Beating The Odds
Chapter 06: A New Wave
By: MikeJV37
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----August 6, 8:04 AM, Hokage Tower---- (A month after Graduation)
Sarutobi smiled at Naruto. "I mean it Naruto. Anko, your Team will escort our client back to Wave Country to finish the bridge."
"Alright, we finally get a C-Rank mission!" Naruto exclaimed and punched the air.
"Don't get too excited brat.... a C-Rank escort mission is only a small step up from a D-Rank mission.... if we're really lucky, and not a word brat.... we'll get attacked by some bandits, not trained shinobi. I've done almost two hundred of these, all you'll get out of this is maybe a few friends and a decent paycheck." Anko said, almost bored.
"She's right Naruto, despite how skilled your team is, you're only getting this because it is such low risk. Please come in Tazuna." Sarutobi said, the last line towards the door.
Everyone turned to the door and saw a tall, thin man in worn clothes and straw hat, he had a weathered face, grey goat-tee and bottle of Sake in his right hand.
"A bunch of kids? I thought I was getting trained ninja.... they should be in school, and you should be dancing in a bar showing off those great ti....." Taxuna said, obviosly a little drunk, then froze when four kunai buried in the wall around his head, two on each side not an inch from his head, the top two pinning his hat to the wall.
"What did you say about Anko-sensei?" Naruto said angrily, his arm still extended from his throw.
Sarutobi sighed and slowly shook is head. "Naruto, that's no way to treat a client, regardless of what they say or how they treat you, your job is to protect them. You don't have to like them."
Anko stepped up to Tazuna and pulled the kunai out of the wall. "I would of aimed lower and pinned something else to the wall." Anko said softly but coldly, then handed the kunai back to Naruto.
Tazuna swallowed very nervously and suddenly felt very sober. "I obviously misjudged your skills.... I apologize. The bandits have me on edge, I'm not a fighter, I'm a bridge builder."
----August 9, 5:42 PM, Outside Wave Country Boirder----
They sat around the campfire, Anko across from Tazuna, Naruto to her right, Tenten to her left, Hinata sat next to Tazuna, she'd just deactivated her Byakuugan after a scan of the area. "Still clear Hinata?" Anko asked.
"Hai, Anko-sensei, all clear within five hundred yards of us." Hinata said.
"Good. Naruto, since you don't sleep much anyway you take first watch again. Wake me at Midnight, we're leaving early in the morning, we should be in Wave tomorrow, and reach the bridge in two days.... right?" Anko said.
Tazuna nodded. "If we keep up this pace we should reach the bridge in two days....sorry I can't walk any faster, but I am an old man."
Everyone laughed, they'd gotten to know him and despite their first impression, he was good guy, a bit of a pervert as he glaced at Anko's basically bare chest beneath her mesh shirt when her trenchcoat allowed it, but they let that slide since he didn't say anything like he had in Sarutobi's office when they met him. Anko wasn't going to tell anyone, but she actually enjoyed teasing the old guy with intentional flashes, knowing he wouldn't say anything out of fear she's castrate him.
"It'll be dark soon, so get your beds set up, it won't rain tonight so no tents. Tazuna, you can use my bedroll, I won't need it, set up next to the fire, we can't have you getting sick, it gets chilly out here at night." Anko said, and got comfrtable on the log she was sitting on and closed her eyes.
"How does she do that without falling over?" Tazuna said, amazed.
"It's a shinobi trick, she doesn't fully go to sleep, if anything happens she'll come out of it instantly. Just be quiet and don't bother her, she gets cranky if you disturb her and nothing is wrong. Trust me, you don't want to see Anko-sensei in a bad mood, even our ANBU avoid her when she is." Naruto said quietly but seriously.
Tazuna swallowed nervously and nodded. He wasn't from a shinobi village, but knew basically what ANBU were. If she scared them, he sure as hell wasn't going to upset her.
----August 11, 2:51 PM, 2 Miles from Town----
They were walking down the dirt road in a very casual diamond formation around Tazuna only a experienced shinobi would recognize as being a formation. Anko was four feet in front of him, Tenten close on his left, Hinata about a foot away on his right, Naruto two feet behind him, all were walking casually and chatting about nothing in particular.
