Author's Note: Well here we are at the next chapter of the Wave Arc.
A couple of people have asked which lucky guy is getting Naruko. Please look at the description of this fic: YURI HAREM. No boys included.
Moreover, Yes, Haku will be joining the Harem.
Please Review!
Disclaimer: Here is the thing: I do not own Naruto.
"Dattebayo!" -normal speech
'Dobe' -Thoughts
'{Shannaro!}' -Inner Sakura
"Ningen"-Boss Summon/Tailed Beast Speech
'Brat' -Boss Summon/Tailed Beast Thoughts
"Kage Bunshin!" -Ninjutsu/Genjutsu/Taijutsu move.
Chapter 21: Shadow of the Bloody Mist
Zabuza's Hideout
"So while you were picking the herbs for this herbal mix -which is somehow even fouler than your usual mix, by the way- you ran across two Konoha genin?" Zabuza summarised.
The Nuke-nin was reclining on his bed, idly playing with his sword, Kubikiribōchō (Decapitating Carving Knife), otherwise known as the Dantō (Seversword), as he listened to Haku's report.
"Hai, Zabuza-sama." Haku replied, "The one I talked to was the one responsible for killing the Kumogakure Auxiliary Ninja. She was…impressive."
"Oh?" Zabuza raised in query what would have been his eyebrow, were it not for the fact he had shaved it off.
"She was completely vulnerable while she slept, but once I woke her up, she automatically moved her body into a very good defensive position." Haku explained, "It was very subtle, but the change was there. She spoke of facing forty bandits, with only a fellow genin as backup, with the quiet confidence of a seasoned kunoichi. In addition, she spoke quite calmly about almost being killed on their last mission, a mission that was mislabelled apparently. It was an S-Rank disguised as a C-Rank."
"An S-Rank?!" Zabuza jerked in surprise at that one, "A genin team survived an S-Rank mission?! Who the hell are they?"
"The one who was sleeping had short blue hair and wore a jacket with a flame symbol on the upper arm." Haku said, trying to recall the two kunoichi and their appearance, "Her hitai-ate was around her neck. Naruko called her Hinata, I think."
"Hmm…interesting." Zabuza mused, "The flame symbol represents the Hyuuga Clan and from what I hear, the current Heiress of the Hyuuga Clan is called Hinata. She should be around about the right age to be a fresh genin. If it is her, we will have to step carefully. The Hyuuga Clan are not to be taken lightly. What about this Naruko, the one you spoke to?"
"She was slightly shorter than Hinata, not by much though." the last of the Yuki Clan replied, "She wore a red trench coat, with the right sleeve removed. She had a katana slung across her back and an odd bracer of some sort on her right forearm. She also wore two hitai-ate."
"Two?" Zabuza once again raised his non-existent eyebrow at this.
"Hai. One on her forehead bearing the symbol of Konohagakure and one on her right arm, bearing a symbol which I am unable to identify with a country or Hidden Village." Haku reported, "She also bore the symbol on her back and left arm."
"Must be a Clan symbol of some kind." Zabuza guessed, "What was the symbol?"
"A clockwise red spiral mounted on a blue background." Haku stated.
Zabuza froze and looked at her with wide eyes. "A red spiral…?! Are you certain of this Haku?"
"I would not have said it if I was not certain, Zabuza-sama." Haku replied, the girl looking at her master with concern. He was not easily rattled, so for this symbol to do this to him, it must be of great concern to him.
"True." the Rogue Swordsman said with a frown, "Haku, this girl…did she have red hair?"
Haku had to think for a moment. "Mostly. She had flashes of blond in there as well."
"Dammit." cursed Zabuza, "We're dealing with an Uzumaki then."
"An Uzumaki?" Haku asked, "I have heard of the name, but not much else."
Zabuza snorted. "Hardly surprising. They were all but wiped out at the start of the Third Great Ninja War by a joint attack by Kirigakure, Iwagakure and Kumogakure. It was one hell of a fight from what my predecessor told me. A real bloodbath."
"They can't have been that powerful if they were slaughtered like that." Haku said with a small frown.
"No, no, no," Zabuza shook his head violently, "It was the reverse; the Uzumaki were so powerful that if Kiri or Kumo had attacked separately, they wouldn't have stood a chance against the Uzumaki Clan, even with the element of surprise and overwhelming numbers.
As it was, the mainstay of the force came from Kiri and Kumo, while Iwa sent a highly specialised team to break down the defences of Uzushiogakure."
"'Village Hidden in the Whirlpools'?" Haku asked in confusion, "I thought we were talking about a single Clan?"
"They were." Zabuza replied, "They were also rulers of their own Hidden Village, one that was made up almost entirely of members of the Uzumaki Clan. If you included distant cousins and the like, there were well over fifteen hundred members of the Uzumaki Clan."
Haku gaped in disbelief. The Yuki Clan of Mizu no Kuni had barely had three hundred members at its peak, according to a scroll Zabuza had stolen from Kirigakure as he fled the wrath of Yagura, and they had been one of the most populous Ninja Clans in the entire nation before the Bloodline Purges!
"Anyway, the casualties suffered were…awful." Zabuza continued after a moment, "The passive and active defences caused immense casualties, before they could even breach the walls. The only good thing was that they had never been designed to hold off the sheer number of shinobi that assaulted them."
"I don't understand." Haku admitted.
"The Uzumaki Clan were known and feared for their unparalleled skills in Fūinjutsu, Haku." Zabuza explained, "Very few people outside of the Uzumaki studied Fūinjutsu, so fear of what they could be planning grew in the leaders of those Hidden Villages not allied with them. All this despite the fact that the Uzumaki were wholly uninterested with conquest and rarely fought for anything except the defence of their home."
"So they were eliminated just because of unsubstantiated paranoia?" Haku asked in distress, "That's just as bad as Yagura eliminating the Clans of Mizu no Kuni who possess Kekkei Genkai out of fear!"
