A Loving Heart, A Body of Steel

by renegadeofficer89

Love is the only cure to hatred. A person with a heart so big that he can accept anyone in his life, either human or not will be the saviour of the world. With a body of steel, he will rise above the hatred of the world, and be the catalyst to bring peace. Bloodline/Strong/Naruto, NaruxFemKyuuxHina pairing.

13. Chapter 12: The Wave Arrives! Part 2

Hellooooooo everyone! It's been a long-ass while since I published a chapter for this story, and it finally came back from my second beta! Thanks to AEthereal Devastation for helping me with beta reading this chapter! And also, thanks to all of you who sent the PMs on wanting to become my beta, which ad I overrode with this chapter. I have no words that can express the sheer amount of sorry that I felt due to the lateness of this chapter. And without further ado, this is the new chapter!

-CHAPTER START- Uploaded 11/09/2013

-THE NEXT MORNING-

Within the early morning, a figure was seen walking around the forest with a basket in one hand while bending down to pick up herbs for her master. This figure was Momochi Haku, Zabuza's adopted daughter. The last wielder of the Hyoton bloodline, she was saved by Zabuza from the massacre when she was just a child, and was trained by him ever since. Many years later, Zabuza adopted her and made her his apprentice, making her strong, stronger than most of her age. Even so, she kept referring to Zabuza as her master. Also, she was androgynous enough to be considered a boy, and being an apprentice of a missing nin made her a target, thus she usually called herself a boy. Most, Zabuza included sometimes, fell for it. Right now, she was picking up herbs within the forest to help her master recover completely so that the showdown between Sharingan Kakashi and her master-cum-stepfather can be finished.

She was approaching a clearing when something peculiar struck her senses. The animals here are lively, a bit too lively than usual for some reason. But not because of a battle or anything. She didn't feel any spikes of chakra that a battle or a training attempt would cause. Still acting like a civilian while straining her senses, she continued her slow and steady walk towards the clearing, where she was met with a very, very weird sight.

There in the middle of the clearing, a huge man wearing a white longcoat was seen sleeping with a girl beside him wearing a similarly designed but black coloured longcoat. Both of them was sleeping so peacefully, so calm and looked so in love with each other that she almost swore that heart shaped figures are floating around them, with her head on his shoulder and his arm was around him, both possessively and protective at the same time. She almost squealed from the sheer love emanating from the two until she remembered that she came here for a reason: to pick herbs for her master. Even so, her kind disposition made her walk towards the couple and attempted to wake them up.

As she was approaching the two, she immediately froze, her hands outstretched in front of her, almost reaching the man. The reason for this, was the fact that she was suddenly surrounded by multiple figures of the same person; the figure of the man. All of them was around her, restraining her, one at her back with his arms around her waist, another was performing a chokehold on her neck, another two had their hands on each of her legs, kunais at the ready while another two was holding her hands, kunais poised to make new holes for her to breathe from her chest with another straight on her heart.

"Wha..." She cannot even react to this! The speed of which the man created multiple clones while sleeping not just caught her by surprise, the speed of the clones themselves appearing out of nowhere without any chakra flares or any reaction that accompanied the formation of such a jutsu was nothing short of astounding! And now, her life was in this person's hand, and there was nothing that she could do about it. She even had a chakra suppression seal placed on her from the lack of chakra that she could feel flowing within her system."Such speed..." She thought.

"What do you want with the boss?" One of the Naruclones asked.

"I-i just came here to pick some herbs when I saw your boss sleeping there on the ground, so I decided to go ahead and wake them up. It's not really healthy sleeping out I the open like this."Haku said, trying to save her life while escaping her predicament as well.

"You're not lying, yet you're a ninja." Only Haku's experience managed to prevent her from twitching with all the pointy implements of death just millimeters away from piercing her. "You have a decent amount of chakra, like a chuunin. Yet you're here, picking herbs. And from what I can see in that basket, those are herbs to help restore one's energy and heal wounds. From what I can deduce, you're Zabuza's accomplice. And you also had a pretty manly smell sticking to you that's completely different from both yours and the herb you're carrying, and the smell of blood that's not yours. Considering the battles that I knew happened around here, Zabuza's the only person that she would've been in contact with that fits all that criteria. The scout clones helped too." Naruto sent out his scouting Bug Clones to gain a layout of the place as he reached the area, and already had eyes on critical points within the land, such as Gato's mansion and Zabuza's hideout. Together with them, he gained information on Gato's manpower, strength and many more that will be useful for them later on.

Haku's eyes minutely widen at this. "He managed to deduce me being Zabuza's apprentice just by feeling my chakra level and the herbs I carry! Who is this?!" Haku was about to deny him when the clone said again, "Don't bother denying it. I know that you are his apprentice. However, I'll let you go."

Haku was left speechless at this. Why did he let her go? She was caught hands down, with no chance of survival! He sealed her chakra, restricted her movements, and even had his cloned ready to blow new holes in her! "Why? Why did you let me go?"

The Naruclone replied, "I want you to send Zabuza a message. Only for him."

Haku nodded and listened intently, knowing that her life was in his hands. She didn't realise that both Naruto and Hinata was wide awake, but still pretending that they're asleep, with multiple Naruclones monitoring her every action and prepared to strike at any moment if she even twitched the wrong way. But she received the message completely, and walked straight away after being escorted by the Naruclones towards the herbs that she wanted.

Once Haku left the immediate vicinity, Hinata sat up from her lying down position before saying. "Love, why do you want to do something like that?"

Naruto said nothing for a while, before he replied. "I feel it is necessary. From my travels, I know that the situation in Kiri was pretty bad. The bloodline purges really took a huge toll on them, yet the Mizukage didn't plan to stop until the 'bloodline demons' was completely destroyed and killed, claiming that they're evil and the reason why Kiri was so weak compared to the other villages. Being a bloodline wielder as well and a shunned half demon as well, I understand their pain. Besides, making peace return to Kiri will help with Konoha's alliances, won't it? And having a Kage in good terms with us will be nothing but helpful, right?"

Hinata still looked worried, but she understood and just nodded. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief at this before standing up and lifting Hinata bridal style, once again making her "Eep!" and gaining a huge blush on her face in shock. He kissed her before saying "We better go back to the house. I need to apologize to Inari, and there's a bridge that needs some guards. And a team that will need healing." He grinned before looking at her blushing face again and gave her another slow kiss. They separated after a while before saying, "Hina-hime, don't worry. We're going to be fine. I will not leave you, Kushi-chan or Kurumi-hime. Not until I die."

Hinata gripped his neck tighter. "But I'm still afraid. What if you failed to come back? What if you are to lose? What if you failed your mission?"

Naruto returned her grip on her shoulder, though with a controlled strength to prevent her from being injured for no reason. "Have no fear, Hina-hime. We are the Uzumaki-Namikaze. We never back down, and we'll never break a promise. Believe it." He finished with his signature grin. "Now enough of all this sad stuff! Let's get back to the house and I'll apologize to the brat. Then, we'll help Anko train Kakashi's team as usual. How's that?"

"I'd like that." Hinata replied with a gentle smile, as befitting her nature on her face.

"Then let's go!" Naruto said, before disappearing in a flash of yellow.

-AT TAZUNA'S HOUSE-

At Tazuna's house, the condition was pretty normal. Normal for those associated with Team 11, at least. Tazuna was out towards the bridge, Kushina escorting him as always, though she had a smirk on her face somehow for no apparent reason. After last night's demonstration of power from her father, the mysterious smirk on her face really made everyone on edge, though she dismissed them, saying "Don't worry. Nothing bad happened. Hehehe." Which really didn't inspire confidence at all among everyone present except Anko. Kakashi who had almost fully recovered was around the house, performing light exercises to test the condition of his body. Team 7, meanwhile, was following a pretty cheerful Anko back to their original training spot, though this time, a look of immense dread was on everyone's face, even Sai. Getting kunais to your face and ass did that to someone. Inari was mysteriously gone as usual, while Tsunami's taking care of her home while everyone's out.

Suddenly, a yellow flash appeared within the living room, causing Tsunami, who was sweeping the area to scream in fright before running straight towards the kitchen, intent on taking a weapon to defend herself. Peeking her head from the kitchen, she was met with the sight of Naruto with Hinata in his arms, bridal style.

Suddenly, Kakashi appeared within the kitchen, a kunai in his hand while himself in a defensive pose after hearing Tsunami's scream before. Looking around, the only thing his eye caught was Naruto with Hinata in his arms and a worried Tsunami at the walls. After a while, feeling no threat, Kakashi stored back his kunai before asking, "Tsunami-san, what's the matter?"

Tsunami, whose face was in a look of shock, slowly turned towards Kakashi before saying, "They just appeared all of a sudden! I was sweeping the floor when there's this yellow flash appeared in the living room when they suddenly appeared! I just ran away in fear! I thought we're attacked!"

Kakashi looked at Naruto before saying, "Don't worry, Tsunami-san. That was the Hiraishin, an instantaneous teleportation technique that Naruto used to make him appear suddenly in your living room. We will guard you, no worries. And Naruto's skill over there allows him to appear and disappear whenever he's needed to wherever he's needed at in a split second. It can also be used as a transportation technique. And he just used it to go back to your home from wherever he was. Right, Naruto?" He said with his trademark eye smile towards Naruto.

Naruto let Hinata down before sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "Hehe. Sorry, Tsunami-san. But that was the fastest technique available that can get me back to your house instantly. Forgive me for scaring you," Naruto said with a bow.

Tsunami then said, "Oh no, no! Forgive me, Naruto-san. I have no knowledge of your ninja tricks, so forgive me for being afraid all of a sudden."

"Don't be. You have a good reason to be afraid, though Kakashi's around to protect you if anything happened. Speaking of which, Kakashi, you're fine now?"

Kakashi sighed before nodding. "I'm fine, Naruto. I have recovered completely by now, and I'm sure Zabuza does as well. I guess they'll be attacking tomorrow. Also, Naruto, why did you never call me Kakashi-sensei like the rest of the genins or Kakashi-san, at the least? Just calling me by my name would sound a bit rude especially when I'm of a higher rank than you are. Not that I care too much. Just wondering."

Naruto scratches his chin, arranged his words before saying, "Well, you're my father's student are you not? And as one who almost considered him a family, I consider you somewhat like an older brother of sorts, even if we rarely meet. But you didn't act like it nor did you act your rank and you didn't teach me jack shit, so I called you with your name. Is that fine with you?"

"As I said, not that I care too much what you call me. Only that I hoped that you'd be a bit more formal in a situation where it's required, if you can?"

Naruto grinned. "Hehe. No worries. I know when to be professional when I need to. So, what's your plan for the day?"

Kakashi scratches his silver hair before saying, "I think I'm going to see how Anko trains my cute little genins. Don't want them to die too early. And maybe spar with Anko. I need to be at my absolute best, and Hinata can heal me back to full strength, right?"

