They Were Practically Asking for Shit

At the gates of Konoha Village, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and the client they were escorting, Tazuna, appeared together.

Everyone was fully prepared, and Naruto was carrying an extra cloth bag in his hand.

Sakura asked, "Naruto, what are you holding?"

"Cat poop." Naruto opened the cloth bag for Sakura to see. Sure enough, it contained dark brown strips of feces.

Sakura staggered back several steps in fright, her face filled with horror. Sasuke, meanwhile, wore a disgusted expression. He had never expected one of his teammates to bring feces along on a long journey.

"Kid." Tazuna said, "Why are you bringing that? Planning to have a snack on the road?"

"What the hell do you know?" Naruto said righteously. "Yesterday, we took on a D-rank mission to help a noblewoman find her lost pet cat. We found it in the end, but that cat pooped everywhere. I was just cleaning up after it."

"..." Kakashi wore a stunned expression as he asked, "What were you thinking when you decided to pick up all that cat poop?"

"Everyone is responsible for keeping the village clean." Naruto held his head high and puffed out his chest. "I'm going to become Hokage someday. This village will belong to me, so of course I have to keep it clean. If I see cat poop on the ground, how could I not pick it up?"

"Uh..." Sakura could not understand Naruto's actions.

"..." Sasuke could not understand Naruto's reasoning either.

"..." Kakashi and Tazuna both sighed. All they could do was tell themselves that Naruto was still young and retained some childish innocence.

"Let's go!" Naruto said as he took the lead. "Destination: the Land of Waves. Mission: escort one old man."

Tazuna, walking at the very back, shouted angrily, "Kid! I think you're insulting the client. That violates the village rules you set!"

Hearing that, Kakashi hurriedly soothed him and urged him not to argue with a child like Naruto.

After traveling for half a day, everyone was relaxed. This was only a C-rank mission, and the danger level was low, so they carried out the mission as though they were on an outing.

Suddenly, a puddle appeared ahead. Kakashi noticed it and immediately grew suspicious, realizing that things were not so simple.

"Ah—" Naruto carelessly tripped while walking and fell flat on the ground.

Tazuna could not stand it anymore and said, "Are you really a ninja, kid? This road is so flat there isn't even a pebble. How did you manage to fall?"

"Sorry, sorry, I tripped by accident. Hahahaha." Naruto hurriedly apologized, then suddenly realized that the cloth bag in his hand was gone. The bag of cat poop he had been holding had slipped from his grasp.

Naruto quickly searched around and finally found the bag in the puddle. Apparently, when he fell just now, the bag had slipped from his hand and fallen straight into the water.

"Eh, forget it." Naruto said helplessly. "It already fell into the puddle, so I'll just leave it. We're already outside Konoha Village anyway. It's fine to toss garbage around now."

"Bleurgh—" A sudden retching sound came from within the puddle, startling Naruto into quickly backing away.

"What's going on? Did you all hear that? There's a strange sound!" Naruto hurriedly warned everyone as he thought, When we left Konoha Village, I deliberately brought that cat poop for you. You hid in a puddle, planning to ambush us, so now you can have a taste of cat poop... It smells good, doesn't it...

To everyone's astonishment, two men crawled out of the small puddle. They wore ninja gear and clothing, and the Hidden Mist Village symbol was visible on them. These two were undoubtedly ninja.

Kakashi immediately saw that they were only Chunin-level and did not take them seriously at all. Instead, his gaze fell on Naruto. Kakashi thought, Was that just my imagination? Did Naruto deliberately fake that fall, then throw the cat poop into the puddle to force these two ninja out...?

Kakashi could hardly believe his own guess. He was a Jonin with extensive combat experience, so he could easily tell that ninja were hiding in the puddle. It had not rained in the past few days—how could there possibly be a puddle on the road?

In the blazing summer heat, a puddle had appeared on the road for no reason. No matter how one looked at it, it was abnormal, like a trap laid by ninja.

It was normal for Kakashi to notice something strange about the puddle, but how had Naruto noticed it? And why had he specifically brought cat poop when leaving the village, as though he had prepared for this exact moment?

Forget it. He could not figure it out, so he would stop thinking about it for now. Kakashi cast aside all his speculations about Naruto. Dealing with the enemy came first.

"Damn it! This is all your doing!" One of the Hidden Mist ninja pointed at Naruto and furiously shouted.

"What does it have to do with me?" Naruto said innocently. "I only tripped. Who told you to hide so sneakily in a puddle? If you want to blame someone, blame yourselves for learning Water Style ninjutsu. You can only hide where there's water."

Naruto's words stirred Sasuke. Only then did Sasuke belatedly notice Naruto's impressive side.

Sasuke thought, That dead weight... He... He knew there was something wrong with the puddle from the start...

Without another word, the two Hidden Mist ninja had failed in their ambush. Since a sneak attack was no longer possible, they could only attack head-on.

The two Hidden Mist ninja worked in perfect coordination, even using their ninja tools together. They activated the tools mounted on their arms, and a long chain saw instantly appeared.

Each Hidden Mist ninja grabbed one end of the chain saw and rushed toward Kakashi with incredible speed. They knew that the strongest enemy they needed to deal with first was this Konoha ninja.

But they clearly had no idea who the Konoha ninja standing before them truly was. Kakashi merely turned, then restrained the two Hidden Mist ninja at an even faster speed.

The two Hidden Mist ninja looked horrified. They could not believe they had been defeated so quickly. Before Kakashi, they could not even withstand a single move.

Kakashi seized one man by the throat with his left hand, using his grip strength alone to make him unable to breathe. Then he trapped the other man's chest beneath his arm, knocking him unconscious instantly.

"Hehe." Naruto quickly stepped forward and looked at the two subdued Hidden Mist ninja. Their eyes had rolled back, and foam dripped from their mouths.

"What a pair of overconfident fools." Naruto said in a lecturing tone. "You two Chunin dared challenge a Jonin. You were practically asking for shit. Hahahaha."

"Heh." Although Naruto had praised him, Kakashi looked slightly awkward. At that moment, he found Naruto somewhat impossible to read.

"Hey, old man." Naruto angrily pointed at Tazuna and asked, "Do you have anything to say now? Why would ninja want to assassinate you?"