~~~
The bushes and trees stirred as 4 people rushed around, trying to find the thing that they were out to catch for. They all stopped and saw that their targeting also stopped moving.
They all pulled out a walkie talkie and angled it right underneath their mouths.
"Satsuki here at Point B."
"Sakura here at Point C."
There was a slight pause as they waited for their last member to make themselves known.
"Naruto here at Point A." He could hear a slight sigh radiate from the walkie talkie, knowing he was going to get shit-talked by Uchiha Satsuki herself. What a pain.
"Naruto, you're slow." Naruto heard Satsuki tell him via the walkie talkie. He just shrugged it off and listened to what Kakashi was going to say to them.
"Alright, Team 7- the target has just moved!" They heard Kakashi tell them through the use of the walkie talkie. They nodded and once again moved throughout the trees and bushes around them.
They then saw their target stop for another split second and did the same. "Are you all ready?" Asked Kakashi, waiting for any responses from Team 7.
"I'm ready."
"So am I."
"I am, too."
He got 3 responses from them. Kakashi nodded to himself and clicked right on the walkie talkie once more to give out his next orders to the 3 at the same exact time.
"Ok. . . Go now!" They all knew what to do and jumped right out from their hiding place and launched themselves right towards the target that they were after.
"Got it," said Naruto, alerting is two other teammates. They were after a stupid and dumb cat.The other two nodded, maneuvering their hands to use their walkie talkie. Satsuki held it right under her mouth.
"Is it the correct target? Does the target have a ribbon on their right ear?" Satsuki looked right back and saw Naruto holding the cat while it tried eating Naruto away.
She gained an amused look on her face.
"Positive. There is a ribbon on their right ear." Satsuki could practically imagine Kakashi sigh in relief. They had been trying to catch the cat for quite awhile now.
"Alright, our mission to catch the lost pet 'Tora' has been complete."
~~~
"Mission successful, Hokage-sama." The team stood right in front of the Hokage and other instructors that sat right next to Hirusen himself! Most notable was Iruka.
A lady came up to them and had a huge and kind smile on her face.
"Aww. . . thank you all so much for catching my sweet and kind soul." She took the cat, Tora away and held her very, very tightly. Sakura slightly sweat-dropped at that sight.
No wonder that cat wants to run away. She thought, diverting her eyes away from them and focused right on their next mission. God, shewas getting tired of these same repetitive missions over and over again.
"Good job. There is much more options to choose from. Some are varying from cutting grass, painting fences, and many more things." This got a growl straight from Satsuki.
"There is no way I am doing another D-Rank mission. It's not helping us improve at all." She was losing her mind trying to do these D-Rank mission over and over again.
Naruto had to agree, but he managed to hold down the dreadful feeling down very nicely. Hiruzen sighed, knowing that this would have happened sooner or later.
"I'm sorry, Satsuki. I can't do that for you. This will be a learning experience and is crucial for any ninja's development." Satsuki just sighed, angrily glaring at Hiruzen.
"There is no way that this is actually helping me or anyone in this team at all." Hiruzen had a look of indifference, not showing much emotion outside of using his smoke pipe.
"Actually, it does help us but only by a tiny bit. Our teamwork and efficiency would be put to the test and our time completing the task should be shorten dramatically just by teamwork alone. But all in all, it doesn't help us as individuals and you should just let us go on a C-Rank mission." Many of the people in the room dead-panned at Naruto's words.
Thank god someone has a brain in here. I could almost hug you to death due to you siding with me on this one. Satsuki thought, satisfied that Naruto had sided with her and not with the others.
They could hear Hiruzen sigh once more.
"I think it's a good time for my cute little genin to finally embark on a C-Rank mission. They have been completing a lot of D-Rank missions the past month. Almost. . . 70 I think?" Hiruzen nodded, understanding Kakashi's point that he was trying to get across.
"I see. I do guess you do pose a point there, Kakashi." Hiruzen started looking through the papers that he had piled right on the desk that he was sitting right on.
"Hm, It seems I only have one C-Rank mission. Would you like to accept that?" Asked Hiruzen, looking up from the many papers that he had surrounding the long desk in front of him.
They nodded, confirming their answer.
"Yes, Hokage-sama," said Kakashi, getting a firm nod from Hiruzen as he sighed with tiredness. God, he was getting too old for this shit. This was such a tiresome job.
"Alright, send in our client right this second."
Immediately after, Team 7 looked around and saw that the sliding door was slowly being open. The person wasn't anything fancy or anything, he was just an old man who was getting drunk out of his mind.
"What? Just a bunch of kids?"
"This is Tazuna, a master bridge builder for the Land of Waves," introduced Hiruzen, getting nods from Team 7 as a whole. Though Satsuki was glaring at old man with disdain.
Naruto saw this and placed his hand right on her shoulder.
"We are here to protect Tazuna, not kill him." Satsuki grunted, slowly calming down to Naruto's touch. She didn;t know why, but Naruto had very soft skin. She wondered why.
"Trust me, Tazuna. My team and I are more than capable of protecting you on this C-Rank mission." Tazuna nodded with much suspicion. This put off Naruto very much and was very odd to see.
