"All right!" Naruto cheered throwing his fists in the air "Let's go!"

"What are you all excited for?" Sakura asked him in a bored tone. He then proceed to be pretending to look at for something, by placing his hand (the side were his thumb was) on his forehead and looking left to right, "Because I've never gone outside the village before!"

I had to admit myself, I was rather excited to, I haven't left the village since I came all those years ago. But Kinosuke was still bearing in my mind.

"Hey" spoke Tasuza pointing at Naruto, "will a kid like this really capable of this mission?" Naruto ceased his actions showing that he clearly heard him.

Kakashi said something about him being a Jounin and not to worry. But I wasn't really paying attention, instead I was watching the village behind me. Was it a really good idea for me to go? What if Kinosuke were to pass on and I weren't here? And what's even worse is I never got to say goodbye.

"Hey geezer!" Naruto suddenly yelled "don't underestimate ninjas! I'm a great ninja!" He continued his typical speech about becoming the Hokage and then stated his name... again!

Tasuza took a swig of his drink which caused me to cringe, I never liked alcohol, not that I've ever tried it, it's against my morals and obviously, I'm underage. "The Hokage is the village's number one ninja right?" he asked looking at me. I nodded in reply which caused him to scoff, "I don't think a guy like you can become one" he stated at the orange ninja, which hit a massive nerve.

"SHUT UP! I'm willing to go through any hardship to become Hokage! If I become Hokage, you'll have to take notice of me!"

Tanuza began walking forward, "I won't kid, that is... if you ever become Hokage!" Naruto then went to attack him, but thankfully, I caught him just in time.

"LET ME AT HIM! JUST ONCE! LET ME AT HIM!"

"Will you calm down!" I scold "yelling at him isn't gonna earn you brownie points here."

Naruto turned it down a notch, but still glared daggers at the old man's back. I turned around once again to look at the village.

"Tomoko?" Kakashi spoke in a gentle tone. "Look, I know you're worried, which is why I had a talk with your brother. If anything where to happen he will send a message to me and hopefully, I can excuse you from mission."

I turned to him with a small smile, "I appreciate that Sensei, but I can't abandon you or those three for my personal reasons, otherwise I'll be lower than scrum."

Kakashi gave me a surprised look but then smiled, "fair enough, who knows, maybe leaving will take your mind off it."

'That's what I'm hoping for.'

Later on, we were long gone from the village, and walking down the main pathway to the docks. I actually took this time to study my vambraces in more detail. They truly were something spectacular, Hauro said that they were centuries old, but they looked good as new to me! All over the shiny metal were carvings of Yamakure writing, I'd seen something like it before, in the temples we had, but I could never read it's'my due to the fact that they were very, very ancient.

Confused? That's understandable. Well the truth is, the people of Yamakure have been around these lands, much longer than anyone. That was proved by the writings of the First Hokage, he wrote a whole book on how he discoverour my people and how they taught him the ways of Mitsuko. We were a lot more approachable back then.

No one really knows where exactly we came from, since we've been here for so long.

The was one question that still kept buzzing in my mind though.

How the heck do I use them?

Haruo said that they were indeed a weapon, but how? My first thought was that kunai knives shot out from them, or needles! But I couldn't find anything like that.

"Hey Tazuna-san?" Sakura spoke.

"What is it?"

"You're from the country of the Wave right?"

Tazuna threw her a look "Yeah what about it?"

"Kakashi-sensei" she chirped "are there also ninja in that country?"

"No" he answered. "There are no ninja in the Country of Wave, but while the culture customs of other countries may be different, hidden villages and ninja do exist." he continued to explain how ninja villages relied on its military force, to keep the countries equal and funded. The country hidden in the Waves however, was too small to be influenced by anyone, hence why it did not need a ninja village.

"Among the countries that have a ninja village" he continued, "the five countries of fire, water, lightning, wind and earth, occupy a large mass of land and their powers are immense, they are known as the Five Great Ninja Powers. Only the leader of each village is allowed to carry the name of 'Kage'".

"You missed one out" Naruto cut in.

"Excuse me?" Kakashi questioned.

Naruto then pointed towards me "there's the village hidden in the mountains right?"

It took a while for Sakura to catch on to what he was saying, but then gasped. "Of course! Although the mountain country were once considered a part of the earth country. They are now one of the most powerful and highly profitable countries around, surely they have a ninja village?"

