Chapter 34 Trouble

Kurenai sighed to herself as she was walking in the lead with Kakashi, he was reading his book just like always. She didn't like the fact that he brought out that book in front of children let alone in front of his own son. She gave up on trying to get him to put it away, although she also had to worry about Naruto, Kiba and their client. Normally Naruto and Kiba argued out of their friendship but when you adding in Tazuna, with the amount of yelling and arguing those three did it was amazing that people from Water Country didn't hear them and they were an island nation far away.

Sometimes she wondered if she was a jonin sensei or a surrogate mother at times. Kakashi was little help although she had a suspicion that he was enjoying her uneasiness.

"Hey, Sasuke-Kun," Sakura asked as she walked up next to her teammate. "I was wondering after the mission you want to go on a date sometime?"

Sasuke sighed mentally he really didn't like it when Sakura acted like this. Why couldn't she act more like a real Kunoichi like the leader of team 8? Kurenai was the perfect example of the kind of ninja a female should be. Someone that was professional and powerful was the type of girl he looked for, but apparently there were none in his age group. Although that Tenten girl he met was pretty close to the type he looked for. But he wasn't exactly looking for any type of relationship just yet he still needed to get stronger.

He had been getting stronger but he still wasn't good enough to take down Itachi.

Sasuke noticed that she was waiting for an answer, "Remember that favor you owe me for pretending to be your boyfriend in front of that weird guy in green?"

"Oh yeah," Sakura had actually hoped he forgot but whatever it was she would do it. After all she gave her word and one thing she admired about Naruto was that he always kept his word. Besides if she went back on her word, how could anyone trust her ever again?

Sasuke looked at her seriously, "In return for that favor I don't want you to ever ask me out again...ever."

He walked off leaving Sakura behind who had just stopped in her tracks. She felt so crushed at that moment as her whole body just seemed to sag. She couldn't believe that he had just asked her for that, she had to do it as it was the favor but she never expected him to do something like that. She started walking again when she saw that she was going to get left behind but her mind was elsewhere at the moment. Had she just lost any change with Sasuke now?

'Why doesn't he like me?' Sakura wondered.

'Damn it we should never had made that deal!' Inner Sakura screamed out.

'Does he not like me? I mean does...does he think that I'm ugly or something?' Sakura asked herself. She was thinking of her forehead and still remembered all the teasing she had gotten from it when she had been younger. Did he think that her forehead made her look like a freak? All the old self doubts started to rise up in her again, even after all this time there was a part of her that was still that scared little girl with no friends who ended up going home crying from being bullied. Ino had helped her to grow out of it mostly as had her other friends but it was hard to get over some complexes.

She walked on in silence as the self doubts started to eat away at her confidence.

Hinata was with Naruto and she was beaming on the inside, she couldn't believe that she was on a mission with him. Although at the moment he seemed to be sulking after Kurenai basically made sure that he and Kiba were in opposite ends of the column with their client in the middle. She smiled at how he was childishly crossing his arms and she knew he was pouting behind his mask.

"I can't believe we're being treated like kids," Naruto muttered to himself. "It's that old drunk's fault anyway he keeps calling me short, I'm not short! I just haven't hit my growth spur yet and when I do I'll be as tall as dad and then people will stop calling me short."

Hinata giggled at this and Naruto turned his attention back to her.

He smiled at her if there was one nice thing on this trip it was that he had his best friend here. He felt more at ease with her around here as well. He was thinking about something and maybe she could help him out.

"Hey Hinata-chan, can I ask you something from a girl's point of view?"

"Huh? O-okay what is it, Naruto-kun?"

He scratched the back of his head, "Well...I know some things about girls but apparently I don't know enough."

He had read through his dad's collection and although a few things still caused him to blush red and it was how he had learned about the birds and bees from, he learned how to flirt, how to compliment but given he had lost Sakura to Sasuke he thought that he must have been missing something.

"What do girls really like in a boy? I mean how can you get a girl to like you?"

Hinata blushed red all over her face at this, she started to fidget with her fingers again as she looked down at the ground.

"W-well it's different for each girl. Some like strong boys, others like s-sensitive types, others like those that are carrying," Hinata told him.

