Kakashi was pleasantly surprised with the first genin team he had ever passed. From reading the psychiatric profiles of the two genin he wasn't completely familiar with, Kakashi had been worried that Team 7 would have problems working as a team.

Sasuke Uchiha was a loner, uninterested in anything that would not help him in his quest to seek vengeance for his slaughtered clan. To him, everyone was below him, and his status as the 'last Uchiha' was thrown around like candy. His mental stability was especially of worry for the sliver-haired scarecrow, an anxiety justified by the reports from the academy psychiatrist regarding possible underlying sociopathic tendencies. Anything that would not help him become stronger or that would hold him back was discarded as unnecessary.

Sakura Haruno was your typical S-Class rabid fangirl. Obsessed with Sasuke Uchiha, she was severely underdeveloped, by shinobi standards, due to the fact that she never trained outside of the academy, instead taking that time to make herself look pretty for the boy she considered to be 'her's.' As such, she was easily the weakest of the genin graduates physically. It was therefore to no one's surprise that Sasuke, who valued strength above all else nowadays was nowhere near interested in her, or any of his fangirls for that matter. However, Sakura was possibly the smartest kunoichi to graduate in quite some time, when she stopped to think at any rate.

It was to Kakashi's pleasant surprise when Sakura went to his little sister, for Minato Namikaze had officially adopted him after the suicide of his father and the later deaths of his teammates, and asked her for help training to be stronger. Under Naruto's…tutelage Sakura swiftly rose in strength and endurance, with her chakra reserves steadily increasing at the same time. Much to Kakashi's shock and delight, Naruto somehow managed to convince Sasuke that strong teammates wouldn't drag him down as much. While the brooding Uchiha still refused to train with his team outside of team training, Sasuke did provide his fellow genin with several scrolls from the Uchiha libraries, including several medical scrolls for Sakura, who had shown interest in becoming a medic-nin.

While it wasn't perfect, the fact that Sasuke went somewhat out of his way to aid his team was a vast improvement over the Uchiha's previous loner attitude. Maybe there was hope for the young shinobi. Smiling, Kakashi went to collect his genin for the day's required D-Rank missions.

~NZX~

Kakashi walked into the missions' office followed closely by his genin team. They were all scratched up and battered, the culprit hissing and spitting in Naruto's outstretched arms. Naruto turned her head towards her teammates. "I really, really hate this cat. This is what, the third time this week we've had to catch Tora?"

Sakura shook her head. "Fourth, I think."

Sasuke glared at the cat. "Hn."

Wincing at the memories of catching the demon cat in his youth, Kakashi found himself wondering if the long-lived, ill-tempered cat really was a demon. Shaking himself out of his ponderings and bad memories, Kakashi led Team 7 to the mission's desk to report to the Hokage. "Capture mission for the Daimyo's wife successful, Tora the cat caught without incident." Kakashi glanced at his team before amending his statement. "…Much."

Team 7 watched in relief as the Daimyo's wife collected her cat, watching with satisfaction as the little demon had the life squeezed from it. Noticing the genins' somewhat sadistic smiles, the Hokage coughed to catch their attention. "Well, since you caught Tora in only five hours, almost record time, you have plenty of time to take on another mission. Let's see..." The Third Hokage consulted a list as he adjusted his half-moon reading glasses. "The Ishimuras need their fence painted, the Naras are currently looking for someone to milk a few poisonous snakes, Anko Miturashi is looking for someone to…erm…assist her with her training, Mr. Kishimoto is looking for someone to take care of his elderly mother while he's out of town…"

A sharp yowl and several crashes of breaking objects interrupted the Hokage's reading, followed by several inventive and ear-blistering curses and a shriek of near-panic. "TORA! Wait for mommy baby!"

"…and then there's catching Tora again." Finishing somewhat lamely, Lord Sarutobi looked over the rim of his glasses at the three genin and on jounin standing in front of him. Kakashi was indifferent, but the three fourteen-year olds looked to be at the end of their patience. Smiling inwardly, the old man wondered who would crack first. He did not have long to wait.

Naruto expelled a deep breath while pushing at the air gently before meeting the Hokage's eye. "Old Man, we've been doing D-Rank missions for a month now. I am starting to lose it. These aren't missions, they're chores! How-why-if we don't get a C-Rank mission soon, I might just lose it and burn your pile of finished paperwork!"

The Hokage paled. "You wouldn't!"

Naruto leaned in towards the old man's face, bracing herself against the desktop with her hands. "I would."

