Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender

Chapter 7 – Enter Zabuza…

Sasuke glared at the Uzumaki couple and their sensei. It was bad enough that they had to guard the old drunk, but to have the three of them along might not help him in his goal to killing his brother. Tazuna had questioned having kids protect him, but quieted down when he was told that he had two jounin that would make sure that he wasn't in any danger.

Azula had brought up to Anko that the man was lying about something, more than likely the mission. Anko agree, but wanted to see how it played out and how the Uchiha brat worked with her team. She knew that they could work most anyone, since they had worked with all the rookie teams and most of the veteran genin teams. She was also proud of their progress working with the Kurama heir, thanks to her team her health was steadily increasing and she might be cleared to take the genin exams in a few months. Naruto wore a burnt orange camouflage pants with a shirt that was a tiger striped pattern. He wore a bandoleer with kunai and seals on it. He also carried a forest green bandana that he had affixed to his belt. Azula wore a black body suit, but also wore a dark red skirt. She wore a dark red, nearly black coat that had many pockets and some scrolls in it. Both had the Uzumaki seal on the left shoulder, as did Anko on her trench coat. Sasuke wore white shorts and a dark blue shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back near the neck.

Naruto noticed a puddle and turned to Azula. He then said in her native tongue, "Genjutsu puddle. What do you want to do?"

Anko, Kakashi and Azula perked up at him not using the common language, but Sasuke looked at him and said, "What are you babbling about, dobe?"

Azula smirked and replied, "Get them after they hit us. If we are the targets, if not then they will leave us alone."

Anko was able to catch some of what was said, but she saw the puddle and knew that it hadn't rained for a couple weeks, it was a pretty warm day and the puddle was in direct sunlight which meant that it shouldn't be there. She nodded to Kakashi who gave a slight nod. She moved closer to Kakashi and asked, "Kakashi-kun… so when are we going out on that date you promised me?"

Kakashi replied happily, "That depends Anko-chan. Would you like water or wine on the date?"

Anko smirked and replied, "Why water of course, wouldn't want alcohol to dull our good time, would we?"

Sasuke just put his hands in his shorts and turned away from the flirting jounin.

Suddenly Kakashi exclaimed, "Oh shit…"

The puddle suddenly morphed into two men and they wrapped a sharp chain around the jounin and pulled. It appears that the jounin were shredded. Tazuna looked worriedly at the scene and began to back up. One of the assailants exclaimed, "Two down, now go for the bridge builder!"

Azula stepped calmly in front of Tazuna and began to file her nails. The other man laughed and said, "Take her out along with the target."

"Will do brother," the first assailant replied.

Having lost track of Naruto Sasuke jumped into the air and threw a shuriken and a kunai. The shuriken caught the chain and imbedded in a close tree, while the kunai hit the hole in the shuriken and basically locked the chain to the tree. He smirked and then jumped in between the two and kicked then both in the faces. He figured that they were bound to the chain, but then was surprised when they disengaged the chain and took the momentum from the kick to turn and run towards Tazuna.

The second assailant smirked under his mask and said, "Too bad she has to die, she might be fun to play with." His run was interrupted when he felt a pain in his shoulder and looked to find the file imbedded in his shoulder. He also began to feel a little off balance. 'Poison,' he thought to himself, but then fell face first and skidded to a halt.

The first assailant watched as his brother fell and then turned angrily at the girl and said, "I'm going to kill you and then the bridge builder."

"Not if I can help it!" Naruto exclaimed as he appeared next to the man and then slapped his hands together. A wall of wind hit the man and then slammed him into a tree. Naruto then jumped over to the man and examined him. "He's alike sensei," he explained to no one in particular. He then pulled out some wire and began to bind the man.

Azula walked over to Sasuke and saw him rubbing his backside and said in a droll tone, "I'm not going to examine your injury. If you can walk then you're fine."

Sasuke looked up at Azula and asked, "Why is he talking to our dead sensei?"

Anko's voice could be heard, "Ah, he does care…" She then appeared next to the assailant who Azula poisoned. She gently kicked the man and heard a moan. She then asked, "Number one or seven?"

Azula smirked and replied, "Seven… I want to interrogate him, so why just use number one?"

Anko smiled wide and said happily, "That's my girl."

Kakashi walked out from behind a tree and shook his head. He then turned to Sasuke and said, "Not bad, you didn't freeze up or fail to defend the target, but you did fail to anticipate that they could ditch the chain. Also I wouldn't touch the chain. It's more than likely poisoned."

