"Sasuke here at Point B," Sasuke whispered through the radio.
"Takara here at Point C," I responded, settling into my spot where I could see our target.
A few second later Naruto spoke. "It's Naruto. I'm at Point A."
"You're slow, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei stated. "Ok, Team Seven... hm? The target has moved!"
Sasuke, Naruto and I moved positions, following our target. I settled into my new position, the target in sight.
"What's your position?" Kakashi-sensei questioned.
"Five meters. I can go at any time!" Naruto announced.
"I'm ready too," Sasuke stated.
"Ditto," I replied preparing myself to attack and capture the target.
"Ok..." Kakashi-sensei trailed off. "Now!"
We pounced forward and Naruto got to the target first, grabbing him around the waist. I sighed, knowing that this was no way to hold a cat. The poor thing was struggling in Naruto's arms, making things quite difficult.
"Does he have the ribbon on his right ear? Is this our target, Tora?" Kakashi-sensei questioned and Sasuke and I checked the cat's ear.
"Yes, its Tora. There's no mistaking it," Sasuke replied and I walked up to Naruto, gently taking the brown cat from his grasp and calming the poor, frightened thing down.
"Alright, the mission to capture lost pet 'Tora' is complete," Kakashi-sensei stated.
Naruto growled out and went to yell but Sasuke covered his mouth. "You yell, and I'll kill you."
"I'll help," I added and Naruto turned sheepish.
Kakashi-sensei arrived and we made our way to the Hokage building, where we returned the cat to the owner. The poor cat was being squished by the large woman and I instantly felt sorry for him.
"Ah hahahahaha, serves him right. Stupid cat," Naruto announced in glee.
"No animal deservers that torture," I stated, shooting Naruto a glare as Sasuke nodded in agreement.
"Now then," the Hokage stated, "the next mission for Kakashi's Team Seven is an errand to the neighbouring town, to baby sit the chief Councillor's son, help digging for potatoes and –"
"No!" Naruto shouted, cutting the Hokage off mid-sentence and making a cross with his hands. "No, thank you! I want to do more exciting missions! Give us something else!"
I sighed. I couldn't help but to agree with him, after all, we've been doing these D-Rank missions for the last month and – honestly – they were not only boring, but tedious as well.
"You idiot! You're still a rookie! Everyone starts by doing simple missions to gain experience!" Iruka-sensei yelled out from next the Hokage.
"B-but it's been nothing but blah missions so far!" Naruto tried to argue but Kakashi-sensei punched him over the head with his fist.
"Knock it off, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei ordered.
"Naruto is it necessary to explain to you what a mission is?" the Third questioned and I sighed, feeling a lecture coming on. "Listen to me. Requests pour into the village every day. They range from babysitting to assassinations. A wide spectrum of requests are recorded on the request list, and as such they are separated into different ranks depending on difficulty. In the village, everyone below me is divided up by ability in order of Jōnin, Chunin, and Genin. I distribute the requests as missions depending on your rank. If the missions is successful, we get paid, and that allows us to pay you."
I was actually interested in this lecture as I never actually thought much about the process in which missions were delivered. But Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi-sensei weren't paying any attention. Naruto was talking about what he was going to have for dinner tonight, and Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke were listening.
"Listen!" the Third announced and Kakashi-sensei rubbed the back of his head.
"I'm sorry."
"Man, you always lecture me, old man!" Naruto whined, tuning back into the conversation. "I'm no longer that little prankster that you think I am."
The Hokage and Iruka-sensei both sighed before a smirk flittered across their faces. I tensed. What was happening? Did Naruto actually succeed in what he had planned? No way. Surely it wasn't possible.
"Okay, fine! If you insist, I'll have you do a C-Rank mission. You'll be bodyguards for someone," the Third announced and I stared at him in shock as Naruto cheered.
"Huh? Really? Who are we guarding? A feudal lord? A princess?" Naruto questioned and I snorted.
"Naruto, those are B-Rank, if not A-Rank missions. We're probably guarding a merchant or tradesman," I stated making Naruto pout.
"She's right," the Third stated and gestured to the door. "Let him in."
The door opened and a man holding a sake bottle with grey hair, glasses, and a bit of a belly walked in. "What? It's just a bunch of brats!" he took a big gulp of his drink. "Particularly you, the smallest one with the idiotic look on his face. Are you really a ninja?"
