Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter Seven
~ O ~
Naruto sits like a sentinel at the head of a long row boat moving placidly through a channel of dark, fog-shrouded water. Behind him sits the rest of his group; rowing the boat is an elderly man wearing a rubber slicker sheen with condensation from the fog. Long wooden oars push the boat and its silent, uneasy occupants onward as if they were pilgrims foraging forever through limbo. Finally, it proves not so endless when the fog yields sight of a large pillar rising tall from the water.
Tazuna blinks, straightens his glasses, and then begins to hyperventilate.
He turns to the boatman, "Take us alongside that pillar, now!"
The boatman wordlessly obliges and directs the boat at the ominous shape. Coming to a slow, gentle stop next to the pillar, Tazuna puts a foot on the boat's edge and reaches out to touch it. His breathing gets louder and faster as his hand traces the carbon-stained concrete surface.
The genin can only sit and watch, Kakashi stands and keeps his balance.
"What's wrong, Tazuna-san?"
The old man's hand rubs furiously against the pillar's surface; the dusty ash thins out and shows dark green numbers drawn onto the gray concrete.
His voice is rife with emotion, "Oh god, this is a support column for the bridge. These numbers are worker graffiti..."
The man's hands leave the surface of the pillar and cups over his mouth.
Tazuna's head snaps over to the boatman, "Get us to the shore, quickly!"
The boat oars rise then slap hard onto the water and the boat glides on with a less tranquil pace. Tazuna's eyes strive in vain to pierce through the fog ahead. All he sees are ghostly layers of grey parting like thin veils to mockingly reveal more of the same.
Then more solid shapes appear and the old man lets out a despairing wail. Ahead stands the ruins of a bridge. Tazuna's bridge.
Shattered pillars leading to the unseen shore flank random deposits of destroyed concrete slabs that used to be the bridge's pavement. The sight looks like a flooded cemetery. Tazuna shakes, his legs go slack and he crumbles backwards for Kakashi to catch.
"Hope dies in the mist," speaks a voice from all directions.
All eyes on the boat fan out and search the surroundings.
"Scatter!" yells Kakashi who grabs Tazuna and leaps up off the boat.
The genin follow just before the boat, and boatman, are sliced in half by a large blade erupting up from the water in an arch before disappearing like a shark tail.
Before being cleft in two, the boatman only shrugs his shoulders in apathy of his own demise.
Kakashi lands with Tazuna on an island of ruined concrete, the genin each land on a separate deposit of debris.
They all watch as both ends of their boat sink in the middle of a dark cloud of red. Sakura's face goes ghost-white and Sasuke can only gape and sweat at a sight which strikes a chord in him. Naruto looks naturally concerned but remains otherwise composed.
He crouches atop a concrete pillar with the top broken and revealing the tips of dark brown rebars. Sasuke and Sakura stand on similar pillars that differ in height and distance from each other. In the wide space of water between Sakura and Naruto's pillars is the island of debris that Kakashi and Tazuna occupy.
The voice speaks again, "Leave the bridge-builder and maybe I'll let you leave, Konoha-ninja..."
After a quiet moment a whirlpool appears a few feet from the sunken boat before exploding upward into a column of water. Atop the water spout stands a tall, lanky ninja with grey camouflage pants, a bare chest, and bandages wrapped around the lower half of his face. One hand is held in a ram seal in front of his nose and the other hand holds a massive zanbatou over his back. A Mizu No Kuni hitai-ate rests on his brow, a black scar is carved through it.
Sasuke makes ready to perform an offensive jutsu but Kakashi quickly yells, "Stand down!"
The enemy ninja drops the ram seal, the water column gives out and splashes back into the water, but he lands easily on the surface as if it were solid.
The bandages covering his mouth tremble as he speaks, "I recognize you from the bingo book. Hatake Kakashi: copier of a thousand jutsus. I find it hard to be impressed by someone whose reputation is built on what he has stolen from others."
Kakashi's posture eases, "I know of you as well: Zabuza of the Bloody Mist. An A-class missing-nin wanted for the failed coup on the Mizukage. Now you're just another hired thug in the service of a wormy little CEO. You'll understand if I don't care much about the opinion of someone like you."
Zabuza chuckles, "You'd better care; your fate and, more importantly, the fate of your cute little genin team depends on just how courteous I'm feeling. Normally, I wouldn't waste my breath talking when I can just take your head clean off your shoulders with one swift, easy stroke. But here I am, in one of my rare 'civilized' moods, offering you just one chance to walk away."
"Now it's my turn to be deeply unimpressed," drawls Kakashi with a rolls of the eye.
Tazuna comes out from behind the jounin, "Why did you destroy my bridge!?"
The missing-nin only shrugs, "Gatou's thugs did that. Some petty message to you and the people of Wave to stay out of his way. A man like him doesn't need much incentive to resort to such spineless methods. Whatever. He is my client; if I don't do this then he'll simply get somebody else to."
Zabuza swings the zanbatou over his back in a terrifying arch that stops dead in the air in inch above the water. Except for Kakashi, everyone's startled by how easily he uses something so massive. His eyes take in the three genin around him, linger on Sakura, and then settle back on Kakashi who stands firm between him and his target.
"I can see you're not going to run. Good for you. But if I'm going to kill you, I might as well kill your brats as well for the aggravation. Die knowing their lives were in your hands."
As if a solid platform beneath him has vanished, Zabuza falls beneath the water's surface. The genin, from their individual vantages, look around anxiously while drawing weapons. Kakashi stands resolutely in front of Tazuna who looks absolutely lost. He is standing on the ruins of his dream, after all.
In the water behind Sakura, Zabuza rises with his Massive blade arched and ready to slice her and the pillar she stands on down the centre. Her eyes can only catch the bottoms of his feet as her head turns too late. A piece of concrete debris brought up with Zabuza's emergence vanishes in a cloud and Kakashi appears in its place to throw a kunai at Zabuza's unguarded ribs.
It passes through, but instead of blood, water comes out as the forms of Zabuza and his sword turn to water. Kakashi hears a shriek and turns his head to see a line of ninja wire wrap around Sakura's mid-section and pull her off the pillar. Kakashi grabs hold and climbs onto the column just as Sakura disappears under a splash of water.
"Shit!" yells Naruto as he leaps off his pillar and lands beside Tazuna.
Sasuke keeps his position but pulls a folded windmill shuriken from his backpack; the weapon unfolds with a loud metallic shearing sound. He holds it behind him ready to throw, Naruto guards Tazuna while his eyes search the water for his teammate. As the moment passes without incident, Naruto looks up at Kakashi in hope that the jounin will do something.
"Tazuna," says the disembodied voice of Zabuza which catches everybody's attention.
"Here's an offer, though not for your benefit but the benefit of the cute little doll thrashing and kicking beneath the waves. You step away from the red-haired brat, offer your neck to me and I'll let these kids walk away with their lives. Do you really want a bunch of dumb kids losing their lives to protect an old fart like you?"
Everybody above water looks at Tazuna who's on the cusp of absolute despair.
'I've failed. The bridge is gone and these kids are protecting me for nothing. Tsunami, Inari, please forgive me...'
The bridge builder breaths faster and faster as he takes in the faces of the children protecting him. With a despairing yell the old man tries to charge forward into the water, Naruto blocks him from in front. Thin plumes of smoke and fog drift around them like spirits coming to escort those soon to die.
"Let me go, you dumb little bastard! You'll just die if you stay with-"
-Kakashi appears and punches Tazuna hard in the gut, the old man falls to his knees and coughs. Naruto moves away from both of them and summons two kage-bunshins. With both hands he points at the spot where Sakura vanished and the clones dive into the water.
"What are you doing?" Kakashi yells at Naruto.
