Neji had never paid particularly close attention to Naruto Uzumaki.

He first heard about the blond back in his second year of the academy because of Hinata's obvious obsession with him. At the time, he'd been an absolute idiot at the bottom of his class and Neji couldn't fathom what Hinata found so interesting, but that changed whenever he befriended Sasuke Uchiha, the genius of his year. In the time since, he'd gained a reputation for genius in ninjutsu and taijutsu, even if he never overtook the Uchiha as Rookie of the Year. And if there was one thing he was always praised for, it was chakra.

Still, Neji never thought much of him. They'd never interacted before, but any time Neji saw Naruto from a distance, he just seemed loud and irritating, similar to Lee in many ways. Talented in some arts, perhaps, but someone who couldn't see the confines of their own fate entrapping them. When he introduced himself as a future Hokage, Neji's initial assumption had only been reinforced. It would only be a matter of time before Naruto hit his limit as a 'genius' and faded into the obscurity nearly everyone was destined for.

The spar made him reevaluate.

He wasn't even sure when he'd started watching it with his Byakugan. The spar started off slow, and Naruto displayed passable skills against Lee's weighted speed, but Neji was entirely unsurprised when Lee's unhindered speed proved too much for Naruto. He'd honestly expected that to be the end of the fight. Though Lee could never beat Neji, his taijutsu was still beyond the level of a genin.

But that was when Naruto started to use ninjutsu. The mass of water clones he started with could be explained by his obviously abnormal chakra reserves, but that didn't account for his fluency with both Doton and Suiton, nor his ability to somehow mix them in a way Neji could see wasn't a kekkei genkai. He was loud and irritating, certainly, but Neji would have to be a fool not to see his talent.

Briefly, he wondered if there was something Hinata had seen in Naruto years ago that he hadn't, but he quickly shook that thought off. Her eyes were nothing compared to his.

Because it'd started getting late, work on the bridge had been called off for the day after the conclusion of Naruto and Lee's spar, so they'd all made their way back to Tazuna's house for the night. Lee was exhausted enough that he had to be carried back by Guy-sensei, despite his protests that he was up for the challenge, but Naruto…

"Woah, wait, you keep tons of weapons sealed away that you can use whenever?" Naruto asked Tenten excitedly, sliding off the dock to stand in front of where Tenten was sitting on it, bouncing on his feet. "That's awesome!" He raised his left arm, revealing a seal under his sleeve that Neji noticed earlier, and unsealed a sheathed, adult's katana. "I have one too!"

At the sight of Naruto's sword and seal, Tenten's eyes lit up and she slid off the dock to stand on the water next to him. "Ooo, it's really well made," she said, leaning closer to the blade than most would be comfortable with. "Where'd you get it?"

Naruto grinned widely. Neji thought he'd lost at least one tooth in the spar against Lee, but he didn't have a single one missing. "It's the- I mean, um, it's a family heirloom!" he answered, obviously correcting himself mid-sentence. "My great grandfather's!"

Neji raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you an orphan?"

Tenten shot him a look, but Naruto just nodded, unphased. "Yep! Still dunno who my parents are," he admitted with a shrug, "but after I graduated, Old Man Hokage gave me this and told me it was my great grandfather's." He held it up with his right hand, waving it a little. "First thing I've ever owned from my family!"

The picture surrounding Naruto was growing more detailed by the moment. To give him his great grandfather's sword, the Sandaime had to know who his parents were, yet Naruto didn't? Neji once asked his uncle if Naruto had any connection to the extinct Uzumaki Clan, when Hinata's obsession first became clear, but he'd been told the surname was just assigned by the orphanage because it was unused. Of course, that easily could've been a lie.

It would make sense, at least. From what little he knew, the Uzumaki Clan were powerful sealers, so it was possible the sword came from there.

"Will you let me try it out if I let you try out a few of my weapons?" Tenten offered, still eyeing Naruto's sword excitedly. After a second, she looked up, face growing serious. "You have to make sure not to do anything to mine, though, or you'll have to replace them."

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed immediately, handing her the sword. "Whadya have?"

Tenten blinked, taken aback at how easily he agreed, but quickly accepted the sword with both hands. Taking a step away to give her more space, she started moving through basic sword katas for a few seconds before she seemed to suddenly remember she hadn't replied to Naruto. "Oh, um, what do you know how to use?" she asked, coming to a stop and reaching into her pick with one hand.

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Uh, I only just got started on using my katana. Me and Sasuke only ever really learned ninjutsu and taijutsu before we graduated." He paused, then added, "Well, and he learned genjutsu, but I suck at those."

Tenten nodded and then pulled out a scroll. "How about a staff?"

Neji chose then to head back inside quietly. As many questions as there obviously were surrounding Naruto Uzumaki, Neji wasn't going to dedicate his time to watching him incessantly to figure them out.

