AN: Don't own Naruto.
Reader Responses:
Just a general response to the people who commented on Tora being killed; I can honestly say I wasn't expecting so many of you to get a kick out of that but I'm glad you all enjoyed it. It's always satisfy to break the mold and soak up the reactions.
Hothead615: There are no grenades, machine guns, or SMG's, yet. They'll get there sooner than you might think. Wave is going to be a bit of an eye opener for the team and Naruto in particular about how the guns could be improved, and diversified to work better in different situations.
Azrael Akuma: Hadn't planned on Kakashi dual wielding pistols though it is a badass image, maybe. Yes the Sharingan is pretty much that video game effect where everything slows down. Epic right?
iyaoyas: The info about the M14: that makes a bit more sense, I did know some of that about the benefits of wounding vs. killing enemies but it's good to be reminded. I haven't found anything about vietnam snipers using suppressors either, not that I've done much research, not really sure where to look honestly. Oh and thanks for the info on back up weapons.
From under his hat the Hokage glared at team seven, the three males feigned ignorance admirably but most impressive of all was Hinata who had fallen back on her clan's lessons on hiding emotions and stood at parade rest with her face an admirably blank mask.
"Would any of you care to speculate on how it is the Taro the cat was killed." The Hokage asked seriously. "Madam Shijimi was rather distraught."
"The cat kicked the bucket?" Naruto asked with a grin, causing his leaders eyebrow to twitch.
"Yes, rather gruesomely I might add."
"What a tragedy." Sasuke deadpanned.
"Yes… well. Team Guy has already offered to help comfort Madam Shijimi by collecting one of her, shall we say, more caustic felines to help her through this time of loss." The Hokage said with an evil glint in his eye causing the team before him to stiffen.
"What?" Naruto asked sounding panicked.
"Well Tora was always the most mild mannered of his littermates." The three genin were now beginning to panic while Kakashi actually appeared stunned by the aged leader's declaration. "Now, I'm told that Tora's siblings are equally prone to taking long walks away from their owner. That said once team Guy returns we will need a team on hand to handle retrieval… Ah team Kakashi, how nice of you all to volunteer!" The genin hung their heads in defeat and misery.
"Until then however, it appears as if you three are chomping at the bit to move on to more, substantial work." The hint of mirth in the Hokage's eye spoke of some kind of torturous experience in the near future. "It just so happens that we have recently received a request for a C-ranked escort mission to Wave."
Team Kakashi traded nervous glances waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"It's about a week long trip at a civilian pace." The genin traded quick glances. That was slow and boring to be sure but hardly unexpected for the type of mission. "And I'm afraid the client is a bit of a bad mouthed grouch, not a very happy person at all really." They winced. A week of playing nice to a rude client would be a test of anyone's patience. "Once you arrive in wave you will stay on protection duty while he completes his bridge which should take, oh about two weeks." Three weeks of playing nice to a grouchy client! The genin were now truly beginning to panic. "Oh and I suppose I should mention he is a rather heavy drinker." Hiruzen finished with a chuckle at the looks of misery on his young soldier's faces.
"But don't worry, Madam Shijimi will be in the village for another couple of months so there will be plenty of time for you all to become acquainted with whichever of her other cats' team Guy returns with." The Hokage reminded cheerfully. That did it, their spirits thoroughly crushed and their punishment firmly entrenched in their minds the genin made their way out of the Hokage's office with a reminder to meet at the gate in an hour.
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"None of this would have happened if you two had just let things go! But no, you had to go and turn that cat into an assassination mission, didn't you? You just had to go and test your skills!"
"Come on Hinata, you can't blame this all on me." Naruto whined. "Kakashi-sensei's the one who greenlighted it and took the shot." Naruto whined piteously.
"Don't you dare try to put this all on him; it was your idea in the first place!"
"I didn't exactly hear you object when I suggested killing it to bring it in!"
"That was when the cat was still our problem! You suggested the stupid 'training operation' after the cat was already someone else's problem!"
