I do not own Naruto, this story is for entertainment purposes only. I came to terms with that a long time ago... (Sniffs)

Notice: Post time skip appearances!

Son of Terumi

Chapter 2: Another face, another day

Land of Waves, two days later

There were only a handful of times where he wished he was denser than stone, that way he would blissfully come to the conclusion that there wasn't anything between the lines promising a world of hurt when he came home for encountering Zabuza by himself... not to mention having been ambushed by a briefly forgotten cohort from the Yuki clan.

He could only imagine how well she tried to keep that smile on her face upon reading that little tidbit. If the foreboding feeling of someone walking over his grave with him being buried alive in it was an indicator...

Even now he shuddered at that same feeling of dread, comparable to being drowned in ice water with all his limbs weighted down for good measure, he had gotten yesterday on what he heavily suspected to be the moment she received his report... sometimes it sucked to be the only son of the Mizukage. Especially so considering they have the exact same summoning contract that easily hastened the messages sent to one another.

Shudder! "She does realize I'm a shinobi right? Danger is a part of my job..."

"Hssss!"

"... You're not helping, you know that right?"

"Sss!"

He sighed as he absentmindedly scratch the underside of the chin belonging to a small silvery serpentine creature that had a almost ball-like shape body which its neck was attached two, fairly thick legs to support its weight that were armed with tiny black talons, and a fairly broad, for its overall size, tail that held a few low and rounded lumps for spikes. If it took offense to his remark, it ignored it in favor of enjoying the scratching. In response he only shook his head as he returned to the missive, taking what refuge he could by leaning against a tree which he sat at.

XVX

A cool black eye observed yet another Mist shinobi, kunoichi specifically, as she padded her way through the mist laden surroundings that was the early morning of the Land of Waves. A partner perhaps? Possibly, there was a tactical advantage in numbers. She was virtually identical to the other shinobi of Kiri save for a few details here and there. Her hair, for example, was free unlike her possible comrade, though tied in small ties that seemed to serve only to keep her hair from obscuring the slits of her mask that bore wave-like markings in the pattern not unlike the wielder of Shibuki. She had both her arms surely enough, both guarded by vambraces and a small splint of armor that solely guarded the section of arms above the protective plates. Her skin was also that of mocha...

But the key trait that had him truly worried was her potential status... There was a pair of swords tucked away to the small of her back in fairly broad sheaths. If he was half correct then she wielded the Kiba, another known weapon, weapons actually, favored by the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

His hand tighten along his crossed forearm in thought as the situation grew potentially worse. He had at least one verified enemy, multiple if he included Gato and his men, but a third party was in play. Zabuza, being a rogue shinobi, was surely a target for them but that didn't necessarily mean they were going to stop with him. If they were sending out as many people as they have thus far for a single rogue then it obviously meant that Kiri was at least starting to recover and started to take missions in full once more. Quite frankly anything was up for grabs in terms of possibility.

In any case he had to be more wary than usual, and to ensure his students were up to the challenge if and when it reared its head.

XVX

"So there you are." The shinobi tilted his mask to per at the approaching kunoichi for a moment till it tore away to the serpentine creature still rapt by his scratching. Like the creature before her, if she was insulted she ignored it as lean against the tree and waded into the comfortable silence that came of it.

"He's not alone," the first finally spoke up, the creature under her care rolling over to have his belly cared for as well.

"How many?"

"One at least. Of the Yuki clan."

"Hm." The creature groaned pleasantly while it kicked its leg up in the air. "Possibly more," she suddenly said.

"How so?"

"Gozu and Meizu." His masked head tilted in thought. "The Demon Brothers."

"Ah. A team from the Leaf is here as well."

"I noticed..." She craned her neck to better look at him. "That wasn't all that I noticed though."

The creature groaned in annoyance when the hand simply came to rest on its belly as opposed to scratching it. "I was a little surprised about that too." Only the grunting of a mildly disgruntled summon getting back to its feet stabbed holes into the silence that permeated between them. A silence ended by a muted sigh and a wooden hand scratching a fake itch at the back of the shinobi's neck. The kunoichi casually shook her head in garnered amusement. "How aloof of you."

A noncommittal grunt was her only response.

A small smirk played itself behind the wave afflicted mask, one that was lost when her gaze turned to the far away bridge that could only been seen in bits and pieces throughout the clustering of trees. "So what do you know of Zabuza's standing in this country?"

