When Naruto slumped over the two dropped him, completely mangled. "NARUTO!" Kakashi screamed.
"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.
"Idiot!" Sasuke said loudly and angrily, but his voice held a hint of remorse.
"Poor kid!" Tazuna gasped. They all had a mix of emotions. Anger and sadness.
"NOOOOOOO! HE WAS SOOO YOUNG!" was heard from behind them. They turned to look. Sasuke's eye began to twitch. "WHY ARE WE ALL YELLING!" Naruto asked, confused. Now they all had a different mix of emotions. Anger, wanting to punch Naruto's head in for making them worry, and hugging him for being alright.
"We thought you got yourself killed!" Sakura screamed.
"Aww, you care!" Naruto said somewhat sarcastically.
They all looked back to where they thought Naruto was and heard a loud pop. The mangled Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke. Kakashi then decided to attack the demon brothers. He quickly knocked them out, tied them up, then came back over.
"How were you able to do that?" Sakura asked.
"It was just a clone with a replacement jutsu," Naruto whined. Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"Naruto, that was a very advanced clone. That clone even bled before it disappeared," he said lazily. "I was informed you could do kage bunshin, but what was that?"
Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I call it a chakra bunshin!" Naruto announced happily.
"Interesting," Kakashi said before turning to Tazuna. "We need to know some things from you," Kakashi said, causing Tazuna to flinch. "We need to know if that was ninja attacking ninja or if it was you they were after."
Tazuna sighed and told them his story and why he had lied. Kakashi then explained that the mission just went up to a B rank. And also said they should turn back. But after some group protesting, he caved in and allowed the mission to still be on.
They began walking again, but this time Naruto was explaining the chakra bunshin. "You said that you called it a chakra bunshin, right? So that means it's of your own invention," Kakashi started, stressing the 'you called'.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah when I learned the kage bunshin I realized they were solids which made me think, it would be so cool if they could last as long as I wanted and take more than one hit! So that's what I did! They can even somewhat think on their own, which makes it a lot easier on my part when I need to coordinate them," Naruto said while smiling proudly.
'That could be quite handy. I'll have to watch for the hand signs. Maybe he'll let me copy it?' Kakashi thought.
"I even learned how to make them with out hand seals so I can do it without the enemy seeing!" Naruto said, making Kakashi look disappointed. 'Damn.'
They only had a bit of peace before Zabuza showed up and attacked them. The genin were to protect the bridge builder while Kakashi fought. Naruto watched as everything took place just as he remembered it. Soon enough Kakashi was imprisoned inside the ball of water and Zabuza had sent a few water clones their way.
Naruto made about a hundred kage bunshins and sloppily punched at the water clones. Sasuke attacked as well, leaving Sakura to defend Tazuna by herself. About half of Naruto's clones had been defeated when he decided to get rid of the water clone.
Naruto then made a run for Kakashi, who was yelling at them to run away, and threw an onslaught of weaponry at Zabuza. Naruto made quite sure that the only way for him to come out alive would be to abandon his hold on Kakashi.
Zabuza did just that. The distraction even made him loose enough concentration that the water clones that Sasuke and his bunshins were still fighting dispelled. 'Gotta love it when things go better then planned,' Naruto thought to himself.
Kakashi, immediately after being freed from the water prison, uncovered the sharingan. Kakashi then began to imitate everything that Zabuza did.
"Can you see into the future?" Zabuza asked, somewhat fearful at how fast he was imitating him.
"Why yes!" Kakashi said as he began to copy Zabuza's water dragon.
The water dragons hit each other, spraying water everywhere. Zabuza went to attack again but was stopped when senbon needles pierced into his neck.
'There's good ol' Haku!' Naruto thought as he spotted him
"I've been tracking him for a while now. I thank you in your assistance in this capture," Haku said. Kakashi nodded in response. Haku then took Zabuza away, leaving no trace that they were even there.
Kakashi looked like he was completely drained of energy, but luckily they were almost at their destination. Once they got to Tazuna's place team 7 helped their sensei up the stairs so he could rest.
They all had different outlooks on their current situation. Sakura felt upset that she wasn't able to do more to help, Sasuke was angry that the hunter nin was stronger then him. Naruto felt bad for not fighting at his full potential, while Kakashi was just glad that everyone was in one piece.
