AN: Sooo... umm... hello, everyone? How much are you angry at me for not updating sooner? I hope not too much. Hopefully this chapter will make up for it a bit - and the next chapter. Yup, that's right - next chapter is almost written as well and will be posted one week from now on. Hopefully that will give me some time to write more before duties call up on me again.

Also, I forgot to mention it in the last chapter, but in addition to big thanks to all of you who read, favorite, follow and/or review this story, an extra big thank you goes to two people - Dragon Man 180 for his suggestion of including Inuzuka family in my story and helping up Naruto a bit, and to Lyanah for her in-depth analysis of some parts of my plot and possible idea for an omake (I can't promise it will show up, but I seriously consider it). So, without further ado, on with the show!

Disclaimer: Yup, I own Naruto all right... and for those of you who believed that, I have an island for sale...


Chapter 9 – Demon's debut

(…)

(Fifteen minutes later, road between Konoha and Nami no Kuni, Konoha)

"… and that's when I decided to go to Konoha for help," finished Tazuna. He was sitting on the ground, not daring to look into anyone's eyes.

"And you are telling us all of this only now?" Kurenai couldn't believe her ears. She managed to heal Naruto's wound after five strenuous minutes of hard work and was now listening intently to Tazuna's story, her spirit going downward with every sentence she'd heard. "There is a good reason why we rank missions according to their danger. C-ranked missions operate only with common type of enemies – thieves, bandits, robbers. Me and my team are not ready to stand against other ninjas yet, much less… what did you say was the name of the shinobi that Gato has hired, aside these two?" She motioned to the duo of defeated Demon Brothers, who were right now unconscious and tied to a nearby tree.

"Well, I don't know his name," said Tazuna in an apologetic tone. "But I remember a bit how he looked. He usually went around shirtless, really muscular-looking guy, no beard, with a really big sword on his back… oh! He also had one of those forehead things that you have, just with four… not sure. Swirls or tiny waves, maybe?"

"That's a sign of Kirigakure." Kurenai's lips narrowed as she quickly considered all possibilities. "But Mist would never openly affiliate with a criminal organization, even one that hides behind a trading and shipping company. That means that whoever that ninja is, he's probably a renegade." With a trained movement, she took out a small black book out of her pocket, quickly flipping through its pages. "Kirigakure, no beard, big sword… … … oh Kami!" Her face paled as her eyes settled on the most probable candidate.

"Who's there, Kurenai-sensei?" Kiba's head poked up from behind Kurenai's shoulder, shamelessly looking at the currently-opened page. "The next guy that we have to give a large dose of kickass?" he grinned, supported loudly by his canine companion.

"Don't even consider it, Kiba!" Kurenai's sharp answer made the Inuzuka boy almost stumble as she abruptly stepped forward, staring straight into Tazuna's frightened eyes.

"Zabuza Momochi …" she said slowly, sounding as if she read from the book, yet her eyes never left her client's face. "A missing-nin from Kirigakure, wanted for an attempt of coup-d'état on Mizukage of Kirigakure. A-class ninja who graduated at the age of nine… by killing every other student in his class."

Kiba visibly shivered at that and Akamaru whined loudly.

"Recommendation – engage only with three or more Jōnin or ANBU hunters." Kurenai sharply clapped the book close, rubbing her forehead in anxiety. "This was not part of our mission. My team can't handle anything more than bandits and robbers, low-ranked Genins at most. I alone can handle most Chūnins or maybe low-ranked Jōnin as well, but this…" she slowly shook her head and looked at Tazuna with a mixed look of anger and pity. "I am sorry for this, Tazuna-san, but I will not endanger my team on a mission that is too dangerous to handle for them or me – especially since we were deceived from the start. Team 8, we are leaving!"

She barely made a step before a determined voice stopped her. "We are not really going to leave him, are we, Kurenai-sensei?"

Kurenai turned around, starting to look annoyed. "Hinata, I understand that you feel sorry for our client, but this is… huh?" She blinked when she saw Hinata looking just as baffled as she was. Only then she realized that the Genin who voiced his displeasure with the current direction of events was the one she least expected to stand up against her.

"Naruto?"

Grey-orange dressed boy nodded slowly, looking up to his sensei with big, pleading eyes. "We are not going to abandon him, are we, Kurenai-sensei? I… I understand that he lied to us and that we… that I did not do so well in my first fight," his look wandered to his cleanly bandaged ankle, but then quickly darted back to Kurenai's face, "but… but shouldn't we help anyway? Tazuna-san said that Gato-san is stealing from them, that they have barely enough to eat. Will we really refuse to help them?"

"Yeah, Naruto's right!" added Kiba and slammed a closed fist into his open palm. "That prick is robbing them blind, hires assassins to deal with common villagers and when one man gets guts to go for a help, we turn our backs on them? Come on, Kurenai-sensei, let's kick their asses!"

"This is not a joke, you two!" said Kurenai sharply, before she visibly controlled herself to a calmer tone. "Listen – I understand that you want to help a person in need and I'm glad that you would do so should an opportunity present itself, but you have no idea what we're standing up against." She pointed at the two defeated Chūnins at the tree. "These two were Chūnins – which means they were a level above your current abilities. They may have not been the strongest Chūnins around, but that still doesn't change the fact that they had more experience, better training and had an element of surprise when they attacked." She sighed. "Jōnins – true, battle-hardened Jōnins, are much more dangerous. They don't only have the experience to fight on a completely different level than you, they also go straight for the kill. Every opening you give them, every small mistake you do, it can cost you your life. They know how to find their opponent's weaknesses by a single glance and they don't hesitate to use them. You are simply not ready to fight someone like that, much less someone like Zabuza."

"But we have you, sensei!" protested Kiba.

"And I can't fight Zabuza while also trying to keep you three alive AND keeping Tazuna-san alive as well," pointed Kurenai. "If I were alone, then maybe, just maybe, I would stand a chance, but not if I have to guarantee your safety as well. That's why Konoha doesn't send inexperienced Genins on hunts for missing-nins and has Jōnin accompany them even for easy escort missions, since it's so easy to lose a sight of your client when you are in the heat of battle." She shook her head. "I am truly sorry, my students, but I can't let you continue in this mission while knowing who we stand up against."

