"Whilst I would like to finish up the review of the mission to Wave, given the more concerning matters highlighted by its aftermath that require my personal attention, I think there needs to be some small deviation at this moment." The fact that the Hokage himself had come to sit in on the remainder of the mission review/trial was not a good sign, but at least Kakashi could feel a little relieved right now, the elderly ninja's ire was currently focussed on the rather dishevelled ANBU stood in front of him and to the left.
"Perhaps Rat-san, you could inform the council what circumstances lead to the rest of your team currently being in hospital with varying degrees of injury? Especially given your orders from Anko-san were to scout out the facility, meet up with Genin Uzumaki and definitely NOT to try and take out the security of the warehouse..." The Rat masked woman flinched slightly at the condescension and mild disbelief in the Hokage's tone.
Kakashi actually felt slight pity for her, from what Kakashi knew (he still kept up with his old team members and colleagues even after his prolonged 'retirement'), the poor woman had only been in ANBU for a few months, having been recruited after a good performance in the Jounin exams out in Grass country.
"Hai Hokage-sama, my team and I received our orders to recon the warehouse and we were already nearby on routine patrol, so we arrived sooner than had been anticipated by the other squads. After scouting the outer perimeter of the warehouse area, we returned to the rooftops overlooking the site to report to Badger-taichou." Badger? Kakashi didn't know the ANBU squad leader with that mask personally, but from what he had heard the man was a tactically sound, if a little hot headed.
"After reporting no sign of Genin Uzumaki or any other ninja, only one guard at the entrance and two at the side loading doors, Badger-taichou gave us our orders. Bull-sempai and Lizard-sempai were to take out the men by the loading doors whilst Badger-taichou took out the one at the entrance. We were then to infiltrate the warehouse and see if Genin Uzumaki had already made it inside or had been captured." Whilst Sarutobi's frown remained it lightened a touch and there was less of an oppressive feeling in the room, the man was not one to judge others for their superiors decisions, but Kakashi got the feeling Badger was not going to enjoy the next meeting he had with the village leader.
"So the reason for assault was concern for Genin Uzumaki's wellbeing? Whilst a hasty and with hindsight foolish maneuver I can understand the logic due to the circumstances. I assume this is where things began to go wrong?" Rat nodded quickly before grabbing something from one of her waist pouches and holding it up in front of her.
Kakashi recognised it straight away despite the heavy burns covering the majority of the paper, in fact it was because of those burns he knew exactly whose it was, it answered the question of exactly how 3 ANBU had been sent to the hospital.
"I was on overwatch for Badger-taichou, in case there was someone else watching the entrance. At the go signal, Badger-taichou followed standard procedure for dealing with enemy infiltrators, attack from behind and incapacitate or kill quickly and quietly. I saw the man at the entrance smirk, even as Badger-taichou beheaded him and then it turned to smoke, but I had no time to warn him before these went off." Chouza coughed politely, and when the Hokage nodded approvingly he asked a question that Kakashi had been expecting since Rat had produced her evidence.
"Apologies Hokage-sama, but I am not familiar with the type of seal or what is left of it there. It doesn't look like an explosive tag of any kind." At this point Kakashi decided to interject, both to speed things along as well as to get a bit more of his story out of the way before the Hokage's disapproval was focussed fully back on him.
"If I may Hokage-sama?" At Sarutobi's nod Kakashi continued with what he aimed to be a quick and overarching explanation, as getting weighed down in the details would probably not help paint him in a better light.
"That is what sensei termed a 'take out tag', one of the precursors to the paralysis tag used by our ANBU forces to take out their targets without killing them. After what happened at the manor, both Sakura and Naruto were very... emotional." That was one way to put it Kakashi mused to himself, even after using what rudimental medical knowledge he had to make sure Naruto would survive his injuries, dealing with Sakura had been fun to say the least.
*Flashback*
Dinner that night had been a very sombre affair, given one of their number was down and out upstairs and another had barely picked at her food for 5 minutes before excusing herself. The girl who had returned with Sakura had been put straight to bed, after being fed the small amount of water and food her starving stomach could safely handle.
"Kakashi-sensei, what happened to the dobe today? And why is Sakura acting like someone just killed her puppy?" Sasuke's brilliantly tactful questions brought a little life back to the table, though that was primarily in the form of Tsunami looking ashamed and hugging Inari to herself once more.
"Mao Mao, Sasuke-kun, what have I told you about calling Naruto-kouhai that? It is not very comradely..." Seeing his attempt to distract the boy with a reprimand was working about as well as a mayfly body slamming a bear, Kakashi sighed. Why couldn't he just get a nice peaceful mission where he could read his book?
"Some of Gato's men attacked Tsunami and Sakura whilst they were at the markets, Sakura held them off whilst Tsunami escaped but was captured in the process." Seeing Sasuke's eyes widen in surprise and concern, Kakashi couldn't help but feel a little reassured that the boy did care for his teammates, even if he didn't show it.
"When Tsunami managed to return, Naruto left to find Sakura, despite my reservations." Not that Kakashi could really blame the boy, stories of what happened to captured kunoichi had pervaded even into the academy, as well as the boys experiences of the caravan bandits.
"So your boy was the one who took out Gato's men in the village? By Kami there were at least a hundred men there..." Tazuna had obviously heard about what had happened, his shocked tone only adding to the seriousness of the conversation as Kakashi nodded.
"And there were at least that number again out at the old Daimyo's manor, Naruto and his clones killed over half of them and left the others in a state that will keep them from trying anything for weeks if not months." Sasuke's face, which had been growing slightly stormy at the idea the young blonde had been able to defeat so many men, whitened once more as he obviously realised that Naruto hadn't merely defeated them and what that might mean for the young ninja.
"Sakura saw the aftermath of the manor fight after Naruto collapsed from his wounds, and she is struggling to come to terms with what she has seen." A lot better than saying he had been forced to knock the boy out when he tried to attack her at any rate.
"So Sasuke, I need you to keep an eye on the client, whilst I go and check on Sakura." Sasuke to his credit merely grunted and nodded his head, obviously the young Uchiha had as much to think about as the others.
