I'm not really happy with this chapter but there isn't really much I can do with it so sorry, the next one will be better.
Before you ready anything I will remind you that this is a fic, so I can change anything I want :P
Before people start asking about a Haku/Naruto pairing, don't, they will be like brother and sister in this fic.
Enjoy the chapter :)
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Disclaimer- I own nothing :(
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Chapter 6- Preparing
August 25
I have been able to fully map out Sub-Zero's DNA. With the data I have collected from him I am confident I will be able to continue my research. The only problem that I have found is that although I can replicate the experiment, I will never be able to create anything with the same potential as Sub-Zero himself. His DNA is unique and I am unable to completely replicate it. But I will be able to use the information I have gathered and that is what is important at this point, I will find a way to outdo myself.
XXX
As the adrenalin rush from the fight started to wear off Naruto found he was a little lightheaded, swaying slightly as his legs turned to jelly the young Namikaze found himself sitting down before he fell. Breathing slightly heavier then normal, with his legs crossed and Zabuza's sword on the ground next to him, Naruto realized he was getting rusty.
A few months ago a fight like that wouldn't have tired him out nearly this much.
He could already feel the small cuts he had gotten in his fight healing, the slight itchiness he felt a sign that he would be completely healed in a matter of moments as his breathing retuned to normal. By the time Itachi, Kurenai, Haku and his team got to him the only sign he had been in a fight was the rips in his clothing and the still standing body of Zabuza a few feet away from him.
Looking up at Itachi from his seated position, Naruto let a small smile form on his lips.
"Well, that was fun"
Shaking his head at his friend's antics, Itachi looked down at the smaller white haired boy with a smirk.
"You're getting rusty, or he was better then his bingo book entry said he was. Why'd you let him cut you put like that?"
Shrugging his shoulders as he got to his feet; Naruto walked over and stood next to his team, stretching for a moment before answering.
"A bit of both, I've been spending most of my time training these three and let myself fall behind on my own training. It's cool; I'll start training again when we get back to the village."
While they were talking, Haku made her way over to the frozen body of her father figure, the cold having no effect on her at all as she ran a hand over his stone like face.
Noticing her stood their Naruto raised an eyebrow at both Itachi and Kurenai, both of whom had sheepish grins on their faces.
"She didn't want to fight, so there wasn't any point in starting one."
Nodding his head after a moment of thought, Naruto made his way over to her, picking up the Kubikiri Bōchō as he came up behind her. He could see the tears rolling down her face and, oddly enough, a peaceful smile.
Looking at him out of the corner of her eye, Haku turned to face him and bowed.
"I thank you for fulfilling Zabuza-sama's dream"
"You're a very strange person, you know that?"
Chuckling at his words, Haku's eyes slowly drifted to the sword in his hand. Seeing where she was looking Naruto raised the sword, seemingly without effort despite its size and weight, and offered it to her.
For a moment it looked like she was going to take it, but after taking a deep breath she shuck her head and pushed it towards him.
"It's yours by right, you are his successor, and I was never any good with swords anyway."
Nodding his head again, Naruto turned back to his fellow Leaf-nin, Kubikiri Bōchō resting on his shoulder.
"Well, what do you think?"
Walking up with a serious face and circling him, Itachi nodding his head once before breaking out into a grin.
"Very badass, but can you even use it? It's not exactly your chokuto."
Giving the large sword an appraising look, much like Zabuza had done at the start of their fight with his, Naruto stepped away from the group and started to channel chakra into the metal like he did with his chokuto and twirled it around in his hands, making the huge sword appear weightless before smiling to himself.
"It's cool, heavier then what I'm used to, but that will just add more power into my strikes. Looks like I might get a chance to test it out anyway."
Turning around to see what he meant, they all saw the large group of thugs walking up to them, a small grey haired man with dark glasses leading the way with a smug smile on his face.
"Well, looks like I don't have to kill that buffoon after all. I'd thank you but you'll all be dead soon enough so there isn't much point."
They watched as he looked over their group and saw the lingering looks he had for Kurenai, Sakura and Madoka before landing on Haku.
