Chapter Five
Heyo! Welcome to the fifth chapter kiddos! It's time! I've been rolling without my beta sour sensei, he's busy trying not to die, so please go easy on me for any mistakes. Love y'all and I'm super surprised at how well this story is doing, hope y'all continue to love it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does. If I did, Sakura would be slightly less useless.
Kakashi and his team were currently making their way down a road. Client in tow, they were in route to the Land of Waves. Tazuna the bridge builder had requested a C-rank escort mission to his home country. Located south of the Land of Fire, the Land of Waves needed Tazuna to complete his bridge to increase trade opportunities.
Naruto was walking alongside Sasuke at the front of the group, when he noticed a puddle. It hadn't rained in weeks. "Oh come on that's just fuckin sloppy. Who does that." Naruto thought. Clearing his throat he said to Sasuke, "you're a fuckin scrub you know that right? You couldn't even use my water jutsu properly when you tried."
Sasuke got the message loud and clear, having noticed the puddle himself. "Fuck you Uzumaki."
The puddle came to life, as two nin burst from it wrapping Kakashi in their chain, and then splitting him in half. "One down!" The nin said in unison. A lightning bolt courtesy of Sasuke's lightning pistol jutsu hit home on their chain, shocking both of the nin and forcing the to detach from each other.
Sakura sped through hand seals and called out, "Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu!" Dragging herself and Tazuna underground and out of the way. The two nin engaged in combat with Naruto and Sasuke.
Locking kunai with Naruto, one of the nin growled. Naruto responded in kind with the addition of "what kind of idiot scrub are you! That was the worst plan I've ever seen!" The nin growled again and launched back away from the golden haired boy. The Jinchūriki threw a hail of kunai at the nin, who batted some out of the way with his gauntlet, and dodged the last four. Only for the kunai that was closest to him directly behind his back to suddenly become Naruto, who kicked the nin into the air.
Sasuke on the other hand got caught up in hand to hand with the second nin. The nin who's experience was giving him the upper hand, got over confident and left a opening that the Uchiha gladly exploited, kicking him hard enough to crack his ribs. Sasuke shot away from the nin and flew through hand seals, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower jutsu!" spitting a volley of small fireballs at his opponent it was enough to light the man's cloak on fire.
Throwing his cloak from his body he prepared to re-engage with the Uchiha when he saw his brother fall from the sky.
"Uzumaki Hammer!" Naruto yelled after punching the man hard enough in the face to break his nose, the man landed face up on the ground only to meet a kunai through the heart as the blond substituted with one of his kunai still on the ground. Naruto looked at the dead nin and immediately shifted his attention to Sasuke.
"Meizu! You fuck! I'm gonna kill you!" The nin was enraged.
A voice came from behind as the ring of a kunai handle impacted the back of his skull, knocking him out. "You let your guard down," came Sasuke's disappointed tone.
"Wow! Well done kiddies! You can come up now Sakura!" Kakashi called out to his genin.
Sakura bust from the ground, Tazuna in tow. The old bridge builder looked at the jounin and said, "wait a minute! Didn't you just die!?"
"I used a substitution, I am a jounin after all, but most importantly I had to see if they were after me for my bounty. Or after you. Start talking Tazuna. Right now." Kakashi's tone hardened into a firm command.
"Right yes I'm sorry!" He dropped to his hands and knees. "Our village is too poor to pay for anything above a C-rank mission. It took everything we had to scrounge up that much money."
"In that case you should have explained your situation to our Hokage. He would have gladly made a deal with your country. Now why are there missing nin after you?" Kakashi said to the old drunk.
The man sobbed and said, "the truth is there's a super dangerous man after me, you may have heard of him, his name is Gato."
"Gato?" Kakashi asked slightly surprised, "as in the shipping magnate? What could he possibly want with you?"
"He took over the Land of Waves with his company, he effectively ruined the economy. And we're bankrupt. Building my bridge would kickstart the economy again and his company wouldn't be able to keep hold of us anymore." He sobbed loudly, "please you have to help me!"
"Standard procedure states that we return to the village at once." The jounin said. "This mission is no longer a C-rank and by that right your contract is null and void."
"Ah I see…" the bridge builder replied. "I guess Gato's thugs will just kill me and my super cute daughter and grandson will cry for weeks, and my super cute grandson will grow up hating Konoha forever." He sobbed out.
