Chapter 3

Naruto met his new team, Jiro who specialised in kenjutsu, but his body was an early and short developer, so he was limited with the amount of chakra he had, putting him at a low Chunin level of chakra which he used to his best ability but simply couldn't push past a low-level Chunin. His other teammate was Ryo who was a 'jack of all trades but master of none' through no fault of his own as he could find no teachers who were willing to put in the effort to help a low-class Genin. In addition he faced a similar situation as Jiro, where he faced the problem of severely diminishing returns for the training he did, so once his body found it very hard to become stronger. With experience the two Genin may advance, but they were unlikely to become anything noteworthy in their careers and would likely be forced into desk jobs so they could serve the village.

Together with Kage, who revealed nothing of himself and remained a mystery to all of them, they began a series of D-rank missions to promote teamwork, also giving them the time to hone some of their skills after a period of a month.

At first they worked well but with no bonds to tie them together and make them truly work as a team, however after a few missions involving Tora the cat, the three Genin developed a bond between them, nothing astounding or earth shattering, but enough to work with each other for the time being.

Naruto discovered that the other three were the only other people in the reserve forces who truly shared his view of the Yondaime, as a man to be despised for denying them the chance to advance themselves beyond their current limits. For this reason Naruto actively tried to become slightly friendlier towards his team, although his naturally cold disposition made this difficult.

After a month of training, Kage had imparted many tips to them, things only those who have experienced combat could know and tell others. Furthermore Naruto had become comfortable with handling the new prowess his body had, advancing at an astounding speed through various shinobi skillsets, not that anyone knew or took notice.

The team was once again meeting at the bunkhouse, ready for another day of D-ranks and tips from the old man.

"Today I think you are ready to get a C-rank mission, nothing glamorous, just enough threat to maybe find a bandit or two, let you get a taste of killing, get back, sort you all out and then try for another one. I've already applied to take a mission, we'll meet the client in a room where we hash out anything they want as they get to know us."

"What do you mean by 'applied to take a mission' sensei?" Questioned Ryo who was curious as to why they would need to apply for such a low ranked mission.

"Well we're not a traditional Jounin team with a bunch of green Genins are we now? So I can't walk in all cocky and say 'give me a C-rank as I can do it with one hand tied behind my back' now can I? Instead I have to send a request to the Hokage for a mission who then eventually gets back after a few weeks, saying if his evaluation of us has proved whether we can go on a mission. That's what life is like in the reserve forces, no respect whatsoever for you, hence all the political red tape crap they pull on us, trying to push us into cushy pencil pusher jobs."

The three weren't quite sure what to say about this revelation, they had known that the all of the reserve forces were considered deadbeats who just didn't quit, but they hadn't quite realised that the prejudice extended to the simple acquisition of missions and a great deal of political rubbish being thrown at them.

"This is why I sent a request four weeks ago if we could be granted any C-rank they deemed suitable for us, which is why I have got a reply today telling me about a man called Tazuna, who we shall meet now. Follow me."

The three smiled at their sensei's foresight, a trait he was very proud of.

The four entered a room in the Hokage's Tower which was one of many made to meet clients. Inside they found an old man who reeked of alcohol, staring at them with tired eyes.

"I assked for shome shinobsi, not these uneducated brats who're barely outta diapers. And you're a cr-cripple."

The man was obviously drunk, however the team had been warned about the various types of client they would meet, those who were doubtful of their skills, those who insulted them, those who expected to be pampered throughout the journey and many more. So even if they were offended, they still stood stoically as their sensei talked to the client.

"Tazuna-san, my team are experienced enough to fight a few bandits and I myself can take them on easily despite my disability. I am able to fully assure you that we can deal with this mission."

"Hmph, yous better be able to proshtect my super self on this super important mishon to build a super bridge."

"Of course, we'll meet up tomorrow morning at Konoha's gates, 0700 hours sharp. Team dismissed."

