Naruto sat in a self-induced solitary confinement at the top of his rocky home overlooking the palisade that was created by the flowing young river just below him. Behind him the quickly fading sun marked the passing of another day in the misty islands.

"Tomorrow is your birthday isn't it Naruto?"

Naruto looked down to his pink haired companion below him, working on her archery skills.

"Yeah it is why?"

Sakura walked over to where Naruto was sitting quietly, and set down he bow.

"Well because I got you a present, and I thought I could give it to you tonight"

Naruto smiled softly,

"You know that you didn't have to get me anything."

Sakura smiled and handed Naruto a small plain box. Naruto smiled in turn and took the small box from her hand while murmuring,

"Thank you Sakura"

Opening the box slowly Naruto and saw fine silver chain sitting in the bottom of the box. Naruto picked it up and set the box down on the rock next to him, admiring the fine silvery chain.

Sakura plopped down on the rock next to him looking at him expectantly. Trying, and failing, to contain her excitement she burst out.

"It's a chain that you can put your rings on and wear them, that way you'll never accidentally loose them ever again. Its even silver so it should match the cloak and stuff that you where all the time"

Reaching into her pocket, she withdrew the familiar box that Naruto kept his rings in.

"Kakashi took your packs from the room saying that it was supposed to be evidence or something like that so I couldn't get all of your stuff, but I was able to get these out without him noticing."

Naruto reached over and took the small box. Sending another quiet smile towards Sakura. Slowly sliding it open, he took the two rings into his hand and threaded the carefully onto the silvery chain.

Sakura grabbed the two ends of the chain and wrapped them around Naruto's neck before securing the two ends of the chain together. Wrapping her arms around the boy, she pulled him in for a brief hug, while whispering,

"Happy Birthday Naruto-kun"

Naruto hesitantly returned the hug and whispered back,

"Thank you Sakura-chan"

--

Naruto sat quietly on the top of the bluff that Haku had shown him several nights ago, beside a small warm fire, staring dolefully at the waning moon. Opening his cloak he withdrew the chain that Sakura had given him earlier that afternoon. It was the first day in almost a week that he had not spent the evening with his new friend Haku, and honestly he felt a little lonely, he had become rather comforted by her presence. Tucking the rings back inside his cloak Naruto looked up to check on the fish he had roasting beside the fire, only to meet the gaze of a familiar old monk.

The monk gave his slightly disconcerting smile,

"Tomorrow is the tenth you know, an important day for this world. In 732 the Battle of Tours took place, in 1631 Prague fell to a Saxon army, 1931 Woodrow Wilson blew the Gamboa Dike ending the construction of the Panama Canal, in 1970 Fiji became independent, the Celtics of old would have been celebrating Michelmas, in 2012 the predictions based on the VA 243 cylinder seal proved correct and the 12th planet entered into alignment causing a disruption that triggered the Mayan prophesized apocalypse, then in 978 the Kyuubi attacked your village and you were born. A lot has happened on October 10th throughout history."

Naruto eyed the old man, not sure if he was simply crazy, or if he actually knew what he was talking about.

The man just smiled knowingly,

"You don't believe me do you? Nonetheless it really doesn't matter to me if you believe me or not. It's not my job to convince you of anything, I'm only here to remember everything and to deliver bits of information here and there when I see fit, for instance."

The monk reached into his robes and pulled out a small black leather bound book of some sort.

"Two thousand some odd years ago, a man then known as Amaranth wrote,

-October 10th 2012

I found a Dog carcass in an alley this morning, a tire tread on its burst stomach. This world is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "save us!"... And I'll look down and whisper "no."

They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father, or President Truman. Decent men who believed in a day's work for a day's pay. Instead, they followed the droppings of lechers and communists and didn't realize that the trail led them over the precipice until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice. Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth-talkers... and all of a sudden, nobody can think of anything to say.

And so it fell to us, to cleanse this world. So we will reseal the demons that were released. We will quell this rebellion and return the world to what it was meant to be.'

Naruto stared at the old monk,

"Did you say Amaranth?"

The old man looked up from the book,

"Yes, this is the journal of Amaranth, The Undying Flower"

Naruto stared at him slightly confused,

"Sakura spoke of that man once a while back, said he was part of some old legend, "The Reapers" or something like that"

The man smiled, with a slight twinkle in his eye,

"Did she now? I know I liked that girl for some reason."

Naruto waited for him to continue, but after a minute of silence he finally broke down and just asked the man,

"So who were the Reapers anyways?"

The man smiled,

"And so know we come to heart of the question don't we. Well let me explain the best that I can. It has been said that for everything that happens there are five questions that will give you any information that you would want to know about any given event, Who, What, Where, When and Why. What you have is simply a pair of men who were given a nickname, you know of one, Amaranth, but the other one has been forgotten. What you don't know is why they were forgotten or where and when the events of importance took place."

The man smiled gleefully at the young ninja in front of him,

"Unfortunately for you, I cannot tell you what happened."

Standing up, he dusted off his robes,

"But what I can tell you, is that if you live to see the end, it will all make sense."

Hearing the man finish speaking, Naruto thought about asking another question, but knew it was pointless; the man had already disappeared into the darkness.

Naruto finished his meal quickly and laid himself to rest down on the warm blanket that Haku had lent him.

As his eyes slowly drifted close, Naruto couldn't help but think

"That old Monk is the single most aggravating person I have ever met…"

--

Naruto had been asleep for several hours when a shadow crept up over the rocky summit and slunk towards him and his dwindling fire. As it breached the edge of the firelight, it crept even lower, trying not to cast a shadow across the sleeping child. Drawing closer the face of the shadow wrought wraith stayed hidden behind a white porcelain mask.

The wraith brought one of its shadowy appendages up and lightly caressed the whiskered boys face. Gently running the hand down to his chin, the wraith teased the mouth open just a bit, and inserted a small green pill into the child's mouth, lightly rubbing the throat to get the boy to swallow the pill, you could hear the shadow ethereally murmur,

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but I cannot let you be at the bridge tomorrow…"

As the shadow crept off back into the surrounding forests, a single slurred murmur stopped it in its tracks,

"Goodnight, Haku-chan…"

--

The next morning dawned with a burning red sun, glaring balefully down on the misty islands. Sakura was standing next to their client, Tazuna, staring back at the large red solar glare.

