In front of the gates of Konoha Village, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna, the person they were escorting, appeared together.
Everyone was ready to go, and Naruto was holding an extra cloth bag.
Sakura asked, "Naruto, what's that in your hand?"
"Cat poop," Naruto said, opening the bag for Sakura to see. Sure enough, there were dark brown, bar-shaped feces in the bag.
Sakura was so scared that she took several steps back, her face full of horror, while Sasuke showed a disgusted expression. He couldn't believe that one of his companions would bring feces when going on a long-distance journey.
"Kid," Tazuna said, "what do you bring this stuff for? Do you want to have an extra meal on the way?"
"You don't know jack," Naruto said self-righteously. "Yesterday we took a D-rank task to help a noble lady find her lost pet cat. We finally found the cat, but it pooped everywhere. I'm just cleaning up the aftermath."
"..." Kakashi looked shocked and asked, "What on earth made you pick up this cat feces?"
"Everyone is responsible for maintaining the village's cleanliness," Naruto said, puffing out his chest. "I'm going to be the Hokage in the future. This village will be mine, so of course I have to keep the village clean. When I see cat poop on the ground, should I just leave it there?"
"Uh..." Sakura couldn't understand what Naruto was doing.
"..." Sasuke also couldn't understand Naruto's reason.
"..." Kakashi and Tazuna both sighed, thinking in their hearts that Naruto was still young and a bit childish.
"Let's go!" Naruto said boldly. "Our target is the Land of Waves. The task is to escort an old man."
Tazuna, who was walking at the back, shouted angrily, "Kid! I think you're insulting the task-giver. This goes against your village's rules."
Hearing this, Kakashi quickly tried to calm him down, advising him not to take it seriously with Naruto.
They walked for half a day. Everyone was in a relaxed mood because this was just a C-rank task, not very dangerous. So they were doing the task as if they were on a trip.
Suddenly, there was a puddle in front. Kakashi noticed it and immediately felt suspicious. He realized that things were not that simple.
"Oops—" Naruto wasn't careful while walking and accidentally tripped, falling flat on the ground.
Tazuna couldn't stand it and said, "Are you really a ninja, kid? This road is so flat that there isn't even a single pebble. How did you fall?"
"Sorry, sorry. I just tripped accidentally. Hahaha," Naruto quickly apologized. Then he suddenly found that the cloth bag in his hand was gone. He had been holding it all the time, but the bag with the cat poop had slipped out of his hand.
Naruto quickly looked around and finally found the bag in the puddle. It turned out that after he fell, the bag in his hand slipped out and fell into the puddle.
"Well, forget it," Naruto said helplessly. "It's already in the puddle anyway. I won't care about it. Since we're already out of Konoha Village's range, I'll just leave it as litter."
"Ugh—" Suddenly, retching sounds came from the puddle, scaring Naruto into quickly backing off.
"What's going on! Did you all hear that? There's a strange noise!" Naruto quickly alerted the others, while thinking to himself: When he left Konoha Village, he specifically brought cat feces just for you guys. You've been hiding in the puddle, trying to ambush us. Now, taste the flavor of cat feces... It must be quite a good smell...
In the surprised looks of the others, two men actually climbed out of that small puddle. They were wearing ninja gear and clothing, and there were also the symbols of Kiri on their bodies. These two were definitely ninjas.
Kakashi immediately noticed that these two were only at the Chunin level and didn't take them seriously at all. At this moment, Kakashi's gaze instead fell on Naruto. Kakashi was thinking: Is it my imagination? Did Naruto deliberately fake a fall and then throw the cat feces into the puddle to force these two ninjas out...
Kakashi could hardly believe his own speculation. He was a Jonin with rich combat experience. He could easily tell there were ninjas hiding in the puddle since it hadn't rained in recent days.
On a hot summer day, a puddle appearing out of nowhere on the road looked extremely abnormal no matter how you looked at it. It seemed like a booby trap set by a ninja.
It was normal for Kakashi to spot the abnormality of the puddle, but how did Naruto notice it? And he even specifically brought cat feces when he left the village, as if he had prepared for this moment.
Forget it, I can't figure it out. I'll stop thinking about it for now. Kakashi cast aside all his speculations about Naruto. At this moment, it was most important to deal with the enemies first.
"Damn it! You did this!" One of the Mist ninjas pointed at Naruto and scolded.
"What's it got to do with me?" Naruto said innocently, "I just took a tumble. Who told you to hide sneakingly in the puddle? If you want to blame someone, blame yourselves for learning water-based ninjutsu. You even only know how to hide in places with water."
Naruto's words stimulated Sasuke. Only then did Sasuke realize later and also notice Naruto's shining points.
Sasuke thought to himself: This useless guy... He... He already knew there was a problem with the puddle...
Without saying more, the ambush plan of the two Mist ninjas failed. Since sneak attacks wouldn't work now, they could only launch a frontal attack.
It could be seen that the two Mist ninjas cooperated very well. Even their attacking ninja tools could be used in coordination. The two activated the ninja tools on their wrists, and a long chain saw instantly appeared.
The two Mist ninjas each took one end of the chain saw and rushed towards Kakashi with extremely fast footwork. They knew that the most powerful enemy they needed to deal with first at this moment was this Konoha ninja.
But obviously, they didn't know who the Konoha ninja standing in front of them was. Kakashi just simply turned around and, at a faster speed, subdued the two Mist ninjas.
The two Mist ninjas showed looks of shock. They couldn't believe that they had been defeated so quickly. In front of Kakashi, they couldn't even withstand one move.
Kakashi grabbed one of them by the neck with his left and squeezed hard enough to make him unable to breathe. Then he clamped the other one's chest with his arm and made him pass out instantly.
"Hehe.
Naruto quickly stepped forward. He looked at the two subdued Mist Ninjas, their eyes rolled back and foaming at the mouth.
"What a lack of self - awareness," Naruto said in a scolding tone. "You two Chunin dared to challenge a Jonin. You're just asking for a beating. Hahaha!"
"Well, well." Although praised by Naruto, Kakashi felt a bit awkward at the moment because he couldn't quite figure Naruto out.
"Hey, old man," Naruto pointed angrily at Tazuna and asked, "What do you have to say now? Why do Ninjas want to assassinate you?"