Konoha's Assassin:
The Right Hand of the Hokage
Chapter 4
-X-
I own nothing
-X-
When he returned to Tazuna's home the sun was just beginning to peak out over the water behind the building, which was built half-way on the water with it's back door leading to a small dock that wrapped around the home.
Walking in through the front door, he found Kakashi sitting on the couch in the living room with his Icha-Icha in hand while the pink haired girl laid on a loveseat, curled up under a small sheet and snoring lightly, her weapons pouch sitting on the floor beside her.
"It's funny isn't it?" Kakashi exclaimed while glancing up at him then to the girl, "When we were her age we could only dream of being able to sleep like that on a mission."
Sakura made a small noise and moved, trying to get comfortable as she slept.
"The times have changed," Naruto mused while turning and walking over to the girl, who had kicked the sheet onto the floor by accident. He picked it up and laid it back over her, "It hasn't really been that long but it's almost like the war is ancient history now."
Kakashi nodded slowly.
"When I look at this generation… I don't know what to feel." the blond continued, taking one last look at the girl before turning away, "I mean… looking at the academy back before the old man changed it, it was a mockery. Teaching flower arranging to young girls? Replacing over half the physical training courses with pure history? Cooking classes?"
The other man got a small laugh out of that one, "Well I think that was the Akimichi clan's idea."
The assassin shrugged, "Maybe, but compare it to before… you were a trained genin at the age of five and a Chunin at six. They taught you how to be a ninja then."
"You never went to the academy didn't you?"
He shook his head slowly, "I was taken away and trained to be what I am…"
Chuckling, he shook his head, "Look at us Kakashi, not even in our thirties and we sound like a couple of old broken soldiers, let's change the subject."
The silver headed Cyclops nodded into his book, "Right… so did you find anything?"
"I found Gato's home, I plan on infiltrating tonight after getting some sleep."
"Well I won't keep you up any more," the Jounin exclaimed, "good luck tomorrow."
Naruto nodded and started to walk up to the room he was given.
"Hey Naruto?"
Hearing Kakashi call him, the slightly younger man stopped and turned his head to look at him from the corner of his eye. "Hmm?"
"Do you… do you think that if I had done things differently… maybe I could've saved Obito that day… or maybe even Rin?"
Naruto didn't say much at first, letting the words settle in before shaking his head slowly, "Don't think about it too hard Kakashi, you did what you could that day and there's no changing the past. And stop beating yourself up over what happened to Rin, you weren't even on the same mission as her that day."
"Yeah… I guess your right."
-X-
No matter how many times he's done it, the prep time before the start of an infiltration was always a highly stressful period of time. Thoughts of 'what if' rolled though his mind without pause, what if there were more guards than he planned for, what if Gato escaped, what if he had a hostage, what if, what if, what if?
Checking the time, he calmed himself down while standing over the dinning room table where all his equipment laid for one final check. It was almost 10:00 and he wanted to wait at least another thirty minutes before he set out under the cover of a dim, half-moon.
Unlike before, he'd be wearing his full gear and ensured that it was all there. Pulling on the long white hooded coat, he zipped the front and wrapped the red sash around his waist and lower torso before securing it at the hip, letting a small piece just hang there on his coattail. He then secured the hardened leather armor/belt over his waist and gut, adjusting it and making sure the thing was good and tight before connecting the harness that connected underneath it at the front and back, which went around one thigh where he had a sword sheath riveted to it. On the back of the leather armor belt, he had three pouches holding some of his other equipment. Next, he picked up another harness and hooked it across his chest, a small sheath sitting right by his shoulder blade.
Picking up the sword laying on the table, he admired it for a moment. It was forged from a smooth, silver metal with a cross guard shaped like an eagle's wings and it's pommel shaped to look like an eagle's head. The handle was wrapped in strong, dark brown leather for gripping with only one hand.
Sliding it into the sheath, he reached for his short blade, or dagger to do the same. It was a strange weapon shaped like a kunai but flatter instead of being pyramid shaped. It was called a Cinquedea, and had been forged to look like one of the old weapons of his clan, much like his sword. But the dagger had been upgraded with a small notch in it to cause more damage to a target.
