I don't own Naruto. Enjoy the story. RandR.

-Mika-

Today was Squad 7's first mission. We were hiding in the trees waiting for orders. Everything was quiet as I waited for a response on the communicator.

"Sasuke, I'm at point B." Sasuke said.

"Sakura, I'm at point C." Sakura followed.

"Mika, I'm at point D." I replied.

Then there was a moment of silence.

"Naruto, I'm at point A. Believe it!" Naruto said last.

"You're slow Naruto." Kakashi said "Okay squad 7... hm?" he trailed off until "TARGET HAS MOVED! FOLLOW IT!" he said.

We quickly and quietly followed it and hid so it won't see us.

"Over there." Naruto whispered.

"How far are you away from the target?" Kakashi asked.

"Five meters. I'm ready, just give me the signal." Naruto said.

"I'm ready too." Sasuke said.

"So am I." I added.

"Me too." Sakura responded.

"Ok…" We got ready. "Now!"

We all pounced at it, together. Naruto was the one who caught it.

"I got em', I got em'." he said as the cat meowed and thrashed in his grip.

"Can you confirm a red ribbon on the right ear?" Kakashi asked.

"Affirmative, we got a positive ID" Sasuke answered with a bored like tone.

I looked at Naruto. The cat was scratching, clawing, and stomping on him. I picked up the cat and held it out in front of me. I stared at it for a moment and smiled. I gave the cat to Sakura and Naruto just glared at the cat.

-Kakashi-

"Right, lost pet Tora captured, mission accomplished" I said happily now that this mission was over.

"CAN'T WE GET A BETTER MISSION THAN THIS? I HATE CATS!" Naruto yelled making the communicator get all fuzzy and screechy like.

"OW, MY EAR! NARUTO DON'T YELL!" Mika said sounding very pissed off.

-In the Hokage's tower-

-Mika-

"Oh Tora! My poor little Tora! Mommy was so worried about you! You naughty little fuzzykins!" Tora's owner said as she squished Tora against her.

"Ha Ha Ha! Stupid cat! That kitty deserves to be squashed!" Naruto said a grin on his face.

"No wonder the cat ran away." I said.

"Now then, for squad 7's next mission..." the hokage said trailing off as he read the 'missions' we would be doing. Though, what he read off, I didn't even think that they were even considered missions at all. "There are several available tasks. Babysitting the chief councilors three year old, helping his wife to do the shopping, digging up potatoes in the-"

"NOO!" Naruto said cutting him off. "I want to go on a real mission" he whined making an X with his arms as if to show his point more. "Something challenging and exciting! Not this kid stuff! Come on old man!" he complained.

"Ya know…" I started.

"Naruto's right." Sakura said.

"But he's so annoying." Sasuke finished.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Iruka-sensei called out. "YOU'RE JUST BRAND NEW GENIN WITH NO EXPERIENCE! LIKE EVERY ONE ELSE! YOU START WITH SIMPLE MISSIONS THAT DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS SO YOU CAN PROVE YOURSELF!" he shouted at Naruto.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS? BABYSITTING ISN'T A MISSION IT'S JUST A STUPID- AHHH!" Naruto said but I shut him up with a whack on the head. "MIKA, THAT HURT!" he whined.

"Naruto, just shut up for a few minutes will ya." I said.

"Naruto! It seems you do not understand the tasks that are given to you" the hokage said. We all looked at the hokage. Listen" he started, "many different kinds if requests come into our village every day. From babysitting to assassination." he explained.

'Great, now he's gonna lecture us.' I thought to myself.

"These requests are carefully analyzed and then ranked A, B, C or D depending on their difficulty. We ninja are also ranked by abilities. Hokage at the top, Jounin, Chuinin, and genin at the bottom. At the highest level we select missions and assign them to ninja who have the appropriate skill and experience, and if the mission is successful then we receive a fee that supports our village and our work." he said.

"Like the cat retrieval mission you just went on. Tora's owner gave us a fee and that will help our village" Iruka said.

"Right, since you are genin just starting down the shinobi path you are given D level assignments of course" he explained but we were all listening to Naruto who was talking about Ramen.

"So I had this ramen yesterday and I'm thinking of having some miso ramen tonight" he said. Surprisingly, even Sasuke was listening to him.

None of us were paying attention, until "SCILENCE!" the hokage yelled at us.

"Oh, sorry" Kakashi said.

"Ugh! You always lecture me like you're my grandfather or something! But I'm not the little brat who used to pull pranks all the time! I'm a ninja now and I want a ninja mission!" he told him angrily as he turned his back to him and pouted like a child.

"Hmm... I'm going to hear about this later." I heard Kakashi mutter quietly.

