In case you didn't realize, I disliked a lot of early-cannon characters. Sakura is by far my least favorite, she did get better in Part 2...but not by much.
A few people mentioned about making him a missing nin, however, the problem with that, is Naruto is too loyal. Even in my story. He would never abandon Konoha because everyone didn't like him. He would stay, for the sole reason of those he cares for.
I had a couple comments about Naruto's respect, basically calling the Hokage, Sarutobi-sensei, I can see Sarutobi being fine with 'Old Man' from his surrogate grandson, but not from his student…
Chapter 3
Mission to Wave
Naruto Uzumaki is now positive he does not want to be a ninja for Konoha. In the last four months his teacher hasn't taught him anything. He hasn't taught his teammates anything either, but that just proves he is a horrible sensei. All they had done is work on teamwork, which is in all actuality attempting to work together and not have to have Kakashi stop one of them from killing another.
Even without the help of their sensei, Naruto and Sasuke are improving, so much so, that they are quickly leaving the other Genin behind. Meanwhile Sakura stays the same.
Naruto, using various training techniques given to him by his surrogate grandfather and secret part-time sensei, the Sandaime Hokage.
Sasuke, with access to the greatest Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu library in the elemental nations thanks to the Uchiha clan's Sharingan copying ability.
On top of that, the 'missions' are just doing chores that lazy civilians don't feel like doing. Well, that and catching the cat that he is sure is somehow related to the Two-Tailed Hellcat.
When Team 7 arrive in the Hokage tower, they are greeted by the smiling face of the Sandaime Hokage.
"Ahh, Team 7 welcome, we have some exciting missions, how about cleaning the Inuzuka kennels, catching Tora the cat…"
As the Hokage was reading off the missions, his secretary interrupted.
"Hokage-sama, Team 8 has returned from their first C-rank mission. Kurenai wanted me to inform you that her team will be unable to give their report until tomorrow, apparently they had some minor injuries."
The Hokage looked at the Genin, only to see a nervous Sakura, knowing where this is going, and an angry Naruto and Sasuke.
The old Kage just sighed.
"Thank you Akiri, you may go."
The Hokage's secretary nods before leaving the room.
"Kakashi, is your team ready for a C-rank mission?"
Kakashi seems to think about it for a second.
'Hmm, if I say no, than I will have to hear them bitch all day until we take one. Plus, maybe that is just what they need. Their teamwork is horrible and maybe a life or death situation is just what they need.'
"Hmm, I think they could handle it."
This got both Naruto and Sasuke in a slightly better mood, and Sakura even more scared.
"Send in Tazuna."
Whatever, the Genin were expecting. An old drunk was not it.
"These are the elite ninja I hired? What kind of ninja village is this? They look more like babysitters than ninja. Well the one with the big sword looks ok… but I don't know."
Before Sakura and Sasuke can berate the drunken bridge builder, Kakashi states in his usual, lazy tone.
"Ok, team, be at the North gate in two hours."
When Kakashi arrives his normal three hours late he is greeted by an angry pink banshee and an irate drunken bridge builder. Not that he cares. He got lost on the road to life, it was exciting.
"Lets go, what are you waiting for?"
Naruto just rolls his eyes at his sensei. While Sasuke just grunts.
About 8 hours into the journey, Naruto sees some puddles. However, he can feel they are not normal. He can hear the subtle noises indicating someone hiding. 'Genjutsu' Naruto glances back at Kakashi and he doesn't seem to be paying any attention to anything but his book.
He does notice that Sasuke seemed to be aware of the soon to be attackers.
As they walk past the puddles and nothing happens, Naruto begins to believe he is just being paranoid.
However, that changes as two mist nin emerge from the puddles and cut Kakashi to pieces using a chain.
"One down-"
"Four to go."
When the two Chunin level ninja charge head first at the Genin, Sakura and Tazuna are scared stiff while Naruto and Sasuke take action.
When Sasuke throws a kunai at the one on the right, he just blocks it with the large gauntlet on his right hand and continues to charge.
When Naruto sees the charging Chunin, he pulls out his sword.
'Time to see how good I am. I can't use Hidden Mist because then Sasuke won't be able to see. On top of that there isn't any water here for any high level Ninjutsu.'
Since Sasuke has the one on the right, Naruto goes for the one on the left. He ducks under the first swipe of the Chunin's clawed gauntlet and tries to retaliate with his sword. The Chunin is able to block the swing with the chain, but it causes the chain to break.
