A Few Weeks Later/ Mission Boredom
Squad 7 was on a mission for the Feudal Lord of fire's wife. The mission was to capture the cat Tora. Sasuke starts off "Sasuke at Point A. Target is in sight." Sakura continues saying "Sakura at Point B. Same here." Naruto then says "Naruto at Point C. I'm ready to go anytime, believe it." Einjeru then says "Einjeru at Point D. I'm ready to capture a cat." Kakashi then says "Wait until I say to move." The cat hears a ruffle in the leaves and Kakashi says "Now." Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke jump for the cat to miss it. Einjeru jumps thinking "Here goes."
The cat struggles to get free and Kakashi asks "Are you positive on the I.D.?" Sasuke looks and sees the red bow on the ear, and says "Red bow on the right ear. We have Tora." Kakashi then replies "Then the mission to capture Tora is complete." They bring the cat back to the mission room to see it being squeezed to death by its owner.
Naruto thinks to himself "That's what that cat gets." Einjeru says "It seems like that cat was used to shinobi chasing it. It knew every way that we were going to come for it. Sakura then says "A cat can't live that long." Sasuke chimes in saying "It doesn't matter. If the cat is accustomed to running away then it knows how to avoid the people that are sent to capture it." Kakashi then says "This is basically a rite of passage for all genin. I even had to capture that cat."
Lord Third took a look at squad 7 and said "Alright. The next missions for squad 7 are babysitting, weeding a garden..." Naruto blurts out saying "No thanks! I want a harder mission!" The rest of the squad groaned and Naruto continued "We've been doing these lame missions for weeks. How can I do better when all we're given are chores that no one feels like doing?" Kakashi bopped him on the head and said "Shut up Naruto. You've just become rookie genin."
Lord Third said "I figured he'd start his complaining sooner or later. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Einjeru, you guys need to understand the ranks and how they correspond to the missions you're assigned. There are the ranks of jonin like Kakashi, chunin like Iruka and the bottom of the ninja food chain: the genin like you guys. The jonin get A and B ranked missions. The chunin get B and C ranked missions. The genin get C and D ranked missions."
During the explanation Naruto had his back turned and was talking to the rest of the squad about what to eat for lunch. Lord Third yelled out "Hey!" Kakashi turned and said "Sorry about that sir." Einjeru shared the same expression that Kakashi had on his face.(Even though you can't see it on his.) Sakura and Naruto gulped and Sasuke grunted. Naruto then says, "I understand, but I'm not that little prankster anymore. I'm a ninja and I want a ninja mission!"
Everyone sighs and eventually Lord Third says, "I'll give you guys a C rank mission. You guys will be escorting someone from the Land of Waves and guarding him." Sakura then says, "Who is he?" Lord Third continues, "He's a master carpenter. You guys will be protecting him from robbers and the like until he finishes his bridge." Naruto gets fired up and Einjeru resides to the fate of the squad. At least the four of them would be leaving the village for the first time.
Lord Third says, "Send him in!" Next thing anyone knew a drunken man with a tan, a straw hat and some rope tied around his head walked in and looked at the five man squad. He then says, "I'm Tazuna, the master bridge-builder, and you give me a bunch of brats as my escort. Especially the two shorties, the stupid boy and the fragile looking girl?" Naruto then says, "Who is he talking about?" Einjeru realized who the fragile looking girl was and said, "I don't appreciate be talked about like that. My bite is worse than my bark." Naruto then said, "Who's the short stupid little boy?" He then realizes that he's the short one and goes to try and kill Tazuna.
Kakashi and Einjeru go to restrain the blonde kid and Lord Third says, "You guys leave in the hour." The squad acknowledges it, and Naruto had to be carried back to his apartment. As soon as they got there they set him down saying, "You can't go and kill the client Naruto. Without him there's no mission." Naruto finally calms down. He goes to pack his stuff while Kakashi and Einjeru do the same.
Within the hour the squad and Tazuna meet at the gate. Kakashi says, "Let's head out." Naruto gets outside the gate and says, "Yeah! I'm a traveller now!" Tazuna sweat-drops and says, "Am I really safe with him?" Kakashi says, "I'm a jonin. You won't have to worry." Naruto then says, "I'm going to be hokage one day, believe it! When that day comes you'll have to respect me." Einjeru punches him in the face saying "Shut up already. Do you want to alert potential threats to where we are?" Naruto shakes his head and says, "Your punches hurt Einjeru."
They started the journey to the land of waves. It was deadly silent until Sakura says "Hey Kakashi sensei? Does the land of waves have a ninja village?" Kakashi says "No, some lands that have ninja villages do it as a show of military might. Lands like the wave have natural defenses. If you're wondering about enemy ninja, we won't have to worry about that on a C rank mission." Sakura breathes a sigh of relief and Einjeru thinks "I wouldn't relax yet." She goes to Kakashi and whispers in his ear "I smell poison in the air."
