The Guardian

By: Aikuchi Shikaku

Disclaimer 1: the Kamen Rider Franchise (Specifically Kamen Rider 555) is not mine, and is owned by TOEI and TV Asahi.

Disclaimer 2: Naruto is not mine, nor will it ever be. I'm just playing in Masashi Kishimoto's sandbox. No copyright infringement is being done here, and no money is being made from this story.

Summary: Uzumaki Kushina passed on her clan's legacy on baby Naruto before she 'died'. When Naruto was mad enough to access Kyuubi's chakra during the battle for wave's bridge her own fail-safe kicked in, instead gathering the Kyuubi's chakra into a device needing a power-source and turning Naruto into whirlpool's guardian, a Kamen rider. KamenRider!Naruto. NarutoXFemale!HakuXHinataX? Kamen Rider 555 Elements X Naruto.

A.N: I think some parts of this newest chapter would be boring for some, as team seven begins to debrief each other. The action will pick up in the next chapter, as this chapter is the downtime period for both groups of ninja. I just wanted to warn you so that you know what to expect.

Last time on the Guardian:

Naruto then flipped the Faiz phone open, pressed the 'Enter' button, and snapped it closed. The device then said, "EXCEED CHARGE." in a digitized voice, as a burst of photon energy went down the right corner of the faiz driver, down to the red photon streams in his right thigh, passing through his knee, leg, and finally entered the photon terminal on the power anklet greaves, where the energy holster was located. A sound was heard indicating that the faiz pointer was now charged and ready to go.

Naruto then entered a crouching position, and charged at the Orphnoch, which was conveniently distracted and was still attempting to crush Zabuza and Haku inside the shipping container. Naruto then jumped, flipped forwards, and extended his legs. A red, laser-like beam was fired from the faiz pointer, and headed for the Orphnoch. The Orphnoch diverted its attention from the container and looked at the red beam, which now spread into a conical and large red drill. Naruto then extended his right leg, tucking his left leg in, and the faiz symbol on the sole of his right greave emitted the same red light. Naruto then entered the conical drill and left a red circle on top of it. The red circle and the energy drill started to spin rapidly, digging into the side of the Orphnoch's body. As the drill punched through the Orphenoch, it disappeared after a few seconds, leaving the red circle behind. Naruto reappeared behind the Orphnoch with red energy lines (that promptly disappeared), which was now in a frozen-like state. Its body now had a large, black, scorched hole where the faiz pointer's energy drill went through.

Naruto, as Kamen Rider Faiz, had executed his first true rider kick, which was called the Crimson Smash.

Suddenly, a large, diagonal red line went through the circle from the upper right to the bottom left, which completed the Greek letter for phi, the symbol that represented faiz. The Orphenoch then yelled, and exploded in blue flames, as its body fell apart and disintegrated into grey dust. Naruto then wrenched open the door with his enhanced strength, leaned inside, and brought the unconscious Haku out of the shipping container, bridal style. Zabuza also got out, as he looked in awe at the transformed Naruto under the faiz power suit of armor.

Unbeknownst to everybody, a lone person was watching the proceedings, and when he saw faiz defeat the Orphenoch, he growled, and hissed the word: "Faiz…" before he disappeared like he was never there in the first place.

Chapter 4: Downtime.

I. Orphnoch fight aftermath.

Naruto, still transformed as Faiz, looked at the broken remains of the Elephant Orphnoch, as the cold winds, and the sea water from Zabuza's last jutsu dispersed the dust and its still disintegrating body parts, nodding once at its destruction. He knew that he had killed someone, or in the case of the Orphnoch, something, which had lost its humanity a long time ago. What he didn't like was being indirectly responsible for the deaths and injuries of almost half the mercenary force that Gato had hired. Even now, the bloody, crushed bodies, as well as the severely injured, drowned bodies, and the other bodies in different states of death and injury, were scattered all over the unfinished side of the bridge that pointed towards the mainland. But in the end, he accepted that in every battle, there are always going to be casualties.

