He awoke with a snort.
Naruto sat up slowly, groaning as he did so. The genin wasn't used to waking up like this, head feeling heavy and everything else…itchy? He scratched his head, massaging the scalp as he turned to look out the window. It was broad daylight outside.
Click, click.
A series of soft tapping noises caught his attention. Naruto shuffled around to glimpse the source. He found Tsunami, now looking up from her knitting. She paused in her work.
"Good morning," Tsunami chirped, smiling congenially. She gave him a once-over, as if indicating to Naruto he was picturesque.
"Did Naruto-kun sleep well?"
The ninja rookie returned the look with a blank one, sniffing indecorously. He coughed.
"Hey," he rasped, his voice sounding as sluggish as he felt.
They sat looking at each other, not doing much else.
"…Sleep was okay," Naruto finally admitted. Tsunami's smile brightened at that for some reason, and she resumed her handiwork, her needles tapping in sync.
The nin-in-training stood up from his spot on the floor, taking a step forward as he rolled his shoulders. He spared the merry housewife a glance as he adjusted his goggles before then beginning his usual morning stretches. Naruto was mindful to keep it something approaching natural.
Tsunami stayed silent for the most part, making a noise of approval when the tan youth split.
"Ah, so fit~," she remarked. Naruto hummed noncommittally, stretching past one foot and moving to the other in a slow arch, his fingertips gliding over the smooth wood floor.
"You're up so early," Tsunami said conversationally. Naruto hummed again, stretching forward one last time.
"This is late for me. Where's my team?"
"Sensei said you should sleep," the woman replied, a note of concern in her voice.
Naruto raised his eyebrow at that. "No Bucket-kun today? Odd."
"…Bucket-kun?"
The boy shrugged.
"You had to be there."
Tsunami nodded, appearing to understand.
"Should I make you something to eat?" Tsunami solicited, her needles halting in the middle of a pearl.
"Nah," Naruto waved his hand as if to disperse the offer, "I'll fix my own food. Got something in my bag."
"Oh."
"You like game?"
The woman blinked, seemingly nonplussed, "I ate already, but thank you."
Naruto nodded, heading over to his stuff. He dropped to a squat, sitting on his heels in front of his pack. As he produced his intended morning meal, something on the periphery of his hearing caught his attention.
The blond stood up smoothly, clutching his breakfast in one hand. He ambled to the front door and opened it. What he found surprised him- and what he found was equally surprised.
Two grungy yobs stood poised in mid-stride, their hands on their swords. A split second went by in the pregnant atmosphere. Then Naruto grimaced, his hands blurring.
One got a kunai in the face, the other a rabbit. Both went down spluttering.
Naruto fell back hyperventilating.
"Is everything all- oh."
The genin picked himself up, shaking his head.
"Back inside, ma'am," the boy ninja said, promptly going after the intruders.
One was getting up, throwing aside the limp white snow rabbit. His long, scraggly hair only half the look of uncertainty on his face.
"That's my breakfast you're slinging around," Naruto grunted, bearing down on the thug as the man swung his sword. Like he did with Zabuza, Uzumaki slipped the blade, ducking in fatalistically.
The thug jumped back, then shot forward with a practiced thrust for Naruto's neck. The blond menace spun on reflex to flank his opponent, driving an improvised knife hand into the man's side.
Grunting weakly as his air cut off, the hired muscle threw a one-handed slash at his aggressor's head. Naruto felt a scratch along the side of his face, returning the favor by driving his fist into the man's jaw. The thug sank like a pile of bricks, groaning.
Naruto took a moment to appraise his adversary's condition, gingerly turning him over with his foot. After making sure that the sock-head wasn't playing possum, the blond drove his bare heel into the mercenary's solar plexus, just to be safe.
He turned away from the prone swordsman to address the other one. Naruto, being new to fighting men, was sure this one was dead- the handle of the genin's weapon dangled out of the thug's "good" eye. A viscous ooze drained from it, a mixture of blood and…other things.
The newly consummate assassin spared a glance toward the house. Tsunami stood poised at the doorway not five paces away, with Inari shakily peeking out from behind his mother.
