Chapter 22: first real mission.

Hello guys its me, sorry for not updating in a while I kind of had an overflow of idea's and needed a little help sorting them out, I mean I had to many plans that it kind of fucked with me, and thank to watching anime and playing games it kind of floated on making them so I had to sort some idea's out, anyways enough yapping and lets get on the fanfic.

…

"Any reason why you were so eager to dive head first into your prospective death?" Sasuke asked Naruto.

"Nothing much really, just a stray thought that passed by," Naruto said as he continued to push the small boat to the next shore, but as Naruto said that he made eye contact with Sasuke telling him everything in that instant.

"You know, somedays you just cant be understood," he said with a smile as he then flicked his finger and caught a stingray that launched its stinger at him, "welp looks like we know what we're eating today,"

A few minutes later they landed on shore, now as they continued their travels through the natural muddy path of the shore side earth they come to notice that its surprisingly foggy and is worried about being lost, and so huddled in closer to the old man.

"Don't worry about me, i've traveled these lands since I was a wee lad, so a little mist couldn't detract me," he said with a smile.

"Easy for you to say, none of us except probably sensei over their, has any experience dealing with such thick fog,"

"You can say that again, worst weather we had was last winter, and it was more visible than this," Sakura said.

"Oh don't be such a baby, its not like this is anything new, Nashi probably blinds us with how violent he picks up dust when he wants to," Naruto said as he suddenly threw a kunai at some random tree.

"Hey, what do you think your doing stupid," Sakura whisper yelled at Naruto, but Naruto didn't answer her as when he pulled his kunai back something white followed it, "Oh no that poor bunny, how could you do this to such a cute creature," Sakura angrily said to Naruto.

"Looks like we've been followed," Sasuke said as he pulled out his katana on his right hand, and kunai on his left hand.

"What?"

"GET DOWN!!!" Naruto yelled at Sakura as he pushed her down while at the same time pulling out his own great sword and swinging it at the incoming blade, a loud clash could be heard and from both blades only one could survive such a clash, and from the crumbling pieces held in his hands it was safe to say that Naruto had lost as pieces of his blade fell, while the other blade was stopped it had survived.

"W-what is that?" Sakura stuttered out as she crawled back to get away from the front lines.

"Sakura watch Tazuna, Naruto, Sasuke get back," Kakashi said as he walked in front of Sasuke and Naruto.

"Zabuza momochi, Demon of the hidden mist," Kakashi said as he prepared himself.

"Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja, I must say you are far less impressive in person," Zabuza said with a small smile in his voice, "anyway, you need that?" He said as he pointed at the giant sword beneath his feet.

Kakashi did not give him a response, and zabuza did the same, both of them stood their one in a relaxed position and the other like a coiled spring ready to be launched, but unexpectedly the first to strike wasn't Kakashi, but it was zabuza, a foot was launched at Kakashi's head, Kakashi ducked and jumped to dodge the foot that was just a kick a second ago which was turned into a stomp, "If not, then i'll be taking it," he said as when his foot landed on the edge of the handle it kicked the blade strong enough to send it flying upward to which he caught and propped over his shoulders.

"Lets get out of here," Naruto said with a nervous sweat.

"Nashi was right, being close to this man gives me the feeling of needles crawling in my skin," Sasuke said as he gently gestured Tazuna and Sakura to move back.

"Smart kids, sadly i'm not a fool," Zabuza's voice sounded behind them followed by a sharp sound, before something could happen Naruto fell face first while grabbing Tazuna's collar and kicking Sakura's shins to force her to fall, and at the same time Sasuke spun as fast as he could enhancing his katana with as much chakra as he could without breaking it to clash against the blade, following that a loud clash and a splash could be heard.

"Surprised that kid got enough power to destroy a water clone with nothing but the vibration of the blade," Zabuza said as Sasuke had clashed with the water clones blade strong enough to explode the soft water clones hand, but it wasn't without any feedback as Sasuke's hand was now numb.

"Shit, Sakura guard Sasuke and Tazuna," Naruto yelled out as he tapped his forehead protector with his thumb summoning a sword, after that he sent a chakra empowered slashed to the right, dispersing a glob of water, he then used chakra burst to get behind his team to protect Sasuke from a Zabuza bringing down its sword, after wards he kicked it in the stomach, using that kick to jump in front of Sakura tackling a clone, none of them could see clearly thanks to the mist getting thicker.

