Author's Note:
This chapter contains scenes of rape and gore – the fiction is rates 'M' for a reason, you have been warned.
Chapter 5: Enter Haku
Team seven under jounin Hatake Kakashi currently sat in their client's house after their sensei fainted from chakra exhaustion caused by his fight with a missing-nin Momochi Zabuza. Their mission was to escort the old bridge builder to his home in the land of waves and protect him from rogue thugs and bandits who worked for someone who didn't want the bridge connecting the island nation to the mainland, thus increasing the nation's economy and bringing them from the brink of poverty.
Things rarely go as planned though as the three newly appointed Genin, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Hyuuga Hanabi under jounin sensei Hatake Kakashi encountered two chunin level missing-nin on this supposed 'C' ranked mission followed by Zabuza himself, an 'A' ranked missing-nin, whose interference placed the mission as a high 'B' rank mission to a low 'A' rank one at least, far too dangerous for the likes of genin level shinobi fresh out of the academy.
If you were to ask the genin their opinion of the matter though they would tell you different. Uchiha Sasuke, the sold survivor of the Uchiha massacre after his brother single handedly wiped out the entire clan save him in one night with the use of the legendary Mangekyou Sharingan before mentally attacking the then eight year old Sasuke and fleeing from the village, all in the process of 'testing his capacity'. Ever since that incident, the brooding Uchiha changed from his vibrant if somewhat cocky youthful attitude to one of dark, brooding and arrogant nature with a legion of fan-girls after his cold heart. The Uchiha were famous for their roles as the enforcers of Konoha, running the police force on their own until the clan was wiped out – they did this with the aid of their bloodline limit, the Sharingan, which as the name suggests, allows the user to commit many things to memory including Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu movement at a singular glance. Due to this bloodline limit being a doujutsu like the Hyuuga's Byakugan, there has been an age old conflict between the two families over who is the strongest in Konoha.
Haruno Sakura was one of these said fan girls, with pink hair an abnormally large forehead and a slim and unfit looking figure. She, like most girls her age after the Uchiha do not take being shinobi seriously and follow the brooding boy around like lost puppies. The girl had no real shinobi skills to speak of but to be fair; she did have incredibly good book smarts and an impressive control over her miniscule chakra supply. Her once best friend and currently main rival in achieving Sasuke's affection Yamanaka Ino, a fellow class mate and member of team ten was the only thing giving her drive at all to get better aside from impressing her wonderful 'Sasuke-kun'. Sakura comes from a non-shinobi background with both her parents being civilians and her being the first shinobi in the family – her family push her to try and win the Uchiha's affection to elevate the Haruno's standing within Konoha, something that Sakura was all to happy to oblige with.
The last and youngest member of the team at the age of ten, making her four years younger then her teammates was Hyuuga Hanabi, sister to the heiress of the prestigious Hyuuga clan and daughter of Hyuuga Hiashi, the head of the clan. Arrogant, cold and serious to a fault, she was a very good shinobi, especially for her age. She was seen as a prodigy in the Gentle First taijutsu style of the Hyuuga which uses their bloodline limit the Byakugan to see their opponent's chakra system while they use precise bursts of chakra from their hand and fingers to close the pathways, stopping the flow of chakra and immobilizing of killing their opponents with a single blow. The black haired girl had an extreme hate for her sister who holds the title of clan heiress over her head like it was some superficial toy to show off, even if she was nowhere near as proficient or skilled of a shinobi as Hanabi. This resentment of her sister along with the treatment she receives as a result of it has grown to become a bitterness that she holds towards her family for allowing such a 'weakling' to claim the title.
Now though, they all sat in the dining room of their client, Tazuna's, house waiting for their sensei to wake up after his fight with the missing-nin to see what is on the schedule for the day. Suddenly, three heads whipped in the direction of the stairs to see a tall silver haired man whose hair seemed to defy gravity that wore a facemask covering his lower face and a Konoha forehead protector with the insignia of the Leaf village on it worn diagonally covering his left eye. He was leaning on a single crutch as he hobbled down the stairs, obviously still suffering from fatigue after his right.
"Yo" he said happily, his one visibly eye curving which was the only sign that the man was smiling, as well as the small creases in his mask where his cheeks rose from smiling.
"Kakashi-sensei, are you feeling better?" asked Sakura, fussing over her sensei who seemed perfectly fine were it not for the fatigue.
"Hai, Hai, I actually came down here to discuss a couple of things with you three" confessed Kakashi, shrugging off Sakura's concern. Seeing that he had all three of their attention, Sasuke's while eating rice and Hanabi even though she was leaning against the wall and looking out the window, he could tell she was listening.
"Zabuza may not be dead" he said simply, causing an instant reaction from the three genin who all whipped their heads in his direction and Sasuke choking on his rice, making for a comical sight – he had to suppress a chuckle as Hanabi smirked at the sight, she seemed to take extreme pleasure in watching the Uchiha heir make a fool of himself.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NOT DEAD' SENSEI?!" came the question from Sakura, the pink haired banshee whose screams were some sort of sound based ninjutsu, he was certain of it.
"Well…I mean that he's still alive" he deadpanned as Sakura face vaulted and Hanabi smirked again, Sasuke was still coughing and pounding his chest where his 'food pipe' was in the hopes it would aid in making it go down. After some more choking and realizing it wouldn't work, he thought quick and made some hand seals before initiating the 'Gokakyu no jutsu' incinerating the offensive rice. He then glared at everyone in the room after he was sure he wasn't going to die for not helping, though no one seemed to notice.
Hanabi was the one who decided to get some more information "What makes you believe that Momochi-san is still alive Kakashi-sensei?" she asked stoically with only the slightest sign of amusement showing in her eyes at both her teammate's actions.
"Well, firstly the hunter-nin didn't dispose of the body on the spot and took it away, likely to escape. Secondly, their weapon of choice was a Senbon to the neck to kill, which is usually not the best way to kill somebody, though it is quite an effective way to put someone in a death like state. Zabuza's heartbeat must have been so slow that I missed the pulse when I checked…" he explained to the three students, hoping to teach them a lesson and to the avidly listening Tazuna with his daughter Tsunami.
"So…what are you gonna do?" asked a nervous Tazuna, not sure how much he should trust ninja whose allegiance was to their village and not some old bridge builder.
Kakashi shrugged and motioned to his cane "Not much I can do, but that's ok, Zabuza shouldn't be in fighting condition for another two weeks, one at least – I did severely injure him before he escaped. In that time I intend to set up guard rotations for you at the bridge and train my team some" he explained, motioning towards his students, two of which looked excited and eager while the pink haired one looked at the Uchiha for his reaction before deciding to be excited, this action was not lost on either Hanabi, Sasuke or Kakashi either.
