Chapter 25

A good while later the group got to Tazuna's home, being invited in by his daughter Tsunami, everyone collapsing in the living room after finally getting to their destination.

Kitty chuckled as Aiwa and Ankoku climbed onto her lap. "What a day huh? So much drama, it's like it's taken right out of a manga."

Naruto and Hinata looked at her, and the three started laughing like crazy, even Kurenai chuckling.

"How are you three so calm?"

Kitty stopped laughing looking at Takan. The poor boy was shaking, probably still haunted from his experience with Zabuza's mizu bunshins.

"Who said we are?" Kitty asked. "We need to vent somehow, better to vent by laughing than any other way, at least you feel better later on."

Kitty smiled at Takan. "Listen, Zabuza is an SS class nuke nin from Mizu… you guys being terrified is justified."

"You should all give up."

Everyone turned, Kitty seeing Inari standing in the entryway. "Come again kid?"

"Stop fighting… you'll die if you won't."

Inari scowled at them all, tears in his face. Naruto looked at the kid, remembering his past from the series he had watched at Kitty's house.

"Relax kid, we'll be fine, the bad guys won't win as long as there are people around to fight them."

"LIES AND BULLSHIT."

"INARI."

Inari's mom looked at him shocked by his words.

"They don't know what it's like" Inari said, angry at the shinobi. "They know nothing of pain and suffering."

Kitty didn't say anything as Naruto rose from his seat, walking over to Inari, smacking him across the cheek, just hard enough to make it sting. Inari fell backwards, looking flabbergasted at Naruto who looked down on him with a hard scowl.

"Don't you dare talk about things you don't know kid. You think you are the only one who has experienced hardships? Well you are not. In fact, right now, your life is pretty good."

Inari rose from the floor, glaring at Naruto. "What the fuck do you know of hardship?"

"Well if you must know, my parents died when I was born, most of the people in my village hate my guts, I was thrown out of the orphanage I lived at when I was 3 and lived a full year on the streets living of what I found in alleyways and trashcans. Also, every now and then around my birthday there are these crazy drunk people who keeps calling me a demon and tries to kill me in a drunken rage, I have spent about a week in the hospital every month cause of these injuries, and some of the nurses has tried to poison me. I tried making friends but the kids got told by their parents to stay away from me cause I was apparently bad news and was going to kill them in their sleep if they got close, so I never really had a friend until I started school."

Naruto looked at Inari who looked shocked at him. "You're joking… you're joking right? There is no way one person could deal with all that."

"He's not lying."

Inari looked up to Kitty who sat in her spot, petting Aiwa gently. "I have some amnesia; I don't remember my early childhood. My earliest memory is of Kurenai Sensei here finding me at a small village by the edge of Kiri and Konoha, everyone else dead, houses on fire, all that jazz… she took me back to Konoha and I started in Naruto's class… I was the first friendly person he had met, next to the Hokage and a kind family with a ramen stand."

"But…" Inari looked up to Naruto who rose and went back to sit with his team, as well as team 7. "But you are so happy. You went through all that, but you smile and laugh like nothing is wrong."

"The past is the past" Naruto said with a shrug. "And Gato is nothing but a bully, he won't stand a chance."

Inari looked at the group of ninjas, before getting a thoughtful look, running out.

"INARI…" Tsunami sighed at the form of her son running off, before turning to her guests.

"I am sorry about my son; he has been through a lot."

"I am sure he has" Kitty said. "But that doesn't give him the right to be an asshole about it. He should learn that just because things don't go his way he doesn't have the right to be an asshole to everyone around him, isn't that right duck butt?"

Naruto and Hinata sniggered again as Sasuke shoot an angry glare at Kitty. Kitty winked, before turning to Kakashi.

"May I have a word with you Kakashi san?"

Kakashi was about to correct her on her term of suffix, but figured Kitty was doing it on purpose.

"Of course, this way."

Walking outside Kakashi looked at Kitty. "What can I help you with?"

Kitty smiled, holding up a parchment, a written description of the day's events and her promise written on it.

"I am going to get this to the Hokage fast, but I don't want to do teleport, someone might see and I don't want to use my ring for every little thing I need."

