Chapter 4
Sara Pov
I look where Kakashi once stood noticing the log pieces; I refocus on the two ninja to see one leaping for Naruto who was standing frozen in his place.
When the ninja is just about to hit Naruto, I kick him in the stomach sending him crashing into a tree, but he still managed to scratch Naruto.
I look at the other ninja to see Sasuke has stopped him, bounding him to a tree; the ninja gets rid of his claw, and then both ninja starts heading for Tazuna, Sakura leaps in front of him, kunai in hand.
Just when I was about to leap for them, Kakashi-sensei stops them, and holds them in a headlock.
Naruto blinks, and stares at Kakashi.
"Kakashi sensei!" Sakura cries happily, as Kakashi gazes calmly at us all.
"Huh?" Naruto says looking confused as he glances around. "But he was......ooohh!" Realization hits the blonde, as he glances at where 'Kakashi' was torn apart, only to see a pile of logs.
"Naruto, sorry for not helping you right away" Kakashi says smartly, turning to face the blue eyed boy. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I just didn't think that you'd freeze up like that"
As Naruto hangs his head in shame, I see Tazuna sigh with relief and I can't help scowling. This guy has some explaining to do.
"Good job Sasuke, Sara, you too Sakura" Kakashi compliments.
"Hey!" Sasuke calls to Naruto, making the blonde pause for a moment.
Naruto turns to face Sasuke.
"You're not hurt are ya?" Sasuke asks mockingly, lips pulling up into a smirk "Scaredy cat!"
Naruto growls at him, hands balling into fists.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouts angrily, I move between him and Sasuke.
"Naruto, stop moving ok" I tell him quietly.
"Why?" he asks dumbly.
"Because their claws were laced with poison Naruto" Kakashi answers him.
"We have to open the wound to get it out, moving around will make it spread quicker" I tell him, gaining shocked look from the three genins, right they don't know that I know medical Ninjutsu.
Naruto turns his gaze from me, and stares down at his scratched hand worriedly, his face turning a little pale.
"Oh, and by the way, Mr. Tazuna" Kakashi says, turning to face the man and making him jump.
"Uhh, yeah...what?" he replies, sounding a little worried.
"We need to have a little talk"
We stand and stare at the two ninja who attacked us, now tied to a tree.
"They're chunin from the village hidden in the mist" Kakashi announces, having checked the symbols on their headbands. "They specialize in relentless attack. They've been taught to keep fighting, no matter what the sacrifice may be"
So much for a relaxing rookie Genin life.
"How did you know about our ambush?" one of the mist ninja questions us.
"On a sunny day like this when it hasn't rained in days. A puddle shouldn't exist" Kakashi concluded. I knew a few miles back, but no one needs to know that.
Tazuna suddenly turns to Kakashi "Hey, why'd you leave all the fighting to these little Genin?"
"I could have taken them out quickly" Kakashi states thoughtfully, "But then I wouldn't have learned anything. I had to find out who their real target was and what they were after."
"What are you getting at?" he spits, to which Kakashi turns to him coolly.
"I wanted to know if they were attacking us or you" Kakashi explains pointedly, making Tazuna sweat drop.
"When you put in your request to the leaf village" Kakashi continues, looking hard at Tazuna "you just asked for protection against robbers and highway men. You never said that there were ninja out to get you. If we have known that, this would have been a B-rank mission or higher. I'm sure you have your reasons, but lying to us is unacceptable. We are now beyond the scope of this mission."
Tazuna hangs his head and stares down at the ground, as Sakura steps forwards.
"We're only Genin, this is too advance for us at the moment" she informs him gently. "We should go back to the village. Plus, I really think we need to get Naruto's wound treated and get the poison taken out as soon as possible"
We all look at Naruto as he gazes momentarily forgotten about his injury.
"Hmmmm, I guess we should head back to the village" Kakashi says teasingly. "Naruto's hand could become a problem"
The blonde growls in frustration, before suddenly whipping out a kunai and stabbing it into his.
I sigh looks like they will know about my medical skills.
"Look Naruto, that was really great how you got the poison out and all, but if you lose any more blood, you're gonna die" Kakashi informs Naruto, after Naruto gave his little speech, Naruto freezes. His eyes slowly drop to his bleeding hand, face turning an interesting blue color as Kakashi gives him a closed eye smile.
Naruto starts freaking out, dashing backwards and forwards, I head to him to heal his hand to see it already healing, Kakashi was standing right behind me and saw it too, he looked deep in thought. The nine tails chakra.
