“…and you’ll be escorting him to Wave Country,” Sarutobi concluded. The man Tazuma looked over the genin dubiously, but had so far been silent.
Naruto grinned wildly. “Finally, a chance to show how awesome I can be!”
Sasuke closed his eyes, bowed his head slightly, and allowed a slight smile.
Kakashi sighed again and looked at Naruto. “I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Sakura frowned. “Where is Wave, anyway?”
“It’s a small island nation just off the coast,” Iruka supplied. “They’re too small to have their own village. We covered it in the minor nations course.”
Sakura frowned and concentrated. “Hmm. Was there anything memorable about it?”
Iruka shot Tazuma an apologetic glance. “Not really, no.”
Naruto waved off the concern. “What does it matter? That’s where we gotta go, so let’s go!”
Sakura scowled at Naruto. “What kind of idiot are you? You don’t snub your nose at new intel.”
Naruto humphed and turned his head. “We’re awesome enough not to need it, but maybe Sasuke needs the help.”
Sasuke acted like he didn’t hear Naruto. He might not have; his ability to block out his annoying teammates was practically a jutsu itself.
Inside Naruto’s head, he was angry at himself. Sakura was right; free intel is too rare to pass up. Still it was only a C-rank mission. He was more than awesome enough to handle it. Believe it!
Kakashi looked team 7 over as they assembled outside Konoha. Something smelled bad about this mission.
It wasn’t Tazuma. The surly bridge builder was hiding secrets, but he didn’t walk like a man planning to get a bunch of ninja killed. No, this bad feeling went straight back to the Sandaime. It was rare for a genin team to get a C-rank so early, especially before serious teamwork issues were only partially addressed. Still, with the last Uchiha and Naruto’s new bloodline, team 7 had enough raw power to be that rare exception.
But no genin team went extra-national on their very first C-rank. The Land of Waves was close as foreign lands went, but it was still foreign territory and a couple days’ travel gets real long real fast if something goes wrong. And the Hokage hadn’t even commented on that.
Kakashi’s eye rested on Naruto. The knucklehead was cheering about a chance to show how awesome he was. It was an infectious good mood, and Kakashi found himself thinking that whatever the Hokage knew about Naruto’s power, it was enough. After all, he was the Yondaime’s son. As long as no foreign nin showed up, everything would be fine. Reassured, Kakashi allowed Naruto to lead the way.
Naruto grumbled again as they walked. “C’mon, why do we gotta walk to Wave?”
“Because Tazuma isn’t a ninja,” Kakashi replied again.
Naruto sulked. Branch hopping was fast and efficient, and easy match to his wingspeed. But trudging along on the dirt for miles was simply too much to be borne! “Then why don’t we summon something we can ride on?”
“Because this is your mission, not mine,” Kakashi sighed. Also again.
“Well I-“
“Are much too inexperienced to summon anything that large,” Kakashi cut him off. “You’re lucky that lizard didn’t eat you.”
“Dragon,” Naruto corrected.
“There’s no such thing as dragons,” Sakura snapped automatically. Naruto was getting really annoying with the delusion that he could summon dragons. Sasuke might be awesome enough to do that, but Naruto? Not a chance.
Kakashi realized he had to stop another argument before Tazuma heard village secrets. He didn’t want to have to kill the old man.
The outside perspective is never quite the same as the view from inside. Naruto had left many things about being human behind him – frailty first and foremost. In the reactions ninja had to his newfound resilience, he had quickly realized that even experienced jonin were no less indestructible than an ordinary man, if they didn’t have time to shape chakra first.
Which was why none of Naruto’s new abilities stopped him from believing that two ninja had suddenly appeared and killed Kakashi mid-sentence.
Naruto’s eyes widened in shock and the world stopped. He dimly heard Sakura screaming, but it was like someone had wrapped his head in a blanket. The two enemy nin had chains and metal claws and their faces were concealed. One was coming at him. He had to react! He had to…
MOVE, WHELP!
There was pain.
Sasuke saw Naruto freeze up and some part of his brain noted how that much raw power was still dead last. That, as well as wondering about Kakashi, was shunted for later thinking. Now was a time for action.
