What the Future Holds Chapter 10, a naruto fanfic

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I had a dream that I dreamt that I got a chance to win a ticket that would let me get into an auction to buy the rights for Naruto, but when I woke up, I still didn't.

AN: Here is Chapter 10, guaranteed action in this chapter, but I won't say any more than that.

WARNING: This chapter is bloody, but seriously, you can't fight with pointy weapons and not get any blood.

Kai groaned as he sat up, every one of his muscles aching in protest at his movement. Groggily shaking his head, Kai looked around, noticing he was in a relatively plain room, lying in a sleeping bag on the floor, with a few more lying next to his. A quick look around the room showed that other than the sleeping bags, there was nothing but a few doors and a window revealing the dying light of a setting sun. Not sensing any other people anywhere around him, Kai unzipped the sleeping bag and struggled to his feet.

The first thing he did, after finally gaining his feet and balance, was locate the nearest bathroom, which turned out to be through one of two doors he had noticed. Once he had finished his necessary business, he looked himself over, and was surprised to find that, other than the sorry state of his tattered and filthy clothing and his extremely sore muscles, he was in fairly good condition, with only a few small bruises to show that he had been in a disastrous fight recently. Or at least, he thought it was recently. The only way he could have healed as much as he had would be if he had been unconscious for a long time, or someone had used medical Jutsu to help him along.

Either way, Kai knew that he needed to get some answers, so, after removing his ninja tools, Kai quickly changed into a fresh outfit from his pack, which he found next to the wall across from the one door he hadn't opened yet. Once he had situated his clothing and replaced his weapons, Kai made his way over to the unopened door. Kai knew that there was no way that Kakashi or Naruto would have left him in a dangerous place, but either way, he didn't want to be too oblivious to potential danger, so he slowly eased the door open, trying to avoid any unnecessary creaking that would betray him to a potential listener.

Once the door was open wide enough for him to slip through, Kai edged himself out into the hallway beyond and, just as slowly, eased the door shut again before turning to look down the hall. He could easily hear the sounds of movement down a set of stairs at the end of the hall, accompanied by the occasional clang of a pot or pan, but other than that, nothing. Slowly, moving in a walking-crouch close to the wall, Kai inched his way forward toward the stairs, listening for any sign that he had been detected.

Once he reached the top of the stairs, the delicious smell of some kind of food drifted up to him, causing his stomach to growl loudly, which made Kai freeze, sure that whoever was below had heard him. When he had remained motionless for nearly a full minute with no response from below, he slowly let out the breath that he hadn't realized he was holding, and started to inch his way down the stairs.

By the time he got halfway down, the delicious aroma had increased in intensity, which caused his stomach to once again let him know how terribly empty it was. Kai decided that he had to have been out for a few days for him to be this hungry, but finding out would have to wait. Continuing his slow trek down the stairs, praying that his stomach would not give him away, Kai's senses were all on full alert, trying to detect anyone or anything that would help explain his situation.

Then, just as he got to the bottom of the steps, he heard a voice, "Man, I'm starving!" It was Naruto! Kai slowly stood the rest of the way up, his legs once again protesting at his change in position; if Naruto was here then there couldn't be any threat.

Then, just as Kai was about to take the last few steps down and join his teammate, a small boy dressed in a white shirt underneath green overalls with a blue and white hat suddenly turned the corner and spotted Kai. Now the boy could have done several things in this situation: he could have simply walked past Kai and up the stairs, he could have turned around, or he could have done what he did. He shouted, "Hey!"

Kai, caught completely off guard by the boy and his sudden reaction, was caught with his foot halfway down to the next step, and so easily lost his balance and fell face first onto the hard, unforgiving floor next to the shocked boy. Immediately, hands were pulling on Kai's arms as he was hoisted back to his feet, once again with an accompanying complaint from his sore body, and looked into the faces of Naruto and Sasuke, both of whom were smiling, or smirking, mischievously.

"Come on now Oni-san," Naruto laughed once Kai had regained his balance again, "surely you aren't that badly disoriented."

"Yeah," Sasuke said, his smirk growing wider still, "you were only out for four days."

Kai paused for a moment before what Sasuke had said fully sunk in, "Four days! How was I asleep for four days?"

Naruto clamped his hands over his ears while Sasuke flinched and said, "Easy Kai. You were unconscious for four days because Kakashi-sensei kept you that way so you could heal completely before beginning training again."

"Huh?" Kai said in a much more bearable tone.

Naruto sighed, "Maybe he kept you under for too long… He was using medical Jutsu on you daily to finish what you started with your Jutsu during the fight, but he had to take it slowly

so he wouldn't overload your body. You can only safely force your body to heal so much you know. So he kept you in a Jutsu induced sleep until you were fully healed, except for a few bruises that weren't deep enough to cause you any real trouble."

Kai grimaced and said, "Yeah, that and he left my muscles sore enough that I can barely move."

"Well as fascinating as it is to just stand here and talk about you," Naruto said with a look that told Kai he wasn't trying to insult him, "but I for one would like to get back to the wonderful food that Tsunami cooked for us, what about you Sasuke?"

At the mention of food Kai's stomach once again let out a protest, which caused Sasuke to laugh lightly at Kai's blush before nodding, "I definitely agree, and it seems Kai's opinion has made itself known as well." With that said, the three Genin walked around the corner and into the simple kitchen/dining area that the rest of Squad 7 was in. When the kitchen table came into sight, Kai immediately recognized his team and Tazuna, but also noticed a woman with dark, shoulder length hair and a pink top with a dark blue, knee length skirt on, who he assumed must be the Tsunami person that Naruto mentioned. The boy, after a short pause, decided to run around them and jump into a seat next to Tazuna, whatever it was that had brought him over to the stairs forgotten in the excitement.

"It's good to see you up and about again Kai," Kakashi said when the boys returned and Naruto pointed Kai to an empty chair, "but I must say I had expected you to sleep for a while longer."

"Why is that Kakashi-sensei," Kai said as he settled into a comfortable position with a groan and watched while Tsunami put a bowl of some kind of soup in front of him, which he immediately, but without forgetting to be polite, dug into.

Kakashi just laughed, "Because of all the groaning Naruto has been doing every night before he went to sleep. He complains every night about how hard the training for the day has been, and I assumed that you would stay knocked out longer to avoid it." Everyone but Naruto laughed, and Kai kept himself to a light chuckle while Sasuke only smirked. Kai had noticed a change in the broody Genin since the battle with the first too assassins. He seemed to be softening somewhat, almost like he may want to try to be Kai's friend, but Kai wasn't going to count his chickens before they hatched. He would simply have to wait until Sasuke was ready to open up, and then maybe there would be a chance.

Over dinner, Kai learned that the group had arrived at their current location, which was Tazuna's house, a few hours after Zabuza was taken away. He got a confirmation on his guess that the woman's name was Tsunami and that she was Tazuna's daughter, while the boy's name was Inari, Tazuna's grandson. There was a slight air of happiness and elation in this room, mostly coming from Tazuna and Tsunami, while Inari seemed slightly torn on something, but he didn't ruin the mood for everyone else.

When the subject of Zabuza came up, Kai suddenly remembered what he had been about to ask when he passed out," Kakashi-sensei, aren't hunter Nin supposed to destroy their target's body on sight and just take the head?"

Kakashi sighed, "Yes Kai; that is the standard protocol for hunter Nin. And yes, this probably means that the hunter Nin we saw is working with Zabuza, so we can probably assume that he is still alive."

"So what are we going to do?" Kai asked when Kakashi paused.

