The next day was completely devoted to training for Team Seven. Sakura and Sasuke were continuing to master the tree climbing exercise while Naruto was tasked to protect Tazuna when he went to work on the bridge, though Naruto read his scrolls while the men worked.

Sasuke struggled with the chakra control at first. While Kakashi had given him the warning that too much or too little chakra wouldn't work, the actual controlling the chakra was the hard part for the Uchiha. It seemed that this was the first thing Sasuke struggled with for a long time and it showed, his frustration mounted even more when he saw how easily Sakura had taken to the exercise. Adding to the frustration he already had because Naruto had already mastered the technique.

In Kakashi's words, Sakura has a natural talent for chakra control, the best he had ever seen in all his years. There was a trade off for that talent, the girl had subpar chakra levels even for a genin. She doesn't have much chakra to control so that's where her talent for it comes from. But it's still impressive to see someone to have such control over her chakra, it wouldn't take much to increase her chakra levels. Then she'd really be a force to be reckoned with. Naruto had jokingly said that she'd be a good fit for the medical field, but Kakashi knew of the boy's experiences and knew he was being serious.

When Kakashi went to get Naruto after the day's training was over, he was surprised to see how hard the boy was training. The field Naruto was set up in was filled with open scrolls, spread out throughout the field. The trees had kunai embedded in them, along with shurikens and other various ninja tools. Kakashi also noticed that there had been sort of battle, multiple in fact. There were fist sized wholes in the trees, along in the ground, and Naruto was cut and bruised beyond measure, though his extreme healing factor was already kicking in.

It was a gantlet, as Naruto called it. A continuous funnel of shadows clones as his opponents, groups of ten shadow clones would enter every couple of minutes until Naruto either passed out or told them to stop.

Naruto never stopped until he passed out.

Kakashi gave Naruto the day off and tasked him out to protect Tazuna while he and his crew worked on the bridge. He originally was going to have Sakura go with him, and have Naruto and Sasuke work on their teamwork, but seeing how good Sakura was at chakra control and knowing how subpar she was at everything else he felt it was time for some one-on-one training with the young kunoichi.

It didn't take more than half the day for Sakura to have the tree climbing exercise down completely, Sasuke was still struggling with the precision that was required but he was making progress. Kakashi complimented Sakura on her success before taking her to a different part of the forest for some more training.

-The bridge-

Naruto rolled up his third scroll of the day as the bell sounded for lunch break. The blonde sat on the finished part of the railing as he watched the construction workers put down their tools and break for some lunch. Tazuna finished talking to one of the workers before making his way towards him. Naruto did take notice that the man Tazuna had just finished talking to eyed him for a moment before walking away himself. That man was not the first eye him like that.

"Anything come up?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. It's been quiet all morning."

"Think anything will happen for the rest of the day?"

"Nah. Kakashi sensei said it would be a couple days before Zabuza would resurface. Besides, Zabuza wants to kill Kakashi before you."

Tazuna became confused. "I don't understand."

"It's a pride thing." Naruto waved it off. "Mind telling me why your workers have been eyeing me all morning?"

Tazuna sighed. "They don't feel safe with a kid watching them. I've vouched for you but it's no use. They think Gatō will kill them regardless of who's protecting them."

"I honestly thought you were over exaggerating about Gatō. It seems I was wrong."

"Gatō's hold over this town is like a sickness. If nothing is done about it, it'll only get worse."

Naruto sat thoughtfully, rubbing his chin slowly and fiddled with the scroll in his hand. He wasn't going to come up with anything sitting here, he needed to walk through the town. He stood from the railing and began to leave the worksite.

"Where are you going?"

Naruto didn't break stride. "I'm getting some lunch. I won't be long."

-A few hours later-

Kakashi couldn't recall a time ever in his life was so impressed yet so disappointed in another human being, young girl no less. He had been training Sakura since midday and two things became very clear to the jōnin. Sakura's knowledge of the ninja world was boundless, she easily rivaled that Nara boy in intelligence. But, how could someone with such promise have virtually no skills in all other aspects of being a ninja? Sakura's genjutsu was far beyond her two teammates and her ability to learn at such a fast pace was on par with Naruto and his shadow clones.

Honestly, Sakura had the making to be the strongest kunoichi of her generation. There was just one thing holding her back.

"Hey Kakashi sensei, how do you think Sasuke is doing with his tree climbing? Do you think we should go and check up on him?"

Kakashi was never one to let his disappoint show but a very audible sigh escaped his masked face. "Don't worry about Sasuke, Sakura. He's strong enough to handle a simple chakra control exercise. Now, let's go over some basic taijutsu techniques and see how well you do with them."

"But maybe he could use my help? Sasuke was struggling when we left earlier."

