33 Naruto : Chapter 33
It was the end of the first month and the three jonin senseis for the rookie teams met in a bar. They had planned on reviewing their success in training their teams over the last month.
"I am really satisfied with how far my team has come. While there is still much work to do, they are a well-working unit and know how to combine their clan techniques to reach good results in my fake missions." Kurenai said.
She had not taken as many missions as the other teams; instead she simulated some to train her team's specialty, tracking, better.
"By the way, I think they are ready for some resistance seals now. Kakashi, would you mind coming around tomorrow to place them?" She asked.
"Sure, I can leave my team alone over lunch break. So I can get to it around one tomorrow. Asuma, do you also want the seals for your team?" He asked.
"Yes, I have already forewarned them. While Shikamaru thinks it is troublesome and is thoroughly unmotivated, forcing him to train even if he doesn't want to can only be good for him.
The only one motivated on my team is Ino and she only wants to not lose to Sakura in getting Sasuke's attention. She thinks if she and her team are weak Sasuke will never notice her." Asuma sighed.
"I see, well, placing the seals doesn't take more than five minutes per person, so I could do your team after I did Kurenai's. Hm, seems like my team gets a longer lunch break tomorrow." Kakashi mused.
"That's something I also wanted to know. How comes you are following such a rigid schedule with your team? And why are all the missions you take practically completely out of public sight?" Kurenai asked.
"Ah, I just need to get Sasuke away from the worship of the villagers. He needs to realize that nobody will just fall to his knees because he is an Uchiha in a fight. The villagers put that idiotic idea in his head.
The Uchihas were also always very arrogant and arrogance can lead to death on a mission. Sasuke's father Fugaku especially was a very proud and arrogant man and convinced that being an Uchiha made you practically royalty.
As the villagers treated Sasuke like a pampered Prince after the massacre, he didn't learn that nobody outside the village would give a damn about it. My harsh training and keeping my team isolated from the villagers is meant to remedy that idea quickly.
"I also don't want to have Sakura think she could slack off on missions. Those missions your teams do are ones that would give her too much time swooning over Sasuke without repercussions.
If she does that on higher ranking missions, it can get her or her team-mates killed. I won't let that happen. Sakura is one of the worst fangirls I've ever seen. I know that girls crushing on one boy or another is normal at that age, but if they want to be ninjas, they have to know when they can act on it and when not.
Sakura was raised with the goal of her mother to have her daughter marry into a rich clan and Sasuke as the sole heir of the Uchiha fortune is a prime candidate.
Asuma, while Ino is also crushing on Sasuke, is lucky that Ino is from a ninja clan and knows that she has to put her missions first and not to completely neglect her training. He has a better base to work with.
"And you are the really lucky one, Kurenai. Hinata never showed any signs of being a fangirl and wants to become strong enough to prove herself to her father and her clan.
While she is timid, with the right support and good team-mates that show her they have her back, she can get over that. And I have the feeling your team is well-suited for it.
Kiba as an Inuzuka was raised with the mentality that the pack is the most important thing to protect, which for him includes his clan and his team.
Shino as an Aburame knows about hive mentality and while he needs to get better in social contacts, he will always protect his team-mates and will work to improve the overall strength of a team.
You have known Hinata for years and are well-suited to help her with the confidence issues." Kakashi said.
"Yes, I am glad I got such a good team. And since Naruto pointed out the potential dangers Hinata puts her team-mates in by holding back in taijutsu training, she is getting better. I tested them on their elemental affinities and Naruto was right, Hinata is a water element.
I looked up a few taijutsu styles that are based on water to help her adapt her gentle fist to her element. She seems much happier now that she can develop her own version of the gentle fist. It will need some time until she has it workable, but the first few katas she adjusted work well enough." Kurenai informed them.
"I am curious, what elements did the other two have?" Asuma asked.
"Shino is an earth element and Kiba a lightning element." She answered.
"Did you also test your genin on their elements, Kakashi?" Asuma asked.
"Yes. Interestingly Sasuke is a lightning element, but due to his fire element training from his clan he also has a strong secondary fire affinity. Sakura is an earth element and Naruto, well his primary element is wind, but he also has a strong secondary affinity for water and a nearly equally strong affinity for lightning.
