The Pathless Sage
Beta read by I before A except after K
A/R: There is a poll on my profile regarding Zaraki's affinity, so help me out here. If you don't get your preference, but you didn't vote, then it's your own damn fault. Go vote!
I don't understand why, but the amount of reviews I was getting went up to 20 per chapter for two chapters then dropped to 9. Is it just me, or is the story losing popularity?
This chapter: I was meant to write the whole of the bridge fight and the ending, but meh, I got lazy. Stop complaining, I write these faster than most writers here, so you get the fast updates and shorter chapters. I can't do both, jeesh.
On with the story!
Sasuke looked at Naruto like he was crazy. How did Naruto know about his brother's whereabouts? Where was Itachi now? How would Itachi react to seeing his brother after so long? Kakashi was surprised, he wasn't expecting this turn of events.
Zaraki, unlike his teammate, had a more simplistic and more prudent response. He looked at Naruto in confusion. "Whoa, back up here. Who is this Itachi you're talking about? Is he strong?" He asked, trying to make sense of the turn of events.
Naruto looked inquisitively at Sasuke, as if to ask if he was going to be the one to explain. Sasuke shook his head and motioned for Naruto to carry on. "Itachi Uchiha is Sasuke's brother, he was a genius, even among the Uchiha, and swiftly rose through the village's ranks. He was an ANBU Captain by the age of thirteen. A couple of years ago, he killed the entire Uchiha clan in a night and ran away from the village. The only one left from that night is Sasuke," Naruto explained, then, remembering he hadn't answered the other boy's question, continued: "Yes, he is strong. No single ninja kills the most powerful clan in Hidden Leaf in a single night on their own by being weak."
Zaraki nodded his head, indicating that he understood the events.
"Naruto, how do you know the whereabouts of Itachi?" Kakashi asked, legitimately curious as to how the boy came to know about such sensitive information. The village had been seeking that information for the last two years in an attempt to find the teenager that had weakened their village to such an extent.
"That is a secret that I can't tell you about just yet," Naruto replied, grinning madly at the look Kakashi gave him because of the answer. "It's about time that we get to bed. Kakashi, Zaraki, we will see you next morning."
Kakashi and Zaraki got up from their spots on the floor, Kakashi again getting up slower due to his stiff body, and promptly left the room in silence. Sasuke and Naruto lay there for a while, not talking or doing anything, trying to go to sleep.
Naruto tossed and turned, but the memories of his past just wouldn't leave him. He was trying his best to just push the memories away and forget them, but the harder he tried, the more the memories taunted him.
"Naruto, you still awake?" Sasuke asked from the other side of the now dark room. He heard the tossing and turning, so he was pretty sure Naruto was either having a terrible nightmare and needed to be woken up, or was still awake. Still, he was satisfied to hear a grunt coming from Naruto, signifying that he was indeed awake. "You haven't told me, how did you survive the torture?"
"Depends. Can I trust you with S Rank secrets?" Naruto asked. Sasuke sat up bolt upright and looked at him incredulously. What was he talking about? S Rank secrets? Those were all punishable by death! How did Naruto come across such a thing?
"You can trust me. I don't plan on leaving the village any time soon. But isn't the revelation of any S Rank secret punishable by death? Both of us will get killed if they find out about this," Sasuke sounded slightly panicked. Only slightly.
"No, it's fine. I am exempt from the execution since the secret and the subsequent rule banning it from being spoken is for my safety, thus I am allowed to tell anyone I deem worthy." Naruto said, while the look on his counterparts face was getting more and more dubious. "You remember of the Kyubi incident eleven years ago, correct?" Sasuke nodded.
"They told us in the Academy that the Kyubi was killed by the 4th Hokage, that was a lie. The Kyubi is a Demon Lord far too powerful for a human to kill, so the 4th did the next best thing and sealed the beast in a newborn child. Me." Sasuke's eyes widened, almost becoming as wide as it had when he was told he was going to get a chance to meet Itachi. "Due to Kurama, that's the Kyubi's real name, being sealed inside me, I heal faster than pretty much anyone. That doesn't mean that my injuries heal instantly, it's just that if I die, he dies too, so he does whatever is necessary to keep me alive. It's painful, and Kurama healing me over and over again is a slow process, but he keeps me alive."
