standard disclaimer rates apply. naruto, mobile fighter g-gundam, and CLANNAD are not mine.

foreword: still haven't gotten an outline for Chapter 7 of Twin Fates; doing this in the meantime.

*insert Oath of the School of the Undefeated of the East here*


Naruto: Moeagare Toushi

Chapter 7: Making Waves


It is a truth universally acknowledged in all the Elemental Countries that shinobi are paranoid 98% of the time.

The other two per cent is when they expect the worst and end up pleasantly surprised.

Such was the mood of one Mitarashi Anko and one Uzumaki Naruto as they found out that the client from Wave who hired Team 7 was alive, well, and working on the bridge while being guarded by one Uchiha Sasuke.

"Ah, greetings," Sasuke said, tension leaving him as he sensed that yes, these were friendlies. "Hustle much in getting here?"

"As much hustling as going for two days and nights straight can be; tell me, where's the rest of your team? The pinkette and goffik boy?"

"Sakura's training with Sai; sensei's at Tazuna's place, getting some care from Tsunami-san."

"She'll have another one on her platter soon... sensei?" Naruto asked.

Too bad, Anko never got to hear that as she was leaning on the tree and already asleep.

Naruto simply sighed.

"You know Mizu Bunshin or something?" Naruto asked.

"Copied it back on our first big fight landing here; why do you ask?"

"Make one or two, gimme an assist; we literally hauled ass to get here."

Sasuke smirked before going into hand seals and went towards his fellow genin.


"So let me get this straight, you guys run into a pair of missing-nin from Kiri, and then some dude with an over-sized cleaver known as the Demon of the Mist not long after that?" Naruto asked.

"That's right."

"And then right after you guys barely manage to drive said Demon of the Mist off, your sensei overuses his chakra and has to rest in bed for five or six days?"

"Uh-huh."

"What's worse, goffik boy here is actually more than your average genin?"

"Could you tone it down a bit? Hatake-san and Mitarashi-san need to rest," a voice called from the kitchen.

"Sorry. As I was saying..." Naruto continued, "your sensei figures out that the Demon of the Mist is gonna make a comeback soon, and got you guys into a training regimen to get ready for him?"

"Pretty much," the goffik boy (whose name was Sai, Naruto learned earlier) replied, confirming Naruto's re-enacment of the events that brought them here.

"So what we have are one jonin, one special jonin who will only probably be at a hundred percent by the time the comeback rolls around..."

"Uh..." the pinkette (no, Sakura, Naruto corrected himself) interrupted. "How do you know that they'll be up and about in roughly the same time?"

"It's best you don't worry about that for now; all you should know is that these things tend to happen - the universe tends to unfold as it should. Going back to the list, we have a jonin, special jonin..."

"...I'm mid- to high-chunin level, if you need to know," Sai said.

"Mid- to high genin here," Sasuke added.

"Low- to mid genin," Sakura said.

"And I'm your ace in the hole," Naruto finished, cheekily grinning as he pocketed the Konohagakure forehead protector and put on the one for Uzushiogakure.

"Come to think of it..." Sakura mused upon seeing the forehead protector of a long-dead Hidden Village, "how did you get that?"

"That..." Naruto answered, "is a secret. Now I'm gonna take over from Sai so he can either do guard duty or scout around; I'm gonna be taking over your training from here on out."


"Of all the jonin to get stuck with, why'd I have to end up with a porn fiend?" Mitarashi Anko asked no one in particular.

While Naruto's stories about just how destructive he could get didn't exactly convince her, the two-day rush to Wave Country did.

For the love of Izanagi and Izanami, there was a two-mile stretch where the bridge had gone, and Naruto had to carry her bridal-style and make a mad dash across the water all the way to Wave, ignoring her protests.

By the time they had arrived, she had been blown out of her mind. Might Guy was probably the only shinobi she knew who could water-walk without the aid of chakra, but that was only in small bursts.

Naruto ran on the water with little or no chakra use whatsoever.

Still, when they arrived, he looked like he could still go several rounds, while she was drained keeping the Curse Seal at bay.

He did, of course, apologize for having a hand firmly planted on her ass the whole time - "I'd have dropped you in my haste", he explained.

And based on what the kids had been talking about, she needed to get rested up - things would most likely come to a head in the next few days...


"Oh, come the hell on!" Naruto exclaimed. This was not the first time he'd knocked the pink-haired girl out with a by-the-book body blow. It didn't even graze the liver, the shot he threw was specifically made to scatter the force of the blow along the target's rectus abdominis and the obliques.

