They arrived at Tazuna's house without further incident. Kakashi had Naruto set up a parameter of clones. A pretty woman with long, dark hair of about 30 years answered the door.
"Tousan!" she said. "I'm so glad you've come back safely."
"These Konoha shinobi made sure of it," the old man said. "This is my daughter, Tsunami."
"Greetings, Tsunami-san," said Kakashi. "I'm Hatake Kakashi, a jounin of Konoha. This is my colleague, Sarutobi Asuma-san, and my students, Hyuuga Hinata-san, Uzuamaki Naruto-san, and Uchiha Sasuke-san. Another of our colleagues, Mitarashi Anko-san, will be along later today. Naruto-chan here, is something of a prodigy with a technique called Shadow Clone, so if you see more of her around, don't be alarmed."
"So many?" Tsunami said. "We have two small guest rooms. Will that be enough?"
"It should be okay. We all brought sleeping bags, so you don't need to worry about providing futons. I'll share with Asuma-kun and Sasuke-kun. Anko-kun can share the other room with Hinata-chan and Naruto-chan."
Tsunami showed them to the rooms and the shinobi set up. There wasn't a lot of space, but there was enough to roll out their sleeping bags and place their packs.
Anko showed up at dusk. After she had situated her things in the room with Naruto and Hinata, Kakashi had them all meet in the clearing in front of the house.
"Did you find anything, Anko-kun?" Kakashi asked.
"I found Gato's base. He's occupying the Daimyo's mansion which is a few kilometers away from the main village on the opposite side. The village is about a kilometer away from here. He's got about a hundred thugs camped around it. Most of them looked pretty useless for anything other than mobbing, but there were a few that looked like they had basic shinobi or samurai training."
"We ran into Zabuza," Kakashi said. "Asuma-kun got him in his shoulder pretty good, but he had an associate posing as a hunter nin that escaped with him. We didn't chase them because I felt splitting up was a bad idea."
"What're the odds that Zabuza will give up?" asked Asuma.
"Slim," replied Kakashi. "The Demon of the Hidden Mist has a lot of pride. However, he'll probably have reinforcements."
"Should we send for more?" Naruto asked worriedly.
Kakashi shook his head. "If we were facing a team from Iwa or Kumo, possibly. This is the biggest team Hokage-sama will send against missing nin. Luckily, as a missing nin, Zabuza will have limited resources. He probably won't be able to bring in more than one or two jounin-level shinobi."
"What about Gatou?" Hinata asked.
Kakashi said, "Gatou could certainly afford more shinobi, but I doubt Zabuza will let him know the details of our encounter and I would bet he insisted on an exclusive contract."
"So, do we move on Gatou?" Anko asked.
"I'm hesitant to split us up or leave the Bridge Builder undefended," Kakashi said.
"We wait for Zabuza to show up or until the bridge is done and then we take out Gatou?" Asuma asked.
"Unless Anko-kun thinks that one of us can take out all of Gatou's thugs at once," Kakashi responded.
"I could certainly sneak in and assassinate Gatou," Anko said, "but I'm afraid his thugs will go crazy on the locals if I do. The problem is that the thugs will run if one of us kills a bunch of them and who knows what will happen then."
"We'll guard Tazuna-san and his family until something happens to change things then," said Kakashi.
Kakashi ended the meeting. By then it was time for dinner. They met Tsunami's son Inari, who was sullen and grumpy. He told them they were all going to die because Gatou was too strong. The shinobi all ignored him which irritated the boy.
The jounin kept watch in shifts during the night.
The next morning Kakashi had Naruto make 20 clones to watch the house while the shinobi went with Tazuna to the bridge site. When they got there, Asuma and Anko guarded the bridge builder while Kakashi instructed the genin nearby.
"I have something that I want to teach you," said Kakashi, "but is there anything any of you want to learn first?"
"Do you have something I can use for capturing enemies?" Naruto asked. "I don't like that I had to kill that missing nin and we had to rely on Sasuke-san to capture the other for questioning. My main technique other than taijutsu is the Shadow Clone kunai barrage, which doesn't leave a lot of options."
"Hmm." Kakashi tapped his mouth with his fingers. "The herders that live around the edges of the desert in Kaze no Kuni have a weapon called the bolas, which might suit you. It's fashioned from cords with two or three weights on the ends. You twirl it and launch it from a distance and it wraps up limbs. We can look into it once we get back to Konoha."
He waited, but there were not any other requests from the genin.
