Dexter's POV;

We continued to do our D-Rank missions and the heavy training before and after that. The missions served as something like a brake for us during the brutal training and Guy made sure that we never got used to the strain. Always adding a new exercise or a little bit more weight.

He also told us to never take the weights off, with the exception of an live threatening event.

The days turned into weeks and we finished our 30th mission two months after becoming Genin.

Today we were waiting for Guy to show up. Both Lee and TenTen were with me. We all changed somewhat. Lee is now the exact replica of the anime version. He even managed to create the sunset with Guy. It was funny as hell, TenTen tried to stab her eyes out the first time and I almost suffocated from laughing. Kura-chan screamed like a little girl and tried to break the Genjutsu. It didn't work and the short time she saw it, before she cut the link, gave her nightmares.

Guy and Lee are truly fearsome.

As for TenTen, her accuracy increased a lot and her thrown weapons have a lot more strength. I convinced her to also use bombs and other kinds of weapons. Her throwing weapons won't be enough once she fights someone who can raise a barrier.

I didn't change much for them, but a lot happened during my stay. I sent a Blood Clone to Uzushiogakure and began with the plan to reveal ourselves to the world. If everything goes right we will be a known force in the time the Chunin Exam Arc starts.

“Good morning my YOUTHFUL STUDENTS!”. We all looked to the origin of the voice, which clearly belonged to our sensei. Guy came running on his hands and had a scroll between his feet.

He crossed the remaining distance to us and then made a double somersault before landing in front of us. The scroll was now unrolled in his hands and he grinned his Nice Guy grin;

“I bring good news to you, the Hokage deemed us worthy enough to grant us a C-Rank mission. We will make a patrol from Konoha to the village Fruo”.

“Fruo is a week away from Konoha, are there any specific orders?”, asked TenTen.

“We are to make sure that no bandit settles down near the road and report any findings back to the Hokage”.

“Sounds boring”, said TenTen in dismissal.

“These missions are necessary, we are still untrained Genin. A patrol like this will give us field experience inside Fire Country and might also allow us to get some fairly safe fights against bandits. We can't just start and fight against older and more trained Ninja.

Even D-Ranks have a use. They allow us to know each other better by conversing with each other and help us in practicing the writing of reports.

C-Ranks will give us more experience with the outside world, while still not being under much danger.

B-Ranks will then allow us to learn how to fight other Ninja of similar or lesser strength. And A-Ranks are for the real fights against unknowns.

S-Rank missions are then the epitome of danger and mostly only have little or no information about the target. They are highly dangerous and more often than once will bring you into a position where you are against stronger and more foes at once. So a boring C-Rank will still give you something valuable. And who knows maybe we will face more than we want to and get all killed during this boring C-Rank mission”, I replied to TenTen. She listened closely and then frowned when I mentioned the possible death of us all.

“Now now, don't be so pessimistic Dexter, everything will be alright”, reassured Guy and patted me on my shoulder.

“But he is right, there is a reason for the classification of our missions and it's also true that they not always are what they seem to be. Every mission can turn into something way more dangerous than first believed. It's good to always stay vigilant”.

“YOSH! We will ace this mission and then get back to Konoha”, declared Lee loudly as always.

“That is the spirit, my student. Pack for a week and meet me at the northern gate in an hour”, spoke Guy proudly and then run off to get his own gear.

Half an hour later we all were ready to leave Konoha for at least a week.

“Good, then let's start this mission. Our goal is to reach the village of Fruo and dispose of any hostile forces on our way”, said Guy to us three who stood at attention.

“Any questions?”.

“Yes, will you lead this mission?”, was my only question.

“A good question. No, I won't, you three will have to come up with everything. I will only step in when it seems like that you won't manage something. Or if it gets too dangerous”, answered Guy.

Each of us three Genin looked at each other; “Who is in charge?”, was then asked by me.

“I vote for you Dexter-kun. You are our brain when it comes to missions”, said TenTen.

“TenTen is right. YOUR YOUTHFUL FLAMES OF INTELLIGENCE ARE BURNING BRIGHTER THAN MINE. BUT! I WILL NOT STEP DOWN AND AM GOING TO LEARN HOW TO FOLLOW YOUR LEAD, SO THAT I WILL BE LIKE YOU IN THE FUTURE!”, proclaimed Lee very loudly.