Sasuke blanched while he pulled his hand away from the chain. He then watched Azula start to take off the clothes of the man she had poisoned. Soon the man was down to just his underwear and was tied to a tree. He raised an eyebrow when Azula threw some senbon at a tree.

Azula had sensed someone watching and wanted to either disable them or chase them away. Throwing a few senbon had worked. Now she looked down at the man in front of her and asked as he regained consciousness, "Who sent you and why are you after the bridge builder? Demon brother from the Village hidden in the Mist. Hey Naruto, do you have a lead on these guys from the bingo book?"

Naruto walked over and dropped the second man next to the first. He was similarly garbed only in his underwear and tied up. He pulled out a book and began to flip through the pages and then stopped. He then explained, "Demon brother, a brother team that went rouge after a failed coup attempt by Momochi Zabuza in Kiri. Reward is five thousand dead or alive. So Anko sensei… do we kill one and then question the other one?" Sasuke paled at the question, as did the brothers.

Anko walked over to the brothers and replied, "No we extract the information and only kill one of them if they don't answer the questions."

"Why should we answer you? You're just going to kill us anyways," the one tied to the tree said angrily.

Naruto shook his head and said, "No need to kill unless you aren't cooperative. Now do we have to get physical?" Naruto lifted the man lying on the ground and slammed him into the tree. Anko smirked at the boy's actions.

"We were hired by Gato and work with Zabuza to kill the bridge builder," the man tied to the tree replied.

"Gozo, shut up," the brother exclaimed through his teeth, while wincing in pain from him hitting the tree.

Gozo look at his brother in fear, but also sympathy. He then said, "Look Meizu, we've been captured and will more than likely to be sent back to Kiri. Given what we did we might die, but also remember that they might just put us in prison."

Azula smiled and said, "That's a good boy. Now I could try to see if we can keep you in a Konoha prison for a while if you like, but you'll have to answer all and I mean all of my questions." The men nodded to her 'request'.

Naruto walked over to Tazuna with Kakashi and then said, "Look old man. We knew that you lied to get us to come and protect you, but we didn't know that we would have to fight an A ranked missing shinobi from Kiri. Is your country that desperate for that bridge that you would risk a major village black balling your country?"

Tazuna swallowed hard, but nodded. He then explained how Gato was destroying the economy and was basically enslaving the populace. Naruto, Azula and Anko quickly agreed to help, but also they wanted to send for back up and also wanted to send for permission to eliminate Gato. They sent off the messenger bird and also left a clone to keep watch over the prisoners.

Several miles down the road Naruto grabbed the back of his neck and said, "Ouch!" He then turned to Anko and Kakashi and said, "I think that our prisoners are not going to make it to Ibiki. They might not even be there when the ANBU arrive to pick up the bodies. Shadow clone jutsu." Three Narutos appeared in puffs of smoke and headed back as full speed to where they had left the Demon brothers.

Naruto eyes glazed over, but then he said, "I chased away what appeared to be a hunter nin from Kiri, but the weird thing was that the guy was releasing our prisoners. My clones were able to subdue them again and are standing guard on them this time, but we should be on guard for possible fake hunter nins."

Anko smiled and said, "Good work gaki. Now let's get to Wave, so we can ditch this lying old man."

"This coming from a woman that dresses like you do," Tazuna said in an annoyed tone.

Anko then opened her trench coat and Tazuna fell backwards with a nose bleed, while Sasuke just looked stunned. Naruto then turned to Azula and said, "Okay it's a fact, he's gay. I know even I'm turned on by that."

Azula took her finger and made a circle in the middle of Naruto's chest, while whispering, "Down tiger, we can deal with that later." Naruto raised an eyebrow and she nodded. His grin went wide and he seemed to be on cloud nine. Azula chuckled and said, "Easy enough."

Kakashi picked up Tazuna and said, "Did you have to do that to him? He might have died from a heart attack."

"That'll teach him to insult what I wear and I bet he hasn't gotten any for a while," Anko retorted in a playful tone.

Naruto then chimed in and said, "Not the point, but true.

The teams continued on while Tazuna recovered. They finally took a boat across the water to the island. Azula had to remind Naruto to keep his voice down, so as to no alert any potential enemies. After reaching the island and heading towards Tazuna's home.

Naruto flinched and then threw a kunai into the brush. Naruto then said to Azula, "Did you feel that?" To which Azula nodded and looked around.