Next to the dagger sat a bunch of small throwing knives, which he had a number of loops on his waist and belt, numbering to 25. They were small thin double edged blades around four to five inches long and hard to throw without practice, but he was skilled with them and they had been a traditional weapon of his clan.
And lastly, there were his arm guards which hid his greatest weapons, the hidden blades.
Pulling them on and tightening the straps, he moved his wrist back and forth for each one, sheathing and unsheathing the blades smoothly before checking over the newest addition to his poison blade, the dart gun. It was a small ingenuous device, acting like a small crossbow that shot a single poisoned dart soundlessly.
The door opened suddenly and Tsunami walked in, gasping lightly when she spotted him, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," she exclaimed, slightly intimidated by the multitude of weaponry on his person.
Turning to look at her, he smiled apologetically, "No, I should be the one to apologize, did I wake you?"
She shook her head, "N-no, I just couldn't sleep," Tsunami assured him, looking him up and down.
He did the same but with much more subtly, she was a beautiful woman to say the least, even the pink bathrobe she wore didn't take away from her looks. If he wasn't on a mission right now and was just about to go out and assassinate someone, he'd put some serious thought into flirting with her some.
"With all that's been going on," she continued while watching him double check himself, "I just can't believe what's going on, if I wasn't so afraid of what Gato will do if he gets a hold of my father…"
"Don't worry yourself about Gato," he told her with a firm tone, "He will be dealt with tonight,"
The meaning struck her like a ton of bricks, nearly making her take a step back in surprise. "Y-you mean?"
He nodded, "Yes. So just go on to bed, Gato will no longer be a problem soon enough."
-X-
Making his way to the small harbor in the dead of night without being seen was child's play, his natural skill in the stealth department could have ANBU chasing him around for hours until he decided that enough was enough and just vanished. In fact, the Hokage was starting to consider asking him to devise a training regiment for his ANBU in just that.
The harbor was nearly empty, most of the boats already gone to the island. But one remained, which was under the guard of what seemed to be a sleeping thug.
Said thug never woke up as the assassin ran him through with both of his hidden blades then dumped the corpse into the water.
He briefly considered cranking the motor but stopped, deciding to run over the water under his stealth jutsu, the Transparent Escape technique. It was actually a jutsu made by Jiraiya to make his body transparent, allowing the user to spy on others without being noticed. But it was actually made so that the old pervert could peep in on bathing females back when he was a child, Naruto took it and adopted it for his own uses.
Reaching the island, the assassin ran to the wall, his movement hidden under the jutsu as he scaled the side and caught the ledge with his hands, hanging there as he heard a man moving above him. Waiting until the movement was closest, he pulled himself up and grabbed the man's shirt, causing his blade to unsheathe itself into the man's chest before pulling him over the edge where he died on impact with the ground.
Systematically killing each patrolling guard around the wall, Naruto made his way into the mansion and used his bloodline to track down his half pint target Gato with Eagle Vision.
A small golden line ran through the halls with a small ghostly figure following it, showing him the way his target went.
Following the figure, he assassinated any mercenaries he found and hid the bodies wherever he could before finding what he knew had to be Gato's office. The blond quickly took anything that looked important and sealed it away for later before following the trail out of the room and up to a bedroom on the top floor.
Creeping in, he made his way over to Gato's bed and stood over the tiny tyrant who snored lightly. But those snores stopped as he covered Gato's mouth and nose with his hand, causing the man to wake up as he found himself unable to breath.
His eyes shot open and once he realized that a hooded man was covering his face, he struggled, the primal survival instincts pushing him to fight for air.
Naruto stared at the frantic man, watching as his face changed colors, eyes rolling back as the struggle became less and less frantic, "Your crimes against the people of Wave and the village of Konoha have not gone unseen," he told the man while reaching over his shoulder and drawing his dagger, "By order of the Hokage, your life is forfeit… may you find solace in the next life."
And just like that, Gato's life ended, his throat sliced open.
Naruto reached up and closed Gato's eyes before retrieving the feather from his pouch and running it through the blood pouring from the wound on the corpse's neck.
The deed done, he backed away and hummed, this assignment was much easier than he anticipated. He had expected a fight to be honest but it looked like he had been overestimating Gato from the beginning.
But now he needed to send a message to the people of Wave, to tell them that they were free and to put the fear of god into the mercenaries that took his money and helped oppress the people.