“Thanks, then first order, no shouting”, was my reply while pricking my ear. I think something ripped....

“YOSH I...I will stay quiet”, said Lee. He was loud at first but got an elbow into his side from TenTen.

“Well then, Guy-sensei will be in the front. I and Lee will be in the middle with TenTen in the back. Report when you notice something. We will travel fast until we have to set camp”, I announced and we jumped off. We had to walk on the ground because neither Lee nor TenTen knew Tree-walking yet.

We run in silence for half an hour until Guy began to speak; “Dexter, mind telling my why you choose this formation?”.

“Sure, TenTen is in the back because she is our range fighter, it wouldn't be good for her to be in the front. Lee and I are in the middle because I'm mid to close range and Lee is close combat. It's easier to respond between the front and back for us if we stay in the middle.

And your position, even if it sounds hard, is the shield. You're less likely to die from a surprise attack. We don't have a tracker which means that we are less prepared for any surprise attacks.

But what we do have is an experienced Ninja that can act in response to sudden aggressions”.

I didn't know if Guy liked the answer because he didn't say anything further and kept looking towards the front.

“I knew that Dexter would come up with a good plan like this”, praised Lee from the side.

I frowned and looked at Lee who was still beaming at me; “No Lee, this isn't a good plan. It's a necessity made out of our lack of skills. This formation isn't practicable in more dangerous areas. It basically kills Guy-sensei the moment we get into an ambush that doesn't give him enough time to move. This whole mission isn't good for our team. We are, or more likely will be a demolition team. We hit heavy, but aren't good in things that have to be handled carefully. We lack a tracker, a sensor, a Jutsu specialist and a medic. The only thing this team is able to do is to punch the enemy in the face”. I stopped my rambling when I noticed that everyone was looking at me.

Did they not notice this? It's obvious!

This was the first thing I changed in Uzushiogakure's Genin teams. It's okay to create specialized teams later in their career. But first, they have to learn to work with each other before they specialize. Only knowing one way to do something is almost a certain death.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Sure a specialized team is always better in their field than a none specialized one, however, it is way less agile and easily taken out. You just have to force them into a situation that won't compliment their skills.

“That is an interesting point Dexter, but it is what made Konoha's teams strong. The Hokage sends us to missions that are perfect for our skill set. This makes a success of a mission more likely”, countered Guy and I choose to not argue with him.

I investigated the death rate of Konoha's Genin. It's almost at 80%. Sure, those who get Chunin are good in what they do, but a lot of teams get killed before that. It doesn't happen when their sensei is with them, no it happens when they fight one vs one. It's typical for two Ninja teams to duke it out in separated one vs one fights. Also, something that I tried to change. Why using teams, to begin with, when they won't be necessary. Uzu's current main tactic against teams uses a divide and conquer tactic. One or two crowd fighter will suppress the majority of the enemy and the remaining team will pick out single targets.

We traveled in silence for the remaining time. And then set up for camp with the dusk of the sun.

We made four night watching shifts, each two hours long and then continued on our way on the next day.

This repeated a few days until we reached Fruo. A small village full of farmers. At least that should have been. What greeted us was an almost fully burned down village. Only a handful of houses were still standing and even those had signs of damage.

“What happened here?”, asked TenTen wide-eyed.

No one answered her and we continued with our fast pace until we reached the remains of the village gates.

Two guards were standing in front of it, both had at least something bandaged.

“Halt! Who're you?”, shouted one of them. His crude spear raised in defense.

“We're Ninja from Konoha, we were tasked to watch out for bandits and get rid of them in case we find some”, said Lee. He wasn't as energetic as normally, he's probably already getting the gist of what happened.

“Bandits? We have bandits, thy attacked us two days ago. Killed our men, kidnapped our woman and stole our money”, said the other guard with a pained expression.

“Do you know where they might be and how many there are?”. It would be good to know these things.

“40 at least, maybe more. They came from the west side of the village and left the same way”, answered me one of them.

We thanked them and then took some distance.

“What do you intend to do?”, asked Guy me.

“We all know some tracking skills, a group this large won't travel without lasting tracks. I think we should follow them and scout their camp. We will then spy on them until we know how much of a danger they are. If they are too strong, then we'll send for reinforcements, if not then we will kill them ourselves”, was my answered and both Lee and TenTen looked worried when I mentioned that we will kill them.

“40 bandits will he hard to fight, any plans considering that?”, was his next question.