"So then… what are we supposed to do, sensei?"

Kurenai turned around again, frowning at her white-eyed student. "What do you mean, Hinata?"

"I mean, should we just give up and go home?" asked Hinata quietly. "Wait for an easier mission to be presented to us, or maybe wait for a heavier escort to keep us safe? Maybe we should stick with D-ranked missions for several more months, it's not like those contain any serious danger and we won't probably screw those up too hard. Surely Konoha has many other qualified shinobi to do the hard work instead of us."

Kurenai's eyes narrowed. "Hinata, you better explain this without sarcasm, or you'll really end with nothing but D-ranked missions for a long time."

"I'm talking about facing challenges and going through with them, rather than putting our tails between legs when things don't go as we planned!" Hinata waved her hand around, including herself and both her teammates in the gesture. "Sure, our first fight didn't go as well as we would probably wish, but we can all learn something from that and do better next time. But we can't get better if we never face the risk of failure. Sometimes we need you to believe in us, Kurenai-sensei, just as we believe in you. Please, trust us that we will do our best and will get this mission done – and stay alive."

Kurenai had a mind of clawing her eyes out. This was dangerously close to why she wanted C-ranked mission in the first place, but she never asked for this much danger in it! "Hinata, there is a difference between a reasonable amount of danger and a ridiculous amount of danger on a mission. That's why we divide them in ranks, to at least roughly estimate that danger. How can you learn anything if you get killed on your very first mission?"

"We won't!" grinned Kiba. "We are too badass a team to be taken down by some shirtless weirdo and his businessman pet! We're ready for this, so let's take them both down!"

"We believe in your skills, Kurenai-sensei," said Naruto quietly. "Please, let us continue and help Tazuna-san and his country."

"We will not disappoint you, sensei," nodded Hinata seriously.

"Arf!" added his two cents Akamaru.

"Oh for Kami's sake…" Kurenai couldn't believe that she lost an argument with three children and a dog. She looked at them one last time, hoping that they were just putting on a strong face, but, surprisingly, all of them were serious. Even Naruto, which counted for something in her book.

"All right, fine. We will continue," she sighed in defeat, glaring at her students while their erupted in loud cheers. "BUT!" She immediately silenced them with that word. "You have to promise me that you will follow my orders to the letter. We are not facing some petty criminal or run-away wannabe ninja, we stand against a man who killed all of his classmates at the age of nine. We can't afford any blunders or mistakes, we will only have one chance to succeed. Do I have your word?"

"Yes, Kurenai-sensei!" came a chorus of three voices.

"Good." She sighed again, then motioned for her students to come closer. "But before we go, you three have to go through a very serious thing if you do not want to freeze at the mere sight of Zabuza. And don't snicker, Kiba, I'm dead serious," she shot the Inuzuka boy a chastising look. "You three have to learn how is it to kill someone."

A heavy silence followed that sentence.

"I'm sorry, Kurenai-sensei, but we have to learn what?" asked Kiba. "Didn't we already train like idiots to be able to do that?"

"Yes, you did. But training for that and being able to do it are two very different things and I want to be sure that you know what you are getting yourself into." Kurenai sighed again as she pointed at her two prisoners. "We can't afford to let these two go, lest they alarm Zabuza of our presence, numbers, abilities and any other usable thing. We also can't afford to wait here and send for someone from Konoha to put them in jail. Do you know what that means?"

"We have to kill them," said Hinata in a very quiet voice, startling both of her teammates.

"Exactly." Kurenai nodded, taking out two kunais. "I'm not happy that I'm asking you to do this, but there is no way around it." Her eyes hardened. "Don't feel pity or remorse about killing them while they are asleep and defenseless, they would have done the same to you if they had a chance. Being a ninja means being able to kill your opponents, especially those that are too dangerous to try and keep alive. It might be easier to do during a fight, but the consequences are the same and at least I can help you through them before you have to kill someone in true battle." She seemed to hesitate for a moment before passing the sharp knives to Kiba and Naruto. "Please, go on."

Kiba gulped, but turned to the ninja on the left, gripping his kunai harder than he had to. His eyes narrowed and his chest heaved with sharp breaths as he tried to focus on his task. Mother warned him about this aspect of his job, but he kinda thought that he would get his first blood during some crazy wild fight and then just go on and not think about it too much. Now, it started to seem impossible to not think about it. His mind was hazy, the palm of his hand started to get sweaty from the building tension in his chest. Of course he knew where to strike to kill someone, but this way… it just didn't feel right.

Then he remembered how they attacked them and hurt Naruto and the churning in his belly turned to ice. With an angered growl coming deep from his throat, he slashed in wide motion, cutting through the throat of his target with barely any resistance. He had done nothing as blood splashed around, smearing the left sleeve of his jacket, and just watched the guy die while the ice in his stomach became heavier and heavier. He gulped to suppress a sudden bile-taste in his throat and handed the blooded kunai back to his sensei.

"That was… disgusting," he murmured, only now noticing the blood on his hand and quickly reached for his canteen to wash it off.

Kurenai nodded, sad for having to do this but also proud that her student did it without much hesitation. Then she turned her eyes to the right, worried much more about her other student.

Naruto barely moved in the whole time. He didn't even register Kiba's kill. He just stood there, eyes fixated on the slumped form of an enemy ninja as if hypnotized by him. He slowly looked down to the kunai in his hand, then back at his target. He gulped hard, his face starting to look like if he were feeling sick. "I…"

"Naruto, it's important that you do it, no matter how wrong it may feel," said Kurenai gently. "This is what ninjas are supposed to do and you are ninja now. It may feel wrong, it may feel sick, it may even feel like a betrayal of yourself and your principles, but it has to be done. This is the way of ninja."

