Chapter 10: We Don't Care About Team 7
"We are ready for a mission Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, smiling at his genin.
"Well Kakashi-san, you really are working young Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura," Sarutobi said, smiling at their fatigued faces.
"They still have a lot of work to do," Kakashi said. "But they're making adequate progress so far."
"Tch," Sasuke remarked, getting a laugh out of the Hokage.
"Well, onto more important topics, we have several missions for you, like getting Lady Daimyo's cat aga-"
"No," Naruto started, a firm tone in his voice. "I refuse to take any more of these shitty missions. This is just charity work, not fit for something of my status. I want a C-rank mission or higher, or else I'm not moving from this spot."
"Naruto-" Kakashi began, but Sasuke cut him off.
"I agree. I want something of higher ranking too. This isn't helping us get stronger or gain any field experience." Sasuke voiced as well, backing Naruto's claim.
Sarutobi groaned. It was that time, the time that every genin eventually demanded. The C-rank mission. It was a coming of age ritual basically, as eventually the genin would get bored with D-rank missions and would fight for a C-rank or above, although they only ever got C-rank. Still, Team Seven had done it faster than any other teams this year had...except the team with Son Goku on it of course.
"Kakashi-san, do you think they are ready for a C-rank?"
"As ready as they'll ever get," Kakashi said, shrugging.
"Well, the only one we have currently is escorting a bridge builder to his home in Nami no Kuni."
Kakashi nodded. "We will accept."
Naruto smiled and cheered and Sasuke simply let out a smirk. Sakura however had the most expressed reaction, excluding Naruto. She gave a bright smile, although afterwards she showed a hint of doubt in the decision, still not quite confident in her abilities.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Naruto asked, looking at the rosette with curiosity.
"Yeah, Naruto. I'm just not sure if I'm ready for a mission like this because I'm the weakest link on the team. I'm worried I'll hold the team back," the girl responded honestly, pulling a strand of her hair.
The blonde frowned. "Of course you're ready for a C-rank mission, you're not alone. You have us too: me, teme and an S-ranked jonin. Just because you're the weakest on the team doesn't make you a weakling, you're not a bad shinobi at all Sakura-chan!" He finished with a smile, before turning away and looking at the Hokage.
Meanwhile, Sakura's morale lifted and she felt a random surge of heat rushing towards her cheeks. She faintly blushed at the flattery and the fact that someone, even if it was Naruto of all people, believed in her. "Thanks Naruto."
"Send in the bridge builder," Hiruzen said. The door opened quickly afterwards, to reveal a grey-haired, bespectacled man with a large beard and dark eyes. He wore a sleeveless v-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals. There was a towel around his neck, and he wore a pointed hat on his head. Lastly, he had a bottle of sake clutched within his hands.
"You give me those gaki's to protect me? The girl looks completely useless, the broody one looks like he has a mental illness, and the blonde one looks like he couldn't harm a fly," the man insulted.
"Well, Tazuna-san, I'd be careful about what you say. These three are capable in different ways, and rather irritable," Kakashi said as he strolled out of the room. "Meet me at the southern Konoha gate at twelve o'clock sharp tomorrow."
-Four Days Later-
"Alright Naruto, since we are pretty close to the gate I want you to create eight clones. Then have them fan out at variable distances within a mile of the group, and if one of them sees something suspicious have it dispel so you can then inform us. Try to have them be as stealthy as they can be," Kakashi ordered.
"No problem Kakashi-Sensei!" Naruto quickly made the required number of shadow clones and sent them on their way.
Tazuna didn't know much about a shinobi's capabilities but that one sure looked useful in keeping him safe. He felt a bit bad about lying to the shinobi especially with the fact they were just kids but this was his countries only hope.
The Hatake noted that Naruto was keeping a sharp eye out for any sign of danger very keenly. In fact, he was a bit too jumpy and twitched and prepared for battle every time a simple woodland creature moved.
Kakashi decided enough was enough and cautioned his blonde student.
"Naruto, while it's good you are taking it seriously, it's important that you stop sounding false alarms." The Sensei then added more to his statement. "And keep in mind that even if you did spot an enemy approaching it's not always the best idea to sound the alarm, especially if they feel they have the factor of surprise. And when they realize they don't it can be a nasty surprise with deadly repercussions. So calm down a bit."
"Hai Kakashi-Sensei."
The journey continued for another couple of hours when Kakashi and the three genin spotted a puddle of water. It hadn't rained in a few days, so it was quite out of place for Kakashi's finely honed senses. Without changing his movements in the slightest, Kakashi reached out with his senses and quickly deduced that there were two enemy in shinobi hiding.
Sure enough after a few more moments as the group walked by, the puddle changed into two shinobi, both of them wielding a large gauntlet attacked. They struck at the most dangerous target first, which was obviously the S-ranked Jonin. Kakashi completed an undetectable Kawarimi jutsu right as a chain that connected the two gauntlets and shinobi together was wrapped around him.
Kakashi stayed hidden off to the side as he watched for what his squad of fresh genin would do.
Naruto instantly performed the Kage Bunshin, deploying over a dozen shadow clones. Sakura created a few regular Bunshin that dashed forward, attempting to distract the two Chunin-level opponents.
Sasuke activated his Sharingan and saw Kakashi hiding off to the side, giving off a slight smirk.
The Uchiha then threw a few shuriken at the pair of shinobi racing for them. The shuriken were avoided, but right behind them came in the Naruto horde. The first wave of blondes had raced forward while the second had paused to Henge to look like Sakura and Sasuke. The missing-nin used the chain to good effect, catching two of the clones right away.
One of the clones attempted a flying kick that the enemy on the left ducked, and another clone attempted a strike at the torso of the one on the right. A quick jab made the clone immediately poof into smoke. The final clone of the first five came in right behind the clone that had just been dealt with and kicked him in the knee cap. The blow was rather strong, and Gozu's leg buckled underneath him.
The second wave of clones had arrived mingled in with Sakura's images, and the mass of opponents they were suddenly faced with surprised them. Gozu had to release the chain and quickly defend himself as multiple clones attacked. And although several more clones turned into smoke, Naruto just grinned and made more.
Sakura fired off a pair of kunai, further distracting the two and attempting to be useful. Sasuke chose that very next moment to strike. As Meizu blocked the kunai with his gauntlet, Sasuke dashed forward with great speed. His fist slammed into his opponent's ribs, prompting Meizu to grunt as he tried to bring his poison tipped gauntlet around, but with the Sharingan spinning it was telegraphed and easily avoided.
A Naruto clone kicked the back of Meizu's calf, sending him to the ground. Sasuke took full advantage and grabbed the gauntleted arm and snapped the enemy shinobi's arm ruthlessly. A kunai then appeared in his hand and was held at the demon brother's throat, pressed right onto his neck. "Game over."
Meizu was a dead man and he knew it right before the kunai damn near decapitated him, and Gozu was favoring one leg while the Naruto clones rushed him. He found out that he couldn't get free of the clones to come to the aid of his brother. Naruto saw one of his clones jump in the air and he knew his next move. Gozu was popping clones left and right, but since they were only coming in two or three at a time he had several to deal with that were always easily replaced. The clone that leapt into the air was quickly hit with a Kawarimi from the real Naruto, whom was now in the air and in perfect position to use his jutsu. He flashed through the hand signs in mid air, gathering air within his mouth.