Uzumaki Naruto stood at the edge of the forest up in a tree observing the state of the land of wave. At first glance, one would easily say that this country would be a beggar's nest that couldn't possibly prosper, but Naruto knew better. His old sensei who passed on around a year ago now had brought him here a few times to get supplies and train his Genjutsu and get mercenary work and when he had come then, the place had been booming economically with most of the shipping infrastructure under its control.
According to some intelligence he had happened upon though, the land was having its proverbial balls held in a vice by the evil businessman Gato of Gato inc. who had milked the country dry of all economical resources by controlling the docks and any transport off the island nation so he literally controlled wave's economy.
His plan was simple, find Gato, kill him, take his assets for his own, give half back to the country, make sure the bridge they're trying to build gets completed and in the end, he will get a country to offer his services to for hire – he needed to make money after all. It wasn't that he was poor, far from it, especially after he relinquishes Gato of his assets and finds a new source of employment, but he had plans to achieve, and those plans needed money.
Taking one last look at the humongous bridge in the distance leading to the mainland that was almost complete, he lowered his straw hat and headed towards the village – he had some information gathering to accomplish.
Once he was on the outskirts of the local village closest to the uncompleted bridge, he made several dozen Kage Bunshin and had them henge into different looking civilians before sending them into the city with some cash each. It should be fairly easy for a paying customer to obtain information in a poor village, especially if said customer had no regard to the consequences of his 'questioning'. Not that he was scared of Gato or his men, but he couldn't have Gato know that a powerful shinobi was onto him and after his head, the man would just relocate his business and make finding him again all the more troublesome.
As he waited in the forest he plucked a leaf from the nearby tree and held it in his palm with his other hand resting on top of his other palm, enclosing the leaf in between his hands. This was an exercise he picked up from a scroll he had stolen from Sunagakure one time that helped in training his chakra's natural affinity, which was wind. In his studies, he read that most shinobis'
Chakra leans towards a certain nature and there was a way to test this. The way in which he used was the 'paper test' which required a special piece of card that he had to channel chakra into to discover what his chakra affinity was. The reaction he got was that the card split in two down the middle, which indicated his chakra's natural affinity was wind. Had the card burnt, his affinity would be fire, had it crumbled, it would be lightning, had it turned to dust, he would be earth and if it had gotten wet, he would be water.
If one discovers their chakra's affinity early, they can train it and learn to manipulate it, not to mention that learning to manipulate the type of chakra one's own chakra has an affinity towards is infinitely easier then learning to manipulate chakra of any other type. The current exercise he was doing – splitting a leaf down the middle with only
the use of wind chakra – was the first step in learning to manipulate wind based chakra and once he mastered that nature manipulation, it would be infinitely easier to do wind based jutsus or add wind based chakra to other jutsus and or weapons.
Naruto pulled his hands apart to see the leaf had indeed split perfectly down the middle. With a small smirk, he threw the two pieces of the leaf away and leaned his head against the tree while constantly keeping aware of his surroundings. Originally, when he had pilfered a scroll from Suna which detailed how to train in wind manipulation, he had read it many times and it took him a good month to get it down. He knew he could have used the skill of Kage Bunshin to have all his clones do it with him so he would learn quicker, but he felt that when he learned things on his own, he could use them better then if he had taken a shortcut to learning.
It had taken him a good portion of this last year to get it down, but he was finally able to manipulate his chakra into wind based chakra at will to add it to his jutsus if required, or his weapons or simply use the wind based chakra on its own, it was definitely worth the time he spent learning.
He had read from Sasori's journals on the subject that two of the three sannin, Orochimaru and Jiraiya had mastered manipulating their chakra into all five forms which was a respectable feat on its own – they weren't Sannin for nothing.
At that moment, he felt some foreign knowledge come into his mind signifying that one of his clones had learned something and dispelled him self to pass on the information to Naruto.
It seemed that Gato, along with his regular band of petty samurai and mercenaries has hired two missing-nin, one of which was Momochi Zabuza, 'A' ranked nuke-nin from Kirigakure no Sato and also formally member of the seven swordsmen of the mist. He was once a subordinate of Hoshigake Kisame, one of the members of Akatsuki, also an ex-member from the seven swordsman of the mist; however he attempted a coup de tat against the old Mizukage which failed, causing him to flee from the country and become a missing-nin. He must be desperate if he is sinking low enough to take work from an evil businessman to get money.
It seemed that Zabuza also had an accomplice who he bragged about being stronger then even he, not that Zabuza was incredibly skilled, but he was a jounin and was dangerous. His clone couldn't get anymore information on this mysterious accomplice though so it dispelled itself before he was discovered.
He then shuddered when he realized what his clone had to do to get that information. It had used henge to disguise itself as a female prostitute and coerced the information from one of the higher ranking mercenaries that were patrolling the docks, thank god it used a Genjutsu to get the information instead of 'servicing' him or else he would probably be scarred by the action for life.
Just then, another clone dispersed itself revealing more information. Apparently, the old bridge builder hired a team of genin with their jounin sensei to guard him while he finished construction on the bridge; they also apparently had a run in with Zabuza before arriving here and were unable to kill him. The only information the clone got about the group was that their sensei was the infamous copy ninja Hatake Kakashi from Konoha.
Konoha. How he hated that village, he still remembered how he was treated when he was but a child and he also remembered how it was that Sasori had found him in Konoha. He got them back though by stealing several high ranking jutsu scrolls from the Hokage's mansion, useful ones too filled with Katon jutsus, Kinjutsus and medical ninjutsu, not that he had a use for the latter personally, but who knows when he could find some use for it – he had no interest in learning any advanced medical ninjutsu save for the basic Shosen no jutsu to speed up cell regeneration on another's body. Kyuubi was more then enough to heal his own wounds, and much better then any jutsu too.
Just then, he got a message from one of his Shadow clones saying that he had spotted the team from Konoha training their chakra control in the forest near the bridge. Smirking at the information, he sent a message back to that specific clone to keep a constant eye on them and not to be seen. God he loved the Kage Bunshin technique, infinitely useful.
The Kage Bunshin Naruto stood in the trees hidden by the leaves and branches between him and the group of three people practicing in the clearing. These children all looked to be training chakra control by doing the tree climbing exercise. Naruto just rolled his eyes; these children looked to be his age and are only now doing the tree climbing exercise? Oh how the mighty have fallen. Konoha, said to be the strongest of the five shinobi nations having genin that do not have enough chakra or control to complete this exercise.