The whole team shared one thought, "this is a grown man?" But still all looked at each other. Kakashi turned to his genin. And asked, "this is no longer a mission you have to do. Any of you can turn around and go back to the village. This mission could very well be your last. I can't order you to go so what's it gonna be?"
"Say sensei, as Konoha shinobi, don't we take it upon ourselves to help anyone in need, even more so than the other great villages? So to hold up our values and the will of fire, I'm going to go save that village. With or without you sir." Naruto voiced his reply.
"Hn." Sasuke grunted. "I have to make sure this idiot doesn't die or get all the credit."
"If they're in, then I'm in too sensei! We're a team!" Sakura said with enthusiasm.
"Alright then so be it, let's move out." The former ANBU said.
"Right!"
"Thank you Ken. I know you stuck your neck out for me this time." The old bridge builder said to the fisherman as the team dismounted the boat.
"Yeah no problem, just get that bridge built." With that the fisherman floated away.
"Alrighty! It's not too long of a walk to the main village. I'll lead you there!" Tazuna said with a bit more enthusiasm than he had shown the whole way here.
As they walked along Naruto immediately sensed the large chakra signature, responding in kind Naruto took Tazuna and Sakura to the ground a full eight seconds before Kakashi even yelled "get down!"
A massive sword flew through the air above them where their heads had been. The sword imbedded itself into a tree and a man appeared on top of it. With bandages covering his face, his carved Kiri forehead protector sideways upon his head, and brandishing camouflage pants, Momochi Zabuza stood before Team Seven. He then proceeded to give them a taste of real killing intent.
Kakashi spoke first, "Momochi Zabuza, A-ranked missing nin from Kirigakure. Also known as the Demon of Kirigakure." Uncovering his left eye, revealing his Sharingan, Kakashi continued. "I'll need this to deal with you!"
"Hatake Kakashi…or Kakashi of the Sharingan. I'm honored." Zabuza said.
"You three! Stay back and protect Tazuna with your lives! Stay out of this fight." The legendary jounin ordered.
"It's useless to have them protect him." Zabuza said channeling all of his killing intent at the three genin. Sasuke began to lift his kunai toward his throat.
"It's over, I'm done for! I might as well just get it over with." Sasuke thought under the immense pressure of Zabuza's killing intent.
"Sasuke! Stop! I'll protect you all with my life! I won't let my comrades die." Kakashi said reassuringly.
"Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Zabuza yelled.
Zabuza suddenly appeared inside the circle of genin, aiming to cleave their heads off along with Tazuna's with a single swing. Just as the genin thought it was all over Kakashi's hand ran through the mans chest, kunai firmly in his grip. Zabuza's body turned into a pool of water, Zabuza appearing behind the copy nin and cleaving him in half only for him to turn to water himself. Kakashi appeared behind the missing nin. "It's over Momochi."
Before Kakashi could strike a second Mist nin appeared behind him throwing him into the nearby lake. As the copy nin came to the surface he was trapped in the swordsman's water prison jutsu. "Naruto! Take our team and run! This fight was over the minute I got caught. His water clones can't go far from his body, so run!" Kakashi yelled at the genin, then thought to himself, "looks like I've failed once again…. sensei."
Three of Zabuza's water clones made their way towards the genin.
"Pffft! As if! A ninja who abandons his comrades is worse than scum! And I'm most definitely not scum! I won't run! Not now! Not ever!" Naruto shouted. "Sasuke! Combo five formation B!"
"Got it!" The Uchiha yelled in retort.
"Just what the hell are they doing?!" Thought the copycat nin.
Secretly under Kakashi's nose the two boys had been meeting for three hours at midnight to practice combat plans, have spars, and try to perfect their first collaboration jutsu. Naruto and Sasuke dashed to opposite sides of the clearing as twelve perfect copies of Naruto ran at Zabuza from where he and Sasuke had been standing. "This brats gonna try to use academy clones on me! What and idiot." The bandaged man laughed aloud, but his eyes widened upon watching one of the clones pull a kunai out and wreck one of his water clones. The other two of the mist nin's clones quickly neutralized the Naruto clones. Zabuza's eyes widened again when he saw they were water clones. Sasuke burst from the trees on the right side of the clearing running at the missing nin kunai drawn.
"No Sasuke! Keep your distance!" Kakashi yelled. But it was too late, and the missing nin clone cleaved Sasuke in half only for him to revert to a Naruto Clone that then dissolved into water. Kakashi's eyes widened as they had many time before, "what absolute brilliance! Naruto is a wonderful strategist!"
