Naruto found it very awkward to pretend to sleep for so long, he managed to make and dispel a bunshin without anyone noticing but he could only hope his patrols got the message to spread out.
The experiment proved successful when the impressions of a bunshin dispelled after an argument about who should dispel to let him know it worked from three different patrols hit the original blonde simultaneously.
Naruto did not like pretending to sleep, it was boring and nothing happened. He could use the bell and set up a rest spot in Tazuna's house in case something happened but then his teammates would wonder why he needed his bell to sleep and why he would gain a sudden insistence that his bedding be left in the same spot.
Failing that the immortal genin would just sneak off and set up a rest area somewhere else, he didn't really want his team to know about the bell after all.
The idea that this plan would allow the blonde to travel to Nami no Kuni whenever he wanted through the dream occurred to the boy, he figured that might be useful in the future. Mentally patting himself on the back was a brief distraction from the boredom of laying there for hours with his eyes shut trying to keep his breathing even in case Kakashi checked on him.
Naruto didn't think he'd ever had a worse night of sleep.
The next morning Naruto made more kage bunshin, mostly to keep his cell thinking he had indeed slept, before breakfast which Tsunami made and was eggs on rice with miso. The blonde gave thanks and dug into his share eagerly, he didn't feel hungry anymore but his body still functioned and filling his stomach helped him feel human.
"It's good to see you do have an appetite." Tsunami commented idly.
Naruto froze mid bite, he hadn't even realized he hadn't eaten much last night. He forced his body to relax before he responded, "I was kind of tired last night, I'm usually fine after I sleep." he bluffed before he continued eating, the last bit was an ironic truth given the relation of the dream to his immortality and sleeping.
Tsunami nodded as they continued eating, once they were done the shinobi followed Tazuna to his bridge. He had work to do and Zabuza or other assassins hired by Gato could attack at any moment, so the Konoha shinobi needed to be ready.
Kakashi glanced at his students, Naruto was on edge despite having kage bunshin with sensor abilities watching their backs but he chalked it up to the blonde not being comfortable trusting the bunshin yet. Sasuke had a similar air of false calm with an edge, while Sakura was just visibly nervous.
The jonin wished he hadn't let his genin convince him to put them in such a dangerous situation, the only silver lining of the situation was that Meizu was too injured to join in on getting revenge against Naruto for at least a week. Probably longer actually, that weapon was vicious and the wound had been deep but they might have an iryonin.
Kakashi hoped the enemy did not have an iryonin, they would be whittled down over time if that was the case. The man wondered if he should have risked a kage bunshin taking Naruto away from the fight to face Zabuza, but ultimately decided he'd made the right choice as chakra exhaustion would have been a game over in that situation.
Tazuna's workers all seemed to be in low spirits, dragging their feet and looking at the shinobi warily. The jonin couldn't blame them, Naruto didn't seem to like the bridge and Kakashi wondered if it was the number of blind spots.
Kakashi didn't like bridges much either, but he hid it better. Sasuke and Sakura unfortunately seemed to pick up on the blonde being nervous and it made them nervous too, which in turn made the civilians nervous.
The jonin made a mental note to lecture his students on using an impassive or brave face to keep up the morale of the people you're supposed to be protecting, clients liked their shinobi guards to be confident.
Naruto seemed to come to a decision, "I need to use the bathroom." he said and ran off, Sakura became annoyed as she assumed that was all that had the blonde so antsy. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, but he could not and would not follow the blonde even if he did think the other boy was lying.
Naruto sent a kage bunshin back to his team, he recalled the last time he'd tried to trick them Sakura had figured it out by hitting him. So before he made the bunshin he focused on the idea of remembering to use kawarimi if the kunoichi tried to hit him.
The issue was that the blonde was not particularly amazing at it, but as long as he didn't give Sakura a reason to hit his kage bunshin she should leave him alone. He vaguely recalled that the girl had not liked that he'd used henge to take her form.
"Sakura-chan is weird." Naruto muttered to himself as he wandered into the woods of Nami no Kuni, his bunshin had scouted them already so he had a general idea of the layout and he recognized landmarks he had not personally seen.
The blonde realized belatedly that he couldn't actually use the bell or his kage bunshin would all dispel, he sighed to himself and tried to relax with nature. He liked his plants at home anyway and he heard people call nature walks relaxing.