Looking in the clearing again, it seemed that the smallest of the three, a Hyuuga, was the best at the exercise, being able to scale the tree without falling, however her reserves wouldn't allow for her to do it more then a few times as she already looked tired. The pink haired one who was so unbelievingly loud and constantly annoying the only boy of the three had also scaled the tree but her reserves were so bad, she couldn't even make her way back down the tree she scaled. The boy was able to scale 20 feet up the tree before flipping off and landing on the ground to try again, it seemed he had decent reserves but average control over them.
His observations almost made him want to snort in amusement and he would have if he didn't want to remain hidden. Sasori-sensei had him doing these exercises when he was seven years old and he completed them in one day only to continue doing them to increase his reserves and control further. Would he have wound up this pathetic if he had stayed in Konoha? He was now immensely grateful, well, more then he already was to his late sensei for taking him away from that sorry excuse for a village – though, he reasoned that most villages would have the same standard if Konoha was viewed as the strongest.
Just then, a silver haired ninja wearing the standard Konoha jounin uniform with one eye being covered by his forehead protector limped into the clearing using the crutch to balance himself or to lean on – classic symptoms of exhaustion.
Naruto recognized the man from the pictures of him in the bingo book, Hatake Kakashi. The man walked into the clearing and gave a few pieces of advice to the genin before his head snapped in his direction. Heh, he was a Kage Bunshin after all, he couldn't honestly expect to be able to repress his chakra enough to remain hidden and stay in existence.
Immediately, he felt a kunai to his throat and a presence of someone behind him while Kakashi disappeared from the shocked genin's view. The Hyuuga then activated her bloodline limit and looked in their direction and widened her eyes, it seemed that she had finally spotted him.
"Who are you and why are you spying on my team?" asked Kakashi in what was supposed to be a threatening voice, Naruto didn't feel threatened though, the man was in no condition to fight and he was only a clone after all.
Naruto merely stood up slowly, with his back still to Kakashi. Turning his head ever so slightly, Naruto spied this new threat from the shade of his straw hat, still keeping his eyes from view. Kakashi seemed to be eyeing him warily, if only he knew.
"Hatake Kakashi" answered Naruto, surprising Kakashi at his young sounding voice "My reasons are my own".
Immediately, his surprise disappeared though and Kakashi narrowed his eyes, ready to slit his throat. Naruto merely smirked under the cover of his cloak though and muttered two words that made Kakashi gasp and leap away before it was too late.
"Bunshin Daibakuha"
The chakra within the clone rushed out in one massive display of power, expelling the chakra within the clone with such force it created a massive explosion that all but destroyed the tree they were standing on and blasting Kakashi into another tree.
As soon as Kakashi landed, using his crutch for support, his three genin were by his side with worried, anxious and even excited looks.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" screeched the pink haired banshee, causing the other three to wince, how the loud girl passed the ninja exam was beyond them.
"That was someone who has been spying on you for an unknown amount of time before I arrived; I only barely sensed his chakra signature when I arrived so its no surprise that you all missed it – what shocked me though is that it was a Kage Bunshin, not a real person. Also, the technique used to explode the Kage Bunshin also surprised me, both techniques are Kinjutsu native to Konoha and I am positive that he was no Konoha shinobi – I also don't know of any Konoha missing-nin that would fit his description and could use those two jutsu…" he trailed off, not knowing how the next bit of information would affect his team.
"The only other Konoha missing-nin who could use both those techniques and is young is Uchiha Itachi, but he would be older then that shinobi sounded…"
At the mention of Uchiha, both Hanabi and Sakura turned to eye Sasuke who seemed to be glaring at the ground while clenching his fists in rage. Without another word, the brooding Uchiha went back to his tree to continue his training while the other two girls followed. After the commotion, none of the four noticed the barely audible pop signifying the disappearing of another Kage Bunshin a few hundred yards away.
Elsewhere in the same forest, Uzumaki Naruto's eyes glazed as he assimilated the information from his last two clones.
"Hn" was his noncommittal reply as he went back to meditating as his clones gathered information.
Several days later found Naruto leaning against a tree trunk, his straw hat pulled over his eyes and his cloak unbuttoned down to his mid torso, revealing his chest and lower half of his face. The importance of the lower half of his face being visible was that if one were to look closely, they would see a stick of what seemed to be Pocky sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he sucked on it and read a scroll he had unrolled.
Naruto had found out a lot of information in the past few days about Gato and his organization. In his attempts to find his hideout and destroy his organization, his clones had discovered some vital information.
Every night at midnight, an appointed leader of shipping trade would visit the docks to supervise some of the shipment imports and exports before having a word with many of the employees and leaving to an undisclosed location. The reason why the location was undisclosed was that he entered a building on the edge of town that lead to a large underground tunnel leading to a totally different island he assumed which was where Gato based his empire.
The only thing stopping him from sneaking in and assassinating the evil businessman was lack of information. The one thing Sasori had hammered into his head over and over was that even if you are confident in your abilities, rushing into a situation uninformed was a quick way to ensure your death, for even a civilian could kill a seasoned ninja with some poison and clever tactics.
It also seemed that the village was on the brink of starvation as prices for meager meals shot up to astronomical amounts and actual food imports for anyone aside people who worked for Gato were few and far between, this increased the theft rate amongst the villagers by a large amount and thus, the violence in their desperation.
He was just thanking Kami that he had learned to hunt and fish else he would be suffering from these effects too, not to mention he had an almost infinite supply of different flavors of Pocky sealed away in a 'special' scroll under his cloak.
Naruto gave a wistful sigh as he remembered the day he had gotten hooked on the lovely sweet. He was complaining to Sasori about the lack of Ramen when he was first taken on as an apprentice which drove his sensei mad. In a last ditched effort to stop his whining, he had purchased a box of Pocky from the closest village claiming that there was no Ramen there and that it was popular with the 'kids'. As soon as he tried the sweet he was hooked with the wonderful chocolate flavors mixing with the bread stick it was coated on, not to mention the fact that there were literally dozen of different flavors, one for every day of the month!
He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard the crunching of grass a few hundred feet away from his position and the scent of, strangely enough, water, lilacs and blood coming his way. Silently, Naruto leapt into the tree and hid behind one of the branches as the person kept heading in his direction, making sure to cover up where he had been sitting not too long ago, as it was obvious someone had been if the dent in the grass was any indication – being a missing-nin made one paranoid to a fault.
