Chapter 61
Beta'd by Black Sparrow
Sakura Interlude
Sakura dry heaved while her brain tried to comprehend what just happened, beside and in front of her she more felt than saw her teammates spring into action. As soon as they were finished with their sensei the two masked men turned their attention to Naruto who stood the closest. The right one aimed for the blonde knucklehead's heart with one of those dangerously looking gauntlets but thankfully missed and only scratched him. Both of her boys were already in full motion. Sasuke quickly pinned the chain that had just ripped through Kakashi-sensei to a tree which made the two enemy ninja turn around to face the black haired Uchiha. Naruto used that opportunity to rush them from behind. In a move that was nearly perfectly timed the enemy nin got a kick in their faces from Sasuke while at the same time Naruto ripped their feet from underneath them. Sakura vaguely acknowledged the sick crunch when the backs of their heads collided with the hard road.
In the next moment the pink haired kunoichi was rushing to her teammates' side, she hadn't even realized when she had started to move into the direction of the fight. In the next moment Sakura was right on top of the two masked nin and slapped paralyzing seals on their heads. She could feel how the two instantly became unnaturally stiff underneath her. This freed up Naruto and Sasuke from holding them down, the two boys then started to wrap them into ninja wire and added additional paralyzing seals while Sakura held two kunai to their captives' throats. Those Fuinjutsu seals really came in handy.
Now that the threat was over a thought crept into Sakura's mind, how would they explain this to Shiori-san and Hinako-chan? With a tiny sob and a whimpered 'Kakashi-sensei' Sakura turned around to look at the remains of her sensei when a warm hand was placed on her head. The pink haired kunoichi reflexively ripped out a kunai to slash the hand atop her head when her arm was caught by a familiar hand.
"It's okay, Sakura-chan. I'm fine," said the deep voice of her teacher.
A half loud sob escaped the kunoichi while she desperately tried to understand what had happened.
Behind her Sasuke said in a strange voice, "You used the replacement jutsu."
'Oh thank Kami-sama!' was Sakura's only thought before she tightly hugged her sensei around the waist and burrowed her tearstained face in his Jounin jacket.
Kakashi Interlude
The moment he replaced himself with the log he had tagged only two hundred meters away Kakashi shunshined to the closest tree and watched the reaction of his students and the missing nin. This was not only the perfect opportunity to see who the two Mist nin were after but also a way to see how his kids reacted when confronted with a hostile situation.
It was Sasuke who was the first to react and he was nearly instantly followed by Naruto; Sakura was maybe a second or two behind them but still had a good reaction time.
'Fuck,' was Kakashi's next thought when he saw how Naruto was scratched. The Jounin had recognized the Demon brothers the instant they used that shuriken chain. He hoped like hell that it was one of the more generic poisons with which they had coated that thing or Naruto could be in trouble even with the help of his tenant.
Kakashi readied himself to interfere while he watched the going ons, Sasuke pinned the shuriken chain to a tree, he was keeping relatively calm and his throwing skills were as accurate as ever. The next movement on all three sides made him smile proudly, well it did look like something had stuck with them. More than satisfied with their reaction he shunshined back onto the road, just to hear Sakura's distressed whimper… 'shit'. When his only female student attached herself to his middle Kakashi just kept petting her head resigned in the fact that she would have to let go of him herself while he turned his attention to his two male students, both Sasuke and Naruto also looked visibly relieved.
"I have to say I'm very proud of all three of you, you handled this better than I had hoped, though Naruto we will have to look at your wound and get the poison out quickly."
Naruto's eyes went wide. "Poison? Waah!"
Sakura Interlude
Kakashi's comment forced her back into action. With a last squeeze Sakura reluctantly let go of their sensei and walked over to Naruto, with a well-practiced movement she opened up her backpack and took out the field kit she had packed as a precaution and then made Naruto swallow a pill against generic poisons before taking a sample of the chain and using one of the test stripes that her standard poison kit contained. She was now more than thankful that she had read through the instructions of the kit and memorized everything when she couldn't sleep the night before the mission. When the stripe turned blue Sakura sighed out loudly in relief, it was one of the more generic poisons and would be countered by the pill she had just given to Naruto.