While he was considered "less" of a prodigy than some of his contemporaries, in this timeline he needed more jutsu earlier on. If only just to stay relevant.
"Futon: Daitoppa!"
The gust of air crashed down at an angle on Gozu, destroying several clones in it's wake but that was just fine by Naruto. The gale force wind slammed Gozu into the ground with tremendous force, and because it was at an angle he slid a good fifteen feet, the abrasive ground cut through his clothing and ripped up skin. Even before he finished sliding, several clones landed next to him and pinned him down to the ground.
One clone held a kunai at his throat, a glare on his face. "Move and you die," the Naruto clone said in a calm, threatening voice.
Sakura had been defending Tazuna after throwing two of her kunai, and she was relieved/happy that the battle was over. It had been their first genuine shinobi battle and it was won without any injuries! Kakashi congratulated them and quickly secured their two prisoners. He attached a chakra seal and secured them tightly enough that not even a jonin could escape.
He then turned to the bridge builder. "We need to talk about what is really going on."
Tazuna looked around, nervously trying to play the fool. "What do you mean by that?"
Kakashi raised his killing intent and Tazuna backed up as the oppressive pressure bore down on him. The jonin's voice then took on a stone cold, rather ominous tone. "You lied about the mission parameters, which could have potentially gotten all of us killed. Were you in league with these shinobi? Was this a trap set for us?"
While the sensei didn't think that was the case at all, but fear could be a very powerful motivator in making someone talk. As he suspected he would, Tazuna stumbled over himself trying to explain himself.
"I'm not working with them! I swear!" Tazuna held his hands up as he backed away. "They were trying to kill me to stop me from building the bridge and saving the town from being oppressed!"
"Hai Tazuna-san, I never doubted they wanted you dead, but why are there shinobi trying to stop you from building the bridge?" Kakashi asked the question in a more conversational tone and Tazuna jonin actually believed him, but he had given it away that he was expecting the attack.
"Alright alright, I'll tell you everything. It all started when a despicable man by the name of Gato came to our land." Tazuna proceeded to tell the story of the suffering of Nami no Kuni, and the four leaf-nin listened to his story.
Naruto in particular wanted to save them all from Gato's regime, whom reminded him of all the bullies in the village whom had mocked him and tried to strip away his willpower to go on. Gato was doing the same thing, demoralizing and controlling an entire land simply because he had the resources to do it.
Naruto shouted out, "We are going to save your country and kick out this Gato guy, believe it!"
Kakashi interrupted him, "Naruto not so fast. This was supposed to have been a C-ranked mission. Any mission that involves any enemy shinobi is automatically at least a B-ranked mission. Genin do not take B-ranked missions unless circumstances call for it."
"Hn," Sasuke responded. "I'm game."
"But we hafta help them!" Naruto shouted in protest.
Sakura remained quiet, she wanted to help the people of Nami no Kuni but shouldn't this be handled by a more experienced team of shinobi? Yes Tazuna had said that they couldn't afford to pay for a B-ranked mission, but what if Sasuke-kun or Naruto got hurt?
Inner Sakura screamed, 'Coward! You're afraid, if you want to be a shinobi you have to be willing to fight! So go out there and fight! Show Sasuke-kun what you are made of! Cha Cha Cha!'
Sakura bit her lip and then quietly but firmly said, "We can do it. We're a team and look at what we have accomplished so far. Please Kakashi-sensei, please let us continue the mission!"
Both Naruto and Sasuke looked at her, the former grateful for agreement and latter giving the kunoichi a firm nod.
Kakashi looked at his genin team and thought about the situation. Likely they would face another threat this time, and it would probably be a jonin. If a jonin was their opponent, he was confident he could handle the threat fairly easily. However, battle was never a certain thing so he would have to continue being on his guard.
The leader of team seven told his team, "I have decided how we should handle this. Sakura, this will be your choice. If you wish to continue this mission you must prove you are fully committed to it."
Tazuna looked on hopeful. Naruto was confused, "What do you mean? Sakura-chan already said she wanted to continue."
"It's simple; I know you and Sasuke have the killer instinct to fight with the intent to kill. I don't know if Sakura does, so in order to prove to me that she does have that instinct she must kill one of our prisoners."
Everyone tensed at the announcement; Sakura froze, her eyes widening in horror. Sasuke narrowed his eyes and tried to think of a way around Kakashi's test.
"Ahem Kakashi-sensei, this one might have some valuable information. We should keep him alive for it."
Kakashi laughed at the Uchiha's attempt to dissuade the test. "Nice try Sasuke. I appreciate you trying to work as a team however his information isn't necessary. There is no point in leaving him alive. Sakura will just have to past this test."
Sakura's mind shrank away from the task. In the middle of combat, she felt that she could kill if it meant saving Sasuke-kun's life or that of another leaf shinobi. But in cold blood? After the battle is finished? It was unthinkable to her, but if she didn't do it the people of Nami no Kuni would continue to suffer under the tyrant businessman's boot and regime.
Sakura looked at the two missing-nin and swallowed thickly. She looked at the faces of her teammates, Naruto looked shocked at the turn of events and Sasuke looked pissed, likely because he thought she wouldn't go through with it. Tazuna looked at her with pleading eyes. Sakura's hand was shaking from the pressurized decision, how could her sensei make her do this?
Kakashi raised his voice, a cruel tone in his voice. "Did you think being a shinobi was glamorous? We are assassins, thieves, spies, soldiers and infiltrators. If you aren't willing to kill you aren't going to be on this team. Don't mistake my meaning Sakura; if you don't kill you will remain on team seven and I will give you future chances. However, at some point or another I will require that you kill someone and if you can't do that then drop out and work at the Konoha hospital."
Sakura didn't want to let her team down, and she didn't want to let the people of Nami no Kuni down. She pulled out a kunai, her hand trembling vigorously. Tears welled within her eyes as this was the moment of truth. A heavy weight pressed down on her chest, if she did this her path in life would be different then she had ever dreamed it could be. Would she walk the killer's path?
Naruto watched his crush with baited breath as he was angry with his sensei for putting her through this. Sakura was being torn apart by the weight of her decision, and then she took a deep breath. Before she could change her mind and stop herself, she whipped out a kunai and threw it at the remaining helpless shinobi. The kunai sank into the soft flesh of Gozu's neck and death immediately took the shinobi making Sakura feel a chill cover her body.
Kakashi walked over to Sakura and gently cupped her face. "Good work Shinobi."
The word shinobi was said quietly yet forcefully. It imparted meaning that was not there before, a meaning that was not there prior to the taking of a life. Sakura stood proudly for a moment, her chin lifted up... until a sudden sickening sensation filled her.
Sakura turned away and ran four steps before heaving the contents of her stomach out. Naruto went to attempt to comfort her but Kakashi stopped him with a simple shake of his head. The girl continually puked her guts out and then collapsed to her knees, soft sobs filling the area.
Kakashi summoned Pakkun and gave him instructions to take a message back to Konoha. The ninken was a bit miffed but saw the corpse and instantly knew that it had been someone's first kill. The dog just agreed to deliver the message and rushed off to the village hidden in the leaves.
The pink haired girl's cries finally stopped; she sniffed a few times and looked at her teammates. "I'm ready to go."
