ch.1

On a mountainous road near the border between the Fire Country and the Land of Iron, a caravan of merchants accompanied by some armed guards can be seen traveling towards the border.

The weather is hot, and there's hardly any breeze which creates a distraction for those in the caravan due to the heat.

At the back of the caravan, a guard wiped the sweat from his forehead and fanned himself with his hands due to the intense heat. His tongue hung out, and his eyes were unsteady. His movements were shaky, as if in the next moment, he would fall to the ground from exhaustion caused by the heat.

Thud!

He fell to the ground, panting and out of breath.

The guard who was also guarding the last cart with him, saw him and immediately ran towards him, ready to help. However, the guard also dropped to the ground, unconscious for some unknown reason.

At the head of the caravan, an Asian-looking old man with a catfish-like mustache held up a katana to his face and gazed at his reflection in its blade, smiling after he had finished cleaning it.

But his smile and the light in his eyes suddenly vanished as he looked beside him without moving his head feeling something ominous.

"Stop!!!" He yelled, and jumped off the cart.

The attendants, and the guards of the caravan all look at him curiously questioning 'why did they stop' in their minds. But he only muttered one word that is enough to make them go serious.

"Ninjas."

The guards and the attendants suddenly froze on their spot and their temperament suddenly turned serious.

...

"Tsk! A Samurai!"

Not too far away from the caravan hidden behind the trees, Kakashi clicked his tongue in displeasure.

"This is no longer just a C-rank mission. If there's a chance there are more Samurai or Ninja besides that guy, it should now be considered a B-rank or possibly even an A-rank mission."

He muttered, anticipating the worst of the possible outcome scenarios should they proceed with their mission.

Besides him also hiding in the trees are Naruto the blonde, Sasuke the edgelord, and Sakura the simp.

"Come on, Kakashi-sensei! Let's go! My hands are itching to fight and use the new techniques Father taught me."

Naruto grumbled as he coaxed Kakashi, growing increasingly impatient while they waited in their spot.

"Stop being so pesky to Sensei, Naruto. Can't you see that they're alerted? It seems like they already noticed us."

Rebuked by Sakura, who was now filled with doubts about continuing onward with their mission.

"Hmph! You're only saying that because you haven't seen my new technique yet, Sakura... And even if there are hundreds of them, I'm sure Kakashi-sensei will easily defeat them."

Naruto said, but he said the latter part in a low voice, almost like he was whispering, but it was enough for the entire team to hear it.

Sakura scrunched her eyebrows in question, Sasuke remained emo, while Kakashi felt overwhelmed as a small smile formed behind his mask without him knowing.

"So, what now, Kakashi? Are we just going to wait here?"

Sasuke ask turning off his Sharingan and looked at Kakashi.

"Hmm? Well, first of all, we need to remember our primary objective here - investigating. The number of missing persons has been steadily increasing over the past few months, and it just keeps climbing every day that the Lord of Fire has grown weary of these missing cases and requested an investigation to us."

Kakashi made some handseals and summoned one of his dogs and gave it a scroll before de-summoning it.

"We're supposedly here to check up on every traveler who uses this road and report any suspicious things we discover to Hokage-sensei. But Pakkun just now sniffed out multiple people and a few sleeping agents inside the cargo of these merchants.

And based on what we saw just now. These people, are no ordinary merchants."

Kakashi muttered, glancing at the Samurai with squinted eyes as he observed the man carefully.

'I just hope he's a renegade. I don't know what will happen next if the land of Iron is connected to these missing cases of people in our country.'

He thought imagining the possible 4th Ninja war if ever that happened.

"Anyway, what I'm saying to all of you is that our mission is investigation. Not a rescue mission, or an extermination mission. So even if we did nothing and let them pass, we have no liability to them as Ninja's-"

"How about as people?"

Naruto immediately cut Kakashi off, feeling conflicted by what Kakashi had just told them.

"Aren't we people supposed to help each other out, Sensei? Should we just let them pass and let them do whatever they want to the people they've captured because it's not our mission? Tell me, Kakashi-sensei, am I wrong?"

Naruto berates with saddened expressions. Even Sakura, who is always in conflict with Naruto, also secretly supported him this time due to the guilt she felt after thinking of abandoning those people.

*Sigh*

'You are really still young, Naruto.'

Kakashi thought, judging Naruto's pacifist-like behavior.

Unfortunately, in the world of ninjas where being weak is considered a sin, most of the people who share the same ideals as Naruto end up dead by the next day due to their being too goody-two-shoes behavior.

"Alright, alright, it's not like I'm planning to abandon them in the first place. I'm just reminding you kids that you won't be getting any extra pay for doing this, okay?"

"Okay! It's not like I'm broke anyway, and in need of money. My Father is the Hokage, so basically we're rich."