It was one of his shishou's favorite training tricks - throw blows that, upon impact, scatter their force along a wide area of the target, allowing you to throw stronger shots without killing, maiming, or otherwise injuring your training partner.

He had to resist the urge to palm his face in disgust. The last time, he threw a straight left that was made to ripple along the neck and shoulder muscles, but it ended up nearly breaking Sakura's jaw.

All of them were thankful that it was just a jab, otherwise they'd be ridiculously undermanned.

In the meantime, while waiting for Sakura to come to, Naruto had Sasuke do those tree-walking exercises while he meditated, thinking about what to do with his fellow graduates.

Team 10 needed a lot of help individually, but their teamwork was top-notch; all Chouji needed was to avoid telegraphing his techniques, Shikamaru needed a fall-back set of skills for when his shadow binding wouldn't cut it, and Ino needed a supplementary style for her clan-based techniques.

About Team 8, they were pretty good too, but Kiba needed to be tempered, Shino needed more unpredictability, and Hinata... Hinata needed a spine badly, as her taijutsu style was only around thirty per cent efficient because of her mind set.

Whoever says that the kind have no business being shinobi are sorely mistaken, Naruto thought as he was sorting through his list of ways to get the Hyuuga girl to reconcile her beliefs with her career. It is the kindest ones who are the most dangerous, for they wish to avoid inflicting further pain by ensuring that the first shot they land is lethal.

Team 7... well, Sai was great, Sasuke was growing in leaps and bounds thanks to the Sharingan... but Sakura...

...poor Sakura.

Naruto had to shake his head. Book smarts were fine, but the school of hard knocks would knock you on your ass if you but gave it a chance.

He also saw that her Academy-level taijutsu was - though powerful for someone of her build - woefully stiff, predictable, and had more holes in it than Mitarashi-sensei's fishnets.

Gritting his teeth, he decided that he'd bring the pinkette up to speed with the others. No sense in leaving one behind when everyone was doing so well in their training with him.

"Hey, got up to halfway!" Naruto heard Sasuke on a tree.

"Awesome," Naruto replied, opening his eyes and smiling. "How about a light spar before Sakura wakes up?"

"You're still trying to get her to be stronger?" Sasuke asked after descending from the tree. "The only reason she's here is because of me."

Naruto shrugged. "Her reasons for being a shinobi are irrelevant. What we're here for is to make sure she doesn't come back to Konoha in a match box. Speaking of which, why aren't you encouraging her?"

"She'll just get more insufferable."

"You haven't tried it, haven't you?"

That question got the Uchiha uneasy.

"Hn."

"Got you there."


For a certain ice-using ninja, it was truly a spectacle to behold.

A young man was doing martial arts katas on top of the lake, carefully moving and executing the stances in steady and graceful steps.

Haku had planned to gather intel on the ninja who drove Zabuza into retreat and gather some herbs to facilitate his recovery, but was sidetracked upon seeing the figure and his easy movements.

That's unlike any taijutsu school I've ever seen or heard of, Haku thought. The Gentle Fist of Konoha uses similar movements, but not as graceful as this. It is almost as if it was a dance...

A small gust of wind blew the morning mist onto the lake, shrouding it...

"...like what you saw?"

Haku tensed.

"Who's there?"

"It's not like I couldn't sense your presence. Did I put up a good enough show for you?"

Damn, I left my weapons back there...

A young man wearing a charcoal gray jumpsuit with a t-shirt over it walked into view, the strange symbol on his forehead protector confusing the ice-user.

"That symbol... your village should not exist anymore."

"So they say," the young man answered, smiling and revealing his blonde hair and whisker-marked cheeks, "so they say... but I'm here right now, aren't I?"

"You must be a shinobi, then."

"...among other things. Might I ask what that basket is for?"

"Herbs... for a person precious to me."

Probably Momochi Zabuza.

"This precious person of yours - those herbs you're getting, they're pretty potent - what happened to him or her?"

"Work-related trouble, he got hurt pretty badly."

Definitely Momochi Zabuza. This must be the fake hunter-nin, then.

"He must be rather precious to you if you're taking the time to do that on his behalf, do you not?"

Haku's eyes couldn't help but twinkle. "Yes... yes, it does. Having someone precious to you can give you the strength to do anything... anything to protect them."

"True... but then again, I haven't found exactly who or what I want to protect here."

Tomoyo-senpai. If we meet each other again, please don't look at me with fear in your eyes.

"You have people precious to you?"

