Demon

"Shadow Clone Technique!" Naruto's hands flashed through signs, and with a poof, several clones appeared around him, shouting as they charged at the enemy. His clones were not very strong, but they were enough to disrupt the enemy's sight and buy time.

Sasuke's gaze sharpened. He pushed off the ground, his body slipping like a ghost past a masked man's horizontal slash, while he drew a kunai from his ninja pouch and stabbed backhanded toward the man's ribs. His movements were clean and decisive, carrying a vicious edge.

Duanmu did not rush in recklessly. While dodging a masked man's attacks, he observed the state of the battle.

These masked men coordinated with remarkable tacit understanding, and their attacks were well organized, but their strength was not top tier. They were probably around the level of ordinary chunin. He remembered that in the original work, these people were subordinates of Zabuza Momochi, one of the Hidden Mist Village's Seven Ninja Swordsmen.

Though they were not as powerful as Zabuza, they had spent years carrying out assassination missions in the Land of Waves, and their real combat experience was far richer than that of ordinary Konoha chunin.

Clang! Duanmu used his kunai to parry a masked man's incoming katana slash. The enormous force jarred his arm until it went slightly numb.

At that same moment, another enemy swiftly flung out a chain. The chain coiled toward his ankle like a venomous snake, moving with astonishing speed.

Duanmu's pupils shrank slightly. His left foot abruptly stepped half a pace back, and his body tilted to the right at an unbelievable angle, narrowly avoiding the chain's entanglement by a hair.

At the same time, his right hand quickly pulled a shuriken from his ninja pouch. With a flick of his wrist, the shuriken cut through the air with a sharp whistle, flying straight for the right hand of the masked man holding the chain.

The masked man had clearly not expected this seemingly ordinary genin to react so quickly. In his haste, he had no choice but to release the chain and retreat rapidly, just barely dodging the shuriken. The shuriken struck the tree trunk behind him with a thunk, sinking in by an inch or so.

On the other side, Sasuke had already become locked in a melee with that masked man.

Sasuke's breathing had grown slightly rapid, and fine beads of sweat seeped out across his forehead, but his eyes only became calmer. He continuously used his agile footwork to evade attacks while searching for an opening.

"Too slow!" Sasuke growled. He suddenly ducked low, dodging the opponent's heavy downward chop, then used his left foot as a pivot and spun sharply in a full circle. His right leg whipped out with a fierce gust of wind, kicking hard at the outside of the opponent's knee.

With a faint crack of bone, the masked man let out a muffled grunt. His knee went weak, and his body instantly lost balance. A cold light flashed in Sasuke's eyes. Without the slightest hesitation, the kunai in his hand followed through and stabbed into the man's heart.

After taking down one enemy, Sasuke did not pause at all. His gaze immediately shifted to Naruto's clones, which were being surrounded and attacked by two masked men. Though the clones were numerous, their strength was too weak. They could not withstand any real blows at all, and before long, they vanished one after another into smoke.

"Hmph!" Sasuke gave a cold snort, pushed off the ground, and shot toward one of the masked men like an arrow leaving the bowstring, the kunai in his hand going straight for the man's throat.

That masked man was fully focused on dealing with Naruto's clone in front of him and had not expected an attack to suddenly come from his rear flank. By the time he sensed the danger, it was already too late. The kunai carried icy killing intent as it instantly sliced open his throat. Blood sprayed out, staining the mask on his face red.

In just a few brief exchanges, Sasuke and Duanmu had each dealt with an enemy, displaying strength far beyond ordinary genin.

When Naruto saw that both Sasuke and Duanmu had taken down their opponents while his own clones had been beaten into disarray, he could not help growing anxious.

"Damn it! Watch this!" he shouted, gathering chakra and preparing to unleash an even stronger ninjutsu.

Just then, two more masked men broke through the obstruction of Naruto's clones and attacked Sakura and Tazuna from the left and right! They had clearly realized that Sakura and Tazuna were the weak points in this team and wanted to seize them as hostages.

"Watch out!" Sasuke and Duanmu called out at the same time, trying to rush back to help, but it was already too late.

Sakura was so frightened that she closed her eyes, while Tazuna collapsed limply to the ground, his face drained of color.

At the critical moment, a lazy voice carrying immense pressure rang out: "Too slow."

Kakashi's figure appeared before Sakura and Tazuna like a ghost. He was even still keeping his hands in his pockets, as if he had never moved at all. And the two masked men who had attacked Sakura and Tazuna seemed to have been struck by an invisible force. Their bodies abruptly froze, then they spat blood and flew backward, crashing heavily to the ground. After twitching a few times, they stopped moving.

"Teacher Kakashi!" Naruto and Sakura cried out in shock at the same time. They had not even seen how Kakashi had made his move.

Sasuke and Duanmu also felt a chill in their hearts. Though they knew Kakashi was strong, seeing him so effortlessly kill two chunin-level enemies in an instant still left them shaken. Was this the strength of a jonin?

