Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, never will and don't even want to. I do however want to wish all of you a happy new year, I know the year may have been hard and it may have been awful but still, I wish you the best for the coming year. I hope you continue reading my story and like where it's heading…

We arrived at the old man's home to rest up, the fight hadn't taken too much of a toll on us but still enough to warrant resting and discussing the issues presented.

"Tsunami, Inari we're home!"

The door slammed open as a brat rushed towards the old man with tears in his eyes, he jumped into his open arms and stammered like a typical brat… "Y-you're ali-alive! *snif snif*" damn brats and their constant crying…

The oldy gave a smile that betrayed his emotions, the brat didn't seem to have noticed but it was all too clear. He knew something was seriously wrong after our last encounter and his courage and resolve were already slowly slipping away, he was losing his hope

"Of course I am you brat! What do you think would happen to a master Bridge builder such as I?! now let's get ourselves something to eat, I'm famished!"

He held the brat in his arms as he went inside, we followed close behind him "Tsunami, Inari, these are the Konoha shinobi that came to assist me, they may seem young but I can assure you that they're very capable!"

A blue haired bombshell gave a small bow "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Tsunami, and this is my son Inari" you mean brat…

She gave the old man a calculating eye with an extremely fake smile "I'm sure my father in law treated you with respect and stopped lying for once?"

"Tss as if he had a chance to lie dattebanya" it was but a whisper but she seemed to have heard it all too well "Oh? Did he get in trouble yet again? I hope he didn't bother you too much with his excessive drinking?"

"Nah! And I'm sure the punches to his gut would've removed the alcohol anyway!"

"Naruko!" Stutter slapped her on the back of the head "Apologize!"

Baldy coughed "I apologize for the comment of my student, she likes to… exaggerate things a bit…" as if… he practically died…

"What?! I'm not lying!"

A bit of killing intent began radiating from the bombshell "Father, tell me, did something happen?"

"N-No!"

"Don't lie, you know what happens when you lie, don't you?"

"Okay okay I'm sorry! I got caught by some of Gato's thugs, but these kids saved me!" aww I wanted to see what happened if he kept lying!

"Oh my, it seems they are indeed quite capable. Let's go to the living room and get you something to drink while you tell me everything that happened"

"Hai… follow me kids…"

Damn she sure is the boss of this family, just a few words and the dude's shaking more than when he was about to die from the thugs!

It seemed all they could afford was water, not even a snack was present on the table indicating that they were indeed extremely poor. Luckily for us that we brought our own "Kai" Naruko unfolded a scroll on the table and released multiple treats from it, we weren't going to go on a mission without some of Fatty's treats now were we… that would be mental

"Kami where'd you get these?! Inari come quick!"

The brat rushed into the room, stars appeared in his eyes as he saw all the food, my food! Keep your filthy hands off my food!

"C-Can I?"

"Sure dattebanya, take as much as you want!" Naruko!

I quickly grabbed my favourites as the brat seemed to have appeared next to the food at blinding speed, just in time… apparently the others were already telling about what had transpired while I was protecting that which was mine

"And that's when we arrived here, as you can imagine this complicates things. Tsunami-san, have you seen anything unusual in the town during the last couple of days?"

A bit of fright appeared on her face "I have… a couple of days ago I wanted to do my usual shopping but found a large number of thugs in the town, I saw… I saw them take women and do 'stuff' to them. I fled before they saw me and stayed here until you arrived, the thugs used to only harm the townsfolk at interval but now they seem off, they've become dangerous…"

"It seems the events started happening since a short while ago. Team, we're going to scout the town tomorrow, we'll discuss the plans tonight"

"Hn!"

"Tazuna, you and your family will stay inside the house during the remainder of our stay except for when we accompany you. We have plenty of food and water to sustain all of us, the bridge will have to wait until we can assess the situation"

"But we need to finish it to save the country!"

"And what then? You finish the bridge while the town is inhabited by hundreds of thugs, what trader would be willing to come here? The bridge won't help if the root of the problem remains"

"…Then what can we do, we're lost? I refuse to give up! I have to save my home and family!"

