Chapter 11 New Purpose

"Kurenai-sensei!" Hinata seeing no response coming from her mentor started to gather her chakara and attempted to heal the poisoned woman. However she was stopped by Kakashi, who had just made sure that the two masked men were really down for the count. He then took out a red pill and stuffed it into Kurenai's mouth.

"This will help her regenerate chakara faster, which should prevent the poison from getting to the internal organs. I will take her quickly back to Konoha for further treatment. Naruto, escort this young lady back to the Hokage tower and report the situation to the Hokage. Sakura and Sasuke, take these two to see Ibiki." He then scooped up the unconscious Kurenai and with a wave, disappeared with a swirl of leaves.

"Hinata-chan, don't worry about Kurenai-sama, she's in good hands." Naruto put his hand on the blue head's shoulder, trying to calm her down. Hinata nodded reluctantly while still looking at the spot where Kakashi had disappeared. After a while she finally turned toward her childhood friend and her savior. She could see he had grew considerably. He now stood half a head taller than her, probably about 5'6. His face now seemed more chiseled and held no traces of baby fat. His unruly hair was longer and held back by his forehead protector. He was wearing a dark blue vest, black undershirt, black khaki short and black sandals. What attracted Hinata however, was the dark red twin blades that was attached to his belt. Naruto seeing her observing his weapon, took them out of their sheath.

"Beautiful aren't they? Hinata-chan, meet Dawn and Dusk, my two babies."

"Naruto-kun, stop bragging about the swords and come help me carry this guy!" Sakura yelled at Naruto and got him to carry one of the masked man. Meanwhile, Naruto was grumbling to himself about how woman can't appreciate weapon. He and Sasuke fell behind carrying the tied up and unconscious men while Sakura and Hinata walked on.

"Sorry, once Naruto starts talking about his swords he never stops. Always telling us the story on how he got the swords." Sakura said apologetically. Hinata smiled slightly, thinking that despite changing in appearance, Naruto was still the same boy she knew four years ago.

"So you must be the priestess that we are supposed to be escorting. My name is Haruno Sakura, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She then point to her other two teammate.

"The one with the black hair is Uchiha Sasuke, and the one with the unruly blonde hair is Sarutobi Uzumaki Naruto."

"Pleasure to meet you, my name is Hinata." Hinata bowed.

"Hinata? As in Naruto's best friend Hinata-chan? The mysterious girl he can't stop talking about?"

"Yes, I am that Hinata." Hinata blushed said shyly.

"So how did you and Naruto meet? I would like to hear it from your point of view. Naruto tends to exaggerate a lot in his stories." Sakura rolled her eyes while Hinata giggled softly.

"Yes, he does that sometimes when he was telling me about his missions. I am pretty sure you guys did not fight any ten foot troll looking man carrying a giant cleaver did you?" Hinata asked.

"Oh, you mean the wave mission. Yeah he was exaggerating. Zabuza was a beast but Kakashi-sensei did eventually beat him. The bridge builder was safe and completed the bridge. Naruto must have told you how that was our first A-rank mission right?" Sakura asked the other female.

"Well he did say something like that, and I was glad that everything turned out alright at the end. Though, Naruto never did tell me whatever happened to Zabuza and his assistant?"

"Well, Haku, who was the assistant is now working at the Konoha hospital. Zabuza however..."

"He gave up his life to protect his precious person. He protected the unconscious Haku from the wrath of Gato's hired men." Naruto somberly said, memories of what happened flashed before his eyes.

flashback

"I see clearly into your future, and that is death!"

Kakashi activated his raikaiti and charged straight toward Zabuza, who was held down by Kakashi's summoned dogs. Seconds before he strike, Haku appeared right in front of Zabuza intending to take the blow. Kakashi can only watch helplessly as his electrically charged hand approaching closer and closer toward the vulnerable girl. At the last moment however, Naruto with amazing speed barreled straight into Kakashi, knocking him off course. Zabuza seeing this, broke free of the nin dogs. With couple of slashes and they all disappeared. He then turned toward the now chakara exhausted Kakashi, intending to kill him. Kakashi struggled to stand and Naruto got into a fighting stance. However, Haku stood in front of both Kakashi and Naruto with her hands outstretched.