Kakashi clapped his hands, as if he had merely brushed dust off himself, then turned around and gave the three members of Team 7 a faintly approving smile. "Not bad, kids. Faced with an unexpected situation, your reactions were fairly quick."

His gaze swept over the masked bodies on the ground, and his brows furrowed slightly. "However, these guys..."

He walked forward, crouched down, and reached out to remove the mask from one of the corpses. Beneath the mask was an unfamiliar face, its eyes hollow, already devoid of life.

"Looks like this mission is even more troublesome than we imagined." Kakashi stood up, his tone growing a little heavier. "If they can send out this many well-trained killers, their target definitely isn't as simple as just Mr. Tazuna."

His gaze turned to Tazuna, who was still trembling at the side. "Mr. Tazuna, you can tell us the truth now, right? What exactly happened in the Land of Waves? And who sent these people?"

Tazuna's face was pale, and his lips trembled as if he still wanted to say something, but under Kakashi's sharp gaze, every lie got stuck in his throat. He knew he could not hide it anymore.

"I... I'm sorry, everyone..." Tazuna lowered his head deeply, his voice filled with guilt.

"Our Land of Waves is an island nation, surrounded by the sea on all sides. We don't have our own ninja village, nor do we have strong military power. All this time, we've barely managed to survive by relying on trade with other countries." Tazuna's voice was thick with bitterness. He raised his head, his eyes full of helplessness and fear. "But about a year ago, a man named Gato appeared."

"Gato?" Naruto repeated the name curiously.

"He's an international businessman. On the surface, he runs shipping and various industries, but in truth, he's ruthless and cruel." Tazuna clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white from the force. "He took a liking to the Land of Waves' geographical position and wanted to turn the entire Land of Waves into his private property. He used money and force to control the Land of Waves' ports and most of its industries. Anyone who resisted him was secretly eliminated by the killers he sent."

"My grandson, Eita, was just an ordinary fisherman. Because he refused to hand over the fishing boat passed down through our family for generations to Gato's men, they... they beat him to death!" Tazuna's voice choked, tears glimmering in his eyes. "The reason I wanted to return to the Land of Waves and requested Konoha ninja as escorts was to complete the construction of a great bridge. Once this bridge is finished, it will connect the Land of Waves to the mainland, break Gato's blockade against us, and let the people of the Land of Waves have hope again. Naturally, Gato won't allow something like that to happen, so he'll definitely send people to kill me and stop the bridge from being built."

"So you deliberately concealed the true danger level of the mission and disguised it as an ordinary C-rank escort mission?" Kakashi's tone was calm, but there was a hint of scrutiny in his eyes.

Tazuna nodded painfully. "Yes. I knew that if I told the truth, Konoha probably wouldn't accept this mission, or they would send higher-level ninja, and the fee would be something I couldn't possibly afford. I had no way out. For the Land of Waves, for those people still suffering, I had to take the risk... I'm sorry, Teacher Kakashi, and I'm sorry to all of you ninja. I dragged you into this." As he spoke, he bowed deeply again, almost bending all the way to the ground.

After hearing this, the excitement on Naruto's face had long since disappeared, replaced by anger. "Hey! How could you do that?! Do you know how dangerous it was just now? Sakura almost—"

"Naruto." Kakashi interrupted Naruto, then looked at Tazuna. "We can discuss the mission's rank and reward later. The question now is, that man named Gato—how many killers like the ones just now does he have under him?"

Tazuna raised his head, his face even paler. "Gato's influence is enormous. He's hired a lot of desperadoes, and the most terrifying among them is a ninja known as the 'Demon.'"

"The Demon?" Sasuke's eyes shifted slightly.

"Zabuza Momochi," Duanmu silently recited the name in his heart. As expected, the plot had still reached this point.

"That's right, him!" Tazuna's voice trembled visibly. "He was originally a ninja of the Hidden Mist Village, then later became a rogue ninja. They say that during the graduation exam, he slaughtered all the students in his class by himself, and that was why he became known as the 'Demon.' Gato paid a huge sum to hire him. With him around, we have almost no chance of winning. Those people just now were probably only advance scouts he sent to test us."

Kakashi's expression turned serious. "Zabuza Momochi, huh... One of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. So it really is him. Looks like this mission has already far exceeded the scope of C-rank. It may even have reached B-rank—no, perhaps A-rank."

He pondered for a moment, then made his decision. "Mr. Tazuna, we understand your situation now. According to regulations, when a mission involves a major danger beyond expectations, I have the right to terminate the mission and immediately return to Konoha to report."

Tazuna's heart instantly sank to the bottom, and despair appeared on his face. "Teacher Kakashi..."

"But we are Konoha ninja." Kakashi's voice was calm, yet it carried undeniable strength. "Once we accept a mission, there's no reason to abandon it halfway. Especially now that we know the truth, we can't just stand by and do nothing."

Tazuna abruptly raised his head, his eyes filled with disbelief, which was then drowned by immense joy and gratitude. "Ka... Teacher Kakashi! You... you mean?"

"What I mean is," Kakashi's gaze swept across the students of Team 7 before finally returning to Tazuna, "the escort mission continues."