I'd like to give a shout out to everyone who has reviewed to this story as well as my other works before I begin. You guys are great; for a week after a chapter is posted I will pull my reviews up and read over them, and answer questions that concern you as a thank you for the time you took to wrote the message and the feedback you give.
Now I'm going to post a challenge before we begin and hope its better received here.
There are tons of stories that use the, what else was in the scroll, setting to give Naruto a cross-over ability in exchange for the Kage Bushin. I suggest we take this idea of "what else was there" and make it a theme instead. This means by some device, Naruto :
Becomes guardian to the scroll and all its knowledge. During the story Naruto will carry the scroll with him, forcing the common theme of enemies trying to steal it. Naruto will also deal with the temptation to read from the scroll periodically and at times be encouraged too.
Becomes the scroll itself. Due to a failsafe in the scroll itself destructs and transfers it's knowledge onto the body of the nearest person loyal to the leaf, which ends up being Naruto. Naruto then deals with attempts from woman trying to seduce him in order to learn the secrets burned into his skin. Throughout the series there are attempts to remove the scrolls info, each failing while the info is manually rewritten into a new scroll.
Discovers the many shocking and gruesome secrets behind Konohagakure and devotes himself to purging corruption from Konohagakure. This Naruto gains a great distrust to everyone in the village, unless they unknowingly prove themselves, and causes disrespect for authority and the tendency to lash out.
Now to the story.
Chapter 4: The Demon of the Mist
On the misty waters surrounding wave Team Seven, Tazuna, and a man simply as The Rower (a fairly decent man who made his money smuggling people in and out of Wave under the tyranny of Gato) as they quietly drifted along on the current, to remain as silent as possible. However, the group was not as silent as they could have been. Naruto was over reacting to the sight of the bridge and Sakura kept shouting at him to calm down so they could do one last debriefing before hitting land. A single Thwack echoed across the water as Sakura rammed the binding of her notebook into Naruto's skull. "Pay attention Loudmouth, I've got all the information from the interrogation ready and I'm only going to say this once" Sakura growled as she grabbed a pair of reading glasses from her pocket and placed them on her head.
Naruto settled down and shut up, for fear of another hit from Sakura's notebook, which was filled with papers containing her notes on everything from integration to field ready recipes for chicken all of which made the book very heavy. It was almost strange, while he had been forcefully shoved down a path of spirituality; it seemed Sakura had started down the path to power through wisdom, as opposed to Sasuke's choice of embracing might as his answer. Naruto merely thought of it as things going their natural course, him excluded due to his unintended divine intervention.
"So this is everything I got, according to various public reports Gato moved his company's headquarters to wave about three to five years ago, at which time immigration became so tight nobody has legally entered or left within that time, This could explain why we are the first outsiders to hear any of this despite how big the issue is" Sakura explained as she pulled out various newspaper clipping before stuffing them back into her notebook " Now based on information given to us by the demon brothers and Tazuna we can figure out our situation, Gato has massive economic control of Wave and uses it as a base, along with his new corporate headquarters, to run his numerous black-market deals with drugs, stolen goods or sex slaves he had shanghaied off the mainland, all of which are maintained by an army of thugs that he hires off the books, all of these projects and employees are funded by wave allowing Gato Shipping, and his black market to remain afloat without any missing dollars from either one" Sakura explained before smiling smugly and snapping the book close.
Kakashi gave his little eye smile and patted the young woman on the head as congratulations "Very good Sakura" He applauded "I recognize the use of the Morino Method in you torture style and presentation, I take it you read the book recently?" Kakashi asked making Sakura nod and blushed, being a little embarrassed by the praise.
"The Morino Method?" Sasuke grumbled out as he looked ot Kakashi for an answer.
"Yes the Morino method, named after Ibiki Morino, the youngest head of the TDI department in history." Kakashi explained "You see Ibiki is so good he wrote several guidelines to proper torture in the field and set the basic principles that the Konoha Anbu uses to today, which are easily healed but slow and painful scarring while using materials experienced any ninja would have on them, its considered required reading for anyone entering the Anbu" Kakashi explained before being hushed by the rower.
"We approaching the town, remain calm and act casual we don't need any attention" He said before spotting the drop point. He then dipped the paddle into the water and used it to maneuver them to the dock by sticking it in the ground below and holding it still, forcing the currents to drag the boat in.
Everyone then climbed off the boat as the rower switched back on his engine, grabbed the fishing pole stashed under the seats and speed off, all his equipment ready as a cover story should he be caught on his trip back. Tazuna watched the departure with worry before whipping his brow clean of nervous sweat. "It's going to be a bit of a walk to my place, we'll go around the city for now, if Gato gets wind of a group of new comers this won't last long" Tazuna explained in his drunken grumble.
