As you may have noticed (cough cough), it's been a LONG time...sorry! Please forgive me! I've been, need i say it? busy. My parents are doing some remodeling of our house, and my grandpa is the handyman just right for the job...and i tend to be his best assistant. In addition, while we DID have 3 cars, the transmission in the car i was using for my pizza delivery job died, so now we're juggling two cars to get my parents both to work, and then for me to drive at all! Car is kind of important in pizza delivery...

It's been busy. However, i'm putting my other stories on hiatus until this one is done, and i'm putting up the last update for them today as well to put them all on hiatus, so i'll be able to focus on NotS until it's done! This should ensure that i FINALLY get back to a bi-weekly update , in this chapter, expect to get halfway through the wave mission. I'm up late writing as it is, and really need to sleep, and it was taking longer than i meant to get it all written and up, so i apologize for not completing the wave mission today, but i AM trying to skim over the stuff that i expect you guys to already know, just putting in a few of the little changes here and there. I hope you like them. Of course, we'll be having some extra company arriving soon for our favorite team 7!

Well, that's enough rambling. Read, review, enjoy!

disclaimer-work of fiction based on a work of fiction that has elements from other works of fiction besides that... but the point is: i don't own a lick of this stuff (even if i wish i did...)

"You dobe!" Sasuke said, walking over to her quickly. "You lose this much blood and not only will it get the poison out, but you'll die," he said, roughly grabbing her hand.

"Ow! Hey, I know that! I, I just hadn't gotten the bandages out yet!" Naruto fumed as her teammate began to bandage her hand. In truth, she should have known. Anko had made sure she knew about the importance of blood to the body, and to several jutsu. She'd told her that one day she'd train her with snake summons, but first she needed to kill her old sensei, Orochimaru. She always had a grim face when she mentioned him, but it was hard for Naruto to find out anything about Anko's teacher. She'd asked jii-san about him once, but all he said was that he had once been a pupil of his who betrayed the village, then he turned around to hide the tears that came down his face, but he'd forgotten about the reflection in the mirror. Naruto never wanted to make the old man cry like that again, so she never asked.

Of course, all that was beside the point of the moment. Now she needed to get Sasuke off of her and stop making her look stupid. It was bad enough that Sakura was spouting off about how impressive it was that Sasuke knew so much about first aid. She snatched her hand away.

"I can do it myself, thank-you very much," she said, turning away so she could wrap her hand.

"Hmph; see if I try to help you again," Sasuke said.

"I didn't ask for your help, you know!" There was a moment of silence.

"We're a team, aren't we?" Naruto looked over her shoulder in surprise. Sasuke had his hands in his pockets again, looking from her, nose in the air, all snobby like. Still…

"Yeah, I guess so…thanks," she said quietly. Kakashi smiled. It looked like they were going to get along fine after all. After Sakura started getting more serious about being a Kunoichi than a fan girl, anyways. He'd seen her test scores, and she had brains and good chakra control, but she had a lot more growing up left to do to be on par with her teammates…well, with Sasuke, anyways. Naruto was only a few steps above, but her mother had always been like that, too; impulsive and explosive. He grinned at the memories before Tazuna spoke up and finally explained what was going on.

Naruto furrowed her brow as she tried to remember the few times Gato's name had come up when she was hanging around the hokage office. She knew he was a super rich guy, and she thought she remembered a few protection or assassination missions being called in on account of this guy. She felt like she had a sour taste in her mouth for the rest of the trip to wave as she thought about the hard times Tazuna said had come to their land. It didn't help that Sasuke, and even Sakura, would ask now and then if her hand was okay. She even ripped off the bandage to show them that the bleeding had stopped only for them to give her stunned looks complete with dropped jaws over the fact that her hand was already healed with minimal scarring tissue.

"How, how did you heal that fast?" Naruto cringed. Crap, this must be one of those things the kyuubi does…I thought it was normal! "Uh, jii-san said that um, that my mom was a fast healer; yeah! She was a fast healer." She smiled as she looked down at her weapons pouch. "Actually, jii-san said my mom was a kick-a Kunoichi in her day." She pointed at her the metal plate on pouch. "This was actually hers," she said. "It was my graduation present from jii-san."