The redhead yells back, "My clones'll find both of them and then I'll know!"
His blue eyes bulge; he has a vision from underwater of Sakura straining against ninja wire tying her to a broken pillar with Zabuza nowhere to be seen.
"Kakashi-sensei, Sakura's restrained down there but Zabuza's gone!" he yells to Kakashi.
The assassin breaks the surface of the water behind them; his zanbatou makes a swipe that deflects Kakashi before rising up ready to come down on Tazuna who's still on his knees. Naruto freezes, his eyes are fixed on the space between the enormous blade and the old man's head. The space, to him, shrinks slowly.
But the smoking portal yawning on his arm is already open like a hungry mouth. The tip of a black blade emerges. However, time is snapped back into normalcy when Sasuke's windmill shuriken strikes against the broad side of the zanbatou, Zabuza's balance is thrown off allowing Kakashi to engage him.
Zabuza moves onto the water away from Kakashi, "Naruto, get Sakura! Sasuke, protect Tazuna!"
Groaning in disappointment, Naruto dives into the water after the portal on his forearm closes. Again, an opportunity to cut loose with the chains is dashed. Unknown to him, Zabuza watches with a sinister smirk as the redhead submerges.
Atop the water's surface, Kakashi runs at Zabuza, jumps onto his stabbing blade and throws a kunai at the assassins' face. He tilts his head to avoid the kunai and pulls his zanbatou out from beneath Kakashi who lands and backs out of striking distance.
Before he can lift the blade, his eyes bulge in surprise as he is hit by the memory of the mizu kage-bunshin he left with the girl.
He sees the shadowy murk of underwater, then a pair of furious blue eyes, then something thick and black and flexible lashing at the bunshin's face and terminating the memory.
A moment later, the girl and the redhead come to the surface.
Kakashi watches them regroup, "Take care of Tazuna, I'll finish this..."
His fingers reach under his hitai-ate and rest there as he stands defiantly facing Zabuza. The assassin steadies himself after the surprise of the bunshin's termination. Standing calmly on the water ten meters from Kakashi, Zabuza grips the handle of his zanbatou with rock-hard intensity.
"Aside from that useless girl, your brats do decent work. Good to see that a dickless regime like Konoha can produce at least a few decent shinobi."
"As opposed to a regime that produces psychotic traitors like you?" Kakashi flatly replies.
A beat of silence, then Zabuza laughs with unnerving glee.
"I won't waste my time justifying myself to you since you won't live long enough to take it to heart. All I will say is that the shinobi who cuts the life from your body comes from The Hidden Mist."
Kakashi breaths in and pushes up his hitai-ate to reveal The Sharingan. He sees his students from over Zabuza's shoulder. They all react visibly to it, especially Sasuke.
Nobody has time to think as the two jounin charge each other. The zanbatou swipes wide, Kakashi avoids it without putting distance between him and Zabuza. The missing-nin makes more strikes that Kakashi avoids, the three tomoes in his eye spin like a high-powered clock gear.
A kunai appears in his hand, he follows every dodge of Zabuza's blade with well-timed kunai strikes to the missing-nin's mid-section.
They break off, Zabuza winces at the fresh cuts on his arms and chest. He swings his zanbatou over his shoulder, harnesses it then runs sideways with Kakashi following step for step. They stop; Zabuza runs his hands through a long seal sequence which Kakashi mimics perfectly.
Moving simultaneously like mirror reflections, both jounin slam their palms flat onto the water's surface.
"Mizu dangan no-jutsu!" both men yell with near perfect synchronicity.
Globs of water float up around both men and hang in the air weightlessly. The water globules floating in front of Zabuza begins to glow, then with a loud pop each droplet explodes into a white beam that lances at Kakashi with lethal speed. The jounin deflects the water bullets with his own; they impact in the centre of the distance between the two combatants and make little clouds of mist that drift away with the breeze.
Both jounin remain crouching with their palms on the water's surface, their masked faces denote heavy concentration and tiny flinches of pain. Notches of fabric are ripped off the sleeves and shoulders of Kakashi's cloths by the water bullets that break his defence. The same with Zabuza, except it's the flesh on his bare arms that is peeled off in small pieces. Drops of blood colour the water beneath them both.
Then the shift comes; Kakashi concentrates harder and small puncture wounds explode across Zabuza's chest and shoulders.
He grunts gutturally and blood soaks the fabric over his mouth. He breaks his contact with the water; the droplets floating on front of him halt then fall back to their source as Zabuza falls unceremoniously beneath the water's surface. Kakashi breaks his contact and the jutsu ends, he gets up to stand but halts and stares when the water beneath him turns white and engulfs him in a watery explosion that reaches high up into the air.
Everybody watching sees the dark, distorted shape of Kakashi standing inside the wall of white water, beside him rises the shape of Zabuza swinging his massive blade. It cuts through the water with a loud 'fop' sound and for a fleeting second shows Kakashi ducking beneath the swing. They become vague shapes again that merge in a grapple then separate before the wall of water begins to fall.
The watery upheaval ends, Kakashi stands just a few feet from Zabuza who falls to his knee. One hand props him up with his sword while the other grabs onto Kakashi's kunai sticking from his stomach. He makes a painful grunt and pulls it free; the blood spattering out of the wound is barely discernible from the blood of his other wounds that begins to coat his upper body.
As if coming out of sleep, Zabuza looks up from his wounds to see a whole other time and place overtaking the present. He sees the drab grey of the foggy water channel phase into a nighttime courtyard lit by fires raging across a village in the background. All around him are bloodied bodies with shadowy men standing over them bearing bladed weapons reflecting the light of the fires. He looks down at his body; he should be wearing a jounin vest torn from blade strikes but has nothing on but smudged blood contouring his bare chest. This brings him back to reality and he looks up to see Kakashi standing seven feet from him.
He breaths out and looks up at the man who bested him, "I haven't bled this much since the coup."
Kakashi looks on him like an animal about to be put down.
"You failed this time as well."
Zabuza slouches on his knees, defeated. Kakashi closes down on him with a kunai ready to retire the failed assassin. Team 7 and Tazuna watch on with excitement at seeing Kakashi poised to win the battle. Though he's set to die, Zabuza acts only like he's been inconvenienced.
"After the coup failed, I was at the mercy of the Mizukage's elite forces. I was surrounded by the bodies of my comrades; each one had an elite guard standing over the corpse. I was at the centre of their attention, but only one was set to kill me. The elite captain was strong, but not like you."
Kakashi tilts his head a little, "What's your point?"
Zabuza chuckles quietly and puts everyone back on edge.
"My point is that, back then, my odds were worse than they are now."
His form dissolves into a grey mist; Kakashi parts it with a kunai swipe. Useless. The jounin watches the mist fade away with a breeze, Team 7 forms a tighter perimeter around Tazuna in case of another surprise. Nothing except the slapping sound of water against the partially submerged ruins.
'Even with the element of surprise, Zabuza's too weak now to attack without losing his life. Speaking of weak...'
His composure falters; he staggers but doesn't fall into the water.
"Naruto?"
The redhead separates from Tazuna's guard.
"Yeah?"
Kakashi slouches in exhaustion and looks ready to fall apart.
"Sorry, but you're going to have to make another underwater rescue."
Before he can elaborate, Kakashi falls beneath the water's surface.
Everybody gasps except Naruto; he groans and again dives into the water.
The upper half of Kakashi's face blushes with embarrassment as he's tucked in under thick bed covers like a child. The one doing the tucking is a woman in her late twenties with long, black hair, dark eyes and wearing housekeeping cloths. She strains to tuck the covers around the jounin's larger frame.
Tazuna stands in the doorway, "Ease up on the covers, Tsunami. You'll cut off his blood circulation which might be a problem considering how much of the red stuff he lost on the way here."
