New God Of Shinobi

by Death-Arrow

Only if Hiruzen Sarutobi was strict toward Certain Situations and didn't submit to council decisions, Only if Jiraiya was more responsible, What will be the Future of Entire Shinobi world? What will be the future of rookie 11 of Konohagakure no Sato? And more importantly What will be the Future of One Blonde Brat? NaruHinaYugi/ SasuKarin/SakuKiba/ Neutral Danzo

5. A Circular phase

Chapter 5: A Circular phase

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Enjoy the fic

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Tsunami was the only daughter of Tazuna. She had been through two marriages until now, whereas her first husband died due to over-drinking, her second husband was executed by Gato publicly, for he took a stand against him. She birthed a son from her first husband named Inari, Inari was a very soft hearted boy from a tender age. He had lost his father before he could hold memories, and his 'Hero', his second father, Kaiza was executed by Gato for his bravery and courage.

Inari's heart broke after Kaiza's death, to the extent that he turned cold against everyone except his mother and grandfather, adjoin that with his mistrust for the norm of a hero. He started criticizing anyone that tried to help others, for he saw Kaiza in them, and his inevitable end.

Tsunami was busy washing dishes when several knocks sounded on the door, she spared her work and opened it to come face to face with eight people standing outside her gate. A group of blonde quadruplets? a black haired boy, a pink haired girl, her father and a man with white hairs supported by two of the blonde...quadruplets. Her father was glaring inbetween the blonde quadruplet and the black haired boy frequently.

He sighed before redirecting his attention on Tsunami.

"I'm back, Tsunami." The man greeted his daughter. "It's relieving to see you're safe. Where's Inari? Is he home yet?" asked Tazuna hugging his daughter.

"No...Tou-san, He is out in backyard, fishing" answered Tsunami glancing toward rest of the group as she extracted herself from her father.

Tazuna followed her gaze and chose to introduce his saviors. "Don't worry, Tsunami. They are with me, I hired Konoha ninjas for my protection...you know...that Tyrant has been targeting me for quite sometime."

"But, father...they are just kids..." Tsunami looked at them kindly.

"It appears like that, yet, I can promise you that they are more than capable to take down grown up ninjas" Tazuna grumbled loudly entering the house.

Well, it didn't seemed like that to Tsunami, specially the girl. The Quadruplets and the raven haired boy did looked a bit mature, yet they couldn't possible be full fledged nins, they were relatively young.

"We are grateful for your hospitality, Tsunami-san. I promise you, we will not be a burden on you" Sakura voiced in with a bow, that the raven haired boy and the quadruplets followed immediately.

"None of that Please" Tsunami tried to place the situation awkwardly, these kids were not as naïve as they appeared at first. "Come in, if you're here to protect my father then it's us who should be grateful" stated Tsunami ushering them inside.

The whole convoy entered the house locking the door behind, it was a small yet comforting house at first sight, although the small cracks along the wall and invisible smell of moss was suspended in the air.

"Take the stairs...you'll find two rooms, choose the left one." She instructed tightening her apron. "I will bring you some medicines and hot soup" added Tsunami with a honest smile.

"You don't need to do that, we are fully-equipped to deal with the situation" Sakura intoned but her stomach betrayed her words with a loud grumble.

"On a second note, We will be thankful for the soups" Naruto voiced in for the first time.

Tsunami nodded, the smile still etched on her face, the kids behaved composedly yet the playfulness hasn't vanished from their eyes.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Kakashi regained consciousness the next morning. Naruto and Sasuke had decided to sleep in the same room as Kakashi. Well, technically only Sasuke slept, since Naruto was too worried about his elder brother to sleep soundly. Sakura had shared a room with Tsunami while Inari had to adjust with his grandfather down the hall.

Kakashi opened his eyes drowsily to be greeted by a severe headache and blurry images. He tried to restrict his overreacting senses and attempted to pull himself up but felt a foreign weight on his arm, he glanced down to see Naruto's arm draped over his, where it held his right arm firmly, whereas rest of his body was curled up like a sleeping fox.

Consciously, Not all people were familiar with the fact that Kakashi would have left the Leaf village if not for Naruto, after his sensei's death Kakashi's heart shattered, his will to live vanished. It was only for Naruto that he chose to remain in the village, to protect him and look after him. He cared and adored Naruto as a little brother, and that was the reason he wanted the second guardianship of his brother. For many people Kakashi was a emotionless and aloof individual, but only a few people including Anko and Gai knew that Kakashi had soft and protective spot for his little brother.

He smiled under his mask and ruffled Naruto's hair, adjusting his arm to not disturb the blonde, He sat back a little taking the support of wall behind him to adjust himself. Sakura walked into the room at the moment, her eyes followed Kakashi's sitting form and a sleeping Naruto curled up like a fox beside him. She went on to check Kakashi for any symptoms of extended exhaustion, after a light body checkup and confirming that he did had an extended exhaustion, she gave him some chakra replenishing liquid.

Naruto and Sasuke were woken up and instructed to complete their morning routine and report to Kakashi in an hour, it was evident that they reconsider some facts as early as possible. It was due that reason that all members of Team 7 were gathered in the room Kakashi was resting in.

"Well done, Team. I am pleased with your performance in your first mission outside the village." Kakashi begun with a praise and eye-smile. It was truly pleasing to see that his team hasn't forgotten the training exercise he had made them follow through the month extending to this mission from the day of their graduation.

"You, three, have shown great co-ordination and a sharp sense of mind." He added. His expression sobered the next moment as he leaned forward. "Now, for why I called you, I have re-pondered upon yesterday's fight and came upon a conclusion, Zabuza is still alive" stated Kakashi sincerely.

"But...but, We saw him die, sensei. Right? How can he be still alive? Didn't that Hunter ninja killed him?" asked Sasuke a little concerned. Naruto was observing this whole ordeal silently from a side, he had his suspicions that he wanted to confirm with his sensei.

"No, that couldn't be it." Sasuke begun. "That Oi nin would have helped us if he wanted to kill Zabuza, on the other hand no Oi nin use senbons for the purpose of killing. That hunter nin was a fake one, wasn't he sensei?" deducted Sasuke. He was also aiming to become an anbu and then a Hunter nin to track down Itachi and kill him. So, he had gathered required information about them.

"Very good observation, Sasuke." Kakashi agreed. "For now we will keep our actions low...even if he is gravely injured he can still be healed in two weeks time by a medic with an adequate knowledge of herbs." He concluded. "Thus, you three will have to train yourself for next two weeks and develop your skills to atleast stand a chance against him" stated Kakashi.

"As you can see, I am not in the right state to train you. Hence, till I recover you will train yourself." instructed Kakashi.

"Also, everyday two of you will guard Tazuna as he works on the bridge, and one of you will stay here to protect the house, you will rotate the posts alternatively. You can train in evening after returning from guarding duty, am I understood?" Kakashi asked going in his 'sensei mode'.

The three of his students accepted his orders with short nods.

Kakashi's trust in his genins was confidently strong, they were capable and driven enough to train themselves properly. Naruto has developed several skills that he had adopted from Sandaime Hokage, Sasuke also has an another teacher in the form of the ex-anbu Black ops, Shishui Uchiha And Sakura was ready with her medical scrolls and the new taijutsu style introduced to her by Kakashi.

Kakashi's chest swelled with pride as he saw their teamwork yesterday, how Naruto instantly took the role of leader, how Sasuke intercepted every move of Demon brothers and how Sakura took the role of a medic and a powerhouse for her team. The young shinobis had rounded up their weaknesses and trusted eachother's judgement to work together.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Meanwhile, Naruto was mulling over the events of past few days, he too had a guess that Zabuza wasn't dead. Thoughtfully, If he would have been a bit idiot and wasn't trained by Hiruzen, he would have never been able to catch up to the details, but he has been taught to observe.

His mind gripped in a sudden plan, He henged himself into a middle aged man and went on toward the city to gather some information. Jiraiya has taken up teaching him basic norms of intelligence gathering a while ago, as Jiraiya was famous for his vast spy network and his more than exceptionary infiltrating tactics, so it was obvious that he would share his knowledge with his Godson.

Naruto was strolling around the city aimlessly when he heard some commonation around a shop. Narrowing his eyes, He went on to check the shop and found that a middle-aged man was being thrashed and humiliated by three thugs and a young girl was being dragged down by an another thug.

"This is what you will get. If you don't pay the taxes we will take away everything precious to you, even your daughter" laughed the thug dragging the innocent girl away while others continued humiliating the old shopkeeper, with occasional boots to face.

