Naruto - Part 3
"As always, we have several clients requesting the services of Team 7, so you have free choice to pick which mission you want." Sarutobi began as Team 7 came to pick up another mission after a month of high demand for the apparently most popular Genin team in Konoha.
"Today you've been requested to help the waitresses of a night club move some furniture. There is also a request to help a woman move to a new apartment. The final option is helping the..."
"Hokage-sama! Please just give us a C-rank mission already!" Sakura asked in a slightly crazed manner.
The past month had been a long string of getting dumped with all the work while Naruto drove her insane by sleeping with Every. Single. Client! And she had enough of it! Surely if they got a C-rank mission and were sent out of the village he couldn't keep giving their team a reputation as a group of whores.
She hadn't missed the way that some people had been looking at them, especialy after a mission, since Naruto never bothered being quiet. She had never been so embarassed in her life to walk next to another person. Every single day since the Tora mission there had been special requests for the 'services' of Team 7, which was just another way of saying that Naruto was going to have loud sex with another woman, while the rest of them had to stick around until he finished.
The worst times were when there were other people there with them. She and Sasuke could do nothing but wait with their heads hung in embarassment while he made their team look like an escort service. Kakashi was not being helpful at all when he told them that Naruto was just being diligent at completing the missions, giggling perversely the whole time.
"I agree, we're ready for a C-rank." Sasuke agreed quickly. He was handling the situation somewhat better than Sakura, but he was still eager to to something else than waiting for Naruto to finish the 'mission'.
"Now listen here, you can't just demand a C-rank mission from the Hokage! You've only been out of the academy for a month!" Iruka ranted at them.
"Well I think they're ready." Kakashi drawled lazily, bringing the Chunin up short.
Honestly, the team wasn't getting any kind of teamwork done, except for the joint embarassment and irritation of Sasuke and Sakura.
"A C-rank sounds fun." Naruto grinned in approval, he was itching for some action himself.
Sarutobi looked speculative for a moment, before he made his decision. "Very well, send in Tazuna."
Soon afterwards, an old man with a rope tied around his forehead entered, he was quite clearly drunk and getting drunker, judging by the sake bottle in his hand.
"So this is the team that's supposed to protect me? A cyclops, an exhibitionist and two brats?" Tazuna asked drunkenly, not overly impressed with the team that was supposed to be protecting him, even if the blonde did look pretty tough.
"My team is quite capable I assure you and if we run into anything that they can't handle, then I will take care of it." Kakashi assured.
"Team 7, your mission is to escort Tazuna, the bridge builder, back to his home in Wave Country and protect him until the bridge he is building is complete." Sarutobi explained the mission.
"Meet up at the gate in two hours, bring enough supplies to last several weeks." The Jounin said to his team.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Several hours later, team 7 and their client were walking through the forests of Fire Country, making their way slowly south towards Wave Country.
Naruto had released his resistance seals and was feeling pretty annoyed at moving so slowly. Without the seals slowing him down, he felt as if he could take off and fly if he stepped on the ground too hard. It had been a long time since he'd released them last, and the way the seals were set up meant that they automaticaly increased the resistance on his body, keeping it constant with his strength increase. Well, he was pretty much at his physical peak, but the more he worked on it, the better he could reinforce his body with chakra.
All of this meant that he was feeling irritable at the slow pace, but he wasn't going to keep the seals active on a mission that was potentialy dangerous. He had no intention of dying because some stupid punk got lucky and attacked him before he could release the seals.
At least the walk was helping him get used to his new speed and strength after being under the seals for so long. It usualy didn't take long to get used to it, but it was always good to be fully used to your own body before a fight.
"Hey Naruto?" Sasuke suddenly spoke up, much to the surprise of everyone except Tazuna who didn't know how strange this was.
"What?"
"I've been wondering...why do you never use any Ninjutsu during our spars?"
Sasuke had been forced to reevaluate his opinion on the blonde several times during the month that they had been a team.
At first, he'd refused to call Naruto by his name, instead calling him dead last, but that had ended when the blonde had kicked him in the face for it. This had led to Sakura yelling at him...and getting kicked in the face for it.
Kakashi had them spar regularly and Sasuke was frustrated to note that Naruto was not moving anywhere near as fast, nor hitting as hard as he had during the bell test, meaning that he was clearly holding back.
Everyone looked towards the blonde, interested in hearing his answer.
"That's because I can't." he told them blandly.
Everyone looked at him in shock...well except Tazuna, who didn't know what the big deal was.
"What do you mean you can't use Ninjutsu?" Kakashi asked, wondering if it was the same problem that Gai's student had.
"I have too much chakra to use normal Ninjutsu."
"How can you have too much chakra to use Ninjutsu, that doesn't make any sense." Sakura protested.
"I have so much chakra that it's actualy become so condensed in my coils, that I overload any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu that I try to use. In fact I'm pretty sure that I have at least 10 times the amount of chakra that the Hokage has. The only Ninjutsu that I can use are the ones that don't require hand seals or use up huge amounts of chakra, meaning raw shape and nature manipulation." Naruto explained, leaving out the fact that he could use the transformation tehnique just fine, it just used up nearly 300 times the chakra, making the chakra coating around him so dense that it actualy caused a physical transformation.
"I didn't think you even knew any Ninjutsu aside from the ones they teach at the academy." Sakura commented.
"There is a library section open for Genin you know. Where do you think the diet and exercise plans that Kakashi gave you came from?" Naruto deapanned at her.
"There's a library with Ninjutsu available for any Genin that goes in there?!" Sasuke was shocked. There was free Ninjutsu up for grabs and he didn't know about it?
