Naruto was surprised, to say the least, when his sensei was just now arriving outside his home the first thing in the morning. He had just woken up and the first thing he sensed, wasn't the morning suns warmth, it wasn't the smell of the trees, it was his teacher. He quickly stood up and looked outside the windows above his bed.

"Naruto, get ready and come to the village gates as soon as possible." said Kakashi, who then made sure that his student heard his voice by awaiting Narutos confirmation. After which the jounin disappeared in a pile of leaves.

'Need to learn that jutsu,' was the first thought going through Narutos head. 'Another mission so soon?' was the second. They hadn't been allowed basically any rest, hopefully that wouldn't impact the outcome of the mission. He also did quite honestly hope that the mission would at least bring them some closure and not end abruptly like the last time.

Naruto got ready for the mission and left his house as soon as he could. On the way to the gate, he sensed Sasukes chakra, the Uchiha was also quite quickly dashing towards the gate, using his chakra to help with his speed. He seemed almost eager to leave the village.

At the gate Kakashi was talking with the guards, letting them know of the mission to allow for his team to leave. Naruto was first to arrive, with Sasuke being just behind him. Both of them had gotten a good night of sleep it seemed like. They were still waiting for Sakura, but she would be here soon enough. Sasuke in the meanwhile seemed quite a bit changed from the last mission. He was more alert, but not tense. He seemed comfortable, which was a change for the Uchiha.

When Sakura arrived Kakashi gathered up the team and they left Konoha with only one piece of knowledge, they would meet the team which gave up on the mission. Naruto was intrigued by this, not only had he not considered a reality where teams gave up on missions and others took their place, which he should have. But also that if another team gave up on the mission, this meant that there should be considerable danger ahead. So he wondered what this mission would hold for them. Who would they fight, how would they improve.

Quite differently from the last mission, they were not conserving energy on the road. While on the last mission they were going at a relatively brisk pace, this time around they were going as quickly as the squad could. Meanwhile Kakashi explained the parameters of the mission that he knew, and told them that Team 8, consisting of Jounin Kurenai Yuhi, and Genin Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame. Quite the team, they would be very useful in tracking and locating. Though if they had encountered dangerous shinobi, he now understood why the team would give up on the mission.

The trees around Konoha radiated chakra in a way that no other trees did. It seemed that these trees were quite a bit different, from others. Naruto wondered if this was the result of many strong chakra users going through these trees every day for the last hundreds of years. The chakra of these people might have molded the trees and changed their nature. It was easily noticeable for a sensor like him, that trees near Konoha were stronger and emitted chakra, while the trees further from Konoha got weaker and weaker, while finally blending with other normal trees. The mysteries of the world always fascinated him. Perhaps to a dangerous degree because he lost all the idea of where he was, and was blindly following his team mates. Spacing out was dangerous, he would have to keep that in mind.

Team 7 finally arrived at the clearing where 5 sources of chakra were waiting for them. Ready to relay information and go back to the safety of the village.

"On our way to the Land of the Waves, there was a trap in the road, though the team was able to sense it from quite far away. So we dealt with the shinobi who put up the trap, the Demon Brothers of the Mist. While no more than chuunin, the dangers ahead was more than I felt appropriate for this team and this mission..." Kurenai continued talking to Kakashi, informing him of every detail that she was able to conjure up and get from the bridge builder. Meanwhile Sakura started talking with the members of Team 8.

"How good were the Demon Brothers? Chuunin should be quite strong right?" asked Sakura, she mainly addressed her question to he female member of Team 8, Hinata Hyuga, though her team mate beat her to the answer.

"Ah, they were nothing against us. We should have continued but Kurenai-sensei didn't allow us to. That's unfair," said the Inuzuka loud enough for his sensei to hear. "And I don't get how you guys are continuing this mission, your sensei is using favouritism. Damn it."

"Kiba, stop talking like that, you know that we didn't do anything against the Demon Brothers, it was all Kurenai-sensei. We held a vote and decided to come back, though I'm certain that even without that we wouldn't be continuing the mission." Hinata spoke up, swatting Kibas flailing hands away. "We are not strong enough for chuunin, let alone whatever comes up ahead."

