Disclaimer: Naruto is so not mine. Any character you recognize from the anime or manga belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. The OC characters are mine though

Author's Note: Hey, guys, I actually write this in my hometown. My bro brought his laptop with him and planned to give this laptop to my dad. I didn't have any flash disk with me at the moment so I guess I'll have to borrow my bro's. No internet connection though, so I can't look up It sucks! I'll be able to write here now, but I can't send it to Oh well! You can't get everything. I think I'll bring some game disks later and then install them on this laptop so I can have fun too. There isn't much entertainment here. And I need enjoyment when I stay here or I'll go nuts!

Btw, my sis asked me to assist her translating English of some papers to our language. Well, more like she asked me to translate all of them while she stands behind me watching whether I do what she asked me to… The point is I will have to cut my time to write this to get it done. Sorry, guys.

Chapter Fourteen

Naruto tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for Inari to come with the Wave map the kid promised him just minutes ago. Inari has come to him an hour ago telling him that he'd like to help him with anything. So Naruto told him to give him information about Gatou. The kid told him everything he knew about the criminal lord from his dirty businesses in Wave to the location of his base here in Wave. The blond haired boy perked up when he heard it. He told Inari to bring him a map of Wave, so he could tell him the exact location.

There was loud sound of footsteps outside Naruto's room, followed by the foor being slammed open by none other than grinning Inari with a roll of map on his arm.

"Naruto-niisan, here's the map!" the boy yelled, shoving the map to Naruto's nose.

"No need to get that excited, brat," Naruto took the offered map and rolled it open. "So, where's the location?" Inari got behind Naruto and pointed to a spot in the map. It was a small island located between Wave and Water country. No wonder Gatou set up his base there, the island's location was strategic. There, he could control the movement of goods come and go from Wave to Water and vice versa. Not to mention, the Wave had to sail to reach Gatou's base if they eanted to rebel. Problem was, Gatou's men would notice them right away and they would have time to prepare.

An island…now that would be a problem. He didn't think there would be any fisherman brave enough to bring him there.

"How far is that island from here?"

Inari looked up, "50 kilometers I think. If you want to get there, you can sneak in one of Gatou's ships there. There are 2 trips from here to that island and vice versa everyday," Inari said as if he knew exactly what Naruto was thinking.

You know which are Gatou's ships?" Naruto asked. The kid nodded eagerly. "Alright, can you take me there tonight?"

"You will sneak in tonight?" Inari asked surprised.

"No, I just want to know the ship first. I'll probably do that tomorrow or 2 days after now. There is no use sneaking in if you get into the wrong ship."

"Oh, I don't think you'll get the wrong ship. It is easy to notice which ones are Gatou's," Inari muttered bitterly. "They're much bigger and grandeur."

"Don't worry when this is over, your people will own that kind of ships," Naruto assured him. Inari brightened and grinned happily.

"Come on! I'll show you!" the kid was already on the door and dashed outside.

Naruto patted his belly as he smiled victoriously. "So easy to please, isn't it?" Inside him, his tenant was shaking his head in amusement.

In the Pier

"You see that big ship over there?" Naruto nodded. He could tell exactly which one was Gatou's ship. It looked like a giant compared to the much smaller ships around it.

The two boys were hiding behind a wooden box 30 meters from the ship. There they could see Gatou's men activities. Naruto noted every man's face there. He looked down toward Inari when he heard him growl. Naruto arched an eyebrow when he followed Inari's gaze. He was glaring at a tall skinny brown haired man chatting with his comrades.

"You know him," it was a statement, not a question. Inari looked up startled, totally forgetting about Naruto's presence.

The boy simply nodded before he stayed silent for a moment. "He's Kaji, one of our people," the kid started. "He's known as a bully among us. I heard he joined Gatou a week ago."

'Ah, no wonder he felt so betrayed. Even if the man is a bully, he's still one of Wave citizens,' Naruto thought. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the sight of the man. 'A bully, Gatou's new man…perfect!' an evil smile reached his lips as an idea formed on his brain.

"Inari, go home, I still have something to do here," at the worried look plastered on the kid's face, Naruto continued, "Don't worry, I'm not doing anything remotely dangerous. I know my limit," Naruto grinned inwardly. He knew his limit, alright. He could easily kill every man in the harbour.

"But—"

"Go! I'll be alright. Oh, and don't tell the others about it," Naruto looked pointedly.

