Never Below Courage

"Woah!" Sakura widened her eyes in surprise as steam started rising out from inside Naruto's wound.

"What the hell?" Satsuki whispered as she saw the wound close up on its own. Naruto was watching it with a small smile on his face.

"Hmm...." Kakashi hummed while watching the scene from the side. 'It must be the power of the Kyuubi. Naruto is going to be receiving so many questions. The real question here is, are they really ready to hear about Naruto's burden? I know their friendship is deeper than blood, but there's always that slim chance of seeing Naruto as a monster.' Kakashi mused before looking at Tazuna who was in a daze from what happened.

"Are they really just kids?" Tazuna whispered to himself.

" What was that Naruto?! Was it some kind of healing Jutsu? Can you teach me that?! " Sakura asked with stars in her eyes. Naruto smiled sadly at her.

" No, I'm sorry. It's not a Jutsu, Sakura-chan. It's something I had since birth. " Naruto explained, making Satsuki raise a brow and look at him curiously.

" Since birth? A Kekkei Genkai?" Satsuki asked him. Naruto shook his head.

"No, not that. It's something else. I'll tell you guys about it later, believe it. For now, let's continue on with the mission." Naruto promised them. Sakura sighed in dissatisfaction because she didn't get her answers.

Kakashi looked at the Demon Brothers who slowly came back to consciousness. They looked around before realizing they were tied up.

Naruto grinned at them. "Welcome back to the land of the living you two. Did you have a nice nap?" Naruto asked them. Meizu glared at him.

"How did you know of our ambush?" He asked Naruto who shrugged.

"Who me? I didn't know anything. I just reacted like a Shinobi would. All I could sense was you two's killing intent, but I couldn't sense where it was coming from. Kakashi-sensei seemed to be onto you though." Naruto pointed at Kakashi.

Satsuki looked at Tazuna who was pacing around nervously. He looked more nervous than usual. She would have to keep his strange behavior in mind.

"Meh, it wasn't that hard if you know what to look for. Since it hasn't rained in nearly a week, there was no way that a puddle could have lasted very long on a clear day, much less seven." Kakashi explained with a shrug.

" Wait a minute! " Tazuna who was looking a bit disgruntled, glared at Kakashi.

"If you knew they were going to attack us? Why did you leave it to the kids? What kind of sick man are you?" Tazuna asked, a bit disturbed by Kakashi's thought process. Kakashi shook his head.

" If I wanted I would've killed these two instantly, but there was something I needed to find out. I wanted to know who these two were after." Kakashi explained.

" Wh-what do you mean? "Tazuna stuttered out his question. Kakashi looked at him.

"I wanted to know if they were attacking us Shinobi, or if they were after you, the super expert bridge builder." Kakashi explained to him as his narrowed his visible eye.

"When you made your request to Konoha, you asked for standard protection, from bandits, highwaymen and the like. You never mentioned that ninja were after you. If we had known this, it would have been designated a B-rank mission or higher, for chunin or jonin. You lied to us, Tazuna. "

Tazuna looked down feeling ashamed under Kakashi's gaze. Kakashi continued speaking.

"Our mission was to simply get you to your destination and guard you while you build your bridge. If we had known we would have been fending off attacks from ninja, we would have staffed a different squad and charged for the cost of a B-rank mission." He then shook his head.

" Even if you had your reasons for doing it, lying about a mission is unacceptable. As it is, we are now operating outside of our duties. " Kakashi decided.

" I ain't going nowhere, sensei. " Naruto muttered, making Kakashi look at him in surprise. Naruto looked at him with a determined expression.

"I don't care if he lied about it! The fact is we already accepted it! We've already gone this far right?! I'm not going back on my word, not only would that be disgracing ourselves and Konoha, but it could also cause people to lose faith in our village if we run at the first sign of trouble! And I don't wanna be known as a coward!" Naruto declared, shocking Tazuna.

" Oi, you think you can protect him by yourself? Oh don't answer that, we all know you would be lost without me and Sakura watching your back." Satsuki said will a smirk on his face. Sakura nodded in agreement with Satsuki's words.

