The Konoha Jonin stood next to the Demon Brothers watching the people of Wave's celebration while Zabuza took his time slaughtering Gato's thugs to both repair his sword with their blood but arguably the more important reason of stress relief as he was still pissed that he was so easily tricked by Naruto. He'd been at it for about twenty minutes now and was almost through the army.
"Can't believe those brats got us," Meizu grumbled before he gave Asuma a small nod, "You trained them well."
"I can't take all the credit. I got them started but they worked hard to get here," Asuma said after blowing out a bit of smoke, "At this point I'm not sure who'll do better in the Chunin Exams but as good as my team is… I have to be honest, I think Yūgao's kids might be a bit ahead."
"Don't let the Uchiha hear that," Yūgao chuckled, "You know how competitive he can be."
"They better do well," Zabuza grunted as he joined the four adults, "I'm going to make a killing betting on them in the Chunin Exams. The way they kept up with Haku they're basically guaranteed on making Chunin."
"High praise coming from you boss," Gōzu chuckled, getting a glare from the swordsman, "Hey don't glare at me! Meizu and I know how hard you've pushed Haku to get to her current level. She can already defeat Meizu and I in a two on one fight and those kids were able to keep up with her. The Bingo Book said Yūgao took that team about three months ago."
"I did," Yūgao said with a small smile, "They have been an absolute marvel to train."
"I'd bet," Zabuza grunted, "You've got the kid of the Red Death. We thought he was simply a descendent with a diluted bloodline, and the kid of a Yamanaka, but if he's the Red Death's kid… why the hell doesn't he have the Uzumaki hair color?"
"I… I'm not sure," Yūgao said as she scratched her chin, "I never thought about that before but you're right. He should have the same hair color…"
"We'll look into it when we get back," Asuma stated, "Right now let's just let the kids relax after a hard fought victory. Wave's free, Gato and his two Ronin are in chains and what few thugs he has left are laying low until the bridge's complete so they can leave and find new work. My question is how Naruto got hold of the Fox Contract. I've never heard of anyone having it before."
"I agree," Zabuza chuckled, "That kid raises more than a few questions. Where he got that contract is just one of them."
"Who's his father is another," Meizu said, getting a confused look from Asuma and a calculating look form Yūgao.
"I get the feeling his dad's a 'need to know' secret," Gōzu grunted as Meizu and Zabuza gave him an odd look.
"You mean…" Meizu ask and Gōzu nodded.
"If his mother is the Red Death… few things would surprise me about who his father is," Gōzu explained, "And if I'm right then we should keep quiet."
"The hell are you talking about?" Asuma asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'll tell ya when we've got a more secure place to talk," Zabuza grunted, "Don't want word to spread around if we're right," Asuma gave a slow nod before he paused, looked at Naruto for a few moments and face palmed, "Ha! And here'd I'd have thought out of anyone in Konoha you'd be in on the secret. So much for the 'privilege' of being one of the Twelve Shinobi Guardians of the Land of Fire and the Third's Son!" Zabuza continued chuckling despite the glare Asuma sent him. With Yūgao joining in the laughter.
On a nearby rooftop Haku and the Genin sat as they watched the celebrations, "Hey Haku," Hinata said and the ice wielding Kunoichi who turned to look at the pale eyed girl, "Where did you learn how to do one handed hand signs?"
"She can do that?" Sasuke inquired, "My family was trying to learn that trick for years but never figured it out."
Haku nodded, "I actually stumbled onto it by accident one day and just worked things out from there."
"That's one hell of a find!" Kiba chuckled, "There's going to be more than one Shinobi back in Konoha who's going to bug you to teach them. Might want to claim that as a Yuki Clan Secret. That'll instantly get them to leave you alone."
"Won't stop some members of the Council though," Shikamaru sighed as he leaned back, "Moment you're a Konoha Shinobi they'll try to get you into the Clan Restoration Act. Most of the Shinobi won't push, but the Civilians and Elders will be troublesome… even if the majority of the more idiotic civilian members were arrested."
