Well, this might be it for me.
Guys, I need to tell you all something I haven't told anyone. I'm from Texas and, yes, we're doing some preparation work for hurricane Rita. That's right, I'm from the double negative capital of the world. Don't worry about me though, we Texonians (so much cooler than just plain Texans) are known for several things. Large fish, Pecos bill, Cowboys, Chicken Fried Steak, and kicking ass. Now I'll certainly be damned if a tiny storm can stop me from writing, but it might be a while before I can get back to my computer to update, or check any of your wonderful reviews.
About the reviews...KEEP EM COMING! Man you wouldn't believe how much I enjoy reading all these reviews. I actually reread them every day just because they bring me so much happiness. I freaking love you all.
I don't own Naruto. That's all there really is to it.
"All right!" Naruto yelled excitedly while jumping into the air "I've never been outside Konoha before! This is gonna be awesome!"
"Calm down why don't you." Sakura said to him. She was trying to calm him with words, rather than her fist.
"Yeah dobe, you're being embarrassing." Sasuke said coolly with his hands in his pockets. Naruto would have attacked him but Sakura restrained him.
"It's all right man." Reiko said to Naruto calmly "I haven't ever been outside the village either."
"So you mean to tell me that I'm putting my life in YOUR hands?" Tazuna asked warily.
"Listen up old man, I'm going to be the future hokage so you should start showing some respect to get used to it." Naruto said rather threateningly.
"I wouldn't respect you even if you were the hokage." Tazuna replied "You're nothing but a short brat. It's not like you'll ever be hokage anyway."
"Guess again!" Naruto exclaimed "I'm doing all the right things and I'm doing the fast. Before you know it, you'll be begging me to come and save you from something else."
"Pardon me, but I believe we should get underway now. It's a couple of days until we reach the wave country." Kakashi said, breaking them apart before Naruto killed him.
Traveling turned out to not be so bad. Due to his stealth skills, Reiko was sent ahead to scout around the area while everybody else traveled. With the exception of Tazuna annoying the hell out of Naruto, everything was dandy.
Reiko was some odd number of miles ahead, perched on a tree limb comfortably. He didn't have much to do, so he decided it might be high time he put his skills to the test. He quickly saw and attempted to move in on a deer. He stealthily crept toward where the creature grazed peacefully. It was only a matter of time now. He inched his way closer slowly, not causing even the slightest sound. With one final quick movement, he leapt up onto the deer's back and held on for 'dear' life as the creature sprinted off.
Back with team seven, everybody was recuperating from their attack with the demon brothers. Naruto stood with a kunai in his hand, yelling about some sort of oath or promise. They were just about to trudge on when they heard shouting in the distance.
"YEEEEEHAAAAW!" Reiko yelled as he rode towards his teammates in a somewhat zigzag pattern. As he pulled up to them, he slowed the deer down and stopped him right in front of them. "You all will never guess what I…did…."
"Reiko…." Kakashi said while shaking his head. "From now on, when you keep watch and scout out the area…please do a better job."
"Don't worry captain, I shall increase my alert level tenfold! HI HO SILVER!" Reiko yelled dramatically as he rode the deer off into the woods.
"That guy isn't right in the head…" Sasuke commented more to himself than anybody else.
"You're telling me…" Naruto agreed for once "I'd have to say he went off the deep end a loooong time ago…"
"With that moron scouting out for us, we'll be dead in no time at all." Tazuna said more audibly than he had intended.
The next day, Reiko rejoined the group as they boarded a boat that was headed for the wave country. They all had to restrain Naruto from moving because he almost made the boat tip over. While he had been away, Reiko found that his team had decided to continue the mission despite the situation changing. Frankly, he wouldn't have preferred it any other way.
"Wait a minute, I hear something!" Naruto said, throwing two kunai into a bush suddenly.
Upon further inspections, all that was there was a small white rabbit. While Naruto and Sakura doted over the rabbit, Reiko and Kakashi prepared themselves for the worst. That rabbit was white, which meant it had been raised by somebody indoors for the purpose of a kawamari. There was about to be a battle where they were.
At least they weren't caught totally off guard when they suddenly had to duck under a large sword that flew neatly over their heads and stuck into a tree. Standing on the sword was a tall man who didn't wear a shirt. His face was bandaged from his nose to his chin. For some reason, he was slightly similar to Reiko, except without the hair…or the weirdness.