His thoughts didn't mean that Naruto was already desensitized on the subject of killing, however. He has just accepted it as a necessary evil, and that he will empty his stomach out in horror and disgust after all of this was said and done.

"Hey brat, you're the orange-wearing kid underneath that outfit of yours, right?" Naruto was startled by Zabuza's question, and figured that Haku told him the truth. He looked at Zabuza through his ultimate finder, and nodded. Zabuza was intimidated by Naruto's stare through the mask, and a frisson of fear escaped his body. The demon of the bloody mist then chuckled.

"Heh, when I first met you and your team, I just dismissed you as a pathetic excuse for a ninja. Now here we are, and you save our asses twice. How did you become so good?" Zabuza finished his question with a raised, hairless eyebrow. Naruto sighed under his mask.

"It's a long story, but I'll tell you about it when Haku's up and about. Right now, we have another job to do." Zabuza raised his hairless eyebrows at him with that statement. Naruto shuddered inwardly, as he discreetly looked at Zabuza's missing eyebrows. He then put Haku down so that his back was resting against the uncrushed part of the shipping container (A/N Naruto still hasn't figured out that Haku is a girl, I'll explain later). Naruto then got back up, and pointed at Gato, who was cowering with fear at the back of the mercenary line.

Zabuza grinned widely, his eyes displaying the same movement, and brandished his kubikiri houcho at the remaining mercenaries, while Naruto leaned over and whispered something in Zabuza's ear. Hearing Naruto's words, he did the hand seals for Kirigakure no jutsu (hiding in the mist technique), and smiled evilly, disappearing easily inside the mist. His disembodied voice chuckled once more, and the mercenaries, plus Gato, pissed in their pants, while inside the mist that Zabuza had created once more.

"Kid, I like your style. You're going to be a fine ninja someday. Hell, you're a fine fighter now anyways. Now give me a minute, and I'll be back."

And then the screaming began.

Naruto looked away as the ultimate finder gave him a clear view of what Zabuza was doing to Gato's men, and for once, he wished that he had never found out about the ultimate finder's limited x-ray vision ability. He then looked at Haku, and said. "Your master has a vicious streak a mile wide, Haku." With those words said, Naruto chuckled deeply.

Meanwhile, Gato was increasingly getting scared at the sounds that he was hearing, and after a minute, it was over. A deathly silence fell over the bridge, and Gato knew at that moment, that the mercenary army he had hired was wiped out, mostly by the one ninja that he now regretted hiring.

Suddenly, a large shadow was cast behind him, revealing a bloody Zabuza, with a matching bloody sword.

"Hello Gato, I believe we have some…unfinished business with each other."

Gato chose this time to shriek like a girl, and fainted as his eyes rolled in the back of his head, while emptying his bowels at the same time. All of this happened while he fell to the ground, like a sack of potatoes.

THUMP.

Zabuza glared at his former employer, and said. "What a wimp." He then cast a wide-area genjutsu (illusion technique) over the area where he knows the remaining mercenaries are located, and used a shunshin(body flicker) that used the water element, to quickly transport himself back to Naruto's location, but still kept him hidden inside the mist. As the body flicker ended, he spied Naruto looking at Haku. Zabuza couldn't tell Naruto's expression because of the mask that he wore, but he suddenly felt protective of Haku for a second, before he dismissed it as a fleeting emotion. Naruto then turned to look at Zabuza inside the mist.

"I know where you are Zabuza-san, so stop hiding. Did you catch him?" Naruto asked as he picked Haku up once again from his resting spot on the shipping container. Zabuza nodded as he held up Gato, who was tied up like the pig he is, and wrinkled his nose at the brown and yellow stains that was soaking through Gato's pants.

"Gato was easy. I didn't have to do anything. He just fainted when he saw me all bloody and such with a subtle genjutsu, the little wimp. The mercenaries didn't give me any trouble at all, but did I really have to leave them alive? And what are we going to do with this coward?" Zabuza asked as he dumped Gato back to the ground. The subtle sleep genjutsu made sure that he never woke up when he landed.