"Today we're going to start you on the Flicker. It's a D-rank ninjutsu, but it's got a lot of utility. It's a fast movement technique. I'm sure you've seen me use it when I disappear in a swirl of leaves. Most shinobi can't use it in battle, but one of Sasuke-kun's cousins was famous for doing so. I think that Naruto-chan could use it to position her clones pretty handily. However, to escape a dangerous situation, Replacement is better because it takes less concentration and is less traceable."
He showed them how to do it and then had them practice it. By the end of the day, they could all do it, but still needed practice to be able to hit their landing target more accurately.
That evening at dinner, Naruto was teasing Sasuke about how his fangirls would squeal when they heard that his C-rank mission had turned into an A-rank. Hinata was giggling at Sasuke's grimace.
Inari glared at the three genin. "How can you be so happy when you're all going to die?"
"Kid," Naruto said, "you have to take your happy moments when you can get them."
"What would you know?" he responded. "You've been laughing and smiling since you've gotten here. You have no idea what hangs over you. You have no idea what suffering is."
Naruto's temper flared and her hair started to writhe. "You have no idea how good you have it. You still have your mother and grandpa, at least. I bet you've never been truly hungry or in real danger. I don't need to hear you complain about suffering when you don't know what true loneliness is. I guarantee my life has been harsher than yours, but you don't see me crying about it." She stormed outside before she said or did something she would regret.
She ended up on the dock looking out over the water. It was a full moon, which comforted her for some reason. She watched the reflection of the moon in the water as it rippled.
About 10 minutes later she heard footsteps on the dock. She looked over her shoulder and saw Hinata and Sasuke approaching.
"You put on quite the show there, Dead Last," Sasuke said.
"It wasn't a show, Jerk," she said. "The kid ticked me off. The only thing worse than a real emo is a fake emo. At least you have a legitimate reason to brood."
Hinata said, "Kakashi-sensei told them a little bit about how the village treated you, Naruto-chan. At that point Inari-san ran upstairs and Tsunami-san told us about how Gatou had Inari-san's step-father, whom he loved, executed in front of the whole village, including Inari-san."
She snorted. "Still doesn't excuse him from trying to ruin what little happiness I have."
The other two sat down, one on each side of the white-haired girl. They were silent for several moments.
"You know, Jerk," she said to Sasuke, "I've always been a little jealous that at least you got to have your family for years before you became an orphan. At least you remember them."
"I always thought it was better not to have known," said Sasuke. "Then at least you didn't have the pain of losing them."
"Small consolation when you can see other kids being happy with their families."
The conversation lapsed.
"I've been jealous of them too—those that have a real family," said Hinata quietly. "The joy drained out of my father when my mother died. The compound has been so cold since then. My father ignores me. My sister thinks I'm weak. My cousin hates me. The clan elders can't wait to put me into the Branch Family where I'll be little better than a slave. The rest of the clan either hates me or pities me. I'm never so alone as when I'm surrounded by my so-called family."
"Look at us," Naruto said. "Three orphans, one way or the other. We should make our own family—brother and sisters. Kakashi-sensei can be the perverted uncle."
She put an arm around Hinata and held the other out for Sasuke. "Come on, Emo-boy. Group hug to seal the deal."
He allowed himself to be pulled into the hug with only a grunt in protest.
Naruto cackled. "Hinata and I can play matchmaker and set you up on dates like any good sisters would."
Sasuke glared. "If you do, I'm burning Ichiraku's to the ground."
"You wouldn't!" Naruto squealed.
Sasuke only looked at her with a gleam in his eyes. Hinata giggled at their antics.
They sat down and talked quietly until Hinata yawned. Or rather, Hinata and Naruto talked, with occasional interjections from Sasuke.
"You two head to bed," said Naruto. "I'm still too worked up to sleep. I'm going to train some more."
"It's pretty late," Hinata said. "Are you sure it's okay?"
"I'll be fine. I'll have my contingency clones nearby."
"If the Dead Last isn't smart enough to come in, let her suffer for it," Sasuke said with a smirk.
Naruto stuck out her tongue at her pseudo-brother.
She walked back to shore and then waved to the others as they continued back to the house.
She remembered that Kakashi had said that the Flicker Technique would be good for her clones, so she made 210 clones, in case they learned it differently than she herself did. If a few were good, then more would be better, right? She named off ten to be contingency clones assigned to watch the real her and told the others to practice the Flicker and then disperse in two hours. She got to work on making her landings stick.
Almost two hours later, she paused and realized that her self-appointed deadline was coming up. She sat down to prepare to receive the memories. The first few came, which seemed to signal the rest to disperse all at once. She gripped her head as it seemed to pulse with the strain. Within seconds she was swept into unconsciousness by the flood of experiences.