"Sakura get up, we need to get out of the way," Sasuke said as he deflected a slash with his kunai.

"Alright," Sakura said as she placed Tazuna on her back surprising the old man as he felt like a toddler being carried by Sakura, surprising of all was the ease she carried him making him think he weighted nothing to the girl.

"Priority secured, moving on to neutralizing tango!!!" Sasuke yelled out as he activated his sharingan giving him the visual prowess to see what was going on, their he saw Kakashi fending off zabuza, zabuza used his sword like a giant club, taking advantage of its heavy weight, and at the same time taking advantage of its width to defend against the far more agile Kakashi, Kakashi used speed and precision, taking advantage of his opponents slower movements due to having a heavier weapon, coming in for a quick stab of slash and moving back to avoid the heavy swing, Sasuke seeing that knew he didn't need help, so he went for Naruto, Naruto wasn't having any problems, except for the numbers.

Naruto was fighting water clones, these clones unlike the original cant use jutsu, though a trade off is that if you arent careful the clone could easily trap an opponent using its body to hold a limb leaving them open for another clone, or the original to strike them, and that is exactly what happened, as Naruto was preparing another swing a water clone grabbed the sword he was using leaving him open for one to attack him, but before it could land a strike Sasuke came in rocketing feet first on the attacking clones chest, seeing that Naruto grinned and used chakra burst through the sword to disperse the clone holding it.

"Is the vip safe," Naruto asked as he looked at his blade, it wasn't cracked just soaked with water.

"Safe, only one opp remaining," Sasuke said as when he checked his katana, seeing that their was no problem with it aside from the slight warp it gained from the clash, "see any other opp's around,"

"No, though I saw that a few dozen feet or so was some people carrying bound women," Naruto said as he looked at the fight.

"Secondary priority, we can free them after or during the mission, we can assassinate gato if needed, and if possible barter with Zabuza," Sasuke said.

"You think he's after cash?"

"Why else would he suddenly take on a mission, not to mention it being one of the riches undocumented person, dudes got enough money to be capable of turning a small village into a major country," Sasuke said.

"So we kill Gato, bribe Zabuza, and free the village," Naruto said.

"Depends on the outcome if the battle, Kakashi could loose and then we both die,"

"You think we're that weak?"

"Don't act tough Naruto, I know you felt that aura to, someone with the experience to properly kill and this time not a friendly foe,"

"True that, and villagers ain't shit to this guy, probably better off comparing a pebble to an ocean," he said as he focused on Kakashi and Zabuza's fight.

There Kakashi didn't have to worry about his team as Naruto and Sasuke has clearly shown to be far more capable than any would know, Kakashi side stepped a telegraphed slash and came in for a quick jab to his eye ball, but before it could land Zabuza extended his foot in a sweeping motion forcing Kakashi to jump back, Zabuza then pushed to the offensive and threw his blade like before at Kakashi, Kakashi ducked under the blade but didn't notice as Zabuza's speed increased due to the lack of a giant blade, their he launched a combo at Kakashi, a heavy punch to the face to disorient the man followed with a swift elbow with the same arm, he then rolled over Kakashi and hit him with an upper cut, but before he could get far he grabbed his leg and slammed him into the water where he then trapped him in a water prison.

"Well shit," Naruto said as he pulled something out of his storage seal.

"Looks like someone even with skills and experience cant shrug off a well placed combo," Sasuke said as he to prepared himself.

"We don't need to kill him, we just need to free Kakashi," Naruto whispered.

"Thanks for pointing it out captain obvious," Sasuke said as he rushed in first followed by Naruto close behind.

And without being able to say anything Zabuza was rushed, a water clone holding the real sword came in to block the stab, but as soon as the kunai was blocked Naruto came from Sasuke's shadow and planted one foot on the back of the blade and swung his foot through the head of the water clone aimed directly for Zabuza's own, but seeing as the sword was already in grabbing distance he held it by the blade and pushed it up blocking my kick and making the blade of the sword bite into his skin, Sasuke then came in with a diagonal slash from below as I jumped back.

Sasuke's slash was blocked by Zabuza's sandal which was iron plated below for these very occasions, adding a little bit of chakra just makes it more durable, after the block Zabuza kicked the sword away and kneed the blade upwards landing on his left hand, and one mighty swing had launched Sasuke back.

