Attack

At the gates of Konoha, Tazuna met up with Team 7.

"You might not know this, but I am a world-renowned bridge-building expert."

Tazuna introduced himself with confidence, perhaps even a touch of arrogance: "I must insist that you stake your lives to protect me until I return to my country and finish the bridge."

"Please rest assured, Mr. Tazuna. Lord Hokage has classified your mission as C-rank, which means the enemies encountered during this task will not be ninja. Even if there were thousands of common bandits, fully armed, we could handle them with ease."

Kakashi projected an air of reliability: "Furthermore, don't let the fact that these three are still children fool you. As ninja, their skills are quite formidable. Lord Hokage emphasized this point just moments ago."

Only then did Tazuna feel slightly at ease.

However, based on Tazuna's reaction, Kakashi had already deduced the man's true situation and was considering how to handle it: Lord Hokage has a mischievous streak, assigning them such a troublesome task for their first C-rank... Naruto seems to have already figured something out. I wonder what he will do?

They set off, the five of them moving in silence.

To accommodate Tazuna's pace, they did not travel very quickly.

Once Konoha was completely out of sight, Sasuke adjusted his stride without a trace, moved to Naruto's side, and whispered, "You've noticed the two following us, haven't you?"

"They've been there since we left the village."

Naruto looked ahead: "Old Man Tazuna must have withheld some information. The Third Hokage knows, but he still let us come. And Kakashi-sensei definitely noticed too; he's just waiting for those two to make their move."

Sasuke hadn't noticed quite as much, but he trusted Naruto: "What do you plan to do?"

"The same as Kakashi-sensei—wait for them to strike."

Naruto said, "If we act now, Old Man Tazuna will likely claim those two were coming after us."

Sasuke imagined that scenario for a moment, his eyes reddening slightly. He immediately signaled his agreement, then adjusted his pace again to walk beside Sakura, informing her of the conclusion he and Naruto had reached.

Three days later.

The group was very close to the Land of Waves. The two individuals who had been tailing them finally decided to strike—they circled ahead to the path the group had to take, then used the Transformation Technique to disguise themselves as a puddle of water on the ground, waiting for them to pass.

"Are those two idiots?"

Sakura spotted the puddle from dozens of meters away and couldn't help but complain to Naruto and Sasuke: "It hasn't rained in days, and the mud in the nearby pits is practically cracked and dry. How could they possibly think disguising themselves as a puddle would work?"

Sasuke pretended to look at the scenery along the way, not daring to look forward for fear of laughing out loud.

Naruto wanted to complain too, but he held back: "They might be able to fool some careless ordinary people—pay attention, Kakashi-sensei is starting to adjust his position."

Kakashi, who had been near the back of the formation, consciously controlled his speed and stride, becoming the very last person in the group just before they reached the puddle.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura silently coordinated with Kakashi's rhythm, adjusting their positions. While it looked like little had changed, they had actually firmly occupied three directions, ensuring that Tazuna, who was in front of them, would not be attacked from behind.

Even then, the two disguised as the puddle remained unaware that they had been exposed.

After the five of them passed the puddle, Kakashi, walking at the rear, stepped over it and took two more steps forward before the two figures silently reverted to their original forms.

Both wore headbands and masks resembling gas masks, with cylindrical ninja tools strapped to one arm each and metal claws on their fingers.

One of them opened a hole in his cylindrical tool, pulling out a chain-saw-like weapon. The other grabbed it with his metal claws and lunged toward Kakashi, who was closest to them, swinging the chain-saw like a whip to wrap around Kakashi and bind him.

Kakashi immediately panicked, appearing as if he hadn't reacted at all, and let out a soulful cry of alarm: "Wh-what is going on!?"

The two attackers were completely taken in by Kakashi's acting. One of them said confidently, "That's one."

As they spoke, the two exerted force and pulled; the chain-saw weapon truly became a saw, instantly cutting "Kakashi" into a dozen pieces that scattered across the ground.

Naruto also played along, letting out a panicked sound: "Ka-Kakashi-sensei?!"

The sound drew the attention of the two men nearby. Since Naruto was now closer to them than Sasuke or Sakura, the two didn't hesitate, continuing to pull the chain-saw weapon as they rushed toward Naruto, once again speaking with full confidence: "That's two."

As they spoke, they had already set their posture; from the start of the attack to the instant kill, it wouldn't even take two seconds.

They didn't notice that Naruto's expression was quite calm: These two are just too easy to fool... let's toy with them a bit more.

Thinking this, Naruto flicked a kunai from his sleeve, caught it, aimed it at the hole in the cylindrical tool in front of him, and slammed it down with force, pinning it to the ground.

"Tsk!" x2

The two let out sounds of annoyance. Still not realizing the problem, they only felt that Naruto's reaction speed was a little faster than expected, and his strength a little greater than expected.

They immediately let go, abandoning the chain-saw weapon, and attacked directly with the metal claws on their hands.

Naruto backflipped to dodge the claws. Sasuke and Sakura turned in unison and charged toward the enemies, seemingly forgetting to protect Tazuna behind them.

Only then did Tazuna react: Ninja! That guy Gato actually sent ninja!

The two attackers glanced at the backflipping Naruto and accelerated to bypass him. One shifted his target to Sasuke and Sakura—though it was more of an obstruction than an attack. The other, not slowing down, intended to dash between Sasuke and Sakura to kill Tazuna directly.

Tazuna was terrified, his body stiffening with tension. He couldn't dodge at all. Seeing the metal claws drawing closer and closer, he instinctively closed his eyes, waiting for death: I'm going to be killed... the bridge isn't finished yet... Inari, Tsunami, I'm sorry...

After a moment, the death Tazuna expected did not arrive. Instead, Kakashi's voice came from beside his ear: "Mr. Tazuna, could you explain why ninja are targeting you?"

Tazuna opened his eyes to find the two attacking ninja already unconscious and tied up nearby, with the four Konoha ninja watching him silently. Realizing that what he had hidden was now exposed, Tazuna didn't know what to say and kept his gaze lowered, saying nothing.

"A C-rank escort mission should at most involve bandits or mafia-type enemies. A mission with ninja as opponents is at least B-rank."

Kakashi said calmly: "Perhaps you have some unavoidable hardship, but you only offered C-rank pay while expecting us to risk our lives fighting ninja—that is asking too much. If you have nothing to say, according to village regulations, we have the right to abandon the mission and leave you here."