A/N: Nope, you are not dreaming, and no, this is not a drill, it's another chapter of Mirror Love, yay! As of now, you can hopefully expect chapters more frequently, and not have to wait a whole year for another chapter. In compensation, the chapters will be bigger.
The reasons for the huuuge delay is… Well, firstly and foremost: Real life can be a bitch and get in the way, especially because I'm in college now. Secondly, I not as interested in Naruto as I was before, so motivation took a nosedive. Thankfully I have my co-author and beta, TheWolfBoss, to help me out.
Now, this arc in particular will consist of three huge chapters, and then we will go into an original arc, which will involve nasuverse elements, and shall make one particular Naruto villain a bigger treat than he was in canon.
I do hope you can still enjoy this fic even after so long, so, please, have a good read.
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Mirror Love
Chapter 8: Nightmare in Wave-Part 1
"It seems clear," Naruto commented as he walked into the clearing of a training ground, which was fortunately null of any ninja.
A black mist appeared beside him and turned into the form of a young girl, Naruko. She looked around the field in a contemplating manner, humming in confirmation as she used her senses to scan the general area.
"Alright," the Uzumaki said as he moved his hands into a familiar position. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu." Several Naruto clones then puffed in existence and wordlessly scattered to keep watch of the Anbu and any shinobi looking to enter their training ground.
"I'm sure we won't find anybody here at this time."Kyuubi murmured in both of their minds. "After all, yesterday was the anniversary of the First Shinobi World War's end. Their feeble minds are most likely brain dead from consuming so much alcohol.
"Better safe than sorry," Naruto replied with a shrug. "There's no assumption in a shinobi's life, that's like asking for a death sentence."
"Whatever, do what you want. Just remember why we came here in the first place."
"Ah, shut it, you grumpy fox." Naruko remarked as the said fox's growl went ignored. "Everything is clear so far, I don't sense any chakra signature so far, there's only normal wildlife here."
"Good, now we can get started." Naruto said before he sat on the ground with his legs crossed and got into a concentrated pose with a hand cradling his chin.
Even though Naruto received team training from Kakashi, he still preferred to train by himself to develop new seals. He usually disliked training his sealing techniques at his home because he can't risk blowing up his apartment and have people to see him as a more serious threat than before. Privacy seals such as the Jammer Seal to turn the Hokage's crystal ball useless and the Black Screen Seal to make any transparent windows or whatever in his house be non-transparent definitely won't hide his apartment turning into a giant fireball. That, plus the fact that he's a fond lover of nature, was why they always train on seals outside.
No matter how much Konoha hate him, or how much he despise them back, there were still many beautiful things underneath the surface of hate and corruption. It was a shame all of it are now being wasted on the delusional fools.
Naruto sighed and looked around the clearing as if he was trying to spot something. His eyes then caught sight of a faraway target in a random tree.
"Hmm, maybe fifty yards or so..." He whispered to himself. Naruko looked at where he was looking and spotted a small squirrel. She sat down next to him and waited his next move.
Naruto lifted his left hand and took a deep breath so as to stop his arm from shaking and throwing off his aim. He opened his palm, a single seal appearing in the middle of it.
"Fire."
"...!"
The squirrel suddenly found itself startled by a loud thunk and was no longer able to move itself. Its little eyes looked around and only managed to find a small kunai with glowing scribbles on it that was covering a small area of the bark it was on. Its little brain could not comprehend what was happening as the furry creature could only make frightened noises as it tried to move.
"Oh, it worked, Naru-kun!" Naruko exclaimed with a smile.
"Haha, it worked without a hitch! It only covers a small area around the kunai though. But it worked, the Paralysis Seal is now complete!" Naruto said with a grin on his face.
"Huh, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, brat." Kyuubi complimented and insulted Naruto at the same time. "However, you still need to make the seal transfer itself to the target on contact. You can call it a success when your clones can tag someone with it without getting themselves caught in the effect."
"One at a time, Kyuubi." Naruto told the Bijuu as he stared at his hand, studying the seal on it. "One at a time."
Naruto was excited that they finally managed to create working paralysis seal and although the formula behind it wasn't difficult at all, it was still hard to make the implementation of the effect as the seal tended to paralyze them whenever they handled it with a kunai.
Naruko was actually working on the seal in their mindscape during their team training and mission time, though she would occasionally consult Naruto on something. They had been working it for a while now, for two weeks to be exact. Kakashi had given them a useful tip.
"We still need to make a better Launcher Seal..." Naruto thought out loud while staring at the seal in his palm.
"That seal you made based on those reports about flying enemy ninja using Kunai Launchers?"
"Yeah, that's it. It was amazing really, their technology was so beyond us at the time it's a wonder how they lost, their kunai launchers fired projectiles at much, much higher speed and rate than the scroll versions of them. I can at best hope to recreate their technology with seals." Naruto commented, still analyzing the seal on his palm.
"Well, both of us have those on our two hands, they have a rather big storage range AND can launch objects at high speeds! It's useful for long range combat and Naru-kun is essentially a sniper with how good his accuracy is!" Naruko complimented while grinning.
"It's still not perfect. While both of you can easily picture the object sealed there and take it out to fire it continuously, it's still as limited as a scroll launcher. It doesn't fire strongly enough and the capacity is pretty limited. And while it's easier to aim, it's unlikely it will deal much damage without the surprise element."
"I've been thinking for awhile... Pocket dimensions created from seals are pretty limited. No matter how good the seal is, there is really no place to store a near infinite number of items. And once fired, the said item will mostly likely be lost, especially in battles. I've thought about two solutions." Naruto said with a hand in his chin and eyes closed. "The first one is to create a seal to store things inside our mindscape." Naruto said.
"Heaven?" Naruko asked, making Naruto chuckle a little and reply.
"Yes, Naruko-chan. Heaven." He said with a smile.
"Oh? Do explain."
"It's simple. I've noticed, but it seems that no matter how big I make our mindscape to be, there's seemingly no end... and how is that possible? Doesn't the human brain have a limit? My answer is that the mindscape is actually linked to our souls rather than our brains. I can easily create a place in our mindscape to be able to hold an uncountable amount of items in such a manner that we will never need to carry scrolls or bags again. I'm thinking about making a seal to store and summon things from inside my mind." Naruto explained, impressing them both.
"Wow..." His twin whispered in awe.
"Huh, not bad. I can actually confirm that. I once stretched my legs by running as far away as possible from this idiot."Kyuubi ignored the angry shout from the blonde girl and continued on."And actually ended up lost quite a few thousand miles after that. If you are wondering, all that space is pretty much empty, only being an endless grass plain with a few trees far between each other. I wouldn't be surprised if the sky was the same. It was quite refreshing."
"So it's indeed a very big space... This makes me think of many theories, but let's move on to my solution to the second problem, which is losing items..." Naruto commented, once again closing his eyes in concentration.
"I'm thinking about trying to create a Owner Seal or Possession Seal which will allow me to claim objects, effectively marking them as mine and allowing me to summon them from wherever in the universe they are, thus making it impossible for the enemy to steal it. Also, I'm thinking of combining it with the first solution, I will call that hypothetical seal the Gate Seal for now so I can then store owned objects in there and be able to pull them out at will. That means even if an enemy takes anything I launched at them and attempts to use it against me, I can simply summon the weapon back at my hands or send it back to our mindscape. I also want to combine it with the Launcher Seal to make a large scale artillery attack with stored weapons. I think we should work on that next." Naruto explained, once again impressing them with his genius, at least when it comes to seals.
"Impressive... but don't forget to improve your paralyzing seal as well! Finish it up before moving on, brat."
"Yeah, I get it. You're a slave driver." Shaking his head, Naruto freed the poor squirrel from his trap with a handseal and went back to his training.
XXX
It was 8:25 by the time Naruto arrived on the training ground on the next day. Sasuke and Sakura were already there, looking quite annoyed. He nodded at them both and went to sit at his usual spot, under a tree not too far from them.
While he indeed did decide to try at least start over with Sakura and Sasuke, it didn't mean they were friends. Hell, Naruto still didn't care at all about those two outside of the team. Acting like a team did not equal to liking each other.
For the past two weeks, Kakashi had been drilling them endlessly in teamwork, be it on mission time or not. They had to learn how to operate as a single cell; a hand sign code to communicate with each other silently; and possible combinations of jutsus/attacks/weapons they could use, of which Naruto was particularly useful thanks to his seals and made up for each other's weaknesses on the battlefield.
