The Hokage smirked and shook his head a little.
"You just graduated," pointed out Iruka Umino. "Though I really wasn't ready for you to pull a whiteboard out and go over your team's qualifications quite like that."
Sakura shrugged slightly. "I read a book on business presentations."
"You guys..." said Kakashi, shaking his own head at this.
"Well, I just gave another team a C-Rank, so I suppose this is fine," said the Hokage.
"Really? Anyone we know?" asked Naruto, brightening slightly.
"Team Kurenai," supplied Iruka. "Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Hinata Hyuga. An escort mission to Wave."
"Dogbreath already got a C-Rank?!" responded Naruto.
"Don't diss the Inuzuka clan, baka," said Sakura, threatening to bop her team-mate in the head.
"Not many guys in the class could make the claim that their dog is smarter than they are, but he could," said Naruto.
"Yeah, but Akamaru is also smarter than you, dobe," quipped Sasuke.
"Enough!" yelled Iruka, settling down when the genin stopped their bickering.
"You have a lively team, eh Kakashi?" asked the Hokage, turning serious a moment later. "This C-Rank is an escort mission. You are to head to Tanzaku Gai to meet with the client's main group. Some warfare near Kiri has caused two villages to be mostly destroyed. The refugees are to be escorted across the Land of Fire to the Land of Grass. Further details are in the mission scroll."
Kakashi knew something was up the moment Sakura unsealed a whiteboard with easel from that scroll.
He'd seen it a couple of times when they were planning on those training sessions they did after missions. Which was actually something to do with Naruto's card-jutsu.
He'd expected Sakura to research things and know that about now was the usual breaking-point for genin teams to be fed up with D-Rank missions. Honestly though, if he had been putting money on it - he would have expected Naruto to be the one objecting and in an emotional fashion. Sakura used logic, estimates, and projections based on scanty data. Well, of course the data was scanty. Ninja village. All of the hard information was classified.
He took the scroll and unfurled it a bit to check.
Yeah, that was it. Two criminal groups had started fighting over resources in Kirigakure's territory. Two villages had been swept up in that and basically torn to the ground, with Kiri-nin hiring out to both sides.
Refugees were being given a chance at new homes in Grass, which had recently suffered from a plague along one of its borders. THOSE villages had been burned to the ground rather than take the chance of something that virulent resurfacing, but that still left an area with sparse population.
Kakashi thought back to what he'd heard about the two incidents and it all made sense. Kiri was quite capable of bloodlust and destruction for its own sake. Kusa had suspicions about that plague not being entirely natural, but no evidence.
Kakashi returned his attention to the scroll, raising his eyebrow at one particular section.
Oh? This could be interesting.
"So we're just taking a group of refugees from one village to the border? Ah well, at least it'll be a change of scenery, right guys?" asked Naruto, refusing to let the apparent lack of opportunity to show off spoil this.
"Basically a caravan guard position, that's fairly typical from what I've heard," mused Sakura aloud. Her attention snapped to Naruto. "If you use Windy to let us know about potential ambushes, we can get a few seconds of warning at the very least. In that sort of situation, that's invaluable."
Sasuke nodded. "How long can you maintain one card?"
"I dunno, most I've maintained Windy is eight hours so far," admitted Naruto. "If I swap Windy out every so often - I think I can do longer. One card is easy."
"What about Shadow?" asked Sakura.
"What do you mean?" asked Naruto. He didn't use Shadow that much.
"Can you have Shadow stand guard at night? A shadow at night is a lot harder to spot," said Sakura, still thinking out strategies.
"Yeah, or maybe I could use Invisible and Mirror to make myself appear to be in one spot and actually be somewhere else," mused Naruto, now thinking of the possibilities.
"Yeah, not sticking with a single tactic makes you more unpredictable," agreed Sakura. "Well, I'm going to go pack. See you tomorrow."
Sasuke nodded and walked off, thinking this sounded like a lame mission - but it was at least better than river clean-up or dog-walking.
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(Posted Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:54)
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