Two in the afternoon.
At the Forest of the Land of Fire's border, sunlight shot down like arrows, piercing the dense canopy and scattering flickering fragments of gold across the cool, moss-damp ground. Deeper inside, branches and leaves wove into a dark green curtain, leaving only a few restless points of light to dance.
"So boring!"
Naruto trudged at the very front, eyelids drooping, both hands laced behind his head. The arm with his Leaf forehead protector was raised behind him, forming a neat inverted triangle.
Sasuke walked a step behind on the left flank, alert, eyes sweeping the surroundings. Kakashi and Tazuna stayed in the center. Konome Taketori, moving at an unhurried pace, followed behind them.
The five of them traveled along a bare yellow dirt road. Everyone except Konome already had sweat on their foreheads.
"How can there not be a single beast?" Sasuke muttered, rubbing the guard on his forearm, baffled.
For days now, there had been nothing. No ninja ambushes, no bandits, no wild animals. This escort mission felt like a countryside outing. The more thrilling an A-rank was supposed to be, the more mind-numbingly dull reality became.
He had not even had a chance to pull out a single piece of ninja gear. The forest was quiet in a way that felt wrong. Not only were there no predators, even poisonous insects were rare. Even if this road saw travelers often, it should not be this clean.
Kakashi kept one hand in his pocket, narrowing his dead-fish eyes to dodge the glare.
He had seen something like this once, three years ago.
Stray cats and dogs near the Hatake compound had vanished. Not even a sparrow remained. He had suspected some kind of jutsu, but even after secretly checking with his Sharingan, he had not seen any trace of chakra. In the end, he had been forced to let it go.
Now, it clicked.
Kakashi glanced back at Konome walking behind them with effortless grace.
Naruto and Sasuke definitely did not have this kind of ability. He and Tazuna were even less likely. This strange "cleanliness" was almost certainly Konome's influence.
"You're making a fuss over nothing. No danger is a good thing, isn't it? Save your strength and beat the hell out of that bastard Gatō once we reach the Land of Waves. And if you can't handle his ninja, don't expect me to pay!"
Tazuna tipped his gourd up with his mouth wide open. A single drop clung to the narrow mouth of the gourd, trembling, refusing to fall. Watching it was painful.
"Tch. You're the stingiest, worst client I've ever seen," Naruto grumbled loudly from the front.
Tazuna pretended not to hear.
The sake was long gone, and the water he had refilled it with was down to this last stubborn drop. When it refused to pour, he peeled away from the group and jogged over to Konome. Even his arrogant face cracked into a smile.
"Miss Konome, there's no water again!"
So that was why the old man was not arguing with Naruto. He needed something.
Konome nodded and took the gourd.
She tilted its narrow mouth toward the sky. The air rippled faintly. A moment later, moisture gathered like a spring bubbling up from nowhere.
Glug glug.
Clear dew sloshed inside the gourd, making that maddeningly refreshing sound that made throats ache.
Tazuna swallowed hard, his dry throat rolling. He shook his head in wonder. "Water Release shinobi really are convenient."
The Land of Waves was called a "country," but in truth it was an island nation in the sea between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water. Small population, little land, harsh living.
Only islanders who lived with the ocean understood how precious the ability to create clean fresh water at any time truly was. Out at sea, someone with that skill would be treated like an ancestor by any captain.
"You've seen other Water Release shinobi?" Konome asked, handing the filled gourd back, curiosity rising.
Nature transformations were common knowledge among shinobi, but not something a bridge builder from the Land of Waves should casually know. If Tazuna said it so naturally, he had definitely met Water Release users, and likely more than once.
"We used to have shinobi in the Land of Waves too." Tazuna took the gourd and chugged hard. The faint emotional lights above him carried pride, and also a trace of loneliness and regret.
"If it weren't for his help, the bridge we're building would've been destroyed by Gatō long ago. We never could've gathered enough money to come to Konoha and post this mission. But…" He stopped, swallowing the rest of his words, cautious.
"But what?" Konome's interest sharpened.
