A/N: Hi guys! Long time no see! I feel really bad about no updating for so long and I know that I should of done so months ago but...I couldn't, things have been going really bad for me and everytime I tried to write something, I'd get stuck or just wasn't feeling like it after the first two sentences. I know nothing I say can make up for the long wait so here just continue on I made it a bit longer than I usually do and hopefully every chapter from now on will be longer than before.

'Thinking'

"Talking"

'Thinking'- Demons/summons or in anger.

"Talking"- Demons/summons or in anger.

Jutsu- being shouted or said out loud.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...I dunno if I should be happy or sad about that.

Chapter 12: Emotion

For team seven things went from bad, to really bad at a moments notice. Zabuza, one of the seven swordsmen, attacked them ruthlessly while trying to get to their client. Kakashi took him on immediately whilst telling the three of them to get back and stay out of the fight, all they could do is watch the battle unfolding before them on the lake's surface. They were scared, maybe, just maybe, they should high tail it back to Konoha, cause damn it they weren't even getting paid enough for this!

Kakashi ducked under Zabuza's sword, getting up into his guard and landing an incredibly powerful kick that made the ex Mizu nin fly across the water. Zabuza pushed forward, never letting up and spun a water jutsu towards the Konoha nin, of course Kakashi countered that with his own jutsu and attacking, landing a few punches of his own before withdrawing with a back flip, due to the sword that nearly cut his body in half. Once again Kakashi had to dodge the sword. His attention was split between team 7 with their client and Zabuza, so naturally due to a split attention the copy nin was losing badly. Zabuza used the distraction to his own advantage, after all you are supposed to pay attention to the opponent.

Using his body to flex in an near impossible way he left a gash down Zabuza's defenceless back. Not missing a beat, as if the wound he received didn't faze him, he swung his blade down ready to take Kakashi's head off and at the same time he performed a few hand seals to create a water clone which went after the client and genin. Flipping over, Kakashi growled and charged into the enemy's guard with his chidori aimed for the heart. For the moment he dared to look at his students which proved to be a mistake seeing as Zabuza's water clone threw Sasuke into a tree and had Sakura by the hair using her ponytail as a handle grinning menacingly at Sai who almost didn't seem fazed except for the sweat pouring down his face that gave him away. This moment of turning to glace at his students cost him big time.

Just as Kakashi was about to land a killing blow, Zabuza moved out the way with his body in the most impossible position sending a swipe at Kakashi who knew he couldn't dodge the blade and moved slightly to avoid his most important vital spots and the blade cut into his right shoulder between the bone therefore rendering his arm near useless and he managed to jump back to his squad just in time to not only avoid the enemy's next strike but managing to take out the water clone and help his students despite the grave injury.

"Kakashi-sensei! Are you okay!? Let me treat the wound-" Sakura's voice died in her throat as she saw just how bad her sensei was cut up. She knew she couldn't patch that up. Kakashi smiled at his students and just as he was about to give them the order to run while Zabuza was casually walking towards them basking in his pre-victory over the copy cat nin, they heard clapping and turned to where sound was coming from.

"What a nice warm up to watch. You both did very well, however, it's about time I stepped in. Zabuza my team is here to collect you. You are wanted back in Mizu and as a favour to Mei-chan I am here to take you back unharmed...that is unless you would like to be harmed because I could so do that." From under the shade of a willow tree walked a multi hair coloured boy looking no older than fifteen if not younger, he was the one that spoke, behind him two others flanked him on either side. To his left was a young girl who looked to be around the same age as the one speaking. She had long red hair and forest green eyes holding a deadly glint in them. On the boy's right was another boy with black hair and golden eyes and a smirk that could rival a Uchiha's.

Kakashi's eye's widened the first boy looked similar, if not extremely similar to the young boy who was his sensei's eldest child, however the multi coloured hair and slightly glowing eyes were a throw off of the once innocent looking child he used to babysit along with the two others. 'Naruto' the silver headed ninja thought sadly.