The group wordlessly nodded and followed Tazuna out of the small fishing village, each of them grumbling about something or another. Kakashi was brooding about the impending attack that his years of experience had taught him to expect while Sakura obsessed over a detail that she was missing in her notebooks in an attempt to fix the oversight. Naruto and Sasuke however were playing Rock Paper Scissors, continuing a long rivalry of games that had started in-between breaks of Kakashi's torturous work-out regimen. "I win again" Sasuke said with a smug, yet bored look " I'm telling you, it's impossible to beat an Uchiha at this game, my Father used it to train muscle prediction in me, and his father did the same" He explained as he pocketed his hand again using his glare to signal the end of their little game.
Naruto shook his fists in frustration as he wobbled away from his rival in anger mumbling his swears and curses at Sasuke, as well as vague threats that made no sense. However as he mumbled he pulled ahead of the group, to make sure no one heard him, he began to hear things. The wind picked up a bit, a light whistling began which turned into the wispy voice of a woman, chanting cryptically. "At the end of it all the reject stood tall upon his fallen foes, once his comrades they were. All childhood gone at that point, given a blade to fill the void…it drinks deeply of life's red elixir growing stronger from the morbid drink, as time brings it to its knees only for it to rise again" The voice vanished completely but not before Naruto threw a kunai arbitrarily, or at least where he assumed the omnipresent voice was actually coming from. The only thing Naruto could do was stare and think back "What was that?" He mumbled in a confused tone.
The whispering then returned stronger than ever coming from all direction straining his ears, making them light up in a burning pain. "A great hero he once was, and still is to become, the darker half's return masks the rise of he who holds his greatest gift" Naruto tried to follow the voice but it just kept leaping around "She drinks deeply of the well of knowledge, in efforts to make herself strong, she will succeed, but not before a great loss; She stands silently and giggles, their echoes carry secrets to those who elude the fog; He tries to forget with strong drink the memories of two lost sons, they did not belong to him but to his daughter who morns them nightly ; Son, grandson and nephew to the murdered, brother to their killer, he seeks justice but should be weary lest it consumes him; The fog is lifted, but a great darkness still obscures him his first rise will come soon; A cloak of deception and a kind heart mark this young one and hide everything including the base of his identity" Naruto kept trying to find the voice only to be lead in circles, his last sight being a long haired woman in a white dress standing out on the lake that suddenly disappeared.
"UZUMAKI" Kakashi nearly shouted in his stern Commanding Officer voice "What is going on, we've been trying to get you attention for three minutes now, what's with the kunai. You almost killed a rabbit, WHY?" Kakashi said as he swung the rabbit in front of Naruto's face.
"I heard something and I reacted, but I think it might have been in my head" Naruto explained his voice growing weaker as the explanation went on.
Kakashi just started to shake his head, to distract by the oddities of Naruto to notice anything wrong with the rabbit. However, Sakura, in her fascination with anything fluffy, began to dote over the rabbit and was trying to find out as much as she could about it, even going as far as to pour over one of her wildlife books, As she read her brow furrowed in confusion as she simply stared at the snowy white rabbit, before her eyes went wide and she dived down. "Everyone DOWN NOW" Sakura shouted diving to the ground and grabbing the rabbit, with Kakashi getting Naruto and Sasuke taking care of Tazuna.
As everyone fell to the ground a massive blade passed overhead, a whirring sound following it before it collided with a tree. However the blade was not alone, on its handle stood a massive giant of a man, whose arms where probably as long as the sword's handle itself. Naruto just looked up at the man and shuddered as he saw the blade repeating the cryptic words unconsciously "At the end of it all the reject stood tall upon his fallen foes/ once his comrades they were/All childhood gone at that point/given a blade to fill the void/it drinks deeply of life's red elixir growing stronger from the morbid drink/ as time brings it to its knees only for it to rise again" He said as he just stared in awe, unaware of his own words.
The giant's eyes went wide before narrowing again, a grin coming through the binds across his mouth. "So it seems my reputation precedes me, and Blondie there has a talent for poetry it seems" The man commented "I have to remember to write that down, I thinks it sums up me up pretty well I think" he commented before turning around and facing the group.
"Zabuza….. the demon of the mist" Kakashi said as he slowly reached up and grabbed his headband, moving it up to reveal a scared eyelid, which covered a mysterious red eye with three black tomoe circling the pupil.
