Naruto and his team were walking when Sasuke spotted a puddle. Sasuke elbowed the boy and pointed at it. Naruto nodded and continued walking. However as they were walking they heard a chain slink and turned to see Kakashi ripped to shreds by the newly appeared ninja.
Sasuke jumped up into the air, readying shuriken. Naruto pretended to be severely scared and watched as the ninja came up on him. Then he blitzed them, kicked them both in the face, in the hopes that Sasuke's shuriken would dislocate their shoulders. His hopes were correct, the force of the shuriken catching the chain against a tree, ripped their shoulders out of the socket.
Sasuke landed on their gauntlet and Naruto watched as he double kicked both the shinobi, Naruto simply backed up towards Tazuna. Then the shinobi disconnected from their gauntlets holding the chain. Immediately, they circled the genin, going in opposite directions.
One of them aimed for Naruto and the other went for Tazuna. Naruto noticed that and made six shadow clones. The clones began to engage the one coming for him. The surprise use of the jutsu gave them an edge in the battle, along with their numbers. Naruto himself backed up and hopped over Sakura and Tazuna, as he and Sasuke trapped the other ninja.
Naruto landed and came towards the ninja. He kicked the missing ninja in the face, and narrowily missed getting cut by the ninja's gauntlet. Sasuke came from behind the man and grabbed the man by the leg. The ninja's face slammed into the ground making him extremely prone. Naruto took advantage and made a new shadow clone to restrict the man's arm. Then both he and sasuke put a kunai at the throat of the ninja.
Naruto immediately said, "Sakura, returned to the village with Tazuna!"
Sasuke added, "If Kakashi sensei is actually dead. Naruto and I can only hold these two back for so long."
Sakura grabbed the older man's arm and immediately began to move. However, as she turned she didn't see Kakashi sensei's remains. That's when the jonin decided to return to his students.
Kakashi tied the two ninja up and immediately spoke to his students.
"Good job Naruto, Sasuke! Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke shouldn't need to tell you to retreat when we have a clear problem on our hands."
Kakashi internally thought, She needs to be better. It seems she hasn't realized that she can't rely on Sasuke or Naruto's strength.
Naruto grinned and Sasuke breathed in acknowledgement.
Kakashi said, "The demon brothers are chunin level opponents. We shouldn't be meeting those ranks in a mission like this. I commend all of you for a great job! Tazuna-san.."
The old man flinched at the lowered aloofness and raised anger in the jonin's voice.
Tazuna immediately spat, "Wait! There's a reason for this."
Kakashi stayed silent. Naruto and Sasuke were retrieving their weaponry, and disarming the two chunin shinobi. Naruto thought the chain gauntlet was extremely cool and he decided to keep it, Sasuke decided to keep one of their masks.
"I told Sakura earlier that my country doesn't have a shinobi village. There is a very wealthy man named Gato. He's a shipping magnate, but that's only a cover for his shadier dealings. Like ones with shinobi and mercenaries. This bridge that I'm building is meant to allow for people to safely come in and out, pumping out trade that Gato doesn't want."
"And the reason you didn't pay for a B or even A rank?"
"Wave country is so poor, our daimyo has very little money. So I gathered as much as I could and that resulted in only a C rank."
Naruto at this point had fashioned the gauntlets onto one of his clones and was looking at Tazuna with interest.
He interrupted with, "We should take it Kakashi sensei. If we die that's expected in our line of work, if we live we gain invaluable experience. Iruka sensei died trusting in people, I am beyond willing to do that as well."
Kakashi didn't show his surprise but nodded, turning to the other two genin. Sasuke nodded in agreement with Naruto's small speech. Sakura nodded after looking at Sasuke's answer.
"Look's like my team will continue. However, Tazuna-san we will need the money for a B-rank, and it will raise if there is an even stronger shinobi waiting for us."
With that Tazuna agreed, and the team continued on. The team did not relax, even as they walked for a while. Eventually, they went on a boat. Having to keep quiet the team simply observed, eventually going under the bridge and arriving at a small little port town. Trees came halfway out of the water, and the mist was heavy but Naruto found it to be beautiful.
Naruto kept one of his clones, who was under a henge, at the back of the boat and slightly behind the team just in case they needed a sacrifice. Sasuke had agreed and the two kept their eyes peeled.
Eventually, they got off the boat and began to walk towards Tazuna's village.
As they did, Naruto heard rustling and smoothly threw a kunai at the noise. Sakura smacked Naruto on the head and went to check what was there. She came out with a small snow rabbit and berated the yellow-haired genin.
However, Sasuke gave him a look that told him to stay on guard.
Before they could move again, Kakashi screamed, "Get down!"
The entire group hit the ground. A massive blade the size of Kakashi flew overhead, and Naruto looked up to see a man on top of it. The man was shirtless and wore pants and forearm covers.