Darkon: welcome to a new chapter not that I think anyone deserves to know some of what this is about, Zabuza is hired to work for Naruto obviously, but how does Gato intend to fight five ninja's... hey Viper counts for something.
Trio: You did the entire sword throwing bit and you even had the gall to quote me, what the underworld dude!
Darkon: Yes, yes, your all upset you missed an opportunity to comment on someone throwing swords around get over it, Sir does when I cave his head in on the oft occasion I want to play live whack-a-Sir with a half ton mallet and he hardly complains unless it's some fault of mine rearing its ugly head and he even says my writing this story is going to end up with something horrible happening to me because of some guild forming to kill me.
Trio: I wouldn't be surprised, people have tried to kill you before for your complete randomness and they all failed horribly dude.
Darkon: Goes to show them they can't stab their own shadows to death.
Sir: Making very little sense as always Darkon, but in a philosophical sense your metaphors are better than ever.
Chapter 8: Gato is strong! (Trio: OH, I know where this one is going dude.)
While Zabuza was recovering they all agreed to move to another area for discussion purposes as sitting next to a large hole with three wanted people, a gender confused girl and a snake would take some explaining to do.
Once they were in a more secure location, Viper took Naruto off to the side to tell him about his newer resident, while Isaribi stayed with Haku and the out cold Zabuza waiting for Naruto and Viper to be done talking.
"Okay Viper what is it you wanted to talk to me about" Viper gummed her lower lip since; she obviously couldn't bite it, while looking worried.
"Naruto I don't know how to tell you this so I'll just blurt it out without worrying about it, you have a demon inside of you" Naruto looked perplexed and Viper figured she could have worded that a little better when Naruto responded.
"Is Zabuza contagious? You know I contain Kyan so why is it so surprising now" Viper slapped her tail over her face before shaking it sadly; she was going to put this into better words for Naruto.
"I mean you have another one inside of you, in fact she appeared right after you got hit by that blob of lightning, it was the two tailed demon cat, how she got here I wouldn't know but I assume it involved restoring the sword that now floats off of your back" Naruto stared at Viper before holding a single finger up for a 'wait a moment' gesture as he sat down and then fell asleep on the spot, Viper knew the cat was female when Isaribi picked her up, she was learning the first thing you should discover about a demon is gender as assumptions and quite a lot of other things made demons angry.
If it was any other human Viper probably wouldn't have pursued the relationship as hard, but Naruto was something special as he had that physical transformational ability that would allow him to be a snake of male persuasion at anytime he wanted to be and so far Viper hadn't brought it up because she doesn't want to force the relationship because of a skill he has that could theoretically make them compatible from what all her anatomy studies told her about Naruto when he transformed into a physical girl, she'd rather be a very close friend then alienate him with the idea of a form he would probably be uncomfortable with.
Seconds later Viper was brought out of her musings as Naruto sat up his face was flushing straight red meaning he's seen something embarrassing or saucy, Viper was cold blooded so she didn't generate too much heat which was useful when being hunted by ninja as she was damn near invisible to anyone who might have a chance of sensing her chakra which gave off a very low frequency in comparison to someone like Kyan giving off insane levels of emission that can overload some bloodlines(mostly eye based ones) on proximity alone with her chakra and thanks to her anatomy studies she can easily recognize the human bodies reaction to stimulus which is useful in genjutsu and making Naruto relatively comfortable and happy, one of the reasons why her Happy Mouth genjutsu worked so well.
"It's fine Viper we've worked out a deal, just so long as Nabi doesn't do anything like try to charge me with her chakra I'll let her stay with Kyan and if she wants to join in a fight she can come out on her own free will to help where applicable, she'll also teach me some lightning manipulation she picked up from her previous container as I doubt Zabuza would know any wind or normal chakra ninjutsu that I can't already do and his element is water after all" Would wonders ever cease Naruto is actually thinking, but then again Viper was wondering what Naruto saw to get so red, maybe something had happened in his mind that he wasn't about to repeat and she was wasn't going to pry either.
As they made their way back to the negotiation site Naruto found out one disturbing little problem with wielding the celestial weapon the thunder god sword; that now floated slightly off of his back as the gem kept it there as explained by Kyan for when it wasn't in use and for travel reasons, that was to say when in use he'd only be capable of lightning elemental abilities meaning he wouldn't be able to replace or substitute himself around as a fighting style, this did however give him the ability to use the Flying thunder god ninjutsu that his father was famous for which had a prerequisite of having your highest element being lightning and that would only happen when he held the sword so it was going to be limited greatly in ability to use it as he couldn't learn it through the use of shadow cloning as the sudden change in his elements becoming the only one element tended to disperse his shadow clones so making a shadow clone with a usable clone sword was a no go for practicing with and he now knew how Isaribi felt, also why Aoi didn't substitute when he pulled the high yield exploding log full of poisonous senbon substitution on him.
There was that one thing; as Naruto watched Viper slither up to Isaribi and the two others who were still on the fence about being hired, of a few things he had been told about the sword that interested him and it was a special attack of the sword that Kyan told him would make itself known only if he ever got into a fight with a demon which is where the sword would be the most useful as should that attack occur the demon wouldn't be around much longer, the attack would allow him to even defeat Kyan in all her nine tails of pure demonic power which she had lamented that his father couldn't do with the sword being as degraded as it had been and now that it was back to full power as long as it had a wielder it wouldn't degrade, so some day they might witness the true strength when the blade shines its ultimate attack once again, it was only activated under a set amount of circumstances one of those were those who crave power can't ever use it and it happened automatically it couldn't be trained, forced or mimicked by anything as even a vaunted Sharingan user couldn't decipher the attack and it only happens when it was meant to.
Naruto had to wonder when or if he would be meant to use the so far unnamed attack, Kyan said it might not ever happen in his or anyone else's lifetime or at all as no one has seen the attack being used more than twice over the span of a hundred years and despite never witnessing the attack Kyan knew what it felt like because a eight headed serpent demon was slain by this very attack in what must have been one unstoppable blow.