Moving quickly out of the house, Kakashi followed the obvious tracks into the woods surrounding the house, very quickly able to hear the sounds of either fighting or training from in front of him. Speeding up as fast as his still injured body would allow him, in case Sakura was in some kind of trouble, Kakashi found himself in a clearing with Sakura stood on the other side of it, using a tree as a punching bag.
"heh hmm!" Kakashi coughed politely and loud enough for Sakura to hear, the girl whirling round with a speed and surety that he hadn't seen from her before now, obviously still very on edge from having been kidnapped.
For a moment they stood in silence, Sakura seemingly unsure of whether she wanted to speak, shout, cry or simply ignore him and carry on beating up the poor defenceless tree. Looking at her already bloody and bruised hands, Kakashi decided to stick to his aloof and cool persona to ease her into actually talking once more.
"You know you should probably wrap those first..." To her credit Sakura merely glanced down at her hands and shrugged, her eyes softening before speaking for the first time since they had returned to Tazuna's house.
"Is Naruto-kun okay?" She had already asked him this, first just after Naruto had been knocked out and then after taking in the battlefield that now made up the manor grounds.
Kakashi thought about giving her the same answer as he had the first two times, that the boy would be fine, but he decided that a little more information would probably help him get Sakura to open up enough for him to work out her mental state.
"He has, as you saw, several injuries that would be considered critical to anyone else. Luckily, young Naruto has managed to unlock his Uzumaki bloodline which amongst other things." Such as the berserker rage he had been in when he had tried to attack her, something he had explained there and then to placate his rather freaked out little minion.
"Includes an increased healing factor, that you have probably already seen in action." The girl thought for a moment and then nodded a little unsurely, leaving Kakashi to try his opening gambit...
"Why?" The sudden question cut Kakashi off from trying to subtly ask how Sakura was doing, the pinkette clarifying her sudden question a moment later, obviously his little genin were better at reading him now than he might have liked.
"Why would he k-fight all those men to save me? He could have waited for you and Sasuke to come and help him... Not that I am ungrateful at his haste given what might have happened..." Sakura shivered slightly at whatever thought went through her head, before finishing in a small defeated voice.
"He could have died..." Interesting, so Sakura was more concerned about her teammate then what he had done, that was a good sign for team dynamics at least.
"I think it is safe to say that Naruto would gladly make that trade if it meant saving your life..." Maybe a little blunt given Sakura's flinch, but Kakashi knew this was the time to cut away at any other doubts/worries and fears the girl might have.
"Remember what Naruto did the day of your graduation? He has seen some of the worst parts of our profession, people massacred, torture, slavery and attempted rape. I think the idea that something like that could happen to any of us, scares him even if he would never admit to such an uncool feeling." It was barely noticeable, but there was the smallest of twitches at the side of the girls mouth as Kakashi put on his best Naruto voice for the last part.
"This is a boy who will move heaven and earth just to get a bit of attention by painting the Hokage Monument, imagine what he will do for those he considers friends and family?" Sakura actually looked a bit ashamed at that comment and Kakashi knew there was probably a story he didn't know about there, but it was something to ask about at a less emotionally charged time.
"So if you want to make it up to him don't bring it up, I am not sure how much of everything he will remember and some things are better left buried for the moment..." Sakura nodded, determination filling her face even as she obviously did her best to hide her other rampaging emotions.
"Now, if you want to carry on training, let's get your arms wrapped up. I don't want Naruto coming at me with that axe again for being a negligent sensei..." This time he got a bit of a giggle, which was a sign that hopefully Sakura would make it out of this okay...
*Flashback End*
Seeing Sakura taking her training seriously after that had been one of the few good things about the whole mess, dealing with Naruto had been somewhat easier than he had expected, but Kakashi knew that was because he had forgotten about the bandits that Naruto had killed on his graduation day. The two of them had merely spent some time out by the bridge, talking about nonsensical things such as the weather and whether Kakashi had ever been fishing.
The boy was subdued, there was no denying that, but having Sakura hug him pretty much the moment he was up and about probably helped him deal with what he had been forced to do. Though the boy had asked Kakashi about one particular subject, which showed it had an effect on his psyche in a way Kakashi hadn't expected.
"One of the things that Naruto asked, after a day's recovery, was how he could have subdued all of those people without killing them." It was a question that had stumped Kakashi for a few moments and obviously had the others in the room thoughtful as well, until the Hokage nodded in understanding.
"So you offered to teach him how to make the takeout tags so that he could use them on any bandits or non-ninja in the future." Shikaku looked a little disgruntled and spoke up in his usual sarcastic and lazy tone.
"Perhaps Hokage-sama, you could explain to us what these take-out tags actually do and why they are relevant to taking out the ANBU squad? Some of us are not as skilled in seal knowledge as yourself and the student of the Fourth."
"Of course Shikaku-san, takeout tags work by storing an amount of chakra in their sealing matrix, that upon activation then disperse the chakra into anything that is in contact with them with a chakra network. The chakra then attempts to cause an imbalance in the target's chakra system, which if large enough will knock them out as the backlash affects the body as much as their network." The Hokage gave Rat a sidelong glance before continuing.
"It works on civilians or bandits as they don't have any real chakra network to 'fight' back with, but for ANBU these shouldn't have been a problem even if Naruto had managed to attach them to their person. The amount of chakra that one can release would only cause control issues in anyone above a genin." Ah yes, the same assumption Kakashi had made when he first allowed Naruto to test the first of his completed creations.
He had checked it and whilst different to what Kakashi had taught him, the boy had dozens of shadow clones working on it the entire day whilst Sakura and Sasuke did tree climbing and sparring, and he had seen several activate on clones without any noticeable worrying effects before he allowed himself to be used as a guinea pig.
"Normally yes Hokage-sama, but as you know Naruto's chakra is... rather different from normal." As in, being boosted with the chakra of a multistory beast of mass destruction, quoted as having nearly limitless chakra. That kind of thing tended to make one's chakra act in ways that defied 'normal' convention.
"How so Kakashi?" Kakashi couldn't help but feel that even with the grateful glance Rat threw his way, the Hokage's attention really wasn't worth it in the short term.