He hesitated for a moment, was it necessary to reveal his secrecy for a shopkeeper, that thought didn't passed long as soon as Naruto's eyes met that of the girl. Her eyes held the horror of a lifetime, she knew what was come to her wasn't brave enough to brace herself for that. Quelling his thought regarding secrecy he created a shadow clone and ordered it to deal off with thugs pestering the old man and shot off toward the man dragging the girl. His clone henged into an older boy and thrashed the thugs senseless, it was sound beating that neither of them will forget for near future.

After ten or so minutes he caught up to the thug moving toward a hill behind the town, he activated his invisible cover sped toward the offending bastard. As he closed the distance between them he unwrapped the bandages around his thigh and maneuvered them so they constricted the man in his movement, noticing the opening the women ran off back toward the town. This was the chance Naruto was waiting for, he didn't wanted to etch a bad memory in poor lady's mind.

He revealed venom laced ninja wires out of his pockets and wrapped it around the bound man, putting extra pressure so that the wire cuts the skin and poison does it work. The man would die, that was confirm but not immediately, after 10 days of intense pain, hallucinations and blood leakage the molester will meet his end pitifully. The one thing that Naruto hated more than anything was rape, for him it was an act of complete brutality without any need and the pleasure that the culprit got out of it was sickening and as inhumane as possible.

The man looked fearful for a moment his eyes dazed off in space and he started whimpering and whispering about many horrible things.

Naruto nodded to himself and made his way back to the shop and check on the shopkeeper from a distance. As soon as he confirmed that the old man was fine he focused on the unconscious thugs, considering they can lead him to the hideout of the tyrant Gatou, he pulsed his chakra and directioned it toward their forms waking them up.

The thugs woke up with a start, after passing some profanities and threats to the people gathered around they chose to flee to return back. They had to report to their head about this incident, whoever that boys was who dared to touch them would be punished brutally.

Naruto used their retreat to his advantage and formed six hand signs quickly. "Summoning jutsu: Toad spy", he whispered and placed his palms on the roof of the building he was on, a black toad appeared in a puff of smoke. It had grey underside its arms legs and green marks all over his back, around its eyes and lips.

"Hello there, Summoner-san... I am Gamaashi, The second son of Gamaken and a spy toad as you have requested" Croaked Gamaashi.

Naruto has been training in Summoning jutsu for some times now, Hiruzen and Jiraiya had taught him that legendary contracts such as Toad, Snake, Slug and a few more had several of type of individuals to summon.

As for Toad clan, it had three tribes with a leader of each three in the form of Gamaken, Gamahiro and the legendary Summon Toad Gamabunta. Gamaken's tribe was adapt for spying, Bo-Jutsu/ Sasumata/ Naginata and messenger toads. While, Gamahiro's tribe was famous for double sword kenjutsu, sealing techniques and toad conjunction Jutsus. And the last but not least, Gamabunta's tribe was the lead tribe and was famous for its battle toads, senjutsu and kenjutsu.

Naruto had to acquire permissions from all toad chiefs to summon toads from all three tribes. He was not very fluent in Summoning but was still able to summon small battle toads and others.

"Please follow those men running over there, Gamaashi-san, and gather as much information as you can about their leader and their companions. I will resummon you after a week, yet, if you feel threatened you're allowed to return to Mt Myoboku" Ordered Naruto.

During his Summon training with Hiruzen, he had observed that toads were too loyal to their summoner, they ought to sacrifice themselves to save their summoner without even thinking once. Naruto was truly proud to be a summoner of the Toad clan, He felt like he was one of them, a family, they would sacrifice themselves to save him. It also helped that the toads respected him and were fond of him more than Jiraiya.

The spy summon nodded his head and trailed the men hopping fastly.

It was late evening that day when Naruto returned to the house of the bridge builder, Kakashi was sitting on the dining table, his smut book opened in his hand. Sakura, Tazuna and Inari were also seated around the table, while Tsunami was serving dinner to them. Only him and Sasuke weren't present, while he was back now there was no sign on Sasuke around the house.

"Where's Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei?" questioned Naruto. "Is he still training outside?"

"Ah, It's pleasant to see you care for your teammate, Naruto." Kakashi begun with an eye smile combined with his irritative tone. "Nonetheless, he left the house in the morning after you left, I think he isn't that far off, he should be returning any minute now" stated Kakashi poking in the food with his chopstick.

As if on cue the door opened and Sasuke entered the house looking bruised and exhausted. By the state of his clothes and person, it was clear that he was so much so indulged in his training that he failed to notice time.

Sasuke was trying to improve his taijutsu and wanted to combine his element of affinity with his tantos. He has seen Shishui use Katon with his katana was fascinated by the display, that particular skill could help in many ways. Nevertheless the skill wasn't strictly advised to be used by Elite Chunins or above for nothing, he hasn't mended his primary affinity Katon to the extent where he could incase his tantos in it. Beaten and battered, He chose to sit beside Sakura and focused on the food infront of him after a quick wash and change of clothes.

"What got you so determined and exhausted, teme?" Naruto asked between his bites.

Sasuke sighed and answered solemnly. He explained the blond about his want to preference to develop the interceptor fist above what it was now. With more than half of his clan dead, there were no elders to stop the clan members from adopting new skills to combine with the clan techniques. Previously with the clan elders it was about saving their tradition and keeping it pure, now on the other hand, many of his clanmates had inclined themselves toward other arts taught to the shinobi.

"So, you want to further... improve your taijutsu style?" Naruto inquired as he placed another piece of salad on his plate. "I thou...ght interceptor fist was co...mplete with Sharingan." He continued with half filled mouth.

"Can you stop being disgusting? Complete your fill then ask questions?" Sakura reprimanded him sharply. With loud gulp Naruto stole a glance toward Uchiha, who was also wide eyes due to the sudden and unexpected outburst of their teammate, and focused on his food.

In no time Naruto's plate was void of any food even if he refilled it thrice. "See, I am done. Now, can I ask questions?" Naruto asked innocently.

Sakura sighed lightly before nodding her head, her blonde teammate was too innocent and determined to help his friends for her to remain angry.

With permission given, Naruto faced Sasuke again.

"If you do need any help, I am all-ready to help you, teme" Naruto smiled his best. Sasuke just nodded his head glancing toward Naruto.

"So, I've heard that you also need some help with your taijutsu, Sakura." Naruto asked hesitantly, he certainly didn't wanted to annoy his teammate. He had seen her use the technique that Kakashi sensei had taught, and damn his brother who had to taught her that jutsu, it was rather destructive jutsu and Naruto wasn't keen on being on the other side of it.

"Why don't you join us tomorrow? I have perfect techniques for the both of you" stated Naruto relieved after Sakura nodded at his question without any tick growing on her forehead.

He had stored a number of techniques on different subjects in his personal scroll, he had got them through a thorough search of library's Shinobi section and a few from the personal repertoire of famed Shinobis that he could get his hands on. Also, some of them were from the personal library of the Hokage, Hiruzen was kind enough to let him search through that Library for jutsu that weren't too personal to any of the previous hokages.

After scourging through the section he found that many of the war prisoner were forced to relate and disclose the jutsus in their arsenal, and those particular techniques were stored into the personal library of Hokage.

Those scrolls were not be lent to individual, that's why Naruto has copied those techniques on his scroll, obviously not before taking permission from his sensei. Jiraiya had insured the safety of those techniques by locking the scroll with blood and chakra enabled seals. Only Naruto was able to open the scroll, anybody else couldn't misuse the knowledge stored in the scrolls.

Before the conversation could be carry forward, Inari stoop up silently and went on toward his room without even touching the food on his plate, Tsunami excused herself to go behind him. This wasn't normal for anyone of them except Tazuna and Tsunami, they knew Inari didn't liked strangers or noises. Inari preferred quite places and tried to avoid gathering of people after his father's demise.

The environment suddenly changed, airy and awkward, it didn't took long for the occupants to excuse themselves off the table.

Next evening, After completing his routine guard duty with Sasuke, Naruto led Sakura and Sasuke toward the forest to teach them a particular skill which he had copied from the scroll that contained several jutsus from the first group of war prisoner's of second war.

They reached a clearing where Naruto faced them to clarify the theory behind the technique he was opting to teach them.

"So... first of all, I want to know your affinities. It's necessary for you to know your affinities and master them at least to a certain level to combine these jutsus with your taijutsu" Stated Naruto.

"I have two affinities, Fire and lightning. Fire is my primary affinity while the lightning is secondary, and I haven't mastered any of those" Sasuke explained.

