Turbulent Waves I~

(Team 7 pov)

Sasuke was walking towards the red bridge on the outskirts of the village, it was there that Team 7 often met up for mission or training drills.

(Sasuke) 'Whats the point of Kakashi-sensei focusing on teamwork, when our individual skills are getting left behind, at least I have the help of two elders, although they are elders in name only' he thought hard about the issue, Koharu and Mitokado, had lost a lot of pull in the village's chain of command, the Hokage hadn't even summoned them in the recent years, that's the information that he could glean from being a ward of both their families 'Whatever happens, I still have private help with my skills, but Kakashi is our sensei shouldn't he be focused more on our personal growth, teamwork will not defeat my brother, comrades will only be a weakness that he can exploit' with those morbd thoughts Sasuke met with Sakura and Sai and had to deal with incessant praises from the girl, and creative insults from the pale boy, although the insults were a breath of fresh air, after all, Sai didn't mean them really it was just his quirky way of trying to make friendships, honestly he even insulted Kakashi calling him pervy sleazebag of all things, honestly if it wereanyone other than Kakashi it would be counted as insubordination, fortunately the man was good natured enough.

Speaking of the devil he arrived 3 hours late, honestly what was the point of putting the meeting at 6 a.m if he is going to arrive at 9, Sasuke in what he considered a smart move he tried to match his sensei schedule last week, but the bastard arrived on time, so Sasuke got punished.

(Sasuke) ' Can't Sakura lower her voice volume? My god can she scream' rubbing his almost deaf ear he and his team went to the Hokage Mansion to do another battery of missions, he was getting tired of doing D-ranks, most of the clients, knew about him and his stunt, not to mention he was not on good terms with the merchant's guild, although he did not know why.

After returning the demonic cat, Sasuke was intrigued, he knew that his clan had the cat scroll of summoning, Tora was too smart for a common household cat if the scratches on his body and his teammates was any indication, he wanted to ask if it was a cat summoning, but the Sharp look that Madam Shimjiwas giving them was very unnerving, she had a very stern appearance, tall, slim, short hair made into a bun on top, and very sharp features, she had her usual expensive kimono and a Tessen(Japanese War Fan) on her hand, being hit by that would be either a nasty cut or broken bones, it was made of a very hard metal, and Sasuke didn't want to test that.

(Shimji) "Thank you once again Hokage-dono, My Husband and I shall be returning to the capital no later than this evening, can we request an ANBU escort?"

(Sarutobi) "Of course Madame, expect the team to be in your lodging in the afternoon," the Hokage wrote his orders on a scroll and it disappeared into a poof, it was transported to the ANBU Commander with his orders.

She folded her heavy Tessen and smacked with force into her hands.

the noise made Team 7 flinch, and even Kakashi cringed, the only one who wasn't intimidated was the Hokage.

(Shimji) "Fare Thee Well", A civilian, wife to the daimyo of Fire country rushed with incredible speed and quickly disappeared from the Hokage's Mansion, Sasuke could not even see her moving, even the cat who trailed after her, the cat was faster than he could perceive.

(Sasuke) 'What!?' he wasn't the only one who was dumbfounded his team was too.

(Sarutobi) "then Kakashi I still have missions here, Helping a member of the council with shopping, cleaning the Inuzuka kennels- "NO!" 'being muscle while the Hyuuga investigate one of their elder's death, what now?'

the voice was high pitched, it was bad for his 'old' eardrums.

(Sakura) "NO! Sasuke-kun deserves a better mission than these chores!"

(Sasuke) 'Nice sakura' "Hokage-sama, I think we are ready to complete a higher level mission, don't you think Sai?"

(Sai) "Although I don't like to agree with flaccid dick over there I think we are ready for more difficult missions"

This was met with complaints from many secretaries that were in the room, but the Hokage lifted his right hand and the room was silenced.

(Sarutobi) "Kakashi is your team ready for a C-Rank mission?"

The Jonin thought long and hard, while the old leader held an indescribable expression, his eyes were focused on the former ANBU Captain.

