Chapter 3: Tazuna's Secret
Naruto and Sasuke have been talking for the last few hours. Naruto has been seeing a dark shadow out of the corner of his eye for the last hour and can sense someone there, but is not sure who it is. He also notices Tazuna keeps looking around as if waiting for something.
Sasuke noticing Naruto has been on edge for the last hour finally decides to voice his thoughts "Hey Naruto what's got you on edge." he says in a low voice, just enough for Naruto to hear.
Naruto hearing Sasuke says "Someone is following use to the left in the trees. I can sense them and Tazuna is acting odd, as if he is waiting for something." in a low impassive tone.
"It would seem you are correct Naruto. Someone is following use and Tazuna is acting odd for a simple escort mission. Be on guard for anything and protect the bridge builder no matter what." Kakashi says having appeared behind the two and talking in a serious tone rather than his usual lazy tone.
Naruto and Sasuke just glance back and give a nod to what the one eyed jounin said. Sakura wondering what is going on decides to finally say something "What is going on and why are Naruto and Sasuke-kun friends all of a sudden." Sakura having asked what's been on Kakashi's mind as well listens intently to what is about to be said.
Naruto sighs and in an almost sad tone says "Sakura the fact that you are not paying attention at all when Kakashi seen it and Sasuke seen the signs of on edge nerves from me and asked what was wrong tells me you aren't taking things seriously. This is the first time you have left the village and anything can happen once you leave the protection on the village. If you don't keep your senses up you will get attacked and most likely die. So to answer your question someone has been following us for quite some time know. Kakashi has told use to be on guard for an attack and to protect the bridge builder no matter what. Also me and Sasuke's friendship is because we both see eye to eye and have been through hardships of our own. Sasuke has decided to change because he has seen what he was doing wrong because of me and is now on the right path." when giving his answer his tone changes back to an impassive tone. Once done talking Naruto turns back to talking with Sasuke.
Sakura having heard Naruto's answer frowns and drops here head at letting down her team and not knowing what was going on. She takes it as a wake to call to the real world and thinks 'I am weak and no use to this team. I need to get stronger so I can help protect the village. I need to train and get serious or they will leave me in the dust and I'll never catch up.' Coming out of her thought she sees Naruto disappear from in front of her and appear next to Tazuna deflecting a chain from wrapping around him. Sakura surprised from this can only watch as Naruto attacks the enemy.
Naruto having deflected the chain from two people connected by said chain attacks and breaks the chain so they can't attack together. He quickly flies through hand seals and yells "Fūton: Daitoppa (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough). A gust of wind hits the two shinobi and send them flying into a tree.
Kakashi dashes over and ties the two up and asks them why they were after Tazuna. Getting no answer he asks again and nothing happens once again. He sees Naruto come up and say "Let me see if I can get something out of them." He then goes through hand seals and calls out while looking at the two tied up ninja "Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu" (Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Jutsu).
The Demon Brothers soon start screaming in pain as they fall under the jutsu. They both see their worst fears coming true before their eyes. After a few seconds they beg for it to stop.
Naruto holds the jutsu for a few seconds longer then releases it. He looks to the two and asks "What do you know" in a cold unforgiving tone.
Tazuna having seen this starts sweating profusely and team 7 takes note of this.
One of the one of them starts talking and says in a raspy voice "We were sent to kill the bridge builder."
Naruto steps aside as Kakashi comes forward and in a serious tone asks "Who sent you and why are you trying to kill him?"
The other person finally talks and says "We were went by Gato to kill him, but we don't know why he wants him dead. I swear we don't know." choking a little from the damage done from Naruto's attack.
Kakashi says "Who are you and what else do you know?"
They both answer "We are the Demon Brothers." The brother on the left then says "The only other information we know is that another missing-nin was hired to kill the bridge builder, but we don't know who."
The one eyed jounin just sighs and turns to the still sweating Tazuna. He asks him "Why would Gato be after you."
Tazuna stays silent for a while then finally tells them that Gato has taken over wave and has bled them dry. That the bridge will allow free trade and stop Gato's control over them.
Kakashi just stands there thinking for a moment then decides to ask Team 7 "With the change in the mission rank we are supposed to go back to the village and report it and Tazuna would have to pay for the upgraded mission rank. It would seem though that he can't afford it with the state of wave at the moment. Would you like to continue with the mission know that it is a B rank or go back to the village."
Naruto and Sasuke both look at each other and nod. Naruto says "I never back down, so I will continue." in an impassive tone. Sasuke Says "I will go to test my strength and see what lays ahead."
