AN: sup sup, my running doc of this story just hit 50 pages! Nice little milestone. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and by extension the first arc. Plenty of little threads have opened up, and I am excited to write more and explore this idea further.

"Well, it looks like we might have a truce on our hands for the time being," Zabuza spoke, walking toward the blade that Kakashi had kicked to the edge of the bridge. The man lifted the chunk of metal on his shoulder and stood lazily. His primary arm draping at his side, useless from his fight with Kakashi.

"Oh, is that so?" Kakashi questioned, his arm still lodged in Haku's shoulder.

Zabuza glared daggers, his eyes dashing between Kakashi on his right and Gato with his band of thugs on his left. "I guess that all depends on this pathetic runt. Gato, if you cut my contract I promise that'll be the last thing you ever do. But if you pay up," the man brought his sword down toward Kakashi, "then this entire bridge becomes a blood bath."

Naruto stood to the side some meters away, Sasuke to his right, shocked at what he just heard. "You would really cut through Haku just to complete your stupid mission," his hoarse voice choked out. "He, he looked up to you. Like a father! And you'd cast him aside like he was nothing more than a piece of scrap metal." Naruto closed his eyes as a line of tears began to drop from his right eye. Ninja Art - Suggestion Naruto thought, as he remembered the very last spell that he had prepared. Suggestion is the ability to attempt and convince a course of action or activity, testing your will against your opponents. The ability had to be worded and convincing in only two to three sentences. Only creatures with a conscience can have suggestion work on them. Naruto thought the ability would be amazing for using on Kakashi to convince him for more training, or on shopkeepers so that they would sell to him for a fair price, or even on persuading Sakura to go on a date with him. He never thought he would have to actually talk his opponent out of being his opponent. "You gave him a purpose, you were everything to him!" Naruto screamed, his voice cracking. "And you would just guarantee his death with a swing of your sword, or by making Kakashi-sensei fight! The second Kakashi pulls his arm of out that hole is the second that boy dies and you know it! How, how could you, you scu-" Naruto stopped as Zabuza laid his eyes toward the ground and scolded him.

The tone of Zabuza's voice was colder than any ice that Haku could produce, "Shut up," he whispered, "you just don't know how to," the man then began to raise his voice to a scream, "SHUT UUUUPPPPPP," the bridge rattled through the sheer magnitude of the man's shout. "What would you know," his head looked up toward Naruto, a few tears running down his face. "Your village wasn't turned into the Blood mist village. You're no true Shinobi, you weren't forced to become a weapon, and you haven't even spilled blood. We're trained to throw away all of our emotions, to cast aside any sort of love we have in our hearts. The only thing that was supposed to matter to me is the protection and prosperity of my village…" The man paused before bringing his voice to a holler once more, "Why in the world do you think I started the coup? Ughahhhh" The mean screamed, slammed his blade into the ground, and held himself up with his left hand. His head leaning on his hand.

He's thinking about it… Please. Please Zabuza, you don't have to do this Naruto thought, keeping his mouth shut while he waited for Zabuza to move.

Zabuza dug his feet into the ground, the last of his chakra being channeled through his body. A raging torrent of anger and passion radiated throughout his body, his presence leaving a swirling image of a blue dragon around his body.

Gato began to sweat, not realizing just how much gas was left in the tank that was Zabuza. "A-alright guys. Get them, go! Get them right now! A-a-and I'm paying ten times for whoever takes his head," The dwarf began to squirm over his own words.

"Kakashi, make sure your arm doesn't leave that boy," Zabuza all but demanded in a low tone, just low enough that no one else could hear. The man's chakra began to coalesce and funnel into his good arm, radiating around his body and his blade. Zabuza, in one swift motion, simultaneously screamed, lifted his blade, kicked his left leg backward, and twisted his entire body to shift his weight such that every bit of force he could muster was launched through his left arm. "Secret Mist Technique: Dragon Bullet Blade!" He yelled as his sword launched and released his hand. The sounds of bones crunching could be heard as Zabuza's one good arm snapped in several directions, the man screaming in agony in response. The sword made its way through the small army of men that Gato had supplied, their blood falling from the skies and raining shortly after, painting that side of the bridge a bloody crimson. The smell of iron filled the air and Sakura almost emptied her breakfast onto the stone beneath her. Sasuke saw the bloodbath and froze, his world almost shattering as he was brought back to the day when his life had changed forever.