"Yup. She sure can. No worries. Go and train yourself hard. Hina-hime can heal you." Naruto said. Hinata just nodded before going to Kakashi's side to wherever he'll be going to heal him and his team if they needed it. And with that, Kakashi and Hinata vanished out the doorway, leaving Naruto and Tsunami alone in the house.

Before Tsunami could even say a word, Naruto bowed towards her, saying, "Tsunami-san, forgive me for my outburst yesterday. Somehow, hearing the story of Kaiza and Inari's response towards his death made me lose control of my emotions, and made me do what I did yesterday. And for that, I may have made you scared of me. If so, know that I didn't mean to do so. And that is why I apologized."

Tsunami was appropriately shocked at this. She never expected a ninja, especially someone powerful enough to make people cower just with his chakra pressure to apologize to her. She then gaped like a water starved fish for a while before she managed to stutter out, "W-w-what? N-n-naruto-san, y-you have nothing to apologize about! I-inari was the o-one who's wrong!"

"Still, I did what I did to him yesterday. So here I am apologizing to you and to ask his whereabouts to look for him and apologize to him, maybe to tell him a story or two."

"O-oh." Tsunami said. "W-well, he's usually at the small dock by the river at this time. It's his favourite place to play before and after Kaiza's death."

"Thank you, Tsunami-san." Naruto said, finally rising from his bow of apology. "I'll go look for him now." Naruto said with a smile. Just as he was turning around, Tsunami shouted, "Wait!" causing Naruto to turn back to look at her. "Yes?"

"Promise me you won't harm him," Tsunami said with uncharacteristic steel in her voice.

"I won't. And an Uzumaki-Namikaze never breaks his word." And with that, Naruto left Tsunami who still had a frown on her face and the house, looking for Inari.

-WITH INARI-

Inari, as his mother said, was sitting at a small pier beside a river close to their house while looking at it. The same place was where Kaiza saved him from drowning, making him think he's a hero. Remembering all the memories that he made with him, all the good times that they had until his death, tears started building up in his eyes. After a while, and more memories begin playing back in his mind, his sobs became more often, and finally, Naruto's words to him yesterday made him think that he's weak and worthless, making him scream out to the river, his tears falling all the while unstopped. "KAIZAAAA! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DIE?! WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME HERE ALONE?! KAIZAAA!"

"Because he's a hero, and you all, the people of Wave included, have failed his sacrifice."

The voice made Inari turn around; his face filled with tears, and was met with the sight of the hulking Naruto walking slowly, deliberately towards him.

"No! Stay away from me! Get away, you monster! Stay away!" Inari yelled, extreme fear etched on his face as he remembered that feeling of utter crushing powerlessness that he felt yesterday even as he walked backwards to run away from the monster in human skin in front of him.

Inari's shout made Naruto's hearts clench. Just a little kid, and yet he already know to label someone like Naruto a monster. "I guess I deserved that after what I did yesterday," he thought. Just a little threat towards a civilian and he labelled Naruto a monster. "I guess I'm going to need more training on controlling my emotions," Naruto continued.

As this game of cat and mouse was happening, Naruto realised something. Inari was walking ever closer towards the waters. "He can't swim!" Naruto thought, remembering Tsunami's story of how Kaiza saved Inari. Yet, Inari didn't realize that he's getting closer to the water. "Inari!" Naruto shouted before running towards him to prevent him from falling into the water.

"Get away from me! Get-" Inari's words were cut short as his foot left the pier he's standing on, causing him to fall into the water. As he was falling down towards the water's surface, he thought, "Is this the end?" The only thought running through his mind as he was watching himself get ever closer to the water was the fact that Kaiza's dead, the memories of Kaiza saving him from drowning, just like what he was about to go through again right now. "But he's dead now, and no one's going to save me, and that monster's coming closer. Better off if I die." Inari thought as he closed his eyes, prepared to accept any fate that befalls him. After all, there are no heroes in the world.

Suddenly, he felt not the crash of water onto his body, but the whoosh of wind before he felt two strong arms carrying him. Opening his eyes, he was met with the sight of Naruto's whisker marked, grinning face with his sun kissed golden hair looking at him, the sun right behind him after saving him with a quick shunshin before he fell. His eyes widened before he starts struggling in his hands. But Naruto's not a ninja for no reason, and his strength easily overcame Inari's futile struggle against him, shouting profanities and screams of hatred at him all the time.

After a while, he stopped struggling and screaming, and as he grew weaker in Naruto's arms, his struggles turned into him slowly sobbing, before turning into a full-fledged crying session. Naruto lets him cry and scream in his arms, not saying anything the whole time.

"WHY!? WHY DID YOU SAVE ME?! WHY?!" Inari screamed out, tears still pouring out of his eyes. Unable to take it anymore, Naruto said slowly, "Kid." This made Inari quiet down a little.

"I heard the story from your mom. This is where Kaiza saved you right?" Inari nodded. "Then, why are you moping about him?" Inari was about to scream out when Naruto continued.

"He may have died, but he still lived on in your heart, kid. You shouldn't just forget about him just because he's gone. Remember all the good times that you had, and protect the life that he gave you. Don't just go ahead and try to off yourself."

"WHY DO YOU CARE?!" Inari screamed again.

"I don't." Naruto replied, stunning Inari. "It's just that I think he's going to be disappointed in you. I know I would be, if someone whom I saved before forgot about me."

"I NEVER FORGOT ABOUT HIM!"

"Then why are you here, moping about him? He sacrificed his life to fight against Gato, and yet, the only thing you do is whine and mope about how he was being stupid. That isn't honouring his memory at all. That's just whining and bitching."

Inari was about to shout out again, but he remembered what happened yesterday, and he slowly asked, "…then what should I do?"

"Fight," Naruto said, looking at the horizon, where the sea meets the sky in a beautiful bluish colour. "Fight like Kaiza did, or even harder. He fought till his bitter end, so go and do the same. He'll be disappointed to see that the kid that he used to play with ended up a messed up wreck that belittled his sacrifice and did nothing but whine all the time. Rally your people and fight. Rise against him. A nation is only as strong as her people, and if her people are weak, it makes for a weak nation. Honour his sacrifice by continuing what he did, not by ridiculing him."

Inari said nothing afterwards, though his face was in a look of concentration. Naruto decided to ask something to him as he placed him down. "Inari, why did you call me a monster just now?"

Inari was taken aback by this sudden, strange question and answered immediately, "Because, that power! You didn't even do anything and all of a sudden, everything just blew away! I felt like I was about to die!"

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief internally. At least the kid wasn't poisoned by the mistaken impression that most people have when they heard the word 'demon'. And so, Naruto decided to do something, something that he never did before.

Sporting a massive grin on his face, Naruto said. "But Inari, really, you want to know something?"

"What?"

Still with that grin on his face, Naruto said, "I AM a demon."

Hearing this, Inari was intrigued, his previous angst and thought left him instantly at Naruto's words. "Really?"

Naruto nodded. "Really." Creating a sealless Shadow Clone, the clone went somewhere to etch some privacy seal so that no one can see them. Can't have people discovering them. Yet, at least.

Looking at the clone in confusion, Inari was about to ask when Naruto said, "He's going to ensure that no one can see us."

"What? Why?" Inari asked.

Getting the memories from the clone of the completion of the privacy seals, Naruto replied, "This."

And at the instant Naruto said that, his ten, golden blonde, white tipped tails and foxy ears popped out from their places, the head for the ears and behind his tailbone for his tails.

"W-what?!" Inari said, watching the hypnotizing slow movements of the tails behind Naruto as they slowly whipped around, seeming to have a mind of their own as they enjoyed the feeling of being in the open for a long time.

"Aaahh…" Naruto said. "Haven't let them out for a long time." He said as he took a couple of them before slowly and gently rubbing them, saying "And still as soft as ever." For appendages that were capable of punching a hole through a man's torso, they are relatively soft and nice to hold, as Hinata discovered.

"W-what are those? What are you?" Inari said as he fell on his behind on the pier while pointing a shaky finger towards Naruto.

Naruto turned and faced Inari before saying, "As I said, I am a demon. A kitsune hanyou, a half fox demon. I am not completely human, yet I am more than one."

"I thought so! You're a demon! No human can do something like that!" Inari said as he crawled backwards, away from Naruto, and back towards the river where Naruto just saved him from.

"This again…" Naruto thought. He then disappeared from sight before appearing in front of Inari. Before he could even scream out, Naruto used his tails and wrapped them around Inari before lifting him up.

"Let me go! Let me go! Let-" Inari's words were cut short for the nth time that day, though this time, due to a furry blonde, white tipped tail appearing and swiped itself at his mouth, making him taste fur all over. "Blergh! What's that?" Inari shouts out.

"Calm down already will you?" Naruto said. "And that's my tail, and now it has your slobber on it."

"You're the one who placed in my mouth!" Inari countered.

"Feeling better now?"

Inari was silent at this, feeling the softness of Naruto's tails around him as he calmed down. Slowly, Naruto placed him back on the ground, his tails still wrapping around him.

"So… you're a demon?" Inari slowly asked.

"A hanyou. A half-demon. Not a full demon." Naruto said, realizing that Inari's eyes are still locked onto his tails.

"Why?" Inari said slowly, almost a whisper. Sadly, Naruto replied, understanding that he was asking why he showed him this form. "It's because at my hometown, I was hated by most of the people there due to what I am. Showing this to you would be my show of trust, and a show of your bravery, seeing that you didn't run away from me. Oh wait, you did."

Inari blushed, feeling a bit ashamed for running away from him when he showed him his secret. Then, a tail of Naruto's swept close to his head, making him grab it and pulled it. "OW! Hey! That hurts!" Naruto said.

"Really?" Inari questioned for some reason.

"Yup. They're sensitive, you know." And with a smile, Naruto moved more of his tails closer to Inari, using them to tickle him. As Inari as laughing hard until he cried due to Naruto's tails tickling him, Naruto stopped suddenly. Inari was catching his breath when he heard Naruto said, "But I have another form actually. Here."

And to Inari's extreme shock, Naruto's body seemingly melted, his clothes all disappearing before he grew golden fur all over his body even as his entire body turns more streamlined, more hunched before claws came from his fingers, and his bones rearranged themselves, turning more vulpine before finally, instead of a human, a large, golden blonde fox with arms that has opposable thumbs sat on its haunches in front of him, his hind legs scratching the back of his ears. "Damn,that's an itch. Oh yeah."

Naruto looked towards Inari, and saw that he had his eyes wide, shocked beyond his mind at Naruto's transformation in from of him. Naruto just sighed before heading towards him and licked his face.

This seems to jolt Inari out of his shock, causing him to shout, "WHAT ARE YOU?!"

"I told you. I'm a half-demon. I have 3 forms, my human form being the original one. The other is my half-demon form and this is my full demon form. So? How does it look?" Naruto said, while making a somewhat intimidating pose with his snout pointing towards the sky.

Inari then said, "It looks like a weird, blonde fox."