At first the boy thought it failed, every squirrel or bird moving caught his eye and prompted his instinct to hunt, to chase the moving animal. After the first few times he started to get comfortable though, he recognized the small animals not as beasts but as harmless.
Soon enough Naruto felt a bit more relaxed, no larger animals had come to pick a fight with him so he considered what to do until it was time to pretend to sleep so he could actually use the bell. His chakra control was still awful, so he grabbed a leaf and sat down.
Naruto put his back to a tree, took off his hitai-ate to rest it in his lap, and practiced making the leaf stick to his forehead with his chakra.
The leaf fell a few times but the blonde had nothing better to do so he kept at it until something caught his attention, his hackles raised before he even consciously registered why. Something bigger than the small animals he had gotten used to was nearby, something that got past his kage bunshin.
Naruto looked towards the sound sharply but was surprised to see a cute young girl, barely older than him with large brown eyes, long dark hair, and fair skin. Slender, dressed in a sleeveless pink kimono with red trim and plum swirls that went down to her ankles, a simple white obi tied in a bow, and brown sandals.
The girl seemed startled by his sudden movement, "Oh, I didn't mean to startle you, shinobi-san." she apologized and the blonde relaxed, "I'm just looking for a plant around here, a succulent with medicinal properties." she explained.
Naruto wasn't sure if he'd be much help, he didn't know the local plant life, but it was something to do, "Do you want help?" he offered.
The girl seemed surprised, "Are you sure? Don't you have ninja things to do?" she asked.
Naruto looked down at his hitai-ate, "Well, yeah, but I've got most of them handled." he answered with a shrug, "I might have already seen it, just describe it to me." he assured.
The girl considered him with a curious expression before she seemed to make a decision, "Well, it's a spike succulent, mostly green but red towards the tips." she explained and the blonde had a blank expression, "I read that it grows on the roots of trees around this region." she added.
That would explain why Naruto had not seen it, "Well, it has to be around here somewhere then." he mused as he stood up, tossed aside the leaf, and tied his hitai-ate around his forehead, "Hang on, we'll find it in no time." he assured.
Eleven kage bunshin scattered out of the cloud of smoke formed by his chakra, Naruto was starting to get a bit light headed, "Those were all physical?" the girl asked curiously.
"Yeah, I got a lot of chakra so I can make physical bunshin and a lot more of them than most." Naruto bragged happily, it was something he could actually be proud of since it was related to his human heritage as a shinobi.
"They can find things for you?"
Naruto nodded, "Kage bunshin are meant for scouting technically, they can patrol and if they get dispelled I know about it." he explained, "Plus they could just bring it back here to us." he added with a grin, "Oh yeah, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, what's your name?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, I'm sorry, it slipped my mind, I'm Haku."
Naruto was grateful to the strange girl for the distraction, "Nice to meet you, Haku-chan." he said happily as he looked around the roots of the tree he'd been sitting against, "So what do these plants do anyway?" he asked.
Haku seemed surprised, "Oh, they, well they can do a few things. The sap is anti-inflammatory, edible, and soothing for burns." she explained vaguely.
"You mentioned you needed it for a friend?" Naruto asked as they looked.
"Oh yes, burned himself." Haku answered quickly.
Memories of a flaming torch wielded by crazed humanoid beasts in dark dungeons flashed through Naruto's mind, "That sucks." he said in a level tone.
They searched silently for a moment, "Naruto-san? Why did you become such a strong shinobi?" Haku asked.
Naruto flushed at the praise and scratched his cheek nervously, "Huh? Uh, I guess I wanted to be acknowledged." he recalled.
Haku shook her head, "I mean, why train so hard to be so strong. Surely you worked hard to get to the level of using so many of those kage bunshin?" she clarified.
Naruto frowned as his scratching hand moved to the back of his head, "Oh. Well, I guess Uzumaki just have more chakra naturally? Sorry, I guess this might be weird to a civilian," or a human, "but uh, ninja clans have weird abilities." he explained nervously, barely holding his tongue on calling someone else a human as if he wasn't.
Haku looked strangely sympathetic and understanding, "I see, and your clan had more chakra than most then?" she mused.