More frustration showed, Sakura continued to be oblivious to it. "Sakura, you need to stop this obsession with Sasuke. Or, at least, contain so it doesn't interfere with your training because if this continues, you will die, and you will let your teammates down. Do you understand?"

"Haven't you ever been in love Kakashi sensei?" Sakura had a certain glow in her eyes that physically made Kakashi flinch, slightly. "I just can't help myself when I think about him. He's just so dreamy." Sakura squealed in delight.

"Sakura!" Kakashi finally snapped. "Enough! Let me make one thing clear to you. Sasuke is not someone you can win over by simply looking good and gawking at everything he does. There's only thing that gets Sasuke's attention and that is strength. Just look at Naruto. He's ahead of Sasuke in nearly every aspect and everything he does is to catch up to him so that he can beat him one day. He's not paying attention to you because he doesn't like your outfit or your hair, it's because you aren't strong."

Sakura's sudden drop in excitement and into a sullen mood made Kakashi think he might've gone a bit too far but the girl needed to hear this. Maybe it would snap her out of her fangirling stage once and for all.

"Listen Sakura, is gaining Sasuke's acknowledgement really your main goal in life? There isn't anything else you want to achieve?"

Sakura thought about her answer, keeping her gaze hidden under her long, pink bangs. "I-I want to be recognized, be known as a great kunoichi. I didn't come from a clan or a rich name. I want to be known as the kunoichi that came from nothing but got everything."

That surprised Kakashi, he wasn't expecting something like that from his female student. He never would have guessed she felt like this. He always assumed that she joined the academy for the sole reason to capture Sasuke's heart.

"Now, that's a goal Sakura. I'm not saying your goal to get Sasuke's attention is a bad goal overall, it's just not a good goal for this life you've chosen. Emotions are what make us human but you can't let them cloud your judgement, especially yours Sakura. Naruto and Sasuke might be the muscle but you are the brain. Neither of them are as smart as you are. You can surpass them in time but only if you train hard enough."

Sakura looked up at her sensei in shock and disbelief. "Do you really think so, Kakashi sensei?"

Kakashi gave his classic eye smile. "I do think so. Now c'mon, let's try those taijutsu exercises."

-With Naruto-

Naruto had perched himself on a tree branch that looked over a large mansion, surrounded by a tall, metal fence with men with weapons constantly patrolling it. He kept himself hidden by the leaves of the tree, but it wasn't like the men inside the fence would notice him simply crouching on the branch. They weren't aware enough to look up. Naruto watched the patterns of the patrols for a few minutes, seeing and memorizing the pattern they used. They were simple bandits with no special training, mainly training in how to utilize chakra. At best, they were decently trained in using the swords they carried.

Finding the mansion wasn't hard, seeing how it was built in the middle of the town, but that's not why he took so long to get there. He wondered if the town, seeing of what Tazuna had said about the town losing its hope was true. Unfortunately, it was. If Naruto was blind, he'd be convinced he was walking through a ghost town. He had never seen such emptiness in so many people. He wondered if this Kaiza could inspire hope in people like Tazuna said he did. A lot more than Naruto first thought.

'Those people are practically zombies, Gatō has completely run this town dry of, not only, it's resources but it's morale too. But I can feel the contempt for him, their hatred feels like a heavy fog. Given the right push and they'll revolt against him. But what could that be?'

Naruto pondered this idea for another few minutes before deciding it was time to head back to the bridge, he had already been gone for quite some time. He knew there wasn't any danger lurking, at least not now, or else the shadow clone he kept hidden would have dispelled itself and warned him, via the memory transfer. He took one more look at the mansion before jumping out of the tree and heading back to the bridge.

-Later that night-

"Both did very well today." Kakashi complimented his two students on their hard day of training, the two genin both showed pride in the praise. Sakura more than Sasuke. "Sasuke finally mastered the tree climbing exercise while Sakura and I discovered her strengths and weaknesses that she needs to work on."

Naruto nodded, liking the fact that his sensei told him about his teammates training, as he ate the dinner that Tsunami had made for them. Frankly, this was one of the better meals he had eaten in his life. He had grown accustomed to stale milk and overcooked ramen, not to mention the literal bugs he was fed back on Mount Myōboku.

"Anything happen on the bridge, Naruto?"

Naruto shook his head, swallowing what food he had in his mouth. "It was quiet all day, I read my scrolls most of the day."

"Until you disappeared for three hours for 'lunch'." Tazuna scoffed.

Kakashi looked at Tazuna, making sure he wasn't lying or making an accusation, before turning back to his blonde-haired student, waiting for him to explain.

"I took a walk and lost track of time. Oh well." The blonde shrugged. "Nothing happened, and I'm pretty sure that the workers stopped complaining about a kid protecting them and actually got some work done. Besides, I left a shadow clone behind just in case anything was to happen."

Kakashi wasn't having it. "What did you really do, Naruto?"