"Oh man…" Reiko said, practically drooling all over the place "Look at that sword…I bet he could cut ten people in half with one good swipe…"
"Reiko, I'm pretty sure that's not a good thing." Naruto said warily "I think he's an enemy of Tazuna san's…"
"Yes, and it seems you all will have to die in the process of me killing him…" Zabuza said rather evilly. Suddenly he was standing on top of the water with his hands in a seal.
"KIRIGAKURE NO JUTSU" he said, activating the jutsu. Almost immediately, a heavy fog started to roll in
It was at that point where Sasuke started to tremble, the thought of his life being almost totally in Zabuza's hands making him lock up with fear. Reiko seemed to be quite the opposite. He had a large smile on his face, as if enjoying the anticipation.
Team seven was caught completely by surprise when they suddenly had to duck under Zabuza's blade. Behind them Kakashi held Zabuza by the neck with a kunai knife.
"Very clever Kakashi…" Zabuza crowed "you copied my Mizu Bunshin and Kirigakure jutsu and hid yourself while drawing attention to your clone. However…"
"I'm not so easy to fool." Zabuza said, finishing the last sentence from behind Kakashi as the body in front of him turned into water.
Kakashi had to quickly duck to avoid a swing by Zabuza's sword, only to be kicked into the water at least fifty feet away. In an instant Zabuza was on him again, holding him in his water prison jutsu before Kakashi could even move to get up. With a laugh, Zabuza then created another Mizu bunshin that stood leeringly in front of team seven.
In a flash, the bunshin lashed out at Naruto and ripped the headband right off of his head, kicking Naruto away as he did so.
"You brats…you're not even good enough to call yourselves shinobi." Zabuza snarled at them "Being a shinobi isn't about clothes or style, it's about sheer power. None of you have what it takes."
"All of you, get away from here!" Kakashi yelled to them, hoping they would take his advice as Zabuza's mizu bunshin formed in front of them "Once you get a certain distance away, his clone will disappear!"
" Guys…we have two choices." Reiko said, everything about him seeming to change "We can either run…or we can take the limy bastard down…"
Naruto flew in at Zabuza, intent on bringing him down single-handedly in that single frontal assault. His plans were halted however, when Zabuza kicked him in the chest, sending him flying away with blood dribbling out of his mouth.
"Do you even need to ask?" Naruto asked with a grin, picking up his hitae-ate and tying it back around his head dramatically "All right, gather around and listen closely. I have a plan."
"You all are pretty sure of yourselves…" Zabuza said evilly "It appears that you don't care whether you get any older or not. Playing at ninja like it's a child's game…I however, had already dyed my hands red with my enemies' blood."
"The demon Zabuza…" Kakashi said, letting the sentence draw off at the end.
"It seems my reputation precedes me." Zabuza said mockingly.
"Long ago in Kirigakure…" Kakashi explained grimly "the final step toward becoming a full-fledged ninja was the most inhumanly difficult test imaginable."
"So…" Zabuza said "you've heard about our little graduation exercise then…"
"What graduation exercise?" Naruto asked, visibly shaken by the talk of Zabuza being a demon.
"Heh heh heh…" Zabuza chuckled to himself "It's a kind of a killing spree among classmates. Students who'd been friends, eating from the same plate as undergrads, were divided into pairs who were forced to fight against each other…to the death. Think of it. Comrades who had trained together, lived together, shared each other's every hope and dream…"
"Ten years ago, the elders of Kirigakure were forced to enact a sweeping reform of their barbaric graduation ritual." Kakashi continued "Because of the appearance, during the previous year, of a human fiend who made reform essential."
"What kind of reform?" Sakura asked, nervous that they might tell her the answer "What are you talking about? What did the fiend you're talking about do?"
"Without a moment's hesitation…without any hint of a qualm…" Kakashi continued his grim tale "A boy who hadn't even qualified yet as a ninja…butchered over a hundred members of that years graduating class."
"Ahh yes…Good times." Zabuza grinned and let his eyes roll back in his head, reminiscing of that long ago time "I used to have such fun."
Without any warning or signal, Zabuza suddenly flew at Sasuke, elbowing him and then slamming his body into the ground. Naruto quickly went in with several bunshins and overwhelmed Zabuza. The mist demon merely destroyed them all with a few strokes of his blade, sending the real Naruto flying backwards. At that time, Naruto threw Sasuke a fuuma shuriken as he rolled away.
"DEMON WIND SHURIKEN: WINDMILL OF SHADOWS" Sasuke proclaimed as he unfurled the weapon and hurled it straight at the real Zabuza, who still held Kakashi prisoner.
