Chapter 4 – Mission to Wave Country: Part 2
Waking up, Naruto went to take a shower, got dressed and went to the kitchen to get breakfast. Seeing that Kakashi wasn't there, he decided to prank his sensei until Sasuke spoke up.
"What're you doing Dope?" Sasuke asked after finishing his breakfast.
"I'm putting up a trap for Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said with a foxy grin.
"He's not here. He said he had some things to do before we go to Wave, and we have to meet up with him at the village gate at 1pm." Sasuke said before going back to his room.
"Damn, guess I'll just have to get him when we get back to the village." Naruto mumbled to himself. 'Or maybe I can get him when were at Wave.' He thought making him smile even more. In a bookstore at the other side of the village a certain pirate ninja got a shiver up his spine before picking up a the newest volume of Itcha Itcha Paradise.
[4 Hours later - Village gates]
After waiting for 2 hours for their sensei to arrive Naruto stood up to go get some ramen while waiting, when Kakashi finally arrived.
"Where are you going Naruto?" Kakashi asked with an eyesmile.
"When did you… Nevermind, let's just get going." Naruto said, sighing in defeat.
Finally starting their first C-rank mission, and stepping out of the village for the first time, Naruto couldn't help but giggle to himself.
"A-Are you okay Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked hearing a sound coming from the flame haired boy.
"Sure am, Hinata. In fact I'm better than okay." Naruto replied while still giggling, making Hinata blush when he looked at her.
After walking for what felt like 5 hours Naruto saw a puddle at the side of the road. Feeling that something was wrong Naruto walked up beside Kakashi and asked him when it last rained. 'So he noticed it too, huh?' Kakashi thought to himself.
"About two weeks ago, and you know what that means right?" Kakashi replied in a whisper getting a nod from Naruto.
Falling back, Naruto informed Hinata and Sasuke to get ready for a fight. After giving a few steps past the puddle two missing-nin from Kirikagure jumped out and attacked Kakashi. Wrapping the chain that connected the two shinobi's arms around Kakashi and splitting him apart to team 7's horror. Thinking fast, Naruto and Sasuke engaged the two while Hinata covered Tazuna with her Byakugan activated to make sure there wasn't anyone else to ambush them.
Blocking an incoming attack from one of the demon brothers, Naruto drew his sword and cut the hand off of one the demon brothers making him go after Naruto, allowing Naruto and Sasuke to each take on a brother. Taking on the brother named Gōzu, Naruto had his work cut out for him. Barely blocking a slash towards his throat Naruto jumped back before lunging towards his opponent again, swinging his sword towards Gōzu's left knee to limit his movement. Seeing what Naruto was attempting Gōzu blocked the swing with his bladed gauntlet on his left hand and kicked Naruto in the stomach before swinging towards the orange clad shinobi's head to cut it open, but heard a *POOF* when it made contact. 'What the hell! The kid can create solid clones?' he thought to himself before getting kicked in his face by a foot with a blue sandal before falling unconscious.
Elsewhere the other demon brother, Meizu blocked deflected an incoming arrow coming from Sasuke before trying to dash towards the raven haired boy, failing miserably. 'Damn I can't get in range to attack the brat, but maybe I can use his friend to get close to him seeing as Gōzu probably beat him already.' Meizu thought with a smirk while turning to see that Naruto already beat his brother. "Gōzu! You damn brat what did you do to my brother?" He screamed dashing towards the unexpected Naruto. Turning to see someone coming at him with breakneck speed. 'Damn I don't have enough time to block.' Naruto thought seeing that Meizu already swung his bladed gauntlet on his right hand towards Naruto's neck, but heard a *SWOOSH* and metal clashing against eachother and a load groan before someone hit the ground. Opening his eyes Naruto saw Sasuke over him with his hand out, taking his hand Naruto was pulled of the ground and saw Meizu unconscious on the ground with a kunai in his hip and a red mark on his cheek, which Naruto assumed was formed by a fist.
"You're not hurt are you? Scaredy cat." Sasuke asked with a grin, making Naruto grow a tick mark.
"I wasn't scared, I was just caught off guard!" Naruto replied in before stomping off towards Tazuna.
"Hey old man. What are you…" Naruto started but was cut off when a familiar hand clasped his shoulder. "Naruto let me handle this. You did good, all of you." Kakashi said appearing out of nowhere.
"K-KAKASHI-SENSEI! YOU'RE ALIVE?" Naruto asked, his eyes so white he could be mistaken as a Hyuga if not for his red and blonde hair.
'He didn't know was still alive yet he continued to fight, I can understand Sasuke after his brother wiped out most of their clan, only leaving children, infants, elderly and a young woman who's been in a coma ever since.' Kakashi thought while giving Naruto an eyesmile and scratching the back of his head.