Kakashi keeps a vigil after hearing that and they all walk by a puddle. Einjeru and Kakashi think "It hasn't rained in days." As soon as the group walked by the puddle, two figures came up and caught Kakashi in a chain which tightened to the point of ripping him in half. Naruto freezes in place saying, "Sensei!" The two figures go for Naruto and Einjeru jumps in saying, "Like hell I'm letting that happen!" She unleashed a whirlwind of kicks on them after Sasuke broke their chain.
One of the two went for Sakura and Tazuna, and Sasuke jumped in front of them. All of a sudden, Kakashi appeared holding the guy in a choke hold. Naruto is surprised about this, and looked where he was supposedly killed to find a whole mass of logs. "Substitution technique." Naruto thought. Einjeru saw his hand and Naruto flips out in pain. Kakashi gave a serious look and said "We need to treat Naruto's wound immediately. The weapons were poisoned."
Naruto turns purple out of fright and the poison spreading, and screams out, "Save me!" Einjeru knocks him on the head saying "Calm down and give me your hand." Einjeru pulls a kunai out and drains the poisoned blood. She cleans the cut to make sure it isn't prone to infection and saw it was healing on it's own. Naruto saw the intensity in her eyes and said "Should I be worried?" She shook her head and said "You'll be just fine Naruto." She brought out some bandages and finished patching him up. He thinks to himself, "I was so lame and froze while having to be saved by Einjeru and Sasuke of all people." Einjeru looked at him and said "You okay Naruto?" He nods and Einjeru felt something funny on her ankle.
Einjeru pulls down her stocking and sees that one of her weights was damaged. "Damn it!" She thought as she pulled her stocking back up. Kakashi looked at his squad, and said to Tazuna "We need to talk." Sakura then said, "Who were those ninja?" Kakashi then said, "They're chunin from the village hidden in the mist. They're known as the demon brothers."
Einjeru looked at Naruto and saw that he was fuming. She then stood up to be bombarded by Naruto and Sakura. She gets a weirded out look on her face as she asks Einjeru how she remained calm. Einjeru was focused on her father who was explaining to Tazuna about the seriousness of lying to the village about the mission.
They continued the walk and made it to the water. Tazuna's man from the land of waves gave them a lift through the fog. Kakashi said to Tazuna "You need to come clean about who's after you or our mission will end as soon as we hit the docks. We of the hidden leaf don't like being lied to and don't want to risk any of our fresh genin over something as serious as this."
Tazuna started off by saying "The man who is targeting me is a despicable man. His name is Gato." Kakashi gets a stunned look and thinks, "As in Gato the shipping magnate?" Einjeru looked at Kakashi intently and thought,"This guy must be bad news." Tazuna continues saying "He's targeting me because if I connect the land of waves with the mainland, he'll lose control over us."
Naruto thinks to himself "I don't know who this Gato guy is, but I want to take him down myself." Einjeru shakes her head thinking, "This mission jumped from C rank to B or even A rank because of the fact that we're dealing with missing chunin and jonin, and all Naruto can think about is taking down people?" They get near the bridge and Naruto starts blurting out, "Wow!..." Einjeru covers his mouth whispering, "Do you want the enemy to know we're here? You're setting up a 'come and kill us' sign by doing so."
Naruto shuts up and they make it past the bridge into the land of waves. As soon as they make landfall, Kakashi hears the sound of a sword flying towards them and yells, "Get down!" Everyone hit the deck as the sword lodges into a tree and a heavily muscled man appears. Kakashi looks at him and says, "Zabuza Momochi, the demon of the mist." Naruto then yells out, "I want to fight this guy!" Kakashi says "No! The mission is to protect the bridge-builder. The four of you surround him and stay out of this fight." He lifted up his headband and revealed his sharingan.
Zabuza smiles in delight and says "The fabled sharingan. I'm honored that you would fight me using that eye. In the mists assassination unit, there was a standing order to kill you on sight." Sasuke freezes upon hearing sharingan. He thinks to himself, "The bloodline trait of the Uchiha clan. How come Kakashi has it?" Einjeru already knew bits and pieces behind Kakashi's eye. Naruto and Sakura are trying to understand what everyone means by sharingan.
Sasuke says, "The sharingan is the bloodline trait of the Uchiha clan. The sharingan allows the user to analyze an opponents jutsu, copy it and reflect it back at them." Einjeru then said, "The sharingan my dad has was transplanted during the third great shinobi war." Zabuza looks intrigued and says, "These brats sure know a lot about the sharingan and you, eh Kakashi?" Kakashi was thankful that Zabuza didn't catch Einjeru's slip of the mouth when she said dad.
Einjeru realized her slip and covered her mouth. She thinks to herself, "I'm glad Zabuza didn't catch that." Kakashi then sends the thought to her saying, "You sure are lucky he didn't." Einjeru nods and keeps her guard up. Zabuza then says, "I'm afraid to tell you this, but you're going to have to hand over the bridge-builder. Oh wait, no I'm not."
