Welcome back True Believers! Summer is in full swing and the action is just begining to heat up for our young heroes. Now, I should've mentioned this before, but it had slipped my mind at the time. This story is set before the events of Avengers Disassembled and the House of M, kind of what I'd call the 'idyllic age" of Marvel, before everything got screwed up. But enough chatter, let's get back to the story. One of Team 7 is about to discover something about themselves that will change the course of history for Konohagakure! What is it you ask? Read on to find out..
Chapter 7: Calm Before the Storm.
The morning sun had risen just above the treetops as day broke over the Land of Waves. In their nests, a multitude of forest birds spread their wings and shook the dew from their feathers before greeting the new day in a melodious chorus of chirps and tweets. On the surface of the nearby lake, a group of frogs joined their winged friends' song with their own tune. Just out of their tongues' reach, a few dragonflies buzzed around lazily in the crisp morning air. To any nature lover, such wondrous serenity was sheer bliss. Sadly, it was to be albeit short-lived.
"Tree-climbing?!" shouted Naruto in disbelief, shattering the stillness of the morning. In a secluded section of the forest near Tazuna's home, Team 7 and their sensei had gathered to begin the 'special training' regiment that Kakashi had told them about. However, his idea of 'training' didn't really seem to sit well with the three Genin.
"That's right," nodded Kakashi, who was supported by a pair of crutches that Tsunami had lent him. This way, he could a least be mobile and train his squad while he recovered. Despite this, it was still a pain to move around.
"How would that qualify as training?" questioned Sakura inquisitively.
'What a waste of time,' glowered Sasuke.
"Just hear me out you three," reasoned the silver-haired Jounin earnestly. "This won't be like ordinary tree-climbing. You won't be allowed to use your hands... at all." Now he had their attention.
"Okay, but how?" asked Sakura, her interest piqued by the Copy-nin's words.
"Heh, watch and learn," returned his sensei. Kakashi then shut his eyes and formed a dual handed ram seal. Immediately, a slightly visible halo of blue chakra could be seen encompassing his feet from the ankle down. Following a moment of silence, he then proceeded to walk straight up the tree with the same ease he would stroll along the ground. He finished his performance by standing upside down on a tree branch. "And, that's it in a nutshell."
"Okay, now that's cool," said Naruto in amazement. 'It's like watching Spidey climb walls back in New York. This is gonna be awesome!!
"Focus all of the energy of your chakra into the soles of your feet and use that power to climb up the trunk," Kakashi explained as he looked down at his students from his precarious perch. "This is the kind of thing you can accomplish once you have mastery over your own chakra."
"But, Kakashi-sensei, how will climbing trees help us get stronger?" asked Sakura.
"I was just getting to that," commented the Jounin in question. "The point of this exercise is to gain greater mastery over your own chakra. To use no more than is necessary, yet maximize its effectiveness in where and how it is applied. The subtle control is the most critical aspect of every jutsu and technique you'll ever apply. It's also the most difficult skill for even a superior shinobi to master. The type of tree-climbing you'll be doing requires the most fine and delicate application of chakra imaginable, especially since the bottom of the foot is the most difficult spot to manipulate one's energies. Basically, once you master control, no jutsu should be beyond you... in theory."
Upon hearing that last statement, Naruto's eyes lit up in excitement. If what Kakashi was saying was true, then he could be able to master any of his biological father's techniques he'd read about in his family's library. He'd had his heart set on learning Minato's signature move, Hirashin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Jutsu), for quite a while and this training could bring him that much closer to it.
"The secondary objective of this exercise," Kakashi continued, "is to build up enough stamina necessary to complete your task once the chakra has been focused. If you think that this looks hard, it's even more difficult to maintain your chakra while using ninjutsu. As you may have noticed previously, circumstances are constantly changing, and a true shinobi must be able to manipulate and maintain chakra on the fly, if he hopes to prevail. Time isn't a luxury you'll always have. So, while you're climbing trees, you'll be learning skills that may save your lives some day. But, enough talking, the only way to learn is by doing."
On that note, a pair of kunai flew from his hands and impaled themselves into the ground in front of Sasuke and Sakura. "Use those kunai to score a mark at the highest point you climb to, Naruto can use his claws to do the same. Your goal is to make a mark on a higher spot each try until you reach the top. Choose your trees and begin when you are ready."
