Chapter 20
"A true shinobi can make anything a weapon. On that note, never challenge kids. Creativity and mischief are a very dangerous combination."
The morning of Zabuza's attack started like any other.
The genin of Team Seven walked down the road to the bridge with Tazuna and the Kakashi clone for their morning shift when they heard a loud explosion. Snapping their heads in the direction of the sound, the three instantly assumed a defensive formation around their startled client with kunai in their hands. Brightly colored plumes of blue and pink smoke rose in the distance, soon joined by another pillar of orange and gold as a second explosion rocked the world.
Back in Konoha Naruto's mastery of pranks had made him the stuff of legends in the academy, and when strategizing on how to handle Zabuza they had decided to use an old classic. The Paint Bomb Minefield was exactly what it sounded like, a field of explosive paint bombs hidden underground like mines that triggered into giant colorful bursts of paint when stepped on.
Naruto's clones had spent almost two days carefully gathering the supplies to construct and bury one hundred bombs in the space leading up to the bridge. Unlike the harmless but annoying paint bombs he used in the academy, however, for Zabuza they mixed in explosive tags to add some actual power to the resulting blast. They didn't expect it to actually do much damage, but the trap would at least buy them a few minutes.
Dragging Tazuna into the growth of trees next to the path, they ran through the woods while keeping a tight circle around their client. "Confirmation that Zabuza reached Checkpoint One," Naruto reported as memories flooded in from a dispersed clone, snickering under his breath. Flashes of Zabuza covered in giant splotches of brightly colored paint flickered through his mind, his face absolutely shocked as he stared at the hot pink stain covering his chest.
"Naruto, focus!" Sakura snapped before he could laugh. Naruto quickly stopped snickering and nodded firmly, letting the gravity of the situation squash any mirth he might feel.
"Naruto, have all clones working on the bridge transform into Tazuna and scatter them to buy time," Sasuke ordered, and both the blond and his Kakashi clone nodded before the transformed duplicate popped, transmitting the orders to the rest of his clones. Sasuke turned to their third teammate and prompted, "Sakura?"
"I found three potential safe houses," she reported dutifully, pulling a large wadded bundle of clothing from her backpack. "The closest is a small cave in the woods about half a mile from here with the entrance hidden behind a shrub. It's not the most secure place and there's no alternate escape routes, but it should take a while to find. Strip please."
"What?" Tazuna sputtered, ogling her in shock.
"You need to disguise yourself and we don't have much time," Sakura huffed impatiently. The bridge builder still sputtered, but he obediently began taking off his clothes as they moved.
"Other options?" Sasuke pressed Sakura.
"An old fishing shack on a cliff three miles from town, and the basement of an abandoned house towards the edge of town."
"Three miles is too far, and going into town would be too visible," Sasuke decided after a moment of thought. "Forest cave it is."
"Checkpoint two," Naruto interjected suddenly, growing visibly antsy as he sifted through the memories. Checkpoint two involved a web of wires that triggered messy stink bombs when tripped, and Zabuza sliced through the wires with his sword while managing to dodge most of the bombs. "Oi, old man, hurry it up!"
"I'm changing as fast as I can!" Tazuna grumbled, jerking on the shirt Sakura provided. Tugging at the spacy collar, he scowled and complained, "Hey, this is a bit big!"
"Not really," a Naruto clone suddenly replied, appearing next to him with arms full of balled-up pantyhose. Without slowing their pace he shoved it down the shocked Tazuna's collar with a mischievous grin and quickly set to work positioning and securing it in place, giving him the appearance of sagging breasts.
"...You are making me pretend to be an old lady," he realized flatly, staring at his newfound assets in distaste.
