When Naruto had heard the term "bandit camp" he had not envisioned what he was seeing currently. The team was perched on a rocky outcrop looking over the forest below them. In it was a large clearing filled to the brim with tents and carts. When he had heard bandit problem he had thought of maybe a group of ten to twenty. Not the view that greeted him of somewhere between one to two hundred bandits strolling about. All sorts of weapons floated around between them, from swords to scythes and even axes, if you could think of it, someone down there probably had one.
"Uhh... Kakashi-sensei, how exactly do you plan for us to deal with all of this?" Naruto quietly broke the silence with his question. "I'm sure we could take these guys but there's a lot of 'em."
"I'm ashamed to admit it but, the idiots right. there really is a lot." Sasuke stared down scouting and trying to see a plan. "Gotta be something between a hundred and fifty to two hundred guys down there."
"Let's back off for now kiddies." Kakashi said and began making his way away from the edge. The three genin quickly moved to follow them.
Later that day about an hour before dusk Kakashi gathered his team around him. "Alright, listen up." Making sure he had the attention of all three, he then continued. "There's a ravine at the end of the clearing they are camped in. I'm going to use a water style jutsu, followed by an earth style jutsu to force them from camp and into the ravine." Kakashi sighed, "my jutsu will most likely neutralize a large amount of them, however it won't get everyone. That is why you three will be using the ravine as a killbox."
"Wait a killbox?" Sakura asked. "But these are people we can't just slaughter them like animals."
Kakashi sighed once again and crouched level with the pinkette. "I know that it doesn't seem right, but as shinobi, this is what we do Sakura. On top of it those men are scum, who have chosen a path of torture, and rape. Along with killing and kidnaping people for their own greed. They sell people into slavery. As such we put them down like rabid dogs."
Sakura's eyes widened unbelieving at his words. "Is this...really what it means to be a shinobi?"
The masked jounin looked at her as if trying to find the right words. "Sakura look at your teammates, they have already steeled their resolve and are ready to do this. They understand what they signed up for. I know it feels wrong, but one day all of you will find a way to cope with such acts. This is the life of a shinobi, and if you can't handle it I won't force you down this path any farther."
Sure enough when Sakura turned around to her teammates she could see that they had steeled themselves and understood exactly what it meant to be a shinobi.
"A-Alright sensei. I'll do it, I picked this path and I'm not just going to abandon my dreams!" The sole female shinobi said, with a air of confidence.
He ruffled her hair. "That's the spirit!" Turning to the boys he asked, "are you guys ready?"
The two boys shared a glance at one another, and turned their attention back to their sensei. "Let's get this done." They replied in unison.
"Be ready when you see my jutsu go off." Kakashi said. The team began to set up along the ravine, Sakura at the end where the ravine started to turn into open ground once again. Naruto and Sasuke positioned along opposite sides of the pass, spaced to cover more distance. Sakura planted sets of paper bombs all along the ravine so she could set them off as bandits passed, to neutralize them as well as force them to keep going forward.
When all was done, Kakashi moved away to the rock outcropping they had used to overwatch the camp just hours before. Carefully making his way down to where he was only above the clearing by about forty feet, he began to flash through hand seals, "Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave!" A massive wave of water swept through the camp smashing men into everything around them. When the water began to settle some men had drowned but most were injured or heading for the ravine. The jounin sped through another set of hand seals, "Earth style: Mud River!" A raging avalanche of mud and earth slid down the slope effectively washing away the camp and destroying everything in its path, as well as swallowing up any stragglers who hadn't made it to the ravine.
In total only about eighty men made it in. As the first group got the farthest along, a paper bomb went off underneath them. The loud echoing boom resounded through the passage, as more paper bombs went off courtesy of the pinkette, only about forty bandits were left. However in a hail of kunai and shuriken from Naruto and Sasuke respectively that number was cut in half. Unbeknownst to them four men slid past and ran toward Sakura who threw a handful of shuriken at them, but it only dropped three, the thrown weapons buried in their heart. The last man having caught one in his shoulder. Sakura froze at seeing the three men she had just killed die so close to her.