Naruto wondered idly how she knew the Uzumaki was a dead clan, but he recalled Kakashi mentioned it was in a library, "Yeah," he agreed, "so I guess..." he trailed off, "I dunno, I have these natural advantages, so it seems wrong not to make the most of them y'know."
Haku frowned, "You trained because you could?" she asked.
Naruto shook his head, "No, that's not quite it." he denied, "I really did start for acknowledgement, then found out about my advantages later." he added, not mentioning the additional advantages he had gained before even learning about the innate ones.
Haku looked down, "I see, it's all you can do isn't it?" she asked sadly and the blonde stiffened, "Do you, you at least have others you can fight for besides yourself don't you?" she continued in a worried tone but the boy didn't have an answer, "I think people can be as strong as they need to be when they're protecting someone precious to them."
Naruto sighed, "That sounds nice." he agreed, "I did fight to protect my team recently, and that was probably the best I'd ever fought." he recalled his clash with Zabuza, "I'm beginning to think desperate situations bring out the best in me." he grumbled.
Haku seemed almost relieved, but still concerned, "I'm sorry for prying, you just seemed..." she trailed off, Naruto waited, "I shouldn't pry."
Naruto was about to ask what she meant when one of his bunshin returned with the plant described, "Found it." the kage bunshin said proudly, offering it out.
Haku accepted the spiky green and red plant, "Thank you," she said before turning to leave, "but you should know I am a guy."
Naruto's bunshin popped out of existence in surprise, "No way," he muttered, "a guy that much prettier than Sakura-chan?" he asked in disbelief but Haku was already through the tree line and soon line of sight was broken.
The blonde took a minute to recover from the revelation that he had been developing a crush on an older guy instead of an older girl, finally he coped by deciding it didn't matter anyway since he was an inhuman inhabitant of the dream anyway.
Naruto did agree with what the older boy said about protecting precious people though, but he had left out his selfish reason for protecting others, his need to be heroic to prove to himself he wasn't a monster. Civilians didn't need to hear about problems like that though, even other ninja didn't need to hear about problems like that.
The blonde returned to practicing holding a leaf to his forehead with his hitai-ate in his lap.
Before sunset Naruto got bored of playing with leaves and searched for a safe place to hide his body while he dreamed, somewhere to return from if he died. He'd gotten the impression from a kage bunshin that Kakashi had actually figured him out, and told him as much before he dispelled the decoy.
The blonde found a small cave, it was small and thanks to a small stream running through it the inside was wet.
Naruto sent in a kage bunshin, he was not getting bit by a spider again. Or whatever else might live out here that he had avoided by not crawling into small dark places to sleep.
There were bats, Naruto didn't even know bats lived around here, they were small but they still startled him when they flew past his head while screeching. He supposed that would do, the kage bunshin quickly confirmed nothing else lived there and he occupied the stolen abode, gripped his weapon and rang his bell.
Naruto's eyes fluttered open in the dream to the soothing voice of the doll, "It is good to see you again, ryoshi, however someone has already found your body." her words were unfortunately far from soothing.
Naruto scrambled for the tombstone that indicated where his body currently slept and stepped through the light and back into his body in the waking world, he jolted awake and his eyes darted around. He half expected to see Kakashi, but instead after a moment a stranger appeared at the entrance.
A white mask with the Kiri symbol on it with a wavy red line in place of the mouth was on the stranger's face, long dark hair tied back in a white bun holder with two locks framing the mask. A green haori with white trimmings tied with a brown obi was over a pinstriped outfit.
"You are a strange little shinobi." The stranger mused, "The moment you rang that silver bell your eyes shut into deep sleep, yet moments later you startle awake and begin looking for me."
Naruto was tense, the last two shinobi with Kiri symbols tried to kill him so he was a bit on edge, "Who are you?" he asked.
"I am an oinin," The masked shinobi answered, "Zabuza Momochi is my prey." they explained.
Naruto's eyes widened, the word clicked, hunter ninja, "Oinin?" he asked curiously.
"We hunt nukenin to protect village secrets. Zabuza's body is property of Kirigakure no Sato, please cooperate."
Naruto frowned as he cocked his head to the side, but the prospect of an unexpected ally intrigued him, "Okay." he agreed.
"First of all you fought him, correct? How did you detect him moving through the Kirigakure no Jutsu?"
