Published at 10th of May 2020 6:20 pm

First C-Rank Mission (1) – Part 15

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“Jiji, we are tired of these D-Rank missions. Can’t you give us something harder?” Naruto asked the third Hokage.

Sasuke, Sakura and Naru nod, clearly in favor of also trying a harder mission.

“Alright … seeing that you are so eager in doing a C-Rank, I can’t exactly decline any further. I actually have just the right thing for your team Kakashi.” Hiruzen said, looking at Kakashi who was smiling at his team’s antics.

Kakashi knew that they were good enough for a C-Rank mission, so he didn’t stop them from requesting it time and time again. Though it was mostly Naruto that voiced his thoughts. They had been doing four weeks of D-Ranks and the team had only grown closer in that time.

(A/N: I know that they probably did not do four weeks of D-Ranks in canon, but I think it’s better for the development of Sakura. And honestly … who cares about the exact time they did D-Ranks for? If this causes problems later on, I’ll deal with them as they come. It’s just a more reasonable time frame for Sakura to develop in. And even 1 month is quite short.)

Sakura had started training to become a medical-nin. They, as a team, had asked her to do that after considering her strengths and what they were missing. She had only just started out, but was easily devouring all the knowledge, or so her teacher, another medical-nin that worked at a local hospital, said.

“What is it going to be about, Jiji?” Naruto asked while looking at Hiruzen.

“Haha, patience, Tazuna-san may now enter the room.” The Hokage said while laughing softly and looking at a door behind Team 7.

Soon after, an old man holding a bottle of alcohol entered the room and everyone turned to look at him.

“A group of kids? Sigh … I fear for my safety already … especially when I look at that blonde-haired boy with the stupid face …” Tazuna said.

The four Genin were frozen, who’d know that they would protect this kind of man? They all knew who exactly the old man was talking about and they were quite annoyed by the old man already.

Naru could feel anger rising in the pits of her stomach. Naruto calmed her rising anger by putting a hand on her head and saying: “You don’t need to get angry about this old man. Don’t worry about it, really.” Naru gradually calmed down, but she vowed to look the other way when the old man was not in mortal danger. He deserved to feel some pain.

“You will protect Tazuna-san on his way back to the Land of Waves and help him in completing his bridge. On the way you might meet some bandits, which would actually be a perfect test for your current level of strength.” The Hokage said.

Kakashi nodded at the Hokage and sighed: “Okay, Team 7, you heard him. Let’s meet at the gates in half an hour. Make sure to gather everything you need.”

…

[The twin’s apartment]

“Nii-chan … you shouldn’t take that big a bag with you, it will bother you later. Take a smaller one, okay?” Naru said, looking at Naruto with a helpless smile.

“Sigh … okay.” Naruto’s shoulders sunk, but he still went to get a smaller backpack that would make travel easier. Naruto’s bag was almost completely filled with Ramen.

It was in moments like these, where they were at peace and with people that they loved, that the twins would sometimes behave like children usually did. They felt safe and free, with the people they loved.

Naru had packed clothes for the both of them into her bag. She just decided to let Naruto carry the food and some water.

“Nii-chan … I don’t like the way that that old man treated you. If he misbehaves like that again, then let’s teach him a lesson okay? He should not get away with insulting you like that.” Naru said, still angry at how the bridge-builder had insulted her brother’s appearance. Her brother was clearly very handsome! How could that useless old man call him ugly?!

“Naru, just let him off, okay~? He is not someone you should care about at all.” Naruto sighed.

Naru still cursed at the old man while finishing to pack her bag.

After properly making sure that the apartment was locked, they left for the village gates.

…

The sound of bells rang out, causing the four people already at the gates to turn around.

“Hello Naru!” Sakura said before running up to her and hugging her.

Naru hugged her back and giggled.

They had grown closer after four weeks of being the only two girls on the team. Sure, Sakura was still slightly envious of her, but she could not and would not interfere in her friend’s relationship. She wanted Naru to be happy and she already tried hard to get over Sasuke and her love for him, it would obviously still take some time.