"Yep." Sakura couldn't help but grin as she pulled a bonnet from her bag and plopped it on top of his head. Strands of frizzy white and gray hair tumbled out from it and fell to his shoulders, and she quickly adjusted its position so that it framed his face more naturally. Making the pseudo-wig had been difficult, and she had ultimately spent an hour convincing Tsunami to get one of her friends to shear their own hair to use for the disguise. Altogether Sakura spent three hours bleaching and gluing the strands to the inner rim of the hat.
"You do realize most old women don't have facial hair, right?" Tazuna quipped weakly, clearly unhappy with their plan.
"We have it covered," she assured him, while Naruto produced a pair of scissors. Tazuna physically recoiled and stopped running, his face contorting in horror.
"Oi, back up a second! Do you really think you can just give me a clean shave in the middle of woods with scissors?"
"Of course not," Sasuke replied dismissively. "We just need to trim it enough to fit behind an allergy mask." Tazuna still seemed uncomfortable, but when Naruto suddenly reported "Third checkpoint cleared" he acquiesced and allowed the blond to quickly trim his beard. The allergy mask Sasuke supplied fit over it smoothly now, and with a pair of sunglasses, a cane and a long skirt covered in patches the gruff bridge builder now looked like an old, blind woman.
Nodding at each other, the trio raised their hands and transformed into nondescript beggars in ratty clothing and smudges of dirt, and resumed moving through the woods at a brisk walk. "Naruto, did any of your clones see the hunter-nin?" Sakura asked, and the blond—now a dirty beggar with matted black hair and heavy smudges under his eyes—frowned.
"No, they didn't," he realized, and his teammates frowned in distaste. He staggered mid-step though, nearly falling in surprise before regaining his momentum. "Shit, Zabuza reached the bridge! He just took out three Tazuna clones in one swipe!"
The other genin sucked in sharp breaths and frowned, picking up the pace slightly. "Until we know where he is, we can't let our guard down," Sasuke warned lowly, and the others nodded in firm agreement. Tazuna meanwhile seemed overwhelmed by the sudden burst of activity and decided to just let them take the lead.
While the genin hustled their client towards the cave, back at the bridge Zabuza had long since reached the limits of his patience. As a ninja he knew to expect traps, but the sheer immaturity of the ones here infuriated him. Paint bombs, stink bombs and then oil slicks had made reaching the bridge a royal pain, the sheer number of traps too large for him to avoid it all completely. Then to top it off when he arrived he found an army of shadow clones transformed into his target.
Patience officially gone, the former Shinobi Swordsman roared as he swung the Kubikiribocho at a small posse of Tazunas and Narutos, popping them in a large cloud of smoke. Screaming with rage and frustration, he spun to face the entrance of the bridge and called sharply, "Haku!"
His apprentice materialized within seconds, irritatingly clean and pristine as usual in his hunter-nin costume. "Yes, Zabuza-sama?"
"How the hell are you so clean?!"
"I ran on the water to approach the bridge from an alternate angle as you ordered, sir."
Oh, of course. Of course they didn't have any traps in the water.
Shoving down his irritation, Zabuza hefted his sword over his shoulder and spat, "The old man isn't here. We're moving on!" Nodding obediently, his apprentice turned to race off the bridge only to find their path blocked by a flock of Naruto clones. The clones knew that they stood no chance against Zabuza and his apprentice, but even a few precious seconds of spare time could mean the difference between life and death for their original.
"You're not going anywhere!" one of them hollered, and as one they raised their hands into a familiar sign.
Now, to understand the next part, we must first rewind time three days ago.
Early in the morning, a single clone raced through some woods in search of a suitable place to transform and head to the bridge. As he ran along, he happened to glimpse Haku in a gap in the trees collecting herbs to treat Zabuza. Naturally the Hyoton-user had noticed the clone's presence and had braced himself for a potential confrontation. However, due to its current mission the clone simply continued forward to find another isolated location to transform, without interacting with him.
That did not mean Haku left no impact on Naruto, though. Dressed in his civilian garb, Haku had been unrecognizable to his clone, but it had noted Haku to be very pretty. Pretty enough that when it dispersed at the end of the day and sent visions of a forest beauty back to the original Naruto, the blonde had shouted in despair at not getting a chance to talk to the gorgeous woman.
