Chapter 25

As Naruto dropped down to meet his team, his sensor ability allowed him to sense that his Sensei was just down the street. He looked at his teammates as his shinobi mask was placed on and his bright blue eyes became glaciers. He nodded to his two teammates, who nodded back, as he started to lean against the wall next to Sasuke while awaiting the arrival of their final team member and client.

After a few minutes, Naruto saw Kakashi appear down the road with their client and both he and Sasuke pushed off the wall as they created a line with Sakura facing their sensei. Kakashi walked up to them and nodded to them all, "Good, Have you all packed what I mentioned?" he asked, his tone obvious that he was taking this more seriously than his everyday life as his lazy tone was absent in his voice.

His genin nodded and he eye smiled as he said, "Very well, we will use defense formation Diamond and Naruto will take point with Sasuke on Tazuna's right while Sakura has his left and I will bring up the rear. Tazuna-san." Kakashi said after his genins had nodded, gaining the attention of their client, "I can promise you protection if and only if you listen immediately and without question to anything I may say. If I tell you to duck, do not hesitate to throw yourself to the ground. This is only for your protection." Kakashi said as he looked the bridge builder in the eye.

Tazuna scoffed and his chest puffed out, "Who do you think you're talking to? I am the super awesome bridge builder Tazuna! Of course I know how you ninja work." he stated obnoxiously. Naruto turned a disbelieving stare on the man which caused Kakashi to mentally chuckle as the bridge builder lost all of his pompous attitude. On the outside, Kakashi stared down at the man for a moment before nodding and turning back to his genin, with a single hand wave, the group had formed into the defensive positions around Tazuna. From a bird's eye view, the four ninjas would look like a diamond with Tazuna at the focal point, hence the name.

Naruto, being the point of the diamond, set the pace as the team set out from the village gates. Naruto himself was excited to be out of the village and began to walk faster than he really should, setting a rather fast pace for someone of his size. Sakura and Sasuke both almost jumped when they noticed how fast Naruto was walking but they kept the pace when they saw that Tazuna himself wasn't having any trouble keeping the pace and even seemed pleased by it, going by the small smile that graced his lips. Kakashi whipped out his book from his pouch as he began following his fast-moving genin. His long strides easily keep up with them.

(Scene Break)

A little after noon, and lunch, the group was still moving at a rather intense pace as Naruto hadn't slowed down after lunch. His eyes darted all around as he allowed the unconscious control of his sensor bloodline to take over, shortening his range but allowing his senses to take in the sights easier without having to split his concentration. A small, unconscious smile spread across his lips as he took in the countryside. "This is so exciting! I can't believe I am finally outside the village. This is gonna be so awesome." he thought, his cold mask starting to be replaced with a happy, inquisitive child-like look.

As Naruto's mood changed, so did the air around the genin team, Sasuke and Sakura started to relax and even Kakashi noticed that Naruto seemed a little jumpy while up in the front. He smiled slightly behind his book, "I'm glad he hasn't completely lost his curiousness." he thought to himself as he watched his team start to relax slightly along with Tazuna.

Sakura, who had been thinking the whole walk, decided to voice her question now that she felt a bit more comfortable, "Kakashi-sensei?" she questioned, Kakashi rose his head and looked at the pink-haired kunoichi over his book, "Does Wave country have ninja?"

Kakashi eye smiled at his genin's question, it was pretty smart to question about possible enemies in the territory they were heading, "No, not in Wave country, however, there are many countries with ninjas besides just the five great countries, Hi no Kuni, Kaze no Kuni, Mizu no Kuni, Kaminari no Kuni, and Tsuchi no Kuni. These five countries, however, are the most powerful and the biggest lands which have shinobi within them. A small country, such as Wave Country, probably does not need shinobi presence as it receives little interference from these major countries. The main reason for shinobi is military might and balancing of power. As a result, only the five major countries have leaders with the name of Kage as this symbolizes their ability to lead the thousands of shinobi within the Elemental Countries. The Five Kages are, supposedly, the strongest five shinobi in existence today. They are, our own Hokage, the Kazekage, the Mizukage, the Raikage, and the Tsuchikage." Kakashi lectured as Naruto slowed his pace to listen in to his sensei's explanation. "However, the shinobi do not run the country. The Kage's rule over the shinobi within the lands but they are a separate government from the Daimyos." Kakashi finished.

"So, we shouldn't expect any other ninja?" Sasuke asked in an almost disappointed tone. Kakashi turned to him and scrutinized him.

"This is only a C-rank so, no. There should not be any foreign ninjas near this mission. However, we might encounter some bandits." Kakashi said. Sasuke scoffed and Naruto returned to being on guard, his sensor ability expanding as he devoted some more of his attention to his senses, "So, we shouldn't let our guard down even if there aren't any shinobi around." Kakashi warned and the genin nodded as Kakashi noticed that Tazuna had stiffened up slightly when he mentioned there wouldn't be any shinobi. Kakashi's visible eye narrowed slightly.