With the enemy focusing on Naruto for the moment, Sasuke quickly vanished into the background to get into a striking position. Sakura was taking up a guard position near Tazuma – that was good, that was the mission.
Sasuke threw a shuriken and kunai combo into the chain, pinning it to a tree. That bought them a few moments while the ninja released the chains. He took full advantage of the distraction to jump between them and kick them in the heads with a split kick.
The nin finally detatched their chains from their claw weapons and split up. One ran for Naruto, the other for Sakura and Tazuma.
Finally Naruto reacted. His battle cry was a yelp of fear and he brought his hands up in a pathetic guard, but it was a reaction regardless. The enemy nin’s claws drew blood from Naruto’s hand, but the steel blade crumpled as Naruto spun his hand around and grabbed it. There was a light dancing in his eyes as he quite simply tore the weapon off the man’s hand and smashed it to the ground, whereupon it ceased to resemble a functional weapon.
This didn’t stop the other nin, who had reached striking distance and lunged at Sakura. She tightened up her stance and prepared to die.
Sasuke jumped in front of Sakura. What the hell am I doing!?
Naruto reached into his mind he grasped the thread that held together the tapestry of his human form. He had to save them! But he was going to be too late, even he could see that. At best, he would avenge them.
Then Kakashi was there, and the enemy nin ran right into his arm. His neck made an extremely unfortunate noise and he fell to the ground.
Naruto stumbled and stopped himself from dispelling the illusion. “Ka-Kakashi-sensei!?” He casually grabbed the other, disarmed nin and held his wrist. More unfortunate noises sounded as the chunin sought to break the casual grip and succeeded only in breaking several delicate bones.
Kakashi smiled. “Sorry I wasn’t faster, Naruto. I expected you to be able to move sooner.”
Naruto ducked his head and blushed in shame. The enemy nin just whimpered. “Can you make him let go?”
Sakura walked over and carefully punched him with all her strength. “Naruto! You should know better than that!” She was getting better at this; her hand hardly throbbed at all. Naruto even moved slightly. A bit. Well, he shifted his weight a bit, anyway.
Kakashi ignored the sudden outburst and looked over the nin. “Hidden Mist chunin. Hmm. Why are you here? And why are you targeting him?” While Kakashi’s back was to Tazuma, there was no question who he was talking about. His head came around and his one eye fixed the bridge-builder with a blank stare. “We need to have a conversation,” he said calmly.
Tazuma returned the look evenly. He’d expected worse.
Kakashi turned to regard Naruto. “The weapon was poisoned, Naruto-kun. We’ll need to get you back to Konoha for treatment, or we’ll have problems.”
Naruto looked at his wound. His transformation wasn’t a genjutsu or even a henge. For all his hand was in actuality a scaled, clawed talon large enough to flatten a full grown man, this small human limb was his, and the shallow, poisoned wound was a real threat. They’d have to abort the mission because of this. The first real mission he’d ever been on. A failure.
Forget that. He looked up at Kakashi and sliced his hand open with a kunai. He didn’t even flinch as the blood flowed and declared in his usual loud voice, “We don’t go home until the mission’s done. Believe it!”
Kakashi finally sat down. They were off the road, hidden from casual interlopers, and he was moderately certain no more ninja were around. “Why did you request a C rank mission if you knew there could be ninja involved?” he asked Tazuma.
Tazuma shrugged lazily. “What makes you think I knew-?”
“You are not nearly surprised enough,” Kakashi interrupted, “for you not to have at least expected. As it stands this mission is already at the B rank.”
Tazuma returned Kakashi’s gaze fearlessly. It was actually quite impressive for him to stand firm like that. Finally he broke eye contact and sighed. “Yes I knew.”
The genin shifted uncomfortably at the admission but stayed silent as Tazuma continued. He explained how his country was poor, how the magistrate Gato manipulated trade to keep them poor and him wealthy. How his bridge would end all that, and how he himself was the lynchpin of his people’s morale and ability to resist Gato.
Kakashi waited for the story to end. “This mission is canceled,” he announced. “We return to Konoha immediately.”
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(Posted Sun, 24 Apr 2011 04:13)
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