Sasuke had gotten angry at Naruto not speaking so he could understand, so he exclaimed, "Would you stop talking gibberish and start speaking so we all can understand."

Naruto came back out of the bushes with a white rabbit in his arms along with replying, "Sorry can't speak egomaniac."

Anko and Azula giggled at his antics, but both saw his demeanor change and Anko yelled, "Everyone down!"

Anko had grabbed Tazuna and Azula had grabbed Sasuke, much to her regret. Naruto and Kakashi had avoided the spinning object that was supposed to take their heads off, but Naruto had jumped while Kakashi had hit the dirt like everyone else. Kakashi got up, but then worried when he heard Azula say in a very angry tone, "Take your hands off my breasts before I turn you into a barbeque."

Everyone looked at Sasuke who was on top of Azula, but also had both hands on her chest. Sasuke got up, but much too slowly for Azula's tastes. She was about to hit him with a fire blast until Naruto exclaimed, "Hey it's Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist, expert in the Silent Killing technique. I finally get to meet someone famous! Yeah!" Azula rolled her eyes, but knew he was playing with the man. She waited for his response, but Naruto continued, "Hey, you have no eyebrows! Do you have to pluck them or is it natural?"

Zabuza chuckled for a moment, but when he mentioned his lack of eyebrows his got angry and released a lot of killing intent. He then exclaimed, "Hey brat! You will show respect to someone who like myself, who has gotten his name in the bingo book."

Naruto waved his hand in a dismissive way and replied, "Nah, want to keep myself off the bingo books as long as possible. That way they'll never know who I am when I meet them and they'll underestimate me."

Azula watched as Sasuke began to shake under the killing intent, but was laughing inside at Naruto not even being fazed. Zabuza then chuckled and said, "Then you will die a no named gaki. Hidden Mist jutsu!" The area began cloaked in fog. The group then heard Zabuza say, "Liver, lungs, spine, jugular vein, carotid artery, brain, kidneys, or the heart… now which one should I choose from?"

They heard a pop sound and then the mist was suddenly blown away by a great gust of wind centered on the other side of the clearing. Naruto tilted his head and replied, "I would say you went for the kidneys. Not exactly the silent one, unless you were going to cover my mouth at the time you stabbed me."

Azula began to giggle at both Naruto and at Sasuke, whose white shorts were now wet and tinted yellow. Zabuza turned towards where Naruto was now standing and said, "You're a slippery on, but you're just small fry and I'm only after the bridge builder. Hand him over and I will let you go without any more problems."

Naruto shook his head and replied, "Not an option. How about you help me kill Gato and we split his fortune three ways."

Zabuza looked at the blonde in confusion and asked, "Why three ways?"

Naruto put up his index finger and then counted off with his fingers while he explained, "First part would be yours, second part would be mine and third part would be for the people of Wave for all the trouble he has caused them."

Zabuza chuckled and looked around and realized who he was up against. "Sharingan Kakashi, so you're his sensei. Should have guessed since he is good with jutsu, but it won't save you from me."

Naruto then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Zabuza cried out in pain when Naruto suddenly appeared from behind him and asked, "So is that how you do the killing technique?"

Zabuza just chuckled and then turned into water and fell to the ground with a splash. "Not bad, but I've already finished the job," Zabuza exclaimed from behind Tazuna with his sword raised. He looked down and saw Kakashi there with a kunai in his stomach. "Well it looks like I will have to work for this one," he said and then burst into a mass of water.

Azula dove at Tazuna and they rolled away from Kakashi who was bisected by yet another Zabuza. "Ha, not as good as you thought are you Kakashi," Zabuza said happily, but then coughed and looked down to see the bisected Kakashi turn into water, while a kunai was pushed into his side and right into his heart.

"Guess we're playing cat and mouse aren't we Zabuza?" Kakashi asked, but then noticed that instead of blood pouring out of the wound it was water. 'Oh no, another water clone,' he thought, but then was kicked from behind by yet another Zabuza who in turn was slashed by Anko from behind. Unfortunately yet another Zabuza kicked her from behind and both jounin flew at the lake. Both entered the water, but were surrounded by a globe of water being held by a single Zabuza. Sasuke had finally gotten up the courage and stabbed the Zabuza that had kicked Anko, which turned out to be a water clone.

