Tenten
I stood in front of the door, waving at Naruto. He waved back before turning away and making his way down the street, heading home after putting in some work at my parents' shop. I eyed him for a little longer before I walked back inside of the shop. I looked and left right, looking at the many weapons we had displayed on the wall for customers to see. I then walked back to the front desk and sat behind it as I waited for Kureiga to show up, like he usually does. I had certain things to talk to him about.
I didn't have to wait that long. Chimes that hung on the door sounded as Kureiga entered the shop.
"Nee-chan," he said. He had a slight scowl on his face. I chuckled slightly. He wasn't in his best mood.
"Otouto, how's it going?" I asked as he approached the front desk. He closed the distance before taking a seat on top of the desk.
"I think these missions are getting out of hand," he said. I chuckled. "I'm serious. We had to retrieve a cat for the Fire Daimyo's wife. I mean… really? Is that what I signed up for? Pet retrieval?" I laughed out loud.
"I told you your first few weeks were going to suck," I reminded.
"You could have been more specific, you know?"
"True," I said. "But I didn't want to discourage you." He rolled his eyes. He then looked at me with a curious look.
"So, how was Naruto's first day on the job?" he asked. I looked down at the desk.
"I actually want to talk to you about that." Kureiga immediately jumped up from the desk, backing away.
"Oh, don't tell me he screwed up!" I stood up and walked over to him before I grabbed him by the shoulders.
"Relax," I said. "He actually did a good job." I then walked over to the desk and sat down on top of it. I then lightly rapped the space next to me. Kureiga reluctantly walked over and sat next to me. "There are just some things I need to tell you about." He raised an eyebrow.
"What things?" he asked.
"You see, I gave him a huge task today. Basically, I told him to rearrange the back room. The whole backroom. So, I left him there so I could watch the front. But a few minutes later, I see him walk out of the backroom. I asked why he left, and he told me there wasn't much room left. I was confused when he said that, so I went to the backroom to see what he meant, and I saw the whole room flooded with clones. And not the basic clones you learn at the academy, but Shadow Clones!" Kureiga tilted his head.
"I keep on hearing about Shadow Clones lately," he said, eyebrows raised. "What's the big deal about them?"
"You don't know about Shadow Clones?" I was surprised. It was one of the many jutsus that is read about at the academy. "Look, Shadow Clones is Konoha's exclusive clone technique. It's not like the intangible clones that we made back at the academy. These clones are actually copies of the user. They can use all the jutsu that the user knows, and when they are dispersed, all of the knowledge they gain goes back to the user. Not only that, but each clone can act independently."
"That's impressive," Kureiga said. "Looks like I should try to learn that, then."
"Good luck with that," I said. "Naruto shouldn't even be able to use that technique." He raised an eyebrow.
"Why not?"
"Well… Look, Naruto's a genin. His chakra network and chakra reserves should not be developed enough at this point to allow him to even do the basic form of the technique. It's an advanced technique that is only taught to jonin. And the advanced form of it, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique has been banned from being taught because it can leave a user to the point of death. But Naruto was using the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique as if he was just forming seals. He created thirty clones, and whenever one dispersed, he just created another one. Do you know what this means?"
"…This mean he already has Jonin level reserves…" he whispered. I shook my head.
"More than that!" I said. "I don't think there's a person in this village that's on his level."
"Interesting…" Kureiga said. We stayed silent for a few minutes as we both pondered the situation. I then sighed.
"I must apologize to Naruto," I said. Kureiga turned and looked at me, eyebrows raised.
"Why?" he asked.
"He's not that bad of a guy. He's a hard worker and extremely helpful. He's a very interesting kid. You know he wants to become Hokage." Kureiga nodded. "You don't hear that much from young ninja like us, you know?"
"I know," he said before he stood up. "Don't apologize to him." I raised my eyebrow.
"Why not?" I asked. "Would it not be the right thing to do?"
