Chapter 25: Land of Waves (2): Gatō, Zabuza, and Haku.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto.
End Banner: A SPECIAL THANKS to Michel Smith for supporting and helping me! CHAPTERS 24 and 25 will be out early today, and we're planning on rewriting the first chapters of the story to make things more engaging and less confusing. Apologies to those who were confused by my chaotic writing.
A thick fog covered the stone bridge as if a cloud had fallen on the ground. At the center of the white fog was a silver-haired ninja, whose hair stood up like grass. He was wearing a dark blue mask that covered his mouth and nose, and his forehead protector was loosely hanging on his head, covering his left eye.
"Hmn…"
The silver-haired ninja groaned and lifted his forehead protector, revealing a scarlet pupil with three black tomoe, slowly spinning clockwise.
'Where is he…?'
Kakashi looked around but found that it was useless. Even with the perception of the sharingan, he could barely see his hands, let alone the enemy hiding in the fog.
Vrrr…crack—crack…
When Kakashi sensed the chakra spike behind him, and then the stone bridge below crack and shake, he looked back and saw the special jonin, Habiki, use an earth-style jutsu to cover Yukito, the bridge builder, and the six genins.
When Habiki sensed his gaze, he nodded at him. Seeing his nod, Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief and allowed himself to focus all his attention on Zabuza, the person behind this Hiding in the Mist jutsu.
"Tsk, why are there two leaf ninjas?"
Zabuza muttered, his voice hoarse and heavy.
'What the hell is he doing, muttering by himself…?"
After locating Zabuza's location through his voice, Kakashi didn't waste any time and weaved a series of hand seals in less than a second, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
FOOOOO—!
As expected, Zabuza dodged from a mile away, but that wasn't Kakashi's intent. His real goal was to thin out the fog so that Zabuza's advantage would fade a little.
The fog was created with chakra, so to counter it, you needed to attack the fog with chakra-based attacks. Of course, blowing it away using wind style was better, but Kakashi's elemental affinity was lightning, he had a terrible affinity with the wind element.
"Chidori!"
SHAAAA—crackle—crackle—crackle!
Kakashi yelled, his palm covered in lightning chakra. His sharingan eye was constantly spinning, tracking the person hiding in the mist.
"As expected of the copycat ninja, I can't hide in front of your sharingan eye."
As a dark shadowy figure slowly walked out, it revealed a tall man with dull, pale skin. The lower half of his face was covered in bandages, and in his hand was a giant, great sword. It was the executioner's blade, one of the seven swords of the village hidden in the mist.
The one wielding it, Zabuza Momochi, is one of the seven swordsmen of the mist.
Seeing Zabuza appear, Kakashi didn't hesitate and charged at Zabuza like an arrow being launched. Zabuza tried to block Kakashi with his sword, but Kakashi used body flicker to appear behind Zabuza, stabbing him in the chest.
BANG—SPLASH…..
Zabuza's chest tore open, blood rained down on the ground and Zabuza's heart stopped beating. However…
Bzzzzt—crackle–crackle-crackle!
Zabuza suddenly turned into a puddle of water, and Kakashi was electrified by his own jutsu.
"Ha!"
Then, another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and slashed Kakashi in half.
POOF!
But Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke, while another Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza and stabbed Zabuza with a kunai.
Shhhhh…
CLANG!
That Zabuza also turned into a puddle of water, and another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi. This time, Kakashi jumped away from Zabuza after deflecting Zabuza's sword away from the man.
Their clash lasted for a total of five seconds, yet both of them had used up a good amount of chakra. Zabuza only used water clones, but to fool the sharingan, he deliberately put a lot of his chakra into his clones. And unlike the shadow clone, the excess chakra on the water clones doesn't return to the original.
"Impressive! You really are worthy of your title, Kakashi of Konoha."
"You talk too much."
"Ha-ha! If you think so, then let's end this!"
Zabuza started weaving hand seals, but to his shock, Kakashi also started weaving hand seals.
And the hand seals Kakashi was weaving were exactly the same as his.
"Impossible!"
Zabuza yelled, but his attention never left his hands as he kept weaving hand seals.
"Zabuza, leave now or I'll be forced to kill you here."
"Hmph, you can't make me leave. I am one of the seven swordsmen of the mist…"
The more he talked, the wider his eyes got. Because each of his words was being uttered by Kakashi at the same time.
"Are you—?"
Zabuza said.
"—reading the future?!"
Kakashi finished.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!"
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!"
BANG!
When the two water dragons collided, they destroyed each other and rained down on the battlefield, soaking both Kakashi and Zabuza.