All of a sudden a clone of Zabuza appears in front of all of them. Naruto grins, Sasuke grunts, Sakura screams and Einjeru gets a kunai ready thinking "This is going to hurt." All of them were about to swing the sword until they abruptly stopped. The clones then turned into water leaving them to think, "Water clones." After they dispersed, the squad saw why they stopped. Four Kakashi clones dispersed just as fast as they stopped the water clones.
Meanwhile the real Zabuza and Kakashi were engaged in close combat. Einjeru made two shadow clones to help keep watch while she watched the combat. Kakashi was knocked in the water and as soon as he surfaced, Zabuza was on the water. Kakashi thought to himself "This water is heavier than normal." Zabuza then said "Water style: Water Prison Jutsu." Kakashi then says "Crap!" Einjeru started using her enhanced sense of smell and sight to see Kakashi and Zabuza on the water. Zabuza creates another clone and Kakashi yells to them "You guys need to take Tazuna and run! The mission is more important than me!"
Einjeru growled hearing that. She yelled back saying "That's crap and you know it! The option to run was out the moment you got caught!" Naruto laughs and says "Now we're involved in this fight!" Kakashi was going to pop a blood vessel and said "The water clone can't survive outside a certain distance from the main body. You guys need to take the client and run." Sasuke was in agreement with Einjeru, and they all turned to Tazuna who said "Go on and get your sensei back."
Naruto, Einjeru and Sasuke grinned. Einjeru went over to the two of them saying, "We need a distraction for the water clone so we can sneak on to the water and distract the main one from the water prison. After that Kakashi will be free." Naruto then says, "I've got the distraction and a way to get on the water. What about you Einjeru?" She then says "I dive into the water under the guise of the distraction."
Naruto starts off by making shadow clones. Kakashi face-palms and says, "I told you guys to run." Einjeru tightens her headband and said, "You know I'm hard-headed. Ready Naruto?!" Naruto nods. Sasuke braces himself. Einjeru awaits Naruto and clones to jump on top of the Zabuza clone. As soon as he covered him, Einjeru made a dash for the water.
The Zabuza clone knocked all of the Naruto clones off and one of the clones threw a demon wind shuriken at Sasuke. Sasuke grabbed it and spun around pulling out one of his own. He calls out, "Demon Wind Shuriken: Windmill of Shadows." Sakura starts fan-girling. He threw it past the Zabuza clone onto the water. Einjeru saw the shuriken from underwater and thought "It's showtime." She swam underneath Zabuza's feet and grabbed them, ensuring he had no way to move.
One of the shuriken he caught, however there was another one in it's shadow. Zabuza was impressed and said, "The shadow shuriken jutsu huh?" He was about to jump up when he realized that he was being pulled under. He broke the water prison and managed to get out of dodge. All of a sudden the shuriken turned into Naruto. He threw a kunai saying, "Take this!" Einjeru finally let go of Zabuza's feet and surfaced.
Kakashi stood there and said "That was an excellent plan you three." Einjeru and Naruto grinned. Zabuza looks at Einjeru and says, "So that's who was holding my feet." He grabbed her and said, "I know you wouldn't risk one of your precious students." Einjeru grunts thinking, "Aw nuts! I screwed up big time." Kakashi's eye widened and he fell to a defensive stance. Einjeru gulped knowing the pose meaning she had to pull a dirty trick or risk getting the blunt of the attack.
Einjeru started to kick around and eventually reached her goal. Zabuza dropped her and she tried to move as quick as possible in the water. Naruto caught up to her and they got on land breathing heavy. Sasuke helped them up and they walked over to Tazuna and Sakura. Sakura talks non-stop about Sasuke's heroics and Einjeru says what everyone was thinking: "Shut up Sakura! Sasuke wasn't the only one who did anything. If anything, you're useless."
That shut Sakura right up. Everyone remained quiet and watched the jonin at work. Kakashi was matching Zabuza hand-sign for hand-sign. Zabuza started seeing a shadow that looked like him behind Kakashi. Zabuza was thrown off track, and Kakashi said, "Water style: Giant vortex Jutsu," Zabuza thinks to himself "How? I was going to do that!" Kakashi then says, "Your time is up, demon."
Out of nowhere, some senbon flew right into Zabuza's neck. A masked ninja appeared and said, "You're right. His time was up." Kakashi looks at the mask and says "From the looks of your mask, you're a tracker ninja from the hidden mist." The tracker ninja nods and Naruto immediately gets on the defensive. Sakura then says, "Tracker ninja aren't enemies Naruto. They serve an important role. You shouldn't have skipped class." Einjeru continues saying "Tracker ninja hunt down the shinobi that defect from their village. They're here to make sure that the secrets of their village don't get into enemy hands." Kakashi then chimed in with "For example with my sharingan. If I died and another village got ahold of me, they can analyze the sharingan and figure out a way to defeat it."