Nodding in acknowledgement, Naruto followed his team's lead and formed the same seal that Kakashi had a moment ago, shutting his eyes in concentration. A second later, a halo of blue chakra appeared around his feet, causing the surrounding grass to bend from the force of the release as though brushed by a gentle breeze. Unsheathing his plasma claws, he took a running start at the tree and attempted to ascend. He managed to plant both his feet against the bark before falling flat on his back. A second later, he heard an imposing crunch! off to his left and turned to see Sasuke rebound off his tree, a deep impression of his foot remaining in the bark about a foot or two from the ground. 'This is harder than it looks,' thought Naruto as he got to his feet and looked up at his own tree. 'Apply too little force and I won't adhere at all. Apply too much and I'll get the same result as Sasuke. I've got to stay focused if I want to get this down!'
"Hey, this is easier than I thought," giggled Sakura from a branch halfway up her tree. She was sitting there, swinging her legs back and forth lazily with an almost impish smile on her face. Down below, Sasuke smirked slightly.
"Well, now we know which of you three has the best chakra control," said Kakashi, who was still hanging upside-down.
'Whoa, Sakura's good,' thought Naruto as he watched her leap nimbly to the ground. He was just about to attempt another ascent when he noticed something peculiar. As Sakura landed, a burst of gleaming, golden orbs, barely visible to the naked eye, discharged from the soles of her feet in a small arc and then vanished. For a second, Naruto stood there in unblinking disbelief. 'What was that?! How did she...?'
Sakura simply stood there and smiled at the group, who still regarded her with amazement. Though only Naruto had seen the energy orbs, both Kakashi and Sasuke were quite impressed by her chakra control to say the least. "Well," began Kakashi, "comprehending the use of one's own chakra and manipulating it successfully is quite and achievement. Of the three of you, so far I'd say that Sakura is the closest to overtaking Sandaime-sama. But, Naruto and Sasuke, you two aren't that far off. Let's train for a few more hours then break for lunch, how's that sound?"
"Fine by me," Naruto grinned as he got to his feet and readied himself for another attempt. Out of the corner of his eye, he took one last glance at Sakura before breaking into a fast run towards his tree. 'I'll talk to her about it when we get a break. She probably has no clue about it anyhow. Until then, I'll focus on giving Sasuke-teme a run for his money!'
And so he did. Three hours later, all three members of Team 7 were slumped at the base of their respective trees in exhaustion. Sakura had gained the most ground out of them, making it to the apex of her tree each time she ascended. Sasuke and Naruto were still lagging behind though, having both made it to about a third of the way up the tree. Needless to say, all of them were more than elated when Kakashi called for their lunch break. Just as they headed back to Tazuna's home, Naruto called Sakura back. "Hey, Sakura," he said, keeping his voice low to ensure Kakashi and Sasuke couldn't hear him. "Could you help me get the hang of this?"
"Ugh, you're hopeless," Sakura exclaimed. "Okay, it takes a lot of mental energy to generate and manipulate chakra, so getting stressed or distracted is out of the question. You need to take it easy, relax, and focus on the tree until you can feel exactly how little or how much chakra you'll need to center in the soles of your feet. Here, let me show you."
She took a step towards a nearby tree and shut her eyes in concentration. As she did so, a halo of energy appeared around her feet as before, but it was different than other chakra signatures. The energy was golden and, after a moment, it began to fluctuate and expel the same glistening orb-like masses Naruto had seen before. Before his very eyes, the orbs began to flash and blink as if they were fireflies on a summer's eve. A second later, Sakura sensed his gaze and broke her concentration. "What?" she asked in an irritated tone.
"Sakura, look at your feet," Naruto said. She looked to where he was pointing and gasped upon seeing what surrounded her feet. The presence of the energy startled her so much that, as she stumbled backwards, she tripped over one of the tree's roots and fell flat on her butt. Normally, she would've been embarrassed out of her mind by something like that, but the fact that her feet were glowing like they were radioactive had taken priority at the moment.
"What's happening?!" she panicked, attempting to brush off the glowing substance that encompassed her feet. "What is that?!"
"Whoa, calm down Sakura," Naruto said reassuringly. "Just take a deep breath and calm down."