Naruto sighed as this was more complicated then he thought, although he most likely had a better idea than most boys his age on some things to do with girls he still didn't understand them. It would be years later when he finally figured out that no man could figure out a female totally. But at this point he was just trying to figure out why he lost out to Sasuke. Listening to Hinata made it seem that maybe he just wasn't Sakura's 'type'.

Although why she liked emo-jerks with littler personality he never understood. He just sighed in defeat that maybe he and Sakura weren't meant to be although he would still be there for her like all friends he would stop bugging her about things like dates. She always gave him a 'maybe' but nothing much more than that. Maybe it was best to just be friends with her and that was why she did that, she didn't want to ruin their friendship.

Naruto felt like slapping his face, 'So that's why she never went out with me. She didn't want to ruin our friendship. It's like with me and Hinata-chan, she wouldn't want me to ruin our friendship either. Man I should have thought of this earlier now it all makes sense. She's not friends with Sasuke really so she went after him but we've been friends for years.'

'But now what I'm I going to do? I mean I didn't know girls like different types of guys so how do I know what types there are? I know, I'll ask Hinata what she likes in a boy that will give me an idea!'

"Hey Hinata-chan what types of boys do you like?" Naruto asked.

"W-what?!" she said her eyes widening.

"I just want to know what you like in a boy," Naruto told her.

Hinata's heart was racing as her mind started to work out why he was asking. 'Is he asking me because he wants to know if I like him? Does he really like me and he wants to make me notice him? What do I tell him?'

Hinata was fidgeting a bit more as she was really nervous at this point. She eventually decided on just going with how she felt about Naruto, what she liked about him.

"W-well I like boys that are caring to their friends, who always stand up for them and is always there for them. I-I like boys that are fun to be around with good sense of humor and who always make those around them happy. I-I like boys who are courageous and strong too."

Naruto thought about that, he tried to think of someone like that but he was coming up with a blank. He didn't know anyone like that unless it was someone in the Hyuga Clan or a village boy. He wasn't sure why but the thought of some mysterious boy that Hinata liked didn't sit well with him. Then he thought about Hinata kissing some boy and he felt his jaw clench for some reason. He blinked a few times and pushed the thoughts aside, he didn't understand why he felt like that as she was just a friend, right?

As the group walked on Kurenai noticed a puddle of water on the road, normally it wouldn't be odd but it was the only one on the road and there hadn't been any rain for three days. She focused on it and noticed the illusion wrapped around it. She tensed as she was getting ready to strike when she felt Kakashi's fingers on her hand. She felt his fingers start to quickly tap out a message, it was one of the few ways a ninja would communicate with each other when they couldn't talk.

The message was short but when she put it together in her head her eyes snapped to him. She couldn't believe that he wanted to test out their teams like that. He didn't show any signs of anything other than reading his book. Kurenai was thinking of going against it but then the thought of why he would do this to his own team came into her mind. After their last big mission it took time for his genins to heal and so then the real reason he wanted them not to interfere hit her. He needed to see if his team was truly ready to be back in the field.

You could prepare all you want but unless they actually faced real danger he couldn't tell if they were over the last mission. She also thought of her own team, Kakashi's had gone through something nasty for the first time and she didn't want her own team to go through that. She eventually came to the decision to let Kakashi do it his way for now, but the moment things got too dangerous she was stepping in.

Just as they were passing the puddle that was when the two ninjas struck, they liked to have been known as the Demon Brothers a couple of rogue ninja from Mist. They have been told the old man had gone to Konoha for help, at first they were worried but the old man wouldn't have enough for a jonin or a more experienced team. When they saw two genin teams they decided to stick with the original plan. They would have to take out the two jonins fast, if they didn't they wouldn't stand a chance. So as soon as the kids teachers were in range they jumped out, they liked to used poisoned tipped claws with a razor sharp chain connecting them.

As twins they had always fought together and their teamwork was top notch. Their chain managed to get the two jonin and they ripped them apart.

It turned into pure chaos after that, people yelled out as it was nothing but confusion at the moment. One of the Demon Brothers took sight of Hinata. The young girl had never been in a real combat or real danger like this. She suddenly had a flashback to when she had been kidnapped as a small child, she remembered how scared she had been and she just froze. The brother chuckled to himself as he saw an easy kill and ran at the girl.