The tracker ninja said "You guys are correct. My mission was to hunt down Zabuza and kill him." Einjeru thinks to herself "Something's fishy. There's no way that a tracker ninja was conveniently near by." The tracker ninja says "I must now dispose of the body. If you'll excuse me." The ninja disappears with Zabuza and Einjeru says "There's something weird about this. Wasn't he supposed to dispose of the body right here and now?" Kakashi nods and says "There's no time to discuss it. We need to get Tazuna to his home."
They start walking and Kakashi collapses. Einjeru's eyes widened and she said "You're supposed to be stronger than us, yet you're the one who collapses." She goes into her wolf form and asks for help getting him onto her back. As soon as Kakashi was on Einjeru's back, They got to Tazuna's home and his daughter Tsunami jumps into his arms.
Einjeru clears her throat and says "Excuse me, but our sensei is kind of heavy even for me." She knows she was lying, but because of her size she was dragging Kakashi along the ground. Naruto looks at her and says "How can he be heavy? I thought you were stronger in this form." Einjeru shakes her head and Sasuke says "Look at the size difference between her and him. She's lying about being unable to carry him, stupid." Tsunami looks at the talking wolf and Kakashi, and says "Father? Who's the wolf?"
Tazuna chuckles and says "That's Kakashi's brat. She has a human form, but she's in this form carrying him." Einjeru chuckles and Kakashi groans. Sakura says "He must have overused the sharingan." Einjeru nods and says "It's the primary form of his chakra exhaustion. Normally with a bloodline trait, the bloodline that it originates from has the chakra reserves to use it than someone who wasn't born with it. It takes my dad more chakra to use the sharingan because of that. If I'm not mistaken he'll be out for a week at best."
In the house, after putting Kakashi to bed, Einjeru reverted to her human form and went down to meet with the others. Tsunami looks and says "So we see the human behind the wolf." Einjeru smiles and says "Yes, it's the bloodline for the Hatake clan. Obviously my dad rarely uses it. I kind of like it though." Sakura says "Of course you like turning into a mutt." Einjeru's pride stepped in and she said "You know I can hurt you no matter what form I'm in."
Tazuna then says "What's up with you guys? One minute you guys work together the next you guys are at each others throats." Einjeru shakes her head and said "Someone has a lot to learn about being a shinobi and about using cheep insults." Kakashi in the meanwhile is groaning to the point where Einjeru got annoyed and thought "I'm in trouble."
She went upstairs and Kakashi says "Finally. Were you threatening Sakura?" Einjeru gulped and nodded. Kakashi sighed and said "You're bigger than this. Can't you ignore the insults?" Einjeru huffed and said "You try being called a mutt." Kakashi chuckled and said "I was called baka-kashi by my teammate back in my chunin days. So my little Angel, can't you learn to ignore it?" Einjeru smiled and said "I'll try dad."
The others came upstairs to see Einjeru sitting next to Kakashi smiling. Naruto grins saying "I guess it was a means of getting your attention, eh Einjeru?" She nods and says "When dad is stronger, we need to talk." Sasuke then says "I heard you earlier regarding the tracker ninja. Is that what the talk is about?" Einjeru nods. She goes into her wolf form and lies down. "You'll find out more tomorrow." She said yawning.
The next day, Kakashi was sitting up and stroking Einjeru's fur. She stretched and said "Good morning dad. Could you stop stroking my fur now?" He chuckled and said "It's relaxing." Einjeru scoffed and went to her human form. Tsunami came in and saw the two of them up. She went to get the rest of the squad so they can talk. Naruto was the first one in the room saying "Jeez Kakashi sensei. What's going on?"
Kakashi tried to straighten up and said "If you heard Einjeru's question the other day, then you already know what this is about. Did you guys see what the hunter ninja did with Zabuza's body?" Everyone nodded and Kakashi continues "They're supposed to dispose of the body on sight. Since he didn't, there's a possibility that he may be Zabuza's apprentice. We have less than a week until he is at full strength. During that time you guys will be training."
Sakura then says "What kind of training will make us stronger in a week?" Einjeru got a glimmer in her eye and laughed. Kakashi then said "Chakra control. If you can control the flow of chakra, you can essentially master any technique in theory." Naruto then asks how. Einjeru then says "Tree climbing without using your hands. It's actually a chunin level technique." Kakashi then said "Einjeru, you'll have to show them how it's done." She nods and tells them to follow her to the forest.
In the forest, Einjeru built up chakra in her feet and walked up the tree. She then walked up a branch upside down and said "It looks easy, but you have to know the right amount of chakra to use. Too much and you'll repel off the tree. Too little and you won't stick at all. You guys need to use a kunai to mark your progress. The key to this is focus, and I'm directing this at Naruto." Naruto pouts saying "Aw come on." Einjeru smirks thinking "That should get Naruto to try harder." She releases her suction on the tree and lands gracefully.
The three of them grab a kunai from their pouch and gather chakra in their feet. They start running up the tree and already Naruto fell, Sasuke repelled and and Sakura had gotten pretty high. Einjeru scoffs and thinks to herself "Not bad for a fangirl. Now there's something I need to try." She pulls out a kunai and stuck it in her mouth. Chuckling, she went into her wolf form still holding the kunai in her mouth.
