Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters in this fan fiction. I do not make money from this fan fiction.
Author's Note: So I just finished up the Land of Waves arc. I tried to make it different from the standard canon arc and show their training regiment some along with Anko's inclusion. In particular I'd like for some constructive criticism on the fight scenes on these chapters because I am hoping to improve those for future chapters. I hope you enjoy chapter 20!
Chapter 20: Land of Waves Part 1
Naruto, Shino, Hinata, Kakashi, and Anko were gathered at the gate to the village in less than an hour when Tazuna arrived. He was drunk still and in his hand was a fresh Sake Bottle. The Leaf Shinobi said nothing as the drunken old man swaggered to where they were standing.
"Welllll, at leassssst we have a prrrrretty young woman with usssss to help passssss the time!" Tazuna laughed drunkenly looking at Anko.
Anko raised an eyebrow and smiled winking to Naruto, Kakashi, and Hinata.
"OH Yes, and we will pass the time quite well won't we Mr. Tazuna," Anko said in a sultry voice as she swung her hips and and strode over to the drunken man.
Tazuna grinned in his inebriated state at the way Anko responded. He was surprised his small joke had garnered her notice as she moved close to him and smiled seductively as he grinned and turned his head to look down her shirt at her ample breasts. And it was almost the last thing Tazuna saw as a viper jumped out from between her breasts and wrapped itself around Tazuna's neck. Tazuna fell back onto his rear and became very still as the snake slithered around his neck coming to rest heavily before falling asleep.
"I highly suggest you don't drink any more while we're on this mission Tazuna, it would be horrible if my little friend here got agitated and nipped you. He doesn't like the smell of Sake very much and it really makes his fangs itch," Anko informed him.
Tazuna stammered something intelligible as he tossed the Sake bottle away, his eyes wide with fear.
Kakashi watched the incident with a detached eye, normally he would have interviened but he personally agreed with Anko and had disliked working for a drunk. He had planned to have a talk with Tazuna but it no longer seemed necessary.
I heard Iruka's dating her now, I think my opinion of him just went up quite a bit, Kakashi mussed.
Anko walked back to Naruto and Kakashi who were both eyeing her with a new sense of respect and fear while Hinata wondered what tricks the snake-lady might teach her for future use. She looked at them and laughed.
"That's nothing boys, you should have seen Iruka's face the first time I told him he had to carry a small viper behind his zipper. No one touches Anko Mitarashi's property!" She told them with a smirk.
They nodded and began their journey to the land of waves. Anko was busy laughing with Naruto and Hinata at first but quickly got into a discussion with Shino about the bug user and the tactics he used in battle. She began to explain some different ideas she had had about the battlefield and how to use the bugs from her experience with his fellow clansmen.
Kakashi was reading his book as they continued forward and Naruto and Hinata were talking quietly. As they passed a puddle on the road Anko and Kakashi's eyes narrowed slightly and Hinata had a chill enter her spine. As they passed it two shinobi appeared from the puddle and attacked them, they threw a massive chain around Kakashi and Anko who had been near one another and pulled them back to back before using the chain to slice the two jonin into pieces.
"KAKASHI-SENSEI! ANKO!" Naruto yelled as he watched his friend and sensei possibly die in front of him. He then felt a presence by his ear but before the person could speak Naruto spun bringing his foot up toward the man's head who promptly blocked the attack with a massive metal gauntlet. Naruto narrowed his eyes and continued his assault striking with his hands and legs. Shino and Hinata fell back to back while Naruto fought one of the shinobi one on one and the other charged the remaining two genin.
He shot a shuriken from his gauntlet with a chain attached to it at them. Hinata and Shino moved apart as the shurkien struck where they had been standing, Shino landing near Tazuna and Hinata landing near where Anko and Kakashi had been when the attack began but had turned into blocks of wood.
Hinata fell into her stance and began to dodge and strike back at the man but was unable to actually strike her opponent either. She used her new flexibility to snap her palm to toward the enemies heart. When he blocked that she brought her knee up to strike his chin but he dodged and she swung her body around with a kick. Shino fell back and Naruto and Hinata kept the two attackers between them, Shino, and Tazuna behind Shino. Shino released his bugs but rather than going for the shinobi he had them land on their chains and begun to crawl up the chain toward the men.
Naruto and Hinata kept their attention so before they noticed it Shino's insects had covered them and begun to drain their chakra. They also did not notice Anko and Kakashi appear behind them.
