Chapter 058

The dobe used Kawarimi No Jutsu, Sasuke thought, I should have known.

Naruto turned and walked off with the two ninjas in hand. A moment later though, Naruto stopped said, "Oi, Emo-Sasuke…" (A/N: Emo as in "emotional")

Sasuke scowled at the named Naruto gave him. Turning his head way, Naruto continued, "Nice job in taking on the ninjas. Though I must admit that I didn't think you had it in you to use yourself as a human shield to protect one of your, if not solely, greatest fangirl. I can only wonder what to make out of that knowing your character."

Sasuke scowled at the implication Naruto was making while the blonde simply grinned at the raven-haired Uchiha. Sakura however was in her own world after hearing what Naruto implied.

"THERE'S NOTHING TO WONDER ABOUT NARUTO!," inner Sakura yelled happily while jumping up and down, "IT'S TRUE LOVE! THAT HAS TO BE THE ONLY EXPLANATION!"

Sai looked over at Sakura, seeing that she was presently daydreaming.

Must be fantasizing about dick-less over there, Sai thought with a neutral facial expression.

"Anyway," Naruto continued as he turned to Kakashi and the others, "Good job all of you in holding your grounds against these two."

"Don't talk as if you're the one in charge dobe," Sasuke retorted, "You're not the Jounin here."

"Such ingratitude and after how I acknowledged your breath-taking performance," Naruto replied in sarcasm much to Sasuke's annoyance, "There's poison in these guy's nails. Should they have cut any of you, we would have had to open up the wound and leech out the poison before it turned fatal."

Sasuke said nothing in return as Kakashi turned to Tazuna and said, "I need to talk to you."

Naruto went and tied up the two Mist nins to a tree before Kakashi and the other joined the blonde after tying them up.

"These two are Chuunin level ninjas from the Mist Academy," Kakashi said, "They're known to keep fighting no matter what."

"Tell me kid," one of the Mist nins said, "How were you able to detect us?"

"Baka," Naruto retorted, "Any fool should know that a water puddle shouldn't exist in an area that hasn't had rain fall upon in it for days. Kakashi-niisan saw the puddle also, but allowed us to fight anyway."

"That is true," Kakashi admitted. Tazuna turned to the Jounin and interrogated, "Why did you allowed those kids to fight when you knew that?"

"If I was up to it, I could have killed those two in a blink of an eye. However," Kakashi explained before looking at the older man suspiciously, "Naruto and I needed to know who the target for those two was."

"What do you mean," Tazuna asked nervously.

"In other words," Naruto spoke seriously as he turned to Tazuna, "Were you being targeted, or was it somebody from our ninja group? Kakashi-niisan and the rest of us haven't heard anything about you being targeted by ninjas."

"Your request was for us to protect you from armed groups like gangs and robbers," Kakashi added, "This is a mission that's above B-rank. Our job was to support and guard you until you completed the bridge. If ninjas are our enemies-"

"Then it would be an expensive B-rank mission," Naruto finished for him. Kakashi nodded and continued, "We're sure you have your reasons however we're bothered if you lie in your request details. This wasn't part of the mission."

Tazuna remained quiet after hearing what Kakashi and Naruto were saying.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura spoke, "This mission is out of our league. We should return with more re-enforcements for this mission."

"There will be none of that," Naruto sternly interjected, "The four of us requested for a more challenging mission, and I'll be damned to back out of this now! I'm not one who turns his back on someone in need of our help! This mission is still on in spite of the situation that's now present before us!"

Everyone just looked at Naruto as he went over and punched both Mist nins, knocking them instantly unconscious before untying them. Grabbing both nins, Naruto started dragging them away.

"I won't be long," Naruto said as he walked away from the others with the two ninjas being dragged away.

"Where are you taking them," Sakura asked.

"Just go on ahead of me. I'll catch up later," was all Naruto said as he took away the ninjas. Sasuke was about to say something when Kakashi spoke up first, "It's best if we go on. I'm sure that Naruto will meet up with us in no time. He wasn't made Elite Genin for nothing after all."

Sasuke snarled on hearing that title addressed to Naruto. If anything, he felt that he himself deserved that title and not Naruto.

"I agree," Sai spoke for the first time after a period of silence, "Judging from Naruto's abilities, I'm positive that he'll make it back in no time."

