Chapter 9:Second Meetings
"Hello." talking
'Hello.' thinking
"Hello." Kyuubi talking
'Hello.' Kyuubi thinking
*Knock* Sound effects
"Bunshin no Jutsu" Jutsu
"Haaaaaaaah." a long sigh escaped the lips of an exhausted Naruto, who was sprawling on the ground spread eagle from the tiredness. "I ended up overworking after all."
"Well of course you did. Since you so kindly ignored me telling you that you are about to run out of juice." complained Kyuubi.
'Yeah… sorry about that.' apologized Naruto. He tried to stifle a yawn, but considering his hands weren't of much use, it was a wasted effort. 'The grass feels so good… I think I'll take a nap…'
"You do realize that someone is in the vicinity." asked Kyuubi.
'Exactly.' replied Naruto.
As Naruto lay there motionlessly, a figure slowly approached Naruto. The figure froze when Naruto stirred.
"Huh? Who's there?" asked Naruto, startling the stranger, who showed great restraint to contain the shock.
"Ah. Did I wake you up?" asked the stranger. "Sorry about that. I was just gathering some herbs for my friend. My name is Haku. But don't mind me, why are you sleeping so deep into the forest?"
"Ah, about that." Naruto chuckled nervously. "I sort of exhausted myself while training, so I can't really get up."
"Really? What were you training for?" asked Haku.
"Ah, you see. I am a ninja. I am on a mission to protect someone. In order to do so, I need to be strong. Hence the training." answered Naruto cheerfully.
"Oi, stop giving away your mission details." 'Shut up.'
"Is that so… if you have someone to protect, then you will get strong. No, maybe you are already strong, because you have others to protect." said Haku.
"Which is why it would be unwise of you to take out the senbons you are currently holding." said Naruto with a glint in his eyes.
Haku was startled. He quickly tried to retreat, but bright flash of light shone from underneath his feet. Once the light subsided, a complex pattern appeared below his feet, and Haku found out that he couldn't move his feet.
"Oh! It worked." exclaimed a surprised Naruto as Haku tugged at his feet, unable to break free of the ground.
"What the hell is this?" asked Haku frantically.
"Ah, that my friend, is a barrier seal." said Naruto as he pointed at the feet of Haku. "It blocks the movements of a person. And since I mixed a bit of immobility magic with it, the result was that you are now stuck inside that circle. So now we can talk nicely, right hunter-san?"
Haku panicked. Not only had the boy manage to find out his attempt of attack, he had also figured out about his act as a hunter-nin. He tried to calm his nerves by taking a few deep breaths. Once he finally cooled down, he did what he thought was the most prudent line of action.
"What are you talking about?" asked Haku with an innocent look on his face.
"You do realize that your reaction was so late that it's quite obvious that you are feigning ignorance." Naruto deadpanned as he pulled himself to his feet.
Haku tugged a few more times, before giving up on the attempts to free himself. "Fine then." He said seriously. "What do you want?"
"Nothing much." Naruto said as he grinned. "Did Zabuza get the message I planted on him?"
"He did." answered Haku, on guard for any form of trickery.
"Oh good. Did he say anything?" asked Naruto.
"No. And even if he did, why should I tell you?" asked Haku, his patience running thin.
"Hmmm…. No reason, I suppose." answered Naruto, causing Haku to almost face fault, except he couldn't, since his feet were stuck on the ground.
"What are you going to do to me?" asked Haku apprehensively.
"Oh don't worry. I won't do anything. It goes against my policy to harm beautiful girls." answered Naruto cheerfully.
"Is that so? I hate to break it to you, but I am a boy." said Haku. He immediately regretted the decision however when a cheshire cat grin appeared on Naruto's face.
"You're lying." said Naruto in a singsong voice. He slowly approached Haku, who tried to step back, but couldn't. Haku fell on her butt when she tried to lean back a bit too much. Naruto pulled his face close to her face and whispered, "I can smell the pheromones coming from you."
