Naruto was a bit freaked out, but Hiroki-sensei was back to normal within a day; the jutsu put a big strain on his body but wasn't very chakra intensive.
"I'm afraid I don't know if you could learn a similar technique, though Sasuke and Sakura might. I don't know what an infusion of Wind would look like, so I can't really give you much advice."
He wilted under the less than positive words, but Sensei tried to be consoling.
"That's not to say you couldn't come up with something of course, all the best techniques are ones you invent yourself, but I don't have any tips I'm afraid. A Lightning infusion would be, in essence, the Lightning Armor nin-taijutsu of the Raikage."
Sensei glanced at Sasuke who was sitting nearby face placid as he carefully cleaned and sharpened his sword. The younger Uchiha nodded to show he had heard but didn't stop, and Hiroki turned towards the team kunoichi.
"A Water infusion… what do you think Sakura?"
Naruto loved having such a smart teammate. While he had still been required to read a stupidly large number of books before Niisan finally declared him 'adequate', Sakura seemed to really enjoy that sort of thing and her knowledge on just about every topic nearly boggled his mind.
The pink kunoichi hummed thoughtfully as she oiled her fans.
"Well, Water nature is aligned with things like cold, and absorption, as well as the ability to flow around obstacles or adapt to change. Maybe… something like making your body really flexible and rubbery? So you could dodge better, and blunt impacts wouldn't hurt as much? And it might make you really cold too…"
He could see what Sensei meant about not knowing what a Wind infusion would do. Wind was all about cutting, pushing, and grinding, wearing the enemy down or shredding them apart. He wasn't sure what it would do to fill your own body up with Wind. Maybe add a little oomph to your hits?
Naruto kept thinking about the problem as he finished cleaning his sickles and chains with a rag, letting them get sucked slowly back into the seal inside the pocket of his hoodie as he checked over every link for cracks or chips. Learning to maintain your weapons was the first thing they had been taught after getting them; like Sensei said, a broken tool was no good to anybody, whether it was your mind, your body, or a sharp bit of metal to stick in the other guy.
Job complete, he stood up and stretched, cracking his back as he unwound from the slightly cramped position inside the little room they had been given at Tazuna's house. Sakura and Sasuke completed their work just a moment later and rose to similar ready positions. Sensei nodded approvingly before getting to his feet as well.
"Well, I don't think we'll need to worry too much about Zabuza in the near future, but this is still a good opportunity to practice your skills. Sakura, you're team lead on this one. How should we go about ensuring the safety of the primary?"
Naruto watched as Sakura mulled over the problem, a little surprised as the kunoichi eventually pulled out a bit of paper and a pen to start writing.
"Well, Tazuna is working on his bridge, and we need to keep him safe. But Tsunami and Inari are also potential targets, they might get taken hostage. Tazuna is the primary, so the largest concentration needs to be on him. Zabuza probably won't be a problem for about a week, but there is still that fake Hunter-nin to worry about, even if he didn't seem as strong."
His teammate tapped her chin lightly with the tip of her pen.
"If you're fully recovered" -she glanced up at Sensei- "then you should guard Tazuna at the bridge. Naruto" -she pointed the pen at him- "can send out a few Clones to scout out the island and set up a perimeter around the house. If they see the Hunter, they can dispel. He should probably have at least a single Clone at the bridge too; preferably two or three so we can send messages back and forth quickly."
She chewed on the end of her pen for a second as she thought a little more.
"Sasuke, me, and the real Naruto will take shifts watching the house, and maybe rotate to the bridge for a little while each day just in case. We'll need to stretch the shifts across the full 24 hours, to make sure Gato doesn't try to destroy the bridge while we're sleeping."
Sakura folded up the scrap of paper and handed it to Sasuke, who incinerated it with a burst of flame.
"Did I miss anything Sensei?"
Hiroki shook his head, smiling slightly as he relaxed against the pale wood of the wall.
"Not that I noticed, no. I'll send out a few owls to scout as well." -a flurry of hand-seals suited actions to words and brought forth a trio of small grey birds to fly out the window after a moment of whispered conversation- "You'll all want to keep a close eye on your energy levels because even out here we need to keep your training up. At a much reduced level of course. It might be a good idea to make it two 4 hour shifts rather than one 8 hour shift, but I'll leave that to all of you to figure out. Well, if we're all ready, let's head down to breakfast. Naruto, what did Tsunami make for us?"