Naruto picked up, and handed Haku back to Zabuza. He then removed the faiz phone from its dock in the faiz driver, flipped it open, and pressed the 'End Call' button. The Faiz armor then emitted a bright light, and reset itself as the photon lines went back into the faiz driver in streams of crimson light. The faiz driver and phone disappeared from Naruto's waist and hand with a thought, and Naruto spoke.

"The battle is over, and I only wanted to intimidate Gato and his men. There's no need for further, senseless bloodshed today." Naruto paused as Zabuza accepted his reasoning with a nod. His respect for the blonde moving up a few notches from before, as he agrees that if there should be killing involved it didn't have to be wholesale slaughter, along with innocent lives of women and children, and other people who can't defend themselves. Naruto then continued where he left off

"As for Gato, I heard that your dream is to conquer Kirigakure no Sato(village hidden in the mist), and get rid of its corrupt, old Mizukage, and the old guard around him. What if I can help you with that by stealing Gato's fortune, together?" Zabuza's eyes widened as he looked at Gato, and looked at him in a new light, as a cash cow. Zabuza laughed heartily as he smiled at Naruto through the bandages covering his lower face.

"Like I said earlier kid, I really like your style." Naruto's cheeks reddened at the first praise that he got outside his circle of loved ones back in Konoha.

II. Inari's appearance: Wave villagers plus a couple of ninja vs. Mercenaries

Suddenly, loud shouting from the wave country side of the bridge was heard by the two ninja. Inari and the villagers of wave were out en masse. Naruto sighed, and mouthed the words 'Don't tell anyone what we talked about.' Zabuza nodded, and released the wide area genjutsu, and mist, on the mercenaries, who felt as though they were hit by a sledge hammer in various parts of their bodies. As they got up, they asked each other what had happened after the mist surrounded them, to no avail, as the mercenary that they asked didn't have a clue. Then, as one, the mercenaries looked at their employer, only to see Gato's headless corpse.

With anger in their eyes, they turned back their gaze at the two ninja. Although a few of the mercenaries were wondering who the orange-clad teenager was, and where was he during all the action that happened.

"What the fuck? You killed our meal ticket! Now we're going to raid and pillage that village so we can get our pay!" One of the mercenaries said, conveniently forgetting the skill that Zabuza had shown as a ninja and the pain he was still feeling because of said person. The other mercenaries cried out in agreement, and were becoming louder by the second. They then picked up their weapons of choice and charged, leaving their fallen, injured, and dying comrades behind, trampling over them as they marched forward, cries for the blood of wave country's inhabitants increasing their shouts…

Until a crossbow bolt imbedded itself in their path.

Naruto and Zabuza looked at the group of wave's inhabitants, each carrying a tool that was used in farming, fishing, woodwork, and other purposes, other than as a weapon. Leading the villagers was Inari, who was wearing a helmet made of a small wok. A string was tied to its handles to fit snugly on his chin. Naruto spied the loaded crossbow in his arms.

"Take one step further and we'll show you why this village is called wave country. We're not afraid of Gato anymore, so you'll have to go through us first, before you can raze our country to the ground!" Inari growled, as the crowd behind him took up their arms, and shouted in agreement.

Zabuza and Naruto looked at each other, Naruto then said. "I guess we have to do our part as well." Naruto turned back, faced the mercenaries, and performed his favorite jutsu.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Technique)"

Naruto was suddenly surrounded by twenty clones of himself. As one, they each drew kunai and a dozen shuriken. Zabuza answered with his own jutsu.

"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu! (Water Clone Technique)" Zabuza announced, as twenty clones appeared from the water that was still covering the bridge. In unison, each Zabuza clone and the original drew their swords.

One Naruto clone smirked, and yelled at the mercenaries, as he said: "How about I call back that black-suited masked girl who killed your monster of a colleague? I'm pretty sure that she and Zabuza could make sushi out of all you lot."

