Both Sasuke and Naruto realised that they shouldn't be going on this type of mission without a jonin-sensei accompanying them; it was not the right thing to do. They didn't care though. If everything went bad, they could blame it on the mission hall for assigning them the wrong mission.
The two boys had been frustrated for a long time that they had never had a mission which was above babysitting, picking up rubbish or chasing after a cat.
They had decided that they wanted to go on this mission to prove that they were capable of bigger and better things. After all, if they didn't go on this, when would be the next time that they as Team Seven managed to get another chance to showcase their skills?
Azula meanwhile also knew that this was bad and she was contemplating asking Kakashi-niisan what they should do. However… the blonde haired girl also knew that if she did this it would drive a massive wedge between the team and she wasn't sure if it would ever be able to be repaired.
Sasuke had been nice enough ever since their conversation a while ago whilst Naruto was still mean to her. If she did go and tell Kakashi then the label of teacher's pet would be on her forever. The chance of becoming friends with them would also go up in smoke.
For the sake of the team, Azula decided that she would go along with the mission. She just hoped that everything worked out in the end and nobody got seriously hurt.
x-X-x
With everything packed and having made it past the gate guards of Konoha, the trio of shinobi set out for their first mission outside of the village.
When the question of who was the mission leader was aired, it took a while but in the end it was Sasuke who used his position as the rookie of the year to become the leader.
Naruto didn't like this at all but knew nothing would happen considering Azula supported Sasuke.
The trio of genin level shinobi made their way to a remote towards the border that the land of fire shared with Kawa no Kuni. What they didn't know was that there were three shinobi who had started trailing them ever since they left the sight of Konoha.
Had these ninjas been wearing official ninja attire, then it would have been weird to see Konoha ANBU trailing Konoha genin.
As Team Seven made their way through the countryside, Naruto and Sasuke were admittedly surprised at the fact that Azula had not said a word about the mission. Just from the look on the girl's face, they knew that that she knew this was wrong and yet she continued going on the mission.
Seeing this, Sasuke privately thought that he and Naruto at least deserved to treat her as a teammate instead of the co-worker they had been treating her as previously.
When they got 5km away from the destination, the trio of genin ranked shinobi took a chance to have a break, drink some water and have a ration bar or two.
Sitting with his legs which were in a diamond shape, Naruto quickly did a jutsu with his legs covering anyone trying to see what he was doing unless they were head on. As he placed his hands on the dirt below, Naruto's eyes widened for a split second.
This was enough for Sasuke with his keen eyesight to spot. Staring at his friend, Sasuke saw Naruto motion down to his hands with his eyes. Three ninjas, chunin level; 400 metres directly behind me.
Sasuke gave the faintest of signs that he acknowledged this newfound information. Just because the presence of foreign ninja was around, Sasuke knew that they couldn't back out of the mission. They were already taking a massive risk even coming on this mission in the first place.
Plus, if they quit now, then all of their training would be for nothing. No, Team Seven would continue on this mission and complete it. After all they had a Senju with the Mokuton, an Uchiha with the Sharingan activated and also the daughter of the Yondaime Hokage amongst their team.
They were training to become more than Kages, they wanted to be one man army's like their ancestors. If they couldn't survive this than they didn't deserve to be shinobi as far as Naruto and Sasuke were concerned.
With their energy supplies refuelled and their minds refreshed, Team Seven headed to the client's location.
As they passed through a fence, Sasuke knocked on the front door of a man's house. Eventually half a minute had passed and the door started to open.
"You don't look like the ninjas that I hired. You're just a bunch of kids!" The farmer exclaimed as she looked down at the trio in shock.
"You're more than welcome to turn down our support if you want Civilian-san. You will still have to pay the full mission price because we came all the way out here and you decided that you didn't need us anymore." Sasuke coolly replied. There was not a single change in the tone of voice showing off that he had complete control over the situation at hand.
Yeah, I can see why Ino likes him so much, he is pretty cool. Just because she thought that Sasuke was cool, this meant in no way, shape or form that she was interested in being more than his friend.
The farmer spluttered as he tried to come to a response for the proposition that Sasuke. He didn't. "Fine, well you better be able to do what I am paying you for otherwise I will be demanding a refund."
"Just because we are young does not mean for a second that we are unskilled" and with that said, Sasuke turned around and started thinking of a way to take care of the man's problem.
