"Can I trust you two not to scream if I take out your gags," Sakura asked the demon brothers.

Both of them nodded, although the one was quicker about it then the other.

"Great." She nodded to Naruto who reached for their gags and removed them, watching as they rolled their tongues around and spat out the taste of his socks. "It seems we've had a misunderstanding. We were under the impression that this was going to be a C rank mission. It seems that our employer lied to us. We're sending him back to our village to hold as prisoner until we can figure out a suitable punishment. Our sensei has headed back already with the prisoner. In the meantime he told us to head to the land of waves and figure out our employer's financial situation to decide a fee to fine him." Sakura took a deep breath. This was the deciding moment and it had to be convincing. "As a sign of goodwill we've decided to let you two go on condition that you give us safe passage to the Land of Waves. How does that sound?"

"I'll tell you where you can shove your offer," the one brother started, but the other brother cut him off.

"Will you return our weapons and leave us unharmed once we arrive?" the sensible brother asked.

"In as much as you guarantee not to use them against us again, yes," Sakura said, steepling her fingers.

The sensible brother looked at the foul mouthed brother and seemed to come to an understanding. "It sounds good. We'll be your guides."

"Do you give us your word as a ninja to lead us safely and to do us no harm, direct or indirect?"

"We do."

"Awesome," Naruto interrupted, smiling widely, grabbing a knife and cutting them down as if nothing could please him more.

"Take care of whatever business you need to do, dinner's in an hour. We leave tomorrow at the crack of dawn," Sakura said, turning away from them as a sign of good faith and walking back to the camp.

Both of the brothers massaged feeling back into their limbs, looking at Naruto strangely and then looking at each other where a conversation without words seemed to take place. "You're a strange kid, you know that?" the sensible brother said.

Naruto nodded. "Naruto Uzumaki, last of the Uzumaki clan," he said, reaching out his hand to shake.

"Gozu," he said. "The angry one is Meizu. We're both missing nin from the Mist."

The handshake was slightly awkward due to the massive gauntlet that covered Gozu's hand but they managed. "Welcome to the team," Naruto said, smiling brightly.

(O_O)

The demon brothers, as it happened, didn't make for the most pleasant of conversation. All they wanted to speak about was the various ways to kill someone and the bad situation in the Hidden Mist. While Sasuke found the violence interesting and Sakura liked the politics, Naruto was generally bored and slightly disgusted by some of the descriptions. Mist didn't have any interesting sealing facts, nor did they know anything about the Uzumaki except for hearsay.

"So who is this Gato guy anyway?" Naruto asked after a pretty gruesome assassination story.

"He's trash," Meizu said angrily.

Gozu nodded in turn. "He has a shipping company as a front for the criminal empire he runs in the shadows. He floods the markets with drugs and is one of the main forces behind the slave market. He has no love for ninja either and we don't love him."

"Then why are you working for him?"

Gozu and Meizu looked uncomfortable at the question.

"We need money," said Meizu, showing a rare amount of calm.

"For what?" Sakura asked, the previous conversation forgotten. "It can't be that hard to get well paying jobs for the famous demon brothers," she added, pouring on the flattery.

Gozu grunted. "Not a lot of people paying this kind of money."

"How much are we talking?" Sasuke asked, barely feigning interest.

Gozu grinned wickedly. "Enough to buy a hidden village."

Naruto choked on his food, Sakura gasped and Sasuke grunted with enthusiasm. "That's a lot," Naruto coughed, wiping some food from his mouth. "Which village are you planning on buying?"

Both of the brothers stiffened and looked at each other another silent conversation taking place. "Perhaps we've said too much," Gozu said. "You three seem like good ninja but you're still young and we don't want anything making its way back to Kiri."

Naruto shrugged. "I can understand that. You don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to."

"Maybe that would be for the best," Gozu said, nodding, before standing up to wash his cutlery. "Rest up. We'll be arriving tomorrow and you're going to need you energy when you meet Zabuza."