Naruto started laughing. "Who's the smallest one with the idiot face that he's talking about?"
I sighed and stood next to Sasuke, showing that I was the tallest followed by Sasuke, and Naruto was the shortest. It took him a second to realise but when he did, he tried to kill the old man. Kakashi-sensei grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, stopping him from attacking the man.
"What good will it do to kill the client?" Kakashi-sensei questioned Naruto.
"The names Tazuna. I'm a veteran bridge builder. You'll be risking life and limb in guarding me to the max until I return to my land and build the bridge," the old man announced and my eyes narrowed.
Risking life and limb? This was a C-Rank mission, not B-Rank. We should only be defending him from bandits and highway robbers. Nothing we couldn't handle, and yet, he was speaking as if we were going to be up against some great enemy.
"Alright, you three go and prepare to leave. We'll meet at the gate in an hour," Kakashi-sensei ordered.
"Yes, Kakashi-sensei," I replied for all three of us and we left to go prepare for the trip.
An hour later I was waiting at the gate, eyeing Tazuna-san with a frown. Something wasn't right about all this, but I didn't say anything as Naruto and Sasuke arrived, shortly followed by Kakashi-sensei.
We stepped out of the gates to the village after signing out at the gate keeping booth and Naruto grinned, throwing his fists into the air and cheered. "Alright! My first time out of the village! I'm a traveller now!" he announced proudly and I let out a soft smile in amusement.
"Hey, am I supposed to be safe with this brat?" Tazuna-san questioned, gesturing to Naruto and making Kakashi-sensei laugh.
"I'm a Jōnin. I'll be watching him. There's no need to worry," Kakashi-sensei replied and Naruto growled, turning around to face the two and pointing at the old man.
"Hey, old man! Don't go mocking shinobi! I'm awesome and I'm going to be Hokage!" Naruto announced proudly and the man deadpanned at Naruto exclamation.
"The Hokage is the strongest ninja in the village, right? You sure as heck don't seem like you could become the Hokage," Tazuna-san stated as he took a swig of his alcohol.
"Ah, shut up! I'll do whatever it takes to become the Hokage! You'll have no choice but acknowledge me then!" Naruto shouted in anger and me and Sasuke both sighed.
Tazuna-san scoffed. "I'll never acknowledge you, brat. Not even if you became Hokage."
"What?" Naruto shouted. "I'll kill you!"
Kakashi-sensei sighed as he grabbed Naruto's collar. "I told you stop it, you moron."
"I think we should get going. We've been at the gates for too long as it is," I stated and Naruto calmed down before nodding as Sasuke grunted in agreement. As I said this, I paused as I sense two chakras in a tree nearby. I looked up, frowning as I couldn't see anyone, but I knew they were there. It appears, this mission was about to get a whole lot more complicated.
We were walking in silence an hour later and I was board. I didn't know much about the Land of Waves and I was curious. But I knew it would probably be rude to ask, so I kept my mouth shut as I walked next to Sasuke, who walked with his hands in the pockets of his white shorts.
"Are there shinobi in the Land of Waves, Tazuna-san?" Sasuke questioned as if he read my mind.
"None that are from the Land of Waves. We get the occasional shinobi passing through or on missions with various clients, but otherwise, we live in a peaceful land," Tazuna-san explained, making me frown as I remembered hearing rumours before leaving Amegakure that the Land of Waves was actually under attack – economically – by a man named Gato.
"Why is that?" Sasuke questioned in surprise.
"The island of the Land of Waves is small, and fairly isolated. It makes it difficult for the land to be influenced by other nations. It's also not the easiest to get to, so it has natural defences as well," Kakashi-sensei explained and Sasuke frowned in thought. "Anyways, it's not important as there are no shinobi battles in a C-Rank mission."
After that we continued walking on in silence. After another hour, we crossed a small wooden bridge. Half an hour after that, I noticed something strange up a head. A puddle. The puddle had chakra emanating from it. I frowned, tensing up and meeting Kakashi-sensei's eye.
He nodded and seemed relaxed as we passed the puddle. A few seconds after passing two shinobi appeared, shooting chains out at Kakashi-sensei and wrapping him up. Kakashi-sensei pretended to be surprised as he was ripped to shreds, blood and gore going everywhere and landing in a heap as Naruto and Sasuke froze in shock.
