My team and I arrived near the Academy later in the afternoon, returning from a successful but mind-numbing D-rank. The missions office was a massive open room on the top floor of a small building attached to the Academy. There were other offices around the village for genin, though. It was half the school’s size and there weren’t any windows. When it rained, the wind swept in the water at an angle and when it didn’t, there was the wind to contend with.

The missions office was—as the name suggested—where the vast majority of general shinobi missions were issued. The village’s various departments had their missions delegated to them directly by the Hokage and were almost always B-rank and above. X-rank missions were a thing, but only ANBU did them.

Probably because they were suicide missions where death wasn’t just expected, but the entire mission’s purpose. Thankfully, the ones in the mission office were plentiful but pretty incredibly easy to complete. The only good thing about them was that they provided genin with a livable wage. Weeding gardens was a small price to pay when people had bills to pay.

That said, the odd C-rank floated about every so often.

Generally, C-ranks were about as difficult as missions issued here got. Of course, in the real world, nothing was assured, so some mission ranks were adjusted retrospectively as well. Asuma had stated outright that he didn’t think we were ready for a C-rank mission yet because missions above D-rank came with the implication of shinobi combat—not always, but sometimes.

Asuma’s refusal to put us on one for the time being left the Genin Corps’ chunin-led squads to swoop in and nab those C-ranks for themselves. I’d had my eye on an escort mission from the Leaf to the Land of Hot Waters for a while now but it seemed some other squad had poached it.

…Not that I’d had any particular claim on it in the first place, but it still annoyed me.

I grumbled down the stairs, lamenting yet another boring menial job ticked off the monthly quota. The genin life was pretty fun until D-ranks came around. I swear, the things felt like they were made to kneecap my progress. There wasn’t a single thing about them that felt like an accomplishment and it wasn’t like I didn’t understand their significance either.

Understanding why they made us kids do them only annoyed me more because I was the last child anyone in this village wanted to see. Asuma pretended not to notice me using the transformation jutsu, which was nice. Hinata and Choji hid their pity by getting me to show off with the jutsu, which was a pretty adorable gesture, to be honest.

But I was even beginning to get bored with the D-ranks where I didn’t have to hide my identity. With all the jutsu I knew, I was itching for some kind of yardstick to match myself up against. There was only so much sparring could do because the only way to judge my performance was active combat.

At the same time, part of me was terrified of having to point my weapons at another living, breathing human being. A human being with people who cared about and relied on them—and to snuff out their life knowing that? It… it didn’t eat at me, but it was there: cold and hard in the pit of my stomach. No shinobi went through life without killing because if you weren’t willing to kill, then you died.

Something solid struck the top of my head. Asuma slipped the rolled-up mission request into his flak jacket with a grin.

“What’s that?” I nodded at the request he’d pocketed.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, placing a guiding hand on Choji and Hinata’s shoulders. “This afternoon, we’ll be doing some more joint training.”

“With who?” Choji asked.

Asuma shook his head. “Not telling. That’d spoil the surprise.”

“We seem to be doing a lot of joint training today,” said Hinata, twisting back to raise an eyebrow at our teacher. “Is there any particular reason why?”

“There is, but you’ll find out during the training.”

I pressed the back of my index finger to my lips in thought. “...Is it Team 3 again? Lee said they were going to do some training in the afternoon.”

“Nope, but good try.” He walked past me with a frustratingly knowing smile, pushing Hinata and Choji into an alleyway. “Come with me and you’ll find out.”

Again, we exited the village through the western exit—this time following the path out from the gate. A dozen or so metres in, it forked out into two paths: one went straight ahead, and the other curved right. Asuma led us down the second path, jumping a barbed fence spanning as far as the eye could see and breaking out into a sprint the minute we touched down.

I wasn’t sure which training ground this was but there was nothing but tall grassland all around. Then, we reached a second fence and crossed into a thick forest. Instead of tree-jumping like I thought we would, Asuma kept us low to the ground. I could hear the low gurgle of a river somewhere nearby.

“Asuma?” I asked. He didn’t look back but grunted curiously. “Are you taking us fishing?”

“Fishing?” He chuckled. “Not today but thanks for reminding me. I need to do that with these two.”