"Y-Yes, I… I know…" Naruto gulped again, but when he tried to lift his arm, it refused to obey him. Fear constricted his stomach tighter than a pack of ninja wire and he felt like he was starting to lose control of himself. His surroundings started to fade away, dissolving under a sudden heat wave as his eyes fixed on the middle of the ninja's chest, where his heart was supposed to be. He gulped again, his mind suddenly showing him the most bizarre images ever – the heart, surrounded by arteries and veins, pumping blood in and out, before being crushed in his palm, ripped out of the body with a brutality never seen before, and a deep, satisfying growl started to grow in his gut…

"This is pathetic!"

Before he could react, he felt the kunai snatched away from his grasp. Startled, he snapped from his eerie daydream, only to spot Hinata's final move as she stepped to the last Demon Brother and drove the point of the knife straight through his heart. Unlike with Kiba, her way of kill made the blood spurt out of the man's body, but she swiftly stepped aside, letting the red liquid drop before Naruto's feet and pool in front of him. She ripped the kunai out as she dodged the bloody stream, leaving nothing but gaping hole in his chest.

Kurenai's eyes widened in shock. "Hinata! What have you-"

"Killed him. Easy as that," she said coldly, wiping the kunai off the dead ninja's jacket before tossing it back to her teacher. "If that's all, let's move on, Kurenai-sensei. We still have almost an entire week of trip before we get to the Nami no Kuni."

"Hinata!" Seeing her student march off without a glance to either of her teammates, Kurenai half-considered changing her former decision and call the mission off after all, but then sighed heavily and decided against it. They went too far already and if she didn't want to repeat her previous mistakes, she couldn't shelter her students too much. They had to be able to stand up on their own legs and fight back against whatever was thrown at them.

She quickly looked at her two remaining students and very perplexed-looking client, then sighed again but much more quietly. "Kiba, Naruto, take your packs and let's go. You will be a rear guard behind Tazuna-san, so be alert for any other attack, from ninjas or not. Me and Hinata will take the front." Her eyes softened a bit as she looked at Kiba. "We will talk about what happened today when we set the camp for the night, so you won't feel so bad about your next kill."

"Are you alright, man?" asked Kiba when they started walking again, trying to suppress his own feelings and rather support his friend. "You looked quite scared there when Kurenai-sensei asked you to kill that guy. You know that he was the bad one and we are the good ones, right? Killing them," he gulped, but steeled himself, "killing them is what we have to do if we want to survive."

"Yes… yes, I know. It just…" Naruto wasn't sure how to explain it, even if he wanted to. It pained him that he had to hide his secret from one of the few friends he had, but he was sure that telling Kiba about the Kyūbi would destroy everything between them. The villagers obviously knew and practically none of them wanted anything to have with him, with the sole exception of Iruka-sensei and the nice couple from the ramen stand. Now he had another friend and he really wanted to not screw things up, so staying quiet about his burden seemed like the most logical things of all.

A bit calmed down by the disappearance of his previous gore fantasies, he continued walking behind Tazuna, but couldn't help to wonder if Kyūbi was really starting to control him… and why Hinata did what she did.

(…)

(At evening, a small camp on road between Konoha and Nami no Kuni, Konoha)

"How's the food, Naruto?" asked Kiba, his mouth watering at the scent of cooked rice and meat that was coming off the pot above their campfire.

"Almost done, Kiba-kun." Naruto tasted the boiling soup, careful to not burn his tongue, then sprinkled a bit more spice on the churning meal. Kurenai-sensei took her time to secure the surroundings of their small camp, Hinata brought water and several still squirming fishes from a nearby river and Kiba dropped in many handfuls of wood, which somehow left him in charge of preparing their evening meal. He didn't actually mind to cook, he just hoped that it wouldn't be as bad as his creations usually ended to be.

That was why he looked utterly confused when, after finally handing everyone their bowls, Kiba almost howled in pleasure when he took the first bit in his mouth.

"You should definitely cook for us every time, Naruto. You might be even better at this than Hinata-chan," continued Kiba in his own style of attempt to make his last teammate a bit more talkative, even if only to scold him or threaten to do something not very nice to his man parts.

He frowned when not even his usual antics got him any response as his blue-haired teammate simply kept eating her portion of meal.

Kurenai cleared her throat to get her student's attention. "As I promised you, I want to talk to you – all," she added, looking at every one of them, "about one of the most uncomfortable part of our duty." She nodded at the Inuzuka boy. "Kiba, you now know how does it feel to kill someone. Hinata, you do too. Naruto, you will as well, sooner or later." She paused for a moment. "Did anybody talk with you about this?"

"My mom kind of mentioned it, but said that I shouldn't think about it too much," shrugged Kiba. "She said it's just part of the job and that I have to get used to it if I want to be any good at being shinobi."

Kurenai's lips turned into a small smile. "I'm sure that Tsume-san would say something like this," she said, before her tone returned to serious one. "And she is right, in a sense. Killing, while not enjoyable for most people, is necessary in our field of work. Most people dislike it, some grow accustomed to it or manage to ignore whatever feelings come with it." Her eyes narrowed, so little that her students barely noticed it. "Of course, there's also group of ninjas who enjoy it, who like the feeling of killing someone. For the lack of better terms, let's say that it brings them pleasure." She gave her students a hard glare. "Please, know that none of those are necessary good or bad, they are as much part of you as any other trait or habit you possess, but if any one of you starts to feel good after killing someone, tell me. Again, it's not bad if you feel like that, but it's better if it doesn't grow further."

"What do you mean further, Kurenai-sensei?" frowned Kiba.

"What… what do you mean… p-pleasure from killing, Kurenai-sensei?" whispered Naruto, his face suddenly growing pale.

"Further is what happens to ninja who forget about their commitment to the village and start killing others simply because they can and want to feel those feelings when they kill someone, Kiba," explained Kurenai, talking to Kiba but her gaze lingering on Naruto. "Such ninjas, if kept unchecked, might snap in the end, lose their mind and, unfortunately, have to be taken down, because their constant need for killing is too great to let them think clearly and recognize friend from enemy. It becomes like a drug to them, they need more of it with every killed person and they can never sate it." She hurriedly continued in her explanation when she saw the faces of her students turn from normal healthy color to ashen pale. "Of course, I doubt that any one of you would end like that, and even if you do start to enjoy killing someone, there are techniques to help you suppress that and operate as normally as possible."

