Chapter 4 - Mission 1: The Land of Waves!

MISSION 1: THE LAND OF WAVES!


Lord Hokage sighed. Iruka was yelling, but for all the good it was doing, he might as well have been talking to the wall. It was a perfect day outside, but a storm was brewing inside. A loud storm clothed in orange.

“D-ranked missions are common for genin! You’d be overmatched with any other mission!” Iruka was trying to drive home the point with Naruto. Good luck there.

“OVERMATCHED? I’m a future Hokage! Right now, I’m a ninja, and I want a REAL ninja mission, ‘tabeyo!” Naruto say down like a stubborn child, cheeks puffed out, and head turned away from Iruka and the others. Iruka gritted his teeth. That headband hadn’t made Naruto mature in EVERY way.

POOF! Asuma was in Lord Hokage’s office courtesy of a body flicker jutsu. His ever-present cigarette had gone out due to the wind resistance, so Asuma had to light up again.

“Asuma? Good news?” Lord Hokage asked while Kakashi tried to control Naruto. Naruto was acting like a five year old who couldn’t have cookies before dinner.

“He did very well. Twenty minutes before he was snared by Shikamaru’s jutsu. He collected information, and he combined a jutsu of his own creation with a Shadow Clone. Also, I had him take an IQ test.”

“And?” the Third asked, a wreath of smoke exiting his mouth.

“Shikamaru is a 200. Ryouko didn’t crack that, but his IQ is above average, genius in reading and writing. His math skills are weaker, only average. But, overall, he’s very bright.”

Lord Hokage puffed on his pipe. “Well, then, he’ll be permitted to do missions. I have one in mind for Kakashi’s team. I’m going to put him in the mix. Please have him sent here, Asuma. If Naruto thinks he’s ready for a challenge, then I think it fair to give him one.”

--


“C-ranked. Escort the bridge builder, Tazuna, to the Land of Waves. There may be some resistance, in the form of bandits or low-level ninja, hence the reason for the escort,” the Third Hokage explained. Naruto jumped for joy, while Sakura watched for a reaction from Sasuke. Kakashi shook his head, worrying. Ryouko raised his hand.

“Lord Hokage? I have a couple questions, if I can ask…” Ryouko began carefully, not sure if this was okay or not.

“Yes?” The Third asked kindly as a wreath of smoke left his pipe.

“Land of Waves…I’m assuming that means water. If what I’ve read about them is correct, they don’t have Shinobi of their own. I guess my question is…kind of stupid, but…why would anyone be after this bridge builder? An older man doing construction work doesn’t seem like a threat. And the Land of Waves isn’t a wealthy nation, so robbing him wouldn’t be worth their while…it just seems like a piece is missing…” Ryouko had rambled on longer than he meant to, and quickly bowed. “I apologize, it’s not my place to question!”

“It’s not? I think it is. If information is available, it’s wise to take it. In this case, however, I have none. It may just be that the man is lonely, or worries for his safety. An escort mission doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is a target of bandits. He IS traveling alone, he might be worried about injuring himself while by himself, and being stranded without help.” The Third puffed on his pipe again. I’m glad someone asked SOMEthing about the mission.

“I understand. Thank you.” Ryouko bowed again, but Lord Hokage could tell the wheels in his mind were turning over what was just said, looking for a meaning.




As the five exited the Leaf Village, Sakura was clinging to Sasuke, Kakashi was pulling up the rear nonchalantly, and Ryouko, the only one who could put up with Tazuna, was silently drinking in the landscape. Escapes, weapons, and natural defenses filled his head. He hopped over a puddle of water, one that Naruto had taken great care to splash in himself.

“Hey, runt! Slow down, not all of us have a natural sugar high!” Tazuna shouted roughly to Naruto. Naruto took offense, and charged. Ryouko slid in the way, while Kakashi snared Naruto.

“You CAN’T kill the client, Naruto, for the last time! It doesn’t work that way,” Kakashi explained with an exaggerated patience.

Tazuna gave Ryouko a swift kick in the butt. Ryouko nearly returned the favor, but remembered that you ‘can’t kill the client’, so he settled for ignoring the kick.

“That doesn’t mean for you to slow down! Are you slow or something?” Tazuna couldn’t resist asking.

Ryouko whipped around, quick enough to scare Tazuna. Seeming to tower over the bridge builder, Ryouko outlined something to him.