"Don't wet your panties with excitement princess, there isn't anything too powerful in there since it's meant for Genin, though there might be more for you than for me in there considering you're fire natured and we're in Fire Country." Naruto shot down Sasuke's delusion of just grabbing up powerful Ninjutsu from the library.
Sakura scowled at the blonde, annoyed at the way he kept insulting her Sasuke-kun, but didn't say anything for fear of getting another boot to the face. She settled for asking another question instead.
"What kind of chakra nature do you have Naruto and how do you find out your chakra nature anyway?"
"I've got wind and water natures, which is just my luck since those are the rarest natures in Konoha, and you need a special chakra paper to test your affinity." Naruto explained.
"Why do you have two natures and Sasuke-kun only has one?" Sakura questioned further, feeling that it was unfair if her crush only had one chakra nature. Sasuke was wondering the same thing.
Kakashi interjected his own opinion at this point. "He might have more than one for all we know, since he hasn't been tested yet."
This settled Sasuke's rising jealousy, but he was still wondering about something.
"So, if you can't use normal Ninjutsu, what can you do with your nature manipulation?"
"At the moment, splash water around harmlessly and create a nice breeze, since I haven't been able to find any information on nature manipulation training yet." The blonde stated flatly, still irritated that he hadn't managed to make any use of his affinities.
"That's because it's a Jounin level skill Naruto, there's no need to be in such a rush." Kakashi said with an eye smile, making Sasuke and Sakura look at him in surprise.
"Some of us aren't lazy assholes like you Kakashi, I've already lost 4 years thanks to the morons in the academy holding me back and I have no intention of waiting until I make Jounin to learn that." Naruto repllied with a scowl.
"What do you mean 'holding you back'? Weren't you the dead last 4 years running?" Sakura asked in confusion.
Naruto restrained the urge to kick her in the face, since she hadn't meant it as an insult for a change.
"I'm pretty sure that the instructors were screwing up my scores so that they'd have an excuse to fail me at the end of the year, that's why I only bothered to show up for tests. I've actualy been sending shadow clones to the academy for the past two years instead of going myself." Everyone was surprised to hear this, Sasuke and Sakura especialy.
"Wait wait, you mean you're only 4 years older than these two brats?" Tazuna interrupted in shock, having thought that the blonde was a good deal older than that.
It wasn't an unreasonable assumption, considering the fact that Naruto was already very tall and he didn't look like a teenager at all. The constant workout that the resistance seals gave him had completely burned off all the baby fat that he should have retained at the age of 17, leaving him looking like he was made out of marble. Without that distinct 'softness' that youth would give to the face of a teenager, his features were defined sharply, giving him a predatory look that was enhanced tenfold by his sharp teeth and feral whisker marks. He was far from unattractive, as the dangerous look often excited women, but he was definitely not attractive in a traditional manner.
They all gave Tazuna a nod, before Sasuke picked up on something that he'd missed earlier in the conversation.
"But if you have too much chakra for regular Ninjutsu, then why can you make shadow clones?"
"Because there's nothing regular about shadow clones Sasuke, It's a B-rank Kinjutsu that only a few Jounin ever learn because of it's high chakra cost. If anyone other than Naruto tried to use shadow clones the way that he does, they would run out of chakra almost instantly." Kakashi explained lazily, eyes firmly glued to his book.
Sasuke scowled at that, annoyed at the fact that the blonde had such a powerful jutsu and wondering how he even got it in the first place. While he wouldn't want to be in Naruto's position of being unable to use Ninjutsu, he couldn't deny that having that kind of insane chakra capacity would be great to have when he finaly faced Itachi.
The group continued on in silence for a while before Sakura broke it by asking Tazuna whether Wave Country had any ninja of it's own, which led to Kakashi explaining that five great nations and their Hidden Villages, after which the group lapsed into silence once again.
Not long after that, they were approaching a puddle in the middle of the dirt road. Kakashi quickly noticed that there was no reason for a puddle to be there, as it hadn't rained in nearly two weeks.
Naruto however noticed the low levels of killing intent that were originating from the puddle, after which he quickly noticed that the ground was much to dry for there to be a puddle there. Exchanging a glance with Kakashi, the Jounin nodded at him, surprised that that the blonde had noticed it, but pleased nonetheless.
The group meandered passed the puddle, Kakashi with his face buried in his book, Naruto with his hands in the pockets of his coat, looking bored , Sakura glancing at Sasuke every few moments and Sasuke doing his best to ignore her.
As they passed the puddle, two shinobi with scratched out Kirigakure forehead protectors, each one carrying a gauntlet that was connected to the other with a chain, rose from the puddle and wrapped the chain around Kakashi, who was walking at the back of the group. With a violent pull, a wide eyed, shocked looking Kakashi was torn into pieces, shocking everyone except Naruto, who didn't even bother to take his hands out of his pockets.
"One down..." One of the two shinobi began. "...and three to go!" The other finished.
Sakura remained frozen with fear next to the equaly frozen Tazuna, pulling out a kunai out of pure reflex rather than any confidence about defending herself with it.
Sasuke snapped out of his shock quickly, charging at the shinobi on the left, evading his slow attack and bringing his leg around in a powerful blow to the back of the head, knocking him out.
Turning around with a smug look, he looked towards Naruto, expecting him to still be having some trouble with the other one, only to see that the blonde still hadn't bothered to take his hands out of his pockets, simply planting his boot right into the mans face hard enough to break his nose, drive the bones into his brain and killing him instantly, making the poison tipped claw useless, still looking bored. To him, the two shinobi had been slower than dripping honey in winter, that combined with foreknowledge of the attack, made the whole thing rather underwhelming.
