The forest plunged into silence, broken only by the rustling of leaves and Tazuna's heavy breathing. The old bridge builder looked as if he had aged another ten years in the last five minutes. He leaned against a tree trunk, wiping sweat from his forehead with a shaking hand.
Kakashi Hatake stood before him, arms crossed over his chest. His single visible eye was cold and impenetrable.
"Gato," Tazuna said, and the name sounded like a curse. "Gato of Gato Company."
Naruto, standing slightly aside and checking his gear, froze. The name was familiar to him. Not from the Shinobi Academy, but from newspapers and reports he sometimes read while practicing information gathering. A shipping magnate. A man who bought countries, not conquered them.
"Gato?" Kakashi repeated, raising an eyebrow slightly. "One of the wealthiest men in the world?"
"Yes," Tazuna lowered his head. "He came to our country a year ago. At first, it looked like business. But then... he seized control of the sea routes. Of trade. Of our lives. Anyone who opposed him disappeared. The Land of Waves is now a prison island. We are starving. The children..." the old man's voice trembled, "the children have forgotten what hope is. The bridge is our only chance to break his monopoly. To connect us to the mainland. If the bridge is completed, Gato loses power."
He looked up at the Konoha shinobi. There were tears in his eyes, not from fear, but from hopelessness.
"I couldn't afford a B or A-rank mission. I simply don't have that kind of money. So I lied. If you leave now... I will be killed before I even get home. My grandson, Inari, will cry, and my daughter will curse the shinobi of Konoha for the rest of her days. But..." he sighed heavily, "it is your choice."
A heavy pause hung in the air.
Kakashi turned to his team. This was the moment of truth. Not a bell test, but a real moral and professional choice.
"The mission has gone beyond the agreed terms," the jonin said in an even, businesslike tone. "We have every right to return. You are genin. This is a task for experienced chunin or even jonin. The risk of death has risen from one percent to fifty."
He looked at Sakura. The girl was still pale. She had seen death a meter away from her. Her hands trembled, clutching the fabric of her dress. She should have said "no." Any reasonable person would have said "no."
Sakura looked up. She looked at Sasuke. The Uchiha stood turned away, staring into the depths of the forest, his shoulders tense as strings. Then she looked at Naruto.
Uzumaki stood as usual, absolutely unperturbed. No shadow of fear, no hint of panic. He simply listened, assessing the situation as if solving a complex but doable problem. This calmness... it was contagious. And at the same time, it caused her a burning sense of shame. He isn't afraid. Am I?
"I..." Sakura's voice trembled, but she clenched her fists. "I don't want to run away, sensei. If we leave, this man will die. Is that the ninja way?"
Kakashi nodded barely perceptibly and shifted his gaze to the Uchiha.
"Sasuke?"
Sasuke turned slowly. A grim fire burned in his eyes. Not heroism. It was wounded pride. Returning now meant admitting defeat. It meant that the only real fight was won by Naruto, and he, the elite, remained a spectator.
"Return?" he said quietly, almost with hatred. "And run from the first real threat? Don't make me laugh. I'm staying."
Kakashi's gaze settled on Naruto.
"And you?"
Naruto hid the kunai he was checking back in his pouch. He felt the flows of energy in the air—Tazuna's fear, tangible as sticky mud. But beneath that fear was something else. Hope. A weak, flickering spark.
As the future head of a clan, albeit a vanished one, Naruto understood the value of a word.
"We already took the mission," he answered simply. His voice sounded more mature than a twelve-year-old's should. "And this old man is right. To abandon him now means killing him with our own hands. That's not why I put on this protector."
Kakashi closed his eye in his signature smile, though beneath the mask, his face remained serious.
"Well then. Unanimous. Since that's the case, we continue."
...
The boat glided through the water almost soundlessly. The boatman hired by Tazuna didn't use a motor, fearing Gato's patrols. Only the quiet splash of oars broke the oppressive silence.