"Looks like were drowning in an inch deep shit creek," Naruto said as he Skidded backwards, stopping next to him.

"Well, what plan do you have?"

"Flying shadow didn't work so why not fuck it?"

"Really? You don't got any other plan than "Fuck it,"

"Hey its either that or we try meteor, and without Nashi we don't got enough coordination to land it,"

"So fuck it?"

"Yeah, fuck it,"

"Alright, Fuck it,"

After formulating their plans Sasuke suddenly dashed forward but this time with twice the speed he had displayed before, forcing Zabuza to focus on the red eyed boy, he expertly maneuvered his sword around, one could say it was like playing with a stick, they didn't notice the bulging arm that was radiating chakra.

Naruto seeing that Sasuke was forcing Zabuza to focus on him took this chance, tapping his four head he pulled out two giant windmill shuriken, standing their focused on his target he launched them as was taught by Nashi, locking them in their fully opened state he gripped it on one edge of the blade and tossed it like how one would a boomerang, one aimed for his legs and one aimed for his arm, and at the same time a Naruto clone began to swim upwards from below the water.

Zabuza having no choice pulled his arm out of the prison, swatted Sasuke with the side of the blade, and with that momentum spun in place, hitting both windmill shuriken, while creating a whirlpool that showed the shadow clone to be nothing but a genjutsu.

"I must say, you brats are as vicious as mist shinobi, hey hatake, you sure their leaf, wouldn't be surprised if they were run aways," Zabuza said as he watched Kakashi pull himself out of the water.

"Thanks boys, now its my turn," Kakashi ignored Zabuza's question and pulled up his forehead protector showing them his sharingan, surprising everyone.

"I see play time is over," Zabuza said as he pulled something out of his pouch and attached it to the handle of his blade, their he held his blade with both hands, a simple change but it was a clear shift in atmosphere.

Kakashi noticing this launched forward, Zabuza struck downward with his blade showing that an addition to his handle wasn't just for show as it was faster than before, but due to Kakashi's specially speed centric style with his sharingan, this was trivial.

Kakashi leaped to the side dodging Zabuza's attack, and as swift as he dodged he came in aiming for a killing blow, but Zabuza wasn't naïve as he slashed the sword to the side forcing Kakashi to leap backwards, landing on his feet he looked at Zabuza, and so did Zabuza, they walked clockwise just looking at each other.

Zabuza then started blazing hand signs, Kakashi followed, most of them couldn't believe what was going on, as their melee had lead them close to where Sakura and Tazuna was hiding, and their disbelief got higher as in an instant Kakashi and Zabuza did the same jutsu.

"Water style: Water dragon," both of them said at the same time creating two dragons that stared at each other, then then started to fight raising water and nearly sweeping them off their feet, luckily enough Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura learned the wall sticking technique, but Tazuna was almost swept away if it wasn't for one of the senbon's that transformed into a Naruto stopping Tazuna from being swept away.

Zabuza had clashed with Kakashi, but in the mince of their clash Kakashi had kicked Zabuza away, and when Zabuza had stood up Kakashi had prepared another of his jutsu's, "Water style: Great waterfall," Kakashi said as Zabuza looked into his sharingan swirling mimicking the spiraling crashing wave that had struck him, launching him through tree's.

As the water cleared up Zabuza could be seen pinned to a tree, and everyone was rushing forward going next to Kakashi, but he stopped them as he noticed Zabuza was still conscious seeing him reach out to his students he launched four kunai's at him making sure they all landed on major joints.

His aim struck true as both his shoulders and knee's wore pierced, but as everyone got close two senbon's were suddenly embedded onto his neck, "I must thank you for making my job easier," a muffled voice sounded out, looking to where the voice originated they saw a masked person wearing traditional anbu clothes from mist.

"Who are you?" Sakura asked.

"Don't bother Sakura, it's an anbu from mist," he said as he pulled down his forehead protector to cover his eye.

"I'll be taking him now," the anbu said as he grabbed him by the arm and vanished.

"Does that mean we don't have to worry about Tazuna?" Sakura asked.

"No, Zabuza wasn't the main villain, while yes he was a giant obstacle, he wasn't the core," Sasuke said.