Haku's face reddened at the close proximity of Naruto's face and the words he spoke to her. In fact, one could see steam rising from her head. Naruto took a step back and grinned at the flustered Haku.
"Did you have to do that?" grumbled Kyuubi.
'Oh come one, lighten up a bit. Look at how cute she looks. Don't you want to play a prank on her?' thought Naruto.
"Of course not. If anything, I would want to kill her, but that's another story altogether. Why is it that my host happened to be Konoha's greatest prankster of all time?" wondered Kyuubi.
'At least I am not trying to be the 'Oppai Fox' or something.' retorted Naruto.
Somewhere in Kuou Academy, Hyoudou Issei sneezed.
"You're right. I should be happy about that." agreed Kyuubi.
Haku finally regained her composure as Naruto had an inner squabble with Kyuubi. "Fine. You are right. I am a girl. But you should understand why a kunoichi on the run might want to hide her gender from a stranger." mumbled Haku, her cheeks still slightly pink.
"Yeah, I understand perfectly well… wait, did you call me a stranger? And here I thought we were making headways into breaking the ice." Naruto pouted.
"Tch. I can't decide whether I should be afraid of you because you caught me, or should I be angry at you for behaving like that." grumbled Haku.
"How about you just pass on my message to Zabuza and we can forget we ever met." offered Naruto.
"Fine. What's the message?"
"Tell him, that if he ever feels that he wants to change employers, he should come find me. I can provide him jobs on the same level as the woman he knows."
"So you're finally back." Kakashi asked Naruto, who had just entered the house.
"Yeah." replied Naruto as he stood at the doorway. He scanned the room, his gaze starting from Kakashi who was sitting down at the table, and moved over to Sasuke, who was sitting beside him. He then noticed Tazuna sitting at the other end of the table, wallowing in his sake. Then there was Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, who was making breakfast in the kitchen. His gaze finally stopped on Misaki, who was helping Tsunami.
"So, did your solo training help?" asked Kakashi nonchalantly.
"Yes. I succeeded in what I wanted to do." answered Naruto as he took a seat at the table. Tsunami came over and served the breakfast. Naruto picked a pair of chopsticks and dug in.
"That's good." said Kakashi, as he picked up a pair of chopsticks with one hand, while his other hand contained the famed orange book. "We are going to start with some team training today."
"Really?" asked Misaki, who was taking her own seat at the table. "What are going to be learning?"
"Oh you'll find out soon enough." said Kakashi with an eye smile. It was at this point that a young boy decided to make his presence known. It was Tazuna's grandson, Inari. He had walked into the room during the conversation, and had decided that he had something to say.
"It wouldn't do you any good to train." muttered Inari.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Naruto.
"No matter how hard you train, you can never defeat someone like Gatou." said Inari, "You will only get yourself killed."
"Don't underestimate us, brat." It was Sasuke who spoke, quite uncharacteristically. "We are not weak."
"That doesn't matter." Inari's voice had risen to a shout. "There are no such things as heroes. You who have never seen sadness or misfortune will never understand the power of people like Gatou."
A chill ran through the room as all three members of Team Seven stopped midway while eating. The three looked downwards, a black aura radiating from them. An awkward silence reigned as Kakashi thought whether he should do anything. The first one to react was Misaki, who simply got up and walked away, muttering a low "Gochisosama". She was followed by Naruto, who simply stood up, glared menacingly at Inari, who was visibly shaken up at the open act of animosity, before turning around and walking away. The last to react was Sasuke, who glared at the kid, before speaking, "You just made your worst mistake in your life, brat." And with that, Sasuke also left.
"What's up with them?" asked Inari, who was finally able to breathe properly after the people with the oppressing atmosphere left, giving him his courage back. "Can't they even deal with the truth?" But with such explosive words, he managed to drop the room temperature again. This time it was Kakashi who was irritated by the boy. He was giving an eye-smile, but a menacing aura seemed to surround him, making him scaring than the previous three.
"You see Inari-san," spoke Kakashi, his failed attempts at keeping his tone polite very noticeable. "You just told three people with no alive relatives and with records of assassination attempts that they have never been unfortunate or sad."