"Zabuza? That's the guy you work with right?" Sakura asked, her carefully phrased sentence made them out to be partners instead of lackeys.

"Yeah. You might know him as the Demon of the Hidden Mist. In the Hidden Mist anybody that wanted to graduate had to kill their teammate, Meizu and I defected before they could force us to kill each other. We only got out of it because of the war. But Zabuza...he's a different story altogether. He killed his entire graduating class and no one's really sure why he did it. Even Meizu's too scared to ask," Gozu said.

Naruto looked at his two friends who were both flabbergasted by the story. "I don't get it," he said finally. "Why are they forced to kill each other? And why does killing more of them make it better?"

"It's to show that they're strong," Sasuke supplied. But his answer only served to make Naruto frown.

"Why would a ninja want everyone to know they're strong? That's the most moronic thing I can think of. Being strong is great, but being underestimated is much better. Like when I broke my arm. Do you remember how I whupped your butt and bathed in ramen for the next few days? That was awesome. If every fight could be like that I would win every time," Naruto finished eagerly.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "That's not exactly how it happened," he started.

"I hit you a bit hard on the head, that's why you can't remember it so well," Naruto snickered.

"Do you want me to hit you on the head?"

"Oh no. Please Sasuke the demon of the hidden leaf, don't hurt me," Naruto said sarcastically with a wide grin on his face. "I would hate to get blood on my new clothes." He ironically pointed to his torn and bloodstained clothes

Sasuke leaped at Naruto, bowl of food forgotten, tackling him to the floor where they wrestled until Naruto's laughter was cut off by his own choking.

Gozu and Meizu turned to Sakura who just shrugged. "Boys," she explained.

They both nodded in understanding.

(O_O)

Lot of mist here, huh," Naruto said conversationally while trying to sound casual.

"Do you always talk this much?" Meizu snapped.

"Sorry," Naruto said sheepishly, lowering his head. "I'm just a little nervous to be meeting Zabuza."

"As you should be," Gozu said seriously, leaving it at that.

There had been a boat waiting to take them to the Land of Waves almost as if they were expected. That thought wasn't a good one, which meant that either Gato was expecting them, in which case there might already be a price put on their head, or Zabuza was expecting them which was just a terrifying thought in and of itself. For all the bad feelings Naruto had about the trip their boat ride had been surprisingly uneventful and save for the rising feeling of dread it could have been called comfortable.

Meizu looked restless. Gozu had explained that Meizu enjoyed violence and that their stay of violence was taking its toll on him. The calming waters underneath the boat only served to aggravate him further. Gozu on the other hand was like the waters, taking things as they came to him step by step. They were the exact opposites of each other and yet they managed to work in perfect harmony, even sharing a single weapon. Looking at them inspired hope in Naruto about his friends and about the world in general. At least for a little bit. He could only hope that once they reached the Land of Waves the demon brothers wouldn't turn on them and attempt a slaughter again. It would be much harder to catch them by surprise a second time even if Naruto did still have a barrel of tricks hidden up his sleeve.

The boat ride continued in silence, the only sounds of the water lapping against the boat and the creatures that were hidden by the mist. If someone wanted to stage an assassination this would be the best place to do so. Yet no attacks came. When they finally reached land, Naruto exhaled heavily, releasing the breath he had been holding for much longer than was safe.

"Momochi," Meizu growled suddenly after the boat was tied up. His brother stood to attention beside him, reaching for the weapons that were still in Naruto's pack. Sure enough a figure brandishing a giant sword strolled out of the mist, revealing a face covered up to the nose by his mask and a haircut that looked like he had taken his sword to it.

"Gozu, Meizu, you're not dead. And you're being followed by three Hidden Leaf brats. I trust you've got a good reason for this," Zabuza said coldly.