"Sometimes, the right thing to do is not the right thing to do. With an exception of a relative few, the whole village hates him for some stupid reason that I don't even know. And that's not an exaggeration. A chef actually tampered with his food when my team ate at this restaurant." My eyes widened slightly. "It would probably be best if he believes that you never held him in such negative regard, you know?" I nodded slowly. Kureiga stood up and brought his arms out as he stretched. "I got to go. I have to watch the shop for a few hours before I go on another training session from Hell."
"Training session from Hell?" I repeated. Kureiga nodded.
"Yeah. Naruto and I are getting trained in taijutsu by your sensei. Well, best get going. Ja ne!" I nodded as Kureiga turned and headed out of the shop.
"I hope Sensei doesn't kill him," I said with a sigh. "I won't forgive him if he does."
Kureiga
Ah, the Kazama Pastry Shop. It was my family's business started by my dad. The building the shop resided in was rather large. It was two stories, with the second floor serving as my family's residence. The first floor was where the dough meets the rolling pin. The second floor is divided into two areas. The first area, the part the customer's see when they enter, consists of a white cashier's desk in the center of it the room. On each side of the desk are glass display cases, where we put our run of the mill pastries and sweets, like cream puffs and cookies. In the back was the kitchen area, where my mom and dad work to bake the goods that we sold, from the regular in store stuff to custom orders. It was complete with an oven and a storage area for all of the needed ingredients. More often than not, this is where my parents would be, trying to fill an order that was placed.
However, it was a slow day, as I was currently watching the shop as my parents decided to take the afternoon off. Before they left, my dad told me that I could close the shop as soon as the order that was placed a few days ago was picked up. As such, right on the counter was a box of red bean mochi, waiting to get picked up. As I waited, I perused the scroll that Gai handed to me, trying to think of what I should cook for dinner. As I did so, I mentally pieced together my schedule. I wake up at seven o'clock, eat a hearty breakfast before I go through the workouts detailed by Gai-sensei's scroll along with my usual morning training for about four and a half hours straight. Then I eat lunch before I meet my team at the Hokage's office at noon to take on a mission, take on another mission if there's any time left, take my pay and deposit it on my home, use the three to five hours of free to either lounge around, hang out in the town, train lightly, or putting in some work at the shop. After that, I eat dinner before I meet Gai-sensei for another hellacious session of training. I then go to sleep at midnight before I wake up and repeat the process again the next day.
I sighed as I looked up at the ceiling in thought. I started to wonder about the other teams. Were they still doing D-Ranks missions like my team? Or did they already move on to doing actual missions? What more does my team have to do for us to actually start doing actual missions? In my head, I kept on asking myself these questions. As you could tell, I was growing tired of these missions. Actually, I was already tired of them. But what was really irritating was that I couldn't do a thing about it. I had to either pay our dues until they feel we can get the job done or quit and never reach my goal. And since the latter was never an option to me, there were only two things I can do about my situation: nothing, and like it.
The chimes sounded as the door to the shop opened. I looked forward before closing my eyes and plastering a cheerful smile on my face. "Welcome to Kazama Pastry Shop," I said with a matching tone. "How may I help you this afternoon?"
"K-Kureiga-kun?" I heard a quiet voice say. I opened my eyes, looking at the source of the voice.
"Hinata?" I said.
Hinata Hyuga was part of the same graduating class I was in. She was a terribly shy and timid person who I never heard speak without a stutter. But the black-haired, white eyed girl was a nice person. She was the only girl in the class who didn't fawn over Sasuke, and she was always concerned about others, sometimes to a fault. I remembered quite a few times when she offered me ointment for all my scrapes, even though I always politely declined.
I gave her another smile, this one genuine. "Hey, what brings you here?"
"H-hello, Kureiga-kun. I'm here to p-pick up the order."
"So you're here for the red bean mochi," I said as I stood up. I picked up the box and handed it to her. "Here you go."
"Arigato, Kureiga-kun," she said with a small smile on her face. She then frowned slightly. "Um… I-is Naruto okay?"