"Wha... What's that supposed to mean?" asked Inari almost hysterically. His apparent uneasiness made Kakashi remember he was dealing with an emotionally scarred kid, and reigned in his animosity. Kakashi began explaining his words, for the benefit of the three non shinobi present.
"You see, Sasuke and Misaki are cousins. They are the last remaining survivors of the Uchiha clan. I'm pretty sure you have heard of their massacre? They were present that day. They watched their entire family getting killed, and couldn't do a thing about it. It's a miracle that they even survived. So they know a thing or two about misfortune and sadness. And Naruto... Well were shall I begin. Orphaned at birth, scorned by the villagers, assassination attempts for no apparent reasons, no money during his early life for food or shelter, that's what Naruto's childhood was about."
"Huh... But they don't look like anything happened to them. I mean, they are so calm and positive." wondered Inari.
"That's because they chose to look into the future rather than live in the past." said Kakashi as he got up from the table. "You have your own reasons for thinking like this, but I suggest you apologize to them. Or else you might end up being the target of Wave's greatest prank ever." And with that Kakashi left the room, looking for his students.
Inari looked at the back of Kakashi as he left the room, dumbstruck by the words that had just been said. He managed to regain composure quickly, and ran back to his own room. Tsunami looked at the direction of Inari for a while, before turning back to the table, to find all the plates empty. "Heeeh! What happened to the food?" she asked Tazuna.
"I think Kakashi-san took them with him for the benefit of his students." replied Tazuna. "He is a shinobi after all, so it shouldn't be surprising that you didn't see him take the food."
'Shinobi are so fast.' thought Tsunami as she cleaned up the empty dishes.
It didn't take Kakashi long to find the three of his students, especially because they were all gathered up together in the clearing that they had picked for training. Surprisingly, Inari had managed to get all three of them brooding, each having picked a tree sat on its roots. Just before he approached the three, he was startled by Naruto jumping up and shouting.
"Gaaah! It's no use thinking about those stuff." roared Naruto, startling the other two out of their thoughts. Sasuke looked incredulously at Naruto, surprised by his bipolar behavior. Misaki, who knew Naruto for a longer period of time, wasn't surprised at Naruto's bipolar nature, but rather at the fact that it took this long for his bipolar behavior to kick in. She stood up, before quietly sneaking behind Naruto. She then grabbed his head and puled him into a headlock.
"Realize that earlier, you idiot." she scolded him as he tried to pry of the headlock, unsuccessfully of course. Kakashi thought it to be a good time to let his presence be known. He walked into the clearing , holding the food up with one hand.
"Now that that's cleared up, how about some food." said Kakashi, causing all three of them to turn towards him. They were surprised that they never sensed him standing there all this time. Before they could say anything however, their stomachs decided to let their presence known, as they groaned in hunger at the same time. The three looked at each others face, before quickly sitting down in a row, eagerly waiting for Kakashi to hand over the food.
"So, what are we going to learn today?" asked Naruto while stuffing his face with the food that Kakashi brought.
"Since we already covered the tree climbing exercise while we were in Konoha, I believe its time we moved on to the next level." said Kakashi, his gaze never leaving his famous orange book.
"And...?" asked Misaki expectantly.
Kakashi didn't answer for a few moments, before snapping his book shut. "We are going to start with water walking." he said, causing his students to face fault.
"Oh come on." groaned Naruto, "How about you teach us some cool moves instead of all these boring exercises?"
"These boring exercises might just save your life one day." chided Kakashi. "Plus they help you in your chakra control, without which you have no hope of learning those cool moves that you so desperately want. And when was walking on water not cool?"
"From the moment it became part of training." retorted Naruto.
"Moving on." said Kakashi, seemingly ignoring Naruto. "We will start once you finish eating."
"So... what do we do?" asked Naruto.
The three were currently at a beach, the sea stretching out into the horizon. The bridge that Tazuna was building could be seen west of the trio. They were accompanied by Kakashi, who had his book out.