Even though he had a solid taijutsu style, Naruto was mediocre in close quarters, thanks to him favoring seals over physical training. He compensated his weakness by being a master with seals and having monstrous amount of chakra. He could make barriers of any size, could store ridiculous amounts of supplies in his seals, and had excellent long range attacks. He could also launch projectiles from seals in his palms at ridiculous speeds and over incredible distances, as well as increasing their deadliness with his Gale Palm jutsu, one of the three jutsu in his arsenal.
The other two jutsu Naruto mastered were found in a dusty section of the Shinobi Library. Both of them were D-ranks, even though they were both surprisingly difficult to master and useful as hell. The first jutsu was Air Current, which could be used to make his projectiles ride a path of wind created by his chakra, which could confuse an enemy of its trajectory. The second was Demonic Echo, a technique used mostly by ninja who frequently takes assassination missions where the user use the wind to 'throw' his or her voice and all the noise they make around the area, which was very useful for him since he rather snipe from a long distance... After all, it's better to quickly end a battle before it even starts.
Naruko, even though she was not a member of Team 7, always paid full attention to Kakashi's lectures and always tried to practice whatever drills he gave in their mindscape. She would know what to do as she already knew Naruto literally better than himself and had a 'vomit inducing' level of synch with her original as Kyuubi said.
She, in contrast of her twin, had excellent close quarters efficiency due to her unique body type of being a mist of chakra. She can't be hurt by physical attacks as they just pass through her without doing any harm and thanks to this, Naruko is also immune to many jutsu, especially those of Earth Release, making her a force to be reckoned with against a physical attacker. The Shinome, while not having all the potential it could have, is still a very useful tool, especially if Naruko ever want to invade enemy territory to weaken an enemy's defenses or steal something.
She had two jutsu in her arsenal, one of them being Demonic Echo, which she learned for the simple fact it can make her targets piss in their pants out of sheer terror, and the other is called the Mist Fragmentation, a D-Rank (Self Ranked) close to mid-range support jutsu. The latter is a technique she created with Kyuubi's help.
Naruko doesn't really 'have' a body, she was a mass of chakra and, unlike a tailed beast whose chakra were too dense, her chakra was diluted like a mist. As such she had the unique ability of being able to create a true henge, meaning that she was an actual shapeshifter. The Mist Fragmentation was categorized by Naruko as a wind release jutsu because she could make use of the wind to transform into a cloud of chakra and then scatter around a small area. If a Hyuuga were to look at her, they would instead see scattered lights that could be easily passed off as glowworms and Konoha was full of those. However, she cannot cover a large area as it would make her dispel due to lack of chakra. The larger the area she covers, the more her chakra gets diluted. Her current scatter limit is around ten meters in diameter.
Sakura and Sasuke, or the 'expendable ones' as Naruko calls them, made their own share of progress in the last two weeks. Sakura didn't make any terribly good progress ever since she tried to take her career seriously, but she was getting there. She took the role of the strategist for the simple fact that she could easily outsmart both Naruto and Sasuke together. This made Kakashi give them a lecture about brute strength not always being enough to win a battle.
Sasuke started to train even harder than before, both in an attempt to keep up with the team and out of sheer desire for revenge. While still antisocial, he at least began to communicate with his team in missions and was surprisingly good at teamwork. Sasuke didn't seem to learn any new jutsu in those two weeks, but his overall strength and speed did increase. He also declared he had an ace up his sleeve, promising to surprise Naruto the next time they spar.
As for the team's mission record, they had completed about 30 D-Rank mission so far in the past two weeks, doing about one to four missions per day.
Kakashi, true to his sadistic persona, greatly enjoyed torturing his students with exercises that could only barely be declared 'training' like dodging real kunai while running around the field and workout exercises that had been taken straight out of Gai's handbook complete with sparring sessions right after that with the excuse that it would increase their stamina. Naruto was pretty much the only one who could really keep up with those exercises and even he seemed exhausted after them.
Then come the D-Rank missions, which were torture enough as it was. Kakashi, for some reason, insisted Team 7 do the 'Capture Tora' mission at least once a day and made sure to have the situation concerning the capture to be different each time. The cyclops assured them that this was training for real tracking and capture missions, for no matter how much of a combat oriented squad they were, all shinobi have a need to have some proficiency in tracking.
Naruto asked for training on avoiding said trackers, which made his two teammates look at him oddly. Kakashi just said "We'll get there."
"Ahh." Naruto relaxed and began to drift off to spend time with Naruko. If there was one positive point of having Kakashi as a sensei, it's that training only begin at 10, sometimes 9:30, which most of the time guaranteed a good night of sleep and, in Naruto's case, some extra quality time with Naruko.
XXX
When Naruto once again opened his eyes, he was standing inside the little wooden house inside his mindscape, or more specifically in the bedroom. He looked around for a moment, not able to find his beloved twin.
He then wandered around before he saw Naruko sitting on a sofa in the lounge, her eyes closed and a unreadable expression on her face.
"Naruko-chan?" Naruto asked as he got near her slowly. She seemed to shake off whatever she was doing and looked at him with a bright smile.
"Naru-kun! Welcome back! Please sit!" She patted the spot next to her and Naruto quickly complied with a grin. The twins interlaced their fingers and Naruko rested her head on his shoulder.
"Are you alright?" He asked, feeling a little concerned. Naruko just rubbed her head on his shoulder and hugged his arm.
"Of course, as long as you are here, everything is fine." She replied genuinely and Naruto could just feel that indeed, he was the sole reason that she was showing this much happiness.
Naruto turned to her and grabbed her shoulders, looking her in the eye. They were slightly teary, but she was smiling at him. He smiled back and cupped one of her cheeks with his hand.
"You're very cute, Naruko-chan. I love how sincere your affection is." He said before moving in to kiss her, which Naruko returned happily.
"I love you..." She replied, before returning to the kiss.
In truth, Naruko was trying to control her depression before. She hated that she couldn't stay alone and simply be lazy without her emotions attacking her. Naruto had a lot of pent up negative emotions and they will never leave her.
She was his shadow, the holder of his suffering.
But that's okay, for what she said was true. Whenever they get together, she was truly happy and all the bad emotions get washed away.
She's going to protect this happiness, for both of them.
Meanwhile, Kyuubi once again felt the negative emotions in the house vanish without a trace and sighed. He may need to have a private talk with his host one day.
XXX
The moment Kakashi stepped into the clearing, Naruto opened his eyes and yawned, feeling quite good after his time with Naruko.
"Slept well, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, walking over to the blond boy, who just shrugged.
"Very." He smiled slightly to himself. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that as it was rare to see him smile in a conversation. He must've had one hell of a dream.
As Sasuke and Sakura made their way to their sensei, Kakashi took a scroll out of his pocket. This made the three Genin grimace, thinking they would have a D-rank mission this early.
"Guess what, you three?" He drawled out maliciously as their grimaces deepened. "I got us... a C-Rank mission!" The jounin cheerfully said with an eye-smile.
...
"WHAAAT?!" Sakura exclaimed while Naruto and Sasuke both gawked silently. "B-but, Kakashi-sensei, isn't a bit early for us? We only done 30 missions so far..." She then asked, trembling a little in hesitation.
"Actually, I think it's about time." Naruto suddenly said, earning an agreement from Naruko.
"Hn, for once, I agree." Sasuke said, actually smirking in what could be said to be good humor.
"Now, now. Before you get too excited, let me explain it to you..." And so, Kakashi went on to explain to his genin what this mission was about. He requested the lowest level of danger with the highest chance of encounter with bandits as possible, the purpose was to see if they were ready to move on to C-Ranks or if they still needed to keep doing D-Ranks.
"So, this mission is actually to test how well this team performs on unfamiliar grounds. Since it's an escort-and-protect mission, Naruto will be placed in charge of the security detail because of his clones and seals." Kakashi explained. Naruto nodded and Sasuke seemed to want to protest, but wisely kept his mouth shut after Kakashi gave him the evil eye.
"I assume the guy over there is our client?" Naruto asked once Naruko informed him of someone coming their way.
"Yep. Let's wait for him to get over here, shall we?" The cyclops nonchalantly responded, idly flipping a page in his book, which he had suddenly taken out.