"I AM a blonde fox."Naruto said. He then stalked Inari, making him felt like he's prey when suddenly, Naruto pounced towards him. Inari was about to scream out when Naruto crashed into him, his tails flicking wildly behind him with some of them wrapping around him as Naruto playfully nipped him with his teeth at his neck.

"Ah, hey! That tickles!" Inari cried even as Naruto continued his tickle attack towards him. No place was spared; he tickled his waist, his feet, his neck, making Inari cry tears of laughter. Having multiple tails to help with the tickling really made Inari helpless.

After a while, Naruto jumped backwards, leaving Inari a crumpled, tickled heap at the pier. Slowly lifting his head, he was met with a demon form Naruto who was smirking at Inari's tear-stricken face from his tickle attack. Inari, seeing this, immediately pounced towards Naruto and ignoring very sign that said that Naruto was a demon, who immediately ran away in laughter, his deep, demonic voice echoing in the area.

And so they played together, one a depressed and lonely kid, the other enjoying the childhood he never had.

-WITH KUSHINA-

Before Naruto came back to the house to look for Inari, Kushina was with Tazuna escorting him to the bridge. "So far, so good," Tazuna thought. "No bandits, no thugs, no nothing. Other than Kushina throwing Kagura away and him running away, everything went smoothly. And if Kushina here was to be believed, she even continued to build the bridge during the night while we were sleeping. But..." Tazuna looked towards Kushina only to see her still giggling like she did before. And if Tazuna's being honest, it didn't really inspire confidence in him.

"Why are you giggling? You know that that didn't really calm me down." Tazuna said.

"Oh relax, old man. Nothing to worry about. Everything's fine. Hehehehe." Kushina replied, giggling at the end. Once again, Tazuna wasn't convinced.

They both continued their walk through Wave's misty morning air towards the bridge site. Kushina scanned through the area with her multiple visual modes granted by her Occulobe, watching everything in infrared, chakra sight and regular sight in a cyclic pattern, in case if the mist around them wasn't natural and if there's someone hiding in it. Their enemy was a master of the Silent Killing technique after all, and misty places like this just made his skills more effective. So far, the only things she saw were small critters; squirrels, birds, among others.

They then reached close to the bridge's area, where the mists start to clear. And as soon as they broke through the massive barrier of mists, Tazuna looked at his super bridge in shock and awe. And he then stared back at Kushina who was laughing her ass off, the reason for her giggling was obvious now. Tazuna then looked back at his super bridge, still not believing what he saw.

In front of them stood the so-called super bridge, the hope of Wave, mighty, strong, and most importantly, completed. The humongous bridge was now complete, thanks to Kushina's clones making even more clones to quickly construct the bridge using their chakra training in their Earth affinity, quick cutting and welding with Fire and Wind affinity and moving the sea water away using her Water affinity. Combining all that with what Tazuna taught her yesterday, the bridge was complete at last, and Wave's economy could start to recover.

With Tazuna still gaping in shock and Kushina still laughing, both of them walked towards the bridge where Tazuna realized that the final part of the bridge looked different than the rest of the bridge, but still as strong. Looking towards Kushina's face, he was about to ask when Kushina said, "That part looked a bit different because I don't know your blueprint, so my clones were forced to just made up a blueprint themselves. Hey, as long as it stands, right?"

Tazuna had nothing to answer towards this blatant disregard of his bridge's original plans. The area behind them was much straighter and looked firmer, but the part in front of them lacked any artistic sense and looked more like a bunch of hurriedly slapped together concrete with crooked areas here and there, though it was generally straight, the sight of such an unsightly addition to his bridge, no matter if it can be used as well as the proper one or not really made him sad, though he said nothing. Kushina said it herself. "Hey! It's not like I have too much artistic sense, you old prat! As long as it works, it's fine, isn't it?"

She may be fine with that, but Tazuna was not, though he knew better than to voice it out loud. She finished the bridge alone, after all. Okay, maybe she used a couple thousands of clones, but they're still her, so it's still her alone doing it right?

Suddenly, Tazuna saw something weird on his bridge. At small, hidden areas, nearly invisible, is a bunch of symbols of a language that he cannot understand being drawn with other lines and weird stuff, something that he cannot even comprehend. He walked straight towards one of these weird drawings and was about to study it when Kushina said, "Those are seals. My clones took the liberty of applying a massive amount of seals on the bridge from the start point till the end. Those seals will help the bridge stay for as long as necessary. It has a massive amount of strengthening and self-repair seals on them that could help maintain the bridge's durability and strength. The strengthening seals allow the bridge to take on even a massive tsunami and survive. With the ambient chakra absorption seals and chakra storage seals placed on it, the bridge will be able to retain the chakra needed to fix itself without you needing to even do anything. So? How's that?"

Tazuna was about to cry in happiness when he heard this. A bridge that could survive a tsunami and repairs itself automatically without needing any maintenance?! That was just insane! But… "It uses ink, right? How did you actually contain all that ink?"

Kushina shrugged. "Let's just say… ninja trick, shall we?" The truth was that the entire family had a special brush on them that automatically sends ink from a storage seal located within the brush itself, allowing them to perform seals without worrying about dipping the brush in ink. Also, the seal contains a truly massive amount of ink, more ink than what the entirety of Wave used in a whole year. As such, it was an easy task to have her clones share that single brush among them. For some of the underwater construct of the bridge, they etched the seal patterns directly onto the bridge itself, allowing it to remain there for long when combined with the self-repair seals.

Tazuna was flabbergasted at her casual response, but he understood. He then cleared his throat before saying, "Well, the bridge is ready, and it's better for us to go back to the town to inform everyone of this. This is a happy occasion!"

But before he could run back towards the town, Kushina stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. "Wait."

Tazuna's response was to snap at her angrily. "What?! The bridge was done, and this is pretty much our only hope! I must go back!"

Kushina calmly replied. "Calm down. Gato is still here, remember? As long as he's here, he might just use his hired muscle to take control of the bridge and charge insane tolls on all of you, once again making it a failure."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"Delay the announcement for about a day or two. Dad already finished his plan, and we're going to handle Gato. Once he's dealt with, then you can peacefully use the bridge. How's that?"

Tazuna found nothing bad about the plan, and that he found himself agreeing with it as well. Gato might just do that. No, he will definitely do that, making them no better than before. If these ninjas are going to handle Gato, then he's all fine with it. Especially if it's free. "Okay then," He said. "We'll do it that way. But how will you handle Gato?"

Kushina shrugged again. "You're better off not knowing. But trust me, he'll be dealt with."

Tazuna had shivers erupt at the back of his spine as he heard the tone that Kushina used to say that. And so, Tazuna went back to his house, ready to deliver the announcement to his people that the great bridge, their hope, was completed, Kushina at his side. But before that, he went to the houses of his fellow bridge builders to inform them of the bridge's situation and to not go to the bridge today.

-THAT NIGHT-

Four figures are seen jumping from trees to trees within the forests of Wave underneath the cloudy night sky, as if the world could see what will happen. The figures are the members of Team 11, ready to perform their duty to ensure that the scum named Gato will never threaten the lives of anyone within Wave or any other country again. The four are led by Naruto, who despite his huge body and mass, was tree hopping without any sign at all, a mark of his own great training in stealth. To his left and right hopped Anko and Kushina, one using chakra to enhance her senses to detect anything, the other using her bloodline's capability to scout out any target; cycling through her vision modes while using her enhanced senses to detect any enemy. The last was also the smallest member of the group, Hinata, the veins around her eyes bulging as she scouts the area around and ahead of them for any enemy. No matter how good their Occulobe was, a Byakugan still wins at range and area sight, so Hinata was at the back, acting as their sensory unit.

Anko was pretty happy right now. Not just because she had some brats that could take some torture in the guise of training (or was that supposed to be the other way round? Anko's not sure…), she even managed to kick Kakashi's ass in a spar, even commenting on his lack of training. And Kakashi, the good sport he was, just gave her an eye-smile, said "You're right. Guess I can train with you later at Konoha, right?" He swiftly continued to get his ass kicked as Anko resumed the match. Thanks to Naruto's chakra infusion and Hinata's healing, he managed to recover, though right now his team was Tazuna's guards for the night.

A while later, they all stopped, having arrived at their destination. In front of them, in a huge clearing, was Gato's mansion. Made using Western blueprints, the mansion was not visible behind the 5 meter tall walls surrounding it with guards, most probably hired mercenaries, patrolling the walls. The gatehouse are made to look like that of western castles, made of huge cinder blocks with guards patrolling it and gates made of thick, tough wood. Guards are stationed everywhere. Even from what they can see, Naruto detected no less than 30 mercenaries at the walls right in front of them.

Turning around, Naruto made hand signals, signaling for Hinata to come forward and provide the results of her long-range recon using her eyes. Also replying using hand signs to maintain stealth, Hinata notified the team that are 100 men on the walls and around the mansion with a dock at the back of the mansion; probably to make it easier for Gato to receive and sent out his 'deliveries' to his clients. The mansion itself was a huge 3 story brick structure, made in Western style as well, with balconies at the rooms on the higher floors; giving an easy entry point for them.

After thinking for a while, Naruto decided to split them up; him taking the front, Anko taking the left wall, Hinata taking the right wall with Kushina taking the docks area. Anko and Hinata will have a Shadow Clone of Kushina and Naruto respectively, where they will take out the guards and replace them with Clones as to not rouse suspicion. Nodding, Anko took hold of Kushina's instantly created Shadow Clone before disappearing in a Shunshin to her target spot; Hinata doing the same not too long after Naruto made his clone and hands it over to Hinata.

Kushina already disappeared once her father explained his plan.

Naruto then looked towards the wall, cracked his knuckles before muttering, "Let's get this show on the road." And with that, he disappeared towards the wall, his entire team ready to take down the tyrant once and for all.

-WITH KUSHINA-

Being able to breathe underwater was a huge boon for Kushina as she Shunshined right into the water behind the docks, and without even a splash or a sign, was already within her designated area of operations. Slowly poking her head out of the water, revealing only her hair and her eyes, she scanned the area for any patrols or threats. Turns out, the people at the docks are busy unloading the latest arrival of Gato Corporation's new cargo, so her approach, no matter how noisy, would be properly covered. Even so, she knew better than to take any chances.

Slowly approaching the docks while still retaining the same level of exposure, she saw that directly in front of her were two figures, probably guards around a torch, looking around for any threat. Lifting her hands above the waterline, she produced two kunai, one in each hand from seals at the back of her hands. With a flick of her arms, the two kunai went straight towards the head of the two guards, killing them directly as the kunais buried themselves into their brains. As they are falling down, Kushina and a clone she created substituted with them instantly, already Henged to look like them. The water splash was minimal thanks to the fact that the bodies are already in the water, taking the place of Kushina and her clone. Guess all that Substitution training her dad had her went through was useful after all.