Sasuke grinded his teeth at being shown up so badly. He was supposed to be an elite, an Uchiha. Was he so much weaker than his brother that he couldn't even best a no name orphan like Naruto?
"Well done all of you. Sasuke and Naruto neutralised the threat while Sakura protected the client." Kakashi praised as he suddenly appeared in front of them.
"Kakashi-Sensei! You're alive!" Sakura exclaimed in happy surprise.
"Of course, they only cut apart a log after all." The Jounin replied with an eye smile, making Sakura look at the scene of his 'death' only to noticed that indeed, there was a log in three pieces there. She smiled sheepishly at forgetting about the substitution tehnique.
If she was honest with herself, she was feeling both shaken and somewhat ashamed of herself. Even though Kakashi had praised her for 'protecting the client', she had just been too terrified to move. The whole incident only served to bring Naruto's words from the bell test crashing back into her mind. If she had encountered this kind of situation alone, or if Kakashi really had been killed and her teammates weren't strong enough to fight them off alone, then she would have been completely useless, just like Naruto had said. Even though she had asked Kakashi about getting into shape and he had given her diet and exercise plans, she hadn't been too enthusiastic about doing them. Sure, she'd used them, but not to the extent that she could have. She was sure that she was still behind what most of her academy classmates had been capable of when they graduated, never mind her two teammates, who were clearly much further along than that.
"Those were the Demon Brothers, B-rank missing-nin from Kirigakure. Is there something you aren't telling us Tazuna-san?" Kakashi asked pointedly, making the old man sweat.
"B-rank? I wouldn't give them anything above a C-ranking." Naruto commented.
"Well...that performance just now definitely wasn't B-rank, but they were probably underestimating you." Kakashi answered with a sweat drop, before turning to Tazuna, expecting an answer.
"Well, you see...there's a really dangerous man after me, his name is Gato." Tazuna explained nervously.
"Gato?! Of the Gato shipping company? Said to be the richest man in the world?" Kakashi asked in surprise, not having expected such a thing.
"Yeah, but his shipping company is also a front for his smuggling and drug dealing operation. Over a year ago, he moved into Wave and started buying up every business that had so much as a fishing boat. If someone didn't want to sell, then he sent his hired thugs to get rid of them. Since Wave is an island nation, this means that he effectively controls the entire country."
"That's fine and all, but why did you say this was a C-rank mission if you knew that he would send shinobi after you? As it is, this mission is now at least B-rank if not A-rank. We would be fully within our rights to abandon the mission, since you lied about it." Kakashi questioned sternly.
"Because Wave is too poor now to afford anything more than a C-rank, even the Daimyo doesn't have any money. We aren't even sure if he's still alive since Gato took over his mansion. But if you want to quit now, I'll understand. It's no big deal that I'll be killed and that my daughter will hate Konoha ninja forever and my cute little grandson will cry all the time." Tazuna both explained and spun what he hoped was a sob enough story to make them feel bad if they wanted to quit the mission.
Kakashi just sighed as he had a feeling what his hotheaded students would want to do. Sakura would likely be relieved about going back to Konoha, but Sasuke and Naruto would both be excited rather than scared off at the prospect of the mission being tougher than it was supposed to be.
"I say we continue the mission." Naruto said simply.
"I agree." Sasuke seconded.
Seeing that her crush wanted to continue, Sakura just nodded her head in agreement.
Both Sasuke and Sakura were privately hoping that Naruto didn't end up sleeping with the aforementioned daughter.
Tazuna looked at them in gratitude and relief, before looking over at the Jounin of the group, knowing that it was ultimately his decision.
Kakashi withheld another sigh, feeling that this was a really bad idea, since the next opponent was likely going to be a Jounin, but the team was finally working together on something and he didn't want to ruin that.
"Alright, I guess we're continuing the mission."
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Alright Tazuna, this is as far as I go." The boatman that had ferried them across the ocean to the island nation of Wave said.
"Thanks Kaji." Tazuna replied.
They were now in Wave country and still there had been no further attacks, making Kakashi suspect that it would happen very soon now. It was after all, best to attack someone while they were in unfamiliar territory.
Naruto was paying attention to the surroundings carefuly, also thinking that things were a bit too easy. Most of his attention however was on sensing any killing intent at all. His youth had made him highly sensitive to it, as he had been the target of it a lot of the time. Though the killing intent of civilians was quite pathetic, it had proven useful to attuning him to sensing such things. The suppressed killing intent of a ninja wasn't that much different from that of a civilian.
That's when he sensed it, a very faint killing intent coming from the bushes. Without thinking he flung one of his rarely used kunai into the bush and the killing intent instantly vanished, making Naruto narrow his eyes in suspicion.
A cute, but terrified squeaking sound revealed that he had nearly sunk the kunai into the head of a white snow rabbit. He ignored Sakura's chastisement about frightening the poor animal, because he was utterly certain that it hadn't been a rabbit that was thinking about killing them.
That rabbit shouldn't have a white coat at this time of year, meaning that it's been raised indoors. Kakashi realised, before suddenly yelling out to his team.
"Get down!"
Sasuke instantly obeyed, Naruto kicked Sakura's legs out from under her and flung himself to the ground simultaneously and Kakashi tackled the bridge builder. It was all done just in time as well, as a giant sword spun through the air where they had been standing just moments before.
The sword planted itself into a tree and a tall, shirtless man with a leather strap over his chest appeared on the long hilt of the sword. He was wearing camouflage pattern arm and leg warmers, his scratched out Kirigakure forehead protector identified him as a missing nin and he was distinctly lacking eyebrows for some odd reason and he also had the lower half of his face wrapped in bandages, creating a similar effect as Kakashi's mask.
"Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Hidden Mist." Kakashi stated, identifying the newcomer.
"Sharingan Kakashi, the Copy Ninja." Zabuza replied, surprising Sasuke, who was wondering why his sensei was called that.
"Stay back and protect Tazuna, This enemy is out of your league." Kakashi said, while lifting his headband and revealing his implanted Sharingan.
"Oh? I get to see the Sharingan already? I'm honoured. You know you could just hand over the bridge builder and we'd have no problem." Zabuza commented idly, readying his weapon.
"Sorry, but we have a mission to protect him." Kakashi returned.
"I thought you'd say that." Immediately after saying that, Zabuza jumped over to the nearby lake and made a handsign.
"Kirigakure no Jutsu(Hiding in Mist Tehnique)."
A dense cover of mist formed rapidly, obscuring sight and making Kakashi a good deal more wary, as his Sharingan was useless if he couldn't see.
"Don't lower your guard, Zabuza is a master of the Silent Killing tehnique." The Jounin warned.
"Silent Killing?" Sakura asked nervously.
"As the name suggests, users of the tehnique are able to kill their targets without a sound. Most of the time, the target dies without ever realising it." Kakashi explained, warily looking around for a glimpse of the missing-nin.
Naruto was trying to pinpoint Zabuza's position by the feel of the mans' killing intent, but wasn't having any luck, as it seemed to be coming from several places and he could only get a general location either way. He ignored Zabuza's little speech about the eight points in the body that he could strike for a lethal blow, as he knew that the man was just doing it to freak them out.
Kakashi then used a chakra burst to disperse the mist, making Naruto wonder why he hadn't done that before. The rising pressure of the killing intent being tossed around by the two Jounin was considerable and Naruto could see that it was getting to Sasuke, as the Uchiha survivor looked about ready to kill himself. The only reason that Sakura wasn't in the same position was because she wasn't attuned enough to feel it.
"Sasuke, calm down! I won't let my comrades die, I'll protect all of you." Kakashi spoke, breaking Sasuke out of his panic attack.
Immediately after that, Naruto sensed the presence appearing in the middle of their formation. He spun around with an outstretched kunai, stabbing it into Zabuza's forehead, only for the man to turn into water.
"Looks like you got a fast one there." Zabuza commented, not letting on that the fast reaction from the blonde had ruined his plan to get rid of Kakashi.
The big, muscle bound blonde had confused him at first. The other two looked like fresh Genin, but this one was clearly a good bit older than them and he didn't look incompotent enough to be one of those Genin lifers. When Kakashi had given all three of them orders to stay out of the fight, it had told him that he didn't think any of them could be of any help in the fight, but that speedy disposal of his clone just now told a different story. If he didn't want this turning against him, he needed to keep the blonde from joining the fight, even if he wasn't as strong as Kakashi, he could still be dangerous enough to turn the tables decidedly against him.
Kakashi had pinpointed the location of the voice when Zabuza had spoken this time and immediately rushed at it, ramming his kunai into the surprised looking mans abdomen.
Only for the man to turn into water and another Zabuza to appear behind him, already swinging the sword to cut him in half. Having no time to dodge, Kakashi was cut in half and then immediately turned to water. Zabuza felt a kunai on his neck from another Kakashi immediately after.
"It's over Zabuza." Kakashi stated confidently.
"Yes, it is." The humour in Zabuza's tone tipped Kakashi off to the fact that something was wrong, making him duck hastily, stabbing the Zabuza in front of him just in case it was another trick, but the water that leaked out of the wound and the sword swising over his head proved the ducking to be a wise move.
Zabuza proved to have great mastery of his oversized sword though, as the missed swing sank it into the ground, but instead of trying to pull it out, he used the sword as extra leverage to kick the silver haired Jounin into the lake.
Kakashi was finding it extremely difficult to get out of the water, as it was unusualy heavy. He had just processed the fact that being in the water while fighting a water specialised shinobi was a bad idea when he was suddenly encased in a sphere of water.
"Suiton: Suirō no Jutsu(Water Release: Water Prison Tehnique)."
"It might be a prison of water, but it's stronger than steel. You won't be escaping from here anytime soon and now all I have to do is get rid of that blonde and those two brats of yours."
Sasuke gritted his teeth at being dismissed so easily, while Naruto just observed carefuly to see if there were any weaknesses that he could exploit in this situation. That water prison tehnique looked interesting, but from what he could see, Zabuza had to keep his hand stuck inside it to sustain it and that was a serious weakness.
"Take the bridge builder and run, this fight was over when he captured me!" Kakashi urged them. "He can't move as long as he's holding this prison, so just run!"
"I'm not sure what you're thinking right now Kakashi, but I'm the only one fast enough to outrun no-brows here and I can't do that while carrying someone. Not to mention that he could just come after us after he kills you." Naruto replied drily, making Kakashi feel a little stupid that he hadn't considered that.
"You're not sounding very scared blondie, despite knowing who I am." Zabuza said, making a few water clones.
Before he replied, Naruto using his full speed to smash into the water clones, who couldn't react fast enough, as they had only one ten percent of the originals power.
"That's because you've placed yourself into a bad position by using a tehnique that prevents you from moving." Naruto told him idly, making Zabuza worry that the blonde was indeed more dangerous than Kakashi's attitude would indicate.
"You're different than the other two...you've got dangerous eyes. What's your name?" Zabuza asked, realising that this one bore watching.
"Uzumaki Naruto." The blonde replied with a grin, that showed him teeth just as sharp as his.
