First Experience

Sasuke reacted rather quickly at the assault because he had a bad premonition and threw a shuriken together with a kunai between the chain connection and nailed it to a tree.

Then he charged at them with the intent of beating them up.

"Hey! Careful! Don't think that will hold them off so easily!" Kaito shouted and handprinted a few signs.

At that moment the guys freed themselves from the Kunai and Sasuke was about to get shredded by the jagged chain just like Kakashi.

Before that happened a pillar of earth burst out from the earth and grabbed the chain. It pulled it straight into the ground where they could not free themselves as easily as before.

Sasuke who was already attacking got his composure back and kicked both of them when he jumped in-between the two.

But that action only let the chain snap from their gauntlets and they immediately charged straight at Kaito who had his hands still on the ground.

"Naruto! Take the right guy!" Kaito charged straight at the left guy with a speed that surprised the two guys. But the one guy still could react and blocked him with his gauntlet. Then a grin appeared on the defending guy and that gave Kaito warning call.

He tried to evade with jumping away but because it was too late he could only put his arms in front of his vitals and get hit by small needles that came shooting out of the gauntlets small holes.

Landing on his feet he skidded on the ground. His arms were slumping down like boneless jelly and hanging down. Trying to move them only made them tremble.

'Paralysing poison. Damn it. Looks like I am still not good enough against enemies with some brain...My experience is rather lacking against real shinobi. I should have expected dirty tricks.', thought Kaito.

Naruto now snapped out of his own frightened state and gritted his teeth. "Sakura, protect Tazuna!" Then he used the Kagebunshin and attacked with 4 clones.

Sakura realized now as well that she had to keep going and positioned herself in front of Tazuna.

"Brother, are you alright?", he asked with one of the clones that came over to him for support.

"Don't worry about me. Concentrate on those two guys..." Kaito slowly started raising his arms and even started printing again. But the trembling surely showed him struggling immensely.

"Oh no, you don't!" The guy that poisoned him charged straight at him again with the sharp claws of the gauntlet.

But from the side, a scorching heat came flying and he had to jump back to dodge it.

Little did he know that at that moment Kaito already had collected a natural water bullet in his mouth and released it when he was still in the air.

The bullet hit the guy hard and catapulted him against a tree. Then Kaito finished his printing that he prepared.

"Doton: Earth Prison!"

A dome of earth collected itself around the guy near the tree and immobilized him completely. Only his head remained free.

The pain from his arms, sure enough, let him grit his teeth and they went down again. This time he could not use them anymore.

'The damn poison is spreading too fast if I use chakra.'

*-Poison Resistance- level up to 22*

'Hooo? The poison is even strong enough to increase my skill? Shit, I need to use an antidote.' That notification woke him up and he was sure about now that he should get rid of the poison first.

But even when he tried to rummage his pockets to get the antidote it was rather hard with the whole trembling and the other guy that was held busy by Naruto noticed that and charged right back at him as well.

'Why are you assholes so concentrated on me?' Kaito just used Hiraishin at the last moment to jump back to Sakura.

That surprised both her, Tazuna, and the enemy.

The last guy looked around in confusion but soon enough got knocked out from a punch that Kakashi sent at his chin when he came jumping out from beneath the earth at the same exact location Kaito was at previously.

"Well done holding out this long." Kakashi gave them a thumbs up after he tied the guy up near his partner.

"You are still alive! You scared us, damn it!", shouted Sakura and sighed in relief when she put away her Kunai. "Are you alright, Tazuna-san?"

The drunkard still had a gaping mouth. "Ah, yes...Sure. Thanks."

Sasuke walked over to Naruto that was now breathing somewhat exhausted on his ass. "Hey, scaredy-cat. You should clean that wound before the poison kills you."

"Huh!? Who is a scaredy-cat?", asked Naruto back and looked at a wound he had on his left hand.

"Well, obviously you. You were as stiff as Sakura when these guys attacked us."

Naruto was displeased with his own reaction. That is because it was true. Then he grabbed his Kunai and rammed it into his left hand to let some blood out that would wash out the poison.

"I am not going to stand that idle ever again!", swore Naruto.

"Are you an idiot? Do you want to bleed out?", asked Kaito from the side and flexed his arms to get a feeling back into them. In his mouth, there was still a small empty vial that was previously filled with an antidote.

"Here, drink this." He gave his brother another antidote and then used his mystic palm to heal up his self inflicted wound. The wound vanished in just seconds and the poison was dealt with by the antidote.

"Okay, let's pack up. We are going back to Konoha now.", said Kakashi after everything was dealt with.

"Huh!? Wait, what? Why are we going back to the village?", asked Naruto.

"It´s because our client was not sincere with the amount of information. He clearly knew he was targeted by these ninjas. And that would make this mission at least a B rank."

Tazuna was looking grim at this moment. "I didn't know, okay."

"That´s easy to say, but the evidence speaks differently."

"You were just supposed to protect me from a local criminal gang. That falls under the category of bandits, right?"

"Not if those bandits have enough money to buy ninja to assassinate you...", rebuked Kakashi once more.

"This clearly now became an expensive B rank. I have the feeling you cant pay us for that. And neither are these guys ready for one such mission"

"Kakashi-Sensei, let's vote this up, shall we? Since this is B rank it should be a little bit harder on you but still manageable. We could use the experience in this mission. If it is about money than I can compensate.", said Kaito now. He was eager to collect more experience now after he saw how real combat was like.

Kakashi looked at him and sighed. "Fine, who is for continuing the mission?" All three guys raised their hands.

"What!? You guys really want to continue!?" The only one that was uncertain was Sakura but she soon accepted her fate.

"Okay, but you guys better also start thinking about me." She even pouted her cheeks. She knew it was one league above her to fight such enemies yet but if these guys can handle it then it should be fine.

"Thanks for being so understanding, Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned. He was also happy to keep going. "I will definitely make sure we protect this old man!" He was also fired up to prove himself now that he had staggered at the start.

"Hey, thanks for the help back then."

"Hmm?" Kaito looked at Sasuke that was now thanking him and that let him raise both brows. "What did you say? I think I haven't heard you right."

"I am not going to say it again..." Then Sasuke walked away.

Kaito only smiled at that. This guy sure opened up greatly and probably knew what Kaito was up to. Or else why would a great Fireball come at such a timing.