Still a bit frightened by what was going on, Sakura did as she was told and tried to steady her breathing. As she did so, she saw that the energy around her feet began to dim and the orbs become less prevalent. It was in that moment that panic was lost and her own curiosity took over. She watched in mute amazement as the energy began to alter in strength and brilliance with her will. "Wow," she breathed in awe before turning to look at Naruto. "What is this stuff?"
"I-I think its beta energy," replied the blonde as he caught one of the orbs in his hands. It glowed brightly for a moment, resembling a miniature star, then fizzled and dissipated as Sakura had willed it to; at the same time, she had calmed down enough that the energy around her feet had vanished. "One of Spider-Man's friends, Cardiac, can produce it with just a wave of his hand and create concussive blasts with it. This is what it must look like in its raw, unfocused form."
"Okay, but what does this mean?" asked Sakura, growing more confused by the second.
Naruto looked up at her with a slight grin on his face. "I think it means that you're a mutant," he said proudly.
"You mean... I'm like you?" questioned the puzzled kunoichi, a look of both confusion and worry on her face.
"Sort of," reasoned the young X-Man. "Mutants are people who are born with a genetic mutation called an X-Gene, which is simply an extra strand in our DNA. This one strand causes our bodies to develop abilities that regular humans can't. Now most of the time, mutants develop these abilities during puberty. But there are others, myself included, who display them from birth. You're probably the same way too; your excellent chakra control probably just masked your abilities so that you didn't think they were anything besides that."
"So, this is a good thing, right?" Sakura asked, a hint of concern in her voice. "I mean, I'm not in any danger, am I?"
"Of course not!" Naruto said as he knelt down and his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Look, its okay to feel a little weirded out by this. I can't remember a mutant I've met who wasn't freaked out by the fact that they were a mutant. It's not the end of the world. For you, this is as natural as... well, liking Sasuke-teme for example, or hating Ino-chan for that matter. It's just who you are, nothing more and nothing less."
"So, I'm still..." began Sakura, searching for the right words to say, "you know, normal?"
"As normal as the day I met you," grinned the blonde warmly. "It's just, now you know that you're a mutant. Other than that, nothing's changed at all. Look, let's head back to Tazuna's and get some lunch before Kakashi-sensei and the others get worried. I'll tell you more along the way if you have any more questions."
"... Alright," replied the pink-haired kunoichi, standing to join her friend on his walk back to Tazuna's home. Though she was still confused, Sakura couldn't help but feel a little excited. She was probably the first mutant kunoichi to ever come from her village! She also wondered what all she could do with this beta-energy stuff she could create. If what he'd aid about that Cardiac guy was true, she could do the same thing if she practiced at it. The possibilities were endless. As she fell in step next to Naruto, she began to ask him more about what Cardiac could do, and what effects that beta energy had.
'This is great!' thought Naruto as he explained what he could to Sakura. 'We're one step closer to Xavier-Oij-Sama's dream. Zabuza had better watch out next time we meet up, 'cause we've got a few new tricks up our sleeve this time.'
Three Days Later...
Mid-afternoon, following yet another grueling training session, Team 7 (minus Kakashi) found themselves strolling through the nearby city with Tazuna on escort duty. Seeing as Kakashi had said they'd finished for the day, they thought they'd take in the sights; which worked out well, seeing as Tazuna had been sent to pick up some items for Tsunami. As they meandered through the crowded marketplace, the Genin looked on in sad amazement as they saw people and children sitting at the corners of the surrounding buildings in search of a handout. More than once they heard someone yell 'Stop, thief!' and saw a man run by with either a purse or billfold in his clutches.
"What is it with this town?" wondered Naruto aloud. No sooner had he said this, than he felt a tug on his arm and looked down to see a boy about Inari's age standing there with his hands out in a pleading manner. Feeling a sense of deja-vu, Naruto gave the child a handful of saltwater taffy he'd brought along and patted him on the head.
"This is the way it's been since Gatou moved in," commented Tazuna as they watched they boy leave, a content smile on his face. "We've been reduced to a city of fools and slackers. That's why the bridge is so important! It will be an emblem of courage. Maybe the people who've taken the path of least resistance will be willing to walk the road of courage and dignity again. If we can only complete it, I truly believe that our city, and our people, can be what they were once again."