"Hinata how have your mission been going? Did you guys go anywhere interesting? We went to a forest with huge beautiful trees, there was a small village there with no shinobi, can you imagine?" Asked Sakura, she was happy to be finally talking with a girl after spending so much time with two way too focused boys.

Naruto tuned out the conversation between Hinata and Sakura, though he did pay attention to the silent confidence of the Hyuga, being from a traditional clan probably did that to you. Having an all-seeing eye also likely helped.

"Naruto, Sasuke, wanna spar against me? Let me show you how good I've gotten. It's not going to be like the academy!" Kiba was as energetic as always, "I still don't get how you're that fast though, blondie."

"Thanks, Kiba but we have a mission to do, can't waste any energy here." said Naruto, not exactly paying attention to what the Inuzuka talked about.

"Sasukee, come on you brooding Uchiha, you know you want to." Kiba didn't let up. As always. He was getting amped up, jumping up and down.

"Kiba, enough bothering your fellow genin, we're going back to Konoha at this moment." Kurenai Yuhi appeared before the boys, her red eyes were very distinct, almost Sharingan-like, but without the tomoes. Nevertheless, she had a strange aura which invited you in, it almost seemed to influence your mind. Or did it actually influence your mind? Naruto quickly released a small burst of chakra, which made him realise that Kurenai was constantly using a very low powered genjutsu to first underestimate her, and second end up in her clutches. "Oh, very interesting, you noticed it." Kurenai addressed him, but didn't make any mention what what he noticed.

"Team 7, we are from now on tasked with defending Mr. Tazuna over here, and we won't return to Konohagakure until the bridge is fully built. So you should say your goodbyes now, we will be leaving soon." said Kakashi.

"It was nice talking to a girl finally," said Hinata, while eyeing both of her team mates. Sakura chuckled and agreed with her. "See you back in the village, and tell me about all the details."

"I will, I will. Also, can you tell Ino that we have left for this mission? I wasn't able to talk to her when I returned to Konoha, don't want her to worry, you know." replied Sakura. To which Hinata simply nodded and turned around, though not without glancing at the boys of Team 7.

'Why can't I be with them' she sulked, while thinking about her own team.

Team 7 finally alone, started to move in position around the bridge builder, they walked as quickly as they could in position, defending all four sides. Later on they would have to cross a large river over which the bridge is supposed to be built. The size and scope of this project honestly amazed Naruto and the other genin. Having lived in Konohagakure all of their lives and not really seeing any large buildings being built by their eyes, the idea of this bridge was simply astounding.

Kakashi noticed his teams eyes glint with curiosity, they were learning about the world outside of Konoha, slowly but surely. His own first experiences outside the village were unforgettable, so he understood what his team was feeling.

Finally having crossed the vast river, they were ready to go on towards Tazunas house.

The Land of Waves as the name suggests was prone to quite sizeable, and large amount of waves hitting the shores, which transformed the island into something quite alien. the gradual increase in height that you would notice around normal islands wasn't exactly present, the shoreline was very jagged and also definitely high up. Though obviously there were low points around the island, which is where the main town was built near, as to facilitate ships travelling in and out of the island. One of the low points was where they arrived on the island, this one had a large amount of pebbles on the beach which going upwards lead to a road towards civilization.

Team 7 were determined to arrive at Tazunas house as soon as possible, considering that this was the first time they were on a boat. They were feeling quite nauseous and wanted to rest.

Tazuna lead the way towards his house, paying no attention to the condition of the roads, or the various broken down houses on their way. The island seemed destitute to say the least. The genin of Team 7 were just now realising how much this bridge actually meant for this island. And how much one person could influence a whole island.

On their way to Tazunas house Naruto managed to sense a person who was following them, and he realised that this person had been tailing them ever since they arrived on the island. Something had been nagging him ever since he set foot on here, but he couldn't figure it out until now. This person was slipping in and out of his sensing range. They were fast and skilled. And suddenly whoever Naruto sensed just disappeared from his senses. Naruto talked with his sensei who confirmed that he also noticed someone following them but decided that the team wasn't currently ready to engage in battle with someone who was obviously very skilled. The risk was them following the team to Tazunas house and so finding out where the man lived but, that risk was something that he was ready to take.

If Tazuna was as involved in building this bridge as he said he was. And if this person following them was as skilled as they appeared to be, the location of Tazunas house being a secret would surprise Kakashi. So he decided to not engage and continue on.