At the same moment the clone was split in half, Naruto and Sasuke burst from the tree line on the left flying through hand seals in unison. They then both fired off said jutsu. They called out in perfect sync as they had done hundreds of times before.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
The wind boosted the fireball's speed and doubled its size as the jutsu barreled toward the two water clones, which were instantly evaporated from the immense heat. Suddenly a fuma shuriken burst from the fireball straight at the real Zabuza's head, he caught the offending object and was about to taunt the boys when he saw a second shuriken that had been hidden in the first shuriken's shadow. Zabuza promptly jump over the secondary. "Not bad for rookies! But still not enough!" At that moment the shuriken behind him turned into Naruto who tossed a kunai at the mans head. The missing nin moved his head quickly to the side and watched the knife move past him, only for it to suddenly become Naruto's sandal courtesy of the boy's kunai substitution, and Zabuza subsequently ate shoe and was forced to release Kakashi. The copy nin immediately threw Naruto away from the two nin and back to shore.
"Excellent work boys! I'll take it from here." Kakashi called to his genin. Copying and flashing through hand seals Kakashi and Zabuza both let off a jutsu.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
The two jutsu collided and cancelled each other out. The two high level ninja would duke it out for another ten minutes before finally both launched back and began to speed through hand seals once again. This time Kakashi was faster thanks to a Sharingan Genjutsu he had placed on Zabuza to make his movements more sluggish. Zabuza gasped, "can you see the future?!"
"Yes," said the copy ninja, "and your future is death." He let loose his jutsu, "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" Which smashed into Zabuza with extreme force. Kakashi made his way to the mist nin's broken and beaten body, preparing a kunai to finish the job when a Kirigakure hunter-nin appeared as several sebon impaled Zabuza's neck.
"Thank you. I've been tracking him for some time now."
Kakashi eyed the hunter-nin, "I want to make sure he's dead if that's alright?
"By all means Copy nin Kakashi." The hunter replied. The battered jounin leaned down and felt for Zabuza's pulse. Finding none, and completely exhausted Kakashi let the nin take off with the body before turning to his genin.
"You all did well I'm very pr-..." Kakashi passed out, and in a quick burst of speed Naruto caught his teacher.
"Old man Tazuna! Take us to your home!" Naruto ordered.
Startled Tazuna reigned himself in and quickly replied, "oh right! Yes! Right away follow me!"
As the group made their way to the bridge builders house, Naruto spoke up. "Hey S'ke?"
"What is it loser?"
"Thanks for the help. I definitely couldn't have done that alone."
Sasuke's only reply was to stare into the sky with a blank look on his face. Between revenge, and acceptance and camaraderie amongst his friends. Which did he really want the most? These thoughts would plague him for the rest of the day.
"And then me and that duck butt over there launched a collaboration jutsu we'd been working on, and totally fried those water clones!" Naruto said enthusiastically.
"You can't fry water you dip shit." Sasuke remarked.
"Sasuke! There's a child in this house! Watch your damn mouth." Sakura shouted at the boy.
Naruto and Sasuke sat and stared wide eyed at the pinkette. Faces contorted in disbelief. The girl blushed and sat down. "Just because I like you, doesn't mean I have to go easy on you Uchiha Sasuke. You're almost as bad as Naruto sometimes."
At that moment Naruto burst into laughter. Sakura soon followed and Sasuke even began to chuckle lightly. And this was the scene that greeted Hatake Kakashi as he entered the dining room of the house.
"Well, I'm glad to see you all have been enjoying yourselves. Thank you for the hospitality Mister Tazuna and you as well…." Kakashi trailed off staring at the woman inclining her to give him her name.
"Oh pardon me I'm Tsunami, nice to meet you mister?"
"Hatake Kakashi, it's a pleasure."
"Sensei?" Naruto cut in, "should you really be up and about already?"
"Yes I'll be fine Naruto but thank you for your concern." Kakashi reassured the boy. "Now I want you all to know that I'm fairly certain Zabuza is still alive. And I'd say we've got about a week to prepare for him to come back."
"We were thinking that might be the case actually, we all felt something was off with that hunter-nin." Sasuke said.
"Well good I'm glad to see you three are learning to pick up on these kinds of things." Kakashi eye smiled at his team.