The mercenaries, as one, felt a shudder of fear creep up their spines as they remembered what Kotogi was capable of, and then remembered what that masked girl did to him. The mercenary who said that they would pillage wave country, pissed in his pants again, and yelled:

"Let's get the fuck out of here!" The mercenaries left their injured and dying comrades as they retreated, having no purpose to stay, as Gato was dead, and they had met resistance in the villagers of wave country, which meant that this was a lose-lose situation. The mercenaries abandoned their posts as they retreated to the waiting boats either by jumping on the railings of the bridge, descending down on rope ladders, or running back to the unfinished section of the bridge to board boats that were anchored at the bottom of the bridge supports.

As the final mercenary disappeared, Zabuza formed a hand seal, and said, "Kai!(dispel/release)" And the dead body of Gato revealed itself to be one of the many mercenary bodies that were on the mainland side of the bridge, only with its head cut off.

Zabuza then dispelled his water clones, and Naruto followed suit. When he dispelled his clones however, he acquired the knowledge of the clone that spoke. Inwardly, he cheered, and planned on experimenting with his newfound knowledge during team seven's remaining stay at Tazuna's house, while the bridge underwent repairs, and finally finished.

As the villagers cheered at their victory over the invaders and persecutors of their land, Tazuna was looking around for someone. Tsunami noticed this, and asked her father what he was looking for.

"Well I was looking for the super black-suited teenager that fought the super-scary and super-strong monster who turned super-monstrously large But the super teenager used a super-special super-attack and super-killed that super-monster." The people within earshot super-sweat-dropped at Tazuna's super-abuse of the word 'super' and the non-stop super rapid fire sentence with no pauses in between, including Zabuza and Naruto (A/N: Damn, he even has me saying 'super' –groans-). Tsunami had a tick-mark on her temple as she whacked her father hard on the back of his head, and the audience laughed as Tazuna face-faulted to the floor of the bridge, because of his daughter's hidden strength.

Naruto helped Tazuna up from his position on the cold concrete of the bridge, and started to speak to Tazuna. "That black-suited masked teenager said to me, that she didn't want any credit for that monster's death. She was also in a hurry, so I let her leave." Naruto said in a straight face, as inwardly he was snickering at his inside joke.

He then turned to look at Inari, and acknowledged him by giving the child a thumb's up. "You did good kid, rallying all these people and not giving in to Gato's tyranny. You're a hero!" Naruto said as he patted Inari's head, which was still under the small wok turned-helmet.

Inari rubbed his finger under his nose to show his embarrassment and pride. "'The hero always arrives at the last minute', eh Naruto nii-chan?" Naruto nodded as the boys both had wide grins, Naruto feeling very happy that someone had called him an older brother. Zabuza took this time to get Tazuna's attention by clearing his throat.

"Tazuna-san, if you don't mind helping out former enemies, who were hired to kill you, can we please go to your house so that Haku's injuries can be treated and taken care of properly?" Tazuna nodded as he started issuing out orders to the returning workers and the stronger men to haul the dead bodies of the mercenaries off the bridge, so that they could be given a proper burial, and look for anyone still alive among the bodies, as those mercenaries with serious injuries and the several who were at death's door succumbed to it, because of their comrades' haste to get out of the battlefield. He then asked Tsunami to escort Zabuza and Naruto back to their house. Tsunami then kissed her son, and motioned for Zabuza to follow him, with Naruto behind the two adults.

As the orange-clad blonde disappeared from view, Tazuna crouched down, and hugged Inari, while telling him that he was proud of what he did, and that Kaiza would approve. Inari tearfully hugged his grandfather back. After a few moments of silent hugging, Inari then told the remaining people of wave, who had no orders to follow about in the bridge, how Naruto saved him from the samurai thugs that Gato hired to kidnap Tsunami, and that they were planning to kill him because he wasn't needed, and after saving him and his mother, how Naruto inspired him to go to each house in wave to gather support, and make them fight for their country.

Tazuna then smiled wistfully as he regarded the blonde ninja who had changed his grandson, and changed wave country for the better.

"He's a hero, isn't he, grandpa?" Inari's muffled voice asked as he buried his face in his grandfather's chest.

