Successive ambushes.
From two ordinary Chunin straight to the level of an Elite Jonin—it had to be said that this C-rank mission was truly exceptional. Its difficulty had soared directly to A-rank. Only Team Seven led by Kakashi could have handled it. If it had been an ordinary team, Zabuza would have wiped them out again and again, more than ten times over.
Even the teams led by Asuma and Kurenai Yuhi would have struggled. Asuma's strength was still some distance below Kakashi's, let alone Kurenai Yuhi.
So when Tazuna said he had been lucky, he truly had luck beyond belief.
And after they successfully dealt with Zabuza and Haku,
Team Seven and Tazuna set out once more. The rest of the journey was peaceful.
They encountered no further attacks.
Upon reaching the stretch of water between the Land of Fire and the Land of Waves, which could barely be called a strait, they boarded the small boat Tazuna had arranged and crossed the sea, arriving directly at the small island nation known as the Land of Waves.
By the time they arrived,
the sky had already grown completely dark.
Yet when they stepped into what was supposedly the most prosperous town in the Land of Waves, there were pitifully few lights illuminating the streets.
Naruto, Sakura Haruno, and the others, who had long been accustomed to the countless brightly lit homes of Konohagakure at night, felt somewhat unaccustomed to it.
As they headed toward Tazuna's home by the sea,
"Why doesn't anyone here turn on their lights at night? Old man, do people in the Land of Waves all go to bed so early? Isn't this a little too early?"
The blunt Naruto directly asked Tazuna.
"Uh, Naruto, it's not because we sleep early. It's because the Land of