"Well, the first time he used it on me, he nearly knocked me out cold..." Not the sort of thing he would normally mention, but the slight embarrassment he felt wasn't nearly as much as the pride that arose at the slightly shocked looks in the room.
"Admittedly that was when I was still low on chakra after fighting Zabuza, but that was before Naruto made some further modifications to its design, after our fight in the ruins..." At the slightly disapproving look from the Hokage, Kakashi realised he was getting ahead of himself, and reverted back to giving just the most pertinent of information.
"Naruto has now modified the tags so that they can be attached to his clones on a deadman's switch activation, meaning that when the clone is killed the tag will activate." Pausing for a moment, Kakashi couldn't resist adding to the dramatic effect of his last statement before adding the last and most pertinent point.
"Oh, and did I mention that with Naruto over charging the seal, the seals can gain a small area of effect ability?" Having said his piece and feeling no small amount for his young student, Kakashi allowed the senior ninja to comprehend what he had said before Rat continued her report.
"That would explain what happened to Badger-taichou, there were at least three of these placed behind what I learned later was one of genin Uzumaki's shadow clones. Badger-taichou was incapacitated by the seals and I had to move to cover him as several more clones burst from the warehouse. We had been warned there might be ninja guarding the location, and given Badger-taichou's condition I had no time to ascertain the true identity of the clone user, only engage the targets." Sarutobi nodded in understanding, but his frown remained even as there was a knock at the door.
"That explains what happened to Badger, but I doubt that even with his clones 2 genin were able to take out Bull and Lizard as well as giving you a rough time..." The Hokage gestured for the ANBU by the door to open it even as Rat shifted uncomfortably once more.
"It wasn't just Genin Uzumaki and Haruno Hokage-sama..." Any further information she was going to give was cut off by the loud and boisterous entrance of the genin in question.
"Kakashi-sensei! We got the teme good this time! Ow, Sakura-chan..." The confident statement ended in a whine as Sakura punched him in the arm, Kakashi getting a proper look at his young charges for the first time since the trial had started.
Sakura had a couple of minor cuts and bruises on her arms, but otherwise the pinkette was the same as she had been before this whole debacle, minus some hair and with the addition of some confidence that came with the kind of fighting they had faced in Wave. Naruto on the other hand seemed to be making it a habit to come back from every mission with more injuries than the rest of the team combined, right arm in a sling and obviously broken and the entire left hand side of his face swollen up to the point Kakashi doubted he could see out of that eye.
"Apologies for my teammates lack of decorum Hokage-sama, honoured Jounin. He might have picked up a concussion from the head injury, which he received whilst we were gathering a group to help us storm the warehouse..." So the swelling wasn't from the fight with the ANBU, interesting.
"Sakura-chan..." Naruto's complaint died in his throat as the girl cast him a pointed look that promised pain if he continued talking, only for the Hokage to chuckle in mild amusement and catch both of them off guard.
"Not to worry Sakura-san, I am quite used to the occasional eccentricity, given some of our more... youthful ninja, Naruto-kun's brashness is almost a pleasantry. Now perhaps you can tell us how Naruto-kun picked up the head injury if it was before the fight at the warehouse?" Kakashi shuddered as Sarutobi's words brought the twinkling smile of his 'eternal rival' to the forefront of his mind's eye.
He was glad to see he wasn't the only one as the bun haired girl who had walked in behind Naruto had the same reaction before raising her hand a little awkwardly.
"That would be my fault Hokage-sama, when Naruto unhenged in front of me, I let my anger get the better of me. I may have decked him in the face... And I may have done it more than once before Sakura could pull me off." Though the girl, Tenten Kakashi remembered now, sounded a little guilty, she was still speaking in a tone that made it very clear that Naruto wasn't off the hook just yet.
"So you were one of the ones that Naruto approached for back up? I feel I must apologise on his behalf, when I learned of the deception he and Kakashi had planned I gave it my approval, so any issues it may have caused were due to mine and Kakashi's orders." The Hokage's words seemed to mollify the girl slightly, though Naruto was still stood stock still in front of her, as if the slightest movement would bring Tenten's wrath down upon him once more.
"And I was asked to round out the team Hokage-sama, just in case there were any higher level ninja involved in defending the warehouse." Kakashi didn't know the identity of the last ninja, but all that meant was that she hadn't served in ANBU or had been part of his generation.
"I am only a little surprised that he asked you for help Chuunin Shimura, I assume that you helped disable our ANBU forces?" At the newly named woman's nod, Sarutobi turned his attention to Naruto once more.
"Now, I will find out the details on this little misunderstanding later, but my last question is to you Naruto. I know your clone dispelled after we discussed the plan, so why were you not prepared for the strike team?" Naruto looked a little affronted at the possible implication it was his fault, before raising his good arm and gesturing at Anko and Ibiki, who had followed in behind the four of them.
"I was expecting those two Jiji!" He flinched as Sakura kicked him again, in what she probably thought was a subtle manner, but didn't back down in his protest.
"When masked ninja start attacking my clones, what else am I meant to do?" It was a good point, but effectively just reinforced the fact that this whole debacle had just been a breakdown in communications.
"True enough, Naruto-kun, I will not press any further and we can clear up any issues after we are done here." The Hokage seemed to realise this as well, dropping the point to allow them to return to the matter at hand, gesturing Shikaku to continue with the hearing.
"So Kakashi, you mentioned something about some ruins in your explanation before, but I have no mention of anything in the report I have been given. Is this one of the things Hokage-sama censored to keep Masori in the dark?" Kakashi nodded even as he thought back, the ruins had been where things had started falling into place, and he had started to understand Naruto's suspicions.
"Yes, Hokage-sama felt some of our discoveries there were too close to implicating our suspicions for Masori to be allowed to read them, so he had me rewrite my report. After Naruto had recovered somewhat from his injuries, I had him send out his shadow clones to scout out all of the island we were on, given Gato's slaving activities I assumed that there would be something nearby that he needed the labour for. I didn't realise at the time however, that labour wasn't the only thing Gato needed bodies for..."
*Flashback*
"How far?" The question was kept short and to the point, Kakashi following Naruto through the woods in the wake of one of his clones.