The hokage started laughing and I turned seeing both the old man and Iruka smiling "So, Naruto wants us to know that he's not a brat only a former brat and he wants a mission. So be it" he said. All of squad seven was surprised.

"Since you are so determined, I'm going to give you a C ranked mission. You'll be bodyguards on a journey" the Hokage said with a smile.

"REALLY? YES! WHO? WHO? ARE WE GUARDING A PRINCESS? OR SOME BIG TIME COUNSELOR?" Naruto asked getting excited.

"Oh don't be so impatient, I'll bring him in now" he said to us before calling out "Send in our visitor".

All of us turned towards the door curious to see who we would be protecting. We waited only a few moments before the door slid open and the person who came in was … a drunken old man?

"What the? A bunch of snot nosed brats?" he commented sounding annoyed. If he was just a stranger on the street, either me or Sasuke would at least give him a good punch to the face. He took a chug of his drink. "And you... the little one with the idiotic look on his face, you really expect me to believe you're a ninja?" he said pointing at us.

"AHAHAHAHA! Who's the little one with the idiotic look on his face?" Naruto asked laughing. We all stood around Naruto to compare our heights. Sasuke was the tallest, about two inches taller than me and Sakura. Sakura and I were about the same height, an inch taller than Naruto. Simply put, Naruto was the smallest. Once he realized it "I'LL DEMOLISH YOU!" he said angrily as he struggled to get out of Kakashi's grip to go beat up the old drunk man.

"Naruto, we do not demolish our clients. It doesn't work that way." Kakashi said.

"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 up your life" he explained. 'Talk about strait forward.' I thought to myself.

"Right, but first we need to get our things together." I said.

"We'll all go home to pack and we'll meet at the gates in ten minutes." Kakashi said. We all nodded and left.

-10 minutes later-

We were all at the gates ready to leave, even Kakashi was on time.

Naruto was the first one to pass through the gates "YAHHH!" he yelled pumping his fists into the air. "Alright!" he yelled excitedly.

"What are you getting all excited for?" Sakura asked in a snobby voice.

"This is the first time I've been out of the village I'm a traveler now! Believe it!" Naruto said glancing at his surroundings.

"Hey! Am I supposed to trust my life with this runt? He's a joke!" Tazuna said.

"Out of all people, why did we have to escort an insulting, judgmental, drunk old man?" I mumbled under my breath.

Kakashi chuckled "He's with me and I'm a jounin so you don't need to worry" he assured Tazuna.

"HEY! Never insult a ninja! It's a big mistake! AND I'm one of the greatest ninja ever! Some day I'm going to be hokage and you're going to look up to me! My name's Naruto Uzumaki! REMEMBER IT!" Naruto exclaimed.

Tazuna took another swig of his drink before looking back at us skeptically. "Hokage's are powerful and wise, you're puny and brainless. The day you become hokage is the day I'll sprout wings and fly" Tazuna told him.

'Well that was rude and mean.' I thought to myself. Sure, Naruto gets annoying when he keeps on ranting about that all the time, but that doesn't mean you can crush his dreams and try to put him down. Personally, I think it's good for Naruto to have a dream like that. Those kind of dreams is what motivates us to never give in to anything and don't let anything drag us down. Unlike my dream, he wants to make a name for himself in the village and prove to others that he isn't what they think he is. While my dream on the other hand only focuses on me getting revenge. Even if I know that it can lead to no good, I stick to it. But now I regret it. Sure I want to get revenge for my clan, but I also want to prove to others that I am not a monster; I want to prove that I am someone, like Naruto.

"AHH SHUT UP! I'M WILLING TO DO ANYTHING TO BECOME HOKAGE! NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES! AND WHEN I DO EVRYONE WILL HAVE TO ADMIT THAT I'M THE TOP NINJA! INCLUDING YOU!" Naruto angrily yelled out.

"You can become hokage ten times over and to me it'll mean nothing to me you'll still be nobody. Just a loser." Tazuna said taking another swig.

At this point, I was getting extremely annoyed and extremely pissed off. "Can you both just please shut up so we can get going and get this mission over with already! Good lord." I started walking. Can he be any more insulting? No, no, scratch that. Don't think about it. If I do, it might just happen.

-Later-

We've been walking for over an hour now and there hasn't been much conversation between us. I would talk to Sasuke a bit and sometimes Naruto, but mainly I just looked around at the scenery, I havn't been out of the leaf village for a long time now. Akari came along with us; she was flying around with the other birds. Sakura was also looking around at the scenery.

"Say Mr. Tazuna" Sakura started.

"What is it?" he asked annoyed.

"Your country is the land of waves, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, what of it?" he asked her rudely.