"Well, that's convenient." Naruto grinned. "You see... I have a Fuuton affinity, very rare in the land of fire unlike Katon. Katon is major affinity of the land of fire, as the name of our country clearly states that."

Sasuke smirked mischievously at this, he knew Katon was superior to Fuuton, thus his jutsus would overpower Naruto's arsenal of Wind jutsus, an upper hand. But, his thoughts of victory was crushed by the next declaration of the said genin.

"Yet, I have trained my self to use more than one element of ninjutsu" Naruto stated.

"You mean to say you can use more than one element? That's unique, not to mention on an entire another level." Sakura intoned after a gasp. "And wait for a moment, aren't elemental jutsu training for Elite Chunins and Jonins?" Sasuke was also frowning at the point, there was only one person famed to be able to use all five affinity.

Naruto sighed with a shook of his head. "Elemental training is not reserved for Elite Chunins or Jonins, it's a bit complex process, thus Genins are advised to avoid wasting energy on it"

"It doesn't matter, I've learnt it from the best and can teach you." Naruto continued with a resolute.

"I don't know my affinities" intoned Sakura in a small voice.

Both boy's head snapped toward her in shock.

"You haven't checked your affinity yet? That's carelessness, Sakura. Even if you aim to become a combat medic, you need to have some ninjutsus in your arsenal" Naruto scolded her lightly. This was one of the reasons Sakura respected her blonde teammate, Naruto was caring and protective toward his teammates, friends and family.

"Unfortunately, you can't learn to control your elemental affinity in such a short time." Sasuke passed the knowledge with a shrug.

"Yeah, you're right" Naruto accepted with a sigh while Sakura was still looking down at the ground.

"Don't be depressed, Sakura. Maybe I can't teach you what I am going to show Sasuke. Instead, we shall test your affinity and then I will show you a few jutsu from that element, just pray it's not Raiton, I am not good with that." Naruto accepted with a shrug while a smirk found it's place on Sasuke's lips.

"Okay, Let me go back to the house, I will fetch some Chakra affinity papers, and Raiton jutsu scrolls from sensei" Naruto said with a clap and ran back toward house.

Naruto simply didn't stored Raiton jutsu in his scrolls as his natural Fuuton affinity was direct opposite of Raiton. It wasn't like he can't use Raiton jutsu, but those particular jutsus weren't as strong when casted by a natural user. So, he postponed that part of his training for further times. After half an hour, and an annoying conversation with his sensei for the Raiton scrolls he returned with chakra papers in hand and some scrolls hung to his waist.

He put a chakra paper in Sakura hand and instructed her to supply some of her chakra through the paper. The chakra affinity paper crumbled in to dust from its lower end, Doton affinity.

Naruto beamed at her with a smile, Doton jutsus weren't that complex while learning. They tend to be either a bit stiff or muddy depending on its use, but only that, there wasn't any risk of getting burnt or electroducted unlike others.

He made a T-shaped hand seals and in a puff of smoke four shadow clones appeared. He had mastered his shadow clones to one hand seal, that way it was easier to spawn hordes and hordes of blonde troublemakers. He ordered all four of them to accompany Sakura, They had the duty to teach her leaf floating exercise, and after she masters that, they would teach her some low level Doton Ninjutsus.

The original Naruto, on the other hand, chose to lead Sasuke toward the clearing on the other side of the forest, they reached the clearing after a few minutes of walk.

"You don't need to agonize me over affinities with that smirk of yours, teme" Naruto said with a roll of his eyes.

"Well, It is pleasurable to know that your affinity is weak against mine" Sasuke replied back smoothly.

"Only the primary, not secondary, mind you." Naruto bit back. He ignored the sound of scoff from Sasuke and rather opted to explain him his training regime.

"Now first of all, I am going to experiment with you. I will teach you a particular technique, it is one I have acquired from somewhere restricted." Naruto begun. "Hence, You're never to teach this to anyone else without my permission, and you shall never tell anyone who taught you this." He continued with a serious expression. "However, before we could move to that You need to master your Katon chakra to a certain limit" stated Naruto.

Sasuke nodded his head in approval. He understood, if Naruto was barring him from disclosing the knowledge of technique to anyone or its origin, then this technique was ought to be powerful.

Little did Sasuke knew that he was signing up for a training regime that even Naruto had problem adjusting to initially, the week wasn't going to be uneventful for the two Genins under the blonde Jinchurikki.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

A week passes by like a breeze. The four members of Team 7 were busy eating dinner together with Tazuna and his family.

Sasuke was adorning burns and bruises all over his body, showing the extent of the tiring training regime planned by Naruto. While, the said blond was looking all fine, and it was no surprise to anyone, not including Tazuna and his family. His team knew that Naruto healed quicker than a normal human, also he had a ton of stamina thanks to his extra large chakra reserve that rivaled a jonin at this age.

Sakura wasn't looking any better than Sasuke either, her face gave an account of the tiring training routine Naruto made her follow. She adorned visible bruises along her hands and feet.

Kakashi was smiling behind his mask, he was proud of his yellow-haired student. His health has recovered enough for him to retake their training in his hand, Naruto as much clear he was in his approach, he was also overly persistent in his training.

"I see you have been taking your friends to hell, Naruto" chuckled Kakashi glancing toward Sakura and Sasuke.

"To hell? Even you know sensei, my training regime is of unhuman pace." Naruto replied between his bites. "It's not even one-tenth of what Jiji puts me through on a regular basis" Naruto clarified, and it was true. Naruto's training regime was nothing short of what Anbu recruits are put through after their inauguration. Starting with physical training, then Weapon's training, and ending with Jutsu training in a single day.

Sakura's fork dropped down on her plate as she looked toward Naruto with wide eyes -One Tenth?- Sakura, in her entire lifetime, has never been this tired, every muscle and joint in her body was hurting like hell.

"Well at least, it would pay off good" expressed Sasuke taking a bite of his piece of meat.

However, their conversation was cut short by Inari's high pitched voice. "Why do you all train so hard? In the end you all will die, you don't have what it takes to bring Gato down"

"What do you know about us boy? We will definitely kill that short goblin, he's a scaredy cat hiding behind Zabuza and his thugs" Naruto said with a raised eyebrows before continuing on the red crustacean on his plate.

"You're wrong, Gato will kill you and then laugh at you." Inari said standing up. Now the brat was annoying him, he understood that the kid had lost his father, but to excoriate the shinobi that are for your safety was idiotic and irritating.

"If you think you're powerful enough to kill Gato, you're an Idiot. I bet, you don't even know what is the pain of losing someone" blamed Inari in angry tone.

The last part was unwanted, yet Naruto wasn't the one to lose his cool on such menial debate. It wasn't like he hasn't experienced pain, ignorance and loneliness. Even if Jiraiya had came for him- and Kakashi and Anko were always there for him, he still wanted to atleast know or see his parents. Even if others were there for him, loss of one's parent is still painful.

Then there was Sasuke, a boy Naruto kind of felt sympathetic to. Sasuke, not unlike his burdened self, was kept under suspicious gaze due to his brother's deed. People judged him for what his brother did to his clan, they didn't even cared that he had lost his parents in that mad dash of Itachi. Even their sensei, Kakashi, had had a tough life. Naruto had learnt from Jiraiya about his surrogate brother's father and teammates Kakashi and on the top of that he had lost his sensei infront of his eyes.

Lastly, his sister life wasn't any better, experimented on by her own sensei whom she had adored like a father. Deserted when that experiment didn't performed as adequately as he wanted, she was declared an outcast soon as she returned to her own village.

"You really think you've seen all you need to lecture me about suffering, eh brat?" Naruto drawled with a chuckle in his voice. The movement on the dining table halted as the occupants looked between the two silently, the edge in Naruto's voice wasn't left unnoticed in spite of the chuckle.

"You know, you atleast have a grandfather and mother to welcome you home. You don't even know what real suffering is" Naruto stated, his chuckle died down on his lips.

"Do you want to know what suffering is?" the question wasn't one, it was a statement that he wanted to be heard.

"Agony is losing your entire family, even your parents, at the hands of your elder brother. Pain is losing every person you hold dear infront of your eyes, even your real father and father figure" Naruto's eyes never meet anyone as he spoke.

"And, That last thing about loneliness, it's not knowing even the names of your parents" He looked up in the eyes of the brat, who was wide eyed much like his grandfather and mother. "So, what? Submitting your will against that is simple cowardice and disrespect to the individuals you've lost, we didn't lose ourselves to that" that last line came as a whisper and that finally did it.

