Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters created by Kishimoto-sensei.
(A/N: Some people have made mention at how easily Naruto relates to girls. There is a very obvious reason for this as growing up he was only exposed to women. He understands them better than he does men, hence he has so much difficulty talking to Sasuke and becoming his friend. Now before anyone jumps to any conclusions Naruto is still a man and quite masculine, he just happens to understand women better then the rest of us poor male bastards.)
"This sucks," complained Naruto as he continued to weed the garden. He wasn't happy about it.
"Stop complaining Naruto-kun," said Sakura, "The sooner we finish the sooner we can train."
"Oh Sakura," said Kakashi, "did I forget to tell you that you've been nominated for medic-nin training?"
"What?" asked a surprised Sakura.
"Yeah, I guess I did forget," said Kakashi, "well, this afternoon is your first lesson with Shizune. You are to meet her at 2:00pm in the hospital classroom 4."
"Congratulations Sakura-chan," said Naruto with a grin, "Hinata-chan will be there with you too. She was also nominated."
"Hinata?" asked Sakura, "How do you know this?"
"Shizune is my sister, remember?" said Naruto, "I hear these things."
"Then you knew I'd been nominated?"
"Yeah, but Kakashi-sensei had to approve it," explained Naruto, "Sandaime Hokage has started a new program requiring that one Genin in every team learn a number of medic Jutsu. Partially because it would reduce the mortality rate a bit and second to test new Genin for the potential to become medic-nin. The level of chakra control you have already makes you ideal just like Hinata-chan."
"This is really great," said Sakura excitedly, "Did anyone else get approved?"
"Um . . . I think Choji is his name," said Naruto, "Apparently his family is quite proficient in the creation of medicines."
"I thought the only thing the Akimichi clan was known for was eating," said Sakura with a snort of laughter.
"That's not very nice," said Naruto, "Oh yeah, we're going out for my birthday this weekend. You're all invited. It's just dinner so don't worry if you can't."
"I'll be there," said Sakura giving Naruto a 'thumbs up' though he could see it was a bit strained from the weighted bracelet she was wearing.
Sasuke snorted signaling that he wouldn't be coming.
"I'll drop in," said Kakashi before turning back to his little orange book.
"Hinata-chan is coming too," said Naruto to Sakura.
"You certainly have a way with the ladies don't you?" asked Kakashi fairly impressed.
"Huh?" asked Naruto confused. He obviously didn't understand the question.
The rest of that mission passed by soon enough. Sasuke refused to train with Naruto and went home. Sakura went to her first lesson for becoming a medic-nin. This left Naruto alone as Kakashi went off to do whatever it is that he does.
"Well, I think it's time for a little training," said Naruto rubbing his hands together. He ran home as fast as he could and grabbed the Yondaime scroll for the fourth stage and then ran off to his private training spot.
BREAK
One week passed with missions in the morning and some form of training in the afternoon. Soon enough it was the weekend and time for Naruto's birthday dinner.
This year Naruto manage to convince Tsunade to have his dinner in a regular restaurant instead of a pub. Sakura and Hinata were both there as was Shizune and Tsunade.
"Thank you both for coming," said Naruto to Sakura and Hinata. Hinata blushed deeply but Sakura smiled and gave Naruto a small friendly hug. "You both know Shizune-nechan. This is my Kaasan."
"Nice to meet you Mrs. Uzumaki," said Hinata with a polite bow. Poor Hinata thought she did something wrong when Tsunade and Shizune both collapse in laughter.
"Don't mind them Hinata-chan," said Naruto, "Kaasan isn't my Kaasan by blood."
"Oh, I'm sorry Naruto-kun," said Hinata.
"Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan, please just call me Tsunade," said Naruto's Kaasan with a grin.
"Nice to meet you Tsunade-sama," said Sakura with a bow.
"Drop the sama would you?" ordered Tsunade, "You're Naruto-kun's friends so the formality isn't really needed."
"Oh," stuttered Hinata as she blushed and held out a package to Naruto, "For you Naruto-kun."