They promptly continued their journey to Nami no Kuni without another second being wasted. Sasuke randomly remarked to Naruto about the prior fight, the boredom being too great even for him. "Are you sure they were really chunin?"
"Yup, I'm pretty sure they were in the bingo book. Maybe they got rusty?"
Kakashi interrupted their conversation, "Ranks don't mean everything. They may have become chunin based on their stealth abilities. At first I did not sense them, that means they had jonin level stealth skills. If it wasn't for their lack of knowledge of the weather here they would have been able to strike before I was ready." Kakashi gave a small shrug, "I would have survived, but I could see it working on other people."
Their jonin sensei continued his lecture on rankings. "Luck also plays a factor in the chunin exams. Each village structures their exam in a different way. It wouldn't surprise me if the village hidden in the Mist focuses on stealth as a key to passing their chunin exams."
Kakashi also warned them that rank could be deceptive. There was a mysterious genin within Konoha that was probably on par with or more powerful than any chunin servicing in the Leaf's shinobi force.
Naruto asked, "Why hasn't he been promoted by now?"
"He has refused every promotion."
"Why?"
"He has his reasons, but they aren't mine to share."
They camped at night, and Kakashi personally set a number of traps as well as cast a genjutsu over them to hide their presence. With that done and over with they also set up watches.
On the first watch, Sakura talked with her sensei. "Kakashi-sensei… does it get any easier over time?"
Kakashi looked at her, his gaze steady with a hint of compassion in his single visible eye.
"Yes, killing is something that gets easier over time. You will always remember your first kill, but if you have a long and successful career as a shinobi it will become second nature." Sakura was chilled at the thought of being used to killing people, regardless of the reasons.
"You kill for a reason, to finish the mission. Ultimately, the mission is the security of Konoha. For your parents, you're future children, your teammates, fellow shinobi and those who cannot protect themselves. By killing your enemies you keep your village safe, you save more lives."
Sakura looked like she wanted to say something but Kakashi continued. "Make no mistake Sakura, the demon brothers were destined to die the second they attacked us. If you hadn't killed him and Sasuke hadn't killed the other one then the ANBU would have. And if you chose to quit the team and stop being a shinobi then someone else would've filled that role and blood will still be spilled anyways."
The copy-nin's gaze took on a harsher appearance. "A refusal to kill, to not be a shinobi does not lessen killing in the world. It only passes the burden on to someone else to carry out the execution. Your squeamishness was a risk for team seven and you will emerge from this stronger than before. You were strong enough to bear the burden so someone else doesn't need to. Take pride in that, you bear the sacrifice of the bloody hand so someone else doesn't have to."
Sakura thought about her sensei's words, his remarks were perfectly logical and they made sense. Yet some part of her soul fled from the cold logic that justified the dealing of death. The no longer innocent girl bowed her head, "There has to be a better way sensei."
Kakashi sighed, "I wish there was Sakura, but we live in a very flawed world."
He then grinned despite the somber mood. "But maybe when your blonde teammate becomes the Hokage, he can bring the naive dream that is peace to fruition. After all, he is the number one unpredictable ninja; maybe he'll just surprise us all." Kakashi's grin slowly vanished, not that anyone could really see it behind his mask, and his tone hardened with ice. "Until that day comes I expect you to be a shinobi and kill as you are ordered to."
"Hai Kakashi-Sensei," Sakura responded as she closed her eyes, trying to go into dreamless sleep. Maybe she really had to put all her stock into Naruto of all people...
- Team Seven Campsite Later That Night -
Naruto was sitting on a hill at the edge of the camp. Kakashi had taken the first watch, and he was taking the second. He was sitting reading the book on fuinjutsu, and he almost understood the concept behind the explosive tags. However, he knew he couldn't make them yet and he made a note to himself to have his clones work on his handwriting. He wasn't ashamed to say that it sucked ass; he hadn't really needed it – until now.
He heard steps behind and looked over his shoulder, to see Sakura walking towards him. "What's wrong, can't sleep?"
"No," her voice sounded behind him. "I was – hey! Aren't you supposed to keep watch?" She asked a little accusingly. Naruto didn't answer, instead he pointed to places at the edge of the camp. She looked to see a couple of Kage Bunshin scouting around. "Oh, sorry…"
"No problem," he flipped a page. "Why can't you sleep?"
She hesitated. She didn't really know if she wanted to share this with Naruto of all people. She sighed, and sat down a meter beside him. "I keep thinking about the battle earlier today. About how useless and worthless I was. No wonder Sasuke-kun thinks I'm pathetic, because I am."
This time it was Naruto's turn to hesitate.
"I have some advice, but I don't know how much you're going to like it." She just looked at him, as he continued. "You need to get it together. We're shinobi now; we aren't just students. If it had been only you today, Tazuna and you would have been killed. But you aren't pathetic, you're great! Fuck what teme says, he's a asshole."
Sakura frowned. She didn't like it, but he was right. "What would you have me do then?"
"Train like you mean it," was the response. "Don't go on a diet, ya need the energy the food gives you. If you train without it, you will just become skinny. And not the good skinny you want, I mean bad unhealthy skinny. I don't think Sasuke would like that very much," she blushed like she had just found out her secret crush.
"And then start training harder, like you're striving for something. Don't just go through the motions or tap out during training, just give it all you've got. Stop caring so much about your clothes, hair and so on. Start focusing on sharpening your shinobi skills." He paused, "And for the record, it may even help your chances with Sasuke."
It hurt like hell to say that to the girl he had a crush on. "Sasuke is attracted to power. So if you become a powerful kunoichi, you may even get him."
Sakura nodded. She didn't like everything that was said, and he needed to think about it. She rose and started walking back to her tent, but stopped and turned halfway around, a bit of gratitude welling up within her. "Thank you, Naruto."
"Oh and you can train with me anytime, just say the word."
"I...I might take you up on that."
Naruto just lifted his hand and half waved without looking up from his book, as if to say 'no problem'. She walked to her tent, and tried to get some sleep before her watch was coming up.
-The Next Day-
"Game over."
"Damn," was all Momochi Zabuza could say.
As soon as he had landed from Kakashi's kick, two kunai slammed into his back before he was kicked into a tree and chained to it with a kunai. Kakashi then slammed his head back on the tree, stunning him before charging up a Raikiri.
Two senbon flew through the air, impacting with Zabuza's neck.
Kakashi looked up at the perpetrator, glaring at him suspiciously before realizing the uniform the person wore. The person had long black hair, pale skin and large, dark-brown eyes, a slender frame, and looked to be short for his age, which looked to be around Sasuke's. The person wore a standard Kirigakure pinstriped outfit which stopped at their knees. Over that they wore a green haori with white trimmings, and around their waist there was a brown sash with a fringed trail wrapped around his waist twice. They wore light-brown platoon sandals with straps in the same color as their kimono and nail polish on their fingernails and toenails in matching blue-green color. There was a black forehead protector with the Kirigakure symbol on it, and there was a hunter-nin mask on their face.
"Ah, a hunter-nin. I assume you are here for Zabuza," Kakashi asked.
The hunter-nin nodded. "I must thank you. I have been hunting him for awhile now, and you defeating him made my job much easier."
Kakashi nodded. "Glad to help."
The hunter-nin jumped down from the tree they were perched on before lifting up Zabuza's body onto their back.
"I will be leaving now."
