Inheritance

A C-Rank Mission - The Wounded Shinobi

Kakashi glanced back over his shoulder at his makeshift team of almost totally green Genin. To be totally honest, he was relieved that his first ever mission leading a Genin team, was not with his own Genin. His just never took to the ethos he wanted in a squad that was led by him. Sai kept himself to himself, and to anyone who new what to look for, it was blindingly obvious he had been trained by Danzou. It wasn't that he could control his emotions particularly well, it was more so that he had no emotions to speak of. He had been conditioned to an inhumane level, and Kakashi doubted his ability, or that of the rest of his team, to break him down. Not only that, Sai was streets ahead of any Genin Kakashi had ever seen.

As far as his teams ability to complete missions went, that in itself wasn't a problem. It was how his team reacted to Sai's ability that was. Uchiha Sasuke, was his biggest concern. Openly driven by revenge, the boy had major insecurities about his own ability, well covered by his supposed superiority over his classmates. However, Sai had utterly destroyed that false perception, and Sasuke had been enraged by it. He had closed himself of from the rest of his team, and devoted himself to gaining strength, even more so than before. Kakashi couldn't get through to him, Sai didn't have a reason to and Sakura couldn't see that anything was wrong.

Sakura herself, in comparison to her other team-mates, was a minor inconvenience. She had some serious talent, but no motivation to use it. She spent too much time worrying about diets, clothes and impressing Sasuke to devote any energy to improving herself as a shinobi. Kakashi knew she would eventually learn. Either through her own thoughts and reflections, or the hard way, through losing a team-mate, or suffering a serious injury (even though Kakashi would do his utmost to prevent the last two options).

Trying to lead his first mission as a sensei with his own team would be incredibly difficult. However, as it stood, the three Genin he was now leading, seemed to be getting on incredibly well. Naruto was currently listening to the Inuzuka girl, Hana, tell animated tales of her experiences on missions with her own team; whilst Shikamaru was walking slightly ahead of them, trying to look bored and hide his interest in the conversation, or more specifically, Naruto. The Nara occasionally interjected, attempting to fish for information about the blonde, who was being more open than Kakashi supposed Shikamaru had ever seen him, or at least more true to himself.

Shikamaru's questioning of Naruto indicated to the Jonin that some of the blonde's age group had noticed something wasn't quite right for Naruto, and that maybe, as a result, had tried to make Naruto's life a little bit better. True or not, it made Kakashi feel at least a little bit less guilty. Of course, he would do his best to make it up to Naruto himself, the only ways he thought he could. Firstly by telling him as much as he could about his father, as soon as he got the chance; secondly, by teaching Naruto shinobi arts whenever the opportunity arose. He had already started with the latter, if only a little; and from what he had heard, Naruto had taken what he had said on board, and dived into some extracurricular reading. On top of that, he had managed to learn the jutsu that Kakashi had given to him, and already managed to adapt it in such a way that only he could. 'I mean, an underground Bunshin ambush? Itachi would have been proud of that one.' The thought of Itachi had given Kakashi another idea for a jutsu he could teach the blonde. Unfortunately, that one might have to wait a bit. It was a jutsu that suited Naruto down to a tee, but that was the big risk. This particular jutsu was... explosive, to say the least.

For now, Kakashi thought, eyeing the weapon hastily fastened to the blonde's back; he should probably focus on things that were perhaps a little bit more basic.

"Say, Naruto." Kakashi said, interrupting the conversation between the Genin. "How much do you know about the weapon you have on your back? I know it can't of been that long ago that you first started using it, because there's nothing about it on your file."