At the end of the day, it just wasn't important. If it were Naruto's fate to one day become Hokage, then that was the path he'd been set on from birth, and there was nothing anyone could do to change that fact. Not even himself.

When he'd arrived in the Land of Waves with Mangetsu the day before, Naruto hadn't actually paid any attention to the bridge they were apparently assigned with guarding. Well, Team Ten was assigned with guarding the builder of the bridge, but same thing, sort of. Either way, at the prospect of a spar with Lee, one that turned out to be a lot of fun, he'd pretty much forgotten why he was even in the Land of Waves to begin with.

Now that he and Mangetsu had tagged along for the next day of guarding Tazuna and the bridge, Naruto was actually paying attention to it, and… he was pretty sure he could speed up the building process by a lot, if he could use Mokuton. Which he couldn't. But if he somehow did it without anyone noticing-

An arm rested on the top of his hair and he instantly ducked out of it, narrowing his eyes up at Mangetsu. "Why do you always do that?!" He tried to spike his hair back up completely, like the Nidaime Hokage's, but the hair on the sides of his forehead protector kept flopping over. With a groan, he gave up, letting it be. "You and Bakashi-sensei are always messing up my hair!"

"Well, I can't speak for Kakashi, but I do it 'cause you're perfect arm rest height." Mangetsu shrugged, grabbing his wooden bottle and taking a drink. "Besides, your hair looks fine like that. Also, and I guess I do speak for him here, Kakashi asked me to make sure you don't," he shook his wooden bottle, "do anything stupid, and it looked like you were thinking about it."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but he didn't have an argument. "Okay," he conceded, because using Mokuton on the bridge probably would be stupid, even minimally. He didn't really know what the Byakugan could see, but he knew it was one of the Three Great Dojutsu like Sasuke's Sharingan, so probably a lot. "Just stop using me as an armrest!" he added, ducking under Mangetsu's arm again.

"Nah." Faster than Naruto could even register, Mangetsu appeared on his other side, arm squashing his front spikes down as he laid it over Naruto's head again. "My arms got tired holding the Tiger Seal for hours on end yesterday to get us here. Least you could do is offer one a little rest."

Again, Naruto ducked out of Mangetsu's arm, this time jumping back a few steps. "I know that's a lie." Because his hair had gotten longer, now one of the spikes Mangetsu pressed down in the front was hanging over the leaf on his forehead protector and refused to spike back up. After ten seconds of uselessly trying to fix his hair, he just threw his arms up in surrender and shot Mangetsu a glare. "Now look what you've done!"

Mangetsu raised his hands in surrender. "Whoops." He didn't sound very apologetic.

Keeping in mind that Mangetsu was his source for potentially countless Suiton jutsu for a limited time, Naruto just narrowed his eyes and turned away, fidgeting with the annoying lock of hair to no more success. Eventually, he just pulled off his forehead protector, let the hair fall as it would, and retied it without bothering to lift his hair above the band like he usually would. It trapped the lock of hair between his eyes, and two more on both sides of his face, but at least the leaf symbol would be visible until he could get a haircut.

"Hair crisis solved?" Mangetsu asked sarcastically. "Because I didn't only catch your attention to give my arm a break and stop you from doing whatever you were planning. You forget our agreement?"

"Agree-?" It dawned on Naruto before he could even finish asking. "You promised to teach me whatever I wanted when I mastered the Water Dragon Missile!" After using it in the fight against Lee, he'd been so excited to win the spar that he'd completely forgotten about his deal with Mangetsu. "Ooo, ooo, now? Are you gonna teach me now?"

"That's the idea." Turning, Mangetsu walked over to the side of the bridge, waving for Naruto to follow him as he stepped off the side. They both landed on the water with tiny splashes. "First, you're gonna show me that you can use it again without the adrenaline of a fight."

"Oh, easy!" Faced away from the bridge, Naruto started to perform the seven hand seals, not a shred of doubt in his mind that the jutsu would be a success, and finished off with the Tiger seal and a fraction of the chakra he'd used against Lee. "Suiton: Water Dragon Missile!"

Against Lee, Naruto had been too busy flying through the air and spinning at dizzying speeds to see what it looked like when the jutsu began. This time, he could watch as four streams of water rose from the water in a circle, twisting into one larger stream that soon took on the appearance of a serpentine dragon. With his chakra flooding through it, the entire dragon shot forward and raced across the water away from the bridge, until he willed it to circle upwards into the air and burst back into water.

With a grin, he looked back up at Mangetsu as the water rained down in the distance. "See? Easy!"

"Not bad, not bad," Mangetsu admitted, watching the falling water, and his sharp grin looked more impressed than his words sounded. "That really is some Suiton affinity you have. I haven't even taught that one to my brother yet, and he's been begging me for months now."

Naruto's eyebrows raised. "You have a brother?"

Mangetsu nodded. "He's on my genin team. The one-of-three who actually understands my brilliant Suiton lessons."