WOOSH—!
Suddenly, Zabuza approached Kakashi and delivered a swift kick, to which Kakashi dodged to the left and landed on the water below the bridge they were on.
"Fool. Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu!"
From inside the carriage, Yukito narrowed his eyes and frowned. Then, he clicked his tongue in disappointment.
'What the hell is that Konoha jonin doing? He landed on water… when his enemy's elemental affinity was water! Konoha's ninjas are getting rusty… or maybe it's just this one.'
When Yukito sensed Kakashi get imprisoned, he shook his head in disappointment and thought that he would have to step up, but he didn't expect the special jonin beside the carriage to immediately react and launch ninjutsu.
"Ninjutsu: Shadow Clone Technique."
First, Habiki created a clone.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bullet!"
"Wind Style: Wind Bullet!"
VOOOOSHH—
Habiki blew and released a torrent of wind and fire. The two elements combined and made the fire dragon stronger, bigger, and faster.
Habiki's fire style was strong, it was his main affinity. But since he didn't have any affinity with the wind element, his wind style wasn't even a fifth as strong as his fire style. Nevertheless, he got the job done.
After launching the jutsu, Zabuza was forced to release the water prison, while Kakashi swiftly used a substitution to appear next to Habiki.
"Thanks."
"Don't think about it, Kakashi-senpai."
"I'll end this quick. I just made a blunder earlier."
Kakashi said before flickering next to Zabuza, who hurriedly dodged.
Clang! TING—clang!
The two battled for one minute before Kakashi managed to stab Zabuza in the abdomen.
"GAH! You bastard!"
Zabuza was about to launch another jutsu when suddenly, two senbon struck his neck, killing him.
Woosh!
"Hello, Konoha ninja. I am a hunter-nin from the hidden mist village. I've been hunting Zabuza for a long time now, so I thank you for giving me the opportunity to take him down."
"No problem. Here, I'll burn him for you. Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
WOOSH!
Before the fireball could hit Zabuza's body, the hunter-nin flickered next to Zabuza and carried his body away.
"Oh? What's he doing?"
Kakashi mused and waited for the "hunter-nin" to return, but he didn't. After letting out a sigh, Kakashi pulled down his forehead protector and walked toward Yukito and the others.
"Yukito-san, are you alright?"
Kakashi asked.
"Yes, I'm fine. Although I have one question, what is that technique you ninjas used to clone yourself?"
"Ah…"
Kakashi chuckled and deliberated before answering Yukito's question.
"Do you mind if I buy it? I could really use another hand to help me with paperwork."
"About this… I'm sorry, Yukito-san. The shadow clone jutsu isn't for sale."
Yukito went silent before chuckling from inside the carriage.
"Is that so? Then, I apologize for asking. I didn't know."
"No problem, Yukito-san."
Meanwhile, Yukito's smile became deeper from inside the carriage.
'Since you won't sell it, then I'll just steal it. Fox, do you remember the location of those scrolls?'
'Yes. There are a couple of Uzumaki scrolls and other sealing scrolls in the hokage tower, while the rest of the Uzumaki scrolls were inside a temple. Do you plan on getting them?'
'Of course. They're mine, after all.'
By now, Yukito had recognized himself as the heir of the Uzumaki clan, and everything the Uzumaki clan had, he will get it back.
While listening to their conversation, Yukito's servant took a peek at Kakashi's face, his eyes gleaming in a cold, inexplicable light.
When Yukito and the servant were alone an hour later, the servant whispered something to Yukito.
"Oh? That ninja Kakashi has a sharingan? I didn't know."
Yukito could sense everything in a one-kilometer radius, so he watched the entire fight between Zabuza and Kakashi, but he could only watch their chakra signature. He couldn't actually see them as the byakugan could. The sharingan on Kakashi's eye was most likely implanted, but Yukito wasn't able to sense any difference in Kakashi's eye.
In other words, Kakashi was good at hiding the chakra signature of his sharingan eye.
'Should I capture Kakashi using the Living Body Imprisonment?'
Yukito thought.
'No, I better not. This identity is pretty useful, I don't want to ruin it yet. Maybe I can use another disguise to capture Kakashi, but from his chakra reserves, Kakashi's chakra is at least kage-level…'
It didn't take them another day before they arrived at the land of waves. When they arrived, Habiki and his team escorted the bridge builder to his house, while Yukito and team seven went toward a tall, luxurious building.
When Yukito's carriage stopped, the gates to the tall building opened and revealed a short man in a black suit, wearing sunglasses.
"Yukito-sama. It's been a while since you visited this old fellow."