"We actually discussed this while you were unconscious Oni-san," Naruto said, "We are just going to have to make sure that there is always at least one of us on the bridge while Tazuna is working. That way, when he shows up, we will be ready."

"And judging by the amount of damage that I inflicted on him in our battle, and the amount of rest I am going to need to fully recover from it, he should be ready to go in around one week, which leaves us about three days left," Kakashi finished, leaving the room in an uncomfortably tense silence.

"No worries," Sasuke said breaking the unease, "this time, we can be prepared for him. This time, we can finish him off."

Kakashi smiled, "If that is what it takes, then yes, we can. I believe that Zabuza is merely a pawn in this whole business. He was probably hired to do a job by Gato. Missing Nin tend to be cheaper than commissioning a village, and there is always the lack of support for the hired ninja should something happen to them, so someone like Gato could double-cross them and not have to worry about any consequences. In fact, he would probably just collect the bounties on them and come out of the deal even further ahead." The room once again settled into quiet, but this one was just from everyone absorbing this new information.

Sakura broke the silence this time, "Kai, what was it that you did to that Zabuza clone? It looked like you were winning for a while."

Kai scratched the back of his head, a nervous habit he had gotten from Naruto, and said, "I was actually outclassed the entire time, and we all knew it," Sasuke and Naruto nodded sadly, "there was no way that any of us besides Kakashi-sensei could have taken on even a clone of Zabuza and survived at that time, but my job was just to keep him away from Naruto and Sasuke. As for what I did, I just attached some of my smallest exploding tags to some shuriken, and when he caught them, I detonated them."

"So your training with the Hokage is going well then?" Kakashi asked, his one eyebrow lifted to emphasize his question.

Kai nodded and pushed his now empty soup bowl away from him, thanking Tsunami when he came and collected it. When he looked back up, he found the gaze of all three of his

teammates on him, almost as if they were begging for details. Kai sighed and looked at Kakashi, "I am going to take them upstairs Kakashi-sensei, I think it is time."

Kakashi nodded, "Alright Kai, just don't take too long. I am sure that you are still tired, and you will be joining us for training tomorrow. You will need all the rest you can get." Kai nodded and, after thanking Tsunami for the meal, gestured for his teammates to follow him back upstairs. Naruto followed without hesitation while Sasuke only looked once at Kakashi, who nodded, before getting up himself, and Sakura, fan girl that she still was, got up immediately after Sasuke.

Once the four Genin had left the room, Tazuna turned to the Jonin and said, "What was that all about? What is it time for?"

Kakashi smiled, "Kai has an interesting past. He somehow ended up in the hands of a crazed man who tried to possess his body. In doing so, Kai's memories were lost, so he doesn't know anything about who he used to be or where he came from. Other than Naruto, the Hokage, and me, no one knows the entirety of Kai's recent history. He expressed a concern to me recently about keeping this from his teammates, and he has now decided to share everything with them, I just hope it goes well."

With a grunt and a nod, Tazuna turned back to his sake, slowly digesting this new information about his protectors. He wasn't sure how to take this new information. One on hand, it would be a great emotional burden lifted from the shoulders of one of his young protectors, but on the other hand, it could interfere with their teamwork if any of them decided that they couldn't trust Kai because of the mad man's influence.

The four Genin walked into the room that Kai had woken up in. Apparently, this room was for the boys while Tsunami and Sakura slept in another room closer to the stairs, but it would serve its purpose for now, as long as Inari didn't decide that he wanted to go to bed early, which when you took his age into account, wasn't likely. Kai pulled his sleeping bag over to the wall underneath the window and folded it over before settling down on it, facing the rest of the room. Sasuke settled directly across from him on his bedding, while Naruto pulled his over to Kai's left, and Sakura pulled Kakashi's over on his right.

"Ok," Kai said once everyone was seated, "I have decided that it is time that you all knew the truth about my past, and why I seem to get so much special attention."

"Really," Sasuke said, his face adopting a thoughtful, but still broody, look.

"The only problem is, I don't know how exactly to begin," Kai said, looking down timidly.

"Well," Sakura said, trying to be helpful, "Why not start with where you're from, your family, your home, things like that. You can build on it from there." Sakura failed to immediately notice Kai's sad face while Naruto silently glared at her.

Kai sighed, already having to fight back despair, "That's just the problem Sakura. I don't know anything about my past."

"What do you mean?" Sakura said, seemingly unable to grasp what he was saying, "You can't just not know where you came from, it doesn't make any sense."

Despair began to well up in Kai and he was forced to choke it down, fighting away a sob as he looked at Sakura with a carefully controlled face, "I don't remember anything from before I came to Konoha. Kakashi-sensei found me on his way back from a mission and saved me from a man named Zanbifushi Hito. Hito was preparing for a complex Jutsu that would transfer his soul into the body of another person, effectively killing the other person and prolonging Hito's life by allowing him to take over the new body. The body he chose was mine, and one of the Jutsu in the sequence he was using allowed him to erase my memories and replace them with his own."

Sakura's face fell and a blush began growing as she realized what she had said, and what it probably made him think about, "Kai, I'm sor…"

Kai shook his head, "It's ok, you didn't know so I can't rightfully hold it against you. Anyway, Kakashi showed up and defeated him before bringing me back to Konoha where I did what I could to start my life again. All I knew about myself was that I couldn't remember any kind of past, but I seemed to have some kind of ninja training. Now, do you remember the day of our Genjutsu review?"

This time Sasuke spoke up, "You collapsed in the middle of the exam and Iruka-sensei had to carry you out. No one was told what happened."

Kai nodded, "Only a few actually were. What happened was that when I tried to release the Genjutsu, I couldn't mold the exact amount of chakra needed to do the job, so I went for an overload. I focused all the chakra that I could, and used that to try and dispel the Jutsu, but it did more than that. I managed to release a very strong seal that Hito had placed on me during his ritual. This seal was what had kept his memories separate from my own. Basically what happened was that my brain was overloaded with information so quickly that I just shut down. When I finally woke up, I had all these memories floating around in my head that weren't mine, but Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, and Iruka-sensei were there to help sort things out."

Sasuke's eyes suddenly widened, "So that is where you learned all those powerful Jutsu, from Hito's memories!"

Kai nodded, "Exactly. I have been sorting through them and re-establishing some order within my own mindscape through a technique that Hito always used to help him every time he

switched bodies. With this method, I have been able to learn dozens of Jutsu, but I couldn't practice them until recently."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, speaking up again now that her blush had faded.

"I found some information on seals and sealing Jutsu in Hito's memories, and when I told the Hokage, he offered to teach me about seals. He also allowed me access to the ANBU training grounds so I could practice some of the more powerful Jutsu that couldn't be safely done on the regular training grounds. I don't think anyone else would have liked to have been around the first time I tried using Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu, I nearly barbequed several of the ANBU in the area, some of which quickly came over and forcefully instructed me on the proper way to perform the Jutsu without nearly blowing up everything around me."

Sasuke nodded, "Kai I owe you an apology."

"For what," Kai questioned, his head tilted to one side.

Sasuke seemed reluctant before he finally said, "I have been somewhat rude to you recently. Even after you helped me against the first assassins, I guess I was jealous about you getting special training instead of me, but now I see that we have more in common than I originally thought. It was hard enough for me when I heard that you and Naruto were getting special treatment from a Jonin before we had even graduated, but hearing about the lessons from the Hokage, well let's just say I have been thinking some rather unkind things about the both of you. For that I apologize."

Kai was slightly shocked, but recovered quickly and said, "It's not a problem Sasuke. Like I said to Sakura, you didn't know the whole story, so I cannot hold it against you."