With that the hunter-nin disappeared. Kakashi smiled at that before putting his headband back over his now-closed left eye that contained his Sharingan.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Taz-" his sentence ended as he fell to the ground unconscious.
Tazuna, Sasuke, and Sakura looked at each other strangely. They then looked at Sasuke, as he had the most knowledge out of the group on the Sharingan.
"The Sharingan is meant for those who are part of the Uchiha clan. It's obvious Kakashi is not an Uchiha. Therefore, the strain he goes through when using it must be great and he has to rest after."
The trio nodded, accepting it before Naruto made shadow clones to carry Kakashi.
"Let's get going Tazuna. We don't want to stay out here for long."
Tazuna nodded and began to lead the way, followed by Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, who were still quite perplexed by the enigma their sensei truly was.
-The Next Day-
The next day began very early for the genin of Team Seven, the three of them attuned to their timetables back at Konoha. After their militant warm-up run, the three genin came back into the house exactly an hour later, looking no tired as they had left. There they met Kakashi and discussed their training over breakfast.
"Alright, listen carefully," began Kakashi, once they had reached a nice spot to train. "Training is going to be very different for the next few days because we are going to train to take out specific ninja. It's time to learn more ninjutsu and team formations."
The three genin nodded.
"Good," continued Kakashi. "Naruto, when a battle begins you should attempt to flood the area with another twenty to thirty Kage Bunshin. Henge a few to make them look like us, and while you do this Sakura will make regular Bunshin to make it more confusing for the enemy. They won't be able to Henge, but it will add to the distraction. At that point, Naruto you are to call out if you identify the enemy. We don't need fancy code words, just identify the threat."
Naruto cocked his head to the side, "What should I say?"
Kakashi responded, "Rank primarily, any known tactics or specialties. Remember if chunin or lower we go for the capture, if it is a jonin then we kill."
Kakashi turned to Sasuke, "Meanwhile you will activate your Sharingan and determine if our attackers are using any illusions, you will do this even if we are facing bandits, ronin or samurai. It is easy for a shinobi to pretend to be something they aren't. I knew an ANBU operative who assumed the bandits were just bandits and he lost his life when the hidden shinobi blew his head off."
Sakura shivered, she could only imagine what kind of jutsu did that. She rubbed her arms a bit, Kakashi was dead serious. The life of a shinobi was life and death when they entered the battle. "If everything is as it should be then no need to call out anything. If it's a jonin then Naruto's clones will engage the enemy, feel free to add ranged weapons and jutsu as you like. Killing the enemy before they get close diminishes the risk you face in the actual battle."
Kakashi eyed Sasuke, "I'll repeat this for you Sasuke, shinobi battles are not the place to "test" your abilities. That's a great way to get killed, and where will your ambition be then? You will electrocute, burn, or pierce enemies from a distance, whichever one works best."
Sasuke frowned but responded with a, "Hai Sensei." The Uchiha then paused, "But only against jonin threats – otherwise I can get close correct?"
Kakashi nodded. "Time your attacks so they work together. Not just with a jutsu combination but with any move. If you throw a kunai with an explosive tag the shinobi will probably jump in one direction. As soon as you determine that direction unleash your attack. Because the Sharingan allows you to see even minute muscle twitches and glances, you are the clean up Sasuke. Naruto and Sakura will make them move and then you will finish it, you are the executioner."
Sasuke understood his role and was rather pleased with it. He was the executioner, it seemed fitting for an avenger like himself. They drilled various combination moves and attacks – they also discussed what to do when faced with certain situations. Kakashi drilled the tenets that he operated by over and over. Teamwork first. Never assume you've won. Don't talk about your abilities. Kill quickly and swiftly.
Kakashi was pleased with how the team was coming together. Towards the end of the day he started Naruto and Sasuke on the water walking exercise with his clone and started working with Sakura on genjutsu.
"The genjutsu we will be learning is the technique I used on you. It's not a powerful genjutsu but it will be a great starting point," Kakashi explained. "The technique is called Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu."
Sakura's eyes widened, "That's a basic genjutsu? The one that made me see Sasuke-kun dying in front of me?"
Kakashi eyed the genin, "Yes. The genjutsu is pretty basic, for a variety of reasons."
The man then held up his index finger as he said, "One, it doesn't change what you see, it only adds to the victims senses. This means unlike other genjutsu that completely obscures the victims five senses and replaces it with their own version of reality this one just adds one scene."
Kakashi held up a second finger and continued, "Two, it only effects two senses, sight and hearing. Your sense of taste, touch and smell were not impacted. This makes the jutsu quite easy to detect and why I was not surprised that you fell for it so easily."
He raised a third finger, "And finally it does not reveal the victim's greatest fear, instead it reflects the victim's most probable recent fear."
Sakura scrunched her brow as she thought about it, "Can you explain that a little to me a little bit more thoroughly?"
Kakashi complied, "If I had used this jutsu after having dinner with your family you may have seen your mother or father dying. It all depends on the emotional bond you have with individuals. The jutsu isn't even specific to that; it could be failure to realize a dream or desire, either way it is not necessarily the deepest or darkest fear someone has."
"Thank you Kakashi-Sensei. How do I make the genjutsu work?"
Kakashi explained how genjutsu worked, how it attacked the enemies chakra and took over their senses. Triggers were most frequently sight but some shinobi even used sound or smell to initiate them. "In theory, I suppose it can be done by taste and touch, but I have not seen a genjutsu function that way."
Sakura eagerly soaked up all of the knowledge that was given to her.
Kakashi showed her how to infuse her chakra into her victim's chakra network. With Sakura's excellent chakra control it wasn't difficult at all. Kakashi also used it on Sakura again, this time she saw Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi dying before her eyes. Knowing how it worked she was able to ignore the effect, and she decided to test it by walking up to Sasuke and touching the image; it wavered as she did so and then dissipated.
Her sensei taught her how to break a genjutsu with a Kai as well. "Knowing you are under a genjutsu is half of the battle. After that you can flood your chakra system with your own chakra breaking the effect, or you can cause physical pain to yourself. Neither method is full proof, but a skilled genjutsu specialist should have an easier time breaking out of one."
After Sakura tried it a few times she could see the advantage of genjutsu. If she could pin an opponent in place for even a second or two then Naruto and Sasuke could hammer them with their jutsu combination or something along those lines. After deeming her good enough to break genjutsu's, the Hatake decided to try and instill her first genuine ninjutsu that could harm opposing shinobi.
Kakashi explained to Sakura what he wanted her to do. "The jutsu I'm going to be teaching you is called Suiton: Mizurappa. It's a C-ranked Jutsu, and it's only as powerful as the chakra put into it. Due to the simple fact that you've worked hard on your chakra reserves, I reckon you can perform this jutsu adequate enough for combat." Once Kakashi finished, he showed his female genin all of the necessary hand-signs required to use the jutsu.
Once he had Sakura doing what he wanted, he turned to Naruto. "The jutsu I'm going to be teaching you is Futon: Reppushou. I'll just show you the hand-seals for the jutsu I'm about to give you. It's a different variant of Futon: Daitoppa that could prove equally effective in combat. After you get the hand-seals I want you to have your clones practice the technique so it remains within your memory and you learn it exponentially faster."
Weaving through each hand-seal slow enough for Naruto to see, the blonde nods, mimicking the signs himself. Creating ten clones, he had them all practice the jutsu for him.