I titled my head. "What do you mean if he's okay?" I said. "Did something happen to him?"
"W-well…. I saw him earlier at noon… and his clothes were ripped, and he was limping a bit. I hope he is not struggling with the missions." I couldn't help scoff at that statement.
"I don't think academy student could struggle with these so-called missions," I retorted. I then smiled slightly. "And don't worry about Naruto. He and I have been going through taijutsu training since a couple of days ago, and Gai sensei is a tough teacher." I chuckled slightly. "He's doing perfectly fine."
"That's good," she said. "I'm glad he is doing well. He… He tries very hard, you know?"
"That he does," I said. I then looked at her. "You know, you're the first person from my class I've seen acknowledge the boy. I'm glad for that." I sighed. "He deserves more people like you." I couldn't help but notice the blush that spread across her face. A few gears started to turn in my head, but I quickly threw a wrench into the machine.
I didn't want to jump to conclusions.
Sakura
We were back in the mission room. We just completed another mission. We had to retrieve the cat. Again. The four of us stood behind Kakashi as he gave a summary of the mission to the Hokage. In front of him was the Hokage himself, who was flanked Iruka-sensei and Hayate Gekko. The cat itself struggled to run away from the Fire Daimyo's wife. I don't know if it was because of the smothering hug it was placed or because it was the target of the killer intent radiating off of Sasuke, Naruto, and Kureiga. I thought about admonishing them, but I couldn't really blame them. It was the third time we had to retrieve that cat, making me wonder what is being done to the poor animal for it to constantly run away. I hoped it was the last time we had to retrieve the cat, because I had a feeling that the next time it happened, my teammates would act on their intent.
"Good work, all of you," Sarutobi-sama said. "I must say, I'm rather impressed. You, along with the rest of the rookie class have yet to fail a mission. It's been a long time since that last happened. You should be proud of yourselves."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," I said, smile on my face. However, Sasuke kept his neutral expression, Kureiga scoffed, and Naruto crossed his arms, scowling.
"Your teammates don't look so pleased," he noted before taking a puff on his pipe. Naruto looked over at the Hokage.
"When are we going to start performing real missions?" he asked. The room went silent for a moment. I then looked over at Kureiga. He looked over at me with a scowl. He then sighed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He searched through the leather piece before he pulled out a wad of ryo and handed it over to me. I smiled as I grabbed the bills and counted them before I pocketed them.
"What do you mean, Naruto?" the Hokage asked.
"We are ninja, right? When can we do actual ninja missions? All we've been doing was gardening, cleaning, and retrieving animals for weeks, dattebayo!"
"Naruto!" Iruka said, standing up from his seat. "There's a reason why we have genin do these missions."
"We already know the reason," Kureiga said, speaking for the first time since we entered the office. "And we all agree that it's a very good reason. Great even. But we've been doing these missions for so long that we actually managed to get hired out by the same villager twice on quite a few occasions. If we haven't built enough rapport already… Well, dang, what more we have to do? Wipe their ass for them?"
I immediately pounded my fist on the top of Kureiga's head, causing him to fall to one knee as he cradled his head.
"Watch your language!" I said angrily. I then turned towards the Hokage and Iruka. "Please forgive Kureiga and Naruto. They have been restless these last few days. We really don't mind these missions, right Sasuke?" I turned towards Sasuke, smile on my face.
"…Actually, I agree with them," he said. I raised my eyebrows as the room went silent. I turned back towards the Hokage, who looked at us with a neutral expression while Iruka looked over at Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. The Hokage then grabbed one of the scrolls that were on the table in front of him before he opened it.
"Well… I was going to wait until two weeks later… but since you all seem so eager, I'm going to assign you your first C-Ranked mission." All four of us looked up at the Hokage with looks of shock.
"You mean it?" Kureiga asked with disbelief present in his voice.
"No dog walking?"Naruto added.
"No lawn work?
"No house painting, dattebayo?"
"No cat retrieval?!" The both said that part at the same time.