"Does he have the same weird crazy strong Suiton affinity you have?" Naruto asked, scratching the side of his head. "What is that, actually?" The more time he spent around Mangetsu, the more he thought it was more than just a really strong Suiton affinity, like there was something else mixed in with it. Naruto had never met someone else with one that wasn't a dojutsu, but… "Do you have a kekkei genkai?"

Mangetsu blinked at him. "You can sense that, huh?" At Naruto's nod, he said, "Wow. If this were, like, a year ago, you could've brought disaster to my entire clan with an ability like that."

It was Naruto's turn to blink. "Huh?"

"Kirigakure didn't like kekkei genkai very much for a while there," Mangetsu explained simply, looking back into the distance. "They thought anyone who had one was too dangerous to let live." He scoffed, face uncharacteristically grim. "As if ninja without kekkei genkai are any less dangerous, but y'know, people aren't always smart. My clan got a pass because we're the beloved family of the Nidaime and managed to convince people we just had a hiden jutsu that we intentionally only taught to, like, one or two people a generation.

"But, attitudes towards kekkei genkai have shifted pretty drastically recently," Mangetsu continued, the grim expression on his face falling away. "Who-knows-how-many failed revolts and the death of one Kage later, our brand new Godaime has two kekkei genkai, so I guess I don't have to threaten you into silence or anything."

"Woah, wait, people can have multiple kekkei genkai?!" Naruto exclaimed. Then, quieter, "Wait, and what's yours?"

"Lady Mei has Yōton and Futton, so yeah, they can." Instead of answering his second question, Mangetsu crossed his arms and stared at Naruto consideringly. "What do you think mine is?"

"Uh…" Naruto frowned, tilting his head to the side and watching Mangetsu closely. It was obviously part Suiton, but that was a given, and the other part definitely wasn't Fūton, Katon, Raiton, or Doton. Even if there was something else he could sense, he really wasn't sure what. "I don't know," he eventually admitted. "But it makes your Suiton affinity super strong, right?"

"That's one thing it does."

Naruto waited for more explanation, but Mangetsu just grinned down at him. He groaned. "You're not gonna tell me, are you?"

"I might, eventually."

"But you know about…" Naruto tentatively stretched his senses out around them, felt no one who wasn't on the bridge, and quietly finished, "mine. How's it fair I don't know yours?"

Mangetsu just continued to grin. "Ah, don't worry. I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough." He held out his right hand. "Now, don't you wanna learn some kenjutsu? If you do, I'm gonna need to see that katana of yours."

Excitement instantly surged through Naruto. "Oh, yeah!" He accidentally channeled chakra into the seal on his wrist before he could even raise his arm, but had no trouble catching the katana and handing it to Mangetsu. "Here!"

If possible, Mangetsu's grin widened when he grabbed hold of the katana. "Well-balanced, but I'd be disappointed if it wasn't," he noted, waving it one-handed between them, still sheathed. After a second, he held his left hand up, his first two fingers raised, ring and pinky down, and thumb folded over them. "Sword Hydro Clone."

Water flowed from the tips of Mangetsu's fingers, a small stream that quickly grew until it was as large as Naruto's sword, shaped into a perfect replica. Mangetsu easily caught it with his left hand and handed the original back to a gaping Naruto.

"Woah!" Naruto had never seen anyone use one-handed seals before. He and Sasuke had tried them, of course, after finding a scroll that included them, but it'd been to no more success than what little they could figure out without seals. "How'd you learn to do that? Wait, and what was that jutsu?"

"Pure, unadulterated talent," Mangetsu said with another grin, taking a step back and unsheathing his cloned katana. He let the sheathe fall to the water, liquifying with a splash, and started to inspect the blade. "Hydro Clone is an invention I came up with for my kekkei genkai. This sword is just an extension."

"Ooo, how-"

"Do you wanna ask me about jutsu you physically can't learn, or do you wanna learn some kenjutsu?" Mangetsu interrupted, still grinning. "I'm willing to tell you allll about my kekkei genkai, but only if you'd prefer that over the actually practical lessons."

Well, that was a no-brainer. "Practical lessons!" Naruto unsheathed his katana, sealed the sheathe away, and gripped its hilt two-handedly. "So, how're you gonna train-"

His arms shook when Mangetsu's sword collided with his faster than he could track, a cling of metal reaching his ears by the time he processed it. Naruto went sliding back across the water, eyes wide, and raised his sword to defend against the following attack he was sure was coming, only to see Mangetsu standing completely still, like he hadn't moved a muscle. "Solid grip," he praised. "Only one of my students kept their hands on their weapon when I tried this with them."

Naruto tilted his head to the side, relaxing a little. "Your brother?"

Mangetsu snorted. "No. His arms turned to jelly." He took a single step forward, and then he was in front of Naruto. With a casual, one-handed swing, his blade struck Naruto's a second time, this time knocking it free of his hands and sending it flying into the water. "No one makes it past the second strike on their first attempt."