"Hai grandson, he is the super, true blue hero of wave." Tazuna grinned as the others nodded in recognition of the blonde boy who turned the fate of wave country on its head. Inspired by his grandson, he began the tale to his people in wave country, of his first meeting with the blonde and his team, inside the Hokage's tower in Konoha …

III. Tazuna's house, and debriefing with team seven.

After twenty minutes of walking, Tsunami, Naruto, and Zabuza, who was carrying Haku, reached Tazuna's house. Naruto accompanied Zabuza, as Tsunami ushered him into a spare room that was used to store the family's odds and ends that have accumulated over the years. It was dust and dirt free as Tsunami had cleaned it a few days before his father arrived, and converted a portion of the room to place a bed in it.

Tsunami then asked Zabuza to lay Haku down the bed, and set out to work on her so she could determine what her injuries are. After examining her limbs and head, Tsunami opened Haku's blue-green heavy coat, and stripped her sweater off, with Zabuza helping her, while Naruto looked on, eager to help or fetch anything. Tsunami did just that, as she made Naruto fetch some bandages, disinfectant, and her jars of prepared healing herbs as well as some hot water. Naruto did just that and summoned a pair of shadow clones to help him gather what Tsunami needed. Thinking for once, he summoned another clone to search for team seven. Thinking ahead again, he made the clone do his version of the henge no jutsu (transformation technique), and ordered him to henge into the same clothing that he was wearing, which confused the clone. Nonetheless, the clone followed the order of its creator with no question. The Naruto clone then went ahead to search for the room where team seven was resting.

As the two Naruto clones and the original moved to fulfill Tsunami's orders, the clone peaked in the door of team seven's room, and saw that Kakashi was in a chair, reading his icha icha paradise, while Sakura was sitting beside Sasuke, who had his eyes closed, but seemed to be breathing and alive, much to the clone's relief. Knocking twice, he opened the door, as the rest of team seven, including Sasuke, turned his eyes on him in unison.

"Hey Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi-sensei, are you guys all right?" Asked the Naruto clone as he stepped inside, and sat down on an empty chair.

Kakashi nodded, never turning, nor lifting his head from the book that he was reading. "I'm okay, Naruto. I'm just resting because of mild chakra exhaustion. I also have a minor sprain on my wrist, which will heal in a day or two, as long as I take it easy. Finally, I have a large cut on my chest from Zabuza's sword." Kakashi finished as he showed Naruto the bandages under his Jounin uniform.

Sasuke gave a grunt, while he said. "Don't worry about me dobe, that hunter-nin only managed to place me in a death-like state. Kakashi was able to bring me back to consciousness by carefully removing those needles. Although I need to rest for a week to shake off the shock my body underwent through by 'dying'." Sasuke then gave the Naruto clone a pointed look, which said, 'You owe me.' The Naruto clone nodded, and looked at Sakura.

"Tazuna and I were fine inside the mist, although I was panicking when that black-suited person laid down Sasuke-kun a distance from my position. Tazuna went with me so I wouldn't disobey Kakashi-sensei's orders of protecting him. I really thought that…that…" Sakura sniffled a little as her eyes shined with unshed tears, but quickly recovered. As the other three finished debriefing Naruto, they turned a questioning eye on the blonde.

"Oh, I guess it's my turn now, eh?" The others nodded as confirmation to Naruto's question. Naruto rubbed the back of his head, and started his tale/report.

"Well, I guess I'll start off where I thought Sasuke died. I became so mad that I almost gave in to my anger, and released a bit of this odd-colored, evil chakra. It sort of 'changed' me, but something in my mind told me not to give in, that it was stupid to do so. So I stopped getting mad, then I returned to normal. When I became aware again, that hunter-nin was in front of me, and hit me with those needles to make my body not move. He then kicked me through one of those mirror thingies of his, and I got hurt so bad, and then he carried me to the side of the bridge, and dropped me into the sea. I blacked out for a few moments, but this black-suited girl who wore a weird insect-like helmet with these freaky yellow eyes saved me from drowning. She then removed the needles, and left me to recover from what she said was parali…paralysis I think? After making sure I would heal, she marched to the bridge when I told her that you were still fighting Zabuza and that hunter-nin. When I got up and climbed back to the bridge using a rope ladder that I saw, the masked girl was gone, and I saw that the hunter-nin was injured. I met Zabuza-san, and we scared off those men that Gato guy hired, after the people in wave showed up." The Naruto clone finished, lying through his teeth while telling team seven an altered story of the events between his and Haku's fight, separating himself from his alter-ego, Kamen Rider Faiz.