The Hokage nodded. In an instant, Kureiga and Naruto was behind the desk, hugging the Hokage tightly and thanking him over and over again as Iruka and Hayate tried to pry them off, finally succeeding. The two of them then returned to their previous spots. The Hokage merely chuckled through the whole ordeal.
"You're welcome. But I'm not doing this as a favor. I'm doing this because you all have shown that you are ready to take on a mission of a higher level, despite some… setbacks." The Hokage looked at Kureiga, who shifted his footing uncomfortably. Kakashi-sensei laid a hand on his shoulder, causing Kureiga to look up. From what I can tell, Kakashi gave him a smile.
"Kakashi," I heard Iruka say. "Are you sure your team is ready for such a mission?"
Kakashi nodded. "They are as they will ever be."
"Alright," the Hokage said. "Here are the details of this mission. A bridge builder from the Land of Waves request an escort him home. Your mission is to make sure he gets there in one piece, and look after him until he completes the bridge."
"Interesting," I said. "Who's the client?" As I asked this, the door behind me opened.
"He's coming in right now."
The five of us turned around and looked at the man who strolled in. He was a little shorter than Kureiga, and had somewhat short grey hair. He wore glasses and had a grey goatee. He wore a brown, sleeveless shirt with white pants. In his left hand was beer bottle.
"What's this?" he said. "They are all a bunch of brats! And the shortest one of all with the stupid face, are you even a ninja?"
Naruto blinked a few times before looking at the rest of us, looking from Kakashi-sensei, to Kureiga, then Sasuke, and finally myself. He then turned his head slowly at the client, giving off a spike of killing intent.
"Baka, I will kill you!" he yelled as Kakashi-sensei grabbed him by the back of the collar.
"What's the point of killing the person we're supposed to protect?" Kakashi admonished.
"This guy has some stones to actually talk down to us like that," Kureiga said. "We could waste him right now if we wanted."
"Kureiga!" I yelled. He shrugged.
"I'm just saying."
"I'm Tazuna, superb bridge builder. I expect to be provided with topnotch protection until I return to my country and complete the bridge."
"You have my word," Kakashi said. "You will not even be touched." He then turned towards the four of us. "We'll leave in two hours. Use the time to prepare all of our equipment and get your affairs in order. After that, meet me at the front gate. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Sensei," we all said at the same time.
"Good. You are all dismissed. Tazuna-san, you're sticking with me."
Naruto
Kureiga and I headed over to the weapons shop that was headed up by Tenten's father. As we walked, I couldn't keep myself from shaking from excitement.
"Our first real mission!" I yelled out. "We're going on our first real mission, dattebayo!"
"You're really excited about this, huh?" Kureiga said.
"Of course I am," I said. "It's going to be my first time travelling to another village. Have you ever travelled outside of Konoha?" Kureiga shook his head no.
"I almost did, when my dad had to travel to the Land of Rice," he said as we approached the shop. "Though, from what I can tell, it was good that I didn't go. Apparently, he went at the worst possible time." Kureiga shrugged as I opened the door and stepped through with him following me. At the front desk was Tenten with her head on top of the desk.
"Ohayo, Tenten-chan!" I greeted as we approached her. She lifted her head slowly and looked at us, groaning.
"Nee-chan?" Kureiga said. "What's wrong?" She frowned.
"Well, Lee was extra fired up today," she started to explain. She then looked at me. "And that was because someone had to mention something about getting weights to help your training. Lee was so inspired by the fact that you asked that, he suggested that the whole team start using weights. Want to guess what happened?" I nervously scratched the back of my head while Kureiga struggled to hold in his laughter. "That's not funny! I have one more training session with him today!"
"Good!" Kureiga said. "Then you can tell him that Naruto and I are going to be gone for a few days. We're going on our first C-Ranked mission today." Tenten gave us a smile.
"Really?" Tenten asked. We both nodded. "That's awesome! Looks like you can't complain anymore, huh Kureiga? So, what can I do you for?"