Naruto's hands tingled like he'd tried to block Kakuzu's punch with his sword. "Ow." Then, his eyes went wide and his head snapped to where his katana fell. "My sword!"

"Whiskers, if a little water was going to hurt your weapon, it wouldn't be a very good one for a Suiton user," Mangetsu said drily. "With your abilities, I'm sure you'll find it easily enough." He waved his empty hand. "Go fetch!"

Naruto shot him a glare, shook off his hands, and dove into the water after his sword.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi's voice called out from distantly behind. "You're going too far ahead again!"

With a disgruntled sigh, Sasuke stopped walking, his hands in his pockets as he turned to look back at the rowboat a ways back, far enough that he had to briefly activate his Sharingan to see them clearly. The man they'd hired to take them to the Land of Waves, since Kakashi couldn't exactly limp across the water the entire way, was still sitting in the back, slowly rowing the boat and squinting in Sasuke's direction in disbelief. Kakashi was sitting in the middle, crutches next to him, a hand raised to wave Sasuke back. Sakura sat in the front, her eyes closed and hands clasped in the Snake seal while she tried to use Kakuzu's jutsu.

A couple minutes passed and the boat caught up to Sasuke. He slowed his walking speed to match it, but he didn't sit down, still too full of energy. Kakashi wouldn't let him practice Chidori while they were traveling over the water, and without Naruto to spar against, Sasuke felt as restless as he did on the rare day he and Naruto didn't train at all.

He wondered if that was what it felt like to be Naruto all of the time. It'd certainly explain, well, him if he really was just filled with more energy than any one person could possibly spend.

Shaking the thought off, he looked down at Sakura to his left. "Any progress?"

Sakura let out a sigh. "No," she admitted, her disappointment obvious. "I can flood my body with chakra, but I still can't transform it to Doton. Maybe if I were on land-"

"On land, you would be able to draw on the earth around you and use it, but you would still need to figure out how to transform your chakra into Doton for Kakuzu's jutsu," Kakashi interrupted. "A wooden boat surrounded by endless water in every direction is the perfect environment for you to learn nature transformation."

Sakura's unimpressed face made it very obvious that was something Kakashi had already said more than once, and she didn't even bother to look away from Sasuke. "Do you remember anything that really helped Naruto with Doton?" she asked hopefully.

Sasuke looked forward in thought. "He mainly just practiced shaping the earth a lot." Mostly after one of them tore it up with destructive jutsu, or at least destructive attempts at jutsu, but he also occasionally practiced with it the way he did Mokuton. "He's always trained more with Suiton, though." He looked back down at her, and saw she was still staring up at him. "Uh… What would you say Doton feels like?"

"Feels like?" Sakura echoed.

Sasuke wasn't sure how to phrase it so he didn't respond for a little while, looking forward in thought. "That ability seems somewhat similar to Chidori," he eventually said. "Even with it generated around my hand, Raiton fills my entire body with what feels like endless energy when I use it. You just started learning Doton, but how does it feel?"

When he looked back down at Sakura, she stareddown at her hands clasped in the Snake seal. "Uh… Heavy? Kind of dusty, I guess? But maybe that's just because the first jutsu Naruto taught me was Dust Storm."

Sasuke took a hop-step into the boat and sat down next to her. "Try and focus on shifting your chakra to that feeling," he suggested. "If you keep struggling and can't do it, then you can just ask Naruto when we get to Wave." While he'd copied plenty of Doton jutsu from Naruto, he mainly just packed it with chakra on the occasion that he tried one out. They were useful to know, but in a spar against Naruto there was no point in using them, so he didn't have much practice. "Naruto also said I should help you with genjutsu."

Sakura blinked at him, obviously surprised. "Are you… offering to?"

Sasuke shrugged. "My genjutsu knowledge isn't as varied as I'd like." Most of his genjutsu knowledge was limited to Sharingan, but he wouldn't mention it in front of the rower. "Like Naruto helping you with Doton, it'll help me fix that."

"Oh, thank you!" In the corner of his vision, Sakura blushed slightly, but then she looked back down at her hands and shook her head. "But I um… I want to finish this without Naruto's help."

Sasuke nodded in understanding and Sakura quickly went back to concentrating.

It wasn't long before he started to feel restless again. By now, he was sure Naruto had already mastered the Water Dragon Missile and moved on to kenjutsu with Mangetsu, while Sasuke was stuck on a fragile wooden boat in the middle of a sea surrounded by nothing but water.

Usually, wood wasn't something he associated with fragility, not when he'd broken his knuckles against it so many times, but he was pretty sure he could crack the boat in half without using a single jutsu. If Naruto were with them, they would've just used a boat he created with Mokuton, and probably used his Suiton to push it across the water. That way, Sasuke could have practiced without care because Naruto would be able to just repair the boat if it took any damage, and they wouldn't need to hire anyone to steer it.