From there, she went ahead around the entire dock, killing all the guards while replacing them with Shadow Clones. Even if her body size was huge, her father's stealth training allows her to hide herself completely, her six feet something stature be damned. After a while, she completed her task before coming close to the ship that was unloading and where the most number of people are. From the looks of it and the memories of the clones already watching the ship, she realized that there are more guards there than the rest of the docks. She pondered on this fact as she stealthily moved around the dock, silent as a shadow, to look for a proper place to strike from.

Crouching behind a couple of crates, Kushina peeked behind them to watch a bunch of guards standing around with their crude weaponries out even as they watched the wooden cranes lift many boxes from the ship in front of them. She then held her position as she listened on them, trying to catch any semblance of plans that Gato might have for Wave.

"…Stuff's coming in fast eh?"

"There's huge demands, or so I heard."

"Will he let us test some of it first?"

"Naah, that short asshole's too stingy for that. At least he paid us a lot."

Kushina stopped listening afterwards. It seems that these guys are the lowest of Gato's echelons; they know jack shit and were only good for bait. Or human shields, if needed. Nevertheless, she figured out quickly enough that they are either talking about drugs or slaves. One won't affect her, while the other will make her kill them slowly and painfully. And Gato while she's at it. Preparing to strike at the guards, numbering three of them with another far away from the first three, she took out two kunai and gripped them tightly in a reverse grip before disappearing from her position with nary a sound.

It all happened too fast for him to comprehend. He was laughing at a joke his fellow guard did when a figure came out of nowhere and drove a knife – a kunai – in reverse grip into his friend's heart from behind him; the sheer force of the stab jerked his friend forward. Before he could say anything or warn the rest, the woman, which he realized from her long, flowing blonde hair, had already appeared beside his other fellow guard before driving the same kunai into his neck with a silent squelch, showing the sharpness of the knife. He was about to shout when she appeared right in front of his face, plunging a kunai straight into his brain through the underside of his jaw. The last thing he saw was the face of the lady, her blue, slitted eyes looking at him in anger.

Once the bodies are replaced with her clones, she sighed. That last guard was a bit hard since he was farther away than the rest of them, though a kunai toss that went straight into his brain dealt with him fast enough silently. These men… they're not evil, per se. it's just their job that associates them with someone like Gato. Just like it's her job to eliminate them. Pushing the thoughts about these people to the back of her mind, she went to the boat, once again, as silent as a hunting cat. And upon reaching the boat while taking out the guards that she encountered, she decided to take a peek at what the contents of the boat's cargos are.

Slowly prying open one of the crates lying around the docks, she was met with the sight of piles upon piles of rice sacks. Feeling confused, she opened one of them when rice came pouring out of them.

"What?" She thought. But upon further investigation, she found out that within the piles of rice pouring from the sack, there are a couple of smaller packs, that when opened, revealed the existence of a white powder that upon tasting, her body identifies it as drugs. A special cocktail of them. In fact, they're so potent that she was floored, her Oolitic Kidney working overtime to flush out the drug out of her system. About 5 seconds later, the chemical was purged and she stood up, the packet she opened still in her hands.

"Damn… That was strong… If not for my bloodline, I would've been floored, high as the fucking sky in the middle of enemy territory. These must've been what the guards are talking about just now. We must not let these get into the country. They're bad news." And with that, Kushina left the crate she was in before going straight to the boat, the guards she met all dead and replaced. Still killing and replacing all the guards on the medium sized freighter, she slapped explosive notes all over the ship and the crates, intent on not allowing the drugs to be smuggled into and out of the country. Going into the lower decks, still eliminating the guards, she was met with a sight that horrified her.

Within the lower decks, there are lines upon lines of cages, nearly all of them filled with man, women and even children. Treated like animals, the rows of cages smelled like stale piss and shit, most probably from the prisoners inside. Slowly walking around the cages with a horrified expression permanently planted in her face, she saw that most of them are dressed in rags, most not even bothering to cover their modesty. They had looks of utter defeat on their faces, looks that made their condition looked ten times more miserable than they are. A lot of them had bruises and wounds on them both old and new, no doubt from whatever punishment the guards dealt to them. She thought. "The men will definitely be sold as slave labourers, the women as either sex slaves, prostitute or just slaves, while the children, both." She gripped her fist tightly. "Unforgivable! Gato will pay!" But no matter how much she wanted to free them, she knew better than to reveal themselves this early just because she was pissed. Well, she was EXTREMELY pissed, but the point remains.

She then went around, her anger smouldering within her heart before placing smaller explosive notes or breaching charges, made especially to destroy locks and break doors around their locks, ready to break them out when the time was right. As she was wrapping one of the breaching charges around a lock that contains a man who looked to be in his 30s, the man whispered to her, obviously not having the strength to speak louder, looking at his extremely thin arms. "W-who are you? W-what are you doing?"

Kushina replied in a whisper as well. "Shh… My name is Uzumaki-Namikaze Kushina, a ninja from Konoha. I'm going to break you all from here when the time is right. Until then, stay silent and stay here." The man had a grateful look on his face as his eyes lights up in gratitude before he sat where he was, too weak to move around. This further strengthens Kushina's resolve that what she did was necessary, both for the people of Wave and for the ones Gato had oppressed.

Once she finished placing the breaching charges and the explosive tags for the ship itself, she left, looking back towards the people there one last time. "I'll be back to save all of you. Believe it!" She said inwardly, before leaving to clear the area, her resolve to take Gato down holding stronger than ever.

-WITH ANKO-

Anko was having a very fun time. She had an epically powerful team with her as the leader (the fact that she usually relegates the task to Naruto never even crossed her mind), she kicked Hatake fucking Kakashi's ass to kingdom come in a spar this evening, and now, she gets to kill some weak mercenaries guarding a fucking wall! Screw Naruto and his stealthy approach, saying "We're ninjas. Masters of assassinations and stealth. We shouldn't just crash and burn every wall that we see with high powered, crazily powerful, extremely visible jutsu. That may be useful at certain times, but definitely not now," no matter how much she wants to do so, she decides to restrain herself and her team. Oh well. Blood is blood, no matter how. Guess her bloodlust was going to be satiated today. And all thanks to Gato and his goons!

This was the thought running within her mind as both her and the Kushiclone beside her cleared the walls out of the guards and replaced them with Henged Shadow Clones. As a jounin and one whose specialty was assassination, poison and interrogation, killing these guards were child's play for someone as skilled as Anko. In fact, she cleared the wall of their guards in mere minutes, killing all of them without leaving any survivors. Scum who would work with someone like Gato deserves no mercy, after all.

Anko was silently laughing even as she drove a kunai into the throat of a patrolling guard on the wall before the Kushiclone beside her sighed and created another clone to replace the guy she just killed. She then slowly spoke in a whisper, "Anko, don't you think you're enjoying this a bit too much?"

Anko turned towards Kushiclone and the henged guard, showing her blood covered face and kunai towards them. "I guess I do." She then looked towards the sky, her face in a sad expression. "Orochimaru trained me like this. It is too ingrained within me by now, as much as the Blessed Seal is right now." She then looked back towards the Kushiclones. "I don't know if I can change this part of me even if your mother managed to remove his influence from the seal. But for now," she continued, looking back towards the rest of the guards, "We've got a mission to complete. My psyche check can come later." And with that, Anko went straight towards the next guard she detected, the sad faced Kushiclone following at her back.

-WITH HINATA-

Hinata was hiding in a bushes close by the wall, the only one not yet started doing anything. The rest of the team was busy massacring the guards at the compound. She was looking at the figures of three guards around a fire and another guard patrolling around them.

"Should I kill them? Can I kill them? Naru-koi said to kill them! But they're still humans!" Hinata may have had her confidence as strong as Naruto's no matter how, but she never killed anyone before. And right now, her guilty conscience was strong in preventing her from dashing straight ahead and liquefying their heart or their brain with her Gentle Fist. Sure, she may have done so towards Naruto and Kushina sometimes in their spars, but those two will not die even if they are killed sometimes. Heck, she turned both of Naruto's hearts and his brain into a pile of mush internally and they just stood back up in a minute like nothing happened, even praising her skills for doing so! Their bloodline was totally insane! But right now, she was busy waging a war within herself on killing these thugs, these people in front of her. And even in their C-ranks, they rarely got themselves attacked, since they either went into allied territory or that the bandits are afraid of Naruto and Kushina. Their height and general body size really made great bandit deterrent. An A-ranked mission was definitely something else.

"Hinata." A voice said at the same time as a gigantic but gentle palm placed itself on her shoulder from her back. Immediately her training kicked in and she spun, dealing a powerful palm strike towards the perpetrator, her palms glowing with chakra. The strike connected, and the enemy suddenly poofed into a cloud of chakra smoke. Luckily, the Naruclone expected this and already created another clone to speak to Hinata.

"Hina-hime! Wait! It's me!" immediately Hinata stopped her follow-up strike before realising that her target was, in fact, the Naruclone following her. She immediately gasped in surprise before quickly saying, "Oh! I'm so sorry! I thought it was the enemy! Forgive me!"

She was about to bow down when the Naruclone stopped her. "Don't worry Hina-hime. I'm fine. And that was a quick move right there. Nice one." The Naruclone grinned, making her blush. She always liked his grin, no matter how, why or when.

But then, the Naruclone's face turned serious. "Hina-hime, I know what's running in your mind right now. Trust me, I do. But know this. It is good that you still had your guilty conscience. But these people, these thugs," he said, one palm on her shoulder and another pointing towards the bunch of guards in front of them. "They helped scum like Gato oppress a country like Wave, assisted all his dirty deeds, even did a couple of their own. Killing people like these will only help in the recovery of Wave."

Hinata made a sad face at being forced to kill them. The Naruclone then said, "Hina-hime, it is good that you think a lot about killing. Keep that. But know that you must harden your heart sometimes to kill. This is the life of a ninja, the life that we chose. Killing is bad, but sometimes, it is necessary. And sometimes, it's better to let some die to save more than letting more people die. The regret that you feel at both the thought of killing and the action itself made you human. Once that feeling disappears, that was when you lose your humanity, making you nothing but a killer."

At this, Hinata felt her love for Naruto grew at him being capable of understanding so much about her. She then hardened her heart and expression, making the Naruclone beside her pat her shoulder, saying "Good. But remember to feel the regret in your heart. You should not kill lightly, Hina-hime. Even for me, killing is not my first choice. But neither is it my last. Go, and forget about making me proud. Make yourself proud, because in the end, you're the one who made the choice to take them down."

Hinata nodded and activating her Byakugan, having long since mastered hers that she needed no handseals to activate it. Immediately, she swept the area using her superior eyesight and taking note of her designated area's guards' patrol path and location. After a while, she tensed, ready to strike, her feelings ignored in favour of the mission.

