A Hero Amongst Shinobi

by eppelMax

At one point in time in another universe, I, Uzumaki Naruto wanted to become Hokage above all else. It was what I strived and trained to become. But here, I felt I had a greater calling. One that transcended above all else. It fueled my desires, my ambitions, my dreams; to become, not a Shinobi, but a Hero. Heavily AU.

2. A Hero and His Tale

Chapter 2

A Hero and His Tale

---

Hatake Kakashi. The man who copied a thousand techniques. The son of the legendary White Fang and student of the heroic Yondaime Hokage. Inheritor of the copy-wheel eye and infamous ex-ANBU captain that ruthlessly cut down hundreds of men.

Wanted to just tear his hair out and bash his head against a wall.

'By the Gods teenagers are absolutely annoying,' the man thought.

Take a team they said.

It'll be fun they said.

You'll grow to love them they said.

Kakashi had two words for them: Bull. Shit.

Why?

One. He didn't take a team. It was forced upon him. It was either take a team or take a nasty probation.

Two. It was not fun at all playing as an over glorified babysitter.

Three. He did not love them at all. Nor was he getting close to even like them. Not even tolerate. Actually maybe the pink haired one showed promise, but she needed some serious help to grow out of her shell.

Hatake Kakashi liked to do things on his terms. If he found it likable and suited to his tastes and whims then he was a thousand times more amicable to be with. But this? This was just ridiculous.

He cursed the way things were being ran back home. Nothing had been the same with the administration ever since the right wing politicians started expanding their outreach. Seriously what the hell? Last he remembered on how they ran things was that it was akin to a military dictatorship. The head honcho Hokage had the first, middle, and last words on how things ran.

Sighing heavily he rubbed the sides of his head to alleviate the building headache. His body was incredibly sore and beaten from having to not only fend off not one, but two A-Rank rogue agents. And they weren't just some run of the mill A-Rankers. These two were from that damned seven swordsmen group from Kiri.

His students, while full of talent, were absolutely useless against two rogue agents that had experience that counted not in years, but decades against them. Hell one of them had a legend and infamy that was comparable to him and the other wasn't too far behind either.

He should've overrode their stupid silly democratic vote and ordered them to turn around when they had the chance. Being in the military didn't mean you had civil rights. They specifically took that away from you to ensure shitty dumb situations like this didn't happen. But they were so god damned determined to chase after some dumb glory when it presented itself to say that they saved a whole country after hearing that old bridge builder's plight.

He played the routine sob story and even had the gall to bring out pictures of his family. God he even pulled out the oldest trick in the book talking about his daughter and grandson suffering.

Hook. Line. And Sinker.

Thinking back he palmed his face and groaned a bit.

The white haired shinobi leaned back allowing his head to audibly 'thunk' against the wooden poster board on his bed.

'The only person really that deserves to play their hero theatrics his him and he's nowhere near here.'

He may have lost contact with his first pupil, but he sure as hell kept track with his exploits across the world. He huffed an amused laugh. That kid really did go out and tried to be a hero after having a crash course introduction into the shinobi system. In all honesty he still had trouble believing it himself even though he was a witness to it all.

One year.

In one year he sat the academy entrance exam in the village. Graduated to Genin. Promoted to Chunin and finally rocketed to Jonin.

In. One. Year.

He allowed himself a small smile. 'I'm a damn good teacher if I don't say so myself.'

While there were three others that also taught him. He took up the bulk of his training and crammed every single bit of information he could into that blonde numbskull. He didn't pull a single of his punches or held back in anything. Under his tutelage he expected not a 100 percent, but a 110 percent. Every day he would push him to his limits and after they were at his threshold and he couldn't go any further. They would expand that and keep forging on.

It was merciless, cruel and unforgiving. In fact, to be honest that wasn't his intention at all at first, but rather was asked of him by Kiritsugu. He asked the three of them to be unforgiving when they trained his adopted son. He wanted to make sure they taught him life lessons in a controlled environment. At times he himself would be hesitant on how far he could push the boundaries, but the talks and glances by the man dispelled any thoughts about going light.

Although after he had passed away from his illness, the kid practically threw himself into his work and studies.

Eat, sleep, study, train, and rest.

Repeat.

Day in. Day out.

If he were honest now that he was thinking back on it. It was scary how fast he was growing at an unprecedented pace. Comparing to him? He who graduated the academy at a mere age of five. Became Chunin at six and then Jonin at eight. Granted he himself had an early start to his career. Naruto simply ploughed through it all within a year.

'Could've been in Black Ops and maybe even captain of a squad within the next if he wanted to,' he mused.

But he didn't.

After being promoted to Jonin he applied for a traveling license on par with one of the Legendary Three Ninja. He didn't know the full story of how he got it, but he did and like a magician.

Disappeared.

Well in the physical sense of disappearing that is.

To those who actually carefully paid attention to world current events and had contacts in the underworld. He was making a name for himself wherever he went. Apparently it didn't matter where he traveled in the world as he had no set compass.

North. East. South. West.

He went up to the frozen lands of the Land of Snow. To the blistering hot and unforgiving sands of the Land of Winds. Across the globe to the Land of Demons. For a good while he orbited the Land of Fire and the smaller nations surrounding it before crossing the harrowing seas of the south going pass the waters controlled by the Hidden Mist.

When he said he travelled everywhere. He travelled everywhere. Kakashi made a mental note to find out how could Naruto travel across the globe so often and quickly.

He travelled the globe for three years pulling of his heroic antics of saving anyone that could be saved. For three years he travelled the world saving towns, villages, and hell even countries. His name was spoken with renown to those who knew of his feats. They treated him like a saint. With such reverence that he wouldn't have been surprised if people worshipped him like a god.

Everywhere that he had been present they referred to him as a Hero. Everyone that he had spoken with or heard of spoke about him as if he was a living Messiah.

Kakashi smiled to himself.

God damn, was he good or was he good?

But, after three years of nonstop activity saving people left and right he had upped and disappeared. For about a year no one knew where he went. What had happened to him? He simply vanished into thin air. His meager reports that he would send every once and a while stopped completely.

It had unsettled him. Such a person like Naruto who was so active in those three years and suddenly not be operating anymore unnerved him.

Merchants, travelers, and tourists alike that had been saved by him or heard of his accomplishments still talked about him greatly. There was just no new exploits being talked or gossiped about. After a while it was just listening to the same old same old. At one point he even considered applying a traveling permit himself to go back out into the world and hopefully find him somehow.

He softly sighed. He was starting to think too much again.

'Where is my damn book?'

Without his book to preoccupy his mind when he wasn't really doing anything tended to let him recollect his thoughts and memories and for him, he'd rather not since it came with a basket full of problems. Psyche problems that he was supposed to be checked up on, but skipped out since he couldn't really care too much about them. He had better things to do anyways besides sitting in some stuffy room talking to someone about his problems and droning on and on about how he could fix it.

Yeah. No thanks.

Glancing at the clock he read it was almost six.

Shit.

How long has he been up just reminiscing and thinking to himself?

Kakashi clicked his tongue and sighed. This was the reason why he constantly read his book over and over. Moving the covers off of him, he grabbed his nearby crutch to help support him as he was still recovering from the fight yesterday.

'Hopefully Pakkun can reach to Konoha in a couple of days and reinforcements can arrived within the week.' He didn't want to risk it. This was beyond their scope. Hell even beyond his; so he had sent his summoned pet to travel as quickly as possible to the Hokage's office two days ago. 'He should be over halfway there.'

It was his own estimation on how long it would take for the wielders of the legendary head cleaver and lightning swords to fully recover. It doubled as his own guess as to how long it would be for him to recuperate as well. If he were honest it had been some time that he had to exert himself this much and after they survived he was going to condition himself back up to an appropriate level of readiness.

Hopefully he wasn't wrong. He needed that time to cram any semblance of survival skills into these brats called his students if they all wanted to make it out alive.

Throwing on his usual ensemble he shuffled out of his room to wake up his team. Checking on the room with the pink haired medical trainee student first, he knocked on her door before hearing a pair of feet shuffle to the door and opening it.

She was already up and ready to go. Good.

"Sakura-san, head on downstairs and get some breakfast. We'll be heading out to do some drills as soon as I wake your other teammates up."

The pink kunoichi bowed slightly before gathering her equipment and heading to the kitchen.

Thank goodness for small favors that out of the three of his students. She was the one that listened well and wasn't a problem. Now he had to wake the two most troublesome bunch of his team.

Limping lightly over to their room he rapped on the door with his knuckles lightly.

No response.

He knocked again with a more force.

The masked shinobi rolled his eyes. Alright then, polite way done and failed. Time to just barge in and wake their damn asses up.

Opening the door up, his nose was immediately assaulted by a wave of a long night of lovemaking.

Kakashi audibly groaned in disgust and dissatisfaction. How unprofessional of them.

On the bed he sighted the two eighteen year old lovers cuddled up underneath the blankets nude. Their clothes strewn about haphazardly around the room and their gear left on the table in the middle of the room. Subconsciously his right eye started twitching uncontrollable.

How. Absolutely. Unprofessional.

Using his crutch he flipped the table over that had their gear piled on top of it causing a loud crash to resound in the quiet house waking up all of its occupants.

That was enough to cause the two to jolt from their blissful sleep.

"Get up. Downstairs. Now," he curtly said before he slammed the door closed to head downstairs himself.

Damn hormonal teenagers. Damn the stupid council forcing upon him a damn team. And damn himself for being an idiot. He wasn't being paid enough to be a god damn overgrown babysitting yes-man.

He gave a small groan as he realized what he had been turned into. A god damn yes-man. This utterly infuriated him.

At training he was going to grind their asses into the ground to vent for making him put up with this. Slowly he descended and found Sakura reading a medical manual while eating a bowl of oats. Good, he thanked himself again for small favors that there was at least one member in this team he could rely on to be a model shinobi.