After a few seconds, Team 7 felt horror as the person got close enough for them to get a good view on him. The client was an old man with a beard and spectacles with a towel around his neck and a pointed hat on his head. The problem with him... He was drunk as hell.
"Hey... Takashi-san, I'm here. So... where are the super ninja who will escort me back home?" The drunk man, who had a half-empty beer bottle in his left hand, asked with a hiccup while looking around.
"It's Kakashi and they're right here." The jounin replied, pointing at the three still-petrified Genin.
"What... you mean those brats are supposed to get me home safely?!" He yelled in drunken outrage.
The insult had made the three angry, more particularly Sakura as her face was red and her fists were trembling. Before the sole kunoichi of the team could yell at the old timer, she was stopped when Kakashi raised a hand.
"Yes, they are. Do you have a problem with it?" The cyclops blandly asked as he looked up from his book to stare at his client. It was a simple question, but unfortunately for the client, his drunk mind was not able to detect the underlying threat in those words.
"Are... Are you kidding? Look at them, how can three little kids... help protect me against bandits?! M-might as well... I might as sign my own death sentence!" He hiccuped again before taking a large swig of his drink. Kakashi hummed behind his mask before he calmly smacked the bottle out of the man's hand, causing the client to cough harshly from the sudden disruption of alcohol as the glass shattered on the ground.
"Now listen here, Tazuna-san." Kakashi lazily said as he put away his book. "You insult my students, you insult me. These three are not kids, they're soldiers I have trained and are under my orders. I have no doubt in my mind that with these three as a team, they can handle any run-of-the-mill bandits willing to rob you."
He then shrugged his shoulders. "But if you don't believe me, then go home. After all, these three trained ninja can't handle regular bandits according to you, but I'm sure a sad old drunk like you wouldn't have a problem getting home by himself." Kakashi drawled out mockingly. "Wouldn't you agree?"
Tazuna was sweating as his sobering mind caught what the jounin said and he began sputtering. "N-now wait, I-"
"Shut up." Kakashi's bored tone never changed as he stepped forward till he was face-to-face with his client. Tazuna wanted to move away, to be anywhere other than where he was out, but he could not tear his eyes away from the shinobi's black eye. There was no life in them, there was just... nothing.
That was a sobering reminder to Tazuna that the man before him was a stone-hearted murderer who could easily kill him in a blink of an eye and would not lose any sleep over it.
"Here's what will happen... First of all, you will apologize to my students for underestimating their abilities. Then, after I give them the mission summary, you and I will be taking a trip to clear your head... with cold water. Do we have an understanding?"
Tazuna quickly answered him by nodding his head rapidly, earning an eye-smile from the jounin.
"Great! It's a good thing we're both on the same page because otherwise..." He opened his eye slowly and Tazuna felt his soul wilting away when he saw a glint in the jounin's eye. It wasn't a glint of life, but instead...
He saw death.
"Well, anyway. I'm glad you understood me perfectly because it is a pain to hide bodies in Konoha, people ask too many questions. It's ridiculous if you ask me." Kakashi then stepped to the side and turned to face his team, who were staring at him with wide eyes while Tazuna paled from his words.
"U-uh, y-you..." The old man immediately stopped talking when Kakashi lazily glanced over his shoulder at him.
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and apologize before I do something only you will regret."
With that said, Tazuna quickly bowed at the waist toward the three genin. "I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"
Naruto could only stare at trembling man before an aggravated sigh escaped his lips as he waved off Tazuna's forced apology. "You're forgiven, just don't let it happen again." He said as his teammates reluctantly nodded.
Relief filled the old man as his body sagged from mental exhaustion. "Thank you, thank you, tha-"
"Yeah, yeah." Kakashi interrupted his client before he turned to his genin. "Back on topic, this is Tazuna, obviously our client. He requested the 'basic escort pack' as there are possibilities of bandits on the road to the Land of Waves or vandals that could try to stop Tazuna from completing his bridge. We will escort him back to his home and guard him until he finishes. Any questions?" Kakashi asked as he took out his book again. He idly noted his client fidget nervously, clenching his fingers as if wishing they were wrapped around a bottle neck. The cyclops narrowed his eye as this wasn't the type of fear that Tazuna had directed toward him. No... He was afraid of something else.
Kakashi glanced away from the man when he saw Naruto raised his hand.
"Anything we need to know about Wave?" He asked with a professional tone. Kakashi mentally nodded, glad his former sensei's son was taking this seriously.
"It's a small civilian country located in one of our borders. Forests cover most of the land so we won't be too much out of our element. However, it tends to have a misty climate so expect visibility to be limited. Since the country is small, they don't possess much of a military force. Their main economy is trading, mostly from fishing. Since our client is a civilian, we will be taking the main roads to there." Kakashi answered him from memory. He did stop there for rest after missions in the past.
"Alright, can I have a map?" Naruto was already formulating a plan in his head. One of his main specialties is escort, mostly thanks to his barriers and shadow clones. When Kakashi handed one to him, he stared at it for a few seconds before speaking up.
"Sakura, Sasuke." They then looked at him. While Sasuke seemed a little reluctant, he acknowledged the fact that this was more in Naruto's field.
"We'll be using the basic Triangle Formation. Sasuke, with your sharp vision, you should stay in the front to intercept any incoming attacks. Sakura and I will stay at the sides and keep a lookout at our surroundings. As soon as any conflict begin, we will immediately drop those tags to the ground." Naruto unsealed three kunai from the seal in his palm, earning a surprised yelp from Tazuna. Attached to the kunai were paper tags with intricate scribbles, seals.
"They will create a triangular chakra barrier around him and protect him from any incoming attack while we take care of the threat. They should withstand any attacks our enemies could use, provided they won't somehow use a B-Rank Jutsu, and even then it should absorb at least just one attack from that level. Since this is a basic escort mission, it should be sufficient." Naruto did not miss Tazuna fidgeting that time while Sasuke and Sakura nodded and took the tags, He wondered if the client was nervous about something else or was still scared of Kakashi, who had his head buried in his book. Naruto was leaning to the former since the man was nervously looking away from the team and not checking to see if Kakashi would slit his throat from behind.
"Hmm..." Naruto then shook his head and decided to ask a question to Kakashi.
"Kakashi-sensei, are you participating in the formation as well?" Naruto asked as he wanted to be sure.
"I'll stay behind your formation and will only step in if things goes out of hand. But I'm surprised, for such a simple plan it's actually pretty good. Keep it up and you will be chunin in no time." He eye-smiled at Naruto, making the blonde lost his professional face and look away in embarrassment. He wasn't used to praises from other people.
"Heh, thanks!" He smiled, before retaking his former seriousness. He looked at Tazuna, masking what little suspicion he felt of the old man.
"Tazuna-san, you can relax. If anything happens, my barrier will protect you. One last thing, is there anything else we should know about?." Tazuna once again seemed nervous as he looked away from Naruto's eyes.
"N-no, that's everything."
'This guy is such a bad liar, even a blind man could tell.' Naruto frowned at the man's answer and he could feel Naruko glaring at his client.
"Well, if that's all then let's get moving. Tazuna said it should take about two weeks to complete his bridge so, including the time needed to get there and any eventual delays, pack for about a month. You never know what could happen. We'll meet up at the main gate in two hours." Kakashi then put a hand on his client's shoulder, causing him to flinch, and directed his stiff body to a nearby pond.
Several seconds later, a terrified scream pierced the air as a loud splash came after it, all while Team 7 just stood there.
"Alright, I'll see you two in two hours." With that, Sakura took her leave.
"Hn." Sasuke grunted and turned to walk away as well.
"Wait," Naruto called out, making his teammates turn to regard him.
"Be sure to pack extra medical supplies, I have a bad feeling about this." That was all Naruto said, earning a confused stare from his teammates, but they still nodded in understanding nonetheless. With that, Naruto also took his leave, he already was enough supplies in his seals and scrolls to last a few months, so this was a good opportunity to spend some quality time with Naruko.
XXX
Two hours later at the Main Konoha Gate, which now had shinobi teams entering and leaving, Team 7 was reunited. Sasuke and Sakura were carrying backpacks with them while Naruto just had a few extra tool bags on his person. Surprisingly, Kakashi was already there and much like Naruto, he had no backpack except for few scrolls on his person.
With him was Tazuna, who had on new clothes and thankfully no longer smelled like a brewery. The man was eagerly glancing at the road as he gripped the straps of his backpack tightly.