Naruto jumps back and goes through the hand signs for the only offensive water Ninjutsu he can do without a water source.
"Water Release: Gunshot Jutsu"
The Chunin expertly dodges the first two water bullets but takes the third to the shoulder and the last to the chest. The water bullet winds the Chunin and Naruto tries to remove the Chunin's left arm but the nin's experience is well beyond Naruto's.
The nin tilts his shoulder back to dodge the swing and slams his fist into Naruto's face. Naruto's face showed shock before morphing into a smirk as the Genin dissolved into water.
When the Chunin heard the footsteps, he jumped back to avoid the swing of the large zanbatou. However, he was just a little too late and received a cut across his chest. This only served to make the Chunin mad.
Having come from Kiri, a land crawling with wanna-be zanbatou users, the Demon Brothers are well versed in combating a zanbatou, the Chunin quickly got in close, to close for the giant sword to be of any use.
Thinking quickly, Naruto was able to use the handle of the giant sword to break the nin's jaw. Without hesitation, Naruto brought the sword around to remove the man's head, however, before he could, the Chunin blocked with his clawed hand, unfortunately for the Kiri nin, he was to tired and disoriented to stop the force of the attack and the heavy sword forced the gauntlet into the man's own face.
Naruto watched as the mist nin dropped to the ground, unconscious.
*Sasuke's fight*
When Sasuke's kunai was blocked, he got in close for a Taijutsu match. It turned out to be a poor decision as he was unable to land any hits and spends the whole time trying to dodge the more skilled ninjas attacks. When Sasuke tried to put some distance between them for Ninjutsu, the mist nin wouldn't let him have it. He stayed too close.
While Sasuke was back pedaling, trying to get some much needed breathing space, he was able to see the opening he needed. Drawing a kunai, he jammed it into the elbow joint of the gauntlet making the Chunin unable to move his attacking arm. This allowed Sasuke to land several devastating Taijutsu hits, or at least it would have been if it wasn't a young Genin against a grown, experienced Chunin. Sasuke's hits just didn't cause enough damage.
Just as Sasuke drew two kunai to fix the problem, Kakashi made himself known by rendering Sasuke's opponent unconscious.
"Good job team. Tazuna, you have some explaining to do. Guarding you from ninja wasn't part of our mission…"
While Tazuna gives his sob story, Naruto isn't paying attention.
The thought going through Naruto's head is simple.
'I-I almost killed him, I wanted to kill him. If he wasn't able to block, I would have killed him. Is there something wrong with me? I know that ninjas kill, but is it good to want to?'
Naruto was so lost in thought that he never noticed that they voted and decided to continue the mission.
As they continued, Sasuke just brooded even more than usual.
'He was able to beat his opponent but I couldn't.'
Three days of civilian paced walking later brings Team 7 and Tazuna to the land of waves. While everyone else is staring at the scenery or the bridge that could be scene in the distance, Naruto is staring at the water. He has never felt so powerful. He found that when your strongest attacks rely on water, the more that is around you, the better you feel.
When they arrived at the shore, a boatman was waiting to take them across.
"Hey Tazuna, lets go."
"Lets hurry Gichi, we don't want Gato's men to find us."
The whole trip, Gichi and Tazuna were searching for any movement that could be Gato's thugs.
The trip across the sea was very short and quiet. The most exciting thing was seeing the bridge up close.
When they got to shore, Gichi left in a hurry.
The further they walked the thicker the mist got.
Naruto heard a sound that was something like metal on rock in a bush next to where they were. Acting on instinct, Naruto threw a kunai in the bush. When the Genin inspected it, they saw a white rabbit that looked
scared to death with a kunai in the tree not an inch above it's head.
"BE CAREFUL NARUTO-BAKA, YOU ALMOST HURT HIM!"
Sakura's screeching almost drowned out the distinct sound of water, flying through the air.
"DUCK!"
The Genin dragged Tazuna down while Kakashi went down too.
Everyone turned, to see the water dragon impact a tree and cause it to break in half.
When Kakashi looked up, he really began wishing they would have taken a different mission. Standing next to his zanbatou was Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist.
Just as he was about to call out who their opponent was, Naruto beat him to it. He just did it with a tone of hero worship instead of worry or fear.
"Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Hidden Mist, A- rank missing nin of Kiri, one of the Seven Swordsmen, wielder of Kubikiribocho. And… MY HERO!"
Everyone just looked at Naruto like he was crazy. When Naruto noticed he just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Sorry, it's just, if it wasn't for you I would probably be some orange wearing loudmouthed idiot who only knows one Jutsu and can't stop screaming about how I want to be Hokage. Heh...Heh."
Zabuza almost laughed at the image in his head.
"How did I do that?"
"When I was nine I found your entry from the Bingo Book on the street. When I read it, I decided I was gonna be just like you. But better."
"Hahahahahahahaha. Who would have thought I would inspire some snot nosed little brat like you. If you want to be like me, than kill the bridge builder."
"Sorry Zabuza but no can do. I have my mission just like you have yours."
"I can respect that gakI, only a fool would surrender his mission because an enemy asks him to. Now than Kakashi, how about we get this started."
Without warning, Zabuza started to emit his full killing intent, this proved to have the desired effect as Sakura and Tazuna were on their knees and about to pass out, Sasuke was breathing heavily and contemplating suicide, while Naruto was sweating like crazy and panting slightly.
Kakashi sighed knowing this was not going to be an easy fight.
In response to the missing nin's killer intent, he simply released a burst of chakra, this had a calming effect on his team.
'Maybe this won't be to boring after all, I remember hearing that the once great Hatake Kakashi hasn't seriously trained since he left the Anbu. Lets see if it's true. I shouldn't have any issues, even at my current level.'
Immediately Zabuza jumped onto the water and went through hand signs.
"Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu"
The mist was so thick that there was nothing you could see. The Jonin began their fight and the only one outside of Zabuza and Kakashi who had any idea what was happening was Naruto. It was just hard to concentrate with his still shaking teammate and client so close by and creating noise.
It was then that he heard the sound of footsteps approaching from behind. On instinct, Naruto drew his zanbatou and it clashed with Zabuza's.
"You're not half bad gakI."
The Zabuza dispelled into water before another one attacked from the other side.
Naruto was able to block this one too. However, the force caused Naruto to drop to a knee.
"If you are going to fight a zanbatou battle you need more strength. What are you? Chunin?"
"Genin. The Chunin exams had occurred about two months after I graduated so we didn't qualify."
"Interesting."
The Zabuza clone dispelled itself.
About 30 seconds later, Zabuza allows the mist to lift, revealing him, holding Kakashi in a dome made of water.
"I got your sensei now hand over the bridge builder."
Naruto looked at his sensei, the blonde genin could see the anger and disappointment in the silver haired ninja's eye. Not towards them or anyone else really, but towards himself. The smirk on Zabuza's face said it all. One of Konoha's strongest ninja was tricked.
Kakashi turned to his students with more seriousness then they had ever seen.
"Take the client and run. If you try and fight, you will only die."
Naruto just sighed, completely ignoring their sensei's words before turning to Sasuke.
"The Water prison requires physical contact. All we have to do is separate his arm from the Jutsu."
"Well then lets see him dodge this."
"Fire Release: Grand Fireball Jutsu"
"Hah, you will have to do better than that."
Zabuza just swings his sword into the water causing a giant splash, big enough of extinguish the fireball.
"Well then, I guess we will just have to try harder."
Naruto runs to stand on the water before going through hand seals much faster than a Genin should be able to.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu"
This got a shocked expression from, not only Zabuza, but Kakashi as well.
'This kid is a Genin and can already use a high B-rank Jutsu. He would be a great tool…then again that didn't work out so well last time.'
'Hokage-sama said he was good at Ninjutsu but I had no idea.'
A giant dragon made of water, charged at Zabuza at inhuman speeds.
Zabuza was forced to release Kakashi.
Sasuke just stared at Naruto in anger and jealousy.
Zabuza and Kakashi jumped in different directions to avoid the Jutsu.
However, much to Zabuza's shock, the dragon changed directions slightly and moved towards him, considerably slower than it's original attack.
'The GakI is probably only thirteen and he has already begun elemental manipulation.'
Knowing he needed to stop the dragon, Zabuza blurred through several hand seals.
"Water Release: Water Encampment Wall Jutsu"
A spinning wall of water surrounded Zabuza.
After firing four water bullets, that just burst against the wall, the dragon, too slammed into the water wall and burst, the wall and dragon returning to the sea.