"Wow!" Sakura began to ask questions about her mom, but Naruto only had the little that Sarutobi had told her; her mouth came from somewhere else and stay to become a ninja.

"Well, in that case, would could probably go through the records on old genin and find the ones who came from somewhere else before going to the academy. It would take some time, but working together, we should be able to do it, right?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Kakashi said, speaking up for the first time in a while. Everyone turned to look at him, but Sasuke was the one who asked the question.

"You know who her mother is, sensei?" Kakashi shrugged, but inwardly he was sweating.

"Her mother would have been several years older than me; it's possible, but the chances are slim. Really, though, if hokage-sama thinks it's unwise to tell even you who you're mother is, he must have a good reason for it." Like making sure no one can make the connection between you and Minato-sensei and then have their revenge on him through you; Sorry, Naruto, but you're not ready yet. The more people that know, the more likely it is that everyone will know. Besides, not even Hokage-sama knows your whole story; not just yet…

Still, Naruto liked the idea. She just started planning with Sakura how to do their research. Kakashi decided to wait until a better time to talk her out of it. Hopefully a good opportunity would present itself soon, but either way he'd have to tell the hokage about it. It might be a good idea to remove all of Kushina's records anyway, just in case anyone else made the connection.

Soon, though, they were floating beneath the uncompleted bridge on the way to wave. Naruto marveled at the size of it and all the mist surrounding them. You didn't see many sites like this back in Konoha.

"Good luck," the ferryman said, pushing off again.

"Same to you, friend." As they walked down the path from there all seemed to be fine until Naruto jumped and threw a shuriken at snow white rabbit.

"Ah, no! I'm sorry bunny! Please be okay!" Kakashi's eye narrowed. A snow white rabbit in the middle of summer? This is just like a puddle when there hasn't been rain for days. This is probably in preparation for a replacement jutsu.

"Everyone down!" And there he was, the demon of the mist, Zabuza. It was a short battle really, though for a few moments they didn't think that they'd make it out. Kakashi was caught in a water prison and the man had made a water clone. However, this time Naruto hadn't frozen up, though Zabuza did take away her headband for a moment there in her initial attack. She gritted her teeth in frustration before formulating a new plan. She then grinned and used the shadow clone jutsu to try and rush him, trusting Sasuke to see through her ploy. It worked; he saw what she was doing and played right along with her. He threw her in her disguised form at the real Zabuza who was forced to dodge and release their sensei from the missing nin's water prison jutsu. The battle was over soon after that, Kakashi showing the might of the sharingan. Naruto had to admit that she was impressed, but then, right before Kakashi was about to make the final blow, his kill was interrupted by a young mist hunter nin. He didn't look to be any older than Naruto and her teammates.

Wow, he's strong, Naruto thought. How can he be so strong already? Anko and jii-san never said anyone could be like that, and he's already a hunter nin!

"Hey you! What's going on? What do you think you're doing here!"

"Don't worry Naruto, he's not the enemy…"

"I don't care about that," she shouted. "That Zabuza guy was really strong, and he was killed by this kid! He's not any older than us, so how am I supposed to sit around and take that?" Kakashi sighed and told her about the possibilities of strength from any age, and how that was just how the world worked. Naruto didn't miss Sasuke's look of anger and slight shock as he stood behind Kakashi. Does this have something to do with his 'ambition'?

Before the conversation could progress further, the hunter nin jumped down to the body and disappeared in a flash, just before a barrage of arrived, covering both the tree and the ground where the two shinobi had been. Team seven and Tazuna looked up in surprise.

"Yo," Kakashi said, greeting the new arrivals with his eye smile. He'd sensed them coming a few moments ago. "Nice to see you…Iruka-san, Anko-san." The two of them were up in a tree, Anko crouched down while Iruka was standing. Both were breathing heavily.

"Nice to see you two, idiot. You better be glad we just saved your butt!"

"Wha?" The three genin looked shocked. Hadn't the threat been taken care of? The two newly arrived Konoha shinobi jumped and landed lightly on the ground.

"Oh, I could have pushed a little further if I needed too," Kakashi said, "but now that you're here, I think a little nap is in order…" and with that he landed flat on his face.

