AN: I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form, it all belongs to Kishimoto-dono

Chapter 5

For the members of Teams 7 and 8, seven am arrived too soon. Naruto was barely awake, Shikamaru looked the same as he always does, and Hinata even dragged a bit.

Team 8 for the most part looked worse than their counter parts. Choji walked with his eyes half shut, Kiba was practically dragged to the gate by Akamaru, and Ino looked as if she had rolled out of bed which was highly unusual for the blond kunoichi. Kurenai waited at the gates with the two teams for the final two members of the party to show.

As 7:30 rolled around, Kakashi finally appeared with an obviously hung-over Tazuna.

"Did Ojiji-san's warning not get through to you yesterday Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked with a hint of merriness in his voice.

"I actually have a good reason for being late today. I was 200 yards away from the gate when I noticed that Tazuna-san was not with you all, so I went looking for him and found him still in bed with enough sake on the ground to knock out Tsunade of the Sannin."

"As troublesome as this mission is, let's just get on with it alright."

With that the teams left for a mission that would change their lives. The group had been on the trail for five hours when each had noticed something rather odd on the path.

There was a puddle on the right side of the road.

Normally not many would notice this particular puddle but there was a special circumstance that merited attention. It had not rained in Konoha for almost a month. Everyone shared a look showing that they saw the problem, genjutsu. With a slight go ahead nod from Kakashi and Kurenai, Kiba and Naruto got wicked gleams in the eyes with an idea for a prank.

As they reached the puddle, the mischievous duo bent down and started to drink. After a few gulps, Naruto started gargling the water to clean out his mouth while Kiba just spit it out with an exclamation of disgust. Ino just looked disgusted with the actions of the two boys thinking that they were being dumb and stated "Sasuke-kun would never do something so gross you two bakas."

As soon as the words escaped her mouth two ninja with horned forehead protectors indicating that they were ninja from Kirigakure or the Hidden Mist Village. To make matters worse, both had slashes through the Kiri symbol signifying that they were missing ninjas, ninjas who have abandoned their home village and follow no laws. The two missing ninja had odd weapons on their hands that were attached to each other through a spiked chain. The chain was the only thing running through the minds of the Genins who saw the chain wrap around their senseis and be pulled tight effectively shredding the two Jonins.

"Two down" the first missing nin said.

"A few brats to go" the second nin finished.

The first to react after seeing their senseis torn apart was Naruto and Shikamaru. Naruto charged in towards the two attackers while Shikamaru shouted out "Ino, Hinata, Choji cover Tazuna. Kiba go help Naruto fight them off while I see what I can do from here."

Kiba joined up with Naruto when they both decided to revert back to their signals from when they would prank others.

Seeing that the two missing ninjas were nearing a tree with a quick motion to each other, Naruto and Kiba threw their kunai precisely into a hole in the chain pinning it to the tree.

Much to their dismay, the two enemy ninja were able to separate themselves from the chain. The mist ninja then tried to flank the ninja from the Leaf, causing Naruto, Hinata, and Ino to focus on the ninja on the left while the one attacking from the right was met with Shikamaru, Kiba, and Choji.

As the Left mist ninja aimed for the girls Naruto instinctually placed himself in the line of fire receiving holes the size of his fingers in the palm of his hand. While most would move their hand immediately to prevent more damage, the spiky haired blond held on with both hands while yelling for Hinata to strike his attacker. The result of Hinata's Jyuuken strikes left the man paralyzed from the neck down.

The mist ninja on the right did not fair much better as he found himself frozen the minute he started his offensive maneuvers towards the group. It wasn't until the ninja felt his head being forced to look down that he noticed that his shadow was one long one attached to the young leaf ninja with the pineapple styled hair. He was then instantly flanked on both sides by Kiba and Choji armed with kunai prepared to kill if they needed to.

"Well done on the part of both teams working in unison despite the fact that you haven't trained with each other." Kakashi proudly declared after stepping out of the woods with Kurenai beaming at the students.

