Hey! I'm back! Err, yeah, so I am ready to write some more episodes, are you ready to read? Hahaha, I also have other stories so I will not be concentrating on only one. I will finish all of them, it just may take some time. So anyway, in this chapter you will see the first glimpse of Tazuna, and what Naruto thinks of him. And what will Nobuo and Junko do? (and take note: I am not a Sasuke fan, but I will not make him look like a blundering fool. Just cause of the awkwardness it may cause Sasuke fans, I will not show him any disrespect, that is my vow to this story. )

Ch. 6 Dangerous mission! Journey to the land of waves.

Team 7 had just done a 'rescue mission' to 'save' the poor cat Tora and get her to be brung back to her master. Tora, however, seemed to not want to go back. And later they found out why.

The wife of the fire lord, the man who ruled their country, was almost smothering it, no wonder the poor thing ran away.

"stupid cat, that kitty deserves to be squashed" Naruto said looking at the cat, all the trouble he went through to get that damn thing, he was glad it was getting hurt.

"no wonder he ran away" Sakura looked sadly at the cat. Animals shouldn't be treated like that, but, what could she say? What was she a fresh genin talking back to the feudal lords wife? Was she out of her mind?

The Hokage tried to assign them their next mission which, of course, Naruto was against.

"No! I wanna go on a real mission! Something challenging and exciting! Not baby stuff!" the blonde idiot jumped up and held his arms in a cross over in the air, signaling that he would not go on another normal mission. Sasuke and Sakura silently agreed with him.

" how dare you! You are a fresh genin who has no experience, so you must start out with simple missions to develop you skills !" Iruka yelled at Naruto and the Hokage tipped his hat, already feeling the argument coming on.

"are you kidding me? Babysitting is not a mission, it's a stupid ch-" he got knocked down by their new sensei, Kakashi Hatake.

"will you put a lid on it." he said sighing.

"Naruto it seems you do not understand the tasks you are given." the Hokage said slowly, he couldn't believe he had to explain this. "many kinds of requests come in our village every day. From babysitting to assassination. These request are carefully read, analyzed then ranked A B C or D" he decided not to tell Naruto about S rank missions, oh because. He's Naruto, " we ninja are also ranked, Hokage, Jonin, Chuunin and Genin at the bottom, we rank missions due to ones ability, and if it is successful, we receive a fee to help support our village. Since you are fresh genin, just starting down the road to become a Shinobi, you are given D rank missions." when he looked up though Naruto was talking about something way of topic and the others were paying more attention to him then to the Hokages little speech. "silence!" he ordered.

"oh Sorry" Kakashi apologized as he scratched the back of his head.

"Gah, you always lecture me like you're my grand father or something!" Naruto yelled as he turned back toward the Hokage.

Which caught him a little of guard.

"but I' not a little kid anymore who pulls pranks. Ima ninja, and I want a ninja mission!"

The Hokage sighed then chuckled, and so did Iruka. " Naruto wants us to know he's not a brat, he's a former brat. He wants to prove that with a real mission.. So be it."

Naruto gasped a little, what? Did the old man really say that? What was going on?

"since you are so determined I will give you a C ranked mission. You will be bodyguards on a journey."

"REALLY! Yes! Who who? Are we guarding a princess? Or or.. A famous councilor?"

"don't be so impatient, I will send him in now." the Hokage smiled and as if right on cue, someone opened the door.

"what the.. A bunch o' snot nosed punks?" the man was tall and old, not as old as the Hokage but close to it. He had a gray beard and a mustache to go along with it. He had liquor in his hand and brung it up and gulped it down. He had glasses place low on his face and most of his head was bald. He had a towel around his neck and he wore a dark nasty green over longed shirt and tanned pants. He had a drunk look on his face, and the Liquor might suggest that. And it was in his voice as well.

"and you the short one that looks like and Idiot. You really expect me to think you're a ninja?"

Naruto laughed " oh well who is the short one?" wait. He looked up at Sasuke. No he was taller Naruto made a face, Sakura? No she was taller as well. Then.. Wait, this old man called him small and stupid! Naruto pouted. Then he tried to attack the drunk man while Kakashi holding him back

"why you! I'll demolish you!"

"you can't demolish the client." Kakashi sighed, the blonde ninja made a face. "it doesn't work that way."

The man took another gulp of his liquor and said. " I am Tazuna. A master bridge builder, and I must return to my country. I am building a bridge that will change our world, and I need you to get me there safely even if it means giving up your life.

Kakashi made a face, was Tazuna trying to scare the children? If it was just a C rank mission, there was really nothing to worry about.

And so they left the village the whole way Naruto was cheering about how he got a real mission. Nobuo and Junko watched them leave, a worried look on the young mans face made Junko wonder what was really on this mission. Could it be-? No, there was no way.

"Nobuo…."

And of course Naruto told Tazuna that one day he would become hokage, and Tazuna's reply was something like this.

"Hokages are powerful and wise, you are puny and brainless. The day you become Hokage.. Why I'll spout wings and fly." he drunk some of his liquor after he said that. And Naruto screamed. How dare he insult him. How dare he.

Kakashi had to hold Naruto down again and Nobuo silently followed them from behind, he was no ninja, he had failed Kakashi's test. But he had great skill. That being because he was different than any human. In fact he was not human.

They walked down the road and Sakura piped up

"Say, mister Tazuna"

"yeah what is it?"

"your country is the land of waves, isn't it?"

" yeah, what of it." the drunkard took another gulp. As Sakura turned to Kakashi,

"Kakashi-sensei, there are ninja in that country right?"