"No" I answered causing everyone gave me a funny look. "The Mountain country is... well, they prefer not to get involved with the matters that don't concerned them".

"What do you mean?" Naruto quizzed.

I couldn't help but rub my forehead, "how can I put this simply, the village hidden in the Mountains aren't ruled in a way a ninja village is. So for example the Fire village is ruled by military power, and elects their most powerful ninja to rule as Hokage, every ninja village does this".

"That's right" Kakashi cut in "Hokage, Mizukage, Raikage, Kazekage and Tsuchikage. Otherwise known as 'the Five Kages' are the ninjas that reign over tens of thousands of ninjas, that exist in the countries throughout the world".

"Wow..." Sakura mused, "so Hokage-sama must be a great man!"

I gave her a unamused look, 'please, just like Naruto and Sasuke you're doubting him completely because of his age!'

"Hey!" Kakashi called to them "you just doubted our Hokage didn't you?"

"NO!"

"You're all terrible liars" I told them.

"Don't worry" Kakashi reassured "we won't have any ninja battles in a C-rank mission".

"But... I'm still confused. If the Mountain Country isn't ruled by a Kage, then how is it so successful?" Sakura asked me.

I couldn't help but chuckle, "there are many ways to rule a country. Ninja countries use Military, smaller countries use a feudal lord. The Mountain country has a council of elders, who have gained vast amounts knowledge and exprience, and base their decisions on our religion, which is what divided us from the Earth country."

"Religion? I didn't know you were religious Tomoko" Sakura admitted, "what religion do you follow? The Will of Fire?"

"No, no... I follow the Will of Mitsuko".

"Mit-what who?"

But just as I was about to explain to her, I stepped into a massive puddle of water which completely soaked my right leg.

"Ah cripes!" I cursed as I stared down at my leg. Attempting to shake the water off, I stared at the puddle behind me.

'That's strange, it hasn't rained for days. Why would there be a puddle of water in the first place!'

"Tomoko come on!"

Hearing my name being called, I rushed to catch up but felt something was wrong, and the feeling was coming from my Vambrace, looking down I gasped.

'What the hell! Why is it glowing green!"

"Tomoko!" Kakashi cried "watch out!"

I turned around to see two ninjas, who I'd never seen before, charging towards me. Chains shot out from their arms and went to wrap themselves around me. But Kakashi pulled me out of the way resulting in him getting wrapped by the chains.

"SENSEI!"

But my cry was in vain, as the two ninja's mercilessly pulled the chains and ripped Kakashi to shreds. "One down... four to go!" one of them jeered.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto screamed which snapped me out of my senses, grabbing my Kunai knife, I charge towards them aiming for a strike. But they were too quick and went for their next target.

"Second one!" the ninja's said gleefully, as they appeared behind Naruto, who wasn't moving a muscle.

"GOD DAMN IT NARUTO, MOVE IT!" I yelled at him but he was still frozen. I went to aid him, thankfully, Sasuke beat me to it, threw his Shuriken and aimed it perfectly in the middle of one of the many links of the chains, which pinned it to a nearby tree. He then threw a kunai to lock into place.

"It won't come out!" the ninja hissed, which was a good distraction for Sasuke to stand on both of their metal gloves, grab them and kick them right in the sucker! But the Ninjas were no fools, the chain became unattached from the cloves and moved to attack Tazuna, but Sakura stepped in front of him to shield him. They were fast, but I was faster, as I to joined her.

"Sakura get your weapon out! Tazuna is our priority!"

She gave me a nod and faced the two ninjas "Stay back!" She ordered, getting her Kunai out. But then someone appeared in front of us.

"Sasuke?"

He didn't say anything, not at first anyway. Now whether I was hearing things or not, I was sure he mumbled something along the lines of keeping a promise. But back to the matter at hand, I closed my eyes and waited to be struck by our enemy, only it never came.

Instead the sound of throttling rang in my ears. Reopening them, I felt a wave of relief swept through me, as I saw Kakashi-sensei holding both Ninja's by the neck. I Looked back at the where Kakashi was struck, to see a pile of cut up logs.

'The replacement Justu... of course!'

"Naruto, sorry for not helping you out straight away" Said Kakashi casually. "I got you hurt, I didn't expect you to freeze up like that." he then walked over to us "Sasuke, Tomoko, good job! You to Sakura."

