AN- So I have a little problem with the way the start of the wave mission happens in the Manga/Anime, as far as I remember, and even according to most timelines, team 7 encountered the Demon brothers before they left for The Land of Waves. That seems a little unlikely as the Demon brothers should not ambush Team 7 inside the Land of Fire because it is a stupid thing to do, especially because of how weak they were, thinking they can attack Team 7 within the Land of Fire just seems suicidal even if they had managed to kill everyone.

So in my story, the fishing port that allows access to the Land of Waves is a 4-5 day walk away from Konoha, at civilian pace.

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{Hamasaki Village, Land of Fire}

{07:21 AM, 18th Mar 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

"...Alright thanks for the heads up, I'll send the message back to Konoha right away...err can you take a scroll back on your way back to Konoha," a chunin who was in charge of the patrol around the borders asked Hayate.

Hayate nodded they had arrived at the final checkpoint earlier today, he decided to check in on the chunins stationed not only to gain more information regarding the mission but also to send a flying hawk back to Konoha about the weird situation he found happening at this village. He had gained a lot of information regarding this mission and the scene this information painted was a lot different from what Tazuna had given to Konoha.

'According to Noya, most of the trades with the Land of Waves have stopped in the past year so the only information he had was pieced together from a bunch of rumors. Why haven't they looked in to investigate though, doesn't make sense...'

"How are we going to cross the ocean, according to the border patrol most of the boats that were used for traveling haven't made a single journey in the last year," Hayate asked Tazuna, he was focused on the old man trying to find any hints of deceit.

Although he was suspicious about the information that Tazuna provided he couldn't just abandon the mission without proper evidence of foul play.

Tazuna played it cool, he had been constantly taking sips from his bottle along the way not only to alleviate his boredom but also to calm down his nerves. "I have a friend who fishes regularly around the ocean waiting, he will take us to the Land of Waves."

Tazuna hiccuped as he started walking toward one corner of the village, Hayate wanted to ask more questions but they quickly arrived at a shady corner in the village. Many villagers had set up shops around a crowded alleyway and many fishermen were bartering for goods with the fish they had caught.

Tazuna walked over to one of them, they talked in a hushed voice before the other man nodded and both of them walked towards the exit of the village. Hayate indicated to Ren to keep on guard as both of them followed the other two out of the village.

The place where they arrived looked like an unofficial dock, there were several boats hidden in the bushes, and Tazuna and his fisherman friend quickly uncovered one of them and pushed it into the water.

'They both look too afraid of being caught for it to be a simple bandit group...' Hayate thought as all four of them quickly boarded the boat, there was dense fog covering the small river, and in a few minutes, they were sailing through the ocean.

'They both look a lot more relaxed now,' Hayate thought as he surveyed their body language, Tazuna took another gulp from his sake, and Hayate decided now was a good time to ask his questions, "Tazuna-san, what can you tell me about the general state of the Land of Waves, according to our border patrol the Land of waves has stopped its trading routes for about a year now..."

'The main question is why does Hokage-sama not know about this, while Wave might not be an important country if something was going on the border patrol should have checked on the situation by now.' Hayate was puzzled by the situation, he was missing several pieces of information to truly understand what was going on.

"Uhh..." Tazuna hesitated and Hayate caught him and his fisherman friend sharing a look, Hayate controlled his chakra flow as he got ready for an ambush, "The Land of Waves is in a poor state, a bandit group has taken over the country and they are stopping us from completing the trades through boats. That's why I'm making this bridge so we can connect the Land of Waves to the Land of Fire."

'Hmm, that makes a little more sense but still, no matter how poor the condition of the Land of Waves was, the situation should not have escalated to this degree without outside influence, is some other village involved in this matter...' Hayate thought as his vigilance increased, he scanned his surroundings but everything was covered in fog so he wasn't able to see much.

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'But the fishermen sneaking to the Hamasaki Village to trade for goods now makes a little more sense, this bandit group must be suppressing Waves economy so they had to resort to sneaking out.'

The group followed in silence as Ren and Hayate had their guard up, Ren had his chakra sensing active but without being obvious about it and concentrating harder by making a Ram seal, he could only sense around 40m around him. His sensor skills improved by one level when he took shifts guarding their campsites at night.