A third Zabuza appeared on the water and did a single handed seals and several water clones appeared. Kakashi yelled at his student and said, "Run save yourself and the client!"

xxxxXXXxxxx

Haku sat watching the battle unfold and was surprised by how the blonde had been able to sneak up on Zabuza. The boy had been able to do a kidney strike and kill the water clone, impressive for a genin, even if the clone was only about ten percent of the strength of the original. She then turned to see the boy sitting there admiring the battle where the dark haired boy was being thrown around and the girl had created whips of fire and was destroying any clone that came close to her and the client.

"I'm just waiting for an opportunity to take out Zabuza. You can help me," Haku explained.

Naruto shook his head and replied, "Nah, I'm just enjoying watching teme being knocked around."

Haku was taken aback by the boy's attitude towards a comrade. "He's your comrade. Aren't you going to help him?"

Naruto shook his head and pointed at the lake. "Nope, already have…" he replied happily.

Haku saw a clone or the boy himself slowly appearing out of the water behind the Zabuza clones and the original. She had to fight the urge to yell and protect him, but steeled herself to allow Zabuza to fight his own battles. She watched at the boy on the lake made a sideways sweep with his hands and a blade of wind appeared. The blade sped towards the three Zabuzas and the new ones coming out of the lake. The original did a quick backflip and barely avoided the blade, but the clones had their heads taken off and their prisoners released. The blonde on the water threw another blade at Zabuza who blocked it with Kubikiribocho. His eyes go wide when the blade is cut into by the wind blade. He is able to side step the part of the wind blade that he didn't block.

"You're rather skilled with wind, but I'll still kill you," Zabuza declared.

Naruto by Haku said, "Glad to see your master is okay?"

Haku turned and threw several senbon, only to have them flung away with a wave of the boy's hand. "Light weapons against a wind user is a losing proposition. Now let's talk turkey. You want him to live, I want my client to live. I let you take Zabuza back to your little hideaway and heal him up and we meet in say three days to discuss your terms of surrender and joining the Leaf."

Haku now was mad and asked angrily, "Why would I want to join the Leaf village?"

"It would stop all this running from hunter nin, living from day to day and would make sure that you wouldn't be betrayed by a client," Naruto explained.

"Why would Gato betray us?" Haku asked.

Naruto shrugged and pointed to the fight going on. He then continued, "He is a greedy man and will try to get away with paying as little as possible, even if you win he would betray you and keep the savings for betraying you, since missing shinobi are fairly easy to replace. I would attack in the next few minutes if I were you, since Kakashi-sensei is copying Zabuza's jutsu and also casting a genjutsu with his Sharingan."

Haku nodded, but grimaced behind her mask. She then said, "He will be out for about a week, so I will meet you in four days. I will find you in the forest." She then threw senbon and hit Zabuza. She used a Shunshin jutsu to appear next to body of Zabuza and another to leave the area.

Naruto jumped down and grabbed Azula by the hand and said, "You did great, even with you fighting against your weak element."

Azula scowled, but said, "Thanks, but why did you use a clone to fight him and release both of our sensei?"

Naruto then said in Azula's native tongue, "I found the fake hunter nin and gave Zabuza possible deal. I want them to join Konoha."

Sasuke glared at Naruto and then said, "There he goes again. What the hell are you two talking about?"

Azula smirked and replied, "Above your pay grade genin." She then turned to Naruto and said, "Are you crazy? He's an A ranked missing nin and I would think that the hunter is about chuunin or so, with the way he…"

Naruto interrupted and said, "She. Got a whiff of her and either the guy likes to have girls on their period or it's a girl."

Azula rolled her eyes and asked, "What do Hinata and I stink during our time of the month?"

Naruto shook his head and replied, "No, you just have a pungent smell of blood and I can only describe it as woman."

Azula sighed and then said, "Anko-sensei, Naruto has a report, so I'll lug the jerk's sensei to Tazuna's house."

Anko nodded and handed the unconscious Kakashi to Azula. Azula adjusted the man on her back and then glared at Sasuke. The boy glared back and they stood there for a few minutes. Azula figured that a staring contest would allow Naruto and Anko to discuss what he had done and hopefully she wouldn't kill her husband.

Naruto and Anko walked ahead of the others. Naruto waited until they were out of earshot and said, "Zabuza is alive and his female accomplice are a ways away in the woods. I have a couple clones watching them and will approach them if you give me the okay."

Anko glared at the blonde and asked, "What are you up too?"