"Good morning Sakura!" he cheerfully greeted while giving her his usual eye smile and wave.

He feigned a peppy attitude, but he could tell she didn't bought it at all considering not too long ago he was emanating some killer intent and was oozing out annoyance from his body.

She nodded back, "Good morning Sensei. What are we doing today?"

"Let's just wait for your two teammates to get down and then I'll explain so I don't have to repeat myself."

Sitting down at the table he grabbed an apple before quietly munching on a light breakfast consisting of varied fruits. They weren't exactly fresh, but he had had worse before.

It wasn't long before he heard the last two members of the team coming down the stairs, a boy and a girl.

"Glad of you two to finally join us for breakfast," he gave them a smile to try and annoy them. "You two must've had a good night's rest didn't ya?"

Everyone knew what he was talking about. It wasn't exactly subtle to be fair.

"Tch – none of your business," the boy sneered.

Now this rude little snot named Tsubasa Daisuke looked like a bona fide punk. No seriously he looked like a punk and he fit the part as well. Average length black hair that came down to his shoulders almost, stood around five foot and ten inches, two bangs that framed his face, green eyes, piercings on his ears – five in total on each ear, and one small lip ring.

In his opinion, a very punch worthy face.

"Ugh why're we up so early?" said the girl next to him.

And that was what the village considered to be the last Uchiha. Uchiha Sasuke. Funnily enough she had a male's name. Named after the Sandaime's father Sarutobi Sasuke, apparently the parents assumed it was going to be a boy and when they found out it was a girl went through with it anyways. A fair complexion, onyx eyes, raven colored hair that framed her face and the rest pulled into a simple messy ponytail. An Uchiha Princess indeed.

"I've recovered enough that we will be upping your training and preparing you all for the next eventual counter with Momochi Zabuza, Kurosuki Raiga, and the third unknown shinobi that assisted them. Finish up your breakfast quickly and let's go. We're strapped for time as is so we can't waste a single minute of the free time we have left."

Their rut from last night must've made them a lot more subdued as they complied without complaint and before Kakashi knew it they were out in the nearby clearing, with a perfect line of sight of the house, running drills as a team and training their collective asses into the ground.

Most of the training consisted of countering the two mist swordsmen's swordplay and surviving the first 30 seconds of the fight. The other part of the training he was cramming in was bolstering the team into quickly eliminating the unknown third shinobi out of the picture as soon as the fight started before coming in for support against Kurosuki and Momochi.

He also included in some one on one sparring sessions against him. At first they were unsure since he was restricted to crutch, but he waved them off saying even with his current condition, it would be more than enough against them. That triggered two out of the three students. The dark haired teen immediately rising up to the challenge after being considered too weak even against a cripple.

The veteran shinobi merely smiled as the hotheaded teen easily took the bait. It was so easy to rile some of them up. Inflict a little damage on their pride. Make some offhand comments about them not being strong enough and voila! Instant gratification with a simple old school beat down disguised as training.

Let it be known that Hatake Kakashi was not above to being petty and childish. He thoroughly enjoyed the ensuing rounds of fighting and beating them down though he did pull his punches on Sakura as she wasn't the cause of his ire.

After an hour or more he quickly became tired of manhandling them into the dirt. Although he never knew that Daisuke's voice could go so high pitched after a few well-placed hits with his crutch.

Ah… music to his sadistic ears. He made sure to constantly remind them that these were all lessons. Half-truths in all honesty, but no one has to know.

Getting all his pent up stress out of his body with a thorough beat down on his students, Kakashi had the team resume squad exercises to counter the three rogue shinobi. Meanwhile he would watch and mull over the situation some more.

It was evident that he himself could hold the two off for a limited amount of time since he survived getting ambushed by them several days ago. All of it came down to those three students of his killing off the other support shinobi and then ganging up on Kurosuki since he was deemed the weakest compared to Momochi.

Although this was all precautionary, rather an insurance plan if the reinforcements from Konoha didn't make it in time or if they would get any at all.

Kakashi checked the time and saw they were nearing noon. Almost time for a break and the bridge builder to get to work. He waved over his team calling for a break.

They all looked so tired already and the day had only just begun too.

"Tazuna will be heading out onto the bridge soon. We'll continue some basic exercises while on the bridge, please pay attention to anything that might crop up and be noteworthy. We don't know if there will be any enemy reinforcements so keep your eyes peeled. His daughter and grandson will be at the bridge with us before heading out into the town's market. Sakura, you'll be their escort for the day. After the day is done, we'll have some night exercises before calling it at around ten. Understood?"

They all nodded.

Good. He didn't have to hear a snarky comment from the other two. One would pipe up and the other would follow and that was extremely irritating.

"Alright," he clapped his hands and smiled. "Let's head back and grab some lunch-"

He stopped before turning to his right. Was that Pakkun's chakra signature? What was he doing back so soon already? Did something happen? And why was he at full speed running?

Not a second later the leader of his dog pack came bursting out of the foliage looking as if he saw a ghost. Huh. That wasn't good.

"Pakkun? What are you doing back? What happened? Was there an ambush?"

The pug panted a bit before straightening himself out looking dead serious. Something definitely important must've happened for him to turn around and head back to him.

"Kakashi. You're not going to believe who I ran into."

Huh?

---

"-OOOOOOOOOOOO!"

In a fraction of a second I leapt somewhere from the Land of Fires straight to the Land of Waves somewhere in the water near this massive bridge that was being built to connect the island and mainland together.

"Man! That was awesome!" I laughed. "Haven't done that in a while!"

I looked down to see how the pug was doing and saw him feebly trying to gnaw my right arm off.

"Naruto you absolute prick! What the hell was that?" it said with its mouth clamped onto my right arm still biting.

It didn't even hurt. Was he trying? It's like he didn't even have any teeth! I smiled and gushed a bit at the pug. Gosh darn it was so cute. I poked at the lovable pug a couple of times.

"I mean you said we had to get there fast so we got here fast!" I gave it a cocky grin.

I waved my right arm back and forth and saw him sway as he gripped tighter not wanting to fall into the water.

Ridiculously cute. I wonder if Kakashi would let me keep him as my pet.

"I'll let you off once we get to the island and you can go report back to Kakashi."

Messing with the pug just one more time I gathered only a small fraction of chakra into my legs before disappearing in a burst of speed leaving behind a large wave in my after blast.

"NARUTO WILL YOU QUIT THAT!"

It was gripping my right arm with all its might in fear it would fall off.

Aww it was all wet, it made him look a thousand times cuter. Yep. I'm definitely asking if I could keep him as my pet.

Plucking him off my arm I set him down on the ground. "Off you go now," I shooed him. "Go tell Kakashi I'm his back up."

"You're not coming?" He shook the water off on his fur causing his large ears to flop around.

Hmm, Kakashi wouldn't be mad if I stole him would he?

"Nah I'm going to walk around and see how things are around here. I'll be in the middle of the town so it won't be too hard to find me."

"Alright, I'll go tell Kakashi."

He ran off to go back to his master in a surprising burst of speed. Huh? Must be excited to tell Kakashi I'm still kicking.

Tightening my pack I headed off in the direction of the town from the road. It didn't take long before I was in the town taking everything in. It was a rather small town that had a river splitting the town into two parts. On one side there was the market and residential area and on the other side had where I guess were the administration and business buildings at. Right smack dab in the middle was a decently tall tower that towered over everything else that also served as a bridge connecting the two sides. Too bad it wasn't high enough to really good a decent look at everything from above.

As I walked around I noticed more and more of these people were in poverty. Mothers and children begging on the street for any money. Some of the kids in the alleyways were digging up trash to find any scraps to eat.

I frowned being visibly displeased.

Wasn't this supposed to be a well off country? This was a major staging area and trade route, so everyone should've been well off, but here. Here everyone was dirt poor and barely surviving by the looks of it. Markets should be bustling, traders trading, children running around happily, and in general livelier. Instead it was just dead, poor, gloomy, and depressing. What happened here?

My heart wrenched as I came across a little girl on the ground crying. She looked so malnourished as if she hadn't eaten in a while. Where were her parents? Did she have any relatives? She looked so dirty as well with her matted chestnut hair and grime on her body; the girl looked like she was around eight years old. I couldn't really tell.

Unconsciously my hands balled into a fist.

Before I could go up to her, I felt someone tug on the left side of my red shroud. It was another girl that looked similar to the one crying in front of me. Was this her older sister? Definitely looked like it since she was in her teens; probably around 13 or 14.

"M-Mister, d-do you h-have anything to e-eat?" she nervously asked.

I crouched down to her level before smiling and unslinging my pack. "Don't worry," I said softly to her. "I got something for you and your little sister."

Rummaging through my pack I fished out a scroll, unfurling it and unsealing a neatly packed pack of hot rice. I usually kept stores of food on me for instances like this. I've gone through so many villages and towns encountering starving people throughout my travels over the years that I had become better prepared. The next one never made it any easier. It always broke my heart seeing innocent people, children especially, suffering. Children should be more worried about what they're friends are up to or when they'll get to play, not worrying about what's going to be their next meal or how they're going to survive the next day.

This was the first time I had ever encountered anything like this in an area that was relatively peaceful. The only times there were this large amount of people in poverty like this were either oppressed or refugees from a neighboring country. These people definitely weren't refugees since near the southern hemisphere they were focused on trade and fishing. So what happened here that made this little region so poor?

It definitely wasn't the administration nor business area as they were definitely just as run down and in disrepair like the other side of town. Business must've upped and left as soon as whatever happened and the administration was probably kicked out as it looked like a ghost town. So it's probably an outside group that came in and exploited this place.

Almost every street. Almost every corner I saw a kid or a family begging for money or scraps of food. They were just everywhere too, everywhere I turned, everywhere I looked it was just more and more of these people.

I started grinding my teeth a bit. Whoever was doing this was looking to have their head on a pike soon.