With a burst of speed, she rushed the guards directly straight of her position, crossing the mere 10 meters separating the two of them from her in a second before sending two chakra filled palm strikes towards their hearts, turning them into a lump of destroyed flesh with just one chakra burst from each palm. Before the bodies even fell, she was already in front of the third guard, her speed so fast that he didn't even react as she sent a palm to his brain, turning it to mush. He fell like a doll with its strings cut, his blood (and was that brain matter?, Hinata thought) pouring out of his nostrils and ears.

Even as Hinata calmed herself down from her first three kills, the Naruclone already swapped the bodies with clones, making it seem like nothing was wrong as they covered Hinata's figure from the rest of the guards.

"Hina-hime," the original Naruclone said. "You did great. Calm down. We'll talk about this later. Can you continue?"

Hinata who, by now, had already calmed herself, replied. "I'm alright. Let's go."

The Naruclone nodded before preparing himself to go wherever she goes. Once again observing the guards, Hinata tensed before shooting towards a patrol of four coming towards her location. And once again, all four of them are felled with extreme quickness using her Gentle Fist, the skills honed in years of training with the Uzumaki-Namikazes finally showing its mettle. She then finally settled on a rhythm, shooting towards guards and entering their personal space before hitting them with Gentle Fist strikes and leaving their bodies there before sprinting to other targets, knowing that the Naruclone with her will replace them without fail. "Just wait, Naru-koi." She thought. "I'll show that I'm worthy of being with you! Now and forever!"

And so, the silent massacre of the guards of the right wall began even as Hinata had her first taste of the true life of a shinobi, the Naruclone following her close by.

-WITH NARUTO-

Observing the front gate, Naruto prepares to strike the way he knew best: hard and fast. The six guards in front of the gate didn't even realize it as Naruto appeared in their midst, a clone created on the fly hitting the other three guards. Like a whirlwind, the two slit the guards' throats before the bodies are substituted with pre-made clones behind some bushes close to where he started where another clone, dubbed the body collector seals the bodies within scrolls to prevent discovery.

Silently, both ran up the walls to the left and right side of the gate, slaughtering guards, replacing them and repeating the motion like well-oiled machines of mass stealth murder, especially considering that they are all one, and each knows where the other was and what the other thought as Naruto created clones and dispelling them to act as a crude radio among his clones.

His face betrayed no emotions; his movements robotic, he went through the guards of Gato's mansion like a hot knife through butter, killing and replacing them all with well-practiced movements and kunai stabs or tosses. His mind at the backseat, everything was running on instincts; the ultimate manifestation of his Battle Mode. There are no feelings, there is no thinking, there are only actions. All his actions done in a meditative stance as he and his army of clones systematically destroy each and every one of Gato's guards in his path, and some out of it. Having been trained immensely for any situation, Naruto was more than capable of facing against anything even in his moments of detached feelings like this. Or during most of his missions.

Not long after, he gained a memory from his clone that said that their attack was successful, and no alarm was sounded or any alert was raised. He immediately snapped out of his Battle Mode trance, and went straight to Gato's front door to rendezvous with his team.

-MEANWHILE, AT TAZUNA'S-

At Tazuna's house, the rest of Team 7 was guarding their client, though they all, including their client knew that Gato's days are up with Team 11 at his case. Currently, Kakashi was relaxing at the rickety sofa in the middle of the house while the rest of his so-called cute little genins are also at the sofa around him, Kakashi wearing a small band at his hand that was connected to a series of sensory seals around the house to help them detect incoming enemies.

Right now, they are all relaxing after Hinata healed them after their extremely insane training session just now. Especially Kakashi, since he got his ass kicked pretty hard by Anko, taking some of Anko's attention from his genins, giving them a slightly lower difficulty training session today, though they still had their clothes punctured and Tsunami was forced to patch them back together.

As they are all sitting in the living room with Kakashi giggling pervertedly while reading his Icha Icha and Sasuke and Sai just sitting down, relaxing after a hard day's training, Sakura said, "Kakashi-sensei, Team 11's pretty awesome, aren't they? Hinata was like a Byakugan wielding Tsunade, capable of healing us even if we are injured pretty badly. Naruto was able to recover our chakra like it's nothing, and Kushina as well."

"Except for that Anko bitch! She's crazy!" Her inner voice said.

Kakashi stopped giggling, looked at her and stowed his book back into his kunai pouch. This made Sasuke and Sai look at Kakashi since they knew not many things can distract him from reading that damned book of his. Staring at Sakura and making her uncomfortable even as Sai and Sasuke stared at him, he finally sighed before saying. "Yes. Yes they are. And I'd say, their demonic nature doesn't even contribute partly within their strengths. Even their bloodline. All of you know Naruto's father right?" they all nodded. After the Great Reveal, who doesn't?

"I was his student before he became Hokage." Kakashi said, a look of fondness visible in his lone eye. "He was a nobody. No clan, no bloodline, no nothing. He entered the Shinobi Academy of his own, with no backing and no special skills. If there is one thing that he excels more than anyone else, it's in seals."

"Then how was he so powerful?" Sakura asked. Even Sasuke looks interested. Sai… was Sai.

"Another thing that separates him from everyone else was his hard work. He trained relentlessly, day and night. Studied his seals at his spare time. Training all the time, being guided by Jiraiya-sama. He never rested. Not a day was left without him training or studying. At his rest day he studied his seals while he sat at his house.

His rise through the ranks was fast not just because of his skills, but also because of his ingenuity. The reason why he was so much better even with nothing behind him was the fact that he knew the secret to actual power. The power to overcome any challenges and any opposition he faced."

"True power?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes. True power comes from the will to protect your loved ones. It was with this thought in mind, to protect his beloved village and the people within it that he trained and studied without fail. He may not be a member of a clan nor was he a person with a powerful bloodline, but he trained, and trained, and trained, all while thinking about protecting his village. As such, he became the hero during the Third Shinobi World War with one of the ultimate techniques spawned from his knowledge of seals, the Hiraishin.

He had nothing. An orphan, yet with only his unrelenting Will of Fire burning in his heart, he pushed himself to the limits and beyond, becoming one of, if not the most feared shinobi in the world during his time, gaining an SS-rank in the bingo book.

Even as he died, he died with the seals that he excelled at close by. A seal that summons the Shinigami himself, in fact, the Dead Demon Consuming Seal. I was unable to help at all during Kyuu- I mean, Kurumi-san's attack," He was looking around for any signs of Naruto by this point. Even Sasuke did. Both breathed a sigh of relief before continuing. "Kurumi-san's attack. But he used the seals that were his specialty to absorb an incoming Tailed Beast Ball before throwing it elsewhere, saving Konoha. All that without any clans nor any bloodlines.

Naruto and Kushina may have an extremely powerful bloodline, but the fact remains that they didn't be this strong without any practice. In fact, I was their guard when Naruto was four when he first had his bloodline, and let me tell you, he didn't let up on his training. Not one bit.

His bloodline gave him the ability to forfeit sleep, and as such, he trained for days on end, sleeping for 6 hours before continuing. He trained harder than anyone I've ever seen, and that's saying something when I was taught by his father.

He never rested, never stopped training, just like his father. That dedication, that will, that love, that's what one needs to become a powerful ninja. Not a freaking powerful bloodline, nor demonic powers. For a great ninja, those are but tools to use, not something to entirely rely on."

Sakura and Sasuke were stunned. They never knew that their teacher was the student of the Yondaime! And how the Yondaime and Naruto trained. Especially his belief that bloodlines are nothing but tools to rely on, exactly like what his brother taught him. This made the two lower their heads thinking.

Kakashi looked at his team, a feeling of pride blooming within his heart. His team was growing well, and he'll always be there to guide them. Maybe except for Sai. The first thing that he needs to teach him was emotions, and everything else will fall into place soon enough.

-A WHILE LATER WITH NARUTO-

Naruto was waiting close by Gato's front door, hiding behind a hedge within the gardens in front of his mansion. He had to admit, the gardens are beautiful, though the one he had back at home was even more so. But remembering that the same garden was made for a ruthless tyrant like Gato made him retract back his mental statement.

A swirl of wind appeared behind him and he was met with the figure of a blood-soaked Anko, her face still grinning from all the blood that she spilled. Naruto turned to look at her and widened his eyes as he saw that Anko was practically wearing a blood-red trenchcoat, the original brown colour disappearing beneath all the blood she had on it.

Naruto whistled. "Damn that's a lot of blood. What, you tore someone up in half before bathing in their blood? Or did you saw them in half with a kunai and ate their entrails?"

Anko looked disgusted at both ideas of what he thought she did. "What the fuck? I did NOT do that! And you're the one who tore a man in half, not me! And even you didn't eat someone's entrails!"

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah. They don't taste too good, you know." Looking at Anko's disgusted face that had a small undercurrent of fear in them, he chuckled before continuing. "Relax. I never ate someone's entrails. Just kidding. But I DID tore someone in half, if you're wondering. Empty handed too."

"Yeah, I know. Still made me uncomfortable though. But this," She said, pointing to her blood-soaked trenchcoat, "Is from the guards. Guess they poured a bit too much blood from their throats once I slit them." She said, giggling.

Naruto looked back towards Gato's mansion's front door while ignoring Anko, where another 5 guards are standing around doing nothing. "Well, we'll go for the actual plan. Wait for Hina-hime and Kushi-chan to come, then we'll storm the place, you and Kushina, me and Hinata."

Not too long after Naruto said that, two swirls of wind appeared beside the two before Kushina, whose face was stuck in anger and Hinata who had a look of regret and sadness on hers appeared. Immediately Hinata activated her Byakugan to give the structural report of the house.

"There are guards patrolling within the house as well, and it seems it had a huge underground area below it. Looks like a sort of arena or something with a huge storage area underneath, probably for his goods. There are also cages with people in it. Gato is in his bedroom at the top floor, two guards in front of his room."

Naruto nodded. "Good. Team Lightning, me as Lightning 1 and Hina-hime as Lightning 2 will head towards the upper floors and have a little 'chat' with Gato while Team Stars, Anko as Stars 1 and Kushi-chan as Lightning 2 will head underground and clear everything there. Use short range radios for on-the-fly communications but still have a member's henged Shadow Clone for emergencies. We'll take him down hard, fast and stealthy. Leave no man standing. Got that?" All of them nodded. "Good. Begin on me." Naruto said, looking towards the guards. Everyone tensed and prepared themselves to strike and bring the tyrant down.

"Go!" Naruto whispered hard, and all of them disappeared before reappearing in front of the guards, their kunais already stabbed through their throats with the last having a kunai through his head. Once again, the guards are replaced with clones and both Lightning and Stars stood beside the massive wooden doors into the mansion. Hinata raises 1 finger followed by 5 more. 15 targets. Everyone nodded their acknowledgements.

A signal from Naruto made them open the door with a slam, shocking the guards. They didn't even manage to say anything as an accurate hail of kunais struck them at instant kill points, preventing them from even uttering a sound. Even as the guards are replaced by clones, the two teams separated themselves, each performing their missions, Stars heading straight from the hallways and Lightning upstairs from the huge stairs in the middle of the hallway.