As the team dispersed for the day to prepare themselves for the next day, Naruto wondered how Kage had gotten the mission form past Minato, who would have surely rejected the request for a mission if he had known that he was on the team. What he didn't know was that Kage had entered Naruto under the name of 'Menma', having realised that the Hokage would likely attempt to sabotage his son's progress if he had decided to put the boy in the reserves. As such, Minato had unknowingly allowed his son to go on a C-rank mission.

The four left through the gates of Konoha the next day, chafing at the slow pace they were moving at due to the civilian they were escorting.

A few days into their journey they all noticed a puddle of water which screamed genjutsu to them as there hadn't been any rain in days.

The piss poor attempt at deceiving them resulted in two brothers being engaged by the other three shinobi conducting the mission, the old man just watching from the side-lines, evaluating their performance as he always did.

Surprised at being found out so easily, the two brothers had no opportunity to defend themselves before they were restrained by Jiro and Ryo as Naruto placed a seal on them which stopped them from using any chakra.

The three interrogated the two missing nin, who were identified as Gozu and Meizu, the Demon Brothers and Chunin ranked missing nin from Kirigakure who were known associates of Zabuza Momochi.

After some creative use of his fuuinjutsu seals, the two men only said that their target was the bridge builder, Tazuna. Confronting Tazuna, Kage got the old man to spill the beans about Nami being under the control of Gato and his corporation, basically draining the place of resources and bankrupting the villages while hoarding any money for his own coffers.

"We'll continue the mission, but you'll be forced to pay for at least a B-rank now and I'm sending a message for reinforcements, if Gato has hired any other shinobi, it's most likely a Jounin and we'll have a difficult if not impossible time fighting that level of shinobi. In the meantime keep your guards up to the highest they've ever been, we can't afford to be surprised by a Jounin else the fight will be over instantly."

"Oh thank you super shinobi for saving this poor, old, super bridge builder!" Tazuna was showering praises to his saviours, who sweat dropped at the change from being a pauper to becoming 'super' in the same sentence.

"Just shut up and walk," commented Jiro.

A day later and the group of five had crossed the water surrounding Nami no Kuni, seeing the humongous and dare they say it, impressive bridge that the drunkard was making. After reaching the other side, the mist just seemed to get thicker around them.

"Be careful, this mist is not natural," said Kage.

Ryo turned and threw a kunai into some nearby bushes, out of which came a white rabbit which both Naruto and Kage realised had the wrong fur colour and therefore could only be a substitution.

"Get down!" A large sword whipped just over them, bisecting them if they had been stood up.

The zanbato lodged itself into a tree where a man appeared on top of it, his face covered by bandages and his hair was black.

"It is worse than I feared, Momochi Zabuza, A-rank missing nin from Kiri and former member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū." All of them knew that they were all way out of their league, unless the old man suddenly recovered, there was no way that they could survive this encounter. Each had been forced to study the bingo book, so they had all heard of Zabuza and his skill.

"I don't know who you are, nor do I care, hand over the bridge builder or die," his tone threatening, Zabuza had little patience for those before him, having already gauged them and finding them lacking.

Kage struck first, able to hold off the former member of the Seven Swordsmen for a few minutes through a combination of clones and deceit, but then his injury prevented him from blocking a kick which sent the man flying away.

"Huh, guess the man might have been half decent before that injury, gotta respect him for continuing on being a shinobi, but you three are green, you've not seen anything yet."

Naruto attempted one of his strongest genjutsu but the experienced former Jounin dispelled it quickly, recognising the signs of his chakra being interfered with. After doing so he saw kunai heading towards him, Jiro following behind them with his own sword.

The swordsmen batted the kunai away like they were flies, easily engaging Jiro in a kenjutsu fight, in which he was clearly being played with by the other man, accumulating small cuts here and there, prolonging Jiro's pain. Naruto joined in on the fight, putting his recently acquired skills to good use, but despite the training he had done, his taijutsu just wasn't strong enough to match the veteran shinobi who could easily hold both at bay and the long-range support that Ryo was providing as well. None of them could even scrape the man who returned Jiro's sword blows with those of his own, Naruto's strikes were deflected as he felt the shattering force of the man's own blows whilst Ryo had to dodge the very kunai he threw at the man.

