A/N: And now we begin with the Nami no Kuni arc…and introducing the Glacial Master that is known as Haku. Speaking of whom, I've started playing as the Male Mage, and have discovered that he plays a little more like a gunner. Do read and review would you kindly?

…

[Somewhere in Konoha, the next day…]

A dark brown cat was licking the back of its paw before it started stretching itself. Once satisfied with its little bit of exercise, it curled up to sleep. It was completely unaware of the fact that it was being watched by three pairs of eyes in three directions…or was it?

"Nightshade reporting in," whispered one voice, "the target is within range of my chakra radar, and I have its signature locked on. Lotus, what's your status?"

"We are green Nightshade," said the feminine voice of Lotus on the neck communicator, "I have the target in my line of sight in case plan A goes to hell. How are things on your end Hydrangea?"

"Target is also in my line of sight. I've the right tool prepared for just this job."

"Hydrangea, you are clear to shoot—I think the target has caught on to us."

With a loud and resounding 'twang', an arrow was loosed, and it exploded in midair to become a net…that the brown cat promptly avoided. "Kuso!" cursed Nightshade to himself, before reaching his hand to the PTT button on his neck communicator, "Lotus, target is heading in your direction! I repeat, target is heading in your direction! You have the packet ready?"

"Yep, I've got it."

"Good, you wait there and try to stall the target. Hydrangea, you're with me; we need to be there in case the target is feeling particularly sadistic."

The voice of Hydrangea came back up on the communicators. "On my way Naruto…I'm actually surprised I haven't shot the little bitch dead already, what with all the trouble she's been causing!"

"I wouldn't blame her Kikyo," responded Nightshade, "with the way she's been treated and by her own mistress, I'd run away too."

Once the two of them arrived at the scene, Hydrangea come up to a scene that made her blood boil—that little bitch was purring and snuggling up to her colleague while Meilan was holding her like a baby. "Meilan, can you confirm?" asked Naruto, a bit irritated that this happened again, but also glad it was over—mainly because he liked that cat too.

With a nod, Meilan gently turned the cat around and inspected the target. "Let's see now; dark brown fur, beige stripes, red ribbon on the ear…yep, that's Tora alright."

With a grin, Naruto took the opportunity to pet the cat. He rather liked to feel her purring when he did. "Okay then, let's get to Yūgao-sensei."

…

[Hokage's Office, twenty minutes later…]

"TORA-CHAN!" a portly woman cried out, running up to the cat that was struggling to escape, "There you are Tora-chan!"

Even though Naruto could not see, he could feel the pain emanating from the cat as she was practically strangled to death by her loving owner; much to the pleasure of Kikyo of course as this was her revenge! With a sigh, the only boy of Team Eleven moved up closer to the Fire Daimyo's wife, and gently tapped for her attention. "Excuse me ma'am," he said politely, "but you're hugging her too hard."

Once Madam Shijimi had managed to get Tora purring to sleep in her arms on her own, she flashed a smile at the little blond angel that helped her. "Thank-you kindly sir, I'll be on my way." Nothing else mattered as she left the Hokage's office, much to the astonishment of the other adults in the room and Kikyo; the Fire Daimyo's wife was just happy that her cat was happy.

Once he felt that the Fire Daimyo's wife was gone, Naruto then turned to Hiruzen with a slight frown on his face. It took all the willpower he had to not whine. "Don't you have any tougher missions, old man?"

"Naruto!" snapped Iruka at the audacity of his former student, "Be respectful! And besides, you have to take care of missions according to your level. For a genin such as yourself, D-Rank missions are appropriate! Now…"

"It is duly noted Iruka," interrupted the old Hokage, "but I think it's up to Yūgao-chan if her team is ready for something more difficult." At that, he then turned to face the Jōnin of Team Eleven. "Well? Are they ready?"

A grin had started to form on the Jōnin's face. "I think my team is ready for a harder mission."

Hiruzen looked at Team Eleven in appraisal; he could see the bond that had formed between all four of them as Naruto walked back to his team. The missions only seemed to have strengthened the bond between him and the last of the Baihe family, if the look of pure love she was giving to his surrogate grandson were any indication. He could not be certain as to why Danzo placed his granddaughter in this team, as Kikyo was known to be a loner; however, he could see the jealousy in her eyes despite the poker face she held. Yep, there was a bond there too, and it was more than obvious. He was about to speak when a pigeon landed on his desk with a message wrapped around his leg.