"At least you had sense enough to zero in on my true form." Zabuza said as he caught the shuriken with his free hand "Amateur."
Zabuza had to suddenly think quickly as another shuriken flew at him directly in his blind spot. The assassin only jumped over it, the feeble attempt to destroy him completely averted. It was only then that he felt a weight on his back lift. Looking back he saw none other than a shirtless, red headed boy struggling to hold his sword up.
"Sorry dude." Reiko said with a grin "But I like this sword waaay too much to not have lifted it off you at least for a little while."
Naruto then activated the third phase of his plan and released his henge as a shuriken. Before he could even touch the water, he threw a single kunai at Zabuza's back while he was vulnerable.
Zabuza had no other choice but to release the water prison and dodge to the side to avoid it. The kunai merely nicked his cheek, but that was enough to set him off. In a rage, he wheeled around to throw the shuriken in his hand directly at Reiko, who was still unbalanced by the weight. He didn't make it however as a familiar presence stopped him in mid-swing.
Reiko was swimming for dear life, trying to desperately hold Zabuza's gargantuan sword all the while. He didn't even know what was going on for a while until a very large wave started to build up behind him. In a sudden stroke of genius, he whipped the blade out in front of him and laid on top of it, paddling for dear life. As the wave started to pick up, he stood up warily, letting the blade carry him to the shore.
"WAAHOOO!" He yelled as he scooped up a floundering Naruto on his way. He didn't count for the wave sending the blade flying into the ground while he and Naruto flew into a tree. Thinking back though, Reiko and Naruto would both agree that it was definitely worth it.
"Reiko kun! Naruto kun!" Sakura exclaimed as she ran over to them to help them up "Are the both of you okay?"
"That was completely gnarly!" Reiko yelled as he untangled himself from the branches of the tree. "Man I hope I can get an awesome sword like that one day!"
After they picked themselves up, they went back to watch Kakashi finish off Zabuza. It looked like he had it in the bag, when suddenly several needles flew straight through Zabuza's throat, making his eyes bulge out before he fell to the ground. Kakashi quickly checked his pulse before proclaiming him dead.
"Heh, It looks like your prediction came true Kakashi." Said a strange masked figure from a tree branch. "Thank you for your help. I hope you don't mind my interfering. I wanted the satisfaction of killing Zabuza myself.
"That mask is familiar…" Kakashi said, thinking on the matter "Correct me if I'm wrong…but aren't you a hunter nin from Kirigakure?"
"Well aren't you the smart one?" The masked figure said. Nobody could tell if the figure was being sarcastic or not. "I am indeed from the elite tracking unit of Kirigakure. It is our duty to hunt down and eliminate rogues and outlaws."
"What's going on here! Who are you!" Naruto exclaimed at the newcomer "He killed Zabuza but he's only about my age! What's up with that?"
"Naruto…" Kakashi said, ruffling his hair "This isn't the last time you run into shinobi who are both younger than you and stronger than me."
"Now, if you will be so kind as to hand me his sword, I will take his body and dispose of the remains." The figure said, slumping Zabuza's body over it's much smaller frame.
"Aaawww man! Do I have to give it back?" Reiko whined, "I really, really, really, like this sword! Are you sure you need it?"
"In order to erase his existence, I need to dispose of the sword as well as his body." The hunter explained calmly.
"Fine…here it is…" Reiko said, handing over the sword reluctantly "But I must say that I do not approve of disposing such a work of art."
"I'll keep that in mind." The figure said, securing Zabuza's sword "Well, I must be off."
With that, the hunter was gone with Zabuza's corpse and his sword, leaving Reiko to nearly burst into tears at the thought of that sword being destroyed. Before they could even say anything however, Kakashi passed out right in front of them.
Well, that's my momma.
Shang: Glad to see you like it. I like it alot too. As for Naruto getting owned...Reiko just beat him to it. They knew he was about to do it so Sakura beat him up preemtively. As for the mask...you are soooo gonna see.
TwilightSoulTaker: A reviewer who understand me and my style and isn't Shang. I am so happy that you like the story. I'm happy you took the time to review. I'm happy you see why I didn't give Reiko a shirt. Prepare for more hilarity in later chapters, and more seriousness-ss, but mostly hilarity and ass kicking.
Xeno: I wouldn't dream of it.
Blu Rose: WOOHOO! I LIKE BEING EXUBERANT TOO! HERE'S MY UPDATE! HOPE YOU LIKE IT!
Keep on tranglin people!