Sakura interjected before either of the demon brothers could respond. "We have an alliance. They agreed to guide us to the Land of Waves safely," she said. "You must be Zabuza Momochi, pleased to meet you," she said cordially, her voice only wavering slightly.

Zabuza looked at her strangely as if surprised but chose to ignore her. "I trust that you've killed the bridge builder then," he said slowly.

Both of the brothers flinched. "There were. . .complications," Gozu said, his voice trembling.

"Are these complications worth your lives?"

"It depends if you want to start a war with Konoha," Sakura interrupted again. "Tazuna is currently a prisoner of Konoha, accused of having cheated the village and until we have gathered recompense he shall stay there. If no recompense can be gathered he will be executed for cheating the village," she said, stepping towards him. "Is that going to be a problem?"

Naruto looked at Sasuke, wondering how Sakura was managing to act so brave in the face of a ninja that could crush her with his finger.

Zabuza stared at her for a long moment then burst out laughing. "You're a brave little brat aren't you," he said after his laughter died down. "Do what you want. Just don't get in my way," he said, turning around and walking back into the mist, waving as he went.

Sakura watched him go, standing still as a stone and when it looked like Zabuza wouldn't be coming back any time soon she started shivering violently. Sasuke patted her shoulder awkwardly as she slumped to the floor. "His chakra," she muttered to herself eyes widening and staring down at her hands. "What's wrong with his chakra?"

"You get used to it," Gozu said. "Can we get our weapons back?" he directed to Naruto.

"Oh, yeah." Naruto rifled through his backpack, pulling up scrolls to his face and scrutinizing and replacing them until finally finding the correct one and handing it to them.

"Thanks," Gozu said, locking the chain in between himself and Meizu back in place. "See you. Try not to make Gato order us to assassinate you. It would be a shame," he ended off. Having retrieved their weapons, the brothers turned to follow after Zabuza. Team seven watched them leave with serious expressions. After a few minutes they looked at each other and grinned widely. "Phase one complete," Naruto said in an undertone. "Let's go make some trouble."

(O_O)

It was only after an hour of wandering around that the members of team seven realized that they probably should have asked the demon brothers for directions before letting them leave. As it was they found their way, but it was only thanks to a girl a few years their elder who swore she was a boy but wasn't fooling anyone. Although she was clearly lying about her gender she didn't lie about the directions and they found their way quickly enough.

She was unusually chatty, asking them about their purposes, about what they were planning on doing now that they were here and asking if they had seen her uncle Tazuna. At each question, Sakura shot Naruto a glare and shook her head, indicating that he shouldn't answer truthfully. So he didn't tell the truth but he also didn't lie. Instead he avoided the questions as best he could and the girl, Haku she said her name was, didn't push, at least not much. The strangest thing about the girl was that when team seven arrived at the small town, Haku had vanished into the mist. Naruto had suggested going after her to make sure she was alright but Sakura insisted that their guide probably knew where she was going.

Their spirits had been raised before entering the village, they were confident in their ability. Walking through the village brought the mood down low. Even the slums in Konoha didn't seem this hopeless. Everyone they came across was sickly thin and their skin took on an unhealthy pallor. Some were dead or passed out in alleyways, sending a smell team seven's way that forced them all to hold their breath and making Naruto throw up after a particularly bad one. There were the drug addicts walking around with eyes glazed over and no purpose in their movement. And finally there were all Gato's mercenaries, walking into stores and not paying for what they were taking, roughing up people in broad daylight and dealing out the drugs. It sickened Naruto and from what he was able to tell, neither Sakura nor Sasuke were happy about how it looked either.

"The first order of business is finding somewhere to stay," Sakura said reading out from a list once they managed to find a secluded alley without any observers.

Sasuke looked around with a certain level of disgust. "Maybe we should just camp in the outskirts," he suggested. "It would be better than living out here."

"Less suspicious as well," Naruto added. "Remember, we're the villains to these people and that's how we want them to see us."

