Speech
Thought
Jutsus
Lord Ezra'eil: Harem, yes.
Lord Sia: LOL! That's funny
Kisame Hoshigaki the Scourge: Don't worry, he'll have something pretty close.
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"YOUR LATE!" Sakura screamed once again as Kakashi came up, his nose still buried in the book Naruto had lent him. Beside her was Tazuna, his newly bandaged noggin sporting the knot the blond had given him earlier in the day.
"Ohh, Mikimi, you dirty, dirty girl..." He giggled lecherously before looking up, "Sorry, I had to help an old lady across the street.."
"LIAR!"
"Oi, Kakashi-Sensei, how long does it take you to finish a book anyway? That's still mine, you know!" Naruto said, pointing at it.
"Actually I've already read it..twice." The jounin said offhandedly, only glare as Naruto snatched it out of his hand, "Hey!"
"I didn't say anything about letting you read it more than once."
Kakashi glared at him half-heartily for a second before stepping to the front, "Ok, it'll be a couple of days until we arrive in Wave, so just keep an eye open."
A few minutes later, the group was well on their way; Sakura trying to strike up a conversation with Tazuna about his home, Sasuke and Naruto on either side of them and Kakashi bringing up the rear. Everything was relatively normal until Naruto stopped mid-stride and suddenly turned to face the woods to his right, arms crossed and tapping his foot.
"All right, Kasumi. I know you're there." He said, rolling his eyes as the redhead walked out from behind an oak.
"Where'd the hell did SHE come from?!" Sakura yelled, pointing her finger in an almost accusing manner.
"I had a feeling something fun was going to happen on your lil excursion, so I asked the Hokage if I could tag along and he said ok.."
"Hold up, hold up..the Hokage said you...a CIVILIAN.. that you could come along!?" Kakashi asked, dumbfounded that the old mad would even make such a decision.
Kasumi simply grinned as she put her hand against the tree and suddenly drove her fingers into the wood, ripping out a chunk with a loud crunch, "Don't worry. I'm stronger than I look."
"I..I see.." Kakashi said, his visible eye as big around as a shrunken.
Sakura's jaw simply unhooked itself and dangled freely.
Sasuke, on the other hand, was livid at the fact that the girl who refused to submit to his demands was displaying strength that made his own pale in comparison, "That's power I should have, not some no-name female and loser! It should be MINE!"
Ignoring the shocked looks of everyone, except for Naruto and Sasuke who was grinding his teeth at the sight, she tossed the piece aside and wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck, "Besides, he said you'd be gone a few days and its kinda lonely sleeping by myself."
"Ooh, you're pretty close, eh?" Tazuna leered at the two before a metallic fist introduced itself to his forehead.
"We just share a bed, ya filthy-minded geezer!" Naruto growled before pointing a finger at Kakashi, who's expression told everything, "And goes for YOU too, Sensei!"
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"Damn abusive gakis.." Tazuna grumbled, rubbing his second lump of the day. The others ignored him as they resumed the trek to Wave.
It wasn't long before the group all spotted a puddle alongside the road. Sasuke and Sakura paid it no mind and Tazuna was too busy trying get drunk to care.
"The hell?" Naruto whispered to Kasumi, "It hasn't rained in almost two weeks. You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Kasumi nodded slightly, "Yeah, looks like the jounin notices as well. Whoever's behind it is either really stupid or full of themselves to think no one would suspect it."
The second they passed the 'puddle', pair of shinobi emerged from it, wearing oxygen masks and Mist headbands with long scratches through the symbols. One had a single horn decorating his while the other had two. Both welded clawed gauntlets with a bladed chain connecting them. In an instant, the chain was wrapped around Kakashi before the two missing nin used it to slice him to pieces.
"Four little pigges.." The two said in unison as they turned their attention to the genins
"KAKASHI-SENSEI" Sakura screamed, only to watch him be replaced by a cut up log.
"Substitution." Naruto grinned, rushing foward to grab the chain. Without a second word, he began wrapping it few times around his right arm.
'One Horn' began to laugh, "Eager to lose your arm, huh, kid?"
"Don't worry, we won't disappoint!" 'Two Horn' cackled as they started pulling on the chain...