'Again, this Gatou guy gets his way,' brooded Naruto as the group continued on their way. 'Whether it's here, Japan, Los Angeles, New York, or Latveria, it makes no difference. There's always some Kingpin running rough shot over the little people, just to make a quick buck!' Just as they neared a grocery store, Naruto spotted something out of the corner of his eye that made him do a double take. What he saw was a tall man sitting at a wicker table at an outdoor cafe, a silver suitcase handcuffed to the arm of his chair. He wore a dark brown, leather trench coat, slouch hat which completely hid his face, black fingerless gloves, and black Marines-issue combat boots. Even though he couldn't see his face, Naruto knew him by his scent and grinned at the memory of the last time he'd seen the man. 'Now, what could you be doing here?'
At that moment, the rest of the group had reached the grocery store Tazuna had mentioned. "Hey dobe," called Sasuke in annoyance, "what's up? Aren't you coming?"
"I'll be there in a sec," replied Naruto with distant tone in his voice. "There's just something I want to check on is all."
"Hmph," shrugged the Uchiha as Naruto walked over to the cafe. 'They probably have a ramen special there or something.' Once he heard Sasuke close the door to the store, Naruto strode casually towards the man until he was standing next to the chair in front of the stranger. Noticing his presence, the man looked up to reveal a handsome, chiseled face, with a chin bristled with stubble and eyes as cold as those of Zabuza. "Well," said the man after a moment, "look who's here."
"Good to see you too," joked Naruto. He calmly sat down across from the man and stared at him intently. The figure before him returned his gaze with one that sent a chill through his spine, even though he didn't show it whatsoever. Naruto had only met this man on three separate occasions in his lifetime and each time they crossed paths, those eyes still un-nerved him to no end.
"What're you doin' here Kit?" the man asked curtly after a moment, setting aside the newspaper he'd been pretending to read earlier.
"I could ask you the same thing," answered Naruto, retaining his calm composure. "Last I checked, you don't travel out of the U.S. that much, not unless something big is going on."
The man sighed audibly at the truth of his statement and cast a cautious glance over one shoulder. "About a month ago," he began in a low, haunting voice, "one of my informants in L.A. told me that some 'sensitive' items have been shipped to someone inside the Elemental Nations. Guns, stolen tech, drugs, contraband, a few rare artifacts, even a couple of top secret documents recently stolen from Stark Industries. All of it has been shipped to one spot in the Five Nations."
"The Land of Waves."
"Exactly," continued the stranger. "Now, seeing as I couldn't get a hold of enough evidence to prove who's behind it stateside, I decided to take a little 'vacation' of sorts and come here myself to see what was on the up and up. Turns out this Gatou guy is one of his contacts here. I can see why too: with an entire nation under his thumb like this, it's almost as if he's a mini-Kingpin himself."
"Don't remind me," grumbled the young X-Man angrily. Just the very mention of the crime boss sent Naruto on edge.
"Well, it ain't gonna be that way for long," growled the older man in an ominous tone, "not if I have anything to say about it."
Just as Naruto was about to comment on his friend's last statement, he saw his friends leave the grocery store. Sakura looked over to where he was and motioned for him to join them, while Sasuke simply jerked his head in their direction. "I gotta go, but listen..." He turned to say something to his friend, only to find that he was nowhere insight, as if he had vanished into thin air. 'He's good,' thought Naruto as he walked back towards his friends. 'I didn't even hear him get up to leave.'
"Hey Naruto, who was that guy you were talking to?" asked Sakura quizzically.
"Heh," grinned the blonde as they walked back to Tazuna's, taking one last glance over his shoulder. "Just a friend Sakura-chan. Just an old friend."
Later that night, after Naruto and Sasuke had pushed themselves to their limits during an extra training session to try and best the other, Team 7 was seated around the dinner table in Tsunami's kitchen. For a while, the mood was quite pleasant, until Sakura asked about a picture she had seen Inari stare at throughout the entire meal. It was a family photo of Tsunami, Inari, Tazuna and one other person, whose face had been torn away. "...It was a picture of Inari's father," answered Tsunami sadly, not once looking up from the dishes she had been washing.
"Once upon a time," added Tazuna, "if you will, our entire city called him a hero." No sooner had he said this than Inari got up from the table and left the room sorrowfully, slamming the door as he left.