“I don’t think it’s smart to piss off the people who are protecting you. Especially since I put myself at risk of angering a comrade to make sure you didn’t get hurt, even though I wouldn’t blame Naruto for hurting you. If anything, I’d encourage him whipping your arrogant @$$. But it’s my mission to keep you safe, and I’m going to do that. But I can only speak for myself, and I won’t be much good against twenty ninja by myself, if you drive all the others away.”

Sasuke ‘hned’ his okay at Ryouko’s reaction with a half-smirk. Inner-Sakura cheered that someone had told the drunk old man off. Naruto was thrilled to see the man humbled. Kakashi was thankful that someone had thought of the mission PERIOD.

Tazuna stared at Ryouko, while Ryouko just kept walking next to him.

“Is the land of waves a nice place to live?” Ryouko asked quietly, absently biting into his thumb. A trickle of blood dribbled down the side of it.

“What do you care?” Tazuna questioned rudely. He took another swing of whatever alcohol he was drinking, wiping the bit dribbling down his chin away with the back of his hand.

“I’m looking at a condo there…” Ryouko shot back sarcastically, sounding bored. He ran his bleeding thumb down a scroll and- reached inside it? He began to rummage around, looking for something inside the scroll. This was strange to everyone, save for Kakashi. Ryouko either didn’t notice the attention he was garnering, or he didn’t care.

“Yeah, it’s nice, if you like the ocean. Or crappy food. What the hell are you doing kid?” Tazuna finally asked to satisfy his curiosity.

The others were wondering that themselves. Ryouko innocently extracted a black straw hat. “Just a summoning scroll. The sun was getting in my eyes.”

“Hey, what the hell?! How can you just go “Poof” and have a hat?!” Naruto shouted.

“Idiot, don’t you know anything? That’s a summoning scroll. You can put any number of things in there, and it won’t weight more than a regular scroll,” Sasuke bluntly informed Naruto.

“Didn’t you pay attention in class AT ALL, Naruto?!” Sakura added.

Kakashi stopped suddenly. Ryouko did, too. They had both heard something. Seconds later, four ninja leapt out of the bushes. Two of them snared Kakashi with long, pointy chains, and squeezed.

“KAKASHI-SENSEI!” Sakura screeched. But Kakashi was dead, diced into ribbons. The four ninja turned toward Tazuna and the four genin.

“Give us the old man, and no one gets hurt…” one threatened, holding up the metal gauntlet the chain was attached to.

Sakura and Naruto were both frozen. Sasuke and Ryouko, however, leapt into action. Sasuke threw a shuriken, trapping the long chains of the two ninja to the tree, then added a kunai through the shuriken. That immobilized the two Shinobi while Sasuke leapt up, and landed on their heads. He pushed off with both legs in separated directions, breaking the chains off the opposing ninja’s weapons.

Ryouko slid in front of Sakura and Naruto, taking off his hat. The two opposing chunin laughed. It must have been funny to them. A young kid, fifteen years old at the most, with bags under his eyes and a sinewy frame was going to stop them? One reached out for Ryouko, but Ryouko batted his hand away with his hat.

“AH! You little jerk! How did you do that?!”

Ryouko was holding his hat, which was now blood-stained. “Razors sewn in with the straw. Effective, when you don’t see it coming…hyah!” Ryouko threw the hat like a frisbee. As the two ninja ducked. Ryouko raced forward, kicking one in the face. The other grabbed him- or tried to. Ryouko had thrown an elbow up, narrowly missing the guy’s nose. As he leaned back, the luckless Shinobi hit a tree. Ryouko gave him a side-kick, before throwing him to the ground. A quick glance over his shoulder told Ryouko that he needed to get back in front of Tazuna, quick! Sakura was in trouble. The other ninja was headed for Naruto. Apparently, they had gotten away from Sasuke before he could incapacitate them completely. Ryouko moved to help Sakura, but Sasuke was already there. Ryouko turned to help Naruto, but, Kakashi-sensei to the rescue. With one under unconscious enemy under each arm, Kakashi had saved Sakura and Tazuna.

“Good work, you three. Naruto, I’m sorry I took so long to get back, but I didn’t expect you to freeze up like that…oh, right, by the way, these are Mist ninja, they use poison, so you might want to make a cut in your hand and let the poison run out before it kills you.”

