REWRITTEN
XxXxXxX
"Ok guys, put on your forehead protectors, for this mission, you're Chuunin, not ANBU." Kakashi warned as they walked into the clearing. The three children complied without much resistance at all. They then walked into another clearing.
A forest surrounded three sides of the small house, and a lake resided on the side that was not covered in the forest. There was a dirt road leading out of the area to the village that the people living here were from. Of course, this place brought back many memories for three children.
"Wow, It's almost exactly as I remember it," Naruto reminisced, "It brings back memories, that's for sure."
Sakura nodded from his left, "Yeah, Kakashi-sensei made us practice the Tree walking exercise in these woods." Sasuke merely nodded, proving that he remembered as well.
"Crap!" Naruto nearly shouted, "Haku and Zabuza, what the hell are we going to do with them?"
Sasuke answered, "He won't go to Gatou and be killed there, so he'll probably go work in some other country. It does not concern us of what he does."
"Sasuke's right," Sakura said, then changing the subject she asked, "Shall we go see Tsunami and her family again for the first time?"
Naruto nodded and lead the four of them to the front door and knocked. Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi all got into hiding while Naruto did so, just in case. It was basic ANBU training. Naruto heard the clicking of the doorknob being messed with and got into a battle ready position, just in case.
The door opened very slightly, and a familiar voice called out, "Who is it?"
Tsunami! He thought, but quickly snapped out of it and asked, "Is Kaiza home?"
"She quickly opened the door and jumped at the child and said, "NO! You won't take him to Gatou! I'll kill you if I have to resort to it! Just leave please!" She tackled Naruto onto the ground, whose eyes were widened at how scary she seemed to become at that moment.
Mental note: Don't piss off women!
"I'm not here to take Kaiza away to Gatou!" Naruto shouted, and quickly pushed away the woman, "We're here for his mission."
Tsunami got up and still looked defensive. "Really?" She examined the child over and said, "You're from Konoha!" she said as she recognized his forehead protector. "That means Kaiza asked something from you all, what was it?"
"We can only say if the one giving the mission allows us to tell you." Naruto answered automatically.
"Oh okay then," She looked around, "Where's the rest of your team? You did say 'we're' a little bit earlier."
Naruto lifted his left hand and made a signal. "Here they are."
Within a blur Kakashi stood behind Naruto, Sasuke to his right, and Sakura to his left. All were in battle ready positions, holding their Kunai out and all. "Its okay guys, we're in friendly territory for now." Naruto said, immediately ending all the tension his teammates had. They all lowered the Kunai and put them away.
"Would you people like to come in?" Tsunami asked, "Kaiza will be coming home soon with Inari."
"We'd appreciate that." Kakashi answered as they four of them followed her into the house.
She quickly sat them around a table in the house and quickly made them some tea. "Do you guys want anything to eat while we're in here?" She asked kindly and sat down at the head of the table. Kakashi and Sasuke were on the right side, Naruto and Sakura the left.
"No thanks." Sakura answered, "We'll just wait for our client to come here."
Tsunami watched as they all sat quietly and occasionally took sips of tea. She was surprised that the three children in front of her would be trained to kill people and such at such a young age, it almost made her sick to her stomach. Were they even prepared for this task, whatever it could be?
"Don't worry." Kakashi said, "They look young, but they can easily do anything I can." Almost, Kakashi mentally said, but no need to worry her.
"How'd you know what I was thinking?" She asked, a little nervous to be chatting with a ninja.
Kakashi took a sip of his tea and said, "Your face looked worried, and you were glancing at all my students."
"Ah," She muttered. "They look a little young to be doing this so soon. Shouldn't they be doing things normal children do at their age?"
Sasuke got involved at this point and said; "We decided to do this for ourselves. No higher power told us we had to do this, but with our talent it was highly recommended that we get as strong and skilled as possible, as soon as possible."
"I see." She sighed. Having a chat with ninja was harder than she figured it was. She then saw Sakura's hair and destroyed the atmosphere by asking, "Is your hair naturally that color?"
