Aimi Uzumaki

chapter 18

~Aimi's POV~

Sasuke reacted before I could. He rushed forward and jumped in the air, throwing a shuriken that caught a link in the chain, causing it to lose its trajectory and miss Naruto by centimeters. The shuriken stuck to the trunk of a tree, with the chain in between and Sasuke threw a kunai in the hole of the shuriken for good measure. He landed on the outstretched arms and, leaning over and holding their arms for leverage, kicked both of their faces at the same time.

I scoffed. 'Show off.'

Suddenly, one of the demon brothers released the chain from their casing and rushed towards Tazuna with a metal claw hand outstretched to him.

Sakura and I immediately jumped in front of him, kunai in hand. Then Sasuke appeared in front of us, arms spread out as if to protect us. But I knew he was trying to protect Tazuna and complete the mission. He probably thought we couldn't protect Tazuna ourselves. Okay maybe Sakura can't, but I can!

My eyes narrowed and I lunged left then forward towards the chūnin. I dodged the claw, ducking left and as the ninja passed by me, I lifted my leg, pumping a small amount of chakra into my heel, enough to knock him down in a roundhouse kick to his back. He was knocked forward and he collided face first into a tree. Hard.

He slid to the ground on his stomach, unconscious. I straightened up and calmly turned back, looking for the other enemy. He was in a headlock in Kakashi-sensei's arm, unconscious.

'Why am I not surprised?'

"Great job, Aimi," Kakashi-sensei said to me before turning to Sasuke, who stared at me in shock, and Sakura. "You too Sasuke, Sakura." I nodded and Kakashi-sensei turned to Naruto-nii with the other demon brother still unconscious in his arms. "Sorry Naruto. I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I just didn't think you would freeze up like that."

"Hey, you alright Mr. Scaredy cat?" Sasuke said making nii-san angry, but Kakashi-sensei spoke before he could do anything.

"Naruto, save it for later. Their claws are soaked in poison. We have to remove it quickly. We must open up the wound and release the poisoned blood from your body. Don't move much, or the poison will spread through your body." Kakashi explained. "Tazuna-san." He called.

"W-what is it?" Tazuna asked nervously.

"I need to talk to you." Kakashi said. "These are chūnin-class ninja from the hidden village of the mist. They are ninjas known to keep fighting no matter what."

"How did you read our movements?" One of the demon brothers asked.

"On a sunny day like this when it hasn't rained in days a water puddle shouldn't exist." Kakashi said.

"Why did you let the brats fight when you knew that?" Tazuna asked.

"If I'd wanted to I could've killed these two instantly, but there was something I needed to find out... Who they were after."

"What do you mean?"

"Meaning, were they after you or one of us? We haven't heard that there are shinobis after you. Our mission was to simply protect you from thieves or gangs. This has now become at least a B-rank mission. This was supposed to be simple protection until you complete the bridge. If it was known that ninjas were after you. This mission would've been an expensive B-rank. I'm sure you have a reason, but it causes problems when you lie about the mission details. We are now operating outside of our duties." Kakashi said.

"We aren't ready for this mission. Let's quit! We will need medicine for Naruto's wound. We should go back to the village and take him to a doctor." Sakura said.

"Hm, this might be too much. I guess we should return to the village to treat Naruto."

Hearing this nii-san took out his kunai and stabbed himself in his wound. Blood splattered everywhere and dripped to the floor off his hand.

"Upon this wound, I swear that I will never need to be saved by someone else anymore. I will not back down from a fight. This is my oath, my Oath of Pain. With this kunai, I promise. I'll protect the old man. We're continuing the mission."

"Naruto, that was really cool how you took out all the poison, but if you don't stop losing blood, you'll bleed to death." Kakashi-sensei explained lazily.

Naruto-nii began to freak out, exclaiming that he is to young to die. I walked towards him and grabbed his wounded hand. I could tell everyone was looking at me in curiosity, but I just ignored it as my hands started to glow a minty-green. After I finished healing him, I wrapped a bandage around his hand just in case.

"Am I going to be okay?"

"You're going to be fine, nii-san." I said giving him a reassuring smile.

"Sensei..." Kakashi-sensei looked at Tazuna. "I have to talk to you. It's about this mission. You're right this job is most likely outside of your duties. It turns out that a super dangerous man is after my life."

"Super dangerous man? Who?" Kakashi-sensei asked.

"You've probably at least heard his name before. The wealthy shipping magnate... A man named Gatou."

'Gatou?! I dealt with him when I was still in ANBU! That pipsqueak is going to get it this time, 'ttebane!'

"Huh?! Gatou... from that Gatou company? He's said to be the world's few extremely wealthy people." Kakashi-sensei said.

"Yes, officially he runs a large shipping company, but, secretly he sells drugs and other illegal items using ninjas and gang members to take over businesses and countries. He's a very nasty man. It was about a year ago when he set his eyes on the wave country. Through money and violence, he quickly took control of the country's shipping industry. Gatou now has a monopoly on all business​ traffic in the country. The only thing he has to fear now is the completion of the bridge." Tazuna said.

"I see, since you're building the building the bridge you're in the way." Sakura said.

"So those ninjas were hired by Gatou?" Sasuke asked.

"But, what I don't understand is... If you knew ninjas could be after you... Why did you hide that fact when you hired us?" Kakashi-sensei asked.

"The wave country is super poor. Even the feudal Lord has no money. Of course, we don't have much money either... Not enough for the expensive B-rank mission." Tazuna explained. "Well if you quit the mission now I will definitely be killed, but don't worry about it!! If I die, my cute 10 year old grandson will just cry for a few days!!" I sweat dropped. "Oh yeah, and my daughter will live a sad life hating leaf village ninjas forever. But it won't be your fault. Not at all!!"

"Well, I guess we have no choice. We will protect you at least until you get back to your country." Kakashi-sensei said and Tazuna gained a smug look making me sweat drop again.