"But—"

"Go! You can tell them about it only if I don't come back until late midnight. Okay?" Inari was hesitant and bit his lips. The kid nodded reluctantly before he ran away from the pier. His small form was swallowed by the darkness of night.

Naruto continued to watch the man and his group for another half an hour before the man split up with the others. Naruto followed Kaji who headed toward the town. The Kyuubi's vessel hit his neck, making the man dropped to the ground unconscious. Naruto took the ankle of the unconscious man's leg and dragged him toward an abandoned wharf. He intentionally chose a bumpy road littered with rocks. No sense of making the man comfortable.

Naruto deposited the man roughly to the floor, throwing him to a pile of broken wooden boxes. The man shook his head painfully, he was awakened from the rough landing and the splinters of wood pierced his body. He looked around him in confusion, before his gazes landed on Naruto's form.

"Who the fuck are you? How dare yo—" Naruto reappeared in front of Kaji. His nose almost touched the man's whose eyes were so wide there was danger they would fall off their sockets. Naruto jabbed a finger roughly on his throat. Kaji choked but there was no sound coming out of his lips.

"Nice, isn't it? You won't be able to talk…or scream, whatever you prefer," Naruto smirked wickedly. Kaji's eyes widened with terror. "I believe an introduction is needed here…no? My name is Uzumaki Naruto, a genin…from the leaf," Naruto grimaced when he said that. Kaji's jaw dropped in horror. "Why? So you already know about us, afterall. Now it will be easier then."

The brown haired man's hand reached toward a sharp wood splinter on the floor. The man grabbed it and charged Naruto with it. Naruto simply stepped aside and tripped his foot. The man's face landed on the floor.

"Well, ouch!" Naruto said, not feeling even a bit compassion. The blond tied his hands with a string on his pouch. "Now, Inari told me you're being a bad boy, Kaji. Now, that's not nice…" Naruto stepped forward. His hand raised Kaji's chin so the man's black eyes met with his own blue eyes. "So, what's the punishment for such a bad boy like you?"

Kaji in a moment of bravery or stupidity, whichever you prefer, spat on Naruto's face and mouthed "Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" because his voice still disappeared. Needless to say, Naruto wasn't pleased. He touched his cheek where the liquid touched his face. His eyes narrowed harshly. Naruto tightened his grip on the man's chin and broke it. Kaji cried out in pain though no sound escaped his lips. Blood dripped from his mouth to Naruto's palm. "You're no fun. I think I'll make it fast for my own sanity." Kyuubi snorted inside his cage.

Naruto created a shadow clone and bit his thumb, He smeared the blood on his clone's forehead. The blood was made into a kanji writing of 'strength'. Two seconds after the blood was administered, it disappeared without trace.

"Do it," Naruto told his clone. The clone nodded and its hands reached the writhing Kaji's head.

Kaji was writhing on the floor when the next moment he felt someone touched his forehead and he felt like everything was on fire. He felt like his brain was fried and thousands of needless pierced it. He felt like his brain went mush.

When the clone took his hands off Naruto's prisoner's head, the man dropped to the floor unceremoniously. Saliva dripped from his mouth and eyes saw nothing. The clone's job was finished. It has absorbed the man's data about his way of talking, how he reacted if he faced something, etc. The jutsu it did wasn't absorbing the man's memory, but more like the man's personality. After a henge, the clone would be ready to infiltrate Gatou's base. Since the man was new, there was only small chance of being discovered by Gatou's man.

"Foolish human," Naruto summoned his pet fox, Kibi, the two-tailed fox. "Kibi, your meal. Don't leave any trace of his body!" with that Naruto left his clone and the happy fox with Gatou's man who would soon being devoured alive. "With voice box still sealed and hands tied, the man wouldn't be able to scream or do anything. Naruto wiped his cheek clean and went back to Tazuna's house.

A few minutes earlier

Kakashi frowned. Inari was acting…strange. The young boy appeared to be really nervous and his eyes always darted toward the front door as if he was waiting for someone to enter.

Sighing, the silver haired jounin's eyes reverted to Gai's prized pupil who was busily exclaiming his love toward a grimacing Sakura. The kid was gloom for an hour after the genjutsu Naruto administered on him stopped, but already back on his feet and being his usual energetic (and insensitive) genin again after that. Kakashi shouldn't feel worry about him, but the jounin could see there was an edge carefully hidden behind Lee's gaze. Like he was subjected to hell and torture and lived through it. It was the same glint every anbu had after their first assassination mission or after being captured and tortured for information and still lived to tell the tale.

