The next morning had been a tiresome one, to the point where if Shikamaru was there he would have been mumbling 'Drag,' over and over. The group had to get up, except for Naruto who had taken the last shift. He had only taken the last shift so that he could keep practicing the longest. The first shift was the second longest, and the third was the longest. He only slept through the second.
Naruto was starting to wear down from lack of sleep. It was visible at this point. He had dark bags under his eyes and his facial skin looked like it was being pulled down. His eyes kept closing more and more by the minute.
"Uzumaki-San, I believe you need to not take a shift at the next camp, and sleep through the night. You will need your energy if we come across another enemy."
"Shino-San's right Naruto-kun! You need to rest next time, you've been looking at the leaf for days on end without sleep. What are you even trying to do?" Hinata yet again spoke up from her whisper, and this time her voice was full of worry, to balance out Shino's usual deadpanned nature.
For once their teacher spoke up, "What he's doing is trying to understand the feel of his chakra nature, someone far more advanced than what you two will be doing for now. He is already at that step due to his family's method of training."
"You're wrong." Naruto spoke up for the first time since promising the old man to help him. The man, of which was mentioned, was minding his own business and packing up his tent.
"What am I wrong about? I know exactly what exercise you are doing, my teammate did the same one so many years ago." Kurenai knew exactly how the trick to it was supposed to work too. It was meant for each individual to have an idea of what their affinity felt like and how to hone it in. It was more like a guideline training.
"It's not my family's style of training. Everything I'm doing is my uncle's work alone. He is just as new to this as I am, I can tell. Hell he gets too excited about what he is going to teach me that he taught me ahead of where he wanted me to be. Not like you guys would get that." Naruto kept focusing on the leaf, his concentration not breaking but a tear dropping.
"Man up brat! Real men don't cry so easy." The older man patted Naruto on the back. "I don't know what has happened to you, but I've lost my fair share of family and friends. You can deal with whatever happened to you!" At this point Kurenai looked at that man with a face of worry, shaking her head.
The old man looked at her with confusion, not knowing what she was on about. He thought it was the same tale of a ninja losing their parents before they even got to know them. At this point Naruto ran straight into the woods, tears still running down his face. Hinata went to chase after him, but Kurenai put her hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "It's fine, give him some space. He's going the right way anyway, so he will end up acting like a scout. He's most likely too tired to try and repress whatever he's feeling."
Everyone but Kurenai was shocked that this is what Naruto really felt. They had no clue that he was sad under his almost always brightly smiling face. Even worse, they didn't know why he felt that way. Granted they were a relatively new team but that didn't excuse it whatsoever. In fact, neither Shino nor Hinata knew anything about Naruto except he lived with his uncle alone, and that he was almost always talking about what made each clan so special. In fact he knew a little too well. He knew that the shadow release of the Nara clan was not a Kekkei Genkai, but wouldn't say what it was. He knew how the byakugan worked to a degree and he even knew that no member of the Senju clan has awakened the Mokuton since the first hokage. He weirdly prided himself on his random tidbits of knowledge. No one knew where he got that info though. It was all from his uncle, who talked in his sleep.
Speaking of Naruto, he continued to run through the woods, ahead of the party. He kept running till he came to a clearing where the road split, and a lake in the split. He sat down at the lake thinking something along the lines of 'I don't know which way to go, so now I have to wait for them. Damn.' He kept letting tears stream out. Until he noticed a ripple on the water, and looked up. He saw a man with almost ashen grey skin, and black forward spiky hair. He was wearing bandages around his mouth, a dark blue scarf, no shirt and light blue and baggy pants. But none of that was the important part, the important part was the large cleaver on his back, and the mist headband on his head, same as the two that had attacked them before. What was worse is he matched the description for Zabuza of the Hidden Mist, also known as The Demon of the Blood Mist.
From Zabuza's point of view, this was just a tried, worn out cry baby. That was until he stood up, and pulled a kunai out from one of his many pouches. The veteren killer just grinned at this kid's spunk. He didn't really want to kill another kid in his life, so he just thought about playing around with the poor tired brat. The brat who surprisingly spoke up, "You know, this Gato fucker is probably going to double cross you. Hell think about it for a minute and even an idiot can see he is going to use us to wear you out, then finish you off while you're weak. I know something or two about being wiped out." Then, to no surprise, he fell flat on his face and passed out. Zabuza couldn't help but laugh for a bit. He sat down next to the kid and waited for a bit. The kid didn't move much, and so Zabuza put his hand up and waved someone over. It was a girl in a green haori and wearing a missing nin hunter mask, with the Hidden Mist's mark on it.
