Chapter 15: The Land of Waves
The whole team wearily made their way into Tazuna's home, where he stayed with his daughter Tsunami and his grandson Inari. Thankfully, there were extra rooms for them to stay in. Despite the larger than average size, the whole house was in disrepair, those rooms were dusty and completely empty. Gato's influence was clear in the ramshackle houses of what was once very a prosperous community.
"Asuma-sensei, you mentioned that hunter-nin we encountered. How come I've never heard of such a squad in Konoha?" asked Naruto as he rolled out a futon.
"The Land of Mist has had an ongoing bloodline purge. Any bloodlines have been systematically wiped out. This has led to an increase in rogue ninjas with secrets on their bodies. Kiri may not want bloodlines, but they don't want other villages to get ahold of them. As a result, they need dedicated squads to hunt wayward Kiri ninja. Konoha also has such squads, but they tend to fall under the ANBU umbrella," Asuma replied.
Naruto thought it would be interesting if he could be a hunter ninja. Taking out famous rogue ninjas sounded exciting. Too bad he was stuck as a Genin. Zabuza introduced the variables of Chunin level risk; Naruto knew he was lucky with his huge chakra advantage, and knowing the barrier jutsu was almost a complete fluke. His team though, they were not ready for the grind that Naruto needed optimally, maybe if they took the Chunin exams right away? But would Asuma say the team was ready in time?
Ino walked into the room with a frown, she looked nervously at Asuma-sensei. "Asuma-sensei, Naruto, I'm sorry. I feel like I'm dead weight, a failure. I still can't beat Shikamaru even once even though I do twice the training he does! And after that Jonin attacked us, I've lost confidence. What if my uselessness gets everyone killed? What if you have to depend on me? Asuma-sensei, I'll do anything, just make me stronger!" She bowed.
Sensing that he shouldn't be there Naruto hurriedly made an excuse, "I think I should go check on Shikamaru." He quickly ran to the door. "I believe in you Ino-chan. Get stronger, so I can trust my back to you," he said as he walked out.
# # #
Asuma felt a headache coming on. This was the result he had wanted with Shikamaru, not Ino. The pressure of having to fight a lazy genius with an innate jutsu advantage must have gotten to her. Maybe he should come slightly clean?
"Ino, your growth this past month is praiseworthy. We can increase your training time, but not by much. If I'm being honest, this is my fault, I set you on a path of certain failure," said Asuma.
Ino scowled. "You never believed I could beat Shikamaru?"
Asuma waved his hands quickly as if to dispel the thought. "I believe you can beat him, eventually. It's been a month. But the truth is, I knew it would be very difficult to accomplish. I wanted to push you to become stronger than Shikamaru, and hopefully give Shikamaru some pressure from you. If all went to plan, you would not beat him. His shadow possession has a huge leg up against you in a non-lethal setting, and if he put some work in, even if you were technically stronger you might not come out on top. But the reason I started us on C-Ranks is because you are up to par in most things, and now we can start to specialize you."
"But I might never beat Shikamaru? I might be the worst on the team?"
"If Shikamaru, right now, decided to get his act together, he'd have a chance of you never beating him. Even in that case, you won't be the worst. Without preparation and the right opponent, Shikamaru could come off badly while you are very successful. But after careful consideration, I am going to make you into a long-distance genjutsu and ninjutsu user. Shikamaru's bane."
Ino tightened her fists. "Shikamaru doesn't deserve to be second strongest. It's a humiliation to kunoichi everywhere that we're considered the weakest."
Asuma thought to himself. It was true. Often the women on a team developed more soft techniques, which led to them being severely underestimated. Or they rebelled against what they were naturally proficient in, to bad results. The counter-example, Tsunade was every bit the equal of the other Sannin. But her taijutsu, which ironically was the opposite of soft, was a bad set against the ninjutsu capabilities of the other two. Her medical abilities were amazing, but those abilities did not reveal their full advantage in a one on one fight. Kurenai had often complained about the sexism she encountered. He could fix his team's problems and get in Kurenai's good graces if Ino kicked Shikamaru's ass.
Asuma smiled. "Well, you're asking me on a mission. Technically this is outside of our training time. Shikamaru is not required to train. We're here for a little over a week, let's see you blow him out of the water."
