Land of Waves Arc: Chapter 9

To complete the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping ~ Chinese proverb.

.

.

"A C-rank mission it is, then. You'll be bodyguards on a journey to the Land of Waves."

That was one of the last things I wanted to hear. Everyone else, on the other hand, seemed delighted. Well, Naruto was delighted. Sasuke just looked interested.

"Who? Who? Will we be guarding a princess? Or some councillor?" Naruto asked, bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Don't be so impatient," the Hokage chuckled. "I will bring him in now." He raised his voice. "Send in our visitor."

To the side of the missions assignment desk was a small lounge where the prospective clients waited while the missions were handed out or completed. It kept them contained and out of the way, yet close at hand, and was a fairly efficient system. It was staffed at all times by several Chunin, which were, I assumed, who the Hokage was talking to.

The door slid open, allowing us the first glimpse of our client… and him the first glimpse of us.

"What the-? A bunch of little snot nosed brats." He drank deeply from his bottle, Adams apple bobbing rapidly.

Tazuna was… old. Maybe forty, which in ninja terms was ancient. His hair and beard were dark grey but messy and unkempt. His clothes were neat but worn and a little dusty from the road. His glasses were plain, but the fact he even had them at all spoke of at least past wealth and status. The sake bottle in his hand was cheap stuff that was popular with some of the younger shinobi. He looked nervous. Scared. That wasn't unusual. People didn't hire ninja because they felt safe. But it was at a level out of proportion for bandits or wild animals. Even for civilians, that kind of threat is a constant background knowledge - it doesn't inspire terror.

"And you, the short one with the idiotic look on your face, you expect me to believe you're a ninja?"

Like most people who met Naruto, I expect he was talking about the orange. Or Orange. It probably deserved a capital letter. Civilians have odd expectations for ninja. They expect us to dress in black, wear masks, and carry lots of weaponry. In short, they expect us to look like ANBU. Which is ironic, because to civilians, ANBU don't exist and they certainly don't take missions.

To a civilian bright, blinding orange wasn't an appropriate colour for a ninja. Therefore, it was actually a perfect colour for a ninja. Oh, sure, it stood out like hell in a forest, but the fact was, most of our time spent hiding wasn't among trees - it was among other people. The best ninja is the one you can't tell from a civilian.

It confounded their expectations. A tall guy dressed head to toe in black carrying a small armoury? Ninja. Small, loud blond kid in orange? Are you kidding? Ninja were invisible not because of jutsu (most of the time) but because they looked just like normal people.

That was the whole point. Even the standard Jounin-Chunin 'uniform' looked like normal civilian clothes. It took someone familiar with ninja to recognise the flack jacket as something other than a vest. And frankly, a fellow ninja was more likely to recognise your chakra than your clothes.

That was a good thing when dealing with enemies. However, apparently, it made it a little difficult for clients to take you seriously. I winced but Naruto laughed. I knew he was able to shrug off cold looks but taunts usually got to him. Maybe he was growing.

"Who's he talking about? Who's the short one with - hey! I'll demolish him!"

Or maybe not.

Kakashi-sensei snagged the back of Naruto's jacket. "You can't attack the client. It doesn't work like that."

I cast a look around. Sasuke looked exasperated. Iruka had his face hidden in his hands. The Hokage, however, just looked amused. Amused and watchful.

Not exactly a great first impression.

"I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder and I must return to my country," his voice held a rather stilted quality, as though he'd rehearsed this introduction before. His grip on his sake bottle was tight, and his eyes were bouncing over the three of us nervously. "I'm building a bridge that will change our world and I expect you to get me there safely, even if it costs you your lives."

Now that was rather presumptuous and a little insulting. He was questioning our loyalty as Konoha ninja, even if he didn't realise it.

"We are ninja of Konoha," I spoke levelly. "When we accept a mission, we do our best to see that it is fulfilled… provided the mission parameters are a true and accurate rendition of information."

He gulped. Definitely a sign of nervous behaviour.