"I know Haku." Zabuza replied softly, "Regardless, paranoia seems to be something that the Sandaime Mizukage had in common with Yagura, otherwise why would he agree to a joint attack with two other Hidden Villages?
Anyway, the real bloodbath started once the village walls were breached. By this time, the allied force had lost about thirty percent of their overall forces, including almost all of the Iwagakure shinobi. They went in expecting an easy slaughter, but it was like walking headfirst into a meat grinder. All of the Uzumaki knew that they were fighting for their lives, so all of them -shinobi and civilians- fought back like berserkers."
"The civilians fought as well?!" Haku said incredulously, "They would have stood no chance, not against trained ninja!"
"Ah, but remember, most of the civilians were members of the Uzumaki Clan, so they learned basic chakra control and their Clan's taijutsu style when they were growing up." Zabuza told her, "If Yagura hadn't begun the Bloodline Purges, you would have learned the Yuki Clan's taijutsu style and learned chakra control long before I met you. It's part and parcel of being the member of a clan."
"But…even with that, they would have only been genin-level at best!" Haku said, trying to understand the situation, "What possible good would they have been."
"From what my sensei told me, a hell of a lot." Zabuza replied, "They lured shinobi into traps and self-destructed using paper bombs, activated defences and, in general, got in the way while the actual Uzushiogakure shinobi faced the invaders head on.
The one shinobi that caused the most trouble for the invaders was the Uzukage, Uzumaki Tatsuya. He was a match for any of the previous generation of Seven Swordsmen of the Mist in terms of pure swordsmanship, and a match for any of the Five Kage in pure ninjutsu. He sallied forth numerous times, slaying countless shinobi of Kiri and Kumo each time he did so. It took three days of bloody fighting for the Allied forces to corner him, and when they did…"
Zabuza shoo his head in amusement. "They went about it really stupidly. He took out three hundred shinobi with a life sacrifice jutsu when it became obvious that he was one of the few remaining Uzumaki. All in all, three-quarters of the Kiri, Kumo and Iwa combined army lay dead among the ruins of Uzushiogakure."
Silence settled between the two of them as Haku processed what Zabuza's words.
"So is that why you reacted so strongly to the Uzumaki name? Because of the carnage they caused among the Kiri-nins?" she asked finally.
"Hell no." Zabuza snorted, "Give me some credit, Haku. No, the reason I am concerned about the genin kunoichi is that only a single member of the Uzumaki Clan escaped the slaughter: Uzumaki Kushina. She was apparently a nightmare to fight during the Third Great War."
"A single Kunoichi?" Haku asked in disbelief.
"A single, S-Rank kunoichi with one hell of an axe to grind against Kiri and Kumo." Zabuza corrected her, "Somehow, I don't know how, she knew that Kiri and Kumo were the ones largely responsible for the slaughter of her clan and pursued their shinobi relentlessly during the war, especially the more prominent shinobi.
She fought and defeated all members of the last generation of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, of whom only my sensei and Suikazan Fuguki, the previous wielder of Samehada (Sharkskin), managed to fight on relatively even terms with her, but even then, she defeated them."
"Did your sensei say how?" Haku asked.
"Ah, that's the thing." Zabuza nodded, "He said that she was far more powerful than him and her kenjutsu was vastly superior to his own, which is hard to believe, considering the wielders of Kubikiribōchō are usually the best at kenjutsu out of all of the Seven Swordsmen. Anyway, Kushina killed so many shinobi that she became known as the 'Bloody Crimson Death', and her sword was feared as Benihime, as it wept crimson blood from all of the enemies she cut down with it."
Haku stared at her master as she once again tried to wrap her mind around the new fact presented to her. Someone had outclassed Zabuza's sensei in terms of pure swordsmanship, which she had thought impossible. Even although Ikura Sekiryū had not been nearly as skilled as his student Zabuza, he had still been far above almost all of the shinobi in Mizu no Kuni in terms of skill.
"Kushina-san sounds like she is a formidable warrior." Haku opined.
"Was, Haku." Zabuza said softly, "She died when the Kyuubi attacked Konoha twelve years ago, or so the rumours say."
Haku winced. The Bijū were ferocious when aroused to the heights of their rage, and the Kyuubi had caused so much destruction to Konoha that stories were still whispered of the elemental fury of the nine-tailed demon's rampage.
"Tell me Haku, how old did Uzumaki Naruko look?" the Swordsman asked.
"Eleven or twelve…" Haku replied slowly, her sharp mind homing in on the probable reason for this question. "Zabuza-sama, you don't think…?"
Zabuza nodded grimly. "She's around the right age to have been born shortly before Kushina was killed. Uzumaki Naruko is likely the daughter of the Bloody Crimson Death. And if she's anything like her mother, she'll try to come for my head."
"Why?" Haku asked in confusion.
"The leaders of the Kirigakure contingent of the force that destroyed her Clan were the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." Zabuza informed her, "Ikura-sensei told me that himself."
"But…but that has nothing to do with you!" Haku protested, "You would have only just massacred your classmates at the Academy when Uzushiogakure was destroyed!"
"For the purposes of debts owed, all who become successors to the Seven Swords of the Mist are considered to be one and the same." Zabuza replied with a shrug, "Somehow, her mother knew about the details of Uzushiogakure's defeat, and I don't doubt that she left that source to her daughter. Whether or not she comes after me, we will have to be careful with her as well. Uzumaki are the worst opponents to fight, as they do not know when they are beaten. They fight until they are well and truly dead."
"As you say, Zabuza-sama." Haku bowed, "I should prepare breakfast now."
"Something other than rice and miso soup, please?" Zabuza asked half-heartedly.
"You need to have a bland diet while the drugs I had on the senbon I struck you with work themselves from you system, Zabuza-sama." Haku reminded him, "Not to mention the new medicine you have to take for the rest of this week."