"Wha- What?" Sakura stuttered, no one, not even tsunami asked that question to her in the last timeline. It was quite a shock to her now.
"I mean," Tsunami continued, "I have seen all kinds of hair colors, but I have never seen anyone with pink hair… Don't you think it would limit your abilities to hide from the enemy or something? You should get that back to its original color or something."
"It's naturally this color." Sakura said, her world was now upside down from all this information, what the hell! This hair color can't make it harder to stay stealthy!
Naruto looked at the confusion on Sakura's face and decided to come in and say, "I like it. I think it's cute." He crossed his arms and looked away from Tsunami.
"Well yeah, it does, but ninja don't try to look cute, do they?" Tsunami questioned.
"Just because we're ninja doesn't mean that we can't do anything non-ninja people can do! It only means we can do it better!" Naruto said to her.
Tsunami had lightning cross her vision, "Oh? Better than a non-ninja can?" She grabbed Naruto by his collar and said, "Listen here, boy, just because you're faster, stronger, and probably smarter-."
"He's not." Sasuke said as he took a sip from his tea, enjoying the betrayed look Naruto gave him.
"You cannot do anything better than I can!" She threw Naruto back down and huffed. She walked out of the room saying, "I'm going to make some more tea." She was back to her sweet self, "Do any of you guys want some?"
Everyone just slowly nodded their heads, not wanting her to get angry.
"Do you think my hair looks cute Naruto, or were you just saying that?" Sakura asked a slight blush on her face.
"It looks great!" Naruto said and patted her on the back, "It's really cute. It's like-"
As he continued on Kakashi and Sasuke glanced at each other, then back to Naruto with slight envy in their eyes. Damn that boy, Kakashi thought as he watched the two flirt with each other.
Kakashi's thoughts wandered somewhere else, back to Tsunami. She was able to get them out of their professional stance and mood by mentioning Sakura's hair, He looked at the two; I'll have to teach them not to get out of the mood no matter what. Kakashi let out a small laugh, his revenge was planned.
"Ok." Sasuke said after a few moments of silence. "I'm going to scout along the area and make sure no one that can be claimed as an enemy makes it within shouting distance." He looked towards Kakashi, who shook his head, allowing the boy to do as he pleased.
Tsunami entered right as Sasuke left. Noticing one less member, she was about to ask where the boy went, but knew that it had to be official ninja business. She had learned for her parents to never attempt to anger, or question them, some could be quite harmful. However, she felt somewhat secure around these ones.
She put the tea down on the table and sat back down again, not at all enjoying the silence that once more loomed around the room.
(Outside the building)
Sasuke wandered to the edge of the forest surrounding the house and quickly glanced back at the building before he entered. He slowly walked along, not minding at all if an enemy came out, in fact, he'd be glad if someone popped up right now, he'd love to test his strength.
Of course, Naruto is going to become stronger than me again this time as well, but at least I'm advancing at a much quicker pace this time around. He glanced up and looked around. He heard a small sound coming from a nearby bush.
He quickly drew a kunai, and only sighed when a rabbit appeared; its brown fur was coated with fresh mud. Hm, must have got stuck in some mud. He simply shook it off and continued to patrol the area.
He saw a patch of sunlight beaming down into the woods, and decided to climb a tree to get a better view of the area from up there. When he reached the top, he noted that he could see most, if not the entire village from here, and he saw the spot where the Great Naruto Bridge used to be.
That looks really odd without it. He thought to himself as he allowed himself to fall back down to the ground. He twisted in mid air and landed on his chakra enhanced feet, which was meant to deal with the impact, and continued to patrol the forest.
He had decided to take a visit into the village to get an idea of the layout of the area. As he entered, he couldn't hide his surprise, the village was actually not in a state of poverty. He shook the thought out of his head, Of course it isn't, Gatou hasn't gained full control of the economy.
Again he climbed up a tree to get a better look of the village he was bordering.
