Here's the next chapter. We look at zabuza and haku for a bit, and then finally begin looking at Team 10.


That bastard Gato actually tried to get away without paying him. It's not his fault that the bridge-builder hadn't continued travelling, and he agreed to stay for an extra month until Gato could shut down the bridge plan entirely, on the condition that he got half the payment now. The dumbass had tried to stiff him, siccing a bunch of thugs on him while running away. If he had been severely injured and unable to use any jutsu, he might have been unable to kill all of them before getting to Gato. It took him roughly 10 seconds to kill them all, and another 3 seconds to kill Gato.

Now what? As he contemplated his next move, Haku brought him some documents that belonged to Gato. He took a look at them.

They had evidence of a lot of Gato's crimes, like his smuggling and drug operations. Haku brought him some more documents sand simply said, "He was losing money." No wonder Gato was so desperate to kill a single bridge-builder. He probably couldn't even afford the payment without selling of more of his assets. Well, no matter. He could still work with this. It seemed like Gato had screwed over a lot of people, included Kirigakure. If he played his cards right...

"Pack your bags Haku." He grinned. "We're going back to Kiri."


He sighed as he looked at his students. They are skilled for their age and suitable for the team, but did they all have to be the serious type? Hinata seemed shy and incredibly nervous, even if it was her first day. Sasuke was stoic, brooding and seemed to be eager to start training and fighting. As for Shino, he honestly couldn't read the Aburame. None of them seemed to be the type to enjoy chess, though the Aburame might. Heck, 2 of them didn't even seem to be enjoying the food here at Yakiniku Q. When he asked them how it is, Shino just said "It is satisfactory." Sasuke just said "Hn." Hinata seemed to enjoy it and politely thanked him for it, though she was surprisingly gluttonous. And here he thought it would be fine since the Akimichi wasn't on his team.

"I'm Asuma Sarutobi. I know your names, and you probably know each other well enough. We'll get to know each other better as we go on missions, so we'll skip the usual introductions. Now, you may have figured it out, but you guys are a close-mid ranged mobile assault team. All of you are frontline combatants, who can hold your own in 1v1s and together have well-rounded abilities. Nothing complicated there, so for your test we'll have a simple 3v1 fight. You'll need to come at me together to succeed. To win, you just need to get some of Shino's insects on me. Of course, I'll be holding back so you have a chance. I'll leave you 3 now, so plan it out. Meet me tomorrow in Training ground 5 at 7."

Sasuke POV

They were getting trashed.

Since they didn't know their sensei's abilities, the best plan they had was for him and Hinata to fight at close range and slow him down so Shino could get his insects on him.

It was almost hilarious how quickly that failed. All of shino's insects were blown away by wind jutsu that Asuma could do with a wave of his hand. Any fire jutsu he used was overwhelmed with an even stronger fire jutsu. The trench blades Asuma was using were infused with wind chakra that he couldn't see and avoid and could cut through any weapons he used. As for Hinata...

He gritted his teeth. She could actually see the wind chakra with her byakugan, but wasn't being nearly as aggressive as she should be. It was like she was trying to screw them over.

Shino then called out, "I think it's time for a temporary retreat. Why? Because we have no chance this way."

Back in their hiding spot, he yelled "What were you doing? You can't be holding back! You need to be more aggressive!" at Hinata while scowling.

Hinata shrunk back under his glare, but managed to mumble out, "I was trying to, but I'm sorry."

Shino tried to placate him saying "Hinata is trying. Our plan is flawed though, so it can't be helped."

"So, what do we do now?"

As he was thinking, he heard Hinata mumble, "Um, I have an idea."

He snapped at her with a "What!", and she flinched. Seriously, what was her deal?

Hinata then said, "If one of us could grab on to sensei, we could buy enough time for shino."

He and shino considered it. It was a decent idea, but it wasn't enough.

Shino then said, "I have some additions to the plan that could make it work."

"All right then, let's hear it."


They weren't half bad. Sasuke Uchiha was just as good as he'd heard, a true prodigy of the now-dead Uchiha clan, albeit a little hotheaded. Hinata needed some improvement but wasn't terrible even by Hyuga standards. Shino was skilled in his clan techniques and had an excellent eye for strategy, though his physical abilities could be improved.

As he was mulling over how to raise their abilities, they came back out.

Looks like they're ready. Let's see what they have.

Just like last time, sasuke and hinata came up close, though hinata was a little behind sasuke. He swung his blades intending to give him a little cut, but then he dodged. He was surprised, but then saw hinata's hand signs out of the corner of his eye. I see. He threw a fire jutsu at sasuke who countered with his own jutsu.

Hinata lunge from the side, he dodged and kicked her to the side, tried to block the shuriken sasuke threw, which then curved and went towards his back. Ah, there were wires attached. He turned around to block them, kicked away another attack from hinata, and then tried to kick away sasuke who had closed in and was low towards his leg. He was also carefully avoiding the kikaichu flying around throughout this whole fight. He missed his kick to sasuke, who dodged and...

grabbed on to his leg as though he was clinging for life.

He was caught so of guard that he didn't deal with sasuke immediately. Taking advantage of the opening, it seemed like Hinata was striking him from above. He swatted her with his arm, and she exploded into kikaichu.

He was caught so off guard with sasuke clinging onto his leg that he couldn't react right and was caught by some of the insects.

He smiled and said "Congratulations. You've won."


He was happy to win, but his pride still stung at having to cling to his sensei's leg like that, but his pride didn't matter. He'd use every trick in the book to kill Itachi, no matter how dirty, if it came to it. Everything up to that point, including this fight, was just practice.

He saw hinata come up to him with a box in her hand.

"It's medicinal balm" she explained. "You should use it to heal those cuts."

He tried it out and was surprised. It was better than he expected. Perhaps she was more useful than he expected.

"Thanks, Hinata. That helped."


A/N

I hope you enjoyed that. The Chunin Exams will be coming up soon, and in my fic, it takes place a few months later than it did in canon, involves all 5 villages, and will also have some other changes. It will be taking place in the Land of Iron. I plan on expanding on the samurai and their culture quite a bit. This might seem like a fix-it fic, but I assure you, the deaths will come. And they can happen to anybody.

Zabuza Momochi

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 4.5

Genjutsu: 2.5

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 4.5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 4

Hand Seals: 4

Total: 31.5

Notes: Excels at Silent Killing and at the hidden mist jutsu. Wields Kubikiribōchō. Has powerful chakra and shows skill in water release.

Haku

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 1.5

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 1.5

Hand Seals: 4.5

Total: 21.5

Notes: One of the few Hyoton users alive. Physical strength and stamina low due to malnutrition for years before joining zabuza. Dislikes killing but will give his life for zabuza.

Asuma Sarutobi

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 4.5

Genjutsu: 2.5

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 4

Speed: 4

Stamina: 4

Hand Seals: 3.5

Total: 30.5

Notes: Son of the third hokage. Wields specially made chakra blades. Affinities are wind and fire. The Flying Swallow is tricky to fight at close range but can be dealt with by longer ranged attacks.