"Sensei!"

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The rest of the walk was rather uneventful, though the first think Anko did after they assured the young teens that their sensei was just exhausted from his use of the sharingan, was grab Tazuna by his shirt and lift him up in the air.

"Do you have any idea what I'm going to do to you for putting my sister in danger like this? Lieing about a mission is not a small deal! People DIE for things like this! I hope you've already had some kids, 'cause I'm about to make that impossible!" She'd reached back her arm to swing it but Naruto had jumped in. She was able to calm Anko down slightly; after all, Naruto had to admit, she understood, some, why the man had done what he did, and she owed him one for giving her respect. Of course, that didn't stop her from giving the old man very scary glares for the rest of the trip, but she was brought in by Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, to help look after Kakashi...until it was realized that she had no skill at healing and all the helpful input she could provide was that he had fainted from exhaustion and would take about a week to recover.

"Iruka sensei, why are you and Anko chan here?" Iruka scratched the back of his head. He wasn't sure how to put it because, while he was mad at Tazuna, just like Anko and the Hokage, he knew that Naruto was feeling sympathetic towards the man's situation…and so was he.

"Well, we're not really supposed to say until Kakashi is awake again. All I'll tell you for now is that we've been assigned to aid you for the rest of this mission as there is more to Tazuna than he originally claimed." The main grimaced as Iruka shot him an angry glare.

"Yeah, so? That's the way things work, sensei; if a man like Gato wants to try and make trouble, then if don't cut people some slack those men are going to keep getting away with it just because they have more money! I don't care if jii-san wants us home because of that; I'm staying!" With that she sat down heavily, crossing her legs and folding her arms, giving him a glare that dared him to contradict her. He stared at her for a moment before laughing. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Naruto, if the hokage was going to send us back home, he'd have done it already, even if Kakashi sensei needs rest. We're stay put for now, and they're going to be our back up."

"Hey! I, I knew that! I, I was just trying to make a point!"

"Naruto-chan, everyone knows you're lying right now," Sakura said. "It doesn't really matter; Sasuke-kun is just so smart he was able to figure it out." Naruto cringed.

"Okay fine, I didn't know…" The next hour passed idly by as the students talked with their former teacher. There was a mild interruption when Anko returned giving Iruka a big hug and a kiss, grossing out Sasuke, the emotionless person that he was, scaring Sakura with the kunoichi's ferocity and making Naruto roll her eyes.

"Get a room!" She was rewarded with a lump on her head, courtesy of Anko, and conversation resumed. Soon enough, Tsunami called everyone in with the announcement that Kakahsi was awake.

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As often happened in his dreams, Kakashi was back at that night twelve years ago. Every time he would try and save Rin from her fate, but then something would hold him back, something would stop him. His dreams never even had the decency to let him die with her. The closest he got were dreams where she appeared to him as a spirit, decrying him for letting her die, for not saving her. He screamed and screamed, he tried harder the next time, he tried to hold her to stop her from jumping out to find that he was holding the wrong person and she was already being sent flying by the great beast.

Then he woke up. His body was in pain though he could tell without even opening his eyes that he was laying down inside on a soft mattress. There was a thin blanket resting over him, helping him to stay warm in the slightly cooler weather of the wave country. Ah, good, he could still sense team seven, and Anko and Iruka. Well, it was probably time to get up; the sooner he was awake, the sooner he could occupy his mind with something besides those dreams.

There was a woman standing over him with a damp cloth, reaching down as though she was about to replace one. He realized that he did indeed have his headband off, a warmer cloth resting on his forehead. As he made to sit up the woman tried to keep him down.

"No Kakashi san, don't get up. You fainted from exhaustion, Anko-san said, and you've been running a terrible fever."

"Meh meh, not to worry," he said, though he grimaced inwardly as more pain ran through his body as he sat up. "I was having a nightmare is all; it happens frequently. My body simply reacts as though I'm actually having a fever to help me out of it." She shook her head.

"That's ridiculous; I've never heard of such a thing!" He shrugged.