Zabuza wanted to curse. Any ninja worth his salt knew about the Uzumaki even if they had been destroyed before his time, they had been feared with good reason after all. A small island nation like Uzushio had been able to stand on equal footing with the five great nations because of the Uzumaki. Kumogakure and Kirigakure, along with several minor groups, had allied together for the sole purpose of destroying Uzushiogakure and had still suffered horrendous losses despite outnumbering the Uzumaki more than 10 to 1. He could only hope that this one didn't know any of the crazy tehniques that the clan had been known for.
"Sasuke, Sakura." Naruto spoke suddenly to his teammates, getting their attention. "Feel free to throw kunai and shuriken at Zabuza."
"What are you going to be doing?" Sasuke asked, readying some shuriken. He didn't like taking orders from the blonde, but he seemed to have some idea about what to do.
Rather than answer, Naruto used a tehnique that made everyones jaws drop.
"Uzumaki Hijutsu: Kusari(Uzumaki Secret Art: Chains)."
Four chains extended out of Naruto's back, going through his coat, but not damaging it, their sharpened tips pointed at Zabuza like the legs of a spider. He was glad that he'd put seals all over the coat and pants to make sure they didn't get damaged, they were especialy immune to his own chakra, seeing as the seals on it were saturated with it.
"Shit, fucking Uzumaki." Zabuza swore. This was looking really bad for him. If he moved, then Kakashi would be freed and if he didn't move then he'd eventualy get skewered by either the chains or the thrown weapons from the two brats. He couldn't even do a damn thing about it, because they were all safely out of range of his sword. If it was just thrown weapons it wouldn't be a problem, but those chains could keep harassing him from multiple directions and he couldn't do a damn thing about it.
"Your cursing seems to indicate that the Uzumaki were a clan of some sort." Naruto said in interest. He had long ago managed to sniff out the name of a red headed kunoichi by the name of Uzumaki Kushina, who had no doubt been his mother, but it seemed that someone in the village had purged all information about the Uzumaki. He had long suspected that it had been or was a clan, but this pretty much confirmed it.
"You didn't know? The Uzumaki were a clan allright, they got destroyed by an alliance between Kumogakure and Kirigakure during the Second Shinobi World War, because there were a lot of people scared of them." Zabuza answered, stalling for time a bit so that he could have some more time to think of a way out of this.
"Thank you, I've been wondering about that for years." Naruto replied, making Kakashi wonder just how much his blonde student actualy knew.
Unnoticed by everyone, Sasuke was grinding his teeth together at learning yet another thing about Naruto that made the blonde better than him. He couldn't have taken out those clones, those chains looked to be incredibly powerful and now he learned that the Uzumaki were an actual clan that was so feared and powerful that it had taken an alliance of two Great Hidden Villages to destroy, while his own was destroyed by a single traitor.
Without any further delay, Naruto sent forth his chains and his teammates began throwing weapons at the motionless form of Zabuza. The swordsman managed to deflect the initial attack and dodge the next one by twisting his body. The chains however were a lot more manouverable than him and had wrapped themselves around his weapon and began pulling it out of his hands. This forced Zabuza to let go of the water prison so that he could bring his full strength to bear against the chains.
This however freed Kakashi, who immediately attacked, forcing Zabuza to abandon the tug of war over his sword or get stabbed.
"Good work on getting me out of there, I'll handle it from here." Kakashi said, positioning himself across from Zabuza
Zabuza found himself outmatched in the following Ninjutsu battle, the Sharingan proving to be too great an advantage, as it allowed Kakashi to perfectly predict his intentions and even hypnotise him into making a mistake at the end.
Zabuza crashed into a tree after being hit by a powerful torrent of water from Kakashi's great waterfall tehnique, dazed and injured. Just as the Sharingan wielding Jounin was about to finish him off though, two needles sank into the missing-nins neck, apparently killing him instantly.
"Thank you for your help, I have been waiting for an opportunity to take down Zabuza for some time." Said the newly arrived ninja, dressed like a member of the Kiri hunter-nin. He or she had long black hair and was wearing the blank white mask with a strange hooked swirl over the bottom part of it, the Kirigakure symbol etched into the forehead and dressed in the faded green combat kimono of the Kirigakure hunter-nin corps.
"No problem hunter-san." Said Kakashi, hiding just how tired he was. He quickly checked Zabuza for a pulse, just to be extra certain and when he found none, he stepped away from the body.
While Kakashi and Zabuza had been having their Ninjutsu battle, Naruto had dragged the sword to himself with his chains, and was now holding it over his shoulder in his right hand.
"I would ask that you give me that sword Uzumaki-san, it is property of Kirigakure after all."
"You want this sword? It's yours, if you get naked, down on your knees and lick my ass bitch!" Naruto replied heatedly with a finger pointed at the masked ninja, having taken a liking to the sword. He even felt like being a bit ostentatious, so he used his rudimentary control over wind chakra to create a breeze that made his coat and ponytail flap in the wind dramatically
Haku was taken aback, having not expected that kind of over the top response in the slightest and at the fact that the blonde had apparently guessed her gender. She was also extremely grateful that the mask hid her blushing and slack jawed expression at the incredibly crude proposition.
"Naruto." Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura groaned in unison, while Tazuna was looking like he was trying not to laugh despite still being somewhat scared.
"Hell no, I'm not giving up this sword to some hunter-nin, if the Mizukage wants it back, he'll have to send for it personally." Naruto insisted stubbornly.
Haku was torn with indecision at this, as that would be a perfectly reasonable request if she had actually been a hunter-nin. Either way the longer she stayed here, the more likely it was that someone would figure out that something fishy was going on.
