Note: Japanese Names of Villages and Counties are used.

Surnames are written first and then names.

Amegakure = The village hidden in the rain. This is a small village situated between three of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, it serves as a battlefield for their wars, and most of the population consists of war refugees. The country's borders are highly defended, and those wishing to pass through it are subject to constant surveillance for the duration of their stay.

Konoha= The village hidden in the leaves. (Naruto and other protagonists are from this village.)

Kirigakure = The village hidden in the mist. (Zabuza, Haku and Kisame are from this village.)

Suna= The village hidden in the sand. (Gaara, Temari and Kankuro are from this village.)

Kazekage = Suna's Kage or head-reigning ninja. (Gaara is Kazekage in this story's time line)

Hanzo The ruler of Amegakure (This is set before the Pein arc and Hanzo is still alive and in charge)

Kage Bushin no Jutsu= Shadow Clones Technique. (Naruto uses this all the time)

Hajime no Yaro= That basted Hajime (no Yaro is used as a disrespectful suffix to a name)

D a m a g e

"We'll set camp up here."

Naruto stopped just as he was about to spring to the next branch. He turned around to see that Kakashi had stopped a few meters behind him and was surveying the surrounding area.

"Sensei? Why are we stopping?"

Naruto looked to his left where Sakura was standing on a nearby tree, her hands on her hips.

Kakashi smiled, "We're almost at the Amegakure border. Time to set up camp."

Naruto frowned; he didn't think that they needed to stop. If they were close to their destination, would it not make more sense to just keep going? As he opened his mouth to point this out, Kakashi cut him off, "This way, when we reach our target, we'll be fully prepared and well rested. This also gives us time to go over our mission brief."

Naruto shut his mouth, successfully cowed.

It turned out that just before they had stopped, Kakashi had spotted an area of rock face which had been hollowed out by long-wearing elements. It was just deep enough to give sufficient cover from any unseen enemies as well as from the harsh climate which Amegakure was so well known for.

Setting up camp in this hollow had taken the group little over half an hour and now, as the dusk was approaching, the three man team was sitting around their make-shift fire.

Naruto gave their pitiful flame a rather dejected poke. He doubted that this fire would ever be big enough to cook with. He sighed. To his left, Sakura sat plating and working at some herbs that she'd brought with on the mission. Across from Naruto, Kakashi was leaning back on the cave wall, flipping idly through his book. Naruto shifted restlessly, looking over at his sensei. Since Kakashi was the one who'd ordered camp, Naruto thought that it should be his job to provide some sort of distraction, any sort of distraction, from this complete and utter boredom. After all, hadn't he been the one to suggest that they go over strategy and briefings or something like that?

What was bugging him even more was the fact that Sakura seemed completely understanding and at ease with Kakashi's actions, while he couldn't figure them out at all.

After a few more moments of silence, Naruto felt that he just couldn't take it any more.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi looked up, "Hmm?"

"Why are we just sitting around? Can we please do something?" He gestured wildly at Kakashi, "You're the one who made us stop. Can't we at least talk about the mission or whatever?"

For whatever reason, Kakashi was shaking his head and smiling like he'd said something funny- maybe he had- but this only served to make Naruto more agitated.

"What?" He shouted.

"Naruto! Shut up!" Sakura glared at him, her hands balled into fists.

"Huh? But Sakura-chan-"

"You idiot!" She hissed, "We can't just go talking about secure mission information when anyone could hear us!"

She leaned back and crossed her arms, "And now, thanks to you, any ninja- no anyone within five miles knows we're here!"

Naruto blanched, realizing that he hadn't really thought that far, choosing instead to only think about his own boredom. He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "I uh…I didn't think about that."

"Of course you didn't. You never think do you Naruto?"

"What? Sakura-chan, that's not fair. I always-"

"Give me one example of a time that you actually thoughtsomething through, Naruto?"

Out the corner of his eye, Naruto could see Kakashi's head moving from side to side, watching their argument as one would watch a tennis match. After a few moment's, though, it seemed that Kakashi had had enough of their bickering.

"Naruto, Sakura."

They both looked at him.

"I think it's okay to go over the mission briefing now."

Naruto looked at the visible sliver of sky peeping through the rock's curve. He was surprised to see that it had already grown dark.

Kakashi settled back, tucking his book into his kunai pouch. It seemed that now that he'd gotten his teams' complete attention, he was in no hurry to relay the news. After a few more, agonizingly slow minutes (at least in Naruto's opinion), Kakashi turned to face them completely.

"Okay- so what do we know about the rouge ninja we're going to encounter?"

Sakura thought for a moment, "It's a group of ninja from different counties." She said slowly, "They're mainly lakies, but their leader is really powerful. His name is Watanabe Hajime. He's a very skilled Jonin and uses a lot of jutsu originating from Kirigakure no Sato but there aren't any records of him in their books that we know of."