She scoffs politely, "Don't be so dramatic, Dad. Are you comfortable, Mr. Hatake?"
Kakashi shifts under the covers until they loosen up.
"Oh yeah. The feeling is coming back to my fingers."
Tsunami stands back, "I'll be downstairs, call if you need anything."
She bows pleasantly and turns to leave; Tazuna pats her on the shoulder as she passes by him. Sasuke leans against the wall next to the door, Sakura moves to Kakashi's bedside while Naruto sits on a backwards chair at the end of the bed. The room is small; the walls are baby blue and weakly bathed in the light coming from the open window above Kakashi's bed. The sky outside is grey and overcast.
"How do you feel, Kakashi-sensei?" asks Sakura.
The pink-haired girl wears a dry set of cloths; green, baggy track pants and a white, loose-fitting t-shirt.
Kakashi looks at her, "You were there, Sakura. You know how I feel."
He sighs and sinks his head into his pillow.
"Still, I'd feel better if I had killed Zabuza."
He chuckles weakly then coughs.
"Sorry for you having to dredge me up like a sunken ox-cart, but using the Sharingan like that saps my strength."
Sasuke steps away from the wall and walks up to the bed.
"You have a lot of explaining to do, Kakashi. How do you have the Sharingan?"
Kakashi gazes neutrally at Sasuke who waits impatiently for an answer.
"I can understand why you aren't keen on an outsider having the Sharingan. Why I have it is none of your business."
Sasuke's hands ball into fists.
"None of my business? The signature bloodline of The Uchiha, a near-extinct clan, possessed by an outsider and it's none of my business?"
Kakashi's eye narrows, "No, it isn't. All I will say is that I didn't steal this eye; it was given to me freely. The reasons are for me only. If you want the eye returned, feel free to take it if you can."
Sasuke fights the urge to challenge Kakashi; though wounded, the jounin is still leagues above him. He backs down but maintains a heated glare in hope that it will pressure the man into giving him answers. Instead, Kakashi ignores him and turns his eye toward Sakura who looks away with a quietly troubled expression.
"You okay, Sakura?"
The girl gasps at being torn away from the dark brooding that fell over her immediately after her earlier ordeal. Pulled under water, tied to a broken pillar, and left to drown. Even worse; she was used as a distraction, not important enough to even kill outright.
Kakashi speaks up, "Sakura, I know how terrifying it was but I need you to keep your head on your shoulders. We're still in a mess and I need you to stay on your guard."
She shakes her head, "Sensei, I'm weak. That's why Zabuza went after me."
The jounin is surprised by Sakura's admission.
'Geez, she's only twelve and already has such a bad self-image. And she's not even an awkward teenager yet.'
He assuages her with the best fatherly tone he can muster, "The odds were against you. You're a new genin with an undeveloped skillset thrown into a hostile situation. You were in over your head, pardon the pun."
A giggle breaks through her morose demeanour. She knows there are more important things to worry about now other than her personal feelings. She doesn't have the comfort and security of home in which to safely vent her frustrations. All she can do now is bear it and keep her head clear for the good of the team.
Naruto clears his throat before speaking, "That Anko chick is supposed to be here soon, right? What should we do in the meantime?"
The redhead has also replaced his wet cloths with a dry set of casual clothes.
Kakashi looks down at him, "Well, I'll be resting up comfortably, of course. You three have that option; I've already put your lives in enough danger."
Naruto scoffs, "As much as I would love that, I think I speak for us all when I say I'm a little too on edge to just kick back and forget about all the crazy crap that just happened."
Kakashi smiles behind his mask, "Good to know. You three can rest here until Anko arrives, or you can do some discreet recon work."
The preteens look at each other then back at him.
"Recon?" asks Sakura.
Kakashi nods, "Yes. Some Intel on the local area would be very helpful. Gatou would have some of his goons coursing around, intimidating the locals."
Kakashi then looks to the doorway, Tazuna is gone.
"Also, somebody will need to keep an eye on Tazuna. His bridge is gone; he'll be greatly affected and might do something reckless.
The three genin huddle around Kakashi's bedside, ready to receive orders.
"It's real now, kids. Avoid unnecessary conflict and take no chances. My good grace with The Hokage has run out so don't go and get yourselves killed."
The three genin exit Kakashi's room together. Naruto is the last out; he closes the door as the others go to the stairs. He's about to follow them when he hears the door at the end of the hallway creak open.
A small form steps slips halfway through the door, a boy no older than nine. He wears dark blue suspenders, a worn white t-shirt and a sunhat over black matted hair. The sunhat casts the upper half of the boy's face in shadow, but his eyes are visible and gaze darkly at Naruto.
The redhead waits for the kid to say something, he doesn't, and the awkward moment draws out until Naruto makes a weak wave and turns to leave.
"You're going to die here..."
Naruto stops, turns around and sees the white door to the kid's room close.
A white water pitcher is shattered by a swinging cane.
Gatou points the cane at a bed-ridden Zabuza, "This time you have no excuse! You're supposed to be an unstoppable killer and yet you get taken down by some Konoha tree-huggers!"
The windows are shut; the only light in the hut comes from a single bulb casting a cone over Zabuza's bed. The jounin lies above the covers with his bare-chest and arms thickly bandaged. His mask is removed but the lower half of his face is covered by a washcloth. Gatou stands just within the light, his bodyguards hover faintly in the dark behind him. Gatou looks furious but Zabuza barely pays attention.
"He wasn't just a tree-hugger; he's Sharingan-Kakashi, an S-ranked ninja. If I could have killed him there then I would have."
Gatou sneers, "'Sharingan-Kakashi', 'Demon of the Mist', nothing but worthless monikers for glorified foot soldiers! Tazuna has lived long enough; the reward for his head is now non-exclusive."
Zabuza's eyes watch the little man from their corners. Then they shift to something behind him. Gatou notices and turns around, his body guards are gone.
"What?"
Zabuza's voice is low but full of menace, "I understand that you hold the purse strings, but now you have to understand that right now I hold your life in my hand."
"Where are my guards?" Gatou asks fearfully.
Zabuza's eyes show mirth, "What do you care? There's plenty more where they came from. I'll kill Tazuna, and you will bet on that. More importantly; I'll kill you if anyone else collects on the reward. Understand?"
Gatou stammers, tries to compose himself and carefully backs towards the door. His head darts around like a squirrel looking for any phantom threats. Zabuza watches the little wretch disappear out the front door, he sighs at having to work for a man who is worlds beneath him.
He hears a single creak of a floorboard, intentionally made. His head turns to the other side of the room; there stands a figure darker than the shadows. Its head is adorned with an ivory-white mask with accented slits for eyes, the Mist symbol on the forehead and no mouth.
"Zabuza-sama," speaks a deep, feminine voice from behind the mask.
"Are those bodyguards going to create a stench?" asks the jounin.
"No, I disposed of them as I would a ninja corpse. Though they deserved to just rot in a ditch."
Zabuza chuckles, "So do I, if I have to resort to working for men like Gatou."
He sees the figure's mask shift slightly, enough to discern some kind of emotion from the faceless figure.
"Zabuza-sama, it's not worth it. Gatou would sooner kill Tazuna personally and save money than spend more money on the likes of us. Now he knows he can't control us unlike the scum he has here in Wave Country."
"I will kill Tazuna and Gatou will pay me because, otherwise, his life will depend on it," responds Zabuza.
Haku makes a small bow, "Forgive me. It's just that we've worked for more stable clients than this."
Zabuza coughs, "You mean more honourable, right? It bothers you that we must work for men like Gatou. Learn to stomach it; men like Gatou are the only ones with the money we need to return to The Hidden Mist. Given your skills, I'm surprised you don't have a colder attitude.
