Well Howdy Readers! I'd like to thank you all for the positive comments and the praise received for the story, but it have to tell you to direct half of that to Meinos Kain who wrote a little article on his home site that inspired me and guided me when I was developing this idea in my head.

NOTE: Kami can be expressed as singular and plural like the word fish.

Chapter 5: Messengers and the twisted spirits

A foggy darkness surrounded him, draining him of all his energy. Kakashi groaned as he tried to trash out his limbs and move through the mist but it was pointless. Suddenly a cold damp feeling on his forehead caught his attention. The darkness began to clear, light beaming through a crack slowly widening. With another groan Kakashi then reentered the world of the living and tried to sit up. He immediately regretted it as he suddenly was light headed again and was forced to lay back down by a fairly pretty woman who was tending to him. "Oh good you awake…your students asked me to tend to you while they treated any wounds they had, Are you feeling alright?" the woman asked in confusion.

"Yes I'm fine just really exhausted, I think I may have strained my legs too…a week of good rest should fix that right up" Kakashi commented, reassuring the woman that he was alright. "If you don't mind could you fetch my students, we have important things to discuss" Kakashi said as he slowly sat back up sighing when he didn't feel the lightheaded ness over take him.

"If you don't mind me asking, about what Mr. Shinobi?" The pretty woman asked as she moved towards the door to fetch the team.

"Our friend Zabuza may not be as dead as we think" Kakashi said cryptically as he turned towards the window, glaring as if he could see Zabuza.

INARI

"First I'll remove the mask so I can let the blood drain out from the mouth" The young masked man said as he leaded forward, kunai in hand, ready to open the mask when a hand grabbed his wrist forcefully.

"I can do it myself" grunted a wounded Zabuza, who pried open the bandages and beagn spitting out blood and ripping Senbon out of his neck.

"Master stop that, you can really kill yourself if you're not careful" The boy replied worriedly as he watched his master; through the porcelain mask remove the needles.

Zabuza stopped and shot his assistant a dirty look "Take off that fucking mask, it gives me the creeps".

"Sorry sir, but it was all part of my ruse" the boy explained as he prepared Zabuza's wounds to be bandaged "They never suspected a thing" the boy smirked.

INARI

"So the Hunter-nin wasn't real ?" Sakura asked in a state of fright. She knew that if that monster with the clever was still alive then it could hunt them down.

"Not only that but Zabuza is still alive, the only question is whether he will leave from the defeat or again make an attempt on Tazuna's life" Kakashi said as he rubbed the back of his neck in pain. "If Zabuza does try again we could be in trouble, it will take at least a week and a half for him to recover so until then we're going to be training, Starting tomorrow " Kakashi said with a yawn as he lied back down, groaning slightly as his muscles ached.

Naruto and the rest of team seven left the room as soon as Kakashi lay down. All of them were mumbling something about the current situation, frustrated by Zabuza giving them the slip. Naruto however quickly snapped out of the funk when he realized something very important. He walked over to Tazuna's daughter and tapped on her shoulder. "Excuse Ms…." Naruto said, only then realizing he did not know her name.

"Tsunami" she stated with a slight smile that only a mother could have.

"Right, Tsunami…" Naruto affirmed "Do you know of any shrines here in wave, preferably close by?" Naruto questioned.

Tsunami then looked puzzled, looking up to the ceiling one arm on her hip the other arm propping up her chin. "Well I do remember something about Shrine in town, but it was in a state of disrepair before Gato, it's probably the center of squatter's grounds now" She commented off handily "Defiantly stay away from them, some will do anything for money" She warned as she walked off to take care of the various things that needed to be done around the house.

Naruto thanked Tsunami before she left and walked away himself, bumping into a kid about the age of ten. Naruto tried to apologies but the kid simply glared, which would have meant nothing if the glare didn't seem so empty. "Its hopeless, going against Gato" He said, empty glare still present.

Naruto did not like being talked down to and let his newfound calmness slip and allowed his voice to be driven by his emotion and bravado "What did you say to me?" Naruto asked, hands trembling as they clenched into fists.

