Please Don't Leave Me

A Dangerous Mission: Journey to the Land of Waves

(Kazumi's P.O.V)


"Kazumi, I'm at point D"
"Sasuke, I'm at point B"
"Sakura, I'm at point C"
"Naruto, I'm at point A, believe it" we said in our comms.
"You're slow Naruto" said Kakashi
"Ok, squad seven"
"Hm?"
"Target has moved! Follow it!"
"Over there" whispered Naruto as we all got closer to capture our target
"What's your distance from the target?" he asked
"5 meters, I'm ready just give the signal" he said
"I'm ready too" said Sasuke
"So am I" said Sakura
"Kazumi?" he asked
"Hm?" I asked
"Ok.......NOW!" he said as a figure lunged at me and almost got an attack on me but I kicked it in the face and it tumbled to the ground. I finally saw that it was Naruto who was on the ground holding his chin where I kicked him and rolling on the ground.
"Oh, sorry Naruto" I apologized helping him stand up to his feet
"Owww..I'm ok.." he said getting up seeing the cat in my arms
"When did you get the target?" he asked loudly
"When you were preparing" I said petting it behind it's ear making him purr in delight
"Grrrr...stupid cat" he said
"Want to hold him?" I asked and when he reached out to touch the cat. The cat pounced on him scratching him and almost stomping him into the ground harder than I accidentally did.
"Did you verify ribbon? Right ear?" he asked
"Affirmative, we got a positive ID" said Sasuke in his comm.
"Right, lost pet Tora captured. Mission accomplished" he said as Naruto plucked the cat off him and gave him back to me who jumped on my shoulders hissing at him until he nuzzled me under my chin.
"CAN'T WE GET A BETTER MISSION THAN THIS?! I HATE CATS!!" yelled Naruto in the comm. I ripped the ear piece off my ear and put it in my pocket almost killing my ear drum in the process. Sasuke took the cat from my shoulders which the cat hissed at him at first but he didn't care and plucked him off me. We met up with Kakashi holding his ear from Naruto's yelling and walked to the Hokage building.

When we got there, a fat lady was fiddling with her fingers and she looked upset but Sasuke walked up to her and put the cat in front of her face as the poor cat was struggling to get away. When she saw the cat her face lit up and began squishing it to death making the cat yowl in pain.
"Oh, my poor little Tora, mommy was so worried about her naughty little fuzzykinz, yes" she said nuzzling him even more. I truly felt sorry for that poor cat, he must be suffocating right now.
"Hahahaha, stupid cat. That kitty deserves to be squashed" said Naruto as I elbowed him in his ribs to make him stop talking
"No wonder he ran away" murmured Sakura
"Now then, for squad 7's next mission. We have several available tasks. Among them, babysitting the chief counselor's 3 year old. Helping his wife to do the shopping. Digging up potatoes in--"
"Nooooo" complained Naruto crossing his arms in an X
"I wanna go on a real mission, something challenging and exciting, not this little kid stuff. Come on old man" he said to him while I sighed at his behavior. Usually you don't refer to Lord Hokage as an old man, but Naruto's too dense to realize not to do that. It's harsh but it's the truth.
"How dare you! You're just a brand new genin with no experience! Like everyone else, you start with simple missions to developed your skills and improve yourself!" yelled Iruka sensei standing up from his chair.
"Are you serious?! Babysitting is not a mission, it's just a stupid--" he shouted getting hit upside the head by Kakashi.
"Will you put a lid on it?" he asked as Naruto face planted into the floor
"Naruto. It seems you do not understand the tasks you have been given. Listen, many different kinds of requests come into our village every day. From babysitting to assassinations, these requests are carefully recorded, analyzed, then ranked A, B, C, or D. Depending on their difficulty, we ninja are also ranked by ability. Hokage at the top, jounin, chunin, and genin at the bottom. At the highest level, we select the missions and assign them to ninja who have the appropriate skill and experience. And if the mission is successful, we receive a fee that supports our village and our work. Since you are untrained genin, just starting down the shinobi path, you are given D-level assignments of course. Hm?" he explained seeing Naruto not even paying attention.
"So I had this tunkatsu ramen yesterday, and I'm thinking miso ramen today--" he said
"Silence!" yelled the Hokage
"Oh, sorry" said Kakashi
"Ah! You always lecture me like you're my grandfather or something. But I'm not the little brat who used to pull pranks all the time. I'm a ninja now! And I want a ninja mission!!" he said turning away with his arms crossed and puffing his cheeks in annoyance.
"Hmm, I'm going to hear about this later" said Kakashi rubbing the back of his head. After about a minute of thinking the Hokage made a decision.


