Naruto and Sasuke, age 12:
"For your next mission, you could help Hikaru-san weed her garden, watch Yuna-san's children, or….," said the Hokage before being interrupted by Naruto.
"No way! We've been doing D-rank missions or rather, chores, for the past two months. Can't we have a C-rank mission yet? It doesn't have to be a really dangerous one, but anything is better than D-ranks," says Naruto.
Iruka frowns at him. "You've only been Genin for two months. C-rank missions are meant for Chunin. What makes you think you're ready for a mission like that?"
"Border patrol is also a C-rank mission, isn't it?" asks Sasuke. "Along with guarding civilians against bandits. I don't think all C-rank missions are as dangerous as you're implying. We have enough skill to deal with bandits; and if we did run into an enemy nin, would Kakashi-sensei, a Jounin, not be able to handle it?"
"Well, yes, I suppose he would," says Iruka reluctantly.
"And what about you, Sakura?" asks the Hokage. "Do you wish to do a C-rank mission as well?"
"Yes, sir. Naruto, Sasuke, and I have been training together since we became teammates. I think we're ready," she says. 'No more chores please. I'll go crazy if I have to catch that demon cat one more time,' she thinks.
"Hmm. Very well, I think I know just the right mission for you," says the Hokage. Iruka looks like he's about to protest, but Sarutobi holds up his hand for him to wait. "As for Iruka's concerns for safety, I believe sending a Chunin along with them should ensure that nothing goes wrong. Three Genins, one Chunin, and one Jounin will be enough for this mission, don't you think?"
"Who will you be sending with us?" asks Kakashi.
"There's a young woman who's recently taken the Chunin Exams. This will be her first mission as a Chunin, but she has gone on C-rank missions with her teammates before. Her name is Kira Hakuo," says Sarutobi.
Sasuke and Naruto's eyes widen. "Kira is back?" asks Naruto excitedly.
"She just returned. She's in the other room actually. She was about to go find you, but decided to wait here when she sensed your team coming here," says Sarutobi.
One of the doors open and Kira steps into the room. She smiles at them. "It's good to be back home. Serena is back at the compound. The two of you can say good-bye to her before we leave for our mission," she says.
Her eyes flicker over to Sakura, who is watching her curiously. "You must be Sakura-san. I'm Sasuke's cousin and Naruto's adopted sister."
"It's nice to meet you, Kira-san," says Sakura.
"And you're Kakashi Hatake, their Jounin sensei. Thank you for training them, Kakashi-san," says Kira with a neutral smile. Despite her words, Kakashi gets the feeling that she doesn't like him.
Naruto looks at the Hokage. "So what's our mission?" he asks.
"You're going to be guarding a bridge builder named Tazuna as he travels back home to the Land of Waves," says the Hokage. He nods to one of the guards, who then opens the door to let Tazuna into the room.
The man who enters the room reeks of alcohol and is carrying a bottle of sake. "These are the people who are supposed to be guarding me?" he scoffs. "They're just a bunch of brats. They don't look like they could fight off bandits, especially the small one with the idiotic face."
Kira's eyes widen in shock then narrow in rage. Before the genin can react to Tazuna's insults, she speaks up. "I have to wonder if you secretly have a death wish, Tazuna-san, considering that you're insulting the people hired to guard your life. It would damage Konoha's reputation if we let you die; but if you insult us too often, we might not care."
Tazuna's face pales as he stares at her in shock. Kira walks towards him, smiling coldly. "You look at us and compare us to civilian children. That is a mistake."
"In any case, Tazuna-san, I'm a Jounin," interrupts Kakashi, "I'll be able to handle any bandits that come after us. Even in the unlikely case that we're attacked by foreign ninja, I should be able to handle it."
She glances over at the bridge builder when she senses guilt from him. She notices Sasuke is looking at the old man suspiciously. Was Sasuke starting to be able to sense emotions as well?
"We should meet at the village gates in two hours. That should give us enough time to pack supplies. The mission shouldn't take more than two weeks, so pack accordingly," says Kakashi before leaving.
When the three of them got back to the compound, they found Serena in the living room, sewing storage seals into her new clothes; the two of them had bought a few new outfits from Kumo. Every time they got new clothes, a storage steal had to be sewn into it. Every article of their clothing-socks, underwear, shirts, and pants-had some kind of weapon sealed into it. Maybe it was extreme, but it meant that they would never be without a weapon in case of attack. She had heard stories as a child of how these hidden weapons had saved a few of her ancestor's lives.
"Welcome back home Serena-neechan," says Naruto.
"How did you do at the Chunin Exam?" asks Sasuke.
