A Different Choice

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Naruto x ?

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Story Start

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It had been a day since the run-in with the demon brothers and his team mates had been doing far better. Whereas Sasuke had been more of the same, quiet. Sakura had took the decision pretty hard, emptying the contents of her stomach not long after.

When they had stopped to camp she hadn't left Naruto's side who comforted her. Who had been there for her when she had a nightmare about what occurred. Taking your first life was never easy for anyone.

Something Naruto had learned quite some time ago. The worse part had been that it was an accident and he had went into shock. It took him some time and a good deal of counseling to get over what had happened.

They continued their journey leaving Fire Country and crossing over into the next territory.

"Kakashi-sensei how did such weaklings become Chunin?" Sasuke had been replaying the details of the battle over in his head. On how he could have been more proficient. What could have had done better. How that man would have defeated them.

"Ranks aren't across the aboard in every village. Some villages have different requirements, though among the great five we roughly adhere to similar tiers of strength. For other villages there are preference for other factors such as stealth or elemental affinity. In comes down to how each village structure their requirement for their ranks. Even exams and selection for ranks vary among the villages. Though rank is not always a way to identify someone's strength. A Genin from one village could be as strong as a chunin or even a jounin from another village. It comes down to experience, teaching, and the potential of that shinobi."

"It gets easier I promise." Naruto whispered to Sakura who seemed to be lost in her thoughts. "It never truly becomes easy or goes away, but it does get easier. There are many type of killings, but the biggest distinction of killers fit into two categories. The sick that enjoy praying on the weak or thrill of the hunt and those who put down the rabid dogs that threaten stability and protect their loved ones and village. If I have to. If I have to I Kill every single thug Gato sends our way to keep you safe Sakura-chan."

The declaration brought some color to Sakura's face. "Naruto-kun…"

She couldn't…she wouldn't be weak. She wouldn't be a burden to Naruto. She would do whatever it took to keep him…to keep everyone safe.

They soon found themselves taking yet another ride by boat to continue their journey before arriving back on land. Naruto once more was alerted when his clones had been destroyed.

This time Naruto sent a group of four, henge into their traveling group. And when they were killed he knew the identity of their next target.

"Momochi Zabuza, jounin level missing-nin from Kirigakure." He had only recognized by mere chance. By the fraction of a second he had caught the glimpse of Zabuza's weapon which he recognized from Tenten's descriptions. "Favors close combat, user of Kenjutsu and wielder of one of Kiri's legendary seven blades.

The Kubikiribōchō, an over-sized broad sword, utilizes the iron from all the blood it sheds, from whoever it cuts, in order to reform itself if damaged or broken. Highly skilled in silent killing and with a water affinity. Ranked fourth in strength in his generation.

A preferred counter-strategy would be to separate him from his weapon and bombard him with speed. With his high level of physical strength it would be preferable to attack with high level ninjutsu or genjutsu to lower his guard."

The last bit, a counter strategy was normally reserved for shinobi sent on assassination mission against high profile shinobi to weaken another's military force. If not for the blond's demeanor and care for his friend's Kakashi would have considered that Danzo himself had trained Naruto.

"How far?"

"One point three miles. Seeing as he destroyed my clones he will be on guard."

"Keep your guard up. I will be confronting Zabuza directly, do not interfere unless necessary."

"Get Down!" The split second after Kakashi's alert a giant blade spun horizontally heading straight for team seven. Instantly Kakashi was ready having planned out seven jutsu to use depending on how Zabuza would attack them.

Instantly he used an earth justu that formed a giant hand out of the ground and caught the massive sword in its grip depriving the man of his weapon.

Zabuza Momochi grunted, he had not expected the jounin to so easily deprive him of Kubikiribocho. He had expected a fool jounin with high chakra reserves, after all who would create so many kagebunshin and henge them as a distraction? What he did not expect for it to be Kakashi of one thousand techniques.

Seeing Zabuza's face the jounin correctly guessed Naruto hid his identity by having the clone that was him henge into a different form. A wise decision. With his identity shrouded Zabuza had little to go on or in ways of planning before this confrontation.

"Kagebunshin no Jutsu!" Springing into action fifty kagebunshin covered his team mates and the bridge builder from all sides.

Zabuza cursed his luck. What sort of monsters were he facing for a kid to be able to create that many of those bunshin and not be winded?