"About another mile, though the trees should start thinning... now." It amazed Kakashi how different Naruto could be at times like this, all exuberance gone and replaced by a professional facade.
Even when they had been facing Zabuza Naruto had been cheery enough, but since Sakura had been captured the blonde had obviously realised how serious this mission now was. But that was something to consider at another time, the trees thinning out into craggy hillside moments later and causing the two to pause at the treeline, both to scout the area and to allow their 3rd member to catch up.
She arrived a few moments later, Sakura breathing heavily even as she leaned against the tree trunk and grabbed her water bottle, determined to gain some level of respite before they continued onwards. She didn't complain about the pace though, showing she was maintaining the change in attitude that the bandit attack had truly brought out in her those days before.
"Over there Kakashi, their main camp seems to be on this island but their focus seems to be on that little island over there. Why they don't just go to the island directly rather than jury rigging that broken bridge I don't know..." Kakashi would have answered Naruto straight away, but he was too busy staring at the island in shock.
Whilst he had never been to the island itself, the academy history lessons in his childhood focused a lot of attention onto the events linked to it and more importantly, the fates of those who had once called that island home.
"Uzu..." He muttered to himself, getting confused looks from both of his genin before Sakura, ever the font of knowledge, seemed to remember where she had heard that name before...
*Flashback End*
"Nice way to ramp up the suspense Kakashi-sensei..." Kakashi frowned slightly as Naruto's comment took the dramatic wind somewhat out of his sails, even as Choza recovered enough to ask his questions.
"So Gato was interested in the Uzu ruins? My question is why? Konoha search parties, as well as the invading Iwa and Kumo forces, searched that place for anything valuable or retrievable enough times that I doubt even the cockroaches went by unnoticed." Kakashi knew that, after all his sensei had been married to the woman whose clan had been destroyed there, you tended to learn quite a lot of history when that was the case.
"Gato seemed to think there were several parts of the village, which as you know was built into the island, that had been sealed off to prevent the exact type of looting that occurred in the invasion's aftermath. Turns out he was right, which was what he needed the constant supply of slaves for, not only to dig their way into these sealed off areas but to 'disarm' the traps that had been left inside them." The method of using the slaves to disarm the traps had been simple, macabre, but effective nonetheless.
"We took care of the guards, 50 mercenaries and 3 low level missing nin were nothing, now that Naruto had his tags and I had mostly recovered. Sakura provided ranged support as well as dealing with any that slipped past us whilst me and Naruto mopped up. There were dozens of slaves kept in special holding pens at the main camp on the bridge. From what they said, every day the guards would take 3 or 4 of them across the bridge, separately to the others who were then escorted to work on the tunnels. None of those chosen ever returned, but given the number of bodies Naruto and I found in some of the tunnels we investigated, this has been going on for a long time."
Some of those bodies, killed by more conventional blade traps as opposed to acid or fires which was the case with some of the deeper traps, had decomposed to the point that they were little more than skeletons. Shikaku nodded in understanding, seeming to understand that this had not been the nicest or easiest of experiences for Naruto or Sakura to deal with.
"So you cleared the ruins and freed the slaves, preventing any further looting by Gato as well as dealing with some of his forces. Did you investigate the ruins beyond merely clearing them? I can imagine with the sealing off these areas might still have useful items or jutsu that we cannot allow to fall into enemy hands." Kakashi shook his head, the idea had occurred to him, but despite Naruto's insistence there were bigger concerns for him to deal with at the time.
"Naruto wished to investigate further, which is understandable given his family's heritage, as well as his ability to negate most of the traps with his clones. But we had already left Tazuna-san and his family exposed, with only Sasuke defending Tazuna whilst a few dozen of Naruto's clones guarded his family, so I did the only logical thing I could do in the circumstances."
*Flashback*
"But sensei, why are we sealing the entrances back up again?" Naruto's tone was almost despondent as he questioned their course of action, but to his credit the young genin went through the hand seals Kakashi had taught him nevertheless, a wall of earth rising from the ground moments after Naruto slammed his hands into the ground.
"Your earth wall technique really is improving remarkably quickly Naruto, though given you have had half a dozen clones practicing it that isn't really a surprise I suppose. And the reason we are sealing this up is simple. Would you want to risk one of the villagers accidentally coming this way and ending up amongst those traps?" That or someone as unscrupulous as Gato coming back and trying the same thing after they had left, but Kakashi tried to focus on the positive guilt trips he used.
"*sigh* No Kakashi-sensei, but what do we do with the Konoha corpses we found?"
*Flashback End*
Kakashi's retelling was brought to an abrupt stop as Shikaku interrupted him, the normally stoic and passive ninja obviously irritated at the missing information.
"What corpses are you so casually mentioning now Kakashi? There have never been any Konoha ninja lost in exploring Uzu." Reaching into his pouch and activating one of the standard storage seals there, Kakashi grasped the trio of items that appeared in his hand and placed them reverently on the table in front of him.
"Chuunin Goza Nutoda, Chuunin Rias Akedo and Genin Himura, all identified by the shinobi tags. And you are right Shikaku-san, we never lost a ninja at Uzu. I will let Naruto explain..." The Konoha corpses had been the point where Kakashi had found out about Naruto's clones in the village, Naruto offering to inform the Hokage the bodies had been found as well as the news about Uzu.
"After we gathered the ninja's personal belongings and had built a basic pyre, I thought it would be a good idea to let you know we had found them Jiji. I didn't think Himura-san had a family, given his lack of a last name, but if the others did I thought they would want to know. When I told Kakashi that I could contact you by clone, that was when he asked me to check something for him before I did so." Kakashi had his suspicions about how the dead ninja had ended up here and had told Naruto about the logs, where every ninja's basic information, current and past, could be accessed quickly and easily.
"When my clone checked, having henged into Iruka-sensei to avoid any questions about how I was back in Konoha, the results weren't good." Kakashi nodded and took over the talking once more, gesturing at the tags.
"The two chuunin were put as MIA after disappearing on a routine patrol a year ago, there weren't enough specifics to the exact region but that means they were taken in the Land of Fire. Himura-san went missing in Konoha itself less than 6 months ago, and his body or any trace of where he went was never found." Until now of course, Kakashi thought to himself as the three judges all looked troubled at the new information.
