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The atmosphere surrounding Naruto grew twenty degrees colder. Trembling ever-so-slightly, the disguised shinobi youth turned around to face the person who had undoubtedly entered behind him. Surely enough, Zabuza's loyal servant greeted his worried glance.

"Shall I dispose of him, Master Zabuza?" Haku's liltingly gentile voice asked again, his mask covering his face entirely. There was a hint of suspicion that the question held, but Zabuza didn't seem at all perturbed beyond his normal level.

The Momochi sat up slowly, watched by Haku for every centimeter of the movement. His powerful arms pushed up against the gray blanket he had been using as a pillow to look at Naruto's henge more fully. "Well?" he asked, leaving his sentence hanging gruffly.

Naruto put a hand to his forehead, not entirely sure of what to say at this point. Yet again, he fought the urge to bolt. For his defense, he did have the fact that Gato's men were idiots. On the other hand, the ninja occupying the room with him were anything but inept. Both sets of eyes bore into him, he could feel Haku's optical intensity despite the mask hiding them from view.

"I…" Naruto stammered in the bandit's voice, "I'm sorry I disturbed you, sirs… I was just looking for Gato, and he doesn't seem to be in the normal places. I though he might be in here." Sweat trickled down Naruto's face as he waited for the verdict from Zabuza's covered lips.

"Well, he's not." Zabuza pointed out hoarsely before glaring. "Get the hell out of my room, and tell your master to leave a note."

"..Yes, yes sir." Yoriiji's voice replied with uncertainty. Before Haku had the chance to remove him by force, Naruto had left the room. The masked boy stared into the hallway before turning to Zabuza, who nodded.

"Follow him."

Naruto breathed in deeply. He was sure that he was going to die moments prior, and be condemned to relive the day yet again. He hoped that whatever force had just spared him would keep it up until his next sleep cycle, because he wasn't too keen on failing just yet. Failing wasn't something he was keen on as a general rule, anyway.

Naruto's euphoria of relief didn't last very long. The truth was that he was no closer to finding Gato and his documents than he had been before the tense run-in with his enemies. Thankfully, a real messenger passed him an instant later, and Naruto, having run out of brilliant ideas, followed him.

The messenger was a stout middle-aged guy with very little hair on his head. Beyond that, Naruto couldn't really make any observations. The next two minutes were spent with his eyes trained on the bad comb-over the mercenary sported.

It didn't seem soon enough when the man ahead of him finally stopped to open a door. With a deliberate shove, 'Yoriiji' muscled past the guy to enter a rather dark room. Granted, every room in the bungalow had been dark, utthis one seemed even less illuminated. Whether it was the lack of natural light or the presence of Gato himself, Naruto couldn't be sure. He just knew that he really wished he were someone else the moment he stepped foot into the closed space.

"I thought I sent you with the interception force." came a greasy voice from the very back of the chamber, sitting in a chair that vaguely reminded Naruto of a throne. That was, of course, if there hadn't been a desk in front of it. No king in his right mind would put a desk in front of his symbol of power. Gato was no monarch-he was a lude businessman.

Gato was not alone. Several forbidding men flanked him on either side. They ranged in height, but all of them had a combined odor that wafted throughout the room. Perhaps that was where the darkness came from, Naruto thought wryly.

"Why did you come back? Are you just going to stand there?" Gato pressed from behind his sunglasses, which were hardly necessary in a room so shadowed. It crossed Naruto's mind to wonder how the villainous man could see at all. Instead of pondering the vexing question, Naruto cleared his throat to do exactly as he had planned.

"Sir, we have found the intruders!" he barked, causing Gato's eyebrows to lift.

"Good, then. Why are you alone? Who are they?"

"Sir, there's a problem…" he tried to sound as insecure as a lackey would, and judging by the reactions of both Gato and the men in his posse, he pulled it off nicely. In a flash, the minor smile formed on Gato's face was replaced by an expression of frustration.

"What kind of problem?" the high roller asked dangerously, voice beginning to hiss.

Naruto cleared his throat again to report nervously, "Well, sir, the intruders are ninja… and they seem to have gotten away. We've suffered heavy casualties."

"Peh, to believe I pay you lot so much." Gato scoffed coldly. "I suppose you're going to ask for backup?"

"H-hai." Naruto nodded under his visad, only to have Gato slam his hand on thedesk before him, scattering papers to the warped wooden floorboards. He couldn't help but look over a few of them, but in te dark with the small text, he could make out nothing but useless lumps against a white blue.

"Fine, then. Have your backup. Take ten more men." Naruto felt his heart sink a little, he had been hoping he could get Gato to part with more than ten, which the rich scumbag had already picked and poined at the exit.

"…Ten, sir? We could barely contain them with more than a dozen!" he shouted, unsurprised to see Gato smirk at him.

"It's a good thing I didn't pay them in advance, then."

In the seconds that followed, Naruto found himself twitching ever so slightly. When he was younger, there would have been no way he would have allowed the old man to get away with treating his own men like that. Even though the men were criminals, they were human, weren't they? Sure, he should have been grateful that there were less of them, but he began to wonder if he could rile the other mercenaries into a rebellion if nothing else worked.

"Leave, Yoriiji." Gato boomed, pointing at the doorway, which was now occupied by the messenger he had shoved earlier. The balding man was just as homely in the front as he had been from behind, so Naruto couldn't tell if he was being given the evil eye or if the guy's face was naturally set in the expression. Whether it was the ugly mug boring into his face or Gato's words, Naruto whipped around and ran towards the desk.

Haku had watched Gato deal with his own men in the past, but never in this particular predicament. Gato's men didn't often lose. Their numbers were high and their opponents were weak civilians. Watching the mercenaries be defeated and abandoned by Gato himself brought to life expectatios he already had. Haku hadn't predicted any mercy from the man in the black suit. Then again, he hadn't predicted Yoriiji's response, either.

"You bastard." the man who was now bent over Gato's papers growled. Gato grinned, excited to see such gusto. With a single slate of the hand, his bodyguards had their various utensils of destruction pointed at the traitor's neck.

"You would leave us to die like you would kill the Demon of the Mist when his task his complete? Is that how you reward us? WE AREN'T ANIMALS!" he snarled, drawing back his upper lips.

From the shadows, Haku stopped breathing. That caught his attention quite well.

"Really?" Gato asked, cocking his head to the side. "Then what are you? No one else wants you. You kill, you take, you ravage and destroy without any second thoughts. You show no mercy to your targets, so why should I show mercy to you, who are without honor?"

"At least we finish what we start, you selfish brat! We do our own dirty work!" Yoriiji screamed again, getting spittle on his former boss's face.

Gato grimaced and snapped his fingers. He'd had enough of this rebels antics. He waited for the weapons of his guards to penetrate his prisoner. When they didn't come on command, Gato made a strange sound and looked up to find why the hell they hadn't.

Haku's ice mirrors surrounded the entire group, and out of the various mirrors the hands grasped and pinned Gato's right-hand men in various ways. There were some loud cracks that followed as the men in question were debilitated or killed, but Yoriiji's body was left without harm or restraint. The evil taskmaster looked on in horror as the tables were turned with vicious efficiency.

"The joke's on you, Gato." Yoriiji's lips curled into a grin, which slowly became smaller and far more mischievous, along with the body accompanying it. Naruto was himself again, and the blonde couldn't help but quip, "I'm not fired, I quit."

Author's note: I am happy at how this turned out, I think. I hope you were, too.