While Sakura looks scared but since Sasuke is going she says a little hesitantly "I .. wi... ll go."
Kakashi says "Good then let's send word of the change back to the village and we will be on our way." He then pulls out a scroll and writes in it and then summons a ninja dog named Pakkun to deliver the scroll. He turns back to the team and signals them to get going.
Sakura turns to Kakashi and says "What about the Demon Brothers?"
"They are not going anywhere and the ANBU patrol with see them and take them in for questioning." Seeing that there is no more question Kakashi starts walking and they get back in formation.
Few Hours Later
After having chartered a boat and sailing to wave. Team 7 and Tazuna have just gotten off the boat and are heading to Tazuna's house.
Kakashi asks "How much farther are we from your house Tazuna."
Tazuna Turns to the one eyed jounin and says "It is not much further." Kakashi just nods and they continue on their way.
Suddenly Naruto throws a kunai in the bushes to the right. The rest of the team in a ready stance for an attack just see a white rabbit come out of the bushes. Sakura says "Baka why did you attack a rabbit."
The rest of the team ignoring her and wondering why there is a white rabbit in the spring when its fur should have changed by know. When Kakashi yells "Get down." suddenly. Kakashi sensing what is coming grabs Sakura and Tazuna and ducks to the ground. While Sasuke does the same. Naruto jumps in the air nor being able to duck get down in time.
Naruto lands on the ground a few feet away from a man standing on a giant sword resembling a meat cleaver stuck in a tree. The man standing on the sword has no eye brows, no shirt, and a strap on his back, arm warmers resembling a cow, but blue instead, along with pants to match the arm warmers, bandages over the bottom half of his face, spiky black hair, and his headband turned to the side. This man is Zabuza Momochi the Demon of the Mist.
Zabuza pulls his Kubikiribōchō from the tree and hold it on his shoulder. He looks at Naruto and in an impassive tone says "You dodged my sword that's quite a feat, but it won't keep me from killing the bridge builder. That is unless you give him over willingly."
Before Naruto can say anything Kakashi steps forward and says "Ah Zabuza Momochi didn't think I would see you here. We will not give him up and you won't get him from us either."
Zabuza just grins, not that you can see it through the bandages, and says "Ah Sharingan no Kakashi this will be interesting. Well I guess I will have to kill him by force then."
Naruto jumps back and tells Sakura and Sasuke to guard Tazuna with him while Kakashi takes care of Zabuza. They take up positions around him and watch Kakashi and Zabuza fight.
Zabuza dashes at Kakashi who deflect a strike Zabuza with a kunai. They continue to trade blows for a few minutes till Kakashi jumps back and pulls up his headband to reveal his sharingan eye. Kakashi then says "You have forced me to us my sharingan, but you won't be able to beat me know."
Zabuza just responds by flying through hand seals and saying "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu" (Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu). A giant dragon made of water rushes at Kakashi.
Kakashi flies through hand seals and calls out "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu" and a ball of fire collides with the water dragon and explodes in a cloud of steam.
Once the steam clears it reveals both opponents clashing sword and kunai with sparks flying. Zabuza jumps back and lands on the nearby lake. He quickly goes through hand seals and says "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu" and another water dragon rushes at Kakashi except this one is twice the size.
Kakashi not having time to dodge gets hit by the jutsu and goes flying back in to a tree. When he tries to get up he gets kicked in the back by Zabuza and land on the lake.
Zabuza appears next to Kakashi on the lake and goes through a set of hand seals and says "Suiton: Suirō no Jutsu" (Water Prison Jutsu). Kakashi is suddenly in a ball of water and can't move. Zabuza having one hand on the water prison makes one handed hand seals and says "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu" (Water Clone Jutsu). Two clones of himself appear and rush at Naruto and his teammates.
Naruto seeing the two clones coming at him and makes the familiar cross seal and two clones appear. Naruto orders the clones to take care of Zabuza's clones.
With Naruto's clones they both go through hand seals and call out "Raiton: Chidori Senbon" (Lightning Release: One Thousand Birds Needle). Both clones shoot lightning senbon at Zabuza's clones who upon being struck get electrocuted and dispel.
Zabuza upon seeing this is in shock. He turns to look at Kakashi and says "It seems you trained your genin well Kakashi. For a genin to take out my clones so easily, not to mention he used a high level jutsu. Though the clones were only a fourth of my strength."
Naruto glances back at Sakura "Guard the bridge builder me and Sasuke are going to get Kakashi."