Sasuke was avoiding everyone eyes while Kakashi himself was trying to be as distant as possible, Sakura had her hand on her mouth as gazed down at her food. Naruto looked as lonely as Kakashi had seen the boy through the nights festival that the village commenced on occasion of Kyubi's defeat.

"Go and cry for your father, but don't mock other people's suffering. You don't even know what other's life is like." Naruto stood up from his chair, and walked out of the house with a nod toward Kakashi, the message was clear he needed space right now.

His departure was followed by Inari, then Sasuke and lastly a subdued Sakura.

Sasuke jumped out of the window of the room he slept in and took a seat in the roof, the moon, his silent companion for years was on it's full might. A lone tear streaked out of his left eye, soon succeeded by one out of right. That night Sasuke cried again after a long time.

Sakura knew their stories, they had told her about their past as a sign of trust. She didn't knew how it feels to lose someone close to her, but still she understood the suffering.

"Pardon me for my genins, Tsunami-san. They have had tough childhoods, I'll talk to them about this" said Kakashi before taking his leave, nobody noticed the absence of the usual shine in his eyes.

Tazuna and Tsunami nodded as reassurance but inside they were shocked at the live these Shinobi lived, how can such small kids have so much pain hidden deep inside them, life of a shinobi was truly brutal and unforgiving.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

A girl with a pretty face and black hairs dressed in a black kimono was plucking herbs and flower for her master, she was Haku. Haku warn in a village of Kirigakure, she was from the renown Yuki clan, known for its Hyoton/Ice-release kekkai-genkkei. Her mother was from the said clan while her father was a normal civilian, Haku was born during the famed bloodline purge and her father was a bloodline opposer.

When he came to know about her ability due to an unfortunate accident, he killed her mother and tried to kill her. In the fit of rage and anguish she impaled her father with ice spikes and ran off from her home. After wandering around hungry for half a year she was founded by Zabuza and was taken in, from that time onwards she traveled with Zabuza...training to be his perfect tool.

A mop of sunshine kissing blonde hair broke her chain of thoughts, infront of her was one of the kids who fought her master, sleeping. Atleast that's what it looked like from a distance, She contemplated for a moment and then walked on toward him, she knelt down infront of him. If she could curb her urge to not kill this boy and does the job for her master their next fight will be less tedious. The blonde, on his own, has dispatched a clone of her master. That was a big feat if the source of that clone was one of best Swordsmen Kiri has birthed in age, and Demon of the bloody mist was a monster in his own rights.

As she hardened her will and proceeded to touch the boy, it didn't held up as she had expected. No- she can't kill the boy, it wasn't in her nature, that deed was reserved for her master. Sighing lightly she instead tried to wake up the boy, but before she could shake the boy his hand caught hers.

"I am not sleeping, so don't you try to rob me" Naruto mumbled lightly thinking some thief was trying to pickpocket him. Instead he heard a soft giggle escaping his offender's lips, he opened his eyes to see he was holding the hand of a beautiful girl. Big beautiful ebony-coloured eyes matching her hairs, sleek but elegant facial structure, pale but healthy skin colour, long nose and slim red lips.

"I am not trying to rob you, Shinobi-san. It's a dense forest, Wild boars and Jaguars are common here, I was just trying to warn you" said Haku in a sweet and melodious voice.

"O...Oh, I a...am sorry. I thought oth... otherwise" Naruto said a little stuttering. 'Why did I stutter like Hinata' Naruto thought to himself.

Haku giggled a little at Naruto's stutter and innocence, any thoughts of harming him vanished instantly from her mind after that.

"I was just training here and slept off from exhaustion." asked Naruto rubbing the back of his head. "Can I get your name" He asked as politely as he can.

"My name is Haku, I was just collecting some herbs for treating my father" Said Haku. "You must be a strong ninja to be training like this, tell me do have some one precious to protect?" Asked Haku looking toward him.

A soft smile found its place on his face as he replied. "Well...Yeah, I want to become the Hokage, and Jiji says that a Hokage protect its people. So, I want to become a ninja to protect my village and my loved ones residing their" Naruto replied without even thinking. Occasionally, his loud-mouthed self did made appearances.

"Those are some good ideals, I believe that our strength comes from protecting our loved ones" stated Haku smiling.

"Um.. It's nice meeting you Haku-san, but I have to return to my friends, they would be worried if I don't. Thank you for trying to help me, and I apologise again for my misunderstanding" Naruto said with a bow.

"It's nothing, Shinobi-san" Haku replied standing up.

"It's Naruto by the way, Uzumaki Naruto, Ja-ne" With a wave Naruto sprinted back toward Tazuna's house. They didn't met again during that week but Haku's word made a good impact on him.

The week went on as Naruto continued his training with Sasuke and Sakura, Kakashi also joined them from the next day and was not disappointed by the developments they had made with Naruto.

Kakashi was told about Naruto teaching Sasuke new jutsu to combine with interceptor fist, he was also happy to know that his genin team had a natural Doton user.

Kakashi started to train them from the next day onwards and also gave them some rest. Naruto got some respite from training his teammates and himself together and Sasuke and Sakura got rest from Naruto's brutal training regime. Well it was brutal for Sakura, but for Sasuke it was just a little more than tiring, after all if he can't keep up with the blonde how was he going to get his answers from Itachi.

Kakashi also focused on training Naruto to use Raiton jutsus as he was one of the top Raiton users in entire elemental nation, it was necessary for Naruto to learn all the five elements if only to protect himself.

It went on for a week. On the last day of the week Naruto resummoned Gamaashi to retrieve the gathered information on Gato plan's. He went on toward forest to summon him as he wanted as much privacy he can muster, his friends will come to know about his relation with Hokage and Jiraiya eventually, but not now.

"Summoning jutsu: Toad spy Return" said Naruto silently, in a puff of smoke Gamaashi appeared right infront of him.

"I believe there were no problems during your information gathering, Gamaashi-san" stated Naruto.

"No, it went all fine. They were truly unaffected by my presence, their ignorance turned out be my bliss, I was able to do extensive infiltration in his base" explained Gamaashi.

"What information have you gathered, Gamaashi-san?" asked Naruto with a smile, the toads were truly a being of sheer determination and drive toward their summoners.

"Gato has a hidden warehouse behind the hills, he runs his shipping business from there. Though that business is less of a shipping business and more of a smuggling hub -girls, money, drugs and goods are all distributed throughout the elemental nation with the help of his cargo." The Toad continued.

"Moreover, He currently has 55 local thugs under him, they help him in his drugs and girls smuggling business. He has also employed two ninjas from Kirigakure, Momochi Zabuza is alive but was injured, he has healed perfectly now and is planning to ambush the bridge builder tomorrow on the bridge itself" Explained Gamaashi, scrunching his face in disgust at the stain of a human Gato was.

"Also it looks like there're some problems with Gato and his employees, they both are not on good terms and Gato is planning to betray and kill Zabuza after he kills the Bridge builder. That's it Naruto-san" croaked Gamaashi, he bowed his head.

"Thanks for your help Gamaashi-san, this information has turned the tides in our favour" Naruto replied as the Toad returned to its Adobe.

Naruto returned to the bridge builder's house to pass on the information.

He gathered Sasuke and Sakura in Kakashi's room, the three of them entered the room to see Kakashi perched on the window busy in his book. It was a well-known fact that Kakashi was addicted to his books, they were some kind of smuts and Kakashi could be found reading them all the times.

"Sensei, I have found something, I think it's necessary that we discuss it" Kakashi looked over his book before giving a short serious nod. Unknown to Naruto, Kakashi had observed the little conversation between the blond and his summon.

Kakashi nodded and signalled him to carry forward.

"Last week when you informed us about Zabuza being alive, I wanted to get more information about him" Naruto revealed. "So, I decided to try my luck in the city under a disguise, it didn't took me long to track down a group of his thugs" Naruto stated.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was impressed with his teammates indigeunity, it was truly surprising that Naruto was able to suppress his boisterous and blend into the crowds of civilian.

"That group was tormenting an old man, long story short, I dealt off with the most sinister one and let other go to their boss. Unknown to them I put one of my summons behind them, he successfully infiltrated Gatou's base and garnered some crucial info" reported Naruto.

Kakashi eye smiled at Naruto, he was proud of his blonde student, it was really mature of Naruto to understand the value of information on a wayward mission like this. It showed the effort Sandaime put into Naruto's training, this also relayed a proper message to his teammates that they were expected to do better than others.

Team 7 was put together incorporating a lot of trust that these three would emerge as next big thing from Konoha, not unlike the Sannins. Thus, they needed to show that they did have the drive to achieve that, and Naruto was taking the initial steps toward that.

