Chapter VI

The Worst Client

The met at the gates, ready to set out on their mission. Naruto wore his usual apparel with a black haori that had sleeves that went just past his hands, each sleeve had a burnt orange flame design at the end. Sasuke stood in his normal outfit with a pair of windmill shuriken folded up and crossed on the back of his waist. Sakura had her normal red dress on. All three of them had a pair of storage scrolls strapped to each of their legs, courtesy of Naruto's training, so they didn't have to bother with cumbersome backpacks.

Kakashi gave his three students an eye smile, seeing them all equipped and ready to go. "Alright, let's head out."

Naruto grinned as they passed the large gates of Konoha, exiting the village. "This is great, I haven't been out of the village in years!"

Tazuna looked at the three children with some discontent and annoyance. He then looked at the Jounin and spoke, "Am I really safe with them?"

This caused the three Genin to glare at the bridge builder, Kakashi spoke up to diffuse the situation though, "Don't worry, I'm an elite Jounin so I'll be able to handle anything that comes up. I can also assure you they are ready for this mission, so relax and enjoy the trip."

Sakura looked over at the old man after they had been traveling for a few hours and asked a question, "Tazuna-san, you're from Nami no Kuni, right?"

Tazuna didn't even bother looking over while he gruffly responded, "What of it?"

On the inside Sakura was annoyed with his attitude, but she tried to stay polite and asked Kakashi her next question instead, "Are there ninja in that country Kakashi-sensei?"

The silver-haired Jounin shook his head, explaining, "No, not in Nami. Although as a general rule, even with all the cultural differences, most other lands have a hidden village with ninja. Nami never had enough need of ninja to constitute have it's own village since they could just hire them from the surrounding area on the rare occasion it was necessary."

He then looked at Sakura with an eye smile, patting her on the head. "You wont have to face other ninja on C rank missions, shinobi combat starts in with B ranks. The most that comes with C ranks are bandits and the like, though even that isn't guaranteed."

Sakura smiled in relief and they continued down the road. Kakashi's visible eye darted off to the side, catching sight of a decent-sized puddle. The eye narrowed as he recalled the weather for the past few days, blue skies with the occasional stray cloud. He kept quiet as they moved on.

After the group passed the puddle a form rose up out of it silently. A pair of former Kiri shinobi who were standing back to back with a chain running between their wrists on one side. The smaller of the two jumped off the back of the larger one, flying through the air and unlocking the chain so it lengthened. As the ex-Kiri ninja was over Kakashi he began looping the spiked chain around the silver-haired Jounin and landed on the ground opposite from his partner missing-nin, pulling the chain taut. "One down," They spoke in unison, yanking on the chain from both sides and tearing their captive apart into small chunks.

The three Genin looked on in shock while the old man's eyes were wide with fear. They charged Naruto next, attempting to take advantage of the shock clothesline the blond with the chain. "Two down," They spoke as they neared the boy, the chain reeling in to become tight again. Suddenly Sasuke jumped over Naruto, throwing a shuriken at the chain and getting it stuck to a tree.

Sasuke smirked as he immediately threw a kunai after it, going through the hole in the shuriken and locking it against the tree. As he landed he glanced over at Naruto, simply stating, "I'll go left." Naruto gave a quick nod in response and they turned towards their respective targets, punching each of them in the face as the missing-nin strained against the chain that had them bound to the tree.

They released the chain as they were sent back and both darted at Sakura, who was standing in front of the bridge builder with a kunai out. Sasuke went after the taller one, kicking at his side and forcing him to dodge before striking at the Uchiha with his claw gauntlet. Sasuke dodged to the side so he was between his enemy and the bridge builder, he then smirked as he flew through a couple of hand seals and breathed out a large fireball with his Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu.

The ex-Kiri ninja was forced to jump away from Sasuke to avoid the attack, giving the Uchiha a chance to go through another set of seals and activating his new jutsu. With one hand Sasuke directed the electrified hound to charge the attacker while throwing Kunai with the other, limiting his ability to dodge. Deciding which way to dodge caused him to freeze briefly, giving the beast a chance to barrel into and electrify him.

While Sasuke was facing his foe Naruto swung his right arm forward, sending a weighted chain out of his sleeve and after the shorter missing-nin's legs. The ninja growled as he hopped over the chain, almost tripping on it, and turned to face the blond and shouted at him, "Fine, I'll gut you first gaki!" The ex-Kiri ninja then charged at Naruto, attempting to use his superior speed to finish the boy.