Desperate to prevent hours of paperwork, his greatest foe, Hiruzen Sarutobi cracked. "Alright, alright, fine! You can have your blasted C-Rank." Giving Naruto a dirty look as she jumped for joy, the Hokage shuffled through his mission papers. "Here we go, a carpenter and architect from Wave Country has requested a ninja team to protect him from bandits on his return home and while he completes his latest project, a bridge to the mainland."

Naruto and Sakura high-fived, Sasuke refusing to have anything to do with the act, and were about to thank the Hokage when he spoke again.

"However, we've been receiving some very disturbing reports lately out of Wave. A shipping tycoon by the name of Gatou, yes Kakashi, the one who owns Gatou Incorporated, has recently bought out all competition on the islands that make up Wave Country. That in itself is not suspicious, but the fact that practically all contact with wave was cut off after the last competitor went under implies that what Gatou has in mind for Wave can lead to no good.

"Intelligence has also reported that several missing-nin have disappeared after taking on jobs offered by someone from within Wave Country, only to have their bounties collected by people of no probable fighting skill. It is speculated that Gatou may be behind the disappearances, luring in missing-nin for their Bingo Book rewards and collecting the money when he turns in their heads."

The Hokage steepled his fingers before his face. "It is therefore that this mission has the possibility of becoming a B- to low A-Rank mission. If the mission is indeed upgraded, another genin team will join you in Wave. Normally I would send in a team of chuunin at the least, but unfortunately we still do not have the numbers to do so after the Kyuubi's attack fourteen years ago. That said, your client, a Tazuna Shokunin will meet you at the Southern Gate at seven tomorrow morning. Any questions? No? Good. Dismissed."

Saluting the elderly Hokage, Kakashi led his team outside. "Alright team, I want each of you to pack for a two week stint, at least. Be sure to bring enough rations and weapons. I recommend using storage scrolls for that. I recommend against heavy training. If you must train, keep it light and get a good night's sleep. Since this mission has the potential to escalate, we need to be prepared and at our best. Remember to be at the south gate at seven. I'll see you then." With that, Kakashi vanished in a small tornado of leaves.

Sasuke grunted and walked away with his hands in his pockets, not giving his teammates a second thought. Naruto shook her head at the Uchiha's attitude before turning to Sakura. "Alright, since we have a mission tomorrow, we need to be at our best, so we'll keep training to a minimum. Five laps around the village and a spar for a cooldown. Let's go, 'ttebane!"

Naruto paused. "Damn. Thought I was past that." Shrugging, the blonde kunoichi began to run. "Well, c'mon, the laps won't run themselves." Blinking nonplusedly, Sakura stared after the exuberant girl before joining her with a sigh.

~NZX~

Kakashi stood perched on a flagpole as he watched his little sister and Sakura run laps around the village. "Do you think they're ready?"

"Hey, don't worry they'll do fine, 'sides, that's what we're here for right?"

Kakashi smiled. "Right."

~NZX~

Naruto was not in a good mood. Their client was a curmudgeonly old drunk who complained about the quality of the ninja he was getting. He even had the nerve to compare her to a cat of all things. They were fox whiskers, for crying out loud! And to top it off, it was her time of the month, and the cramps were killing her. If something didn't happen to let her vent soon, well, Naruto couldn't be held responsible for what happened.

A shrill scream caught Naruto's attention, the kunoichi turning in time to see two ninja in gasmasks, scratched forehead protectors and dark cloaks jumping out at Kakashi from an illusionary puddle by the road. Naruto's heart leapt into her throat as the two missing nin looped a spiked chain around her big brother before tearing him to shreds. Her worry and agony turned to relief though, as Naruto noticed the signs of the replacement technique that no one else saw. Letting off a sadistic grin, Naruto let off a wave of menstrual empowered killing intent.

The two cloaked nin froze in their tracks. Frozen in place by the shear malice of the killing intent, the two slowly turned their heads to see Naruto's shadowed face, a psychotic glint in her eyes. Cracking her knuckles, Naruto grinned wider at the two's nervous expressions. "You two picked the wrong day to mess with us. I'm tired, cranky, and in pain. Your asses are mine!"

Meizu and Gouzu, the infamous Demon Brothers of the Mist, could only stand there and whimper. "Mama!"

~NZX~

It was well known in Konoha that if you ticked off Naruto during that time of the month, well, you'd better pray to whichever deity for mercy, because she would show you none, be it relentless pranks or merciless beatdown. It was the latter of the two fates that the Demon Brothers suffered as Sasuke, Sakura, Tazuna and a reappeared Kakashi watched in morbid fascination, unable to look away as the two begged for mercy.

