Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 20 - Fight for the Bridge

Fight for the Bridge

Inside the house Naruto was waiting for the report of his second, disguised shadow clone. When it dispelled when the Iwa team left, he turned to his team-mates and sensei.

"Well, they have decided that trying to wear down the seals won't do them any good and that it would be suicide to try and take us out after spending that much chakra on taking out the lightning seals. They intend to inform the Tsuchikage about Konoha having an Uzumaki skilled with seals in the ranks and about a new assassination expert, though they are not sure if it is one of us or someone else. The problem is they want to destroy the bridge before they go. And I can't make enough seals in time to protect the bridge." Naruto said grumbling, annoyed that he hadn't taken that possibility into account earlier on.

"So that's their last plan to get us out in the open. Our mission is to protect Tazuna until the bridge is finished. If he needs to start from scratch again, even if we take out Gato, that will cost us too much time. We will have to fight then. Sasuke, Sakura, have you loaded the chakra storage seals like I told you?" Kakashi asked looking at both of them questioningly.

Both nodded.

"Good. Sakura, you will prepare for being Sasuke's backup when he takes out as many thugs in the village as he can. I want you to get rid of them. Try conserving chakra if you can. No normal thug will be able to get through the seals here so Tazuna and his family are safe as long as they stay here. Sasuke, do you think you can take them out without me or Naruto backing you up? It will be your first kills." Kakashi asked.

"I can do it, sensei." Sasuke said confidently, silently pleased that his sensei would entrust him such a mission with only Sakura as backup.

While he would have preferred to test his strength against ninjas he had realised in their team training that he was a good distance away from being on the same level as Naruto and Kakashi. Knowing that Naruto was basically a jonin just without the experience required to get that rank was irking him to no end, but instead of complaining he would simply train as hard as he could and close the gap over time. One day he would be as strong as Naruto and after that Itachi would be the next one he took on. For now Naruto made a good levelling board to see how far he still had to go.

"Good. Don't hesitate. The thugs won't be a problem if you get them in smaller numbers, but be careful if you have more than ten at once. Sakura, I want you to aim to kill with thrown weapons. That should be the best way for you to help at the moment. Without me or Naruto being there in an emergency I want you to wait with close combat with bigger groups if you can avoid it." Kakashi declared sternly.

"Understood, sensei." Sakura said.

Naruto pulled up a mask over his lower face to completely disguise his most memorable features.

"Are you trying to copy sensei now, Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"No, I just can be identified too easily from the whisker marks on my face. We want to prevent Iwa getting too much information on me too early on. That they know that I'm an Uzumaki and skilled in fuinjutsu is already too much to know about me, but that couldn't be prevented. They don't need to get a good picture for their bingo books right now. I don't know if we can take them out or if they will escape, but the fight at the bridge if we want to prevent it from being destroyed will be hard. The less they know the better it will be." Naruto informed the others.

"Why wouldn't you want to be known out there? It will give you more respect." Sasuke asked confused.

"It is too early. I need more mission experience. If Iwa sees me as a threat too early on, it wouldn't do me any good. I have the skills, but not the experience to take on a strong fighter. As long as they underestimate me, I can get easier wins. Being a good ninja isn't about flashy jutsus, it's about getting the mission done efficiently. You don't want to fulfil a mission but have your team heavily injured or killed. That looks extremely bad in your record. And that can happen if you are seen as too big a threat to other villages. Ask Kakashi sensei, he went through that." Naruto replied neutrally already going into mission mode.