Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters!

Enjoy! Sorry for brining the chapter out so late, I'll try and be faster next time!


"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Kyuubi talking"

(Kyuubi thinking)

"Inner Sakura talking"


Crimson eyes with three tomoe continued to watch the blond fox, amusement dancing like fire in them, the spinning orbs flickered over to the blonds team mates, his eyes focusing on the raven haired figure of the group. He would come again, but later now was not the time, crimson eyes disappeared, taking with it a soft breeze.


Kakashi's ears pricked as he heard the rustle of foliage, quickly guarding himself with a kunai he turned to the source of the noise to find….nothing? Searching around for good measure he finally put the kunai away, looking back to his students, his expression serious,

"Stay up here, do not enter the fight" Sakura snorted in an unladylike fashion grumbling about ungrateful perverts. Kakashi gave her a one-eyed smile before disappearing from view, both Sakura and Sasuke shifted their positions to get a better view of the battle occurring below, both oblivious to what was about to happen next.


"So, do we have a deal?" Haku gritted his teeth, 'do I have a choice?' he thought sarcastically "Of course you have a choice missing-nin-kun, you just have to make the right one" The feminine shinobi's eyes widened, had he spoken aloud?

"Nope, your body language is just easy to read"

Haku's eye twitched in annoyance at the cheerful blond, he was too happy, couldn't he be more serious in this type of situation? Sighing the missing-nin nodded in agreement, Naruto's grin got wider, letting his hand fall and putting away the kunai he waved to the fake hunter-nin "Don't forget what you agreed to Haku-kun" before he disappeared into the foliage, leaving Haku crouching with his fists clenched, not quite sure where to go from there. Then he noticed it 'How does he know my name?'


Meanwhile chibi Naruto was doing a little victory dance, waving his hands in the air while he turned around shaking his body, Kyuubi watched with a sweatdrop planted onto his forehead, yet again. He knew it Kami-sama was playing some twisted foul trick on him, he always said that the God had his head on backwards!

He decided now would be the time to crush the chibi's happy moment with the flaws Naruto had just created in his own plans. "Oi kit, you revealed the nin's name to him, you're not meant to know it"

Naruto froze immediately, assuming the thinking position he sat in the water filled cavern (Three, two, one…) in a flash Naruto was bouncing up and down the walls in panic. All the while Kyuubi watched the show in amusement before the great demon turned around and left the blond to solve the problem on his own.

"Ahhh! Kyuubi you got to help me!" The great demon didn't even stir

"Kyuubi" He whined, nothing

"I'll be your best friend" The great demon stopped breathing stilling all movement as best as he possibly could, before sprinting to the furthest end of his cage out of sight, leaving Naruto pouting at the entrance

"STUPID MUTATED RABBIT!"

A vein popped on top of the foxes head but he did not reply.

Sighing the red and white clad boy opened his eyes peering into the clearing he saw Zabuza and Kakashi in a headlock of jutsu's, looking further into the distance he saw Tazuna, Sasuke and Sakura watching the battle from above.

Not much further ahead he saw Haku ready to strike, Naruto smiled, these were the good ol' days, if only things could stay like this so simple, no wars or deaths…pfft what a dream world.

Shaking his head to rid himself of his thoughts he disappeared forward towards the tree where his teammates sat in hiding.

He landed in front of Tazuna who jumped back in shock clutching his chest, Sasuke and Sakura who were too engrossed in the battle took no notice of the blond who had just appeared behind them. Naruto peered at his sensei's battle from over his teammates' shoulders,

"Ah if sensei doesn't be careful he might get trapped in a water prison again"

Sakura screamed with a jolt of shock she unbalanced herself and went sailing over the edge of the branch, Sasuke jumped back a kunai in hand, Naruto wasted no time and caught onto Sakura's hand, smiling down at the white haired girl. Sasuke just muttered a curse at the blond while Sakura settled for trying to attack Naruto, who laughed it off that is until Sakura whipped out a kunai, the weapon sailed through the air, Naruto just smiled as he dodged it, but the shift in weight unbalanced him

"Uh oh…"

Sakura's eyes went wide along with Tazuna's and Sasuke's as both blond and strawberry blond tumbled over the edge and landed with a rather loud 'thud' on the earthen floor below. Rushing to the edge Sasuke and Tazuna held their breath at the position Naruto and Sakura were in.