Naruto gave the housewife a terse nod, feeling a syrupy blob of blood shake loose from his jawline. He turned back to the cooling body, stooping to pick it up. He heard the front door close.
~xxx
After summarily beating information out of the remaining Gato thug, Naruto was sure of two things. One, that Tazuna and his family were priority targets and, more importantly, that today things were going down. It was the most Naruto could manage, being new to interrogation. He made up for it by beating the goomba into a quivering pile of bruises and fractures and tying him up against a tree, and then throwing both thugs' swords in the river for good measure.
The blond set out briskly, leaving his victim and his victim's weak imprecations behind him.
Today, things were going down.
~xxx
Naruto could tell before he got close to the bridge that there was trouble.
The now familiar cacophony of the builders was missing. The din of hammers, pulleys, raucous men calling for tools or assistance…even the simple cacophony of people milling around was gone. Replacing that clamor was a foreboding quiet, one in which Naruto was just beginning to make out the sound of voices.
He strafed to the side of the bridge, forming a quick ram seal to channel chakra into the soles of his feet. Naruto opted to keep quiet, reasoning that rushing into a situation he knew nothing about would result in embarrassment at best and bloodier things if not. Plus he was pretty sure Kakashi and his teammates could handle his absence for a little longer.
But being only pretty sure, Naruto hustled along the bottom rim of the bridge.
Before Naruto had gotten halfway, the quietude was broken by what sounded like metal somethings hitting pavement. Just like shuriken. The genin broke into a run, trading caution for expediency. The sounds of weapon use got louder and heavier.
More than halfway down the bridge, where Naruto was sure the action was happening, the boy genin jinked for the top. Nimbly vaulting over the railing, Naruto mentally reoriented his sense of gravity. He spun as he did so, glancing toward the conflict.
He saw Sakura first, armed with a kunai and poised defensively in front of Tazuna. He then caught sight of what looked to be… mirrors? Naruto shook his head, taking a second look.
It was a rough dome of mirrors, showing the image of the hunter nin from before- and with Sasuke evidently trapped inside. Naruto's brow furrowed, and so he ran over to where Sakura was without another thought.
As the blond genin neared, Sakura spared him a glance before turning her eyes back to the action, flinging a kunai at the dome as she did. Sakura then did a double take, her hair whipping around wildly. Tazuna seemed similarly surprised.
"N-Naruto?" the wouldbe kunoichi gasped. Naruto gave the two a terse nod in greeting.
"What's the situation?" he said, turning his gaze to the mirrors and Sasuke.
"Well, Sensei and Zabuza went over the side of the bridge, and- dammit!"
Sakura swallowed hard. "The hunter nin is with Zabuza…and just caught my kunai."
Indeed, it seemed that the newly confirmed enemy had caught it. The upper half of the nin protruded from one of the reflections, sending an intent stare the group's way. An unfamiliar sensation ran up Naruto's back, a thrill coursing through him.
"I think we just got somebody's attention," Naruto said, gut clenching.
The staring hunter nin then got hit in the mask with a shuriken, falling out of the mirror in a clumsy tumble. Landing with a thump, the enemy looked up with apparent shock.
"It seems Sasuke took advantage of that," the blond added drily.
Sakura made a vague sound of assent, nodding. Naruto turned halfway back to the two.
"Why don't you guys head back to where it's safe?"
The fledgeling kunoichi frowned.
"And leave you guys alone against those two?"
"Look," Naruto said, "You're gonna have your hands full keeping our client safe, and you can't do that on a battleground of our enemies' choosing."
"I'm not too keen about this plan," Tazuna cut in, folding his arms.
Naruto managed a humorless grin.
"From what I've seen, Zabuza and his crew broke Gato's bank- I just came from taking care of two of his guys; Gato's thugs weren't anything special. The worst trouble is right in front of us and we have them outnumbered."
"We got this," the boy added, giving a thumbs up with a grin, "Trust me."
"You're sure about this?" Sakura asked, obviously conflicted.