"You heard me it's hopeless," Inari repeated blandly "You go against Gato you die, plain and simple" he finished uncaring of any doubts he placed in Naruto's mind.

"Listen punk" Naruto started, jabbing his finger in Inari's face "I don't give a flying fuck about what people think about themselves or anyone else, so you can shove this unstoppable bullshit up your ass while I go throw Gato off a bridge and into the ocean along with all of his hired goons" Naruto lashed out before storming away, mumbling about the temple.

Inari just stood there silently in shock before going to his room to look at the ocean, like he had intended to do earlier.

INARI

Naruto rubbed his elbows furiously attempting to get some weird gunk off himself and his clothing. It was the last time he would ever fight a swarm of angry squatters, but certainly not the last time he would insult them. Naruto also did not like the fact that the squatters had desecrated the shrines that populated the temple, especially since he could feel the anger the spirits held for the trespassers. Naruto had thrown the "heathens"( as some would put it) out of the temple and locked up it's doors, which lightened the mood considerably, but Naruto knew that until the temple was cleaned and most of its stolen pieces returned he would not feel any piece here.

Naruto sighed as he grabbed a mop, brush and bucket and walked out into the courtyard, which had become a dump thanks to the squatters, to fetch some water. He returned moments later with filled buckets and a large tarp that he had found to remove the trash. Splashing some water on the floor Naruto then took to his knees and began his humble acts of cleaning the spirits home. He could feel the shock on the spirits faces, but they still chose to hide themselves as many spirits did. Naruto smirked and continued his acts until the entire room was scrubbed clean. It didn't take as long as Naruto expected, but it was still pretty exhausting. "Now to find the offering plates" Naruto mumbled as he headed to the pile, sure that some dunce of a beggar had used the offering plates as bowls, or as a pan to cook his food.

Sure enough that was what had happened, the once pristine offering plates reduced to dirty bowls with food burned into them. Naruto scrubbed and polished them to the best of his ability but he was only able to restore so much. It seemed to be the trick though as a warm and pleasant feeling seemed to begin wafting over the temple. Naruto smiled brightly as he felt his work influence the spirits moods and spent the rest of the night cleaning out the court yard of the shanty town that had taken place in the open space around the sacred bell, which was apparently missing. It took hours to get all of the trash out of the temple, but Naruto worked diligently and without complaint. For some reason, Naruto felt like he was being watched throughout the whole thing, but disregarded as the spirits, despite the fact that while hiding themselves they could not be sensed beyond the spiritual waves they sent out when near another being.

Around dawn Naruto finished his task of restoring the shrine to its former glory within the best of his abilities, the only things he could not do were replace the golden bell or the silk tapestries that were supposed to rest behind the offering plates and dictate which spirit you were praising. Feeling the energies of the spirit waft over him in thanks filled Naruto with glee and relived his body of its aches and pains from the long night of labors done in their name. Satisfied Naruto prepared to leave by leaping out over the wall, as to keep squatters from violating the grounds once again. As he took a deep breath to focus his chakras, an act that he strained to do due to lack of sleep, he saw a figure peer at him and quickly disappear. Naruto grumbled "those damn godless squatters again…" Naruto was soon compelled by the spirits to tail the figure, forcing him down the maze of halls that made up the temples dormitories.

The figure was small and surprisingly agile and while Naruto tried to speed up something was holding him back. It dashed into a room that was supposedly locked and leads Naruto right to where he needed to be. Swinging the door open Naruto saw a family of Squatters, A man and his wife and their little girl, who looked to be the one who had been running through the halls. "Please" The man begged "We saw what you did to the others…we'll leave peacefully" He pleaded, grabbing various things in his hands while trying to back into the wall.

