If this chapter is posted the same day as Chapter 5, then that means I'm not a total asshat. But if I do not post two chapters in one day, then I will do two thousand push-ups on my thumbs. And if I cannot do that, then I will one thousand squats, butt naked in the McDonalds parking lot. And if I cannot do that, then that means I have dignity!

Chapter 6: The Second Encounter

After hauling Kakashi down to Tazuna's place, Naruto, unceremoniously, dumped Kakashi on a futon, plopped down on the floor, and closed his eyes. His teammates watched him curiously as well as the Tsunami, the daughter of Tazuna, and her son, Inari.

Tazuna's family needed no explanation. They were well aware of Tazuna's venture to receive help from some shinobi village and they were very grateful; that is, except for Inari.

"What you're doing is pointless. Gato's men are just going to kill you like all the others before you." The boy had said before running up to his room. Naruto's ears could pick up the sound of soft sobs coming from what he figured to be Inari's room. Briefly, he wondered what exactly happened to cause the kid to be so cynical.

Naruto stood up and walked outside, intent on getting some training in.

"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked Naruto who was halfway out the door.

"Training." Naruto turned to face his Uchiha teammate. He began walking again, before Sasuke's next words registered to him.

"I want to fight you." Sasuke said seriously. Naruto turned to face Sasuke again with his purple eyes analyzing the Uchiha. Naruto smirked and replied, "Alright, I'll take you on, but don't expect me to take it easy on you."

Sasuke faced Naruto who seemed to have an air of confidence around him. If what he saw from Naruto meant anything, Naruto had a reason to be confident. Sasuke gritted his teeth. He made progress, sure, but compared to Naruto, to Zabuza, to Kakashi, he was pathetic. Frustration overtook Sasuke and he challenged Naruto before he had the ability needed to win against Naruto.

Currently, Naruto stood across from Sasuke with an unreadable expression on his face. Both boys had agreed to go into the forest for their skirmish. Sakura had insisted on being a referee. Her reason was, "to stop you two from killing each other."

'Understandable.' Naruto thought.

Sasuke crouched slightly, raising his hands to get into a fighting stance. Naruto did the same and Sakura declared that the fight had begun.

Sasuke immediately reached into his weapon pouch and retrieved some shuriken which he threw at Naruto. Naruto sidestepped the shuriken and countered with his own shuriken. Sasuke pulled out a kunai and deflected the shuriken. Naruto burst stepped behind Sasuke kicked Sasuke in the back. Sasuke tried to do a hand spring to regain his balance, but Naruto burst stepped with a slide and kicked Sasuke the air. Sasuke began flashing through hand signs as Naruto burst stepped above Sasuke and delivered a downward kick to finish the fight, but Sasuke blocked the kick with his shoulder. Sasuke winced as the hard kick nearly dislocated his shoulder. Turning his upper body, Sasuke shouted, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" He released a fairly large fireball from his mouth that appeared to catch Naruto, but Naruto burst stepped to safely and landed on the branch of a tree.

Wincing, he registered that his leg was burned pretty badly, but it was beginning to heal already. Crossing his fingers, he created a dozen shadow clones that immediately charged Sasuke with drawn, wind and fire chakra-empowered twin swords. Sasuke fired another fireball from his mouth, catching a few of the clones who didn't burst step in time. The remaining clones landed on the ground next to Sasuke and shot a fire blast from their swords at him. Sasuke jumped into one of the trees. Creating a lightning clone, he sent it out as a decoy. He watched as one of the Naruto clones burst stepped and sliced through the clone with a fiery blade. When the lightning clone turned back into lightning, the clone was electrocuted and it dispelled. Sasuke noticed that Naruto's burst step was becoming clearer. What appeared before as teleportation, now appeared to be a blur.

'Is he starting to slow down?' Sasuke pondered. Sasuke moved to a different tree and created another lightning clone. This time, he watched very carefully as a Naruto clone burst stepped and used a wind chakra-empowered blade to cut down the clone. The clone used the wind surrounding his blade to nullify the lightning.

As Sasuke focused solely on Naruto's movements, he noticed that he could actually follow the quick movements. Sasuke understood now. 'I have to predict his movements and act accordingly.' Sasuke was feeling optimistic. Pulling out a kunai, he shifted the kunai so he could create some lightning clones when something caught his attention. Reflecting from the kunai, were red eyes instead of his normal onyx ones. As his observed his eyes more closely, he noticed the tomoes: two in the right and one in the left. That would explain why he was starting to become accustomed to Naruto's movements, but from what he read on the Sharingan before, his Sharingan was already advanced. Is it possible he could have awakened his bloodline earlier? According to records, Uchihas awakened their Sharingan during moments of extreme emotional distress. The only moment that came to Sasuke's mind was when...

"Foster your hatred and despise me. Cling to your wretched life and when you have the same eyes as me, come after me."