"I got promoted, as did one of my teammates. I think the other one will be taking the next Chunin exams with Kira's teammates. You have to have three genin to take the test," says Serena.
"We asked around a bit," says Kira, "and it turns out that all the Chunin exams have a similar structure. There are three tests; the first one is always some form of written exam and the third is always a fight between the genins."
"Sometimes, the written exam is meant to test your information gathering skills. They'll have Chunin who know the answers pretending to be genin, and you have to find a way to see their test answers. If you're too obvious about it, they fail you. Our written exam tested our strategy skills. We were given a scenario, and we had to come up with a plan for how we'd succeed," says Serena.
"During our second test, they had us act out some of the scenarios from the first test. It wasn't enough to just come up with a plan; we had to be able to use the plan. Chunins need the strength and skill to successfully complete their strategies," says Kira.
"The first two tests also had to do with teamwork. If one teammate failed, then so did the entire team," says Serena. "But the third test was about individual skill. It was like a tournament. If you lost one fight, you were out. If you won, you went on to the next battle until there was only one person left."
"Who won the tournament?" asks Sasuke.
"I did," says Kira.
"That's awesome. I always knew you were strong, Kira-neechan," says a grinning Naruto.
Kira laughs. "Strong for a Chunin, yes. I don't think I'd stand much chance against a Jounin though. But I won the tournament because I had Ravka's help. All that extra chakra allowed me to use all the ninjutsu I know when I needed them. Not having to worry about chakra exhaustion is a blessing for a ninja."
"Your skill with water ninjutsu has improved over the past three years. And your use of exploding tags certainly helped," says Serena. She looks at Naruto and Sasuke. "I came in third. Unfortunately, my last opponent was just as skilled in genjutsu as I was. I'll need to work on my taijutsu skills. My opponent was stronger than I was, and eventually managed to knock me unconscious. Still, I managed to land a few good hits on him, and displayed enough skill to earn a promotion."
Kira looked at the clock. They had an hour before they had to be at the village gates.
"Time to check our supplies," she says.
She gets out her storage scroll and the boys do the same. They spend the next half hour making sure they have everything they need. Food, clothes, weapons, and camping gear.
"Alright, time to head out," she says. The three of them hug Serena good-bye and head to the gate.
Sakura, Kakashi, and Tazuna are already there when they arrive. "Are we late or is Kakashi-sensei actually on time for once?" asks Naruto.
"I'm never late unless it's a life or death situation. As none of us are bleeding from fatal wounds, I'd say Kakashi-san is on time," replies Kira.
"He's capable of being a professional then," says Sasuke.
"His paycheck depends on it. You piss off too many clients by being tardy and you get a bad reputation. Then you have civilians specifically requesting that you not be assigned to their mission. He has to play nice for the clients if he wants to be able to keep buying those books of his," says Kira.
The boys look at her, surprised. "You know about the books he reads?" asks Sasuke.
"A lot of people do. He reads them as he walks down the street," she says.
They stop talking as they reach the rest of the group. "Well, now that everyone's here, we can head out," says Kakashi.
Once they're outside the gate, Naruto starts looking around curiously. The blond-haired genin practically bounces down the path. "What has you so hyper?" asks Tazuna.
"This is my first time outside the village. It's exciting," replies Naruto.
Tazuna eyes Naruto skeptically. "Acting this childish doesn't inspire confidence," he says.
Naruto scowls. "You're worrying for nothing. We'll keep you safe, no problem. You're looking at the future Hokage, you know," he exclaims.
Tazuna bursts out laughing. "A brat like you, the Hokage? I seriously doubt that."
"I guess it's a good it's not up to you then," says Kira. "Civilians are bad at judging strength. I've seen Naruto's potential while training with him. There's not a doubt in my mind that he'll become Hokage someday."
Naruto grins at Kira, touched by her faith in him. Tazuna, though, looks at her with a surprised expression. What had the kid done to earn her respect? He decided not to argue with her further. She had been correct, earlier, when she said it was a bad idea to insult your hired bodyguards.
They're about a third of the way to their destination when Kira notices a suspicious puddle. She can tell that Sasuke and Kakashi have noticed it as well. She doesn't know if Kakashi has sensed the human chakra within the puddle, as she and Sasuke have, of if he's simply realized that it hasn't rained in a week. A puddle of this size should have evaporated by now.
She watches, unsurprised, as two enemy nin jump out of the puddle and lunge for Kakashi. As the chains wrap around the Jounin and he turns into water, she wonders how the enemy had hidden themselves in a puddle. Was it some kind of water ninjutsu or just a simple genjutsu?