"Yeah," Naruto said, "You're the smartest of our class- you'll figure something out."
The girl shinobi didn't reply immediately, her flawless brow creasing in a show of inner conflict. After a moment, Sakura nodded, assuming a determined posture before turning away. Tazuna spared Naruto lingering glance before following his slight bodyguard, his moue making his feelings clear. The blond rogue grinned wolfishly back at him before facing back to the main event.
~xxx
"Hi hi hi there."
Sasuke started, almost taking a needle in the knee in a lapse of concentration. He shot a look at the yellow haired goon hiding behind a mirror.
"Well hello," he managed, twirling a freshly caught senbon between his fingers. The menace he called a teammate smiled toothily, his headgear glinting in the faint mist.
"Having trouble there, Sasuke?" Naruto said, rubbernecking the dome. As if on cue, a hail of metal lanced through the air at either of the genin. The pale genin ducked, dodged, and swatted the offending weapons, his compatriot simply ducking behind the mirror.
"Oh no," Sasuke eventually replied, his exasperation clear. The Uchiha grunted as he felt a scrape on his face.
Naruto leapt onto the top mirror, the "roof" of the dome, and peered down carefully at his trapped teammate. He observed a number of needles that Sasuke caught with something other than his fingers- rather painfully, at that.
"Is that so, Mister Hedgehog?"
Sasuke scoffed, ducking and slipping another wave of attacks.
"What took you, Naruto?" He grunted. The Uchiha flung his kunai at a dark blur, cursing when the knife bricked outside the trap.
"I had trouble sleeping," the blond answered, examining a fingernail at random, "Goodness knows I haven't gotten any good rest lately."
Sasuke's eyebrow ticked at his comrade's insouciance.
"We should have kicked you out of bed," the brunet growled, "Sensei planned to do it. Stupid Sakura and me, saying to let you off today…"
"Appy-polly-logies, Sasuke," Naruto grinned, chagrined, "But, see, there was a bug-"
"A bug," Sasuke cut in, jerkily ducking yet more senbon, "Well that makes it all okay then."
"-Well it was a big bug!" the apparent pendant cried, "Huge!"
"Naruto…"
"It landed on me in the middle of the night…it was on my neck…"
"Is this really the-"
"-then it got in my bag…"
"Could you just-"
"-and then it-"
"Mother of the Boddhi-," Sasuke began before a blur passed right in front of him, rocking him on his heels. His eyes widened when the air above him darkened for a moment. When it cleared, he noticed the top mirror had pieces missing from it- particularly where Naruto's head had been poking out.
Said teammate showed himself from behind one of the higher mirrors. The genin sported a needle or two from one cheek, his goggles were cracked in one lens, and his wild hair had managed to get a foot long needle tangled in it.
"Suffice to say," Naruto began, giving a shaky thumbs up, "I have a valid excuse."
"…Just get in here and cover my back."
The blond scoffed, stepping into the danger zone. As Naruto did so, he noticed movement in the corner of his vision. Sasuke's eyes widened, the prodigy genin darting to intercept something coming straight at Naruto.
Caught off-guard, Naruto could only watch as the Uchiha warded off the false hunter nin with nothing but raw speed. His arms blurred, swiping and jabbing, a score or more of needles dropping to the ground in front of him.
Somewhere in all this exertion, the brunet managed to produce a length of ninja wire. Sasuke's arms windmilled, the fine cord snapping taut to sweep the air clean of weapons then slacking as its user sought to aim a kick or throw a shuriken at the rogue ninja.
The enemy went from nearly invisible to a constant blur, attacking from all directions. Naruto's head whipped to an fro as the novice tried to follow his opponent't deadly flight, yet Sasuke followed the movements with a slight tilt to any given side.
"Cover my back!" Sasuke roared. Naruto nodded mutely, turning to put his back against Sasuke's. Slowly, they crept towards to middle, aiming to avoid getting flanked. It seemed impossible, anyways, as the enemy just seemed to get faster and more aggressive with each attack.