"Kakashi-sensei there are ninja in that country too... aren't there?" she asked Kakashi curiously.

"No there are no ninja in the land of waves. But in other countries there are hidden villages. Each with their own different customs and cultures. Where ninja reside. To the people of this continent the existence of shinobi villages mean strength. Military strength. In other words that's how they protect themselves and maintain the balance of power in neighboring countries. The ninja villages are not controlled by any government their independent and have equal status. Now a small island like the land of waves has natural protection from the surrounding sea, so there's no need for a ninja village. The seven ancient lands that have shinobi villages are the lands of fire, water, lightening, wind, earth, sun, and moon. They each occupy large territories, Together they are known as the & great shinobi villages. The land of fire has our home, the village hidden in the leaves. The land of water has the village hidden in the mist. The land of lightening has the village hidden in the clouds. The land of wind has the village hidden in the sand, the land of earth has the village hidden in the stones," Then I cut Kakashi off.

"The land of the sun is the village hidden in the light, and the land of the moon is the village hidden in the darkness. My ancestors came from those villages. Only the leaders of these villages are permitted the name kage, which means shadow. The Hokage, Mizukage, Riakage, Kazekage, Tsuchikage, Arikage, and Yamikage. These are the leaders, the seven shadows that reign over thousands of ninja. Right Sensei?" I said.

"Yes, that is correct Mika." Kakashi praised me.

"How did you know all that Mika?" Naruto asked.

"My father told me this when I was younger." I said.

"OMG! That means Lord Hokage is really important!" Sakura squealed.

"Of course he is. Without him, our village may fall into chaos." I said.

Naruto and Sakura had 'yeah right' kinda look on their faces.

"Hey! You two just doubted Lord Hokage didn't you? That's what you were thinking." Kakashi said angrily. Naruto and Sakura now had shocked looks on their faces as they started frantically shaking there heads. Well, anyway there are no ninja battles in a C ranked mission. So you can relax." Kakashi told us.

"And we're not going to run into any foreign enemy ninja or anything like that." Sakura said.

"Not likely." Kakashi said.

Naruto and Sasuke looked slightly upset; I have to admit I was too. Tazuna looked…troubled? Diffidently troubled, something was really bugging him but what was it? I have a bad feeling about this, but I shrugged it off.

We walked along the path in silence. We were all of us lost in our own thoughts. Occasionally there would be birds chirping or a stream flowing but we still stayed silent.

As we walked along the path, I noticed a puddle. I looked at Kakashi and he looked at me for a moment, then we just went back to walking. After we walked for about two more minutes until I heard a sound coming from behind us. Then suddenly chains with spikes on them flew through the air and wrapped themselves tightly around Kakashi.

"What? No!" Kakashi yelled out noticing he had gotten caught.

"Kakashi sensei!" I yelled out.

"WHAT?" Naruto yelled in surprise.

The two ninja holding the chains pulled on them harder until it cut Kakashi into peaces. I heard Sakura scream and Naruto stood there shocked. I was frozen in my place 'he could have used a jutsu to escape right? But what if he didn't? No! Focus Mika! Kakashi's fine!' I thought to myself. When I finally snapped back to reality, the two ninja ran up behind Naruto and flung the chains at him.

"NARUTO!" I yelled out.

Suddenly, shuriken and kunai flew out from behind me and pinned the chains to a tree, the ninja were stuck. Then I saw Sasuke land right in front of the two ninjas and he kicked them both in the face. The chains broke and they were free again. Sasuke got Naruto out of the way. One of the ninja was headed strait for Tazuna. Sakura protectively stood in front of him, but the ninja was still aiming to kill. Sasuke was fighting the other one, and he wasn't able to help. I quickly got in front of Sakura and stopped the ninja's claws with my ninja sword that I brought with me. Once I stopped his attack, I kicked him away from Sakura and Tazuna. I ran at him but he had it coming this time. He stopped my attack, kicked me in my stomach, and pinned me to the ground.

"Crap." I cursed. I was too slow and now he has the upper hand on me.

"You're finished." He raised his hand and swung it down at me.

"MIKA!" I heard my team mates call out.

I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself, but the pain never hit me. I opened my eyes and saw Kakashi in front of me, holding the two ninja by the neck.

I sighed in relief "Could you have shown up before he tried to kill me?" I said a bit annoyed as I slowly sat up.

"Kakashi- sensei used the replacement juitsu..." Naruto said with awe looking at the logs that covered the ground. I walked over to Naruto and helped him up "Thanks Mika." Naruto said.

"No prob." I said.