"Okay, Azula, I want you to make about twenty clones and have them search for the hideout of the wolf pack. According to the mission report there are three wolves that are terrorizing our client's farm." Sasuke stated to his teammate.
Azula gave a firm nod and instantly created the desired amount of clones before having them head in each and every direction.
Five minutes later and Azula's head sprung up. "Okay, I know where they are, follow me." The girl said to which both Naruto and Sasuke followed her without question.
When they got to the site of the crime, Naruto and Sasuke now saw what the clone of Azula saw. There was a medium sized cave to which they all heard a growling noise coming from inside.
As he created a jutsu with both hands, Sasuke watched as a makeshift torch appeared on the edge of his left hand. With his right, Sasuke got a kunai from his pouch and headed to the edge. Naruto and Azula each had a kunai in hand as they prepared for their first ever mission that wasn't menial in their eyes.
Four wolves came out from the cave. Each of them was barring their respective fangs at the Konoha trio. Sasuke was the first to act. Throwing the kunai as hard as he could, the metal sailed through the air aimed directly at the pack leader's head.
Said wolf didn't know what it was that had been thrown at him. It was far too late to be able to dodge once the realisation that whatever it was, it wouldn't be good to allow that to hit him. The kunai that Sasuke threw pierced through flesh, cartilage and bone to connect with the brain of the wolf.
Death occurred on impact.
Angered at the site of one of their pack mates getting killed, the three remaining wolves charged at their enemy. They knew that they could only do damage close up whereas Naruto, Sasuke and Azula could do it from far away.
Sasuke had no problem throwing another kunai with precise accuracy straight at one of the wolves. He had been baptised by what some of the most ruthless shinobi would call harsh. Seeing a little bit of blood was nothing new to him and death was something that he became accustom to a long time ago.
Knowing that Sasuke had no trouble with this, Naruto knew that he had to be the same. If he was going to become the best shinobi that the world had ever seen and one that would make the Senju clan proud, then he would no doubt have to kill later on in his career. It was better to get used to it now rather than choke up later on at a critical point.
Azula for her part knew that this was something that she had to do but for the life her, she couldn't pull the metaphorical trigger. The guilt that she knew she would be feeling for killing even a wolf was something that she didn't want to deal with.
She choked. Azula didn't throw her kunai.
Just as the wolf was closing in on her location with its fangs ready to rip her face off, Sasuke came to the rescue.
With yet another kunai in his hand, Sasuke sped off at a perpendicular angle to the wolf and slammed the pointy end of the kunai straight into the temple of the wolf.
It collapsed onto the floor immediately.
"I thought you weren't like the others…" Sasuke sneered at the girl who didn't respond for a moment.
"S-sorry, I choked for a second then. I promise that it won't happen again!" Azula vowed with determination. She hated the fact that she did nothing even more than what Naruto and Sasuke did.
"Well then what better way than now." A new voice suddenly said as it entered the conversation. The weird thing was that it came from beneath them as a man popped up out of the ground.
He had a kunai in hand and it was aimed directly at the jugular vein of Sasuke Uchiha. The disguised ROOT ninja's plan was to help quicken the process of activating the Sharingan. As per his mission briefing the most effective way to activate was in a life or death situation.
What he did not expect was for Sasuke to dodge his attack without activating the Sharingan in any form. The speed and reaction time he had used were far beyond what genin ninjas should possess.
It was safe to say that Danzo never truly did his homework on the up and coming Uchiha ninja.
Watching as the Uchiha dodged the incoming attack, the ninja jumped back a few metres. He was met by his partners in crime. It turned into a face off where Naruto, Sasuke and Azula stood facing off against a missing nin from Iwagakure and two missing ninjas from Kumogakure.
Danzo hoped that with the humiliation and defeat at the hands of these ninjas that Team Seven would develop grudges against Konoha's biggest threats.
"What the hell was that for!?" Azula shouted out at the enemy.
"You Konoha scum can go and get fucked by a cactus you dirty inbred trash." The Iwagakure ninja shouted back in response.
"Azula, being the one who took the most pride in her village got offended the most at this.
"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)
Azula called out after she had thrown a kunai straight at the three ninjas. She produced fifty copies of the lethal weapon.
Having seen this jutsu a million times beforehand, the disguised shinobi easily knew that blocking it was not an option. The three missing Nins jumped back as far and as fast as they could to dodge the incoming attack.
