Chapter 17 - Confrontation and Help

Next Day

After travelling for a whole day, and crossing the sea, team 7 finally reached the Land of Waves. At first sight, it looked like a normal place, but after looking for a while, things started to unravel. The people there were barely surviving. They looked like they were walking skeleton that was covered with the thinnest layer of skin.

When it came to survival, humans could go the any extent. This case was no different, as a 7 year old child quickly snatched Rui's backpack and tried to run away. But to his misfortune, Rui was far more skilled to let a kid snatch her belongings. As she turned to catch the boy she found out that the boy had stumbled upon himself and was dragging himself away from Rui, as he didn't even had the strength to pick Rui's bag which she was carrying so effortlessly.

As Rui walked towards the boy, he finally decided to let go of the bag and run for his life. But as he tried to run away, he leg got tangled with the bag, preventing him from running away. As Rui closed the distance between them, the boy realized that he couldn't run away now, he just knelt down before Rui.

"I am sorry, I am Sorry. Please forgive me. I won't do it ever again." The boy was practically begging for mercy. He was just shivering with fear and was just about to cry out. Rui then came close to him, picked up her bag, and took out half a dozen of banana and offered it to the boy.

"Here, take it. And don't try to do such things." Rui said as the boy barely lift his head to see Rui. He was not sure whether to take the bananas or run away, but after Rui insisted, he finally took the them.

"Why did you try to steal it?" Sakura asked.

"It's not like I have a choice. Both my parents died a few months ago, and I have to resort to stealing to stay alive." The boy said.

'Was killing the daimyo of this land really that important, Itachi? Why did you guys do it?' Kakashi thought. He knew the answers of his questions very well, but he could not accept the outcome of a simple assassination mission to be this devastating.

"We shall be going now?" Kakashi said.

"Right, let's go." Rui said.

Into the Forest

After leaving the town, the group had to cross the forest to reach Tazuna's house. As they were walking through the forest, they heard some noise in the bushes. At the noise Sakura perked up, and in a flash, she fished out a kunai, hurling it into a bush, making the others jump, save for Kakashi, who sensed it as well.

"Sakura!?" Sasuke asked, tense. Soon after the kunai went inside the bush, a white rabbit ran out from there.

"Relax, it is just a rabbit." Kakashi said but suddenly he felt a chill crawling down his spine.

"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!" Kakashi ordered. Sasuke tackled Tazuna to the ground while Kakashi grabbed Sakura and dropped. Unfortunately for Rui, she was not quick enough follow others, but she sidestepped just in time to avoid being cut into two as a 5 foot long blade flew before her and stuck into a tree.

"Damm it. I didn't expect him to attack us this quick." Kakashi muttered as a slender man landed on the sword. He had covered the lower part of his face with bandages.

"Kakashi, the copy ninja. No wonder the Demon brothers never returned." Zabuza said.

"Well, I didn't even lift a finger. My students took care of them." Kakashi said as he lifted his headband to reveal his sharingan.

"Students? So, they have made you a teacher now. How pathetic." Zabuza said as he made a hand seal and thick fog appeared around them.

"Kakashi sensei!" Sakura said in a scared voice.

"Don't be afraid. I can take care of him." Kakashi said.

"It's Rui." Sakura said as Kakashi look at them with the corner of his eye. Rui was lying on the ground as her gut was sliced in half and the only thing that was holding her upper and lower body together was her spine. Apparently, when she side stepped to avoid the blade, it didn't cut her completely but inflicted a deep cut instead.

'Crap, if I don't stich her wound now, she will die of blood loss.' Kakashi thought.

"Sasuke, you take care of Zabuza while I treat Rui's wound." Kakashi said. Seeing the blood of Rui, and her near death situation, the horror terrified Sasuke to the very core of his being. The horror was so much for him that he directly awakened the two tomoe sharingan.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi yelled as he picked up Rui and made a shadow clone.