"Bah!" Zabuza grumbled as Haku walked off, "That girl acts like a damn housewife whenever we settle down for a while. Where the hell did she pick that up from?"
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One Hour Later
Clearing Near Tazuna's House
"So, ya got her then?" Anko asked Hinata as the Hyuuga Heiress ran through a kata of her Jūho.
Hinata squeaked and hurriedly looked around. Sakura and Ino were still trying to walk on water alongside a couple of hundred Naruko clones, while the original Naruko sat on the ground, drawing something on a scroll with a brush.
On the far side of the clearing, Sasuke was still being owned by a tree, while Kakashi stood and read his Icha-Icha book, which he had stolen back from Anko. Kurenai, Akamaru and Kiba were guarding Tazuna at work today.
"H-Hai." the young Heiress replied shyly, her face blushing prettily.
"Well good for you!" the Snake Mistress grinned at her, then frowning as she saw a slightly depressed look on Hinata's face, "OK, what's up?"
"She w-wants us to keep our relationship a-a secret." Hinata replied softly as she continued her kata, "S-She says that people would think she…b-broke me…like she b-broke the new gate guards a-at the compound."
"Huh. True that." Anko conceded, "So I guess that means no fun time in the bushes last night?"
Hinata's blush became a glowing red as she shook her head vigorously. "She s-says we aren't going to do…that…until she's sure she w-won't break Me." she said wistfully.
"So if she had torn your clothes off and made you scream her name from pleasure, you wouldn't have minded?" Anko leered at her.
"N-No." Hinata admitted with an even redder blush, "B-But I c-can wait. I waited four years for Naruko-chan to be my g-girlfriend, so a l-little longer isn't so bad…"
"Got an idea for that." Anko remarked, "You do know that Flower Girl's got a crush on Naru-chan, right?"
"I could tell that back in Konoha." Hinata muttered irritably as she moved smoothly into another, more aggressive-looking kata, "S-She's bisexual like you a-and Naruko-chan, I suppose?"
"Yep. She tore off after you two yesterday, heard your confession and saw you two kiss." Anko said casually, making Hinata 'eep' in embarrassment, "Yeah, she was in tears after that. I punished her for disobeying orders with a wee bit of bondage. She's so sensitive that she could barely finish a set of that taijutsu style that Naruko gave her before she had to rest."
Hinata's face was steadily becoming redder as the Tokujo spoke. "S-so?"
"So, she can't just stay like that!" Anko chided her, "As I told her yesterday, what if she was captured by the enemy? She would be broken in five minutes with that sensitive body. I'm going to ask Hokage-sama to include Flower Girl in Naru-chan's Injutsu training. If you want, I can put in a request for you to be included too."
Hinata stared at Anko for a moment, eyes wide. "B-But Oto-sama would never-!"
"I think he would." Anko told her, "At least, once I have a chance to persuade him. I can be very persuasive when I want to be, especially when it is a man I'm persuading."
Upon hearing this, Hinata's face turned green as she realised what Anko meant. "A-Ano…please don't seduce my father…or if you do, p-please put up silencing seals."
Anko stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Hahahahaha! Girl, I like you." she snorted in amusement, "But no, I won't seduce your old man. It would be against the rules. I'd just flirt a bit, y'know the whole 'feminine wiles' routine."
"Thank kami!" Hinata muttered in heartfelt thanks. Parent sex…ew.
"You never answered my question, Nata-chan." Anko pointed out, ignoring the girl's muttering, "If I put your name in for Injutsu training, would you accept it?"
"I…I want to be with Naruko-chan." Hinata said after a moment, "I-In every way possible. I w-would accept, although the fact that I would have to share her with Ino-chan, as well as you, isn't sitting well with me, Anko-sensei."
"Ah, so she told you about that then." Anko nodded to herself, "She isn't far off learning everything I have to teach her. Call it two months, two and a half tops. Then Naruko can take over indoctri- pardon me, instructing you and Flower Girl. Sound good?"
Hinata peered suspiciously at Anko for a moment before nodding. She had a feeling Anko had something devious up her sleeve, but couldn't figure out what it was. The Heiress had a bad feeling that she would find out when it was too late.
"Excellent." Anko nodded approvingly, "Now that we've made arrangements, I'll go over and bug Naru-chan. I wonder what she's working on…?"
The Snake Mistress wandered over to Naruko, who looked up with a grin at her lover.
"Yo, An-chan." she greeted Anko, "What the heck were you saying to Hinata-chan? She was turning every colour of the rainbow from what I could see from a couple of my clones' memories."
"Teased her about seducing her old man." Anko replied with a grin.
"Ewww!" Naruko pulled a face as she replied, "OK, that was a disgusting image I really didn't need in my mind, An-chan."
"Niiiinja." Anko shot back, "What're you working on there, Naru-chan?"
"Hmmm…? Oh, this is an Fūinjutsu that I found in the Clan Library." Naruko said as she gestured with her brush at the scroll, "I was thinking about adding it to Tazuna's bridge once he finishes it."
"What does it do?" Anko asked curiously.
"It was developed for areas like this, on the coast with constant tidal waves." Naruko replied, "When carved into a structure, like a bridge, in constant contact with the tides, it strengthens the overall structure depending on the strength of the waves."
"So during a typhoon or tsunami, it would be all but impervious!" Anko breathed in awe.
"Yep. Even better, it converts the physical impacts of the waves into chakra in order to power it." Naruko added with glee, "It only needs a single point of activation, so it can be put where invaders can't touch it."
"What's it called?" Anko asked.
"Uzumaki Fūinjutsu: Uzumaki Izoku (Uzumaki Sealing Jutsu: Spiralling Survivor)" Naruko replied, "There was only one bridge in and out of Uzu no Shima (Island of Whirlpools) and, because of its immense age and size, it was covered in this Fūinjutsu."
"Can you really create it though?" Anko asked in concern, "I mean this looks very complex? And didn't Hokage-sama ask you to work on master another seal?"