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm not an Uchiha, I don't believe in copying everyone else's work and taking the easy route."

There was a hidden meaning there that Kakashi understood was meant for him too.

"Is this also why you refuse to call me sensei?"

"Yes."

"You don't think I don't have anything to teach you?"

"Of course you do… but you won't, because you are lazy. That's why this is your first genin team. And I use the term lightly. You keep giving your genin teams tests they can't do, and the only reason you took this one was because you thought you could make things right with Sasuke. I see it at the team practices too, you tell the students what to do, then leaves them alone to figure everything out for themselves while you read your poorly written smut."

Kakashi sighed, he was still sore from the bout with Zabuza, he had overused his eye and right now, he could not deal with this girl telling him how much he sucked as a person.

"Petro… no, sorry, Inuzuka, I am tired and I think Tsunami san is getting close to finishing dinner, what can I help you with?"

"Summon Pakkun."

Kakashi blinked. "Say what now?"

"I need you to summon Pakkun, or any of your dog summons, so I can give him this letter, so he can go back to the place where dog summons go, and summon himself to a step cousin I now have in the Inuzuka clan who has the dog summons so he can go to the Hokage, get a signed form and then summon himself back here."

Kakashi looked at Kitty, simply sighing before going through the hand signs.

After the smoke cleared, Pakkun stood in front of the two. "Yo, what's up?"

Kitty smiled and gave Pakkun the letter she had made, explaining the situation.

"All right, no worries, how fast do you need an answer?"

"As soon as possible, please and thank you Pakkun."

"No worries kid, I'll be back as soon as I can."

And with that and another poof Pakkun disappeared, leaving Kitty and Kakashi alone.

Kitty looked up at Kakashi. "All right, let's go get some dinner."

Kakashi could do little more than to sigh and walk after Kitty back inside. He was very happy that she wasn't on his team; she'd be the death of him.

…

The next day Kakashi and Kurenai led the group of genin's to the forest nearby Tazuna's house, Kakashi deciding that they should train in case things got dicey later on. But when he told them what they were doing Kurenai and the rest of team 9 frowned.

"Tree climbing? You haven't taught your team that yet? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Kakashi looked at Kurenai. "We have been busy with D rank missions for teamwork exercise; I simply haven't gotten so far yet."

"Yeah and what great and bonded team you have" Kitty said with a snort.

Sakura frowned but raised her hand. "What's the tree climbing exercise?"

Kakashi smiled. "Let me show you."

Kakashi made a big deal of showing his team how the tree climbing exercise worked, Kitty sighing as Sakura got wide eyed at how amazing her sensei was.

"All right guys" Kakashi said. "Everyone take a kunai, and see how far up the tree you come, any questions?"

Kitty raised her hand. "Yes?"

"When we are done, should we continue running up and down the tree for chakra stamina training or find a lake to practice water walking?"

"Stamina will do" Kakashi said.

"All right" Kitty said, getting into position in front of a large tree, turning to Sakura.

"Let's see if your chakra control is as perfect as it always is."

Kurenai smiled. "Ok kids… on your mark… get set… GO."

Kitty rushed off, finding Sakura in her field of vision to her left, the girl showing her impeccable chakra control as always. Somewhere to her right she heard wood splinting, Sasuke had used too much chakra at once and was forced to start anew. Takan seemed to do well, until the chakra output dwindled, making the grip loosen, the boy falling down.

Sakura smiled. "This isn't so hard."

"It's all about control" Kitty said. Both she and Sakura was at the top of their tree, Kitty turning to run down.

"It's also a great way to get bigger chakra reserves, the more you use chakra the more you get, the more chakra you get the more ninjutsu you can use at a later date. Now come on Sakura, we have just started this training, keep up if you can."

About 3 hours later both Sasuke and Takan had made a pretty decent improvement, Sakura laying on the ground panting for breath as team 9 continued to run.

Sakura groaned, looking at Kitty, Naruto and Hinata who ran in tandem, in the same tempo at the same time. "How much stamina do they have" Sakura managed to ask, her pulse still going a mile a minute.

Kurenai smiled. "They run this every day for about an hour as a warm up… as Kitty already told you it's a great way to get your stamina and chakra up to speed."

