It was halfway to Wave when they had a problem. Hinata was the first to spot the puddles. She was acutely aware of her surrounding partially because of her summons.

Hinata nodded towards the puddles, and Naru grinned. He threw two bundles of exploding tags into the puddles, and activated them.

A rain of blood and bone fell on the road, and Tazuna stared in shock.

Two bloodied Mist headbands fell to the ground, with bits of flesh and bone still on them.

"Would someone mind explaining why Naru just killed two Mist nin?" asked Kakashi casually.

"It hasn't rained in a week sensei," said Hinata. Sasuke picked up the two headbands and sealed them in a scroll. If they were Missing Nin, then they would all get a good bounty out of them.

Tazuna looked nervous, and that got Kakashi's attention.

"Would you know why there were two Mist nin this close to Konoha?"

And with that, he spilled everything...like the fact that the real issue was a man named Gato. Naru held back a curse.

"That does it. Hinata, we need a tengu. I don't think Kakashi would like me to get reinforcements the old fashioned way," said Naru.

Kakashi gave him a look.

"And how exactly would you get reinforcements?"

"I'd use the seal about ten feet that way and get some help. If this guy is as rich as Tazuna says he is, then chances are high that he can afford jounin level missing nin."

Kakashi weighed the options.

On one hand, they didn't know that those two really were after Tazuna since Naruto blew them up. On the other, Naru was exactly right when he said that more could be on their way. And if the seal really was that close...

"Fine, we'll take a break near the seal while Naru goes to get some extra help. Chances are that you killed some missing nin, so we can pay them with that."

"Actually I could just call in some favors," shrugged Naru.

Five minutes later, the party went ahead. Naru had brought back Hizashi and a few other chunins, so if there was another fight they wouldn't be so outclassed.

Though Hinata had to hold back her laughter when Kakashi stared at her Uncle like he was a ghost.

Hizashi and the chunin duo Naru had brought back went ahead, since there wasn't any room on the boat.

Naru was properly respectful towards the bridge builder...up until the point when Tazuna made fun of his height. Naru could care less about it, since his grandparents told him that his mother didn't reach her full height until she was in her teens.

Once they got off the boat, Naru and the others kept an eye on the surroundings. Since they were in a swampy territory, Naru sent out the toads to scout.

Gamakichi came back reporting that someone was waiting for them...and he wasn't friendly.

In less than a minute, Hizashi and the chunin had found the enemy nin...and had engaged in combat.

Kakashi got Tazuna to his house while the kids made sure he was safe.

Two hours later, Hizashi brought Kakashi back, exhausted.

"Overused his Sharingan. Idiot," said Hizashi.

"Says the ghost," said Kakashi.

Hizashi said nothing, just dropped him on his ass. Naru and the other genin snickered.

"I wonder how Hiashi would react if he knew his twin was still alive?" said Naru, snickering.

"Not my problem. I am legally his daughter now," said Hinata. The Hokage had signed the papers which allowed Hizashi to adopt his niece since Hiashi was in trouble for child abuse. He was still free, but his ninja license had been revoked until he learned not to abuse his children.

So far, it was slow going.

"So who were those three you brought with you?" asked Tazuna.

"Uncle Hizashi, Chunin Nami and Chunin Robin," said Hinata.

"Mochi was out training the journeyman seal masters. Which reminds me, I need to set a seal in Wave just in case," said Naru.

"Hizashi said something about that on the way back..." said Kakashi. Robin had been able to keep him from completely passing out from chakra exhaustion.

"So who did you fight?" asked Sasuke.

"A missing nin known as Zabusa Momochi. A hunter nin came and took him away..."

"Wait, took him away? Hunter nins don't take their quarry away, they take care of the body where it falls!" said Naru.

Kakashi stared at Naru.

"How did you know that?"

The three genin stared at each other, before looking at him and saying in unison "Mochi."

"Mochi taught us about the different types of shinobi, and how to tell a fake," said Sasuke.

"She also taught us basic torture techniques and how to spot a lie from their body signals," said Naru.