"What you have to do is simple, really. In tree climbing, you had to release a constant amount of chakra in order to stick to the tree trunk. For water walking, all you need to do is regulate the amount of chakra required depending on the the water, which changes constantly. This exercise will help you in releasing different amounts of chakra in short intervals, and also help you in your chakra control." explained Kakashi.
"And...?" asked Misaki, not really convinced by the explanation.
"And now, you will begin the exercise." said Kakashi, giving the three of them an eye smile. "Your goal will be to reach the bridge by walking on water. If you can do that, then you will pass this exercise. I'll be waiting for you at the bridge." And with that, Kakashi walked away from the three leaving them to their own devices.
"And here I thought we would finally get some jutsu training." grumbled Naruto, before slowly stepping out into the sea. He took three steps before...
*splash*
... he fell head first into the sea water.
"Heh, dobe." muttered Sasuke, loud enough for Naruto to hear.
"Shut up you bastard. If you think you are so much better, why don't you try and walk on water?" shouted Naruto, who was drenched from head to toe.
"I think I will." said Sasuke. He walked out into the sea with a superior smirk on his face. He took four steps and was about to turn around to gloat when...
*splash*
... he fell into the water as well.
"Ha ha." laughed Naruto, and doubled up and fell on his back, but considering he was still in the sea, he fell back into the sea. This caused even Sasuke to chuckle slightly.
"Oi." Misaki shout brought the two of them back to the task at hand, as they realized her voice sounded further away than it should have been. They turned around to find her at least fifteen meters away from them. "How long are you two going to just sit there in the sea and laugh like idiots? We have to finish this quickly."
Misaki's words got the two boys scrambling back to their feet. This time they took a running start, resulting in getting close to Misaki before...
*splash*
... they both lost control and fell into the sea right at Misaki's feet. This caused a big wave, and although Misaki didn't lose control, she found herself completely drenched.
"You... you..." Misaki was rendered speechless by her anger. "You idiots!" she shouted, as Naruto and Sasuke both thought it prudent to make a run for it. Now while most people would run for the land, they couldn't as they had managed to get Misaki between themselves and the land, so they ran straight for the bridge.
"Come back here you morons!" she exclaimed as she ran after her two hightailing team mates.
The two boys panted heavily as water dripped down from their entire body. They were currently on top of the bridge, standing right in front of Kakashi. They had ran all the way to the bridge, but having lost their control several times, had fallen into the water. They were exhausted too, having run from a completely murderous Misaki. In fact the only reason they haven't yet been beaten up is because...
"Let go of me, Kakashi-sensei. I'm gonna kill these two idiots."
... was because Kakashi had grabbed hold of Misaki the moment he noticed the boys being chased by her. Now he was holding Misaki up at an arms length, who was also completely drenched, having lost concentration several times due to her anger. It's what allowed the boys to escape in the first place. Now she was flailing about in Kakashi hands, unable to break free of his grip.
"Now, now Misaki." chided Kakashi. "Their is no need to be angry at them. Look at the bright side. You managed to finish the task I set to you in a day. It is quite an impressive feat."
"Hmph." huffed Misaki, crossing her arms and looking away, still airborne.
"However, looking at your clothes, I can safely assume that you didn't master water walking." said Kakashi, and for a fleeting moment Sasuke had a bad premonition. "So your next task is to run back to Tazuna's house and get a change of clothes."
These words caused Sasuke to relax. Bad choice.
"By the way. You must run back, by the sea." said Kakashi, choosing the precise moment to release Misaki. Misaki didn't notice it at first. In fact the only reason she did notice it was because Naruto's eyes bulged before he took a few steps back. Once Misaki did realize that she had been released, an evil grin appeared on her lips. She took a step forward, and this time both the boys turned and ran, with Misaki right on their tail.
"We'll get you back for this Kakashi-sensei." came the unified shout from the two boys as Kakashi returned his gaze to his precious book.