Naruto reached up and casually scratched his head with his right hand, but pressed the talk button on his hidden communicator. "You saw the puddle Anko-sensei? It hasn't rained in at least a week." Naruto whispered and lowered his hand. A moment later he saw Anko subtly nod, Naruto focused his chakra into his senses. 'Found'em.' Naruto thought. "Hold up a sec, I have make stop." Naruto said, then when they turned to look at him he he subtly mouthed 'ambush' to Tenten and Hinata to alert them, then ran into the woods out of sight.
"Byakuugan" Hinata subtly whispered to herself and the veins around her eyes bulged.
A moment later a masked shinobi flew out of the woods near where Naruto entered and slammed into a tree. Before he could fall almost sixty kunai pinned him to the tree by his clothes from his collor to his wrists and ankles. A moment later a short brunette with her hair in buns had a kunai pressed to his throat.
"You even twitch a finger and your head comes off." Tenten said coldly and pressed the super sharp edge of her kunai firmly into his neck, which made small cuts. To call any of Tenten's edged weapons razor sharp would be a personal insult to her honor.
Hinata was in her Juuken stance in front of Tazuna. "Don't move, I'll protect you." Hinata said confidently, she was thankful Naruto had taught her to be fearless, as well as Anko, especially in the short time Anko had been their Sensei. She knew the old her would of frozen up from fear.
Anko stood alert and ready, but didn't act. She then watched an identical shinobi to the first fly out into view and slam into anther tree and collapse to the ground. Naruto leapt out into view over the road and drove a devestating punch into the back of the man's head as he began to rise, obviously knocking him out. Hell, she knew that punch would put her out cold. Anko then saw the bladed guantlet on the men's arms and snarled as she recognized them. She immediately stormed to Tazuna and grabbed his collar. "Those are the Demon Brothers, C-Rank Chuunin assassins!Who's after you, and don't give me any bullshit about bandits, they're in the Bingo Book!"
Tazuna swallowed nervously and began to sweat. "I, uh....."
"GET DOWN" Anko yelled and yanked Tazuna down with her as a huge sword fly overhead and buried in a tree. She sprang back up to her feet and flinched. "Oh fuck.... Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Mist."
Standing on the sword still buried in the side of the tree was the six foot six heavily muscled man in elbow length grey gloves, grey shinobi sandle, black pants and sleeveless black shirt, his face covered from his nose down by bandages, his Mist hitai-ite with a scratch through it on his forehead above his left eye. He stepped off his sword, yanked it from the tree with ease and slung it over his right shoulder. "Nice job taking them out, and you've got some nice moves too babe.... I love the shirt, shows off those great tits. Tell ya what, hand over the bridge builder and I'll let you and the girls keep your heads and their virginirty. I gotta tell ya though, the little bitch with the kunai looks fiesty, she'd give me a good fight when I raped her." Zabuza said casually.
Tenten was angry, but paled in fear, she didn't know the name, but the sword he had she did recognize and knew it had one purpose, to cut people in half, and it was forged by a Master, that was the blade of a killer.
"It's good to know I haven't been forgtten." Zabuza said proudly.
"Protect Tazuna!" Anko commanded and pulled several kunai. "Forget it asshole.... you want him, you'll have to go through me first. You might be stronger than me, but I won't go down easy.... I still want to kill the son of a bitch, but I was personally trained by Orochmaru.... you don't scare me." Anko said with no fear.
Zabuza's eyebrows went up noticably. "Ah....you must be Anko Mitarashi, I've heard about you.... you're suppossed to be a pretty tough bitch. This will be fun." Zabuza said as he lifted his sword off his shoulder.
"Naruto, protect Tazuna, get everyone out of here.... NOW!" Anko commanded. She'd felt his chakra start to rise, but didn't want him to lose control if she lost.
Naruto clenched his jaw and hands around the kunai he held. He wanted to argue, but knew his priorety was to protect Tazuna.
Zabuza laughed. "Tell ya what, watching that little fight, you having the guts to face me alone.... and I haven't seen great tits like yours in months... I'll cut you a break. I already know where you're going, so I'll let ya go for today, but next time I'll kill ya." Zabuza said and vanished.
"Hinata?" Anko asked.
Already active, Hinata looked around with her Byakuugan as far as she could. "He's gone Anko-sensei.... but he wasn't alone, someone else was hidden in a tree near him."
Tazuna saw the still agry Anko turn to him. "I know and I'm sorry I lied, but we couldn't afford an A-Rank mission. Come to my house and I'll explain everything, I promise, just please don't abandon me. If you leave, I'm dead and so is Wave. Country."