"The Koware Kyōkai Fūin, yes." Naruko agreed, "I am working on both of them simultaneously. As to the complexity of the seal, this one is actually easier than the one Ji-chan wants me to master. The actual size of the Uzumaki Izoku Fūin is a meter square before the actual sealing is activated, meaning that while it looks more complex, it is far easier to work with. Give me till the end of the week and my clones'll have it thrashed out."
"So what are your clones working on while you're doodling?" Anko asked Naruko as she plopped herself down next to the blond kunoichi.
"I've got fifty working on Katon Renkeijutsu: Karura no Jutsu, fifty working on Ninpo: Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, fifty working on Doton: Doro Kawara no Jutsu and another fifty working on Ninpo: Tajū Gen'ei Shuriken no Jutsu." Naruko replied after glaring at Anko for the 'doodling' comment, "That's in addition to the hundred each I have assigned to both of the Fūinjutsu projects, the hundred I have out there on the water and the twenty I have shadowing Kurenai-sensei as an emergency reinforcement group."
"You shouldn't spread yourself so thin, Naru-chan." Anko scolded her, "The Katon and Doton will take forever for you to learn because they aren't your elements."
"Nah, the Doton is only a D-Rank Jutsu." Naruko disagreed, "I just have to try and make as many as I can with a set amount of chakra. As for the Katon, while it is a convoluted co-operation jutsu, it is, at best, a High C-Rank. I remember when Kakashi-sensei saved me from those Taki kunoichi; he stopped it with a basic Doryūheki. It looks cool, but it's actually best used as a distraction rather than an actual attack."
"Didn't the old man give you another jutsu?" Anko wondered aloud.
"Yep. Ninpo: Kawara Shuriken no Jutsu." Naruko nodded as she put the finishing touch to the intricate seal array on the scroll in front of her, "I'm going to wait until I've mastered Doro Kawara so I can practice it without stealing roof tiles off of people's homes."
"What'll you do after that though?" Anko pressed.
"I'll focus on mastering all of the jutsu I know right now." Naruko said firmly, "I can use them alright, but I haven't mastered any of them other than Teppōdama and Reppūshō. Besides, this way I can help Hinata-chan and Ino-chan with their jutsu. Everyone wins."
Anko looked at Naruko for a moment with respect. Not too many genin would make that choice. Most assumed that using a jutsu meant that they had mastered it, but that was wrong. Mastering a jutsu meant you could freely use it at full power and at command, with either no handsigns or a reduced amount of handsigns.
There were a surprising number of shinobi that were stupid that way, like that idiot Jonin Ebisu, who preached frequently about the thousand jutsu that all Hokage were required to know and how the number of jutsu an shinobi knew determined the quality of said ninja.
Pure hogwash, but people actually listened to him for some highly improbable reason.
"Good girl, Naru-chan!" Anko said with a wide grin. She reached over and ruffled the Uzumaki Heiress's hair, which earned her a mild glower from Naruko. She hated it when people did that. The only two people who got a free pass in that regard were Sarutobi Hiruzen and Umino Iruka.
"Ack! Gerroff, An-chan!" Naruko grumbled, swiping at the arm that was messing up her hair as she spoke.
"Nope. Not unless you agree to help me with Flower Girl and Pinkie over there." Anko replied, nodding towards Ino and Sakura, who were taking a break from their Water Walking training.
"Help how?" Naruko asked suspiciously.
"I'm going to teach Flower Girl a Suiton Jutsu, one that you'll be able to advise her on." Anko explained, "Might teach it to the Pinkie as well if her element matches up."
"Kakashi-sensei hasn't taught her any ninjutsu, just genjutsu." Naruko pointed out, "I doubt he bothered to check what her element was. Do you have any of that chakra paper on you?"
"Just one piece." Anko replied, "Well, one's enough. So, will you help me out?"
"Sure." Naruko shrugged as she rolled up the scroll in front of her and put it inside her coat, "My clones are doing all of the hard work right now, so I might as well put some effort into something myself."
"That's the spirit!" Anko said cheerfully, "Now, onward to tortur- pardon me, teach some students!"
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Timeskip - After Dinner
The Jetty, Tazuna's House
Naruko sat at the end of the wooden pier and relaxed in the cool sea breeze. She wasn't wearing her trench coat, leaving her arms exposed. Her long ponytail fluttered in the breeze as she stared across the water.
Sakura and Ino were both exhausted from the jutsu training she and Anko had put them through. Sakura, as it turns out, was a Primary Water and Secondary Lightening Element, which spoke well for the combination jutsu she could use in the future.
The jutsu Anko taught the two of them was one that Zabuza had used against Team 7 on the way to Nami no Kuni, Suiton: Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu).
Similar to the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, it creates clones. As the name suggests, Mizu Bunshin were made from water, meaning they could only use non-elemental and Suiton jutsu. They were also a hell of a lot more limited than Shadow Clones, restricted to a maximum distance from the creator or they'd dissolve into water, as well as being only one tenth as strong as the original.
Ino, with her previous experience with Suiton jutsu, managed to get results first, a vague blob that collapsed after a second. Sakura wasn't too far off with her own indistinct blob that collapsed just as fast as Ino's attempt.
Naruko told them what their problem was: they weren't visualising themselves properly. She had learned that when she had been learning the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. In order to create an actual solid clone, as opposed to a basic illusion clone, you had to imagine yourself in as much detail as was possible before actually pushing chakra into the jutsu.
Once they had been imparted with that advice, the two rivals had challenged Naruko to prove it and use the jutsu. She had performed it, creating twenty Mizu Bunshin before ending the jutsu. She had had to create that many; otherwise, they would have been overloaded with chakra and dissolved.
After they picked their jaws up from the ground, Ino and Sakura spent a while perfecting their mental images of themselves before attempting the jutsu again, this time forming a single clone each that lasted about twenty seconds each.
