Because I Love You - Chasing After You

by The Flare Blade

Hiruzen knew that Tazuna's request was much more dangerous and important than it first appeared to be. He needed experienced ninja for the mission, but his hands were tied because of politics... until he sees a loophole. Using an educational project as cover, he will send two teams to Wave! A Naruto retelling with Hinata as a main character but with canon teams. (Ch1-5 revised!)

9. Chapter 9 - A Glimpse of Hell

Yo, people!

First of all, again, sorry for the delay. Long story short, job+college took a lot out of me for the first week or so, and I barely got any writing done... which by itself wouldn't be that bad, but it messed with my writing schedule and I ended up having to edit the fic on weekdays, and THAT is the major culprit for this. But like in the previous chapter, I ended up shoving enough extra content to compensate for the delay, I believe.

And... before you begin, I have important things to tell you guys about the "Clone" family of jutsu. I really should've explained that better before... but what is done is done, so let's get this over with.

The basic Clone Jutsu: Similar to a projection, but is considered a ninjutsu (you can't dispel an enemy's clones by stopping your chakra flow, so they can't be genjutsu), can follow simple orders at the time of their creation, and disappear when hit. This jutsu, as well as the Transformation and Substitution Jutsu, cost minimal amounts of chakra to perform.

Shadow Clone Jutsu: Solid clones able to think and act on their own just as much as the original. The user's chakra level is always divided equally between the original and clones. Their memories and roughly 90% of a clone's current chakra returns to the original (and any clones that are sufficiently close) when it dispels, but if a clone runs out of chakra then none of it returns. They dispel after a certain amount of damage is taken, and the more clones you make, the more time you need to focus the chakra. There are more details on these specific subjects that the next chapter will touch on, though.

Basic "material" clones (ink, wind, mud, water, wood...): They have limited thinking when compared to shadow clones, but almost always have superior defense and added utility coming from the material they are made of, though some kinds just have an added effect applied to when they dispel and nothing else. With a natural source of the "material", the chakra cost is practically zero. Without, it's still pretty low, but it's not a negligible amount.

"Material" shadow clones: Essentially, they are the same as the above clones, but they have all the perks of the Shadow Clone Jutsu's clones: memory transfer, chakra transfer, and intelligence. But these clones have less usable chakra despite taking the same share from the original (because part of their chakra is converted into the "material" they are made of) which means they last less and can't abuse ninjutsu as much, if at all.

Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu: Creates lots and lots of clones by default, but requires a bit more concentration—and time—to pull off when compared to the normal Shadow Clone Jutsu (not to mention chakra, but the one person that makes use of this jutsu simply doesn't care for that requirement most of the time).

(Thanks to xNaruHina and Yasha-HebiHime for reminding me about this...)

So, that's how these techniques work in my AU. Pretty similar to canon, but not quite the same. With that done... well, I'd just like to say that writing this first scene was very, very hard... but hopefully it will make up for the last chapter's cliffhanger. Now, on with it!

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Land of Waves arc

Chapter 9: A Glimpse of Hell (Current Version: 1.0)

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While Zabuza kept Kurenai and Kakashi busy, Tazuna and the six genin were trying to run as far away from the conflict as they could, just in case the swordsman ended up victorious. As such, they were currently running through the woods that surrounded the road they had been using up to that point.

Unfortunately for them, Zabuza's Kirigakure no Jutsu was strong enough to cover the entire area they were in, and the thick mist made obstacles such as trees become visible only at the last minute, which made their escape a harder task than it initially looked like.

Kiba was currently leading the group, using his and Akamaru's sense of smell to adjust the group's path so that they eventually would end up in the port from where they landed a few hours beforehand. Their sharp noses also worked well to help them dodge the trees, bushes and the rare boulders that were in the way. Besides the Inuzuka and his ninken, Hinata was the only other member of their party that wasn't having many problems in traversing the woods. Her Byakugan lost roughly 80% of its current range thanks to the chakra in the mist's composition and her own inexperience, but ten meters were more than enough for the girl to work with.

The other genin, however, weren't as lucky. This was especially true for Naruto, who had been ordered to stay a little behind everyone else to help Tazuna (who couldn't keep up with trained ninjas) keep track of the group's movements, thanks to the blond's bright orange clothes. This also meant that he had to periodically make sure that the old man was still behind him, an easy job that only required him to turn his head every once in a while.

One look at the bridge builder told Naruto that the man wouldn't be able to keep running for much longer. The boy, however, had no time to ask if Tazuna was alright.

"Gah!"

With a dull thud, Naruto's body fell to the ground, his feet snared in a tree's root. "Damn... stupid mist!"

"Naruto, you okay over there?!" Kiba's voice could be heard, but the boy was too far into the mist for the blond to see him. The few instants he lost by falling down were more than enough to hide the other genin from Naruto's line of sight.

"Yeah, I'm fine! I just tripped over a root..."Naruto grumbled, taking a brief glance around himself as he tried to get up. He could see the faint outlines of trees and bushes, but the area was mostly an unsettling white blur no matter where he looked. He then saw a silhouette coming from the mist, who soon revealed itself to be a nervous-looking Hinata Hyuuga.

"Here," she said, offering a hand to the fallen Naruto. Any hesitation or apprehension she might have had about making so much contact with her crush were forgotten due to the gravity of their situation.

"Hey, thanks!" The blond gratefully accepted the help and got up, standing face to face with the girl after releasing her hand. At such a proximity, he couldn't help but note the popped up veins surrounding the girl's eyes. 'Funny, the Byakugan makes her look kinda intimidating even though she's scared,' Naruto mused.

"Ah, i-it was nothing!" She then took a rather big step back, finding the blond to be uncomfortably close. Not even the mist around them was enough to hide the redness on her cheeks.

"O-Oi! Can't you brats... slow down a bit!?" Tazuna's voice rang from right behind the duo, startling both. "Darn it... I'm too old for this shit," the man ranted, panting from the exertion.

The other four genin and Akamaru then doubled back.

"Fine, but we can't stay still for long," Kiba barked, looking serious. "That guy might pop up at any minute." The boy then closed his eyes and concentrated, expanding his senses to check on the battle that was raging on behind them.

"Why are we going through this forest anyways? Using the road would be much easier," Naruto whined bitterly as he tried to get rid of the leaves and the ground stains on his precious orange clothes.

Sakura then gave him a look that told him he was missing something obvious. "Naruto, did you see the size of that guy's sword? He can't swing that thing properly with so many trees around. At least not unless we stumble into a wider area."

"...Oh."

"Additionally," Shino piped up, "there's no nearby source of water for him to use. That is, assuming that he is indeed a water specialist."

"…Looks like our sensei are still holding up," Kiba constated, having found no traces of fresh blood in the direction they had come from, and hearing the clangs of steel striking steel. "But that Zabuza fellow is still there, too. We should get going."

Tazuna looked at him with wide eyes. "Already?"

Kiba scowled. "Look, I get that you can't run as well as we can, but—"

"No, it's fine," the man cut him off. "I put you all in this mess, and I still need to find a way to take you all back to Konoha."

"What about... Kaji, was it?" Sakura asked tentatively, remembering the man that had brought them to the Land of Waves.

"He lives too far away," Tazuna replied, lifting his straw hat to scratch his head. 'Dammit... I didn't think too much of it at the time, but nobody at the docks will be willing to help them... running away is useless.'

The bridge builder, however, wasn't the only one that had realized that.

"This won't accomplish anything." Sasuke's simple statement drew all eyes to him, allowing everyone to see his deep scowl. "Without a boat, outrunning that assassin will be impossible. If he beats Kakashi and Kurenai without being too hurt himself, he won't let us escape."

An uneasy silence reigned over the forest after Sasuke said the truth nobody had been willing to admit.

Surprisingly, Shino was the one who resumed the conversation. "You might be correct... but this is the only option we have left if we are to prepare for the worse. There's still a possibility that we might live if we can flee."

"...But it took us over a few hours to get here after we landed. I don't think that their battle will last that long," Sakura countered, gulping despite her attempt to mask her fear.

"Look, I know that even ninja kids like you can use chakra to run fast and jump over long distances," Tazuna said. "The only reason you aren't doing that right now is because I can't keep up, so if you just lea—"

"Don't even think about it," Kiba growled dangerously, interrupting him. "We're not leaving you behind."

"Then what do you propose we do, Inuzuka?"

Kiba met Sasuke's cold gaze with a burning glare. "No, you answer me that! If you say that running is useless, then you ought to have a better plan in that genial head of yours."

The Uchiha heir crossed his arms in front of his chest and closed his eyes. "...I don't have anything."

As the Inuzuka rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath, Naruto saw an opportunity to outdo his rival. "Hey, what if we go back there and ambush that guy?"

"That's moronic, not to mention suicidal and directly against Kakashi-sensei's orders." Shino dismissed the idea immediately, frowning openly.

"Exactly!" Naruto agreed, seemingly unfazed by the Aburame's sharp reply and the confused looks everyone was giving him. "He will never expect it!"

"Sorry, but that won't work," Kiba disagreed, and Akamaru barked in support of his master. "That guy... I overheard him talking to Kurenai-sensei after we left. His hearing is better than mine. That's not the kind of guy a bunch of genin can sneak up on."

"Even so, can we really just leave this to them?" Sakura asked. "Kurenai-sensei said the mist screws with genjutsu, and that's her specialty... and, well, this... Zabuza, is probably pretty comfortable fighting in this mist." Despite her words, Sakura couldn't quite believe that anyone would be able to fight well in such an environment.

"I think Naruto's plan has some merit," Sasuke said, surprising everyone. "The element of surprise can make even an academy student defeat a Kage."

"B-but... we can barely see anything in here, either," Hinata countered meekly, avoiding the Uchiha's intense gaze when his eyes fell on her. Even her Byakugan was impaired by the mist, allowing her to see no more than ten meters in any direction. Anything past that, and the bright glow of chakra became too strong to be seen through, and what little her eyes could still see more clearly was somewhat blurred. "We... w-will just g-get in the way."

"Going back is not an option," Kiba declared, looking at the members of Team 7. "Look, I get that you guys don't want to run away like this, but you all need to have more faith in our sensei! ...Even so, we still should get going." With that conversation done, he then faced the bridge builder. "You okay already, Tazuna-san?"

"I can run for a few more minutes, yes..."

"Kiba, perhaps it might be wise to run at a slower speed so that we have to stop fewer times?" Shino suggested, making the Inuzuka stop to think for a moment.

