Every day, it seemed his warm-up became harder and harder. Instead of regular pushups, the demon ordered him to support himself by his fingers. Aside from this slight change, Naruto’s daily schedule remained the same throughout the week except for after his usual warm-up he continued training his Kage Bunshin no jutsu. By the end of the week, he could climb most of the rocks without tiring the slightest. It was about time too! Today was when they would finally learn about the C-rank mission Kakashi-sensei had told them about.

Standing at their usual meeting place Naruto frowned to himself: nobody was there yet besides him. Even he was a few minutes late. “This is just ridiculous,” he grumbled. If he knew any better he would say Sakura was with Sasuke as she usually tried to sneak in free moments with him. It made him wonder, if they were together so often, why did they simply not become a couple?

“Sasuke! After the mission do you want to go out to eat?” Naruto did not even have to turn around to know who was coming up behind him.

“No,” answered another voice with indifference. “I guess that answers my question,” chuckled the blonde genin to himself.

Although usually he would have offered a loud greeting, this time he preferred not to, there was no point. “You’re late,” he said simply.

“Huh? What’s with Naruto?” wondered Sakura. Aloud she exclaimed “Naruto! Where have you been this past week?” I was looking all over for you!”

“Yea right, you were with Sasuke the whole time.” Before she could reply he continued, “Save it, Kakashi-sensei is here.”

Sure enough, out of a whirl of smoke, the grey-haired jounin appeared with an apologetic grin on his face. “Ohayo, sorry I’m late. I forgot my book at home,” he offered to his students.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was staring at Naruto with a little curiosity. “How did he know Kakashi-sensei was coming?” he wondered.

“Well, we might as well get started now, we have a ways to go.”

“Oy, Kakashi-sensei, where are we going though?” asked Naruto.

“Oh, we’re going to the Lightning Country, to the Hidden Cloud Village. Tsunade-sama wants us to retrieve a scroll from their village.”

“You mean we’re going to steal it?”

“Of course not, now lets get going, I’ll explain it on the way.”

Once they packed all the gear they would need for their mission they finally set off towards the Lightning Country. On the way Kakashi finally settled his students’s curiosity. Apparently, during the Hidden Leaf - Hidden Cloud war, the Third Hokage offered an ancient scroll as part of the treaty agreement; that was roughly ten years ago. Their current leader had recently passed away and their village council decided that the scroll was no longer needed in the village. Therefore, as an act of goodwill they were allowing a team from the Leaf to take it back.

What Kakashi failed to mention was the rebellious faction which split from the village. The rebel Clouds felt that the leader chosen was not the best choice, so approximately half of the ninjas left and ultimately became Missing-nins.  Kakashi was more than certain they were going to be ambushed on the way back but there was no avoiding it. He figured a regular four man team had a better chance of slipping away than a larger escort, and besides, a larger escort would definitely attract more attention. With his current team, they would be underestimated. Perhaps they would send two jounins to take care of himself but most likely only genins for his students. If they were desperate they would send some chuunins, but with the rebels in their current status, they were hard pressed for experienced ninjas.

Still, sending genins against his students would most likely be their mistake. Naruto’s growth, especially, was almost frightening. From the scared boy who froze in the face of his first real threat to his life, to the aftermath of the Chuunin Selection Exam. “He’s probably the strongest genin the Leaf has seen in a while,” he thought to himself. Sasuke himself was not too far behind his teammate. His mastery of the Sharingan was improving daily but not nearly as fast as Naruto was improving. Sakura was coming along quite well too; she would soon be ready for him to teach her some new jutsus. He could sense an affinity for earth type skills within her.

The team was making excellent progress on their journey, but the Hidden Cloud village was a lot farther than the Wave Country. The distance between their starting point and their destination was basically a two and a half day journey; so for two nights they were forced to camp somewhere along the road. It really was not that bad, it still had not rained yet. At any rate, on the third day, they finally arrived at the gates of their destination.

“Hey, hey, Kakashi-sensei, why do they call this ‘Lightning Country’?” Naruto asked enthusiastically.

“Oh, well. It has something to do with somebody who did something way back and they named the country after him,” replied the jounin distractedly.

“Huh? How much more vague can you get?”

Meanwhile, Kakashi was busily trying to find the three visas that would allow them to enter the village. After nearly emptying his pockets he finally fished out the three documents and the gate-guards ushered them through.

“Well, you guys go look around while I take care of the business.” Turning around he added, “By the way, try not to stand out. We may be at peace with them but that doesn’t mean that they like us.” With that said he continued towards the main administration building.

The three genins took the opportunity to explore the strange village. Surprisingly, it was quite similar to their own. “Wow! There’s a ramen stand! I’ll see you guys later,” shouted Naruto over his shoulder as he ran towards the stand.

“What a moron, always interested in food,” muttered Sasuke.

Exploring the village was not as exciting as they had hoped it would be. It really was just like the Leaf village, except there did seem to be as many inhabitants. Walking around proved to be quite boring and they almost wished Naruto was around to liven things up.

In the mean time, Naruto finished his meal and began to wander around. “Hmm, this place isn’t very exciting,” he thought to himself. It seemed to him that for the size of the village either there were not many inhabitants, or they all preferred remaining indoors, even during good weather. Whatever the reason, he had no time to find out; ahead of him he found his team, obviously waiting for him.