"Hinata, get down!" Naruto yelled at her but she was frozen solid. She wanted to move but her body wouldn't let it. Naruto's father told him all kinds of stories on how some people react to their first time in danger. Hinata had frozen and if he didn't do anything she was going to die. He jumped at her, grabbing her with his arms as he pulled her to the ground with him, he grunted feeling something slice his forearm but he didn't pay any attention to it.

"Hinata are you okay?" he asked still protecting her.

Hinata looked at him as he focus came back into reality. She nodded her head and Naruto nodded back as he quickly got up and pulled out the sword on his back getting ready for a fight.

Kiba already had to dodge one of the enemy ninja as Akamaru tried to bite down on the leg of that ninja. He quickly jumped back and tried to kick the small white dog but he was faster and jumped out of the way. Kiba tried to get in close with his kunai but the man blocked it with his claws and was suddenly pulled back by his partner. The ninja sailed through the air as he went to attack another in their party. Sakura found herself between the razor chain between the two ninja, she quickly got out her tonfas and placed them up in front of her, with the length of the weapon running parallel with her arms. They protected her arms as the chain grinded against the metallic weapons, making sparks fly out. She had to close her eyes to protect them.

Shino raised an arm and from the loose sleeve of his grey coat many tiny black insects started to fly out. Like Kiba's clan and their dogs, he had a mental link with his bugs and told them to attack and drain the two of them of their chakra.

Sasuke was already attacking them with his own sword but the brothers were proving a little faster than he was, he wanted to take off the weights on himself but the enemy weren't giving him a change so he just kept up with the attacks. He activated his eyes as they turned into the red Sharingan that his clan was known for, the moments of his enemies became easier to see and predict. Everything became sharper and clearer when he used his eyes like this, and it was with this he noticed Naruto making hand seals and not just any ones either.

'He can't be serious in using that,' he thought to himself.

"Everyone clear the area!" Sasuke gave them a warning.

There were a few that weren't certain why Sasuke said that but they moved out of the area anyway because they all figured out something was up. Naruto finished his jutsu as he made a couple of clones, and to those that knew him that was odd as he usually made a gang of them. The two clones each went after one of the brothers. They didn't see much point in worrying and tried to attack the clones, what they didn't know was that although Naruto could make a huge number of shadow clones it took a lot more energy to make exploding shadow clones.

The two clones exploded sending the twin ninja brothers off flying, although they flew in two different directions the chain that connected them snapped them back together as they slammed back into each other in mid air and landed onto the ground. It was actually kind of funny and if it wasn't a life and death fight the kids might have found it pretty funny.

"Did you kill them?" Sakura asked Naruto looking at the smoking ninja.

"I don't think so," Naruto said to her looking at the bodies. Although he got over killing that last ninja he didn't want to have to do it again too soon.

When they heard a groan coming out of the two of them and saw them move they figured out they were still alive. With them down it was easy for Shino to command his bugs to swam them and eat up enough of their chakra so they wouldn't pose a threat anymore.

"Jeez, Naruto give us some warning before you do something like that," Kiba told him.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "Heh, sorry about that but hey we got them right?"

"B-but what about Kurenai and Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata asked worried.

"What about us?"

Everyone turned to see Kakashi leaning up against a tree with Kurenai standing next to him.

"Y-you're alive!?" Kiba was shocked by it.

"Kiba, didn't you notice the replacement technique we both used?" Kurenai said pointing to the pieces of wood that were where the remains of their 'bodies' should have been. Kiba smacked himself in the face and groaned, he had been so taken by surprise he hadn't noticed that they had replaced themselves with the wood at the last moment. That move had saved countless ninja from nearly dying a lot of time through history.

"Now then I think you all did a good job," Kakashi said. He was proud of how well his team had done, they seemed to have gotten over the last hard mission. He got out a piece of rope from his backpack as he walked over to the brothers.

"Now I think it's time we deal with the two of them," Kakashi said.