Einjeru starts building chakra in her paws and tries to walk up the tree. By the time she made it past Sakura, her control went out the window and she ended up repelling from the tree. She landed on the ground to see Naruto bumping his head again. Einjeru shakes her head and builds up chakra again. She broke her mark and made it all the way up the tree.
Sakura says "Hey Einjeru! I bet you can't do that in your human form!" Einjeru sighs and says "I wouldn't be doing that in this form if I couldn't. I do it human before I go wolf. Think about that Haruno before trying to diss someone, namely me." Naruto falls again and whines. Einjeru gets to the ground, and Naruto begs for advice. Einjeru shakes her head and says to Naruto "The key is not to allow anyone to distract you from your control. Earlier I was having that problem because of Sakura. After I ignored her, I managed to make it to the top. Just focus on building your chakra to the right point."
Naruto nods and focuses. Einjeru reverts to her human form and heads back to the house. Sakura pushed herself to her limits and eventually followed suit. Naruto and Sasuke continued until dusk and ended up carrying each other back to the house. As soon as they got there, dinner was ready and they were eating so much so fast that they were throwing up as soon as they said "I want more!" Einjeru pulled Naruto's ear and said "Slow down before you make yourself sick." She did the same for Sasuke and Sakura started yelling.
Einjeru ignored her for the most part until Kakashi was bad-mouthed. Her ear twitched and she turned around saying "What did you say about my father/your sensei?" Naruto flinched at the showing of Einjeru's Killing Intent. Sakura repeated and Einjeru pulled her out the door and started blasting her. Sasuke, Naruto, Tsunami and Tazuna were watching from the door and thought the same thing: "Should we get the sensei?"
Before they even turned around, Kakashi was on crutches and walked by all of them to get outside. Meanwhile, Einjeru was delivering blow after blow until her hand was caught. Einjeru's eyes drifted to her hand and saw Kakashi's fingerless glove. She gulped and took a deep breath. Sakura laughed and Kakashi said "I heard everything, you two. Einjeru, I'll deal with you when we return to the leaf. Sakura, that was very disrespectful what you have said. You should be lucky that Einjeru's hits didn't connect. Her punches when she's angry are... devastating." Einjeru chuckled nervously as she knew what the punishment was upon returning to the leaf.
The next day, Einjeru didn't bother getting up. She was essentially grounded. Kakashi kept her by his side at all times just to make sure she didn't go killing Sakura. Einjeru was perfectly content when she wasn't facing Sakura. Kakashi sighs and says "Did you bring the book with you?" Einjeru raised her head and said "You mean our clan book?" He nods and Einjeru goes for her bag.
She reverted to her human form so she could grab the book. Kakashi sighed and said "What happened to ignoring Sakura?" Still looking through her bag, Einjeru replied "That went out the window when she bad-mouthed you. I can ignore her yelling at me about Sasuke and calling me a mutt, but once you were involved all bets were off." She pulled out the book and noticed the bookmark. She went back over to Kakashi and sat next to him.
He opened the book and said "You may be grounded, but you need to be learning something as well. I'm going to try and keep Sakura at bay with guarding Tazuna at the bridge. You'll be in charge of the other two and learning some more of the wolf techniques. The white chakra is something we have to save until we're back to the chore-like missions." Einjeru nods and opens the book to the bookmarked page.
Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke are in the forest continuing the tree-walking and Sakura is fan-girling about how well Sasuke is doing it. Naruto thinks to himself "I wish I was grounded and forced to stay near Kakashi sensei just so I won't have to hear this." Sasuke then says "What an annoyance. She was more bearable when Einjeru was around." Einjeru sneezed and said "Someone must be thinking or talking about me."
A few days have passed, and Sasuke and Naruto had made it to the top of the tree using their chakra. Naruto collapsed from chakra exhaustion and was left with Einjeru who was trying to constantly infuse her chakra. She managed to create enough clones to fill the room with the amount of chakra she was infusing. She eventually went into her wolf form and lied down on the floor bored out of her mind.
At the same time, a young boy was walking around the house and saw her in her wolf form. He screamed scaring Einjeru out of her boredom. Tsunami came and saw why he was yelling, and said to him "It's okay Inari. She's one of the ninja assigned to guard your grandfather." Inari huffed and said "Then why isn't she with the others?" Naruto woke up and said "I'm late!"
Einjeru then said "Hold your horses Naruto. My dad wants you to stay here." Naruto then says "No way!" Inari then says "Maybe your sensei is right. Anyone who stands up to Gato dies anyways." Naruto then says "What did you say?" Einjeru stood in front of him and said "He's a little boy Naruto. Grow up!" Inari cries and says "You guys should go home!" Tsunami apologizes and Naruto starts heading out to the bridge.
