Land of Waves (3)

Naruto's eyes sharpened and he flung a kunai at the bush, "Something's there!"

Shikamaru and Sasuke instinctively readied themselves as they formed a protective layer around Tazuna.

After hearing the full story from the bridge builder about Gato and his methods of isolating and eventually dominating the Land of Waves, Team Seven had decided to continue with the mission, against Shikamaru's better judgement.

The Nara had glumly protested his two hot-headed teammates vote to continue with the mission, claiming that standard protocol dictated the team head back to the village given the lack of concrete information about the dangers they would face should they continue.

To him, continuing on the mission would not only be reckless, but it would also be utterly foolish. As shinobi, the one thing their kind prioritized even over combat prowess was intelligence gathering. Given the right information and time to prepare, anything could be overcome. As such, going in half-cocked and blind would only add extreme danger for no good reason.

Of course, Naruto would have none of that. The blonde accepted Shikamaru's reasoning but dismissed it as cold-hearted logic. Naruto had a completely different idea about what being a shinobi meant to him. He argued that a shinobi had the duty to help out those weaker than them, and Tazuna as well has the entire nation of Wave, while guilty of lying, deserved their help regardless of his deception.

As much as Shikamaru wanted to comment on Naruto's warped and honestly inaccurate portrayal of what a shinobi was and actually did, he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt from his own desire to abandon the people of Wave and retreat out of fear for his life.

What Naruto dismissed as cold-hearted logic was in actuality the harsh reality of the world. Reality did not care about people's feelings. It is what it is. However, it could also be argued that it didn't have to be that way if the people living in this cold and indifferent universe occasionally gave a shit about someone other than themselves.

Kakashi had little to add to their debate, content with waiting for a consensus to be reached among his team before making decision and their other teammate, Sasuke, was in favour of pushing onwards. Though his reasons were drastically different from Naruto's. He didn't care about the pitiful people of Wave. All the Uchiha looked forward to was challenging himself and learn how far he had come.

In all honesty, Sasuke had contempt rather than sympathy for the people of Wave. He did not believe that one man who wasn't even a shinobi could suppress an entire nation unless they let him do it. Such weakness and lack of resolve was pathetic to the avenger. If he were in their place, and Gato truly had abused the population of Wave to such an extent, he would stop at nothing to achieve vengeance. The fact they had rolled over and let Gato conquer their nation with nothing but threats and intimidation was deplorable in Sasuke's eyes.

With Shikamaru being outvoted by his over eager teammates, he had no choice but to relent under their combined enthusiasm. However, he had one condition before he fully agreed with their decision to continue on with the mission – priority had to first be given to gathering intel. Specifically, from the two 'Demon Brothers', as Kakashi had identified.

After breaking open a smelling salts to restore consciousness to the two Kiri missing nin, Kakashi began questioning them – did they have comrades, and if so how many and what level were they, things like that.

To their credit, Gozu and Mezu refused to buckle even under Kakashi's enhanced interrogation techniques, AKA torture albeit a tamer version than what the jounin was capable of. He didn't want to traumatize his dear students on their first C-rank mission after all.

Even after pulling out a few nails and breaking a few fingers, the Demon Brothers shared not a single iota of usable information. The two of them were clearly well versed in techniques to resist interrogations by giving either useless or false information.

Naruto had turned green at the sight, not comfortable with the sudden viciousness of his sensei while Shikamaru had a grim countenance. On the other hand, Sasuke was readily interested with the enhanced interrogation techniques his teacher was showing. He took down mental notes, in the event that he would need to utilize them in the future when searching for his brother.

Though impressed with the Demon Brother's tenacity, Kakashi then decided not to waste any more time and unveiled his Sharingan to put the two Kiri missing nin into a genjutsu meant to extract information.

Sasuke, who had already been learning how to use his Sharingan under Kakashi's tutelage was not surprised at the sight. According to what Kakashi had told him, such methods of extracting information using the Sharingan was not a hundred percent reliable.

First off, if the target had a strong will, a well trained mind, or techniques to dispel genjutsu without the use of handseals, it would be unlikely to work. Secondly, even if it did work, it was also difficult to know how accurate the information divulged by the target was in such a state. The genjutsu being used put them into a fugue state, making them forget that they were in an interrogation setting and the questions being asked to them were by someone they trusted.

That did not guarantee a truthful answer, since there were many instances one would lie even to someone they trusted, like wanting to keep them safe and in the dark for example.