"Bahaha! You kid me boy! Do you know what you implying!? You think you can take me on? Please! I will wipe the floor three times over with you and your little friends!" Zabuza said throwing his head back laughing in amusement. He only had a millisecond to react before the boy was on him with a kick that, even though it didn't connect, the pressure behind it sent the ex Mizu nin sailing through the air, not willing to give said ninja any time to gain his bearings the younger one was on him again this time his kicks and punches did hit and left bone breaking results. Just as Zabuza gained his footing he sent a swing at the boy who merely raised an eyebrow and caught the blade between his two palms and sent a pulse of chakra through the big blade and heating it up making Zabuza hastily let the blade go and jump back. The multi coloured haired boy threw the blade up, flipping it so that the handle could rest in his hand. He gave it a testing swing and looked up, a grin slipping on his face like a cat who caught the canary.

Zabuza opened his mouth to say something but was cut off when his opponent sent quick and fast swipes towards him from a distance which were in fact chakra induced swipes and worse off it was wind chakra, sending Zabuza, who ended up getting cut up worse than Kakashi due to the obvious mastery of said element, into a tree while his wounds bled furiously. Just than three senbon flew out of a tree supposedly killing Zabuza instantly and a Mizu ANBU appeared.

"Thank you for putting Zabuza in this position so that I may take him out. He is now dead so I will be taking him and his blade back to my village. Will you be so polite as to hand over the blade to me?" The soft voice of the Mizu ninja called out towards the ninja who held said sword in his hand. Unfortunately for said hunter nin the mysterious boy and his team of two others knew that this was a fake but decided to let it play out.

"No. I think I'll keep it." He said in an amused voice. The so called Mizu ANBU nodded stiffly and disappeared in a whirl of water. The new comers who had just arrived a few minutes ago and dominated the enemy turned to team seven who looked relieved but still wary about the new comers. "Akari-chan, would you mind seeing to Kakashi? Tazuna-san would you mind showing us to your home to stay until the Konoha shinobi have recovered? It would be very much appreciated, thank you." The leader of the squad that arrived gave out his orders before looking at the spell bound genin's after Kakashi, who had seemed to have passed out due to blood loss and chakra depletion.

~Naruto's Pov.~

'I'll have to say that it surprised me that Kakashi was in such bad shape. Him being an elite ninja and all I kind of expected more from him.' Looking down at Zabuza's sword he decided he'll let the man heal a bit before going after him to talk now that the man would calm down more from his excitement of being able to cut Kakashi up. He looked up at the sky and smiled. It would start raining soon. He quickly followed his team and Tazuna.

~Tazuna's house~

I studied the three genin before me and recognised two of them. One was Itachi's younger brother and the other was a girl he distantly remembered after all pink hair wasn't common at least not that he knew of. They too were watching me intently and on guard despite also being curious about me and my two friends. The pink headed one stepped forward, ignoring her teammates and opened her mouth to speak but Akari who just entered the room beat her to it.

"Hey Naruto-kun, Kakashi-san will be alright. I fixed up his shoulder and everything else along with his cracked ribs, he just needs some rest now and should be back on his feet in three or so days since I boosted his chakra system with my own so he should be fully recovered soon." Akari stated calmly and composed just like Mito taught them to be. Akari's eyes wondered carefully over the genin team and was about to start patching them up when the female of Kakashi's team burst.

"Hold it right there! What did you just call him? Did I- did I just hear Naruto...?" It was as if something had finally clicked into place in the big doe eyes she had. I looked over at her lifting an eyebrow opening my mouth to speak, about to confirm that yes my name was Naruto and ask what her name was, when suddenly I found myself tackled by her petite frame. With all the pink hair in my face and a smell of vanilla, medication and dirt i was suddenly brought to the past of a young pink headed girl getting bullied by a bunch of girls and myself chasing them away after finding both arms functioning. Out of shock and familiarity I hugged her back.

"Sakura?"