"So how are we going to do this you brats and snake, as I don't think I have what it takes to be a teacher and I never tried but if the moneys good I'll think about helping you out" Zabuza had managed to regain some composure as a badass when he started up the negotiations.
"We'll start with introductions I'll go first as my groups contract negotiator, Hi I'm Viper Uzumaki, I like Naruto, Ramen and generating new highly useful genjutsu, as for my ninja skills I'm a proud genjutsu user with good taijutsu and weapon supplemental skills, my main weapon is a combat parasol more specifically a piercing short spear model, I have my own information network going and I dislike tyranny like what's going on around here, HOW DARE THAT ASSHOLE GATO SHUT DOWN ALL THE RAMEN STANDS IN WAVE, now who wants to go next" Viper had a tick mark forming on her head curling the tip of her tail in anger for a few seconds, before loosening up and smiling pleasantly to Zabuza and Haku who were slightly freaked out not because she was a talking snake, but for the fact that she became a little passionate about the ramen stands being closed down though Zabuza didn't show it near as much as Haku did, Naruto didn't say a word of defense against Viper taking his family name as her own and just sat idly by since anyone who could be that passionate about Ramen had to be an Uzumaki, so he really couldn't fault her on that one even if they weren't married which he was going to be more adamant about later because right now Viper seemed too happy just sharing a last name with him to be suddenly disappointed by a denial.
"I'm Haku Momochi son of Zabuza Momochi, I like Zabuza, spicy curries and acupuncture, my ninja skills center around ice ninjutsu and long range support, I'm not the best close up fighter around and I'm more into studying to be a medical ninja but I'm somewhat good at using my bloodline in a fight, I dislike being called a girl and being called feminine, It's a pleasure to meet you and I hope we can work together as friends in the future" Naruto was about to say something to the effect how could she not be feminine but Isaribi grabbed his shoulder and shook her head 'no' in a way that stated it wasn't worth the headache of trying to convince the girl that she was still acting like one, as Haku smiled at them they considered questions to ask and it was Viper to voice hers first.
"Is your bloodline strictly water or is it water and wind" It was a curious question as there were three way to do a ice ninjutsu the hard way was creating mass amounts of hot steam and freezing the entire area around it by drawing all the heat to a central location, the somewhat easier use of wind to draw the heat out of the water and finally just turning the water straight into ice through chakra instantaneously changing the temperature which while not unheard of was quite hard to do but it made for some fast based ice and snow jutsu which existed in Snow country, a country Viper never wanted to visit for it was too cold there for her liking and she actually thought of a fourth way that was not very applicable as it involved using only wind to change the weather to drop hail on an opponent by making clouds focus high up enough to condense ice for such a thing and that kind of jutsu would be ridiculously hard to pull off.
"Water which I can control a bit without freezing it, why" Viper had to get her to teach Isaribi some stuff and Zabuza as well since he was the oldest one here he should know some good water ninjutsu, Isaribi's pure water element could use some extra oomph by adding ice to the mix too.
"Oh it's 'slightly' important but that's if we can get around to negotiations after getting through the introductions" Isaribi and Naruto had teachers was what Viper was thinking, while she had no one to teach her but then again she was a genjutsu master or at least better at using genjutsu then Kurenai could when she affected all those byakugan users, besides the point that she's entirely taught herself the art with just guidelines proves it, though she could stand to work on her stamina and physical abilities a lot more and this would require her to flex all of her body and lift heaving things which was going to be hard to find something she could use to do just that and as for being self taught, someone had to eventually teach themselves to do this stuff for it to exist in the first place as she was just the first snake to take on a ninja life style personally.
"I already know enough about the princess and I'm going to get around to writing a book about her later, but what about you brat this bingo book says you're a civilian but I don't buy that and neither did Haku" Zabuza was talking about his slight shakedown of information from Isaribi the 'Soaking Serpent' and all he needed to know now was the live brightly colored target he might be teaching to wield a sword which was going to be tough if he had to strike something that didn't look to be powered by chakra but was still constantly flowing with electrical energy.
"I'm a civilian all right, I dropped out before I was legally registered as a ninja and I avoided nearly passing my final exam as a fluke of having defeated a traitor of the village that I was living in as I was in the process of stealing something important, I came out of that particularly well but I still got into the bingo books and that irks me, names Naruto 'The ninjutsu howitzer' Uzumaki though I don't actually have that as a title in the book they'll get it eventually, I like my friends, eating bucket loads of ramen, cooking, gardening, training my somewhat lackluster list of abilities and making good strategies for ninja's that fight predictably, my specialty is ninjutsu and trap making, I dislike my old village and good riddance to it as nothing short of knocking me out or killing me will get me back into that village, I'm here looking for a nice safe place to get some supplies from before moving on to building a mobile base or something like that which I can operate freely from since if I were to stay here in Wave it would be literally buried under a wave of ninja and assassins out for my ass" It was true as most of Fire country was already swamped with an influx amount of killers and hunters of the like all out for Naruto's peculiar if easy sounding bounty, a mobile base is something that would be useful if they built it or found one to steal.
"Hmph, Zabuza Momochi 'demon of the bloody mist', I like sushi, my fighting ability is based around my weapon and water ninjutsu, I used to be loyal to the mist village before the leader went insane and I'm willing to work for you, that's all you need to know, so what's my pay and what exactly do you expect from me" Thus started the awkward training where Zabuza spent most of his time beating the ever loving tar out of Isaribi and Naruto with Haku helping train mostly Isaribi, but that was in taijutsu and Isaribi wouldn't learn to do ice jutsu any time soon.
Naruto had never felt so much pain before but the sword training was worth it, though he was still clumsy he thought Zabuza was a pretty good teacher even if he did get frequently shocked by Naruto's sword which he couldn't turn off at any point in time it didn't stop Zabuza from beating Naruto in a fight, the only thing Zabuza couldn't contend with was Naruto's extremely quick pace of ninjutsu use of the few that Naruto could do and his high endurance for pain, he could feel the burn after a training exercise nothing important was going on around here and they had all the time in the world.