Kakashi nodded his approval.

"Oh and…Also…" Naruto tried to remember when they'd been told, "Um… he uh…"

Kakashi filled in the gaps, "He has the Daimyo of Amegakure's founder country under his forced control."

"Yeah, that's right!" Naruto grinned, "And they don't wanna tell Amegakure, like, the ninja part of the village, because there's bad stuff going on between the two of them right?"

Kakashi smiled, "That's one way to put their confusing politics."

"So Sensei…" Sakura looked deep in thought, "If we're entering Amegakure's border without official consent, and the Daimyo is under Hajime's control… then…isn't this whole situation bigger than us?"

Kakashi nodded slowly, "You're right. If we don't go about this very, very carefully, we could easily start a war. Hanzo isn't known for his good will towards Konoha."

Naruto's eyes were wide, "A war? Then why didn't Konoha send more people?"

"Because, normally, their borders are very closely guarded and anything bigger than a three man cell would be noticed a mile away."

Sakura nodded, taking this in, "Then…Kakashi-sensei… why did Konoha even accept this mission? If it's risking a war then isn't this a bit reckless?"

Kakashi nodded again, "The thing is, Sakura, ties with Suna haven't been holding up too well lately, despite the Kazekage's best efforts. If Amegakure sides with Kirigakure, Konoha could be in a lot of trouble."

"And we think that Hajime is from Kirigakure, so…"

"Exactly Sakura."

Naruto frowned, slowly taking everything in. It was now apparent that their assassination mission of Hajime was a lot more important than it had first seemed.

"Everyone, try to get some sleep. I'll take first watch." Kakashi leaned back against the wall, his book back out of the pouch.

Naruto nodded, slipping under the covers of his sleeping bag. They had a big mission tomorrow, and he needed to rest well and eat a good meal. Naruto noted however, as he began to drift, that the thought of this mission left him without any appetite. And he had a feeling that it didn't all have to do with Hajime.

*0*0*0*

First watch, it turned out, was the only watch that evening. Naruto had discovered this upon getting up; Kakashi had been kneeling by the dying fire emptying handfuls of sand onto the glowing embers. When Naruto had asked why he hadn't woken him up, Kakashi had replied that he simply hadn't been tired and that it had seemed stupid for more than one person to loose sleep.

Naruto had deemed it pointless to argue and simply moved to wake up Sakura. After a quick breakfast and a few moments spent removing any traces of them having been in the area, they had set off through the overgrowth, continuing on their way to Amegakure. At the rush of movement, Naruto felt most of his previous tensions melting away and he grinned broadly. They were only hours away.

It didn't take their group very long to reach the border. Kakashi pressed a finger to his masked lips, signaling silence.

He crept forward until he was just in throwing rage of the guards stationed along the road.

Covering his mouth with his arm, he tossed out two poison smoke bombs. They worked quickly, and soon, all four guards were passed out, lying sprawled out on the dirt.

The three waited for a few moments, letting the poison settle and any unsuspecting reinforcements to appear. Nothing happened.

Kakashi nodded to Naruto and Sakura and they walked towards the unconscious guards.

"Naruto." Kakashi said softly, "We need another four guards."

"Huh? Oh! Right!" Naruto cleared his throat, shifting his stance, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"

Another four Naruto's appeared immediately beside him. He glanced around where all four of his clones were holding the seal for henge; at the same moment, they all transformed. Now, instead of four Naruto's, there were the four Amegakure guards.

Kakashi nodded his approval, signaling for Sakura to help him tie up the others.

"Sensei…" Sakura murmured as she finished tightening the last knot on her captive's rope, "Why didn't you kill them like you…" Like you normally would, she finished in her mind.

Kakashi turned to her, "We're trying to prevent a war Sakura, remember? How would four dead ninja look?"

Sakura nodded; feeling slightly embarrassed that she hadn't realized this immediately.

"Okay." Kakashi said in a louder voice, "Lets move out."

Before entering the village, Kakashi instructed them to take off their head bands for the moment. Most of the civilians in the Daimyo's capital didn't know what sort of outfits Konoha ninja wore, but their head bands would be a dead give away, and they had to be inconspicuous until they met their client. While Amegakure itself was highly industrialized, this area of the country was fairly low-key, reminding the three Konoha ninja of their own village.

After about half an hour of wondering the village, scouting it out and searching for any thing that may help them against Hajime, Kakashi realized that they were getting quite close to the arranged meeting place.

He held up a hand to stop his team.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"We're almost there." He glanced around once before nodding at his team to follow him into a dingy looking side street. Naruto kept looking around; this place was darkened by larger building's shadows and felt way too deserted for Naruto's liking.