"Who doesn't?" Naruto answered, chuckling at some private joke. "But... the people precious to me can protect themselves... for the most part."

How about me?

I'm keeping our agreement secret... that's how I can protect you. Besides, few know of my return here.

You've seen it, haven't you? The near future can grow dire.

Not if we've prepared for the worst.

"...excuse me?"

"Sorry, got lost in thought for a bit. Anyway, I've got places to go, people to see, things to do. Maybe we'll meet each other again."

Before he could turn and go, the fake hunter-nin asked him one last question.

"My name is Haku. What is yours?"

"Just call me Naruto."

He had taken several steps away when Haku called out to him.

"And just so you know, I'm a guy!"

Both Naruto and the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox could not help but execute a simultaneous facefault at that declaration - sometimes, having infinite vision ended up not helping, especially around ambiguous things, persons and genders...


"Whoa! You really are awesome!" Inari exclaimed, looking at a panting but smiling Haruno Sakura as she stood over two would-be attackers; one was unconscious from a hit to the head, the other dead from where a roundhouse kick thrown broke his neck.

"Thanks, but Naruto gets most of the credit for this one!" Sakura replied. "Go get help, Gato might bring in reinforcements! I'll go back my team up!"

"Sure thing!"

Meanwhile, the conflict at the bridge was about to be resolved in the most anticlimactic way possible, as Gato and his thugs were intercepted by a gray jumpsuit-wearing kid whose eyes glowed red when angry.

He hires them, and then he kills them - that's how he saves his money. Dishonorable bastard. Make his last moments hell on earth.

What about his fortune?

That Zabuza - though reduced to this, still means well. His intentions are to stop the bloodline killing in Kirigakure.

What about that whole "slaughtering all his Academy classmates" thing?

He wanted to make a statement. I have to admit, it takes a very strong man to take on that stigma, all to have them change that graduation ritual.

So... we wipe Gato out and give his fortune to this Zabuza fellow?

...it's the best thing we can do for both sides.

That's as good enough for me.

Back at the bridge, Haku was about to turn Sai and Sasuke into pincushions while Kakashi had his Raikiri at the ready to strike a tied-up-by-Anko's-snakes Zabuza... when a humongous explosion in the distance rocked the bridge, rattling everyone.

After all of the combatants got their wits back together, something came sailing in the air.

Momochi Zabuza caught the thing, only to gaze at it for a good few seconds before juggling it in his hands in consternation and passing it to Kakashi.

Kakashi's exposed Sharingan eye caught it in full, gory detail - Gato's burned-off head - so he tossed it over to Anko before pulling his headband back down over his eyes, thinking about what kind of technique would do such catastrophic damage, and also about coconuts, strangely.

Anko was all "Ooh...", cooing over the severed head. Several rather awkward moments passed between the gathered shinobi before a familiar sight walked through the mist.

"There, that solves everything, right?" Naruto asked. "With the person to hire you guys offed, that means you don't have any reason to try and off the bridge builder."

Kakashi just had to scratch his head while Anko shook hers, all the while looking for a storage scroll to put a certain severed head in.

Zabuza shrugged before stylishly returning his sword to its specially-made shoulder sheath, trying to salvage his cool from that little thing about a severed head awhile ago.

"Haku, bring the mirrors down, we're collecting and leaving."

Thus it was that Team 7 succeeded in their mission in the most outlandish of ways, and was on their way back to Konoha.

Meanwhile, Uzumaki Naruto was still puzzled over the near reverence the Demon of the Mist showed him upon seeing his forehead protector and learning his last name.

Maybe he knows about my family, he thought. I should drop by Kirigakure and see how he's doing - maybe the Hokage will let me have a long-term mission there, and I'll start to get the answers I'm seeking.

You should also consider the possibility that you won't like what you end up seeing, child.

Yes, that much is true... but with the visions I see, I've already begun preparing for whatever might happen.

Meanwhile, you should bolster your comrades' strengths. We will be dragged into the quagmire of Konoha's affairs soon enough, whether we like it or not.

You still haven't told me your grudge against Konoha.

In time, young one, in time. When you have reached a level of strength equal to that of the one you call Might Guy, perhaps I shall tell you.

Good enough for me.

The journey back to Konoha was thus uneventful, but it seemed like the calm before the storm...

...and the scroll containing one of Konoha's high-ranking techniques still remained in Mitarashi Anko's possession, unopened and unused...

Chapter 7 - end

author's note: you thought he was gonna learn Kage Bunshin, eh? Wrong. :p