Naruko smiled as she remembered the consternation that had appeared on Ino and Sakura's faces when they were informed that the clones lasted only as long as the amount of chakra they had lasted.
A creak from one of the boards behind her put Naruko on alert, and then she relaxed as she felt no chakra behind her. She wasn't a sensor by any means, but all ninja could sense chakra to some degree or other.
"Inari-kun." she said aloud, guessing who it was from the slow, short treading that the person was making.
Plus, Tazuna was far too clumsy to walk as stealthily as the person behind her was being.
"How'd you know it was me?" Inari asked curiously.
"I felt no chakra, Tsunami-san wouldn't try and sneak up on me and Tazuna-san is too clumsy to try and sneak up on someone." Naruko answered, "That left you. What can I do for you, Inari-kun?"
"I…" Inari started before faltering.
"Have a seat." Naruko gestured to the wooden board next to her. Reluctantly, the young boy sat next to her, sneaking glances at her as he fidgeted where he sat.
"It's alright." Naruko said softly, making Inari freeze, "I don't blame you for what you said last night. You're a young civilian boy who suffered a crushing loss. I'd have to be a pretty petty person to hold what you said against you after I cooled down."
"I'm sorry." Inari mumbled, "I just…I want to know how you can endure things without crying."
"I don't." Naruko replied softly, "When things get tough, I do cry. I just don't let it paralyze me. Once I finish crying, I stand up and try again, and again, and again, until I accomplish what I set out to do. It isn't easy, but it works."
The silence between them was only broken by the quiet lapping of the waves on the wooden supports of the jetty.
"I still don't understand…why do you want to become the ruler of a place that treats you like that?" Inari asked at last.
"Part of it is slightly petty." Naruko admitted with a small grin, "I want to rub it in to those who sneered at me that I succeeded. Despite their best efforts to stop me."
Inari giggled a little at that.
"A larger part of it is, I actually understand why they do it." Naruko continued, "You've never felt the Kyuubi. Well, neither have I for that matter, but from what I've been told, the loss of life and destruction it wrought was…awful. Those who lost loved ones needed someone to hate, someone to blame for it all. I was just the one who was unlucky enough to be selected as the focus of all that anger."
She silently sent apologies to the Kyuubi for calling him an it. He snorted indifferently at her but accepted them.
"If I keep going, proving to them beyond all doubt that I am not the fox, I will have overcome their hatred, destroying it utterly." Naruko said firmly as she gazed across the sea, "That is an accomplishment in ad of itself, wouldn't you say?"
"I…yes, I think so." Inari said slowly.
"The final reason is…I don't want to be forgotten." Naruko admitted quietly, "Before I found out about my Clan, I wanted to be remembered. How better to be remembered than to have your face carved onto a mountain, right? I can't have kids, so that was the only thing I could hope for."
Inari looked at her solemnly, listening intently.
"When I found out about my Clan…it just made me more determined than ever." Naruko continued, "My Clan was destroyed over twenty years ago, but before that, they were one of the most powerful in all of the Elemental Nations. For the Uzumaki, their history, their power, to end with me…I can't change that, but I can ensure that through me, they will be remembered, as long as Konoha exists, as being my Clan, a Clan that produced one of the Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato."
The young boy looked at her for a moment. "You're so strong." he whispered, "I don't think I could be as strong in your shoes."
"I wouldn't wish my situation on anybody else." Naruko smirked bitterly at Inari, "But you have your own situation. There are two questions you have to ask yourself. The first is, do you want to be strong?"
"I…I do." Inari answered after a moment.
"Good. The next question is why do you want to be strong?" Naruko asked.
A look of confusion crossed Inari's face. "Does it matter?"
"You would be surprised how much it might matter." Naruko replied as she nonchalantly made a couple of Shadow Clones and watched as they began sparring across the water's surface, "Sasuke-teme, the black-haired broody one, wants to become strong to avenge his Clan. Tenten-san, a sempai of mine back in Konoha, wants to become strong to prove that kunoichi can be just as strong as ninja. As for me…I just want to be strong enough to accomplish my dream and protect those who are precious to me and those who need my help."
Seeing Inari's confusion, Naruko expanded on what she said.
"To give an example, Sasuke-teme doesn't care how he gets strong or who makes him strong, as long as he does actually become strong. He would jump at the chance to learn even half of the jutsu I know, simply because he would become that much stronger because of it. He wouldn't care about who got hurt in the meantime or what strings might be attached to it, as long as he became strong." Naruko said, "Does he sound like someone you would entrust with power?"
"N…No." Inari answered, "He…kinda sounds like Gatō."
"Sasuke-teme isn't as…evil… as that midget bastard." Naruko said slowly, trying to find the right words, "He's more…ruthless and implacable than evil, but your point is well made."
Glancing at Inari, Naruko grinned as she asked, "So then Inari-kun…why do you want to become strong?"
The boy sat and thought hard for a moment. It was a harder question than you might think, despite the simplicity of what it asked of a person.
"I want to get strong…because I want to prevent someone like Gatō from hurting Nami no Kuni again." Inari said at last, "I wanna be able to stop people from being hurt. Being powerless when that happens…is the worst feeling ever."
Naruko's grin widened. "So you want to be able to protect people." she muttered, "You're like Shisui-nii."
"O-one of the guys who saved you when you were seven?" Inari asked.
"Yep." Naruko replied, "He carried me to the hospital while Itachi-nii went to tell my Ji-chan I was in the hospital. When he put me in a bed, I asked him why he saved me; he told me 'I help everyone I can reach out to. That's why I became strong.'"
"Wow…" Inari said, his mind taking in what Naruko had told him, "Did he?"
"Right up until he died, Uchiha Shisui did everything he could to help others. At least, according to my Ji-chan." Naruko replied with a smile.
"How can I become strong?" Inari asked, returning to their original topic.
