Sasuke was eager for combat—a test to match himself against. It was the next step on the long path to vengeance for his dead clan.

The village’s forehead protector gleamed in the sunlight, and he proudly displayed his clan’s sigil on his back as the only Uchiha worthy of the name. Kakashi and Shino took the front of the guard detail, and he and Sakura were placed on rear duty, sandwiching Tazuna between them.

After the initial questioning all those days ago, the old man was content to walk in silence, having long since finished his gourd full of alcohol. During the two weeks of travel, they’d stopped in nearby towns to rest whenever possible. Tazuna only found more booze, and the team restocked their supplies. When they couldn’t do so, they camped under the night sky.

Sasuke disliked the agonisingly slow pace when all of them—even Sakura—were capable of so much more. Still, his responsibility weighed on him, both as a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf and as the representative of his clan of one. His father’s lessons were always in the back of his mind, bloodstained, but there, so he bore it while paying attention to the old man and calling for breaks whenever he faltered.

“Hey, Sasuke?” His pink-haired teammate chirped, talking his ear off as she had been for the last twenty minutes. “We’re going to reach the Land of Waves soon. What do you think it’ll be like?”

Sasuke considered her question but eventually gave a noncommittal grunt—how was he to know? That said, Tazuna was leading the project to construct a bridge connecting the Land of Waves to the Land of Fire, so he was more well-off than the average person in his country but still looked as poor as the Leaf’s more deprived citizens.

It was a small bit of information, but perhaps it spoke of the country’s state as a whole. At the same time, he had travelled for the total duration of a month to and from the Land of Waves, so judging him by his appearance wouldn’t be all that accurate.

“Curb your expectations, kids,” Tazuna drawled. “The country’s a shithole, and my bridge is the only hope it has of a prosperous revival.”

“...Yeah, right,” Sakura muttered under her breath.

Inwardly, Sasuke couldn’t help but be sceptical of the old man’s capabilities as a craftsman, let alone a builder, but that was as far as he allowed his doubts to grow. The mission was simple: escort the old man back to the Land of Waves. Anything beyond that was not his concern and would be a waste of energy.

Sasuke frowned and looked up at what was presumably the bridge that Tazuna was responsible for. It was encased in so much fog that he could barely see the scaffolding and construction equipment. They kept close to the side of the bridge, using it as cover—but against what?

Or rather… whom?

“Mr Tazuna,” said Kakashi, speaking for the first time since they’d agreed to pay the ferryman an exorbitant amount of money to board his boat. “You and the ferryman look awfully tense. Is something the matter? Your behaviour is a little concerning. Whenever we raise our voices, you and the ferryman jump as if you’ve seen a ghost!”

He raised his voice to prove a point, only for the ferryman to flinch hard enough that the movement rocked the boat, sloshing foamy seawater against the sides. He looked around in what was probably a less discreet manner than before, but it was obvious to Sasuke that he was wary of something.

“That is suspicious indeed, sensei,” said Shino.

Kakashi nodded, reaching over to pat his hooded head. Shino folded his arms, staring at the ferryman through his glasses until the man looked away.

“There, there, Shino. No need to scare the man responsible for our transport.”

Sasuke decided that he had no such obligation—the ferryman needed his money, after all, and they'd insisted on only paying half the agreed price before boarding. He pulled out a kunai free and made a show of drumming the flat of the blade against his inner thigh. “You cut off the engine a while ago. Why? Rowing by hand is more tiring, not to mention inefficient… and you'd better be honest with me.”

Kakashi reached over, and Sasuke felt an even weight settle atop his head. He leaned away from it immediately, fixing his teacher with a fierce glare that he only laughed at.

“Hold on a minute,” Sakura reflexively raised her hand as she always did before stopping halfway with a sheepish smile, “it’s the middle of the day. Shouldn't people be working on the bridge?”

Kakashi ruffled Sakura's hair; she seemed the most happy with the gesture out of the three of them. “Those are all good questions either of you gentlemen would be happy to answer, wouldn't you?”

The ferryman looked straight on, leaving Tazuna to bear the brunt of Team 7’s stares.

Kakashi's face turned startlingly cold and was completely devoid of its previous humour. “Mr Tazuna, be completely honest with us, otherwise, my team and I are well within our rights to turn back. Is there something you haven’t made us aware of?”

The ferryman continued pretending he hadn’t heard Kakashi’s question, casting his gaze across the fog in search of threats he couldn't see. Tazuna stared down at his lap with a sigh. He took a swig from his gourd and wiped his mouth against his bare arm.

“Alright,” the old man coughed, “I’ll come clean—but no, I didn’t lie. More like I… stretched the truth a little.”