As soon as Naruto caught a glimpse of the person who arrived wearing a pink kimono and having long brown hair, he had to stifle a gasp of amazement, the person was beautiful beyond compare, the most beautiful creature he had ever seen and taking a whiff of their scent, he almost face vaulted when he realized one key factor…this beautiful person was a damn boy. The thought almost made him chuckle, either the boy was a transvestite or he like confusing people with his looks and state of dress, either way, it was amusing.
Naruto watched silently as the boy began to pick some herbs from the small field of flowers nearby and frowned. The particular herbs he was selecting were needed in a wide array of different healing ointments and potions, such as chakra restorative potions, wound potions and muscle relaxants. That and the smell of blood made Naruto suspicious. When he observed the boy more closely, he also noticed that he carried himself very carefully, with every movement being precise and efficient, never exerting too much to make every move, doing the bare minimum, like an experienced shinobi.
Then he remembered the reports his clones had given him on various conversations the Konoha shinobi had and what villagers had reported. Gato had two shinobi in his employ, one was Momochi Zabuza and the other was a mysterious hunter-nin with long brown hair that always wore a mask, as hunter-nins do. The description definitely fit the boy who also had long brown hair, was picking herbs for healing ointments most likely to heal Zabuza after his defeat, carried himself like an experienced shinobi and was disguised like a civilian girl, no one would suspect her and he almost didn't either.
Naruto then realized that for these shinobi to do their job, they would have to have a hiding place away from hunter-nin for a prolonged period of time so they wouldn't have to fight two battles at once, this lead him to believe that they were most likely staying in Gato's base of operations. Given that, Naruto made sure to memorize his scent so that he could track it later to the base – he may be able to keep hidden now but that was because he was not moving at all and thus was able to suppress his chakra to a point that one would need to be extremely talented in the field to detect him.
After he finished picking his herbs, the boy left without even looking back. After several minutes in which Naruto was unable to hear him anymore, he jumped out of the tree and made sure to check which herbs the boy picked before referring to his scrolls to find out what healing ointments he planned on making for his partner. Neither he nor Sasori
were particularly fond of healing, but they were of poisons and one needed to know how to cure poisons if they chose to make them, also, when using herbs to make poisons, you should learn what else they could be used for.
Before setting to work, Naruto made sure to firmly implant in his mind that boy's scent so he could track him tomorrow morning back to the entrance of the base and waiting for them to come to him instead of him rushing in.
The next morning, Naruto was quick to remember that boy's scent and followed it through the forest. He passed many slashed trees, minor camping sights and blood stains which gave him a bad feeling, but he continued on his way where the scent led him until he noticed that led off in another direction once he reached a cave opening.
Naruto frowned when he realized this; he doubted that the shinobi could tell he was there yesterday so he surmised that he must be off with Zabuza somewhere. It then clicked in his mind – the reason for the healing balms yesterday, the late time in which he was picking the herbs, they intended to attack the bridge builder today and that was where they must have been. Dismissing this for now and sneaking into the cave using a jutsu that made him invisible and hid his scent (Meisaigakure no Jutsu) Naruto made quick work of any mercenary he came across by slitting their throats using his wind chakra to make a wind blade – that way they wouldn't make a noise when he killed them.
Naruto continued further and further into the cave past numerous doors, turning off lights as he continued on his path of destruction so he would be the only one that could see in the dark. Naruto had a bad feeling though when he could smell something like sweat and semen deeper in the tunnels – coming from a criminal base, that is never a good sign. Further investigation had him hearing grunts and moans as well as the sound of a crying woman. Putting two and two together, Naruto barely was able to reign in his killing intent at that moment before a vicious idea came to him as he snuck into the room in which the taping was occurring only to pause in his stride when he noticed three men having their way with someone who resembled the bridge builder's daughter. She looked to have been beaten before they began to have their way with her while one was forcing his member down her mouth and the other two were penetrating her both rectally and normally. Looking to the other side of the room, he spotted a dozen more naked men pleasuring themselves, most likely getting ready to have their turn after these three were done. The three men with the woman were jeering and groping her inappropriately while the other men in the room took a pleasure in seeing these three men violate a defenseless woman so badly. Also, by the sheen of sweat and the amount of liquids beneath the orgy, this had been going on for quite some time.
Deciding to give these men the worst pain possible, he decided to use a Genjutsu he had created for men such as this filth.
"You know…" he began, immediately getting the attention of everyone in the room as he dropped his stealth jutsu allowing everyone to see a shinobi with the upper part of his face being covered in a shadow created by a straw hat and his body covered by a long dark grey cloak with a high open collar, allowing them to see the lower part of his face which revealed a chiseled jaw line that was set in a neutral and emotionless line.
Realizing that he had every bandit looking at him, including the woman who seemed to be relieved, or as relieved as someone could look while still being penetrated in three orifices, he used a chakra string to discreetly move her head away so that she wouldn't be caught in his Genjutsu by looking into his eyes.
Naruto then lifted the rim of his hat allowing the shadow that was covering his eyes to be lifted so that every bandit in the room had a clear view of his crimson slitted eyes that were glowing eerily in the dark as Naruto pushed chakra through them.
"…the second you decided to defile this poor woman in such a way, you signed your death warrants" he finished in an emotionless voice, sending a shiver down all of the men's spines at hearing it. Being as stupid as they were though and completely unversed in the shinobi ways, they looked directly into his eyes, as if hypnotized to do so – that was their first and last mistake.
Through his eyes, Naruto cast his Genjutsu that connected with anyone who was making eye contact with him. Immediately, to the bandit's, it seemed that the cloaked figure vanished into the shadows before a 50 story reddish orange furred Kitsune took its place with nine humongous swishing tails behind it. The room they were currently in, as well as their other comrades and source of 'pleasure' having disappeared from their sight leaving each man with only themselves and the frightening sight of a humongous, smirking, and delighted Kyuubi no Kitsune.
Tsunami, the daughter of the bridge builder who was resigned to her fate not long ago with being beaten, raped before most likely used in some other way by the evil Gato was treated to the sight of every man in the room dropping to the floor and screaming so loud and with so much pain that some of them destroyed their voice boxes and couldn't scream any more. Some were trying to claw at their own faces while others had their bodies' spasm as whatever her savior did was running it source.
The mysterious force that was forcing her to look away from her savior's eyes vanished, allowing her to look upon her savior that had his straw hat hanging loosely in his left hand revealing his face that was set in stone, watching the men scream their throats hoarse from whatever he had done to them. His crimson eyes that would most likely send
some screaming at the sight of them were oddly comforting and suiting to his features when not focused on her, also, his long blond hair seemed to be tied in a short pony tail while his bangs were being kept away from his face by a forehead protector similar to the one's her father had hired to protect him except it had a slash going through it. If she was honest with herself, the boy who couldn't be older then fifteen was indeed handsome in an animalistic sort of way.