Thankfully for them they had surrounding foliage which included large oak trees to take the full brunt of the damage. "That was a stupid thing to do. Now we don't have sight of them." Naruto quickly said.
Knowing that there would be an argument here if he did nothing, Sasuke quickly intervened. "That also means that they can't see us."
Naruto immediately went through some hand seals. When he planted his hands on the ground, two clones made out of mud formed out of the ground. With a nod, the first one entered the forest through the main pathway from where they were standing.
"You two take go and enter from the front. I will go around the back and cause a distraction from the back and you use this chance to take out one of them." Whist Sasuke was annoyed when he heard Naruto say this because was team leader; Sasuke did not fault the plan of his best friend one bit. It was the exact same plan that he had formed.
Despite the fact she knew how dangerous this situation was with enemy ninja around, Azula knew that she had to give this mission her all. If those ninjas tried to kill Sasuke earlier, then it meant that they would have no trouble attempting to kill again. She had to remain vigilant and focused. She didn't want any damage to come to her or her team.
"Naruto-san… be careful."
"Yeah, I will be sure not to mess up your mission record princess." Naruto called out spitefully before darting off to the right.
The blonde haired girl, when she heard this hung her head. It seemed like no matter what she did, she would never become friends with her teammates.
"Forget about him Azula-chan. He's just being an asshole; I'll talk to him later on. Just keep your head up and stay focused." It was awkward for him to say but Sasuke knew that he had to have the girl firing on all cylinders.
He didn't know how strong these ninjas were and although he and Naruto were hiding a lot of their skillsets, he didn't know whether or not Azula could handle this.
As the team leader, it was his job to motivate his troops and help them fire on all cylinders. Had he not been in the situation he was in, Sasuke would have narrowed his eyes at his brother in all but blood and have a chat with him later on. Given that the morale and clear mind of Azula though was crucial, Sasuke did something that he wasn't accustomed to.
He talked to a girl that he wasn't related to on his own accord for the first time about something other than insulting her.
Putting up a brave face, Azula turned around to Sasuke. "Thanks Sasuke-kun, now come on, we've got a mission to do."
She's different. She's better than all of the others.
x-X-x
The disguised ROOT ninja were surprised at the amount of time that it took for Team Seven to come after them. From all the reports they had been briefed on, the Yondaime's daughter was incredibly passionate about her home and any insult flung her way would cause her to lose control to her anger.
The plan was to draw the Kyubi's jinchuuriki into the forest with the two teammates to follow in after him. They would then fall prey to the trap that and ambush the team causing a full on fight to break out.
It would be here where they completed the primary mission objective for Danzo. The illegitimate child of the Yondaime would be killed killing three birds with one stone.
If word ever got out that the hierarchy which ruled over Konoha split up the children of Minato Namikaze at birth after he sacrificed himself, the city would be in uproar. Not only that but Konoha would lose a lot of the good reputation that it prided itself on when it came to seducing potential clients and keeping existing ones.
With the death of Naruto Uzumaki serving as the catalyst for the Kyubi jinchuuriki getting in touch with her demon's chakra and the activation of the Sharingan, it was a calculated risk to kill off the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.
It was not as if the Uchiha and the Jinchuuriki would ever find out what had actually happened to their teammate.
When they saw their target walk through the forest, the chunin didn't take the bait. They knew that it was pointless for them to kill the genin unless the Uchiha and jinchuuriki watched. They wanted to get the most out of it as it would point them straight down Danzo's path once he talked to them.
It was then that one of the chunin noticed out of the corner of his eye that there was a Naruto coming at him with a kunai in his hand. Quickly dodging the jab of the knife the former Kumogakure ninja yanked the kunai out of the hand of Naruto and viciously punched the kid straight in the face.
It was much to his surprise that the blonde haired ninja turned into mud. "The jinchuuriki knows Doton jutsus." The ninja said informing his team of what to expect.
When his comrades turned around to see if there was a follow up from that direction, Naruto saw this as his opportunity. Coming out from the ground below with his enemies none the wiser, Naruto jabbed a kunai right into the Achilles tendon / ankle bone of the other Kumogakure Ninja.
Before the man could even react, Naruto slipped back under ground.
Despite all of the emotional conditioning he had under ROOT ANBU training, the man still could not hold back the pained scream. "Ahh!" The ROOT ninja screamed out in pain. With the weapon still left at the scene of the crime, the Kumogakure and Iwagakure missing nins saw the damage that Naruto had done.