Kakashi-sensei's hand landed lightly on my head. Approval or warning? I couldn't tell. But he must have noticed the reaction that that statement provoked. Maybe he had a plan.

"Mah, I wouldn't worry, Tazuna," Kakashi-sensei drawled. "Even if my students are only Genin, I am a Jounin, an elite ninja of Konoha."

And that did calm him down. A bit anyway.

"Alright, kids," Kakashi-sensei said, turning to us and unrolling the mission scroll I hadn't even seen him receive. "This is going to be a fairly long mission. Wave Country is located to the east of the Land of Fire, and we're going to be travelling at civilian pace, so I'd estimate it will take us about a week to get there. Our mission also includes guarding the bridge and workers as they complete the bridge which will take several more weeks. Remember that when you're packing for the mission." He smiled at us. "Lets meet at the main gate in two hours. That should give you all enough time to get ready."

"Yes, sensei," we chorused with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

I headed home, vaguely troubled. What could I remember about the Wave mission? Tazuna had had ninja after him, hired by the crime lord? Shipping company? By someone powerful anyway. There had been an ambush on the road, and Zabuza and Haku later on. I remembered those two. They had had a big impact on Naruto.

And they had died.

I shook my head. It would be nice to think I could save them, but I couldn't plan for that. There were too many things I didn't know and couldn't plan for. They had been betrayed, I remembered, but how and why were questions I couldn't answer. And if I couldn't answer them, then I couldn't convince anyone else, even had I been able to get the message to them. Besides, a missing-nin like Zabuza probably spent most of his time expecting to be betrayed.

Add to that, I didn't know them. If it came down to us verses them, I'd chose us in a heartbeat.

Shikamaru was still home when I got back. Either his team hadn't started for the day, or they had the day off. Either option was equally likely, frankly.

"Back already?" He asked, yawning. "They didn't have anything for you to do?"

I shook my head. "I have to pack. We have a C-rank."

"You have a C-rank already?" Shikamaru looked at me incredulously.

Mum popped out of the kitchen, frowning. "What's this I hear about a C-rank?"

"My team was given a C-rank," I said. "Several weeks long, so I need to pack."

"It's far too soon!" She fussed. "You've only been a Genin for a week. What are they thinking?"

A very good question. "I'll be fine," I reassured her, not wanting to admit I had my own doubts. I couldn't back out so I had to press forwards.

She nodded and sighed. "Yes, I suppose you will. It is only a C-rank. And you have been training hard." She rounded on Shikamaru. "You hear that, young man? Your sister is already taking C-ranks! You better step up your training. If they send you out like you are now -"

I winced and slipped up the stairs. Shikamaru was probably going to get hell while I was gone. I shuddered to think what mum would be like when she heard about what actually happened on this mission.

Assuming I made it back to tell her.

Stop it, I thought sternly. There's no need for that. Positive thinking.

If you went on a mission thinking it was going to fail, you had already failed. Mindset was important.

I breathed in, breathed out, centred myself and started packing. Like all good little ninja, I had most of my mission gear already packed; it just had to be customised for each mission. Most of it, I kept in sealing scrolls, but it wasn't a good idea to keep everything in one scroll. If it got destroyed or lost then I could potentially lose everything. Besides, an empty backpack attracted attention. I filled it with an extra set of clothes, a book to read and ration packs. For a mission like this, we'd probably be able to hunt for food, but I'd rather have too much food than not enough.

I added a much more comprehensive medical kit than I would usually take, several soldier pills and an excess of weaponry. Then I stopped, because there was a point where caution became paranoia.

I refilled my kunai pouch, made sure they were sharpened, changed into clean clothes, checked my bindings and tromped back downstairs with backpack on. Mum was waiting at the foot of the stairs. She was the one who had taught me how to pack for missions, but I didn't begrudge her double checking me. I'd rather she pointed it out if I had missed something.

But she just sighed. "Oh, do take care, wont you?" she asked.