"Not in the face! Not in the-WAIT NOT THERE!"

"OH KAMI, NOT IN THE CROTCH!"

"My spleen!"

"Augh! That doesn't bend that way!"

It was several minutes later that a satisfied Naruto dropped the unconscious and bruised Demon Brothers like so many sacks of wet potatoes, swiping her hands clear of dust as she rejoined Team 7 and their client. "So, 'Kashi, it looks like they were after Mr. Shokunin here. From what I got from them, Gatou's got his fingers in all the cookie jars. Looks like the Old Man's intel was right, eh?"

Uncupping his hands from where they'd instinctively shielded himself during Naruto's beatdown of Gouzu and Meizu, Kakashi turned to Tazuna. "So, Tazuna, is there anything you'd like to confess?"

Naruto listened to Tazuna describe Wave Country's plight with disgust, unable to understand how anyone could do those kind of things to another human being. Drugs, murder, slavery, theft, bribery, rape, arson, shop-lifting, sabotage, smuggling, the list went on and on.

"Ugh, it reminds me of Neo Arcadia after Weil took over."

Naruto started as Zero spoke within her mind. 'Zero? Where've you guys been? You haven't said anything in days.'

"Well, we've been remodeling."

'Remodeling? What's wrong with the forest?'

"Well, nothing, a forest is good and all, but it was very disorganized, memories just littered everywhere, so we figured we'd organize everything and strengthen your mental defenses while we were at it."

'Ah, okay…'

"Anyways, looks like Kakashi's decided to move out. Be careful, alright?"

'Alright.'

~NZX~

Four days later, after being smuggled into Wave Country by a friend of Tazuna's, Team 7 and their client making their way through the heavy fog to Tazuna's house. While the team skirted around a large lake, Naruto conversed with X and Zero.

"And that is why we never let X name things anymore."

"Look, there was nothing wrong with wanting to call the ride armors the Armor Suit System."

Naruto couldn't help but giggle. 'He wanted to call the ride armors A.S.S.?'

"Again, why we don't let X name anything anymore."

"Hey, your names weren't that much better, you once...hang on, Naruto, large contact at 3 O'clock!"

Spinning to her right, Naruto drew the ZX-Buster and fired into the brush, setting the rest of Team 7 on guard. After a tense wait, a white rabbit scurried out of the undergrowth, fleeing from the guarded ninja. Sakura sighed in relief. "Just a rabbit." She slapped Naruto on the shoulder. "Don't scare us like that!"

Naruto however, was focused on the retreating rabbit. 'Guys, something's off.'

"Yes, that rabbit was too small to set off my sensors, even without you being armored up."

"X is right, also, shouldn't it be brown-furred by now?"

A swooshing sound caught everyone's attention. Kakashi was the first to recognize the danger for what it was. "Incoming!"

Naruto tackled Sakura down, Kakashi doing the same for Sasuke and Tazuna, just as a massive sword, six-foot long and one-foot wide with a cut-out near the tip, flew over head, scything through the air until it spun to a halt as it imbedded in a tree-trunk. Everyone looked up in time to catch someone body-flicker onto the kilt of the massive horse-slayer. "Ahh, Copy-Cat Kakashi of the Sharingan, eh? I've always wanted to meet blades with you."

Sasuke's head snapped over to stare at Kakashi. 'Sharingan? How? He's not an Uchiha!'

Kakashi slowly lifted up the left side of his forehead protector. "Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Bloody Mist, formerly of the Seven Swordsmen. Why are you here?"

Naruto observed the man carefully. He was a tall, muscular man, wearing cowhide pants held up by x-crossing suspenders and no shirt. Cowhide arm guards covered his forearms. His forehead protector was tied on sideways, and the white combat wrappings over the lower half of his face moved as he spoke.

"I'm here to kill the bridge builder. Hand him over, and none of your wannabe ninjas' are gonna get hurt."

Sakura snarled at the swordsman. "Hey! We're real ninja! And you aren't getting him!"

A dark chuckle. "Brat, you ain't a ninja until you're in the Bingo Book. Until then, you're just a pretender playing at being shinobi." Zabuza dropped down to the ground and dislodged his giant cleaver from the tree. "I'm gonna assume she speaks for all of you and just get this over with." A wave of killing intent washed over Team 7, dropping Tazuna and Sakura gasping to their knees and forcing Kakashi to stop Sasuke from killing himself to get away from the murderous aura. Had it not been for X and Zero taking the edge off, Naruto may have joined them. As it was, she was sweating heavily and fighting to stay standing.