"Hey! Kid, what the hell are you doing all the way up there?" Sasuke nearly fell out of the tree in shock for a moment, before he looked all the way down to the ground.
"How'd you see me all the way up here?" Sasuke shouted down, even though he couldn't see the person, he knew they had to be down there, below all the branches and such.
Sasuke heard laughing next to him, and nearly, once more, fell down in shock and slight fear. "What the hell!" He shouted, he quickly regained his composure, and grabbed onto the tree before he fell again.
"Be careful kid." He looked at the child's headband and said, "Oh," His eyes hardened, and he looked down, seriousness covering his face, "You're from Konoha."
Sasuke nodded, "Yes. That's all I can say however, we can only explain things to our client and who else he wishes to know."
"Start explaining why they sent a child to help with this?" The man looked slightly angry.
"Sorry, I can only explain to a man named Kaiza."
The man smiled slightly, "What if I tell you, I am Kaiza?"
Sasuke examined the man closely; he wore a normal brownish colored vest with no shirt under it, and long dark green colored pants. His eyes were a kind of shade of blue that Sasuke believe only Naruto had. His hair was rough, and he looked as though he needed to shave.
"Kaiza?" Sasuke asked in surprise, "You're a ninja too?"
The man nodded, "Well, kind of," He admitted, "I quit shortly after becoming a Genin, but I did manage to learn how to use my chakra to walk on trees. That's why I love being in this place so much; there are so many trees to climb on, and you're in my favorite spot."
"R- Really?" He had not known that Kaiza was a ninja, "Have you told Tsunami?"
Kaiza nodded, "yeah, she and Inari know it."
"Did you say my name?" Someone from below shouted, "Can I come up with you now Kaiza?"
Kaiza looked down and smiled sheepishly, "Oh yeah, I usually take Inari up here with me sometimes. I guess when I noticed someone was up here I told him to wait down there while I look." His smile faded, "Tell me, how many of you are here?"
"A group of Chunin, and an ANBU captain, I think you'll know him, Kakashi." Sasuke smirked as Kaiza shoot a look of surprised at the name of Kakashi. "Now bring him up here, I'd like to meet your child." Again. He added in his mind.
Kaiza nodded and worked his way back down to the ground and brought up the kid within a minute. Sasuke looked at the kid and had to force himself not to give off a look of surprise at the happiness Inari was showing in his expression.
Inari still wore the hat he had in the previous timeline, but he was trying to be like Kaiza, for he wore a vest of the same color of Kaiza, and pants. He looked at Sasuke in surprise and asked, "How did he get up here?"
"He's like me." Kaiza simply explained.
Inari looked at Sasuke in wonder, "Whoa! Does that mean he can walk on trees like you? Can he teach me to do it? Where's he from? Is he staying with us?" Inari asked in his volley of questions.
Kaiza looked thoughtful before saying, "Yes, No, Konoha, and Yes."
Inari looked down, sadness evident in his expression now, "Why won't you let anyone teach me to be like you?"
"Because you can fall down and get hurt, he's been trained in this, and I've done it several hundred times before this. Once you're older I will consider teaching you this technique." Kaiza offered, Inari sighed and nodded his head enthusiastically, and he looked back down at the town in their view.
Sasuke looked at Kaiza and watched as the man mouthed at him, 'we'll go home soon.' Sasuke nodded, and took the time to appreciate the view of the town he was watching.
(Tsunami's house.)
"Three of a kind!" Naruto shouted, knowing he was the victorious one.
Sakura gave him a sympathetic smile and put down her cards, "Full house!" She could see the look of despair Naruto was giving her.
"How are you winning so easily? I thought I was lucky with these kinds of things! That is why Jiraiya always let me gamble when I was with him!" Naruto sighed, and took off his shirt and threw it on the couch next to them.
"Maybe it's just rubbing off on me, you know I have been close enough for it to happen." She said smiling.
They both were in the living room of the household, on the floor playing poker with each other. The room was nicely made compared to other parts of the house, it had a rather fireplace, several windows allowing the sun in, and various other miscellaneous things.
