TIME FOR KILLING!!! Finally, we're at the bell test and wave mission point, hopefully this chapter will be longer than the last one. So far I've only written one chapter actually at the computer, without writing it beforehand. This'll be the second. So, enjoy the show!

Chapter 4, A Shadow in the Mist

Training Ground Seven...

"Good, you're all here. We can begin."

"We've been waiting here for two hours. What the hell happened?"

"A black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way."

"...Fair enough."

"Now, you have until noon to get these bells from me." Kakashi said, holding up three bells tied together.

"But Sensei, there aren't enough bells!"

"That's because the one who doesn't get one will be sent back to the academy."

"WHAAAT?!"

"Sakura..." Naruto said menacingly, holding up an arm. Sakura hid behind Sasuke, who promptly moved away.

"Nooow...BEGIN!" Kakashi shouted, then felt something wrong. His hand moved to his waist to find the bells gone, but that wasn't all. He delved his hand inside his pouch to find nothing but weapons, pills and scrolls. His precious book was gone. His eyes widened when he saw the bells and book in Naruto's hands.

"Lost something?"Naruto said with a chuckle, before throwing a bell to Neru and Sasuke.

"Well I guess you pass then. Though I suspect the method of retrieval was...unorthodox." Kakashi added, when he saw a tentacle retreating into the shadow of a tree out of the corner of his eye. "Sakura, I would fail you but I'd much rather see you get beaten mercilessly to a pulp."

"Heheh, nice." Came Naruto's approval of his reasoning.

"Now that's over, we can begin missions."

"Let's get on with it then." Sasuke said, not wishing to be this close to Naruto with that murderous gleam in his eye.

2 weeks later, Mission Assignment Room...

"Aw c'mon Ji-san. D-ranks are boring, there's no-one to kill."

"I'm sorry Naruto, but you need to complete 30 D-ranks in order to qualify for a C-rank." Sarutobi stated.

"Uh, Hokage-sama, we've done 48 D-ranks." Neru told him, a sweatdrop present on her temple.

"Really? Then I guess you can have a C-rank. You will be escorting the bridge builder Tazuna back to his home in Nami no Kuni, and protecting him while he finishes his bridge. Since it's only a C-rank the worst you'll encounter are bandits and common thieves, so it shouldn't be any problem. Tazuna-san, you can come in now."

An old man with a sakkat on his head and a half-empty (or half-full for optimists) bottle of sake in his hand entered the room. "Is this it? A midget with blonde hair, a weak-looking girl with a huge forehead, a kid with duckbutt hair and a guy with one eye? This is not worth the cash…Speaking of which, how much is this going to cost?"

"250 Ryou."

"I'll give you 15."

"It's non-negotiable."

"35 dollars, that's my final offer."

"Oookay…"

"You four, pack your things and meet me and the client at the village gate." Kakashi said, disappearing in a swirl of leaves. Naruto vanished in a flash, reappearing in his apartment. 'Now, what to pack…'

He got a small backpack with one diagonal strap. He filled it with several pots of instant ramen, extra sets of clothes identical to the ones he was wearing, several kunai and shuriken sets, jutsu and sealing scrolls and a book on sealing. His eyes darted to the corner of the room where a sword was leaning against a wall. It had a long curved blade, similar to a knife. Its handle was wrapped in red leather, with no guard as the blade was too wide for it to be of any use. At the base of the blade was a skull wearing a crown, with spikes reacing around the side of the blade. Naruto debated on taking it, before making his decision. He picked it up and slung it over his back, connecting it to a magnet hidden in the back of his shirt. This blade was an heirloom of the Namikaze-Estacado clan, given to him by Sarutobi on his 12th birthday. He'd loved it, never let it out of his sight. He'd asked a girl called Tenten from the year above him to teach him Kenjutsu, so he was a pretty formidable swordsman. With the sword on his back and his bag filled, he walked out of the door, locking it behind him, and roof-jumped to the gate.

"Naruto, I know you're trying to be cool with that sword, but it won't work. Y ou'll never be as cool as Sasuke-kun!"

"Why would I want to be anything like that asshole? I go my own path, pinky."

"Hey, dobe. That sword, I want it. Give it to me."

"No chance, paper-fan. This sword belongs to me and my clan. There's no way in hell, which is incidentally where you'll go if you touch it, that I'll let you have this."

"Idiot, something like that should only be in the hands of an Uchiha! Give it to me now!"

