Well, what do you know, I'm back again. I've been typing a lot lately, and writing in general really. Shigure (Fruits Baskets) was right, a writer isn't without a kimono and pen. Well so far Haku and Zabuza are fighting team 7, so… what'll happen after that?

The Chuunin exam of course! Enter Sand sibs! Of course this won't really happen till about two or so chapters thou. Sorry to lead you guys on but you know that's how it goes. Oh by the way FOISF DOIS! That is not a real word, my dad typed it at random and I liked it. Actually I still like it.

Every time I hear "That's right." I think of Dibs and I'm like, that psycho kid? I can't help it. Oh Dibs is a book, My English teacher is reading it to the class. It's … interesting.

Chapter XIII

Teaming up

They all panted as they placed Kakashi on the futon.

"Is he all right? What made him pass out?" Tsunami asked placing a blanket over him. She wondered what could make a full-grown man just lose consciousness.

"He used too much chakra, depending on how much chakra you use you could pass out…" Sakura answered who seemed to have recovered fairly quickly, "or die."

She gave them a surprised look, "Well are you guys hungry? I'll make something for you guys. In thanks of bringing my father home." She smiled.

"RAMEN!" Naruto cried, and was knocked out by Sakura.

"Do you realize your too loud Naruto?" She hissed as him.

"Demo, Sakura-chan, I'm hungry." Naruto pouted staring at the ground meekly.

"It's okay; I'll make some ramen, would you like anything?" She asked Sasuke and Sakura, Sasuke declined and went outside to brood some more about Kakashi's sharingan. Sakura asked for something small like a small fruit. As they turned around they spotted a little boy who looked at them startled and walked away briskly. "Inari! Oh, well, that's my son. He doesn't seem social now, but he used to be so sweet."

Sasuke was training outside (he decided to multi task) while Sakura watched with a light blush. Naruto was eating his ramen. He thought about the day's events and thought about the young shinobi they watched take the Demon mist away.

The next day arrived with nothing too big happening, Sakura was stuck on Sasuke like a chick to a hen, and it was obvious that Sakura asked Sasuke out again when she dropped her head. By then Kakashi was awake, he wasn't up but he was awake.

"Nee, Kakashi sensei, what do the guys like that guy that took Zabuza do?" Kakashi sighed deeply, Naruto, he thought, why can't you pay attention to class?

"Well you see he's a hunter nin, he hunts missing nins. Hunter nins branch off from ANBUs." He explained the basic jobs of hunter nins.

"Nee? Really then why did he take the body?" Naruto asked a puzzled look on him. Kakashi paused, damn, that means he'll have to wake up early tomorrow.

The next day they were climbing trees. Inari watched from a distance and thought, what was the point? They were going to get killed by Gatou anyways. He turned and walked away kick a stone as he went. Shoving his hands in his pockets. (Sounds like a certain someone eh?)

It was late in the evening when Naruto and Sasuke came back. They were both tired and dirty; Naruto was already almost half asleep. Naruto dropped into his seat without any grace, while Sasuke seemed to at least do it quietly. The chairs scraped on the floor as they waited for their meal. After some time passed Naruto noticed Inari.

"What?" Naruto questioned as he let out a loud yawn, Inari's glare intensified as he looked down.

"Why are you trying so hard? You're all going to be killed by Gatou in the end!" Inari yelled at them, Sasuke looked indifferent; Sakura was slightly startled by the yell. Kakashi continued to read his book. Naruto on the other hand being as he is, continued the yelling match with him. In the end it seemed too much for the young Inari as he ran out on them.

Afterwards Tazuna gave them a story about the hero, Inari's dad. After that they all went to bed, with the exception of Kakashi who went to Inari's bedroom, he noticed that the window was open and looked out. "Mind if I join you?" Inari jumped, he stiffened and then nodded yes. "You know, Naruto doesn't have a father."

Inari whipped his head around to stare at Kakashi in surprise. "Really?" He whispered.

"Yep, actually he also never had a mother too."

"But that makes him an orphan!"

"That's right, no one really took care of him, he doesn't know the love from a family, and he didn't really know love from friends. Till about a month ago, that is."

"Whys he so… loud?"

"That's something, no one understands." Kakashi said solemnly, that was a complete mystery.

"Oh," Inari stared at the darkened sky, if that ever happened to him; he would never be as strong as Naruto. Naruto was a special case, in more then one ways.

"He could of given up crying. He could of decided to change so bad that he made a fool of himself."

"Um…" Inari paused thinking what to say next.

"It's okay, Naruto has to stay here tomorrow, he used too much chakra, and I'll be surprised if he even gets up tomorrow." Inari stared at the stars; they seem to wink at him. He smiled.