"Then put your trust in us, it's better to take more time and actually save your country than to rush in and lose it all. We're going to assess the situation and determine a plan after that, is that understood? Not to mention that we have aid coming shortly, we need all the help we can get"

"I… I understand…"

He went upstairs probably to drink himself into a coma, not that I couldn't understand though. He kind of got a wake-up call that his bridge plan is full of holes, it just wouldn't work

"You three go upstairs and rest, we'll discuss the plan in two hours"

And that's just what we did, after the food was gone though… as if I'd leave it there like that with a brat gorging on it

We met up with Baldy to discuss our plans, we gathered at one of the bedrooms given to us to rest, some mats were placed on the floors to give as much comfort as they could

"As I previously said we'll be scouting the town tomorrow, I want each of you to have a different task. Yuuto you're going to sneak into the town with your unassuming appearance. Stay in the shadows and act as usual, see if you can find anything unusual, eavesdrop on the thugs. Naruko you will use your shadow clones to scout the nearby area, focus on stealth and remain unseen. Your clones don't need strength, make as many as you can while keeping them effective"

"Hinata you will stay here and protect Tazuna and his family, you're not suited for stealth due to your appearance. I will spy on Gato's base while staying at a good distance, if they got an ambush on Zabuza then it must mean they have some capable shinobi on their side"

"Do you want me to keep my main body here?"

Baldy nodded "I do, it's better to be safe, you're not as unassuming as Yuuto is when it comes to infiltration. Your clones have a chance to be caught but you'll just have to order them to pop themselves if they even think they've been spotted. Stay here and write down everything you're informed of by the clones"

"But I hate writing dattebanya!"

"Naruko this is a serious situation, you'll have to do what we need you to do even if you don't like it. Teamwork is of the utmost importance, your job is information gathering with the clones, we can't take the chance of you forgetting information due to the massive influx you'll get when they dispel"

"Hai… but I still hate it…"

"Everybody in agreement to their roles?"

We nodded in confirmation, wait a minute, what about me?! Wait another minute… does this mean I don't have to do anything? Jackpot… it's best to keep quiet!

"Good, rest up and prepare everything you need, we'll head out first thing in the morning. Yuuto you'll be changing clothes with Tazuna's kid."

( The following morning )

Standing outside of the house we prepared to head out, the ones that had to at least. "I'm going on ahead to keep an eye on Gato's base, Naruko you'll begin sending out clones. Don't do too many at once, make sure to spread them out."

"Yuuto you'll sneak into the town in two hours, that's when it's the most crowded according to Tazuna. Wait outside of town and hide until then, keep an eye on anything noteworthy"

"Got it"

"Hinata you know what to do?"

"Hai, use my Byakugan in intervals to check for anyone nearby"

"Then we're all set, I'll see you in the evening" he sped off into the distance and disappeared only seconds later, it seems things were getting interesting

"I'm going as well, good luck you two…" and next was Newby, only us left. Nice and quiet at last

Ten shadow clones appeared next to Naruko as she gave a thoughtful nod "These should last for a few hours, they're unable to fight but oh well! Head out my servants!"

"… the hell boss, we're you, want us to take that scroll full of fish from your back pocket?"

What's this, fish? She paled as she noticed my gaze combining with the others, you didn't tell me about that scroll servant, and who are you calling servants? You're my servant, know your place!

"N-No!"

"Then get on your knees…" she promptly kneeled before us in fear "Now then, say this for us: I'm sorry great Narukos that will do all the hard work for me while I sit on my lazy ass and whine about being an annoying brat"

"What! Bu…"

"Tora, it's in the right back pocket protected by another seal in the seams"

"Don't!" she began crying "I-I'm sowwy great Narukos that will do…"

"Continue, all the hard work…"

"That will do all the hard work for me while I sit on my lazy ass and whine about being an annoying brat… please don't touch my fish…"

I'm still taking that fish…

"Better, we're your clones you numbnut, we can blackmail you all we want dattebanya. We know every dirty little secret you have, remember that!"

"Hai… I'm sowwy!"