Only their teamwork combos which mainly consisted of interference with Zabuza's attacks allowed them to live. Nevertheless Naruto cried out as Zabuza scored a direct hit on his ribs, the blonde-haired teen felt his ribs break and fell back to the earth, leaving Jiro to try and fight off the demon before them.

It was here that Kage interfered again, surprising the missing nin who had thought the man wouldn't get up from his kick, this put him under enough pressure that Naruto and Ryo managed to land a few strikes as Naruto forced himself to endure the pain he was under to enhance the kunai that Ryo threw with a bit of wind chakra, making them sail through the air fast enough to nick the man on his legs.

Zabuza jumped back, scowling at actually being hurt, as insignificant as the damage was, by three greenies and one retired cripple, the blow wounded his pride more than anything else.

"Play time's over now. Suiton: Kirigakure no jutsu," the area was covered by a thick mist of fog, obscuring everything from view.

Shick, a thump was heard which they turned towards, seeing Jiro's head roll towards them, his face twisted in horror as he saw his imminent death and could neither warn his comrades or do anything to prevent it.

"NO!" Screamed Ryo, who was clearly close to the man who now lay dead before him, perhaps they were siblings, or something more. Naruto had never actually found out, the two were quite private about themselves, in fact Naruto wasn't sure if Ryo and Jiro were their real names.

"I'll kill you bastard!" Ryo ran out into the mist, all emotional control completely forgotten as he even ignored Kage's bellow "Stop you fool, he'll kill you in an instant!"

The three remaining men heard a second shink and a second thud, all knew that Ryo was dead as well.

"Choices, choices, who should I eliminate next, the greenie or the old veteran, maybe making the little greenie more scared would be more entertainment, or maybe seeing the cripple acknowledge his fate would be," taunted Zabuza, who got some sort of sick enjoyment out of the game he was playing.

Naruto couldn't stand the tension, throwing a kunai into the mist where he thought Zabuza may be, grunting as the action pulled against broken ribs.

"Good guess but guess again greenie, you didn't even nick me."

Naruto was panicking, knowing that his mother's chakra chains still weren't at a usable stage in open combat because Naruto had been focusing on more fundamental skills such as his taijutsu, especially now that he was injured, he wouldn't be able to bare the pain forming the chains would bring. He was feeling the full effects of fear in a way he hadn't in years, he kept looking around him, searching for any visible sign of the demon who had trapped him and found grey eyes staring directly into his, the sword thrust straight through Kage, his heart had been pierced, his death was approaching quickly as the Kiri missing nin smiled and vanished once more.

Kage was gasping, clinging onto life as he always had, he beckoned Naruto over to him.

"If, by some sort of miracle or Kami's intervention you survive this boy, do me a favour and become a feared shinobi, prove to everyone that the so-called cripples and losers of the academy have something to offer to the village, let no one hold you back," he had a coughing fit here, gasping some of his last breaths "I know you have plans of some sort, I can see the desire for revenge that burns in your eyes, the desire to surpass your family eats away at you, I'm good enough to have found that out. Pursue them to the very end Naruto." Taking a final shuddering gasp, Kage died an unceremonious death considering the long career the man had had, taking part in two shinobi world wars and leaving life with nothing to show for it.

Naruto looked on with widened eyes at the acknowledgement Kage had given him, the old geezer knew about his plans for revenge and yet had never told a soul about them. His respect for the dead man grew, Naruto felt he owed something to Kage, but wasn't quite sure what, he felt a strange sense of kinship towards the cold-hearted shinobi, but knew of no way to repay the now dead man other than to achieve his goals.

"He was a shinobi worthy of respect, too bad his dying wish will go unfulfilled but you can reminisce with him in the afterlife greenie." Zabuza taunted him once more and Naruto was left hopeless, his entire dream would die with him, the last hope of the True Uzumaki dead, all the secrets of the world would remain as just that, secrets. His plans for the future, his research on bloodlines and fuuinjutsu, everything meant nothing now as it could not save him, for despite his training, Naruto had not had enough time to train to Zabuza's level of ability. He was a high ranked Chunin in power, a very low ranked Tokubetsu Jounin at most; impressive considering how little time he had but not enough to beat the monster before him.