It was only now that they realised just what they were up against and that they couldn't take things lightly. The second that they saw Azula and Sasuke enter the clearing, both of the ROOT chunin charged at them.
As he was charging at Sasuke, the Kumogakure chunin pulled out a sword from his sheath and prepared to swing it in a downward motion.
He was moving as fast as he possibly could and yet even with the threat of his katana, the Sharingan of the Uchiha had yet to be activated.
As he dodged the swing of the sword, Sasuke Uchiha gathered up a fair amount of lighting chakra in his fist and swung viciously at the face of the enemy. As he was a two handed swordsmen, the chunin ninja had overcommitted and he wasn't in a position to defend himself properly.
As he copped the full brunt of the attack in the face, the man got sent back down to the ground.
Before Sasuke could follow up on this, there was an explosion right next to him. In that split second his triple tomoe Sharingan spotted an explosive tag that was stuck onto that had been planted on the left hip bone of Azula Namikaze.
The blast was enough to throw Sasuke down to the ground as well as disorientate him. He felt a stinging sensation in his arm and noticed that he was bleeding from multiple locations on his right arm.
Azula for her part screamed in pain as when she looked down at her side which was previously covered in thick orange jumper and track suit pants, she saw fragments of her hip bone lying on the ground beside her.
Blood was pouring out from the wound and she could honestly say that this was the most painful thing that she had ever experienced.
Naruto, who was still underground when he saw this with only his head poking out of the ground, knew that he had to take action. He couldn't let this go on any more. He didn't know how much damage had been done to the princess of Konoha but it looked pretty damn serious. With the amount of blood she was losing at the moment, he wasn't sure that he was skilled enough to prevent that from turning fatal.
Popping up out of the ground enough to use his arms, Naruto jammed the kunai in his hand straight into the jugular vein of his enemy.
Death was instant.
Pulling himself up from out of the ground, Naruto started going over to Azula. He had already completed the hand seals for the mystic palm jutsu and planned to repair as much of Azula's hip as possible.
What Naruto failed to take into account was the fact that the man who he had stabbed in the ankle had managed to get into a position where he could use jutsu.
He used the trademark jutsu of the famed Uchiha clan.
As the raven haired Uchiha saw this and noticed that Naruto also had his back turned, Sasuke got into position and quickly did the same jutsu. Sasuke however channelled a much larger amount of chakra into his lungs and produced a much large fireball. He had to force back the previous one which was already travelling at a much faster rate.
The fireball that Sasuke created triumphed over the one that the Kumogakure Ninja created and due to the fact that he had a severely reduced range of mobility, the grand fireball overpowered and pushed all of the fire right onto the man.
He was cooked on the spot.
As all of this was happening, the forgotten man was the makeshift missing Iwagakure ninja. He had taken a fairly large amount of damage himself from planting the explosive tag on the jinchuuriki.
By the time he regained his senses, he knew he was outnumbered and needed to complete his mission even if it costed him his life. Pulling out a kunai, the man channelled wind natured chakra into the instrument of death and flung it at the son of Minato Namikaze.
Even if he died, for the sake of Konoha, Naruto Uzumaki had to die.
Once again, Naruto didn't see this coming as it was right at the edge of his periphery vision. To make matters worse, Sasuke wasn't able to bail Naruto out this time as it was also at the edge of his periphery as well.
The crippled Azula Namikaze however did manage to see it as she looked away from her injury for the first time. It was during this passing glance to hopefully forget about the pain for a second or two, that Azula spotted the kunai flying straight for Naruto.
In spite of the pain that she was in, Azula knew that she had a duty to do even if Naruto might not be willing to do the same thing.
Adrenaline in the form of the Kyubi's chakra kicked in Azula's time of need. Her red eyes and pronounced whisker marks leapt up from the ground and pushed Naruto down to the ground.
Shocked at Azula's behaviour, Naruto watched in slow motion as a wind chakra coated kunai pierced straight through Azula's right lung. Before she even hit the ground, Naruto had already started screaming in protest about how she shouldn't have done that.
Sasuke turned around in a split second and what he saw was a sight that haunted him. It reminded him of the helplessness he felt during the massacre at the hands of his elder brother. With a rage like no other, Sasuke sped off at a speed in which a lot of jonin would have trouble following thanks to enhancing his muscles with lightning chakra.
As he was doing this, Sasuke started producing a massive amount of lightning chakra in his hand, so much so that blue lightning formed on the edge of his hand.