Kakashi's eye smile returned almost instantly, and his voice brightened. “How so, Mr Tazuna?”

“I indeed need your protection while journeying to my home, but it ain't for something as simple as protecting me from bandits and the usual low-lives. The Land of Waves doesn’t produce a lot of stuff, so I make routine trips to the Land of Fire to talk to suppliers and negotiate. I’ve needed to do a few more of those trips in recent months.”

Sasuke noticed the look the old man gave the bridge to their side. A strange mist overcame his eyes as he beheld it—his face was almost mournful.

“My country... it's being bled dry by a money-grubbing bastard,” he broke off with a derisive snort, “a highwayman to his rotten core. You'd have heard of him, I reckon—some big-shot international shipping magnate by the name of Gato.”

“As in the Gato Company?” Sakura asked with wide eyes. “What does he want with a country as small as the Land of Waves?”

“On the surface, he’s the boss of an international shipping company, but under it, he deals with gangs, ronin and shinobi to take over small countries and local businesses. Contraband, killing, kidnapping… there’s nothing that bastard won’t do if it means raking in more ryo.”

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Sasuke sat forward and already found himself frowning.

“Gato set his eyes on the Land of Waves about a year ago, using his massive wealth to get both feet in the door. Before we knew it, he’d taken over the country’s shipping and transport, which was when the violence began. Control over the sea is vital to an island nation like mine; it means control over the finance, politics, the people—it’s absolute power.”

“T-That’s terrible,” said Sakura, gasping.

“The only thing that leech fears is the completion of my bridge.” Tazuna shook his head. “I started building it about when he arrived and he’s tried to shut it down several times since.”

“Your bridge would end his monopoly of power,” said Shino. “Killing you would act as an example to others as well. So, you’ve become a hindrance to him, then.”

“That I have, kid.”

“If that’s the case,” said Sasuke, his brow furrowing, “why haven’t we run into anyone he’s hired? A man like Gato would want you dealt with as soon as possible, but it’s been… oddly quiet these past few weeks.”

Sakura looked over her shoulders nervously.

“It’s worrying, but there’s one more thing I’d like to ask, Mr Tazuna,” said Kakashi with a nod. “If you knew Gato uses shinobi, why didn’t you make that fact known to the village in your request? That would’ve got you a couple of chunin and a team of tokubetsu-jonin instead of my cute little genin.”

Sasuke immediately glared at him but didn’t say anything to the contrary—as much as it burned him to admit it, Kakashi was right. A tycoon like Gato could easily hire A-rank or even S-rank jonin if he didn’t care about throwing ryo out. Tazuna managing to get a team with an elite jonin like Kakashi happened by chance, and if it came down to it, he’d prioritise their lives rather than Tazuna’s.

It was against the shinobi code, but Kakashi’s career would eventually recover. The dead couldn’t be brought back. He’d been headstrong once and it lost him Obito and Rin. He wouldn’t add Sasuke, Sakura and Shino to that list.

Especially now that they’d learned of the old man’s dishonesty.

Under the right circumstances, a group of chunin and tokubetsu jonin could beat stronger enemies, but the same couldn’t be said about a group of one jonin and three genin.

“The Land of Waves is a poor nation—even more so under Gato’s hand. The feudal lords are poor and kiss up to Gato in the hopes that they’ll earn money that way.” Tazuna stared at Kakashi directly. His voice was calm and measured, but the effect was broken by the tremor in his hands. “Us regular folk are even poorer. Had I been honest about the mission, I wouldn’t have been able to afford the Leaf’s services. As it stands, you’re the only hope we have to save our nation.”

Sakura looked between Tazuna and their teacher. “That’s…”

“Well,” his smile didn’t reach his eyes, “if you choose to head back after we disembark, I won’t blame you. I’ll probably die before I make it home at the hands of whoever Gato hired. My eight-year-old grandson will be heartbroken, but there’s nothing that can be done.”

“Hold on, now—” Kakashi raised his hand, trying to interject but Tazuna ignored it.

“And my daughter? She’ll live the rest of her life in grief, nursing a hatred for the Hidden Leaf for letting her father die.” Tazuna shook his head, that faux smile still in place. “But it’s no fault of yours; actually, it’s more my fault than it is yours for being unable to afford the Leaf’s services.”

He threw his head back and laughed, but Sasuke could hear the despaired edge to his chuckles.

Kakashi hummed and glanced at Tazuna before turning to face them. “What’ll it be? The choice is yours. Do you want to continue with the mission despite Tazuna lying about it? Bear in mind that we’re likely to at least run into veteran chunin-level combatants at a minimum, not to mention jonin.”