----August 12, 7:38 AM, The Road----
He'd been ten minutes from the bridge when it happened, Hinata was guarding Tazuna, Tenten was fighting Zabuza's partner and currently trapped in a dome of ice mirrors and so far holding her own, but Haku was incredibly fast, even Tenten was having trouble hitting the masked nin, even worse for him though, Anko was in a very heated battle against Zabuza. He knew Anko was going all out just to match Zabuza, who he could tell wasn't. What was he doing.... he'd had to intercept a Water Clone of Zabuza before it could kill Tazuna and possibly Hinata, during which Tenten was locked in Haku's Ice Mirror Prison. He watched Tenten and Anko closely, hoping nothing bad happened.... but it did. Zabuza hit Anko with a massive Water Dragon that slammed her into a tree, it was obvious to him she had broken ribs, her right arm was useless and her right leg was probably fractured, maybe broken, her scream told him everything he needed to know, she was in serious trouble if she screamed. Zabaza was walking to the stunned Anko sword ready as he got vlose he raised it to strike.
Zabuza suddenly pivoted in time to dodge or block a massive barrage of kunai and shuriken. He looked at the attacker and saw the blonde kid standing there, four obviously blank scrolls on the ground around him, and putting off a massive amount chakra. "Damn, someone's been hiding their power.... red chakra, oh shit he's a fucking jinchuuriki!." Zabuza said to no one then rushed him at incredible speed.
. Feeling Kyuubi's chakra rushing through him Naruto knew he wasn't suppossed to call on it, but at the moment he didn't care, he'd be damned if he was going to let his friend and Sensei get killed. He ducked a head swing, then jumped the back swing that an instant later would of cut him in half and through a kick at Zabuza's head that was dodged. "I will not let you kill my Sensei." Naruto/Kyuubi said as a chakra cloak formed around him.
'If he's just an animal I can handle three or four tails and still kill him, but if he has full control I could handle one, I have a slim chance against two.... I just wish I knew which Demon he had, it'd help if I knew which one I was dealing with.' Zabuza thought."Let's change the field." Zabuza said and flashed through several hand signs. "HIDDEN MIST JUTSU!" Zabuza said and within seconds everything within fifty yards was covered in a thick chakra laced fog.
Naruto just smiled, inhaled deeply through his nose, two red chakra tails formed behind him and an instant later landed a devestating punch to Zabuza's stomach that folded him in half, dropped him to his knees and made him drop his sword. Naruto quickly picked it up with his right clawed hand, his left grabbed Zabuza's hair and raised his head as he raised the sword to kill Zabuza with his own wepon. Naruto's face suddenly changed from anger to slight confusion as he sniffed the air. "You smell wrong." Naruto said then drove half the massive blade into the ground and ripped open the top section of Zabuza's shirt high on his chest, left side. "'A seal...."
Zabuza yelled and drove a barrage of powerful punches at Naruto's stomach and crotch.... all were blocked by the chakra cloak. "FUCK! JUST KILL ME ALREADY DAMNIT!" Zabuza yelled, apparently in rage.
'I will.... but first I will know what you're hiding. It's a powerful seal, but no match for Kyuubi No Kitsune!" Kyuubi said in a calm, but powerful voice, temporarily in charge with Naruto's permission.
Zabuza's eyes opened wide. 'Kyuubi? I guess I am going to Hell.... unless.' Zabuza thought. "Wait! If we surrender and swear our eternal loyalty to you will you spare us?" Zabuza said quickly but clearly.
Haku leapt from an ice mirror that had suddenly appeared near them. "Don't kill Zabuza-sama!" Haku yelled in a feminine voice, and was immediately blasted away by red chakra.
Kyuubi released a pulse of chakra that dispersed the mist.
"He can't.... you're a missng nin.... the hunter nins would follow you to Konoha, you aren't worth the trouble you'd cause us to shelter you." Anko said between gasps. "Kill him."
"They're after Zabuza Momochi and Haku...." Zabuza said, did several one-handed signs and touched the exposed seal. "RELEASE!" Zabuza said with a smile.... then transformed, but it wasn't a transformation jutsu or Genjutsu, it was a physical transformation.
As Anko watched her eyes just opened wider and wider is total shock, until it was finished. "You can't be.... every record on you says...."
"That I'm a man.... long story, a Seal Master put this on me when I was five, nobody knows except Haku.... who's also a girl." Zabuza said.