Tsunami then says "Aren't you going to go with him?" Einjeru shook her head and said "I was told to stay with you and Naruto. Besides after the other night, it would only cause friction and potentially causing your father to be killed. Besides that, Gato may send his men after you to use as a bargaining chip. This is a way to cover all of our bases and make sure nothing happens to anyone." Tsunami nods and goes to clean up the house.
Meanwhile at the bridge, Kakashi Sasuke, and Sakura were standing near Tazuna until a mist appeared. Kakashi said "Get ready!" Sasuke and Sakura readied their kunai and a group of Zabuza clones appeared out of nowhere. Sasuke grins and says "I can see through them." Zabuza appears with the masked ninja from the previous week. The masked ninja says "Just give us the old man."
Kakashi then says to Sasuke "I leave the masked guy to you Sasuke." Sakura already knew to stay with Tazuna. Zabuza says "I won't fall prey to your monkey see monkey do tricks anymore Kakashi." Meanwhile Naruto is blazing through the forest to make it to the bridge. However, he comes across a dead boar. He notices that it was just killed and sees slashes in all of the trees heading in the direction of the house.
Back at the house, Einjeru is in her human form and keeps an eye on Tsunami and Inari. "This is my way of contributing to the teamwork." She thinks. All of a sudden there's a crash and a scream. Einjeru jumps and sneaks downstairs. She peers into the kitchen and sees two thugs trying to kidnap Tsunami. Inari tries to go up against the thugs and gets held against his will.
"That does it!" Einjeru thought as she clutched a kunai in her hand. Naruto then yells "Hold it right there!" Einjeru smirks and thinks "What an idiot." As the thugs turn towards the screaming Orange-clad ninja, Einjeru knocked them out, and turned to Tsunami and Inari smiling. Tsunami took a breath of relief and Naruto comes in and says "You alright?!" Einjeru smiled and said "If it wasn't for you I couldn't have snuck behind them and knocked them out." Naruto giggled and gave her a look. Einjeru reads the thoughts behind the look and frowned.
Naruto starts off the argument by saying "You're needed at the bridge Einjeru." Einjeru grumbles and says "You know I can't do that Naruto. I'm already in enough trouble with my dad for fighting with Sakura that night. Besides we just proved my father right about needing to keep guard on Tsunami and Inari." Naruto then says "What happened to the friend who would skip class with me?" Einjeru shook her head and said "I'm still your friend, but there's a time for us to grow up. Unfortunately when we graduated the academy that was my time." Naruto was stunned by this remark and went to the bridge. Einjeru bit her lip and held back her tears. She hates fighting with Naruto, but defying Kakashi meant a larger punishment upon getting back to the village. She was already in trouble for almost putting Sakura six feet under.
Naruto had gotten to the bridge and saw Sasuke was trapped in the masked ninja's jutsu. He yelled out and Kakashi said "Why would you give away your position? That was very stupid Naruto." However he was hoping Einjeru was with him, but knowing how strict he was when punishing her, he didn't hold his hopes out. Sasuke was thinking of how Naruto could attack from the outside, yet Naruto appeared next to him saying "I'm here to save you." Sasuke face-palmed before both of them got hit with a barrage of senbon.
Back at the house, Einjeru regained her composure and stayed close to Inari. Tsunami came up to her and said "He's your best friend. Why did you not go with him?" Einjeru shook her head saying "There are different facets of my dad that not too many people see. He's Naruto's landlord, he's our sensei, and then there's nice dad and angry/disappointed dad. Nice dad gives advice and treats me to various restaurants in the village. Angry/disappointed dad disciplines me and normally keeps me in the house sort of speak. When going against his wishes, that side comes out. I really want to go, but I'm already in enough trouble with him and he said he'd deal with me fighting with Sakura upon getting back to the village."
Tsunami then pats her back and says "I'm sure your dad and teammates can use every hand they can get at the bridge. If you get in trouble for it, I'll explain it." Einjeru smiled and said "What about you and Inari?" Tsunami smiled and held up a frying pan saying "I can handle it." Einjeru smiled and said "I apologize about that." She rushed out the door after putting her pouches and her slightly mended weights on.
At the bridge, the masked kid was bombarding Naruto and Sasuke with the speed and senbon. Kakashi was fending off Zabuza the best he could. Einjeru was sticking to the shadows to figure out what was going on. She revealed her wolf ears to hear better and her eyes had changed to increase her sight. "I'm starting to master my partial changes better." She thought. She looked into the dome of ice to see Naruto collapsed and the masked kid and Sasuke going for him. "It's now or never! It's time to put all that training and spars with Guy during my academy days to good use."
She charged at the ice dome yelling out "Hidden Leaf Hurricane!" She managed to put a crack in the ice mirror, but the force wasn't enough to break it. Einjeru thought to herself "Damn it! I was hoping for that to work." The masked ninja came out of the mirror impressed that it was cracked by the force of a kick. Kakashi was relieved that Einjeru showed up and was surprised that she had learned that move.