"Sorry for not coming earlier, I didn't think you would freeze up like that, Naruto. Sorry that you had to get hurt like that Mika. Are you ok?" Kakashi said

"I'll survive." I replied with a small smile.

Once Kakashi tied up the two ninjas, "Anyway, good job Sasuke and Mika you both were very smooth and jumped in right away. Oh and you did good too Sakura" Kakashi told us.

I looked at Naruto's hand; it had a cut on it, probably from those ninjas. Speaking of those ninjas, my stomach was still hurting a bit from that kick one of them gave me.

"You ok Mika?" Sasuke asked me.

"Just peachy." I replied placing my hand on my stomach.

"What's wrong Mika?" Naruto asked.

"It's nothing; just my stomach is still hurting a bit." I said giving him a light smile.

"Hey..." Sasuke said to Naruto. "You're not hurt are ya?... scaredy cat." Sasuke said with a smirk.

"Really?" I said to him. He just shrugged.

"SASUKE!" Naruto yelled angrily at him getting very agitated.

"Naruto, calm down and try not to move too much." I said to him "Those ninjas had poison in their claws. Stay still to prevent it from spreading ok?" I said as he looked at the cut on his hand.

"Mika's right Naruto. The poison is in your blood so you shouldn't move around too much like Mika said. We nee to open the wound to get the blood out." Kakashi said as Naruto nodded. "Bye the way Mr. Tazuna" Kakashi turned to look at the old man.

"Uh... yea?" he asked sounding really nervous.

"We need to talk" Kakashi said.

-A few minutes later-

"There ninja are chuunin from the Village hidden in the Mist, there specialty is relentless attack. They won't stop fighting no matter what." Kakashi told us.

"How did you know about our attack?" One of them asked.

"The puddle. Don't you think it's strange to see a puddle even when it hasn't rained in days." I said.

"Mika is the most observant member of our team, so it's no surprise she caught it." Kakashi said as Akari pitched on my shoulder.

"Well if you knew that, then why did you leave it too the runts?" Tazuna asked annoyed.

'Runts?' Don't call me a runt.

"I could have taken them out easily, but I needed to see who they were after. It might have been us leaf shinobi or you. And I needed to know what they were after." Kakashi explained looking at Tazuna.

"Hmm? What are you getting at?" Tazuna asked nervously.

"He wanted to know if they were coming after us; Ninja attacking ninja; or you Mr. Bridge builder!" I told him.

"That's right, Mr. Tazuna what you put in your request you only asked for the standard protection, from robbers and highway men. You never said there were ninja after you. People hunting you down. If we had known that then this would have been ranked as a B or even higher. We were only supposed to get you safely to your destination. Then protect you as you built your bridge..." Kakashi explained and started to explain how the missions are ranked and so forth. "... we are now way beyond the scope of this mission" Kakashi said now done with scolding Tazuna.

"We're only genin this is way too advanced for our level. We should go back to the village, and don't forget Naruto is hurt." Sakura said.

"Hmm... Naruto's hand could become a problem... The poison is probably spreading as we speak..." Kakashi said.

I turned to Naruto and he had a kunai in his hand. The next thing I knew, he stabbed his infected hand. I gasped, not good; he's loosing way too much blood.

He looked angry "Why am I so different?... why am I so..." Naruto trailed off.

Sakura rushed forward "Naruto stop it!" she said sounding concerned.

"I worked so hard to get here! I did everything I could to get stronger and I tried so hard to get here. I never back down. I will never let some one else rescue me. I won't run and I will not lose to Sasuke. Mr. Bridge builder, I swear on this kunai that I will protect you no matter what." Naruto said with a determined smile.

I inwardly smiled. He can be loud, annoying, restless, and talkative but most of all, he is determined. Though his hand is still a problem.

"Naruto, that was great and all but... of you lose anymore blood then you're going to die" Kakashi told him.

Naruto turned blue and he started trembling.

"It would be a good idea if we stopped the bleeding now." Kakashi said while grinning under his mask.

That's when Naruto lost it "AHHHH! NO NO I DON'T WANNA DIE! I CANT DIE!" he went on and on about it for a few minutes while failing his arms in the air, completely freaked out. I walked over to him and grabbed his wounded hand. Kakashi also took a look. His wound was already starting to heal, probably from the nine tail fox demon in him.

"Uhh…" Naruto said nervously as we looked at him "You guys look so serious and it's starting to scare me. Am I gonna be ok?" he asked shaking in fear.

"Oh, uh, yeah you'll be fine." Kakashi said as I wrapped up Naruto's hand.

Now it's time to move on. "C'mon guys. Let's get goin. To the Land of the waves we go!" I said excitedly as we continued on.

I'm done with this chapter, finally. Now I don't need to worry about this one anymore.

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