From accidental learning, Hakama are those skirt pants that everybody loves to see samurai wear. Unamori is the kind that is actually a giant poofy pant that folds together. Most animes have their samurai wear this. Bleach and Samurai Champloo for instance. Adon is the kind that actually IS practically a dress. Haori are a kind of jacket. The best examples are the ones the Squad Captains in Bleach wear. Also being the only haori I remember, use those for reference when you imagine.

Typical: Forbidden Stuff!

-

-

-

And so, the water remained still.

Silence pervaded the quiet waters.

Then one bubble of life, and another, slowly trickled up to the surface as a dark shadow slowly rose to the top. Eventually the lemon-topped samurai burst through with a deep breath and with a few coughs after from expanding his lungs so wide.

The older charcoal-top samurai's head rose above the water as well then.

"Sensei! What the hell was the point of that? Were you trying to drown me?"

"Oi! That's meditation for you! It sounded reasonable to hold your breath underwater! I think I heard once that some samurai a long time ago did this, and Teal Ranger did this too in Chapter-"

"I don't care about who did what as well in that stupid comic!"

"Hey! Don't insult Super Shiny Spinny Attack! It owns your ass for free! Don't think that just because your twelve either justifies your back talk!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Lemon-top twelve-year-old Naruto muttered as he pulled chakra to his limbs, using his new traction to clamber up on top of the surface of the water like it was any other solid ground.

A lot can happen in seven years. Like any other good boy, Naruto had grown taller. His samurai training long ago had replaced his aged T-Shirt and pants of his five-year-old incarnation. Now black unamori hakama adorned his legs, a dark vest zipped up his torso, and his frame was covered in an orange dyed sleeved haori that billowed out all badass like if the wind was right. A bandanna was tied around his forehead to hold his spiky blonde hair above his vision.

Standing atop the surface of the river, a single hand seal forced the chakra in his body to be released in force out of his body at various points. The force was enough to blow every drop of water off his clothes, turning a drenched body into a dry one in seconds.

"You show off! Don't think you're the only one who can do that!" Tetsuya accused with a rather exaggerate frowned face.

"Agh! Why do you always have to say weird things like that? You're the one who taught me about chakra." Naruto exclaimed back, clutching his head from trying to ward off the general stupidity-slash-insanity of his sensei.

"Hnph, whatever." Was the response that killed the argument, afterwards the older samurai pushed himself to the surface as well, and repeated the same process as his student. The two thus started towards the bank, the morning fun over.

"How come Haku doesn't have to do this stupid meditation?" Naruto whined.

"Because, as we all know, she got that bloodline that got to do with water. As far as I'm concerned, she might do some crazy thing like breath under water. Plus she has a lot more patience than you, so the regular stuff works for her, I suppose."

Upon the bank, a sword lay. Where the sheath met the hilt of the blade, a long golden string had one end tied tightly to the steel framed sword cover, the other end tying to a small weight. This weapon Naruto picked up from the ground, and held the weapon diagonally against his back while he flicked the weighted string around himself, the force causing it to swing around his torso, wrapping his blade against his back tightly in the process.

"Hey, sensei…" Naruto inquired as he turned around to face his mentor.

"Yeah?"

"Haku doesn't know we're finished, right?"

"That doesn't mean you're going to surprise her." Was the deadpanned reply.

"Who says I'm doing anything like that?"

"Because I trained you the whole time. The way you continually try to get the jump on everybody, sometimes I wonder how you would have been if you stayed in Konoha those years back."

"Dead, probably."

"I suppose."

-

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-

Haku, being a whole three years senior to her younger comrade, obviously meant she was still older after seven years. At fifteen, those who hated her in the village would not have recognized her, save her name. Finally in a place where she could grow, her scrappy urchin looks disappeared long ago, replaced by that feminine elegancy and calm, and those damn breasts that Tetsuya-sensei kept preaching about like the damn long-term pervert he probably truly was. Her hair, once ragged and unkempt was now the gloss and length of beauty. Though, due to her profession, that length was kept in a bun behind her head. The long bangs were parted into two even halves and tied together at the ends. A dark green-blue robe wrapped around her body and was tied in place by a thick brown sash. A hakama was worn as well like any other samurai. Unlike Naruto, this one was even more dress like than his pant like form. Finally, a thin black cloth collar that came into her possession a while back still remained around her neck, since becoming a favorite accessory of hers.

And if you must know, yes, she still painted her nails.

Since that long description of her, she had been kneeling in front of the fire that traditionally marked the area as their campsite. Since Tetsuya dragged Naruto off to try out some new amazing meditation technique, Haku was left to defend their… campfire, and wait for their fish breakfast.

So really, given the situation and her much less volatile nature, compared to the other two, she decided to try out her own meditating. Maybe because she was a girl, but she was having a remarkably more successful time at it then her comrades.

True to the meditation, every sense was closed off, leaving a phantom presence of their use in her mind, making all of them clear but of all the most important things.

"YAAAHHHH!" Naruto flew through the brush towards his peer.

But perhaps meditation wasn't required after all, if Naruto always decided to give his war cries.

With the covered blade loose in his hands, the boy slashed out his blade at the still kneeling and silent Haku. In return, she merely raised a solid orb of ice blue that appeared in her hand. The singing blade immediately caught in the dense ice. By then, both were already on their feet beginning their latest game again. Naruto was already smirking as from his sideways position, his steel covered sword sheath in his other hand was already swinging out from behind his back towards Haku's face. Moisture continually was being sucked out of the air as more ice was added to female samurai's orb, one side of the globe releasing a protrusion of ice sharp enough to cut, while she twisted its round base to knock Naruto's attack out of the way. In elaborate swirls, both fighters broke off their blade from each other before facing each other again. From there, both struck at each other again, dodging and swinging with practice, Naruto with his sword and its cover in each hand, and Haku with her frosting blade, formed into one with a real handle.

Naruto jumped back as Haku spun around carefully with her blade outreached. At one opportune moment, Naruto lashed out with his sheath, the roped weight harshly winding around his friend's sword arm, catching tight at the wrist. Pulling back, the significantly-older-yet-still-boy slashed again towards his unbalanced foe, which just managed to get her blade in front, clashing again. Haku then used her unexpected momentum to push her weapon against Naruto's, while reaching behind his blade to grab the same wrist that capture hers, leaving them at a standstill again.

"So, how you gonna get out of this, Haku?" Naruto confidently grinned, his feral nature barely suppressed within those teeth.

"Don't worry, you'll be letting me go, Naruto." Haku smiled in her own manner of strength.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"YOU DAMN BASTARDS! AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO CATCHES THE DAMN FISH AROUND HERE?" Tetsuya's voice hollered over the tension, before two flying projectile were hurled through the trees towards the two young swords…people.

As the two of them turned in surprise, Haku was already turning her blade straight at the oncoming projectile. Naruto, meanwhile, was still going all 'huh?' at the voice.

Thus, Haku's sword neatly caught the fish straight through, while Naruto fell backwards defeated in a resounding clang and flying of his hand held possessions, the sea creature slapped in his face.

"That's why, Naruto." Haku said in her own calm manner, eyes shut in a nodded agreement.

"…smart ass…"

"That's right! That's all the two of you are! Smart asses! I ought to kick both your asses for insubordination, the way you keep running off like that!" The samurai sensei angrily grumbled as he trumped his way into vision, his sword skewered from one end of the blade to the other with fish. (Tetsuya finally discovered how call upon the power of the STARS, like the Rangers)

"Welcome back, Tetsuya-sensei." Haku bowed graciously.

"What'd the hell you threw that fish for?" Naruto's head stuck up with a scrunched up face of indignation.