"I will," I promised. "Tell dad I said bye." I'd have liked to go find him and say goodbye myself, but he was usually busy all day with important Jounin Commander-y things at the Tower. "And you tell Ino where I've gone," I said to Shika, poking him in the shoulder.

"Troublesome," he groaned. "That'll just make her want a C-rank mission." But he'd do it, if only because Ino would nag him until he told her.

"Alright," I said. Then again, more firmly. "Alright. I'll see you later!"

The Main Gate was the main entrance to Konoha. Most civilians thought it was the only gate but that wasn't quite true. It was just that the others were used only by specific people (I.e. ANBU), for secretive missions, and never, ever with civilians. So we were stuck travelling the out the Main Gate, probably all the way to the nearest town before we could branch off east. The forests around Konoha were thick and dangerous and heavily patrolled. By ourselves we'd be able to manage, but not with Tazuna.

Wave Country was directly off the east coast of the Land of Fire. Konoha was located almost exactly in the middle of the Land of Fire, so we had a fair way to travel to the coast. Still, there was a major Port City slightly north of where the Wave Bridge was being built, so there were plenty of well kept roads towards the coast. We probably wouldn't be travelling cross country, so it should be a fairly smooth trip.

Naruto was already at the gate when I arrived, practically bouncing with excitement. I quizzed him to make sure he had packed correctly, since I wouldn't put it past him to bring nothing but ramen cups. I know they say you turn into your parents eventually, but I hadn't expected the metamorphosis to be so quick.

"What's taking that teacher of yours so long?" Tazuna grumbled.

"Eh, Kakashi-sensei is always late," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "We'll probably be as old and grey as you by the time he gets here." Apparently, Naruto hadn't forgotten Tazuna's earlier slight against him.

"What was that, you brat?" Tazuna scowled. "No respect. Pah."

"Well, it's lovely to see everyone getting on so well," Kakashi-sensei said brightly, as Tazuna and Naruto glared at each other. "If everyone is ready, we can go."

"We were waiting for you," Naruto said resentfully, then seemed to forget all about it. His ability to change moods was rather remarkable. "Alright! This is the first time I've ever left the village! I'm a traveller now. A real ninja! This is going to be so great!"

I had been outside Konoha before on clan business. Dad had taken Shika and I with him to visit some of the outer Nara farms. Outside Konoha was… forests and farmlands with the occasional village. Hardly exciting. But Naruto was so excited and even Sasuke was looking alert. I held my tongue. There was no point in needlessly antagonising anyone, especially not when it looked like we were going to be stuck together for the next month or so.

We walked. It was a pleasant day with bright sunshine and light wind but our pace was slow to match Tazuna. Frankly, it was rather dull. To alleviate my boredom I asked Tazuna questions, not pointed ones, but generally about Wave Country. How big was it? Were there many towns? What were it's main exports?

Tazuna was seemingly willing to answer everything. Wave Country consisted of a series of linked islands, and people were fairly spread out amongst them. There were only one or two main towns but because the islands weren't very big most people didn't live very far from one or the other. The main food source for the island was, of course, fishing, though with Gatou Shipping companies controlling the waters many of the fishing boats had been grounded, leading food shortage. The Shipping company also charged high tariffs for food brought over from the mainland so the common people couldn't afford to import food. It was a very dire situation. Which was, Tazuna said, why the bridge he was building was so very important.

His conviction was obvious. I was a little surprised that he was so willing to tell us all about it. The only thing he seemed to be holding back was that there were ninja after him. Which made me wonder if he knew, or if he only suspected there might be. Had he truly known before the ambush on the road? As I had already noted, civilians weren't exactly adept at spotting ninja. Even claims that Gatou had hired ninja could be bluffs or scare tactics. Ninja weren't cheap to hire. Missing nin might be cheaper but they were harder to find and less trustworthy. A keen business man wouldn't waste money keeping one on retainer when mercenaries would do. It seemed more likely that Gatou would hire ninja in response to Tazuna hiring ninja.

