Technology Troubles
Chapter 4: A C-Rank Mission
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"blah"=talking
'blah'=thinking/sfx
Deep in the forest of the Leaf Village Team 7 was on a dangerous mission.
"What's the distance to the target?" Kakashi called through the radio.
"This is Orange Nin, five meters, I'm ready anytime." Naruto replied.
"This is White Eyes, so am I." Hinata said.
"Roger that, Dark Sniper are you ready?"
"I'm ready but I don't have a clear shot." Bill said.
"Roger that Dark Sniper, we'll bring it into the open. Ok… Go!"
The group jumped at their target. It lashed out but they circled around. They ran at it and it burst into the clearing.
"Dark Sniper the target is in the clear." Kakashi reported. A bolt of red light hits the target and it falls to the ground
"Target neutralized." Bill said.
"Can you confirm?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah ribbon on the left ear and it's still breathing." Bill confirmed.
"Good, Lost Pet Tora Search Mission, Complete."
"Mmmrrrrowwwww!" The cat screeched.
"Oh my cute little Tora! Mommy was so worried!" They watched the cat be crushed by Fire Daimyo's wife.
'Wow no wonder the cat ran away.' They thought as they watched it be crushed by the woman.
"Alright Team 7, as for your next mission you can choose… Babysitting an elder's grandson, help with shopping in a nearby village, helping with the potato planting…" The Hokage listed off.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Naruto yelled. "I want to do a more incredible mission! Find us a better one!"
"I agree all we've been doing is grunt work!" Bill yelled and Hinata nodded in agreement.
"You idiot!" Iruka yelled. "You're just a rookie; everyone starts off with simple duties and works their way up!"
"Oh come on! We keep getting the worst duties possible! We can do better ones! We beat a Jounin in a fight for Kami's sake!" Naruto protested.
"Be quiet both of you!" Kakashi said sternly.
"Naruto, Bill, it seems I have to explain to you how this works. Everyday the village receives mission requests from babysitting to assassinations. Each mission is divided into the A, B, C, or D ranks. The missions are handed out by us at the top to ninja's based on their abilities. Jounin A rank, Chunin B&C rank and Genin C&D rank."
'Blah blah blah! This guy just keeps goin on 'n' on.' Bill sighed. 'I'm bored now.'
"You three just recently became Genin so D rank missions are perfect for you, understand?" He looked to Bill and Naruto. Naruto had his back turned and was muttering something about ramen and Bill was sitting on the floor bouncing a small rubber ball against the wall. "Hey listen!" The Hokage yelled.
"I apologize." Kakashi said embarrassed.
"Geez all you ever do is give lectures! But you know what; I'm not the trouble maker I used to be!" Naruto declared. The Hokage and Iruka looked to each other.
"Ok." They simply said.
"Huh?" Everyone said dumbfounded.
"If you want it so badly I'll give you a C rank mission. The task is to act as bodyguards for an individual."
"Yay!" Naruto yelled gleefully. "Who is it? A Feudal Lord? A Princess?"
"Calm down I'm about to introduce him." The door slid open.
'This is our client?' Bill thought.
An old man looking in his late 50's, holding a sake bottle wearing tan pants, a grey vest, a rope belt, and a grey goatee stepped into the room. "Huh? This is my protection? It's a bunch of stupid brats!"
"Stupid brats?" Naruto yelled.
"Especially the short blonde one…" He remarked.
"Hey!"
"…and the rooster boy."
"It probably ain't wise to insult the guy with the huge hammer strapped to his back." Bill said.
The old man noticed the hammer on Bill's back. "I couldn't care less."
Bill practiced holding his tongue and controlling his emotions. "Huhhh… Might as well know about'cha old man." Bill said.
"Fine, I'm a bridge builder, my name is Tazuna and I expect you guys to provide me with protection until we reach Wave Country."
"The Wave Country? Ugh… this is going to be a long few days." Bill said. Then he realized something. 'Wait… didn't the Hyperion crash near the route to Wave Country?'
"Alright let's go!" Naruto yelled.
"Why are you so excited Naruto?" Hinata asked.
"Yeah." Bill said thinking the same.
"I've never been out of the village before!" He said turning around.
"Are you sure I'm safe with these brats?" Tazuna asked.
"Don't worry they're better fighters than they seem and that hammer isn't just for show." Kakashi said.
They walked for hours in relative silence until Hinata started trying to make conversation. "So, umm, Tazuna. What's the Wave Country like?"
"Ah, kinda boring." He said taking a swig of his sake. "Nothing interesting has really happened, except for two years ago."
Naruto who wasn't listening before got intrigued. "What happened two years ago old man?"
Tazuna ignored the comment. "Well late night one day someone saw a shooting star passing over town. More people came out to see and pretty soon most of town was looking. It wasn't moving fast across the sky at first but it started picking up speed and crashed on the mainland not far." Now Bill was listening. "A lot of us went to see what it was and we searched everywhere we thought it landed. A little boy and his friends soon found something." "Was it the star?" Hinata asked. "Nah, it was some metal building about three kilometers from the town and two kilometers off the main road." Bill stiffened. "Now I had never seen a metal building before but I don't remember one being built near us."