Both their faces were extremely close to each other, their breaths mingled with one anothers, Sakura's hands were placed on the floor on either side of Naruto's head, while the blonds hands were on the girls shoulders stopping her from coming down on him further then she already had. Loose strands of hair came out of the messy bun and tickled Naruto's cheeks, the young shinobi jolted himself out of his stupor swallowing he said in all seriousness

"Ne, Sakura I'm flattered at the offer, really I am but… I don't go for flat chested women"

Sasuke and Tazuna fell feet up in the air, while Sakura went beet red in anger and embarrassment before pounding Naruto's head in the ground (literally) and stomped away. Recovering Sasuke jumped down to inspect his teammate, who was now trying to get his head out of the ground "You had that one coming"

Naruto with one last push popped his head out of the ground falling back on his behind. He grinned up at Sasuke "But it was worth every second" Sasuke smirked at his grinning and weird teammate.

"…Saaa, what are you guys doing?"

All turned towards the 'newcomer' "Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto bounced right up towards the ninja jumping up and down in front of him waving his hands in the air excitedly "Did you beat him? Huh? Did you, did you, did you?!"

Kakashi sweatdropped at his enthusiastic student "Ah…h-hai"

"Sugoi! That's so cool" Kakashi smiled at his student before inspecting everyone else seeing Tazuna climbing carefully down the tree mumbling something about crazy shinobi, Sasuke was giving Naruto a summary of what happened while he was gone, and Sakura….she was looking down poking her chest, she leaned on a nearby tree as depression lines appeared over her head.

The Cyclops sighed, why was it he was always stuck with the weird ones? Suddenly things got blurry he swayed before falling face first towards the floor, the last thing he heard was his students shouting his name before everything went black.


Kakashi woke up to unfamiliar surroundings, he immediately tensed up "Ah you're awake" Kakashi's head whipped around, an smiling young woman came into his vision she carried a wet towel, approaching him she knelt down, taking the warm towel off of Kakashi's forehead and replaced it with the cold one

"You probably shouldn't move very much" Kakashi gave the woman a confused look, seeing the look on his face the female stuttered realizing she hadn't introduced herself

"Gomen, my name is Tsunami, I am…"

"Tazuna's daughter" Kakashi said suddenly remembering that his client did indeed have a daughter and that they were probably at his house. Tsunami nodded a warm smile spreading across her features "I can't thank you enough for continuing on this mission" she said bowing and showing quite a large amount of cleavage

'It's time's like this that I can't help but love my job' Kakashi thought suppressing a perverted giggle "Ah!" Tsunami shot up, for one horrifying moment Kakashi thought she had saw him peeking but then "I almost forgot you might be wondering where your students are Kakashi-san"

The scarecrow suppressed a groan leave it to his cute students to ruin his fun, but he nodded all the same. Explaining that they were out the back training, Kakashi asked if they had anything that would be able to support him enough to walk. Looking hesitant she warned Kakashi that he probably shouldn't move around too much again but exited the room and came back with some crutches all the same.

Smiling at her Kakashi exited out to the back of the house, and came face to face with a sight he really didn't expect to see.

The back yard was indeed a sight to see, a large forest spread out across the landscape while right next to it on the right was a magnificent large lake it crystal surface shining in the summers sun. The greenery of the place was a sight to see, but that's not what had shocked him.

About a quarter with in the deep lake was a knee deep Sasuke trying to balance himself to get onto the surface while Naruto was standing on the surface beside him arms crossed watching him with a stern look on his face. Smiling eerily Naruto shouted out Sasuke's name the raven jumped in shock and disrupted his chakra flow plunging into the deep water. Surfacing he spit a mouthful of water out he glared at the laughing blond above him before grasping his leg and pulling Naruto down beside him.