"So be it, since you are so determined, I'm going to give you a C-ranked mission. You'll be bodyguards on a journey" he said smirking
"Really? Yea! Who? Who? Are we guarding a princess? Or some big counselor?" he asked excited
"Don't be so impatient. I will bring him in now. Send in our visitor" he said as one of the guys left and about a minute later, an old man came through the door and you could almost smell the booze from where we were.
"What the? A bunch of snot nosed kids? And you, the little one with the idiotic look on your face, you really expect me to believe you're a ninja?" he asked slurring a bit being somewhat drunk.
"Hahaha, who's the little one with the idiotic look on his..." he said as we all lined up with me and Sasuke being the same height and then Sakura and finally Naruto.
"I'll demolish you!!" he yelled trying to attack as Kakashi held him back by the collar of his shirt
"You can't demolish the client Naruto, it doesn't work that way" he said
"I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder and I must return to my country. I'm building a bridge there that will change our world and I expect you safely, even if it means giving up your life" he said as we nodded.
"Ok, good. Everyone, meet at the exit of Konoha in about an hour and we'll get going" said Kakashi and Sasuke and I headed back to the Uchiha compound and grabbed a bag to pack all the necessities of our travel. We met up at the bridge about a half an hour later with everyone ready to go.

"Yeah!! All right!!" yelled Naruto
"What are you getting so excited about Naruto?" asked Sakura
"This is the first time I ever left the village. I'm a traveler now, believe it" he said looking in different directions
"Hey! Am I supposed to trust my life to this runt? He's a joke" he said making Naruto stop in his tracks
"He's with me and I'm a jounin, so you don't need to worry" Kakashi said as we all looked at the very ticked off Naruto
"HEY! Never insult a ninja, it's a big mistake and I'm one of the greatest ninja ever! Someday, I'll be a Hokage and you'll look up to me! My name's Naruto Uzumaki! Remember it!!" he yelled pointing his finger at Tazuna
"Hokage, a powerful and wise. You are puny and brainless. The day you become Hokage is the day I'll sprout wings and fly" he responded taking another gulp of his booze.
"Ahh! Shut up!! I'm willing to anything to become Hokage! No matter what it takes! And when I do, everyone will have to admit that I'm the top ninja including you!!" he yelled annoyed
"Heh, you can become Hokage many times over, to me you'll be nobody, a loser" he said
"I'm gonna make you pay for that 'runt' thing" he yelled getting held back again by Kakashi
"I told you you're supposed to protect the client, not attack him" he said