Pushing aside my thoughts for a moment I pocketed the scroll and slung my pack over my shoulder. "Is that your little sister over there?" I pointed with the pack of steaming rice before giving it to her.

She nodded as she was shocked that someone would be caring enough to even give her food.

I ruffled her hair a bit, "Come on; let's go share some with your sister hmm?"

We walked over to where her sister was before I kneeled in front of the crying child. Laying my stuff down I did my best to calm down the sobbing little girl.

"Shh there there," I softly said. "Look at what your big sister brought!"

She sniffled a bit before looking up at me and her sister. "O-Onee-chan?"

The elder sister looked at me again with the parcel of food in her hands as if not believing me I was actually giving it away for free.

I huffed a small laugh before closing my eyes, giving her a smile to go ahead.

"Y-yes! Mister w-was kind enough to give us some of his food." She sat down next to her sister before opening up the parcel to eat and share between each other. They carnivorously devoured the package of rice cleaning up every bit of rice that was in the package.

I kneeled beside them providing some comfort and a sense of security. Rummaging again through my pack I brought out a blanket and wrapped it around them.

Looking around I scanned the crowd looking for any familiar faces that could be related to the children but found none in the immediate area.

"O-our parents died not too long ago…"

Huh?

I looked back at them and the elder sister was giving most of the rice to her younger sibling. Sacrifice. She sacrificed her own needs for her little sister to regain her own strength. That she would struggle in pain and suffering just to make sure her sibling wouldn't have to.

This was a lot worse than I had thought.

Oppression definitely and had the means to make sure there was no communications going in and out of this island. That meant that whoever was controlling this island knew what they were doing and were performing with extreme efficacy.

I frowned, "I'm sorry to hear."

She looked downtrodden before introducing herself, "Shirley. My name is Shirley." (1)

"That's a beautiful name Shirley-san. What about your little sister?"

"Yoshino," it was the little sister that spoke up.

"Well then Shirley and Yoshino. My name is Naruto, it's nice to meet you both!" I smiled.

"T-Thank you Naruto! Not many people would bother to help two street rats like us. We're sorry for being a burden on you Naruto-san!"

What was she apologizing for?

"No. It's not a problem Shirley, you… surely can't be serious about apologizing to me for helping you two."

They both giggled at my pun with her name.

"I wish there were more people like you," she said softly. "It's horrible here. The people are mean and they haven't let anyone off the island in years. Ever since they came and took over everything has been terrible."

In years? Total isolation for years? A major trading station with none of its people ever leaving the island? That can't be possible.

"Who? Who did this?"

"Gato."

It was another person that interjected behind me.

"Gato Shipping Industries."

One of the largest shipping companies in the world was doing this huh?

I stood up and faced towards the speaker. "Who are you?"

"I'm one of the people helping to build that bridge connecting this island and the mainland. Giichi," he introduced.

It was a relatively elderly man. Probably in his mid-50s, black eyes and shaggy grey hair.

"Naruto. Just a person looking to help."

He regarded me for a moment before speaking, "Not many people, let alone traveling strangers stop and help the kids out on the street."

"Not many people are me," I countered.

"Fair enough," he conceded. "We don't get very many visitors here except those new people my boss hired to protect him."

He must be referring to Kakashi and it seems like he brought a couple others along as well. Well that answered that question of what he was doing all the way out here. Didn't really peg him to be the type to go out of his way and be rebellious to save this land. Pretty sure there were regulations and a bunch of other bureaucratic red tape and military guidelines to prevent active personnel like him to liberate a country.

"Could you describe them for me?"

The old man scrunched his eyes to try and remember. "Well there's this one white haired guy, a couple of teens; a male that had dark hair, two females as well; one had black hair and the other with pink hair."

"Did the guy with white hair have only one eye?"

"Yeah I'm pretty sure."

Yep. He had a Genin team with him. I wonder what made him want to go and teach again. Pretty sure last time I spoke to him about ever taking on people to train that he would rather burn his book collection himself then submit himself to babysitting teenagers.

I clicked my tongue. Those were questions for later, but for now I was going to further my investigation. Draw out individuals that had ties with Gato by drawing attention to myself. By disturbing the status quo in the area I was positive that a couple of them would be curious to come in and investigate. Painting myself as the target would be easy enough since I didn't look like anyone in the area and I had a sense no one would be stupid enough to do such a stunt except for the bridge builders.

They were already putting their necks out there, but I had a sneaking suspicion that Gato was only allowing the bridge to be completed so that he could take over and have another monopoly. The builders would only be spared until the final moments of completion. He would gain another mode of transportation to deal his goods without spending a single yen.

It was a genius plan that would provide a lot of profit to bolster his company, but it dealt a lot of bad to the people who lived here and called it their home.

Tch. Typical business tycoons looking to exploit anyone and everything to make a profit and expand their wealth.

"Naruto-nii-san?" the little sister broke me out of my thoughts.

Kneeling back down to get to her level I smiled. "Yes?"

"D-do you have any more food?" As if perfectly timed her little stomach growled in hunger.

"Y-Yoshino! You shouldn't ask him anymore! H-He already gave us food!" She turned towards me to apologize. "I'm sorry for my sister please don't-"

I laughed before waving her off, "Don't worry I got enough trust me." I winked at her.

She blushed.

Getting up I turned towards Giichi.

"You got any equipment that I can use to cook?"

He pondered for a moment, "Yeah down by the central markets. Some of the stuff that got abandoned when it was getting bad should still be here. Why?"

"I'm going to cook for everyone!"

"W-What? You can't be serious! There's not enough supplies to do so and the amount of commotion that you'd cause would surely catch the attention of Gato's men and you'd get hurt!"

I waved my hand as if smacking his words out of the air.

"Don't worry about me I can take care of myself. As for the supplies I got everything I need to feed everyone!"

"You're asking to get hurt if not killed kid," the old man sighed. "Why? Why do this for strangers and people you barely know?"

I looked at him straight in the eyes.

"Because it is the right thing to do. I will save everyone in this town from that man. I promise you."

My words visibly stunned him. I'm guessing he never came across anyone with this much conviction before.

He looked conflicted before resigning in defeat. "Alright, I'll take you over to the area. Just keep it down before you cause any trouble please."

I smiled before turning to the two girls, "You two are coming with me." I smiled. "You'll be the first ones to eat!"

Both of their jaws were unhinged slightly as if in disbelief. I nodded to them in confirmation in to encourage them to come with me. Shirley nodded before getting up, but her younger sister had a little trouble getting up and let alone walking. I shifted my travel pack to where I was carrying it in front before asking the younger sister if she would like me to give her a piggy back ride.

She smiled. I loved it when other people smiled, it was such a beautiful thing to see when other people were happy. It was that for which I fought for; to see others in happiness and joy.

Securing her on my back we followed Giichi to the area. It was a decently sized market place. I imagined it back during its heyday that it was bustling and vibrant, but now it was almost like a ghost town. I saw the cooking equipment that hadn't been used in a while.

Good. Time to kick off step one of my plan and cause a scene to draw whoever were acting as Gato's suppression force out here and see what they looked like.

---

"Kakashi-sensei wait up for us!"

Hatake Kakashi was speeding as fast as he could with his crutch.

'Naruto is here? He's here on this island?'

At first he didn't believed it, but the way that Pakkun said it gave it all more credence that he was here. What were the chances of Pakkun coming across Naruto? What were the chances that he would be picked up again of all times? He counted his stars and thanked the gods for his luck.

"Why are we in such a rush and who the hell is this Naruto?" said Daisuke.

"You'll see, come on we have to get there fast."

I doubled my speed to get to the town.

What would he look like after all these years? Why did he disappear last year and decide to pop up out of nowhere? Where has he been after all this time?

There was just so many questions that were being thrown around his head that he didn't notice they reached the town proper. He took note that there was something going on at the central market. Could it be Naruto?

"Stay close, let's stay out of site and see what's going on," he ordered.

"Sensei what the hell is going on?"

"I said shut it Tsubasa."

He sneered before falling in line.

Team Seven ghosted over to the market place staying in the shadows to quietly spectate the scene with a growing crowd. As they got closer, a savory appetizing scent assaulted their noses. Nearing the market place on the rooftops they witnessed a large crowd surrounding one individual that had a mop of spiky blonde hair and had a red overcoat that was draped over on his left.

Was he cooking and feeding these people? He looked again. Yes. Yes he was.

Signaling his team to observe and wait, he looked on in wonder. What was he trying to achieve by causing a ruckus? Ahh. He was intentionally ruining the status quo of having these people oppressed and weak.

'He's trying to bait out Gato's men.'

In a way it was smart and straight forward. He would be able to identify the level of threat that these people were going up against and who Gato generally employed to carry out his orders. His summon had already explained the three rogue agents so Naruto probably took it from there and deduced what Gato had for a general force.

It wasn't long before a group of five men came in looking to break up whatever festivity was occurring.

"OY OY OY! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" The thug yelled.

Everyone froze and quieted.

"ANYONE WANNA EXPLAIN HUH?" He unsheathed his katana and brandished it. "ANY OF YOU SHIT STAINS WANNA START TALKIN'?"

The crowd shuffled before parting, allowing the group to view Naruto at the center of it all. He wiped his hands on a cloth before sliding on his gloves. Kakashi took a moment to observe him intently.

There was something red that covered his right hand up to until his fingers. He couldn't quite catch what it was, but stored it for later.

"That would be me," Naruto coolly said as he walked up to them.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Do you work for Gato?" he asked quickly.

"Answer my questions ya? Before we fuckin' gut ya," he threatened.

"A mere traveler."

The lead thug was getting annoyed by how he was gnashing his teeth.

"You fuckin' deaf?"

"I'm a long way from being deaf just as you are a long way from having any semblance of intelligence."

This insult pushed the thug over the edge. "KEIJIN! KEIKO! GUT THIS LITTLE SHIT!"

The two that were closest to Naruto pulled out their katana and swung at their target.

