(Welcome back guys. Hope you're ready for some more fun. I apologize if it seems rather short.)
Squad Seven, Zabuza, and Haku followed Tazuna from the forest all the way to a small house by the docks.
"Well, this is my place." Tazuna led them to it.
"Nice. And right by the sea." Sakura said with a smile.
"Well, come on let's head in," Tazuna led them inside, "I'm home!"
Then a young blue haired woman walked into the room to see them, "Dad, what took you so long? You said you'd be back by at least a day or two." She crossed her arms.
"I'm sorry, Tsunami, but I had a bit of a setback. Luckily these ninja were here to help me home." Tazuna introduced his daughter to them.
Tsunami looked a bit frightened at the appearance of Zabuza holding his large sword. Haku noticing her fright, nudged Zabuza who put his sword aside.
"Everyone, this is my daughter, Tsunami," Tazuna introduced them, "Tsunami, I'd like you to meet Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Zabuza, and Haku."
"Nice to meet you all." Tsunami greeted them.
"It's nice to meet you too." Kakashi answered, as the rest bowed their heads in respect, while Zabuza was late with the head bow.
"Grandpa!" a voice called as a little boy rushed from another room and embraced the old man.
"Hey, Inari! Good to see you." Tazuna said, while hugging his grandson.
"Who're these people?" Inari asked looking at the extra company.
"These ninja are gonna help your grandpa finish his bridge quicker." Tazuna answered.
"You're really going to help?" Tsunami asked with joy.
"Well, our original plan was to just escort Tazuna back, but we've had a change of heart." Kakashi explained.
"And don't you worry. We'll make sure nothing happens to interfere with the construction of his bridge." Naruto promised.
"But what about Gato and his men?" Inari asked ready to cry.
"Kid, I've seen his men," Zabuza began, "They're all nothing but worms compared to someone of my status." he said not wanting to bring up Karok.
"That's right. Should any of Gato's thugs get in the way of your grandfather's work, we'll make sure they regret it." Haku assured.
"You mean it?" Inari asked hopefully.
"I do." Haku promised him.
"Thank you all," Tsunami thanked him, "Please make yourselves at home."
"Thank you very much." Haku said, as the group made themselves comfortable.
Later that day out by the forest area, Naruto and Sasuke were running up some trees before marking a spot they reached before falling back to the ground. Sakura and Haku were watching, while Kakashi and Zabuza had come back carrying some firewood.
"And how're those two doing with the tree walking exercise I put them on?" Kakashi asked Sakura.
"They're getting the hang of it." she answered.
"It's amazing to see you managed to make it up to the top on your first try, Sakura." Haku noticed.
"Well, my chakra control was better than both of theirs." she answered.
"Having excellent chakra control alone won't make a single shinobi strong," Zabuza spoke up, grabbing her attention, "I suggest you find a field shinobi abilities and harness your time to that field."
Sakura seeing he was giving her some real helpful advice answered, "Yes. I'll do that. Thanks."
Haku watched Naruto, "You would've thought that being the Avatar, Naruto would've had this down by now."
"Guess being the Avatar doesn't make everything so easy to him." Zabuza said.
When Naruto and Sasuke landed, the blonde looked back, "Nothing is easy, especially to the Avatar. You have any idea the kind of training I had to go through to master the four elements?"
"I can assume some very hard training?" Haku guessed.
"Yeah. For six years. And so far the only thing I've yet to succeed at doing is tapping into the avatar state," he sighed, "But Mistress Jinora says these things happen when they need to happen the most."
"Wise wisdom." Zabuza admitted.
"Why don't you two take five for now?" Kakashi suggested, as Sasuke and Naruto halted their training to catch their breath.
So they enjoyed some lunch that Tsunami packed for them before they headed out. As they ate, Naruto looked over at Zabuza curiously, before speaking.
"Tell us, Zabuza, how'd a guy like you end up becoming known as the Demon of the Mist?"
Zabuza looked at Naruto questionably, and noticed the others looked curious as well. He sighed, "In many ways, you might say I was born a demon."
"Born?" Sasuke and Sakura asked.
Zabuza nodded, and explained, "I was born in the village of Kiri in the Land of Water. Back then the ninja system was much different from it is there now. Much-much different."
"How?" Naruto asked.
"Well, for starters at the ninja academy we were put into pairs and for our final exam had to fight literally to the death."
"Whoa." Sakura said in shock.
"Oh, yes. And me, well I wasn't even in the exam, and I murdered the entire class." Zabuza explained.