----August 24, 11:23 AM, Konoha, Hokage Tower----
"Once we were off the Uzumaki Bridge and out of sight it was an easy two day run back to Konoha.... stop smiling like that Naruto-kun, this is a mission debreifing not a party." Anko said sternly, but just couldn't keep the big grin off her own face.
.Sarutobi just sat behind his desk for several minutes outwardly calm but inside totally shocked. 'I sent them on an easy C-Rank escort mission that turned into an A-Rank nission. Naruto beat two high C-Rank assassins that are now dead, they fought Zabuza Momochi who almost killed Anko but was not only beaten by Naruto, brought him, her to our side and officially killed Zazuba and his, her partner Haku, their sword and mask left as a memorial in Wave, killed the shipping Tycoon Gato who was behind everything in Wave.... and now I have to decide what to do with the woman and girl that used to be Zazbuza and Haku. I guess Naruto should officially get credit for killing them and the bounty on Zabuza.' Sarutobi thought, took a puff on his pipe and let it out with a long sigh as he looked over the unregistered Snow nin formerly called Haku and the woman that was the A-Ranked missing Mist nin Zabuza Momochi. 'The girl is tall for sixteenm, small chest and very thin, but according to their report she's incredibly fast, an xpert with Senbon and healing herbs, and has a Kekkei-Genkai for ice, but she is from Snow so that's not unexpected, though I thought most of them were killed. And then there's..... Zabuza, she needs a new name. Kami is she big, looks about six five, six six, very muscular for a woman, obviously very powerful as she was one of the Seven Swordmen of Mist .... but still beautiful. Short black hair.... looks like Naruto's, long legs.... and large breasts, F, maybe double F cup.... I better warn Jiraiya about her before he does something .... I think she'd react like Tsunade did, but she might actually kill him.... or worse.' Sarutobi thought, his slghtly perverted thoughts didn't show on his face. "Anko, report to the Hospital at once for proper treatment." Sarutobi said calmly, then his face turned very serious as he looked at Haku, Zabuza, and then Naruto. "I should send them to Ibiki for interrogation, and you know that Naruto....but because of your special.... skills, I'm putting them in your custody for now. Both of you will follow Naruto's orders and fill out some paperwork I'll have sent to him. You will be model citizens, and if you prove your loyalty you will become Leaf Kunoichi.... but the first time you attack someone without very good reason, or we even suspect betrayel by either of you.... Naruto, you will kill both of them, is that clear?" Sarutobi said in a very serious, almost dead voice.
Naruto, Zabuza and Haku all flinched.
"Hai, Hokage-sama." Naruto said almost sadly, he didn't like it, but he couldn't argue.
"You have my word Hokage-sama, we have sworn our eternal servitude and loyaly to Naruto, and make the same promise to serve Konoha faithfully, and if needed die to protect it. As you know Naruto is a special kid.... even before his.... friend showed up, I knew there was something special about him the moment I saw him in action. I didn't want to admit it myself at first, but I knew I wasn't going to beat him I've been dodging Hunter nins most of my life, the last five years with Haku.... but that's no life for a kid, so when I saw my chance to finally kill Zabuza Momochi I took it. It was a major blow to my pride to do it, but submitting to that brat as my true self was the only way to stay alive. I don't fear death, but I've come to think of Haku as my daughter and couldn't let her die so young." Zabuza said and gave Sarutobi a full, formal bow of submission, and saw the smiling Haku do the same a moment later.
Sarutobi nodded and smiled subtly. "Dismissed."
Naruto nodded and smiled. "Sorry Anko-sensei....carry her to the hospital."
"Hey brat don't.... ahh" Anko said before she was scooped up.
"I meant what I said when we first met, so enjoy the ride baby." Zabuza said with a big smile then leapt out the open window to the nearest roof and raced across them towards the hospital.
"I'll follow them, Tenten, Haku, follow Hinata-chan to the hospital." Naruto said then jumped out the window.
The three kunoichi just giggled a moment, nodded to Sarutobi and ran out of the room, the door quickly but quietly closed behind them by Haku..
Sarutobi chuckled and pulled a little orange book out of his desk drawer. "How does he do it, I'm going to figure how he can wrap any female, civilian or kunoichi around his finger like that. I just hope I live long enough to see him make Hokage.... maybe he'll send a couple my way." Sarutobi said with a perverted smile and opened his latest 'Ichi Ichi Paradise' to the bookmark.
END Chapter 6