Naruto sighed and replied, "Zabuza is a missing nin and would be a valuable asset to the village, but his assistant is something special and I feel it in my very being." He took a breath and then explained, "The Kyuubi seemed to calm when I was near her. Not like Azula-chan or Hinata-chan. I think that she has a Kekekai Genkai of some sort, but can't be sure about it. I also know about their employer. He is a ruthless business man and will betray anyone that he feels will help him keep the most of his money."

"How do you know this?" Anko asked.

Naruto smirked and replied, "Those clones went back with the ANBU that took the Demon Brothers prisoner and looked up Gato. He has been slowly accumulating power and wealth in the smaller nations. He has also been blackballed by Konoha for failure to pay for a mission, claiming that we didn't deliver on our end of the bargain. He also claimed that a team that was found dead failed to complete the mission, but according to the investigation Ibiki told me that the team had been targeted because they possessed some bloodlines and there were body parts missing. Testicles from males and ovaries from females, along with eyes from the Uchiha that was on the mission, so you tell me if it is a good thing to trust Gato or try to turn his people against him."

Anko grinned and asked, "How did you come up with this idea?"

Naruto smiled and replied, "I've been with Azula for years and I just asked myself, what would Azula do? I'm sure she would have made a backup plan, but this was as good as I could do with limited time."

Anko grabbed Naruto, hugged him and then kissed him on the lips. She then released him and said, "I knew there was a reason I loved you gaki."

Naruto chuckled and said, "The answer is still no, I will not sleep with you."

Anko laughed and replied, "You keep coming up with plans like this and I'll find my own sex partner, but you'll make me climax from just how you deal with things."

Naruto blushed and scratched his cheek. He said meekly, "Thanks…"

Anko put her arm around his shoulder and waved for Tazuna to catch up with them. Tazuna caught up with them and asked, "It is normal for a teacher to kiss their student?"

Naruto blushed again and replied, "She's like a sister and it's complicated."

Anko nodded and said, "Yeah, what he said."

Tazuna shrugged and let the team to his house. They were greeted by his daughter and grandson, who quickly went upstairs to avoid the new guests. They lay Kakashi on a futon in the living room and got him as relaxed as possible. Anko was somewhat happy.

xxxxXXXxxxx

While this all happened Naruto's clones watched Haku gently set the body of Zabuza down. They then watched as Zabuza ripped the senbon from his neck. A clone approached and said, "You could permanently injure yourself if you're not careful."

Zabuza weakly threw the senbon at the clone. The clone easily dodged, but Zabuza then asked, "Why did you let him follow us. We're dead, since I can't fight."

Naruto put his hands up and stopped about three meters from the pair. "I come to offer you a possible reprieve. I have it on good authority that Gato is going to betray you."

Zabuza glared at the blonde and asked, "How do you know that?"

Naruto sighed and replied, "I went back in the records we have back in Konoha and found that he has done it a couple times to my village. I want to offer you a place in Konoha, so that you can stop the running and find a home."

Zabuza shook his head and said, "My home is Kiri and I'm going to change it if I have to take the village down and rebuild it."

Naruto then said, "I have an idea. How about you work for Konoha and we figure out a way for you to do it, but not force you to become one of our shinobi?"

Zabuza was getting light headed, but replied, "I'm listening."

Naruto could see that he was losing his audience, so he said, "We hire you to do some missions for us while you keep your missing nin status. She can be our courier."

Haku gasped, but then said angrily, "I'm a boy."

Naruto rolled his eyes and asked, "Are you a virgin?"

Haku blushed, but replied, "That's none of your business."

Naruto chuckled and said, "If you were a guy, you would have told me to take a hike or brag that you weren't. Also you smell like it's that time for you."

Haku blushed and then threw a senbon nicking the clone who dissipated in a puff of smoke. A second clone jumped down and approached. "Your reaction proves it, please don't kill me. I wasn't trying to insult you are offend you. I'm not good in social situations. I'm improving, but not that much, sorry."

Naruto looked at the anger slowly fading from the missing nin and asked, "Do you need some help and I promise not to use the knowledge to attack you. Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza are both going to take about a week to heal. We can work together to bring him up to par. Deal?"

Haku looked wearily at the boy, but relented when Zabuza nodded his head. Naruto smiled and said happily, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto by the way."

Haku blushed and replied, "Yuki Haku."

Zabuza sighed and just allowed the kids to take him to the hideout. He lost consciousness on the way there.