Chapter 5: Team Asskickers

"The soles of your feet, Naruto. Focus your chakra unto it and use it to climb the tree with just your feet."

"I'm trying Kakashi sensei, but every time I get halfway there my chakra runs out."

"That's because your not balancing it, do you notice how on your first step of the tree climb, your feet feel the heaviest? That's because you put it in too much chakra into the initial step and not enough after, burning off your chakra immediately. Sasuke had a similar issue when he did the practice. Unfortunately, I can't make the tree come to life and have it try to kill you. But I do have a nice alternative."

Kakashi bit the center of his thumb and began making a series of hand signs and after, placed his hand into the ground. After a pile of smoke, a group of dogs with Konoha headbands suddenly appeared.

"The mission is simple, boys. If Naruto Uzumaki doesn't master the tree climbing exercise in an hour, your free to devour him."

Naruto was standing upside down on tree branches after only ten minutes.

"Focus Sakura, your hands have to build up chakra within them and then you can start forming fists. When fully formed, you aim at whatever you're targeting and release it all at once."

Sakura had spent nearly an hour at this and was facing the opposite problem Naruto had. Her control was good, more than good in fact, it was fantastic. She completed the tree climbing exercise on her first attempt. But her problem lay in building up chakra, a natural issue when it came to citizens or those who aren't from a bloodline that use chakra. Finally though, after several attempts she released all of her chakra into a single strike at a nearby tree.

The tree exploded.

"...Holy shit."

"Hmph, not bad."

"Maaaaannn, I'm beat!"

Naruto was laying down with Sakura sitting right next to him. Despite being so late for the first day, Kakashi had surprisingly been rather punctual recently. There were a few reasons why, Sasuke could probably teach the two on his own but Kakashi had instinctually feared that if he did, his apartment would probably explode from a makeshift bomb the three would make out of boredom. In addition, Kakashi decided to watch a class at the academy during a day where Team 7 didn't meet without anyone knowing and found out how disgustingly out of touch the curriculum was, it sort of explained why he had failed so many students.

"You're not the only one…"

He had been going at the two, hard, teaching them the essentials of being a shinobi that the academy straight up did not teach, and not holding anything back because it's better for the two to hate him now then to not die later.

For Naruto, improving his chakra control was the biggest priority, the boy had enormous amounts, with or without the Nine Tails sealed within him. But all that chakra is worthless if it's wasted, so far, the tree climbing exercise was a success but now it was about applying it to his techniques, specifically his Shadow Clones, which Kakashi had instructed that he keep creating by using as little chakra as possible.

"The amount you need to create five is enough for me to create twenty, and my chakra pool is only average at best."

The process was difficult when things were going well and painful when they weren't to say it best. Creating Shadow Clones wasn't the hard part, it was using as little chakra as possible in making them that caused a massive headache for Naruto.

"Still, I guess it's worth it."

By the time Naruto had finally created Shadow Clones with as little chakra as he could, he had to endure multiple migraines from having to dispel all of the failed attempts. Kakashi, to his credit, saw the amount of hard work Naruto had put in and rewarded him with a scroll for an all new technique. It was about creating Shadow Clones.

That can explode.

"Actually, yeah, totally worth it."

As for Sakura, she faced an entirely different obstacle, her chakra control was fantastic but her lack of reserves meant that that sort of quality wouldn't really matter if she didn't have the chakra to use it. So Kakashi went about increasing that lack of reserve which meant doubling her physical training and adding in mental ones, which included having her go through meditation and study up on Jonin level reading material.

"If you're gonna complain about the increase of work compared to the other two, then know that the shinobi life is never fair."

To Sakura's credit, she didn't complain once, and busted her ass through in increasing her physical and spiritual energy. Now, Kakashi had been teaching her about using chakra to enhance her strength and body as well as teaching, well, "teaching" had been a stretch as he was merely outsourcing an old journal about the human anatomy written by someone named Florence Nightingale to her. He had recently decided to give her the full journal even though it was technically not supposed to be given to Genin, but the Jonin felt that she earned it.

"Awwww, the look on Ino's face when she sees what I can do now." Sakura raised her fist up in triumph.

Suddenly, Naruto realised that they forgot something important.