The blond grunted as he took a needle in the leg, then another in his shoulder. He kept moving, careful to guard his teammate's vulnerable spots. This amounted to simply blocking with his body. It would have been comical, the nigh useless flailing of Naruto's limbs, if not for the seriousness of the situation.
"How're you doing, Sasuke?" Naruto called out, trying to keep his attention on the hazy image of the hunter nin, half gone every time he turned his head to face it.
Sasuke managed an apathetic grunt, offering "I'm tired, but I'm starting to see through this. You ok?"
Naruto sniffed, making a noise of indifference.
Whereas the Uchiha was covered in welts in scratches this long into the fight, Uzumaki Naruto found himself sporting an exponentially increasing number of contusions, and it only being the first minute for him.
"I'm doing pretty good-ECH! Bluh!"
The blond found his offhanded response punctuated with a needle lancing between his teeth, lodging in the back of his mouth. Naruto spit it out, the offending object making a musical ting as if to mock him. Naruto found himself sneering at it before he thought better of it.
"What's that?"
"Well, um," Naruto began, his new blowhole whistling as he mumbled, "I said do we have a plan?"
He felt Sasuke shrug.
"I think we need to figure out the weakness."
"Seems we could trap this guy or knock him out of the air," Naruto offered, glancing around.
"He's too fast for that. We need to break through his technique."
Naruto hummed in agreement.
"Unfortunately," Sasuke continued, "I've tried that, too. The ice is too dense to melt down or shatter-"
"You move well," a breathy voice interjected. Naruto and Sasuke turned on the source- the hunter nin had finally spoken.
"…but this time I'll stop you."
The genin duo tensed, then relaxed. Sasuke faced the enemy, whilst Naruto readied his billhook.
In the split second that followed, Sasuke dove in a random direction, and the blond was flung against the adjacent mirror. The trio froze, the enemy nin standing where the Leaf genin once stood, between his two opponents.
A moment passed in a seeming standoff before the hunter disappeared again, appearing in a mirror a safe distance away.
"I see…you are also from an advanced bloodline."
Sasuke's eyes widened, the whites of his eyes juxtaposed by a newly revealed scarlet. Naruto's brow creased in mute response.
"Then I can't fight for much longer; my technique uses a lot of chakra…there's a limit on how long I can keep up this speed."
The temperature of the air plunged as the hunter nin went on, the Leaf genin unable to do anything so long as he was safe inside his mirror.
"Most likely the longer this fight goes on…if your eyes are starting to catch me, then-"
Naruto felt a sudden pressure almost welding him to the spot, ice forming on his skin. The image of the hunter nin distorted as he ejected from his haven in a burst of speed.
"This is the end!" the nin roared, the breathy voice cracking…girlishly?
Naruto was prepared for the hunter to slam into him like a bus, but the hit didn't come- from the nin. Instead, it was a flash flood of water that hit him.
Like the slap of an icy god, a wall of wet stuff sent the three flying off the bridge, and it seemed they were swimming in the air. The hunter nin swept toward Naruto in a helpless daze, the blond catching him around the waist with an arm.
Naruto spotted Sasuke some yards away, their eyes locking instantly. The brunet flung his arms out desperately, Uzumaki reaching out in turn, both trying to grasp the other. The "current" changed as the group began to plummet into the river, sending Sasuke straight into his comrade's face.
The jolt of force was enough to knock Naruto silly, though he held onto consciousness long enough to grab a remarkably bony wrist.
And that was all the blond knew for a while.
~xxx
The sound of the surf welcomed Naruto as he came to, flat on his back. A foot nudged his side. The blond groaned, opening his eyes in a squint. What visage greeted him but that of a thug bearing a toothless grin, who then decided to swing down at Naruto with his cleaver.
"Huagh!" the genin yelled, rolling out of the way of the rusted blade.
In a fatigue-dulled hand spring, Naruto righted himself and faced his enemy. The man was ugly and scarred, like one would imagine most back alley types. Advancing on the village behind the thug were men just like him, scores of them. But the boy ninja barely acknowledged this as he slipped another swing at his face.