"Kakashi-sensei!" exclaims Sakura in horror. Did the girl actually believe the man was dead? Though judging by the enemies' reaction, they believed the same thing. Since when did ninja mistake water for blood?
Sasuke and Naruto don't hesitate to engage the enemy while Sakura stays back to guard Tazuna. At one point, the enemy throws a shuriken at Tazuna but it passes right through him. It seems that Kakashi was not lax with their training, to have already taught Sakura a genjutsu.
She observes the fight a moment longer. Naruto and Sasuke actually seem to be holding their own. It's quite impressive, considering that these opponents are at the level of low Chunin. Still, the longer the fight goes on, the higher the risk that the boys will get injured.
She goes to help Sasuke first, as he does not have increased healing abilities like Naruto does. The two of them easily subdue their opponent and restrain him with his own chains. While they're doing this, Kakashi comes out of hiding and knocks out Naruto's opponent.
"Why did you pretend to be dead?" asks Tazuna.
Kakashi gives him an unfriendly look. "I was checking to see who their target was: you or us."
"I could have told you that," says Kira, bemused. "Most of their negative emotion was focused on Tazuna. We were just obstacles in their way."
Kakashi frowns at Tazuna. "C-rank missions don't involve fighting enemy nin. Why did you lie about the mission details?"
Tazuna looks guilty. "No one in Wave can afford more than a C-rank. The tyrant, Gatou, is heavily taxing all the ships that travel to and from Wave. I'm trying to build a bridge to help our economy," he says.
"I find it irritating that none of us knew about this. With how close Wave is to Konoha, someone should have heard about this. Don't we have any kind of Intelligence gathering unit?" asks Kira.
"We do, actually. Like every other ninja village, Konoha has its own spy network. The fact that no one has noticed this has troubling implications," says Kakashi.
"Corruption. Bribery, perhaps?" says Sasuke.
"Yes, but right now we need to focus on the problem at hand. Should we continue the mission or return to Konoha?" asks Kakashi.
Naruto looks at him in astonishment. "Of course we're going to finish the mission! We can't just let Gatou terrorize them. If their economy is really bad that means there are people who are starving, doesn't it? We can't just abandon everyone in Wave because we might get hurt," he says.
Kakashi thinks about Naruto's words, feeling conflicted. Helping the people of Wave would be the right thing to do, but he doesn't want his students to get injured or killed.
"We were able to handle low Chunin level opponents," says Sasuke to Kakashi. "Kira can handle high Chunin level opponents, and I'm sure you could handle a Jounin."
"I think we should try, sensei. I don't want to be the kind of ninja who gives up because the mission is difficult," says Sakura.
Kira looks at the girl in surprise. She knows what the girl was like during the Academy from stories that Naruto and Sasuke have told her. Something or someone must have inspired the girl to take her training more seriously.
"Very well. Since you all feel so strongly about it, we'll continue the mission," says Kakashi.
"Thank you," says Tazuna gratefully.
It takes them another day to reach the Land of Waves. A friend of Tazuna's gives them a ride in his boat. Kira, not liking the idea of being squished on a small boat with five other people, decides to walk beside the boat instead. Tazuna and his friend are surprised, so Kira explains that chakra lets you stick to things.
"Sakura can water walk now, too," says Naruto. "We helped her learn after she saw us walking up the trees."
"Good. We'd be at a disadvantage in this terrain if we couldn't water walk," says Kira.
They reached the shore, thanked Tazuna's friend, and began to follow the old man home. She sensed the enemy's chakra before she heard the sound of a blade being thrown at them.
"Get down!" says Kakashi.
They all duck down, with Sakura pulling Tazuna down with her just in case he doesn't react fast enough. The large blade that embeds itself into the tree in front of them looks familiar.
'That's one of the swords that belongs to the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist,' thinks Kira.
Kakashi recognizes their opponents. "You're Zabuza Momochi, also called the Demon of the Hidden Mist."
"And you're Kakashi of the Sharingan, the man who's copied a thousand jutsu," replies Zabuza.
'He's a Jounin level opponent. Kakashi should be able to handle him. Should I mention the person hiding in the forest? He seems to be Zabuza's ally,' thinks Kira.
'One opponent at a time is enough,' says Ravka. 'Focus on Zabuza and deal with the other man if he comes out of hiding.'
Kira can agree with that reasoning and turns her attention back to Zabuza. She watches curiously as the area becomes covered in mist. However, she is unimpressed by Zabuza's speech about silent killing. It isn't really possible to sneak up on an Hakuo. However, the fear coming from the genin beside her is concerning. They must not have experienced Killing Intent before.
"Don't worry, guys. I'll protect the four of you with my life," says Kakashi.