Naruto contemplated for a moment before letting out a sigh. "I wasn't lying about taking a walk. I wanted to see if what Tazuna said was true, about the town losing all it's hope. It was worse than I thought. So, I decided to see if Gatō was as powerful as he has been made out to be."

"What did you come up with?" Sakura questioned.

"The only thing Gatō has is money. Everything he's built is for a profit."

Sasuke deadpanned. "Well, that's obvious."

"That means he's easy to be taken down. The people that he has guarding his mansion are low-life bandits that will do anything for the highest bidder. Maybe one of them can use chakra like a ninja but it wouldn't be much, a mid-level genin jutsu that I know we could handle."

Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow. "What are you getting at, Naruto?"

"We go in during the night, full force or stealth, and take Gatō out while he sleeps. We get ahead of Zabuza and take out his reason for wanting to kill Tazuna. Or simply take the money and give it to Zabuza, stopping him from coming after us for taking away his payday."

Everyone at the table was impressed by Naruto's idea for dealing with Gatō, and Zabuza in extension, it was thought out and covered almost all angles.

"Y-You want to kill him?"

"It's not a matter of want but need. That man must die. There is no consideration for the damned Sakura."

Sakura was shocked by this. Not by her teammates words but in the tone of how he said it, the look in his eyes. If Naruto would kill he would feel no remorse, no pity.

"That's risky." Tazuna spoke. "Something could happen if all of you go together, I'm not trying to be selfish but I gotta look out for my family's safety."

"I understand fully but I wasn't thinking it'd be a team mission."

Kakashi narrowed his eye. "A solo mission?"

"You actually think you can take on an entire guard mount by yourself? And here I thought you were smart, dobe."

"For your information, teme, I can take on this guard mount. I watched them for a few hours today and their patterns aren't that hard to figure out. Besides, if something were to happen, I've got my shadow clones to back me up. I can make more than enough to deal with the amount of bandits he has guarding his fence and whoever he keeps close. I'd be in and out in twenty minutes, thirty at the most."

The grey-haired jōnin rubbed the bottom of his masked chin, weighing in all the scenarios that could happen if things would go wrong. The only way Kakashi could see something going wrong was if Zabuza or that hunter ninja was there with Gatō. Even then, he had a feeling Naruto had something up his sleeve just in case there was an opponent he couldn't handle, courtesy of Jiraiya and/or the Nine Tails.

"What makes you think you can just walk in there and kill Gatō?"

Everyone turned to the entrance of the kitchen to see Inari.

"Just apart of the mission." Naruto answered.

"You'll never be strong enough to kill him. I told you that."

Naruto was tired of this freaking kid telling him that he's not strong and Gatō was unkillable, Sasuke was too. "Look boy, we are ninja for a reason. Quit thinking we aren't prepared to die. It is our mission to protect your grandfather, and by extension you and your mother."

"You're all wasting your time! There's not a damn thing you can do against him!" Inari once again rushed out and sprinted up the stairs to his room.

Tsunami stood up to follow him again, but Naruto put his hand out to stop her, then stood up himself. "I'll go talk to him."

The boy's mother was hesitant to let someone she barely knew go and talk to her son about his troubles but Tazuna put a hand on her shoulder, telling her to let Naruto try to get through to him. If her father trusted him then she might as well too.

Naruto made his way up the stairs and heard the boy sobbing behind his door at the end of the hall. He listened for a moment, hearing him say "dad" in between the sobs. He sighed softly then knocked on the door.

"Go away mom." Inari sniffled.

"I'm not your mom, nor do I want to be."

The door opened and Inari poked his head through the small crack. "What do you want?"

"I understand what you're feeling."

"No, you don't! Nobody knows how it feels to lose- "

"Just shut up and listen for once you little twerp."

Inari grumbled to himself before opening his door the rest of the way, he realized Naruto wasn't going to go away. Naruto entered the room and looked on the boy's desk. There were tear stains on a ripped picture of a man. He assumed that was Kaiza, Inari's father. He turned to the boy, who was now sitting on the bed.

"I know your angry. And you have the right to be angry. Any sane person would be angry when losing their father, especially the way you lost him. I don't blame you for being angry. But you make it sound like you're the only one who has lost someone important."

Inari scoffed. "Who have you lost? I doubt you've lost someone as important as a parent."

"Well, you aren't wrong. I never knew my parents to think of them as important to me." Inari looked up in shock. "Though, I think it hurts a bit more when the one person who practically raised you leaves without a word. The only one to ever care for you just dropping you like you were nothing."

Inari noticed a change in Naruto's eyes, it wasn't anger or sadness, like he had seen in himself. It almost looked like longing, longing to have someone to care. He blinked a few times before speaking again.

"You aren't the only person to lose someone important and you never will be. Use your anger to better yourself so you don't lose another important person. Be a hero for once."