Naruto ducked inside the oaf's guard and headbutted him right in the jaw. The assailant stumbled back, blubbering ineffectually. The genin made a noise of contempt, and with a single whip of his hand filled his attacker's mouth with sharp steel.
The blond probed for a moment with the kunai's tip before lunging hard, perforating the goon's neck. With that, the toothless freak collapsed, Naruto stepping over his twitching form.
Naruto observed a world going increasingly mad as he entered the village, all manner of hired muscle availing themselves of potential profit and entertainment. It was then the fledgling assassin noticed his mentor crouched on a roof not far away, and gave the man a nod. Kakashi pointed across from Naruto's position, nodding in turn.
The boy nodded, grinning morosely. Naruto turned on a pair of thugs harassing a small crowd gathered in front of a cart, likely for the purpose of getting at the contents of said cart. One brandished an ill-used kunai, and that was all the prompting the yellow killer needed.
Naruto weaved between the two thugs, producing his billhook and hamstringing one of them in the same movement. As surprised as even Naruto was at his deftness, the genin didn't hesitate to knock the one wounded yob down with a ram of his wiry shoulder.
The yet untouched man roared, scoring a hard shot on Naruto's shoulder blade with the truncheon he had. Naruto took the blow in stride, returning it with a backhand chop with his favored weapon, cutting deep into his third opponent's side. The boy capitalized on the gained momentum with a sharp kick into the still standing man's leg, sending the reeling fool to the dirt.
Naruto remembered the error of turning his back on an enemy when his target's compatriot limped close enough to him to prod his neck with that crappy kunai he had. The boy shuddered as he felt his blood well out of the jagged cut, grabbing the offender's armed hand without a second thought and throwing the thug over his shoulder to land on his comrade.
The pair gasped in shared pain and surprise, evidently not expecting much in terms of opposition. Naruto helped them on their way to their inevitable reward with a few calculated stomps, not hesitating to aim for noses nor neckbones.
Some from the crowd sheepishly voiced their thanks, although even Naruto doubted the heroism of his rescue. He gave a soft grunt of assent before continuing on his way to the nearby dock, the sounds of muffled screams lingering in the salty air.
The lone genin happened on what appeared to be three men piling on one girl. The latter, seeming no older than 14, seemed to be the source of much of the noise, her cries of indignation making Naruto's sensitive ears ring. The men were nonplussed, their consternation at someone adverse to their advances seemingly alien, but they wrestled with the object of their attentions without hesitation.
It seemed the girl was all but completely pinned down by her three bony assailants, fending off one or the other with but her gnashing teeth and a single leg. One of the goons groped to undo the knot on the girl's half-hidden funidoshi.
Watching this, Naruto felt a fire light in his belly. He gnashed his teeth, sprinting headlong into the fray.
He flopped onto the back of one, putting the wastrel in an arm bar, at the same time aiming kicks at the grunts now turning on him. They rolled about on the pier, the goons and Naruto collecting a fair number slivers from the rough wood in shins. elbows, and other sensitive areas. This brought back the boy genin back, to when it was him against the underbelly of his village, one brat against a gang of brats just like him.
What brought him out of that reverie was the latest arrival, a muscled up thug with a neck as big as Naruto's leg. The thug picked the blond runt up with his thick knuckled fist and hoisted Naruto into the drink.
Naruto immediately leveled his feet with the water, forming a brief chakra connection with the bottom of the inlet. He immediately sprang off the water's surface, surging over the pier- and straight into the boot of the ogreish goon. The boy's vision spun, and he wheeled back into the water amidst the guffaws of his enemies.
As Naruto sank into the cold depths of the sea, his pride burned. That idiots like this could still get the drop on him galled the boy ninja, and he felt the iciness of his heart well up to mirror that of the murky water he sank in. Hatred suffused his blood.
His hands contorted together in mechanical succession, the life force of his body merging with the keen force of will of his spirit. As his chakra welled out from his body and into the water, Naruto grinned in contemplative glee.
~xxx
Gato's men could safely say they were men of the world, one and all. They'd been places, seen some shit.