"Yeah... I guess that's for the better." He nodded to the Aburame. "So let's go, then! We shouldn't have to put up with this shitty mist for much longer. If this thing is strong to mess with Shino's bugs and Hinata's Byakugan, then it must cost a good bit of chakra to sustain."

"I hope you are right, kid," Tazuna commented as he started to run alongside the young genin.

After a few minutes of traveling silently, Hinata perked up. "Ah, I can see again! There's no mist up ahead!" Though a lot of the area covered by her dojutsu were still only blue blurs, the small but clearly visible areas on the corner of her vision were enough to bring great relief to the girl.

"Finally," Sasuke muttered, annoyed. "I was getting tired of this mist."

"Yeah, this mist sucks," Naruto agreed, still bitter by his earlier fall.

Soon, the group finally left the area affected by Zabuza's jutsu. Though the actual scenery didn't change much from what they had seen so far, all of them were glad to leave the mist behind them.

"Ah, awesome! I missed the smell of fresh air!" Kiba said, happily sniffing the air as they continued to move. The mist had a weird scent, somewhat akin to stale air and stagnant water, that Kiba was getting sick of.

They barely got a few meters away from the mist when Kiba's smile fell, just as a familiar scent of dried blood made itself known to him. "Shit! Guys, he's here!"

Before any of the other genin could gasp or mutter a curse, a silhouette appeared from within the mist, approaching them slowly. "Look at what I've found... a bunch of brats that fancy themselves ninja. What a joke," the swordsman spat, his voice laced with disdain.

"R-Run!" Tazuna bellowed, legs shaking from the effect Zabuza's killer intent had on him. "Leave me here and save yourselves!"

In spite of their earlier conversation, the kids started to turn around to flee, but then Zabuza spoke once again. "You know... I don't take kindly to cowards."

His comment—the unspoken promise that attempting to escape would result in certain death— reinforced by a sudden spike of killing intent on that last word, froze the genin in their tracks.

"Well, since you all decided to stay, how about we make this a bit more... fun? I'd like the chance to relax a little since it took quite a bit of my chakra to kill your sensei," the Mist jonin stated, stepping out of the mist.

Sakura gasped. "No...! It can't be!"

Zabuza laughed at the girl's denial and the spooked expressions everyone had. "Well, since the esteemed Copy Ninja and the Genjutsu Mistress failed to end me, I guess it falls to you six to protect that poor fool from me, huh?"

"Form a circle around Tazuna!" Sasuke shouted, and his fellow comrades quickly complied. Their circle hadn't been much more than two manji formations put together, with Team 7 protecting Tazuna from the front and Team 8 from the back

"Good start." Zabuza drew a kunai. "I guess you brats might be worth keeping alive for a bit. Let's see... I have a game that we can play."

"A... game?" Naruto asked, wondering if he had heard the man in front of him correctly. Zabuza was a decent distance away from them after all.

"Yes. Do your best to defeat me in the next few minutes... and whoever impresses me the most doesn't die. I won't even attack the bridge builder to make it easier for you, as long as he doesn't try to flee, of course." Not that Zabuza thought the man could do it. Unlike the genin, Tazuna was completely paralyzed by the assassin's killer intent.

"Is this really just a game to you, bastard?!" Naruto yelled, enraged. His fury waned when he felt a presence behind him.

"The game begins now," Zabuza whispered in the boy's ear, his volume just loud enough that all present would hear him. The assassin smirked underneath his mask as the boy shuddered, and he could practically smell the fear coming from him and all of his comrades as they were starting to realize what kind of enemy they were facing.

Reacting the fastest out of everyone else, Sasuke, who was right beside Naruto, whirled around and slashed at the assassin. Not even bothering to dodge, Zabuza locked blades with the boy, forcing the Uchiha to his knees in the second they clashed, thanks to the older man's superior strength. "Fast, for a genin..." Zabuza observed.

Sensing another person moving somewhere behind, he quickly broke the blade lock and used the Kawarimi no Jutsu to replace himself with a small log, effectively avoiding Hinata's palm thrust. He, however, could not avoid her eyes. "He's at my 9 o'clock... 40 meters, leaning against a tree. T-there's no mist around him..."

Though Zabuza's wording suggested that they would be competing with each other for the right to leave this battle with their lives; Kakashi had taught them better than that. The six genin knew that their only chance of surviving was to work with each other.

"We will be vulnerable if we stay in the open," Shino remarked, maintaining his calm, stoic tone despite their situation. As he spoke, a few of his bugs stealthily made their way towards Zabuza so that they wouldn't miss him again if he ventured beyond the range of Hinata's Byakugan.

Kiba smirked. "Cover, coming right up!" With that declaration, he popped another of his smoke balls by tossing it on the ground. In the same motion, a special soldier pill also hit the floor, where it remained for just one second before being swallowed by an eager Akamaru.

"We should go to him before his patience runs out," Sakura said through gritted teeth as her vision, once again, became obscured.

In contrast to his pink-haired teammate, Naruto broke into an excited grin. "Heh, I've got a plan! Do you guys remember how Hinata and I kicked ass yesterday?"

"I see... simple and effective," Shino noted, pleased that his strategy was going to be used once again. As he and four of the genin went through the seals of the Transformation Jutsu, Naruto opted to use only a single seal, taking a few instants to focus his chakra in order to complete a different technique.

"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he yelled, and right after his friends completed their techniques, the area was flooded with chakra constructs in the blond's likeness.

"And what now?" a disguised Sakura asked, looking at the Naruto she believed to be the original

"We are going to have to improvise," Sasuke answered, his voice sounding exactly like Naruto's. "His hearing is too good for us to plan anything deeper than this."

"W-what about Akamaru-kun?" Hinata asked, observing that the ninken had copied his master. The transformed dog stood out like a sore thumb, even among a multitude of Narutos.

"Don't worry about him, Hinata. He knows what to do" Kiba answered, easily detecting that it was his female teammate who had spoken. "Now, let's do this!"

Meanwhile, just as Hinata had noted, Zabuza was a decent distance away from the group, observing the smokescreen. He had been wondering if his ears were playing tricks on him, but when he saw an army of shadow clones running towards him he realized that had heard correctly. 'So one of them knows that kinjutsu... kid or not, his reserves are impressive. Most jonin would fall dead from only ten or so clones.'

The realization that Naruto knew a forbidden jutsu was exciting to Zabuza, but that feeling soon disappeared when the clones actually started fighting him. Their taijutsu was so pitiful that Zabuza couldn't help but shake his head.

"How did you even become a genin, brat? There's no way even a place like Konoha would actually graduate someone with such poor close-combat skills... if you can even call this a skill," he taunted, dodging and countering the kicks and punches that came his way with ease despite the nearby trees limiting his movements compared to the smaller chakra constructs.

"Shut up!" A few of the clones growled angrily, baring their teeth at the jonin as their wild attacks became even more chaotic. Whether that was from rage as their numbers dwindled or because of the obvious taunt, Zabuza wasn't sure.

Seeing Naruto's clones getting defeated so easily made the real humans of the party wary of approaching Zabuza. One of them, however, didn't need to get close to the man in order to be useful, and soon enough, a pair of kikaichu swarms started flying towards the assassin, intent on trapping him with a pincer attack.

Hearing the buzzing noises the bugs made as they flew, Zabuza started to scan the area around him as he fought with Naruto's various kage bunshin. Finding two clouds of bugs coming from his sides, the man scowled and backflipped away before they latched onto him. 'Dammit... they have an Aburame. I'm low on chakra as it is, if this kid gets a lucky shot then I'm done for. Well, there's my Demonic Shroud... but I better take this one out as soon as possible.'

With that in mind, Zabuza stopped wasting his chakra to sustain the Kirigakure no Jutsu. He wouldn't need stealth just to kill a few genin.

As the mist that was floating around most of the nearby forest receded, Zabuza took a moment to examine his surroundings. In doing so, he saw one of the blond kids standing much farther back than the few clones that had yet to engage him in close quarters. The boy had his arms spread in front of him, and his stoic expression made Zabuza even more suspicious.

The swordsman immediately ran after the weird copy, moving fast enough that the other genin mistook it for a Body Flicker. Zabuza saw his target's blue eyes widen before he crashed his fist into the blond's gut, sending the boy to the ground and causing a plume of smoke to rise as a result of his transformation dispelling.

"Henging into someone isn't worth shit if you don't try to act like them," he lectured the prone Aburame, who was clutching his stomach and grunting from the pain. Not being done with Shino just yet, Zabuza planted his right foot on the boy's already wounded abdomen, pressing it against his ribcage with just enough strength to not crack anything.

"Let me show you a bit of what happens when you mess up in our world, boy."

With those words, Zabuza put more weight into on foot, grabbed Shino's wrists and pulled.

At that moment, Zabuza heard many screams. Most were cursing him in multiple ways, and he could also make out one begging him to stop and another calling the boy's name... but none were as enjoyable as the cries of pain coming from his newest victim. Normally, Zabuza would've just ripped his prey's arms, but leaving him to bleed out would kill him far too quickly, so the assassin settled for crushed wrists and dislocated shoulders for the time being.

"Now stay there and enjoy the show, if you can focus on that much. I'll let you join your teachers in hell later," Zabuza promised, walking back towards the group of shocked genin and dismissing the Aburame as a threat. The pain overload was far too big for Shino to be able to focus on commanding his bugs or even on speaking—which Zabuza knew and was counting on—but it didn't stop him from receiving information from his colony... not that Zabuza knew, or cared.

Facing the other genin, four of which were still disguised as Naruto and the thirty or so clones that were still standing, he groaned. "Pathetic. I just gave you all a perfect opportunity to attack, and all you maggots managed to do was waste time screaming in denial. You don't deserve to be called ninja!"

"Shut up!" One of the blonds yelled, pointing at the assassin. "I had to work my ass off to graduate, and I'm not gonna let you get away with this!"

Following that angered declaration, all of the clones in the area once more rushed at Zabuza. "Stop insisting on a strategy that didn't work the first time, you imbecile!" Not feeling like staying on the defensive any longer, Zabuza decided to put his kunai to good use and met the orange mob head-on. Though significantly slower than the illusory Itachi Uchiha, Naruto found his clones disappearing just as quickly when the Mist jonin started to tear through the clones as if they were made of paper.

