Second Chance

Chapter 07

"As soon as all of you reach the gate." Kakashi informed them and then headed off to gather his mission gear.

"Ten?" Naruto asked the other two.

"Ten." They chorused their agreement. The three then vanished from the clearing leaving hardly a trace that they had been there. When Hinata got home she quickly began to inspect her gear to ensure that nothing was missing. One thing that Sasuke and Naruto had told her to do was always keep her gear packed and maintained so that little time would be wasted when they headed out. She kept that advice to heart and then darted down the hall to her father's study.

"Father, may I come in?" She called through the door. Receiving permission she entered the room and bowed to the stern man before her. "Kakashi-sensei just informed us that we are heading out on a mission and I am to meet them as soon as possible at the gate. I wanted to inform you before I headed out so you wouldn't worry." She informed him.

"What kind of mission? As far as I remember your team has done few D-ranks." Hiashi inquired slightly surprised at the abruptness of Kakashi's decision.

"A C-rank immediately followed by an A-rank mission." She said softly hoping that the other man wouldn't explode at the news. To be fair the stoic Hyuga managed to not spit out his tea at the news.

"A-rank?!" he sputtered trying to clear his lungs of the tea that he had just swallowed.

"Hai."

"Kakashi better know what he is doing." Hiashi snarled. He had no desire to see his eldest die due to a careless jonin. Hinata, on the other hand, was trying desperately not to laugh at her father. She had not expected him to try and drown himself in tea.

"I'm sure that I will be fine." She managed with a straight face. Nodding tentatively Hiashi gave Hinata permission to leave and groaned. He would make mincemeat of the copy ninja if anything happened to Hinata.

Sasuke and Naruto didn't take that long retrieving their gear as well. Seeing as Naruto had been spending the nights at Sasuke's to try and decipher the Edo Tensei he had left all of his mission supplies there. As soon as they had them and ensured everything was fine, Naruto waited for his friend to lock the door before applying some high level security seals. The last thing that they wanted was for some fan girl to break in and find the scroll of sealing unrolled on Sasuke's bed. Darting to the gate they found that Kakashi was already there and Hinata was just arriving.

"Not bad. Seven minutes and thirteen seconds. You really have increased your speed haven't you?" Kakashi commented. The three nodded breathlessly and after an equipment check (Kakashi almost had a heart attack at the mini armory Sasuke and Naruto had brought) they headed out. It was almost an hour of silence before Kakashi spoke again.

"The first mission is a bandit elimination mission. I decided that we should get this out of the way now so that there are no problems later. The client has requested that the bandits be eliminated not captured. As such no one leaves the camp alive except for anyone they may have kidnapped. This will be your first kills so I will not hold it against you if you fall apart but try to hold off until after the mission is finished." Kakashi said. Normally he wouldn't have been so blunt but a part of him had a feeling that only Hinata would be making her first kill today.

The rest of the trip was made in silence and it didn't take very long for the group to reach the client's village. A brief exchange with Tsubasa revealed nothing new about the mission either than the fact that the bandits had kidnapped several young girls three days prior. While it only made it more difficult to be able to attack freely it also meant that he would be able to assess his team's overall stealth in the field instead of tame exercises.