Without a word, Sasuke stood back up and stepped back out onto the water, hands in his pockets as he started walking ahead again. Kakashi didn't say a word, but Sasuke could feel his gaze on his back, wordlessly reminding him not to walk out of sight and run the rest of the way there himself.

That didn't make him any less tempted.

He could picture Naruto training with Mangetsu, getting ahead in kenjutsu and mastering who-knows-what Suiton jutsu. It was only a day, but Sasuke knew Naruto better than anyone, and there was no telling what he could do or come up with in that time. Or what could happen-

Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut. The sight of Naruto, collapsed and coughing at the bottom of a tree, overlaid over the memory of his parents' bodies. Standing over both-

His eyes snapped back open. Endless waves and unquantifiable amounts of water burned themselves into his Sharingan's memory, but that couldn't override the images already burnt into his mind. Even among the countless other moments burned into his Sharingan, it was like he couldn't escape those two, like they were burned into his chakra itself.

He knew Naruto was fine, too. Mangetsu could beat him to hell during training and there wouldn't be a scratch on him by the time the rest of Team Seven arrived, unless he cut off an arm or something. And honestly, Sasuke wasn't even sure that wouldn't heal. His… concern was irrational.

Still, the image wouldn't leave his mind.

"I got it!" Sakura shouted. "Finally!"

Grateful for the exit from his thoughts, Sasuke looked back at the boat to see Sakura staring at her right arm with an awed look on her face. He could see why: a small but steady flow of Doton filled her arm from her elbow to her hand, darkening it a few shades, if not nearly as much as Kakuzu's. Eventually, she looked up from her arm and met his gaze, a wide smile spreading across her face. "I did it!" she repeated, holding up her right arm.

"Well done, Sakura," Kakashi praised. "I had a feeling you'd get it down before we made it to Wave."

While he waited for the boat to catch up to him again, Sasuke allowed the chakra flow to his eyes to fade, and the images faded with it. "Good job," he said, going back to walking alongside the boat. He still had too much energy to sit. "How'd you figure it out?"

"I thought more about your Chidori." Sakura still hadn't dropped the jutsu on her arm, but it looked like it was starting to take more effort to hold. "I was thinking of this as like… armor, because of how Kakashi-sensei described it, but I think it's too much for me to spread over my body." A frown spread across her face and her arm faded back to pale skin. "Oh." She shook her head and looked back up at Sasuke. "Well, I think for now, I can use it as an attack concentrated in my arm instead."

Sasuke nodded his understanding. The punch Kakuzu landed against Naruto probably would have killed either of them, so he didn't doubt even a weaker version would be a powerful tool. Once she had more chakra, fighting her would probably become nearly as bone-shattering as fighting Naruto.

That thought served as a very strong incentive for him to continue working on his speed.

By the end of his training session with Mangetsu, Naruto's arms felt like he imagined Sasuke's did after repeatedly slamming into wooden walls during all of their spars. It was starting to get dark, the bridge builders had just finished setting up to return home for the night, and he could still barely hold on to his sword with both hands for longer than five consecutive strikes.

Apparently, it was a training method in the Hozuki Clan. Every few times Naruto lost his sword, Mangetsu gave him advice on how to defend or counter the next time, and eventually Naruto managed to defend against one more strike.

Eventually.

While he followed Mangetsu up the side of the bridge, Naruto didn't even bother to fight gravity with his arms, letting them just dangle behind him until he reached the top and let them hang at his sides. The second he was on the floor of the bridge, someone blurred over to stand in front of him.

"Naruto!" Lee greeted enthusiastically. "It is good to see you again! Guy-sensei did not wake me up when you all left this morning, and by the time I arrived you were already training and I did not wish to interfere." There were bruises on his face where Naruto's attacks had landed in their spar, but he didn't seem to care. "Your recovery abilities are truly remarkable!"

Naruto laughed, rubbing the back of his head tiredly. "Yeah! Pretty cool, huh?"

"Only reason you got the full Hozuki Clan training experience," Mangetsu added with a grin. "Without it, your arms would be too broken to continue after the first dozen or so."

"Wait, what?" Well, that explained why Naruto's arms were so tired, at least. Was it possible to get chakra exhaustion in just his arms? Or maybe his arms were just still sore from the most recent… breaking. "Hey, you were breaking my arms!"

Mangetsu waved his concern off. "Nah, you would've been able to tell if your arms broke. Your bones are pretty sturdy for a genin, so they probably healed before I could break them fully at any point." He shrugged. "Not sure, I'm not really an expert on having bones."

"What does that even mean?"

Mangetsu looked like he was about to say something snarky in response, but a serious expression suddenly flashed across his face and he turned to look back at the water below. A second later, Naruto did the same, sensing the mist of Suiton chakra before he saw it, its source a quiet but sharp watery chakra beneath the bridge. At nearly the exact same time, Neji's voice rang across the bridge: "He's back!"