Naruto yelped as he resurfaced glaring at Sasuke he splashed the raven with water soon both were in a very animated water fight involving the two plunging each others head under the surface. Kakashi sweatdropped at the sight before he turned to face his female student who was engaged in a taijutsu fight against…Naruto?? Huh? As far as he knew Naruto didn't know how to do a clone his chakra supply was too high.

Kakashi's eye widened as he looked closer 'Kagebushin?!' Kakashi sighed "You're just full of surprises aren't you?" Kakashi continued to mutter under his breath until he heard a loud bang and the earth beneath him shook hard.

Looking up he found Naruto up mid-air rocks flying around him a smirk planted on his face while Sakura was beneath him in a crater she had just made while trying to punch Naruto. Kakashi's jaw almost dislocated his jaw from how low it dropped, he sighed again, too many surprises he was going to die from a heart attack one day…damn cute students.

The jounin made his presence known and called his students over, ushering them inside, hot, sweaty and dripping wet they all sat around the kitchen table. Kakashi calmly asked Naruto to bring in Tazuna and Tsunami in the kitchen because they needed to hear what he was about to say as well.

After a few moments of silence Naruto came back wit both adults, all sat around the table waiting for Kakashi to start. Finally sick of the pregnant silence Naruto spoke up "What's wrong Sensei?"

Kakashi smiled, as impatient as ever, "Huh, well Hunter-nins usually dispose of the body of the person they killed right there"

Sakura gave a confused look "So, what?"

Kakashi sighed no matter how much they improved physically, they only improved a little mentally. "Don't you see? How did that masked boy dispose of Zabuza's body?"

Sakura's brows furrowed as did Tazuna's Tsunami just looked lost "Ha?" Sakura asked

"How should we know the masked boy took the body with him"

Kakashi's face turned into a grave one "Yeah…If he needed proof of his work he could have just taken the head. And the weapon he used to kill Zabuza?"

Sasuke's brows furrowed 'Simple needles' Suddenly everything seemed to click as his eyes widened "No way"

Kakashi just nodded simply Naruto gave a solemn look while everyone else was lost. "Yeah exactly"

Suddenly irritated Tazuna burst out none too kindly "What are you guys talking about?"

'Pause for dramatic effect' Kakashi thought to himself "Most likely Zabuza is alive"

'And cue shocked faces!'

Sakura and Tazuna did not disappoint him as their eyes became as large as saucers and their jaws dropped to the floor. How he loved these moments, Tsunami however was still wondering what they were talking about.

"W-What do you mean?! You checked didn't you!??"

Kakashi nodded "yeah I did, but that was most likely a temporary death"

"The weapon the Hunter-nin used unless it hits a vital organ, has a low probability of killing your opponent. Its an item used by doctors in acupuncture therapy. Hunter-nin's know about the body structure thoroughly. Putting a person in a momentary dead state is probably easy for them. First he carried away the body of the much heavier Zabuza. Second he used that weapon that has a low probability of killing. These two points indicate that his motive was not to kill Zabuza but save him. We can not ignore that possibility."

Tazuna frowned at this "Aren't you thinking too much? Hunter-nins are meant to kill missing-nin"

"No, with all the suspicion we will prepare before it's too late. That's the Shinobi rule. Besides, whether Zabuza is alive or not…There's no assurances that Gatou hasn't hired an even stronger shinobi" Kakashi added with a smile completely decapitating the heavy aura that had just surrounded them in the near hopeless situation.

All face faulted at his care-free attitude, Kakashi giggled at his desired reaction, Something then clicked in Sakura as she frowned "Ne, Kakashi-sensei what do you mean prepare before it's too late? You can barely move"

Kakashi smiled at her 'Ah what fun it was to be young and ignorant' He giggled gaining even more confusion from the young female

"He means he's going to train us Sakura" Sakura whipped around to Naruto who spoke as did Sasuke before they turned to their still smiling sensei as if to confirm, "Yep!"

"Huh?! Sensei what do you mean train?! What's a little training going to do for us, with an opponent that even you struggled against WITH the Sharingan?!"

"Are you trying to get us killed?! CHA" Inner Sakura screamed.

"Sakura who saved me while I was struggling? You guys are improving rapidly" Kakashi smiled down at the three

"But obviously this is just training until I get better, you won't be able to defeat him without me" All ignored Kakashi's suddenly 180 degree turn on the you-guys-are-improving-rapidly speech he just said.