As I stood there on the battlefield I couldn't help but feel a knot tightening in my stomach. The sight of so many bodies being cut down in one blow was overwhelming, horrifying even. My mind couldn't help but wander back to that day. I could feel myself vomiting, but nothing could even reach my neck. My body was frozen, just like it had been that day. The memories flooded into my mind, and I felt my chest tightening as I struggled to control my breathing. I don't know when it happened but I ended up on my hands and knees hyperventilating. The sight of blood and the smell of iron only made everything worse. I couldn't bear to see so many people slaughtered in one swing. The faces of my closest family and friends. I could see them. Everyone stared back at me. I wasn't strong enough then to save anyone. I'm not strong enough now.

I could feel my heart racing as I tried to push the memories away. My Sharingan blazed as I unconsciously memorized the moment. I wanted to scream but no words could leave my mouth. I forced my chakra out of my eyes as the enhanced vision returned to normal. I tried closing my eyes to avoid the site of the slaughter, but instead of me peering into a black canvas as I had hopped all that I could witness were the memories of the past. The memories of him.

I desperately pleaded to push the memories away. Crying out internally, begging my brother to stop. But it was no use. The images of my parents' lifeless bodies lying on the floor came rushing back, and I felt tears streaming down my face as I collapsed to the ground. It was as if the entire world had stopped, and all that was left was the pain and trauma that I had been carrying with me for so long. I could do was lie there, surrounded by the chaos and destruction of that night, struggling to keep the memories at bay and hoping that someday I would find the peace that had eluded me for so long.

"Sasuke," Naruto prayed as he grabbed the boy. "Sasuke please, looked at me! Open your eyes Sasuke, SASUKE!" At this point, Naruto had been shouting in full force while shaking Sasuke. The raven-haired boy finally gasped for air and shoved Naruto away.

"W-What are you doing, you idiot," he grunted out, before catching his composure.

"What am I doing?" Naruto verbally stabbed back with annoyance, "YOU were the one who just zoned out! I don't know WHAT has got you all messed up, but right now Zabuza is in that clump of bandits kicking people around and WE are the only two that can help." Sasuke shook his head, the sight of Naruto knocking him into some sort of sense. It isn't that Naruto is a sight of reassurance for the boy. Nothing even close to that. Naruto may have been one of the most annoying people in Sasuke's life, but in Sasuke's mind if Naruto could keep his composure then anyone could. Just seeing the knucklehead keep a level head in this situation got under Sasuke's skin in an indescribable way. On top of that, seeing Naruto do what he couldn't in taking out Haku. It was one thing after another, and Sasuke was reaching his limit. His pride wouldn't let him loose to Naruto a third time around.

Sasuke grunted, giving a hnn in response before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. His eyelids peeled, revealing his blazing gaze spinning to life. "Try to keep up," Sasuke said before igniting his feet with chakra and blazing past Naruto toward the guild of bandits.

Naruto smiled to himself as he chased after his teammate, hands crossing together in his traditional manner. He shouted out his signature ability before several clones of him appeared in a puff of smoke, flooding a strip of the bridge orange.

All the while Zabuza, currently kicking his way through the group of bandits, was slowly making his way toward Gato. He ducked against swords, weaved his head through striking spears, and jumped above strikes toward his lower body. Some of the bandits cowered in fear from his earlier attack. Others refused to be deterred, acting solely upon the will of greed. None of these bandits could even land a strike upon Zabuza. The man may have been close to exhaustion and with neither arm working, but he had seen even worse situations. He had fought opponents while starved and without days of sleep. There was just no comparing mere bandits to the strength of a veteran ninja who had been fighting since childhood. Just as he described himself to be, the man was showing why he was the Demon of the Hidden Mist. It didn't take long, he reached Gatto and then headbutt tackled the dwarf into the waters below. Gato screamed and pleaded, but in the end, the two ended up in the water, leaving the sight of everyone else with just a few bubbles rising to the top of the water.