Only to have the blond start pulling back in a twisted game of tug-o-war. The chain creaked slightly as each side pulled as hard as they could.
"What the hell is this gaki's arm made of!?" 'Two horn' yelled.
"Pull!" 'One horn' dug his heels into the ground, grunting with each tug.
"I AM pulling!"
"Well, pull harder!"
"Feel free to step in any time, guys." Naruto muttered to the others, who were staring at the spectacle before them. With one last pull, a pair of blades emerged from the underside of his forearm, cutting the chain apart and causing the two nin to stagger backwards as they tried to regain their footing.
Sasuke snapped out of and smirked as he lunged at the closest one, catching him off guard with a fist to the side of his head. Kasumi sent the other for a loop as her heel slammed into his chin, sending him off to dreamland
'One one', the one Sasuke had hit, snarled, "You little bastard!" He hissed before swiping at him with the gauntlet.
That is, before his head snapped back from being clotheslined by Kakashi, who picked that time to make his return, "Not too bad, you guys. Not too bad."
"Nice of you to finally pop back up, Kakashi-Sensei." Naruto said with a hint of sarcasm, removing the shredded gauze from his arm, "Who the hell are they?"
"They're known as the Demon Brothers, chunin-level missing-nin from Mist." He narrowed his eye at the bridge builder, "These aren't some simple bandits, Tazuna. The only only reason I can think of them setting an ambush like this is that they were sent. And since I sincerely doubt a genin team would be high on anyone's hit list, the only remaining choice would be you."
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After some minor 'persuasion', Tazuna admitted that he had lied about the danger of the mission. His homeland was under the grip of a coldblooded businessman named Gato who controlled all the shipping areas. Because of this, Wave was in almost total poverty and he had set about building a bridge to connect them to the mainland in an attempt to break Gato's hold. Gato, however, wasn't too happy about the idea of losing the power he had and had taken to hiring people to kill him.
"I knew if I had told the truth, the Hokage would've classed it higher and we can barely afford the current rank." Tazuna sighed.
Kakashi sighed, "Well, the presence of those two have just bumped this mission up to an A. Next time the attacker'll be a jounin level most likely, once Gato gets word they failed. We should head back to inform the hokage..but what do you guys think?"
"We already accepted the mission, and that's the same as giving your word as far as I'm concerned. And I DON'T go back on my word." Naruto said, crossing his arms as if to dare someone to argue with him.
"Don't think you're going without me." Kasumi added.
Sasuke, not wanting to be outdone, agreed, followed instantly by his groupie.
"Well, I guess it's unanimous." Kakashi smiled behind his mask, "Let's get going. We still have a fair bit of ground to cover."
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A couple of hours passed by without incident after the Demon Brothers, but that didn't give them much comfort. They were all keeping watch for another one of the businessman's attempts, with the exception of Sakura who was busy fawning over the Uchiha about his punch earlier. Fortunately, nothing of the sort had happened so far.
Suddenly, Sasuki hurled a kunai into some nearby bushes, scaring the crap out of Tazuna and Sakura, "I thought I heard something."
Kakashi went to check it out, finding a white rabbit looking like it just had a heart attack, the kunai less than an inch from its face.
"This kind of rabbit isn't native to this area. It shouldn't even be out here..unless.." His head jerked up, "A substitution."
It was then they all heard the whiring of metal.
"GET DOWN!" Kakashi yelled, grabbing Tazuna and diving out of the way as a massive sword came flying towards them. All but Naruto followed suit.
"Hey! I know that sword!" He thought, expanding his forearm into a shield to defend himself.
CLANG!!
The blade and shield collided with surprising force. The weapon went tumbling to the ground, but the impact was still enough to knock the blond off his feet.
"Naruto! are you all right!?" Kakashi said as the others climbed to their feet, "WHAT in Kami's name possessed you to do that?!"
Naruto ran finger over the small indention the sword had managed to put in his arm before it mended itself, "Because I know the guy that thing belongs to." He proceeded to glare and point behind Kakashi at a man standing nearby, wearing only trousers and bandages covering half his face, similar to Kakashi (I don't really remember what Zabuza wore, so bear with me on this). He had on a scratched Mist headband as well, "Zabuza, you ASS! That wasn't funny!"
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Sorry 'bout the delay. Had to get the chapter how I liked it.