The road was wet. It had been raining for three days, not hard, just enough to turn the dirt to mud and soak through the hems of their pants and make everything smell like wet earth and rotting leaves. The trees on either side of the path were tall and thick and grey with moss. The mist hung low over everything, white and soft and somehow heavier than air should be.
Team Seven had been walking for hours. Tazuna led the way, his sandals squelching with each step. Kakashi followed close behind him, one hand in his pocket, the other holding his book. Naruto came next, his hands in his jacket pockets, his eyes half closed. Sasuke walked beside him, silent and watchful. Sakura brought up the rear, her pink hair bright against the grey of the forest.
Tazuna was talking. He had been talking for a while. Something about the bridge. Something about trade routes. Something about connecting the islands to the mainland and bringing prosperity to the people of the Land of Waves. His voice was cheerful. Almost rehearsed.
Naruto sighed.
The sound was quiet. Almost lost in the damp air. But Sakura heard it. She glanced at him. His face was blank. His eyes were scanning the trees. Not looking at anything in particular. Just looking. The way you look at something out of habit. The way you look when you are not expecting to find anything.
"So anyway," Tazuna said, "the bridge will really open things up. More ships. More business. More money coming in. The people are excited. Very excited."
Naruto sighed again. Louder this time.
Sakura frowned. "What is your problem?"
"Nothing."
"You sighed."
"I breathed out. There is a difference."
Sasuke's mouth twitched. Just a little. He did not say anything.
Kakashi turned a page in his book. His visible eye was on the page. Or seemed to be. Naruto noticed that the jonin's head was angled slightly toward the trees. Listening. Waiting.
The mist shifted.
Naruto felt it before he saw it. A change in the air. A drop in temperature. The kind of cold that did not come from the weather. The kind of cold that came from chakra. From intent. From someone watching.
He slowed his breathing. His hands came out of his pockets.
Sasuke noticed. His own hands moved toward his kunai pouch.
Kakashi kept reading. His eye did not leave the page.
The mist exploded.
Two figures emerged from the white. Fast. Silent. Chains extended from their hands, long and black and glinting with moisture. The chains wrapped around Kakashi before anyone could move. Once. Twice. Three times. The jonin's body went rigid. The chains tightened.
Blood sprayed.
Kakashi's body fell apart.
Not blood. Water. The chains had cut through a log. A substitution. Kakashi was already behind the chuunin, his kunai drawn, his visible eye cold and focused.
Naruto was already moving.
His kunai left his hand before his brain finished the thought. One blade. Two blades. Three. The first chuunin took one in the shoulder. The blade sank deep. The man grunted and staggered. The second chuunin dodged. Fast. Trained. He twisted his body and Naruto's kunai passed within a centimeter of his cheek.
Naruto closed the distance.
His fist connected with the second chuunin's chest. The impact was solid. Satisfying. Ribs cracked beneath his knuckles. The chuunin's eyes went wide. His mouth opened. No sound came out.
Naruto's hands came together. The signs were quick. Automatic. Five shadow clones appeared in bursts of smoke. They surrounded the wounded chuunin.
The chuunin tried to fight. He was good. Experienced. He took down two of the clones before the third got through his guard. A kunai found his throat. Another found his heart. The clones did not stop. They kept attacking. Stabbing. Cutting. The chuunin's body jerked and spasmed and then went still.
Naruto walked over to the body. He crouched down. He drew his blade across the neck. The head came off clean. He held it by the hair for a moment, looking at the dead face, the open eyes, the mouth frozen in a scream that never came out.
Then he dropped it.
The head hit the mud with a wet sound and rolled a few feet before stopping. Blood soaked into the earth. Dark red against the grey and the brown.
Sasuke stood over the other chuunin. The one Naruto had hit with the kunai. The man was on his back, bleeding from the shoulder, unconscious. Sasuke had his own blade at the man's throat. He had not needed to cut. The man was already down.
The clearing was silent.
Sakura's mouth was open. Her hands were at her sides. She was staring at the head. At the blood. At Naruto's blank face.
Sasuke's eyes were wide. He was looking at Naruto. Not at the head. At Naruto. At the way he stood. The way he breathed. The way he wiped his blade on the grass like he was cleaning a dish after a meal.
Kakashi's visible eye was frozen. His kunai was still in his hand. He had not needed to use it.
Tazuna had gone pale. His hands were shaking. He looked like he might be sick.
Naruto stood up. He looked at his hands. There was blood on his fingers. He wiped them on his pants. Then on the grass. Then on his pants again until they came clean.
He looked up at Kakashi. "What?"
Kakashi recovered first. He tucked his kunai away. He looked at the dead chuunin. The head. The blood. He looked at Naruto's blank face. His visible eye was unreadable.
"Good reflexes."
He turned to Sasuke. His voice was calm. Professional. "You reacted fast enough to disable yours. Good work."
He turned back to Naruto. "You reacted faster. But you did not need to kill him."
Naruto tilted his head. "He was a threat. Now he is not."
Kakashi held his gaze for a long moment. Then he nodded. Just once. He walked over to the surviving chuunin and crouched down. He slapped the man's face until his eyes fluttered open.
"Talk."
The chuunin looked at his brother's head. His face went white. His mouth opened. A man named Gatō. A bridge that threatened his business. An order to kill the bridge builder before the bridge could be finished.
Kakashi listened. His expression did not change. When the chuunin finished, he hit him again. The man went unconscious.
Kakashi stood up. He walked over to Tazuna. His voice was quiet. "You lied."
Tazuna's face was pale. His hands were still shaking. "I... I am sorry. I did not think..."
"You did not think." Kakashi's voice was still quiet. Still calm. "This mission should be A rank. Not C rank. More qualified shinobi would have been assigned. The cost would have been higher."
Tazuna looked down at the ground. "The Land of Waves is poor. Even the nobles cannot afford an A rank. If I had told the truth, no one would have come. The bridge would never be finished. My people would stay trapped."
Kakashi was silent for a moment. Then he turned to his students.
"We can continue. Or we can turn back. The choice is yours."
Sasuke looked at Naruto. Naruto looked at the head in the mud. Then he looked at Tazuna.
"We are already here."
His voice was flat. There was no emotion in it. No anger. No fear. No excitement. Just a statement of fact.
Sasuke nodded. "I am not turning back."
Sakura looked at both of them. She looked at Kakashi. She swallowed. "I... I will stay too."
Kakashi looked at his team. His visible eye was soft. Almost sad. "Alright then."
The mist was thicker now. The road ahead was barely visible. The trees on either side had disappeared into the white.
They continued walking. The head stayed where it had fallen. The body stayed where it had died. The blood soaked into the earth.
Behind them, the mist swallowed everything.
Naruto did not look back.
Sasuke watched him as they walked. The dead last. The class clown. The boy who could not pass a written exam. That boy had just cut off a man's head and not blinked. Sasuke had killed before. In training. In the academy. A rabbit once, for a lesson about anatomy. But not like this. Not with this coldness. He had not known Naruto could move like that. Fight like that. Kill like that.
He was surprised.
And intrigued.
Sakura could not stop thinking about the head. The way it rolled. The way the blood looked against the mud. The way Naruto held it by the hair like it was nothing. She should be scared. She was scared. But there was something else too. Something she did not have a name for. Something that made her keep looking at him. At his back. At his hands. At the way he walked with his shoulders straight and his head forward and his face completely blank.
She did not understand him.
She wanted to.
The mist grew thicker. The silence grew heavier. The road stretched ahead of them, white and grey and cold.
Tazuna did not speak again for a long time.
Next Time: Sneaking in to the land of waves