Naruto seemed puzzled for a moment but took the package, "Thank you Hinata-chan but you didn't have to do that."
"I wanted to," said Hinata softly while turning very red with embarrassment.
"Naruto-kun, from me," said Sakura handing him a box as well."
"Thank you Sakura-chan but again you didn't have to," said Naruto smiling and scratching the back of his head.
"Did Sasuke-kun come?" asked Sakura.
"No, I don't think he will," said Naruto a little disappointed. He'd been trying very hard to become friends with Sasuke but the guy just wasn't interested.
"Come on kids, let's eat," said Tsunade as the food arrived. And so they all ate talking and laughing and just enjoying each other's company.
Just before the gifts were to be opened Kakashi arrived, "Yo, sorry I'm late, you see there was this old lady and . . ."
"Liar," shouted Naruto and Sakura.
"Kakashi-kun," said Tsunade in her dangerous voice. Naruto reflexively inched away from her. "What's this I've been hearing about you not arriving on time? I've also been hearing tales about a little orange book, is this true?"
Kakashi swallowed nervously, "Well, Naruto here's a small gift, happy birthday, bye." Just like that Kakashi had come and gone.
"What a strange guy," said Hinata.
"You have no idea," said Sakura and Naruto together.
"Well now, let's open these gifts," said Tsunade with a bright smile to her son.
Naruto opened Kakashi's first. It was a set of kunai but they were unlike any kunai he'd ever seen before, "What kind of kunai are these?"
"Those are the ones design by Yondaime," said Tsunade, "Treat those well, they are in limited supply."
"I'll have to thank him later," said Naruto with a smile. Next he opened Sakura's gift. It was a utility vest that was popular amongst shinobi. It was completely black and had his clan symbol on the back side of it. "Thank you Sakura-chan, this is great."
"You're welcome Naruto-kun," replied Sakura with a grin. Naruto tried not to laugh because she had frosting stuck to her teeth. It didn't last long once Tsunade snorted and soon they were all laughing at Sakura.
Eventually they explained why they were laughing and she licked her teeth clean despite her crimson blush.
Hinata's gift was next. It was a photo album and inside was a picture of the two of them that one of their friends took. "Thank you Hinata-chan, that's very nice. Who took the picture?"
"Ino-san said she took it by accident so she gave it to me since she didn't know you," explained a blushing Hinata.
"Thank you, I'll have to get a camera now so I can take more pictures of my friends and family to add to this album," said Naruto with a smile.
"You're welcome Naruto-kun," said Hinata blushing even more if that were possible.
"Here you go," said Shizune trying to slide the box across the floor to him, "I'm not even going to trying lifting it this time."
Naruto smiled and opened the box to find the exact style of weight he wanted, "you do listen."
Shizune glared at him for that comment, "Unlike you."
"What was that?" asked Naruto intentionally earning a laugh from the table and an exasperated sigh from Shizune.
Tsunade passed him his customary two boxes. The first box had a new outfit for him. The second box had five new technique scrolls.
"Now before you ask I figure that with you doing missions and such that you wouldn't have as much time to learn new techniques," explained Tsunade.
"This is great Kaasan," said Naruto, "You always get me the best gifts."
Tsunade smiled warmly at the boy.
The last hour passed quickly, Naruto was made to walk both his friends home. Because Sakura was closest he dropped her off first with a short hug good night. Next he walked Hinata home.
"Thank you for inviting me Naruto-kun," said Hinata.
"I'm sure you've been to plenty of birthdays," said Naruto.
"Not really," said Hinata, "But still thank you very much for inviting me."
"Happy to," said Naruto, "Well, I do believe this is your stop." They were standing outside the gates to a large estate.
"Yes," said Hinata and then much to Naruto shock and surprise Hinata gave him a quick kiss before running inside the compound.
Naruto was frozen on the same spot deeply confused.
Eventually Naruto shook himself from his stupor and went home.
"Kaasan," called Naruto when he entered the house.
"What is it Naruto?" called a voice from upstairs.