There were ways to circumvent the first challenge, one of which was to break down the will of the target through traditional torture. The pain slowly chipped away at their mental walls before they could no longer resist the genjutsu.

But the second challenge was more difficult to overcome, requiring years of experience to determine the reliability of the information that was being revealed.

Thankfully, the Sharingan genjutsu utilized on the Demon Brothers achieved spectacular results. It was quickly apparent during the questioning that the person they trusted the most was each other, so the illusion made them both think the questions were coming from their brother. Since they had no reason to hide information from one another, Kakashi was able to acquire everything he needed to learn quickly.

Gozu and Mezu divulged that Gato had not only hired the two Demon Brothers, but he also had the infamous Demon of the Mist, Momochi Zabuza, and his apprentice under the shipping magnate's employ.

Kakashi had to seriously evaluate his team in order to ascertain whether or not Team Seven truly was capable enough to undertake such a mission.

He was definitely capable of taking on Zabuza by himself, especially now that he knew who he was going up against and could subsequently think of countermeasures against the Demon of the Mist.

It was the apprentice that concerned him. According to the Demon Brothers' confession, Zabuza's apprentice was someone with the Hyoton bloodline limit, and was an extremely talented shinobi that neared the peak of chuunin-level strength despite his young age.

Since Kakashi had to take on Zabuza, it was up to his team to fend off the Hyoton user.

Strength-wise, the three of them combined would definitely not be a match against someone at that level. However, there were a few factors he had to consider as well.

Firstly, Shikamaru's tactical genius was an advantage, especially now that the genin knew what his team was coming up against and could thus plan a strategy against the enemy.

Secondly, Gozu and Mezu had both revealed that the Hyoton user did not fit the personality of a typical rogue ninja. Apparently, the boy was kind-hearted, and despite his talent for battle and incredible abilities, he disliked needing to kill people and avoided doing so whenever possible. Of course, Kakashi was sure that in a life or death scenario, the boy would definitely choose his own life and the life of Zabuza over some random Konoha genin, but it was an element Kakashi took into consideration as well.

Kakashi then made the decision to continue onwards anyway, even after taking into account that his team would soon be facing a rogue jounin and peak chuunin missing nin. Some might point out that he was being an irresponsible sensei, that he was putting his team into unnecessary danger when standard protocol demanded for their immediate withdrawal from the mission.

However, to these naysayers, Kakashi would simply apathetically look at them with his one eye and tell them to mind their own business. He knew that his team was not a normal group of green genin. As one of three teams of genin selected to be groomed by the village into becoming elite shinobi, they had to undergo such challenges in order to temper their abilities.

In his opinion, standard protocol only applied to the talentless who required rigid rules and structure to govern their behavior. Rather than domesticated animals raised in a controlled environment, he wanted his students to be beasts born and bred in the wilderness. It was only after overcoming countless challenges and surviving impossible situations that would alleviate their potential.

Of course, Kakashi would never let his students be in any real danger. He had the abilities of a peak A-rank shinobi, one of Konoha's strongest military assets, and the confidence of one as well. Against a missing nin whose strength had stagnated upon his defection, and especially with the information gained from the interrogation, Kakashi was only somewhat worried for his students.

If the Sandaime was present during the decision making process, he would definitely have pointed out that Kakashi was committing the grave mistake of thinking himself and his team as being special, and by extension making the mistake of being complacent and arrogant.

However, Kakashi also knew himself and his team well enough to know the difference between arrogance and confidence.

And so, his team continued on their travel towards the Land of Waves, a largely uneventful journey that had its monotony broken by Naruto suddenly launching a kunai in the bushes.

As Kakashi approached where Naruto had thrown his projectile, he pushed away the bush to reveal a white rabbit frightened to death with a kunai embedded in the tree inches above its head.

"Nice catch, Naruto." Sasuke complimented.

The blonde chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "I know right? I'm amazing!"

Nodding, the Nara added, "Yeah you are. No wonder you are the person most likely to be the next Hokage."

Naruto beamed and embarrassedly replied, "Heheh, don't praise me too much, or I will get embarrassed."

Kakashi ignored his team's conversation before raising his head in a particular direction as he sensed the slightest leakage of killing intent. His instincts, honed through countless battles and years of experience, flared as he heard the faint sound of metal whistling through the air.

"GET DOWN!" He warned, and as expected, a giant blade spun towards them.

All of the genin, including Tazuna who was pushed down by Sasuke, managed to throw themselves to the ground as the giant blade flew above them and embedded itself into a tree before a masked, shirtless figure landed on the blade.