The room was quiet for a moment before Sakura suddenly started screaming, "Oh Sasuke-kun, you are the greatest. You didn't even have to tell them about that but you still did. You are the nicest guy ever!"

Naruto had clamped his hands over his ears again before saying, "Sakura-chan! Calm down! He's not that great!"

Sasuke smirked and looked at Naruto, but with a hint of mischief in his eyes, "Better than you Dobe."

Naruto caught the look Sasuke gave him and just started laughing. Kai looked perplexed until Sasuke started laughing too, after that, Kai just shook his head and began laughing himself because of how strange this scene was. Sakura was sitting there with a perplexed look on her face while Sasuke and Naruto, once about as opposite as two people could get, were laughing together at some private joke that only they seemed to be able to get.

Sakura, not wanting to be left out, turned to Sasuke and said, "What's so funny Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke's laughter slowly died down before he said, "Nothing Sakura, just a laugh between friends." Kai knew that he had made the right decision in telling his team about Hito. He had successfully, yet unintentionally, removed one of the barriers to their teamwork. Sasuke was jealous of the other two boys, and that kept him from opening up to two potential friends, but now that obstacle had been surmounted. Now if only Kai could find a way to get Sakura to stop obsessing over Sasuke and Naruto to stop chasing Sakura. Oh well, just one miracle at a time would have to do.

Sweat was rolling down Kai's face as he stood on the surface of the pond, applying all his focus to keeping himself out of the frigid water. He was standing about ten feet from the shore, his clothes dripping, trying to prevent another fall. It had been two days since Kai had woken up in Tazuna's house, and Kakashi had decided to take his training to the next level after he displayed a near mastery of tree climbing the day before. Since Naruto also showed a certain level of skill with chakra-based tree climbing, he explained the principle to Sasuke and Sakura before leaving them to practice while he began teaching his other two students water-walking.

At first, Kai had believed that this would be exactly like tree climbing, except this time he would be standing on a regular horizontal surface, which would make everything easier, he was wrong. It took several dozen dips into the ice cold pond before Kai could even manage to stand on the water's surface for more than a few seconds. The water wasn't nearly as stable as wood, so Kai actually had to use more chakra in a steady flow to keep himself stable, and that took him entirely out of his comfort zone as far as chakra control went.

His control has been getting better since his first days in the academy, but it wasn't without a huge amount of hard work. He could easily control all low level Jutsu and chakra levels, as well as the highest, but he was still having trouble with any and all mid-level techniques, which Kakashi knew and exploited in his training. If it weren't for the fact that Kai knew that he needed this training, he would have been furious at Kakashi for inflicting what Kai considered to be cruel and unusual torture upon him.

Naruto wasn't faring too much better than Kai, the only difference was that Naruto's problem stemmed from too much chakra to easily manipulate it, but he was still doing better than Kai was. This didn't bother Kai too much though, not at all. This was mostly because he was focusing too hard to think about it, but even if he hadn't been, it still wouldn't have bothered him.

"Alright you two," Kakashi shouted, "time to head back." Kakashi's call had a different effect on the two Genin. Naruto simply opened his eyes and slowly walked back to the shore, only dipping slightly as he got closer and his excitement grew, but he quickly recovered and made it to the shore with only wet feet. Kai on the other hand was completely brought out of his trance by Kakashi, which resulted in him losing his focus, which resulted in him taking another dip that he was sure would leave him encased in an ice cube.

Sputtering loudly, Kai floated back up to the surface and swam to the shore before walking up next to the laughing form of Naruto. "Keep laughing Oni-san," Kai said as he ran his hands through his hair to try and force out some of the excess water, "I'll get you back sooner or later."

Naruto got the point and calmed himself down after a few more seconds before saying, "Come on Kai, don't be so mean."

Kai smiled mischievously and said, "Your right Naruto, I forgive you," and quickly dashed in to envelop Naruto in a tight hug, still dripping wet.

"Ahh," Naruto exclaimed when Kai stepped back from him and the air hit his now wet skin, "that's cold!" Naruto immediately began running in circles, trying to warm himself up, while Kai took his turn at a laugh, he had gotten used to the cold long before.

Kakashi merely smiled at the two Genin's antics, he remembered when he was like that during his Genin days. Ah, sweet memories, but there wasn't time for that now, "Alright Kai," Kakashi said in his usual drawl, "that's enough. You got your revenge; now dry him off again so we can head over to Sasuke and Sakura so we can tell them it's time to head back."

"Hai Kakashi-sensei," Kai said as he turned to back to Naruto before forming a few hand-signs, "Futon: Daitoppa," and began issuing a limited stream of chakra into the Jutsu, which formed a heavy wind, instead of a huge hurricane-like wind as the Jutsu normally would have done.

Naruto squeaked when the wind first hit him, since he was still wet, and therefore the wind only made him cold, but he still dried out fairly quickly once he began holding himself in one spot with his chakra. "Thanks Oni-san," Naruto said once Kai broke the Jutsu off, "I guess I deserved that, but couldn't you have used a warmer wind?"

"I could hit you with a Katon Jutsu if you're really that cold…" Kai teased and had to stifle another laugh when Naruto's eyes shot open.

"No, that's ok," Naruto said hurriedly, "I'll just warm up the old fashioned way." Kai turned away and started walking toward Kakashi in order to hide his face from Naruto. Kakashi just rolled his eyes and began walking back to the clearing where Sasuke and Sakura had been practicing their tree climbing with his two students following close behind.

When the three Nin arrived at the clearing where they had left the other two Genin, they found Sasuke still climbing his tree, each time getting a little higher and making a slash across the tree trunk with a kunai, while Sakura merely sat in her tree on a branch higher up than Sasuke had gotten yet and occasionally shouted encouragement at him. When Sasuke saw his three teammates approaching he slumped slightly, taking a short break as they approached, while Sakura stood up on her branch before jumping down and walking over to him.

"How'd you do Sasuke?" Naruto asked, smiling.

"Not too bad," Sasuke panted, "You?"

Naruto chuckled, "I have been thoroughly humbled."

Sasuke smirked, "That hard huh?"

"Nah," Naruto said, turning a covert glance toward Kai, "Kai decided that I should share the lake water with him."

Sasuke paused a moment before his smirk grew slightly and chuckled, "A little jealous of the dobe are you Kai?"

Kai and Naruto both glared at Sasuke, shouting, "Hey!" while Sasuke's smirk just grew even wider.

"Calm down you two," Kakashi said, "We're heading back to Tazuna's now. That's enough training for one day."

"Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke said, "I would like to stay behind and continue training."

"Why is that Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, lifting his eyebrow as he spoke.

"I need to keep training," Sasuke said, looking back toward the tree he had been climbing and the rows of horizontal slashes he had left in the trunk, "I need to get stronger."

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to be here alone Sasuke," Kakashi cautioned, "Zabuza should be getting back on his feet soon, and we don't know who he will come after first: us or Tazuna."

"I could stay too Kakashi-sensei," Kai spoke up, "I still have plenty of chakra left, so I might as well keep working on my control, and I could even give him some pointers if he needs it."

"I can stay behind too," Naruto said once Kai had finished, "Kai might need a sparing partner, and it is important to have someone here who won't be training as hard so that we can all get back safely."

Kakashi looked over at Sakura, who just shrugged, before turning back to the three boys, "Alright you three, just be back by Midnight, tomorrow we will have to start devoting more time to protecting Tazuna; Zabuza will be back on his feet soon, and we will all need our rest."

"Hai," the three Genin said before Kakashi and Sakura turned and began walking back toward the village.

