"Man. I am thankful that you are not like that Jaffar." Chrono mumbled as he watched Kiba boasting loudly while Sakura hovered around Sasuke.
Kurenai and Kakashi was beside Tazuna with Shino. Naruto, Hinata and Chrono's group was somewhat behind Kakashi and Kurenai as they contiuned teaching them in their fighting style, although Chrono defused a ticking bomb early with Sasuke who demanding them to teach him. That only got Sasuke a new bruise to nurse from Nino and Emerald, who didn't take to Sasuke's way of asking very nicely.
"I hope we can fight someone soon." Naruto said.
"What can you fight with? You'll just stand there cowering in fear." Kiba retorted back.
"Kiba-kun!" Hinata exclaimed as she looked at Naruto.
"Knock it off." Chrono mumbled while he kept his temper in check.
"Or what?" Kiba retorted.
"Or I'll sent Jaffar at you." Chrono retorted before looking at Jaffar.
He then saw Jaffar's dead serious face as he was looking at the ground.
"What's up?" Nino asked.
"It hasn't rained and there's the puddle here." Jaffar replied.
Everyone stopped and turnned to see the said puddle.
"Hmm. Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke. Protect Tanuza." Kurenai said.
The said genin took up their stations around the said man as Kakashi, Kurenai, Chrono and his group prepared to fight.
The water grew until is resembled two human shape. Suddenly, the two figures rushed out ot Kakashi and ensnared him in a sharp chain. The pair pulled and Kakashi was servered.
"One down." One of the chained men said before rushing at Kurenai.
Chrono sighed as he snapped his fingers. The earth rose slightly and tripped the chained men, causing them to stumble forward. Sasuke took this advantage to pull out a kunai and shuriken and throw them at the chain with the shuriken first. The chain was pinned down to the earth effectivly causing the chained men to fall to the dirt again. They quickly disconnected the chain and rushed pass Kurenai and toward the genin group before three things happened. Kakashi jumped out of the bushes and clothlined one of the men as Kurenai activated a genjutsu and forced that ninja asleep while Chrono and Jaffar rushed in and tackled the second attacker, effectivly knocking him backward just enough so Chrono would pin his sword on his throat.
The rest of the group save Shino was slightly shaken at the brief fight that happened. Naruto and Sakura was shaken while Kiba looked around hoping for more enemies to come out and attack.
"That should stop them. Now then, Kakashi. Can you take him? " Chrono muttered.
Kakashi nodded as he siezed the man and dragged him over to a tree with Kurenai while Sasuke landed and smirked.
"Are you ok, Scardy cat?" Sasuke taunted as he looked at Naruto.
Naruto got highly offended. Just as he started to open his mouth, Nino and Emerald placed a hand on him.
"Don't worry Naruto. You'll do great next time." Nino muttered with a smile.
Naruto nodded slightly as Chrono and the others came back. Kakashi did not have good news.
"Tanuza. You didn't tell us that there was going to be ninjas on this mission. You are very lucky that none of our pupils were killed." Kakashi muttered.
"This mission is classified at a B ranked mission." Kurenai muttered.
"Well... we can't afford an expensive B ranked mission. We can only afford a C ranked mission." Tanuza said.
That caught Chrono's interest.
"What do you mean you can only afford C ranked mission. Isn't your country decently well off?" Chrono asked.
"Well. There's this man named Gato and he's controlling all the water shipping routes. Because of that, most of Wave island is poor. So I decided to make a bridge. But Gato then started sending ninjas after the workers. Everyone was injured until I'm the only one left. I had to gather up the little remaining money I had and hire some ninjas." Tanuza said.
"Hmm. That is something." Emerald muttered as she looked over to Chrono, Kakashi, and Kurenai.
"What do you think Chrono?" Nino asked.
"Sounds like they need some liberation." Chrono replied.
Emerald and Nino smiled.
"What about you?" Jaffar muttered looking at Kurenai and Kakashi.