"Yes Master Zabuza?" She looked down at the unconscious boy and was watching from the tree line the entire time. "What do you need?"
"Wake this boy up. Don't do it gently though." Zabuza chuckled at himself for a second before he heard a loud yelp coming from the boy. Naruto sat up and looked around, and pulled out another Kunai. Zabuza laughed at the boy, not even on his feet, in a cold sweat staring down the older ninja like he was willing to take his life in one move. "Relax brat, plus I don't even think you could take him on." At this point Naruto noticed the three senbon needles almost in his neck from a somewhat feminine hand.
"Do not try to lay a hand on my master. If you try you will die." The feminine voice of Haku spoke out, with an angry inflection.
"Relax Haku, I don't want any other brats blood on my hands, unless I have to for the cause." Zabuza smiled slightly and stood up, towering over Naruto. He put his hand on the handle of the cleaver on his back, quickly swinging it down towards Naruto. The boy held up his kunai to block it, getting knocked back at least a good ten feet and causing him to roll along the ground. "Hey he blocked it good on him! Yo Brat, what did you mean earlier when you said you knew a thing or two about being wiped out?" Naruto smirked.
"To answer your question, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, that is what I know about being wiped out. Between me and my Uncle, we are the last two known Uzumaki's of Konoha and in the world!" Naruto smiled pridefully as he stood up and dusted himself off.
Zabuza smiled evilly, "So you're telling me that you're valuable? Are you that stupid to brag about how you are one of the last of your clan, right after being captured?" The man grabbed the kid by his vest and started dragging him away. "Haku, stay here to leave a message for his team. Also tell them that we aren't participating in Gato's quest anymore. We want two things from the leaf, a safe place to live, and some land where we can train troops to help take back the Hidden Mist. If we get that, we bring the boy back with us." Zabuza dashed behind Naruto and hit him in the back of the head with his knuckles. He then grabbed the back of the younger ninja's vest and started to walk off.
A few minutes passed and the group caught up to Haku, standing in the middle of the lake much as her master had. "Welcome Leaf Ninjas. Before you move to attack me, I know exactly where your comrade is, and the way you will return him. Send a message back to your Kage, stating that you must prepare an area in the village for Zabuza of the mist and I to live and a larger area for us to use to gather resources so we can fight back against the Mizukage. He has sent countless clans to slaughter including my own, and we need somewhere safe to prepare for war. We will follow the laws of your village while we stay of course, as well as other conditions you may need us to follow. The boy will be unharmed until then." The entire group, save for Kurenai, was jaw dropped and speechless. Other than her interest with him, Hinata saw little to no value to Naruto as a whole to the village. Yes he was a good ninja but that was it. Shino on the other hand thought it had something to do with that unnatural chakra that his insects had accidently sapped from Naruto. Kurenai was right on the money, thinking it had to be about his clan and spoke up.
"Well then, looks like we will have to do as you say to get him back. I will send word to the Hokage at once." For once you could see some of the expression on Shino's face. It was one of shock. He had no clue why the village would want to get back a boy with such a deadly and menacing chakra like that, unless they planned on making him a weapon in the future. Kurenai took out and wrote a scroll, then performed a summoning jutsu, bringing forth a hawk. She tied it to the talons of the animal and sent it on its way. Haku spoke up again.
"I will be traveling with you until the return message. We have no fear that your group should be able to take care of Gato's remaining men but we would feel bad if you were to be injured or wounded while we borrowed your teammate. I hope we will take care of each other." He bowed to the ninja, of which Shino was still in shock and Hinata was confused. She didn't know how she felt about the kidnapper of her teammate joining them, especially Naruto's kidnapper. Their sensei went along with it and so did they.
"That will be fine, but you will be walking ahead of us at all times." Kurenai kept talking with the stranger.
"That will be acceptable, I am Haku. Good to be working with you all." Haku started down the path towards the land of waves. "Are you coming?" He continued walking and the group began to follow.
A few hours later there was a meeting in the Hokage's office. It was with none other than Akihiro, sharing any major advancements with the individual clans of the village. As well as any major advancements about Naruto. "So the boy has been progressing smoothly? No issues? He wasn't too good at the academy. I was worried that he wouldn't be doing well at all after graduating. Has any of It surfaced?" The old man asked, worried about the boy, who was almost his own family. He had often taken care of Naruto when Akihiro was off on missions and the boy was young.
"Not at all, in fact I think he was more than ready for his first C rank!" Akihiro responded laughing a little nervously. You could see a bead of sweat dripping on his forehead.
"You taught him something really advanced by accident didn't you? Something that might make him a bit too dangerous for a newer ninja?" The old man lit his pipe and started to smoke it, blowing away from the younger ninja.