"And as for your question, Naruto," she turned to the blond boy, feeling suddenly a bit anxious as she saw him clearly distressed, "well, I can't describe it from personal experience, but from what I have researched about it, such people usually enjoy the feeling of someone dying in front of their eyes. It makes them feel full, satisfied, even powerful, like they were holding that person's life in their hand and just destroyed it on a whim."

'Powerful…' Naruto's thoughts almost instantly returned to the image of the Demon Brother's heart, still alive and still beating, while a foreign hand reached for it, grabbed it, forced its beating to become erratic, irregular, it almost shrunk before his very eyes… before that hand squeezed so hard that it exploded in a spray of blood and tissue. His eyes widened as he remembered exactly what he felt at that moment.

He felt very, very powerful.

"Naruto? Are you all right?" asked Kurenai, leaning a bit closer.

Naruto opened his mouth, but couldn't make any sound. Could he really be one of those people who enjoyed killing others? He didn't even kill that man, he just… fantasized about it… kind of. That wasn't a crime, was it? He hurt him, after all, he tried to kill both him and his team! Their client too! Surely it was justifiable to want him to die… or not?

"Well, what if I enjoyed it?"

Kurenai almost flinched, now half expecting Naruto to actually say such a thing, before she realized that it wasn't him who said it.

"Hinata, you enjoyed killing that man?" she asked incredulously.

"I did," she nodded, looking sternly into their small fire. "He attacked us, he hurt my teammates. Of course I wanted to kill him, and I'm glad that he's dead now."

Kurenai's worries lessened, though they didn't disappear completely. If what Hinata did today was only because she felt angry at the ninja for attacking her friends, it wasn't as bad as she feared. "Hinata, I understand how do you feel, but answering violence with revenge isn't the right path to take. If you do that, you'll find yourself on the end of a long, bloody road, feeling nothing but emptiness and disgust."

"So what should I do then?" Hinata's eyes rose up to meet her sensei's gaze.

"You should kill him, but not because you want revenge. We kill bandits and other shinobi because we protect. We protect our village, our leader, our friends and ourselves as well. We kill because we are ordered to by Hokage, but we should never fight only for revenge. That has never brought anyone any good."

"Wow!" whispered Kiba, completely forgetting to pat Akamaru in his lap. "That sounds like you gave it lots of thoughts, Kurenai-sensei."

Kurenai smiled a bit again, particularly because Naruto looked a bit calmer again and Hinata obviously gave up on arguing. "Everyone does, Kiba. When we first kill somebody, we start to ask ourselves things like: 'Why did I kill him? Did he really have to die? Couldn't there be another solution?' In the end, everyone answers these questions by himself, but it always helps to know that you're not the only one who struggles with them."

She sighed. "I'm not going to lie to you, my students. Being a shinobi is hard and usually ungrateful work. We are expected to kill whoever we are ordered to kill without questions, to follow orders to the letter and to possess inhuman stamina and energy in every mission we take. Part of it is for being able to live to see another day, part of it is just a show for the common people. They fear us because of that, and fear is a powerful weapon that good Hokage can use for the better of his village. Villagers with healthy respect for shinobi's work are much less inclined to complain or protest when most of the funds go on our equipment and training, and bandits and robbers steer clear of our people and caravans."

"However," she looked up to meet their gaze, "no shinobi is a simple tool. We are not made from metal or stone, we feel just as any other humans, we are just expected to hide it better and deal with it better. It will be required of you as well, if you intend to become Chūnins someday, but never forget that you are humans just as well as you are ninjas."

"So…" Naruto quietly asked, "no shinobi… managed to… stop from feeling emotions? Ever?"

"None that I know of," Kurenai shook her head. "What you usually see is a façade or a mask. We all wear it in order to hide our true emotions from enemies and people we are not comfortable knowing too much about us, but when in company of close friends, it's all right to let it fall and let your true feelings rise to the surface."

Naruto fell silent again, making Kurenai wonder why he asked about that specifically. But before she could press on, another question interrupted her line of thinking.

"Kurenai-sensei, if we are really your students and close people, would you share your story with us? You already know ours, but we know only so little about you even if we include when we all introduced to each other," asked Hinata, watching her sensei with, suddenly, very big eyes.

"My story?" asked Kurenai in a surprised tone, before smiling a bit and waving her hand apologetically. "I'm really not that important person, Hinata. Students won't learn about my life and I'll be happy if my children will remember it until I pass away, long time from now hopefully."

"But we want to hear it! Come on, sensei, tell us!" protested Kiba, getting intrigued by Hinata's question as well. Even Naruto supported him by several shy nods.

It was little things like these that warmed Kurenai's heart and made her happy that she took on a squad of her own.

"Well, my life…" she said aloud, sorting out what she could tell her students and what not. "It didn't really start as too important. I was a single child of two happily-married people, Daichi Yūhi and Izumi Kurosawa (1). Both were proud Jōnins of Konoha, but when I was born, my mother went off-duty to take proper care of me. When I was a bit older, I remember her saying to dad: 'You'll just have to work a bit harder, mister, because you have two beautiful girls to feed now!'" She smiled softly, slowly getting lost in memories. "We had no clan or large family to rely upon, so we didn't have much money or big house, but we were happy and laughed a lot together. Mother and father always bickered in front of me, only to laugh at me and ruffle my hair when I thought they were serious. They taught me how to take life as it comes and always look for the positives. And they were both very proud of me when I entered Academy as well. Father joked that he might sometime take orders from his little girl and mother was already trying to figure in which branches of ninja's duty I could become exceptional. Those were happy times for us," she sighed, before her face expression sobered a little and she fell silent.

"And what happened next, Kurenai-sensei?" asked Kiba, oblivious to Kurenai's sudden loss of good mood.

