Chapter 17
Past revealed, fangirls strike
Zabuza watched as the smoke from the clones cleared before turning towards the trio. "You should all rest up. It's close to dark and by my estimations; your clones should encounter them around midday tomorrow." Zabuza deducted. "We will discuss battle plans tomorrow morning."
The next morning
The group had finished drawing up the plans for the encounter. They planned for different scenarios, how to act and the formations for each one. On the table, pieces of paper were all over the place. These were the notes and formations.
For a low-level chunin team, the teens would engage while Zabuza only observed, interfering only when necessary, this was their usual plan. For a team of low-level Jonin, Zabuza would use his mist while they killed as many as possible before fighting the rest head on. If it was just one high-level Jonin, only Zabuza would engage while the teens stayed back. "You wouldn't be able to keep up in a high Jonin battle" he said, but they all knew that Zabuza only said that because he cared about them… well that and he felt his skills were rusting and needed a workout.
The group stared at the papers. The planning went too quickly. It was almost always the same formations for the same scenarios. The only times there were differences were when one of them were too injured to play their part or if it was a delicate mission. Team Zabuza sighed. There was nothing to do until the clones dispelled.
Suddenly, (and surprisingly) Naruto got an idea.
"Zabuza-sensei, tell us more about your time in Mist! Were there other Jinchuriki there?" Naruto spoke, breaking the silence.
"Hmm? What brought this on?" Zabuza asked.
"Well, since we are going to the Mist after this, I thought that we should get a little more info on the situation, and what we could be expecting to face." Naruto answered sheepishly.
"Good thinking." Zabuza nodded, "To answer your question. Yes there were Jinchuriki in Mist. Yagura the fourth Mizukage and Ukataka, the containers for the 3 and 6 tails respectively" He started. "Yagura was once a friend/teacher of mine. I was barely 10, and he was a Jonin when I met him. I was sitting alone by a tree. Even back then I had the aura that seemed to scare other children from me. It was the day when I was to be enrolled into the Mist academy."
Flashback
A young Zabuza sat at the base of a tree near the academy. He stared at all the children and their smiling faces while their parents told them of how proud they were.
Zabuza sighed. Family. What a foreign concept. Zabuza was an orphan. He was told his parents died on a mission not long after he was born. A young looking youth appeared behind the gloomy child. "Aren't you attending the academy?" he asked.
Zabuza looked up and saw a man with a head of messy-grey hair, pink pupiless eyes and a stitch-like marking running from under his left eye down his cheek. He wore a grey sleeveless shirt with the Hidden Mist headband attached to the front, short-sleeved mesh armor over which he also wore a green poncho along with a turquoise slash around his waist paired with a green apron over his pants. He wore brown boots and carried a staff with uneven sized hooks with a green flower on the larger end.
"Of course I am!" he sniffed "and I'm going to be a great shinobi too!" he declared.
"Oh? And where are your parents?" the man asked.
Zabuza's demeanor instantly changed. The man watched with interest as Zabuza's shoulders slumped. "They're dead" he muttered. The man was about to comment further when the bell rang for the beginning of the academy year.
"Better go, else you'll be late for class" he said instead before turning and walking away.
"Wait! What's your name?" Zabuza called after him, scared the only one who wasn't afraid to approach him was leaving him.
"My name is Yagura, see you around" Yagura called over his shoulder before disappearing in a swirl of water.
Flashback end
"And from that day, until I graduated, he would meet me in front of the school gates whenever he didn't have a mission. By the second year, he was already training me in the shinobi arts. Before I knew it, I saw him as a teacher and someone I could talk to." Zabuza finished.
Haku's eyes widened "so that's how you managed to kill your entire graduating class" he realized.
"Yeah, well that and the fact that one of them pissed me off. I dare him to say that about my family again" Zabuza grumbled.
The trio sweat dropped. "What about the other one?" Naruto and Fu asked in unison, interested to hear more about fellow Jinchuriki.
"I only met him a few years after I graduated, and that was only briefly" Zabuza frowned. "It was after the mission Shiro died."
Flashback
A teenage Zabuza was seen sitting on a cliff looking out at the ocean. He was weeping silent tears for his lost teammate. Of course, he had killed every single one of the shinobi there with nothing but kunai and his rage, but apparently some escaped because a few days later, he was registered in the Bingo book as a B-ranked shinobi. Nicknamed "Demon of the Mist" and Zabuza felt that was accurate. He felt no remorse for taking the lives of all the shinobi there. They deserved it for killing someone like Shiro.