The Naruto clone knew that even if he told team seven what really happened, Sasuke and Kakashi wouldn't believe it. He did not know where he stood with Sakura, but assumed that she would react like the other two. The Naruto clone knew that if the original wanted to be a decent ninja, and a very good kamen rider, he needed to get out of Kakashi and Sasuke's shadow of influence. Kakashi had the sharingan, and Sasuke needed training from someone who also had the sharingan, and if that trend continued, what with Sasuke receiving one-on-one training, while the original Naruto and Sakura were ignored by their sensei, he knew that Sasuke would leave his original self and Sakura in the dust. So now, if he had to lie to get out of team seven to get stronger, he would, and had done it.

IV. Kicked out.

After the clone finished his story, Kakashi lifted his hitai-ate, and took a good look at the Naruto clone with his sharingan, without putting his book away. Kakashi nodded as he and Sakura told Naruto an abbreviated tale of what happened to their part in the fight.

Kakashi then sighed, and gave the Naruto clone a look of disappointment. The eyes of Naruto's clone widened, as he carefully schooled his expression into one of bewilderment.

"Naruto, despite the fact that you showed remarkable restraint in controlling what you say as 'this odd-colored, evil chakra', the fact that you almost let it out is very dangerous to me, your team mates, and our client. Not to mention what might have happened to the whole village of wave if you had let go and not fought it for control. Also, letting your emotions get the best of you during a mission is unacceptable, as it is one of the rules of our shinobi code. Furthermore, despite showing up at the last minute to help Zabuza drive off the remaining mercenaries once he killed Gato, it still does not hide the fact that you failed to defeat the enemy hunter-nin, after Sasuke almost sacrificed his life to give you a chance to kill him. Weighing all of this in my mind, I have no choice but to call for an emergency team vote, and propose to kick you out of the team." Kakashi explained as he took out a sheaf of papers, and asked Sakura and Sasuke to vote, before he did.

Sasuke voted yes in favor of kicking Naruto off the team, stating that Naruto would only drag him down further during missions, and that compared to him or Sakura, he was a weak ninja with no skills. Sakura was hesitant to vote, but a glare from Sasuke forced her to vote yes as well, although she officially stated that she was doing this under protest. Kakashi put in his final vote, and Naruto's fate was sealed.

Kakashi then made Naruto sign the expulsion form, as Sasuke and Sakura also added their own signatures. After that, Kakashi added his final signature, making the document almost official. Kakashi then used a scroll for minor summons, and sent off a messenger bird, to present Naruto's expulsion papers to the third Hokage for stamping as official and final, which will make Naruto's expulsion as legal and binding, once they get back to Konoha. The messenger bird was also carrying a scroll containing the rough draft of Kakashi's mission report, to be filed officially once they got back to the hidden village.

The Naruto clone then asked if he could go outside for a while. Kakashi nodded, and suggested that Naruto brush up on his tree-walking, so that his next sensei wouldn't have to teach him how to control his chakra. The Naruto clone walked out of the room, catching Sakura mouthing the words 'I'm sorry, Naruto.' in the corner of his eye. The Naruto clone nodded slowly, and walked out of team seven's room. The clone then went down the stairs, and stepped outside Tazuna's home. After making sure that no one could see him, especially anyone from Tazuna's house, the Naruto clone dispelled itself.

V. Haku is a GIRL!?

The real Naruto paused in his climb up the stairs, as he received the memories of the clone which he sent to team seven's room. Naruto sighed at Kakashi's biased assessment of his performance, and was sad at his expulsion from team seven, mainly because of Sakura. Nevertheless, he got what he wanted.

He was now off the team. He could now move on from his failures as a member of team seven, and the most important part, was that he was now out of Kakashi and Sasuke's shadow, and influence.