"Kaasan, can we talk?"
Tsunade came down the stairs calmly, "What is it?"
Naruto sat on the couch waiting for Tsunade to join him. Tsunade took the hint and sat down next to him and put her arm around him.
"Kaasan, tonight when I took Hinata home . . . before she went inside . . . she . . . and I don't . . . but what . . ." Naruto spoke trying to find the right words.
"Hinata gave you your first kiss huh?" asked Tsunade somehow translating in the way that only a mother could.
"Yeah," said Naruto confused.
"Well, I think it is fairly safe to say that she likes you," said Tsunade, "I mean, she kissed you. Gave you a picture of the two of you together. Is always blushing around you."
"I think I figured out that she likes me Kaasan," said Naruto slightly perturbed, "but what the hell should I do?"
"Do you like her?" asked Tsunade.
"She's my friend," said Naruto not know what else to say.
"Have you ever thought about kissing her?" asked Tsunade.
"Not until she kissed me tonight," said Naruto calmly yet slightly perturbed.
"Well, I would suggest that you just not worry about it for now. If in a week you're still thinking about kissing her then we'll worry about it then," said Tsunade.
"Thanks Kaasan, but I still don't know what to do," said Naruto.
"Go to bed," said Tsunade ruffling his hair.
"Night Kaasan," said Naruto as he headed for his room.
"Don't forget to change your weights before you go to bed," reminded Tsunade as he closed his door.
BREAK
"Damn it Kakashi-sensei, no more D missions," complained Naruto as they were waiting for their mission assignment.
The old man behind the desk chuckled.
Naruto approached him, "Hey old man, give something better than another of these stupid D missions. We've already done ten of them. Can't you at least give us a C mission?"
The third chuckled for a moment and the grabbed a scroll and threw hard at Naruto. He was only slightly surprised when Naruto caught the scroll. Then Naruto looked at the scroll.
"Yes, finally a C rank mission," said Naruto running back to his team.
Sarutobi looked at his desk and realized that he accidentally threw the C mission at him instead of the D mission. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes as there was no way he'd be able to get that C mission back from Naruto.
"What's the deal?" asked Kakashi looking over Naruto's shoulder at the scroll.
"Escort duty," said Naruto, "and guard duty. A village just across the border in Wave country has been having trouble with bandits attacking bridge builders."
"Really?" asked Kakashi, "This should be a good experience for you all to get out of the village."
"So you're going to let us keep it?" asked Naruto in surprise.
"Would you really let me take it back to the Hokage?" asked Kakashi.
"Good point, let's go," said Naruto.
"You three go home and pack, I'll take care of the details. We'll meet at the east gate in an hour," said Kakashi.
His three pupils nodded before leaving the building.
An hour later the three young Genin were anxiously awaiting their sensei and the man they were supposed to escort.
"You three are supposed to escort me?" asked a large old man that smelled of sake.
"You the chief bridge builder?" asked Sakura with a bit of disgust.
"Names Tazuna," said the old man.
"Great," said Naruto, "Now where the hell is Kakashi-sensei?"
"Yo," said the man in question announcing his arrival.
"Only a minute late this time, that's a huge improvement," said Naruto sarcastically.
"Just for that you can take point," said Kakashi.
"Yes," said Naruto excitedly, to him that wasn't a punishment at all. The point man was usually the one that got the most action.
The trip from Konoha was uneventful for the most part. Sakura spent a bit of time explaining about the different countries but it was nothing Naruto didn't already know have lived in all of those places at one time or another while growing up.
Luckily Naruto wasn't paying attention to Sakura or he would have missed the fake puddle that two mist-nin were hiding in.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei," called Naruto.
"I know Naruto," said Kakashi.
"Okay," said Naruto as he suddenly dropped into a fighting stance and charged forward toward the puddle that was now changing into two men.
They were fast as they wrapped a long chain around Kakashi and cut him to ribbons before Naruto could get close enough to help. Luckily Naruto could tell that it was a log that was actually cut to pieces.
