A/N: Bah, it's been a while and for that I apologize. But I've never been a swift updater, and having my sounding board/ beta effectively netless for a while does not help any. End result: I end up with a ton of ideas on how to branch out from a point but I dunno which way to go. I like having someone to slap me around and call me stupid everyso often. It's handy. ANYWAYS. Holy crap, you guys all rock.

45 reviews, 3 CS2s, 30 favs, 58 alerts. You all kick ass, each and every one of yahs.

On with the show!

Chapter 4

Aitsu (As his human form shall be referred to as) opened his eyes slowly cursing whatever forces deemed the sun needed to be that bright early in the morning. He paused for a moment, it was rare that he slept outside Naruto's seal. He closed his eyes and ran through the memories of the previous night, only to open them when he felt a small comfortable weight on his chest. He looked down to see a messed up head of raven black hair lying on him. He smiled at that, and anyone who had known him his entire life, which at the moment consisted of 3 beings tops, would remark he'd only smiled that warmly to two other people. He laid his head back onto the pillow absentmindedly stroking the still sleeping Mikoto's hair reflecting on how awesome it was to be him sometimes.

....

Naruto woke up with a rather rude start. That is to say a bucket of liquid, he had learned not to immediately assume water unfortunately, to the face. He fluttered his blue eyes open and affixed the most threatening glare he could at his decidedly insane teacher. Of course, being soaked as he was, it made him look like a drowning, constipated rat.

"Rise and shine brat!" The Inuzuka Matriarch barked out at the soaked gennin.

Naruto sighed and rolled off of his bed. Psychotic though she was, she made for a good teacher and in the past month he'd picked up quite a bit on the art of tracking. Mostly practiced on what many were convinced to be a demonic cat. He stripped off his wet pajamas as he walked towards the bathroom, not especially caring his teacher was watching him. A brief shower later and he reappeared in his standard attire. He walked over to the corner of the room and gently picked up his katana, attaching it to his side.

Tsume raised an eyebrow, "I've been meaning to ask, what is up with that sword? In all of our spars and training sessions I haven't seen you use it."

Naruto sighed leaning against the wall as he did so. "I don't use it often simply because I haven't felt the need. I've been needing to work on my hand to hand. My swordsmanship is, adequate, to say the least."

She mulled that over, "I can accept that I guess. Though I do ask why you carry it like that instead of strapped to your back like most shinobi who wield katana."

Naruto smirked at that, "That has to do with my style. Having it on my back hinders it."

"Hmm, you said when you first introduced yourself that it was called the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu... Why does that name sound familiar?"

The young jinchuuriki stifled a laugh as they walked out the apartment. "You know of the name Hitokiri Battousai?"

The Inuzaka's eyes widened, "You mean the famed Kuso samurai? The one who battled the Yondaime to a draw with sword techniques alone?"

Naruto smiled, "Aye that sounds like Kenshin, after the 3rd war their was a huge uprising in Kuso and the Daiymo sent in a contingent of samurai to help deal with it. Kenshin was one of them. After it was over he left disgusted with the killing he had caused, he took up a reverse bladed katana and set out to wander the elemental countries helping who he could. The man raised me for four years, probably the closest thing I had to a father."

Tsume shook her head in slight amazement, "Crazy... Anyways we have a mission today."

Naruto opened his apartment door for the woman as they walked out heading towards the Hokage tower, "Oh? Another gennin wannabe run off?" Hunting down students that fled Konoha after failing their gennin exam was a D rank hunter mission and excruciatingly boring.

Tsume grinned, "Nope, Team 7 is off on an escort mission to the land of waves. Rumour has it a merchant criminal named Gato has been setting up shop there. He is likely to have hired missing nin and we don't know how he'll take having ninja in the country. So we're being sent to tail team 7, take out any missing nin and Gato should the opportunity present itself."

The two laughed as they arrived at the entrance of the tower. An hour later they ran iton the forests of Konoha, aiming to catch up with Team 7.

....

1 day later...

Sasuke Uchiha had had better days. He idly mused he should really try to spend more time with his mother if he survived this. The day had started off decently enough, and then it dissolved into this. There on the water his teacher stood encased in sphere of water, held by a (he assumed he was grinning) masked swordsman who wielded a sword bigger then him. His god awful fangirl, he suppressed a slight shudder, teammates where quivering uselessly by Tazuna. His sensei Kakashi was telling them to run but the young Uchiha highly suspected that they would never make it. A shame they didn't have anyone good at making spontaneous plans with them.

In the treeline above the gennin, Naruto sat above his teacher. They glanced at each other and signalled each other using handsigns. -So, we go save them right?- The blond signed.

-Yeah, I could do it... But then I want to see how you do against one of the seven swordsmen of the mist in an ambush situation.-

Naruto groaned inwardly. -Goddamnit. You're a sadist, you know that?-

-Deal.- She had to stop her self from the impromptu 'sign' her student flipped her.

Naruto slid on his black mask and channelled a bit of chakra into it. He smirked as all of Zabuza's information came up in a display only he could see. His mask was heavily inlaid with seals similar to those on nin-fo cards some spies liked to use. The mask was filled with information from all the current bingo books and could be used to estimate chakra levels, to a margin of error of course. Carefully he drew 3 throwing knives and charged them in lightning chakra. It'd sting like a bitch for Kakashi but he would live. He narrowed his eyes, and flung the blades.