"Now stop crying, you're making us look bad, get inside and be a good girl"

She continued to sniffle and shuffled back inside, time to follow her and claim my fish, good work clones! And that ladies and gentlemen is the downside of clones, they're you… if you're a dick then they'll be a dick as well

( Chiriku Point of View )

'I'm sure they'll be alright, this will be their first real mission. We've trained them extensively for the last few months, even if they can't find the information they'll still manage to stay safe'

Chiriku jumped through the forest making sure he wasn't spotted, he knew Gato had shinobi under his pay check even if they hadn't shown themselves just yet. They may not be S-rank or even A-rank, but if you have enough lower ranked ones it would still make it hard to keep hidden. One sensor at the wrong place and time and you're in trouble…

The Gato corporation wasn't far off, the island that Tazuna lived was close by the town, Gato had made his base right outside of the outskirts. The base had a clear view of the entire town and nearby clearing, the biggest problem became all too clear to Chiriku right away

'This isn't a base, this is a fortress! Only a shinobi would cut down all the nearby trees to make sure they have a clear view of the surroundings. Not to mention the size of the main building, it's far too large to be just his office'

He tried to look for any way he could get closer but couldn't. The entire area around the base didn't even have a single tree to give cover, there wasn't a river with rocks he could hide in or behind, neither was there any form of darkness that he could hide in…

'I can't get close… if he even has a few people on the lookout they'll sport me regardless, we'll need Naruko's camouflage for this. I should look around the area for anything noteworthy'

Chiriku moved around the edges of the clearing still staying hidden by the trees, thick walls surrounded Gato's base with only one main gate. The road leading through and from the gate seemed to be guarded by at least two people, from what he could remember this road led directly to the largest harbour

'The later part of the road had trees surrounding it, that'll the only place where I could gather information and that is if they have a shipment of sorts…'

'But there's nothing else to see here, there doesn't seem to be any activity at the base' he decided to wait one full hour to see if anything would happen, sadly it was fruitless. Nothing happened at all, no-one entered the base or even moved around it except for the two people stationed to keep guard, something was definitely off

'No wonder Zabuza was caught, he must've underestimated the situation'

( Yuuto Point of View )

Hiding inside the few bushes still remaining near the town Yuuto patiently waited until it was time to act, it was tedious, boring and extremely frustrating…

'Why did I have to get this boring mission?! It's not even hard, all I have to do is walk around…'

'Oh shup up, isn't this exactly what we planned? Getting stuck with those buffoons for so long is already driving me mad!'

'They're not that bad… I mean they are helping us get stronger…'

'Although that's true it doesn't mean they aren't incompetent in other areas, how have they not even figured out yet that we're speaking to each other?! They still think you're the innocent bubbly idiot that can't even hurt a fly'

'They are technically right, we did kind of split up our emotions in order to divide the tasks'

'Oh please we both know that's not entirely true, my task is to keep us alive but your task is still to get me into the tricky situations, we're both responsible. You even watch as I do my work without any protest'

'And you constantly whine when I do mine… sometimes I wonder if it was worth it'

'You know it is, we may not be strong enough at the moment but only this way can we manipulate nature chakra effectively. Just stick to the plan and stay average, we don't want any attention to be drawn to ourselves, keep living in the shadows of the other two and continue to grow strong'

'All our plans have worked so far, we just have to patiently wait until it's time…'

'Fine, then let's get this boring part over with'

Seeing as it was getting more crowded he decided to begin the task at hand, there weren't any real patrols as of yet, or at least he hadn't noticed. Coming out of the bushes he began acting like the most average person possible, normal poor man's clothes borrowed from the kid and a dirty appearance. He didn't look like a total street rat but also not like a normal commoner, nobody would pay attention to him

He walked through the town in search of anything of value, some bits of information or locations where the thugs gathered. It was easy enough, there were thugs all over the place!

'Something is seriously off, there are more thugs than normal civilians'

'And they act in groups, they aren't some unorganized bunch of savages, they've had training'

'Don't get too close then'

Continuing through the streets he saw beggars, thugs and prostitutes, it didn't even seem like a town but more a hovel of miscreants waiting for something to happen. Thugs provided the money, prostitutes made them stay and beggars picked up the scraps to survive…

"How long are we going to stay here?! It's been two months of waiting already, I'm sick and tired of waiting!"

"Keep quiet! Do you want to get us killed you idiot, you know we have no choice!"

"Tss as if they co…" his head came flying off as he fell to the ground with a thud "What a shame, why do you pieces of trash keep complaining, be glad our boss found a use for you worthless scum instead of just killing you off"

A woman stood behind the corpse with a smirk on her face and a katana in her hands 'The thugs aren't here by their own accord, it seems shinobi are using them for some reason'

'Maybe the ones we fought against were forced to, either they kill us or they're killed themselves, it would explain things. Why else would thugs attack shinobi, even in groups they know they're outmatched'

'Should I try to follow her?'

