The rain fell hard and fast, creating a deafening noise as it smacked into the ground and the rooves of the surrounding buildings. There was no light save a solitary lantern hung on a wall to the side of a large red gate stamped with the three line symbol of rivers. The light was muffled by the heavy downpour, revealing four figures cloaked in waxed straw and wide brim hats. Their faces were hidden under the shadow of their hats and the ends of their cloaks were coated in a dark, thick mud. Each carried with them a dagger with a handle that came to a tapered point, a style which was popular in this region.

The quartet approached the door and gave each other a nod. As one of them raised their hand to knock, he turned to face the others.

"Remember, fire and earth. Nothing else."

He knocked three times, slamming his fist into the wood. After a few moments the sound of wood and metal sliding into place could be heard. With the last bang of a bolt falling into place the door opened and the face of a man wielding a spear, with a lantern hanging from it, peered out from the gap.

Before the guard could utter a word the gate was pushed in and the four rushed inside. The first to enter, the knocker, smashed the spear from the guards grasp and twisted the guards arm up behind his back. His other hand, knife glinting in the yellow light, brought the blade up to slip between the ribs and right into the heart. Three more stabs quickly followed, each finding its way to the three other quadrants of the heart. The guard slumped to the ground.

The intruders continued to run, quickly crossing the courtyard behind the gate, moving towards the large building that dominated the centre of the walled off compound. They soon reached the door and entered. Immediately two split off to the corridors to the left and right, and began to form hand seals. Alarm bells began to ring. As soon as the two finished their string of hand seals they slammed their hands to the floor. An earth wall shot up to block off those two corridors. Yells and the impact of weapons could be heard through the thick walls. This accomplished the two quickened their running to catch up with the other two, who were now halfway up the stairs that ran directly opposite to the entryway.

The quartet burst into a large chamber and came to a standstill. The room was lined on each side by wooden pillars accompanied by standing braziers with flames flickering to and fro. Twelve men stood at the opposite end, about thirty meters distant. Behind the group of samurai was their target. An aging man, his hair grey, dressed in fine green silks that hung off his skinny frame. Each of his soft wrinkled fingers displayed a fat gold ring that glistened with precious stones. With the soft clicks of his rings coming into contact with each other the man pointed his finger at the four intruders.

"Kill them!"

The samurai let out a battle cry, lifting their swords above their heads as they charged down the centre of the room. Three of the four intruders backed away from the last member and spread out to the sides. The one who remained still starting forming hand seals. The rumbling thunder of twelve men in armour running over the wooden floorboards went completely ignored. It was a race. The lead samurai, the captain, called out.

"Get the one making hand seals!"

When the captain reached three sword lengths from the ninja he leapt into the air intent on cleaving the assassin in two. As he reached the apex of his jump the ninja's hands came to a sudden stop.

A huge gout of fire exploded from the ninja's mouth. The captain could feel his armour melting under the heat. He fell to the floor grasping at his torso as the super-heated metal scourged his skin. The fire and the heat from his armour ignited his clothing and they too burned with the rest of him. The skin of his face was charred and cracking and his hair had completely ceased to exist. Those lucky enough not to be caught directly in the fire blast fell to their knees, hacking and coughing, as the super-heated air from the stream of fire had cooked the inside of their lungs and nasal passages. They began to slowly choke as the walls of their lungs began to swell and the remaining space filled with fluid. Perhaps they were not so lucky.

With cries of agony and desperate bids to catch breath filling the room the four approached their target. They pushed him to the ground as he begged for mercy, for his life. One of them bent over and whispered in his ear.

"Your life will not go wasted."

Any confusion or questions he might have had failed to show past the gibbering mess of tears and snot his face had become. Then, the assassins started to stab him and stab him and stab him again until he was rendered into a pile of meat.

They left their daggers point down in his corpse and left.

Hundreds of kilometres away team 7 were finally drawing near to their destination and had stopped for the night. As the three genin hopefuls made camp they eyed Kakashi who was just sitting on a fallen tree, reading a little orange book. Once they had finished setting up the small tents and Naruto had finished digging a small latrine Kakashi had closed his book and put it away.

"Okay, briefing time! The provisional team 7, that's us, has been assigned a sabotage mission. Now this is a D-rank mission. Can somebody explain the implications of that?"

Sakura's hand shot right up before Kakashi had even finished speaking.

"You don't have to put your hand up Sakura. This isn't the academy anymore."

With a blush Sakura gave her explanation.

"D-rank missions are the lowest ranked missions. They have little to no chance of contact with enemy shinobi and at most only non-shinobi combatants. They are usually performed by new genin squads with their jounin instructor or a more experienced squad led by a chünin."

"That's a very good explanation" Kakashi said with a smile.

Sakura beamed but quickly schooled her features.

"You forgot one thing though" Kakashi continued.

Sasuke spoke up. "D-rank missions are unimportant."

"What Sasuke means to say is that D-rank missions are never politically or militarily sensitive." Kakashi finished.

"Now, I'll give you some further details on the mission. We've been hired by Tazuna-san, a landowner, who produces cotton in a large plantation about two days travel south east of Otafuku Gai. One of the neighbouring properties, which the river runs through, has decided to build a dam across the river that feeds water to Tazuna-san's crops. The neighbour is another cotton farmer who has some friends in the local government."

"So that's why we're here" Naruto said "The bastards who are supposed to deal with this stuff are looking the other way!"

"That's right Naruto." Kakashi replied "Now cotton is a very water hungry plant so we only have a short timeframe in which to complete this mission or the client will be losing a lot of money and very unhappy with Konoha."

"How long Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"About two more days but it shouldn't take us longer than one."

"Don't you think the other guy will hire ninja too?" Naruto said

Sasuke perked up at the possibility of some worthwhile enemies but he soon turned away with a frown and stared into the distance as Kakashi continued to explain.

"It's very unlikely for foreign shinobi to be operating so deep in the Land of Fire, particularly for a small mission like this and Konoha hasn't received a mission request from the neighbour. We wouldn't even accept one at this point. So we're unlikely to have much opposition. So we get in, scope out the dam then blow it up and go home. Easy."

Sakura nodded and broke out into a smile before cheerfully throwing some more wood onto the fire. Sasuke continued to ignore the world around him as he became swallowed up in his own thoughts. Naruto though, was thinking.

"But Kakashi-sensei, what about missing-nin?"