Isaribi would try to learn any water jutsu Zabuza could teach her and he seemed highly willing to do that while calling her princess, which was beginning to either scare or annoy Isaribi who didn't get too much crossbow training but was doing pretty good in taijutsu some of which Zabuza could actually do as he had to be good at hand to hand combat to pass as a jonin level ninja in the mist village.
Viper was spending her time off to the side training in her parasol; doing some heaving lifting as well as she could with being a snake having caused some training issues again but she was working around it with her active mind thinking up all kinds of solutions to her problems, one such problem is something she wanted to ask Naruto who she slithered up to in a rather blank matter.
"So what is the idea about making a base, are we going to lead our own ninja village or something" Naruto looked askance at Viper while swinging his glowing sword of death, wondering why exactly Viper seemed to be so down or was it something was wrong with her.
"No, I'm not leader material and besides what's to stop the village I create from trying to make me a figurehead like grandpa, I just want something like a cloud or snow country blimp that would make getting around easier and we'll explore the world getting into all kinds of trouble on purpose this time instead of running into it by accident, I don't know about you but settling down hasn't really been a dream of mine and Konoha was not nice place with too many people willing to kill babies there for my taste, if anything I just want a hobby like repair and upkeep of something that wouldn't be so easy to do even with shadow cloning it might even help me with my clumsiness, Isaribi has her swimming and calligraphy, you have your reading material and information network but I'm having problems finding things to do other then train my ass off, it's like it's my only purpose in life to get strong and then fight ridiculously powerful people(hint hint, the obvious)" As if all the assassination attempts that were reported on him wasn't bad enough that Danzo guy also killed off a bunch of children that didn't survive his root program; some from the same orphanage Naruto had lived in on the theory that maybe the demon fox tainted the nearby children, which he got away with till he died by messing with Naruto and then there was Orochimaru which is a name that gave a shudder to anyone; even some demons, at some of the things he's done to the people while he was still in Konoha.
"Oh… well I have an idea about what to do, but I'm not sure you'd be very receptive to it and I have to ask this one question before making my suggestion… do you accept me as your wife" Viper really wanted know this if she was going to do what she was going to suggest, even if she sounded kind of sad Naruto was curious as to what she would suggest but to admit to something Viper wanted him to was sounding ominous in and of itself, he hoped he was doing the right thing.
"Frankly Viper I love… having you around(W I M P), so don't get me wrong as even if you were my wife; not saying you are, you're going to need to accept that there are just some things we can't do together and being my wife wouldn't really change what we have now, also I can only assume your idea is less then acceptable in regards to our friendship" Naruto saw that Viper hadn't reacted poorly to this answer and she even nodded at him, that was confusing as he thought he'd hurt her feelings and really didn't like the prospect of hurting any of his friends feelings, he only has two so he often worries about losing one of them because of something he did, he didn't count Zabuza and Haku as friends yet more like sadistic torturers when it came to training, Haku had needles on the brain when it came to her ice attacks and they weren't aimed at very nice places either and you didn't need to be around Zabuza for a minute to learn how his training was torturous.
"I can accept that answer but I don't know what you're thinking of Naruto, because I was going to suggest a picnic but I considered the fact that you're hyperactive and the fact that there won't be ramen will drive you… not to mention me… nuts, thus you'd be less receptive to an outing of just the two of us, so I'll just invite Haku, Zabuza and Isaribi along to make it a more relaxing setting as we'll all be friends or acquaintances… unless you want it to be just the two of us" Viper said suggestively batting her eyes, when she hit eighteen years old only one could guess what would happen between her and Naruto if she ever started dropping hints at the possibility of him transforming into a snake, then again she loved him as a human and he didn't have to change to get any affection from her.
There were a few problems with Naruto actually doing that transformation though and Viper has considered it, one Naruto couldn't become cold blooded, two he couldn't create poison glands unless he was born with them but then again that didn't matter so much to her and three the loss of arms and legs would make it hard to transform back or something could go wrong in the same general area, it would be all her fault and thus she was better off keeping quiet because again she actually appreciated Naruto's form being so cuddly.
"How about after we finish saving wave I'll treat you to some ramen, just you and me alone, like on a date, I promise" Well at least that's what Naruto thought that Viper wanted, which was correct as Viper wanted to go out and be treated well by Naruto which means that he was receptive to her idea and thus she was happy, that is if Naruto could remember to keep his promise but then again when has he ever failed to deliver on one.
"It's a date alright, hopefully Gato won't be too much of a bother, I mean he only has bandits working for him and we're; in some ways, technically ninja how much of a fight could he put up, so after we're done economically recharging wave with his money those ramen stands will have our names on them, maybe even literally, oh and one last thing…" Viper had stars in her eyes at getting a ramen stand named after them and Naruto chuckled wryly, why not they deserved some recognition if they're going to stop a tyrant but that is one of the main reasons why they can't stay here, notoriety and wearing one of his mostly orange jumpsuits tended to be a open invitation to finding him only if it were not for the fact that if he stopped wearing the jumpsuit for a week people would lose track of him entirely by not recognizing him as the most noticeable thing about him is his clothes which was always distracting people's views most of the time so change that in a dire situation and walk away barely noticeable, Viper agreed that she'd find it hard to find him if he wasn't wearing orange.
"Wha...mph…" Naruto should have seen it coming but he was knocked on his ass once more by Viper locking lips with him, Viper certainly knew how to give someone kiss and they are very well timed but the way her tail caressed his cheek still kind of disturbed him slightly that she could still feel this passionate about him, after breaking from the kiss Viper smiled and slithered away cheerfully hissing to herself and Naruto just gave a huff that there was no escaping her now, she even agreed to the fact that there were things they weren't capable of and she still kissed him.