Naruto tried to use his chain to trip his opponent again but the man jumped into the air, diving at him with his claw. The blond swiped out his left hand, which was empty, towards the claw. He managed to slice off the enemy's fingers with his wind blade but missed the thumb, which grazed against the back of his hand and caused a shallow cut. The enemy was then hit with a lariat and yanked away in a headlock, along with his partner who had been fighting Sasuke.

Kakashi eye smiled at his students while holding the two enemy ninja, praising them, "Very good, both of you. Looks like all the practice is paying off, though I wasn't aware you were learning to use a chain Naruto. Very good use of your new jutsus, both of you."

Naruto grinned and pulled back his right sleeve, revealing a glove with a seal on the palm that had the chain coming out of it. "Yeah! I can't make the chakra ones like Kaa-san, but I wanted to still learn how to use them. They're a really cool weapon!" He then resealed the chain and frowned at his other hand which had a tear on the back of the glove and a scrape on the skin underneath.

Kakashi's eye narrowed at the cut, speaking seriously, "Keep that hand still for now, their claws were poisoned and we don't want it to spread. We'll either have to get some medical attention or bleed it here to get the poison out." He then turned to the bridge builder with a slight glare as he spoke, "Tazuna-san."

The old man jumped at his name, shocked by the battle. "W-what is it?!"

"We need to talk." Kakashi stared at him a moment before speaking further, "These are low Chunin level missing-nin from Kiri, The Demon Brothers. They were watching and waiting for us or for you in particular I think."

At this the bridge builder freaked out a bit, shouting, "If you knew that then why did you let them attack?!"

The silver-haired Jounin gave a lazy shrug in response as he answered, "I could have killed them at any time. However, I wanted to find out who there target was." As he finished he looked pointedly at Tazuna.

The old man looked to the side, slightly nervous. "What do you mean by that?"

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. "What I mean is, were they after one of us or were they after you? These are fresh Genin, highly unlikely to be a target since they couldn't have accumulated any bounties. And if I was being targeted, they wouldn't have sent anyone this weak." His visible eye bored into Tazuna. "There was no information on ninja attacking you, all you told us was that you wanted protection from regular bandits. This is more than likely a B rank mission at this point. You may have had your reasons, but we need to be accurately informed to be able to protect you effectively."

Tazuna looked down in thought at what Kakashi had said. Sakura looked up at her teacher, evidently nervous as she spoke, "Kakashi, shouldn't we go back at this point? We shouldn't be fighting shinobi yet and Naruto needs to see a medic anyway for the poison."

Kakashi sighed, securing the two missing-nin to a tree with rope and looked up to the sky. "This is complicated... to abandon the mission or continue on..."

Naruto had been looking at his hand with some nervousness, but once the subject of quitting the mission came up his eyes hardened. He bit the finger of his glove and yanked it off his injured hand, pulling out a kunai with his free hand and slashing across the wound so it could drain the poison. Sakura cried out, concerned about her friend and teammate, "Naruto, what are you doing you idiot?!"

Naruto just gave a slightly pained grin and turned to the bridge builder. "When we took the mission, you said we had to protect you even at the cost of our lives, right?" At this the bridge builder looked a bit ashamed. Naruto just turned to Kakashi with a slightly wolfish grin as he spoke, "I'm fine and ready to go, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi gave him an eye smile as he walked over to his blond student, taking his hand and bandaging it as he responded to his student's enthusiasm, "I know I said to cut the wound open to clear it out, but if you loose too much blood you'll die." Naruto just rolled his eyes at that, knowing the wound wasn't that deep. As the Jounin worked he spoke to the bridge builder, "So, do you want to tell us anything Tazuna? If you're not going to be honest, we'll turn around right now and leave you on your own. I'm not leading my students around blind like this."

Tazuna sighed, looking off to the side. After a moment he responded, "You're right, this mission is more dangerous than I made it out to be... There's a very dangerous man after my life."

Kakashi raised his eyebrow at the old man, having finished bandaging Naruto's wound. "A very dangerous man?"

Tazuna nodded, answering, "You've probably heard of him. He's a billionaire in the field of marine transportation. Gato."

Kakashi's eye widened considerably. "Gato of Gato Shipping and Transportation?! The Gato? They say he's the richest man in the world!"

Tazuna nodded again, his face filled with grief. "That's correct. On the surface he's a skilled businessman, but underneath he makes a lot of his money from drug trafficking and smuggling. He's ruthless, he started out just taking over companies but he's gotten a stranglehold on our country itself, he might as well be the Daimyo. He employs gangs and shinobi to get what he wants by any means necessary." He then sighed before continuing. "It was about a year ago that he started moving on Nami. He came talking about a business venture, but then the violence began. Once he took over our marine transport and shipping industries, we were all under his thumb. Gato has complete control over all the transportation, it's the wealth and lifeblood of an island nation! The only thing he has to fear is the construction of my bridge..."