'Could he be talking about… Nah… but he said he didn't… Nah, he's just a little senile.' Bill thought.
"Did you search in it?" Naruto asked.
"Well we searched around it first but found nothing. Some people thought the star landed in it since there were holes in that thing."
'Holes? No a lot of old buildings have holes.' Bill thought.
"Did you go in though?" Hinata asked.
"No we didn't, we couldn't really."
"Why?" She asked.
"Were the doors locked?" Naruto asked. "No, we didn't see any doors actually. There were windows but they all had a sheet of metal covering from the inside." Bill stiffened even more.
"You searched all around the building and no windows or doors?" Hinata said.
"Well not completely around, I mean the place was huge! It had to be at least two kilometers long and about half as high…" Bill was now visibly uneasy but no one noticed, except Kakashi.
'What's gotten into him?' He thought.
'Ok calm down… maybe there are buildings that big around here…'
"…and a part in the back went even higher. Come to think of it that had open windows but it was too high to climb." Bill was now even more uneasy.
'Big buildings with a part that sounds like the Hyperion's bridge.'
"So that's why you couldn't go in?" Naruto asked.
"No we could've just walked right in since there was an enormous hole in the side that went right through!" Bill was now panicking.
'Big buildings with a bridge like part and… who am I kidding it's the Hyperion!'
"But there was a lot of broken glass and some stripped wires were sparking. It was just too dangerous." Bill visibly relaxed.
'What was eating at him?' Kakashi asked himself. "Maybe you could show us where it is?" Hinata asked and Bill started panicking again.
"Maybe." Tazuna said.
"I wonder why someone would build that way out there?" Naruto asked.
"I dunno, but after we left some people thought it was something from space that crashed here." The old man chucked and Bill laughed but everyone noticed that he was REALLY uneasy.
'What's wrong with him?' Everyone thought.
"Hey old man!" Bill said.
Tazuna said. "What?"
"Don't they have ninjas in the Wave Country?" Naruto beat him to the punch.
"Well Kakashi-sensei?" Bill asked.
"No not in the Wave Country. But in most other countries, the customs and culture may be different but hidden villages exist and so do Shinobi." Kakashi went on to explain about the countries, military power and the five Kages.
"See that's why I'm going to become Hokage!"
"Didn't you just doubt Lord Hokage?" Kakashi pointed out. Everyone went silent for a while.
They walked on in silence for a while and passed a puddle along the way, but no one but Kakashi noticed. After the group had walked a ways away from the puddle it transformed into two ninja connected by a razor-like chain. Their headbands had a slash across them signifying them as Missing-Nin. Silently rushing forward, they wrapped the chain around Kakashi. "What?" He yelled.
"Huh?" Hinata yelled.
"What the-!" Naruto yelled.
"Whoa!" Bill yelled.
"One down." They both said. They pulled the chain and Kakashi was sliced to pieces.
"Ka… Kakashi-sensei!" They yelled.
The ninja eyed Naruto. "Two down." They said rushing towards him. Naruto was scared stiff and couldn't move. 'Crap!'
The chain was beginning to wrap around Naruto when a kunai pinned it to a tree. "It's stuck!" One ninja yelled.
"Hey buddy!" Bill called.
The ninja turned around and the only thing he saw was grey. 'Whang!' Bill huge hammer connected with the ninja's face and he was flung into the tree carrying his partner with him, one hit hard while the other severed the connection and leapt away. He turned around to deal with the second one but he saw it heading towards Hinata and Tazuna.
'Crap Hinata's not good at defense!' "Uhh" Bill turned around and saw the ninja he just whacked getting up. "What! That should have left you unconscious!"
"Clearly you've never fought enemy ninja before." He broke off the rest of the chain, jumped over Bill and headed towards Naruto.
"Naruto! Snap out of it!" Naruto just nodded. 'I have to defend.' Naruto pulled out a kunai. Meanwhile Hinata was trying to defend Tazuna. 'He's so fast!' She thought as she tried to fend off her ninja. Naruto attempted to use his kunai to block the Nin's attack but the ninja's claw cut his hand. 'Damn!' Naruto kicked the ninja into a tree knocking him out cold.
Hinata was having a harder and harder time defending herself and Tazuna. 'He's too much for me!'
"Lightning Edge!" The Missing-Nin looked behind him and saw Bill coming at him with his hammer sparking electricity. Before he could react Bill hit him with an uppercut, electrocuting him in the process. Bill jumped above him and struck him again sending him into the ground putting him out cold.
"You two okay?" Bill asked. Hinata and Tazuna nodded. "Naruto you okay?"
"I think so?" Naruto said looking at his hand.
"Good job you guys." Kakashi walked out from the shadows of the forest.
"What the-?" Bill said.
'Kakashi-sensei, alive?' Naruto and Hinata thought.
Tazuna breathed a sigh of relief. 'Whew, I'm safe.'
"All around good job but everyone needs a little work." Kakashi said.
'I won't freeze up next time.' Naruto looked over to Bill. 'How'd he stay so calm?'