"Is everyone ready? There's no turning back once we leave." Kakashi said as he made eye-contact with his students over his book.
His students answered him with nods of determination.
"Good... You three, get in formation. Tazuna, just stay in the middle. We'll be like this until we reach Wave." Kakashi instructed as his team nodded.
XXX
"Tazuna-san, can you tell us more about Wave?" Sakura suddenly asked in the trip, perhaps out of boredom as the group was moving in a civilian pace toward Wave.
"Well... Like your sensei said, we're just a very small country that fish and trade with the neighboring countries and cities to sustain ourselves. We also make shipment with our ships. However..." He said, his face morphing into a sad look as the whole team began paying attention.
"What happened?" Sakura asked.
"We've hit a rough patch lately," Tazuna explained honestly, yet vaguely. "The reason I am building this bridge is because all the people of Wave have been bankrupted from our failing economy. The only way to revitalize the economy is to build a bridge to the mainland."
"Wait, your story doesn't add up." Naruto spoke up, glancing to the side to see Tazuna's nervous face as Kakashi narrowed his eye at the back of his client's head. "I thought Wave was successful, how did your economy fail and why would building a bridge help?"
"Naru-kun! I can sense two foreign shinobi up ahead! They're hidden in a puddle and are waiting for an ambush!"Naruko exclaimed in alert, causing Naruto stop briefly before resuming his walk.
He then grunted just loud enough for his fellow shinobi to hear and raised a hand as they turned their eyes toward him, making several gestures with it. His message translated to: 'Get Ready, enemy ambush, Shinobi, two.' Naruto couldn't see Sakura's reaction as he was only looking forward, but he did see Sasuke widen his eyes before turning his head to face the front, his hands twitching in anxiousness and excitement.
Kakashi, however, narrowed his eye and looked at his client. Tazuna seemed totally oblivious to the whole thing, only confused about the sudden tension.
Naruto could see the puddle now and it was steadily getting closer with every step they took. His heart was beating rapidly as his hand brushed his kunai pouch.
They walked past the puddle, all while pretending they never noticed it. Just as Kakashi passed the puddle, spiked chains suddenly appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around his chest and legs, preventing him from moving. The ends linked to two cloaked-and-masked shinobi, both possessing horned headbands from the Hidden Mist. Both of them possessed a gigantic metallic claw in one hand with both of them holding the ends of the spiked chain.
"Is this the best you got?" The cyclops said with a bored tone, obviously ignoring the danger his life was in and immediately angered the two ninja with his nonchalance. They gave their answer by sharply jerking the chains that held Kakashi, shredding his body into smithereens, causing Tazuna to scream.
"One down." The left ninja with two horns on his headband declared.
"Four to go." His partner on the right with one horn finished.
The three Konoha genin immediately dropped the tagged kunai at their feet and watched as a translucent, bluish barrier appeared over Tazuna. The two enemy shinobi glared at them impassively, never noticing Kakashi's body and blood turning brown.
"A barrier like that..." The left one declared.
"Won't stop us for long!" The right one declared and they charged at the genin.
They didn't get very far, however, as Kakashi suddenly appeared in front of them, shocking the two. The jounin then took hold of the chain that connected them and strongly yanked it, which caused their heads to crash into one other. Surprisingly enough, the hard blow to each other's head was enough to knock them out.
Naruto and Sasuke were about to complain about not getting a chance to test their skills before they noticed Kakashi's expression as he turned to face them. They could see in his eye that the man was truly angry.
"Naruto, keep the barrier up and send your clones to form a defensive perimeter around us. If anything moves, take them down." Kakashi ordered with finality, honestly scaring Naruto with his tone. The Uzumaki quickly summoned ten shadow clones and sent them off to keep watch around the group, ignoring Tazuna's surprised gaze.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. I want you three to pay attention. We will be getting an impromptu lesson on interrogation." Kakashi said as he the took a metallic ninja wire from one of his pockets and tied the two shinobi to a nearby tree.
He then shocked the two awake with his lightning chakra as pained yells filled the air.
"What the fuck?!" They said in unison, struggling to move before realizing Kakashi was standing in front of them with his hands in his pockets.
"I think it's pretty obvious at this point that it's going to be a bad day for you two." The jounin cheerfully said with an eye-smile.
"Fuck you!" The left with two horns exclaimed.
"We will tell you nothing!" The right with one horn declared.
"Seriously?" The cyclops strangely seemed disappointed as he regarded their insults with a raised eyebrow. "Couldn't you two be any original with insults? Ah, what am I saying? The Demon Brothers are just two wannabe ninja who think they can play with the big boys."
The now-identified Demon Brothers glowered at Kakashi.
"FUCK YOU!" They both yelled angrily.
"No, no. What did I just say? Eh, forget it. You Gozu..." He said to the captive with two horns and turned his head to his brother with one horn. "...and Meizu are fucking stupid."
"I'm Meizu!" The two-horned brother stated loudly.
"And I'm Gozu!" The one-horned brother exclaimed.
"And I'm someone who doesn't care," Kakashi drawled lazily before holding up a hand covered in lightning chakra, making the brothers' eyes widen. "Normally I would torture you guys for hours before feeding you to my dogs, but you two caught me in a foul mood and I simply just don't have time for it. So... Meizu, you only have one chance to tell me who hired you and your brother to kill our client before I turn your brother into vegetable."
"Don't tell him anything, Meizu!" Gozu shouted as his brother nervously glanced back and forth at Kakashi's lightning hand and him as the cyclops strolled over to Gozu.
"If you don't then you and brother will die a very painful death. If you give me a name, I'll knock the two of you out and leave you behind. You have three seconds to make your choice."
"Gozu..."
"Don't, Meizu! We're dead either way!"
"Three seconds are up." Kakashi then lowered his lightning-covered hand to Gozu's head.
"Fuck! Alright, alright! It was Gato!"
Kakashi froze as the lightning dispersed from his hand, just inches away from Gozu's head. Meizu's breath was erratic as he watched the Konoha jounin moving away from his brother to stand in front of him. He was shivering as the cyclops bent over so that they were face-to-face, a dangerous glint in his sole eye.
"Repeat that," he demanded in a menacing tone.
"I-it... It w-was Gato, ok? The fucking shipping tycoon, he hired us to kill the bridge builder."
"Hmm... Who else is after the bounty?" Kakashi's dangerous tone never changed as Meizu's gulped. "I know Gato wouldn't hire just you two to get the job done."
"W-we're working with Zabuza Momochi and Ameyuri Ringo." Meizu began to gather some confidence once he muttered those names and continued on. "You don't stand a chance against those two! The bridge builder is good as dead!"
...
"We'll see." Kakashi said before he grabbed Meizu's head and harshly jerked it to the side, breaking his neck.
"NO! MEIZU! YOU MOTHERFUCKER, YOU KILLED MY BROTHER! I'LL KI-"
Gozu's shouting was cut off and Kakashi covered his hand in lightning chakra and slammed it on top of Gozu's head, causing the electricity to spread throughout his entire body and making him scream in pain as his eyes rolled back in his head.
Meanwhile, his spectators were watching with a varied mixture of shock, fear, disgust and, in Tazuna's case, outright horror.
Sasuke was hyperventilating, he was having flashbacks of the massacre and swore to himself that he saw Kakashi being replaced with Itachi's form for a moment. He had to concentrate very hard just to stay upright.
Sakura was on the verge of tears, looking at it all with her hands in her mouth. She, however, was fighting a downright, evil feeling of sadism that was threating to make her smile. She could literally hear her inner self cheering Kakashi on and could only feel a mixture of nausea and enjoyment.
Naruto was wide-eyed at the sight. He knew Naruko had tortured all her victims, perhaps much worse considering her evil nature, but it was actually his first time seeing someone being tortured while not insane in Kyuubi mode. He closed his eyes and turned away from the torture, cutting off the view from Naruko and Kyuubi, who were quietly enjoying torture of the enemy shinobi.
Tazuna had emptied his stomach contents on the ground and was looking away with his face horribly pale, praying that the same wouldn't happen to him.
By the time Kakashi was finished, all that was left of Gozu was a smoking husk, which was basically a skeleton with crispy skin and liquefied organs.
