Zabuza Momochi was getting very tired of this short hairy man constantly shouting at him. The former Kiri ninja had half a mind to liberate Gato's fat head from his short stubby body, but decided against it. At least until he got paid, in the meantime Zabuza would play the good mercenary and not kill his employer. Besides, loathe as he was to admit it, Zabuza actually doubted he could lift his giant sword, let alone swing it fast enough to kill Gato and his two ronin bodyguards, bedridden as he was. He was however tempted to just have Haku, who patiently waited at his bedside for orders, kill the noisy bastard.

"You idiot!" Gato shouted, "How could you let one man and his three brats beat you? You promised to deliver Tazuna's head to me. So tell me Mr. Demon, where is the old man's head?"

Zabuza couldn't help it, he allowed just a hint of snark into his voice, "Still attached to his body."

A furious scowl etched itself across Gato's ugly visage as he brought his hand back. The short man swung it downward, intending to strike Zabuza's vulnerable neck, only to find his arm in a steel like grip. Surprised Gato turned to Haku, who despite having stoically watched the entire to this point had apparently decided enough was enough.

"I will not allow you to lay a single finger on Lord Zabuza." The effeminate boy growled, ice clinging to each syllable. To emphasize this Haku tightened his grip on Gato's arm.

"S-st-stop, you're b-br-breaking it!" Gato cried as he felt his bone about to pop. At that moment Gato's two bodyguards stepped forward, katanas free from their sheaths. Faster than any eye in the room could follow Haku flashed over to the two ronin, took their swords out of their hands and with a single motion, beheaded the both of them.

"You wanted a man's head, well there you go." Zabuza said, smiling underneath his bandages.

Gato swallowed the bile that was rising up his throat before speaking again, "Just make sure you deliver on your end of the deal. Otherwise no force on earth will keep you safe from my fury." With that Gato left the room, steering clear of the decapitated ronin's bodies while cradling his arm. Despite his threat neither Zabuza nor Haku were worried, for they could both smell the urine that was undoubtedly staining the front of the mob bosses trousers.

"That might've been a tad much Haku." Zabuza said, eyeing the head of one of the ronin as it rolled toward his bed.

Haku shrugged, "He needed to learn some manners about dealing with his betters. Still you may be right." Haku picked up both the severed heads and tossed them out the window. "I shall dispose of these bodies." Haku grabbed the corpses by their ankles and proceeded to drag them outside.

"When you finish collect the Demon Brothers." Zabuza ordered, "Gato won't forget this and it would be good to have some insurance."


"So children," Kakashi started as he stood in front of his students supported by crutches, "Who here knows the tree climbing technique?" The silver haired jonin was pleasantly surprised when all three of his young charges raised their hands. Just to make sure they weren't lying to impress him Kakashi had each of them climb up a tree without using their hands. "It's good to see Iruka didn't slack off in teaching you children slightly advance techniques." He commented after they satisfied him.

None of the genin had the heart to tell him that they had each learned the technique on their own, through various reasons. Sakura had wanted to impress Sasuke with the technique, Naruto had wanted to see if he could do it after reading a comic about a shinobi who could climb up walls like a spider, and Sasuke had learned to do it only because Naruto insisted that they try it and like almost everything back then, it became a competition.

"Well then if you all have that under your belts, then instead I'll teach you guys how to walk on the surface of water. Follow me." Kakashi led the three genin out of the woods by Tazuna's house to the docks. In the town. "Who can tell me how the tree climbing technique works?" he asked as they walked.

"The tree climbing technique works by focusing and channeling ones chakra through the soles of their feet." Sakura began.

"Why are we learning this?" Naruto interrupted, "We already know how it works."

Sakura responded by smacking Naruto over his head and continued on, "The chakra then allows the shinobi to stick to any surface and walk on it like an insect…"

"Or a spider." Naruto snickered, this time Sasuke smacked him.

"… However the amount of chakra used must be precise. Too little and you'll fall, too much and you'll launch yourself off the surface you want to stick to."

"Very good Sakura, that's exactly right." Kakashi stated as the docks came into view. "The same principle applies to walking on water, but it requires a little more flexibility." When they reached the docks, Kakashi gathered chakra around his feet and continued limping forward without breaking stride. Soon he was standing on the water's surface, completely oblivious that his students had stopped at the docks. "In order to do this properly, you have maintain the chakra around your feet and constantly adjust it to stay on the water's surface."

