The four genin spread themselves apart, each taking a place behind one of the many trees.
"What's the distance to the target?" Kakashi asked into his headset.
"Five meters. I'm ready anytime," said one voice.
"So am I," another joined.
"Me too," that was three.
"Oh you are such a pretty looking tree!" A voice chirped in.
"Mayumi-chan, stop talking to the tree," Kakashi told her.
"But Otou-san! I named it Billy!"
"No."
"Fine...I'm ready."
"Okay! Go!"
The four students jumped out of their hiding spots and went for the cat. Naruto's shouts were heard as he grabbed a hold of the animal. The scared cat swiped it's claws at the blonde while Sakura watched amused.
"Ribbon on the left ear...Are you sure this is the target, Tora?" Kakashi's voice rang into the genin's headsets.
"Yeah, we're sure," Sasuke assured him.
"I miss Billy!" Mayumi cried.
Kakashi shook his head at her cry but other whys ignored it, "Good, Lost Pet "Tora" Search Mission...Complete!"
*Later*
"Oh my cute little Tora-chan I was so worried," the strange woman strangled her poor cat.
'Gyahaha! In you face you stupid cat,' Naruto thought.
'No wonder it ran away,' Sakura stared at the poor animal.
'…' Sasuke just thought it weird.
'I left Billy for this!' Mayumi glared in disbelief.
The woman walked out with her cat which was probably going to be dead before she got out of the building. The four genin and their Sensei waited for their next mission hoping for a something a little better.
"Now...Kakashi's Team seven, your next duty is...Hmm...Babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping in the neighboring village, and help with the potato digging," the third Hokage read aloud.
"No! No! No! No, Thank you! I want to do, you know, a more incredible mission! Find us a better one!" Naruto shouted.
"You idiot!" Iruka yelled as he stood up. "You're just a rookie! Everyone starts off with the simple duties and works their way up!"
"But! But! We keep getting the crappiest possible duties!"
Kakashi hit the boy on the head, "Be quiet you!"
Mayumi backed away from the man quickly, placing her next to Sasuke. Sasuke gave her a strange look. She looked over, smiled, then moved Sakura between them.
"Naruto, it seems I have to explain to you what these duties are all about," the Hokage told him. "Listen, everyday the village receives numerous requests, from babysitting...to assassination. Each request is written down on these lists...and divided into an A, B, C, D ranking based on difficulty. The village is also divided based on skill. Staring with me the Hokage, Jonin, Chuunin, and Genin. The missions are then handed out by us at the top to ninjas based on their abilities...and if the duty is completed successfully, we receive payment from the client.
"You guys just recently became Genin. D-rank missions are perfect for you," he finished.
"Last night I had pork ramen, so miso sounds good for..." Naruto muttered to himself.
"I...I apologize..." Kakashi said as he scratched the back of head nervously.
"Geez! All you do is give lectures like that," Naruto shouted. "But you know what? I'm not the trouble-making brat you still think I am!" The blonde turned away and started to pout.
The third looked them over, "Okay. If you want it that much... I'll give you a C-rank mission. It's a protection mission of a certain individual."
Mayumi hid her giggle when she seen Kakashi's look, Sasuke and Sakura just stared in shock, and Naruto shouted out happily.
"Who? Who? A Feudal Lord? A princess?"
"Calm down, I'm about to introduce him. Hey, will you come in here?"
The door behind them opened and they turned to look. An old man showed himself with a bottle of sake in his hand.
"What's this?" He asked. "They're all a bunch of super brats. Especially...The shortest one with the super stupid-looking face. Are you really a Ninja?"
Naruto looked back and forth between his comrades, "Haha! Who's the shortest one with the stupid face..."
Naruto fell quiet when he realized that Sasuke stood about three inches taller, Sakura about two, and Mayumi about one, "I'll kill you!"
Kakashi grabbed hold of the boy as he tried to attack the man, "What's the point of killing the person we're supposed to protect? Baka!"
"I am the super expert bridge builder Tazuna. I expect you to provide me super protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge," the old man called 'Tazuna', told them.
*Another Later*
"Let's go!" Naruto shouted out happily.
"What are you so excited about?" Sakura asked him.
The four genin, their Sensei, and Tazuna stood outside of the village gates, each one of them with a backpack full of their supplies. Sasuke glared at Mayumi, who was avoiding him completely, Sakura glared at Naruto for acting stupid, Mayumi smiled nervously at Sasuke trying to put Kakashi between them, and Naruto looked around in excitement.