Sasuke collapsed back onto his futon, trying to take in everything he had been told. Naruto knew it wasn't easy for the guy to accept something so drastic so easily, but at least he wasn't calling him a liar or demon child. Yet.
Sighing, Naruto tried again to sleep, and this time the comforting darkness overtook him.
-TT-
A week had passed since they had gotten to Tazuna's house, Kakashi had healed nicely and Team 7 was doing well with their training. Sasuke could stand on water, Sakura could walk on water for a few minutes without breathing hard and Zaraki's swordsmanship was becoming a lot more disciplined. Naruto had trained himself too and he could keep his Rinnegan active for long periods of time without any severe drawbacks.
Currently they were all, minus Inari, having breakfast at the dining table and conversing about what they were going to do that day.
"I think we all should go with Tazuna today, something tells me that something is going to happen today..." Naruto suggested, eating another spoonful of his cereal. When Sakura looked at him doubtfully, he continued. "Trust me on this, my instincts have never let me down."
"So what are your instincts telling you now?" Kakashi asked curiously.
"That Zabuza and his partner are going to attack Tazuna today," Naruto answered simply, still eating his cereal at a normal pace, which for him meant that he was eating five times the amount that Sakura was eating. "But we should leave a clone or something behind, just in case they come after Tsunami or Inari to take them as hostages."
Kakashi nodded, understanding his reasoning behind it. He had seen wars, and one thing that wars had taught him was that your opponent never fought fairly, they would always have some kind of underhanded method prepared to weaken your forces.
"So who's going to fight who when we actually engage the enemy?" Sasuke asked, stopping his chewing momentarily to ask the question. He too was digging into his morning cereal, though not as hastily as Naruto.
"I will hold off Zabuza to begin with-" before he could continue, he was interrupted by Sakura.
"Why would you fight Zabuza? It should be Sasuke that fights him," Naruto had his hopes up after the display the night before, that Sakura would understand the fact that life wasn't so simple for them. Apparently, the way Sakura coped with those revelations was to act even more like a fangirl towards Sasuke.
"Because I know I won't be killed immediately against Zabuza, so I can hold him off for a while." Naruto explained, trying to stick to reason and not let the demeaning comments from Sakura rile him up.
"Wait, what will I be doing?" Kakashi asked, slightly surprised that his charge was planning on fighting the stronger enemy while Kakashi was still here.
"Simple. You are fighting his partner," Naruto answered, while everyone in the room gaped at him.
"Wait, why the hell is Kakashi fighting his partner when Zabuza is obviously going to be stronger?" Sasuke asked in outrage. He was starting to warm up to Naruto, but that didn't mean he understood everything about the Jinchuriki, and neither did it mean that he followed Naruto's thought process. That last statement left him more than a little confused.
"It's simple logic. Zabuza's partner's abilities are unknown to us. For all we know, he is too strong for any of us to handle. Kakashi is the strongest of us-" at this, Kakashi smirked a little. So he still thought Kakashi was stronger than him? "-so we let him deal with the unknown. If we find that the partner isn't all that strong, then Zaraki and Sasuke can double team him while me and Kakashi take out Zabuza. Sakura is the weakest of us so she protects Tazuna at all times and doesn't interfere in the fighting."
"I see. I should have thought something this basic up myself. But credit where it's due, it's a pretty solid plan," Kakashi complimented, eliciting a shake of the head from Naruto. Kakashi looked at him questioningly.
"It's not solid. It has one major flaw," Naruto stopped eating for a moment and held up his index finger. "What if there is a large enemy force other than just Zabuza and his partner?"
"Stop thinking so much. We will figure something out when we fight," Zaraki interrupted, and everyone went back to their breakfast, not talking to anyone around them.
-TT-
The group walked towards the unfinished bridge in a loose formation, with Zaraki and Sasuke at the front, Sakura and Naruto on either side of Tazuna, and Kakashi right behind the client. They had decided to take Naruto's advice and follow the bridge builder to work, leaving only a few clones behind to protect his family.
Naruto was on edge, and like every other time that he was in a situation like this, Kurama started to grumble.
"Brat, for the last time, quit your SHIVERING!" Kurama shouted in his mind, making his head hurt a little. Normally, his head only started hurting if he talked to Kurama for a prolonged period of time or if the Demon Lord felt like screaming at his container.
"I'm not shivering, just thinking about the possibilities. I have to hold Zabuza back, what if I wind up dead?" Naruto thought back, still not calming down. Either the people around him didn't notice him getting so wound up or, in Kakashi's case, decided to ignore the nervousness.