Naruto looked back over at Mangetsu, only to watch him break apart like a broken water clone and splash onto the bridge. Huh?

Before Naruto could dwell on whatever that was, the mist spread out to cover the entire bridge, limiting his eyesight to just himself and Lee in front of him. Instinctively, he narrowed his chakra senses to detect the center of the bridge, but the mist in the air was so packed full of chakra that Suiton was almost all he could sense. The sharp, quiet chakra was diffused throughout it, obscuring Naruto's chakra sense like it did his sight.

A frown tugged on his face. Concentrating harder, he stretched his senses out through the soles of his feet, almost like the roots of a tree, and his sense of the bridge cleared. The mist still hung in the air, filled with shallow Suiton chakra, but he could make out six chakra presences in the center of the bridge.

Guy had more chakra than Kakashi did, carrying an undercurrent of heat that gave Naruto the impression he didn't practice his chakra nature very often, and stood opposite an impossibly sharp, watery presence that Naruto assumed was Zabuza. Behind Guy, Neji's chakra stood out with a potency that reminded Naruto of Hinata, along with a slight watery feel that wasn't extremely common back in Konoha. Tenten's carried an undercurrent of heat similar to Guy's and a sharpness similar to Zabuza's, if not as strongly. With all the chakra in the mist, Naruto almost couldn't keep track of the undeveloped, watery chakra Tazuna had.

Finally, standing behind Zabuza and nearly as sharp, Naruto sensed who must have been the Hyōton user the others mentioned. Their chakra was nearly as sharp as Zabuza's, but that was secondary to the cold, icy feeling it radiated. Even if he didn't already know it was made of Suiton and Fūton, he was sure he would've been able to tell by feeling their chakra.

"Naruto, are you able to feel anything in the mist?" Lee asked urgently. His chakra felt a lot like a less potent version of Guy's, yet Naruto could tell they weren't related, somehow. The feeling of their chakra was different, but the shape was the same, the training. "This is the same jutsu that Zabuza used the first time, though fortunately Neji was able to see through it."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, let's-!"

Before he could finish, something in the mist changed. It wasn't visible, and Lee gave him a confused look when he suddenly went quiet, but Naruto felt it as a different chakra override Zabuza's control of the mist. In moments, the mist began to recede and condense, leaving a clear view of the bridge and the standoff he'd sensed.

In the center of the bridge, Guy stood in front of Neji and Tenten, in the same stance Lee used at the start of Naruto's spar with him. Tenten was using some sort of sickle attached to a chain, the sickle held in her left hand and the chain hanging from her right, and Neji had his Byakugan active, standing in a ready stance with his left palm extended out and his right held close to his chest.

Opposite of them, Naruto got his first look at Zabuza. He was a large man, wearing a sleeveless black shirt and bandages around his neck like Mangetsu, but his were tightened and covered his mouth like Kakashi's mask. There was a massive broadsword in his hands, two holes cut out of the top and bottom, that had to be one of the other legendary swords Mangetsu mentioned. Unlike Kakuzu, the only other missing-nin Naruto had seen, Zabuza's forehead protector wasn't crossed out, and he wore it slanted and off-center.

Next to Zabuza, the Hyōton user wore a green and white haori and a mask somewhat similar to the ones Kokoha ANBU used, though it didn't look like it was meant to be an animal like theirs. The eye-holes were thin and curved, which Naruto couldn't help but question the practicality of, and there was a wavelike red design over the bottom of the mask. It also had the Kirigakure symbol on the forehead, also not crossed out.

"What the…" Zabuza's voice was deep and low, but Naruto could still hear the hint of surprise in his tone. "Shit, I know this-"

"Long time no see, Zabuza!" Mangetsu's voice rang out, just as all of the mist that once covered the bridge began to gather behind Zabuza and the Hyōton user. It formed a cloud-like body for just a second, before the cloud condensed into water, and the water solidified into Mangetsu. "You too, Haku. I lost touch with you both after the whole-"

Zabuza spun around faster than Naruto could track, his sword cleaving clean through Mangetsu's body.

Only, there wasn't a single drop of blood. Where Zabuza's massive sword sliced through, Mangetsu's body simply splashed like a water clone, before reforming like nothing happened. "Not even a hello?" Mangetsu asked, arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. "I thought you'd be happy to see me after all these years!"

"Mangetsu." Judging by Zabuza's tone, he definitely wasn't happy to see Mangetsu. His previous attack had failed very obviously, but he still held his sword up to Mangetsu's chest. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I was hanging with my new Konoha buddies," Mangetsu said, nodding over in Naruto's direction. Zabuza didn't look away from him. "And they told me you were here, so I came for my long lost friend!" He started to pat the side of Zabuza's sword. "Been a while, Kubikiribōchō!"

Zabuza slapped his hand away with the sword. "So you are still part of the village."