"NINJA ART: SNAKE BINDING JUTSU" Anko said as dozens of snakes erupted from the sleeves of her coat to wrap around the shinobi attacking Hinata and immobilizing the man while Kakashi incapacitated his with a direct strike to the back of the neck.
"Good job guys, I was impressed, you didn't seem phased at all by their attack and nice teamwork, I don't think we really needed to step in but I felt, as your sensei, I probably shouldn't let you take all the credit," Kakashi told them.
Now that Naruto and the others were able to get a closer look at their attackers they saw their faces were entirely covered by strange masks and wore green and grey pants with black robes over themselves and their forehead protectors showed them to be Mist shinobi.
"These are the demon brothers from the hidden mist village, I think our bridge builder has some left some things out of his report to us," Kakashi said.
Kakashi turned to Tazuna but before he could say anything Anko already had the man by the front of his shirt, "What the hell old man! The information supplied didn't say anything about rival shinobi on your tail! You better start talking or my snakes are going to get itching for a taste of your hide, got it?"
To reinforce her point Anko let several snakes rise out of the sleeve of her overcoat and held them to the mans face whose eyes widened greatly.
Where does she keep all of those damned snakes, maybe I'll have to ask Iruka sometime… Kakashi thought to himself.
Kakashi placed a hand on her shoulder, "I think he has the idea and won't be misleading us anymore. You see Tazuna, the information you supply to us is very important because it tells us what kind of shinobi to send on the mission, by not giving us proper information you risk our lives and yours. I am sure you wouldn't want us to continue without the proper information, now would you?"
"Uh, No, of course not! I guess there might have been a few things I left out in my original report when I requested your villages help." Tazuna said his eyes now wide and his thoughts filled with snakes.
Looking down at the ground the old bridge builder continued, "There is a man who wants me dead, his name is Gato, the billionaire owner of all the marine transport and shipping. But he is only a business man on the surface, he uses gangs and shinobi and traffics in drugs and contraband to make his real money! He set his sights on my home, the land of waves, a few years ago and now he owns everything and controls all the commerce!
"The only thing he fears is the bridge that we've been working on to connect us to mainland. If we can finish the bridge we can regain control of our commerce and our country from him! I know I should have asked for a higher level squad but we can't afford it. Even our local feudal lords are very poor. If you all leave me, I am as good as dead."
Kakashi sighed and looked at his genin, "Well team, you heard him, this is now a B-ranked mission, do you want to keep going or start heading back?"
It wasn't even a question for the squad, they all chose to continue, and it looked like a lucky break that Anko had been assigned to the squad as well. Kakashi felt a slight chill go down his spine as he always did when things seemed to be going bad and he sighed, "This is going to get worse…"
Secret Ninja Hideout
Elsewhere at an unknown location a short, overweight man in an over expensive business suit was talking to a tall one reclining on a chair in front of him. The lower portion of his face was covered and a massive sword was resting comfortably on his shoulder. He wore dark combat pants and combat boots with no shirt on.
"Well, looks like those two idiots you sent got themselves caught and Tazuna has bodyguards now! I paid good money for your services Zabuza and I expect results!" The man said to the reclining figure.
"You'll get them Gato, we didn't expect Tazuna to hire bodyguards from the leaf, but I am the Demon of the Mist and I will fulfill my part of the bargain. They will be dead, and the bridgebuilder with them. That I can assure you of, I will see to it personally."
Back with Naruto and his team
Naruto, Hinata, Shino, Kakashi, Anko, and Tazuna had continued their way to the land of waves with few problems. They remained on alert knowing that another attack was likely. While they walked Anko explained the concepts protecting against a surprise attack to the young genin.
"An ambush is one of the best ways to commit an assassination. In particular the best way is to use a ranged attack like the demon brothers tried with their chain shuriken gauntlets. Kakashi and I knew they were coming though because they were hiding in the puddle we passed and there had been no rain for several days. This meant they lost the element of surprise which is one of the greatest advantages of an ambush. Always remember, should you lose the element of surprise it is advised to pull off the ambush and wait until you can regain that element.
"Anyway, as we can expect an attack the best formation is to place Tazuna in the center, as we have, with Hinata on point to watch using her Byakugan followed by myself, with Shino and Naruto on opposite sides of Tazuna and Kakashi bringing up the rear. This will make it more difficult for an attack to have a direct line of sight on Tazuna.