Naruto scratched his chin in thought, "Taking Haku as a Protectee of the Uzumaki Clan might work but considering I'm a Genin the Elders might not take it seriously… Hinata? Do you think your father would be willing to protect Haku from the CRA?"
"I… am unsure," Hinata replied, "Though that could also have the Hyuga Elders trying something… Shino? Shikamaru? Kiba?"
"Mom might be willing," Kiba said slowly, "She might ask you to try and teach some of our more experienced Clan members and dogs a couple Hyoton Jutsu as compensation though. We've got a couple who can use Ice based Jutsu if there's enough snow but that's about it."
"I've also got the correct Elements," Akamaru said from on top of Kiba's head, "But honestly I'm honestly more interested in mastering Water and Wind before learning any Ice Jutsu."
"Pops is going to say it's too troublesome," Shikamaru drawled, "But knowing him… and mom, they'll still help. He might want to pick your brains for some information though."
"Father would also be willing to assist," Shino stated, "Though it might not be necessary as I once heard that the CRA is voluntary though. Despite the academy teachers saying it was mandatory."
"We're some of the ones who said it amongst those who got arrested?" Akamaru inquired, "It wouldn't surprise me. They said a lot of dumb shit when they thought no one was around."
"Like what?" Haku asked.
"Like that due to Naruto being a fox demon reborn he shouldn't be allowed in the academy at all," Akamaru replied, "I mean all he smelled like is old paint, ramen and mold. Seriously where the fuck did you live?"
"Damn you have less of a filter then I do!" Kiba exclaimed with a small chuckle.
"You remember that really old apartment building that was once a hotel?" Nartuo asked, "The one that's way too close to the large condemned factory for my liking."
All the Konoha Genin groaned, "That place should have been torn down and rebuilt by now," Sasuke growled, "Both the apartment building and the factory."
"Yeah well I was the only one living in the apartments," Naruto sighed, "Lucky me! I have a four story building all to my own and yet only one apartment is even remotely liveable and it's on the top floor!"
"Why the hell did the Hokage let you live there then?" Kiba asked in disbelief.
"Fuck if I know!" Naruto replied as he lay back and looked at the stars, "At least I'm in a better home now."
"And you have an actual family," Shino stated.
"I won't lie," Sasuke grunted, "I'm a little jealous you found them."
"Well… maybe you have some family out there we don't know about yet," Haku suggested, "And perhaps you'll meet them one day."
"Let's just hope they're not like Itachi," Sasuke nodded, "If they are I might just quit being a ninja and become a monk."
"You would not be able to stay one for long," Hinata giggled, "You'd want to kick their ass at some point… plus I don't think you could pull off the look."
Sasuke was silent for a moment before he grunted, "True. I'd get annoyed at the lifestyle too," the seven humans and sole canine chuckled at this.
"After this do you think our Sensei's will nominate us for the Chunin Exams?" Naruto asked.
"Well we can fight at that level at least," Shikamaru stated," But fighting isn't all a Chunin needs to do so who knows."
"Would be fun at least," Kiba stated, "Seeing all the Shinobi from around the world and testing ourselves against them."
"Kinda socks the second stage allows killing though," Hinata said, "So many lives and so much potential cut short."
"In some ways the strong survive the weak parish," Sasuke said as he gazed out over the river that split the city of Wave in two, "But I can see your point."
"Or those deemed weak at least," Haku interjected, "Being weak, useless, monsters, these are all reasons people have used as an excuse to kill."
"Weak excuses," Sasuke scoffed, "But sometimes this world isn't fair, is it?"
"No it isn't," Shino agreed, "What happened to you, Naruto and Haku is proof of that."
"But we live on despite it," Shikamaru sighed, "Man this conversation is going places I was not expecting. Can we go back to lighter topics please?"
"Fine, fine," Naruto chuckled.
"So… what is Konoha like?" Haku asked.
Tenten ducked under a female Kusa Nuke-Nin's large sickle before retaliating by slamming the butt of her naginata into her face causing the rogue kunoichi to real back in pain, "You bitch!" The Nuke-Nin hissed, "I'll gut you for that!"