Kakashi signaled Naruto to continue his report.

"My summon found Gato's hidden warehouse behind the hills on the east side of the town. Zabuza was there in the warehouse with the missing nin, moreover, Zabuza is planning to assassinate Tazuna-san tomorrow." Naruto stated.

"But, I think we can use that opportunity for our advantage, because you see, Gato is planning to betray Zabuza after he does his job as not to pay him" explained Naruto.

"You're right, Naruto. These are some highly beneficial information, you should be proud of yourself, not many Genins understand the value of information on such hectic mission" complimented Kakashi and ruffled Naruto's hair.

Ignoring the small part of his brain which was feeling jealous of Naruto's accomplishments, Sasuke spoke forward. "Sensei, these circumstances could prove beneficial for us, we can easily bargain with Zabuza Momochi. He can leave Tazuna-san alone and we'll let him kill Gato. He will surely desire revenge for Gato's treachery" expressed Sasuke.

"It's highly unlikely scenario, Sasuke, not to say risky. Zabuza is not a man of words, he is a ninja and that too a missing one, he doesn't have a Village's image to keep. But it'll not hurt to try and change his motive" said Kakashi and went on to formulate plans for tomorrow.

Kakashi's plan was simple, the four of them will go to the bridge on guard duty tomorrow, their main target will be Gato. The Short goblin as arrogant he was shall surely show himself to brag about his wits in getting rid of the Demon of the blood mist. Also, Naruto was ordered to leave four shadow clones in the house itself to protect Tsunami and Inari, it was not above Gato to attempt harming Tsunami and Inari while they were out on bridge.

With the plan set, Team 7 took the option of sleeping peacefully that night.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

The next morning:

Haku was nervous and dreading the day wholeheartedly, she didn't enjoyed fighting or taking innocent lives. It was only her loyalty toward Zabuza that kept her from leaving all these shits behind.

The raven-haired girl hasn't acquired even a single kill untill now. She was a kind-hearted person with a bitter past, she was more interested in herbs and medical techniques. Healing people kept her mind at peace, it was rather ironical how the girl was not interested in bloodbath while her kind was slaughtered in her country for the fear of their special chakra.

On the other hand, Zabuza was a merciless and brutal killer. When he was a young anbu, he had lost someone special to him, his lover. She had died while fighting bloodline opposers, She was the only person he ever considered as worthy enough to display his soft side to. It was her death that led him to carry out a failed assassination attempt on Yondaime Mizukage, the short midget has started all the bloodline nonsense in a single week.

The assassination attempt failed and he was to be executed. But, It wasn't easy for even the personal Anbu of Mizukage to keep Zabuza in control, the demon he was. He chose not to submit to his tyrant leader and deserted his Village, on his way out he found a small little girl.

The girl was sitting across a lake, her hand clutched around her knee and the tears in her eyes recited a tale full of suffering and loneliness. At first he tried to ignore her but after a few failed tries he felt a immense and intense pull toward her, it was like she was calling out for him. Giving out to his instinct, he chose to talk to her, it came as surprise that this small girl was also a victim of the Bloodline war. He asked her if she had eaten something or had a place to live, the answers came in negative. He didn't knew why but he took her in. However, he had Mist anbu hunting him, so he had to develop a habit of moving around for safety.

Zabuza had fed the girl fake ideals of being a tool while he himself was unable to avoid forming a attachment with the child. In retrospect, he himself could have had a family, only if she didn't left him alone in this accursed world.

Haku didn't knew this but Zabuza didn't completely looked upon her as a tool, he didn't understood his feelings himself but he always felt protective of her. It was like a father who was being protective of his daughter. Maybe, Haku had taken up the place of a daughter in his lonely life, since ninjas never lived a normal life it wasn't anything out of order persay. They didn't acquired many things to impose their rights upon, hence when he got an opportunity to do so, he had imposed his rights on Haku. Whatever the case maybe, but it was clear that Haku was not just a mere tool for him.

Today they had planned to finish this job and move on toward another nation, the appearance of Kakashi Hatake was troublesome enough to abandon this small village. They would kill the bridge builder, collect their pay and move on. What if their surprise plan is already in grasp of the Konoha, it didn't matter there was a plan ready to for an that scenario also. Haku would take care of the genins and he would take care of Hatake Kakashi.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Naruto formed a T-shaped hand sing to create two Shadow clones, he left them at house with instructions to protect Tsunami and that little brat, Inari.

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura had already moved toward the bridge, he had held himself back to create the shadow clones that will the house in their absence.

He was about to take up the trees toward the bridge when he senses picked up a presence behind him.

He turned around and was surprised to see a red-eyed fellow, dressed in a black battle robe with red clouds printed on it and a straw hat, standing behind him. His crimson eyes shone brighter than Sasuke's as he looked over Naruto, soon a grin found its place on his face.

"It's nice to meet you, Naruto-kun. You've grown quite a bit from the last time I saw you. You weren't this tall and certainly didn't have this aura of confidence around you" stated Itachi with a smirk on his face.

Naruto was put up on guard as soon he heard the voice, never in a million year he had expected Uchiha Itachi in this forest of Nami no Kuni. It didn't helped that a voice inside him rumbled to kill the Uchiha on sight, was it his? He simply didn't knew, but it certainly felt familiar.

"Why does it concern you, Uchiha Itachi? You are a traitor to Konoha and your clan, why does a traitor like you chose to reveal himself to me?" Naruto questioned defensively.

What an irony it was, the man who had sacrificed his everything for the sake of the village was portrayed as a traitor of the same village. Itachi was a person with a truly strong will, he was able to kill his mother, father and clanmates for sake of village. He had accepted long ago that the person he loved the most in the world, hated him with undiminished passion.

"You're still naïve, Naruto-kun. Well... I am not here to do pleasantries... neither to harm you or anything like that. I just came here to warn you" Itachi responded his face and voice void of any emotion suddenly.

"Warn me? About what? That you're going to attack me the next time we meet?" asked Naruto.

"Precisely..." Itachi begun but was interrupted by Itachi.

"What?" Naruto exclaimed. "You're literally accepting that you will attack me the next time you meet"

"You're life is in danger, Naruto. Some S-Ranked criminals have gathered together to form a secret organization. Their main motive is to collect all of the tailed beasts in the world. You're also one of their targets because of the Biju inside of you" explained Itachi cutting through the man's explanation.

"And let me guess it, you're a part of that organization, aren't you?" Naruto asked rheortically.

"You're sharper than your file suggests, I am impressed by your deduction skill" Itachi praised him.

"Well, the prints on your robes does signal toward some kind of organization you've joined, unless you fancy red clouds" Naruto replied back with a roll of his eyes.

Itachi raised an eyebrow at Naruto's relaxed posture, yet after a close inspection he could see Naruto's hand inching toward the other one, probably to retrieve a weapon.

"And, how do I trust that you're not telling lies to trick me? Shouldn't you provide some proofs regarding your claim? After all you're an S-class nukenin from the leaf village, it will stupid of me to trust you blindly, Itachi" expressed Naruto.

"You should not fear about trickery, Naruto-kun. It will only take my organization a few month to start herding the Jinchurikki. You will believe it then, for now you can enjoy your ignorant existence" The last part was unneeded, Itachi said it to rile up the blonde but was satisfied when the blond didn't even acknowledgement his words.

"So noble of you Itachi to inform me about our future fateful meetings. If that's it, then I must take my leave, I have a team waiting for me" Naruto replied back stoically.

"Could you also pass a message to Sandaime, Naruto-kun?" Naruto feet stilled at the mention of his mentor. "Tell him that the snake is conspiring something and he should attempt to return the slug back to the leaf" Itachi expressed.

Before Naruto could protest or deny, Itachi had vanished into a murder of crows. Postponing the issue for later times he dashed toward the bridge to support his team.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Meanwhile on the bridge:-

Kakashi, Tazuna and rest of Team 7 had arrived on the bridge a few moments ago, they were welcomed by a blanket of fog and the sight of unconscious workers littered across the bridge upside down.

Suddenly, the whole area echoed with sinister laughs, silhouette of two black figures could be seen even in the dense fog. The left one seemed to have a big sword tied to his shoulders, while the right one had something sharp and needle like in his hands, Senbons. Shiranui was famed for using the wooden needles as main weapon, 'Porcupine of the leaf' they called him.