Zabuza began to let his chakra flow into the air, creating a dense fog. Though Kakashi's superior speed allowed him to be on Zabuza in a near instant. Deprive of his weapon Zabuza had no choice, but to use his sheath to block and countered with a strike of his leg.

Zabua quickly created mizu bunshin to cover him.

Kakashi revealed his Sharingan eye in exchange.

Without his weapon and Kakashi's sharingan he was at a disadvantage. With the way Kakashi was making short work of his clones he needed to think of something fast. Considering the reputation Konoha had for being soft with their genin he figured attacking them would be a good way to get Kakashi to lower his guard.

Quickly forming hand seals Zabuza created a water dragon which emerged from the lake and launched at the team.

"Katon: Great Fireball!" Sasuke launched the giant ball of fire which was easily extinguish and consumed by the Jounin's superior attack.

Sasuke's face stricken and Sakura gaped in shock at the attack heading right towards them as Tazuna panicked for the genin to do something.

Forming the tiger seal Naruto began to unleash a jutsu of his own. "Katon: Great Dragon Fire!" Naruto's own grand reserves allowed him to build up his chakra and unleashed a dragon shaped fireball that easily dwarfed Sasuke's attack. The moment he launched it the other three had to shield themselves from the heat as the flame began to dry of the moisture in the air, thinning the fog and crisping the grass.

Both techniques clashed and cancelling out each other resulting in a burst of steam. The momentary surprise and shock allowed Kakashi to get a shallow cut on Zabuza's neck. His own honed reflexes from escaping hunter-nin saved Zabuza's life.

With Kakashi on him once more Zabuza was forced into relying on Taijutsu. While his taijutsu was deadly if made contact it proved unable to land a hit on someone of Kakashi's caliber whose rival was venerable taijutsu master, the touted best in the nation of fire. At this rate he was going to lose so he had to take a risk.

Channeling chakra into his feet he took angle Kakashi's next strike into the area of his arm thick with muscle, but not in an area his aid wouldn't be able to amend in a few days top. With the Jounin in striking range he put all his power in the next punch nailing Kakashi in the ribs with enough force to send Kakashi reeling back, momentarily knocking the breath of out the jounin's lungs. If not for his protective jacket the blow would have likely caused him a rib fracture.

Zabuza charged to where his blade was kept and channeling chakra into his hand shattered the top layer fingers of the earth palm fracturing two of his fingers in the processes. Zabuza was no stranger to pain, but what was a little pain when the alternative was death.

With his redrawn blade Zabuza blocked the shuriken hurled at him by Kakashi who was preparing to launch a water dragon at him. Zabuza had no idea what compelled him to get into a contest with the shinobi, but he found himself forming the hand seals and summoning his own water dragon.

The two powerful techniques erupted from the lake and slammed into each other. With the momentary distraction Kakashi was already beginning to form the hand seals for his famed jutsu the Raikiri when out of nowhere something collided with Zabuza and sent him into a tree.

Out of nowhere appeared a shinobi, in Kiri garb whose identity was covered by a white mask.

"Thank you for your assistance in wearing down Momochi Zabuza. I have been tracking him for weeks, but you understand why I cannot allow shinobi from another nation to get a hold of him and learn sensitive information from our village." The shinobi shushin next to Zabuza's body, removing the senbon and laying the body down.

"Don't you just need the body and weapon if you're worried about your village's secrets? At least let us show the head at a bounty station to collect the bounty." Getting Zabuza's bounty would just be added to their mission pay for this mission and an added bonus of notoriety for his squad.

Seeing the hunter-nin's hesitation Kakashi made a move to rush him, but was not fast enough to catch him. He let out a curse as he was a second too late. It looked like Zabuza had an accomplice. Before he could relay this information he could feel himself getting weak. While he was physically okay for the most part the chakra consumption of the Sharingan on his body was simply monstrous. "Get us to the client's house!" Kakashi managed to order before passing out.

Team seven arrived to a medium sized, two floor house that was directly adjacent to the ocean. They had followed the river until they reached the entrance of the main town of Wave Country before they walked towards were Tazuna lived, which was on the docks of said town, just by the ocean. They could see the bridge from there and they noticed that the distance between the bridge and Tazuna's house was not that big.

