Naruto : Chapter 45

Team seven met at the main gate at seven in the morning. Kakashi had informed Sakura what she needed for the mission as he didn't want to waste time with her having to stock up on things today. Sasuke he knew was properly prepared for a two week long mission like this one.

They would need about two days to reach Wave Country at civilian speed. Naruto was always over prepared. No need to worry there.

A few minutes past seven the team set out for the mission. Naruto had read the bingo book from ROOT yesterday and was prepared for all the ninjas that could await him. He had sealed more weapons for this mission than the last C-rank to be prepared to take out hundreds of thugs.

Out of the village Naruto made ten shadow clones that transformed in small birds and took off, scouting ahead. For some hours nothing really interesting happened. Sakura tried to make small talk with Tazuna, trying to find out more about Wave Country.

Naruto had pondered the use of telling Kakashi his information, but had decided to not to. He wanted to do this mission and if he informed his sensei about the higher rank the team wouldn't get it.

And between Kakashi and him there was no missing nin that Gato could have hired that they couldn't take out. After all, Gato was greedy as hell. More than a normal jonin he wouldn't hire if at all.

Three hours into their travel, one of his shadow clones dispersed. Naruto signalled Kakashi with handsigns about the potential threat in from of two ninjas hidden in a puddle.

Kakashi signalled back to continue without alarming anybody. Naruto confirmed the order. After twenty minutes they reached the puddle Naruto's clones had informed him about.

The team passed the puddle without Sasuke or Sakura reacting to it. Really, they obviously needed to train more on situational awareness. It had been warm for the last week. A puddle in the middle of the road was simply impossible with those conditions.

Soon after they had passed the puddle the two ninjas jumped out and attacked Kakashi with a bladed chain, tearing him to shreds. Or at least that was what Sasuke and Sakura saw. Naruto, being immune to genjutsu of that level, saw a replacement with a log.

Sakura's screams were tuned out when he quickly analysed the reason for Kakashi's actions. Which made him conclude Kakashi wanted to know the ninja's target. And perhaps test his team under fighting conditions.

"Sasuke left, Sakura, guard Tazuna, I take right." Naruto commanded, which his team-mates immediately followed.

Sasuke rushed at the left opponent, Naruto at the right one and Sakura took position in front of Tazuna with a kunai in her hand. Sasuke pinned the chain of the two ninjas, who wore breathing masks and had Kiri headbands, to a tree with a shuriken, which he enforced with a kunai.

Naruto meanwhile had reached his opponent and was going for a quick kill. He pushed wind chakra through his kunai and once he was inside the ninja's guard, he slashed at the throat.

Having enhanced the kunai with wind chakra, taking the ninja by surprise with his speed Naruto cleanly cut off the head.

Sasuke meanwhile had involved his opponent in a taijutsu fight. While the ninja tried to get past him all the time, Sasuke was obviously winning. Finally he kicked his opponent in the kidneys, which made him fall down in pain.

Just when the other ninja tried to stand up, Kakashi appeared and took care of the ninja, knocking him out. Sakura looked immensely relieved that Kakashi was still alive.

Naruto had to collect himself for a moment. While he had killed animals before without problem, killing a human was still different. He knew it was kill or be killed in this world, but the first kill was still difficult.

Hopefully he would be able to take out the thugs. Sakura looked at the corpse at Naruto's feet in horror, Sasuke looked indifferent. He had seen others being killed before after all.

"Good job, everybody. That was a perfectly executed reaction to an ambush. Naruto, are you okay?" Kakashi asked concerned.

"I'm okay, Kakashi sensei; just give me a minute to get it straight in my head." Naruto requested, trying to calm his feelings down.

Talking about killing was definitely easier than doing the deed. But if he wanted to become a good ninja, he would need to do it again.

And in Wave there waited a bunch of thugs that he would have to kill to free the country. Kakashi nodded towards Naruto, resolving to talk to him later about his obviously first kill. Then he turned to Tazuna.

