Chapter 20: Assassination
Naruto opened his eyes with a groan. He was laying on the couch in Tazuna's home. Hinata was kneeling on the floor, clasping his hand in hers as she slept with her head nestled on his elbow. It was dark outside and Naruto wondered how long he had been out. It had been his first successful meditation, though he had needed to nearly die to pull it off. Without his chakra weights activated, it was pitifully easy to lift Hinata's light frame. He couldn't imagine kneeling at his side could be very comfortable over a long period of time. She moaned and convulsed suddenly, causing Naruto's gentle attempts to lift her on top of him to turn into a bear hug to his chest.
"Hinata, are you alright?" He asked worriedly.
Hinata flipped over so they were chest to chest and and moaned, "Naruto-kun, my legs fell asleep..."
Naruto grinned mischievously and then grabbed her by the waist and pulled her forward until she was straddling him with her knees in his armpits. He reached out with both hands and began to massage her legs, starting with her feet and working his way up.
"So, how long was I out?"
"About two days. Akama found you soon after your clones disappeared and dragged you back here. What happened?"
"I thought it would be a good idea to go back for the sword, and Zabuza's little friend had the same idea at the same time."
"He beat you?"
"SHE used a dirty trick..." Naruto grumbled.
"A dirty trick from a ninja, who could have ever predicted that?" Anko's sarcastic comment startled Naruto as he had not detected her approach. "Get your ass off the couch and let Hinata sleep. It's time for some hands-on reconnaissance and you're looking frisky enough."
-Return of the Hummingbird-
A large dilapidated warehouse by the docks had a single man standing outside the entrance sucking on a burning tobacco cylinder before expelling the smoke from his nostrils. Luxuries such as cigarettes were not common in Wave, especially among honorable, hard-working citizens who could not afford it. The criminal element, however, was bathed in that which catered to base desires and addictions. The man spit out the stub, sending it careening into a puddle where it sputtered and steamed for only a moment before being doused. A second later, his face followed, a kunai buried to the hilt at the base of his skull. Anko dropped out of the shadows, silently followed by Naruto. At a signal from his sensei, Naruto created half a dozen shadow clones which proceeded to surround the building, positioning themselves at doors and windows to bar any escape.
The two ninja kept to the shadows as they slipped into the building, taking cover behind stacks of crates. Another eight men sat around a low table in the middle of the warehouse, gambling their ill-gotten gains away in some game of cards. Their weapons, for those that possessed them, were laid out on the floor, or leaning against crates that were just out of reach. They didn't stand a chance. Anko drew six kunai while Naruto took two. There was a brief flurry of hand signals designating targets, then the projectiles flew. The men never saw what hit them, and only one had survived as Anko had somehow managed to throw her weapon so the the ring had impacted his head rather than the blade, knocking the man out.
"Make as many clones as you need. I want all of these crates opened. Drugs on the left, weapons on the right, and everything else in the back," Anko ordered, "Hinata said there was a trap door here somewhere, so make sure you don't cover it up."
The crate were soon moved with the liberal application of shadow clones. There was a good deal of food, plenty to feed the starving population of the village. There was also a good quantity of clothing and textiles. There were a few crates of drugs and many cigarettes, but there were no weapons to be found.
"All the crates are sorted, but I didn't find the trap door," Naruto sighed in defeat.
"Did you look everywhere?"
"I moved all the crates, and I even checked the walls."
Anko shook her head in exasperation. "You're an idiot."
"Like you could just walk up and reveal the trapdoor."
"Want to bet?" Anko asked with her trademark sadistic grin.
"Something tells me I don't," Naruto replied cautiously.
Anko pouted. "But I wanted a bonus for this mission." She walked to the center of the warehouse and kicked the card table out of the way, sending it to splinter against the nearest crate.
Naruto groaned. The trapdoor had not even been hidden, merely shadowed by the table.
"What are you waiting for?" Anko asked, "A written invitation? Yank that sucker open and see what the fat little bastard keeps down here."
Naruto crouched over the door and lifted it by a small metal ring. As he opened it, a blast of warm, humid air greeted him, sending him to the ground as he tried to cover his face and block out the rank odors that were released.
"That smells like crap!" Naruto coughed.
"It is, and human too," Anko said with a grimace, "Get them out of there... Use clones, you don't want to be stinking up our hosts home later. I'll start working on our surviving friend here."
Naruto nodded and began the tiresome work, grimacing as he received memories of the dead bodies soaking in their own filth; men in cages with infected lash wounds littering their backs; women with sunken, dead, eyes with little clothing short of the iron collars that chained them to the walls; children, both living and dead, sharing cages and huddling in corners, unable to hide their lack of nutrition due to their visible ribs and distended bellies.