Tazuna's house had cream colored walls, which had a few rectangular windows, and had red colored tiles, with the second floor being smaller than the first one and resting directly on the center of the structure. And while the house looked comfy enough from the outside, one could clearly see that it lacked some maintenance, but compared to the others, this one actually looked nice.

"Father! You're home!"

Greeting them was a woman who looked to be in her late twenties, if maybe not early thirties. She was remarkably beautiful with dark blue colored hair that reached the small of her back and long bangs framed her pretty face. Her outfit was that of a simple reddish-pink and long flowing blue skirt, but if showed off her womanly form none the less. She had fair size breasts with wide hips and was fairly tall.

Tazuna beamed as he hugged his daughter. "Of course I came back Tsunami. And I brought a group of super ninja that will help us get rid of Gato," Tazuna said as he stepped out of the hug and to the side, so Tsunami could see Team seven.

Tsunami looked at them with a smile on her face as she bowed in thanks. "You all have my gratitude for bringing back my father safe and sound and helping us get rid of the despicable man," she said, her voice becoming somewhat harsh at the as her black eyes narrowed into a frown.

Kakashi just waved her off as he eye smiled. "There is no need for thanks Tsunami-san. My team and I are more than happy to help these people."

Naruto suppressed the urge to role his eyes. Kakashi sure seemed to be changing his tune with a pretty woman involved. Once they were all settled down Kakashi began telling them what to expect.

"Those kinds of masks are worn by the elite among the Kirigakure ninja's hunter-nins. They're called that because they dispose of corpses so thoroughly, it's as if they never existed. Hunter-nin specializes in hunting down missing-nin and obliterating their remains in order to ensure their villages respective secrets remain just that. A secret…The most effective thing would have been to destroy the body then and there to prevent the likelihood of being ambushed and the body being stolen. The method he used, senbon are far from the most effective tools in fact there are certain points on the body which hit could put someone in a near-death state. The way the Hunter-nin was being careful with the body not to mention the senbon were placed in an area that avoided hitting his spinal cord leads me to believe that Zabuza has an accomplice."

The hunter-nin leaned over Zabuza's body, just as they finished cleaning the wound on his left side, and then prepared to cut the bandages from around his face. The hunter was shocked when Zabuza's hand suddenly latched onto their arm. Zabuza then said in deep voice, "That's alright, I'll do it myself!"

The hunter-nin only sounded amused as they said, "Oh, you've already came back to life?"

Zabuza suddenly grabbed the needles still stuck in his neck with his right hand and roughly pulled them out as he said, "Damn, you sure are rough!"

As a small spray of blood erupted from Zabuza's neck, the hunter said in concern, "Please be careful pulling those out, Zabuza-sama. If you're not careful, you really will kill yourself in your weakened condition…"

Zabuza could only look on with annoyance as he said, "How long do you plan on wearing that stupid mask?"

The hunter just softly giggled as they removed the mask to reveal a soft and attractive face. Full lips, smooth skin, and silky ebony hair met Zabuza's eyes as the hunter said, "It reminds me of the old days. Plus it was useful for this act. If I hadn't saved you, you definitely would have died."

"If you were going to put me into a momentary death state you didn't have to target my neck. You could have aimed the acupuncture state. You are annoying as always." finished Zabuza with his hand resting on his sword.

"Exactly, the neck doesn't have much muscle, its easier to hit the acupuncture there. You shouldn't be able to move much for about a week." An expression came across the hunter-nin's face. "That boy. The blond. He isn't normal. He created dozen of Kagebunshin and used a powerful fire jutsu without being winded, not to mention he was able to follow your and his teacher's movements. He is at least a highly skilled chunin if not approaching jounin level."

Zabuza only tightened his grip as he scowled, "Yes, when I was blasting my killer intent that boy's expression harden while his team mates froze. While I deal with Kakashi you'll have to keep an eye on that boy, if possible take him out sooner."

The hunter-nin's expression indicated she was alarmed at this possibility.

"Despite your cleverness you're a pure kid. I have no idea why I put up with you."

"Hmm, what can I say I'm a sweet young lady The hunter then stopped for a moment and looked out at the water, "Without us even noticing, the mist has lifted…next time…will you be alright?"

"Next time I'll break the Sharingan." Zabuza promised darkly.