Looking at the body, he smirked.
-X-
Mornings in the oppressed village were silent to say the least, those that did venture out did so quietly. Adults lucky enough to still have a job went to it hoping not to attract the attention of abusive thugs. Children mostly stayed inside until the afternoon, where they would go out and play with other kids since the thugs never really paid attention to them unless they did something or got in their way.
But a piercing scream broke through the silence, echoing through the air.
The cause?
Hanging from a lamp post in the center of town was a small man, shirtless with the only thing covering him being a pair of underwear. Around the corpses neck was the thick noose keeping him suspended, stained with blood while said fluid dried on his chest.
In the commotion following the first scream, no one noticed the white hooded figure perched on a rooftop with a smirk on his face.
No one went near it a first, but when someone finally did go up to find out who the victim was, thinking that it was another poor soul who went against Gato, they were stunned to learn that it wasn't a victim of Gato, but Gato himself.
-X-
Returning to Tazuna's home, Naruto came across something strange along the path which only led to the bridge builder's home. The blond stopped his trek and jumped from the trees next to the path and knelt down to investigate.
A wild bore lay next to the dirt path, it's body covered in deep gashes with a puddle of it's life blood pooling around it while a small trail told him that it had tried to escape before bleeding to death. Around him, some of the trees were covered in marks that looked like someone hacking away with a sword.
Closing his eyes, he channeled chakra through his eyes, "Show me the truth," he muttered before opening his eyes, the blue orbs much sharper than usual and almost glowing.
Like always, when he used his Eagle Vision, the world around him turned blue.
Looking around, he saw two ghostly figures walking towards him hacking at the trees every now and then on their way towards Tazuna's home. They lazily made their way down the path a little ways before coming across the wild bore and attacking it, cruelly slicing it with intent to cause pain. When they finally finished and walked off, the bore pitifully struggled to move, making it's way a couple yards before collapsing and fading away in the same spot as it was now.
Turning his eagle vision off, he shook his head at such cruelty before turning back towards his destination, the blood on the pig was still somewhat fresh, meaning that the ones who did this couldn't be too far. The only reason they'd be here was to attack the client and his family, seeing as the old man would be gone to work by now with Kakashi and the genin, that meant that they would most likely find Tsunami and her son alone.
-X-
Tsunami hummed a little tune to herself while washing dishes by the window over her kitchen sink, looking out to the calm sea that was their backyard. She had just seen her son Inari a moment ago before he ran upstairs like he always did and sighed thinking about how he acted the day before to the ninjas protecting his grandfather, her father. Ever since Kaiza had been murdered in front of him, he'd lost all hope in justice and stopped believing that one day they'd be free.
Without warning, the wall behind her was cut to pieces, chunks of wall falling to the floor as two men walked in through the dust from outside.
The first was a light-skinned man with blue-white hair under a black skullcap that was the same color as his eyes. He had tattooed lines under his eyes and wore a blue jacket with multiple pockets. Lastly, he had a blue handled katana tied to his waist that he held with a smirk.
The second was a tall, shirtless man with an eye-patch over his right eye and ragged brown hair in a topknot. He wore a loose-fitting kimono with the top part around his waist while his sword was tucked inside his waistband.
"So your Tazuna's daughter huh?" the first exclaimed while looking at her, "That's too bad, you have to come with us now."
Inari, who was in the bathroom washing his hands, froze as he heard the sound of something breaking followed shortly after his mother screaming. He ran out of the bathroom and down the hall towards the kitchen to see his mother on the floor, covering her head as broken dishes and a few chairs from the table littered the floor.
"MOM!" the little boy screamed.
But before anything else could happen, something hit one of the swordsmen in the back and exploded with a loud bang before the room went black.
-X-
Naruto arrived just a moment before Inari did, using the distracted state of the two thugs, he reached into his back pouch and pulled out a small golf ball sized ball and threw it in, aiming at the shirtless thug.
Using his eagle vision, which allowed him to see clearly in the smoke, he rushed in and grabbed the woman, violently shoving the one with the hat off his feet and out of the way before carrying the coughing mother towards the exit made by the two swordsmen, stopping only to grab Inari before carrying them both out into the front yard where they could breath again.