"Father!" Tsunami yelled at Tazuna in obvious frustration. "I've told you time and again never to mention that in front of my son!" Forgetting all about the dishes, she quickly dried her hands and went after her son. As his mother, she knew she had to try and comfort him in his sadness.
"So, what you're talking about is the reason why Inari acts the way he does?" probed Sakura as gently as she could once Tsunami had left the room.
"Yes," replied Tazuna regretfully. "His name was Kaiza, and even though he wasn't Inari's birth father, the two of them were as close and as loving as any biological father and son. He was a fisherman who came here three years ago from abroad to seek his fortune and ended up saving Inari from drowning one day, after he tried to rescue a puppy who was in a similar predicament. He was kind to Inari and told him that if something was precious to him to protect it with everything he had. From that day forward, those two were stuck to each other like white on rice. In time he became like one of the family, and a revered member of the community."
Tazuna paused for a moment, tears forming in the corners of his eyes as he became lost in his memories of the good old days. Those were truly idyllic times. "But, that was before Gatou came to town."
"So... what happened?" asked Kakashi.
"In front of the entire community, Gatou had Kaiza put to death simply for speaking out against his policies and standing up for our people. Ever since then, Inari's changed, and not just him, the entire community has changed." As he listened to Tazuna's story, Naruto found himself remembering what Inari had said when he first met him. "Heroes? There's no such thing!" Unable to sit around doing nothing a moment longer, Naruto got up and headed for the door, almost tripping over his own feet from exhaustion on the way there.
"Don't even think about training any more today," reprimanded Kakashi firmly. "If try to work your chakra any more without resting first, you'll probably kill yourself."
"Heh, you obviously haven't had my dad as a teacher," Naruto shot back, sliding open the kitchen door. "One way or another, I'm gonna prove he's wrong. I'll show Inari that there are still heroes in this world!!"
Morning of the Sixth day of training...
Naruto was taking a break from yet another long night of training. He had caught a few winks of sleep in-between his training, so he still had some energy left in him for another ascension. For the past three days, he and Sasuke had been making the most of their rivalry to push themselves harder than they ever had before. At this point, they were only a yard or so from reaching the tops of their trees. Kakashi figured that, after tonight, they would reach the top and have enough control over their chakra to attempt even the most complex of jutsu.
Right now though, Naruto was sitting at the base of his tree, enjoying the stillness of the morning while engrossed in a game of solitaire. He had brought along a pack of cards that his 'older brother' (i.e. Gambit) had given him when he was eleven, and decided to play a quick game before getting back to training. He was just about to finish a suit of hearts when he felt someone watching him and looked up to see what looked to be a fairly attractive girl about his age staring at him. She had long black hair and carried a basket full of herbs in her right hand.
"Well, hello," he said warmly, laying down his last card and shuffling his deck back into order. "Now, what's a nice girl like you doing out here all by herself? It can be pretty dangerous out here."
"I'm sorry to have disturbed you," apologized the girl in a very female voice as she brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "My name is Haku, and I've been here collecting herbs for a sick friend of mine. Although to be honest, I didn't expect to find a ninja out here." When Naruto gave her a kind of puzzled look, she stifled a giggle and pointed at his hitai-ite.
"Oh yeah," remarked the blonde in realization. "I'm a ninja from Konohagakure no Sato. I was just out here training."
"Training?" questioned Haku curiously. "What for?"
"To get stronger so that I can become the future Hokage of my village," Naruto replied. "But, at this moment, I'm doing this to prove a point to... a certain person I know."
Haku simply stared at him for a moment, the said, "So, are you doing this for the sake of that person, or for your own satisfaction?" Now, that question caught him by surprise. Seeing as he had given the blonde pause for thought, he decided to continue. "Do you have someone who is precious to you? People who are vital to your existence?"
'Okay, what's she driving at?' wondered Naruto as Haku knelt down to pick up a flower she had spotted a second earlier. It was a white carnation, as pure as the fresh fallen snow. Something about the flower's shade seemed to remind Haku of something, as Naruto noticed her eyes take on a jaded, far away look.
"When we have who are truly precious to us in our lives, it is our want to protect them that drives us to become as strong as we possibly can. It forces us to break through the obstacles that stand in our way of getting stronger."