“Paper bombs, they probably sleep in tents. A few good placed paper bombs will take out most of them, the rest will be confused and in panic, easy targets. But before we do that we should find out about the captives and their leader. He's most likely the main fighting force and probably a Ninja or Samurai. Most likely the former, Samurai are often to honorable to become a bandit.”

Guy nodded in approval and we began to track them down. It was fairly easy, it hadn't rained in the last five days and the tracks they made were deep and easy to follow. Which didn't mean that we simply followed them, we took a bit of distance and walked alongside the tracks, not on them.

This way we found, three hours later, their base. A large clearing with tents spread all over it.

We counted 10 guards, 14 awake bandits inside a meeting place, and another 10 to 15 inside the tents.

There were also two larger tents, one of them looked more luxurious than the rest and the other one was regularly visited by bandits.

We watched them for a day and a night and found out their patrols and shifts. It was laughable easy to do so. We simply had to wait inside the trees. They shifted their guards every four hours and two pairs of three made a tour through the forest twice each shift.

“What's the plan?”, asked Lee. We were now speaking about what we will do.

“I think we should take them out, the tents are near enough to get rid of them with paper bombs and they have to be stopped”, said TenTen.

“I agree, Guy-sensei, are we allowed to take them on?”, was my question and all three of us looked at Guy.

“Hmm, tell me your plan and I might agree”, was his reply.

“Good, first we will wait until it's night, it's the best time to attack. We will then take out the patrols and after that get rid of the guards on two sides of the camp. They have to be opposite of each other.

The first side will be where they have most of their tents, the other one will be near the large tent.

Lee and TenTen will take care of the first side. They will then place paper bombs all around the tents and retreat towards the other side of the camp. But do it by walking around, not through it.

Once they are far enough away they will trigger the bombs. The explosion will be the signal for me and Guy-sensei. Guy-sensei will attack the big tent that shows more sign of luxury, while I take on the other large tent. The kidnapped women are probably inside those. I will lead the women out of the camp and further inside the forest, TenTen and Lee will assist me.

Guy-sensei, your only task is to take out their leader and then to retreat as well. We will try to avoid as much fighting as possible. It's better to let them panic for the night and do another scouting on the other day.

One of us three will bring the women back during the second attack. The remaining bandits might be more guarded then, but they will also be tired from the day before and most of them will also be wounded.

This should give us enough advantage to take them out without much risk. Maybe a second bombing will be possible as well.

Is this plan good enough?”.

They looked a little stunned. I know that this plan has a few steps, but it's isn't such a problem to do it.

“That is a good plan, a really good plan. Impressive that you came up with it on the spur of the moment. There is only one thing I disagree with. I won't be taking out the guards on the other side of the camp. At least not how you said it. I will help TenTen and Lee first and then sneak through the camp to help you once they activated the bombs. It's less risky”, remarked Guy.

“This will do as well, and I had enough time to think about it during our scouting”, I replied with a wave of my hand.

“Well then, I agree with Dexter's plan, check your gear and be ready in a few minutes. And Dexter, on a word”, said Guy and I followed him a few meters away from the others.

“I will be blunt, you might see things inside that tent that will be gruesome and ugly. Keep in mind that you have to think about your safety first and then about others. You will get angry, that is for sure, but don't get blinded by it and act after thinking. Speak with your sister about the things you will see after this mission. Do you understand?”, said Guy very seriously. He knows as well as I that these bandits are raping the women inside this tent.

“Yes”, was my short reply. He nodded once and we walked back, where I gave both Lee and TenTen enough paper bombs to send them into oblivion.

------------------------------------------------------------

Cliffhanger^^

Nope....

We waited for nightfall and then took out the patrols, it was fast and fairly easy. I killed one of them by throwing a Kunai through his left eye into his skull and Guy-sensei broke his neck with a kick. Neither TenTen nor Lee had to do anything.

We then proceeded towards the camp, where we split up. I run around the camp and waited for the signal. It took longer than I first thought but sure enough, a series of explosions lit the night and screams came from all around the camp. I quickly began to close in on the guard that was now turned towards the camp. I killed him by breaking his neck with a quick Chakra enforced twist.

He was then silently placed down and I continued forward. The next destination will be the tent.

I cut my way inside from the back and the smell of sex and blood washed over me the moment I got inside.

