First of all I gotta thank my readers. My fiction became the 56th in the "Popular this week" rankings of this site and it is all thanks to your patience and feedback. I really appreciated all of it though I am sorry that I could not reply to them all.

Thank you,

Areima.

LONG LIVE KISHIMOTO!!!!

The group continues to travel silence, their destination lies just across the border to the south of the Land of Fire. Several hours later, they have travelled more than half the distance between the Leaf village and the destination. As they continued walking, Naruto sensed the chakra of several shinobi hiding, encircling them with a circle of a radius of 400 meters. Without even glancing towards each hidden presence, he took note of each of their positions. Clearly they want to ambush us and guessing by how Kakashi seems to even notice them, I guess he wants us to take care of them.

He saw from the corner of his eyes how Kakashi seems to be more amused than anything else. Sasuke has a cold smile plastered on his face. Guess I was right, this is a test eh? There seems to be 9 assassins. Naruto gave Sasuke a nod and waited for an opportunity. Suddenly 7 of the assassins rushed towards them. Naruto summoned a shadow clone and the two of them disappeared using the body flicker technique. Naruto appearing before the closest assassin 5m meters from his original position and stabbed him in the jugular vein with his kunai, then again he disappeared and appeared before a couple of assassins behind them. Crouching down he executed a crescent kick as he got up. The two assassins were lifted off the ground and Naruto appeared in front them and kicked each of their necks in quick succession.

His clone appeared before the two who were hiding and without a moment's notice, he stabbed them right in larynx using his the two kunai in his hands. Just before one of the attackers were about to execute a jutsu, Naruto appeared before his adversary and punched him in the solar plexus. As soon as he staggered forward and lost his balance, Naruto leapt forward and trampled his neck with brute force. Spittle flew out of his open mouth.

Sasuke leapt up and threw 4 kunai blocking off the path of the 3 fleeing assassins. He then immediately and executed an axe kick on the one who was the closest to him of the trio. Launching himself off his face as hit the assassin's head, he dropkicked the shinobi right in front of him in the chest. Adjusting his body as he made contact and removing himself off him, he used his sharingan and for a split second, drawing his opponent into a trance; he grabbed the neck of the remaining shinobi with his left hand and thrust his kunai through his face using his right hand.

Walking towards the only one of the 9 assassins, he took out a kunai and stabbed him twice in his kneecaps then grabbing his right arm, he twisted it around dislocating and breaking several bones in the process. After trampling his right wrist, he moved on to his left arm and repeated his motions. Screams of pain echoed throughout the forest as he went about his work. Once he was done, what remained was a near unconscious man who was whimpering in pain, sprawled across the ground.

Kakashi studied the two of them. Certainly was quick and decisive in taking them out. Both of them were well aware of where their opponents were. In fact these two went the extra mile, Naruto took the two who were hiding in the forest while Sasuke immobilized one who could be used for questioning. Excellent combat instincts. He then looked at Sakura who was clearly shaken at the sight, tears flooding out of her eyes. Welcome to the battlefield, where your life will be constantly in danger. He sighed and then gave the other two a nod of approval.

Sakura ran over to Sasuke and took out a couple of medicine pills. "Are you hurt Sasuke, are you okay? Here, take some pills, it will help you recover." clearly worried about his wellbeing. Giving her a cold stare, he walked away. She dropped to her knees and started weeping, clearly affected by his coldness. Naruto sighed, looking the duo. Why do I feel that her fate won't be kind this time around.....

Kakashi walked up to the remaining assassin and knelt on one knee. Removing his headband from his eye, he asked, "Who was it who sent you?" The three tomoe in his sharingan started rotating at a breakneck speed. Trapped in his hypnotic gaze, he said in a monotone, "I was sent by Zabuza Momochi, he was hired by Gato take out the bridge builder over there" pointing at Tazuna as he said so. Kakashi then stabbed his heart and ended his pitiful life. Kakashi turned and stared at Tazuna. He then stood up and walked towards him. Tazuna swallowed as Kakashi approached him. Standing a couple of feet away from him, Kakashi frowned.

"You do know that this mission has surpassed C-ranked the moment these shinobi appeared" he showed the rest of the team the headband, "These guys are chunin from the Hidden Mist Village, therefore this mission is no longer C-ranked but B-ranked. Furthermore since Zabuza could be involved this situation became even more troublesome, if he interferes, this will be an A-ranked mission. Since you are their target, you must well aware of the threat that must have been present your life. Furthermore we are not obliged to help you fend off against fully fledged shinobi but rather bandits and thieves. You nearly put the lives of new genin at risk due to your selfish request. So what is the reason that you lied to us?"

Tazuna shrank at the stern questioning by Kakashi. He took a deep breath, trying compose himself. "I am sorry about the inconvenience I caused you, I truly am. But I have no choice, I had to lie. The Land of Waves is a poor nation and we don't have any money to ask anything beyond a C-rank mission. That is why I walked all the way here to request your services."

He continued, "The Land of waves is building a new bridge connecting the Land of Fire to the Land of Waves. I am the main architect overseeing the project. Gato is a cruel merchant who has a monopoly over the shipping in our region. Therefore to maintain that, he wants to destroy the bridge at all costs. If he succeeds in doing so, thousands of people are going to continue to suffer and be oppressed. Since the construction of the bridge heavily depends on me, he wants me dead to halt any progress."

He bows facing them, "Please help me and my people and we will forever be in debt to the Leaf village." Teardrops trickled down his face. Naruto closed his eyes as he turned towards the pathetic form. A truly pitiful fate to have your life being forced to be placed into a hand of another.

Kakashi stared at his miserable client. He glanced at his team and looked up at the sky. Dusk was falling rapidly and the night is fast approaching. He nodded, "Yes we will. However it would be dangerous to continue to travel under these circumstances. Let us spend the night the next town." Tazuna's body shook as he heard these words. He whispered softly, "Thank you."

The group continued to travel in silence, they were thirty minutes away from the village when a mist appeared out of nowhere blocking their sight. Naruto's senses could not feel anything beyond 50 meters. A few seconds later,Naruto sensed a ball of lightning chakra heading their way 30 degrees south of west. Shit, if that explodes anywhere 10 meters near us, Tazuna would end up getting killed. He gathered his chakra around his body and yelled, "Wind Style: Shinotabe's blessing". White stands of wind chakra formed around his body, giving him the appearance of a deity of wind. He rushed at the fast approaching ball of lightning and gathered his chakra in his right and created a Wind style:rasengan.

Within a blink eye the two forces collided 30 meters away from the rest of the team, a dazzling explosion blew up an area of 20 meters. A strong gust of wind and sparks of lightning surrounded the area after the blast ensued. As the explosion occurred, a monstrous ice snake and a water dragon flanking them from either side. Sasuke immediately executed a few hand seals and calmly stepped in front of the ice dragon. "Fire style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet" his voice filled with authority as an elegant fire dragon clashed with the ice snake. The clash of ice and fire was a sight to see, with each entwining around the other dancing to an age old song.

Kakashi, in the meantime and muttered, "Earth style, Earth wall" and the ground rumbled as a dome made of earth covering Kakashi, Sakura and Tazuna. The water dragon struck the earth wall with brute force, however the wall stood resilient against its adversary.

Naruto stood in the center of a crater of 20 meters. His right sleeve slightly torn from the contact however for the most part he was unheard. Thank god, I created that wind armor, otherwise I would have been deep fried shrimp. However his relief was short lived; his eyes widened as 7 streams of blue lightning crackled through the air, each approaching him in different directions, their target - him.

Fuck, this was definitely not in the damn story.