Naruto attacked one of the mist-nin using a medic-nin Taijutsu style while Sasuke attacked the other. Sakura was protecting Tazuna.
Naruto only had to delay the Nin as before either he or Sasuke could take them Kakashi decimated them in moments.
"The demon brothers, nasty little buggers," said Kakashi, "They like to poison their victims." Kakashi was preparing to interrogate them when they both began to foam at the mouth. "They killed themselves."
Tazuna was looking shocked.
"Tazuna-san, I feel there is something that you're not telling us," said Kakashi seriously.
"I'll tell you everything when we're a bit closer to my village," said Tazuna as he looked around nervously.
Kakashi sighed and nodded. The mission had already been accepted and there was no turning back now despite the change in mission parameters.
At the border they caught a ferry across the river. The boatman was rather nervous about it too. Naruto couldn't help thinking that the boatman seemed more nervous than was necessary for the area just having problems with bandits.
"A couple years ago a new crime boss came to power in the area by the name of Gato," began Tazuna, "He is an evil man who is making a lot of money on the black market trade in the area. He doesn't want this bridge finished because it will affect his black market. It would seem that he has hired shinobi to stop me from finishing the bridge."
"I see," said Kakashi, "Well, we'll have to send Konoha representatives to renegotiate the fees once the mission is complete."
"That's fine, we'll pay in the future but now we are too poor. We could barely afford to hire you," said the man.
"You'll definitely pay for it later. The charge for change of mission status is quite expensive," explained Kakashi, "but that doesn't matter right now."
"Thank you," said Tazuna very emotionally.
Not much longer after that they were let off the ferry in the city.
"Come, we'll stay with my family tonight," said Tazuna, "We live outside the city."
"Show us the way," said Kakashi, "Naruto, you're still on point."
"Yes Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto.
They didn't get too far outside the village when Kakashi suddenly yelled, "Everybody down."
Naruto dropped to the ground quickly as did Sakura. Sasuke also dropped but he took old man Tazuna with him.
Naruto watched as a large sword flew through the air where there heads had been previously to end up stuck in a tree. In whirl of wind and water a man appeared standing on the blade.
"You three guard Tazuna," said Kakashi, "I'll take care of him."
"Take care of me, will you?" asked the assailant, "I am Momichi Zabuza, Devil of the Mist. Who are you?"
"Hatake Kakashi," he replied lightly.
"Ah, the infamous copy ninja, owner of the single Sharingan eye," said Zabuza, "Legend for having learned over 1,000 Jutsu. Perhaps you are worthy."
Kakashi shrugged not really caring.
Naruto could sense that Sasuke was on edge the instant that the Sharingan was mentioned, and more so by the fact that it had been revealed that Kakashi had one. It did nothing to Naruto as he already knew about the Sharingan eye from his Kaasan. Sakura however was just confused. All three were on defense around Tazuna though as the situation dictated.
Kakashi moved slowly to reveal his single Sharingan eye by moving his forehead protector up. Meanwhile Zabuza removed his sword from the tree and jumped into the water. In that moment a very unnatural mist settled in all around them.
Without warning Zabuza appeared and stabbed Kakashi with a kunai. It was quite surprising however when Kakashi popped into a mass of water. Faster than any of them could track Kakashi appeared and stabbed Zabuza only for Zabuza to pop into a mass of water. After that Kakashi was quite cautious.
Naruto felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise in warning. He dove forward and tackled Tazuna to the ground just in time to dodge a heavy swing of Zabuza's sword. Zabuza probably would have killed him and his teammates with that swing but lucky for his teammates Kakashi blocked the sword from hitting them.
"You're good," said Zabuza in a stained voice as he continued to push his blade toward Kakashi. Then in a fast move Zabuza let up his force on the sword only to kick Kakashi hard sending him into the water.
Kakashi recovered quickly but it was too late. Zabuza already had him in some form of water prison.
"Take Tazuna-san and run," yelled Kakashi but it was in vain as another water clone appeared.