Sakura frowned "But sensei, if Zabuza is alive, he could attack at any time, so should we be training?"

"About that… A person put in a momentary death situation should take a while before their body returns to normal"

"So we train until then" Sasuke muttered

Naruto grinned "Alright sounds like fun!"

"That's not fun…" A small boy around the age of six or seven suddenly entered the kitchen, Naruto frowned as he suddenly remembered 'Damn, I forgot about Inari'

"Oh!! Inari!!! Where were you?!!" Tazuna suddenly shouted arms stretched out welcoming his grandchild to a comforting hug. "Welcome back…Grandpa…" He said pausing only to take off his sandals and overcome the big step in front of him. Before going and hugging Tazuna, Tsunami frowned and scolded him in a mother like fashion

"Inari say hello to these people, they are the shinobi who protected grandpa"

Inari peered out from his hug with his grandpa to look at the four shinobi, untangling himself from his grandpa he pointed at the four before saying "Mom, they're all going to die" like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Kakashi sweatdropped, Sasuke frowned, Sakura looked up in shock, and Naruto looked on solemnly his arms crossed and leaning back in the chair.

"There's no way you can win against Gatou" No one spoke a heavy silence lingered in the air

"If you don't want to die you should leave" Naruto smirked

"Pfft, like we'll lose to someone like Gatou" he said

Inari frowned "Someone like you won't ever be able to beat Gatou! You're all going to die!"

"Inari!" his mother scolded "It's true…" He turned back to the shinobi "There's no point in trying to do anything you're just going to die anyway!"

Naruto gazed directly into the child's eyes unfazed "Didn't you hear me?! I said you're all going to die so just leave!"

Tsunami moved to calm him until Naruto spoke again "Isn't it better to die protecting something precious then to die cry like a baby?"

Inari's fists tightened at his sides before he ran out the door, Naruto stood up and went to the back door "Naruto where are you going?" Kakshi asked silently, Tightening his fist on the handle he replied calmly "To train" before disappearing from sight.

Kakashi gave a mock smile before saying enthusiastically "Well that was interesting! Don't you think?" Everyone sweatdropped at the jounin. Suddenly the jounin froze and then smiled at Sakura

"Ne Sakura your hair is pink again!" The female's eyebrow twitched before she bashed Kakashi's head

"BE MORE SERIOUS WILL YOU!"


That night Naruto lay in his futon gazing at the ceiling waiting for his sensei and teammate to fall into a deep slumber, all the while thinking about what to do with Inari.

Maybe he should just leave the situation to play out like last time, it certainly worked although last time around he was a little rough on the kid. Meh whatever it was the kids fault.

Kyuubi sweatdropped the blond was twenty-five and he still thought like a twelve-year-old. The blond peered over at the two shinobi and smiled getting up he revealed he was fully clothed and armed, gathering the rest of his weapons he disappeared out the window and into the night straight towards Gatou's hide out.

Upon arriving he easily dodged all the mercenaries and genin level missing nin, circulating the area he peered through all the room hoping to find his desired one. He stopped as he found a light protruding out of one, carefully peering through it he came just in time to see Haku break Gatou's arm.

The short man howled in pain before stumbling back, after some commotion the two samarai's at his side and Gatou left the room. Inside Naruto was dancing with Maracca's in his hands chanting "Go Haku, it's you birthday, we're going to party like it's your birthday, woot, woot"

Calming himself he didn't catch on to the short conversation that Haku and Zabuza had, becoming part of the shadows he slid into the room sticking to the ceiling everything was quiet.

Finally getting fed up with the silence Naruto plopped down onto the floor, Haku tensed faster then the eye could see he was behind Naruto with a senbon at his throat. Naruto smiled "Ma, Haku-san you no that won't work" He said before he disappeared and reappeared beside Zabuza.

Haku's eye's went wide "So did you tell him?" Naruto asked jabbing his thumb at the missing-nin beside him. Haku slowly shook his head.