"Yeah, okay."

The next day Naruto didn't wake up, not surprising. Sasuke even kicked him on the side. He just snored away oblivious of what was going on around him. They all had breakfast and left to watch the construction of the bridge. Inari glanced at the door every time he went past it. It seemed to him that the time was going too slow. He sighed as he went past it for the umpteenth time.

Sakura stared at the clouds; it was pretty boring right now. They didn't have much to do; it wasn't their place to just do the work. Sasuke was keeping in watch looking for things out of the ordinary and Kakashi… was giggling at something he read from his little orange book. Which she sometimes vaguely wondered what was in the book.

Tazuna and the construction crew were having a break at the moment. The bridge would be done once they finish one more segment. That would take them about two or so days. Sakura and Sasuke helped for a little while time-to-time. That was before taking a break.

She looked over to the other side of the bridge and then glanced at Sasuke. She decided to look around once more before zoning out staring at her Sasuke-kun. Sakura let out a gasp as the area filled with thick mist, they were obviously back.

"This is normal; remember were surrounded by bodies of water." Tazuna stated, the others nodded but soon felt a chill run down their spines. There were only five other workers, originally there were more, but as the days went they slowly dwindled down. But something about the mist that didn't seem right to them too. Kakashi noted that Sakura sensed this faster then Sasuke and that her genjutsu detection skill was pretty acute.

"The mist is controlled by chakra, this is no ordinary mist." Kakashi stated. Sasuke was waiting his match with the masked boy.

"Ah Kakashi, it's nice to know that your alive, that makes me happy. That gives us a chance of a continuation of the last match." Zabuza said the mist clearing around him, next him was the masked boy. Sasuke let out a tremble, which Zabuza saw. "Kiri bushin no jutsu." Four water clones appeared around Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna.

By now the workers all fled and were out of sight. Sakura was left to protect Tazuna, she brought out her kunai. Sasuke rushed to then to help her protect Tazuna. The clones circled them, as they were about to attack.

Naruto let out a wide yawn that was a pretty good amount of sleep. But for some odd reason his side was a little sore. (Sasuke kicked him.) He looked around the room, by the looks; it was in the after noon. That means that they left hours ago. The things they would need in the mission were gone too, (AKA Kunai pouches, extra weapons and such). Naruto quickly got dressed.

He told Tsunami that he would be gone for a while, and was off. While he left Inari was in the bathroom. He ran through the forest, jumping branch to branch. Looking down he saw a wild boar on the ground. Getting closer he noticed that it was cut up. Naruto quickly did a U-turn as fast as he could.

Inari sighed as the door clicked behind him. He vaguely understood what happened to Naruto, and he also lost the chance to do it. He jumped as a dish broke. He heard his mother cry out in distress. He rushed down the staircase and did it as quietly as possible.

"Oh, good you're here, that means we can just go. Too bad it's only you, or I would just slice someone up."

"Shut up, you already sliced that boar up back their." Inari let out an inaudible gasp as they forced her up.

"S-stop!" He cried running to her.

"Oh look, I could cut him up." The man was at least six feet; he had dark hair and markings all around his body. His upper body was bare. The other was slightly smaller standing at five eight; he was leaner then the other. He had light hair and blue tattoo on the left side of his face.

"Touch him and I'll just bite my tongue and drown in my own blood, then you won't have a hostage.

"Che." The taller of the two said, shoving Inari out of the way. "You're lucky, but I'm warning you do anything stupid and we'll kill you."

Inari growled in frustration as they left, why couldn't he do anything? Why was he so weak? He thought of his Dad, Grandfather, Mother, Team seven. What made them so strong? He ran out of the house.

"Ka-san!"

"Inari! No!" She cried as they threw her aside.

"That dumb brat."

They went to slice him as they did Tsunami closed her eyes. She couldn't watch.

"Huh? A replacement technique?" They echoed. She opened her eyes in shock.

"Na-Naruto!" Inari blinked as he looked up to Naruto. "Sorry but you know how hero comes in late." Naruto grinned as he placed him on the ground.

"Why you…" The light haired man snarled whipping out his blade to attack Naruto grinned as… another Naruto attacked from behind.

"A bushin?" The dark haired man muttered.

"Kage bushin." Naruto corrected before attacking him too.

Inari and Tsunami both watched in utter amazement as a copy of Naruto and Naruto himself beat the samurai into senselessness. After wards it poof-ed out of existences as Naruto tied them up.

"How did you know that they were after us?" Inari asked helping his mother up.

"I didn't, on the way to the bridge I saw a boar sliced enough to be bacon." Naruto stated smiling at them with his arms behind his head.

"Um, thanks for saving us and, sorry about what I said the other day." Inari began to cry, he tried to stop but he just couldn't.