CLANG

In front of Naruto's eyes the sword of Zabuza was being held off by a kunai which was held by a silver haired man whose face was covered by a mask.

"Kakashi Hatake, a pleasure to be sure. I have always wanted to kill the copy ninja, a man who is said to have copied a thousand jutsu."

"You stand no chance Zabuza. Once you would have easily dispatched me, but now I can't lose to you," arrogance seeped out of the Jounin's tone but it was well deserved.

Hatake had been so traumatised by his teammates death that after being in ANBU for a number of years, he left and became the laziest Jounin-sensei on record. He never passed a team, only went on the occasional mission and never really trained either until one day Minato confronted the man at the memorial stone and told him that he disgraced the memory of his teammates who had both done everything they could to protect their loved ones, sure Obito was stupid and late all the time, but he still did his best to help and protect others.

The rant had lasted for a long time, at the end of which Kakashi broke down for the first time in nearly a decade. This helped rejuvenate the man, who afterwards trained himself into the ground, once more taking up the mantle as one of the best shinobi in the village, training under his sensei until he was considered an S-ranked ninja.

Zabuza narrowed his eyes "We'll see about that Hatake."

The two engaged in battle, the fight too fast to see but it was clear that Kakashi had the upper hand from the start, constantly laying small cuts on Zabuza to weaken him, receiving none in return. The Elite Jounin easily held Zabuza's blade at bay, seeing through all of his attacks without even using his Sharingan eye.

Leaping back, Zabuza thought he might best the one-eyed ninja with ninjutsu considering the abundance of water available to use for his suiton jutsu.

As Zabuza began handseals for a suiton jutsu, he found that Kakashi had already finished his, the difference between an A and S-ranked shinobi now being shown clearly.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu" a massive dragon of water charged into Zabuza, sending him flying into the forest as Kakashi started to catch up with him and finish him off. Before he could however, a mirror made of what looked to be ice materialised and Zabuza sank into it, both the mirror and man vanishing moments later, no traces of Zabuza remained.

The heavy mist lifted, revealing the rest of Team 7 and the body of Ryo, his spine severed by Zabuza, dead eyes staring sightlessly at the sky. Kakashi quickly approached and burned the bodies without any ceremony, allowing Naruto no opportunity to say any final farewells to his former team.

"Report," said Kakashi, his voice brooking no argument, or sympathy for the boy before him. He should have been a step brother to Naruto but never would, believing him to only be a failure, this mission only confirming it for him.

Naruto told Kakashi everything that had happened, shedding no tears for the team he had been with, mourning internally for those who were outcasts like him, containing no love for the Yondaime. But he refused to show any sort of weakness before this man or the team that waited behind him.

Kakashi stayed silent as he digested the information given, the mission had gone to hell for the boy and his team, however he could complete it, telling the client that Naruto's team was from a subpar division of Konoha who were only allowed to do C-ranked missions and shouldn't have continued with this one when it was apparent it had risen above their level. A brutal solution against Naruto, but effective and his sensei wouldn't mind.

"Tazuna-san, my team shall complete the mission you have given Konoha, I am an Elite Jounin myself, whilst my Genin are the best that the village has to offer, as you can see I easily defeated Zabuza there. Unfortunately Naruto and his team were only equipped to deal with a C-rank mission, their courage should be applauded for going on a higher mission but it was foolish of their sensei to do such a thing. Naruto you shall stick with us as we deal with this mission."

'Orders heard loud and clear bastard.' Naruto only too clearly heard 'my team' and 'we', blatantly suggesting that his time was finished but he would be made to watch a proper team do the job his had failed to do. He burned with hatred at the thought that he and his team were now seen as weaklings in the eyes of Tazuna, who was clearly fawning over how easily Kakashi had dispatched Zabuza while his team barely touched him.