'No, I can feel her strength from here, she's far out of our league. Don't take any chances and just try to find information from the thugs instead'

The people around acted as if the sight of someone getting killed was normal, sure they had fear on their faces but there wasn't any panic. There wasn't really anything he could do except walk around town and hope someone said something interesting, staying in the same location for too long would draw attention even if he is unassuming…

Bits and pieces were picked up, most of them were whispers about the thugs being held here against their will. It wasn't as they assumed, the town wasn't being taken hostage by the thugs, the thugs were taken hostage by shinobi. They didn't act against the civilians at the moment, probably in fear that the shinobi would take care of them if they did

Then why did Tsunami say she saw women getting taken advantage of? What changed in the last few days? 'Something happened that made the thugs behave different, they're not even touching the civilians'

'Calm before the storm perhaps?'

'Maybe, but what storm? Gato's already got the entire country under his control, what more does he need?'

'They're trying not to draw any unwanted attention. Maybe Tazuna's trip to Konoha gave the ones at the top fright that attention would be drawn to the activities here. It would explain why they've suddenly calmed down'

'Then why would there be roadblocks? Wouldn't that be counterproductive?'

'Hmm… you're right, they've already drawn attention of Kiri, we have to watch out. They could already be agitated because of that, one wrong move and they might strike just to make sure we're silent, no doubt they know we're here with the Bridge builder'

'But why would they care about him?! Even if he manages to build the bridge is would only give Gato more profit, he would just have to take control over it'

'He doesn't care I think, he just doesn't want people snooping around'

'Let's look around a bit more and head back'

( Evening )

We'd been busy, or at least Naruko had, with writing down every possible piece of useful information. Apparently Naruko took her job a little too serious, for someone that hated writing she sure did a lot of it… some trees that seemed suspicious, animals that looked suspiciously too much at her clones and patches of grass that just seemed too dark compared to the just as green other parts… she'd become a bit too paranoid I recon

The door opened as Baldy walked in with a tired expression, I guess he either didn't have much luck in his quest or the things he found were all too disturbing. He sat down next to us giving a blank look at the mountain of notes Naruko had written

"…Isn't that a bit too much? I know I gave you the orders to gather every piece of information but this is just absurd, and trust me us monks know a lot about absurd amount of paperwork…"

Naruko began pouting "It's all useful! I had like five hundred clones gather information…"

"Five hundred?! How are you still conscious?!"

"I may or may not have used a bit of the Kyuubi's chakra?"

Baldy sighed "I guess I should just commend you, good job Naruko… but next time don't use the Kyuubi understand? We need to stay hidden, not have you become a beacon to any possible shinobi nearby"

"Hai…" of which she used two hundred clones looking for the fish dude, not that she or I would ever mention that part, especially since we had no luck finding our snack

"How'd it go with your task Sensei? Any luck?"

An even deeper sigh came out of him, apparently it didn't go all too well "Dreadful to say the least, I think we may be in over our heads on this one, by the way, where's Hinata?"

"Gathering tea leaves in the forest! We found some when we went for a stro..l…" you messed up…

"I told you to stay inside, didn't I?"

"We found something suspicious?" not really convincing tone there Naruko, still a terrible liar

"Tea leaves are suspicious? I guess I should read your report on those then?"

"Hn! Second pile of notes, should be the fifth page!" and true to her words she had actually written it down, a four page summary of why the tea leaves shouldn't be there and seemed off, like someone planted them there for private use. I mean the report is written well enough to make sense but still it's absurd to write an essay about it?

"I'm too tired for this, just don't do it again. When do you suspect she'll be back?"

"Hmm, five minute? I send a clone with her in case something happens so no worries!"

"Good, we'll wait for her and Yuuto to return and then combine what we've found, this is going to be a long night…"

Not long after did the two of them return, Stutter being energetic with freshly brewed tea sitting on a tray, Newby seeming just as tired as Baldy and obviously not too happy. Not that I don't understand, he had to spy on a village full of lowlifes and pretend to be no-one at the same time, it sounds exhausting to say the least

"Ah you've returned, come sit down, there's much to discuss"

"…You can say that again, what a horrible day…"

"That bad Yuuto?"

