The next morning, we were called in early.
Naruto had bedhead. Sasuke looked like he hadn't slept at all. I left Tora the cat sleeping in my bed—she refused to go home.
Kakashi stood in front of us, arms crossed, unusually sharp-eyed.
"We've been assigned a new mission."
Naruto brightened. "Finally! Something real, right?!"
Kakashi's gaze flicked to him.
"It's listed as C-rank. Escort. But… stay alert."
That was the first warning.
---
Our client was a hunched, grumpy old man who reeked of rice wine and sarcasm.
Tazuna. A bridge builder from the Land of Waves.
"Great. They send me children. One's loud, one's brooding, and the third looks like he moonlights as a gym mascot."
Naruto: "HEY!"
Me: "You're not wrong."
He snorted. "Just don't die before we reach Nami no Kuni."
He said it like a joke.
But there was something in his eyes.
Something tired. And scared.
---
The road out of the village was quiet.
Too quiet.
I hate clichés. But it was.
Sasuke walked ahead, sharp-eyed. Naruto hung near the middle, humming. I kept to the back, hand on my pouch, heart beating just a bit too fast.
> System Alert:
Danger Level: Moderate
Passive Skill "Instinct Boost" Activated.
We passed a puddle.
In the middle of a dry road.
No rain for days.
"Trap," I muttered.
Then all hell broke loose.
---
Two shinobi erupted from the puddle—masked, fast, brutal.
The Demon Brothers.
One swung a clawed gauntlet. The other lashed chains.
Naruto froze. Sasuke moved. I surged forward.
Steel clashed. I blocked the first strike but stumbled. Sasuke cut one across the arm, fast and precise.
Naruto tripped—literally—and barely avoided a chain to the face.
Kakashi appeared a second later.
Too late.
But it didn't matter.
Because we handled it.
Kakashi made quick work of tying them up afterward. But his eye narrowed.
"This wasn't supposed to be part of a C-rank mission."
---
Later, by the campfire, Kakashi confronted Tazuna.
"You lied."
Tazuna didn't deny it.
He just looked old. Small. Guilty.
"My village is dying," he said. "The man who rules it—Gato—he's no merchant. He's a monster. I couldn't afford a higher-ranked mission… but if I didn't build that bridge, we'll all starve."
Silence.
Naruto looked down.
Sasuke stared into the fire.
I clenched my fist.
Gato.
I remembered that name.
From the show. From before.
But it didn't feel like fiction anymore.
It felt real.
These people could die. Would die.
Unless we stopped it.
---
Later, as we rested under the stars again, Naruto whispered, "I froze."
"You moved," I said.
"Barely. You and Sasuke… you're strong. I just got lucky."
I sat up.
"Everyone gets scared. Courage isn't the absence of fear, Naruto. It's choosing to move anyway."
He didn't say anything for a while.
Then: "I wanna be strong enough that no one ever gets hurt because of me."
"You will be," I said. "But it starts here."