"What's wrong Sage?" Naruto asked me.
"Huh?" I looked up at all of them to see them looking at. "Well... Body Erasing Teams usually disposing of the body of they person they killed right there."
"So what?" Sakura asked.
"Don't you see?" I asked her. "How did that masked boy dispose of Zabuza's body?"
"Huh?" she asked. "How could we know? That masked guy took the body with him."
"Yeah. If he needed proof of his work, he could have just taken the head." I told them. "And the weapon that he used to kill Zabuza." I saw Sasuke's eyes widen.
"No way." he said.
"Exactly, yeah..." I said looking down.
"What are you guys talking about?" Tazuna asked.
"Most likely, Zabuza is alive!" I told them.
"What the hell do you mean?!" Naruto yelled at me.
"Kakashi-sensei checked and said that he was dead!" Sakura said.
"Yeah he did, but that was most likely just a momentary death." I told them. "The needle that Hunter-Nin used unless it hits a vital organ,, it has a low probability of killing your opponent. It's even an item used by doctors in acupuncture therapy. Hunter-Nins know about the body's structure thoroughly. Putting a person in a momentary state of death is probably easy for them. First, he carried away the body of the much heavier Zabuza. Second, he used a weapon that has a low probability of killing. These two points indicate that his motive was not to kill Zabuza, but to save him. We can't ignore that possibility.
"Are you thinking too much? Hunter-Nins are supposed to kill Missing-Nins." Tazuna said.
"No... With all the suspicion, we will prepare before it's too late. That's a Shinobi rule." I told them. "Plus, whether Zabuza is dead or alive there's no assurances that Gatou hasn't hired an even stronger Shinobi." I looked at the kids and saw Naruto grinning like an idiot.
"Sage, what do you mean preparing before it's too late?" Sakura asked me. "Kakashi-Sensei can barley move."
"You guys will receive training." I told them.
"Huh? Training?" Sakura asked. "Sage! What's a little training going to do?! Our enemy is a Ninja you and Kakashi-Sensei struggled against even with the sharingan!"
"Sakura, who saved Kakashi while I was bleeding on the ground? You guys are growing rapidly. Especially Naruto! You're improved the most." I told him. "But obviously, this is just training until Kakashi and I get better, you won't be able to defeat him without us."
"But Sage, if Zabuza is alive he could attack at anytime, so shouldn't we be training?" Sakura asked.
"About that...a person put in a momentary death situation...it should take a while before their body returns to normal. So we train until then." I told her.
"Sounds like a lot of fun!" Naruto told me.
"That's not fun." we turned to the door to see a little boy.
"Who the hell are you?!" Naruto asked.
"Ohh! Inari! Where were you?!" Tazuna asked him.
"Welcome back grandpa." Inari said to him.
"Inari, say hello to these people. They are Ninjas who protected Grandpa." his mother told him.
"Mom... They are going to die." Inari said pointing at us.
"What did you say, you little brat!" Naruto shouted at him.
"There's no way you can win against Gatou." Inari said.
"You brat! I'll!..." Naruto said getting up but Sakura stopped him.
"Why are you getting angry at a child? Idiot!" Sakura yelled at him.
"Hey, Inari! Listen! I'm a super hero who will one day become an incredible Ninja called Hokage!" Naruto yelled at him. "I don't know this Gatou guy, but he's nothing against me!"
"What are you stupid?" Inari asked him. "There's no such thing as a hero!"
"What?!" Naruto yelled.
"Stop it!" Sakura yelled.
"If you don't want to die, you should leave." Inari told us walking away.
"Where are you going Inari?" Tazuna asked him.
"To look at the ocean from my room." he said leaving.
"Sorry..." Tazuna said to us after a while. Later on I went and told Kakashi about my thoughts about the Nin we'd met. We started training the next day.
The next day found us in the woods. Kakashi was leaning on crutches since he was still week from using his Sharingan.
"Ok, we will now start the training." he told them.
"HELL YEAH!" Naruto said, excited.
"Ok. before that I want to talk to you about the Shinobi ability, Chakra." he told them.
"Umm... umm...? What's Chakra?" Naruto asked us.
"You're a ninja and you don't know that?! What did you learn in school?!" Sakura asked what we were all thinking.
"Hehe.. I used to sleep during the hard classes." he said and I sighed.
"Fine! Sage." Kakashi said pointing to me and I looked at them.
"Chakra is the energy a Shinobi needs when performing a Jutsu. That energy has two parts. The body energy that is in each of the billions of your cells. And the spiritual energy gained through training and other experiences. These two parts are combined. So by bringing out and releasing Chakra, you can use a Jutsu. This is done through the process of performing a seal with the hands." I explained to him.
"Exactly." Kakashi said.
"Hey?! Hey?! I didn't understand that complicated explanation but isn't that something you learn with your body?" Naruto asked.
"Naruto is right. We can already use Jutsu." Sasuke said.
"Nope! You guys are not using Chakra properly." Kakashi told them.
"What?!" Naruto yelled.
"Well, listen..." I told them. "As I said earlier, to release Chakra means to bring out physical and spiritual energy and mix them together withing your body. As Kakashi said, you guys are not using Chakra effectively yet. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning. Based on what Jutsu you use, the type and amount of Chakra that is released will be different. Even if you are able to release a high amount of Chakra, unless you control it properly, the Jutsu will be weakened or not work at all. Plus it's a lot of energy gone to waste, which means you won't be able to fight as long."
"So... what should we do?" Naruto asked.
"Learn how to control it." Kakashi told him. "Through very tough training."
"What are we going to do?" Sakura asked, nervous.
"Tree climbing!"