Normally Naruto's brash attitude, even when calmed by an even temperament, would lash out and demand that the man leave now lest he invite more defilers into the shrine, but something strange happened to Naruto. A familiar yet new energy flooded his system taking over his entire body and forcing it to do something extremely shocking. "Fear not loyal ones, in your hour of need your turned to prayer and praised the spirits endlessly, for this they will provide you with everything Gato has taken from you, this temple is your home now as well as the spirits, care for it and you shall never grow weary, food will come to you and money will be no concern all that is asked in return is your lives in servitude to the Kami at this temple" The one possessing Naruto offered.

"Yes kind Sage" the woman practically cried in joy "Our lives in service for relative comfort…" she trailed off into her own tears as Naruto was then walked out of the room by the spirit.

The power soon left Naruto's body and then compelled him to leave. Naruto shook his head "there's always something weird going on with the spirits…" he mumbled as he leapt out of the courtyard to meet up with his team for training.

INARI

It was late when Naruto got home from training that day. His work at the temple had put him back some in his schedule so he arrived at Tazuna's house just as everyone was leaving to go start their training. Naruto stayed behind and ate breakfast and rushed off into the woods, tracking the team through his intuition (Which had become charged with spiritual energies increasing its divining powers). He arrived at practice with everyone waiting for him, including Kakashi, who was usually the one that people waited for. Then Naruto spent the rest of the day attempting to run up trees, still barefoot since Zabuza had destroyed his only pair of sandals. He would have stayed longer and tried to keep up with Sasuke but the lack of sleep, and the prospect of not being raped in his sleep by Konoha (the kind and infatuated spirit of the land of fire) had drawn him to bed quite easily. Naruto opened up the door to the guest bedroom where team 7 was currently bunking and was shocked by what he saw.

Standing there was a large white fox, black markings crisscrossed its body and four glowing tails extended outward, placing various items on the single dresser that stood in the room that it pulled from a fine red pouch that had been draped over its back like a saddle. It suddenly stopped and turned towards Naruto, a fox's grin appearing on the beasts face. "It's fine to meet you young sage, the spirits have tasked me with delivering some messages and gifts for you to this mortal plain, I must go now but I do hope to see you soon" The animal spoke in an eloquent tone of refinement not unlike one of royalty.

Suddenly the fox wrapped its tails together, disguising the many as one and leapt out the window. Naruto rushed to the fox's exit and was awed to see it running through the sky, shocks of light coming from its feet as it moved to the temple and vanished in a pillar of light. Naruto kept staring at the sky star struck before turning back to the dresser and looking at the various things that had been left to him.

The first object that stood out was the pile of letters, mostly because energy just seemed too wafted off them like they were formed and not written, also because it was a fairly large pile of letters but that was only secondary to the wafting energy. The next item was two sets of robes, both of them white with Black pants as well as a set of brown leather straps that appeared to be made to be worn on the legs to bind the pant leg down. Naruto examined the robes casually and found them to be made of a pseudo-silk that was, once again, crafted from spiritual energy. Naruto then moved onto the small Sake Gourd, energy wafted from within every drop of the Sake and when turned over it simply kept pouring its contents out with no end in sight while still remaining full. A sip from the Sake made a feeling of power rush over him, but also one of inebriation, though it was only miniscule. Naruto then moved onto the final gift which was a necklace, much like his medallion but draped with jade magtama. Grabbing his medallion he unclasped it from the cheap chain the kept it around his neck and reattached it to the center of his necklace.

Naruto then decided to read the letters, to get a clue of what was going on with the gifts and the glowing white fox. Opening the First letter of the stack of messages Naruto could practically hear the awe inspiring voice that called out through the air.

To the faithful Young Sage,

We, the Spirits of the Temple at Wave, thank you for your service in dealing with the men who defiled our home, a place of worship, as well as assisting us in the appointment of our new caretakers and our eventual high priestess. However, your tasks are not quite down yet young sage for there is still much to do to repair our once prosperous land. In our shrine rested a plethora of fine silk tapestry that dictated which shrine we owned and who was being praised, the thief has also stolen the golden bell which once proudly sat at the courtyard only to be rung on the New Year, too see out the old and usher in the new, or one the death of one of the priests. They are still in the land of waves we can feel it, and what is worse is that the thief seems to have the ability to bend spirits to his will. The end product is a spirit that has been stripped of everything, including their appearance; we have lost quite a few of our fellow kami in the past few years and we fear that we may be next. Hunt down the dishonored Kami on our behalf and free our breather. These are your tasks Young sage and should you complete them all you will have our favor. When that has been gained the Yoko that delivered these to you will send you our final message.

