By the time we stopped to catch our breath, my arms were buzzing and my legs felt like overcooked noodles.
The road had narrowed to a dirt path, trees crowding in on either side. Mist clung low to the ground, the kind that made your ankles feel like they were walking through someone else's breath.
Naruto plopped down on a rock with a groan, cradling his bandaged hand like it had personally betrayed him.
"Man," he complained, "I am so done with surprise murder puddles."
"Bold of you to assume that was the last one," I said, kneeling beside him. "Let me see."
He hesitated, then held his hand out.
The gauze I'd wrapped earlier was already stained through in a few spots. Not terrible, but not great either. I peeled it back carefully, checking the puncture marks where he'd driven a kunai through his own palm to escape the Demon Brothers' chain.
The skin around the wound was angry and red, but the bleeding had slowed. Good. Great. Fantastic. Ten out of ten, would prefer this to him being in two pieces.
"You're an idiot," I said, because that was easier than saying what I was actually thinking.
Naruto grinned weakly. "A super cool idiot."
"Debatable," I muttered, digging out fresh bandages from my pouch. My fingers were still shaking a little; I focused on the familiar motions, wrapping the cloth snugly but not too tight.
The forest felt different now. Before the ambush, it had been just… background. Trees, birds, distant bugs, the usual RPG overworld. After watching two grown men burst out of a puddle and go straight for our teacher's spine, it all felt sharper. The rustle of leaves. The creak of branches. Every sound a possible threat.
"Are we gonna talk about how Kakashi-sensei died and then didn't?" Naruto said suddenly. "Because that was messed up."
"He didn't die," I said. "Substitution Jutsu. Log no Jutsu. Classic."
"I that," Naruto said. "Still messed up."
"Can't argue with that."
A few meters away, Sasuke leaned against a tree, arms crossed, expression almost bored. His chakra wasn't bored at all; it simmered, tight and alert. Tazuna hovered near him, clutching his bottle like a shield, eyes darting between us and the surrounding trees.
Kakashi stood a little apart, hands in his pockets, gaze on the path ahead. From the outside, he looked relaxed. From the inside, his chakra was edged and watchful, like a blade wrapped in cotton.
"Sensei," I said. "We going to keep moving or…?"
"In a minute," he said. "First, we need to clear something up."
The lazy tone was still there, but there was steel under it now.
He turned his head toward Tazuna.
"About that mission ranking," Kakashi added.
Tazuna flinched like he'd been caught stealing from the offering box.
—
Kakashi had given D-rank missions a lot of grief over the years, but they had one undeniable upside: D-rank missions did not usually come with hidden assassination contracts.
He watched Tazuna over the edge of his book—not that he was actually reading it. The bridge builder's hands shook slightly around the neck of his bottle. The smell of cheap alcohol didn't quite cover the sour tang of fear.
"That wasn't a random attack," Kakashi said mildly. "Those two were the Demon Brothers of the Hidden Mist. Chunin-level assassins. Famous, if you've been in the right trenches."
Naruto sat up straighter. "Wait, were chunin?"
Kakashi ignored him for the moment.
"Our mission," he continued, "was listed as C-rank. Bandits, maybe one or two small-time thugs. Not professional killers with poison chains and a reputation."
He let that hang there.
Tazuna's jaw worked. "So?"
"So," Kakashi said, "this level of enemy is more in line with a B-rank. Possibly higher, depending on what else you've neglected to mention. And since I'm currently escorting one loud genin with more guts than sense, one traumatized avenger, and one civilian-born girl who just met her first real fight…" His visible eye curved. "I'd like to know what, exactly, you've dragged us into."
Naruto bristled. "Hey! I have tons of sense!"
Sylvie, who was still carefully tucking the bandage end in place, muttered, "That's a lie and you know it."
He squawked in offense.
Kakashi didn't correct her.
Tazuna's shoulders slumped. The bravado he'd worn like armor when they left Konoha had worn thin during the fight. Up close, he looked… old. Lines carved deep around his mouth, dark circles under his eyes. The kind of exhaustion that didn't come from one bad night, but years.
"I had no choice," Tazuna said finally, voice rough. "If I told you everything, the mission would've been too expensive. They would've refused it. And then… Wave would be finished."
Kakashi's eye narrowed slightly. "Explain."
Tazuna took a long swallow from his bottle, then lowered it with shaking hands.
