It had been three days since Naruto met that man and right now team 7 stood at bridge Tazuna was building, waiting for something to happen. They concluded that as Zabuza and Kakashi were almost equally hurt, they should recover in roughly same time. As it had been almost two weeks since Zabuza's attack on their team, they thought today would be the day.

And they were right as soon the bridge was covered in thick mist and they heard a rough voice. "Where are you, blonde gaki!?" Naruto looked at his team and saw them preparing their kunais. Naruto sighed and took few steps forward.

"What do you want from me, Zabuza?" said Naruto calmly. His team was alerted by his calmness, and they wanted to shout at him but before they could, Zabuza appeared before him.

"Were you the one who killed Gatō?" asked Zabuza dangerously. Naruto looked him into eyes with his eyes losing their emotions. "And what if I were the one who did it? You think you can kill me easily? Huh…" He trailed off as he disappeared and appeared with two kunais pointing at Zabuza's neck from behind. "…Zabuza?" finished Naruto coldly.

The air around hem was tense for a few seconds until Zabuza said. "I could see it in your eyes. You lived through some shit, boy. If I didn't know you were from Konoha, I would think you went through Kirigakure's academy graduation test."

Naruto nodded and appeared before Zabuza with his back turned towards Zabuza. "Leave Zabuza. I know that people like you can see through people like Gatō. You already knew he would backstab you and was probably thinking of way to kill him yourself, weren't you?" said Naruto.

"I may leave, but not before I ask you something. What makes you so confident that I won't attack you that you wouldn't turn your back on your enemy?" asked Zabuza with confusion creeping into his voice.

Naruto turned his head and smirked coldly. "You aren't heartless, Zabuza. When you attacked us two weeks ago, Sakura told me that someone took you from that clearing you fight sensei on. Meaning that you had accomplice." Said Naruto.

He turned to Zabuza fully and continued. "But why would a so called Demon of the hidden mist need accomplice? That's what I asked myself until I came to conclusion. You found him on your run from Kiri and took him with yourself. Thinking of him as a tool, you trained him. But deep in your mind, you thought of him as someone closer to you, which is why you trained him so much, so he wouldn't die easily."

Zabuza didn't show it, but what Naruto said was slowly making him realize many things. Naruto then smirked at him and said. "Now, as to why I'm so confident to turn my back on you. There are actually three reasons why. Firstly, I'm faster than you as you could see two weeks ago when I dodged your sudden attack taking with myself Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna. Secondly, few of my clones are positioned around this bridge, ready to shoot you the moment you attack. And thirdly, if you attack me and somehow kill me before you will die or sensei will stop you, you will never find your stepson ever."

This made Zabuza's eyes widen. He was outplayed by this brat who is not older than 16 years. This brat, who is only genin, could easily pass as Jonin for his strategies. While it wasn't a clean way to stalemate your enemy, Naruto knew that shinobi aren't clean strategists.

Shaking his head, Zabuza turned around and walked away, only turning around to say. "Where is he?" Naruto smirked at him and said. "Go to daimyo's mansion. He will be there before you arrive." With that, Zabuza disappeared, and Naruto released deep breath.

"I-i-i-is it over?" asked Sakura. The mist started to disperse, and Naruto sat at floor. They walked towards him and Kakashi placed hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't easy to do such thing, Naruto. But you did great. Even I wouldn't think of such bluff." Said Kakashi.

Naruto smiled at him and said. "It's just a coincidence. It wouldn't work out well if Zabuza didn't see me disappear two weeks ago and if he didn't know I killed Gatō silently. He probably put two and two together and knew that I was probably telling truth. Add to that the fact that I showed myself as a cold-blooded shinobi to him, and he was prone to believe me."

Kakashi sighed and looked at Tazuna. "With Zabuza out of your way, there should be only bandits who could return to your town, Tazuna-san. But I think you and villagers can take care of them easily and don't need our help with that, right?" asked Kakashi.

Tazuna nodded his head and said. "But are you sure he won't return?" Kakashi nodded his head and said. "I'm sure Tazuna-san. If there is one thing no shinobi will do, it's working without getting payment. And Zabuza has nothing to gain in your town as your had everything taken by Gatō. Now, if you let us, we need to return to our village."