"We need some kunai and shuriken, dattebayo," I said.
"And I need the usual order of explosive tags," Kureiga added. Tenten nodded.
"Sure thing. Does twenty of each sound reasonable?" We both nodded. "Good. I have something for the two of you." She stood up slowly. "Follow me." She walked into the back room, with the two of us going in after her. In the backroom were many boxes on many shelves. She looked at each shelf, seemingly looking for a certain item. She then stopped in front of one of the shelves, which contained one box. She pulled the box off of the shelf and laid it on the ground. She then opened and pulled out two large shuriken.
"Is that what I think it is?" Kureiga said, his mouth dropping.
"Why yes," Tenten said with a smile. "Yes it is."
"What is it?" I said, my eyes not moving away from the black, bladed weapon.
"These, are Fuma Shuriken, invented by the very dangerous Fuma clan. It's a lot more dangerous than the average shuriken, with it being a lot larger, a lot sharper, and more menacing. Also…" She then spun both in her hands, and the two shuriken folded up, making it look like the shuriken it's made out of one blade. "…it's collapsible, making it portable." She then brought the shuriken out towards us. "I want you two to have them."
My eyes widened when she said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kureiga look at me from the corner of my eye.
"A-are… Are you serious?" I said in disbelief.
"Yeah, Naruto," Tenten said. "You've been great around the shop, and I figured you deserved something for your hard work." Kureiga and I took our weapons.
"Thanks, Nee-chan," Kureiga said. "We really appreciate it." I nodded in agreement. We then moved throughout the backroom, picking up what we needed before we moved to the front store to get ringed up. We both pulled out my wallet, with Kureiga scoffing at it.
"Geez, what are you doing carrying around a frog wallet?" he said.
"Toad, dattebayo!" I corrected.
"Okay," Tenten said. "You two are good to go. Now, when you guys come back, you better tell me that you succeeded in your mission. I won't forgive you if you don't."
"Don't worry, Nee-chan," Kureiga said. "We got this. Come on Naruto. We still have time for a quick lunch before we head over there." I nodded as I turned to walk with. Then I turned around and walked over to Tenten.
"One more thing," I said. I then wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug. "Domo arigato, Tenten-chan." After a few seconds, I felt a hand rub my back.
"Anytime, Naruto-kun."
Sasuke
"Please, hold your applause!" I heard Kureiga say as he and Naruto approached.
"It's about time," I heard Tazuna say. "What kind of ninja leaves an elder waiting?"
"I can't wait until we get you home, dattebayo!" Naruto said as he and Kureiga joined the three of us.
"That's enough," Kakashi said. "We're going to head trek over to one of the ports in the Fire Country. By the time we reach the port, a ferryman from the Land of Waves will be there to take us over to his native country. While on this mission, you will do what I say. It's going to be a simple escort mission. However, be on your guard. We still have to look out for bandits, thieves, and the like. Is that understood?" While everyone said "Yes sir", I merely nodded. I just wanted to get this mission started. "Good. Let's begin." We began our journey, taking the road that lead to Konoha. As we travelled the path, we spent our time going through one of the many forests of the Land of Fire.
I remembered when I was younger, when I first travelled the Land of Fire with my father. I was confused by it. I expected to see land that was forever on fire. But what I saw was land of green forests, filled with the usual woodland creatures, like wolves and squirrels. It took me a while before my father told me the real reason: along with the warm weather, most people in the land who can control chakra are usually fire users, like my clan.
As we walked along the path, I kept on getting this weird feeling that it was too quiet. I shrugged it off as I walked in the front of the group. I took a glance behind me to see Sakura looking smiling at me, the Big Mouth speaking with the Dobe, and Tazuna taking up the rear with Kakashi. Everything was fine. I turned forward again, wondering how long it would take for us to reach the ports.
"NOW!" I heard a voice yelled. I turned around, along with the rest of the group, to see two figures streak around the sky. I blinked, and in that instant, Kakashi was instantly wrapped in a chain that was made of shuriken.