Naruto's frown deepened, "How do you know I did that?" he asked.
"Zabuza's use of Kirigakure no Jutsu is well known, he is a master of silent killing, you would likely need to be able to in order to lure him into a straight fight." The masked oinin presumed correctly enough.
"How do you know that I specifically did that?" Naruto clarified, "Wouldn't my sensei be the better one to ask?" he questioned.
"You are the one who has maintained kage bunshin patrols for over twenty four hours and is currently separated from your team." The masked shinobi answered plainly, "You are an oddity, thus you were approached first."
Naruto guessed that did make sense, "Okay, well, uh, chakra sensing." he answered.
"Please do not lie, if that was the case you would have noticed me immediately."
Naruto flinched, "I, uh, look its a new ability." he excused, "I gotta hone in on it y'know." he tried to bluff.
"How did your weapon withstand clashing with Kubikiribocho?"
Naruto frowned and looked at his weapon, he was starting to feel cornered and not just because he was in a cave. He got out of the small space, "I don't know, why?"
The masked shinobi stood a good bit taller than Naruto, but the blonde realized the oinin probably wasn't much older than he was, "Kubikiribocho is a massive and heavy weapon, it is strange that a weapon with such a mechanism withstood clashing with it."
Naruto lifted his weapon and looked at the mechanism again, "My Nokogiribocho is just really well made." he insisted, he hadn't even upgraded it yet, he had been about to perform maintenance actually. Maybe he should get a more portable weapon maintenance kit for his tool pouch.
"I see," The oinin said evenly, "why did you let Meizu go?"
Naruto blinked, "Oh, you found him? Uh, I didn't want to kill him, and I guess Kakashi-sensei must have picked up on that because after asking some questions while he was drugged, which still didn't get much because they were just painkillers, we just kind of left him there to recover." he rambled, "Sorry, I guess we don't get a bounty because we didn't turn him in? We were kind of busy with this important mission."
The masked shinobi held up a hand to halt the blonde from rambling further, "It is fine, but you are correct about receiving no bounty." the oinin said, "Why are you out here alone?"
Naruto raised an eyebrow at the question, "Why?" he asked right back, he didn't want to answer that question.
"You are lonely, yet you care about your team enough to push yourself to protect them. Why not rest where they can protect you? It is illogical."
Naruto frowned, "Well I guess I'm illogical, don't you want to know more about Zabuza or something?" he asked.
"What was that bell? Why did it send you to sleep so quickly?"
Naruto's frown deepened as his stance shifted, "Are you trying to hunt me or something with those questions?" he asked, the line of questioning had pulled far away from Zabuza.
The masked shinobi paused for a moment, "Perhaps I wish to offer advice, why do you assume otherwise?"
Naruto knew he was paranoid since his trip to the depths, but he felt justified, "We're shinobi of different villages, why do you care that I want to be alone?" he asked.
"Do you want to be alone?" The masked shinobi asked, the blonde had to silently admit the guy hit the nail on the head. The genin did not like being alone, but he needed to be alone to avoid revealing too much.
"Yes." Naruto lied firmly and after a moment of silence the oinin acquiesced, in a burst of speed the masked Kiri shinobi disappeared and the blonde boy was alone again.
Despite not liking being alone, Naruto actually did want to be alone at that moment, but unfortunately he still had to endure a talking to from his sensei and endure another night of pretending to sleep. He was developing a headache.
By the time Naruto returned to Tazuna's home to face Kakashi's inquisition alone the blonde had what he thought was the perfect excuse, "I saw a cute girl, I wanted to flirt so I helped look for this plant thing that helps with burns, but it turns out she was a guy so I got really embarrassed and didn't want to come back." the blonde peppered his lie with truth without looking up.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "Alright, well I'm still impressed you managed to pull that off, but your above average stealth and combat competence aside don't go running off alone." he asked.
Naruto nodded, he wasn't sure why he didn't mention the oinin, he supposed it didn't matter much and the time to bring it up seemed to have passed. The blonde felt a bit more relaxed at least, if something went horribly wrong he could return not far from Tazuna's home and he had a way to get back to Nami no Kuni whenever he wanted.
Pretending to sleep for six hours straight still sucked though.