Haku's figure fades away into the dark, "You know me, and you know I will do what is absolutely necessary."
Zabuza groans and closes his eyes, "Which still isn't everything I ask of you."
A pair of hands violently shoves Tazuna. He regains his balance and faces a group of men wearing dishevelled work cloths. The man at the head of the group balls his fists and takes heavy steps forward. Around them lie the remains of a construction yard leading to the smouldering ruins of Tazuna's bridge. The head of the group, a bald man with tanned skin, points accusingly at Tazuna.
"This is all your fault, Tazuna! It was pointless, all of it!"
The shock wears off Tazuna, "My fault? What about Gatou? He's the one who turned Wave Country into a rotten burg."
"It would've been a peaceful rotten burg if you hadn't followed that idiot Kaiza's steps," the bald man shouts back.
Tazuna corrects his glasses, "And stand around like dumb hicks while Gatou bleeds our country dry?"
The bald man shakes his head, "None of it was worth dying over. If your son-in-law had realized that sooner than he'd probably still be alive."
Tazuna recoils at those words, his lower lip tremble. Something goes off in his eyes; his shaking hand reaches up and pulls away his glasses, folds them and puts them away. Then he charges forward to deliver a sharp crack across the bald man's jaw. Behind a nearby tree, a dark figure watches the old man tussle with the worker as the others gather around.
"How dare you say that? You spineless bastard, you're nothing compared to Kaiza! Nothing!"
Naruto walks through a desolate street, on both sides of him are abandoned kiosks. There's a street like this in almost every village where vendors and tradesmen enthusiastically work their wares. But here, all commerce has been strangled out. The redhead wears a grey raincoat, the miserable sky rains lightly and speckles the pale wood of the abandoned fruit stand he passes by. Behind the kiosks is the edge of the woods, a bush rustles but Naruto ignores it.
Ahead past the line of kiosks begins the low-rent housing; jagged tile roofs, television antennas and dark windows in emaciated walls. Naruto looks around expecting to see anybody else out in the street, even on a rainy day it shouldn't be completely devoid of people. He's disturbed by this, but on another level he feels relieved. The streets of Konoha are always bustling, but with the kind of people he would rather avoid.
He slows his pace when he sees two large men spill out the front door of a building half a block away. They jeer and make lewd gestures to someone inside that building who quickly slams the door on them. They lose interest and start walking to down the street, in his direction. Then they set their sights on him and walk towards the redhead with a cocky swagger. Naruto stops, in his head he quickly goes over a course of action for dealing with these two jackasses.
'Just do what comes natural and things'll be fine. Well, not for these guys...'
He walks with an even pace towards the two men; his face is a calm facade for the excitement he feels at finally getting the chance to use his skills on some true assholes. He wipes the last traces of emotion from his face and stops in front of the thugs. One sniffs loudly and wipes his nose while the other leers down at the redhead.
"I thought I'd seen every pretty face in this shitty village."
The disgusting man reaches down for Naruto's face.
Since the age of 8, he has received instruction on how to best deliver a lethal response in this type of situation. When dealing with weak-willed slouches like these, one only needs to hit fast and hard in the most painful spot to throw them into panic. It's all the more shocking to a grown man when a blade is professionally inserted into him by a 'harmless' red-haired, blue-eyed boy.
Naruto's left hand slaps around the thugs wrist. His right hand whips out from under his raincoat and stabs a kunai into the thug's forearm. Two seconds of silent shock pass, Naruto remembers being confronted by similar degenerates back in Konoha and twists the blade.
The thug screams, falls to his knees and claws desperately at Naruto's kunai-hand. The redhead doesn't budge. The other thug is shocked by the sight before coming to his senses and drawing a knife. A kage-bunshin charges out of the bushes and knocks the thug face-first into the mud. Unconscious.
The original Naruto wrenches the kunai out the remaining thug's arm. His fingers spin the kunai around and punch the blunt end into the soft side of the thug's head. He slumps deeper into the mud with his cohort unconscious next to him.
Naruto looks down on the unconscious men; the kunai spins and rights itself in his hand. These men are scum good only for making victims, killing them now would be a service to the community. Nobody would miss them, but the redhead hesitates to finish them off.
'There's hardly any difference between these pigs and the ones that nearly killed me three years ago. It's only the circumstances that are different: I got the drop on them this time. I'm in control and they're helpless. I don't need to kill them...Shit.'
Naruto creates a handseal and summons half a dozen shadow clones.
"Take these two; dump them someplace out of the way so not to alert any of their buddies."
Naruto watches the clones drag the thugs into the tree line before sheathing his kunai and continuing his walk.
'I've gotta work on the whole 'cold-blooded' thing. My career will depend on it...'
Tazuna trudges on a muddy road leading away from the construction site. The old man holds his glasses up with one hand and gently rubs his bruised cheek with the other. Behind him, a foot falls hard into a puddle of water in a wheel hole.
He turns; adjusting his glasses he sees one of the workers who were against him at the construction site. A much younger man, late twenties, thin but wiry and wearing loose-fitting work cloths. Stringy, black hair sticks to his face and frames a set of manic eyes. He wields a crowbar; Tazuna can only scoff in disappointment. It's come to this...
"I'm guessing that anybody can cash in on the reward on my head, right, Hoichi?"
The younger man looks conflicted, "I'm sorry, Tazuna-san. I really, truly am. The bridge is gone. We can't bring back commerce to the island while Gatou is here."
"So you're going to kill a friend instead of the man responsible for putting us in this mess?"
Hoichi impotently swings his crowbar, "You put us in this mess! Gatou's terms were fair. But no, you were too 'honourable' to accept the deal."
Tazuna shakes his head, "Honour was only part of it. A man like Gatou doesn't stick to a deal when he can slowly raise the rates for his services while using our country like a smuggler's mule."
The younger man straightens himself up as if seeing himself through another's eyes and hating the sight. Still, he knows he can't stop now. He begins moving towards Tazuna who stands his ground.
"Nothing can help us now. This is all I can do to make things just a little bit better. I need something to look forward to and the money on your head is the only thing left here."
His crowbar rises and swings down on Tazuna's head; it is deflected by something small and metallic. Both men see the crowbar land in the mud, a shuriken lands in a puddle next to it. Hoichi is swept out from under and lands on his back; he opens his eyes and sees a dark-haired boy kneeling over him with a kunai calmly poised to stab down into his heart.
"Stop!"
Sasuke turns his head a little to acknowledge Tazuna but doesn't take his eyes off of Hoichi who raises his hands in defense.
"Why?" asks the Uchiha.
Tazuna's expression is incredulous. A remorseless twelve-year old boy ready to run a blade through a scared idiot. The old man can't wrap his mind around any person, much less a kid, asking for a reason not to kill someone.
Sasuke patiently waits for an answer while his kunai hovers.
Tazuna puts his hands together in pleading, "Please, don't do it. He's just scared and stupid. It's all because of Gatou."
"He's no better than one of Gatou's thugs. Why should I give him another chance at killing you?"
Tazuna stammers at a loss, Hoichi begins crying as the kunai hovers over his heart.
"I'm sorry...Oh God, don't kill me. I have a family that-"
-Sasuke tunes him out. The man's blubbering disgusts the Uchiha who tightens his grip on the kunai. The tip trembles an inch above the man's heart.
Then something shifts in Sasuke, a voice from long ago overlaps the crying man's voice.
His own.
'No...NO! Mother! Father! Help, he's going to kill me! Don't let him get me! Save me! Where is everybody? Is anybody alive...?'
...The crying voice of his nine-year old self gives way to the crying of the man under his blade. Pathetic...just like he was on that night three years ago. The kunai lifts away; Hoichi calms down but gasps when Sasuke grabs him by his greasy hair and pulls him close enough to whisper in his ear.