Naruto suddenly never felt more alone. I froze up…Sasuke and Ryouko did what they were supposed to do, but I couldn’t do anything. I was useless…

“Naruto, that poison…” Kakashi reminded him.

Naruto took up a kunai. Violently, he jammed it into his hand. I swear by the pain in my left hand…I will NEVER back down…I will NEVER run away…Believe it!

“Naruto…it’s really cool how you got rid of the poison and all…but, if you lose anymore blood, you’re going to die,” Kakashi informed him, Naruto began to thrash around wildly.

“Ahh! I don’t wanna die!” Naruto wailed.

“Let me see your hand!” Kakashi grabbed Naruto’s hand. To his surprise, the cut had almost healed already. Mentally noting any possible reasons why, Kakashi told Naruto that he would be fine.

“Hey…you’re not hurt, are you? Scaredy cat,” Sasuke taunted with a smirk.

“WHAT?! SASSSUKKEEEEE!” Naruto wanted to attack him, but Sakura, once again, punched him in the head to settle him down. Brutal, but effective.


The trip to the Land of Waves of anything BUT quiet. Naruto was constantly muttering under his breath about their client, Tazuna, the bridge builder. Tazuna had referred to his guardians as a pack of little brats. Tazuna seemed to think Kakashi a suitable protector. Ryouko, he decided, he just didn’t like.

“What, you too good to talk to me, kid?” Tazuna taunted, slightly drunk. He had been drinking some cheap wine the entire trip, and becoming more of a belligerent bastard with each swig.

“What do you want to talk about?” Ryouko asked, keeping his voice emotionless.

“Nothing, to a snot like you! Why are YOU here anyway? I enlisted the help of a squad, not a squad AND their little playmate!” Tazuna said with a derisive laugh. Ryouko wiped Tazune’s rogue spit off his face and stared back.

“For the record, I haven’t said anything to you because you told us to be quiet. I was simply following a client’s instructions.”

Silence. Tazuna HAD said that. Kakashi looked over at Ryouko, whose tone and face hadn’t changed. Somehow, he had shut up this drunken, mouthy client with a few well-chosen, respectful words.

Interesting kid. He said he was nervous, but he’s not exactly showing it. Apparently, he’s grasping the concept of the client-shinobi relationship. Sakura and Sasuke picked it up first, to be fair. Naruto…well, he’s what I expected.


Upon reaching the Land of waves, the intrepid group piled into a rowboat. Naruto sat by himself, moody over Sasuke’s comment.

“We’ll be coming up to the bridge any minute, you should be able to see it.” The person rowing the boat, a friend of Tazuna’s, pointed out the huge structure.

“Tazuna-san, there are things you haven’t told us. WHY you were attacked, for starters. I’ve go no choice but to terminate this mission once we get you ashore.” Kakashi hated to do it, but their mission parameters had ended the second Tazuna hadn’t warned them about such a serious attack. Kakashi continued.
“Those were chunin level ninja, a serious threat to the genin crew I have. Next time, whoever is attacking you will send higher level ninja, meaning that this mission would higher than “C” ranked.”

“We’re only genin, we’re not trained for this kind of threat,” Sakura added kindly, thankful to be getting out of trouble.

Tazuna wasn’t happy, but he had no choice but to tell his story to try to save his own butt.

“This bridge is our land’s last hope for independence from a short man who casts a long shadow. The shipping magnate, Gato. He controls our nation’s imports and exports, leaving us impoverished, and forced to pay him. He wants to kill me, because if the bridge is complete, we wouldn’t need his ships anymore, we could trade with whomever we wanted.” Tazuna paused, beginning to look a strange combination of ‘depressed’ and ‘desperate’. Then he continued. “We’re a poor nation, we couldn’t afford to pay for an A or B ranked mission. That’s why I lied; I had no choice. I understand if you have to end the mission…but all those people’s hopes will die with me…not to mention my Grandson, Inari, and my daughter, Tsunami…don’t worry about it, though…it’s not…your fault.” Tazuna cried at the end, but his tears were horribly fake, and his acting sucked.

Everyone had their own thoughts, but Ryouko’s was the most accurate. He might be a louse, and a rotten actor, but he’s right. If the others go back, they go back without me, I’m not going to desert him- no matter how much of an @$$ he is…

Ryouko didn’t have to worry, he wasn’t going to be alone. Everyone agreed to stay. Naruto never backed down from a mission.