We stopped to set up camp around an hour before dusk. Even though none of us were tired, Tazuna looked grateful for the break, and it meant that we had light available when we set up camp. We could do it in the dark - theoretically - but it was our first overnight mission and I was sure we'd end up in a hopeless tangle if we tried. Kakashi-sensei talked us through procedure, to make sure we knew what we were doing, and sent us on our way.

Naruto was to set up a perimeter wire and scout for hazards. Sasuke was to hunt for some dinner. And I was to clear the area and start a fire. He was going to stay with the client.

I swept the small clearing we had chosen for debris, moving rocks and stones and setting aside twigs and broken branches for the fire. I dug up a square of turf, careful to keep the packed together and the grass attached, and set it to the side. Tomorrow, that would go back down into the fire pit, hopefully erasing all traces that we had been here. Just how we'd been taught at the Academy. A good ninja left no signs of their passing.

Then I went looking for firewood. There was plenty to be found, with this many trees about. I didn't even bother cutting down branches, just picked up what was broken and abandoned on the ground. Old dry wood would burn better than live, green stuff, anyway.

By the time I had the fire going, Naruto had returned from trap setting and Sasuke was back with what looked like two rabbits and some kind of pheasant, all skinned, plucked and disembowelled.

I eyed them for a second. That was another thing we had been taught at the Academy in our survival classes. How to hunt, kill and prepare our own food. The first time, we'd had an overnight camp on one of the forested training fields. The teachers had treated it so cavalierly that the kids hadn't even thought anything of it. They'd just been excited, because we'd been given real kunai to hunt with and were getting to hunt real animals. A few girls had 'eww'ed at having to skin and clean their kills and a few boys had discovered that organs were squishy and great to throw at people but by the end of the night we had all been eating dinner that we had killed, prepared and cooked ourselves. It had been, probably one of the biggest steps in our desensitisation program and it had gone off without a hitch.

From the perspective of an outsider, it was horrifying. From the perspective of one of the students, I had been glad that I'd caught a rabbit because it was less work than plucking a bird.

I shook the thought off and handed Sasuke the stakes I had prepared. He took them with a short nod.

"Not bad for a first effort," Kakashi-sensei said, not looking up from his book. "Took you three a bit long, but that will come with practise."

"Yes, sensei," I said obediently, unsealing my sleeping bag and positioning it by Naruto. We weren't using tents because the weather was fair and there was no expectation of rain, and because they were bulky and added a lot of weight to a pack. I had one sealed away, of course, but most Genin didn't even carry one.

Dinner was a quiet affair. We set up a rotating watch and retreated to our sleeping bags. Naruto on first watch, Sasuke with the unenviable middle watch and myself with the dawn watch. I slept lightly in what most ninja called 'mission sleep', deep enough to rest, light enough to spring to attention at need.

We'd also learnt this on that camping mission. The Chunin instructors had crept about radiating killing intent and gleefully dumped cold water over everyone. Those who hadn't been able to avoid it were given extra laps to run in the morning. It hadn't exactly been pleasant. I hadn't woken at the killing intent, but it had invaded my dreams something awful and the cold water had been more of a relief than anything.

Morning watch was cold and dark and lonely, but necessary, so I kept staring out into the darkness, stretching out with my chakra, listening for signs of intruders. There was nothing, which was what you want when you're on watch, but boring all the same.

Breakfast was a much more energetic affair. Sleep had apparently recharged Naruto to such an extent that he really couldn't sit still. Since we had a long way to travel and wanted to break camp quickly, we ate ration bars for breakfast instead of hunting.

"Ne, ne, Shikako! What's that? Those aren't the kind they sell in the supermarket!" Naruto pointed out, comparing his cheap brand ration bar to what I was holding.

I glanced down. "Oh. We get these from the Akimichi in exchange for medicines and ingredients. They make their own food packs."

There was a lot of trade between our three clans. The Ino-Shika-Cho just symbolised the closeness that already existed, it wasn't the limit of it. The Akimichi food pills were actually the result of combined efforts from all three clans - Nara research, Yamanaka herbs and Akimichi technique. I had studied them. A lot.