Quicker than anyone could follow, Naruto halted their attack by simply grabbing the blades and squeezed down causing the swords to screech and groan.

This caused the crowd to gasp behind him and the thugs to take a step back.

"What poor quality of blades you have there," he coolly noted eyeing all of Gato's thugs. "You know, if I simply applied a little bit of pressure here the blades will simply," the blades groaned even more under protest from his hands, "snap."

At that he snapped the blades as if they were twigs before taking a step forward, twirling the broken blades in his hands into a reverse grip, and stabbing the two thugs in the back straight into their heart causing them to fall face forward.

"S-Shit!"

The other two drew their katana as well rushing towards him from his left and right. They both swung at the same time before they too had been stopped by his hands. He snapped their blades just like before, throwing the broken blades into their throats and lodging them into their neck. They feebly grabbed at their throats before collapsing on their knees and falling forward, choking on their own blood.

Naruto looked on smoothly, as if he casually removed four men by using their own blades against them. Walking calmly over the bodies he stopped a few paces in front of the lead thug. "Go ahead and run," he pointed towards behind him with his chin. "Go on and tell Gato what had happened here. Tell him I did this and it was me alone."

The foul mouthed low life looked like he was about to piss his pants in fear.

"Don't even bother to try and mess with the townspeople, he can bring it up with me and me only. Tell him he's going to need more than simple low life banters like you to do anything worthwhile."

He started to take a couple steps back as Naruto spoke to him.

"You… you'll pay for this! Gato'll have your fuckin' head!"

Naruto waved his words off and rolled his eyes. He lost the amount of times that someone said that they'll have their revenge and his head as they ran off. Honestly, could they be a little bit more original at least? It's like they all took their cues and lines from a standard bad guy handbook on how to be extremely evil and generic. Then again their intelligence were generally all the same so there was that.

"Yes yes. I've heard this a thousand times now, now shoo! Go!" Naruto shooed him off with his hand, he sounded completely disinterested. "Get on out of here and back to Gato." He placed a hand on his hip and casually watched as the guy ran for his dear life.

Kakashi blinked. So that was Naruto huh?

'Well he's certainly grown and has a whole new personality to boot. Gone is the cute little kid that I was teaching not too long ago.'

The crowd was stunned into silence that someone had not only stood up to Gato's men, but also ruthlessly dispatched them with zero effort. He had made it look so easy too.

The hero that stood before them scratched his head and looked around at the four bodies. "Ah geez, I didn't really mean to kill them. Craaaaap." He audibly sighed to himself. "Really I wanted to scare them off, but they haaad to be tough and pull out their crappy excuse of a sword on me."

He turned towards the crowd before bowing. "Sorry that you all had to see that. Please forgive me!" he clapped his hands together as if praying.

They all stared at him for a moment in silent before one of them spoke up.

"What do you mean? You're our hero you dummy! You saved us!"

It was the little girl Yoshino that spoke up. Everyone shared their sentiments with the little girl. It had been so long since anyone stood up to Gato and his men that they relished what happened before them. That those thugs were recompensed with their own medicine.

"Y-Yeah! You saved us from them! You're a hero!"

More and more started to stand up for him. Just like that the flood gates were released and people began praising him for his actions. They all swarmed around him wanting to be closer to their savior. Their hero. They wanted to reassure him that what he did wasn't wrong or anything. That it was merely justice served that had been a long time coming.

Naruto gave them all a solemn smile. "Thank you everyone." He balled his right hand into a fast before placing it on top of his heart. "I swear to you all. That I will do everything I can to free you all from Gato." He said it so resolutely everyone was hooked on his words. "With all the power that I have you all will be freed and receive justice for what he has done to each and every single one of you. For this, you have my word. And I never go back on my word."

Kakashi smiled. Hero Naruto indeed.

'He really did become a Hero of Justice.'

For him it felt like it wasn't that long ago a nine year old kid spouting off that he would become a hero of justice for the people. That he would try his hardest to save any and every one if possible.

It was time to greet an old student. He motioned for his team to follow behind him before he jumped down onto the street behind Naruto where he gave his impassioned speech.

"Long time no see… Naruto-kun."

---

I turned around hearing a familiar voice that I haven't heard of in years. There before me with a crutch on one side, his gravity defying white hair, that goofy looking eye smile, with his same old mask, his same old forehead protector covering his sharingan eye, and his same old hand wave.

I guess things don't really change too much don't they?

"Indeed, long time no see Sensei."

I smiled fondly. It wasn't too long ago I was under his tutelage. "What brings you here to the neck of the woods huh?"

"Ha – well there's been something going on in the grapevine that some kid was spouting of that he wanted to be a hero of justice in town so I thought I might as well check it out. Maybe make sure he didn't hurt himself and do anything stupid," he quipped.

"What can I say, I had a loud mouth back then," I admitted. Hey, he got me there I was a loud brat back then spouting off that I'd be a hero. "You still reading those crappy porn novels?" I countered.

"You betcha," as if on cue he whipped out his porn novel. "Would you like me to recite a couple verses? They're awfully descriptive and wonderfully steamy."

My right eye twitched. Him and his shitty erotic novels. Seriously who would read that? Oh wait. Kakashi.

"Yeah I'll have to pass on that, plus there's kids," I jerked a thumb back at the crowd behind me that was slowly dispersing. "Wouldn't want to ruin someone's ears at hearing a horribly written novel."

Kakashi gasped as if visibly hurt. "You hurt me Naruto." He shook his head as if he was still schooling me all those years ago. "Looks like I still have to teach you a couple things about manners and respecting your elders."

We both went silent before I grinned and walked up to him reaching in for a hug. "C'mere Kakashi, it's been too long since I've seen you and boy do we have some catching up to do."

He returns the hug fondly, "Yeah it sure has been too long."

We parted and I noticed his team standing behind him. I took stock of this team he has, looking over their faces and memorizing them in my head.

One was a cute girl with pink hair, fair skin, and green eyes. She wore a red top, a band on her arm with the red cross signifying she was a medic, wore her forehead protector to hold her hair, black gloves, low-heel, calf-high boots, black shorts underneath a short grey apron skirt, and grey elbow protectors. Not bad, though she looked really nervous and a bit shy.

The next one was a guy and he looked incredibly annoyed for some reason. More so when he looked at me. Did I do something? He had his standard forehead protector above his brow, a black body mesh serving as an undershirt with a dark grey short sleeved, high-collar shirt, and grey pants that were tucked into calf-high sandals. He caught me looking at him before sneering and buffing up.

Seriously what'd I do?

I merely raised an eyebrow before moving onto the last member of the team.

She was quite the looker to be honest. Black eyes, around 5 feet give or take a few inches, fairly long raven hair that was tied up into a pony tail and had two bangs that framed her. She wore a dark grey zippered, high-collared, short-sleeved shirt that was unzipped halfway showing off a generous amount of cleavage, a pair of blue wrist warmers, and tight dark blue pants with a blue clothe that acted like a skirt that had a red rope tied around her waist. Tucked in behind her was a chokuto, roughly about two and a half foot or so.

A fellow practitioner of the sword eh? I gave it a good look storing it in my mind for later to try out.

'I wonder if she's any good as her with a sword.'

Though I doubted it. There were very few people in this world that could match her swordsmanship. Not even the seven swordsmen of the mist could match her. Even if they did a seven on one, I could safely say she would carve straight through them without a sweat.

"What are you staring at?" she jeered at me crossing her arms in front of her chest.

'Seriously why is he staring at me? Not like he's cute or hot or anything.' Though with a slight admission to herself he definitely was a looker. He was different from a lot of the guys from back home. In both looks and stature. His whole form had a warm welcoming. Like a hug from a loving father after a long and trying day. He had a soft smile that was rested on his face with the bluest of eyes that she had ever seen. They seemed so welcoming and peaceful, yet full of understanding and knowledge. As if he had experienced many battles and trials to become what stood before her. And he was tall, a good head and shoulders above even her teacher Kakashi, probably around six foot if not a little higher.

Daisuke stepped in front of her possessively. "You checking her out? Too bad she's taken so back off buddy."

I raised an eyebrow. I couldn't help, but snort derisively before closing my eyes and opening only one. Seriously? This guy was really thinking about that of all things?

"No, merely observing and appreciating a fellow swordsmen's weapon. No need to act like a child."

"Tch," he sneered, "Who the Hell are you huh?"

A battle of pride huh? The alpha male sensing his authority and territory being intruded and is now lashing out at the intruder. How juvenile really. Though was he really an alpha since Kakashi was here? Probably someone that has some weight to swing around back home and is fairly popular. God home was starting to sound like some garbage tier high school shonen cartoon.

I gave him a smile. The type of smile that he would use to give to me back then that would easily get under my skin. It was a cocky assuredness smile. Now I knew why he did it. It ticked people off fairly easily.

"Who am I? Well, I'm the person that's here to save your sorry ass from whatever predicament you found yourself in."

He took a challenging step towards me. "Look here asshole." He puffed up a bit again. How cute. "We don't need your assistance. We have everything under perfect control here. Now why don't you go back to where ever you came from and stay away. This is official shinobi business and you are totally not a shinobi."

I thought for a moment. Technically I wasn't a shinobi anymore. An active one that is, but on the other hand I still went through the whole system and got a couple of souvenirs. Hmm, to push more buttons or not to push more buttons. That is the question.

"Silence Tsubasa and not another word," Kakashi ordered.

Man I've never heard Kakashi sound more annoyed in his life since ever.

"Sorry about that," he apologized looking sheepish. "As you can see I'm still trying to teach my team manners and civility."

I snickered in response. "Its fine, I really couldn't care too much from background rabble."

The girl that I guessed was in a relationship with the boy held him back from making a retort.

"Come on! Let's head back to where we're staying at and we can catch up in a more private setting," said Kakashi.