"What a mess..." Kakashi drawled as Naruto turned around just in time to see his sensei cut off Meizu's head with his kunai and sealed it in one of his scrolls. "And that, my cute little genin, is just one way you can interrogate enemy shinobi. Using their own bonds against them... By the way, if you're going to dispose of them later, make sure to preserve the heads for possible bounties, especially for missing-nins." Kakashi explained, still looking at the dead brothers.
"Oh my God, why did you have to do that?" Tazuna asked in a shaken voice. This time, Kakashi did turn around to face them and they could immediately tell that he was absolutely furious as his killing intent was directed at their client, who started to quake in fear.
"You... I'll deal with later." Kakashi turned to his team. "THIS is the real shinobi world. It's dog-eat-dog with everybody after each other so you MUST be ready for whatever you may find. This is but one of the horrors the world contains and I want you all to be prepared for it. By facing those horrors, we are willing to dirty our hands in blood so others wouldn't. That is why we as shinobi exist. Don't flinch at these horrors. It's ok to feel repulsed at these things because we're all humans, but don't ever think about it in situations like this one. If it happens during a fight, it may cost you your life." He then eye-smiled weakly to his students, before resuming his glare on Tazuna.
"And there's the other thing we must address." Kakashi clenched his fists as he strolled over to Tazuna. "You should that I fucking despiseliars..." He icily hissed.
The old man was sweating as he stammered to explain himself. "N-n-now w-wait, I-"
Kakashi suddenly launched a punch, shattering Naruto's barrier as if it was made of glass, and grabbed the front of Tazuna's shirt to jerk the man toward him. Their noses were inches apart as the Uzumaki was surprised that his barrier was broken with a single punch. Granted, it wasn't his best, but it still took some serious strength to obliterate a barrier of that level.
"You knew... You knew about Gato all along and you said nothing." The jounin glared at his client with killing intent as the grip on his shirt tightened. "Your decision to omit the details to Konoha and say that this was just a simple C-Rank escort mission could've cost three genin their lives... And you know what would've happen if that was the case? I would fucking destroy you and Wave itself. Your family, your friends, your neighbors, I would kill them all if YOUR fucking mistake gotten my genin killed. God would not save you from me and trust me, he wouldn't want to. Now... Give me one good reason why I should not leave you here." Kakashi said with a malicious tone. Tazuna was shaking like a leaf in a storm, crying in shame before he sighed in resignation.
"Kakashi-san... I know it was selfish of me and I put your students in great danger, but you have to understand that Gato starved us to the point where even our nobles don't have the money to pay for a high-ranking mission to liberate us from his tyrannical grasp. What I paid for in Konoha was all we could afford. Please... You're our only hope. Everything is on that bridge. My friends and my family are starving and suffering. His goons abuse us, steal from us and leave nothing but destruction behind, people even die for just bad-mouthing Gato! Please, you got to help us, no one else can!" The poor old man was already crying his eyes out as he begged Kakashi for help, who kept glaring coldly at him.
"Situations such as this happen everyday in the real world. We're not heroes, we're killers. For me, abandoning you to your fate right here and now would just be another Tuesday; it doesn't affect me in any way." The silver-haired man said coldly, making the bridge builder slump further, as if in resignation to his fate.
"However, we will continue onwards with the mission, BUT it's only because I got unfinished business with Gato, nothing else. If it wasn't for that, I would kill you myself." Kakashi then kneed Tazuna right in the liver and let go of his shirt, causing the man to drop to the ground like a sack of rocks while cradling his stomach. The jounin greatly held back his strength so he wouldn't kill the old man, but his client would be pissing blood for the next few days.
"And believe me when I say it would be very easy to do so." Satisfied at the message given, he turned to face the team.
"Naruto." Kakashi called out.
"Y-yeah, Kakashi-sensei!"
"We will now be using a reverse Triangle Formation. You will cover behind us while Sasuke and Sakura guard Tazuna at his sides. I will be up front for the rest of the trip. Use your clones to scout in a wide area around us." Kakashi commanded and his student quickly complied, making more clones. After waiting for Tazuna to get back on his feet, they continued their journey.
XXX
It wasn't long after that till they reached their destination, or at least close to it. They were now riding a boat in order to smuggle themselves into the country without Gato's thugs noticing. The poor boatman looked nervous as hell, having commented that he had to put the engine on minimum so it would not make any noise.
"Wow, that bridge is big..." Sakura quietly muttered in amazement, earning a nod from Naruto and a grunt from Sasuke. Kakashi looked unimpressed as he had seen much bigger bridges throughout his shinobi career.
"It's my pride and joy! That bridge is our hope and it shall give us a bright future!" He declared while laughing loudly before wincing in pain. However, nothing could dampen his mood as his hope and spirit was renewed at the sight of his greatest work.
"Tazuna-san! Shut the hell up or they'll find us!" The boatman hissed in panic, getting the bridge builder to quiet down in embarrassment.
"That bridge can be easily taken down, you know? A few explosives and it goes sky-high." Kakashi commented nonchalantly, making Tazuna visibly deflate.
Naruto heard his sensei's words and decided to later offer the man to reinforce his bridge with seals, to make it nearly invulnerable. He already done so with his door and windows at his apartment, he's sure he can make a bridge this large be able to shrug off A-Rank jutsu like nothing.
"I would still be able to bring it down in a single stab."Naruko remarked with pride.
'Well, your eyes are rather unique, dear.'Naruto answered as he hid his grin away from his team. However, Kakashi had caught the smirk and assumed he was conversing with his Bijuu. The jounin said nothing as he went back to reading his book.
It was a short moment before the boat reached land and the team with their client exited their transport, only to find a mist covering everything in front of them, making it difficult to see. Kakashi quickly held up his hand, signaling his genin to halt.
"This mist is stock full of chakra! There's a very strong shinobi here! Be careful, Naru-kun!"Naruko exclaimed worryingly in Naruto's mind, for whoever was there was easily stronger than her twin and she was concerned for Naruto's safety.
'Don't worry, I'm sure Kakashi-sensei can handle whoever is there.'Naruto assured her.
"You, get lost. It's dangerous here." Kakashi said this to the ferryman, who nodded quickly and turned his boat around toward the opposite direction.
"Stay cautious, I know this jutsu. Do not attempt to engage, just focus on protecting our client." Kakashi declared, earning nods from his students and a gulp from Tazuna.
The cyclops motioned with his hand for the team to stay back as he took a few steps forward. Suddenly the mist began to slightly clear until they could see a figure appearing in front of them from the mist.
"Well, well, well... Looks like nobody have killed you... yet."
The man was tall and very muscular with pale skin and short spiky black hair. He was shirtless, wearing only grey striped pants, matching arm and leg warmers, and a belt for his sword. Bandages were wrapped around the bottom half of his face and he also had a Kiri forehead protector that was sideways on his head. The said sword for the belt was now resting on the shinobi's right shoulder with the hilt in his hand, allowing the group to see that it was an incredibly large butcher knife.
"Not for the lack of trying... Zabuza." Kakashi said in a rather friendly tone.
"Of course not. After all, how many would want to claim they were able to kill Kakashi Hatake, a demon among men?" Zabuza replied, obviously grinning from the way he looked at Kakashi.
"Is that why you're here?" The cyclops asked as he crossed his arms. "For bragging rights?"
"Tch, don't insult me, scarecrow." Zabuza said as his left hand softly traced over his bandages. "I care nothing for that sort. This... This is just simple revenge."
"Shouldn't have tried to kill Kumade then." Kakashi remarked with a shrug. "But I guess I'm the last person to be reprimanding you about revenge."
"Ah, that's right. You got a beef with that little fucker, don't you."
"Yep." The jounin simply confirmed.
"Well, Gato's going to have to wait his turn because now I'm here." Zabuza then glanced over Kakashi's shoulder at Tazuna, whose legs were feeling like jelly at the moment. "You know, the only reason I took this job was because the old man went to Konoha for help. I've been praying to Lady Luck that one certain jounin would take on the job... And lo and behold, here you are."
Kakashi smirked at the man while his team watched on with confused expressions, wondering how the tone between the two ninja on opposite sides could be so friendly.
"Where's Ringo, Zabuza?" The cyclops asked out of the blue as he uncrossed his arms. "Cat's out of the bag, the Demon Brothers told me."
"Hn, they were fools to think they stood a chance against you, even if they had no idea you were the infamous Kakashi Hatake." The swordsman snorted disdainfully at his lackeys' mistake. "And as for Ringo, she's not here. This is between the two of us."
