A Little Kindness

The First Mission

"Do you have any issue with the team I have assigned to protect you Tazuna-san?" The elderly Hokage asked the bridge builder. "There was a team in here?" Tazuna drunkenly asked as he took another long drag from his bottle, before promptly passing out in the floor. "At this the Hokage massaged his temples to ward off another headache, as he put even more tobacco in his pipe. "Beaver would you escort the drunkard out of my office, he told one of his Anbu who swiftly appeared and disappeared in a flash.

After exactly two hours all four members of Team 7 met at the gate. Even Kakashi who wasn't late for once was waiting for them there. After a few more minutes, a much more sober looking Tazuna came strolling up to the team. "Is this everyone?" He asked neutrally, as he looked around at his new protection unit. "Yes it is, now let's get going shall we?" Kakashi answered as he led his team, and client out of the village. The first few hours of the trip went relatively quickly if not silently. As the three Genin had busied themselves with looking around at all the nature around, as this was the first time two of them had been out of the village. Sasuke had been out several times when he went with his brother on a random mission every now and then. But he hadn't been out in awhile, and was curious as to what all has changed.

After several more minutes, Team 7 walked past a small puddle of water on the side of the road. 'Hmmmm that's strange it hasn't rained in weeks, this might get interesting.' Kakashi thought to himself as he prepared for an attack. And no sooner than he did, two mysterious figures appeared out of the puddle as they easily caught Kakashi off gaurd, and captured him with their spiked chain, before splitting him into seperate pieces with a tug of their gauntlets. Naruto and Sasuke quickly sprang into action as soon as they sensed the danger. "Sakura protect Tazuna." Sasuke had yelled. As he and Naruto engaged the two enemy shinobi. Naruto made a few clones to attack and distract the enemy shinobi, while Sasuke went to work on neutralizing their gauntlets and chain. As he threw handfuls of shuriken and kunai at the chain, firmly pinning it against the tree, as he threw a few rolls of ninja wire over the chain while it was pinned. Before the rogue shinobi were able to dislodge their chain from the tree, as they started to run for Naruto, who was now alone without any of his clones.

"Quickly forming the hand signs, Sasuke took a deep breath before placing the ends of the ninja wire in his mouth, and shouted "Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu" as a trail of fire made it's way down the wire towards the chain and gauntlets, setting them ablaze, as the rogue shinobi had no choice but to relinquish their chain and gauntlets. And not a moment too soon either, as they released thier deadly weapon as soon as they were passing Naruto. Much to their chagrin, but not ones to give up they took out a kunai each and rushed at the blonde just for it to poof out of existence. "Another shad.." was all the shorter enemy was able to get out before he was blindsided by a ball of orange, as he went sliding across the ground. "Brother!! I'll get you for that." The enemy brother, as he just made himself known as, charged right at Naruto. But he was so caught up in his rage blinded attack that he didn't see the large fireball that Sasuke had sent at him, until it was too late. He ran right into the large fireball, before burning to crisp, as everyone heard his loud cries of agony as he slowly perished.

"Good job you three." Kakashi cheerily greeted as he made his prescense know, by falling out of the trees. And walking over to the now barely conscious brother. Before tieing him up, and sending a clone to take him to the T&I section of the village. "But sensei, how are you.. I thought that..." Sakura tried to speak once she recovered from her fear induced stupor. "Substition" Sasuke said simply enough as he pointed to the sliced up log, where Kakashi was once standing. "Oh" Sakura said simply as she hung her head to try and hide her embarrassment. "Now then" Kakashi said as he headed toward Sasuke. "How are you doing, I know your first can be quite traumatizing." He said as he squatted down even with his young comrade. "I'm fine, it's not my first time seeing death, how do you think I got this?" Sauke answered as he showed off his Sharingan for Kakashi."I see" being the Jonin's only reply. "Now Tazuna" Kakashi said. His tone deadly serious, as he turned to the bridge builder, as he pulled his headband up, showing him his Sharingan and shocking everyone there. "Why did you lie on your mission details?" "Wh-what are you talking about, I-I would never." Tazuna nervously replied. "Don't lie to me, I can see every suddle movement you make with my sharingan. Kakashi stated as his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Tazuna paled at this news as he started sweating profusely. "I did a little research, after reading the mission description on the scroll. You wanted protection from a man named Gato, while you built your bridge. But what you failed to mention was how powerful Gato was, and how much of an impact this bridge would have on his business. The bridge would all but ruin his business, that means he would do anything, and pay any price to make sure it doesn't happen. Why would he settle for mere thugs and bandits, when rogue ninja, such as the demon brothers we just encountered, would be better in the long run?" Kakashi asked, as Tazuna was sweating even more now, if that was possible, cause he now had three sharingan focused on him. "I-I lied because I couldn't afford a higher mission than this." He finally confessed. "Explain." Was all Kakashi said, and explain he did. Tazuna told Team 7 all about Gato, and the vice grip he had on his homeland, and how that bridge was their only hope to try and end Gato's reign of terror.

After his story the majority of Team 7 were looking at Tazuna with a newfound respect. This man was risking his well being for the sake of his people. He was willing to go to these lengths to protect the people of his village, some of which he probably didn't even know. Even Kakashi who still didn't like that he lied to them, still respected the man for what he was trying to do. And it pained him to do what he knew he had to. "Listen Tazuna I respect what you're trying to do, I really do. But this mission is too difficult for me and my team to continue. They're not experienced enough for this." He said flatly, and was about to continue when he was cut off by Naruto. "We can't turn around now sensei!" He loudly proclaimed. "Tazuna and his people need our help, we can't just turn them away." He said passionately, and in a manner similar to Kakashi's ex-teammate. It almost made Kakashi cave right then. Of course he didn't expect for Sasuke to agree with the knucklehead. "Naruto is right. You told us, that those that abandon the mission are scum, but those that abandon their comrades are even worse than scum. Well we're about to do both so what does that make us then?" Sasuke cynically asked Kakashi. "That's right Tazuna is our comrade now, and we won't abandon him." Sakura loudly agreed with her teammates. Kakashi was taken aback by this, but soon relented. "Using my own words and philosophy against me, I didn't think you kids could get that low." He said with his typical eye smile, as he covered his Sharingan back up with his headband. "Alright we'll continue the mission, but from now on you three, will listen and do as I say, when I say it, understood.?" "Hai, sensei." They all chorused. "Alright then let's get going, we still have a long way to go until we get to wave." Kakashi said as he started walking, followed behind by his team and their client.