AN: if you don't know what a Haori is or don't care to search it up, it's the same as the red coat that Jiraiya wears and Tsunade's green coat, those are what a Haori is.

Arc 2 part 3
Chapter Title: C Rank in the bank

After putting on my long-sleeved shirt on over my mesh armour I picked up the crimson Haori Ume had given to me, then picked up the Nodachi in its sheath from being leaned against the wall, I really need to get some bracers and greaves like Aunty had. Anyway, with my mission gear on I grabbed a bag that I put rations in with a few other things and left the house saying goodbye to Mum and Dad on the way out. I headed straight for the main gate, when I got there I saw Kotetsu and Izumo at the sign-in, I gave them a wave. Asuma, Hinata, and Sasuke were already there, did I mention that I was ten minutes late? Cause I am.

"What the hell took you so long loser? We were meant to meet ten minutes ago." Sasuke stated turning away from me annoyed sounding as ever, though he seemed like he was rearing to leave.

"Ah, well a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way around" I answered as Asuma made a choked noise.

"S-so long as you arrive…" Hinata said quietly.

"Alright time to head out we need to hurry this will take us a while to reach, Wave is a long walk," Asuma stated we all took off at an acceptable running pace.

Did I forget to mention the mission? Cause if I did we're headed to Wave because Team 7 sent for back up after Kakashi was bedridden by chakra exhaustion, Kiba and Naruto were injured pretty bad too from what was said, I think Sakura was the only one that's wasn't physically injured only mentally or emotionally damaged from the whole ordeal. It would take us about two and a half days or just under to get to where they were in Wave, our goal was to provide backup for Team 7 while they recovered after confirming that S-rank missing-nin Zabuza Momochi was working with Gatou the man trying to kill their bridge builder. I was actually pretty excited just to have the chance to see one of the legendary Mist swordsmen, that and I liked Zabuza and the girl? Boy? With him from what little I could drag up about them in my memory.

We settled down for camp when it got dark.

"Alright I'm going to do a parameter, I want Hinata to look for kindling, Sasuke I want you to catch, kill and skin us some rabbits preferably two or three, lastly Takezou I want you to get the fire started for that kindling Hinata's collecting." Sensei disappeared into the surrounding area.

It didn't take too long to kick up a fire especially considering I learned a few small fire chakra things from dad, he had this one that he used when lighting his cigarettes after I got the fire started Sensei arrived back and sat down, Hinata came back with her arms filled with sticks. Sasuke arrived with two rabbits about twenty minutes later, he skinned them, and I put them out over the fire, what had my team's confusion was when I busted out some seasonings and sauces. What? I came prepared. I wasn't going to eat bland food, I learned how to cook for a reason and that was to satiate my hunger as well as make people happy with good food.

My team seemed to really enjoy what I managed to make out of what we had, which was nice, there was no better feeling as a cook then when people gleefully ate your food. I should know I spent years learning most of what I know there and had the rest of my knowledge filled in by Kaede when she taught me, man, I really enjoyed learning to cook with her it was a lot of fun, I look forward to teaching the same stuff to Akatsuki when I can, that's one of my favourite parts of my life this time around I can actually be the older brother I that I wanted to be but didn't get much of a chance to.

When we left the next morning it was maybe five or six am, we arrived on the coast of the Land of Waves around noon and it took us another hour to get to the village Team 7 were held up in. My first impression was that it was really misty and foggy, thankfully Hinata guided us around without much problem, we heard Naruto before we saw him, he was running around like a headless chicken yelling about wet dog smell…?

The mist cleared up around the small fishing village meaning Hinata didn't need to have her Byakugan on for too long, Naruto came running along the boardwalk we were on without looking ahead as he ran from someone and crashed into Sasuke knocking him over and falling on the ground himself, Kiba and Akamaru weren't far behind but managed to stop before slamming into us.

"Sasuke?!" Naruto basically yelled as the Uchiha threw the small blonde off him.

