It had been a few months since Naruto was placed on Team 7. The team has spent the time doing simple D-rank missions to build teamwork skills and training in various skills. Naruto himself, thanks to using the Shadow clone training, had made good progress in increasing his chakra reserves, chakra control, and body strength to a level where he could use some of his old techniques. Sasuke had activated his sharingan, though he only had 1 tomoe in each eye. He had been training with his family's scrolls on fire style jutsu. Hinata was progressing nicely in a modified version of her family's taijutsu style, training regularly with her father. Naruto still hasn't told his teammates the truth about his 'past life', but was planning to do so soon.
Currently we find them in the Hokage tower mission hall, arguing with Iruka and the aged Hokage.
"I think we're ready for a better mission Old Man! I'm tired of dealing with that damn cat and digging ditches, I wan't a real shinobi mission!" Naruto shouted as Iruka just shook his head.
"Naruto you know how the mission system works, you haven't got the experience for a higher ranked mission yet." Iruka calmly replied.
"Now Iruka; maybe Naruto is right, they have been doing extremely well lately and I think I may have the perfect mission for them." Hiruzen said as he puffed on his pipe.
"But Hokage-sama, they-" Iruka began but was cut off by Naruto
"Yea! Bring it on we can handle anything!" Naruto cheered making Iruka's eye twitch. Naruto already knew what this particular mission was, he had discussed it with the Hokage beforehand to make sure it was assigned to his team, but he didn't want to let the world know yet so he put on a show.
"Alright then, Iruka if you would bring Tazuna in please?" Hiruzen said before Iruka sighed in defeat and left the room.
He returned a few minutes later with an older man in tow; the man wore a large pointed hat and hat a towel hung around his neck, and had a faint smell of sake on his breath. He looked over the group in the room and then back to Naruto where he stopped. "I thought I hired 4 ninja?! Not 1 ninja and a few kids! This group looks like they couldn't beat up a fly, especially the blonde one!" He yelled out causing Naruto's eye to twitch. Of course Naruto remembered this speech but it still pissed him off.
"Hey you old bastard, want me to show you how weak I am?" Naruto yelled out as he stepped towards Tazuna and glared at him.
"Yea I wish you'd try pipsqueak!" Tazuna replied stepping forward and meeting Naruto's glare.
Naruto drew back to punch the man and started into the punch when Sasuke grabbed him "Calm down doofus if you kill the client then there's no mission." Sasuke said as he drug Naruto back. Naruto quickly stuck his tongue out at Tazuna before he was dragged out of the room.
Now that Naruto and Sasuke were outside Kakashi finished gathering the mission information and told Tazuna to meet them back at the village gates tomorrow morning at 0800. He then walked back outside to find his team waiting for him.
"Alright team, go home and get some rest; pack for a three week mission. He wants an escort back to the wave country, and protection while he finishes the bridge. We don't expect anything worse than some thugs and bandits so we should be able to handle this no problem. We leave at 0800, don't be late." Kakashi said to the three genin who all nodded in understanding before parting ways to prepare for the mission.
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Next morning 0800 at the gate leading out of the village
All of Team 7 plus Tazuna were standing at the gates preparing to leave; Kakashi was doing one last check of his teams supplies to make sure they brought the essentials since this was their first mission outside of the village. After a few minutes he okayed everyone and they began their walk towards Wave Country. Everything went well for the first few hours until they were nearing Fire Country's borders. As they were walking along the path everyone spotted a couple of puddles in the road but thought nothing of it; except Naruto who knew what was coming, and Kakashi who had a interesting thought. "It hasn't rained in weeks, why would there be a puddle in the road?"
Kakashi put his guard up, noticing Naruto do the same, but decided not to alarm the others in the team. It didn't take long for his suspicions to be confirmed when the puddles exploded into smoke. 2 figures dashed out of the smoke, and before anyone could react they had a barbed chain wrapped around Kakashi. Sasuke and Hinata turned just in time to see them jerk the chain tight, shredding Kakashi into pieces in a shower of blood. The apparent leader of the pair, the one with only one horn, looked towards the other and chuckled. "One down, eyy Meizu?"