"What's going on?" Naruto yelled out.
On each side of him were two ninjas. Both of them had white short-sleeved shirts with random shapes on them of varying shades of grey and black with matching pants that were stuffed into black sandals. They both also had some kind of breathing mask over the lower half of their faces, similar to what I would see a diver use to breathe underwater. The one on Kakashi's right had long, spiky hair, had two metal hornlike projections on the sides of the metal piece of his hitai-ite, and wore a black vest over his shirt. The other shinobi had somewhat long hair as well, with a few bangs hanging over his forehead, and had a tattered black cloak with a hood on the back of it. Both of them had a black gauntlet on their hand (one of them had it on their left hand, while the other one had it on their right hand), each with clawed fingers. As I looked at closer, the chain of shuriken seemed to be running between the two gauntlets.
"One down," one of them said as both of them put the chain in opposite directions. The shuriken sliced clean through Kakashi, leaving his body to fall to the ground in bloody pieces.
"Holy shit," Kureiga exclaimed as he saw the sight.
"Three more to go," I heard one of them. Sakura instantly moved in front of Tazuna as Kureiga and Naruto looked up at the two enemy ninja.
"You're going to pay for that!" I heard Kureiga yell as I saw him run forward with his arms moving, which, as I was about to find out, was a result of him forming seasl. He then skidded to a stop. "Lightning Release: Thunderbolt!" He brought his right arm out front, and streak of lightning shot out from it and towards two of them. At first, they looked as if they were caught in the attack as a blue flash encompassed the area for a brief moment. Once the flashed cleared, however, two logs laid on the grounded, charred black by Kureiga's attack.
"Two down!"
The two nin appeared above and behind Naruto. Naruto looked up and saw the two nin, but froze in fear. As they landed, one of the enemy shinobi took a swipe at Naruto, who put his hands up in defense, resulting his left hand being slashed open. I growled as pulled out a kunai as I leapt into the air. I then threw the kunai and the chain of shuriken. The kunai sailed through the air and pierced through one of the shuriken that held the chain together before flying straight into a tree, taking the two of them with it. As I came down to the ground, the two of them release their chain, releasing them. They then turned towards Tazuna, who was behind Sakura. They turn and ran towards his, clawed gauntlets readied for a strike. I immediately ran towards Sakura myself and skidded to a stop in front of her as I turned to face the two ninjas.
Before they could touch me, however, a tall figure appeared in front of me, arms out. In an instant, the necks of the two enemy shinobi were wrapped tightly in the arms of the figure. The figure turned towards me, revealing a lone eye.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura said behind. He nodded, smiling under his mask.
"Sorry for my tardiness," he said. He then looked over at Naruto. "Sorry Naruto. I got you injured. I didn't think you'd freeze up like that. Anyway, nice job Sasuke and Kureiga. You too, Sakura."
I looked over at the spot where his body parts laid, only to see that it was nothing but cut logs.
So he used substitution. I looked over at Naruto, who was crouched down to one knee. He looked down at the ground, frustration evident on his face. I smiled slightly. I had a feeling he was angry about not being able to do anything. I decided to test that theory.
"Hey!" I called out. Naruto looked at me, eyebrows raised. "Are you okay… Scaredy Cat?" He looked up at me, eyes furrowed up and teeth bared. He opened his mouth, ready to retort.
"That's enough Naruto," Kakashi interrupted. "Their claws are soaked with poison. Don't move much until we can open up the wound, unless you want it to spread." I smiled in satisfaction, knowing that I got the last word.
Sakura
Kakashi was standing over the two enemy ninja, who were tied up to the trunk of a tree and forcefully relieved of their gauntlets.
"These two are the Demon Brothers," Kakashi said while keeping his eyes on the two of them. "They are rogue Chunin from Kirigakure. A pretty dangerous pair. I would have been done for if I hadn't known we were being tailed."
"How did you know we were tailing you?" one of them asked, his voice echoing slightly.