"Alright guys," Naruto said once the other two ninja had gotten out of ear shot, "Let's get training!"

The rest of the afternoon and evening had gone by very quickly for Kai. The training session had gone very similarly to ones that he and Naruto had had before they were placed on Squad 7, with the single exception of Sasuke being there as well. Naruto and Kai had had one of their Kage Bunshin melees while Sasuke continued trying to climb to the top of his tree before taking a break on one of the higher branches to watch. Once the melee was down to a few clones on each side, Naruto and Kai dispelled them and just settled for an old fashioned spar.

Sasuke eventually made it up to the top of his tree just as darkness began to fall, and decided to join in with Naruto and Kai sparing match, making it a three-way fight with no set allegiances. Each person found themselves on the wrong side of the other two people more than once, but they all got a good workout out of the deal and arrived back at Tazuna's house around midnight supporting each other as they walked through town.

When they walked through the door, they found Kakashi and Sakura sitting at the table with Tazuna and Tsunami, Tazuna drinking his ever present sake while the other three were having tea. "What happened to you three?" Kakashi asked while Sakura held back a screech when she saw the condition Sasuke was in.

"I made it to the top of the tree," Sasuke said, smirking, "and Naruto and Kai had a Kage Bunshin brawl."

Sasuke paused to catch his breath, just walking through the village had taken a lot out of the three Genin, but Kai picked up where he had left off, "After that we had a three person spar until we were nearly ready to collapse, then we came back here."

Sakura was on the edge of her seat, straining toward Sasuke while trying to look as normal as possible. Kakashi, seeing this, said, "Sakura, why don't you help the boys upstairs to their room. They probably need to get to bed as soon as possible if they are going to help us with guard duty tomorrow."

Sakura, not needing any convincing, immediately sprung to her feet and dashed over to the three boys, before taking immediate possession of Sasuke and helping him walk back to the stairs, leaving Kai and Naruto to half stumble before catching themselves on the doorframe. "Sakura-chan," Naruto cried, "what about us!"

Sakura turned back to the two boys and shrugged, "Well come on, I can only support one person at a time, and Sasuke-kun seemed to be the worst off, so you two will have to make do with me just getting the door for you." Kakashi's eyebrow lifted while Kai just sighed and started stumbling toward the stairs, using the wall for support the entire way. Naruto, after

whining for a few more seconds, followed Kai, while Sakura, seeing that they were following her, continued to help Sasuke up the stairs.

After ten agonizing minutes, during which Kai's muscles complained with a fury similar to that which he had woken up to just days earlier, the exhausted Genin collapsed onto his sleeping bag and slowly struggled his way inside. In the meantime, Sakura was humming pleasantly as she completely ignored her other two teammates while tucking Sasuke into his own sleeping bag with an eye for detail that made Sasuke roll his eyes, when she wasn't looking of course.

By the time Sakura had pronounced Sasuke fully prepared for bed, Kai and Naruto had already situated themselves, not without difficulty, in their sleeping bags, which Sakura noted before saying, "See, you two didn't need help like Sasuke-kun did," and marching out of the room, presumable to return to her tea.

As soon as her footsteps faded down to the floor below Kai started chuckling, "You've got a problem there Sasuke."

Naruto just humphed while Sasuke groaned, "No kidding, stupid fan girl."

"Well at least you've got her," Naruto said grumpily before turning on his side so he was facing away from the other two Genin. Kai looked over at Sasuke and rolled his eyes. Sasuke smirked and nodded; he too had noticed the covert glances that Hinata always sent toward Naruto. He too had noticed the less-than-hidden Kunoichi as she watched Naruto during all of their break periods. It really seemed that the only one who didn't know about her obsession with Naruto was Naruto himself.

As the three Genin began drifting off to sleep, Sasuke felt his mind wandering. Naruto wasn't the only one who was oblivious to the attention he had been receiving from one of their female classmates. Kai had attracted himself an admirer as well; although, this girl was much better at hiding her attraction than Hinata could have dreamed. Sasuke had seen the signs however, mostly the distinctive lack of enthusiasm that the overly-enthusiastic blonde had been showing toward him lately.

Kai winced as his muscles screamed in pain. He needed to stop running, but he didn't have much time. If he didn't get to the bridge soon, something bad may end up happening. Zabuza and that hunter Nin were at the bridge, he knew that much for certain, and he knew that his team needed his help right away.

Kai felt his reserves starting to wear thin as his run through the thick morning mist continued, but then he saw the end of the bridge coming into view and reached deep down to find one last reserve of energy and use it to burst back to full speed, arriving on the scene of a battle that had recently taken place on the bridge. There were puddles of water everywhere, but

most of them were concentrated around one particular area, an area that had a form lying motionless in the middle of it all. Sasuke!

Kai dashed over to find that the broody Genin had been turned into a pincushion by some unknown foe, probably that hunter Nin since they used senbon needles. Kai then heard the sound of birds chirping, a lot of birds chirping. The Genin turned to see Naruto staring over at Kakashi who was holding a visible source of chakra in his hands.

Kakashi was looking over towards a figure that Kai identified as Zabuza, who was being held in place by a group of dogs. Then, just as Kai started to move again, Kakashi began dashing toward Zabuza, "Now you get the honor of experiencing my one and only original technique, Raikiri!" Kakashi then thrust his arm forward, attempting to impale it into Zabuza, but was stopped short as the hunter Nin appeared in front of the other Jonin, and took the hit for him, causing Zabuza to be showered in a spray of the hunter Nin's blood as Kakashi's arm burst out of their back.

Kai moved forward again to stand by Naruto, who was a few yards away from Kakashi, when he heard clapping. Looking around for the source, Kai eventually settled his gaze on a short man wearing a suit and sunglasses. "Looks like the Demon of the Mist isn't all he was cracked up to be. Oh well, it just saves me the effort."

"What are you talking about Gato!" Zabuza shouted, seemingly in slight shock at his partner's death and the subsequent arrival of his employer.

"Well I was just going to have these mercenaries here kill you and the boy once you were weakened by the battle. That way I wouldn't have to pay your extremely high price tag for your services, but I see that this other Nin is doing that for me, it seems he already took out that useless boy."

"You mean you were just using us!" Zabuza shouted back, breaking free from the grasp of the Nin dogs and slowly stalking toward Gato, "Haku died in your service, and all you can do is disgrace his memory! You make me sick!"

"Oh please," Gato said, waving his hand like their conversation was nothing of importance, "I wasn't going to pay you anyway. I have learned that no one will miss a missing Nin, so you can hire them for any mercenary work you want, and then dispose of them without paying. I get the job done, and save myself some money, I win twice." Gato chuckled darkly at his own joke while Zabuza's sneer darkened before he charged at the fat businessman, his harms dangling uselessly at his sides.

Gato immediately paled and hurriedly took several steps back so he was a few ranks back in his army of mercenaries, "You cannot get me here Zabuza," he taunted, but his laughter quickly turned to screams of horror as the enraged missing Nin tore through the mercenaries between himself and the fat man. Gato grunted as Zabuza rammed into him and half pushed, half carried the man through the rest of the mercenaries. The hired weapons saw their payday being carried off and decided that the best way to stop him would be to impale the Jonin with their

weapons. The end result was that when Zabuza burst from the back side of the crowd, still running at full speed, he had several spears and a few swords and daggers sticking out of his back and sides.

Just as Zabuza reached the edge of the bridge, he stumbled and both men fell down on the very edge of the unfinished project. "Please," Gato pleaded, "I'll give you anything you want: money, women, anything! Just don't kill me!"