"Red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky in morning, sailor's take warning"

Sakura turned towards the older man standing next to her,

"What does that mean?"

Tazuna smirked,

"Your very smart Sakura, but you need to spend more time with people. That was just an old sailor's quote. Long before I was an engineer I was a deckhand on a ship. That was something that the old sailors, from before the days of steam powered boats used to say. They always swore that when you saw a red dawn, that a storm was going to hit sometime that day."

Sakura looked back at the red sky,

"So that's supposed to foretell of some storm then? That's kind of strange, there aren't too many clouds out there, and it doesn't smell like rain."

Tazuna frowned,

"Not all storms are made of rain and lightning Sakura…"

Kakashi and Sasuke made their way out of the front door and began walking towards the pair staring at the sunrise out in the distance.

"Is Naruto here yet?"

Sakura turned to look at her sensei,

"I haven't seen him, although he normally meets us at the bridge, not here."

Kakashi just nodded,

"Ok then, we'll make our way to the bridge"

--

The four ninja's made there way towards the bridge just as the sun was beginning to fully break over the horizon, basking the entire island in its warm glow. Now that autumn was beginning to set in, the mornings on the island were growing cooler, leaving a damp chill that froze you to the bone. As the sun came up though it would normally break this low cloud of mist and take the bite out of the chill. Today seemed to be an exception to the rule though.

"This mist is unusually cold today Kakashi-san, do you think its because of one of those ninjas?"

Kakashi looked over to Tazuna who made the postulation.

"Not likely, its simple for a ninja to make something hot. The flow of energy to something always makes it warm; similarly chakra causes the creation of heat. Cold however is significantly more difficult, because you either have to make an endothermic reaction that takes energy away, or find a way to pull heat away. Normally people use wind to make it cold, but wind would be easy to see in a mist like this, so my guess is that this mist is a natural occurrence."

Tazuna looked at the strange man out of the corner of his eye,

"Couldn't you of just said no?"

Kakashi shrugged, his eyes never leaving the orange book in front of his face. Truth be told, he was also trying to figure out this fog, it felt too cold for the warm sun that he could see now well above the horizon.

'This doesn't make sense to me. This fog is obviously not natural, but I've never felt it this cold before. Some people used advanced wind techniques to mimic the joules-Thompson effect that could cool down the air, but you needed highly pressurized air to make that effect, which meant that air would have to be moving around. Which as the problem, there was NO air movement, everything was dead still, but he could still feel the temperature begin to slowly decline. He hadn't given Tazuna such a long answer because he wanted to talk to the man, but because reasoning out loud helped to reassure the man that his careful planning would still work out today. It had to.

Sasuke caught his eye, and using the small movements of the Anbu sign language he signed,

"Where is the Demon? This won't work if he's not here."

Kakashi, silently signing with his left hand, the one not holding his book replied,

"Keep calm, Sakura said he will meet us at the bridge"

Silently adding on in his mind,

'He had better show up… I have waited far to long to see this day come'

--

With an audible groan, the blonde haired boy on the top of his rocky summit, rolled off and out of his blankets and towards the warm fire. Coughing deeply, he forced himself into a sitting position. Staring at the already risen sun, he tried to jump to his feet, only to barely rock forward.

'Dammit! Why today, I can barely move, I feel like my body is filled with lead'

Thought Naruto angrily, for some reason, all his muscles were weak and sluggish, and his mind felt clouded, as though someone had struck him with a hammer in the dead of night. However he knew that wasn't the case, hammers had hit him in the past, and none affected him this heavily.

Fighting heartily against his body, he forced himself to his knees and began arduously strapping his tough black leather vest with knives around his torso. After several minutes of battling his lethargic and unresponsive fingers, he finally managed to get all the buckles secured.

Reaching to his other side, he pulled his heavy black cloak around himself to help ward off the cold that was creeping into him, further slowing his already dull movements. Fastening the top few buckles to keep the cloak drawn taught around his shoulders. Reaching into a pocket on the inside of the cloak he withdrew a small syringe and injected a small amount of a clear substance into his arm. One of the things a traveling medic had taught him long ago, was that almost every poison to work, it required the liver and other organs to break it down, such as how methanol is converted into its deadly byproduct, formaldehyde, which is what actually kills you. Luckily, or unluckily as it may be, the body has an odd function of breaking down ethanol or regular alcohol, before it would break down anything else. So as long as he dosed himself with the mixture of water and ethanol every couple of minutes and drank gratuitous amounts of water, most of the poison should be flushed from his system much quicker. So to start his metabolism he ate the remnants of his previous nights dinner and began a slow march down towards Tazuna's house.

It took him an hour or so to reach the home, but at least by the time he did, he was moving at the speed of a normal person. Not quite up to a ninja's standard, but at least he didn't look like he was at the edge of death. Walking through the back door to the kitchen he slid the door open to find a startled looking Tsunami holding a frying pan as if it was a baseball bat. Seeing the small blonde boy standing in the door, she dropped the pan with a loud clatter and rushed the boy engulfing him in a motherly hug.

"Naruto-kun, I was so worried when you didn't come back, and then the last day, everyone has been acting like they were on their death bed."

Naruto grimaced,

"Yeah well they're expecting an attack down at the bridge today, I was hoping to be able to meet up with them here, because something is wrong with me. I think someone got me with a poison sometime yesterday."

Tsunami grabbed him by his shoulders and immediately began looking him over to see if he was sick.

"Oh my God, are you ok? Is this something you should see your Sensei about?"

Naruto scowled,

"No that bastard wouldn't care anyways. Besides, I've got it down to it being bearable, so I should be ok. I don't think they were trying to kill me, just to keep me incapacitated for the day. Luckily, poisons don't usually affect me very seriously, and with my treatments I should be better within an hour or so."

Tsunami nodded her head, but maintained eye contact with the young blonde in front of her. Seeing that she wasn't really going to say anything, Naruto started talking again.

"Where's Inari hiding?"

As the words left his mouth, he heard a clatter at the front door and Inari came rushing in like a bat out of hell. Quickly diving behind his mother he called out.

"Gato's thugs are here to kill us!"