"You have more to fear from me than Gatou. Never come near the old man again while I'm here."
Sakura sits at the table in Tsunami's kitchen. Her head rests on her hands; an expression of utter boredom is plastered on her face. Looking out the window, she sees one of Naruto's kage bunshins patrolling the property and doing a job she should be capable of doing.
At the stove, Tsunami works a whisk through a large steaming pot on the stove.
"Sakura-chan, would you like to test the sauce?" she asks with a bright smile.
The genin quickly replaces her sour expression with something more upbeat. No point in bringing down the woman's mood as well. Then a genuine smile comes to her face at the thought that while Naruto and his bunshins are more suited for guard duty, her more refined manners make her ideal for humouring their client.
"Sure, I'd love to," she answers with a genuine smile that neither Naruto nor Sasuke could ever manage.
Naruto steps under the cheap plastic awning of a ramen hut. The streets are empty, looking each way shows only rustic housing shrouded in mist and light rain. Under the awning, the ramen hut is a standard establishment albeit poorly maintained. Naruto shakes off his raincoat and takes a seat at the counter. The chef is a heavyset man about the same age as Teuchii, only not as friendly-looking.
He gives the redhead a suspicious look-over, "I only got seafood ramen here."
Naruto nods, "That's fine with me."
The chef shrugs and turns to his stove. A stool nearby creaks, Naruto looks over to see a new customer sitting two stools down. A decorative umbrella folds up and is placed on the counter by a very striking girl. She wears wooden sandals over bare feet with painted toenails. The soft fabric of a comfortable looking skirt covers her legs which are hinted at by a slit running up to her shin. The upper half of her salmon-coloured yukata is tight in spots to emphasize her curves. Her arms are bare; the skin is soft but subtle shadows shows muscle tone. Smooth, dark-brown hair flows down over her shoulders and back.
'Too well-off to be a poor fisherman's daughter.'
His attention is broken by the sound of a dish landing on wood, "Here ya go, kid. Enjoy."
Naruto's eyes linger on the girl for two seconds more before looking down on the ramen dish. Steaming water with noodles and pieces of tuna dissolving into a white broth. Not exactly a carefully prepared meal. He makes a shrug with his eyebrows and digs into the ramen with his chopsticks.
The chef gives the girl his full attention, "What'll I get you, missy?"
"Nothing, thank you. I just want to rest for a minute."
The old man makes a dirty smile, "Rest up and give your hinder a good sit."
Naruto is about to swallow a mouthful of chewed meat when the girl speaks to him.
"Terrible weather, isn't it?"
He only shrugs as he swallows, "Could be worse. I don't think the people here are too concerned about the weather."
She nods lightly and goes quiet while Naruto deposits another pink piece of fish meat in his mouth.
"I don't mean to alarm you, but it would be in your best interest to leave Wave Country as soon as possible."
He doesn't respond. His eyes zone out looking into the hut, he chews the meat twice more and then downs it with a meaty gulp. The ramen chef backs away from the two and takes a seat in the back of the hut.
Naruto breaths out, puts an elbow on the counter and turns on his stool to face the girl. High cheekbones, rounded jaw with a shallow chin dimple, pink lips, thin nose and brown eyes. Without a doubt the most beautiful girl he has seen yet. The kind that boys would trample over each other in every vain attempt to woo her. Part of him wants to as well; to throw himself at her feet like a worshipper vying for the attention of a goddess. Sadly, that part of him is smothered out by the cynicism that life has instilled in him.
But for a ninja, that cynicism may be what helps him stay alive.
"Why leave? I kinda like it here; the place has a rustic charm to it."
She looks at him with a calm expression that doesn't falter.
"Whoever you are and however highly you think of your chances, bad things await you if you stay."
He tries to match her expression, except with a small, sardonic smile.
"If a girl as well-refined as you can manage even with the killers and rapists walking around, then I'm sure my chances are pretty damn good."
Her expression holds but one of her nails scratches against the counter.
"I'm trying to help you."
His smile drops, "Save it for the people of Wave Country if you're such a good samaritan. You know, the people who have to put up with the trouble here because they're too poor to leave."
She looks away and shakes her head, "You're a fool. You'll die here for nothing."
He puts his attention back on his ramen, "I've already heard that. It's hard for me to feel scared when the worst I have to worry about are a bunch of dull bandits and loser ninjas."
Her head turns to his; her calm is wearing thin.
"Why are you here? What do you hope to gain from this?"
He still doesn't look at her as he eats, "None of your business."
She leans in closer and speaks with an edge, "Money. That's all. Well, you need to understand something very important. My reasons go much deeper than money. And I back them up with my skills which are considerable. Can you say the same?"
He swallows the last of his ramen and turns to her, "You talk too much. Impressive skills and an indomitable spirit won't protect you from a stray kunai landing in your back."
Throwing some money on the counter, he stands, straightens out his raincoat and turns to leave but is stopped by her voice.
"I hope your reason for staying gives you comfort when the worst comes to pass."
Tazuna is escorted by Sasuke back to the cottage. Both the old man and the preteen are lost in thought and show no interest in anything other than walking. The encounter with the mad worker brought out something painful for each of them. Tazuna's faith in his fellow man was dented and Sasuke, coincidentally, saw a part of himself in the blubbering, pathetic worker.
Sasuke draws a kunai when he sees Naruto approach him and Tazuna from an intersecting trail.
Tazuna gives a weak greeting; Naruto just sighs in annoyance at seeing Sasuke getting ready to take down an imposter.
The redhead holds up a hand in a halting gesture, "My mother was a cheap hooker and my father was a ramen vendor. Satisfied?"
Tazuna looks confused and disgusted, but Sasuke nods and sheaths his kunai.
He makes a sound of dismissal as he walks by Naruto who follows him and Tazuna towards the cottage.
"Wait," calls Naruto.
Tazuna and Sasuke stop, the redhead walks between them and stops a few feet ahead.
"What is it?" asks Sasuke.
Naruto doesn't respond for a moment, he just looks at the cottage beyond the trees with concentration.
"My Kage Bunshins just got taken out..."
Sakura stands on the cottage porch wondering where Naruto's kage bunshins disappeared to. The unkempt property she watches over brightens modestly as the sun finally breaks through the dismal clouds overhead. It lifts her spirits a little, but she begins trembling under an atmosphere that suddenly becomes heavy and frightening.
It reminds her of Kakashi's scarecrow test and the terrible wave of killing intent he emitted over them. This time, however, her increasing anxiety has no visible cause. All she feels is an irrational, festering dread growing in the pit of her stomach and making her sweat in the cool temperature.
She grips a kunai flat to her chest, balls her free hand into a fist and tries to push the fear down. She halts its growth through sheer will, but it doesn't subside. Then suddenly, it's gone.
She exhales, and then hears the sound of a creaking floorboard close behind her.
The front door bursts open, Naruto careens into the kitchen with a kunai ready for action. Sasuke, also armed, comes into the kitchen from the back door, his eyes scan for danger. At the meal table sit Sakura and Tsunami who stare at the startling arrivals. Still in a combat stance, Naruto's eyes search the kitchen and take in the confused faces of Sakura and Tsunami. Confused, but safe. Naruto lowers his blade, across the kitchen Sasuke does the same and glares at him.
"Naruto, what is it?" asks Sakura.
Tsunami looks concerned, "What's wrong, Uzumaki-san?"
"Tsunami!"
Tazuna rushes in, nearly bowling over Naruto.
"Are you okay?"
The woman looks incredulous, "Of course, dad. What is going on?"
The old man gestures to Naruto beside him, "The brat here said he sensed some mess going on here. Now I'm guessing he's just full of crap."