Just to top it all off, it appeared Team 7 had seen through what Kakashi had said as well, all of them looking smug, particularly Natsumi who had a lovely superior smirk aimed directly at him. As if her ego needed another boost.

"Where is Kushina-sama Kakashi-san, I believe she is also part of this team?" It wasn't Kakashi who answered, but a haughty Natsumi.

"Kaa-san was deemed unnecessary for such a low ranked mission when Kakashi nii-san is already on it. We won't have nearly as much difficulty in completing this mission Naruto-baka."

Naruto ground his teeth at the blatant insult but would let it go until he had the strength to casually crush her into submission, relishing his revenge for every second it was worth when it finally happened.

"That's enough, Tazuna-san can you please guide us to your home in Nami?" Ever the consummate diplomat when dealing with clients, Kakashi directed his team's focus to the mission, having them form a standard Manji formation around the client, Naruto forced to stay inside the formation as if he needed to be protected like Tazuna, bastards.

They finally made their way to Tazuna's home, his daughter graciously welcoming them all into her home as Tazuna gushed about how the 'super shinobi' had saved him just before he was going to die. No mention or hint was made of Naruto's team who had sacrificed their lives for the man, they were just forgotten like all of the other no name losers who were a part of the reserve forces.

"Thank you for the food and compliments, but this is far from over and Zabuza will be back in about one week I should imagine."

"Hai and we have to defeat his accomplice as well." This came from the black-haired rival of Natsumi, a rivalry shared by both of their mothers who pushed their little babies to best the other and settle the feud of who was the best between the two.

"The one who made the ice mirror? They'll be easy to deal with, you and I will settle it while Kakashi-sensei tackles Zabuza and Sakura can defend Tazuna against everyone else!" The exuberant daughter of the Yondaime hashed out a fairly well thought plan in mere seconds, which both Sasuke and Sakura nodded to, although Sasuke intended to fight the ice nin himself, proving his superiority over his red-haired rival.

"A decent plan Natsumi, except you haven't thought about just how strong Zabuza's accomplice is, they are at least a high level Chunin in order to still be with Zabuza, but are much likely to be stronger if they are actually partnered with the man. Hence I am going to train you all in the ground for the next week, enhancing all of the skills you currently have, but we'll discuss more about your training regimes tomorrow, now you must sleep and prepare for the next morning my cute little Genin."

The Jounin eye smiled as the three grumbled at being called 'cute' and how they weren't babies and could get themselves to sleep.

Soon after the cyclops approached the blonde haired genin who regarded him silently,

"Naruto, you will defend this house as my team and I train or guard Tazuna, you must be on the lookout for anyone who may take Tsunami or Inari hostage and use them against us," the silver haired man walked off after giving his instructions to babysit the family and let his skills rust in the meantime.

'Stuff that, if they're going to train or guard the ungrateful drunkard all the time, I'll practice my fuuinjutsu, I simply must become stronger or else I'll be killed, just like I nearly was today.' The encounter with Zabuza had shaken Naruto up, even if he hadn't revealed how he felt to the others, who would mock him if he so much as breathed a word of his fear.

He had to get stronger, enough to never be put in that situation again, which meant being better than everyone, he never desired to feel such fear again.

The next week was monotonous, but very interesting for Naruto's fuuinjutsu studies as he used a Kage Bunshin as a lookout, using even more to advance his studies and try out new ideas. He was able to experiment some more on mixing bloodlines, following research started by his ancestors but also putting his own spin on them, recording the results and feeling as though he was getting closer to a breakthrough.

In addition to these experiments, Naruto had nearly reached level 8 mastery of True Uzumaki fuuinjutsu, a level denoted by someone who could use dead skin to gain a bloodline, as the last True Uzumaki obtained the Iburi clan's bloodline from a dead body of the Iburi before it was destroyed. But Naruto wouldn't actually be able to confirm he had reached this level until he had solved the multiple bloodline puzzle, which would actually put him as a very high level 8 master if he could do it.