If he was going to say more, he would have—but he didn’t. Our footsteps were all out of sync, creating a discordant set of rustles as we trampled over dead leaves and the earth below. Seeing that I literally had nothing else to do, I made my hand seals, infusing a decent bit of chakra to expand the jutsu’s range.

Its effects were obvious almost immediately. Our footsteps noticeably dropped in volume and were no longer distinct from one another.

Choji stumbled forward. “What the hell?”

“What did you do, Naruto?” asked Hinata.

“I used a support wind jutsu—Wind-Release: Frequency Disruption.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “Boredom, training, to start a conversation. Take your pick.”

“How long can you use it for?” she asked, clutching her chin in a hand. “Does the jutsu take a flat amount of chakra to activate it and continuously drain chakra to sustain itself?”

“Yeah, but it’s fine. I’ve got heaps of chakra anyway and if nothing else, it keeps my chakra network active. Say we’re out on a mission, I can use Frequency Disruption to make us harder to catch and if we end up getting caught anyway, there’s no need for me to warm up my chakra network.”

“Standard practice is to keep your chakra network active anyway,” said Asuma. “Still, it’s a good idea, kid.”

Choji grunted. “When do I get a cool jutsu, huh?”

He turned around and smiled. “Weren’t you the one who said you want to get a good handle on the Expansion Jutsu before I throw nature-release ninjutsu at you?”

“...Doesn’t mean I can’t grumble about things.”

I laughed and patted his shoulder.

“Hinata,” said Asuma. “Have you changed your mind about picking up any ninjutsu from me? I’ve mastered wind and fire but I can get you access to any other jutsu you’ll need.”

“Wait.” I reflexively raised my hand like we were back in class again. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It doesn’t?”

“You said we’ve got the same primary, right?”

He nodded. “Wind.”

“But you’ve mastered fire—wind’s direct counter?”

“I have. It was a bitch to do, but I got it in the end and even created a jutsu. I used to be a stubborn little shit so it was the next element I picked up after getting good with wind. My old man said I wouldn’t be able to so I wanted to prove him wrong.” Asuma snorted and shook his head wryly. “If nothing else, it gave me the patience I’ll need for the other nature-releases. I got down fire, so the rest will be a breeze. What do you think, Hinata?”

She looked away into the thicket surrounding us. “...I’m sorry. My clan is very… particular about making the Gentle Fist the centre of my arsenal. Nature-release ninjutsu is—I wouldn’t say looked down upon because the older clan members use it, but young Hyuuga are generally dissuaded from learning it too early.”

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“That’s…” I grimaced. “...okay, I’m sorry, but that’s stupid. I ain’t looking down on your clan or anything, because the Gentle Fist is scary, but if you’re going to learn it anyway, what’s the difference between then and now? No one said you can’t learn both together, did they?”

She sighed.

Asuma rubbed the back of his head and hummed. “...Okay, how about genjutsu or medical ninjutsu?”

“Those are fine.” Hinata perked up at his words. “Are you proficient in either of them?”

“I’m not, but I know a genjutsu specialist.” Vaulting the fence in front of us, we landed on a field of grass once again. “Speaking of the devil, we’re here.”

There was a wide river a good distance ahead of us with a tall stone slab planted on a raised platform on its banks. Though that wasn’t the first thing any of us saw. I grinned and waved at the four people sitting in front of the stone slab.

Choji squinted. “...Is that?”

“It is,” said Hinata, affirming his suspicions without the need to activate her Byakugan.

I jabbed Asuma’s shoulder. “You couldn’t tell us we were training with our old classmates?”

“I could’ve, but where’s the fun in that?” he replied, ruffling my hair. “Go on, kids. We’ve got about five minutes till training begins anyway.”

Choji had run halfway to the river in the time it took me to question Asuma. Hinata and I walked at a relaxed pace. I took the time to look over our old classmates—they hadn’t changed much. Granted, we hadn’t been on our teams all that long, so I didn’t know what I was expecting.

“Jonin Yuhi,” I said with a nod.

The red-eyed lady smiled pleasantly at us. “Nice to meet you three at last. Shikamaru has said a lot about you three.”

Hinata blinked at our friend in question. “You have?”

“Don’t get excited,” he drawled.

