Chapter Thirteen – Wave Breaking

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"AAAAAAARRRGHHH! IT'S ZABUZA!"

Zabuza stuck his finger in his ear and wriggled it slightly, then turned to face Kakashi.

"Got quite a set of lungs on her, hasn't she?"

Kakashi nodded while behind them, Haku giggled slightly.

"Sensei! It's… it's Zabuza!"

"And…?"

Kakashi's simple query caught Sakura completely by surprise and she stared at him as if he'd gone mad. From the stairs, Sasuke stared at them wide-eyed while Sai merely cocked his head in slight confusion.

"We proved to Zabuza that Gato was planning to betray him and kill him rather than pay him, so Zabuza's accepted our offer of employment and will join Konoha once our mission is over."

"…."

"…."

"…?"

"Come on, Zabuza, I think Naruto wanted a rematch."

"Sure thing. That kid has potential. Haku, get settled in and ask Anko what needs doing. I'll be playing."

The three genin watched as Kakashi and Zabuza walked off, then Sakura blinked as Sasuke walked past her.

"Good morning, my name is Uchiha Sasuke, last of my clan. May I know the name of such a beautiful girl as yourself?"

"My name is Haku and… I'm a boy."

Sasuke froze, as did Sakura.

"You're… a…"

"Boy." Haku finished with a slight smile.

For almost half a minute, everyone was motioness, then Sasuke seemed to crumple bonelessly onto the floor. Sakura yelped and dashed over to check the collapsed boy was alright while Tsuname and Inari, who had managed to recover from their shock, started to giggle.

"Does he do that often?" Haku asked and Anko shrugged.

"No idea, brat. Anyway, you're in with the genin, since you're about their age, while Zabuza's in with Kakashi and myself. Heh, now there's three Jonin, we can do a proper watch rotation."

Battle cries and the sound of metal striking metal echoed and Anko glanced round.

"Wow, I gotta see this. Pinky, once Emo's up, get Haku settled in. I've gotta see what Zabuza's teaching my gaki, and if I can learn any of it. See ya!"

They watched Anko jog off and then Haku turned back to face Sakura.

"Do you want help carrying him to where we are sleeping?"

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"What do you mean, Zabuza's vanished? How the hell am I going to kill him and claim his bounty if he's not around for me to turn on?"

Gato's voice rose from the square of parchment on which a complex seal was written. The three Jonin, four Genin and unranked Shinobi crowded round to listen.

"I don't care, we need to stop that damned bridge from being finished. Summon everyone, we move out at dawn tomorrow."

"Yes, even the nuke-nin! I want Zabuza's head on a platter."

Zabuza growled while Haku cocked his head in confusion.

"Why are we only hearing Gato?"

"It's the way the seal works." Naruto explained. "It was in a Fuuinjitsu book and is a spy seal meant for undercover operatives. It only transmits what they say since it relies on detecting and transmitting fluctuations in the users chakra that correspond to speech."

Haku's eyebrows rose during the explanation. "Impressive."

"So, that'll be a dozen nuke-nin in addition to how many? A hundred and forty? Should be plenty."

"Hmmm." Kakashi mused. "Naruto, we may need your friends for this."

"Hell yeah!" Zabuza enthused. "Those cats of yours are each at least high-genin, low-chunin, boosts our numbers and the other side will have no idea what the hell they are. Heck, first few times I sparred against them, I ended up getting licked. Literally."

Haku managed to hide his chuckle as a cough, but Zabuza glared at him suspiciously.

"So, when Gato chooses to deploy his minions, we keep Tazuna here…"

"With a few clones for security." Anko interjected.

"…with a few clones and my genin for security while we ride the Great Tigers into battle and send Gato's surviving minions running." Kakashi continued. "And if Gato's not there, we track him down. Sounds like a plan?"

"Has my vote." Zabuza grinned under his mask. "But why leave your genin here? They could be useful. As a distraction, if nothing else."

Kakashi sighed. "Anko's just got them working together. I'd rather not traumatise them out of being able to perform teamwork after all that effort teaching them."