"Uh, Kakashi sensei? Sara?" Naruto asks worriedly. "You both have got a really scary expression on your face. Am I gonna be okay?" He wails. Kakashi pulls out a roll of bandages and wraps up Naruto's hand.
"Uhhh, yeah. You'll be fine" he assures Naruto, I just give him a smile.
We are moving slowly through the thick fog, we are all sitting in a small, wooden boat, with the motor turned off. A man stands at the back rowing it.
"This fog is so thick" Sakura whispers loudly. "You can't see anything!"
"The bridge isn't too far now" our rower informs us lowly. "The land of waves is just ahead"
We all look at the fog when we see a large, unfinished bridge, and we can see just how much work it's taken to get it to this point.
"Wow!" Naruto exclaims "it's huge!"
"Quiet!" our rower whispers loudly "I told you not to make any noise! We're travelling with the motor off so we can slip in silently. Yelling is not helping the situation!"
Naruto covers his mouth with his hands, as Kakashi turns to Tazuna.
"Mr. Tazuna" he addresses, "I need you to tell us why those men were after you. If you don't, I'm afraid I'll have to call off the mission as soon as we get you to pier."
Tazuna pauses before looking at us all.
"I guess I have no choice but to tell you then... wait, scratch that. I want to tell you the truth" he corrects himself, folding his hands in his lap. "Like you said earlier, this is in fact beyond the scope of your original mission. The one who seeks to take away my life is a very small man that casts a very large and deadly shadow. I'm sure you will have at least heard of him before Kakashi, he's one of the wealthiest men in the world. It's Gato, the man in charge of Gato transport."
Kakashi looks shocked.
"Gato?" the jounin repeats. "But he's a business leader, everyone knows him!"
Naruto looks at Kakashi, a question mark appearing above his head.
"Who's that?...Huh?....Huh?..." the blonde asks, not getting the hint as everyone ignores him.
"Yes, Gato is a very powerful tycoon from a famous company, that's true. But underneath all that, he sells drugs and contraband, using gangs and ninja" Tazuna explains darkly. "About a year ago was when Gato first set his sight on the land of waves. He took control of all our transport and shipping, and anyone who stood in his way would mysteriously disappear. In an island nation like ours, a man who controls the sea controls everything. Finance, government, our very lives!"
Tazuna pulls a disgusted face down at his hands, shaking his head, before continuing with his explanation.
"But the one thing he fears, is the bridge that I'm in charge of building" the old man chuckles humorlessly "When it is completed, it will connect our village to the mainland and that will break all of the control he has over us. So he sent people after me, to get rid of me and the threat that comes with my bridge."
"So because you're the bridge builder, you're the one standing in this gangster's way..." Sakura murmurs thoughtfully.
"So, that means that the guys that jumped us in the forest back there, were working for Gato" Sasuke states bluntly, as Naruto just nods, pretending to understand what the others are talking about.
"I don't understand though" Kakashi pipes up. "If you knew that he was dangerous, and you knew that he'd send ninja after you, why didn't you tell us that?"
"The land of waves is not a rich village" Tazuna says softly, looking back down at his hands. "We don't have a lot of money at the moment, thanks to Gato. We wouldn't have been able to afford paying for a B or A rank mission. If you end the mission when you drop me off at the pier, there will be no bridge. They will assassinate me before I get home"
Tazuna peers up at us.
"But don't feel bad about that!" he says cheerily. "Sure, after I'm dead, my little grandson will cry and call for his beloved grandfather. But I'm sure he'll get over that one day!...or maybe he won't. And sure, my daughter will condemn the ninja from the hidden leaf village and blame you for my death, living the rest of her life in misery. But I wouldn't worry about that, it won't be your fault."
Ok, that was seriously below the belt, there is no way we can say no now.
"Okay" Kakashi eventually says, shrugging, "I guess we'll just have to keep guarding you"
"Ooohh, much obliged" Tazuna replies, smiling triumphantly to himself.
"We're approaching the pier" our rower informs us as we float underneath the bridge. When we come out to the other side, we see a beautiful, yet small, village surrounded by water.
As we pull at the pier and get out of the boat, our rower bids us goodbye. He turns the motor on and speeds away.
"Okay!" Tazuna growls "Take me home"
This mission is probably about to become an A rank, they will probably send a jounin this time, meaning that I can't hold back, why do this missions keep following me.
I see Naruto suddenly stop and begin peering around, throwing a few kunai in a different directions, for a second there I think I sensed someone's chakra, watching us, but then it disappeared, just like a thought a jounin.
"Naruto! Those kunai are very dangerous" Kakashi sighs "They're not toys!"