For ninja clans our three clans had a lot of seemingly civilian sidelines. The Akimichi owned a dozen restaurants, several produce farms, a few orchards and even an apiary - a bee farm.

Of the three clans it was the Akimichi who were undeniably the biggest. Before the pact between us, many, many generations ago, the Nara and Yamanaka clans had been vassals to the Akimichi. Their Taijutsu prowess made them capable of standing alone in battle in ways we couldn't. It was only with teamwork between the three of us that our clans were able to blossom into what we are today.

It would probably surprise a lot of people to know that the Akimichi were highly integrated into the working of Konoha. They were one of the four noble founding clans, along with the Aburame, the Hyuuga and the Uchiha.

"Akimichi? That's … Chouji's family, isn't it?" Naruto said, puzzled.

"Yes," I said. "The Akimichi place high value on proper nutrition, so they make a lot of their own food."

"They taste better too," Kakashi said dryly. I didn't blame him, field rations were famous for being less than tasty. Nutritious but… well.

"That too," I agreed.

We broke camp easily, repacking our sleeping bags and filling in the fire pit. It wasn't perfect, and if you looked you could tell we'd been there, but it wasn't immediately obvious.

Then we started walking. About mid morning I started noticing chakra in the trees. It took me a while to notice it as something out of the ordinary - in Konoha there are always people in the trees. But we were out of Konoha now and there was no one around us.

"What are you so twitchy about, girl?" Tazuna demanded, sounding mighty nervous himself. I didn't think it was a good idea to say that I thought I was sensing ninja in the trees.

"Just trying to identify the trees," I said mildly. "I'm not very good at botany. I think that one is a redwood." Not very good at trees anyway. Fruit trees were easy to identify by their fruit, and berries were usually on bushes and shrubs. Herbs and other plants with useful functions were generally a lot smaller.

"It is," Kakashi-sensei said, smiling. "And that's a cedar and that one is…"

"Fir," Sasuke half said, half grunted, joining in our impromptu guessing game.

"It's a lot different to Konoha," Naruto said, squinting at the trees.

"Mah, the forests in Konoha were planted specifically. Well, grown, anyway. A lot of the trees around Konoha don't belong in any known genus. I guess you could call them Hashirama trees."

"Hehehe, the First Hokage was so awesome he invented his own trees!" Naruto chortled.

"He also founded Konoha," Kakashi-sensei said dryly.

I was on high alert after noticing them. They weren't always following us; they came and they went and I wasn't sure it was always the same people. I paid close attention to where we were travelling and identified prime ambush sites along our route. Kakashi-sensei didn't seem fussed, or even give any idea that he'd noticed them, but watching him I saw that he circled our group, always placing himself in the area of highest danger. It was slow and subtle and appeared almost random but anyone who wanted to attack us would have to attack him first.

Still, for all my worrying, nothing happened until the sixth day. We'd made good time and we were bound to reach the coast by mid afternoon. So, of course, the ambush happened that morning.

The point they had chosen for the ambush was odd, considering they had been following us for so long. Maybe they were afraid of reinforcements from Konoha, maybe they were more familiar with the land closer to Wave Country, or maybe they wanted to make a statement to the people of Wave Country. We had passed several sites that would have been much better for an ambush; even several rivers if they required water to hide.

To be completely fair, I'm not sure I would have been able to spot the puddle as out of the ordinary if it hadn't been radiating so much chakra. I could easily see myself developing a huge reliance on my chakra sensing in future.

I softened the chakra silencing on my feet and let my steps falter into a statico of taps. At a casual glance, it was like I tripped. In reality, that pattern was code, meant to catch allied attention when they weren't looking at you.

Kakashi-sensei didn't look up from his book, but the fingers on his free hand flicked slightly in acknowledgement.

Foreign chakra, middle of path, 200 meters. I signed, somewhat clumsily in Konoha standard sign language. Possible jutsu/trap/ambush.