"Did you really think I was going to pay you when it's so much cheaper to just hire bandits to kill you when you're weak? Though in your case, death is the last thing you need to worry about. Your master isn't here to protect you anymore."
Turing to Itachi with a board look on his face while ecnoring the man's rant, Naruto nudged his friend on the shoulder and gestured towards the thugs.
"If it's cool with you I'm going to go and test out this sword, I'll leave the midget in the fancy suit and his band of monkeys to you, have fun."
Grinning at his friend, Itachi just nodded as he watched Naruto walked off in the direction of the wood.
It was at this point that Gato took notice of what was going on and stop his rant about how much smarter he was then everyone else.
"HEY, I'm talking here, where the hell is he going?"
Turning to Gato and his thugs with a smile on his face, Itachi let his eyes turn red.
"Oh, that's not important, but I'll tell you what is. No matter what happens, whatever you do don't look into my eyes."
The moment the word left his mouth everyone on the thugs looked into his eyes, just as he planed.
The grin on the older Uchiha's face as the thugs started screaming and attacking each other was enough to scare even his younger brother.
XXX
Naruto knew he was being followed ever since he left the bridge, not that she was really trying to hide it. Choosing to ignore Haku as he walked into the same clearing they had first met, Naruto got into a stance and stated to move through different katas, trying to get a feel for the sword in his hands.
It was heavy, but to him it was nothing, the extra length making his movements clumsier then he was used to, not that anyone but he could tell the difference.
He could faintly hear the sound of screams in the distance, telling him Itachi was having fun. For such a mellow guy he sure did like torturing people with his genjutsu. From the sounds of the men screaming about crows, he knew his friend was using his signature illusion, the very thing that gave him his name in the Bingo book.
It was actually quite simple; it started with him bursting into a flock of crows that would fly at his enemy and every time someone tried to kill one, three more would appear. Eventually you panic as the crows peck and scratch at your skin and eyes, causing you to lash out randomly. Itachi had once slaughtered an entire bandit camp numbering in the hundreds without even drawing a kunai with this genjutsu.
As time went by the screams faded until nothing was left, and Naruto continued with his stances without a care in the world.
"You know, it's not cool to spy on people when they are training."
Dropping down from the branch she had been sitting on at the edge of the clearing, Haku slowly made her way over to Naruto.
"You knew I was there the entire time so it's not spying, I was waiting for you to finish."
Shrugging his shoulders Naruto stabbed the large sword into the ground and sat in the same spot he had been the day they met.
"Tell me something, if Zabuza wanted to die in battle, why did you stop Kurenai-san from making the finishing blow the day they came to Wave?"
Kneeling down across from him, Haku took a moment to think about what she was going to say.
"She wasn't the right one."
Naruto just sat, waiting for her to continue.
"Zabuza-sama always thought of himself as much of a swordsman as he did a ninja, he wanted the one to kill him to be able to wiled Kubikiri Bōchō. At one point it was going to be me, but I am not a swordsman, I am a ninja. While Zabuza-sama liked to get in close and fight, I keep my distance and use senbon to disable and kill without even being seen."
Nodding his head, Naruto smiled.
"It was about finding his sucessor as much as the fight wasn't it?"
"Yes"
"What will you do know? You're welcome to come with us to Konoha, after all I did promise Zabuza I would look after you."
Smiling gently, Haku nodded her head.
"I would like that, you are probably the closest thing I have to family know that Zabuza-sama is gone, you are all I have left."
XXX
Everything in Wave seemed to move at hyper speed after that day. The villagers had apparently shown up at the bridge just before Naruto had left, meaning they saw everything Itachi had done. They had found Gato curled up in a ball at the back of the pile of bodies, crying and mumbling to himself about the crows eating his eyes and tongue.
They had dragged him to him into the centre of the village and he was hung before nightfall.
There had been a huge party that night and Naruto was laughing at the sight of Itachi the next day with the mother of all hangovers. At some point during the celebration someone had taken his clothes leaving him with nothing but the grey bodysuit he wore under it. Naruto had denied any involvement of course.