# # #
Zabuza lay on a bed, his eyes closed, but his chest rose up and down. A feminine figure stood over him, taking out senbon lodged in his neck. It was the masked hunter-nin.
"Haku, you're getting rough with those senbon. Good save though, I underestimated the kids." Zabuza coughed.
"You should know better Zabuza-sama. Stay down, your injuries will take a week to recover if we're lucky after the death-like-state I put you in," Haku lectured softly.
"It was the one kid. He must have a bloodline or something. I thought an obviously newly minted Genin team would not take on a mission like this knowingly, not in Konoha. Something is off. Haku, get some intel."
# # #
From all Naruto could see, Asuma looked uneasy every time there was a quiet moment. His unease translated into pushing his teammates harder than they had ever been pushed. For Shikamaru, it meant getting his chakra control up to par with the tree-climbing exercise. For Ino, Asuma was keeping her training under wraps, all Naruto saw was the extreme weariness when she returned to Tazuna's home. Naruto had been guarding Tazuna and his workers while they finished the bridge. This schedule kept up for several days until Shikamaru finished his tree climbing.
They all sat for dinner, Shikamaru and Ino were eating more than they ever had. Naruto and Asuma looked on in horror.
Asuma sighed. "Team, I think Zabuza may be alive."
"W-What?" Ino yelled through a mouthful of food.
"That Hunter-nin was acting suspiciously. They're supposed to cut off the head and burn the body on the spot, this hunter-nin shunshin'd away. They used a senbon as a finishing blow, and they prevented me from taking his life. I thought it was odd, but figured we didn't want to get involved with a Kiri hunter squad. There's only one problem, Gato has this island on lockdown. There's a reason we had no intelligence in Konoha. If Zabuza is working for Gato, there's no way Kiri squads would be able to find him. And if they did, it wouldn't be a lone hunter ninja stumbling upon him."
Naruto looked wide-eyed at his sensei. The young hunter ninja they came across, he was working for Zabuza. Since Zabuza let himself be 'killed' they weren't as impressive, but next time there were two opponents instead of one. And the second opponent was an unknown entity in terms of ability.
A silence came over the table until Tazuna's grandson Inari started crying.
"You're all going to die! It's what happens when you play hero! Gato will have all of you killed like he does everyone else, just give up!" Inari ran upstairs rubbing snot from his nose.
After Inari's outburst, Tazuna quietly explained how Inari's stepfather came into the town and was eventually brutally executed by Gato.
"He doesn't believe in heroes. Not after that. That's why I have to complete this bridge, to give the people hope, to make them believe in heroes again. If this drunk old man can get the bridge done, maybe they'll start to believe…" Tazuna said with heavy set eyes.
Ino stood up suddenly, jostling the table as she did so. "I'm going to go train."
"Hold on Ino," said Asuma, "Let's figure out what we're doing tomorrow."
Ino sneered. "Am I even a factor? What's the battle plan? Stand next to Tazuna?"
"Somebody does need to defend the client, but you're unsuited. I won't stop you from training. We have a few more days until Zabuza will likely recover. Bring Naruto with you though, he can make sure Zabuza and his accomplice don't get the jump on you. And also help you train. Shikamaru and I will guard the bridge."
# # #
In a forest clearing, Naruto watched from a branch while Ino practiced earth ninjutsu and occasionally did some workouts. Her chakra control was there, but her execution was still a bit lacking. Shikamaru was in for a wallop if she could get any of them to hit though.
"Ino, why don't we stop for a second? I'm up for some late-night training, I don't mind meditating in the forest for a night, but you have to maintain a certain level of chakra," Naruto advised.
Ino replied while doing pushups, "I have to push myself Naruto. If I don't, you'll never be able to trust your back to me. Dammit, my clan jutsus are useless!"
Is that what she thought? Shikamaru could hold his own, and she could not?
"Your clan jutsus are very useful. Any ninja worth their salt would kill to have them at their disposal," Naruto said casually.
It was true, the Yamanaka clan was thought of often as a trio with the Nara and Akimichi, but there was no question which clan provided the most benefit to Konoha.
