Kakashi knew the Hokage was going to give him a long lecture, if not take his head off altogether, for his decision to continue to the Wave Country despite the fact that their little escort mission was definitely not C-rank. The mission categories existed so that the shinobi got missions that they could handle and fair pay in return for their skills and time. Doing a B-rank mission under the guise of a C-rank was not worth it... for most cases at least.
After listening to Tazuna's plight, it was hard not to sympathize with the bridge-builder. Of course, he dallied and threatened to abort the mission just to get Tazuna to open up about all the mission parameters upfront. Kakashi knew from that conversation how dangerous the mission was going to be, but they didn't have much choice in the matter.
The safest options were to get Tazuna either back to Konoha or back to his bridge as soon as possible. Getting him back to Konoha wasn't really an option because the man wasn't loaded enough to get a shinobi team for the B-rank this mission really was. Most likely he was going to go back to Wave Country empty-handed in clear and present danger. He wouldn't survive that trip, and that would lie heavily on Kakashi's conscience.
His team was divided on this. Sakura wanted them to turn back because they were clearly operating outside the established mission parameters, something she wasn't really comfortable with. Sasuke was indifferent as long as he got to kick some serious ass. Naruto was desperate to get this mission underway.
Kakashi could understand why. Naruto was outdone by Sasuke by a wide breadth when the Mist ninja attacked them. Naruto wasn't thinking fast enough to do more than put himself between the enemies and Tazuna. Sasuke, on the other hand, showed great calm and creativity in handling the situation. Naruto looked positively livid when Sasuke taunted him about it afterwards.
To Kakashi's ears, it had sounded like a tease - a harsh one, to be sure, but still a tease. Kakashi noticed that Naruto hadn't taken it that way at all. To him, it was a very personal attack. His hand had clutched on the kunai as he stared back at Sasuke like he wanted to put the thing through the Uchiha. Kakashi was mainly concerned with how touchy Naruto was, so he reminded the boys kindly that there was the mission they needed to think about in an effort to get Naruto's mind off the little jab and back to work.
Both Naruto and Sasuke was well-behaved the rest of the way. Sakura, however, was slightly rattled, so Kakashi encouraged Naruto to stick by her while Sasuke was mainly to shadow Tazuna. He didn't know if it was the correct decision since Naruto gave Sasuke dirty look more often than not.
When they had crossed the ferry to Wave Country, they thought the hardest part was over. As it turned out, it had just begun.
/***/
By the time they reached Tazuna-san's house, Sakura was basically drained. She, Naruto, and Sasuke-kun had taken turns dragging Kakashi-sensei's limp body with them from the pond where they fought Zabuza. Knowing that a dangerous man like Zabuza was dead had made the burden a little lighter, but just barely.
They were greeted by Tazuna's daughter Tsunami, who graciously laid out a futon for their teacher in a room set aside for them. Sasuke had been the proper young Uchiha lord with their host while Naruto... well, was Naruto. An orphaned boy grown up mostly on his own could hardly be expected to have good manners.
His manners aside, the fact that he was an orphan got her thinking. She had never heard any gossip about Naruto's parents, which was strange for a village like theirs where people generally knew others in their community very well, especially if they were shinobi. They must have been civilians, she concluded. They were probably casualties from the day Kyuubi attacked-
Wait, wait, wait, back up a bit, Sakura. When was Naruto born again?
She didn't know, not precisely. She was born the same year the Kyuubi attacked the village - most of the students in the class were- so she assumed Naruto was born sometime that year, too. But if her hypothesis on Naruto's parents being casualties of the attack were to be true, she needed to know his birthday.