"Oh crap, I almost forgot. Sakura, we better hurry up or we'll miss the best part about training with Kakashi sensei."

Sakura realised it too and before long headed to the center of the training ground for the usual highlight of their day. Watching Sasuke and Kakashi's spars.

"Y'know, I'm starting to think the addition of an audience has actually improved your skills."

"Hmph, you really can't just accept the idea that I'm getting better and might surpass you soon."

"Over my dead body, Uchiha."

"Kick his ass, Sasuke!"

Sasuke activated his sharingan and quickly began creating hand signs. Kakashi quickly followed suit.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Had this been any other Jonin sensei, they'd probably be shocked to see a Genin be able to use nature transformation, however years of training with Sasuke meant Kakashi already knew about the Uchiha's mastery of fire and was unfazed.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall."

A massive gathering of land began to rise up in the shape of a full brick wall, ready to block against Sasuke's fireball.

"Caught ya."

Sasuke immediately dispersed in a puff of smoke, it was a shadow clone all along and it had just accomplished it's task of wasting Kakashi's chakra. Realising this, Kakashi dismissed the earth wall and proceeded to scout the area for wherever Sasuke may be.

"I'm right here!"

From out of nowhere, Sasuke began slashing at Kakashi with his new sword. Years of combat experience and surprises was what saved Kakashi from an embarrassing defeat, the Jonin grabbed a kunai from his pouch and used it to deflect Sasuke's swings but not before Sasuke was able to get a few decent hits in.

"And just where did you get that? Danzo in the mood to give out toys?"

Sasuke chose to remain silent and continued his assault.

"Naruto, who's Danzo?"

"Oh, old man Danzo? He's the guy who's been taking care of Sasuke ever since his parents passed, and he's Grampa Hokage's best friend. Like me and Sasuke when we got older, except with maybe less wrinkles."

Somewhere out in the distance, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage was drinking a glass of tea when suddenly he felt a crippling disturbance in the distance.

"Lord Hokage, your glass."

"It's fine, it must have been a simple accident."

Kakashi was quite surprised, he was expecting Sasuke to be a total amateur when it came to kenjutsu, after all, he had never seen the young Uchiha with a sword before but Sasuke seemed to be quite comfortable wielding it and was slowly getting used to it's feel.

"Has Hayate been secretly teaching you while I was busy with Naruto and Sakura?"

"Hmph."

"Sasuke, Sasuke, you wound me. Cheating on your Jonin sensei like that. I think it's about time I finally kick it up one more notch."

Sasuke knew what he meant and started charging, Kakashi was about to use his Sharingan.

"Kakashi's got one too!?"

The additional effects of the Sharingan helped Kakashi's reflexes immediately. Sasuke sword swings were now looking sloppy, predictable, ready to be countered. And countered they were when Kakashi was able to deflect a swing and deliver a kick to Sasuke's hand and lose his grip of the sword. When that happened, Kakashi jumped overhead and was now behind Sasuke, kunai positioned straight at his neck.

"Yield?"

Sasuke was silent.

"Next time." In stark contrast just a second ago, Kakashi began ruffling Sasuke's hair, like a parent would to their child.

"You got me to use my Sharingan, most chunin can't even get to that."

Sasuke sighed before he was let go and soon headed to where Naruto and Sakura were.

"Eh, next time right?"

It was small, but it seemed like Sasuke was smiling.

"You need me to heal anything."

"It'll be too embarrassing."

"I'm looking anyways."

Kakashi looked from afar, his Sharingan still active for one purpose, to keep this sort of scene in his mind for as long as he can.

"Rin, Obito, sensei, I don't think you have to worry anymore…"

"This is Orange Flash, I got eyes on the target over."

"Good job Orange Flash, now then, your goal is the capture of the target, how do you wish to proceed?"

"Burning Shadow, Blossom Justice, do you read me?"

"These code names are ridiculous, Naruto. Why don't we just use our real names?"

"I don't know who you're talking about, Burning Shadow, my name is Orange Flash, not Naruto."

"This is ridiculous."

"Cheer up, Burning Shadow, one day when you all become adults, having a second identity created will be mandatory at some point. Think of this as a fun prelude."