Normally you only get that after years of training and training up your affinities. And if I say he is a wind element, I mean he can control the wind instinctively." Kakashi said.
"Really? Impressive, even I am not that good with wind manipulation. I wonder where he got the information on how to train those affinities.
They aren't part of the normal library. Seems he is more of a mystery than everybody thought." Asuma commented then sinking into deep thought.
Kakashi suspected he might be up to Naruto's disguise as he had been the one to test the blond's abilities.
"Indeed. By the way, how did the matches of your teams go?" Kakashi asked.
"Shino won against Choji, Shikamaru won against Kiba and Hinata won against Ino." Kurenai said grinning.
"So we have four victories for my team from Sasuke and Naruto. Each of them has two. Then Kurenai has three victories, two from Shino and one from Hinata. Asuma has two one from Shikamaru and one from Ino." Kakashi summarized.
"Yes. And next month we wanted to have them do team matches. Or would you rather have them do a task?" Asuma said.
"I think a team obstacle course would be a good exercise. You did teach them tree walking, right?" Kakashi asked.
"Yes, they all can do it by now. So we could include that in the course. If you want, I will design a course and show my ideas to you in three days." Kurenai offered.
"Sounds good to me." Asuma said.
"No complaints from me either." Kakashi answered.
...
At nine in the morning on Monday morning Team seven stood in front of the Hokage and the chunin on duty in the mission office.
"Team seven present for a C-rank mission, Hokage Sama." Kakashi announced.
Sasuke and Naruto perked up. They would finally get a better mission than those D-ranks. Sakura just hoped she would get by.
The last month of training had been hell. She hadn't thought that ninja life was so taxing. In her mother's plans it always sounded so easy and glorious.
You went to the academy, got placed on a team under a jonin sensei, got taught a few things over one or one and a half years, in the best case you had one or two cute and rich boys from an important clan on the team, seduced one and in the end you retired and raised your children.
During missions the boys did all the hard work, while you were a proper lady and only needed your female guile to do the job.
That was complete rubbish.
While she was on the same team as Sasuke, the richest and cutest of all the boys in her class, she simply didn't have any time to even ask him out on a date.
She couldn't take care of her body like she did in the academy and instead of letting her hair open so Sasuke could admire its length and silkiness, Kakashi had ordered her to either tie it up or cut it as it would only get in her way. She would never just cut it and so she now wore her hair in a ponytail. She hated that she looked more like Ino this way.
And while she had tried to follow the low fat diet her mother had come up with, it just didn't work. If she kept to vegetables, fruit and low fat meat, she didn't have the energy to last through training and Kakashi sensei didn't care at all.
He just told her she knew what she should eat and if she didn't follow her sensei's instructions she had to deal with the consequences.
So she had told her mother that she needed normal rice balls and sushi for lunch to get through training and not look weak in Sasuke's eyes. While her mother hadn't liked her decision, she had complied.
The change in food helped, but as it only came up to the amount of food a normal civilian who did physical work for half a day, she still felt powerless at the end of the day while she could see that Sasuke adjusted to their level of training after two weeks.
He was even occasionally discussing strategies with Naruto. With Naruto of all people.
Why did he accept Naruto and not her? The only explanation she had was that he saw her as too weak for him. So she had started to make her own lunchboxes. It was more or less the same food Kakashi had given them over the first week of training.
It helped her get through the days. If she ate properly for breakfast, for which her mother still slept, and lunch, she had no problems to eat low fat and mostly salad and fruit in the evenings. She just hoped she wouldn't become ugly from all the muscle she was building up.
"So you think your team is ready for an easy C-rank. Let's see what I have here. Ah yes, this one should only take you two days and considering the training you put them through, it should be easy to do.
This is a protection and transport of important supplies for our village. We get a new delivery of medical herbs, rare poisons, special earth and water every month for our hospital.
The new delivery has arrived just yesterday evening at the port in Tea Country. You are to take your team to Tea Country, take over the shipment and seal the boxes with the goods in sealing scrolls. After that you are to bring the scrolls back to Konoha." The Hokage said.
"Mission accepted, Hokage Sama. Team, get your equipment for a C-rank mission, we are meeting in thirty minutes at the main gate." Kakashi said.
"Understood." All three answered and left through the door.
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