We walked for a little while and I zoned out for a bit because when I looked back, Kakashi was in chains and got pulled on by enemy ninja tearing him to shreds. I knew he probably used the substitution jutsu but it did scare me.
"Ka-Kakashi sensei!!" yelled Naruto as Sakura screamed in fear.
"Now it's your turn" one of them said as they got out their chains again and Naurto froze in fear and I jumped in and kicked one to the side.
"You little brat!" said his partner aiming both of them aiming their chains at me as I didn't move an inch, it was two feet from my face and the chain was pinned to a tree with a shuriken and a kunai pinning that down to keep it from moving. Sasuke kicked the one on the right and I got the left sending them in opposite directions. He stood up again and charged at me as I grabbed my sword off my back and slashed his arm claw coming down at me making a deep cut and kicked in the stomach but before he hit the ground I grabbed his shirt and head butted him, as he landed I kicked his face and he was sent flying face first into a tree knocking him out.
I could barely hear it but Sakura murmured to herself
"Wow, Kazumi is really strong. I'm kinda wishing I hadn't said she was weak"
Sasuke worked on the other and I grabbed a rope from my emergency bag and tied him to a tree while he was still down. His partner launched at Tazuna with Sakura protecting him and Sasuke jumping in at the last minute and was just about to stop him until Kakashi had him in a head lock and tied him to the tree I tied mine up.
"Hi" he said as I sweat dropped at him, but I was relieved knowing I was right about him being alive.
"Bu-but he was...what?!" asked Naruto confused as he saw the logs he placed when they attacked
"Naruto. Sorry I didn't help you right away, I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I just didn't think you'd freeze up like that" he said coming back to us.
"Good job, Sasuke and Kazumi. Very smooth. You too Sakura" he praised as I blushed, not used to being complimented by him. He doesn't praise very often.
"Hey" Sasuke said to Naruto
"Yeah?"
"You're not hurt are ya? Scaredy cat" he taunted as I nudged him to be quiet. He got the message but still had a big smirk on his face
"Grrrrr....Sasuke!" he yelled
"Naruto" said Kakashi
"Stand still. These ninja have poison in their claws, we need to take it out of you quickly. You have to open the wound and remove it, it's in your blood so don't move around. That spreads the poison. By the way Mr. Tazuna" he said as Naruto began to panic
"Yeah, what?" he questioned
"We need to talk. They're chunin from the village hidden in the mist. Their specialty is relentless attack, they keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice" he said as they glared at him through their masks meaning my guy finally woke up.
"How did you know about our ambush?" one of them asked keeping his gaze away from me in fear
"A puddle on a clear day? When it hasn't rained in weeks?"
"In that case, why'd you leave it for the genin to do the fighting?" asked Tazuna
"I could have taken them out quickly, but then I'd have learned nothing. I had to know who their target was. And what they were after"
"Hm? What are you getting at?" he asked defensively
"This. I wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja. Or, if they were after you, the master bridge builder. When you put in your request, you asked for standard protection from robbers and highway men. You didn't say there were ninja looking for you, hunting you down. If we knew this, it would be a B-rank mission or higher. Our task was simply to get you to your destination, and protect you while you finished building your bridge. If we knew we'd be fielding attacks enemy ninja we would have staffed differently, and charged for the cost of a B mission. Apparently you have your reasons. But lying to us is not acceptable. We are now beyond the scope of this mission" he said looking at him seriously.
"We're genin, this is too advanced for our level of training. We should go back. and I really think we need to treat Naruto's wound and get the poison out as soon as possible, back in our village we can take him to a doctor" Sakura said sweetly
"Hmmmm, Naruto's hand could become a problem. I guess we should go back to the village" he said as Naruto growled at him. He took a kunai and stuck it in his hand and I looked at him worried about how hurt he was.
"Why am I so different? Why am I always...Grr!"
"Naruto, stop that. What are you doing?" asked Sakura
"I worked so hard to get here, pushing myself until it hurt. Training alone for hours, anything to get stronger, to reach my dream. I will never back down again, and let someone else rescue me. I will never run away. And I will not lose to Sasuke. Upon this wound, I make this pledge. Believe it. Bridge builder, I'll complete this mission and protect you from this kunai knife. A real ninja never gives up and neither will I. Don't you guys worry about me, I'll be fine, now let's go" he finished as we all looked at him shocked but I smiled knowing he was at least getting stronger and stronger. You've come a long way, Naruto.
"Naruto, uhh, that was really cool how you took the poison out and all, but if you lose any more blood, you're going to die" he said and Naruto began to freak out more.
'Way to ruin the moment sensei' I thought sweat dropping
"Good idea to stop the bleeding now, seriously" he said smiling
"No! No! No! I'm too young for it to all end like this!! No! No! No!" he yelled flailing his arms around
"I can handle this one, I have some medical wraps in my bag" I said opening my bag
"Ok, ok!! Hurry!!" yelled Naruto panicked even more than a few minutes ago. But when I started wrapping, it was healing on its own. I kept going but I was curious about that, and wondering if it had to do with the tailed beast inside of him.
After we all got up and started walking Naruto noticed something and stopped in his tracks
"What the?! Kazumi, are you ok?!" he yelled coming up to me and I looked at him confused
"Huh?" I asked as everyone came up behind him
"Kazumi, you have blood on your clothes! Are you feeling alright?! Why didn't you bandage it up!" yelled Sakura but I was still confused as I looked down and saw there was blood on my clothes, but I didn't get hurt. Then I realized.
"Oh, this isn't my blood. It's probably the enemy ninja's" I said as most of them stared at me with jaws slacked
"What?" I asked
"You killed him?!" everyone except Kakashi sensei yelled at me
"No, but I cut him along his arm and his blood probably splattered on me" I said turning away
"Kazumi can be scary even when she doesn't want to be" mumbled Naruto
"No kidding" mumbled Sakura as Sasuke just smirked at me.

We rented a boat and we rode in silence until I got bored and sang quietly to myself.

Dancing bears
Painted wings
Things I almost remember
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December

Someone holds me safe and warm
Horses prance through a silver storm
Figures dancing gracefully across my memory


Someone holds me safe and warm
Horses prance through a silver storm
Figures dancing gracefully across my memory


Far away
Long ago
Glowing dim as an ember
Things my heart used to know
Things it yearns to remember

And a song someone sings
Once upon a Dece~em~ber


When I was done I realized everyone was really quiet and when I looked back everyone was looking at me either in shock or in peace from the song and I blushed looking away from them knowing they heard my song and the rest of the boat ride was silent with the occasional glances from the others.