"Any more reservations about assassinating Gatou?" Anko asked sarcastically when she had finished with the thug who had not known anything new.
"Yeah, you're probably going to be the one to do it, but I want a shot at him," Naruto replied.
"We can't even have fun with him... Not if we really want to help the people. Public executions are usually clean, less offensive to the common villager's sensibilities."
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Naruto slept in the next day. He had spent the night distributing the food and slaves amongst the village people. Everyone got the same amount of food, but those that accepted the freed people into their homes got a share of the luxury items retrieved from the warehouse. It had been a pain trying to make sure that all the women and children were cared for and that all the villagers were satisfied with the additional items they received. By the time he had finished, the sun was already peeking over the horizon, joining its orange hues to those of the burning remnants of the warehouse and all the illegal substances that had been found within.
Anko had taken Hinata and Shino to guard Tazuna while he worked. She had told Naruto to get plenty of rest because they would be taking down two mercenary barracks that night, more him than her since she was conserving energy due to supervising both day and night activities and dozing when she had the opportunity.
It was the smell of lunch that finally got Naruto out of bed, and Tsunami had been more than happy to feed him, and he couldn't complain about the food. She had been able to prepare meals that were surprisingly delicious with spoiled ingredients. With the good ingredients retrieved from the warehouse, she could cook like a professional. Naruto made sure to compliment her before he went out to the water with Akama and began fire element training.
"So, the old man said that you need to rub the chakra together to make it heat up, like spinning two discs in opposite directions."
Though Naruto could explain it, he could not so easily create it. Even with the help of a few hundred clones, Akama had advanced much further than Naruto, able to create red sparks when all Naruto could create was a warm wind.
"This is harder than it sounds. It's like trying to do two things at once," Naruto said as he finished for the day, after all, he needed to conserve chakra for the evening operation and the others would be returning for dinner soon.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Once again, the operation went off without a hitch. They made sure to hit the barracks furthest from where Zabuza was housed, just in case Gatou had hired more ninjas. Once again, Naruto was left in bed while the others followed Tazuna to the bridge. This time, however, it was not the scent of cooking that woke Naruto, but a scream.
"Leave my mom alone!" Inari, Tazuna's grandson screamed. The boy had been nothing but a petulant child since they had arrived, only showing his face at mealtimes. He would only tell them that Gatou had too many men, that he was too strong, and that they were all going to die.
Naruto scrambled out of bed, not planning on letting the boy be right. He created a pair of shadow clones and sent them out the window to guard the entrances while he activated his yokogan and examined the scene. He saw two men, apparently carrying some sort of weapons, standing at the entrance to the kitchens where Tsunami was facing them down with Inari behind her.
The men weren't even ninja, so defeating the two of them was ridiculously easy. First, he walked the walls, peering down through the doorway to reveal the full situation. The two brutish men were wearing old and dented samurai armor and carrying swords no better than the uncared for and rusted blades that one might find lying in a ditch a few months after a battle. Tsunami was brandishing a razor sharp kitchen knife in front of her.
"We only need one hostage, right?" one of the thugs asked with a vicious chuckle.
"Lets keep the girl, we can always sell her when we're finished. We can have fun with the boy though, if you didn't wet your blade enough on that stupid pig."
"You won't lay a hand on my son or I'll bite my tongue so I choke and die!" Tsunami threatened.
Naruto created two shadow clones and transformed them into kunai. With a flick of the wrist, he lobbed the weapons through the door they landed between Tsunami and the thugs.
"What! Who's the wannabe ninja with bad aim?" One of the thugs asked as he turned, looking for their assailant. They never even saw Naruto's face as the two clones returned to their normal forms and tapped the men on the back of their necks, sending a wave of chakra to shatter the bones, but not enough to spray blood across the room.
"Are you two okay?" Naruto asked, flipping into the room in such a way as to block Inari's vision of the clones dragging the bodies out of the house.
"You beat them!" Inari exclaimed, his eyes wide with awe.
"Of course I did. I am an awesome ninja after all, you don't have to worry about me," Naruto replied as Tsunami confirmed their safety with a nod.
"You're grandpa probably has some company as well, know somewhere safe you can hang out until then?"
"Masa-san quit the bridge last week, so he should be home. His wife is a good friend of mine," Tsunami answered.
"That's good. My two buddies out there will stay with you two once they've gotten those two bad guys out of the way, okay?"
Inari nodded, giving Naruto a big grin.