By the end of the day Itachi had a fan club, it as his own fault for walking around the village with a hangover looking for his clothes and letting everyone see the tite grey bodysuit.
With Gato gone the bridge had more then enough people to help with the construction and it was done in no time at all with Tazuna and Inari laying the last slab themselves.
With the bridge finished and Gato dead the Leaf-nin, along with Haku, headed back to Konoha, Kubikiri Bōchō placed firmly on Naruto's with a long strip of black leather he had bought, his old sword sealed in a scroll.
Naruto had sent a messenger bird to Konoha after Gato's death telling his parents about Haku. The reply had been that when they arrived at the village she would be adopted into the Namikaze clan, thus protecting her from certain civilians on the council that would try to have her put into a breeding program. Since she was technically related to Naruto anyway it made things a lot easier to arrange.
They took their time heading back to the village and enjoyed the peace and quite of their surroundings, or they would have if not for Kiba.
It seemed now that she wasn't the enemy anymore Kiba had decided that Haku was hot, and in the true Inuzuka style that all males of his clan followed, that meant he was going to bug her until she agreed to go out with him.
For some reason this bothered Naruto, even though she was older then him he felt protective towards her, like he did with Madoka, and to have to hear Kiba going on and on about how he thought she was hot and how if she was his girlfriend he would treat her well was grinding on his nerves. He didn't have a problem with the Inuzuka, he had been friends with Kiba's older sister Hana since they were in the academy together, but the boy was at that stage where he was to arrogant for his own good.
Looking over his shoulder at the young boy, Naruto levelled a glare at him that shut him up faster then a slap to the face.
"Leave her alone"
After getting a grateful nod of the head from Haku, who had her hand in the sleeve of her kimono reaching for one of her senbon, Naruto turned back to look where he was going.
At his words something seemed to snap in Kiba, most likely his common sense. Ignoring Akamaru's warning, Kiba walked forwards and pushed the older boy, making him stumble.
Everyone stopped to look at the two as Naruto turned around to face Kiba fully.
"Or what, this has nothing to do with you. Who do you think you are to boss me around?"
Faster then anyone could see, Naruto had moved in front of the brash Inuzuka and was holding him a foot of the ground by his throat with one hand. Moving to try and calm the situation down before her student did something really stupid that would get him seriously hurt, Kurenai was stopped by Itachi laying his hand on her shoulder and shaking his head.
Looking into he younger boys eyes as his face started to turn red, Naruto let out a sigh.
"First, it is my business if you are bothering Haku because when we get back to the village she is being adopted into the Namikaze clan, meaning she is basically my sister. Second, I am your superior officer and if you ever talk to me or anyone else like that again I will have you removed from the ninja program and have your chakra sealed. There is no room in the Leaf for a boy that doesn't listen to his commanding officers."
By the end of Naruto's speech Kiba had gone deadly pale and his mouth was hanging open in shock. Shaking his head at the boy, Naruto dropped him to the ground and started to walk off, only to look over his shoulder at the coughing boy when he was a few feet away.
"And one more thing, learn to read body langue, if I hadn't stopped you when I did, Haku was about to stab you in the pressure point on your neck with one of her senbon so you would shut up."
Turing a shocked face towards Haku, who smiled sweetly back at him as she pulled a senbon out of her sleeve and twiddled it between her figures.
"Did you really think I would spend all those years with Zabuza-sama and not pick up a few things?"
Kiba's face went almost as pale as Naruto's.
XXX
Kushina was waiting for them at the main gate of Konoha as they came into view, a huge smile on her face and the moment her eyes locked on Naruto and Madoka she sprinted towards them and had both in a bear hug before they even knew what had happened.
He could hear Itachi sniggering behind him, but that didn't last long because as soon as she let them go the red headed ninja grabbed Itachi and Sasuke into a equally bone crushing hug as she had her own kids. When she had done, Kushina stood back and looked at each person in the group before her eyes landed on Haku.