Kira can sense the other genin relaxing, but all she feels is offense. "I don't need protection," she states flatly. Kakashi looks startled by her response.
She senses a clone of Zabuza's head towards her. "Cocky little brat, aren't you?" he asks.
She ducks as he swings his blade at her. The sword passes over her head, and she lashes out with a kunai. The weapon digs into his ankle, causing the clone to dispel. It seems that water clones aren't any more durable than shadow clones.
"It will take more than a clone to kill me," she says coldly.
She watches the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza, slightly impressed. They are stronger than her, but she's certain she'll be at their level in a couple years. She takes note of the jutsu they're using. She had been trying to learn the Water Dragon before the Chunin exams had started—a few more weeks of training and she'll have it mastered—but the water prison Zabuza uses on Kakashi is new to her.
'So much for that whole "I'll protect you" thing he was saying earlier,' thinks Kira.
"Run! Get as far away as you can!" shouts Kakashi.
Kira eyes the Zabuza clone skeptically while Naruto assures Kakashi that they're not leaving him behind. "How do you even expect us to escape, anyway? His clones will attack our backs if we flee," she says. "We have a better chance of success if we stay and fight."
"There's also the fact that you're the sensei of an honorary member of my clan and someone with Hakuo blood. According to Clan Law, as the Clan Head, I'm honor bound to help you," says Kira.
"What?" asks Kakashi, shocked.
She gives him a disgruntled look. "You were taught by an honorary Hakuo clan member. Didn't he ever tell you any of this?"
"I think we have more important things to worry about," says Sasuke. "Like not letting Zabuza drown our sensei."
"Shadow clone jutsu!" says Naruto, creating about a dozen clones. They rush at the Zabuza clone, but he cuts them down easily.
Kira frowns, eyes darting between the clone and the original. It won't be so easy to take down Zabuza's clone a second time, without the advantage of surprise. Unless she does something shocking. Mind made up, she unseals an Hakuo kunai from her belt. This kunai is dark purple, has several seals engraved upon it, and is made from chakra-conductive metal that was harvested in the Void dimension.
She places her index finger through the ring at the end of the handle and begins to spin it. She slowly channels chakra through the kunai and watches her chakra blade form. It would be impossible to do this while not spinning the blade because the vibrations would knock the blade out of her hand. Instead, she channels the momentum of the vibrations into the spin, allowing for stability.
The vibrations slow down after the chakra blade has formed and been locked into place by the seals. She slows the spinning down enough for her to snatch it out of the air.
She doesn't give her surprised opponent enough time to react and rushes at him. He brings his blade up to slash her, but she cuts through it and him with her chakra weapon, dispelling him.
At the same time, Naruto and Sasuke have come up with a plan of their own. Sasuke throws a Windmill Shuriken at the real Zabuza, who snatches the weapon out of the air. A second shuriken appears out of the shadow of the first and Zabuza leaps over it. But, before he can gloat, the shuriken transforms into Naruto. The blond genin throws a kunai at Zabuza's arm, thus forcing the man to release Kakashi in order to deflect it.
After that, the fight doesn't last very long. Kakashi creates a large wall of water that knocks Zabuza around; and then, out of nowhere, senbon come from the forest and dig into Zabuza's neck. Kakashi proclaims Zabuza dead and seems to believe the kid in the mask is a hunter nin from Mist.
'That's Zabuza's accomplice,' she thinks, alarmed. She assesses the situation. Kakashi is about to pass out from chakra exhaustion, which means she'd have to protect him, the genin, and the client while facing off against a high Chunin level opponent who's chakra feels like ice. If the kid has a bloodline limit, it could give him the advantage. She decides to keep quiet for now and watches the kid take off with Zabuza's maybe-not-dead body.
While Kakashi talks to the genin, Kira creates a shadow clone and walks over to him. They get there just in time to catch him when he faints.
"Kakashi-sensei!" says the three genin, concerned.
"What happened?" asks Tazuna.
"Relax everyone. It's just chakra exhaustion. He used a lot of ninjutsu and the sharingan requires a steady flow of chakra while it's in use. He'll be fine after he's rested. Now, Tazuna-san, if you could lead us to your house?" says Kira expectantly.
"Yes, of course. It's only a few miles from here," says Tazuna.
Kira is pleased when they reach their destination. Kakashi is heavy and she'll be glad to set him down. And perhaps she should lift weights when they get back to Konoha to improve her strength. Who knows when she'll next need to carry one of her teammates to safety?
Once inside, Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, leads her to a guest room to set Kakashi down. Tsunami brings her bandages; but as Kira has no medical training, she sets them on the dresser next to the bed. When Kakashi wakes up, he can assess whether anything is broken, sprained, or cut. As far as she can tell, he isn't bleeding; and she deems it unnecessary to undress him to check. If there were any fatal cuts, then there would be enough blood to soak through his clothes.