"Eight Points. Larynx. Spine. Lungs. Liver. Jugular. Subclavian Artery. Kidneys. Heart. Now, which killpoint to use?"

As suddenly as the killing intent had reared its ugly head, it cut off just as quickly as Kakashi engaged Zabuza in battle. Naruto and the other genin of Team 7 got into a delta formation around Tazuna, just in time for Zabuza to appear inside the formation. Shrieking in surprise, Naruto reflexively lashed out with one foot, causing Zabuza to go cross-eyed before dissolving into water.

Kakashi watched in relief as Naruto lashed out at Zabuza's water clone, though he did wince in sympathy at where she kicked. However, his concern for his students and little sister would be Kakashi's undoing, as Zabuza materialized from the mists and swatted the jounin into the lake. Surfacing, Kakashi realized that he couldn't move. "The water, it's heavy-oh no!"

"WATER STYLE: WATER PRISON!"

Before Kakashi could escape the trap, Zabuza body flickered next to him and plunged his hand into the water, catching Kakashi in a bubble of hard water. Smirking to himself under his facial wrappings, Zabuza held out one hand, the other maintaining the bubble, summoning a multitude of water clones.

Naruto yelled out in worry as the water clones surrounded Team 7. "Kakashi!"

Inside the bubble of water, Kakashi forced chakra to his lungs to project his voice and conserve precious oxygen. "Sasuke, Sakura, protect Tazuna! Naruto! Do it!"

Naruto nodded. "Right! Ready guys?"

"Ready!"

"Let's go!"

Naruto raised both hands above her head, then brought them down and out to either side as a blue and red light materialized in either hand. "Model X! Model Z!" She brought both hands together in front of her. "DOUBLE MEGAMERGE!"

"Biolink established! MEGASystem: Online!"

Naruto was engulfed in a bright light, the blue and red orbs spiraling around her before dissolving into bits of energy, her clothes soon following to leave her in her bodysuit. The red gauntlets formed over her forearms. The red armored boots with thick black soles with a golden-yellow ring supporting her ankles formed up to her knees, followed by the white armor plating forming on her thighs and a white codpiece forming at her hips. The unzipped red flak jacket materialized on her torso. Finally, the red finned helmet with the black top materialized on her head, the two short, white spikes protruding from the cheeks. The gem on the forehead briefly glowed with power, a spiraling leaf pattern visible for only a moment. Naruto's hair burst out a hole in the back of the helmet in 9 separate strands before it coiled up into a single sunkissed-yellow ponytail. As the light faded, her ZX-Saber materialized in her hand.

(Play [Orchestra Edition] Bad Apple! ft Nomico - TouHou 4 - 東方)

Zabuza quirked a nonexistent eyebrow. "Well well well, the lost armor of the Red Death, looks different from what I remember. So, you think you're the next Red Death, do ya? Well then, let's see how well you can hack it." He barked out a command to his water clones. "Attack!"

Naruto crouched down into a swords stance. The first clone reached Naruto, and the assault began. Though the clones each had only 10% of the strength and skill of the original, they were still deadly. Against any other genin, the army of Zabuza's would have proven too much. However, Naruto was augmented by biometals and had the skills and wisdom of two ancient warriors. The clones didn't stand a chance.

Naruto did not fight so much as she performed a dance of death. Using her natural flexibility, Naruto twirled and leapt her way through the assault, waltzing across the surface of the water in a ballet of battle. Clone after clone dissolved into water, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups as Naruto pirouetted through the army of clones. On the shore, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna stood slack-jawed. Kakashi watched in pride as his little sister take on the multitude of Momochi's.

Soon, only the original Zabuza was left staring at Naruto. "I'll admit kid, you impress me, but when I was your age, I already had blood on my hands. How about you? Can you say the same?"

Naruto gazed coolly at Zabuza. "I can."

Zabuza tilted his head to the side, then chuckled. "Well, looks like I underestimated you. Guess I'll have to take care of you personally." Making a one-handed seal, Zabuza summoned a single water clone. "Keep the copy-cat in place." Nodding, the clone stuck his arm into the water prison as Zabuza strode forward.

Naruto brought herself into her stance as Zero and X gave counsel. "Be careful Naruto. Zabuza is strong, stronger than you."

"X is right, those water clones were only ten percent of his power, which I wager would be about half of yours. That means he's at least twice as strong as you right now."

"Yes, defeating him will not be easy."

