Sakura whistled to herself as she walked down the road towards the bridge where Kakashi-sensei had instructed the team to meet to begin their first mission. As she neared, she saw Sasuke leaning against the bridge, his arms crossed with his usual expression of general distaste.

'Dammit,' she thought, glaring at him, 'I should have got here first.' She walked over into the middle of the bridge casually. Sasuke's eyes followed her emotionlessly.

"Good morning to you too!" she said flippantly. Sasuke simply continued to look at her uninterestedly. She stared back at him defiantly. After a few seconds, Sakura noticed that Sasuke had not blinked in a really long time. Her eyes began to water but she refused to let herself blink. She continued to look belligerently at Sasuke. Her eyes continued to water. Sasuke simply looked back at her.

"Sakura," he finally said, with a smirk.

"What?" she spat out.

"You're crying."

"Shut up bitch!" Sakura cried, while gulping as the water overflowed from her eyes down to her cheeks.

Then, Naruto appeared, running onto the bridge from the other side.

"Hey guys- wait, Sakura what's wrong?"

"Shut up Naruto!" Sakura said, her eyes fixed on Sasuke. Sasuke, however, turned to look at Naruto.

"HA! I WON! I DID IT!" Sakura cried triumphantly, finally allowing herself to blink repeatedly.

Sasuke turned back to her with a raised eyebrow.

"You looked away! That means I win!"

"Win what?"

"That staring contest!"

"What staring contest?"

"The one we were just having! Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"ARGH SASUKE! I'M GONNA OBLITERATE YOU!" Sakura threw her fist at Sasuke. Sasuke suddenly remembered her ridiculous strength and his eyes widened in anticipation of the pain he was about to experience. However, before Sakura's fist made contact, she was stopped midair by Kakashi-sensei.

"Now now, what did we learn about teamwork yesterday?"

Sakura just glared at him. "You're late sensei. Again."

"Ah yes, sorry about that. A black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long route here." Kakashi said casually, impervious to Sakura's menacing tone.

All three of the students twitched.

"But, on the bright side, I do have your very first mission for you!"

Sakura's face brightened. "What are we doing? Are we chasing down a supervillain? Or maybe transporting a top-secret document? Or saving the village from enemies!"

"Well, it's not any of those things, but it is a top priority task for the village that we need to know is in capable hands."

"You got it!" Sakura saluted Kakashi-sensei with a wide grin and a thumbs-up. Naruto grinned as well, and Sasuke gave a brief nod.

"THIS IS THE SUPER IMPORTANT TASK YOU WERE TELLING US ABOUT?!" Sakura stared incredulously at the three dogs in front of them, whose leashes Kakashi-sensei was holding out to them.

"Animal care is one of the most important jobs in the village, and these dogs' owners want to know that their dogs have been walked properly."

"Gah." Sakura snatched a leash from Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke took one, rolling his eyes irritably. Naruto picked up the last leash grudgingly.

"Well, I'll see you later! And I'd better have good reports from the owners!" Kakashi disappeared, leaving behind three very annoyed genin.

Sakura stomped down the road, her dog following in a docile manner. Naruto tried to follow, but his dog refused to move.

"Come on, puppy! Who's a good boy?" Naruto tried. "Oh for god's sake you stupid dog." The dog got up and began to walk determinedly in the other direction. "No! No! I'm sorry! I didn't mean that! Come back! This way!" Naruto tried in vain to tug the dog in the other direction, but was eventually vanquished by the dog and pulled away from Sasuke and Sakura.

Sakura rolled her eyes and turned around and carried on marching. "You can take another route Naruto." She called back and continued to storm down the road. Sasuke kept up with her with long strides. Glaring at Sasuke from the corner of her eyes, she began to walk faster.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "You really want to do this again?"

"Do what?" she asked, jogging lightly.

"Race." Sasuke said, matching her pace.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Sakura said sprinting down the road.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Fine then, if that's how you want to play it. I'll still beat you."

"Beat me at what, Sasuke?" Sakura taunted, smirking at Sasuke.

Suddenly, a force stopped both of them. They looked up to see Kakashi-sensei holding them by their heads.

"Sakura! Sasuke! What on earth are you doing?! I told you to walk those dogs, not drag them across the floor behind you!"

Sakura and Sasuke then remembered the poor animals and turned around to see them dusty and whimpering on the ground.

"And where is Naruto?"

Sakura looked at Sasuke. They both gulped guiltily.

"He went another way…" Sakura tried.

Kakashi-sensei raised an eyebrow. "Did he? Or did you leave him behind?"

Sakura looked at the floor.

"Wasn't one of the main shinobi principles not to leave your comrade behind?"

Sasuke looked sullenly at the ground.

Kakashi sighed. "You obviously weren't ready for a mission of such importance. We'll have to try something else. First, go and find Naruto and then report back here." He vanished.

With a sigh, Sakura and Sasuke went to find Naruto.

Eventually, they had found him trying to climb a tree to rescue his dog, who had climbed up it.

"I don't believe this." Sakura said incredulously. Sasuke sighed in annoyance.

Sakura shut her eyes in resignation and walked to the tree. She put her arms around it and uprooted it, leaning it down towards the ground until it was low enough for Naruto to grab the dog.

Then, they walked back to the place where Kakashi-sensei had told them to regroup and sat them down.

Several hours later, Naruto was sprawled across a log with drool coming out of his mouth, Sakura was banging her head against a tree trunk and Sasuke was staring murderously at the floor.

Finally, Kakashi-sensei appeared. Sakura jumped up and began screaming and gesticulating wildly. Sasuke glowered at him threateningly. Naruto rubbed his eyes and yawned as he began to wake up.