Naruto sighed irritably "So what are you waiting for?" Looking back at a curious looking Zabuza he stated simply "I want to make a deal, I've already informed him" Naruto pointed behind him at Haku who was gritting his teeth

"How do you know my name?" Haku asked, Naruto inwardly cursed but turned all the same "It's not like you're not that well known, you're the one that helps Zabuza when he's in trouble that's why he's survived for so long" Well the cover story was decent, kyuubi thought.

But Haku accepted it after a few moments of mulling it over, turning back to Zabuza Naruto smiled down at him "So here's what I was thinking you guys leave Gatou, and I'll pay you double what he's paying you which is pretty good considering he wasn't going to pay you anyway. Plus on top of that I'll be able, if you want, to get you into Konoha free of charge as full fledge ninja's" Naruto finished off.

Both sweatdropped at the kids bluntness, Zabuza frowned, this was a one-way deal "What the hell do you get out of this brat?" Naruto smiled "no enemies to deal with and a whole load of training time!"

Zabuza and Haku sweatdropped again "And if you don't keep this deal?" Zabuza asked "Then I give you permission to kill me on the spot" Naruto said cheerfully, Haku sweatdropped 'Why is he so happy?!' Zabuza mulled the thought over before nodding.

Naruto smiled widely "okay so, here's the plan!"


Naruto plopped down on the futon his head buried in the pillow, oddly he wasn't sleepy just tired. Searching around he decided to go through his belongings, halfway through his weaponry he came across something odd,

"feathers? And ….what the hell is this?" he asked himself then something clicked 'Oh yeah we were meant to do that prank…' Naruto looked between the two substances and Sasuke then to Kakashi and smiled eerily.

Prodding the raven awake, Sasuke was on full alert but then relaxed when he saw Naruto he glared at the blond about the ask him what he was doing when Naruto held up the two objects in each hand "Prank time" was all he said.

Sasuke smirked.

Early that morning Sasuke and Naruto purposely slept in late waiting for their sensei to wake up, after Kakashi had woken up, showered, and dressed Sasuke and Naruto were getting more and more irritated waiting for the time when Kakashi would exit the door sealing his own fate.

The jounin stretched and went over to the door, both genin peered out of the corner of their eyes holding back their snickers, that is until "Kakashi-sensei!"

'SAKURA!'

Both thought, shooting up they went to stop the girl but it was too late, she opened the door before getting hit by a greenish-brown sticky fowl smelling substance, immediately afterwards another bucket spilled and fish guts spilled out and hit her dead on. She stumbled back

"Don't Sakura!" Both Naruto and Sasuke called but again they were too late as mounds of feathers came down on her. She looked just about ready to cry before a sticky golden substance oozed out of another bucket onto her head, before slowly traveling down her body turning the once white feathers yellow.

All in all she looked like a very big chicken who had rolled around in shit before jumping into a river of dead fish….and smelt like it too. Sasuke and Naruto although remorseful couldn't keep in their laughter, they gasped for air while Kakashi stood their sending sympathetic looks towards the girl before turning towards his other students and giving them stern looks.

"You two outside NOW" Naruto and Sasuke immediately stopped their laughter and bowed their head in shame, picking themselves off of the floor they made their way out the door. Bending down so he was eye level with Sakura, Kakashi said

"I'll go get tsunami so we can clean you up 'kay?" Sakura nodded meekly tears still streaming down her face. Then he added in a small whisper "Then after that we'll get them back" Before exiting the room leaving a confused Sakura behind, it was only a few moments later that she gave a sly smile.


Meanwhile outside Naruto and Sasuke stood next to each other waiting for their punishment from the jounin in front of them.

"You guys are in so much trouble"


And done! So what did you think of my latest chapter? It's the longest I've written…well I think it is.

Next time find out what Naruto and Sasuke's punishment is, and what's this about Sakura's revenge? And what ever did happen to Itachi?

I'll try and get the next chapter out asap!

Review!Shika XD


Naruto: Hell's way of thanks

1. Haku dies Zabuza returns - 3

2. Zabuza dies Haku returns - 1

3. Both die - 1

4. Both return - 20

5. Both live but don't return - 2

6.

Both live but return later on into the story – 6