Tsunami dropped down and enveloped her child trying to protect him from the pair of thugs that just burst through the kitchen door. Naruto turned to face them, and slowly began walking towards them. Inari seeing this called out,

"Naruto! What are you doing! If you try to fight them they'll kill you"

Naruto, his face set in stone replied,

"I'm doing what you and the rest of this island should have done long ago."

As Naruto slowly stalked towards the two thugs standing at the other end of the long kitchen, he recognized them as the pair he met at Haku's home just several days before.

"I warned you once and let you go, this time I will rectify that mistake"

Stretching his arm out to his side, his scythe slowly appeared in his hand, starting like a blurry vision, and it slowly became solid. It took him quite a while to perfect that, but for dramatics he thought it invoked more fear into his enemies. As the scythe was slowly appearing, he began the hand sign for another new technique he created.

"kaguroi Kiri no Jutsu "(Deep Black Mist technique) he spoke in a quiet tone. As he walked, a dark, impenetrable black mist slowly enveloped the room, blocking all light from its midst. From within this darkness, Inari and his mother heard the screams of whatever poor men had attacked their home.

Seeing the mist fading, Tsunami began looking around. Soon she could make out Naruto's silvery knives as he stowed something inside of his black cloak. Looking down, she expected to see the bodies of the two men who broke into her home, but she was surprised to see not a single speck out of place on her floor.

Naruto walked back to the pair who were still huddled in the corner, dropping down to their level he put a hand on Inari's shoulder and got the boy's attention.

"I wise man once told me "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible." You dream for a peaceful life every night Inari, I can see it in your eyes. But unless someone makes an effort to make that dream a reality, it will never come true. No one will hand you your dream on a silver platter, sometimes you're going to have to fight tooth and nail for it. The truth is that everyone here has that wish, that single glowing ember that could ignite the fire, but if no one is willing to feed it, it will never come true"

Standing up, Naruto began his slow still slightly awkward gait towards the front door.

"I'm going to go try to fight with your grandfather to help fulfill that dream Inari, hopefully I won't be the only one."

--

Heading down towards the docks, Kakashi called for his team to stop, less than a mile away from the bridge.

"We're going to wait up here to see if Naruto will catch up to us. This way even if he is at the bridge he will eventually double back to look for us. I don't want to go in there with anything less that a full team."

Sakura eyed the man warily. What he said did make sense, what bothered her is that he said it about Naruto. Since the day he had been placed in charge of team seven the man had never once gone out of his way to do anything for her blonde teammate. Which lead her to believe that there must be something a little fishy going on.

Looking over to Sasuke, she saw the boy make eye contact with her, before shrugging, which told her that he probably didn't know what was going on either.

Sighing she dejectedly took a seat next to Tazuna to wait for her wayward companion. Nearly a half hour had passed before they saw anything of interest when they finally say the rather distinct visage of Naruto making his way down the road. Seeing his party waiting near the edge of the road, Naruto made his way over to them

"Sorry I'm running late, someone…"

But unsurprisingly Kakashi cut him off.

"The reason for your tardiness is inconsequential, you knew that today was the probable day of an attack and you yet again disregarded your duties. I'll just add it to the list of infractions that I plan to bring up against you when we return to Konoha."

Naruto grimaced, he hadn't expected Kakashi to let him off the hook, but he was hoping to at least be able to finish his sentence.

Kakashi without saying another word stood up and began heading down the road, obviously intending for the rest to follow.

The group silently made their way down the last stretch of road towards the bridge. Sakura, noting the odd gait of Naruto's walk looked at him questioningly.

Naruto sensing her eyes quietly said,

"Someone got me with some sort of tranquilized yesterday. They must have somehow poisoned my food though, because I don't think I got stuck with anything. Most of the poison is gone, and I can use my chakra, but I can't quiet move at my normal speed. Without weights I'm maybe at what I was when we took the bell test"

Sakura grimaced, his speed during that test, while quick for a genin was nothing compared to what he displayed recently. If someone were to attack them today, they would be at a significant disadvantage.

Finally the outline of the first piers came into view as the group of five made their way to the start of the bridge. Looking out, the entire bridge was heavily clouded and the stench of blood permeated through the air.

Sakura almost screamed when she looked down to see she was standing in a pool of blood from some poor worker who decided to get to work a little early. By the time she looked up, the rest of her team was already getting into position around Tazuna as the mist broke a little and two ghastly wraiths walked forward.

As they drew closer Kakashi began talking to the group of genin,

"Ok here's the plan. I will take care of Zabuza, but Naruto and Sakura will be the ones to take out that unknown hunter. Sasuke, you stay back and wait for a signal before you do anything. Until then protect Tazuna, if he dies now, all our efforts will have been wasted."

Seeing Sasuke nod his head, Naruto called out to Kakashi,

"Kakashi, no disrespect, but Sakura is a long range fighter, wouldn't it make more sense to send in Sasuke and keep Sakura back to provide covering fire?"

Kakashi glared hard at Naruto,

"Sasuke is a far too valuable asset to toss needlessly in the way of fire. So you and Sakura will take the front line."

Kakashi's reasoning appalled Naruto because using that thought process he made Sakura and himself out to be nothing more than mere cannon fodder. Scowling he turned towards Sakura,

"Well we don't have much of a choice so here's the plan. I'll go in first because I stand the better chance in hand-to-hand combat, but you hang back and try to fire off some arrows. The problem we'll have is that the mist will be too thick for you to be able to see properly, so you'll have to stay fairly close, probably within 30 feet to be able to get a clear shot."

Sakura grimaced, that sort of distance didn't provide her with much cover. That and she was accustomed to attacking from a much greater distance, so she would have to modify her usual techniques to be of any use to her teammate. Nodding her head, she drew her bow and knocked an arrow, waiting for the show to kick off.

Kakashi eyed their opponents carefully; he knew that he could beat Zabuza this time around. He just had to make sure to fight the man this time.

--

Zabuza and the masked ninja looked at their opponents carefully. Both of them are silent although for completely different reasons.

Haku was almost in tears looking at the boy in front of her. Inside she was screaming,

'No! I gave him enough tranquilizers to keep him unconscious for two days. There's no way that Naruto-kun should be up and moving.'