Sasuke was the first to charge in and unfortunately for the Genin team he was quite reckless. Faster than Sasuke could react, Zabuza had him pinned to the ground.
"Sakura, stay with Tazuna, I'll try and help Sasuke," said Naruto. Naruto knew that Kakashi would probably know all of the Jutsu he learned from Tsunade and Shizune save the Kirameki and as Sasuke's life was on the line he couldn't afford to hold much back. On the other hand it was only a Mizu Bunshin, which was only 1/10 the strength of the original.
Naruto made two quick seals, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." After having learned the original Bunshin technique he'd found a way to cut out the other two seals and skip ahead to the end result thus negating the effects of the Sharingan eye. All around Naruto and Sakura thirty shadow clones appeared, "Two of you stay with Sakura-chan, the rest of you let's teach this guy a lesson." All the clones nodded before initiating an attack.
Naruto stuck with his medic Taijutsu as he wasn't feeling desperate enough yet to use his other style. First five Naruto's charged forward in an attempt to get Zabuza to give Sasuke clearance to get free. Three of the five where killed instantly but the other two managed to knock the leg away that was holding Sasuke down giving him the chance to escape and recover.
Kakashi was impressed by how well coordinated Naruto was with all of his clones not to mention the fact that he was just impressed with Naruto's ability to use such a high level Jutsu so easily.
The two clones that succeeded in setting Sasuke free were destroyed an instant later. Next two clones charged forward to attack but it was only a feint for the other four that attacked from the sides. Sadly, none of them were successful. Naruto's clones were very quickly getting picked off.
Lucky for Naruto, Zabuza and his Mizu Bunshin were so busy watching the attacking clones none of them sensed or saw what Naruto was really doing. The real Zabuza's eyes widened in shock when his Mizu Bunshin was actually destroyed.
Naruto didn't care for Doton Jutsu very much at all but in this situation it happened to have worked to his advantage. His clones slowly but surely move the Mizu clone into position. Just as the last clone was destroy creating a large blast of smoke than any of the others, from directly below the clone Naruto erupted from the ground wielding one of the Yondaime's kunai. He literally sliced the clone in half.
"Surprising," said Zabuza it was less than a second later that he was surprised even more when Naruto and Sasuke both appeared at the water front making duplicate seals extremely quickly for Genin.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu," the pair said together taking a deep breath of air and Chakra then blowing it out in a massive fire ball. Zabuza had no choice but to abandon the water prison that held Kakashi.
After the fire attack finished Sasuke gave Naruto a dirty look for using the fire technique. Worse though was the fact that Naruto's fireball was larger than Sasuke's.
Kakashi was very quickly back in action but he would be sure to praise his Genin team, after all he believed that any shinobi that would abandon a teammate was worth less than trash.
Kakashi matched off with Zabuza on top of the water. They each exchanged a few quick strikes but nothing to serious. Naruto could tell that they were testing each other again, as could Sasuke and Sakura. Finally Zabuza began a series of hands seals which Kakashi was copying perfectly. "Suiton Suiryuudan no Jutsu."
Out of the water erupted two huge water dragons then killed each other moments later much to Zabuza's annoyance. As soon as the water settled he began another set of seals but there were many more and much faster. He got about half through when he decided to taunt Kakashi.
The problem with this was simply that Kakashi continued through to finish the Jutsu, "Suiton Daibakufu no Jutsu."
Zabuza's eyes widened in panic as an enormous blast of water hit him and drove him over land and through several trees finally ending with him leaning heavily against a tree. Before the man could move again Kakashi had put several kunai into the man.
Naruto and the other approached quickly to help if they could. Kakashi was about to deliver the final blow when two senbon cut through the air and went cleanly into the man's neck effectively killing him.
The group all turned to look at the source of the senbon to see a boy with a Mist Village hunter-nin mask, "Excuse for interrupting but the death of Momichi Zabuza is a matter of my honor as a hunter-nin."
"Ah, no problem," said Kakashi, "He's all yours."
The hunter-nin bowed before picking up the body and disappearing.
"That was strange," said Kakashi just before he collapsed.