I shook my head with a small smile. “We’ve missed you too, man.”

“If that’s the case, then I’m worried about you—it’s only been five days since we last saw each other.”

Raising my hands, I back off, leaving Hinata to deal with him. Kiba and Choji were skipping pebbles across the river and since I had nothing to do, I decided to join them.

“Hello, Naruto!”

I paused mid-step. “Hi, Ino.”

The blonde-haired girl smiled pleasantly at me. I turned around to face and she tapped her chin thoughtfully. “That forehead protector looks good on you.”

I huffed. “I got the black one thinking it was like the standard blue, just darker. The cloth is too damn long and now I’m running about like an idiot.”

She giggled. “It’s not that bad.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Really,” she said, hiding the smile behind her hand. “You’ll grow into it.”

“Hello, Ino,” said Hinata with a strange lilt to her voice. “What are you doing?”

Ino turned around and smiled. “I’m talking to Naruto. How’ve you been Hinata?”

“I’ve been well, thank you. I was talking to your sensei earlier.”

“Why?”

“I think I’d like to learn genjutsu—not to become a specialist but because I can’t just rely on taijutsu. After that, some medical ninjutsu would be nice.”

I slowly walked away, easing out a breath as the two engaged in weird double speak. For me to not recognise that the two of them had varying degrees of crushes on me would be moronic. Hinata wasn’t very obvious about it because she valued my friendship first so it took me a few years to notice. It was easier to deal with her than Ino—the blonde made it painfully obvious in the last year of the Academy.

She didn’t ask me out or anything, but she’d sit with us at lunch and break and whatnot. She and Hinata got on surprisingly well, to be honest, even if their weird double-speak was awkward to sit through. I’d got a lot of practice feigning obliviousness when those two were together.

Asuma raised an eyebrow when I returned to him. “What’s the matter? Girl trouble?”

“Girl trouble?” Shikamaru looked over at Hinata and then Ino. “Ah. Sucks to be you.”

I sat down beside him. “Don’t you start, lazybones.”

“Lazybones?” Kurenai said with a small snort of laughter. “I think I’ll start calling you that, Shikamaru. It sums you up almost perfectly.”

He threw his head back and groaned towards the sky.

“See?” I pushed his shoulder playfully. “Someone agrees with me.”

“Shut it, Naruto.”

“Whatever you say.” I laughed and leaned forward, crossing my legs. “Asuma, you said we have five minutes till training starts. It’s been five minutes.”

Kurenai wrinkled her nose. “Leave it to him to be late.”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming, Kurenai?” Asuma smiled.

“I did, but I’m going to complain regardless.” She tapped her chin and then whirled on Asuma. “Oh, you should’ve brought Gai and Team 3. That would have made him come here on time.”

He shrugged. “My lot and I already trained with Gai this morning. I didn’t want to be a bother.”

I felt a sudden rush of cold wind at my back before something knocked me over. I opened my eyes to a mass of pink hair in my face. “...I think I’m gonna hurl.”

“If you are, don’t do it on me,” I said, gingerly lifting them off me to see who it was. I already had my suspicions but I had to be sure. “...Yep, hello, Sakura.”

Kakashi Hatake stood over us, his grey eye narrowed pleasantly.

Asuma patted his shoulder. “You didn’t have to use the Body Flicker Jutsu, Kakashi.”

“Without it, I’d just be late,” replied the man.

“But you’re late already. What’s the difference?” asked Kurenai.

He turned his head to her. “I’d be fashionably late.”

She put her hands on her hips, a few degrees away from openly glaring at him. I lifted the man’s charge out of my lap waiting for the immediate spell of dizziness and vertigo to run its course. Sasuke and Shino gave me two identical nods that I returned, though Sasuke broke eye contact to scoff at Sakura.

She scrambled away from me and scowled as if I’d done something wrong.

“That’s cold of you.” I shook my head. “I stop you from cracking your head open and I don’t even get a thank you? See if I try to help you next time.”

She sighed and bowed. “Thanks, Naruto.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied.

Finally, I turned my attention to Kakashi, who seemed to be looking at me again. I honestly had forgotten all about him, probably because I’d never seen him before until today.