"Okay, I'll see you two later then." Naruto waved, then headed towards the bridge, flaring his chakra to call Akama who quickly came splashing along the coastline from the direction of the forest.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Tazuna had just finished making a crude comment towards Anko when she suddenly grabbed him by the collar. For a minute, he thought she had taken offense until she said, "It's too quiet."
Hinata reflexively activated he byakugan and scanned the area. "Chakra imbued mist over the bridge," she reported, "too dense to see what's inside."
"They're here. Tazuna stay well back, but within sight. Shino cover him and provide ranged assistance if necessary. Hinata, the iceman is your target. He seems to be a ranged specialist, so if you can get in close, you should be able to get him. If Zabuza is there, I'll take him."
"Yes, Anko-sensei!" The two genin responded with their ingrained response to her orders before they moved forward into the mist, Tazuna slowly falling behind with Shino.
"Why don't you come in? Haku chilled the mist just for you all," Zabuza's voice almost seemed to echo out of the mist, not giving away his location within it.
"My team may be genin, but they aren't stupid. I don't remember it exactly, but I am pretty sure one of the shinobi rules talks about not allowing the enemy to pick the battlefield. So, why don't you come out and face us?" Anko challenged, slowly shifting sideways in order to get a different angle to triangulate the sound of the demon's voice.
"I see you don't have the blond haired brat, so I suppose we can meet you half way," Zabuza replied and let the mist fall until it was only at knee height. Anko was about to throw a kunai at him when he reached into the mist and pulled out a man who was as still as a corpse. "As you can see, Haku was kind enough to let most of these men live since our only target is the old man. It would be unfortunate if one of your attacks resulted in the death of an innocent man, wouldn't it?" he chuckled, finding the image of the Konoha nin injuring a hostage to be amusing.
"I suppose I'll have to get up close and personal when I gut you then, it is always so much more satisfying that way anyway."
Zabuza grinned, though he was obviously still in pain. The bandages covering the remains of his right arm were already soaked with blood. His left was slightly trembling, not used to being used as the primary support for his heavy blade. Zabuza cracked his neck with a groan. "I guess it's time for the training wheels to come off."
His sword flashed out and launched towards the bridge builder, at least the large cleaver-style blade did. Shino grabbed Tazuna and pulled him to the ground, barely avoiding the flying blade. Zabuza's sword now looked quite different. The once seven foot cleaver-style zanbatou had been replaced with a seven foot chokuto-style zanbatou, the much thinner blade looking almost light in Zabuza's offhand grip.
"It's been a while since anyone has forced me to remove the training weight from my sword. Unfortunately, I have to keep my little trump card a secret, so none of you will be leaving alive."
As if on cue, Anko, Hinata, Zabuza and Haku shot forward to meet their opponents.
Anko and Zabuza brought their weapons together. Anko had to duck quickly as Zabuza's sword easily sliced through her kunai, making her curse as she rolled out of his range and then leapt to her feet.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Hinata engaged Haku in a fierce Taijutsu battle. Haku was much faster, although unable to land any real knockout punches, Hinata's arms and sides were getting battered. After a minute of trying to avoid Haku's strikes, Hinata got a lucky break as she managed to close a major tenketsu in Haku's arm as she deflected a punch and Haku's arm fell limply to her side.
Haku leapt back from Hinata and probed her arm with the fingers of her good arm. "What did you do?" she asked, seeming more surprised than upset.
"I will explain after I defeat you," Hinata replied, gaining a bit of confidence, knowing that Haku would be unable to use jutsu and her taijutsu had just received a major blow. However, she was shocked when Haku began making one-handed seals.
"Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suishou," Haku said calmly as water rose from he ground and surrounded Hinata with hundreds of needles made of water which immediately flew towards her.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Anko dodged with all the speed she could muster. She had known that the Demon of the Mist was fast when he had used his cleaver, now, with only a fraction of the weight, she could barely see the sword strikes and the length of the blade kept her from being able to get in close. Before he had shucked the weighted blade, Anko would have wondered at how he had achieved his A ranking in the Bingo Book. Now, Anko knew; even without being able to perform jutsu and only using his off hand, Zabuza's swordsmanship alone put him at A rank. She suspected that his rank would have been bordering on S before had more people seen him using his true potential.
Boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram, Anko sealed before swiping some blood from a nasty cut Zabuza had landed on her arm before slamming her hand into the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" There was a small puff of smoke, but nothing appeared.
"Looks like a dud," Zabuza said before driving the tip of his sword into the ground, "Or maybe not." When he withdrew the sword, there was dark snake blood on the tip.