"You're dead girly!" The last man said bringing his sword to bare, poised to strike the girl down like nothing. Suddenly a swath of kunai landed behind him, and as he turned he caught sight of black with a hint of orange before a kunai inclosed in a fist slammed into his skull, which burst with blood covering Naruto's face. He froze momentarily registering the look of shock and utter fear on the man's face as he killed him, but remembering he had done so to save Sakura, he regained his composure.
"Sakura! Are you alright?" Naruto yelled at the girl.
"Huh...Naruto?" She said still dazed. "Y-you just saved my life didn't you. Thank you." She said falling to her knees.
"No problem," he said then turned and called out through the ravine over Sasuke's little killzone, "Kaka-sensei! Come look after Sakura!" And with that Naruto flew back into the fray with Sasuke, between the two of them they utterly bodied the rest of the bandits with taijutsu and kunai alone.
Kakashi watched as Naruto pierced the skull of the last bandit with a kunai. As the bandit dropped dead he noticed the look of sadness in his eyes. Sasuke and Naruto then landed next to him, covered in a fairly large amount of blood. "Good work team. I'm proud of you, you all did well for your first time doing something like this." Kakashi sighed, "head down the hill about another half mile and there's a stream, you boys go get cleaned up and I'll take care of Sakura, alright?"
"Yes sir." the boys said together and disappeared from view.
"Sakura, I need you to look at me. Can you do that for me?" Kakashi asked the shell shocked girl. Her thousand yard stare turned to meet Kakashi's dark grey eyes. She nodded dumbly. "Sakura, you did what you had to do and what was required of a shinobi. On top of that it was kill or be killed. If you hadn't killed those three men they most definitely would have killed you before Naruto could have possibly got them all." Kakashi sighed, "harden your heart, for this is something we deal with everyday. However don't forget that it's all right to feel remorse and regret over taking a life, that remorse and that feeling is what keeps us human. If you ever begin to enjoy it, that is when you become a monster. And you're no monster Sakura. Trust me, I've seen many."
Sakura sobbed slightly but took shaky deep breaths and replied, "thank you, sensei."
"Of course!"
"S'ke?"
"What Naruto?"
"How ya doin'?"
"Shouldn't you be focused on how you are doing and not on how I'm doing loser." Sasuke grumbled.
Naruto stared into the river. His reflection in the bloody water staring back at him. "It's easier for me to worry about others, than it is to worry about myself."
"That's why your a loser dip shit." Sasuke sighed, "but I'm fine. Thanks loser."
"Heh what can I say I've never had friends, so that's why every new friend I make matters so much to me. You were my first friend, you are my best friend, and your almost closer to family to me than even Old Man Hokage." Naruto said. He didn't exactly know why he was actually admitting this, but he figured it was just the shell shock he was still experiencing. Upon Naruto finishing his statement, Sasuke's eyes widened to gigantic proportions, and his gaze turned to the golden haired shinobi.
In the back of Sasuke's mind rang the words of his brother on that night long ago. "There is no value in killing the likes of you... My foolish brother... If you want to kill me... curse me! Hate me! And live a long and unsightly life... Run away... run away... and cling to your pitiful life. And then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me."
Sasuke stared wide eyed still at Naruto. This boy who had forced his way into Sasuke's life, was more of a brother to him than even Itachi had been in their childhood. "Could it be, that the path I'm on is not the correct one? Is hatred truly the answer, or has Naruto been right from the start?" Sasuke thought to himself. "Yeah," he grunted out in reply to Naruto.
Naruto turned to Sasuke and threw a rock at him. "Get clean bitch boy!" He said laughing as he walked off.
Sasuke grunted and stood up. "Fuck you Uzumaki."