"Yeah, I wanted to see who they were. And it looks like my suspicion was right." Kakashi started taking on a more serious tone while turning to look at Tazuna. "So care to tell us what it is you're hiding, Tazuna?" Kakashi said all humor that could be found in his voice a moment prior was gone.
"I… Alright, I guess I should come clean. But before I do, have you ever heard of Gatou?" Tazuna asked.
"The billionaire shipping magnet?" Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow.
"That's the one. For about 10 years now he's been buying ports that Wave used as an income, but when he finally bought them all, our economy dropped drastically. He began to take advantage of our lack of money and started to kidnap some of the villagers to sell as slaves, he even paid some of us to test his experimental drugs." Tazuna stated not looking Kakashi in the face. "And because of that I had to pay for a C-rank mission full well knowing it was atleast an A-rank. But I guess I'll just have to go home and tell my poor daughter and grandson that the evil Hidden Leaf shinobi refused to help us." Tazuna said making the whole Team 7 sweatdrop.
"Well it's up to you If you want us to continue with the mission." Kakashi spoke up after a few minutes of silence while turning to look at his team.
"You kidding Kakashi-Sensei. It's an A-rank mission." Naruto said in a serious tone, "I vote we go, after all this is a once in a life time opportunity. Or twice in my case." Naruto said, his signature grin crawling back onto his face.
"I'm with Naruto. There's no way I'm giving up on my first A-rank mission." Sasuke mixed in also grinning.
"M-Me too." Hinata answered also starting to give a small smile.
After investigating the demon brothers, Team 7 and their client continued their long track to wave. After almost three days of traveling and a long boat ride, they arrived at the land of Wave. Walking past some bushes, both Naruto and Sasuke threw some shuriken at a shrub of bushes when it moved, but in closer inspection they saw it was only a little white rabbit. But before they could do anything else Kakashi quickly ordered them all to duck down. Doing as his sensei ordered Naruto barely dodged a sword swing over his head before traveling about another 12 meters and lodging itself in a tree, blinking his eyes he saw a man suddenly appearing on the hilt of the sword. The man wore purple baggy pants with tiny black stripes running down it, cow leather arm and leg warmers, white bandages covering his mouth and his headband tied around his head with the forehead protector covering the left side of his head.
"K-Kakashi-Sensei, who is that?" Hinata asked looking at the man that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"Zabuza Momochi. But if you want to use my title then you can call 'The Demon of the Hidden Mist'." Zabuza answered before Kakashi could get a word out.
"NARUTO, SASUKE, HINATA GO COVER TAZUNA! LEAVE ZABUZA TO ME!" Kakashi screamed making Naruto and Sasuke dash towards Hinata and Tazuna and getting into a defensive formation.
Forming the Ox Snake and Ram handseal the area around Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke and Tazuna was enveloped by a thick layer of mist causing the team to lose sight of Zabuza. Feeling the bloodlust Zabuza gave off, Sasuke was slowly giving in and was about to slit his own throat with the kunai he was using. But before he could follow through he hear Kakashi talk to him 'Sasuke calm down. I won't let my comrades die. I promise.' finally calming down Sasuke realized what he was about to do and lowered his kunai.
After seeing Sasuke calm down at their Sensei's words, Naruto went back to trying and find Zabuza, when he started to hear an extra heartbeat between his team and client. Turning around slowly he saw Zabuza standing infront of his client, but looking at him with a face Naruto knew people only made when they were impressed with something. Taking out his sword Naruto tried stabbing Zabuza but was blocked by the missing-nin's sword before being kicked by a cow leather covered foot in the ribs and sent flying into a nearby tree.
Realizing that Zabuza was fighting with his team, Kakashi bodyflickered towards them, but was shocked at the sight before him. Sasuke was laying on the ground unconscious with a broken arm but was still alive. Hinata was over him trying to fix his arm and Naruto was dueling Zabuza in a sword fight, though he was beaten pretty badly already. Kakashi could see all the places Zabuza cut Naruto which was about 16 cuts in total and could see Naruto also managed to get 3 cuts on his enemy as well, which wasn't a lot but it was deep and in Kakashi's opinion it was still pretty impressive for the difference in their skill. deciding to take over for his student before Zabuza decided to get serious Kakashi took out his own Tonto from his time in ANBU and rushed toward Zabuza before he slashed towards his enemy's hand to disarm him and give Naruto enough time to retreat, though he was blocked Naruto still managed to take Tazuna and run towards Hinata and Sasuke. Seeing the state Sasuke was in because of Zabuza's surprise attack Naruto formed the ram handseal and created 5 shadow clones to help protect Tazuna and Sasuke.