"With this information that at least one of the ninja had been taken from within our own village, Naruto broached to me the suspicions that I know he has already made some of you aware of, that he suspected there were people in the village aiding abductions and kidnappings. He hadn't known that they were even taking some of our ninja, but given what we had found I couldn't help but agree with him." Kakashi knew that he would get in trouble at this point, and he wasn't disappointed as the Hokage spoke up once more with an air of disappointment in his voice.
"And yet, when Naruto-kun's clone came to see me to inform me of the difficulties on your mission, there was no mention of these three ninja. And given the sheepish look on his face, I doubt that Naruto withheld that information from me on his own accord. Perhaps you can explain why Kakashi?" Kakashi decided to be honest rather than try and talk his way out of it, always the best way when dealing with someone like a Kage.
"Honestly, it was just to prevent any possible leak that could have occurred Hokage-sama. If you had known about the corpses there and then, you would probably have assembled much more of a strike team than you actually did send, and any of them could have been a potential problem if Masori had bribed them." The Hokage didn't seem happy about being left out of the loop, but seemed to appreciate Kakashi's logic.
"So I sent you a team of chuunin and one Jounin the next day, to help secure the bridge builder against Zabuza, as well as to deal with Gato one way or another. But by the time they arrived, two days after Naruto's message, they were only able to pick up the pieces as it were, given Zabuza's attack on the bridge that morning." The dense mist as they had arrived on the bridge that morning still gave Kakashi the slightest of shivers up his spine, Zabuza's moniker definitely well earned.
"Indeed, I think they are still in wave, to allow Tazuna to finish the bridge in peace. It will probably take him a while longer given the damage that we did..."
*Flashback*
The mist on the bridge was the first sign that Kakashi had been correct with his guess, Gato had obviously told Zabuza to hurry up after the events with Naruto two days before. The other bridge workers were down, but surprisingly still breathing, as Kakashi picked out four figures stood at the incomplete end of the bridge.
"Kakashi-san, I think it is time you hand over the bridge builder now, unless you want someone to get hurt..." The fact that Zabuza was going to kill Tazuna made the offer kind of redundant, at least from a people getting hurt point of view, but Kakashi was instead trying to work out how to deal with Zabuza, the demon brothers and the fake hunter-nin with only two genin.
"No blonde brat to save you this time, was he too scared to come and face me again?" Kakashi wished that he had gone with his original plan, leaving Sakura to guard Tsunami and Inari, as he could utilise Naruto's clones and talents right now.
But Naruto had been quite adamant that if Zabuza had sent someone after Tazuna's family, then he would be best equipped out of the three genin to defend them and get them away safely, a point that Kakashi couldn't really dispute. Sakura would struggle against any of the ninja, and whilst Sasuke was capable enough, he didn't really have much in terms of defensive abilities.
"Naruto-kun decided that him coming along would tilt the scales a little too much in our favour." A bit of pre-battle taunting never hurt, and it might give him an advantage if one of the four lost their cool, so Kakashi decided to carry on with his little taunt.
"I mean, he has fooled 3 of the 4 of you here, and defeated two of you almost by himself. I think his exact comment was, 'I don't want to have to beat down those poor demon kittens again, after all being beaten once by a fresh genin is bad enough'." The KI coming off the demon brothers increased dramatically at the obvious insult, and even Zabuza's confident smirk faded a little, hefting his sword to his shoulder and forming the one handed handsign he used for water clones.
"Well, he might be the only one of your team to survive today then, your legend ends here Kakashi, Water clone technique!" A dozen water clones appeared in front of Zabuza, readying their weapons whilst the demon brothers prepared their chain with almost sadistic eagerness. Suddenly there was a whistling through the air, Zabuza suddenly having to grab an arrow that had been aimed at his chest, a mocking call coming from behind and above Kakashi who couldn't help but breathe a slight sigh of relief.
"You didn't really think I would miss out on our rematch did you, compensation-san?" It took a moment for what Naruto was implying to sink in, before surprisingly the fake hunter-nin giggled, Zabuza snapping the arrow in half in rage.
"I will kill you painfully brat, and then I will go find your mother and show her exactly how much I am not compensating, I am sure the whore will love it..." Kakashi winced, Naruto had always been touchy about his parents, and a wave of KI washed over the field even as Naruto landed with a thud just behind and to the right of Kakashi.
"Kai." The release call from Naruto surprised everyone, Zabuza's eyes widening as he saw the arrow haft light up from a moment before exploding violently, dispersing some of the mist with the shockwave only to replace it with the acrid smoke that came with such explosions.
"Nice opening move brat, unfortunate that it wasn't nearly good enough..." Kakashi had to disagree on that, whilst Zabuza and the fake hunter-nin seemed to have escaped with little more than singed clothing, 4 of the water clones had been dispersed and the two horned Demon brother had a piece of wood shrapnel the size of Kakashi's thumb in his left shoulder.
"My opening move? I don't think you get it teme, that was just because you insulted my Kaa-chan..." At the rather ominous statement Naruto pulsed his chakra, something that Kakashi caught because of the close proximity to the boy, as well as the amount of chakra that pulsed from him.
"Now this... I think I am happy calling this one my opening move..." The whistling sound became audible once more, but this time it was much louder, the four missing nin widening their eyes as suddenly dozens of arrows began to pepper their part of the bridge...
"Flashback End*
"Kage Bushin I presume? Though I can't imagine that you or your clones would be accurate enough with a bow, certainly not to actually take out one of your enemies, regardless of the number of them you had positioned." Shikaku was obviously impressed by the move nevertheless, Naruto shrugging before jumping in and allowing Kakashi a bit of a break.
"Of course, but that wasn't the point Nara-san." Kakashi couldn't help but smile as both members of the cheat team raised an eyebrow at this, though the Hokage seemed to have caught on to what Naruto's rather impromptu plan was.
