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Chapter 21: Return

XXX

Zabuza kept whistling as he walked though the corridors of Gato's mansion. Each turn brought even more bodies that were killed in more interesting and creative ways. "Whoever it was, they've got a nasty streak in them." Zabuza commented, leaving Haku a little confused. "Each of these bodies were paralyzed with a slash to the neck and then cut so that they'd bleed out slowly."

"Even you're more merciful than that." Haku stated.

"Damn straight." Zabuza muttered under his breath. "I just slice them in half and drag their torsos by their intestines across the room."

"WHAT!" Haku shouted. "Since when do you do that?"

"When I feel like it…" Zabuza answered. "And when you aren't around to see it."

"Should of known you wouldn't give that stuff up." Haku muttered indignantly, angry that Zabuza had broken a promise to her.

"Oh come on!" The former member of the mist swordsmen whined most uncharacteristically. "You should have known that I can't just hold back my need for blood forever. I simply take it out all at once rather than have to draw it out, unlike the fucker who did this."

Haku sighed. Sometimes there was no arguing with the man. She had tried to 'cure' him of his bloodlust, but it had been ingrained in his psyche for too long and even though his was making an effort to make good on his promise, it wasn't working as well as she had hoped. It was like an addiction—scratch that it was an addiction. To Zabuza, killing people simply made him feel alive, and in that respect he as a monster, but once he was off his high, he was as sane as any normal human being…well almost. I mean how sane can a elite jounin be? All of them had their ways to cope with what they did for a living. Hatake Kakashi was known for reading smut and the only times that she had seen him without it was when he was fighting seriously. She had spied on a spar between him and the Uchiha and the pink haired girl.

"I'm glad that you're trying." Haku said after a moment's pause. She had the entire previous paragraph to mull over.

"Huh?" Zabuza grunted unintelligently. "You say something?"

"No, nothing Zabuza-sama." Haku replied with a calm voice that didn't betray her inner emotions.

XXX

"Man they are taking a long time!" Naruto whined as he lay on a patch of non-blood soaked grass. "Why can't missing nins just take their money and leave?"

"Because they don't have anywhere to get to in any timely fashion." Shino replied. "They have to live life to the fullest, not knowing when their next job or a hunter nin might be their last."

"Doesn't seem to be a fun thing walking through a house full of dead guys." Naruto stated, playing with a kunai. "I mean, sparing, or swimming, or EATING RAMEN! Would be more interesting."

"But they need money to live, so that comes first." Sakura stated. "Then they can relax or do whatever they do in-between missions."

"The life of a missing nin isn't fun or pretty." Kurenai told the genin. "It's a life that more often or not leads to death."

"You know it's rather ironic that with only the strongest missing nins staying away from the missing nins." Sasuke said aloud. "Only the weaker get picked off by other missing nins and hunter-nin. That only leaves the A and S-ranked missing-nins roaming around the world, and they are the most dangerous."

"You'd need a group of S-ranked hunter-nin to go after the strongest missing-nins." Kakashi said, looking up from his porn. "It's rare enough for one hidden village to have two S-ranked shinobi, usually the kage and perhaps a jinchuuriki. Aside from that they may only have a handful or elite jounin who could be considered A-ranked shinobi."

"Like you, Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata-asked.

"Hai." Kakashi closed his book and pocketed it. "I may be considered to be an A-rank shinobi, but there are other factors to take into consideration in order to properly classify a shinboi."

"What would Gai-sensei be considered to be?" Naruto asked out of the blue.

"A to S ranked." Kakashi admitted after a moments thought. "He is better at Taijutsu than me and his physical stamina is second to none. He is a brute force type of fighter, which means that he is powerful, but some of his energy is wasted. I try to conserve my chakra and therefore can last long high-level battles even with my Sharingan active. Orochimaru, although I hate to compare him to me, uses a similar style based upon his snakes, which favors precision and speed over strength. That's not to say that he isn't strong. If he hadn't gone bad, he probably would have been a very likely choice for the Yondaime or Gondaime after Sandaime-sama retired."