Bill noticed Naruto looking at him. "Ya need something?"
"How did you stay so calm?" Naruto asked.
"This ain't my first life threatening fight." Bill replied. Naruto thought he was talking about the bandits that captured him but he wasn't so sure.
"Tie up those two." Kakashi tossed Bill some rope. While Bill went over to tie up the Missing-Nin, Kakashi inspected Naruto's hand while Hinata watched in worry. "Naruto there was poison in those claws. We'll need to open the wound and release the poison or else it will spread." Naruto looked scared at that prospect. "Tazuna."
"Yeah?" Tazuna knew what was coming next. Those Missing-Nin were after him and the Jounin knew it.
"I need to talk to you. These look like the Hidden Mist Chunins knows as the Demon Brothers. They have a reputation to continue fighting no matter what."
The now conscious brothers looked at Kakashi. "How did you read our movements?" One asked.
"It's simple. On the road I noticed a puddle when it hasn't rained in days. For being such famous Chunin you two should know how to hide in your environment."
"If you knew that why did you let the brats fight?" The other asked.
'I'm getting tired of the brat stuff.' Bill thought.
"If I'd wanted to I could've killed you two instantly but, there was something I needed to find out." Everyone looked at Kakashi and he looked at Tazuna. "Who they were after."
"What do you mean?" Tazuna asked feigning ignorance.
"It means, were they after one of us, or you. We haven't heard that there were ninja after you. Our mission was to protect you from gangs and highwaymen. If we had known that there was enemy ninja after you this mission would've been set as a B rank." Tazuna looked down shamefully. "I'm sure you had your reasons but lying about a mission causes problems. We're now operating outside our duties. What should be done is head back to the village to treat Naruto."
'Go back?' Naruto thought. That meant the mission would end and that was the last thing he wanted. Remembering what Kakashi said before, Naruto swung the kunai into his hand and drew more blood.
"Naruto, what are you doing? Hinata cried out.
"He's either doing something really smart or something right for the wrong reasons." Bill said.
"I swear I will protect the old man with this kunai. We're continuing the mission." Naruto was determined to complete the mission and protect Tazuna at any cost.
"Whatta know, both." Bill said.
"Naruto It's good that you're letting the poison out but you'll die of blood loss if you don't bandage it." Kakashi said.
'Thump-Thump' Naruto froze up again. "Really? Ahh! That's bad! I don't wanna die from something like this!" Naruto cried out.
Sweat drops and face falters all around. 'Same old knucklehead.' Bill thought.
"Let me see you hand." Kakashi began to bandage the cut when something caught his eye. 'It's already healing? It must be the power of the Fox.'
Naruto noticed Kakashi's hesitation and assumed something was wrong. "Umm. Hey am I going to be okay?" Naruto was on the verge of freaking out again.
"You should be fine." Kakashi said finishing up bandaging him.
"Kakashi." Tazuna began. "About the mission." Everyone looked to Tazuna in interest. "You're right this mission is most likely outside of your duties. You see an incredibly dangerous man is after me because of what I'm doing. You've probably heard his name before. He's the wealthy shipping magnate, Gatou." Everyone but Kakashi looked confused. "Gatou? Head of the Gatou Corporation? He's said to be one of the worlds few extremely wealthy people." Bill, Naruto and Hinata were still trying to make sense of what he's saying.
"Yes. Officially he runs a large shipping company but it's actually a cover-up for his underground activities like selling drugs and illegal items. He uses ninja's and gang members to take over countries and businesses. He's a very nasty man."
"No kiddin." Bill stated and everyone nodded in agreement.
"Gatou set his eyes on the Wave Country a year ago and through money and violence he quickly took control of the country's shipping industry. He now has a monopoly on all the business traffic in the country. We quickly became poor and impoverished because it cost so much to import goods. As a way out I gathered a workforce and began the construction of a large bridge to connect us to the mainland. Gatou fears if the bridge is completed he will lose his stranglehold on the country." He finished.
"I see now." Kakashi said. "If he kills the leader of the bridge the workers will flee, is that it?" Tazuna nodded. "But what I don't understand is, if you knew ninja were after you why did you hide that fact when you hired us?"
"Like I said, the Wave Country is really poor now. Even the Feudal Lord has no money. Of course we didn't have enough for the expensive B rank mission." Everyone pitied the old man right now.
"Well… if you quit the mission now, I'll defiantly be killed. But I'm asking you to just get me home, please!
Kakashi sighed. "Well I guess we have no choice. If we leave you, it will bring a bad reputation to our village. We'll protect you, at least until you get back to your country."
"They failed? I paid you a lot of money because I heard you were very strong former ninja." A midget of a man with a grey suit and hair and black round glasses said. A man sitting on the couch in front of him gripped his big ass sword and swung it dangerously close to his neck.
"Stop your whining, the Demon Brothers assumed something during a battle. A fatal mistake. This time I'll go myself and kill them." The man said.
"Are you sure?" The midget said. "It seems the enemy has hired some very skilled ninja and with the failure of the demon brothers they'll be better prepared."
"Who do you think I am?" The man said. "There's a reason why I am called the Demon of the hidden mist."
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