"Carry me bro," Naruto said as he pulled out a carry pack.

"You owe me one got that," Sasuke said.

"Sure, we'll train your resistance," Naruto said as he got on Sasuke's back and started to use his sensory, Sasuke then activated his sharingan, but before they could continue with their walk Kakashi suddenly collapsed.

…

…

…

"This should be the last of them," Nashi said as he pulled his arm out of someone's chest.

"Did any of you expect something like this for our return?" Sai asked.

"Any of you got any extra clothing," Tsubaki, asked as she took off her socks coated in blood.

"I don't know, rice should be close if we head back," I said as I soaked my hand to clean the blood off.

"That would be unnecessary," he then coughed, "We would be close to hidden sound village, their we can rest, though unaffiliated we haven't done anything to gain their ire,"

"Hear that Tsu, we can probably wash up on the river we will pass by," Nashi said as he waved his arms towards the girl.

"If you don't stop, i'll sever your arms off," she said through gritted teeth.

"Please don't, I still need them," he said as he cradled his arms.

"Do we need to send a messenger?" Sai asked Hayate.

"I believe no, though the village is recognized as hidden it still new enough that all you need is a pretty penny to enter," he said as he looked at the map while covering his mouth.

. . .

"Well that was easy," Nashi said as he landed face first onto a pillow.

"Though the inn was a tad to expensive," Tsubaki said.

"That is to be expected, sound was originally a poor village, so poor that it was common to see cannibals here and their, but a few years ago a shinobi found the place and took pity on the pathetic people, he taught them ninjutsu, how to manipulate chakra, and eventually formed a village, and due to the specialty of the village it was named sound, not only because of their unique use of wind jutsu, but their incorporation of musical instruments, and thanks to their proximity of konoha, they have access to chakra tree's made by hashirama in the warring times," Sai said informing the two.

"Dam, that's something I don't know, and here I thought I was the nerd," Nashi said, as he pondered this info and connected it to cannon.

"Want to go outside and checkout the people? If not the layout of the place?" Tsubaki said curious about the new land.

"I would suggest not to look to suspicious, though it is new the village it is still a shinobi village, so snooping around and checking the infrastructure could easily lead to a misunderstanding," Hayate said.

"True that, shinobi which I presume are their anbu have been following us for a while now," I said as I showed them a piece of paper saying [they can probably hear us with a jutsu that is sound related]

"I'm not surprised, lord Danzo used to make us tail some civilians that enter the village," Sai said while painting a honey badger and a Cheeta cub next to each other signaling to play in sight.

"Eh, doesn't bother me much, well if any of you want to i'm going to the market place to see what I can buy, souvenir are nice and all that," I said as I changed into civilian clothing, and then changed the location of my forehead protector and wrapped it around his waist to act like a belt.

"Wait for me," Tsubaki said as she placed on some booty shorts to hide the exposed part of her leotard and high thigh leather stockings that had no heel and toe, which was apparently mandatory, which I found out via clone the hard way, my eyes still burn seeing the mans bulge, following that was a purple jacket that was open on the front.

"You know dressing like that doesn't hide much you know," I said as Sai changed behind Tsubaki.

"Really? I thought it was alright," she said as she began to look in front and behind her.

"Sai, give us a moment," I said as I pulled out some clothing, one was a purple yukata but it was shorter than what a normal one would look like, after wards a pair of standard sandals, next was some cloth wrappings and baggy pants, after some fighting and forcing her to wear clothing, we came out, I was heavily scratched and damaged, and Tsubaki was steaming. (Tsubaki just looks like Yoruichi with her orange outfit but its purple)

"You looks like you got stung by bee's pukes, and what happened Tsubaki? You look prettier yet you look mortified," Sai asked but was answered by Tsubaki with a punch.

"You sure you don't want to come with sensei?" I asked Hayate.

"Nah, i'd like to rest for now," he said as he watched the sky that slowly turned orange.