Meanwhile, Hinata breathed a sigh of relief. The situation had been far from good, but at the very least Shino's arm was still connected to his body, even if loosely. Turning her focus back to Zabuza, she started to think of what to do next. Getting close to the Demon of the Hidden Mist seemed an impossibility to her, but even then, she knew that something needed to be done. If I can hit him just once, we can still find a way out! Even a failure can still do a lot of damage with the Gentle Fist; I just need to wait for an opening first. But... but even then, do I really have a chance...?'

Another of disguised genin, on the other hand, realized that the numeric advantage was not the only advantage they were losing. 'Dammit, at the rate this guy is killing the clones, we won't have any cover left to hide!'

In a frantic hurry, that genin tried to look around to see if there wasn't a good ambush point or maybe even an escape route... but what caught his attention was another Naruto, one who had managed to evade Zabuza's mad rush and was standing only a few meters behind the man. That specific blond had a shaky grip on their kunai and seemed unsure to be about whether to attack Zabuza and risk a violent counterattack or if maybe helping the wounded Shino Aburame wouldn't be a better plan.

Terror, indecision and fear of death and the unknown were clearly painted on the face of that "Naruto"—an expression that the disguised genin recognized instantly from the previous day's events, before the Demon Brothers attacked their group. And it was at that moment that an idea came to him.

"Sasuke-kun, use your fire jutsu!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, looking straight at the blond that had sneaked behind the assassin.

Said blond just looked back at him, wearing a confused expression that was different from the one Naruto usually wore. 'Wait, what? Did that Naruto just say "Sasuke-kun" to me? But I'm the—Oh!'

Zabuza tensed, and an instant later, he picked up a strong burning smell coming from somewhere behind him, as well as the noise of a blade piercing the air. Despite the shocking realization that one of the genin knew enough of elemental manipulation to infuse a weapon with fire chakra, Zabuza still managed to react and jump away, turning around in midair to face this prodigious genin...

'Fire Release: Grand Fireball Jutsu!'

But the only thing that struck the place he was standing was a single kunai. Still in midair, Zabuza's eyes widened. 'What?! But that smell...!'

That moment when Zabuza jumped was all that the genin that had shouted required to calculate the assassin's flight path and launch his fire attack where the enemy would be landing.

"Got you," Sasuke smirked confidently, a smug look that wasn't very fitting considering the person he was disguised as.

His smirk dropped once he felt a spike of killing intent coming from somewhere directly behind him and saw the log that was burning where Zabuza once stood.

"That was a clever little trick, boy... but you will need much more than that to hit a jonin." Without waiting for a reaction, the man violently kicked Sasuke between the legs, dispelling the henge and sending him to the ground in the same motion. He followed up by literally kicking the Uchiha while he was down, cracking more than a few ribs in the process and sending him flying straight into a tree. The impact it made against his skull was enough to knock him out for the remaining of the fight.

The boy's back ended up turned to Zabuza, and he couldn't help but notice the red and white fan symbol on the back of his shirt. 'The last Uchiha, huh? A pity; I can't let you live even though you impressed me.'

"No! Sasuke-kun!" Sakura screamed, momentarily defenseless after having thrown her kunai at Zabuza. 'No... no! It's happening again!'

Her sensei being killed, Naruto's clones being defeated in a flash, Sasuke being violently kicked into a tree, that incredible, overwhelming killing intent... similar memories of what had been but an illusion now were turning into a very brutal reality for Sakura.

'We're all going to die! This time, we're really going to die...!' The disguised girl's thought process halted when the world started to spin wildly.

For a while now she had been breathing incredibly fast—almost as fast as her heart was beating, which was a considerable feat. In a daze, she tried to support herself by leaning into a tree, but the dizziness made her miscalculate the distance and fall. A shout suspiciously similar to her name could be heard, but her foggy mind hadn't been able to discern who had called for her... and one second later, her body gave out on her and she passed out, her disguise faltering as she no longer was able to devote a portion of her chakra to maintaining it.

"Just a little killing intent was enough to knock her out. What a pathetic excuse for a kunoichi," Zabuza spat, disgusted, unknowingly angering Naruto even further.

"You will pay for that, you bastard! Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Zabuza stared blankly at Naruto as the boy suddenly multiplied by eighty, and even though he could have stopped the technique with a simple kunai toss at the original Naruto, given the technique's slight start-up time, the assassin only groaned. "This again? Give up! That won't work!"

"We NEVER give up!" the clones chorused as they dashed to clash with Zabuza. Unlike before, all of them moved at once, but not every clone tried to assault Zabuza straight away, instead taking alternative paths between the nearby trees and bushes in order to surround the man.

"What?! You used the clones as a distraction to surround me?!" He looked around, making a show out of scanning the area for a way out, as if he were cornered. "Dammit... no, I won't let a mere genin defeat me!"

"Too bad, because that's exactly what will happen! Guys, Kiba! Let's go!" The Naruto clones then dived in all at once, confident in their ability to restrain the man long enough for the Inuzuka to land a finishing blow.

"Gotcha! Akamaru!"

Barking upon hearing his master's call, Akamaru jumped from the branch of a tree he had climbed (something only possible due to his current humanoid form), and twirled in midair to execute a Passing Fang towards the Narutos who were immobilizing Zabuza. At the same time, Kiba began a Passing Fang of his own and met Akamaru's right before they reached their target, who was trapped under a dome of orange clones...

The clones made seeing Zabuza an impossible task to the normal eye, but Hinata's Byakugan allowed her to see Zabuza beneath the clones. Her eyes widened when she noticed Zabuza focusing a good amount of what little chakra he still had.

"Naruto-kun, Kiba-kun! Don't do it!" she screamed, but it was too late.

"Urrraaagh!"

And following a mighty war cry, an explosion of a dark purple chakra blasted away the clones gathered around Zabuza, who was now enshrouded by that very same evil energy.

An awed, terrified Hinata couldn't help but feel as if a demon had appeared on the battlefield, covering Zabuza from head to toe in its foul blessing. And even though her Byakugan made the purple shroud appear just the same as any other source of chakra, the killing intent that Zabuza released was significantly stronger than before, leaving the girl trembling from fear just the same.

The clones, however, they weren't able to admire the wretched form Zabuza took, having been destroyed by the blast or by the subsequent impacts on the ground or trees. The original Naruto, incidentally, almost struck Kiba after being launched, and bounced off the grassy ground not too far from where Zabuza was. He fell right on his dominant arm, breaking the elbow and fracturing his forearm bone.

What didn't fail to hit the Inuzuka and his partner, though, was the flat of Zabuza's signature weapon, which the man had grabbed from his back as soon as the Narutos were repelled by the explosion of purple energy. Kubikiribocho was sturdy enough to be used as a shield, and it was more than strong enough to block the twin drills when coupled with a bit of the assassin's strength.

With their technique abruptly interrupted, Kiba was repelled downwards and crashed into the ground, Akamaru ricocheted off the metal blade and was sent skyward.

Not wasting a second, the jonin grabbed Akamaru by the leg and used him as a makeshift hammer, swinging him down at Kiba and leaving both unconscious after the collision. A big smoke cloud engulfed them as both reverted to their original forms.

Deactivating his shroud, Zabuza walked towards Naruto, who was struggling to get up thanks to the pain coming from his damaged limb. Zabuza ignored the only other "Naruto" who was still up, not seeing the point of bothering with an opponent that hadn't moved at all for a while and was probably too scared to try anything. He also was aware that the person underneath that disguise was a Hyuuga, and as such, he wasn't worried about what she could do to him without getting closer.

"Do you see it now, boy?" the assassin asked, strapping his sword to back once again as he stopped a mere feet away from Naruto.

"See what, your stupid face? I can't see it with that mask in the way, idiot! Ngh—!" Zabuza lifted him by the collar of his tracksuit and pressed the boy against a tree's trunk. Though surprised, the boy didn't lose the defiant expression, but Zabuza could see the fear reflected in his eyes, which could not be hidden by his mask of false bravado.

"I was talking about your weakness," the man clarified. "It doesn't matter how many of you come at me. Two, five, a dozen, a hundred—I'll kill them all, because you are weak."

"Shut up! I'm not w—hey, what are you doing?!" The boy demanded upon feeling Zabuza remove his headband with his free hand, noticing that it was surprisingly worn out already.

"You said you worked hard to earn this trash, didn't you?" He threw the headband on the ground. "Do you know how I earned mine?"

Naruto's answer was to spit on Zabuza's face. The man tilted his head to the side to avoid that "attack" and returned the favor by using his fist to knock the air out of the boy's lungs.

"When I was your age, Kiri's exam was simple: kill one of your classmates or die trying. I killed the whole class. But... you on the other hand, just had to show three E-rank ninjutsu to your teachers, didn't you?" Knowing that he boy didn't have enough oxygen in his lungs to answer, Zabuza didn't wait for a confirmation and simply stomped on what had once been Iruka's headband.

"Have you ever killed someone, brat? I doubt it. You never had to end someone's existence with your own hands; never had to bathe yourself in your enemy's blood as you wring the life out of their bodies! You have no right to call yourself a shinobi, you stupid civilian!"

With that said, Zabuza tossed the blond aside as if he were garbage. To his amusement, the boy still tried to get up and form the clone hand seal, but his broken bones made the process far too painful for him to bear it. "So you still have some fight in you, eh? I guess some worms only learn to stop squirming when they die."

"Bastard...! I won't die here! Not before I become Hokage!" At that point, Zabuza burst out laughing. Naruto wanted to throttle him, but he could only glare at the man as he cradled his wounded elbow. "Just who the hell do you think you are?!"

"Me? I am Zabuza Momochi, one of the seven swordsmen of the Mist, holder of the legendary Kubikiribocho, a war veteran, ex-captain of the Hidden Mist's Assassination Squad and future Godaime Mizukage! But more importantly..." he grinned beneath his mask, walking slowly towards the fallen Naruto.

"I am also the man who will kill you, just as easily as I've killed thousands of people before you."

Watching that scene from behind Zabuza's back, Hinata reluctantly began to accept reality. There would be no openings to be found, and there was no time left to doubt her abilities, even if she knew that her chances of succeeding were almost zero. Though Zabuza had spared her friends thus far, she knew Naruto wouldn't be given the same courtesy. 'I have to something, and I have to do it now! Because if I don't...'