"Now, those guarding someone from a possible assassination are always at a disadvantage because those committing the assassination are always able to choose the time and place of the attack. But we have two important advantage. First is that an assassin gives up defense in both equipment and location for stealth. And second, once an assassin has attacked there is a short lag time between attacks where we can strike. In that time, as long as our reaction time is quick enough, we should be able to strike back and kill the assassin before they can raise an appropriate defense."
Anko continued her explination on assassinations with a few comments from Kakashi as the team continued on to the land of waves. It surprised Hinata and Naruto to learn that many of the skills in stealth and detection they had used and learned from Anko for their pranks were the same ones used in intelligence gathering and assassinations.
Tazuna had a boat prepared for them and thanks to the mist they managed to make it to the land of waves with little incident. The entire group looked in awe at the huge bridge that Tazuna was building. It was massive, easily large enough for entire caravans to cross without feeling constrained. As the group exited the boat Naruto and Hinata each threw a kunai knife into the bushes.
"I thought I heard something," Naruto said and Hinata nodded her agreement.
Kakashi approached the bushes and found a small white rabbit there. Anko approached with her snakes out in hopes of an easy snack for her precious friends but Kakashi handed the frightened animal to Hinata instead who soothed the poor creature. Anko grunted and put her snakes away.
That rabbit's coat is white, a snow rabbit would have already grown their new summer coat and be brown by now… that rabbit has been kept indoors where there is little light, something isn't right, Kakashi thought to himself.
By the look on her face Anko was thinking the same thing and they nodded to one another. Kakashi took the front and Anko the rear with Shino, Naruto, Hinata and Tazuna between them. They moved forward in a slow pace in hopes they wouldn't run into too many problems but the same chill went down Kakashi spine as before and he knew it wouldn't be that easy for them.
Up in the tree's a large man with a huge sword stood watching the group pass. He recognized the two jonin and dismissed the kids in the group. He was confident in his ability to dispatch with Kakashi but the knowledge of a second leaf jonin had made him rethink his strategy. As the group moved forward the former shinobi of the mist released his chakra and a thick fog began to roll over the group.
"Stay on your toes, Shino, Hinata, Naruto protect Tazuna!" Kakashi ordered his team who surrounded Tazuna in a triangle formation with their backs to him while Anko turned her back taking the opposite guard from Kakashi. Suddenly several kunai came from multiple directions within the mist and Kakashi and Anko were forced to block them so they wouldn't reach the kids when two very small needles came through the rain of kunai knives as well.
The needles were almost invisible and completely silent, Kakashi just barely managed to block his but Anko was not as lucky as it struck her in the neck and she sunk to the ground. A deep laughter came out of the forest.
"ANKO!" Naruto yelled wanting to run to his fallen friend.
"Naruto! Stay where you are!" Kakashi ordered him, Naruto remained at his spot, he was fighting every instinct to run to help his friend but managed to control himself enough not to move.
"She's ok Naruto, I can see her heart, it's still beating, but she's been knocked completely unconscious," Hinata told him, "the needle must have struck a nerve point putting her into a deep sleep."
Naruto nodded and turned his focus back to guarding Tazuna. The laughter once again came out of the mist and Kakashi looked around again unable to see anything.
"Kakashi-sensei, he's on the branch 60 meters to your right and 20 meters above!" Hinata told her sensei.
"My, you would have to have a Hyuga brat with you wouldn't you Kakashi. I guess there's no point in the fog then is there," a dark voice drifted lazily from within the mist. And with that the mist began to disappate rapidly leaving them staring a giant of a man holding a massive sword staring down at them. He was now standing on top of the water of a lake in front of them.
"Momochi Zabuza… famous for his art of silent killing," Kakashi said, "he is beyond any of your skill, stay back and protect Tazuna, I will handle him."
Kakashi brought his hand to the forehead protector which was slanted over his left eye and brought it up revealing the powerful sharingan eye. He switched his stance from a more defensive posture to one prepared for battle.
"So, I receive the sharingan so soon Kakashi the mirror ninja, Kakashi of the Sharingan! I am so Honored HAHAHA! It seems I will have to kill you first and then the brats and the old man last." Zabuza said with a deep laugh as he launched himself beyond them and onto the water.
"NINJA ART: WATER CLONE TECHNIQUE!" Zabuza said as he made several symbols with his hands and three exact copies arose from the water.
The three copies spread out around them moving past Kakashi whose eyes remained fixed on the original Zabuza confident in his squads ability to handle a few clones. Naruto, Shino, and Hinata remained ready with themselves between Tazuna and the copies. The stand-off only lasted a few seconds before the three copies launched simultaneous attacks at the three genin.