Naruto and his teammates suddenly tensed when the atmosphere around them became heavy as the mist slowly thickened.
"Bring back memories, doesn't it, Kakashi?" Zabuza asked sinisterly just as the heavy mist swallowed his form. The cyclops stayed calm as he kept his eyes forward. "However, it won't be like before. Ever since that day, I've trained myself until I could no longer move. I pushed myself to the brink till my pores became bleeding, till my chakra reserve nearly ran empty, till my body could no longer handle the stress... And even then, I've never stopped. It was all to become stronger. For me to be stronger than you."
Naruto could barely see his sensei's form in front of him as the swordsman's voice was being amplified from everywhere in the mist. He quickly signaled his teammates to plant the barrier seals to protect Tazuna as they took out their kunai.
"The only way to survive in this world..." Zabuza suddenly appeared behind Kakashi with his sword ready to bisect him. "...is to be the strongest!"
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura shouted as she and her teammates watched in horror at the sword swinging down.
Just as the blade cut into Kakashi's flesh, he immediately exploded into smoke, catching Zabuza off-guard as he swiftly leaped away from a kunai shooting out from the smoke that was aimed at his neck and immediately held his large blade as a shield, just in time to stop the jounin's fist from smashing into his face.
The Kiri swordsman shoved Kakashi away before swiveling around to cut him in half, which the cyclops ducked under and lashed out punches at a rapid pace, hammering Zabuza's midsection several times before he launched a side kick to the ribs that sent the man cartwheeling toward the lake.
Zabuza growled as he pushed himself up to stand on the surface of the water and glanced up to see Kakashi land in front of him.
"Don't tell me that's all you got, Zabuza." The silver-haired cyclops mockingly said as he took a kunai from his pouch and got into a stance. "Are you a demon... or a shit-talker who can't walk the talk?"
The missing-nin merely rolled his neck as sections of water around them began rising. "No need to worry... That was just me testing your reaction time."
Naruto widened his eyes as the rising water then formed into clones of Zabuza himself. There were around thirty of them surrounding Kakashi, who calmly kept his eye on the original.
"You're still at a disadvantage, friend." The cyclops remarked mockingly. "One-tenth of your power is not enough to stop me, why don't you up your numbers to a hundred? You just might stand a chance."
"You overestimate yourself, scarecrow." Zabuza shot back as he again rested his butcher knife on his shoulder. "Now is the time to show me why they call you Kakashi of the Sharingan."
"What?!" Naruto turned his head to see Sasuke's eyes bulging as he stared at his sensei's back. "He's an Uchiha?!"
"Stay focused, Sasuke!" The Uzumaki told him as he turned back to the scene unfolding on the lake. "Now's not the time."
The Konoha jounin only narrowed his eye at the swordsman.
"You gotta work for it, Zabuza. I don't believe in free handouts."
A chuckle erupted from the man's throat as he menacingly grinned at Kakashi. "Guess I'll just have to get you to show me."
Just as Zabuza finished his sentence, the water clones immediately bum-rushed Kakashi, who stood his ground. He ducked under the first clone's swing and stabbed it in the stomach, causing it to burst in water as the jounin swirled around visible electricity arcing around his free hand, which he used to punch another clone. The contact caused the electricity to branch out and travel to ten other clones around it, making them all revert back to normal water.
The cyclops then raised his kunai, grunting behind his mask when he managed to block an overhead swing from a clone as its blade buried itself halfway into the jounin's kunai. Two clones suddenly appeared at each of his sides with their butcher knives ready to bisect him horizontally. His kunai finally broke under the pressure from the clone's knife and Kakashi quickly canceled the chakra beneath his feet, falling into the water right before the three swords clashed into each other.
The clones didn't get a chance to follow up on another assault as the cyclops jumped out off the water several feet away with a large windmill shuriken in hand. He twirled in mid-air and sent it flying to the clones, decapitating all three as it continued on. Another three fell to the spinning mechanism before it was cut in half by a clone, who then sprinted toward the drenched jounin with the rest of its brethren.
The first five clones were quickly cut down when Kakashi took a kunai in both hands and easily danced around them, slashing at throats and stomachs. He dodged a swing aimed for his neck and stab the clone where the liver would be located, turning it into water before swirling around to throw his kunai at another clone's neck, who was too slow to dodge the projectile.
The jounin then covered his free hand with lightning chakra and slammed his hand onto the surface of the lake, sending out an electrical shockwave that wiped out the rest of the clones before they could attack him. He didn't get a chance to take breather as he quickly leaped to the side, barely dodging an overhead slash as the blade slammed into the water.
Zabuza's eyes met Kakashi's as the swordsman expertly turned his butcher knife around to strike horizontally at the jounin, who jumped back to avoid the blow and followed up with a roundhouse kick to Zabuza's face. The missing-nin quickly blocked the kick with his hand and grabbed Kakashi's ankle, not allowing him to escape. He then let go of his sword, catching and balancing it with his foot as he curled his hand into a fist and used it to land devastating blows to the cyclops' midsection.
Kakashi let out a hiss before catching Zabuza's fist and lifted his other foot to kick the swordsman in the side of his head, making him lose his grip on Kakashi and letting the jounin kick him again before he jumped away. Zabuza immediately followed after his nemesis as he kicked the sword up in his hand and lunged after the man, who slammed his foot onto the lake surface, erecting a water wall between the two that made them lose sight of each other.
The wall was swiftly cut in half not even a second after it was created and Zabuza ducked under a kunai before burying his sword into Kakashi's gut. The two of them stared at each other over the sounds of the three genin's gasps before Kakashi suddenly puffed into smoke.
The swordsman didn't get a chance to move before he was stabbed in the liver from behind. Kakashi twisted the blade in deeper, but gained a surprise when Zabuza then turned into smoke as well. The said swordsman suddenly appeared from the smoke and slashed at Kakashi, cutting through his flak jacket as blood flew in the air. The cyclops quickly jumped away from Zabuza and glanced down to survey the damage.
There was a large gash that went from the jounin's right shoulder to his left hip and the blood has already begun seeping through the gap of his jacket. He looked up to see Zabuza flick the blood off his butcher knife before he suddenly lunged toward him.
Kakashi immediately tilted his head sideways, just in time to avoid getting his head lopped off as the blade cut through his mask and grazed his right cheek, leaving a thin red line. Zabuza had left himself open from the attack and the cyclops swiftly noticed the fact as he opened his right hand. Time slowed as a spinning ball of chakra began forming in his palm, catching Naruto's eyes.
"That move..." The jinchuuriki whispered to himself.
The Konoha shinobi then lifted his palm and brutally slammed the ball of chakra into Zabuza's stomach, causing the swordsman's eyes to bulge in pain. Nobody could see it because of his mask, but Kakashi had a bloodthirsty smile as he grind the ball further into his target. The ball of chakra then exploded, propelling Zabuza away from Kakashi.
The Kiri swordsman skipped across the water like a ragdoll before hitting dry land, which flipped the man up in the air with his limp body front-flipping a couple times before he hit the ground hard on his back. His sword, which took a trip in the air as well when Zabuza lost grip of it, stabbed itself into the ground right next to the man's head.
Kakashi's feet touched the dry ground and stood two dozen yards away from the swordsman with his back to his team and client. There was a tense silence in the air before a rumbling sound came from Zabuza's chest.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The loud laughter that came from Zabuza was so unexpected that Sakura dropped her kunai out of shock and she quickly picked it up as her teammates watched on with baffled expressions. As for Tazuna, the old man looked as if he was going to faint any second.
Kakashi nonchalantly rolled his shoulders as Zabuza finally calmed down with the last few chuckles escaping his lips.
"Ah... That was fun..."
After saying that, the swordsman pushed himself off the ground without expressing any pain at all and turned to the group, allowing them to see a nasty, spiral burn on his abs that was large and had steam coming from it.
"Now..." Zabuza took hold of the hilt and yanked his sword out of the ground before pointing the blade at Kakashi, his eyes filled with maliciousness and mirth. "Let's continue our dance."
Before the two shinobi could lunge at each other, Zabuza suddenly tensed up and it was apparent that his face twisted into a snarl behind his bandages. "Y-you interrupt... our fight?" With that last word, he went limp and immediately fell flat on his face.
...