The next day was more of the same, but at the bridge Kakashi had something extra for the genin to do, "It seems our enemy is holding back, it's possible they met up with Meizu and are now healing him up. If they're readier earlier than a week they have an iryoninja and we're in trouble, but until they attack I can get you ready." the man explained, the blonde wondered if he should mention that Meizu was probably out of the picture.
"What is a week of training going to do?" Sakura grumbled under her breath, Naruto tried not to smirk since a week in the depths could do plenty for someone with old blood.
Kakashi ignored the kunoichi, "See those trees at the end of the bridge, you're going to climb them." he explained, "Without using your hands," he continued at their incredulous expressions, "using only chakra. This exercise will teach you to use your chakra to adhere to surfaces, as well as improve your general chakra control, both gathering speed and precision." he explained as he stepped over the guard railing and stuck to the side of the unfinished bridge before he began to walk to shore.
Naruto imagined how useful that would be in the depths and grinned widely, "Cool!" he exclaimed as he hurried to follow the jonin, his teammates followed.
Once they were at the trees the jonin tossed three kunai down, "Alright, mark your progress with these, gather the chakra to the soles of your feet and give it a go. You'll want a running start." he advised.
The three genin picked up a kunai each, made the ram sign, focused their chakras, and ran at the tree. Naruto went horizontal eagerly to run up the tree, but as soon as his foot hit the wood it splintered and he was knocked rolling back.
Sasuke made it a few steps but had a similar, albeit far less devastating, result. Although the Uchiha managed to cut the wood near his damage and flip to his feet before he hit the ground, avoiding the roll the blonde had needed to do.
Kakashi hummed, "Too much chakra and you'll just get knocked back, too little and you wouldn't have even stuck." he lectured, "Kind of amusing that the kunoichi who doesn't come from a once powerful clan is the one who got it on the first try." he continued and the boys noticed Sakura was at the top of her tree already.
Naruto ran at the tree once again, if there was one thing the depths beneath Konoha taught him it was persistence. Unfortunately he did not focus his chakra, thus he used too little and he made it a few steps before his lack of adherence to the wood surrendered his body to gravity, thankfully he at least managed to cut his progress with the kunai this time.
Sasuke's second attempt was similar, even if there was some slight progress to be seen from the two Kakashi decided they needed extra motivation, "Sakura-chan seems closest to the title of Hokage-sama at this rate, and it certainly makes the distinguished Uchiha clan seem second rate." he mused intentionally.
"Kakashi-sensei how could you!" Sakura snapped, convinced Sasuke would hate her now. The Uchiha paid her no mind as he and the Uzumaki ran at the tree again.
Hours later left Sasuke Uchiha panting breathlessly, sweating, and baffled. He knew the Uzumaki were supposed to have more stamina but there should be a limit to that right? Naruto was using kage bunshin to scout and patrol while training, but still Sasuke was tired first.
There was more than just expending chakra to the exercise of course, they were running around trying to get up the trees and there was an additional strain against gravity when their chakra finally anchored them to the wood.
Naruto wasn't even winded, he never needed more than a few moments to catch his breath, and he had quickly matched pace with Sasuke. The Uchiha had tried to maintain a gap but it hadn't worked, the blonde was overtaking him purely because he could not train for as long.
It was as humbling as it was infuriating to the Uchiha, who groaned, "Do you just not get tired?" he complained loudly.
Naruto flinched, he'd been so focused on trying to get to the top of the tree he hadn't noticed his teammates exhausted state. He then compared it to his own status and realized how it seemed, "Uh, I guess not? I never really thought about it, must be an Uzumaki thing y'know." he lied, fairly sure it had to do with the old blood.
Although Kakashi had implied it was an Uzumaki thing, and the adults seemed to think the Kyuubi enhanced it somehow. Naruto would go for that excuse if his teammates ever found out Uzumaki did not heal wounds in the blink of an eye or have nigh limitless stamina normally.
Thankfully Sasuke seemed to accept that excuse for now, and Naruto returned to trying to climb the tree with his chakra.
That night Naruto managed to get away to his hiding hole, a bunshin checked it was safe and he returned to the dream. While the blonde wanted to give his body a break he knew someone stumbling on his hiding spot was a possibility, so instead he returned to the operating theater.
