6: A Dangerous Mission! Journey to the Land of Waves!
Squad 7 is performing a ninja mission, with Kakashi commanding with a radio. They appear to be hunting down a target. Naruto, eager to prove he is the best, has rushed in after the target to point A, believe it. They prepare to move in when the target moves. We see they are chasing a black, shadow-like animal with yellow eyes. Squad 7 moves in on the target. The target is five meters away. Each member confirms they are ready to take down the target. Kakashi signals them to go and they move in on the target, Naruto catches it to find it's a squealing brown cat. Mission accomplished...
It appears the cat was that of the Wife of the Land of Fire's Feudal Lord, Madame Shijimi. It appears the Madame Shijimi has a poor idea of how to treat animals and squashes the poor cat in an embrace. The Lord Hokage gives squad 7 the next available tasks, including: babysitting the chief counselors three year old, helping his wife to do the shopping, or digging up potatoes. All of these seem to be beneath Naruto so he decides to inform the Lord Hokage that he wants to go on a real mission, something challenging and exciting. Iruka and Naruto proceed to have a shouting match and Kakashi ends it by knocking Naruto into the ground. The Lord Hokage begins to explain ninja missions and how they are ranked from A level to D level, depending on their difficulty. He goes on to explain how each ninja is also ranked, genin at the bottom, like squad 7, are given D-rank and C-rank missions and these missions help to fund the Village Hidden in the leaves' expenses. The squad seems to have little interest in what the Lord Hokage stays, deciding to listen to Naruto's desire for Raman.
Naruto then delivers a speech underlining his desire to prove himself as a genin. Pleased, the Lord Hokage awards squad 7 a C-rank mission, to protect Tazuna, a master bridge builder on his journey home and while he builds his bridge. Tazuna is not very impressed with his bodyguards. Especially Naruto, "the little one with the idiotic look on his face." Naruto then attempts to 'demolish' Tazuna for his insults but Kakashi holds him by his shirt, explaining "Your meant to protect the client not demolish him, Naruto."
Next we are shown a glimpse of a ninja running at high speeds through a forest. Squad 7 leaves the village with Tazuna. Naruto pleased with himself over leaving the village for the first time. Tazuna continues to make known his displeasure over the bodyguards he has been given by pointing out that Naruto is a joke. Naruto decides to deliver a speech about his future as being the greatest Lord Hokage. Unfortunately Tazuna is not impressed, claiming that, "Hokage are powerful and wise, and [Naruto] is puny and brainless." Again Naruto attempts to 'demolish' him.
The ninja running through the forest stops and appear above the squad in a tree. There are two of them, ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist.
Inspired by a question from Sakura over the amount of Ninja in the Land of Waves, where Tazuna lives, Kakashi begins to explain the lands of the shinobi. He explains the hidden village's that have different customs and culture, where ninja reside and that these hidden villages to the continent determines a country's military strength. The Land of Waves has natural protection from the water and has no need for a ninja village. There are five ancient lands that possess ninja villages. These are headed by Kage, shadows.
Squad 7 is ambushed by the two ninja from the Mist, killing Kakashi first by ripping him apart with spiked chains. They proceed to attack Naruto who is saved by Sasuke's shuriken, holding the chains to a tree. Their chains are broken by Sasuke but they continue to attack, charging Tazuna and Naruto. Kakashi appears, disabling both ninja. It appears he saw through their ambush when they had walked passed a puddle, when it hadn't rained in weeks and used the replacement jutsu. Kakashi informs them that he didn't help sooner because he wanted to know who they were after, which is Tazuna. He is annoyed with Tazuna for lying to the leaf village, which is unacceptable. Plus Naruto has been poisoned so they decide to return for Naruto. Naruto becomes angered that they would have to return for him so he decides to remove the poison himself, stabbing his had with a kunai. He asks himself why he is so different from the others. We see into some of Naruto's past. The effort he went through to become a ninja. He proceeds to make an oath on his wound, "I will never back down again and let someone else rescue me. I will never run away and I will not lose to Sasuke."
After that Kakashi states that he is impressed that Naruto removed the poison, but Naruto's hand is now bleeding rapidly and if loses any more blood, he will die. Naruto in a panic rushes around, not willing to die. Kakashi begins to bandage the wound, but it's already healing from the power of the nine-tailed fox.
In the end of this episode We get a glimpse of Tazuna's pursuers, Zabuza Mimochi the demon of the Hidden Mist.
Previous Episode: You Failed! Kakashi's Final Decision
Next Episode: The Assassin of the Mist!
Back to Introduction episode guides.