"Hey, Naruto where's Kakashi? We're here to help protect the bridge." Asuma cut in before the two could squabble, they did glare at one another either way.

"I can take you there, just follow me," Kiba said standing a little straighter.

We followed him through the 'streets' which were more along the line of boardwalks or a really long wharf, to a house where Sakura was currently talking to an older man who took a swig from a flask, she looked up to see us and her face got immensely brighter, then she yelled about her 'Sasuke-kun!' I actually nearly threw up when I heard her say it, I wanted to save the kid the horror of her fawning over him and spoke up.

"Sakura where's your Sensei? Asuma needs to talk to him about how we're supposed to help." She stopped in her tracks and looked me irritated for a second before turning to Asuma.

"Oh! Sensei is inside! He's still resting from Chakra Exhaustion though." She said leading Asuma inside.

"I hope you're grateful for me stopping her from jumping all over you." I said to the pale boy, he 'Hn' in response turning away with a vaguely annoyed look.

"So what were you two doing before we arrived?" I asked Naruto and Kiba as we began walking around while they talked.

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We were standing in a grove next to the house the bridge builder lived in and Naruto had just explained some cool ability he found out about his clones, apparently they allowed for him to transfer information from the clone to himself so theoretically he could learn faster if he made a bunch of clones training at the same time. Made me want to learn the jutsu, he and Kiba were learning tree walking and water walking, so with every good intention possible I bet Sasuke I could learn it faster than he could and faster than Naruto could despite the boy having a head start.

"Hya!" I said slashing a mark four meters up the tree and jumping back off.

"Guh!" Sasuke bounced off his by a meter or so higher than me.

simultaneously we heard ten Naruto's curse as they landed on their heads.

Hinata was at the front of the house learning to walk on water because she had learned tree walking already at the Hyuuga compound, so that left Kiba, Sasuke, Naruto and I were racing to see who could learn it faster. Naruto was actually only at around the same point Sasuke and I were, though that was probably because we had rather high chakra control, from what people had told me – that being Dad and Sensei apparently, I had a decent if not high level of control but lacked the mental fortitude to use it that well, which was fair considering that chakra is still new to me so of course, I'd be holding back with it. It may have been twelve years and some change since coming here with the last six or so spent learning about chakra, but it still confused me at times.

Asuma had decided to take up watching over the bridge builder while Kakashi wandered around with his book in one hand and a crutch in the other, the others might not have able to see much passed his meanderings but I could see that he was keeping his eye on us more than he let on, like he expected something to go wrong. Can't say it doesn't bother me, cause that's really concerning, why would he think something would go wrong? Was it 'cause of Naruto? Or was it because of how many of us there were or maybe it was the clan heirs? Who knows.

I finished up attempting the get higher in the tree climbing around three or four in the afternoon while Sasuke and Naruto continued onward, I managed to make it up about eight meters now which was pretty awesome, though the whole idea of tree walking and water walking was just amazing in of itself considering it was left to miracles performed by deities in a few religions back in my previous life, though the idea of it was one that all things considered seemed physically possible it's just that you wouldn't be able to walk but rather sprinting so fast you keep yourself above. Not that its entirely possible to hold very long, though there were people who did that on motorbikes proving that it was possible at the least.

One of the first things I did upon seeing the kitchen aside from cringing and getting a dirty look from Tsunami was to ask if I could do the cooking, she was very hesitant if pissed off at my reaction, but after some coercing she gave in and let me when I convinced her to go rest, while my team had seen a small side of my cooking ability on our way here, they'd yet to see what I could do in an actual kitchen. Me being the over-prepared person that I was I happened to have a sack of rice in my bag that I brought, Asuma kept laughing when I suddenly got out an apron that I had written 'Don't disturb the cook' on, Sasuke had come inside at this point saying Naruto was still training, his face contorted with confusion as well when he saw me. Kiba thought the world of it and kept saying he really wished he had a camera.

