Previously on Naruto…

"The test is very simple. You have to take these two bells from me, that's all." Kakashi explained holding up two small bells.

…

"Those who break the rules are scum, that's true. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. So congratulations to you all. Team Seven, we'll begin our first mission tomorrow!" Kakashi declared giving them a thumbs up.

"This Sasuke. I'm a Point B."

"Sakura here, at Point C."

"...Naruto at Point A, believe it!"

"You're slow Naruto. Where's Peri?"

Meow.

"You're such a good kitty Tora! Oh, I got the cat."

"...Alright mission completion."

-Hokage's Office-

"Oh Tora dear I was so worried about you sweetie!" a middle-aged woman squealed. She was wearing fancy robes and covered with makeup squeezing the life out of her cat.

"The poor thing." Peri said feeling bad for it

"No wonder he ran away." Sakura added

"Ha! Stupid cat deserves it! Naruto laughed before he was harshly elbowed by the Senju.

The hokage was reading another request to the new ninja team, "Alright here's a list of missions for Team Seven. Picking potatoes, babysitting the federal lord's son, going grocery shopping for-"

"NO! Come on, I wanna go on a REAL mission!" Naruto complained, crossing his arms.

(He's got a point.) Sasuke grumbled.

(He's such a twerp!) Sakura hissed.

"HOW DARE YOU?! You're just inexperienced ninjas. Like everybody else, you start at the very bottom!" Iruka yelled.

"Babysitting isn't a mission, it's a stupid chore-OW!" Naruto cried holding his head rubbing the bump on his head. Hirzuen sighed, shaking his head triely.

Even as a shinobi Naruto was still Naruto. The hokage looked up from the report and cleared his throat. "Naruto, it seems like you don't understand how the ninja system works. Like Iruka said, you are only genin so you will receive D-rank missions. As you climb up the ranks the missions will become more advanced so-" the homage stopped his explanation, noticing that none of them were listening to him and talking about ramen instead.

"So I'm thinking about tonkatsu ramen since I had miso ramen yesterday. What do you guys think?" Naruto asked, sitting on the floor.

Peri nodded before remembering something. "I heard there's a limited edition sale at Ichiraku's so maybe we all can go." she offered.

"PAY ATTENTION!" the hokage roared with an amine tick mark on his forehead.

"You're always lecturing like your grandfather, but I'm not a kid anymore. I'm a ninja and I want a ninja mission!" the Uzumaki pouted. He actually made himself look even younger than he actually was, almost like a little kid.

But he did make a good point. They were ninjas now and none of them would get any stronger with this kid stuff. So Hiruzen decided to grant their wish. "Alright. Since you're not brats anymore I'll give you a C-rank mission. Please send in our visitor." he ordered.

The door opened as an elderly middle-aged man walked smelling like alcohol with a towel around his neck.

"What the? These are my escorts? They're just snot-nose kids!" the man groaned.

"What did he just say?" Peri growled, cracking her knuckles

"Please rest assured that my students are more than capable of taking care of you." Kakashi replied.

The client rolled his eyes taking a swig of his bottle gazing at the four children. "What's with the little guy with the stupid look on his face? Are you telling me he's really a ninja."

"Hahahaha! Who's the stupid little guy?" Naruto laughed.

Sasuke was the tallest, then Sakura, followed by Peri who was only a few inches taller than Naruto.

"I'LL DEMOLISH YOU!" the Uzumaki roared being held back by his sensei.

"You can demolish the client Naruto."

"This is Tazuna, he's a bridge builder from the Land of Waves. Your mission is to take him back to his homeland. Pack your things and you'll leave in one hour." Hirzuen finished.

He just hoped that all of them would return safely, especially the young Senju who was like a grandchild to him.

…

(My very first mission, I heard people say that they were excited, but I'm actually a little nervous.) Peri said to herself, as she made her way to her teammates.

Naruto kept on fighting their sensei to get to Tazuna while Sasuke kept on ignoring the pink-haired girl who was trying to ask him out. "I'm so excited! This is my first time leaving the village!" Naruto cheered.

"Am I really supposed to trust this shrimp? He's a joke!"

"Don't talk down to me cause I'm gonna become the hokage, believe it!" the blonde yelled.

"The day that happens, I'll sprout wings in fly."

"Why you-!"

(Can he not start an argument every five minutes?) Kakashi sighed watching the blonde argue with Tazuna once again.

Sakura then asked him if they were any ninja in the Land of Waves and he replied that there wasn't as she let out a sigh of relief. Kakashi told them about the five great nations, their leaders, and the ninja system.

(Looks like I was nervous about nothing, everything's going pretty good.) the light-brown haired Senju thought.