Naruto blocked his attacker head on countering with a swift strike to the right eye but only found himself blocked. Hinata dodged her adversary to the right bringing a swift low roundhouse toward his feet which he dodged with apparent ease. Shino, who was more of a long range specialist managed to block the attack but was pushed back and slammed into the bright builder but remained on his feet.
"We have to change our strategy…" Shino said as he released his bugs to attack the water clone.
Naruto and Hinata nodded before falling back and placing themselves in front of Shino and Tazuna. The three copies took up a triangle formation and bore down on the three genin with blood-thirst apparent in their eyes. Naruto and Hinata two teamed the three just barely holding their own and never able to take the offensive. They fought together as they had during their training with Jiraiya. When Naruto attacked Hinata provided a defense, when Hinata struck Naruto was behind her to block the couter-attack, but even though they fought hard they were placed on the defensive. With every move they were forced to block and dodge more and more in the three on two fight, unable to take the offensive.
Shino began to release his bugs and came in from behind though and started to drain the chakra from the clones. The clones noticed the movement of the bugs and turned to block them but that allowed Naruto and Hinata to go on the offensive and caught between either facing the two attackers or the bugs the clones began to rotate, one would defend against the bugs while the other two fought Naruto and Hinata switching in a rotation.
With their third clone unable to help Naruto and Hinata began to take the offensive and slowly pushed the clones further and further from Shino and Tazuna. Finally Naruto saw an opening and with a strike of his Kunai one of the clones dissolved into water. The other remaining two were then unable to block the bugs and the two youngster and fell quickly as well.
While Naruto, Shino, and Hinata were facing his clones the real Zabuza had begun his fight with Kakashi. Opening the contest with a swing of his sword Kakashi flipped backward dodging the blade throwing several kunai which were blocked. He then struck again with his blade bringing in a massive overhanded strike that left a shockwave in the earth causing a huge gash to appear.
Kakashi dodged again and this time using enemies heavy strike to his favor closed the ground but Zabuza surprised him with his ability to move his sword faster than expected and block the kunai knife easily. With his larger blade Zabuza was easily the better of the two at the close range and he easily broke the kunai knife bringing his sword through Kakashi who turned into water.
Zabuza then felt a blade at his neck as Kakashi stood behind him.
"So you copied my water clone technique huh? Too bad you weren't watching closer HAHAHA" Zabuza said as he dissolved into water and Kakashi's eyes widened.
From behind Kakashi heard "NINJA ART: WATER PRISON JUTSU!" as the Zabuza in front of him dissolved into water surrounding Kakashi. Kakashi's eyes widened in realization of his mistake as he was frozen in the water and found himself powerless to help his students.
Damn it! I fell right for his trick, Kakashi thought to himself.
Kakashi had watched his students finish off the clones but he knew those clones hadn't been nearly as strong as they could be but they hadn't had much trouble and while they seemed winded they weren't hurt. He took his chances and looked at them before making a decision.
"Hinata, Wake up Anko with your Juken! Naruto and Shino, protect Tazuna until Anko is awake! Do not attack Zabuza without Anko!" Kakashi yelled at them.
Hinata nodded and moved to Anko's side. She removed the needle from her throat and began examine her chakra system trying to find the right point to strike to wake the woman. Naruto and Shino moved into position between Tazuna and Zabuza.
Zabuza grinned at his new opponents and made a hand sign, "NINJA ART: WATER CLONE JUTSU" as another water clone rose from the water.
Zabuza chuckled at the two genin, "You'll find this clone much stronger than the ones you were just facing. I just needed you distracted while I captured the real threat. HAHAHA!"
Naruto and Shino could tell this clone was embued with a much greater amount of chakra. The clone moved toward the students and Naruto moved to intercept taking the clone on one on one. He charged the clone before dropping to a knee to avoid the clones initial thrust of his palm to where Naruto's head had been moments before and bringing his own knee up. The clone dodged with a flip backward. As the two fought Shino began to attempt to attack Zabuza using his bugs in hopes of draining the man's chakra while his clone was busy.
To Shino's surprise Zabuza used his free hand to slaughter every bug that the boy sent at him forcing him to call them back and work on a new strategy. Meanwhile Naruto was struggling but still holding his own as the Zabuza pushed him slowly back toward Shino and Tazuna. "NINJA ART: SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Naruto yelled making a sign as a dozen Naruto clones appeared.