~Sakura's Pov.~

The machines in my head spun while I hugged my knight who saved me that day. I'd been dreaming of meeting him again since that day and even when they said he left the village and could possibly be dead, I couldn't believed it. Reluctantly I released him from my hug and stepped away far enough, I know it was unreasonable to just hug a stranger that you only met once before and only met now again but I just had to make sure I wasn't having one of those stupidly realistic fantasies again. Him and Ino were my two childhood saviours who lead me to the path of being a ninja. The giddyness bubbled up at the pit of my stomach. Especially since he remembered my name

"Hey ugly if you would stop hugging a stranger maybe we could finally get some answers from him hm?" Sai said with that fake smile of his and I flushed and turned towards him, not only because once again he called me ugly but because, I shyly glanced at Naruto from the corner of my eye as he was watching us with those eyes, Sai was such a jerk and so was Sasuke. How she got stuck with those two was beyond her, and honestly she really didn't see what Ino saw in Sasuke...and Sai?

"Look Sai, I was going to ask questions okay unless you would like to do so in my stead? Sasuke? Would you like to add your opinion too? Because I'd just love to hear your thoughts on this matter...no response huh? Good." I smiled sweetly at them I was training under Tsunade after all, plus they knew first hand how annoyed I could get. Suddenly I could feel a heavy gaze on my back and I sweat dropped, 'How could I forget Naruto?' I smiled sheepishly when I turned to my knight.

Looking him over, his eyebrows frowned a little and his eyes look curiously at me and my teammates. He had the cutest frown on his face and the most wildest hair I've seen even wilder than my one friend Kiba and black and red streaks. Off handedly I took note that he no longer had those whisker marks and honestly I didn't know if it made him more handsome with them or without them.

"You still have it." He said making me confused until I followed his gaze down to the purple string that was a little thicker than a ninja wire yet thinner than a rope. I wore it on my skirt, through one of the loops. My mouth formed an oh and pink dusted across my face lightly nodding a little. I watched as his mouth twitched up a little.

"Ahem, anyway my team would like to know what's going on and why you helping us...even more so now that we know who you are and since you have been missing for so long." I asked seeking his eyes for answers for a moment after mentioning missing he's face went completely black without emotion and despite my curiosity I decided not to mention it soon again.

"I'm doing a favour for a friend of mine, we need to take Zabuza and his apprentice back to her." He told me and I understood immediately by his tone that clearly the information he gave me was not all there was but I wasn't gonna press for more than I could get. I nodded bouncing my head up and down. "We'll look after you while you here." He said as an afterthought glancing back down at the purple string and I tilted my head a little up to him, he was a bit taller than Sasuke and he was taller than me.

~Normal Pov.~

That seemed like the end of the conversation between them as Naruto turned towards Akari. The two seemed to have a conversation with their eyes for a few moments before Naruto abruptly walked out with Akari trailing behind glancing at them once more before leaving the house after the glow eyed boy. Team 7 decided to go check up on their sensei finding him stirring occasionally before waking up. They stood beside his bed waiting nervously until he finally cracked one eye open.

"What happened? Where are we?" Kakashi asked his nervous students and Sakura stepped up to explain but was cut off by the door opening revealing Akari and Naruto walking in. Slowly Kakashi sat up in the bed Akari rushed to help him but was cut off by Naruto grabbing her hand and pulling her back while shaking his head. Kakashi narrowed his one eye that wasn't covered.

"It's been a while Kakashi-nii..."

~Elsewhere~

"Damn it that shrimp! I'm so gonna get him back! How could he put me on scouting duty?" The dark headed boy muttered under his breath before going silent when he ducked into the branches of a tree outside Gato's hideout. Watching for about an hour he judged the times the guards changed shifts and made note of all the details surrounding the hideout after scouting the area. Sending his chakra out to sense for other shinobi he confirmed that the only ones working for Gato were Zabuza and the fake hunter nin.

Slipping down behind a single henchmen he knocked the man out and worked on hidding and binding him to a tree high up before henging into the exact replica of the man and turning to the base saying that he forgot something under the man's disguise. The guards laughed at him and let him pass. The first thing Kurosuke did was duck into the shadows silently memorising the layout of the base finding where everything and everyone is. As he came across the room that Zabuza and his accomplice was, he paused silently eavesdropping on the conversation.

"-ot touch Zabuza-sama or I will break every bone in your hands."

Snap!

"Fuck! You bitch! Just you wait and see!"

The door slammed open and a short ratty looking man wobbled out with his guards flanking his side's, he cradled his right hand cursing all the way down the hall about lousy missing ninja's who should be punished. Kurosuke rolled his eyes, 'Thats what happens when you piss of a ninja you fucker.' he thought. Turning his focus back to the occupants of the room he continued to listen to his targets for any useful information.