Naruto laid spread eagle on the floor of the room he and Sasuke were sharing. Sasuke was laying face down on the bed. Both of them had been completely wiped by the day's training and the subsequent running-away-from-Misaki-for-their-lives that followed after that. They had somehow managed to get her to calm down after a grueling hour of playing cat and mice (they were the mice, mind you).
"Remind me to never anger Misaki." groaned Sasuke.
"If you promise to do the same for me." replied Naruto.
"Ah. Sure." promised Sasuke.
Silence engulfed the two as they recuperated their strength. The silence was broken by Misaki, who called out from downstairs.
"Sasuke! Naruto! Come down and get your dinner." As if on cue, the duos stomach groaned loudly, letting them know of their hunger.
"Coming." Replied the two in unison, before pulling themselves off their seats and going downstairs. As they stepped out of their room, they bumped into Inari. Inari looked at them fearfully at first, remembering that Sasuke had promised him of some evil end. Then he seemed to remember something, and spoke.
"I'm sorry." Inari mumbled.
"Huh?" Naruto looked quizzically at the kid.
"I said I'm sorry." Inari said, a bit more audibly. "I said things about you without actually knowing you. So I am sorry."
"It's fine. You had your own reasons I'm sure." said Naruto as he ruffled Inari's hair.
"That doesn't mean you can beat Gatou though." said Inari, quickly moving out of range of the punch that Naruto threw. He quickly ran a few steps down the stairs, before turning around and sticking his tongue out.
"Tch. Annoying brat." muttered Sasuke as he followed a running Naruto down the stairs.
It had been a week since their water walking training. Sasuke and Naruto had been missing for three days already after saying they were going for training (separately of course). Not that anyone was worried, (except for Tazuna and Tsunami) since both had records of disappearing for periods of time for training. They always came back, so it wasn't really anything new. Plus they had their communicators on them, so if they were needed, they would be easily found.
Misaki was currently escorting Tazuna to the local market to get some supplies. As they walked through the village, Misaki was taken aback by the state that it was in. Several building had fallen out of repairs, some didn't even look usable, and yet there were people who lived or worked in those buildings. The shops also were pretty ragged, and there were plenty of kids on the street that made the word malnutrition seem like an understatement.
"Why...?" Misaki said, unable to stomach the poor state the main village of the country was in.
"It has been like that since Gatou took control of the sea routes. The amount of money he extorted out of the people was so much that the entire country's economy was destroyed. As long as we can't complete the bridge, this country will continue to fall into ruins." said Tazuna, with a grave but determined look on his face.
Misaki looked around again, before deciding something. "Don't worry old man. We are going to protect you with our lives. So finish your bridge."
"Ha hah! I'm counting on you then." said Tazuna.
Sasuke and Naruto had returned on the same day. In fact they came home together, with Sasuke carrying an unconcious Naruto. From Sasuke's words, they had trainied separately. Once Sasuke was finished with his training, he headed back for the house. On his way he found Naruto, who had tired himself out to sleep. So he had simply picked Naruto up and continued on. The day after, Sasuke and Misaki both joined Kakashi on his guard duty, leaving Naruto at the house sleeping.
"..." Naruto turned around in his sleep.
"Hey brat..." He turned to the other side.
"If you don't..." Naruto covered his head with his pillow, before sitting up.
"What the hell is going on?" wondered Naruto out loud.
"Well, your employers family is getting attacked, that's what's going on." the Kyuubi answered for his convenience.
"My employers... The hell! Shouldn't you tell that to me sooner." grumbled Naruto as he jumped out of the window, and luckily landing on a samurai that was holding Inari. As he turned around the other samurai pulled a sword and slashed at him. Naruto deftly moved out the way of the attack, before landing a sidekick straight to the gut, causing his assailant to faint.
"Ah Naruto-kun, I.." Tsunami began, but Naruto silenced her with a wave.
"Get some rope and tie this idiots up. I need to check on your father." said Naruto as he created a shadow clone and gave it orders to protect the two, before moving out.
As Naruto jumped on trees heading out to the bridge, he poured some chakra into his communicator and began speaking.
