Temporary Captain, Qingchuan Tianming

An instant kill—this was ridiculous!

"Qingchuan Tianming!"

The battle over there naturally affected the six members of Team 7 and Team 8 as well.

Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru were blasted away once again, the Great Fireball Technique was blocked again, and Naruto Uzumaki's Shadow Clone Technique was simply free experience!

The six of them together were no match for the enemy.

"Damn it!" With one of their companions dead, the remaining three Mist ninja stopped treating this like a game.

"You pests!" The rather fat Mist ninja roared, then charged straight at the six of them.

Boom! Boom!

The grass and trees along his path were shredded by violent chakra, and the three boys naturally did not dare approach him recklessly.

"Mist Transformation Technique." The Mist ninja rapidly formed hand seals. White mist rose up, twisting into chains that attacked the six of them.

"Damn it!" The mist chains feared neither fire nor shuriken, binding all six of them in a flash.

"You!" After trapping them, the Mist ninja glanced at Tianming and raised the great blade in his hand toward Hinata Hyuga and Sakura Haruno.

"Kid over there, I want you to kill Tazuna. Otherwise, I'll butcher your companions!"

"You fat pig! If you're a man, don't make things difficult for girls! Come at me!" Naruto Uzumaki shouted.

"If you've got guts, let me go and fight me again!" Kiba Inuzuka also made his stance clear.

"I will fight you to the death!" Shino Aburame said as well.

"Shut up!!" The Mist ninja roared repeatedly. "I don't want to repeat myself a third time. Kill Tazuna, or I'll kill your companions!"

"Pfft, so this is the famous Mist ninja?" Tianming suddenly laughed.

"A Chunin using such dirty tricks against Genin—you dare call yourselves rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist Village? What a joke!"

"You think I won't kill them?" The fat Mist ninja's face gradually darkened. As rogue ninja, they had betrayed their village and the ninja way. The only thing they had left was their pride.

And now someone had insulted that pride. That was unacceptable.

"What you said is interesting." Tianming folded his arms. "Either way, the initiative is in your hands. If you kill Konoha ninja, do you think Konoha's Jonin will let you go? Or can Zabuza Momochi protect you?"

"Who are you???"

The name Zabuza Momochi instantly shattered the Mist ninja's composure.

But before the Mist ninja could sort out the questions in his mind, the battle on the other side had already reached its conclusion.

"You've gone so far as to threaten my students. I can't let you live." Kakashi Hatake slowly pulled down his mask, revealing the right eye that had always been covered.

His eye opened! It was a scarlet eye, its pupil contracting slightly as the tomoe within it spun once.

"Mist Transformation Technique!"

The Sharingan could instantly copy an enemy's ninjutsu. After Kakashi Hatake rapidly formed hand seals, before the Mist ninja in front of him could react, two puddles appeared on the ground. In an instant, the water within them transformed into misty humanoid figures.

The mist figures raised their blades and brought them down, directly taking two heads!

The situation changed accordingly. Of the four Mist ninja who had come to ambush Tazuna, three were dead.

"Which Konoha Jonin are you?" The last remaining Mist ninja had already broken down.

"Kakashi Hatake."

"Kakashi Hatake?" The Mist ninja repeated the name, seeming to recall something before crying out, "The intel was wrong! It clearly said Tazuna had no powerful ninja protecting him."

Fortunately, his collapse lasted only a moment. The Mist ninja was a Chunin after all, and he quickly recovered.

"You'll let me leave, right?" the remaining Mist ninja suddenly asked.

Against Kakashi Hatake, numbers were meaningless. Who cared about the mission now? Staying alive was all that mattered.

"Of course," Kakashi Hatake said.

"Then we'll meet again." The Mist ninja left behind those words, and mist rose around him as he vanished from where he stood.

"Teacher Kakashi, why did you let him go?" Naruto Uzumaki shouted.

"Idiot Naruto, Teacher Kakashi was worried about us," Sakura Haruno said helplessly.

"Urgh." The intense pain from his left eye nearly made Kakashi Hatake collapse.

"Teacher Kakashi." Seeing this, everyone hurried over.

"Qingchuan Tianming, come here." Kakashi Hatake leaned against a tree trunk, speaking weakly. "I used a forbidden technique, and my body is too exhausted. I need to rest for the rest of the journey to the Land of Waves. So, I'm appointing you temporary captain. Can you do it?"

"I can." Qingchuan Tianming nodded. There was a reason Kakashi was so weakened. After all, the Sharingan was a dōjutsu unique to the Uchiha Clan. Kakashi would naturally suffer backlash from using it only halfway properly.

"Teacher Kakashi." After giving his instructions, Kakashi Hatake fainted. This left both Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyuga very worried.

"Teacher Kakashi needs proper rest. For the rest of the journey, we'll need to take turns carrying him," Tianming said.

"Leave that to Akamaru," Kiba Inuzuka said, then took out several soldier pills and stuffed them into Akamaru's mouth.

"Then there's one more matter." Tianming turned his gaze back to Tazuna. "You hid something regarding this mission, didn't you?"