Kami of Wave

Naruto read through the message in happiness, being glad that he was actually gaining favor of the Kami that he faithfully served, even if was only because he could see them and as such feared their power that much more. Looking at his clothes, which had been ruined during the fight with the dirty squatters who had turned the once respectable shrine into a dump, he decided that a change of clothes was in order, keeping his orange vest of course since the outfit wouldn't be as awesome without it. Donning the outfit Naruto used his headband as a belt like he had been doing for some time. Deciding that he couldn't risk losing his endless sake gourd Naruto corked it and stuffed it into his vest pocket. Opening the window he leapt out determined to hunt down the unfortunate spirit that had been torn from everything it may have cared about.

Naruto ended up leaping through the trees for a few hours, and even put his new tree climbing skill to use despite the fact that he had yet to fully get the hang of it. Naruto sighed as he looked up into the sky and saw the moon beginning to fall from its perch. "Damn it…got to sleep" Naruto mumbled as he turned right around and began his trek back to the house.

As Naruto's figure faded from the area a strange being slinked out from its hiding place. Long limbs and a flat face with no defining features, it was as if the being that stood in its place had been torn from reality and left only a blank canvas for which the universe to fill. It writhed and twisted a gnarled scream echoing from its nonexistent mouth. Truly it was a twisted being.

INARI

After spending last night training Kakashi had given Naruto the day off, this meant that Naruto was now walking through the streets acting as a Guard for the Bridge builder's daughter Tsunami. Their walk was very strange as the poverty stricken streets of wave seemed so very surreal but Naruto could relate to a certain degree, given as how he had to earn the few things he had in his life which was difficult when you don't seem to exist to other people. Tsunami talked most of the way, happy to have Naruto looking after her on her grocery trip instead of Sakura, who had originally volunteered, It was nothing personal against Sakura but Tsunami felt safer with a man, given how run down and populated by criminals the city had become having someone imposing like Naruto lowered the chances of anyone actually trying anything significantly. "There is so much sorrow here" Naruto commented as he surveyed the crowd.

"Yes…all the money is gone, Almost all of it belongs to Gato and he is making headway in draining it from the rest of this land and pretty soon he'll have us all under his thumb" Tsunami said as she casually walked down the streets, having been desensitized to the suffering of her own home" If this continues the people will turn to him for a solution, and selling ourselves will be the only way out" She finished sadly as she entered the grocery store, which was drastically under stocked.

Naruto looked around in a state of disbelief as his eyes slowly hardened into a glare. There was no doubt in his mind now that Gato was the thief that had first defiled the Shrine to the Kami of Wave, he needed to be punished, this land needed to be set free. "HEY, there's that punk kid that threw us out of our squatting grounds" A guttural voice rang, a voice that was familiar to Naruto.

Naruto simply glared "That land was not yours it belongs to the Kami, it was their shrine" Naruto shouted back, his temper beginning to rise.

"The Kami have long abandoned wave kid" One of the squatters said as they approached him.

"No you abandoned them" Naruto shot back as he ducked under the first swing and socked the squatter in the stomach before grabbing his opponents left arm, bracing himself and flipping the fool over his shoulder "And don't think that you can beat me, I am a shinobi first and foremost then a servant to the Kami" He said darkly allowing his anger to finally slip free of the binds that his frequent mediation had put on it.

"The people here are getting worse with each day" Mumbled the man behind the counter as he went about his day trying to sell what little wares he had left before he would be closed down.

