Chapter 321: Assassination attempts

Kakashi leisurely stood on the side of the bridge, enjoying his book while also making sure his senses of hearing and smell were sharply monitoring the surroundings. This was thankfully shaping up to be one of these boring and slow days where nothing happened and Kakashi was glad for that. He understood and accepted that as a ninja, strife was inevitable but every day without a fight was a win in Kakashi's books.

Zabuza looked a bit annoyed as he sat on the opposite side of the bridge, focusing on maintaining the mist around it. There was no mist on the bridge but the area surrounding it was utterly shrouded in white cloudy substance. It took quite a bit of concentration on Zabuza's side to keep it from spilling onto the bridge but this was the best defense against any ranged assassins. It would block sight for obvious reasons and chakra sensing because the mist was full of chakra, hence, a chakra sensor would see only a big gathering of chakra unless he crossed the mist, which would instantly alert Zabuza.

Naruto was helping with the construction of the bridge alongside his clones henged as workers while Hinata was silently cheering him on. At first, she occasionally turned her Byakugan on and off to scout the surroundings but that brought her quite the headache because of the chakra-infused mist. Now she didn't even bother. Zabuza and Kakashi were very focused and Hinata doubted anyone could sneak close to the bridge without them noticing no matter if she occasionally used her Byakugan or not. Zabuza's mist wasn't the only precaution either. Naruto also had a few clones stationed around, henged as inanimate objects. Somehow, they could still see just fine despite being a rock or a twig.

Sasuke was near Kakashi, practicing Uchiha taijutsu katas while also training with his Sharingan. He was definitely not wasting his time just lazing around like Hinata and Kakashi, and he was not paid for helping with the construction so there was no way he would do that like the dork Naruto.

Kakashi supposed he should have reprimanded Sasuke for not paying attention during the bodyguard mission but he simply couldn't be bothered.

It was around lunch when Kakashi suddenly saw Sasuke's eyes widen and just like that, the Uchiha disappeared only for Tazuna to appear in his spot.

'Wh-, Kawarimi!' Kakashi's head whipped towards the place where Tazuna stood just a split second ago. He was just in time to see Sasuke bending back, barely avoiding a massive long golden arrow, having it only tear a bit of flesh from his shoulder rather than skewer the right side of his chest.

Sasuke was for the first time in his life glad he was still a kid. Only his small stature compared to Tazuna allowed him to dodge the sneak attack. Gasping for breath, Sasuke's head tilted to the right and his sight instantly fell upon the huge golden arrow struck in the bridge, just an inch from his cheek. Sasuke gulped as he realized his quest for revenge against Itachi and restoration of the Uchiha clan almost came to an end if the arrow was aimed a bit to the side.

"Naruto! Evacuate the workers!" Kakashi shouted and Naruto instantly got to his assigned task. Fortunately, the bridge workers kept their calm and let themselves be led away, surrounded by Naruto's clones for protection.

The two jonins quickly understood their peaceful day was over and somebody was attacking. Zabuza's mist seemed ineffective and that could only mean the enemy had some way to bypass it. As such, Zabuza instantly dissipated the mist, cursing a second later when he realized the attacker stayed a foot away from the mist on the opposite side, not entering it and therefore not alerting Zabuza of his presence.

'But how could he locate Zabuza through the mist! It can't be hearing or smell. The distance is too great for that and my mist would interfere.' Zabuza disgruntledly mused. Something felt amiss to him.

It was then that a big gray ethereal worm-like creature phased through the floor of the bridge, rushing towards the frightened Zabuza who was retreating with the other workers. Only quick interference of Naruto's clones that grabbed the men, lunged them onto their shoulders and jumped out of the way saved them from the creature reaching them. The creatures didn't stop though and a game of cat and mouse started, creating mayhem and panic among the civilian workers. It just became that much harder to do their job for the ninjas.