Naruto thought of his lessons about females as well planned out, except he pretty much didn't know the first thing about them and the reasons as to why that was is because Isaribi is part fish and led a somewhat sheltered life, Haku is trying to be a boy and faling horribly at it, Viper is a snake that fell in love with him after a single kiss and he has two eccentric female demons partying in his body, he figured at least some of what he was told about the female side of things was correct but he still didn't understand it as much as he would have liked to as the only normal female that was human that he has ever met in his life was probably back in Konoha serving someone ramen right now, then again he didn't mind having so many abnormal female friends and Zabuza is probably the first guy he's been able to hang out with all his life, even if he thought of Zabuza as a psychotic and violent person who throws his sword at people to greet them which made waking up in the morning hectic.
There he sat in the darkness waiting for his men to report, Gato had felt something was very wrong to his stable structure of having his own small country entirely under his thumb in a megalomaniacal function, thus far nobody really rebelled out loud against him and he didn't have to make a example of anyone which was slightly disappointing to the mob boss kind of guy, he seriously thought the man Kaiza would have done something but then again the guy only showed spine when his family was directly targeted otherwise he was like a weak little kitten mewling pitifully, yeah cats were pathetic sometimes but then again his name was that of a cat and if he bothered to wear his sombrero more his nationality wouldn't be called into question as much for he was a stout Spanish styled guy of evil proportions wearing a black suit and sunglasses in a poorly lit room… that couldn't have been healthy for his eyes but damn it if it didn't make him look cool.
He had Wave country and his bandits flooded the lands, no ninja's or known samurai to ruin anything with honor or crappy chivalry, no assassins from other businesses slinking around waiting for him to drop his guard, the people were putting up no effort to resist his hostile takeover and yet he couldn't help but think something was entirely off, other than the weird weather phenomenon of a lightning bolt creating a crater in the ground which was now mysteriously filled with slightly swirling water and some breed of caking fish; a breed of fish that frosts itself over with mud and or random bits of surrounding vegetation as camouflage, that felt entirely like a bad omen.
Gato didn't believe in such superstitious nonsense and look where that got him, he was rich, he was successful, he commanded respect, he even had his own damn country from which ruled everything and finally the reports came in, so far there wasn't any trouble except Tazuna building a bridge… finally something for him to worry about and destroy personally as an example, because he wasn't about to rely on the bunch of knuckle draggers he was paying to destroy the bridge by themselves and he would send two guys after Tazuna's family while he personally dealt with the old drunkard fool architect himself.
Gato got up from his seat and scheduled a day of attack and walked down the halls and saw his men partying, he was barely paying them anything at all and they still worked for him as long as they could get tanked and pillage all the poor saps around here, he made his way to a room where a tarp was thrown over a large imposing figure that made Gato a giant among men, he ripped off the tarp to reveal his method to destroying Tazuna's ill attempt at passively defeating him and anyone who was with Tazuna would perish under his might.
The bridge would fall and Wave country would fall entirely with it, only there was going to be a lot of bloodshed between it and totally conquering Wave, Gato was a heartless business man what did he care if a bunch of insects that would soon die under his shoes as they scurried around looking for pockets of survival as best they could, but no one could beat his secret weapon it was invincible, impervious to the elements, could easily rip a man in twain and it was something Gato was proud of and it was his favorite toy too.
It was another day and Naruto once again woke up with a snake in his sleeping bag, Naruto was beginning to hope it was some other snake then Viper but he could never get that lucky as Viper was wrapped around him and snuggling into his side leaving him with only one arm free, he gave a sigh as viper never stopped even under the circumstance that they shouldn't be sleeping together like this as parts of her coiling body must be numb from having to support his weight all the time, it might not have been healthy for her but Viper didn't seem to mind one bit when she finally unraveled herself.
After an hour or two Naruto was being tossed around by Zabuza who was used to beating the tar out of that Raiga guy, which led to why he was so special as it was the fact that he wasn't that special at all, first of all Zabuza didn't have a cheesy chakra gimmick ability like the other swordsmen did with their swords, he didn't really know any special jutsu that isn't a standard of silent killing methods which the other swordsmen's of the mist or any ninja could do just as easily as silent killing methods come in many flavors and the mist style was basically this: talk a lot in a shrouding mist to instill fear into an opponent and then the killing blow to one of several points on the body that guarantee's death.(Not silent at all huh.)
Zabuza was the most normal swordman of the mist and his physical strength, speed and skills were all naturally built, his weapon was not common but it certainly wasn't unheard of, he complained about Raiga's lightning storm gimmick with his thunder edge that splits into two swords, Kisame's chakra eating shark sword which had little effect on Zabuza as he hardly used chakra with his sword thus Kisame had a disadvantage against Zabuza for lack of chakra to steal and there was that guy of the mist who wielded a snaking sword which was a ton of high tensile strength thin blades that formed into one solid blade that acts as a violently sharp whip when you swung the handle just right, it looked like a normal scimitar until it whips out with multiple scimitar shaped blades bound together which usually hits more than once in a swing, then there was always the 'Moon Tides' blade wielder which had a freakishly long roundabout amount of gimmicks that the swordswoman who wielded it was the easiest one to beat if you knew what you were doing and understood that the blade was nothing great despite what it apparently could do, just don't fight that person on the night of a full moon near a beach was an easy enough rule to follow unless you lived near whirlpool country where the sword is always useful as it's covered in tides year round from the constant whirlpool's.
Zabuza was one of the top three swordsmen of the mist by sheer grit and the ability to take multiple; read probably life ending, hits in a short time and live, he was one of the most physically strongest alive and without needing any special tricks to win a fight, though he was noted for his minor rather intelligent ploys and had a penchant for talking a little too much but he was working that out of his system when he was training with his gender confused somewhat of a daughter Haku to help him drop that particular flaw.
And he still couldn't get over the need to pull a flashy entrance and that was his main weakness overall, other than that he pretty much hands Naruto his ass daily up and down whatever designated training zone he chooses as the three girls exercised or watch from the sidelines as Naruto is continually tortured once it was found out Naruto had a high tolerance for pain, had lots of stamina and could be beaten to within a inch of his life without dying because he never ran out of chakra which due in part to the overabundance he heals at a ridiculously quick speed from the surplus alone without needing a medic ninja.
