NOTHING IS OWNED BY US


The Death Lord

Chapter 3: Death on the Road


The road to Wave Country was silent as the group trotted towards their destination. At the center was Tazuna, who was nursing a slight hangover. Sasuke Uchiha was to his right, stealing glances at their temporary teammate who was walking with Kakashi. On the builders left side was Sakura Haruno, who kept trying to look around the afore-mentioned client to gaze adoringly at Sasuke.

Directly behind Tazuna was Sai, whose gaze alternated between watching the trees and watching the blond boy in a trench coat. After an unsuccessful attempt to start a conversation, Kakashi Hatake had pulled out his book and started to read. To his right was the blond mystery known as Naruto Uzumaki. Though outwardly stoic, he was having a conversation in his head.

'We should kill them.'

'Why? That would result in failure of the mission.'

'Because it would be fun!'

This conversation had started several minutes ago and was clearly going nowhere. That's when Naruto noticed the puddle.

In the middle of the road, under the roasting sun, despite the lack of rain for a month, was a puddle.

There wasn't even a pot-hole for water to collect in.

'Amateurs.' thought Naruto.

Pretending to trip on a rock, he stumbled into Kakashi's side.

"Puddle." he whispered.

"I know." the jonin whispered back. He deliberately turned his one visible eye towards his genin.

'Ah.' He wanted to see what they would do, and see who would crack. 'My bets on the girl.'

As they walked past, all hell broke loose. Two dangerous looking men, armed with claws and a chain coated with spikes, emerged from the puddle and lunged pass Kakashi while writing Naruto off as just another kid.

With a pull of the chain, Kakashi Hatake, legendary jonin of Konoha, was torn to shreds.

Naruto was right. Sakura did crack at the sight.

And screamed. Loudly.

In fact, she was so loud that the two Demon Brothers, for that is who they were, actually paused from the sheer force of the sound before repeating their actions on Naruto.

Unlike Kakashi, Naruto jumped above the chain as it moved towards him. A kunai hurled by Sasuke passed neatly between the chain links to pin it to the ground. Growling in frustration, the Demon Brothers detached the chain to continue the fight.

Meizu, however, was immediately pinned to the ground by a lion made of ink, courtesy of Sai's scroll and brush. Gozu was kicked in the face by Naruto as he came down from his jump. The blond was immediately over his fallen form, clawed hands brushing against the older ninjas throat.

All this happened in the span of several seconds.

"Well done, you three." said Kakashi as he walked out from behind a tree. At Sakura's shocked gaze he simply jerked his thumb towards a shredded log where his body had been.

"Substitution. One of the most basic jutsu, yet one of the most useful. Now then, I believe I have some questions for our new friends here." he said, while nodding at the incapacitated rogue ninja.

"Allow me to help you, Kakashi." Everyone was shocked when the emotionless blond boy spoke up, as he had remained silent for most of the trip.

Shrugging, Kakashi grabbed Meizu from under the ink lion as Naruto seized the slightly-concussed Gozu. After ordering his team to watch the client, they dragged their captives into the woods.

The genin team quickly entered a formation around Tazuna, who was sweating for some reason. Ten minutes later, Sasuke and Sakura jumped when a piercing scream rang through the air from the woods where their sensei and teammate has went.

Five minutes after that, Naruto and Kakashi returned. The blond was tucking a scroll into his trench-coat while the older ninja seemed rather pale.

Shaking off his stupor, the jonin turned to his client.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, Tazuna..."


Despite the builder's confession, Team Seven Plus One elected to continue the mission. Only now it was to not only protect the client, but also to save a country.

After resuming their formation and setting out, Naruto fingered the scroll that contained his newest subjects. If he had been anyone else, he would be smiling at the thought of what he could do.

Since he was himself, he simply continued walking.


"There's something off about this mist." Sakura muttered (for a change). "It's like it just appeared out of nowhere."

Behind his goggles, Naruto narrowed his eyes. Despite being just about useless in almost everything else, she was right.

'This is no natural mist.' he thought.

'Ya think?' quipped his tenant.

Casting his senses around, his enhanced ears heard something.

Cloth rustling against skin.

Muscles tensing.

Something huge flying through the air straight at the group.

"Duck!" Kakashi yelled as he tackled Tazuna to the ground.

The genin squad hit the dirt as an enormous sword flew over their heads to embed in a tree. It's wielder shortly followed, appearing calmly on the flat side of his blade.

As Naruto's eyes affixed upon the giant of a man, he was struck by a series of images.

A giant dead man dressed as a prison guard. He roared as he brought his club down on a coffin.

The images shifted from a prison to a dreary excavation site.

With a thud, the armored digger landed on the ground after cutting its jet-pack off. It's clawed left hand snapped menacingly, and the small flame on the right ignited the pressurized gas in the direction of it's targets.

Snapping away from the images, Naruto tensed himself for battle and made some hand seals. Although he primarily relied on his special moves, he did know other techniques.

'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.' The gust of air displaced most of the mist, allowing the combatants to see more than a few feet ahead.

Nodding to him in appreciation, Kakashi turned his head to the enemy. This time, he could see the aggressor.

"Zabuza Momochi, huh? They call you the 'Demon of the Mist.'" he said.

"And they call you, Kakashi Hatake, the 'Copy Ninja.' I guess the Sharingan is good for something."