She knew that Zabuza would be incredibly angry over losing the sword, but at least he would be alive.
"Alright, I will inform the Mizukage of this." Said the masked ninja and vanished with Zabuza's body.
Kakashi looked over at his team with an eye smile. "Great work team."
He was about to speak further, intending to question Naruto about those chains, but he face planted into the ground and felt all the strenght leave his body.
"Kakashi-Sensei!" Sakura exclaimed, worried that he'd been hurt.
"I'm fine Sakura, it's just chakra exhaustion." Kakashi explained and passed out immediately afterwards.
"I guess you guys are carrying him the rest of the way to Tazuna's house." Naruto stated lightly.
"What? Why us? You're the biggest and strongest out of the three of us!" Sakura complained, with Sasuke nodding in agreement.
Naruto favoured her with a terrifying fanged grin that told everyone who saw it that they were meat and he was hungry. "Because I've got a big sword and I'm not afraid to use it."
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Kakashi woke up and felt weak as a kitten. Chakra exhaustion, that's just great.
He tried to get up, all the while commenting to himself. "I guess I really overdid it with my Sharingan, I can barely move."
"Then maybe you shouldn't be moving at all." Said a pretty dark haired woman in her late twenties, who had just entered the room and heard him talking to himself. She was wearing a pink short sleeved shirt with red trim around the sleeves and neckline.
"Sensei! You're awake." Sakura exclaimed, as she along with Sasuke, Naruto and Tazuna made their way into the room.
"Yeah, I'm awake, but I'm not going to be able to move normaly for a week, my Sharingan really takes a lot out of me."
"Is it really worth using if it puts that kind of strain on you?" Sakura asked worriedly.
"Well it's ok now that you took care of that assassin right?" Tazuna asked.
"Yeah...about that, theres something strange about that." Kakashi said as something kept niggling in his mind.
"What?" Sakura asked in confusion
"Well, hunter-nin are supposed to destroy the body immediately to prevent enemy shinobi from capturing it and prying village secrets out of it, not take it away. Also, the hunter used senbon needles, which are rarely fatal." The Jounin explained.
"What are you getting at?" Tazuna asked worriedly.
"I'm saying that Zabuza is still alive." He stated, surprising everyone.
"But you checked his pulse didn't you?" Sakura asked fearfully. She'd been terrified the entire battle.
"Yes, and he didn't have one, but a skilled hunter-nin would have no difficulty placing someone in a death trance." Kakashi refuted.
"Aren't you overthinking things here, I mean you completely destroyed that guy." Tazuna tried to reason.
"Shinobi must never disregard anything suspicious, as that might be the last mistake they ever make." The cyclopean Jounin answered firmly.
"But now what are we going to do. I mean, you barely beat him and now you wont be able to move normally for a week." Sakura worried.
"Well, Zabuza is going to be having movement problems of his own for a week because of that death trance."
"And I've got his sword." Naruto added.
"Yes, there is that. We were fortunate that Naruto is such a rude bastard and refused to give the sword to that fake hunter-nin, since Zabuza will now be missing his most powerful weapon." Kakashi confirmed with an eye smile.
"What do you mean his most powerful weapon?" Sasuke asked, speaking up for the first time.
"before he went rogue, Zabuza was one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, an elite group of shinobi, each one carrying a powerful sword and each sword is rumoured to have a secret special ability."
"Sweet." Naruto said with a grin, while Sasuke frowned over the fact that the blonde seemed to have aquired a powerful weapon with unknown abilities. The sword was way too big for him, but he wanted something like it.
"And I'll be training you in the week before Zabuza gets back on his feet."
"How is a week of training supposed to help us against someone like Zabuza." Sakura shrieked with much less volume than she used to.
"Well, it was you three that helped me beat him didn't you?" Kakashi asked rhetoricaly, making a mental note to have that conversation with Naruto soon.
"If he shows himself again, we'll just kick his ass again." Naruto said with an excited grin. He was rather excited at the prospect of fighting Zabuza again.
"No you won't, you're all just going to get yourself killed." A young voice suddenly piped up.
"Eh?" Naruto turned around to look at the little kid that had entered the room, flashing his bare chest at Tsunami in the process, causing the woman to look away with a small blush. She had been trying not to look at the big blonde for the entire time that they'd been in the room together.
"And who're you?" Naruto asked the mopey looking kid that was wearing an oversized hat.
"Oh, this is my grandson Inari." Tazuna told them.
"Inari, these are the ninja that protected your grandfather, say hello to them." Tsunami told the boy.
"Why? They're all just going to die when Gato sends his men to kill them." Inari said sullenly.
"Inari, that's very rude!" His mother chastised him.
"Gato already sent his strongest and failed, anyone else he sends is likely going to be nothing more than a hired thug, which might as well be sheep against a ninja." Naruto said dismissively.
"Whatever, you should all just go home before you get killed." Inari said as a parting shot before he left the room.
"Please forgive Inari, he's..." Tsunami tried to explain.
"He's lost hope." Naruto stated with certainty.
Tsunami looked surprised at the fact that the blonde had figured it out so quickly.
"How did you know?" She asked.
"I've seen it before. Those like him go around telling everyone how hopeless it is, because they hate the fact that they can't hope anymore and they don't like to see others who still can." Everyone looked at the blonde in surprise at that, wondering how he knew so much about this. Only Kakashi had a faint idea that Naruto's life definitely couldn't have been easy.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The entire group, minus Inari, who had taken his food up to his room, were in the dining/living room, enjoying Tsunami's cooking.
