A barefoot figure dressed in a lose fitting black shirt and black pants wandered through the mist. He stared off into the distance, ignoring his surroundings. Seeking to take advantage of his undefended state a group of thugs emerged from the shadows of the mist and attacked, yelling battle calls. The figure, a young boy, continued on unperturbed, not even seeming to notice his would be attackers.
The reason of his oblivion was soon discovered by the very men who had hoped to take advantage of it. Just before he was inside the range of their weapons the very air seemed to shift. In a moment they all felt a crushing weight, as if the sky itself was pressing down upon them. Sinking to their knees they remained in their prone position until the figure of the boy faded into the distance and the crushing weight vanished.
Naruto was talking with Sasuke, Sakura was being a fangirl and Kakashi was still busy reading his smut. All in all, it would have been a normal day for Team Seven. Still today was not a normal day, and this fact was made obvious by the underlying feeling between the Jounin and his three Gennin students. They acted normally, but all of their actions were executed with a guarded caution and, in the case of the three Gennin, a nervous tension.
Today was the first day of their first C-Rank mission, to escort the bridge builder Tazuna to his home in the Land of Waves. Everything was going well so far, nothing worthy of note had happened, but Kakashi was tense nonetheless.
The Jounin glared at Tazuna's back, silently contemplating the situation. 'He hasn't told us everything,' the Jounin mentally observed. 'He's way to nervous, although he does an admirably job of concealing it for a civilian.' Kakashi's gaze drifted to the backs of his three students. 'Whatever Tazuna is hiding it better not be too serious or else. . .'
Still, Kakashi's fears proved to be unfounded. They arrived at the site of the bridge without a single incident, but that only served to make him even more edgy. Tazuna had been acting strangely and Kakashi had picked up on it, as had Sasuke. Naruto and Sakura, for their part, were still competing for Sasuke's attention; for different reasons, mind.
The group of five stood looking out over the portion of water that separated the Land of Waves from the Land of FIre, each trying to catch a glimpse of the bridge through the thick fog that clung to the sea. Tazuna frowned.
"He should be here," he muttered to himself, although all of the shinobi heard him. He glanced up, face flushed, and even Kakashi couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment, his eternally drunk state or some other reason. "He should be here," Tazuna repeated, defending himself.
Kakashi sighed as he stared out at the murky waters. "Sasuke?" he asked. The boy in question promptly nodded, breaking off his conversation with Naruto. Reaching into the ninja pouch strapped to his waist he withdrew two shuriken which he promptly hurled towards where the bridge should be. It took mere moments for the wires he had attacked to the shuriken to stop moving, Testing the wires Sasuke turned around and nodded back.
Tazuna had watched the entire exchange with mounting fear which reached an all time high as Sasuke and Naruto hopped up onto the two make-shift tight ropes and sprinted off into the fog. His fear, which he was certain couldn't fly any higher, exploded when he felt Kakashi's cold hand on his shoulder as he was lifted from the ground.
Kakashi and Sakura sprinted over the water moments later, Tazuna filling the role of Kakashi's exceedingly reluctant (he was screaming) passenger. It was over in mere moments, but to Tazuna it felt like hours. When he was deposited on his own bridge by Kakashi he kneeled over, panting. Naruto laughed, and even Sasuke smiled slightly as they looked down on the prone civilian.
Once Tazuna had recovered the group started off down the bridge at a slow, cautious pace. As they neared the Land of Waves they heard a clamor of sounds. They continued yet further and as they did the clamor resolved itself into the sounds of a festival. Tazuna seemed shocked and Kakashi's frown deepened.
The end of the bridge in sight, the mist began to clear up to reveal a sight unlike what anyone had expected. The entire hamlet was outside their homes participating in a massive celebration. There was food everywhere, something which Naruto sprinted off to take advantage of, and the music radiated jubilation. Sakura followed Naruto moments later yelling about remembering the mission. Tazuna simply froze, not seeming to understand the sight before him. Noticing him, one of the villagers ambled over.
"Tazuna!" he exclaimed. "Welcome back!" Noticing Tazuna's shock his grin widened. "It's Gato, he's dead. A stranger wandered into town and took him out along with all of his thugs!"
"But there were over a hundred of them!" Tazuna yelled, finally breaking free of his shock. The question earned him a hard look from Kakashi and Sasuke.
"That's the best part!" the villager replied. "The stranger took them out without even trying. And do you know what? He's not even fifteen. That kid's freaky strong. He's a shinobi from somewhere, but he isn't wearing a headband so nobody knows where he comes from. And-"
"Well," Kakashi interrupted, "It would seem that our mission is complete, Tazuna." The Jounin glanced down at Sasuke and a look of understanding passed between them before they turned and walked off together, leaving the shell shocked Tazuna with the overeager villager.