Hm? It's only a C-Rank mission. The most dangerous thing that could happen is just us running into a pair of robbers or low-ranking bandits that are looking for weak opponents. Naruto thought, putting this bit of information at the back of his mind. They saw Kakashi talking with Tazuna just a few meters away.
Kakashi looked at them with his lone eye.
"This mission might take a week or two to accomplish. We will be having to protect Tazuna while he builds a bridge. So get your things and necessities ready and meet me at the gate once you all are packed up and ready." They nodded, dispersing by walking out of the door.
Naruto arrived home, rummaging through his things for the mission. He had to have things that will help him survive just incase they run into the worst case scenario.
Naruto looked at the floor and saw the things he had lined up. He had a backpack that he was going to fill with scrolls that contained ,any more things that he needed.
Some may say that Naruto was going overboard and that he shouldn't be doing all this preparation for just one simple C-Rank mission. But Naruto would beg to differ.
That Tazuna guy. . . he's suspicious as it is. Naruto thought, throwing in everything in his backpack and throwing it right around his back like it's supposed to be used.
He then jumped right out of the window and landed on the streets of Konoha.
Naruto looked around and then soon placed his sights towards the direction of the gate. He then started to slowly walk towards hiss newfound destination that he needed to go to.
~~~
Naruto arrived at the gates and saw the two others there alongside Tazuna. They immediately saw Naruto and raised an eyebrow at him, expecting a reason on why he was late.
"You're late, Naruto," said Sakura, looking at him as he neared the two of them. Naruto nodded, know that he was late to the occasion. But it seems like Kakashi wasn't here yet either.
God, this will take some time. Naruto thought, looking up into the sky as they waited for their sensei to finally arrive at the destination that they were all at.
It took some time, but he finally arrived just a few minutes before an hour was created. "You're even later than Naruto," said Sakura, complaining at Kakashi's tardiness.
"Haha. . . sorry, I was just lost in the road of life." The 3 dead-panned except for Naruto; he did not want to waste time at all. This was his first C-Rank mission that he was going to do as a official ninja of Konoha.
"Alright, let us getting going my 3 cute little genin." Kakashi had an eye-smile right on his face as he walked right in front of them and gestured for the rest of the 4 to follow them.
"Naruto and Satsuki, you two guard the front for any potential robbers. Sakura and I will guard the back. Tazuna will stay in the middle as we guard him as well. Got it?" They all nodded to that order.
They all got into their positions and waited for any potential strike to be made by any surrounding enemies that would want to kill them or Tazuna. Kakashi pulled out the Icha-Icha novel while they were walking.
Seriously? Porn in public? Does he not have dignity whatsoever? Naruto thought, soon diverting away from the book that Kakashi was holding. They all continued to look around, analyzing the environment.
Soon enough, Naruto saw something from afar.
A puddle? Naruto thought, questioning himself on how there was a puddle. He internally started to think as they slowly walked past the puddle that Naruto had seen just before.
It's the middle of summer, there is no way it could have been raining all of a sudden. Unless. . . did I miss a rainy day? No, I didn't. This isn't merely trivial thinking. Yes, I finally get it now. Naruto thought, eyes turning very deadly.
Suddenly, a person — no — two people from the puddle of water rose up and appeared behind Kakashi. They had gauntlets that had chains attached to them.
The chains wrapped around Kakashi. Everyone looked right towards Kakashi and saw the mess that was about to happen right in front of their very own eyes.
"Got one down!" One yelled, pulling their chains right back at them and ripping Kakashi to shred. Naruto narrowed his eyes, eyeing the bits and pieces that fell to the ground.
"Satsuki, get ready to fight them. Sakura, protect Tazuna even if it costs your life." They nodded, getting ready for a battle. Naruto felt the two of them appeared right behind him.
"This one will be easy!" Yelled one of the other weirdly clothed maniacs. Naruto ducked to the ground to dodge the two chains that were aimed right behind him.
Two kunais from Satsuki and Sakura were thrown right towards their heads. Naruto took this time to jump away from them to create distance from them all.
He looked towards the place that should have Kakashi's ripped up limbs, but saw nothing and only saw a pile of a ripped apart log that was laying on the ground.
So Kakashi was alive.
Naruto looked back at the battle and saw Satsuki dodge a chain by one of the two lookalikes. "Move Tazuna out of the way, Sakura!" He jumped into the air and started to weave a multitude of hand seals.
Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger
Naruto inhaled. "Fire Release: Great FireBall Jutsu" He then exhaled and let out a large fireball from his mouth. The said fireball made its way right towards the two enemies.
"Watch out! Move out of the way!" One yelled at the other. The other nodded and jumped away.
"Oh, no you don't," said Satsuki, kicking one of them back in front of the flames of the fireball without much hesitation. Sakura grimaced at the sight, but was right back at taking this very serious.
"Gozu!" Oh, so the one that was getting crisped by the fireball was named: Gozu.