"It hadn't rain for days. As a matter of fact, it rarely rains this time of year. This isn't Kiri. A puddle in a middle of a forest in Fire Country will not go unnoticed."
"If you knew that, why did you let them attack in the first place?!" Tazuna demanded.
"Because I needed to know a few things," Kakashi replied nonchalantly. He then looked at Tazuna. "Things that we need to talk about when we reach the port." He then turned away and walked over to Naruto, who was keeping uncharacteristically still. Kakashi came to a stop on front of Naruto before he crouched down. "Let me see your hand." Naruto reluctantly put his hand out forward. Kakashi took his hand gently and looked at it before sighing. "The poison is still in one spot. Unfortunately, the hospital nearby is back in Konoha. So you have two choices. Either we drain the blood of this wound here, or we send you back home."
Naruto stayed silent for a few moments. I narrowed my eyes before I was about to speak. However, he did something I didn't expect him to (though in hindsight, I really should not have been surprised).
"Never again…" he whispered as he reached behind his back with his good hand. He then brought it back around, kunai in hand. "Never again, dattebayo!" He twirled the kunai in his hand before he gripped the handle, blade pointing opposite of his thumb, and drive into the poisoned wound. "I won't be a burden for this team again. I'll make sure of it. I won't stop until I reach my goal, dattebayo!" During that whole time, the blood drained from the wound like water from a faucet.
"I'm glad for your resolve, Short Stack," I heard Kureiga say. "I really am. But I think you cut yourself too deep."
Naruto looked down at his hand before he frowned, followed by him thrashing about, causing Kakashi to grip his wrist and force him still. As he examined the wound, I couldn't help but notice the look of slight surprise on his face. I shook my head, muttering 'Baka' under my breath. I then turned towards Kureiga.
"Kureiga," Kureiga said. He turned towards me, and I gave him a slight smile. "I must say, you were awesome back there. Of course, you weren't as awesome as Sasuke…" He closed his eyes for a moment. I expected him to say some kind of scathing remark. But instead, he looked up at me and gave me a smile of his own.
"Thanks," he finally said, albeit in a somewhat defeated tone. "I really appreciate that."
"Okay," I heard Kakashi say. "Let's go!"
Kakashi
We eventually reached our destination, with a long boat and ferryman waiting for us. After a quick break, we seaborne as the boat made its way from the Land of Fire to the Land of Waves. I thought about a couple of things. The first thing I thought about was my team's performance. Out of the whole group, Naruto was the only one who acted somewhat as expected. While I didn't expect him to freeze up like he did, it was hard to fault him for being scared since he never faced an enemy ninja before, let alone two. I didn't expect Sakura to keep the client behind her, nor did I expect Sasuke and Kureiga to act in the manner they did, with the former being so quick to react to the attempted attack on Naruto and the latter being quick to engage the enemy ninja.
Speaking of enemy ninja, it made me wonder for a bit.
"Tazuna, we have some stuff to walk about," I said. Tazuna was in the back of the boat with me, sitting front of the ferryman who stood at the end of the boat, calmly paddling forward. Naruto, who sat at the head of the boat, turned and looked in my direction along with Sakura, who sat across from Sasuke in the middle of the boat. Kureiga, who sat next to Sakura, merely lifted his head while Sasuke merely sat in his signature sitting position. "I have a feeling this mission has been under-ranked."
"Under-ranked?" Kureiga said in confusion, finally turning his whole face towards me.
"What do you mean, dattebayo?" Naruto said, crawling towards us. Sakura looked between the two of them.
"How can you two not know anything about the Mission Ranking System?" she said. "It's one of the first things we learned our second year in the academy." Kureiga rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Since you seem to know so much, how 'bout you be a good teammate and actually tell us, huh?" Kureiga said irritably. Sakura rolled her eyes as she sighed.