But looking over at Naruto, I couldn't help but feel bad for the guy, so I decided to go and talk to him.

"Hey" Sasuke called to Naruto "Are you hurt? Mr Scary cat!"

Naruto looked like he was about to explode "SASUKE!"

"Naruto!" Kakashi ordered "There's poison in these guys' nails! We need to take poison out immediately!"

As I walked over, Sasuke was walking past me, with a very smug look on his face, so I didn't hesitate to slap the behind his head with the back of my hand. It wasn't like I knocked him off his feet, but there was enough force behind it to leave a sting. After mumbling some very colourful words under his breath, he furiously demanded why I hit him.

"That was not funny!" referring to what he just said to Naruto, "next time you get scared, I'll make sure I say the same thing to you and you'll know how it feels!"

Sasuke gave me his usual 'hm' "as if!" Choosing to not react to his cockiness, I turned back to Naruto "Stay still Naruto, I need to leech the poison out" I told him as I talked.

Kakashi glanced at the bridge builder "Tazuna-san".

"Er... yes?" he replied nervously.

"I need to talk to you" was all he said and went to tie the two ninja's to a nearby tree. By the time I reached Naruto, the two crooks where tied up. "These guys are Chuunin-class ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist" he stated, "they are ninjas known to keep fighting no matter the cost!"

"How were you able to detect our action?" one of the mist ninjas asked.

"It hasn't rained for the past few days" Kakashi said casually, "and its sunny today so no puddles should exist, I noticed it when Tomoko trod in it". He gave me a smile "so thanks Tomoko!"

"Er... you're welcome?" I asked more than said.

"Why did you let the kids fight when you knew that?" Tazuna asked him.

Then I suddenly figured it out "you wanted to see who the target was."

Kakashi nodded and looked at Tazuna "we did not hear anything about you being targeted by ninja" he stated. "Your request was to protect you from armed groups, like gangs and robbers. This is a mission that's above a B rank, our job was to support and guard you until you completed the bridge. If ninja are our enemy, this mission would have been an expensive B rank." Tazuna gazed down to his shoes, to which Kakashi told him that he realised he had his reasons for lying, but explained it could cause trouble for the team by doing so.

"This mission is to big for us..." said Sakura "we should quit."

"And what? Leave Tazuna to die!" I snapped "have some respect Sakura!"

"But Naruto's wound needs to be treated! We have to go back!" she shot back.

This made me scoff "please, what do you think I'm about to do?" I then pulled a small medical knife out of my bag. "Okay Naruto if you just... NARUTO WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I shrieked as he pulled out his Kunai knife and stabbed his own hand where his poisoned wound was.

Blood spurted everywhere making me cringe, "Why am I so different... Why am I always... Damn it!"

'Naruto...'

"I should be stronger..." he continued, "I've accomplished lots of missions and I've practiced my techniques every day!" The Blood from his wound wasn't as excessive as before, but it was still slowly oozing its way down his hand and onto the floor. "I'm never going to do something that will require someone to help me. I'm never going to be frightened and try to back out of things, I'm not going to lose to Sasuke or Tomoko!"

"Er... Naruto?"

"I vow to this pain in my left hand, that I'm going to protect him this Kunai!"

"Naruto?"

He then turned to the others with a determined smile "the mission is still on!"

"NARUTO!"

"What!"

I sighed in annoyance, "it's great that you managed to get the poison out, but you still need to stay still!"

"Er... why?"

Kakashi walked over "You're going to die from blood loss if any more blood comes out." Naruto turned very blue in the face, especially after Kakashi got closer and told him that it was not good if it wasn't stopped straight away, causing Naruto to completely freak out.

"Sensei! I need to him stay still!" I scold.

Kakashi kneeled down to his level, "I'll look at the wound Tomoko, you should tend to your own."

"My... I'm not wounded though..." but I stopped in mid sentence, when I noticed my left arm was...

'bleeding!? What the hell!? I didn't get hurt!'

I went to take my Vambrace off, only to feel a strong singe on my fingertips!

"OW!"

"What's up with you?"

I looked up to see Sasuke giving me a weird looks, from my face to my arm, he to noticed the blood. I decided to check my 'wound' when I had more privacy, the last thing my team needs is to worry about something that probably isn't even that serious.