The blond paused, scenting the air for a moment with the senses he had learned to enhance over the past few weeks.
"Rice, and… some sort of fish stew. Not sardines, not fishy enough, probably mackerel, or white fish, I saw a few boats on the way in and they weren't the big sort you'd need for getting a deep-sea dwelling fish like tuna. I think the stew has pepper in it, sorry Sasuke."
The younger Uchiha simply grunted in acknowledgment as they trooped down to the kitchen.
. . .
Naruto stared after the crying boy who had run up the stairs. It was a sad story, to be sure, but…
You should never take the words of people who have been hurt at face value.
...but there was always another side to a story. Gato sounded mean, from the people who had suffered under the magnate's rule.
"Ne, Sensei, is Gato the bad guy?"
Hiroki cocked his head to the side, staring back at him unreadably for a second before glancing out the window to track the tops of the waves rolling across the bright blue water of Wave's coast.
"Right now, yes. Definitely. Tazuna hired us to protect him, Gato is trying to kill him, Gato is the enemy. In general?"
The hooded ninja shrugged loosely, meeting the orange boy's gaze again.
"Everyone is the hero of their own story. No one thinks themselves the villain. Gato probably doesn't actually enjoy watching people suffer; at worst he probably enjoys the feeling of power over others but there are very few people who don't. The fact that the people of Wave are unhappy with what he is trying to do is a side-effect, not the intention. Gato wants money. Complete control over Wave will get him lots of money. If people are hurt in the process, well; he doesn't know any of them personally, so why should he care?"
Naruto let his head slump to the table and glowered at the wall while Sakura frowned slightly, tucking a strand of green hair behind her ear to get it out of the way. He frowned at that and pumped a mote of chakra through his coils; Sakura's tea-green hair and few random blood spots on her shirt faded away to reveal her normal pink strands and an unstained but travel worn red shirt.
"But people are getting hurt, and he knows that. If he keeps doing things that hurt people, doesn't that make him evil?"
"Never attribute malice to that which is equally explainable by stupidity or negligence."
Blue eyes flicked up to look at his raven haired teammate who was sitting in a calm position, apparently unaffected by the roiling emotions of his teammates. Hiroki-sensei nodded in agreement, shadows shifting across his face with the motion.
"There is an old riddle: What is deadlier than hate, and flows without limit? I suggest you all meditate on it if you have some time. However, there is something you might not have considered."
Their teacher stood, patting his pants free of imaginary dust and stretching luxuriously, long arc of his body silhouetted against the bright morning sun reflecting off the sea outside the house before he relaxed and addressed Team 7 seriously.
"We are shinobi. We are, in a certain sense, purer. Other men kill for power, for lust, for hate, for their country. We kill for money, to support our village. Some, like the Samurai, consider us less for such things, but we do, in our own way, possess honor. We do not judge our clients, and we do not judge our targets. We simply ask to be paid. Good and Evil don't enter into it. If things had turned out different, if Gato had done the smart thing and hired Konoha to do his dirty work rather than Missing-nin… Tazuna would be dead, and Wave would be crushed. And it would be no more, or less, our fault than his current protection. All are equal before the knife."
With those words the group split up, heading towards their respective jobs. Naruto had first watch on the house, and if Gato sent any thugs…
He clenched his fist around the hilt of his sickles where they extended into the pocket on his stomach, ignoring the slight tremor in his fingers and nervous twisting in his gut as he brushed past the pale Tsunami on his way out the door.
He was a shinobi. He did not judge. He just did what he was paid for.
. . .
A/N: Each element can be categorized with a few descriptors about what it does and what it is for.
Water: the cold of the deep sea, a pebble falling into a pond and disappearing without a ripple, a river flowing around the stones in it's path.
Fire: the bright flame of a candle in the dark, the heat of a hearth in winter, a wild fire which consumes even ash
Wind: the gale which crushes the tree down, the breeze which cuts with its quickness, the endless gulf stream which grinds the mountain to dust
Lightning: the twitch of muscles firing, the lightning bolt which flies unerringly towards its target through anything in its way, the static attraction of a storm clinging to your skin
Earth: the solid dam which holds back the river, the crushing weight of a meteor, the pillar around which the fires flow which repels their consuming flames