After that we went outside, their we were greeted with a variety of instruments, standard instruments could me seen, stuff like flutes, ocarina, those guitars that has a drum body, side body, and ones that looks like a thick plank of wood with strings. [drum body (Shamisen), wide body (Hoichi), thick plank of wood with strings (koto)]

Passing through the market wasn't much different in konoha since we basically have a mixed culture so guitars and flutes aren't really new, specially all of their weird variants, but what caught most of our eyes was the street performers, while the people wore plenty none of them ever complained about the women in yukata dancing with sashes, and just over at the next area was some dude wearing nothing but boxers and a skirt made out of leaves breathing out fire through his mouth with the help of what looks like oil and a torch, and over to the next was some dude using the plank of wood with strings (koto) while some girl wearing a white, blue, black, and red accent kimono with slits dance around, giving the illusion of a swan dancing through the river and sky.

And that wasn't all, walking deeper one could easily find people singing along with some instruments, and from how the voice was transmitted it was clear that chakra was being used to amplify, while that was impressive it was the fact that these people had enough brain power to separate themselves, and they even placed themselves where the item they use is represented with what the venders are selling, from clothes, instruments, wooden carving, and anything they have.

Truly this place isn't anything like the other villages, mist was basically a barren waste land with some stores still opened but it was clear that the only ones out was the shinobi wearing civilian clothing to ease the people, while the real civilian hide inside their houses in fear of what the new Mizukage would do, despite clearly showing that they are trying to change their ways, its been shown through their actions, allowing people inside, no aggressive shinobi inspecting/damaging products, allowing talks with other nations and smaller villages, and one of the clearest change is the fact that they are actually letting someone finally setting up an adventures guild their, and seeing as an adventurers guild is basically a help center for the poor it's a clear change.

Additional to that is that someone can finally chart and make a full map of water nation, or at least the area close to mist village seeing as most that was sent their either died or was to broken to speak before they instated the new mizukage.

Next is wind country or hidden sand, that place was a shit show, while some people managed to make a living 90% of their people are shinobi seeing as its already hard to find food and water in such a barren waste land, most of the monsters they have to hunt and defend themselves from is either one with the sand, very dangerous, super poisonous, ambush pray, has a hard exoskeleton, or just dry, while their trade for their poison, puppets with not only special weapons and armor, but sometimes comes with extra deadly written all over it, sand is over all hard to live in and very dusty.

Next is earth or rock country, their area isn't as bad as mist or sand, it's the fact that aside from their metal working and abundant of minerals for trade, their food and culture kind of lacks, while i'm not dissing their generation it kind of basically boils down to, "be strong" and that's it, I mean their hot springs are to die for, and they are probably the most advance when it comes to cement and brick work, but they seriously need to open trade with others, I mean no one is saying shit that their selling their goods, but aside from ordering goods their kind of a shut in.

Next is lightning or cloud country, their area is similar to earth in a way, they have high engineering because how the fuck are they supporting the houses made into a mountain, and aside from being strong that's where it ends because unlike rock they are actually open for trade, and like water country they have an abundant of clay and fish for trade, and like earth they have minerals for trade though their smithing is kind of 50/50, you can find a lot of gold in mud, but its kind of rare cause aside from what they sell to the public most of their craftsmen are private, and is basically constantly manufacturing ninja equipment, I don't know what they are after but like the leaf they have an abundance of resources and they aren't afraid of using it.

And speaking of the leaf or fire country, while yes we are open for all, it kind of sucks and is great at the same time, but we basically have mini culture wars over items that look the same but with different names, not to mention the cramped feeling you get when walking in the morning, i'm only thankful for roofs because of this, because everywhere you look, 'except for near the major clans area,' everywhere is filled with people competing or fighting for their product, making things more cramp and loud, while I can get the fact thanks to my past experience in asian markets, what I don't get is the costumer fighting each other to get the product, its almost like fighting an army of Naruto, specially with old ladies in the supermarket on weekdays where they do 50% off.

at that time I once saw some old hag that had both feet on the grave suddenly grew buff and jumped over the crowd and landed with the product she wanted.

But enough of my experience and more of my experience, I didn't expect the sound to be this organized, seeing this makes me wonder if I should visit the other hidden countries, I mean it would be hard but not impossible, their cultures could easily be something for me to experience, I mean I haven't visited rain country, makes me wonder if Nagato has already taken over, that enough of my musing though, its time to experience the sound village.

But lets not think about that and just continue the adventure, me, Sai, and Tsubaki went through the night and bought what we wanted, I bought a horn from what I was told was a goat, I makes some good noise like a trumpet but just one note.