The Team was now back in Neba village, standing before the village elder. "Our mission is complete sir, the bandits are taken care of."
"Thank you very much. It's always a pleasure to have you Konoha ninja around. I bid you safe travels home."
"Thank you sir." Kakashi said as he bowed. He and his team then began their journey home. "So, my cute little genin. Other than the obvious bad part, how was your first excursion outside of the village?"
"It's really neat to see new places like this, Kakashi-sensei. Will we be taking more missions like this in the future?" Naruto asked with a almost excited tone.
"I rather enjoyed the views myself as well." Sakura said, "but I'm glad to be going home!"
"Hn." Sasuke grunted. "It was alright. But not anything special."
"Pfft you're always such a downer S'ke at least be slightly enthusiastic." Naruto said crossing his arms.
"Oh please loser. You have enough enthusiasm to make up for the entire team." The raven haired boy replied.
"Glad to see you all having fun." The sensei of Team Seven remarked. Unfortunately he and Sakura would have to listen to the boys bicker the entire way home.
Kakashi and his team stood before the aging Hokage. "Team Seven reporting from first C-ranked mission sir. I'm happy to report that the mission was a complete success and these genin handled themselves quite well."
"Ahh yes, good to have you back Kakashi." The old shinobi replied packing and igniting his pipe. "That's one C-rank added to your official record. Well done, if that is all Kakashi would you mind staying behind a moment?"
"Of course sir." Kakashi turned to his students, "you three should go get some ramen or bbq and I'll will meet you there after I'm done here." He finished with an eye smile.
"Sounds good, later sensei!" And the three were off.
"So Kakashi, how did they handle the first time kills?"
"It really broke Sakura down quite a bit," Kakashi said sadly, "however she is back to her normal self. I believe Naruto and Sasuke dealt with it by talking amongst each other. I'm really not all that worried about those too. They will make fine careers as shinobi." Kakashi finished with
a smile.
"Aye that they will." The Hokage said, exhaling a plume of smoke. "And how exactly is Naruto coming along in his training?"
"Well Lord Third, he finished his water walking training while I trained the other two in tree climbing. So that's out of the way. Mentally as a shinobi when we get into battle his head is clear. He's calm and collected, he's almost like Minato sensei if I'm to be honest sir. He still hasn't seemed to make contact with, nor use the power of the Nine Tailed Fox." Kakashi recounted his progress with Team Seven, deciding the needed to be a lot stronger before they went running into the next mission.
"Good I'm glad to hear the boy is making progress." The Professor then snuffed out his pipe and put it away. "Well I suppose that will be all then Kakas-..."
"Actually Lord Third there was something I wanted to ask you." The jounin interrupted tone completely serious.
"Oh? Please do, ask away." The god of shinobi said with a raised brow.
"It's well know that elemental jutsu training is mostly reserved for chunin and above, however I believe the potential in this team is extremely high. I would like your permission to begin teaching them fairly high level techniques and test their elemental affinities. Also sir I would like to train Naruto in the Fourth's hummingbird fist taijutsu." Kakashi said voice in full business mode.
"Hmm. I suppose it can't hurt to properly start our most promising team off with some new jutsus. Alright I approve your request. Along with your request to train Naruto in Minato's style. However not a word is to be spoken about who he really is to Naruto. Is that understood Hatake?" The Third Hokage said in a tone that promised severe punishment for any disobedience of his order.
"Yes sir Lord Third." The former ANBU said. "I'll take my leave then."
The three genin sat eating an bickering at Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto suddenly spun around in his seat and smiled. "Hiya sensei! What's up?" He said to the empty street, cause Sakura, Teuchi, and Ayame to all adopt a confused expression. However just as Sakura was about to ask what he was talking about. Kakashi appeared right before the blond boy.
"Yo Naruto." He laughed.
Sakura was visibly stunned. "Wha.. how.. Wha" she muttered out.