"You're the one who came up with the names, Kakashi."

"Who's Kakashi, I'm White Fang."

"This is Blossom Justice reporting, the target is moving."

"You all know what to do."

Orange Flash jumped down from his hiding spot, and began creating multiple shadow clones cornering the target. Burning Shadow followed suit and activated his sharingan to create a minor genjutsu to stun the target from moving. With her twomates in position, Blossom Justice went forward to capture and secure the target.

"Alright, we did it!"

Tora the cat had been rescued returned.

"Man, that was boring!"

It was easy to see that Team 7, well, mainly Naruto, was bored of the assignments they've been given. It was most blatantly obvious when the three (yes, now three, Sakura had been (conscripted) invited to join Naruto and Sasuke) went out to Ichiraku for the usual post training dinner.

"We're in the prime of our youth, and all the old man wants us to do are chores!"

"It's called paying our dues, Naruto. Every genin has to go through these."

"C'mon, Sakura don't tell me this is the kind of shinobi work you expected when we graduated."

"I can't say I'm a little disappointed but we just gotta ride it out. I'm sure Kakashi sensei will bring us more interesting work eventually, wherever he is."

Sasuke didn't say anything, but he too was wondering where Kakashi was at right about now. Little did he and the rest of Team 7 know, Kakashi was at the Hokage's office right now discussing about them.

"How are they?"

"They figured out the bell test in one afternoon, I'd say exceptional but from what I heard even the three Sannin couldn't figure that out at first."

"Tsunade and Orochimaru each got a bell, leaving Jiraiya the only one without it. I tied him up onto a wooden stump and ordered the two not to give him lunch or else they'd fail. They did so anyway and I passed all three of them for showing teamwork and doing the right thing even when told not to."

"Fascinating, well I'll give my report." Kakashi straightened. "Naruto Uzumaki, you and I both know who he is so I'll keep it brief. Over the past few years, he's been supposedly training along with Sasuke and it shows, his taijutsu is rough and yet, fitting for someone with so much energy. His quick mastery of the Shadow Clone Technique, along with it's explosion variation, an A-Rank technique mind you, shows that even if he's not booksmart, he's inherited Minato sensei's frankly, unfair talent of mastering techniques he's interested in a disturbingly short amount of time. That's not even getting into the Nine Tails and the frankly, absurd amounts of chakra the kid has in his reserves. Naruto's only real downfall is chakra control, a flaw that's not even his own fault due to the seal inside him."

"Your plans for him?"

"I plan to get him started with Genjutsu as you and I can tell, he's got quite an imagination in him and I want to teach him everything I can before Jiriaya makes his usual rounds back to Konoha, then I'll just throw Naruto at him to train, it's about time sensei's son got to know his godfather."

"As for Sakura Haruno."

"I'll be honest, I was initially scared about her lack of motivation, Sakura seemed like a Sasuke fangirl whose only interest was to be by his side but after our first day, she seems more motivated than ever. Her academic knowledge hasn't failed her, she seems to know all the basic procedures, her chakra control is excellent, even better than some raw chunins, all of this would already be above average for a normal graduate but unfortunately she's in a team with two future Aces. She wants to focus on medical ninjutsu along with a heavier increase in Taijutsu."

Hiruzen gave a somewhat nostalgic smile. "Just like Tsunade."

"The irony wasn't lost upon me. I decided to focus on improving her physical attributes as well as increasing her chakra reserves. Combine that with her already fantastic chakra control and she's begun to grasp how to use chakra enhanced strength."

"What do you see her in a few years."

"Someone I hope to god to never piss off."

Hiruzen chuckled "Any issues?"

"The usual for a civilian turned ninja, a rather lackluster chakra reserves, oh, and I didn't expect anger issues, Sakura can be quite a mean one when provoked hard enough. I'm starting to think maybe teaching her advanced Taijutsu was a mistake."

"And last but not least."

"Y'know Sasuke actually offered to take the fall on the bell test."

"Were you going to let him?"

"Maybe, perhaps it would have improved their bonds more. I decided to pass him after he told me I'd have to report back to you saying he failed for being too selfless. Actually, I have to ask, what would you have done if I told you he had failed?"

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "Would you include details?"

"Sure."