Team 7 finally arrived at Tazunas house. His daughter had readied the beds for everyone on the team, and she was preparing food for them. Though the genin refused to eat this evening because of the nausea. They decided to lie down on their beds. While Kakashi sat with Tazuna and ate the food. He was busy with both finding out everything about Gatou, Tazuna and the Land of Waves, and also trying to think how he would prepare his students for the inevitable battle ahead. For now his students should rest, they had a long day.

In the morning the team was gathered in the kitchen of Tazunas house, they were eating food prepared by Tsunami, Tazunas daughter, and they were joined by Inari, Tsunamis son. The team was discussing how the boat ride impacted them and that the nausea was very disconcerting. This kind of a team meeting gave Naruto his first feeling of being welcome with people. He felt, relaxed, contented. Even the conversation between them was nice and loose. It felt good being able to talk to others about shared experiences and then laugh about it.

"You almost fell into the river when you stood up too fast," chuckled Sakura looking at Naruto, who put on a mocked angry face.

"No I didn't, I just bent over to look into the river, fishes always interested me." Naruto said while eating a homemade rice dish.

"Are you sure about that? Because I remember catching your shirt just before your face fell into the river filled with "fishes"," Sasuke shot back, smiling.

"I can water walk, I wouldn't fall in," said Naruto.

"Oh yeah, didn't remember you can not only walk but also lie down on water face first." said Sasuke, imitating the position in which Naruto would be with his chopsticks.

"Screw you," said Naruto.

"While, I'm very happy with all of you bickering, we need to get going, you all are going to be split up today, with multiple different objectives." Kakashi spoke up, he would need to get some more information. The team moved outside of Tazunas house, where Kakashi gave multiple leaves to both Naruto and Sasuke. "Sakura will be staying with me, getting one on one practice." Sakura was excited and shocked to say the least, she hadn't gotten private training, well... ever.

"Sasuke, you will go to the bridge, defend the builders from anyone if needs be, also you will take these leaves with you, just because you are doing your job, doesn't mean you will be slacking. Work on channelling your elemental chakra. And anything else if you can."

Kakashi turned to Naruto, "You will go around the village, get into as many places as possible, get information, don't bother about staying hidden, everyone who might know about us, already does. Take the leaves and do the same as Sasuke, when you've gone through most people, join up with Sasuke and watch over the bridge."

The team dispersed, Naruto and Sasuke first going off together with Tazuna towards the bridge, after arriving at the bridge and still not quite believing the scope of the project, he left for the town. This was going to be annoying to say the least. Talking to people and getting information wasn't exactly his best nor his favourite thing to do. And with that, getting older drunk people to listen to a young boy would be hard. He knew that even he wouldn't talk to a small blond boy asking about the village and the businessman who owned it.

'Oh...' a thought went through Narutos head, 'of course, I don't have to be a small child.' He quickly performed the transformation jutsu, and went as quickly as he could. The sooner he did this, the sooner this would all get done. Though he couldn't stop wondering about what Kakashi and Sakura were training right now. Private one-on-one training sounded great right about now.

Naruto paced around the village. The sight of the broken windows patched up by wood planks, hungry dogs and cats running around, homeless people begging for money was something he didn't expect nor want to see. He sighed, he wanted to help these people out, and hopefully that bridge would get this village up and running. Because right now it seemed that everyone was just about managing to survive, not live but survive.

He had transformed into a grown dark-haired man who was wearing a large hooded robe. If asked he would say that he was travelling from the Land of the Rain, through the Land of Rivers towards Konohagakure. After quite a bit of asking around he finally found one of the bars where a lot of people gathered. Getting information would be much more likely in such a place.

Entering the bar he immediately noticed the tense mood, not because of a fight, not because of an argument. The tense mood was simply because of people being unhappy with their lives. He picked up on someone saying how just yesterday a young boy was killed for resisting against Gatou. He sat down at the barstool, and asked the barman what was happening in the village.

"Not from 'ere are 'ya?" The barman gazed at him, before sighing and leaning on the bar, "Ah, damn it. One more ear knowing won't hurt. Listen closely boy. This village you're in, it's controlled by Gatou, ye kno', the shippings man. Anyways, Gatou isn't the cleanest of the bunch. He's a damned dealer, devil of a man. He smuggles 'round drugs." The barman sighed at Narutos tense eyes.