What came crawling out of the Wave's harbor, though, would live on in infamy.
Dozens of people rose up from the water, scrambling over decks and rooftops like ants. Their bodies were warped and discolored, each one looking as if they were formed from the river's mud by a mad god.
A talisman over each face hid something hideous from view, eyeless, fanged visages, dripping with pus and seawater. The mob of strange river people moved in no recognizable order, yet converged on the town with a synchronicity that was chilling.
They fell on the thugs with a mute ferocity, gouging at eyes, clawing off strips of skin and ears. Men were broken, even torn apart in the streets as these demonic people ran rampant.
Gato's men didn't fail to note that the townspeople of Wave were left untouched, even as some took up arms against what turned out to be an immaterial foe. One man with a pickaxe brained one of the sea people without flinching, and all watched as it simply dissolved. All that was left was water.
The madness continued even as the goons found the nerve to flee, the hideous river people chasing them miles out from the island town. A few glanced what appeared to be a sorcerer leering from atop the roofs of the village, garbed in water-damaged finery. His wild yellow hair framed a manic, skull-like face, and even those who didn't see him certainly heard him laughing, an unnatural sound that reverberated in the thugs' ears.
Gato had brought them in, signed and paid for, to replace the Demon of the Mist. None of them were prepared, evidently, to replace this Demon of the Waves.
~xxx
The townspeople milled about in the streets, mumbling amongst each other. With the flight of Gato's henchmen, it seemed like a weight had lifted from the villagers' shoulders.
In place of that weight lay a queer, unsettling feeling. On the one hand, they were saved from the years long oppression of the corrupt shipping magnate, Gato. On the other, they had been delivered their salvation by magic, rather than their own hands.
Many were happy to accept their peace in whatever form it had come, but not many were prepared to clean up after all the maimed and dead left behind. Ears and eyes littered the streets and rooftops, like hail in the wake of a storm. Corpses were flung about on street corners and in squares, a display of guts, gore, and offal.
It was quickly decided that the remains would be buried outside of town, and thus the sternest amongst them set about doing so. Thank goodness there was still some light yet for such hideous work.
~xxx
Kakashi observed the toils of the village people from the rooftop. What carnage…
A thud sounded behind him, breaking the Jonin from his reverie. He turned halfway to meet his charge's gaze. Naruto seemed to be unaffected by the heinous tableau in the streets, but then again he was the architect of it.
Kakashi gave the boy a once-over, his eyebrow raised.
"Much of a fan of Princess Fuun dramas, Naruto?"
The little sorcerer grinned, his eboshi slipping into his face.
"I couldn't deny that was part of the fun, Sensei," Naruto admitted, his jagged teeth glinting in the late afternoon sun.
"Only part of it, Naruto?" Kakashi said, crossing his arms, "I'm starting to think Zabuza rubbed off a bit on you…a little bit too much, if you ask me."
The boy genin reached behind his head, scratching his shoulder self-consciously. His henge dispelled, revealing a sodden, half-dressed Naruto.
Kakashi's instinctive frown softened a little bit.
"A little cold, Naruto?"
The boy shrugged noncommittally, crouching on the rooftop. They turned to watch the townspeople at work. Downtrodden and malnourished as many of them were, they worked diligently and left barely an intestine behind. Whatever was left, however, was quickly tended to by the neighborhood strays.
"Naruto…"
The boy hummed in response, adjusting his goggles.
"Where are your teammates?"
"Er," Naruto began gracefully, "I sent Sakura and Tazuna back to the house. They should be fine."
Kakashi tapped his foot.
"And Sasuke?"
"Oh, he's…" Naruto petered off, pausing in thought for a second. "…shit."
The Jonin sighed, leaning over to give his student a cuff on his scalp. He turned to leap to an adjacent roof.
"Well let's go collect him, shall we?"
Naruto followed without a word. Internally, his imagination was awhirl with possibilities.