"That doesn't sound too hard." Naruto said, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"Then why don't you join me out here?" Kakashi challenged. Naruto smirked as he started to channel chakra through his soles. Once he felt he had enough he leapt off the dock and landed on the water's surface… and immediately sank beneath the waves. "Not as easy as it looks is it Naruto?" Kakashi laughed as Naruto pulled himself back onto the docks, soaked head to toe. "So who thinks they can reach me first?"


It took the three genin about a half hour, and several dips into the water, to achieve a state of competency with water walking. While Sakura was able to stand comfortably on the water's surface, Sasuke still sunk to his ankles while Naruto sank to his knees.

"Not too bad after a half hour of practice. Shouldn't be too long now before you guys get the hang of it." Kakashi said to Naruto and Sasuke. "Sakura I want you to start practicing jutsu while standing on the water." While he spoke he made a shadow clone appear next to him. "Naruto make a shadow clone continue this training. You and I are going to start working on your wind chakra."

"Yes sir." Naruto responded as he made his own shadow clone, that immediately sank beneath the surface. The four of them all just stared in amazement as the clone tried to climb onto the water's surface, cursing the whole time. "Can we just go?"

"So how are we going to do this?" Naruto asked as water continued to drip from his clothes. Kakashi handed Naruto a leaf. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Split it in half with your chakra." Kakashi instructed. "Imagine your chakra is a razor sharp blade and channel it through your fingers."

Naruto nodded as he held the leaf in front of him, channeled his chakra through his fingers and visualized the leaf splitting in half. After staring at the leaf for what seemed like an hour with zero progress, Naruto growled as he violently tore the leaf into shreds with his hands.

"Argh, why isn't this working?" he muttered, staring at the shredded pieces in his hand.

"Well for starters you aren't focusing enough." Kakashi advised. "You can't expect to get results instantly."

"Well let me see you do it." Naruto said, "Maybe it'll make it easier for me watching someone else do it."

Kakashi shrugged as he plucked another leaf from a tree and held it in front of Naruto. "Now bear in mind, wind isn't my chakra nature so it'll take a little more for me to do this than it will for you when you get the hang of it." With that Kakashi went silent as he focused on the leaf. Naruto watched fascinated as the leaf started to crinkle, before it finally tore itself in half. "There you go. Now ready to try again?" Kakashi asked handing another leaf to Naruto. The blonde genin smiled as he accepted the leaf and again started to focus on shearing it with chakra alone.


Inari watched from behind a tree as Naruto focused rather intently on his leaf. The young boy had been observing the ninja ever since their argument a few days ago. He was naturally a little confused when his first day of observation consisted of little more than watching Naruto stare at a leaf for hours on end. The next day he had observed all three of them do something that was quite frankly impossible. They walked along the water's surface as though it were solid land. Weren't they afraid of drowning? Now on the third day Inari watched as Naruto stood in the center of a pond, holding his leaf out in front of him, glaring at it like he wanted it to spontaneously combust. Inari knew that the blonde would keep at it for hours so he decided it wasn't worth his time to watch something so pointless. He decided to go home early.

"Are you actually gonna say something one of these days?" Naruto called out as Inari was turning around. "Cause I got to say, it's a little annoying being followed everywhere by someone who won't talk to you."

Feeling that the jig was up, Inari walked out from under the tree and approached the pond. Naruto in turn dropped the leaf and walked off the water. Naruto sat on the soft grass at the edge of the water and gestured for Inari to join him. The boy sat next to him. The two stared at each other for a long while. Naruto broke the silence.

"So Sasuke told me about your chat with him." Naruto said. Inari nodded. "I asked your grandfather what happened to your father. I'm sorry, he sounded like he was a good man." Another nod, Inari was fighting to keep tears back. Naruto took a deep sigh, "I'm sorry about what I said. I can be a bit of a…"

"Jack ass." Inari offered, a small smile on his face.

"I was gonna say jerk, but that works too." Naruto laughed. The two of them shared a laugh together.

"So what are you doing?" Inari asked.