Kakashi walked in reading his book, but before he left the room he lowered his book and asked, "What are you two doing now?"
Naruto grudgingly looked up in his half naked state, "Strip poker," He sighed, "Lost three times so far."
Kakashi looked towards the couch where Naruto's discarded shirt, socks, and sandals were. He noticed Sakura had the decency to blush slightly. "You two, uh, aren't you a bit young for this?"
"We're really eighteen years old." Naruto reminded him, "Don't worry about it, it's not like we'll do anything."
"Yeah," Sakura added, "Our hormones haven't kicked in yet, so you're safe for a few more years."
Kakashi wanted to ask them why they were playing strip poker of all things if that was the case, but he knew it was a lost cause. He would be mentally disturbed about this for the coming weeks. He looked at his book, but almost threw up at the image of Naruto and Sakura playing strip poker at the age of nine.
With Kakashi out of sight, Naruto got onto one knee and claimed, "You're cheating! Every time I manage to get a good hand, you're always one step ahead of me!"
"What? Just because you're losing doesn't mean I HAVE to be cheating!" She threw her hands up, and sighed, but a bunch of cards flew out of the sleeve of her ninja outfit. "Oh!" Sakura looked at all the cards, "What do you know? I was cheating!" She giggled, trying to make it not look like a big deal.
Naruto looked at them and gained a sly grin on his face, "Does this mean that you really lost all the previous games?"
He was rewarded with a punch on the top of his head and his face going through the floor to taste what soil below a household was like. "No way!" She shouted.
"Then what was the point of playing strip poker if I am the only one following the damn rules?" Naruto asked as he managed to get his head out of the floor.
Sakura blushed and looked away, "Well. I guess we're done here right?"
Before Naruto could begin to yell some more, a knock came upon the door. The mood that was recently there changed to one of seriousness as Naruto quickly got his outfit back together, and Sakura grabbed two Kunai out of her pouch, throwing one over to Naruto as he finished getting dressed.
Both advanced towards the door, while Tsunami walked ahead of them ready to answer it. The woman looked through the peephole in her door and threw it open, "You're finally back!" She shouted and gave the man a hug.
"Is it Kaiza?" Naruto asked, looking over her shoulder.
Tsunami moved over allowing the two ninja to see who it was. "It's Tazuna!" Tsunami introduced to them. "Oh yes!" She quickly allowed him into the living room and introduced him with the two children and Kakashi, "There's also one more, but he's outside doing something right now."
The man looked almost exactly how Naruto and Sakura remembered him; he wore a straw hat, and glasses that continued to droop down to his nose. He looked incredibly lazy still, and wore dirty clothes to prove it. They looked as if they were covered in dirt, and he had an ever so slight smell of alcohol around him.
Tazuna nodded, "Well, you all may call me Tazuna, the Super bridge builder. I build all the bridges in this country you see, all the blood and sweat I put into them, I should really become the super leader of this country some day."
Tsunami sighed, "Do you really have to say that all the time?"
"Yes." He replied, "I don't want my reputation to be ruined because some people don't know of me child, even these um, Ninja folks here, should know that."
Kakashi rested his hand on his forehead and rubbed it out of annoyance, "Is Kaiza with you at all?"
Tazuna looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "Well, you know we did go to town together, but he left with Inari to go off into the woods when we were heading back."
"Really?" Naruto asked, finally happy that they had a lead on where this guy was. "Should we go find him now?"
"Exactly what are you ninja doing here anyways?" Tazuna asked, sounding a little confused.
"We're here to assist a man you may know as, Kaiza." Kakashi answered. Tazuna's eyes widened in temporary shock, and sighed.
He turned to Tsunami, "Make sure that idiot of yours doesn't get into trouble with this Gatou character, I saw him in town, preaching to the people that he'd make our economy skyrocket; of course I don't believe the fool. He's untrustworthy."
"Why's that?" Tsunami asked.