It really was good food, but Naruto was well aware of the few anxious looks that Tsunami had leveled at the pantries and refrigerator when she'd seen how much they were eating. Clearly, she was worried about how feeding this many people was going to impact her ability to feed her family in the future.
The occasional glance and blush that she sent towards him was also not missed, no matter how subtle she thought she was being. He wasn't sure if Sasuke and Sakura had missed them or if they were doing a very good job of pretending that it wasn't happening. It was so funny seeing those two get embarrassed over the fact that someone they knew was frequently sexualy active. He wasn't sure what genius had claimed that all shinobi were adults when they became Genin, no matter their age. Did that mean that Kakashi had been an adult at the age of six? Yeah that sounded like a really smart move right there, giving a six year old free access to alchohol, tobacco, porn and lets not forget the brothels.
He'd also noticed the picture of the family on the wall. The happy looks on the faces of Inari and Tsunami made it clear that the picture had been taken during better times. It didn't take a genius to guess that the man in the picture who had his face cut out of the picture was somehow connected how things had gotten so bad. Either the man had died and it hurt them to see his face, or done something terrible to warrant having his face removed from the picture.
But now was not the time to be asking about that, there was a conversation with Kakashi that had been looming for the whole day. He thanked Tsunami for the dinner, causing the woman to blush again, before giving Kakashi a look and heading outside.
Kakashi hobbled after him shortly afterwards and then simply stood next to him in the dark a short distance away from the house. Naruto was waiting for Kakashi to say something, but the Jounin found himself unable to find any words despite the fact that he'd known this conversation was coming.
"My mother was Uzumaki Kushina wasn't she?" Naruto suddenly asked, snapping Kakashi out of his thoughts.
"How did you find out?"
"You just told me, but I've suspected it for a long time." Kakashi scowled at the fact that a Genin had used that old trick on him. "There was only one other Uzumaki in the village aside from me in recent times, so I eventualy dragged that out of someone with liberal use of the transformation tehnique, seeing as nobody wanted to talk about it to Uzumaki Naruto for some reason." Naruto continued.
Kakashi winced at that. He hadn't agreed with the Sandaime about keeping the truth from Naruto for this long. When he'd been much younger, it had made sense, but Naruto had been ready to know the truth for years now. And clearly he had dug it out no matter how hard Sarutobi had tried to hide it.
"Do you know who your father is too?" Kakashi asked.
"The Yondaime? That was actualy even easier to figure out, seeing as my looks are rather distinctive and mom and dad hadn't been very discrete about their relationship." Naruto answered. Of course the real reason that it had been easier to figure out was because Xanna had flat out told him, but Kakashi didn't need to know that.
"Naruto, the Sandaime was just trying to protect you by keeping it hidden." Kakashi reasoned.
"Don't make excuses for the old man Kakashi. The real reason he didn't tell me was because he just didn't want to deal with the hassle. Sarutobi doesn't like to rock the boat in his old age and keeps telling himself that it's the best thing to do." Naruto retorted.
This was the main reason that Naruto didn't trust or want anything to do with the old man. The man was so afraid of doing anything that he just sat on information that he should have acted on and pretty much let the council run the village for him. He might claim to hate the paperwork, but he wasn't above using it as an excuse to not do anything. As far as Naruto was concerned, the village hadn't had a Hokage since the Yondaime died. Sarutobi may as well have been a random senior citizen dressed up in the robes and keeping the chair warm.
"I bet he even told you not to approach me until I ended up on your team." Naruto guessed.
Kakashi just nodded grimly, confirming it. Sarutobi had indeed done that, claiming that it would draw too much attention to Naruto. Jiraiya was in a similar situation. The man was Naruto's godfather, so he had more right than anyone to take Naruto in and take care of him, but it was true that if Jiraiya had taken him in that a lot of attention would be on him. Not to mention the fact that the man had a spy network to mind. That wasn't even taking into account the fact that he'd just lost someone who had been like a son to him for all intents and purposes.
Sarutobi had promised Jiraiya that Naruto would be well taken care of and would be ready to become his apprentice after he became a shinobi, but clearly the first part of that promise had not worked out the way it was supposed to. Especialy considering the fact the academy had screwed him over badly. If Naruto had been allowed to graduate when he had been supposed to, then Kakashi wasn't sure which one of them would be stronger right now. He strongly suspected that it wouldn't be him.
Seeing that the secret was thoroughly blown, Kakashi told him some things about his parents that he hadn't known yet. The things that he hadn't known was surprisingly short, as apparently several years worth of 'reminiscing' while transformed into random people had allowed him to gather up a rather large amount of information.
"We should get some sleep, we've got training to do tomorrow." Kakashi said, as it was getting pretty late. Everyone else was already asleep.
"You go on ahead, I'm going to stay out here for a little longer." Naruto answered.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Tsunami was sleeping in peacefully in her futon, alone as always. The team of Konoha shinobi were all sleeping in the same room, her initial protest about a girl sharing a room with 3 males was waved off in 3 different ways.
Sasuke grunted.
Kakashi said that Sakura needed to get used to it anyway. Embarrassment around teammates was something that had to go as soon as possible.
Naruto said he preferred older women, with a wink at Tsunami that was missed by everyone except her.
This had happened before Naruto and Kakashi had gone out to have their talk and it had embarrassed Tsunami all the way until she'd fallen asleep.
Her eyes suddenly flew open in panic as a hand was pressed over her mouth to prevent her from screaming.
"Shhhh, it's just me" Came a whisper in a familiar voice.