"You are in luck, that's one of the common poisons and I have just given you an antidote now we only have to take care of your wound," she explained while she packed away the poison kit.
Naruto looked wide eyed at her and then said clearly relieved, "Thanks Sakura-chan."
"Mah, looks like my cute students are prepared for anything," Kakashi-sensei butted in teasingly.
He was talking in that cutesy voice that he always used to tease them and Sakura knew that he was only making fun of them but god was it annoying! Out of the corners of her eyes she saw that he kept an eye on them while she gently bandaged Naruto's freshly cleaned hand. The way his eyes curved betrayed his approval and Sakura couldn't help the slight blush that was part embarrassment part satisfaction from the hidden praise.
"Now Tazuna-san," Kakashi-sensei then said while he turned into the direction of the old civilian.
"Yeah?" the old man asked wary.
"We need to talk," and suddenly his voice wasn't friendly anymore.
Kakashi-sensei then proceeded to move the two Mist ninja against a tree and bound them a third time with ninja wire. Sakura carefully took note how he did that, those clearly weren't the standard knots and movements they had learned in the Academy. Absentmindedly Sakura caught out of the corner of her eyes that Naruto and Sasuke were also taking in the various knotting techniques their sensei was using.
"Those are pretty cool sensei, they look even tighter than the ones of the Advanced Trap Techniques. Are you going to show us how to use them?" Naruto piped up beside her, he was pretty cheerful for someone who just got poisoned.
"Yes, ask me when we have time or back in Konoha," the silver haired Jounin readily acquiesced.
He then removed Sakura's paralyzing seals from their captives' heads while leaving the other tags on them. The chunin could now move their heads again while their torsos and limps were still frozen stiff.
Nodding satisfied Kakashi turned around and fixed the old civilian with a hard look. "These are Chunin of the village hidden in the Mist, a village that is known for its relentless attacks and brutal handling of their missions and enemies."
One of the two Chunin tsked before asking brashly, "How did you know about our ambush?"
Sasuke snorted loudly in the background while Kakashi said condescending, "A puddle, on a clear day, when it hasn't rained in weeks, in FIRE country?"
Sakura and Naruto looked at each other briefly before snorting too. Wow, it sounded even dumber when spelled out like that. As a reaction the two captive shinobi flushed and snarled angrily. Kakashi-sensei just smiled at their reaction before he knocked them out with a quick grip to their pulse points.
"In that case why did you leave your students to fight those two?" Tazuna asked.
Sakura wanted to know that too, though she could guess the answer that was a test on Kakashi's side to see how they handled real combat in a relatively controlled situation… she had to admit that it was a pretty clever way to get a feel for their reactions and change their training accordingly.
"I could have taken them out quickly but then I wouldn't have known who they were after… now tell me Tazuna-san, why didn't you inform Konoha that there are ninja after you?"
Tazuna beside them froze up and Sakura could only gape while her head swiveled between both adult men. How did Kakashi-sensei know that?
"What are you getting at?" the bridge builder tried to deny.
"You asked for standard protection in Konoha, a C-Rank, which means a team that could protect you against bandits, robbers and other civilians. You didn't even allude to the fact that there could be ninja after you, which would have made it at least a B-Rank mission and a lot more expensive."
At this the civilian clearly wilted but Kakashi continued mercilessly.
"I'm sure you have your reasons but lying to us… to Konoha is NOT acceptable. With this you have put my students, Genin fresh out of the Academy at risk. So tell me why should we not turn around this instant and leave you to your fate? We would be well within our rights."
"The one who sends those ninja after me is the shipping magnate Gato."
"Who is Gato?" Sakura couldn't help but asked confused.
"He is one of the richest men in the world… there are rumors that he does a lot of shady business," Kakashi-sensei quickly explained while he continued to watch Tazuna like a hawk.