"His eyes - You can see the greed and all the bad deeds he's done in the past." He looked down and stuffed his hand into his back pocket, and quickly produced a bottle, which everyone assumed was full of alcohol. "Well, any of you guys care for a drink?"
Naruto and Sakura shook their heads. Kakashi held out his tea glass from earlier and said, "Please, to the rim."
Tazuna smiled and filled it up, "I think I could get to like you!"
"Yep!" Everyone could tell Kakashi was smiling behind his mask. Anything to get rid of these mental images! He cried out within his mind.
"Kakashi-sensei! Drinking during a mission is prohibited! It's one of the most basic rules in the book!" Sakura shouted at the man.
Naruto glanced at her, "You know, you're probably the only person who even reads the books."
Tsunami quickly defused the situation, "Not now people. No drinking within my household when we have guest, especially when most of the guest are children below the age of ten!" She grabbed the bottle of alcohol and hid it from Tazuna's view, which made the man fall to the ground screaming about random things, and most of the ninja in the room thinking he was completely insane.
Before things could proceed in this direction, there was once more a knock on the door. Tazuna got up and walked to it. Only Kakashi got up to follow the man as he opened the door.
When the door opened three men stood out there, all having an equally evil grin on their face, and they all had their hands gripped on their Katana. "We're here for Kaiza. Is he home?" The one in front of the other two asked.
The one in front was obviously the smallest, he had on a winter hat that covered most of his hair besides a few brown specs that got through, and he wore really baggy clothing. The one on the man's left was much taller, and wore no shirt and had very little hair, his pants had all kinds of knifes and swords attached to it. The last man was the most normal looking, he wore glasses and gave Tazuna a sympathetic smile, his green eyes reflecting kindness, he was easily the opposite of his two companions.
"No, goodbye." Tazuna said suddenly very sober.
Before the door was able to close, the tallest of the men reached his arm forward and grabbed the edge of the door and held it open again, "Then don't mind as we come in and wait."
The three walked in, and followed Tazuna as he led them to the kitchen away from the living room where the rest of the people were. He didn't want these three, who he was sure were working for Gatou, to know that Konoha was helping them.
Kakashi had made several signs with his hands to Naruto and Sakura, they all used a quick jutsu to become camouflaged with the scenery, and they spied on the conversation. Tsunami walked in with Tazuna with their newly acquired guest.
"What do you need with Kaiza?" Tsunami asked, wary of the swords they all had.
"Gatou just wants to do some business with him. That's all." The smallest of the three said, not diminishing the threatening pose they all stood in.
"We promise, we're not here to do any harm." The man with glasses said kindly, "Gatou isn't the kind to do those kinds of horrible things."
Tsunami feeling the most relaxed near him, stayed by his side. If she could, she would run out and get away from here, but two factors stopped her from doing so. First of all, it would make the men suspicious, and secondly, she had three ninja nearby who would assist her and Tazuna if needed.
"Well," Tazuna looked around unsure if to say this, "Would you fellows like something to drink?"
(Far from the household, in the forest)
It was about five or six in the afternoon now, the sun was still up in the sky, but the light it was emitting wasn't near as strong it was just a few hours ago. The three were still up in the trees, simply chatting about random things, and finally they decided it was time to go.
"We should head back now, Tazuna should be there." Kaiza said as he slowly began to his climb down the tree with Inari clinging onto him.
Sasuke nodded and followed the man on his way down.
"Lead the way." Sasuke motioned with his hands forward. Inari quickly ran forth, not bothering to look back at the other two, but he knew to keep in sight of Kaiza, so he'd be spared from Tsunami's wrath.
Sasuke and Kaiza walked side by side. It was quite an odd sight. The child wore black clothes, and stood up to Kaiza's waist, but walked as though he had seen many hardships in his young life, which was only partly true.
Kaiza noted this, but decided not to say anything to the child. "So, Sasuke was it?"
"Yes." Sasuke replied, not saying anything more.