Narrowly blocking a horizontal slash from the large sword, Kakashi charged forward and cut one of Zabuza's arms making the missing-nin drop his weapon but not before he hit Kakashi's own sword out of hand causing them to continue the battle with Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. Removing the piece of cloth covering his left eye, Kakashi revealed the Sharingan, the most feared Dojutsu in the Elemental Nations because of its ability to copy any Ninjutsu (as long as it uses handseals or isn't a Kekkei Genkai), Taijutsu and detect many high-level Genjutsu.
"So you finally think I'm worthy enough to fight the legendary Kakashi of the Sharingan seriously?" Zabuza asked his face taking a form under his mask that Kakashi could only think was a smile.
"Don't flatter yourself, I'm just not in the mood to drag out the fight." Kakashi replied in a matter of factly tone earning a small chuckle from his enemy.
"Is that so? Then let's get this over with." Zabuza said his voice taking a slightly more serious before both he and Kakashi launched at eachother meeting eachother halfway.
Naruto had managed to bandage Sasuke's arm with the help of Hinata. They were still guarding Tazuna but Naruto was watching his sensei's fight with the former Kiri-nin, mesmerized by the jutsu both sides threw at eachother not realizing Hinata trying to get his attention until she waved a hand infront of his face.
"What is it Hinata?" Naruto suddenly asked making Hinata jump.
"I-I can sense someone i-in the forest. T-They're just standing there, not moving. They might be an enemy." Hinata blurted out before Naruto could register what she had said.
"How long can you keep your Byakugan activated?" Naruto asked, momentarily forgetting about the battle.
"About 3 m-minutes before I reach my limit." Hinata replied blushing at the serious look on his face.
"Tell me when they start to move." Naruto said not noticing the blush on his teammates face.
Hearing a groan from behind him Naruto looked back and saw Sasuke sitting up and looking confused as to where he was. After telling his dark haired teammate about the last few minutes of events Naruto looked back at the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza but to his horror saw Zabuza forming a few handseals before Kakashi was trapped in a ball of water not able to get out. Seeing Naruto and Sasuke rush towards him Kakashi, somehow able to talk through the water ordered them to take the client and run but was ignored.
Seeing the two Gennin rushing to save their sensei, Zabuza created two water clones that stood between them ready for the Konoha pair to engage them in a fight. Rushing towards the first clone Naruto and Sasuke started to fight, their moves perfectly blending together even when neither of them spoke a word to eachother. After what felt like a minute of defending and attacking they managed to dispel the clone before the other clone started rushing towards them. Creating about 60 clones the Narutos dog piled onto the Zabuza clone in an attempt to subdue him but all of them where launched into the air not even 10 seconds later. When flying through the air the original Naruto turned into a demon wind shuriken before falling into his closest clones backpack and dispelling the rest to make Zabuza think the only clone left was the original.
After landing again the clone nodded his head to Sasuke before throwing him the henged version of Naruto, which Sasuke caught and threw towards the Zabuza clone but before it could hit him it curved and flew towards the original clone that held Kakashi in the water prison. Seeing the incoming attack Zabuza jumped into the air, his right hand still in the ball of water as to not release the silwer haired Jonnin, but to his surprise the shuriken transformed into the flame haired boy who swung his sword towards Zabuza's arm causing the missing-nin to let go of the water ball and freeing Kakashi. After ordering Naruto to fall back with Sasuke and protect Tazuna with Hinata, Kakashi continued his fight.
Restarting their fight a few meters off the shore, Kakashi made the exact same handseals as Zabuza at the same time letting the missing-nin think that the Sharingan could also be used to read minds. Quickening the movements of his hands to beat Kakashi, Zabuza was horrified to see his enemy do the same and after a few seconds of non-stop handseals two blobs of water in the form of dragons came out of the lake on either sides of the battle and charged at eachother before slamming into eachother and causing a huge wave to take Zabuza in its currents before slamming him into a tree paralyzing him from his waist down.
"Well it looks like you just lost, Zabuza." Kakashi said appearing on a branch of the tree Zabuza slammed into.
"It looks like it. Before you finish this, I have a question." Zabuza said chuckling at his defeat.
"Ask away, I have a mission to complete." Kakashi replied with harsh words but a somber tone.
"That eye of yours, can it read minds?" Zabuza asked still chuckling at the silliness of the question.
Giving a small chuckle of his own before taking a more serious tone he answered, "It can. And what it sees now is that this is your last battle."
"I like that, a nice answer for a worthy opponent. Well get it over with Sharingan Hero." Zabuza said closing his eyes and letting out a deep breath.
Before Kakashi could go for the kill, a Senbon needle lodged itself into the neck of the missing-nin causing his head to lump forward as a hunter-nin from Kirigakure appeared, thanked Kakashi and his team for their help in killing the shinobi he was tracking for a while, took Zabuza and bodyflickered away.
"Who was that?" Sasuke asked while he and Naruto were busy holding eachother up.
