What if?

8======D - - -

Two hours into the walk towards the land of waves, Naruto begins to sense negative emotions a few hundred yards ahead. "Two people ahead, both aggressive and with genin to chunin chakra levels. Seem to be waiting on something."

"Very good Naruto, it seems you're a sensor type. That's a very useful ability." Kakashi placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"How should we play tbis, sensei? If we get much closer, we run the risk of them hurting the client that we're supposed to protect." Sasuke crossed his arms, looking ahead with his sharingan.

Naruto began walking forward. "I can kill them."

"No. I need to see how the three of you handle a situation where someone wants to kill you, but I'm not risking your lives or Tazuna's. Sakura, you stay with Tazuna with me. Naruto, Sasuke, you engage the enemy shinobi. I'll only interfere if I feel you can't handle it."

He got three nods, an unsure one from Sakura but it was still a nod.

"Stay outta my way, Uchiha." Naruto muttered so only Sasuke could hear.

Sasuke glared but said nothing.

When they got close to the anbush, two men leaped from a puddle. They had wild looks about them, but the most noticeable feature was the metal arms. Each man had a metal armored claw on the opposite arm as the other, connected by a spiked chain.

They blurred towards Kakashi, only for Naruto to grab the chain and slam them into the ground in an incredible show of strength.

The men jumped up and disconnected the cable. "You'll pay for that, brat."

"Doubt it, but by all means...try." Naruto bore a sadistic smirk.

Sasuke appeared crouched in front of one. Then he kicked the bottom of the man's chin, knocking him unconcious in a single blow. Naruto shot towards the remaining brother and put both feet into the man's stomach, knocking him back.

Before he could get up, Naruto had gripped his shirt with his left hand and was punching him in the face repeatedly. Naruto smiled until the man spit in his face. "K-kill me, D-Demon..."

Naruto paused in pure hatred. Then he went to deliver another punch, only for Kakashi to catch his wrist. "That's enough Naruto, back off."

Naruto backed off, albeit begrudgingly.

Kakashi lifted the man up by his now ruined collar and stared into the man's single open eye, the other too bruised and bloody to see from, then lifted his headband. He had a scar over his left eye, which was closed. When he opened it he showed a fully matured sharingan. "Sharingan." He called, forcing the tomorrow in the eye to spin. "Now...who were you after?"

The man's expression went blank and he sounded tired. "The bridge builder, Tazuna."

"How many more are there besides you?"

"One jonin, a chunin, and a hundred or so bandits..." The man replied.

"Who hired you and why?"

"Gato, of Gato industries. I never cared why, just that I was being paid." The man replied again, sounding strained.

"I'm going to tie you up. From now on, if anyone says the word Konoha, I want you to confess every incriminating thing you and your brother have ever done." Then Kakashi closed the eye.

Once the chunin were tied up, Kakashi glared at Tazuna. "You heard all that, right? I don't have to explain I know you lied, do I?"

Tazuna sighed somberly. "I'm sorry..."

"I'm sorry? Is that all you've got? These are newly minted genin, you could've gotten a child killed today. Give me one reason I shouldn't take my team back to Kon- the village, right now." Kakashi had stopped himself from saying 'Konoha', he'd rather not hear the enemy shinobi's life story.

"We didn't have the money to afford a higher ranking mission... because of Gato the people of Wave are starving and dying and since he controls the shipping industry he gets to decide whether or not we get any supplies. The bridge will allow us to ignore that and let us finally have control over our lives."

"Sensei...we can't leave." Sasuke said, looking down in anger.

Kakashi looked at him an he continued. "Sensei, we can't leave when they're suffering like this. It's not right, what that ass hole is doing to the country. We need to help them, you want us to be better shinobi and people, right? Well let's start now. Let's finish this." Sasuke met Kakashi's gaze and Kakashi was happy to see the determination in his eyes.

Kakashi then eye-smiled. "I was gonna let you guys vote, anyway."

"I...I'll go with Sasuke-kun." Sakura smiled sheepishly.

Naruto scoffed. "A chance to fight missing nin who actually wanna kill us? It'll make me stronger, let's do it."

"Alright, you're finally beginning to behave like a team." Kakashi smiled at them through his mask. Inside he saw the darkness in Naruto and prayed he could pull his sensei's son from the dark path.