"Zabuza-sama, it's over, Naruto said that he could give us a place to live in Konoha. He is the Hokage's grandson and can get us reinstated as Konoha nin. We can finally stop running Zabu..." Haku fell to the ground.

"Haku!"

Zabuza ran toward the girl, Naruto who was much closer to her got there first. Zabuza seeing this was ready to attack the blonde. Naruto quickly held up his hands ensuring Zabuza he meant no harm.

"I am somewhat trained in medical jutsu. I can help her."

He then checked Haku's pulse. After a while, he stood up and gave a smile to the tense Zabuza.

"She is just physically tired and chakara exhausted. After about two days of rest, she should be normal again. As for the deal Haku was talking about, I will definintely do my best to convince my grandpa. I heard you were set up by the Mizukage and you didn't really try to assassinate him. I am sure if you tell your side of the story to my grandpa, he will understand. So how about it? Will you come with us alive and well back to Konoha? Or will I have to put you in a body bag?"

Zabuza saw Naruto pulled out two crimson blades, ready to fight if he refuse. Zabuza considered his option. He was without an arm and had very little chakara left. He might be able to beat this genin in front of him. However, that will leave him vulnerable to the now resting Kakashi. If what this brat said was true, both he and Haku would no longer had to wander from place to place, trying to survive and escape from hunter nins. To him, this was not really a hard decision. He dropped his huge blade to the ground and sighed.

"Ok you win brat, I will come with you to Konoha."

Naruto hearing this sheathed his twin blades and helped Kakashi up. He then look behind Zabuza, at the puddle of water that was on the ground.

"Great! Hey Sakura-chan drop the henge and carry Sasuke back to the old man's house. I got to help Kakashi-sensei. Zabuza I assume you got Haku-chan? Good! Let's go..."

However they did not get very far, hundred of yards ahead stood a crowd of men all carrying some type of weapons. In front of them stood Gato smirking evilly.

"Well, well, never had I thought the demon of the mist will beg for mercy. You could not even kill an old man and lost pathetically to three little brats. No matter, I wasn't going to pay you anyway."

Zabuza gritted his teeth and picked up his huge blade, however, the weight was too much for his injured arm. He dropped the weapon back on the ground.

"Men! Kill them all! Keep the two bitches alive though, they will bring good sums of money at the slave market." Gato's men charged. Zabuza then turned to Naruto.

"Got any ideas?"

"Judging by the way they run, I would say they have little or no chakara. They are probably no more than common thugs. We should have no problem dealing with them."

Naruto then put his fingers in a cross sign. Ten more Narutos popped to existence.

"Zabuza, you should stay back, you are in no condition to fight."

"Brat, don't tell me what I can do and not do. Gato has threatened me and my precious person. I will not rest until he is lying in his own pool of blood. Just give me a kunai and stay out of my way!"

"Why you! Naruto-kun spared your life. Don't throw it away so meaninglessly. Judging by your stance and the heavy breaths you are taking, I would say you are almost out of chakara. Just stay by Haku-san's side and we will handle this."

She then took out a kunai and got ready to fight. However, she yelped in surprise as her kunai disappeared out of her hand. All of Naruto's clones poofed away.

"I am the demon of the Hidden Mist, I will not go down that easily!"

Zabuza then disappeared and reappeared in front of the charging men and ran into the crowd. Soon there were cries and screams coming from the bandits. One by one they all dropped dead and soon there were only a few left.

"Naruto-kun, isn't he almost out of chakara? Yet, how can he still move that fast..."

Rather than Naruto, it was Kakashi that answered.

"You will be surprised what your body can do when you are protecting a precious person."

Kakashi then thought of his own teammate who sacrificed his life to save him. He had promised himself that he would never let anyone he cared for die in front of him again and he almost broke that promise on this mission.

With a few slashes, Zabuza dropped the last guy. He soon turned to Gato, who by now had started running.

"Stay back! Stay back! Ah!" He screamed as Zabuza appeared in front of him.

"Hope you like the heat, because I am sending you straight to hell!"

With a clean slash across the throat, the ship magnate Gato is no more.

Zabuza then dropped to the ground. Naruto ran to him quickly and examined him. There were multiple swords and knives sticking out of his body and he was losing a lot of blood.

"Guess I got careless huh?"

"Don't talk and save your strength."

Naruto then tries to heal him but Zabuza stopped him.