That sentiment still remained strong in his mind even after three days, and so as the clones faced down the two enemies they used "her" as inspiration as they executed the one jutsu capable of taking down the Hokage.
"Sexy Jutsu—Harem Jutsu!"
Smoke burst and shrouded the clones, and when it dispersed an assortment of Narukos and voluptuous female Hakus faced the two former Mist nin. Wisps of smoke still rolled around their more sensitive bits, helpfully censoring their explicit nudity for any children who may happen to be viewing it, but enough skin showed to make it clear that the Hakus were quite well endowed to a point even Tsunade might be jealous.
As they blew kisses at the pair with seductive smiles and giggles, the two Mist nin just stared at them blankly, their deadened expressions rivaling even the Uchiha clan. "...Haku," Zabuza said tonelessly, and without another word his loyal tool launched forward to cut through the giggling harem with an ice blade.
Once the last clone popped, Haku turned to his master with a deep bow. "Sir, I apologize you had to see that."
"Haku. What was that."
"I do not know. However, three days ago I noticed the boy in orange while collecting herbs in the woods. We did not interact, but he must have recognized me and decided to transform into a feminine version of myself to catch us by surprise." Bowing deeper, he added sincerely, "I apologize for my incompetence, Zabuza-sama."
"...Right." Somehow Zabuza doubted that, but he wouldn't say so out loud. "I'll... let it slide this time. Just... don't let it happen again."
"Yes, Zabuza-sama." Haku straightened and looked to him for orders, while Zabuza took a few moments to contemplate their next move. Clearly they'd beaten their target to the bridge, and the smoke from the first trap almost certainly clued in the Leaf ninja to their approach. He had no doubts they would go into hiding, and given they had the genius Hatake Kakashi leading them he sincerely doubted they'd return to his house.
From there, his next thought was simple: why would a Leaf genin be alone in the woods in hostile territory? Turning to gaze at the thick clusters of trees visible far in the distance, the Swordsman narrowed his eyes. "Haku, where exactly did you see that brat?"
In another world, some cultures considered seven to be a lucky and auspicious number.
In this world, the number seven apparently had a curse on it, because in an absurd twist of fate the Naruto clone which Haku had witnessed three days ago happened to be in heading in the same general direction of the cave Sakura had identified as a hiding place.
Which led to the current situation.
Not even half an hour after huddling in the cave, a single Naruto clone disguised as a squirrel and left as a sentry suddenly popped, sending visuals of a rainbow-splattered Zabuza heading their way. "Guys," he whispered, his face paling. Nothing more needed to be said, his teammates instantly understood his message.
Heart pounding in his chest, Sasuke wrestled down the spike of anxiety he felt at the prospect of facing the criminal. As it stood, he knew Zabuza severely outmatched him. Fighting him directly or even indirectly would not work, Zabuza could take them down with a single swipe of the sword. Deceit, guile and carefully executed trickery would be their best bet to survive this scenario.
"We need to move Tazuna somewhere safe, ASAP," he whispered to his team.
"What're you gonna do?" the man in question asked, shifting uncomfortably. "Make another batch of clones and use them as a distraction while we run?" Over the past nine days he had witnessed Naruto make the clones countless times to the point even he could recognize how their nearly all of their strategies revolved around them.
However, even as he spoke though Sakura shook her head. "No, Naruto's already made a lot today and it'd be better to conserve his chakra. His chakra reserves are really big, but they must have some kind of limit, and the last thing we need is for him to pass out from chakra exhaustion like Kakashi-sensei in the middle of a fight."
"Besides," Sasuke added bitterly, "The shadow clones won't hold him forever. I think our best shot is to play a homeless family like we discussed earlier."