"The only thing is that you should have tried to find a way to subdue the ninja on the left without injuring yourself Naruto, we need to treat you quickly since those gauntlets most likely have poisons in them" Kurenai gently reprimanded.

Ino decided to add her own input, "If Sasuke was here, none of this would have happened because they would have been beaten sooner and we wouldn't have to cancel the mission because of Naruto-baka getting…"

The sickening sound of flesh being torn echoed through surrounding area.

"Yeah it may have been stupid; yeah it was pretty foolish of me to do. But you were frozen in his path and I couldn't stand to see you get injured so I did what I thought was best. You all know what I am going to say next. Do not cancel the mission because of this, I'll learn from this and I'll try to do it better next time" Naruto announced to all those present.

"Naruto, while admirable that you are letting the poison bleed out we need to patch you up none the less" Kakashi said as Hinata moved to wrap his hand, noticing the small amount of red chakra already healing what should have taken weeks.

'Could this be the Kyuubi's doing' Hinata internally asked not wanting to draw attention to the situation.

"Tazuna, I believe that you and I need to have a little chat while Kurenai tries to pry some information from our two friends here."

"What do you mean Kakashi-san?"

"Those two were not after Kurenai or myself or else their attacks would have ended with us. Seeing as they pressed the attack, the result of which was the injury and poisoning of one of my students, the obvious target of the attack was you. Come clean or we scrap this mission on the basis of falsifying information."

"All right, Gatou of Gatou Shipping, Inc. has been practically strangling our tiny nation. His control of the ports has been sucking up all the money that we have leaving us with nothing. As you know I am a bridge builder currently working on a bridge to connect us with the main land. If this is completed then his hold will be broken. He has previously made many threats against the construction workers through his thugs. We figured that if we didn't get help then there was no way we would be able to survive. However, we were unable to afford the cost of a mission ranked for going against enemy shinobi so I was forced to do this. I am deeply sorry and ask that although you technically have no more obligations to uphold, that you would still help us" Tazuna asked.

"I will have to check with the teams and the other sensei before I can make a decision."

While Kakashi was learning about the deception, Kurenai was with the two teams.

"Well, I wasn't able to get anything out of them other than who their target was and it is as we figured, Tazuna. What I need to know is what do you think we should do? Just so you know, we do not technically have to finish this mission because we were lied to" Kurenai informed the gathered Genin.

"While troublesome, Tazuna probably has a reason why he is targeted meaning that he is important to his town, they just couldn't afford the mission, meaning that they get us. We got a lot to consider, Naruto's hand, the people of wave, and who will be sent next."

"I told you all my response earlier; I will finish this mission no matter what condition I am in. If they are in trouble all the more reason to help" Naruto exclaimed.

"Yeah but you are still injured and don't forget that maybe we just got lucky and we wont survive against the next shinobi we come upon" Ino stated worried more for herself but starting to feel some worry for Naruto after their episode moments ago.

"Hey, think about this alright, what will everyone think if they see we bugged out on our first big mission eh? We would never hear the end of it from Sasuke and Sakura, and I really, REALLY do not want to face Mom and Hana with their non-stop teasing about it" Kiba announced trying to build up everyone's courage and appealing to Ino's sense of pride in her rivalry. That apparently did the trick.

"THERE IS NO WAY I CAN LOOK BAD IN FRONT OF SASUKE AND LET FOREHEAD GET AHEAD OF ME!!! Come on Choji, Kiba, we are going to finish this mission!"

'Weird she dropped the kun after Sasuke's name that she usually puts there' Shikamaru thought to himself.

As Shikamaru thought this Kakashi strode up and informed them to why they were deceived. With this new information sinking in, all the gathered Genin became more determined to help the citizens of Wave. One by one each Genin nodded their confirmation to indicate their willingness to continue this mission.

"From now on, you will have to follow our orders to the letter because Gatou will most likely be sending a Jonin after us next. The formation on the road shall be Kiba and Naruto in the front, Choji and Ino on either side of Tazuna, Hinata and Shikamaru in the back to watch behind us followed by Kurenai and myself so as to give the orders" Kakashi stated to the two teams.