14 BSWS CH-14 Spoils of the Battle and Making Plans

Kakashi turned to Tazuna with a grim look "Tazuna san, are you sure you are not hiding something from us?"

"What do you mean Kakashi san?" Tazuna asked.

"When you hired us, the mission was to protect you from the regular kind of trouble you might encounter during travel, like animals or bandits, and protect you while you finish building the bridge. That was why this was classified as a C rank mission." Kakashi said grimly.

"Nowhere in this was there any mention of you being attacked by Ninjas, especially Chunin ones for that matter. This particular detail increases the rank of this mission to B or even higher if there is possibility of us encountering more of these."

"There is a reason we assign ranks to the missions. All ninja are not of same rank, hence the missions that can be accepted by them also differs. Rank B or higher missions need Jonin and Chunin only in the teams. There is no place for Genin there. You have not only put yourself in danger, you have also risked the life of my team under false pretence."

Tazuna grew paler the more Kakashi spoke, but he only clenched his hands and refused to admit anything. Kakashi was about to grill him further, but at this point of time, Sakura discreetly caught Kakashi's eyes. She signaled him to back off and let Tazuna be. Kakashi was slightly surprised but decided to trust in Sakura as she had been the perfect Ninja so far.

Leaving Tazuna alone, Kakashi created a summoning seal to bring forth his summoned Ninken. He tied up the four rogue ninjas and sent a message to the leaf village through his ninken. They would come and pick these four up and transport them to the T & I department.

Sakura suddenly had a thought and looked at the special claw weapon the Demon Brother's had. The the original timeline, they had used a special combo attack with them to kill the substitution of Kakashi. Even though they had failed in their attack, the uniqueness and power of the Claws were undeniable.

"Kakashi sensei, would you mind if I took the weapons of these guys as a souvenir?" Sakura asked.

"You are interested in it ?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah, they seem unique and interesting. I think they are of a chakra metal alloy, even if the percentage of chakra metal is very less. The combination of these claws and this Shuriken linked chain gives me a few ideas." Sakura said.

"Alright, take them. But you have to be careful, the edges might be poisoned and we don't have the antidote to it." Kakashi warned "Hmm, you know what, search them thoroughly. Maybe we will get the antidote and a sample of the poison they applied to the weapons."

Sakura stripped the the captive ninjas of their possessions. Sasuke and Naruto helped her in this too. Soon they had a small pile of Ninja tools and objects in front of them.

Sakura took the twin claw weapons, along with the poison and antidote they found on one of the demon brothers. Seeing her, Naruto and Sasuke partook from the spoils too. Sasuke grabbed a Ninjato, a straight medium sized sword with a slightly curved tip. Naruto grabbed a pair of glove weapons that had a hidden mechanism that activated small spikes to grow right above the knuckles.

They also grabbed the Shuriken, Kunai and some Explosive tags the Rogues had. Not to mention their money and food rations. No problem with having more of these expendable supplies.

Tazuna looked at the three of them with dumbfound look on his face. How were these three Ninja? They looked more like bandits at the moment.

Once they had finished with all this, they resumed their journey. Letting Tazuna stay at the front with Sasuke and Naruto, Sakura lagged back a bit with Kakashi.

"Sensei, you must be curious why I asked you to let Tazuna off?" Sakura asked.

"I am guessing you already figured something out while fighting the Demon Brothers?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes." Sakura nodded "While those two were fighting in my illusion, they said something to 'Tazuna'. They said that Gato was not pleased about Tazuna getting Ninja involved. And that they would make Tazuna's family and Village suffer after killing him and reporting back."

"Gato … Is it possible that they meant that rich greedy Gato? The one who has all those shipping companies?" Kakashi asked.

"I am quite sure of it Sensei." Sakura said "Moreover, Gato is quite famous for smuggling illegal stuff to and from great nations, with poor coastal lands as his base of operations. If my guess is right, Gato must have made Land of Waves his current base, due to cheap labor and lack of powerful governing bodies."

"Hmm, why would he be after Tazuna then?" Kakashi muttered.

"This is only speculation at this point Sensei, but I think Tazuna is an extremely big threat to Gato right now," Sakura said.

"Tazuna mentioned he was going to build the greatest bridge of this world in the Land of Waves. Assuming he wants to use this bridge to connect Land of Waves and the central continent that houses the Four of the Five Great Lands, this would result in an enormous loss for Gato."

"Gato's majority of businesses are dependent on shipping through the sea. Tazuna's bridge would be a direct counter to that, reducing the need for large ships. No wonder he would send hired ninja to kill him. I assume that is why Tazuna asked Ninja protection." Kakashi exclaimed softly.

"Anyway, most of it is speculation and I don't exactly have proof, but I strongly believe it to be correct. I also think that our troubles are not over yet. A person with a huge amount of resources like Gato would not hesitate to spend money to take care of his problems. Since we defeated his first squad, he might send more." Sakura said.

"However, thanks to you we managed to take down all four of them." Kakashi praised her with his signature eye-smile "That should get us some buffer time optimally. But for a Shinobi good luck is a luxury we can not count on. So let's stay vigilant."

"Yes sensei." Sakura said "Also sensei, if we decide to continue with this mission, you really should teach us seriously when we get some time. I have a feeling all three of us will need a power-up in the coming days."

"Hmm, you have a point." Kakashi said "Fine, I will find some time to train all three of you."

"Don't sound so down Kakashi sensei." Sakura said with a smile, "All three of us have grown stronger compared to a few weeks ago. You are going to get a big surprise when you begin to train us."

"Hmm, is that so? I will look forward to it then." Kakashi replied and they both turned their attention towards their journey.

They had to walk for a few days until they reached the coastal area. From there Tazuna guided them towards a special hidden cove, where an acquaintance of his was hiding. He was the boatman who had brought Tazuna to the main continent and he was also their path to the Land of Waves.

Boarding his boat, the team finally set out across the sea to the Land of Waves.