"Unlikely," Tenten scoffed, letting a flashbang fall out of her sleeve. When it went off the ex-Kusa Kunoichi screamed in pain and shock before finding the blade of Tenten's naginata in her neck. Choking for breath the Nuke-Nin collapsed, her hateful glare only fading when the last of her life slipped away. Resting her weapon on the ground Tenten wiped the sweat from her brow and put a finger to her ear activating her radio, "West side is now clear. What about your two? Over."
"East side is also clear!" Lee replied and she could practically hear his large smile, "He was a most Unyouthful opponent, however after all our recent training he proved to be no match! Over!"
"South side is clear," Neji replied, "Fate deemed my victory would be easy. Over."
Tenten rolled her eyes. Why did her teammates have to be polar opposites of each other? She hid it well but both Lee's and Neji's antics annoyed her sometimes. Lee was slowly getting better but when he got overly excited he sometimes slipped into old habits.
"Well done team!" Guy-Sensei said over the radio, "Put your opponents in stasis scrolls and stand by. The night is still young and we don't know how many more enemies will appear to steal this shipment. Over."
"I can't believe that this shipment was labeled as a B-Rank mission," Tenten signed to herself. The client, a rich merchant from the Land of Mines had asked for protection during his trip to and from the Land of Tea as he renewed a contract with a jeweler who lived there while also delivering the next shipment of precious gems. The Land of Mines was a small country between the Lands of Earth, and Wind and the neighbor of the Land of Stone. Though while the Land of Stone was infamous for all the Bloodline empowered Nuke-Nin, the Land of Mines had no Hidden Village and instead traded a large amount of high quality ore and rare gems, protected from the psychos from Ishigakure by a treaty with both Sunagakure and Iwagakure. It was rare for people from the Land of Mines to hire Shinobi from other villages but due to Might Guy's surprising rise from a low A-Rank to mid S-Rank had people curious so Team Nine had gotten several requests for missions recently.
This was the first B-Rank he'd taken his team on and it seemed like the rumored 'C-Rank Curse' had mutated. Team Nine's first C-Rank had been a fairly standard bandit elimination but their first B-Rank just had to make a cruel return of the curse with a small group of Nuke-Nin. Well Team Nine had trained hard, and Guy-Sensei could easily get to them quickly if something they couldn't handle appeared. Tenten just hoped any future encounters would be just as smooth as this one. The Kunoichi, while quick enough to cause Tenten to sweat a little, wasn't all that impressive. Her instincts then screamed at her and Tenten leapt back as a Iwa Nuke-Nin tried to skewer her from above with a spear, the blade coated with diamond like ridges. Readying herself, Tenten smirked. Looks like she'd at least get a new Chakra Metal weapon out of this mission.
Sakura focused hard, sweat pouring off her brow and slowly a small tree rose out of the dirt. When it got to her knees, pink leaves sprouted. When it reached her waist she had to drop the Jutsu, hands falling to her knees as she panted, "Very good," Tiger said, "You have progressed faster than I anticipated. To come this far on what will be a B-Rank Jutsu in less than a month is no small feat. What you lack in power you more than make up for in control."
After pulling out a bottle of water and downing half the contents in one go Sakura nodded, "Honestly I'm still amazed I can even do this at all. Thank you for helping me, Tiger-Sensei."
"You are welcome, however it is an odd feeling having another Mokuton user in Konoha," Tiger mused, "Perhaps there are more with the potential that we do not know about yet. It is also odd that every tree you produce is a sakura tree. I will speak with the Hokage on finding more possible Mokuton users. Now are you ready for another try?"
Sakura wiped some sweat from her brow and nodded, "I hope to have this ready by the Chunin Exams. Honestly I've had to put more work into this than any other Jutsu I've learned so far. It's going to be so satisfying once I have this down," Tiger nodded and the two once more got to work.
