On the Wings of Revenge
By: Zeida and Maria (Maria)
Warnings: Insanity, crack, violence, blood gore, plotholes, randomness, lack of plot to begin with, language etc... etc...
Disclaimer: I don't own it.
Summary: Poor Naruto, I keep letting him be kidnapped. Zabuza finds Naruto after Haku, and takes him away. This is half crack nuttiness. Vengeful!Naruto. It's starting to look like a foursome to me but it's not. Just brother love? Gaara, Haku, Naruto and Sasuke...nuttiness. Shikamaru shows a lot too! Have I proved myself nuts yet? Inspired by my own nutty-ness.
ChApTeR tWo: The Blood in Your Veins
Naruto woke at 6:00 again. He did his eighty sit-ups and push-ups before heading down to breakfast. Zabuza-sama was out again. Another assassination, the blond guessed. When would he get a chance to see one? Haku was already waiting at the table, he always got up a little earlier to plan out the day. Naruto tried once to get up before him, but it seemed to go against the laws of physics. The blond could stay up all night and Haku would be up before him.
At the older boy's entrance, Haku looked up, smiling at the boy in all his nice new clothes that Zabuza-sama had gotten him. There was not a hint of orange on him, as Naruto explained that he hated the color, but it was the only color that they would let him buy. He wore now a sleeveless tight hoodie with a zipper running up the front. The hood was to hide his noticeable hair, and the fabric was camouflage patterned with various shades of blue, to suit the water orientated country. He sported a thin black belt around his waist to support any weapons that the pouch tied to his right leg with white bandages couldn't hold. His pants were a dark blue that mimicked the color of deep waters. He had the normal dark-blue shinobi sandals, regulation Mist output, and his hands were wrapped in white bandages as -to his dimay- the blond healed too fast and callouses didn't form. The peppy, and hungry blond plopped lightly into his seat.
"Itadakimasu!" The happy voice cheered, along with his black-haired companion's more dignified expression of gratitude.
They ate the meal in silence, but Naruto started asking Haku questions about the day while they were clearing up the table. The blond nin washed the dishes carefully and set them on the counter for Haku to dry once he finished wiping down the table. Afterwards, Naruto pulled out a stool to reach the higher cabinets for when he put the then dry dishes.
"What are you going to teach me today?" he questioned.
"Hmm... I think we will just go over Chakra control." the ice-nin decided.
"Aw... I wanna do something new today." the blue eyes whined a reply.
Haku bopped the slightly older boy on the head. "First lesson, don't whine."
Naruto nodded, cowed. This happened every time the blond whined, complained, or killed the English language. Zabuza once witnessed this and was forcefully reminded of passing the Hyuuga household in Konoha. There was a man ranting to a group of young Hyuuga children about how Hyuuga's do this or that and never do this or this or that... Disturbing...Although he was grateful for the improvement in the boy's speech.
"Next, I will quiz you on Chakra forms. If you do it perfectly, I will teach you something new that Zabuza-sama was showing me."
Bright blue eyes lit up and the day was planned. It always went like that, for the whole six months that Naruto had been in Zabuza's care. Haku has been with him for a whole year before they had rescued the other abused boy, and so Haku knew a lot more than Naruto. Zabuza decided that he didn't want to repeat his lessons, so the black haired child was saddled with teaching his new friend everything he knew while Zabuza taught him. Basically, Zabuza taught Haku who taught Naruto. No one minded.
The small ice-nin quickly came up with a plan of action as soon as Zabuza had told him that he would be teaching Naruto. He gave Naruto a sheet with everything that was to be done in the morning before he came to breakfast. It took a couple tries before the blond could come down in time to have a warm meal. The first time he hadn't gotten down until lunch and Haku had reprimanded him about sleeping in. That was about the time when got a new alarm clock.
Every morning he would do one push-up or sit-up more than he had done two days ago. Then he would go down to breakfast, eat as much as he could, bug Haku, and settle on a schedule for the day. Then they would go down to the gym, and stretch for an hour along with a couple warm ups. Haku would find a book with that day's class, and start explaining things to Naruto, while he asked question after question to make sure he got it. Some days they would find a question that neither knew the answer to, and write it down to show Zabuza-sama when he returned.
Zabuza was almost always impressed by the strange little questions that you would over-look normally. Normal ninja just didn't notice that kind of thing, despite their 'underneath the underneath' motto.
After Haku reviewed Chakra, he quizzed Naruto on it, waiting for the boy to get another perfect score. The blond would ace the quiz, or take it over until he did, and the ice-nin would pull out a book on whatever they wanted to see This time it was Human Anatomy. They studied it together, as this was something that Haku was still learning as well.