"It looked like a hunter-nin from Kiri." Naruto replied before flinching at the pain from sitting down for Hinata to bandaging him up. "Hey Hina-Chan, what happened to the guy watching the fight?" Naruto asked not noticing everyone look at all the scars on his body as he took of his jacket and shirt.
"O-Oh, w-well it w-was the h-hunter-nin that just t-took Zabuza." Hinata stuttered out looking away to hide her blush.
'Oh no, don't tell me something's wrong with Hina again' Naruto thought to himself after seeing her cheeks turn red.
"Hey Dope, what happened to you?" Sasuke asked the question on everyone's mind, though Kakashi knew he had some scars from when he was assigned to watch over the boy when he was younger and Kakashi was in the ANBU, it wasn't as much as it is now.
"What are you talking about, Sasuke? We just fought a Jonnin level Shinobi, of course I'm going to need some patching up." Naruto asked turning his head sideways which made Hinata blush more thinking he looked cute.
"I'm not talking about that Dope. I'm talking about the scars on your body." Sasuke said pointing at Naruto's arms, torso and back.
Realizing that everyone was looking at him Naruto's smile dropped for only a second, not going unnoticed to Kakashi, before he started smiling again and answering his teammate. "Oh this, I got most of them training my swordsmanship with my brother."
"What do you mean most of them, where did you get the rest, and who was your brother?" Sasuke asked, but before the flame haired boy could answer Kakashi interrupted them when he saw the fear in Naruto's eyes grow with each question asked.
"Okay, it's about time we continue with the mission. Tazuna how close are we to your house?" Kakashi asked hoping to get Sasuke's attention off Naruto.
"We're really close now, only about another mile or two away." Tazuna replied making Kakashi sigh in relief.
"Well that's good, now you won't have to carry me that far." Kakashi said with an eyesmile as he turned to his team, but before they could ask what he meant Kakashi passed out due to chakra exhaustion.
After almost 20 minutes of walking, Team 7 finally arrived at Tazuna's house and it seemed like Sasuke completely forgot about his loudmouth teammate as he went to sleep. Dropping his sensei in one of the guest rooms, Naruto went to examine his wounds but was unsurprised to see that all his cuts had already healed, he always did heal much faster than normal people ever since he was a kid, but was a bit annoyed that it left more scars on his body.
Hearing a knock on the door Naruto opened it to reveal a blushing Hinata. "H-Hello Naruto-kun. I was asked to tell you that d-dinner will be served soon."
"Thanks Hina-chan, I'll be down in a second. Anything else?" Naruto replied a gentle smile on his face as he talked to his female teammate.
"N-No. A-Actually how are your w-wounds Naruto-kun." Hinata asked blushing more as she just realized that Naruto was shirtless.
"Oh, they're already healed up so I'm good as new and ready to fight again." Naruto said scratching the back of his head as he smiled at Hinata.
"W-What, how can y-you heal so fast Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked finally looking Naruto in the eyes and her blush fading in surprise.
"Well Hokage-jiji said that all Uzumaki heal faster than other shinobi and that I apparently heal fast even than Uzumaki standards for some reason, It's probably because of my large chakra reserves. Anyway Ojichan said that it can help me get stronger because I need less rest because of it. I don't even know the limit of my healing capabilities. The only downside is that any wounds leave scars after they heal." Naruto replied to the poor Hyuuga who barely managed to keep up with his words.
"I-I see how that can g-greatly benefit your t-training. B-But you need to be careful not to hurt yourself, o-otherwise you'll only get more scars." Hinata stated in a worried tone.
"Um, well I'll keep that in mind Hina-chan, but you don't have to worry about me. I can handle myself." Naruto said, confused as to why Hinata would care so much about him.
Realizing what she said Hinata continued to blush but still talked on, "It doesn't matter if you can handle it Naruto-kun, you still need to keep your body healthy. What if you train so hard that it takes you longer than you expected to heal and we can't take missions for a while, or worse what if we need to fight and you can't because you haven't recovered yet." She said taking both herself and Naruto by surprise.
"S-Sure Hinata, I'll take my training easier. I promise." Naruto said while looking away, this time his turn to blush at the seriousness of the Hyuuga girl's eyes.
After putting on his shirt and jacket again, Naruto went down to eat his dinner. Thanking the bridge builder's daughter, Tsunami for the delicious dinner Naruto walked to the door ready to get some training in but when he turned to tell anyone who was listening where he was going he saw a pouting Hinata, trying to look angry, so he decided to just go to sleep and train the next morning.
Hey everyone, sorry again that this chapter took so long. The next one will be out by the end of this week or at the beginning of next week. Sorry if the chapter's ending felt a bit rushed, I was just exited to post this. Anyway this is The_Dovabean signing off.