"I would have promoted him to Chunin on the spot."

Kakashi nearly paled. "Oh."

"That kind of mindset, at such a young age, that tells me more about Uchiha than anything else. But for archival purposes, I'd like to know his capabilities."

"Ninjutsu is low Jonin levels, Taijutsu is upper Chunin, and Genjutsu is lower Chunin. Genjutsu is only somewhat lackluster due to a self-admitted lack of imagination. Kenjutsu is a recent addition but it's already as efficient as his Taijutsu. Already is comfortable with taking the initiative and leading the team when I'm not around." Kakashi tried his best to be clinical about his observation of Sasuke's skills but couldn't help hide a degree of pride, he had known the boy since he was young child and had seen his growth as not just a ninja but as a person, and the best part was that there would be more to develop.

"Any concerns?"

"Oh, the usual for an Uchiha, self esteem issues. Poor kid doesn't realise just how rare he truly is."

"Humble, extremely talented, cooperative yet is fully capable of autonomy, and is hungry for growth. Am I right?"

"That's correct."

"I better be seeing him and the rest of Team 7 in the Chunin Exams this year."

"Actually about that." Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "Naruto's been complaining about how boring the D-rank missions are, I would usually have just ignored it but even Sasuke wants to know when we'll be assigned to some interesting stuff. I believe they're ready for a C-rank."

"Hmmm is that so?" Hiruzen brought a scroll contract. "Have them come over tomorrow after training, I'll have one prepared that Naruto might find to his liking."

Kakashi nodded and flickered out of the Hokage's office. Hiruzen begun to examine the contract 'C-Rank Escort: Guard and Escort Bridge Builder Tezuna In The Land of Waves'

It was getting late at night by the time Sasuke had reached his apartment. Naruto and Sakura had been relentless when it came to their "team-building exercises" which usually just involved shooting the breeze around the village. Sasuke swore those two had an infinite amount of energy when he decided to leave early and head home. He was at the entrance to his apartment complex when an urge hit him, a strange urge.

'I don't think I've ever visited the Police Force building since that day.'

Sasuke could reminisce forever if he could. Back when he was younger, so long ago, when the Uchiha clan was still alive, his dream was to become chief of police and succeed his father.

When Sasuke arrived at the location it was naturally completely reserved, it was empty and only received maintenance to ensure it didn't fall apart. The building looked like any other from the outside but Sasuke knew that opening it would just reveal nothing.

Sasuke could still remember what his father told him when he asked how the police force was able to monitor people like ninjas.

"Elite shinobi who monitor fellow shinobi, to be part of the Police Force is to have enough power and control that you are able to control your fellow ninja. We do our jobs by being better than anyone else."

Sasuke's father apparently wasn't being prideful either, members of the Police Force were ninja's that were good at controlling other ninjas around. Kakashi would occasionally give Sasuke a glimpse with an odd quip about them being "real hard asses" during the time it was still active.

When it was still active, Sasuke almost forgot. All because of Itachi, all because of the murderer of his clan, all because of…

'Wait a minute. Just how was Itachi able to kill the Uchiha clan with such ease anyways?'

Itachi was good, really good, but wiping out an entire Police Force of elite shinobi? Not to mention, he wasn't visibly hurt by the time he and Sasuke met. Itachi taking down the whole Police Force on his own was a stretch but killing every single one of them without a scratch? Something wasn't adding up.

Sasuke's mind quickly snowballed, Itachi lied to him about what really happened and now he had to find out why. He should have known, their father was a menace during the war, "Wicked Eye Fugaku" was a run on sight terror only eclipsed by the future Fourth Hokage. To have been killed by Itachi without putting up a fight, nothing adds up.

'I need to find Itachi for answers, real ones. But he won't answer me if I'm this weak, I need to get stronger and soon, the longer I keep dwelling the more questions I'll have, but how?'

The Mangekyou Sharingan.

'Hell no, I'm not killing anyone close just to get that. I'll just turn out to be like him, then again, if he was lying about why he killed our clan, maybe he was lying about how to get it, is there another way?'