It's possible his Sharingan was awakened when he attacked Itachi after the massacre. Just the thought was enough to make his blood boil. Finding his second wind, Sasuke created five lightning clones to combat Naruto's five shadow clones. Naruto's clones immediately noticed the difference in Sasuke's eyes.

Sakura gasped when she saw Sasuke's new eyes. 'The Sharingan!' Sakura thought in amazement.

A few of Sasuke's clones were taken out, but the rest seemed to quickly adapt to Naruto's fighting style, learning to anticipate the quick movements of the Burst Step.

Naruto's eyes widened as the information from his clones returned to him. 'Sasuke awakened his Sharingan? This battle just got so much more interesting.' Naruto smirked. His leg was mostly healed now.

Sasuke was immediately alerted by one of his clones being struck by a blast of wind. Naruto popped up from the ground with both of his swords drawn and began spinning in a circle while channeling fire and wind chakra to his weapons and releasing it. Fire came from all directions with Naruto at the center and all of Sasuke's clones were taken out.

The real Sasuke came out of hiding. Holding a kunai in his hand, he decided to charge lightning chakra into it. The lightning kunai crackled and Sasuke held it outwards. A lightning bolt shot from the kunai that headed toward Naruto. Naruto used his blade surrounded by wind chakra to nullify the lightning. Sasuke took the chance to charge at Naruto with surprising speed. The two genin clashed temporarily before jumping back and flashing through hand signs. Both shouted simultaneously, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Two massive fireballs came from the genins' mouths and clashed. Naruto's affinity to fire and Sasuke's years of practice with the jutsu made their fireballs somewhat equal.

Naruto, tired of the deadlock, crossed his fingers, while still blowing fire from his mouth, and created a Shadow Clone that flowed through a series of hand signs and bellowed, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The gust of wind combined with Naruto's fireball and added to the power of the fire. Sasuke's eyes widened and he focused as much chakra to his legs as he could manage and jumped to the side. Naruto's clone met him halfway and the two engaged in hand-to-hand combat. With the Sharingan, Sasuke had the advantage and quickly landed an attack on the clone. Sasuke's eyes pinpointed the incoming blur that sped past his side and attempted an attack. Sasuke spun quickly and shoved his kunai forward towards Naruto's throat as he felt cool metal on his own throat.

The two genin had caught each other in a fatal position.

Sakura declared the match over and ran over to her teammates. "Wow! That was so amazing! And Sasuke awakened his Sharingan." Sakura exclaimed.

Sasuke and Naruto withdrew their weapons. Naruto sheathed his swords and Sasuke returned his kunai to his pouch.

"That was a good performance, guys." All heads turned to address the familiar voice of Kakashi, whom was supporting himself with a wooden crutch.

"There are some things I need to inform you all about." Kakashi's voice became deathly serious, "Zabuza is still alive." He allowed the shocked genin time to take in the news. "Tracker ninja usually deal with body on the spot, but that one from before took the body away. Also, his weapon of choice, the senbon, are not lethal weapons, unless coated with poison." Kakashi continued.

"So you think that tracker was an ally of Zabuza?" Sasuke questioned.

"Most likely. If I had to guess, then I'd say we have a week, give or take a day, to prepare for the second encounter." Kakashi told his students.

"More training?" Naruto said with a smirk.

"Glad to see you're enthusiastic about this. Yes, we will be training for as long as we can." Kakashi finished with a smile.

Truthfully, Naruto was excited. He was a little more than frustrated that he had to stand back for most of the fight with Zabuza, so to hear that he had another chance to take the swordsman on was enticing.

*6 Days Later*

Throughout the week of training, Kakashi had taken a special interest in Sasuke. He taught the young Uchiha the Chidori by the use of lightning clones. Sasuke, himself, would work on strength and speed building, while the clones would learn how to perform the Chidori. Sasuke hadn't mastered it, but he was damn close.

Kakashi took notice of Sakura's near perfect chakra control and taught her how to channel enough chakra throughout any specific part of her body to greatly increase her strength. He also taught her more genjutsu and helped her develop her skill with Earth Style.

Naruto was a special case. With the amount of clones he could make, one week was the equivalent of a few months. In that theoretical time span, Kakashi aided in improving Naruto's chakra control to the point where he could channel fire chakra to his fist and wind chakra to his claws. Naruto also was now able to use his sword as a makeshift flamethrower. Naruto was miffed that Sasuke could track his Burst Step, so he commanded a group of clones to practice that technique until they dispelled. Now, his Burst Step was faster and he could perform it in rapid succession.

Naruto, too, had his limits. His seemingly endless chakra reserves aided in his quick progress, but the sheer amount of clones he created took its toll and he collapsed in exhaustion at the end of the fifth day.

"He's been working very hard, you all have been. He probably won't be waking up for a few days." Kakashi had told Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna's family.

"You all are just wasting your time. All the cool things you say and do don't matter. Heroes don't exist." Inari had uttered in response before running to his room, clutching something in his hand that looked like a picture.