Sakura thought about it. "Fine, we'll set up camp later though. We've got around five days until sensei shows up and by then we at least need to have something to work with otherwise he's going to make us turn back. You two henge into mercenaries and try to get information on Gato. I'm going to act the civilian and try to find out information on that front. Meet back here before sunset." The two boys nodded. "And Sasuke, please don't start any fights."

Sasuke growled. "It's not like I just challenge everybody I see to a fight."

Naruto sent him a disbelieving glance.

"What?" Sasuke said defensively.

"I think she has you there."

Sasuke glowered at him.

Ignoring them Sakura formed a hand seal, transforming into one of the shopkeepers back in Konoha. The transformation was in fact near perfect when comparing it to the actual shopkeeper. Normally even chunin weren't very good at the henge but Sakura was perfect. Sasuke followed her lead, turning into one of the regulars in the bar near the orphanage. Then Naruto performed the henge and Sakura's eye twitched.

"What the hell is that?" she asked politely, looking at the grown up and grizzled version of Naruto that still had the telltale scars on his cheeks and the same blonde hair. "You're supposed to be someone else, but you look just like yourself."

Naruto scratched his head then performed the henge again, appearing the same only lacking the scars on his cheeks and changing his hair to a dark brown. "Sorry. I just found it easier to visualize myself than someone else."

"Change your eyes as well," Sasuke supplied. "They're too blue, they'll stand out."

Naruto nodded and did so.

Shortly afterwards two grizzled and angry looking men slipped out of an alleyway followed by a slightly pregnant woman with ash blonde hair that no one could ever think was pink. They split up almost immediately, each heading in a different direction.

Naruto didn't know what Sasuke was going to do to get information but he had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted to do. It was only a matter of achieving said goal that he was stuck on. The goal being to get someone drunk then get them talking. The problems with this were that Naruto had never been drinking before and didn't know the correct drinking etiquette, the other problem was that he wasn't exactly dripping with money. D rank missions didn't pay much and they were his only source of income as of yet.

Walking into an establishment that most resembled a bar in Konoha, Naruto recoiled. The smell was unbearable, like that of rot and death, just instead it was puke and something else that he couldn't put his finger on. It was something team seven had only discovered recently when they were hunting down that cat on one of their D rank missions. Naruto had been able to smell where the cat had been unlike his two teammates. Apparently he had some sort of enhanced smelling ability. Having had no time to test out the newfound ability due to their C rank starting so soon after, Naruto had little time to figure out how his senses might be better than others. He definitely didn't have time to figure out how to dull them, which may be better in the long run, but he was truly regretful at that moment.

He kept his features appearing neutral with henge but he was actually making faces that would most likely have gotten him kicked out of the fine establishment. As it was, when he walked in nobody even glanced his way. He managed to get all the way to the front before realizing that he had no idea what people did in bars. Why didn't they cover this in the academy? Actually maybe they did, there were points that even Sasuke hadn't been able to drill into his skull. He had probably thought something along the lines of 'I'll never have to infiltrate a bar, that's ridiculous'. What alcohol did people drink?

"Give me-," Naruto started, quickly realizing that his voice was far too high pitched for the person he was imitating. Coughing into his hand he readjusted. "Give me the cheapest alcoholic beverage in your establishment," he said, using all the adult words he knew.

The bartender gave him a strange look but poured him up a small cup of something. Naruto nodded his thanks and carried the cup over to an empty table. Setting it in front of him he stared at the alcohol and wondered what he was supposed to do now. Glancing around he saw a few mercenaries like himself sitting together and drinking. That would be a good start, drinking that is.

Drinking in a henge was tricky, especially seeing as his face wasn't where his illusion's face was. In order to drink he had to perform a henge on the drink as well. It was really just a pain. Why had he thought this was a good idea again?