Naruto boasts, really proud of his father.

"Heh, what a proud freeloader."

Finding the right moment to mock, Sasuke snickers from the sidelines, and mocks the blond Ninja, which immediately angered the said blond.

"Haa? Aren't you the same tho?"

"Haha, no way, idiot! I'm not a proud freeloader who boasts about my parent's wealth like you. In fact, I've been living on my own for quite some time now, sustaining myself with the money I earned from various missions me and my Nii-chan do weekly."

"Heh, so that's it, huh? Well, at least I'm not a bro-con obsessed with Itachi-nii like you!"

"Guys, guys, please calm down! We're in the middle of a mission right now."

Kakashi cut in, attempting to stop the quarrel between the two.

"Bro-con!?... Bro-con!! Okay, that's it, I'm gonna kill you!"

Sasuke picked up a kunai from his pouch and readied himself to pounce on Naruto.

Meanwhile, Naruto also grabbed a kunai from his pouch and assumed a defensive stance against Sasuke.

But before they could start their fight, a loud shout broke through their ears, making them turn their heads towards the direction of the caravan.

"KYAAHH!!!"

In the hands of the Samurai, a young girl, barely past ten years old, was yelping in pain as her hair had been struck by the man, while he pointed a katana at her neck, ready to slice her throat at any moment.

"You there, ninjas! Get out of your hiding places or I'll slit this girl's throat!"

The Samurai threatened, making a thin cut on the neck of the girl.

"Shit! They now got a hostage."

Kakashi muttered under his breath.

"You know this is your fault, right, Sasuke?"

Naruto asked, turning his head towards Sasuke and throwing all the blame for this problem onto him.

"Shut your mouth for now; let's just kill each other later, after we finish this problem."

Sasuke coldly answered.

"What should we do now, Sir.Kakashi?"

Sakura asked, turning to Kakashi with a look of panic and fear in her eyes. She wasn't afraid of death or anything like that; she was just scared for the girl's life in the hands of that Samurai. And Kakashi saw this and understood his students' feelings.

"For now… let's make sure the girl doesn't get hurt."

He said, jumping off the tree and revealing himself to the Samurai and his men; then, following him were his three students who also revealed themselves after a second he jumped.

The keen eyes of the Samurai fell upon the four of them, and when his gaze settled on Kakashi, his pupils slightly trembled.

'White hair, a facemask, a slashed horizontal wound across his left eye.'

"Y-you... Y-you... You're Lightning Kakashi?!"

The Samurai shouted and pointed the katana he was holding at Kakashi, trembling as if he had just encountered some kind of a monster.

His men were also no different; the moment Kakashi revealed himself, a doubt immediately arose in their hearts upon seeing his familiar face, but when they heard their boss shouting Kakashi's name, they finally realized who he was.

"Kakashi? You mean, the Student of the Fourth Hokage?"

"T-the son of Sakumo?"

"The man with an 80 million bounty?"

The men of the Samurai couldn't believe what they had heard. Kakashi, a student of the fourth Hokage, a skilled ninja known to almost everyone in every country, an undefeated man with no records of having a single failed mission. A man rumored to be the next Hokage.

'Is Kakashi-Sensei that famous?'

His three students thought the same. They all looked at Kakashi with admiring gazes, but upon seeing his lifeless eyes, and recalling how he was always late, always reading porn, and was unenthusiastic, their admiration quickly died, and turned into disappointment.

They can't imagine their teacher being someone so great to be admired.

"D-don't fear him; we outnumber them, and based on the appearance of the three kids behind him, they all look like fresh leaves ninja."

The Samurai muttered slowly gaining his confidence.

"Now, put your weapons down and surrender; otherwise, this child will die."

The Samurai threatened, putting his katana at the girl's neck again; who could do nothing but close her eyes and pray in her mind that someone would hopefully save her.

Putting his weapons down, Kakashi commanded his students to also surrender their weapons and copy what he was doing.

So, following their teacher, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura also surrendered their weapons and got on their knees, copying Kakashi, hoping that Kakashi had a plan to get them out of this situation.

"Free her now."

Kakashi looked at the Samurai with seriousness. The Samurai glanced at him and then at the girl in his arms, thinking.

"You're a Samurai, and Samurai don't go back on their words, right? You got us now, now free her."

The Samurai glanced back at Kakashi.

"I didn't say something about freeing her, tho."

He said with a smirk painted on his face.

"Guys, killed them!"

He commanded, retrieving his katana on the girl's neck and pointed it at Kakashi.

But seeing this, Kakashi, smirked and lowly mumbled.

"Finally."

Under the Samurai's gaze, the ground beneath him suddenly cracked open, and a pair of hands suddenly sprang forth, grabbing the girl in his grasp so quickly that he couldn't even react.