The smoke from his smoke bomb would actually clear on it's on in a few moments, he had to get them to safety first just to be careful, by the time they caught their breath, the two thugs were able to see and were nearing the hole in the wall.
"Hey!" the light-skinned one yelled, his voice cracking as he let out a cough, "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but our boss told us to get that bitch the other night, you don't want to get on the bosses bad side." he continued while motioning at him with his sword.
Naruto chuckled, "Gato?" he mused, "You haven't heard? Gato's corpse was found hanging from a street lamp a few hours ago,"
"You lie!" the shirtless one sneered, "Like anyone would believe that bullshit! Now hand over the girl and maybe we'll be merciful and let you live!"
Naruto cocked his head at the obvious lie, "Men like you two do not know the meaning of the word," he exclaimed with a dark tone of voice as he drew his sword, the thin double edged blade shining in the morning sun, "Nor do you deserve any,"
The swordsmen both sneered, "You've fucked up now, come on Waraji, let's kill this idiot,"
Waraji, the topless man, nodded, "Ok, let's go, Zori,"
With the Tsunami and Inari close to him, Naruto copied the two swordsmen and advanced, not wanting them to be in danger. Both men tried to cut him down but found their weapons blocked by the assassin's arm guard and sword. Like a snake, Naruto struck the shirtless man with his foot, kicking him in the chest while holding Zori at bay with his arm guard.
Smirking, Naruto moved his hand, unsheathing the hidden blade and moved his arm to push the katana aside while swiping the hidden blade across the man's face before following up by swinging his sword and slashing the now screaming man through the gut.
"You bastard!" Waraji hissed while readying another attack, rushing in and trying to hit the assassin with an overhead strike.
Stepping aside, Naruto avoided the blade like it was child's play and thrust his hidden blade into the side of the man's bare chest, slicing through the ribcage and through the lung and heart.
As the man slowly dropped to his knees, falling to his side, Naruto sheathed his sword and hidden blade before kneeling down next to the shirtless swordsmen as the man died. "Fear not the darkness, but welcome it's embrace…" he exclaimed just moments before the man slackened, "May you find solace in the next life,"
Moments from death, the man coughed up blood, "Fuck… you, piece of… shit," he wheezed before dying.
Closing the man's eyes, Naruto did the same for the other before standing.
"Why?" Inari asked hotly, "Why say something like that after what they've done!"
Naruto turned to the little boy with a look of understanding, "Because despite what they did, everyone deserves to know at least one act of kindness during their final moments."
He could understand how the kid felt, these men had tried to kidnap his mother and helped Gato pillage these lands for years. In the boy's eyes, they were the closest thing to demons he could think of with Gato being the devil.
Standing, the assassin walked over to them and placed his hand on the child's head, right on the bucket hat he wore, "It is things like giving even the most wicked of men the chance to regret their crimes, to ask forgiveness, or make their peace with god that will show them despite what they've done, they are still human and deserve one small act of kindness."
"But he didn't care!" Inari expressed, stomping his foot and pulling away to fix his hat, "He said-"
"It doesn't matter," Naruto interrupted before the boy said something to get in trouble by repeating the thugs final words, "He may have spit on my kindness but it was his right to do so."
Turning to Tsunami, he quickly checked her over to find that she was fine, just a little shaken, "Tsunami-san, I have a feeling that Gato's goons were given their orders before I killed the man, do you have anywhere you and Inari could hide while I go check on things at the bridge?"
She was slow to answer but nodded after a moment, "I ah… we have distant relatives living in town… I-I think they'll let us stay there for a little while."
He nodded, "Go there and stay out of sight," The assassin made a hand seal and a shadow clone appeared in a puff of smoke, "My clone will escort you."
The mother nodded and quickly gathered her son and started off towards town, the shadow clone following them.
-X-
(They don't know about Gato's death yet, the bridge is on one end of the island and the town is in the opposite direction. Tazuna lives away from town closer to the bridge so they wouldn't know about it so soon.)
Things at the bridge weren't going so well, Kakashi could contest to that, Sasuke was in trouble, trapped by the fake hunter ninja that tricked them earlier before when they first faced Zabuza. Haku, Zabuza's partner, had a bloodline limit allowing him to use ice jutsu, which he used to trap Sasuke in a dome of mirrors which he fused with, allowing him to seemingly attack from each mirror all at once with senbon needles.