Fighting down her unease she looked to her mentor and friend, Zabuza for instruction. They were up against a force of superior numbers so they would have to be careful.

Zabuza was staring at the group in front of him remembering what his old partner Kisame had told him all those years ago, when he aided Zabuza in escaping Kirigakure.

Kisame looked at the man below him, surrounded by hunter-nin. The man had already suffered multiple wounds and was moving sluggishly. Calling his samehada to his side, he leapt down, cleaving one of the hunters in two. He made short order of the remaining hunters until only he and the wounded man remained.

The wounded man dropped to one knee and look up at Kisame.

"Why did you save me Kisame? I know that the Kage is after my head and my sword."

Kisame looked down at the man.

"I just killed the daimyo, but that is irrelevant. I spared you because the Ancients have use of you Zabuza. So today we defied the shinigamis and spared your life. However it but a postponement of the inevitable. One day many years from now a demon disguised as a child will take your life, but until that day you will have to take care of someone that I hold dear."

Zabuza stared at the larger man with a confused look on his face,

"Who do I need to watch?"

Kisame just turned and began walking away,

"On a misty road to the north you'll find her on the edge of death, I would suggest that you hurry."

Looking at that blonde child standing across from him, Zabuza couldn't help but worry that this child may finally be that demon. He fought the child once, and was almost killed. Grimacing he turned to the side and looked towards the girl he had taken in as a child.

"Haku, if this fight goes south, I want you to run."

Haku's eyes went wide, they had gotten into plenty of tight spots in the past and Zabuza had never once said anything like that in the past.

"We will win Zabuza, we have to."

Zabuza turned back towards the group of five standing not more than twenty yards away. Not acknowledging the comment that Haku made.

"They're going to split up the group to fight us. I'll have to take Kakashi; he's way outside of your league. Most likely he'll send the two boys against you, they seem to be the close range fighters. Finally the girl would most likely stay back, she has a bow so you'll have to keep an eye out of arrows too."

Haku nodded her head showing she understood. Zabuza seeing the movement continued.

"Use it right away Haku, that blonde haired boy, he's not someone to trifle with. Do not let him use the hidden mist technique, the moment you lose sight of him, you will lose."

Haku stared at the boy across from her.

'I'm sorry Naruto…'

--

Kakashi drew a kunai and looked towards his team.

"Ok, GO!"

Both of the kids took off, straight at Haku. Naruto was able to run along side of Sakura without falling behind. Talking to her out the corner of his mouth he told her

"Ten more minutes and I should be back to normal. If we can keep safe till then, I'm sure we can win"

Sakura nodded her head.

"Ok, so for ten minutes we'll have to try to keep her at a distance. Once you can move at full speed, give me a signal and I'll back off to give you more room and I'll back you up from a distance."

Naruto nodded, they were almost at the target,

"Ok, so we play hit and run for the next ten minutes. Don't give her a chance to recover"

Kakashi took a moment before he took off to spare a glance at Sasuke,

"Stick to the plan Sasuke."

And he took off running, quickly passing his two students and making a beeline straight towards Zabuza. Naruto spared him a glance when he heard the tell tale sound of Zabuza's sword sweeping through the air, but he had to have some faith in Kakashi's skill. If he lost right away this time, they were dead.

Swinging his head back forwards, he spotted the hunter in front of them suddenly jump backwards throwing several senbons needles towards him and his partner. Following their training the two split ways so that they would not make an easy target for the hunter-nin's senbons needles.

Naruto drew a few of his older throwing knives that he still kept on the inside of his cloak and placed two into each hand. The biggest problem that he had is that he only carried ten throwing knives, his six fighting knives that Yamato had given him and his scythe. He knew Sakura carried only ten kunai knives and maybe twenty or so shuriken. Her real abilities lied in her archery abilities, but since Kakashi placed her on the back lines, that really made no difference now.

Seeing an opening he let one of the blades in his left hand fly straight towards his targets torso. While at the same time Sakura let a pair of shuriken go straight towards the masked hunter.

The hunter ducked down and kicked back, avoiding all three of the flying blades, but now that she was on the defense it gave Sakura and Naruto an advantage. As long as they could keep her moving, she would be less likely to retaliate.

Naruto, seeing a window of opportunity made the hand sign for Kirigakure no jutsu to cover his movements. Pushing chakra into the technique, he was confused when the air started clearing. Sakura apparently saw his confusion, taking a moment to throw another shuriken at the enemy she turned towards Naruto calling out,

"What's wrong Naruto? Are you somehow clearing this mist?"

Naruto shook his head and called back, while simultaneously letting another one of his knives go flying towards their target.

"No. The water in the air isn't responding properly. No matter how much chakra I put into it the energy won't evaporate."

Sakura looked troubled, if Naruto wasn't able to cover his tracks, they lost yet another significant advantage. Trying to figure out how to change their luck Sakura called back.

What about that other mist technique that you were working on?"

Naruto shook his head and grabbed already thrown shuriken off the cement of the bridge and threw it at the target before responding,

"No good, I still need water to use that technique and it takes more chakra. So if I can't get the first to work, there is no way that anything else like it would work."

Sakura nodded while letting a kunai go flying before making a few hand signs and yelling,

"Kage Kunai no jutsu" The single kunai multiplied into around thirty knives all flying straight towards the hunter. While the kunai were in flight Naruto yelled over to her,

"Eight more minutes"

Turning their attention back towards the flying knives, Naruto was waiting for the hunter to try dodging to one side or the other, because as soon as she did, he a knife waiting for her. Right before the knives should of made contact with the hunter the heard a loud clinking noise and all but the original knife puffed out of existence.

Jumping back, Naruto was surprised to see a large block of ice standing in front of the hunter, which acted like a shield to protect her from harm. The ice seemed to be thin enough that they were able to see through it, that or the ninja was actually encased within the ice, which seemed highly improbable.

Naruto was completely unprepared to see the ice explode and go flying like a hundred little knives straight towards his teammate. Pushing his speed to the maximum he summoned his scythe to his hand and began spinning it to block as many of the small blades as he could. Only a few small shards wormed their way through his defenses, one grazed his left shoulder, but the rest passed by him, where one struck Sakura in her left shin. It was painful at the moment and may slow her down a little, but nothing too serious.

