"The Great Zabuza Bridge huh? It's a pretty tacky name," Kakashi said, looking up at the finished project.
Zabuza chuckled next to him. "You're just sad that you don't have a bridge named after you."
"I was kinda hoping the bridge would be named after me," Naruto said, interrupting the banter between the two jonin. "I did do all of the work."
"Didn't you spend half of the time learning how to stick to trees?" Kakashi asked, winking at Naruto, or at least it was probably a wink.
Naruto smiled at the response. "Are we leaving today?" he asked.
Kakashi nodded. "If all of you are packed. We happen to be ahead of schedule so I won't begrudge you a little tardiness."
Naruto smirked and pulled out a scroll. "I'm always packed."
"Right."
Sasuke and Sakura were both ahead of them, trying to stand on water with their chakra and failing. Naruto hadn't been allowed to take part in the training as he still didn't have enough experience with the tree walking. Watching his two teammates train without him sent bitter feelings churning through his stomach that he masked well. They were both improving so quickly being weeks ahead of Naruto in their training and all of this because of a week's extra training without him. Of course Kakashi had worked them to the bone while he had been gone and by the time he came back they had more pressing concerns revolving around the building of the bridge, which had just been volunteer work theoretically. If there was one good thing Naruto could get out of everything it was that he was now much stronger, capable of carrying heavy steel beams that should have taken at least five people to carry, and he understood the concept behind building a bridge for whatever the knowledge was worth.
Zabuza's team had taken to bridge building with the cold calculated efficiency that was afforded their station. They woke at dawn and worked until dusk, pausing only for food and the occasional chance to show off when team seven joined them. It almost felt like there was a competition between themselves and team seven as to who could do more work in the short time span and Naruto's team took to the challenge like flies to dung. When the bridge was done they seemed almost disappointed that it was over and with no winner in sight.
Naruto's goal had been accomplished, although Zabuza probably never realized why Naruto wanted him to help out, it had worked perfectly, even if the first few months were rough. The goal had been to get Zabuza used to being around civilians, to understand who he was supposedly fighting for and maybe, just maybe, learn a certain sensitivity to the lives of those around him. It wouldn't be enough, he knew, Zabuza would still be killing and hurting people, but maybe now he would consider the lives of those around him before taking hasty actions.
It wasn't just his team that he had warmed up to, but the civilians themselves had gotten close to Zabuza, bringing him gifts and getting him to watch their kids. If they knew that he was the demon of the Hidden Mist they didn't show it. By the time the bridge was finished, Naruto was sure that Zabuza had at least a small place in his heart for the people of Wave. Assuming he had a heart of course. It also assured that Wave would be open to trading with the Hidden Mist once Zabuza's revolution was over.
Zabuza and Kakashi continued their banter as if Naruto wasn't there, referencing their old war days in ways that Naruto didn't understand and that bored him to death. Instead he took his leave, heading to Tazuna's house. Making his way through the village he could see that things were looking up. There were less drugs being peddled on the streets and most of the mercenaries had abandoned the village, if not to seek other work then because Zabuza's presence was terrifying enough for them to choose somewhere else to hole up. It irked him though, that killing someone could cause so much good, there was something inherently wrong with it, he thought, something that gave him a bad feeling in his stomach.
Tsunami hadn't broken the habit of locking the door and bolting it. He could've knocked but Naruto entered through the window anyway, if only because he needed to practice his chakra control. By now he was able to stick to any surface if he concentrated, the problem was that as soon as he lost concentration he would fall and his mind didn't stay on one topic very long which meant that he was falling often. Kakashi had assured him that he just needed to spend more time getting used to it, but Kakashi said a lot of things that didn't work and Naruto was starting to suspect that he didn't know how to help him. It made sense though, from what he'd heard Kakashi had never taught a genin team before, so it was entirely possible that he did lack teaching experience needed to instruct Naruto. In fact he had only succeeded in the end based off of advice he received from Sakura and Sasuke.
Naruto had made his way into the house, sticking to the ceiling when a voice interrupted his concentration, almost making him fall. "You're still here?" Inari said coldly. "I thought you would all be leaving once the bridge was finished."
Naruto glared at the little boy and flipped to the floor. "We're leaving today."
Inari scowled at him. "Good. Nobody wants you here."
