all the way here and back."

"Sakura, how much do you know about the other countries?" Said Kakashi, his one visible eye barely even open.

"The five great countries are Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water." Sakura's eyes closed as she talked, reciting from memory. "These countries contain the Leaf, Sand, Stone, Cloud, and Mist villages, respectively. They are better known as Konoha, Suna, Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri. Each of these villages is led by a leader known as a Kage." At last, she opened her eyes and smiled, turning towards her sensei.

"Correct. However, Wave is a small country. Because of this, it doesn't feel the need to maintain a village." His eye shifted from straight ahead towards something on the ground, and then at his student. "Of course, there's no reason to worry about running into other ninja on a C-rank."

As if on perfect cue, however, a chain suddenly wrapped itself around Kakashi. Everyone turned around just in time to see two men pull the chain, ripping him apart.

"One down."

Naruto reached for his back, removing the bow. Before he could grab an arrow, however, he became aware of a presence standing directly behind him.

"Two down."

Naruto did the first thing that came to his mind; he jumped and watched as the chain flickered directly below him, narrowly avoiding any actual damage. As he landed, he noticed Sasuke had thrown a shuriken at the chain, sticking it to a nearby tree, and was currently sitting on top of the two assailants claw arms. I can't shoot, or I might hit Sasuke...

Sasuke, wasting no time, placed his arms down and kicked back, knocking both ninja backwards. Recovering quickly, the two separated the chain connecting them and ran, one towards Naruto, the other towards Tazuna.

Okay, clear shot! Naruto released his arrow straight at the one heading towards him, who deflected it without missing a step. Punching forwards, the strange claw scratched across the blond's hand that he was using to try to block.

Meanwhile, Sakura had positioned herself directly between the enemy and the bridge builder. The strange man never made it that far though, as a shape moved between the two, stopping the assassin and knocking him out simultaneously.

"Se-sensei!" Squealed Sakura. The man was staring at her, holding both of the men.

"Heh, looks like you three did well enough. Though Naruto, I probably should have helped you sooner. Looks like you got injured." With that, his eyes went down to the clawed arms from the pair. "These claws are poisoned. We'll need to remove it quick. Until then, try not to move too much." Walking over to a tree, he removed a rope from his backpack and began tying up the two.

Naruto, on the other hand, didn't notice. He was far too busy staring at his injured hand.

"Now then, Tazuna. I think you need to explain to us something. We were told to watch out for thieves or gangs, not ninja. This mission is at least B-rank, now. It's outside of our duties."

"Then let's quit!" Said Sakura, still shaken from her first fight. "We aren't ready for this, and Naruto needs medecine for his wound!"

"No."

The group turned, now staring at the blond, whose head was facing downwards. "W-what?" Stammered Sakura.

Without saying a word, he reached towards the quiver on his back, grabbed an arrow, and slammed it into his wound.

"What are you doing!"

"If I'm gonna be Hokage...then I need to do things that aren't easy..." Suddenly, he turned his eyes back up towards her, now filled with determination. "...that's why...I WANT TO CONTINUE THIS MISSION!"

Kakashi started walking calmly towards him. "That's great, but if you don't close that wound, you'll die from blood loss."

I didn't want the usual 'I do nothing in this fight' Naruto. I always thought it weird that he goes from 'more useless than Sakura' to 'charge the awesome missing nin with the huge sword of death that just incapacitated a jounin and can move fast enough that i can't see it over a headband.' I'm skipping a phase.

Okay, some thanks are in order, let's see...

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