Chapter 12: Journey to the Land of Waves
It's a sunny day in the leaf village and Team 7 were heading towards the Hokage tower to receive their latest mission. The three of them were getting really annoyed with their missions lately as they were mainly pet retrieval or labour work, these types of mission were getting on Naruto's nerves the most. When they arrived at the tower the Third Hokage handed Kakashi the mission scroll, Kakashi opened the scroll and looked at it, He then looked down at the group and let of a small sigh which to them meant it was another lame mission.
"What farm work duty, you've got to be kidding me" Shouted Naruto.
"Naruto calm down and just accept what you're given" Said Kakashi trying to calm Naruto down.
"Sensei I have to agree with Naruto these typed of mission are getting annoying now" Said Sakura with Sasuke agreeing with her.
"Yeh I mean come on I want a more challenging mission now, not just some easy worthless mission" Said Naruto, Kakashi then looked at the Third Hokage who in returned sighed at him.
"Ok then how about I give you guys a B-Rank mission then" Said the Third
"A B-Rank mission, now we talking, so what do we have to do" Said Naruto
"You will need to escort a bridge builder back to his home located in the land of waves so he can resume his work" Said the Third signally the bridge builder to come in. The three of them looked at the builder who had walked in. Was this man for real they thought as the builder took another sip of his drink.
"So my life has been entrusted to a bunch of kids hey, well this should be a fu trip" Said the man taking another sip of his drink.
"Hey who the hell do you think you are, you old geezer" Shouted Naruto who tried walking up to the man to hit him but instead was being held back by Kakashi.
"Calm down Naruto, you're supposed to protect him not hurt him" Said Kakashi, as Naruto calmed down.
"Sorry about that, my name is Kakashi Hatake and yes we will be your escort for this mission"
"My name is Tazuna, and next time I think you should keep that kid on a leash" Laughed Tazuna. Now Sakura wanted to punch him but Sasuke placed his hand on her shoulder and shook his head at her, Sakura held her anger in and kept quiet.
"Well then we should get going soon, will meet you all in front of the main gate in about an hour, so head home and grab everything you need" Said Kakashi as he and Tazuna left the room, with the other three following behind them.
One hour had passed and they all had regrouped at the main gate, after a final check to see if they had everything the proceeded towards the land of waves. A few hours had passed and there was no sign of any danger, but every still kept their guard in case. Naruto then accidently walked into a water puddle which was on the side of the road, drenching his shoe but he didn't really care as it would dry of later. Sakura then noticed something strange; it hadn't been raining in weeks so how could there be a water puddle in the middle of the forest. She then caught up to Naruto and Sasuke and whispered in there ears.
"Were being followed" Was all Sakura could say when suddenly two figures jumped out of the puddle throwing both of the chain weapons towards them, Naruto quickly turned.
"Wind Style: Wind Wall" Naruto then sent a wall of wind towards the two figures knocking their weapons away from the group. The two men quickly detached their weapons from the arms and rushed towards the group. Sakura quickly rushed in front Tazuna to protect him, she was limited to Taijutsu since there was no water nearby for her to use. Sasuke then jumped in front of the two men and kicked the both in their head sending them flying backwards. Kakashi then finished the two off by close lining the two of them in mid air and then catching them both by their necks chocking the two of them.
"So you two are both mist ninjas, so tell me who are you and who sent you" Said Kakashi
"We are the demon brothers, and Gato had sent us to assassinate the old man, please don't kill us" Said one of the brothers. Kakashi then disarmed the two of them and tied both of them up.
"I'll leave you two here for the Anbu to pick you up" Said Kakashi as the group continued walking.
"So is there something you're not telling us" Said Kakashi stopping the group and looking at Tazuna.
"Fine I'll tell you the truth, ever since I started working on the bridge the man named Gato has hired people to stop it's development by sending them to assassinate me, that's why I hired the Hidden Leaf"
"Yes, but this was supposed to be a B-Rank mission, it's now turned into an A-Rank Mission" Said Kakashi.
"I know but we didn't have the money to request an A-Rank, I will understand if you leave me here and head back to your village"
"No, we will continue to escort you and we will talk about the circumstances later" Said Kakashi, as the group continued to walk.
"Hey Naruto when did you learn to use wind jutsu's" Said Sasuke
"Well me and Sakura have been training for the last couple of weeks trying to learn different jutsu's but so far we are only capable of some C and D-Rank jutsu's" Said Naruto.
"So what element is Sakura?"
"I have a Water Nature" Said Sakura
"So that's why you didn't use any jutsu's back there, you didn't have a water source nearby"
"Yeh, the only jutsu's I can use requires a water source so I can gather the water from it"
"So where have you been learning these jutsu's from anyway" Said Sasuke
"Well my parents kept a lot of scrolls in the study so we have been learning off them, When we get back to the village you can borrow some of the fire scrolls that they kept" Sasuke nodded at the offer, he started to think of what type of Jutsu's they would have. The group continued to walk through the forest when a sudden mist surrounded the area.
"This can't be good, everyone Manji formation now!" Shouted Kakashi, Kakashi scanned the area for hostiles. He then spotted someone standing from a distance. His body hidden within the mist with only a silhouette to be seen Kakashi knew this was no ordinary Ninja.