"Oh calm down." Kakashi-sensei said dismissively. "You deserved to be punished for the mess you made of that mission." He was answered with three death glares. "Anyhow, I have another mission for you, which you won't possibly be able to fail."

Sakura sighed as she pulled out yet another weed from an extremely badly kept garden.

"This. Is. All. Your. Fault." Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

"Shut up Sasuke you irrelevant ass."

Naruto guffawed as Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"If you hadn't started that race, this would never have happened."

"What race?" Sakura asked cuttingly.

"You are just SO annoying!"

"Hey quieten down out there and get to work!" they heard a shout from inside the house attached to the garden they were tidying.

"Hmph!" Sakura and Sasuke turned up their noses and returned to their weeds.

One week and countless gardens later, Kakashi looked at his team with a wide smile.

"Now that you have accomplished a few simple missions, I think we're ready to move you on to some tougher tasks."

Sakura's face lit up, Naruto grinned widely and even Sasuke looked mildly interested.

"Like what?" Sakura asked excitedly.

"Sasuke. I'm at Point B." a crackly voice was heard over the radio.

"Sakura. I'm at Point C."

After a long delay was heard, "Naruto. I'm at Point A."

"Naruto you're too slow!" Kakashi-sensei's voice spoke out. "Ok Team 7. Your target has moved! Follow it!"

Three figures zoomed through the forest.

"Ok what's your distance from the target?" Kakashi asked seriously.

"Five metres. I'm ready, just give the signal!" Sakura said.

"So am I." Sasuke said.

"Me too!" Naruto said.

"Ok…. Now!" Kakashi exclaimed.

The three ninja jumped out from behind the trees and closed in on a small cat. Naruto grabbed it.

"I got him! I got him!" However, the cat suddenly sprang out of Naruto's grasp. Sakura face-palmed. Sasuke lunged out and clutched the furry creature in his hands.

"Naruto, you are an idiot." Sakura sighed.

"Took you long enough." Sasuke said.

"HEY!" Naruto cried.

"Ok, Team 7, well done." Kakashi said taking the cat from Sasuke. "Ok, now I don't have another mission for you with me, so we'll all go to the Hokage's office to see what needs to be done."

Sakura's eyes widened. 'The Hokage's office?' She grinned. 'Great! Now I can tell the old man just what I think about all this community service he's making us do and force him to give us a real mission!'

They soon entered the office where the Sandaime sat at his desk.

"Good morning, Lord Hokage." Kakashi said, bowing. "I had no orders for a further mission, so we came here to see if anything needs to be done."

"Ah, let me see what I have here. Available missions include babysitting the chief counselor's three year old son, helping his wife to do the shopping, digging up potatoes in-"

"No!" Sakura interrupted loudly, wrinkling her nose and shaking her head. "I want a real mission! Something challenging and exciting, not all this housekeeping crap!"

Sasuke and Naruto stared at Sakura, amazed at her lack of respect.

'She does have a point though…' Sasuke thought.

"Sakura! Don't be so rude!" Kakashi-sensei admonished.

The Sandaime frowned. "Listen Sakura, all kinds of requests come into our village every day, from baby sitting to assassinations. These requests are carefully recorded, analysed and then ranked A, B, C or D, depending on their difficulty. Shinobi are also ranked in different levels of skill and experience, Hokage at the top, then Jounin, then Chunin and then Genin at the bottom. We select the requests and assign them to ninja who have the appropriate skill and experience, and if the mission is successful, we receive a fee that supports our village, and our work. Since you are untried Genin, just starting down the shinobi path, you are given D-level assignments of course."

Suddenly the old man looked up to see Naruto turned away from him talking loudly about ramen to Sasuke and Sakura, who were elbowing each other determinedly whilst staring at the wall as if it were their worst enemy.

"Listen!" His voice boomed out authoritatively. Naruto shut his mouth and wrinkled his nose and Sakura turned her angry eyes towards the Hokage.

"Gah stop lecturing! You're always doing that! I'm a ninja now and I want a real ninja mission!" Sakura said, turning away from the old man petulantly.

Kakashi face-palmed. 'I'm going to be hearing about this later.'

But contrary to expectations, the Hokage let out a deep-throated chuckle.

"Ah, you're a ninja are you? And you want a real mission? Well so be it."

Sasuke's eyes widened and Sakura's face lit up as she turned hopefully to the Hokage.

"I'm going to give you a C-rank mission. You'll be bodyguards on a journey."

"Really? You're the best old man!" Sakura gave him a thumbs-up. "Who are we guarding? Is it like.. a prince? Or a really important counselor? Or-"

The Sandaime cut in. "Don't be so impatient. I'm going to bring him in now." He gestured to one of the guards standing at the entrance to the room. "Bring in our visitor."

Team 7 turned with wide eyes to the door. It slid open slowly and an old man holding a bottle of sake walked out.

"What the…" he said, his voice slurred. "A bunch of snot nosed kids?! And you, the runt with the idiotic look on your face – do you honestly expect me to believe you're a ninja?"

Naruto let out a guffaw. "Who's the runt with the idiotic look on his face?" Then he saw Sasuke and Sakura look at him sideways and he realized that they were both taller than him.

"HEY! I'LL DEMOLISH YOU!" he ran at the client, to be held back by Kakashi-sensei.

"You can't attack the client, Naruto. That's not how it works."

Sakura face-palmed.

"I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder and I must return to my country. I'm building a bridge there that'll change our world and I expect you to get me there safely, even if it means giving up your life."

The team nodded.

"Ok, Team 7, now that you have your mission, you may depart. Regroup tomorrow at the gates of the village to embark on the journey. Make sure you have everything you need with you." the Hokage commanded.

The team nodded and filed dutifully out of the room to return to their own homes to prepare for the next day's journey, leaving the bridge builder behind with the Hokage, looking after them doubtfully.