"You have to survive for 5 minutes, and from the training I gave you, I know you can do it. And just close your sharingan for now, you lack the experience to use it properly." Kakashi said as he disappeared from there taking Rui with him leaving his Shadow Clone there.

"Right!" Sasuke said as he took out a kunai and shunshined to Tazuna. Tazuna was covered by a tree from behind and Sasuke and Sakura were in his front.

Suddenly Zabuza appeared before Sasuke, about to decapacitate him but was blocked by Kakashi'. Sasuke then took out a bunch of Kunai and shot them at Zabuza who used his sword to deflect them. But by the time Zabuza deflected the kunai, Kakashi made a set of hand seals and inhaled to his full capacity.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough." Kakashi exhaled a powerful gust of wind to remove the mist.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu." Sasuke too blew a massive ball of fire at Zabuza making him land on the lake to avoid getting burned.

"Heh, I just have to land a single hit to dispell you." Zabuza said looking at Kakashi before he started to form a set of hand seals. Suddenly a water dragon emerged from the lake and attacked Kakashi.

"Earth Release: Mud Wall." Kakashi said as he made a wall of rock before him to defend from the attack. But as the water dragon collided with the wall, 2 water clones of Zabuza also appeared from either side and swung their sword to attack Kakashi. But Kakashi used the swords as a base to jump higher and shot a kunai at each clone to dispel them and landed on top of the wall.

But suddenly another water dragon emerged from the lake, and though being smaller than the previous one, it was faster.

"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Jutsu." Sasuke said as he blew out a fire dragon that collided with the water dragon to produce steam around the place.

"Good work, Sasuke. 3 Minutes more." Kakashi' said.

"What a fool. Water Release: Multiple Rising Water Slicer." Zabuza said as he made another set of hand seals. Suddenly, a dozen of linear waves of water emerged from water and shot at Sasuke and Kakashi from the lake.

"Dodge!" Kakashi said as both he and Sasuke swiftly dodged the waves. At first, Sasuke wondered why Kakashi asked him to dodge when he could vaporize them with fire release but when the dodged waves cleanly sliced through the rocks and trees like nothing, he got his answer.

While Kakashi and Sasuke were busy dodging the attacks, Zabuza slowly lead them away from each other. And after the waves stopped, they found themselves a few hundred meters away from each other.

"Normally, I would just kill the target and be done with it, but not with you guys. I will kill all of you." Zabuza said as he made another set of hand seals and suddenly the water of the lake started to rise and soon, all the water cascade down on the land between Kakashi and Sasuke, creating a canal between them. "Water Release: Giant Vortex Jutsu." Zabuza said as he stood on the canal between them.

"Do you even realize your position?" Kakashi asked as he formed a Raikiri in his hand. "Water is a good conductor of electricity and you are standing right between us."

Suddenly, Zabuza felt his head lighter as he stood there. "Wait a minute, I wasn't trying to do this." Zabuza yelled.

"That's right, you weren't. But then again, you sure do have a bad habit to look in the eyes of your enemy, and coincidentally I am very good with my sharingan… and you underestimated me for being a clone too." Kakashi said as Sasuke made a hand seal too.

"Raikiri."

"Lightning Release: Lightning Stream."

Both Kakashi and Sasuke directed their lightning technique at Zabuza through the water that electrocuted him to the point that he couldn't even move any of his muscles, as he started to drown.

"Now this is for Rui!" Kakashi said as he made a long set of hand seals and suddenly a Water Dragon emerged from the water that engulfed Zabuza and smashed him right into a tree, near Sakura and Tazuna.

"Well, guess what. 1 minute is still remaining." Kakashi said as he walked towards Zabuza.

As he was walking towards the barely conscious Zabuza, suddenly out of nowhere, 3 shenbons came at Kakashi. Kakashi quickly noticed the shenbons and jumped back to dodge them. But as he was dodging the shenbons, a shadowy figure came out of nowhere and took Zabuza away.