"There are five levels of missions. From highest to lowest, they at S, A, B, C, and D. D ranked missions are the least difficult because they involve no combat. On C ranked missions, combat with bandits and thieves are to be prepared for, but not exactly expected. However, once we start hitting B ranked missions, that's when we start facing ninja, with the S rank applied to missions that may involve combat with the most dangerous of ninjas."
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he digested the information. He then looked up, scowling. "Wait! If we're not supposed to be fighting ninja on a C ranked mission…"
"…then why are we being attacked by ninja on this mission?"
We all turned to look at Tazuna, who remained silent for a moment. He then sighed.
"…Do you know about a certain Gato?" he asked. I nodded slowly.
"As a matter fact I do," I said. "He's the head of the most powerful shipping country in the world. I've heard that he's been known to resort to shady tactics in getting what he wants."
"That is an understatement. Just recently he took over all of the ports in the Land of Waves. By doing so, he took control of our routes, as well as the shipping rates. He also hired out a bunch of bandits to enforce his will over the nation. He basically took over the country and oppressed it. So I decided to start building a bridge from the Land of Waves to the Land of Fire. It would lessen or dependence on our docks. However, Gato knew that as well. So now he hired some people to come and kill me."
"Why didn't you tell us in the first place?" Kureiga said rather angrily.
"It's not like I had a choice. A B ranked mission is expensive, you know?"
"Not as expensive as our funeral arrangements!"
"Simmer down, Kureiga," I said calmly. "I must say, this does change everything. This team is very inexperienced, and I cannot justify risking their lives for a mission that is above their pay grade. As such, as soon as we reach the Land of Waves, you'll no longer be under our protection."
"Sure, that's fair," Tazuna said. "But if you're going to do that, can you please let my family know that I might die soon? Especially my eight year old grandson, who has no other father figure in his life since his father died when he was very young. It would only be fair."
I looked at him, trying to see if he was bluffing or not. After studying his face, I couldn't find anything that indicated that he was. I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose.
"We're going through with the mission aren't we?" Kureiga said. I looked over at him before nodding slowly. He sighed. "I must admit, he played the guilt card very well." As we moved through the sea, the area started to become foggy. The fog then became so thick that all of us almost appeared as if we were in a black and white movie.
"I chose this route for a reason," the ferryman explained as he slowly moved his paddle through the water. "The fog here should conceal us as we move towards our destination. I suggest that we keep silent for now. The less noise we make, the harder it would be for us to be spotted." I nodded slowly, agreeing with his reasoning. Naruto crawled back to his earlier spot at the head of the boat and Kureiga rested his elbows on his lap as he looked off into the distance. They stayed silent for the remainder of the trip. The only thing that broke the almost complete silence was the sound of the paddle parting the water as it propelled us.
Kureiga
It was agitating to me, staying quiet. It wasn't so much that I hated being quiet in general, contrary to popular belief. It's just that the silence was very unnerving with the stakes being known.
I couldn't help but think about the situation we were in. To tell the truth, I was scared and pissed off at the same time. Just the thought of our situation was enough to churn my stomach. I didn't really expect that much combat along the way, and the combat I did expect was engagement with thieves, bandits, and the like. Even though I never fought anyone under that category, I was more than confident I could beat them down with little to no effort. But there was a huge difference between thieves and bandits and shinobi. Especially shinobi who outranked you. It was not even a question. Honestly, who was going to win in a fight? Chunin who probably could dissect every single last trick you learned in the academy and beat you down with their own technique, or a bunch of Genin whose career highlight was capturing a cat?
I clenched my fist as I closed my eyes. I just couldn't help but think about how unfair the situation was. All I asked for was a higher ranked mission, not to protect someone from ninja who could kill me with as much as effort it would take for Naruto to clear thirteen bowls of ramen in one sitting.
I opened my eyes to see canteen below my face. I looked to see Sakura, that same canteen in her hand. To her right was Naruto, who seemed to have crawled from his position at the head of the boat. I took the canteen before taking a hearty gulp from it. I gave Sakura a thankful nod before passing the canteen off to Sasuke.