Walking with everyone at this slow speed was, not to copy Shikamaru, but troublesome. Naruto and Tazuna were bickering, Ryota was saying small sarcastic remarks in my ear, Sasuke was muttering 'loser' and idiot under his breath, and Kakashi was busy holding Naruto back. But I was focusing on the feeling of feeling watched.

I looked up at Ryota, though he did act like his normal self, I could see he was watching for danger too. It just seemed like Naruto wasn't all that much on his guard. But I thought I was being too paranoid since it was nothing but a C-Rank, yet once again my paranoia meter was going off the charts. I was looking back and forth, above, below. "Calm down, Aki-kun. It's just a C-Rank, if anything, we'll meet a couple of bandits." Kakashi-sensei said with an eye smile. I gave him an embarrased smile, yet, I felt like something was wrong.

We just went over a bridge with a small river running under it. I stopped and noticed that little Ryota was asleep on my shoulder. I smiled, despite being nervous, I put him in his little bed that I made for him inside my backpack. I looked down at the water that just made the prettiest most peaceful sounds. I then saw up ahead, a puddle on the ground a little bit farther up the road. I glared at it, because it hadn't rained in weeks. Though it was a very interesting technique. I ran up to Kakashi-sensei and pulled on his sleeve. He looked at me and pointed to the puddle. "It's fine, nothing to worry about." he whispered. I nodded and went next to Tazuna since the mission was to protect him.

Suddenly I hear

d someone behind us. They threw chains that wrapped around Kakashi-sensei. I stood my ground infront of Tazuna at the water users. Suddenly, Kakashi-sensei was in a million pieces. My eyes got wide with fear, my knee's threatened to tremble, and tears wanted to run down my face, but I wouldn't let them. Because a Shinobi is not supposed to show emotion.

Suddenly, I saw the two shinobi behind Naruto. I quickly threw up my kunai, and as they fell I used the reverse weaponry technique to throw the kunai at them, at an alarming rate. It got one of the men through the leg, the other skillfully dodged it, jumping backwards a bit. Making his chain get off his target, but Sasuke was in the air, and he through his shuriken at the chain, making it stick in the tree. He kicked the two men in their faces making them fly backwards. But one was going for Naruto, and the other was going for me and Tazuna. I quickly prepared myself.

Certain-kill Ice Spears! I thought letting my chakra burst out, going right past the Uchiha who got in front of me. It pierced the man who was coming towards us, and as he flew back, Kakashi-sensei easily caught him.

I gave a big grin, since it felt like Kakashi-sensei came back from the dead. We looked back where Kakashi-sensei had 'died' and saw wood.

"Naruto, I'm 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-sensei said. I walked over to Naruto and took his bloody hand. I began to wrap it up with bandages, though it looked like it was already healing.

"Good job, Sasuke. And you too Aki." Kakashi-sensei said to us. I got up once I was done wrapping Naruto's wound and smiled.

"Hey! What's with all this noise about?! Seriously, can a bunny not get some good rest every once and a while!?" said a grumpy Ryota while he poked his head out from the backpack. He saw Kakashi-sensei with the two dead guys.

"Ah, did I miss all the action!? Damn it, I could have shown my superior bad assery!" he exclaimed. I started to ignore his rant when I began to pay attention to the interaction between Sasuke and Naruto.

"Hey, your not hurt are ya? Scaredy cat." Sasuke said tauntingly. I could see Naruto getting angry, then he yelled, "Sasuke!" But Kakashi-sensei quickly quieted him. "Stand still, these ninja have poison in their claws. We need to take it out of you quickly." Kakashi-sensei explained that it was in his blood, but then said Tazuna's name in a slightly angry manner.

"We need to talk.

"These two are Chunin from the Village Hidden in the Mist. Their specialty is relentless attack. They keep fighting no matter what the sacrifce." The remaining one alive spoke up. "How did you know about the ambush?" he asked. "My student here, noticed the puddle first. It hadn't rained in weeks." Kakashi-sensei said. "Then why did you leave the Genin to do the fighting?" Tazuna asked.

