For the following week, Kakashi would continue to help his students, plus Karin, now that Sakura was handed over to Tsunade to train, helping Karin with furthering her fuinjutsu into the middle stages of intermediate fuinjutsu, helping Sasuke with properly casting a genjutsu with sight, hearing, and smell at the same time, and helping Naruto with the next stages of fire manipulation, that being burning a piece of wood in his hands and the last one being evaporating water, the water evaporation taking Naruto till the end of the week to complete it, the four of them being called to the Hokage's office for a mission.
- The Hokage's office -
*Knock Knock
"Come in."
Tsunade spoke up, the four walking in to see only a few sheets of paperwork on her desk compared to the mountains from before, Kakashi's suggestion clearly having worked out for her.
"The Village has been quite lively lately."
Kakashi said, having seen many posters of the actress Yukie Fujikaze around the village.
"Yes, your client will be here shortly. It's a standard C-rank mission, but from my understanding of who that woman is, It'll likely end up being a B or even A-rank mission. Your client is the movie director's assistant, Sandayu Asama, and the mission is to escort and protect Yukie Fujikaze to the land of snow to shoot the movie's final scenes."
Tsunade personally looked into the actress and got information from Jiraiya beforehand; now able to do so with so much time on her hands.
'So the mission is starting here? That's a bit different.'
Kakashi thought to himself as he remembered bits and pieces of the movie he barely paid attention to, but the thing he could say for certain is that it didn't start in Konoha, but somewhere else in the Land of Fire, perhaps the Fire Capital.
"Let go of me! I'm not going!"
The team turned to the door, hearing the sounds of a struggle and the pleading voices of many.
"Miss Yukie, please restrain yourself; we're inside a ninja village, not a civilian town."
"Shut up! I'm not going, and that's final!"
The scuffle continued, the female voice that was apparently getting more and more faint before it was muffled, and a group of individuals in the movie prop samurai outfit carried in a bound and gagged furious actress with a sheepish man that had to be their client following behind.
"I'm very sorry about her, Lady Hokage; she has been rather difficult as of late."
Sandayu bowed lowly.
"It doesn't concern me all that much. The mission is to escort and protect her while she shoots her movie in the Land of Snow; her attitude and willingness are unimportant."
Tsunade replied before her brown eyes locked on Yukie's unique light blue/purple shade eyes.
"But I do expect you to act normally while you're in our village, unless you'd rather be transported to the Land of Snow in a sealed box that can only be opened by chakra?"
Tsunade nodded when Yukie stopped struggling and screaming into the cloth, then tossed the mission scroll to Kakashi, who pocketed it.
"Karin will replace Sakura for this mission as I'm more interested in having her here training with Shizune and me. You're to leave in 2 hours to make it to Degarashi Port."
Kakashi nodded, sparing the silent actress a glance before looking back to Tsunade.
"What about the actress? She's bound to try to run."
Tsunade shrugged.
"I'm sure you've got ways of making sure she's under control."
"Plenty, but I don't plan on traumatizing her; it'd affect her acting."
Kakashi nodded before looking at Naruto and tilting his head to Yukie.
Naruto nodded, stepping up to Yukie and placing a finger on the top of her scalp, his Flying Raijin mark blending into her hair and ensuring it wouldn't be noticed in her film or by others.
'So he can already imprint his mark with chakra.'
Kakashi smirked, having had the suspicion, but Naruto was further along than he had anticipated.
"Very good, now, no matter how far she runs, you can teleport to her."
Kakashi said it while looking straight at Yukie, letting her know how pointless any further running would be.
Yukie only gave him a light glare, but otherwise she was subdued, almost resigned.
The two hours passed quickly, and the team and clients arrived at the village gates exactly two hours later, setting out with little talk. They arrived at the port on the Land of Fire border in two and a half hours, boarded the boat, and set sail without any issues.
Kakashi sat up in the crow's nest with his eyes shut; Naruto, Sasuke, and Karin were treated to the dramatics of movie-making, the day moving fast, but not fast enough for them, as they had to guard a woman who seemed to have a terrible personality.
A few days rolled by like this, the weather progressively getting colder and colder, when one morning their path was blocked by mountains of ice, and the director got inspired, having everyone disembark onto the ice and shoot a scene.
Kakashi and his team stood behind the camera crew as the scene started; Kakashi's Observation Haki and Karin's Mind Eye of the Kagura detected three chakra signatures.
"Sensei."
Karin spoke, the words escaping her lips without them even moving.