(Scene Break)

It was later on that afternoon, that Naruto felt a disturbance within his sensor. His face scrunched up in confusion as he felt two marks of chakra appear at the edge of his sensor ability. It was odd though, the marks would seem to waver while staying in the same place, almost as if water were flowing on top of the chakra pools that Naruto was able to detect. Naruto's pace slowed slightly as he concentrated more on those pools of chakra. His eyes remained open but his mind seemed to analyze the pools as he walked closer and closer to it. He wondered what could cause such a phenomenon within his senses as he had never encountered this before.

As he concentrated, he noticed that there was a puddle on the path they were taking that was on the same side that Sasuke was walking. As his eyes panned around, he noticed that the ground surrounding the puddle was incredibly dry as a slight wind kicked up dust swirls across the path, his eyes narrowed slightly and his cold mask was replaced, his eyes becoming icy blue as he began to act that he hadn't seen anything, since Kakashi must have sensed this thing and he hadn't done anything. "Pathetic!" Naruto almost snarled in his mind at someone who dared to use his favorite type of Jutsu in such a horrible way, "These men will pay for making such a pathetic attempt at Genjutsu." Naruto promised himself.

Spending so much time training with Genjutsu, he had become very adept at noticing when he was in a Genjutsu, especially with his bloodline. When he concentrated hard enough, he could detect any level of Genjutsu as he would sense the invading chakra in his mind's chakra coil. Unfortunately, when he did that, he was almost oblivious to the outside world and it would allow whoever cast the Genjutsu to freely play with Naruto as he tried to detect the Genjutsu. Currently, he could sense up to low-level B-rank Genjutsu with a bit of trouble but C-ranks were almost child's play for him. Such as this Genjutsu, he had smacked himself when he realized what the Genjutsu did, despite all of his training with Kurenai had had still never had to sense her while she hid using Genjutsu. He nodded his head as he passed the puddle, he now knew that the Genjutsu must have been what was messing with his bloodline, he filed that bit of information away for future use as he prepared for combat.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna walked right past the puddle, none of them sparing it a glance but Kakashi's lone eye glanced at it when he took a few steps right next to it. He looked back towards his genin and saw how Naruto's muscles were bunched like a coiled spring, ready to pounce when the situation called for it. He mentally smiled as he kept his facade up, "Naruto's advanced at an impressive rate. I'm impressed he picked up on the Genjutsu but he has been rather observant of late. Hmm, aww well, let's see what they are after and how my team works under pressure." he thought to himself as he detected the chakra signatures begin to move.

Naruto felt the spike of chakra as the men appeared behind his team, he whirled around just as two men appeared, each a little farther back than Kakashi. The next thing he noticed was the look of surprise on the jounin's face as he felt their chain wrap itself around him and Naruto begin to move from behind Tazuna, from the two men's point of view, to in front of him. Finally, he heard them, "One down." they said as the three genin's eyes widened and the chain wrapped around Kakashi suddenly squeezed sending bloody bits of Kakashi splattering across the path while Naruto appeared in front of the bridge builder creating a triangle with his teammates.

"K-Ka-Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled as she broke formation and moved closer to the bridge builder, eyeing the two men with abject fear in her eyes. "They got Kakashi-sensei!"

Sasuke was already in motion, drawing a shuriken and kunai knife, he tossed the shuriken at a tree as he launched himself into the air. Tazuna seemed to freeze in fear.

Naruto's icy blue eyes unfocused as he watched the two men seem to disappear, he noticed that both of them had breathing masks on their faces covering their mouths, noses, and chins with their scratched Hitai-ates resting across their foreheads with metal attachments leading them to have an appearance of horns. One had spiky hair while the other's fell across his head closely resembling a mop. They both had chuunin flak jackets, symbolizing their rank, and camouflage pants leading down to their shinobi sandals. The most glaring object on the both of them though, was the metal gauntlets that had a chain connecting the two of them.

Naruto stood, motionless, as Sasuke's shuriken slammed into a tree, one of the links in the chain that connected the two men pinned to the tree as well. Sasuke reached a certain height and flung his kunai knife just as the two men began to rush forward, "Two down." the same man from before said as the two appeared next to Naruto. But, just as their chain began to wrap around Naruto, their chain was yanked backward towards the tree as the kunai shortened their chain even more.

Sasuke landed on the two apparent chuunin's shoulders and grabbed ahold of their chain as he kicked both of them in the face causing them to stumble. However, they recovered quickly as they released the chain keeping them rooted to the tree, they both split away from each other, the spiky-haired one heading to Tazuna and Sakura, the opposite one heading towards Naruto in an attempt to take the, assumed, scared genin out of commission.