"We'll leave it up to the genins. Offically, we should turn back to Kohona." Kurenai said.
"No! We can handle it!" Kiba exclaimed.
"We have ten able fighters with us. We can handle it." Shino said.
"Hai." Hinata muttered quietly.
Naruto and Sakura nodded as Sasuke smirked.
"Hmm. Then it's settled." Kakashi muttered to a relieved Tanuza.
Eventually, the night came early to the group as everyone set camp up. Naruto and Hinata saw Chrono and his group already finished setting up their camp.
"Chrono, can we continue our lessons?" Naruto asked eagerly.
Chrono looked and saw that Sasuke and the rest of the group was looking at him. Chrono sighed.
"Not tonight Naruto." Chrono muttered as he saw Jaffar standing there.
"You keeping watch Jaffar?" Nino asked looking at him.
"Yes." Jaffar replied.
"Ok. Night Jaffar." Emerald said as she and Nino went into the tent and fell asleep.
Everyone quickly fell asleep until Chrono was the last one who was awake with Jaffar.
"Jaffar, care to help me in a matchmaking attempt?" Chrono asked with a slight smirk on his face.
Jaffar nodded as he got up.
"I'll get Hinata. You get Naruto and his sleeping bag." Chrono said.
The pair went and retrieved their target and set them down. Chrono then quickly went to work as he placed Hinata in the sleeping bag with Naruto and he made sure that Naruto's arms were in a position that he was hugging her. After all was said and done, Chrono smiled as he made Jaffar swear not to reveal their hand in this before he went to sleep.
*Mindscape: Naturo*
The sight of the newly changed area met Naruto as he looked around the open green plains. His eyes explored the plains until his eyes laid on a fimilar and somewhat hated sights of Kyuubi.
"Naruto. You came to me." Kyuubi said as she turnned to face him.
"What do you want?" Naruto asked.
"I just want to hold you close to me." Kyuubi replied with a smile.
Naruto backed up.
"Why should I trust you? You made my life a living hell!" Naruto retorted.
As soon as the words left his mouth, he instantly regreted them as Kyuubi started to tear up.
"It's not my fault. It was him. His eyes made me go crazy. He wouldn't stop saying that Kohona needed to die." Kyuubi sniffed.
Naruto looked unsure on what to do and decided to at least pat her on her shoulder. Kyuubi sniffed a bit before smiling.
"Thank you. Just be careful of the traitor god." Kyuubi said before Naruto faded out.
*Path to Wave: Morning*
Hinata was the first one to wake up. She groaned as her eyes slowly adjusted to the morning light. As soon as her eyes focused, her sights closed in on a blonde haired boy in very close quarters with her.
'I slept with Naruto-kun. I slept with Naruto-kun. IsleptwithNarutokun.'
Hinata's mind was about to explode when Kiba came out of his tent yawning and spotted the pair.
"Teme! What the hell are you doing Naruto!?" Kiba yelled as he ran over to the pair.
Everyone woke up and everyone but Naruto ran out to see the commotion. Naruto saw his position and jumped out of the sleeping bag and rushed behind Chrono and Jaffar.
"Geez. Kiba, learn subtle message of the moment." Chrono mumbled as he saw the sight.
Sakura looked at the scene and witfully wished that Chrono would do that to Sasuke while said boy snorted before heading back into the tent to prepare for the day. Soon enough, the group is back on the road with Naruto walking with Chrono's group. The road soon lead to a body of water as they saw three boats.
"Expecting us are we?" Kurenai asked as Tanuza walked to the boat.
Everyone got into the boats and soon enough, they started to jet toward Wave Country. Chrono flew beside them as Kakashi decided to asked him a question.
"Chrono, I want to know something." Kakashi said.
"Go ahead." Chrono replied.
"Complete mastery of an element requires the user to undergo training until they can use the element to a certain extent. Then here you come, only eighteen ish years old and already you have mastery of all four elements. How did you do that?" the white haired man asked.
Everyone looked at Chrono wondering how he was going to answer the question.