He grunted slightly as he shifted himself about, his back coming to rest on the tree. "Works for a man named Gato, business mogul of sorts with an unhealthy interest in the Land of Waves to the extent that he's hiring any goon off the street to form a small army to maintain his interests, but he hired Zabuza to kill the architect responsible for the bridge heading towards the mainland. Whether he was hired before or after the Leaf was contracted to guard the bridge builder, I cannot say. Either way it's a large sum of money for a kill, guarded or not; he won't simply back away without a second thought."

"When do you think he'll make his move?"

"It's been two days..." he quietly contemplated. "With diluted poison coursing through his veins, he should be up and about somewhere close to two days from now-"

"Or at the end of the week if he doesn't receive medical attention," she surmised. A non-indignant hum was her reply. "How much harm were you able to bestow upon him?"

"Not enough to make something of a difference in his next excursion."

"So a recovery is likely to be soon," she reasoned. She turned to him once more. "Likely targets?"

"Home, bridge, or at least the pathway between the two. All of which is guarded by the team from Konoha, the concentration of which is heaviest around his person."

She hummed once more, during which she made to look towards the bridge once more but returned her attention to him halfway in the process. "Anything of special note about them?"

"Kakashi Hatake is among them," he paused as he tilted his head back and forth in thought. "And other than guard duty, they seem to be concentrating their efforts on learning how to walk on trees."

"... Interesting."

The male half of the duo rolled his neck more out of boredom than anything else. "So how would you like to do this?"

This time it was her head that tilted in thought for a moment. "I'll cover the bridge," she said coolly.

"I guess I have the house then."

XVX

Zabuza's Hideout, evening

Ssssshiiink!

"Please, take your medicine."

As much as he would've liked to practically snarl at Haku, he had a fairly good idea as to what would actually come out... He forgotten about the cut to his bicep. Though small, it was an open enough wound for whatever that tidal wave was infused with to have him confined to bed rest for the past two days. Two damnable days of being tended to by an overly worried minion and barely being able to speak more than five words without nearly hacking up a lung or even his spleen at times.

All things considered however, he supposed it could be worse if he now had the general strength of body to at least sit atop his bed and tend to his zanbato. He still growled though as he took his home brewed medication and promptly went back to work with a whetstone.

Ssssshiiink!

"Please stay in bed, Zabuza. I'll be back within the hour." He only grunted in acknowledgment, never looking away from his sword whilst his only company left him alone with nothing but his thoughts to keep him busy.

Ssssshink!

XVX

Grove

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmmm?" The man in question looked up from his booklet to better show his student his attention. Sakura, meanwhile, looked as uncomfortable as she could be as she broached the subject to her teacher. Not too far from either of them were a collection of trees, two of which being scored by kunai as the male teenagers of their team practically fought for dominance via a race to their respective tree's top as they practiced their tree walking technique. "You just don't seem all too worried about those shinobi from the Mist Village..."

"Ah," he rumbled as he gave her an eye's equivalent of a placating smile. "Been keeping you up has it?" he queried. She nodded her answer. "I can't really blame you," he sincerely muttered as he turned his gaze at the two still trying to outdo the other. "But as you observed I'm not that keen on worrying about it."

"Sensei?" Sakura inquired in confusion.

"I have my theories," he said in hopes of smoothing over her anxiety. "But ultimately if you let your mind be worried by what you can't control then you'll never get a good night's sleep. I'll admit it took me awhile to learn that one," he all but mumbled as he returned to his book and thumbed a page.

"If I may ask, Kakashi-sensei, just what do you think will happen then?"

His reply didn't come immediately as he favored thumbing another page away in his hand-sized book. "When you boil it down I only have two theories," he said simply. "My first is that everything is I thought it was: Zabuza, a rogue shinobi, has officially been targeted and is being hunted by his former village who sent another swordsman to deal with him. With any luck then Zabuza has fallen or is at least too wounded to carry out his contract to kill Tazuna." Kakashi however sighs as he closes his book, using the digit that turned the pages as a bookmark as he leaned his head back to look at the distant sky. "Theory two, however, is that it's some kind of ploy to lull us into a false sense of security, effectively leaving either us or Tazuna wide open to an attack."

Sakura gulped and paled slightly as she considered the possible reality of facing not one but two of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist... there was always a reason when a group or a specific name rose up from the depths that was the Academy's libraries and standard text books. The Seven Swordsmen was certainly one such group that had left their mark in history through ferocity and brutality.

"In either case we need only to wait for the answers to present themselves. If anything we'd only take unnecessary risks if we go out to investigate," Kakashi shortly before returning to his book. "In the meantime just keep an eye out for anything suspicious. A little bit of caution never begrudged anyone after all."