It was lit by a few torches and there were groups of women bound to poles. There were 15 in total, their age varied from 8 to 30, all of them looked dirty and had wounds. There was still some blood between some of their legs.

°These fuckers!°, growled Kura-chan.

°Why are you awake? I thought you wouldn't have the link open when Guy is around°, was my reply. I wasn't really disturbed by the sight. I saw it countless times in my previous live when I rescued slaves.

°And miss the chance to see such bastards die? Never!°, answered Kura-chan heatedly.

I further surveyed the room and saw some beds with unconscious women inside. There were also three guards, one of them not clothed.

I sneaked towards one of the older women. She saw me and got wide eyes, at first it looked like she would be saying something, but then kept quiet. Thankfully.

I motioned her to stay quiet and to tell the others to do so as well. She understood and nodded rapidly. I then smiled at her before continuing on my way to the first guard. It was the naked one.

He was in a heated argument with the other two, demanding to know what happened. They didn't know as well and one were then commanded to go out.

Now with only two guards left I increased my speed a little and were almost directly behind the naked one. I took two Kunai out and jumped behind him. One Kunai was rammed inside his heart and the other sliced his throat open. He gurgled loudly and alarmed the remaining guard. His eyes grew wide and he opened his mouth to scream, however, the Kunai that was used to slice the throat of the naked one now found its way inside the mouth of the other. The soft flesh inside the mouth was easily ruptured and the Kunai broke through the skull. Killing him instantly. His body fell down like a sack of potatoes and I let go of the naked one.

After that I took another Kunai out and positioned myself on the side of the entrance, the third one will be back soon.

And sure enough, I didn't have to wait long. He run inside while shouting about the attack. Of course, he stopped when he saw his two dead friends, but it was too late for him, two sharp Kunai pierced his temples and his life was ended instantly.

I took back each Kunai and then walked over to the now awake and frightened women.

Why are they always frightened when I save them?

°Because you do it in a bloody and gruesome way. It also doesn't help that they most likely never saw anyone dying°, answered Kura-chan.

°Good point°. I cut them free and they stood up, those who could not stand were supported by others.

“My team will help you to get out, you have to stay quiet and be fast. Can you do that?”, I whispered. They all nodded and I left a present before we left through my entrance. The group run as quick as they could towards the forest and Guy was soon beside me. He looked at me, watching for any signs of a breakdown but I didn't show anything.

Then suddenly a large explosion came from behind us and some women fell down from the sudden scare.

Guy and I helped them up and the continued on our way.

Ten minutes later we slowed down but still continued to move. TenTen and Lee were now also with us and we stopped completely after another hour.

A small group of women came over to me and Guy also made his way from TenTen and Lee towards me. The one I first 'spoke' to was with them.

“Thank you very much, we would have been sold if you haven't saved us”, said one of them.

“It was the duty of us Konoha Ninja, you don't have to worry, we will bring you back to your village. We will also take care of the remaining bandits”, reassured Guy, who now stood beside me, and they all looked relieved.

“Thank you again”, said the same woman and they went back to a small group of children.

“Everything alright?”, asked Guy then suddenly.

“Yes”, was my short reply.

“Are you sure? I saw how one guard came out and back inside the tent”, asked Guy again.

“It's not the first time I saw dead people”, I said. Even if he does not know about me being Naruto, he should know that my family was killed by bandits.

“Again, speak with your sister after this mission or with me. You don't have to be alone with it”, comforted Guy. He then motioned TenTen and Lee over to us.

“Lee, TenTen, you two will come with me tomorrow. Dexter, you will bring back the women. They will be comfortable with you, as they already saw how you protected and saved them”.

We all nodded and then took watch, while the rest slept.

The next day I moved out with the 13 women and two children. It took us the whole day to get back to the village, as we had to move around the camp.

The group was greeted by the remaining villagers and my team was also already there. TenTen and Lee looked unwell. TenTen even showed signs of crying.

°They must've done their first close kill°, assumed Kura-chan and I agreed.

°You think Guy will make trouble because I didn't show any signs?°.

°No, not if you speak with Yuugao about it. Just spout some nonsense about only realizing at a later time what you've done and then tell her that you're reasoning their death as necessary for the survival of others. This should do the trick°, said Kura-chan and I gave her a mental nod.

The villagers asked us to celebrate with them, but we had to leave. Our mission wasn't finished yet, we still had to go back and report anything we found.