As the spiky-haired one approached Tazuna, Sakura repeated a mantra in her head, "I have to protect the client. I have to protect the client!" she thought to herself as the man closed in and she shouted, "Sir, get back!" Sakura pulled a kunai and set herself in a defensive position in front of the bridge builder as Tazuna felt a bead of sweat roll down his face. Just as the man closed in, however, Sasuke suddenly appeared in front of the opponent, his hands already in motion to grab his kunai. He faced the man down with determination in his black eyes.

Naruto had remained motionless throughout the whole encounter, his blue eyes are unfocused as he seemingly ignored the man aiming a deadly gauntlet at his unprotected side. Naruto didn't even blink as the man lunged for the kill.

All of a sudden, the fight was over and Sasuke and Sakura were looking at their sensei with both enemies under his arms, both of them knocked out. Sasuke relaxed his guard as he saw his sensei appear and Sakura looked over where Kakashi had been, "Kakashi-sensei used Kawarimi! Those pieces of logs sure looked convincing. Thank Kami!" she thought as she heard Tazuna let out a sigh of relief.

Kakashi looked around slightly, "I expected more from you Naruto, what happened? Did you freeze up as most do?" he questioned himself as his eye focused on the completely motionless Naruto. His eye narrowed, the blonde didn't have any guard up, what happened? "Sorry Naruto, I should have helped right away. I got you injured," he said as he looked at the young genin, seeing no response he sighed before turning to Sasuke and Sakura. "Good job you two, especially you Sasuke," he said as he eye smiled at the two. Kakashi finally turned around to Tazuna, "I need to talk to you... Tazuna-san." he said, all traces of laziness and pride absent from his voice.

Sasuke smirked as he looked over to the motionless Naruto, "You alright, Mr. Scaredy-Cat?" Sasuke asked arrogantly. Naruto suddenly moved from his place, his eyes snapped to Sasuke's his icy blue eyes wide in amazement. Sasuke looked taken aback until Naruto scowled.

"Shut it Teme," he said coldly. Sasuke merely scoffed as he turned away from him.

"Naruto," Kakashi said to the, now, responsive genin, Naruto looked at him, his icy blue eyes seeming to hold a small amount of emotion, unlike normal. "Save it, their gauntlets are poisoned, we need to reopen your wound and drain the poisoned blood. Don't move around too much, it may spread." Kakashi counseled. Naruto looked at the small scratch on his hand and shrugged as he grabbed a kunai and sliced it back open, his blood pouring out of the newly made wound. His team watched in amazement as Naruto simply waited until he saw that his blood was red and his wound suddenly sealed up. Naruto grunted and wiped his hand clean.

"Naruto! What the hell did you do that for?" Sakura almost yelled, concern for her teammate causing her to ask a rather obvious question.

"To drain the poison, though I wouldn't have done it that way, good job Naruto." Kakashi said as he looked at the blonde's already healed hand, "Is that the fox or does he naturally heal that fast?" he asked himself. "Anyways, these guys are chuunin-level shinobi from Mizugakure and they are known for not giving up when fighting. Now, I'm sure you had your reasons but we are operating outside of mission parameters and we are well within our rights to return to the village of Tazuna-san." Kakashi finished as he looked at Tazuna.

Tazuna paled and nodded, "It's true, this mission is probably more than what you knew about but I had no choice. I have a super bad guy coming after me. His name is quite famous." Tazuna said.

"Who?" Kakashi questioned.

"The wealthy shipping magnate Gatou," Tazuna said with a sigh and hatred in his voice, catching the attention of the genin.

"The guy who is said to be one of the few wealthy people in the world?" Kakashi asked with slight surprise in his voice.

Tazuna nodded, "Yes, legally, he owns and manages a shipping business. But illegally, he sells drugs and other illegal items to others and uses ninjas and gangs to take places over. About a year ago, he set his sights on our small country and quickly took control of all of our shipping companies. He has complete control over what enters and leaves the country. The only opponent to his control is the completion of my bridge." Tazuna said.

"So, you're in the way?" Sakura asked.

"And Gatou hired this ninja to take you out?" Sasuke supplied.

Tazuna nodded, "We are super poor. Even the Feudal Lord is. We didn't have the funds necessary for an expensive B-rank. I could only afford a C-rank mission." he said. "Eh, but if you quit now, I will die. It won't be a problem. It's only that my super cute little grandson will cry for days when he finds out." he said as he laughed uproariously, "And my super beautiful daughter will just hate Konoha Ninja forever, but it won't be your fault. Not at all." he said as he turned away from them with a gleam in his eye.

The whole team sweatdropped as they looked at the man with a deadpan expression, as Kakashi thought to himself, "Yeah, cause now we can turn down the mission with a clear conscience you damn old man." Kakashi sighed as he said, "Well, I guess we can escort you to your country." he conceded. Tazuna's eyes gleamed in victory as he nodded solemnly.

Naruto moved forward and took his spot in the front of the group as the other ninja fell back into position and Naruto began to move again.