"You do know what the mission I assigned for you to do was, right?" Kaiza asked uncertainly.
Sasuke sighed, "Listen. I look young, but I have signed up to do this kind of thing. My squad, which mostly is my age besides our sensei, knows what we're here to do. We're going to be killing a future tyrant of this country, someone who'd use the economy for only his benefits, and will do anything to quell any signs of rebellion."
"You're much wiser than you look." Kaiza noted. Sasuke nodded.
"I get that a lot." Since I have come back, He mentally noted. I wonder if we're being too open with our intellect. It's a topic I'll have to keep in mind; Sasuke continued to think to himself.
Suddenly Sasuke heard a rush of leaves behind him. He looked at Kaiza who also noticed it. "Tell Inari to go ahead." Sasuke whispered.
Kaiza nodded and shouted, "Inari! Go ahead and tell Tsunami that we're coming home! I'm sure she's very worried right now!"
Inari looked over and smiled, "Ok, see you there Kaiza!" He then ran ahead without any other protest at all. Sasuke grabbed a Kunai out and continued walking as he quickly flipped it upside down and had the blade hidden from view of the enemy.
"Who's there?" Kaiza shouted out, his voice still strong, not at all faltered when a large group of people walked out of the forest surrounding them. They can conceal their numbers well, Kaiza noted quickly.
Sasuke looked around, and quickly looked back at Kaiza. "If you're going to try to fight us, at least say something first."
One of the men walked forth, "Kaiza, leave your kid Inari here and come with us."
Sasuke smirked, so they thought he was Inari? They must have not seen the child run away as they closed in and assumed that he was the child. This can be used to our advantage.
"What? What do you want with me?" Kaiza said. His chain of thought was close to Sasuke's, as he kneeled down and held his hands over Sasuke like a protective parent would do.
One of the multiple men came out of hiding and said, "Don't worry; we'll take real good care of your child there. You just come with us to see Gatou, and all will go like it normally is."
"Gatou is a tyrant, no way am I going to go to him. He'll have to come to me so I can kick his ass!" Kaiza said getting up off the ground, after realizing what he said wasn't such a wise idea, he quickly got ready to fight. "I need to learn to keep my mouth closed."
Sasuke stood still looking around the area. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen… "Kaiza." Sasuke got the attention of the man, "I'm counting fourteen of them. I don't know how strong they are, but they shouldn't be too bad. If my memory serves me correctly, He thought.
"That's too many," Kaiza said, his will faltering slightly.
Sasuke walked forward and called out, "Please, take me instead! I don't want you to hurt him!" He tried to act as Inari would, but couldn't bring enough emotion into it. The enemy, however, bought it.
"Oh? That might be good." One of them called out.
"No! Our mission was to take Kaiza! Not the damn brat he hangs out with all the time!"
"Get the man!"
"Yeah!"
Sasuke sighed, this wasn't going to work. "Okay, can I perform one trick for all of you?" He shouted, not waiting a single second, he put his hands together and focused as much of his chakra into them as he could, once he got enough, it exploded outward, sending a shockwave hopefully far enough so his partners could sense it and come to his aid.
"What?" One of the men shouted, "That kid! He's a ninja!"
"I hear Gatou has a large bounty on them!" several charged at the kid, not even wondering why a ninja was with Kaiza or what village he was from.
Sasuke quickly rolled away from Kaiza, being sure the fighting was a decent bit away from the man. Once he got up, and quickly formed the several seals he has always loved to perform, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He shouted and blew fire towards the on coming enemy.
Most got out of the way, but one was caught in it and was burning, probably to death. He quickly got his hidden Kunai and threw it at the nearly guy, piercing right through his upper arm, causing him to drop his sword and run away in fear.
The others saw the display, but didn't falter in their advance.
One of the larger men grabbed a katana and shouted to the others, "Get Kaiza, I'll get this kid!" The man suddenly pulled out another katana duel wielding them.
Sasuke looked at the large man, betraying no emotion on his face, I hope help comes soon. He thought as the man charged at him.
