Hot 'N' Dangerous

Chapter 9: First Combat

I slipped quietly between the trees, not disturbing a soul.

Suddenly, a static rich voice sounded out of the speaker on my collar speaker, "What's the distance to the target?"

"Five meters, I'm already positioned," I replied to Kakashi's question.

"So am I," came Liz's voice.

"Me too," it was Sakura.

"Me three!" exclaimed Naruto, a little too loudly.

"Me... nevermind," was Sasuke.

The figure of our target wavered ever so slightly, unaware of our pursuit.

A moment's hesitation and Kakashi barked, "Go!"

Naruto let loose a wild cry as the five of us burst from our hiding places. Naruto was the one who grabbed hold of the cat first. It struggled and scratched furiously.

"Haha! Got you!" cried Naruto triumphantly.

"There's a ribbon on the left ear, are you sure it's Tora?" came Kakashi's fuzzy voice.

"Yeah, we're sure," replied Sasuke.

I crouched down and asked Naruto to pass the cat to me. He immediately handed it over and Tora calmed down and began to purr loudly.

Naruto pouted at me, perplexed, "Does it have a crush on you or something?... Oh wait, nevermind, it's a girl," he looked away shyly.

I smiled at him and returned to petting the cat, Liz joining me. It seemed to enjoy all the attention.

"Good. Lost pet, 'Tora' search mission, completed," he announced and told us to hurry back.

"Oh! My cute little, Tora-chan! I'm was so worried! Thank you, kids!" the Fire Country Lord's Wife shrieked happily.

"You're very welcome, Madame," Liz answered with a charming smile.

Liz had healed quickly with the support of her new teammates and we were earning admiring stares wherever we went. She was wearing the same one-piece, female ninja outfit that I was wearing and her rapier never left her side. She strapped her sword to her waist just like me, with the same strapping device that we had used since childhood... at least, that's what she told me.

The Hokage finally spoke up, declaring our new missions, "Kakashi's Team Seven, your next duty is babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping in the neighbouring village, and help with potato digging."

I was about to walk up and accept the mission statement but Naruto exploded before I could even take a step, "No! No! No! No, thank you! I want to do a more incredible mission! Find us a better one!" he whined.

Naruto's favourite teacher besides Kakashi-Sensei, Iruka, stood up and shouted back a harsh answer, "You idiot! You're just a rookie! Everyone starts off with the simple duties and works their way up!"

"But we keep getting the crappiest duties of all!" he retorted angrily.

 Kakashi hit Naruto harshly on the top of his head, "Be quiet!"

"Seems like I have to explain how the duties work," the Hokage realized, exasperatedly, "Everyday, the village receives numerous requests from babysitting to assassination. Each request is written down in a list and sorted into different difficulty levels starting from A and ending in D," he began, "The village is also sorted based on skill. It starts with me as the highest skill level existing in the village, then it moves onto the Jounin and then the Chuunin and then the Genins."

I nodded, showing my understanding. I was new to this and was glad that the Hokage had a chance to explain it to me without holding everyone else up.