After taking the message from the pigeon, he started to read its contents—what he had picked up from that tiny little scroll made him sigh in disappointment. It was understandable, given the state of Nami no Kuni according to Tazuna. "It seems you're in luck," he began, "Team Seven is requesting some backup. Apparently, the client lied to them about the difficulty of the mission and now they are asking for a team to come and assist if only for safety's sake."

Now this had perked Naruto up a bit. "Finally, we've got a challenge! Now I can probably break a sweat on this one."

"Don't be so cocksure Naruto," interrupted Hiruzen, "I know from GSD that you've handled bandits before and so can Meilan, but ninja are a whole different league from your average run-of-the-mill brigand—for them, it's not so much about quantity as it is quality. Keep this in mind when you leave. Yūgao?"

The jōnin turned to her leader and bowed. "Hai Hokage-sama."

"You will meet your team at the gates of Konoha in an hour. I want to have a personal word with you."

With a nod, Yūgao turned to her students. "Meilan, you take Naruto with you to get prepared. Kikyo, I will see you there too." All three students then left the room quickly but quietly. Once she was assured that all three of them were out of earshot (especially to Naruto's ultra-sensitive ears), she turned her attention back to Hiruzen. "What is it Hokage-sama?"

"This is regarding Kakashi. I'm sure you're aware of his stance towards Naruto?"

This was odd, what was her Hokage getting at? Yūgao could only let out a sigh of frustration for her fellow jōnin. "I apologize in advance and with all due respect Hokage-sama, but what ninja hasn't heard of his resentment towards Naruto? I've even heard of his indirect participation in the 'fox-hunts' that the village hosts. The fool blames him for the death of his sensei and his family; thinking that he is the Kyūbi impersonating his sensei's son and deceiving everyone. I sincerely question his sanity, and am looking forward to one day punishing him for all the things that he's done to the boy."

Hiruzen let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you see things my way. Like you, I don't trust Kakashi around Naruto, and so I have a secret mission for you: as long as this mission is active, you are to keep an eye on Kakashi—if he tries to kill Naruto in any way, then you are given permission to kill him once the mission is over (assuming of course the boy has not killed him in self-defense first)."

She looked to her Hokage with surprise in her eyes. Assassinate Kakashi? Hell yeah! This was a job she'd take from her leader for free! But then again, another question cropped up in her mind. "Won't the council be angry at you for ordering the assassination of the only possible teacher the twins will have?"

The elderly Hokage grunted and gave a devious grin to the jōnin that almost scared her. "Oh don't worry your pretty head over it; I have an argument in mind that will reinstate Uchiha Mikoto as a shinobi to serve as the sensei of Team Seven should it come to the point where you have to assassinate that wretch."

…

[The Gates of Konoha, an hour later…]

The mission was a success! Tenten was tired, but she was satisfied with the result! While it was indeed a B-rank mission, it gave her and her team every opportunity to get stronger! Apparently, a large army of bandits had attacked a nearby town, sacking and robbing the place like all bandits did, and so they were sent to deal with them. It also filled her with a bit of fear, as she could see the hungry looks in the eyes of the bandits as she fought them off—she saw them all eyeing her like a piece of meat. It made her shudder, despite knowing that rape was common especially among bandits. But seeing how they were killed before they could get to her, she started feeling better—because she promised herself that nobody would touch her in the manner that these monsters were thinking of except for the one she loved.

"I failed to defeat the most bandits, such an act of un-youthfulness!" shouted Lee, in disappointment, "In punishment, I shall run a thousand laps around the village on my hands!"

Neji on the other hand had a smug look on his face as he grunted in triumph. She didn't know what a lot of girls saw in him at the time now that she thought about it. Sure, Tenten was among those superficial fan-girls that wanted the Hyūga prodigy to acknowledge them and maybe go out on a date with them—but that was before she was teamed up with him and learned what kind of person he really was; before she met Naruto again and fell in love with him. Sure, she had some competition, but that was the thing with Tenten: she liked challenges! Did she have to fight for his heart? If it meant going for true love, then hell yeah!