The blonde inhaled the thick underground air, it smelled coppery, earthen, a bit dusty. It was ironic that the place which had terrified the boy was now a refuge from his own team, Kakashi would no doubt notice him missing and have more stern words for him.
Naruto had decided that harvesting some more Chi no Isshi and strengthening his body in preparation for Zabuza was a bit more important than not getting scolded, especially if it lowered the chances of anyone finding out he'd get back up if he died.
The dungeon had changed as it always did, and he saw the shadow of a cloaked, desiccated humanoid holding a simple bladed weapon like a sword, although it looked more like a scythe blade affixed to a short handle.
The blonde crept up on it before he swung and extended his cleaving blade at the humanoid beast's neck, the cleaving side of Nokogiribocho took the creature off guard and it died. Down the hall behind it a light source moved, Naruto forgot the beasts sometimes used each other as bait instead of fighting each other.
The genin charged the light source, another desiccated humanoid, this one with a spiked club and a lantern but no cloak, raised the lantern and opened its mouth. Naruto snapped Nokogiribocho shut and the sharp top of the blade sliced through the creatures neck, blood sprayed over the boy who delighted in another successful hunt.
Naruto decided to go deeper, curious about what else he could run into. He holstered his weapon and made a kage bunshin to scout ahead as he checked his pocket watch, soon he heard a loud thunderous sound echo out and got the impression of his bunshin being dispelled.
"Did I just get shot?" Naruto asked dryly, he did not want to lose his Chi no Isshi so he was hesitant to see what actually shot him. If it was someone mobile, a good shot, and not just a trap he'd stumbled into then he should retreat.
With no way of knowing the blonde decided to go the way of caution and left a kage bunshin to watch the hallway as he retreated back to the operating theater, he still had plenty of time before morning so he'd let his body rest while he relaxed in the dream.
Naruto awoke to the sounds of early morning birds, he double checked his pocket watch as he left his rest spot. It was hard to see as it was before sunrise, but the hands indicated it was sometime before five in the morning.
The blonde was satisfied with that and put the watch away as he began creating kage bunshin to replace the ones who had dispelled during his trip, then he returned to Tazuna's home. He still had not prepared a lie for Kakashi, but he didn't exactly have much time to worry about it.
At that point Naruto was hoping to sneak in and pretend he had been there the entire time, maybe if he was insistent enough everyone would believe him. Then he realized he was still covered in blood, a slight problem the blonde had overlooked when he went into the depths.
"Maybe I am stupid?"
Any further thoughts the blonde had were halted by a distant bang and one of his recently created kage bunshin dispelling, the impression of what killed them was a vague phantom pain across his back. Naruto stiffened as he considered the options, Zabuza was supposed to be an assassination specialist so it could be that he was making another move but that sound was oddly familiar.
The blonde almost ran into his sensei as he started to rush into Tazuna's house, the jonin had hands on his hips and a stern expression on what little was visible of his face, which dropped at the sight of the blonde covered in blood, "Where have you been?" he asked.
"I slept in the woods because I'm not comfortable sleeping around people," Naruto told the lie he had come up with quickly, "I didn't die so its fine but one of the kage bunshin I made to patrol when I woke up got dispelled just before I got here." he explained.
Kakashi's eye had narrowed at the beginning but by the end of the explanation it was wide with concern, "Why are you covered in blood?" he asked.
"The thing about that is-" Naruto began to explain before a loud sound echoed to them from across the woods and another impression of a bunshin being dispelled entered Naruto's brain, "Okay, would Zabuza use a gun?" he asked.
Kakashi shook his head, confused, "Did one of your kage bunshin get shot by someone?" he asked, that wasn't common. Guns weren't exactly common, they were expensive despite being easy to use, and they had a reputation for being harder to maintain than other weapons. For that matter why did the blonde genin recognize such an obscure weapon, and it still did not explain the blood.
Despite it being a while since using an explosion to propel a projectile was developed and a few advances had been made, they never took off as a war weapon after the Sengoku Jidai due to the prevalence of shinobi who never bothered with them. Some samurai had made use of them but Kakashi wasn't really sure whether or not modern samurai bothered with modern firearms.
It was entirely possible Gato had hired some mercenary with a firearm of some kind though, Naruto nodded, "I think so, that's what that sound is right?" he asked, trying to seem more uncertain than he was.