"Well, I'm an odd man," he said, looking around. "I don't suppose you could send in my fellow shinobi, including my genin? I need to talk with them." Tsunami gave him a disapproving eye, but nodded and stood. Hmm, she reminds me of Rin, the way she would look after me when I got those couple of times… he shook his head. Now wasn't the time to be thinking of that. It was hard enough dreaming about it; it just hurt more when he started thinking about it when he was awake. It was a dull ache that never disappeared, not completely.

"Sensei! What happened? Why did you faint like that?" Kakashi gave Naruto a reassuring eye smile.

"Oh, the sharingan has its uses, but sometimes I overdue it, and Zabuza was a tougher opponent than one usually gets. But right now I'm more interested as to why Iruka and Anko are here," he said, his face turning more serious as he turned his eye towards the other two adult shinobi. Iruka was the one who spoke.

"After talking with Tazuna and Naruto the night before you all left, Anko and I had a feeling that there was more going on than Tazuna was letting on…"

"Yeah, and we were right," Anko said, shooting another glare at the aging bridge builder. "We made a few inquiries and checks and discovered that a man called Gato was moving in here, and he's been known to hire high level missing nin to help him accomplish his less…charitable business endeavors. Wave country happens to be his latest interest…"

"And so we went to Hokage-sama and told him what we found out." He looked over at Naruto. "He actually wanted to pull you back immediately, but Anko and I reminded him that you'd never forgive him for taking you away from your first mission outside the village, so instead, he sent us as back-up for team seven in case Gato really was involved…and it looks like it was a good thing, too." Anko snorted.

"No kidding! That kid could have taken you all out in a blink if we hadn't shown up; Kakashi, what have you been doing since they let you out of Anbu? Sit on your arse all day reading those darn books of yours?" Kakashi rolled an eye.

"Huh? What kid," Sakura asked. Kakashi answered.

"Actually, she's talking about the 'hunter nin' that 'killed' Zabuza." All who had been present looked at Kakashi with slacked jaws.

"What!" Kakashi nodded, eye grim.

"Yes, it was all a hoax. I first realized it when I felt Iruka and Anko closing in. I wondered, what else could bring them here, unless they realized even more than we did. Well, even though it turns out it wasn't much more than we has already discovered, it made me think, and I realized, even as I was talking to you Naruto, that as a hunter nin, he should have been using a different type of weapon to kill Zabuza. While senbon can be great for assassinations and all, they're not normal since they have to hit a vital spot to actually be fatal.

"Also, he didn't destroy the body right then and there; he carried him away. If he felt an attack coming, he would have waited to try and explain his situation before fleeing, possibly even just using a jutsu to destroy the body.

"So I realized, that Hunter nin was simply getting Zabuza away, saving him. They knew that I had enough power left to handle them for a few moments and still kill Zabuza, who is obviously their leader, and sensing that two more possible enemies were closing in, they decided to fly and fight another day." He sighed. "My sharingan probably won't work as well the second time, but it will still give me an advantage, and they most likely don't know about Iruka and Anko, in terms of their skill, so we have another advantage there."

"Wait a second," Tazuna said, "you mean that demon is still alive?" Kakashi nodded.

"Yes, but we've got about a week to prepare for them, I'd say. Right Anko?" The woman nodded.

"Knowing as much as I do, from that glance I saw of him, those senbon will only put him down a few days. I'd actually give him a week tops for a full recovery, since it's the demon of the mist we're talking about."

"Wait, don't you think you're over thinking this?" It was Tazuna speaking. "If it was me, I'd run and do a more thorough job than a situation like that would allow. Missing nin's are supposed to kill missing nins." The adult shinobi shared a glance before shaking their heads.

"No," Kakashi said. "The few days we have are days that we need to prepare before it's too late. That's the way a shinobi works."

"Wait a minute, you said yourself that Zabuza was dead, didn't you sensei? And what do you mean prepare before it's too late; you can barely even move!" Kakashi gave a slightly embarrassed eye smile to Sakura, noting the grin on Naruto's face at the idea of Zabuza being alive. Probably wants to measure herself against that other kid in a real battle. Hokage-sama said that she was like that.

Well, I did, but those senbon can also be used to put someone in a temporary state of death, right Anko?" The kunouchi grinned evilly.