Sasuke glanced at his teammates. Shino was as hard to read as always, his eyes were hidden behind those tinted circular glasses, but Sasuke noted the tightening of his folded arms at Kakashi’s words. Sakura was far easier to analyse; she was stuck between fear and pity at Tazuna’s current circumstance.

Seeing that Kakashi had opted to leave the decision in their hands, his words would probably tip the scales in either direction.

“If we succeed, we’ll have it on our records,” Sasuke said slowly. “This mission is at least A-rank in difficulty, though. Between Kakashi and the three of us, I think we’ll be able to protect Tazuna for a couple of weeks until the bridge’s completion if we’re careful.”

“Do you agree?” Kakashi asked. “Shino, Sakura?”

“O-Oh—” Sakura sat up straighter and Sasuke could feel her eyes on him. “...Without us, Mr Tazuna will die, right?”

“Without a doubt,” Tazuna replied.

“If he did, he’d only be facing the consequences of his lie,” said Shino, looking at the old man for a moment. “Being kind-hearted is a luxury only the strong can afford—and we aren’t strong.”

Sasuke scoffed. “With my ninjutsu, I can handle chunin, and when my Sharingan manifests, I—”

“But it hasn’t yet,” Shino cut him off smoothly. “If the assailants are anything above chunin rank, we won’t be able to protect Tazuna and Sakura simultaneously.”

The pink-haired clenched her hands in her lap. She was more aware of her weakness than everyone and despite Kakashi’s training to bring her up to form, her arsenal was still the most limited out of the three of them, and the one combat-oriented ninjutsu she knew lacked any offensive power.

She didn’t have anything to make up for it either and lacked speed and agility. Unlike other classmates with smaller chakra reserves, she didn’t dabble in poisons and paralytics or even seduction—an area where kunoichi usually excelled.

Instead, she focused more on academics without any thought for her future.

Irritation swelled in Sasuke’s chest. Kakashi hadn’t taught them anything worthwhile since the joint training exercise with Teams 10 and 8, and before that, all they’d done was physical training and develop their chakra adhesion. For Shino and himself, it wasn’t a problem, but Sakura had no skills or techniques beyond the basic ones taught in the Academy.

And for all her strategic thinking, here, she was a liability.

Kakashi sighed. “I did warn you, my cute little genin. I might be an elite jonin, but if I come up against someone as strong as me, my hands are tied. I won’t let any of you die… still, there’s a real risk to this, and you’ll be the ones taking it.”

Tazuna looked unsure as a grim silence seeped through the fog.

“Think it over until we reach the shore.”

They sailed in silence, the weight of the decision pressing down on them as the shoreline grew clearer with each passing moment. The boat came to a gentle stop, and the mist began to lift. Kakashi jumped out first, landing gracefully on the sand, followed by the others.

Tazuna climbed out last, his shoulders sagging under an invisible weight.

Sasuke scanned the area, alert and tense despite his confidence. Shino adjusted his glasses, his face impassive but his movements betraying a heightened state of awareness. Sakura, clutching her pack, looked back at the boat and then at Tazuna.

“So, what's the decision? Do we continue or head back?”

Sasuke took a deep breath. “We continue. I believe we can handle this.”

“This will be dangerous,” said Shino, “but I trust in our abilities and Kakashi-sensei's leadership.”

Sakura hesitated, then stepped forward with a firm nod. “I'll stay, too. I don't want Mr Tazuna to die because we were too scared to try.”

Tazuna's eyes widened, a mix of relief and gratitude washing over his features. "Thank you... thank you, all of you."

“Alright then,” Kakashi's visible eye crinkled in what might have been a smile, “It's settled. We'll protect Tazuna and see this mission through to the end."

As they began to move inland, the fog thickened around them once more, shrouding the path ahead in uncertainty. The further they walked, the more it lightened until Sasuke could see the green of trees and the winding path ahead of them. But suddenly, the mist thickened as two figures materialised within the haze, their presence heavy and foreboding.

Kakashi’s eye widened in recognition. “You…”

“Captain,” greeted the shorter of the two men.

Sasuke's heart pounded violently in his chest, his mind spiralling into the depths of his memories where he saw—and smelled—the blood and heard the bone-chilling screams and then the years of eerie silence that followed.

Every muscle in his body tensed, and he felt a suffocating mix of fear and fury gripping him.

“Itachi…” he whispered, his voice trembling. The world around him blurred as his focus honed in on his brother. The dark cloak adorned with red clouds was a new sight, but the calm and menacing demeanour…

It was all too real, too familiar.