Ino was sitting on the roof of her house in thought. She was advancing well but something was bothering her. She'd finally learned the trick of channeling Water Chakra to her muscles and while Tenshi Higerashi didn't have enough spare Chakra Metal to make a new rapier he did use some to give hers a light coating. Perhaps she could channel Water Chakra through the sword to artificially increase its length? She'd alao increased her speed and accuracy with her family's Mind Body Switch Jutsu and was making decent progress on the next of her family's Jutsu, the Mind Body Disturbance Jutsu which gave her control of her opponents body without moving her mind into their body.
So far she'd been able to control the left arm of one of her cousin's who was acting as the guinea pig for her practice but that's as far as she's gotten with her current amount of Chakra. She knew Sakura was advancing just as fast if not slightly faster than she was if only because of Sakura's unnatural level of Chakra Control. Choji was also advancing with not only his weapons but he was also able to use his family's Expansion Jutsu to the point he was now able to make two limbs grow at the same time. He still stuck, enlarging only his torso for the Human Bullet Tank or slamming his giant fist or even worse, his giant Chakra Metal kanabo down on the target.
As she thought about her team, her thoughts moved to just how far they'd all come since the academy. She was honestly wondering what the hell she was thinking back then. She'd always known that dieting was useless for Shinobi so why on earth did she think it was a good idea to diet and ignore her training? She was the heir of the Yamanaka Clan! She'd never be allowed to lead the Clan if she was weak or stupid. She was really thankful that Ensui-Sensei, as infuriating and paradoxically lazy and energetic as he was, for breaking her out of those bad habits. Now she just needed to figure out where to go from here.
In the middle of the night Hiashi Hyguya moved through the compound with the silence and grace he was known for. He was doing one of his weekly patrols as he felt he shouldn't leave everything to the Branch Members. However he also had a secondary goal this night. As he reached his eldest daughter's room he slipped inside and couldn't help himself but smile at the sight of his youngest daughter Hanabi sleeping in Hinata's bed, while hugging the pillow close.
Moving over to the wardrobe he quickly opened it and placed a scroll he had used in his youth inside before closing it back up. He then moved over to Hanabi and carefully tucked her back in as the blanket had been thrown off at some point. He then slipped out of the room and put his stoic mask back on.
The scroll had some advanced techniques for channeling and manipulating Lighting Chakra when using the Juken. He still wondered how Hinata had inherited her mother's Primary Element and his Secondary Element as both he and Hiyori had the Earth Element as one of their proficiencies. He wondered if Hinata was the first Hyuga to not have the Earth Nature or if there were others he hadn't known about. As he began the trek to his room he couldn't help but feel like the Elders had hidden much from him. He needed to regain control of the clan soon before something irreversible happened and everything fell apart.
"Once again we can't thank you enough," Tazuna said as all the Shinobi stood on the finished bridge while he, his family and everyone else came to bid their heroes farewell, "You've all done a Super job!"
"Well except for him," Inari said motioning to Zabuza, the swordsman scoffing and crossing his arms.
"I got offered a job by the small bastard. Don't blame me for taking it," Zabuza replied, "If I didn't, someone else would have," Inari scowled but didn't say anymore.
"You're welcome Tazuna," Asuma said as he shook the architect's hand, "You hired us for a job, even if you shouldn't have lied and told the truth. Apart from that we couldn't just let a Crime Lord take hold near our home now could we?"
They both chuckled, "No. No you couldn't. Don't forget to tell the Hokage that if he never needs something built we'll be right over!"
"I'll make sure he gets the message," Asuma promised, "By the way. What are you planning to call the bridge?"
"We've been thinking about it for a while," Tsunami said with a smile before looking at her son, "Inari?"
The kid nodded, ran over to the right pillar and removed a cloth revealing two bronze plaques that read, "The Bridge of Swirling bridge is dedicated to all those who died saving Wave from the Tyrannical Gato. May all who see this bridge remember the names of not only those who saved Wave but those who died to protect it," The second plague had the names of each Konoha Shinobi along with everyone from Wave who Gato had killed starting with Inari's stepdad Kaiza.
All the Konoha Shinobi looked at Naruto who looked shocked, at could very well be a subtle reference to his clan. Turning he gave Tazuna a large smile, "I… I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything then," Tazuna chuckled, "The Uzumaki were once friends with Wave. I hope to see more of you one day."