With no further arguments, the group turned away continued on their way.

(Elsewhere)

Naruto brought the two ninjas to an area out of seeing and hearing range. The two Mist nins woke up to see Naruto standing in front of them after he tied them up to a tree again.

"Alright you two," Naruto said, "Tell me everything you know."

"Go to hell you little shit," said one of the Mist ninjas. Wordlessly, bit his thumb causing it to bleed. He did some hand seals, before slamming it down to the ground, saying, "Kuchiyose No Jutsu!"

There was a puff of smoke and after it cleared, there was a yellow and white female fox wearing purple elbow-length finger-less gloves standing on her two legs in between Naruto and the Mist nins. (A/N: think of Renamon from Digimon 03. I'm too lazy to think of an original character).

"Naruto-sama," the yellow fox greeted as she turned and bowed to Naruto.

"Rena," Naruto said, "Do your thing. I think they'll talk through more influential methods."

The fox nodded before turning to the Mist nins. She looked at them coldly before going over to them as she flexed her sharp claws. Doing a series of hand seals, Rena said, "Kongōseki No Arashi No Jutsu (Diamond Storm Technique)."

What followed next were two screaming men being severely pelted with sharp white diamond-shaped energy shards.

'You definitely spend too much time with Anko, Naruto,' Yondaime commented.

I'm just putting Anko-chan's teachings to practice, that's all, Naruto replied mentally before summoning vipers from out of his arms to use on the Mist nins, adding to the misery and pain the Mists nins were to suffer until they were willing to talk.

(Meanwhile)

Just then, huge, terror filled screams came, and the Genins except Sai and one bridge builder nearly jumped out of their skins.

"What…was that," Tazuna asked

"I have no idea," Sakura replied.

"Perhaps Kakashi-sensei knows," Sai said.

"Naruto's handy work," Kakashi simply remarked, "If anything, those two Chuunins are very miserable right now."

Sakura and the others could only wonder what it was Naruto was doing or did that was enough to make two Chuunin level ninjas scream with such fright and pain.

(A While Later)

The team and Tazuna found themselves in front of a water shore with a small boat and its captain in front of the group. It was evident that they would have to ride the both across the water.

A moment later, Kakashi turned to see Naruto running and catching up to them.

"Naruto," Kakashi greeted as the others turned to see the blonde rejoin the group.

"Naruto," Sakura asked, "What did you do with those two ninjas? We all heard loud screams a while ago."

"I had them tell me everything they knew," Naruto spoke before going cold, "Before causing their pain to cease."

It didn't take long to interpret what Naruto meant. The two Mist nins were dead. Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna were shocked because of what Naruto said. Sai maintained a neutral expression.

"They won't be a problem to anyone anymore," Naruto stated, "As noted earlier, our client has been with holding information from us. Those Mist ninjas I tortured and killed were the two demon brothers. Those two brothers served a man named Momochi Zabuza who is being hired by someone else though the Mist nins didn't know whom. I'm sure Tazuna here can tell us more. The rank of this mission is in truth higher than C-rank. In truth this mission is B-rank if not A-rank."

Tazuna was now noticeably sweating out of sheer nervousness, "The kid is right. There's more to this than you all know…About a year and a half ago, Wave Country was a rich and prosperous country. Good to live in and everyone was happy. But then Gatō came."

"Gatō," Sasuke inquired.

"The president of the Gatō Corporation; he's one of the wealthiest men in the world," Kakashi explained. Tazuna nodded and continued, "Officially he appears to be only a businessman; however he's really a criminal, using corruption and violence to take control and smuggle drugs, weapons and other valuables. He took control over Nami No Kuni by buying all the ports. He controls all sea travel and on an island that means you control the island itself. He takes all the money and Wave County has become a poor country with no hope.

"That's why I'm building the bridge. My bridge will connect us with the mainland, and we can prosper again. However Gatō fears my bridge because it would end his tyrannical seize over the country, and he wants to kill me to stop it. Therefore he hired several shinobis. I traveled to Konoha to get protection, but since we're so poor, we couldn't afford something other than a C-rank mission.

"You understand why I had to lie about the mission? It took everything our village saved up as a whole to even afford this type of mission as we can't pay for anything higher. Our country has been suffering through economic poverty."

"I see," Naruto said before turning to Kakashi, "What do you think Kakashi-niisan?"