Chapter 19
Hell hath no fury like a fem-boy scorned
Team Zabuza watched as their leader chuckle before jumping off. "It's times like this that I wonder if he's lost it" Haku muttered, "I mean, who in their right mind likes to fight opponents that can kill them?" With that question in the air, the rest of team Zabuza jumped after him.
They stopped just far enough to be out of the average sensor's range but close enough to rush in if need be. "Now we wait" Naruto sighed. "Even though this happens at least 8 times a month, it's just as boring as the last each time"
The rest of the team nodded before making themselves comfortable. It was standard procedure for their team in this scenario. Wait while Zabuza has fun until he is done or needs backup.
During this time Haku and Fu entertained themselves with a game of tick-tack-toe while Naruto picked up a reasonably sturdy stick from the ground, jumped up and balanced on it before closing his eyes and reviewed what happened in the past 3 and a half years.
"Let's see what I've done…" he mused "ran away from Orochimaru- check. Met Haku and Zabuza, check. Studied under Mifune-sensei in the Land of Iron- check. Started on the infinite one sword style- double check. Hmm, speaking of which, this seems to be reasonably easy, nothing like what I had imagined" He mentally counted. Before he could go on any further, he was pulled into his mindscape by the Demon Fox.
"Hey Fox" Naruto greeted.
"Naruto" he greeted back. "you are progressing quite well in the fourth stage" he said "you have pretty much mastered balance seeing that you are still balanced without even concentrating on it" he noticed.
Naruto puffed out his chest "of course, I'm just that awesome!"
"HA! As if! The only reason you are doing so well is due to your clones and that the first 3 stages tie in quite well with your little shinobi training" he laughed "but soon it will start splitting. The next part is accuracy. You must hone it to the point where you can throw anything from a pebble to the katana into a bull's-eye around 30 meters away." He said, enjoying the look of shock on the blond's face.
"30 meters! That's crazy aim!" Naruto shouted incredulously before calming down and looking at the Fox with a determined face, "but I'll do it. just like I did everything up to this point"
"hmm, we'll see. For now, I believe it's time for you to go" And with that happy goodbye, Naruto was kicked out of his own mind.
Just in time to feel a spike of chakra.
Naruto hopped down from the stick without looking at his other two teammates. "Well, I suppose it's time to go." he mused while stretching out a few stiff muscles and joints from staying still so long. "Well? What are you waiting for?" Naruto asked finally turning around after getting a particularly satisfying pop in his neck.
"He's looking for his bunny… again" Fu explained while Haku was looking around frantically.
"I bet Zabuza-sen-" Naruto started but was cut off.
"I bet Zabuza-sensei took him!" Haku interrupted with wide eyes. "He's going to use Mr Fluffles as a diversion!" he started hyperventilating "Mr Fluffles shouldn't be near a Jonin battle! He could be caught in the crossfire!" Naruto and Fu looked at each other, then at the panicking Haku.
"I'm going to kill him!" Haku said with a mad gleam in his eyes "I'm coming Mr Fluffles!" he cried before dashing off towards the fight.
Naruto and Fu sighed "he is always like this when he doesn't see his bunny…"
Arriving at the battle, the trio saw Zabuza and Kakashi jump away from each other before starting a long string of handseals. "Those seals… Zabuza-sensei must be near his limit" Naruto muttered "he doesn't bring that jutsu out unless the fight's about to end."
His thoughts were proven right as moments later a large vortex of water was formed, but to the group's surprise, it was from Kakashi instead of Zabuza like they had thought. "Wow, the copy nin actually finished the jutsu faster than sensei!" Fu remarked.
"Come on, let's get him out of this mess" Haku muttered, though he was clearly still angry about his bunny. They each looked at each other to ensure they had the right mask on. While this happened, Naruto spotted Haku's bunny on the bank of the lake and silently made a shadow clone to retrieve it.