Sasuke was shell-shocked when Kakashi lifted up his headband, revealing the spinning tomoe of the Sharingan.

'How?' he thought. 'Could he be an Uchiha?'

Oblivious to his thoughts, Kakashi leaped into battle against his opponent.


As Kakashi was captured by Zabuza's technique, Naruto knew he had to step in.

"Sasuke, Sai." Both genin turned to him from shock at the fact he spoke.

"Free your sensei. Sakura, guard the client."

"What about you?" asked Sakura.

Activating his special eyesight, which he had activated a year ago and had dubbed Shigan (Death Eye), he picked out a blob of yellow against an otherwise lifeless background.

"Our enemy is not alone." Naruto muttered as he formed some hand seals. ' Hiding with Camouflage Technique.'

Naruto's body faded from view, leaving the three genin to free their sensei from the clutches of Zabuza's water sphere.


Up until now, Haku had been residing on a branch away from the battle. Her role was that of the observer, only stepping in when she felt her master was in danger.

For most of the battle between her master and the jonin, Haku had been watching his movements, analyzing them. Now her attention was drawn to the odd man out of the genin.

'Genin are always put in teams of three, led by a jonin. But if that's the case, why are there four?' she wondered to herself.

Haku had tensed when she saw the blond boy make some hand seals. If he had attacked her master, she would have to intervene.

Despite what he wanted people to believe, he wasn't invincible.

Instead of attacking, the boy had vanished.

'Where did he-'

Haku wheeled around and blocked his fist.

Naruto cursed to himself. It was for two reasons.

One, his target had detected him, which meant he still needed to improve his technique.

Two, had attacked a Kiri hunter-nin. His Shigan had detected her heat signature through the branches of the tree, but had been unable to make out her appearance. If she decided to kill him, there really wasn't much that Naruto could do, so he had to talk fast.

"Forgive me, hunter-nin. I detected you here and assumed you were reinforcements for our enemy." he apologized, which was unusual for him to do. Normally, the only person Naruto would ever apologize to was the Hokage himself.

As for everyone else, he REALLY didn't give a damn.

Haku quickly composed herself, relieved that he had bought her act.

"You are forgiven. I have been tracking the A-rank missing ninja Zabuza Momochi for several days now, but the pursuit has left me tired. You can repay me by weakening him enough for me to strike." she said in the monotone she had perfected for when she was in disguise.

Naruto considered her request. It was rare, but such circumstances did happen every now and then. As Konoha and Kiri were not currently at war with each other, there was no problem in helping her.

"Very well." Naruto said. Then he vanished and rematerialized next to Sakura, who jumped at his appearance. "How goes it?" he asked her.

"Sasuke and S-Sai are putting the plan into motion right now." she answered, her voice betraying her nervousness.

Naruto put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey." he said softly, getting her attention. "The plan will work, okay?"

Steeling herself, Sakura nodded.

"Good." he said. "Now straighten up and keep your mind focused."

Suddenly he lashed out, a kunai appearing from his sleeve to stab one of Zabuza's Water Clones in the stomach. Water poured out from around the blade until the clone destabilized and collapsed into a puddle. "Like I said, keep your mind focused."

Afterwards, Naruto would realize that was the first time in years that he had comforted anybody


The plan devised by Sasuke and Sai worked. Two of Sai's Ink Clones, made more durable with extra chakra, traveled underwater until they were directly underneath Zabuza as Sasuke started to gather chakra for his Fireball jutsu.

When he launched the fireball, the clones jumped out of the water and latched onto Zabuza, forcing him to release his Water Prison in order to avoid being charbroiled. Even though he managed to get away, his left shoulder was badly burned in the process.

Kakashi returned to battle Zabuza and matched his Water Dragon jutsu with one of his own. Immediately after that both attempted a Great Waterfall jutsu, but Zabuza's movements were slowed due to his burned shoulder, and Kakashi was able to complete the technique before him.

Now as Kakashi prepared the final blow, Haku threw her senbon through Zabuza's neck from her perch above.

"I thank you for you're assistance in this matter, Konoha-nin. I had been tracking him for several days, but was too tired by the pursuit to engage him. I will see to it that your village is sent a portion of the bounty on his head." Haku stated. She grabbed the 'body' and vanished.

Panting, Kakashi turned to his team. He was soaking wet, cut and bruised, and exceptionally tired.

"Well, that was fun." he said, smiling through his mask.

Then he passed out.


Featuring:

AN N.O. OMAKE


Ebisu wasn't quite sure where the Hokage's grandson had run off too this time. Yesterday, he was found at the Yamanaka Flower Shop, and the day before that he had managed to spend the better part of a day in the company of Anko.

How that boy was normal, he had no idea.

There he was! And relatively intact, too!

But who was that?

Konohamaru was talking animatedly to a strange boy. He had a trench coat and slicked back blond hair. A pair of goggles covered his eyes, and...

Where those ARMS coming out of his back?

Shaking off this oddity, Ebisu approached them. As he launched into a tirade about how only he could teach Konohamaru how to become Hokage, and how he couldn't do that id he kept running off, he never noticed the other boy's movements until it was too late.

"NARUTO OCTOGONAPUS! BLLLAAAAHHHH!


AN: It's Been a Long time coming, But here is the Next Chapter to Death Lord. We are Unsure what Will be updated Next.

Thank You