Hinata's mind instantly comprehended that there must be an enemy who somehow managed to sneak under the bridge. She activated her Byakugan and rushed towards the side of the bridge. Flooding the kunai with her lightning chakra, she made it sharp enough that when she threw it into the ground, it sank handle deep into the stone. Hinata somersaulted over the railing while holding a thin wire fastened on the handle of the kunai. Only channeling chakra into her hands protected them from being cut as she flew through the air, using the length of the wire to propel herself under the bridge.

There was a red-haired woman, using Tree Walking exercise to stick upside down on the ceiling of the underside of the bridge while three humanoid monsters encircled her, one of which was the source of the grey worm.

Thanks to her Byakugan, Hinata still saw the mayhem the worm was causing on the bridge and understood dispatching the creature was extremely important. Needless to say, Hinata sprang forward, running on the ceiling, intending to engage the redhead woman and her apparitions.

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Kakashi and Zabuza wanted to go and confront the archer. Leaving him be was not an option with how accurate he was despite the mist. Now that the mist was gone, letting him shoot more would be suicidal. It was a lifesaver that Naruto's clones henged as inanimate objects were somehow managing to distract him so far, preventing him from interfering.

But their intention to go and deal with the archer was stopped when Raiga appeared on the edge of the bridge, his arms crossed under his chest and dissatisfied scowl marring his face. Kakashi was glad the man didn't sneak attack during the chaos. That would definitely result in losing a member of the team.

Unfortunately, the two jonins now had to deal with Raiga. The choice between a dangerous archer and S-rank lightning-using swordsman was a no-brainer. If they went for the archer, Raiga would slaughter everybody on the bridge. Worse yet, they had no chance of facing Raiga unless they ganged upon him.

Grimacing under his mask, Kakashi shouted towards Sasuke, "Sasuke! Go and deal with the archer! He can't be allowed to shoot!" He didn't like giving Sasuke this task. He wasn't really convinced Sasuke could pull it off but letting the archer do whatever he wanted would definitely decide the battle.

The original Naruto was hiding among the retreating workers, leading them away from the bridge. They were almost at the entrance leading towards the Land of Waves when Naruto's chakra senses started tingling.

Naruto realized he didn't have enough time to completely negate the attack. His hands instantly blurred into a cross-shaped hand seal. "Multi-Shadow Clone Technique!" He shouted, creating hundreds of cannon fodder between the ground and the workers who were being lifted into the air by the growing pile of orange-clad bodies under them.

Every clone of Naruto used their chakra sensing to shift the workers to a position that would hopefully save them from death but they had only a split of a second before massive crystal-like light-purple spikes grew from the ground, skewering everything in their path and popping a huge amount of shadow clones out of existence.

No bridge worker died from the attack and Naruto knew it was due to sheer dumb luck and the fact the target was Tazuna. Another batch of clones grabbed the workers one by one, none too gently, not paying attention if they had broken bones, cut off limbs, or whatever injuries. Then, the clones rushed with their respective workers towards the village, each of them in a different direction to make it harder for the attacker to give chase.

Naruto knew the actual target was Tazuna and didn't think the attacker would go and chase after ordinary workers but it was better to take a precaution than later regret not doing anything.

As for Tazuna... Naruto couldn't lead him to the town. That would endanger the civilians living there. He just saw his hidden opponent attempt to kill tens of men in order to get to Tazuna. As such, Naruto decided to make his stand near the entrance of the bridge just as he finally located his hidden enemy with his chakra sensing.

One of the clones who was about to pass through the entrance of the bridge, carrying a middle-aged man suddenly glowed orange, causing the man to widen his eyes before a sudden explosion deafened the world. From the dust that rose due to the explosion, a shadow jumped out, revealing a blue-haired woman in green kimono as she slid on the ground, a thin crystal-like armor covering her body with multiple cracks scattered all around it due to the explosion. The woman was however unharmed, making Naruto inwardly curse. The explosion was supposed to hurt even jonin and he just realized these crystals would be extremely hard to deal with.

"To think none of our three plans worked." The woman grumbled, watching Naruto's clones in front of her like a hawk. "You are quite good."

Naruto could only wryly smile at the praise. After all, it was just pure luck that saved the day in this particular situation.

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