"You know there is just something poetic about watching Naruto getting flayed alive" Haku was watching as Naruto was slammed into a tree still holding onto his new sword that while unbreakable didn't mean a hill of jumping beans about Naruto being as such, it also limited his skill set to firing electric blast of chakra from his free hand since he had no lightning elemental jutsu yet, which was a good thing Naruto was Ambidextrous or else he'd probably have problems wielding the sword one handed only to have that hand take damage and not being able to wield the sword properly anymore, his training in using said sword was easily the slowest progress alive to Zabuza who was pushing the hyperactive blonde well over the edge and Naruto wasn't complaining about it one bit.
"Yeah maybe I should have convinced Naruto of a better career option then magical randomly traveling mercenary that on occasions steals to live" Viper wasn't too happy about watching Naruto getting hurt but this was for his own good right?
Isaribi was standing between both Haku and Viper and watched as Naruto and Zabuza went back and forth, despite being pumped full of electricity every now and then as long as Zabuza didn't get shocked for more than five constant seconds he came out of the scuffle without injury as he had a high tolerance from being struck with lightning bolts in spars with Raiga and being a guy who primarily uses a water jutsu that blankets an area, that was saying something and Isaribi had recently learned how to use water clone jutsu which weren't all as powerful as Naruto's shadow clones but hey they were far less draining and even less so if you were in water as they only required the amount of chakra akin to two rising geysers per water clone, which for Isaribi who could constantly use the rising geyser jutsu multiple times consistently for at least an hour that meant she could theoretically pull a Naruto and then there was the jutsu she made called the Rising Water Clone jutsu which as the name implies creates a geyser of water that quickly becomes a clone after the initial rising geyser attack.
"I actually think that's a pretty good description of what we were planning on doing with our lives as jobs Viper, then again isn't this exactly what we hired Zabuza to do" Viper slipped her tail under her nose and gave a aloof sigh shaking her head slightly as Isaribi watched Naruto get battered and bruised like a ping pong ball bouncing off a tree from being hit several times with the flat of Zabuza's sword, yeah they were paying Zabuza to beat the tar out of Naruto which in hindsight made the two of them look like bad people by paying Naruto's tormentor then again it was justified in the fact that Zabuza taught by example and violence, lots and lots of violence… if Haku's tale of flying swords of doom when waking up in the morning was anything to think of, it was the only reason why the girl was so swift to dodge things when it came to sparring and either Viper or Isaribi shot something at her.
"Yes I believe this is what we were hired to do; one is to help you for as long as we see fit to do so and as long as you pay us up front for our services and we have a sub contract of negotiating peaceful solutions should we ever come to a point where we might interfere in each other's affairs, otherwise there is nothing in it to keep us attached to your group and there is nothing that says we can't enjoy getting paid in our own little ways, which leads me to the fact that I'm perfectly happy with such an honest and open arrangement I wouldn't even begin to know what would happen if we were hired by a royal asshole who would ultimately kill us after we complete whatever it is we'd do because said person would be able to skimp on the paycheck" Viper flicked her tail dismissively at the ever wondrous girl boy Haku the false male that was always quiet and calm in comparison to a banshee of pink haired persuasion and explosively dangerous temperament for someone who had wanted to be in a ninja's line of work where being quiet meant survival for at least another twenty minutes.
"Yes I know, I know, but still I wouldn't want to be Naruto right now but then again I'd rather it be me getting bashed apart out there" Viper's obvious affection went well below Haku's radar, but not Isaribi's by a long shot who just shrugged in a noncommittal manner as Viper wanting to take on Naruto's pain is kind of expected of her with how far her devotion to the hard to injure civilian ninja went as at this point she swears that Naruto could ask her to do anything and she'd agree to it as long as it doesn't end up separating them.
Speaking of pain, Zabuza spun around and suddenly tossed his large sword at the girls who he thought were getting too relaxed in watching him beat Naruto to a heavily bruised pulp and as it passed through them Haku split in half only to reveal she replaced herself with a ice sculpture in her exact likeness as the color disappeared from the now bisected ice sculpture, Viper immediately turned into a stick that was cut in half with a sharp splintering sound and Isaribi slowly vanished out of sight after a few seconds of the sword passing through her form.
"Since when could you do afterimages?" Viper said accusatorily to Isaribi who shrugged as they were all now standing in a tree twenty feet away, with the barest of inclinations to how they ended up there except Isaribi who had chakra related problems and left a small if still noticeable path in the grass showing her movements.
"That's enough talk ladies how about we get some lunch?" Zabuza hefted his sword easily enough with one hand out of the tree it had impaled and motioned for everyone to follow, Haku pouted frankly at being called a girl, but no one took any notice whatsoever as they all started walking and in one case slithering away leaving her standing there fuming to herself before she realized they left her behind and quickly ran after them.
It wasn't much time later when a crash was heard and all five of them reacted as any ninja would, they decided to scout the situation from the shadows then intervene, as far as stealth goes Isaribi was the least stealthiest of the group, followed by Zabuza who needed mist to be stealthy, then Haku who had above average stealth abilities, then Naruto who for wearing bright Orange all his life can practically hide in a open field without any cover with no trouble at all and finally Viper because no one would suspect a snake of unusual activity unless one knew she wasn't native to the surrounding area and or seemed to be odd in her actions.
They came up to a house with a shattered door and Viper moved into the room first to see a man on the floor bleeding to death but still alive, and the other was about to bring his sword down on someone only to receive several knifes to the back and to fall down on top of the knifes with a wide eyed glassy stare pointing towards the ceiling with the sword clattering to the floor, Viper turned with a gasp seeing Naruto still holding two knives in his left hand between his fingers by the blades.
"Naruto, how did you…" Viper said in a squeak of surprise that only came out as hissing to human ears, she was shocked by Naruto's skill with throwing knives, he also didn't seemed to be as upset with killing someone as he was before.