When the genin want to take this opportunity to look underneath Kakashi's mask, she says no. "A team is about trust. If your teammates can't even trust you not to undress them, then they certainly can't trust you to have their back on a mission," she says.
The three of them reluctantly agree, and the four of them head downstairs. After that, Kira decides to walk around town to get a feel for how bad the situation in Wave is. And what she sees infuriates her. There's not enough food for everyone, and what little there is, is overpriced. She's going to kill Gatou the first chance she gets.
Before that, though, she needs to help these people. She makes her way to the ocean and creates five shadow clones. She unseals three large fishing nets and gets to work. With two people holding each net, one on each side, they walk out onto the water. After finding a spot with fish, they lower the net into the water and scoop the fish up. They do this several times and seal the fish they catch into storage scrolls.
She keeps some of the fish in a separate scroll to give to Tsunami, and then sends her clones out to give the fish to the townspeople. The families with children will get fish first and what's left will be given to everyone else. And if anyone there is one of Gatou's henchmen, then he doesn't get any fish.
With nothing else to do, she heads back to the house. Like she had expected, Tsunami is thrilled by her offering of fish. "I figured it was only fair that we contribute to the food supply. I saw how little food there was at the market; and I don't want us to eat you out of house and home," says Kira.
Kakashi wakes up the next morning, to everyone's relief. He has a few cuts that are easily bandaged, a sprained ankle, and depleted chakra coils. He should be recovered within a few days.
She can tell the man is thinking deeply about something and he occasionally sends her puzzled looks. "Are you thinking about that fake hunter nin?" she asks.
"You knew he was a fake?' asks Kakashi with a frown.
She gives him a disgruntled look. "Did you expect me to engage the enemy when you were about to pass out? Am I to fight an opponent of equal strength to myself while protecting five other people?"
"…..you can sense quite a bit," he says after a moment of contemplative silence. Thinking about how the hunter nin had taken the body instead of disposing it right away had caused him to wonder if the kid was a fake, but until now he hadn't understood how he could have fooled Kira's senses if that were true.
Naruto makes an irritated noise. She looks at him in surprise. The three genin all seem confused. She hadn't meant to leave them out of the conversation.
"So what does this mean, exactly?" asks Sasuke.
"That hunter nin was a fake. With what I sensed from him, he's definitely working for Zabuza," says Kira.
"Then why would he kill Zabuza?" asks a baffled Sakura.
"I don't think he did," says Kakashi. "Senbon are able to hit precise pressure points, some of which can give the appearance of death."
"So we're going to have to fight him again?" asks Naruto.
"Yes, though probably not for about a week. Being put into that death-like state will have weakened him, and he'll need time to recover," says Kakashi.
"Do you think a week is enough time to find Gatou?" asks Kira.
"Hmm. You're thinking of taking down Gatou so that Zabuza won't have any reason to fight us?" asks Kakashi.
"Exactly. He's only after Tazuna because he's getting paid," says Kira.
"What if he gets angry that we took away the person giving him money?" asks Sakura.
"That is a good point. Perhaps we'll find a safe in Gatou's hideout. If we can give him the money Gatou promised him, then he should leave us alone," replies Kira.
"And if this plan fails, then we have to fight Zabuza and his ally," says Sasuke flatly.
"Yes, well, hopefully it won't come to that," says Kira. "Now, some of us will have to stay with Tazuna and his family. As Naruto and I can create shadow clones, we'll search the forest for Gatou's hideout. Sasuke and Sakura will go with Tazuna while he's working on the bridge. Kakashi-san should stay here to rest as he's in no condition to fight. And in case Gatou sends anyone to hurt Tsunami and her son, Naruto and I will leave a couple of shadow clones here."
"Huh. You're kind of bossy," says Kakashi.
"You have an objection?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.
"No, no. Your plan is fine," he replies, waving his hand in dismissal.
"Then let's get started."
It actually doesn't take her very long to find Gatou's hideout. All she has to do is follow the chakra signatures to find the warehouse full of Gatou's illegally obtained merchandise. She's never met the man, but the most arrogant chakra is on the top floor. And about a dozen terrified people are in the basement, all of them women.
When she reports this to Kakashi, she can tell the implications make him as sick as they made her. There's only one reason they can think of for there to be terrified women in the basement. Who knew her assassination plan would also turn into a rescue mission?
Kakashi tried to insist he should go with them, but quit protesting at her look of disbelief.