Luckily, an idea came to her right away, and while the young Hyuuga went through a small combination of seals, Zabuza continued to calmly walk towards his prey. The man hardly felt threatened by the glare the blond was sending his way, as the boy's dominant arm was disabled. He did raise a hairless eyebrow, however, when Naruto's anger gave way to confusion just as he found himself standing two meters from the boy.

'What is this?' the blond wondered. 'It feels like something is tugging at me from the inside, but—whoa!'

Naruto then felt a strong pulling sensation, and suddenly, he was in a completely different place on the battlefield, right behind Zabuza. In front of the man, he could also see "himself", and at that point in time, there was only one person that it could've been.

'Hinata?!'

'Now!' Hinata declared to herself, springing herself towards an unsuspecting Zabuza. Through her Byakugan, she could see Naruto's lip starting to curl into a smile as he realized just what had happened. She could see her target still in shock as the supposedly wounded blond now was trying to attack him. She could even see Zabuza's heart pumping blood inside his body, oblivious to the surge of chakra that would soon make the organ stop moving.

And then she saw stars, when the man buried his knee on her skull and knocked her to the ground. Her transformation fell apart, revealing her true appearance and her newly acquired broken nose, from which blood was flowing freely. Her Byakugan receded, and the girl found herself unable to check if her skull had been fractured. From the pain, she doubted it was intact.

"Interesting... I thought that you had been smarter than the others and had simply decided to not even try to resist, but you were just looking for an opportunity to kill me, huh?" Zabuza's tone of detached curiosity was a clear contrast to the pained screams the girl let out when he stomped on her legs with more than enough power to break her ulna. "You've got an assassin's mind, little girl."

The pain had been too much for the untrained Hyuuga girl to maintain her dojutsu active, and her sight returned to normal. Had she been able to focus just for another second, she would have seen Naruto's smile vanishing completely.

"You know, I wasn't lying when I said I was going to spare one of you six. The Uchiha was the most impressive one, but I am not going to risk leaving a person with the Sharingan alive, so... congratulations. If you had been a little faster then I'd be dead right now, so you earned the right to live" He then turned around completely, now facing the real Naruto. "But you... I hope those extra seconds of life were enjoyable, because they will be your last."

Zabuza took a step forward before hearing a muffled, desperate cry. "No! P-please, don't! Let him go!"

Looking over his shoulder, he raised an eyebrow at the fallen girl, who had an arm outstretched towards him and another covering her bloody nose. "You should be happy that I am even sparing you to begin with. Say another word, and I might change my mind."

With that said, turned and started to move towards Naruto, glaring at the boy as he walked. "But there's no way I'm letting a trash that can't even repel someone's Kawarimi no Jutsu live—not when he still has the audacity to call himself a ninja."

Naruto frowned. How was he even supposed to know that it was possible to do a substitution with another person, let alone block that kind of move? As far as he was aware, the academy had never mentioned anything about that. 'But then again, I DID miss a lot of classes,' he reminded himself. Sometimes pranking people had consequences... and luckily for Naruto, someone was aware that he had missed that specific lesson.

"That's enough, Zabuza-san." All eyes turned to stare at Tazuna, who had decided to approach the group of shinobi. Surprisingly, he was moving normally and seemed rather calm for a civilian that was being exposed to a jonin's killer intent.

"Ah, the bridge builder knows my name, what an honor!"

"Those kids are not any threat to you," the old man continued, ignoring the sarcastic remark. "So just leave them be and take me to Gatou already."

Zabuza stared at him blankly. "What? Take you to Gatou...? Ah, indeed. I almost forgot that the rich bastard wanted you alive, if possible," he shrugged. 'Odd. My memory is better than this...'

"Old man, what are you doing?!"

"…Take care of your team, Naruto," Tazuna answered, looking at Naruto stoically.

Before the boy had a chance to reply, Zabuza came to a decision. "...Fine. I won't send the brats to hell, but you are coming with me instead." Giving one last glare to Naruto, the assassin started walking away. Without any threats nearby, Zabuza felt free to lower his guard, paying just enough attention to his surroundings so that he would be able to hear Tazuna's footsteps behind him...

The footsteps never came.

"If I have to tie you up, I will," Zabuza warned as he began to turn around. His brain only registered the fact that a massive fist of stone was coming his way at the moment it crashed into his chest, sending the man spiraling through the air until his body was stopped by a nearby tree trunk.

Hinata stared at the old man incredulously, pale lavender eyes wide as she realized who was standing in front of her.

"Whoa, when did you learn that jutsu, old man? You could have done that earlier, y'know?!" Instead of answering Naruto, Tazuna started running towards the prone Zabuza.

"That's not Tazuna-san, Naruto." At the sound of a disappointed, tired voice coming from somewhere behind him, Naruto did his best to turn around. When he did so, he saw an exhausted-looking Kakashi, who was walking in his direction. "Look underneath the underneath like I taught you to and I'm sure you will get it."

"Kaka—ugh!" Naruto grunted in pain, as he tried to rise but failed due to his injuries. "Kakashi-sensei! You're alive...!"

"...Sorry for being late," Kakashi apologized in a soft voice, ruffling the boy's messy hair with his right hand (which no longer was bloodied), much to Naruto's annoyance. "But now that I'm here, I will make sure Zabuza will regret the day he decided to harm my students."

Leaving the group of genin alone after constating that they would be fine for the time being, Kakashi ran as fast as he could to support Kurenai as she clashed with Zabuza. Unfortunately for the woman, her attack had sent the man into an area where the trees weren't as clustered together, giving the swordsman ample room to properly use the Kubikiribocho. This resulted in the man landing a hit on her shoulder, ruining her henge.

"How the hell are you not dead?!" Zabuza growled furiously after swinging at Kurenai's side and only striking air. The woman decided to capitalize on his mistake and tried to close the gap between them, but she lost the opportunity when Zabuza attempted to kick her, forcing her to block the blow instead. "The jutsu I used was too wide for you two to avoid it; too strong to be blocked!"

"Instead of thinking about how we escaped, you should be worried about how you are going to die," Kurenai replied evenly, grabbing ahold of Zabuza's blade after he overcommitted during an overhead swing.

The sound of multiple kunai piercing the air was heard, but even though Zabuza knew they were coming, Kurenai's grip on his sword was too strong for him to jump away with it. The decision to forfeit his sword and keep his life was made one second too late, and Zabuza's arms and legs were pierced by the throwing knives, courtesy of Kakashi. The blades buried deep into his body, forcing him to fall to the ground from the sheer force of the impact, leaving the man on the ground as his wounds started to bleed.

"You got careless, Zabuza. Did you really think that I would allow you to kill my students on my watch?" The swordsman grunted as he raised his head to face Kakashi, who was calmly walking towards him. Though his tone was calm, there was an undercurrent of anger that was unmistakable.

That, however, wasn't what had caught Zabuza's attention.

'His Sharingan! The pattern... it has changed?!'

Kurenai found Zabuza's shock amusing. "Got anything to say before we exorcise you, Demon of the Hidden Mist?"

It was at that moment that the swordsman saw something interesting happen on one of the trees right in front of him.

Zabuza was thankful that his mouth was covered by bandages. He wasn't sure if he would be able to hide his smirk after seeing a certain someone appear on a nearby tree's branch, hidden from the other ninja.

Making an effort to send a piercing glare towards the person, he said his supposed last words. "My only regret... is dying by the hands of a traitor."

That sentence left both jonin completely confused... until two senbon violently struck the right side of Zabuza's neck, splattering blood on the impact and downing Zabuza instantly. Kurenai and Kakashi quickly turned to see the who stole their kill, only to come face-to-face with a hunter-nin from the Hidden Mist, if the emblem on their white mask was of any indication.

The mysterious ninja turned slightly, scanning the area where the genin were forced to fight someone much above their skill level. "My apologies, Konoha shinobi. If I had been faster in locating Zabuza, your students wouldn't have needed to suffer like this."

"It would be hypocritical of us to be angered about that," Kurenai said, still on guard as Kakashi crouched to examine Zabuza's corpse.

"...He's dead. There's no heartbeat, and he's not breathing either," the silver-haired man concluded.

As the site of Zabuza's final stand was not far from where he fought the genin, those that weren't unconscious were able to hear the whole exchange.

"It's over..." Hinata whispered to herself, the relief she felt from knowing that there was no longer any danger temporarily making her forget the pain blazing through her legs. Her gaze flicked to the only other of her ex-classmates that she knew was still up, and saw Naruto looking straight at the fallen form of Zabuza, disbelief plastered all over his face and reflected clearly on his ocean blue eyes.

'Dead...? He's dead?!'

The same Zabuza that slaughtered an entire class of academy students just to earn his headband, who had become the most skilled assassin of the Hidden Mist and one of its most renowned swordsmen; who had effortlessly dispatched Naruto, his teammates and over a hundred of shadow clones as if they were mere toys that he had been playing with, only able to move around because he had wanted to be entertained by their foolish attempts to defeat him... now reduced to a motionless pile of flesh and bones, propped up against a tree. A corpse. Dead.

The responsible? Neither Kakashi nor Kurenai, but an unknown masked person that had appeared at the last minute, ending the fight just with just a couple of long, metallic needles.

Naruto found himself simply unable to process that information.

'This guy... he can't be much older than me!' Naruto realized, eyes now focused on the rather short hunter-nin. The mysterious ninja wore a green haori over simple brown clothes, and there was a red wave-like pattern on his mask, passing right through where the mouth was supposed to be. As the ninja used a body flicker to land near Zabuza, Naruto absentmindedly wondered how the hunter-nin would look like without the metallic hair cuffs and the bun that restrained his black hair.

"Now if you will excuse me, I must dispose of the body and deliver his head and sword to my village," the masked newcomer said, in an even voice that wasn't deep enough for it to belong to an adult, confirming Naruto's theory.

Without another word, he sealed the Kubikiribocho on a scroll and grabbed Zabuza's body. One second later, and the only evidence of the duo's presence was the flurry of leaves that remained after the hunter-nin used the Shunshin no Jutsu.

Silence reigned over the forest, but only for a few instants.

"Oi! Is... is it safe to come over there now?!" Tazuna shouted from behind a tree, some distance away from the ninja.

"Indeed." To everyone's surprise, it was Shino who answered him, not saying any more than the absolute necessary lest his voice become affected by the pain.

"Wow, you are awake?" Naruto questioned, sure that the Aburame had been knocked out by Zabuza. Shino was, in fact, still lying down on the grass, in the same place where Zabuza blitzed him.