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Gato fumed as he strode towards the bridge. His primary disposable weapon, the nuke-nin Zabuza, had vanished, leaving him to recruit new ninja to take down the Konoha nin that the damned bridge-builder had somehow conned into protecting him. At least he'd been able to get another eight nuke-nin overnight, bringing the total up to twenty, although only sixteen were with him. And with close to two-hundred thugs in his army, there was nothing that could stop him.

He bumped into the ninja who was walking in front of him.

The man had stopped.

"What's going on?" Gato yelled, forcing his way through to the front ranks of the mob. Breaking through, he looked round and felt his breath catch in his throat.

"I didn't like it that you were planning on backstabbing me and my son." Zabuza drawled from his position atop the largest feline that Gato had ever seen. "So when my new friends came to me with an offer of sanctuary and a new life, I said yeah. If you hadn't been such a traitorous teme, I'd still be on your side."

Gato stared at him, then another giant cat showed up, this one with a silver-haired figure perched on its back.

"We just emptied your safe." The figure said as he dropped down onto the ground. "All that info you were keeping secret, proof of your crimes and your criminal empire, all in our hands now. Even if you somehow survive this, you're going down."

"Kakashi-sensei!" yet another cat-rider appeared, this one blond. "One of my clones just dispelled, Gato sent four ronin and nuke-nin to seize Inari and Tsunami. Sai took one down, Sasuke took down the second, Sakura KO'd the third and my clones mobbed the last one. Sasuke wants to know if he can have one of the swords."

Gato felt his blood freeze as his intended trump card was destroyed.

"Well," said yet another cat rider, causing Gato to start sweating, "This looks like fun. How many ninja?"

"Sixteen." The silver-haired one said. "None of them above high-chunin. No problems."

"Dibs on Gato." Zabuza snarled. "I want to chop his damned head off."

"I have a better idea." The blond said. "Let's catch him and give him to the villagers."

"Oh, Gaki," the female smirked, "Keep coming up with ideas like that and I'll have to marry you."

Gato gulped as the tigers crouched, ready to attack.

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Sasuke and Sai dragged the last of the four corpses to by the trees, where Sakura was emptying the pouches and removing the weapons of the other three. A small pile of kunai and shuriken was close by, as well as several scrolls.

"Dibs on the chokuto." Sasuke said and Sakura nodded as she opened the scrolls to check them.

"The kunai are probably only good for scrap." Sai said, picking one up and looking at it curiously. "The shuriken are very unbalanced. What are in the scrolls?"

"This one's got a fire technique." Sakura said, rolling it up and tossing it to Sasuke. "This one… oooh, a medical scroll! This one… not a clue. Sai?"

Sai looked at it. "That is a storage scroll. I will unseal it."

Sai unrilled the scroll along the ground and channeled some chakra into it. A second later, there was an explosion of smoke and everyone stared at it.

Sasuke started salivating.

"Salad." Sakura said slowly. "Someone filled a storage scroll with… salad."

Sasuke lunged forwards and grabbed one of the tomatoes, biting into it with an expression of bliss.

"I guess smiles has dibs on the tomatoes too." Sai commented.

Sasuke glared at him before taking another bite.

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Gato had pissed his pants.

His army had attacked, only for a furry avalanche to hammer into it from the side as the five ninja before him had attacked, the youngest somehow creating a dozen more like himself and scything through the thugs as if they were blades of grass.

His nuke-nin had fared little better.

The ones who had homed in on the two men had been killed almost instantly, bisected by Zabuza or killed by assination strikes from the silver-haired man. Those who had gone after the woman were on the ground, dead or dying from snakebites delivered by snakes that the woman had somehow summoned from her sleeves.

The few that had attacked the one dressed as a Hunter-nin had been captured in blocks of ice.

The two who had gone after the brat had been sent flying by a backhand swing of the huge sword the kid was swinging around like a lethal paper fan.

Gato ran faster.

Behind him, the sound of combat died down, and a terrifying roar sounded. Another answered it from the left, then a third from the right.

They were hunting him!