"Alright, I'll clean up and grab my stuff." I hurriedly cleaned the cooking equipment in record time. Man I haven't got to really cook to this many people in a while. Damn, it felt good cooking again.

As I picked up my pack and walked backed towards Kakashi's team I heard someone call out to me. Turning around it was those two girls from before that I helped. Yoshino the younger sister ran up to me as I crouched down to her level before giving me the biggest hug her tiny little frame could give me.

"Will we ever see you again?" she asked sadly.

My face softened. I always had a soft spot for little kids. They were so innocent and pure and their smiles were one of the most beautiful things in the world. It always reminded me of the reasons why I fought and tried my hardest to be a hero.

"Of course Yoshino. In-fact, I got something I want you to hold on for me ok?"

She shook her head. Gosh what an adorable girl. Rummaging in my pack again I unfurled a scroll before unsealing a small plush lion inside the pack. I smiled fondly at the object in my hand for a moment.

'She always did love lions.' God I miss her so much. There was a mix of pain and longing in my chest for her.

Repacking the stuff, I presented it to the young orphan. "This is yours now ok? I want you to protect because it'll protect you. Whenever you're lonely or sad, just hold onto this ok?"

Her eyes shined brighter than a thousand stars. She looked like she never received a gift before. "I-I will! I'll protect it and cherish it forever! Thank you so much big brother!" Yoshino hugged the plush lion before hugging me as well.

Everyone in the area that saw it softened their gaze at the exchange. Even the ones who were most adamant in keeping a strong appearance faltered.

I gave a soft laugh before standing up and slinging my backpack on. I turned towards her big sister Shirley before sheepishly saying, "Sorry – I don't exactly have a gift for you, but I'll be sure to think of something before I leave!"

The chestnut haired girl blushed, "It's alright! Don't worry! Trust me please. Besides I'd rather much just do this." Before I knew it she was hugging me with all her might drinking me in as if not wanting to forget what this was like.

"You better visit us before you leave!"

I returned her hug, "Of course, it'd be rude of me not too."

We separated before I walked back towards where the others were waiting for me.

"That was nice of you," quietly said the pink girl as I passed her.

"Yeah, I got a little soft spot for kids," I replied easily.

"Sakura. Sakura Haruno," she introduced herself.

I held out a hand, "Uzumaki Naruto. You can call me Naruto."

We shook hands. I studied her a bit before letting go. For some reason she reminded me of someone I met a long time ago, but I couldn't really put my finger on it. Meh, I stored the thought away continuing my walk.

"Come on you two. We can have proper introductions when we're back the house," said Kakashi as he hurried us along.

I had a funny feeling in me, telling me that it was going to be interesting when we got to the place where Kakashi and his team were staying.

---

For one Haruno Sakura, the man that was seated right in front of her on the dining table was quite vexing. In a way it was type of feeling where one couldn't quite put their hands on where they had seen them before. That you knew you came across them some time or some place, but you weren't able to exactly pin point it. She sat quiet and pensive while occasionally stealing glances at Naruto before looking back to her medical handbook.

She would freely admit that Naruto was incredibly handsome. Yet unlike her generation that focused a large amount of attention to aesthetics and flaunting it around, he was incredibly subdued and modest. It showed it in his personality and how he dressed; although he had a sarcastic touch to him with a hint of snarky and snide.

'In fact he doesn't even show off anything other than his face,' she slightly blushed before shoving her book in front of her face to hide it. It was true, the only noteworthy thing of his ensemble was that red overcoat that covered his left side; everything else was covered.

'I really hope Sasuke and Daisuke don't go at it again,' she looked over at the other two on her left. They stood over head and shoulders over everyone back in Konoha in terms of power, popularity, and skill, and because of that they were incredibly prideful and had an ego the size of a mountain. They made sure that they got the last word in and always had some offhand comment to say. Luckily ever since Kakashi came into their lives he had tried his best to quite literally beat it out of them.

It was a work-in-progress.

Ok, maybe a lot of work-in-progress.

Kakashi clapped his hands causing Sakura's trail of thought to be broken. "Now that we're all situated how about we now all formally introduce ourselves!" he said at the head of the table. "Sakura, why don't you go first?"

Putting down her book, she coughed in her hand to clear her throat before beginning. "I'm Sakura Haruno. I like to practice my medical skills and read my books. I love to drink tea if I have the chance, and well I like the peace and quiet a lot and sometimes I write stories, but I don't really go anywhere with it. I also like helping people if I can so there's that. As for dislikes, I don't really like loud places or people. I really don't like spicy foods and anything hot. I don't like fire in general to be honest. As for my dreams? I'd like to be the medical director for Konoha's medical department."

Naruto gave her a questioning look at her dislike for fire. Did she have a dislike for fire because of the incident or was it something else? He closed his eyes, he wasn't going to ask. He didn't know her enough to poke and prod into her business, maybe later down the line if they got to know each other.

"Good Sakura!" he pointed to the next person being the pony tailed girl sitting next to her. "You next!"

The person in questioned huffed a breath of air as if she didn't want to introduce herself. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha," Naruto blinked. Wasn't that a male name? Actually that was the Sandaime's father's name. Huh. He wouldn't mind finding out the story to this name blunder. As if sensing it the raven haired teen sent a scathing look to him, "Yes I know what you're thinking that it's a guy's name. Tch whatever I don't have to explain myself to you."

He raised his hands as if he were innocent in his thoughts.

She rolled her eyes looking away. "I like training and going out with my friends. I love my boyfriend even more," at this she hooked her arm around the man next to her. "He's really great, loving, and strong." At this she went on describing him. Naruto gave an awkward smile coupled with a strange expression at how descriptive she was being. He looked at Sakura before slowly looking to Kakashi and saw that he was palming his face.

'This is really awkward,' thought Naruto.

"I don't really like weak people and those who can't stand up for themselves. That's their fault." Naruto frowned a bit but refrained from making a comment. "As for my dreams? I want to avenge my clan for what my brother did!"

Ah, so this was his little sister. 'Man if he hadn't told me that this was his sister I wouldn't have believed him. They're not even alike! It's night and day of what they represent geez I bet he's gonna be disappointed as all hell when he finds out.'

Kakashi gave her the driest of looks. "Ok then," he waved over to the teenager that was to his right. "You're turn kid."

"I'm not a kid!" he sneered. "The name's Daisuke Tsubasa. I like drinking, hanging out with friends, training to be strong, and obviously my girlfriend. I hate people who waste my time and those who are weak. My personal belief? If you can't stand up for yourself, you should fade away into history. As for my dreams? Tch I just want to be famous and my name known everywhere, maybe something like Hokage I don't know."

Kakashi had a feeling Naruto and Daisuke would not get along at all. They were polar opposites that represented the extremes of each side. He took a glance at Naruto and saw that he had a frown marred on his face.

Yep.

The personalities differed too much that they are going to clash sooner or later. It all depended on who would lash out at who first and considering Naruto had a pension to push people's buttons, well it was going to be a bit glorious when it all exploded in Kakashi's opinion.

But that wasn't needed right now and he certainly didn't need for the house to explode. Figuratively and literally. Plucking an apple from the bowl on the table he tossed it over to distract Naruto from going after Daisuke. "And lastly you Naruto."

He deftly caught the apple, giving it a look once over before taking a bite. "Let's see… where to start. I like cooking, housework, fixing things, and I don't mind doing part-time jobs really, it's kind of nice, adds a bit of normality to life. I enjoy tea a lot and coffee time to time. Hmm I also like practicing my thaumaturgy, swordplay, and archery. I love helping others. Doesn't really matter who to be honest. I don't seek rewards or gains out of it. I just do it for the sake of helping people, because in all honesty that's a reward in of itself."

Kakashi took note of what he said about helping people. 'And there we have it, his hero complex. At least that hasn't changed a bit.'

He scratched his head a bit, "Dislikes? Mmm, there's only a few things really that I don't like. I hate arrogance and selfishness. I think it's incredibly unfair that some people survive and others don't. There's a couple others, but I won't really get into detail about that. As for dreams?"

Naruto took a breath before looking up to the ceiling. "Well it's a work in progress. I know it's going to sound stupid to you all since you won't really understand it. I inherited my father's dream and well you see, he wanted to be a Hero. I want to save everyone… that if one life could be saved, perhaps I may be capable of saving all who suffer."

There it was again that conviction in his beliefs. Exposing his dream of being a hero. While most kids dreamed of being a hero, Naruto was the one who really did want to become one. After all who else better than him? The one who survived one of the greatest fire disasters in history. The one who was adopted by Kiritsugu. A man who merely wanted to save people from suffering and to see others live happily.

No. Naruto was truly the only ideal candidate who could make his dreams a reality. A world where no one had to suffer and everyone was happy? For Kakashi that was a good reality he wouldn't mind being in.

"Haha! You're right that does sound stupid!"

It was from Daisuke, he was laughing derisively at how utterly childish and inane it was. A hero? In the shinobi world?

For him it was completely nonsense. In this world it was nothing but killers and those who stood on top were the strongest, dictated who lived and who died. That was the singular reason why Daisuke Tsubasa wanted to be strong. He wanted to stand amongst the greatest for all to acknowledge that he was the greatest.

"Daisuke!" It was Sakura. "You shouldn't deride a noble dream like Naruto-kun's! He wants to help others to make this a better world! T-That's why I want to become a medic to prevent lives from being needlessly loss!"

The other members of Team Seven blinked. It was the first time that Sakura had ever spoken with such reverence and heat. She was normally subdued and really only spoken unless spoken to.

Kakashi looked on, 'Does someone have a crush?' He could tell by the slight nuances that displayed on Sakura's features. Ha - how cute.

"What?" Looking as if he did nothing wrong. "It's dumb, it's stupid, and it sounds like some little kid's dream. A hero? Pssh fuckin come on."

"Nonetheless that's still incredibly rude! You should apologize because-"

She stopped. It was Naruto raising his hand.