Sakura nodded in understanding, speaking up, "So since you're in charge of building the bridge, you're in his way."

"So Gato hired those ninja to take care of you," Sasuke added, while Naruto just nodded.

Kakashi then spoke up, questioning the bridge builder, "There's still something I don't get. If you knew he was going to be targeting you and had a history of hiring shinobi, why didn't you tell us that when you were contracting us so you could get a better equipped team?"

Tazuna was about to respond, but Sakura beat him to it, "Isn't it obvious Kakashi-sensei? Tazuna-san said it himself, Gato has a stranglehold on the wealth of the nation."

The old man nodded, confirming what she said as he explained, "She's right. As of now the local lords are poor, and I don't have much money myself, so a C rank was the most we could afford..." He then sighed dramatically, "If you don't help me, I'm as good as dead..." He then laughed, continuing, "It's not like it's your problem though! You wont be there to see my daughter and 10-year-old grandson cry over my corpse! You won't be bothered by my daughter vowing an eternal hatred to the village that let her father die, as she has to go through life alone trying to support a child. It wouldn't be your fault at all!"

All four members of team seven sighed, staring at Tazuna as Kakashi responded. "Well I guess it can't be helped... we'll continue the mission, at least for now."

Tazuna grinned with his back turned to them, one thought going through his head. Success!

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A few days later they were taking a boat through an underground waterway in Nami, going under the town that the bridge was in so they could stay hidden. The man steering the boat spoke quietly, "Looks like they overlooked us. We'll be coming up to the area with the mangroves soon, so we can make landfall under some cover."

Tazuna nodded, smiling at the man. "Thank you, my friend."

They exited the waterway a few minutes later, getting the sight of a small forest in the water due to the high tide. Naruto gasped in surprise and grinned at the sight of the partial submerged forest. "Wow!"

The boater whacked him on the head to get his attention, yelling in a quiet hiss, "Quiet gaki! There's a reason we're not using the motor on this boat." As he spoke his eyes were darting around, making sure there was still nobody around.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and chuckled quietly, embarrassed, "Sorry about that." He spoke quietly, keeping his eyes peeled as well.

They managed to quietly coast up to one of the docks hidden by the trees and they all departed the boat. The boater spoke to the group quietly, "This is as far as I go, good luck and stay safe."

Tazuna nodded to the man as he quietly pushed the boat away from the dock. "Thanks for taking this risk for me, take care of yourself." With that they headed down a road in the direction of Tazuna's house, the bridge builder speaking in a low voice, "Hopefully we can make it there in one piece, we're about an hour away."

Kakashi sighed as they walked, thinking to himself. He just had to say that and jinx it... More than likely the next attack with be someone Jounin level... I'll have to keep the kids out of the fight.

They were walking with Naruto in front, Tazuna behind him with Sakura and Sasuke to either side, and Kakashi taking up the rear. As the blond kept watch in front, his eyes were darting back and forth, expecting something to show up out of the ordinary. He heard something in a bush so he immediately flicked a shuriken into it to flush it out. "Ha!"

Everyone stopped and stared from Naruto to the bush, nothing coming out of it. Naruto scratched the back of his head. "I thought I heard something..." Everyone stared at Naruto for a moment except for Kakashi, who went over to the bush to check it out. Moving some branches aside he found a white rabbit, scared unconscious with a shuriken a few centimeters away.

Kakashi's eye narrowed at the animal, knowing there shouldn't be any white rabbits since it was summer currently. He ignored Sakura scolding Naruto for attacking the small animal and looked around, knowing something was off. His eye widened as he heard a quiet sound of something whistling through the air, immediately yelling out, "Everyone down!"

Everyone dropped, Sasuke pulling Tazuna down with him, and a zanbato sailed overhead, imbedding itself in a tree. Shortly after they heard someone land on the grip and they all stood up. The man was shirtless with blue pants, camo arm and leg warmers, and bandages over his lower face. Sitting sideways around his head was a Kiri headband, a slash through the symbol marking him as a missing-nin. Kakashi spoke as he looked at him. "Zabuza isn't it? Former shinobi of Kiri and known as the Demon of the Hidden Mist, defected after a failed coup."