"Sensei…" He whispered, "What if this is an ambush."

Kakashi didn't speak for a moment, "Then we fight them off."

Naruto swallowed hard.

"Relax." Kakashi smiled, "Our client's a civilian after all. They all hate Hajime."

Naruto nodded.

After a few most twists and turns in the back allies, Kakashi finally stopped at a rather dilapidated looking house. He paused for a moment before knocking on the door.

Two knocks, one, two again, another three.

A few moments later, the door opened up a crack, "Yes?"

"Shimizu Fumio?"

"Yes…"

"We never arranged a password." Kakashi said pleasantly, "May we come in?"

There was a pause and then the sound of locks being undone could be heard. The door opened, "Sure."

They stepped into the dimly lit room. All the curtains had been drawn shut and not much light now entered the room.

As they made to take off their sandals, the man shooed them into the main house. "No time for that!" He hissed. He opened the door to another room and gestured for them to sit down.

They did so.

"Fumio-san," Kakashi started quietly, before the man had a chance to say anything, "I need you to explain the entire situation again to us. We need to know if we're missing anything."

The older man looked a little nervous, but regardless, he began to explain everything from the beginning, going over all of the details which the group had discussed the previous evening. He also added all the details of what Hajime was doing to the village at that moment.

"He has all of his men guarding the Daimyo's palace and no one goes in or comes out. A few of the royal guard tried breaking their defenses but it was useless. Nothing seems to work and they know all of our countries fighting defenses."

He looked over at Naruto and Sakura, "That's why the other villagers and I all contributed funds to hire Konoha Shinobi. You've dealt with ninja from all over before right? You guys can get rid of Hajime no Yaro for us!"

Kakashi nodded, "Of course we will." He made to stand, "Oh, one more thing."

The man paled, "If it's more payment you're asking for I don't have anything else. I paid your village already!"

"No, no, nothing like that. I just wanted to ask whether you have a picture of this guy."

The man shook his head fervently, "No."

"And a description?"

The man frowned, looking worried. Kakashi noted how his eyes kept darting around from window to window.

"It's okay- we won't let anyone know who it was that told us."

"No it's… Hajime has eyes everywhere. He'll know that I…he, oh Kami, he probably already knows thatI was the one that hired you."

He started shoving Kakashi out of his house, pushing at the Jonin's back, "Thank you, thank you. Now leave, please please leave!"

Naruto saw the crease of Kakashi's brow and knew that the Jonin was frowning, he was either upset about their rude host or he'd noticed something that…

"Get down!"

Naruto obeyed the order without question, flinging himself to the floor. Beside him, he felt Sakura do the same.

Seconds later, the walls around them exploded with the sound of deafening thunder. Debris and flames rained down on them. Naruto covered his face, hunkering down as low as he could. From his spot on the floor, he heard Sakura let out a strangled shriek.

The debris were still falling with a vengeance and Naruto grunted as one particularly large chunk of wall slammed into his back.

He had no time to deal with the pain though.

"Naruto, Sakura! Get up!" Through the dust and flames, Naruto could see the figure of his sensei, standing among the falling debris. Beside him, Naruto could see another shape sprawled on the floor. He realized, with a sickening jolt, that it was Fumio.

He scrambled to his feet.

"Sakura! Get up!"

Naruto knew that Kakashi would not have sounded this urgent if they were not in serious danger. He glanced around for his teammate, "Sakura-chan?"

She was coughing and staggering to her feet. She clutched at her forehead with both hands, a substance streaming from between her fingers; dark, thick and wet. Naruto realized, a moment later, that is was blood.

"Sakura-Chan!" He rushed towards her, "Kakashi-sensei! Sakura-Chan's injured!"

"Idiot." He heard her mutter, "It's just a flesh wound. Head wound bleed a lot is all."

"If you guys are okay then get ready!"

"Sensei! What's going on?"

"Ambush."

Naruto slung Sakura's left arm over his shoulder, "Idiot…" She muttered, "I'm fine."

Naruto shook his head, "I don't care how bad it is. You're loosing blood Sakura-Chan, and even I know that cant be good."

"Naruto! It's an ambush. They could strike at any-"

Clang!

The sound of steel striking steel. Kakashi leaped from his spot beside Fumio and stood in front of his injured team mates.

"Naruto! Pay attention to the battle! Sakura is right. As long as she can still defend herself you should be focusing on the fight!"

Naruto nodded. Now that the dust was settling, he could make out several figures just ahead of them. There were one, two, three, four, five, six, seven… Naruto stopped counting. There were at least twenty, he surmised, and most of them seemed to be holding weapons.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto brought his hands up in front of his face, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"

This was not going to be a fair fight.

What did you think?