"Shit!"

The Samurai curse. Turning his head, he looked at Kakashi who was fighting his men with only bare hands at ease. Then their eyes met, and Kakashi gave him a mocking glare infuriating him.

But he knows he was no match to him.

So turning around, he immediately ran towards the carriage, and cut through its cover, to grab some people he could use as a hostage. But it's empty, not a single person has been left.

"Where?! Where, are they?!"

He yelled in panic.

Then a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. He immediately looked at who it was and saw a black-haired guy with curly hair, with an impassive face, staring at him with a cold glare, as if he were staring right through his soul.

"They're already gone, so now surrender."

The mysterious man calmly said, making the Samurai tremble, because of some unknown pressure crushing him.

"You've already lost."

...

"Yow! Kakashi!"

Punching some goons, Kakashi looked at the owner of the voice, and saw a man in a Konoha uniform slowly emerging from the ground like a ghost.

He is Obito.

"Obito."

Kakashi kicked another goon, then walked towards him.

"What are you doing here?"

He asks, while evading a swords that been slash towards him with ease.

"Mission. My team was tasked to investigate who're the cause of the missing people." Obito replied, before punching some goons and continued.

"We've been following these guys for almost three days by now. But seeing they're headed to The land of Iron, we decided to just stop this at here, and rescue these people. And coincidentally, you and your team are also here."

He answered making some handsigns, before slamming the ground and summoning a wall of earth, blocking an incoming wave of water.

"By the way, how is Naruto? This is their serious village mission, right?"

Obito asks, asking about their sensei's son, and Kakashi can't help but sigh at this question.

"Sigh. He's a menace."

He answered shaking his head, remembering how annoying, and how slow Naruto can be sometimes.

"Ha, ha! I knew it. He's just like me when I was younger."

'Yes, both are a bother. I can't even comprehend how he's related to Sensei, except for their blond hair.' Kakashi wanted to answer, but suddenly remembering Kushina's angry face, he immediately halted saying that, afraid of Kushina getting to hear about this.

Among the list of things he doesn't want to deal with, are angry Mothers.

"Anyway, is that him, Obito? Kaito?" Kakashi asks pointing at the man fighting the Samurai in a sword fight.

"Yeah. And I'm telling you unlike Naruto who's similar to me, that guy is very similar to you."

Looking at Kaito who's fighting the Samurai evenly and even pushing him, Kakashi can't help but compare Sasuke to him.

'He's good at Kenjutsu, and even at Taijutsu. Yeah, I didn't see him using a Ninjutsu yet, but based on the rumors I heard last year, Sasuke pales compared to him.' he thought recalling the info he had heard about Kaito.

"The man with a near perfect chakra control that rivalled even the Kage's. The chakra control prodigy." He muttered watching Kaito with awe.

...

"Why won't you give up? You're just prolonging the inevitable, even though you know that you're already lost." Making several handseals using only his left hand.

[Fūton: Daitoppa](Wind Style: Great Breakthrough)

Kaito blew a strong gust of wind from his mouth, making the Samurai who immediately covered his face fly a few meters away from his place.

Then, charging his ninja sword with raw wind nature chakra, he slashed his sword in the Samurai's direction, shooting a quarter moon-like blue-light-green energy that slashed through the dust and smoke flying toward the enemy.

[Hiten fūjin ryū: Hi Fūken](Flying Wind god sword flow: Flying Wind Sword)

The Samurai immediately charged his katana with chakra and tried to deflect the flying blade away from him. But the moment he slashed through it, the wind blade just sliced through his chakra coat and even almost sliced through his katana if he hadn't managed to weaken it and redirect it.

"What the--"

"One more."

[Hiten fūjin ryū: Hi Fūken]

Kaito launched another wind blade towards the Samurai's direction, which sliced through almost everything in its path until the Samurai redirected it back again with an even more denser chakra coated on his katana.

Seeing that his trick was no longer effective, Kaito sped toward the samurai and performed a one-handed hand seal as he drew closer to him.

[Kage Bunshin no Jutsu](Shadow Clone Jutsu)

With an explosion of smoke, two clones of Kaito suddenly emerged beside him and sped towards the enemy with Kaito.

Together, they launched a continuous barrage of synchronized slashes against the Samurai and slowly overwhelmed the enemy.

The Samurai tried to counter and look for Kaito's openings, but every time he tried, Kaito would evade it or try to block it immediately, as if he could see through his mind and read his attacks.

'What's this? Why can't I hit him?' The Samurai thought as Kaito slowly overwhelmed him.

'It's the end, I lost.'

After a follow-up side kick, he flew a few meters away from his original position, bleeding, and unconscious.

Standing without a single scratch, Kaito won against the Samurai like a seer who can predict the future.