Once she had become silent once more, Naruto really thought about she had said. Looking back, there hundreds of people he could think of who were precious to him. There was his father, his family that he had in the X-Men, Sarutobi-Oij-sama, and Iruka-sensei. He also had his teammates and sensei, as well as the friends he'd made at the Academy. All of them were important to him and the idea of anything happening to them that he could stop just made him more determined to become stronger. "Yeah," he grinned widely. "I know exactly what you're talking about."
Haku smiled at him and stood up, looping the carnation into a strand of her hair. "You will get very strong indeed then," she said as she began to leave. "I know that we will meet again... so you should know, I'm a boy." With that he left a rightly confused Naruto sitting puzzled beneath his tree, and promptly vanished into the forest. An icy cold wind was the only trace that he had been there at all.
Later that night...
Kakashi was quite pleased by the results of the tree-climbing exercise. Managing Sasuke and Naruto's rivalry had been quite the chore, yet it had actually worked out in their favor. As he had predicted, the two of them had pushed themselves until they had made it to the very tops of their trees before the night was out and he'd cleared them to join him on escort duty the next morning. For the moment, he was tasking himself with a series of one-fingered pushups while the rest of Tazuna's family had dinner with his team.
"So, Kakashi," began Tazuna as the Jounin reached 200 reps. "I've been meaning to ask you something. You know that I lied to you about how dangerous the mission was to get you to come here, so why do you stay?"
"'To now what is right and choose to ignore it is the act of a coward'," answered Kakashi in a serious tone. "'Like master, like man." Those are the teachings of some of our previous Lords Hokage. This is the shinobi way of life... true shinobi do not merely dance to the tune of whoever pays the piper." Though his words made sense to his team as well as Tazuna, Inari couldn't wrap his mind around them.
"Why are you all fighting so hard?!" he cried, tears forming in his eyes. "Don't you know it's pointless?! Gatou is gonna kill you and no amount of training can ever change that!"
"How do you know that Inari?" Naruto asked the boy seriously. "Can you see the future? Trust me kid, I don't plan on losing to a shortie like Gatou."
"Just watching you ticks me off!" Inari shot back. "You go running your mouth off when you don't know anything! You're always clowning around and having fun. You don't know anything about suffering or loneliness or what my life is like!"
Now that stuck a nerve. "So... you think it's noble to star in a melodrama and treat everyone around you like guests at you pity party?" seethed the X-Man. "It takes a real big man to sit around and cry. You big baby!" Leaving the boy to think on that, Naruto got up and left the room without even finishing his dinner.
Later, after everyone had finished eating, Kakashi found Inari sitting out near the edge of the water from the porch outback. "May I join you?" he asked the boy. When he gave no objection, the Jounin sat down next to him and began to explain his student's actions. "Sorry about Naruto's outburst earlier. He wasn't trying to be mean or hateful; he just lacks finesse is all. But, you need to understand him before you write him off like you have. In his own way, he's kind of like you are."
Inari looked up at Kakashi in both surprise and interest. How was that loud-mouthed jerk like him? "Even though he's not lost his adopted father, like you have," continued Kakashi, "he does know how it feels to lose someone precious to him: his 'aunt', Moira MacTaggart. He told me of how he used to spend seemingly endless summers on her island in Scotland, how they were the best of friends and how she was probably the closest thing he had to a real mother. Sadly, that all changed two years ago."
"What happened?" asked Inari.
"She was killed in an explosion," answered Kakashi somberly, "set off by a terrorist named Mystique, simply because she was an ally of the X-Men. Her death shook Naruto to his core, and even though it killed him inside, he never let it stop him. He kept on striving forward so that he could make sure that what happened to her never happens to anyone else he cares about. What he told you in there is probably the same thing he's had to tell himself time and again, when the pain and pressures of life become too much for him to bear. Try and remember that the next time you talk to him." As Kakashi got up and left the boy to his thoughts, he could tell that Inari was seriously thinking about what he'd said.
The Following Morning...
Sasuke cast a glance back at the forest as he, Kakashi, Sakura, and Tazuna continued on their way to the bridge. They had left Naruto back at the house, not wanting to wake him since he'd pushed himself the most over the past few days. Even though he didn't want to admit it, Sasuke was starting to warm up to the idea of working with Naruto. He was the kind of person who would push him harder than ever before, and that would help him get stronger for when the time came to face him.