That particular strategy still left a dirty taste in their mouths, because in order to pull it off they'd have to act like civilians, which meant they couldn't sneak around. Basically, that meant walking in plain sight at a slow pace without trying to hide or run, because even homeless civilians wouldn't have the kind of paranoia that ninja had. This meant a real chance of running into Zabuza and having to convincingly play the part of a group of confused children helping their poor, sickly blind grandmother.
Eyebrows pinching together, Naruto lowered his head and realized at some point his hand had moved to hover over his stomach. His frown grew as he stared at it, and he squeezed his eyelids shut as he sucked in a deep breath.
"...Guys, listen to me," he said quietly, getting their attention. "If worst comes to worst, take Tazuna and run. I'll stay behind and hold them off."
Sasuke and Sakura immediately leveled sharp looks on their blond teammate, their eyes wide with shock.
"What?" Sakura breathed, her face paling even with the transformation in place.
"Dammit, do you have a death wish, brat?" Tazuna sputtered, utterly bewildered by the latest turn of events. Sasuke's hands curled into fists at his sides, leaning forward to glare at the idiot.
"I know you're stupid, but this is a new level even for you!" he hissed, trying to keep the rising panic out of his voice. "You'd be walking straight to your death!"
However, when the blonde raised his head to look at them Sasuke felt himself stiffen in surprise while Sakura's breath caught in her throat. Fear and uncertainty glimmered in Naruto's eyes, yet beneath that sparkled an undercurrent of strong conviction and resolution that left the Uchiha breathless.
"I know it sounds crazy, but... You need to trust me on this, okay?" He flashed them a cocky grin as he spoke and his face became even more of a paradox, a jumble of contradicting emotions that should not be able to exist at the same time as his smile both rang false and radiated sincerity at the same time.
Sasuke found himself unable to look away from the dissonance of his teammate's expression, his blood unusually chilled by the complex array of sentiments visible. He'd never even thought Naruto to be capable of having such complicated feelings, usually the dobe displayed his emotions with a simple zealousness that made him ridiculously easy to read. The stark contrast left him in a state of mild shock.
While he tried to sort through it, Sakura recovered first.
"Bullshit."
Hearing such vulgar language from the usually polite and well-spoken kunoichi stunned her teammates, both boys turning to regard her in open-mouthed surprise. Her eyes burned with a fathomless fury as she glared at Naruto, her transformation's dirty features contorted in rage. "Uzumaki Naruto, we are not leaving you to face certain death while we run away!"
"She's got a point," Sasuke agreed dryly, willing himself to calm down. If Sakura could keep her cool, so could he. "For some reason I can't understand my cousin seems to like you, and I am not going to be the one to explain to him why you're not back with us."
"B-but—"
"Naruto, do you remember the first lesson Kakashi-sensei even taught us?" Sakura challenged, and Naruto frowned, face screwing up in confusion.
"Has he actually taught us anything?" he grumbled. "It's all just basic stretches and working on aim and boring junk like that!" Sakura's eye twitched as she glared at him, her patience clearly running thin. Sasuke, however, narrowed his eyes as he realized exactly what she referred to.
"Those who break rules are scum. But those who abandon their friends are even worse than scum."
The words of their teacher slipped out without much thought, his lips pursing into a frown as he finished. While Sasuke may not particularly agree or disagree with the sentiment it expressed, when spoken by their teacher the phrase held a certain power, a strong conviction that came only from personal experience. For that alone he could respect the statement, and from the way Naruto's features visibly sobered he knew Naruto respected it too.
"Exactly," Sakura confirmed with a nod. "We're a team now. If we leave you behind, you'll just die. What kind of self-respecting ninja would sacrifice a teammate for a gambit we don't even know would work?"
"Then why did we leave Kakashi-sensei!?" Naruto challenged, his voice rising in agitation. "We abandoned him after that creepy kidnapper guy took him, so we're already scum!"