This went on for about two hours until I finished what I was making and asked Tsunami for her opinion, she seemed thoroughly surprised and happy with what I had done, I called everyone for dinner dishing it up. What I had made was honey-garlic shrimp with stovetop rice, it was a wonder what you could with so few ingredients, it was nice to work with seafood because seeing as Konoha is so inland its quite expensive to have seafood all the time. Heh, everyone seemed to love it.

"I had no idea you could cook like this Takezou!" Kiba said in-between bites wolfing it down.

"Er… yeah well I can, it's kind of one of my hobbies." I said a little flushed, it was nice to hear praise about this sort of thing seeing as I normally just cook for my family.

"This puts a little more to explaining how you cooked the rabbit on the way here," Sasuke said in passing as he finished up his.

"Takezou," Asuma said shortly taking a drink from a glass of water before continuing "I hope you don't plan to bring food supplies like this on all our missions?" He stared at me for a moment, his eyebrow arched.

"Why wouldn't I? cooking is fun and it's not like it's all that heavy unless I start bringing my own utensils." Actually, that was a good idea.

"Please don't, if you do for the love of the Hokage get yourself a sealing scroll." He replied shaking his head with a slight smirk tugging at his mouth.

I crinkled my nose in distaste "I couldn't figure that stuff out, so I gave up on it." I said scratching my chin, the whole sealing and sealing jutsu crap was super complicated and I just couldn't wrap my head around it, so I don't plan on trying to use it or learn it.

He left it at that and I ended in a conversation with Tsunami about cooking recipes, we shared a few between one another, she was a really nice person once I got to know her. Whilst I was getting ready to sleep I remembered a character in one of my favourite shows, his name eluded me at the time, but I was sure he also had some form of red hair and was known for his cooking to some degree.

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Hinata and Sakura were tasked to go with Tazuna when he left for the bridge, Asuma went with them as well mainly in case things somehow got bad really quickly, Naruto hadn't returned last night but did about thirty-odd minutes after Tazuna left, he came home going on about this super pretty girl and how she the most beautiful person he'd ever seen. She had said something to him as well something he shared with us.

"People are truly strong when they're fighting for their precious people," he said nodding to himself.

"Sounds like you agree with that then?" I asked him.

He nodded again with a smile "Yeah! I agree with what Haku said entirely!"

"Unless you've recovered from working yourself to the bone then I'll have to have you sit training out for the day" Kakashi said watching his student.

"Aww man! No, I'm feeling fine! I could run forever!" he said trying to dissuade his Sensei.

Not ten minutes later we were outside training again, Naruto kicked our arses at it, he had nearly gotten it down pat he could get at least six meters higher than us and considering` the tree was probably twenty-odd meters tall it was quite the achievement. Sasuke got fired up and started trying much harder, after two hours he had caught up to Naruto who had hit another roadblock. I caught up to them not much after, around noon Hinata, Sakura, Sensei, and Tazuna came back for lunch and Sensei said he wanted to swap Hinata and Sakura out with two of us so that it wasn't just them, I volunteered and Kiba lost the game of rock, paper scissors they did so he was settled with me and Sensei.

we headed up to the bridge at around one, I knew there wasn't going to be any trouble but I still brought my Nodachi anyway, it got the ire of Tazuna who asked me about it.

"Don't see too many teenagers walking around with Samurai swords like that." He said swigging from his flask.

"Err… I'm only twelve going on thirteen…" I responded.

"What! Your near as tall as I am!" he spluttered out.

"Yeah I am, though to be fair my Dad is about as tall as Sensei" I pointed my thumb over at Asuma standing several heads above all of us. "So I wouldn't be surprised if I end up as tall as him"

When we got to the bridge the first thing I noticed and thought was 'Fuck that's a huge bridge' I like to imagine it was right to think that, Sensei went wandering setting up a parameter while Kiba and Akamaru went around getting scents of the builders so they'd know if one of them disappeared while they did that I walked around looking vaguely imposing so the builders would feel like we were actually doing things instead of loitering. When Kiba came back from getting scents he and I had a few games of rock, paper scissors until Asuma returned and decided to linger around on one of the support beam stacks sitting around, he started smoking immediately, though I think that was to give the air of calmness, so the builders weren't feeling jumpy about the situation.