She awoke with the feeling that someone was nearby. The training to be a light sleeper had been one of Kakashi's favorite weeks, although none of the genin had enjoyed it. She opened her eyes and realized it was about breakfast time, and that she had slept in the forest. The deluge of memories must have wiped out her contingency clones.
She saw a dark-haired girl a little older than herself in a pink kimono walking toward her with a basket in her hand. Naruto sat up and said, "Hello, miss."
"Hello," the other girl responded. "Are you a shinobi?"
Naruto did not see the point in denying it with her Leaf Badge in plain sight. She pointed to where it hung around her neck. She had taken to wearing it there like Hinata. "Yep. Fell asleep training. What are you doing out so early?"
"My friend injured himself while he was cutting wood. I'm gathering herbs to make a poultice."
"Would you like some help?" Naruto asked.
"That would be nice. Thank you. My name is Haku."
"Nice to meet you, Haku-chan. I'm Naruto."
They chatted for a few minutes after Haku showed Naruto which herbs she wanted. Haku asked, "Do you have a Bloodline Ability? You have an unusual look to you, Naruto-san."
Naruto chuckled nervously. Kakashi and Old-Man Hokage had drilled into her the need to be discrete about her Bloodline. "You can't really expect me to answer that to a stranger, Haku-chan. I mean you seem nice enough, but nice people can be gossips too."
"I don't blame you. Where I grew up in Mizu no Kuni, people with Bloodline Abilities were treated very poorly because the masses thought they were dangerous."
"It's not like that in Konoha," Naruto responded. "Bloodline holders are treated very well, but I can sympathize with your compatriots because I was treated poorly for a similar reason."
"Oh?" the dark-haired girl asked.
Naruto laughed. "I'm not going to explain that to you, either, Haku-chan."
After a momentary lapse in the conversation, Haku asked, "Are you strong, Naruto-san?"
"I like to think I am—at least for my age." Kakashi had also drilled into her the need to refrain from boasting to strangers.
"Do you have someone precious to you?"
Naruto nodded. "My teammates, a few others."
"I believe that when you fight for your precious people, that's when you become truly strong."
Naruto nodded again. "I know what it's like to be alone. I would fight to the end for those that rescued me from it."
"I see that we understand each other, Naruto-san. I feel that we could be friends. It's too bad that we probably won't see each other again once you go back to Konoha."
"That's true, but I'll be here in Nami for a while longer. Perhaps we could meet again, Haku-neechan?"
"I wouldn't want to make any plans," said the other girl, "but I suspect we'll see each other again." She seemed to have a sad smile on her face which confused Naruto a little.
"I've gathered enough, so I should be getting back to my friend." She began to walk away. "By the way, I'm a boy."
Naruto's jaw dropped. "No way." He was as pretty as Hinata, who Naruto privately thought was the prettiest of all her acquaintances her own age. She turned on her Byakugan to satisfy her curiosity. No, the other was definitely a girl. She recognized the cold-looking chakra as that which belonged to Zabuza's partner. "Hey, wait! You're Zabuza's partner!"
Haku began to run. Naruto quickly made twenty clones to chase after her, while she herself retreated toward Tazuna's house via the Flicker Technique. She noticed that she was much better at it than the last time she tried it the previous night.
She received memories from her clones that the girl had disappeared into what looked like a mirror made of ice.
She was almost back to the house when she ran into Hinata and Sasuke.
"You slept in the forest didn't you, Idiot?" said Sasuke. "I thought you said you were just going to work off some steam."
"I didn't mean to, Emo-chan. It turns out that dispelling 200 Shadow Clones at once is a bad idea. It knocked me out and my contingency clones too."
"You didn't realize that Kakashi never had you disperse more than 20 at once even though he knows you can make much more than that?" Sasuke said with a smirk.
"Laugh it up, Emo-chan. You'll get yours," Naruto promised.
Sasuke's smirk faltered momentarily before reappearing.
"Whatever, Dead Last."
Naruto started to cackle. Even Hinata appeared unnerved.
After Naruto had composed herself she said, "Let's go see the others. I ran into Zabuza's partner in the woods."
They ran inside and Naruto explained what had happened to the three jounin.
"At least it appears that you didn't give away much," said Kakashi. "Zabuza already knew you had the Byakugan. Confirming that the partner has a Bloodline Ability is good. You said she disappeared into a mirror made of ice?"
Naruto nodded. "My clones examined it while I came back to report."
"She probably has the Hyouton," said Anko. "It's the only ice-related Bloodline we know of and Kiri's Yuki Clan was known to possess it before they got wiped out in the Bloodline purges. She could easily be a survivor."
Kakashi scolded Naruto for dispelling so many clones at once, but admitted he should have explicitly told her.
They settled down to breakfast and fell into the normal routine.