Sakura hurried forward and used the analyzing Jutsu that she'd learned the second day of her medic training, "It's chakra depletion, Shizune-sensei has mentioned that this is one of the most common ailments of Shinobi after a large battle."
"Will he be alright?" asked Tazuna.
"He should be fine," said Sakura, "He'll have to rest for a week or so."
"We should move on, something about that wasn't right," said Sasuke seriously.
"My home isn't much further from her," said Tazuna, "come on let's hurry."
Naruto and Sasuke carried Kakashi between them. Sakura took point just in front of Tazuna. The rest of the walk to the old man's house was only about thirty minutes. Once inside Tazuna's daughter hurried about trying to help them with Kakashi.
The next day around mid-afternoon Kakashi finally woke up. "Yo," he said jovially to his three students as they stood guard over his body.
"Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura, "Thank goodness you're awake."
"Don't worry so much Sakura," said Kakashi, "I'm guess I have . . ."
"Chakra depletion," finished Sakura for him, "you'll need to rest for a while."
"Good diagnosis," said Kakashi to Sakura, "So, for today I want you all to rest and recover yourselves. Tomorrow morning I'll arrange for a bit of training for all of you."
"Something back there didn't seem right," said Sasuke from the back.
"Hmm," said Kakashi thoughtfully, "Ah, that hunter-nin was a fake. Standard procedure is to destroy the body immediately."
"Why didn't you stop him if you knew?" asked Naruto hotly.
"Because I would have been killed and so would you," said Kakashi, "I was tapped out completely from that technique. But not to worry, it will take about two weeks for Zabuza to recover completely."
"By then you should be back in full health," said Sakura knowingly.
"Exactly, Zabuza won't act before then," said Kakashi calmly, "So, as I said, relax today and tomorrow we'll train."
"Yes sensei," said Sakura with a bow. The others just nodded.
The next morning team 7 found themselves standing in the forest near Tazuna's home.
"So, today you're going to learn to climb trees," Kakashi said looking to Sasuke only, "It will improve your control a lot. Sakura, I want you to improve on your chakra capacity, stamina, and speed so you will also be climbing trees but I want you to run up and down them as many times as you can but first show Sasuke how to do it. Naruto come with me." Kakashi then turned and headed back towards Tazuna's place.
Together they walked just past Tazuna's and to the river.
"I just want to teach you how to walk on water today and then starting tomorrow you'll be standing guard over Tazuna and the other bridge workers," said Kakashi as he walked onto the river surface.
Naruto concentrated chakra to his feet and then stepped on. He was very wobbly at first but eventually he got the hang of it. He spent the rest of that day simply running and jumping on the water to learn how his chakra needed to move for each activity.
The next day as promised Naruto was sent with Tazuna into town while Sasuke and Sakura spent their time training. The day was completely uneventful save him stopping a petty thief from stealing some ladies purse when they were shopping in town. Naruto was very saddened by the state of water country. The last time he'd been in the country was long ago when the economy was quite a bit better than it is now. It had once been a very beautiful place filled with several vacation resorts and casinos, but with the increase in crime and decrease of shinobi things had gotten steadily worse.
The next week and a half proceeded in exactly this fashion.
"Naruto, now that I'm better and Sasuke and Sakura have improved so much we'll go to the bridge tomorrow morning and you can sleep in for a change and join us later," said Kakashi as Naruto was entering his room to sleep.
"Thanks Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto more than grateful. He hated having to wake up so early in the morning when he didn't have to.
Naruto was only too happy for the extra sleep. It was a mistake for anyone to interrupt that promised sleep but that is exactly what happened. There was a large noise in the kitchen followed by Tsunami yelling at Inari, the little brat. Then Inari began to yell even more loudly waking Naruto up completely.
When Naruto came down the stairs he was pissed. He'd planned to beat the crap out of Inari for being so loud and such a brat. The two samurai thugs attempting to kidnap both Inari and Tsunami quickly took Inari's place in the line for getting the shit kicked out of themselves.