"Hey there Tenten!" called out a voice from the gate, startling the Higurashi girl out of her musings. She then focused her attention towards the direction in which she heard the call, and found that it was Meilan greeting her in a friendly manner. She was accompanied by a dark-skinned girl whom she assumed was her third team member and holding hands with Naruto, much to their apparent and mutual envy.

Not wanting to offend Naruto by hurting his first girlfriend, Tenten smiled back sincerely as she silently thanked whatever angels were watching over her because this situation had just bought her some more time to mentally prepare herself for the day where she had to tell him the truth and apologize for what that man did to him. "Hey there! What are the three of you doing out here?"

"Waiting for our sensei," answered Naruto, with excitement clear in his body language, "we're doing a mission that takes us out of the village."

"Good luck on that dead-last," said Neji earning a glare from the blind ninja, "a blind ninja will never amount to anything; fate will not allow it. If anything, I'll bet that you'll just be listening as your teammates get raped in front of you!"

Upon hearing that, the two teammates were about to humble the arrogant Hyūga when Naruto pulled a bit on Meilan's arm and grabbed Kikyo by the back of her bra as she pulled a combat knife out of a sheath resting in the back of her belt above her buttocks. "Ladies, be nice." Once he felt that they calmed down enough, he then turned his attention back to Neji with a bit of killer intent mixed in with his words. "As for you Mister 'Fate Defines Everything', there will come a time when your holier-than-thou attitude will be broken, and what will you when it happens? If I hear you speaking of such foolishness again, it shall be I that decides your fate."

The blast of killer intent that hit Neji struck with the force of a tsunami as it demoralized him upon being in the presence of Naruto. He then countered with his own killer intent—meager as it was, it at least gave him the strength to resist being strangled to death by the aura and retort just a little bit. "You dare challenge me? A clan-less, sightless, and talentless loser of a swordsman dares to face a Hyūga Prodigy? Don't make me laugh! Fate has decreed you the loser the second you issued that challenge!"

It was at this point that the killer intent emanating from Naruto started to intensify as he started fingering the handle of Mizu Hime. "Then prove it to me!"

Before things could escalate, the sound of a blade digging into the ground filled the air between the two of them. "That's enough!" yelled out a voice from above, belonging to the person Tenten assumed was Naruto's sensei, "While personal duels are acceptable among samurai due to their adherence to the code of bushido, they are illegal among ninja unless the duel is non-lethal. Am I understood?"

Naruto relaxed, and pulled the sword out of the ground while running his hand across the blade. He then respectfully handed the blade to his sensei, and bowed. "My apologies sensei," he said, "here is your sword."

The purple-haired woman then took her sword back, and re-sheathed it. "That's okay. Just remember that you're not in Tetsu no Kuni anymore, and I'm pretty sure you'll do fine. We ready on our first mission out of the village?"

The three of them nodded in acknowledgement and started following their sensei. Tenten had a longing look on her face as she watched the members of Team Eleven dash down the road. "Come back safely Naruto-kun."

…

[Team Seven's current location near the shores of Nami no Kuni, three days later…]

The twins simply sat around on the docks protecting the client with Sakura. It was fortunate for Tazuna that he found a gourd of sake on sale in Konoha…lord knows he needs it, given the horrible things he'd seen happen. "Kakashi-sensei, how long until our reinforcements arrive?" whined Sakura, as she tapped her feet on the ground.

"They'll come," he said, the irritation clear in his voice, "now stop whining, it's really getting on my nerves."

Frankly, the two of them could not blame him—and this really begged the question they asked themselves silently: why couldn't it have been her cousin that walked in on them? At least Sayuri would've sounded better if she whined. Hmm…yes, as the two of them thought about it, maybe they could try breaking someone on their own…as a matter of fact Sayuri would have been a great addition to their list of slaves. Oh the sound of that moan coming out of her mouth—it really made the Satsuki shiver in delight while the disguised Tsukiko kept on thinking of ways to make her moan.