"Copycat Kakashi, how funny the once feared shinobi reduced to a glorified babysitter" The Man now known as Zabuza began to laugh darkly, "not even your little Sharingan eye can help you now".
An echo of familiarity passed over the group affecting them all in various ways. While Naruto had only heard of it in passing, and Sakura having read into the topic only lightly (for the moment), Sasuke was well aware of what the Sharingan was as it was his birthright as an Uchiha. However there was little talk of the Sharingan and more about Kakashi's reputation, including his supposed knowledge of over a thousand Jutsu, and then a small exposition on Zabuza's slaughter of an entire generation of prospective ninja when he was rejected from the academy as a boy and his former standing in the ranks of Kiri. Naruto began to grind his teeth, as well as Sasuke as the two listened to the explanatory rants. Sakura paid it no mind and used it as an opportunity to learn more. Finally Naruto snapped "BY INARI, what the fuck is wrong with you guys, is all elite ninja do is shoot rank and achievements back and forth trying to one up the other or something " He shouted.
Zabuza began to chuckle "Your right" the blade and Zabuza disappeared in the blink of an eye, a simple ring of smoke signaling his arrival over the water, blade now on his back "Enough talk, time for action".
A mist then began to quickly roll in; it was so thick one couldn't even see the ground beneath their feet. At that point for team seven and Tazuna the world became a white void. Kakashi sighed as he prepared the teams battle plan in his head. "Zabuza will come for me first and is an expert in silent killing, so you guys won't know when he gets me, or if he gets me at all…" Kakashi explained as he formulated an attack plan as he surveyed the clearing through the mist " I will be able to hold him off, but I don't know for how long, so as soon as you hear a struggle run with Tazuna and protect him with your life".
The order only seemed to provoke the genius killer, because as soon as Kakashi finished a dark laughter cut through the mist with it's twisted message. It was a list, It sent shivers down their spine, especially when Zabuza repeated it. "There are EIGHT points, the heart, the lungs, the throat, the kidneys, the spine, the liver, the jugular vein and the subclavian artery…So many choices..".
In an instant the moral was gone, replaced by a foreboding fear that tried to grip them all in its tight grip. And for all the power he now held Sasuke was helpless, the killing intent that saturated the air dragging him back to that fateful day. It brought Sasuke to his knees; it even forced him to bring his kunai up and turn it on himself. He would have acted to if it weren't for the words of Kakashi, who vowed to protect them from anything. It calmed Sasuke only a little, but the calmness was torn asunder when a voice whispered between them all. "It's over".
Naruto lashed out, Zabuza's close proximity and surprise appearance triggering a response that Kakashi had beaten into him. A descending elbow with the left into Zabuza's back followed by a hawk punch to the head. Naruto then tumbled into a puddle of water confused, his fist had made contact but its target was now gone. "He's using Mizu Bushin" Kakashi warned as realization hit him before a swish echoed through the trees, Zabuza's blade passing through him.
Water scattered across the field in the Swing of Zabuza's blade shocking the giant man as he stared at the spot his opponent had been mere moments before. "You copied me through this mist?" his shock was evident and enhanced by the man he just attempted to kill, Kakashi, standing behind him, a knife to his neck.
"Yes, and you little game is over" Kakashi swiftly shoved the blade into Zabuza's throat, only to have to be coated with water and have a blade poised at his throat much like he was doing mere seconds ago.
"No it's only just beginning Kakashi" Zabuza began to chuckle, firmly holding the blade in his hand against Kakashi's throat while positioning his sword in the other. "You greatly underestimate me… I'm no fool" he mumbled, just loud enough for Kakashi to hear before his arm twitched and the massive blade moved. Kakashi reacted and tried to pivot, only to duck under the massive blade ruining his attack. Zabuza then switched hands holding the sword, ditching the knife and spinning around again. However, Kakashi made sure that the rotation would be incomplete by swiping at the assassin's legs, which with the massive sword flying off in another direction knocked Zabuza of his feet. Zabuza's quickly recovered through and moved to through his sword while Kakashi was still in the air, but was blocked by a field of caltrops forcing him to stop so that his feet would not be filled with holes. Kakashi soon landed in the lake and struggled to surface and stay afloat, as if the water weighed him down. A dark chuckle came from behind him that instant "Suiro no Jutsu" Zabuza said as the water rose up from the lake and began to warp around Kakashi in am in escapable bubble of water.
Zabuza began to chuckle darkly "Sorry Kakashi, but your too much of a nuisance to deal with directly…Luckily I can just keep you in there till you run out of air and with your adrenaline now pumping hard after that little scuffle you're going to burn through it fast and leave yourself a sitting duck.." Zabuza foretold grimly as he turned his attention to the shore "Now it's time for your little brats and the old man to say goodbye… Mizu Bushin no Jutsu" Another Zabuza began to rise from the water, first taking shape then gaining color.
