Chapter 044

The Fuuton: Kaze No Yaibe (Wind Release: Wind Sword) was a A ranked jutsu that Konoha had gotten thanks to its alliance with Suna. This jutsu created a pinpoint slashing strike, where the user had to emitted wind chakra from their fingertips and materialize it into an invisible wind sword that would, depending on the power output, do anything from create cuts on an enemies' body, or slice them all the way through. This jutsu was the hardest one for Naruto to learn, he had only just got it down and even then he still had some problems controlling the blade. He had theorized that the only reason he could even use this attack was because his affinity for wind was unnaturally high.

His other jutsu was the Fuuton: Kaze Senbon (Wind Release: Wind senbon), another B rank jutsu where Naruto formed several dozen senbon out of wind and launched them at an enemy, turning anything into a pin cushion. The amount of senbon he could create depended on his control of his wind chakra, right now he could only make around twelve the fifteen senbon.

Naruto had been able to find these particular jutsu when he had managed to sneak into the jonin section of the library; it was actually disappointingly easy to gain access to that section since they did not even post guards in the library and the only people he needed to worry about were the custodian and the jonin who came there. Which there was a surprisingly small amount of jonin who seemed to go to the library, something Naruto chalked up to either laziness, arrogance or both.

Not that he was ungrateful, because the wind element was so rare in Konoha that there were very few jutsu for them, and most of the jutsu they did have were higher ranked then others, due to the fact that wind was almost a purely offensive element and very dangerous to use when untrained.

Of course Naruto was not quite satisfied with just learning a jutsu, and so, wanting to master them he had set his clones to work on them again. This time the fifty he had created for jutsu learning would only work on them one at a time, starting with the Fuuton: Daitoppa, the first jutsu he had learned.

However, Naruto's work was partially slowed down by his team training, which had not changed from the 'team work' exercises and minimal sparring Kakashi had them do. He had started them on a few other things, but most of it was theory on battle tactics and the like, which he was already studying himself. Still he supposed it was good for to review and Kakashi had offered him several unique perspectives on some of the tactics the blond had studied from the Third Great Ninja War. The only other thing he had to do with his team were the missions they went on, much like the one he was on now.

"This is Raven, I'm in position."

"Blossom, I'm ready."

"This is Blondie; I see the target and am waiting to take 'em out."

"This is scarecrow, move in and capture the target!"

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all jumped out from there hiding spots as they ran towards the target. Said target screeched and hissed as it ran, only to be intercepted by Sakura. It made a mad turn the other way; however Naruto began launching kunai at it to turn it around. Directing it towards Sasuke who used ninja wire to trap it.

Naruto leaned down and picked up the now struggling cat.

"This is Raven, we've caught the target." Sasuke said into his head set.

"Confirm pink ribbon on right ear." Came Kakashi's reply.

"Blondie here, pink ribbon on right ear confirmed." Naruto said, looking back at the cat to see it had gotten loose from its bonds. "Hey Sasuke."

"Hn?" Sasuke turned around as Naruto threw the pissed off cat at his face.

"MEEERROOOW!" The cat screeched as it began to claw at Sasuke's face.

"AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!" Sasuke's screams were heard all around Konoha.

Several minutes later two twitching genin, and one grinning genin were standing in the missions room with their sensei.

"Mission to capture pet cat Tora complete." Kakashi said, opening the cage where the demo- cat had been placed in after mutilating Sasuke's face. Kakashi grinned a bit beneath his mask as he got to watch his own team suffer from the same horror he went through as a genin.

"Oh thank you so much!" Madame Shinji, a rather… large woman in expensive clothing said. She grabbed the cat before it could flee. "My dear Tora-chan how I missed you so! I was so worried about you! I don't know what I would do without you!"

Wow it's no wonder that cat runs away so much. Naruto thought as he watched the woman squeeze her cat to death.

Squeeze, Squeeze, SQUEEZE! Thought Sasuke, laughing manically at the cat's plight.

Serves that cat right for hurting my Sasuke-kun! Sakura thought.

CHA! Stupid cat! Next time I'll make mincemeat out of ya! Inner Sakura shouted as she made several punching motions.

"Excellent job team 7." Sarutobi said as the woman and her cat left. "How about another mission? I have painting the fence for Kotara-san… walking the Inuzuka dogs… or we could-"

"No TORA!" came a scream from outside, signifying that the cat ran away… again.

Sarutobi blinked before continuing. "Of course there is always catching-"

"No!" Sasuke interrupted with an angry glare, having finally lost his Uchiha cool. "No more of these chores! I'm an Uchiha, and I demand you give me a mission worthy of an Uchiha!"

"That's right!" Sakura said, defending her crush. "Sasuke-kun deserves a better mission!"

Oh boy. Kakashi thought with a sigh. This won't end well… though I would have expected something like this from Naruto, not Sasuke. How did I get such a mixed up team?

Naruto sweat dropped as he looked at his two teammates. He turned his attention over to his sensei, who now looked distinctly uncomfortable, though it was hard to tell with his face nearly covered. Looking over at the table he noticed Sarutobi looking somewhere between amusement and anger. And finally Iruka, who was working the missions department, looking like he was about to blow a gasket.

"Treat Hokage-Sama with some respect!" Iruka shouted, slamming his hands on the table. "You're all only newly graduated genin! Everyone starts out doing this work! And it takes experience before you can start taking higher ranked missions, Uchiha or not!"

"What experience?" Sasuke asked sarcastically. "The most experienced mission we get is catching that thrice damned cat! I deserve a better mission!"

Sasuke-" Kakashi tried.

"Every mission to the village is important!" Iruka yelled, cutting off Kakashi. "You need to get over yourself and remember your duty!"

"MY WHAT!" Sasuke yelled as he shook in rage. How dare these people tell him about his duty! His duty was to kill his clan's murder! But he couldn't do that unless he was stronger. And he couldn't get stronger by running these errands!