"I could have taken them out at any moment, but I wanted to see who they were targeting. I wanted see if they were after us, or if they were after you. When you put in your request, you asked for standard protection, from robbers and highway men. You didn't say you had ninja looking for you. If we knew this, this mission would be a B-Rank mission or higher. Our task was to simply get you to your destination. And protect you while you finished building your bridge. If we knew we'd be fielding attacks from enemy ninja, we would have staffed differently and charged for 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." Kakashi-sensei said.

Really, I didn't know what to think. This mission, I knew it would be harder than the D-Ranks, but with it being the work of a B-Rank, I didn't. We were just Genin, fresh out of the Academy. Naruto was poisoned, and I was scared. I was scared to death of the two Chunin. And I had killed someone, I was beyond afraid.

"Oh, quit your shaking, Commoner. You've got the great Rabbit God-sama, Ryota here. And your strong, so we should continue." Ryota said into my ear. I gave a small smile and nodded. I didn't know if anyone heard the small exchange Ryota and I were having. But, it helped get some confidence. I looked up at Kakashi-sensei, but he was staring at Naruto. Naruto had just stabbed his hand with a kunai.

"Why am I so different!? Why am I always, ugh! I worked so hard to get here! Pushing myself til it hurt! Training alone for hours, anything to get stronger, to reach my dream! I will never back down again, and let someone else rescue me. I will never run away, and I will not lose to Sasuke. Upon this wound I make this pledge! Believe it! Bridge Builder, I'll complete this missionand protect you with this kunai knife! A real ninja never gives up, and neither will I. Don't you guys worry about me, I'll be fine! Now let's go!" Naruto exclaimed.

My eyes were wide once again, they were wide with admiration. His pledge, his speech, it was amazing. It made feel like, we could do anything.

"Uh, Naruto. That

was really cool how you took the poison out and all, but if you lose anymore blood, your going to die." Kakashi-sensei said simply. I gasped running over to the freaking out orange boy. As I was wrapping his wound, Kakashi-sensei came up from behind us, "Good idea to stop the bleeding now, seriously." he said.

"No! I CAN'T DIE, NOT THIS YOUNG! AKI! AKI! HEEEELP!"

"..."

"Stop your freaking out, ya emo orange nicompoop!"

I gasped when he finally stood still and let me look at his wound. As I began to wrap it, I noticed that it was already healing. I gave him a smile, and I wrapped the bandage around his hand, nice and tight. I looked up at Kakahi-sensei and he had a serious look on his face. "Uh, Aki... Why does Kakashi-sensei have such a serious look on his face? Its creeping me out! Am I alright!?" Naruto exclaimed.

I quickly nodded, but Ryota was still mumbling about him being an emo, and Naruto creeping him out. I honestly thought Ryota was secretly worried about him. Maybe...

"IF EVER DO THAT AGAIN, I'LL KICK YOUR ASS TO WHERE YOU'LL NEVER BE EMO AGAIN, YA EMO ORANGE NICOMPOOP!"

"WELL I DID MORE THAN YOU DID YA USELESS BUNNY!

Or, heh heh, maybe not...

I have a good excuse for not updating yesterday! I went and got myself addicted to this Korean Drama, Playful Kiss. It is so cute! So about 6 hours straight of watching that show, got me raging, got me laughing, and fan girling over someone who is not an anime character!

And okay, I so feel like I'm neglecting Sasuke, but I'm baseing this off the anime, and he doesn't have that many lines in the first few episodes. But, next chapter there will be more Sasuke, more Ryota, more Aki, and a certain ninja who just happens to have a certain girl's twin brother as his tool. Ooo... Next chapter will be fun!

Anime song of the day... Genesis of Aquarion by Akino. From the anime, Genis of Aquarion. Pretty song, with some english, I approve! Haven't seen the anime, is it worth it to watch it?

So, yeah, please review, and you follow and favorite if you can! Thank you for reading, later ya awesome otaku's!