"Ears still ringing from the explosion, not able to see more than 5 feet in front of them due to their own technique and at risk of being caught by a lucky shot, even an inexperienced archer is dangerous to the enemy in those conditions. But weren't you meant to be watching Tazuna's family Naruto-kun?" The Hokage already knew what had happened there, he had the report after all, but that didn't mean he couldn't question Naruto's judgement.
"Hai, I left three dozen clones once my scout clone confirmed that all four of our enemies were on the bridge, anything short of another jounin wasn't going to get in there easily without Tsunami and Inari being able to escape. Can we finish up soon Jiji, I haven't eaten since yesterday..." A muttered 'baka' came from Sakura at this, but the Hokage nodded in agreement.
"Well, how about you fill us in about how your battle went against the fake-hunter nin Naruto, we have the reports on the other two fights after your first attack." Naruto nodded and Kakashi knew that he was probably finished with this review now, everything else about this meeting rested on Naruto now.
Nami Bridge
Persona: Naruto
Dropping his bow, as he really wouldn't want it weighing him down in the coming fight, Naruto instead drew the katana he had appropriated off one of the ronin as the two sides shot towards each other. Zabuza had been forced to disperse his hidden mist technique so that he and the others could dodge the arrows that were still impacting around them as they moved in, removing whatever advantage the mist ninja might have had from the restrictive conditions. He formed the handseal to create some more clones to help, only for his danger sense to go off, forcing him to dodge three senbon thrown expertly in his direction by the fake hunter-nin.
"Apologies Konoha-san, but I do not think Zabuza-sama wants any more interference in this fight than there is already." Slightly wary due to the hunter-nin's polite tone, Naruto readied himself even as Sasuke engaged the demon brothers and Kakashi traded blows with Zabuza.
"No offence fake hunter-san, but what the teme wants doesn't matter in the slightest to me right now, I am still pissed off with him for his insults about my Kaa-san." Whilst he had never met, or even known who his Kaa-san was, Naruto was fervent in his belief that she had been a wonderful person, and anyone who said otherwise was in for a beating.
"So whilst Kakashi has dibs on Zabuza, I will just have to put up with beating the crap out of you instead." And with that he shot forwards, katana blade slicing through the senbon that the hunter-nin had brought up to block and causing her to dodge backwards hastily with a light cut to her shoulder. Knowing that she was probably a superior opponent, as well as one whose skills were almost unknown to him, Naruto did his best to press his advantage in close quarters.
"You do realise that I can keep this up all day right?" His comment was probably a rather weak jab at the fact the hunter nin was on the back foot, dodging and ducking even as her hands kept trying to form handseals. Then she blocked his next strike with a kunai, presumably from her equipment pouch, and Naruto realised he might have been slightly over confident with his previous statement.
"I wouldn't worry about all day Konoha-san, this fight ends now." Noticing the three handseals the fake hunter nin flashed through with her free hand, Naruto pulsed his chakra slightly even as the water around them rose up to form hundreds of needles pointed directly at him.
The clone he had signalled to replace him was slightly slow, two of the needles grazing him before his vision shifted, back on top of one of the cranes Tazuna had been using to help construct the bridge. Seeing as his opponent had brought out a jutsu now, Naruto felt it only far that he respond in kind.
"Kage bushin no jutsu!" Dozens of clones appeared around him, leaping off the crane with a cry, even as the fake hunter ninja raced towards where Tazuna and Sakura were standing. Signalling to a couple of the clones he had left up here for this precise reason, a couple of hand signs later and Sakura and Tazuna appeared in a poof of smoke, just in time for the two clones to get peppered with senbon.
"Stay here Sakura-chan, things might get messy from here on in." Sakura nodded, obviously much less affected by the forced switch than she had been last time, but before he could leap off she gave him a quick hug.
"Be safe baka, and keep an eye on Sasuke too." No suffix on the Uchiha's name, man she must still be pissed about what he said, the night she moved out of her parents house.
"Of course Sakura-chan, when am I not?" Before she had a chance to get annoyed at his flamboyant attitude Naruto had leapt of the crane, sword at the ready, his clones already engaging the fake hunter-nin and allowing him to help Sasuke, who was struggling against the demon brothers.
To be fair to the young Uchiha, given the rank and numerical difference he was doing really well, but a little help would probably not go... Naruto paused there as he suddenly saw one of the demon brothers grab Sasuke in a grapple, his superior strength ensuring the boy couldn't break out of it, the other demon brother appearing behind Sasuke, ready to gut him with his claw. No time to think, Naruto braced himself as he performed a move that would definitely have Sakura pissed with him after this was all finished, if he survived at all.
Swapping places with two people was much harder than swapping places with one, the effort disorientating Naruto even as he tried to dodge the claw unsuccessfully. One of the two claw points buried itself deep in his left side, though the change in target threw the demon brother off long enough for Naruto to bury his katana deep into the man's dominant shoulder, his claw arm going limp even as he dodged backwards.
"Teme, not that it will help you with our poison running through your veins." The demon brother obviously did not realise who he was dealing with, Naruto chuckling raggedly even as he spoke mentally to his previously unappreciated back up.
"Kyuubi-san, would you kindly give me a hand with that? I want to teach these guys not to underestimate a future Hokage." There was a deep rumbling laugh for a moment, before his chakra surged with the addition of the Kyuubi's, the fox speaking a moment later and making it's price clear.
"Demon Brothers, pah. Time to show them who the real demon is wouldn't you say?" Whilst not appreciating the 'demon' being aimed at himself, Naruto decided that was something they could agree on later. With the pain in his side smothered by the Kyuubi's chakra, and the look of shock and slight fear on the demon brothers face obvious even behind his breathing mask, Naruto grinned before pointing his katana at him once more.
"I don't think you should be worried about what you have done to me kitten-san." Allowing some of the Kyuubi's chakra to his eyes for a moment, Naruto knew his eyes had shifted to add to the effect even as he finished.
"I think you should be more worried about what I am going to do to you!" That level of intimidation was more fun than Naruto had thought it was going to be, the man panicking slightly, as he blocked Naruto's Katana strike with his claw.
Naruto's attempt to finish the man off quickly was delayed slightly by the sudden attack of the other Demon Brother from behind him. Taking a moment to compose himself, his clones memories showing that Sasuke was now engaging the fake hunter-nin who had destroyed nearly all of his clones, Naruto put the katana in his mouth for a moment.