"Oooooh, yes; along with a few other uses. I rememeber this one time…" she was cut off by Iruka's hand.

"Sorry," he said, "but you were about to scare the kids and the clients." He looked over to the two shocked Wave county inhabitants as Anko glared at him and acted as though she was trying to uncover her mouth. Those more familiar with her could tell she was being playful, for which Iruka was grateful. She was stronger than him, after all. "You see, she's a member for T&I, and she enjoys it, so she can be a little…descriptive about her work out of context." She started poking him hard and their odd form of flirting remained in the background while the genin and civilians tried to focus on Kakashi and ignore the weird shinobi.

"Anyways, just because I can't move much doesn't mean you can't train." Naruto's and even Sasuke's faces lit up at the prospect, but Sakura was incredulous.

"Are you kidding sensei! What's a little training for us going to do against an opponent like Zabuza who even gave you trouble when you used your sharingan?"

"Sakura, who saved me when Zabuza had me trapped in that water prison?" Iruka and Anko stopped their fooling around in surprise; that hadn't been told that Kakashi had gotten trapped. The kids had actually saved him? Kakashi continued as he saw Sakura and the others beginning to understand. "You guys are all growing quickly, even though he may not have noticed…" after all, you refuse to see the extra training in all those d-ranks you get assigned, no matter how obvious I try to make it… "Especially you, Naruto," he said.

"Of course," he continued, not giving Naruto a chance to shout out how awesome she was, "this is just training until I get better. You three alone still wouldn't be a match for Zabuza without me, and even with Iruka and Anko it would difficult to survive, besides him having his partner." This time Naruto spoke up, though it was clear that Sakura still had doubts and her brains were over analyzing every point.

"So, we train during the few days that it will take for him to recover, just like Anko-chan said, right sensei? This is gonna be fun!"

"That's not fun," a small voice said. They turned to see a small boy in the doorway. He looked angry and spiteful.

"Who the heck are you," Naruto yelled, though she was ignored while the boy walked up to the old bridge builder and gave him a small hug.

"Inarai? Where were you all this time," the man yelled; it was evident that he cared a lot for the small boy, insolent sounding though he was, even as he welcomed the man.

"Welcome back, grandpa." There was a small, akward pause.

"Inari, say hello to our guests. They're shinobi from Konohagakure who protected grandpa. The boy only spared them a small, belittling glance, then turned to his mother, pointing at them, and spoke.

"Mom, they're going to die…" The result was Naruto (and Anko) being restrained by their respective peers as the boy conitued on about how no one could defeat Gato. He even made fun of Naruto's declaration that she would be Hokage, and a great hero. He left the room as everyone tried to calm the two kunouchi down. Naruto still pushed through, walking after the brat, intent on beating some sense into the kid, but as she found the boy in his room, she noticed he was crying over a picture, saying 'dad' over and over again. Her heart melted.

This Gato probably killed his dad and he's lost his heart; well, I'll just have to prove that I can be hero, that they really do exist! She clenched her fist as she walked back down the hallway. I'm going to train good and hard, just you wait Inari; this time Gato's going to be the one dying…

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Training turned out to be tree walking. Iruka grimaced when Kakashi began to explain the exercise. This is advanced stuff; we didn't learn it till we'd been genin a few months. It will help with their control, but does he actually think that they can master this? Anko was thinking differently. Well, it's earlier than I would have done it, but I know Naruto's ready at least. I was just about to get her going on this type of exercise anyways, and she's got that Uchiha kid on her team; he's supposed to be good, and despite her freakin' big mouth and forehead, it looks like that pink headed girl actually knows what she's doing…

The two other shinobi were shocked when they saw the results of the first attempt. Sasuke actually managed to go up several yards before having to stop. They winced as Naruto fell right down. And here I thought I'd taught her better than that… but it was jaw dropping as they saw Sakura sitting high up on a branch, huge smile on her face. Anko moved to give Naruto some advice, but she saw Kakashi shaking his head, and she backed off. What's he doing? If they're going to face off against Zabuza again we need to help them get better as fast as possible? Iruka leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"I know how it feels, but trust him. The best way for them to learn is to do it themselves, learning how to think the right way, because then it become habit and it'll come to them easier as they continue to progress. Besides, Naruto's doing much better this time." Anko looked over and noticed that it was true. Naruto had actually been rushing too hard the first time, forgetting everything Anko and jii-san had taught her, but then she'd taken a moment to recall it, and she'd gone up several feet. She also noticed that the Uchiha, who hadn't spared a second glance at the pink girl, was eyeing Naruto from the side. Hmmm…looks like my sis has a secret admirer!