Once Naruto was sure they had suffered the most possible amount from his Demonic Genjutsu, he pulled them all together in the middle of the room using chakra strings, also removing the three from the scared and beaten up woman and tied them together in the middle of the room. He then took out a single kunai from within his cloak that seemed to drop into his hand from somewhere within and slashed each of the men once with said kunai.
Naruto, seeing Tsunami's confusion at his actions decided to elaborate for the distraught woman, thinking that knowing her tormentors will be suffering even more would ease her some "I have injected them all with an acidic type of venom with my kunai that will travel all through their veins and burn through them, causing massive internal hemorrhaging, should that not kill them, the acidic venom will spread to other organs within their body and make them melt similar to their veins, simply, it will be a most excruciating death for all of them…are you okay?"
Startled by the viciousness of the death this boy was handing out to her tormenters – not that she minded any – and how easily he could change the topic and talk about it, all she could do was slowly shake her head before breaking down into tears again as the memory of what happened earlier washed over her again.
Naruto sighed and approached her slowly, making sure not to touch her as he didn't know if that would make matters worse "What's your name?" he asked gently.
Tsunami stopped sobbing for a moment, still naked as the day she was born with numerous bruises, cuts, lashes and open wounds spread all over her body.
"T-Tsunami…" she answered quietly.
"Tsunami-san" he replied gently "I am going to do my best to heal your wounds for now, it will require me to heal you in some places that may make you feel uncomfortable, is that ok?"
Only using a few seconds to ponder, she nodded her head in the positive slowly as Naruto lay her down on her back and placed a hand a few inches above her skin. The only medical jutsu he knew was the Shosen no Jutsu. Activating the jutsu over her body, she watched with awe as a green light shone from his hands and went into her body. As the technique he was using was traveling all over her body, traversing over cuts, bruises and broken bones, she marveled at how they seemed to heal before her eyes. Some of the more serious breaks, she noticed, didn't heal, but all the bruises and cuts closed or disappeared while small breaks to her fingers and wrists were healed. When the ninja began to heal the bruising in her nether regions, she did feel slightly uncomfortable as she started to get a warm and tingly sensation down there – not that it wasn't a pleasant feeling, but it was unwelcome nonetheless. She allowed it to happen though as she felt the bruises disappearing down there also.
After Naruto was done with healing her, he removed his coat to reveal his tight and toned body that was covered with a brown muscle shirt with a long sleeved black mesh ninja shirt underneath that had the left sleeve shortened allowing for an elaborate tattoo with the kanji for 'one', 'two' and 'three' to show. His loose black ninja pants were covered in blood where the cloak was not protecting them from it, most likely as he made his way into this room as she noticed the cloak she was wrapped around in was covered in blood. The only other distinguishing feature she noticed of the boy was that he had a silver hoop hearing in each ear and three whisker marks on each cheek just above his defined jaw line – she marveled at how young this boy must be, no older then the shinobi that came to assist her father no doubt.
"Tsunami-san, I suggest you remain close behind me for my purpose for coming to this location has not yet been fulfilled" he explained, in a voice that still showed gentleness and that he didn't mean harm, yet it didn't hold much emotion either.
Tsunami only nodded as she got up and followed Naruto out the door, wincing in pain as she felt her broken rips causing her pain whenever she tried to breathe and also at the sound of more desperate screams coming from her tormenters as the poison spread.
Naruto continued to delve deeper and deeper into the hideout, passing numerous groups of guards that he disposed of easily enough by using a Genjutsu to put them to sleep as he passed them – he didn't kill them mainly because he didn't want to waste any effort in doing so and besides, every 30 feet, he stuck a powerful explosive seal on the wall closest to him, to be activated once he left the base. Each seal was connected with a fine chakra string and when he followed the seals back out, he would only have to send a pulse down the singe long string that would cause a domino effect with each explosive note it was connected to. That would also, coincidently deal with the bandits he left asleep.
Eventually, Tsunami and Naruto found an office that had a large safe hidden behind a portrait of who he recognized as Gato himself. Opening the safe by blowing off the locking mechanism he looked inside to find the largest amount of money he had ever seen. The man really did bleed this country dry, a country that was economically booming before he arrived. There had to be at least one hundred billion yen in here, 75 of which he intended to return back to the
country along with the deeds to the docks Gato illegally owned while he kept that last twenty five billion yen for himself.
Tsunami's eyes widened in shock at the money she saw in the vault and wondered what her savior was going to do with the money that obviously came from her people's hard labor.
Naruto, sensing her confusion answered for her "Tsunami-san, seventy five percent of this money will be returned to the feudal lord of wave country based on some stipulations along with the deeds, do not worry – of course, I will take the last twenty give percent as payment, I did do all of the work after all"
Tsunami was going to cry again, but this time because of happiness – sure, he was taking an almost ridiculous amount for himself, but the amount he would be giving back coupled with the bridge her father was building would make wave a wonderful place to live again. Unable to contain her emotions of gratitude and happiness anymore, she rushed Naruto, ignoring the pain in her bones and grabbed him in a hug while sobbing uncontrollably, muttering words of thanks over and over.
Naruto just awkwardly pet her on the head, not knowing what else to do as he planted another explosive note before they left the underground passage and into the sunlight again. Naruto then made a hand seal and sent chakra through his massive chakra string that set off all of his explosive notes within the building.
Tsunami had to cover her ears and at the same time cling onto Naruto as she felt the earth rumble from such a massive explosion occurring underground.
"Tsunami-san, the feudal lord of wave, who is it?" he asked, only then realizing he didn't have a clue who they were.
Tsunami frowned in thought before answering truthfully "I'm not sure, as Gato took more control over this country, the original feudal lord fled the country as they had lost their control…"
Naruto nodded and handed her the larger briefcase of money as well as the deeds to all of the properties, making her eyes widen in shock. Without another warning, Naruto grabbed her and used Shunshin to disappear in a swirl of wind and appear outside her house only to see a boy lying on the ground sobbing.
"Kaasan?" he asked, through tears, trying to recognize his mother in the foreign piece of clothing after she was taken not a few hours ago.
Tsunami tried her hardest to hold back her tears but seeing her son alive and unharmed after she was sure she was going to die was too much and she collapsed on the ground and collected him in a hug.