He sniffed the alcohol and recoiled. It smelled awful, like the stuff he used to clean the floors in the Uchiha compound. Maybe it didn't taste as bad as it smelled. Gingerly he took a sip and proceeded to cough his guts out, attracting the attention of every living creature in the near vicinity.

"I'm alright," Naruto said to his audience, holding his hand up to stop anyone that had gotten up to try and help him. The gesture was futile of course seeing as nobody cared, or perhaps it was highly effective, Naruto would never know. "This is good stuff," he announced and took another sip, managing to handle it better this time now that he knew what to expect. Looking back down at the cup he wondered if this was the best way to go about things.

(O_O)

Sasuke had walked around the small village in an effort to find where Gato's mercenaries populated the most and it hadn't been hard to find, all he had to do was follow the eyes of the civilians. Wherever they refused to look pointed him in the right direction. He had found a bar that was filled with mercenaries alone, the civilians being too scared to mix with their kind and he had sat down close to the biggest group he had seen. While they did look at him momentarily it was only for a few seconds before they were reabsorbed into their conversation.

Sasuke stared at his cup. It had been a shame to waste his money on something he wouldn't be drinking, but he knew that the cup of alcohol he held in his hand was as much a tool as a kunai. He wasn't going to drink though, he couldn't afford to be outside of his right mind, but he did feign taking a sip every now and then to blend in. Thus far no one had noticed him and had given him free reign to listen in on their conversations without being considered suspect. It was hard to tell what information was useful and what was useless however and Sasuke found himself getting confused as to why their opinions of how the waitress looked made any difference to the grand scheme of things.

He stayed seated, staring at his still full cup, for nearly an hour before someone approached. "Can I sit?" the mercenary asked gruffly.

Sasuke controlled the henge to nod and watched with a focused intensity as the mercenary seated himself. Sasuke didn't say anything.

"New in town?" the mercenary asked.

"Hn," Sasuke answered.

"Looking for work?"

"Hn."

The mercenary eyed the tables around him before leaning forward towards Sasuke. "Do you have any experience fighting ninja?" he asked in a whisper.

"Hn."

"Do you want to do it again?"

"Hn."

The man grinned slightly. "You seem like you know what you're doing. Meet here tomorrow at noon for your chance to get some good money."

Sasuke finally looked up from his cup and stared the man in the eyes. "Hn," he said gratefully, reaching over to take the proffered piece of paper and stashing it away.

The mercenary nodded, looking around again before standing and moving off.

Sasuke grinned under the henge. That had been easy.

(O-O)

Sakura found that moving around with the extra bulk on her stomach was too much and almost immediately after having parted with her team she returned to the alleyway and altered the henge until she just looked like an attractive young woman that wasn't pregnant in the slightest. She liked this henge personally, it had been her first and it had been the basis for most of the experimentation she had done outside of what was required by the academy. The henge had become her most staple jutsu since learning it, getting a haircut and putting on makeup were so much easier when she was able to preview herself and the clone jutsu, taking the second most important spot, allowed her to see how she looked from different angles. Some of the girls called her shallow for doing so and at the time they may have been right but she knew that when she was the Hokage appearances were just as important as strength. Maybe the Sandaime could afford to look like an old caring grandfather but she wasn't nearly as strong as him so she would need to make up for it in other ways.

Naruto had said it earlier and never had it applied more to anyone than Sakura. She knew that she wasn't strong, that she didn't have the chakra capacity of her teammates. Yet she wanted to be their leader, to lead the village which was full of ninja stronger than she would ever be. As Naruto had said, half of their job was deception and if there was one thing Sakura was good at it was appearing to be someone she wasn't. When she was at home, Sakura the innocent twelve year old girl was there to talk to her parents, to fuss over things like boys and compete with Ino about being Hokage. When she was on a mission then Sakura the future Hokage took to the forefront, the girl, no, the woman, that would do anything and everything to guarantee peace for the village.