He closed his eyes and brought up a certain amount of chakra to them. He continued to focus until he felt the familiar power he loved to use so much. He reopened his eyes, and a grin came to his face as his sharingan was shown, It only had two dots, but it would evolve, the burning sensation they brought to him only months ago was gone.
"Ready?" Sasuke asked getting into his fighting stance.
The man paid no heed to the red eyes, figuring it was only a technique meant to intimidate him. "Ha, poor child, I'll cut off your head and give it to Gatou."
With that they both ran at each other. The man swung one of his two swords down and fast and hard as he could right where Sasuke was standing, Sasuke easily managed to dodge it, for he could see it slowed down, and was fast enough to get out of the way with all the training he had done. When the blade hit the ground, it sent dirt and grass in all directions in a small explosion.
"Where'd that damn brat go?" He looked around, astonished that the kid got out of the path of his sword.
"Up here!" The man looked up and saw Sasuke hanging upside down from a branch. He jumped down and tried to punch the man right in the face, but the other blade came in a sweeping motion, nearly hitting him. Sasuke barely managed to twist in the air to dodge it and hit the ground.
He then pulled out two Kunai and some string from his pouch. I haven't used this in a long time, He threw both Kunai at the man, who easily dodged both of them.
"Ha! At this rate, I'll kill you!" The man shouted, but was taken aback when suddenly he flew backwards and was pinned against the tree right behind him.
Sasuke had thrown more than two kunai, but the others were hidden below the other two, within the shadow of the original ones. With that he managed to tie the strings on all of them and tangle the man into the mess he was currently in.
Sasuke quickly began to make seals for the same technique earlier. Good-bye! He mentally said as he finished the seals and blew fire at the man, burning him to a crisp. The scream echoed throughout the forest, and he was sure that the town must have heard that one.
"Kaiza!" Sasuke shouted as he turned to see he was tied up, and wounded slightly. He noticed three downed men however; at least Kaiza didn't go down without a fight. Sasuke ran over towards him, and kicked the man tying the last knot on the ropes.
"Damn! That brat killed Koga! He was one of our best guys!" One of the many shouted, and Sasuke prepared for the fight.
Suddenly he twisted around and stopped a katana from nearly decapitating him. It hit his wrist guard and he quickly ran forth and kicked the man away.
Suddenly a hand came up from the ground and pulled him under until only his head was showing. "What the?!" He shouted as he went under.
Kaiza shot him a worried glance as a man came up from under the ground. A slash was on his headband, making him an automatic missing-nin. His headband protector showed that he was from the mist village. "So, this is the brat that was causing so much trouble? Heh, you all should just die and be over with it if he was doing so much damage to you all."
He wore a sleeveless black shirt, and a mask portraying a bull. He was well built, and had two short blades on his back. His pants were the same back color as his shirt, and had multiple pockets. From one of them he produced an explosive tag.
"You know what this is, right kid?" He noticed his headband, "Someone from Konoha eh? Of course you know what it is then. Too bad you'll have to die at such a young age." He kneeled down, and was about to post it on Sasuke's head when a kunai flew by and pinned the note several yards away on a tree.
"Who's there?" The missing-nin shouted out. Suddenly two people dropped from the trees. Both wore black, one had blonde hair while the other hair pink.
Sasuke sighed in relief, "You guys! You definitely took long enough!"
"Sorry Sasuke! We had some visitors at base we had to take care of as well!" Sakura said apologetically.
"Aw, Sasuke, you couldn't handle this many by yourself?" Naruto mocked, but became serious again, "What rank would you put all of them at?"
Sasuke analyzed the situation in his head quickly, "All of them are at least Genin rank in skill besides this guy!" He nodded his head towards the one near by, He is probably lower Jounin rank, besides that, this should be easy for both of you!"
Sakura smiled and grabbed some gloves out of her kunai pouch. "This will allow us to test where our skill lies right now."
Naruto nodded and cracked his knuckles, "Yep."