Realizing it was foolish to let his focus shift off of his target, he looked back towards the hunter and saw she was making hand signs for another attack. Naruto looked back and realized that if whatever attack she was sending went towards Sakura, she would be unable to block it or dodge. Which meant that he would have to stay directly in front of her. The hunter now had the advantage again.

--

Haku was making hand signs as quickly as she possibly could. She knew that Naruto would most likely make this fight difficult, but watching him, she could see that his movements were still slower and slower to react than usual, so her sedatives must still be in his system, but he was recovering fast. Reaching the last sign in this particular sequence she almost let out an audible sigh of happiness. Naruto must of figured that this technique would be similar to the previous one I he was standing his ground without moving.

"Makyo Hyo Sho (Demonic Ice Mirrors)" Seeing her ice mirrors form in front of her, and around Naruto and his friend she stepped into them. At least now they were contained, with any luck she could still make it out of here without having to kill him.

--

Naruto was utterly confused, the hunter had finished making her signs, and he was ready to block or dodge anything, but all that happened was a large pane of glass like ice formed in front of him. Looking around him he could see similar panels all around him, glancing up he saw a few above him too. And they all had a hunter in them…

"Shit Sakura, we just got trapped…"

Sakura who was now backing up after getting the ice like knife removed looked around her and inspected the mirrors.

"Well that would explain why you couldn't use your mist techniques"

Naruto was about to comment on that, but it seemed that the hunter was interested in entering this conversation.

In a voice that was slightly lower and harsher from how Haku normally spoke, she butted into the conversation.

"You are correct shinobi-san, I control all water almost absolutely so there is no chance that your friends mist like techniques could possible work against me. If anything his trying to call up a mist aided me by gathering more water that I could easily used."

Naruto frowned, if he had just left things alone that ninja would have had a harder time getting those mirrors, but he foolishly kept pushing more chakra into a technique that wasn't working.

Glancing at his watch, he made a mental note and made a few hand signals towards his teammate.

'6 more minutes, try to keep her talking'

Sakura twitched her hand in response, agreeing with what he said and quickly addressing the hunter.

"Why are you helping a demon like Zabuza, He's trying to kill a perfectly good man that is trying to fight against Gato"

The hunter just hung her head a little responding,

"Why I am helping Zabuza and why we are doing this are two entirely different reasons. Suffice to say I help Zabuza because he has done more for me than any other person ever has. But this mission is just one of necessity, we need money, and Gato has plenty. Unlike ninja from a village, we cannot be picky about what we agree to do."

Naruto nodded, he had heard many other missing or roaming ninja that he met traveling express the same sentiments. Not being from a ninja, work didn't come every day, so when something came their way, they had to take it.

Naruto seeing a possible answer to their problem called out to her,

"You could always join Konoha you know? I know the Hokage and anyone with your talents would be welcomed"

Surprisingly the hunter laughed at the offer.

"Why would I want to join a den of snakes? That village is doomed and they don't even see it. They crossed the precipice of no return the day they started damning children."

Naruto grimaced, that idea was shot and he still had to find a way to burn a few more minutes. Sakura had apparently also seen the problem and was attempting to think of something else to stall the time before the hunter broke the silence.

"Enough stalling, I have a job to finish. I haven't failed a job in seven years and I refuse to start failing now."

Bringing his scythe around as quickly as possible, Naruto threw the bladed weapon with all his considerable strength at the mirror directly in front of him. The weapon imbedded itself several inches into the ice before it finally came to a stop. The hunter-nin in that mirror stuck its head out and inspected the weapon in shock.

--

Haku couldn't believe what just happened. Even Zabuza had never pierced her ice mirrors before; in fact most weapons broke if they hit the ice as hard as that scythe just did. She was even more surprised that when she went to touch the scythe, it just puffed right out of existence.

Looking back down at the two young ninjas trapped in her ice, she couldn't help but wonder,

'What are you hiding Naruto-kun?'

--

2 days travel away in Konoha the old Hokage was shuffling his way back towards his office, as the sun was almost ready to rice over the top of the monument. Looking up at his office he was surprised to see the light already on, with a somewhat familiar looking young man standing at the window looking out.

'Damn… and it was going to be suck a lovely day too…'

Taking a leisurely stroll up the stairs to his office, he walked through the already opened door and sat down at his desk listening to the music that was playing from another black box. Waiting started paying attention to the music, it had a simple background of what he believed to be primarily violins, but a man was singing loudly over all them. He could not tell exactly what the man was singing about, but given his passion and tone, he loved it very much. The 'opera' as Itachi or Orpheo as he called himself had called it years ago dipped quietly and then rose to a moving and powerful ending, complete with a full symphony. It was cut off rather abruptly after the peak by Orpheo pressing a button on the box.

"What was the name of that piece Orpheo? I admit it was quiet moving."

Itachi smiled at the old man,

"You may call me Itachi if you wish to Hokage-sama. I understand that it must be a little confusing for you. The song that you just heard is named Nessun Dorma written by Puccini who started writing in 1920 and finished in 1924. He named the entire opera Turandot, but that aria is the most famous piece in it. He spent years trying to figure out how to finish his last few parts of the duet, but never did. So I offered him my help, and wrote the last few lines about a story that only the ancients, Titus and an old Taoist monk know of. It translates to something like this in your language

Nobody shall sleep!...

Nobody shall sleep!

Even you, o Princess,

In your cold room,

Watch the stars,

That tremble with love and with hope.

But my secret is hidden within me,

My name no one shall know...

No!...No!...

On your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.

And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!...

(No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.)

Vanish, o night!

Set, stars! Set, stars!

At dawn, I will win! I will win! I will win!"

The old man looked at the older, yet obviously younger man sitting across from him.

"I doubt you came here just to share some random trivia about an old song with me. I assume there is something of greater importance?"

Itachi just smiled as he pocketed the black box.

"Of course, I have come to tell you that you have been betrayed…"

Several hours later a shocked and rather confused Hokage sat back with a lit pipe staring in disbelief at the man across from him.

"So there is nothing I can do?"