Zabuza looked at Naruto with something akin to pride at being responsible for turning him from an orange wearing loudmouth to a true shinobi.
Kakashi didn't know what to feel, part of him wanted to settle on pride, but he wasn't responsible for teaching him anything, the other part was shame that he had a student with such potential and didn't even bother to find out. However, remembering the way his sensei taught him, he knew he was in the right.
'Konoha is nothing without Teamwork. Once they can learn to fight along side each other, then I will teach them.'
Without warning, Zabuza charged for Kakashi. Kakashi was able to block the blow with a kunai, but he was losing the power struggle.
"Water Release: Gunshot Jutsu"
Zabuza was forced to jump back to dodge the water bullet.
"Kid, if you keep interfering I may have to kill you."
This caused Naruto to pale slightly.
Kakashi decided he was going to have to get serious if he wanted to win, lifting his headband, Kakashi was just barely able to dodge the attacks from with in mist.
Kakashi started going through his own hand seals.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough Jutsu"
Kakashi expels gale force winds from his mouth, dispelling the mist.
Zabuza, seeing his cover gone, begins going through the hand seals for one of his favorite Jutsu. However, with his Sharingan active, Kakashi is able to easily copy them.
Both Kakashi and Zabuza yell out their Jutsu.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu"
Two giant dragons made of water are formed. Zabuza's being much larger. If one were to look at both Zabuza and Kakashi, it is obvious that Kakashi's chakra is fading a lot faster than Zabuza's. Kakashi is breathing hard and a layer of sweat was falling from his forehead, while Zabuza is only breathing slightly hard.
When Kakashi's water dragon is beaten, it is barely able to take Zabuza's with it.
"Hmpf, not bad. For your water dragon to have been able to take mine out when I've mastered every aspect of elemental manipulation is damn good."
Zabuza, obviously noticing Kakashi's state, begins more hand seals.
'I should be able to get him with the Sharingan…'
Kakashi immediately begins to copy the Jutsu. However, he notices one big problem…Zabuza had his eyes closed.
Having already built up a large amount of chakra for the Jutsu, Kakashi knows the backlash of just releasing it would be worst then to just fire off the Jutsu, so he just finishes the hand seals at the same time as Zabuza.
"Water Release: Water Shockwave Jutsu"
Around each of them, water swirls up like a tornado before coming crashing down, However, the two waves meet in the middle and simply raise the water level.
Meanwhile, Naruto quickly grabs Tazuna and jumps into a tree, waving for the others to follow. Seeing the large amount of water, they quickly do.
Now, Kakashi knows he can't do to much more…
'Damn, I'm almost out of chakra, and he still looks good…Shit…If only I had been able to catch him with hypnosis…He must have fought a sharingan user before.'
Giving Kakashi a knowing smirk, Zabuza performs three short hand seals that Kakashi recognizes.
Kakashi, not having the chakra for anything else, just prepares for a simple Substitution.
However, to both of their shock there are two shouts.
One from Zabuza.
"Water Release: Water Fang Jutsu"
The other from Naruto.
"Water Release: Five Eating Sharks"
Several water drills fly from the water and pierce the log that Kakashi switched with, turning it to splinters.
Naruto slams his hands on the water and it doesn't take long for sharks made of water to begin jumping from the surface of the water to attack Zabuza.
In a strangely acrobatic display, Zabuza spins and destroys all five sharks in one attack. However, his victory is short lived when they just reform as soon as they hit the water.
'I hate this Jutsu, as long as the user channels chakra, the sharks keep reforming. This was always Kisame's favorite Jutsu.'
Zabuza goes through a few hand seals while dodging the water based sharks. Zabuza slams a single hand on the water before continuing to dodge.
"Water Release: Water Demon's Appetite"
A large head made of water that looks like a cross between and ape and a snake emerges from beneath Naruto. He is quick to abandon his shark Jutsu in favor of staying alive.
However, even as he jumps away, the 'demon's' tongue shoots from its mouth and grabs Naruto by the waist and drags the boy under.
As the demon's tongue pulls Naruto down, he turns to water.
"Substituted with a water clone? Good work."
"Water Release: Gunshot Jutsu"
Zabuza dodges the incoming water bullets. Right after the forth passes by, the Mist Jonin raises his sword and blocks Naruto's attempt to remove his head.