They didn't do much for the first bit they were there, as their sensei was out cold and Tazuna didn't go anywhere. Sasuke spent most of his time brooding in a corner, while Sakura and Naruto talked with their client's family.
When Kakashi did wake up, though, they went out to do the tree climbing exercise. 'Now, let's see how we can have some fun with this,' Naruto thought as Kakashi explained how to do it. He then climbed up the tree, crutches and all, and hung upside down off a branch, sticking to the bark with his chakra. "I want you to get to the top of a tree only using your chakra and by channeling into your legs and feet."
When it was their turn to try, Sakura made it up on her first try and Sasuke got up about two steps before falling back. Kakashi turned to Naruto expectantly. "Come on Naruto, I understand that chakra control isn't one of your strong points but..." Kakashi thought for a moment. "I bet Sasuke can do it easier than you," he said, knowing of their rivalry from Iruka.
"But, but I don't wanna!" Naruto yelled childishly.
"Come on, Naruto," Kakashi said, rubbing his temples.
"NO! I DON'T WANNA!" Naruto yelled, crossing his arms on his chest, giving a pout. He could hear the fox laughing to no end in his mind. Naruto turned away from Kakashi so he wouldn't see him smile.
"Quit being a baby, dobe," Sasuke said, standing up.
"I SAID I DON'T WANNA!" Naruto screamed childishly before stomping off. Kakashi went after him. He didn't have to go far.
"Oh for the love of..." Kakashi said, smacking his head as he found the blond.
Naruto was standing in the middle of a river. On top of the water. Kakashi grumbled about stubborn know-it-all brats. "That's great that you can do that Naruto, now let's go take a nice walk on the trees, hmm?" Kakashi said. 'Fine, if he wants to act like a child then I'm going to treat him like one!' Kakashi thought angrily.
"I don't wanna," Naruto said simply and turned away again trying not to laugh.
"Come on, you can show Sasuke up if you make it up the tree before him," Kakashi bribed.
"No," was the simple reply. 'Fine, ultimate bribe.'
"I'll buy you a bowl of Ichiraku Ramen when we go back to Konoha," Kakashi coaxed.
Back at the trees Sakura and Sasuke sweat dropped. They were high enough in the trees so they could see everything and they were talking loud enough they didn't need to get any closer.
"Sasuke, do you know of any good "happy hotels"?" Sakura asked.
"If you find one let me know; we'll send him there and split the costs 50/50" Sasuke said.
"Nope, won't work!" Naruto said happily. Kakashi glared.
"Fine, we'll do things the hard way." Kakashi then went over to Naruto, grabbed him by the back of his shirt collar, and began dragging him back. Sasuke and Sakura nearly face faulted out of the trees they were in when they saw the look on Naruto's face.
When Kakashi brought him back he glared firmly at him. Naruto crossed his arms yet again and pouted. It was the most pitiful face that any human being could possibly make. "Climb," Kakashi said, annoyed.
"Kit, if you look closely you can see his face turning red with anger! This is more amusing then the time you got your head stuck in that tree and had to carry it to the hospital to get it removed!" And with that Kyuubi burst out into uncontrollable laughter.
'Must you always insult me?'
"It is what I live for." Naruto sighed, though it went unnoticed. "But it's soooo big!" Kakashi gave him a death glare. "FINE!" Naruto screamed. Kakashi fell back from the volume then began poking his ear with his pinky. Naruto just walked straight to the tree and climbed all the way up to the top as if it were nothing.
"Happy now?" Naruto said in a bored tone.
"Ummm... What?" Kakashi blinked, still probing his ear. He looked up the tree. "Oh... good job Naruto, now was that so bad?"
Naruto blew Kakashi a raspberry from up in the tree. Kakashi rolled his eves. Sasuke was mad. No, Sasuke was beyond mad. The idiot... the class clown... the DOBE! Had done better then him. 'I need more power! These two are surpassing me! I can't let that happen! I need power so I may finally avenge my clan!' and so on into much more bloody thoughts.
Naruto then simply jumped down, landing soundlessly on the ground. Sakura also came down; the two looked at Kakashi expectedly. "Ummmm... good job!" Kakashi said in nervous cheer. "Now I'm going help out Sasuke, ok? I'm off!" Then he disappeared into smoke.