"I know! They'll be super important later when I eventually follow my father into T&I under the Intelligence Division. What about when we're cornered by a ninja like Zabuza? What about the Chunin exams? I wouldn't have cared normally, but falling short of Shikamaru- I feel like everyone will just see me as a lesser version of my father," said Ino.
"Why would you be lesser?" Naruto questioned.
"Because I'm a kunoichi," Ino snapped back.
Clans had always focused on the perfection of clan jutsu for their clan heads. It gave the clan prestige. Clan members could branch out, but it was looked upon less favorably than mainly using the clan techniques. For a clan head, branching out too much was practically an insult. Unless Ino was much brighter than her father, her chances of being viewed as his equal were slim to none with the same techniques. Her ability to broaden her skillset would, contrary to most, go down considerably as a Chunin. This would continue until she had reached the pinnacle of Yamanaka techniques. Naruto had read Ino's pulse, her constitution was balanced. Yamanaka Clan techniques were Yin, meaning her ability wasn't hampered, but it wasn't boosted either.
"Being a kunoichi gives you an advantage against your father. Yamanaka techniques tend towards a soft style, and your father didn't develop that way. Asuma's current route of training you in earth style ninjutsu will fill some gaps in your combat ability. After these, get some water ninjutsu down with genjutsu and you'll be way more impressive than your father was when the Chunin exams roll around."
Ino returned to her regular cheery self at that moment. "You think so Naruto-kun? Let's take a break for an hour and then go back to training! Come sit down with me, I brought a snack."
# # #
Ino fell asleep in the grass after another cycle of training, with Naruto promising to wake her when she had recovered enough to train again. He watched over her while he meditated. It wasn't a replacement for sleep, but it could do the job for a few nights if he needed it.
A twig snapped, causing Naruto's neck to snap in the direction of the noise. Whoever it was had hidden their presence well if it took him this long to notice them. A girl in a pink kimono walked over with a basket in her arm. She seemed harmless, but then her lack of presence up until now set Naruto on alert. Something about her also looked eerily familiar.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked.
The girl walked closer and said in a quiet voice, "I'm gathering herbs for a sick friend. I saw your friend laying there and wanted to make sure she was okay."
Her voice and her neck was covered. It wasn't- wait.
"You're a boy!" Naruto exclaimed.
The boy's eyes widened in shock and his cheeks turned red. "Not many are capable of noticing. I'm sorry, I didn't intend to hide it with my garments. My name is Haku."
"I'm Naruto. It's fine. You look similar to someone I know."
"Not an enemy I hope." Haku giggled.
Something about him was off, but also that similarity with Hisato.
"What's your family name?" blurted Naruto.
Haku's demeanor instantly turned hostile. His basket was dropped and he looked to be reaching for some sort of hidden weapon in a defensive position.
"Why do you wish to know?" Haku asked.
"Oh right, the bloodline purges," Naruto remarked sadly, "The person I know is named Yuki Hisato. He looks like you and is a refugee from the Land of Water. He doesn't have any family left, so I thought-"
"Yuki?" Haku interrupted. He had a desperate, sad look in his eyes. Until they hardened. "I don't know my family name. Naruto, do you have any family back home? What's your family name?"
"My family name is Uzumaki, but they're all gone. Scattered to the wind. But I have Hisato-sensei, he's sort-of family to me."
"So you understand what it means to have someone precious to you, and what it means to lose them," Haku persisted.
"I, don't even remember my family. But I know what it's like to be alone. And I would do anything for my precious people," Naruto blazed with determination. "even become the most powerful ninja the world has ever seen."
"Strong," Haku murmured under his breath, "You know what true strength is, Uzumaki Naruto. That will bring you far indeed." He smiled sweetly. "I ought to return to my sick friend."
Naruto wasn't sure what to do. This Haku was suspicious, but also might be Hisato's only remaining family. Now that he thought about it, the voice and build were so similar to the fake Kiri hunter ninja. Surely then, the injured was Zabuza himself. Naruto didn't know what Haku was capable of; he definitely did not have Hisato's problems, which meant Haku could use the Hyoton kekkei genkai. With Ino sleeping, Naruto could not afford for Haku to turn hostile.
"Very well, I hope your friend feels better soon. I hope to see you again soon. If you remember your family name, I'll be around for a few more days."
Haku quickly left with his basket.