The warm sun pierced the sky and kissed Akira's face as she looked up at it. The sky was as blue as it had ever been, no trace of the storm she'd created the previous night. The trees were a vibrant green and Akira listened to the birds chirp somewhere off in the distance. The sweet fragrance of the wisteria and irises reached Akira's nose and she couldn't resist plucking an iris and placing it behind her ear, the pale purple of the flower bringing out the blue in her dark eyes. The stream flowed peacefully under their feet as they crossed a short bridge, and the dirt pathway through the trees was completely dry except for one puddle.
Akira's eyebrow's furrowed. A puddle? Why was there a puddle in the middle of a warm, dry path? Akira looked over at Kakashi - he'd glanced at it too. And if Kakashi-sensei thought it was odd, then something was surely afoot. No one else seemed to notice, however, so maybe it wasn't that big of a deal. Sakura was especially unconcerned as she was taking pictures of herself and trying to take pictures of the rest of the team on her first mission. When Sasuke insisted she shoved her camera down her throat, Sakura put it away and decided to ask Kakashi-sensei some questions.
"Mr. Tazuna's country is the land of waves, right? Are there ninja there too?"
"No, there are no ninja in the Land of Waves," he replied, deadpan as usual. "But in other countries, there are hidden villages each with their own customs and cultures where ninja reside." Akira looked at her sensei and listened as well. "To the people of this continent, the existence of shinobi villages means strength - military strength. In other words, that's how they protect themselves and maintain the balance of power with neighbouring countries. The ninja villages are not controlled by any government, they're independent and have equal status. Now, a small island like the Land of Waves has a natural protection from the sea - the fog - so, there's no need for a ninja village. The five ancient lands that possess shinobi villages are the lands of Fire, Water, Lightning, Wind and Earth."
"Like the five nature types of jutsu," Akira commented.
"Correct," Kakashi said. "They each occupy vast territories and together, they form the Five Great Shinobi Nations. The Land of Fire has the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the Land of Waves has the Village Hidden in the Mist, the Land of Lightning - the Village Hidden in the clouds, the Land of Wind - the Village Hidden in the Sand, and the Land of Earth has the Village Hidden in the Stones. Only the leaders of these villages are permitted the name 'Kage', which means Shadow: Hokage, Mizukage, Raikage, Kazekage, Tsuchikage. These are the leaders, the five shadows that reign over thousands of ninja."
'He's the strongest in the Land of Fire?' Akira thought. 'But he just sits there and does paperwork all day...'
"Hey!"
Akira snapped out of her thoughts, suddenly nervous about doubting the Hokage.
"You all just doubted Lord Hokage, didn't you?" Kakashi said.
Akira, Naruto and Sakura began shaking their heads, Naruto was also laughing nervously. Kakashi gently put his hand on Akira's head; she looked up at him.
"Well, anyway - there are no ninja battles in a C-rank mission, so you can relax," he said.
"Then we're not going to run into any foreign enemy ninja?" Akira asked. Kakashi chuckled and smiled at her.
"Not likely."
When Akira turned back to the front, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura were glaring at her.
"Hey, why are you all glaring at me?"
Sakura's eyes flickered upward to Kakashi's hand on Akira's head. He removed it almost instantaneously.
"It's a hand. On my head. Get over yourselves."
"Not anymore," Sakura taunted.
"Not anymore," Akira said in a mocking tone of voice. "Please, can you even hear yourself?"
Sakura became red-faced and turned back to the front, continuing to walk as if nothing had happened. Akira frowned. What was wrong with Kakashi patting her head? It's not like he hadn't done it before. She couldn't see their faces at the time however, maybe they were glaring then, too? But why would they do that? Jealousy? No, it couldn't be. Just then, Akira and everyone else heard a movement behind them and suddenly, Kakashi-sensei pushed Akira forward. She stumbled a bit but recovered quickly and turned around just in time to see her sensei get wrapped in extremely sharp chains. There were two men attached together with said chain and they'd managed to get Kakashi caught. If he hadn't pushed her, Akira would have been in there too. Suddenly, the two men pulled on their chains and squeezed Kakashi-sensei until the sharp blades crushed the silver-haired ninja and whatever fell to the ground was a heap of bloody Kakashi chunks.
Akira's breath hitched in her throat at the sight and she thought she was about to throw up. Memories of her dead clan began to resurface and panic began to set in. Akira hadn't been in this state outside of her bedroom in years. She'd only ever experienced this kind of fear from her nightmares about her family. Her family. Kakashi might have only been her sensei for a few months, but he was such a big part of her life. And her team... She was panicking because her new family was threatened. She couldn't stop it last time... but maybe she could this time.
Still panicking, Akira looked over at her brother and they both nodded at each other. Just as the men's chain was heading towards Naruto, who'd frozen in place, Sasuke pulled out a shuriken and threw it at the chain, pinning it against a tree and then he threw a kunai in the center of his shuriken to secure it. Meanwhile, Akira dashed at the two men and jumped, her feet landing quite stable on their pinned arms. She then grabbed their arms and, with her feet, kicked the two men in the face, ripping the chains of their arm pieces.
