Second Chance

Chapter 07

Chapter 07: Trials
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The morning was cool and the air crisp. It was an unusually cool day in Konoha but it would warm up soon enough. The three genin were sparring as was becoming custom and it would be exhilarating to watch and compare from the children that had only been academy students a mere month and half ago. The ease at which Hinata was adapting to new things was startling even for Sasuke and Naruto who had seen her adapt to rapid changes. While she had not managed to jump several levels in skill she had managed to catch and easily surpass her old self's talent by the chunin exams. While that wouldn't seem like much of a jump to most in retrospect she managed nine-ten months of training in just a month and half with Sasuke and Naruto.

Naruto knew that if Hinata could see herself with a different jonin and the improvements that had been made she would never have believed it. The visible difference was staggering. The loss of her stutter, the confidence in her posture and the more fluid movements were just the beginning. She was also excelling in her studies with a bow and arrow and was trying to combine her juken with Senbon needles. If she could manage she would easily become a mid-range fighter. Their progress with their elements was rapidly excelling. Despite the fact that Naruto and Sasuke had already done some of it before they had needed to start over due to their younger bodies. Regardless they had soared past their previous benchmarks and according to Kakashi there was little more that they could do to improve their mastery.

Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata disagreed. As a result they were working on pushing their control further. Sasuke believed that the height of mastery of lightning manipulation was the ability to control the electrical impulses that the brain sent to the whole body. Thus technically controlling the person. Hinata insisted that the height of fire control would be the ability to remove or add heat to specified places. For example, remove all the heat in the human body and cause sudden hypothermia or add heat to another person's body in order to stave off hypothermia. Naruto just wanted to fly. He was working on a way to use his wind chakra to mimic Onoki's ability to fly with his particle release. For him it was a matter of importance. If he could fly himself and his team around they would be able to avoid ambushes and arrive at battle fields faster. It would also give aerial coverage to any large battles. That was something that only Iwa and the Akatsuki could boast at the moment. The three genin looked up as Kakashi stepped into the clearing.

"Yo! How are my cute little genin this morning?"

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU I AM NOT 'CUTE' NOR AM I 'LITTLE'?!" Naruto yelled in response making everyone laugh. Sasuke had been unable to curve that habit with the blonde and as a result it was always comical when it happened. Kakashi just laughed and waved his hand dismissively.

"Well no need to get antsy. I decided that we are going to do a mission today and instead of the boring D-ranks we are going to do a C-rank! Then afterwards it will most likely turn into an A-rank! Doesn't that sound fun?" Kakashi chirped. The three genin blinked in shock.

"A C-rank followed by an A-rank?!" Naruto squeaked out. Make no mistake he wasn't scared he was ecstatic to be doing higher level missions again, but he knew for a fact that the team wasn't quite ready to jump into A-rank missions!

"Calm yourselves. The A-ranking is merely because of its location. Technically it is more of a C-rank. However, because of its location it is classified as an A-rank." Kakashi explained. The three blinked and looked at each other before nodding in agreement.

"So when do we leave?" Sasuke asked. He was eager to get back to doing what he knew best, missions. He also wanted to make sure that his skills hadn't suffered any. Although, he was anxious given the last mission he had been on. A small part of him was worried that he wouldn't be able to protect Hinata or his Hokage. The last thing that he wanted to do was hurt Naruto any more than he had already been hurt. 'Stop thinking about that! You need to be focused on the mission. If you are focused on screwing up then you will!' He chastised himself.