"That just made you sound weaker than Orochimaru and Gai-sensei." Naruto quipped slyly. "Is the great Hatake Kakashi admitting his weakness to the world?"

"I would like to point out that I have the second highest number of completed S-ranked missions in Konoha's history." Kakashi tried to defend his abilities. "I have also mastered nearly all the jutsus that I have copied, putting me just shy of Sandaime-sama's record of over a thousand."

"What about the Yondaime?" Kiba asked, entering the conversation.

Kurenai sweatdropped at her student's ignorance. "He had a 'flee-on-sight' order in the bingo book, Kiba. What level do you think that he was at?"

"S?" Kiba half replied, half asked. "Wasn't he your sensei, Kakashi-sensei."

"NANI!" Naruto exclaimed. "Then you've got to know all his cool moves!" Naruto jumped to his knees and began groveling at Kakashi's feet. "You gotta teach me his moves!"

Kakashi sighed. "Yes, I was his sensei, and no I won't teach you Naruto."

"WHY NOT?" Naruto demanded.

"Because I don't know one of them, and the other is a bit to complicated for you right now. It took me nearly six months to master it." Kakashi replied. "I'm sure that you could do it in less, but I don't want you to be distracted from your duties to Team 7 and Konoha."

"Fine…" Naruto grumbled under his breath about 'unfair senseis' and how he was going to beat up a certain silver-haired, masked jounin when they got back to Konoha. Kakashi sweatdropped at the blonde's words.

XXX

"Zabuza-sama…" Haku tugged on Zabuza's arm, trying to get him to come to. "Zabuza-sama, we need to hurry up."

"Ungh…" Zabuza opened his eyes and blinked rapidly. "I hate that jutsu."

"If you hate it, they why use it?" Haku asked.

"Because it's dead useful." Zabuza replied. "It helps you if you kill the person you're trying to get the info from."

"The 'see what he saw' one?" Haku asked and Zabuza nodded. "So who killed them all?"

"This one was killed by an Uchiha." Zabuza replied. "He wasn't hiding his Sharingan with the black fox ANBU mask he had on." The Kiri missing-nin got to his feet and slung his blade into its harness on his back. "He was short, like those Konoha genin, so probably around their age."

"Should we tell Kakashi-san?" Haku asked. "As sort of a payment to them because we took so much."

"What?" Zabuza feigned surprise. "A million ryo out of a couple hundred isn't that much."

"That's enough to pay for two or three S-ranked missions." Haku replied with a monotone.

"So?" Zabuza asked innocently (If that's even possible). "We gotta have enough to hold us for a while."

"Fine…" Haku caved in and followed her master out of the mansion, not blinking an eye at all corpses that they walked around and stepped over.

XXX

The Konoha was getting more and more impatient as the Kiri missing nins took their time collecting their payment. Just about when Naruto felt like 'snapping' Zabuza, followed by Haku walked out of the mansion and walked over to Kakashi and Kurenai. Stealthily, Naruto slinked into hearing distance of the three jounin and eavesdropped.

"So how much did you take?" Kakashi asked, eying the case that Haku was holding.

"A million." Zabuza replied, earning himself a raised eyebrow from the Copy-nin. "There was easily 200 million there in cash, and there's got to be more in the banks under his name."

"Lots of bodies?" Kakashi asked.

"Sure." Zabuza replied. "I used a jutsu on one to see the last things that he saw."

"So you know who did it." Kakashi stated, hoping for confirmation.

"No I don't know who specifically it was, but he was an Uchiha if his Sharingan was anything to go by." Zabuza replied. "He was about the size of one of your genin and was wearing a black fox ANBU style mask."

Kurenai gasped. "Team Kitsune? They were here?"

"Shit!" Zabuza swore. "You're telling me that those guys were here and I didn't get to fight them?"

"You're hopeless Zabuza-sama." Haku chirped up from behind the large jounin.

"Team Kitsune." Kakashi muttered aloud.

"You know about them?" Zabuza asked. "In Kiri they were rumors used to motivate Genin into training harder."