Zabuza would usually be back from his mission by noon, and head down to the gym to give them both weapons training. After two hours of aim, and handling practice, he would bring them to a secluded clearing to learn and practice ninjutsu. Naruto was always off to the side, trying to control the Kyuubi's chakra. Zabuza would give him small jutsu to practice, but nothing big until the child wouldn't lose control of the power that went into it. Naruto was very close to getting this.
Closer than Zabuza would have expected this soon. Motivation, and knowledge was a wonderful thing. The nuke-nin had lost most of his respect for the village of Konoha when he found out that the boy didn't know of the power that he possessed. If they had actually taught him...
After they were tired to the bone, the missing nin would let them go in for lunch. Naruto and Haku had learned fast that it was best to prepare the meal before hand. Again they would eat, but not in silence. Naruto would ask Zabuza all about the mission and tell him about what they had done and his progress with the nine-tails. Zabuza constantly wondered when he got a chance to breath between talking and eating and pondered why the "lack of air" didn't seem to affect him.
Of course there was a technique to be able to do that, it relied on burning one's chakra as air. Any Mist nin should know it, but he hadn't quite gotten around to teaching it to his students yet. It shall remain a mystery.
They would soon finish their meal and Zabuza would take up teaching again, quizzing the two boys on jutsus and the names of weapons. Their basic make up, and the best, or fasted way to defend against them. He would correct them and order them to look up extra on every weapon, or jutsu they messed up, to be presented to him the next day. This always took longer than one would expect and when the were done, it was time for dinner. Zabuza would make them watch him cook over stove so they could take care of it themselves if he was away on a long mission. (1) Haku and Naruto would retire to their room, doing the extra work, and stretching so they would not be too sore the next day. They always slept well, out like a very old light.
-:- -:- -:-
Today, however, Zabuza was still with them when Haku came down the next morning. Immediately the young boy was sent back up to get Naruto.
The two boys stood in front of their sensei and bowed to greet him before seating themselves and eating the breakfast Zabuza prepared. They looked at him questioningly, Zabuza was rarely home in the mornings. He gave them something that translated to a smile through his mask. Uh-oh.
"Today, you will accompany me on a mission. We are going to Sunagakure no sato in Kaze no kuni. As it will be the first time you will have been there, I want you to try and learn the layout of the village while we are there. That will be your lesson for today."
Naruto frowned at this, "Zabuza-sama, do you need the information? Or is this just teaching us to do this?"
"I do not need the information, but don't shirk. If you do not have a good idea of the structure of the village and two escape routes, you two will be doing nothing but strength and endurance exercises for the next week. And then all the work you missed to be made up."
Haku and Naruto nodded hastily to their sensei.
-:- -:- -:-
Haku and Naruto looked at the village curiously. It was about the same size as the Mist, according to Zabuza-sama, but a different layout. On the train there, the older nin had let them plan out how they were going to figure out the Sand village. He even gave a few comments and criticisms to help them. When they arrived, he bid them good luck and vanished. Somewhere, a ninja randomly remembered the smoking of a certain Hokage head.
Now the two apprentice nin were alone.
"What do we do...?" Naruto asked, looking at the foreign city in awe.
"We do as we planned" Haku answered, keeping his cool. The younger boy drew out two long pieces of chalk and handed one to the blond. He took it and nodded in a resolute way that Haku found adorable.
"Okay! I'll go that way and you go that way!" Naruto decided, pointing out the two routes.
The blond and brunette took off, heading in the separate directions. the would meet up in the middle, hopefully, at a park they heard passer-bys talking about. Until then, it was Naruto's job to find at least one exit and memorize as much of he place as possible. He kept to the shadows, taking note of the Kazekage tower and numerous businesses along the way, every time he went down a split path, he mark, with the chalk, where he came from and where he entered. Twice he came by a place that was already marked by chalk, meaning that Haku had been there and he didn't need to worry about it. Soon, he came upon the meeting place.
Naruto crept slowly closer to the park, looking around for anything threatening. To the left a shadow twitched. A small white hand appearing out of the darkness and signaled silently to the blond. The little nin nodded his head in response and turned to look at the park. There was a small boy, around their age, clutching a worn teddy to his chest. Naruto walked up to him, skirting around an out-of-place bloody ball. Killing intent rose from the redhead and he neared, sand lifting itself from the ground to swirl around the lonely figure. Suddenly the ball didn't seem so out of place. The boy turned to face Naruto, and his blue eyes widened in surprise. Dark rings circled bright green eyes, red hair flopped carelessly everywhere and above his left eye was a scar, 'Ai'.
'Love'.
Haku came out of his hiding place, and stands behind the boy, opposite Naruto. The child spun, glaring at the new visitor. "You can't kill me! I've already killed all the other people who tried!" he yelled, his voice young and high pitched. The ice nin raised an eyebrow, smiling sweetly, about to speak but Naruto cuts him off.