Naruto sighed in contempt as he looked out over the sea of desperate people. They were all under the foot of a tyrannical madman who was convinced he was above the law. Among these throngs of downtrodden were people who weren't even native, suffering along with them stuck on the island the second Gato seized control. Naruto felt a rage boil up but quickly squashed it down with deep breathing and the dispersing of the thoughts. However no amount of meditation could truly banish his rage, the longer he stayed in wave the more distanced from his inner peace he felt. "Tsunami, let's go back to your home, I don't think the streets will be safe for much longer" Naruto lied as he grabbed Tsunami's free hand and began to guide her back to the dock house.

Tsunami resisted at first but quickly stole a glance at the clock. Her eyes widened and she tucked the basket under her arm and pulled ahead of Naruto and started dragging him through the streets. People began to stare and soon looked up to the clocks themselves and slowly a panic erupted onto the streets. Moments after the streets had been cleared and Naruto and Tsunami managed to get to the edge of town Gato and his armed thugs began walking down the street, trashing anything that was still standing and cutting down anyone that got in their way. It was a regular display of power to the people of wave, that they could only sit watch it happen.

INARI

Dinner at Tazuna's house was a quite affair with glares exchanged across the table by members of team seven. A rivalry had erupted between the three of them over their progress with the tree climbing exercise and among the three there was a competition. Currently there was a tie between Sakura and Naruto for first and Sasuke was in last but quickly gaining. Naruto through his meditation was able to wrangle control of his chakras better and faster than anybody else, but he overloaded and under charged frequently, add in his service to the Kami and Naruto wasn't training as hard as Sasuke and Sakura were. Those two would throw themselves to the ground trying to get stronger. Sakura was doing better than Sasuke because she approached everything with a level head and an analytical mind and was able to get the right amount every time but was having trouble maintaining the charge. Sasuke however was the opposite, he had no problem maintaining the charge but couldn't keep it steady and often slipped or got blown of the tree altogether. No matter what all three of them returned exhausted and a little bit better.

It wasn't long before the silence began o grate on Naruto's nerves. "ALRIGHT, let's just set aside our competition for right now and talk about something; I hate it when it's too quiet" Naruto yelled ending with a grumble, letting some of his immaturity slip through.

"Your right…" Sakura said as she sighed trying to think of something to discuss, since there were too many hot button or generally obscure topics that would have only made things more awkward, then she spotted it "What's with that picture, the one with the person torn out?" She questioned as she got up from the table to pick the mentioned photo.

"Oh…that was Inari's father, not his birth father mind you….he was a hero to this country" Tazuna commented solemnly as he drank deeply from his sake gourd.

Inari suddenly shuddered and moved away from the table and left the room. Tsunami suddenly turned to her father with a protective glare and he sighed, knowing that he had blown it. He had to finish the story now though, despite any wrath his daughter could send his way. "His name was Kaiza…he was a traveling fisherman seeking his fortune when he ended up in wave, ended up finding it too and all of it is going to pay for the new bridge, he saved Inari from drowning and from there the two became inseparable and he slowly took over the role of a father to Inari and eventually got Gato's attention" Tazuna explained taking another swig from his gourd, Naruto doing the same with his sacred sake gourd "He had saved this town from flooding a few years back and became a symbol of perseverance, Gato tied him up and removed his arms used our symbol of perseverance as an example to squash any thoughts of rebellion, no one took that harder than Inari…." Tazuna was about to take another swig when Naruto abruptly got up from the table. "Where are you going kid?" he asked, a bit peeved that the kid was leaving during his story.

"You said that Kaiza was a symbol of perseverance to the people of wave, if that's true then he could have ascended, like most mortal men who come to represent something do…." Naruto explained as he stuffed his sake gourd into his pocket "I'm going to go train and see if I can find a Kami once known as Kaiza…". Naruto stormed out of the kitchen and into the woods, leaving behind everyone else in shock.

Everyone stared in silence at the door, unsure of what Naruto had just said. Kakashi then gathered his thoughts enough to comment "I'm sorry, Naruto is a bit religious…it's a somewhat unexpected development too".