"Cause...I've never left the village before."
"...Hey!" Tazuna shouted, turning to Kakashi and pointing at Naruto, "Am I really going to be safe with this brat?"
"Hehe...Well, I am a Jonin, don't worry," the man tried to reassure him.
Naruto crossed his arms, "Hey, old man! Don't mess with ninjas! I'm incredible! One day I will take on the super elite ninja title Hokage! My name is Uzumaki Naruto! Remember it!"
"Hokage is the village's number one ninja, right?" The old man asked. "I doubt someone like you could become it..."
"Shut up!" Naruto yelled, "I'm prepared to do anything to become Hokage! Once I become Hokage you will acknowledge me!"
Tazuna took a drink from his bottle, "No I won't, you brat...Even if you did become Hokage."
"I'll kill you!" Naruto shouted and charged at the man again.
Kakashi stopped him, "I said stop moron.
The group started to walk each trying to keep up with each other. Naruto and Mayumi had skipped for a short time before they both got tired. Naruto went back to flirting with Sakura who looked like she would kill him if he didn't give it a break. Kakashi watched his students to see that each of them were doing their own thing while they walked. Naruto was being loud, Sakura was walking happily next to Sasuke, Mayumi was trying to keep Sasuke away from her, and Sasuke was getting angry with Mayumi.
The blue haired girl walked over to Tazuna and stared at him, "You're kinda old for a bridge builder."
"And you're weird for a girl."
She huffed out her cheeks, "I am not! I'm perfectly normal! Right Otou-san?"
The silvered haired man shook his head, "Yeah, sure okay."
"Otou-san?..." Tazuna looked at Kakashi then to Mayumi. "So you two are related then? I feel bad for you to have to put up with her."
Kakashi laughed slightly while Mayumi glared at the man.
"Umm...Tazuna-san?" Sakura asked.
"What?"
"You're from the Wave Country, right?"
"What about it?"
"Umm...Kakashi-sensei? Do they have ninjas in that country too?" She asked looking back at the man.
"No, not in the Wave Country. But... In most other countries the culture and customs may be different, but hidden villages exist, and so do ninjas," he didn't stop there. "To the many countries of the continent, the existence of a Shinobi Village means military power. This is how they hold and maintain advantages over each other. But, it's not that the Villages rule the countries, they merely stand equally with the country's government. A small island country like the Wave Country doesn't receive much interference from the lager countries and may not need a Shinobi Village.
"Within the many Shinobi Villages, Leaf, Mist, Cloud, Sand, and Stone are large and powerful and thus are referred to as The Great Five Shinobi Countries. And, these are the only countries whose leader receives the name "Kage". The "Five Kages", Hokage, Mizukage, Raikage, Kazekage, and Tsuchikage, they reign over the thousands of ninjas in the world."
"Wow! Hokage-sama is the best!" Sakura cheered.
"No wonder why Naruto-san wants to me the Hokage..." Mayumi muttered.
"You guys just doubted Hokage-sama didn't you?" Kakashi asked his students, he then placed his hand on Sakura's head as if to pet her. "But don't worry, there won't be any ninja combat in a C-Rank mission."
"Then we won't come in contact with foreign ninjas?" She asked happily.
"Of course no! Hahahaha!" Kakashi laughed.
Tazuna looked down causing the Uchiha boy to turn his attention to him. Sasuke frowned.
He grunted when someone elbowed him in the stomach, "What!" He snapped quietly.
Mayumi stepped away from him, "I only wanted to ask what was wrong."
"Hn."
The purple-eyed girl glared at him and started to walk next to Naruto. Sasuke fell back slightly so that he could keep an eye on the oldest man. Sakura seemed happy knowing that she wasn't going to have to fight, Naruto was just plain annoyed by Tazuna, Sasuke was thinking to himself, and Mayumi was glaring at the ground but quickly cheered up.
"What?"
Everyone turned around to find Kakashi had been tied up by what looked like two ninja.
"Huh?" Sakura gasped.
"What's this?" Naruto shouted in his shocked state.
"Otou-san!" Mayumi cried getting worried.