Naruto and Sasuke looked at the man with surprise, as Sasuke spoke, "You murdered an entire class of academy students?"
"Yes. And I held no remorse for that. I worked my way up through the ninja ranks becoming infamous for silent killing. Eventually I joined the Seven Swordsmen of Kiri and gained my signature blade as you've seen it. However, my loyalty with Kiri didn't last forever for as things descended into the years of the Bloody Mist, most of my fellow comrades were killed or went rogue. I was one of them. Since then I wandered the ninja land in search for work or just killed out of sport."
"Bloody Mist, what's that mean?" Sakura asked.
Haku spoke up, "I'll field that. You see from what I learned growing up is that bloodline families were marked as the cause for most of the land's civil wars. Because of this bloodline families in Kiri were either murdered or driven away."
"Were you driven away because of your bloodline?" Naruto inquired.
"In some way, yes, but my story is much more than that," Haku answered, and began to elucidate, "I was born to a happy couple in the land of Kiri. We were happy living together, until one day I discovered my bloodline. My mother however told me I must never use or show anybody what I could do. However my father had secretly caught me doing it and overheard my mother tell me to keep it a secret. He gathered a bunch of villagers and killed my mother," the three genin looked horrified, as he continued, "He was about to kill me only for me to unleash the power of my ice style and ended up killing him and the mob he put together. Since then I had been on my own wandering the streets feeding only on scraps for sustenance. Then one day I met Zabuza who took me in as his weapon and gave me a reason to go on living. But in a way he's become my big brother."
"Unbelievable." Sasuke said in surprise.
"You two really went through a lot." Sakura added.
"So your father just killed you without a second thought?" Naruto asked Haku.
"Yes. Although I noticed he was crying when he killed my mother and when he was going to kill me. He did in fact love the both of us, but his fear of bloodline families was too overwhelming." Haku said with a sigh.
"We're sorry to hear you endured such a hardship." Sakura apologized.
"It's not so bad. Thanks to that I did find Zabuza." Haku admitted with a smile.
Zabuza sighed, "And I suppose finding Haku was a good thing to me too. With him at my side I didn't feel so lonely."
"So the demon of the mist gets lonely?" Kakashi teased.
"Shut it, Kakashi!" Zabuza growled.
Eventually, Naruto and Sasuke finished lunch and went right back to training until it hit nightfall and they were requested to return back to Tazuna's place.
That night at the old man's place, after dinner Naruto was outside with Inari at the edge of the dock. The boy watched as Naruto was using his waterbending on the water making the waves come forward and get pushed back.
"Wow, Naruto-nii, you're amazing." Inari said in amaze.
"Well, thanks. This ability to bend water and three other elements was something I had to practice to six years."
"Six years?"
"That's right. But I was lucky enough to have others to help me through my training." he smiled, as he remembered Jinora, her siblings, Kai, Mako, Bolin, Asami, and Akiza.
Inari looked up at Naruto feeling he could trust him with anything and spoke, "Naruto-nii."
"Yeah?"
"Can I tell you something very personal that I don't really like bringing up?"
"Sure, what is it?" Naruto asked.
"It's about my father." Inari began.
"Your dad?" Naruto asked, as the two sat down at the edge of the dock.
"Yes. You remind me so much of him." Inari said as he held back some tears.
Naruto was curious, as Inari told Naruto of how his father tried to stand up to Gato when no one else would and ended up getting killed because of it.
Naruto seeing how the boy was affected by it spoke, "You're not alone in that, Inari."
"I'm not?" he asked.
Naruto shook his head, "Truth is I lost my dad too, when I was just an infant."
"What?" Inari gasped.
Naruto nodded, "I grew up without him or my mother. And I led a very hard and painful life until Mistress Jinora came to me. But you're lucky enough to have you mom and your grandpa," Inari nodded knowing how logic that was, "And you should honor your father by not showing fear to Gato or any of his associates. By not doing so you will have made his sacrifice be for nothing. So promise me you'll be strong when my friends and I put an end to Gato. Can you do that?"
Inari nodded, "Yes. I will do that. I'll be strong for my mom and grandpa. And for everyone in our home."
Naruto smiled and ruffled the kids head through his hat. Watching from around the corner was Kakashi and Zabuza who both eye smiled seeing how Naruto handled things.
"That's one fine student ya got there, Kakashi."
"I know. And I know another would be proud of him too." Kakashi answered, as he thought about his sensei Minato.
(And that's the chapter. Naruto and his team learned about Zabuza and Haku's pasts, and soon they will all be facing Gato and Karok.)