"Now that the leader is gone these brats shouldn't be a problem." The man now identified as Meizu said as he looked toward the three remaining genin and the civilian.
The two men then dashed towards opposite side of the group intending on catching them in the chain. Just as the chain was about to hit them Naruto pulled out a kunai and stuck the tip through one of the links before jumping up and backwards, making the chain miss the group. Sasuke and Hinata were both momentarily stunned but quickly regained their wits after Naruto saved them.
"Sasuke take the left, Hinata get the right!" Naruto yelled out as he drove the kunai into a tree, locking the brothers in place.
Sasuke and Hinata quickly jumped towards their respective target intent on disabling them while they were bound up but never got the chance as the pair of men disconnected the chain from their gauntlets and jumped away. Once they dodged the attack the men both dashed toward Naruto, labelling him as the next highest threat. The unnamed man was the first to reach him with his hand drawn back ready to stab Naruto with his clawed gauntlet. He thrust his hand at Naruto's face only to be disappointed when Naruto ducked under the blow. Just as Naruto ducked Meizu was on top of him with a knee to the face. Naruto threw his hand up in time to block the knee before delivering a punch to Meizu's gut, knocking him back several feet. With Meizu thrown back Naruto quickly spun around throwing his elbow into the other man's face. The unnamed man was launched in the air by the strike but quickly righted himself and prepared to strike Naruto again when Sasuke jumped up and delivered a spin kick to his head, knocking him into a tree. He wasted no time getting up and jumping towards Sasuke and swinging his gauntlet towards Sasuke's chest only to be blocked by a kunai. He tried to throw a kick in at Sasuke's side but that was also blocked. The man was beginning to get furious that none of his attacks were working. He tried once more to impale Sasuke with his gauntlet, but Sasuke sidestepped the attack and buried his kunai into the man's side before kicking him away.
The man let out a howl of pain as he grabbed the kunai and pulled it out of his side before throwing it to the ground. "You little bastard, you're gonna pay for that!" He shouted in a clearly pained voice. He once more made a dash towards Sasuke but was caught by surprise half way there when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to see Hinata standing there with her palm against his chest right above his heart, her byakugan active. He tried to cuss her but when he opened his mouth all that came out was blood. He coughed once more before slumping to the ground dead.
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With Naruto and Meizu
Meizu slid back several feet from the punch Naruto just delivered before righting himself and jumping toward Naruto with his gauntlet cocked back ready to impale the brat. He quickly got in range and thrust his fist forward straight at Naruto's chest. Naruto simply twisted to the side allowing the claw to go right by his chest before he grabbed Meizu's arm with one arm and chopped downward with the other. The blow landed with an audible crack, causing Meizu to scream in pain. Naruto grimaced a bit at the sound of bones breaking but quickly got over it. Without letting go of the broken arm he jerked it forward, causing Meizu to scream once again and lunge his body forward to relieve the pain. Once he lunged Naruto let go of the arm and quickly shifted his grip to Meizu's neck, choking him. Naruto twisted towards Hinata and Sasuke to check on them, making Meizu turn with him. The last thing Meizu saw before his world went dark was his brother falling to the ground dead. "Gozu!" He tried to shout but nothing but a cough managed to come out. Once he was unconscious Naruto lowered him to the ground before removing a spool of wire from his bag and tying him up against a tree. It was now that Kakashi decided to make an appearance. "Good work team." He simply said as he hopped down from a nearby tree. Sasuke, Hinata, and Tazuna all shifted their gaze to the bloody spot where Kakashi was killed to find nothing but a shredded log.
"Wha… we thought you were dead Kakashi-sensei…" Sasuke stumbled out as he looked from the dead attacker to the log and back to Kakashi.
Hinata also looked around the battlefield stopping on Gozu's body for a moment before she hit her knees and puked up her breakfast. She stopped for just a moment before beginning to dry heave again. She finally finished puking and began sobbing as she stared at the ground.