Now, if he can have a decent sensei once he was back in Konoha, and reassigned to another team who had lost a member, or if a new team could be quickly formed, with him as one of the members, things would finally start changing for the better, he hoped.

He would have cried out loud and screamed his jubilation to the skies, but his current task restrained him from doing so. Especially since he was carrying jars filled with healing herbs. Fragile jars of crushed healing herbs, which were made of glass. He then followed the path of his clones, which had performed their tasks of fetching the bandages, disinfectant, hot water, and some medical tools that Tsunami had stored with the other medical supplies. His clones then dispelled themselves twenty minutes earlier, Naruto getting the info that Zabuza was still inside Haku's room, and that there was nothing particularly off-putting, or embarrassing, for Naruto to see yet.

Naruto walked into the open room that contained the things his clones had fetched earlier, while balancing his cargo he was carrying on his arms. He loudly told Tsunami that her healing herbs have arrived, and looked at what was going on with Haku and Tsunami on the bed.

"Tsunami-san, here are the healing herbs that you asked for…"

He then saw something, make that a pair of things…that he shouldn't have seen.

Tsunami was busy with re-bandaging Haku's chest and torso, because the previous bandages had been thrown into a nearby trashcan for disposal later, as Tsunami had to cut them open so that she could assess the damage Haku's ribs had undergone, but not before kicking Zabuza out of the room to preserve Haku's modesty, despite his protests that he had already seen what Haku had in other women thousands of times, which left Tsunami red-faced in embarrassment, and fuming in anger for her fellow woman, causing her to redouble her efforts in pushing Zabuza out of the room. She succeeded, although it was a hard struggle, and slammed the door in Zabuza's face. She then quickly went back to her patient.

While working, she took out a bottle of smelling salts from her apron (which was used on his father in the mornings, after he had gone on one of his rare drinking binges, and needed to wake up early for work.) to wake Haku up, as she could have missed a rib which could be broken or fractured, if she had done the job herself. After setting back her two broken ribs, and after cushioning Haku's body so that her fractured and bruised ribs wouldn't move, she began the preparations to secure and tape Haku's ribs to her chest, so it wouldn't move as much as possible, and to let her ribs heal naturally.

She was so busy in fussing over Haku's injuries, that she missed Naruto's rather loud entrance. Furthermore, in her haste to push Zabuza out of the room, and to get back quickly at Haku's side, Tsunami did not know that the door was still unlocked from the inside, after she had closed it.

Haku shrieked, and told him to get out if he still valued his manhood, in a very loud, threatening, and icy voice. It was a good thing Zabuza had scribed a silencing seal on the room, or else the rest of team seven would have come running in, weapons in hand to deal with non-existent attackers. All of which would have lead to more embarrassment at Haku's expense.

Tsunami was hiding her grin, and trying not to laugh at the embarrassment of the two, red-faced teens. Smothering a snort of laughter, he ushered Naruto out of the room, as the blonde was holding his nose, and covering his eyes, while he was saying "I'm sorry! I'm SO sorry! I didn't see anything! Honest!" repeatedly, as he was embarrassed as much as Haku was.

Naruto managed to turn around in time to see Haku's red face, and teary eyes through the crack in the door. He sighed in relief as the door was slammed shut, and then sighed again, this time in disappointment and anger in himself, as he softly said.

"I'm sorry Haku, I'm so sorry, please forgive me."

Naruto then walked back down the stairs and out of the door to Tazuna's house. He then followed the path of the water from Tazuna's small platform beside the house to a small pond a distance away from it.

Naruto's heart was beating fast from the embarrassment and fear of retaliation, for being caught staring at a woman's chest, and getting pummeled and branded a pervert by the same woman who possessed said chest. He then remembered Haku's red face, and hung his head in despair because of how that scene ended.

"I guess I blew it, then." Naruto said to himself, as he wallowed in self-pity and anger.

"Blew what? And why didn't you invite me?" Zabuza asked from behind Naruto.

"Gyaaah!" Naruto jumped five feet into the air, while still in a sitting position, landed, and turned around to give Zabuza a death glare. He had tick marks all over his face as he screamed at the Jounin-level shinobi.