"You know, it's okay to cry when you're happy."

"O-okay. But I'm still sorry."

"Nah, it's alright, but now that I think about it I need to run. Being a hero sure makes you busy!"

"Yeah, busy, busy, busy!" Inari called to Naruto as he began to sprint. She smiled at their interaction with each other. Inari seemed so much happier since then.

"Ka-san, we need to help them!" Inari grinned at her widely. She smiled back.

"We do need to help them, lets get the villagers." And they ran off to get the rest of the villagers.

Sasuke quickly got rid of the water clones and smirked at the masked boy. "Kakashi-sensei."

"Alright go for it." Kakashi said as he turned to Zabuza who looked at him like he was an insect.

They watched them go move to move, Zabuza realized that Sasuke got faster then last time and was seemed stronger too, but it was only about two weeks by now. He couldn't of gotten better that fast.

Haku seemed to realize the same thing; he decided that he had no choice. He swiftly did a set of seals and spoke softly, "Demonic ice mirrors no jutsu." They watched multiple ice mirrors surround Sasuke. Sakura called to him from Tazuna. Sasuke made a little grunt and looked at the mirrors. They watched in shock as Haku's figure merge with the mirrors.

Haku looked at them, why couldn't they just leave? He didn't want to kill them; they had so much more to live for. He got ready as Sasuke tried an attack.

"Futile, that won't work on these mirrors." Haku told Sasuke who cursed and jumped back, that was a waste of chakra. He didn't want this fight to be too long. Haku also wanted a short match; they had to depend on their swiftness, precision and stamina. They heard vague clicking of metal as Kakashi and Zabuza fought.

Sakura looked around, she couldn't even see her client who was two feet away from her! She knew where Sasuke was by his yell. Kakashi was unknown. Zabuza… was hopefully getting the shit beaten out of him by Kakashi. "Stay close, we might not know when he might appear."

"That's right you'll never know." A voice said, they froze; they could feel the blood lust around them. It was thick and murky; they felt nothing but utter terror. Sakura looked up to see Zabuza running towards them. She flinched.

"Good job Sakura."

She looked up to see Kakashi blocking the blade with his fist. Blood dripped off the blade and off his hand. Sakura stared in surprise. She stared at him confused. What did she do?

"You got him to say something that allowed me to know where he is."

They all turned to see the mist clear, in doing so they watched Naruto come with a big entrance. Kakashi shook his head as Naruto surprised Sasuke instead of Haku. Was he planning something?

Naruto stood next to Sasuke who was full of 'holes' as Naruto described it. Sasuke called Naruto an idiot because he failed more then once. Naruto fumed as he got out another Kunai, they were fending off most of it, but that didn't help much then you only get 60 of 100. Man, where did he get all these?

Sasuke grunted as one hit him in the inner thigh, he avoided from getting it through his leg. Naruto on the other hand had decided to go Kage Bushin mode.

Sakura watched them with worry, solely Sasuke, but hey, we can be nice right? Tazuna watched her and told her that they could get closer if she wanted and that he would go with her. She smiled at him gratefully and inched closer to the battle. When she got closer she threw her kunai to help Sasuke. Sasuke tried to reach for it but Haku caught it before it fully entered the prison.

"Damn it." Sasuke cursed. He eyed around the place, Naruto was running low of chakra, and if he wasn't careful he could die.

"Kage bushin no jutsu!" Naruto slightly slurred as if in a drunken state. He was out if breath and his sight was slightly blurry too, he didn't know how long he could last.

Sasuke was able to notice the water around them moving, and was slowly adapting to the speed. He stared at Haku's shadows, he could see them, they was hazy but was visible. He was able to burn Haku's pants leg that was improvement.

Haku, looked at Sasuke with surprise, this wasn't luck, but he was able to get the timing. He'll have to end this quickly; if he doesn't then he might use too much chakra. Naruto, the blonde was pretty much really tired already so he would get him first in a decoy to get rid of Sasuke.

Haku made his move and threw his senbons. They were going towards the exhausted blond. Sasuke's eyes widened as he made his way to him. He was moving as fast as he could. Throwing everything behind.

"Sasuke, it's not that he doesn't like you, he just doesn't know what to say to you. Every time were alone, he would always talk about you."

"That's… expected from my son…"

"Sasuke. I'll help you train later, I'm busy."

"But you always say that!"

Flick

"Oww!"

"I promise."

"O-okay."

"SASUKE!" Naruto yelled, he watched Sasuke literary become a pincushion. Sakura who was far enough not to see it but close enough to hear it felt her stomach drop, she felt so cold all the sudden.

Kakashi stared at the direction of the battle and worried. Did Sasuke die? He swore he could feel a twinge of pain in his left eye.