'Hmm, shall I pursue them? No, that won't be necessary. If he wants to fight another battle, then he will come back tomorrow and if he ran away for his life, then I guess I would show some mercy.' Kakashi said.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked.

"He escaped." The real Kakashi said as his shadow clone disappeared. He was holding Rui in his hands. It looked that the bleeding has stopped but she was far from okay.

"Where did these shenbons came from?" Sakura asked.

"That must be his partner's doing, though I never heard he had one." Kakashi said.

"How is Rui?" Sakura asked.

"I have stitched her wounds, so the bleeding has stopped but she needs a medic to treat her properly." Kakashi said as he wrote something on a mini scroll and bit his thumb to summon Pakkun.

"Take this to Lord Hokage." Kakashi said as Pakkun ran off taking the scroll with him.

"I have sent a message to the village for a medic, so one will be here by tomorrow late afternoon." Kakashi said.

"Let's get going then." Sasuke said.

Tazuna's Home

They reached Tazuna's home by the sunset, as the team finally took a breath of relief. But that moment of relief was short lived as after reaching there, they noticed that Rui's condition was getting worse by the second, as she was vomiting blood like it was nothing.

"Sensei, I don't think Rui is feeling good." Sakura said.

"What happened to her?" Tsunami, the daughter of Tazuna asked.

"Let me see." Kakashi said as he removed the cloth that was covering her wound. It was a long and deep wound, from one side to the other. Almost all her organs were cut by the swing. Kakashi did the most he could to stop the bleeding but even he was unable to stop the internal bleeding. And to add salt to the wound, the purple skin around the wound was suggesting something else.

"Her organs are badly damaged and she is continuously bleeding internally. She has also been poisoned. The sword was coated with…" Kakashi gave a good look at the wound and the blood that she had vomited. "… some highly toxic poison."

"She has hardly 16 hours left, by that time if she doesn't die from the poison, she will die from the blood loss." Kakashi said.

"How much time will it take for the backup to arrive?" Sasuke asked.

"Pakkun left 4 hours ago, and it will take him 2 more hours to reach Konoha. But the problem is that even the fastest medics will take atleast a day to arrive here. There is no hope for her." Kakashi said in a genuine sad voice.

"Can't we do anything to save her. We can go to the city to find a doctor, can't we?" Sakura asked.

"Unfortunately, there is no skilled medic in this country to treat such wounds." Tazuna said.

"Does that mean that she is not going to make it?" Sasuke asked as he sharingan flared to life.

"For now, all we can do is hope for the best." Kakashi said.

"Can't you do atleast something to stop her bleeding?" Sakura asked.

"I am not a professional, if I try, there is a really good chance that I might even make it worse.

Meanwhile in Sunagakure

Gaara was the son of the Fourth Kazekage and the Jinchuriki of the village. Despite being the same age as Naruto, he had murdered countless people of his own village whenever he wanted. But this was only the half truth about the jinchuriki.

From an early age, he became the target of many assassins who were sent by his father himself to 'make him strong'. The truth was that he never slept in all these years because he didn't wanted to unleash the One Tail on his village. But even after that, his father continued to sent ninjas to kill him. Naruto himself had witnessed more than a hundred assassination attempts on Gaara, but none of them ever managed to lay a finger on him. Today was no exception, as a masked Sand ANBU was trying to sneak on the roof on which Gaara was sitting.

"You will also die, just like others." Gaara said as the ANBU dashed at him. But before he could even reach Gaara, he got covered in sand from head to toe.

"Sand Coffin." Gaara said as the sand crushed the ANBU and blood sprayed out from the sand.

Naruto was observing this from the window of an apartment at a distance. Naruto had bags under his eyes as he couldn't lose sight of the Gaara even for a moment. He was using his Shadow Clones to spy on him in turns. But today was the last day of his work. He would leave the Sand village this night.

He then quickly wrote all the details about the mission and about his departure from Sunagakure. Then he bit his thumb and summoned an eagle. He had got his hands of an Eagle contract back in Konoha, which was a promotion gift from Itachi. After the eagle was summoned, Naruto tied the scroll on its back and sent it to Konoha.