"I already said no. Maybe if you get that ten foot pole outta your ass you can use that as a weapon."

"If you won't give it to me, I'll simply make the council force you to give it to me."

"Heh, that'll just give me more reason to kill them."

"Okay, let's end this conversation before it get's out of line, shall we?" Kakashi stepped in, not wanting a fight to break out before they had even left the village.

"Out of line? Of course not Kakashi-sensei, you know it wouldn't come to that." 'No, I'd kill him first.'

"Good, then let's get going."

1 Hour Later…

"Man, this is boring. I though since we were leaving the village there would be something to do, but there's nobody out here. Wait a minute…" Naruto said noticing a puddle. 'It hasn't rained for weeks. What the hell is a puddle doing here? Whatever it is, I hope it means a fight.'

Naruto's musing was cut short as two Kiri chunin appeared from the puddle brandishing clawed gauntlets with a chain connecting them. "The Oni Brothers!"

"So, the yellow one seems to know us, Gozu." One of them said to his brother.

"Indeed, Meizu. Maybe he'll have the pleasure of tasting our claws!" The other roared as he rushed towards Naruto. Naruto jumped out of the way of Gozu's claws and into the shadow of a nearby tree. What happened there could only be described as a nightmare. Naruto's eyes turned yellow, illuminating his new form in the darkness. Several thorned tentacles protruded from his back, waving in the air as if they were alive. Two tentacles with heads attached hovered either side of him. His hands had changed, with long black claws where his nails used to be. A reptilian tail swayed back and forth, its black scales glinting in the dim light.

"Finally, I get to kill."

A tentacle shot forward, which Gozu tried to block with his gauntlet. Keyword: tried. The tentacle tore through the reinforced steel like rice paper. Gozu retracted his mutilated hand and jumped away, only to be pinned to a tree by a tentacle in his heart. Meizu was enraged at the sight of his dead brother and leapt at Naruto, intending to claw his throat off. He was stopped short by a clawed hand fixing itself around his head, slowly crushing it. All of Naruto's tentacles pierced the missing-nin's body as his head imploded, sending blood and brain matter flying all over the clearing.

"Holy shit, Naruto. What the hell was that?!" Neru shouted, worried about what had happened to Naruto.

"This is my power…The Darkness."

"Dobe, give me that power. Only an Uchiha deserves-" Sasuke was cut short as another tentacles hit him in the chest, sending him crashing into a tree. Naruto vanished, reappearing in the shade of Sasuke's tree. He walked towards the raven-haired avenger, his yellow eyes narrowed.

"I swear, if you don't get that pole out of your ass and stop being such a vengeance-crazed lunatic I promise I will ram my fist through your heart. I've done it before, I'll do it again." Needless to say, Sasuke backed off at that point. Naruto deactivated the Darkness and walked into the sunlight. His eyes stung a little because he was accustomed to complete darkness. "So, shall we continue on?"

"Uhh…yeah…" Kakashi said, slightly unnerved over the scene that had just been acted out by Naruto and the two now-corpses. "No, wait. Just a second." Kakashi said, breaking out of his fearful thought-lock (Yes, I just made that word up). "Tazuna-san, those two were of Chunin rank, no matter how easily they were taken care of. That would bump this mission up to a B- or maybe even A-rank depending on what happens later. I'm going to need to know why you lied to us and then decide if we continue with the mission."

"Well, it all started like this…"

3 Hours Later, Land of Waves…

"Wow, that was one long-ass story!" Naruto complained.

"It was a bit lengthy." Neru agreed.

"Who cares, let's just get this over with." The Brood King muttered, annoyed and still in pain from the clearing. They continued walking until Naruto stopped. His eyes darted around the area, looking for something.

"What is it, Naruto?" Neru asked, confused.

"There's someone here, but I can't tell wher- GET DOWN!!!" Naruto shouted as a huge sword came flying through the air before embedding itself in a tree.

"Ahahaha…Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja…It's a pleasure to finally meet." Came a voice from the trees. A tall man with bandages around his face landed on the sword with his back to the team from Konoha.

"Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist. I'd say I'm glad to have met you, but my mother told me not to lie."

"Oh. My. God. ZABUZA MOMOCHI!!!" Naruto shouted at the top of his voice. "Can you sign my bingo book?" Everyone sweat-dropped. He brought out an orange book with a picture of a man and woman on the front, which made everyone sweat-drop again. "Oops, wrong book."