Zabuza, however, was beyond reason at this point and simply said, "You shouldn't have mocked the Demon of the Mist Gato, because now you'll get to meet a real demon, in Hell!" With that said, Zabuza used the last of his strength to tackle the pleading fat man and the two of them fell to their deaths in the choppy water below.

Meanwhile, the mercenaries saw Gato fall off the bridge and looked at each other, "What do we do now?" one said.

"Well," said another who stepped up to the front of the group, "we aren't going to get paid by Gato, so why don't we just take what we want from the village!"

Various cries of assent were heard from the crowd of mercenaries as they all advanced on the ninja still standing by the body of the fallen Haku.

"This," Kakashi said as he struggled back to his feet and pulled out a kunai, "is not good."

Kai woke up in a cold sweat and looked around to find himself still in his room at Tazuna's home. That had felt so real, too real. It must have been another vision of the future. Kai struggled to his feet and looked around a little more, there was no-one else in the room with him, and he was still in his battered outfit from his training the night before. Kai looked over at the door leading out and saw a note sticking to it. Walking over, Kai pulled it form the door and read it:

Kai, we are going on ahead to the bridge. We tried to wake you up, but couldn't. Just get to the bridge as soon as you can.

Kakashi

"Shit," Kai cursed as he ran over to his back and pulled out his ninja tools. After restocking his personal supplies, Kai dashed over to the door and started to open it when he heard a crash coming from downstairs.

Logic overtaking his need to hurry, Kai slowly opened the door and crept out in time to see Inari standing at the bottom of the steps shouting, "Hey, let her go right now!"

"Inari no!" Tsunami cried out while two male voices laughed.

"Just what are you going to do about it kid?" one man said.

The other man laughed some more before saying, "Hey Zori, can I cut him?"

Tsunami screamed while the other man said with a slight hint of distaste, "Waraji didn't you get enough cutting done on our way over here?" Kai tensed up from his hidden vantage point at the top of the stairs.

"Aw come on," the now named Waraji said, "the boss said we only needed one hostage to ensure the bridge builder's surrender, so why can't I kill the spare?"

"No leave Inari alone," Tsunami screamed and Kai heard the unmistakable sound of a smack as her scream was sharply cut off with a whimper.

"Shut up bitch!" Zori said. Kai felt that he needed to make an appearance now, before things got too far out of hand. The black-clad Genin walked down the stairs quickly, but silently and placed himself in front of Inari and faced the two men who were staring at the cringing Tsunami. "Hey Waraji," Zori said, neither of them noticing Kai's presence yet, "is their any reason why we can't have a little…fun with her first?"

Waraji laughed darkly as Tsunami's eyes widened even further in terror, "No I don't think the boss forbid it when he gave us our orders this morning, and it might make her easier to handle too."

As the two men reached for the stunned woman, having completely forgotten about Inari, Kai felt his anger grow even further, "I suggest you let her go," Kai said darkly causing all three of the figures standing across the room from him to jerk their head around and look in his direction. Tsunami's eyes were tearing up, although Kai didn't know if it was from fear or relief, while Waraji and Zori just stared.

In the silence, Kai examined the two men. Waraji was standing to Kai's left and was wearing a pair of pants with no shirt on. The man was covered in tattoos and had a katana at his waist on his right side. Zori was to the right and was fully dressed in a light blue jacket and pants with a dark blue hat and a white sash holding his sword on his left side. "Who the hell are you?" Zori demanded.

"Someone who doesn't like what you were planning on doing to Tsunami," Kai sneered, his anger increasing still more when he thought about their plan again.

"Zori," the shirtless brute said, "this is probably one of those ninja that Tazuna hired. He must have been left behind to guard the house while the others fought Zabuza on the bridge. And that tells me that he is the weakest of the lot." Waraji smirked as he reached his left hand down to grasp his katana while his right rested on the sheath, using his thumb to loosen the deadly blade so he could draw it quickly.

"Well," Zori said, copying the other samurai's movements on his sword, "I could use a good workout, other than the one we were planning anyway." Zori laughed darkly while Tsunami's face paled as she shrank back into the corner behind her, scooting a few feet before hitting the wall and curling up.

"Whatever," Waraji said, laughing lightly, "I doubt this boy could even give us a challenge."

Kai's eyes narrowed as he formed a plan in his head, step one: get them out of the house. Kai drew a pair of shuriken out of his hip pouch and quickly attached a few flash tags to them before throwing them at the pair of men. "Huh," Waraji scoffed, "stupid shuriken." The man drew his sword to block the attacks, but Kai formed a quick seal and activated the tags, causing the samurai, whose eyes were both fixed on the projectiles, to cry out in pain as they were temporarily blinded.

Acting quickly, Kai leapt forward and used a chakra-powered kick to send Zori flying through the door that they had demolished when they entered. Waraji, still not able to see, swung wildly when he heard Zori get hit in a vain attempt to hit Kai. The Genin simply dodged and ducked before jumping straight at the wall a few yards behind the samurai before rebounding off the wall and driving his knee into the back of Waraji's skull, which sent him flying forward and through the window, which shattered on impact.

"Stay in here," Kai said to Tsunami who nodded as Inari ran over to her and hugged her close. Kai walked outside and walked away from the house to where the two goons had regrouped a short distance away.

"You bastard!" Waraji shouted, "What did you do?"

Kai shook his head, "You can't be worth what Gato is paying you if you can't even recognize a flash tag."

Waraji bristled, "Why you, I'll show you," and blindly rushed toward where Kai's voice had been the last time he had heard. The only problem was, Kai took a step to his right, putting him at an awkward angle for a sword slice, but the blinded swordsman didn't know that. Shouting wildly in his rage, Waraji was once again wildly swinging his weapon, and just like before, but this time, when Kai dodged, he didn't knock the man down. He didn't have time for that.

As the shirtless swordsman stumbled past Kai, who easily ducked under the clumsy attack, and stood again before driving a kunai into the back of the man's skull. With a shudder, Waraji collapsed in a heap on the ground as Kai coldly turned his glare on Zori, who had recovered enough to see Kai finishing his comrade, but not enough to fight at his full potential. Kai pulled his kunai out of the dead man's head with a sickening sucking sound and cleaned it on the corpse's pants before returning it to its holster.

"Why you," Zori said as he drew his sword and settled into a fighting stance before charging at Kai. This time, Kai knew that he wouldn't catch his enemy off guard, but at least it was just a one-on-one fight now. Zori came in low with a horizontal slice, but Kai jumped into the air and flipped over the swordsman before attempting to plant a kick to his back. Zori, however, was more cautious than his former partner, and managed to sidestep Kai's attack before spinning around and attempting to behead the Genin. Kai ducked and pulled out his kunai again before lunging in at Zori, who merely locked his blade against Kai's kunai, putting them in a deadlocked test of strength.

The outcome of this part of their battle was a foregone conclusion, however, since Zori was much larger than Kai, he was able to use his size as an advantage and quickly throw Kai backwards and off balance. Kai stumbled backwards as Zori shoved him aside before reversing his stroke and bringing the blade back across Kai's body and cutting a shallow gash on the Genin's chest, leaving his shirt and jacked cut open.

"Your not so tough," Zori taunted as he continued delivering a deadly flurry of slices and stabs with his katana. Kai was narrowly dodging the attacks, but he wasn't using his Miraigan, he never had time to focus enough to activate it. After a few minutes of dodging, Kai's already worn clothing was now riddled with slashes and a few blood stains around any particularly large cuts.

"Just give in boy," Zori said, pausing in his onslaught for a moment "your fate was sealed the moment that you spoke up in that house."