Tazuna smirked; his little acting job had worked.



As they reached the shore, Tazuna seemed to regain his bravery, and his abusive nature.

“Alright, let’s hurry it up, your mission is to get me home in one piece, let’s move it!”

Naruto was furious over how Sasuke had stayed so calm and cool while they were being attacked, and he was determined not to let it happen again. That put Naruto on the lookout for anything that moved. He ran ahead, comically looking around, a hand over his eyes.

“Over there!” he shouted, throwing a kunai into the bushes. No one else had moved.
“It was just a mouse,” he said sheepishly.

“You idiot, be careful, those aren’t toys!” Sakura shouted, probably thinking that she would be the next thing to get hit with an errant kunai.

Soon, Naruto threw another kunai. This one had almost killed a rabbit. Naruto freaked out, and began apologizing to the rabbit.

“I’m sorry little rabbit, I’m sorry…” he cried, stroking it’s fur. The rabbit was petrified, but otherwise unharmed. Sakura looked horrified that Naruto had nearly ended the little rabbit’s life, while Sasuke didn’t get the fuss. Ryouko was still out on the trail, keeping an eye on Tazuna, while looking around for some sign of a person having been there, on the off chance Naruto was right.

But Kakashi noticed something strange about the rabbit. That’s a snow rabbit…The color of the fur…it’s only white like this during winter…one look around plainly said ‘it’s not winter’, with a clear sky and a warm day like this]This rabbit was raised indoors, away from the light, which means it would have only one use…a replacement jutsu…

Up in the trees, a figure hid among the leaves, watching silently. Kakashi casually looked over his shoulder in the general direction of the figure, one thought in his head.

So…they’re already here…




Crouched up in a tree, a strange villain brandishing an enormous sword peered down on his prey.

They sure don’t LOOK like a threat to the demon brothers, not to mention the other two chunin I sent…Except for that one…Kakashi of the Sharingan…



“Everyone take cover!” Kakashi ordered suddenly. It didn’t take long to figure out why he had made that order. The huge sword flying through the air, about to behead them, seemed a perfect reason to take cover. The genin hit the dirt and covered their heads. Ryouko combat-crawled toward Tazuna. He might not be the most tasteful man, but he was still their client.

Naruto and the others looked upward, seeing the sword had buried itself blade-first into a tree. Second later, a tall, muscular, but strange-looking man, with a bandaged face and an angled headband (Mist) was standing on the hilt of the sword, looking down at the group almost dismissively. Naruto immediately made for the man, eager to redeem himself for the ‘scaredy cat’ incident, but found Kakashi-sensei’s hand blocking his way.

“Don’t interfere, Naruto,” Kakashi ordered, before briskly turning his attention back to the man on the sword. The name and face clicked in Kakashi’s mind.

“So, Mamochi Zabuza, rouge ninja from the Hidden Mist Village.” Kakashi had a gut feeling that Zabuza was going to attack. With that, Kakashi played his ace, revealing his Sharingan eye. Only Sasuke really knew what it was. Ryouko had studied it, but had never actually seen the eye in person. He didn’t think he would, unless Sasuke showed him. For this sensei to have the eye, Ryouko’s respect for him grew. Sakura knew OF the Sharingan eye, but not much else. Naruto didn’t know what the heck the eye was, but he knew enough to figure out that it was cool, and most likely dangerous.

Zabuza, who had his back to the group, turned his head to face Kakashi.

“Are you gonna surrender the old man?” he growled. It was a pretty menacing site, this guy standing atop his sword like that. It was a beautiful, but deadly, weapon. If the stories were true, that weapon had taken more lives than people Naruto had even met. It was a gruesome thought.

Kakashi looked over at his group, who were standing in awe. “None of you get involved, this is the best kind of teamwork in this situation. Focus on protecting Tazuna.” Kakashi’s voice had turned steely, and the air suddenly felt heavier. A battle between ninjas of this caliber…you could only surpass it by having a battle between kages, and that wasn’t likely to happen, since the Lands were at peace for the moment..

To Naruto and his team, failing this mission might have been as bad as death. Naruto would be further from being Hokage, Sasuke would be farther away from rebuilding his clan, and Sakura would look like a failure to Sasuke. Neither failure nor death was appealing. Judging by their opponent, one seemed as likely as the other…

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