"That's different," Sasuke replied, his tone more bitter than usual as he glared at the floor of the cavern. "This mission went above our scope the second Kakashi got captured. We didn't have the power to do anything ourselves, so we chose the option that would have the greatest chance of saving him. The whole point of having you help build the bridge was so we could try to send someone to get help."
Even as he spoke his chest tightened with anger and irritation, because he hated admitting his weakness. In the academy, he had grown used to being the strongest student. Everyone lauded him as a prodigy and praised his skill, his graduation delayed only due to rules made after the massacre to prevent placing undue stress on such young children.
Yet here in Wave, for the first time in years Sasuke found himself confronted with just how weak and vulnerable he really was. He had not noticed his dependence upon Kakashi before the man had been taken, and since then he'd been in a constant state of fight or flight. Fight was not an option though, not against someone who could throw a giant meat cleaver of a sword as easily as a kunai, so he had no choice but to accept flight.
To kill that man, Sasuke needed to be strong. Zabuza paled in comparison to him. So if Sasuke couldn't take Zabuza on, then what chance would he stand?
If that man were to suddenly appear in Konoha and threaten him while alone, Sasuke would be utterly defenseless. His shurikenjutsu would be useless against a genius like him, and his fireball could be easily negated by plenty of techniques. It burned to realize that, it ached and stung and bit to understand just how pathetic he was in the larger scheme.
Right now, Uchiha Sasuke could do absolutely nothing.
So why the hell did Naruto think he could handle Zabuza!?
Gritting his teeth, he rose from his spot and glared holes into the blonde, every detail of his stunned face burning into his memory with intense clarity. "We are not leaving you behind like cowards!" he snapped. "If we run, we run together. If we fight, we fight together. No exceptions. Got that, dobe?"
Naruto just stared at him slack-jawed, his eyes bulging out of their sockets. "S-Sasuke," Sakura whispered, her voice cracking on the word as she paled even further.
"Holy shit, kid!" Tazuna suddenly gasped. "What the hell happened to your eyes!?"
The abrupt question threw him off, and Sasuke turned to look at him in confusion before realization set in. Everything seemed so much clearer now, so focused and detailed... And his teammates somehow seemed slower?
What—
Before he could finish the thought, he suddenly became aware of dampness collecting at his feet, and his gaze snapped towards an equally alarmed Sakura.
"Everyone out!"
When Kakashi woke up, he expected to open his eyes to the same blank white ceiling he'd been viewing for the past several days.
However, as he roused from his latest drug-induced nap, he immediately noticed the ever-constant pressure on his wrists and ankles was gone and instantly became much more alert. His eyes snapped open and he bolted upright, looking around his surroundings wildly. Salty air nipped at his face as he heard the dull roar of waves crashing against sandy shores in the distance, the soft bed he'd been staying in since the procedure replaced by hard, tightly packed soil.
For the first time in nine days, he felt the sun on his masked face, and it felt glorious.
Basking in its warmth, after a moment he quickly shook his head and pulled himself to his feet. He'd blame the slip in his attention on the residual effects of the drugs his kidnapper (who still had not given Kakashi a name despite his ridiculously friendly demeanor and repeated insistence they knew each other) gave him last night. Or was it this morning? Drug-induced sleep and a lack of windows really screwed with his internal clock.
The Copy-Nin surveyed his surroundings warily and quickly noted he seemed to be on a dirt path within a wooded area. Turning his head, he could see a small town in the distance, and beyond the wooden houses he glimpsed rolls of sparkling blue water that melded into the sky.
Clearly he had not left the Land of Waves, which came as a mild relief. He still didn't know his exact location though.
Tipping his head back, his eyes narrowed as he spied his weapons pouch hanging from a branch high overhead. After some wary consideration the jounin quickly funneled chakra into his legs to power a large leap, and found himself surprised at how easily his chakra flowed given it had been sealed the past few days. Carefully retrieving his pouch, he relaxed slightly when it didn't immediately explode in his hands.