Naru respected Sakura for not interfering in her relationship with Sasuke. That was not something that just anyone could do, that required real resolve and determination. Sure, Sakura was annoying and useless before, but she continuously worked to better herself.

The team had thought about what role Sakura would take on the team and they eventually settled on having her become a medical-nin that was still able to fight. Essentially, they wanted her to become a mobile combat medic, or something like that. And Sakura totally agreed with them, eager to start training and be of use to the team. Sakura was good at studying and learning things.

She, herself, knew that she wasn’t that good at fighting, so this suited her best. Sakura did not, however, forget to train her weapon skills. She had also started training her body’s muscles.

Sakura then shared the new knowledge she gained with Naru, as she was also interested in learning some medical-ninjutsu. Naru hadn’t gotten as far as Sakura yet, as it certainly wasn’t something that she’d focus all her time on (she personally did not need medical-ninjutsu, but in case she needed it to heal someone she loved then she wanted to at least be able to use some of it).

Thus, they had found a common ground of interest and had grown closer. Close enough to call themselves good friends. They spent a lot of time together, which was surprising to the rest of team, considering that the two girls had kind of been in each other’s hair before.

Anyway, this served to better the atmosphere (of the team), so the others did not object to their newfound friendship, instead, they encouraged it. Well, girls’ soft laughing and the seemingly ever-present flowery atmosphere always caused to lighten people’s mood anyway, so they couldn’t not like that.

Team 7 had grown a lot closer during the four weeks and it showed in how each team member treated the others. You could say that they were their own little family, though maybe it was too early to call them that.

Naru’s bells rang as she ran up to Sasuke to hug him too.

Sasuke gently stroked her hair as he held her in his arms.

“Warm~” Naru mumbled, clearly feeling very comfortable in his arms.

Sasuke smiled down at her, once again noticing just how beautiful yet cute his girlfriend was. And he just imagined how beautiful she would be in a few years, when the last few bits of puberty left her body. Though, she already looked much more developed than other girls her age, or so he thought. He was obviously no expert in things like a girl’s puberty though.

He blushed at the thought.

Naru noticed his expression change and looked up at him: “Hmm?” She made a questioning sound as she tilted her head.

Sasuke said: “Nothing.” As he kissed her on her forehead.

The two then released each other from their hug and chose to hold hands before looking at the rest of the team.

Seeing that they had finally stopped with the public displays of affection, Kakashi chose to speak up: “You all packed stuff for a longer journey?”

The four teens nodded.

“Alright. Let’s go?” He said in a slightly questioning tone before turning around and starting to walk.

Quickly the four teens overtook him, with Naruto taking the front and Sasuke and Naru following just behind him. Sakura came in last, as she chose to stay a bit nearer to their sensei.

The bridge-builder Tazuna walked at the back of the group, clearly not wanting to have too much to do with them, they were “noisy kids” after all.

…

[Sometime later, on the path towards the Land of Waves]

Naru looked at the ground in front of them, sensing two ninjas in a puddle of water that randomly seemed to have formed on the ground. It clearly had not rained for days … why would they choose to hide in there, she thought.

Naru squeezed Sasuke’s hand, which she had been holding all this time: “Puddle. Enemy.”

Sasuke nodded.

Naru made a slightly harder step on the ground, causing the bells on her ankles to ring. Usually she walked without making sounds, as she wanted to make that a habit. It would be useful for later. She still needed to focus for that, but she was getting there, albeit slowly.

Naruto looked back and Sakura looked at her too.

Kakashi’s eyes widened, having already realized what all this was about without Naru even saying anything.

Tazuna did not even bother looking at her.

After they passed the puddle: “There’s a puddle behind us … there are enemies in there.” Sasuke whispered to the team.

Naruto and Sakura nodded before grabbing at their pouches.

Naru grabbed her sword’s scabbard that she had tied to her waist.

(A/N: Actually, I never specified as to just what her sword actually looks like. Hmm … imagine the sword Sasuke carries around after the time skip? I always imagined it to look like that to be honest.)