Sakura groaned, sitting up. "They do this every day?"

Kurenai smiled. "They do… their first try was just as hard for them as it is for Sasuke and Takan now, but constant training pays off."

Sakura looked at Kitty, who turned around at the top of the tall fir tree she was in for the 10th time that hour.

"Hey, um… Sakura chan?" Sakura turned around, seeing Takan standing there.

"Yeah?"

"Think you could give me some pointers? I don't seem to get this control thing, how did you get it so fast?"

Sakura blinked. "You are asking me?"

"Yeah, we're on the same team right?"

Sakura blinked, before smiling. "Yeah… ok I can probably show you some pointers."

Sakura walked off with Takan, Kurenai smiling at them.

Seems like Sakura was improving a little too… now they just needed to see how it all worked out.

…

The next day Kitty and Naruto stood at guard duty over Tazuna and the other bridge builders, helping out where they could, Naruto making about 20 clones helping to lift beams, use hammers and nails and carry supplies around. There were no problems… until one of the builders walked up to Tazuna.

"Listen Tazuna… I can't do this anymore."

Tazuna got angry. "You too? How many people do I have to lose?"

"Listen Tazuna, I have known you for a long time… but if I keep doing this Gato will come after my famHEY."

Kitty had walked over to the man and pushed him hard, making him fall down.

He rose angrily. "THE HELL YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

Kitty didn't answer him, simply pushed him again. He kept yelling, getting up and getting pushed down.

"THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM KID?"

"You keep getting up… I am wondering how many times it will take before you simply stop fighting me."

Kitty pushed the man again, the builder getting up.

"The hell are you talking about."

"Well you won't get up when Gato pushes you around… so I figured you could stay afraid on the floor here instead of somewhere else."

The man's angry face disappeared, turning into a look of shock.

"You keep getting pushed" Kitty said, frowning at the guy. "And yet you do nothing about it. Have you tried fighting back?"

"I value my life."

"Is it really a life worth living if you aren't proud of what you are doing?"

The men looked around at each other, looking embarrassed.

"Look… the way this is going this bridge will be finished in 5 days… if you really can't be brave for 5 days, we don't need you, get the fuck home, go cower with your family… just as long as you are all ok with two 12 year old kids having more courage and willpower to fight against one man than you have."

And with that Kitty walked off, lifting another beam over to where it was needed. Tazuna smiled at her retreating form, glad that the ninja's of Konoha where helping out. Looking at his workers he smiled as he saw no one leave, but work harder than ever before.

As the day ran to a close Tazuna brought Naruto and Kitty with him for a small shopping trip, needing food for their dinner. Walking inside Kitty and Naruto looked around.

"This is insane" Kitty muttered. "Who the fuck does Gato think he is?"

Tazuna sighed, paying up for the few carrots that were left on the counter. "This is why the bridge is so important… we need to get it up as soon as possible."

Kitty and Naruto looked at each other and smiled. They knew what was coming and was more than happy to do anything to let Gato's empire crumble.

As they came home Kakashi stood outside, smiling his usual eye smile. "Ah Inuzuka san… Pakkun has delivered your answer."

He gave Kitty a scroll, Kitty reading through it smiling.

I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the sandaime Hokage of Konoha, give Zabuza of the mist and Haku of the mist amnesty and welcome them as shinobi of Konoha at their entrance to the village, under the condition that they sever all ties with Kirigakure and live by Konoha laws as Konoha shinobi. At the agreement of these conditions lodgings and clothes will be arranged until a team can be put together for missions.

Signed

Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Good news?" Kakashi asked.

"Great news… there is a place for Haku and Zabuza in Konoha if they want to join us… which means that our mission just got a lot easier."

Kitty placed the scroll inside her jacket, looking at Tazuna.

"I am going for a small run, you guys just eat, don't worry about me. Aiwa, Ankoku, heel."

Her tigers ran to her side at the sound of her voice, Kitty smiling and rushing out into the woods, letting her nose guide her. She remembered the scent she had to find, and knew that Haku and Zabuza was somewhere in wave. Tracking them down should not be too hard.