Naruto woke up to see Sasuke in front of him. Sasuke was relieved that Einjeru showed up when she did. Sasuke then thought "If I can direct her on where to go, her speed with the weights on is almost on par with the enemy. She'll be able to land a hit on him and we can break this jutsu." Sasuke calls to Einjeru who gets in the dome without being noticed. She grinned and said "I can go even faster. It's time to test how much faster I've become without these things on." Naruto then says "Are you nuts?! The last time you took those things off, no one could catch you." Sasuke grins and says "That's what we need right now. Not to mention she's not exhausted."
Kakashi remembered the last time she was going around the village without the weights that Guy gave her. Everyone begged him to make sure she kept them on until it was deemed necessary to take them off. He thought to himself "Her number one aspect is speed. Not to mention the weights add quite a bit of impact to her kicks. It's time for her to take them off and take out that boy." Zabuza then goes for the bridge-builder and Sakura. Kakashi gets there in the knick of time.
Zabuza gets Kakashi with the sword and says "I'm disappointed. I expected more out of you." Kakashi smirked behind his mask and pulled out a scroll from his pocket. Einjeru smelled his blood and thought "He's going to summon the ninken to sniff Zabuza out by using his own blood. He wanted Zabuza to slice him." Meanwhile the masked ninja was awaiting to see what Einjeru was going to do. Kakashi said to Einjeru in thought "Do it."
Upon hearing that in her head, Einjeru told Naruto and Sasuke to back up. She then pulled her stockings down and removed the weights from her knees. She nods to Sasuke who tells Naruto to run out of the dome. The ninja came out and Sasuke told Einjeru where to go. All anyone else saw was a black and purple blur. The ninja then said "How? No one can match my speed." Einjeru grinned and said "It pays to have training with a taijutsu expert."
After Kakashi wiped his blood on the scroll and waved it around, he weaved the signs and called out " Summoning: Earth Style: Fanged Pursuit Jutsu." The ninken were moving through the ground and popped up immobilizing Zabuza. Kakashi came over to him as the mist cleared.
In the dome, Einjeru had pinned the ninja down and unmasked him. Naruto recognized the boy and said "So that person was Zabuza?" The boy nods and says "My name is Haku. I was born in the land of snow to poor farmers My mother however had a special bloodline trait. After the wars, the people of the land feared those with the bloodline trait. My mom managed to hide it until I demonstrated it. My father discovered it and killed my mother. He was going to kill me as well, but my powers reacted out of my fear and I killed him. I then left my home just to find that no one cared about my existence."
Einjeru then said "Then how did you cross paths with Zabuza then?" Haku continued saying "I was sitting on a bridge and he found me. He made me feel useful. However now that you guys have defeated my jutsu, I have become useless." Naruto felt bad and Einjeru was torn between what she was taught by Kakashi and the way her teammates would look at her for killing someone in cold blood. Sasuke then says "Well we can't let him live, but we don't have the heart to kill him either."
Einjeru gulped and said "You guys need to promise me that you won't react out of fear for what I'm about to do." Naruto's eyes widened and Einjeru said "This will be my first kill, I know, but we have to complete our mission no matter what. They're missing ninja anyway." Sasuke said "She's right idiot. If we let him live, it will create problems for us down the road." He nods to her and Einjeru holds a kunai to Haku's jugular. She gulps again and runs the blade against it, hard and fast.
Naruto holds back his vomit and Einjeru looked at her blood-stained hands. The crystal mirrors broke signifying that Haku was dead. Sakura noticed the mirrors disappearing and saw three figures, one of them hunched. Tazuna nudged her saying "Take me with you so you're not disobeying your sensei's orders." Sakura grabbed him and ran over to them. She was frightened by what she saw.
Naruto and Sasuke put their hands on Einjeru's shoulders and Sakura said "Who killed him?" Naruto and Sasuke remained quiet, both grudgingly acknowledging that they didn't have the heart to kill when their younger teammate did. Einjeru spoke up saying "It was me. I killed him." She shook and said "I don't know what to do. I'm scared." Her necklace started to react and Kakashi was about to tell the ninken to rip Zabuza to shreds.
Out of the blue a voice called out "Wow! You're worthless Zabuza! I'm glad I wasn't going to pay you." Zabuza glared at Gato saying "I have no reason to go after the old man which means I have no quarrel with you, Kakashi." Kakashi released the summoning and said "Well I have my squad to tend to." He flashes over to them and Gato says to the massive group of thugs behind him "Kill the ninja and the bridge-builder."
Back over with the four genin, Kakashi appeared and saw why her necklace was reacting. Einjeru was in shock. Kakashi motioned for them to back up as he moved closer to Einjeru. Einjeru looked at Kakashi and shakily said "I killed him dad. I-I k-killed h-him." Kakashi nods and says "The first kill is never easy. As ninja we have to confront death, be it that we're delivering the final blow or receiving the final blow."