Walking up to the girl she gave her a once over before smiling.
"You must be Haku; I'm Kushina Namikaze, Naruto and Madoka's mother. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Haku just smile and bowed her head towards Kushina.
"The pleasure is all mine, I would like to thank you and your husband for accepting me into your clan."
Returning the smile, Kushina led the group towards the Hokage tower. As they walked through the streets the people they passed would nod their heads in respect or say a quite 'Namikaze-sama' to Kushina.
As thy entered the Hokage office they were just in time to see Minato going through hand sings, staring at the piles of paperwork on his desk with a crazed look in his eyes.
"MINATO, if you do what I think you were about to do I'm going to kick your ass!"
Looking like a dear caught in headlights, the blonde Hokage sat down with a pout.
"It's not my fault; every time I look away they double in size."
"Not my problem, you're setting a bad example"
Haku watched on with wide eyes as the Yondaime Hokage, the Yellow Flash of Konoha and one of the most feared men in the Elemental Nations acted like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and by everyone else's lack of a reaction she could only assume that this happened often enough to be considered normal.
It was at that point that Minato noticed the others in the room and blushed.
Looking from Haku to his son Minato coughed into his hand.
"You must be Haku, the girl that my son wrote to us about. It's a pleasure to meat you, we have already set up a room for you and my wife will be showing you around the village while we discuses some things here. Both you and the Gennin are dismissed."
Naruto made a note of how Itachi had his eyes glued to Haku's ass as she walked past him, and the small smirk he saw on her face and sway she added to her hips when she saw him looking.
Just as they were about to leave the room Minato called out to his wife and daughter.
"And no ramen"
They could all hear the two Namikaze women grumbling as the door shut behind them. Putting on his serious face, Minato looked at the three jonnin in front of him.
"From the sword on your back, I can only assume Zabuza is dead, you didn't say much in your letter apart from you were bringing a girl from the Yuki clan back with you."
It took the three of them an hour before they had finished the debriefing, starting with Kurenai's first encounter with the Demon brothers and ending with Itachi's slaughter of Gato and his army of thugs.
Other then the odd question here and there Minato didn't interrupt them, and after dismissing Kurenai he turned to the two teens.
"Thank you for going as back up on such short notice, I would have sent Tenzou along with you as well but he was out of the village at the time. Now there is something I would like to talk to you about. Itachi, as of now you are being removing from ANBU duty."
"What, but why?"
"Don't worry you did nothing wrong, I know you have been teaching team 7 ninjutsu and have been helping them when not on missions. They are without a doubt the most promising gennin team we have seen in years and I am making you their official joint jonnin sensei along with Naruto."
Looking at his father for a moment, Naruto sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk as Itachi took the other.
"Why?"
Letting out a sigh, Minato rubbed his eyes as a frown crossed his face.
"In two months the chunnin exam will be held here in Konoha. The council has nominated team 7 as their mandatory representative."
Both Naruto and Itachi's eyes widened at his words and the older Uchiha shot to his feet.
"That's insane; no matter how skilled they are they are still fresh out of the academy gennin!"
"Calm down Itachi, as I remember both you and my son where several years younger then they are now when you took your exams."
"They are not us; they aren't ready for such a responsibility!"
"You think I don't know that! I have no choice, the decision has been made!"
"Why them?"
Both turned to look at Naruto, who was by far the calmest in the room.
"Think about it, they have two of the "Konoha three" teaching them, Madoka's is a Jinjuriki and Sasuke is one of the last Uchiha. Hell you even have the Haruno girl learning under Tsunade, the 'Slug Princess'. They have the potential to be grate and you're having them run towards it instead of walking like most do. There is already talk of having you both as jonnin instructors again when they are finished learning under you. I'm not saying what you are doing is a bad thing, but it got a lot of people attention. The fact that the chunnin exam is being held in the Leaf was just the icing on the cake."
Nodding his head as Itachi sat back down, the white haired boy thought for a moment.
"Its fine, if the council has decided then there is nothing we can do but prepare them. I'm sure that between myself and Crow we can have them up to scratch in two months."