Sai had bought himself a paint brush, that was made from one of the chakra tree's around and the brush was made from a domesticated chakra beast that resembles a horse, making the brush not only perfect for Sai's jutsu's but the wood is tough enough to be used like a baton, and just adding a little chakra on stick makes the other end something like a spear.

Tsubaki bought herself some clothing, I don't know why but I think it had something to do with me forcing her into some clothes, it wasn't much just some standard shirts and pants, but along with that she bought herself a collapsable staff, It wasn't like mine seeing as its not separate but two pieces connected by a small chain, it almost looked like a long nunchuck, but is capable of combining.

After walking around until the night lights turned on, seeing that we decided to return cause Hayate would most likely be worried about us, walking down the path towards the inn I noticed that the eyes watching us suddenly changed, a change of shift? Its strange but its not konoha so its all good, I mean the other hidden villages didn't do this, but I only spent about a few hours in their before leaving anyways so i'm not really sure.

I spent time in cloud to look at the sights, what they could sell, and if I could buy or get my hands on jutsu, sand was just boring and aside from learning about the puppets and chakra strings it wasn't that interesting, earth had… well earth had new building techniques, more modern than new, water was just depressing though their black market was good, over all my time their was limited and just stopped by for an hour or two, longer if I was playing the part of following people, but those tend to not stay longer than 5 hours.

So having people suddenly change in the middle of spying was strange, but we just ignored it, walking into the in we were greeted with by a young man, if my memory could be trusted he was the janitor when we entered, "where's the old man?" I asked.

"You mean granpa?" The brown haired boy wearing rounded glasses asked.

"Oh, so do you like change shifts or something?" I asked.

"Yes, me and grandpa change shifts, I work on cleaning the rooms and bottom floor in the day and counter at night, while my grandpa works only in the day, and rests around this time due to his age, though sometimes he tries to work a little to hard," the boy said worriedly at the end.

"I see, well anyways here's our identification card that the old man handed to us, we'll be heading back to our room now," I said as I handed him three wooden tags that held the number 203.

"Alright then, have a nice rest," he bowed as we went up the floor.

"Strange guy," I said having the two nod.

Entering our room we were greeted with Hayate on his bed reading a book, he didn't greet us but caught some silver tags that he usually gives us just incase if we were ever to be captured, "how was the trip," he asked.

"Nothing much, though I found this," I said as I opened the window and blowed on the horn which melted together with the music outside, some even cheered and waved at me as they beated their drums louder.

"Village is cool, anyways i'm going to bed," I said while I got into the bed, it was a bunk bed in which I took the top bunk with Sai below me, shortly after i went to bed everyone also went.

[Chapter end.]

Omake:

"And that's the end of that," a blue haired boy said as he pulled out a spear from a mans chest, behind the man was a giant boar, "these fuckers need to stop trying to trap me," I said as I looked around watching the group of men, women, and children either pierced, slashed, or separated from their body, limbs, or something.

Walking out of a forest he is greeted with a Japanese style castle littered with blood and bodies, "Hmmm I think that should be all? Though I need to make sure so that it doesn't become a cringe story line of revenge," he said as he walked around the building dousing the place with gasoline that he stored in his seals to make sure that he was prepared for things.

"Hello Cu Chulainn, good to see you," a boy sounded behind him.

"Finally," Cu said as he tossed the gas can up, he then pierced it and tossed it into the building, after that he pierced the ground making a spark making the gas burst into an inferno, swinging his spear to the side it splashed the gas on his spear extinguishing the flame attached to it.

"So shall we begin," a Nashi clone said as he held up a note book.

"Fine by me," Cu said as he tossed the book towards the clone, he then walked towards the forest.

As Cu passed the clone, the clone couldn't help but notice the red spear, just over a foot long, starting from the tip reaching towards the bace was a shade of blood red, it seems like the more he killed the longer it stretched, and as he looked back he saw the corpses, with a sigh the clone made another clone and ordered it to throw the bodies into the fire.

[Omake end]

Thanks for reading.

Anyways thanks for taking the time off of your day to read this shit, and have a good day, afternoon, night, or what ever time you are in, and as always tell me if I made some mistakes and what I should improve on, thanks for reading.

Question of the day: how do you feel about genderbend, and who would be the most affected if they were to be gender bent, not just in Naruto but every media?

Fish out.