The next morning a little after the crack of dawn, Saul and Hinata arrived together at the mission office. Kurenai was there chatting with a dark purple-haired woman. 

"Oi, Kurenai. Your kids are here. The black haired one is pretty cute, isn't she?"

Kurenai rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Jeez, Anko-san. Can you avoid trying to embarrass the poor Genin before their first mission?"

"Ah, sorry, sorry!"

Kurenai was in her usual outfit, wrapped in that odd hypnotic mix of cloth strips. The woman beside her however, was more provocatively dressed. She wore a long brown trench coat, yes, but it was open. Underneath was a skintight hybrid between chain-mail and an elastic fishnet top and leggings that clearly defined the shape of her breasts. Across her thighs was a short buckle skirt; it was almost manly in appearance. And finally atop her legs she wore metal shin guards. 

Hinata saw where Saul was looking and tugged on his sleeve. 

"Saul-kun..."

Anko laughed. "You like what you see?"

This woman was brash, carefree. She'd likely appreciate honesty.

Saul nodded appreciatively at her, "Pretty good," and then to the anxious girl at his sleeve he added, "Not as good as Hinata, though."

Anko giggled. She turned to Kurenai, "Hey, I like this one! Can I keep him?"

Kurenai smiled. Still, she was not one for innuendos or wordplay. Unlike what her outfit might suggest, she was actually a calm, reserved woman. She took her missions seriously. The village had assigned her to guide these Genin, to train them and grow them into fully-fledged Ninja of Konoha. The Hokage himself even had requested her to show special attention to Saul. She would not disappoint. 

Instead of responding to Anko's question, she spoke to the two Genin.

"Shall we go get your first mission? I'm sure Kiba will be arriving shortly." She looked at Saul specifically, noting that Hinata seemed to follow his lead on everything.

"No time for your side bitch once you've got a man? Fine then! I'll take my leave!"

Kurenai blushed. "Anko!" She scolded, "They're my students! Don't speak like that."

"Yea yea." Anko had an 'eat shit' grin on her face. "Oh yeah, punk, what's your name?"

Saul rolled his eyes. "Saul."

Anko was clearly amused. "I'll remember you." With that, she left the mission assignment building.

Since Kiba still hadn't arrived yet, they waited in line to get their mission. The Hokage himself was not the one who assigned missions like he did for Naruto's team. Rather, it was a team of what looked like Chunin, processing requests and telling ninja their tasks. 

Saul knew they were Chunin because while they wore the same flak jacket that Jonin were given to wear, they lacked the Uzumaki clan whirlpool along the sleeves. This was a dead giveaway for their ninja rank. Genin weren't even assigned a flak jacket - they operated only with a headband and their normal clothing.

This was because Genin were never expected to fight enemy ninja. They were assigned light benign tasks such as searching for lost animals / belongings, helping the general populace in some manner, etc. In fact, the majority of ninja were Genin, and they would remain so for the rest of their lives!

Jonin teams were more like an internship however. Jonin were assigned to Genin recognized with talent. Like most other Genin Teams they would at first be assigned multiple D rank missions while the Genin were still weak. However their instructor was expected to train the Genin alongside the missions, growing their combat potential. (Kakashi is the exception - he was too lazy)

Eventually they would be assigned harder, more dangerous missions that also took into account the fact that a Jonin was leading them. This is where the wheat would be separated from the chaff; only Genin who were truly exceptional would survive.

However, all of this was currently irrelevant to Saul, who was looking at their first mission.

"Tilling... Farmland? And we're expected to learn a complimentary D-rank jutsu, the Trench Jutsu?"

Kiba scowled. "We don't need to learn something like that! Akamaru and I can just use our claws!"

Kiba had arrived sometime while we were waiting in line. Unapologetically late, the man shamelessly didn't even wait in line alongside us. Instead he played with Akamaru. He finally decided to show his face once we had gone through the trouble of obtaining the mission!

"Dig with your claws then," Saul smirked, "I've bet you've had plenty of practice digging in the yard."

Kiba literally growled. "Do you want to take this outside?"

Kurenai intervened. "We'll have time for that later after the mission. For now, can you all learn the Jutsu? At least for appearances sake."

The Trench jutsu was as simple as it sounded. It displaced ground and dug a small trench. It was incredibly simple to learn, requiring only one hand seal. The more chakra was invested into the jutsu, the deeper or wider you could make the trench.

Saul picked it up the fastest, followed by Hinata, and then finally the reluctant Kiba. Then Kurenai led them to the land the request was commissioned for.

It was simple work. They each made signs for the jutsu and tilled land which could have taken days or weeks to till by hand with a similar workforce in mere hours. Part of a much larger commission, the request encompassed many of the most fertile lands in The Land of Fire. It was around 5 hours before they were done.

You might be wondering, well why didn't Saul and Hinata make shadow clones? Wouldn't this make the work go faster? Well actually, making clones in this particular case had little to no effect. The range and depth of the jutsu could be controlled through chakra input - so shadow clones would just add chakra consumption overhead. What took so long was actually travel!

The land of fire was very large - even a team of highly mobile ninja jumping from tree to tree took a long time to traverse the distance required. Kurenai's team also got priority to choose lands closer to Konoha. This was actually the shortest time such a task could reasonably be! 

"Whew! We're finally back!"

"Ruff!"

Kiba smiled, his hands and nails clean despite his earlier claim. Once he saw just how big the farmlands really were, he quickly ate his own words and tilled the land with the jutsu.

Saul approached him once they were at the training grounds.

"Kiba. Do you want to spar? I've actually been itching for a chance to test out my new jutsu."

Now this was his language! No more of that farming crap!

"Hell yea, now you're talking!" He glanced over at Hinata, "You had me thinking you were just a dog with all bark and no bite!"

Saul rolled his eyes. Kiba seemed so proud of that one. He had a feeling Kiba took all day to come up with it because of this morning.

Hinata finally overcame her nervousness to come to his defense.

"Don't mock Saul-kun! He's strong, k-kind, and..." Hinata went silent mid sentence. She had a blush on her face, looking up at him.

Oh Hinata... Forget it, I can't fault her, she was sincerely trying her best.

Kiba's face grew colder. "You trying to hide behind a woman now, Saul?"

Saul stepped in front of Hinata and got ready to fight. He summoned a few clones, all staring at Kiba with a mocking grin.

"Don't worry Kiba. She's only speaking from experience."

"Raaagghhh!" With a scream of rage, Kiba attacked!

Author's Note: Ch complete! Comment if you enjoyed it, I read every single one. Some of ya'll crack me up lol