"Hai, they are real…" Kakashi trailed off. "They are the best squad to come from Konoha ever. Even the legendary Sannin don't come close to them in terms of mission record. It rumored that they are all child prodigies who were trained young and barely older than these genin."

Kurenai picked up the story. "They all use Kitsune style masks, only differing with colors; white, red and black. Each one can take on multiple jounin at once and are experts in their chosen specialties."

"That's a little farfetched." Haku stated with doubt in her voice. "Are they Kage level?"

"Each of them is S-ranked in the Bingo books." Kakashi replied. "I have been looking into them for a while. Apparently one of their missions was to sneak into my apartment and steal me entire Icha Icha collection. Ever since I have dedicated my non-reading time to finding their identities in order to exact my revenge!"

"You said that aloud Kakashi." Kurenai cracked her knuckles dangerously. "You should know that I despise perverts. I can put up with you reading, but to admit you prize those books over training and taking your career as a shinobi seriously…well that's a little to far."

"Kurenai-sensei!" Sakura called to the jounin, pointing towards the woods. "Is that who you are talking about?"

The three jounin whipped their heads to where Sakura was pointing and saw a short shinobi dressed in black wearing a black mask.

"No way…" Kakashi watched as the shinobi walked over to the gathered shinobi. The way he walked made no noise and was so fluid it was as if he was gliding over the ground. He seemed to command respect with the sheer aura surrounding him. He was leaking a tint of killer intent that flowed over everyone. It scared the civilians and put the shinobi on edge. Anyone who would blatantly act like him was either overestimating their abilities or could tear you apart like confetti.

Kakashi lifted his hiate to reveal his Sharingan eye, and immediately both eyes widened in surprise. The man was leaking enough chakra to power one of his Chidori's. "He's the real deal." Kakashi said as he lowered his hiate but didn't relax his stance or posture.

"Missing-nin Zabuza, former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Bounty of 27 million for your head, 30 million for your return alive." The voice was distorted with some sort of jutsu making impossible to tell whom it was.

"So you're after me?" Zabuza demanded, drawing his sword and separating himself from Haku and the Konoha jounin.

"No." Black Kitsune replied shaking his head. "Konoha Genin Teams 7 and 8 are ordered to return to Konoha as soon as possible upon completion of their mission. Sanctuary is offered to Zabuza and his apprentice should they wish to come to Konoha."

"What the fuck?" Zabuza looked at the short ANBU, surprise evident on his bandaged face. "How are you permitted to give us sanctuary in Konoha?"

"Orders." Black Kitsune replied simply before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"That was scary." Everyone turned to Kiba who had spoken. "He made Akamaru dig a hole to hide in. I've never heard of someone doing that to a member of the Inuzuka Clan."

"No shit Gaki." Zabuza retorted. "None of us would have stood a chance against him even if everyone here worked together to try to bring him down."

"We're lucky to be alive." Haku stated.

XXX

"Why'd you do that?" Hinata demanded, grabbing Sasuke's shirt with her hand, nearly lifting him off his feet. "Do you know how much trouble we could get in?"

"It was an appropriate risk." Sasuke replied. "Zabuza used some jutsu to see me kill those guys inside the mansion, and I had to throw the heat off of us. With our limiters on Kakashi has never sensed or determined how much chakra we really have. With a Kage Bunshin that doesn't have a limiter, it can impersonate us easily."

"I hate those limiters." Naruto whined. "20% of my chakra doesn't cut it."

"That may be true and all, but there is still the need to keep our cover." Hinata growled at the boys. "You can't just go appearing as the Kitsune's whenever you feel like it."

"Ma ma, Hinata-chan." Naruto wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "It was fine and nothing bad happened. Everyone there believed that Sasuke-teme's clone was the real deal, so no harm done!"

"I'm still surprised that no one is suspicious of us." Sasuke stated. "I mean we suddenly get two to four times more powerful and they buy our story that we were simply training by ourselves and not revealing our true strength in the academy."