Naruto groaned, "I'm trying to split a damned leaf using only my chakra. It's much harder than it sounds." He added once he noticed look on Inari's face that just screamed, 'How weak are if you can't even split a single leaf?'

"What good will that do?"

"Watch this." Naruto said as he made the hand seals for the wind claws. Just as before the line of wind chakra ran along the fingers of his right hand, although this time they were a lot straighter, and extended a little beyond his fingertips. Inari's eyes widened a bit at the sight of the jutsu. Naruto smiled as he walked over to a tree and slashed it with his hands. Five deep, narrow gouges appeared in the wood where his hand struck it.

"That's so cool." Inari said.

"You should see what it can do when it's done right." Naruto said letting the jutsu drop, "My brother would've cut that tree down with a single finger." Inari smiled at that but quickly noticed that Naruto's mood had shifted a bit at the mention of his brother.

"You miss him don't you?" the boy asked.

"There was so much I wanted to talk to him about." Naruto started, "Mostly about our parents. He didn't like talking about them much you see. He'd usually start telling a story about them before he'd trail off and go silent. It would always end the same, 'Our parents loved you very much Naruto.' He'd refuse to say anything else about them afterwards. One time Arashi came home drunk and he…" Naruto trailed off as he noticed Inari's face become slightly horrified, "What?"

"He didn't beat you did he?"

"What? No, no. Arashi wasn't a violent drunk. If anything he became friendlier and chattier. That was the first and only time he actually finished a story about our parents. I asked him if he knew how they met. He proceeded to tell me this story about ninja from an enemy nation had kidnapped our mom and how father had tracked them down and saved her." Naruto smiled at the memory, "He still said the same thing afterwards though. 'Your parents loved you very much Naruto.'"

"You mean 'our'." Inari corrected. Naruto gave him a questioning look. "You said he would always say 'Our parents' but just then you said 'Your parents'."

"He probably meant our but was too drunk to catch himself." Naruto justified, but Inari could tell Naruto wasn't too sure about his excuse. "Or maybe I'm just remembering it wrong. I mean it was over six years ago."

"Do you really think you guys can stop Gato?" Inari asked.

Naruto looked at the small boy and nodded, "Inari, I promise you so long as we're around, Gato and his goons won't be able to do a thing to you or your town." Despite himself and his multiple misgivings, Inari found himself believing him.


Kakashi limped across the living room of Tazuna's home. Over the past five days Kakashi had mostly recovered from his bout with Zabuza. The silver haired jonin lowered himself on a chair and thought of the progress his students were making. Kakashi was impressed, water walking was a deceptively tricky technique to learn and yet his young charges had all but mastered the art in a matter of days. After five days of practice Sakura and Sasuke were now able to comfortably cast several jutsu whilst standing on the water's surface. In addition Naruto was also making great progress in his wind chakra training. He was able to completely tear through the leaf on dry land. While standing on the water create a tear half-way through the leaf. Kakashi smiled as he thought of how much the three of them had grown since they had become his responsibility not too long ago. As tempting as it was to take all the credit for their improvement, Kakashi knew that these children would've excelled no matter who had been assigned their sensei.

'Maybe I'll recommend them for the next Chunin exams.' Kakashi considered. 'They seem capable enough. Gonna have to work more with Sakura to get her caught up though.' Even though the girl was miles ahead of her teammates in terms of chakra control and she had a fair amount of talent in genjutsu, she had fallen rather far behind in her taijutsu and ninjutsu. A little work with her would solve that issue though, and Kakashi was sure that her teammates would be more than happy to assist her.

The sound of breaking glass brought Kakashi out of his thought. In a flash the jonin was on his feet, grabbing a cane in his hand and scanning the room. A rock lay amongst the shattered glass from the window. From outside Kakashi could hear several voices.

"What's going on?" Tsunami asked, Inari following close behind her.

"Stay inside." Kakashi ordered, as he limped towards the door. "Let me handle this." With that the silver haired jonin stepped outside and found himself staring down a large group of men, brandishing a multitude of weapons. Gato had been busy it looked like.

"That must be one of the ninja the old fart hired!" Kakashi heard one shout.

"How sad that all he could afford was a cripple and a bunch of kids!" another responded.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake, jonin of Konoha." Kakashi announced to the mob assembled before him. "Leave now and I'll let you go."