Kakashi frowned under his mask, the blonde should not have any way to recognize the sound of a gun, but maybe his bunshin had seen the weapon but not the wielder? The Hatake nodded as he considered it, "That was a gunshot, it's possible a civilian hunter is in the area-" he began.
Naruto scoffed, "The nearby village is way too poor for that." he pointed out, "I think my kage bunshin saw like one gun while looking around and it was owned by a guy who runs one of the few functioning stores, it wasn't for sale." he explained.
Kakashi thought about it and realized Tazuna's household didn't seem to have one either, then again his home wasn't that far from the rest of the village and wasn't exactly farm land. Still, boars could be around, the Hatake wondered how the family dealt with that.
"Go wake your teammates," Kakashi ordered, he'd ask Tazuna about how the family defended from wildlife, or if it was even necessary, when they were not dealing with someone hunting his student's kage bunshin, "I'll keep watch."
Naruto rushed inside, his right hand held his holstered weapon steady as he jogged towards the room his team shared. Sakura was already awake and leaning over a sleeping Sasuke, "What are you doing?" the blonde asked.
The pink haired girl gave a strangled yelp and leaped away from the Uchiha as the commotion woke the other male genin of cell seven, "What? Where were you!?" Sakura snapped, flustered even as she turned the focus on the blonde before she paled
"I was out," Naruto answered vaguely, "we might be under attack soon, come on." he added, motioning for the two to follow him. Sasuke seemed to need no time at all to get ready, Sakura swiftly followed the two boys outside.
"You going to explain who is attacking?" Sasuke asked on their way out the door, a little annoyed the blonde with the news had been silent for the five second walk. He eyed the blood, some of it was fresh but a little bit of it seemed to be drying.
Naruto shrugged, "I dunno, they've shot two of my kage bunshin." he answered.
"With a gun?" Sakura asked incredulously.
"Who even uses those?" Sasuke asked equally as incredulous.
"Clearly, whoever shot me used a gun." Naruto retorted dryly.
"They shot your kage bunshin, Naruto-kun," Kakashi corrected, "it's not healthy to think of their deaths as yours." he lectured, the blonde didn't see how it mattered since he had literally died on two occasions before he even figured out the jutsu.
"What kind of gun?" Sakura asked, curious.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "You would be able to tell?" he asked, he knew the kunoichi had high grades but he would be surprised if she knew a lot about firearms too.
Sakura flushed, "They, uh, well you know the Haruno's used to be farmers, and Otousan was worried I may encounter firearms doing missions for the village so I've had some crash courses. We don't have one back home though, I think Ojiji sold it when he moved to Konoha." she explained.
Kakashi had not considered that, "Okay, well I cannot identify firearms by sound." he answered.
"Me either." Naruto said, surprised he was able to say that honestly, he had no idea who or what shot him. Plus the acoustics above and below ground were different so it wasn't like he would be able to tell if it was a gun from down there, he'd only encountered one through a kage bunshin.
It occurred to Naruto that he was running into guns a lot more often lately as Sasuke rolled his eyes, "You got shot and you didn't even see what did it?" he asked and the blonde knew his teammate must never know it actually happened thrice.
"His kage bunshin got shot." Kakashi corrected idly, Naruto did not correct them on the number of times.
"Still, they're chakra constructs with the exact same abilities right? So if they couldn't avoid it he couldn't." Sasuke pointed out.
Kakashi sighed, "Well, it doesn't really matter what kind of weapon it is if you don't see the attack coming." he pointed out.
Sakura nodded, "Besides, while guns may have failed to make waves they should not be underestimated, a bullet in the wrong spot can kill and the explosion propels the projectile too fast to actually dodge, but you can avoid that with Kawarimi no Jutsu or by just not being in the spread of where the barrel is pointing." she lectured at length.
Kakashi pat the pink haired girl on the head for her teaching assistance, Naruto frowned, "Man, I should have practiced kawarimi more." he muttered.
"You have been practicing your chakra control," Kakashi reminded him, "just keep your hands free and an eye out." he advised, "Any more kage bunshin dispelled?" he asked, the blonde shook his head, "Odd." the jonin commented.
Then Tazuna opened his front door, "Hey you ninja coming in-?" he began but was cut off by another gunshot.