"There's a man," he said. "Gato. He owns a shipping company. Supposed to be a legitimate businessman, but he's scum. Smuggler, slaver, you name it. He set his sights on the Land of Waves. Bought out our leaders, our nobles, one by one. Anyone who resisted…" He made a cutting motion across his throat.
Naruto's fists clenched.
"He took our trade, our money, our hope," Tazuna went on. "Now everyone in Wave lives in fear of his thugs. People go missing. No one can afford to fight back. The only chance we have is the bridge I'm building. If we finish it, we get a route that doesn't go through Gato's ships. We can trade again. We can breathe again."
He laughed bitterly. "So of course he wants me dead."
Kakashi had heard variations of this story before. A warlord, a merchant turned tyrant, a country squeezed until hope went hoarse. It didn't make it easier to hear.
"So you lied to get a cheaper guard," Kakashi said. "Knowing full well that whoever took the job might be in over their heads."
Tazuna flinched. "I didn't know they'd send kids," he shot back. "When they said 'shinobi from the Leaf,' I thought—" He gestured weakly at Kakashi. "More like you. Not… not them."
He didn't look at Naruto or Sylvie when he said it. That didn't matter. Kakashi saw the way Naruto's shoulders tensed, the way Sylvie's mouth pressed into a thin, unhappy line.
Sasuke's expression didn't change, but his chakra flicked sharper.
"So what?" Naruto burst out. "We're just supposed to turn around now?"
—
My first impulse was to agree with Naruto just on principle.
My second impulse was to curl into a ball and have a small, quiet panic attack about getting murdered by a shipping magnate's private assassins.
Instead, I took a slow breath and hit pause on both.
I could feel everyone, sharp and bright in my weird internal color palette. Naruto, loud and furious and terrified. Sasuke, tight and focused, anger hooked onto something cold and steady. Tazuna, worn thin and braced for rejection. Kakashi, all watchful calculation behind that slouch.
Kakashi didn't answer Naruto right away. He looked at us instead.
"Naruto," he said, "this decision isn't just about you. If we continue, all of you will be in more danger than a brand-new genin squad normally faces. You froze back there."
Naruto's face flushed. "I—I know, but—"
"You rallied," Kakashi continued. "You acted. That's good. But mission-wise, you're still barely out of the Academy. This isn't a game. If we proceed, there's a real chance someone dies. Maybe Tazuna. Maybe one of you."
The words hit like a bucket of cold water.
Naruto's eyes went wide. He opened his mouth, closed it, swallowed.
I stared down at my hands, flexing my fingers. There was a smear of Naruto's dried blood on my knuckles, a flake of it caught under one short nail. For a second it overlapped in my head with another memory: my own blood in a different forest, soaking through denim and dirt.
I had done "bleed out alone" once. I was not interested in a sequel.
Tazuna hunched in on himself. "So that's it, then?" he said quietly. "You'll take your precious children and go home, and Wave… Wave can drown?"
Guilt stabbed me in the ribs.
Kakashi's visible eye lowered a fraction.
"This mission was never approved as a B-rank," he said. "By the rules, we're obligated to return once the true parameters are known."
"Rules," Tazuna spat. "You talk about rules while my grandson goes to bed hungry? While my people are beaten in the streets? You think Gato cares about your rules?"
Naruto's head snapped up.
"Then we'll just beat him!" he shouted. "Rules or no rules! I don't care if it's B-rank or Z-rank or whatever stupid letter you want, I'm not turning back now!"
"Naruto—" Kakashi started.
"No!" Naruto planted his feet, shaking. "I already decided! I'm gonna be Hokage someday! You think Hokage runs away because things might get dangerous?"
There it was. That impossible, stupid, incandescent courage.
His chakra flared, bright and hot, blowing out the muddy fear like a storm.
I felt myself straighten before I decided to.
"Kakashi-sensei," I said.
He looked at me. Really looked, not just a passing glance.
I swallowed, pushed on.
"I don't… like this," I admitted. "Any of it. Being lied to about the danger, being used, knowing there are people out there who think kids are acceptable collateral. I hate it."
Naruto blinked at me, surprised. Sasuke watched without comment. Tazuna looked tired, like he expected me to side with Kakashi and call it practical.
"But," I said, "we know too much now."
Their attention sharpened.