Kakashi then turned to Sasuke, whom already had the Sharingan activated.
"Since you've already unlocked the Sharingan, you should be able to perform this jutsu right off the bat with just small bits of practice. Now copy the hand-seals as I do them at normal speed," Kakashi instructed.
The Uchiha nodded, copying his hand signs from the most minute of details perfectly. When he reached the last one, the snake seal, electricity elicited from both of his hands, making him stare in wonder. "What now sensei?"
Kakashi responded by clapping his hands together once, creating an electrical storm that expanded outwards. The noise that resounded caught the Uchiha's attention, it sounded like a Thunder Clap. A small shockwave could be seen from within the chakra-conduced clap of lightning.
"This jutsu is called Raiton: Raimei. It get's its name from the noise and impact created by it. The rank of this jutsu is determined by the amount of chakra one invests into it, and I used a minimal amount of chakra just now." Sasuke nodded and promptly created a single Kage Bunshin to practice the jutsu with. Hopefully he could perfect the jutsu before the next attack came.
The three genin continued their specific training whilst Kakashi trained to get re-acclimated with his Sharingan alongside them, studying every move they made and pointing out the flaws in what they were doing until the sun reached its peak. The four decided to head back to the house and fill their bellies before setting out the very next day.
-The Next Day-
'This girl is super pretty; she might be even prettier than Sakura-chan!'
Naruto didn't have time to continue his trivial thoughts as the girl, Haku, interrupted him.
"So, why are you here?" Haku said as she went back to picking up herbs for Zabuza.
Naruto smiled. "I'm training with my team to take down some guy called Zabuza and this other guy called Gato, while also protecting this bridge builder," the redhead said before he realized his mistake. The mission was only ever supposed to be known between the client, the client's family, the village, and the shinobi team; curse his big mouth! However, he couldn't change it know, as it would seem even stranger if he did.
"Yeah, how about you, what are you doing here?" Naruto inquired, berating himself on the inside for what he revealed prior to his question.
"Getting herbs to heal a sick friend."
Naruto smiled. "Can I help?'
The female smirked. "Sure."
The two proceeded to gather the rest of Haku's herbs in relative silence, only stopping whenever Naruto decided to ask a question. It was a fast process as Haku had to leave before ten minutes was up.
"It was nice meeting you shinobi-san," Haku said, preparing to leave.
Naruto smiled. "The name's Uzumaki Naruto, the man who's gonna become Hokage one day."
Haku smiled back at him. "That's a nice name."
Naruto nodded at his own awesomeness and turned to leave before Haku asked a question. "Naruto-san, what do you think it means to truly be strong?"
Naruto turned and looked at Haku with a confused expression on his face. "What do you mean?"
Haku answered his question. "I believe that when people have something to protect…that is when they truly become strong."
Naruto thought about it for a moment before he gave one of his child-like grins. "I like that thought."
The girl nodded in agreement before staring at Naruto intently. "Do you have someone precious to you?"
The blonde thought back on the question before multiple people sprung to his mind. His Jiji, Iruka, Kakashi, Hinata, Goku, Sasuke, Ayame, Teuchi, and Sakura.
"Yeah, almost ten people."
Haku smiled at that and turned officially, actually walking away this time. However, whilst she was walking away, she said one last thing to deny her gender.
"By the way, I am a boy."
"...WHAT THE FUCK!?"
-With Team Seven The Very Next Day-
Naruto sighed as he watched his army of Kage Bunshin conduct manual labor, with Sakura sitting right next to him. His S-ranked jonin-sensei was helping Tazuna on his own, and Sasuke pitched in with his own assembly of three Kage Bunshin.
"Why aren't you helping out Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.
"You're clones are doing more work than I ever could. And besides, I'm not physically strong enough to lift some of those things that you can."
"Some of them but not everything, you're still strong enough to help. Besides you could do the nails, or help the builders reach places that are difficult for them to reach. Or even doing something as simple as draining the water out of the wet cement."
Sakura simply sighed, knowing the blonde was correct. She would have continued the conversation until a man that stopped working on the bridge spoke up.
"Tazuna," a man said. Said person looked up and then turned to the man who called his name. "Tazuna…I'm sorry but I'm going to have to quit building this bridge."
The person in charge of the production of bridge widened his eyes. "Why? You've truly been one of the best helpers of this bridge, and it's almost complete too. We should be done with it in about a week."
"I understand that, but don't you think Gato knows about the bridge already? He's going to come for us either today or tomorrow and then he'll kill us. All of us. I can't risk that, so I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to call it quits."
"Cowards! You're almost done with the bridge yet you call it quits NOW?!" Naruto spat in disgust.
Tazuna looked at the ground…a frown settling on his face. "I see. Does anyone else here share his thoughts?"
Multiple people, not all, but definitely over half of the work force raised their hands. Apparently they had been too embarrassed or cowardly to admit it the first time.
"Well, to all of you cowards I have one thing to say. Get the hell off of my bridge."
Many people put down their hats and started to walk all with a down yet relieved expression on their face. Naruto and Sasuke watched them leave with disgust on both of the boys faces, hell even Sakura was disappointed in them. People who had no will, no spirit…those people were all pathetic.
Naruto formed the Kage Bunshin hand-sign and produced nearly double the amount of people that left, but Tazuna shook his head.
"You've done so much for us already, I can't disrespect that, kid. You've been good to us, and nothing we could do could repay you, especially me. I think…I think you taught my grandson what it meant to be strong."
Naruto smiled and waved off the old man. "Don't worry about it. But, I think I'll actually start pitching in even more now," The blonde responded, standing and going off to help out with his personal construction crew. Sakura walked after him and even joined him.
Sasuke continued to resume the work he did on the bridge and even found a way to train while doing so. "Raiton: San."
Lightning appeared to the index and middle fingers for both hands, and he then put it over the cement to make it dry and solid much faster.
-The Next Day-
"Dobe," Sasuke called as he punched the unsuspecting fake hunter-nin in the chest, surprised to feel legitimate breasts instead of a hard, flat chest. He quickly deduced that Haku lied to everyone about his, or rather her gender, but he quickly scratched that from his mind as it was unimportant. "Why did you hesitate!?"
Naruto frowned at Sasuke before looking at Haku who was patiently waiting them for some reason.
"I dunno." The blonde stared at Haku, whom stared right back.
"You hesitated to kill me," Haku stated.
"And you didn't attack us while we were talking," Naruto retorted with equal fervor.
"It seems that meeting has made both of us unwilling to kill the other," Haku said before she disappeared.
Naruto frowned, looking around before he was sent flying, a punch landing in his face. Sasuke's eyes widened before he charged Haku, only to miss with a kick and be kicked into the air by the brunette.
Naruto then stood and flew through a multitude of hand-signs, stopping on the hare. "Futon: Daitoppa!"
A large gust of wind came from the blonde's mouth that charged at Haku like a torpedo. The brunette stared at the force of nature before evading; however she came face-to-face with a smirking Uchiha.
Haku jumped backwards into the ice before the Uchiha could land a single strike.
Sasuke's eyes widened. "I can't believe I didn't try this before," he said, flowing through hand-signs before ending on the tiger seal. "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!" The Uchiha exhaled the massive ball of flame onto the ice mirror Haku was on, but as the steam dissipated it showed the mirror looking perfectly fine with only a few minor spots of ice-turned-water.