"Here's hoping!" Naruto chuckled.
"We're wasting time," Zabuza grunted, "Let's just get moving to Konoha already."
"True. We should be heading back," Yūgao agreed and with one final wave goodbye the Shinobi turned, and crossed the bridge.
"Hey Blondy," Zabuza grunted as he glanced at Naruto, "You've got the fox contract but what about your family's contract?"
"What is the Uzumaki Summoning Contract?" Gōzu asked.
"Dragons," Naruto smiled, "And yeah. I've signed it, why?"
"So that creature you summoned to take a note to the Hokage was a dragon?" Shino inquired, "Interesting. He was not what I expected a dragon to look like."
"There are a LOT of different kinds of dragons in the Dragon Clan," Naruto chuckled, "Komori is great for sending messages and spying due to his small size and batlike form when upside down."
The Genin of Team Seven, Gōzu and Meizu looked at Naruto stunned, "The Uzumaki Clan's Summons are dragons?!" Sauke gasped, "Why wasn't that in any of my family's scrolls on the Uzumaki?!"
Naruto shrugged, "My family didn't show off our summons that often. Perhaps that's why?"
Sasuke just grumbled as Shikamaru said, "Your family's contract I get… but how did you get the Fox Contract?"
"Niiiinnnjjjaaaaa~" Naruto sang before cackling making Shino and Hinata shake their heads.
"Why am I not surprised that's your response?" Hinata sighed, "I want to say you're spending too much time with Tayuya and Anko… but I can't."
"The Snake Mistress of Konoha?" Meizu gulped, "You know her?"
"Yup!" Naruto said as the group took to the treetops, "She's friends with my cousin Tayuya. Well I say cousin but she's honestly more like my sister."
"Any other Uzumaki we should know about?" Gōzu asked, "And are they in a similar position as Tayuya?"
"Yeah," Hinata said, "Her name's Karin and she's working on becoming a Medic."
"It's a respectable path," Haku said with a small smile, "Once we're in Konoha perhaps I'll join her on it. Oh Asuma, I have a question. Is Konoha's CRA mandatory or voluntary?"
"Voluntary, why?" Asuma asked, "Worried that people will try to force you to join?"
"It's voluntary?" Sauske asked, "I was always told it was mandatory!"
Zabuza shook his head, "Seems you find bullshit no matter where you go…" He then sighed, "Well since we'll be getting a new home… guess there's something I should finally get off my chest."
"Zabuza-Sama?" Haku asked. Zabuza then went through a couple hand signs, held out his arm, and much to everyone's surprise a coating of ice appeared before sharpening into a blade.
"I'm sorry but what the FUCK?!" Meizu asked as he almost stumbled mid jump off a new branch, "You're a member of the Yuki Clan?!"
Zabuza scoffed and canceled the Jutsu, "The Bastard Son of a member. Don't even know my old man's name but it doesn't matter. It's thanks to keeping this quiet I survived the purges," He then looked at Haku, "Since I'm a Bastard Child, once you make Jonin you'll be the Head of the Yuki Clan. I'll hear no argument about this Haku. The time of you seeing yourself as my tool is over," Haku said nothing and just gave a small nod.
Omake
An alternative scene of the Genin on the roof.
"Why the hell did the Hokage let you live there then?" Kiba asked in disbelief.
"Fuck if I know!" Naruto replied as he lay back and looked at the stars, "At least I'm in a better home now."
"At least you live with a total babe now," Kiba chuckled, "Your older cousin is smoking hot."
"Dude Tayuya is basically his sister," Shikamaru stated.
"And she would kick your ass if she heard you saying that," Hinata said.
"Why do you think I'm not saying it around her?" Kiba asked with a raised eyebrow.
"But we can easily tell her," Shino stated.
"... oh fuck," Kiba groaned as the others laughed at his self inflicted misfortune.
Author's Notes:
I've seen a lot of names for the bridge, and wanted to go with one I haven't seen before. Hope everyone likes it!