Hokage Sakura eyed the civilians and mercenaries passing her in the street with a cold calculating ease. Her emotions were repressed for the moment and would stay that way until she was safe. For a moment she allowed herself to worry for her two teammates and hope that they were okay, then she pushed that away until her face resembled the calm candidacy of her henge. The expression she wore was that she saw often on the shopkeeper she was imitating, it was a sort of friendly smile that said she would be happy to deal with your shopping but at the same time spoke of a bored exhaustion that was caused by sitting around all day.

Her mission was slightly different to that of Naruto and Sasuke. She needed to give a small impression that they were carrying out the mission they claimed to be doing to Zabuza and he would most likely be looking out for whether they had lied or not. The first order of business was to find out where Tazuna lived and then get the boys to tromp around the house, evaluating the property and talking loudly about how worthless everything was. Maybe even to take something just to concretize the idea in the minds of those watching, after all they could return it later.

"Excuse me, do you know anyone named Tazuna?" Sakura asked a friendly looking store owner.

As soon as she said Tazuna's name the man clammed up and eyed her suspiciously. "What's it to you?" he asked.

Sakura frowned under her henge, although she was careful to keep the illusion's smile plastered on her face. "He's my uncle," she lied, taking a gamble and hoping that the store owner didn't know Tazuna's family intimately. "Through marriage," she amended. "I was passing through town and my mother told me to go visit him."

The storeowner still looked suspicious of her but Sakura could see that he had relaxed considerably from before. "Tazuna's not here," he said finally. "Went to get some help with the bridge he was building and hasn't returned.

Sakura made her henge frown. "Ah, that's a shame. Do you have any idea when he'll be back? I didn't bring enough money to rent an apartment because mom told me that I would be able to stay with him," she said, half telling the truth as she didn't bring nearly enough money to stay in an apartment while also paying for food.

The storeowner's expression mirrored her own. "I suppose I could direct you to Tsunami," he grumbled to himself. "Can't hurt, can it?"

Sakura smiled knowingly. "Oh yes. Could you please?" she said sincerely, channeling emotional Sakura.

The storeowner pointed out of the shop to the right. "Just head down the road, take a left then a right. It should be the second house on that road. But before you go I should warn you that if I hear about you causing trouble you'll regret it."

Sakura smiled gratefully. "Thank you. Don't worry, I'm not going to cause any trouble. You won't regret this," she said then sped off before the storeowner could figure out what she meant.

Sure enough the directions were more or less accurate although it was the house at the end of the street. It was a good sign that the storeowner hadn't known Tazuna so well and had probably believed the lie Sakura had told him. Sakura didn't like lying, but she also knew that the Hokage was always lying to a lot of people to keep the peace and so she had resolved herself to it.

Taking a deep breath she undid the clasp on her kunai holster then knocked on the front door, still maintaining the henge. Shortly after the knocking a small boy answered the door and gave Sakura an angry look. "What?" he said uninvitingly.

Taken back by his reaction to her, Sakura found herself at a loss for words.

"Inari," a voice shouted. "Don't be rude. Who is it?"

A young woman appeared at the door with an exhausted expression on her face. "Hello. How can I help you?" she said, trying to smile.

"Cousin Tsunami," Sakura exclaimed, rushing forward and hugging the woman tightly. "Hug me back," Sakura whispered in her ear. "Or we're both dead. Call me. . ." she thought about it for a moment. "Sarada. I'm your cousin Sarada."

Tsunami stiffened, but complied. Sakura wasn't entirely sure that she would've gotten killed but she felt a presence watching her and didn't want to risk anything. Taking a step back Sakura plastered a friendly smile on her face.

"Wow, it's been so long. And Inari is all grown up," she said making a cute face at Inari who scowled in turn. "Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Tsunami's eyes darted around before she shook her head and forced a smile. "Of course. I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you cousin Sarada, after all it's been so long. Please come in, we have so much to talk about," she gestured the way in for Sakura, who complied. Tsunami shot another look outside then closed the door.