"Sakura you dolt, Naruto is a sensor type. How have you not picked up on that?" Sasuke quipt.
"Wow... I guess I never did really notice... sorry Naruto." The girl said.
"Heh it's fine Sakura." Naruto stated.
"Now now, you kids gotta come with me. There's training to be done." Kakashi said "I suppose I can pay just this once." He leaned over and paid for their meals. Turning around he bid the father daughter duo goodbye. "Later Teuchi, Ayame, we'll have to catch up sometime."
"Of course Kakashi, stop by anytime!" Teuchi called out to the teams backs as they made their way from the shop.
The team followed their sensei to training ground seven. Here, they gathered around the three wooden posts. "Alright listen closely as I don't want to repeat myself." The jounin started with an authoritative tone. "We're going to test your elemental affinities today."
"Wait, really!? No way this will be awesome!" Naruto said enthusiastically.
"Pipe down Naruto I'm not done." Kakashi said with a stern look. "Now as I was saying I'm going to test your affinities, after which I intend to give you all a jutsu to learn before our next mission that we will be taking at the end of next week. I want all of you to try to have them mastered by then, or at least be proficient with the jutsu. Understood?"
"Yes Sensei!" The three called back to him.
"Alright then let's get this started." Hatake opened a pouch on his vest and produced three pieces of chakra paper. "Take these in your dominant hand and then slowly push your chakra into them." He then handed the papers out. "If your affinity is fire, it will burn, water it will turn soggy, wind it will split, lightning it will crinkle, and earth it will crumble. Go ahead and start." He ordered to his team. He thought to himself, "let's see what we're working with."
Sakura went first pushing her chakra into the paper and it crumbled in her hand. "Earth, it's not rare but it is a strong element. Especially good for defensive jutsu." The masked man commented.
Sasuke took his turn and followed after Sakura, his paper crinkling before setting alight. "Fire and lightning, not bad. I'm also a lightning type." He eye smiled at the Uchiha boy
Naruto finished for the group by pushing his chakra into the paper, causing it to split in half before turning soggy and dissolving into water. "Wind and water. Wind is very rare in the land of fire, as I know of only two shinobi in Konoha have natural wind affinities. One of whom being Sarutobi Asuma. And water to boot, also a good element. I'm surprised to see two of my students have dual affinities." Kakashi then put his hands into the clone seal, "shadow clone jutsu." Two identical Kakashi's appeared next to him. "Any one of you who can get their jutsu down before the weekend is over, I will teach a second jutsu to you." He then had Sasuke and Sakura head off with one of his clones each.
Kakashi stared at Naruto before eye smiling at him, "ready?" He asked.
"Of course sensei!" The boy responded ready to learn.
"Alright Naruto now, just so you know, high level techniques require additional chakra control training as well as elemental control training. So don't go off trying to learn any high level wind or water techniques without having me there to help, alright?" Kakashi's clones were also giving the same talk to his other two students.
"Yes sir!" The boy was practically bouncing up and down at this point. Because of this the jounin gave him a rather stern look, and the boy immediately composed himself and quieted.
"Now the jutsu I'm going to teach you is called Wind Style: Great Breakthrough. Watch my hands alright?" Kakashi then began to move through the seals for the technique aiming for the middle of the clearing. Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rabbit, Snake, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" He yelled, and a massive gust of wind burst through the clearing, ripping the leaves off of many trees. "You get that?"
"Yep Kaka-sensei! Can I try now?" He asked impatiently.
"Yes but let me walk you through it alright? After you run through the hand seals, you'll gather wind chakra to your lungs and blow out a stream of air. Go ahead and try now." The instructor was curious as to how exactly this was going to go.
Naruto burst into action sliding through hand seals and releasing the jutsu, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" He yelled and watched in pure disbelief as his first wind jutsu ripped a single leaf off of a tree. He face planted in shame.
"Get up Naruto. That's too be expected on your first try. Again." Kakashi ordered.
