We all gathered into position...
"What's the distance to the target?" Kakashi asked through our ear pieces.
"Approximately five meters" I spoke in a hushed voice
"Ready anytime" Naruto replied
"me too" Sakura was next
"we got this" I confirmed.
"Go!" Kakashi ordered, causing us all to leap at once to catch...
A cat...
The cat began to shred Naruto who had grabbed it, so I took it into my arms.
"Thanks" the boy said checking his wounds
"No problem, hopefully it doesn't have rabies!" words I thought that were funny, but he didn't seem to think so. As we returned the cat, the owner smothered it in hugs and kisses and man I felt sorry for that cat.
"Now..." the Hokage's voice struck me from my thoughts "Kakashi's team seven, your next mission is...hmm, baby sitting an elders grandson, shopping in the neighboring village and to help with the potato digging". I sighed, how firkken boring!
"No! No, no, no, NO THANK YOU!" Naruto yelled causing me to jump.
I want to do, you know a more incredible mission! Find us a better one!" I smirked agreeing, these missions were not a good example or challenge of my skills.
"You idiot! You're just a rookie! Everyone starts off with the simple duties and work their way up!" their old teacher, Iruka yelled
"Don't call Naruto an idiot!" I spat back.
"Yeah! Yeah! We keep getting the crappiest possible duties!" the blond yelled even louder now.
"Be quiet you two!" Kakashi spoke giving Naruto a bash on the head I awaited my own, but all the jounin did was look at me with an unreadable expression, making me cringe.
"It seems I need to explain to you both what these duties are all about" the Hokage went to explain, but as he began I spaced out, sensing something...
I looked over my shoulder yet no one was there that I could see. I zoned back in, and it seemed like the rest of my team, including Kakashi had also lost interest in the conversation. Naruto was going on about ramen causing the Hokage to yell at us to focus.
"I apologise" sensei said rubbing the back of his head
"All you do is give us lectures like that!" Naruto yelled back earning a sigh from me "but you know what?! I'm not the trouble making brat you still think I am!" I flinched preparing for the back lash. After some silence the Hokage spoke once more
"If you want it that much...I will give you a C rank mission" I smiled, not a huge step but it was a step none the less!
"It's a protection mission of a certain individual" our leader explained
"Who?! Who?! A feudal lord? A princess?" Naruto began asking excitedly.
"Geeze Naruto, its a C-rank mission it'll just be some person, not an important figure" I said getting a glare from the boy.
"Calm down, I am about to introduce him" Hokage ended his speech before calling in our persons to protect. A man slowly entered the room, the smell of booze coming in first...
"What's this? They're all a bunch of super brats!" he said, clearly knowing nothing about the Chi or Uchiha.
"Especially the shortest one with the super stupid looking face. Are you really ninja?" I narrowed my eyes at the intoxicated man
"Evidently sir, I am Chi Koojiru, of the Chi clan. We are trained since birth for this kind of work" I explained my own heritage to him, leaving Sasuke's out.
"Haha! Who's the one with the stupid face?" Naruto asked laughing, I looked at him blankly and pointed before continuing to correct our guest.
"Of course we're ninja, like I said personally I've been training since before I could walk" I told the man "further more, our sensei is a jounin, I'm sure we can fight off bandits and wild animals." I finished. Naruto leapt at him once the mans words sunk into his thick, thick skull, and that...was our introduction to the "super expert" bridge builder Tazuna, who replied to me as if Naruto hadn't just tried to kill him.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah you're all so special" he said swaying a tad.
So! We set off after more drama at the gates, this was my first time within memory leaving the village. After some time of walking, I stepped in a puddle...I walked a few steps to catch up with the rest of my team and to tell Kakashi about it's oddness but as I did so chains appeared wrapping themselves around him! With one pull, Kakashi was no more...
"Kakashi-sensei!" we all yelled and all too quickly the two culprits were behind Naruto
"Two" they spoke in unison.
"Like fuck!" I yelled charging them, as I did Sasuke leapt into action. He managed to pin their chains to a tree and gave each a swift kick to the face. They didn't even flinch and detached themselves from their stuck chains, each one going off in different directions...one for Tazuna and Sakura and the other for Naruto. Sasuke and I caught each others eyes and nodded immediately knowing where each would go so I dashed for Naruto, who was clearly not ready for this fight. As I got in front of the attacker I ducked into a hand stand in attempts to collide my heel into his jaw, but that didn't seem to stop him for long because he came at me seconds later. I braced myself for impact hoping he would draw blood so I could end him, and yet none came. The two attackers had been stopped by none other than...Kakashi-sensei?!