(Kakashi) "I believe that my team is capable of completing higher missions with confidence"

He eyed Kakashi, and made a sour expression, of course since he was amongst the strongest shinobi of this era, not even Kakashi could discern the sourness from the grandfatherly persona Sarutobi had, if the times weren't so trying, he might have let loose a bit, but the Thirds Hokage was always alert these days.

(Sarutobi) 'this might be a problem'.

He did a mental sigh, picking up one of the missions, an escort to wave country, the Client was a bridge builder, the only risk was some bandits, the bridge builder said, however, his helpers were observant, even for chunnins, so they quickly realized that they were lying, reports and rumors said that there was a mogul by the name of Gato, a billionaire civilian who had ties to the underground, set up one of his bases hidden in Wave country, it was speculated that he killed their Daimyou, however there was no way to prove it, normaly a royalty being murdered would ccause the bordering countries to investigate, but Wave did not offer much overall, it was a poor country, primarily based on fishing, if someone was hired to kill team seven and a death occurs it would give him a chance to assasinate Gato and take his Shipping bussiness, Sarutobi hoped it would kill the pink harpy, honestly after hearing the death of her mother, he almost did a happy dance in front of his ANBU guards, it would not do, although he couldn't hide the glee in his eyes in front of the ANBU Commander nor his Jounin Commander, Honestly Dragon and Shikaku are too smart for their own good, but even so he couldn't help but notice the happiness those two had for being freed from that harpy, after all, he didn't survive being hokage for more than 60 years ever since his sensei the Second Hokage gave him the post at the tender age of 13, a prodigy in nija arts he might be, the heir to the Sarutobi clan he might be, but he was still young in politics, honestly sometimes he just cursed his mentor for giving him this tiring post, he was the professor, and the god of shinobi, he enjoyed teaching, fighting and killing best, not sitting on his ass all day revising documents signing missions, and people to their deaths, honestly he was glad that the new civilian council had more interest in the village, not their own nose, for long he had unanimous support from the clans, even if the Hyuuga and the Old Uchiha clan butted heads with him in a few occasions, however he could not gather definitive support from the civillian side for long and it only worsened when the twins burden was revealed, however they all dissapeared, presumed dead, along with a thousand people, it was disconcerning, Shikaku believed it was the action of Joker, the infamous serial killer, his death count was unusualy high, information gathered shown that the elusiive killer made appearance in other countries and the death toll was getting higher, but it was not alarming, ninjas like him adn the twins have killed way more, after all he ordered both Uzumaki's to wipe out a village with 500000 people in it.

(Sarutobi)' By any luck, a horde of bandits might be able to kill one of them, it will be easier to deal with two flight risks instead of three, which reminds me, Kakashi's reports have been very vague regarding his team, I hope nothing comes of it.' "Here" a scroll was thrown and it landed on the hands of Kakashi. "The mission is a simple escort and protection detail, a Bridge Builder by the name of Tazuna of Wave, you are to escort him to his homeland, and offer him protection while he finishes the bridge, 25.000 ryo is the reward for this mission."

(Kakashi) "Dangers?"

(Sarutobi) "Just a few bandit stragglers" he lied through his teeth.

The Hokage motioned one of his secretaries to guide the team into the waiting room where the client was waiting since morning.

The introduction was not a pretty one, team 7, or just Sasuke and Sakura coundn't take insults from the drunken old man they had to escort, but to be honest being called duck haired brooder, pink twig, pale emo-boy and scarecrow is not a good first impression, but Kakashi was more patient than his genin and assured the bridge builder that they could get the job done, but the skeptic and worried look was disconcerning, unkown to Kakashi, Sai also picked up the worried look, his emotional training did him wonders, he could remain calm like a jonin in stressful situations, even if his level was almost a high chunnin he had certain qualities to diferentiate himself.

Before long they decided to meet in the main gates of Konoha, they would arrive in Wave country tonight if weather and road permitting.

(Sai pov)

The sky was clear, there were almost no clouds in the sky, humidity was low, precipitation chance is low.

