AN:A bit of a longer on this time, got a bit carried away with myself XD

It's only been a few days since we passed. We've done a few D-rank missions and today is no different. Today's mission: to find and capture, without harming, Tora. A cat belonging to the Fire Daimyo's wife.

It took us half a day to find the thing, then the rest of the day to finally capture it. We managed to corner Tora between some particularly tall buildings. Unfortunately, I was the one who had to carry him back. I would have felt sorry for the creature when we returned him, had my face not stung.

"Come on! Can't we have a cool mission?" was the beginning of one of Naruto's usual rants about being better than D-rank. I personally quite enjoyed the missions we've been doing.

Of course, Naruto quickly moved on to his ramen plans once the hokage started to explain how missions are ranked. At most we could do C-rank missions. Iruka sensei began to scold Naruto before a chuckle from the hokage stopped him. "You want a harder mission?" his smile was wide yet, for some reason he looked tired or... sad? "Very well. Bring in the bridge builder!"

Our first C-rank. We are to escort Tazuna the bridge builder to the Land of Waves. And protect him from bandits and wild animals. We had been given a day to prepare.

I went to bed early that evening, though I did not sleep. Instead, I practiced my chakra control and sensing. I had some interesting results. Most notably my chakra has increased. I also figured out how to sense the chakra in people around me, though the range seems to only be a few metres as I could feel the fain chakra of one of the other orphans as they passed my door but no further.

As I was getting ready for bed after my meditation, I took a passing glance in the mirror at the corner of my room and had to do a double take. My hair, from its roots to tip at the small of my back, had turned pure white. Now, the colour wasn't unusual, as it is my natural hair colour. The unusual, and quite frankly shocking, aspect was that I had dyed my hair black! I was too tired to think about it so I went to sleep deciding to ask Kakashi sensei about it in the morning.

As I walked up to the gates to greed the rest of my... team, Naruto was the first to notice my new looks. "Morning Kur- WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAIR!?!?!?" I couldn't hold in my laugh at the over-the-top response. I decided to tease him "Don't you like my natural hair colour?" I then proceeded to smirk as Naruto tried to stumble back over his words. "Naruto, its fine, I'm just messing with you. I honestly have no idea why my hair did this."

As we waited for our perpetually late sensei Sakura asked the obvious question, "You dye your hair?" I kind of just stared at her, the tone of her voice made it sound like I was cheating or something, "don't you?" was the response I gave. She promptly turned redder than her hair is pink. When our sensei finally arrived alongside the bridge builder, we began our journey.

After roughly an hour of travel, we passed a puddle, odd it hasn't rained recently. I suddenly heard a terrible, rip and Kakashi was torn to shreds.

I threw myself towards Tazuna and took a defensive stance. I can feel my hands shaking as I take in the sights and sounds before me. To my left Sakura stood gaping towards Naruto. In front, Naruto was frozen stiff as Sasuke dealt with the attacking... Ninja? One of the two lunged towards us. My training kicked in; I ducked low, avoiding a death blow. My opponent dodged a slash to his sternum and parried a stab at his neck. He threw me of balance aimed his bladed claws towards my heart. Suddenly, the nin was gone. Kakashi had appeared and dealt with both of them. I was half a second to death.

Kakashi made Tazuna explain himself, he was building the bridge to save his home from a crime lord, and said crime lord had hired ninja to kill him. Tazuna neglected to tell anyone this as he had nowhere hear the money needed for an A-rank mission. However, since we accepted the mission, we have a duty to see it through.

Naruto made a vow not to hesitate in the face of danger ever again.

We continued traveling for another day. As we reached a clearing, we saw the towering figure of a ninja wielding a sword the length of his body. The bottom half of his face was covered, wrapped to his collar in bandages.

Words where spoken, but I did not hear them. I barely understood that this man was a rouge ninja from a different village. All my senses are focused on him, his blade. Is this what going into shock feels like? I feel like I'm being crushed under his gaze. "Focus! You need to protect the bridge builder!" A thought that echoed through my mind and shook me from my daze.

The fight had already started, we where stood in a diamond formation around Tazuna while Kakashi fought the enemy ninja. A mist had closed in around the area. I reached out my senses and discovered three things, one the mist was a jutsu, two our opponent had created a clone, and three we where about to be attacked. I stepped into the attack, blocking with my kunai and being flung several metres.

The clone seemed surprised that I had sensed the attack and lunged towards me. He mustn't think us a threat if he's going after us before Tazuna. I ducked beneath his blade, looping some ninja wire through the hole in the blade, and yanked. I quickly realised how much heavier and stronger even a clone was compared to me as I was yet again thrown, this time back towards the others.

It was then we saw, or rather heard Kakashi urge us to flee. He had been captured. Naruto and Sasuke where the ones to charge forward. I returned to the defensive with Sakura, spreading out my chakra sensing as far as it would allow.

Eventually, the two boys managed to get Kakashi free. The two fully grown nin then took to the water, standing on its surface and duelling with ninjutsu. Kakashi's eye glowed red as he coped and then predicted each of his opponents moves before finally ending the fight with a tidal wave in the shape of a dragon.

Our sensei moved to finish off Zabuza, I managed to finally pick up on his name, the ninja dropped. Dead. A young boy appeared, according to Kakashi a hunter nin responsible for tracking, killing and destroying the bodies of rouge ninja. The boy took Zabuza's corpse and left.

Kakashi promptly collapsed.