Tazuna grunted and after saying goodbyes, he looked at their retreating back as they walked through the bridge to Hi no Kuni. 'That boy will be important in the future. I'm sure of that.' Thought Tazuna as he turned around and went to his house.

With team 7

They were walking towards Konoha as Naruto still wasn't in his best condition. He told them that he was alright to jump through the trees, but Kakashi was insistent that he won't do anything irrational as it could potentially open his wounds, since Kakashi's stitching isn't greatest.

As they walked, Sasuke talked with Naruto first time with normal attitude. Sasuke was now finally aware that Naruto was somehow a genius in his own right. Which is why he asked him right now about a jutsu Kakashi gave him as he couldn't really comprehend how to use it properly. Naruto was all for helping him and showed him how he should do it.

Sakura meanwhile read about medical jutsu, and chakra control needed for it. And Kakashi was reading his book, but not focusing on it, rather focusing on his youngest genin. 'I fear to think what would happen to Naruto if he found out his heritage sooner. If he made such progress in only few months, I wonder how far he could have been if sensei was here now. And his mind processes are on par with Nara. I think they may be ready.' Thought Kakashi as he looked at his team.

Meanwhile, in Konoha

As team 7 was returning from their mission, inside of Konoha's council chambers was a meeting in process. The matter of this meeting was the upcoming Chunin exams. It was their turn to hold them inside their village and so it was council's job to make sure Konoha will show their strongest genin teams.

But the matter discussed most was about team 7 attending the Chunin exams. "HOKAGE-SAMA! You can't possibly think of letting that demon into exams. That thing shouldn't even be able to become shinobi, yet you want to give it chance to rise in ranks?" shouted civilian attending the meeting.

Before Hiruzen could say anything to this man, everyone there heard a cough and the room temperature got suddenly colder. The reason for this was the new addition to council. At the very end of the table on shinobi side sat a woman in her late twenties. She had a long black hair tied into ponytail and her black eyes drilled holes into everyone she looked at. Her outfit consisted of white cape worn over her shoulders and a battle-kimono. On her left shoulder was a kanji for 'fire' and laying on table before her was black katana.

As the woman looked at the civilian, she said calmly. "I think I heard you badly, councilman. Did you just call Uzumaki-san a demon?" This made everyone look at her, wondering what she would do. She was only on their meetings few times in last month, but this was first time she spoke before Hiruzen.

The civilian who spoke before looked at her with smug look and said. "And what if I did? What will you do about it?" The woman stood up and took a scroll from her guard behind her. "I may be here only a month and I was quiet most of the times but let me assure you I could gauge almost everything about how this council runs. And I'm sorry for my rudeness for not letting you take care of this Hokage-sama, but I would rather take the risk of angering Daimyo than to see an innocent boy being called names that don't belong to him but to what he protects you all from." Said woman.

She sighed when nobody said anything. She unrolled the scroll and bit her finger, placing it on bottom of the scroll. She winced slightly when from the scroll came smoke and after it disappeared, she scrolled it back up and sealed it with a strap. She looked at Hiruzen and said. "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, but after my observations during these meetings, I saw that Konoha is slowly losing its political strength if the disrespect civilian council shows to you and Daimyo is anything to go by. Something like that isn't to be tolerated and as such could lead to Daimyo-sama cutting your funds in close future. I would rather for this to not happen and as such, my only advice I can give to you is either to return this village into its pre-Kyuubi attack state or to find a next Hokage who could do this."

What she said made everyone sweat profusely. To have its funding cut off by Daimyo means that Konoha wouldn't be able to survive for a long time. They all looked at Hiruzen for him to say anything in their defense, but he only sat there with defeated expression, knowing well that he wasn't in position to rebuke.

The woman shook her head and left with her guards. The moment they left, another civilian shouted. "Hokage-sama! You can't let her do that!" Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at him and said. "You think she can't do that? Daimyo-sama doesn't believe my word anymore because of what happened with Naruto. And you think he won't believe his own daughter about the situation here? Right now, all we can do is to wait for what Daimyo-sama's orders will be. This meeting is adjourned."