"Remember when you forced me to eat healthy and I learned how to cook for myself; not to mention study and read, I took up knife throwing as a pass time and incidentally that's why I had that shredded picture of Sasuke on the wall of the kitchen, I stole that from Sakura if you were wondering" Naruto quickly went over to the man and behind him a child and woman that were cowering there a second ago opened their eyes to see that the danger had pass as the man was helped up off his back still holding the blood covered sword he presumably got from the still living guy on the floor, which Zabuza promptly stepped on upon entering by accident crushing the bandits windpipe.
"And for the longest time I thought you were bisexual… well that's a relief, if you liked Sasuke I would have to had eventually sneak away to kill him in his Uchiha weakness phase… otherwise known as cold hard sleep to rest their weary stupid evil eyes, before bringing the sad news that he had been assassinated by some other person" Viper said as an off comment in a humor filled voice that had Isaribi's face meeting the floor as Viper wasn't hiding what she would have done in that situation, she had reactivated her hiss to "English" genjutsu translation before saying that out loud.
"Not minding the save there Naruto and the fact there's a talking snake in the kitchen that you've obviously kissed; congratulations by the way on having a wonderful relationship, but I got to get to the bridge Tazuna's in danger" Kaiza got up as he wasn't injured at all in his scuffle with the two bandits that came to the house to kill him and apprehend his family, but he had had the wind knocked out of him and as he tried to hurry out the door he was stopped when Naruto motioned for Zabuza to bar him from exiting, they were paying Zabuza to help them after all and Naruto's team would call the shots unless it led to Zabuza being put needlessly in harm's way or if he didn't agree with their orders as clients.
"Whoa there Kaiza, first how do you know I've kissed Viper and secondly what's going on here" The situation was quickly explained to Naruto as the two bandit rushed into the home brandishing their swords only for Kaiza who apparently used to be of some kind of samurai used his fishing pole to steal one their swords and nearly killed the guy who Zabuza stomped on seemingly without malice, his partner managed to catch Kaiza off guard and knocked him down, then he began monologue about how Gato was going to attack the bridge and crush the peoples spirits before Naruto burst in throwing the recently cleaned knives into his back, much to Tsunami's dismay that she had to clean them again and it led to Naruto commenting on "the monologue" being the number one killer of most people, especially ninja's.
Kaiza's explanation for how he knew about Viper was that there are plenty of legends flying around here from mermaids to harpies, there were a few about what happens when you kiss a snake in a particular way along with the described signs of infatuation, quite clearly however in those stories the snake never talked or spoke "English" he likened that to the snake now in the kitchen because she seemed to be more focused on Naruto out of anyone in the room, much to her embarrassment and the stares that they both got from Zabuza and Haku who just shrugged it off as a humorous tale for a later date, they were currently waiting for orders from their contractors.
"Haku, Zabuza infiltrate Gato's base and have some fun and then meet us at the bridge, remember you can get some of Gato's money but the rest goes to the people of Wave while me, Isaribi and Viper are going to the bridge to put a stop to Gato once and for all, Kaiza gather anyone who you can convince to help you, trust me we'll be fine till you get there, come on guys" Naruto and his companions made it out the door; Zabuza and Haku had disappeared with a nod as soon as Naruto told them what to do, before Kaiza could even respond and he just smiled, that kid was starting a revolution that would save Wave and he now had a strange sword and was found out to have a rather friendly snake which was something special, he shook his head at the legend this would make and quickly went to get his crossbow for Inari whom he had told to get up off his sulking butt, Tsunami grabbed a frying pan with some determination not to appear useless wanting to be a part of history and one of the legends that comes through wave every now and then, she waited patiently for Kaiza and Inari before they set out.
Naruto and Isaribi were rushing towards the bridge as they had plenty of time to scout out Wave and set down a plan for just about every occasion and he felt Viper wrap around him in his jump suit in a protective manner, causing him to sigh and when they reached the bridge he sighed even louder at the strange sight sat before them, as Viper slid out of his pants she looked up and saw something among a crowd of bandits that happened to be threateningly pointed towards a bunch of civilian workers, it was a strange large metal humanoid object that was purple and grey.
"Viper please tell me we're not marking up another crazy thing appearing in my life" Naruto pleaded lightly but Viper couldn't say anything as she watched the metal thing raises its arms and slam them to the ground creating a shockwave in what appeared to be anger creatinga large crater in the bridge and the old man Tazuna was standing in front of his construction crew facing down something that looked like a walking tank while his legs were shivering like pudding, Viper quietly pulled out a book and wrote down yet another strange occurrence in the life of Naruto which she would eventually turn into a best seller called "The Bizarre Ninja Chronicles" which would be up there in civilian reading for years to come along with the "Princess of the Mist" by the author that went by the name Zahabakuza.
"Sorry Naruto, I can't and you might want to distract the bandits or else someone might die… it looks like a far west steam powered internally driven armor and before you ask no my genjutsu won't work on him if I can't get a direct line of sight on him like with your leaf skin exercise it'd be a wasted effort and loss of chakra, the bandits on the other hand can be taken care of easily they've got nothing on us from the looks of it, but I don't know anything about how to beat that armored thing so all I can tell you is that is one expensive piece of work" Naruto grunted intelligibly at Vipers analysis; she studied all kinds of thing so of course she'd know something about this, and Isaribi gave him some soft pats on the shoulder that everything would be alright and a few kind words that it didn't matter if he kept running into strange things, it wasn't like Isaribi or Viper hadn't had their fair share of strange either.
This was before Naruto leapt high in the air and threw a kunai with a flash bomb note on it to garner some attention in front of all the bandits and the mechanical armor thing, which they didn't know who was driving it until the thing turned around to address Naruto stumbling a bit as the person inside was probably briefly blinded by the flash.
"What the hell! Who are you and what are you doing here" The way the things mouth was flapping up and down the entire head of the thing might not have been entirely connected to the body, but now Naruto had the attention of the entire bandit crowd and the man who was driving the machine.