Naruto didn't even give the thugs a chance to draw their swords before he was on them. He didn't hold back from using the Kirameki Taijutsu in combination with Kirameki no Jutsu seeing as they wouldn't copy it and none of his teammates were there to see it.
Tsunami and Inari were confused when they saw a few yellow flashes and then saw Naruto standing over the two thugs taking turns kicking each of them and berating them for waking him up.
"You two okay?" asked Naruto after he was satisfied and had tied the thugs up.
They both nodded dumbly.
"Great, if these two are here then it is a safe bet that my teammates are under attack as well so as long as you two are okay then I'm going to get dressed and join them at the bridge," said Naruto quickly before he ran up the stairs.
The pair downstairs were stunned as Naruto ran up the stairs then moments later ran down the stairs and out the door.
Naruto moved as fast as he could with his weights to get to the bridge. It only took about twenty minutes, which was normal at top speed for Naruto.
Naruto arrived at the edge of the bridge to see the far end covered in a chakra rich mist but it wasn't overly thick that he couldn't see his teammates.
Naruto could see that Sasuke was trapped inside some kind of Ice Prison but as he got closer he saw they were in fact mirrors and there was that same hunter-nin moving from mirror to mirror attacking Sasuke with senbon.
Sakura was standing guard on Tazuna while Kakashi and Zabuza were talking.
"What the hell are they talking about?" wondered Naruto to himself. He knew that Kakashi could handle Zabuza but Sasuke was in trouble and needed help. So without thinking it through too carefully Naruto entered the same area Sasuke was trapped in.
"You idiot," yelled Sasuke, "why did you come in here?"
"Because you need help," Naruto answered as though it were common sense.
"And how are you supposed to help me from in here?" asked Sasuke rhetorically.
"I guess I should think a bit more before I just leap in next time," said Naruto scratching his head.
"Are you two done?" asked the hunter-nin in the mirror, "Can we continue this?"
"Just hold your horses," said Naruto trying to aggravate the Nin.
Sasuke just about snapped. The hunter-nin just laughed at them both before he attacked rapidly.
Naruto could barely trace the guy's movement but he was too weighed down at the moment to do anything. Meanwhile he took note of the fact that the mist outside the prison had become extremely thick preventing Kakashi from seeing inside the mirrored prison.
"This sucks," said Naruto as he once again attempted to dodge another barrage of senbon. As he had not been dodging as long as Sasuke had he faired a bit better than him. Naruto knew that Sasuke couldn't take much more at this rate. Truth be told, now that Sasuke had activated his Sharingan Naruto was just waiting for him to collapse so that he could really fight. As luck would have it on the next time around by the hunter-nin Sasuke finally took one too many senbon. But Sasuke had got in a rather heavy hit on the hunter-nin at his own expense.
"He was a skilled fighter, I'm sorry I had to kill one as young as he," said the hunter-nin.
"Who do you think you're fooling?" asked Naruto with a joke, "You've purposely not been aiming for critical points. Look here you can see where you hit him in a spot that would only knock him out."
"Are you a medic-nin?" asked the hunter-nin.
"No, but I know a few," said Naruto with a grin, "Now, why don't we fight this out properly?"
The hunter-nin bowed his ascent.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, what's yours?" asked Naruto as he undid the straps securing his shin weights. They fell off and hit the pavement causing it to crack underneath. He then removed the weights on his forearms which hit the ground causing a bit larger crack due to the distance they fell even though they weighed the same.
"Haku," said the boy. Naruto could hear the slight fear in his voice that he knew was a result of the weights being removed. Haku then sank back into his mirrors. He moved quickly to send a senbon at Naruto as he moved to another mirror but he never got there as Naruto intercepted him a punched him in the side of the head sending the boy crashing rather painfully to the pavement. Naruto used a medic-nin strike that was designed to his a pressure point and numb the subjects legs for a few seconds.
"You are a medic-nin," said the boy as he stood immediately and dropped into a medic-nin stance, "But you're not as good as me."