"Hey!" squawks Naruto.
Sakura stands up, "Oh, that must have been Anko-san. She arrived five minutes ago."
The sound of a flushing toilet draws everyone's attention to the bathroom door. A moment passes with no sound of activity inside. Kakashi comes into the kitchen from upstairs with a towel over his bare shoulders and his hair dampened.
"Ah, the old bathroom misdirection. Classic Anko."
Before an inquiry is made, Naruto sees everybody except Kakashi tense up. They all look at something behind him, Sasuke raises his kunai. Naruto readies his blades and spins around...and comes eye-to-eye with the largest set of cleavage he's seen yet. In person, anyway. He can only stare at the impressive bust restrained by a tight fishnet mesh under the flaps of a brown overcoat.
"Your shortness has a perk."
Naruto's vision comes back into focus and looks up at the face of the owner of the tits. Her face is round but her jaw is sharp. Her violet hair is tied up in a ponytail which spikes out. Her dark eyes are half-lidded and her thin-lipped mouth bends into a coy smile.
"The erection won't do though."
Naruto sputters and looks down at himself then back up at Anko whose smile shows some teeth.
'Get it under control. Remember: she was on the shitter a minute ago...Damn it, I'm getting more aroused!'
Dinnertime. Everybody helps themselves to the stir-fry feast filling a large pot on the stove. Naruto pecks at his helping with chopsticks while watching Anko load up her plate.
Sakura whispers in his ear, "It's alright; I felt the same way when I saw her."
Naruto raises an eyebrow at her, "You mean you had an erection too?"
Sakura stares at him, "What? No! What I meant was-"
"-Are you confessing something to me, Sakura?" he asks nonchalantly.
Sakura just grumbles and returns to eating her meal. With their bowls brimming with Tsunami's noodles, everybody sits down to dinner. Tazuna doesn't eat; he just stares off into space. Even in the warmth of his home, the incident at the construction yard looms over him like the darkening sky overhead.
Kakashi speaks up, "I imagine things were pretty rough today."
Tazuna faces him, "I've known those men for years. They were good and dependable. But today...it was as if they were starving bandits who would kill for stale bread. How can anybody change like that?"
His question leaves an anxious silence over the dinner table. Tsunami looks almost frightened by her father's mood. Anko is the only one unaffected, all her attention is on eating out the bowl in her hands.
Kakashi, a veteran both of the shinobi world and human nature, mentally sorts through his index of harsh life lessons. He thinks about Naruto, a boy whose life has been mired in the prejudices of ignorant 'common people' who can only lash out blindly against things they can't understand. Their actions are inexcusable, but one can't be too harsh on them; they are only human.
Kakashi speaks in a knowing voice, "Times like these have strange effects on people. Things you'd never expect come to the surface, not all of them good. Those men aren't necessarily bad people, they're just scared men lost in a situation way over their heads. Ordinary people grow up never expecting to deal with men like Gatou."
The old man thinks on that, "Ordinary people, huh? Fisherman, carpenter, merchant and stonemason. The best jobs a guy can get here in Wave Country. Now it seems that dealing with filth like Gatou is a career in of itself. Yeah, Ma and Pa never warned me about crap like that."
Kakashi makes a bemused sound, "Don't sweat it. It's at desperate times like these that the best thing you can do is spend your well-earned money hiring guys like me to do the dirty work for you."
He turns his attention to Anko, "So, when are you going out?"
Anko gulps down a mouthful of noodles, "Ah...I'll set out at midnight and when I find him in time I'll strike around 2:00AM. Zabuza is recovering from your fight so he's bedridden somewhere waiting for a beautiful angel of death to stick something sharp in the back of his neck."
Tsunami gasps from across the table; Kakashi gives Anko a one-eyed glare.
"Anko, wrong company."
She shrugs, "Whatever. Anyway, I doubt I need to take too many precautions with Zabuza. Even without being wounded, he stopped being a real assassin after his sad attempt on the Mizukage's life. Nowadays he acts more like a wrecking ball with a spinning blade attached."
Sakura sets her chopsticks in the edge of her bowl, "Anko-sensei, how do you know this about Zabuza? He's an assassin, how do assassins get publicity?"
Anko snorts, "Publicity, eh? I guess that's a word for it. In Zabuza's case, he just let himself go and picked up that giant butcher's knife. Not much room for delicacy when lugging around a blade like that. Anyway; I know what I know about Zabuza through the Bingo book. If you ask me; the best ninja are the ones who aren't in the book."
Naruto nods, 'Damn right, that should be the whole point of being a ninja.'
He pays no more attention to the conversation and concentrates on tunnelling through the noodles to the bottom of the bowl. The mood of the dinner maintains a sense of calm and stability in spite of the day's events. Then a small voice cuts into the mood.
"Go home, you can't help here."
Everybody turns to the source of the voice, in the doorway stands Inari with an expression that looks disturbing on a small child's face.
"Gatou owns this island, everybody knows it. You sit there eating Mom's food talking like you can fix everything, but he will kill you all. Do yourselves a favour and-"
-Naruto starts coughing and hacking, drawing attention away from Inari.
He clears his throat, "Sorry, sorry. These noodles are just so good I got ahead of myself."
Tsunami forces a smile, Inari gets flustered.
"Didn't you hear me? I said that-"
-Naruto cuts in again with another coughing fit that he drags out for nearly a minute.
He wipes his mouth and makes a bashful chuckle, "Sorry again, this is nothing compared to the time I choked on a mouthful of ramen and it never came back up. The thing's probably become a starchy rock resting in the bottom of my lungs. It's a miracle I'm even alive right now."
Inari tries to break in but Anko beats him to it.
"That's nothing. I once ate dango laced with atropine. That's an insecticide made from nightshade."
Naruto raises an eyebrow, "Why?"
Anko looks embarrassed, "Eh, it was all part of some elaborate assassination attempt I made once. Then I screwed it all up by ordering the same meal in the same restaurant as my target. Some jackass waiter mixed-up the orders and I ended up-"
-Inari rushes over to the stove and shoves off the large pot of noodles; it makes a painfully loud ceramic crash on the kitchen floor. Everybody bolts up out of their chairs as the contents of the pots spill towards their feet. Inari just stands over the mess with his shoulders rising and falling and his angry eyes glaring at the group from under the shadow of his sun-hat.
Tsunami huffs and narrows her eyes at her son who starts ranting.
"Don't ignore me! You have no idea of what's going to happen to you! Soon Gatou and his men will come here and they'll drag you all out into the woods and kill you! Or worse!"
Inari's claim hangs silently over the kitchen.
Tazuna looks sadly on his grandson while Tsunami appears to be restraining herself from lashing out. Kakashi and Sasuke are neutral, Sakura is worried and Naruto looks annoyed. Anko just waits impatiently for this little drama to end so she can get back to eating.
Naruto breaks the silence, "You seem to think really highly of this Gatou guy."
Inari focuses his glare on the redhead, "I hate him more than anything but he gets what he wants and doesn't let anybody get in his way. That's the only thing you can be sure of here in Wave Country."
Naruto matches the boy's glare, "I'm sure he'd be happy to hear you say that. You're the kind of person he likes dealing with: a dumb sucker too scared and weak to give him any trouble. But we've got a great chance against him because we are nothinglike you..."
Inari gasps, he looks as if he's ingested something toxic.
"Naruto, he's just a kid," says Sakura.
He gives her an exasperated look, "So?"
Inari's shock wears off; he snarls and rushes at the redhead. He's stopped by a smack across the face delivered by his own mother. He staggers back; his hand gingerly cups the blooming red mark on his cheek. His dark eyes become limpid; he shrinks way from his mother.