After a cursory inspection to confirm nothing had been removed or tampered with, he turned his attention to the slip of paper he'd noticed pinned to the trunk of the tree with a kunai. He noted the handwriting to be surprisingly neat, almost elegant in a way without being overly fancy.
'Kakashi, as promised, I have released you now that a sufficient recovery time has passed. You should be fine now, though your muscles might be a little weak. The medical seals I used can only prevent degradation so much. I suggest doing some quick stretches to help loosen them up. On the bright side your chakra should be totally intact.
Which is good, because Gato and a mob of like one hundred mercenary thugs will be passing through pretty soon. You might want to stop them before they find your genin. Good luck!'
Kakashi stared at the note for approximately fifteen seconds before his shoulders slumped.
He didn't care how friendly that guy acted or how strongly he insisted that he knew and cared about Kakashi. Once he figured out his identity, Kakashi would personally see to it that he endured hell.
Meanwhile in Konoha, Masaru hunched over his backpack in his bedroom making sure he had all his clothes and weapons in stock. He could hear faint clanking from the kitchen as Gaku-sensei prepared breakfast, a rather strange thought after waking up to an empty apartment for the past two weeks. Today they had plans to go on a three-day camping excursion outside the village to test his survival skills, so Gaku-sensei had opted to spend the night so they could set out as early as possible.
Satisfied with his inspection, he glanced around his bedroom one last time to see if any last-minute additions caught his attention. Nothing did, so he turned back to his backpack and quietly did one more check over before zipping it up. He hitched it over his shoulder and headed for the door only to pause as a flicker of light caught his eye.
Turning sharply, his eyes narrowed as he studied the map of the elemental nations hanging above his bed. It had been painted by his mother, each country filled in with gorgeous coloring and subtle artistic designs representing basic geographic features that had fascinated him from a young age. Intricate black markings framed the edges of the illustration, so beautiful he almost didn't see a need for the frame.
As usual, his attention first went to the Land of Fire, which had been painted a warm, burnt orange that matched the color of autumn foliage. Wisps of flames mingled with impressions of leaves, the black stylized leaf representing Konoha popping out in a stark contrast. Masaru eyed it briefly but spared no time to appreciate its aesthetics, instead letting his gaze slide towards an island just off its shores where a small bead of white light hovered.
Even as he turned to look at it the glow faded away though, leaving him staring at the small island it had previously covered. Due to the artistic nature of the map Ryoko hadn't actually labeled anything, so he had no idea what country it represented. Its soft, greenish-blue color hearkened to the cool hues of the deep sea surrounding it, curved lines rippling across it in a mimicry of waves.
Masaru frowned as he studied the map, sharpening his focus. The lines became more distinct, the ripple patterns burning into his brain. Not even a trace of the white glow lingered. Had it really been there?
"Hey, Masaru, breakfast is ready."
He started in surprise when he heard Gaku's voice from the doorway, having failed to notice his approach as usual. Blinking, he quickly shook his head and turned to face his teacher, finding the man leaning against the doorway with a faint smile. "Trying to find where we're going?" he teased lightly, and Masaru smiled.
"Kinda pointless. Mom didn't really label anything."
"Huh, now that I look at it more closely you're right. At least it's pretty."
"Yeah. It really is." With a final appreciative glance at the map, he grabbed his bag and followed Gaku to the kitchen, pushing the strange light out of his mind.
Sorry this is up a bit late! I've had an art class every day this week from 8 to 4:30. It's actually been ridiculously fun and one of my favorite classes I've ever had, but it's super time-consuming since the work carries over at home. With that said, I didn't have time to re-review this before posting so while I'm pretty sure there are no mistakes, it may not be as high-quality as other chapters.
By the way, a warning: the next chapter will be HUGE. I combined two chapters in one to wrap up the arc a bit faster. So next chapter will mark the end of Wave!