"no no, it's alright" Tsunami commented with a sigh as she scooped some more rice for Sasuke, who had held out his bowl for a second helping.

INARI

"Tazuna said that all of Kaiza's money went into building this bridge, and that he came here to seek his fortune….so there's a good chance of him being here" Naruto mumbled as he walked out onto the empty bridged to begin his search for the ascended spirit of Kaiza.

As he walked on the bridge the sound of the waves soon evolved into hushed whispers. That's when Naruto noticed it, the person on the ground. He picked up the pace and ran to his side, almost slipping in the blood that coated the ground around him. Naruto stopped before he kneeled knowing to be pointless , he was also a little weirded out by stepping in someone's blood while barefoot. Then he heard it, hushed whispers from a couple of familiar voices. "Once we do this Gato will owe us one" said one of the familiar voices.

Naruto was then pulled into this conversation. Using his limited skills with the tree walking technique Naruto began taking steps off the ledge, onto it's side and then to the underside. There he saw the squatters that he had kicked out of the temple and had beaten in the streets tying Dynamite to the bridges pillars.

"Yeah and then we can get our temple back from the preachy sage kid" The taller lanky former squatter said only to be scolded by the larger one.

"We won't need the temple we'll have riches and the sage kid will be dead" He grumbled as he continued to tie dynamite to the the pillar.

"Is that so?" Naruto quipped as he dropped down from the ceiling and crushed the two squatters "You two are really grating on my nerves, you know that?" Naruto told them as he picked them up by their scraggy collars and threw them off the underside of the bridge and into the freezing waters bellow "Don't bother coming back" Naruto mumbled as he removed the dynamite carefully and tossed it into the water below.

Naruto continued unwiring the bridge and tossing the dynamite until every last bit was off and he was back on the right side. He then kicked the dead body overboard, feeling that it's discovery would hinder the bridges construction. A quick prayer and a request of forgiveness was all that it took to relieve Naruto's guilt, because he was as such a shinobi before anything else which desensitized him to certain things in certain situations. Naruto then sighed and rose from his knees and turned to leave the bridge his search for Kaiza would have to wait until he got a new person to guard the bridge that night. He was stopped however by a small hand that had grabbed his wrist. "Wait mister I didn't get to thank you" rang a high pitched childish voice.

Naruto turned around and saw a small little boy of about four, with shaggy hair and a big smile "You said earlier you're looking for Kaiza right? Well if you wait you can meet him, he's here every day at midnight" The young boy said, smiling with his small teeth, one of which was missing.

He thought it over carefully, and decided that he should wait with the mysterious young boy for a while. After all it was just an hour till midnight and his team probably wasn't expecting him back for some time. "All right, I'll wait with you" Naruto said as he sat down a small smile on his face as he tried to make small talk with his new friend. "SO what's your name?" Naruto asked calmly as he looked up at the sky, waiting for midnight.

"I don't have one yet, until my bridge is named I don't have a name…" The boy said plainly as if it was an everyday thing.

"So you're a Kami?" Naruto asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Not yet, but when this bridge is finished and named I will be" The boy said excitedly as he stepped awkwardly and hopped around, entertaining himself with funny little dances and what not.

Naruto and the boy sat there for a couple of hours waiting for the spirit of Kaiza. Naruto yawned and looked up at the sky again. It was well past midnight an Kaiza's spirit had yet to show. The young spirit started pouting as he stared out onto the bridges starting end. "KAIZA" The young spirit shouted "WHERE ARE YOU" he called out as he slumped down.

Naruto scratch the back of his head in frustration as he stood up on the bridge, rolling his shoulders to loosen the knots. "I'm going out into the forest to train… I'll be back later to ask if Kaiza comes back".

"Alright" the young spirit grumbled as Naruto left the bridge.

Moments later after Naruto was out of sight, the white voided creature reappeared. Its scream rippled through reality, like a call for help or more likely a call for blood.

This chapter took far too long for what i put in and i am sorry, i even had to drop eyeshield just to focus