Her soft, lovely features become harsh.
"I'm ashamed of you, Inari."
"Mom, what?"
"We have guests who need shelter only we can provide. It's the least we can do after what they've done for us."
"It doesn't matter what they do, they will-"
"-It doesn't matter that they're risking their lives for your grandfather?"
Inari sniffles, "Mom..."
Tsunami doesn't let up, "With all of the misery here in Wave Country we need to take comfort from what we can. I've spent almost the whole day preparing a dinner good enough to get our minds off the troubles out there. And now you, of all people, have ruined it. You've brought Gatou's misery into this house!"
Inari covers his ears and runs from the kitchen. Tsunami shakes her head, grabs a rag off the sink and kneels down to start cleaning up the mess that was her well-prepared dinner. A moment later, everybody from the dinner table comes to help the grimly determined woman. Everybody except Naruto and Anko; they remain at the table eating.
Tazuna and Team 7 lounge around and unwind on the patio as the evening descends. Sasuke and Sakura stand by the porch railing, Tazuna and Kakashi sit side-by-side on wooden patio chairs but Naruto sits above them, on the edge of the roof. Anko is nowhere to be seen.
Tazuna sips from a delicate ceramic cup; he lays it on the armrest of his chair and settles back. Next to him, Kakashi just gazes up into the darkening sky. On the other side of the window behind them is the kitchen, Tsunami sits alone at the dinner table drinking a mug of coffee. Tazuna looks at his daughter from over his shoulder, he sighs at how weary she seems. The fact that he's not the only one suffering brings him no comfort whatsoever.
"Inari's father died when he was three. He was a fisherman and typhoon season is the leading cause of death among fishermen here, next to old age. I've always tried to be there for Inari, but a grandfather is no replacement for a real dad. A generation thing, I guess."
Kakashi listens, the old man pauses to take a drink of sake before resuming.
"Things changed when Kaiza arrived here from Fire Country. He was a fisherman, big and sturdy with a good head on-top of a good heart. Inari and Tsunami were crazy about him, and a year later Kaiza became my son-in-law."
Tazuna sighs and hangs his head, Kakashi eyes him.
"He risked his life during typhoon season to keep the dam standing. He was a hero to Inari. Then Gatou came. Shipping is the only way we get commerce here; Gatou began extorting money from us by cutting off our own independent supply lines. Myself, Kaiza and other community leaders confronted Gatou about it and since then Gatou has been wringing our country dry by making us hopelessly dependent on his shipping. Kaiza was a casualty; Gatou executed him and several others in front of a crowd of Wave citizens. Inari was there, he saw it all. He's been a sad little thing ever since."
Kakashi sits forward in his chair, "Is that why you chose to build the bridge?"
Tazuna squints as he tries to remember, "I don't know. Maybe it was for Inari. Or Kaiza. Or the pride of Wave country. All I do know is that it gave us all something to look forward to, even if we all knew deep down it was probably hopeless..."
In a dark empty meadow lit only by a pale blue glowstick standing in the ground, Anko sits cross-legged. Around her slithers small snakes, all trailing towards an opening in the trees providing a view of the darkened ocean. The silhouette of something large and snake-like rises up in the darkness. The glow stick makes crescent-shaped reflections on large scales, a pair of amber reptile eyes flash like spinning coins.
"Missstresss," drawls an edgy, high-pitched voice.
"Hey Chizoka. See any interesting sights?" Anko asks casually.
The large thing shifts in the dark, "The Island is wrought with weaklingsss and ssscum good only for feeding on."
"Now, be nice. Their lives are shitty enough without being talked down to by a snake. Again, did you see anything that can give me a lead on the target?"
"My kin have found a small hut being occupied by the assassin. The ssscent of blood they picked off of the one-eyed ninja led them there."
"Great. I can pop over there, kill the bastard and be back before the buzzards wake up."
The snake's head comes into the light, "Glad to be of service, mistresss. Now, the termsss of my sssummoning."
"Yeah. I know you're not impressed with any of the civilians of this island, but don't eat any of them. Go for the thugs, nobody will miss them."
The snake lets out a shivering hiss, "Very well. Perhapsss I will dine on the two dregsss left gagged and unconsciousss by the red-haired boy."
That catches Anko's interest, "You mean that Naruto kid?"
"One of my kin caught ssscent of the boy. A very ssstrange scent, one rarely found in this world. A demonic ssscent."
Anko shrugs, "There's no mystery there. The kid holds the Kyuubi inside him."
The snake's body shakes with its head, "No. The Fox's ssscent was present, but it was smothered under a stronger ssscent. Stronger because it came from the boy himself and not from The Bijuu locked away under the boy's flesh. This Naruto is...interesssting..."
In the pitch-blackness flashes the visage of a pristine white face with no mouth and slanted black eyes.
Naruto's eyes open in the dark. He makes a movement to get up, then thinks for a few seconds and falls back onto the couch. The only light in the living room comes from an amber coloured light in the wall next to the opening to the kitchen.
In the dark of the kitchen, the sheen of the stove faintly reflects the light coming from the living room. The white walls look ghostly in the weak glow of the nightlight. He tries to remember the dream that awoke him. He remembers; it wasn't a dream, and he starts to rise.
He reaches down and picks up a watch; the time reads 1:46AM. The watch is cheap, no joints or mechanisms just a smooth plastic band with a rectangular time piece in the centre. He slips the watch on and grabs his dried mission cloths.
The day was muggy and grey, but the evening is clear with stars and a half-moon. The front door creaks open, Naruto creeps out and gently lets the rusty spring pull the door close. Secure, he turns around and stops, Sasuke is there, leaning against the porch railing looking at him.
"What're you up for?"
Naruto walks towards the patio steps, "What're you up for? The property is secure; you don't have to be out here."
Sasuke leans an elbow in the railing, "Your kage-bunshins don't make me feel any safer. They're only as smart and skilled as their summoner, after all."
Naruto stops at the edge of the steps, "I wouldn't feel particularly safe either if my security depended on some snob who only cares about himself."
"I'm not letting my guard down while hoping others will do their jobs right."
Naruto walks down the porch steps, "Keep that attitude up. Someday, your life will be in the hands of somebody who knows you well enough to leave you for dead."
Sasuke scoffs at the idea, "Are you hoping you're that somebody?"
The redhead retorts only by flipping off The Uchiha as he walks off into the dark.
A soft, faint light casts the shadow of a thin tree-branch across Haku's mask. The shadow moves, but Haku doesn't. She is a pillar of silence in a dark forest of shifting flora. In a meadow ahead stand clones of the blonde boy she met earlier. Their paths cross as each walks a patrol route through the woods.
'Kage bunshins. Rare. Not even Zabuza-sama can create that many at once. With all of these clones in my way, not to mention Sharingan-Kakashi, I will not be able to secure the bridge-builder.'
Out in the meadow, the two clones turn and welcome another wearing red pants and a grey vest over bare skin as opposed to the casual-clothing the others wear.
'Different clothes, different treatment. The original.'
Haku shifts in the dark and watches Naruto talk with the clones for a moment before leaving them to their patrol and walking on deeper into the woods.
'What are you doing boy?'
Soundlessly, the assassin deftly moves past bushes as she keeps the figure of Naruto in sight.
'If I can't acquire the target, then I can at least remove an obstacle.'
Anko crouches in a patch of tall grass. Peering through the blades, she sees a small raised hut twenty yards ahead. The moonlight shining down through the tall trees overhead make an eerie pattern in the fog drifting around the hut.
A small hiss gets Anko's attention; at her knee is a small Black Mamba.
"I've led you to your prey. Good luck, missstresss..."
The reptile evaporates and Anko checks the time on her watch which reads 1:55AM.