I played around with pushing my chakra into the Nodachi because it was something I hadn't done too much with, Ume said she could split a man in two when she did it to her Katana so it has some merit to trying it at the least though I wouldn't use it on anything unless I was at the house or back in Konoha so I could work any damage or bluntness out of the blade if I messed it up. The normally black blade flared with a blue aura around in creating a heavier pressure in the air, it was pretty intense. Giving it a few test swings to make sure I could hold my concentration, slowly I tried to push what little fire chakra I could muster and control into it. In a matter of a second there was a small explosion of intense heat the knocked me over onto my ass the chakra dissipated from it when it fell from my hands. A fair few people looked my way I waved them off "Er… sorry about that!"

The rest of the day passed on without incident and we headed back to the house at around six that night, when we arrived Hinata and Sakura were sparring on the water, they seemed to be about to finish up though, they had the water walking down pat. They came off the water Sakura cheering to herself about doing so well and Hinata smiling somewhat, I went over to them.

"That was awesome! Man, I wish I was that good with my chakra" I said giving the two girls a fond smile.

"T-thanks T-takezou" Hinata stuttered out.

"Yeah! Me and Hinata are way better than the boys!" Sakura cheered pumping her fist into the air. "B-but not Sasuke of course!" she said afterward to herself and it put me back in a spot where I suddenly didn't like her again.

"So it's going to be a week since you guys encountered Zabuza tomorrow right?" I asked the pink-haired girl pushing past my disgust with her fawning over my teammate.

"Yeah, it will be" a voice cut in.

"Kakashi Sensei!" Sakura basically screamed, he was out of his crutch.

"You're ready to fight off the big bad then?" I asked the man.

His eye crinkled into a smile "I'll be sure to tell Zabuza you called him 'the big bad' next time he stops in then should I?" he asked holding that smile.

"Sure." I said without thought "Oh! And could you get me his autograph too? I always wanted to meet one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist" the masked Jonin smirked.

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to but I can try," he said with a shrug.

"Do you think he'd appreciate it if I cooked a nice lunch for him?" I asked with all the seriousness I could muster.

"This isn't any laughing matter Takezou you buffoon!" Sakura shouted at me ruining the moment.

"Of course it is, how else to prepare for a deathly battle than to have a laugh and smile, I plan on being quite the jokester if Zabuza shows up, that or asking why he doesn't just threaten Gatou into giving all of his money or assets and killing him, definitely one of the two." I nodded agreeing with myself.

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Today was supposedly the day.

Everyone was here, we had all since moved onto water walking having mostly mastered the tree walking, Naruto and I ended up losing to Sasuke and Kiba in the bet of who could get it down first. Kakashi was lingering around leaning against a post with his book out, Asuma was on his smoke break, Team 7 was loitering near Tazuna and Sasuke, Hinata and I were spread out around the bridge at possible attack points. Though I suppose it pays me to mention that Naruto was back with Tsunami and Inari after he overworked himself and had been asleep for the last twelve odd hours, Kakashi had decided to let him be seen as there were already so many of us. I had decided to take up writing the first scribbles of the book I wanted to write, while I was kicked up leaning on one of the supports with my feet dangling over the edge with my sword lying next to me, I was just jotting down bits and pieces of what I remember from Musashi's writings.

I had read the book maybe a year before I passed? So, I had a long period to try remembering from, I was glad for the memory fragments that would randomly assault my mind, if not for them then I wouldn't have gotten this far I don't think. Most of what I had was just ramblings of philosophies and such, I'm sure Ume would get a kick out of this when I was done.

it was around noon that a thick unnatural mist rolled in and the sounds of choked screams filled the air as Kiba and Akamaru started making noise shouting that they had arrived, there was a long drawn out silence before a burst of gravelly laughter filled the area.