Naruto turned to Sakura with a smile. "So uhh..." he started, only to get whacked on the back of the head. "Right, I get it. I'm gone" Naruto said as he put his hands up defensively before taking off.
Once out of ear shot Naruto burst out laughing. "I can't believe you actually did that!" the fox said. 'Thought I'd never be free. Oh well, got some laughs out of it any way,' Naruto sighed. "Oh well. Now let's find a nice spot to destroy," Naruto said looking at the poor defenseless trees around him.
look 'tis a time skip!
It was now sunset and Sasuke had finally made it to the top of the tree. It had taken him the past 5 hours to get up there. He sighed in triumph. He had used up pretty much all of his chakra. He gulped a bit as a very big realization hit him. How was he to get down? No chakra meant no sticking to the side of the tree. No sticking to the side of the tree meant he was going to have to climb down the normal way.
Fortunately for him, the tree had very few branches to interrupt his fall to the ground. Sakura was at the base of tree cheering him on and getting on his nerves. He slowly began his descent to where a rabid pink haired banshee awaited.
Naruto had found/made a nice hole a while back to hide most of the debris he had made, and was already back at the house helping Tsunami cook. Naruto left no proof behind that he had been training in the spot by the river; unless, that is, you count the huge gaping holes filled with branches and mud. Yep, no one would ever know he was there.
When Sasuke and Sakura had gotten back, the dinner was already on the table. Everyone had just sat down to eat when the two got in. "I hope you all like it, it isn't much but at least we won't go hungry!" Tsunami said as she sat down at the table. Tazuna seemed to smile at the food in front of him. "Naruto helped me out and we only used half the food I thought we'd need!"
Naruto scratched his head upon having his name mentioned but smiled none the less. They all sat down to eat but Inari. "It's all pointless. You can never win, only be stopped. And if you do it's only temporary," Inari said, looking downward "You'll just end up dead like all the others."
Inari went to leave but Naruto stopped him. "You never know until you try. If you don't fight for change, then there will be none," Naruto said. Inari's eyes began to water. "Don't cry unless you're really happy. It shows weakness," Naruto said softly. Inari then quickly ran off. Naruto sighed then went back to his meal, the rest of which was eaten in silence.
After the meal Naruto went out to train some more while the other two genin went to sleep and Kakashi had a talk with Inari. Naruto figured he would simply practice taijutsu so as to not cause too much damage. He ended up falling asleep right in the middle of the forest in a small clearing.
The next morning team 7 minus one woke up with a yawn. "Mmm, something smells good!" Sakura said, breathing deep. Kakashi nodded and left. Sasuke, who was on the other side of the room, pushed himself up groggily. He left into another room to get dressed. When Sasuke went down stairs he was met with the ever so happy sight of Kakashi.
"Naruto probably is out in the forest somewhere, could you go find him and tell him breakfast is almost ready?" Kakashi said in a tone that was too cheery for the morning.
"Fine," Sasuke answered miserably. He walked out to find the dobe with a bit of a scowl. He only walked for five minutes before he found him. There were a few trees that had fallen; others had multiple dents in them. He looked around then spotted Naruto... right in the middle of it. "Yo, idiot! Wakey wakey, dumb ass." Sasuke glared at Naruto's sleeping form. 'Well, I tried being nice.' Sasuke thought to himself. Sasuke then went to kick Naruto in the side when he heard a growl.
He looked to see a rather large cat protecting him. Sasuke blinked as the large orange cat then curled back up into a ball right beside Naruto, going back to sleep. "Nnnn?" Naruto awoke as a bird flew from its perch on his nose. He opened his eyes to see Sasuke staring down at him, raising an eyebrow. Naruto would have jumped away were it not for the unexpected weight on him. "The hell?" he asked himself.
The teenaged tiger, as Naruto realized, stood up and walked away, realizing its heat source would soon be gone. Naruto moved his arm, causing multiple foxes to run. He sat up confused. "Naruto, I didn't know you were like that," Sasuke smirked a bit.
"Ha ha, real funny," Naruto said, shooing the various animals from around him.
"Umm, dobe?"
"What, teme?"
"What's that on your head?"
"Huh?" Naruto said, feeling something furry on the top of his head. "Oh shit!"