Episode(s): 6
"Oh! My poor little Torah! Mommy was so worried about her naughty little fuzzykins, yes," said a large women as she snuggled her cat.
"The cat was annoying, but I kind of feel bad for it," said Usagi to her team.
"I don't blame it for running," said Naruto as they watched.
"Now, then, for Squad Seven's next mission we have several available tasks," said the Hokage, ignoring the women and cat. "Among them, babysitting the chief counselor's three-year-old, helping his wife do the shopping, digging up potatoes, and-"
"NO!" yelled Naruto, cutting off the Hokage. He threw his arms up in an x formation. "I wanna go on a real mission, something challenging and exciting, not this little kid stuff! Come on, old man!"
'He's got a point,' thought Sasuke.
'These missions are annoying,' thought Usagi.
'I knew this was coming. Haruka may not know Naruto that well, but she was good at predicting what he might act like,' thought Kakashi with a sigh.
"How dare you!" yelled Iruka as he stood up and slammed his hands on the table. "You're just a brand-new Genin with no experience! Like everyone else, you start with simple missions to develop your skills and prove yourself!"
"Are you serious? Babysitting is not a mission! It's just a stupid-Ah!" yelled Naruto, only to be cut off when Kakashi hit him over the head, knocking him to floor.
"Will you put a lid on it?" said Kakashi as he looked at his student.
"Naruto," said the old man. "It seems you do not understand the tasks you have been given. Listen, many different kinds of requests come into our village every day, from babysitting to assassinations. These requests are carefully recorded, analyzed, then ranked A, B, C, or D, depending on their difficultly.
"We ninja are also ranked by ability – Hokage at the top, Jonin, Chunin, and Genin at the bottom. At the highest level, we select the missions and assign them to ninja who have the appropriate skill and experience. And if the mission is successful, we receive a fee that supports our village and our work.
"Since you are untried Genin, just starting down the Shinobi path, you are given D-level assignments, of course. Hm?" questioned the Hokage once he noticed no one was listening to him.
"Sorry," apologized Kakashi, though he didn't seem to mean it.
"You always lecture me like you're my grandfather or something. But I'm no the little brat who used to pull pranks all the time. I'm a ninja now, and I want a ninja mission," said Naruto as he then pouted and turned away.
"I'm going to hear about this later," said Kakashi as he rubbed his head. Iruka and the Hokage chuckled.
"Naruto wants us to know he's not a brat, he's a former brat, and he wants a mission. So be it," said the Hokage, shocking everyone. "Since you are so determined, I'm going to give you a C-ranked mission. You'll be bodyguards on a journey."
"Really?" asked Naruto in surprise. "Yes! Who? Who?"
'I wonder why he would given in so easily. I guess I can understand since the mission isn't that hard. We might have to deal with some bandits on our way, but that should be it,' thought Usagi as Naruto went on about who he thought it would be.
"Send in out visitor," said the Hokage to some people outside the room.
"What the? A bunch of little snot nosed kids?" asked the man as he took a drink from his bottle. He was an older man. Black sleeves top, tan pants, sandals, a backpack, a white towel over his shoulders and a white rope on his head. "And you, the little one with the idiotic look on your face. You really expect me to believe you're a ninja?"
'Well, that's mean,' thought Usagi as Naruto became mad over it.
"I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder, and I must return to my country. I'm building a bridge there that will change our world, and I expect you to get me there safely, even if it means giving your life," introduced the drunk man.
~Sometime Later, At the Entrance to the Village~
"Yeah!" yelled Naruto as he walked outside the village. "Alright!"
"Why are you so excited, Naruto?" asked a curious Usagi.
"This is the first time I ever left the village," explained Naruto as he looked at everything with excitement. "I'm a traveler now, believe it!"
"Hey, am I supposed to trust my life to this runt? He's a joke!" said Tazuna in anger. Kakashi nervously chuckled.
"He's with me and I'm a Jonin, so you don't need to worry," said Kakashi.
'And now they're arguing,' thought Usagi with a sigh as Naruto and the old man yelled back and forth. She then turned to Sasuke with a smile.
"Imagine if Haruka was here!" she said with a laugh. The color drained from Sasuke's face and Kakashi watched them in amusement.
"Who's Haruka?" asked Naruto as they all stared walking.
"Haruka is Sasuke's and Michiru's older sister. Well, not really, you see, they are all members of the Uchiha clan, and she happens to be the oldest, so she takes care of them. She the Jonin for Michiru, Ami, and Rei," explained Usagi with a smile.
"Really? Probably on time compared to our shit Sensei," mumbled Naruto.
"What was that?" asked Kakashi, appearing behind Naruto.
"Nothing!" yelled Naruto in fear as Sasuke and Usagi chuckled.
"If Haruka-nee was here, you'd be in a world of pain," said Sasuke with a smirk.
"Anyway, you three can relax. There are no battles in a C-rank mission," said Kakashi as he patted Usagi on the head.
"And we aren't that likely to run into any foreign enemy ninja or anything like that," said Usagi with a smile.
"Not likely," chuckled Kakashi, but Usagi notice that Tazuna's face went serious. Kakashi noticed it as well.
'I wonder why,' thought Usagi as the group continued walking.