In the end Sakura just sighed and hung her head in defeat, but accepted it nevertheless. Just in time for her fellow genin to lose their balance and crash into the ground once more.

"Other than that, work on your tree walking!"

Page flip.

Sakura sighed once more, this one much less noticeable than its forerunner, and walked away. Kakshi meanwhile subtly drifted his eye towards a nondescript portent of the woods. "The question of course turns into "When will they show up?"

XVX

Woods, late evening

"Just tree walking? That's odd."

"Hss!"

"You'd think something as basic like that would be in the academy or something... think they just got lazy?"

"Hssss?"

"I haven't been there for years. With that said I'm not exactly keen on going back just to find out if it's a part of their programs or not."

"Hss?"

"Yeah, I guess that's a part of the reason. Kind of miss it sometimes to be honest. Other than that though I just don't see a reason to go there."

"Hsss."

"Is it? I haven't been keeping track."

"Hss."

"Oh... should've known. She is the Mizukage after all so I guess that makes sense... She told you to remind me, didn't she?"

"Hss."

"I see... I guess she's going to send us to it then." With a sigh the masked, bandaged shinobi wearily hung his head as he continued to crouch. "Why'd I become a swordsman again?" he rumbled rhetorically.

"As I understand it you never so much as told your mother your reasoning much less myself." Lifting his head, his gaze soon turned to observe his partner casually sauntered into their makeshift camp, marked such only by the small ring of rocks that fenced in an equally small pile of sticks not too far from her male counterpart.

"Point."

With a near inaudible sigh she sat down on the grass not too far from the unlit campfire. "What I'm curious about is how you completely forgotten where the Chunin Exams is to be held."

The shinobi lightly sighed and lazily scratched his head with his wooden hand, his head was slightly tilted in the process thanks to the pressure. "She may have told me during breakfast one time but I may have been half sleep."

A light hearted chortle escaped the kunoichi. "With the way you act I have to remind myself who your mother is at times."

"Yep..." he drawled as he plopped himself onto the ground by simply rocking himself back, his limbs sprawled out shortly thereafter. As for the creature he was communicating with, the same one as from before, it contented itself with crawling atop him with only minimal effort to be caressed by an unguided hand. "Think Chojuro would be accompanying us as a team member?" he suddenly, but idly, inquired.

"He might," she mused, her eyes closing his thought behind her mask. "As a Mizukage it would make sense; by displaying the powerful front that is the Seven, partial though it may be all things considered, she could elicit more missions that our village could be commissioned for."

"True. No offense to him, however, but his personality may put a crick in that particular plan if you look at it objectively."

A contemplative hum emanated from the kunoichi as her head dipped. "People do have something of an expectance as to what a shinobi must be," she admitted.

"Could be a new guy altogether," he offered blandly.

Again she hummed. "Fresh from the academy perhaps?"

"You've met my mother, correct?"

"From another team then," she amended herself.

"I wouldn't really put it past her to dig up some ancient scroll to make Ao turn into a kid so she could stick him into our team..." he mumbled, earning a soft lilting laugh from his partner. Her hum was her only answer.

A small pause ensued between them that neither objected to.

"You know I may not have liked Rokuro all that much but I do miss him at times," he suddenly piped up.

Again she hummed.

"What has it been... two? Three months?"

"Two months, three weeks, and four days."

"Ah... Still... odd... you know?"

"I cannot say," she spoke up. "I wasn't particularly as fond of him as you yourself were to even miss him."

"I see," he rumbled.

Again silence reigned in their camp save for the near inaudible scratching of nails upon scales.

"Shall we turn in for the night?" she suddenly inquired.

"Sure." Without further ado he heard the distinctive "woosh" of a fire jutsu put into play to light the campfire as he slowly clambered up, the creature that had roosted itself along his stomach hoping off to avoid being knocked off. Soon he stands his feet and begins to stretch till he was satisfied. With no reason to delay he jogged to the tree line where something lay hidden in the shadow of one tree's crevice. A scroll was produced which was soon unraveled to reveal the seals kept within it, they too were undone to release not one but two sleeping bags. "So where would you like your sleeping bag-," he began as he turned around with both bags under an arm, the scroll stowed away into the small divide of the tree, when he came upon the sight of his partner, unmasked now to reveal oceanic green eyes and eyebrows as golden as her hair, stripping herself of her flak jacket to reveal she wasn't wearing anything underneath it.

She only stopped once the deed was done and the offsetting quiet the fire dared not to disturb proved frightful enough to warrant a curious stare directed at him...