"It is odd, but that doesn't mean that you can simply act whenever you want." Hinata replied. "The more you take chances and risks, the more likely someone is going to put two and two together and blow our cover."

"What if we just revealed out real identities?" Naruto asked, seemingly out of the blue. "I mean then we could simply get our way and become ANBU for real."

"Dobe, you do realize that the whole point of the ANBU masks are to keep their identities secret." Sasuke blandly replied. "What point is there to revealing our identities and then trying to cover them up again."

"We'd get what we want." Naruto replied.

"Good enough reason for me." Sasuke added. "We get what we want and then we can move on and continue our careers as shinobi. Kakashi-sensei was in the ANBU and he was known, Itachi was in ANBU and his cover was known as well. There's no reason that we can't reveal ourselves."

Hinata didn't reply, but she was thinking. She was frowning, leaning to her left and tapping her right index finger against her left forearm as she folded her arms across her chest. "You know he has a point, Hinata-chan."

"What about Sakura?" Hinata finally asked. "Don't you think that she would be upset and angry with you two?"

"Probably." Sasuke snorted. "She's defiantly rookie chuunin material, so she has nothing to worry about with the upcoming exams except for the fact that she'd be missing a team."

"What if we stick with her until the exams, and then during the break between the second and third exams, we break it to her." Naruto suggested. "We'd show off our real skills in the second exam, making it clear that we are no chuunin or even jounin. That leaves her thinking and looking for answers."

"Then we simply give them to her when she asks or seems to be getting to a conclusion." Sasuke completed the blonde's thought process. "She'd take it better than us simply getting up and announcing that we're ANBU."

"We'd also make chunin for real, and thus be allowed to try out for ANBU." Naruto smirked. "If we do it this way, there's no way anyone can complain. If we are still assigned to the same team after the exam, we simply apply to ANBU and our skills shown during the exam and during whatever test they may throw us into, would get us in."

"That's remarkably well thought out Naruto-kun." Hinata said, in a calmer voice than she had been speaking to the two boys in earlier. "That would leave Sakura, and Team 8 with the least hard feelings and we could still get along with them later on if we have to come out of the corps for some reason."

"And when we come out, I can spend all the mission money on RAMEN!" Naruto shouted. "This is an A-ranked mission right?" Naruto's sudden switch caused Hinata and Sasuke to slip off their seats and fall to the ground, with massive sweatdrops behind their heads.

"Only you would blow an A-rank mission pay on Ramen." Hinata muttered murderously as she got to her feet and proceeded to pound Naruto a few over the head. Once she was done, she brushed off her clothes with her hands and walked over to the other shinobi. Sasuke followed right behind her, and once Naruto had 'recovered' enough, he came wincing and rubbing his very sore head.

XXX

Hinata returned to one of the most peculiar scenes she had ever witnessed in her long career as a shinobi of Konoha. Kakashi and Zabuza were standing ramrod straight, reading a pair of orange books. Kurenai and Haku were glaring bloody murder at the duo. Kiba was trying to flirt with one of the villager's daughters who had come. Shino was crouched down low to the ground, observing the insect life in the Nami soil. All in all, it was a scene where absolutely nothing was being done, and the clock was ticking.

"Does nobody have anything to do?" She demanded. Kurenai looked up almost grateful that Hinata was there. "Honestly, the bridge isn't going to build itself, and we aren't doing much to build it right now!" The two elite shinobi looked up from their books simultaneously, and blinked once before burying their noses in the book and walking off in the general direction of the bridge, in stride, and in sync turning their pages.

"That-that was just plain creepy." Naruto stated as he stopped next to his friends.

"We'd better follow Ichigan and his new bookmate." Sasuke sighed as he walked after them, leaving Team 8 and the remainder of the shinobi with the villagers.

"He's right you know." Kurenai stood up and dusted herself off, earning a few lecherous looks from the male civilians as she brushed off some curvier parts of her body. "Everyone! We're going to work on the bridge. Come along if you wish to help. Everyone who helps build makes it completed faster."

XXX

"So after that we parted ways with Zabuza and Haku and returned to Konoha." Kakashi summarized to Sarutobi.