The road won't get muddled, more chance of trackers knowing our location, the client is lying, which means, there will be undesirables in this mission, a genin can handle bandit camps alone, after all the academy even with its decline after the Kyuubi, the training it provides is no joke, standards have raised significantly these past few years, it's almost if we are preparing for another war.

"If Danzo-sama was still alive he would know what was happening in the world, he had spies everywhere" I whispered softly, my tanto and storage scrolls were safely secured in my bag, as well as sealing papers and ink, I had a special ability since young, I could make my drawings come to life, ironic to the saying the pen is mightier than the sword, well in my case I am using both.

"Shin" he the light blue haired boy, they were in the same orphanage and grew up as brothers, the matron there was very strict no-nonsense person, so there were harsh times, especially in winter where food was scarce after all the orphanage was located in a remote part of the country, most of the older boys and girls always left, the Matron always told them that they were leaving with their new families, but when they were five years old, they discovered the truth, she was selling them to a slave trader, they were put on an underground auction in the capital, then transferred to a young couple in Konoha, who were starting a slave business there, then finally they were sold again to Danzo, it was a nasty business, his incomplete emotional training allowed his distaste to show, after all, ROOT members finished their training at 16 years old, and he had been left alone in the world at 8 years old, his master and his peers, all dead, those who perhaps survived probably fled fire country, never contacting him, so Sai did the next best thing, he was already enrolled in the academy, being a ninja of the village, his master obsessed about this village too much, would be good, he could not return to being a civillian anyways, there were virtually no other jobs which he could perform acceptably, maybe an artist, but that was a flimsy job, he did not know if he would earn money with his drawingsa and paintings, seal master? He was but a sealing novice, nothing to the likes of Kakashi, who learned a bit from his teacher, and was considered a seasoned seals expert, Jiraya who was the foremost expert in the worldd with seals who was still alive, Onoki the third TsuchiKage, who was a sealing master by all of his knowledge, Orochimaru, who was an expert, and of course the Uzumaki twins, although nobody but the Uchiha family knows how far they have gone in sealing, in konoha the other jonin who knew about sealing was Shisui of Shunshin, he was by far the best Genjutsu user since Toki Senju, and she lived one hundred years ago, but his sealing prowess was impressive since his teacher had been an Uzumaki, other than these names, sealingg artists were scarce, having a few adepts in every village so they could mass produce bomb tags, there was a small group that lived somewhere in sand village, but that information was old so Sai did not care.

He was waiting, but not before long before limped dick and pink ugly duck showed up, now if only that white-haired eunuch showed up in time it would be great.

unfortunately, the client didn't arrive, but they found him pretty fast, he was getting drunk in a bar.

Even with all his training he could not help but sigh, traveling was slow paced at civilian speeds, unfortunately, the client was inebriated, so he only spewed nonsense out of his mouth, then came the strange question from Haruno, asking why wave country didn't have a ninja village, why? why? because funding a ninja village is costly, and the great five are the only examples of villages that can turn this business into a serious profit for the daimyo, also many leaders don't like pages essentially in charge of about 35% of their army, after all ninjas counted for a great part in their armies, and it would be easy to stage a coup, 55% were warriors, the other 10% were the elite force, the samurais, they were dangerous, really dangerous, although an s-rank ninja could wipe out their forces without trouble, but even the lowest samurai was stronger than a genin, but they didn't surpass the power of an elite jounin or an ANBU recruit, it was sad in a way, however Mifune up north after years of training surpassed many kages in strengh of combat.

The sun was hot on the road, the ninja sweated, tracks were blatantly left behind in the dirt road, they were leisurely walking on the road, the two puddles of water were quite a sight, after all, it hadn't rained in days, however Sakura remained oblivious to this as she chatted away with the client, it was in this setting that two missing ninjas rushed from the puddle, it was simple genjutsu at best, they were connected by a chain full of barbs, which was secured by their steel gauntlets, in hindsight, Sai thought it was a bad idea fighting tethered to another person, but since they were probably the twin demon brothers it wouldn't matter as theirteamwork was well synched, they quickly dispached kakashi as his body was torn apart, or so Sasule and Sakura thought but he could see that the pieces were made out of wood, but for the life of him he could not comprehend his sensei's mind, why not kill them now or at least capture them and torture the information out of them, but his thoughts were halted by their arrogant speech.

