"A C-rank mission?" Kakashi asked. The mere fact that he was speaking indicated more surprise than he allowed in his dull voice.
"There is some concern that Dragon Slayer legends suggest the jutsu is extremely powerful and destructive," Sarutobi said. "The Council has seen fit to test that."
"Yes!" Naruto crowed. "They recognize my awesomeness, dattebayo!"
Kakashi felt it more likely that they didn't want Konoha to become Village Hidden in Ice from Overexuberant Dragon Slayer Genin. It was too long to say, for one thing. "So what is this mission?"
"We've learned that a recent mission to the Land of Waves has gone south in a big way. Team Ten is injured, potentially under attack, and the client is refusing details, probably because this should never have been a C rank mission." Sarutobi took a long pull from his pipe and sighed. "Normally rescuing a beleaguered team would be a Chunin mission, but…"
Kakashi blinked slowly. Apparently, the council had decided, rather unsubtly, to get Naruto killed. Even if they lost Sasuke and himself in the process.
"Don't worry, dattebayo!" Naruto bragged. "How hard could it be?"
Sakura looked up. "Where did that dark cloud of doom come from?"
"You get used to it," Sasuke grumbled.
"Message from Konoha," Choji called, running into the cave. He had a scrap of paper with him. "Reinforcements are on the way. How's Asuma-sensei?"
"Not good," Ino said. "That sword can do some nasty damage."
"Not anymore it can't," Shikamaru muttered, glancing over to a corner of the cave. Half of an oddly shaped sword had been tossed into the corner. It had been a brutal fight, but Asuma's chakra-infused trench knives proved enough to cut whatever stuff that sword was made of. Shikamaru had just waited for the right moment and then used his shadows to get a grip on the sword and snap it in half.
They might have been able to take Zabuza out, but they were all suffering chakra exhaustion when a Hunter-nin swooped in, pretended to kill Zabuza, and flew off.
Shikamaru grimaced. It had been an obvious pretense, but there was no choice but to go along with it. That hunter had the chakra of a chunin, and in their state they would surely lose people against him. Trading assets when in the inferior position is a losing strategy; before long you have nothing left and your enemy, while weaker, can still attack. So they let the stalemate-farce go without comment.
But now, reinforcements. That changed the equation. Granted, a team of chunin would order them off the field, but at least the mission wouldn't be a complete failure. "Who are they sending?" Shikamaru asked.
"Team seven."
"Sasuke is coming!?" Ino, of course.
Shikamaru fell on his back and looked up at…the stalactite over his head. Hiding in a cave was good strategy while they rested, but there weren't enough clouds on the roof of a cave. "How troublesome," he muttered.
For all Naruto's bravado, team seven was unusually somber as they set out from Konoha.
Sakura would never admit it, ever, but Ino in trouble worried her. They had been friends far longer than not, after all.
Naruto had wrapped his nervous energy in determination. Whatever they thought of him, he considered team ten his friends as fellow shinobi of the Leaf. His friends were in trouble. Someone would pay for that.
Sasuke was…Sasuke. Nothing different there.
Kakashi looked over his genin with a practiced eye. They hadn't done much practical combat training. Any, really. They were supposed to have a few more weeks of D-ranks before moving on to light combat C-ranks. But no, Naruto had to scare the hell out of the village leaders and they were running into shit way over their heads. Kakashi ran through what he knew of each genin's abilities and decided on what kind of training they needed most.
Sasuke had the Sharingan, which as crutches went was pretty damn good. Unlocking that would make him much more formidable than he was. Hopefully battle stress could get past whatever trauma had it locked. But to maintain it…chakra control. If the Last Uchiha was to survive the shit hitting the fan, he needed to be able to maintain the Sharingan. Kakashi knew better than anyone that required solid control. So, tree climbing for Sasuke. And if the Sharingan didn't manifest…they would be lucky to have time for tree climbing. No use worrying about a plan B just yet.
Sakura was a harder puzzle. She was smart, when Sasuke wasn't around, and she had great chakra control for a genin, but other than that she had nothing. She could be good with genjutsu, but for now she didn't have the focus to put one up in combat, especially with Sasuke triggering her fangirlism. Those same traits could make her a decent medic…ugh. Kakashi grunted. There was good support potential in Sakura but there was absolutely nothing he could teach her along those lines, now, that would actually be useful. Complex genjutsu were beyond their time frame and simple genjutsu were useless against proper ninja and he didn't know any medic stuff to begin with. Set her on taijutsu and kunai practice, then. It was mostly make-work, but at least she'd get some exercise and hone her skills even if just a little.
And then Naruto, who wasn't so much a puzzle as he was an n-dimensional rubix cube. Kakashi knew so little about the Dragon Slayer jutsu that everything he used to know about Naruto was either in doubt or verified as wrong. The boy's personality hadn't changed…much…but everything else was in doubt. He'd set him on tree climbing with Sasuke and observe from there; chakra control couldn't hurt, after all.
"Bodies," Sasuke called. He pointed down at the road.
The ninja gathered on a single tree in the blink of an eye, looking like a flock of squirrels come to roost. "Mist," Sakura identified.
"Those claws look nasty," Naruto said.
"What happened to them?" Sakura asked, looking vaguely ill.
"That one got a trench knife through the head, and while his partner was in shock he got caught in a shadow. Then his mind left his body long enough for him to get tied up," Kakashi said.
"How can you tell?" Sakura asked.
"Team ten's tactics. These two were too much for them alone, so Asuma had to get involved. He uses trench knives."
Sakura looked at the tied, unconscious nin and his dead partner. "Ino did that?"
"Teamwork did that. And now that team is in trouble. Move out."
A short time later they found team ten. "I smell barbeque," Naruto called.
""Barbeque what?" Sakura asked.
Naruto considered. "Everything."
"That's fatso alright," Sasuke muttered.
"I'M NOT FAT I'M BIG BONED!!"
Everyone looked down at the cave which had just proclaimed a denial in the voice of an angry deity. "That was not very ninjaly," Kakashi noted. "Aren't you supposed to be hiding?"
"..."
"I think he just muttered 'oops,'" Sakura said.
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(Posted Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:41)
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