"When I was nine, a great and terrible thing happened," Kurenai's voice suddenly got much quieter, her shoulders slumping a bit and head hanging low. "I was promoted to Genin, after skipping several years and working as hard as I could. When I got my headband, I was overjoyed beyond words. I ran home as fast as I could, knowing that my parents would be so proud of me… only to find Third Hokage waiting for me with two ANBU guards, apologetic look in eyes and scroll bound in red strings. Both… both my parents died during a sudden surprise attack from Iwagakure. They devastated several smaller villages in their wake as their army crossed borders between Iwa and Konoha, declaring war on us." Sadness in her eyes partially gave way to smoldering cinders of anger. "Every available ninja including us Genins were sent into the war. Most of us were pulled from comfortable studies in safety into dangerously real battles for our lives. We were still held back, mostly used as messengers, supply carriers or watchmen on patrols, but as more and more villages began to get interested in the war, more and more of us found themselves on the battlefield, facing equally young children who tried to kill us and whom we tried to kill back. Those were hard times for Konoha, and for me," she added quietly.

"I… I'm so sorry, Kurenai-sensei. I had no idea."

Kurenai raised her eyes in surprise, seeing that Hinata's gloomy demeanor completely changed in the last minute. Young Jōnin almost flinched as she saw something in her eyes that made her feel like Hinata knew almost exactly how painful it was for her to go through those times. She never guessed that her student was capable of such empathy.

"I don't want to diminish everyone's sacrifices during those times, but it wasn't as hopeless for Konoha as I might have made it look," said Kurenai hastily. "When Kakashi's sensei, Minato Namikaze, joined the fight, the tides turned in our favor almost instantly. With his brilliant tactic abilities, strong leadership and signature technique Iwa was forced into submission in less than a week, with other villages following soon after that." She shot Naruto a quick glance when mentioning Minato, but calmed down again when she didn't notice any twitch, held breath or other sign of Naruto reacting to the Fourth Hokage's name in any way.

"And what happened after the war, Kurenai-sensei?" asked Kiba. He also sobered up a little, his mother also fought during the war and had it hard setting down into the normal life when it was finished.

"Well, I returned home, only to find it empty and void of everything I remembered," Kurenai's tone dropped down again. "Not physically, I later found out that my parents were ready for the possibility of their death and left me the whole house plus all of their money, but I was unable to deal with it at the time. I knew what I was going through, theoretically, but to just know it and live through it are two very different things. Whenever I returned home, I hoped that they would greet me, that I would hear their voices in the garden or up in their room, hear the shower, clinking of dishes in the kitchen… I threw myself into work, helping in several branches at once and almost not returning home at all, always finding some excuse to either sleep at the common house for shinobi or work until I fell asleep."

"That… must have been very hard on you, sensei," spoke Naruto quietly.

"Yes, those were not exactly happy times – but Kami must have looked down on me with her gentle eye. One time when I fell asleep during translation of one of the almost-ciphered war scrolls, I woke up in a completely foreign bedroom with an unfamiliar woman leaning over me. When she noticed that I was awake, I got scolded like never before, then made to eat my healthiest breakfast in a long time and dressed in an oversized shirt." Kurenai smiled again at those thoughts. "At first I freaked out, ran out of her house and locked myself in my old home. But then I met her again and again and before I knew it, she found a steady way into my life and became my teacher and caretaker at the same time. I stopped dwelling so much on the past and dreaming about bloodsheds in war, instead using that knowledge to my advantage and getting promoted to Chūnin first and Tokubetsu-Jōnin a year later. I was even offered a place at medical team, the most difficult ninja division with the highest requirements on their applicants."

"Why… did you choose to become Jōnin instructor then, Kurenai-sensei?" asked Naruto in awe of his teacher's abilities.

Kurenai smiled gently. "I think that my new sensei passed it on me. After several years, when I looked back, I realized how much she meant to me and how much I owe her for being where I was – almost as much as my parents – I thought that the best way of repaying her would be to pass whatever I learned and was going to learn on to the next generation. Which happens to be you three right now," she added nonchalantly.

"Wow, lucky us!" grinned Kiba, supported by Akamaru's loud: "Arf!"

"Thank you, Kiba," laughed Kurenai, before putting on her stern face and dismissively waving her hand. "Now hush to sleep, all of you. I'll take the first watch, but I expect you all to be ready to take yours when I wake you up. We are still in Konoha, but in enemy's territory, you have to be prepared for an attack from any direction at any time and you must be able to accommodate your sleeping schedule to it."

"Hai!" answered chorus of three voices before each Genin went to his respective sleeping bag.

But despite all of them being quite tired after their first day and battle, one of them had troubles falling asleep.

'Something is troubling you again, my soul mate,' said a soothing voice in Hinata's mind.

"Yes… yes, it does," she mumbled after shooting quick glances aside to make sure that both Naruto and Kiba were sleeping like a log.

'What is it that disturbs your mind then?'

"Kurenai-sensei. This… this isn't how I remember her life." Hinata's forehead crinkled as she searched her foggy mind for the specific memory. "Her parents were supposed to die during Kyūbi's attack on Konoha, not several years before. And she never had any other teacher before. Did…" breath got caught in her throat as she suddenly realized something horrible, "did my time-travel technique caused all this? Did Kurenai-sensei's parents die because-"

'Nonsense!' came an immediate answer. 'Please, my soul-mate, don't lose your sight of the forest because of a few trees. No one is powerful enough to shape history from the future, even accidentally. All you did was that you travelled back from one time to another. Everything that happened before that was simply a coincidence.'

"If you say so," mumbled Hinata as she turned on her side, not wanting to discuss her other two worries. First was their current mission. Obviously, she never went on this mission before, but she was fairly sure that Naruto did. She remembered that they talked about it when they were getting to know each other better, but her boyfriend was very vague about it. It was clear that something upset or affected him greatly on it, but she never managed to discover what it was. She had to be extra careful from now on if she wanted to stay alive and make good on her promise to change the future for better.

Sighing softly and rolling on her other side, now watching Kurenai's back as the tall Jōnin sat facing away from their fire, she also thought about her second worry. She wondered who was it that helped Kurenai in this timeline… and why.

"Why is everything so much harder this time?" she groaned before pulling the cover of her sleeping bag over her head, trying to force herself to fall asleep.

She never noticed how Naruto's ears twitched when hearing her mumble to herself.

(…)

(Five days later, far behind borders of Nami no Kuni, Konoha)

The faintest change in the air around her was all the warning she got.

