A trap

Hokage Tower…

After the Genin's of team 3 left the Hokage office to inform their Guardian about their crank mission and prepare themselves for the half a month-long journey for the mission outside the village only Hiruzen and Shikaku remained in the Hokage Office.

"Shikaku with your intelligence I think you already know why I decided to let you become the captain of team 3 right? " Hiruzen stood up from his seat then walking to the window asked with a sigh after he inhales a mouthful of smoke from his smoking pipe.

"Don't worry Hokage Sama as long as I am with him no one will be able to harm him however with the training you had made him go through I don't think he will need my protection with his ability. " replied Shikaku with a serious face.

"Even so make sure nothing happens to him and disregard this C-Rank mission the moment you feel your team won't be able to handle it.

Their safety is more valuable than this C-Rank mission especially his. " Hiruzen says with a serious tone however when you glance at his face from the window you will find it as calm as the ocean giving you the turmoil he is feeling inside his mind right now.

"I knew. "

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

After receiving details regarding the mission from Gramps to gather with Hana and Izumi I left for our home to prepare for the long journey.

When I told Aunt Hinako she wanted to go to gramps and ask him to give the mission to someone else because of my age which she thought isn't good to travel outside the village however Uncle Hiashi explained. my growth is important for me to do missions like this.

After a long discussion she finally calm's down and gave me a storage scroll that has enough for 3 people to eat for more than a month and made me carry 2 underwear and some important things that I might need on the mission even I never thought of taking.

Before leaving yesterday she said till I return Naruto will be staying in the Hyuga compound with them and I need to wash my underwear regularly before wearing them and much more advice.

Just as we had planned before 6.30 in the morning of team 3 gathered in front of the village gate and this time Hana has also brought her dogs who seems to be aggressive towards me for some reason which caused me discomfort as I announced to Hana "Hana keep your dogs away from me because if they bite me I am not sure if I won't do something to them. "

"Is that so? " hearing my warning instead of keeping her dogs away from me she sneered at me before holding to me by the collar of my shirt and angrily saying "What did you say you, little kid? "

"What a drag~. " as I was arguing with Hana we heard a long sign as Shikaku sensei finally decided to arrive with our client Mr.Doten and declared with a lazy tone

"Will the two of you stop for a while we are about to start the first mission outside the village and even before starting the mission, you have started arguing making me confused if I should continue ok his mission or not. "

With that, we quickly apologized and the mission officially began.

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

It is already a few hours since we left the village and using the horse-powered wagon we are moving through the forest that is surrounding the village.

While Shikaku sensei is driving the wagon I am sitting beside Izumi–san and I are sitting on the roof of the Wagon while Hana is sitting on the back while her dogs are running behind the wagon at top speed flowing the Wagon at a moderate speed.

As I am closing my eyes and focusing my attention to find the enemy's around us with my chakra detection ability by my side Izumi San is keeping an eye around us with a serious face sometime she will even active her jujutsu to locked even the simplest or tiny presence of the enemies.

While Hana and her dogs will just smell for any unknown scent by our side.

No after driving the wagon for almost 5 hours the horse that is pulling the wagon finally got tired and with Shikaku sensei's suggestion, we decided to take a small break and allowing the horse rest and being water then leave when it gets its stamina back.

This way it took us over a day and a half to arrive at our first destination a small village where lives no more than and thousand civilians.

As we had already decided before arriving at the village gate with Shikaku sensei order we changed our clothes into that of commoners and entered the village to spend the night and eat the local food from there as well as got some of the local products for souvenirs for Hanabi chan as this village sells soft dolls and while buying one for Hanabi chan I also bought one for Hinata as well.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened while we were at the soft doll village however not even half a day after we left the village we encountered a group of bandits that was easily got defined by the Haimaru brothers (Hana's in–Dogs) before we continued our journey.

As we arrived near a bridge I felt a chakra signature that contains malicious intent towards us and soon discovered it is a shinobi who is hiding in ambush for us under the river water below the bridge as I quickly gave my warning opening my eyes "Sensei Underwater below the bridge. "

"How many? " Shikaku sensei asked with a serious face without hunting the wagon from moving ahead.

"Only one and from the chakra signature it is barely Chunin level. " I said with a serious tone as he orders me to control the wagon before vanishing from the Wagon and quickly defeating and locking the enemy on the side of the bridge he returned to the driver seat of the wagon while giving an order "Izumi send a summon crow to inform the Hokage? "

"On it sensei. " Izumi San announced before sending her summoned crow with the news of the captured Shinobi.

Over time, we finally arrived at our destination the second village with 4 days of a journey away from Konoha with a moderate speed of the Wagon we finally arrived at the village as Shikaku sensei explained the details about the riverside village.

This village used to have incredibly rich soil at the time it was found, at that time from different parts of the Fire Nations people came and soon build a prosperous village that could supply almost fifty percent food for the people of The Fire Nation.

When Hana asked why does the village look not that prosperous even with so ample amount of crops every year he explained every good thing will come to an end so did the fortunes of this village because with time the land lost it's fertile slowly to the point that it can only grow enough crops to fill the stomach of its people.

"Is it the cause there are more fishermen than farmers in this village? " Izumi-San asked in enlightenment as arrived at the only inn of the village to stay.

After having a dish with fish we went to sleep in shifts as the first 3 hours of the night is my watch then Shukaku sensei then Hana and finally Izumi-san in the morning hours.

Flowing days after leaving the little fisherman village wasn't that much of a trouble as we hardly faced any trouble there were also some small settlements on our way and the bandits aren't much of a challenge for us as well.

Finally, when we arrived at the final village after which we will reach the borders between the Fire nation and the water nation I discovered strange behavior from Mr. Doten and informed Sensei.

"Are you sure he has the same level of chakra like me? " Denali sensei asks with a serious face as he glanced at Mr. Doten's direction while he continues his transactions with the villagers.

"No he has a higher chakra level than you and from the way, he is controlling his chakra I gave doubts in his civilian identity. " I replied shaking my head.

"Is This is a trap??? "