The man just shook his head solemnly,

"There was nothing any of us could do. Konoha sat alone on a precipice of absolute power for so long that inevitably your own government became corrupt, and they managed to keep you out of the loop."

The old man rested his head in his hands as Itachi placed yet another black box on his desk.

"I'm afraid I have to meet up with my associate, Leporello so I leave you with another gift. Requiem Mass in D Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart written in 1791, better known as 'Lacrimosa' or weeping."

Finished with what he came to do, Orpheo stood up and walked out the office door. Right past the two Anbu guards who never even acknowledged his existence.

Sarutobi sat dead silent staring at the box right in front of him. Listening to the sad song. He set down his pipe and stared dejectedly outside of his window.

"I may not be able to win this fight to come, but I can at least make sure that they do not either."

As he stared out the window, his assistant poked her head in and said quietly,

"Hokage-sama, your advisors and Danzo are here to see you, should I let them in?"

Pulling his hat down over his eyes, he stooped to pick up the pipe,

"Yes, feel free to let them in a moment. Give me just a minute to clean up here"

The secretary nodded,

"As you wish Hokage-sama"

Sitting down he poured a glass of water and collected himself. It was time for him to start playing the game again. The first thing he had to do, was see who was still on his team…

-

Zabuza stared at Kakashi who had only taken a couple of minor cuts here and there.

"You seem to be more focused this time around Kakashi?"

Kakashi just eye smiled,

"Of course, that's because I'm actually fighting this time around."

Zabuza raised a non-existent eyebrow,

"And why would you not take a fight with me seriously?"

Kakashi smiled at his enemy,

"Sometimes you have to throw a fight to win the war Zabuza"

Zabuza pondered what his enemy said for a minute before rushing forward with his large sword for another skirmish. His long blade was handy for attacking large groups, but it made individuals a little more difficult, especially ones as slippery as Kakashi was. Forcing the masked man back, he took a gamble and swung a leg around for a kick. Unfortunately Kakashi's eye made his taijutsu absolutely useless. Jumping back the eyed his opponent warily.

"What do you say we take this up a notch Kakashi?"

With that he made a single hand sign and the mist thickened even more to the point that it was impossible to see more than a foot in any direction.

Sighing, Kakashi dropped into a ready stance and closed his sharingan eye.

'No point in wasting chakra' he told himself.

--

Naruto and Sakura had spent the last several minutes doing their best to avoid as many of the needles as possible. They had long ago both abandoned all their weights in hoped for being able to dodge better, but it didn't make much of a difference.

"Its like she attacks from everywhere at once… I don't know how to counter this"

Naruto groaned as he pulled another needle from his arm. His fast healing at least allowed the wounds to close in a matter of seconds once the needles were removed, but they still hurt. He didn't even want to think what Sakura was going through.

"If we can hold out for another two minutes I have a technique that may get us out of here, but I need to have my full speed and chakra control to do it."

Turning to face Sakura, he saw in slow motion as a pair of heavy senbon needles into Sakura's neck. She sat stunned for a moment, before light faded from her eyes and she fell silently towards the ground.

Rushing to her side, Naruto managed to catch her just before she impacted the ground. He sat shocked staring at his sole friend's lifeless body.

"Sakura-chan?" He asked weakly "Sakura-chan you need to stand up"

Haku stared at the sad sight, her heart breaking in two.

"I'm sorry for your loss. She was a good fighter. She stood by your side even though she knew it wasn't the smartest thing to do. Friends like that are rare in this world. I will always remember her, you said her name was Sakura?"

Naruto was shaking with rage, he felt power surge through his veins, he looked up fully intending to rip his enemy to pieces with his bare hands, but then the world went black.

--

Naruto found himself staring at a familiar black door, reaching forward he grabbed the handle and ripped the door open, coming face to face with the seal of the Kyuubi that he remembered seeing as a child. Walking up to the seal he could see red spots appearing on the large blue ball as the force within fought for dominance, he was about to try to pull more of that power out to kill the hunter when a voice behind him suddenly spoke.

"Now we can't do to have that old fox escaping now can we?"

A bright like of blue chakra flew past him and connected to the sphere, pushing the red tainted chakra back to the core, where it was once again overtaken by the blue chakra that swirled around inside of the sphere.

Naruto spun around to see a familiar black cloak; he had seen it in his dreams before. The man stood at least six and half feet tall, with long pin straight silvery hair and silvery blue eyes staring down at him.

"So you are the newest ancient?"

Naruto stared dumbfounded, he had been in many different dreams and such during the past few years, but there was never anyone else in the dreams with him. This was completely unprecedented.

"Who are you?" He asked rather timidly

The taller man smiled at him,

"You make call me Amarius I suppose and you and I will be getting to know one another very well. But right now, I believe your best friend just died."

--

As Naruto's eyes reopened he could see chakra swirling around him in a vortex.

'Blue' he thought to himself in amusement as he watched the energy swirl past him. Setting down his friend carefully, he slowly removed all the needles from her body that he could see and closed her eyes.

Standing up, he faced the mirror that he originally stuck his scythe into. He spoke in a cold articulate manner to make sure that his enemy heard him clearly.

"You killed my friend hunter. So now I will kill you. Equivalent exchange"

Haku shuddered in her mirror, that wasn't Naruto's normal warm voice. This once promised pain and death.

Naruto began focusing more of his chakra into his hands as he began talking again.

"Congratulations Hunter, I had intended to show my newest technique to Sakura when I put the final touches on is, but it seems I have a use for it today. Your shields barely stopped my scythe, am I correct? So I wonder how they will stand up to this?"

Hearing the bold statement from Naruto, Haku pushed as much of her energy into maintaining her mirrors as she could. At this level the could easily withstand A-rank fire jutsus, she could only hope that Naruto was bluffing.

Naruto swung his arms around while yelling his newest technique

"Ninpo: Juu Kenbue no jutsu"(Ten Swords Dance) as he yelled that, ten perfect strands of chakra flew from his hands and met Haku's mirrors. The mirrors resisted for a moment, before the long string like blades cleaved through the ice as a hot knife would through butter.

Fleeing from her mirror that was being cut into five pieces by the string in Naruto's left she took haven in a mirror behind him, still trying to put her mirror together, but to no avail. Naruto's blades continually cleaved through them.

