Chapter 60

Kakashi Interlude

Kakashi inwardly sighed for the nth time while he lazily scanned the road and the group he was traveling in front of him. He had forgotten just how frustrating and boring C-Rank missions were. Ugh when was the last time he had done something like this? When he was ten, eleven maybe? Kami-sama help him and that was what they would be doing for at least a year if not longer. Coming out of his rather depressing thoughts Kakashi's attention was drawn to his three kids. Satisfied he noted that they had instinctively spread out around the client in the bastardized Manji formation that was used by Genin teams and were rotating their positions every half an hour. At the moment Sakura was in the front, Sasuke on the left and Naruto on the right. Sakura was keeping up a constant flow of information about the area they were just crossing, at the moment she was talking about the climate and possible threats, she clearly had been reading up on anything she could find in the library… good girl. Absentmindedly the silver haired Jounin corrected a piece of outdated information about the estimated bandit activity in the east of Fire country, only a month ago Hokage-sama had had a Chunin platoon dispatched to take care of that particular problem. That was also the reason why Team Seven received the mission even though Wave Country was giving of alarming signs of a brewing civil war. Hell the situation was apparently so obvious that even Shiori had learned about it through various merchants and suppliers.

Beside him Tazuna was frowning and clenching his fists around his backpack, he had clearly listened to what Kakashi had said. The silver haired Jounin had no doubt that he was just as aware of the fact that those so called bandits were mostly coming from Wave country, desperate men that had nothing left to lose.

Sakura apparently had also picked up on the sudden tension of Tazuna because she rapidly engaged the old man in a conversation.

"Tazuna-san, why didn't you hire ninja from your own country?" his pink haired student asked innocently.

'Nice distraction' Kakashi thought amused.

He had briefed all three of his students about the general status of Wave yesterday during dinner, including the fact that they weren't a shinobi nation… hopefully Naruto would keep quiet… said blonde Genin had looked confused for a second before tilting his head and just listening without any comment.

'Hhm is Naruto finally learning some patience?' Kakashi couldn't help but ask hopefully.

"Wave doesn't have ninja, girl… though I'm sure that if we had them they would be a lot better than the blonde shrimp over there!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY OLD MAN?" Naruto shouted loudly.

Kakashi winced inwardly and sighed again 'or not'.

With a lazy movement with his left hand he stopped his loudest student from lunging at the bridge builder, and here he had thought Naruto had finally learned his lesson about getting into fights with the customers.

Sakura quickly reengaged the civilian in a conversation, this time about his occupation and so distracted him from a still fuming Naruto.

"Calm down, Dobe." Sasuke spoke without any bite in his voice while he gave Naruto a quick glance out of the corner of his eyes.

Kakashi noted amused that Sasuke's whole body was in a deceptively relaxed slouch that he had been copying from him for the last two weeks. The boy was a pretty good copycat, though his expression was one of indifference instead of utter boredom.

"Shut up Teme." grumbled Naruto while pouting slightly.

Kakashi just patted his blonde student's hair and then gave him a slight push at his back to make the boys catch up to Sakura and the client. At least some good did this mission; both Sasuke and Sakura had clearly tried to subtly help Naruto whenever Tazuna grumbled in his direction. Kakashi was especially glad over Sasuke's participation; this was the first step to get their teamwork back on track.
Though Kakashi had to give Tazuna his due, it had only taken him one encounter to single out Naruto as the one that would most likely react to his insults and had since then continued to needle him. Not a lot civilians were that perceptive, and Naruto had even behaved himself during their first meeting in the Hokage tower, even if had mouthed off to the Hokage beforehand. Kakashi wouldn't have tolerated such a behavior from a Konoha client but Tazuna clearly had no idea about Naruto's circumstance and it was a good training for all three of them. After all the knowledge of how to react when confronted with abrasive and stuck up noble clients was invaluable for most C-Rank missions and Naruto really needed to know what to expect before he insulted somebody with contacts to the Daimyo.

This was how the first three days went by; Kakashi noted satisfied that they instinctively fell back to the things he had shown them in the last few weeks. They weren't as fast as experienced Genin or Chunin in setting up camp but that would change with a lot of repetition.

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Their group had already walked the majority of their way when Kakashi started to pick up on the two chakra signatures that had taken to follow them. After extending his chakra senses a bit the silver haired Jounin relaxed somewhat. Thankfully neither of their stalkers was Jounin level but Kakashi still kept a close eye on them. Even mid to high Chunin could become dangerous if he had to protect a civilian and three Genin from them. They hadn't made their move yet and seemed to be content to just watch them; so Kakashi was willing to let their stalking slide as long as they didn't attack them… if only because taking measures against them would leave his students vulnerable against other attacks.

The moment Kakashi felt the two Chunin run ahead of their path and suppress their chakra even further he was on high alert. Carefully scanning their surroundings he soon found their trap… and had to consciously suppress the need to face palm.

A puddle.

A puddle in the middle of the road after it hadn't rained for days… in FIRE Country.

…Mist ninja…

The last two words were thought with a lot of exasperation. Either they were bat shit insane and horrifying deadly or bumbling idiots with no common sense. Kakashi hadn't come across a different variant yet.