Sasuke just says "You can't take Zabuza on by yourself. Think about it he took down Kakashi a jounin. What makes you think you will do anything against him."
Naruto just turns around and says "You're underestimating me. I know we can't take him on we are just getting Kakashi free and he is taking it from there." Naruto and Sasuke then turn back around and dashes to Zabuza who has been watching intently to see what will happen next.
"It seems your genin think they can take me on alone. Why don't we see what they got?" Zabuza says to Kakashi. Zabuza quickly makes a clone and substitutes with it, so he can personally see what the genin have to offer. Zabuza thinking 'I only have a few minutes till my clone will dispel with the heavy drain on the water prison, so I will have to make this quick.' as he dashes at Naruto and Sasuke with his Kubikiribōchō sheathed.
Naruto, Sasuke and Zabuza engage in a taijutsu battle. Naruto and Sasuke mostly being on the defensive they decide to change that and disappear and reappears behind Zabuza and kicks him in the back. Zabuza not having enough time to dodge the attack goes flying into a tree and breaking it and hitting the next tree hard.
Zabuza getting up thinking 'I underestimated them and they got behind me. That won't happen again. Their combined kick hurt though' He dashes towards Naruto who is just know a few feet from his clone.
Naruto taking the chance to free Kakashi dashes to Zabuza's clone and tries to attack it but is kicked painfully into a tree by Zabuza. Sasuke then tries to sneak up on the water prison since Zabuza is distracted by Naruto getting out of the tree. He then hears Zabuza say "You are pretty good for genin. To be able to keep up with me and move that fast to kick me, you have some true potential."
Naruto just glares at Zabuza and says in a cold tone "Thanks, but you should watch your surroundings."
Zabuza looking around sees Sasuke dispel his clone with a kunai and free Kakashi. Zabuza curses and tries to kick Naruto but he ducks the kick and tries to spring up but is caught by the ankle and thrown into the lake. Naruto emerges from the water and sees Kakashi with Sasuke appears next to him. Naruto looks at him and says in an impassive tone "You know it not good to leave your genin to fend against another jounin. You also should not have let your guard down when you did."
Kakashi knowing Naruto is right just nods and says "Let me take care of it from here. Go back with your teammates and guard the bridge builder."
Naruto and Sasuke do as they are told and go back to their remaining teammate who are in shock from seeing how Naruto and Sasuke managed to free there sensei. Sakura speaking in an almost exited, but calm tone says "How did you do that. You even got our sensei free. How much have you been holding back?" Sakura then just looks dumb struck and sits there flabbergasted at what just took place, not even saying anything. Not that she could her mouth would not function properly anymore after that. She was still in shock.
Sakura was in her thoughts when she could not speak. She was thinking 'I really need to train if my two teammates can do this and I can't even move right know. I need to get serious they were getting beat my Zabuza, they were able to free Kakashi. Naruto took the most damage.' Breaking from her thoughts she sees a panting Naruto standing next to Sasuke.
"Naruto are you ok you got hit pretty hard twice. Is anything broken." Sakura says worried. 'When did I start worrying about Naruto' she thinks.
Naruto just looks at here and says a little shaky "I'll be fine. I just need some rest and to catch my breath." Sakura hearing this just nods and turns to watch Kakashi fight Zabuza.
Tazuna seeing all this is shocked that those two are that strong and just saved him and their sensei. Once the shock clears he feels safe knowing that he will be protected from other enemies. He then looks at Naruto and says "Your sensei just started fighting again." Team 7 upon hearing this take position around the bridge builder and watch there sensei fight.
Kakashi and Zabuza standing a few feet apart watch each other for any movement. Zabuza says "Lets end this know." Kakashi just nods and they both rush each other engaging in a taijutsu battle. After a few seconds of both fighting a realizing it's not getting them anywhere they both jump back.
Zabuza starts going through hand seals and notices Kakashi not a second later doing the seals. They both calls out "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu/Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu" and two giant water dragons come to life and rush at each other. They both collide and an explosion of water cascades down on them both. Both drenched in water rush through another set of hand seals.
Zabuza once again noticing Kakashi starting his seals not a second after him says "stop coping me."
Kakashi just says "Who says I am."
"Dam it Kakashi you know you are. This is the end for you." Zabuza says in a threatening tone.
Both get to the final hand seal, but Kakashi finishes first and says "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu(Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu)" and a giant torrent of water appears forming from the water on the ground. Zabuza being hit by the water didn't get to finish his jutsu and hits a tree hard as the water buffets him causing more damage.