"It's okay Sakura," he smiled softly at her causing her to blush a bit. "Everyone has their own beliefs, to each their own you know? Besides, I lost count how many times people have told me how silly it is, but no matter what I'll keep chasing it. Besides how wrong can it be to simply wish for everyone to be happy?"

For one Sasuke Uchiha, his words struck something deep inside her. Something that she buried six feet under in her mind. They sounded similar to the words her brother shared with her years ago before he killed everyone. She zoned out completely through everything else when Naruto shared his dreams.

To save everyone.

Her elder brother had told her that when she was younger. That he too had wanted to save people from suffering. She furrowed her eyebrows, 'Why am I thinking about him of all things?!' It perplexed and confused her so. The man across the table represented all the good things about her brother before he went and killed everyone in the clan.

She wanted to leap to her boyfriend's assistance in his ridiculing, but she couldn't find herself to do so.

It's because you too once shared a similar dream.

A grimace marred her delicate features. Where had that come from? Something about his words were uncovering years of suppression about herself. If she were honest with herself she hadn't ever came across anyone that type of conviction in their goals. It was spoken in such a way that it felt like they were unbreakable.

And how he treated that one orphan Yoshino.

In a way it was similar to how he had used to treat her when she was younger. Kindness, affection, and love in its purest form. Not wanting any sort of gain of wealth or fame, merely only to see the joy and happiness in others.

She shook her head a bit. Where was that voice coming from? Was she going crazy because of this stranger? Why was this happening to her of all times?

Daisuke and Sakura were arguing in the background before it slowly devolved to him throwing insults at her. Naruto across the table was about to jump to her defense before he was beaten by Kakashi.

"Enough," it was Kakashi. "Daisuke you are completely out of line. Shut your mouth before I shut it for you. I should write you up for insubordination, but luckily I have something else in mind." He turned towards Naruto. "As you can see I need some help with training my team and well I'm a bit indisposed with recovery so I haven't been doing an admirable job lately. Would you mind taking over so my recovery process goes faster?"

Naruto leaned back in his chair crossing his arms and closing his eyes before opening up one of them giving a smirk. "I suppose I could."

Kakashi simply smiled his visible eye in response. "Good then how about we start now then?"

At this the black haired teen slammed his hands on the table. "WAIT! W-we didn't even eat lunch yet!"

Their sensei simply shrugged, "We took too long on introducing ourselves that it cut into our lunch break and our training. No more complaining off to training everyone."

This reminded them of their test to become Genin not too long ago.

"B-But you two didn't even eat either!" He protested.

"Nope, Naruto ate and so did I the entire time! Didn't you notice the fruits we were snacking on? Remember my first lesson: look underneath the underneath! Now chop-chop back to training everyone!"

---

All five of them gathered in the same field that they were in since the morning. Naruto on one side, Team Seven across from him and Kakashi sitting down off to the side of them to observe.

'Let's see how far you've progressed Naruto.' He flipped open his book to disguise himself from actually observing.

I scratched my head. Well shit Kakashi, maybe I should've declined since I never really taught anyone before. Geez I'm expected to teach them lessons too. Hmm maybe I should teach them how I was taught?

"Kakashi. You don't really care too much about how they're taught right?"

He looked up from his book, "Nah as long as they're in one piece then I couldn't really care too much."

Huh? Alright then, there's the green light.

"I'll admit my lessons will be extremely unconventional. Really there are two ways for you all to learn." I raised a hand holding up one finger. "First is the slow and easy way. Slow exercises, repeated drills and instructed sparring are what we'd normally do to get everyone accustomed to live combat. The second," I brought up a second finger, "is well. Live combat. Reason being is that one can make leaps and bounds in skill compared to years of slow training. The feeling of death makes one react faster, plan better, think smarter, and learn quicker. What one student can learn in one year; the other can learn in a mere month."

I smiled at them, "Guess which way you all will be learning today?"

"The first way?" it was Sakura who asked timidly.

I laughed at her boldness, "Sadly no, for you three are a bit strapped for time."

"Worth a shot," she shrugged. I was beginning to like this girl.

"With that all three of you will be fighting me all at once. Your goal will be to try to land a hit on me at least once."

Trace. On.

I traced a plain bokken causing blue arcs of pure energy to bounce around my form everywhere. They all stared like children at a circus at how I traced a weapon.

Kakashi merely raised an eyebrow at the display.

Tapping the ground with the tip of the sword I asked them, "Are you all ready?"

The guy with the piercings smirked, "Tch this'll be easy sensei." He mocked before cracking his knuckles and rolling his shoulders.

I merely smiled in return. This one will be the first one to be taught a lesson.

Sakura and Sasuke both set themselves in a familiar stance signaling they were ready. I grabbed my wooden sword and assumed a stance that she taught me that suited to her sword. While the bokken and the other sword were of different makes, it would suffice for this session. I sent chakra down into my legs causing my circuits to flare up and glow an eerily blue.

"Begin!"

I released the built up chakra and blasted forward faster than their eyes could keep track. I swung my sword at Daisuke three times in the span of a heartbeat. Once in the head and two times in the chest. The first one dazed him, the second hit forced the air out of his lungs, and the third hit sent him flying back a dozen meters or so.

Sensing danger from both sides of me I flooded my body with chakra vanishing so fast I left a crater causing the two kunoichi to stumble in their attack. I reappeared before them as they recovered, I swung the wooden sword with one hand at Sakura.

Two strikes. An overhead strike at her collarbone bruising it and the last strike into her diaphragm. It was with enough force that I knocked her back a few meters leaving her curled up on the ground.

Without stopping I followed through from my last strike spinning on the balls of my feet smacking Sasuke straight in the face with the tip of my sword. It was enough to stun her before I followed through with a nasty underhand swing into her chin causing her to go airborne for a second.

'Fast,' thought Kakashi. 'He did it all in under a couple of seconds… what monstrous speed.'

I walked back to the other side of the field before calmly placing the tip of the sword into the ground resting my hands on the butt of the sword. "Slow. Pitifully slow. Get up. Sakura it's time you put your medical techniques to use. We'll be at this for some while."

They all groaned in protest before slowly compiling themselves back together. This was completely unexpected for them. They were so used to Kakashi waiting for them to charge at him and not an opponent who was so overly aggressive. He certainly did not pull his strikes either.

I pointed my bokken at Sasuke first, "Why did you not pull out your blade swordswoman? Are you not a practitioner of the sword or do you merely hold onto it for looks?" I shifted it over to Daisuke next. "And you. You call yourself a shinobi, yet you were caught off guard by a simple frontal charge? Utterly pitiful yet expected. All bark and no bite." I planted the wooden sword back into the ground. "And Sakura. You are the support. Their lifeline. Yet you fell so quickly. How can you expect to save people when you can't even save yourself?"

I was goading them. Kakashi knew it as well as he was currently disinterested in his book and gauging his team's reactions.

"Why this fuckin' bastard I'll show him," growled Daisuke as he rolled up his sleeves and pulled out a pair of kunai readying himself for the next bout.

Sasuke gritted her teeth in offense to my words. She made no retort though and only slid out her chokuto and readying herself in a basic stance. I frowned slightly at her sword stance. It had holes here and there, and not intentionally either. It was the sign of someone who had recently taken up the way of the sword. Give or take a year or so. How foolish of me to think that this person would be on the same level as her.

I shifted my eyes towards Sakura and saw that she had closed her eyes in concentration, breathing in and out slowly to steady herself. Good, she was keeping calm and staying focused even under my barbs. I took note of her stance; it was reminiscent of one Tsunade Senju. This will certainly be interesting now, sadly not enough against me.

Nodding my head in approval, I took up the same stance again. Bending my knees slightly I sent chakra down through them once more. Now that they had a taste of a frontal charge, now to come from the rear and take Sakura out first. Let's see what they do when their support is taken away from them.

Without signaling to begin I disappeared from their eyes in a burst of unrivaled speed. They all visibly widened their eyes in reaction, but it was too late. I was already upon them like a hawk in a dive to its prey. Right behind Sakura I swung overhead with enough force to lay her out on the ground onto her back flattening her.

To my utter surprise she backed into me causing my swing to hit air. I narrowed my eyes, I saw her about to elbow me into my ribs, but it was too late. Nice try though; using my free hand I pushed her away before jumping and spinning in the air to avoid the other two attacks coming my way. I swung downward smacking away at my opponent who overshot and went under me.

I plant both of my feet firmly on the ground and saw Sasuke's sword cutting into the air after my head. Stepping forward I went into her reach and simply tapped underneath the sword causing her swing to go wide and miss me. She tried correcting it by going with the flow and spinning, but it was too slow so I snapped a kick at her exposed back and using it as a springboard to avoid Sakura's attack.

While they weren't exactly cooperating with each other they at least made plays off of each other so I guess it was a semblance of teamwork albeit crude and awkward.

This fight felt incredibly slow. For me it was like watching everything in slow motion, whenever I fought I reinforced my eyes and saw everything with clarity. I could count the individual strands on Sakura's pink hair. I could see the pores on her face and the details of her green eyes. My perception of time was slowed so much that I could even count the individual flaps of a hummingbird's wing if I wanted to.

The first fight showed the gap and disparity between me and Kakashi's students.

The second match was me deliberately slowing down to the point that they could at least make moves against me, but even then that wasn't enough as I was a thousand steps ahead of them. They weren't near fast enough to tag me let alone get close to me unless I allowed it.

Just as Sakura's fist soared past me I bent my knees slightly and swung with my bokken with my right hand into her gut; sending her to back where she came from. Just as soon as I smacked her away, my sixth sense kicked in and I felt someone rushing in behind me. I didn't bother to even look. I simply reversed my grip and jabbed it backwards like an engine piston. I felt the tip dig into his gut before sending him soaring away.

Now it was just me and Sasuke. She was breathing heavy and had her Sharingan activated. I took note of them, they only had two tomoe so she was still developing them. In a way the red in her eyes looked mesmerizing. I gave her a smirk, time to show her what a swordsman could really do.