Haku spotted Kakashi nearing Zabuza's near unconscious body and decided that he was going to be in danger if the copy nin got any closer. He threw 3 senbon needles that punctured the Demon's neck in precise pressure points to put him in a false-death state.
Team Zabuza body-flickered to the top of the trees around that of which their sensei lied. "Thank you for weakening him for us. We've been tracking him for some time." Haku said in a perfect act of emotionless. "Now if you will excuse us, we have a missing-nin to take care of" Haku said, allowing a little anger to show.
"Must be because of something Zabuza did to him personally, possibly killing a close friend or family" Kakashi thought before walking forward and placing his fingers on Zabuza's neck. "He's dead" he declared, pulling his headband down to cover his Sharingan and stood up. "He's all yours" he smiled, though the only indication was the upwards curling of his exposed eye.
The teens disguised as Mist hunter-nin jumped down from their respective trees as Kakashi walked away. Haku draped Zabuza's left arm around himself while Naruto did the same to his right. Fu grabbed his sword from where it had fallen and just as they came, they left in a cloud of smoke.
Kakashi watched the masked hunter-nin leave out the corner of his eye as he walked back towards his team. "Well done, all of you" he eye-smiled. "Now, take care of Tazuna for the next day or so while I sleep" he said before falling over in chakra exhaustion.
Kakashi woke up on a mattress inside an unfamiliar room. He stared blankly up at the ceiling. "this must be Tazuna's house" he thought before trying to get up but failing miserably and only managing to hang off the mattress. He was about to try get back up but stopped when he heard the door open to reveal his pink haired genin. "Kakashi-sensei!" she shouted running over. "Are you ok?"
He smiled in a reassuring way, "Yeah, just a mild case of chakra exhaustion" he said "I should be up by dinner."
"Alright Sensei, I'll go tell Tsunami" she said before getting up and walking out the door, leaving Kakashi alone again.
He sighed and stared back up at the ceiling and went over his fight with the Demon of the Mist. "I'm getting out of shape" he mused. "It was a good thing those hunter-nin came and took… his… body." His eyes widened. He wasn't a hunter-nin but even he knew the standard procedure from his time in ANBU. Kakashi tried to get up again but due to his body still exhausted he fell unconscious again.
At dinner time, Tsunami noticed Kakashi still wasn't down and went up to call him. She woke him up and helped him down the stairs into the dining room. "Sorry to be a bother" he muttered.
"Nonsense! You saved my father, this is nothing" she replied.
Kakashi sighed as he reached the dinner table, "I'm afraid that he will be back"
The whole table looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean Sensei? That Zabuza guy is dead! You said so yourself!" Ami pointed out.
"I'm afraid not. The hunter-nin used senbon needles. Though it is possible to kill with them, it's very hard and you have to hit a vital artery or organ to do it. That hunter-nin only pierced the neck and likely put him in a false-death state. It's not impossible to do with enough knowledge on the human pressure points." He explained. "Those hunter-nin were likely all accomplices of his"
"So what now Sensei? You don't look like you in any shape to fight him again and we aren't near strong enough to do it ourselves." Sakura trembled.
"Don't worry, I should be back to full strength in about a week, which is coincidentally around the same time as him. Putting a person in a false death state is quite harmful and the person would need time to recover- not to mention the damage I dealt to him. But just in case-" Kakashi bit his thumb and went through a few handseals "-summoning jutsu"
A small orange pug wearing a Leaf headband and a blue cape appeared. "Yo!" he greeted holding up a paw.
"So cute!" Tsunami squealed when she saw a talking pug appear in her house and quickly ran to hug the life out of it. Looking at Tazuna with sparkling eyes she asked "Can we keep him?"
The bridge builder sweatdropped "I'm pretty sure that's Kakashi's dog Tsunami, and I'm pretty sure it's going to die in the next minute if you don't let go"
Tsunami looked down at the pug whose fur was somehow turning from orange to purple at an alarming rate and quickly let go. "Sorry" she mumbled embarrassed.
Kakashi cleared his throat "Pakkun, what did Lord Hokage say" he asked in a serious tone.