"First.." his bloodlust reached them, Sakura moved in from of the client, kunai in hand, 'Textbook' was all he could say.

Sasuke jumped forward pinning the chains down with a

Shuriken then hitting its dead center with a kunai, they were in a bad position as the brothers could not move, in that instant, Sasuke appeared on top of their gauntlets by shunshin, he grabbed their arm as a handle and kicked both their faces.

(Sai) 'Not enough to knock out 2 chunnin, that kick was awkward in its angle, he could not use his full power in that position, not while he had to divert a lot of his strength in balancing himself'

as he thought this both unlocked the chains from the gauntlet, one rushed to the client and another used the sharp claws of the gauntlet to thrust in Sasuke's face, like a spear, the Uchiha reject clicked his tongue and jumped into a tree, the one who was pining for the bridge builder was intercepted by Sai as Sakura who was trembling in fear could not properly defend herself, she was just a meat shield in that state unfortunately, his hidden kunai did a horizontal parry, right in the palm of the man, rendering his gauntlet useless for a second, but as he brandished his tanto, as the blade aproached the eyes of one of the brothers, he wouldn't neeed even a second, just a thrust and he would be a killer impaling the offenders eye and destroying the brain, however, a thrust designed to hit the eyes crashed in the brother's metallic headband for a moment Sai thought it was over the gauntlet would come and pierce his body, but on observation the brother was knocked out, by the forearm of their 'dead' sensei, he was holding both criminals in his arms, his wrist blocked the air paths knocking both out, Sasuke came behind, clearly bothered by not being able to defeat ninjas at their level, Sai was also bothered by not seing their sensei arrive, he knew he was not dead, but his view and senses were narrowed when he went for the kill, what was his problem? he trained his emotions so hard, but even then he could not be calm when he went for the kill, he was singularly focused in the moment of the strike, not bothering to exercise his perception so he would not be caught in a surprise attack by the other brother. He trusted Sasuke to handle the other brother so he could focus on the kill that's what he thought, but he knew it was a flimsy excuse so he did a mental shake.

(Sakura) "eh, but sensei didn't you die!?" she looked towards the dead body but instead of chopped meat, it was chopped wood 'Kawarimi no jutsu' she understood immediately, her textbook knowledge aiding her, but...

(Sakura) "Sensei, kawarimi needs to use three handseals but you did none of those"

Kakashi bound the two missing-nin to the tree with ninja wire and turned to Sakura.

(Kakashi) "Hmm, truthfully you don't need those seals to do the jutsu, hand seals are a focus for your chakra stream to mold in some pattern, property or both, these are the so-called jutsu, chakra manipulation or nature transformation, technically you can use all jutsu without hand seals, however you need to mold your chakra in that pattern from memory and control of your chakra, however more complex jutsu are much more difficult due to their patterns being so hard to replicate without help, but with simple E-jutsu like the bunshin, henge, shunshin, and kawarimki, are much easier to replicate without the aid of handseals" 'also if you are more familiar with the jutsu you are using you can shorten the list of handseals you need to make'.

The lecture was good as they had not learned that fact in the academy, Kakashi later interrogated Tazuna about the attack as the assassins were aiming for him, the scroll stated bandit stragglers, not ninjas, the mission became woefully difficult, there Tazuna revealed his story about a billionaire who was the leader of a shipping company and the boss of the underground in Wave country, Gato wanted the life of the bridge builder because it would make his company less lucrative, with a large bridge so that supplies could be carried faster.

Then came the question of whether or not they would continue the mission they were assigned, Sasuke immediately scoffed at the question, his pride wouldn't allow him to retreat, Sakura while fearful chose to follow Sasuke's example, Sai gave an indescribable expression but nodded at him, Kakashi thought as long as he was there, there would be nothing to worry about.

They continued the mission, neither Kakashi nor team Seven noticed a black and white bird made of ink returning to Konoha.