Their thoughts were interrupted when they felt a very familiar chakra pulse spiking in the area approaching. Their joy was revealed when they turned in the direction of the pulse's origin. It was Satsuki that spoke first. "They're…"

"…here!" finished Tsukiko in a sing-song voice. Sure enough, the boatman had returned with four people in tow. The dark tan of Shimura Kikyo and the brighter shade of Baihe Meilan, followed by the tan that fell in between the two girls belonging to Naruto. They were accompanied by their jōnin instructor with purple-colored hair. "You're risking a lot by waiting Tazuna," said the boatman in a voice of caution, "I'm not sure about the blind kid, but I suppose getting more of these ninja here should make sure you're safer. Just make sure you finish that bridge ahead of schedule—because if Gato gets word of this, it's very likely that you're going to be very popular in the future."

Tazuna grunted. "I'll keep that in mind Geki. You just take care of yourself."

The boatman known as Geki nodded and started steering the boat away, while Yūgao faced Kakashi with a look that said 'I'm watching you, bastard!' before turning to her own students. "Our job here is to reinforce Team Seven, and to protect the client. Naruto, you're our main sensor; extend the reach of your chakra radar so that you can catch any would-be assassin before they get here. Kikyo will help provide long-range support and serve as an extra pair of eyes while you give her close-quarters protection; her job will be to shoot down said assassin or assassins before they get here. Meilan, you will aid Sakura and the Uchiha twins in guarding he client. Kakashi will take point while I have the six."

With that said, everyone got into their respective positions and started moving with unbelievable speed to do their respective tasks. Naruto was focusing on extending the reach of his chakra radar while Kikyo pulled out a sealing scroll to summon a very large longbow out of it with a quiver of equally long and heavy arrows. Once everyone was prepared, they got into their positions and started to go on the move.

…

[Somewhere in the woods, an hour later…]

A shadow in the trees had been waiting in this area for a while now; his target should be here any minute no…well, what do you know? Good things do in fact come to those that wait! And it seemed that the old man had brought in some reinforcements, which means that the fun begins now! It was here that he started studying the targets he'd been set to kill: two jōnin and six genin (only one of them being a boy) were guarding his most important target. After seeing who his targets were, the shadow started analyzing the guards—figuring out which of them was the opponent he had to kill first, and then his attention was focused on the one-eyed jōnin. So this was Hatake Kakashi eh? If he was in the team, then he could see how Gozu and Meizu had failed; the mother fucker was an elite jōnin!

Ah well, now seemed like a perfect time to greet his victims…

…

[Ground Floor…]

All seemed calm so far, Naruto was not able to pick up any hostile chakra signatures on his radar, but it did not help the ominous aura he felt. Before long, he paused upon hearing movement in the bushes; an action that Kikyo mimicked as she had noticed that disturbance as well. "What's wrong?" asked Meilan, looking around to see what it was that caught her teammate's reaction. Her answer came when Naruto pulled out a kunai from his pouch, and flung it in a direction ahead of the group in one fluid motion while Kikyo fired four arrows in the same direction in rapid succession. The result that came was five 'thunk' sounds that came from five objects digging themselves into the bark of trees.

Kikyo was about to go investigate, and so she was about to take her first step when… "Don't bother," said Naruto, getting her attention as well as everybody else's, "he was never there to begin with; at first I thought I felt the chakra reading of a ninja just before it turned into that of a frightened little rabbit. That does not change the fact that he's still here however."

Sakura glared at her rival in the affections of her mistresses. "Well if he's still here, then where is he hiding now?"

He was just about to retort when he heard the sound of large blade spinning in the air horizontally, with its trajectory heading this way! "Everybody DUCK!" he shouted, causing everyone to duck. As predicted, the object's trajectory had been changed enough as it veered away from cutting everyone down before it lodged itself in a tree in front of the group, followed by the sound of weight landing the minute the blade dug into the tree. Naruto then felt a pair of eyes looking down on him, and the rest of the escorts. "Hatake Kakashi," said the man standing on the handle of the sword, "what a pleasant surprise."

"Momochi Zabuza," answered the jōnin, looking back up at the enemy ninja with a hateful glare, "you're a nuke-nin from Kirigakure no Sato."

Zabuza grunted in acknowledgement. "It's a shame that I'm in no mood to be picking a fight with ninja at the moment, as I'm after the bridge-builder." As he studied the group before him, the nuke-nin from Kirigakure noted an oddity among the genin—namely one of them with a red arm that ended in five sharp digits and wore his Konoha hitae-ate like a blindfold. "Ah, very interesting; you've a Child of Kazan with you."