-WITH TEAM STARS-

Going straight from the hallway, Anko and Kushina eliminated any guards that they encountered with extreme prejudice, leaving none alive. This is normal for Kushina. What worried her was the way Anko looked. She looked like she was about to cum with the way she's panting and her eyes dilating. She decided to voice her concern at this even as they cleared another room of Gato's mercs.

"Anko, are you alright? You look… euphoric?" Kushina asked.

Anko's face suddenly turned from euphoric to sad before saying slowly. "I…I'm fine. Sorry you had to see me like that. His emotional conditioning was… a bit too powerful for me to break from, I guess."

Before Kushina could even say anything, Anko said, "Enough about me. We got a mission to complete. Let's go." Kushina looked towards Anko's back in worry before pushing it to the back of his mind, storing it for later times.

In a couple of minutes, they managed to clear the entirety of Gato's mansion's ground floor, killing the guards while knocking out the staff and right now were looking for the entrance to the hidden basement where they found it: a huge bookcase within a study room. Anko scoffed at this. "Bookcase. How cliché." Turning to look at Kushina behind her who was busy sealing bodies into scrolls. "Kushina!" she said.

Kushina looked at her, at the bookcase, and said, "Right." She immediately finished the sealing and went to the bookcase before grabbing the walls of it with her bare hands. And pulled. With her monstrous strength, the bookcase groaned loudly before the entire thing just broke apart, sending splinters of wood and books flying everywhere, revealing the staircase behind it.

"Well. Not so secret after all." Anko said, before walking downwards, keeping her eyes out for anything. Walking slowly, they are met by a huge area with rows upon rows of seats and a stage up front with a single podium at the left side of the stage with red curtains hanging from the roof. "An auction hall. Probably for the would-be sex slaves." Anko said with a detached emotion, not realizing that Kushina's face was fixed in horror and shock. As she was walking towards a doorway at the right of the auction hall, Kushina ran ahead of her, her face in a look of anger.

"How…" She began, her face downwards. "How are you so fine with this?!" She screamed, revealing her tears that were falling freely. "They sell people here! I saw the people on the ship just now, all broken and nearly dead, and they sold them here?! How does that not anger you?!"

Anko stopped before slowly looking at Kushina, tears still pouring from her eyes as she sobbed for the people who went through the area, being sold like cattle. She then replied. "Kushina, you need to know something." Anko said as she reached for Kushina's chin before pulling her down to look at her face. "These things, they are common among our job. People sell others, watch them fight to the death for their enjoyment, enslave others, it's all too common in this world. I've gotten used to it. You're still new to this, but at least your father's training helped you in that. You need to get used to it as well. The best we can do is to stop them in their tracks."

Though tears still poured down, Kushina understood this fact, and her hand slumped down as Anko walked past her. As Anko walked about five steps from her unmoving figure, Kushina slowly said. "Then I'll change it."

Anko turned around, and gave the most brilliant reply she could. "Huh?"

"Then I'll change it." Kushina said again. "This world. I'll change it. I'll rid the world of this scum. Dad and Mom want to rid the world of hatred. I'll help them rid the world of these people, these oppressors. People should be free! Not caged and slaved!"

Anko stared at her, saying nothing. A while later, she turned around, saying "Good luck with that. Now, we have a mission to do."

Even at the blatant dismissal of her words, she knew that it's just because she's been a ninja longer than she lived. She's seen sights that made her felt like throwing up much too often, so often that she's used to it. And from what she could see of Anko, she understood that she's too used to it, considering the sight as another regular occurrence. This she cannot change and she knew it, and as such, she decided to put it on the backburner and continue with the mission, walking directly behind Anko.

They then reached a second room where a huge walled pit was situated at the middle with a flat surface and rows upon rows of chairs around it. Anko and Kushina immediately knew what the pit was: a gladiatorial pit. At the very least, there was no one inside right now, and that the room smelled of blood confirms that the room was quite often used, though right now, no one was inside. Seeing this, Kushina and Anko continued to walk towards where they suspect the cages was from Hinata's report before.

Upon entering the area, they saw that there are rows upon rows of steel cages, made for easy moving if the castors below them are any indication, and most looked empty. "So that's why they had a new 'shipment'. They're empty." Kushina thought. They immediately separated to kill all the guards around the cages. Luckily, probably due to the fact that the cages are mostly empty, the guards are mostly gone, with only a handful remaining, a handful that was easily dealt with by both Anko and Kushina.

Upon covering the entire area with Kushina placing explosive tags all over the room and breaching charges at the cages that contained people within them, they reached a door, leading to another room. But before Kushina could open it, Anko stopped her, grabbing her outstretched hand from opening the ordinary looking door.

"Don't." Anko said.

Kushina was taken aback, but knew that Anko won't do something like that unless she had a damn good reason for it. "Why?" She asked, wanting to know the reason.

"You won't like what's behind that door. Trust me." Anko said.

"But I'm a freaking ninja! It's my task to know!"

Anko then let her go and let out a sigh. "Well, go ahead then. But don't say I didn't warn you."

Kushina was confused, but she opened the door nonetheless. And as what Anko said, she regretted her actions. Behind the door was an entire line of women, all chained to the wall with handcuffs and was lying naked on small beds, the entire room smelling of stale piss and dried out sex fluids. The women all had lifeless looks in their eyes, already resigned to their fate to become sex slaves for Gato's mercs. In fact, some of them even moaned just from seeing Kushina and Anko entering the room, while the rest did nothing, preparing themselves for something that will never come.

At this sight, Kushina trembled in anger. So much so, that her tightly controlled chakra starts leaking, causing small flickers of blue flame to emit from her figure. Her fist tightened so much that she nearly broke skin, and the chakra emitting from her created a rough wind that made all the slaves start crying in fear, while some starts to shout.

"No! Please!"

"Stop it! Don't hurt us!"

"I'll do anything! Stop it!"

Hearing all this made Kushina even angrier, but before she could go on a rampage to the upper floors and destroy Gato and his entire operations, a pat to her back made her turn in anger. And there, she was met with another sight that she never expected: a worried-looking Anko. Realising that she had her attention, Anko said, "Hey, you alright?"

Gritting her teeth, Kushina said, "Alright? Am I alright? Of course I'm not! Look!" She said, spreading her hand towards the sex slaves, still frightened from Kushina's chakra pressure from before. "These women! These ladies! Those kids!" she said, pointing towards a line of kids, none of them over 12 at the end of the room, all of them with bruises on their body and especially their genitals, the mercs knowing of no such thing as gentleness, their faces expressionless, the life long since left their eyes. "They… They…" Kushina said, still trying to reign in her anger.

"It's alright. I understand." Anko said. "To tell you the truth, that was the same thing I felt when I first saw this sight as well."

Kushina sharply turned towards Anko before nearly shouting out, "Then how can you be so calm! These…"

"It's because I've seen my fair share of things like this." Anko said. "Most of the time, we are too late. The only thing we can do is grant them mercy kills for those who are lifeless and are nothing more than a lump of flesh without any life in them. Some even beg for it."

"Dad told me of it." Kushina slowly said. "He told me of this. He said, 'once you become a ninja, you'll learn the evils of the people. Of humanity and our depravity. The thing is, they're all human in nature. And at that time, you must stay strong, and not let their heinous acts go to our heads. You must remain strong, so that the evil can be punished, and so that you won't become one of them yourself.' I guess this is what he meant when he said that."

"Yeah. That's definitely it." Anko agreed. "Let's get the job done and we can free them from this hell."

Kushina nodded, wordlessly preparing her seals to help these people escape. Even from that, Anko already knew that she was holding back quite a lot of anger, and it's better for Gato's mercs to stay away from her.

After that, they rechecked the cages and found out that the area are both the storage area and the slave's cage area, where they immediately placed explosive tags on the goods, knowing that they'll take it down sooner or later.

Their task finished, they ran back to the entrance, Anko radioing Naruto. "Lightning 1, this is Stars 1. Basement is clear, waiting for next stage. I repeat. Basement is clear, waiting for next stage."

-WITH LIGHTNING TEAM-

Naruto and Hinata heads upstairs, taking all the guards that they saw, but Naruto realised that Hinata had sadness emanating from her every pore. He immediately grabbed her shoulder and turned her towards him. "Hina-hime, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Hinata said before she tried turning around, only for Naruto to grab both her shoulders.

"Everything's wrong, and I can sense it. Why? Is it because you're forced to kill?" Hinata slowly, reluctantly nodded. "Hina-hime, my clone said it already, but killing is necessary. As ninjas, we are taught to kill for our village, for our Hokage, for our leader."

"I know that!" She exploded. "I know! But I can't help but think about them!" Hinata said, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

"I know. I felt the same thing after my first couple of kills." Naruto said. "But know that we never kill without a reason. We won't just kill because we are pissed. We kill because they have been oppressing the people here, did their fair share of bad deeds. Gato even more so. We are actually doing the world a favour by killing these scums. The world doesn't need them, and the people of Wave need them even less."

Hinata turned around and was about to leave when a hug from Naruto stopped her. "Hina-hime, please, don't let that good side of yours disappear. Always regret killing someone, because once you lose that, you became nothing but a heartless human. And a heartless human is nothing more than a monster in human skin. Remember that." And with that, he let Hinata go, her spirit rising high as Naruto's words, both the clone and the real ones, starts to sink in.

Hardening herself, she continued her task of clearing the rooms upstairs of both Gato's mercs and his guards with extreme efficiency even as Naruto watched her back, a feeling of pride in his heart. "Good job, Hina-hime." He thought. "Be stronger, both in mind and in body, so that you can be with me no matter what. Through even the darkness of the world, for peace will not come easy."

A while later, they reached the topmost floor where there are more guards than ever, though they are as easily dispatched like the ones before them. "We're getting closer to Gato's. But it looks like he had a problem with his wrist. It's in wraps." Hinata said. "I see two samurais from their swords and Gato himself sleeping. They must've been his best guards then."

"And they'll fall just like the rest." Naruto said. "Stay here. I'll take care of them. Come when I call you later." And with that, Naruto strolled into the hallways containing Gato's bedroom, completely ignoring the fact that the two guards are standing right in front of him.

A few minutes before, the two guards, the samurais Zori and Waraji was bored. They had nothing to do but escort Gato to meet that missing nin he hired named Zabuza. And he then got his wrist broken by that tiny babe that Zabuza had with him. And if not for the fact that she was still standing and operating at full, Gato would've had her head by then. Or maybe a new plaything. Maybe even both.

"Dammit, I hope something interesting happened. I haven't had a good scrap in a while. Aren't you bored?" Waraji, the one with an eyepatch and a scar on his forehead said to his fellow guard.

"Hell yeah, but just staying around here doing nothing isn't too bad, you know. At least we get to stay inside." Zori who had lines at his eyes, like Jiraiya's said.