"You said you'd give that back Naruto!" Kakashi shouted.

"Heheh, sorry."

"Why'd ya want my autograph, kid?"

"Because you're my idol!" Naruto said with stars in his eyes.

"Oookay…why?"

"I dunno, probably because you kill people."

"So, you too? Nice."

"Uh, excuse me? Can we fight now?"

"Aw, Kakashi, do we have to? I wanna talk with the little murderer. He's cool."

"No, talk later. Fight now."

"Fine, but I get to fight the kid."

"You just signed your own death sentence." Naruto's eyes turned yellow once more as a tentacle shot towards the missing-nin who jumped to the ground, pulling his sword with him. His feet met the ground and he rushed forwards, swinging his sword at the blonde Estacado. The sword was blocked by another tentacle, before a clawed hand flew towards Zabuza's heart. Zabuza jumped backwards, skidding along the ground. His eyes widened as he saw a blast of yellow energy flying at him. He brought up his sword to block, then remembered the hole in it. The blast flew straight through the hole and burnt Zabuza's skin. Once the smoke had cleared from the energy blast, he saw Naruto standing there with his gun in hand, the end of the barrel smoking.

"Like my little toy? I can charge it with Darkness Power and fire a shot of pure darkness. If you're wondering, the reason it's yellow is because that's the colour of my eyes. No other reason known."

"Well, guess I better kick it up a notch. Kirigakure no Jutsu!" Zabuza said while disappearing into a rapidly approaching cloud of mist. "Eight targets: Larynx, Spine, Lungs, Liver, Jugular, Subclavian Artery, Kidneys, Heart. Which one should I strike first?"

"How about none?" Naruto asked, before sending out several Demon Arms in different directions, confident that at least one will catch him. Luckily, one did.

"Argh, dammit. How the hell is this kid able to do so much damage?!"

"I thought you would have realised by now, Zabu-chan. I'm no ordinary kid."

"Alright, one more move, then it's all over. Winner takes all, whaddaya say, kid?"

"Nah, I'll let Kakashi take over now. I'm bored."

"Seriously? It was just getting fun."

"Oh well, Zabuza. You have to deal with me now." Kakashi said, revealing his Sharingan.

"Heh, you need that to beat me? That says a lot about my skills, Kakashi."

"And THAT says a lot about Naruto's skills." Kakshi said, making Zabuza growl.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan!" Zabuza shouted, with Kakashi copying his every word and movement. The two Water Dragons crashed into each other, cancelling each other out. 'Dammit, this isn't going to end here! Just have to use that Jutsu…'

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" shouted Kakashi, seemingly reading Zabuza's thoughts.

'What?! That's just what I was going to do! Can he see the future or something?!' Zabuza thought as he was caught in a gigantic wave.

"Well, that's that. Now can we finish the mission?" Naruto asked.

"Nope, gotta check on him." Kakashi walked over to Zabuza and narrowed his eye, having now replaced his hitai-ate.

"H-how could I have been beaten?!" Zabuza sort of screamed, he couldn't quite manage his usual roar. "Can you see the future?!"

"Yes, and I foresee your death." As Kakashi finished talking, three senbon needles flew from nowhere and impaled themselves in Zabuza's neck.

"Thank you for weakening him for me, Konoha-nin. My task would've been much more difficult if it weren't for you." Came a feminine voice from the treetops. Naruto looked up to find a hunter-nin not much older than him standing there, more senbon between her fingers.

"The pleasure is all mine, hunter-san." Naruto said with a bow. The Hunter-nin nodded, collected the body and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"So, Naruto, why didn't you use your sword?" Neru asked, her fear gone now that Zabuza was taken care of.

"There was no need to. Zabu-chan would've gone down even if I didn't use Pestilence."

"Pestilence?"

"The gun."

"Okay, now let's get to Tazun-zzzz…" Kakashi started before falling unconcious.

"Argh, Kakashi you damn lightweight…"

And done! We're finally in the Wave Arc and the Darkness has shown itself twice more. It will be used a lot more in coming chapters, being that a lot of them are fights. We also have a new weapon, the sword (which is exactly the same as Paine's sword from FFX-2 by the way) and a new ability, Pestilence's Darkness Shot. These will both be used more, especially the sword. Lots of maiming to be done with that. So, till next chapter, seeya!