Naruto then cleared his throat to get their attention, which he did "That money I gave you, along with the deeds is to go to your father who cane take the position as mayor or feudal lord or whatever he wants when Gato is gone" he began "you most likely will not see me for a while so when you see your father again, tell him all I want is the right to receive missions from wave in the future exclusively should I request them, farewell" he finished, disappearing in a swirl of wind, leaving the two individuals gaping.
"Kaasan…who was that?" Inari asked, still clinging to his mother as if had he let go, she would disappear.
"That, Inari, is the boy who will rescue us from Gato and who saved your Kaasan today…" he finished, breaking into a fresh wave of tears when she remembered what humiliation she was forced to live through not long ago, though a small smile graced her features when she remembered how they met their end.
'It was brutal…but they deserved no less'
Naruto arrived at the still incomplete bridge that had the signs of a battle. There was a dome of ice mirrors surrounding the Uchiha and Hyuuga whom both looked like pin cushions with Senbon needles seemingly made of ice sticking out of them. From the ice mirrors, Naruto could make out blurs of movement as someone was zinging back and forth between them as they attacked, most likely the boy from yesterday. He had heard of a bloodline that allowed for extreme manipulation of water, to the degree that they could freeze it to make ice or heat it up to make mist, he must be from that bloodline.
Further away was Kakashi fighting Momochi Zabuza and Zabuza seemed to be held down by a bunch of dogs summons sticking out of the ground while Kakashi readied his jutsu from afar, ready to strike. Seeing Kakashi charge a powerful jutsu with electricity coming out of his hand, Naruto realized he was going for the kill. It seemed that the boy in the mirrors stopped attacking as well, as if sensing his comrade was in trouble.
Before Naruto could do anything, an ice mirror appeared in front of Zabuza as the boy stepped out and intercepted the attack by taking it through the lung, stopping it from killing Zabuza. Immediately, the ice mirrors disappeared and the ice Senbon in the two human pin cushions dissolved into water.
Staring in shock at the scene, he then narrowed his eyes as he paid attention to what was going on with his highly sensitive hearing.
"Good tool Haku, you proved to be useful after all" he finished with a vicious smirk before tossing him aside like a broken kunai and continued to fight with Kakashi.
From then on though, it seemed as if it was a one sided fight, Kakashi cut the tendons in both of Zabuza's arms, causing him to drop his sword and render him pretty much useless.
Naruto then sniffed the air and smelt a mixture of alcohol, blood, metal and sweat on the other side of the bridge as well as hearing a lot of footsteps, like an army was approaching.
'No wonder his base was virtually empty, he planned on killing Zabuza even if he succeeded' he surmised, realizing Gato must have brought the majority of his mercenaries with him here to finish off the missing-nin.
Naruto then focused chakra to every part of his body and used Shunshin to disappear and reappear behind a pillar, still out of everyone's sight, but close enough to begin his attack when he wanted to, and then with a grin, he unsealed one of his favorite puppets from the scroll, Tenshi, not wanting to use his human puppets unless absolutely necessary.
"Well, well, what do we have here Zabuza? And you call yourself a demon?!" Gato announced imperiously with his army of thugs behind him.
"What are you doing here Gato?! I have this handled!" Zabuza shouted back.
"Handled? Hah, that Konoha shinobi is about to kill you…" Gato explained with a smirk while kicking the body of Haku who still seemed to be breathing, if not very labored "I never even intended to pay you or your boy-toy from the start Zabu-chan, so it really doesn't matter" he taunted, infuriating Zabuza.
"You…YOU BASTARD!" yelled Zabuza, before ripping out one of the Kunai Kakashi had thrown at him that was still stuck in his arm with his mouth and charged at Gato with incredible speed, yet it was all for naught.
"Kill him" ordered Gato to his thugs. The thugs hesitated for a bit, under Zabuza's unreal killing intent, but they got their wits back and cut him down, but not after Zabuza had taken down at least twenty of the moronic mercenaries while on his way to Gato.
"Heh, Demon indeed, well now that that's over" he began with a cruel smirk "surrender your life Tazuna-san, I have your daughter at my base where my men are using her as…entertainment" he commented with a cruel smirk. Tazuna's face paled in shock and sadness then it changed to one of absolute fury when the implications sank in.
"YOU SON OF A FUCKING BASTARD! I'M GONNA KILL YOU IF THERE IS ONE HAIR ON HER HEAD HARMED!!" Tazuna yelled with fury, having picked up a loose plan with a large nail in it and charging Gato. He suddenly stopped however when something from up above blocked out the sun briefly and cast a shadow on the bridge. By now, everyone's attention was drawn to it but because of its positioning in front of the sun, no one could make out what it was. From the looks of the shadow though, it had six feathery wings, a small torso and a large waving tail.
The thugs started to get unnerved at the sight and Kakashi unveiled his Sharingan to see chakra strings attached to the figure leading to a pillar close by, but he couldn't do much in his situation, he was already worn out from his fight with Zabuza and was already worried about what he could do against such numbers of bandits.
'I hope this isn't anything bad…'
Then a polite and emotionless voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere yet nowhere sounded out across the bridge.
"Gato-san" it began, sending chills down said businessman's spine "your empire has already been destroyed, your entire fortune pilfered and your base destroyed. You no longer have a hostage and she is safe" he began, much to the relief of Tazuna "however, for your actions against her and the populace of Wave country…your punishment is death"
Before Gato, his thugs or Kakashi could react, the figure that was once obscured by the sun moved quickly to a position in front of the army of thugs with their leader and spread its wings wide, with the 'feathers' of the wings all pointed towards the mass of thugs, then, the chest piece opened up to reveal a small cannon.
"N-now wait a minute" interrupted a terrified Gato who wasn't sure if he should believe his fortune had been stolen from him "I can pay you whatever…" he never got to finish though as Tenshi immediately leapt into action.
From each feather of the six wings, several hundred Senbon needles were shot out in a cone fashion towards the bandits from each feather, hitting most of them while small balls with explosive notes on them were shot out of the chest cannon at groups of thugs. The waves of Senbon being shot were so plentiful that they cast a shadow that momentarily blocked the sun like a blanket. From each arm, a powerful flame that rivaled a high level Katon jutsu was being shot out, herding the bandits in a way so that they would be hit by the Senbon needles. In the midst of this relentless assault, Gato was hiding behind his thugs and trying to escape with his life, Naruto would have none of that though.
After all the Senbon and grenades were spent, Tenshi flew over to the retreating form of Gato and with a swing of its massive tail, the puppet eviscerated Gato by swinging its tail upwards from beneath Gato's legs – the man died painfully.