"She also showed us how to hunt in the wild and how to cook any meat we found. Plus how to tell if a snake was poisonous or not."

Kakashi stared, as did Tazuna.

"How the hell can you tell if a snake is poisonous without a book?" asked Kakashi in disbelief.

"Mochi taught us to find a small animal and let the snake attack it. If it strikes with it's fangs and doesn't crush it with it's coils, then chances are good that it's poisonous," shrugged Naru.

Kakashi blinked. That...was actually good advice.

"So tomorrow we'll have to get you guys training..."

"I could always have Uncle Hizashi train us, since you're still recovering," said Hinata innocently.

Naru and the other already had a prank in mind for Hiashi when they got back. A simple henge and crashing the Hyuuga clan meetings, and they could cause mass pandemonium! Hizashi would probably get a real kick out of it.

Hizashi frowned when he got the report, but he didn't let it stop him from training the kids. Mochi had him help in their usual training games, since Hinata clearly had a thing for Naru.

When Naru realized something was wrong, he confronted him.

"Mochi went missing during the seal training exercise. All signs point to a backfire and there was a surge in the Forest, but we've had no sign of her."

"Mochi is gone?" said Naru in shock.

"We've double checked the seal, and there wasn't anything wrong with it and Jian is one of our most experienced seal journeymen. Some outside force might have interfered."

"Can you tell me if there's any word about her?" asked Naru.

"Of course. Normally we wouldn't tell a genin about this, but since the two of you are practically related it would be bad manners not to inform you. If we find her or hear anything, I'll let you know."

Naru calmed down. Hizashi was one of the few who didn't freak out about the Kyuubi being inside him, despite being a Konoha nin originally.

And with that, they went back to training.

Naru was half asleep when he sensed another person show up. Whoever it was had some shinobi training, enough to be at least chunin level. And thanks to the Kyuubi, Naru could always tell if someone was any good or had a bloodline that they were trying to hide.

In this case, it appeared the person coming up had an ice-type.

"You know it's kinda rude to interrupt someone else's nap," Naru said easily.

The 'boy' in front of him paused as if stung. He wasn't aware that Naru had sensed him that quickly or was awake.

"Sorry, didn't know you were awake."

"Half asleep. So who are you working for?"

The kid before him tensed, as if to reach for a weapon.

"Look, I'm just curious. I could care less, since I know Hizashi incapacitated that jounin nin that tried to attack Tazuna three days ago."

"I'm his apprentice. My name is Haku."

"Are you from Kiri by any chance?"

"Civilian Village a few miles off."

"Guess that's why you haven't heard about the rescue efforts for those with Kekkei Genkai," said Naru, yawning.

"Rescue efforts?"

"My village has been snagging large groups of kekkei genkai users and giving them sanctuary from the purge. Partly to add new blood, but mostly to royally piss off Kiri for destroying the old village."

"What village are you from?"

"I'm from what's left of the Whirlpool Village. If you want to learn more you would have to move to the new one, but I would have to take you there."

"Why?"

"It's covered in blood seals. No one can get in without being keyed into them, and anyone who attacks the seal would have thousands of shinobi after their ass."

Haku cocked 'his' head.

"Sounds interesting, but I doubt I could get Master Zabusa to go," Haku said sadly.

"Well if your still interested before we leave, I'm sure Hizashi could take you."

"Who is Hizashi?" Haku asked curious.

"A man who should have died six years ago after Kumo tried to kidnap his niece," said Naru grinning evilly.

"Why do I sense a backstory there?" Haku asked dryly.

"Not much of one, only a prank we're going to play on his pain in the ass twin brother. I can't wait to get that blackmail material on Mr. Stick-up-his-ass."

Haku grinned, and the two of them gathered herbs to heal Zabusa's wounds.

Naru at least held his tongue on how to reverse the effects of Hizashi's Gentle Fist technique.

"So the mystery Hunter nin is a Kekkei Genkai user as well. If we can convince Zabusa that he'll be welcomed at the village, we may very well net a rare bloodline," mused Hizashi.

"Any word on sis?"

"One of our seal masters may have a lead on what happened, but so far nothing."