"Damn it Zabuza-san! You almost gave me a heart attack me when you sneaked up on me!" Zabuza gave Naruto a Kakashi-like stare of indifference, which made Naruto calm down, and start to take deep breaths, calming him even further. Zabuza noticed that some of the light from his eyes had disappeared. He then asked what happened to make him unaware of his surroundings. Naruto realized that this was the person who had seen Haku grow up, had fought with her side by side as missing-nin, and taught almost everything that she knew. He then realized that Zabuza was like father to Haku. Turning red in embarrassment, he halting told Zabuza about what happened in Haku's room.

"H-H-H-Haku's room...w-w-w-went in…with h-h-herbs…t-t-told…Ts-ts-ts-Tsunami…t-t-then I-I-I-I t-t-t-turned…a-a-a-and H-H-H-Ha-Ha-Ha-Haku's a-a-a-a g-g-g-gi-gi-girl! I…I…I…s-s-saw…I s-s-s-saw h-h-h-er b…b-br-bre-brea…b-bo-boo-booo…b-b-b-b-buh…gaaaaah!" Naruto practically screamed, as he threw his hands up in the air. Naruto was so frustrated, that he couldn't properly relay to Zabuza that he had seen Haku's twin orbs.

Zabuza read between the lines of Naruto's stutter, and nodded once. Then he said.

"So, you went in after gathering Tsunami's jars of herbs, and that you were so busy handling them with care, that when you turned to see what was going on in the bed, you saw Haku's boobies?" Naruto nodded at Zabuza, while his face, if it was possible, was two shades redder than when he saw Haku's chest.

"I'm so sorry, Zabuza-s-"

He was caught flatfooted, as the Jounin fell down on the ground beside the pond, laughing his ass off while tears of mirth flowed down from his eyes.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! Oh that is sooo funny! I wish I could have been there to see it! Maybe I should have left a water clone so that I would have seen how red both of your faces turned! It would have looked priceless to capture on film! Ahahahaha-!" Zabuza continued to laugh as he let himself go for a while, as finding reasons to laugh like this were few and far between a missing-nin's life.

Naruto's face turned red in anger, and after a few minutes, hung his head in embarrassment. Naruto then quietly said.

"It's not funny, you know."

Those words made Zabuza rein in his laughter, and took a few minutes to get his laughs under control. As his chuckles finally subsided, he apologized.

"I'm sorry, but I really had to laugh at the situation, I wasn't laughing at you that much though." At Naruto's distrustful look, Zabuza raised his hands in a calming gesture.

"Don't be mad that much, ok? I'm sure you've had lessons at the ninja academy about dealing with the opposite sex, before you graduated to genin, right?" At the shake of Naruto's head, Zabuza asked Naruto another question.

"Has Kakashi ever given you the Jounin version of 'The Talk' yet?" When Naruto said that he was kicked out of that lesson, and that Kakashi had only taught him tree-walking, and nothing else, Zabuza's respect for the copy ninja went down several notches, as he pondered what the hell was Kakashi doing, as he ignored one of his students.

Dusting off his clothes, he picked up his sword, which he had rested beside a tree, and then turned to look at Naruto."

"Well, whatever Kakashi or your teachers at the academy didn't teach you, we have something better to do than dealing with your embarrassment about girls and tits. I've already cleared it with Kakashi, saying that I needed your help with something, and that, since Haku's incapacitated, and his other students are resting along with him, it came down to you to help me." Naruto nodded, and walked with Zabuza to a secluded portion of the bamboo forest bordering wave, to torture a trussed up, pig of a man.

End Chapter.

A/N2: I've decided to end it here, as the word count has exceeded beyond my control. Like I said before, please read and review, and give me some more, detailed feedback. Like: Are my chapters ok? Are they entertaining? Do some parts bore you? Is my grammar correct?

BTW, it's not easy to dumb down Naruto's speech patterns when he was telling team seven what happened to him after Sasuke was 'killed'

Next chapter will be action-packed. I assure you.