The two Mist shinobi aimed for Naruto and I nodded to Sasuke who shot forward and grabbed a kunai and shuriken, trapping the chain to a tree, stopping the attack from hitting Naruto. Sasuke appeared in-between the shinobi and aimed a kick to their faces, separating them.
I took the chanced to stand in front of Tazuna-san, prepared to defend him if the two shinobi were to aim for him. As if proving my theory correct, the two shinobi separated from the chain and separated, one aiming for Naruto and the other aiming for Tazuna-san and me. I gestured to Sasuke to defend Naruto and charged at the shinobi coming towards us.
I shot forward, aiming a kick to his chin. He deflected the attack and I hit him with an open-palm hit to the chest, pushing him back as I pulled out some ninja wire, and tied it to two shuriken, shooting them around him and causing him to be pulled back to a tree, where he was trapped as I used two kunai to stop the shuriken from getting loose.
I was so focused on my opponent I hadn't notice Kakashi-sensei arriving again. He defended Naruto from the attack.
"Naruto, sorry I didn't come sooner. You got hurt because of my actions," Kakashi-sensei stated as he carried the other shinobi to my tied up one, tying both of them up together. "I didn't think you'd freeze up like that."
"Anyway, good job Sasuke and Takara," Kakashi-sensei added, but I paid no mind as I focused on Naruto who seemed to be in shock.
"Hey, Naruto," Sasuke called and I shot him a warning look, which he happily ignored. "Did you get hurt? Scaredy cat."
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, going to attack him but was stopped by Kakashi-sensei's shout.
"Naruto, these guys have poison on their claws. Don't move or it'll spread around faster," Kakashi-sensei ordered. "You need to take the poison out quickly. You'll have to open the wound and let the poison out quickly. We'll do it in a moment. For now, Tazuna-san, I need to speak with you."
Tazuna-san tensed up but nodded, as we gathered around our captives. "These shinobi are chunin from Kirigakure. They are known for never giving up and sacrificing whatever it takes to complete a mission," Kakashi-sensei explained.
"How did you know we were here?" one of them questioned.
"I could sense you before we left the village," I replied and his black eyes widened in surprise. "Fast forward a few hours and I see a puddle in the middle of nowhere when there hasn't been rain for a while?"
Kakashi-sensei nodded in agreement to my words.
"Knowing that, why did you leave it to the brats to fight?" Tazuna-san questioned in surprise at Kakashi-sensei's agreement to my words.
"If I felt like it, I could kill these guys instantly. But I needed to know who they were aiming for," Kakashi-sensei replied. "Were they simply shinobi attacking shinobi or were they after someone particular."
"In other words, were they after you, Tazuna-san," I added and Tazuna-san stated to sweat in nervousness.
"We haven't heard anything from you about being targeted by shinobi. The mission request was supposed to be just for gangs, thieves, and bandits. Meaning that this mission is now at least a B-Rank or higher," Kakashi-sensei explained, almost glaring at Tazuna-san who looked even more nervous. "The request was supposed to be for protection until you finished the bridge. If this mission was supposed to be for protection against ninja, it would've been bumped up to B-Rank, which is more expensive. There appears to be more reasons for this lie but being lied to is unacceptable."
"Besides, Naruto was injured because of your actions. We have to heal him up and return to the village, as this mission is now null and void," I added watching Naruto as he pulled out a kunai and stabbed it right into his wound, making my eyes widen in surprise.
"Naruto! What are you doing?" I questioned in surprise as his blood dropped to the ground.
"I'm going to swear on the pain in my left hand that I'll protect you, old man! On this kunai knife, this mission continues!" Naruto announced and I smirked as Kakashi-sensei sighed.
"That was cool and all, but lose any more blood and you'll die," Kakashi-sensei stated blandly and Sasuke smirked while I let out a laugh, walking up to Naruto and beginning to heal his hand with the basic medical ninjutsu.
Naruto stared in surprise as I healed up the wound. "Wow, Takara! You're amazing!"
I smiled, not having the heart to tell him that the kyuubi was the one doing most of the work as I wrapped up his hand in a bandage. "There, all done. We can continue on if you'd like, Kakashi-sensei."