He had tied to help his student but Zabuza blocked his path, informing him that if he tried to help the Uchiha, he'd kill the old man. Sai was also stopped by the sudden appearance of the demon brothers, whom they had left tied up for ANBU to pick up only for someone to release them before the ANBU could get there.
So with the demon swordsmen blocking his path and the two demon brothers blocking Sai, that left Sakura to guard Tazuna and Sasuke on his own. And to make matters worse, Zabuza's hidden mist jutsu was making it harder to see.
Unable to take seeing her crush being torn apart by wave after wave of needles, Sakura threw a kunai hoping that the mirrors would break from the back while she screamed the boys name.
But it was useless, Haku's upper body exited the mirror from the back and caught it like it was nothing before turning to look at the one trapped in his dome, frowning sadly under his mask.
Looking at the kunai, the ninja spun it around in a reverse grip before shaking his head slowly and turning to say something.
But nothing came out.
The kunai in his grasp slowly fell to the stone floor, it's sound echoing through the still air and seeming much louder than it really was.
"Haku?" Barked the swordsmen, "What's wrong?"
The fake hunter ninja merged with the mirror again, making the leaf ninjas tense thinking that he was about to continue. But it was for nothing, Haku reemerged from a mirror facing them, each step clumsy before he slowly reached out with his hand, grasping for the demon swordsmen, "Z-Zabuza… Sama…" he whimpered before collapsing.
The sound of the mask hiding Haku's face shattering as he slammed face down onto the ground seemed like a bomb going off.
"What the hell!" demanded Zabuza, confused as to how his tool died when he had seen everything.
Sasuke blinked, also confused while the mirrors around him melted, leaving a massive puddle around him and the body of Haku which was slowly turning pinkish red around him. But since he was closest, he saw what the others didn't, buried deep into the young ninja's back were six knives, each to the hilt and if his memory served correctly, each had hit a vital organ zone.
A loud, ear piecing screech filled the air, making everyone look up to see a large bird perched on some scaffolding nearby glaring down at them with it's sharp eyes before letting out another screech that echoed all through out the air.
Two metallic slinking noises followed the screech before both demon brothers gasped and fell to the ground.
Turning, Zabuza found himself alone, a man wearing a white hooded robe standing over the bodies of both Gozu and Meizu with two thin blades protruding out from under his armguards.
"Zabuza Momochi," Naruto called out coldly, "The time to answer for your crimes has come, the new Mizukage has placed a kill order on your head as well as any that aid you."
Zabuza readied his blade, "So that bitch became the new Mizukage, figures," he spat out, "I thought you looked familiar, I'll kill you like the animal you are,"
Naruto slowly shook his head, "You be ashamed, what you did is unforgivable."
With a quick hand signal, a shadow appeared over Zabuza, making him turn and swing his sword at the figure dropping down on him from above. His massive blade sliced through the assassin only for it to vanish in a puff of smoke while the real Naruto tackled him from behind, sinking his hidden blade through the swordsman's chest.
-X-
Kneeling down on one knee, Naruto held Zabuza up and looked down at him as the bandages masking his face turned red from him coughing up blood.
"Hehehe…" The dying man exclaimed, stopping to cough some more, "I always figured that it would end like this, eh assassin?"
"You betrayed the resistance, sold out your brothers and sisters, left them to die at the hands of that monster, why do something so wretched?"
"No… you misunderstand, I… I'm no traitor… You can not betray those you never really loved,"
"So you were a loyalist spy?"
Zabuza rolled his eyes, "You really… expect me to tell you… everything?" he questioned, "What? Expecting… me to spill… my guts… crying for… forgiveness… and understanding? Ha… then you're a… bigger fool than… I thought."
Raising his hand, Naruto reached towards Zabuza's face.
"What… did I… strike a nerve assassin?" he mocked before the bloody bandages around the lower half of his face were ripped off, revealing a tattoo on his cheek.
Seeing the blond stare at it, Zabuza laughed weakly, "Forever locked… in an endless struggle… eh assassin?"
"May your soul find peace in the next life," Naruto muttered before unsheathing his hidden blade up through Zabuza's chin and into his skull and killing the man while staring icily at the small Maltese cross tattooed on the mans cheek, "Templar dog…"
To be continued…
-X-