"He's like me, Haku-kun, can I keep him?! Pleeeeeeaaaase?!" The redhead spun again, staring at the blond, confused. Haku giggles, but the green-eyed child turns to him again, suspicious.
"You won't trick... me...?" He paused at the pair of hands taking his own and bouncing up and down.
"He'll come with us! He'll come with us! And he lives here, so he knows the exits! And he's like meeeeee!" the blue-eyed boy sang, dancing around with his confused and slightly unwilling partner.
"But you're gonna try and kill me..."
Haku giggled again, "Why would we want to do that?"
The child blinked at him, hands still captured. Naruto grinned at the boy, "Yeah! You're like me! Do you know that?"
The red head shook his head, green eyes looking at Haku and Naruto in confusion. Why didn't they attack him yet...? Or maybe this was an attack... Some sort of new killing style his father was trying out...
"Well, your village wants to kill you for a creature and decision you had no choice in."
No... not an attack... His father couldn't possibly be this smart.
Haku nodded happily at his charge's insight. "What's your name?"
The lonely boy looks up at him, sniffing. "G-Gaara." he hiccups. He looked at the two people being so nice to him as his vision starts to blur. Haku and Naruto balk at the tears running down Gaara's face.
"Nononononono! Don't cry, it's okay! We'll take you with us and you'll be nice and happy!" Naruto exclaims, enveloping the smaller boy in a hug. The ice nin follows suit and murmurs his own comforts to the child in their arms. He begins to bawl, clutching at them like lifelines. All his years of loneliness, and exile and terror of his power coming out in that salty liquid. The hole in his heart, wishing secretly for love from someone, even as his mind rejected it, filled slowly at their touch. He was far from healed, but it was a start.
The tears were just starting to subside as another presence entered the clearing. He raised a non-existent eyebrow at the sight of the three boys huddled together. That's the Shukaku boy in the middle, wasn't it. He thought to himself, he really wouldn't be surprised. The missing-nin walked up to them, crouching down to their eye-level.
"I take it that this means that you have completed your training exercise?"
Haku looked up at the familiar voice and smiled. He carefully extracted himself from the limbs of the other two, and bowed happily to Zabuza. "Yes, Zabuza-sama, though it ended a little... different than we imagined."
Naruto, noticing his sensei, hopped up as well. "Yeah, Gaara-chan told us all of the exits, and even a couple secret entrances, can we keep him Zabuza-sama?!" the blond began bouncing again, dragging Gaara ...again.
Zabuza looked down at them. He knew it. How do they do it? His first visit to Konaha and Haku gets Naruto. Their first visit to Suna and they snag Sabaku no Gaara. Speaking of Konoha, he really had to pay them a 'visit' about the poor blond not knowing how to read...
Argh! He was getting protective! Super powerful A-class missing ninja didn't get protective! They just didn't!
The black-haired nin re-directed his attention back to his apprentices. He must have been making an angry face because Naruto was on the verge of tears, Gaara was full out crying again and Haku was giving him that look.
"Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?!" Naruto begged, "He's like me..."
The missing nin frowned He was going soft, he knew it.
On the other hand two demons and a kekkei genkai...? And that puppy-dog look was starting to hurt his head. Must be some sort of secret mind control technique that the boys accidentally came up with. Like those smiles. "I never said I wouldn't take him." he said, unknowingly mimicking his answer to Haku, those months ago.
The poor unprepared missing nin took a step back at the blindingly happy smiles and two bodies that suddenly latched onto him. He groaned, pulling them off. "You're teaching him." the man stated.
"THANK YOU, ZABUZA-SAMA!!!"
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(1) I just imagined Zabuza in a pink frilly apron... 0o;
A/N: Alright, before anything else: I LOVE MY REVIEWERS! You are just so dang SWEEEET!. I'm sorry this was late, I kind died after being 'tortured' by a herd of chibi-monkeys. THEY'RE VICIOUS I TELL YOU!
Anyway, school is coming up soon, just to warn you. I really don't know if that will make updates faster or slower...
wstphl Thank you very much! ((gives you a Gaara-and-his-teddy plushie for being sweet))
DragonLady of Nerkila ((promptly faints)) Um... THANK YOU!!! ((dies, revives and gives you a puppy-dog-eyes-Haku-and-dancing-Naru-chan plushie))
Belletiger Here ya go! ((Gives you an adorible-concentrating-Naru-chan plushie))
The Lye: THANK YOU! You are too sweet! ((Dances and gives you a Zabuza-pondering-the-super-smiley-no-jutsu-and-the-puppy-dog-eyes-no-jutsu plushie))
Reviews are my anti-depressant today!
Forever adoring of her reviewers
.E ..E ..E ..E . Kakki/Maria/Queen of the MEEP. . 3.. 3.. 3.. 3.