"Zabuza and his ally aren't anywhere near the warehouse, nor is any other ninja. Do you think a Chunin and two Genin will honestly have difficulty against a bunch of civilians?" asks Kira.
After thinking about what he's seen of Naruto and Sasuke's skills during training, he reluctantly admits that they should be fine against just civilians. He still worries though.
Kira is unsurprised that Sakura is upset at being left behind, but someone has to guard Tazuna. And Kira worried that the girl wouldn't be able to handle killing anyone if it came to that. Sakura was more innocent than the boys. Although Naruto and Sasuke had never killed a human, they at least had experience killing animals.
Naruto leaves a shadow clone with Kakashi at Tsunami's house, and Kira leaves her own clone with Sakura to guard Tazuna while he's bridge building. She can sense a bit of jealousy from Sasuke as she still hasn't taught him the shadow clone jutsu, but it still isn't safe for him. If he wants to learn the jutsu that badly, then he had needs to work on his chakra reserves.
Once they reach the hideout, Kira throws a few kunai at the guard's feet. The tags attached to each kunai then release knock out gas. The guards don't have time to shout a warning before the gas has knocked them unconscious.
"Let's try to use nonlethal methods for now," says Kira. "We don't know how many of these people are being forced to work for Gatou, either because he threatened their family or there's no other way for them to feed their family." 'And because I don't want you to have your first kill so soon,' thinks Kira.
"Naruto, I'd like you to create twenty five shadow clones. Ten of them will go to the basement to free the women and escort them back to the village. The other fifteen will stay with the three of us as we knock out Gatou's henchmen. As far as I can tell, Gatou is currently upstairs," says Kira.
While she's talking, Naruto creates the requested shadow clones. "Good. When we go in there, the stairs could be hidden or in plain view. If you reach the stairs before me, don't go up by yourself. There are more guards upstairs, and I intend to deal with Gatou personally," she says.
"You're planning on killing him?" asks Naruto quietly. She can tell the idea of killing someone unnerves him.
"It is, unfortunately, a part of our job. You know Gatou has killed people for selfish reasons. Tazuna told us the story about what happened to Kaiza. You know what Gatou did to Inari's stepdad isn't right," says Kira. "And if we don't kill Gatou, Zabuza will come after Tazuna. Our team will get injured trying to protect him; one of us could even die. It's us or Gatou, Naruto."
Naruto contemplates her words before he nods in acceptance. "Alright. I don't like it, but I do understand."
After getting a similar agreement from Sasuke, the three of them enter Gatou's warehouse and begin their assault. There are only about thirty henchmen currently in the building, so it doesn't take them long to knock everyone out. There are days when she doesn't know what to think about civilians. How could they be content being this much weaker than their ninja counterparts?
The three of them are currently in Gatou's office, staring the man down. He had started off by yelling threats at them; but when they had easily taken down his guards, he had tried offering them bribes. She watched him in contempt as he slowly ran out of things to say. She could feel that the Naruto clones had managed to get the women to safety; and the thought of what Gatou must have done to them only increases her ire. Eventually she gets tired of his babbling and knocks him out with a jab to the neck.
"Now what?" asks Naruto.
"Now we search this entire hideout, starting with this office, for anything of value. And I don't just mean money or jewels. If Gatou has documents of his crimes and business dealings, then I want them," says Kira.
"Yes, ma'am," they say jokingly.
In Gatou's office, they find a safe filled with money along with a few contracts, one of which has Zabuza's name on it. 'Well, this makes things easier. Now we know how much money he's expecting,' thinks Kira.
The money to pay Zabuza won't even make a dent in the pile of money she found in the safe. She figures that she'll give about half of the rest of the money to the townspeople. The rest will be distributed evenly between her, the three genin, and Kakashi. It'll be a nice bonus and this way they'll actually get the amount of money this mission is really worth.
Among the piles of papers, she finds business documents detailing what Gatou's business ships and where it's shipped to. 'Hmm. This company could make a lot of money even if everything was legal,' thinks Kira.
'You plan to take over his company?' asks Ravka, amused.
'Why not?' she replies.
'Aren't you a bit young to run a multimillion dollar business?'
'Well, I wasn't planning on running it by myself. I'm going to turn 'Gatou Industries' into 'Hakuo Industries.' I know a few clan members in the Void who would love an opportunity like this.'
'But it will only work if you can get Gatou to sign his company over to you.'
'That won't be a problem.'
"She's smiling," Naruto whispers to Sasuke.
Sasuke looks over at Kira and twitches. He knows that smile and it means trouble. "I don't think I want to be here when she deals with Gatou," says Sasuke.