Naruto and Sasuke both sharpened to attention.

Specifics? Kakashi-sensei signed back, hand tapping easily on his thigh.

I frowned, scanning deeper. If I could sense it, so could Kakashi, which meant this question was a test.

Multiple opponents. Greater than one, less than five. Upper Chunin level. I conveyed. Course of action?

Spring the trap, Kakashi-sensei signed, making sure all three of us saw his hand move. Primary mission objective.

The primary mission objective in this case was to protect Tazuna. We gravitated slowly into a triangular Manji formation around him, trying to make it look as though we were still walking casually. The two boys had tensed up noticeably - to a ninja, anyway - but Tazuna seemed unaware that anything had changed.

I can't say that I was perfectly calm myself. My heart was racing, my palms were sweaty and I had to purposefully control my breathing. Making myself walk into that trap, knowing there were enemies waiting, knowing we were going to be attacked, even knowing they expected us to be off guard, knowing I had backup, knowing there was nothing I could do to change this situation was possibly the hardest, most terrifying thing I'd ever done.

The puddle was on the ground, and the chakra signatures were within it. There were no other chakra signatures in the trees or surrounding area. At a casual glance, I couldn't see any traps, and there was no residual chakra from pre-cast or delayed jutsu. Given these factors, the enemies would need to explode from the ground to attack us. There were two ways they could do that for maximum advantage. One, when we were directly over them, thus penetrating our defensive structure, causing havoc and taking us off guard, or two, once we had passed over them, attacking us from behind when our backs were turned. Kakashi-sensei had gravitated to the back of the group, several steps behind the rest of us. If they popped up in the middle, he would be facing them, if they popped up behind us, he would be the first to be attacked.

Which option they chose probably depended upon how well they could observe us while hidden. If they could identify individuals, they'd probably go for option one. If they couldn't, if all they could tell was that the group was here or there then they'd have to go for option two.

I'd said there were between two and four possible enemies, but the closer we got, the more sure I was that there were only two.

I readied my shadow. It slid thickly over the ground at my feet as I walked on. The puddle was directly in front of us. It fairly reeked of chakra. One step. Two. Beside us now. I was ready. My third step carried me past it, in line with Tazuna. Four. Five. Six -

"Ha!" The puddle exploded outwards, launching two figures into the air. They were holding a rope? No. A spiked chain. They whirled it, and it wrapped around Kakashi-sensei. I felt the flair of chakra as he used the replacement jutsu and the secondary spike as he impressed an illusionary clone overtop of the log. Illusionary clones are technically an area of effect genjutsu, and I couldn't dispel it for myself without dispelling it for everyone. I ignored it.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cried in distress as it was ripped to pieces.

I slid in front of Tazuna. With my Shadow Jutsu, I was the one most suited for the role of bodyguard, and anyone who wanted to attack Tazuna had to get in my range.

"Naruto! Clones!" I snapped, even as Sasuke was already moving, throwing a brace of shuriken towards the two. With a weapon like that - and equally nasty claw gauntlets - distance attacks were the safer option.

Naruto snapped his hands up into a cross seal immediately, unthinkingly following orders. We'd only been training together for a week, mostly while waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show up, but it was enough to give us a familiarity with each other's style. Sparring like that wasn't a real fight, but it was closer than what we'd done at the Academy and it did mean that Naruto didn't freeze up right now.

"Stay at range. Have your clones fight in close," I ordered. I didn't want the real Naruto in range of those claws. Something tickled the back of my mind about why, but I didn't question my instincts.

The rush of clones provided cover for Sasuke, and shadows for me. The chain swept through the clones, but they provided a surprising amount of resistance, entangling it. I split my shadow into two spikes, each one arching slightly to the side of where the two nin where standing.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Technique!" Sasuke cried, firing off a rapid set of small fireballs. I knew they contained shuriken concealed within them, and that Sasuke could direct them to a certain degree even after he had cast the jutsu.

