Chapter 5
The next morning, when Naruto and Mavis, returned they found Holly looking slightly annoyed. And by the way she kept looking about the room, and not just out the window. They had a feeling her annoyance had more than one source. As they finally got her some breakfast, they were able to learn what had cause this, both last night, and that morning before Naruto and Mavis had gotten back.
During the night Zabuza had shown up, but thanks to some rather skilled replacement had managed to avoid Holly's quick sharp eyes, and even quicker trigger finger. And while she had thought it fun at first, as it continued through the entire night, to the elf it had gotten rather frustrating and boring soon. The other thing that had ended up bugging Holly was actually Team Seven. As when she had gone into their room to grab a better scope for her rifle, she had found Sasuke who seemed to be looking over their things. Holly had quickly chased him out with a well aimed sting bolt from her pistol, but for some reason each time she had gone back to check on it, she was sure someone had gone through there things again.
"So did you find anything," Holly asked, after explaining her night.
"Nothing," Naruto said, looking at the window.
"This island is bigger than we had thought. We will have do another two searches to finish looking over the island" Mavis said, before she started eating.
"Makes sense," Holly said, taking a bite of her own food.
Naruto nodded as he, silently ate his own food. He soon glanced out the window and noticed the sun rising casting a light in over the table. He watched it for a few moments, before Mavis's hand passed through the light and sizzled. She quickly drew it back in pain, and slight annoyance. Getting up she took her plate and moved over to the bed, were she knew the sunlight could not reach her and kept eating.
Naruto and Holly both sighed, as they understood what had caused this change. Mavis like her dad was a powerful vampire, but they had one weakness, Sunlight. But thanks to Hermione and her rather powerful magic, and great knowledge of spells, had figured out a spell that had protect Mavis from the sun. Even to the point that Mavis switched when she would normally sleep. The only problem was, currently, the only one who could actually cast the spell, was Hermione herself, as the spell was still in the experiment stages.
Naruto, and Holly also both knew how to use magic, but only Naruto could only cast the weaker version of the spell, which lasted for a day at best. But it had a few draw backs that could really cause problems later on if they were not careful. The first of which was it drew a lot of Naruto's energy out to cast it, as his skills were mostly wandless magic, and his magical levels were tiny by comparison to Hermione's. Holly's magical level though were a great deal higher, but her magic did not work the same way as Hermione's or even Naruto's making it nearly impossible for her to cast the spell. The second problem was while the spell did block the sun, it was very much like a sun block, and could be easily removed. Something as simple as a cut from a knife could cause it the spell to start breaking down, and a liquid of any sort would make it disappear instantly.
"Guess it is night operations for us, till we see Hermione again," Mavis said, her annoyance easily seen.
"Yes, but that is not a bad thing, we all need to rest at some point in time," Naruto pointed out.
"I know, but what happens if Zabuza attacks us now, I would be completely useless," Mavis pointed out.
"Yes, but we still have myself, and Naruto," Holly said, "And while I might not be enough for a good close combat fight with him. I can more than able, to keep him far enough away from this house with my guns."
"Sure, and that is why I always beat you in our practice session," Mavis said smirking, getting slight looking of annoyance from the elf.
"Hay teleporting, and traveling the way you do as smoke gives you an almost unfair advantage," Holly said defending herself.
"Sure," Mavis said, sending Holly a friendly smirk.
"As it is we still need to figure out some plans, that way if Zabuza does attack during the day time, we won't be unprepared. Or at the very least a plan of retreat to minimize damages to our side," Naruto said, thoughtfully, as he ate.
"Okay fair enough," Holly sighed, looking down at her food, "It would be bad if we had to summon him, just because we were unprepared."
"You mean, Mr. Secrets," Mavis asked.
"Yep, he is the only one, currently, that could help us if we got into big trouble," Holly said.
"We are not to summon him, and you know that," Naruto said in a serious manner, "He is well beyond any of us in terms of skills. So drop the matter."
"Okay," Holly and Mavis said.
"As it is, right now I don't think we have to worry too much, at least about attacks today." Naruto said, pulling out a small book.
"Why is that," Mavis asked.
"Zabuza's, at least according to the bingo book entry on him, normally attacks on dark cloudy days. Today is sunny. It is because his main jutsu, the Hidden Mist Jutsu, would drain him too quickly for prolonged battle. This jutsu is said to cover the area around the user in a heavy mist, and by adding more chakra to the jutsu you can make it thicker. But it has one main weakness; the sun can rapidly destroy it, if the user does not keep pumping chakra into it," Naruto said.
"So he would only attack today if he was sure he could be in and out quickly," Holly said.