"Agreed," says Naruto. The two of them decide to leave the office and search the rest of the warehouse while Kira interrogates Gatou. Naruto's clones finish gathering all the valuables in the warehouse just as they hear screaming coming from upstairs. The two of them exchange looks and silently agree that it's time to leave. Kira can meet them back at Tazuna's house when she's done.
The next day, one of the townspeople finds Gatou's corpse, looking like he's been mauled by a bear. Everyone is shocked at first, but then the whole town starts celebrating. And Kakashi seems impressed when she shows him the will she made Gatou create, leaving her all his worldly possessions, including his company.
Kira decides to let Tazuna distribute the money to the townspeople as he knows them best and she trusts that he'll divide the money up fairly. When she gives the team their portion of the money, Sakura looks like she wants to ask questions but Naruto frantically shaking his head with his arms crossed in an 'x' shape causes the girl to fall silent.
Zabuza shouldn't show up for a few more days, so Kira allows the three genin to wander around the village. She stays with Tazuna while he works on the bridge, but she doubts anyone will attack him now that Gatou is dead. And since she made it look like an accident, there shouldn't be anyone out looking for revenge.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura run through the forest; using chakra, they stick to the trunks of the trees instead of traveling on the ground. It was a game that Kira had taught Naruto and Sasuke, a variant of 'the floor is lava' game. The person who could stay on the tree the longest was the winner. The rules of the game were simple. You had to stay vertical, using chakra, and you could use nonlethal means to knock other people off their tree. It was a good game for ninja to play, as it would allow them to practice chakra control and increase their reserves in a way that was fun.
When Sasuke stops running and stares intently at a spot further in the forest, the other two go over to him to see what's going on. "What's wrong?" asks Sakura.
"I think I can sense Zabuza's ally not too far from here. Should we go talk to him?" asks Sasuke.
"Kira would probably advise against it," says Naruto. "But it might be the best time to talk to him, away from Zabuza."
"I think we'd scare him off or cause him to attack if we come up to him directly," says Sakura.
"So we'll pretend we're just passing by," says Sasuke. "We can act like we're still playing the game."
"Since you can sense him, you should lead the way, Sasuke," says Naruto.
As they passed the clearing where Zabuza's ally was, joking and laughing with each other to throw off suspicion, they could see that the boy wasn't wearing his mask and was picking herbs. Naruto pretended to be surprised to see someone there and hopped down to the ground.
"Hi," says Naruto cheerfully.
"Hello," replies the other boy cautiously. "What were you doing?"
"My team and I were playing a ninja game. It's good training."
"You're a ninja then?"
"Yep. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage," says Naruto, grinning.
"It's nice to meet you, Naruto-kun. I'm Haku. Tell me, do you have someone to protect?"
Naruto tilts his head slightly, surprised by the question. "I have a lot of people I want to protect-my teammates and family, and even the villagers of Konoha. There's a certain strength you get when you're fighting to protect someone else."
"That is my belief as well," replies Haku.
"Hmm. The person you want to protect…it's Zabuza, right?"
"You know?" asks Haku, surprised and alarmed.
"Yeah. I don't know if you've heard, but Gatou is dead. His body was found this morning, looking like he was mauled by a wild animal."
"And was he?" asks Haku suspiciously.
"No, but if you want some of the money we found in Gatou's safe, then you and Zabuza will stick to the official story," replies Naruto.
"You'd share the money with us? Why?"
"It was Kira's idea. If we pay you what Gatou promised you, then you'll have no reason to attack us."
"True. I'll need to talk to Zabuza-sama about this, though."
"Alright. How about we meet here tomorrow at the same time? If Zabuza has agreed to leave us alone, then I'll give you the money."
"Agreed. I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto-kun," says Haku before leaving.
"I think that went well," says Sasuke, sitting in a nearby tree.
"It did. Let's go talk to Kira," replies Naruto. "Race you there!"
The blond genin takes off running, surprising his two teammates. Laughing in between complaints of cheating blondes, the two chase after him, determined to beat him there.
The next day, Kira goes with Naruto to meet Haku. The other boy is surprised to see her but doesn't react with hostility to her presence.
"Good morning, Naruto-kun," greets Haku. "Who is your friend?"
"This is my sister, Kira. She's here to make sure everything goes alright," says Naruto.
The blond looks at Haku expectantly. "So, what did Zabuza say?"
"He agreed to your terms. Zabuza-sama's fight with your team was just business, not personal. Neither of us hold a grudge against your team for killing Gatou."
Kira relaxes as she senses the truth of Haku's words. With a smile, she pulls a storage scroll out of her pocket. "That's good to hear. This scroll contains the money that Gatou promised Zabuza. Feel free to check the amount; I won't be offended," she says while handing him the scroll.