"What's it with 'ye, you heard of the devils extract? An abomination made from the bark and leaves of the tress near the border of Land of Fire. That thing," He spat out, "makes 'ye dream things, it makes 'ye seen things. And Gatou, he gets it, smuggles it, and sells it." The barman was ordered a round of beer for multiple people, "Back in a second lad."

Naruto pondered on what he heard, so Gatou was in fact smuggling illegal substances, and this devils extract, made people delirious. He guessed the young boy refused to either ship or sell it, and got his life taken because of it. He looked around the bar, when suddenly someone bumped into him and sat down right next to him. Naruto looked over to see who pushed him so rudely, when his eyes suddenly widened and he jumped up from his stool.

He had sensed whoever was sitting next to him before, when they were taking Tazuna to his house. He gripped his kunai, when suddenly the person in front of him motioned him to relax, though that had the exact opposite effect on Naruto. Who ran out of the bar as soon as he could. He didn't know how to deal with that situation, and he wasn't sure how strong that person was, so running seemed like the only smart option. He knew he sensed the person before, when the barman was talking, but he put that aside just to get some more information. He was caught out, almost paid for it.

Naruto took to trees, he decided to hide for some time, and then he would continue on getting some more information. Mainly on where Gatou resided. He also wanted to cut the damn leaf in half. He had made a cut on it, just before that person sneaked up on him.

'Going into a bar and asking that doesn't seem smart. Need to figure out how to approach this,' he thought to himself, he couldn't exactly ask people where their drug overlord lived without someone pulling a knife. Naruto decided to walk around the main market of the village, if drugs were being smuggled, they were also being sold, and if they didn't really care about the consequences, as seen by killing a young man, the market would be the easiest place to sell them.

The market, stank, to say the least, animals both live and dead were lying around, being sold to whoever came by. Food was also prepared around, with the animals sold in the markets. This place was one of the liveliest parts of the town. So it was important to keep an eye out on anyone who didn't exactly fit into this area. And he soon found just the right kind of man. A small person accompanied by two bodyguards, judging by their swords, samurai or someone who killed samurai.

"Let that last boys mistake not be forgotten," he spat out in the middle of the market, "anyone refusing to cooperate ends up next to him, now quickly take all of this" he spun around and pointed at crates around him, "back to my house."

His bodyguards laughed and looked around, "You heard what the boss said. Quickly!" One of them wore an eyepatch and seemed to take joy in being as violent as possible.

"Want me to cut you up again, like I did the last time you were this slow Kira? Boss said quickly." He spoke with venom in his voice, grabbing his katana.

The other bodyguard wore a purple hat and chuckled at his partners antics, "Bet you he cuts someone in half again this week," he said to his boss.

For Naruto staying down was a hard decision to make, the people murdered freely, and acted out without any hesitation. But his actions might cost them the mission, he didn't know who else was around, he couldn't risk exposing himself. But what he could do was follow the villagers who were taking crates.

His decision turned out to be the right one, the villagers easily lead him to where, he presumed, Gatou both lived and stored all the money and information. Naruto was satisfied that he fulfilled his own part of the mission. And he also managed to cut the leaf a bit more, though not fully, and not as straightly as he wanted. But he was certainly making progress. For now he was finished with his mission and decided to go back to Sasuke on the bridge, hoping that no harm came to him.

Naruto arrived at the bridge next to Sasuke, who was watching the bridge being built, the speed at which the builders were going was inspiring. They wondered how soon the bridge was going to be built, at what speeds did large constructions take place.

"Sasuke, anything of note happen when I was gone?" asked Naruto, he couldn't get the leaf to split down the middle, so he wanted to rest for a bit.

"Well, nothing for a good couple of hours, but later on some bandits arrived, wanting to take tools from the builders over there. They got together and started rushing towards the builders. So I had to fight them. Good thing I stretched and warmed up just before." answered Sasuke.

"Go on," said Naruto.

"Well nothing much, I wanted to see how the Sharingan would help me out, so decided to use it, and the difference was... drastic," said Sasuke, "most Uchiha shinobi start using their sharingan whenever they got their first tomoe, but I started using mine when it was more advanced, so the difference between not using it and using it was honestly very big. It felt... Unfair?"