"It's you breakfast. Now cut some tree branches so we can cook this."

-

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If you think that they were just leaving the Mist islands, you are off by a few years. Since hearing of those ninja hunting for some characters that sounded suspiciously to the description of the three samurai back then, the oldest obviously ran off with his two students back to the life of wandering in the 'wilds'.

Journeying through the morning with the clothes on their backs, they managed to make it to a rice paddy besieged quaint town.

With expertly cooked food outside of fish and generally foul tasting fruit.

And a bookshop that may or may not sell Super Shinny Spinny Attack.

"Alright! Let's check our resources! Cash out!" Tetsuya exclaimed in the middle of the street.

(Suspiciously like another adventure concerning samurai) Between the three of them, they didn't even have enough money for a single room in the inn. Again.

Besides the collected look of dejection on all three of their faces, about 15 other people in the same street secretly armed with various mugging tools already had moved past the wanderers.

"Damn… at this rate we'll never get to Earth Country…" Tetsuya muttered.

"We could take jobs around here." Naruto suggested.

"Us? We're close to Konoha, so people would rather go there than take jobs from ancient samurai."

"But you would be willing to take any job for money, right? Uzumaki… Naruto." A new voice cut in.

The samurai with the matching name spun around to face the voice, hand already gripping the handle behind his right shoulder. Tetsuya and Haku also turned in feign calm, the one-eyed warrior briskly pushing his right arm through the single sleeve as usual to access his sword, Haku remaining in the background unarmed and ready to strike unexpectedly. People in the busy street meanwhile dispersed in panic at the sight of impending battle, like anybody should.

The one who called out to Naruto was a ninja bearing a heavy vest that ranked him either Chuunin or Jounin. The green of the vest and the black of the uniform, along with the symbol on that shining metal plate bore him as a Leaf ninja from the nearby village. This particular ninja, despite the uniformity of their clothing, was best identified with his longish silver hair.

"What the hell do you want from us?" Naruto yelled over at the ninja, his distrust of ninja (Leaf ones, especially) already kicking in.

The ninja put his hands to his hip with a smirk that came with those 'hmph's, before his hands flung out, metal escaping the grip and crossing the distance towards the samurai. The onslaught of the flying shuriken easily shredded the unprepared warriors to pieces.

Before their bodies even touched the dirt, smoke escaped from all of them, their true bodies revealed as large wooden articles with the projectiles embedded in them.

"They know kawarimi?" The silver headed chuunin/jounin exclaimed at the sight.

The Tetsuya-fake, a rectangular table turned over onto its shorter width was suddenly kicked forwards towards the ninja, revealing the real one-eyed fighter behind it while the wooden shield flew over towards the shinobi enemy with frightening speed. Deciding that being impaled by a table filled by his own weapons was one of the stupidest ways to go, the ninja gritted his teeth at the sight and flipped over the object attempting to ram him. While he was upside down, his hand gripping the edge of the table in the air, he noticed behind the table had something yellow and orange-

A weighted rope twisted around his neck, a sudden jerk pulling the ninja to the dirt ground in a slam. Before he knew it, two sharp edges were at his face, one clear and releasing a cold frost from its surface, the other blade leading up to a hand belonging to an un-amused Uzumaki Naruto.

Out of the side of his vision, the oldest of the bushido fighters walked into the view of the ninja, his sword lazily propped over his shoulder.

"So what's your last words before my students kill you?" Tetsuya asked.

Snicker, snicker.

"Huh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

Snicker, snicker turned into a full out laughter, the ninja taking caution during his chuckling throes that he didn't rise his head into one of the blades.

"I knew you people were perfect for this job. I recognized you, the one who managed to kidnap Naruto and defeat two ANBU ninja." The ninja said with a grin.

"What job? Like I'd trust any Leaf ninja! Sensei, let's just kill him now! We can't trust ninja." Naruto shouted accusingly.

"I agree, Tetsuya-sensei. You don't trust people who attack us unexpectedly. Didn't the people in the Leaf despise Naruto?" Haku asked back to her teacher.

"Yeah… but, you know… we are kind of out of money…" Tetsuya half began, while Naruto gave his shocked response.

"EH? You actually want to trust this bastard?"

"No… but we are kind of out of money. We can kill him after he pays for lunch and tells us what he wants."

The swords were reluctantly withdrawn from the ninja's grinning face.

-

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While the a crowd the crowd of the town's residents gathered outside the food establishment, the four sat inside an empty restaurant. The ninja was seated in another table separate from a food packed one. Haku was calmly eating her bowel of rice while Tetsuya showed no regard to the situation as usual, shoveling his bowel of rice down his throat along with anything else his chopsticks could reach. Naruto carefully gauged the ninja with a death glare out of the corner of his eye.

"So, Mr. Ninja-" Tetsuya started through a half filled mouth of rice.

"Mizuki."

"-Why us? Ninja are better at stealing stuff."

"I don't trust my own peers with this task. They're too loyal to their old beliefs. The politics between ninja of different villages is far too complicated for my taste. I just need someone who talks only with money. I was originally going to trick one of my students, but things didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it too, so I decided to find mercenaries to help. I'm just happy to find people as skilled as you are."

"Oh gee, I feel so happy to be commended by a ninja. So what would we have been stealing?"

"It's known as the Forbidden Scroll of Seals. It's a scroll that contains teachings of several high-level ninja techniques."

"So… you want to steal this and betray your own village? For what reason? I though Konoha is one of the strongest villages out there."

"That reason is secret."

'Tch, fine. But a scroll isn't of any value to us, and it seems you'll either be keeping it or not selling it to competitors for a long time, so what's the reward for us?"

"I saved up an amount in case I had to resort to this. It's a good sum."

"Define good sum."

Good sum was defined as an exuberant amount more than capable of seeing the three off for a good while, and reasonable, given the efforts for stealing a treasure in the middle of a village and trying to get beyond outside said village.

"So, team. Do we have enough confidence or desperation to try this job on?" Tetsuya announced to his students.

Haku was being her general 'I must ponder this wisely as to my nature' with a cup of tea.

Naruto answered with an expletive and a no, the words interchangeable in order.

"I don't want to go back. I hate remembering what it was like before." Naruto explained in crossed arms and a childish, but valid pout.

"Sorry, Mr. Ninja. My team can't work to its fullest potential if even one of us doesn't want to take the job. We probably have to refuse at this rate." Tetsuya dully translated to Mizuki.

"It's alright, I'm sure I can throw in something extra for Naruto here."

"Money won't make me go." Was the icy bite to the hand.

"It doesn't have to be money. I happen to know something that might be of your interest."

No response. Naruto's back was turned to the ninja. The Leaf traitor still continued.

"When you were born, a law was passed. Only the adults know of it, and they vowed under punishment of death never to break that law."

"Never heard of such a stupid thing." Naruto mumbled.

"That's because it was never meant to be known to you. The law relates to you Naruto. The truth."

"…"

"The truth of why everybody hates you. Why you are different than everybody in Konoha."

"…"

"Normally, I still wouldn't tell what it was. But since I'll be betraying Konoha soon enough, and you don't consider yourself of Konoha anymore, I suppose that makes us both exempt from the laws right?"

"…You bastard…" Naruto growled quietly. To bait him with such a thing…

"Perhaps I'll tell you when you complete the job, since that would make by defection official. Until then, I'm still a lowly Konoha Chuunin that teaches at that academy you might have gone to. Think about it, Naruto. The truth of what you are."

Mizuki dropped three slips of paper onto the table he was seated at before standing up. "These are passes that legally allow one to enter Konoha for this month. If you want to take this job, just come. Until we meet again."