"What the hell?" Sasuke mumbled under his breath.
"Your pathetic excuse of a Katon jutsu cannot defeat me. Give up now," Haku said as she drew three senbon per hand, holding them between her pointer, middle, and ring fingers, along with her pinkie.
Sasuke growled. 'Focus. Stay calm. Focus. Concentrate, see everything.'
Even as multiple Haku's appeared on the mirrors, Sasuke stayed focused on one of them, the one right in front of them. Haku threw the senbon, but Sasuke dodged them, weaving through the hail before grabbing Naruto and helping his friend escape.
Naruto smirked. "Nice job, teme."
"Hn." Sasuke responded before strapping an explosive tag to a kunai. He tossed it at the mirror before flowing through the same hand-signs as before. He spat out the Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu once more, but even with the combined explosion, which he and Naruto had jumped to the edge of the prison to minimize the damage, it still did not damage Haku's ice nearly enough.
"Impressive. That ice of yours…it's powerful, very powerful. To be able to withstand that is impressive," Naruto said.
Haku disappeared, moving from mirror to mirror, but frowned even though you couldn't see it. Even then, when moving at her top speed, Sasuke was still tracking her, carefully picking out which mirror she was in at the same time Haku appeared in it. That made the brunette frown. There was no way she could avoid the Uchiha, his eyes were just that damn good. There was only one solution.
Attack the person who couldn't see her move.
Haku shot from the mirror, senbon aimed for a lethal blow at Naruto. Sasuke's eyes widened and he shot forward with great speed, appearing in front of Naruto, blocking the females senbon. Haku growled as she pushed against Sasuke's kunai to no avail, the Uchiha was physically stronger than she was.
"So I'm the liability in this fight, eh, teme," Naruto said as he appeared next to Haku, hand already in a seal. "Futon: Daitoppa!"
Naruto forced massive amounts of chakra into the jutsu, sending of a high-powered stream of wind from his mouth like a hurricane that slammed Haku into her ice mirror. The brunette looked up painfully, her mask falling from her remarkably beautifiul face, cracked and broken from the power of the water.
"Do you know what it's like, Naruto-san, Sasuke-san? To lose someone precious to you?"
Sasuke shared a look of mutual understanding with the kunoichi, whilst Naruto looked at him strangely. "Allow me to tell you then, Naruto-san."
Upon being talk no jutsu'd by someone other than himself, Haku capitalized on it immediately after she was done.
Naruto's eyes widened when fifteen senbon struck him, all in different points of his body. The blonde coughed up blood as he landed on the ground. Sasuke rushed over, picking up his friend's body before looking around.
His emotional, blood red eyes locked onto Haku's.
"I'll kill you," Sasuke said. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
He wove through hand-seals, but Haku appeared before him before he could finish.
Sasuke flipped over, landing on the ground with a thud. He stood quickly, checking the surrounding area for Haku. He spotted the boy with a senbon to Naruto's neck.
"Game over," Haku said.
Sasuke scowled while weaving through hand seals. "Are you faster than llghtning? Raiton: Raikou Kousen no Jutsu!"
The jutsu was a complete shock to Haku, and the fact it was concentrated to a narrow blue beam of lightning. The jutsu impacted her and knocked her off of Naruto as well, causing a fantastic amount of pain.
"No...shinobi.. is faster... than lightning!" Sasuke said incorrectly in between pants. His chakra reserves were being taxed for each jutsu, and he estimated that he had about a third of his reserves left.
Haku slowly stood up, having a large wound and burn mark on his right shoulder along with blood dripping. The tool raised multiple senbon and prepared to end Sasuke's life.
'I can't give up…I've got to keep fighting. It's not over…I just gotta keep fighting. I WON'T give up…it's not over…keep fighting!' Naruto thought, feeling his body heal rapidly for no other reason other than the fact that the Kyuubi no Yoko resided within him.
The blonde's eyes blinked open, and he slowly reached into his kunai pouch, trying to grab one without alerting Haku. However, Sasuke noticed this with a ghost of smirk on his face. "I'm not done yet!" Naruto roared aloud, announcing his presence to the world.
Haku, stunned by Naruto's sudden burst of willpower and Sasuke's lightning beam, had gone slack in her arms as if she had given up all hope of winning the fight. The jinchuriki shot forward, slamming a fist in her gut before grabbing her arm and flinging him over to Sasuke.
"Teme!"
"On it," was the reply. Sasuke slammed his knee into Haku's face, causing all the momentum the Yuki had to be transformed into an annoying pain. Her nose was broken, therefore causing her to bleed from both of her nostrils. Naruto and Sasuke appeared right in front of Haku before she could recover, both firing a blaring fist straight into the kunoichi's face. The Yuki stumbled backwards, but the blonde was upon her again, leaving Sasuke to watch.
"You were right Haku, precious people do give you strength!" Naruto slammed another punch in, and another before he fought like a madman, slamming fists into the girls body without any care in the world. "So I can't die!"
He continued to pummel Haku before he finished off his combination with a knee to her forehead, causing her to groan in agony.
"Cause I've got people to protect!"
Haku flew backwards, slamming into the last mirror that wasn't cracked. However, upon impact the mirror cracked badly, barely staying strong. Haku frowned, her face becoming angry, something that rarely happened.
"I have people I too have to protect. So…forgive me Naruto-san, but fall! Hissatsu Hyōsō!"
The pools of water made of Haku's ice mirrors formed into four giant spikes of ice that flew straight towards Naruto and Sasuke, yet the duo avoided them, only being hit with small scrapes in their maneuvers. Dashing towards the downed kunoichi, the dynamic duo kneed her in the face, forcing her to the ground exhausted.
"It's over Haku, you don't have any chakra left to spare! Forgive me, but my precious people are counting on me! Live and form more bonds. You are strong Haku…I believe in you." And then the blonde ran through hand-signs, funneling wind chakra into his left palm. "Futon: Reppusho!"
The gale palm slammed full force into the girl, launching directly towards Sasuke's position, who planned on playing his role as 'executioner' with his final attack. Upon finishing the prerequisite seals, both of his palms radiated cobalt electricity. And once the wind blew his target close enough to him...
"Raiton: Raimei!" The thunderclap went into Haku's back, sending the girl flying backwards and over the railing of the bridge, plummeting into the water below.
Was she actually dead? To be determined.
-At The Other "Fight"-
"Raikiri." Kakashi named as he removed his blood-coated hand from Zabuza's back. Anyone who looked through it could see straight through Zabuza, along with the damaged lung that Kakashi had punctured.
The blue, concentrated form of electrical, or Raiton, chakra in Kakashi's hand faded. Despite this, Zabuza smirked and coughed, more blood staining the inside of his mask before he ripped it off, revealing shark-like teeth.
"So, that's your famous Raikiri huh? Very impressive." Zabuza said as he fell to his knees.
"Yeah…one of my aces in the whole," Kakashi said, looking at the dying form of Zabuza.
The Momochi smirked. "Well…looks like I lose. If you ever see Haku again, can you do me a favor?" The rogue requested, a sad look appearing in his eyes. "Tell him I said…happy birthday."
With that Momochi Zabuza…the Demon of the Hidden Mist...fell dead.
'Even a man like you couldn't completely cast off your feelings. I'll do it, Zabuza,' Kakashi thought, before looking over at his team much easier as the mist was clearing. He walked over to them, a relieved smile, not that you could see it, etched onto his face.
