It had taken more than a week for the damage that had been done to the bridge by both the ninja battle and the battle against Gato's mercenary forces to be repaired, and another week for the bridge to be completed. With the bridge completed and the mission ended, a once more recovered Zabuza who was technically a prisoner and honestly had nothing else to do decided to follow Kakashi's team back to Konoha rather than try to escape. Zabuza knew that he wouldn't be welcomed into Konoha with open arms despite being related to one of the village's staunchest allies. He followed Naruto and his team anyway, telling the boy what little he knew about the boy's mother and other stories about the rest of the family.
He knew he'd stepped in it when Kakashi face-palmed as he told Naruto about Senju nee Uzumaki Mito and her successor. The looks on the faces of Naruto's teammates told him that this particular information hadn't been common knowledge in Konoha despite the fact that the battle of the Valley of the End and the subsequent sealing of the Kyuubi had been one of those major historical events that had made its way into every village's textbooks. That Kushina had been selected to contain the Kyuubi after Mito had grown old really wasn't common knowledge anywhere other than with what was left of the Uzumaki clan though.
Asking the boy about how he'd learned the Kage Bunshin at his age had led to him apparently stepping into another mess. The boy had launched into a tale of how some treacherous bastard named Mizuki had tricked him into stealing a scroll of "Forbidden Jutsus" that had been sealed by the First Hokage and how someone named Iruka had come to rescue him when Mizuki tried to kill him.
"If the First Hokage sealed the scroll, how could Naruto have opened it? Wouldn't the best security measure be to use a blood based seal and key each Hokage into it?" he had mused aloud within earshot of Naruto's teammates as he tried to figure out how the heck Naruto's story was possible. He'd heard that Konoha had lax security, but he honestly didn't believe that it was so lax that a failed Academy student could get into something as dangerous as a scroll of forbidden Jutsu without some other factor having come into play.
"Zip it." the Copy Ninja Kakashi said, giving him a strange look after his musings.
"Is something wrong?" he asked, wondering exactly what it had been that he'd given away without meaning to this time, considering the fact that what was secret in Konoha wasn't exactly secret in Kiri and vice versa.
"Other than the fact that you're a walking security disaster...nothing, nothing at all." the Copy Ninja replied, making it clear that it was best that he quit talking before he'd revealed yet more classified information that wasn't exactly classified elsewhere.
Naruto had apparently brushed off on Haku, because he could hear Haku snickering behind him.
Iruka stood by the main gate waiting as he had done just about every spare moment he could grab between the Academy and the Mission Office for the last few days. Naruto should have come back by now. He'd heard that Naruto's team'd had some trouble with some former Mist Chunin several hours out from Konoha, and he was worried. He knew he wouldn't stop worrying until Naruto was standing in front of him talking a mile a minute about his most recent adventure.
Finally, after days of waiting, he caught a flash of orange topped with a bit of yellow fluff. Naruto was walking near the back of the group that seemed to consist of his team and a pair of strangers. The boy was rapidly chattering at one of his companions - a man wearing gray pants - who seemed to be able to follow him if his nods were any indication. Upon seeing him, Naruto quickly broke off his conversation and raced towards him.
Naruto yelled "IRUKA-SENSEI" as he practically flew across the distance that separated them and knocked him on his ass with one of his flying tackle hugs. He was soon forced to pry Naruto's arms off of him as the boy had once again underestimated his own strength and started squeezing the life out of him. With Naruto, the phrase "loved to bits" had the potential to become disturbingly literal.
He did his best to follow along when Naruto started chattering about some bad guy, a kid, a couple of rogue ninja, and...a cousin?
Sakura flopped down into the stuffed armchair across from the couch on which her mother was sitting, drinking tea the minute she got home.
"How did your mission go dear?" her mother asked.
"It was horrible. There were these two really ugly Ninja who attacked us on our first day out. Then when we got to Wave, this guy who was called the Demon of the Mist attacked us. It turned out that the guy was Naruto's first cousin on his mother's side. Apparently their mothers got separated when half the family decided to go to Konoha and the other half decided to move to Kiri when their village collapsed or something. Then Haku pretended to kill the Mist guy, and Naruto got upset, and Kakashi-sensei passed out while comforting him, and we had to carry him to Tazuna's house." Sakura said before taking a deep breath.
"About a week later, Momochi-san - that's that Demon of the Mist guy who got the name when he murdered his entire graduating class - and Haku attacked the bridge, and there was this big fight. I was guarding Tazuna and didn't see much. At the end, I thought Haku had killed Sasuke, but it turned out that he'd only been knocked out. Kakashi-sensei, Momochi-san, Haku, Naruto and about two hundred of his shadow clones, and a small army of the local villagers ended up fighting the army of mercenaries Gato brought in because he didn't want to pay Momochi-san or something, and Gato got killed along with alot of the mercenaries. Momochi-san and Haku decided to follow us home after the bridge was completed and our mission was over. Momochi-san's got really sharp teeth, and it's creepy when he smiles." she continued, before taking another deep breath.
Her mother stared at her in open mouthed shock, her cup of tea completely forgotten half way up to her mouth.
"Did you know that Naruto is so important? I didn't." she said.
"I-Important?" he mother asked, as she tried to gather her wits.
"Yeah, he's the Jinchuriki to the Kyuubi." she replied.
Her mother's teacup crashed to the floor.
"H-how d-do you know this?" her mother asked, not moving to clean up the cup or its spilled contents.
"Momochi-san told us all about it. He and Naruto are both distantly related to the First Hokage's wife. After Uchiha Madara had used the Kyuubi at the Valley of the End, Mito - that's the First Hokage's wife - used her clan's sealing techniques to seal the fox inside her so it couldn't be used against the village. Naruto's mother Kushina was selected to be her replacement when she was about to die of old age. Momochi-san says that the reason the Kyuubi was turned loose on the village was because someone messed with Kushina's seal when Naruto was born. When Kushina died, they couldn't find another female Uzumaki in time, so they used Naruto." she replied.
Zabuza knew that the only reason he'd left the Hokage Tower alive was because the Hokage had a soft spot for his cousin. That, and he apparently didn't want a Jinchuriki out to avenge his fallen relative tearing up the village. As it was, he was now officially stuck in Konoha and he would have to stay unless he wanted Konoha Hunter-nin out for his blood as well as any from Kiri who bothered to go after him. Apparently he had known or put together one too many S Class secrets and become a liability without realizing it. After leaving the tower, he walked into the village feeling slightly naked without the sword that he wouldn't get back until the first three years of his probation were up.
Another bit of his attire that had changed was that he was now wearing something that had once belonged to his mother, and it was getting more stares than his old Mist headband did. He figured that it was because while you could see a Mist headband just about anytime, one from Whirlpool was quite the rarity, especially now, and the whispers he heard as he passed seemed to confirm this.
Edited 2-27-17.