"Bastard," Anko spat. The snake she had summoned had been a small one, meant for a concealed strike to deposit venom. The wound Zabuza had inflicted was most likely fatal to the small critter.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Hinata dropped the the ground, rolling towards Haku. Several of the needles pierced her back, but none caused anything more than a minor flesh wound. She returned to her feet, ready to strike at her opponent only to come face to face with a mirror of ice.
"What is-" Hinata's question was cut off when a senbon needle struck the back of her knee, paralyzing her leg.
Haku appeared inside the mirror directly ahead of Hinata, her good arm flashing out to launch senbon into the Hyuuga's shoulders.
Using her byakugan, Hinata could see that Haku was not just in the mirror in front of her, but also in the other mirrors that surrounded her in an inescapable dome of death. She struck out at the mirror in front of her in hopes of escaping, but her strike dealt no damage to the ice mirror.
"Do not bother, just surrender now. No one has ever escaped my demonic ice mirrors," Haku warned, "If you surrender now, we will let you live when we kill the bridge builder."
"I will not give up," Hinata replied. She struck the mirror again and again and was rewarded with a flurry of senbon until she could barely move from the pain. "I just need to hit you once," Hinata said, struggling to move.
Straining her doujutsu to the limit, she could see the flashes of chakra as Haku moved at speeds too fast for the human eye to perceive. The mirrors themselves were leaking a large amount of chakra as well. She knew that there was no way that Haku, keep this up for long, but then, neither could she. She stumbled back into the center of the mirrors and did her best to avoid all the needles that showered out of them, hoping that she outlast Haku. Just when Hinata though she could take no more, there was the hum of insects as a group of needles penetrated her neck and she collapsed unconscious.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Anko was cut up badly. She was fairly certain that she was going to lose this battle. She hadn't yet managed to land a single hit on Zabuza. This, frankly, made her even more impressed with the blond brat for taking off the guy's arm. The tension of battle was suddenly rent by an ear-piercing shriek. She knew it wasn't Hinata's voice. The two jounin turned to check on their charges, just in time to see Haku tumble out of a crumbling bug-covered mirror, only to be swarmed herself. Anko didn't readily see Hinata, but noticed Zabuza's distraction and leapt forwards, using her hidden shadow snake hands to bind his arm and inject enough paralytic venom to knock down an elephant. A second later, his throat was slit. Anko smiled at her accomplishment as the blood fountain drenched her face becofe succumbing to the unconsciousness brought about by her own blood loss.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Shino surveyed the field. His allies informed him that Hinata was not dead, but merely in a death-like state. Anko was bleeding and required medical attention. If two incapacitated comrades were not enough to deal with, he detected a large force of mercenaries approaching the bridge. He knew that his hive was not numerous enough to deal with all of them, especially while a good portion of them were dedicated to keeping the ice user incapacitated and several had entered a hibernation state due to the cold when attacking the mirrors.
"There is a mercenary force approaching. I am incapable of protecting you as I engage them. It would be prudent of you to feign death and cover your face so that you will not easily be recognized and targeted."
Tazuna did as he was told as Shino withdrew his mantis blades from their sheathes, hoping they would give him the tactical advantage to hold off the mercenaries until Naruto arrived. He relocated himself to the entrance of the bridge and watched as the group approached, lead by a short man wearing a dark suit and carrying a wooden cane.
"You are Gatou?" Shino asked with his flat emotionless voice.
"And it seems like you're the only one of these fools left. I was expecting to find a weakened Zabuza for my mercenaries to kill, not a baby ninja."
"You would betray your own hive?"
"That's the best part about missing ninja. When they've done their job, rather than paying them, I can just have them killed and collect their bounty. In the end I win. Which means that you will have to lose." Gatou turned to his mercenaries. "Whoever brings me that boy's head gets a bonus," he announced before turning and walking through the crowd, satisfied that the bridge builder was surely dead and his men would be successful in the end. He did not notice the singe female kikaichu that landed on his back and crawled under the collar of his shirt.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Naruto arrived in time to find Shino surrounded. Several mercenaries were dead, another dozen or so were incapacitated. Shino had taken several hits, but nothing life threatening. Though, by the look of things, he was only moments away from a fatal blow and had no time to perform any escape jutsu.
"Akama, roar!" Naruto called, forming a multitude of clones.
The fox let out a loud growl that cut through the noise of the fighters enough that some turned to see the source of the noise, allowing Shino a few seconds where he had fewer weapons to defend against. Naruto hoped it would be enough as he formed a hundred clones which all stopped and began forming clone kunai which were launched at the enemy. Some killed, some dispelled, but some also reverted into Naruto clones and began to push the mercenaries away from his teammate. A few minutes later, not a single mercenary remained alive and the clones began to immediately tend to the injuries.