I didn’t know if I should’ve been feeling angry at him or not. As the closest person to my parents, he should’ve made an effort to be in my life but he was fourteen when they died and then a few years before their deaths, one of his closest friends jumped onto his attack and killed herself.

Was it wrong of me to feel a sense of relief that he wasn’t part of my life earlier? Not because he was a bad omen but because neither of us was in a good place, mentally speaking.

“I’ve heard a bit about you, Naruto,” said Kakashi, placing a hand on Sasuke and Shino’s shoulders. “From these two.”

“Really?”

He chuckled at the disbelief in my voice. “Well… Shino more than Sasuke.”

“That makes more sense.”

Sasuke snorted.

“I hear you and Sasuke have a bit of a rivalry going on.”

I shrugged. “I like to think we get along well enough, but it’s something like that.”

“I see. Well, today’s training will let me see how true that is.” He nodded at Asuma and Kurenai. “Let’s get this started.”

All of us genin stood assembled in a row before the jonin, waiting for instructions. I’d done joint training twice before—in the morning with Team 3 and then earlier on with Team 8. The fact that we were all top ten graduating students in our respective classes wasn’t lost on me either.

“Afternoon, all,” said Kakashi. “I’m sure some of you are wondering why you’re here—why, it’s for training, of course, but think of it like an assessment as well”

“What will you be assessing, sensei?” asked Sakura.

“Whether you guys are ready for out-of-village missions.”

I could feel our collective attention fix on the man and seeing his weird eye smile thing, that’s exactly what he’d intended.

Asuma took over. “Don’t get ahead of yourselves. The missions might still be D-ranks, but for all you know there’s a decent likelihood that you’ll run into non-shinobi combatants—ronin, bandits, yakuza, and the like.”

“Nice!” Kiba pumped his fist. “Man, I’m psyched!”

“Which brings us to today’s exercise,” said Kurenai with a smile. “Each of our teams serves a different purpose. Team 10 is a frontline vanguard team, Team 7 is a saboteur team, and Team 8 is a hunter team. So, here’s what’s going to happen,” She turned to address her team, “Team 8, you have one hour. In that hour, you need to capture a specific member from each team and I’ll inform you who they are shortly.”

Kakashi clapped his hands. “Team 7, your job is to protect said teammate from being captured for an hour. Your teammate will not be able to use chakra at all, so you’ll have to take that into account. Oftentimes, saboteur teams will also work on extracting hostages in enemy territory alongside the usual pesky stuff we get up to. With that in mind, you’ll know the fellow member that Team 8 is hunting.”

Asuma gave the three of us a wide grin. “And now, it’s your turn. One of you is a second target that Team 8 has to capture but from a certain point of view, you guys are the most screwed. Since we’re a vanguard team, fighting in completely unknown situations is going to be something you’ll just have to get used to.”

“I don't like where this is going,” muttered Naruto.

“Team 10, you will not be told which one of you Team 8 will be hunting.” He chuckled at Hinata’s disbelief. “Yeah, I hear you but here’s where you’ll get a leg up: said teammate won’t be prevented from using chakra. Keep that teammate safe for an hour and you win.”

“Sensei,” said Hinata. “Doesn’t that mean any of us could be the target and we wouldn’t know?”

“Mhm.”

I looked at Team 8’s huddle a few metres to my right; Shikamaru caught my eye and smirked. Kakashi pulled out what looked like a prisoner seal that restrained a person’s ability to mould and therefore direct chakra. The surprising thing wasn’t that he had one of them—a saboteur team having prisoner seals made sense.

It was who he’d applied the prisoner seal to.

“...Guys, this just became a lot harder than I thought. Sasuke’s the target on Team 7’s end.”

Hinata pinned the top of her thumb between her front teeth. “Team 8 has Shikamaru, Ino, and Kiba. If I’m judging this right, Shikamaru is going to plan, Kiba’s going to be their muscle, and either he or Ino will restrain the target with their jutsu. We don’t know who they’ll be coming after.”

I slung an arm over both their shoulders and brought them into a huddle of our own. “But we know they’re after Sasuke, so here’s what we’re going to do…”

A few minutes later, we stood assembled in front of the jonin, who gave us one final smile.

“Teams 7, 8, and 10… disperse!”