A hand seal and Mizuki did that ninja thing where they disappear into a plume of smoke, leaving the three samurai behind.

"So we going or not? I'm just doing this for the money, if you must know." Tetsuya blandly answered. Happy and bright Naruto being this sullen pseudo-angst bastard was sort of killing everybody's personality.

Haku sighed at her empty cup of tea before responding, "I don't have any ties to Konoha. I'm afraid I have no reason to refuse this offer, outside of the considerable danger. Probably the most I would be under yet."

Naruto remained silent.

Damn mood-killer brat. "Well, Naruto? You going or not?"

Naruto turned a smart grin to his peers, "Well considering that ninja bastard pretty much tricked me into going, I guess I'll have to see if that Ramen Place's stuff in Konoha is still any good."

Smiles erupted from all of them. All three were going. Monsters they were, they would all care for each other, and no matter how ugly each was.

-

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-

"Gimme your sword, Naruto." Tetsuya held out his open hand, the other holding Super Shiny Spinny Attack open at the memorable bit where there was that bit that could be interpreted as backing to the Orange Ranger and Pink Ranger Pairing, which Tetsuya seemed so fond of for some reason.

Naruto protectively clutched his weapon. "What! What for? It's mine!"

"I can't have three samurai entering a town at once. It's too suspicious for a place like Konoha. Haku doesn't carry weapons, so she checks out as a civie. You however, need to give me your sword, or I give you my sword, since samurai legend say that traditionally they used to have two swords."

"So why won't you give me yours?"

" 'Cause I'm your damn teacher, so I get to do whatever I want. Now, gimme. Haku, lend me a hand."

Hey, what are you doing, stop, argh, let go, stop doing that, Haku what are you doing, help already, you damn bastard, you damn thief, you bunch of traitors, argh, stop making this hard for yourself Naruto, I'll get it back to you when we're inside, I don't care this is about integrity, your so damn troublesome, Haku actually do something, I though your bloodline could be helpful in this, no it wouldn't, fine be that way.

Etcetera continued as the three wrestled on the road to Konoha.

-

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-

In exchange for the sword, Naruto got a new straw hat over his head. Generally when one of the few children in the village with blonde hair disappears, and later some mysterious wanderer returns with similar characteristics, complicated crap tends to happen. Like being recognized.

Still, the three got checked in through the large gates pretty easily. They just popped up; some ninja guarding the door did the 'halt, who goes there?' thing, jumped down to check, and jump back up to open up the doors. So far, so good.

Watching the gate shut behind them, they released a sigh. Now they were in enemy territory.

"Here Naruto." Tetsuya tossed the boy's weapon back to its owner, who quickly wrapped it around his back with the rope as they walked away from the giant gates.

"So now, what, Sensei?" Haku asked.

"Now what? We have some time to relax. But we need to find that silver-headed ninja first. That's your job, Haku."

"Eh? What about you, sensei? Aren't you responsible, as our sensei?"

"No." The one-eyed Inukage shrugged, "I'm just going to shop a bit and sight see." He turned to face the youngest of the three samurai, "Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Since this is your village and all, and you have such a bad past as you make out, I can't really stop you from being an angst bastard here. That doesn't mean I'm going to hang around and watch you be angsty. So go do something useful in the mean time."

"Hey! I may not like the memories here, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be stupid about it!"

"Yeah, yeah… Nehways, lets all get to it. We'll meet back at that Ramen Stand that Naruto liked when it's night. Later, all."

"Later, sensei." Naruto said with a nod of farewell.

"Take care, both of you." Haku responded with a small bow.

The three so went their separate ways into the village hidden in the leaves.

-

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-

So really, all Haku had to go on for finding their insider was that he was a 'lowly chuunin who taught at the ninja academy'. The best she could think of was asking a ninja what and where a ninja academy was.

It was really too bad for her that she didn't know that graduation day was actually tomorrow. She could have simply asked the newbies then, but she didn't. So, fate left her to resort to the only Genin team that was training and not out on missions for the time being, but 'Tis rather unfortunate for her to be who they were.

Something green landed in front of the female samurai, the object's previous position being inside a training field that Haku didn't even notice exist beside the path she was taking.

"It's pointless to fight me, Lee. The outcome of these pitiful 'spars' is destined to be the same every time." Some snooty, confident, and cold voice snorted out from the field. Haku, as an audience turned to see the announcement coming from some-

("I'm telling you Haku!" Tetsuya roared out in a rant, "This book is the ultimate expression of the truth of this universe. Angst bastards in Super Shiny Spinny are identified by their smart ass-ness as well as in real life! They suffer from some sort of exaggerated form of self-denial, and they often are effeminate as well! I'm just happy I saved you from that horrible fate!")

Oh my god… Sensei was right after all. Haku realized with a gaping expression at the near parallel events of her teacher's lesson and right now unfolding before her.

Well, nearly. Tetsuya didn't say anything about a girl agreeing with the angst bastard, or him talking to a green dummy sack named Lee as if it were a real-

"Neji! You're wrong! One day I'll prove to you that Hard Work is equal to your abilities!" The green sack stood up and yelled adamantly.

"Fool."

"It's alive?" Haku could not help but ask perplexed at the sight of the living punching bag, with her raised eyebrow. Wait a second, it did have limbs and a head and everything… but that face… that stumped Haku. She couldn't tell if it was real since it half looked like a cartoon face painted on. She compromised with a 'it's one of those crazy ninja things like Tetsuya-sensei says'. She at least noticed all three of them were wearing metal plates bearing the etching of a swirling leaf symbol on their foreheads or waists.

The angst bastard one stared straight at Haku after hearing her presence. Despite the probability of those eyes being blind, those near white orbs had no problem giving a death glare that would have made any lesser Haku sweat.

"Who are you?"

Haku decided to replace her sweating that any lesser Haku would have done with a quick and wide bow so she wouldn't have to see that death glare for a second while she faced the ground "Haku. I've arrived here recently to meet a friend of mine. Judging by those metal plates, you are ninja. Correct?"

"Yes." The angst bastard sternly replied, as if even mentioning that was a problem to his existence. "However, you meeting a friend is often an excuse any illegal alien uses if they are confronted. Where is your pass?"

"Here."

"Fine."

"You asked if we were ninjas. Why?" The girl asked. Interesting shirt. The embroidery knotting holding the pink material together didn't look very common to this time.

"My friend works at the Academy for Shinobi. I assume that is some sort of training facility, and since you three are ninja, I was hoping that-"

"MY STUDENTS! WHAT IS WITHHOLDING YOUR FROM THIS YOUTHFUL TRAINING?" A glorious voice boomed from above as a larger green clothed punching bag landed behind the three ninja, the upper half releasing a gleam of light from being reflected by the bag's-

Oh wait, that one's human too. Or at least the teeth are real enough to reflect light. Haku realized.

"Our training was interrupted by the interrogation of this civilian." The angst bastard responded dully.

"I see! And you, young lady, who shines with beauty of youthful brilliance! What is it that you wish to ask?"

"Well… er… I was hoping a ninja could direct me to the Shinobi academy." You can't help it when you blush. Especially when your called beautiful in a long time, as your only male companions were to brusque to care about that.

"Gai-Sensei! I volunteer to guide her to the facility! If I can't do it in three minutes then-"

"Lee! You fool!" The larger green punching bag smashed one of its appendages into the smaller one's face. "You cannot be distracted while you train to master this special technique I am training you!"

Haku, to her horror, was forced to see a re-enactment of what probably might have been in her own sensei's comic, what with the hugging and the shouts of approval and love between the two training sacks. All the characters in there were probably as exaggerated as all these ninjas. Afterwards, the larger of the two green creatures, Gai-sensei, walked over to the female samurai, landed a hand on one of her shoulders and faced the three other circus clowns with a rather dramatic and horribly animated face.

"You three! I shall accompany this lady here to her destination! You three will continue to train in my absence to revitalize your spring time of youth and vitality!"

So, Haku was on her way to meeting her informant.

Wait a second; did he actually call training, "Youthful" and "Revitalizing"?

("God damn!" Tetsuya shouted to a Six-year-old Naruto and the respective nine-year-old Haku, "You ain't training enough! Train, train, train! You're finished when you look like damn 80-year-old corpses!")

-

-

-

Tetsuya simply sucked at sight seeing. He did not gain tactical knowledge of the territory, nor did he actually enjoy the scenery. The whole time his damn face was stuck in that Super Shiny Spinny Attack of his.

But today! Today is the day fate had led him to where he was going! Fate for sure! Today he would find his destined enemy of all that he stood for!

"Hmm… So Gray Ranger says determinedly 'I shall defeat you for sure, Masked God Variant!' …"

It was about here, that Tetsuya heard a very familiar line while reading.

"…Then Junko said…'I think I'm going to lose sight of you'…"

There, the reader of the other book recognized Tetsuya's line as well.

Could it be? Came the unanimous dramatic thought. Both turned around and faced each other through their books.

"…That line… could it be that you are reading a copy of Make Out Violence, the adult novel by Jiraiya?" Tetsuya's lone and scrutinizing eye asked as it emerged from the top of his comic.

"If I'm not mistaken, Gray Ranger is the character of Super Shiny Spinny Attack." Another lone and bored eye returned as it emerged from the top of his book.

"I see… it must be fate then for two readers like us to meet so."

"Well… I wouldn't know about that… but why does one like yourself read such an outdated comic?"

"Why does one like yourself read such a demeaning literature?"

Silence. Wind blowing dust. Electricity between eyeballs.

"The Icha Icha series must be defeated to ensure the survival of Super Shiny Spinny Attack. In order to do so, I must defeat each reader, one at a time. Prepare yourself, mortal enemy."

"Oh well… I guess I could use some exercise…"

-

-

-

The sun was setting, and Haruno Sakura had yet to find veritable town heartthrob, Uchiha Sasuke. Of course she was saying 'Oh I wonder where he could be' but translated into inward girl speak, that was more like 'God Damn Mother Fucker I'll Kill Ino If I Even See Her Near My Sasuke-KUN.'

Urged on by the idea of her greatest rival Ino getting to Sasuke, and possibly his heart first, and the fact that killing somebody by her wasn't allowed yet until tomorrow (Graduation day and official induction into the ninja military), so she would be guilty of murder in that case if she didn't find Sasuke first, she hastened her pace.

This brought her to the small yard in front of the Ninja Academy for the… billionth time that day.

This time yielded different results. She was surprised that was in the presence of nobody she never saw before. On top of that, the person actually had the guts to sit on the "Naruto Swing" that hung from a particular branch on the tree in the yard.

What were the chances of either ever happening or even at the same time?

Though she had to admit, this person looked a little bit… ominous. Okay, so a bright orange jacket-like isn't as evil as blood red or pure black, but the way the …boy?

It's a boy?

-but the way the boy was swinging, so relaxed, yet so distant… and the way the straw hat cast impenetrable shadows over its owner's head… like he fit the swing perfectly, but belonged to an entire time beyond her.

Still, Sakura swallowed down that feeling as she reminded herself, I AM A GOD DAMN KUNOICHI WHO KICKS ASS! HELL YEAH! EAT THAT YOU UNDEAD SWINGING ORANGE PUNK!

"Um… excuse me?" She decided to try with that oh-so-cute voice of hers. Makes for practice for the day it charms Sasuke-kun.

Swing… swing…

"Um… are you new here, because if that's so, new comers are required to display their pass…"

Swing… swing…

"And… considering that you have that sword… oi, are you listening?"

Swing… Swing… "Snargagblelh…"

Sakura's oh-so-cute face had her eyebrow twitch while blood flowed to her temple and inflated one of her veins, as she heard the sound of what could be very well interpreted as a snore.

"IDIOT! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?"

Pow-Crack. The Phantasm of the Naruto Swing fell off with darker cheek while his hat flew off, revealing the shocks of blonde hair and blue eyes.

The boy with the sword rubbed his cheek irritably as he gathered himself into a crouch and stared up with a squint, "Ow! What was that for?"

"Idiot! Newcomers ought to take this advice! You ought to be grateful that a kunoichi like me is warning you instead of capturing you for possibly breaking the law!"

"Kunoichi? You mean like a girl ninja?" was the guarded skeptical response.

"What? You don't believe me?"

"You don't have those ninja headband thingys…"

"I'll get that tomorrow!"

"That means you're not a ninja yet."

"I AM! Agh! Why am I arguing with somebody like you?"

"I don't know… I was just sleeping in that swing when you hit me."

"Bah! You shouldn't nap in that one! It has a ghost story attached to it, that Naruto Swing." Sakura warned.

"Naruto Swing? Why's it called that?" The boy asked with surprised face, obviously curious at such a possible tale.

"Well, a couple years back there used to be a boy in our village called Uzumaki Naruto. He was a real idiot and a delinquent. He had no parents, so he just did whatever he liked, and got in trouble a lot. Our parents told us not to play with the kid because he was bad, so we didn't so we could punish him for being a bad boy. Anyways, so he was always alone. As far as I'm concerned all he had to do was clean up his act, but he never did. So all the time he spent his hours on this swing alone."

"So… what happened to him?" The boy asked, voice quiet.

"Hey… don't tell me you're feeling sorry for him! He was a bad kid all the way through! There's absolutely no reason to feel sorry for him!"

"I'm not feeling sorry for mys-him! What happened to him anyways?"

"Well, he disappeared one day. Most of our parents think he killed himself. But the same day he disappeared, two ninja were found dead outside our village, they say. Perhaps he turned into a monster? Well, anyways, nobody goes near the swing that Naruto used to sit in now, it's cursed."

The boy nodded as he thought. "Man, what a sad story…" A hand reached out the orange sleeve of the haori and plucked up the straw hat the landed nearby, and perched it over his head rather lopsidedly, turning a dark shadowed ghost into a goofy smiling traveler.

"Sad?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Nobody tried to be friends with the kid."

"Hey! I told you! He was a delinquent with no parents!"

"And all you kids did was listen to the story of your parents, and hate for no reason. That sounds kind of silly…" Something bitter seemed to tinge that smile. Sakura, noticing this, felt a strange connection between this boy and the story.

"Hey… I never did ask for you name…"

"What's yours first?"

"I can't say that! I'm a kunoichi!"

"And I'm just a nobody. Can I sell your name? Is your name valuable to this place?" The boy asked.

"…fine… Sakura…"

"Naruto."

"…EH? Uzumaki Naruto?"

"No, no. Just Naruto."

"What's your family name?"

"You won't give me yours." Naruto whined.

"Fine! Be that way!" The kunoichi (to be in 24 hours, technically) groaned, "Besides, I have to see that pass. I should at least know if you're here legitimately or not."

"Tch… ninjas. When did they care about rules…" Naruto mumbled as he fished out his document and held it out at an Sakura, face clearly showing insult at that comment.

"Fine, fine, you good. Why do you carry a sword around anyways?"

"Because I'm gonna be a kick-ass samurai one day!" Naruto announced as he stood up from the grass and stretched out his back.

"Samurai? What the heck's a samurai?"

"I'll tell you… but first, could you help me? I'm a little lost, since it's my first time here."

"…Okay?"

"Because I heard there was this really cool place around here called Ichiraku that serves really cool Ramen! You know where it is?"

"Well… yeah-"

"Good, lead me!"

"What? Do expect me just to drag you around the place?"

"Well… yeah… I was hoping somebody could tell me the sights along to way too… you know… tour guide… PLEASE?" Naruto was on his knees, his face transformed into a trembling and tear bubbling, pleading form.

"Good god! Fine! Just don't give me that face!" Sakura backed away, hands defending herself from the hideous sight. WHAT THE HELL? DO THAT AGAIN AND I'LL KILL YOU! YA DIG?

"Yeah! Ramen, ramen! Here I come!"

"Fine, but along the way, be sure to tell me if you see Sasuke-kun."

"Sasuke? Who's he?"

From there, the trip was lined with fanciful descriptions of the number one Rookie's various moments of coolness and of his hair, eyes, skill and so forth.

Naruto? "He sounds overrated." He promptly decided to himself out loud as he looked up into the sky.

Thwack.

-

-

-

Upon the sighting the street and the wood framed Ramen stand, Naruto –note the large bump swelling out of the side of his head- also saw a familiar pair also come down the opposite end of the lane. Even though he hated the ninja, Naruto at least decided to greet his sister-in-arms.

"Haku! You made it! I see you brought that loser with you…" Naruto exclaimed as he ran up to Haku, leaving his cherry-tinted tour guide in the dust.

"It was a little bit troublesome, but I was still able Mizuki here was still able to show me where some interesting things are…"

"Really…" Naruto deadpanned. He didn't like the thought of being helped by a ninja… like him. Sakura was fine, though. For now. Hell knows how ninjas end up in a few years. Seriously, Mizuki here is trying to betray his own village, that ought to account for something.

"Eh? Mizuki-sensei? What are you doing here?" Sakura asked, surprised at the sight of one of her academy faculty members outside of work.

"Oh, nothing really. I was guiding this newcomer here around. You?"

"I was doing the same!"

"How coincidental that we met while doing the same thing!" The silver-headed Chuunin said with a smile (that Naruto and Haku could easily see was the fakest one they have ever encountered yet).

"I wonder where Sensei went…" Naruto questioned out loud.

"BASTARD!" Came the voice of such, while two figures ran into the street the gathering crowd of tourist and tour guide was meeting at. One of which was the ever familiar sight of Inukage Tetsuya, faced contorted with zealous passion, his Super Shinny Spinny Attack manga in a hand that reached through the crème cloak. The Samurai was currently pursing a quarry of another vested and uniformed ninja, a bit like Mizuki. This one however had hair of more of a graying tone that shot up against gravity like a frayed broom. Only a dull black eye that experienced much boredom in its life was all that can be seen of the man's face, the bottom half covered in a mask up to his nose, while the metal plate of the ninja was held lopsided against his head, so that half of it tilted over the left like an eye patch. In this ninja's hand was a hard cover volume of some sort, emblazoned with 'ages eighteen and over' logos all over.

All over the street the two readers dueled, as the sounds in the air were of clacks as the two spines of the books combated against each other's surface. Again the two spines impacted each other, the force blowing wind dramatically everywhere while the spines held in deadlock, the Rangers combating with all their might against Junko, Yuri, Natsumi, and all the other psychotic half naked chicks.

Tetsuya broke off first, throwing his weight back as he prepared to thrust forward in attack again. "Damn you! I will defeat you, JIRAIYA!"

The Samurai flew forward, eye flashing with power, "SUPRAH SHINNNEEE SPINNEEEE ATTTTTACCCKKKOOOOOO!"

"Too slow!" The masked ninja swung upwards in a decisive strike, Make Out Violence knocking the Super Shiny Spinny Attack out of Tetsuya's hand, whereupon it flew up into the air.

While the group by the Ramen stand looked up to follow, the book fell back onto Naruto's face, knocking him down for the third time that day. No luck at all.

Meanwhile, the ninja's book was held dangerously into the face of the Samurai's prone, sweating and conceding form. A deft hand movement by the single eyed shinobi opened up Make Out Violence to a certain page.

"Read it." He said, the single eyeball of boredom never changing at all.

"No! I cannot!"

"You know the rules. Loser has to read the most humiliating line on the page out LOUD. Do it."

Tetsuya's scrunched up in expected emotion before his face blanked out, giving a wide and dead grin, "WOW! THOSE THIGHS DO SURE THUNDER, AYAME! LET'S SEE IF I CAN MAKE IT CRACK AGAIN!"

Silence.

"NOOOOO!" Tetsuya crumpled on the ground.

"Well, that's over…" The ninja with the perverted book made flipped his hand together into a position that resulted in an explosion of smoke and his disappearance thereafter.

"God damnit! I have dishonored my clan! This calls for stabbing myself! DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR!" Tetsuya wailed with an unsheathed sword.

"Sensei!"

"No!"

Immediately the two students tackled their disillusioned teacher, as the three wrestled for control of the eye-patched samurai's sword. Meanwhile, Sakura and Mizuki just blanched.

And backed away. Slowly.

As the two retreated, Mizuki prayed this plan would work.

Sakura had interesting comments of her own, Holy Crap! I am not going to train under a ninja like that! He looks so stupid with that book and everything, Ech!

Of course we all know what would transpire tomorrow on graduation day.

-

-

-

The dead of night, hours after dinner, and hours past the one where everyone gave up staying awake. Little clouds were in the sky, keeping the moon free to silhouette and glow on the village. Three stood on the telephone pole array. The three of them looked on down the valley of streets to the north side of the village, where four monstrous faces of certain heroes long past had been immortalized on the high rocky cliff. Under those heads, a building of interest was there. It was highlighted with red structuring over its white walls and flat roof where ones of importance would utter speeches. A well kept office and place of pride of the village, though not necessarily sacred, as ninja of every rank walked that roof without fear.

"So, that Forbidden scroll is a big ass piece of shit in the Hokage's joint, hm?" The one on the very top of the communications stand mused, legs crossed and arms supporting a lose head. Its single eye still shown with anger over his loss.

"Haku, does Mizuki know where the scroll is exactly?" A shorter one said, moonlight barely reflecting off the yellow spiked locks of his head. He sat on a small device a little lower on the telephone pole, and to the left of his mentor.

"Not really. But he suspects it is near the Hokage's office, or even in it. A high-level document should be under the protection of a high-level ninja." The other one on the other side opposite of

"Man… this is going take forever! And we might have to fight that Hokage! I heard he's the strongest ninja from Sakura." The boy in the dark grumbled.

"No worry! You all know I have a little trick that lets me See! I just need to know the size of that scroll, and I should be able to find it in that office." The oldest grinned sneakily.

"It's ironic that our sensei who has only one eye, yet has the most perception out of all of us. I assume that is from that treasure you told us a while back, the one that belongs to your family?"

"Yeah, sensei! You never told us exactly what that treasure was!"

"…Well, we've been together for a long time, and this might actually kill one of us. So it should be your right to know. But…"

"But?"

"I'm a bit worried you might break off from me if I do tell you." The lone eye of the silhouette sadly wondered.

"What! Why would we leave because of one thing?" The boy exclaimed.

"We always accepted each other despite our pasts, why is this time different?" The senior student asked.

"Because this is beyond being delinquent brats in our childhood." Was the muttered reply.

"…Sensei… you're being angsty."

"Keecch, ack! God damn I hate this village! The whole place is gloomy! Let's just go get that scroll and get out!" Came the hurried and disgusted reply. The tallest one stood up with a 'follow me!' and jumped off the high metal pole, his two students dropping after him, where they set off after that fortress of that Hokage.

With moonlight on their faces rather on their backs, the three samurai came into flesh as they bounded across streets and building sides and roofs, propelling themselves towards their destination. As they floated over the perimeter of the building, Tetsuya turned to his female protégé.

"Haku, the Hokage's office is where?"

"It's near the back. Mizuki said there was only one entrance in."

Landing on the roof, Tetsuya held a frown while they traversed the cement expanse. "What'd he expect us to do? Storm the damn building? That's suicide."

"Maybe there's a window or something. Hokages are leaders, right? They have to have some sort of perk, like a panoramic view." Naruto pointed out.

Naruto's assumptions proved useful this time. A bit of investigation on the north wall, the one facing the giant faces carved in the cliffs, found the three samurai standing on a large strip of glass that served as a window. On the other side was a ridiculously large office, a single seat swamped by an over sized desk, the walls piled with hanging scrolls and shelves of recorded knowledge. The resident of this chamber was currently missing, and the room unused, leaving the chamber dark, as the window was under an overhang and on the far side of the building away from the moon's rays.

Still, one could still managed to discern a rather large scroll in a glass case. The case was behind the desk of the Fire Shadow, and nestled on the ledge in front of the window.

The same window the samurai were attached to.

"Man, this is really easy! We'll be out of this village before the sun rises!" Naruto snickered.

Tetsuya gave a sort of skeptical look at the window before smashing his fist down on it suddenly. The glass shuddered, but no damage, even from that force.

"Sensei! What are you thinking!" Naruto hissed, while his teacher did the same, holding his hand.

"What do you think?"

Naruto mumbled something about how to do it the right way before kicking at the glass, which promptly repelled the attempt.

The boy samurai looked disgusted, while his teacher gave an 'eat that, bitch' look.

"Tetsuya sensei, I might be able to freeze the glass." Haku suggested.

"Are you capable of that?" Tetsuya asked. He didn't recall teaching Haku a trick like that.

"Well, I never really thought I'd use my Bloodline in such a manner, I wouldn't know." Was all she could say, with a bit of a helpless shrug.

"Find out, then."

The three of them moved around the edges of one pane, Naruto and Tetsuya on one side, Haku on the opposite. As they all crouched, Haku raised her arm above her, calling the vaporized water in the air to super condense into a sharp blade of ice that formed upside down in her grip. The downwards stab this time was able to pierce the glass somewhat, releasing small spider web cracks around the penetration.

A claxon sounded around the building, calling attention to an infiltration of the Hokage's office.

"God damnit! Haku!" Tetsuya hissed.

The female samurai concentrated as her sword slowly shrunk, the ice from the blade being forced into miniscule cracks, elongating the random lines slowly across the whole of the pane.

Footfalls were quickly being heard approaching the office, while Naruto was shouting to Haku to hurry up.

"Nearly there!"

"Fuck nearly there! Naruto! Break the glass!"

Naruto responded an affirmative as he stood up and un-slung his sheathed sword, while the other two backed away. Holding his weapon with both hands, he brought his sword down onto the frozen and damaged glass, this time shattering a wide hole in the window.

"Thieves!" A cry came. The vested ninja that kicked open the door quickly flung a kunai at Naruto, who had just finished tying his sword against his back again, and was reaching for the scroll. A brief gasp at effort had Naruto swinging his body out of the exposed window, and 'falling' backwards onto surrounding windows that had not been broken. Haku was already clambering over to the opening, ice forming between her fingers before she flung the sharp pieces back. The ninja easily jumped out of the way of the barrage, as more ninja and thrown blades arrived, Tetsuya and Haku barely managing to defend their point while their final companion tried to reach for the glass encased scroll amidst the whole thing.

Easily, the whole thing was going to hell while the glass barriers between the three samurai and bladed and impaled death was slowly thinning.

"Got it!" Was a triumphant call, as the glass case was thrown off and the sides of the immense device grasped. The three samurai managed to climb out of the way just before a kunai with a flash-grenade tied to it exploded, nearly blinding the three criminals.

Obviously the scroll was made with a past intent of travel in mind, as a sling attached to the sides of the wood core of the large scroll easily enabled its lemon-topped captor to run and carry the Forbidden thing around his shoulder, as the three bounded across the roof and into the night sky, more alarms being sounded across the village.

"This sucks! I can't draw properly with this piece of crap on me!" Naruto shouted over the alarms and the vested ninjas shouting to cease and desist or their coordinated movements to strike at the fleeing three. Like the boy's cry, the sling that carried his hostage had been thrown sloppily over the handle guard of his sword, preventing him from attacking with his weapon.

"Haku! Where's that traitor want us to meet?" Tetsuya called out to their leading samurai. Even if he had a dislike of ninja, that didn't call him to reveal his client's names in a situation like this.

"There a certain clearing across the east side of the village walls. There!" Haku called back.

"What the fuck! He wants us to run across the whole damn village?" Tetsuya screamed.

Things were really looking down. Tetsuya sighed as he knew the best and stupidest plan to follow.

"Naruto! Go to the meeting place first! Stick to the shadows! Haku and I are going to distract them!"

"You're telling me to run away like a coward?"

"Idiot! I suppose it's much more honorable to ignore the point of this job and fight and hold the scroll at the same time! Idiot!"

Naruto only growled in frustration as the three stopped hopping across roofs momentarily to run across the surface of one particular one, which had a deep and narrow alley between it and another. As Haku and Tetsuya traversed the short gap, Naruto seemingly disappeared there.

"You know Naruto doesn't like running away from his family in danger," Haku quickly noted to her teacher beside her, "It makes him feel like he isn't sharing in the same troubles as we do."

"I'll apologize to him later, okay?" Tetsuya hissed back in annoyance, while he dug a heel into roof and spun around to meet any coming pursuers. Haku, realizing their stand being made stopped as well.

They were not disappointed as ninja appeared, occupying the buildings around the roof that the two remaining samurai were on.

One of the ninja scrutinized the two before realizing something, "I saw another one with them! Find-"

A kunai sank into the ground between his feet, causing him to jump back and face the one who threw it. Tetsuya, eye half-lidded in annoyance while his hand, pushed through the lone sleeve of his cloak, was still caught in a loose throwing position, as if he threw his weapon half-assedly with just the strength of his wrist.

"Hey, Haku. What's this I hear about these damn ninja ignoring us?" Tetsuya sneered.

"I think he just said that our youngest companion was more important than the two of us combined." Haku played along with a calm demeanor.

"Oh, ho? Is that so?" Tetsuya called out, as his hand reached to the handle of his katana that poked through his long mantle. With a ring, the blade slid out of its resting place, and was held loosely by the old samurai's side, "How 'bout I show you ninja why my two friends call me 'sensei'? After that, I'll be having each of you calling me 'sama' as well."

"That bastard-" One of the incensed ninja began. One of the more experienced and older cut in.

"Stop it! He's just distracting us-"

The one-eye samurai was already on the same roof, and slicing through the heavy vest, and bringing down the veteran as he cut short with a cry of pain.

"So that's it, huh? I'm just a distraction! How insulting! Come on, all ya young'uns! Get to calling me Tetsuya-sama!" Sensei sneered again at the younger ninjas.

"Get him!" The more temperamental and young shinobi screamed while they closed in on both of them.

Soon enough, the two samurai were shifting back and forth through group of buildings. By staying in the same place as their defeated enemies and not running, they hoped that their angered opponents would continue to be distracted by fighting, and not get time to regain their cool and regroup enough to chase after the Uzumaki.

Justus and kunai flew everywhere, as the samurai jumped back and forth slicing whoever they could and mostly wasting their time continually switching their bodies with whatever nearby object they could as everything tried to kill them at every possible angle.