Hizashi ruffled Naru's messy mop, and gave him a gentle shove towards Sasuke.

"Elemental jutsu until nightfall."

"Yes sir!"

Kakashi watched the interaction with interest. While he was supposed to be training these genin, the sad fact was Hizashi and the others knew what the kids needed to learn more than he did at the moment.

Needless to say, the minute this mission was over with he was going to have a long talk with Hizashi so he could train the boys properly. The fact that the Redpool genin were so far ahead of their own was somewhat embarrassing.

Haku stared at the frog which she had found an hour ago. Normally she would have thrown the thing out or cooked it...but this one talked.

And her lips quirked a bit because it kept asking for candy.

"What have you got there Haku?"

"A summon frog."

"Toad," said the 'frog' indignant.

"Sorry, toad."

"Who sent you?"

"Boss asked us to find the jounin who tried to attack them. Said he had a proposition for ya'll," said Gamakichi.

"What sort of proposition?" asked Zabusa. The Hyuga had not gone easy on him at all.

"Safe haven from the Mist and a chance to royally screw 'em over," replied Gamakichi.

Zabusa perked up at the sound of that.

"Keep talking."

"Boss is a special genin from Redpool, and they've been snatching up Kiri's Kekkei Genkai users since the purge started. So far they've rescued fifty clans and relocated ten more. Since it was the Mist who initially attacked Whirlpool, they decided it was the perfect payback."

Zabusa's nonexistent eyebrows raised up. He had heard stories about Whirlpool, but this was the first he heard of the Mist being the initial attacker. There were rumors someone was taking the bloodline users before the hunters could find them, but he had no idea it was true.

"What's in it for us?"

"You get to live without being known as a Missing nin, your apprentice can train her bloodline properly and even learn seals or earn a summon scroll, and you get to royally annoy the Mizukage."

"And the fact that I tried to kill the man?"

"Bonus."

Zabusa weighed his options.

On one hand, it would be nice to actually be able to live in a village and not worry about being hunted and killed. On the other, he was still under contract.

"Oh, and he really didn't think you would want to face a jinchuriki," said Gamakichi as an afterthought.

That got Zabusa's attention rather quick.

"Say that again?"

"He said he doubted you would want to attack a jinchuriki who knew how to unleash the demon inside of them."

"Oh hell no! You mean to say one of those brats has a demon?"

Gamakichi nodded.

"Send him a message. We'll show up on the bridge to keep up appearances, but we want out of this contract."

"Got ya!" said Gamakichi, poofing out of existence.

"What's a Jinchuriki?"

"Some unlucky bastard who had a bijuu sealed inside of him. Practically every village in the Great Five has at least one, though Konoha lost theirs. Kidnapped from what I heard. They must have gotten their hands on another."

Haku paled. She never wanted to face a demon...Zabusa when he was pissed was bad enough!

"Summoning Jutsu!" Naru called out.

Gamakichi appeared, and he was pleased.

"They're in. They'll show up at the bridge to keep up appearances, but they won't work for him anymore."

Hizashi looked pleased.

"How did you convince them?"

"Told them that boss didn't think they would want to face a Jinchuriki who knew how to unleash their demon. That convinced them not to fight," said Gamakichi.

Hizashi frowned.

"Normally I would say that you shouldn't have revealed that, but in this case I'll overlook it. Especially with the rumors I heard about Gato," said Hizashi.

"What rumors?" asked Kakashi.

"Rumor has it that he doesn't pay the missing nin he hires if he can help it. Chances are that he'll bring some bandits to take us out and kill Tazuna."

"In that case, our odds went up. We've set up a seal near the bridge, just in case, so reinforcements are only a jutsu away."

Naru grinned. He had helped set up the seal to Redpool, since he was one of their best seal journeyman. He was close to earning his master mark.

"Now, since we might be expecting a fight with Gato, I want you to detain him while we hit his base, and get the information from his sources. If we kill him, we can leave one of our operatives in his place and help Wave get back on it's feet," said Hizashi.

Naru and the other cheered. This mission proved to be more fun than it had claimed to be!