Slowly, two figures rose from within the puddle.

Team 7, even though they knew what was happening, did not turn around.

One of the two figures behind them grabbed the other and threw him at Kakashi.

Soon, Kakashi’s body was bound by chains.

Tazuna had sweat pearls form on his face: “It’s over … he is dead!” He shouted.

The four Genin remained calm, knowing that Kakashi had clearly noticed them too and would never fall for such a simple trick.

And, as they predicted, Kakashi used a replacement jutsu to escape their hold, just as they moved to tighten the chains in order to kill him.

The two figures then proceeded to disappear and reappear behind Naruto, who, already expecting this, turned around and threw a shuriken at them, hitting their chain and binding it to the tree.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, who grabbed a kunai of his own and threw it onto the shuriken, making the shuriken’s hold on the chain even stronger.

When the two figures realized, that they could not free the chain anymore, they chose to abandon it and rush at Tazuna, their target, instead.

Sakura resolved herself and resolutely stood in front of Tazuna to protect him.

“Oh no, she can’t take both of them yet!” Naru thought in her mind, worried about her friend’s safety.

Instantly, she appeared next to Sakura and blocked one of the two enemy ninjas with her sword.

The other one, however, she left for Sakura. She knew that Sakura was strong enough to defend against one of them on her own, she had trained long and hard enough for that in the past few weeks.

She might not be able to defeat that guy quite yet, but she could hold him back for a bit, it would mean invaluable experience for Sakura.

Naru could have easily cut these two weaklings apart, but she chose to let Sakura practice her skills in a real-life duel instead, which is why she let one of them go.

Naru blocked the glove of the enemy she was facing and threw him off balance with her chakra infused arm’s strength. The enemy clearly did not expect the girl in front of him to have that much strength, which is why he was easily thrown back.

Naru moved in to cut at him with her sword, but before the otherwise 100% hit could connect with the man’s throat, the man was suddenly snatched away by Kakashi, just like the one Sakura had been fighting before.

Kakashi looked at Naru in concern before he said: “You have all done very well during this surprise attack. Especially you, Sakura. You properly moved to defend Tazuna and even held your ground against the enemy. I’m proud of you. However … Naru, you know that if that sword had hit the man just now, he would have died, right? Were you prepared for that?”

“Yes.” Naru said with no apparent emotion in her voice, her eyes having changed to show a vertical slit.

Sakura recognized those eyes, while the others were mesmerized by their inhuman appearance: “Those are her fox eyes! Now that I see them again … they are actually quite beautiful. They look like golden gemstones! But … I’m surprised that she would attack so harshly. Why …”

Before Sakura’s thought could finish, Naruto opened his mouth to explain: “Sis, you attacked him like that because they attacked us, right?”

“Mhm.” Naru mumbled, already feeling a slight blush cover her face.

But soon, her face returned to its usual smile and her eyes also returned to normal: “Those two tried to hurt the people that I love. Even if they did not get any hit in this time, what if they did? They deserve to feel pain for their attempt at attacking us.” She thought in her mind. I did not hurt the villagers because Naruto still wants to gain their respect … I will only beat them if they hurt us again … but enemies like this? They had already voided their right to live the moment they attacked Nii-chan.

Kakashi heaved a sigh of relief: “Alright then … I get that you were angry, but … please try not to kill anyone that quickly anymore okay? That’s not the Naruko that I’ve gotten to know these past four weeks.”

“Mhm.” Naru nodded before walking back to Sasuke.

Sasuke patted her head before holding out his hand and smiling at her: “Thanks for getting angry at them for us. It makes me happy that you care so much for us~.”

Naru blushed before taking his hand and giggling: “You are the most precious people in my life … of course I’d get angry~.”

For some time after that, during the continued walk towards the land of waves, the sound of bells ringing could be heard.

Naru was happy that Sasuke praised her and chose to ignore her self-set task to make soundless walking a habit, she just decided to enjoy the sound that the bells made instead~.

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