When the two Demon Brothers were tied up everyone was gathering their things. Akamaru was walking up to the two ninja, something was off about their scent that he had noticed. There was a strong odour about them. He started to sniff and the strange scent seemed to be only on the claws, while his master trained as a ninja, he too was trained by the older dogs of the pack. They told him what to sniff out, what harmful scents were as well as other things. Akamaru didn't know what type it was, but he could smell the poison on the metal.

He turned to his master and barked out the warning.

Kiba turned to look at his partner, like all of his clan they had a bond with their animals. It was kind of like a bloodline ability in a way how they bonded with their dogs that allowed a deeper understanding with them and of other dogs in their clan had.

"What do you mean poison?" Kiba asked as his puppy yelped out a few more times. "Hey Kurenai-sensei! Akamaru says these guys had poison on their claws."

"Everyone, was anyone hurt?" Kurenai asked them all.

Naruto looked at the place where he had been hit protecting Hinata, he hadn't noticed with the adrenaline going but he was cut. He wasn't sure if he should be worried or not, he knew that the stupid fox inside of him healed injuries but he had never been poisoned before.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata cried out seeing him look at the bleeding wound. She automatically went to check on it as she was more worried than nervous at this point. She knew that he had gotten that protecting her. Because she had hesitated he had been hurt, all that she was thinking was that it was her fault because she still wasn't strong enough.

Kurenai and Kakashi walked over as they watched Naruto roll up his sleeve of his shirt to show the wound. Kakashi looked at it as Hinata got out the medical supplies.

"Well it looks like we're going to have to get Naruto an antidote, but I'm not carrying any anti-poisons on me, how about your team Kurenai?" Kakashi asked her. She shook her head as her team didn't carry that, she didn't think it would be that dangerous and some ninja used special poisons that needed a medical facility to cure.

"So what does that mean?" Kiba asked.

"It means we'll have to go back to Konoha to get him cured," Shino said.

Kiba didn't take well to that, it was his team's first big mission and he wanted to complete it, Shino didn't say much but you could somewhat tell the bug user wasn't too happy with the thought of failing the mission as well. Sasuke scowled at going back, he didn't say anything but the boy looked like he didn't like this anymore than anyone else.

Naruto could see this and looked at the wound on his arm, he could remember a few ways to deal with poison and there was one thing he could do. He didn't want to turn back either, they had a job to do and he always saw things to the end. They didn't run when things got tough last time and although the ending of that mission was something he would carry for the rest of his life, he had grown from it.

"No we're not going back," Naruto said loudly getting everyone's attention. "We took on this mission and we're not quitting because I don't quit. We agreed to protect him and take the old drunk home and I'm not going to be the one that makes us fail this mission."

He drew out a kunai and stabbed it into his forearm to the shock of everyone there. The blood slowly started to flow out of the wound as the poison was being drained out of it. He learned this trick from stories from his dad's day in ANBU and from a lesson at school. Although it did hurt, he could take the pain.

"I swear that I will never fail, that I'll always go on no matter what," Naruto said using his own blood as a way to seal his own deal with himself.

Kakashi blinked a few times and smiled under his mask, Naruto sure was surprising and he was proud of his son's attitude. He always did see things through to the end no matter what, although now he was wondering what the bridge builder wasn't telling them. Those two had been chunin level ninja and someone doesn't hire that kind of ninja for a simple old man.

"Well Naruto that's all well and good, but you might want to put a bandage on that before you bleed to death," Kakashi said off headedly.

"Huh?" Naruto looked at his bleeding arm for a second. "AH! Someone get me something to stop it with!"

He said frantically as Hinata tried to use the medical supplies she had on him. It wasn't easy to calm Naruto done and for Hinata to use the bandages and medical salve she had on her. Kurenai just wasn't sure what to make of Naruto, at one moment he was like a different person and then he could switch at the drop of a hat. She had known him for a bit but Anko knew him better than she did, she sighed as she let Hinata dress the boy's wound. She noticed that Kakashi was motioning her over to him.

So she walked over to him as he then spoke to her in a soft voice.

"I think we should have a talk with our client."

Her eyes hardened as she nodded and they both looked at the old man. She too had figured out that there was more going on here than he had told them about and she wanted answers. This was supposed to be a simple C Ranked mission and now it was already a getting close to a B Rank, something wasn't right here and she wanted to know what they had gotten themselves into.