Kakashi then throws three kunai and they hit Zabuza and pin him to the tree. The jutsu soon stops after Kakashi hits Zabuza pinning him to the tree. The jounin walks up to Zabuza and stands there.
Zabuza just says in a pained voice "Can you see the future."
Kakashi looks at him and in a playful tone says "Why yes I can and I see the end for you." The jounin lunges for the last strike with his drawn kunai, but three senbon pierce Zabuza's neck and he falls limp. Kakashi turns to see a hunter-nin appear next to him.
The hunter-nin says "Thank you for taking him out. I have been tracking him for some time know and would not have been able to myself." The hunter-nin turns to the limp body and checks for a pulse and says "He is dead. I will take him and be on my way." then disappears with the body.
Kakashi then walks over to his team, but stumbles a bit and starts falling. Kakashi feels himself being caught and look up to see Naruto holding him up and says "Thank you. I think I over did It." then passes out.
Naruto sighs and puts Kakashi on his back and caries him over to the rest of the team and Tazuna and says in an impassive tone "How much farther to your house."
Tazuna looks at Naruto and says "Not that far. Let's get going." He then starts walking down the road to his house.
Naruto, still carrying Kakashi, thinks 'That was odd that the hunter left with the whole body instead of cutting the head off and burning the body. Zabuza must still be alive and they work together. It is odd though that I did not sense them at all till they appeared. Whoever it was smelled like honey and herbs.'
"Your right kit they should have cut the head off and burned the body. He has to be alive and they are working together. Whoever it was, we will have to look harder for them next time." Kyuubi says half asleep.
Naruto just says "We will and I will have to train harder. Plus we have a new enemy with an unknown skill level." Kurama just stays silent and goes back to sleep leaving Naruto to think.
Naruto coming out of his thoughts says to his teammates "We are going to have to train harder if we want to face an opponent like that again."
Sakura looks at Naruto confused and asks "What do you mean we have to train harder. You, Sasuke and Kakashi were the only ones that fought and he is dead, I just stood guard."
Naruto says "You may have stood guard, but if that were to happen to Kakashi again and me and Sasuke are not there to help you would not last long. If you train and become stronger you will be able to fend for yourself."
Sakura seeing Naruto's point decide to train. Sakura vowing to become stronger so she can help on the battle field and Sasuke so he can protect those precious to him.
During there talking they see that they have stopped at a house. Tazuna knocks on the door and a few seconds later a women comes to the door. She says "You made it home" and hugs Tazuna.
Tazuna says "Yes, thanks to these fine people. They saved my life."
The lady seeing Kakashi on Naruto's back asks if he is alright and Naruto says "He is fine. Just needs some rest." She just nods and lets them inside and shows them to a spare room. Naruto lays Kakashi on the cot in the room and leaves him to get some rest.
An Hour Later
Kakashi wakes up and sees Naruto sitting by the window. Naruto noticing he is awake asks "How are you feeling."
Kakashi groggily says "Tired, but otherwise fine. We need to talk and the rest of the team needs to be up here after so I can talk to them."
Naruto sighs and says "We can talk. If you need to talk to the team about Zabuza being alive, I already know the hunter-nin was a fake. Let's get this talk over with then."
Kakashi a little shocked at hearing Naruto already knows Zabuza is still alive, but gets over it quick already seeing that he is a lot more skilled than led to believe. He then says "Who has been training you and when did you start training."
Naruto just says in an impassive tone "I can't tell you who has been training me, but don't worry there not a threat to the village in anyway and I have never left the village till this mission. As for when I started, I was four years old. I have been training ever since and have the skill of a high chunin in all aspects, but not the experience. I may have gone against Zabuza with Sasuke, but he let his anger get the better of him and I still got hit and it fucking hurt. Oh and just to let you know Sasuke has changed. He is no longer hell bent on killing his brother, because of me he know wants to protect the village and those precious to him. He asked me if I would help train him and I said yes only if you does not go after his brother. He only wants to find his brother to ask him why he did it. I know he is telling the truth, because I can see it in his eyes."
Kakashi to say the least was surprised to say the least having just found out why Naruto and Sasuke are friends and why Sasuke has changed. He also now knows why Naruto is stronger than his file perceives him to be, but who did he learn from. He sighs finally getting peace of mind that Naruto is not against the village as far as he knows.
Kakashi says "It is nice to know that Sasuke has changed and how you are stronger than most at your age. Well why don't you go get the other two so we can tell them Zabuza is alive and that we will training for the time being. I think we have about a month to train."