The clone walked onto the shore, mocking team seven about their age and inexperience and starting off its attack by striking the one who was able to destroy the first clone, Naruto. He went flying back, his head band falling off in the process , and skid across the ground unsettling the dust. Sakura began combing through her notebook she had filled with justu and pulled out information she had on the Mizu Bushin jutsu. "NARUTO, SASUKE the Mizu Bushin only replicates a tenth of the users true ability and cannot venture far from him, we should be able to outrun we need to take Tazuna and go NOW" Sakura shouted, taking command of the situation as she tried to put all of the pieces in play straight in her head.
"YES, YES LISTEN TO SAKURA AND LEAVE, He can't move while maintaining the Suiro or he'll risk freeing me which he is trying to prevent…You've got thirty minutes at most that should be enough to lose him, GO NOW" Kakashi shouted through the bubble, making Zabuza chuckle again.
Naruto on the other hand was seeing red. Zabuza had taken his headband from him and was stepping on it, one of his most prized treasures, one of the few gifts he had ever received. Naruto slowly stood up and began stepping forward, the strap sandals snapping off as they frayed apart from abuse leaving Naruto barefoot. The dust billowed with each step and Naruto boiled over. He went into a charge, intent on somehow plowing the ninja down. Then he saw the blade, Zabuza's clone drew the sword and swung intent on splitting the poor boy right in half down the middle. Naruto, however, countered by side stepping the down slash and started what looked like a rolling mess of elbows and punches down the flat edge of the blade leading up to a final strike to the face "ROLLING COMBO" Naruto bellowed. He was thrown back before the final hit could be landed but the clone blade dissolved into water as he fell. Naruto smirked as he plucked the headband out from between his toes and wrapped it back around his head "Took out the sword and got back my headband…I think things are looking up" Naruto stood up proudly and began bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I know you have a plan now Sakura" Naruto said as he began taking deep breathes and shaking his arms.
Sakura watched him carefully as she witnessed the sporadic movement become almost rhythmic and smirked "I do now….you go ahead and take lead, Sasuke you back him up and strike hard and fast whenever possible , I'll support from here while guarding Tazuna, when you were the clone down you two regroup to me, if I'm right the clone's recovery time is ten times longer than the real Zabuza's and should give us the time we need to plan step two" Sakura explained as she began preparing a sling shot armed with caltrops.
"Already on it" Sasuke grunted as he leapt forward, leaving Sakura alone to guard the old man alone.
"Just going to try and plow me down, real original kid" Zabuza mocked as he slide into a fighting stance.
In recent weeks Naruto and Sasuke had been sparring non-stop, forcing the evolution of their fighting styles. While Naruto learned to be reactive as well as how to string combos from single hard hits, Sasuke learned how to make his hits harder without much effort and how to mislead during an attack. This is what ultimately befell Zabuza's clone. Sasuke charged forward but stopped with a skid, slowly moving into Clone Zabuza's strike zone. Sasuke moved for a straight punch straight to the head but it was knocked upward. The clone smirked thinking it had beaten the attack but was surprised when the hand he knocked up and away then grabbed his head when he bent down to strike. Clone Z then found his head being driven into Sasuke's knee before being straightened out by a flip kick that knocked his chin up and sent stumbling back by a spear tackle like ram. Luckily the clone knocked Sasuke away into the caltrops placed by Kakashi, which the boy narrowly avoided and only got out of them with help from Sakura. In all the commotion caused by Sasuke the clone had all but forgotten about Naruto, who was now charging in with his own attack. The clone sighed and prepared itself again for another pointless fist fight and was surprised when he saw the brat pick up speed and sock him in the stomach. Naruto smirked "That's my newest technique, Battle Meditation Mantra 1: Meditation upon movement" Naruto announced as he bent out of the way of Clone Zabuza's next strike and moved into a sweep, However the clone caught on to Naruto's increased ability and adjusted himself accordingly.
"You kids are like fly's" Zabuza's clone growled as he leapt over the sweep, landed and punched Naruto, sending him back, but began yelling when something splashed in his face.
"I've got the next step already guys, Catch" Naruto shouted as he reached into his pack and suddenly whipped his arm out throwing whatever it was he grabbed to Sasuke.
Sasuke caught the object, eye's widening when he saw what it was. Sasuke smirked and rolled shifting his grip so the object would fan out "DEMON WINDMILL SHURIKEN" with a chakra enhanced leap Sasuke took to the sky and threw the giant shuriken "WINDMILL OF THE SHADOWS" he announced as he fell to the ground, still smirking.