"Team 8, scatter!" Kurenai yelled before forcing her body to the right, her dominant leg taking most of her weight as she bent around the incoming attack. A sharp whistle of the wind around her deafened her for a moment, but her quick reflexes saved her from a possibly fatal injury. A quick look behind her told her that all three Genins and their client were safe as well, albeit with various amount of fear and wariness reflecting in each of their faces.

She was fairly sure her face looked very much like theirs as she stood upwards again, hands on both sides, her body feeling like a coiled spring that was ready to burst into action at any moment. And she was going to need every ounce of everything she had if she were to survive this.

"Hooo… you felt me even before I attacked," commented a voice in front of her. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised… Kurenai Yūhi."

"Zabuza Momochi," she spat, her red eyes fixed on the person in front of her. He looked very much like the pictures in her Bingo Book suggested. A tall, lean man with muscular hands and chest showing off, wearing only a pair of slack pants and loose shin and arm warmers. Even with the huge sword strapped to his back, reaching almost the same length as the person wielding it, he might have not look as intimidating as his record and bounty suggested, but Kurenai needed only one look in his eyes to be on the highest alert. That man knew more about murders and killing than anyone she met so far.

"So that's that prick Zabuza, he?" Kiba, not realizing the obvious superiority of their enemy, loudly cracked his fingers. "Let's go, Akamaru! We'll grind him into the dirt just like those two bastards!"

"Stay back!" shouted Kurenai, afraid for a moment that her student, playing a hero, would ruin everything in the most crucial moment. "Kiba, Hinata, Naruto – you three know your orders! Guard Tazuna and leave him to me!"

"But sensei, are you sure that we can't-"

"Yes, Naruto, I'm sure! Keep Tazuna alive," she allowed herself a quick look back to at least reassure her students with a warm look, "and let me handle this." Her eyes snapped back to the ninja in front of her.

"So Demon Brothers have failed me, and are probably dead now." Zabuza's brown eyes dug deep into Kurenai's red, the tension almost palpable. His mouth, hidden from a view by tightly woven bandages going from his nose down under his chin, turned into a small smirk. "I know who you are, Kurenai. I also know about your abilities. You are no match for me, neither are your students." In a flash, his sword was out of its sheath, the sharp tip pointing at the scared-looking Tazuna. "I have no quarrels with you or Konoha. Hand him over and you can walk away alive."

"You don't really expect me to give up my client over to a missing-nin, do you, Zabuza?" Kurenai shifted weight on her left foot, getting herself between Zabuza's blade and its target. "Konoha's ninjas don't abandon their clients no matter what are the circumstances."

"Chm. And here I thought you had some brain in you, after fighting and killing my two subordinates." Zabuza looked disappointed now, his sharp look now moving on his new prey.

"What? How can you talk so leisurely about your teammates, you prick?!" yelled Kiba, his whole body shaking with rage. "Didn't they mean anything to you? Didn't their death mean anything to you?!"

"Shut up, kid!"

Kiba, along with Naruto and Hinata, gasped, as the feeling of thick air from their previous fight returned, only a hundred times stronger. His body started to shake so heavily he almost dropped the kunai he was holding and Akamaru whimpered and hid inside his master's jacket. Even Kurenai gulped as she tried to resist the force of Zabuza's killer intent.

"You know nothing about ninja world and you know nothing about ninjas." Zabuza's voice was getting darker with every word. "We are nothing but tools, used and discarded whenever our masters feel like it. No one gives two shits about you or your death, you matter to them just as long as you follow orders and stay alive. After that, your corpse could be used to fertilize a garden and no one would give a fuck." For a second, his look shifted from Kurenai to her canine student, his direct gaze doubling Kiba's shaking. "Keep shouting things like 'teammates' and 'friendship' and you won't survive for long."

"We are not handing our client over," said Kurenai, kunai appearing in her hand seemingly out of nowhere. "Return to your master and tell him that, or face us and see how presumably weak are Konoha's ninjas."

"What a shame." Zabuza slowly stretched his shoulders, then rose to its full height and looked down on Kurenai's smaller form, coiled for an attack or defense at a moment's notice. "For you, anyway."

In the next blink of an eye, both weapons met and the surroundings got filled with a sound of clashing steel.

(…)

"We've got to help her!" said Kiba, even though he was still trying to shake off the effects of Zabuza's silent attack.

"No. We can't go in right now," answered Hinata, her white eyes staring intently at the current battlefield.

"But Kurenai-sensei needs our help!" protested Kiba.

"And how can we help her right now? Just look at them." Small hands curled into fists. "Right now, we can't do anything to help our sensei. Plus, if we tried, Zabuza might go after Tazuna-san and our whole mission would end in failure. We can only watch and hope that Kurenai-sensei will get out of it victorious."

"What, would my death be nothing but a mission failure to you?" gasped Tazuna, clearly offended by what Hinata just said.

"Nah, don't worry, old man!" Kiba grinned and hit him in the shoulder with a slightly stronger push than he intended to give. "That won't happen. Our sensei will kick that bastard's ass in no time and then we're safe to go!"

Naruto didn't react to that, instead watching the two fighting Jōnins in a worry. He never saw Kurenai-sensei fighting seriously and he was sure that she was a powerful kunoichi, but Zabuza didn't seem to be afraid of her at all. Which one of them was wearing a mask now, which one knew that the other was stronger than the other and was merely not giving it away? Or, if they were equal, what would be the decisive vote for one of them to become a winner in their deadly duel?

And the most important question – should their sensei fall, how would they be able to defeat Zabuza, if it was even possible?

Torturing himself with questions with no answers, it took Naruto a second to realize that their surroundings were slowly but surely changing. He figured it out at the same time as Kiba.

"A fog is rising!"

(…)

"You are not half bad," said Zabuza as his figure slowly disappeared in a thick, wet fog that seemed to take hold of everything around. Satisfied that his Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist Technique) successfully hid him from his enemy's view, he added: "But you are not nearly good enough."