As she suggests, he quickly checks the scroll and finds that the amount is correct. "Thank you," says Haku. "I'm glad that we won't have to fight each other."
"Hmm. You have a gentle soul, don't you? I have a feeling you only fight because of your loyalty to Zabuza," says Kira.
"That's right. Zabuza-sama found me when I was a child. My father had found out about my Kekkei Genkai. He killed my mother; and then tried to kill me but my control over ice saved me. I felt alone after that. I had no one until Zabuza-sama came along and gave me a purpose," says Haku.
Naruto was shocked that any parent would do such a thing, but Kira was more focused on the end of Haku's speech. "What do you consider your purpose to be?" she asks gently.
"I am Zabuza-sama's tool," replied Haku.
"A tool?" asks Naruto, shocked. "You're more than just a tool." He would say more, but Kira holds up her hand, silently asking him to be silent.
"I have a Kekkei Genkei as well, Haku. I can sense emotions. I think you should have a talk with Zabuza when you get the chance. He may have started off seeing you as only a tool, but I know I sensed affection from him directed at you. I believe he sees you as a close friend, though it may be difficult for him to admit it."
The idea that Zabuza could care about him seemed to leave Haku speechless, so Kira decided now was a good time for them to leave. She didn't really want to stick around if he was going to get all emotional. She thinks that Naruto wanted to stick around a while longer, but she didn't want him getting too attached to a rogue ninja.
On the morning of their departure, several of the villagers gather around the bridge to see them off. They were grateful for the help that their team had provided them, and many of them were able to guess that Gatou's death was their doing.
Judging by their teary goodbye, Inari and Naruto had become close while she wasn't looking. Hopefully they would get the chance to visit every once in a while.
"Now all the bridge needs is a name," says Tazuna.
"Most people name things after themselves, don't they?" asks Kira with an amused smile.
"Well, yes, but I suppose I was hoping for something more creative," he replies with huff.
"What about the Great Uzumaki Bridge?" she suggests, causing Naruto to look at her in shock.
"You want to name the bridge after your brother?" asks Tazuna.
"Not just Naruto, or I would have suggested his first name. There used to be an entire clan of Uzumaki in the Village of Whirlpool before it was wiped out. Konoha was unable to get there in time to help them; and to this day, all the Chunin and Jounin vests have the Uzumaki spiral on them," she says.
"You're thinking the bridge could be a kind of memorial for them?" asks Tazuna.
"Something like that, yes. My clan, the Hakuo, are related to the Uzumaki clan, if only distantly. I don't want the Uzumaki clan to be forgotten. A lot of people will cross over your bridge; if all those people hear the name Uzuamki, that clan will never be forgotten," she says.
Tazuna seems to think about her words for a moment before nodding decisively. "I like it. The Great Uzumaki Bridge it is," he says with a smile.
The villagers approach their group a few at a time to stay their goodbyes; some of them thanking her for the fish. Once that's all finished, they set out on their journey back home.
"That was exciting," says Naruto. "Going back to D-rank missions after this is going to suck."
"Maybe we'll get lucky and the Hokage will give us another C-rank? I think we did alright on this mission after all," says Sakura hopefully.
"Or the unexpected danger from this mission will cause him to keep us in the village for a long time," says Sasuke.
Naruto looks at Kira curiously as something occurs to him. "Hey, Kira. What do you plan on doing with Gatou's business?" he asks.
"Hmm. Well after we've reported to the Hokage about this mission, I was planning on visiting the Void. I think a few of my clan members will jump at the chance to run a multi-million dollar business. I'll have to go with them to where Gatou's headquarters are. It's likely that some of Gatou's business associates are already fighting about who gets to take over the company. I bet they'll be shocked when I show up with Gatou's will," she says with a laugh.
Something about her words struck Kakashi as odd. "You sound really sure that Hokage-sama will let you run off for who knows how long," he says.
Kira blinks at him innocently. "I would only be gone for about two weeks, Kakashi-san. And I honestly can't see the Hokage willing to anger the Hakuo clan to the point of war by costing them several million dollars," she says with a smirk.
"Heh. You can be kind of vicious sometimes, Kira-chan," says Kakashi.
"I'll take that as a compliment, Kakashi-san. All the best ninja have a streak of vicious in them," she replies.
Naruto makes a face like he doesn't agree, but they've already had this argument a million times and he isn't the mood to have it again, so he keeps silent. Instead he starts talking about how they should celebrate the success of their first real mission with ramen when they get back home. The other two aren't as thrilled by the idea of ramen and spend the next few minutes debating which restaurant they should go to. Kira just watches them with a fond smile, content in the knowledge that her brothers are happy and safe.