"Funny I would like to ask you the same thing, by the way I'll take you all on as you destroyed this countries precious ramen supply and I will take my sword and shove it so far up one of your bandit butts that when I get my new friend to freeze you you're going to be my other friends meat popsicle and trust me she'd be willing to eat you" The unnoticed thing in this situation was that Viper and Isaribi were no longer with Naruto and were behind the bandits, where all the workers were being led to the edge of the incomplete bridge and being rescued, Viper stayed out of the way and kept up a rather tough illusion that the civilians were still trapped when in actuality Isaribi had a rope and dug a metal spike into the top of the edge of the bridge so the civilians could safely get down to the water, it wasn't that turbulent today and everyone in Wave knew how to swim exceptionally well except for three people, one of which was Inari and another was a puppy, but she got better.
Viper was smiling about having a meat popsicle, however if it was too fatty for her well she'd rather not then, not that she didn't stop eating any kind of meat she just preferred it not being anything that could be taken as wrong by Naruto but with all the rats and other things she's eaten and even made sure he knew she's tasted human flesh once before and that it wasn't all that great, if Naruto was bothered by it he certainly didn't comment on it or show it because they were friends.
"Boy do you even have any idea who you are messing with" The giant flapping mechanical headed thing boomed out in an unrecognizable voice and Naruto gave a deadpan answer in response when he guessed who he was finally talking too.
"Yes, your Gato of the Gato Shipping Industries like I wasn't expecting this when Viper made a comment about how hard this could possibly be so I was actually expecting something bizarre like the walking tea kettle thing you got going for you, but it's still pretty weird tea kettle thing" Naruto waved his hand absentmindedly in dismissal and all the bandits started snickering this boy just pissed off the wrong rich dude with a powerful steam driven weapon on his side, that just pulled out a microphone and because it had some technology freshly bought from the hidden sound village this was about to get slightly ugly.
"You don't know who you're messing with kid because… I AM GATO, I AM STRONG, IF YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME UP, THEN YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T GET THE POINT" The man's singing was so horrible every bandit within five feet of the metal monstrosity died from having blood spilled out of every orifice on their bodies in a frankly sickening manner, Naruto ears were bleeding and with good fortune that was the only part of him that was from the horrible singing he quickly pitched a kunai and destroyed the microphone before Gato could do anything worse with it, his machine carelessly tossed the microphone to the side, this led some of the bandits to be thankful but not thankful enough to stop them from attacking even if their ears were bleeding out as well.
"YOU SUCK AT SINGING YOU KNOW THAT" Naruto yelled being partially deaf until his healing kicked in, apparently that also took care of the dried blood caking in his ear as well because he didn't have to clean it out.
"What care I for singing better when I'm filthy rich, emphasis on filthy, take care of this runt who thinks he can play hero" The machine's yellow eyes were focused on Naruto as he pulled the sword off his back with a flourish and then Isaribi appeared landing next to Naruto prepping her crossbow with a quiver taking minimal notice of the damage that sound attack had on Naruto after she finished helping the civilians get away without notice and Viper made her entrance by popping in on Naruto's left side springing into the air and with a twirl whipped out her parasol from her red scarf and landed on the ground with a cheerful smile as she opened it above her head the edges of the parasol gleamed brightly denoting how well the weapon was being cared for, they were ready for a fight. (Trio: You know there is no words for how obvious this turned out, what I can't understand though is Vipers role and what character she's paying homage to dude)
(Darkon: It's a cross of Lucca and Frog of course unless there are people who haven't caught on yet; Chrono Trigger, we will be derailing all sense of normalcy beyond the Wave country arc now continue the writing in progress also my idea of how to describe Gato the machine coming up right now)
It was a large hulking with a round head that had two spikes jutting out at the forty five degree angles; it was the hatch to the machine, there was the mouth like area and it's two garish yellow eyes which were lamps, below that was what looked like a sumo wrestlers body, on its back was a large pack that was emitting a small cloud of steam from a pipe and barely visible from Naruto's perspective past the now advancing mass of bandits was a round circle on the stomach that popped out slightly like a huge belly button with a line in the center and very sturdy hinges at the top and bottom of the mechanism, below that were what looked like two large stumpy legs and what seemed to be a metal triangle hanging over the drivable machines lower frontal area which was probably for aesthetic purposes and finally two long arms ending in three dangerous razor sharp long knife like claws, the machine in question was just standing there as presumably Gato was preparing to watch a slaughter, unfortunately that would be the slaughter of his own bandits as they are suffering from not only balance issues but some were still a bit blinded.
After a minute of trying to fight them with his sword unsuccessfully Naruto gave up and put it on his back and just summoned a bunch of shadow clones to wreak havoc on these guys as finesse was wasted on him right now as he had none after taking a few light hits and he wasn't that great at using the sword that disables his use of normal chakra, they quickly went to town and started knocking bandits left and right, all the while the bandits were getting even more disoriented and it wasn't just their hearing but what they were seeing for those who could, they were killing each other off and started to become panicky when some of them started to turning into Naruto after getting hit by his clones while Viper was nearby smacking them with her parasol flipping between closed mace, to bladed edged canopy and to a spear in quick succession depending on when she needed it to smash, slash or stab, it was any guess she was the cause of the bandits confusion with well timed genjutsu in concert to any Naruto clone she watched attacking and being dispelled.
Isaribi was staying on the edge of the bandit brawl and conserving her strength, she was saving her heavy weapons for Gato's machine so she stuck to normal self loading arrows and her special brand of exploding water seal arrows, the blast of water from the seal was more concussive then anything and hardly as damaging as her other works but it was effective enough on groups, she was glad that seals didn't care what kind of chakra she used but apparently water elemental chakra made the seals more effective given what the seals were written with, she was currently working on a special side project with Haku for exploding ice arrows but the development for something like that would take a lot of time, more time than it took her to figure out how to make a water balloon exceedingly lethal by making the water form into a explosive seal as soon as it hits its target, she was beginning to see the merits of living up to her title as the 'Soaking Serpent' despite still being a rookie ninja compared to Naruto and Viper.