"Haku...you didn't have to do that I can take care of myself." Zabuza's gruff voice echoed in the room. 'So her name's Haku eh?' The dark headed boy quickly silenced his thoughts to listen further for information.

"I... I'm sorry Zabuza-sama, it will not happen again. How are you feeling? I did my best to wrap your wounds up." Her soft voice asked gently.

"I'm fine. What's really bothering me though is those brats that just appeared out of nowhere. Especially the glow eyed one, why do they need me? They better not be bounty hunters or anything like that."

"Zabuza-sama I think I can feel someone watching us..."

"Come out! What do you- wait a minute your one of those fucking brats! Come to finish me off already where's the glow eyed bastard!?" Zabuza said dangerously as the dark headed boy shifted out of the shadows with and bored look on his face after dropping the illusion, while rolling his eyes for the second time for the day not that the two nin's opposite him knew.

"I'm not here to fight you guys I'm sure that shrimp will kick my ass if I did. Before you ask the obvious, I am here to scout the place out. Apparently your employer rubs my friends the wrong way, me included. Now why don't we sit down for a nice little chat and play nice? So that I can save that 'glow eyed bastard' as you call him, from coming all the way in this stinking place. He'll have a fit if he seen half the things I just did from scouting the place out. So how about it?" Kurosuke said flashing them an easy going grin.

"How can we trust you?" Haku asked voicing what Zabuza didn't want to while the both were on guard. The two of them eyed him cautiously and he made no move to do anything at all but lean against the wall and yawned before another grin appeared as he settled into a relaxed but slightly guarded stance against the wall.

"You don't have to believe what I say but once the shrimp gets a hold of you he will force you to believe him in some way, either that or he will hold true to his word and drag you back home." He told them and they glanced at each other before deciding to listen to what he said at least and if they didn't like it Haku would find away to kill the fool.

"Fine, let's hear your story boy."

~Tazuna's house~

"N-Naruto?...damn it! All of you leave! Now!" Kakashi snapped at his team and the red headed girl who was with his long lost sensei's son, once they all left his shoulders slumped. "Naruto...why? Do you know how much we've all missed you? Didn't it occur to you that maybe...just maybe we'd miss you? Look- no hunt for you? Where did you go? How have you been? Damn it, answer me!"

"Why? Because I was tired of being lied to and disregard, I didn't expect you to miss me since you were rearly around me, I know Tsunade-kaa-chan, Mikoto-kaa-chan, Katsume-baa-san, Itachi-nii, and the others I was around most of the time would miss me, you shouldn't of hunted or looked for me, and where I went is no bodies business but my own, also... don't order me around and I've been perfectly fine." Naruto answered back looking at the silver headed man with a tightly controlled expression. Kakashi sighed softly, what was he supposed say to all that?

"Listen Naruto, I know it must of been hard but your parents-" he didn't even get a chance to complete his sentence before a massive amount of killing intent washed over him making him choke back on his words, his eyes widened when he realised where that killing intent came from. Naruto stood as still and as stiff as a rod, his slightly glowing purple eyes darkened and glowed brighter, his lips was pulled back into a thin line and his face betrayed no emotion what so ever, however, the slight twitch of his pinky finger spoke volumes as did his icy cold eyes that seemed to burn with its gaze. Kakashi found himself shaking slightly and unable to swallow the lump that seemed to form in his throat.

"Hard... Kakashi do you know what neglect means? Neglect means to ignore something. Ignore means to not care about something. Not caring about something means to not want something. Not wanting something means to throw that something away. Throwing that thing away means to break it. Breaking it means that it's useless. Useless means that it has no meaning at all. I was neglected, ignored, not cared for, unwanted, thrown away towards one side, I was broken and useless, I had no meaning anymore. The people at fault was my so called 'family.' The same people who are supposed to love, acknowledge, care for, want, keep, cherish, find useful, give meaning to and for me...and yet? They did none of those things. They lied, manipulated and forced other people, the people who actually care for me to lie to me about my condition just when I thought- no hoped that my family was finally acknowledging me. What a fool I was. So get your words right, hard and parents in one sentence isn't something anyone should say to me." Naruto told him with a cold but soft tone, it wasn't an angry shout or yelling. It was a silent yet burning anger that fluttered under the surface of a soft young boy who was a protégé.