Kakashi sighed again, Icha Icha Paradise laid forgotten on his hand. He didn't have the confidence of teaching his sensei's only son the meaning of teamwork or compassion. The boy was too…cruel and he already had his own mind set. A mind set that was built after being subjected to the hates directed toward him and the assassination attempts.

He couldn't blame the kid to be that cruel. The Konoha citizens had a hand on creating the monster lived inside Naruto's mind. It was a wonder that the boy hasn't snapped yet and kill everyone. It clearly gave him indication that Naruto had a strong will. But even a strong will wouldn't be able to handle the strain of being hated as a scapegoat. There was a limit for everything.

Kakashi could only hope that Naruto wouldn't betray Konoha like Jiraiya's ex-comrade, Orochimaru. If it happened, there would be no hope for Konoha to survive.

The Fourth Hokage's pupil turned to the door when it was opened by none other than Naruto. Kakashi noted that Inari looked relieved when he saw his student. The jounin looked at Naruto closely. He noticed there was a dark substance covered the nails of Naruto's right hand's fingers. It was…blood? Kakashi narrowed his eyes and glanced at Naruto's face. But said genin's gaze wasn't directed toward him but to the bouncing Lee behind him.

Kakashi prayed for Lee, hoping that the blond wouldn't slaughter him right here and then.

The other genins and Gai noticed Naruto's presence and stopped talking or doing anything. They stared at Naruto who stared at Lee who was talking to Sakura still hadn't noticed Naruto. The tension was so thick in the room that Tazuna gulped on his seat.

When Lee actually noticed Naruto's presence, his voice escaped him. Lee gulped. "Yo, Naruto-san! How're you doing?" the fuzzy eyebrowed genin tried to sound cheerful, but it came out more like a strangled cat's voice.

Naruto scoffed and ignored him as he headed to his designated room. Lee froze when Naruto passed him. Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that there would be no Lee slaughter tonight. The others carefully avoid the blond.

The next morning when Sasuke has just awakened, he noticed that Naruto was already got up and left the room. His blanket was neatly placed on his empty futon. Sasuke was a bit worried when he found the exact situation with Lee's futon. He wondered if Naruto and Lee fought again. He tried to dismiss it, telling himself that it wasn't his business, but found out that he couldn't. With a sigh he woke Neji up.

The Hyuuga boy told him sleepily to search for Gai. If the jounin was already up like Lee that meant the weird genin was with him, practicing like usual. If not, well…Worried of his teammate Neji pushed himself to wake up and searched for his jounin-sensei. The two were relieved when they saw only sleeping Kakashi in the room with Gai was no where to find. That meant Lee wasn't fighting Naruto. After knowing that Neji went back to sleep while Sasuke took his weapons and headed to the woods to train. The dark haired boy was surprised however when he found a wide-awake Kakashi leaned on the front door.

"Let's go!" Sasuke followed the older nin, wondering what the jounin would teach him.

When Sasuke was busy training, Naruto was busy picking up herbs in the woods. He found out 2 days ago from the children he played with that this section of forest was filled with herbs and poisoned plants. Some of them weren't available in Konoha's forest, so Naruto decided to pick them up and if he could, plant some of them on his apartment. He would need them to make new medicine or poison.

His foxes surrounded him. Some helped him to pick up a certain kind of plant while others played around the herb field. Naruto frowned when he saw the foxes looked up and sniffed the air. Their ears stood up and they looked pointedly at one direction.

Focusing, he noticed a muffled signature of chakra nearby. Whoever this person was, he or she didn't want him to know his presence. He admitted that this person was good at hiding. If there was no fox around him at the moment he wouldn't be able to feel him up without concentrating.

A feminine boy came out from the woods, walking toward the herbs field. Naruto raised an eyebrow. What was a boy like him doing with a woman's clothing? Did he like to cross-dressing?

One of the foxes, a medium sized red fox growled. It recognized this person's scent. It yipped to Naruto telling him that the person before them was the swordsman's subordinate who posed as a Mist hunter-nin days ago.

Now Naruto's eyebrow reached his hair line. He looked at the older boy's clothing and then thinking about Zabuza. He didn't know that Zabuza was into that kind of…thing. Did the person in front of him cross dressing for Zabuza? The young man seemed so dedicated to Zabuza. Perhaps Zabuza wasn't gay but his subordinate trying to catch his attention by wearing woman's clothing?