"It should take about 2 hours. Travelling through air is really good." Naruto said as he saw the eagle fly away.

Hokage Office

"So, they need medical backup." Hiruzen said as he read the scroll that Pakkun brought him. As Hiruzen stopped talking, another chunnin knocked on the door.

"Come in." Hiruzen said as the chunnin entered his office. He then approached the Hokage and handed him a small scroll.

"What is this?" Hiruzen asked.

"Naruto-Sama sent this, through his eagle summoning." The chunnin said.

"Naruto sent this, is he returning?" Hiruzen said as he opened the scroll and a shine appeared in his eyes as he read the contents of the scroll. 'The ink is still wet.' Hiruzen said as he noticed the ink.

"It is written just 2 hours ago, and to think that he sent this all the way from Sunagakure. His summoning is just as fast as him." Hiruzen said.

"If he is travelling on foot, then by the time our message reaches him, he will be at the border of the Land of Wind. Perfect." Hiruzen said as he wrote something on a scroll and handed it to the chunnin.

"Send it to Naruto." Hiruzen said.

"As you say, Hokage-Sama." The Chunnin said before leaving.

Past Midnight

Of the 16 hours that Rui had, 8 had already passed. Naruto was wearing his normal ANBU uniform and was currently running through the desert about to leave the Land of Wind, as he spotted a falcon coming to him from the direction of Konoha. Naruto then raised his hand for the falcon to land. After the bird came to him Naruto untied the scroll on its leg and read it.

"Kakashi-nii san, Sasuke, it's been a while, huh." Naruto said as he let the falcon go away. He then bit his thumb and summoned a giant Eagle, that was big enough to carry half a dozen of people on its back.

"Your Orders, Naruto-Sama?" The eagle asked.

"Let's go to the Land of Waves, Garuda my friend. How long will it take us?" Naruto asked as he climbed on Garuda's back.

"We will reach there by the sunrise." Garuda said.

"Let's go then." Naruto said as he lied on Garuda's back and fell asleep in a few minutes.

At Sunrise

Rui now had only 2 hours left before the poison finally takes her life. She was still unconscious but she could feel all the pain she was suffering. The pain and suffering was so much that dying seemed to be better choice to her.

"Sakura, you stay here and take care of Rui, while I and Sasuke will go to the bridge to receive the back up." Kakashi said.

"But can't they come here?" Sasuke asked.

"No, I gave the address of the bridge not of this place." Kakashi said. "And we can protect Tazuna-San that way too."

"Okay. Hold on until we get back, Rui." Sasuke said as he and Kakashi left for the bridge with Tazuna.

15 minutes Later

"We are entering the Land of Waves, Naruto-Sama." Garuda said waking up Naruto from his slumber.

"Yeah? Well, let's see… His house should be… umm… a few kilometers to the north-east." Naruto said as he re-read the scroll he had received last night. When submitting a mission, a client has to give his address too. And Hiruzen had sent Naruto the address of Tazuna's home instead of the address of the Bridge.

"That is the house." Naruto said pointing at Tazuna's home. Garuda then dived down and landed before the house, bringing a strong gust of wind with him. Naruto then jumped off from Garuda's back as he patted on his head.

"Thanks for the ride. You can rest now." Naruto said as took out his mask and put it on his face.

"You are most welcome, Naruto-Sama." Garuda said before dispelling himself.

Author's Note

Alright, the new chapter is finally out. And I did some foreshadowing about what is going to happen in the next chapter. Also, Naruto has now 2 summoning contracts and he will get 1 more in the next few chapters. And Sasuke has finally awakened his sharingan, and you might feel the reason dumb but that's what it is. And I have removed Inari [Tazuna's grandson] from the story because he was too much of a trouble to write and he doesn't have any other role in the story.

Well, that's it about the chapter. Drop your opinions in the reviews. See ya in the next chapter.