"That obvious?" Akihiro held his hand behind his head, scratching lightly. At this point a Hawk landed on the windowsill carrying a message with an urgent seal on it, and cawed loudly. The Hokage walked over and took the scroll from the bird and read it. His face drained of any joy and only showed dread. He looked almost as if he had seen a ghost. He quickly handed the scroll to Akihiro, whose face quickly turned from a small grin to full blown laughter. "Give him what he wants…"
"ARE YOU INSANE!" The Hokage lost his usual calm demeanor. In fact this is the first time he had yelled in at least a few years. The last time being at young Naruto. "We can NOT have a rogue ninja living in the village. Even with the agreement that he will follow our rules."
"Let me finish." Akihiro was the only one who could take this tone with the man in charge due to their long history. "Give him a couple more conditions. First he must privately train Naruto in sword combat, next he will no longer be a rogue nin, but a Leaf Ninja, and last but not least, train a couple classes at the school. Without killing in them of course. Make it an offer he must refuse. If he takes it, our village will become expectantly stronger and if he refuses. Then we call Him in." The Hokage was in shock.
"You don't mean…"
"Yes I do. Who else would we send in other than the man strong enough to wipe out a nation?" Akihiro smirked. "Plus who could ignore their godson being taken away and possibly killed?"
In a land far away, a man crouched in some bushes, writing in a small book, diligently watching something sneezed.
Naruto was being dragged along the ground and into some secret base, a shitty one where the roof was rusted, the concrete walls covered in moss and the windows were all smashed, but a base nevertheless. "Hey brat looks like you're awake! Too bad, I was hoping for some quiet, or to at least tie you up before you woke up. Move and I disarm you."
"What do you mean? I don't even have a weapon!" Naruto started to flail around trying to act like a brat who doesn't know what he's doing. Really though he is working on trying to find a way out. Flailing is just the best option.
"Oh that's the word I meant! Dismember." Zabuza grabbed the handle of his sword as he threw Naruto into the building."For now sit still and be quiet. Till they decide to either buy you from you from me, or tell me to kill you off." Zabuza sat down and stared at the brat, who was looking around. "Don't try it." He warned the kid and relaxed. He just started tapping his foot.
"So why do you want me so bad? Or the ransom you asked for?" Naruto asked, now staring at Zabuza himself.
"Well brat. Your clan is known for sealing techniques, your long lives, and the crazy amount of chakra you have. Even if the Hokage doesn't give in to my commands, then I was hoping that you could help us by unsealing the tailed beast in the Mizukage so he dies. Even if the beast destroys a ton of property, all of that can be rebuilt. But the endless slaughter of all Kekkei Genkai. Hell it's part of the reason your clan got spread far and wide to begin with." Naruto looked at him all starry eyed.
"Tell me more."
"More what kid?"
"More about my clan and who we are." Zabuza looked at the boy puzzledly, then it hit him over the head like a brick. A brick thrown by one of those old legendary shinobi.
"You know absolutely nothing do you? About sealing. It makes sense, I mean what kind of mad man would teach a brat about the most dangerous jutsu type!" Akihrio sneezed as he was drafting up a contract with the Hokage.
"Excuse me there. Ugh that was a bad one." Akihiro rubbed his nose and sniffled a bit. He finished writing up the contract and got the Hokage's wax seal. He tied the scroll to the hawk then stopped it. "Wait aren't they right near where your summons live?"
The Hokage shook his head. "I feel we shouldn't do that." The hokage then thought for about two seconds and then remembered that Zabuza was in fact an S-Rank missing nin and promptly summoned one of his companions. A small monkey wearing a chain-mail vest and holding a staff appeared.
"What do you need Oldie?" The monkey asked, leaning on his staff.
"There is a group of my ninja moving near your woods, pass this message off to them. One is Hyuga and the other is Abumane. I'm sure you can find them. They will have a Jonnin with them and possibly someone else. Go now. This is an S-Rank issue."
"Whatever you say Oldie!" The monkey disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"I forgot what it was like not summoning Enma. The new generation has no respect for little old me." The Hokage looked at Akihiro. "Are you sure this will work?"
"If he accepts, the Leaf will only benefit, even if we have to give away some of the Uchiha land temporarily. Well I better go find that brat." Akihiro opened the window and made a tiger hand seal, disappearing in a Shunshin and leaving behind only a few leaves. He made his way around town looking for one Sasuke Uchiha. He figured that Naruto's team was the only one doing a C rank, and lo and behold he was right. Now all he had to do was tell him that part of his clan's land was going to be Rented out for a bit. This was going to go great.