"Oi Misaki, are you there?" asked Naruto.
"Yeah I am." replied Misaki.
"Tazuna's daughter almost got herself kidnapped over here." said Naruto. "I managed to save her though. What about on your end?"
"Yeah, here too. Zabuza and his lackey showed up." sighed Misaki. "Kakashi-sensei is fighting Zabuza while Sasuke took on the lackey."
"Good. Make sure it stays that way. I'm on my wa..." Naruto never finished his sentence as an explosion blew him out of the trees and on the ground.
"Naruto? What happened?" asked a worried Misaki.
"It seems I was ambushed." said Naruto. "I'll be there once I take care of this. Make sure that nobody gets killed before I get there."
"Wha! Naruto..." Naruto didn't here what Misaki said after that as he cut of his chakra flow to the communicator. He brushed the dust off from himself as a figure moved out of the shadows into the open.
"It has been a while, hasn't it." the figure spoke.
"It's been a while indeed. Maki." replied Naruto.
Omake
Andrew: I'm back, guys.
Naruto. Hey hey hey. What the hell is going on? Why did you stop there?
Andrew: Because I don't want my readers to wait any more than 2 weeks to get a new chapter.
Naruto: So you cut it off there? You could have at least written a bit more in this chapter.
Andrew: What, and destroy the suspense? Come on. You should know that us writers live on the feeling of keeping our readers hanging like that. That way the readers anticipate more, and would show up the moment there's an update next time. This is my full proof plan for getting famous. Muahahahaha.
Naruto (aside): Except you just blurted your plan out here.
Andrew: Anyway, it's time for the "Questions with your favorite character"... You know what? That is a very bad name, so I'm going to rename this. So let's start with the first "Chara Corner."
*applause*
Andrew: Today's guest is the mysterious hunter-nin Haku. Let's give her a big round of applause.
-Enter Haku- *applause*
Haku: Hello.
Andrew: Hello. Welcome to our first Chara Corner.
Haku: Thank You for having me here.
Andrew: Oh no, the pleasure is all mine. Today we are going to ask you questions that the readers have brought forth. But before that, I have a few questions myself. I hope you don't mind.
Haku: Of course not.
Andrew: Good. So let's start with the first question. What's your age?
*smack*
Andrew: Right. Second question...
Naruto: Oi, you have a palm print on your face.
Andrew: Shut up, Naruto. Anyway, moving on to the next question. What are your three sizes?
*smack**bam**crash*
Naruto: Oi, are you all right? Your face is swollen, and your legs are frozen.
Andrew: I'm fine Naruto. Shut up. So let's move on to our next section which is "Reader's Thoughts." That's right. This is where your questions will be answered. So moving on with the first question... Would you want to be part of Naruto's peerage?
Haku: What's a peerage?
-Andrew and Naruto face faults-
Naruto: Um... peerage is I suppose, loyal followers?
Andrew: Both of you, don't answer questions with questions. Anyway, a peerage is... what Naruto said.
Haku: Why would I be someone else's loyal follower if I have Zabuza-sama?
Andrew: Ah, that's right. You do. Ok. Next question... I don't have any more. There was one, but your answer destroyed it even before it could be asked.
Haku: Is that so... Then why don't you answer a few questions.
Andrew: I'll answer only two then.
Haku: Okay then. First question is... Is Misaki a queen?
Andrew: Um... I can't answer something like that. But don't lose hope, cause it'll be answered soon enough in the story... Probably.
-Naruto and Haku sweat drops-
Haku: Fine then, next question. Will Haku and Sasuke be in Naruto's peerage?
Andrew (shifting uncomfortably): Ahahaha, who knows.
-Naruto and Haku face palm-
Andrew: Anyway moving on. Next time we will have Madoka in "Chara Corner". So don't forget to ask her questions. And now for our next chapters preview, Haku, take it away.
Haku: What is Maki doing in Wave? What will happen to the fight that is happening on the bridge. Will everyone be all right? Find out
Chorus: Next Time on Blonde Haired Devil.