"no, there are no ninja in the land of waves, but in other countries, there are hidden villages. Where ninja reside.

In this continent the existence of shinobi means strength, military strength. In other words that's how they protect themselves and maintain the balance of power with neighboring countries.

The ninja villages are not controlled by any country, they are independent and have equal status. A small land like the Land of Waves has natural protection from the sea, so there is no need for a ninja village. The five great countries that are known to posses hidden villages are the Land of Fire, the Land of Water, the Land of Lightning, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Earth. They each occupy vast territory and together they are known as the Five Great Nations. The Land of Fire has the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the Land of Water has the Village Hidden in the Mist, the Land of Lightning has the Village hidden in the Clouds, the Land of Wind has the Village hidden in the Sand, and the Land of Earth has the village hidden in the Stones. Only the leaders of these villages are permitted the name Kage, which means Shadow. Hokage, Mizukage, Riakage, Kazekage, Tsuchikage, these are the five shadows that reign over thousand of ninja. "

Sakura then let out a gasp "then Lord Hokage must be really important." but in her head she was not so sure how an old geezer was so important to the shinobi world. Naruto was thinking on how can someone so great fall down to his sexy jutsu… ha no way he could be that powerful.

"hey!" Kakashi glared at the new genin " you all just doubted lord Hokage, didn't you" Sakura and Naruto tried to deny it and fought madly against the expressions they has on their faces "well, anyway," he patted Sakura's head " they are no ninja battles in C rank missions. You can relax"

"and we aren't going to get ambushed by rouge ninja then?" she sounded relived at that Kakashi laughed and said that they weren't likely to meet any other ninja on this mission. Tazuna had a grave look on his face and hide it with his hat.

They walked several miles along the road to get to the land of waves, Kakashi looked strangely at a small puddle on the ground then he looked straight at the sky and got a worried expression on his face, it seemed like they were in for more than they bargained for.

It happened all of the sudden and Kakashi had little time to react, two rouge ninja jumped out of the small puddle and ambushed the group, Kakashi was held in chains unable to move.

All the genin were in shock, the ninja then slashed Kakashi into oblivion.

And Naruto felt paralyzed, if the shinobi could take the sensei down like that. What chance did he have? He felt the cold voice on his neck from behind

"now it your turn," Naruto didn't have time to turn around, he didn't know what to do. Sasuke, out of instinct took out two Shuuriken and stopped the chains from wrapping around Naruto. The man was stuck now, Sasuke jumped on their arms and faced kicked both of them, Naruto was awed. The chains broke and the men barely stood up, taking notice of the raven haired boys skill.

But then one went right past Sasuke and Aimed for the bridge builder, Sakura with every once of courage at her hand jumped forward in front of Tazuna with a small knife in her hand ready to fend of any who would hurt the master bridge builder. Sasuke however jumped in front of Sakura, his eyes fierce.

The mans neck was caught in Kakashi arm in one swift move, the man who was thought dead, saved Sasuke and Sakura.

Naruto looked back at where he thought Kakashi was killed and saw it was a pile of logs, he had used the substitution jutsu.

"Naruto, I'm sorry I didn't help right away. I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I just thought you wouldn't freeze up like that." he said with a little disappointment in his voice. He congratulated on Sasuke and Sakura's behavior in the situation, which made poor Naruto feel worse, Sasuke's teasing made him then furious.

"Naruto! Stay still, the ninja used poison in their claws you have to get it out of you immediately," Naruto eyes went wide and he stared at the small closed cut in his hand, the poison inside it could kill him. Could kill him " you have to open the wound and remove it." Kakashi instructed, "by the way, Tazuna. We need to talk" the last statement seemed ominous, Tazuna then realized he was not safe from the man.

Kakashi tied them up, and said to Tazuna "they are shinobi from the hidden mist, their specially is relentless attack."

" how did you know about our ambush?" one of them questioned to Kakashi.

"a puddle, on a clear day, when it hasn't rained for weeks? I could've taken them out quickly, but then I would have learned nothing. I had to know who their target was, and what they were after." he glared at Tazuna

"what are you getting at?" the drunkard asked.

"this; wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja, or if it was you, the great master bridge builder of the village hidden in the waves. When you put in your request you asked for standard protection, from robbers and highwaymen. You never said ninja were involved. If you had said this, the mission would be a B rank or higher, it would have been staffed differently, and cost more."

Tazuna held his head down and Sakura piped up "we're genin, this is to advanced for us, we should go back, and I think we should get the poison out of Naruto, back at the village we could do that with out any trouble at all" Kakashi considered what Sakura said and looked at Naruto who then gasped. "Naruto's hand could become a problem, I guess we should go back to the village." he sighed and Naruto gasped, No way he let this mission become a failure because of him, no way. He took out a kunai knife and did what you can only imagine Naruto doing, he stabbed the knife through his own hand, he gritted his teeth at the pain, but at least the poison was gone now. He made a vow.

"I spent so many hours of work to get here, spending hours working alone, getting stronger. Anything to reach my dream. I will never back down again, I will never let someone else have to save me. I will never run away, I will never lose to Sasuke, upon this wound, I make the vow, believe it! bridge builder, I will complete this mission, and protect you with this kunai knife!"

"Naruto, that was really cool how you took the poison out and all, but if you lose anymore blood. Your going to die."

Naruto began shivering and trying to hide the fact he was freaking out, and Kakashi added. "it's a good Idea to stop the bleeding now"

Naruto began running around shouting out how he didn't want to die and, oh like Naruto. Kakashi then patched him up by tying a bandage around it, Kakashi noticed that his hand was almost healed up and thought how outstanding it was. Could it be because of the fox?