"It's quite the view isn't it?" a voice called behind him.
Zabuza wiped his tears away before turning around to see a tall, thin young man with pale golden eyes and brown hair that reached his shoulders. He wore a grey full body suit along with a variant of the Hidden Mist flak jacket that had very low shoulder guards as well as a zipper and a pouch on his upper chest. He also wore the Mist forehead protector, fingerless gloves and bandages on his forearms.
"Who are you? And what do you want?" Zabuza asked with suspicion and caution.
"My name is Ukataka. I came to see for myself the "Demon of the Hidden Mist" and I got to say, the rumors were exaggerated. True, the death of your teammate caused you to create a slightly physical demon construct though sheer killing intent and rage. But despite the rumors and the Bingo book, you aren't a demon. If anyone were to be "Demons of the Mist", it would be me and Yagura. Demons aren't capable of feeling sorrow." He said as he walked off.
Flashback end
"Only later, during the coup- when I fought Yagura as the Mizukage and he unleashed the 3 tails, did I realize that he was talking about them being Jinchuriki." Zabuza concluded.
"Is Ukataka still in Mist?" Haku asked.
"No, a week after I saw him, he left the village and as declared a missing nin" Zabuza answered.
Naruto and Fu's clones were bored. They arrived at a cropping of trees not too far from Wave, yet still far enough for Team Zabuza to get ready once alerted. The clones saw that night was approaching and each took turns keeping watch while the other one rested to conserve energy. Finally when the sun rose and neither of them could sleep anymore, they started to play a game.
"Hmm, I'm thinking about a ninja whose skin is blue an-" Fu started her turn before being interrupted.
"Kisame Hoshigaki." Naruto drawled. "Seriously, that was too easy, you running out of ninja?" he teased.
Their game was simple. They would take turns and on each turn they would think of a ninja from the Bingo book. They would describe the ninja by using either color, known achievements, weapons or anything else they could think about while the other had to guess it.
"O-of course not!" Fu blushed. "Fine, your turn" she huffed upon seeing his unbelieving look. Naruto was about to start his turn when he heard voices coming down the road. He quickly motioned for Fu to be quiet as they both hid in the branches of the tree they were resting on.
".. Doesn't Wave have their own ninja?" a high pitched voice was heard asking. "No Ami, unlike the Leaf, Wave is mainly a trading village and thus relies on surrounding villages for protection." A lower pitched, clearly male, voice answered.
"Yeah Ami! Use your brain! If Wave had their own ninja, why would they hire us" another high pitched voice added in.
The group came into view and the clones nodded to each other. Their target was confirmed. Both ninja put on their blank masks before attacking the group.
"Hidden jutsu: scale powder technique" Fu muttered while blowing out some glittering dust that hovered over the group for a second before catching the sunlight and reflecting it into their eyes.
Taking advantage of their confusion, Naruto attacked. "Water style: glimmering water chains" Naruto muttered. On command, chains of water came up and wrapped around the ninja who seemed to be the highest rank. Dashing out from his cover, Naruto quickly drew his sword "one-slash" he declared before cutting the restrained ninja in half.
Just as he sheathed his sword again, Naruto was forced to dodge a fireball heading his way. He narrowed his eyes before charging at the shinobi who made it. "Is he another Jonin? Cause he looks a little young to be anything more than genin" Naruto mentally asked himself before looking at him again "and is it just me or does his haircut resemble a duck's butt?"
Ignoring that piece of random information Naruto quickly threw a punch hoping to knock the shinobi out quickly. To his mild irritation, the shinobi dodged before throwing his own punch.
"Go Sasuke!"
"Get him!" the two girls cheered from next to Tazuna.
Naruto's eyes twitched from behind his mask as he dodged another punch. "ow my ears" he internally grumbled. Having enough of this, he ducked under the next swing and unleashed a devastating uppercut that sent the now named Sasuke back towards the group unconscious.
"Sasuke!" both girls cried upon seeing his body flying towards them. Naruto took a moment to look around the area. He spotted Fu sneaking behind the group and getting ready to throw a kunai that would surely kill Tazuna before the girls could react.
Fu was about the throw the kunai when suddenly a deafening screech of "Sasuke!" was heard as the fangirls discovered he was unconscious. Fu dropped her kunai while both she and Naruto clutched their ears in pain. In another second of the screech both clones dispelled.