Keeping his attention divided between the puddle and his students the silver haired Jounin tried to work a scenario out that would be the most beneficial for them. Kakashi subconsciously noted Sasuke's careful expressionless face and the way his hand inched closer to his kunai pouch before taking in Sakura's furrowed brow while her eyes had become a tack sharper. Naruto was unfortunately completely oblivious to the trap and walking past the puddle with his eyes trained at the woods. His sensei's son had become antsy a few hours ago and was clearly trying to find something to occupy himself with, as to not start a fight with their client. With a resigned barely noticeable sigh Kakashi decided to cut the boy some slack, after all he knew how many problems even an experienced and war hardened Uzumaki like Kushina had had to concentrate on mind numbing missions to not let her attention wander. Though Kakashi made a mental note to increase the awareness and reaction training for all three of them but especially Naruto. If he couldn't pick up on the traps beforehand fine… but then Naruto had to be at least fast enough to compensate for that handicap.

They had nearly passed the puddle when Kakashi started to slow down his pace a bit, he was curious if the attack was meant for him or their client, because if it was their client than he would have a… thorough chat with Tazuna. Kakashi really didn't like the thought that the old geezer could be intentionally endangering a fresh faced Genin team just to safe costs, more so if that team consisted out of his students.

Sakura Interlude

She wasn't sure what to think of C-Ranks, on one hand it was a nice break from the trot at home; on the other hand… walking at civilian speed… ugh… she really hadn't thought that she would ever say this but she was honestly missing training. The ninja speed was kind of addicting and Sakura had started to see some results in the last few days. They were really small but results were results and she had also liked how things had been developing between her teammates until the day Sasuke completely blocked them off. Sakura had been trying to find out what had happened that the black haired Genin had reacted like this but neither Kakashi-sensei nor Sasuke himself had been helpful. Her former crush had suddenly become so uncooperative that it had left her and Naruto reeling. And the way he provoked Naruto… of course she knew how annoying the blonde knucklehead could be but, but he had been getting better at keeping it under control. They all had been getting better at meshing their personalities and keeping their bad habits out of team time and tolerating each other… and then THAT.

At least it now looked like Sasuke was slowly getting over whatever had him in such a tizzy. Tazuna had been quite a big help at that even if he didn't know it, subconsciously Sakura's fist clenched while her thoughts wandered to the bridge builder. That… that drunkard was insulting and trying to get a rise out of Naruto nearly constantly and it was driving the pink haired girl nuts! Sakura had at first been surprised by the protective feelings that had washed through her when she had cottoned on to that. It had baffled her so much that it took her some moments until she could interfere and distract Tazuna from his chosen target. Inner had been sprouting off profanities for the following hour, especially after Tazuna had called Naruto a dobe.

'That, that old BASTARD how dare he call Naruto that! Only Team Seven has any right to do that!' had been shouted through her head and Sakura whole heartily agreed.

The pink haired girl had also watched Sasuke's reaction at Tazuna's use of that particular word, the Uchiha had stiffened before he subtly moved between the bridge builder and a fuming Naruto. This tiny gesture had given Sakura quite a bit of hope that things would return to the state they had been during the two blissful weeks they had spent mostly at the Hatake home after Kakashi had sat them down and read them the riot act.

Sakura was still immersed in her thoughts when Inner pointed out something strange to her, why the hell was there a water puddle in the middle of the road when it hadn't rained for days? Sakura couldn't put her a finger on it but something was making her uncomfortable. A quick glance at sensei didn't bring any conclusions, his face was in that aloof mask that he used during 'public time' as Inner had dubbed the times when Kakashi-sensei wasn't at the Hatake home or alone with them. Naruto too was not reacting but that was probably because he was oblivious to anything that didn't hit him right in the face. Sasuke on the other hand clearly was sensing something, his movements had changed minimally but Sakura had made everything pertaining Sasuke her business for close to three years, when she paid attention she could easily discern his body language. The black haired Uchiha was tense and readying himself for an attack and so Sakura took her cues from her teammate. She concentrated on her surroundings while she kept her breathing as even as possible. In her mind she ran through Kakashi-sensei's advice concerning ambushes like a mantra.

'Rule number one: Don't put your hand in your pouch. You know exactly where your weapons are and how to grab them, this is one of the things the Academy has been preparing you for with the sneak attacks during class time in the last two years. There is a reason why Konoha insists on learning how to perfectly position your weapons to have them draw ready. Your teachers didn't mark you down when you forgot how many weapons you have left because they thought it was funny but because most of the time it's a matter of life or death. If you can't remember how much kunai you have left you are as good as dead if you aren't a taijutsu or ninjutsu specialist.
Rule number two: Where is everybody, your comrades, your clients, your enemies? Make sure you know that, if you aren't sure about the latter don't bother with frantically searching, it won't do anything good if you call attention to yourself.
Rule number three: Ninja generally take out the biggest threat right in the beginning so that they won't be interrupted by them later. This isn't always so but generally speaking your client will probably not be targeted until the biggest threat is gone; use that to your advantage, having to protect a civilian while fighting a shinobi is more than a bit tricky.
Rule number four: You three are Genin, I know that you think intercepting enemies is what you should do one on one and you will learn that through experience but at the moment it is safer to take an enemy down while working together, again teamwork has it's reasons!
And rule number five: For Kami's sake, don't let yourself be separated from your teammates and me, especially me, do you understand!?'

What happened next took less than five seconds. Sakura only barely made out the sound of chains shooting through the air before they had already twisted around Kakashi-sensei's torso and then ripped him apart with one pull.