First mission: Arrival at the village

The next day, at the Kage building, Team 1 were all called up to meet Rasa and receive their first mission.

"We've heard news of a group of bandits that have been pillaging a small village up northwards near the borders. Your mission is to head there with Baki and take them out before they can hurt the villagers any further. This is a C-rank mission to start you guys off. I have received approval from your family heads so there will be no arguments. Dismissed!" Rasa ordered the trio and Baki.

"Indeed, kazekage-sama," Baki spoke as he bowed slightly and the whole group left.

"Kazekage-sama, is it not too early to send them on such a mission already? They are just genins who haven't killed before," Rasa's assistant asked with a slight tone of worry.

"It's hard enough to find missions already. Our village economy is dropping, I didn't have much of a choice. And I also want to see what the group can do," Rasa answered as he laid his chin on his hands and had a staring contest with the door before whispering in a low tone that no one could hear, "Specifically him."

"A C-rank mission!?" Asaka exclaimed loudly as she had a very unhappy expression on her face. She stomped in front of them and turn around to face them as she began loudly rambling her thoughts out, "We are only genin. How the heck are we supposed to kill bandits already!?"

She then saw that Akemi and Hitori were just simply staring at her cluelessly with a lost look in their eyes. She was immediately annoyed and asked, "What's wrong? Do you not agree with me?"

"Asaka..." Hitori spoke, slightly dumbfounded, "We are ninjas now. Isn't it better to have a C-rank mission quickly? I mean, didn't you know that you would eventually have to kill? I don't really understand what's so wrong about that."

"Hmm," Akemi replied as she nodded.

Asaka froze in shock and she remained silent for a few seconds before dropping her head in defeat as she spoke, "Of course I know that! But I didn't think... Nevermind! I give up. Trying to explain stuff to you guys is like trying to communicate with a chicken."

And the group dispersed to their homes, preparing their stuff and food for the way and they all met up again at the village gate after two hours.

"I hope you guys have everything you need! Let's go!" Baki spoke as he started walking off and everyone followed.

A week later...

"Finally! I can see the village in the distance!" Asaka exclaimed in relief as she felt as if they had been travelling forever to the point where she began to believe that they had ended up travelling past the village but lo and behold, it stood in front of them.

"Let's hurry..." Baki spoke as he had an ominous feeling deep in his gut. The rest of the team simply nodded and they made their way to the village at a faster pace. And in no less than ten minutes, they had made their way to the village entrance but the instant that they had arrived. They saw that there seemed to be no one outside which made the villager seem like a ghost town, they looked around the houses and even went inside some and they saw that there was no one inside the houses as well.

"Could we possibly be too late?" Akemi muttered out as her fist subconsciously clenched.

"No, we aren't late. There is no damage to the houses, the bandits wouldn't pillage like this. It's like the villager have run away or left their houses," Hitori corrected her, causing her to let out a sigh of relief while Baki shook his head in approval.

"Good observation, Hitori. You missed a little detail though. When we looked inside that house, you could see a patch of water on the floor that hadn't completely dried up. We can use this as info to speculate when the last piece of human activity was. It seems that the villagers must still be close by. We should look around. Come with me, we will go check the villager center," Baki explained, gaining a nod of understanding from the trio while Hidori took a mental note to observe small details like that better.

Baki's decision seemed to be the correct choice as they soon arrived at the village center and they could see the villagers gathered in a circle.

'What's going on?' they all wondered as they made their way closer but just as they appeared. A villager turned around and his face changed as he saw the squad, he immediately walked up to them and asked with a very desperate voice, "Are you guys the shinobi from the sand?"

"Yes. What is happening? Where's the village elder?" Baki answered and responded with a question of his own.

"Please help us. The bandits have kidnapped the village elder's youngest daughter along with many other children, including my one and only son, during their last attack and they have left the villager elder heavily injured. Apparently, they are demanding all of the village's food supplies for her life," the villager explained as he fell down on his knees, pleading.

Hearing his explanation, the three genins immediately grew serious as they realized that the situation was indeed getting on the very bad side. Hitori looked up to Baki and saw that there was not a change of expression on his face, bringing up the thought that this was the norm in the shinobi world.

"Why is everyone gathered here them?" Asaka couldn't help but ask.

"They are looking at the ultimatum. It appeared today morning," the man answered, it was then, that he saw the three genin. He looked to Baki with a complicated expression as he politely spoke, "Sir, is it really okay for such young kids to be coming here? I'm afraid those kids might not be a match for these kids..."

This struck an invisible arrow through all the three genins as they all flinched from surprise. Asaka seemed angry that a villager had just told her than she might be unable to take out a simple bandit, Akemi looked slightly nervous as she took a step back, only to bump into Hitori who gave her a reassuring nod.

"Are you implying that I do not know the ability of my squad members?" Baki asked in a cold tone, completely intimidating the villager as he hurriedly tried to defend himself but Baki was not hearing it as he emotionlessly ordered, "Take us to the middle."

The man hurriedly nodded as he was now not daring at all to speak bad about the team but Hitori was able to see worry and could somehow tell that the man was just worried about them losing their lives. The squad was then led to the middle and Baki read the ultimatum before turning to the villagers and announcing, "We are the shinobi from the sand. We have come to rescue you from your situation. We have yet to completely assess the situation but I need all of you to stay in your home and not come out at all for the next few weeks."

Baki then told the villager to lead them to the village elder's house and they were lead to a house that was slightly larger than the rest. They were welcomed by the village elder's wife, an old woman who from first glance could be seen as the kind and caring granny in any story, who immediately greeted them and took them straight to the village elder without any pause, "please follow me."

She then led them upstairs to the top floor where there was a single room with an old man who had his arm and leg heavily wrapped in bandages. His face looked very pitiful right now as there were still traces of buises as his face was still purple in some areas.

"Honey, I've brought the ninjas that you have hired from the sand village," said the wife as she opened the door and let them in.

(A/N: My original novel has been stopped... So it looks like I can focus on this again... Idk I feel like I have to write and the content for this is just coming in so enjoy... While you still can probably... I won't ask for power stones yet... Lemme get into the flow first.)