Everyone else sans Meilan turned their attention to the one whom Zabuza was speaking of, looking at Naruto with a bit of curiosity in their eyes as they saw that his gaze was focused on the boy with the red arm. "So what?" asked the blind genin, not even being affected by the killing intent of the jōnin, "You have a problem with that?"

The grin on his face was very evident under the bandages that covered it. Zabuza chuckled lightly, amused by the defiance of the brat. "Nope, I just find it interesting that I might finally have a chance at the pure, unadulterated fun in killing one of you!"

Sakura's befuddlement was clear in her voice as much as her gaze. "Child of Kazan?" she finally asked, drawing in the curiosity of the others, "What the hell is he talking about, Naruto?"

"It's a tale told to all members of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin at some point," began Zabuza, still itching for a fight to begin, "it was said that before the great Rikudou Sennin split the almighty Jūbi into nine parts, there were people that were cursed by the demon himself to become bloodthirsty beasts that spilled blood for the sake of bloodshed itself—only by wearing specially-made and sealed shackles on their arms would these people have any semblance of their normal selves. These 'Onikenshi' could call upon the powers of the demon sealed into their arms to become swordsmen of renown. The cost for this power was that their arms had become sentient; and so they had to learn to wield all weapons one-handed, even ones that were meant to be used exclusively in two hands, lest they wish to lose themselves to their tenants. The story said that they are all dead, but it was rumored that the Rikudou Sennin was the last of them."

All the shinobi in the escort detail looked at Naruto with a hint of fear in their eyes, but Meilan had none as she had known since she was there when GSD had told her lover the tale; she also knew that the tale was not complete, and that the only ones who knew how the story ended to her knowledge were GSD, Naruto, and herself. Tazuna on the other hand could only look on in sympathy for the boy as he understood that to contain a demon in one's arm was a very heavy responsibility, even if they were not the demon themselves. "So you've a basic knowledge of how the story goes," began Naruto, unaffected by the man letting the cat out of the bag, "although I do wonder if the last living member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin has learned well from the teachings of my master…you may know of him as GSD."

Upon hearing that, Zabuza's eyes had widened briefly in shock before it turned back into a desire to fight. "So you were taught by him personally, eh? Well then, I think we've plenty of time to see which one of us is the better student of his teachings!" With that, Zabuza vanished from the trees with his zanbatou and reappeared at the shores of a lake with his hands in a particular formation. "Kirigakure no Jutsu!" Once the name of the jutsu was called out, a heavy mist started rise and cover the entire battlefield to hide its user. As the mist started to obstruct vision, Meilan prepared herself in a stance while flexing her fists, Satsuki and Tsukiko drew their respective weapons, and Sakura had a kunai at the ready; all four of them kept their guards up around the client with Naruto standing in the horse stance with both hands out to the sides and focusing the power of his chakra radar to sense out the assassin as he created one glyph to be used at the ready and Kikyo readying another arrow in her longbow. Kakashi unsealed his Sharingan eye, and Yūgao had her sword out and at the ready. "Naruto," she said, getting his attention, "use your radar to try and detect him."

"I'm trying Yūgao-sensei, but the fact of the matter is that his chakra signature is everywhere; and combined with the massive killer intent he's letting out, it's practically jamming my radar!"

It wasn't long until the sound of evil laughter had filled the air. "Eight points," said the voice of Zabuza, "heart, lung, kidney, spine, jugular, subclavian artery, stomach, brain; these are the eight major kill-zones of the human body. I wonder which one I'm going to go for first?" As she heard this, Tsukiko was starting to get overwhelmed by the strength of the killer intent she was receiving from the rogue ninja. She wanted to end it all, a feeling shared by her sister as the two of them were tempted to bring their blades to their own throats and…

"Satsuki, Tsukiko," called out the voice of Naruto, interrupting their thoughts, "stay your blades, I won't let either of you die." Once they were both reassured that Naruto was telling the truth, both of the Uchiha twins got back into their stances.