"Piercing Beak" Sasuke called out with his hand in a beak like position and jabbed his hand right through the heart of his enemy. The death instantaneous but Sasuke didn't feel any better knowing that Azula was probably going to die given the fact that the kunai had gone through one side of her body and out of the other.
Getting up as fast as he could, Naruto redid the seals for the mystic palm jutsu and placed them over the hole in Azula's chest. Immediately, Naruto started channelling medical chakra through to the wound as best as he could.
It was times like these that Naruto really wished he had started taking up medical ninjutsu before he met the slug clan. If he had, then he was confident that he would be even better than what he was now.
As all of this was happening, due to the shock of the injuries that she had sustained, Azula's brain had sent her into a coma. This was done so that her body could use all of its resources for healing itself and not less important things like being awake at this point in time.
"Come on! Don't die on me Azula-chan!" Naruto screamed out as he was sending green coloured chakra into her system with his hand over the wound over her breast.
It was then that something happened. He didn't know it at the time but looking at the situation in review, Azula very much welcomed it.
There was an extremely potent red chakra that flowed through the body of Azula. He didn't know what it was but from the looks of things, it was helping Naruto in the healing of Azula. The blonde haired boy did not complain for a second. Naruto quickly realised that the red chakra was actually healing his teammate much faster and more importantly more efficient than what he was capable of. He wondered what kind of bloodline Azula had.
It came at a cost though.
Whatever the red chakra was, Naruto started feeling a burning sensation when it came into contact with his hands. In spite of this, Naruto knew that if he stopped healing her, then she would die. The Uzumaki genin persevered through the pain with gritted teeth and continued to repair the wound. Naruto even went so far as to hiss in pain.
After five minutes of constant healing of the injury to her lung, Naruto was confident in that the red chakra was capable enough of fully repairing the rest of the damage.
This didn't mean his job was done though as he immediately moved over to her hip.
Azula had lost a lot of energy during this process and her body had failed to produce enough plasma to the injury to clot the blood and stop it from bleeding. This meant that Azula was losing a ton of blood and nothing had been done to stop it.
Naruto quickly put an end to that and as soon as his green chakra coated hands came in contact with the wound, the red chakra flared as if responding to the medicinal chakra being inserted into the wound.
The combined effort of the Kyubi and Naruto worked in stopping the blood from leaving Azula's body. Again, Naruto did not let up for a second because he knew that if he left the wound like this, he would leave her body vulnerable to a whole host of parasites and diseases just waiting to enter Azula's body.
Once the blood coagulated, the first thing that Naruto started repairing was the hip bone of the blonde haired girl.
Adrenaline was pumping through the body of Naruto at the highest that it had ever been. He was pumped beyond reckoning; so much so that he didn't realise that his chakra was running low. Naruto powered on and started recreating Azula's hip flexor muscle from scratch which had been blown up.
Finally, once Naruto had finished rebuilding the ligaments, tendons and muscles that went into the hip, he started working on the skin of Azula. Sweat was pouring down from his body and he was feeling pretty tired but Naruto was determined to complete the healing process before quitting. He owed his life to Azula and he would be damned if he didn't do everything he possibly could to repay her back tenfold.
Naruto struggled to dredge up the absolute last slivers of chakra in his body as sweat poured down his body. Finally, when he got to the point where all there was on the side of Azula's hip was a 1cm scab, he decided that he simply couldn't do any more and that what he had done was good enough.
The second that he did this, the adrenaline that was pulsating through his body gave out and Naruto immediately passed out on the spot due to chakra exhaustion.
Due to the severity of just how much chakra Naruto had used, he didn't even have enough control over his body to choose where he landed. Naruto fell face forward with his face landing in a rather awkward position.
It would be the secret of Sasuke Uchiha that Naruto landed face first onto Azula's lower lips. At least the remains of pants and underwear were still covering the modesty of the teenage girl.
This little funny situation was not enough to change the mindset of Sasuke. Even though he had killed the majority of the enemies today, the raven haired Uchiha still felt like absolute shit for not being able to come through in the clutch when it mattered.
In his brain which was going at the speed of light, Sasuke Uchiha had the place of mind to remember that the threat was still not over. There was still the threat of some unknown animal coming into the clearing and getting some trouble free lunch.
It was up to him to man the fort and take care of his incapacitated team.
Sasuke was really second guessing himself for choosing to go on this mission.