"Sakura! Satsuki! Throw a kunai." He tried yelling as little as possible. And he managed to succeed in doing so. They nodded and pushed their hands into their holsters and pulled out a kunai.
"Take this!" Yelled Sakura, throwing her kunai right towards the last one out of the two. Satsuki did the same and threw hers. Then Naruto did the same and threw a kunai of his own that he had just pulled out from his own holster.
The other one just barely managed to dodged by backing away. He widened his eyes, looking back and saw that he had hit a tree with his back. He then widened his eyes even further and saw Naruto throw a nasty kick that was aimed right for his eyes.
The guy ducked down, just barely dodging the kick from Naruto. Another kunai came flying towards him. It was Sakura's kunai. He titled his head to the side to dodge it.
Satsuki then came running and threw a kick to the side of his neck. "GAHH!" He yelled, feeling the pain from the kick. He gritted his teeth, jumping back up to regain his balance.
"You're done," said Naruto, appearing behind him and stabbing him lightly on the back. He soon was knocked out due to the intense pain. They all heard a clap from behind.
"Good job," said Kakashi, holding the burnt Gozu with his hand.
"You're alive!" Sakura exclaimed, getting a nod from Kakashi.
"Indeed I am." Kakashi went towards the other one and picked him up without much trouble. "These two are Gozu and Meizu. They are chunin-level ninjas called: The Demon Brothers." Naruto internally cringed at the name.
"Wait, if you were alive, why didn't you help your genin?" Asked Tazuna, drinking a bottle of sake right after. Kakashi looked around and met eyes with Tazuna.
"I was trying to find out who their target was."
"And it was?" Asked Sakura, wondering if they were the people that the two brothers were after.
"The person that they were after was you, Tazuna." He suddenly started to sweat with nervousness plastered right on his face. Tazuna looked around, trying to figure out a way to get himself out of this situation.
"And don't try and make it seem it was just a mere coincidence." Tazuna sighed, knowing this wasn't going to end well for him either way if he didn't comply to what Kakashi was saying.
"Fine, I lied about the ranking of the mission. I only had enough money to make get a C-Rank mission. My only hope was to get high-level ninjas for help." Kakashi narrowed his lone eye.
"This mission is easily B-Rank or above. This is something that only ninjas of my rank can handle." Sakura nodded in agreement.
"This is way too strong for us to handle," said Sakura, hoping for the other two to agree. Though they were frozen still, not knowing what to do as of now.
"Naruto, your hand." Kakashi pointed right towards Naruto's right hand. He raised an eyebrow, looking at his hand. It was fucking wounded!
"I observed their chains and found out it reeked with the smell of poison. You hand injury will be a burden. We'll have to go back to the village and get you a doctor." Kakashi eyes Naruto. He slightly gritted his teeth, knowing what he had to do.
Then the only way is to stab the wound and let. . . the Kyuubi heal me. I don't want to abandon this mission at all. Naruto thought, raising his gaze at Kakashi.
"It's fine. We can keep moving forward."
"Naruto, but your hand!" Sakura tried to reason, wanting to keep another comrade's health to safety. Naruto sighed, pulling out a kunai from from his holster and stabbing his wounded hand.
"Shit, Naruto. What the hell is wrong with you?" Satsuki asked, grimacing at the sight in front of her. God, was Naruto suicidal or something along those lines?
"You know, Naruto. If you keep losing that much blood, you'll die much more quicker than the poison from their chains." Kakashi sighed, making his way towards Naruto.
"Stick your hand out," said Kakashi, crouching down and pulling out a rolling bandage. Sakura looked closely at Naruto, shaking her head at his antics.
"Naruto, sometimes you don't really use your head. You're self-inflicting yourself with pain. Are you a masochist or something?" Naruto shrugged lightly as Kakashi moved to bandage up Naruto's hand.
He suddenly noticed something.
His wound. . . It's healing at a phenomenal rate. Kakashi thought, leading this thought to even more thoughts than the last one that he just had right now.
Uzumaki's have much higher regenerative capabilities than the average person. But I don't think their regenerative abilities heal them this quickly. Could this be a sign of Naruto being the Kyuubi Jinchuriki? There is so much more proof now. Kakashi wrapped the bandaged right around Naruto's wound.
"I say we continue this mission," said Satsuki, agreeing with Naruto's opinion on the matter. Kakashi sighed, but nodded his head at them all. He gestured for them to follow him.
"I guess it's a majority vote now." They all got back into position once more. Naruto and Satsuki at the front, and Kakashi and Sakura at the back.
"Good job." They started moving once again.
"We shall continue with our mission to the Land of Waves."
~~~
DONE! This shall be the end of the chapter for now. The next chapter will be tmr morning once again. This chapter contained over 3000 words in it. Wow, thought I would only get to around 2700 words today.
But, yeah! This fanfic is already doing much better than Slashed and I'm already liking it much better. The next chapter shall be Team 7 vs Zabuza. I don't know how long the fight will be, but it's preferred if it's the whole chapter. But idk.
Anyway, this shall be it for now.
If you would like, vote for this chapter if you want. It's appreciated.
But until next time.
CYA!