Naruto waited for Sasuke to continue.

"You know, back during our first mission, I didn't exactly struggle against those bandits, but they weren't easy to beat, so to say. But this time around, every kunai throw, every thrust, every kick, it was all so accurate, and easy. It didn't feel like I earned this power, it was given to me. But I'm going to take whatever I can, this world is dangerous enough as it is." said Sasuke.

"That's true," said Naruto, thinking about how he might have been dead if the shinobi following him wanted to kill him. It was, the first time in a long while that he felt really threatened.

"Did you find out anything?" asked Sasuke.

"Couple of things, Gatou is a drug lord, he killed a young boy yesterday, he has two swordsmen, possibly samurai, guarding him at all times, and I know where he lives." Naruto listed off.

"Quite the list."

"Yep."

They stayed around in silence for a bit more, and when the bridge builders decided to pack up for the night, they left with them.

"Two possible samurai guarding him, and a shinobi of an unknown level tailing you?" said Kakashi, "this is going to be tricky. Ah, thank you Tsunami-san," he smiled with his eyes at the daughter of the bridge builder. Who bafflingly to the genin of Team 7, blushed and answered back.

"My pleasure Kakashi, can I get you anything else?" she chuckled.

"Oh, nothing, thank you." Kakashi answered back.

Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke looked amongst themselves, bewildered. Their sensei was being, nice? And the daughter didn't even use honorifics. Naruto looked at Sasuke who shrugged his shoulder, they both looked at Sakura who just a bit later chuckled to herself and took no notice of the boys on her team.

"Sakura, what did you train with Kakashi? You seem, confident?" asked Naruto, surprising himself, since when did he get so talkative?

"Hmmm, let me see, Kakashi sensei taught me how to turn the leaf into dust, having great chakra control allowed me to do it so quickly, as he said." Sakura noticed the annoyed looks on both Sasukes and Narutos faces, she chuckled and continued on, "He also taught me a nice low-level genjutsu, you know, making people think that demon dogs were chasing them around and such. And finally he promised me to find someone who would teach me Medical Ninjutsu, pretty awesome of a day if you ask me." Sakura continued eating her food after answering, and enjoyed every bite knowing the looks she was getting from her team mates.

"What? Boys stop staring at your sensei, and follow me upstairs to your bedroom." Kakashi spoke out, thanked Tsunami and moved upstairs with his team.

The bedroom was nothing spectacular, there weren't even beds, just 4 sleeping bags laid out for the team, for shinobi lying on the floor wasn't the best option, so they opted to take sleeping bags or use them, whenever possible.

"Tomorrow is a big day, I've been thinking about this today, and made a decision." Kakashi started, "We need to deal with Gatou and his henchmen as soon as possible, it's possible that if we kill Gatou, the shinobi might back off as their safety net will now be gone, though don't count on it. What's important is to infiltrate Gatous compound to ensure that the bridge builders can build in peace in the coming days, if we allow for them to get ready, we're going to be fighting on the back foot."

"Sakura will not need more than a couple of hours to lay down traps around the bridge, we will get to it just before sunrise. So yes, that means that Sakura and I will be defending the bridge, while Naruto, Sasuke, you will be infiltrating the compound. If this person that tracked Naruto is as good as we think they are, me and Sakura being at the bridge will be their priority, because it's always better to take out a stronger opponent, rather than be weakened by weaker shinobi only to get struck down by the leader." Kakashi continued, "Boys, you will be in charge of taking out the bodyguards, incapacitating Gatou and taking money and information out of his compound. You can store the latter two in these seals, where you leave Gatou, or how you do it is up to you. I've trained you enough to know that this should be possible for you two."

The reason for Kakashi being this certain was that, apart from getting a hit on him straight on, his genin were never stretched to their limits, taking out bandits were easy for them, and samurai wouldn't be any different. His genin didn't know that of course, they didn't really know the skill they possessed because they hadn't fought against other formidable opponents, nor have they seen the progress that their classmates have made. Hopefully tomorrow would be a wake up call for his genin, where they understood the power they wield. Experience of fighting samurai with no backup would be enough for them to really show to themselves what they could do.

Tomorrow would be the day he and his team basically saved the Land of Waves, quite an achievement for a team going on their second C-rank, well technically a B-rank but that's just semantics.