~xxx
They spent days looking for Sasuke. There was little to go on and what little there was was obscure. He was swept away in the resulting flood of Kakashi and Zabuza's clashing Water Dragons, so he could yet be at the bottom of the ocean by now, bloating slowly under the duress of his rapidly decaying flesh. The putrefying visage of the Uchiha haunted Naruto even then, years later.
…That was how it played out in Naruto's head, more or less. The truth of the matter was a little less, er, high drama.
"Fuck you!"
Sasuke was sent facefirst into the dirt by a wild axe kick. From the look of his clothes, this was not the first time and promised not to be the last. It spoke volumes of his spirited detainee, the false hunter nin a la Zabuza- particularly since said detainee was very firmly tied to a tree.
It was on that note that his team decided to make themselves known.
"Ah, Sasuke," Kakashi called, striding out of the bushes, "Hope we're not interrupting anything."
"Not at all," the Uchiha grunted hauling himself off the forest floor. He stood up with as much dignity as he could manage, dusting himself off accordingly. Then he spotted Naruto leering from behind his sensei. Sasuke's disposition immediately soured.
"Having fun, Dirt-Face?" the goggled menace sneered, his lips parted in a mocking grin.
Sasuke merely stood there, looking as if someone had the temerity to get sick all over his sandals. He turned to look at his sensei in askance.
"Why bring him?" was all he mustered.
Kakashi shrugged.
"He was worried."
The Jonin turned to their captive.
"More to the point, we weren't sure how you were doing, particularly with…this on the loose."
Had the fake hunter had removed his mask, Kakashi figured, now would've been when he'd have tried to spit in the Jonin's face. As it was, the crook ninja couldn't have taken his mask off even if he wanted to. Thinking of which…
"Naruto," Kakashi barked.
"Yes, sensei?"
"Let's see who we're dealing with," Kakashi nodded at the captive ninja.
Naruto hummed in affirmation, advancing cautiously on the mysterious adversary.
"Naruto, speed it up," Kakashi remarked, "The guy's tied to a tree."
Naruto made a noise as if trying to come up with a viable excuse. He complied all the same, marching up to the team's captive and snatching off the mask- and then froze.
Naruto stared at the revealed nin in shock, and Haku stared back.
Sasuke and Kakashi hummed, appraising the features of their prodigal foe.
The fake hunter nin's gaze darted from the two strangers and Naruto. Apart from the eyes, Haku projected tranquility.
"Girly," the Uchiha grunted, earning a mute leer from his sensei.
A blush bloomed on the fake hunter nin's cheeks, pink spotting snow white. Haku scoffed as gruffly as could be managed.
"You would know," she said. Sasuke grunted in irritation, averting his eyes.
Kakashi hummed, his eye gleaming with demure mischief.
"Let's get moving," the jōnin said, turning, "and bring the captive along. We're taking him to the capital."
"Wha-?!"
Kakashi cast a glance back at his students.
"Problem, Sasuke?"
Sasuke stiffly assumed a calm posture, his hands unclenching. His gaze darted to Haku.
"Kakashi-sensei, this is impulsive – even for you. Let's just end this-"
The jōnin half-turned back to the group, frowning.
"What the commanding nin says goes...Especially when said nin is commanding his students. As a nin, you must make judgment calls based on experience above all else."
Kakashi abruptly strode out of the clearing, ending the discussion.
Left alone with the clearly unstable captive, Naruto and Sasuke glumly eyed each other.
"Well then," the Uchiha coughed in embarassment, blushing, "this is-"
"You get the hands, I get the legs," Naruto cut in, nodding. The words were barely out of his mouth as he wheeled on Haku, stalking toward her. The girl wriggled ineffectually in her bindings.
The Uchiha huffed effetely, following suit.
"No respect," he grumbled.
Not soon after, a wail of disapproval echoed through the glade.
...as well as a chorus of swears.
~xxx
As Naruto and Sasuke entered Tazuna's house, trussed ho in tow, they were startled with the discovery of another captive- Momochi Zabuza, newest tenant of the bridgebuilder's creaky chair.
...well, in truth, his thumbs and wrists were bound, so he was free to get up from it whenever he wanted to.