"Yeah, that one... a year ago Gato decided to make Wave his. He bought out all our transport and shipping companies and now controls everything, Wave is after all dependent on its imports, he has been sucking out the life of this island since then. Anyone who stands in his way disappears and his thugs have been terrorizing our villages. The only thing that can break his control is the bridge I'm building, once it is complete we will be joined to the mainland and have access to imports once more. I need to be alive to finish it."
"So if you knew that he was that dangerous and would send ninja to take you out why did you not say this back in Konoha?" Kakashi continued mercilessly.
"Because Wave doesn't have the money for a B-Rank or even A-Rank mission, it's too poor for that. If you abandon me now, there will be no bridge and no hope for my people."
Now Sakura was feeling bad, not for the old geezer in front of them but for the people of Wave Country.
"But don't feel bad about this, of course my grandson will be upset and will cry 'Granddad, I want my granddad' and of course my daughter will be denouncing and cursing your village for abandoning me to those ninja."
Sakura's eyebrow twitched, 'On second thought I don't have any sympathy at all. This old geezer is trying to emotionally blackmail us, as if that would work.'
"Kakashi-sensei, we have to help the people of Wave we can't abandon the mission!"
Sakura face palmed while Sasuke sweat dropped beside her, of course Naruto would take that bait, hook, line and sinker.
Kakashi Interlude
'Naruto,' was his exasperated thought while he inwardly debated if they should continue the mission or not.
On one hand, they were clearly over their mission parameters and probably should turn around and leave Tazuna here. On the other hand, his kids would probably benefit from this mission more than ten C-Ranks with nothing more than one or two bandits attacking. Additionally Kakashi wanted to investigate what was going on in Wave, Konoha had more than a few merchants that took the routes along the coast line and it would be detrimental for their economy in the long run. There was also the fact that if they made their way back to Konoha now and asked for another team to take the mission there would be a lot of precious time lost.
Decisions, decisions.
Beside him Naruto then started a monologue about their duty as ninja, etc., etc. where did that boy get those inspirational speeches? He could practically see how Sasuke was starting to get swayed though Sakura still looked somewhat unimpressed and more annoyed than convinced.
Oh what the hell. The kids could decide.
"Well, what do you think, should we continue or not?"
"YES!" Naruto shouted with full conviction, though this time the boy at least watched his voice pitch and while it was still loud the sound didn't ring that badly in his ears.
Sasuke hhned and Sakura sighed deeply before saying, "Oh well, we better or Naruto here will never EVER let us forget it, and I really can't stand to listen to him whine more than ten minutes in a row."
'Practical,' was Kakashi's amused thought while he nodded and turned to their client.
"Very well we will continue the mission but Tazuna-san you can count on the fact that the moment you guys have money again someone from Konoha will show up and renegotiate this contract," the last part was said with no little amount of glee.
There was a reason why Konoha's ambassadors and negotiators were feared for their ruthlessness and Wave would most certainly get a fat fine for breaching the contract. Especially for endangering a Genin team, Sandaime-sama didn't tolerate that kind of hood winkling especially not when it pertained Konoha's youngest ninja, there WOULD be consequences.
Tazuna seemed to slump at the news but didn't seem to dare to disagree. Having cleared up the situation Kakashi summoned Uhei and wrote down two quick messages for the Hokage and the Hunter nin outpost only half a day away. With any luck the two Mist nin would be in custody of their Hunter nin corps before they had even arrived in Wave. Having finished with his task he quickly put the tree with the two unconscious ninja under a timed Genjutsu before rejoining his students and their client on the road.
"Kakashi-san, tell me something… how did you know about me being the target of those ninja?" the bridge builder asked curious.
"Actually, I didn't know… I just guessed and you were so kind to confirm," Kakashi couldn't help but say in an amused voice.
Inwardly he snorted at the gob smacked face of their client while his kids were giggling like mad, or well Sakura and Naruto were, Sasuke was smirking in a decidedly cute way, not that he would ever tell the young Uchiha that. Of course what he had just said wasn't completely the truth, Kakashi had gotten enough clues about the situation from the Demon brothers and Tazuna himself during the whole encounter, once he was sure about what was going on he had knocked out the Mist nin again, there was after all no point in giving them more information than strictly necessary.