"But Hinata-hime"
"Don't you, 'Hinata-hime' me Naruto. As far as I'm concerned this mission is your fault and you can forget about me helping catch the new demon cat. As far as I'm concerned you boys brought this on yourselves, so you can just suck it up and deal with it on your own!"
"Wait what?!" Sasuke yelled slightly panicked.
"Oh now you join the conversation." Naruto groused.
"Can it, idiot. Come on Hinata, we could barely track the first cat with your help, how do you expect us to track the new cat without you?!"
"Not my problem. You boys wanted revenge on the cat, congratulations you got it. You can deal with the fallout on your own." Hinata huffed airily drawing on a lifetime of experience gained from living with her clan.
Naruto and Sasuke crumpled inwardly. They were not ready to give up on trying to convince and or bribe Hinata to help them with cat wrangling, but for the moment at least, they had no choice except to admit defeat. Tazuna who had been following the running debate since the group had left the village almost twenty minutes ago eyed the teens with extreme trepidation.
"Jounin-san, I hate to sound like a broken record, but these kids seem more like a comedy act than ninja's. The blonde with the weird hat and the girl get on like an old married couple, and the emo… well he seems like an emo… And you all seem a bit crazy what with the metal pipes strapped to you." Kakashi chuckled while his student's glared daggers at Tazuna who's only response was to gulp down more saki.
"Well Tazuna-san, I'll admit this team isn't really geared towards a guard missions." Tazuna tensed minutely which went unnoticed by exactly no one." But I can guarantee you all of us are more than capable of dealing with bandits or hired thugs." Tazuna chose to take another sip from his gourd rather than answer.
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"So, a puddle…" Naruto stated as he continued to meander down the road.
"Yup." Sasuke deadpanned back.
"Idiots." Hinata mumbled.
"I mean I know it's partly because this team has an ex ANBU, two doujutsu users, and a stealth expert, but they could have been a lot subtler than this."
"A stealth expert, Naruto?" Kakashi asked raising his visible eyebrow.
"Sensei, I just said you were in ANBU. It's implied that you know stealth."
"Oh and us, Naruto?" Sasuke asked feigning aggravation.
"You two learned everything you know about stealth from me, and still need more practice." The blonde shot back.
"What are you all talking about?" Grumbled Tazuna. "What's the big deal about a puddle?"
"Oh, well you see we're walking towards an ambush right now." Naruto responded fiddling with his knife handle.
"W-what?" Tazuna's voice squeaked and his eyes shot wide open head whipping from side to side.
"Naruto, don't scare the client, he could give us away." Kakashi chastised. "Relax Tazuna-san, walking into an ambush when you know it's an ambush is very different from being caught in an Ambush. Just relax and let us do our jobs."
"RELAX?! Are you out of your mind?!" Tazuna shouted before turning and trying to sprint away. Kakashi caught the man by the back of his shirt and simply sighed.
"That, Naruto, is why you do not tell a client you are walking into an ambush unless you plan to avoid the ambush all together."
"Sorry, sensei."
Realizing they had been spotted a pair of mist shinobi seemed to rise out of the puddle. Not wasting time on words the duo dashed forwards, their motions in almost perfect mirror image, a bladed chain swinging between their bladed gauntlets. The genin split, Sasuke charging forward the single tomo of his sharingan spinning madly ready to meet with one of the nin even as Hinata and Naruto engaged the second together.
Sasuke slid low under a claw swipe aimed for his bowels as well as the chain trailing behind the attack. Just as quickly Sasuke rocketed up from behind driving a fist into the soft tissue of his opponents exposed armpit. Taking advantage of the wince and the opponents now off balance stance Sasuke followed up with a haymaker to the base of the neck. The man's muffled cry of pain was muted by his gas mask and cut off outright when Sasuke jammed a kunai through the falling man's temple.
Sasuke, running on adrenaline spun to check that his teammates were alright. A brace of shuriken already in hand and ready to throw.