Kai jumped away from the man while he ranted and began forming hand seals. "Oh no you don't," Zori said, realizing what the Genin was doing, before he charged in, attempting to stop him.

Kai merely jumped back again, putting himself once again out of Zori's reach as he finished his seals, "Doton: Yomi Numa!" and slammed his hands into the ground. Immediately, the chakra that Kai had gathered into his hands was released into the ground which began changing. Starting where Kai's hands hit the ground and stretching over toward the still moving Zori, the ground was turning into muck. As the swamp grew, Zori continued to charge Kai; he knew that if you can take out the source of a Jutsu, you usually end the Jutsu. Kai wasn't going to be caught so easily however, as Zori approached him not staying in one place long enough to sink into the swamp-like earth, Kai once again ducked under the slice and landed a powerful punch into Zori's stomach, causing him to double over and fall to his knees in the swamp.

Grinning in triumph, Kai jumped away again and threw a kunai at Zori's head, hoping to end things quickly so he could get to the bridge and help his team, but the samurai wasn't done yet. Just as the Kunai neared its mark, Zori swung his sword up and deflected the weapon so it landed harmlessly in the muck and sank slowly. Kai grimaced and started forming hand seals again; he needed to finish this soon. Meanwhile, Zori had stabbed his katana into the solid ground just in front of him and was using it as leverage to pull his legs free of the mud, desperately trying to escape before Kai's Jutsu was finished.

Just as Zori's left foot cleared the mud, allowing him to stand on solid ground once again, Kai finished his Jutsu, "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Zori grunted as he tried to free his sword from the dirt, but found that it was wedged in too deep. With a growl, the samurai threw himself out of the way of Kai's fireball just before it hit. The fireball hit Zori's sword and incinerated it, leaving only a shapeless lump of metal and ash, before continuing on and hitting Kai's swamp, evaporating the water from the soil and solidifying it again.

Zori was lying on the ground to Kai right, the shockwave had thrown him further than he had planned, and so the samurai was stunned slightly as he struggled back to his feet before turning to face Kai. The effects of using two powerful Jutsu so quickly had hit Kai, so although he still had plenty of chakra left, he was temporarily lightheaded because of the power flow. Shaking his head slightly, Kai sank into a fighting crouch and waited for Zori to make another move.

The samurai looked around. He knew he was in trouble. He had never had to fight anything without his sword, and now he was completely defenseless, unless he could get to Waraji's sword which was still lying next to his lifeless body behind Zori and to his right. The only problem was, the ninja would inevitably guess his plan and stop him before he got there, but there was only one way to find out, he had to try.

Kai waited warily for Zori to move, and wasn't forced to wait for too long before the man made a quick turn and a mad dash for Waraji's body. It took Kai a moment to realize that the man wasn't running away, he was going for the second sword! Kai cursed and dashed after the man, forming hand seals as he ran.

Zori was feeling pretty good. He had seemed to catch the ninja off guard with his sudden dash for the weapon and he was now only a few feet away from his goal. Once he got Waraji's blade, he would be sure not to make the same mistake as before. He had been winning until he paused to taunt the boy, and that had been the turning point. Just as Zori reached down to grasp the hilt of the katana, a poof of smoke enveloped the blade and he found himself holding one of the boy's kunai.

"Quite an impressive weapon," Zori turned and glared at the ninja who was holding Waraji's sword lightly in his right hand before changing his grip and settling into a fighting stance, "let's see how well you fight against it."

Kai sighed in relief as his Kawarimi no Jutsu switched the kunai he was holding with the katana that his opponent had been reaching for. "Quite an impressive weapon," Kai said as Zori

turned to him and glared. Kai held the weapon in an uncertain grip for a moment before accessing an untouched part of Hito's memory that Kai had found recently. It seemed that Hito had been quite the accomplished swordsman, and Kai was counting on him being able to use these memories to fight properly with the sword. There was a light buzz in the back of his head when he tapped into the memory, but other than that, nothing. Smiling slightly, Kai brought his left hand over to the sword and shifted his right hand up higher on the handle, "let's see how well you fight against it."

Kai charged at the slightly surprised man who brought up the kunai in an attempt to protect himself as Kai swept the blade sideways. Kai smiled as his sword contacted the kunai Zori was trying to fight with, only for the Kage Bunshin kunai to disappear, allowing the sword to continue, unhindered, into Zori's arm, severing his limb, before continuing a short way into the man's side before it glanced off a rib and Kai pulled his swipe back, freeing the blade from the man's body.

Kai looked up at Zori's face and saw the surprise and pain in his eyes and decided to end the man's suffering. Kai sighed as he took one final swipe with the razor sharp blade and took Zori's head off in a single swipe before he turned and used Waraji's pants to clean his new sword before leaning over and freeing the sword belt and sheath from the dead man's waist and buckling it around his own.

Once Kai had finished adjusting his new acquisition he looked around the area and down at himself. There was blood everywhere. He had a few spots of his own blood combined with a small spray on his left arm from Waraji's skull in addition to a more even spray over the rest of his body from Zori's decapitation. Combine the blood on him with the huge pools of blood around the bodies of the two samurai, and Kai suddenly felt bile rise in the back of his throat. With a huge heave, Kai doubled over and let out the limited contents of his stomach before straightening again and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He didn't have time for weakness now; he had to get to the bridge.

So far everything after his battle with the samurai was exactly like his dream, down to the heavy mist covering the area. The only difference was that he now had a sword strapped to his waist, which, although it could prove useful in the end, was only serving to slap against his legs as he leapt through the treetops, making it a constant annoyance.

Kai once again felt like he was about to collapse when he heard the sounds of battle coming from ahead. Reaching down inside himself, Kai found his last reserves of energy and burst forward, bursting out of the cover of the forest and onto the bridge just as the sound of

Kakashi's Nin-dogs reached his ears. Kai saw the signs of battle, as well as Sasuke's motionless body lying on the ground, and fought down his reaction, he had to stop Kakashi.

Then Kai spotted Naruto and followed his line of sight to Kakashi, who was holding the Raikiri. Switching his direction while keeping most of his momentum, Kai sprinted toward Kakashi who had just looked up at Zabuza and began his charge. "Now you get the honor of experiencing my one and only original technique, Raikiri!" Kai didn't have much time to act.

Kai quickly drew his sword and threw it ahead of him, causing it to impale the ground in front of Kakashi. Kakashi, seeing this new obstacle, was forced to stop his charge and cancel his Jutsu before looking over at his breathless student, "What are you doing Kai?"

Kai cringed slightly under the ferocious gaze he was receiving from Kakashi with his Sharingan eye uncovered, which only served to enhance his unease. Still panting from his sprint, Kai trudged over to his sword and yanked it out of the ground before re-sheathing it, effectively placing himself between the injured Zabuza and Haku, who had just appeared at his master's side, and Kakashi, "They are not our enemies Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly before he resumed his glare, "And what exactly makes you think that?"

Kai groaned softly as his muscle aches caught up to him again, "You wanted me to tell you when I had another one of my dreams Kakashi-sensei, so that is what I'm doing."

Kakashi straightened slightly and his guard relaxed slightly, "Miraigan?"

Kai nodded and half-turned, gesturing to the injured Nin behind him, "These two were going to be betrayed by Gato once they finished their job. In my vision, You killed Haku with your Raikiri and then Gato showed up and started taunting Zabuza before explaining that he was going to kill them anyway. Zabuza killed Gato, but didn't survive himself. Gato brought an army of mercenaries with him, and before I woke up, they were charging us.

