Puppeteer

The New Team 7

After some serious consolidation, the trio couldn't come to a conclusion. This reluctance to surrender one's teammates without self-disrespect either impressed Kakashi. The man agreeing to let them all pass the test. The group had celebrated their success afterwards, their meal at Ichiraku funded by a rather unimpressed Kakashi. He didn't even understand how he'd been roped into it. They'd all just begun to claim they needed the toilet, then they didn't return. Honestly, he should have seen it coming with a heavy heart, the man had essentially drained his wallet of the money within it.

But they were quick to learn that being a ninja was not all it was made out to be.

"Kiba Inuzuka at Point A"

"Sakura Haruno at Point C. Remind me why I can't just use chakra strings."

"This is a TEAM exercise Sakura. It' supposed to be about building teamwork, not just making it as easy as you can. Naruto, report, you're too slow."

"Naruto Uzumaki at Point B, believe it!"

"Now!"

The trio leapt out at their target, racing after it as it fled through the trees. Sakura quickly looked over her shoulder and when she was sure Kakashi wasn't looking, she quickly let out a chakra string halting and turning Tora. It wasn't long, less than a second in fact, but it was enough time for Akamaru to knock the cat over to the rest of them could catch up. "Target acquired." Kiba said as he removed Akamaru from the cat, "Has it got the bow on?" Sakura looked at the cat, humming in agreement, "Mission complete."

After a long walk back to the Hokage's office and Naruto dropping the cat way too many times for it to be 'accidental' Sakura was exhausted. No matter how many times she'd lectured the blonde boy, he seemed to never learn that dropping the cat would not stop the scratching problem it had. Either way, they'd received the payment for the mission, which certainly was not worth the pain, and they were now awaiting their next one.

"Now then, Kakashi's 7th unit's next mission is... babysitting Youjyu-mama's boy, grocery shopping at the neighbouring town, helping dig up potatoes at --" The man spoke, his tone as disinterested as the group of four in front of him. His eyes reading over the long list of 'D' ranked missions, a few of which marked off with thick crosses.

"NO! No thanks to all those!" Naruto brought his arms up to symbolise an 'X' in front of his face to emphasis his distaste for the idea. "I want to do a more exciting mission! Choose something else!"

"Idiot! You're still a novice ninja! Everyone needs to start with the easy missions to gain experience!" Iruka shouted back at the blonde boy, "But, but...! We've only been doing dumb missions lately!" That was the moment Kakashi decided to step in, punching Naruto on his head to send him sprawling on the floor. This action alone causing Kiba to snicker at the boy. "Cut it out."

"Naruto!" the boy in question instantly leapt to attention. rubbing the back of his head as he did so. One glimpse at the lump growing on the back of his head and Sakura found herself almost feeling sorry for the boy. Almost."It looks like I need to explain to you what missions are. Listen, a lot of clients come to this village every day. They request things from babysitting to the assassination missions. On the request list, a variety of requests are listed on it and they are separated into ranks A, B, C and D according to difficulty. In this village, we separate the people into Jounins, Chuunins and Genins according to their abilities. We higher officials assign the missions to ninja with the appropriate abilities and if we complete the mission, we receive a fee from the client. You have all become Genins just recently, so D ranked missions are best for you."

The Hokage suddenly took notice in the fact that the group before him had lost interest in him. Instead, listening to Naruto's lecture on Ramen. "Listen!"

"I am sorry." Kakashi apologised when he noticed they'd been caught by the Hokage. The genin quickly turning around to look at the rather annoyed looking old man.

"You always lecture me like that, pops. But I'm not the kid who used to pull pranks anymore." Naruto said before pouting and facing the other way in a sulk. "Okay, I understand. If you insist, I will allow you to take on a C ranked mission. It's to escort a certain person." The Hokage said as he smiled. The boy's two teammates looking at the older man in shock, who' have ever guessed he'd fall prey to one of Naruto's temper tantrums. Even they could withstand it and they were genin!

"Really? Who, who? The feudal lord? Or a princess?" Naruto asked excitedly as he spun back around. "Don't get so hasty. I'll introduce him now. Can you please come in now?" all eyes turned to look at the door which slowly slid open to reveal their client.

"What? They're all kids!" The man paused to take several gulps of the alcohol in his hand. "Hey, is the smallest one there with the idiotic face really a ninja?" Naruto found this question funny, or at least until he realised it was himself that was being addressed. "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!" The boy shouted as he instantly tried to run at the man, "Don't kill the man you're supposed to escort, idiot." Sakura said as she flicked her wrist at the boy, lifting him off the ground with chakra strings causing the Hokage's eyebrow to raise. "Sorry, Sakura." he gave her a nervous giggle before turning and scowling at the man in front of him.

The man took another long swig of his Sake, wiping the trails of liquid off his chin with the back of his hand. The man was clearly very drunk, the blush on his face highlighting that obvious fact."I am the bridge-building expert, Tazuna. Once I have returned to my country, I will have all of you protect my life with yours while I complete the bridge."