Chapter 22: The Deceit

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Dialogue

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 22: The Deceit

"One down, hehe!" The masked ninja said with a mocking tone, and his companion laughed.

They then moved quickly to ambush their next target, choosing Naruto because he was the closest and positioned in front of the old bridge builder, who was their real target. Everyone else was a bonus.

Naruto observed the two ninjas as they approached him. Their style seemed to rely heavily on teamwork. They both wore metallic gauntlets on opposite hands and had a metallic chain attached to them, which they used to trap their opponents by moving to each side, like they did to Kakashi.

Once their target had been tangled with the chain, they would each pull in opposite directions, ripping the person to shreds.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled when she saw the two enemies surround Naruto in the same way they just did to their teacher.

Sasuke did not waste time and reacted by jumping over the two ninjas, using a single kunai to snare the chain and pull it away. The kunai then impacted one of the nearby trees, getting the chain stuck along with it.

The black-haired genin followed this up by holding onto their gauntlets and kicking both of them in the face at the same time, sending them away from Naruto.

'Tsk…now you have pull them apart…' Naruto wanted to complain. He was planning on killing them together.

The two enemy ninjas did not seem to have suffered much damage from Sasuke's kick, so they just detached their gauntlets from the chain and divided their next attack.

One of them went for Sakura, and the other one rushed at Naruto.

He didn't have much trust in Sakura being able to handle an opponent of this level, but he was in an awkward position since their client was right behind him, so he could not move away.

Sasuke seemed to agree with his thoughts because he hurried to move towards the one in Sakura's direction, leaving Naruto to fend for himself.

'Oh well…I'm sure that Kakashi will intervene if those two are in danger. Let's deal with this guy first.'

"Die!" While yelling something stereotypical, the enemy ninja struck at Naruto with his metallic gauntlet. The fingers had sharp blades at the end of them, like the claws of a wild animal.

The man was fast, but his technique was nothing to brag about. The wide move made it easy for Naruto to get closer to him and block his gauntlet using only his forearm. He then used his free hand, armed with a kunai, to stab the ninja in his neck.

The ninja's eyes widened. He had certainly not expected a genin to not only block his attack but to counter him at such speeds.

Naruto had now secured the man's gauntlet at its base, so he could not pull back and was forced to use his only free hand to cover his bleeding neck as he would not even last a minute if he didn't.

This left him completely defenseless…and Naruto showed him no mercy.

His right hand moved like lightning, using the sharp kunai to stab the body of the enemy ninja over and over. His chest, his stomach, his liver…in less than five seconds, he had over two dozen new bleeding wounds.

"Ugg…" The man could not even scream in pain before collapsing on the ground, and just a moment later…he died.

He turned around and was not too surprised to find Kakashi holding the neck of the other enemy ninja under his arm. But that one seemed to be only unconscious.

Naruto then glanced at the old man, who was now staring back at him with frightened eyes. "Are you okay, Mister Tazuna?"

"W-what?" The old man took a step back. He still seemed to be a bit shocked by the bloody scene.

"I asked you if you have been injured." Naruto cleaned his kunai and stored it back in its pouch.

"N-no…I'm fine…thank you."

"Good job, Naruto." Kakashi told him. He knew that killing someone was just a matter of time for any new ninja. But he also recalled that the first time was hard. 'He seems to be holding well…' Kakashi noticed.

In fact, Sakura and Sasuke appeared to be more impacted by the death of that ninja than Naruto himself.

"You killed him?..." Sakura moved her eyes over the bloody corpse.

"I did." Naruto glanced back at Kakashi. "I hope this didn't affect whatever you were planning…I could not tell why you did that disappearing act. Was it a test for us or?..."

Kakashi shook his head. "This was no test for you. We are done with that. I was trying to find something out…and I think I did." He moved closer to the bridge builder. "These men…were going for you, weren't they?"

The old builder had a guilty expression on his face that no one failed to notice.

"Is that true?" Sasuke asked.

"You have ninjas going after your life? Why didn't you say anything?!" Sakura was outraged.

"Because of money…right?" Naruto asked.

Tazuna looked down. "I gave Konoha every last coin I had…a C-rank mission was the only thing I could afford."

"But aren't you a famous genius bridge builder? How can you be broke?" Sakura was very doubtful of the old man's words.

"Leaving aside your personal circumstances," Kakashi intervened. "You put my team in danger by making us believe this was an easy C-rank mission. If enemy ninjas are involved, the mission is upgraded immediately to B-rank and requires a minimum of three chuunin to take part in it." Kakashi glanced at the unconscious ninja in his arms. "Depending on who else has been hired…it could even be an A-rank mission."

"What? A-rank?!" Sakura exclaimed.

Even Sasuke had his eyes widened. This was more than he expected.

"Now we have to decide one thing…if we continue with this mission or not," Kakashi said.

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