Putting his hands together, Naruto smirked as the demon brothers charged forwards, the two having been too wary after his initial attack therefore giving him the space to perform his jutsu. He couldn't speak the technique's name properly, but clones appeared around him regardless, engaging the demon brothers in a whirlwind of steel...
Review room, Konoha-
"You really need to learn some other techniques Naruto." The comment from Sakura made everyone in the courtroom smile, Naruto doing his best not to rise to the bait and instead responding in his best drawling manner.
"Not my fault Kakashi-sensei hasn't taught us anything but the tree climbing technique and my work on seals Sakura-chan. It's not like ninja techniques of D-rank and above are just lying around for us to learn." Naruto noticed that this comment made Jiji's smile fade a little before he spoke.
"We will discuss Kakashi's training later Naruto-kun, for now let's just finish the hearing. From Sasuke's report, you defeated the Demon brothers and moved to help him against the fake hunter-nin, using your tags I imagine?" Naruto nodded, glad to skip over what had been a fairly quick and easy fight, guiding the Demon Brothers to where his clones had put his take out tags and taking them out in one move wasn't what he would call 'fun' ninja fighting.
"Hai, by that point Sasuke was trapped inside a set of ice blocks and really struggling, so I tried to help from the outside. Long story short, hunter-nin pulled me inside when I tried to tag the ice blocks with a mixture of tags, we fought until Sasuke went and 'died' whilst protecting me from the rain of senbon." Whilst he now knew Sasuke had survived, it still hurt on a deep level to lose someone due to his failures, even if it was a jerk like Sasuke.
"I lost control at that point, went into my beserker rage and completely destroyed my opponent..."
Nami Bridge-
This time, Naruto hadn't been forced to his mindscape as his feral instincts clawed their way to the surface, but that didn't make seeing himself in this state any easier. The fact that he was leaking Kyuubi's chakra again made him even more nervous, but at the same time it could be the chakra was the thing allowing him some level of control, even if it was minor at best.
"An interesting technique, utterly usel..." The hunter-nin's comments were cut off, as Naruto identified her location because of it, charging forwards with a speed that dwarfed his normal movement.
Lowering his shoulder and bracing himself, Naruto slammed into the ice block and unleashed a spike of chakra from the impact point. Kyuubi's chakra didn't hurt him, that much he was grateful for, but released as a lance of energy it was able to disintegrate the ice in it's path. The damage to the block was then brought to breaking point by the impact of his body, causing it to shatter into seven different pieces.
The wide eyes of the fake hunter-nin, as she pulled herself out of the largest of the broken pieces, brought a savage grin to his face even as she tried to get away and back into another mirror. Grabbing her ankle, Naruto roared in anger as he pulled her away from the mirrors and threw her against the side of the bridge, her body impacting with a heavy crack that caused her to stiffen in shock and pain. Striding forwards, Naruto started to panic as he knew his body was about to try and finish the job, despite the fact he had defeated his opponent by breaking her leg like that.
Luckily/unluckily, even as Naruto did his best to take back control of his body, the sound of movement from behind him made his body turn and raise it's katana in a block with one hand. The blade of the katana shattered moments later as Kubikiribocho slammed through it, only Naruto's other hand grabbing the base of the cleaver with all it's might with the fraction of a second the block bought him stopping him from being chopped in half right there and then.
"You will not touch her again brat, I doubt even you can shrug this off." Zabuza's surprisingly emotional promise was very nearly lost on Naruto, who was dealing with the fact that he had a giant metal sword now embedded 8 inches into his right shoulder, shattering bones and ribs that it had encountered on the way.
"I will tell you right now gaki, even with my help there is no way you are going to be combat capable for the next few days, let alone in this fight." No, really, Naruto thought a little harshly as the pain dulled by the berserker state grew to frightening levels moments later.
The next minute Zabuza jumped away, a furious Kakashi swinging at him with an arm covered in lightning, Kubikiribocho left in him due to the grip he had on the blade when Zabuza had to dodge. The full weight of the blade overbalanced him and he fell, unashamedly screaming in pain as the blade was dislodged from his shoulder, causing even more damage on it's way out in all likelihood.
The only good thing Naruto thought bitterly, vision spinning as he did his best to stay conscious, was that the wound had been severe enough to break him out of his berserker state. Otherwise he really could have killed himself trying to keep fighting, not that he would be any more use than Tazuna like he was now.
"Well, well, well, now we see what the vaunted 'demon' is actually capable of..." Naruto wasn't sure if he had actually blacked out for a few minutes or whether the pain was masking his senses, but the weedy voice he didn't recognise could only belong to one person.
"Gato, what are you doing here, I have things under control." Opening his eyes as Zabuza called out angrily, Naruto was surprised to see Sakura kneeling next to him, pressing a bandage onto the front of his wound desperately, three clones stood around him warily and one holding his katana to the throat of the fake hunter-nin.
"Really? Because the way I see it, three of your men are down and you are disarmed, and judging by the fact the Konoha ninja are still fighting Tazuna is still alive. So you have completed neither the original objective I asked you to complete, or the bonus I offered after the ninja set back my operations here. One would almost think I was right in bringing these fine gentlemen along to get me some... negotiation power..." Turning his head to look down the bridge, Naruto saw at least a hundred men stood behind the small portly man who had been speaking, ragtag arms and armour showing that he had definitely taken the cream of the crop out earlier in the weak.
The only exception were the three obvious ninja at the front of the group, dressed in kirigakure gear and masks, as well as the two ronin further back who were stood in front of a familiar figure.
"Tsunami!" Tazuna's cry from on top of the crane drew everyone's attention to him, causing Gato's grin to widen further even as Zabuza snarled.
"You double crossing bastard!" Gato looked actually affronted by this and gestured to the three mist hunter ninja.
" As I promised. Kill Zabuza and Tazuna and you get to take him back for whatever bounty you can get for his head, and you get an extra 10,000 for each of the Konoha brats you kill. Other than the pinky, I want her alive." With the situation looking grim most people would have panicked, but Naruto merely nodded to the clone in front of him, he could take charge of this bit.