"What are you talking about kid?" Zabuza demanded from behind Kai.

"Kai turned and bowed slightly, "Zabuza-san, your present employer was planning to betray you as soon as you killed Tazuna-san. He felt that no one would care if he killed another missing Nin, and that way, he could get the bounties on your heads at the same time."

Zabuza snorted, "He could try." Haku just tilted his head slightly, pondering what this new boy was saying.

Kai just nodded, "I agree with you Zabuza-san, in your regular state, you could easily defeat Gato and nearly anyone he could bring to bear against you, but right now…"

Zabuza looked down for a moment, still in the clutches of Kakashi's dogs, "I see your point, but what reason do I have to believe you?"

"Give me a moment and I'll show you," Kai said as he formed a few hand seals and began focusing his chakra, "Kirigakure no Jutsu, Kai!" As the mist began to clear, Kai heard Kakashi take a quick breath as the forms of several men came into view, climbing up the side of the bridge, probably from boats on the water below. "There is your proof, Gato's men coming up even as we speak," Kai finished triumphantly.

At the sound of his name, a short, fat man who had climbed up in the first group, with a substantial group of guards of course, turned to find that the heavy mist Zabuza had created was no longer hiding him. The man quickly gestured to his guards who formed a small group behind him that was slowly growing as more and more men climbed up from below. "Well, well," Gato sneered looking at the ninja before him as he walked toward them until there were a few dozen yards between the two groups, "It looks like the Demon of the Mist isn't all he was cracked up to be."

"What are you doing here Gato?" Zabuza demanded.

"I decided that after your first failure, I would come by to make sure you got the job done. But it seems that I get to personally deliver my message to you Zabuza. I regret to inform you that you have been taken off the payroll."

"WHAT!" Zabuza shouted, the combined shock from Gato's statement and what Kai had said moments earlier combining to make him louder than he had intended.

Haku spoke up in a more even voice, "What do you mean Gato-san?"

"I meant just what I said," Gato said leveling a glare upon Haku and Zabuza, "You're fired!" Gato gestured forward and his mercenaries started laughing as they advanced at a walk, clearly not taking this seriously.

"Kakashi-sensei," Kai said, "you must free Zabuza, we will need his help." Kakashi nodded and formed a seal before sending out a pulse of chakra which caused his dogs to disappear.

Zabuza stretched before pulling his head chopper off his back and looking over at Kai as he fingered the hilt of his katana, "Do you know how to use that pokey stick boy?"

Kai smiled as he settled himself into a fighting stance while as the mercenaries approached, "You'll have to see for yourself, won't you?" The four ninja stood side by side as the army of mercenaries approached, each one preparing themselves in the best way they could. Kakashi and Zabuza were both drained of chakra from their fight, while Haku and Kai were only slightly better off since their fights weren't against such formidable adversaries, but still managed to tire them.

Then, Naruto walked up and took a place in the line between Kai and Kakashi, "Don't even think of leaving me out of this," the Genin said, drawing a kunai and taking his stance.

Kakashi and Kai both gave him a small smile before turning their attention back on the approaching horde.

"Guys," Kai said, "I think I'll try to thin their numbers out some before they get here, what do you say?"

"Whatever you can do to help Kai," Kakashi said, fatigue showing in his voice, "I would assume that we're out of your vision's range now, so that puts us all in the black." Kai nodded and reached down to his weapon pouch before pulling out several shuriken.

"Here we go," Kai shouted as he threw the shuriken in a wide spread at the approaching fighters. This seemed to be enough of a sign for everyone since the ninja and their mercenary opponent's immediately broke into a charge, closing the already small gap in between them. Kai remained behind, forming seals, and called out, "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," which caused his dozen shuriken to multiply into two dozen, then three. Then, just as the shuriken reached the front line of the mercenaries, Kai formed another hand seal and shouted, "Bunshin Daibakuha," which caused the clone shuriken to explode right in the faces of the mercenaries, sending them flying backwards into their comrades.

The explosion caused hesitation on the part of the mercenaries, which gave the attacking ninja all the delay they needed. Zabuza and Kakashi waded into the crowd of stunned mercenaries, killing their targets with ease that only a Jonin could manage. Haku worked his way into the army at a much slower pace, killing his opponent's with precision hits with his senbon needles, while Naruto merely used his kunai to deflect attacks before disabling his opponents with powerful punches and kicks.

Once Kai's Jutsu were finished, he quickly drew his katana and accessed Hito's memory again. He would really need to learn how to do this himself so he wouldn't have to rely on Hito. Besides, the buzz in the back of his skull when he accessed the skills felt weird. Breaking into the crowd of mercenaries, Kai swung his katana in a graceful arc, beheading one mercenary who hadn't been paying attention.

Kakashi was confused. That's all there was too it. First, Kai had shown up and stopped him from killing his opponent, then, the Genin had revealed Gato and his plot to betray said enemy, and now they were all fighting together against Gato's mercenaries. Kakashi was used to circumstances changing during battle, but this was not a change he was enjoying entirely. It was good that he didn't have to kill Zabuza, the man was a shinobi who fought for his own ideals and Kakashi couldn't help but respect him for sticking to it, but now they were all locked in an intense battle for their lives, and two of them were Genin barely out of the academy.

Kakashi ducked under a sweeping strike from a large man carrying an axe and kicked the man in the groin before finishing him with a swipe across his neck from the Nin's kunai. Most of these men didn't seem like they had any experience in fighting anything other than other men like them: too stupid to do more than break things with their big pointy sticks. The few fighters

who seemed like they had some actual skill were slowed down by their incompetent comrades and were therefore easily eliminated before they could do much damage.

Looking around in a temporary quiet, Kakashi located his fellow ninja in the crowd. Naruto was closest to him, slowly working his way deeper into the group of mercenaries who seemed to be having a difficult time hitting him. Any time on of their weapons would approach the orange-clad Genin, it would bounce off a wall of red chakra that emanated from him.

Kai was next, not nearly as far in the group as Naruto was, but that could have something to do with Kai taking his time about killing every man that came within his reach. It was surprising how methodical the seemingly inexperienced Genin was making this all out melee. He would dodge an attack, then counter it with a strike aimed to kill quickly, and if that failed he would repeat the process. It all seemed too easy for the boy, which worried Kakashi.

Past Kai, Kakashi saw Zabuza and Haku, working together like the team they had been for years, leaving a large group of dead men around them either turned to human pincushions or beheaded. They were all getting too far apart. Kakashi needed to do something before it was too late. Jumping slightly to kick another large man, this one with a spear, Kakashi shouted out, "Regroup, don't get too far apart." Hearing his call, Zabuza and Haku started working their way back toward him, while Naruto did the same. Kai however, continued on his bloody path of death, completely ignoring his sensei's order.

Another spray of blood coated Kai's face as he sliced open the neck of his opponent. The man's dual swords fell to the ground as the Genin turned to his next opponent, a man wielding an axe that seemed to be far too big for him. He quickly proved this assumption wrong when he easily hefted the thing and brought it into an overhead chop that Kai easily sidestepped before bringing his blade down on his opponent's arms, severing them at the elbow. The man screamed before Kai reversed the stroke and came up to slice his head off, earning another coating of blood, before turning to continue his fight.

Kai had heard Kakashi call out, but saw no reason to comply. There was no way that these fools would be able to compete with his might. Wait… What? Kai ducked under a wild swing from a halberd and countered, disemboweling the man who clutched his stomach before being kicked in the back by Naruto who had fought his way over to his friend.

"Kai," he shouted as he ducked under another attack, "Kakashi-sensei says we need to regroup, let's go."