"And what is your opinion of Zabuza and his apprentice?" The old man asked. "Are they a threat to Konoha?"

"No." Kakashi definitively replied. "They were grateful for our help in getting their money. They also have the hearts of Nami. If they need help, they'll either turn to them or us."

"Very well." Sarutobi took a deep breath from his pipe. "You may leave, Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke, if you would stay a minute." The old man waited until the other shinobi had left the room and were on their way out until he began to speak with Team Kitsune. "I'm proud that you kept everyone safe, even at the risk of blowing your cover. That is how a true Leaf Shinobi acts."

"Thanks." Naruto chirped, smiling with a million watt smile.

"We're just glad that we go out to stretch for a while after being cooped up in the village doing D-ranks." Sasuke stated.

"I see that Kakashi and Zabuza noted the fine workmanship of your stretching." Sarutobi stated. "While I'm not too surprised that you three took action on your own, I would ask that you don't do so in such a gruesome manner. You are still children, and I hate having you do things like that."

"The moment we donned our masks, we were no longer children, but adults." Sasuke said firmly. "We may be young, but we are mature enough to handle what comes our way."

"Itachi-sensei has been with us every step of the way in case we needed help." Hinata added. "Although we didn't realize it at the time, we helped shield us from the real nature of our missions for a few years. He gradually broke us into the reality of what we were doing, and gave us the opportunity to stop at anytime."

"I'm glad that Itachi learned from what happened to him and made sure to make your time adjusting easier." The hokage replied. "He had a particularly rough time, and there were times that I was almost sure that he was going to snap, but then you three cam along and changed that."

"Say what?" Sasuke blanked.

"Had he not gotten you three training and teaching you things, giving some purpose to what he had suffered through, he might have gone off on a massacre, that we couldn't recover from." Sarutobi continued. "It was almost an instantaneous change in his demeanor and posture. All of a sudden he had a reason to look forward to the next mission, and stay sane. He knew that if we broke, he'd hurt you three the most, and he wouldn't allow himself to do that."

"Nii-san has always been sort of peaceful, avoiding conflict…you know…" Sasuke said.

"Indeed." The Sandaime Hokage nodded. "I believe it was a response to all the things he had to go through, becoming an ANBU agent at such a tender age, and having to face the reality of his life without any support." Picking up a folder that was open on his desk, he switched gears. "But enough of the heavy talking, I want to discuss the upcoming exams."

"You deed our help with something?" Hinata asked. "Proctoring a test or something?"

"No."

"Then what?" Sasuke asked.

"You three are beyond jounin levels, and as such, putting you though the exams just for promotion sake would be a waste of time, so you are going to be doing a little job." Sarutobi smiled as he gave Team Kitsune a new mission. "You three are going to get as much info on as many of the genin that are coming to the exams, Konoha or foreign, and then write up a report on each of the ones you feel have potential to become powerful in the near future."

"Getting dirt on them early, eh?" Naruto smirked. "Alright, I guess we can do that."

"Do they have to be written reports?" Sasuke asked. "That's going to be a lot of writing."

"You can write the ones you feel will be key players in the years to come." Sarutobi replied. "If possible, be friendly with them, make them feel like Konoha is a descent place with decent people."

"You like messing with people's minds to much, Old Man." Hinata shook her head disapprovingly. "shame on you."

"Guilty as charged." Sarutobi mockingly raised his hands in surrender.

XXX

"These exams are going to be interesting." Naruto grinned wickedly as they exited the Hokage's Tower, making their way to the Naruto-fill-up-station.

"Couldn't agree more with you." Sasuke had an equal grin, and for whatever reason, everyone they walked by shuddered trying to comprehend what the Uchiha and the demon were grinning for.

"Would it be to much to ask that you two behave normally for just once?" Hinata asked.

"Yes." The two boys replied in unison.

XXX

Whoo! Between classes, research papers and homework, I find the time to write and relax for a while. And I'm sure that you are glad I spammed out his chapter as quick as I could.

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