How they twinkled with unspoken amusement the moment she deduced what was going on upon seeing him turn his head away, cheeks undoubtedly ablaze underneath his own mask.

"It's not the first time you seen them before," she gently chimed, her amusement crossing over to paint her tone as well whilst she set the protective cover neatly on the ground, soon her protection such as the vambraces were set atop of it and even they were then covered by her mask afterward. Her swords' sheathe came to rest right next to them not too long after her garments were lain to rest.

"That was an accident," he countered in a low grumbled. He positioned the bag in his left arm's grasp to be carried above the shoulder, effectively blocking his view of his half nude teammate so he could concentrate on finding an appropriate spot for her sleeping bag. "Having to survive in a mountain's cave during a blizzard was an accident?" He came to a complete halt after nearly tripping thanks to a embarrassed jolt on his part.

Again a light chuckle emanated from her person. "I know what you're talking about. You looked away the moment you saw them like you did back then and just now." With unhurried ease she sauntered to his back and retrieved the spare sleeping bag from the crook of his arm. "And my opinion of you has yet to change," she lowly uttered as she began to walk away.

"I'm going to take first watch," he practically mumbled, but he was heard nevertheless if her hum was to indicate anything. "I'll see you then," she replied simply as she set he bag, unfolded it, and slipped underneath the covers in short order. It was only after he was convinced she was covered once again that he dared to look back at her. Their eyes met for a moment, they finally broke as one's green orbs slid to a close and the other's turned away to focus on unraveling his own bag for later use.

"Good night," he murmured. Had he looked back he would've seen the small smile she had dressed her lips with.

XVX

"Hehehe!"

Tazuna's home

Blue eyes blinked a tad disbelievingly as he heard an overly effeminate but undeniably male giggle emerge from seemingly nowhere. A slight scowl plagues the blonde's mouth as he looks about the hallway he stood in for some hope of locating the source of the giggling. It took a good moment but he found the partially open window that the dying rays of sunshine peered through as they too retired from this portion of the world. As he crept a little closer, kunai drawn as a precaution, his eyes squinted as a familiar voice gave the giggling a proverbial face.

"Oh how I love this part," Kakashi pleasantly yet wistfully sighed. "No matter the slightest crack in her austere mask," he began to recite, "only she knew what truly lay beneath given that her thoughts were her own and no one else's. Each gentle lilt, every smile, a bold showing even, but a subtle declaration of affection she would not say aloud to the one she trusted most like no other. Though her lips may not move other than to speak, she enjoyed their talks of inconsequential things and musings of an idle mind. Though her cheeks never redden, her heart flutters with each tribute of respect given to her as he reminds himself that she is a woman...

"In the end what served to comfort her also worked to torture her. It ate at her soul with each passing day and each woman who cast a dreaming eye at him be they stranger or someone even she knew. She only languished in silence that even the flirtation of death could not dispel by having her utter what she longed to say. Not even her body moved to claim him, only for chaste reasons did it present itself to him, often done so without either thought or worry on her part at the time. How her body quivered in unseen trembling when she came to realize he came to view her by sheer accident on his part. It was her own brand of hell both fueled and alleviated by the naivety of a sense of innocence that battle could not take away. It was a hell she both cherished and yet in part loathed from behind her cool walls, one she quietly dwelled in, hidden away from the eyes that mattered most to her..."

By the time the genin had managed to get a good look out the window, forgoing any desire to hide while doing so even, the jonin sighed as he closed his book and began to get up from his impromptu perch that was the first tier of the house's roofing, his arms and back stretching where they pleased in the meanwhile.

"Hm? Yes Naruto?" he inquired in languid curiosity.

"Nothing... just thought we were being snuck up on by that no eyebrows guy," the blond drawled as he incredulously stared at his teacher.

"Ah. I didn't mean to startle you like that then." The man looked to his book then back to the genin with a smile like the one he had given to Sakura not too long ago. "Just enjoying the works of literature of a great author."

"Uh-huh... I'm gonna go to bed now... hopefully I'll forget this ever happened," Naruto replied shortly before disappearing into the house. The man sighed and shook his head. "Kids these days," he droned. "The naughty stuff doesn't even happen till chapter twelve, one-hundred and three pages from now," he sighed. His thumb twitched and he groaned in self restraint as he restrained the urge to go straight to the aforementioned chapter.

"Another day," he muttered and sighed. He slipped the book into the protective folds of his vest as he slowly plodded his way to the window. "Not like going straight to it would have changed anything anyway... shame that she died long before the merchant she loved even kissed a girl."