"Shino might be, but half of you aren't," Kurenai piped in, approaching the genin before Shino had the chance to answer Naruto. "Can someone explain to me what happened?"

As the trio shared what they could of their encounter with the Demon of the Hidden Mist, Kurenai and Kakashi moved around the clearing, checking on their teams. Naruto had his elbow partially healed in the process, but with the sole exception of Hinata's nose and a nasty gash on the back of Sasuke's head, the other wounds the genin suffered couldn't be fully healed right away. Still, Kurenai did treat what she could to lessen the pain her genin were suffering so that they could last until she was able to heal them correctly (and much to Shino's relief, she also carefully helped him to get up).

"I see. And... how was Sakura knocked out?" Kakashi inquired nonchalantly, masking his weariness, confusion and worry perfectly as he stared at the only female genin under his direct command. Naruto, Hinata and Shino had focused on Zabuza's movements, but none of them mentioned how Sakura had been defeated.

"She... kinda just freaked out all of a sudden and passed out," Naruto answered, shrugging and then wincing as his elbow protested against the motion. The pain wasn't actually strong, but it had caught him off-guard.

Glancing worryingly at his pink-haired teammate, Naruto wondered if she had truly had passed out because of killer intent like Zabuza said, of it had been something else.

"...I was not able to watch the fight from my position," Shino said, "but my kikai detected her falling unconscious mere seconds after Sasuke was kicked into a tree."

As she was currently busy using a diagnosis jutsu on Akamaru, no one saw Kurenai pale as she connected the dots.

"...None of them have any physical injuries that I can't heal," she stated after a pause to regain her composure. 'But can the same be said about injuries that aren't of a physical nature?' Kurenai wasn't sure, but she now knew that she needed to do something to minimize the damage she had caused to the pink-haired girl.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Hearing Naruto's worried, startled cry, Kurenai drew a kunai and turned around just in time to see Naruto and Tazuna trying to support Kakashi's limp body.

"Oof, this guy is heavier than he looks!" Tazuna commented, struggling to keep the jonin on his feet with what little help Naruto could spare him. Trained ninja or not, it wasn't easy to carry a muscular adult male that walked around with a heavy flak jacket. "What's wrong with him?!"

Kurenai winced slightly. "He's suffering from severe chakra exhaustion. For now, just lower him to the ground gently."

As Tazuna and Naruto followed Kurenai's order, Hinata shifted her head to look at the woman."Isn't this what happened to me two days ago, sensei?"

"In theory," Kurenai agreed, "but in Kakashi's case, the recoil will be much stronger." As much as it boggled her mind, Hinata seemed to have dipped only a bit below the levels of chakra her body needed to work when she fainted during the modified bell test. Kakashi, however, had gone much farther. The technique he used to counter Zabuza's attack required significant amounts of chakra, but he still had managed to stay conscious due to sheer willpower.

'You couldn't rest until knowing they were fine, could you, Kakashi...?' the woman thought, sighing. Though she had expected this would have happened at any minute, it just made things more complicated for everyone.

"So... what are we going to do now?" Naruto asked, frowning as he realized that he was the only member of Team 7 that was still awake. He had hoped that Kakashi would be able to carry two of their unconscious allies while himself, Kurenai and Tazuna transported the other three (or four, if one counted the small Akamaru)... but Kakashi fainting threw a wrench in his plans.

"I guess we will have to camp out here," Tazuna shrugged. "A damn pity. My house is just a couple hours away... but well..."

"That may not be necessary, Tazuna-san," Shino spoke up. "I believe we can still arrive there today despite more than half of our group being unable to move perfectly..."

Shino then shared his plan with the group: Naruto would create three clones for each individual that incapable of walking on their own. One of each trio of clones would use the Transformation Jutsu and take the shape of a stretcher, and the others would transport them. Shino had even been offered a lift as well, but he refused, arguing that his wounds didn't hinder his movements.

Since Naruto hadn't wasted a whole lot of his clearly massive reserves and insisted that he was not hurting badly enough for the whole ordeal to be a problem, Kurenai agreed to the plan immediately. It only took a little less than ten minutes for the group to be ready to move out, mostly because Kurenai and Tazuna were extra careful when carrying the three people who were actually wounded.

Hinata had been the last one to be moved into the bright orange stretcher, and once the adults were done with that, the Naruto that was on the front side of the stretcher turned his head to face the Hyuuga. "You comfortable back there, Hinata?"

"Uh, y-yes! V-very much!" She retorted quickly, waving her hands in front of her dismissively to finish the conversation quickly. She did not want to face Naruto after failing to help during their fight; not when he had been so active during the entire ordeal. In her haste, she didn't notice that her efforts were completely pointless, as there would be a Naruto behind her anyways. "T-thanks for carrying me, clone-kun."

"Clone? Why would you think that?" Naruto looked confused for a second before breaking into a grin. "I'm the real deal, y'know!"

"Oh, I... uh... didn't think you'd bother with me yourself..." she mumbled in a barely audible tone, looking away from the blond's inquisitive gaze. 'Surely, this is nothing more than a coincidence...'

"…?" Naruto hadn't understood a word. Looking at the clone that was carrying Hinata from behind, the copy shrugged... an action that the original soon mimicked (as best as he could).

Had he actually heard her mumblings, Naruto would have shared with the bluenette that the least he could have done for her after she saved him from Zabuza was to make sure she wouldn't fall to the ground during the rest of their journey by carrying her himself, but sadly, that conversation never happened. Instead, Naruto decided to ask one thing that had him concerned about the next part of their adventure.

"Hey, Kurenai-sensei? How are we going to find our way back?" the original blonde asked, scanning his surroundings. Kiba had been taking care of that little issue before, but without the Inuzuka's sense of smell, Naruto had no idea how they were supposed to get back on the road. All he could see was grass, trees, and bushes—regardless of what direction he was facing. It was disorientating, to say the least.

"Oh? Shino can take care of that easily... in fact," she approached her student, "I believe I still need to thank you for helping us locate you all."

"It was the least I could do, given the circumstances. We were fortunate that Zabuza truly believed he had killed you, otherwise he wouldn't have lifted the mist and my abilities would have remained impaired."

Naruto decided that the woman's answer did little to enlighten him. "I don't get it."

"Allow me to elaborate," Shino said, contorting his nose in an attempt to re-adjust his sunglasses. "Zabuza had initially waited to ambush us on an area bordering the road we would traverse. With that in mind, I had sent some of my kikai to scout his surroundings, in case he had a partner. These specific bugs remained put after he activated the Kirigakure no jutsu, and even though quite a few of them were killed during the battle, there were still enough of them for me to use to guide Kurenai-sensei towards us. I did not make use of all bugs I had sent, so I should be able to direct us towards the location where our sensei fought Zabuza."

'Well, that was lengthy,' Naruto deadpanned internally.

"Um... were you awake this entire time, Shino-kun?"

"Indeed, Hinata. Thanks to the pain, I found myself unable to manipulate enough bugs to attack our enemy, so I tried to make myself useful in another manner. Considering that I detected that Kakashi-sensei's chakra reserves were close to complete depletion, I believed that leading them to us would be the best use of my abilities, but it required me to completely focus on the task at hand."

"And it was a good choice. If it was not for your bugs, I don't think I would have been able to stop Kakashi from summoning a dog to track you down," Kurenai admitted, glancing worriedly at her fellow jonin. That kind of technique would have killed him thanks to the chakra drain. 'But if the alternative was letting Team 7 crumble again, then you'd gladly choose death, wouldn't you...?'

"Well," Tazuna began, "if everyone's ready to go, then let's hurry up and get out here. This damn forest gives me the creeps."

Looking back at the bridge builder, Kurenai nodded. "Of course. We need to reach your house as fast as possible so that I can bring my teams back to a fighting condition. I don't think anyone will attack us today, for the same reasons as yesterday, but you can never be too cautious."

"Heh, don't worry!" Naruto piped in. "If anyone tries to attack us, I'll show them that Naruto Uzumaki is not to be messed with!"

Oblivious to the way his words inspired the discouraged girl he was helping carry, Naruto glanced back at the spot where Zabuza was killed.

'Next time... I swear that I'm not going to lose, no matter what!'

---

While what remained of Teams 7 and 8 made their way towards their client's home, a certain masked ninja was heading the opposite way, jumping from tree branch to tree branch until he eventually found a small clearing suitable for his purposes.

"I think this is far enough..."

Landing on the grass, the masked ninja carefully laid Zabuza on the ground and grabbed a pouch from a hidden pocket stitched on the inside of his haori. Placing it beside Zabuza's unmoving body, the mysterious ninja looked over the various tools that were inside the pouch, searching for one in particular. "First, I need to cut those bandages to drain the blood..."

But before the masked boy could even get the tool he needed to remove Zabuza's mask, the man woke up. "I can handle this myself," he spat, sitting upright.

His eyes were wide and bloodshot, and they only got wider when the man forcefully removed the two senbon that had pierced his neck. "Dammit Haku, you are brutal...! Did you really have to shoot me through the neck of all things?"

Haku glared at his master through the mask, making full use of the fact that it didn't let Zabuza see his expression. "Zabuza-sama, it's dangerous to remove senbon that were stuck in such a sensitive spot. If you tear a blood vessel, then you'd make me saving you a waste of time."

The swordsman spat blood on the ground while glaring at the boy. "Take off that stupid mask already." As if being reminded of his defeat and near death wasn't enough to ruin his day, the sight of the hunter-nin mask that Haku wore was only contributing to Zabuza's foul mood.

The boy sighed behind his mask. "To answer your question, yes, I did. The neck is a vulnerable area because it isn't very muscular or protected by bones. In other words, my needles go straight into the pressure points I aim for, but they would be met with quite a bit of resistance if I had tried to strike elsewhere." Obediently, Haku removed his mask, allowing Zabuza's brown eyes to see his similarly colored orbs.

"Regardless, sister would have my head on an ice platter if your "perfect body" were to be ruined by my hands. And we already know she won't be too happy about you almost getting yourself killed," the boy mentioned off-handedly, his expression stoic if not for the slight curl in the corner of his lips. "You won't be able to move well for a week, if not more."

"Bah... Haru worries too much." Zabuza tried to rise to his feet, only to see that Haku was telling the truth. Sitting up like he had done when he regained consciousness was a hard task, but manageable. But trying to get up? That was simply too painful, even for him. "And don't talk as if she wasn't going to give you hell too."