The two men circled back - one towards Naruto, the other towards Tazuna. These men were relentless! Sakura planted herself in front of Tazuna, pointing a kunai and the charging man, but then Sasuke stood in front of Sakura to protect her. Akira unsheathed a knife from her arm band and flicked it outwards, dashing at the man heading towards Naruto. She was just about to slash down on him when, out of nowhere, Kakashi-sensei appeared and grabbed both men by the neck with ease. Akira froze on the spot, too surprised to even care that that seemed too easy for her sensei. He was alive; that was all she could think of - all the fear was erased.
"Hi," he said simply.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Akira said happily, grinning from ear to ear.
"Huh? But he was- " Naruto turned back to was used to be a pile of Kakashi bits, but were now small logs. "You used a substitution jutsu!?"
"Naruto, sorry I didn't help you right away. I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I just didn't think you'd... freeze up like that," Kakashi said, walking towards Akira, Sasuke and Sakura. " Good job, Akira, Sasuke - very smooth. You too, Sakura."
Akira grinned at her sensei, completely ignoring everything else. That until Kakashi mentioned the word 'poison'. The men's claws were poisoned and Naruto had been hit on the hand with them. The poison was slowly moving through his blood, but it would barely move if Naruto stayed still. Kakashi tied up the two men to a nearby tree, then he turned to Tazuna.
"Mr. Tazuna."
"Y-Yeah, what?"
"We need to talk." Kakashi crossed his arms. "They're Chūnin from the Village Hidden in the Mist. Their specialty is 'relentless attack' - they keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice."
"How did you know about our ambush?" one of them asked.
"A puddle - on a clear day when everything is dried up?"
"So that's why the puddle was there. You were hiding in it until it was time to strike!" Akira noted.
"In that case, why did you leave the fighting up to the Genin?" Tazuna asked.
"I could have taken them out quickly, but then I'd have learned nothing. I had to know who their target was," Kakashi said condescendingly, glaring at Tazuna.
"Hm? What are you getting at?" he asked.
"This: I wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja, or if they were after you, the master bridge maker," sensei said, turning towards the man he was speaking to. "When you put in your request, you asked for standard protection from robbers and highwaymen. You didn't say there were ninja looking for you, hunting you down. If we knew this, it would be a B-rank mission or higher. Our job was simply to get to home and protect you while you finished building your bridge."
Kakashi's voice was getting dangerously low, starting to make Akira realize just how scary he could be. Even Naruto and Sakura seemed to look uneasy.
"If we knew there were ninja after you we would have staffed differently and charged for the cost of a B-rank mission. Apparently you have your reasons, but lying to us is not acceptable. We are now beyond the scope of this mission."
"We're Genin," Sakura said. "This is too advanced for our level of training. We should go back."
"But we've gotten this far!" Akira said, disappointed.
"We should go back, get Naruto's wound to a doctor."
"Naruto's hand could become a problem," Kakashi said, almost bored. "I guess we should go back to the village."
Akira sighed and glared at Sakura who smiled innocently at her. What was she up to? Naruto could remove the poison himself by cutting open his wound a little bit to let the blood drain - so why did they have to go back to the village? They didn't need a doctor! Besides, if they ended up going back, the Hokage would most likely end up sending someone else on the mission. Akira knew it was dangerous, but she wanted to complete it, and she was sure that her brother as well as Naruto wanted the same thing. Suddenly, as if he'd been reading her mind, Naruto took a kunai and plunged it into his hand, the blood draining from it as well as the poison.
"Why am I so different?" he growled, turning around.
"Naruto!" Sakura called. "What are you doing!?"
"He's bleeding out the poison, Sakura, that's what," Akira said with a smirk. "We won't have to go back to the village after all."
"I worked so hard to get here - pushing myself until it hurt, training alone for hours," Naruto shouted, "anything to get stronger - to reach my dreams. I will never back down again and let someone else rescue me! I will never run away. I will not lose to anyone. Upon this wound, I make this pledge: bridge builder, I'll complete this mission and protect you with this kunai!" Naruto turned around, staring at Tazuna with determination. Akira smiled. "Don't worry I'll be fine."
"Um, Naruto?" Akira said, walking over to him with bandages. "That was cool and all, how you removed the poison, but you're gonna bleed to death if you lose any more blood."
Naruto's face drained of colour. Kakashi walked over as well.
"Good idea to stop the bleeding now," he said in a sing-song voice.
"Ah! No, no, no! I'm too young for it to all end like this! No, no, no!"
"Show me your hand, Naruto. Akira, get ready to bandage."
"Right, sensei!" Akira said, unrolling the medical fabric.
"Naruto, you've got a self-abusive personality!" Sakura said sternly. "It's called masochism!"
Kakashi held Naruto's hand in place, but as Akira was about to put a bandage on his wound, she noticed that his cut was fusing back together with a flicker of orange light. She didn't need to look at him to know that Kakashi was looking at it too. He was already starting to heal? How could that be?
"Uh, guys? You have really serious looks on your faces, you're scaring me... Am I going to be okay?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah, you should be fine. Akira?"
"Right."
Akira wrapped his hand in bandages after wiping all the blood off, her mind racing. He was healing up already - it looked like a fire was sealing the wound shut. Fire. Suddenly she remembered stories from her family. She looked up at Kakashi-sensei and wondered, as they kept walking to the Land of Waves, if he was thinking the same thing too... Could it be the Nine-Tailed Fox?