The original story never mentioned shinobi in the Land of Waves, and the great bridge was only completed after the mission. This "someone" was clearly the key reason the mission's rank had risen.
"Watch out!"
Sasuke's shout exploded from the front.
Two pitch-black figures burst silently from the bare dirt road itself.
They moved like fish swimming through earth, and in an instant they were beside Konome and Tazuna.
Shing!
Steel cleared sheaths.
The two attackers drew curved blades at the same time. Under the blazing sun, it looked as if two moons had risen. Moonlight flashed toward their throats. The edges were narrow and cold, and a thick liquid gleamed along the metal. One glance told you it meant instant death.
Tazuna froze.
The gourd slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a dull clack. His whole body shook like a sieve, too slow even to try dodging.
He could only turn pleading eyes to Konome, the closest shinobi to him, praying that the ninja he had paid a fortune for would save his life.
But Konome looked even worse than he did.
She did not move at all, as if she had already offered her neck to the blade.
Ahead, Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke stood still, not even rushing to help.
A deep regret flickered in Tazuna's eyes.
Regret for believing the Hokage. Regret for wasting the entire village's savings to hire a team of useless ninja. If Konoha's famous shinobi were this weak, he should have gone to the Land of Water and hired Kirigakure ninja instead.
He was dead.
The two black-clad attackers, seeing both the girl and the target give up resistance, looked colder. Their crescent blades drew closer. Beneath their black masks, the corners of their mouths curled in cruelty.
They had tailed this group for three days. Their intelligence was clear.
The white-haired, one-eyed man guarding the center was the teacher and likely the strongest.
Next were the two boys scouting up front. Their steps were light, but their shoulders were steady, bodies always ready to explode into motion. They were clearly trained in taijutsu.
The easiest to kill was the blind girl at the rear.
Slow as a snail, and stupidly dressed in a kimono unsuitable for combat. If not for the small Water Release tricks she used to supply water, they would have thought she was some rich girl out for leisure.
A support-type shinobi, then. Maybe even a medical ninja.
Which made her even more important to kill first.
Eliminate the medic first. That was shinobi common sense.
They had been wondering how to kill the target near the white-haired man after finishing the girl, but the target had separated from the group for water and walked right into their hands.
A chance like this did not come twice. So they struck without hesitation.
"Die, Konoha trash!"
Veins bulged at their eyes. The blades sped up another notch. In one second, Konome and Tazuna's heads would roll.
But.
Bzzzz.
A faint wind stirred without warning.
Tazuna, drowning in hopeless regret, suddenly heard a sound near his ear. A hundred tiny hums, then a thousand, merging into one continuous roar, like a swarm of wild bees.
Wh… what is that?
His mind could barely form the question before the sight in front of him erased every thought.
Because the two attackers exploded.
Boom.
No warning. No flash. Only that endless buzzing.
Tazuna watched, eyes wide, as the two deadly ninja burst into a cloud of blood mist.
Clang.
Clatter.
The two crescent blades hit the ground, followed by Tazuna's pipe. The steel looked chewed through, riddled with holes like a honeycomb, but the heather-wood pipe was strangely intact.
"Th… that…"
Tazuna's mouth hung open. He did not even notice his pipe falling.
The stench of iron flooded his nose, turning his stomach.
He would swear on his bridge and his dignity.
That really was mist.
Flesh, bone, clothing, everything that made a human body, had been shredded in an instant into fibers finer than hair, drifting away on a wind that seemed to come from nowhere.
The sheer brutality of it was hard to describe.
There was a tale about the finest chefs in the Land of Fire, their knives honed for decades, who could slice tofu into threads thinner than hair without breaking its shape.
But if you placed that tofu into a basin of water and gave it a gentle shake, it would scatter at once into the water, like a puff of white catkins.
It looked like that.
"Don't worry. We'll protect you."
After using Wind Release to shred two idiots into mist, Konome saw her client on the verge of wetting himself. She patted his shoulder the way Kakashi did, trying to comfort him.
The moment her palm touched him, she knew something was wrong.
A white-lotus arm that weighed two and a half tons, even when it "lightly" patted.
