Squad Seven takes what looks like a routine C-rank mission: escort Shibuki, the timid young leader of the Hidden Waterfall Village, back home. Once there, the village children rope the team into a cleanup job. Then Kakashi is called away to an emergency meeting in Konoha, just as the rogue ninja Suien arrives hunting the village's secret elixir, the Hero's Water, and willing to kill for it. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are left to defend Shibuki and the village alone. This light novel adapts an original story from the first Naruto anime.