However, all of those thoughts vanished once they'd reached the bridge. No sooner had they set foot in the construction site than it became apparent that they were in for a long, bloody day. All around them, Tazuna's fellow workers were lying on the ground either dead or beaten to a bloody pulp. Their equipment was slashed and shredded to ribbons, as if attacked by some giant beast. Crane controls were impaled by kunai, power boxes sparking from their slashed and exposed wiring, and sheets of metal bent clean in half. Ignoring the destruction that surrounded him, Tazuna ran over to one of his fallen workers and helped him up to a sitting position. The man was badly injured, with senbon needles sticking out of pressure points on his arms and legs, and blood streaming down his chin from where it had pooled in his mouth.
"Giichi!" Tazuna managed to say, trying to bring the man around. "What happened?! What could've done this?!"
"M-m-monsters..." Giichi managed to blurt out before slipping back into unconsciousness. As they rested him against a nearby wall, a thick mist rolled into the area.
'No doubt about it,' Kakashi glowered as he readied himself, 'this is his Kirigakure no Jutsu. So, I was right; he is alive and he's returned to finish things.' He looked to his right and saw that Sasuke and Sakura had already taken up their defensive positions at Tazuna's side, each with a kunai at the ready. "Get ready everyone!" he ordered as he joined them. "This is it!"
Sakura nodded and began to scan the mist for any sign of movement. 'Should I try and use my powers?' she wondered as she glanced at her friends warily, Sasuke in particular. The more she thought about it, the more conflicted she became about using her newfound abilities. 'I haven't told them anything yet, but I have to do something! I can't be useless again like last time! No way!'
While Sakura tried to decide what she should do, Sasuke was dealing with something completely different. His eyes were acting up again, but it was different than the last time when they had started itching. They weren't itchy at all, they were burning. But the thing was, it wasn't painful at all; if anything, it was invigorating, intoxicating even! The sensation began at his eyes, and began to slowly spread throughout his entire body, filling him with a feeling of invincibility that left him shaking visibly. Could this be what power felt like? Well, whatever this was, he liked it! He liked it a lot!
"It's been a while, Kakashi," snarled Zabuza's voice from within the mist. "I see you've got those brats tagging along, just like last time. And yet again, the little boy is trembling like a leaf in a hurricane, poor thing..." It was then that six Zabuza's appeared around the group, crouched low with their hands at their swords, ready to hack them to pieces. As coolly as ever, Kakashi looked over at Sasuke and smiled, nodding slightly at the boy as if to say, "go ahead, they're all yours".
Sasuke grinned at his sensei in satisfaction and promptly vanished into thin air. Suddenly, each of the Mizu bushinn that surrounded Team 7 and Tazuna were assaulted by some unseen force. Over and over, they were hacked and slashed at until they looked as though they'd just been through a giant cheese-grater. They fell heavily to the ground, like a pile of useless, broken toys. A second later, Sasuke reappeared in the spot were he'd been before the maelstrom of blades had begun, the clones evaporating into a ring of water as he did so.
"I'm trembling with... excitement!" he smirked. At that moment, Zabuza stepped out of the mist, followed by his Hunter-nin accomplice. The nuke-nin's gaze, which radiated murderous intent, was fixed solely on Kakashi, while his masked assistant's own calm stare was latched firmly onto Sasuke. As he stared at the boy, the Hunter-nin saw something that caused him great concern. When the Uchiha heir narrowed his eyes at him menacingly, they began to glow an unearthly crimson, as if they were the very eyes of a demon made flesh.
'This boy...,' Haku wondered in amazement, from behind his mask. 'What in the world is he?!'
Whoa! Looks like things are starting to get even more interesting for Team 7! Now don't tune out just yet True Believers. Sakura may have discovered her mutant powers, but as you can see, Sasuke isn't to far behind her. But will his new abilities be enough to combat those of the Hunter-nin Haku? Could Haku have some secrets of his own that he's hiding? Who is this mysterious figure that Naruto met with and is he friend or foe? Stay tuned to find out, and remember to R&R! (Also, if you're wondering who Cardiac is, he is Wiki-able so you can check him out if you like and learn more about his powers)