Naruto then leaves the room to get his teammates. Heading downstairs he calls for his teammates. They meet him at the landing of the stairs and Naruto says "Kakashi wants us to meet us upstairs to tell us something."
They head upstairs and into the sensei's room. They sat down in front of his cot and wait for him to speak.
"First of all Zabuza is not dead. Hunter-nin are supposed to destroy the body on site and keep the head as proof of death. As you witnessed they did not do this. The body was taken with them. My guess is that Zabuza was put into a death like state and will be back within a month to kill the Tazuna. We have that month to train. I will teach you tree walking first to work on your chakra control."
Naruto speaks up "I already know tree walking and water walking. Seeing how you can't really do anything right know why don't I teach Sasuke and Sakura both exercises. Once you are able you can then train us further. They should get it down within a week and by then you should be back up and able to walk due to your chakra exhaustion."
Kakashi agrees and they hear Tsunami yell upstairs that lunch is ready. All three genin jump up and rush downstairs just know realizing they were in fact hungry.
Once downstairs and seated at the table they see the table full of dishes to eat. Tazuna and Tsunami sit down and they start eating. Once there done Tsunami asks if she should take some good up to their sensei.
Sakura says "Yeah he is probably hungry to. Please let him know that we will be outside training if he needs anything." Tsunami nods and the three genin go outside to a small clearing.
"I want you to walk up the tree with chakra added to your feet. This will improve chakra control and improve your reserves. Use these kunai to mark your progress. Know when adding chakra to your feet don't add too much or you will fly on the tree and too little chakra and you will slid off. Don't worry if it takes you some time to get, it took me two days to get and I was getting frustrated. I will be watching to help you if you need it."
Sasuke and Sakura both look at each other than at Naruto. They walk over to a tree and with kunai in hand try to run up the tree. Sakura managed to make it half way up before falling on her head, but getting back up determined to get up the tree and get stronger. Sasuke did not have as much luck and made it only a few steps before being blasted off the tree. He gets back up and tries again.
Two Hours Later
Naruto still watching Sasuke and Sakura Trying to make it up the tree while meditating. He notices Sasuke has made it half way up and Sakura has made it three quarters of the way up the tree. Naruto gets up and walks over to Sakura who is panting on the ground "You are using enough chakra but need to keep it consistent all the way up the tree. Once you do that you will have no problem making it up the tree." Naruto says with a smile.
Sakura looked at Naruto with happiness that she is doing is right and that he is helping her. "Thank you Naruto I will make it up the tree and master this exercise in not time."
Naruto was surprised that she was this determined. 'She probably realized that she need to take this seriously and is training accordingly. She needs to get her chakra reserves up in order to really train. Maybe I can see if she wants gravity seals.' Naruto coming out of thought walks over to a panting and sweaty Sasuke.
"You are still adding to much chakra to your feet. You have higher reserves than Sakura so it is harder to control your chakra, but that is why you are doing this. Cut the chakra to your feet by about half and see where that gets you."
Sasuke hearing this does as he was advised. Adding about half the chakra to his feet he runs up the tree and makes it almost all the way up. He keeps on trying with a renewed vigor.
After about twenty minutes Naruto finds both of them in the tree. He walk over "Know you need to walk up and down the tree so that you have it down perfectly and this will raise your reserves. However that can wait till tomorrow its getting dark, so we need to go back and eat dinner and rest.
Back at the house they smell dinner being cooked and can't wait to eat. They head up stairs to clean up before dinner.
Thirty minutes later they are all sitting around the table, including Kakashi after some help from Naruto and Sasuke to get him down stairs. They all start eating when a little boy comes in and sits down.
"Mom who are these people and why are they here" the little boy says.
Tazuna speaks up "These are shinobi I hired to protect me while I finish the bridge Inari."
The now named Inari says "What can they do? All that's going to happen is more deaths." Inari then gets up with his food and runs upstairs.
"Sorry about that Inari has not been the same since Kaiza died. He sits out on the dock and is always sad. He doesn't think anything can be done after Kaiza was executed in front of the entire village including Inari."
Kakashi looks at Tsunami "It's fine, we will prove him wrong and show him that there are saviors left in the world.
"Thank you, maybe then I can have my son back." Kakashi just nods.
They finish up dinner and Naruto helps with the dishes. Tsunami and Naruto talk for a while during the dishes and after about many things, like what the village used to be like and why Naruto was a shinobi. After they were done talking they all went to bed.
AN
Thank you to BigBossVince and Generation Zero for reviewing. I had fun writing this for you guys and the fight scenes. Next chapter will be the end of the wave ark. Please review.
Xigbar94