"Yeah, but-" Waraji's words were cut short as he spotted the huge figure of Naruto walking towards them at the ornately decorated hallways. Naruto's massive girth made fear blossom in his heart, though he covered it well even as Naruto slowly walked towards their position.

Immediately reaching for their swords at their waist, both of them stood beside each other and faced Naruto who was still walking nonchalantly towards them. "Who the bloody fuck are you?!" Zori shouts out.

Ignoring them, Naruto kept on walking, his large foot making loud thumps as he walked slowly closer and closer to their position, hands at his sides swaying gently as he walked towards their position.

"Get away, or we'll kill you!" Waraji shouts, not realizing the level of danger they're actually in. and still Naruto closed the distance between them with no hurry, him just walking leisurely towards them.

"Right then, if you want it so much, DIE!" Waraji said, shouting the last part even as he dashed towards Naruto, his sword ready to be drawn quickly in a standard Iaido stance with his body turned, one hand on the sword's grip, the other at the scabbard.

What happened next was too fast for Zori to see, nor understand. With just a near invisible, extremely fast flick of his finger, Naruto sent forth a long ranged Blade of Wind, creating a long, sharp line of wind towards the still speeding Waraji. The blade of wind passed through Waraji like he wasn't even there before dissipating a while later. Waraji then stopped in his tracks, while Naruto walked ahead, not even faltering.

"Waraji?" Zori who was also in the pose for an Iaido strike called for his partner who stopped suddenly, completely ignoring Naruto who was walking in front of him. Suddenly, the wrap around Waraji's torso slowly unravels itself as a long cut appeared on it. And as Naruto walked past him, a massive, sudden spurt of blood appeared on his body from where the near invisible Blade of Wind passed him. The blood spurt gets worse, before Waraji's body split in two, bathing the immediate area around him, Naruto included, in massive quantities of blood even as Waraji's face was stuck in a look of fear as half of his body, from the lower chest area to the waist slides down with, to Zori, extreme sluggishness before hitting the blood soaked floor with a thump that sounds like an explosion going off to Zori, Waraji's innards spilling out on the floor.

His face quickly turned from worried to extreme fear, so much so that all the blood in his face disappeared that his face became white. As Naruto slowly but surely approached him, he kept his hand on his sword but was panicking madly. "Get away! Get away from me!" He screamed while walking backwards. Watching Naruto ignoring him, he screamed, "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" before drawing his sword and immediately dashed towards Naruto, his sword high up in his attempt to attack Naruto.

Once again, Naruto flicked his finger, causing another near-invisible blade of wind to slice into Zori's blade while he swings it down in a feeble attempt to attack Naruto. With all the strength he could muster, he swung his blade downwards; only to find out that two thirds of the blade was cut, falling down with a loud clang beside him. As he stared at the stump remaining of his sword, he lost all semblance of rational thought. Giving a wordless scream, he ran towards the still walking figure of Naruto before screaming irrationally while stabling Naruto with his sword. His screams stopped when he realized that Naruto caught his blade with his bare hands.

Before he could run away, Naruto grabbed his blade and with his strength, snapped the blade to pieces like it was nothing. Even as the fear reached his mind while his sight was being showered by pieces of his sword, he stared into Naruto's eyes, where he was met with the sight of the unflinching, hardened eyes of Naruto's. And right then and there, he knew that there was no escaping his fate; he knew, by heart, that he'd die at the hands of this monster.

A hand came at blinding speed towards his neck, grabbing it with inhuman strength. As Zori struggled a futile struggle, his hand using all of his available strength to pry the huge hand away from his neck even as the hand started squeezing. With his dying breath, he fought, the veins around his neck bulging due to the lack of air from that one grip before he only had enough strength to scratch the iron like arm before going limp completely, the lack of air finally getting to him. The grip then strengthens itself to an unnatural level, before a loud crack was heard from his neck, signifying the breaking of Zori's neck.

Behind Naruto, Hinata was peeking from the end of the hallway, watching as Naruto slowly but surely devastated both guards with nothing but a couple wind blades and his strength. Hinata nearly threw up when Waraji's body was split in half, her trained sight catching the glimpse of Naruto's extremely sharp wind blade cutting him. She almost screamed for Naruto to stop as he approached the hysteric Zori slowly but surely, and felt extreme revulsion at the sight of Naruto using nothing but his monstrous strength to choke the life out of Zori. And as she watched from afar the light of life left Zori's eyes, she was continually shocked when Naruto, in one powerful grip, practically crushed Zori's neck like it was nothing before walking towards Gato's room while lifting the limp, dead body of Zori like a ragdoll. "T-t-this is what Naru-koi is like in real battles?" She thought. "He-he's brutal!" Hinata had a horrified expression on her face even as Naruto lifted the body of Zori and smashed it into Gato's doors.

Within his room, Gato was sleeping on his king-sized bed on an extremely soft mattress, enjoying a day of relaxation after he was busy managing his massive business empire. And he was even happier today! He was going to get a new shipment of 'products' for his business, which means more money! And combined with his near-complete control of Wave's economy, he'll be able to own his own country! Though those ninjas from Konoha were busy meddling with his plans. In fact, that worthless Zabuza failed to kill them! At least he planned from the start to kill him when he gets the job done.

Suddenly, his calm sleep was disrupted when he heard a series of slow, rhythmic thumps followed by something being cut and a short while later, a couple of screams was heard before it suddenly became silent, and a loud cracking sound was heard before everything went completely silent.

He was just about to sit at the edge of his bed when his door was smashed inwards, the twin white doors turning into splinters before flying at high speeds towards the opposite wall. And in the smashed remains of the door, Gato managed to catch the sight of Zori, his head flopping unnaturally as he and the splinters of the door crashed into the opposite wall.

Before Gato could even get a word out of his mouth, he felt a huge something wrap around his neck before grabbing him and lifting him up. The lights in his room turned on, and Gato was met with a sight that nearly made him shit bricks. In front of him, with his hand around his neck while lifting him up, was a giant of a man, at 7' something wearing black longcoat and a kind of armoured jacket with many pockets on it for some reason. But the most important part of him was his blue, slit eyes, which to Gato's extreme fear, was radiating with barely concealed anger and hate.

Behind him and beside the light switch, Hinata looked at Naruto in both horror and a small amount of fear. Sure she knew that as a ninja, Naruto killed. This was a fact that she knew and by now, accepted. But this? This was a side of Naruto that she never knew, the side of him where he mercilessly kills any and all opposition that met him with extreme prejudice. In fact, his kills are brutal, extremely so sometimes. Waraji's cooling body outside the room was one of the best proof of that. She found it hard how someone as loving and gentle as Naruto could become a monster of a killer, bathing himself in the blood of his enemies without a second thought. "Naru-koi..." She thought worriedly.

She loathed admitting it, but she was scared of Naruto right now. His brutality, how he killed both Zori and Waraji just now, killing as if it was as simple as breathing, it made her feel both worried and scared at the same time. Worried due to Naruto's sudden shift to what he is, and scared due to how he acted. She didn't know whether or not she was able to accept this side of him. But for now, she resolved to look at what Naruto was about to do to Gato while secretly wishing that he won't be brutally killed, like the rest of his guards.

Naruto's eyes are boring into Gato's with no small amount of anger and hate. So much so that to Gato, golden flames seemed to burn in his captor's eyes. Before he could say anything, the person grabbing his neck said in a booming voice. "Gato, the CEO and owner of Gato Corporation, the largest shipping company in the Elemental Nations."

"Y-y-yes." Gato stammered out, falling easily to Naruto's attempt at intimidation, made even easier thanks to the purified youki that he channelled to his throat to change his voice.

"Gato, do you value your life?" Naruto growled out.

"Y-y-y-es." Gato stammered out.

Then, Naruto heard a radio transmission from his earpiece. "Lightning 1, this is Stars 1. Basement is clear, waiting for next stage. I repeat. Basement is clear, waiting for next stage."

Still with his hand around Gato's neck while lifting him, he placed a finger at the earpiece before replying in his normal voice. "Roger that Stars 1. Executing Stage 2. RV point alpha."

"Stars 1 copy. Oscar mike to RV now." The reply was heard.

Naruto dropped his finger before placing the same finger on his chin. "Where was I? Oh yeah!" Before looking back towards Gato and saying again, his demonic voice back. "Gato, do you value your life?"

"YES! I DO! WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO ME?!"Gato screamed out.

"What I am going to do to you? Gato, for your information, each and every one of your man in this mansion of yours, both inside and outside, was killed by my team just now. All your guards, your men, all dead. Most didn't die as badly as that guy did though," Naruto said, before pointing Gato's face towards the limp body of Waraji, his head hanging on his chest due to his severely crushed neck.

Gato's face, already frozen in a look of fear, turned even more afraid, if it was at all possible, at the sight of his dead guard slumped on the wall of his room. Before he could stammer out any response or any kind of reply, his head was turned again, this time, he found that the demonic eyes of the giant in front of him was boring into his while burning with an unholy, ethereal fire, seemingly stripping away everything of him, leaving his mind as bare as a newborn baby against this giant.

"Now," Naruto growled out again, Gato's shivering and futile attempt to scratch his tough skin in hopes that he would release him being ignored. "Do you have any idea what you did to the citizens of Wave?"

"I-i-i d-d-do."

"Now, if you value your life, this is what I want you to do. Return Wave to its original condition."

"H-h-h-how?" Gato said, nearly pissing his pants. Right now, he knew he was at the mercy of this giant, and that one simple mistake will cause him to become just like Waraji. And no matter how greedy he was, he knew that lost money was better than lost life.

"Simple. I want you to hand over your company to me. Everything related to it. Every penny, every asset, everything. Do that, and I won't kill you."

"R-r-really?" Gato asked, uncertainty clouding his voice. Sure he may not be stupid nor was he poor. He had enough business connections to be able to rebuild his company elsewhere, but he needs some assurance that he won't kill him.

And as soon as he asked, he regretted it. Naruto sent him an extremely deadly glare, with his eyes not just slitted, but golden flames seemed to burn in his eyes! It was like seeing a ghost! Without any resistance, Gato immediately emptied his bladder even as Naruto tightened his grip around his neck.

As Gato's piss and shit was pouring down his sleepwear and his tongue was lolling out due to the lack of air Naruto's grip on his neck made, he tried to scratch Naruto's arms away when Naruto realized this. "Oops." He said before promptly releasing him, causing him to fall on the floor in a pool of his own piss and shit, hacking all the way due to the lack of air, his entire neck blue due to the bruising Naruto created with his grip.

Gato was still coughing and taking in huge breaths of sweet, life sustaining air as Naruto said, "Sorry." Still in his demonic voice. "But the offer still remains. Hand over everything and I won't kill you."

"You just tried!" Gato responded before his words are punctuated by coughs.

"But I didn't, did I?" Gato had nothing to respond to this. "I also have another way. I can kill you and eat your brain to gain all the knowledge you have before having 'you' hand the company over to me. Anyway, your company's mine. The only difference is either you're alive during the transfer or you're dead. Which would you like?"