He almost entered a Kyuubi fueled rage when he saw the conditions of Anko and Hinata. Fortunately, Shino had been astute enough to suggest that she was in a death-like state and not actually due to the senbon as were a large proportion of the workers.
While Naruto used his clones to collect senbon and awaken all those in a death-like state, Shino used his kikaichu to excrete a type of wax that helped to seal Anko's cuts before he bandaged them. Shino managed to also find a blood pill in Anko's supplies and fed it to her to restore the blood lost to Zabuza's attacks.
None of the injured civilians were able to move on their own due to being in a death-like state for an extended period of time. Naruto created clones to return them all to their houses as well as clones to seal away all the dead mercenaries and Zabuza, this time remembering both pieces of Zabuza's sword.
After all this was done, they returned to Tazuna's house both physically and emotionally drained, wanting nothing more than a good meal and a nap.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
Tsunami had returned with Inari when they noticed the clones returning the workers. Inari's improved attitude took a severe nosedive when he saw the condition of the genin team. Only two of them could even walk, and the only one in fighting condition was exhausted.
"I knew it! You may have one this time, but Gatou is going to come and kill you now."
"It is unlikely that Gatou still retains enough forces to have a significant chance of killing this team, even in our current incapacitated state. We most likely have eliminated the threat of all but a skeleton crew of his mercenaries as well as his four hired ninja. He is no longer a major threat and he will not survive the night."
"He came to the bridge?" Naruto asked.
"He left before his men attacked, but not before I was able to plant a female kikaichu on him. Tonight I shall release my kikaichu and they will eat all of his chakra as he sleeps, making it appear as if he died of natural causes. In the confusion, we should be able to eliminate the remaining mercenaries and liberate any remaining illegal merchandise and slaves with little trouble.
"Good planning Shino."
"So Gatou will really be gone by tomorrow?" Inari asked.
"Of course, what else would you expect from the super awesome ninjas your grandpa hired. It's not like he would just grab the cheapest ones he could find right?" Naruto laughed and was soon joined by Inari as Tazuna tugged nervously at his collar. "Well, Akama is out patrolling the village, and I need some food and rest before I go out and finish them all off."
"I'll look after your team while you rest," Tsunami offered, bringing out some fresh bandages so that Anko's wounds could receive proper treatment.
"I will inform you if my allies complete their assignment before you return," Shino added.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
The extermination went smoothly. Too smoothly for Naruto's taste. Killing seemed almost too easy now, not like the first time. Even the cold kills where he snuck up behind the enemy and killed them before they even knew he was there seemed to come easily to him. Perhaps, he thought, that it was because he had seen the harm these men had done to Wave country.
Using his clones, he had hit all the outlying bases that remained. He and Anko had already taken out the worst of the hideouts short of the one Zabuza had resided in. Apparently Gatou had never taken to keeping a permanent set of ninja on staff because he found no more and easily herded all the remaining mercenaries towards Gatou's mansion where there was a large uproar. The mercenaries had come together to defend the building, hoping that the army of blondes would not be able to take out such a well fortified structure only to find that Gatou had taken a nap when he had returned home, never to awaken again.
Considering how much chakra he had used up to this point, Naruto decided it was a good time to rest and let his chakra replenish while Akama prowled the forest around the mansion and killed any mercenaries that left the building. Focusing chakra to his ears, Naruto was able to hear the faint sounds of fighting coming from inside the mansion and suspected that it was a fight to determine who would be the new leader now that Gatou and his money were not there to keep them together.
While he rested, Naruto took the opportunity to begin making explosive tags from paper and ink he had sealed in scrolls. He tweaked them all just a little bit, hoping to achieve various effects such as larger and smaller blasts, directional blasts, smoke and flash bombs, and other tweaks which he had no idea what the alteration of the seal would cause, but hoped for something entertaining.
After a couple of hours, he had created several tags and had regenerated enough chakra that he believed he could accomplish the mission with enough to spare to return to Tazuna's place. His tags did not disappoint. He had sent one in with each clone with orders to use it upon the first sizable group of enemies they found. Admittedly, several ended up being duds, but one really caught his attention. It had been smaller than the explosion of the standard tags, but its flame was bright yellow with flashes of blue. It reminded him of what the Kyuubi had taught him about the heat of flames and resolved that he would try and adjust that design until he could make clear flames at least as large as a normal exploding note.