"Did you defeat that guy, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked with her eyes wide.
"Yup, he's dead for real this time."
"Thank you," Tazuna said. The shinobi looked at him, wanting him to continue. "For protecting me like this. You didn't have to."
"Well isn't this a cute sight," called a voice.
Naruto's eyes widened as he saw a short man walking towards them with a very large mass of people behind his back.
"No way," the blonde whispered, seeing all of them. "So many dumbasses."
Kakashi's eye's widened and he began to prepare himself for combat, as did his genin squad.
"Careful," Tazuna said with anger written all over his face. "That's Gato," he said, pointing to the short man.
Naruto growled. "Good. I'll kill him right now then." The blonde prepared to start his assault on the illegal business tycoon and his group of nobodies, however Gato stepped forward, a sinister smile on his face.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Gato said, smiling. Kakashi frowned, looking at the little shrimp as if he were an idiot. Even with this amount of thugs behind him, all of them combined couldn't defeat his squad. Hell, Naruto and Sasuke could kill them all solo.
Gato smiled and waved his hand, the thugs threw forward a person. Tazuna's eyes widened before they narrowed with unfathomable anger.
"Tsunami!" He roared, looking at his naked daughter whom was tied and bound in a rope. Her throat was constricted, as were her mouth, wrists, and ankles. Lastly, there were vast amounts of tears flowing down her face, as if she had seen and experienced something horrible. As if she had lost something, or someone, precious to her.
"Let her go!" Tazuna roared, his eyes filled with nothing but hatred.
Gato smiled. "Oh, I will, if you do what I ask."
Tazuna growled and took a step forward, but Kakashi put his hand forward, stopping him from insinuating a death charge.
The crime lord frowned. "Well, in case you did act like an idiot I did have some extra motivation for you to listen to me."
Gato smiled, and waved his hands again. One of the thugs came over to the board which had Inari on it and smiled, unsheathing his blade. Inari had tape rapped around his mouth to keep him from talking, and his body was chained to the board that was rolled up. The thug then put the sword at Inari's neck, smirking in a sinister manner and decapitated Inari, a child no older than eight years old, in front of everyone.
"Now, comply to my demands," Gato spoke with mirth in his voice, obviously amused by the child's blatant assassination. "As for my demands, what I want is-"
Kakashi narrowed his eyes, actually having to hold Tazuna back as the man screamed bloody murder - multiple things along the lines of "go fuck yourself you piece of shit" - and tried to bully the jonin away, yelling at the man for stopping him. The genin glared at the laughing Gato with intensity all showcased within their eyes. This man, no, he wasn't a man, he was more of a demon in human form.
Naruto couldn't stand it any longer, immediately jumped into action, charging Gato and his thugs. The thugs all smiled.
"Naruto, don't!" Kakashi shouted, but in his moment of distraction Tazuna brushed past him, charging them with the blonde.
They halted immediately. The same thug that had decapitated Inari to them had his blade to Tsunami's neck and was slowly, but surely, carving through her esophagus, in front of them. Sakura stood wide-eyed, unable to take her eyes away from the sight. Sasuke cursed and stood in front of her, hiding it from her sight. It was then that she snapped out of it and sniffed, almost crying. The Uchiha turned around and put a hand on her shoulder, although he was looking at Gato, Sharingan spinning in hatred. Naruto eyes flashed crimson, and he wanted nothing more than to rip the bastards throat out and shove it into the man's mouth.
Kakashi cursed under his breath, he couldn't believe he had been so blind. He now realized he shouldn't have brought everyone to the bridge to help them finish it. He should have left someone at Tazuna's house to guard them. He just never thought Gato would stop by the house first and he was too busy training up his squad, a simple miscalculation that cost Tazuna his family.
To hell with a plan, Gato and his whole organization die together, right now.
Gato then looked at two of his men in particular. "We've lost our leverage, now I have no reason to leave them alive. Kill Tazuna, kill all of them!"
One of the men he had spoken to were eyeing a certain pink-haired kunoichi at the moment, with a perverse grin. "What about the pretty rosette over there?"
"You can do what you will with her, just kill the rest of them!" Gato responded
That seemed to excite both of the men, disturbingly lecherous grins on their faces. "You got it boss, they're as good as dead!"
The two went through hand-seals, quickly making it obvious that they were rogue shinobi in disguise. "Suiton: Mizu no Dangan!"
Multiple water projectiles morphed into bullets quickly shot towards Tazuna and Sakura, the latter standing in front of the former. Sasuke's eyes widened as he prepared to move, but before he could push her out of the way, Naruto instantly stood in front of the rosette. Before the blonde could even register how he moved that fast to save Sakura and Tazuna's life, he experienced the single worst pain he had ever had in his chest. He looked down and saw multiple bleeding holes, and he then looked at Kakashi whom had his lone eye widened.
The Uzumaki coughed, causing blood to be spewed from his mouth. Faster than he could even register, more water bullets shot towards him with such force that it pushed him off the bridge and into the cold river below. His world began to blacken, the last thing he heard was Sakura's voice screaming his name, and the last thing he saw were the tears brimming on said female's eyes.
-Inside A Particular Seal-
"Welcome vessel, TO YOUR MINDSCAPE!"
The creature's massive roar sent water flying into the air and the Uzumaki had to guard his head and channel chakra into his feet to stand, and even then he was still sent skidding backwards.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked the massive creature, just as a form came into view.
It was a giant kitsune with red-orange fur and red eyes. It possessed the upper-body structure of a human, complete with opposable thumbs on its clawed hands. It seemed to be shrunk down, although Naruto assumed that if it wasn't and stood at full height then it was the same height as the Hokage Tower at least, which was saying a lot. Naruto dared say a full grown man was smaller than one of its nails. And even then, Naruto felt it's size was still being limited.
"I AM THE KYUUBI NO KITSUNE!"
"Th-The-the Kyuubi no Kitsune?" Naruto mimicked.
Kyuubi looked at Naruto as if he was an idiot. "No I'm your mother, of course I'm The KYUUBI NO KITSUNE!"
"No need to get all huffy, sheesh," Naruto said.
The Kyuubi growled and slammed one of its paws on the cage, although the bars didn't even shake, however the water inside and outside the cage was sent flying.
"Do not mock me, BOY!" The almighty Bijuu roared, its eyes snarling. "Or I'll shred you where you stand!"
Naruto looked at the creature skeptically. "You can't hurt me can you? There's a seal preventing you from doing so."
Kyuubi growled.
Naruto smiled. "So I was right. Unless I go in that cage or get too close, you can't exactly harm me. You're...wait…that would mean that you're sealed inside me, meaning this is my mindscape."
Kyuubi snorted. "My aren't you the perceptive one. Yes, this is your mindscape, and yes I am unfortunately sealed inside a weak runt like you."
"I wouldn't call myself a weakling."
"Sure, to a genin you and your squad are pretty damn powerful. Yet compared to something like me, you're just trash not even worth scratching."
"What's that supposed to mean you damn fox?" Naruto roared.
"You know what it is I mean, mortal. Now, unless you have something important to say, GET OUT!"
"Not until you tell why I'm here!" Naruto responded with some fire still in his eyes.
"You're dying," the Kyuubi stated flatly, as if he was talking about the weather.