"Promise me that you won't kill me when I'm done." Gato said, feigning bravery.

"I promise that I won't kill you. And we Uzumaki-Namikaze never break our promises."

Gato just nodded in fear before leading Naruto towards his office room, Hinata following behind both of them unnoticed. All of them had different thoughts running through their minds right now. Naruto was thinking about a way to help Wave recover even faster, Gato was thinking of how to rebuild his empire of crime and Hinata was thinking about the sheer brutality that Naruto showed while also thinking about the effectiveness of Naruto's intimidation in getting what he wants.

A short while later, they reached Gato's main office where he stores all his documents, Naruto behind him while Hinata behind Naruto. Standing cross armed while Gato went to his office table to retrieve all his documents and hand his company over to him, Naruto watched each and every inch of Gato's movements with a critical eye.

Meanwhile, Gato was scared as all fuck! He said that he killed all the guards, but they're all there! Walking around, patrolling like normal! Except, that when he passed by, each of them went poof, leaving nothing but some weird smoke behind and nothing else. This abnormality truly made him believe that all of his guards just exploded into nothingness when he passed by them, making him sweat bullets in fear of Naruto. However, he still had a last ace in his sleeve; a secret weapon that he kept for situations like these.

Naruto was watching Gato's tiny (in comparison to his) form behind his office table, digging around for all the documents necessary to hand over his company to Naruto when he heard the sound of a drawer being opened. Suddenly, he felt a spike of evil intent from Gato but decided to ignore it. Then, the figure of Gato rose suddenly when an extremely loud crack was heard from Gato's location before a huge cloud of smoke together with the smell of gunpowder came from where Gato was standing, a look of triumph on his face.

Gato was feeling extremely proud of himself. The decision to buy the flintlock gun from a strange guy at the docks in Snow one day really paid off now! No matter how strong he was, that sucker's dead for sure! He held the gun straight, pointing it towards Naruto even as his sight was obscured by the huge cloud of smoke that the gun's powder produced. He was about to perform a maniacal cackle when the smoke clears.

To his absolute horror, so horrific the sight that his face turned white and his pistol fell down on the floor with a loud clatter, was the standing figure of Naruto, still with his arms crossed, though he had a small pellet of lead stuck at his forehead. The pellet slowly peeled off of Naruto's forehead before falling down on the floor, clattering with a tiny sound that to Gato's ears sounded louder than any thunder. The skin healed near instantly, showing unharmed skin.

Naruto dropped his arms with a sigh. "You know," Naruto said. "Many men better than you with techniques and weapons better than yours have tried, and failed to kill me. What makes you think you'll succeed? Though I have to admit that was a pretty damn fast shot. I could barely see it. So, since you failed, I'll let this pass. Just once. You better be faster or I'll shove something bigger than that tiny ball into your brain. You got that?"

Trembling with fear, Gato could only nod as he shakily collected all his documents, even knocking some of them down accidentally. It hit him square in the head! Yet, it did nothing! What is he? A monster? No one could survive that! But he did, and the bullet didn't even faze him! And he said he could see it! It's impossible!

"Hurry up!" Naruto screamed in his booming demonic voice, causing Gato to squeal in fear before his speed doubled, but he kept knocking everything away, making Naruto sigh in frustration. A while later, Gato's ownership transfer documents are complete and with a trembling hand, he hands it to Naruto, who then inspects the documents while Gato looked on with his hands together and his body trembling in fear. Naruto then nodded his approval, making Gato breathe out a sigh of relief.

To his utter shock, Naruto's hand came shooting towards him and grabbed his head, a whoosh of air created due to the sheer speed his hand moved. He lifted Gato with his head even as he struggled and screamed for Naruto to let him go. "Is this it?" Naruto growled out again. "Where's your cash? Your stored cash? And the gems and treasures that you kept?" Before Gato could even reply anything, Naruto's demonic voice thundered. "DO NOT LIE TO ME, SCUM! I know that you kept a huge amount of money close by, do not lie. I want them as well. I want everything that's yours. Got that? Now go before I decide that it's better off killing you." Naruto said before dropping him once again.

Scared out of his wits again, Gato shakily walked towards a huge portrait of him at the back of the room right behind his desk before pulling it back, revealing a huge safe behind it. "Damn, that was clichéd," Naruto thought. But before Gato could open the safe, Naruto powerwalked behind him before his arm reached to the safe's door, completely ignoring Gato's extreme fear at the action before ripping the solid steel safe door off the safe with one hand before sending it flying away, barely touching the top of Gato's head into the opposite wall with a loud crash.

If Gato still had some piss remaining in his bladder, it was gone now. The sight of someone that can take a bullet to the head without so much as a flinch or any sign of emotion coupled with enough strength to rip off a solid steel door and toss it away like paper really made him scared now, and he knew better than to antagonize someone like that.

Immediately he shoved every ryo and every treasure he had within the safe towards Naruto, who immediately sealed all the money into a storage scroll that he produced from a seal on him. After a while, the safe was cleared and Naruto was standing right behind Gato while looking around again to ensure that Gato was completely cleared. "Well, nice doing business with you." Naruto said, his voice turning normal halfway through. Naruto then walked away from him towards the exit of the room, where Hinata was watching both of them even as Gato let out a sigh of relief.

But just as he passed Hinata, he said, "Hina-hime, kill him."

This shocked Hinata and Gato, who heard this, was panicking wildly. Gato's panicking went unheard even as Hinata turned to face Naruto. "But why? He gave you everything already! And you promised you wouldn't kill him!"

"I did." Naruto said. "But I never promised that you wouldn't." Hinata was beyond horrified at this point and Gato was turning hysterical behind them.

"Hina-hime," Naruto began, kneeling in front of Hinata to speak directly to her horrified face. "I know you didn't like it. I do, honest. But scum like Gato, if left alive, will only rebuild his empire again with a new style but still performing the same evil deeds he did. Do you want people being sold? Kidnapped from their houses in their sleep or in force, before being sold like cattle to the highest bidder to be used as slave gladiators, sex slaves or just forced labour?" Hinata, who had tears on her face by now, shook her head, remembering when she was about to be kidnapped by Kumo. "Then, know that his death would only lead to a better life for a lot of people. One less piece of trash in the Elemental Nations. And as my clone said, kill one, save a thousand. Now, please harden your heart, toughen your feelings, and kill him. The method's up to you. A slice in twain with wind chakra, a stab through the heart, or a quick Jyuken strike to liquefy his brain, it's your choice."

Hinata, with tears pouring down her face nodded in agreement, no matter how reluctant she was at the idea of killing someone defenceless like Gato. On second thought, the way she's going about it makes it look like she's executing him. She then slowly forced herself to walk towards Gato, tears still pouring from her eyes before hitting the front of her white longcoat.

As she walked towards Gato, her tears falling on the ground, Gato screamed out. "NO! NOOOO! I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING! YOU PROMISED!"

"I did." Naruto agreeing. "But you still have to die. "I know better than to let your kind live. Sooner or later, you'll cook up another company and the same things will happen again. Sorry, but you'll have to die."

Every one of Hinata's steps as she neared the panicking Gato felt to her like she had the weight of the world on them. Every one of Gato's terrified screams sound like an explosion to her ears. The feeling of Naruto's eyes boring her head felt like he's judging whether she's worthy or not. Finally, she ignored everything and went straight towards Gato her face still in a look of sadness and tears still pouring out from her face.

"NO! NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Gato screamed out as he flailed around, trying to push Hinata away. But reflexively Hinata deflected his arms with well placed Jyuken strikes before her face neared the scared shitless face of Gato. As Gato shivered and shook his head rapidly, Hinata slowly said, "I-i-I'm sorry." Before touching his head with a tap of her chakra infused palm, sending a burst of chakra into his brain.

The result was instantaneous. The chakra burst overloaded his brain, making it explode from within, turning it into a pile of flesh and blood. Even as Hinata's hand retracted, blood poured out of Gato's nostrils and ears, signifying that he was utterly and completely dead.

As Hinata rose from her kneeling position in front of Gato's cooling corpse, she began to sob. Her sobs became louder before turning into an all-out crying fit, her tears falling as she remembered the atrocities that she performed today. Immediately she turned around, running towards the only place where she could obtain some comfort: within the arms of her loving husband who was waiting behind her.

Wordlessly, Naruto spread his arms, allowing Hinata to crash into him with arms wide open before hugging her shaky, sobbing figure, her shoulders shook hard due to her crying. A while later, while tears still stained her face, she cried herself to sleep. Realising this, Naruto radioed team Stars. "Stars 1 , Lightning 1. Phase 2 down, Mission accomplished. Heading to RV now. Oscar mike." And with that, Naruto lifted the sleeping figure of Hinata bridal style before heading towards the designated rendezvous point.

-RV POINT ALPHA-

Receiving the mission success transmission, Anko looked towards the mansion's front gate, waiting for Naruto and Hinata's arrival. The designated RV point was actually the place where they started the mission, which were the bushes close to the front gate. Kushina also heard the transmission and strained her senses to detect her father's arrival.

In a yellow flash, the figure of Naruto who was carrying Hinata in his arms appeared right beside the two of them. They were about to return to Tazuna's house due to the completion of the mission when both Anko and Kushina saw Hinata in Naruto's arms. Fearing the worst, Anko and Kushina rushed towards Naruto, only to stop when Naruto just shook his head. "Her first couple of kills. Nothing to worry about."

Anko just nodded in understanding. The first couple of kills are the worst. Naruto then looked towards Kushina, saying two words. "Do it."

With a nod, Kushina turned towards Gato's mansion before lifting her fingers in a half-Tiger hand seal. And all the specially placed explosives tags they placed around the house exploded violently, bringing down the walls around the house when combined with the Exploding Clones that was still acting as guards. The crates around the docks also exploded, robbing Gato and anyone he supplies of their drugs and rice. Around the cages, breeching charges exploded, breaking the locks they are affixed to, freeing their captives. Some of the men caught are dazed at this until they remembered that a person promised to free them all, and they stood to free both themselves and their fellow captives and are even more shocked when there are no guards around the area. The house still remains though. That's a job for the Shadow Clones after they've freed the prisoners.

Watching as the walls to Gato's mansion crumbled in a huge cloud of dust, Naruto thought about Gato and his empire. There will be more people like that around the world, for sure. And he planted in his heart his ambition: to destroy all of them. People shouldn't be treated as cattle, and he'll be damned if he lets one get away.

Turning to leave the area, his eyes fell upon the tear-tracked, smooth face of his wife. Hinata's innocence received another major blow today, one he suspects she'll never recover from. The fact remains that he expected that, and he wanted that when he ordered her to kill Gato. She must toughen herself up both physically and mentally, and Naruto cannot find a better way than that to do so in the shortest amount of time.

And so, all three of them plus a sleeping Hinata tree hopped back to their client's house, a destroyed empire of crime behind them.

-CHAPTER ENDS-

So how was it? As usual, read and review!