"He said that he's going to be sending back up, but he can only manage a genin team" the dog replied.
"Alright, dismissed." Kakashi nodded while the pug disappeared with a wave and a puff of smoke. Kakashi took a second to gather his thoughts when a single line stood out.
"But to call brats and fangirls ninja, Leaf's standards must have fallen from the times of the Yellow Flash and White Fang." That's what Zabuza had said.
"Zabuza was right back then. The Leaf has fallen from those times." Kakashi down at his sandals, the food on the table all but forgotten. "It had never recovered from the nine-tails attack. With the loss of the Sanin, Orochimaru being declared a missing-nin, Tsunade being on leave indefinitely and Jiraiya barely ever being in the village, then to top it off, the Fourth Hokage was killed while many buildings were destroyed and not to mention the near complete extinction of the Uchiha clan. The village is at an all-time low. In military strength, finance and moral. If any of the other major villages attacked now, we would be completely wiped out." Kakashi thought. "Having even a single spare genin team as back up is rare and we should count ourselves lucky" With that happy thought, he sat down and ate the quickly cooling meal.
It was 3 days later when Tsunami went into the village to buy more food with Sakura and Ami tagging along to "protect" her, from what nobody knew but just let them tag along to keep their screeching to a minimum. "And Sasuke is so handsome…"
"And he is so good at everything…"
"And he is so perfect in every way…" Tsunami tried to hold her irritation off her face as she listened to the girls compliment the Uchiha without any signs of stopping.
"How did it come to this" she mentally wept. It all started out with her asking about their life in Leaf, but somehow it ended up as the two lost in their world of endless compliments of the Uchiha. "I need a distraction or I'm going to go crazy!" Luckily for her the distraction came in the form of a loud boy with a dog on his head.
"I'm telling you Shino, we are in the right place! The scent of Sakura and Ami are close!" he declared confidentially to the boy that was almost completely concealed in his high collared jacket. Hearing their names, Sakura and Ami snapped out of their own world of Sasuke Uchiha and looked at the boy who mentioned them.
"Kiba?" they both asked in surprise.
Seemingly hearing them he looked in their direction "See I told you" he boasted before walking towards the group.
Tsunami looked at the new arrivals. First was the loud boy who was apparently called Kiba, then the high collared boy called Shino, followed by a shy girl with a large jacket and milky white eyes that made Tsunami wonder whether she was blind and lastly was a woman with ruby red eyes and a dress that looked like it was made of bandages. Each wore a Leaf forehead protectors like Sakura and Ami except for the white eyed girl who hung it around her neck.
The woman took noticed of her and greeted the daughter of the bridge builder. "Hello. My name is Kurenai Yuhi, these are my students. Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka and his partner Akamaru." She introduced, pointing to each student respectively while the dog barked. "We are the backup sent by Lord Hokage. Would you be so kind as to show us to Kakashi Hatake?" she requested.
Tsunami bowed "I am Tsunami, the daughter of Tazuna. Come with me, Kakashi is currently resting in our house." She said before walking back towards her house, leaving the others to follow her. While her back was turned Tsunami cried silent tears and sent a silent thanks to whatever deity that stopped the endless compliments of the Uchiha. "I would have gone crazy if I heard another thing about that Uchiha!"
Unknown to the group, a blond-haired, whiskered child listened in on their conversation "It appears that the Leaf sent backup. Got to warn Zabuza-sensei" he thought before disappearing.
Haku was out picking some herbs to help speed up Zabuza's recovery when he saw a passed out figure lying in a clearing. The figure had dark hair and wore a dark blue shirt with white pants. Haku recognized him as one of the Leaf ninja and debated on whether he should kill him and avoid trouble later one (oh if only he knew) and reached his hand out towards the Leaf ninja's throat. At the last second he decided against it and instead shook him awake. "Hey, you going to catch a cold if you sleep out here like this" he said.
The Uchiha slowly opened his eyes to see Haku. "And who are you?" he asked.