~After Some Time~
The group walked for a good distance, when they came across a puddle on the side of the road. Naruto and Tazuna walked by it, uncaring. Sasuke looked curious and Usagi, somewhat suspicious. Kakashi glanced at it then patted Usagi on the head. She turned to him and he smiled, at least she thinks he did.
The group walked a few feet, then were attacked.
"What?" said Kakashi in shock as chains appeared and wrapped around him. The others watched in shock as he was ripped in pieces.
'What do we do? We aren't train for this, not yet!' thought Usagi in fear as she got ready to counter act.
"Ka-Kakashi-Sensei!" yelled Naruto in shock, only for the two attackers to appear behind him and laugh.
"Now it's your turn," said one of them as they prepared to attack. Naruto froze, but Sasuke and Usagi moved into action.
Sasuke throw a shuriken and a kunai, pinning the chains to a tree.
"I can't get loose," said one of the men.
"Ah!" Naruto exclaimed in shock as Sasuke jumped on the two ninja's arms and kicked them away from Naruto. He then grabbed Naruto and jumped out of the way.
"Wind Style: Wind Shuriken!" said Usagi s she used her fans to attack the enemy, lucky for them, they dodged. The two men then attacked again. One went after Naruto while the other went after Tazuna.
"Stay behind me," said Usagi as she got in front of Tazuna. She held her fans out and pressed a hidden button that caused blades to shoot out from the top. Sasuke then got in front of her. The man was about to attack, when Kakashi appeared and stopped him, holding the second man in his other arm.
"Hi," said Kakashi with a board face.
'So, he is okay,' thought Usagi with a smile.
"What?" said Naruto as he looked to the side where they saw Kakashi died to see that logs were in its place.
"Naruto, sorry I didn't help you right away, I didn't mean for you to get hurt," said Kakashi as he carried the two unconscious men. "I just didn't think you'd freeze up like that."
He then walked toward the other three in the group.
"Good job, Sasuke, very smooth, you too, Usagi," said Kakashi as he gave Tazuna a look, causing the older man to look away.
"Hey," said Sasuke to Naruto,
"Yeah?" asked Naruto in shock.
"You're not hurt, are ya? Scardy-cat," said Sasuke with a smirk.
"Sasuke!" yelled Naruto in annoyance, ready to attack.
"Naruto! Stand still! These Ninja have poison in their claws, we need to get it out of you quickly," said Kakashi. "It's in your blood, so don't move around, that spreads the poison."
"I'll help," said Usagi as she walked over to Naruto, her hands glowing green.
"What's that," asked Naruto.
"Medical Ninjutsu. I can heal small things. I should be able to help get the poison out!" said Usagi with a smile. Naruto gave her a nervous smile and let her do her thing.
"By the way, Mr. Tazuna," started Kakashi.
"Yeah, what?" asked the old man.
"We need to talk," said Kakashi as he went to tie up the men.
After Usagi finished treating Naruto, the group stood in front of the tree looking at the two ninja.
"They're Chunin from the Village Hidden in the Mist. Their specialty is relentless attack. They keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice," explained Kakashi.
"How did you know about our ambush?" asked one of the men. Kakashi looked at them deadpan.
"A puddle, on a clear day, when it hasn't rained in weeks?" he asked.
"In that case, why'd you leave it for the Genin to do the fighting?" asked Tazuna.
"I could have taken them out quickly," replied Kakashi, "but then I'd have learned nothing. I had to know who their target was, and what they were after."
"Hmm? What are you getting at?" asked Tazuna in annoyance.
"This," said Kakashi as he turned to look at Tazuna, his hands resting in his pockets. "I wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja, or if they were after you, the master bridge builder.
"When you put in your request, you asked for slandered protection from robbers and highway men. You didn't say there were ninja looking for you, hunting you down. If we knew this, it would be a B-rank mission or higher. Our task was simply to 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 the cost of a B mission.
"Apparently, you have your reasons, but lying to us is not acceptable. We are now beyond the scope of this mission"
"We could go back," said Usagi as she looked at Kakashi. "It would make sense if you called off this mission."
"I guess we should go back to the village," said Kakashi as he looked at Naruto.
"I refuse!" yelled Naruto as he took out a kunai and stabbed himself in the hand. The same one he got his injury on. "I trained hours by myself. 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 mission and protect you with this kunai knife."
"That's nice Naruto, but you just made an injury that Usagi healed, worse," said Kakashi as Naruto looked at his female teammate, only to be scared.
"Naruto," said Usagi with anger and annoyance.
"S-s-sorry," said Naruto as she walked over to him. She grabbed his hand and started healing it.
"If you ever do something like this again, I'll kill you," she said with a glare.
"U-understood," said Naruto in fear.
"I will send a letter to the Hokage. We will continue the mission, but I will ask for back up, just in case," said Kakashi as Usagi treated Naruto. He bit his thumb and slammed into the ground causing smoke to appear. When the smoke cleared, a dog was shown. It was white and hand a leaf headband around its neck.
Kakashi then took out a blank scroll and quickly wrote in it. Once he was done, he rolled it up and gave it to the dog.
"Take this to the Hokage, quickly," said Kakashi. The dog grabbed it in his mouth and then ran in the direction of the village.
"What do we do now?" asked Usagi.
"We wait," said Kakashi. "We will find a place to camp and will stay their for the night. Once the Hokage gets the letter, he will send our backup."
"Right," said team seven as they looked for a place to camp for the night.