Now, Team Seven was resting and relaxing before the big battle Kakashi predicted would occur the next day.

"What are we going to do about Naruto? Will he be awake when it comes time to fight Zabuza?" Sasuke asked Kakashi.

"There's a chance he will wake up in time, but that's a small chance. We must be prepared to fight without him." Kakashi replied and Sasuke nodded.

Sakura couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about fighting Zabuza and possibly the tracker ninja without Naruto. Sakura felt that without Naruto in the fight, winning would be much harder. Even though she might be a little afraid of Naruto, he was always something of a pillar of strength for Team Seven. He seemed so unbeatable and seeing him exhausted to the point of sleeping for days was a bit jarring. Thinking about Sasuke and his progress was enough to rid her of the gloomy thoughts.

'Yeah, that's right. Sasuke awakened his Sharingan and he's about to master an original jutsu straight from Kakashi-sensei! And I've improved a lot, too. We can't possibly lose' Sakura thought cheerfully.

*The Next Day*

"We're leaving him in your care for now. He's pushed his body way past his limits. He really overdid it. If he does wake up, he still won't be at one-hundred percent." Kakashi told Tsunami with a smile. Team Seven, minus Naruto, was about to head out with Tazuna to the bridge. There was a good chance that Zabuza would be attacking today so the whole team was going to guard Tazuna.

Tsunami nodded and smiled kindly and graciously. She watched as her father and the kind shinobi from Konoha walked to their destination.

When Team Seven, minus Naruto, arrived at the bridge, they were met with the sight of fallen construction workers.

Tazuna gasped, "What the hell?! Someone was here! Someone got to them!" Anger filled his body as he gazed upon the hurt faithful workers.

'So he's already here.' Kakashi thought.

"Where the hell is everyone? They didn't leave without me, did they?" The newly awoken Naruto said as he dashed into the kitchen.

Tsunami stopped washing the dirty dishes to regard the disgruntled genin, "Oh Naruto, you're finally awake. Your friends have left for the bridge already. They gave you the day off." Tsunami answered with a kind smile.

"Ah! Those bastards! I can't believe they ditched me!" Naruto shouted as he dashed back into the room where he slept for nearly two whole days. Throwing on his sleeveless red shirt, baggy black pants, black sandals, black arm warmers and topping it off with his high-collared, black jacket, Naruto dashed out of the door in a hurry, muttering a nearly incoherent, "Later," to Tsunami.

Naruto was running through the trees at great speeds when he noticed wreckage ahead of him. Coming to a stop, Naruto observed the damage: sliced trees, stray branches, and a cut-up boar. Concluding that the damage was caused by a swordsman, Naruto smelled the area and caught the scent of two males that headed into the direction of Tazuna's house. Naruto put heading to the bridge on hold in favor of checking out what these two were up to and why they were going to Tazuna's.

Two swordsmen walked up to the front door of the bridge-builder's house. Cutting through the door, the two men ran in surprising the woman who was currently in the kitchen.

"So you're the daughter of the bridge-builder. You're coming with us now." One swordsman said.

From upstairs, Inari heard a scuffle and his mother's shout. Quickly running down the stairs, he was greeted by the sight of his mother on the ground covering her head, two swordsmen, and a sliced table as well as numerous broken dishes.

"No! Inari, don't come down here!" Tsunami warned desperately.

The two swordsmen turned to regard the little boy. The taller one drew his sword, smirking. "Gato only said we had to capture one hostage. I'll kill the boy."

"Please no! He's just a boy. Please don't hurt him." Tsunami pleaded, "I-I'll do whatever you want, but please don't hurt him." Tsunami finished through gritted teeth.

The two swordsmen receeded back, sheathing their swords. "Your mother came through for ya, kid."

Inari cowered back to the top of the steps, too afraid to do anymore. As his mother was tied up and dragged out of the house, he thought about his ever-smiling mother, about the shinobi from Konoha, about his father.

'I'm too weak to do anything. I-I can't save my mom. I'm sorry mom. I'm so sorry. Daddy...' Inari thought as tears rapidly fell from his eyes. Even more tears fell from his eyes as he saw the swordsmen jump away from the property with his mother in tow. He brought his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He faintly heard the sound of rustling clothes, but he definitely heard the voice that said, "I'll get your mother back." And then, more rustling of clothes, and then nothing.

His head shot up as the voice registered after the person left.

'Naruto...'

Naruto replayed what he told Inari back in his head.

'I'll get her back alright, but not before these goons lead me straight to Gato.' Naruto thought with determination.

A smirk spread across Naruto's face. Gato will feel his wrath, and he will feel it soon, very soon.

Oh-ho! Gato gon' get it. And yes, I wrote the top part of this chapter before anything else, and I wrote it the day I posted chapter 5. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to eat some chicken nuggets.

Review if you wanna be a cool mofo!