Naruto scowled back. "Nobody asked you."
The boy harrumphed and turned back to the picture he was holding. He had been looking at it the entire time that Naruto was there without any context. Naruto sighed, supposing that he should at least try to be friendly on his last day there.
"Who's that in the picture?" he asked, cringing at the question
"He's no one," Inari answered. "What's it to you?"
Naruto shrugged. "Just trying to be friendly. I guess I'll give up on that," he said quickly, shoving his hands in his pockets and moving to leave the room to find his teammates.
"You should give up while you're alive," Inari said as Naruto was leaving.
Naruto spun on his heel to look at the boy. "I should give up on being friendly?" he asked confused. He didn't think he was that bad at it. Maybe the boy was right though, after all he didn't have many friends in the academy and even his best friend claimed they were only friends because he made a good training dummy.
The boy shook his head. "Stop trying to help people," he said. "You'll only get killed for it. That's what happens to heroes."
Naruto raised his eyebrow, wondering what brought this on. A glance at the picture told him a little but he would need to ask Tsunami about it later. "Who told you that I'm a hero?" Naruto asked.
The boy growled. "Don't deny it. Grandpa told me what you did. You just. . .," he trailed off, looking back at the picture.
Naruto could see tears streaming down the boy's face, making him feel awkward. He made a kid cry. That probably rated pretty high on the evil list. Naruto grumbled and took a seat across the boy who was saying more to him in these few minutes than he had said for his entire stay. "Do you want to know a secret?" he said to the boy, finally getting sick of the waterworks.
The boy didn't nod, but his lack of response told Naruto to continue.
"I'm not a hero," Naruto admitted. "There are heroes and there are villains, Heroes die for people and villains kill people. I'm the third type."
Inari looked up at Naruto, wiping his eyes and giving way to a curious expression.
"I'm a liar," Naruto said smiling.
Inari didn't look impressed.
Naruto chuckled, standing slowly with his hands held behind his head. "Think about it. When I see you again you can tell me what it means," he said, leaving the confused boy alone.
He sat down to eat with Tsunami who tried to be friendly but wasn't able to stand up to Naruto's choice of topic and her eyes glazed over at the first mention of sealing from him. At least she pretended to be interested. Sakura and Sasuke both returned soon after he was finished eating, dripping wet and looking furious. For the first time in his life Naruto was happy that he wasn't as advanced as they were, even though he knew that he would eventually have to do those exercises as well. "Yo Sasuke, you got a bit of water on your everywhere," he called out as Sasuke walked past him and to his room, dripping water behind him. Sakura seemed much more refreshed by the exercise.
"I did it," she informed Naruto excitedly. "I can walk on water."
Naruto smiled at her. "That's great. I expected nothing less of our team leader."
She sent him a self satisfied smile and headed up to her room after Sasuke. As soon as she passed out of sight, Naruto's smile fell. He felt weak and he didn't like it.
By the time Kakashi returned with Zabuza and his team they were ready to leave. Kakashi didn't even comment on the lack of packs, allowing Naruto to stow away everyone's things in his storage seals. Tsunami threw a feast for them and even Inari joined although he didn't look very happy about it and kept on shooting strange looks to Naruto throughout the meal. Then it was time to leave and the two teams slipped into the mist without leaving a trace. Team seven stuck with team Zabuza for the first part of their journey until they reached the outskirts of Wave.
The road parted and the two teams faced each other, silence hanging in between them. No one was really sure what to say. Officially they were enemies and Naruto knew as well as his other teammates that their cooperation wouldn't be featuring in their mission report.
"Haku's actually a guy," Zabuza said finally. "Just thought you should know."
Sasuke scoffed. "Yeah right."
"This pretense is getting very old," Sakura said, looking annoyed. "There's no point in trying to fool us anymore."
Zabuza looked back at Haku. "I tried, okay," he said. Haku bowed her head in response at his effort.
Turning back to team seven Zabuza grumbled, "This is it, huh?"
Sakura nodded, stepping forward. "It was an honor working with you," she said, taking on her role as team leader and holding out her hand to shake. "We can only hope that you will count team seven as an ally in the future." Naruto noticed that she didn't mention them being an ally of the Hidden Leaf.