Haku gave a kind smile, "I'm just someone collecting herbs for a friend. Judging by your headband, you must be a shinobi?" he asked and pretended to be amazed.
"Hn, as if! I'm not mere shinobi! I am an Uchiha!" he boasted.
"Oh my! An Uchiha!" Haku faked a gasp while trying to hold back his sarcasm. "you must be really strong then!"
"Of course!" Sasuke folded his arms "all Uchiha are naturally above the other ninja."
Haku was really trying to hold back from rolling his eyes now. "I see, tell me, do you have any precious people?" he asked, hoping there was something good in this kid.
"Precious people?" Sasuke asked.
"Yes, I believe that a person only truly strong when they have a precious person, someone they fight for." Haku nodded.
"As if!" he snorted, "I don't need things like feelings getting in my way. I can only be strong through hatred."
Haku looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe one day you will think differently." He got up and prepared to leave.
"Oi Sasuke! Kakashi-sensei asked me to tell you it's dinner time. Oh, hi miss!" Kiba said running into the clearing "Sorry to disturb you"
Haku smiled, he could already tell this boy had precious people and would become a great shinobi one day. "It's no problem. I was just leaving." He said.
Once he got the edge of the clearing, he turned his head back and said "And for the record, I'm a boy." Haku walked on back towards Gato's mansion, smiling as he heard the anguished screams of denial. It was always fun to do that.
(well that's the end of chapter 19, now my Christmas gift to everyone!)
(omake brought to you by Jman22056)
Zabuza looked down to his three students. "I'm going to meet a contact for our next mission. Might be back in a few hours, if not keep watch until I do." He shifted a small bag of supplies.
Their current camp was deep in a forest a little over two hours from the nearest town at ninja speed. This was to ensure they were far enough away that the town wouldn't be disturbed from their training. It would be really annoying to get away from ninja every time they trained after all. However even being this far from civilization there was always the chance another group of missing-nin could come across them. It had happened once before.
"Naruto you're in charge" Zabuza stated before turning around.
Glancing back slightly he said, "I've already set up some traps in case someone gets too close to camp. I also set a small clearing up for you three to train in. I expect you three to do your normal training while I'm gone."
"Yes Zabuza-sensei!" All three youngsters shouted to their teacher. With a nod Zabuza disappeared from their sight.
Naruto smiled evily. "Let's go train!" Haku and Fu looked to Naruto when he made his declaration and both paled slightly.
Naruto's grin that he had on was one that they rarely saw, usually only when Zabuza was gone. That smile meant that today when they trained with Naruto, he was going to go full out. With the fact that he had more stamina than both Fu and Haku together meant that they were going to be exhausted by the end of the session.
"Ummm, Naruto," Haku started to think of some way to get of training with Naruto. His eyes scanned over the camp and saw their scrolls that they had food sealed in. "I forgot to prepare food! I better start now so we don't have to fight on an empty stomach after you both finished training." Haku quickly got out hoping he would buy it.
Haku slowly started to walk backwards to the edge of the field. During of which Fu slowly came to realize what Haku was doing. He was going to leave her alone to train with Naruto! "Haku-!" Before she could speak another word Haku dashed from the camp, leaving the scrolls for the food on the ground.
"Hmmm, odd, oh well." Naruto turned to Fu and gave her the horrid grin again. "Looks like it's just us Fu." Fu could feel the blood rush out of her face. This was going to be a long day. "I'm going to kill him!"
Fu was laying on the ground on her back, her chest moving up and down rapidly was she was trying to catch her breath. Naruto was only a few feet away from her. The only reason he was standing was that fact that he was using his sword as a crutch. Both were covered in thick layers of mud and sweat.
The small clearing that Zabuza left untrapped was now completely changed. Once it had been a nice small clearing that one would have enjoyed having a picnic with their loved ones. With flat ground and very thick grass making an almost natural blanket for people to lie on. The trees had been formed in such a way where one was surrounded by trees but not to the point of making one weary of someone could hide in the outcropping.