Oh, OH! I get it! Clone, duh! How dare he let us think he was killed! We also could have died here!
"Nice jobs Koojiru and Sasuke" he spoke to us.
"You alright, scardey cat?" Sasuke taunted Naruto. I turned to realize how frozen in fear the blond boy had been, so I walked back up to him and knelt down to his face level.
"Don't listen to him, he thinks he's oh so cool but if it weren't for Kakashi-sensei we may have been toast anyways. Fighting them might have gotten us killed." Naruto looked at me in confusion for a second, before puffing out his chest and acting all tough.
"Yeah! Yeah! Well I could have saved us!" he boasted. I sighed and rolled my eyes
"Maybe not Naruto, she is more than likely right..." Kakashi said looking at the two men's claws.
"They had poison on these claws..." my eyes went wide and my face lost some blood, I was inches away from being poisoned?! Maybe I wasn't oh so tough either...
"Tazuna-san" our team leader began
"What is it?" the old man looked a little too on edge for this to be some random attack. I stared him down as Kakashi went on
"I need to talk to you. These look like hidden mist chunins, these shinobi are known to continue to fight no matter what" my legs shook at his words, I only remembered a few times I felt that way...
"If you knew that then why did you let the brats fight?!" Tazuna said angrily, and I was too!
"If I had wanted to, I could have killed these two instantly but...there was something I needed to find out who these two were after" I stared at Tazuna, how could he not tell us or know that this would happen?!
"What do you mean?" inquired the lying man.
"Meaning, were they after you or one of us?" I let out a small hiss of anger from under my breath, they could have very well been after me though...
"We haven't heard that there were shinobi after you, our mission was to simply protect you from thieves and gangs" Kakashi continued. I nodded, I also watched Tazuna's face change, giving me a sigh of relief, because with the guilt on his face I knew there was no way I was the reason we were attacked.
"This has now become at least a B-ranked mission. This was supposed to be a simple protection until you completed the bridge. If it was known that ninja would be after you, this mission would have been set up as the more expensive B-ranked mission. I'm sure you had a reason, but it causes problems when you lie about the mission. We are now operating outside of our duties." I nodded and looked at the man, he had a point...Sakura spoke next.
"We aren't ready for this mission. Let's quit! We should go back to the village before we get hurt, or worse" she said.
"This might be too much..." sensei added in. Naruto began shaking with rage, right before throwing a kunai
""I'll protect the old man! We're continuing this mission!"
"Are you insane?!" Sakura yelled out.
"Why Naruto?" I asked, searching every muscle twitch for signs of weakness around his passionate display.
"Because we can't just back down!" he said firmly. I thought hard as everyone turned to leave...
"Wait!" I called out causing the rest of my team to turn around.
"Maybe Naruto has a point..." I ventured voice small and shaky for fear of backlash "let me explain thought, if we back down now...aren't we just abandoning this man to die? Clearly he can't afford any other service. Why else would he hire us 'brats' as we're so lovingly called by him? Not to mention Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei and I proved that we can pretty much handle the attackers"
"Pretty much being the key words..." sensei interrupted me, continuing to speak to stop me from voicing my thoughts.
"Had I not come into the fight, one of you may have been poisoned, killed, or both" he pointed out. Naruto and I gave each other a look, a moment of understanding passing through us as if we had telepathy.
"Fine then" I began "if Naruto and I are on the same page...then we will continue to the Land of Waves. Who ever wants to join us can, otherwise see you back at the village". Kakashi shook his head
"It doesn't work that way" he replied
"Oh? So you're going to knock us out and drag us back then? On top of leaving a man to die?" I challenged. Sasuke and Sakura looked at one another, then back to Kakashi-sensei, it was such a fierce stand off you could almost see the electricity through our stares.
"Fine, go on sensei, fight me, knock me out, drag me back" I said smirking. Neither of us moved, but neither of us backed down either. Sasuke broke the tension by making his choice, and stood beside Naruto and I. Sakura of course followed his lead, leaving Kakashi to let out a hiss of annoyance.
"None of you are giving me a choice are you?" he asked head to one side, expression still unreadable.
"No not really" I said beaming.
"Very well, majority wins, we continue" the man said switching from unreadable to defeated. We all smiled at one another in victory. None of us had any damned fucking clue what we had just done to ourselves, but Tazuna did for the man didn't seem to be happy about our choice.
"Sensei..." Kakashi turned to look at the older man, my eyes fixed on him
"I...have to talk to you..."
My heart leapt into my mouth...
What had I just done?