Haku did his best to suppress a shudder. "Yes... and my apologies, Zabuza-sama. Had I been faster, you—"

"Quiet," the man cut him off. "Helping me against those Leaf bastards wasn't the mission I gave you. Besides, I'm actually surprised you managed to return today, since you left just a few hours ago... that damn midget has some quality boats, I'll give him that."

Hearing that his master wasn't mad at him made Haku sigh, relieved. The boy stiffened, however, when he realized that explaining that to his sister wouldn't do him any good.

"Report," Zabuza barked, unhappy that his tool became too distracted to follow the indirect order.

"After leaving the ship our employer let us borrow, I followed the main road that connects Konoha to the closest port town, as you suggested, and I found signs of combat on part of that road," the fake hunter-nin said, once again digging into a hidden pocket to bring out another pouch. This one he emptied on the ground, leaving its contents to fall freely between himself and Zabuza. "In addition to marks of kunai, shuriken and fuuma shuriken on the ground and in a log on the side of the road, there was also the shell of a smoke bomb, some ninja wire and these two materials that are part of the weapons the Demon Brothers use."

Zabuza eyed the objects warily. He recognizes a broken pair of metal rings that were part of the inner mechanism of Gouzu and Meizu's gauntlets, and most worryingly, shards of their older brother's claws.

"There was no blood on the road or anywhere nearby, but part of the ground was burned. That was all I could find out, Zabuza-sama," Haku finished with a small bow.

"Tsk. Looks like the ones that took care of them were the genin, then," Zabuza constated, shaking his head. "Idiots... they were probably restrained and left for Konoha's ANBU to take them to prison."

"Uh, the genin Zabuza-sama? Were they really strong enough to deal with three chunin?" Haku questioned, tilting his head slightly.

"The jonin might have stepped in at some point, but the stuff you found suggest an actual fight. They have an Aburame, and Inuzuka and a Hyuuga with them, and there's an annoying blond brat that can spam shadow clones to an absurd degree," Zabuza explained. "With these kinds of support skills, they probably detected the ambush ahead of time, like what happened with mine... except that Kakashi and Kurenai wouldn't have any problems in taking out the Demon Brothers. You'd never have found anything in that case, so the genin definitively were part of the fight."

Haku's eyes narrowed. "This complicates our situation, doesn't it?"

"Hmm... yes and no," Zabuza answered, not fully sure of what point his apprentice had been focusing on. "These brats can foil any surprise attack we could attempt, but their mission is to protect the bridge builder. They will have no choice but to deal with us if we bring the fight to the bridge itself. But our plans to invade Kirigakure will need to be adjusted." As disposable as he found the Demon Brothers to be, they were indeed trained to fight under the heavy mist of Zabuza's favorite jutsu, ans such, they would have been significant assets when Zabuza decided that it was time for his rematch with the Mizukage.

"We will need to gather more money before returning to the Mist, then?"

The swordsman nodded. "Exactly. Since Gatou's intel was wrong, I was planning to grab more money from him to compensate... but with things as they are, there's no way he will accept my terms." Zabuza knew that the tycoon wouldn't be pleased to know that Tazuna would stay alive for roughly another week, even if there was a good reason to justify for his defeat at the hands of Kakashi and Kurenai.

Seeing his tool's expression darken considerably, Zabuza frowned. "Be patient. I will kill Yagura and end those bloodline purges once and for all, just not in the near future."

Adopting a stoic mask, Haku stared at his master. His words were a clear indicator that the man still didn't want to use his strongest tool against the Sanbi jinchuriki—the man that was responsible for his clan's destruction. Zabuza stared right back at him, silently reminding that his desire to personally avenge the Yuki clan would need to be forgotten. He simply wasn't strong enough to help during that battle.

"Well, if that was all, then please lie down and let me look at your wounds," Haku asked with forced politeness, eyeing the few kunai wounds that his master had. There was not a whole lot of blood trickling out of them, but he knew that once the daggers were removed the situation would change.

"Just take me to the hideout already. I don't have time to waste here."

Haku nearly rolled his eyes after hearing that, but settled for just raising one eyebrow at the older man. "And let sister see you with those kunai ruining sticking out of your bleeding limbs? Are you sure you want to do that, Zabuza-sama?"

The jonin groaned, but conceded the point and did as he had been told to. "Your sister is a great tool, but not a perfect one."

The younger ninja nodded, stealthily sighing as he searched for the tools he would need. He had long since become used to Zabuza considering them as nothing more than living weapons, but unlike his sister, he had never liked to be referred as such. It had been ages since the use of the word "tool" had bothered him, but after so many years of fighting side-by-side with Zabuza, he sometimes forgot how little he actually mattered to the man. 'Just like those bunnies he brings with him for substitutions... nothing more a tool to be used and disposed of as he sees fit.'

"This will hurt quite a bit, Zabuza-sama," the boy warned, erasing his previous thoughts from his mind. "Do you wish for me to knock you out while I take care of your wounds?"

"My pain threshold is high," Zabuza replied dismissively, scoffing at the thought. It wasn't just pride, however, that kept him from accepting the pseudo-anesthesia Haku had offered him. Zabuza was planning to put this next minutes—and the whole period of rest he would be forced to take—to form a suitable strategy so that his next fight against the Copy Ninja and the Genjutsu Mistress would end differently.

'The Sharingan... that's going to be the biggest problem. I need to find a way to get around that stupid dojutsu, or else they will truly kill me this time. Though if I can split them up permanently, I think I can deal with that nuisance by myself.'

His train of thought was halted abruptly when Haku started to remove one of the kunai that had struck his left arm. The process hurt more than he expected, but compared to the pain he would bring to the Leaf ninja the next time they met...

It was nothing.

---

"Ah...! Man, this nap rocked. Was almost as good as ramen..." Naruto mumbled to himself, stretching lazily and letting out a huge yawn, all while still lying comfortably on the couch of Tazuna's living room. "Almost."

On the back of his mind, he realized that almost two hours of rest completely got rid of the dull throb on his arm (which had worsened over time thanks to the strain caused by carrying Hinata), but that thought was quickly forgotten as his nose detected a delicious smell coming from somewhere nearby. That, coupled with his stomach rumbling, convinced the boy that an investigation was in order.

Even though the visibility was low due to the curtains on the windows, Naruto didn't have any troubles in following that smell thought the darkened room until he was faced with a closed door. Tazuna's house had wide rooms, but there wasn't a whole lot of furniture around for him to worry about breaking something.

Opening the door slightly, he peeked into what he discovered to be the kitchen and saw Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter. The woman was dressed in simple clothes: a gray skirt that ended below the knee, and a pink shirt with red sleeves and collar. As she was currently busy finishing lunch, her long, black hair was tied in a low ponytail instead of flowing freely like she seemed to prefer.

The jinchuuriki became distracted in his attempt to identify what was being cooked just by the smell, and ended up leaning against the door, making it creak noisily and unintentionally announcing his presence to Tsunami.

"Oh! Hey there," she said, offering him a friendly smile as she turned around. "I was going to let you rest for a while longer, but I guess that making lunch made too much noise for you to keep sleeping, huh?"

"Nah, I woke up on my own," Naruto replied. 'Well, I think.'

"Well, at least you won't have to wait much more, because lunch is almost ready," she said, glancing at a nearby clock on the wall.

"Hmm, lunch! I'm starving!" Patting his belly in anticipation, the boy immediately set out to sit on one of the chairs surrounding the kitchen's table. "But hey, if it's almost time to eat, then where are the others?"

"Well... I wasn't expecting so many people, so I asked father to buy more food on the market. He brought some stuff with him from Konoha, but with almost a dozen mouths to feed, it simply won't be enough." She turned around again to face the stove and the pots she had been working with. "Your sensei and that boy with the sunglasses offered to accompany him, so it will be just us for now. They should be here at any minute, though."

"Oh... okay." Despite his reply, he didn't like the idea of sitting around without a capable jonin nearby, even if Kurenai had placed a special genjutsu to deal with any trespassers that might have bypassed Shino's scouts... but if there was one thing he liked even less, it was being hungry. "So, what about that food you were talking about...?"

Tsunami giggled. "Sorry, this will take about fifteen or so minutes to get done. But... I do have last night's dinner in the freezer if you want to eat right now. I forgot my son was going to be camping until tomorrow, so I made too much for just myself," she commented, laughing at her own carelessness.

At first, Naruto was going to refuse. Though dealing with the smell of food for such a long time would have been maddening, waiting so that he wouldn't eat by himself would be worth it. However, his stomach objected to that idea rather loudly, making Tsunami giggle at his expense once again.

"I'll prepare it for you, just give me a couple minutes, ok?"

Roughly five minutes later and a bowl of food and a pair of chopsticks were placed right in front of Naruto. "Uh... what is this?" Naruto could recognize the rice, fish, and fried eggs rather easily, but there were a few seed-like things in a dark brow liquid that were beyond his comprehension.

"Ah, those are black beans! They are really popular here in Wave, and they go well with rice."

Shrugging, Naruto went right ahead and split his chopsticks. "Itadakimasu!"

Soon, the boy came to two conclusions. First, that the people in Wave didn't have good taste for food. The second was that he really should have waited to eat with everyone; his nose was telling him that what Tsunami was cooking would have been worth waiting for. However, even though his manners left a fair bit to be desired, he knew better than to complain or show his dislike for the food.

Or rather, for the black beans. The other parts of the dish had been great, but unlike what he sometimes did when he was forced to eat vegetables, he couldn't use the fish or the egg to compensate for the taste of the beans—the taste was simply too strong for that to work. His struggle to eat the whole bowl slowed his consumption pace considerably, and he was just about to finish it when he suddenly heard Tazuna's voice.

"I'm home!"

Seconds later, the old man entered the kitchen, with Kurenai and Shino trailing behind him. The two adults held heavy bags full of food, while Shino was carrying just a pair of small plastic bags. Though his limbs were now functional, Naruto was sure that the Aburame couldn't handle a lot of strain just yet.

"Welcome home!"

Naruto made sure to give his full attention to the food while Tsunami greeted her father.

"Oh? Eating already, brat?" Tazuna questioned, placing his bags in an unoccupied corner of the kitchen. "Couldn't wait for us, eh?"

Naruto shot an annoyed glance at Tazuna. "Not my fault you guys took too long to get back here, old man."

Upon hearing the rude reply the blond gave, one of Shino's brown eyebrows twitched in annoyance. "Naruto, let me remind you that we are guests here. It is not polite to speak to your host in such a disrespectful manner."