Nodding his head reluctantly, Itachi got a contemplative look on his face as he turned to Naruto.
"So how are he going to start, other then stepping up their physical body conditioning and maybe teaching them a few new Jutsu I don't really know what else we can do that we aren't already doing?"
Before Naruto could say anything Minato spoke.
"I've already talked to Tsunade, she isn't happy about it but she agreed to step up Sakura's training so you don't need to worry too much about her because she is training to be a Mad-nin."
Nodding their heads at his words, Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out the scroll he had sealed his chokuto into.
"I always thought it would be cool to teach Madoka swordsmanship, though I was going to wait another couple of months. Now that I have Kubikiri Bōchō I was planning on giving her my old chokuto anyway, it will just be a little sooner then I had planned."
Nodding his head, Itachi thought for a moment.
"There is a second way that an Uchiha can unlock their sharingan without a life or death situation, it will be hard but I think Sasuke can do it, when he has unlocked it I can start to teach him how to control it."
The decisions made, Minato dismissed the two young jonnin and turned back to his paperwork with tears in his eyes.
"It bigger then ever!"
XXX
Over the next month and a half team 7 trained themselves into the ground.
Naruto and Itachi had told them the day after they had returned to the village and although they were nervous, it was still a great honour to be chosen by the council. There would be other teams from the Leaf, older and more experienced, but the fact that they had been singled out from the rest was something the three gennin were proud of.
It also meant they would have a target painted on their backs the moment the exam started, something that both Itachi and Naruto had made sure they understood.
Sakura was quickly becoming an increasable Medic from what Tsunade had told them, her natural control over her chakra and her thirst for knowledge making the profession the perfect choice for the pink haired girl.
Although he didn't tell Naruto how, Itachi had been able to get Sasuke to unlock his Sharingan and his training had been progressing wonderfully.
Madoka had been ecstatic to learn swordsmanship from Naruto and had hugged him so hard she almost broke a few of his ribs when he had given her his old chokuto. Sometime she was too much like their mother for his liking. Ever since she had first held the sword Madoka had all but slept with it, using all her spear time to practice so she could be as good as her brother.
They still did team training, and Naruto made sure that they didn't fall behind in their physical training while Itachi had started to teach them a few more advanced Jutsu, including the Hidden Mist Jutsu.
Naruto had finally had them move on with their Awareness training to learning how to use it outside the mist and although it was hard, they were getting the hang of it quickly after using it so often. Naruto had said that the next step would be getting them to use it subconsciously.
By the time the chunnin exams came around they were sure the three young gennin would be ready for almost anything thrown at them.
Haku had settled into the village easily and by the end of the first month everyone treated her like she had lived there her whole life. She, Naruto and Madoka had built up a sibling boned that was so strong that if someone had just met them they would be fooled into think the here had known each other for years.
They had told her about what had happened to Naruto, and to say she was pissed was an understatement. Her temper had been so much like Kushina's that both Naruto and Minato had cowered away from her on pure reflex.
Naruto had taught Haku a few of his Jutsu, including his Ice Wolf Jutsu and she had taught him her Demonic Mirror Jutsu.
There was also the fact that ever since her first week in Konoha both Haku and Itachi had been flirting every time they saw each other and had even started dating a few weeks before the Chunnin Exam was going to start.
It could be worse Naruto had reasoned, at least he trusted Itachi.
XXX
Walking down the street with Kubikiri Bōchō set firmly on his back, Naruto was enjoying his first day off since they had returned from Wave. The exam started at the end of the week and both he and Itachi had agreed to let the three gennin have a rest before the exam, along with themselves.
He had just stopped to look at one of the posters advertising the Chunnin Exam, his Awareness down for the first time in weeks when he felt someone bump into his back, sending whoever it was to the ground.
Turning to see who had walked into him the white haired boy was met with an angry faced red headed girl with dark skin and yellow eyes.
XXX
Before anyone asked about Kiba, he is argent and brash, which is why that happened in this chapter, he will straiten out later on in the story.
R&R :)