Apparently, Kakashi had gotten the better outcome in the battle, having somehow misdirected the rogue nin with his Sharingan eye. The final showdown with the Water Dragon technique is what caused the flash flood that sent everyone off the bridge – except for Kakashi, the orchestrator.
To hear him tell it, he'd plucked "Ol' Momo" out of the water, dainty as you please, and had him back at Tazuna HQ before either had begun to dry off. Questioning Zabuza yielded a similar story- nearly identical, but with more lewd inferences about Hatake-sensei's preferences.
The enemy nin was halfway through the "second opinion" when the Jōnin produced an orange book from his person. Kakashi thumbed it open to a seemingly random page, then taped the mysterious piece of literature to Zabuza's face. Oddly enough, Zabuza didn't carry on like the genin expected
It wouldn't be until much later that they'd learn why.
~xxx
Haku awoke irate. Not only was she still tied up like a damsel in distress, but her mentor was, too, had some random objects taped and/or stapled to him. She only become more indignant under the wheedling conversation offered by Tsunami, random itches blossoming in difficult to reach places, and Zabuza being suspiciously unresponsive. When it came to light what had happened to the Mist nins' employer, however, the false hunter became positively tractable.
Gatō had taken everything that wasn't nailed down and fled. The invasion of the village wasn't his usual damage control, but an out and out raid by thugs that suddenly found themselves out of a job. That the Leaf team had routed it so handily, the pretty nin commented, was literally fantastic.
Sasuke then took the opportunity to bounce a tattoo'd (obviously severed) ear off Haku's nose. Kakashi's brand of laconic slapstick went two-for-two, the unemployed mercenary offering no more than silence for the rest of Team 7's stay in Wave.
~xxx
Sakura breathed into the pile of kindling, lightly coaxing a small flame to blossom. After placing a few carefully chosen twigs atop the burgeoning camp fire, she leaned back on her hands. Sighing breathily, she cast a glance around her Team's encampment.
Understandably, they'd hightailed it out of Tazuna's village before word of their success had spread past the bridge town. With news of a notorious ninja like Zabuza being taken captive by a squad of rookies – Kakashi be damned – it wouldn't be long before the smell of blood got into the water. So, with a few quick goodbyes and a fair number of enthusiastic thank-yous from the locals, the party headed back toward the Hidden Leaf.
Although they'd taken barely a day to get to the Land of Waves, Kakashi-sensei had opted for slower travel on the way back. The man's justification boiled down to the team being tired from the action earlier that day. Nobody had been in a rush to complain about that, least of all their captives.
Naruto had seen fit to cook his intended breakfast of snow hare in full view of the captives. It was mildly surprising when the false hunter nin refused the offer of meat, but moreso when Naruto lost interest in the tasty meal, as well. The rest of the team exchanged glances, each concerned for a different reason.
Sakura glanced furtively at Naruto, clutching her shoulder and kneading it absentmindedly. Sasuke, oblivious to the lack of background noise, glared at the effeminate prisoner. Haku met his intense gaze apathetically, before turning over on her side to sleep. Whilst concerned about the hints of a relationship between his charge and the unregistered nin, Kakashi eyed Zabuza, who was remarkably taciturn since entering captivity.
The rogue didn't so much as flinch at the singed haunch of meat when offered, taking it with a hooked finger. He'd ripped portions off with his teeth, chewing and swallowing bone and gristle with the edible parts. Zabuza didn't bat an eye at the theatrics of his kohai, nor from Kakashi's attentions. Like his subordinate, he settled down to sleep peaceably.
The party reached the Hidden Leaf quickly the next morning, though not without incident. Naruto had attempted to raid the missing nins' supplies in the hubbub of disembarking, only to run afoul of Sakura. The fallout was questionably copacetic- Sakura and Naruto resumed avoiding each other.
They made their goodbyes at the village gate, Kakashi seeing the students off before handling the prisoners accordingly.
A sedate end to a most tumultuous errand.
~xxx
Ok so that wraps up 20. Underwhelming, I know.
The next chapter is planned to be up the end of the month.