"Would you listen to this fucker." One of the mob shouted to his cohorts, "The cripple thinks we're afraid of…" the man was cut off as a kunai buried itself into his throat. Stunned into silence the mob looked at Kakashi who stood with his cane in one hand and a second kunai in the other.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Kakashi said as he limped towards the group. The mob in response screamed as they charged him. Just before the mob flowed over him, Kakashi leapt into their midst, and, upon landing, smacked one of the men on his crown with his cane. Before any of the mob could react, Kakashi had already struck down three more of their number through a series of quick but debilitating strikes with his wooden support. Finally the mob recovered enough to start attacking the ninja, but most found their weapons blocked by the kunai held in Kakashi's other hand, before his cane struck out against them. Despite his limp Kakashi was fast as lightning as his cane jabbed throats, struck knees and elbows, and shattered groins.

When Kakashi noticed a few of the mob break off from the engagement towards the house, he was quick to intercept them. Holding his cane by the opposite end, he hooked the handle around one man's groin before yanking him to the side. A man who sought to take advantage of Kakashi's occupied cane, stabbed at him with a spear. Kakashi let the cane go and grabbed the spear by the shaft as he dodged to the side. His kunai cut open the man's throat as he pulled the spear out of his hands and hurled it into the stomach of another. The man with the mistreated groin was starting to recover when Kakashi kicked him square in the face, cracking his skull.

Momentarily free from the battle, Kakashi made a single shadow clone and ordered it to go check on Tazuna and his team. The clone nodded before it ran off. Looking back at his numerous foes, some of whom were recovering from his less devastating strikes, Kakashi retrieved his cane and readied himself for round two.

"So who's next?" he asked when a scream from the house reached his ears.


Team 7 was silent as they all readied their equipment. Between the four of them, they had about 100 shuriken, twelve smoke bombs, eight kunai, and four windmill shuriken. Kakashi had been mostly successful in repelling the main force of attackers at the house. Unfortunately a second, smaller wave had come through the back of the house and had managed to kidnap Inari. Kakashi was able to save Tsunami from the attackers, and by the time the others had gotten back from the bridge, Kakashi had either driven off or killed the rest of the attackers, and was in the process of interrogating the survivors. As it turned out, Gato had gotten tired of waiting for Zabuza to recover and had decided to act on his own. He had also learned the location of Gato's hideout.

"Alright guys, here's our current mission." Kakashi said to the assembled Team 7. "We infiltrate Gato's hideout, find Inari and get him out of there. If we run into resistance we take them out. If you see Gato…" Kakashi let the silence hang for a few moments, "Kill him."


Inari glared hatefully at the short ugly man in the business suit, with his right arm in a cast, who stood before him. Behind Gato, a group of people consisting of a large man with an even larger slab of metal strapped to his back, and young effeminate boy in a mask, and two men with metal claws and armor, stood watching them.

"Just so you know child." Gato said after taking a long drag from his cigar, "This wouldn't be happening if your damned grandfather didn't insist on building his damned bridge. I would've been perfectly content to leave well enough alone, but he just won't take no for an answer. He's the one who keeps escalating this. He's the one who forced my hand by hiring Konoha's ninja."

At the mention of Naruto and his team Inari muttered something under his breath.

"What was that boy?" Gato asked, "Speak up."

"I said Naruto and his friends are going to kill you." Gato's ugly face became even uglier as it contorted in anger. Gato slapped Inari across his face and the boy simply spat in his.

"I like this kid." The big man laughed, "He's got guts."

"If he keeps this up, I'll have you show them to him." Gato hissed as he stormed out the room, leaving Inari alone with the four ninja.

"They will come." Inari shouted after him. The big man continued laughing.

"We're counting on it kid." He said as he and the others left him in his cell alone.


Team 7 engages in a daring rescue against Gato's forces. Next time A Land of Heroes Part Three: Rescue


AN: Well this was a fun chapter to write. Especially Kakashi vs the mob, had a lot of fun with that. So anyways about one or two chapters to go before this arc is complete. It's been fun but I can't wait to get to the Chunin Exams. Heh heh, that's where I'll really start mixing things up. Anyway please read and review and see y'all next time.