The cyclops stared with confusion in his eye at the unmoving man before catching sight of a metal needle sticking out of Zabuza's neck. He nearly growled when a mysterious shinobi appeared between him and Zabuza, surprising the genin and putting them on edge. The slender shinobi wore a standard Kirigakure pinstriped outfit with his brown hair in a white bun holder, a white hunter-nin mask covering his entire face.
"Thank you, Konoha-san." The hunter-nin suddenly bowed slightly, confusing everybody but Kakashi. "I've been tracking Momochi for several days, now it's over for him. I will take his body and sword to Kirigakure now."
Kakashi hummed as the shinobi turned to pick up Zabuza. "No, you won't." He said, causing the hunter-nin to tense up and peered back at the jounin through the mask's eye holes. "What will happen next is I will break both of your legs before waking Zabuza up to finish our fight. Once I kill him and chop him up to little fucking pieces to feed the fish with, I'm going to skin you alive and tear you apart limb by limb until the only thing you will remember in your short miserable life is pain..."
The hunter-nin was in shock from hearing Kakashi's words as he shakily held up both hands with multiple senbon clenched between his fingers. "W-wait... I-I'm a shinobi of Kirigakure. If you attack me, it w-"
"I don't care." The jounin dangerously said while taking out a kunai. "Didn't your parents tell you to never interrupt a fight between two shinobi? Well... Now you're going to face the consequences."
Before Kakashi could punish the hunter-nin severely, a pair of swords covered in lightning stabbed the ground between them and gave off a sudden burst of light, blinding everybody.
When the jounin opened his eye again, he saw the hunter-nin kneeling with Zabuza's arm around his shoulders and the person responsible for the blindness as she stared at Kakashi with an evil, shark-like smirk and twin swords in both hands. She had long red hair and black eyes, wearing a pinstriped long-sleeved shirt and black pants. She also wore a Kiri forehead protector, the same village Zabuza pledged his allegiance to.
"Ameyuri Ringo..." Kakashi drawled with a smirk. "Fancy meeting you here. Heard you croaked to some shitty disease a few years back, guess it's obvious that was just a rumor."
"Kakashi Hatake, I'm glad we could meet each other." The grin on the woman's face grew even larger. "I'm a big fan of your work."
"Oh?" His response was a raised eyebrow. "You don't hear that every day, I'm actually quite flattered."
"Any ninja worth their salt should know who Kakashi of the Sharingan is." Ringo replied before she glanced over his shoulder at Team 7. "Heh... Your green-as-grass brats are cute, the blonde one especially."
"Bitch! Eat shit and die!" Naruko began raving while Naruto just stood there awkwardly.
"Thanks, they're my brats after all." Kakashi remarked, the kunai still resting in his hand. "While I would love to chat with you all day and trade secrets on how to torture people, I still got unfinished business with Zabuza so would you kindly tell your minion to fuck off before I cave his face in?"
Sadly for the cyclops, Ringo shook her head with an unapologetic expression on her face. "Not today, Kakashi. You two will just have to kill each other another time... which will be very soon if faith will have it." She turned to the hunter-nin, who was still slightly shaken up from Kakashi's threats. "Time to go."
"Wait." The jounin called out, getting the kunoichi's attention. "When you see Gato, let him know that I will finish what he started. His life ended the moment he fucked with me."
...
"I'll be glad to pass on the message." Ringo said with a smirk before the three Kiri shinobi flickered out of sight.
Kakashi let out a hum while staring at the empty space where they were before turning to his team and their client as they slowly made their way toward him, still tense from watching the fight minutes ago. "Well, wasn't that fun or what?" He ask them.
"Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto said slowly with admiration in his eyes. "You are a badass."
His sensei eye-smiled at the compliment. "Thanks!"
"Are you ok, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked worryingly while Sasuke studied him with narrowed eyes. "Your wounds look bad."
"Oh, this little scratch on my chest? Nah..." He waved off her concern, although he gained some dubious looks as his chest injury was anything but little. "This is nothing. The entire thing was just us testing each other's strengths."
"W-wait, what did you just say?" Tazuna questioned with a gulp. "A test?"
"Yep, we didn't even scratch the surface of our full strength. We were only feeling each other out on the lake and that little shit interrupted the fight just when it was getting good."
"Y-y-y-you m-mean to say that... y-you two... weren't s-serious at all just then?" The bridge builder stammered with a heavily paled face.
"Yep."
Tazuna was silent for a moment before his eyes rolled back in his head and fell backwards, hitting the ground hard as nobody wanted to catch him.
"Did he seriously just faint on us?" Naruto asked with a quirked eyebrow.
Kakashi sighed. "This is why I hate working with civilians."
Sasuke grunted disdainfully and turned his eyes away from the old man to Kakashi while Sakura shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "Now what?" The Uchiha asked with his arms crossed.
"Now?" Kakashi hummed as he looked back at the empty spot where Zabuza's blood stained. "We'll get our stupid client home and prepare ourselves."
He turned back to his team with a dangerous look in his eye.
"It's time for you to see the real world."
Chapter 8: END!
XXX
Omake: Worst Substitute Ever
Five days.
That was how long he had been at it in this... humiliating position. He should be out in the field, kicking asses and taking names. But instead... he was on his goddamn knees, scrubbing the Anbu restroom with a toothbrush while his captain stood above him with her arms crossed.
"What do you have to say for yourself, Rabbit?" Yugao asked as she watched her subordinate avoid a suspicious-looking white stain in a bathroom stall with a stifled gag.
"I regret nothing," Rabbit simply said behind his ceramic mask. He really had nothing to regret, why should he?
She held back a groan. "Really... You don't regret assassinating the target by slapping I'm a super pervert sign on his back and throwing him into the hot springs on the women's side instead of just slicing his throat with a kunai?"
"Nope, what's wrong with that?"
"You're an idiot if you don't realize it. You are Anbu, not some flashy killer-for-hire. We go in, do the job quick and clean, and leave. That's it."
"What a joke," the Anbu nonchalantly remarked.
"Excuse me?!"
Before the Rabbit could elaborate any further, another Anbu suddenly walked in the bathroom past Yugao and settled himself in one of the stalls. "You still eating shit, Rabbit?" He asked as he unzipped his fly and began relieving himself.
"Still taking things up the ass, Boar?" The shinobi fired back as he stood up and tossed the filthy toothbrush into the trash, ignoring the middle finger Boar threw over his shoulder.
"Hey, don't ignore me!" Yugao stated angrily before Rabbit lazily turned toward her. "What the hell did you meant by before?!"
"What is the Captain talking about?" Boar asked, not looking back at them.
"She said the Anbu should do their jobs quick and clean and nothing else."
Boar scoffed. "What a joke."
"That's what I said."
"Rabbit..." Yugao stepped forward with a clenched fist. "Do you want to die?"
"Sure, will you at least let me grope your boobs before you do the deed?"
...
Crack!
Rabbit's mask shattered as his Captain's fist slammed into it and sent him spiraling into the wall behind him, all while Boar wisely ignored them.
"Idiot."
XXX
After waking up in the bathroom and getting himself a new mask, Rabbit sat between Boar and a rookie that had recently joined the Anbu during the debrief.
"Team 1 will patrol the village perimeters, 2 will cover the forests, 3 and 4 will scout out the Iwa borders, 5 will watch the red light district while 6 got the upper district. Any questions?" Frog, one of Yugao's lieutenants, asked the room as he finished his debrief.
"Yeah, you done sucking the Captain's dick?" Boar questioned loudly as the room filled with laughter.
"I would beat the shit out of you for that comment, but I'll let it slide. Rabbit..."
Smack!
"Ow! You fucktard! I thought you said you'll let it slide!" Boar yelled as he rubbed the back of his head from Rabbit slapping it.
"Thank you, Rabbit." Frog ignored the complaining Anbu as he continued on. "You and Rookie will guard the Academy."
"Hah." Boar nudged his friend's side. "Suck it."
Rabbit glanced to the side to see a nervous teen with a blank white mask and turned back to Frog. "I'm guarding a bunch of brats with the FNG... What the fuck?"
"Everybody knows you're the Captain's least-favorite Anbu," the lieutenant simply told him as if that was the only reason.
"Ain't that the damn truth," Boar muttered as the rest of the Anbu nodded in agreement as well.
"What are you you guys talking about? She totally loves me..."