Naruto was about to voice his confusion on how Yagura went from being Zabuza's friend, to Zabuza trying to kill him when he and Fu were suddenly hit by a wave of memories. Once they sorted out the memories and reached how the clones died, both their eyes twitched.
"I presume that the clones are dispelled?" Zabuza asked.
"They're dispelled alright" Naruto muttered.
"Well who are we up against?" Zabuza asked.
"1 jonin, 1 male genin, 2 fangirls" Fu muttered
"Oh? Then I can presume the bridge builder is dead?" he asked before raising his non-existent eyebrow when he saw them shake their head.
"We found the bridge builder and the Leaf team as you predicted. Fu used her scale powder to blind them while I used my water chains to restrain the jonin and one-slash to slice him in half- though I believe I saw a log where he was" Fu nodded to confirm his statement. "I then charged towards the bridge builder but was intercepted by some kid with a duck-butt haircut." He continued while Haku (being the mature guy he was) snickered at the "duck-butt" part. "We engaged in a taijutsu fight for a bit before I won. Fu was about to attack the bridge builder when the fangirls screeched with a high enough of a pitch to actually cause our clones to dispel" he finished with his eye twitching.
Haku couldn't hold it in any longer as he finally burst out laughing. Naruto's eye twitched even more violently as Haku continued rolling around in laughter. Finally he stopped enough for Zabuza to ask "Do you know the name of the Jonin?"
Naruto thought for a second before remembering. "Yeah, Kakashi Hatake, the copycat ninja."
"Hmm, things just got interesting. Let's go meet them."
Team Zabuza perched on some trees near the bridge while they waited for the bridge builder and the Leaf team to show up. Though they couldn't see them, they could still hear them. "Wow! It's huge!" a high pitched voice was heard.
"Seriously, they are loud" Naruto grumbled as he stuffed some cotton in his ear. Finally Zabuza saw the team get off the small boat they used to cross the lake.
"It's time, keep out of this fight. I'm gonna take a stretch. Only interfere if necessary. You know what to do." He said with a pointed look.
"Yes Zabuza-sensei" they chorused before hiding their presences and donning their hunter-nin masks.
"Time to have some fun" Zabuza chuckled before jumping off in the direction of his target.
AN: wow, last chapter had an overall response of 10 reviews! Thank you all!
Also, is it just me, or does my naming skills suck? Anyways I propose a challenge to my readers who believe they have a better chapter/story title. Just submit it through pm, review or even a message on my facebook page and if ZV and I agree it's better than we will change the title accordingly. Of course you will be mentioned in the next chapter.
This chapter's title goes to salasdaniel74
Next chapter will be Kakashi vs Zabuza
Reviews
To the guest reviewer, if you are reading this: I do admit the into wasn't much- I plan to rewrite it sometime when inspiration strikes. He found the lake by pure chance. As I said, he just ran for an hour and I dare you to do an hour of full on sprinting (as a 9-year old) without passing out from exhaustion. It's fanfiction, the place where anything can happen. It's not impossible to imagine me manipulating the circumstances to make Naruto just happen to have the qualities the girls wanted. For the jutsu, I have been using quite a lot of them, but are you really saying that it's impossible for some jutsu no to be mentioned in the anime/manga? And keep in mind that I am still improving my grammar and I already have a plot for the story.
Lostxinxthexdarkness: thank you! That means a lot to me. Sorry I didn't put you in the chapter before.
Dxerx: thank you for reading and reviewing but keep in mind there won't be too much fluff. They're only around 12/13 after all!
Zeus501: not quite this chapter but the next one fore sure! ;)
BlackDragonShinigami: lol! Well then I'm gonna keep track of how many different responses I can get out of you ;)
MiseryWolf97: thank you.
AmbertheCat: thank you! There will be changes to the wave arc. As for them dying… well you'll just have to see!
Thor94: dunno ne? (Hint: your review has a sound logic in it) and yes it will awaken in a few chaps (20-22 latest)
Noahendless: thanks I will
Lightblade23: thank you. The infinite one sword style is actually just training the body at this stage. So Naruto isn't really learning techniques but in fact training his body for them later on (though he did put some of it to use during his battle with Mifune- which was the last battle shown). I know I should have put this in the story but it temporarily slipped my mind ^.^ll. I'll try fit that in in a few chapters.
Dinobae: of course! I pay attention to everyone who favs, follows and/or reviews my story!
Comethazel: not too sure what you mean but I'm taking it as a compliment