"Ah, so you are medic-nin then," said Naruto as he saw the stance, "Is this your way of saying that you want to fight medic Taijutsu vs. medic Taijutsu?"
"As you are too fast for my mirrors I have no choice but to engage you in this way," said Haku calmly.
"Right well, as I said before I'm not really a medic-nin," said Naruto, "Now I've been waiting for a chance to test my true Taijutsu style for a while now against a worthy opponent. I can't use it in front of the others because their damn Sharingan eyes could steel my techniques just by watching me use it. That is simply not an option so you are quite the fortunate find." Naruto then changed his stance from that of a medic-nin to that of Kirameki first position.
Haku charged forward fast. He struck first with a high punch but as his hand approached Naruto he saw a yellow flash and Naruto was no longer where he had last seen him. Then there was another flash and he felt a fist being buried deeply into his gut sending him back to the pavement painfully.
Haku slowly climbed to his feet and shook his head. He didn't understand what those flashes were or why they suddenly started. He looked again at Naruto but then there were a series of quick yellow flashes each time showing Naruto in a different position as he approached. Just after the last flash, Haku saw Naruto throwing a wide arcing knife hand strike aiming for the side of his neck causing him to move his arm to block the strike. Before Naruto hit him, Haku saw another flash of yellow light freezing the image before him yet he still felt the heavy strike of the knife hand against his left forearm. It flashed again to show a palm heal strike about to hit him dead center of his chest. Naruto's open hand hit the boy hard pushing all the air out of his lungs and breaking several ribs along with it. Haku knew in that instant that he had lost this fight and yet he'd barely done anything. Whatever it was this boy had done he could not see through it and now he was about to die.
Naruto stopped after shattering the boy's rib cage. Haku was no longer a threat to him or his team. The boy would be very hard pressed to move and it was like that his lungs were punctured by the broken ribs. The amount of blood that began to bubble out of Haku's chest told Naruto that Haku would be dead in a few minutes. As such Naruto release the Kirameki no Jutsu. Naruto felt horrible guilt for killing the boy but his Kaasan had always told him that killing was part of being a shinobi and as much as he may not like it, it could not be avoided entirely. The only thing lessening the guilt was the fact that he killed the boy in defense of his teammates.
Just as Haku bubbled his last bloody breath the mist cleared to reveal Kakashi with his hand buried in Zabuza's chest. Kakashi had killed the man. Kakashi wrenched his hand out of the man's chest letting him fall to the ground.
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief before he returned to Sasuke's side and put his shin guards and forearm guards back on. He then turned to Sasuke and began to remove the needles from the cut off veins that knocked him out.
Kakashi walked over to Sakura and relieved her in order to check on Sasuke. Just about the time she reached Sasuke he sat up abruptly taking in a great gasp of air before coughing a few times.
"There, better now," said Naruto as he stood and left Sakura to tend to Sasuke.
Down at the other end of the bridge Naruto and Kakashi both noticed that there was a boat unloading a lot of samurai thugs.
"Yo," said Kakashi as Naruto approached, "You okay?"
"Sure," said Naruto a little subdued.
"First kill?" asked Kakashi.
"Yes," answered Naruto.
"Don't worry about it," said Kakashi, "You'll learn how to deal with it. Is Sasuke okay?"
"He'll be fine," said Naruto, "What do you want to do about those thugs?"
"Let them deal with it," said Kakashi pointing to the villagers rushing onto the bridge.
"Could you at least get Gatou?" asked Tazuna, "He's actually here in the open. There will never be a better chance to kill him."
"Fine but you'll be charged for an assassination," said Kakashi with a sigh.
"Fine," said Tazuna eager to be rid of such an enormous menace to his people.
Kakashi then rushed down the bridge cutting through thug after thug as he made a straight line to the only man in a suit, Gatou. It wasn't much longer before Kakashi returned with the dead man's body. "Contract fulfilled."
After Gatou died the villagers were so excited that the samurai thugs didn't last long and were quickly killed or ran away. The next month passed as the bridge was completed without any further trouble. It was time to return to Konoha.