Tsunami managed to calm down enough to take note of the fact that the man holding her down was very big and she could feel the hard muscle of his chest pressing into her throught her thin sleeping gown. Then she caught sight of deep blue eyes that almost seemed to glow in the darkness of her room.
"Naruto-san, what are you doing here?" She hissed at him quietly, disbelieving that he had just broken into her room and woken her up in a way that had all but convinced her that she was about to get raped.
"No honorifics please, I hate those things." Naruto returned dryly.
"Fine, Naruto. Now what are you doing in my room in the middle of the night." She insisted, getting annoyed now, but at least her heart was slowing down. She absently noticed that he wasn't wearing his coat.
"I needed to talk to you in private and this seemed like the best time for it." Naruto explained.
"It seemed like the best time and place to have a private conversation was the middle of the night in my futon?" She asked incredulously.
"Well I wanted to talk to you as fast as possible and I didn't know when I'd get the chance."
Tsunami huffed in irritation at the twisted logic, but figured that she may as well go along with it, since it appeared that the blonde wasn't intending to leave until he got what he'd came for. "Fine, what did you want to talk about?"
"Inari's attitude...it has something to do with that man whose face was removed from the picture doesn't it?"
She looked up at him in shock that he'd managed to figure out that much already.
"Yes...Inari's real father died not long after he was born. Kaiza saved Inari from drowning and the two grew close quickly. Kaiza had come to Wave, chasing after his dreams. We married not long after he saved Inari and Kaiza quickly became a hero to Wave due to his bravery." Tsunami said softly, trying to hold back tears.
"Sounds like my kind of guy, what happened?" Naruto asked.
"Kaiza always liked to say that if you valued something then you had to grab hold of it and protect it with both arms." She continued with her voice now choked with tears. "He wasn't willing to just let Gato take over, so he fought against him. Then one day, they dragged him off to the market, broke his arms and executed him in public." After saying that she collapsed into tears, grabbing onto him for comfort just because he was there.
Naruto grimaced. He hadn't intended to make her relive painful memories and he had no idea what to do with a sobbing woman. He definitely couldn't just leave though, seeing as he'd been the one to put her in this condition, he'd feel lower than dirt if he just left. Not knowing what else to do, he just got more comfortable, held her closer and let her cry while rubbing her back.
Despite his intrusion into her room, Tsunami was grateful that he was there now. She had never really had a chance to grieve for Kaiza, worried as she'd been over Inari's darkening mood. Then after that she'd been worried about her father and about their dwindling ability to get enough food, which Tazuna hadn't been making easier by buying sake all the time. This was the first time in nearly a year that she was able to just let go and let someone else take care of her.
Trying to be strong all the time, holding back her own grief while doing her best to comfort Inari hadn't been easy. Especially as the boy had developed a completely fatalistic and despairing outlook, some days it was all she could do not to burst into tears.
She hadn't really expected her fathers bridge project to succeed and had been worried out of her mind when they'd heard that Gato would be sending people to kill him. That had been the reason that he had gone to Konoha to hire to hire ninja in the first place, but Gato had simply hired his own. She had been bracing herself to hear that they had been ambushed and killed on the road, but instead they had come through, with her father being perfectly fine. He'd been very impressed with the strength of the shinobi that Konoha had assigned to protect him, especially Kakashi and Naruto.
She'd found the blondes strange dislike of shirts embarrassing, especially as she had always had a thing for big and muscular men, but she now had hope that there might just be a happy ending at the end of all this thanks to him. She knew that Kakashi was the team leader and supposedly the stronger of the two of them, but Naruto had a strange charisma about him that made you think he could and would beat a mountain into submission if it got in his way.
When her tears subsided, Naruto made to move from under her and go back to his own room, but was stopped by a hand on his chest.
Biting her lip nervously, her face still tear streaked, Tsunami spoke up. "Please stay with me, I don't want to be alone right now."
He was surprised at her request, as he'd expected her to be upset at the fact that he'd pried into painful and personal things like that.
"Alright." He replied softly after a moment and used his thumb to wipe away what was left of her tears.
They moved around until she was spooned up against his chest and she thought that he was going to wrap his arm around her, but instead felt him working on getting his pants off.
"What are you doing?!" She squeaked, face flushing bright red. She might have asked him to stay the night with her, but she hadn't meant it as an invitation to have sex with her!
His deep chuckle sent reverbarations through her body. "Don't worry, I just can't sleep in these pants. They look badass and they're pretty comfortable when I'm standing up, but it sucks trying to sleep in them." He explained.
"O-Oh, well, o-ok." Tsunami replied nervously.
When the pants were finaly off, a large arm full of hard muscle came around and drew her tightly against his chest. He was so much bigger than her that it felt like nothing in the world could reach her as long as he was holding her and he was radiating a comforting heat like a furnace. She was ready to fall asleep almost instantly when she felt something growing rapidly larger and pressing against her posterior.
She was once again regained her bright blush at the feel of his arousal. Shifting nervously, she spoke up. "Umm, Naruto..."
"I know. I'm holding a beautiful woman so it can't be helped. Consider it a compliment." Naruto said and squeezed her a bit harder. He had intended the squeeze as a comforting gesture...which it was, but it also pressed his hardening member into her even further.
"Alright" Tsunami replied with her blush still firmly in place, but still shifted nervously.
"If you keep fidgeting like that you're just going to encourage it." Naruto told her evenly, even though his resolve not to start anything sexual right now was being sorely tested.
That made her freeze, but her face was still on fire at what she'd been doing. The steady throb that she could feel against her even through both of their underwear was not helping matters. Pressed this closely, she could feel that he was big...very big.
Despite her embarrassment, her exhaustion finaly caught up to her and she fell asleep again.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone