Okay, finally I remember that one thing I should have said a while back, along with some minor thoughts for the future. I have an ambition for this story. The thing is that the Naruto section moves REALLY fast, and I really want to get my story out there. The best way to do that is to get this story up to 100,000 words, where then it can be quickly found through the quick sort, plus that's where I feel most of the better stories are at. The other way is to get this into a popular C2.
Plus I want a review count over 100 like everybody else. I'm like that.
I'm feeling it would be good if I put Ninjarai in a series of three stories. Maybe four. Depends.
Outside of that, I was wondering if I should start a Chrno Crusade story. I feel that there are too many sappy mushy stories in that section. I may not hate sweets, but I don't need to become a diabetic from reading those stories. But I haven't finished my Guilty Gear story either hmmm…
Oh well, let's get one thing done at a time, right?
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Evil: We're fighting over a dump?
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Tetsuya so far managed to manage himself to a chuckle every five seconds as he looked upon Momochi Zabuza, apparently, the rest of the help the three samurai would get for the job. It was funny to think that the "Demon of the Mist", the "Silent Killer", the all around over hyped missing-nin was that jounin he kicked the crap out of about seven years back. Seven years later, he apparently didn't improve.
So, Tetsuya was laughing.
"Sensei! What are you laughing about? That guy is that guy that tried to kill us the first time we met Haku!" Naruto accused as he faced his teacher and pointed his finger back at the ninja. One could assume he had an unhappy face at finger, but half his face was covered anyways, so nobody cared what his facial expression was.
"Aw, please! Like he can even dream of touching any of us now." Tetsuya dismissed with a wave of his hand.
"So you know each other, what a pleasant surprise." Gatoh noted. Whether his knowing that was a good thing or not was debatable.
"Gatoh, what are these people doing here?" The injured Zabuza growled out as his employer.
"I employed these samurai to help you kill Tazuna."
"I don't need help."
"You shouldn't be saying that in the condition you're in."
"I just underestimated one of the enemies. I know better."
"If you really know better, it'd be best to tell them what you know. I'll be expecting better results by the end of the week." Gatoh turned to walk out the door, which was the apparent queue for Tetsuya, Naruto, and Haku to make their leave as well, but Gatoh turned with a negative.
"You're not coming with me." Was the rude explanation.
"How rude." Haku snorted blatantly as the doors shut in front of them, leaving them with the extra ninja.
"So… we have to work with you… so how's it been the past seven years?" Tetsuya lamely attempted.
"None of your business."
"Oi! Don't talk to sensei like that!" Naruto shouted back.
"Zabuza, you should appreciate that Tetsuya-sensei is attempting to approach you. If you are still angry about the event from seven years ago, then it is best to drop it for this occasion. We need your cooperation."
"Tch, 'Tetsuya-sensei'… so he actually trained you?"
"He did." Haku icily clipped.
"Hpmh… still a waste of talent…" The former Mist-nin grumbled.
A tip of ice frosted right up next to Zabuza's temple right then, the handle of the ice blade in the outstretched hand of Haku's. Zabuza's unimpressed façade was met with the female samruai's glare.
"Take that back."
"Like you can make me, even if I'm like this." Zabuza chuckled.
Normally, there would be a tense silence, but Naruto was the type to tackle a problem immediately when he saw one.
"Ah! Haku, what are you doing? Stop being scary like that!"
"B-but, he insulted Tetsuya-sensei!"
"Aw shut up all of you!" The supposedly insulted cut in, waving his hands to brush off the whole issues, "If I'm insulted, I'll kill him later! Now, we need to get to important things. Zabuza! Who are the enemies?"
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"It was a non-standard team of two genin and one jounin."
"Really? It should have been easy for you."
"Two genin were some wet-eared rookies fresh out of the academy. The main threat is the Jounin. It was mainly his techniques that defeated me."
"So how did you get away?"
"I managed to escape. The jounin had apparently exhausted himself too much in the battle to pursue."
"How long will it take you to recover?"
"Fast enough."
"…Fine, one more thing. Who's our jounin?"
"Oi Sensei" Naruto asked from the back of the boat, "Why did you get all excited over the name Hatake Kakashi?"
"I presume it would be somebody Tetsuya-sensei wishes to test his skills against." Haku calmly inferred.
Tetsuya, cross-legged at the front of the small Gatoh-skipper, snickered while watching the large island come into view. "Yeah, yeah. Hatake Kakshi is a pretty famous name. It's annoying that we keep running into Leaf ninja, though."
"So… what is that makes Kakashi so strong?" Naruto piped up again.
"He's known in the circles as 'Sharingan Kakashi', or 'Copycat Kakashi'. He apparently has a special eye that allows him to steal techniques from enemies, even in the middle of combat. He's mainly a ninjutsu user though."
"The ability to memorize techniques in a second… that must require large amounts of chakra. If he uses ninjutsu as well, it should be no wonder why he exhausted himself so fast." Haku concluded.
"If he's tired out now, we should go kill that old man while his best guy is tired!" Naruto exclaimed.
"That does sound reasonable." Haku advised.
The eldest Samurai, and now the best versed at the moment, snorted, "Wait 'till the best time? What sorta bullshit is that? It should be the duty of the samurai to wait until the enemy is rested so we can have an honorable duel to the death. Killing people while they're weak is a ninja thing to do."
"Euh? Sensei, you never said that before…" Naruto mumbled, "Are you saying that because you want to be a samurai or just because you really want to fight Kakashi?"
"…Isn't that the same thing?" Tetsuya said with a raised eyebrow.
Haku sighed with her eyes closed, "Either way, we should explore the island to find a suitable battle ground if that is Tetsuya-sensei's wishes."
"But if that Copycat guy is really that strong, he might actually kill sensei!" Naruto argued.
"Aw, dun worry 'bout it. If Kakashi really does tire himself out that fast, it's merely a matter of biding my time until he's at the disadvantage."
Naruto pouted and let his head sink into his neck. There were times when upholding samurai tradition equaled to blatant stupidity. The Kyuubi swordsman perked up when the sea borne fog cleared a way a bit to reveal a small harbor up ahead. "Hey sensei, look!"
"Hmm… that must be Wave Country. Hope it's a pretty place. I don't really want to fight over a dump…"
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There was a collective twitch of frustration that flashed across the eyes of the three when they climbed off the boat and saw Wave Country in all its glory before them.
Or lack of glory.
"…There's no place to stay…" Haku described the situation of their necessities.
"…There's no place to eat…" Naruto described the situation of their leisure.
"…There's no- oh wait, I think there is a bookstore over."
At least somebody was pleased. Naruto and Haku turned their heads to death glare Tetsuya, who involuntarily shivered and wondered if one day his students would kill him one day like those old samurai stories. Or like Super Shinny Spinny Attack, the White Prologue Ultra Adventure special.
Still, Wave country was a dump. A dusty bowel of crap. Raggedy brats explored the desolated streets, and jobless men lined the streets. The lack of prosperity here in general even showed on the buildings, which obviously showed it had been a long time since any serviceable maintenance had reached them. The place really begged the question of whether the place was like this before Gatoh was here, and even how long the place was like this. Was this place always like this?
Tetsuya wasn't bothered to think of such things, anyways. That was Gatoh and Tazuna's job. He was just here to see who would win.
"Uh… anyways, I think that I'll give you the day to look over the town. I'll leave it up to you to report to me anything useful to be used against the ninja."
Well, at least it was nice of him to make us feel important. Naruto noted. Whether that was a good thing or not was up to him. "Fine. Let's go Haku. I bet sensei probably couldn't find a useful thing about the place even if he tried. That's why he leaves it up to intelligent people like us."
Haku giggled an agreement and the two of them ran off, leaving a fuming teacher.
"Bastards! You dare insult me! You'll be sorry when I see you again!"
"See you back here tonight, Tetsuya-sensei!"
The one-eye samurai shrunk into the distance.
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Haku and Naruto split up shortly after, deciding to go and cover more ground by themselves. They could take care of themselves easily, and it was a simple look around. It wasn't like they were purposely hunting down the poor genin to make mincemeat out of.
Eitherway, the boy samurai was making his way around the streets, easily scaring off and at the same time attracting the attention of everybody around him with his bright dyed haori and the long sword that was tied against his back.
Perhaps it was fate, or coincedence. It was probably because the damn place country was so small, but either way, that certain samurai walked onto the same street in which contained a 'grocery store' as the day began to run late and red. That grocery store would have therein a kunoichi and an old man, both of which should be of relative importance to the swordsman.
To Naruto, there were very few people he knew that sported pink hair that actually looked as natural as such (one, actually), and even less that wore that reddish-whatever colored dress thing (one, actually again). Since the girl was familiar to her, Naruto did what he always did to familiar people.
"Aaah! Sakura-chan!"
The name elicited a reaction from the pink haired girl who was leaving with the old man with a pretty light looking bag of groceries. She turned around with a confused look at a seemingly unfamiliar voice calling out her name. Soon enough she was face to face with an approaching well dressed blonde kid that was practically babbling incoherently.
"…man, I was surprised to see someone like you here! To think of all the places we could meet, eh, Sakura? Uh? Sakura-chan? What is it?"
"…Who are you?"
The blondie chuckled and pointed to his face "What, you don't remember me? You took me for a tour around Konoha once!"
"…"
"You told me about some Sasuke-kun, and I said he was overrated!"
Those two comments (or maybe it was just the last one), along with the blond head, the orange and black clothing, and the abominably stupid face (you have to admit, it was rather…), began turning some cogs of memory to a certain event she never thought she would give much priority to.
"Naruto?" The kunoichi exclaimed.
"Yeah! You remember me!"
"What the heck are you doing here?"
"It's a long story. Hey, you got your ninja headband thingy." Naruto pointed to the plated cloth that clung to the top of Sakura's head like a ribbon.
"Yeah, that makes me a ninja now, so you better be afraid of me this time!" Sakura announced with a thumb pointed back at her.
Naruto tried to act impressed but really, when you knew who was the genin for a few months, and who was a samurai for seven years, it was hard to do so.
"Okay, okay, I guess you are really a ninja then."
The old man that was accompanying the kunoichi rumbled a hum of surprise, "So, Sakura, you know this kid?"
Naruto turned his attention to the old man. A bit of a belly, smelt lightly of alcohol, and his muscles obviously showed he had experience in hard labour. But if one of the genin was next to him, wouldn't that make him-
"Oh, that's right. I should introduce you to each other. Naruto, this is my… friend of mine, Tazuna."
Bingo.
"Tazuna, this is Naruto… some guy I met once."
"Aww, so that's all I am to Sakura-chan? How disappointing." Naruto mock-pouted.
"Well, it's the truth!"
"Aw, but ninjas tell lies all the time, no?" Naruto let a cheeky grin there, "Maybe you're just in denial that you like-"
Thwack.
"Idiot! We haven't even known each other for longer than a day! Don't give me that love crap!"
"Ugh… Sakura-chan doesn't have to hit me to get the message through… skull's not that thick…" The injured male managed to speak out from his decimated position on the ground.
"Er… either way, we should be heading back before it gets too late, since we have to make dinner with this stuff." The old man to be killed reminded.
The word dinner struck a chord with the blonde samurai, "What! Food? Where you having dinner at?"
"You're not invited, Naruto!" Was the kunoichi's final answer before he even started.
"B-but, Sakura-chan! I haven't eaten anything all daaaaaaayyy. C'mon, Sakura-chan…Sakura-cheeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaannn…" Naruto exemplified his groveling by crawling over to the ninja's legs and rubbing his face against them while pleading.
"Good god! Get off me!" Most likely Sakura's internal thoughts were an array of insults and swear words daring the blonde to try such freaky tactics again.
"Aw, Sakura, you shouldn't be so harsh. He doesn't mean any harm anyways. The more the merrier, I'd say." Tazuna offered.
"See! That Tazuna guy likes me! C'mon!" Naruto begged mockingly with on his knees with palms clasped together.
"…FINE! But don't do any stupid stuff like that in front of me or Sasuke-kun!"
Bingo.-
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The house was actually a fairly well looking one, compared to the conditions of the tenements in the more populated sections of Wave country. The target's house was located further into the more rural countryside area, where the homes were pretty much flanked on all sides by the woods. Tazuna's home was a two-story house (a bit shabby, but one shouldn't complain) that sat on a far side of a body of water that interrupted the dirt path to home. Luckily the trouble was fairly managed by a wood bridge that traversed the water straight to the front steps of the home.
"No way! That's a huge house!" Naruto said, stupefied by the all around pristine environment.
"Indeed. Plus it got a super view of the ocean from the second floor."
"Really? Tazuna, you got a really cool house!"
"Well, if you could stop talking about it and get a move on already…" Sakura muttered from behind.
Urged on, but not necessarily because of her words as law, the group returning from the city passed the waters into the house. Inside was modest and homey as well, though Naruto was wondering what the heck was a woman doing in Tazuna's kitchen. A women that easily looked far too young to be a wife.
It was found out fast enough from the old alcohol smelling man that she was in fact her daughter. Families tend to congregate together a lot in Wave country, don't they? Must be a cultural thing.
"Tsunami? Has Sasuke-kun returned yet?" Sakura called out to the daughter in the kitchen, attending to the situation of her partner/loveinterest/crush/boyfriendinherimagination/etc.
"Not yet, Sakura. I believe he is still training on that exercise outside."
"Really? But there's really no reason to keep doing that so long…" The kunoichi pondered to herself. Admittedly, the way her finger tapped against her cheek while she wondered was really quite… cute.
"Woah, woah, woah. What's this about that Sasuke guy training outside? You mean to tell me-"
It was unfortunately true, as told by Sakura's face transforming into one of those oh-so-cute positions again "Uh-huh! Sasuke-kun and I were partnered up!"
Naruto already knew that the enemy was a non-standard team, but he didn't suppose it would hurt to know more, "Partnered up? I overheard once that ninja teams came in three and above."
"Well, not us! Apparently the graduating class was smaller than usual, so they had to let our team go with just two. Ahhh… Just Sasuke-kun and me… (her inner thoughts here consisted mainly of dirty scenarios and laughing at Ino)… oh, yeah and Kakashi-sensei… that pervert…"
That Kakashi is training them? "Kakashi? Whose he? I thought you just said your team-"
"Well, the two of us as rookie ninja, so they also put our group in with a jounin instructor. I have to admit, Kakashi-sensei is kinda… lame… but he's pretty strong too."
"So… where is he?"
"He's resting upstairs. He's really tired from… well…"
Naruto already knew from what, so his thoughts were mainly directed to hoping that that Kakashi fellow didn't know how to hear through walls and floor and other crazy ninja shit they could do. "What's the matter?"
"Oh, nothing. I'll just tell you later. You wanna see Sasuke-kun? He's really great!" Sakura easily changed topics, believing herself to be a master at hiding the truth by changing topics really well.
Naruto let it go, slightly disappointed. He was hoping to hear a first hand account about how Zabuza got his ass-kicked, maybe even a little bit about the Sharingan thing Kakashi had. "Okay."
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Naruto came to wonder two things as he passed out the back of the house towards a small clearing in the forest.
First was how good of a liar he would be after this whole job was over.
Second was whether all ninja were really as… bad as Sakura-chan was. She was pretty, sure. But she really seemed to have no idea the amount of professionalism her career needed. She was off blabbing about every single thing, half the information lemon-top swordslinger could piece together to be used as an advantage against the ninja in combat.
Seriously. She didn't even suspect a person who arrived in Konoha the day before a major theft of ninja property, and suddenly reappeared in a dilapidated country being owned by the very same enemy they were hired to combat against.
Did she even notice the sword? Well, better not broach the subject either way. He wasn't stupid. If she didn't seem to notice it, don't bring attention to it.
"Hey… what's this training anyways?"
"Kakashi-sensei said we weren't using our chakra efficiently, so he made us do a tree climbing exercise."
Oh, that. They really are green. "What's tree climbing gotta do with using chakra efficiently? And how come this Sasuke partner of yours is training on it, but you aren't?"
"Well, you have to stick to the sides of the tree using chakra, and walk up. It was really easy for me. I got to one of the highest branches on my first try- oh, here we are!"
The two of them reached a particular group of trees, many of them cut horizontally across their bodies apparently with some sort of bladed items at varying points up and down each. It wasn't hard to pick Sasuke apart, given their relative distance. He was in white short and blue shirt with a huge ass ninja collar thing that ninjas liked to wear to look cool by covering the lower halves of their faces. His hair was black, and the styling was a bit weird. Honestly, it looked a little bit like the tail end of a children's drawing of a chicken. The ninja boy's forearms were covered in some sort of tube of cloth bound off on both ends by a small belt, while his shins were taped up with ninja bandaging.
What was it with ninjas and bandages? Didn't see how much medical material they were wasting?
"Oi! Sasuke-kun! We got a guest for dinner! I was hoping you two could meet!" Sakura called up to Sasuke-kun, who was maybe twenty feet or so up? Naruto wasn't very good at remembering how long was how long.
Sasuke was distracted for a moment, but managed to keep up his pace for a couple more feet before his grip slipped. There, he slashed at the bark with a kunai in his hand, marking his progress before falling to the earth, turning his body in time to soundlessly pad onto the ground on his feet. Naruto noted the large emblem on the ninja's back.
Sasuke regarded the situation for exactly one second before moving to his usual reactions.
"Sakura. I expected you to know better and be doing something like preparing for possible new attacks. Instead, you're inviting random civilians to dinner."
Okay. He's rather rude. I don't see where the "-kun" bit is from. Naruto inwardly blanched.
"B-but…well…"
"Whose the moron, anyways?" Sasuke asked with a lazy posture.
Since 'moron' is pretty much a masculine insult, Naruto immediately knew which of the three Sasuke was talking about.
"Oi! You better watch who you're calling a moron, you bastard!"
Sasuke's face remained blank. "You ought to watch your own tongue too, civilian."
"Hey! One day I'm going to be kick-ass samurai, so you better get ready to remember the name of Naruto!" Said legend in making jerked a thumb at the hand of this sword behind his right shoulder.
"Hey, you two-" Sakura grumbled in protest.
Since Sasuke didn't have his eyes follow to the sword handle, it means he already regarded the sword in Naruto's possession without him knowing. Naruto immediately detracted his statement of all ninja being as bad as Sakura while the number one rookie of the year snorted. "Samurai? It really must take an idiot civilian to have those sort of dreams."
Sakura managed to cut in again before a smart mouth from either side got to starting a fistfight, "What do you mean by that Sasuke-kun?" Despite his rudeness, his apparent knowledge on the issue quickly dissolved her earlier misgiving, and replaced it with a curiosity on the subject. Plus, he was Sasuke-kun, crushes and all.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't know about the samurai, Sakura. They are rather…outdated."
"Hey, I know that! But that doesn't mean anything to me!" Naruto brashly recalled.
"That doesn't tell me anything, though!" Sakura said as she scrunched up her face in frustration. Answers were a slow thing around here.
"They were an ancient class of warrior before the emergence of the modern ninja clans. They were basically a group of swordsmen with an ego too large for their own good. They thought they could stand up to ninja because they believed they were more 'honorable' than them to not use jutsu. I assume you can figure out why there aren't any more samurai around now, Sakura."
"Oh…"
"Hey! Don't forget about me! I'm going to be a kick-ass samurai that's going to kick your ass one day, you bastard!"
"Your humor needs work, idiot."
"Why you-"
"Hey! You two shouldn't be fighting like this anyways!"
That managed to stop the current argument. So they could start another.
"Geez! You're such an ass! It must be a miracle for anybody to be able to work with you!"
"I don't need to work with anybody. Ninja can do well enough with their own power."
"That's it! It's that thing about ninjas! That's all they ever seem to care about! Power, power, power! At least the samurai had some morals!"
"Foolish notions like morals and honor don't serve in war. All that's needed is the strength required to accomplish the objective by any means. Of course a naïve wannabe like yourself would never understand what a ninja has to go through."
"See? See! You all damn ninjas think they're king of the world! You guys would do anything to be strong, huh?"
"I would."
"I bet you would, even if it meant selling your soul! See? You ninja got no sense of self-respect or self-control! At least if I become a samurai, I'd keep that!"
"Hey, we have self-respect and self-control! That's something a ninja is always proficiently trained in!" The female of the group countered.
"Oh yeah? Then why do you have missing-nins? Because none of you guys practice self-control, and you all run around killing innocent people to get stronger, like power alone will get you somewhere!"
"If there's something more important then power, then pray-tell, genius, enlighten us. What exactly does a ninja need outside of power to excel?"
"Well…er… I dunno! But I know that just being really, really strong isn't the answer!"
"I shouldn't have really expected much, from an idiot civilian with children's dreams of being a war-hero. Leave fighting to the professionals, moron."
"To the professionals! To the professionals! I'LL SHOW YOU PROFSSIONAL!"
The discussion ended in a good training in the matter of Taijutsu for both the boys.
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Whole viewpoints can change in a course of a single dinner. Especially if a question was asked about a torn photo.
Naruto and Sasuke came back, nursing their wounds and a newly found relationship based off irritation. Whether or not it would fully delve into full-blown hatred or good-natured companionship was yet to be seen. It was unfortunate for Naruto that the Hatake Kakashi of Konoha, despite his exhausted condition, still arrived to "eat" something, thought apparently it was a fact that no living person alive in the house had yet seen him expose his mouth. Crazy ninjas.
Naruto did his best to avoid the topics and questions directed from the elder ninja, but he knew for sure he had him pinned down right away that he was Uzumaki Naruto, Kyuubi incarnate. The best he could do was hold off the inevitable confrontation to a better date and keep the jounin's students in the dark about his true nature.
After that, Sakura asked about the photo, and a whole story was poured out.
"Damnit…" Naruto walked down the streets of Wave Country's city again, after hastily excusing himself and thanking them for their hospitality. He needed to meet with Tetsuya and Haku, as the sun was lowering fast. Each curse under his breath had a pebble or some random loose article on the ground be kicked away.
He knew that he was working for a bad guy, but he tried his best to just keep a neutral stance on the whole matter.
But he was Naruto. Money didn't talk to him nearly as well as it did to Tetsuya. For the boy, that's where his general conscience came in.
Didn't the samurai uphold the peace? Wasn't a moral of one of Tetsuya's samurai stories about how serving a garbage master was worse than having no master at all? Naruto knew as well as his other two companions that the samurai code needed to be altered a bit in this age, where honor couldn't gain everything.
But what made them samurai then, and not just another of those yojimbo Gatoh had? Where did the samurai honor come from, if it wasn't from just being strong, and not protecting the innocent? How could he shout at that Tazuna's grand kid Inari, about doing something if he didn't like the situation, if the samurai himself was going to be opposing him?
The ninja seemed to be doing this for more than money or the glory of a mission. Where did that put Naruto and Haku and Sensei?
"You look rather distracted, Naruto." Haku's voice chimed from behind, stopping the boy so that he waited for his friend to catch up. The familiar voice of the Bloodlimited bladeswoman was both comforting to hear and disconcerting. What would she say about this?
"Ah, well… I'm just sorting through the things I've picked up for information in my head."
"Really? What did you find out today?"
"Well, I was actually hoping I could save it until I also talk to sensei as well."
Haku shrugged obliviously. "Suit yourself."
Tetsuya was found at the edge of the dusty harbor, as if he never left the place. "There you two are. You guys are lucky for two reasons. If you came any sooner, I would have still had the energy to kick your asses for what you said to me earlier. If you guys took any longer, I would have kicked your asses for being late! That's the first thing."
"Was the second thing, Tetsuya-sensei?"
"Meh, I found some interesting souvenirs around here." Tetsuya kicked a sizable paper bag beside him. "I pretty much bought out the bookstore. There were some Super Shiny Spinny Attack volumes there, so I bought all of them. Shop keepers seemed pretty pleased. I had to fight off a few muggers though. They thought I still had money."
"That you still had money?" Haku could feel something inside her growl.
"What, you think I'd actually keep back any money when I'm trying to revitalize Super Shiny Spinny Attack?"
"Do you mean to tell us we have absolutely no money to use at all, Tetsuya-sensei?"
"Hey! The money's in the books! Besides, after we get this job done, we'll be having money again, right?"
Naruto's choices became a whole lot more complicated. Damned Houkou incarnate.
"Hey, Naruto. Didn't you say you wanted to report something to Tetsuya-sensei directly?"
"Well… yeah…"
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Tetsuya nodded through yet another Volume 50, while hearing Naruto give out everything that had so far transpired throughout his journey. The three of them sat on a small Gatoh-craft back to the mainland, specifically to Zabuza's hideout with Tetsuya again cross-legged in the front of the boat, Naruto and Haku in the back, sitting as they pleased.
Except for the story of the torn photograph, and his opinions on the matter.
"So… Kakashi still moves like he's tired, Sakura is a schoolgirl playing ninja games, and Sasuke thinks he can win against a jounin and a trained samurai by himself. This sounds easier than expected. Naruto, you still remember the way to the old man's house?" Tetsuya asked.
"Yes."
"Good. If all goes well, we should clean up this ninja problem by the end of this week." Tetsuya sighed contently as he fell backwards, arms behind his head. Naruto gave a sort of disquieted look at his mentor looking at the reddening sky.
"There's something bothering you, Naruto." Haku quietly confided.
"Haku… is it really alright for us to take this job?"
"Why not? We're getting paid to kill ninja that we need to get rid of anyways."
"But it'll mean Gatoh will take over the country."
"…They said something while you were in their house, didn't they?"
"…Yeah."
Haku sighed. "Naruto, we're not supposed to care about that. It's the duty of samurai to fight the wars, not dictate it or ask why."
"But I can't stand to think of it like that! Haku, Gatoh's going to destroy Wave Country at this rate. Do you really want that to happen?"
"Naruto, what about the ninjas? We're essentially criminals in their eyes. It's either us and Gatoh who will live, or the ninjas and the target. Nothing lasts forever, Naruto, but given the choice, which one do you want to last longer? Us, or people we don't even know?"
"…Look… Haku… just let me show you. I'll take you tomorrow to Tazuna's house. Maybe you'll understand more if they tell you the whole story."
"There's more?"
"Maybe it's more of the same, but I think you should hear it anyways. I did."
Haku knew she had to make her own choice here. Tetsuya-sensei always taught that their times were over, they needed to take some teachings and leave others behind. They were supposed to fight wars, never question why. She would either keep that opinion, or risk it by listening to a biased story, and debate which one of the two, Gatoh's or Tazuna's, sounded better.
But she had to respect Naruto's determination. Plus, Tetsuya said they had to take some lessons and leave others behind. She could always afford to bend some teachings a little. Perhaps she could say it was honorable for samurai to at least question their war, than blindly trust like the ninja. Tetsuya might buy that.
"Fine, I'll see what they'll say. If I remain unconvinced, will you leave the matter alone?"
"Deal."
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Tetsuya remained oblivious. Fate probably conspired.
"Yo, Zabuza. Feeling better?" The one-eyed samurai saluted with two fingers as they reached the threshold of the giant top/ninja home. Behind him were his protégés, and on the doorstep in a slightly expectant manner, was the missing demon. His apparent recovery rate (or perhaps it was just the tolerance to pain) to being pierced by kunai and colliding with a solid wall of almost cement like water was something to be commended.
"Shut up. We have something to discuss."
"Oh?"
Seeing this as a discussion for adults, after the group moved up the elevator in the center of the facility to Zabuza's personal quarters, Tetsuya shooed away his students, telling them to find someplace to stay for the night, meanwhile telling the missing-nin to shut up about them freeloading their place, since they did it to everybody anyways. Zabuza confided with Tetsuya on a balcony over looking the dark and misty forest.
"Gatoh's getting impatient. He shoved me medical aid for me to recover faster. He wants us to kill Tazuna sooner." Zabuza began.
"What happens if we don't?"
"He'll decide we're not worth the trouble and kill us, of course. Idiot."
"Geez, this is troublesome. So what do you want us to do?"
"We're attacking tomorrow. Tazuna is overseeing the construction of the bridge, and he doesn't keep secret of its location. We'll get to the bridge first and attack him when he comes."
"Both you and the enemy jounin haven't recovered enough. This will be a battle of attrition, and seeing who runs out of chakra first."
"Gatoh expects no mercy. He wants me and you to go handle this."
"What about Naruto and Haku? They're a part of this."
"He only cares that you're the strongest of the three."
"I'll have to figure out something to say then…"
"Better make it fast. We're leaving tomorrow morning, and delivering the target's head to Gatoh by sunset."
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Next Chapter: Tetsuya and Zabuza head for the bridge. Haku and Naruto head for the house. Blades flash and blood will fly. Who will be left alive?
A/N: Two questions. First, judge for me, after the scene with Sasuke and Naruto, does the rest of the chapter seem a little sloppy compared to the beginning? Also, I need a gauge of whether I got the ninja characterization right. Especially Sasuke. He's a pretty complex guy, since his motives and reasons for his personality are pretty clear. I didn't want to just get him out as just a basic snob. No. Sasuke is not a basic snob. He's a complex and evolved snob, and I wanted to make sure I got that right.