They watched as their Sensei was cut into pieces. Mayumi screamed at the top of her lungs but didn't run to the seen, he had told her never to do something stupid like that. The ninja appeared behind Naruto. They started to move their chains around him so that he wouldn't be able to escape. Before any of them knew what was going on Sasuke had made his move. He threw a shuriken to hold the chain against the tree, he then threw a kunai that landed in the center of the throwing star to hold the chain in place.
The Uchiha boy landed on their shoulders and grabbed their arms. He then proceeded to kick them both in the face. Naruto stared in shock as both of them detached from their chains that had held them to the tree.
"UWAAA!" Naruto shouted as one of the Ninja came towards him.
Mayumi looked at her friend and placed herself in front of him and ran towards the strangely dressed ninja. She wasn't sure what good she could do seeing as she had never really listened to anything she was told. But she wasn't about to allow her friend to get hurt either.
Sakura jumped in front of Tazuna, "Sir, get back!"
Sasuke jumped in front of the pink haired girl protecting them both. Before the ninja could reach the boy he was stopped by their Sensei. Kakashi turned to see his daughter placing a kunai in the ninja's arm. He quickly grabbed that ninja up too before he could do any real harm to Naruto and Mayumi.
Kakashi looked at Naruto, "Naruto, I'm sorry I didn't save you immediately. I got you injured. …...I didn't think you would freeze like that. Anyway, nice job Sasuke."
'Sakura and Mayumi too,' he added mentally.
Naruto stared at Sasuke. Mayumi glared at the blood that dropped from the kunai that she held. She whipped it off quickly and walked over to look over her Otou-san to make sure he was safe. Sasuke grabbed her arm and stopped her from walking away from him, the only thing was, he didn't look at her but smirked towards Naruto.
"Hey!" Sasuke barked. "You alright...Scaredy cat?"
Naruto shot him the the creepiest glared that the any of them had seen the boy give.
"Naruto, save it for later," Kakashi told the boy. "Their claws are soaked in poison. We have to remove it quickly. We must open the wound and release the poisoned blood from from your body. Don't move much, the poison will spread," he looked back at Tazuna. "Tazuna-san."
"What is it?" The old man asked nervously.
"I need to talk to you."
Kakashi quickly tied the ninjas up then turned to Tazuna, "These look like Hidden Mist Chuunins ...These shinobis are known to continue fighting no matter what."
"How did you read our movements?" One of them asked.
"On a sunny day like this when it hasn't rained in days...there's not going to be a puddle," the Jonin explained.
"If you knew that, why did you let the brats fight?" Tazuna asked.
"If I had wanted to I could have killed these two instantly but... There was something I needed to find out... Who these two were after."
"What do you mean?"
"Meaning... Were they after you, or one of us. We haven't heard that there are shinobis after you. Our mission was to simply protect you from thieves or gangs. This has now become at least a B-rank mission. This was suppose to be simple protection until you completed the bridge."
Tazuna looked down in shame, well kinda.
"If it was known that ninjas were after you this mission would have been set as the more expensive B-rank. I'm sure you had a reason, but it causes problems when you lie about the mission. We are now operating outside of our duties," Kakashi explained.
"We aren't ready for this mission," Sakura said. "Let's quit! We will need medicine for Naruto's wound. We should go back to the village and take him to a doctor..."
"Hmm...This might be too much..." Kakashi muttered. "I guess we should return to the village to treat Naruto."
Everyone's eyes widened as Naruto stabbed his cut hand with a kunai. Blood dropped to the ground giving it a sparkling red glow.
"Naruto! What are you doing?"
His hand started to shake but he didn't remove the blade, "With this kunai. I'll protect the old man. We're continuing the mission!"
Mayumi ran over to the blonde and pulled the kunai from his hand.
She pulled him into a quick hug, "Naruto-san...Don't hurt yourself again please."
"Naruto... It's good that you're releasing the poison but... Anymore and you'll die from lack of blood . Seriously," Kakashi told him.
"No! That's bad! I can't die from something like this!"
"Let me see you hand."
"No Naruto-san, my Otou-san will make sure you're perfect!" Mayumi chirped.
"Naruto, are you a masochist? What are you thinking?" Sakura asked annoyed with him.
"Umm... Hey... Am I going to be... Okay?"
"You should be fine," Kakashi reassured him while he wrapped the boys hand.
"Sensei..." Tazuna said. "I have to talk to you."
I'm going stop here for now. The next update should come soon! Please review. Just put up a new poll so that you can tell me your thoughts on who the red eyed man is.
Cookies~