"My time has come. Just promise me one thing. Take...Haku to that village of yours a...and let her li...live a peaceful life. She ne...ne...never did like fi...fighting..."

"I promise you, I will do all that is in my power to give her a peaceful life." Naruto swear solemnly.

"You are not so bad brat...if I had only met you a little sooner..." With that, the Demon of the Hidden Mist took his last breath.

flashback ends

"And that was how the mission turned out in the end. We buried Zabuza near the village, up on a hill that looked out into the ocean. Naruto-kun also convinced the villagers to make a memorial for him seeing that he was the one that singlehandedly kill off all the bandits and took down Gato."

"Zabuza's death was a hard blow to Haku. It seemed that without Zabuza, she no longer had a purpose in life. One time she almost came close at killing her self. If Naruto-kun wasn't there to keep an eye on her, she would have succeeded..."

flashback

Naruto leaped into action, restraining Haku and knocking the senbon out of her hands. Haku, who was too weak to struggle, collapsed suddenly into Naruto's ready arms and finally let out what she had been keeping in for days. She held on to Naruto's shirt and started to sob uncontrollably. Naruto awkwardly put his arms around Haku not knowing how to stop the girl from crying. After a while, Haku finally calmed down enough to face Naruto.

"Why did you stop me? I am nothing now and the only person who cared about me is gone. I didn't even get to say goodbye to him. I was useless, unable to stop all my precious people from dying. Okasan, Zabuza-sama, they were all taken from me. In the end, I am just that little orphan girl on that bridge that nobody cared about. It would have been much better if I.."

"Stop Haku! stop! Thatˇs not what Zabuza wanted for you. I made a promise to him that I would give you a peaceful life, and I never go back on my promise. You see, Haku-chan, Zabuza's dying thought had been for you to live on. You must honor his wishes and make that your new purpose in life. Live for the sake of the ones you lost. I am sure Zabuza and even your okasan would want that."

Naruto then bonked Haku on the head gently.

"And who said that you don't have anybody that cared about you? I cared about you! I am sure Kakashi-sensei cared about you! And even Sakura-chan! Hell, I am sure Sasuke-teme might even shed a tear or two if you had wound up killing yourself. So stop thinking that you are all alone in this world ok? You will always have me Haku-chan and that is the promise of a lifetime!" Naruto quickly flashed his foxy smile.

Haku looked at Naruto, the boy who had taken her resolve to end her life and had given her another purpose. This boy had done so much for her and she didn't know how to repay him. She quickly launched herself forward and embraced Naruto.

"Th...Thank you Naruto-san, thank you..."

"Hey why are you crying again?" Naruto panicked thinking she was still upset.

"I am happy Naruto-san, I am crying because I am happy."

flashback ends

"So after that incident, Haku-san had finally brighten up somewhat. After we finally returned to our village, she was quickly rein instated as a chunin. Kakashi-sensei told the Hokage that her skill level is much higher and that she could have taken the jounin exam if she had wanted to. However, Haku-san decided that she wanted to become a medic nin to save people instead of kill. So she join the hospital and quickly became one of the top medic nin of Konoha. So your sensei is in very good hands I assure you.〃

Hinata smiled and slowly nodded her head.

"If Naruto-kun trust in Haku-san's skill, then I am not worried at all."

"Common Hinata-chan, I am sure by the time we get back to the village, your sensei would have recovered. Haku-chan's an expert on all poisons."

Sakura, who had been busy talking to Hinata finally realized that the third teammate has gone missing.

"Hey, where did Sasuke-kun go?"

"Oh, Sasuke? He went up ahead already. He said something about enjoying his last big meal or something like that. What did he mean?" Naruto asked Sakura.

"Oh...um nothing...I am sure that he was just hungry. After all we are going on a mission after all. Not many chances to eat a good meal..." Sakura answered quickly and Naruto didn't press any further.

"Speaking of food, I have to hurry back or my mom's going to kill me. Nice meeting you Hinata-san, I will see you tomorrow."

Sakura quickly grabbed the bind up assassin from Naruto and dashed off after Sasuke.

Hinata seeing Sakura leave became quite again. She wanted to ask Naruto so many questions, questions that could not be answered on just a piece of paper. However, she did not know where to start.

Naruto, who did not realize the awkward silence, flashed Hinata his foxy smile.

"Hey Hinata-chan, have you ever heard of ramen?"