Naruto tried to dart forward and attack, but Kakashi just held his arm out and stopped him. "You'll have to leave him to me, he's far more powerful than the other two we faced. The teamwork here is to stay back and give me room to fight, focus on guarding the client." The silver-haired Jounin then reached up to his headband, preparing to move it. "This may be a bit of a tough fight..."

The eyebrow-less man standing on the sword looked over his shoulder at the group, focusing on Jounin. With a mildly interested expression he spoke, "Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye... If it isn't too much to ask, could you surrender the bridge builder? I'm sure you don't want the kids to get hurt"

Kakashi ignored Zabuza's request as Sasuke stared at his teacher in disbelief. "Surround Tazuna and move back." He commanded his team, who did as they were told, and kept his focus on Zabuza. He moved his headband up and out of the way, revealing the Sharingan with three tomoe circling the pupil. "Well Zabuza, shall we?"

Zabuza smirked under the bandages as he spoke, "Ah, to face that legendary eye so early into our battle. What an honor..." He then jumped off the tree, placing his sword on has back as he moved, and landed on the water a short distance away. "This could be fun to drag out, but I'm on a tight schedule to take out the old man." With that said, he made a special seal and moved his arms, activating Kiri's signature technique. "Kirigakure no Jutsu."

Quickly a thick mist rose from the lake, overtaking the entire area and greatly limiting everyone's vision. Kakashi glanced over in the direction of his team. "Stay alert, Zabuza is a master of silent killing."

A soft chuckle emerged from the fog, echoing so the source was unknown as it unnerved the Genin and the bridge builder. It was followed by a deadly sounding voice that filled the area, "There are eight possible targets. Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, the jugular vein, the subclavian arteries, kidney, or heart. So many options, which should I choose... Any requests?" There was some more laughter that seemed to come from all around them.

All of the Genin were extremely nervous against this enemy, Sasuke was beginning to shake with a kunai in his hand. Kakashi sensed his team's unease, and spoke to calm them, "Sasuke, relax. I'll protect you all with my life." He turned his head towards the team with an eye-smile. "I will never let my comrades die!"

"We'll see about that," Zabuza spoke from the middle of the Genin's formation, reappearing finally. He was about to strike when Kakashi charged him, stabbing him in the heart with a kunai and causing the missing-nin to fall apart into water.

Naruto looked up from the ground, having fallen when getting pushed out of the way by Kakashi, and saw Zabuza looming over his teacher. "Behind you!" It was too late though as Zabuza swung his sword, cleaving him in half. The missing-nin looked victorious for a moment before 'Kakashi' disbursed into water.

The silver-haired Jounin appeared behind Zabuza, holding a kunai to his throat. "Game over."

Zabuza chuckled, not seeming concerned as he spoke, "It'll take more than copying me like a monkey to be able to win... You are pretty good though!" Then Zabuza's voice came from behind Kakashi, "I'm not that easy to fool though."

Kakashi slit the throat of the clone, causing it to disburse, as he turned around to face the real Zabuza. As Kakashi turned Zabuza threw a kick at him, catching him in the side and sending him skidding onto the lake. His eyes widened as he felt the water grow heavy, knowing what was about to happen but not having time to stop it.

Zabuza pulled Kakashi out of the water in a orb of the liquid, holding him in his Suirō no Jutsu with one arm. "That's better, now I can finish my mission. I'll take care of you afterwords Kakashi, don't worry," He spoke and then made a hand sign with his free arm, causing another water clone to form. It rose out of the lake and began moving towards the three Genin and Tazuna.

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Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu – Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Kirigakure no Jutsu – Hidden Mist Technique

Suiton: Suirō no Jutsu – Water Style: Water Prison Technique

AN: Another chapter down, next we'll get to see how the team deals with facing off against Zabuza. Again, hope you're all still enjoying this. I know with all the stories that go over this arc it can get tiresome to read, but I'm trying to keep it interesting while making it flow naturally. Luckily this shouldn't take too many chapters. Then we get to go into the Chunin exams, which is where all the interesting stuff starts happening. So look forward to all that.

As another note, I've been thinking about adding story suggestions at the end of each of these chapters. For stories I read that I find are really enjoyable and regularly updated. I'll go ahead and start that with this update, recommending a story from RyoshiMorino who was awesome enough to follow me. He's writing what is probably the best Naruto/Tayuya story out there, it's called Seeing Red, so if you haven't checked it out you should definitely jump on it and give it a read. With that being my favorite Naruto pairing, I'm really pleased we have a good writer working on it.

Well that's all for now, I'm slowing down updates a bit so I don't burn myself out but I should be able to keep them weekly at least. Later everyone.

(Last Revision to Chapter on October 7, 2015)