Both of Mangetsu's eyebrows rose. "What, you thought I'd become a missing-nin like the rest of you?" He tilted his head to the side in thought, still seemingly entirely unconcerned by Zabuza's sword against his chest. "Well, I guess I wasn't any more loyal to the Yondaime than the rest of you were," he admitted after a few seconds. "Still, I stuck around."

"And now you've come for my head."

"Kubikiribōchō, actually, but I can take your head if that's the only way you'll give it up." Again, Mangetsu laid his hand on the sword's side, only to have his hand batted away hard enough it… liquified, only to immediately reform. "I'll take that as a yes."

While the three Kiri ninja, former and otherwise, talked, Guy, Neji, and Tenten all moved to join Naruto and Lee on the side of the bridge, Tazuna still guarded behind them. Zabuza and the Hyōton user Mangetsu called Haku definitely noticed, but neither looked away from Mangetsu for even a second, even though Mangetsu was yet to make a move.

Was he that strong?

"Leave, Mangetsu," Haku spoke up for the first time, voice soft but icy. He held up a one-handed seal. "Don't interfere."

Mangetsu grinned apologetically. "Ah. A little while ago, I might've considered leaving you be, but I happen to have rediscovered my loyalty to the village, so I'm not about to lie for your sake." He shrugged casually. "If you want me not to interfere, you'll have to stop me yourself."

"If you insist." Haku's raised hand flashed through seals, fast enough that even Mangetsu looked a little surprised. "Hyōton: Ice Prison!"

The crackle of ice sounded across the bridge as Haku unleashed it from his hands, shooting at Mangetsu faster than Naruto could track.

Just before the ice could collide with Mangetsu, he broke apart like a dispelled water clone for the second time, and the ice harmlessly flew off the edge of the bridge. An unnaturally large pool of water formed where he'd been standing, and it surged towards Zabuza and Haku in an instant, spreading out beneath their feet. They reacted quickly, leaping away as soon as the water reached them, but they were still too slow. The water erupted explosively upwards, catching both of them in the blast and throwing them over the opposite side of the bridge.

Mangetsu reformed out of the water, looking over at the group of Konoha ninja. "Figured you'd prefer the fight didn't happen on the bridge," he said, giving them a short wave before jumping off the side of the bridge after Zabuza and Haku.

Without missing a beat, Naruto ran over to the other side of the bridge to continue watching the fight.

On the water, Zabuza and Haku stood almost two dozen meters opposite of Mangetsu, both obviously wary of him. Mangetsu's swords had appeared from somewhere, probably a seal, but he still looked far more relaxed than either of his opponents. "Alright, Zabuza, I'll give you one-"

Suddenly, the mood shifted again. Mangetsu stopped talking, his entire body tensed up. A second later, Naruto sensed why, as someone with even more chakra than him jumped out of the water between Mangetsu and Zabuza.

He was even larger than Zabuza was, but that wasn't the most noticeable thing about him. Mangetsu had sharklike teeth, but this guy's entire face looked like a shark, down to his blue-gray skin. There were three, curved marks on his face under his eyes, and when his mouth pulled open in a grin, Naruto saw he had the same teeth as Mangetsu. He wore a black cloak with red clouds on it, his left arm hidden by the sleeve, while his right held another massive sword covered in bandages.

"You know, when I heard someone kicked little Zabuza's ass so badly his employer was looking to hire him help, I came hoping for a fight," the shark-like man said, standing as easy as Mangetsu had been moments ago. "I wasn't expecting a reunion. It's been a while!"

After a few seconds, Mangetsu's easy posture returned. Naruto couldn't see it but he was somehow sure Mangetsu was grinning. "Samehada!" he called out excitedly. "Buddy, it's been so long, I've missed you!"

Naruto's first assumption of the shark-like man's name being Samehada was disproven when the sword in his hand started jolting around. The bandages covering it completely suddenly tore off as spiky scales extended out of it, and even a mouth formed at the end of the spiky blade, letting out an excited skree. It seemed like the sword missed Mangetsu too.

"Woah… That's Samehada," Tenten whispered, watching the swordsmen next to Naruto. "It's the strongest of the seven swords. And sentient. They say it chooses its wielder…"

"No greeting for me?" the shark-like man remarked.

"Hi, Kisame," Mangetsu said blandly. "Good to see you too, I guess."

"You used to be more respectful." Samehada was still acting like an excited dog in his hand, but Kisame held it without comment. "Or was that just so I'd let you use Samehada?"

Mangetsu shrugged. "Would you have let me if I wasn't?"

"Probably." Kisame shrugged back. "I just let you because Samehada likes your chakra so much."

"Any chance you'll let me use Samehada again?" Mangetsu asked. "It's been so long, my chakra's probably more delicious than ever! Maybe it'll even prefer me to you now."

Kisame laughed. "You think so?" He shifted his grip on Samehada into a two-handed one. "Honestly, I'm curious, but I'm more curious about how much stronger you've grown. Any reason you didn't become the Godaime?"