That was before Naruto and Fu started to train. Now most of the grass had been torn up from numerous jutsu leaving thick layers of mud thanks to the massive amounts of water both Naruto and Fu used. The trees now had deep gashes along the trunks thanks to Naruto's dodged sword strikes.
"That… was… a… good… train... ing…. session…You've.. gotten.. strong… er..." Naruto couldn't help but pant in between his words. Usually he didn't get this tired but Fu appeared to have been secretly holding back and getting more stamina, almost matching him, or getting really good at wearing him down. Possibly a combination of the two.
The only response he got from the mint haired girl was a glare. She was obviously too tired to go anything but that. Naruto seeing the glare couldn't help to start laughing. This caused him to start to cough and drop his sword.
With the sudden loss of support, Naruto fell to the ground in a small splash of brown goop. Naruto looked to Fu with disbelief. Suddenly the two of them start to grin and both of them broke down into laughter.
After a few seconds both of them calmed down and started up into the bright afternoon sky. The silence between them calming both of their rapidly beating hearts. The heat of the sun and the breeze of the wind giving them the perfect combination of cooling their bodies but not chilling them. Lulling Fu to sleep.
"Hey Fu." Naruto's voice rang out to Fu, breaking her out of the lull. She tried to lean up slightly but her body was still too worn out.
"What is it Naruto?" She heard shuffling come from Naruto and turned her head as much as she could to see what the sound was. What she saw was Naruto holding something in his clenched fist.
He started to struggle to get up and after a few tries was successful. He slowly limped his way to her. When Naruto finally got to her he held out his closed hand to her. "Here." Naruto looked away from her to hide his blush.
Fu tried to move to see what was in his hand and was finally able to get to her feet with a lot of effort. She went and grabbed whatever was in Naruto's hand and felt two smooth objects enter her hand.
She looked at the objects and saw it was two small butterfly earrings she looked up to Naruto to see him looking away. "Naruto, what is this?" She saw him rub the back of his head as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
"Well it's a pair of earrings."
"Why?" Fu looked at the two bronze earrings. Both were in the shape of generic butterflies. It lacked some details, such as tiny markings on its wings. And now that she was able to run her hands across the edge of the wings of the butterfly she could feel the smooth but uneven edge.
Her main concern was why he had gotten her something like this. He didn't make something like this, it would require material and tools that they didn't have. Which meant that he had spent money on it. And that made her chest feel a little tighter.
Money for the three youngsters was a rare thing. Most of the time any money they got usually went to Zabuza to get supplies for the group, but once in a while they got small sums to get anything they wanted. Had Naruto spent his money on something for her?
"Well, you see," Fu could easy see Naruto was nervous. Which if it wasn't for the situation they were in right now she would enjoy seeing him trying to think of what to say without messing up. She could see the gears in his head working at full capacity. "You're the first person that I've ever met that's like me. And I saw the earrings and it just…. Reminded me of you." Naruto started to rub the back of his head again. "I know it's a stupid reason but…"
"I like it." Fu didn't know what possessed her to say that but she did. Though it wasn't a lie. She really did like the earrings. Though whether it was because it was a pair earrings in the shape of bugs or because it was from Naruto she couldn't figure out.
She wanted to put the earrings on but knew she couldn't as she didn't have her ears pierced. Next time they were in a town she would have to check on how much money and time wise it took. Though even just looking at the tiny bronze bugs her confidence started to grow.
With an internal nod to herself Fu directly into Naruto's eyes, a ferocity flooding her eyes. "Naruto," Her voice made Naruto flinch lightly, so small that if she wasn't so close to him she probably would have missed it. "I want you to have this."
Fu reached into her own ninja pouch and grabbed the smooth circular object she had in there. She pulled it out and held it out of Naruto to take. Naruto took the object into his hand and looked at it.