"Touching," said a voice behind all six genin guarding Tazuna, causing all of them to jump at the sound, "but all in all use—"

Zabuza never got to finish that sentence; the reason being that he had a Kumo-standard short sword jabbed in between his eyes, followed by a foot with super-strength behind it smashing into his neck, while practically being turned into a human pincushion by multiple blades being stuck into him. The six genin briefly had a moment of victory until their target had exploded into water. "Not bad Kazan-kid," he said, with a kunai at Naruto's throat, "but it looks like I was the better student!"

The assassin's moment of smug satisfaction was erased when he felt another blade penetrating his torso. "No Zabuza," said Yūgao, "you're the worse student!" Much to her frustration, the Zabuza she stabbed with her katana turned out to be another Mizu-bunshin. Kakashi was next to move as he drew a kunai to combat the nuke-nin just in time to stop his zanbatou before he was flung into the lake with Yūgao following. As soon as he regained his footing and used his chakra to stand on the water, Kakashi began to wonder why Zabuza would throw him and Yūgao into the lake unless…

Too late! Spheres of water had engulfed each ninja separately with Zabuza reaching out and having a hand on both spheres. "Suiton: Suirou no Jutsu!" he said, looking at his next victims landside. "It seems like this job just got even easier," he said with amusement clear in his voice, "now then, which one of you shall I kill first? The annoying archer girl? The pure-hearted fist-fighter? The twins? Or perhaps the one I've been waiting to kill? So many choices…I think I'll kill all five of you first and then finish off pinkie and the target!"

It was then that he summoned another Mizu-Bunshin, and had it charge all five of them…only to be turned back into water the second the Kazan-kid spun around and sent a blast of chakra hitting the clone with a massive amount of force with that short sword of his, and all in one upwards swing. At this point, the first glyph that was orbiting over Naruto's head was already joined by a second glyph that trailed behind it. "You've seriously got to step it up a notch," said Naruto with a mocking grin on his face, "but since you're being such an asshole with us, I think it's time you see what happens when all of us party together."

The second the other genin (minus Sakura) heard that, the looks of determination on their faces made it clear that they refused to back down—that they refused to surrender. They would accept nothing less than a humiliating defeat on Zabuza's part. This would be the day when all five of them would be known as 'The Five Sacred Beasts of Konoha', when they all united together. Naruto sheathed his short sword and drew his Kiri-standard zanbatou from its sheath, Meilan pulled her gloves on tighter, Tsukiko and Satsuki had their blades at the ready, and Kikyo prepared another arrow to fire…this would be a long fight indeed…

…

A/N: As it stands, I've decided to hybridize Kikyo a bit later; I've decided to make her both a Spitfire and a Launcher. But either way, she won't be the only gunner in the harem.

…

Naruto's Band Members as of now (will take ideas for band names):

Naruto: all plucked string instruments, but mainly guitar

Meilan: female singer and pianist

Choji: drummer

Hinata: DJ station, second female singer

Shikamaru: male singer and bassist

…

Updated Character Classes:

Kikyo: Spitfire/Launcher

Meilan: Nen Master in the beginning, all fighter classes by Shippuden

Tsunade: Crusader/Monk/Grappler

Shion: Avenger (thinking how her demon form will be)

Tayua: Summoner (Conqueror Kasijas will be the Oni boss-summon)

Fem-Gunner OC (No Name Yet): All gunner classes, but predominantly Mechanic

Tenten: Brawler/Rogue (she likes to throw stuff a lot, and so I figured Brawler would be more fitting, along with hybridizing her)

Shizune: Brawler/Crusader (likes using poison a lot, but is still skilled in healing)

…

Dungeon Fighter Techniques Used:

Murderous Wave—Asura: Naruto threatening Neji

Wave Manifestation Brand—Asura: Naruto preparing for battle

Neutral Wave Sword—Asura: Naruto dispels the Mizu-Bunshin

…

Songs Used:

"Naruto's Daily Life" by Toshiro Masuda from "Naruto"—catching Tora…again

"Black Onslaught" by Daisuke Ishiwatari from "Blazblue: Calamity Trigger"—Naruto threatening Neji

"Thanatos" by Junichi Nakatsuru from "Soul Calibur IV"—fighting Zabuza

…

Vocabulary/Culture Notes:

PTT—Push To Talk

Onikenshi—this is what the Slayer is called in Japan; it literally means 'Ghost Swordsman' or 'Demon Swordsman' depending on how you like to read it.