Even Newby sighed "to make it short, we could be in big trouble…"

"It seems we've all come to that conclusion then" we sat down around the table with tea before us, not that any of us had time to drink it, we had much to do it seemed

"I'll start of then, as I said I scouted Gato's base. What I found was not too pleasant, his base isn't anywhere near what a civilian should have, even if he's extremely rich. It's better to call it a fortress than a base, there's high walls and a large clearing to spot any intruders that approach. I couldn't enter it by any means and had to resort to investigating the harbour…"

"The harbour is where the trouble became even worse, I've heard things about Gato that seemed despicable, human trafficking and drugs smuggling, but this… there were ships with hundreds of corpses, slaves and crates that seemed full of experimental materials shipping constantly. The 'supplies' came out of an equally well defended warehouse hours on end with obvious shinobi guarding them. We're not up against civilians and thugs"

That's just problematic to say the least, how're we expected to help build a damn bridge when we have a billionaire with shinobi working for him! Together with those miscreant things that blow up it can only spell trouble

"So that's my report, Yuuto continue with yours if you will"

"Hai, I went into town to gather information, I was successful in staying hidden but it came at a cost. I was unable to gather a lot of really useful information due to some shinobi patrolling the area, I had to resort to gathering information from random thugs on the streets."

"What I found was…disturbing… there's a massive amount of thugs inside the town, and they're organized as if they had training… at least a few hundred. They come and go in large numbers but don't cause any harm to the civilians, it seems that they've calmed down since a few days ago and I think it's because of our clients trip to Konoha…"

"The thugs were restless, they aren't here for their pleasure. Some of them complained about the situation and met their death by the shinobi that overheard them, it seems the thugs are held captive here as well as the civilians, the shinobi said something about their boss finding a use for them"

"No-one said anything about the Bridge or even mentioned it, apparently it's not an issue at all. I can even conclude that I think Gato has nothing against the bridge, he only wants nobody drawing attention on the activities here. There were only ordered to attack the client when he went to Konoha for help, I think that if he never went to us for help then he would've been able to complete the bridge without any issues"

"You're saying the bridge is unimportant? Won't Gato lose a large amount of his profit when it's completed dattebanya?!"

"Why would he worry? He controls the naval transport and only has to gather thugs to control the bridge when it finishes, I think it could even speed up his transportation if he really wanted it to"

Baldy began looking worried "So we're here for an unrelated issue, our mission shouldn't be any problem if we only focused on the bridge and nothing else?"

"Sadly I don't think so… if it had just been us then it would be fine I think, but with Kiri coming here as well I think they're really sensitive to anything that happens…"

"So they would possibly attack us if we snoop around too much, even if it's around the bridge… this is becoming problematic. That's all you have to report?"

Newby nodded "Good, switch back with your other self then, good work on your task Yuuto"

"Naruko you're up next, you've written down a lot so a summary would suffice"

"Hai! I did a lot of snooping and sneaking and found a lot dattebanya! This pile of notes is about weird patches of grass that seem to be hiding something… although I don't know what because I couldn't find out… this pile is about weird footprints, this one about suspicious trees and this one about the really delicious tea leaves!"

"…So you found nothing?"

She looked shocked and utterly insulted, although I agree with him… "No! I did, aren't you listening?! This is totally suspicious! I even felt some weird chakra signatures underground!"

Baldy's head shot up "An underground smuggling route! Near those patches of grass?"

"Hn!"

"Locations where they were constructed and later closed up probably, no wonder I saw no transportation above ground except in the harbour… Naruko, how far apart are these patches of grass?"

"Hmm… all around? They're not really close to each other but always hidden by some rocks or trees or something"

"Then he doesn't just have a fortress but also an entire underground cave system. Naruko good job, I have another task for you tomorrow, we'll decide what to do based off of that. You're going to infiltrate Gato's base with your clones, have ten of them camouflage themselves and sneak in, try to find where Gato resides and make a layout of the base"

"You'll pop your clones immediately if they're even suspected of being there"

"Got it! I'm going to draw up the entire fortress dattebanya, Gato's going down!"

Wave mission with a big twist! You can guess what's going on if you'd like, the next chapter is about Naruko's infiltration! A part of it though, I don't want to draw out the wave mission for too long, it's important I can say that but making it too long would be tedious… for those wondering about Gaara, it's almost time… let's just say he's a bit eccentric