Naruto looks over the bushes where he thrown a kunai, to reveal a petrified snow rabbit. The kunai is sticking into the tree, just above its head.
Why is the rabbit white? Substitution? So that's why sensed him for a second.
"Duck!" Kakashi warns everyone. As soon as we all drop, a massive sword comes spinning out of the trees behind us. It collides with a tree, sticking sideways into the trunk.
Suddenly, a tall, muscular man appears on the hilt of the sword, peering down at us over his shoulder. He has bandages covering the bottom half of his face and high waisted blue pants.
"Well, well, if it isn't Zabuza Momochi" Kakashi speaks up, stepping forwards, "Rogue ninja from the hidden mist village"
Naruto was about to launch himself at Zabuza, but Kakashi pushes him back with his hand.
"You're in the way, stay back" Kakashi warns Naruto, to which the boy scowls.
"But why?!"
"Because, he's not like those other ninja" Kakashi announces "He's in a whole other league to them..."
"Looks like I will have to use this" Kakashi says lifting his forehead protector to reveal his sharingan.
"Hand over the old man, Kakashi of the sharingan!" Zabuza Suddenly demands.
Sasuke looks shocked, before he sends Kakashi a wary eye glance.
Zabuza's eyes move to me. Crap, did he recognize me?
"So that's why those two idiots failed, Kakashi of the sharingan, and the light princess" God, I hate that name stupid bingo book.
"The what?" Naruto asks, and the three genins along Tazuna look at me.
"Quick, protect the bridge builder!" Kakashi commands, Gesturing for us to form a human shield around Tazuna.
"Hmmm, looks like I get the honor of seeing the sharingan up close huh?" Zabuza asks sarcastically.
(AN: I'm gonna skip to the part where Kakashi gets trapped in the water prison jutsu, Naruto runs at Zabuza's clone and gets his headband back)
I knew we should have stuck with the D rank missions, with Kakashi stuck I will have to step in, I move from my place at the back of Tazuna.
"Guys, protect Tazuna" I tell them in a serious voice.
"Don't think I forget about you princess" he says doing a hand sign for 6 water clones to appear.
I draw my katana, and when 5 clones move at me, swinging their swords, I move too fast that for them it seems like I disappeared from my spot, I swing my katana from behind them getting rid of them.
I see another clone but it was fighting huge amounts of Naruto clones.
I see Naruto pulling something from his bag.
Seeing that Naruto has a plan I retreat next to him and Sasuke, to see how it will act out.
"Had enough, princess?" Zabuza asks me.
"First of all its Sara" I answer irritated with nickname "and second of all, I just think you're not worth the trouble."
Naruto gives Sasuke a shadow shuriken and he throws it at the real Zabuza, who catches it with hands, to find that another one was thrown at him, he jumps so it passes him, only for it to be a Naruto transformed, Naruto throws a kunai at Zabuza so he is forced to releases the water prison jutsu, freeing Kakashi.
"Told you weren't worth the trouble" I tell him with a smirk.
He throws the kunai at Naruto only for Kakashi to block it, with the metal on his glove.
"Naruto, great plan" Kakashi compliments him proudly "you guys have grown up"
(AN: again I'm skipping to the end of the fight)
We see two needles sticking out from Zabuza's neck, his eyes closed, Kakashi sensei places two fingers on Zabuza's neck, checking for a pulse.
"He's got no vital signs" He announces, sighing.
Something is wrong here.
Glancing at where the needles came from, I see a figure dressed in green and yellow, wearing an ANBU mask; from the looks he is no older than me or the genins
"Looks like you were right" he agrees softly "It was his last battle"
"Thank you" he says humbly "I've been tracking Zabuza for quite some time now, just waiting for the chance to finally take him down"
"By the looks of your mask, I'd say that you're a tracking ninja from the village hidden in the mist" Kakashi comments, watching the ninja warily.
"Hmmm, impressive" he compliments kindly. "You're obviously well informed. I am indeed a tracking ninja from the hidden mist village, and it was my duty to stop Zabuza"
Something is wrong here, why would he throw the needles at his neck, it's not a vital point.
The tracker Ninja disappears in a gust of wind and reappears next to Zabuza's body, he places him across his shoulder, before disappearing in another gust of wind.
So he wasn't trying to kill him.
Before I can voice my thoughts I hear a thud from behind me I turn around, to see Kakashi on the ground.
I sweat drop, he over used it again.
"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto and Sakura say.
"Don't worry" I say moving towards them "He just overused his sharingan"
They nod in understanding, Naruto and Sasuke put his arms around them to carry him the rest of the way, to Tazuna's house.