Now, charging blades with different types of elemental chakra tend to have different effects, for instance, wind could cut through almost anything, fire had a tendency to explode, if you got good enough you could 'bend' the path of water, earth increased weight, making them hit harder. If you through something with lightning it went fast. SO fast it was doubtful Kakashi and Zabuza even knew what happened. Zabuza released his hold on the water prison as an electric current ran through it. Kakashi moaned in pain as what felt like a taser hit him and he dropped into the water. Zabuza jumped back to shore scanning the treeline. He caught a flash of light and reacted with the reflexes a ninja who has survived countless life or death battles, jumping backwards and dodging Naruto.

The gennin had no idea what was happening, first they were all entertaining the horrible ways they were gonna die, then there was a flash of light and the water prison holding Kakashi disappeared and Zabuza was being attacked. Sasuke looked at the blond haired newcomer trying to remember why that particular shade of blonde was familiar. He glanced at a headband tied on his left arm and relaxed ever so slightly. Whoever the newcomer was, he was from the leaf. Sasuke made a break and ran for Kakashi who was dragging himself from the water while the blond had Zabuza occupied.

Tsume and Kuromaru watched from the treeline, the Inuzaka head scratching her canine companion, "Well, lets see what he can do with that sword now."

Naruto was ever so glad he was wearing a mask. Here he was staring down one of the best swordfighters in the world, one he had run into before. He didn't particularly want Zabuza to recognize him, so the hiten mitsurugi was out. The stance was too recognizable and easily associated with Naruto's old teacher. He mulled over the few other sword styles he knew and decided to slip into the only one he was as proficient with as the hiten mitsurugi. He stretched his right arm out in front of him, holding his sword left handed, giving the impression he was aiming at Zabuza, which he was.

The masked swordsman swore, his left hand was numb and the blond in front of him looked far too comfortable in that sword stance to be an amateur. He groaned and barely brought his meat cleaver of a weapon up in time to block as a cry of "Gatotsu!" Was heard from the blond swordsman who rushed him and stabbed forward. And the fight raged from there, Zabuza was at a disadvantage, being without use of his one arm, wielding a massive sword against the faster moving katana wielder, and having already fought with Kakashi (for what little that was worth). Still, he had far more power in his blows and far more experience on his side. Slowly but surely he was pushing the blond back.

Naruto groaned, a swordfight had been his only reasonable option to fight Zabuza and as good as an idea it was he was slowly losing. Both fighters were covered in various shallow cuts, and both knew they only needed one good hit to finish it. They jumped back and stared each other down, Zabuza readying his sword for an over head strike, Naruto dropping into the familiar Gatotsu stance. They jumped towards each other, Zabuza dodged to the side at the last second and brought his sword down. Naruto smirked and swung his blade the side leaving a deep gash across Zabuza's stomach. They turned to face each other again, Naruto dashing forwards, only to stop as senbon needles flew through the air catching Zabuza in the neck.

A kiri hunter nin appeared beside the body, "Thank you for your assistance in bringing down Zabuza. Now I must take my leave." The hunter touched the body and they disappeared in a swirl of mist. Naruto sheathed his blade and slumped to the ground swearing.

At the point Tsume came from the treelines and walked up to her young charge giving him some field medical treatment. Kakashi raised and eyebrow as Sasuke helped him towards Tazuna, "Tsume, so nice of you to join us. May I ask why your student seems so displeased?"

The Inuzaka scoffed, "If that was a real hunter nin they would have beheaded and burned the body right here." She helped Naruto up, letting him lean on her.

"Fuck, I had totally forgot about her, stealthy as hell to." Naruto swore. He looked around at the raised eyebrows his teacher and Kakashi were giving him, " My old teacher and I have run into Zabuza before. He had an apprentice, a dark haired girl who could manipulate ice. I would be willing to bet that was her."

The collective ninjas and Tazuna shuddered before Kakashi spoke up, "Guess that means we'll be seeing them again. Tsume, will you and your apprentice be staying with us?"

The two hunter nins glanced at each other before the older woman spoke up, "If Tazuna will have us, sure."

The bridge builder merely nodded, "Lets get going to my house then, it isn't far from here." The small group followed the elderly man, Naruto staying up ahead of the questioning stares of the gennin behind him.

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A/N: And the chapter ends there. Sorry about it being shorter then normal but hey, some action in there at least eh? Not totally sure how I want the wave arc to end...

Should Zabuza and Haku live? Or just one of them? If they do live should they join Konoha? Give me your opinion if you wouldn't mind... Also the other poll is still going, sorry I forgot to post. The current results are:

Tsume: 21

Kurenai: 3

Tsunami: 6

Hana: 5

Tayuya: 1

Harem: 7

Wow... Looks like people wanna see those rare pairings. Makes me wanna do all the girls... but I have no confidence in writing a harem, and even then I was kinda leaning towards a single pairing especially with some of the girls cause they are SO damn rare outside of harems. If I DO do multiple girls it'll only be 2... Anyways keep me informed of your opinions! They are valued and appreciated.

Fun Note: Yes Naruto's sword styles are from Ruroni Kenshin, if you don't read it, you should. Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu is Kenshin's style and is GODLY. Which is why Naruto won't use it solely. He's still not totally proficient in it having been rushed to be the successor (more on that later), the other style Gatotsu is used by Saito Hajime, the wolf of Mibu. He's simply way to bad ass to not use the style since I've already made the step over into using them. And I figure Naruto should know multiple sword styles anyways. Hmm, I think that's all.. Till next time!