"I'M WHAT!?" Naruto asked disbelievingly, before growling. "Explain you overgrown fuzzball!"
The Kyuubi turned its body away from Naruto, showing the boy his nine tails that slammed into the cages bars. And then the very next second the redhead came face-to-face with a claw and a snarling face, along with a burning crimson chakra orb in the Kyuubi's mouth.
"Don't ever call me that. I'm not familiar with you, nor have I accepted you as someone worthy to talk to me, I could kill you if I so desired. Take one more step forward and I'll slice off your head."
Naruto smirked at the Kyuubi, backtracking a bit as he did so. "You won't kill me though. When I die, you die fuzzball. You're sealed inside me. Too bad, I guess if you had enough time then maybe you could break out of here some other way. But that's not gonna happen now, because I dying, right?" The Kyuubi didn't have any answer to that. Naruto then went for the kill, the only chance for him to survive lying on the Kyuubi's decision. "Unless…"
"Unless what, human?"
"Unless you lend me some of your chakra so I can heal and survive. It's either that or we're both dead for good!"
"Watch it human, you don't know a thing about Bijuu's!" The fox growled. "I can't die, I'll be dispersed for three years if you die, but I WILL survive!"
He was silent for a few seconds, before continuing. "As much as I despise your existence, YOU are representing ME; and there's no way my vessel is going to be killed by a bunch of thugs not worth scratching!" Red mist began to emit from the cage, and it centered around Naruto. First only a little, then more and more until the Uzumaki couldn't see the Kyuubi no Yoko in front of him.
-Back In The Legitimate World-
Sasuke glared at the two who had killed Naruto with imminent death practically being promised. Before the two contracted shinobi could even react, the thug behind them was replaced using Kawarimi by the dark-haired shinobi from Konohagakure. Weaving through hand-signs at a speed he didn't know he could weave them, hands covered with budding Raiton-chakra.
And then two rage-fueled words were the last thing either of the two rogue shinobi heard. "Raiton: Raimei." A miniature clap of thunder could be heard from every living thing on the bridge, and the sound that accompanied it were the harsh screams of the two supposed killers of Naruto and a dozen of the surrounding thugs. The results of the jutsu left fourteen people completely electrocuted, and a vengeance seeking Uchiha who happened to kill two more thugs with a kunai swipe to the throat.
"You're all gonna fucking die!" Sasuke muttered loud enough to be heard by all of the thugs and Gato, running through a few more hand-seals and ending on the tiger. "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!"
With the flame spewing out of the rookie's mouth came the screams of pain and terror emitting from Gato's over three hundred thug-manned army. The C-ranked jutsu, while ordinary to some - was absolutely devastating to the weakling gangsters - nearly a dozen of a dozen of the "army" perished within the flames.
And then came the voice of a familiar blonde: "Tajūu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Hundreds of clones sprang from anywhere in sight, on the water, on the bridge, hell even behind the thugs. The original Naruto growled and raised his fist, landing on the bridge near Sakura was crying. "You guys know what to do!" He roared in anger, and charged into battle with his clones. Sasuke, relieved at the sight of the blonde being alive, continued what he started. This time, Kakashi joined in with his students and Tazuna, after picking up a stray blade, ran after the shinobi.
Sakura stood back, wiping her tears and letting out a sigh in relief over the thought of Naruto being dead vanquished, and joined in on the massacre.
Needless to say what ensued was a complete bloodbath. Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, even Tazuna and Sakura slaughtered their enemies. They all killed, either with fists, weapons, or jutsu. When the bloodbath ended after only a few minutes, only Gato was left alive, and they were all covered in blood, none of which was their own. Tazuna was dangling Gato over the edge of the bridge with one hand.
"You're filthy fucking trash! You killed my boy you fucking piece of shit! You killed my boy, and then you killed my daughter after raping her!" Tazuna kept repeating as he slammed blow after blow in Gato's face, each one hurting more and more. The piece of trash tried to defend himself, but Tazuna swatted that arm away.
"Please, have mercy on me," Gato mumbled out weakly.
Tazuna's eyes widened with rage and an impossible amount of hatred. "Mercy! Mercy! You killed my grandson! You raped and killed my daughter! You defiled my village! And you have the nerve to ask for mercy?! Did you ever show US any mercy you fucking bastard?!"
Tazuna slammed another blow in Gato's face.
"P-P-Please, f-forgive me," Gato said, trying his hardest to get out of his current predicament.
The truth finally exposed itself. Gato wasn't a demon. He wasn't a monster. He was a coward, scum, worse than trash, the lowest of the lowest of the low. He was nothing more than a flat out bitch.
Tazuna slammed blow after blow into Gato, the man sputtering up blood each and every time. The bridge builder was delivering his own form of vengeance, and he was going to make the man suffer many times the price he had suffered ever since the tycoon had come to Nami.
And then he changed his mind, that piece of shit didn't deserve to live any longer than he already did. Cocking back his hand, the old man brought his fist forward and punched him to the bridges floor, making a large gash appear on the right side of his face. Seeing nothing but red, he picked up a stray hammer and pounded the piece of shit's face until it literally caved in on itself, looking like a red glob of flesh with the shattered pieces of his white skull and scattered pink brain matter around the top of the red configured glob that used to be Gato's face.
After seeing that the deed was beyond done, the man tossed Gato's body into the river, not wanting to even glance at it ever again. Tazuna walked over to his daughter with a slatted throat and broke down into a sobbing mess, holding his killed daughter tightly. Team Seven watched him with sadness, with nothing but disgrace etched onto their faces. They had failed them. Both Inari and Tsunami had died because they were incompetent.
"Don't look so down," Tazuna said, tears clearly on his face. The squad looked up at the man, and he smiled at them, although they could tell it was very forced. "I don't blame you for any of this. You did the best you could."
The squad looked at the ground in shame, and even if he did mean it it didn't deny the truth. Inari and Tsunami had died because they had been overconfident; they hadn't calculated all of the angles. They just thought Gato would show up to the bridge alone, and that they would win in the end.
Their thoughts were positively negative, and they couldn't shake them. How could they? Because of them their clients' only family had died. No matter what he said there was no forgiving that, there were no apologies, only grief, shame, and sadness. Kakashi sighed and walked over to Zabuza, hiding his head from view before he took out a scroll. He cut off the rogue's head with a kunai before essentially cremating him with a Katon jutsu.
He sealed the head in a scroll, frowning.
'On the plus side money can be made…I sound like an ass,' Kakashi thought. He then looked at Zabuza's blade, the Kubikiribocho. The proper thing to do, if he wasn't a ninja, would be to give it to Kiri, or Haku. The first option offered better relations with Kiri, and the second allowed the girl to either make peace or hate them forever. IF she was still alive, that is.
"Do any of you want Zabuza's blade?" Kakashi said to his genin as Tazuna walked off the bridge to give both Inari and Tsunami a proper burial. None of them thought deserved to be there at the burial.
Sakura shook her head. "I doubt I could even lift it."
Naruto shook his head too. "I'm not a sword guy."
Even Sasuke shook his head. "It belongs with Haku, dead or alive."
Kakashi looked at Sasuke. He had a point, the girl deserved to have the sword, it was the least they could do in Zabuza's honor. The S-ranked Jonin nodded and sealed the blade into a scroll, handing it to Tazuna and instructing him to give to Haku should she turn up alive.
"Let's go."