"If we turn back, what happens?" I ticked points off on my fingers. "Gato keeps strangling Wave. Tazuna probably dies. His bridge doesn't get built. The people there stay trapped. And Konoha…" I hesitated. "Either we go home and pretend we didn't know any of that, or we report it and someone higher up has to decide if a poor country is worth angering a rich thug over. Do you trust the politics to go our way?"
Kakashi said nothing. The silence said enough.
"I'm not saying we charge ahead blind," I added quickly. "But from a risk perspective? We're already in it. We've already fought his hired killers. They know Konoha is involved now whether we finish the job or not. Turning back doesn't reset anything; it just gives Gato a free win and makes us look unreliable."
The word tasted bitter in my mouth.
Where I came from, we'd had whole histories of powerful people walking away from suffering because it was inconvenient. I hadn't liked it then either.
Naruto stared at me like I'd grown a second head. "That's what I said!" he said. "Kind of. Less… nerdy."
"Thank you, Naruto," I said dryly.
Sasuke snorted. "She has a point," he said, finally speaking up. "If we run now, we're just leaving loose ends. That's sloppy."
I glanced at him, startled. His chakra was a steady burn, more annoyed at the idea of unfinished business than anything else.
Tazuna's eyes were shiny. "You'd… really still help us?" he asked, voice small.
Naruto puffed up. "Obviously! I'm not gonna let some jerk scare me off. Plus—" He jabbed his thumb at his chest. "I made a promise. Heroes don't break promises."
I winced internally at the word "hero," but kept my mouth shut.
Kakashi exhaled slowly.
The scary thing was, none of us were wrong.
On paper, yeah, pulling back and letting a stronger squad take over made sense. Politically, walking away after seeing how screwed Wave really was felt like the kind of move history books side-eye. Morally? That was the one place the needle didn't move.
That one wasn't really up for debate.
Kakashi scrubbed a hand through his hair, then let it flop down again.
"All right," he said, finally. "Let me make this clear. Continuing this mission means accepting that you may encounter enemies on my level or higher. I can't guarantee your safety. I can only do my best to keep you alive while you learn how to keep yourselves alive."
Naruto nodded fiercely.
"Fine by me," Sasuke said.
My heart thudded hard enough that I could feel it in my throat.
"I don't want to die in some ditch because of a drunk bridge builder," I said. "But I also don't want to go back to Konoha and spend the rest of my life wondering what happened to the people we left behind."
Kakashi's eye crinkled slightly.
"You all understand," he said, "that you're children, and this is not how C-ranks are supposed to go?"
"Then stop calling it a C-rank," I muttered. "C-rank, my foot."
Naruto snorted.
Kakashi sighed. "All right. Officially, the mission remains C-rank. In my report, it will be upgraded. I'll take responsibility for continuing based on new information and the client's circumstances."
"You'll… keep helping?" Tazuna asked, hopeful.
"We'll escort you to Wave," Kakashi said. "We'll protect you as best we can. But if we're forced into a situation I judge completely beyond what these three can handle, I will prioritize their lives. Understood?"
Tazuna nodded quickly. "Of course. Of course."
Naruto opened his mouth—probably to argue about "prioritize their lives"—but I kicked his ankle lightly.
"Understood," I echoed. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of being benched in some hypothetical worst-case scenario, but I preferred "alive and benched" to "dead and heroic."
Kakashi straightened, rolling his shoulders like he was settling a new weight into place.
"All right then," he said, clapping his hands once. "Break's over. Form up around Tazuna. Eyes open. We proceed, but we proceed carefully. From here on out… assume nothing is safe."
"Wow," I said under my breath as I stood. "Love the motivational speech."
Naruto grinned, something wild and excited sparking in his eyes despite the lingering fear.
"Hey," he said, bumping his bandaged hand against my shoulder. "Real missions, right? This is what we wanted."
"I wanted fewer puddles," I said. "But sure. Let's call this a win."
We fell into formation: Tazuna in the middle, Kakashi up front with his book out, pretending not to be scanning every tree, Sasuke to the left like a silent, broody knife, Naruto to the right, practically vibrating. I took the rear, eyes and chakra sense stretched as far as I could stand without giving myself a headache.
The path curved ahead into mist and unknowns.
I tugged my glasses up my nose, wiped a flake of dried blood from my knuckle with my thumb, and followed.
If this was what being a real Konoha ninja meant—lies, danger, impossible choices, and still moving forward anyway—then fine.
I'd just have to make sure we didn't break under the weight of it.