"Yes sir." The boy grumbled flashing through hand seals and repeating the process, however still only tearing a single leaf from a tree.
"When mastered and filled with chakra this jutsu can go from C to A rank in no time. You have the potential for that." Kakashi advised. "Again."
Once again wind ripped through the trees. "Again." This time two leaves left the tree. "Again." The same result. "Again." This continued until dark at which point Naruto was able to ruffle the entire tree and shake it as well as taking some leaves off of it. Unfortunately he still did not have mastery over the jutsu. "We'll meet here tomorrow morning. Be on time"
It was early morning when Sakura and Sasuke entered the clearing to find Naruto and Kakashi standing at the far side. "Again" Kakashi's voice floated across the field followed by a gust of wind that ripped a branch off the tree.
"Ha! Look I did it Y'know!" Naruto's hands clapped over his mouth at letting out his verbal tic.
"Sometimes you really are just like Kushina, Naruto." Kakashi said with an eye smile.
"Thank you Kaka-sensei." Naruto then noticed to rest of Team Seven standing there. "Oh hey guys! What's up?"
"Hello Naruto." Responded Sakura.
"Hn. Loser." Sasuke grunted out. "What jutsu are you learning?" He asked wondering.
"Wind style: Great Breakthrough." Naruto smiled, "how about you guys?"
The pinkette spoke first, "Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu."
Sasuke followed up with, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu."
"Ne Sasuke? Think we could combine our jutsu for a combination?" Naruto asked.
"I don't see why it wouldn't work." The Uchiha replied.
"Thinking ahead aren't we? Your chakra natures are a perfect match not only to go against each other in spars, but also to work together in unison for a better effect." Kakashi interdicted. "You all have great potential." He chuckled then continued. "Alright Sakura head off with the clone, Naruto my other clone will stay here and oversee your progress, Sasuke, come with me."
The clearing was once again filled with the repetition of "Again." Followed by a gust of wind. It would continue until dusk.
"Naruto with this much chakra you're capable of being an artillery battery of jutsu. I'm going to expand your ninjutsu arsenal as much as I can." Kakashi eye smiled at the boy. "Now one more time. Again."
Naruto inhaled and then released his jutsu only to watch as it ripped the tree in the center of the clearing right out of the ground. Kakashi's eye widened. "Naruto, how exactly did you pull that off?"
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "well you see sensei, I kinda got frustrated and poured a bunch of chakra into it."
"Again."
"Huh?"
"Do it again Naruto. We need to see if you can replicate that."
"Yes sir," he said speeding through hand seals and inhaling heavily. He poured chakra into his lungs and released his jutsu. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The wind tore through the clearing and tossed the downed tree another twenty yards across the clearing.
"Well done Naruto I truly am impressed, I'm going to dispel now to let the original know what happened." The clone burst into smoke.
Over the next three days Sasuke would master his jutsu as well, meaning that the boys would get a second jutsu to work on. Sakura had not but Kakashi knew she was getting close, he also had her firing on all cylinders. He worked her half to death every day to try to build up her chakra reserves.
Kakashi would teach Naruto and Sasuke their new jutsu over the next week as well as helping Sakura perfect hers, he also began having her learn medical ninjutsu. For Naruto he taught him the Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu. He felt that with Naruto's reserves it would be a great asset. He didn't want to try with the Shadow Clone yet as he would need to convince the Hokage that it was a good idea. In the long run the Multi Shadow Clone jutsu could turn out to be one of the most deadly in Naruto's arsenal.
He had taught the self proclaimed avenger a lightning jutsu. Lightning Style: Lightning Bolt. A C-rank jutsu that was essentially the lightning version of the Water Style: Water Pistol Jutsu. Sasuke has picked up the lightning jutsu much faster than Kakashi was expecting, and he was proud of his team. It was time to get their next C-rank, so they made their way to the Hokage tower.