Meanwhile on shore
Kakashi is there, still panting and trying to figure out a way to end this fight with none of his charges getting injured. He can't believe the amount of Ninjutsu the genin knew. He knew Ninjutsu specialist Chunin that had not only less in number, but also less skill at using them.
The thoughts of the black haired Genin are slightly darker.
'How is Naruto able to do all this? Is my hate not enough? Why am I so weak?'
The mind of the pink haired Kunoichi are similar but different.
'When did Naruto get so strong?'
Tazuna was confused.
'Man, this kid is great, he is able to keep up with the bad guy when the Jonin guy couldn't.'
With Naruto and Zabuza
"Your good for your age kid, but you have a long way to go. Lets see how your Kenjutsu is."
Naruto jumped back to get some room from the Jonin.
Zabuza pointed Kubikiribocho at Naruto with one hand. Naruto responded by dropping into a sword stance with his legs spread wide and his sword out to the side. Obviously a defensive position.
Without warning, Zabuza disappeared from the sight of everyone except Kakashi who saw just fine, and Naruto who saw little more than a blur.
Naruto brings his sword up to block the incoming strike but the force sends him skidding across the water for about twenty feet.
'I need to fight force with force, his sword weighs as much as me, add in that it is moving ridiculously fast, it is like trying to stop a freight train.'
Having never fought against a zanbatou before, this is a learning experience.
Seeing Zabuza go for a diagonal slash across his chest, Naruto swings for the point of impact with as much strength as he can.
When Zabuza sees Naruto's move he smirks, not that you can see it behind the bandages.
The force the two blows make, cause a large ripple in the water. The fight goes on, Zabuza attacking and Naruto defending while trying to counter but being unable to.
With Kakashi
'Ok, I think I have enough chakra.'
Kakashi sprints towards the fight, going through hand seals.
"Lightning Release: Chidori!"
Zabuza looks over, just in time for his eyes to be drawn to the large ball of lightning in Kakashi's hand.
'He's to close!'
Just as the lightning was about to hit Zabuza, a small ice wall appeared, Kakashi's fist punched right through the wall and just barely reached Zabuza, sending the man, convulsing in the water, his bleeding stomach dyed the water red.
Before Kakashi could even take stock of the situation, a girl with black hair and brown eyes Shunshinedand grabbed Zabuza before Shunshiningaway.
Not ten seconds after covering his gifted eye, Kakashi's only visible eye rolled into the back of his head and he passed out. He would have sunk if Naruto didn't grab him by the neck of his Jonin vest.
'That eye of his must take a stupid amount of chakra. He should just get used to fighting without it, it's more of a hindrance the way he is now.'
The three Genin, one bridge builder and one unconscious Jonin made their way to the bridge builder's home.
Meanwhile in Konoha
At the North gate we see what could be an unusual sight if it didn't happen every day. Izumo complaining about being bored while Kotetsu sleeps. However, he notices three figures walking towards the village.
One appears to be about 14 and has light blue hair, glasses and a very large dual hilted sword wrapped in bandages on his back. With a Kiri forehead protector attached to his sword harness.
Beside him is an older man, early forties, his hair was a similar color to the younger boy's, but he had an eye patch on his right eye, with a standard Kiri forehead protector.
However, it was the leader of the group that got their attention. She was about 5'6", long russet red hair in a top knot that reached her knees with some of her bangs covering her right eye. Her skin tight blue dress did nothing to hide her generous curves. Her supple D-cup breasts, her long legs, her toned abs, the two Chunin were blatantly staring at this point.
When the three arrived at the gate, the Chunin still did not snap out of their daze.
The older male was about to speak when the female cut him off.
Mei just smiled sweetly, maybe a little too sweetly.
"Konoha nin,"
Her melodic voice sent shivers down their spines, out of fear or lust, one may never know.
"If you don't stop staring…then I'll melt what makes you a man."
Fear, definitely fear.
This snapped the two Chunin out of their daze.
"Yes how may we help you?"
Ao decided to step forward before the Mizukage crushes any hope of an alliance with Konoha by killing their gate guards.
"Mei Terumi, here to see your Hokage."
The two guards had been notified the day before about a group from Kiri to speak to the Hokage.
"Hai, the ANBU will escort you to the tower."
As if they were reading each other's minds, a bird masked ANBU member appeared.