With those parting words, Naruto left the room and closed the door behind him.

-Midnight-

Naruto had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that Kakashi actually agreed to his plan to take down Gatō during the night. What surprised the blonde more was that it was only the man himself as Naruto's backup. What that meant confused Naruto. Did Kakashi trust him more than the others or did he simply want them to get plenty amount of rest? Frankly, Naruto didn't care either way. He was just glad he was finally getting to do something.

Naruto was perched on the same branch he was earlier that day, waiting for the right moment to jump over the fence and sneak his way into the mansion without being seen. He waited for another few minutes, allowing the guards to change out, before doing just that.

Once inside became a bit more challenging. He wasn't able to scout the guards movements from his position on the tree so he would have to play it by ear and have a bit of luck to find Gatō's sleeping quarters. His instincts told him that Gatō would sleep on the top floor, so that any intruder would have to go through a level or two of his hired guard mount.

Naruto's instincts were right, Gatō's room was on the top floor of his mansion. The man must be either very trusting of his guards or he simply didn't want someone watching him while he slept. Naruto didn't care either way.

Naruto choked out the lone bandit that stood guard outside Gatō's room and dragged him out of sight. He thought it was odd that there was only one guard but decided to continue on. He tried to open the door but it was locked. He should've figured that one. The blonde knelt down and began to pick the lock with a small pick and a thin rod of metal. He was just about to click the final pin in place but he felt a knife against his neck, or what he thought was a knife.

"You're impressive, Naruto. I never would've thought someone could sneak past all these guards and myself."

Naruto moved his head ever so slightly to look at his captor. "Haku. I'm not sure why but I completely over looked the fact that you might be here. Must've been that pretty face that you hide under your mask."

Naruto couldn't see it but Haku was smirking. "Not as smart as you think you are."

"Apparently not."

"Get up."

Naruto hesitated for a moment before complying the order.

Haku kept the senbon against the blonde's neck as she moved to the door. She knocked three times before it unlocked and Zabuza emerged, his massive sword already drawn. Just beyond Zabuza was the man himself, Gatō.

"It was a freaking kid that snuck past my entire guard mount!" Seeing Gatō angry made Naruto smirk in pride, which was quickly punched off his face by Gatō. "Their pay was just cut in half."

"Wow, big talk coming from a man in his boxers."

Gatō hit Naruto in his knee with his cane, bringing the blonde to his knees once more. "I do not think I won't kill you. Keep running your mouth and I will have your head sliced clean off your body."

Naruto didn't show any emotion or indication that he was even remotely scared by Gatō's threat and he knew full well Gatō wouldn't hesitate to give that order. He was a little curious why he wasn't killed on the spot, he learned long ago to never question a blessing.

"I will agree with Haku, I never imagined a genin would have the skills to sneak past a mansion of guards virtually unnoticed." Zabuza said.

"Just lucky I guess."

"No one is that lucky, you were taught. And there aren't many out there that have such good stealth techniques."

Naruto's fist began to clench.

"I don't care if he was taught or not Zabuza. He's here and needs to be dealt with."

Zabuza eyed his employer momentarily before lifting his sword off the ground and resting it on Naruto's shoulder. He rose it far above his head, posed to bring it down with grace and accuracy.

"Don't worry, you'll see your teammates by tomorrow night."

Naruto felt only a slight pinch of pain when the sword separated his head from his neck, there wasn't even a shocked expression on the blonde's, now, rolling head. There was a small moment of silence before the body and head burst into a cloud of smoke.

"Son of a bitch! It was a clone the whole time."

"And you couldn't tell the difference?!"

"That kid had mastered the Kage Bushin no Jutsu, a stronger and better version. Meaning it's nearly impossible to tell a difference."

"Then what am I paying you for?! You're nothing more than an overrated butcher!"

Zabuza snapped and grabbed Gatō by his neck. The business owner gasped and pleaded for air. The former Kiri ninja could easily snap Gatō's neck, and had to resist the urge to do so, but knew if he killed Gatō then his plan to over throw the Mizukage and the Kirigakure government would die with him.

"You watch your mouth, Gatō."

Zabuza dropped the smaller man to the floor and turned to walk away, Haku following.

Gatō rubbed his throat, trying to sooth the pain. 'Not only are you going to pay Zabuza, that blonde kid will too.'

-Hidden in the tree-

Naruto breathed out heavily as the memories of his clone came back to him like a rushing river. He looked over to Kakashi, who was patiently waiting by reading his perverted book.

"Well, how'd it go?"

"They're coming after Tazuna tomorrow."

Kakashi nodded. "It's a good thing I was planning to have the full team on protection detail tomorrow."

Naruto nodded. "So why didn't want me to use my Bushin Daibakuha? (Great Clone Explosion technique)I could've taken all three of them out and we wouldn't have to worry."

Kakashi shrugged. "Call it pride."