"Hahaha! Just look at you! Did you bring more children out to play Kakashi? Did I beat so badly last time?" the Mist faded revealing a masked person standing next to a very imposing bandage covered Zabuza holding his wonderfully enormous sword.

"Maa… they're strong enough" Kakashi replied flippantly.

"Where's that loud orange brat? I wanted to get him back for what he did to me" The swordsman laughed in a gravelly rough tone.

"Zabuza please let's get this underway" an effeminate male voice sounded from the masked boy.

"Yes lets!" he yelled Zabuza and Haku split the groups into two.

I looked to my team and noticed Sasuke was like a deer in the headlights frozen up from the wave of pressure that had hit us, Hinata was trembling, I hadn't reacted to it all that much because of my Aunt and her constantly doing a similar thing by leaking her intents in the ambient chakra during fights. I looked at team 7 and Sakura looked like she might break down and cry. That left us with a shaky me, Kakashi and Asuma with Hinata if I could snap her out of her funk, I ran over to my teammates and started shaking them, so we could act before Haku got to us. 'Fuck Haku's fast!' I thought watching him come our way.

"Hinata, Sasuke c'mon we need to fight!" Hinata slowly came back and shakily raised her hands to fight.

That was as good as I was going to get for now, with her at least we had a chance, I unsheathed my Nodachi and prepared to strike. Senbon flew towards us at an amazing speed, before I could deflect them they punctured my arm making it partially numb, Hinata slapped them away with her hands coated in chakra, with my left arm slowly becoming more numb and unusable I held the thick bladed sword in my right hand letting my left hand go limp.

"Well fuck," I said just barely dodging another barrage I looked back and realized with wide eyes the ones I just dodged hit Sasuke, while he finally had his head in the game he was also now bleeding and punctured all over his body.

"S-Sasu-ke" I heard Hinata stutter.

"You wake up yet sleepy head?" I said to the Uchiha.

"Hn" came his grunted response as I noticed his eyes flash red for a moment as he pulled a handful of the Senbon out and threw them back at Haku.

That was when I heard Kakashi saying something to Zabuza while he and Asuma were trying to get him.

"So Zabuza, one of our cute little genin wants your autograph do you think you could help him out?" he asked offhandedly as he dodged the huge butchers' sword.

Zabuza's haughty laugh carried throughout the bridge, Asuma was shaking his head at the antics of Kakashi while said Jonin looked somewhat miffed and offended at what he said being blown off. The guy was a good actor I had to give it to him.

"Heya Sensei!" I yelled deflecting two senbon with my sword "Ask him if he wants this lunch I made for him!" Haku stopped stunned for a second confused as a bento box came out of my bag, I held it in my nearly unusable left arm.

Before anything more could happen Naruto burst onto the bridge with all his orange fury, he seemed to notice how we were fearing and shot forward with a scream and punched Haku in the face breaking his mask. Naruto paused realizing who he was and started asking why he was there.

"I'm sorry Naruto," the Yuki clan member said quietly.

Before I knew it we were encased in a large ice dome that had mirrors everywhere, Haku started an insanely fast barrage of attacks leaving us each with a few more senbon, he was fast but not as fast as Ume was when she dueled me for the final time, I could keep up with the boy but it was a lot harder with my numb arm and heavy feeling right leg. This was so unfair god damn it, there was a short-gurgled choke making me snap my head in the direction of the sound. Sasuke collapsed before our eyes, a senbon through his throat, blood pooling as his corpse thumped against the concrete.

I choked out a hollow cry that caught itself in my throat as I blurred forward chakra flaring through the black blade as a gut curdling scream escaped me, I brought the sword down in a white rage on Haku, though he disappeared into the mirrors. Wrenching the blade from the broken, split concrete and threw myself towards the ice wielder again. I wasn't sure what had taken over me but I just acted.

AN: Catch you lot later.