Zabuza's hand dwarfed her own, but he took her hand and shook. They both stepped back from each other, almost as if they were waiting for the other to attack but then visibly calmed after a moment. "Kid," Zabuza called, looking at Naruto. "To be a Shinobi is to be death. Don't fool yourself into thinking you're something that you're not."
Naruto smiled and nodded. "I guess I'm not a real shinobi then."
Zabuza chuckled. "See you around, Leaf brats."
"Don't be a stranger," Naruto called back. The two teams took the diverging paths and as they walked away from each other, Naruto had a vague feeling that this wouldn't be the last time they would see each other.
After walking for a considerable distance in silence, Kakashi turned around to face his team. "This is the last time I let you three do a mission without me," he scolded.
"But sensei, we did really well," Sakura said earnestly, her serious façade mostly gone now.
Kakashi sighed. "I guess it's just a good thing I didn't let you do a B rank otherwise you would have probably become missing nin yourselves," he said, raising his hand to his head exasperatedly. "When we get back to the village you will not put any of this in your report. We took Tazuna to Wave, we guarded and helped out with building the bridge and we came back. Understood?"
Naruto let out a bored groan. "This is old news Sensei, we've already been over this with Sakura. Weren't you paying attention, or were you too busy making lovey dove eyes at Zabuza?"
"Naruto," Sakura growled angrily, slapping him upside the head. "Stop announcing everyone's love interests."
Kakashi looked at them confused. "Love? Me? At Zabuza?"
"Yes, it's very rude to point it out, Naruto, apologize," Sakura demanded, putting him in a lock.
Naruto bowed to Kakashi hurriedly, pleading forgiveness while Kakashi continued to look confused. "I don't understand. What are you two talking about?"
Sakura smiled thinly. "Sorry sensei. We've got nothing against you being interested in Zabuza. I'm sure you don't want your love interests being aired out in the open."
Kakashi scratched his head. "I don't love Zabuza."
Sakura frowned. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about sensei. You don't have to hide it from us."
Kakashi sighed. "I don't even know why I bother," he said, turning away from them and continuing his steady pace. Team seven looked at each other and shrugged, continuing after their sensei.
(^_^)
For the remainder of the journey home Kakashi tasked them with using the tree walking technique, even when walking on the ground. Sasuke and Sakura took to the exercise easily enough but Naruto continued to struggle. For them, he realized, it was just a matter of pushing chakra to their feet and making sure that the chakra level wasn't too great or too small, for Naruto it was like trying to hold back a flood. The chakra was already in his feet, waiting to be utilized. Kakashi's instructions hadn't detailed how to redirect chakra from their feet, only to push it there. So for his teammates it was easy enough to push their chakra where it needed to be, for Naruto every second was an exercise in self control. Nonetheless by the time they reached Konoha Naruto was confident in his ability to perform the tree sticking technique while holding a conversation. He would need to work on using it in combat however and he was still far behind Sasuke and Sakura who had mostly mastered walking on water.
The thing was that he knew that he could do it, he had always been able to keep up with Sasuke, if barely, but that was back when he had some form of motivation. Back then he had been learning to seal and Sasuke had been helping him to seal, which is why he had been motivated. This was the longest he had gone without a sealing lesson since joining the academy however and it grated on his nerves. Why had he wanted to become a ninja anyway?
After giving their heavily edited reports over to the mission office, they collected their pay and Naruto immediately regretted not taking some of Gato's gold for himself. Even one of the lamps he had been lugging around was worth more than what he received for the mission. If there was any consolation it was that he had barely used any of his supplies over the course of the mission, otherwise he would have been really upset.
Kakashi treated them to Ichirakus for their first C rank mission and for a little bit it seemed that things could go back to normal. The weight that was pressing down on Naruto was too great to ignore however and after leaving Ichirakus he told his teammates to go on ahead as he followed after their sensei.
"Hmm Naruto. Coming with me to get lost on the road of life?" Kakashi asked, already with his book out, which Naruto was sure by now was just there for appearance's sake.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at the offer but didn't take the bait. "My training's not going well," he said simply. "I need to start my sealing lessons, otherwise I'm going to be useless to my teammates."
Kakashi closed the book to look at Naruto. "I suppose that you are falling behind your other teammates, but why do you think that you'll be useless?"