"I can show you a few basic punches and stuff for emergencies." Naruko offered, "It won't be much, but no one will expect a kid like you to know that kind of thing, no offence."
"None taken." Inari replied, "You'd really teach me stuff?"
"Sure. On one condition." Naruko replied, "Never again let sadness overcome you like it has for the last two years. Deal?"
"Deal!" Inari said.
"OK then!" Naruko clapped happily as she stood up and beckoned Inari to follow her, "Now the first thing I'm going to teach you is how to fight someone bigger than you are…"
As the two moved off towards the far side of the clearing, a figure appeared from behind a shimmering disturbance in the air, raven black hair whipping in the light breeze.
"Looks like I didn't have to worry about the two of them after all." Kurenai muttered before she vanished in a Konoha Shunshin.
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Timeskip - The Next Day
Hokage's office, Konohagakure
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared across his desk at one Yanagi Gozaburo and his daughter, Yanagi Sae. Rather, his only living daughter.
Sarutobi did sympathise with the man for that. It was never easy to lose a child. Biwako had given birth to a stillborn girl between his eldest son Asahi and his youngest son Asuma and it had been traumatising to both of them.
"So then, Gozaburo-san." he began, "I understand from everything my ANBU have reported that you and your daughter Sae-san are the last living members of the Yanagi Clan."
"Hai, Hokage-sama." Gozaburo replied as he leaned on a roughly cut wooden cane, "All of the others died in the flames that consumed Morimura Forest. It was only due to the assistance of your ANBU teams that all of my people managed to get as they did, which I must thank you for."
Sarutobi nodded, acknowledging the subtle point. While now bereft of his home and his Clan, Gozaburo still had people who looked to him for leadership, meaning he still had responsibilities.
"They did their duty." he replied, "I have also read the reports given by Team 8, especially the one written by Uzumaki Naruko. Putting it all together, it sounds like the last decade or so has been…hell on earth for your people, frankly speaking. Have they given any indication where they wish to go after they have recuperated?"
"From what Shin'ichi-san has told me, they seem willing to trust my judgement on the matter." Gozaburo replied tiredly, "I will understand if you do not wish for the Yanagi Clan to move to Konoha, but I would ask you to hear me out."
The Sandaime leaned back in his chair and gestured with one hand. "By all means. I understand that Naruko has given you an Uzumaki Yūjō no Akashi (Proof of Friendship) mark, which makes me inclined to accept you anyway, but please, continue."
This time Sae spoke up. "Hokage-sama, from what Uzumaki-san has told us, you are somewhat bereft of Sealmasters in Konoha at the moment. We would be glad to lend our talents in this regard."
"Ohhh?" Sarutobi said, "What level are you both at?"
"Apprentice Sealmasters only, I'm afraid." Gozaburo replied, "Officially, that is. Sae-chan was forced to expand her knowledge with a considerable amount of dangerous and experimental seals by her sister. As such, I would ask that she be officially evaluated."
"That can be arranged." Sarutobi replied, "I will require her to undergo a memory scan to ensure that she doesn't plan on recreating any of the plans of her sister here in Konoha, however."
"By a Yamanaka, I presume." Gozaburo sighed, "An understandable precaution. Agreed."
"It says in Naruko's report that you turned over the last of your Clan Heirlooms to her." Sarutobi noted, "She's unsure whether to add it to her gauntlet or not."
"I gave Ryūshi to her explicitly for that purpose." Sae replied, "That gauntlet of hers is amazing. The Fūinjutsu on it must be so intricate…"
"And entirely unintentional, I assure you." Sarutobi said wryly, "Now then, your offer of the use of your talents as Sealmasters is hereby accepted. I will allocate you a small compound near Naruko's own so you may feel secure. As you contributed in part to a situation that threatened Hi no Kuni, albeit unwillingly, I decree that one mission's pay out of every three missions issued to you will be donated to the Orphans and Widows Fund, and you will submit to fortnightly inspections of your residence for the next two years, at which time I, or the next Hokage, if I am lucky enough to find a successor, will reassess the situation."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Gozaburo inclined his head, "I promise you that you will not regret this."
"For both your sakes, I sincerely hope that proves to be true." Sarutobi said firmly.
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Lunchtime
Zabuza's Hideout
"Zabuza-sama, Gatō is approaching with his two 'samurai' bodyguards." Haku reported as she appeared in his room via her Hyōshō Kagami Shunshin (Ice-Crystal Mirror Body Flicker).
Zabuza groaned as he prepared himself for another dose of the Midget from Hell. The little prick was seriously deluded if he thought Zabuza would simply walk away after completing his contract without exacting a suitable revenge for daring to speak to him with such rudeness.
"How long till the three stooges get here?" Zabuza asked.
"Less than three minutes." Haku replied.
"Conceal yourself on the wall above the door, Haku." Zabuza ordered, "His bodyguards are pure crap and never look above their own height. Intervene if they try anything stupid."
"By your command, Zabuza-sama." the last living member of the Yuki Clan walked up the wall and then across it to perch like a very pretty gargoyle above the door, keeping her breathing to a minimum.
Less than two minutes later, the so-called Nami no Kuni no Bōkun (Tyrant of Wave Country) stomped into the room, followed lazily by his two bodyguards, Zōri and Waraji.
Gatō was a small man, barely five feet tall, who wore an expensive-looking black suit, with a yellow silk shirt and a purple tie. His hair was a mousy brown that puffed up in the perpetual humidity of Nami no Kuni his round glasses flashed as he glared at Zabuza, his grip on a black cane tightening to the point his knuckles were white.
The two bodyguards were your better class of thug. Presentable and better skilled than average, but still not very bright. Zōri was of medium height with blue hair, tear tattoos under his eyes, wore a light blue jacket and trousers and had a blue-handled katana at his waist.