The killing intent lifted and Naruto turned to leave the room. Kakashi set out to gather himself just as the door opened. Before Naruto walked out he paused by the door as if contemplating something and his tensed shoulders slowly relaxed themselves.

"I'll come see you later..." Naruto murmured and then the door closed slowly behind him...

~Sakura's POV.~

After Kakashi-sensei chased us out we stood at the outside the room for a minute longer before following Naruto's friend down to the lounge. Akari, that's her name. She ordered us to let her check for any wounds. I already did that but it doesn't matter much to me, clearly she's much more skilled than I am so I didn't mind.

"Akari-san...how do you...uhm...know Naruto? Oh you don't have to answer! I'm just curious, since he has been away for a long time and I really don't know him so well since I only met him once, twice if you count now." I rambled and the heat slowly rose to my face when she turned to look at me, her left eyebrow rising.

"Sakura-san, it's alright for me to call you that right? I met Naruto when I was still young, like about five or six years old. If your wondering, I met him before we met our other teammate, Kurosuke-kun. And if you don't mind me asking how did you meet him?" She replied, asking one of her own questions as she came to check me over. I flushed slightly seeing as my teammates were also looking at me curiously.

"Well, you see when I was younger I was always bullied, especially if my mother dropped off at the park so she can finish her shopping. The children liked to tease me about my forehead. One day during the afternoon my mother was running late to pick me up from the park and many of the older kids were bullying me and I was crying, until suddenly a blonde boy appeared and chased them away, I was surprised someone would do something like that for me. We ended up exchanging names and he gave me this purple rope wire, he said he used it as a bookmark but he'd give it to me. I only found out later on that he was the Hokage's son and when I went to look for him I found out he already left along with what his family did to him. So here I am, years later meeting one of my two saviour's who made me decide to become a ninja. Who would of thought that my first C ranked mission would end up leading me to meet one of the two people I first admired and still do?" I told them my story and I saw Akari smile softly, the hardness in her posture relaxed once I told her this and she seemed more open than before.

"I think, out of all of us the only one who doesn't know Naruto is Sai. I also know him from my childhood, we met through our parents. My mother is his mother's best friend, at least they used to be until my mother found out that they neglected their son. So my family is like his replacement family. My brother thinks of him as his own brother, I guess I also thought of him like that in a way but I was never close to him. I always thought of him as my rival in a way. I never did like his parents or sister's, they way too happy and chipper and loud." Sasuke spoke for the first time.

Suddenly there was a blast of killing intent and it started suffocating us. The air suddenly become too thick to breath. I collapsed in on myself, gasping for air. Next to me Sasuke was wide-eyed, clinching his fist and shaking slightly. On the other end I could see Sai sweating and shaking slightly as well. Image's of my death flashed before my eyes.

'I can't breath!' I thought. I looked frantically around the room for help, 'Something or someone! Please make it stop!' then I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up, following the hand, that was attached to an arm, that was attached to a body. My eyes met calm forest green eyes and I felt all my panicking melt away and I calmed down slowly. My heart which was previously thumping louder than a war drum against my ribs, slowed it's pace back to its normal beat.

"Sakura-san? Calm yourself, you have nothing to fear. It will go away soon, don't worry about it. Naruto will never harm a person without a proper reason to do so, he must just be really angry at something or someone, it will pass, I promise." Akari spoke to me in a loud and clear voice that managed to shake both Sasuke and Sai out of their daze.

~Normal Pov.~

~With Kurosuke...~

After a long explanation of the mission that had been bestowed upon team Naruto, Kurosuke waited patiently for them to come to a decision. Suddenly he felt as if something was wrong, without a doubt he knew it was to do with his team, his family, not that he would actually admit it out loud to anyone. Right now he knew his senses were leaning towards Naruto. He was starting to get really irritated with the two before him since they seem to be taking their own mighty time to come to a decision.