Sasuke considered himself a reasonable person, so long as he wasn't being annoyed constantly, he would do anything told of him from his superiors to the best of his capabilities. Learning hard techniques, studying up on advanced combat strategies, these were things Sasuke was told by either Kakashi or Danzo to master and he would. Part of that came from the simple fact both were introverted people, just like Sasuke, they would just tell him the task and nothing else. Some people would want directions but Sasuke knew part of the shinobi lifestyle was the unknown, to do things nobody else had done before.

Having to listen to a drunk old bridge builder for hours on end while moving at glacial pace and not gut him after the fourth hour was a feat Sasuke could consider all his own.

Things were so bad that when rogue chunins ambushed them, Sasuke almost considered that a blessing by God for at least shutting the old man up.

"Naruto, guard the client, Sakura with me."

The two instantly nodded, trying their best to get over the shock of their supposedly dead sensei, Naruto formed a rough circle of shadow clones around himself and Tezuna. Sakura followed Sasuke's lead and once both rogue ninja's showed up again to finish their job, the two were met with a chakra enhanced straight from Sakura to one of them and a disarming slash followed by Sasuke to the other.

"Fire Release: String of Flames."

A small stream of fire was breathed out of the Uchiha directly towards the recently dearmed ninja, cauterizing the wound and ensuring they wouldn't bleed out.

"That's my Team 7." From out of nowhere, Kakashi flickered back, surprising and relieving both Naruto and Sakura. "The bingo book says these are the Demon Brothers, Gōzu and Meizu. Two missing chunins from Kirigakure, normally Genin don't claim bounties, but since all I did was let you three do all the work, I'll let Sakura and Sasuke take it." Sakura raised her first up triumphantly while Sasuke merely sighed in relief, Naruto came over to congratulate both of them. "Now if you'll excuse me." Kakashi approached their client. "You don't happen to know why a pair of missing ninja's decided to ambush us?"

Well, not even halfway through and the mission has officially gone off the rails. Turns out the client wants to build a bridge for his country that's being ruled under a tyrannical mob boss. Kakashi initially looked to abandon the mission or at least call in backup to classify it as a B or A rank mission but Naruto convinced him otherwise.

"We're Team Asskickers and we're gonna kick anyone's ass who gets in our way. That mob boss can send in as many missing nin as he likes but nothing's can take us down!"

"Team Asskickers?" Sasuke popped in.

"Yeah, that's right, Team Asskickers! We got any other competition for the best damn Genin's in Konoha?" Naruto proclaimed.

'Well he's not wrong there.' Kakashi reluctantly decided that if he was going to be doing this kind of mission with Genin's at least they were his own little terrors.

"Team Asskickers, I kind of like that." Sakura chimed in.

And so, they decided to continue the mission and headed to the Land of the Waves. Unaware of the eventual dangers they'll soon face.

By the time they exited the boat, everyone was on high alert, yes the Demon Brothers were fierce but they were just the first. Once they were in Wave proper, Gato would start sending in real killers.

"DOWN!"

Kakashi ordered and just like that, Sasuke and Sakura ducked while Naruto was able to tackle their client down before a spinning blade of death was able to get to them.

Their adversary was here.

"Momochi Zabuza, Demon of Kirigakure."

"Copy Ninja Kakashi, wielder of the Sharingan. It'll be an honor killing you."

What followed was something truly fierce. Kakashi and Zabuza were both experienced ninja's battered yet adapted by the Third Great Shinobi War. Their skills nearly matched, with Zabuza's monstrously powerful strength with his sword being only barely outclassed by Kakashi's nearly endless counters with his Sharingan.

A slip up, a simple mistake of checking on his students' condition was what Zabuza used to activate his water prison technique on the Jonin. However, rather than telling them to run, Kakashi said something most unusual.

"Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, as your Jonin instructor, guardian, and teacher, you are now permitted to use…"

"Them."

'What the hell is "Them"' Zabuza thought.

But before he could think about it, Zaubza already saw his answer.

Naruto had used his Shadow Clone Technique in creating-

'Wait is that fifty shadow clones? What the hell is this kid's chakra?"

Meanwhile Sakura's fists had now begun to glow a devilish blue as she started cracking her knuckles in preparation while Sasuke had now unsheathed his sword and flared up his own full set of Sharingan, matured just like Kakashi.

'Well... shit.'