Waraji looked around with a cruel smirk on his face. He had an eye patch and his hair was worn in a slightly altered samurai topknot. He wore a loose-fitting kimono with the top half falling loose, exposing his entire upper body. He had a long and intricate vine tattoo on his left arm and left-hand chest.
"Zabuza!" the business tycoon snarled, "Why the hell isn't Tazuna dead yet?!"
"He hired a genin team to guard him." Zabuza replied, "The Jonin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi, a hero of the Third Great Shinobi War. He is a low S-Rank Ninja. I am a mid-A Rank Nuke-nin. Without a plan, I can't beat him and kill the bridge builder."
"Tch. Yer useless!" the midget snarled, "What the hell am I paying you for!?"
"Just for your information, Gatō, but you haven't paid me yet." Zabuza reminded the idiot, "The injuries I incurred will be healed up by the end of the week. I'll go and kill the bridge builder then. You only have to be patient for that long. Surely an astute businessman such as you can exercise that much patience?"
"Watch yer mouth Zabuza!" Gatō warned the Demon of the Bloody Mist, "Yer failures are beginin' ta try my patience. Fail again and yer not getting paid!"
Zabuza growled. "Try it, Gatō. I just dare you to!"
The Tyrant, shifted in place uneasily as Zabuza directed a very mild amount of his killing intent at him. Zōri and Waraji placed their hands on the handles of their katana in case Zabuza threatened their employer physically.
"You are used to dealing with common trash like those two morons behind you, Gatō." the Nuke-nin ground out, "Dealing with shinobi is quite a different game altogether. I am warning you now; double-cross me or try and renege on our deal in any way, shape or form and you will see exactly why it is that they call me the Demon of the Bloody Mist!"
"Sh-shut yer trap!" Gatō snarled defiantly and raised his cane to strike at Zabuza.
Haku threw a cluster of senbon into the small man's arm, making him scream in pain and drop his cane. The bodyguards tried to draw their swords, but the kunoichi hit each of them with a single senbon that struck a pressure point that relaxed all of their muscles, making them flop to the floor with surprised grunts.
"You!" Gatō screamed when Haku dropped down to the floor, "You! How dare you attack me!?"
"How dare you attempt to attack my master, scum?" Haku said coldly, "Be grateful that you never actually struck him, or you would not be getting off so lightly!"
The pint-sized Shipping Magnate glared at her in hatred before whirling back around to face Zabuza.
"Yer both gonna regret this, so once the bridge builder's dead and yer paid, get outta Nami!" he snarled at Zabuza.
"That was my plan from the get-go." the Nuke-nin deadpanned, "Haku, undo the relaxant pressure point on the two dumbass 'samurai' so they can stagger out of here after their boss."
Reluctantly, the kunoichi obeyed, removing the senbon that kept the two bodyguards immobile. The two thugs staggered to their feet, glaring at Haku the entire time.
"Your fine motor control will be spotty for the next day or so." Haku informed them blandly, "Kindly leave here now before I am tempted to do something far more permanent to you both."
Zōri was smart enough to look worried. Waraji on the other hand sneered again and made to draw his sword.
"Stop!" Gatō bellowed at the man, "We are outta here before I bleed to death! Move it!"
He stomped past his two bodyguards, cradling his injured arm pathetically, and out the door. With one final glower, the two swordsmen followed their employer, closing the door with a bang.
After waiting to make sure the three idiots were gone, Haku said, "Zabuza-sama, Gatō is far too confident. His body language practically screamed that he has a plan to eliminate us."
"Probably." Zabuza snorted, "The little shit is nothing if not sneaky and underhanded. Thing is, there aren't any Nuke-nin but me in Nami no Kuni meaning that the only real threats to us on this entire archipelago are the Konohagakure shinobi, so I'm wondering why the pipsqueak is so confident."
"Should I investigate, Zabuza-sama?"
"No. Regardless of what the shrimp thinks he can do to us, it doesn't hold a candle to what we can do to him." Zabuza replied as he settled back on his bed, "After we take care of the Konoha shinobi and the bridge builder, we'll get paid and then cut the little weasel into pieces before we leave the island. Then we can start to realise my ambitions."
"Slay Yagura and liberate Mizu no Kuni, ending the Bloodline Purges once and for all." Haku whispered. That was his desire, his ambition. Haku followed him as his loyal tool in order for him to realise that ambition. It was a worthy goal, one that Haku desired also, so she would fight to the last to ensure that he succeeded.
Whatever the cost to herself or others.
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Timeskip - Half an Hour Later
Gatō's Private Office, Gatō's Mansion
"That bastardised son of a bitch!" Gatō screamed in a fury.
The short Shipping Magnate was pacing back and forth across his office, his wounded arm bandaged up by his personal physician. Leaning against the wall were his two bodyguards who were fighting to regain control of their fine motor control after being paralyzed by Haku.
"That is it! The last damn straw! They are dead!" the midget ranted, "No one injures me and gets away with it! They were going to be killed anyway, but this is just the cherry on top of the fucking sundae!"
He whirled around and snapped at Waraji, "How many men can we have gathered by the end of the week?"
The cyclopean bodyguard shrugged lazily. "Hmmm… 'bout two, maybe three hundred? If you're generous with cash and are willing ta take some of the real gutter scum."
"Good." Gatō's eyes gleamed maliciously behind his glasses, "Zōri, on the day that those soon-to-be-dead Nuke-nin go to kill the bridge builder, I want you and Waraji to go and kidnap Tazuna's bitch and brat. A little extra leverage never hurt."
"Got it boss." Zōri nodded, "What if the genin are around?"
"Kill 'em." Gatō said coldly, with the air of a man choosing what pair of shoes to wear, "Last thing we need are shinobi brats running around the islands once Tazuna's dead."
"Hope the brats do show up." Waraji grunted, "I haven't faced a worthy opponent in a while. Hope those wannabe warriors have some fight in 'em."
"Whether they are fighters or cowards, kill them." Gatō ordered.
"Fine, fine." Waraji groused.