Everything was pretty calm, and if her sensei was right, they only had to worry about bandits and robbers. As long as the copy ninja was with them, then all would be okay.

But that peace was quickly shattered.

A long chain wrapped about Kakashi as two rogue ninjas jumped out of the trees.

Tazuna, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Peri gasped in horror as they watched their leader fall to the ground in a lifeless clump.

Sakura screamed in terror.

"KAKASHI SENSEI!" Naruto yelled, but froze as the one of them was about to cut his back,

The Uchiha pull out a kunai pining the chain against the tree.

"I-I can't get loose!" one rogue ninja gasped.

Taking advantage of the opportunity Sasuke grabbed their arms and kicked them in the face. One of the rogue ninjas managed to break free and charged at Sakura, Peri, and Tazuna.

"Naruto! Sakura! Protect Mr. Tazuna!"

But neither of them move. They were frozen in fear.

The rogue ninja charged at Tazuna and Sakura, the girl screamed out in terror.

(I gotta do something! I gotta stop them!) Peri grabbed a kunai from her pouch.

The Senju shoved the pink-haired girl out of the way and used all of her strength to push the rogue most ninja back away from her teammate.

"Why you-You're gonna regret doing that!" the rogue charged again.

Peri jumped in front of Tazuna, but Sasuke ran in front of her.

Just when both of them were about to attack. Kakashi came out of nowhere and slammed his elbow against the ninja's neck knocking him unconscious.

"Sensei you're alive! Thank goodness!" Peri cheered.

(Show off.) Sasuke grumbled.

"Why wouldn't I be? Good job Sasuke, Peri, and Sasuke! Naruto and Sakura. I'm sorry I couldn't help you, but I didn't think you two would freeze up like that."

Sakura looked away embarrassed while Naruti gritted his teeth in anger.

Kakashi apologized before walking over to the defeated rogues. Naruto didn't have the strength to look up at his sensei feeling ashamed that he couldn't do anything.

(I'm a total idiot! And Sasuke was so calm and cool and it was the first battle! Wasn't he scared at all?I mean there's a scratch on him! Why can't aI best him! ) Naruto thought, biting his lip in frustration.

Then Sasuke walked over to Naruto and it looked like he was going to take her place.

"Hey, you're not hurt are you? Scaredy cat." he taunted

"GRRR-SASUKE!"

"Naruto! Don't move, those ninjas had poison in their claws. You will only spread the poison if you move." Kakashi instructed.

The copy ninja glares at the bridge builder who takes a step back nervously. "I need to have a word with you Mr. Tazuna."

"What do you mean? And where did you go and let the kids fight if you could have done it yourself!" the bridge builder stammered.

"Because I need to see who they were targeting

us or you." he answered.

"W-What are you talking about?" Tazuna asked

"The mission we were given was to protect you from bandits and robbers, but you never told us about any shinobi coming after you. Otherwise it would be ranked as a higher mission for more advanced shinobi. This is a B or A-rank mission not a C-rank mission for genin." Kakashi explained.

Tazuna looked ashamed at his feet.

"Then we should go back to the Leaf. This mission is too much for us, we're genin and we just graduated from the academy! We're not prepared for this kind of mission. Besides, we need to go back to the village and take Naruto to the hospital so he can get medical treatment." Peri said .

"I agree this kind of mission is something we're not ready for. And like Peri said, Naruto needs medicine." Sakura agreed

Gritting his teeth Naruto took his kunai and stabbed his own hand.

"What are you doing?!" Peri gasped

"Why am I always so different? I worked my butt off all these years and it's still not enough. But there's no way I'm giving up. I'll surpass Sasuke and become the hokage so let's keep going!" Naruto declared, grinning.

"That's great Naruto, but if you keep moving like that, you're gonna die." Kakashi smiled.

"...NO, NO, NO HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Naruto yelled, panicking.

"Give me your hand." Kakashi said, examining his hand.

(It's the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox.) Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the blonde's already healed wound.

"U-Um Sensei you're scaring me and I'm gonna be okay?" the Uzumaki asked nervously.

"Yeah you'll be fine. Well, since Naruto's wound is better , let's continue. If we head back now there is a stronger chance of being attacked again. And after that speech we don't have a choice but to continue." Kakashi said, leading the group once again.

Naruto cheered, running up to the copy ninja, followed by Tazuna and Sakura with Sasuke and Peri following close behind.

Peri saw a cut on Sasuke's cheek. It didn't look serious, but it could get infected. Walking over to the Uchiha she handed him an ointment. "Here use this." Peri said

Sasuke just stared at her with a blank look.

"It's for your cut, so it get infected. We don't want you almost dying like Naruto." Peri joked, placing the ointment in his hand.

Out of jealousy Sakura walked over and pulled Peri away from Sasuke. "Stop flirting with Sasuke, he's mine!" Sakura yelled.