They walked up to their client as Kakashi gave him a solid hard look with his single eye, he may be a lazy jonin at times but when things were serious you would have hard pressed to find someone as good, powerful or as scary as Kakashi when he got serious.

"I think we need to have a little talk with you, Tazuna." Kakashi said in a cold tone.

The old man looked at the jonin and then to Kurenai who had an equally cold and hard look in her red eyes. He swallowed knowing that he had lied about being protected by only bandits, he would have to tell them everything now and he only hoped that they wouldn't just leave him on the road undefended. If they did, he didn't have enough money to hire anymore ninja and he would never make it back home.

"Alright," he sighed as they led him off to the side for a talk.

Hinata was finishing up taking care of Naruto's injury, she was putting the final touches on the dressing on his arm. Naruto smiled a little at how much care she was taking with it, although he knew by now that the stupid fox would most likely have healed up his injury he didn't want to have to tell her why she didn't have to worry. She actually wasn't bad at this and the salve she put on did help ease the pain too.

"You're pretty good at this Hinata-chan," He told her.

She blushed and her hands shook a little but she managed to finish. "N-Naruto-kun...I'm...I'm sorry."

"Huh? Sorry for what?"

"B-because of me you got hurt." She looked down not meeting his eyes. She just focused on helping him she was still a burden it seemed. Her first time out and she froze and Naruto ended up hurt because of it. She thought she had improved but when everyone needed her she had failed them.

"Hinata what happened can happen to anyone, my dad told me countless times that he's seen people do the exact same thing first time in a real battle." Naruto told her.

"You didn't," she whispered looking down as she finished her work.

"Yes, I did." He told her gently. She looked up in shock, she couldn't believe that Naruto of all people had frozen. He started to explain the first time he really had been scared. "When I was little a couple of bad guys tried to kidnap me too, Uncle Gai saved me but I was scared. I couldn't sleep alone and had nightmares for a long time after it. It took me time but I got over it but it's something I can never forget it either."

"N-Naruto-kun..." Hinata trailed off, she never knew that the same thing that had happened to her had happened to him. He never really talked about his life before they met, he kept saying that it wasn't important.

Then Naruto looked at her smiling with both eyes closed, "Anyways so all you have to do is get stronger, you fall you just pick yourself up and keep trying. You never give up because if you do then you can't get better and I know you won't let the same thing happen again."

She smiled at him and gave him a small nod, he always made her feel better about herself and for some strange reason she always felt she could become a better person with his help. Just then the adults returned with Tazuna looking like a dog that got scolded by its owner. Both Kurenai and Kakashi told the old man to tell their teams exactly what he told them.

The old man sighed as he told them that he didn't have enough money to hire more protection and had lied about the dangers. He was building a bridge to connect his land with the mainland, it would improve the economy and lots of the land's resources were going into this project. A criminal named Gato had a strangle hold on his land, he was bleeding them dry. This bridge was the only way to help the country as they couldn't rid themselves of the man. He was on his way back to complete the bridge and had found out that Gato had hired people to kill him.

Without him the bridge would never be built and his people would never get out from under Gato's control.

With the story out of the way, Kakashi asked both teams if they wanted to continue the mission. They had been lied to about what the mission was so they were within their rights to refuse the mission now. But Naruto didn't like that one bit, he stood up and said that he'd never back down from a mission no matter what happened. Kiba was just as eager as well and he too wanted to continue, Sasuke nodded his head as he didn't feel like quitting as well. Sakura looked a bit uncertain but with both team members for it she couldn't abandon them so she agreed too. Shino gave a silent nod and Hinata didn't want to keep going as well. She needed to prove to herself that she could do this, if she couldn't then she didn't deserve to be a ninja.

Kurenai sighed, she knew that she couldn't talk them out of it but she did convince Kakashi to send one of his summon dogs back to the village with a message. One to have hunter nins or ABNU to come and pick up the Demon Brothers and to inform the Hokage that the mission seemed to be a bit more than it was. She just hoped that she didn't live to regret the decision to continue this mission.

Next up Chapter 35: Mist and Ice