On the bridge, a collective twenty of Naruto clones and one singular Sasuke faced down the remanding band of thugs. There were easily still fifty men, and while Sasuke felt confident in taking fifty down one at a time, fighting against that many men shook his resolve. Thinking quickly he jumped back just a bit, ensuring that he was just in front of the line of Narutos.

"You have enough chakra for one more wind jutsu?" Sasuke questioned, peering down toward the bridge and seeing a few of the men initiate a charge. More and more individuals followed and within seconds the entirety of the group initiated their assault as well.

"Yeah, I think I got just enough left for one more," Naruto lied, but he had to. He knew he had plenty of chakra. His soul stone had brought him back to life with more than enough chakra for him to fill the bridge with clones if he needed to. However, when it came to his Piercing Wind Gale ability, he knew that he could only use it once every five minutes.

"Perfect, make sure to put everything you got into that when I finish," Sasuke then jumped meters high into the air while performing a storm of hand signs. "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu" he cried as a flamethrower-like blaze spread from his lips and began to ignite the field. Naruto's eyes widened in realization.

Wind makes fire stronger. Oh my- "Piercing Wind Gale Jutsu!" Naruto, including his clones, exclaimed in unison. The sheer amount of wind blowing forward caused the medium size blaze to increase to a strength that even Sasuke didn't expect. The fire stream flew out and ignited the thieves, while the force of the wind knocked them so far back that they flew off the bridge and into the waters below. They screamed and shouted, a few asking for mercy. Luckily the water below served as their savior, ensuring that no one had burnt to death.

Heh, kid, you know I never took you for a killer.

I-I'm not. I'm not a killer. I didn't think…

What, you didn't think wind like that in combination with any sort of flame would do a crazy amount of damage?

Shut up! I'm not a killer. I didn't kill anyone. I didn't kill anyone. Naruto mentally repeated in an attempt to convince himself that he didn't do wrong. Killing was a line that even he couldn't bare to cross.

"Hey," this time it was Sasuke's voice breaking Naruto out of his head. "What're you so freaked out about? It's not like we did anything crazy."

Naruto relaxed a bit. Sasuke was right. They didn't do anything that crossed a line. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Still, we should be a bit more careful. I don't want to…" Naruto's voice trailed off toward the end of the statement. Sasuke didn't respond. As stoic as he tried to be about fighting in this way, he knew firsthand what death can do to a person. The silence between the two drew tension, only for that tension to be interrupted by the piercing voice of Kakashi.

"Good work you two, right now we need to take this boy back and patch him up. I'm confident we don't have anything else to be worried about.

Kakashi made sure to have Naruto utilize his clones to carry Anko back. On the bridge, Kakashi utilized his non-Haku penetrated arm and pulled a scroll out of his bag. "We need to be quick about this."

"Kakashi-sensei, while I don't think it's right to just leave someone to die, how can we be sure Haku isn't going to try and come after us after we help him?" Sakura voiced her concerns.

Naruto frowned, "Even if Haku tries to get violent, no one deserves to die because they were protecting who they loved." He spoke in a low tone, clearly, this had struck a nerve. Sakura stumbled over her words and Kakashi simply drowned the noise out. He stretched the scroll out and utilized its contents. Inside were bandage wraps among other miscellaneous medical tools and supplies.

"I may not be a medic-nin, but I've seen my fair share of medical ninjutsu," Kakashi said as he pulled out his arm, the shoulder wound now gaping and spewing with blood. Kakashi immediately began channeling chakra into the wounded area, silently praying that his efforts wouldn't be in vain. Slowly but surely Kakashi was able to administer the required medical assistance. Luckily no major points were hit in his attack, or else even his expertise wouldn't be enough. At first, the bleeding had stopped, and after plenty of wrapping and chakra infusion, Kakashi wiped his brow with his arm and sighed. "I think I managed to at least close the wound. It's not healed, not by any means. Haku will be lucky if he can use this arm at all."