Naruto grimaced as she and Zabuza circled each other slowly. 'Then it's a good thing that I don't have to beat him, isn't it?'

Zabuza flashed through hand seals, ending on the bird hand seal. "WATER RELEASE: WATER DRAGON BULLET!"

A massive serpentine dragon made of water surfaced from the lake behind Zabuza and launched itself at Naruto with a roar. Naruto squared herself off and focused chakra into the ZX-Saber, charging up the only one of Zero's advanced sword techniques that she had mastered.

"SWORD ART: AETHER SUPREMACY!" With a roar, Naruto swung her ZX-Saber, the blade seemingly growing in size as it turned purple. Meeting the water dragon head-on the sword slash cut straight through the serpent, the two halves crashing into the lake on either side of Naruto. With a yell, Naruto charged Zabuza and leapt into the air to perform a somersaulting slash, the ZX-Saber clashing down on Zabuza's decapitating Carving knife, Kubikiri Houcho.

To Naruto's surprise, the ZX-Saber bounced off Kubikiri's blade, not even leaving a scratch on the massive sword. Seeing Naruto's consternation, Zabuza chuckled. "You won't be able to cut through my blade so easily, girly. The swords of the Seven Swordsmen are made up of tougher stuff than that, especially when I run my chakra through it."

Naruto snarled as she leapt back, switching to the ZX-Buster. Charging a shot, she fired it at Zabuza, only for the rogue nin to tilt his head to the side, avoiding the shot.

"You missed." A hard glint appeared in Zabuza's eye. "My turn."

Naruto's eyes widened as Zabuza was suddenly in her face. Before she could react, all the air in her body was forcefully knocked out of her as the blade of Kubikiri slammed into her stomach, a layer of white energy the only thing preventing it from cutting into her.

Naruto could barely hear X as she desperately held back Zabuza's blitz. "Naruto, that one hit brought our available energy reserves down to 50%. You won't survive another hit like that!"

Naruto couldn't respond, for Zabuza took that moment to ram a fist into Naruto's gut, driving the breath out of her once more and sending her crashing onto dry land. Shouldering Kubikiri, Zabuza began to stalk forward, intent on ending the fight. "I gotta hand it to ya kid, you actually made me break a sweat. Not bad. Too bad I gotta finish the fight, but I can't let you interfere with my job. So long kid." Zabuza stopped in front of Naruto as she tried to struggle to her feet, Kubikiri raised above his head.

"Naruto, get out of there!"

"Move it kid!"

Naruto collapsed back to the ground with a groan as Kubikiri was raised higher, her teammates too far away to reach her in time. 'I'm sorry everybody. I've failed.' Naruto hung her head and closed her eyes as Kubikiri began to descend.

"WATER RELEASE: WATER DRAGON BULLET!"

"What!?" Zabuza turned his head just in time to see a massive serpent of water smash into him, propelling the man across the lake and into a tree. Groaning as the technique dissipated, Zabuza looked up to see Kakashi standing above him, sharingan eye blazing angry red.

"H-how did you escape?"

FLASHBACK!

The charged shot missed Zabuza as he tilted his head to one side. Focussing on Naruto, he never noticed the ball of plasma dispelling the water clone keeping Kakashi imprisoned. Seeing his little sister losing ground, Kakashi began flipping through hand seals, ending on the bird seal as Kubikiri was raised above Zabuza's head.

END FLASHBACK!

Kakashi glared down at Zabuza. "Naruto didn't miss." He raised a kunai above his head. "You really shouldn't have tried to kill my little sister, Zabuza. Go to hell!" The kunai descended.

Kakashi froze as three senbon needles sunk into Zabuza's neck, a ninja with a white wave-patterned hunter nin's mask appearing next to the fresh corpse, the four wavy lines on the mask proclaiming his fealty to the Hidden Mist Ninja Village. "You were right, he did go to hell."

The ninja picked up Zabuza's corpse and the Kubikiri. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go dispose of the body."

Kakashi watched the hunter nin disappear in a water elemental body flicker with Zabuza's body. Wearily, he shook his head and flickered over to Naruto, his sharingan once again hidden behind his headband. Gingerly, he picked the armored girl up. "Hey sis, how're you doing?"

Naruto groaned. "Mm-Tired."

Kakashi chuckled. "Well, you just get some rest then, you deserve it."

Soon, Naruto drifted off to sleep, her armor bursting into little flecks of light that turned back into her regular clothes as she left consciousness behind. Smiling at his sister's angelic face as she slept, Kakashi carefully made his way back to the rest of his team and their client.