“Ah, there you are Naruto,” said Kakashi, “It’s about time we left this place.”

“Huh? What kind of a C-rank mission is this? We haven’t done anything!” whined the blond-haired genin.

“You should be happy this is so easy, C-ranks pay much better than D-ranks. Now let’s get going.”

Trudging along in silence, Naruto was deep in thought. Kakashi had given him the scroll to carry. Finally he spoke up, “Oy, Kakashi-sensei. What’s so important about this scroll?”

“Oh, well. It contains great secrets.” His response only earned him a skeptical look from his student. “Hey, hey, even I don’t know some things.”

The journey home promised to be as event-less as their first one. The first day came and went without incidents, although Naruto did stub his toe on a rock. The second day appeared to be just as boring as the previous days – even Kyubi seemed bored.

“It appears somebody is using some form of high level genjutsu around us,” stated the demon in his normal tone.

“How do you know? I can’t sense anything,” Naruto asked incredulously.

“Unless you know what to look for it is completely undetectable to passive attempts.”

“So what do I look for?”

“Mostly redundancies in the scenery; the genjutsu works by making your body look like a part of the terrain. That, and there’s chakra residue that can be detected, but I don’t think you’re that advanced yet.”

“Oy, then how did you find them?”

“Like I said, I know what to look for.”

Naruto pondered the demon’s last thought for a moment. There was not much to do considering the circumstances. There could be only one possible explanation as to why several individuals were using high level genjutsu. Obviously they were after the scroll, the team had nothing else that could be considered of worth. Considering the level, there was no doubt that the concealed ninjas were at least chuunins, most likely one or two jounins. Still, the genjutsu brought him some comfort. Thinking back to the Selection Exam, he remembered the tactic the Hidden Mist ninjas used. Most likely his hidden opponents would be weak in close quarter combat; all his team had to do was get them into the open.

“You guys can come out now, I’ve already detected your presences,” shouted Naruto.

“What! Naruto, stop trying to be cool…” but Sakura was interrupted by a voice coming from the trees.

“To think that a genin would be able to detect our genjutsu, most impressive.” At that moment, eight masked ninjas bearing a Hidden Cloud forehead protector appeared strewn across the trees branches. “Still, if I were you I would hand over the scroll.”

Naruto paused for a minute, the leader said that while looking straight at him – he knew he had the scroll. This definitely was not a good situation for him.

“Kakashi-sensei, who are these guys and why do they have Hidden Cloud forehead protectors?” asked Sasuke calmly.

“Well, they are part of a rebel group of Hidden Clouds who are trying to depose the current leader.”

“Oy!” shouted one of the Cloud ninjas to his leader, “That’s no ordinary jounin down there, that’s Cop Ninja Kakashi! We weren’t told we’d face the likes of him.”

“Just shutup and do as your told,” growled the leader in return.

“Dissent within the group, an obvious advantage to exploit, though way too obvious. That exchange was most definitely staged,” rumbled the demon.

“What makes you so sure?” demanded Naruto.

“Common psychological warfare. Make your enemy believe you are weaker and then have somebody just as powerful or more powerful attack. In this case, there will only be one jounin to attack you.”

“Huh, can’t Kakashi-sensei stop them?”

“Your sensei would be too busy fighting two people at the same time, leaving you and your other teammates to fight a group of six with a jounin hidden within.”

“Outnumbered two to one, with a jounin added into the mix – just the way I like it.”

“Quite so, although if you ask me this group is not particularly bright. First they fail  their jutsu, now the obvious staging. My guess is, the hidden jounin is the fellow who called your sensei by his nickname.”

“Hey!” Naruto shouted to the other ninjas in defiance, “If you want your precious scroll, then come and get it!” His seemingly brave front only earned him a groan from his sensei and a mumbled insult from Sasuke. Sakura, on the other hand, looked about ready to kill him.

“You’ve got guts kid, I like that. It’s too bad I have to kill you for it,” replied the leader with a smirk.

“Bring it on,” the blonde genin replied with a smirk of his own.

Naruto had obviously committed a few errors in the past, but none were as gaping as taunting a group of three jounins and five chuunins. The Cloud ninjas needed no further urging to jump down from their perches and encircle team Seven. Thankfully, the ninja in front of Naruto did not appear to be one of the jounins. “Alright then, I’ll make an example of this one,” he chuckled to himself thinking back to his brush with Inuzaka Kiba.

Concentrating his chakra to his feet, Naruto leapt forward and planted his fist square in his opponents solar plexus. With a follow-up kick he sent the Cloud ninja sprawling back several feet. A quick hand seal and two shadow clones appeared on either side and grabbed a secure hold of his arms. Flowing chakra to his hand, Naruto created a whirlwind of energy in his palm. A little longer and it all focused into a sphere. Letting loose a battlecry, he rushed his opponent and unleashed the full power of his Rasengan. There was nothing to stop the ninja from flying head first into a tree, clearly dead even before impact – he did not even have the chance to react to Naruto’s attack.

The young genin looked down at his hands; it was his first real kill. “So this is what it feels like…” he reflected, “Such power, the ability to take another man’s life with my own hands. I feel…alive!”

Rounding on the rest of the rogue ninjas with a fire burning in his eyes, Naruto only uttered three words: “Don’t underestimate me.”