With the boy saved the group began to leave the bridge and return to Tazuna's place as means of recovery. Naruto complained about being hungry, meanwhile, Sakura couldn't even think about food. She was still in her head about her first real mission as a kunoichi. She desperately wanted a hot shower and plenty of time to scrub away. Kakashi simply wanted time to take a nap and read his book. A simple man wishing for simple pleasures.

Sasuke was silent before turning back before the group had even made it off the bridge. "Where are you going?" Tazuna asked. The boy shrugged.

"I forgot something, that's all."

The group decided that was a good enough answer and didn't push any further. They continued their way as the raven hair boy turned and walked to the edge of the bridge. The coble slowly turned crimson as he made his way to the very edge. On the ground beneath him laid the sword of Zabuza. The Decapitating Carving Knife. He bent down and reached for the blade with both his hands, shocked at the weight. It had to be easily over fifty pounds, maybe close to sixty. The weight wasn't something that Sasuke couldn't handle to carry, but to wield in battle? Zabuza must have been a man as strong as he was skinny. Sasuke dragged the blade across the bridge, and to his amazement, he witnessed the scraping and dulling of the sword be nullified by a feint glow and steam. It was as if the sword was feeding off of the blood that stained the bridge. No, it was feeding off of the blood of the bridge.

Sasuke lifted the sword and held it in both hands. He admired the blade and thought it only fitting to at least try to keep the weapon as a reminder of his purpose.

CHARACTER STATUS UPDATE - SKIP IF YOU DON'T CARE

Stats

Name: Naruto Uzumaki | Affiliation: Konohagakure | Rank: Genin

Missions Complete: D - 37 | C - 0 | B - 0 | A - 1 | S - 0

[Strength: 17 | Intellect: 16 | Dexterity: 12 | Constitution: 38] [Points Avail: 5]

[Ninjutsu: 6 | Genjutsu: 2 | Taijutsu: 18] [Points Avail: 2]

Non Jutsu Abilities

Piercing Wind Gale - Rank One of Three: A wind ability that shoots out a torrent of air in a direction from the mouth of the user. The strength of this ability relies on the amount of chakra channeled into it. The ability has a five-minute cooldown and uses chakra.

Soul Stone - Rank One of One: The user channels their chakra and life essence into a stone as a means to resurrect themselves once sustaining fatal damage. The stone can only be utilized upon the user's death, and a more severe death requires more energy from the stone to fix. Can be utilized to bring the user back from death in almost any situation.

Suggestion - Rank One of One: Essentially a Talk-No-Jutsu

Jutsu Abilities

Transformation Jutsu

(Multi) Shadow Clone Jutsu

Sexy Jutsu

Harem Jutsu

Substitution Jutsu

Inventory

Current Active Inventory Doesn't Matter, although aside from the usual Kunai, Shuriken, and Paper Bomb, this aspect will be utilized much more in the coming chapters.

Equipped Items:

Headband: Shows affiliation to Konohagakure. Allows the entrance and use of things such as Ninja Shops and Ninja Libraries.

Orange Jumpsuit: +2 to defense. -10 to stealth. +3 to Active Item Slots.

Holster: Standard Ninja holster. Provides the standard +3 to Active Item Slots.

Trinket Slot One: Empty

Trinket Slot Two: Empty

END CHARACTER STATUS UPDATE

AN: Well, the first Arc just finished and I quite like the way it wrapped up. The next few chapters will probably be around this length or shorter, just going to be exploring some themes and other aspects of this new timeline that I'm creating. Going to be trying to throw my focus into finishing my rewrite of the other story I have on my page.

QOTD: What sort of situation do you think Team Seven's Next Mission will have them face?