"Gatō, it's been a while. I heard that some of my products lost their way into your base. Is this true?"
Feeling Yukito's gaze, Gatō's knees trembled and cold sweat filled his back, but he didn't let it reach his face.
"Of course, Yukito-sama, it's not true. You must've heard some false rumor."
Gatō laughed and invited Yukito inside the building.
"You can bring your team with you."
Team 7 and Yukito entered Gatō's building and sat on a soft, large sofa. Gatō's servants served Yukito and Kakashi a cup of tea, but only Yukito drank the tea, while Kakashi refused politely.
"So, Gatō, how's your day here in the land of waves?"
"It couldn't get any better. Business is booming here, Yukito-sama."
"Hmm…"
Siip—
"Then, you must've not known that Zabuza of the mist appeared in this land."
Gatō's eyebrow twitched.
"Ah, I saw that the land of waves has... seen better days. Do you know anything about this?"
Gatō's lips trembled.
"Hmm, there's a lot of bandits around here, should I order these ninjas to eradicate them?"
"Yukito-sama, there's no need to do any of that. I'll make sure to eradicate those bandits, and Zabuza and his companion."
"Oh? Zabuza had a companion. Interesting…"
Gatō's eyes widened, realizing that his mouth had slipped.
"Oh well, I'm leaving now. In the future, the next time I visit, I hope the land of waves is prosperous."
"Certain… certainly, Yukito-sama!"
When Yukito left Gatō's office, he smirked inwardly. The land of waves was Yukito's property. He bought the whole land and replaced the daimyo with one of his puppets, but he had no time to spare so he hired Gatō to do the work for him.
When he got the news that the land of waves became a miserable place, Yukito knew that Gatō had been doing corrupt business under his nose.
He was concocting a plan at the time, and Gatō's corruption was a perfect excuse to hire someone from Konoha.
The plan was to harass the Konoha ninjas with bandits, and then fail the mission, but he didn't expect that Kakashi would be the jonin leader for the mission.
'Maybe my fame is too grand…'
Yukito was a big fish in the ninja world. He owns a business called "Ginko," meaning gold fox or golden fox, and his business was among the top in the ninja world. This was the power of fūinjutsu experts, selling sealing scrolls and tags was like selling gold. Coupled with his brilliant mind, he was able to surpass many of his peers in just one year.
Now, he does business with the land of fire, wind, rock, water, and lightning, as well as the other minor countries.
With his massive business, Yukito's expenses were easily covered, and he could start a small village if he wants to. However, he only wanted to create a single hidden base for his experiments, which was located in the land of whirlpools.
His chakra had reached the kage level when he turned twelve, and his fūinjutsu had reached the fourth level. In the current ninja world, level four fūinjutsu experts barely reached a hundred, and Yukito hired many of them.
'Oh well, I'll just do it again in the future… hold on, there's a chunin exam around a month later, that should be perfect.'
Yukito's plan was simply to ruin Konoha's reputation and bite off a big chunk of the cake. He doesn't want to destroy Konoha, such a thing was illogical. He only wants to own Konoha, even if he does so in the shadows.
After all, Konoha has so many kekkei genkai and secrets, it was simply too tempting not to take.
'The chunin exams, huh? I wonder if I'll get to see Hinata.'
After establishing Ginko, Yukito visited Konoha multiple times, but since he wasn't a big fish back then, he didn't attract any attention. Only one lazy chunin guard was familiar with him in the entire Konoha.
During his visits, he spied on the Hyūga clan on multiple occasions. He couldn't see a shadow of Hinata, so he always left disappointed each time he visited. He was looking forward to seeing Hinata's progress. After all, she promised to stand side by side with him one day, and his shoulder was getting cold without anyone beside him.
His friend, Kurama, who finally acknowledged his strength and told him his real name, couldn't exactly show himself in the real world. And even his summons couldn't leave the land of whirlpools for some reason.
The reason he established Ginko wasn't only for money, but also for cultivating fūinjutsu experts to research fūinjutsu and for him to improve his own fūinjutsu.
As Yukito was resting inside the carriage, a ninja wearing an oval mask was hiding in the shadows, watching the stationary carriage with cold eyes. Then, he took out ten senbons and coated them with chakra, after which he threw them at the carriage.
CRACK—BANG!
A/N: I forgot to mention in CHAPTER 24, Yukito will be Naruto's disguise during this arc, and during the next arc, Naruto will use one final disguise before showing himself to the whole world. Stay tuned!
If you want to read more chapters in advance (up to chapter 35) and influence the story, you can check out my pátreón!
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