Naruto wandered around taking in all the sights and sounds. The food was good, he had already tried plenty, but he was still searching for the ramen. His quest lead him all over the little town until he eventually found himself standing in the center of the hamlet staring out at the largest group of villagers he had seen yet. They all seemed to be talking about somebody, and Naruto couldn't help but listen in.
"-didn't even have to move!" one of them exclaimed. "He just stood there and they all fell to their knees!"
"It was insane," another agreed. "And he was what, ten?"
"No, at least fifteen," a different villager interjected.
"I actually think he was thirteen. . ." a fourth villager ventured.
"But he was insanely strong one way or another!" the first villager concluded. The others nodded in agreement.
"Hey!" Naruto yelled as he ran over to the group in question, forgetting about food for the moment. "Who're you talking about?" The group looked him over before one of the men, a tall gray-haired villager, seemed to understand.
"You must be one of the leaf shinobi that escorted Tazuna, right? Well, we greatly appreciate what you've done, but Gato is gone now. We were just talking about the shinobi that got rid of him and all of his thugs," the man responded.
'Wow, he sounds strong,' Naruto thought before grinning. 'I'll fight him!'
"Hey old man! We're is that shinobi now?"
"Um. . . well," the old man mumbled, adopting a thinking pose, "He headed deeper inland. No one is really sure where he is now. When he left he said something about training since none of Gato's guards were even able to put up a fight against him. I guess that's what Gato got for being cheap and not hiring shinobi to guard him."
Naruto nodded before running off into the forest to look for the mysterious shinobi leaving the villagers to talk among themselves. The forest, Naruto soon discovered, was huge. It was more of a swamp, really, but it was still absolutely huge. 'I'm never going to find him like this. . .' Naruto frowned.
"Taiju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he yelled as he formed a single hand sign and created a plethora of clones to aid in the search.
"Alright, we're looking for a shinobi in these woods! If you find him come and tell me!"
"Hai, boss!" the clones yelled in response with equal energy before splitting off. Not one to make his clones do all the work, Naruto set off on his own search. The trees that surrounded him were huge, with so many leaves that only a few rays of sun light were able to penetrate their canopy and reach the ground level. The few rays of light that did reach the ground reflected off of the water that rested between the abnormally large tree roots sending glittering rainbows dancing through the air. The mist, which had been so prevalent earlier, was nowhere to be seen.
Naruto wandered for well over an hour before one of his clones jumped down from a tree. "Hey boss, I found somebody!" Naruto grinned.
"Let's go!"
Naruto jumped down into a clearing. The area was filled with grass, something he had yet to encounter in the forest, and the clearing itself was a good hundred feet across. Sitting directly in the middle of it and facing away from him was a young boy with flaming red hair dressed entirely in black.
"Who are you?" the boy asked serenely even though he had made no indication that he noticed Naruto.
"I'm Uchiha Naruto, and I'm going to be the Hokage!" Naruto proclaimed. "Believe it!"
"Hokage?" the red haired boy asked, tilting his head slightly. "A Leaf shinobi, huh? Well, to be the Hokage is a fine goal."
Naruto grinned, even though the other boy couldn't see him. "Who're you?"
"Me? My name is Gaara," the boy answered.
"Gaara." Naruto rolled the name around. "You're the one who took down that Gato guy, right?" Gaara nodded, but he remained in his relaxed sitting position. "They you're going to fight me!" Naruto declared.
"I'll fight you if you really want," Gaara agreed. "Attack whenever you want." Naruto frowned, thinking that the red head wasn't taking him seriously.
"Let's get him," Naruto whispered to all of his clones that had been gathering around the clearing. There was a moment of silence which was quickly broken by the roar of fifty-some clones surging across the grass towards their target. Gaara remained still, and just like what the villagers said, once Naruto and his clones got close to him they felt a crushing weight. Naruto's clones were dispelled immediately and Naruo himself was forced to his knees.
Gaara sighed as he stood and turned around to look at Naruto. Naruto stared up into the other boy's teal eyes. Looking slightly upward Naruto also noticed the word "Love" written on his forehead.
"You're not ready to fight me yet," Gaara said as he looked down at Naruto's near-prone from. "Maybe when we meet again." With that Gaara made a single hand sign and shunshined from the clearing leaving Naruto alone and confused.
(A/N: First off, I'm certain that you all noticed several major differences from cannon, the biggest of which is Zabuza. Yeah, no, the biggest is Gaara being there and his OOC-ness. Well, never fear, all shall be explained in time. This is a rewrite/timeskip version of my 'The Broken Sword' so if you really have a burning desire to understand what's going on, you can go read that. If you don't really want to read it, you don't need to, I'll be sure to explain everything here too. Plus, this will have some differences from 'The Broken Sword' too. Finally, this story is semi-dedicated to Luciano [guest name] who gave me the most critical but also most useful review I have ever received. You could say this story is a response to the points he brought to my attention. Oh, and the A/N will never be this long again, so never fear. Please drop me a review, if it's good enough I might write you your own story too!)