"You didn't tell us that ninjas were after you; we were only informed about bandits and the like." He confronted Tazuna.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tazuna tried to evade.

"Oh, that's easy. I knew about this ambush twenty minutes before it happened from Naruto. His scouting clones had informed him about two ninjas hiding in a puddle on our way.

I replaced myself with a log when they attacked and let my team handle things for two reasons.

First, I wanted to see how my team dealt with a situation like this and second, I wanted to know their target. Were they after one of us or after you? Those ninja tried to get to you from the start.

So I want a very good explanation for this or I'll take my team back to Konoha. With you lying about the rank of the mission, you broke the contract you made with Konoha." Kakashi informed Tazuna.

"Okay, there is a super dangerous man after my life. You've probably heard about him. His name is Gato." Tazuna confessed.

"President of Gato Shipping. Currently ranked fifth richest man in the elemental nations." Naruto stated. "Suspected to be involved in criminal activities, but it could never be proven."

"Yes, that's him. He came to Wave Country a bit more than a year ago.

First we didn't think anything about it, but he soon had bought up all the shipping industry of our nation. You see Wave Country is an island so we are dependent on the shipping to get goods.

But that wasn't the worst part. He used his monopoly to drain the country dry. The people live in poverty. Many lost their houses to Gato. Who protests is killed. He takes what he wants with his hired thugs making sure nobody dares to oppose him. His shipping business covers his criminal activities.

He deals with drugs, alcoholics, rare goods even slaves. Everything that brings him money. The only thing he fears is the bridge I'm building. If I finish my bridge, Wave Country can break his monopoly and get back to strength." Tazuna said.

"But why didn't you just tell the truth?" Kakashi asked.

"That's easy to conclude. Wave Country was sucked dry. They didn't have more money than for a C-rank mission if they poured all their money in the bridge to get their freedom.

I guess in the recent past Gato had tried to take Tazuna out so that he sneaked out of the Country with all the money the people could get together to hire a few ninjas. He hoped he would get ninjas strong enough to protect him while he finished the bridge.

And if Gato had just used his thugs he would even have been lucky that that was true. But those two are the demon brothers, missing ninja from Kiri. B-ranked in the bingo book. Bounty for one 1.000.000 ryo, bounty for both 3.000.000 ryo." Naruto cited from the bingo book he had read.

Tazuna nodded. "He's right. In the past Gato only used thugs. There are rumours that he hates ninjas because they are so expensive. I wasn't sure if he would hire ninja to take me out. And we really are super poor.

Even our Daimyo has no money. All the money I gave Konoha is from the people. And it is all we could afford. We put everything else into the bridge; it's our only hope." Tazuna said.

"You still shouldn't have lied. If you had told the Hokage the problem he would have come up with a solution." Kakashi said. "Now we still have the problem that this mission is too much for this team."

"I am for continuing, Kakashi sensei. This is not just a mission where the client wanted to save money. This is about a whole country going down the drain because one greedy bastard wants to fill his pockets even more than he already has.

And we can't afford that people think Konoha would let a country fall to such a man. We are strong enough to continue." Naruto said.

"Hmph, Naruto is right. We are strong enough, I vote we continue." Sasuke said, already thinking about what kind of fighting experience he would get.

Sakura looked unsure, but she didn't want to disappoint Sasuke. And the people of Wave obviously needed help.

"I agree." She said.

Kakashi looked at his team. He knew this was the best genin team that could have got the mission. Naruto was practically a jonin in all but title. Sasuke probably low chunin level and Sakura after two months of rigorous training was a normal genin.

But she could stay in the back and be support if a fight started. He wouldn't need to protect all of them like they were real genin.

"You are aware that if we continue, our next opponent won't be chunin level, but more likely a jonin like me?" He asked.

All three nodded. Naruto calm and determined, Sasuke determined and Sakura a bit worried, but still determined to continue.

================

if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :

 p atreon.com/CarriePoppins