I took a page out of one Sasaki Kojirou. The bokken wasn't as long as his Monohoshi-Zao so I would have to get in a bit closer, but that didn't really matter. I stepped into her range, she swung overhead. A fatal mistake. Her footing wasn't right so when I parried upwards it knocked her off balance but still in range for me to enact my technique.

Her teammates wouldn't make it in time to stop me and besides, it was one of the fastest sword techniques in the world. It reached a level comparable to one out of pure godlike skill that it surpassed even the realm of gods. It was a technique where three concurrent arching blades close in on the enemy from all sides to create a prison, it allowed no chance for defense or evasion once you were in range.

The most comparable thing to this technique was the Dance of the Crescent Move, but even then that was like comparing a papier-mâché to the real thing. It was merely a poor man's version of it in all honesty.

I took a step back and raised my sword in a stance. I activated my chakra flooding my circuits throughout my body. I breathed before stepping forward and swinging once from the right.

One slash.

I swung again from overhead leaving no chance to jump out of the way.

Two slashes.

I shifted my stance and swung for a final third time from her left.

Three slashes.

Left. Center. Right.

All three strikes occurred simultaneously instantly. All three arching over-lapping slashes that disregarded the concept of time and space, produced an attack that arrived from three different dimensions. It was such a technique that it transcended speed, dexterity, feints and many other elements.

My bokken hit her in the head, neck, and chest. What normally was a fatal technique that would decapitate a person was lightened to a hard tap that would disorientate and bruise her. I was supposed to be training them, not killing them after all. She lost her grip on her sword, but I deftly caught it in the air before it hit the ground.

Everyone stopped. All was quiet in the clearing and I noticed Kakashi was staring intently at me that he even had his Sharingan out. It didn't matter, there was no way that his special eye could replicate the skill that I just performed; it was simply beyond normal comprehension.

The other two teammates of Sasuke stood stock still being simply stunned. What had they just witnessed? Was that their eyes playing tricks on them or did Naruto really struck from three different ways simultaneously?

Kakashi had his eyes narrowed, 'What was that technique? Not even my eye could track it, all I saw was three different slashes occurring at the same time. That's impossible though, the only thing comparable was Dance of the Crescent Moon, but even then… this was simply beyond it. Was it a space-time technique? No… it was something more.' His interest was definitely piqued; he pulled down his headband covering up his eye before getting up and walking over to Naruto.

"Naruto, what was that?"

Sasuke was coughing on the ground and rubbing the spot on her neck where my wooden blade hit. I offered a hand to help up, she hesitated for a moment before I rolled my eyes and simply grabbed her hand and brought her up on her feet. Really? Geez teenagers were absolutely ridiculously I swear. I held her sword out to her, she quickly grabbed it and sheathed it away. One of my eyebrows went up in question. Was she blushing? God please no I hope not.

I turned to Kakashi, "It's a sword technique that I came across during my travels."

"I've seen and encountered many things Naruto. I've fought, survived, and even won against the swordsmen from the Mist and even their skill pales in comparison to… whatever that was," he replied.

Huffing a small laugh I looked at my practice sword, "In all honesty I didn't even use the right weapon for the technique." I admitted which was true. Monohoshi-Zao was an incredibly long blade of 150 centimeters while the sword in my hand was only a mere 90 centimeters. "The blade that's normally paired with this technique is usually double the length of what I used. I merely improvised and had to open up an opportunity myself to carry out the technique."

I twirled my bokken in the air a couple of times planting the tip into the ground before continuing. "Have you ever heard of the legendary swordsman Sasaki Kojirou?"

"No I don't suppose so why?"

"Well he was a person with almost unrivaled skill with the blade. The technique is called Tsubame-Gaeshi. He had developed it on a whim to cut down a swallow in mid-flight. They say he found that swallows feel the shaking of the wind caused by the sword strike in order to avoid the blade. It was impossible to avoid disturbing the air, no matter how fast he struck, and a sword can only move in a straight line." I gave an example by swinging the blade into the air. "You also have to remember that the bird can move horizontally or vertically to avoid it so a single strike is not enough to cut it down. This means that the bird's escape route must be blocked off, so after the first attack another is necessary to trap it."

I was spinning the practice blade casually now slightly showing off. "But the second blow can't possibly be done in time to hit the swallow and suffice to say it is beyond human capabilities to attack multiple times in one single instant. So Sasaki Kojirou accepted that it was impossible, but he was a man that had nothing else to do, so he spent his entire life practicing the sword in order to reach the pinnacle of swordsmanship. After an untold amount of years, he perfected it and to his surprise it reached another state entirely. He created the ultimate killing technique by doing nothing but spending his life swinging his sword following a worthless idea on how to kill a simple swallow."

"Swallow Reversal huh? That's a scary technique you got there…"

I nodded, although that wasn't even the scariest nor deadliest skill that I had. There were far more monstrous things I had stored away, but I wasn't about to tell Kakashi that.

The girl who was the recipient of said technique was in shock. She was still trying to comprehend such a blade skill. 'Even though I had the Sharingan activated it was just… so fast.' She recollected the memory trying to gain a hint of understanding. 'Three blades just flashed into existence and soon as they came up it disappeared and I was on the ground… this guy… he's an absolute monster.'

The man that was speaking with her teacher explaining the backstory and a bit of its intricacies was absolutely terrifying. If he and her brother had fought she had an inkling suspicion that Naruto would come out on top. The overwhelming amount of power that he exuded was out of this realm. This was the type of power that she needed if she wanted to defeat her brother; to avenge her clan for what he'd done. But how would she go about asking him to train her?

And the more important question was would Daisuke allow her? In certain aspects he was a good partner, but he was incredibly possessive and paranoid about the people she talked to. She was only allowed to hangout and talk with his friends and those he approved of. If they didn't then he'd be sure to constantly be around her to dissuade any budding relations with other people. Honestly it grated on her nerves, but she dealt with it as he had given her company in an otherwise lonely life.

It was ironic. From the outside-looking-in perspective Uchiha Sasuke had many things, but from the inside-looking-out she had very little.

It's not fair that he makes the rules and doesn't even follow them himself.

She furrowed her brows. There it was again, that voice in the back of her head. She closed her eyes, 'Now isn't the time to go crazy and develop schizophrenia of all things. Ugh I'll just… deal with it later.'

I finished up my story and the entire time that Sasuke girl was staring straight at me. I snapped my fingers a couple of times to catch her attention. My eyes rolled in annoyance, geez what was up with people nowadays? Strolling up to her I poked her in the forehead causing her to stumble back a step before rubbing it lightly in a daze.

"Oi – stop daydreaming, you three have a lot more training to do and I can't have you going into lala land. I need you here and now. You can think about your boyfriend later."

Sasuke flustered a bit, "I-I wasn't day dreaming and that wasn't what I was thinking about! Just a headache from you whacking me in the head is all!"

I scoffed before poking her in the forehead again, have I ever told you how much fun it is to poke things and see if they get annoyed? "How is it my fault that you don't know how to block or dodge you numbskull? It's easy. You see something coming at you? You dodge you idiot." I kept poking at her the entire time.

The pony tailed girl blushed and tried knocking my hand away but failed, "Q-Quit that! That's really annoying and r-rude!"

She wasn't even able to avoid my incessant poking. "See? You dolt, you can't even dodge a simple poke! How are you supposed to dodge this," I brandished my training sword. "If you can't even dodge this." I poked at her one final time right in the middle of her eyebrows causing her to stagger back another step.

"Hey asshole! That's my girlfriend you're flirting with!"

Ugh, I gave him a deadpan stare. Really? He walked up to me puffing up trying to look intimidating. As soon as he got into range I smacked him on the top of his head with the sword. Down boy.

"Back to training all of you," I walked back to where I was when we started our training session. I really hoped I didn't have to deal with some teenage romance drama. If I did, I promised myself I was going to brutally crush it into the ground if I got pulled into it. "Since you're all acting lively again we're taking it from the top. We won't rest until dinner time." I glared at the guy in piercings. This guy was really annoying so I'll take the low road and be petty.

Hey, just cause I was a hero didn't mean I had a sadistic side. I rightfully place the blame on those who brought me up.

---

It's been almost a week since I arrived here to assist Kakashi's team. In that time I drilled his team to survive against an overwhelming opponent that they had no chance in winning against. At first they performed abysmally but slowly picked up after the first two days of me beating their collective asses in. I won't lie it was pretty damn cathartic just demolishing them but it got boring after a while. Every day I would summon some clones to escort Tazuna and his family in place of Team Seven while they trained.

At the first night of my stay I had a bit of confrontation with the grandson of the bridge builder, but after a one-on-one and a heart-to-heart I swear the kid worships the ground I walk on now. Sigh what can I say? I'm sucker for kids and tragic pasts. Then again I was a kid at one point that had a tragic past.

Over the next couple of days I got to know Team Seven better through Kakashi. He gave me a brief rundown of each of his student's background. Sakura was an orphan, Daisuke was the son of a lofty member on the council, and Sasuke was the venerated last Uchiha "Princess".

I rolled my eyes at the word princess. Geez people back home must love handing out titles. Thinking back on it, it sort of explains why those two have a holier-than-thou type personality. Still doesn't excuse them for being a bunch of assholes.

Going back to Team Seven it was a bit awkward to be honest, well except for Kakashi and me. And I guess Sakura as well.

She'd always do her best to stick around us which was nice. Good girl and a ridiculously smart one too. I can definitely see her being the medical director for Konoha in the near future. I asked him out of curiosity about her past, but he said that I'd have to ask her myself as it wasn't his place to tell. I conceded, I'll find out later sooner enough I wasn't too bothered too much to find out.

Now on the other hand we had Sasuke and Daisuke.