"What's wrong with you?!I'm just making sure nobody's hurt, geez!" Peri shot back pulling her arm away from the jealous girl.

Moving away from the fangirl, the Senju secretly looked over at Sasuke. The scratch in his cheek was gone, he must have taken the ointment.

(But Naruto had a point. The way Sasuke fought, he managed to fight them all on his own. While I barely manage to protect Mr. Tazuna! Wasn't he scared at all?) Peri frowned sadly.

…

They finally made it to the port. Since the Land of Fire is mainly forests and countryside the ports were located at the most southwestern part of the country. Where the land and the ocean met. When they got there one of Tazuna sailed them to the Land of Waves. It was a small boat so they had to cuddle in close so nobody would fall overboard.

Sasuke and Peri were sitting together much to Sakura's jealousy. Every time she would move closer to him the raven-haired boy would move closer to Senju. Letting out a sigh the girl sat next to Uzumaki while Kakashi and Tazuna were sitting up front.

"Mr. Tazuna, before we make it to shore I need to know exactly what we're dealing with. If you don't, I'll have no other choice but to cancel the mission." Kakashi said.

"Well, you have all traveled with me this far. I have no other choice but to tell you. The truth is there's a wealthy man who seeks to end my life. I'm sure you know him, his name is Gato." Tazuna began.

"Gato? From Gato Transport? But he's a businessman." Kakashi protested.

"True, but he's also an illegal drug dealer. A couple years ago he took over our ports and shipping businesses. As an island nation we depend on the sea for business and our way of life." the bridge builder began.

(What a horrible man!) Peri thought

"Gato's the most powerful man in the land but the one thing that will break his control is the bridge I'm building. Once my bridge is complete it will connect us to the mainland and finally break his control." Tazuna explained looking at the waves. Everyone, especially looked at the bridge builder with a brand new respect.

"So that's what's going on. You're in this gangster's way." Peri summoned up

"If that's the case, why did you lie to Lord Hokage? The ranking should have been a B or A-rank mission." Kakashi asked.

"Because the Land of Waves is a poor nation, not even the feudal lords have much money. A B-rank or A-rank mission is simply too expensive." Tazuna answered.

"What will we do now sensei? This mission is still beyond our abilities. It's probably best if we go back home and leave this to a chunin or jounin." Sakura suggested.

(As much as I agree with her I don't think they are gonna listen to reason.) Peri frowned.

"Now, now. I certainly won't force you to help me. But if you don't and I did my poor little grandson will be heartbroken. And my sweet daughter will curse the Hidden Leaf for allowing her father to die." Tazuna sighed dramatically.

Naruto was holding back tears.

Peri frowned.

Sakura looked worried.

And Sasuke looked a little concerned.

"I guess we have no choice. We'll just have to keep protecting you." Kakashi decided.

-Three days later-

The group finally made it to the Land of Waves with extra precaution. They knew more rogue ninjas.

"Over there!" Naruto yelled, throwing a kunai.

After a few tense minutes, a mouse ran out of the bushes. "It was just a mouse." he said coolly

"Naruto, those are kunai knives! You can't just throw them around carelessly." Kakashi scolded.

"QUIT TRYING TO SCARE ME YOU LITTLE DWARF!" Tazuna roared in anger.

Naruto wasn't listening to anyone still carelessly until he almost hit a small bunny only to miss it by a hair.

"Naruto, look what you did!" Peri yelled, hitting his head.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry little bunny!" he cried, cradling it trying to comfort the poor thing. Kakashi narrowed his eyes on the animal.

Why was a snow rabbit in a warm place? Something was wrong and he could feel it.

"GET DOWN!" he yelled, pushing Tazuna to the ground as his students dived for cover. A gigantic blade flew over their heads and impaled itself into the tree in front of him.

"Well, well, well. Kakashi the Copy Ninja huh? No wonder those fools failed to capture the old man." a dark-skinned man said standing on the handle of his blade.

He stood up and immediately recognized who this man was. This mission just turned from bad to worse.

"Zabuza Momochi...never thought I would run into you. Manji Formation now! Protect the bridge builder!" the famous copy ninja ordered

Peri, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto took out their weapons, forming a circle around Tazuna.

The copy ninja let out a quiet sigh of relief, it was a good thing the four of them were fast learners. He couldn't fight Zabuza and protect Tazuna at the same time.

"Enough I don't have any business with you Leaf ninja. Hand over the bridge builder." Zabuza ordered.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Zabuza." he responded.

Author's Notes

Hi everyone! I hope all of you are having a great day and staying safe. Now Team Seven are getting about to face their first real test as ninjas so stay tuned on what happens next!

Thank you for reading!