Kyuubi rolled his eyes. Trust Naruto to think about that kind of thing when an enemy appeared before him.

"Hello," the guy smiled. "What're you doing?"

Naruto looked at him for a moment before he decided to see what he was up to. He shooed the foxes away. If the boy in front of him thought it was strange, he didn't say anything. "Picking some plants. You?"

"Me too."

Silence. The older boy fidgeted on his spot at the uncomfortable silence.

"Say, are you a ninja?" he asked, trying to make a conversation. "I mean you have…er… you look so fit compared to others around here."

"Not every one who has a fit body is a ninja," Naruto told him. 'Man, what a lame reason he was trying to say. I bet that he wanted to say that I have a hitae-ate when he noticed I don't have any with me.'

"Er…yes," he spluttered. "But you're a ninja, right?" Naruto nodded. "I thought that a ninja always wear their forehead protector," he trailed off, but obviously there was a question hanging there.

"I don't want to wear it, so I left it in my house. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing. I'm just curious," the guy smiled, trying to charm him. He looked a bit troubled that Naruto didn't react to him. Obviously the guy thought that he would fall to his (cough) woman's charm. "Why did you become a ninja? Do you want to protect your precious person?" he asked while he uprooted a plant. A herb that was used to make a strength drink, Naruto noted. It must be for Zabuza who was wounded in their fight days ago.

Naruto snorted. "I don't have any precious person."

"What about your parents? Aren't they your precious persons?" the guy sounded troubled at the answer.

"My parents? They died when I was just born."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he looked sympathetic. "My parents died too when I was just a kid. I was found by my precious person months later," he seemed to go down in his memory lane. "I'd like to think that I became stronger by having my precious person."

Naruto grunted. "Yeah, right. And the pigs fly. By caring someone you become weaker, not stronger. You become too concerned to that person, making you can't focus on other things. But I digress, that's your problem."

"…" Zabuza's subordinate didn't know what to say as he stared at Naruto. "Er…what's your name? My name is Haku?

"No surname?"

Haku shook his head. "No, I don't remember it anymore."

"Uzumaki Naruto, your soon-to-be-executioner," Haku's eyes widened, but before he could move, a string wrapped on his neck tightly. "Don't move! Or I'll separate your head from your body," Haku stiffened. "So, how's Zabuza? Has he fixed and finish his sword?" Haku stayed silent. "Don't want to give information to your enemy, huh?" The blonde genin tightened his string hold causing Haku's neck to bleed.

"Go to hell!"

"You know? Last night the guy who said the same thing to me died eaten by my lovely pet, alive. So if you don't want to die horribly, tell me! It isn't like you'll loose something in the process. I'll even let you go. I'm in a pretty good mood today. Don't ruin it!"

"I'll never betray Zabuza-san. Kill me! I won't tell you!"

"Your loyalty is admirable. Too bad you chose him as your master, Haku-san," Naruto closed his eyes and caught a poisoned senbon heading to him a mere centimeters from his face. Green liquid coated the senbon. Naruto sniffed the small weapon and laughed. "Paralyzing poison? Even when your live is at risk, you only use a paralyzing poison. You wound me, Haku-san," Naruto's opponent watched wide eyed as Naruto licked the poison in the senbon.

"What the hell?" The Kyuubi vessel grinned.

Haku sweated. He was in danger. The genin was strong, immune to most poison, and to make it worse he was bloodthirsty and crazy. A swift move from the genin and he'd die. To think that a mere genin defeated him so easily. He underestimated him. Then again he was the guy who defeated Zabuza-san single-handedly without breaking a sweat.

Concentrating on his kekkei genkai, Haku formed an ice to freeze the string from the water around him. He hit the frozen string with his senbon effectively destroying it.

Naruto raised his eyebrow. He had a bloodline limit?

Naruto watched curiously as Haku formed an ice mirror and stepped inside. After his form disappeared from the mirror, it dissolved into water and dropped to the soil.

"Well, well, well, now this makes this hunt more interesting," Naruto grinned. The hunt would be more enjoyable when the prey could fight back and had nice tricks on its sleeve.

TBC…

Okay, I lied when I said that this chapter would be the battle scene. Actually I planned to do that, but my hand moved on its own.

But that doesn't mean you can forget to give me review! Review!

News, I actually send this via dial up connection. My bro's laptop has a modem. So I can get internet via phone line