"Yep, at least most likely, he does have other skills. But his overall style seemed to be that of an assassin. But this information also tells us, that when he attacks we will all likely be able to fight him." Naruto said smirking.
"I see now, with the fog and the clouds I would be able to fight outside even during the day," Mavis said smiling.
"Yes, and if this house is hit, we also have the rather large forest to use to our advantage," Naruto said.
"Okay, so we have a good retreat options," Holly said.
"Yep, now to get some rest, while Kakashi's team does the day time guarding," Naruto said.
Holly and Mavis nodded. At this they fell silent as they finished their food and made to get some sleep. Naruto on the other hand set up some clones and gave them the job of searching the island some more, before he too joined the group and slept.
It was about close to eight or nine hours later when the group was awoken by one of Naruto's clones. It had been one of three that were guarding the house, two from attacks the other one watching the room itself, that Naruto's team was sleeping in. The clone woke up the group and informed them that Tazuna with Kakashi's team was back. Naruto was the first up and the one to meet them at the front door, informing Kakashi that nothing had happened while they were away.
Then later that night, after some dinner, Naruto's team left and began their search again for Gato's or Zabuza's hideout. The clones had not found anything, in their search during the day. But this time they figured they would be able to find it. They had split the island up into four sections as to make the search move quicker. And while there was the possibility that they might not find it, they were hoping otherwise.
It was within the last few hours, before they would have to give up the search that they got lucky. Mavis and Naruto smirked as they saw what looked to be like a large circle made out of resin, held up in the threes by ropes and other things. They saw a good number of thugs walking about it, trying to act as the guards to the place. Naruto nodded and spoke into the headpiece he was wearing to talk back to Holly who was currently still guarding Tazuna's house.
"Come in Holly, we have found a possible location for the hideout. I repeat we may have found the location for Gato's hideout. Over," Naruto said.
"Got it, what is your plan of action currently," Holly answered.
"We plan to try investigating the hideout. Is there any sign of Zabuza, or other intruders out by you?" Naruto asked.
"None currently, though they might be staying farther out in the forest, or waiting till later to make a move." Holly said
"In that case we will take extra care when entering," Naruto said, nodding to Mavis.
"Understand, will keep communications to a minimal till I receive word otherwise," Holly answered.
"Roger that," Naruto said.
Mavis and Naruto at once made their moves, Naruto using his speed and training to move quickly along the trees till he was as close as he could get to the main entrance or a window without being seen. Mavis on the other hand shifted form into a bat and went for the straight forward approaching searching the outer most windows to see what was in the rooms. Naruto's job was to search the inner most rooms, as he activated his invisibly, and slipped in through a window. It did not take either of them long to find what they were looking for either.
Zabuza it seemed was in an outer room, looking over a map, muttering something to himself, as he planned his next move. Next to him listening closely was a female, making small comment to what Zabuza said, just barely audible to Mavis's ears. Naruto on the other hand found Gato in the compounds center looking over some facts and figures, seeming rather tired and annoyed at something. Naruto was able to enter and listen to Gato's room thanks to some thugs that came in for jobs and/or targets.
"I am telling you this is a bad idea boss," one of the thugs said talking about the hiring of Zabuza.
"It is no problem, you know I will get rid of him as soon as we are done, removing that threat," Gato said, waving off the worry.
"Sir that was when we were just going to deal with a normal Ninja team, I don't think this second team that came with the Leaf Ninja is normal Ninja team. Skip that, I don't think they are even ninja," The Thug said speaking again.
"I don't get why you're so worried, this was your idea after all. And it is a good idea, all we need is some more hands to deal with the others that showed up," Gato said.
The Thug that had spoken sighed, "Okay sir, just don't be surprised if this fails and we are forced to flee."
Gato sighed and put down his pen and looked up at the thug studying him for a few moments, before he spoke again, "Are you going soft or something?"
"No Sir! But those others have me worried; one of them did keep Zabuza away from the house all night. And with a weapon that shots powerful and destructive bolts of light and energy. That alone is something I know now of us have ever heard of before. And that is the smallest of the group, who can tell what the others can do," The Thug said.
"I see," Gato said, thoughtfully.
"As such sir it might be a good idea to prepare an escape plan, just in case," The thug said.
"Ok, I will think about this, and possibly take it into account," Gato said.
At this point another thug entered into the room and the talk switched over to more important things. Mavis in the mean time had been listening into Zabuza, and had not really found anything overly useful. It was almost an hour later when they met back up to decided their next course of action. It was only now a choice of two things, remove the threat now. Or the better one, find out all the information they could then remove the threats.