...
"No?"
"No," Frog confirmed. "Now get the fuck out of here."
XXX
"U-um, sir?"
"...What?"
Rabbit and Rookie were standing on the roof of an apartment building across from the Academy, keeping an eye out for any threat against the future generations of Konoha shinobi. They were thirty minutes into their shift before Rookie asked his question.
"I thought we were... guarding the Academy?"
Rabbit hummed at the statement, never turning to look at his fellow Anbu. "I wasn't aware we were doing anything else."
Rookie swallowed nervously. "W-well... No, sir. But we're supposed to be... watching somewhere else?" He finished his sentence weakly.
"...You ever watch porn, Rookie?"
"E-eh, I-I... Uh..."
"Cause that's what we're doing right now. We're two grown men watching porn."
Indeed, they were watching some hardcore sexual intercourse at the moment as they both peered into a window with its blinds opened. Inside were two teachers doing the nasty on a student's desk in an empty classroom.
"Wow... They really got the doggy-style down. I wonder what else they got in store."
"B-but why are you filming this?"
Rabbit turned his head to peer through his mask's eye holes at Rookie, the video recorder in his hand recording every thrust from the sweating couple. "Why not?"
The young man unfortunately had nothing to say about that.
"Too bad Iruka isn't the one fucking that chick in the ass," Rabbit remarked as if he was talking about the weather. "He would die of shame if he ever found out he starred in a porno."
Before Rookie could complain any further, he suddenly heard a girly scream, causing him to whip his head toward the sound. Rabbit, however, stood unmoving as he filmed the porn industry's newest couple.
"Ignore it, kid. It's just those two going at it again."
"What do you mean, sir?! Someone needs our help!"
"Oh, he definitely needs help, but I rather like my balls very much. You want to go ahead and get involved? Nobody's stopping you... except her."
"Her?" Rookie asked before a familiar gray-haired figure jumped onto their roof.
"Hi," Rabbit commented before the jounin ran past them and disappeared into the forest. "Bye."
Rookie stared the spot where the shinobi was last seen with wide eyes. "Was that Kakashi Hatake?!"
"Yep," Rabbit nonchalantly said as he zoomed in on the rough face-fucking the man was giving the woman. "I'm selling this tape to Jiraiya-sama the first chance I get."
"But if that was him, then who's chasing him?"
Just as those words left his lips, a large snake suddenly slammed into Rookie's back, launching him off the roof and sending him screaming into the dumpster below. Hearing the scream, Rabbit glanced back to see a great pair of tits covered in mesh.
"Hi there," the Anbu greeted the greatest objects of mankind.
"Hi yourself." He looked up to see Anko's amused face as she swirled a dango stick with her tongue. "Where did my favorite mutt go?"
"He went through there," Rabbit immediately pointed at the forest where Kakashi disappeared to. "Do I get a reward?"
"Nope!" With that said, Anko left Rabbit on the roof by himself... All alone... With a raging boner.
"I need to get a girlfriend, but apparently I've been told I'm not attractive enough so... Eh, fuck it. Another lonely night with me, my right hand, and Excalibur... again."
He went back filming the couple who just finished their final orgasms.
"Rabbit, what the fuck are you doing?"
"...I'm filming porn. What the fuck are you doing, Boar?" The Anbu asked as he turned off his video recorder and turned around to see Boar and two other Anbu on the roof. "You're supposed to be over at the upper district."
"We were," Boar confirmed before pointing his finger to the side. "Until that."
Rabbit followed the direction of the finger and saw a burning building a couple hundred yards away from them. "There's a house on fire," he said blandly.
"No shit, you know whose house that is?" Boar asked him.
"If it's not my house, then I don't care."
"I figure you didn't. That's Umino's house on fire."
"Is that so... How did the fire even get started?"
"Anko tried to roast Kakashi's ass... Iruka's house got in the way."
"And what do you want me to do about it?"
"Go let him know his house is on fire."
"Why don't you get the FNG to do it?"
"I would." Boar spread his arms out. "But he's nowhere to be seen so..."
"Oh... I forgot."
"Where is he anyway?" Panther, one of the other two Anbu, asked Rabbit as she glanced around to find the missing rookie.
"I don't have a fucking clue," he informed them as he turned around and hopped off the roof. "Time to be the bearer of bad news."
XXX
"MY HOUSE IS ON FIRE?!"
"Yep," Rabbit nonchalantly said as Iruka gaped at him like a fish, his entire classroom staring at both of them with wide eyes.
"HOW?!"
"Possible grease fire," the Anbu smoothly lied like a boss and turned on his heels to leave. "Bye."
"Wait!" Iruka quickly stopped the Anbu by appearing in front of him and clasped his hands in a begging pose. "I need you to watch the kids while I go to my apartment to salvage my belongings!"
"Nope."
"Eh?! Come on, please! I'll pay you!" Iruka desperately begged as he pulled out his wallet and glanced at what he had.
The Anbu hummed at seeing the teacher's wallet. "Give me everything you got and I'll watch them." Iruka's blood froze from hearing Rabbit's response.
"WHAT?!"
"I think I'm smelling a little smoke here, if you don't hurry..."
"Fine! I hope you enjoy being a thief!" The chunin didn't wait for a response as he quickly dashed out of the room in hope of salvaging anything that wasn't burnt to crisp yet.
"It's part of my job description, pal." Rabbit began whistling as he flipped through the money before folding them and placing them in his pocket. He then turned to face the entire classroom with the students watching him in excitement.
"Hi."
Just as the word left Rabbit's lips, some kid with a blue scarf and a strange-looking helmet stood up. "Are you really an Anbu?" He asked with admiration, obviously ignoring the fact that Rabbit basically just robbed his teacher in front of him.
"Last time I checked, that's what my boss keeps asking me." Rabbit said blandly as he walked to the door with plans to ditch the students.
"What do you do in Anbu?" A female student with orange pigtails asked innocently.
"I kill people and film porn, it's part of my job description." With that said, Rabbit put his hand on the door so he could leave before another question stopped him in his tracks.
"What's porn?"
Rabbit pull away from the door and gave his full attention to the class. "You guys don't know what porn is?"
"Um..." The Anbu glanced over at another student who raised her hand. "I never heard of that word. Is that a sport or something?"
"...Let's go with that. One thing I want to know though, raise your hand if you know what porn is." Nobody raised their hand. "Know what sex is?" Nobody moved. "Have you taken Sex Ed class yet?" They shook their heads.
...
Rabbit always knew he was an evil bastard, but the idea that just popped in his mind certified the notion. He began chuckling sinisterly behind as the students watched him in curiosity.
"Uh, Anbu-sensei, are you ok?" The same boy with blue scarf asked when he saw the Anbu's eyes glow red along with the strange laugh erupting from his throat.
"I'm peachy," Rabbit said normally as if the last ten seconds never happened. "I'll be right back, don't go anywhere or I'll scalp your ass." After he finished that sentence, he quickly disappeared out of the room and came back with film projector twenty seconds later. He then took a deep breath and spread his arms out dramatically.
"Guess what, you little fucktards? I decided to teach you guys something!" He exclaimed joyfully before the classroom erupted in a cheer. He waited for them to calm down before noticing a boy with his hand up. "What?" He asked nonchalantly.
"What's a fucktard?" The boy asked as he titled his head in confusion.
"It means you're a fucking idiot. Now..." Rabbit pulled out a video recorder and plugged it in with the projector. "Enjoy the last moment of your innocence!"
He clicked the play button.
XXX
Rabbit was back on his knees in the Anbu bathroom, cleaning with a floss instead of a toothbrush as Yugao stood over him with a barbed whip.
"One of these days, Rabbit. One of these days... You're going to be begging me to put you out of your misery and when the time comes, I won't grant you the satisfaction of mercy."
"I regret nothing."
XXX
A/N: I'd like to say I'm in no way or form responsible for the Rabbit Anbu omake. That's entirely WolfBoss's idea, he quite liked those insane anbus moments, and I hope you guys also enjoy it.
We'd like to hear your opinions on Naruto's abilities at the moment, but be aware that he will develop them further during next chapter. Also, I made it quite obvious on who I'm basing his next seal on. No worries, he won't be arrogant like him.
Next up: Trainings, Kakashi being insane, murder, Kakashi being an ass, more murder. Naruko will get more victims, Kakashi Kakashing and did I mention murder?