"Good. Now I need to deal with this paperwork, so make sure no one disturbs me unless it's important." Gatō waved the two toughs out the door as he sat at his desk.
As he sat and worked his way through the paperwork that allowed him a total monopoly over the shipping trade in and out of Nami no Kuni, his mind wandered, remembering his early life.
Gatō had been born to a very, very modest home in Kiba no Kuni. His father worked a dead end job and his mother was a waitress at a shop that sold dango. He had seen all the rich people on the other side of town and thought to himself, 'I want some of that.'
Forty years later, here he was, a success. It had been a hard uphill struggle to get this far, along with a few pitfalls and near misses along the way, but finally, at long last, he would never have to worry about something possibly going wrong and ending up with him being thrown out of his homes and businesses.
This was the culmination of forty years of hard work, bribery, blackmail murder and extortion. He would take full and absolute control of Nami no Kuni and turn it into his own country…although he still hadn't decided on a name for it yet.
He would have preferred to have taken over the former Uzu no Kuni, but the Uzumaki's outermost defences, which had mysteriously been inactive during the invasion, had reactivated after the remains of the invasion force had withdrawn, including the ring of impassable whirlpools, eddies and lashing waves that prevented any ships from coming close to the island, never mind landing on it.
'This archipelago is in the palm of my hand.' the short man thought smugly, 'All I have to do is close my hand and it will be mine. No sake-drenched old fool will stop me!"
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Timeskip - The End of the Week
Morning
Clearing Near Tazuna's House
"Ino! Hinata! Where's Naruko?" Kurenai called. She stood at the far side of the clearing, watching five of the six genin walk towards her after a short morning training session to get them warmed up, as today was the first day possible for Zabuza to launch an attack on Tazuna.
"She spent all of last night training again." Ino replied, "She's asleep in the house."
Kurenai shook her head. "She spends far too much time training. At this rate, her body won't be able to take the strain."
"Nai-chan, she'll be fine." Anko said from behind the raven-haired kunoichi, "I remember her mother training like this when I was a kid. She was just fine after a good sleep."
"That's true." Kakashi put in from the tree he was leaning against as he read his little orange book, "Kushina-nee-san was a stamina freak just like Naruko. She bounced back from a twenty-four hour training session after a good sleep, just like Anko said."
"Did you know Naruko-chan's mother well then, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked curiously as the five genin and three jonin joined Tazuna in walking towards the bridge's construction site.
"Yes, I did." Kakashi said softly, "She helped the Yondaime Hokage train my genin team."
"What was she like?" Kiba asked.
"Hmmm…in a word…confident." Kakashi replied thoughtfully, "She would happily wade into a fight as an Academy Student against a seasoned Genin, knowing that she would emerge as the winner. She had a smirk I've seen on Naruko a couple of times, a smirk that was full of mischief and practically screamed defiance to anyone who tried to force her to fit their preconceptions."
"Sounds like Naruko-chan to the 'T'." Ino remarked.
"She is very much like her mother." Kakashi conceded, "But she is also very different in some ways. Kushina-nee-san wasn't very good at ninjutsu, so she focused on her taijutsu and kenjutsu, whereas Naruko seems to be very good with her ninjutsu, as well as quite good at her Ushio-ken taijutsu. Has she started learning the Kairyūjin-Ryū (Sea Dragon God Style) sword style that her mother used?"
"No, not yet." Anko replied, "She's learned the basic stances of the Konoha Kenjutsu style and a few tricks with her chakra to go along with it, but even with Shadow Clones there is only so much she can learn in three months."
"A fair point." Kakashi said, "Let her know that if she wants to spar against someone, I learned some of the basics of the style, so I can give her a hand in learning it."
"That's very good of you Kakashi." Kurenai said in surprise.
"I owe her mother." the cyclopean ninja replied with a shrug as they neared the bridge, "She saved my life more than once during the Third Great Shinobi War."
Tazuna cut any further conversation short by sighting the sprawled bodies of the bridge workers in heaps across the bridge.
"Giichi! Ryūto! What happened?!" he cried as he knelt beside two of them. They were covered in shallow cuts from a large sword and had several senbon sticking from their bodies.
"D-Demon…a demon came f-from the…mist…" one of them stammered out.
"Zabuza!" Kakashi growled. He glared towards the mist that enveloped the bridge and seemed to be encroaching on their position.
"Ah, Kakashi! How nice to see you again!" a mocking voice came from the mist as the silhouette of a man with a huge sword strapped to his pack emerged to stand before them. Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Bloody Mist.
With a splash, the Demon Brothers, Gōzu and Meizu, emerged from a puddle of water, having evidentially hidden there using Suiton: Mizugakure no Jutsu (Water Style: Hidden in Water Jutsu). A long chain connected their clawed gauntlets with sharpened edges.
Finally, a figure in the uniform and mask of a Kirigakure Oinin appeared in a Konoha Shunshin and stood in a deferential position next to Zabuza, clearly indicating their loyalty.
"Zabuza, back for more, I see." Kakashi said disdainfully, "I see you brought your groupies with you…or would that be fan boys?"
The Demon Brothers glared at Kakashi for that.
"Last chance, Kakashi." Zabuza said, ignoring the Copy Ninja's taunt, "Hand the bridge builder over now and you can just walk away, or else."
"Sorry, that isn't happening." Kakashi replied as he reached up and grabbed his hitai-ate, "Kids, guard Tazuna. Anko, take the fake Oinin. Kurenai, with me."
"Oh? The Genjutsu Mistress and the Snake Mistress both." Zabuza said, "I am honoured that Konoha sees me as a large enough threat to dispatch two jonin as reinforcements against me. It won't be enough though. Haku, take on the Snake Mistress. Gōzu, Meizu, take care of the brat pack. I'll handle these two myself…"
And so it was that the battle of the Nami no Kuni bridge began.
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Next Chapter: A Bridge Too Far
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