Naruto huffed, looking away. "I don't really want to be a ninja, I just want to learn sealing. The lord Hokage told me that I could learn sealing if I went to the academy which is why I went. But if I'm not learning sealing I don't think I want to be a ninja anymore."
Kakashi hummed for a moment. "Well I guess I could carry on teaching you sealing. You're not going to have much free time though. But I don't think I should start teaching you sealing until you've mastered water walking, otherwise it would just be irresponsible and dangerous."
Naruto gaped at him. "You're worse than Iruka and Mizuki," he grumbled. "Do you swear that you'll start teaching me after I master water walking?"
Kakashi nodded. "I give my word as a ninja."
Naruto scrutinized him suspiciously for a few moments. "Give me one week," he said, then turned away to run home.
Bursting through the front doors of the small apartment he and Sasuke stayed in, Naruto found Sasuke lying down to get some sleep. "Yo Sasuke, get off your lazy butt. We're training."
Sasuke stared at him and reached for his kunai. "Where is Naruto and what have you done with him?" he asked carefully, his fingers finding purchase.
"Very funny. Now get up. I don't have all day to wait for you," Naruto mumbled.
Sasuke threw the kunai his way. Naruto inadvertently caught the projectile before it impaled his eye. "And no training in the house," he reprimanded Sasuke with an unimpressed glare.
Sasuke could only shrug in response.
Naruto was good for his word and after their D rank missions took up most of the day Naruto and Sasuke would train until they were bone tired. More often than not Naruto found himself sleeping on the riverbank in dripping wet clothing. Sasuke managed to rope Sakura into training with them after the second day and by the third day Naruto found himself trying to fend off attacks while also trying to prevent himself from drowning. Sasuke was merciless and Sakura with her perfect control may as well have been. It was effective though and by the fourth day Naruto was able to stick to trees while fighting and was able to stay standing on water until something distracted him. By the time a week had passed Naruto was wet, tired, worn out and annoyed at his teammates. But he could fight on water if a little slower than normal.
( _ )
"I suppose there's a reason you've called me here?" Kakashi asked, taking a seat around the table, his fellow instructors faced him with incredulous expressions on their faces. Even the Hokage was having trouble and rubbed his eyes after looking at him.
"A clone?" Kurenai, the red eyed instructor for team eight muttered.
"Must be," Asuma, team ten's instructor muttered back.
"What is the meaning of this, Hatake?" the Hokage asked, standing up with alarm in his eyes. "Has something happened?"
Kakashi sent everyone at the table a withering look. "I guess I won't be coming on time in the future," he mumbled, taking his seat. "Can we hurry this thing up, I have a lesson to give in an hour and I don't want Naruto breaking into my apartment again."
He received funny looks at that but nobody seemed to be brave enough to ask. The Hokage sent Kakashi a smirk. "As you all know the chunin exams are due to start in a little less than a month from now. Safety and security have already been designated and the Hidden Stone and Cloud will not be joining us. I urge all teams of all levels to make headway in their schedules to be here for the duration of the exams. Of course this is difficult for some however everyone is expected to be here for the finals as we will have ninja here from other villages. It is imperative that everyone remain on their highest guards for the duration of the chunin exams. It is also imperative that we do not show our allies how we feel about their presence. Understood?"
The surrounding ninja nodded and voiced confirmation.
Sighing, the Hokage leaned back in his seat. "Status reports. Asuma, how is your team doing?"
Asuma started recounting the details of the missions he had taken his team on while Kakashi lost concentration. Why did they invite him to these things anyways? At least he remembered why he came late all the time, these meetings were boring. All the better to see Anko and her fishnets though. Was she scowling at him? It's hard to tell seeing as she's always scowling. Why is Asuma so boring? It's like he inherited his boringness from his dad who is the great Kage of boring. Apparently the higher level the ninja the more boring. He should just leave now. Why hadn't he left already? Oh yes, the Naruto problem.
The Hokage went around the room asking each of the ninja present for their reports of missions they were overseeing. Kakashi's senses picked up one thing in common with all the reports. When the rest of the jonin had left, Kakashi was the only one to have not given a report.
"It's quiet. Too quiet."
The Hokage nodded in agreement. "Something is stirring Kakashi. Be on guard." With that he put his hands together and seals lit up around the room. They were privacy seals, to prevent even the Hokage's trusted anbu from overhearing the next conversation. "I suppose this is about Naruto."