"Inari!" Tazuna yelled "come down here"
Footsteps were heard and a small boy came down the stairs into the dining room. "What."
"Inari say hello to the wonderful ninja who protected your grandpa." Tsunami said.
"Sup kid. Don't worry we're gonna save your country no problem." Naruto said giving a reassuring grin and a thumbs up.
"Whatever." The boy muttered, "you're all gonna die anyway, nobody beats Gato."
Naruto shot up standing at the table. "Excuse me?" He almost growled. "What are you just giving up, scaredy-cat?"
"Your all gonna die anyway! Why do you even try there's no such thing as heroes!" The young boy shouted.
"Bullshit!" Naruto yelled, "I'm gonna save this place and show you you're wrong."
"You wouldn't understand! What could you ninja possibly know about this kind of suffering!" Inari yelled back crying.
Naruto began to leak killing intent, shaking slightly. He said, "wouldn't understand huh? Yeah fuck me, what would I know right? You know what! Fuck you kid! You're just a cry baby bitch who can't get over himself! I know more about suffering than almost anyone on this planet!"
Naruto walked to the door opened it and said, "I'm leaving. I'll be back later." the door closed softly behind him.
Inari burst into tears and ran up the stairs. The whole room was silent. "I apologize for my students behavior he's had an… extremely hard life."
"It's okay mister Hatake. He's needed to hear that for a while now. I just couldn't bring myself to be the one to say it." Tazuna reassured the legendary Konoha nin.
Sasuke stood, "I'm gonna go for a walk. Maybe do some training. I'll be back by tomorrow." With that Sasuke left the house.
Sasuke strolled through the forest in the direction Naruto had gone. Not that he was worried or anything, he was just going to see if the blond wanted to get beat up in a spar. Sasuke wandered around for quite a while and it was almost dusk when he felt the faint sense of his friends chakra. It was hard not to sense Naruto's chakra sometimes, the damn loser had so much of it. Sasuke made it to the edge of the small clearing and instantly drew a kunai and burst forward to the downed form of his friend. Putting himself in between Naruto and the person who had been standing over him. The Uchiha stared at the individual that stood only a few feet away from him.
"Who are you?" Sasuke said.
"Oh my name is Haku. I'm a local. I was out gathering herbs for my ill father. I heard a lot of noise this way and came to take a look. I watched him train for a while." The girl now identified as Haku said. In that moment Sasuke had the faint thought that this girl was absolutely gorgeous. Almost as beautiful as his own mother.
"Hn." The raven haired boy grunted. "Seems he knew you were here then."
"Oh he did?" Haku asked, curious.
"Yeah my stupid teammate is a sensor type. Fucker can feel out chakra like it's his own hand." Sasuke said slightly jealous. He sighed sitting down next to Naruto.
"Do you have someone precious to you?" Haku asked.
"Do I? n-..." he stopped self. Was he an avenger that wanted to be all alone and kill Itachi. Or was he a teammate, comrade, and friend to those around him. He quickly thought of Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto. The only family he had now. "You know what. Yeah I do." He sighed, why was he telling this girl all of this.
"Good then you must be very strong." The girl replied.
"Why do you say that?" It was the conflicted avengers turn to be curious.
"Because… when you have precious people and precious bonds to protect… that is when you are truly strong." The girl smiled. "Strength comes from the bonds we form around us. Our precious people are the ones we fight so hard to protect. Sometimes they die, and we can't stop it, but that's what drives us to get even stronger so we can protect the ones we have left." Sasuke couldn't help but think not only was her voice and face so beautiful but her spirit was as well. He smiled back at her.
"You know you're probably right. Thank you miss Haku." Sasuke replied.
Haku stood. "I have to go now but you're welcome. I hope we meet again one day in the future. Oh and by the way, I'm a boy." The young woman said smiling.
For the first time in his entire life, Sasuke snorted. He laughed loudly. "Yeah, bullshit. I call your bluff woman."
"Ope, it seems you've caught me." The village girl smiled at him. "Goodbye, until we meet again Uchiha Sasuke."
It would only be a full week later that Sasuke would realize he had never given her his name.
"Fuck!" Naruto shouted. "I slept in again!" He growled lightly. He ran down the stairs and found Tsunami. "My team leave already?"