"Hmm. Sometimes I wonder myself." Chrono replied as he made the air around him compress abit before flying below the water and up repeatedly.
"Looks like you are not going to get any answers from him anytime soon." Kiba muttered with a snort.
"We have our secrets Kiba. Chrono is no exception. He'll tell us when he's ready." Shino replied.
"Yeah. His secrets is too sensetive for anyone to know at the moment." Jaffar stated.
"What is his secret?" Sasuke asked.
"We don't even know his secret." Nino said as she looked at the bubbled form of Chrono under the water.
"We met him at one point or another. Out of all the things he said, he never once mentions his secrets." Emerald said.
Chrono overheard the conversation through the energy stones and replied with a quiet 'thank you'. Soon enough, fog rolled into the area and soon enough, an unfinished bridge came out of the fog.
"Is that it?" Hinata asked.
"Yup." Tanuza replied.
"So we are to protect you on this bridge?" Sakura asked looking at the said bridge.
"That's the mission." Sasuke replied.
They passed under the bridge to see a beautiful port village. The sun shined calmly as they ported and disembarked. Chrono landed on the deck and looked around.
"This is a calm village." Hinata said.
"Yeah. I hope our trip to Tanuza's house is uneventful." Jaffar muttered.
"Yeah." Nino said as everyone followed Tanuza out of the port and took a path toward his village.
On the way over, a dense fog engulfed the group.
"Of all the luck we have, we had to deal with fog." Chrono muttered.
"Is it always this foggy on Wave Island?" Shino asked.
"It's not this foggy." Tanuza replied looking around.
Naruto heard something in the bushes and on reflex, tossed a kunai toward the bushes. Everyone stood still as Chrono activated his sky eyes and searched the area that Naruto threw the kunai at.
"There's nothing there." Chrono stated as Kakashi walked over to the bushes to see a white rabbit.
'The fur is white only in winter. It must have been kepted indoors.' Kakashi thought before he heard a swoosh.
"Everyone down!" Kakashi yelled as he pulled out a kunai and jumped over the flying blade.
Chrono and Jaffar pulled out their swords and also jumped over the blade while everyone else hit the dirt to avoid the spining blade of death. Everyone got back up to see the blade land in a masked man's hands.
"Who are you?" Kakashi demanded.
"Hakate Kakashi. Master of over 1000 ninjutsus. Also known as the 'copycat' Kakashi. I'm honored." The masked man said.
"You're Zabuza. The Demon of the Mist." Kurenai stated as she pulled out her kunai.
"I'd watch your back if I were you." Zabuza said.
Jaffar got the sinking feeling, turnned and quickly blocked several fireballs that nearly slammed into him.
"That's what I expect from a mere human like you." Another voice called out from the mist.
Chrono, Team 8, and Emerald turn to see another winged man walking toward them. Unlike Zabuza, he had two kunais already out as his black ninja gear came custom with wing slits for his grey foreboding wings to come out.
"Who are you!?" Chrono demanded as he eyed the new man.
"I'm like you, Chrono. A traitor to our kind and friend to none. But for you, just call me Zuuma." Zuuma replied.
"Zuuma? The God of Death!?" Chrono muttered visably going white.
Jaffar and Emerald took note of this.
"Chrono, we can beat him." Emerald said.
"No he can't. I am far stronger then the God of War." Zuuma said.
The genins looked at Chrono, then to Zuuma.
"So... let's fight for our lives." Zuuma muttered as he pointed at Chrono.
A sudden pillar of fire erupted below him, not giving him enough time to protect himself from the fire. All of the genins looked shocked as Chrono came flying out of the pillar. Zuuma took to the air and rushed toward Chrono, who prepared his sword and magic for the attack. Emerald prepared her bow and arrow while Nino started chanting a spell for an illusion. The genins were split on either helping Kurenai and Kakashi or aiding Chrono and his group. Over it all, Zuuma screamed his battle cry.
"Let this be your requeim!"