Gato tried to run faster, if he could only reach his headquarters then…

Both he and his thoughts screeched to a halt as a pair of giant tigers burst out of the undergrowth and spun to face him. One of them pounced and Gato found himself pinned to the ground by a pair of giant paws on his shoulders while his attention was transfixed by a mouth full of fangs the size of kunai.

The two tigers growled to each other, then the one pinning him moved off him just as the second one grabbed his right arm in its jaws. The first one grabbed his left arm and Gato fainted as the two tigers hoisted him into the air.

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"Where's Naruto?"

Tazuna's urgent query cut through the air as the three Jonin and single chunin dismounted from their feline steeds.

"Ah, Gaki went to get you a gift." Anko joked. "He and Kaze'll be back soon."

"Kaze's back!" Inari shouted, "And… and… there's two of him?"

Anko looked round in confusion. Sure enough, Kaze had returned and was walking down the high street, Gato's arm in his mouth. Gato's other arm, however, was indeed being held by a second Kaze.

"…what…?"

The two Kaze's stopped in the middle of the town square and, almost as one, dropped the whimpering Gato onto the floor before backing up slightly. Exchanging satisfied looks, one of the Kaze's settled down into his normal sprawl while the second…

… was suddenly engulfed in a cloud of smoke which dispersed to reveal Naruto making faces and spitting.

"Bleurgh, Gato tastes terrible!" he spluttered, causing a wave of laughter. "No, I mean it! He tastes foul, dank, slimy… bleurgh! Thanks."

Naruto took a swig from the water canteen Sakura had handed him, swished the water round his mouth and spat it out onto a nearby flowerbed. Repeating a couple more times, he handed the canteen back with a nod of thanks.

"So, that was the Great Tiger Henge no Jutsu you've mentioned before, yes?" Kakashi asked. "I'm impressed. It's like a reversal of the Inuzuka tactics."

"Can't wait to show Kiba." Naruto smirked. "Anyway, I thought that I'd bring the village a little something, so here it is!"

Gato whimpered as he frantically looked for an escape route, but the villagers had formed a complete circle around him, many of them growling or snarling as they advanced on the author of their misfortunes.

"Naruto, gakis, let's go." Anko commanded. "We can visit Gato's base and grab the rest of his things while the villagers… celebrate, then return when they're done."

The villagers didn't notice the ninja departing.

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"Do you really have to go?" Inari asked, his eyes brimming with tears despite his best efforts.

"I'm afraid so, yes." Anko said, looking down at the boy who was hugging her. "Don't worry, brat, we'll visit you again some day."

"'m not a brat." Inari protested and Anko ruffled his hair.

"You need to grow a bit before I stop calling you that." Anko grinned. "But I really need to leave."

"Thanks for your help." Tazuna said, pumping Kakashi's hand. "And thanks for that gift, it'll really help us in rebuilding."

"Well, Gato had stolen quite a lot." Kakashi said with his standard eye-smile. "Even after taking what you would have owed us had you told the truth about the mission, there was still quite a bit left. Use it wisely now that the bridge is finished. Now, we really need to return to Konoha, our new Jonin needs to report in and find a place to stay."

"We have a few spare rooms at home, if you don't mind having the tigers around." Naruto said to Zabuza, who laughed.

"Mind? Kid, I love these tigers, excellent backup, fantastic steeds and always up for a good tussle! And you really need kenjitsu training, as does the emo with his new sword. I'll accept the rooms with thanks."

"Hey, Come on!" Anko shouted, having managed to extract herself from Inari's hug and mounted one of the tigers. "Daylight's burning!"

"See you all!" Naruto shouted, waving as Kaze started to walk back towards Konoha. "Stay safe!"

The villagers watched their saviours vanish into the trees, then Tsunami looked at the bridge behind them.

"So, what are you going to call it?"

"The Super Awesome Bridge That Tazuna Built!" Tazuna declaimed, then he looked round at the suddenly silent crowd.

"The Mitarashi Anko bridge?" Inari suggested.

"How about… The Great Tiger Bridge?" Tsuname said thoughtfully. "After all, it was the tigers who brought that bastard Gato to us for justice, and they fought alongside the ninjas as well."

A rumble of approval went through the crowd.