"Let's say we believe you and we go back to Mizu, what's to say we won't get attacked? Because according to you, we aren't getting escorted back by you because your leader and you are off to find something that just so happens to be in Konoha and there just so happens to be Konoha ninja's around who will take you back to their village? Boy, there are no things as coincidences, it's always a conspiracy because that's what the ninja world is all about." Zabuza told the younger male who was still leaning against the wall calmly.

"You right we not escorting you home, our clones are, blood clones to be precise. Therefore those clones will make damn sure you are not attacked. And yes we are looking for something in Konoha and were going there anyway, the ninja's that are here were not expected on our part, oh and of course they going to take us back with them especially since our shrimpy leader is the son of their beloved Hokage. Besides this really wasn't a conspiracy on our part. Now do we have ourselves a deal, because I really need to get going?" The dark haired boy said looking at the Mizu ninja duo with serious eyes.

"We'll see, first I want to speak with your so called leader and then we can give you a proper answer but give us a few days if possible." The eyebrowless ninja grunted out. Kurosuke narrowed his eyes at them searching for something before relaxing and nodding slowly, then grinning.

"We'll give you two days, no more, no less. I hope you choose carefully and correctly because Naruto is not someone to be crossed and we won't allow such a thing again. I'll be sure to set up a meeting between the two of you, for now though I need to go. Later." And with his last parting words to the duo, Kurosuke melted into the shadow of the room before they could no longer feel his presence in the room, or the building for that matter. Haku released a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Zabuza-sama?" She asked looking at her master who had become like a father figure to her. He looked troubled and in thought. She couldn't feel the mysterious Kurosuke anywhere in the area, at all, it was as if he just vanished into thin air. Mentally she wanted to believe what the ninja told them but if she easily believed that than what type of tool would she be to so easily be swayed by the unknown, because that's just what the three mysterious ninja were and the unknown is not good because not knowing can get you killed.

"Haku, we will meet with that brat who has my sword, by then we will know what we wat to do. Until then do not breath a word of this to anyone and carry on as if we never spoke to that black haired brat, but be on guard, we know nothing about any of them yet they seem well acquainted with us by now. We have first hand experience with how bad things can get if we walk into this blindly." Zabuza told his apprentice, on the outside he knew he could seem cold, uncaring and insane, but inside his heart of hearts he cared more then he let on, especially about his young minion who he secretly became to see as a daughter, but he wasn't going to admit any time soon.

"Hai, I understand Zabuza-sama. Can I change your bandages now?" Haku asked tilting her head to the side slightly, while sliding her mask off, which she had on the entire time that Gato and then Kurosuke was there. Zabuza grunted and allowed her to change the bandages and replace them with clean ones.

They could only prepare for the coming meeting which my or may not turn into a battle and that was something Zabuza didn't really want, not with his already injured body. His sword was also in the hands of that brat with the multi-coloured hair. 'Who in their right minds has multiple hair colours anyway?' Zabuza couldn't help but think. 'What an eyesore, now all he needs is an orange jumpsuit, screaming believe it at the top of his lungs. Hn. If the boy can take on a Jounin like myself, I really do want to leave Haku to fight anyone of them. Ninja's always have something up their sleeves and I'm a little sceptical on finding out just what that something is, and worse, if they telling the truth it means that they socialize with Mei, of all people...' a shiver went down his spine.

Far off in Mizu a certain brunette with green eyes sneezed before narrowing her gaze on the stacks of paperwork, 'Someone's thinking about me...and it's not my favorite blonde...'

End!

Note: To everyone reading this I will complete this story. I will not abandon any of my stories. If I can by new year's I will post another chapter for this and a chapter for dead bite too hopeful but this is my main story. Just so you know this is my first fighting scene and it's short, I know. I tried and hopefully I'll get better at it. There is some fluff here. It was short and sweet. Oh! And please go check out the story Stumble [Rewrite] by Writer168 on fanfiction net or on Wattpad. It is an amazing story with Sakura as a main character. If you an anti-Sakura fan and you read that you might be a bit sympathetic towards her but it is a must read. Writer168 is a damn good writer who is great at writing. Honestly it's a work of art!

Thank you!

Chow

T.P

Ja ne!