"Indeed they did Naruto, I'm sorry I should've woken you." She replied
"No no it's fine ma'am thank you." He said running to the door. "Later!" He called behind him. He was halfway to the bridge when he felt it, six small chakra signatures headed right for the house. Naruto quickly doubled back on his trail. Intent on stopping whatever was about to happen. He arrived just in time to watch a bandit kick the door in and drag Tsunami out of the building. He quickly flashed through hand seals creating five water clones to deal with the five bandits guarding the perimeter. As his clones snuck up, so did he. He was in kunai range now. He watched as Inari came running out of the house in full charge brandishing a knife.
"Heh, I'll kill you brat!"
"Don't hurt my mother!
"Inari! No!"
As a sword swing came down toward the boy a kunai impacted at the man's feet and then was gone. And somehow the man had a fist brandishing a kunai imbedded halfway in his chest underneath his ribs. Naruto twisted the small blade, and the man promptly died. All the while Naruto's five water clones simultaneously killed the other five men.
"Good job Inari." He said looking down at the boy and ruffling his hair with his none blood soaked hand. "That's how a true hero acts!"
"Thank you for saving us Naruto!"
"Thank you so much Mister Uzumaki!" Tsunami cried out.
"Heh no problem. But I gotta get going here, my teams waiting for me. You should barricade yourself in the house and wait." And with that the boy took off into the trees once again.
Meanwhile, on the bridge. Sasuke was getting his ass beat. And it was pissing him off. Like a lot. "Damnit! Am I really this outclassed?" The fake hunter-nin had encased the last Uchiha in a dome of ice mirrors, and was proceeding to rip him apart with sebon. The Uchiha really did think it might be over for him.
Suddenly a loud explosion ripped apart one of the mirrors courtesy of Naruto, who used the opportunity to catch the fake nin across the face with his foot. "Sasuke! Don't tell me you've been losing to this asshole!"
"Shut up you idiot! Now we're both stuck in here!" He said as the destroyed mirror reformed. "Well at least I don't have to fight alone now." The raven thought.
The fight proceeded and Sasuke found out that Naruto was after all, faster than he was. It bothered him slightly but at least they had a chance.
"Enough! It's time to end this!" Yelled the enemy shinobi. And suddenly there was a absolutely huge blanket of sebon coming straight for them. Sasuke knew he couldn't dodge. He was gonna die here.
Sasuke suddenly found himself thrown against the ground. With Naruto standing over him. Body covered in sebon. Looking at him with almost lifeless eyes. "S'ke, you gotta live." Naruto said through gritted teeth. And with that the unknown son of the Fourth Hokage, fell and died.
"Naruto! Hey! Idiot! Get up!" Sasuke crawled toward him. "Why loser! Why would you save me!? You're supposed to be Hokage one day!" Sasuke was racked with two emotions, guilt and anger. His eyes flashed red. A fully mature three tomoe Sharingan appearing in place of his black eyes.
"Was he precious to you?" The nin asked. "He obviously cared for you." The nin sighed. "Sorry it had to end this way."
"Shut up! I'm gonna kill you!" Sasuke was on the nin in seconds, eyes working double time and reading every move the nin made before he could make them. Sasuke slammed hit after hit into the nin. Kicking the nin into the air Sasuke did as he had seen Naruto do with the Demon Brothers. He slammed his fist into the fake hunter-nin's face, breaking her mask and sending her crashing to the ground face up. Sasuke came down kunai poised to cut open the nin's heart. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he stopped stone cold.
"H-Haku? What? What the fuck? What are you doing here?!" He screamed at the downed girl. "It was you! Why was it you who killed my friend!"
"I am a tool for Zabuza. As all shinobi are. In the same way you are all tools to your village and Hokage, I am a tool to Zabuza. I will serve him faithfully, for my dream is to see him achieve his dream." Haku grunted out.
"A tool!?" Sasuke yelled. "No we're people! The loser was to be Hokage one day!"
"You, Uchiha Sasuke, are at your strongest at this moment, as you are protecting someone precious to you." Haku sighed. "I am a broken tool, and am no longer able to protect my precious people. So please kill me Uchi-..."
A blast of chakra flew across the bridge, freezing everyone in place. They felt one emotion over all others, Fear. Fear at the overwhelming feeling of killing intent and hatred as Naruto's body seamingly rose from the dead.
Hmmm, so how's that for a spin? Trying to twist the plot of canon arcs to make them my own is difficult, and I'm sure it's been done before but, oh well. Anyway hope y'all enjoyed. Also as always, anyone interested in being a beta, please let me know. Anyways, see ya!