As they were walking through the village, Mei just sighed. In Kiri everyone thought she was hot but respected her as the Mizukage enough to not stare. Here every man stopped and stared. It was getting annoying. Even some of the females stopped to stare, some to admire the view while others glared at her for being so beautiful.
As they walked into the Hokage's office, it was almost identical to hers, except this is red while hers is blue.
When Sarutobi stood to address the newcomers, he was shocked at the new Mizukage's beauty. Being the perverted old man he is, his mind went to the gutter before returning, however, not fast enough to stop the trickle of blood.
When Mei saw this, she wasn't sure if she should be happy or angry, happy she could user her feminine assets to get the alliance, or mad that she was being checked out by a man in his seventies.
"Hokage-dono" Mei gave a slight bow.
"Mizukage-dono" Sarutobi returned the bow.
With Team 7
Sasuke carried Kakashi since Naruto was tired, that did not stop the Uchiha from glaring angrily at Naruto.
'I did as he said, I should be stronger. Why am I so weak?'
Between Sasuke's anger, and Sakura's confusion, Naruto was the only one who noticed the current state of the town, as they passed through, beggars all over the place, the food stores were nearly empty, in other words the town was on the verge of dieing out.
When they arrived at Tazuna's house, it was in much better shape than the rest of the town, since most of Tazuna's work is out of the village, he is probably the richest person in the town, however, he just spent all his money on material and protection for his bridge.
Tazuna led them into the house.
"Tsunami, Inari I'm back!"
Almost instantly a beautiful woman appeared, she seemed to be in her mid twenties and had long black hair that held just a hint of blue.
"Oh Dad, I was so worried about you."
Tsunami gives her dad a hug. Then Inari, a rather depressed looking brown haired boy comes down the stairs and gives Tazuna a hug before heading back up to his room.
"Excuse me, Tsunami-san. Do you have somewhere we can put our sensei while he recovers?"
The now identified Tsunami leads them to another room with several futons in it.
Sasuke lays Kakashi on the mat and closes the door as he leaves.
They all decided to get some sleep after such a long journey.
Three days later.
Naruto is sitting cross-legged on the water, he is trying to use his chakra to force the water into a whirlpool, he was practicing water nature manipulation.
When Kakashi said he was gonna start teaching tree climbing, he was happy. However, he was happy that he knew the training method already, he even knew the more advanced level.
Unfortunately, the Jonin refused to teach him anything else until the whole team knew it. That lead to him working on his own training.
Kakashi had also called in a request for back-up, it arrived in the form of an ANBU member named Yamato.
Since then he has spent the last three days practicing water elemental manipulation. Only returning in the evening to sleep. Currently, Naruto is sitting on the water while trying to create a whirlpool around him using only his chakra. He had already finished the first step of creating a small one with his hand.
Naruto reaches for the hilt of his sword only to immediately regret leaving his sword with his shirt on shore.
"To what do I owe the honor Zabuza?"
"I have got to say that you are really advanced for a Genin."
In Konoha
Mei was stressed. Both her and the Hokage had agreed to the terms of an alliance, however, the Fire Daimyo had to get involved and was nervous about being backstabbed. She couldn't really blame him with Kiri's bloody past. After speaking with the Water Daimyo, they both agreed that this would be a blood alliance. That means that they need to agree to an arranged marriage. While that wouldn't be to big of a deal, she isn't positive of who she can trust with this. The bloodline clans are still mad about The Bloodline Massacre as it is now called and could use the pull to take their revenge. While she is not sure if she can trust the non-bloodline clans not to use their pull to organize another civil war.
After two days of talking about it, she had yet to decide who could become the aspect of a blood alliance.
However, it didn't take long for Sarutobi to come up with an idea for his own candidate.
The old Kage frowned in thought before an overwhelming smile reached his face and eyes, the like had not been seen on the face of Sarutobi since the birth of his grandson.
"I know you are still in deliberation, but I have just the man. He is the heir to one of the strongest clans to ever come from Konoha, however, the clan actually originated from Water Country…"
The Water Daimyo's represenative spoke up.
"On that matter, we shall break for two weeks to allow you each to pick, and converse with your advisors."
In Wave
Naruto's hand was still raised over his head, where the hilt of his sword would be. When he turned to Zabuza he was surprised to see no Kubikiribocho.
"I'm not here to fight gakI, I'm here to talk."
"I told you once, even though I don't hold much love for Konoha, I won't betray it."