For a kunoichi with much shorter weapon than his and with a build that clearly leaned more towards nimble and flexible way of fighting, she managed to stay alive for a full three minutes of their fight. True, she got several cuts when his strength overpowered her, but they weren't life-threatening and Zabuza was too impatient to wait for a blood loss to take hold of his opponent. Strong and proud ninjas, who didn't beg for mercy, deserved in his opinion the honor of quick death. Maybe, if he felt truly merciful, he would grant her students the same.

But now, hidden from almost all senses by the trademark technique of his former village, he raised his massive broadsword, Kubikiribōchō (Executioner's Blade), in preparation for his final technique.

Muon Satsujin Jutsu (Silent Killing Technique).

Without ushering as much as a single sound, he appeared behind the red-eyed kunoichi, his blade twisting into her heart and out before she could even realize what has happened.

"It was nice knowing you… Kurenai," he whispered with a smirk – only to stare in disbelief as his target dissolved into the thin air.

"Don't count me out just yet, Zabuza!"

Quickly looking behind himself, the masked missing-nin realized that Kurenai, somehow, managed to dodge his most prized killing technique. What's more, she was right behind him, gripping a kunai in each hand and going right after him, red color in her eyes burning with a power of a real fire.

'A genjutsu… no, she's not that stupid to attack me with an illusion. A hit from nothing causes nothing. That means…' his eyes darted around as he raised his giant sword once again, 'that she has prepared either Kawarimi no Jutsu or she's trying to lure me into a trap. But…'

"Neither of those will help you!" he snarled, bringing his sword down in an amazing display of power and speed – a weapon that would take most ninjas both hands to use effectively was flying around with a quickness of an ordinary twig. As Kurenai dropped down to dodge Zabuza's assault, his smirk only widened as he simply twisted his wrist, changing the sword's trajectory and cleanly splitting his enemy in half – only for the younger kunoichi to disappear just like the first one.

'Impossible! It really was a genjutsu!' Looking around again, he saw another Kurenai approaching him from his left, and with an angry grunt he raised his left hand to his mouth, three fingers balled into a fist and two pointing up in preparation for technique that would dispel any and all genjutsu around him. It would cost him some chakra to keep up the Kirigakure no Jutsu, but he was getting tired of this game of cat and mouse. She wasn't going to survive this next attack!

Just when Kurenai got into the range of his sword, Zabuza's loud Kai signalized a massive release of chakra, stopping the tall ninja's chakra flow for just a split second before applying a stronger flow of chakra with intent to disrupt Kurenai's own flow. Whatever genjutsu she may have casted, it was now rendered useless, and Zabuza's eyes narrowed as he watched his opponent ran at him without even a flinch. "Nowhere to hide now!" he grunted, angry at himself for falling for her first genjutsu and for being forced to spend additional chakra to keep his Kirigakure no Jutsu active, but this Konoha's ninja proved herself quite a deadly opponent already and he wasn't about to underestimate her again. He was going to crush her!

Yet when his sword came down again, instead of seeing his opponent split open in a gushing stream of blood and organs, two more Kurenais emerged from the point where his blade met her body, both circling him like cats that have found their prey.

'What's going on here?!' Kirigakure ex-ninja grunted as two female ninjas attacked him at the same time, their movements copying each other like in a perfect mirror movie. Their long hands extended forward, kunais gripped tightly in reverse hold when one of them slashed at his neck and the other went for his leg. He knew that he didn't have time to dodge both, he had to bet on one of them being another illusion, probably hidden by another genjutsu before and appearing only now when his release fully took effect.

He focused on the left one and swung his swords upwards, the brutal attack creating strong breeze and forcing his opponent backward unless she wanted to lose her arm. 'Bingo!' he thought with a smirk, only to gasp in pain as he felt sharpened steel scratch him on the back of his right arm. He immediately swung around, this time raising his left leg and moving it swiftly in a roundhouse kick that struck Kurenai straight in her gut and sent her skidding over the grassy ground before she vanished as well. The other kunoichi disappeared as well with the original appearing ten feet in front of him, poised for another attack. As he kept his wary look on the only visible opponent, his left hand sneaked backwards, tracing the wound that he felt on his arm, only to dip in something warm and liquid. His own blood.

He didn't get enough time to ponder about it as Kurenai sprung into action again, her long, lean body darting forward like a skilled dancer around her clumsy partner. No matter what he tried to do, whenever he moved fast enough to hit her with his fist, leg or sword, she just vanished into the air, only to reappear too close to him and attack him from an unpredicted angle. So far he was able to counter her movements based on the knowledge of human body's weak points and predicting where she would try to attack him to kill him with minimum efforts, but while his protection of his key areas remained successful despite his major disadvantage, too soon he felt his half-naked body getting covered with shallow cuts and freshly spilled blood. And with every such cut he felt a little bit more of his strength leaving him as he was still unable to land a single solid hit on that damned bandages-wrapped woman!

A cold sweat broke up on his forehead as he gripped the handle of his sword more tightly. He thought that Kurenai was nothing but another Jōnin from a country that had its days of glory long gone, but here he was, panting hard and forcing himself to the top of his abilities while his opponent had nothing but the few minor cuts that he gave her on the very beginning of their fight.

'Wait a moment…' Zabuza suddenly blinked as Kurenai attacked him again, this time not even trying to dodge his attack as she once again dispersed before his very eyes. Already expecting her to attack him from somewhere behind him, he leapt forward, gulping down a loud hiss as another shallow cut appeared on his left flank. But this time, he forced himself to turn his head backwards to see his opponent – particularly those wounds that he had given her not so long ago.

His suspicion grew as he noticed that one of them was half an inch shorter than he remembered it to be.

(…)

"Wow! Look at Kurenai-sensei go! She's trashing him around like he's some wet rookie!" cheered Kiba and grinned in a smile that showed off all his teeth. "This fight is hers in just a few more minutes!" He was barely able to see anything in the mist, but both his and Akamaru's nose was telling him enough to know that there was much more Zabuza's blood than Kurenai's. It was clear who was winning this fight.