Though Shino's advice was sound (and ignored), Tsunami waved him off dismissively. "Don't worry about that, kids. My father is only here because of your efforts, so there's no need to be all formal with us! Especially not now that the food is ready," she said, hoping that lunch would be a lively affair, for once.

Finally finishing the last bits of his bowl, Naruto couldn't help but snicker a bit to himself. He hadn't interacted with the serious Aburame that much, but he doubted the guy would ever be able to act casually.

"Did any of the others wake up?" Kurenai questioned, sitting down on a chair opposite to Naruto.

"I'm afraid all of them are still asleep, Kurenai-san," Tsunami answered solemnly as she placed two bowls of food in front of the jonin. She had been in a happy mood ever since her father returned, but her happiness faltered when she remembered five wounded ninja that risked their lives to ensure that Tazuna would return home safe and sound.

"I hope they are ok..." Naruto mumbled to himself as he got up to leave his own bowl in the kitchen sink. As he did so, he noticed that even though Tsunami was placing bowls and pots with different foods on the table, there was a slightly larger bowl with a bit of everything, sitting by itself in a corner of the sink.

"Say, what's up with this one?" he asked, turning to face Tsunami.

"That? I made it for the girl that can't walk. I was planning to bring it to her since she can't come down here. I didn't know what she liked, so I made sure to give her plenty of options." Eyeing what was supposed to be Hinata's lunch, Naruto involuntarily licked his lips. It looked and smelled delicious. "It's a pity she can't come here to eat with us," the woman continued, unknowingly giving an idea to Naruto as she grabbed the bowl.

"Y'know what, give that to me. I'll bring that to her, so go talk with your dad! I'm sure you are dying to catch up with him!" he suggested, sporting a wide smile that was soon mirrored by the older woman. He knew that father and daughter had barely been able to speak with each other ever since they arrived, and as much as he was envious of them, he hoped that they would enjoy the reunion.

"Oh, how nice of you! Thank you!" The woman said, passing the bowl and a pair of chopsticks to the whiskered boy. "And I'm sure the poor thing will appreciate the company. Your friend must have been lonely."

"Yeah. Stuck in that bed all by herself, she must be bored to tears by now," Tazuna commented, munching happily on a piece of beef. "It's been, what, two hours since we arrived?"

"About that much," Kurenai confirmed. "But actually, Hinata asked me to retrieve a book from her backpack before we went to buy food, so I'm sure she has been busy." Naruto raised an eyebrow at the jonin, not seeing how what she said was meant to counter Tazuna's statement.

Not too soon afterwards, the orange-clad boy found himself walking up the stairs of Tazuna's house. He still felt a little surprised by how big it was. There were two guest rooms downstairs, one of which Kakashi had been using and the other would be shared by all male genin (and for the sake of convenience, Sakura had been put there as well, which is why Naruto had been forced to use the sofa). On the second floor, Tsunami, Tazuna and his grandson each had their own rooms, with the former's room also being lent to the three kunoichi of their group. The biggest surprise, he would say, was that there were enough extra futons for everybody; he was sure that some of the sleeping bags would have been needed.

Still, what held Naruto's thoughts at that moment were the last words Tsunami had said to him before he left.

Naruto was pretty sure that, to a degree, he could already safely classify Kiba as a friend despite his aggressive tendencies. Shino hadn't opened up to him just yet, but he was fine with the Aburame as long as he didn't talk for too long. Lastly, his own teammates were a bit of a problem, and yet both of them seemed to be making an effort to become his friends. But Hinata...?

Now that Mizuki had revealed to him the reason why the village hates him so much, and since he had given up on discovering who his parents were a long time ago... he could safely classify Hinata Hyuuga as the biggest puzzle he had ever tried to solve. Naruto simply couldn't make heads or tails about the blue-haired girl; she was a complete enigma to him.

And this led him to wonder: Was she a friend?

There was some evidence to support that theory. Anyone cool enough to give him food for free was nice in his book, and she did use the "kun" honorific in the few moments she had been able to talk to him... but the way Hinata randomly became hesitant to be around him, if not scared of him, made Naruto suspicious.

At first, he shrugged it off, believing Kiba's words about her simply being a weird person. It was a reasonable train of thought... but while he had not been surprised that she was fine with her own teammates and even with Sakura, he had seen her talking freely with Sasuke Uchiha of all people during the previous day's dinner. That was more than enough to prove to Naruto that Hinata had an issue with him specifically, likely related to why she was reluctant to pair up with him to fight one of the Demon Brothers.

What mystified him the most, surprisingly, was the way she fought. Naruto didn't think much of her behavior during his sparring match with her outside of being surprised by how aggressive she was being right off the bat. Watching her next bouts against his own teammates, though, made him notice that she wasn't fighting them in the same way.

There was a lack of purpose in the way she fought them... a purpose that he saw shining brightly on her (at the time) blue eyes when she charged at Zabuza in the one moment she believed she had a chance to land a killing blow on the assassin. Thinking back on his own fight against the Hyuuga, he could remember that same fire burning on her pale lavender orbs... did that mean she actually hated him?

'No... that can't be right,' he thought. Her plea for Zabuza to spare him made no sense if she hated him. As far as his experience went, those two things went hand-in-hand. Was she actually scared of him for some reason? Maybe he had pranked her in the past and had forgotten about it...?

Or perhaps she had some kind of illness that affected her mood? That would certainly explain why her face became redder than a tomato whenever they interacted. 'That shade of red definitely isn't healthy,' he observed.

Unfortunately, before he was able to figure anything out, he was already in front of the door to Tsunami's bedroom. Hearing the sharp noise of a page being turned was all that he needed to know that Hinata wasn't sleeping.

"Well, here goes nothing," he mumbled to himself as he turned the knob.

Much like when he entered the kitchen, the door made a loud creaking noise as it allowed him to enter the room, but Naruto's loud voice made that sound go by unheard. "Hey, Hinata! I've got your lunch!"

Hinata had been silently reading her book while enjoying the comfort of Tsunami's bed, but when she met his eyes the girl gasped, almost jumping from sheer surprise.

"N-N-Naruto-kun?! W-what—ah!"

In a hasty attempt to hide her book behind her pillow, Hinata clumsily dropped it, making the book bounce on the mattress once before hitting the floor, closing itself in the process.

Both kids stared at the fallen book for a couple seconds before making eye-contact.

"…"

"…"

"…"

The two remained in an awkward pause for all of three seconds before it was broken when Hinata's stomach loudly protested against the idea of Naruto keeping "their" lunch for himself. The gurgling noise resounded through the room, and despite the organ's best efforts, the silence between the two remained.

That is, until Naruto broke out laughing, furthering Hinata's desire to wither and die on that very spot.

"Hahahahah... man, who knew you could be this loud?" he commented jovially, focusing just enough to not drop or spill the food he held in his hands. It was amusing to him that, for once, it hadn't been hard to understand or hear what the girl wanted to "tell" him.

"I'm sorry..." she mumbled, face burning a bright red from shame. Not that Naruto could see her expression at all, as she lowered her head to stare at her lap almost immediately.

Naruto stopped laughing, his mood switching from amused to bemused. This time, he had heard her clearly. "Dude, why are you sorry?"

The girl didn't answer nor did she look at him, afraid to meet the blond's (in her mind) judging gaze. Naruto understood from the way she fidgeted that if he didn't do anything, they would go back to square one: silence.

"Well, if that noise was anything to go by then I'm sure you're hungry, so... here it is!" the blond exclaimed as he approached the bed, halting when Hinata thrust her arm towards him and held her palm to stop him.

"W-wait! Um... t-the floor..."

Though her words weren't that helpful, following the girl's gaze helped Naruto to understand what she was trying to convey. "Ah, your book, right?"

He carefully stepped over the book and passed the bowl to Hinata. With that done, he picked the book from the ground and analyzed the cover. 'Huh? The art of knitting? Why would she try to hide this...? Bah, whatever.'' Not bothering to digest that information, he shrugged and left the book right beside its owner.

"Um, Naruto-kun? W-why did you come here?" Hinata asked, making use of the fact he wasn't focusing on her to articulate herself a little better.

"What? To bring you lunch, isn't that obvious?" He blinked once and only then his brain registered the emphasis she had put on the word "you", which made him frown at her. Could it be that she really hated him...?

Hinata, for her part, was fighting the urge to slap herself. "Nonono—I mean, yes! Y-yes, it is! B-but... um... but w-w-what about Tsunami-san?" she stuttered, and cursed herself for her blunder. 'Amazing job, Hinata! Now he thinks you are stupid!'

The light bulb turned on above Naruto's head. "Oh, that! Yeah, she was going to be here instead, but I kinda got to have lunch earlier than everyone else and, well, the old man left the house with Kurenai-Sensei and Shino just a few minutes after we got here, so..."

He trailed off and, much to his surprise, Hinata relaxed a bit and smiled at him. "That was very kind of you. I'm sure that Tsunami-san and Tazuna-san appreciated the gesture."

"Y-yeah," he stuttered, caught off guard by the change of pace in their conversation. Explaining things never had been his strong suit... but still, somehow she saw through his words even though he stumbled over his explanations.

The girl merely bobbed her head in response, her smile faltering slightly as she realized that Naruto hadn't come here because of her specifically. 'Not that he had a reason in the first place but—'

"But I also needed to talk with you for a bit, too," he interrupted her thoughts, picking up from where she had stopped but completely reversing the message.

"Eh? M-me...?" A nod from Naruto told her that she had heard him correctly. Taking a deep breath as subtly as she could and doing her best to recompose herself, she added: "So... how can I help you?"

Scratching the back of his head and looking away from her, he continued. "Yeah, I... just wanted to say thanks for what you did. Against Zabuza, I mean."

"B-but... I couldn't do anything. I just..."

When the shy girl didn't finish her sentence, Naruto looked back at her only to see her staring at her legs glumly. Unaware that she was being watched, he saw her mumble something in a voice too low for him to hear, but still, he managed to interpret what she had mouthed.

"Got in the way" was what he inferred from the way her lips moved, and for some reason he wasn't able to explain, it made him angry.

"I wouldn't be here if you hadn't stepped in. You saved my butt, you know?"