"I must say it's pleasant to see you alive, Hatake. You're the first victim of mine to defy death, except Yagura." Zabuza snarked with a chuckle, which didn't sound friendly. "Why don't you leave the bridge builder alone? I would be glad to share my stipend with you"

"I appreciate your offer, Zabuza, but I must decline. In the hindsight, I think you would like to join me while I finish Gatou...after I disclose some revealing information regarding your employer that I came to know about a week before" Kakashi replied in an even tone.

"And, what could that be, Hatake?" asked Zabuza a little skeptically. He was being careful around Kakashi, much like him Kakashi was also a keen shinobi, the game of minds can be played by both sides, devious games to be more precise.

"A birdie revealed that your small employer has planned on betraying you after you finish his assignment. He doesn't want to pay you, according to him you're a pest with high price. Isn't that shameful, Momochi?" Kakashi relayed with a smirk under his mask.

Zabuza narrowed his eyes at the masked Shinobi, while it wasn't below Gato to attempt something like that, it was too convenient that Kakashi came across that particular information. "Why should I trust you, Hatake? You could be deceiving me into betraying my contractor, and even if he had planned to do something like that, he hadn't betrayed me untill now. Our contract is still valid and I respect my contracts, Hatake" Zabuza said with a smirk of his own.

"A person with such high morale yet has such a low character, nonetheless, you don't leave me a choice, Zabuza" Kakashi said with a signal and order to his Genins.

"Sasuke, handle the OI nin. Sakura, gather the workers and guard Tazuna. I will handle Zabuza" With that Kakashi took off.

"Haku, finish the Uchiha and then move on toward the pinkette. I will deal with Hatake, then we will finish our mission" Zabuza barked orders to Haku.

With a run Zabuza engaged with Kakashi, they both were going all out from the beginning. Zabuza had lost the last duel between them, and he didn't wanted to die so early. While, Kakashi was just making sure that Zabuza doesn't get hold of a loophole to exploit.

Zabuza came with a swing of his heavy sword that was dutifully countered by Kakashi, his Chokuto was on the job. The next swing, a diagonal one, was blocked with a grunt. Kubikiribōchō was really a big sword, Kakashi's Chokuto wasn't adept for heavy hitting. As he backed down, Kakashi wasn't the one to remain on backfoot, he pounced back with a upward slice. Zabuza held his sword strong before swinging in a wild arc. Kakashi took hold of the blunt side of the heavy blade and spun over it with one of his hand.

However, Zabuza didn't gave him much time as he was upon the Sharingan wielder in an instant. But, it was enough to let the masked Shinobi unmask his hidden eye, black swirled inside crimson as Kakashi relented back with a duck and slash. Zabuza grunted as blood oozed out of the wound on his abdomen before the body dissolved into water. A pretty quick Kawarimi with a water clone, smart. Kakashi was again on defense as Zabuza dropped down on him from behind, a smirk plastered on his face, a swing of his sword and Kakashi had to roll over for his survival.

Kubikiribōchō was far more stronger than Kakashi's Chokuto, and he could clearly see and feel the difference. One strike with Kubikiribōchō was equal to three strikes from his Chokuto, his sword needed upgrade.

Meanwhile, aside from the battle between the two titans, Sasuke was having an intense duel with the Oi nin. Haku was a Hyoton user and was truly skilled in her kekkai-genkkei, She had formed two swords from her ice and was using them to counter Sasuke's twin-tanto strikes. She wasn't relatively skilled as Zabuza in Kenjutsu, but you still learns allot if you travel with one of the seven swordsmen of the mist.

Sasuke took the charge and brought down his tanto toward Haku's head, she blocked his strike with one of her ice swords and tried to inflicted a cut on Sasuke's shoulder with the other. Haku was hesitant to injure him lethally, it wasn't her nature. Each and every one of her strikes had missed important body parts until now, she was only trying to immoblize Sasuke by damaging his not-so-important body parts. This didn't go unnoticed by Sasuke, it was quite similiar to a 10-year old Naruto trying not to hit him with his true strength.

Haku was constantly trying to injure his limbs so that she could tie him up, and then help her master to deal with the Copy ninja. While she knew her master was quite a skillful fighter, Hatake Kakashi was a legend in himself. She backflipped and made some distance between them.

"Hyoton: Ice spikes" she yelled after forming five distinctive hand seals, and slammed her palms on ground.

Several spikes made out of ice erupted out of the ground, Sasuke had to quickly counter her jutsu or this jutsj could injure him lethally. He quickly made three hand seals and yelled "Katon: Fire sphere jutsu".

Fire chakra started to mold around him forming a sphere of flames around him. This was one of the three techniques Naruto had taught him, it was a defensive jutsu particularly. It would mold fire chakra around users body and form a protective cover, a C-Ranked defensive elemental ninjutsu. This technique required high level of control over fire element, that's why Sasuke was unable to use it twice. Even Naruto was reluctant to use this jutsu, as the control made it quite difficult for a non affinity user to execute the technique precisely.

The sphere halted the ice spikes in their path by melting them, Haku frowned before taking the initiative toward him again. Unknown to Sasuke, Haku had planned against infusing the spikes with additional chakra underestimating the Uchiha's calibre. Haku quickly understood that if the fight continued like this she wouldn't be able to help Zabuza with Kakashi.

Yet, She hadn't displayed her ace in the hole untill now, was tempted to use it now. Not only would it speed up her victory but the Uchiha would be too wounded after it to do something about his situation. With a jump she made some distance from Sasuke and formed the required hand seals.

"Hyoton: Demonic Ice mirrors" she whispered with a frown, the technique consumed too much of her chakra for her comfort.

Water rose from under the bridge and swirled around Haku before morphing into several mirrors in a dome like structure. While Haku chose the moment to enter one of mirrors, Sasuke touched one of them to inspect it, Ice mirrors with chakra laced in them, quite concerning if you ask him.

"This...is one of the most powerful techniques of my clan, it is called as the Demonic Ice mirror jutsu. No one has ever left this dome with full body enact" Haku's voice echoed across the dome. It was almost impossible for Sasuke to pinpoint her actual location, it was like every mirror had a real Haku inside of it.

"Katon: Great fireball jutsu"

Sasuke shouted forming two hand-seals and fired a boulder size fireball toward one of mirrors hoping it would damage the mirror, or better, melt it. The fireball impacted the mirror causing a small blast, but that only resulted in slight melting on the corners of the ice mirror.

"Your fire will not protect you, Uchiha. My mirrors are stable enough to diffuse your little fireworks easily." Haku conceded plainly. "You're now going to experience why my clan was feared in Kirigakure, and we were slain to the extent of extinction" stated Haku and went to shoot dozen of senbons toward Sasuke. Sasuke tried to deflect them with his tantos, but due to the mist around the dome, he was unable to deflect them all. Two senbons hit him in his right shoulder and another three his right thigh, not only the pain, but the senbons were laced with poison that would cause burning sensation when lodged into skin.

It was at this moment that Naruto arrived at the bridge, Kakashi was busy in his Kenjutsu bout with Zabuza and Sasuke was struggling against with someone inside a dome of mirror-like things.

He chose to focus on Sasuke as he was clearly in problem, the senbons latched into his body were a clear prove.

Sasuke was really struggling against the masked nin now, the said shinobi got a boost in his already impressive speed after entering his mirrors. Sasuke wasn't able to fully balance his physical speed in relation with his eyes, he was able to track the senbons incoming toward him at a slower speed than usual but he wasn't swift enough to move out of their way.

Meanwhile, Kakashi and Zabuza were engrossed in their fight. If Zabuza was a Kenjutsu master then Kakashi was also one of the most skilled ninjas Konoha had birthed in near decades. Every movement Zabuza made was already predicted, this made countering his slash and swings much easy, as easy as it can get infront of the beast Zabuza was.

Kakashi sensed an unhidden chakra signature at the entrance of the bridge, the amount of chakra the individual contained revealed his identity accurately. It was a relieving that Naruto has finally decided to make his appearance, Sasuke could surely use the help that the blonde will provide.

"Ah... finally, I am relieved that your blonde student hasn't betrayed you, Hatake." Zabuza said between his tenth slash of the hour. "This one has the most potential out of your three students, I haven't encountered the like for a long time" praised Zabuza.

Kakashi's chest swelled up with pride, it was an honour for Naruto that even his enemy praised his skills. An honour that only a few shinobis shared with the blonde, Kakashi was already one of them.

"Too bad, he has to fight Haku. She is quite proficient with what she does" stated Zabuza through a smirk.