"Don't worry, brat. I don't think anyone can actually kill you. Remember, I healed you from a punctered lung and heart before, though it was painful for you, brat, and it took a long time to properly heal," Kurama thought back, trying to pacify the Jinchuriki.
"So you can heal a decapitated head?"
"That might be a problem ..."
"Thanks, that really helps," Naruto mentally answered. Seeing the bridge come into view, he cut the mental link.
Something wasn't right about the bridge. Wave Country was a coastal country, so the swirling mist was ever present, but the mist around the bridge was way too thick to be natural. There also seemed to be pained groans and sounds of metal slashing through flesh being emitted from the village.
The ninja had no time to ponder this, however, as Zabuza and a masked hunter nin came into view, walking side by side out of the mist. Zabuza's Kubikiribocho was strapped to his back, he still worse camo trousers and no shirt, with the harness for his sword going around both shoulders and one side of his stomach.
The hunter nin was wearing more clothes. Other than the mask, he was wearing a light blue kimono, with pink flowers dotted here and there, along with grey trousers that came up to his shins, secured around his shins with ninja wraps to prevent any snagging.
They walked slowly, leisurely, as if they had all the time in the world to complete their missions, which gave Naruto the chance to take off his jacket and remove his weights. He would have taken them off before they set out, seeing as they were going in prepared to fight, but truthfully, he had forgotten to.
Nodding towards his companions, Kakashi darted towards Zabuza's partner, only to be intercepted by Zabuza himself.
"Your fight is with me, Kakashi. Don't worry, I'm sure that blonde student of yours can keep Haku company," Zabuza's grating voice was grating his nerves. This was not going according to plan.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I am not Kakashi's student. My teacher is a former ... teammate of yours, shall we say?" Naruto said, walking behind Kakashi with his hands behind his back. Sasuke and Sakura looked to where Naruto was supposed to have been standing and wondered how on earth the blonde had gotten to Kakashi that quickly.
Zabuza was intrigued, but he felt a trap of some sorts coming. He knew the orange wearing menace wasn't an idiot and neither did he say anything to the enemy without a reason, so the likelihood of him just making conversation was low. But still, Zabuza allowed himself to be baited.
"Who are you talking about, boy?" Hook.
"I'll tell you, if you fight me," Naruto answered, not wavering in the tiniest bit as he glared into Zabuza's eyes. "It should be fun to test myself out against a ninja as strong as you."
"Why not fight Haku instead? If you are an apprentice, then shouldn't you fight an apprentice yourself?" Zabuza asked, trying to outwit Naruto. He really didn't want his precious apprentice going at it against someone as strong as Kakashi.
"Are you sure you want to test out your apprentice against the apprentice of Kisame Hoshigaki?" Line.
Zabuza's eyes widened. It had been years since he last heard that name, and he wasn't liking his options now that he had heard it. On one hand, he could let his apprentice fight Copy Ninja Kakashi, someone with abilities on par with himself, or let him fight against the apprentice of Kisame, who had unknown abilities.
"All right, fine. I can't just let Kisame-senpai's [1] apprentice just roam around like he wants." Sinker.
Kakashi looked at Naruto like he grew a dozen extra heads. How had Naruto just manipulated Zabuza into fighting him with mere words, when Kakashi was already sweating at the prospect of their battle plan going awry. Kakashi hadn't even been considering any ways of trapping Zabuza. Kakashi sighed slightly, he really was getting soft.
"Kakashi, the fake hunter nin is all yours," with that Naruto was away at Zabuza, throwing a few shuriken and running off a little ways to get some space. He really didn't want Sasuke or Kakashi to see his Rinnegan, it would be a massive pain to answer all the questions and he would rather keep his Bloodline secret until the Chunin Exams were done with.
Kakashi gave the fake hunter nin one look and activated his Sharingan. The fight was on!
A/R: Okay, a lot shorter than my recent chapters and an awkward ending, but seriously, I got lazy.
I got nothing much to say, other than PLEASE REVIEW! I beg of you, reviews are like a drug, they keep me going. Thanks for all those that reviewed before, it really helps me carry on.
[1]: Senpai is a suffix referring to someone that has been in your profession for a longer time than you. Like a senior or something. Someone older than you at school. You get the idea.