"A simple Shuriken, really?" the real Zabuza questioned, as he continued to hold up the water prison "At least you had the sense to target me….but it's still pointless" Zabuza used his free arm and plucked the shuriken out of the air chuckling until he saw the second Shurkien. If Zabuza had eye brows they would have shot up past the hair line "A second in the shadow of the first! When did he?" Zabuza didn't have time to finish he question, he jumped over the blade to avoid it without moving.
Zabuza just glared at the three on the shore and reared back his free arm to throw the shuriken. Then he heard a sound from behind him. "THINK FAST" Naruto shouted as he sailed over the water. Zabuza turned his head and once again went wide eyed as the kunai sailed for his head. Zabuza released the technique and dodge the blade but was too stiff from holding the water sphere and couldn't move fast enough. The blade grazed right over Zabuza's cheek, leaving a deep cut right below the eye.
"You little brat!" Zabuza shouted, enraged that a rookie could hit him easily. He spun around to throw the shuriken but was stopped by the now free Kakashi, which was using the metal plates on his glove to hold back the windmill. Zabuza scoffed, his eyes still burning with rage "So you made me fly into a rage to unravel the spell….doesn't matter that rage will only help me kill you faster" Zabuza literally growled as the water clone on the shore fell apart.
"No, your jutsu was broken from the outside by those rookies" Kakashi stated still holding the blade back steadily " And so you know the same trick won't work twice" Kakashi finished knocking back the blade.
Zabuza distanced himself and began a set of handseals, Kakashi instantly did the same matching Zabuza seal for seal. "SUITON: SUIRYUDAN NO JUTSU" to dragons then rose out of the water and coilded around each other before crashing, causing a massive explosion that unsettled the lake.
Meanwhile on shore Naruto was watching the fight between two elites enthralled, however something diverted his attention, the woman from earlier who had disappeared. "They ravage my lake, unsettle my waters, it causes me such pain" This time her whisperings were much less cryptic and more like cries for help. Naruto was genuinely confused when he heard the spirit call out in pain, considering nothing was happening to her.
"That spirit must be deeply tied to this lake for whatever reason"Naruto said as he turned his attention away from the troubled spirit he could not help and back to the conflicts of the elite.
Again both of them had begun the same technique, but then Zabuza began to slow down. Kakashi finished his technique first and called it out, Zabuza went wide eyed in realization. "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu" Kakashi called out, sending the hapless Zabuza into a tree, cracking several of his ribs.
"You can see the future?" Zabuza asked in a pain induced lightheaded feeling.
"I forsee your death" Kakashi stated calmly as he walked forward on unsteady feet. He then stopped when a flurry of Senbon imbedded themselves in Zabuza's neck.
"Well, well Your prediction came true" Came an amused and feminine voice from the trees. It was a girl only about two years older than team seven wearing a strange reinforced porcelain mask.
"Based on your mask you're a hunter-nin from Kiri, right?" Kakashi said as he looked up to the trees.
"Yes" The hunter-nin responded as she appeared down to the fallen Zabuza's side "I would have let you finish him but I've been tracking him for days and wanted the satisfaction myself" She stated as she begun to heft the body up and onto her shoulder "I'm afraid I must take my leave and dispose of this body" Just as quickly as she had gotten there the woman disappeared leaving the team in awkward silence.
Tazuna then began laughing "Well that was an amazing display, too bad you kids got your butts handed to you" He said laughing and grabbing a bottle of sake from his belt "Well come on, you can lick your wounds and nurse your wounded prides back to health" He added with a chuckle only to be interrupted by the sound of Kakashi falling over.
"Crap…sensei passed out from chakra exhaustion….Naruto, Sasuke get over here and carry Kakashi back to Tazuna's " Sakura demanded as she checked the fallen body of Kakashi.
"You guys go one ahead" Naruto shot back "I'll catch up real quick, I just have to do something first" He told them.
The team left, not pressing the issue much further knowing that Naruto would be quick. Naruto walked over to the lakes edge and pulled out a small wooden stake carving attached to a wooden bowl. He stuck it in the ground and pulled out a small vial of a glowing purple liquid and emptied the vial into the bowl. He then grabbed two incense candles and dropped them in the bowl before lighting them. "I'm sorry they caused you such pain" he said calmly before rising from the ground and leaving, allowing the lake to take the small bowl and marker.
Out on the lake the spirit smiled in appreciation of the apology given by one of the people who had caused her turmoil.