The clones proved to be too weak to do more than provide a nuisance for the Zabuza clone who simply dodged most of their attacks. There was a big difference in the chakra levels of the shadow and water clones not to mention battle experience. While the Zabuza clone focused on dodging Naruto's attacks the shadow clones merely took the blows causing them to poof out of existence.
"NINJA ART: SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Naruto said again making several hand signs as dozens of more clones appeared around him. The Zabuza clone simply chuckled and swiftly moved through the much weaker shadow clones tearing them to pieces before finding the real one and placed as Naruto blocked his kunai knife with his own, bringing both arms to stop the blow the clone let his feet fall from beneath him and using his forward momentum launched a vicious kick at Naruto's stomach sending him back toward Shino.
Naruto cursed himself for not blocking the attack and panted heavily from the exertion of the clones and the attack. He then moved to take the offensive again when Shino's voice caught his attention.
"Naruto, I need his other arm tied down," Shino told him.
Naruto nodded and created more clones who he sent after Zabuza himself but the clone disengaged setting himself to attack the clones. Seeing his chance Naruto rushed toward the real Zabuza and began to throw Kunai knives and Shuriken at the man who blocked them all with a laugh.
Hinata had finally managed to locate the right nerve point to press to wake up Anko and as Anko's eyes fluttered she gradually came back to consciousness. Hinata shook the woman trying to get her to wake up faster but nothing was working so Hinata struck a non-vital but very painful nerve cluster causing the woman to scream in pain and sending a rush of adrenaline through her system.
"YEOUCH! Damn it Hinata what was that for!" Anko yelled at Hinata who pointed to the on going fight, "Oh… gotcha."
Anko then rose and she and Hinata moved to engage Zabuza who saw quickly things were not going in his favor anymore as his clone was quickly dispatched by Anko. Narrowing his eyes Zabuza knew he couldn't face all of them at once, not with this new support back and especially now that the brats had been found to be much more adept than expected. Anko and Hianta quickly helped Naruto dispatch with the Zabuza clone and seeing he had little choice Zabuza began to consider retreat as his only option.
Anko sent a dozen snakes at the man while Shino launched another attack with his bugs. Zabuza was unable to maintain his contact with the water sphere and was forced back onto the lake. Zabuza looked at his enemies and made several symbols with his hands, "NINJA ART: HIDDEN MIST JUTSU!" And the area once again filled with mist but now Hinata was watching for their enemy.
What Hinata couldn't see were the dozen large ice mirrors now appearing around the battlefield within the mist. Haku had seen that Zabuza would need help and come to the conclusion they would need to go to their secondary plan. He had created his ice mirrors and was ready to rain down senbon and kunai on their enemies when Zabuza signaled him to pull back.
"He's retreating to the North Kakashi-sensei!" Hinata called out and Kakashi attempted to persue only to find Zabuza had disappeared before he could break through the mist. After a quick search Kakashi returned to the group as the mist was now disappating and returning to a clear sunny day.
"No luck Kakashi?" Anko asked him.
"No, he escaped in that damn mist and you know he'll back and come better prepared. That was a bit too close, guess it was lucky you came along after all Anko. I suggest we continue on to your home quickly Tazuna." They all nodded and resumed their journey reaching Tazuna's home by evening.
Hidden Ninja Hideout
"You got beat by three brats! I thought you were the great Demon of the Hidden Mist Zabuza! What is this? Are you going to be able to kill the bridge builder or aren't you?" Gato said to the man in front of him.
"There were complications, we knew about the other jonin but I was unaware of a Hyuga and an Aburame being with them. That changes things a bit since they both can counter my mist effectively. Make no mistake Gato, Tazuna will be dead, some adjustments are simply needed."
Zabuza then leaned forward and extended his sword quickly until the tip lay right in front of Gato's nose, a small speck of blood seeping out from an almost imperciavable cut.
"I suggest you take a better tone and not question me or my methods in the future Gato, no amount of money will stop me from killing you if you piss me off," Zabuza informed his client.
Beads of sweat began to run down Gato's back and without a word he left the building.
"Haku, I think it is time to call in another grunt or two and make some changes to our plans, that second jonin is going to make things more difficult. We will separate their team and once I destroy Kakashi they others will be little trouble. Make the arrangements with our usual contacts and have them prepared. Until then we will watch for the right moment."
A beautiful young man nodded to Zabuza, he was far prettier than most girls his age and his long hair and feminen looks made him seem more like a woman than a man. He smiled at Zabuza and left to make arrangements as Zabuza sat in quiet to consider how best to change their strategy for the next encounter.