"It's an honour for my student to hear such a compliment from an enemy, nevertheless, a former seven-swordsmen of the mist" chuckled Kakashi, and continued with his block and then forward slash. His sword lighted with sparks as he parred it with the legendary sword, the sparks travelled but didn't made it to Zabuza.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Sasuke glanced up toward one of the mirrors and was both surprised and happy to see the person behind that mirror. Sasuke waved his arms to gather the blonde's attention, He would have asked the blonde to attack the mirrors from outside, but for Naruto, Sasuke's waving looked like a signal for help and he jumped inside the dome.

"You...Idiot! I was going to ask you to attack the dome from outside. What the hell entailed that you should enter the damn dome?" asked Sasuke after bonking Naruto several times on head.

"Hey! Don't hit that hard! I thought you were asking for help by waving at me. So, I came to rescue you, teme" defended Naruto rubbing his head.

"You know, sometime, you behave fucking stupid for such an observant shinobi. If we survive this, I will kick your ass, you blonde idiot" said Sasuke and went on to form 2 hand seals.

Naruto glared at the ebony haired boy before following his friend, he formed the same hand seals as Sasuke, both of them put their fingers to their mouth and yelled; "Katon: Great fireball technique"

Two huge fireballs combined together to form a even a bigger fireball than before, it rushed toward a single side of the dome. The collision was huge, but before the last inching seconds of collision Haku had reinforced her mirrors with allot of chakra. The collision caused debris and dust to fly around, but when the dust settled both of genins were shocked to see the unscathed dome of ice still standing as if the collision never took place.

"Simple Fireballs like these can't even scratch my Ice dome, You aren't capable enough to defeat me. Surrender yourselves and I will not have to dirty my hands in killing you" voiced Haku, it was a blunt lie, not that the two Genins can see through it.

If Haku hadn't reinforced her dome one part of its side would have collapsed. These genins held great potential, she had to finish this ordeal quickly or this would escalate into something worse for her. Haku went to rain senbons on both of them, her aim was to tire them quickly so she could pick them out smoothly.

After almost ten minutes of dodging the rain of wooden and ice needles, Naruto was frustrated. The Oi nin was faster than him, not without his seals obviously, as the ninja traveled through mirrors with the help of her kekkai-genkkei. Even their combined ninjutsus weren't scathing the ice mirrors, they had to prolong this battle. By prolonging this battle they would be able to tire their opponent and it would slow his/her movement.

Kekkai-Genkkai techniques were powerful and reliable, yet they had their drawbacks, one of those was excessive Chakra consumption. He has accumulated that particular information during his time spent with Shikamaru, Hinata and Sasuke. The three of them possessed some of the strongest bloodline abilities in the entire elemental nation; The Shadow-Release, The All seeing- Byakugan and The menace of eyes- Sharingan.

On the other side, Haku has already devised a plan to end this battle quickly, though she was hesitant to attack Naruto at any vital spots. His appearance has caused problem for her, she remembered her meeting with her and the pleasant conversation they had.

Reluctantly, Haku again threw some senbons toward them. Sasuke started countering them with his tanto while Naruto took his place as guard, unbeknownst to them, Haku changed his position and threw some more senbons toward them. Naruto quickly brought his Bo in front and started spinning it at a fast speed.

The spinning Bo deflected each of her senbons, but while they were distracted deflecting the senbons they failed to notice that Haku has again changed position. She aimed last of her senbons toward the blonde, laced with paralyzing poison, Naruto sensed some projectiles coming toward him from the behind. However, He was unable to move fast enough with his seals activated, this bout wouldn't end well for him. But, before the projectiles could hit him, a black blur passed by him shielding him from the sharp wood.

Sasuke deflected the senbons with his tantos, he was constantly facing the challenge of wielding small-sized swords. They didn't even had a medium range, they were short, and due to this Sasuke had to move closer to inflict damage.

"You know, we need to take him seriously now. He is capable enough to kill us if we take him lightly, that much I know now" accosted Naruto moving toward Sasuke, they both were back to back now.

"Well, do you have a plan for this? I couldn't think of something this quickly" asked Sasuke. He was smart and but he wasn't able to think while on move. That department was speciality of Naruto, he was quick to derive plans when on move.

"Well, I do have a jutsu for this that I think will help us. But, I need some time to prepare and when I signal you'll have to fire the third jutsu I taught you" instructed Naruto.

Sasuke nodded his head.

"Distract him then" Naruto ordered as he turned the other side.

Sasuke accepted the order and went to distract Haku with Fire shurikens. Naruto quickly formed four rock clones and stuck explosive notes at their back, he also made a shadow clone for support.

Sasuke observed the four clones facing the four sides, he was confused at first, what would these simple clones would do. His eye landed upon the papers stuck at their back the next moment and understood Naruto's plan, he quickly moved near Naruto to help him.

Haku was exhausted, as accounted by the blonde, the technique required a high amount of chakra to continue. Add that with continued dodging of small shurikens laced with fire. As her movement became slow and sloppy, she decreased the amount of chakra she was infusing to the mirrors.

The rock clones neared the mirrors at that moment luckily and exploded, following up to it Naruto signalled Sasuke to execute their plans. Two set of different hand seals and they both shouted at once.

"Katon: Fire phoenix jutsu"

"Fuuton: Bursting air pockets"

Small fireballs were shot out of Sasuke's mouth across the dome while Naruto fired compressed air balls behind the fireballs. The jutsu combined together and collided vehemently.

~BOOOOOM~

There was a huge explosion across the mirrors, shattering the dome into pieces. The two Genins of Konoha were protected by the earth walls that had incased them soon as they fired their respective techniques.

Haku had also seen the fireballs and air balls combine and had tried to flee out of the mirrors, as she knew this was an overkill.

The blast was huge and the mirrors shattered due to the sheer force of the blast. Haku was halfway out when the blast occurred and some parts of her body got into it. She was thrown out of mirror toward one side of the bridge due to the force that the blast exerted.

Meanwhile, the blast also shocked Kakashi and Zabuza. They never saw the whole incident but were able to see Naruto and Sasuke combining their jutsus. Zabuza now understood clearly that these genins of Konoha weren't weak if they were strong enough to break Haku's Ice dome.

The clone receded its dome and puffed off, Sasuke was shocked to see the level of destruction they both had induced. The area around them was a crater, not big enough to shatter the bridge but not small enough to go unnoticed. His eyes searched for the hunter nin, he wasn't kept waiting for long as he saw the shinobi at the side of bridge, he was seated supported by the railing.

Her mask has been broken and he can see her feminine facial features, a girl. They had been competing with a girl till now, it wasn't like he was ignorant or sexist, but he never predicted that the Oi nin was a female. Atleast her dressing sense was better than most of his fangirls, and Sasuke frowned as that thought came to him. She was damn powerful, it took both his and Naruto effort together to subdue her.

His musing was cut short by a sudden shout of "HAKU" from beside. Sasuke turned toward his blonde teammate who wasn't there, he looked forward to see the boy next to the defeated enemy nin. He redirected his gaze toward Sakura, who stood infront of a group of unconscious men, Tazuna being the only exception.

On the other side of the bridge, Zabuza saw the whole incidents unfolding and contemplated his fight. His fight should be finished quickly, it seems that the god wasn't on their side today. He closed the distance to Kakashi in only a few steps, his sword aimed toward his head.

Kakashi was just waiting for Zabuza's guard to go down. He smirked while cutting his finger, he smeared the red liquid across his hand and formed two hand seals.

"Summoning Jutsu: Dog Prison hold" Kakashi ordered. Several dogs burst out of the grounds toward the Ex-Kiri shinobi. Zabuza was shocked by sudden appearance of ten or so dogs, they took the advantage of Zabuza's shock and bit him across his body to hold him down.

Before Kakashi could wield his assassination jutsu, the sudden sound of clapping stopped the ordeal. At the other end of the bridge a short man with unique facial features appeared out of the mist, Kakashi would have sensed the presence of the man only if he wasn't busy with his employee.

"The demon of the bloody mist? bah, more like the Idiot of the mist."

"You're disgrace to your name, Momochi. An ordinary Konoha shinobi was able to defeat you so easily, it's not even funny now" cackled Gato.

As the mist dissipated a bit, 50 or so of his thugs appeared standing behind him, armed with different sorts of weapon.

"I think I was correct in my assessment that you're charging too much for your service, while your action speaks about your inability precisely" chuckled Gato. "And, Where's that companion of yours? What happened to him? Is he dead? He must be, a student of a lousy ninja like yours couldn't dare to live than a few years"

Naruto was seated beside Haku, he was struggling to get answers out of her. Suddenly, the memories of the clones he had left at Tazuna's house returned to him. Apparently Gato had sent two thugs to kidnap Tsunami and Inari but they were knocked out and tied to a post by Naruto's Clones. Inari got inspired by Naruto's show of power and selfless nature and went on to gather the people of village to fend off Gato, but the walk to the bridge was a long one.