Seeing a string suddenly impact her mirror, she tried to jump out, only to be caught around the waist by one of Naruto's strings.

"I found you!" Screamed Naruto is a cold tell tale voice. Wrapping several other strings around her, he yanked hard.

Haku, seeing him pull on the strings expected to be cleaved into pieces just like her mirrors, but it seemed that Naruto had a different plan. She felt a strong tug around both her arms and waist and three strings yanked her hard straight towards Naruto. He pulled back his other hand, while simultaneously wrapping her legs and all her extremities together so there was o chance of escape. As she drew close he threw his right arm as hard as possible and crudely punched her in the face, shattering the porcelain mask and throwing her right through the mirror he just pulled her free of.

Haku impacted the mirror and felt several of her ribs break on contact with the hard ice. Skidding across the ground till she finally rolled to stop she groaned. She had lost several fights in her life, mostly to Zabuza during training, but she had never been beat to such a degree. She knew now that her life was forfeit. Feeling her body being pulled back upright into a standing position raising her head, she looked up to face the man who was about to kill her.

Naruto was rushing forward, his scythe already summoned in his hands, fully intending to end the fight with this blow. When he was feet from the hunter he saw her raise her head just as he was about to bring the scythe around and end the hunters knife. Seeing the hunter's face he stopped, only a foot away and dropped his scythe.

"Haku?…"

--

Kakashi was dancing around Zabuza's large sword, gracefully twirling around to avoid the blade, while simultaneously throwing kunai and small jutsus at him. As he was in mid swing he felt a huge power surge behind him that felt absolutely horrifying. Zabuza couldn't help but thing,

'And the demon rises'

Apparently though the disturbance was enough to cause Kakashi glance to the side, missing the sword that took a long relatively deep slice into his left triceps, jumping back he applied pressure to the wound.

Within moments the dark energy completely evaporated, but a new, equally powerful being took its place. Both fighters looked over at the mirrors of ice that Haku had formed a little while back in shock as long blue rope like blades suddenly protruded from the ice and began slicing them into pieces.

Kakashi turned back to face Zabuza, and strategically placed himself in between Zabuza and the mirrors. Not too far behind Kakashi were Sasuke and Tazuna.

'Perfect' was all that went through Kakashi's mind as he regained Zabuza's attention.

"Its time to end this fight Zabuza, you've fulfilled your purpose, so now its time for you to die."

Zabuza was about to reply when he saw Kakashi fly through hand signs far faster than he had for any previous techniques and yelled,

"Kuchiyose: Tsuiga no Jutsu" five large dogs flew out of the ground and bit deep into Zabuza's arms and legs effectively holding them in place. Kakashi began running through a few more hand signs before grabbing his right wrist in his left hand and pumping a ridiculous amount of chakra into it. He yelled back to Sasuke

"Now Sasuke!" Looking back towards Zabuza he yelled out "Raikiri (Lightning edge, and honestly if you don't know this one…)

A huge ball of lighting crackled alive in Kakashi's hand. Zabuza had heard of this technique, it was said to be an ultimate assassination technique, only the fourth Hokage had ever beaten it. Bracing himself for death he was surprised when he saw Kakashi spin on his heel and race towards Haku who he could see being suspended up by Naruto's strings, as they stood only a foot or two apart.

Zabuza was about to yell a warning to Haku when he saw another form drop into view, blocking Haku from view. Looking up he saw a child with deep red eyes glaring at him flying through hand seals. The child's black hair spread out in the wind from the chakra he was compressing in his mouth. Staring into the eyes of the child he almost laugh aloud.

"You look like a demon," he muttered as Sasuke yelled

"Katon Ryuuka no Jutsu!" and blew out a huge steady stream of fire poured down towards Zabuza.

Zabuza looked past the flames streaming towards him in a chance to see the small girl he had helped to raise one last time before he was sent to hell by this demon. Looking at her his heart almost stopped there. Kakashi was standing directly in front of her, a look of shock on her blood-covered face, as Kakashi callously threw her off the side of the bridge into the raging waters below

"I'm sorry Haku," he murmured as the hot flames engulfed him completely.

From a distance a tall figure in a black robe carrying a large wrapped object on his back spoke sadly as a mob approached behind him.

"And so passes Momochi Zabuza, Demon of Mists. Life was far too cruel to you my old friend." And the man disappeared in a blink of an eye. He couldn't stay too long; he still had more business to attend to that day.

--

Naruto was staring at the girl he had come to know so well who was standing across from him bound in his blades of energy.

"Why Haku-chan…"

Naruto sounded like he was on the verge of tears, as he likely was.

Haku had tears streaming down her face,

"I'm sorry Naruto, I really didn't want to. I tried to stall but I had to do something or Zabuza was going to die…"

Naruto stared directly into the girl's eyes as the strings slowly began to fade away.

"I can't kill you Haku-chan."

Haku was about to say something when she saw his sensei running at them from behind with his signature technique flaring alive in his right hand.

"You may not have to Naruto," She said with a small sad smile, knowing that Kakashi was about to kill her for him to save his pupil the experience

Closing her eyes she waited for death. Sure enough a second later she felt blood spray across her face. Opening her eyes she lost her breath, and if a few of Naruto's remaining strings hadn't been holding her up she surely would have fallen to her knees.

Naruto was standing in front of her, with Kakashi's arm sticking straight through his chest, where his lungs ought to have been. Kakashi yanked his arm back with a disgusting squelching noise and Naruto slumped forward into Haku's waiting arms.

Haku looked up and stared at Kakashi, she heard him say coldly,

"Your time is up demon. I tried time and time again to get you killed, I even tried to get you kicked out of the village, but you just wouldn't fucking die. But even you need lungs to breath"

He grabbed the back of Naruto's cloak, and since Haku was still tangled up in Naruto she came with as he threw them over the edge, and into the oceans waiting arms.

--

Sakura's eyes cracked open as she heard someone running past her. Last thing she remembered Naruto was talking to her, and suddenly everything when black. Looking back she could see Sasuke strike Tazuna, knocking him out and then running towards Zabuza as Kakashi sprinted towards Naruto and ran that ball of lightning right through his chest. Seeing this her eyes widened in shock, but given her already precarious health, she blacked out in shock falling back to the cold wet cement of the bridge.