The day continued much like this, though Sakura began to tire relatively quickly as Naruto and Sasuke kept going. Naruto did, at one point, take notice of how good Sakura was doing and, though she didn't want to insult Anko's teaching by looking for more, went over and asked for advice. Sakura laughed at gave it too her. Of course, Anko and Iruka had gone off a little ways to do their own intense training. Kakashi had told them to focus instead on fighting a kenjutsu style and senbon attacks alternatively, but to keep an eye out for spies and hide the moment they noticed anything. So Anko summed a few smaller snakes to keep an eye out. She never noticed.

The next day Sakura was guarding Tazuna at the bridge. Naruto and Sasuke had yet to attain to her level, but Naruto was basically equal, if not a little ahead of Sasuke. Ha, I'm beating him! He may have been the cutest boy in class but- AHH! NO! I can't become a fan girl! Focus, focus Naruto! She shook her head. She'd been noticing that she was actually starting to enjoy being around Sasuke more than when they had started as a team. She was beginning to notice her blushes, but that only made them worse, she was resorting to being more rude in an effort to cover it up, but she kept stealing glances at him. No, he's Sakura's! She's my friend, and she liked him first! I can't go liking him when I promised that I didn't! Focus!

Of course, right at that moment, Sasuke came over, blushing furiously.

"H, hey, Naruto…" She fell flat on her face, startled as she had been running to the tree. She picked herself up and turned to glare at him.

"What the heck! Can't you see I'm concentrating here?" She noticed Sasuke's eye twitch. Huh…he only does that when he really doesn't want to do something…

"You, you asked advice from Sakura earlier? What did she tell you?" Naruto looked at him in shock. Wow…he's asking advice from me? No wonder he didn't want to do it. After all, I was 'dead last'…thanks to Mizuki…. She thought for a moment, then looked down.

"A, alright…she said…." The continued to progress, and somehow the spirit lightened up. They both felt it, and once they even smiled at each other as they rested up before having another go at the tree, but they quickly turned from each other and ran at their respective tree's again.

Kushina-san, I can't help but think you'd be happy seeing your daughter getting along with your best friends son…in their own fashion, of course. Kakashi smiled from his hiding place. How proud I am…I just wish you all had had the chance to be proud of her…

So, to be honest, though i keep planning on the sand sibs appearing at the end of teh same chapter that the wave ends in, i've got some more side stuff, like pairing drama, that i need to get in, so it may be another chapter after the wave, especially if it keeps taking me so long to write.

Meanwhile, let me know what you think of how Anko and Iruka are. I hope i'm writing them to your satisfaction. :) As you may have noticed, several possible pairings that i have tried to make obvious are NaruSasu, NaruKiba, and KibaHina. This is where alot of that drama i was mentioning is going to be happening, and i may even through in something else you weren't expecting! You never know... But that's a little hint of things to come in that arena.

Besides that, since i feel generous (and trying to relive some guilt for taking so long on this update and a continual pushing off of the sand sibs reappearance), the sand sibs have almost forgotten about Naruto, and Gaara actually believes he was dreaming it, being told by Yashamaru that his mother died with him. It's an effort of his father's to control him and make him into a weapon. We'll see if Yashumaru is as willing to do the Kazakage's bidding as we go along, due to the changed elements. Temari and Kankuro just don't talk about it as they decided to keep it a secret, but the general situation has made it hard for Temari especially to show affection for her brother. It will be at the incident that Konohamaru bumps into Kankuro that they realized who she is and Gaara begins to realize his dreams were...not dreams.

Well, that's all the spoilers for now. Hope ya'll had a good Halloween, and i hope you have a good thanksgiving too! (though i hope to get in another update or two well before that comes around!)