"The first kill is always the hardest, but don't beat yourself up Hinata." Kakashi said as he knelt down beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.
Naruto was quickly by her other side. "Hinata-chan, you can't beat yourself up like this, killing is a necessary part of being a shinobi. It's good to feel remorse when you are forced to kill, that's what separates us from monsters." Naruto said as he reached a hand out and cupped her chin, raising her face until their eyes met. "It's okay Hinata-chan. We're here for you always."
"We're more than just teammates, we're friends. And friends are always there for each other." Sasuke added in.
Kakashi was very proud of his team, they had just taken down two chunin level opponents with ease and then had their first true bonding experience. It seemed like this team would go very far in the future.
Kakashi enjoyed the moment briefly before he decided he had business to attend to. He walked over to the restrained form of Meizu and squatted down to eye level with him. He touched his palm to Meizu's head and channeled a bit of lightning chakra, instantly waking up Meizu. As soon as he was conscious again Meizu yelled out in pain once again from his severely fractured arm. Kakashi quickly coated his hand in lightning chakra before making a horizontal slice above the fracture, watching the arm fall to the ground with a thump as the lightning burned out the nerves in the arm, numbing it so that Meizu would calm down. Once he stopped yelling Kakashi looked him in the eyes with a sharp glare.
"Who sent you here?" Kakashi said in a cold tone
Meizu simply spit on the ground in reply. "I won't tell you a thing."
Kakashi's reply was a backhand right on the face. "How about now?"
"Never!" Meizu replied
Kakashi then pulled out a kunai and stabbed it into Meizu's remaining arm causing him to grunt in pain. He then began to twist the blade slowly until Meizu's grunts became screams. "Are you gonna crack yet?"
"…No" Meizu said hesitantly this time.
"Alright" Kakashi said as he stabbed the kunai into his leg before pulling out another and stabbing it into the other leg. Meizu was almost squealing now but still not talking. Kakashi grabbed both kunai and twisted them. Meizu squealed and yelled out "Fine I'll talk!"
Kakashi stopped twisting the kunai and pulled them out before Meizu began to speak. "We were sent here by Gato to kill the bridge builder."
"Good, are there others?" Kakashi asked.
"I don't know. He never mentioned other shinobi." Meizu replied.
Kakashi, having all the information he needed, chopped Meizu in the back of the neck, rendering him unconscious. Kakashi then went through a set of handseals before slamming his palms on the ground. There was a poof of smoke, and when it cleared there was a small pug standing there. "Yo, whatcha need Kakashi?" The pug said.
"Pakkun, I need you to go let Hokage-sama know that Meizu is here and have him send a team to arrest him. We are upgrading this mission to A-rank but continuing on." Kakashi said before Pakkun nodded and took off.
"Alright team, we need to step up the pace now and get Tazuna out of harm's way." Kakashi said before they took off again, this time as fast as the civilian could go. Everything was uneventful the rest of the way to the border between Fire and Wave Country. The group reached the border fairly quick and boarded a small boat to take them across the river that acted as the natural border for Wave Country. It didn't take long for the boat to carry them across the river and into Wave country where the group disembarked once again.
"Okay it's only a couple more miles to my house where we can rest for the night before starting on the bridge in the morning." Tazuna said pointing off into the distance. Kakashi motioned for him to lead the way and Team 7 began to follow him. They didn't make it far before there was a small rustling noise in a nearby bush.
Naruto quickly pulled out a kunai and threw it at the noise, knowing he would hit nothing but a rabbit. He quickly inspected to find a white snow rabbit with a few hairs missing from its side, a kunai buried in the ground right behind it.
Kakashi quickly took note of the rabbit's hair. "It's spring, so that rabbit should have darker fur. Since it's white that must mean it has been kept in a cage. Someone must be using it for a Kawarimi." It was then that he heard a whizzing noise coming from his back. "Everyone, get down now!" Kakashi yelled as he dove and tackled Tazuna to the ground with him. Everyone landed on the ground just as a large sword flew over the top of them and lodged into a nearby tree.