"It's amazing," whispered Hinata, straining her eyes hard to get a grasp on what was actually happening. Her Byakugan recovered nicely during their trip, but she could swear it was getting disobedient again. Whenever she tried to focus purely on her sensei, all she could see was a blurred image of human person with similarly blurred chakra pathway running wild inside her. Whenever they were hit, they seemingly vanished, only to reappear somewhere else and act as if nothing happened before. She could only guess that it was some kind of genjutsu, but it was too high-level on her current level of Byakugan to fully grasp it. However, she noticed two things that were making her increasingly worried about her sensei.

The first one was that whenever those fake bodies appeared, their chakra shone a little bit duller than before, which in Byakugan's vision meant that Kurenai was rapidly spending all of her chakra.

And the second one was a slight shift in Zabuza's own chakra. It didn't seem to be held back for any technique, it was more like a subtle change in his usual pattern of attacks and defense.

"Kiba," she whispered again, "get prepared."

"Prepared for what?" asked the canine boy with an incomprehensive look in his black slit eyes.

"For something bad to happen."

"Pff! You should try and trust Kurenai-sensei a bit more, Hinata-chan," frowned Kiba. "She's clearly smashing this Zabuza-guy around like nothing. All we have to worry about is this stupid mist and-"

He got interrupted by a high-pitched scream that certainly didn't belong to Zabuza.

(…)

"I admit that you gave me a hard time, Kurenai," said Zabuza as he wiped away blood from the fresh cut on his left cheek, "but the party time is over now."

Kurenai growled, but even the slightest amount of movement caused a sharp pain to numb both of her hands and make her cry out loudly. She thought that she finally got Zabuza during her last attack, dissolving once again when hit and going after the tendon in his right calf, sure that with decreased mobility like that, he would be an easy target for her next attack.

That was when everything went completely wrong.

"How did you figure out my technique?" she asked breathlessly, hoping that delaying Zabuza with questions would give her some time to escape from his grasp.

The missing-nin allowed himself a superior smirk, although it was barely visible over the wrappings around his mouth. "You had me fooled when you resisted my release technique, and you confused me with the many you attacking me at once when I knew that you wouldn't dare to create so many Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones) in a serious fight." He hissed as he found another injury right next to his shoulder blade, but his victory gave him enough strength to ignore it. He leaned closer to the helpless kunoichi. "My release actually worked and those weren't Bunshin at all. All you did was create lightning-fast genjutsu that made you look like you were still in place when I cut you while you were already elsewhere and you used the same genjutsu to hide yourself from my sight. You didn't just cast them anywhere, you were always near one of them or actually one of them just before you got close enough to attack. And when I tried to dispel them, it worked – but you managed to cast another genjutsu so quickly that I didn't have enough time to notice the difference." He clucked his tongue loudly. "It would work if you had a bit more stamina."

Kurenai had to suppress a threatening growl, which would be pointless now. Going for a series of seal-less genjutsu in row and casting them instantly took indeed a serious toll on both her chakra and stamina. Her Shinkirou yuuei no Jutsu (Mirage Walk Technique) was just too taxing to keep up for more than five minutes when she was at top of her strength. She genuinely hoped that she would defeat Zabuza before her drop in concentration would be registered, but he proved too adept at long and taxing fights. He managed to drag her out, noticed one of the tiny mistakes that started to appear as her exhaustion grew and then…

She steeled herself and tugged on her hands once again, but the pain was too sharp and too strong. Her palms were above her head, pinned to a tree by her own kunai, courtesy of Zabuza's "disarming" skill. Theoretically she could still use her legs, but she wanted to save that as a last resort. She refused to admit a defeat yet, even though it was looking very bad for her and her students now.

Zabuza slowly leaned closer to her, making Kurenai feel the hot sweat on his body and the unique smell of blood from his wounds, and said: "I'm giving you one last chance, Kurenai. Call out to those kids that you call students and order them to stand down and bring me that bridge builder. If they do it, there'll be only one dead man today."

"And what if I won't?" said Kurenai through gritted teeth.

"Then I'll slaughter every single one of them, then I'll kill you." Zabuza's ice-cold voice could freeze the nearby river with its tone only.

"… what guarantee do I have that you'll keep your word?"

"None. But you have no other choice."

Kurenai tried to focus on moving her hands again, but the kunai passed directly through the middle of her palms and was embedded into the bark up to its hilt; too deep for her to dislodge it in any way. She couldn't even use her legs to get it out, she might have possessed that flexibility, but just kicking it out would hurt her hands beyond any possible healing and to use both feet would require for her to hang from her stabbed palms. That was out of question too. No matter how much she disliked it, she was helpless right now and Zabuza was still in too much fighting-able state for her students to take on.

She gulped hard. There was only one way out of this and no matter how much she wished for it to never happen, she wasn't going to back away from her obligations.

In the end, the way how ninja died was one of the few things that settled whether people saw your legacy as a worthy one or not.

"Kiba! Hinata! Naruto!" she called out. When she could see their terrified faces on the other side of the battlefield, she realized that Zabuza had to lift his Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist Technique) up, probably sure that all danger to him was left with her being defeated. She felt a cold sweat ran down her spine, but she steeled herself. She had to do this for the sake of her students.

Taking a deep breath, she shouted as quickly as possibly: "Take Tazuna-san and run away! Get out of here and protect your client! Don't worry about-"

A sharp jab to her jaw interrupted her speech. She gasped as a fresh coppery taste filled her mouth and pinched on her tongue.

"Stupid choice, Kurenai," growled Zabuza, raising his sword and slowly going for the three Genins. "Stupid choice indeed."


Preview:

Kiba: (growling) What an asshole! Let's trash that guy!

Hinata: Kiba, stick to the plan! We will get Kurenai-sensei back, just don't lose focus! If we make a slightest mistake, then…

Naruto: H-Hinata! Look out!

Hinata: What the…

Next time, on Tales of Konoha: Chapter 10 – Genin's Gambit

?: (feminine voice) I won't let you touch Zabuza-sama…


(1) Since Kurenai parent's names weren't stated, I made them up with small puns inside. Daichi 大地, 大智 means "great intellect", referring to Kurenai's approach to dealing with problems using brain, Izumi 泉 translates as "spring" or "fountain" (that will be explained later) and Kurosawa stands for "black swamp", reference to Kurenai's hair.