"Unbind me, Hatake. It seems your information was correct, this goblin does deserves death for his treachery. We're not on opposite side now, I take up your offer." Zabuza said in a gruff tone.

"You wouldn't do that Konoha Shinobi, would you? I will make you rich you kill this man" Gato offered, his image of the spotless leader wavering under fear of a free beast.

Kakashi eye smiled at Gato without uttering a word and signalled his dogs to unrestraint Zabuza. At the moment Kakashi was already tired to his bones, he was using his Sharingan for extended time and had to summon his pack to constrict Zabuza's movement.

"Sakura, Go and check on Zabuza's apprentice. While, Sasuke and Naruto will gather around me. Sakura, after you check on him back us up" Kakashi barked orders and re-covered his Sharingan. Sakura went on to check Haku, while Naruto and Sasuke joined Kakashi obediently.

"You two are to aid Zabuza finishing the thugs, I don't want them restricted, I want them dead" Kakashi said in an even tone.

"Just don't touch Gato. He's mine" Zabuza said without even wavering a little, it was hard to guess that the missing nin has been in a fight of life and death a few moments ago.

"Do we really have to do that, Sensei? Is it necessary to kill them?" Naruto asked, while his face was morphed into grimace his voice wasn't weak. Meanwhile, Sasuke wasn't humble or kind-hearted like his teammates, but still it was unnerving to kill someone.

"You've to understand, Naruto. If we don't complete what we're meant to then it will harm innocents, these people...they wouldn't hesitate to kill us, if given chance. These are scums, Naruto. They have killed, raped and robbed innocents, do you think that is redeemable?" Kakashi asked, it wasn't surprising to see new genins getting nervous over their first kill. Hell, people even left the shinobi life after there distraught first kill, but it was necessary for survival of oneself.

"No, that's not forgivable." Naruto decided with an steel in his voice.

"One last thing, don't peer into the eyes of your victim" and with those last words Kakashi motioned them to attack.

Sasuke didn't need such provocation, he would kill. Sasuke knows the truth of the life, he has experienced it, either you're a predator or a prey. Uchiha Sasuke was never going to be a prey again, he unsheathed his tanto and accepted his duty.

Naruto copied his friends movement and unsealed his Bo and channelled some chakra into it, two spikes emerged out from both side of his Bo.

Kakashi took a careful place behind them, if they froze after their kill then it could prove be disastrous. He backed them up, he would protect them.

It didn't took them long, Sasuke was busy swinging his tantos, cutting and killing thugs like a hot knife runs through butter. Left, right, right, left, up, left, down, right and so on, his Sharingan was spinning madly as he took his job to extreme. Naruto, on the other hand was much reluctant to kill, but what was needed should be done. The spikes at the ends of his Bo were painted red from the blood of his victims; slash, puncture, swipe and the motion continued.

Half an Hour later, 41 thugs had lost their lives in the mad dash of Naruto and Sasuke. The rest has chosen to flee from the sight, leaving their dying comrades behind, there was no honour in these lowly maggots life.

Zabuza had beheaded Gato and tossed his body and head off the bridge.

Soon, the villagers gathered at the bridge but the show was over before that, thus started a week of festival to celebrate independence of the Wave country from Gatou's rule.

Tazuna decided to let the shinobi stay in his house for the time being, it was only for a few days that they needed for recovery and rest. Even Zabuza and Haku were allowed to stay, as the former was one to behead the tyrant.

As for Haku, she had a broken arm, twisted ankle, a wound on his head and small cuts around her body from the blast. Sakura chose to try her initial knowledge of medical techniques on the girl, safe to say she knew what she was doing.

As for Sakura, she had killed one person. A combat medic rarely fought battles ever, but still it was best to take the precaution better than cure. She was distraught, she hadn't seen death unlike Sasuke. It was all new for her, but Haku supported her throughout that. They had formed a strong bond after spending so much time together, as they both had similar hobbies.

The week passed in a breeze as the battle ridden shinobis rested and replenished their body.

During the first days of the week Naruto kept to himself, quite frankly, he hadn't seen people die infront of him nonetheless killing them. Although, He became normal after two days of Sasuke and Sakura pestering him, that slight diminutive gleam in his eyes never left.

Kakashi has gathered his team in a clearing near the bridge builder's house, he wanted to talk to them. Particularly Naruto and Sasuke, first kill of a shinobi always leaves a mark behind. Kakashi has encountered many comrades broken beyond repair as their first kill has went awry and they didn't had shoulder to cry on, while his team wouldn't cry Kakashi was sure of that, they shall share some of their grievances with him. Zabuza was also present there sharpening his sword and Haku was seated behind him on a boulder eyeing her master carefully, intent on learning how to care for a sword that big.

On the sidenote, Kakashi has caught one of his student eyeing the sword with keen interest, that student was Sakura. The pinkette's desire was clear in her eyes, thus when she initiated the conversation with a question Kakashi wasn't surprised.

"Sensei, May I ask you something?" questioned Sakura turning toward him in an innocent voice.

"Of course, Sakura. Go on." Kakashi eye smiled at her.

"Can you teach me to wield a weapon of my choice?" asked Sakura gathering all her courage.

Naruto's and Sasuke's shifted to her, amused glint present in their eyes. Sakura's desire so blunt that even Naruto was able to grasp, not that he was not observant.

"Of course, Sakura. I will you train you to wield any weapon of your choice, but only if I am adequately familiar with it" Kakashi replied easily. He knew where this conversation was heading, and only if luck favours him he could finish this mission with double success.

"Then, I want to wield a heavy-sword like Zabuza-san, can you teach me?" Sakura beamed at her sensei, Kakashi was really the best teacher she could get.

Naruto and Sasuke who had bickering amongst each other untill then halted and looked toward Sakura amusedly. Kakashi's expression didn't matched that of his two genins as he looked a bit perplexed.

"Hahaha... looks like your Genin fancies my sword, Hatake" Zabuza's laugh cut through the silence, even Haku's eye were trained on Kakashi as he took on a thinking pose.

With a un-intended fake sigh Kakashi addressed her again. "I am sorry, Sakura. I can't teach you to wield that as I am not a user of heavy blade. I haven't learnt that art" said Kakashi eyeing Zabuza from the side of his eyes.

Before anyone of them could say anything, Haku caught Kakashi's eyes and started to say "Zabuza-sama could teach you to wield one, I mean...in exchange of you treating me...he can teach you. Wouldn't you teach her, Zabuza-sama?" Haku questioned without an undertone, too innocently.

Even Sasuke turned his face to hide his blush at her cute pout, Naruto chuckled and shook his head before taking a perch on one of the branch of the tree beside him.

"You're eating more than you can chew, Brat. But...Yes, I can teach you to wield one" Zabuza relented eyeing Kakashi for a second before focusing his attention on the pinkette.

"But...we have to leave this country tomorrow, the bridge is complete now" Sakura asked worriedly.

"Yeah, that's an issue Zabuza unless you want to..." Kakashi left the last part for Zabuza to understand.

"You can come to Konoha, Zabuza-san. I can convince Hokage-sama to give you benefit of doubt" said Naruto from his place.

"Why should I come to Leaf village? And, Why would the Hokage listen to a snub nosed brat like you" asked Zabuza mocking Naruto, who did rise to the bait.

"You shouldn't underestimate him, He has a special connection with Hokage sama, namely of a grandfather-grandson. He would surely look into Naruto's suggestions" stated Sasuke with a smirk

"You mean to say that this brat is the Hokage's grandson, he doesn't even looks like Kami no shinobi" expressed Zabuza a little alert. Even if the sandaime Hokage was old he was still a force to be reckoned with. He didn't wanted a foe with all the right connection.

Naruto just shrugged.

"He's not my real grandfather, per say. However, He has taken care of me from my birth, thus, he sees me as his grandson." Naruto accepted. "As for your reasons to join the Leaf village, you should be tired of running from Oi nins, my village could help you and Haku onto that" Naruto stated with a eye-smile much like Kakashi.

"He is right, Zabuza-sama. We could surely use the protection that Konoha would provide" Haku intoned.

Zabuza sighed lightly. "You've got me there, Brat, I will think about it" stated Zabuza smirking, the brat was sure a bundle of surprises.

The next day Team 7 departed with Zabuza and Haku toward the fire country. Naruto promised Inari that he would visit them regularly, and it was okay to cry sometimes.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, all rights are reserved to Kishimoto.