"It seems that Haku finally killed them after all that time of toying with them." Zabuza grinned, he shifted his blade getting ready to strike when a sudden amount of chakra was released, and they all had a bad feeling. But to Kakashi this was an all too familiar chakra, something he hoped not to feel ever again.

Kyubi, he thought as he decided to end it quickly. "Sorry, but I've got to end this quick." He took out a summoning scroll and quickly placed a streak of blood on it.

Naruto on the other hand destroyed the mirrors with chakra, and was holding Haku by the neck.

"Kill me."

"What?" Naruto's fuel was suddenly ended with that. Kill him?

"Kill me, I've failed to Zabuza, so I'm useless now."

"Do I really have to kill you? Will that fix everything? Will that bring Sasuke back?"

"No… But then I have no purpose. Just to wander, I have nothing to live for, so I have nothing to die for."

"You can be my friend."

Haku suddenly turned to the direction of Zabuza who he had to save. Naruto grabbed on to Haku's sleeve and ran the same direction.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI! STOP!" Kakashi at this point was about to thrust so his hand was in position. Kakashi looked him surprised and at Haku.

"You're a boy?" They all stared at him.

"My, my, look at this, it seems that the demon of the mist is merely just a common criminal." They all looked up to see a short and rather plump man. He wore a pin strip suit and round sunglasses. He had about forty hit men behind him. "Kill them." He said to the thugs behind him he looked at them and grinned. "It's not like I need you anymore."

"You Bastard!" Zabuza growled wanting to move forward but he was still immobile from the dogs. Haku stared at them without emotions. Naruto was getting a bad vibe from them.

Kakashi released the jutsu, it seemed that they had to get to the main problem instead of just picking it out. He knew that they had low amount of chakra. Sakura possibly had the most chakra right now and she has the lowest amount in the team.

They watched Naruto move forward, he did his favorite jutsu. "Kage bushin no jutsu!" They watched about ten appear, after all that he could do that many?

Kakashi went next he had spare chakra, "Bushin no jutsu." He made about twenty. Haku followed and made about five kiri bushin. The men moved back slightly.

"Anyone who kills these guys will get a tripled salary!" They all promptly jumped forward to fight. As they moved forward a lone arrow landed in front of them.

"The hell?" One of them said looking behind them they saw the village all armored with what they had and ready to go. There was already about a hundred at most. They all began to run for the boat.

"Come back here! I'll quadruple that!" they all fled. He growled at them in frustration and quickly turned around to see Zabuza.

"Trash like you doesn't deserve to live." He was sliced in the artery in his arm and then his neck then kicked into the sea below.

All the villagers began to cheer as the mist cleared. Zabuza sat on the ground; he was loosing a lot of blood. The villagers quickly came over to help him. He seemed to be surprised the change of events.

For the past week they all stayed at Tazuna's house, which was throwing a party. They were all rested now, Sasuke and Naruto had a hard time talking to each other more then usual. And Sasuke glared at Haku if he tried to tell them what happened on the bridge.

By the next day they were all watered and fed and ready to go, Naruto and Inari was having a hard time leaving each other. And as it turns out, The demon of the mist was going to join Konoha.

"Ano, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked sweetly. Sasuke spared her a glance.

"Aa."

"Wanna go out with me when were back at Konoha?" She batted her eyelashes at him. He sighed and declined her offer. She sighed sadly and stared and the ground.

"Neh, Sakura-chan I'll go out with you!" Naruto proposed as she glared at him.

"Why the hell would I go out with you!" She growled. They watched her throw him about twenty feet ahead of them. Zabuza let out an impressive whistle. Haku watched in horror as Sakura continued to pound him into the ground. In the end there was a imprint of Naruto on the ground about five inches.

"Damn."

"Naruto, that's called bad timing." Kakashi told him flipping a page of the Icha Icha Paradise book in his hand.

"He may have bad timing with Sakura, but you have bad timing in everything." Sasuke muttered.

"Ouch, that's cold Sasuke." Kakashi said looking slightly sad as well.

"It's still true." Sakura called back to him.

Wow, this chapter was like a nightmare, thou, I think that I'm going to retype it someday when I have the time so that it would fit together smoother that way it would make more sense. I think I really did a bad job on this one.

Well thanks to you reviewers/readers!

I'm so sorry for those who were hoping for a better chapter and/or for this chapter not to exist, but hey! I wanted Haku and Zabuza to live, I like them, in their place, the sand sibs can die.

I kid, I kid! I was kidding the only characters who are truly going to die is OROCHIMARU you bastard and uh… some other people…

ER yeah. Well that's all for today! Sorry for the Mega bad chapter! But it's Number 13!