The missing nin disengaged their chain and dived to the side, out of the pathway of Sasuke's jutsu… and straight into mine.

"Shadow Possession Complete," I announced, fingers twisted into the rat seal that was customary for my jutsu. "Naruto? Rope?"

Even though they were paralysed, they still needed to be tied up or knocked out. I couldn't hold them forever.

"Not to worry," a cheery voice said, even as hands garbed in Konoha standard fingerless gloves gave precise chops to my captives necks. They sagged in my jutsu, and at sensei's nod, I gratefully released them. "Good teamwork, kids."

"Sensei!" Naruto yelped, twisting to look at the cut and shattered logs littering the road. The sheer relief on his face made me feel a twinge of guilt, even though there had been no way I could have told him during the fight. He had truly been worried. "You… but… a replacement jutsu!"

Tazuna seemed in shock. The ambush had been very quick, even for us. I imagine it was a lot worse for someone who hadn't been trained for it and hadn't even been expecting it. "If you were fine the whole time… why did you leave the kids to fight?"

Sensei's eye trained on him seriously. "Because," he said slowly, "I needed to see who they were trying to attack. Us - ninja attacking ninja - or you… hmm?"

Tazuna went white. I felt more sympathy for him than I expected. His recounting of what life was like in Wave Country at the moment had given me a fair bit of insight into his situation. The difference in price between a C-rank mission and an A-rank was about two zeros. Hiring ninja isn't exactly cheap.

Tazuna summarised what I had already pieced together, throwing in a half hearted sob story about his grandson.

"Well," Sensei said, scratching his chin through his mask. "That certainly exceeds our mission parameters." I was pretty sure I caught a flash of humour in his eye as he glanced at me, but I wasn't good enough at reading Kakashi-sensei's facial expressions to be sure. Possibly he was teasing me about my first reaction to Tazuna.

"No way!" Naruto yelped, catching on to what sensei was saying. "We can't quit the mission! What kind of ninja would we be then, if we quit just because it got difficult? Besides, we took these guys no problem! Bring it on!"

Sasuke nodded in agreement, determination writ in the lines of his face.

Sensei turned to me. "Well?" He asked.

I folded my hands into a 'thinking seal', all my fingers touching at the tips, and turned away from his probing gaze trying to order my thoughts. My gaze landed on our two unconscious opponents.

"Gozu and Meizu. The Demon Brothers. Chunin ranked missing nin from Mist," I said clinically, arranging the facts in my mind. Their bingo book page sprung to mind, giving me the information I had been instinctually acting on in combat. "Distinctive weaponry: retractable shuriken chain and gauntlets. Known to use poisons - mostly contact poisons on their weaponry, but they're also known to use gaseous poisons." Which explained why I didn't want the real Naruto getting close to them, and why they were wearing Mist standard breathing masks. "Highly skilled in teamwork manoeuvres they are known to commonly band together with stronger missing nin for protection. Therefore, it is highly likely that the next enemy we face will be much stronger."

I couldn't out and out state that our next opponent would be Zabuza Momochi. Bingo books didn't update frequently enough to have that kind of information, but he was a known associate of theirs.

"I ain't afraid," Naruto said. I wished I had his confidence. I was scared. We were going to be walking into a fight well out of our range. That was the thing I despised most of all, being helpless. I would have to rely solely on Kakashi to defend us.

Naruto and Sasuke had already voted to go on ahead. I was outnumbered anyway. I cast a considering gaze at Kakashi and bit my lip. Did I trust him that much? To protect us?

"Come on, Shikako," Naruto said impatient. "We took care of these guys no problem. We'll show the next guy not to mess with us too!" He clenched a fist and for a second, his inspirational nature shone through. I felt… like maybe we could do this.

Ah, hell. You don't get stronger without pushing yourself. We needed to get stronger, both individually and as a team. I would just have to trust Kakashi-sensei to catch us if we stumbled.

I dropped my hands and nodded. "Fine." No regrets now. After deciding on a course of action, looking back only got you killed.