'The murder party starts in 5 minutes…'
After walking for only a couple of minutes, Naruto stops in a meadow basked in the blue hue of the moon. He looks around; the empty meadow is spacious enough to be christened as training or sparring ground. The grass is a little tall and some broken branches lie at the edge of the surrounding treeline, but otherwise the area will do just fine.
Through his eyes, the soft light of the moon makes the meadow look like a monochromatic painting made up only of differing shades of blue and black. The night colours are complimented by the fleeting streaks of yellow fireflies. Pleased by the area and its serene ambience, Naruto begins doing a quick series of stretches.
He's startled by a sudden vision, a memory of a dispersed kage bunshin.
The eyes of the bunshin watch Naruto walk into the meadow from over fifty feet away. From its perspective, the shadowed trees between it and Naruto look like irregularly placed prison bars. Then it sees the figure moving in the dark, silhouetted by the moonlight in the meadow ahead. The figure is slender and moves gracefully before settling behind the cover of a tree.
The memory ends, Naruto goes stiff and fights the urge to turn in the direction of his shadowy stalker. Instead he summons a dozen kage bunshins which move away and form a line facing him. The clones, being extensions of him, know his intentions and wait patiently. He cracks his neck, affirms his position in the centre of the meadow and nods at the clones.
Then they all simultaneously form ram seals and begin gathering chakra.
Haku watches the meadow and its occupants from behind a tree with a clear view from twenty feet away. She reflexively tenses and reaches for her senbon when the redhead's clones begin gathering chakra. The growing pool of chakra causes the grass of the moonlit meadow to press down to the ground as if being blown by a powerful fan.
Naruto stands watching his clones charge up like terrible batteries while loosening up his hands.
Haku can only shake her head in disbelief, 'Just one clone generates enough chakra to exceed my own output. Combined...the clones generate a pool of chakra even greater than what Zabuza-sama is capable of. Retiring this boy may be more trouble than it's worth. Wait...the chakra is great enough to alert-'
-Haku gasps when Naruto's head snaps in her direction, his clones mirror him. The assassin is almost stupefied by how abruptly her cover's been blown. Naruto summons a new clone, it nods once before running off in the direction of the cottage as the original and his charged clones engage Haku.
Kakashi and Sakura rush out onto the cottage porch, Sasuke is gone.
"Where's Sasuke?" asks Sakura frantically.
Kakashi's eyebrows scowl, "Knowing him, he's gone off on his own to investigate the chakra surge. The fool."
The jounin draws a kunai at the sound of rapidly approaching footfalls. He relaxes when 'Naruto' comes out of the darkness and onto the porch. Sakura, in a panic, grabs hold of his shirt and pulls him close.
"Naruto, where's Sasuke? What's going on?"
'Naruto' pries her hands off him, "I'm a bunshin, Sakura. The real Naruto is fighting an assassin in the woods. I didn't see Sasuke on the way over here. Let's hustle, quickly!"
The three of them sprint off the porch and into the dark.
Senbon needles fly like straw in a typhoon. A large portion of Naruto's clones are destroyed, his kunai clashes with Haku's fistful of senbon before locking in a stalemate. Her mask is inches away from his face, he grins maliciously as he remembers the ghostly face that woke him.
"Let me guess: a girl too good-looking and refined to have grown up in a backwater country like this. What're the odds? I met a girl like you earlier."
"How did you know I was out here?" asks Haku with some strain in her voice.
"You figure it out. We're not colleagues exchanging notes!"
Haku summons senbon needles into her free hand for throwing, Naruto explodes into smoke. She recovers from the shock in time to dodge several kunai thrown through the smoke. One of them tears through the fabric of her kimono, just over her ribs.
She hears his voice on the other side of the smoke, "The big question is: why did you approach me at the ramen stand today? You had the advantage but instead you just gave me an earful."
The attack comes from the side instead, she deflects a clone's stab with her left and her right hand hooks it in the chest with senbon and dispels it.
She turns back to see the remaining smoke dissipate and reveal Naruto.
"I don't like my opponents to be faceless. And yes, I see the irony in that. You deserved a chance to clear out and save yourself. You have no chance now."
Haku draws a wrapped bundle and tosses it up. Naruto's eyes nearly follow but resist and he intercepts a senbon-enhanced strike from the girl. Her free hand makes a one-handed seal, she kawarimi's with the bundle in the air. It lands at Naruto's feet, Haku throws a senbon down at the bundle, it explodes and highly-pressurized water hits Naruto, leaving him disoriented and drenched. His confusion cuts to alarm when he feels a new presence enter the fray.
Haku lands, she and Naruto turn to greet a flurry of shuriken aimed at the assassin. Her slender body bends and twists in a blur to avoid the projectiles which impact against trees or continue into the dark. The attacker immediately follows up with a stream of fire launched down on Haku from a new direction up in the trees.
Naruto backs away from the heat as a wall of flame erupts between him and Haku. She ignores the flames spreading through the grass and sees a dark figure leap from the treetop and fall towards her. She backs away, Sasuke lands in front of her and they clash.
Naruto plows through the flames, tuck and rolls behind Haku and chargers her from behind. Haku breaks away before she can be sandwiched between her two opponents. Naruto and Sasuke bitterly acknowledge each other and face Haku who gathers herself to take on the two boys.
"Sasuke! Naruto!"
The three combatants look to see Kakashi enter the meadow with Sakura and dozens of Naruto's patrol clones.
The girl looks to Naruto with a sad expression behind her mask, "I'm sorry..."
She makes a handseal, Naruto's eyes go wide, and he looks down at his wet vest as large clusters of ice begin growing on his chest.
Blood erupts from his mouth as massive icicles sprout from the clusters, shoot through his torso and out of his back.
'What...?'
All of the incoming shadow clones are vanquished before reaching Haku who stands solemnly watching Naruto fall.
"Naruto...!" screams Sakura.
Kakashi's eye almost shoots out his skull at the sight but he keeps running. Sasuke snarls and charges at Haku. Face down in the grass, Naruto's eyes stare as he struggles hoarsely to just breathe. He turns his head and sees his hitai-ate lying in the grass nearby, Sasuke's fire jutsu is vibrantly reflected in it. The fire spreads quickly through the meadow and turns it into a small slice of hell.
His arms strain to push his body up; he seizes and vomits blood before collapsing.
'I survived back then...why not now?'
He feels hands grasp his shoulders and back, he tries to react but is already too far gone. He's turned over on his side, he sees Sakura level her face with his. She cries. Then all goes dark.
In Hozukijo...
Tojima is awoken by the alarm sounding outside his quarters. The sound itself isn't distressing on its own; the real alarm comes from the innate fact that it's sounding in a facility housing some of the worst dregs in the elemental nations. Tojima groans as he wills his middle-aged body off his bed and instinctively find the light switch in the dark.
He finds it, switches it on and the surroundings of his drab quarters flash into existence. It has light-grey walls and a black-tile floor with furnishings for both an office and living quarters. Next to the light switch is a two-way intercom.
He presses the button and clears his throat, "Dr. Tojima speaking. What are we losing sleep over tonight?"
A firm, authoritative voice answers, "Tojima-san, there is a situation in K-block. All cameras have gone blind and none of the security personnel are answering their comms."
Tojima's tired eyes are immediately lit up with fear.
'K-block...Uzumaki!'
The bloodied icicles protruding from Naruto's back glow with the light of the rapidly encroaching fire.
As the flames lick his sleeves, Naruto's hand curls into a fist. The skin of his hand is suddenly splashed by a pitch-black discoloration that spreads everywhere like ink being dropped into a glass of water. It reaches his face while his cloths burn away; his eyes open like two small, blood-red lights shining amidst total darkness.
~ O ~
End of Chapter
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