"Re-really?" As if what she said hadn't been enough, the shocked expression the blue-haired Hyuuga wore clearly indicated to the jinchuuriki that either she hadn't realized that fact... or that it had slipped her mind, somehow. Either way, he just nodded at her, making the girl's features color in a way that wasn't too far from the shade of lavender of her eyes.

"S-so... you're not m-mad with me?"

In a rare moment of insight, he caught the meaning of her words right away. "You landed a hit on Kakashi-sensei, sure, but Zabuza was actually trying to kill us. I can't be mad at you for missing. Where did you even get that idea?" Considering that he had just thanked her, Naruto was completely lost as to how she could have imagined he was angry with her all this time.

'Well,' Hinata thought, 'this is a relief, but... ugh, I think I'm confusing him. Better change the topic,' she decided. Naruto's expression was more than enough to tell her that she was letting her insecurities cloud her judgment too much.

"B-but i-it was nothing, really. I... a-anyone could have done that," she replied, trying to avoid his question. The only thing keeping Hinata from playing with her fingers was the fact she was holding a bowl of food.

"Well, but still... wait. Anyone?" Under Hinata's quizzical stare, the gears inside Naruto's head started turning. "But Zabuza kinda of... er, suggested? No," he crossed his arms in front of his chest, pouting, "that's not the word... uh..."

"...Implied, maybe?"

"Yeah, that! So, he implied that I shouldn't have let you switch yourself with me. What was up with that?"

"Ah, you can... if someone tries that, stopping y-your chakra flow will b-block their attempt to substitute with you," Hinata explained, remembering the lecture about the Kawarimi no Jutsu that she had listened to during her time at the academy. "It was meant to be a basic technique that... every ninja should know of. S-so that the enemy would never switch positions with you..."

'Seriously? But that would mean nobody would ever try it on someone else!' Naruto found the whole thing funny, and one second later, he realized the problem with that line of thinking. "Hey, wait a sec. But then... how did you know that it would work on me?"

Hearing that question, the bluenette gulped. 'Of all the times to be perceptive, why now?!'

Hinata had always paid attention to when Naruto had missed any classes—or when he got kicked out, be it due to a teacher's bias or as a result of being caught during or after a prank—so that she could help him study for tests. Of course, Hinata never had been able to muster the courage to approach her crush and share the highly-detailed notes she made during those days but... how was she supposed to tell him that?

Saying "I know you missed that class" not only would creep him out, but it also wouldn't be enough to keep the blond from asking more questions. While he probably wouldn't know what to make of it, giving clues for her crush to figure out that she stalked him was not on her to-do list.

Who knew how many of her slip-ups he had noticed during the past few years? Surely, at least once he might have spotted her hiding behind a tree or a post, and... maybe he had noticed she was the only girl that never was cheering for Sasuke each time the Uchiha had been in a spar or that she was one of the only people in their class that didn't laugh at him for messing up?

Luckily for her, her stomach once again rumbled, reminded her that her lunch might go cold if she didn't eat it soon and effectively providing an escape route. But before she even had a chance to become embarrassed by her unladylike behavior, Naruto started chuckling.

"Eh, guess that doesn't really matter." Hinata did her best to not let any sign of relief show on her features. "So, I'll leave you to your food!"

With that said, Naruto started walking towards the door when he remembered something and pivoted, once again facing the Hyuuga. "Oh yeah, Shino wanted me to say "Hi" for him."

"Uh... "hi"? Shino-kun said... just that?"

Grinning mischievously, Naruto continued. "Well, he said a whole lot more than that, but I didn't have the time to jot down the whole essay." His smile fell a little as he watched Hinata giggle at his lightly humorous remark.

Whenever he tried to tell a joke to a girl, this would be the part where he would get mocked or even punched. Though he knew that it would have been impossible for the Hyuuga to punch him, considering that she was bedridden (and would have likely opted for a palm thrust anyways), the fact that she actually laughed at his little joke was very much unexpected.

And for some odd reason, he found that he liked the sound...

"Shino-kun can be... long-winded at times," she warned, still smiling. "But p-please be patient when dealing with him."

"Eh, I guess I could try," he shrugged, finally moving to exit the room for good. He didn't have anything against the Aburame, but his monologues tended to bore him. And as both Naruto and Hinata knew, a bored Naruto tended to be a rather rude Naruto.

"Oh, um... b-before you go..." Hinata began, prompting Naruto to turn around once again, which slightly annoyed him. "I... I d-didn't want to b-bother you but... can you ask Kurenai-sensei to come here once she is done eating...?"

"Sure! What do you want with her?" the blond asked, observing how the girl's face turned scarlet as her eyes landed on a door in the corner of the room."Oh, that's right... you still can't walk, so you need help to use the bathroom, huh? Man, that's gotta be embarrassing..."

"Y-yes..." she agreed, deflating completely. "At least... it will just be for today," she commented, more to herself than to Naruto. Kurenai had said that her bones had already been mended, but she would need to rest for the remainder of the day to fully heal. 'Just another day of being a burden to everyone,' she thought, dismayed.

Seeing the troubled, defeated expression on Hinata's face, Naruto felt the sudden urge to cheer her up. "But hey, don't worry about that! You just have to work extra hard from tomorrow on to make up for the loss; no biggie! ...And you should really start eating that food, y'know?" he added, pointing to the seemingly forgotten bowl of food that the girl held.

"Ah, you're right!"

'Well, that kinda worked,' Naruto thought. "So, I'll leave you to it, then! ...Unless you have something else to say?" he asked, this time not willing to try to make an exit until he was sure their conversation was over.

"Y-yes, I... I..." trailing off nervously, she closed her eyes. 'Focus, Hinata! Sakura-san was right, if you don't try, you will never be his friend! I can do this! … I think!'

"I...?" Naruto repeated, encouraging her to continue.

Opening her eyes, she met Naruto's stare head on. This time, even as her cheeks became rosed, she didn't look away. "I just... wanted to say thank you, Naruto-kun."

Hinata then smiled at him. A small smile, but a sincere one.

Naruto had the weird sensation that she was thanking him for a whole lot more than just bringing a bowl of food, but despite his uncertainty about what that had meant, Naruto found himself returning the girl's smile with one of his own while unconsciously scratching the back of his head. "Oh... well, you're welcome!"

With that, the conversation ended thanks to neither one really knowing what else to say, and Naruto promptly opened the door and left. Now alone, Hinata allowed herself to relax as her smile widened. 'I did it! And I didn't even stutter!'

Splitting the chopsticks that Naruto had given to her alongside the bowl, Hinata finally tasted Tsunami's cuisine. Though the food was no longer hot, she still felt a pleasant warmth on the inside as she ate; the smile never leaving her face. Perhaps, even though she felt that she didn't deserve Naruto's friendship... maybe it wasn't such an impossibility in the end.

Meanwhile, Naruto was walking down the stairs, ready to enter the kitchen and pass Hinata's message to Kurenai. Unlike the girl, he no longer was smiling, but he too was thinking about their interaction.

As the beginning of a headache made itself known to him, the blond realized that he had been completely wrong about one thing he had once taken as a fact. A truth of life. And yet, as unbelievable as the notion was, as impossible as it seemed... he couldn't deny it any longer.

He had been wrong.

There really was something in this world that was more confusing than math.

---

A/N:

...And that's it, folks!

I can't believe I actually managed to push out almost 18k words between Chapter 8 and this one. Between college and my job, I barely had any energy to write during that first week after posting Chapter 8. And when I got used more accustomed to my new routine, well, the first scene caused me nightmares.

Maybe it's because I wrote it while wiped out, but I completely hated what it. It was not THAT different from what you guys are reading, but I kinda went into chapter 9 without a solid plan for how the scene would play out, so yeah... I got really nervous about its quality.

After some guidance from Serious Sam and my beta, Simple Potato, as well as a good bit of polishing a couple weeks after first writing it... well, I am much happier with how it turned out. I just hope it didn't disappoint anyone that had high expectations after last chapter's cliffhanger...

That was not at all my intention, but now I've learned my lesson about using cliffhangers carelessly.

So, I hope you guys liked it. I am pleased with how the other parts of the chapter turned out, but I still have some lingering doubts about the Zabuza scene...

By the way, there was a "second" cliffhanger last chapter, so... if you all are wondering, yes, Kakashi escaped Zabuza's attack by using Kamui. He DOES have the Mangekyo Sharingan already, and it was never said that he couldn't use Kamui during Part 1. He did get a bit of a boost on his chakra reserves for this AU, which is why he didn't die from using Kamui right after a Chidori (which was meant to take 25% of his reserves at that point, I believe). Of course, not enough for him to use Kamui twice just yet, but just enough for him to do what he did here without killing himself.

Another thing you might be wondering is the OC pseudo-introduced in this chapter: Haku's sister, Haru. Kinda cliched for me to go with the twins thing instead of just Haku, yeah, but much like the third Demon Brother, I needed more people on Zabuza's side for the next battle. You will see more about Haru and how the original Haku's personality was split between the two siblings in the next chapters. I already dropped some hints but... well.

(Trivia: Haru means "spring", and Yuki means "winter". Yeah, Ace attorney-level pun, but hey, if Capcom got away with Redd White [president of Bluecorp] and his secretary, April May... well, I regret nothing.)

Also, other reviewers have contributed to this chapter's content. Right now Perentie Fan and xNaruhina come to mind as direct contributors... and like I mentioned before, Serious Sam (author of the fic My Precious People)too. (I think I expanded on everything that needed to be expanded, but if you think I still missed something, feel free to scream at me and Simple Potato for missing it). Also, having SilentSambo88 following my fic gave me the motivation to crank out an extra 1500 or so words on the night I got the notification. If you guys haven't checked out his fic An Uzumaki Scorned, or Zorback32's Lies in the Past, Danger in the Future (which SilentSambo88 edits and apparently helps to write at some points), do yourself a favor and read them.

But enough of that! I... have bad news for you guys: it's almost a guarantee that I will have to delay chapter 10 by a week. As you guys know, I'm working with a "one chapter per four weeks" schedule (or trying to anyways)... and it just so happens that I will become really busy with college in the third week where I'd be working with C10. In compensation, the following week won't be hectic at all, so I will have more time to work on this and possibly enough time to compensate for the delay with a higher word count.

Anyways, I will still try to make it on time, but yeah... I will probably update my profile around the 9th to give you all a straight answer about this, but expect either a delay or a smaller chapter.

That's all I had to say about this chapter! That is, unless any of you feel like dropping a review... I don't mind discussing the fic and answering any questions you guys might have.