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Naruto, without breaking stride, drew his combat knife (Ka-bar) from where it hung off his waist. Using both hands to reinforce the block he caught the enemy's bladed gauntlet, even still the force behind the strike pushed the blonde back several inches. Hinata flowed around her boyfriend with speed and grace intercepting the attacking nins other arm and jabbing at it repeatedly causing it to fall limp. With wide eyes the mist nin leapt back several feet. Just as his feet touched ground a trio of shuriken embedded themselves in the mist nins legs, one striking the back of the knee causing it to give out and the man to collapse. Hinata taking full advantage of the provided opening moved in and with a flurry of strikes to the mist nin's chest knocked him unconscious.
The three genin stood breathing only slightly labored guards up, and muscles tense, waiting for more enemies to appear, for another attack. All three spun on their heels to face back the way they came arms or weapons raised at the sharp crack of flesh on flesh. They trio visibly relaxed at the sight of the openly gaping Tazuna and the slowly clapping Kakashi.
"Well done you three. For your first live combat, that was very well executed."
The relaxed posture of their jounin sensei did wonders for the genin's nerves. Slowly the tension bled out of their muscles and their postures relaxed, Naruto and Sasuke put their weapons away. Sasuke took a moment to glance back at the opponent he had killed and visibly fought to keep his face calm.
Sasuke jumped slightly as Naruto clapped him on the shoulder. Glancing over and seeing the reassuring look from his two teammates helped the raven haired teen to relax, if only a bit. Kakashi stepped past the Gennin scooping up their opponents.
"Watch Tazuna. Keep your guards up just in case. I need to have a chat with our friend here and clean up." Nodding the group reformed around the client while Hinata took up scanning the surroundings at odd intervals with her byakugan. She would occasionally wince as she caught glimpses of Kakashi and the living assailant's 'chat'. Twenty minutes later Kakashi returned a smell not unlike that of burnt pork clinging to him.
"Well now, Tazuna-san, you have been far less than honest." Kakashi declared with a one eyed glare, causing the man to gulp. "You don't need protection from bandits. You have ninja and a small army of mercenaries after your head." Kakashi nearly blurred as he slammed Tazuna's back up against a tree holding the man by the neck.
"My genin are some of the leaf's best rookies, and I'm one of the best period." The irate jounin spat. "Had this been a less skilled group, a less wary one, the leaf could have lost one or more ninja! Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you and leave your body to rot!"
The genin's eyes went wide at this new side of their generally laid back instructor. In Kakashi's mind though this was the only appropriate response. Every ninja had to risk their lives for the village, it was inevitable. That being said letting clients get away with putting the villages ninja in danger they were not yet prepared for set a bad precedent, the kind that lead to unnecessary deaths. One of the chunin led teams of second rate graduates, the kind that were unlikely to ever progress past chunin, if they got that far, an ambush such as this could have mowed down a team of that skill level, particularly given the poison all the enemy weapons had been coated in.
It took almost no prompting for Tazuna to spill the entire story of his country and its plight. The story matched up to what information Kakashi had pried out of the demon brother.
And now came the real difficulty. The mission was a potential cash cow for the village. If they village took control of Gato's finances they could fill their coffers. But draining a corporation of that size could drastically affect the economy. Not to mention how it could negatively impact regular shipments of any number of products to a large number of coastal cities. Helping get wave back on its feet could lead to all kinds of beneficial arrangements; a forward outpost for the leaf, a school to scout potential shinobi, preferential trading and mission agreements, political favors. Truly the potential payout was insane but Kakashi was a warrior not a politician or accountant, and the potential repercussions from a major misstep made this a lousy time for amateur hour.
"We are going back to the village, all of us. The mission is being scrapped." The Genin shot Kakashi looks of surprise. "This changes everything. The Hokage is going to need to evaluate just how much Wave will owe Konoha before we go in. Tazuna, you don't need a protection mission you need an assassination. Assassinating someone like Gato, and eliminating a small army of bandits and mercs is going to be expensive. We need to determine exactly what your country can offer as payment, either now or over the coming years."
Kakashi let a small grin spread under his mask as looks of understanding spread across his genin's faces. The grin only grew as the boy's looks became eager, and Hinata's determined, to take on the proposed assassination mission themselves. They were ready. They might not get this one, but all four would fight for their right to take the new mission once the Hokage had settled the terms.
Wave would be freed, and Konoha would make out bandits.
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