Kakashi didn't confirm the statement. It was obvious. "He's starting to look a lot like his father. It's going to look suspicious, a kid with whisker marks, blonde hair, the name Uzumaki and around the age to have been born near the Kyuubi's attack. It's not a question of if people will make the connection but when. I'm surprised Danzo hasn't figured it out yet."
The Hokage held the bridge of his nose. "I have been thinking about this for some time," he said. "Before I give my suggestion do you have any of your own?"
Kakashi scratched his head. "None that are viable. I was thinking of inducting him into anbu but there's not enough time for that. It has to be a quick fix solution. Maybe we could get him to stay under a henge whenever he goes out, but that's not the most reliable solution. . ." he trailed off.
"I don't think we need to go that far," the Hokage said with an amused smile.
(O_O)
Naruto was waiting in the training ground impatiently when Kakashi arrived. He looked like he'd been there for a while.
"So it's been a week," Kakashi started.
Naruto nodded excitedly. "I'm ready."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow speculatively. "Care to give a demonstration?"
Grinning, Naruto walked up to Kakashi and stood next to him with his hands on his hips proudly.
Kakashi frowned at him but his eye soon widened. "Do that again," he said and Naruto obliged, making a few circuits around Kakashi with a stupid smile plastered on his face.
Kakashi coughed. "I see you've also mastered the stealth walking technique based on the water walking technique. Good for you," he didn't sound like he was particularly happy but Naruto took the compliment for what it was.
"Sealing?" Naruto asked hopefully.
"Sealing," Kakashi agreed.
"Is this where I'm going to meet my teacher?" Naruto asked, looking around at the dense foliage. It wouldn't be dark for a few hours but he didn't think this was the best place to practice sealing. Then again, maybe poor vision was part of the training.
"I am your teacher," Kakashi said. "I've been teaching you since you entered the academy."
Naruto's eyes widened, the gears in his head starting to turn. Of course, it was obvious. The rumors of a white haired hobo sneaking into the academy once a week and the fact that Naruto had never seen his teacher before. "You're the academy hobo," Naruto murmured in awe.
Kakashi's face fell. "You really need to stop obsessing over this academy hobo thing, kid. It's not healthy."
Naruto shook his head, reorienting his brain. "That's why I'm on your team. I was wondering about that," he said. "How did you learn sealing if you're not an Uzumaki?"
"I was the Yondaime's student," Kakashi explained. "And he was the student of the Sannin Jiraiya."
Naruto nodded, recognizing the names from his past sealing experience. "So you know the flying thunder god jutsu?" he asked excitedly.
Kakashi winced. "Not exactly," he said, making Naruto's face fall. "The Yondaime didn't give over the secret to that jutsu. Even Jiraiya isn't entirely sure how he did it. It was based off of the second Hokage's jutsu, but that's also been lost to the world since his death."
Naruto didn't look dissuaded by this information. "Do you know the Sannin Jiraiya? He must be pretty amazing."
Kakashi winced again. "Yeah, sure. Amazing might be the word. But we're not here to talk history, we're here to talk fuuinjutsu."
Naruto shut his mouth at that, straightening and putting on his most attentive face.
"Oh there's one more thing before I forget," Kakashi said, pulling a small bottle from some pocket dimension that he kept on his person. "The Hokage wants you to put this in your hair. It's an order," he added as an afterthought.
Naruto scrunched up his face. "An order from the lord Hokage? To put something in my hair? Do Sasuke and Sakura have to do something for their hair as well?"
"Er no, just you."
Naruto shrugged. "What is it?"
"Red hair dye. He wants you to look like an Uzumaki from now on," Kakashi said, proffering the bottle. "Also it's best to keep this a secret. If anyone asks you just felt like you needed a change."
Naruto thought about it for a moment before taking it. "Cool. I'll have to ask Sakura for help though so I'll only be able to put it in tomorrow," he mumbled to himself. "If I agree to put this in my hair can we do sealing?" he asked desperately.
Kakashi chuckled. "Yeah let's begin. How much do you know about creating barrier seals."
Naruto frowned. "Not much. Aren't you my teacher? You should know what I do and don't know."
Kakashi waved him off. "I can already tell you're going to be a problem. You're approaching sealing all wrong."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, slightly confused.
"You're trying to use logic."