It was a small wooden token like object. There was a small hole in the top of it with a thick cord looped through it, making it into a necklace. The backside of the wooden token was completely blank, though it was extremely smooth. Naruto flipped the token over and saw the kanji for friend carved on the front.
Looking closely at the kanji it was easy to tell- even for Naruto- that it was carved out with a kunai. Small little scratches showing where Fu accidentally forced the kunai too far or places where the carving was slightly deeper than the other cuts.
However, none of that really matter to Naruto. The only thing that was going through his mind was the fact that he had gotten a gift. It wasn't something he wanted to think about but the thought came on its own.
Never before had Naruto ever gotten a gift from someone, much less something that was made like this. In fact maybe it was the fact that Fu had taken time to carve out that single kanji on the wood that made such a deep impression on his mind.
Without any wanting of his own tears slowly started to flow from his eyes. Fu saw this and started to worry. Was her gift not good enough? Was he expecting something more? After all he did spend money on his and she only grabbed a piece of wood and started to smooth and carve it.
"Thank you Fu." The words that Naruto spoke comforted her but the way he said it sounded like he was… hurt? "Thank you so much." Before she could say or react Naruto hugged her. Her body screamed out in protest from her sore muscles but she ignored it. "This is the first gift someone's ever given me."
Fu's eyes widened at the declaration. She never even thought about it. Naruto gave her her first gift to. Never did she think that she would actually receive a gift and all notions of anything like this dissipated from her thoughts to the point where even getting a gift she just accepted without really thinking about it.
Fu closed her arms around Naruto and started to hug him back. Tears now flowing from her eyes as well. "You… you gave me my first ever gift too." The two of them stayed hugging each other for almost another minute.
Slowly Naruto pulled away from Fu. He wiped the tear stains from his face with his sleeve and smiled to Fu. "Come on Fu, let's go get cleaned up." He started to walk away back to the camp. Seeing Naruto walking away like that something in Fu's chest swelled up. Her mouth started to move before her brain could catch up.
"Naruto, are we always going to be together?" Naruto froze in place. Fu's face started to burn as her mind finally caught up to her mouth. She didn't mean to make her words sound so… attached… She went to correct herself but Naruto voice stopped her.
"Of course." Her heart nearly stopped. She watched, with his back still towards her, slip the necklace round his neck. Suddenly he turned around, one of the purest smiles she had ever seen. "It's a promise of a lifetime."
AN: I take back what I said about chapter 18. This is the largest chapter ever written (close to double my average word count- including the omake). Just felt right ya know? Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah and anything else anyone is celebrating!
Reviews:
Guest: here ya go.
BlackDragonShinigami: Haha, I know how hard it is to find good fics. You can take a look at my profile, every single story I have favorited is a good read.
lostxinxthexdarkness: yes the idea of a Jonin being defeated (even if it was only his clones) through a genin's screech is extremely amusing. As for the other part, I do feel like this direction suits me best considering that I would probably suck at writing such a dark fic (being a fan of humor myself) and it just doesn't seem right for anyone to come out of such trauma with everything being sunshine and rainbows. As for more of the darkness being shown in the war- that's a given, but it won't be the last "dark" part of this fic (hint, hint).
comethazel: i hope i won't disappoint
Hikari Nova: that would be great fun yes, even if they won't be using tailed beast cloak against the Leaf since they don't really know it well enough.
Noahendless: aye captain!
thor94: can't argue against that
Jacklvmage12: thank you. i believe that a few days is a little too much for a 9 year old... even if he did have the Kyubi.
Zeus501: well, they would only know Naruto as the enemy (never meeting him before and whatnot) and as for him learning the rasengan, that's still being debated.
MiseryWolf97: lol, here you go.
Saint of vice koncor: well that was entirely unplanned and coincidental (i didn't even see it until you pointed it out) so no, Samui won't be part of his little merry group. i believe that you made an error in saying "Sakura's death"? Cause i'm pretty sure I made it clear she didn't die. As for the chunin exams, sorry to disappoint, but I don't plan for them to attend this one.