C-Rank Mission
Naruto was slamming his hands on the table in front of Hiruzen and puffing his cheeks. His eyebrows have deep frowns
"That is another errand job again! Old man, we are ready for better ones!" Naruto was now complaining about the mission they received in full glory. He had enough of this.
Kakashi sighed while looking exhausted from all the babysitting he did the last past months and knew this would happen at some point.
"Naruto, be respectful! You are still just a rookie!", shouted Iruka from the side back at him.
Their current location was the mission hall for various tasks given to them by the villagers. The Hokage spent about a few hours every day in this place.
"But we are seriously getting the most annoying jobs now. I must say my brother is correct here." Now even Kaito was getting impatient about the missions they got. And probably not only he was exhausted by them.
"Yeah! We only get the crappiest jobs now!", shouted Naruto again.
Kakashi hit him on his head this time. "Keep calm already."
Hiruzen sighed now as well and started explaining the differentiation between mission ranks. And a Genin was just allowed for D Rank missions with a few C mixed in them if they were good. But Team 7 was only formed recently.
"Hmm...What are we going to eat, brother?", asked Naruto.
"How about Tempura?", asked Kaito back.
"Hey, you two! LISTEN when I am talking!", shouted Hiruzen now. He was enraged about being ignored.
"Sorry for that, Lord Hokage." The one apologizing for them was Kakashi.
"You know you always start to lecture people when they start complaining. You know just as well as us that we are possibly the only ones even doing those jobs! I haven't even seen one of them being crossed out since last month!", grumbled Naruto now.
Hiruzen widened his eyes now and looked at his documents. In his own thoughts, he actually didn't notice himself but it was true. In the D Mission scroll, there was only Team 7 stamped in. Rarely there were other Teams stamped on it. When did Naruto notice that?
"Fine."
Those words got the attention of the group. Even Kakashi was surprised by the decision.
"I will give you a C-Rank Mission. It is the protection of a certain individual. It came in just today."
Naruto started smiling with a big grin. "Who is it going to be? Is it really someone important? A feudal lord? A princess?"
"You think we would be sent to protect VIPs like that?", asked Kaito. He was wondering how Naruto picked such high-rank targets. Was he reading in too much from Hiruzen his words? Well, they also had to find the feudal lord's cat last time, so it would be imaginable?
"Calm down, I am going to introduce you to the person." He looked over to a Chuunin and that person nodded and walked away to get the person.
Later one could see a drunkard walking into the hall with a bottle of sake at his mouth.
"What´s this? These four super brats are my escorts? What is with that? The shortest one with the stupid grinning face especially.", complained the guy while burping.
"Haha, who is the shortest?" Naruto looked around and saw both Sakura and Sasuke looking back at him immediately. Then he went and looked at his brother but even he was looking at him.
Kaito only grinned. His hair was slightly longer with the same spikiness. Therefore he looked a tad bit taller than his twin.
"Dammnit! I will kill you!!" Naruto was now pissed and charged at the person.
"What are you doing?" Kakashi grabbed Naruto before he could really punch the client. "What use it it killing the person we are supposed to protect, huh?"
---
When they were outside the gates of Konoha the guy stared at the group.
"Well, I am the super expert bridge builder, Tazuna. I expect super protection from you guys until I get back to my country and complete the bridge."
"Super Expert?", asked Kaito with a deadpan look on his face.
"What, are you doubting my skill, brat?"
"How about you stop calling me that and I will be more accepting of your arrogance?", said Kaito straight back.
Naruto just ignored them and was running forward. He could not wait anymore to get adventuring. "Let´s go!"
"Naruto, what are you so suddenly excited about?", asked Sakura
"Well, I never really left the village. So its kinda exciting." He was looking around as if to see something new.
Tazuna reacted to that behavior as well. "Am I going to be really alright with this brat." He even pointed straight at Naruto.
Kakashi laughed drily. "Well, I am a Jounin, So, don't worry about it that much."
"Hey, old man! Are you seriously underestimating us ninja?", asked Naruto now. "You better don't! Because I, Naruto Uzumaki, will become the greatest ninja and earn the Hokage title. Then you will acknowledge my skills!"
Tazuna took another sip from his sake.
"No, I won't, you brat. Even if you would become the strongest in the universe I would not do so."
"What? You damn!" Naruto wanted to hit him because in his eyes he was talking shit about the Hokage title.
"Stop it, moron. Let´s go" Kakashi had to intervene once more.
On their way out they had already walked a certain distance from the village. The quiet was rather heavy so Sakura was the first to break it.
"Uhm, Tazuna? You are from the Wave Country, right?"
"That is right. What about it?"
"Are there no Shinobi there?" Her question was obviously stated to the fact that he came all the way here to get help.
Tazuna looked at her and thought about it. He only started sipping his sake again without answering.
Kakashi wanted to tell her but Kaito suddenly started talking.
"Sakura, there is no hidden village there. The closest to them would be Konohagakure and Tanigakure. Since it is probably because the Wave Country and the River Country are on bad terms that he came to the Fire Country for help instead. The location of the Wave is also pretty close to the Fire country. And my assumption is that the bridge he wants to build is connecting the isle to our mainland, right?"
"Hmm, you got a good head there on your shoulders, brat.", answered Tazuna.
"It´s Kaito Uzumaki."
"Uzumaki? You both are brothers? Sorry about that..."
"What was that!!?" Naruto got pissed off again. These two really started off on a bad note.
"Naruto!" Kakashi had enough. Naruto could only grumble at that.
"As Kaito has said. There is no hidden village in Wave country. But in other countries, even if the culture may differ greatly, there is a hidden village and so do other ninjas." He answered and added a few more details to Kaito´s answer.
"But you also have to differentiate between small hidden villages and the 5 great shinobi villages. The Earth, Lightning, Wind, Water, and our Fire country have each a Kage that represents the strongest shinobi in the village. They are also the ones that lead the villages."
"Huh? So Hokage-sama is that strong?" Sakura her question sounded rather surprised or should one say skeptical?
"Yep, but getting back to your question. You don't have to worry that we run into a ninja. In a C-Rank mission, there is no shinobi combat expected."
When Kakashi said that, Tazuna flinched a little. Sasuke noticed that and tensed up slightly.
He looked over at Kakashi and could see him still being calm and relaxed. Then his eyes went to Kaito and he could see a smile on his face. Was he maybe not noticing the obvious contradiction here?
But the longer he stared the more the smile on Kaito´s face seemed to warp into a devil's smile. The moment Kaito looked at him and even flinched a little.
'What was that just now?', asked Sasuke himself.
"There sure are some muddy waters here, right, Kakashi-Sensei?", asked Kaito now and at that moment a pair of heavily armed shinobi charged a surprise attack at them from behind.
A sharp chain that connected the left and right arm from each individual coiled around Kakashi and with a pull Kakashi's body ripped apart into a gory mess and landed on the ground.
Sakura who saw that was gripped by fear. Some of the blood even hit her face.
"Tsk." Sasuke clicked his tongue and prepared himself with a kunai in hand standing against the two guys.
"One down..." They both said and looked rather menacing. Then they charged at the group right after.