On the other hand the week was torturous with his 'sister's' constant attitude, oh she wasn't extremely bratty or idiotic. It was this silent superiority that she and Sasuke shared, something which clearly stated 'I am better than you' without even saying it. Naruto despised them for it, despite knowing that they had worked hard to get where they had it was only because they were trained by the best. Natsumi had Minato, Kushina, Jiraiya, Tsunade, the toads and now Kakashi. Sasuke had Fugaku, Mikoto, Itachi and his entire clan to take from.

What did he have? Scrolls from his ancestors which he had painstakingly worked through for years with a weak body, hampered every step of the way by said body and only now was he beginning to reap the rewards after so long. Naruto pushed the thoughts from his mind, continuing his studies and pondering tomorrow when Kakashi suspected Zabuza and his accomplice would attack again.

As the fated day arrived and Team 7 along with Tazuna left the house, Naruto waited for someone to strike from the shadows, using multiple Kage Bunshin to try and see anyone who would attack. Half an hour later and Naruto saw two idiots lackadaisically walking towards the house of the bridge builder, talking about how good it would be to put the ninja in their places when they had hostages who they would kill at a moment's notice.

Naruto sighed, thinking of the time and chakra wasted only for these two baboons to show up, Naruto killed them quickly, silently, hiding the bodies in a scroll to dump later. He then left a Kage Bunshin as he proceeded towards the bridge, curious as to how the fight there was going.

He arrived to find Sakura standing beside the bridge builder, Kakashi engaging Zabuza in a second one-sided fight as Natsumi and Sasuke were stuck inside a dome made up of ice.

'Hyoton, must be a Yuki member from Kirigakure then, one of the last considering the bloodline purges going on, their blood will be invaluable to my experiments. What's that?'

A loud chirping of birds could be heard from within the ice dome, as well as a curious sound of swirling wind.

"Chidori!"

"Rasengan!"

Naruto's eyes widened, knowing the two trademark techniques of the Yondaime and the copycat ninja, surprised at the use of two such advanced techniques. He had not realised the Natsumi was actually capable of using the Rasengan so easily and was shocked at how Sasuke was already able to use the Chidori despite only being with Kakashi for a couple of months.

Two explosions erupted within the dome, exposing two new holes within it through which Sasuke and Natsumi came out of, both looking extremely tired and hurt.

A masked nin who looked remarkably like a Hunter nin also appeared, breathing deeply at what must have been a costly jutsu, yet still throwing senbons at his two opponents who were dodging like hell.

However the two prodigies were able to coordinate their attacks together, with Natsumi distracting the ice wielding nin long enough that they didn't notice the shurikens Sasuke had thrown actually had wire attached to them. Zabuza's accomplice managed to avoid or deflect most of the shuriken, however a few managed to cut fairly deeply into the boy's thigh, making it collapse for a moment and providing both Natsumi and Sasuke the opening they needed as they began some handseals.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa"

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu"

The two jutsus combined, forming a conflagration which blew away all the senbon which were used as a last minute defence, catching the Hyoton wielder in the process, burning a part of his body away, after which he lay on the ground unmoving before the two Genin who now looked sick at the fact that they had just killed someone.

Kakashi used his own chidori to finish off Zabuza, who joined his unnamed companion in death, his precious blood covering the bridge, providing plenty of material for Naruto when he had the chance to acquire it.

They heard clapping as a small man emerged from the rapidly dissipating mist which had once again been conjured by Zabuza. 'This must be Gato, coming out with that army of thugs to kill all the exhausted shinobi, except Kakashi is far from exhausted.'

"So the 'Demon of the Mist' was only a baby demon after all, no matter as I will no longer have to pay him anything for the failed mission, not that I intended to pay him anyway, far too expensive you ninja are, makes for bad business."

Natsumi had an uncomprehending look, shocked that someone could so casually throw someone's life away like that.

"How could you be so inconsiderate, so callous about a person who just sacrificed his life!" Bellowed the young girl.