"So does that mean you guys are in?" Naruto asked them.

"Hn." Satsuki replied with a smirk on her face.

"Mhm!" Sakura nodded with a smile on her face. Kakashi looked between the three and sighed.

"I guess that means we're continuing, but be warned, the next enemy we run into won't be low level Chunin like those two. It will probably be a Jonin like myself. " Kakashi warned them, hoping this would change their minds.

Unfortunately for him, they weren't deterred in the slightest.

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It was later in the day, and Team Seven along with Tazuna had found a small clearing off the road to the Land Of Waves to rest for the night.

Kakashi had made his students split up and prepare the camp. Satsuki was tasked to find lumber and starting a campfire while Sakura had been ordered to prepare the tents. Naruto and his Shadow Clones were the ones who had gotten them some food, catching fish from a nearby stream.

After dinner, Kakashi looked at his students. "Listen up kids, since this mission is now more dangerous than we thought, we are going to be taking two hour watch shifts. Naruto, you're going first, Sasuke you go second, Sakura will go third and I will go last. "

" How about this, sensei? I can create Shadow Clones so you three can have an extra hands helping you keep watch." Naruto suggested. Kakashi nodded after hearing him out.

" That's a great idea, Naruto. You can start now. The rest of you make sure to get some sleep while you can." Kakashi advised as Naruto got up from the ground and went to perch himself on a large rock a little ways away so he could start keeping watch.

Kakashi began moving to his tent while Sakura and Satsuki went into their shared tent. The tent was actually suited for having three people sleeping in it.

Naruto crossed his index and middle fingers from both hands. "Shadow Clone Jutsu." He whispered as 10 clones puffed into existence only to scatter as soon as they were formed, moving off several dozen feet away in all directions and transforming themselves into random rocks, leaves and small insects.

Naruto closed his eyes as he sat down in a meditative pose. He began using a unique exercise he had learned in a book on chakra concepts and theories.

The exercise was called Chakra Pulse. It was different from his Chakra Pulse which was used to dispel Genjutsu by flaring out a powerful pulse of chakra.

'Ya know what, I'll change the name of my Chakra Pulse. It will now be called Chakra Disruption.' Naruto thought to himself.

[Chakra Disruption: Lvl 5]

Back to the main point, Chakra Pulse gives Naruto something a kin to a three hundred and sixty degree view similar to the sonar pings a bat used with sound waves with a small pulse of his Chakra in all directions.

This had two purposes, the first was to allow Naruto to remain alert to everything around him, and the second was to use it as a basic chakra control exercise by slowly lowering the amount of chakra used while maintaining the amount of distance he could pulse his chakra.

However, it wasn't quite as effective in the middle of a forest as it would be elsewhere since the foliage reduced its efficiency but that was what the clones were for.

"Can I help you old man?" Naruto asked as Tazuna climbed onto the rock he was sitting on. His eyes were still closed and he had not bothered to even look in Tazuna's direction as he remained perfectly still, something that had taken him and his Shadow Clones nearly two weeks to accomplish.

"Shouldn't you be in bed by now? An old goat like you needs their rest." Naruto pointed out with a smirk on his face.

"Hardy har har brat." Tazuna grumbled back as Naruto's smirk widened from his reaction.

"I was just wondering.....why did you agree to come with me knowing I had lied?" Tazuna asked Naruto. Naruto stayed silent, making Tazuna unsure whether the blonde would answer or not.

" I won't abandon people in need. It is dishonorable and cowardly, sure we may be ninjas who assassinate people from behind but we have morals too. Below courage there is nothing, that's what the Third Hokage said to me one time. " Naruto explained before opening his eyes and looked at Tazuna.

" Those are some words that I do my best to live by."

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The next day, everyone was getting ready to continued the journey to the Land Of Waves. Kakashi looked at Tazuna.

" Before we go on Tazuna-san, I need you to provide some answers. Why are those two after you? And if you don't tell us....I'll have to end the mission when we drop you ashore." Kakashi threatened. Tazuna sighed and looked down.

" Fine, I'll tell you....."

To be continued.....