Kakashi turned around and noted the burning corpse of Zabuza lying on the ground; his dogs had long since gone back to their domain. Smiling he walked back towards Tazuna and applied a minor healing jutsu to his head, quickly awakening him from his unconsciousness.

Tazuna sat up a little dazed,

"What happened?"

Kakashi, lying through his teeth filled him in.

"You got hit by a stray bit of ice from Naruto destroying those panels of ice. The hunter was about to kill him so I tried to get to him in time to save him, but I couldn't get there fast enough. I did manage to kill the hunter. Sasuke used a fire technique to kill Zabuza. Your bridge is saved"

Tazuna didn't know if he should smile or cry, his prized bridge was saved from the missing-nins but it had cost that boy his life.

Looking around he commented,

"Where's Sakura?"

Sasuke called out from behind them,

"She's over here, looks like the hunter knocked her unconscious."

Kakashi smiled,

"Well at least she made it out ok" But he was seething on the inside, 'That bitch wasn't supposed to of survived, now how am I going to get rid of her'

As the mist from Zabuza's techniques cleared Kakashi heard a chuckling come from the far end of the bridge. Standing at the end of the bridge with a short black walking stick was the mouse of a man that instigated this whole problem.

Gato smirked,

"Well you ninjas made my life easy, you not only killed my missing-nins but you're so worn out that you won't be able to beat my mercenaries"

Kakashi grimaced, he knew that Gato was right, but if they fled then they also failed the mission. Standing up trying to think of a plan he saw the large amount of people amassing not far behind him, but still sufficiently out of view from Gato and his thugs.

Kakashi smirked; he had won the battle, now it was time to win their hearts.

"Gato you bastard! You killed my student, terrorized thousands and destroyed this countries hope! I'm going to kill you myself!" With his sharingan active, he drew a kunai and made a mad dash towards Gato. He was too tired to fight all of those thugs, but if he could kill the ringleader, he was sure the town would take care of the rest. As he drew near he reversed his grip on his knife and cleanly cut through Gato's neck, spraying blood everywhere as Gato struggled to breath through his severed windpipe. As Gato fell to his knees, Kakashi ran back to the relative safety of Sasuke and Tazuna. At least there the thugs had to run to meet him.

Sure enough the thugs began yelling some nonsense about meal tickets and pay. Kakashi almost laughed at how easily he had just manipulated the entire group into doing what he wanted them too. As the group began forwards a single dart from a cross bow impacted in front of their new leader. Seeing the dart he stopped and then noticed the large group standing right behind Kakashi.

Kakashi laughed, as he whispered over to Sasuke who had watched the entire proceedings with enrapt attention.

"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers"

Sasuke laughed a little as the town and thugs yelled back and forth before all the thugs ran back to their boats. Sure enough the moment they were gone, the villagers, praising their bravery and selflessness, swamped the four still standing. Kakashi smiled, he had rid himself of a demon child nuisance and he was even more famous because of it.

--

Several days later the group of ninja stood at the end of the now finish bridge, soberly staring at the plaque in front of them that honored the shinobi of Konoha for what they had done. It read,

One man and three children defended a country that was not theirs, in a battle that they did not star for a home that they never lived in. They will forever live on in our hearts and conscious.

It had a nice brass statue of the 4 standing there; Kakashi had helped in the design so he and Sasuke stood the tallest and proudest, while Naruto looked almost evil.

As they were about to leave the bridge he noted that Sakura, Inari, Tsunami and Tazuna were all crying rather hard. He called out to the sole girl of his team.

"Come on Sakura, we need to go"

Sakura nodded her head and obeyed her sensei she didn't have a choice.

As the group made their way across the bridge, the villagers started talking about what to name the bridge. There was a great uproar to name it "The Great Kakashi Bridge" but Tazuna had oddly put his foot down, refusing to name it that. After arguing it should be named after Naruto who was a martyr for the bridge the finally compromised.

It would be called Yusha no Hashi (Bridge of heroes) to honor all those who fought for this bridge.

--

Several miles away on a small island to the south a large man was sitting next to a warm fire caring for a pair of wounded children. One of them sat up and looked around slightly panicked,

"Where am I?" he half yelled.

The large man eased him back down on the blankets while saying softly.

"Be calm Naruto, my name is Leporello, and I am going to keep you and Haku safe until you recover. So just rest easily for now."

Naruto mumbled something about a big fish man before he allowed himself to be laid down on the warm blanket.

Leporello looked out over the surrounding ocean. He could just make out the large bridge in the distance. He couldn't help but wonder.

"What's taking you so long Orpheo?"

A small laugh from behind him,

"Well there was a western symphony playing Adagio for Strings and Organ in G Minor in Tanzaku, I just couldn't pass it up"

Leporello shook his head looking at his friend,

"Your damn obsession with music is going to get you killed some day Orpheo.."

--

Ok I sincerely apologize for taking so long to get this out. I started writing it like five times but it never seemed to work the way I wanted it too. Then I got caught up with school, finals, a National Planning Meeting for a scout thing and the next thing I knew it was January and I hadn't finished the chapter. I hope I still have some readers out there. I know the story wasn't that popular when I was putting out chapters steadily, but hopefully someone is still reading. So I hope you liked it and please for the love of all that is holy review.

A few people have commented about my take on Kakashi. So I figured that I would just give a short explanation of him. More or less Kakashi has become used to fame and power and he has no qualms about using what he has to get what he wants, such as trying to get Naruto killed. He is always out to get more power, which is why he was scheming with Sasuke, but you will see eventually that he isn't quite what he appears to be.

Leporello is obviously Kisame, if you search the name on google you can read about where I picked up that name. It comes from a lesser-known opera of Mozart's called Don Giovanni, which I mentioned in an earlier chapter. More or less Leporello follows around Don Giovanni and always has to try to keep the Don out of all the trouble he gets into.

I do not own Naruto, Nessun Dorma, Don Giovanni, Lacrimosa, or anything else that I mentioned in here. However I would encourage you to give them a listen I know Evanescence recently did a piece based off of Lacrimosa.

Well till next time, I hope you enjoyed and that you give me at least a few reviews.

Mechen Manachewagan