"Gah!"
A teeth-grinding crack of bone, followed by Tazuna's howl, half pain and half horror, echoed through the forest.
His right shoulder twisted and collapsed instantly.
Konome yanked her hand back as if she had touched molten rock.
Up front, the three who had been watching with amused faces all went pale at once. Naruto and Sasuke sprinted over, supporting the badly injured Tazuna and lowering him to the ground.
Kakashi ran over too. He looked down at Tazuna's contorted shoulder, then at Konome, who stood with her hand tucked close and an awkward expression on her face. His silver hair looked even more disheveled as he raked his fingers through it.
"Are you trying to kill our client?"
"I forgot," Konome admitted, hands obediently folded at her sides, biting her lower lip.
He had looked terrified. She had only wanted to comfort him.
She had forgotten she could not physically touch ordinary people.
Whether she meant harm or kindness, the result was always the same.
She would have to rethink how she lived. From now on, she would use chakra to do everything whenever possible, minimizing direct contact between her body and the world.
In truth, she had already started doing it.
She opened doors with Wind Release, reinforced the road beneath her feet with Earth Release, drank by sending water directly to her mouth with Water Release, rarely using cups or containers.
She avoided touching people, and even avoided breathing directly at them, because her hot exhalations could scald.
She thought she had been careful enough.
Apparently, it still was not enough.
"Gah…" Tazuna's voice weakened as he lay on the ground.
A surge of adrenaline dulled the pain slightly.
"Tazuna-san is hurt this badly. What do we do?" Naruto asked, panic creeping in.
They had left in a hurry and brought no medical supplies. They were already near the border. There were no villages nearby, let alone a hospital that could handle a crushed bone.
Sasuke was calmer. He looked at the deformed shoulder and spoke bluntly.
"With an injury this bad, without a medical ninja, it can't be healed. If we mess up, Tazuna-san could be crippled for life. I suggest we return to Konoha first."
Naruto raked a hand through his hair in frustration.
Their first high-level mission, and they would go crawling back in humiliating failure. It was unbearable.
But they could not gamble with Tazuna's arm. No matter how bitter it felt, they had to go back.
"Fine. We go back."
"Konoha might not even be able to treat this," Kakashi said, crouching to inspect the shoulder. His expression was grim.
"We need a medical ninja at the level of a true master. Otherwise, even if he survives, the aftereffects will be severe. But if we have a medic at least we can stabilize him and keep it from worsening. Maybe…"
"N… no!"
Tazuna, terrified, shot a glance at the silver-haired monster. He clenched his teeth through the pain and looked at Kakashi.
"The Land of Waves is still in danger. If we go back…"
"If we don't, you won't be building bridges ever again."
Kakashi's words were cold, like a bucket of water dumped over Tazuna's head.
He did not argue. He simply stated the cruel reality.
A bridge builder who lost his dominant right arm was finished.
Konome looked down at the injured old man as well.
They had not spent long together, but every time Tazuna spoke of being a bridge builder, pride spilled from him like light. If he could never build again, the blow might be as devastating as telling Rock Lee to give up becoming a ninja.
"It's fine!"
To Konome's surprise, Tazuna did not hesitate at all. He used his remaining arm to force himself upright.
"I'm building that bridge so the Land of Waves can stop being poor. But if Gatō controls the country and we're on the brink of collapse, then building a hundred bridges means nothing."
"I know you're strong. I was wrong before. Please… please defeat Gatō's people!"
"Tazuna-san…" Naruto's throat tightened.
Even after being injured by Konome's mistake, Tazuna had not cursed them once. He only begged.
Naruto clenched his teeth hard.
"I promise. I'll help you take Gatō down!"
Sasuke and Kakashi's eyes softened too. That kind of resolve moved even them.
"Leave it to Team 7."
"Gatō's dead."
Everyone spoke at once, heated and fierce, as if they were already tearing the villain to pieces.
"Ahem…"
As all those emotional gazes turned toward her, the true culprit lifted a hand awkwardly.
"I think I forgot to tell you… I'm also a medical ninja."
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