The battle was going well for the three plus all the Naruto clones fighting slightly better than street brawlers due to Zabuza's training and a few were using Clone jutsu as well as a few other minor genjutsu Naruto picked up from Viper, adding more chaos to the bandits ranks as an organized army they were not and it showed pretty well when they kept falling all over themselves.
The problems only started when the unskilled bandits were finally backed by Gato who had took a moment to try and use the civilians as hostages only to find they just weren't there anymore and having no hostages he turned his machine back around and started to attack the three that seemed to be handling his bandits too well, the attack came in a unusual form not the clawed hands of the machine on the durable cylindrical arms in comparison to the rest of the machine but from the belly region opening up where it launched a large metal ball with spikes out and reeled it back in after carelessly ripping through multiple bandits and the Naruto clones they were dealing with, it was a tad slow to reel back in but it was none the less powerful and it didn't take long before it fired again and the chain the ball was connected to looked to be well made to survive the power of the sphere being launched from the machine.
Viper ducked out of the way as the bandit she was about to attack was torn to a bloody cadaver by another of Gato's wild shots, she took notice of all the puff of smokes that had appeared along the bridge carefully looked for the real Naruto among the clones, he was moving back from the front with his clones trying to avoid the next spike ball launch and Isaribi was in the back bashing anyone that got to close and had just had a successful use of her newest creation the napalm arrow, despite all this the bandits continued to press the advantage of the numbers which is quickly becoming less prominent.
The bandits didn't seem to care that their own number was being cut down by Gato all they cared is that the better job they did the better the payout and thus the power of money, though undoubtedly it would hardly outlast their need to live to get said money, as a few of the bandits started to abandon the fight; after a large number of them had been hit with an arrow that covered the area with a thick goo like oil that caught fire at the same time, to jump over the side of the bridge and even exclaim that the fight wasn't worth it anymore if their employer was not using discretion with his targets.
The battle of wave had just begun and Gato was already proving the power of the machine he was driving but could it hold up to a snake, a two demon holding boy and a girl with the powers of a fish, Gato only had about forty bandits left and they were either stupid, brave or maybe even loyal to the death to the payout of this endeavor if they survived and won.
End chapter, please don't make the crazy evil Spanish guy sing again.
List-
Flying Thunder God- ninjutsu- target area: special- effect: causes the user to move at insane speeds or teleports them and it is said to be the ultimate teleporting ninjutsu when used offensively, this jutsu is special in the ways it can be used first and foremost is by throwing a tri-pronged kunai to mark a spot or the user who without the guidance of the special kunai can only move in one direction, the range of this jutsu is considered infinite only to be limited by chakra and the specially crafted seals needed to direct the teleportation at faster speeds as changing direction without the three pronged kunai stops the user for a limited amount of time while using special kunai and or special seals doesn't require the user to slow down, used to carry out high speed assassination tactics, used to travel anywhere in the blink of an eye, used to cause fear specifically in Iwa shinobi, used to deliver a rapid response for aid from anyone and used to dodge life threatening attacks.
Warning: The flying thunder god technique has minor flaws that are barely noticeable, but should a user teleport without a marked location to arrive at they could end up killing themselves or someone else by appearing inside of something else, it is better to use the special seals and kunai to mark destinations to appear at or else death is possible if the user appears inside a structure they can't escape from such as a solid brick wall, it is unknown how many flaws the jutsu exactly has for what it can do, it also requires a user to have a main lightning elemental alignment above all other alignments and for effective use a extreme understanding of the sealing arts.
Water (Liquid) Clone- ninjutsu- target area: any open space within minimal distance of a body of water and the user- effect: creates a copy of a user out of water or any other liquid substance with varying results that can perform only water jutsu and are said to have a percentage of strength based on the user which is not entirely true as strength can be increased by making a higher pressure water clone requiring more focus or more chakra, the clones don't give information to the user except for when it is destroyed which can be used as an early warning system against hostile forces, used to train then cool down, used to fight, used to fight people who use fire attacks, used because it's a safer cloning method then shadow clones, used to launch water based jutsu from different directions, used to support a user in the usage of a water ninjutsu, used to sneak attack while in a heavy fog or mist, used to carry toxins, flammable chemicals or explosive liquids and possibly all three at once making it dangerous to attack, used to fill a swimming pool, used to block up an enemies water supply as water clones don't need to breathe and used in any aquatic operation.
Rising Water (Liquid) Clone- ninjutsu- target area: From underground or a nearby water source in a chosen spot near the user- effect: causes a large pillar of water to burst up from the ground or water that quickly turns into a Water Clone, It is said by Zabuza 'Demon of the Bloody Mist' to be the answer to the problem for how slow water clones are to form by accelerating not only the speed in which they form but makes forming a water clone into an attack by mixing the Water Clone into the Rising Geyser jutsu but the chakra usage is a always a bit higher than either jutsu used separately and could actually lead to a waste of chakra if not used properly, used to make water clones faster, used to water clone someone upside the head and other uses found in entries Water Clone and Rising Geyser.
Darkon: Well this took a while because I had other business to attend to and I was supporting my minion Trio in other endeavors, Sir Dies Allot died approximately six hundred thousand times between the last chapter and this one but no one really cared.
Sir: I have the next plot line already set up, whenever you finish Wave arc Darkon and I have adjusted it for your bizarre ideas as you wanted.
Darkon: Thanks Sir, you are my number one minion and I appreciate you completely, even if I don't tend to care how many times you die in a given day, so far it's been pretty tame at forty seven work related deaths and that's just from typing up reports on a computer.
Trio: I still can't believe it came to life and strangled Sir with its power cords and smashed his head in with its modem dude.
Darkon: I know, Sir gets to do all the fun stuff, anyway next chapter things come to a conclusion for the Wave country arc in "The fall of Waves hope", wait is the story over already?