The fog thickened.
At first, it was a light haze over the water, but the further they advanced toward the island, the denser the white veil became. Visibility dropped to a couple of meters. The outlines of the huge unfinished bridge emerged through the gloom like the skeleton of a giant monster frozen over the strait.
Naruto sat at the bow of the boat, legs crossed. Outwardly he seemed relaxed, but inside him, continuous work was underway.
For an ordinary shinobi, this fog was just a weather phenomenon, perhaps a bit unnatural. For Naruto, practicing the path of cultivation, this fog "radiated."
He closed his eyes, activating Qi Sensory.
The world changed. Visual images vanished, giving way to energy perception. His comrades' chakra burned with bright lights: Sasuke's steady, cold fire; Sakura's flickering, unstable flame; and Kakashi's calm but bright fire.
And around...
The fog wasn't empty. It was saturated with chakra. Someone was intentionally saturating the water with their energy, creating a perfect curtain. This wasn't a natural anomaly; it was a predator's territory.
"The fog is very thick," Sakura whispered, looking around nervously. It seemed to her that eyes were watching her from the white mist.
"Hush," the boatman hissed. "We are almost at the shore. If we are spotted..."
Naruto frowned. His sensory perception picked up a disturbance.
It was like a cold draft in a warm room. Somewhere ahead, in this milky void, something huge was moving. It wasn't just chakra. It was concentrated Sakki (Killing Intent).
It was cold, sticky, and incredibly sharp. It wasn't hiding. It was approaching with the confidence of an executioner.
The Fox inside chuckled.
Oh. And here is a real fish. Not like those two worms.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes. His pupils narrowed.
The enemy was already here.
"Sensei!" Naruto's voice cut through the silence, sharp and commanding, devoid of his usual childish tone. "Attack! From the right!"
Kakashi's hand moved along with his warning. He grabbed Tazuna by the collar and yanked him down.
"Down!" he barked at the others.
Sasuke and Sakura instinctively fell to the bottom of the boat.
In that same second, the air was torn by a whistling sound resembling the howl of a hurricane.
WHOOSH!
A huge, flat object flew over their heads, spinning at such speed that it turned into a blurred disc of death. The wind from its flight ruffled Naruto's hair, who ducked only as much as was necessary.
The sword—and it was a giant cleaver, the size of a man—slammed with a ringing crunch into the trunk of a tree on the shore where they were just docking.
The boat rocked from the shockwave.
On the hilt of the sword, like a ghost woven from the mist, a silhouette appeared.
A man stood with his back to them, balancing on the weapon with unnatural grace. He was naked to the waist, his face hidden by bandages, and on his forehead shone the Hidden Mist protector, crossed out by a horizontal line.
A wave of pressure emanated from him, so heavy that Sakura found it hard to breathe. The air became viscous, soaked with the smell of blood and steel.
The man slowly turned his head. His gaze was frighteningly calm, the gaze of a man who had killed more people than he had eaten meals.
"Oh..." the voice was low, vibrating like the rumble of distant thunder. "Copy Ninja Kakashi. A great honor."
He slid his gaze over the boat, ignoring the trembling Tazuna and the frozen Sakura. His eyes lingered for a second on Sasuke, noting his tension, and then stopped on Naruto.
The blond stood in the boat, already straightened up. He wasn't trembling. He looked at the man with the same cold analytical calm with which he had looked at the fog a minute ago.
"Good reaction," the stranger continued, a note of grim amusement in his voice. "Looks like your puppies have already cut their teeth, Kakashi. Especially this... blondie."
Kakashi slowly straightened up, stepping onto the shore. His hand smoothly rested on his kunai pouch.
"Zabuza Momochi," he said, his tone deadly serious. "Demon of the Hidden Mist."
Naruto shifted his body weight slightly, allowing Qi to begin circulating through the meridians of his legs.
The battle with the brothers had been a warm-up.
The real test was beginning now.
***
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