Zabuza comes over and says "I know you're having a counseling session with one of your students, but we have a problem." Kakashi looked up and saw a crowd of thugs ready to ravage the bridge. Einjeru looked up knowing that something had changed and looked behind her thinking "Aw come on." Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura readied their kunai. Einjeru stood up and grabbed the kunai from Haku's throat.
The thugs charged thinking that they were going to make it into the village. Naruto and Einjeru had a good amount of chakra to make a bluff. Both of them called out the multi shadow clone jutsu. Kakashi smiled thinking "I could at least help with the bluff." He called out multi shadow clone jutsu and a sheer amount of him appear saying "Wanna fight!" Einjeru's mouth dropped upon hearing that. Naruto whined saying "Aw! I wanted to say that! Why'd you steal my line Kakashi sensei?!"
All the thugs quivered with the amount of opponents that appeared. The Einjeru clones all yelled "Boo!" Upon hearing that the thugs ran back to the boat. Zabuza managed to sneak off during the commotion. Kakashi undid the jutsu and looked at Einjeru who was laughing until she looked at her hands. He came over to her and said "It's okay. Just be grateful we're not in the middle of a war right now." Einjeru sighed and said "I guess you're right dad."
A couple of weeks later, the bridge was completed and the mission was completed without no more surprises. Squad 7 was recuperated and ready to head back to the village hidden in the leaves. Getting back, Kakashi reports in to Lord Third and gives him the mission report. Lord Third expressed concern about Einjeru's mental state and wanted to see her.
Einjeru was at Ichiraku picking at her miso pork ramen. Naruto sat next to her wondering why she was picking with it. He starts off saying "Hey Einjeru? Aren't you happy we completed the mission?" Einjeru shrugged and said "I guess, but I don't feel well." All of a sudden an ANBU Black Ops. came in and said to Einjeru "You're requested in the hokage's office." She nods and takes her ramen to go.
At the hokage tower, Einjeru awaited to go in and see what Lord Third wanted to see her for. Lord Third told her to come in and he looked at Einjeru with a critical eye. Einjeru wanted to curl up into a ball. Lord Third starts off saying "I'm glad you guys returned safely. Kakashi told me about you killing a masked ninja." Einjeru shook her head and said "He was unmasked when I killed him. I shook upon seeing what I did. I'm just nervous about what my team thinks of me."
Lord Third says "Even I could sense that you were hesitant about it. It's not like you wanted to kill the boy. You felt you were doing what was best." Tears ran down her cheeks and she yelled "He was innocent! He was innocent and I killed him. I feel like I don't deserve to be here!" Kakashi was hidden in the room and was heartbroken when he heard that. He came up behind her and said "Why do you think that?" Einjeru shrugged saying "I don't know. I just didn't feel right about killing him."
Kakashi then says "Even if they did change sides, in the end they were a threat and you needed to defend yourself as the situation called for it. If you kill them, you kill them. The life of a shinobi only gets harder Einjeru. It's not as glorified as it's made out to be." Einjeru then says "How did you make it through?" Kakashi smiles and says "It's my comrades. My comrades help me through. Take Guy for instance." Einjeru got the picture once she heard Guy.
She said "I haven't been myself since the incident in question. I'm trying to cope, but it hasn't been easy." Kakashi then said "It never gets any easier, and you're still in trouble for fighting with Sakura, but because of what happened I won't make it as severe as I intended. Maybe Sakura can be of some help during your emotional transitions." Einjeru nodded and said "Are we getting some time off? I haven't really been sleeping or eating lately. I just haven't been feeling well." Lord Third says "All genin are on mission suspension. It will allow their sensei or squad leader to decide whether or not they're ready." Einjeru nods and says "May I go home now?" Kakashi then thinks "She knows what's going on, but her mind and body aren't in synch with each other causing her not to feel well."
Kakashi brings her home and says "You sure are taking this hard." Einjeru shook her head and was falling asleep after 2 weeks of sleepless nights. Kakashi smiles thinking "Sasuke, Naruto and Einjeru are beyond ready for the chunin exams. Their physical strength is up there and their teamwork surpasses my old team for the most part. I mostly expected Naruto to argue with Sasuke, but it's Einjeru with Sakura. Well Lord Third is expecting the decisions next week. I'll test them again to see if they're ready for one of the deadliest exams in the ninja world."
A few weeks later marked the start of the chunin exams. Even though Kakashi deemed them ready, the squad had their individual doubts. Einjeru wasn't ready to face the perils of the test, but she told herself to do her best. The first test was a mental one. Naruto feared for his best friend since the land of waves. Sasuke was determined to test his strength against the other opponents. Sakura still had her head in Sasuke's behind. Lately Einjeru had been ignoring it and seeing a shrink. (Kakashi's punishment which for once Einjeru appreciated.)
Upon entering the first test, Einjeru saw some familiar faces and some not so much. Her academy classmates were there plus some of the hidden leaf's other genin including Guy's squad. Einjeru recognized Lee quickly and hoped she'd have a bout with him sometime during the exam.
