Sakura's back, neck and shoulders were beginning to hurt. Her tired muscles weren't used to carrying such baggage where none had existed before, and yet she didn't dare waste any chakra on reinforcing them, knowing that a surprise attack might be coming at any moment.
Unlike Naruto, she didn't have infinite amounts of stamina!
Now, if she remembered correctly, the enemy would be appearing from a puddle; and knowing was half the battle! The other half was actually finding the correct puddle in which the enemy would be hiding, but the problem was that there were puddles literally everywhere on the road, even though it hadn't rained for days. Nevertheless, one of them was bound to contain the Kiri shinobi, so Sakura gave each one a wide berth, just in case.
"What's got you so bothered, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked Sakura, after seeing her whip around to look behind her five times in the last five minutes. "Kakashi-sensei said this was gonna be an easy mission, ya know?"
"I was just worried about having to face enemies for the first time," Sakura said innocently. "That's all."
"Don't worry," said Kakashi, patting her on the head. "There won't be fighting any shinobi on a C-rank mission."
Tazuna, the old shipbuilder, shifted uncomfortably and averted his eyes.
"Ah!" said Sakura, pointing at the old man rudely. "You looked away just now! Is there something you might want to tell us, Tazuna-san?"
Sakura's eyes met Sasuke's; from the looks of it, he also thought Tazuna was acting suspiciously.
"That's preposterous," Tazuna sputtered. "I'm an honest bridge builder, and I'm paying you to protect me, not to make up wild stories!"
"Now, now, Sakura," said Kakashi patiently. "Don't antagonize our employer unless he gives us a reason to doubt him."
Kakashi's brow imperceptibly furrowed. Despite having said what he had just said, a good ninja can always pick up on discrepancies, and Tazuna was being awfully defensive about this; especially so, for someone who was supposed to have a clear conscience.
Oh, and there was also the fact that Kakashi had picked up on two chakra signatures from the puddle he had just walked by. He was by no means a sensory-type shinobi, but that did not mean he hadn't picked up a trick or two in his long career. Besides, in order for a shinobi to reach the Jōnin level without dying, one had to train their sixth sense to a certain level; otherwise, any random kunai flying through the battlefield would be able to kill any Jōnin just as easily as it would a Genin.
The group walked past the puddle in question; the two shinobi hiding within it waited for Sakura to turn around for the thousandth time that day, and once she had turned away from them, they began rising out of the water. The first wore a clawed metallic gauntlet on his right arm, while the second wore an identical one on his left; both gauntlets were linked together with a spiked chain. And judging by their forehead protectors, they were both shinobi from the Hidden Mist.
"Eh?"
Sakura whirled around upon hearing the clinking of chains, but the two enemy shinobi ignored her and leaped over her head. They were here, just as expected! With one fluid movement, Sakura flicked open her tool pouch's protective cover, poked her index through a kunai's pommel and pulled it out, before flinging it at the Kirigakure ninja wearing the gauntlet around his left hand.
The Kiri-nin that Sakura was aiming at flipped through the air and easily deflected her kunai with his oversized gauntlet, before landing next to Kakashi, who had just begun to react. But it was much too late for him; together, the two Kiri-nin wrapped their sharpened chain around Kakashi's body, and pulled.
And before Team Seven's and Tazuna's horrified eyes, Kakashi was torn into bloody chunks.
"Ka-Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto screamed.
The blonde-haired boy seemed to have frozen in place; the two Kiri-nin flickered towards Naruto, poised to strike with the chain trailing behind them. Sakura started towards him, but Sasuke was just a little bit faster; he threw a shuriken at the chain, pinning it against a tree, and then he threw a kunai into the shuriken's central hole, nailing the chain to the tree for good.
The enemy shinobi, carried forwards by their own forward momentum, were nearly lifted off their feet when the chain connecting their gauntleted fists together snapped taut, stopping them from striking at Naruto, who would have been just within striking range, if only their arms had been free! But even with all that, one of them managed to just barely scratch his hand with his metallic claws.
Sasuke landed on their bound gauntlets and kicked them both, but his strikes were shallow. Sasuke had executed his attack from midair, without the ground beneath his feet to leverage his strength against. Furthermore, since he had kicked them both at the same time, the power behind his blows was shared between the two Kiri-nin, further reducing the damage.
Still, getting kicked in the chin wasn't an especially pleasant experience, for anyone!
The Kiri-nin recovered quickly; they simultaneously reached for their gauntlets with their free hands and twisted, intending on snapping the chain using their gauntlets' internal mechanisms. They had no further use for such a weapon against mere Genin, especially if it was hindering them!
But before they could free themselves, Sakura leaped and drove her two feet into the left-handed Kiri-nin's face, sending him sprawling. And at the same time, she backflipped away, using his face as a stepping stone. She would have then thrown another kunai at him for good measure, but her breasts slapped her against her chin while she was still upside-down mid-flip, knocking her off-balance.
Her sarashi was not doing its job holding her breasts in place very well, but then again, this sort of Japanese garment had not been designed for women this blessed in the first place… let alone the kind that flipped around acrobatically.
Meanwhile, the right-handed Kiri-nin had successfully managed to free himself. He made as if to slash at Naruto with his gauntlet's bladed claws, but then slipped past him; from the way he was making a beeline towards him, it was clear that his target was Tazuna!
Sasuke dashed in front of the old man, but right before the enemy shinobi could strike, Kakashi suddenly flickered into his path and struck him in the throat with a lariat, knocking him out instantly. Unsurprisingly, their Jōnin-sensei was still alive; he had used the Substitution Jutsu in order to hide and see who the Kiri-nin were really after!