I had quite possibly one of the most awkward nights I will ever have in my life. With my naturally enhanced hearing I heard everything that was going on in that room. Seriously they were on a mission and they were bumping it in the night? How did anyone else sleep without hearing all that bumping and moaning going in there?

That next morning when we were all training I was particularly vicious and vindictive with my strikes. It felt awfully cathartic to get back at them for what they did. There was a time and place. This was definitely neither the time nor the place for them to have fun at night.

Besides that, I know for a fact that Daisuke did not like me at all and he tended to be fairly confrontational with me a lot of times over the silliest of things. Most of the times he tried to turn it into a competition of some sorts. Have I mentioned he's incredibly possessive of Sasuke? Guy thinks I'm out to steal his girlfriend or something. Kakashi was right, teenagers are incredibly annoying.

As for Itachi's younger sibling?

I don't really know I suppose, I sort of get the feeling she wants to talk to me, but holds herself back or something. Have I mentioned teenagers are also extremely confusing? At first she came off sort of bitchy and cold- ok still is, but I can see she wants to mean well and help people out but doesn't know how to express it. Alright I'll admit that was really confusing and thinking about it was starting to annoy me so I pushed it out of my head and brought my attention back to what I was doing.

At the moment I was on a path going out of the town and into the island to find Gato's base of operations. Team Seven was back on the bridge watching over the bridge builder and his crew. Kakashi called for the team to take a break a day before to recover before the inevitable confrontation. I did my best for those three in the limited amount of time we had. It was out of my hands now when the fight starts.

Venturing deeper into the island I noticed that the fog had started to become dense. I was on the right track if this unnaturally dense fog in the middle of the forest were to tell me anything. I fed the circuits to my eyes with chakra allowing me to pierce through the fog. It wasn't long before I came across an enormous cocoon structure that was held in place by large bridge steel beams.

Huh? Well that was easy. A lot easier than some of the past foes that I had to try and find that's for sure.

With my enhanced sight I noticed two guards at the gate. They were simple thugs hired to do a simple job.

I traced a large matte black, western-style straight bow, with a simple design that was constructed to be resistant enough to fire Noble Phantasms. It wasn't my bow originally and to be honest I didn't really know what type of material it was made off. Normally I would be able to discern it at a glance, but it was something that present day humans weren't able to manufacture yet.

I nocked two arrows back and fired them in succession rapidly. The arrows flew true and pinned the two guards against the wall by the shoulders. My red arrows dug deep into the concrete wall so they weren't going to be able to pull them out any time soon.

They screamed in pain as they were pinned. I casually walked passed them and dematerialized my bow as I blew open the doors off their hinges with a kick.

"Knock knock!" I said out loud hoping to provoke a response. "Helloooooo? Anyone in here?"

Nothing.

It was dead as a graveyard. That was strange, where was everyone?

I summoned one of my most treasured blades in my hands and gripped it. It was a sword that was enclosed in a bounded field that was made up of multiple layers of wind compressed into super-high pressure air with a massive amount of prana. It distorted the refraction of light and rendered the blade inside completely invisible.

Ghosting along in the building I found that it was relatively empty. I checked each and every room before I came across what I assumed to be the room that housed the rogue shinobis. There were used bandages that hadn't been thrown away yet which were stained with blood. They were in this room not too long ago.

Shit. I bolted out of the room and headed up to where I thought Gato's office would be. I cut the door down and immediately combed through the room for anything that might be of use. I pulled out all the drawers and knocked everything down to uncover anything that was hidden. The documents left on the desk and inside the cabinets weren't anything of use, but I bet the safe has a couple of things that might be useful.

It was a simple safe in the wall that had been behind a painting. How cliché. I reinforced my arm slightly and casually pulled the safe's door open with ease. There were a couple of scrolls and a relatively small book in the middle. I grabbed the book and flipped through the pages. It was a journal. Bingo. I went to the last entry and read its contents. I couldn't help but roll my eyes as I finished reading. It was the most clichéd dime-a-dozen plot, but whatever I found out what he was going to do.

Double shit! How could I be so stupid! I smacked my face at my short sightedness before pocketing the book in my back pocket. What were the chances that I would be out looking for them and be nowhere near the bridge? I cursed my luck. At times it was just as bad as the guy with the red demonic lance that wore blue tights as his outfit. And boy did he have some seriously bad luck.

I crashed through the window and pushed chakra down into my legs causing the circuits to flare up. As soon as my feet touched the ground I blasted off. The ground cratered and a good bit of the cocoon building was damaged from the after blast.

---

For one Hatake Kakashi, Jonin of Konoha, copier of a thousand techniques, he was not having a good day at all. He ducked under a swipe from the dual swords of Raiga before kicking away and using his body as a springboard to flip over a swipe from Zabuza.

He was seriously not having a good day.

Infusing his kunai with lightning chakra he went on the offensive against the wielder of the Kubikiribocho. Speed was going to be his ally here. He couldn't afford to waste any chakra until Naruto showed up.

'What a time for him to go out and search for Gato's base. I don't know how long I'll be able to hold these two off.' It was rotten luck Kakashi admitted that they were attacked when Naruto was long gone. On a one-on-one basis he could easily take them on, but he didn't have that luxury. He had to keep both of them on him or else his students would be chopped up into fine bits.

No sense in complaining now, the best he could do was stall, pray that his team defeated the fake hunter-shinobi, and for Naruto to arrive.

He made a downward slash at Zabuza that was deftly blocked. Applying chakra down into his legs he bounded off the ground in a burst of speed to reappear behind the over-sized board sword wielding rogue shinobi. He wasn't fast enough as his attack was blocked by the broad side of his foes overly large sword.

Sensing danger from behind he leaned forward allowing two blades coated in lightning to soar overhead. He felt the hair on the back of his head stand up from the latent current in the air. Using Zabuza's blade to lean on, he kicked back with both feet sending Raiga away across the bridge before using his arms to push himself off of the broadside of the massive hunk of metal.

Flipping once in the air he threw several kunai as a distraction to Zabuza before dropping low as he landed to dodge a two swipes from a pair of blades. Sweeping his legs out from underneath Raiga, he pressed his advantage by trying to stomp his head into the bridge. Too slow as the dual wielding man rolled out of the way in time. His stomp left in large indentation on the bridge and he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

'Anytime now Naruto!'

He continued his assault on Raiga trying to eliminate the weakest of the pair of swordsman. So engrossed in his duel to kill the swordsman he temporarily forgot about Zabuza. He looked back and saw that he was already rushing towards Sakura who was too busy trying to crack through the paneled dome of ice from the outside that was entrapping Sasuke and Daisuke.

"Shit!"

Kakashi was about to turn around and cut Zabuza off before he was locked in a stalemate with Raiga.

"You're not going anywhere Hatake!"

He blocked a series of stabs and slashes desperately trying to make his way over to his students.

"SAKURA! TO YOUR LEFT WATCH OUT!" he cried out desperately.

It was going to be futile, Zabuza was merely five steps away from his pink haired student and already bringing his massive sword ready to cut her in half.

Four steps away.

It felt like everything was in slow motion for Kakashi.

Three steps away.

He saw Zabuza's muscles tense up readying for the swing.

Two steps away.

Sakura turned around and her eyes widened, it was too late.

One step away.

The white masked rogue swordsman swung with all his might at his foe to cut her in half.

She closed her eyes. This was it. She readied herself for the coming pain of being cut down.

A resounding sonic boom akin to a thunderclap shocked through the air and a red blur blasted through the ice dome crashing into a masked shinobi that was travelling in between the ice mirrors knocking her into the ground unconscious. He landed in front of Sakura before swinging his invisible sword to his right countering Zabuza's blow and sending him flying with his sword across to the unbuilt end of the bridge.

---

I landed with such speed that it dispelled the fog around us. I looked at Sakura and saw that she fell on her butt from the force of the blow from when I countered the massive blade. I helped her up and smiled, "Sorry I'm late, but it looks like I came in just in time."

Not too far I saw Kakashi disengage and retreating to me. He looked roughed up with cuts everywhere and moderate bleeding. He was breathing in laboriously, he must've been at this for a while fending these two off. I patted Kakashi on the shoulder signaling him to leave it to me.

On the other end of the bridge the over-sized broadsword wielding shinobi recovered and he looked pissed.

"Who the Hell are you?!"

I ignored his question, he would soon learn who I was. Walking forward, tall and proud just like she would. I'm confident I did a fair job at imitating her, though I was a lot taller in terms of height than her.

Blue translucent energy particles floated around me as I materialized my favored outfit used for combat to substitute my traveler's clothes. It was a full black body armor, with metal plated shoes that was attached to my trousers. I still had my red overcoat which now covered my arms and upper torso and was fashioned and tied with an agemaki knot. (2)

Lifting the blade covered in invisible air, I pointed it towards the two swordsmen challenging them, my eyes hardening as I saturated my circuits with chakra causing them to glow throughout my body.

"Tell me former swordsmen of the Hidden Mist. Do you believe your swordplay to be up to par?"

---

(1) A nod to Fate/Zero.

(2) Red Plain Mystic Code.

Author's Note: I lied about making Author's Notes sorry. I didn't plan on making this chapter so long, but I wanted to get through this area and introduction first plus there weren't any really good stopping points for the next chapter. This arc has been done a lot, but it's also fairly important for the characters because it gives Team Seven a taste of the outside world.

The goal for this chapter was to debut Naruto and Team Seven, introductions to each other, their personalities, a little bit of background information on the time skip, and what Naruto does to try and help people.

Also before anyone asks, no I'm not or going to bash any characters. A lot of it is typed from a character's perspective not the author's so it is their opinions that are being made of certain things. I'll say this now that the characters will grow and develop to the best of my abilities. This is only the second chapter and well you'll probably either like or not like a character on how they've been written, but give it some time as I'll put them through their paces to mature.

Hope you all enjoyed! Please leave a review on what you all think so far so I can improve as an author! And thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter!

Word count before A/N: 17676