Really, the whole place was slowly fogging up from kawarimi smoke.

"Sensei, we can't go on forever like this!" Haku said amidst knocking kunai out of the air with her sword.

"Shut up and watch your back!" Tetsuya managed to shout back as he locked blades with a kunai of another vested ninja. He kicked away the ninja before backing up to meet the same backpedaling form of his student.

"This is real tiring shit, Haku." Tetsuya breathed.

"We won't be able to get out of this unless we incapacitate every ninja in this village." Haku likewise heavily drew out with breath.

"So… how many did we get?"

"Not enough. There's still a majority around us."

"I hope Naruto's having a better time than this."

-

-

-

"Sensei better be alright after this whole business…" Naruto groaned as he lay on the grass. Escape had been easy when all the ninjas had been jumping over the roofs and clambering to get a chance at the two ruckus makers, and not pay attention at whom had been hidden under the overhangs they just passed. Eventually he was able to make it out of the perimeter walls. The clearing made itself apparent in the forest as a small moss consumed hut lay in the center of it. There, Naruto threw off his burden and was where he was.

Feeling someone approach, Naruto pulled himself up, and pulled his back into shape with a few audible cracks and held his sword loosely in arms.

"Took you long enough-" Naruto began before realizing that it wasn't any of his comrades, or even Mizuki (whom, honestly he expected to arrive first).

Some damn ninja with a vest landed on a branch high up above, and one Naruto had no intent of socializing with. This one had his hair pulled back into a rather short ponytail, and Naruto could easily see a long scar starting on one cheek, crossing his nose and ending on the other.

"And who the hell are you?" Naruto shouted up. The ninja looked surprised at something.

"…It's a kid?"

"What do you mean 'it's a kid'? All your ninja start as kids! Don't look down on me or I'll kick your ass even more than I need to!"

"Do you even know what you're stealing?"

" 'course I do! So stop taking me with kid gloves! If you want this, come and get it!" Naruto shouted, pulling his sword free, and switched the grip on his scabbard so it was held forward like a sword as well.

"W-wait! I don't want to fight you!"

"Why's that? 'cause I'm a kid? Then why did you even follow me?"

"…"

"I don't need an answer. I can't have you running off either shouting where we're going to meet either, so no hard feelings-"

The boy's light leaping motion propelled him through the air towards the scarred-nosed ninja, who barely managed to jump away before the branch under him fell apart in clean pieces. The ninja landed on the forest floor at the same time his 'opponent' arrived on the same surface to continue pursuit, and so chased after him.

Each other commented and cursed each other in their minds at the speed each moved at, as one continually evaded the child whose sword lanced out in arcs of light. But while the pacifist ninja was too busy watching the directions of the glowing blade, the darker sheath swung in low and jabbed in deep into his midsection knocking him back into the wall of the wooden facility. Naruto was already dashing over to the off guard ninja, hoping to get the whole thing over by piercing him through.

But maybe in the shoulder or the knee or something. This guy was entirely too nice to kill.

The ninja was already done with the elementary level hand seals, and in a blur of motion, already moved out of the way of the oncoming blade, before the ninja broke up into four look alikes. Naruto was too busy keeping track of each one that his sword jammed deep into the wood, and bashed the side of his face after in the same wall.

Naruto again cursed for two reasons. One was that he actually was stupid enough to run his head into a wall (Tetsuya sensei would have never let that down if he saw), and the fact the ninja actually got around to using a technique like Bunshin No Jutsu. Unlike his sensei, Naruto wasn't able to discern just by sight which of the four look-alikes among the trees were just smoke and air, and which one was real. But if he kept his eye on all four, at least he could prevent him from running off.

Several somethings whistled through the canopy of the forest towards Naruto then-

There were two of them?

The ninja disagreed with Naruto's assumption, showing his own surprise as a multi layered salvo of flying kunai struck down on the young samurai, who despite efforts and his success of digging his katana out before, only managed to get the projectiles form hitting anything critical. Thus, Naruto was thrown up against the side of the hut from the sheer force of the flying elements before dropping to a knee, many of the daggers still embedded across his limbs as his orange robe slowly dyed red.

"I'm glad you made it, Naruto…" A shadow sniggered as it arose from the rest of the darkness, "Oh, Iruka? I didn't know you had it in you to actually take on a dangerous criminal like this?" The blur of darkness called out.

"Damnit… so that was the whole plan?" Naruto coughed out.

The replications of the scarred ninja disappeared, leaving a single confused 'Iruka'.

"Mizuki, what's going on?"

Mizuki was obviously prepared to handle the samurai. Two disturbingly large shuriken were tied against his back. These devices were so large, they probably were in fact the length of his back.

"I'll tell you what's going on!" Naruto screamed, "Mizuki called the three of us to get that scroll for him, and now he's betraying us! He's going to run off with that scroll for himself!"

"Don't listen to him, Iruka. He's just outdated trash that wants to make a name for himself by stealing our scroll."

"But… he's just a kid!"

"He's Uzumaki Naruto."

Iruka's eyes widened at those words, "You mean he's…"

"What do you mean, 'I'm Uzumaki Naruto'? What's so special about me?" Naruto managed to cry out through his barraged body.

"True… I did promise you the truth, didn't I? The reason why everybody hates you…"

"Mizuki, wait!" The scarred shinobi argued, "If he's Naruto, that means-"

"Shut up, Iruka! He's going to die anyways, since he stole the Forbidden Scroll!"

"But you can't-"

"I can! I had enough with your whining!" In a single smooth motion, Mizuki reached behind himself and threw his one of his over sized shuriken at the other ninja, who dodged a little too slowly, thus his entire chest got half cleaved by the spinning weapon and fell to the ground, unable to move.

"Damnit… you really are going to betray the village…"

The silver-headed ultimate traitor just snorted nonchalantly before facing the younger of his two victims from his high tree perch. "So you want to know, huh?"

"What do you want from me, Mizuki?" Naruto growled back.

"It's simple really, once you understand… you know, twelve years ago… you know what happened twelve years ago in Konoha, the day you were born?"

"That story was practically spat into my face when I was a kid. You're talking about, Kyuubi aren't you?"

"What's that story say again?"

"What's that got to do with anything? The Fourth Hokage fought that demon to a stand still they eventually killed each other! That's the story!"

"That's not the story, that's the fairy tale that got fed to kids."

This stopped the boy in his tracks.

"What-what do you mean?"

"Mizuki! Don't tell him! He doesn't have to know!" Iruka called out in the background. No one listened.

Mizuki continued to speak, "Twelve years ago, a new law was passed. A new law that was not allowed for you to know exist."

"What law?"

"The law that said 'Don't tell Uzumaki Naruto that he's the Kyuubi that nearly destroyed Konoha'."

"…What?"

"You're the Kyuubi! The Fourth couldn't kill you, so he just sealed you into the body of a new-born baby! Uzumaki Naruto's body! You're just the second life of the thing that killed everybody's friend and family! Even Iruka over here! You killed his parents!"

"That's not true! It can't be! I don't remember any of it! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

"That's just a god damn name! Why the hell does everybody hate you then? Because you're a brat? No! All the adults know! And they told their children to hate you! That's all your good for, being hated! You're just demon in a boy's skin!"

"It's not true!" 'Kyuubi' screamed, beating his free fist into the grass ground. "I don't know any of those people! I don't know anything about attacking Konoha! I'm just Naruto!"