The clone heft his katana and strode purposefully into the middle of the bridge, the mist ninja watching him warily even as Gato backed up to where Tsunami was being held. Even as Gato opened his mouth, probably to threaten the clone or to tell the mist ninja to attack, Naruto's clone caught Tsunami's eye and mouthed 'boom' to her. Suddenly smiling a very uncharacteristic grin on her face, Tsunami's hands shot into the release seal too quickly for the ronin to stop her, a flash of chakra from the clone preempting the explosion that shook the bridge a moment later.
How many the last 10 of Naruto's explosive tags had taken out, and more importantly what state it had left the rest of the ambushing force in Naruto didn't know, but as the Naruto clones in the trees began to rain arrows onto the target area of the explosion, it wasn't as if he could physically do anymore. Despite Sakura's attempts to keep him awake by talking/shouting at him, Naruto allowed unconsciousness to claim him at last, the pain fading away into the comforting darkness once more...
Konoha Hearing Room
Persona-Kakashi
"A shadow clone henged into a target and covered in explosive tags, a risky but clever gamble to say the least. I assume your other clones that were at the house were to let any non-ninja through to 'capture' their target?" Naruto nodded at Shikaku's question/statement and Kakashi decided to step in once more, to move the hearing along and to get to the crunch point of the meeting.
"From what Naruto told me afterwards, Sakura thought that Gato might try something like kidnapping again given what he had tried at the markets, and whilst I didn't approve or know of the plan it definitely saved our collective asses then. Between the first two volleys of the clone archers and the explosion Naruto had taken out one of the hunter ninja, both ronin and nearly all of the mercenaries, not to mention Gato himself. Whilst both Zabuza and I were rather tired from our previous fight, we are both elite jounin for a reason and we were more than capable of dealing with the remaining two hunter ninja." The tribunal seemed to understand why he didn't want to go into details, Sakura and Naruto had been traumatised enough by this damn mission.
"But if Zabuza was still alive and in decent fighting shape after dealing with Gato, how did you end up bringing home his sword?" The question from Chouza was the one that Kakashi had been expecting, so he simply eye smiled before trying to pull off his most blase tone.
"Because I asked him nicely?" Seeing the Hokage's stoney visage quickly made Kakashi change his mind and spoke seriously once more.
"It was one of my conditions to letting him and his group leave alive, not only did he give me the information I needed on the location of Gato's main headquarters, but he also had the fake hunter-nin called Haku treat Sasuke and Naruto for their injuries until backup arrived. In return I agreed to let him have a proportion of the money in Gato's HQ, more than enough to cover what he had been promised and to get treatment for their injuries, but also to publicly claim he had been killed by Gato's men, which was another claim that the sword would help with." Given the state of his people, along with the wounds he had sustained fighting Kakashi and the hunter-nin, Zabuza definitely did not need any more of Kiri's hunter nin showing up anytime soon.
As the other option would have been to fight to the death, which whilst Kakashi had the advantage was always risky, so better not to risk it given the other concerns he had at the time.
"Wait, so Haku-chan was the fake hunter-nin? You told me she was a passing healer Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's outburst broke the tension in the room slightly and thankfully the Hokage seemed to understand and approve of his choice to negotiate with the man.
"It was when some of Naruto's clones, the ones he created before he was injured, and I searched Gato's house that we found the information about Masori, or more specifically his caravans. Though there were repeated logs of the caravans and the goods arriving into Wave on Gato transports, there was never any storage space assigned to them, nor were the goods ever removed and sent on from there. Not definitive proof of course, which was when I asked Naruto and Sakura to perform their little deception, so that we could investigate Masori's own information for other evidence."
"And in doing so you have opened up a can of worms that will take some time for us to deal with; not a bad thing Kakashi-san but it does mean that we will need to focus on dealing with that for the moment rather than coming to a decision today. That, and we will need reports and witness statements from our new source of information before we pass judgement." Not all good, but nothing particularly hinting at a damning result from the Jounin Nara quite yet at least, which was a good start.
"Indeed, I think we will reconvene in two days to give you our decision Kakashi. In the meantime, as you definitely owe him this, why don't you take Naruto and the others out to Ichikaru's? Then you can get the list of people who will need to know that Naruto isn't in fact dead, and you can tell them for him, then at least Naruto will be unlikely to end up with another memento like Tenten-chan there gave him." The girl in question blushed to the roots of her hair, even as Naruto turned and smiled at her in an obvious attempt to stop her feeling bad about it.
"I think he has to survive the Ichikaru's first Hokage-jiji, and me as well if they try and ban me from ramen for it. Oh, actually, looks like Yugao-chan has first dibs..." Judging by the fact that Naruto was looking over his shoulder, along with the icy feeling that came with intense killing intent, Kakashi knew that he would have to polish up on his charm and negotiation skills very quickly to survive the next few minutes, let alone the evening...
A/N: Wave is done! By the gods that was hard work. So of course lots of changes from canon at this point, the foremost being the location of Uzu in Nami. Now whether or not this is canonical, it fit and therefore will be canon in my story. It also allows me to believe that Uzu actually operated through the ports in Wave country for the most part, saving their own fleet and docks for emergencies behind the Whirlpools that gave the village it's name.
Also having a bridge surrounded by a seemingly insurmountable defence is a much better tactic on the whole than just whirlpools all around. Not only will your enemy tend to focus on trying to storm the bridge rather than spend much time and effort trying to cross the whirlpools, but it minimises the points of potential attack down to that one entrance. Anyways, I am sure I will find out more about what people think about this idea shortly...
Naruto and a bow, why not? Allows him to use his clones at long range, once his accuracy is up he will be able to cause quite the bit of chaos with it, and there is the possibility of strengthening the bow using seals or different wood to increase the draw strength dramatically.
Anything else you want to talk about leave a review, I have also tried to move the chapter towards my new writing style, instead of the terrible one I used to have when i started writing this story.
IMPORTANT: Does anyone actually care if I continue this story? The views for the last chapter I posted are tiny and given the popularity of my newer fics, I am thinking of putting this story to sleep. If you don't want that to happen, let me know.