"Sacrifice? Oh dear, this was no misplaced sense of duty little girl, merely good business. Now with him dead and all of you tired I can use these good men here, who are already under my employment by the way, to kill you, thus stopping the bridge builder all for no cost except a bonus to each man who kills one of you and brings the bridge builder before me. Kill them!"

With an imperious wave of his hand the thugs charged towards them, he decided to help Kakashi kill them all, as the Jounin used some ninjutsu in conjunction with various other skills to kill the majority of the unskilled thugs while Naruto picked off the remainder of them.

"Please spare me, I'll do anything, money, contacts, women, wine, slaves, anything you want!"

"I'm very glad you said that Gato because you do have something I want, I'm sure you'll happily give me any codes and all the locations of your hidden stashes, contract rights, so on and so forth in exchange for your life, right?" The Sharingan wielder's presence was formidable, forcing Gato to cower against the ground, quivering at the feeling that now permeated the air around him.

The whimpering fool gave up everything Kakashi had asked for, at the end of which the ninja smiled happily as if nothing had happened.

"So y-you'll let me go now?"

"Of course I'll let you go, I have a deal to honour after all," Gato began smiling, thinking he had escaped death, but his smile soon vanished at the man's next words "I'll let you go into the good hands of these villagers, I'm sure that they will know exactly what to do with you."

Still eye-smiling, the Jounin turned to the villagers who had just arrived, giving them access to the small man, whom they grabbed, screaming, taking him back to the village to deal with as they wanted.

The fiasco of Gato now dealt with, Kakashi turned towards his Genin, seeing Sakura with Tazuna next to her, still protecting the client as she should be whilst putting her fledgling Iryō ninjutsu skills to good use and healing a little of the damage done to his other two Genin.

As Kakashi checked on his team, Naruto surreptitiously made a Kage Bunshin, sending them to collect blood and tissue from the bodies of Zabuza and his accomplice as he made his way towards Kakashi and the others, who were just finishing their report.

"…you did well, I'll help you get through your first kill Sasuke, Natsumi, but just remember for now that it was for Tazuna, Nami and to protect each other, you have both made me proud."

The last Hatake turned towards Naruto, his eyes now containing a darker glint.

"Naruto why have you abandoned your post at Tazuna's house?"

Unsurprised by the direction of his 'leader's' thoughts, Naruto began a report of his own, including how he had left a clone behind after dispatching the thugs who attempted to kidnap Tsunami and Inari, but only that it was an elemental bunshin he had learnt with his previous team.

"Very well but don't disobey my orders again, understand?"

"Hai Kakashi-san."

Nodding Kakashi gathered the team and he destroyed the bodies except for their heads to prove they had kill them both, taking the Kubikiribōchō, sealing it inside a scroll to be used later. Naruto breathed a silent sigh of relief as said events happened, relieved that Kakashi hadn't caught him gathering the DNA of the two shinobi for later experimentation and eventual extraction.

He never spotted the extra close eye the Jounin paid him, the suspicious narrowing at the tension that was released from his shoulders.

The next few weeks fell into a familiar pattern of training, which Naruto was still denied as he had to protect Tazuna's family in the event that any remaining thugs of Gato's attempted to get revenge by killing them. So he resorted to his fuuinjutsu once more, happily conducting further experiments with the use of Haku's blood (he learned the name from the report of Natsumi and Sasuke) added into the mix, it provided further details for analysis, contributing heavily towards Naruto's understanding of the exact problem with multiple bloodlines and thus beginning to come up with a most ingenious solution.


Author's Note

Apologies for the slightly late update, I was out all day Saturday and didn't have enough time in the morning to upload. Moving on, this particular chapter is in part a filler, not because I have suddenly ran out of ideas but because I feel it is necessary for the plot to advance. My apologies if this chapter is slightly too angst-filled, I am afraid it will get worse (not by much) before it gets better, so please bear with me.

As is the way with fillers I am not completely satisfied with this chapter, I feel that it lacks a certain something or I have slightly skimmed over the character development, however with the way I have planned the story I can't do too much else lest I mess with the timeline of events too much.

Irregardless I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter, so until next week, Ja ne!