By now, Kakashi who had just recently awoken Hanabi and Sasuke who were only knocked out by the Senbon their enemy was using, Sakura and Tazuna looked on in awe and shock at the mass scene of destruction. They were so transfixed by the scene that they missed a blur of brown use Shunshin to collect the corpse of one of their enemies and just as quickly vanish.
Naruto appeared on the other side of the bridge with a heavily bleeding boy in his arms and hurried to get away as quickly as possible so he could try and treat the wound before he died – it would be a shame for someone so powerful to die so needlessly of course.
Naruto leaned against a tree as the boy he saved earlier sat next to the bonfire recovering. It had taken nearly all of his chakra reserves to regenerate the cells in the boy's lungs before closing the hole in his chest with the Shosen no Jutsu. He was no medic-nin, there were obviously better ways to heal such injuries, it was just thanks to his massive reserves that he could keep it up for so long for it to have an effect.
With a few blood replenishing pills and the right application of healing chakra, the healing took nearly two hours of constant application of Shosen for it to heal him enough so his body could do the rest. After making him take a soldier pill and taking one himself, he fell into a light sleep against the tree, waiting for the boy to awaken from his slumber.
Tsunami had just finished putting her son to bed after the traumatic experience they both had been through when she heard a loud crash coming from down stairs. She let out a shriek, fearing the worst.
"Tsunami! Where are you?!" yelled the distraught voice of her father and she immediately let out a sigh of relief. Hearing her scream though, he immediately found her upstairs with the large grey cloak her savior gave him and nothing else with puffy red eyes showing that she had been crying heavily.
"Tousan…" she was able to get out before breaking out in sobs again in her father's chest.
"Shh…Tsunami-chan, I'm here, it's okay" Tazuna muttered in her ear, giving her assurances.
"What happened Tsunami-chan? Can you tell me?" he asked, oblivious to their audience of Konoha shinobi just a few meters away, also wanting to know the same thing.
Tsunami then began to retell her nightmarish experience, breaking down in fresh uncontrollable sobs when she had to explain how those men raped her over and over. Tazuna, too, was now crying with fury and sadness for his daughter's pain while they all sat downstairs at the dinner table as she retold her story.
"But…" she began, through sobs "as they were doing…it" she said the last part in a whisper, as if trying to forget it "someone stopped them…he wore this cloak and a straw hat…he…he just looked at them with glowing red slitted eyes…he didn't sound angry…but what he did to them…" Kakashi was now interested – he of course recognized the cloak and with Tsunami telling them he was wearing a straw hat, he deduced that it must have been the boy they had seen earlier in the week snooping around.
"What did he do Tsunami-san? And is there anything you can tell us about him? Anything at all will help us…" Kakashi interrupted politely and he was slightly surprised when she glared at him.
"You would try and capture him because he doesn't work for your village? That man is a hero!" she yelled angrily and Kakashi lifted his arms up in self defense.
"We merely want information so if this man ever posed a threat to us we would know some things about him, we have a book for people like him who belong to no village so our shinobi can recognize them and flee if need be" he of course left out the detail about hunter nins killing them and taking the bounty, but she didn't need to know that.
"Oh…I guess that's all right then…well, after interrupting…them" she said, viscously when referring to her rapists "he lifted the brim of his hat a bit, but then my head turned away somehow…I think he did it…because whoever looked into his eyes started to scream really loudly and began clawing at their own faces…it looked like they were under some kind of illusion because he didn't do anything to them…" she explained and all shinobi in the room frowned and thought the same thing 'Genjutsu'.
"Eventually, the force making my head looked away vanished and I saw his eyes…they were red…" she didn't get to continue because Sasuke leapt up from the table with a crazed look in his eyes.
"Red?! What do you mean red? What exactly did they look like?! Did he look like me?! Did he have three black tomoe in each eye with red surrounding it?! TELL ME!" he shouted and Kakashi restrained him.
"I'm sorry Tsunami-san" he apologized to the shocked Tsunami and the furious Tazuna "What you just told us is an eerily familiar description of a criminal from our village, Sasuke-kun's brother" Sakura looked at her sensei with confusion at hearing this, but Hanabi already knew of the Uchiha massacre that occurred all those years ago where Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's brother, killed every single Uchiha before leaving his brother alive and fleeing the village.
"Oh…I don't see why he got so worked up…he looked nothing like you when he removed his hat…" she said with a frown, which did not placate Sasuke though.
"You said he had red eyes, did they look like this a little?" he asked, activating his sharingan which made his onyx eyes turn red with two tomoe seals around one pupil and one around the other.
"No, sorry Uchiha-san, but his eyes were red, but they were red with a black slitted pupil…" she explained. Kakashi closed his eyes as a chill crept up his spine, oh he remembered eyes like that, fourteen years ago on that fateful night when the Kyuubi no Kitsune rampaged through their village. His eyes opened wide with shock then and looked at Tsunami again.
"Tsunami-san, can you tell us anything else about his physical appearance?" he asked pleadingly.
Tsunami nodded and scrunched her face up in thought before answering "Well, he had tanned skin, long golden blonde hair in a short pony tail, three thin tattoo like whisker marks on each cheek…his hair was kept out of his face with a headband like yours" she said, pointing to Kakashi's forehead protector "but it had a slash going through it…he also had a strange tattoo on his left forearm…it was kanji for 'one', 'two' and 'three'…there were other symbols on it but I couldn't recognize them…"
When she was done explaining, the genin were all looking at their sensei with confusion as he showed the most emotion he had ever before. His single visible eye was wide in shock and he had already unconsciously relinquished his hold on Sasuke, not that it mattered though because now that he was sure that it wasn't Itachi he had calmed down.
"Uzumaki…Naruto" was all Kakashi said, confusing everyone in the room.
Naruto awoke suddenly from his light slumber when he heard coughing nearby. Opening his eyes, instantly, he saw that the boy was waking up. Naruto just sat back against the tree, not appearing to be threatening at all as he gained his bearings.
"You're awake" Naruto stated, no question in the statement at all.
The boy's head snapped in his direction and looked at him with confusion. Naruto had replaced his grey cloak with another one he kept sealed away in his 'clothing' scroll. His hat was still shadowing his eyes while he looked at the boy curiously.
"Who are you? Where am I? How did I get here? Where is Zabuza-sama?" he asked all at once, but he stopped when Naruto raised his hand to silence him and halt his questions.