The boat arrived at another hidden location after an hour of travel, Tazuna and his friends were still tense but Hayate jumped from the boat and landed on a tree, his eyes scanning the nearby area trying to see if anyone was around but there was no sign of anyone being around.

'No ambush...' Hayate concluded after a while as he saw several other boats hidden in bushes, Tazuna and Ren had by now left the boat and the fisherman was paddling back the way they came.

'Our immediate escape is blocked but at least I taught Ren water walking, in the worst-case scenario we can retreat back to the sea and eliminate our tracks before sneaking back into the Land of Waves.'

"Lead the way, Tazuna-san" Hayate instructed and the three of them once again started walking through the damp forest. Hayate was walking behind while Ren was upfront with Tazuna in the middle.

Ren was focusing on his senses and after traveling for around 10 minutes he could sense 2 people hiding in a puddle. Realizing that the people who were supposed to be amusing them were not bandits but shinobi he decided to attack first as he had a perfect opportunity at the moment.

Boar → Horse → Tiger

Ren mobilized his chakra and flashed through three hand seals and took a deep breath while holding the tiger seal.

'Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu'

A steady stream of fire left his mouth and then it bloomed into a 2m wide fireball that slammed into the puddle, he saw two shadows trying to evade the attack and heard two pained screams coming from the road ahead. He stayed out and then his hands morphed into the Ram seal as he started sensing around them.

He felt someone flicker somewhere in front of their group before he/she vanished from his range. He looked over and Hayate sensei had already beheaded one of their attackers while he had the other one pinned down with a sword to his neck with a missing arm lying a little bit ahead on the road.

'Their forehead protectors are from Kiri, what are they doing ambushing us like that? The Land of Waves is quite far from their village and operating radius...' Ren thought but he quickly warned Hayate sensei of another possible attacker.

"Hayate-sensei I sensed someone else around 150m southwest," Ren kept the explanation short as Hayate moved his body to face the mentioned direction. Tazuna was trembling in both panic and relief, the situation escalated and was resolved in a matter of seconds, all he could see was the short one blowing a fire bomb out of his mouth while the one with the sword vanished from his side and killed the two shinobi.

As Hayate focused on the situation happening in front Ren sneaked a look into his quest block and see if he could get some more information.

...

[Hidden Quest I: Defeat the Demon brother, Gōzu and Meizu, two ex-chūnin from Kirigakure, and successfully protect Tazuna from their assassination attempt.]

[Rewards:]

...

[Hidden Quest I: +20,000 EXP, + {Moya Hebi Poison} Formulae. {Collect}]

...

[Bounty Completed!]

[Name: Gōzu ]

[Rank: Chunin]

[Level: 31]

...

'They were chunin?' Ren was a little shocked by that, maybe he caught them off guard and thus they weren't able to use any ninjutsu or maybe he injured them enough with the sneak attack that they weren't able to put up a fight.

'Still, there is someone else around, and most likely they escaped the situation is not good, and since just the 1st hidden mission had chunin-level opponents I'm pretty sure if our team will have to go against actual Jonins...'

Hayate was thinking along the same lines, he looked around but still could see anyone around which meant that their last opponent likely escaped and there is a stronger attack coming their way. While he was furious at Tazuna right now he still maintained his calm and asked, "Tazuna-san, time to tell the truth, who is controlling the Land of Waves..."

...

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{On the other side of the Land of Waves}

{Zabuza's hideout}

Haku flickered into the room and arrived in front of a cave, he quickly went through the tunnels and arrived in front of Zabuza's room.

"Zabuza-sama," He bowed and waited for Zabuza-sama to open the door. The door opened after a few seconds and Haku entered the room to see Zabuza leaning against the bed, his one eye was open tracking Haku as he made his way across the room.

"The demon brother failed in their ambush, they were quickly defeated by the team from Konoha..." Haku bowed after he finished providing a quick summary of the battle.

'Two swordsmen in one team, it doesn't look like Konoha's standard team there could be more shinobi following behind them...' Zabuza thought as he stood up and walked to a table, his sword was leaning against the table which he picked up and motioned for Haku to follow him.

'We first need to circle back to the shore to see if there are any other tree huggers lying in wait, then I can have my fun with their wannabe swordsmen...' A grin stretched the bandages covering Zabuza's face as his eyes leaked killing intent.

The two master and slave flickered quickly to the 'hidden' shore that the fishermen used to sneak around...

...