Both ran at the crowd who was not prepared for the maneuver. Naruto quickly dispatched several people quickly by jumping in the air right below the sun, so it blinded the enemy when they looked up, at that moment; he quickly threw kunai at their necks ending their lives quickly.
Sakura took a much more physical approach. She ran at them, making them all laugh. "You think a little girl like you can do anything?!" One shouted, but he was silenced when a powered punch from Sakura hit him directly in the neck, making him see black instantly. She twisted around and kicked another man in the face, probably ending his life, and turned once more and punched another person's blade in two.
Naruto landed right next to her and sighed, "I thought this would help us gain skill."
"Yeah." Sakura sighed, "Anyway, now it's just him." She pointed at the missing-nin.
One could tell he glared at her as he said, "What! I still have a few men with me!" He glanced at both sides and noticed the remaining people living were running for their lives. "You cowards!" He shouted at them. When they continued to run he threw shuriken at them, killing them off quickly.
"You'd kill your own allies because they're smarter than you?" Naruto asked, "You probably deserve to die since you want to fight us now."
The missing-nin grabbed Kaiza by his collar and laughed, "Heh, who said I would play fair?" he forced the man up and put one of his short swords at his throat, "Now go or Kaiza will die!"
"That's Kaiza?" Naruto said shock evident in his voice. Sakura and Naruto both were on guard, but lowered it when they found no way to counter this.
"Good!" The missing-nin said, suddenly he felt himself being stabbed from the back; Naruto stood there, a cold glare on his face. The Naruto lowering his guard in front of the man puffed into smoke. Not longer than a few seconds passed when the man Naruto stabbed suddenly poofed, and a log replaced his body.
Naruto was about to say something when he suddenly felt a blade go through him from behind, "Naruto!" Sakura shouted out of shock. The expression Naruto had on was full of pain as blood slowly made its way out of his mouth.
"There we go!" The missing-nin said, and pulled his blade out, but that instant Naruto turned to smoke and he felt his neck being sliced open by the real Naruto.
"If you're wondering," Naruto said, "It's Kage Bunshin." The missing-nin fell to the ground attempting to gasp for breath, while Sakura went and untied Kaiza and both of them got Sasuke out of the ground. Afterwards, all of them stood above the missing-nin.
His head motioned towards Naruto and said, "You know…" He coughed, "Gatou will hire stronger ninja when I get this report to him."
"What? You're going to die right here." Naruto shook his head, "You shouldn't resist, you'll die faster."
Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan and said, "Naruto. Don't waste your breath. This one is a Kage bunshin as well." Suddenly the man smiled and puffed into smoke.
"Damn! He's going to let Gatou know that we're here to kill him!" Sakura shouted, she looked at all around and made sure that he was not in their area. "We have to get to base now."
Naruto and Sasuke nodded, and picked Kaiza off the ground and helped him walk slightly.
"You children, do you have no regret for killing?"
Naruto looked down, "In the life of a ninja, you must never show your feelings in or out of battle. But I'm not like others." He looked up, "Yes, I admit that I regret killing people, but I always think that since I killed them, they won't kill other people, so by doing this, I am actually saving people."
Sakura nodded to his logic, "And when they are going to kill an ally, you will kill them to make sure the rest of the team lives."
With that they walked home. Kaiza noted the look of guilt barely evident on Naruto and Sakura's faces, and the lack of it on Sasuke's. He'd have to tell Inari not to get close to these children.
---END---
Documented changes:
-Some new dialogue added to the part where Naruto and Sakura are playing poker.
-A lot of cussing cut out, and I think this is the first chapter where someone told me kun did NOT equal the same thing as chan, because I never came across it! Anyway, Grammar changes occurred as well.
Oddly enough I probably changed the least things about this chapter than the rest. Sure I reworded a few parts so they made sense, but otherwise I found it to be a very entertaining read. I am actually kind of shocked that I wrote that fight scene involving Sasuke, I was really into it while I was editing this! Haha. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this!