"My name is unimportant for now" he began, answering the boy's questions "you are in a forest not far from the east coast of fire country" he continued "I brought you here after you took a fatal wound to the chest from Hatake-san's jutsu" he explained, as he saw the boy's eyes widen in shock "Momochi Zabuza was killed when Gato arrived on the bridge to kill him, it would seem he never intended to pay you at all" he finished, answering all his questions.
"Zabuza-sama is dead?" the boy asked, sounding distraught "I no longer have a reason to exist…" he continued, reaching for something under his baggy haori which made Naruto put up his guard. When the boy pulled out a Senbon needle and turned it on himself, as if to kill himself, Naruto didn't waste a second, he used Shunshin to appear beside him immediately and grab his arm.
"What are you going?!" the boy snarled at Naruto, but the question died in his throat when he saw a pair of glowing red eyes in the shadows of the straw hat the stranger was wearing.
"I most certainly did not waste my chakra to heal you if you are going to kill yourself" he began in a calm voice. Naruto then let go of his arm and sat back down, not before removing all weapons from his person.
"What is your name?" Naruto asked, trying to make conversation as he reached into his pouch, making the boy tense. The boy nearly face vaulted though when Naruto pulled out two stick of vanilla pocky and handed one to him.
"Uh…thanks?" replied the boy, as Naruto nodded, as if he had done the greatest service in the world by handing him one of his own sticks of pocky to the feminine boy.
"My name is Haku…" explained the boy, who took a bite of the stick, not really liking it, but seeing how his company seemed to enjoy it so much, he thought better then to insult the sweet.
"Uzumaki Naruto" answered the boy before taking another bite of his sweet and continuing "How did you escape Haku?" Naruto asked, confusing Haku.
"The bloodline purges of Kiri, how did you escape?" Naruto asked, never losing the calm tone of voice, as if he had limitless patience.
"Um…" began Haku, not sure if he should tell a complete stranger about his past, but seeing as his purpose for existing was gone, he saw no point for secrecy any more.
"Well…I lived in a snowy village in the land of water until…my father realized my mother and I had a bloodline limit that allows us to have master control over water and manipulate it with our chakra to make ice…when he realized my mother and I had it…he rallied a mob from the village to come and murder her…after murdering her…" he explained, a silent tear sliding down his face "they turned on me…but I panicked and my bloodline limit protected me by creating several hundred ice needles and killing them first…" he explained, as Naruto listened while chewing on this eighth pocky stick silently, only the crunches from each chew audible.
"After that…I wandered around the land of water as a beggar until Zabuza-sama found me…" he explained with a smile "he accepted me and gave me a purpose as his tool, he trained me and I became a hunter nin for Kirigakure before we escaped after a failed coup de tat" he explained.
Naruto nodded before answering "You're an idiot" he said simply, shocking and angering Haku slightly.
"Only you can give yourself a purpose in life, to rely on someone to give you a purpose is a waste of life" he continued, oblivious to Haku's anger.
"I grew up in Konohagakure no Sato where I was hated, beaten and abused because of something I had no control over – we are similar like that" he explained, which made Haku's anger disappear suddenly as he listened.
"I was hated because fourteen years ago, when the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked Konoha, it was sealed into my body by the fourth Hokage who had no other choice if he wanted to defeat it. The jutsu he used claimed his life which only seemed to further the hate the villages had for me, adding to that of a scapegoat to release their frustrations over that night for" he continued, oblivious to Haku's eyes widening.
"People like me are called Jinchuuriki, power of human sacrifice, how…appropriate" Haku was now listening intently as Naruto talked.
Naruto then proceeded to tell him about how Sasori saved him and trained him to be a shinobi. About how there was an organization of S-class criminals after him and how he intended to avenge his sensei.
"To live life as a tool is not living" he began "I saw how you seem to have knowledge of healing and medical jutsu from what I saw in the forest where you were picking medicinal herbs" Naruto explained, shocking Haku at how he wasn't able to detect the boy spying on him.
"I have…acquired…some scrolls on medical ninjutsu from various villages and I could use someone who is versed in medical ninjutsu traveling with me, I could let you learn off those scrolls if you like, along with various ninjutsu you may not know" he explained "besides, there is strength in numbers" he finished, with a small smile.
Haku sat shocked for a moment before smiling and bowing before Naruto "I thank you for saving my life and I will work my hardest to be useful to you" he began but stopped when Naruto lifted him up by the front of his shirt and slammed him against a tree, glaring at him with glowing crimson eyes. Haku winced in pain as his wounds had not totally healed yet.
Naruto looked into his eyes before speaking "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment" he began, making Haku's eyes go wide in shock "My sensei taught me that".
Naruto then dropped Haku, releasing him so he could lean against the tree as he turned his back to Haku.
"Tools...are weak, they are useless unless wielded...I have no use for a tool...I do have use for a companion, that is something you can be and I am more then willing to have" he said quietly, yet perfectly loud enough for Haku to hear. Turning his head slightly and grinning at Haku, who smiled a true smile and nodded before taking a kunai Naruto handed him and slashing his Kiri forehead protector.
"Who the hell is Uzumaki Naruto?" asked Sasuke, wanting to know what his sensei was on about.
"He used to be a civilian of Konoha" Kakashi began, clearing his head "he was supposed to have been killed almost a decade ago on the night of the Kyuubi festival…" Kakashi said, lost in his own thoughts.
"Oh Tousan" Tsunami called to Tazuna, with a happy look on her face, completely baffling Tazuna, for what possible reason would she be happy?
"This Uzumaki Naruto told me to give you this" she said, going into another room to bring out 10 large briefcases seemingly filled with cash and some sort of portfolio.
Tazuna grabbed the portfolio with a frown and after reading it for several minutes gasped in shock.
"What is it Tazuna-san?" asked Hanabi, interested in what he was reading and what this mysterious missing-nin had done.
"These…are the deeds for all the shipping companies and dock properties that were owned by Gato for importing and exporting…all of them" Tazuna said in shock.
Tsunami grinned "Yep, and in those briefcases is approximately seventy five billion yen, the other twenty five was taken by him though, but that's plenty to bring this country back to economic prosperity, ne?"
Tazuna spit out the sake he was drinking after having read the document sand looked to his daughter with tears in his eyes "Are you serious?"
Tsunami nodded and before she could respond, Tazuna collected her in a hug, laughing and crying in happiness. It seemed that wave would be alright after all.
Team seven remained in wave until the completion of the bridge, where upon it was named the 'The Great Naruto Bridge' in thanks to the mysterious shinobi that gave them their country back – something Sasuke wasn't all too happy about. After completing the mission and getting the money compensation from Tazuna with a large tip, they headed back to Konoha.