"You go regroup you fool," Kai said, wait why did he say that?

"Huh," Naruto said stupidly as he planted his foot into the face of his attacker, "What did you say?"

Kai laughed darkly, making chills go up Naruto's spine, he had heard that laugh before, "I said you can go regroup if you want, but I am going to continue decimating these foolish weaklings." With that said, Kai continued wading through the approaching mercenaries, leaving a dumbfounded Naruto to continue making his way back to Kakashi, most fighting on instinct now while his mind processed what Kai had just said.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto called out as he reached the worn out Jonin, "Kai said he wouldn't regroup. Naruto threw his kunai, causing a man who had been trying to chop his arm off to change his attack path so he could deflect the projectile, which gave Naruto an opening to deliver a punch to the man's stomach before elbowing him in the back of the head, sending him crashing to the ground.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi demanded, trying to find his student in the now much smaller crowd of mercenaries around them, but was unable to see him because of the multitude of fighters gathered around them.

"That's what I asked," Naruto responded, drawing another kunai from his holster and turning to a new enemy, "but he said that he didn't need to regroup." Kakashi's eyes darkened, something was wrong.

Kai killed the last of the mercenaries that had been grouped around him and looked around for another target before spotting Gato standing warily beside the edge of the bridge. "So," Kai said with a smirk on his face as he walked away from the corpses he had created, "the leader of the weak fools doesn't even try to fight."

Gato paled as he looked around for someone to defend him. Finding no one near enough to do any good, Gato slowly took a step backwards, bringing himself closer to the edge of the bridge with his eyes fixed on Kai and his bloody katana. "N..now listen to reason," Gato said, "y..y..you don't want to kill me. I can give you anything you want. Money, power, women, anything, just don't kill me!" The fat business man fell to his knees in front of Kai who stood a few feet away.

"You are not only the leader of the fools, but you are the most pathetic of them all." Kai sneered as he drew his sword back to finish the man's life.

Gato saw the ninja's shadow shift and lunged up, pulling on the top of his cane to reveal a hidden dagger which he stabbed into the chest of his assailant. "Remember this ninja, "Gato said with a superior smirk plastered all over his fat face, "I. Never. Lose." Then, much to Gato's surprise, Kai smirked back and was engulfed in a cloud of smoke as Gato found him knife stuck in the headless corpse of one of his mercenaries.

"Fool," Gato heard behind him and released his hold on his knife to spin around in shock to find Kai glaring at him, "you think that such cheap tricks can defeat a ninja of my caliber. You really are too stupid to live."

Kai quickly struck out with his katana and sliced Gato across his stomach, causing the fat man to double over and clutch his wound as blood began seeping through his clothing. Kai then swung his sword again, this time cutting open each of the man's legs across the kneecap, causing him to fall to the ground, crying out in pain. Kai then gave Gato an evil sneer as he slowly drew his katana back for one final attack.

The corrupt businessman looked into the young boy's eyes and screamed; a scream which was ended with a bubbling sound as Kai's sword sliced through Gato's neck.

Naruto was in trouble. For that matter, so were Kakashi, Zabuza and Haku. They had been surrounded by the remaining mercenaries, which totaled about thirty men, and had been forced into the middle of their ever shrinking circle.

"What do we do Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"I'm working on it," Kakashi said, looking around quickly, trying to think of some method of attack, "Zabuza, how are you on chakra?"

"Low," Zabuza grunted, "Haku too. We are definitely in trouble." Kakashi silently agreed with the man, but kept his face firm for Naruto's sake as he faced down the mercenaries in front of him. Just then, a terrible scream tore through the air, causing many of the mercenaries to look around. Suddenly, the scream ended with a burble followed by an evil sounding laugh.

"Kai…" Naruto whispered, barely even audible.

"So," Kakashi heard Kai call out in a strangely familiar voice, "which of you fools is next?"

Presented with a more dangerous target, the mercenaries all turned and charged toward the lone Genin, which was exactly what Kai had wanted to happen. They quickly formed their circle around Kai and readied their weapons to silence the loud-mouthed Genin.

"Come on you weak fools," Kai shouted, holding his sword up in the air as blood dripped off of him, "just try and kill me!"

The mercenaries, driven into a rage by the death of their paycheck, charged in as one and impaled the Genin's body with their weapons, bringing a gasp from his teammates and caused

Zabuza and Haku's eyes to widen in surprise. Then, just as the men started to pull their weapons back, Kai looked up and started laughing.

Needless to say, the sight of the boy laughing while several dozen weapons protruded from his body was a fairly unnerving sight, but that wasn't the end of their confusion. Kai's body was suddenly engulfed in a cloud of smoke, which cleared to reveal Gato's dead body in the place of the ninjas. But that wasn't what scared them. Gato's body had a very large exploding tag attached to it.

The men heard a laugh from above them and looked to see Kai, straight up in the air, still rising from a chakra powered jump, who shouted, "You fools are dead! Jibaku Fuda: Kassei!" Instantly the exploding tag attached to the body of the dead crime lord detonated, sending a shockwave over the bridge that caused everyone standing to fall. Everyone who wasn't caught in the blast that is.

The mercenaries were incinerated; such was the power behind that explosive tag. As Kakashi and Naruto watched, the fireball rose into the air a short distance before it was engulfed by a larger cloud of smoke. The tag wasn't designed to set anything on fire, it was merely just a destructive tag, and as such the fireball quickly vanished and the smoke was easily blown away by the light morning breeze.

When the nearby ninja turned to look again, they saw Kai, standing at the center of a small crater created by the blast from his exploding tag. Naruto quickly took off, running toward his friend, hoping that he was alright. As Naruto neared, he saw Kai shaking slightly with his head down and arms at his side, the sword tightly clutched in his right hand.

"Kai," Naruto said, as he approached, but got no reaction, "Oni-san, are you alright." Kai raised his head and looked at Naruto as if he had never seen him before. Naruto, concerned, grabbed his left arm and said, "Kai, what's wrong?"

Kai suddenly and violently ripped his arm out of Naruto's grasp, sending the Genin off balance and causing him to fall to the ground, looking at Kai with hurt in his eyes. "Who is this Kai person you are talking about?" Kai said as Naruto simply stared at his friend.

Kai looked at himself and the battlefield, both covered in a thick coating of blood, and laughed a deep, dark laugh that sent shivers down Naruto's spine. Once Kai had calmed down he fixed his glare on Naruto again and loudly proclaimed, "I am not Kai, I am Zanbifushi Hito!" before collapsing to the ground in a dead faint.

AN: And so ends chapter ten. This is a chapter that I have been planning for a long time and any questions you may have will hopefully be explained in the next chapter, if not, put them in a review and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

Jutsu List:

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu: Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique

Futon: Daitoppa: Wind Style: Great Breakthrough

Kage Bunshin: Shadow Clone

Raikiri: Lightning Blade

Doton: Yomi Numa: Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld

Kawarimi no Jutsu: Body Replacement Jutsu

Kirigakure no Jutsu, Kai: Hidden Mist Jutsu, Release (sort of BS-ed this one)

Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique

Bunshin Daibakuha: Clone Great Explosion

Jibaku Fuda: Kassei: Exploding Tag: Activate

Nice long list this time too. This story is getting more fun by the second, mostly because we are out of the majority of the set up story and into the action, at least for this part of the story anyway. When I originally posted this Fic, it was rated M because I knew that there would be a bloody chapter some time in the future, but I lowered it down to T becuase I hadn't posted it yet. This chapter is that chapter. If anyone thinks that I need to put the rating back up to M, leave a review and let me know.