"I'm aware."
Kakashi replied, glancing to Naruto.
"Be prepared to intervene; guard her at all costs. Sasuke, get ready; you and Karin are to ensure no one dies as they retreat to the ship."
Three kunai wrapped with exploding tags shot out towards the three hiding enemies, courtesy of Kakashi.
"What was that?"
The film director looked shocked and confused, wondering why this ninja would ruin the perfectly good cut.
"You all need to leave, evacuate to the ship, now!"
Kakashi ordered as the three hiding ninja revealed themselves, having dodged the kunai.
"Hello, Princess Koyuki, and Kakashi Hatake."
Nadare Roga smirks, seeing Koyuki freeze up, and orders his companions, Mizore and Fubuki, to capture Koyuki.
Naruto appears in front of Koyuki as a large man riding a snowboard grasps at her, blinking when Koyuki disappears, looking over to see Naruto holding her in his left arm and a special kunai held in his right hand.
"Idiot, can't do anything."
Fubuki cast a swarm of ice projectiles at Naruto, but Sasuke countered the ice with a quick fireball jutsu.
Meanwhile, Kakashi stands in front of Nadare, in a casual posture, as the man runs his mouth about their last meeting.
"Maa, you sure are talkative. I must have really left an impression last time, but I'll have to disappoint this little obsession of yours; I'm not into men."
Kakashi finished, a kunai slipping into his hand and raised to deflect a slash, a leg sweep going for Nadare's legs.
Nadare jumped over the kick, raising his arms to block a much faster one that sent him into the ice with numb arms, quickly weaving hand seals as an ice dragon formed on the mountain above them and charged straight at Kakashi.
Kakashi held out his right hand, feet planted, gripping the head of the ice dragon, haki appearing on his hand as the ice tried to make its way up his arm.
"What?!"
Nadare shouted as he watched Kakashi just grab one of his strongest Ice ninjutsu while standing there like an immovable wall.
'Haku's ice is better than this.'
Kakashi thought as he crushed the head of the ice dragon and shattered the jutsu.
'Then what about this?'
Nadare quickly weaved the seals, a giant ice whale jumping from the icy water and descending on Kakashi, and Nadare jumping to safety.
Kakashi waved his hand, a spear of purple lightning crackling to life in his hand before it extended and passed through the whale, splitting it down the middle, looking to see Nadare making a grab for Koyuki in Naruto's arms, but like the bulky Mizore, Nadare couldn't catch Naruto as he flashed around, his kunai spread all over the place playing the most annoying game of keep away with them.
Kakashi's sword appeared in his right hand, wrapping it in chakra and slashing; a flying slash cut deep into the ice in front of Nadare and separated the portion of ice he was on, the water flooding in and filling the large gap before he jumped and landed in front of Nadare.
"You spoke so confidently of me running from you, but here you are doing the same thing; why run?"
"Because you're not my mission."
Nadare replied with a glare.
"How convenient; that was what I did all those years ago. Completed my mission and left when it was pointless to fight. But the difference between us is that you won't be completing your task. My student could avoid all three of you easily."
Kakashi chuckled
"He'd run out of chakra; our armor provides us with much more chakra, or have you forgotten, Kakashi?"
"No, no, I remember, but it doesn't matter; he has more chakra than all of you combined, and it's not even close, and that's just his own chakra."
Kakashi shrugged as Nagare seemed disbelieving and confused about what he meant.
"I'm bored, you're boring me. retreat for now, and I will leave you to my students, or stay and die."
Kakashi's eyes hardened, Conqueror's Haki spreading and slamming into Nagare and making him take a knee, his chakra armor cracking in places as it started to take in too much chakra.
Kakashi let up, sparing him and his armor.
"Your move."
Kakashi's voice sounded like the grim reapers to Nagare's ears; the amount of chakra he absorbed should've made him confident, but the fact that Kakashi seemed bored made his decision for him.
Nagare made a signal to retreat before hurriedly leaving.
"So he is smarter than he looks; I figured he'd try it with the amount of chakra I gave him."
Kakashi leaped back to the larger portion of ice where his students were, seeing the other two opponents flee.
Kakashi regrouped with his students, seeing Koyuki unresponsive in Naruto's left arm.
"What happened?"
"I don't know, sensei. She locked up once the ice and fire jutsu started flying around."
Naruto replied, shaking her lightly to no avail.
Kakashi sighed.
"Well, let's get her to the ship."
- Chapter End -