Zabuza just sat down on a log and indicated for the genin to sit across from him.
Hesitating slightly, Naruto can feel no ill-intent coming from Zabuza.
He sighs, 'Everything I ever learned tells me I should try and distract him and get back to my teammates. But I think I will listen to what he has to say… Either way, this is not a good idea'
Naruto, now sitting across from Zabuza, waiting.
"I want your help gakI."
"I already told you I won't…"
"I know, I know, that has nothing to do with this. You saw my accomplice?"
When Naruto nods, he continues.
"Her name is Haku. She thinks I only see her as a tool, a weapon to be wielded until I don't need it any more… She couldn't be more wrong. When I first picked her up, she was starving, she had killed her father in self defense when he discovered that she had a bloodline and tried to kill her. When I saw the loyalty I could get from her, yea, I took her in with the reason of her becoming my tool. However, the longer I spent traveling with her, the closer I found myself to her. I began to see her as my own daughter. I started treating her better, I was kinder, the whole nine yards. Then, I almost lost her. A bounty hunter came after me. I never got his name, but no mater what I cut off, strings would reattach it."
Zabuza shuddered slightly at remembering the money crazed bounty hunter.
"This guy was out of my league. He made the Mizukage look like an everyday Chunin. He could use all five elements with the use of these mask things on his back. I managed to cut one of the masks in half and he got furious. He combined his fire and wind Jutsu to make a huge stream of fire, I was unable to dodge, as it was about to hit me, Haku pushed me out of the way and took the attack. In my shock I yelled out her name in fear she was dead. However, she used her bloodline to save herself. However, with my outburst, Kakuzu knew I cared for her. He started targeting her. We managed to escape when some weird guy in a Venus fly trap showed up to talk to him."
"After that I got cold again, I tried to force myself to view her as a tool, but it wouldn't happen. I treat her like a tool but think of her as a daughter."
"Wow…why share this with me? I could use it against you."
"You could, but I don't think you would."
"Ok, so, what do you want from me?"
"I want you to make sure she lives."
Naruto gets a confused look.
"I know I can beat Kakashi, but Kakashi and the back-up he called… I don't know. Haku has a bad tendency of saving my life and having it almost cost hers. I don't think I could forgive myself if she gave her life for me… Here."
Zabuza handed two scrolls to Naruto.
"That one is for you, it's how you improve your Silent Killing Jutsu, the other is for Haku if I don't make it."
Naruto nodded.
"I'll be attacking in four days. That is the least I can give you as long as you keep your end of the deal."
Naruto nodded again.
With his piece said, Zabuza walks away.
"One condition."
Zabuza stops to look at the young blond, waiting for the boy's proposition.
"I want you to agree, that you won't go after the bridge builder until we're all dead."
Zabuza looked at him, staring into his eyes before nodded and walking away.
In Konoha
Mei was still unsure of what to do.
'Maybe I should just do it. NO, I can't do that to him, I promised I would wait for him.'
"DAMN IT, I ONLY HAVE ONE MORE WEEK TO FIGURE IT OUT!"
Ao could only watch sadly as his leader was stuck between doing what is right for her village and what is right for her heart.
In wave
For the next three days, Naruto spent all his time training alone, with an occasional visit from Yamato, a man that seemed to be Kakashi's friend, though even he expressed his disappointment in Kakashi's continuation of the mission. He had taken over the training of Team 7. He gave Naruto tips for Nature Manipulation, helped Sakura with her small reserves, and he taught Sasuke a couple Ninjutsu. Overall, he did more for Team 7 in three days, then Kakashi did in five months. In Kakashi's defense, he was a firm believer in teamwork and the current team didn't have any.
Naruto had advanced slightly on his water manipulation, and his Silent Killing but there was only so much he could learn in three days.
Finally, the day of the attack is here. Naruto had considered informing the others, but decided against it since it could be viewed as traitorous to be conversing with the enemy.
However, without the knowledge of the others, he made several Shadow-Water Clones to protect the house.
They were like Shadow clones since the have their own chakra networks but took less chakra since they have a medium. However, the medium stops them from sending the memory back to the original. They can perform Ninjutsu but only of their element.
When the five ninja arrived at the bridge, they saw that all the workers were either unconscious or dead.
That is it for Ch. 3! I'm going to divide the wave mission into two parts.
Please review!