"Say that to the creator when this is all over." The silver hair among the shadows sneered as the second large shuriken slid into his hand, "I'll kill you, get that Scroll back and be a hero. I'll just steal it when the time's better. Your so-called samurai friends should be dead by now. What about you Iruka? Wouldn't it be nice if the monster that killed your parents got a nice slow death as well?"

Iruka, on his back, needed only a glance at the bawling twelve year old to have an answer, "I don't believe a kid like him could be Kyuubi. Demons don't cry over their crimes. This is wrong Mizuki!"

"Fine. I guess I'll just have to make up a story about how you died. But I'm sure at least your name would be etched on the stone, so good bye, starting with you demon!"

The shuriken left the traitor's swinging wrist, and spun through the air at the still Naruto, who was still too distracted by truth to recognize necessity.

A blur and a hand pulled Naruto by his collar out the path, leaving the second weapon by the traitor to plant itself fast in the side of the hut.

"Kyuubi or not, he's much better company than even you," A slashed, bloodied and semi-kunai ridden Haku simply replied, her blade of ice in one hand protectively, and the other hand still clutching her brother-in-arm's haori.

Mizuki was nothing short of shocked and livid, "You're supposed to be dead!"

"Kill me yourself then."

"Sorry the hero's late, everybody!" Tetsuya, also as war torn as the others called out as he charged through the brush, his sleeved arm lazily hanging his blade over his shoulder, "Holy crap, everybody looks like a pincushion!"

"What the hell? You were up against the entire village! How did you escape?" Mizuki was yelling down.

"Escape? Aw, we ain't that good. Right now that surplus of those ninjas are coming here as we speak. So you'll be in a whole fiasco once they get here." Tetsuya snickered.

"Sensei… I…I'm the-"

"Yeah, I know, the Nine-Tailed Fox Kyuubi that trashed Konoha. But are ya gonna cry about being a demon in a company of monsters, or are you going to move on and do something about it?"

"Sensei…" Naruto again sniffed. Even now, his mentor still accepted him.

"So, Mr. Ninja, let's end this show between us, eh?" Tetsuya drawled, "Haku, look after Naruto, and keep him out of the fire, cool?"

"Yes, Tetsuya-sensei."

"None of you are going to leave here alive!" Mizuki screamed, as a scroll was pulled from a pouch by his hop. From the seals within, smoke exploded as several more of the shuriken he so adored to use, were continually screaming through the air at the one-eyed Samurai.

And with all flying through the air, Tetsuya still swerved side to side, dodging each metal wheel of death, "Naruto a tailed-demon, huh? I'll show you what's a demon, mother fucker."

With that, Tetsuya turned a full circle by a shuriken that passed right beside him. In that, his katana slipped into the circular space inside the spinning device. Whereas it was originally used for a hand to grip, the samurai was spinning around and using his sword to fling the projectile back at the silver-head traitor. Mizuki, given the distance, was able to jump off the branch as he dodged, meanwhile flicking his wrist at his swordsman enemy, a small kunai flying back at Tetsuya.

The samurai was about to swing down on the attack to knock it out of the air when it exploded mid-flight, lighting up the battlefield in a burning red.

'Sensei!'s is distress were called out at the sight. An eye patch fell onto the ground in front of Tetsuya's students.

Mizuki dropped down to laugh at the fireball, "So much for that age of samurai!"

"What's this… you wanna see what's a demon so bad?" Was a mumble in the air.

Mizuki traced the mumbling to a Tetsuya figure that was just standing up, char and dirt all over his cloak.

"What did you say?"

"You wanna see what's under this eye so bad?" Tetsuya sneered as he turned to face Mizuki. His charcoal black left was still operable, but his right, once with an eye patch, showed a perfectly formed lid that opened up to a horrified shout by the traitor-nin.

"What happened to that eye?"

Carved onto both sides of his eyelids were black and scrawling lines of a seal that circled the whole optical cover. The eye itself had no pupil, with the same black seals crawling all over the perfect white expanse in ever shrinking lines of rings, like the seals were trying to be a retina, pupil and everything else. The whole eye seemed to be trying to glow an ethereal white.

"I had a visit from some ninjas once." Tetsuya recalled, "They figured it was easier to carry a demon home in a five year old boy. I proved them wrong. This is my tenant that lives in this eye. Houkou, the Five-Tailed Dog-Beast. He'll whisper all those secrets to me about how to beat you. I can see through all secrets and all things hidden. All illusions are all fake to me."

'Houkou' pointed his sword at Mizuki, "That's why I can be equal to ninja, and I'll be carving you up in no time."

"M-monster! It doesn't matter! You're still stuck in human shells! I'll kill all of you!" Kunai raged as a storm from the traitor to the samurai. Several more of them exploded in mid air again as the samurai tried to charge towards the ninja.

As Mizuki sweated coldly at the thought of fighting this creature, the evil-eyed samurai burst through the pillar of flames, his cloak free in one hand to wave away the flames and continue charging towards the traitor.

Stress filled, Mizuki cried out a death threat as he pulled out a single kunai to stab at his foe. Just as he swung forward, 'Houkou', merely threw his cloak in front of him, putting up a barrier of white between the two. Where Mizuki thought the demon's head once was, his blade was stabbing through the cloak into empty air.

Something cold pierced through his stomach there. Looking down he saw a dark vested and pant form, lean muscles and all hunched over with a sword driven into his body.

Mizuki tried to garble something out of his coppering mouth, but the demon didn't listen.

"This time, Mr. Ninja… No final words for you!" A single defying shout tore the handle towards the dying ninja's side, where a two handed grip ripped the red sword out of his back.

So much red mist wafted in the air as the ninja collapsed, balance knocking his body open in two, a bloody hinge on one side, and spilling red everything across under the night sky and night grass.

And so nothing was said as the fire burned.

A flick drew off excess blood before sheathing the blade, and the samurai, after picking up his battered mantle, hoisted such over his shoulder and walked over to pluck up his eye patch in front of his students.

"Haku, Naruto. You two alright?"

There was a pause of awkwardness before the boy spoke up, "Us alright? You got blown up twice!"

A finger sheepishly scratched the side of his chin, "Well…yeah…"

"Tetsuya-sensei… what do we do now?"

"Quit the job and recuperate somewhere else. Hey, you ninja… Iru-whatever."

The ninja, back propped up against the tree, due to Haku's courteous tendencies, looked up at the address, "Huh?"

"I came in just in time to hear you say that you don't have a problem with Naruto here. I gotta thank you for sticking up for him. Nehways, I hope you'll stick around and tell your ninja buddies about Mizuki betraying everybody, right?"

"Yes."

"And I am assured that you will keep secret what I revealed to you, CORRECT?"

"…Yes."

"Good! Now we have no real reason to keep that Forbidden Scroll, so we'll leave that with you, 'kay?"

"Er…"

"Don't need an answer, just telling you."

A few minute later, the three samurai, arms over each others shoulders, carried themselves and whatever tools they had and disappeared into the forest.

The pursing chuunin arrived soon enough, and at Iruka's condition and at his suggestion, catch up with the samurai later.

Uzumaki Naruto… Now I know what became of you. I don't hate you. I hope you'll be safe with your friends… wherever you go…

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Next Chapter: The three samurai run into the wilderness, and time passes for the three of them. Typical Arc ends, Evil Arc begins. The three will find themselves under the employ of the Marine Corporation Extraordinaire, and meet an old 'friend again'.

A/N: Goddamn, Goddamn! I'm sure you all realize how long it took me to write this damn thing! I refuse to break this up into two or three chapters! It's god damn two in the morning now! I'll never make it to school, tomorrow!

Oh yeah, props to Kaeru Soyokaze, or whatever the penname is written as. The NejiTen Oneshots she(?) writes helped with that Team Gai-Haku scene.