"Wasn't my calling," Mangetsu admitted. "But I'm more than happy to show you how much stronger I am than I was at fourteen." He leaned slightly to the side. "That goes for you too, Zabuza! Feel free to join in!"

Zabuza and Haku were far enough away that Naruto couldn't really see how they reacted, especially with their masks, but he thought it looked like they talked briefly. Then, Zabuza walked up to stand beside Kisame, his sword raised, while Haku stuck back to watch. At the same time, Guy bounded over the side of the bridge to land on the water beside Mangetsu, once again shifting into a ready stance. "I guess that makes this a two-on-two!" he declared.

"Actually, I was planning to handle them both myself." Mangetsu turned his head to face Guy, then glanced up at the students on the bridge and grinned widely. "Make sure you watch closely, Whiskers!"

Guy just looked surprised, while Zabuza and Kisame both looked somewhere between flabbergasted, offended, and on the verge of laughter. "Are you sure?" Guy asked.

Mangetsu nodded confidently, returning his focus to his two former allies. "You were hired to guard the bridge builder, so you should focus on that with your team." Until then, he'd kept his arms loose at his sides with his swords hovering just above the water, but now he shifted into a ready position, left blade held out and right held high. "As a jounin of Kirigakure, it's my job to handle our missing-nin."

"If you're confident, then I will trust your judgment!" Guy clapped Mangetsu on the shoulder, looked at the two missing-nin one more time, and then easily leapt back back up to the bridge with Naruto and his team.

"Woah," Tenten muttered. "He's really going to fight them both on his own?"

"How youthful!" Lee whisper-shouted.

Neji scoffed. "It's reckless. That… Kisame has even more chakra than," his Byakugan flickered towards Naruto, "you."

"I know," Naruto said, without looking away from the Kiri ninja. "But I trust Mangetsu! He has a ton of chakra too."

That was when Mangetsu suddenly dashed forward, the fastest Naruto had seen anyone move yet, and practically just appeared in front of Zabuza and Kisame, both of his swords shaped into chakra blades and crashing down on them with explosive force. Though both of them were able to block, Zabuza was sent skidding back across the water, while Kisame held his ground with a grin. The chakra blade locked against his weird sword started to flicker out, but Mangetsu swung for his side with the other sword before it could fade completely, forcing him to jump away.

As soon as Kisame jumped away, Zabuza closed the distance between him and Mangetsu, blade crashing down from above.

Mangetsu didn't dodge. The blade bisected him vertically, but once again, it was water and not blood that splashed. Instead of turning to water completely again, which Naruto thought was both one of the coolest and weirdest things he'd ever seen, he held up the same one-handed seal he'd shown Naruto before, and then both halves reformed into two whole versions of him.

"That isn't a normal Water Clone," Neji said, at the same time that Naruto sensed the same thing. "His chakra is split evenly between them. I can't see which one is the original."

"Cool… I want a clone jutsu like that," Naruto muttered. Wait, could he…?

When both of the Mangetsus attacked, Naruto decided to leave that for later, more fascinated by the start of the fight than anything else.

A/N:

Okay, first note first, there was no conceivable way to make this fight interesting with just Zabuza and Haku lol. Zabuza is directly countered by Mangetsu's existence, and Haku isn't strong enough to make up the difference.

Zabzua wouldn't be able to repair his sword bc it runs on blood. Mangetsu canonically wielded Samehada at one point, implying massive chakra reserves, so outlasting him isn't an option even if Zabuza was the more skilled one between the two (which tbh I don't think he is). Zabuza knows water jutsu, but it took him a ton of seals to make a water dragon, and Mangetsu basically has cheat code water abilities so that's not an option. Haku's pretty strong, but considering he was outsped by Sasuke in wave until he did the Ice Mirrors, it's not enough to make up the difference. If he brought out Ice Mirrors Mangetsu would probably just become a giant water monster

The Akatsuki acted as mercenaries and Kisame likes a good fight, so I feel like he was a really good option to include. Him saying "Little Zabuza" is actually canon lmao, and I'm pretty sure he also insults Zabuza's skills at one point, but he seemed to like Mangetsu. Mangetsu seems to be pretty young (I put him at Itachi age, but I'd say he could be anywhere in the range of Haku to Itachi realistically) so whenever he wielded Samehada would probably have to overlap with Kisame owning it. He might've just been trained to use it bc Kisame found him interesting, tho I chose to go with Samehada really liking his chakra (it canonically dislikes fire, so I feel like a logical conclusion is it would love op water chakra, especially considering the village and country).

And in regards to Neji, I'm just going to be blunt and say Naruto won't and can't serve the same role here that he did in canon because objectively he's really talented at this point, so there's not really a personal conflict between them. Instead of "There's no way that idiot could become Hokage" it's more of a "Well, maybe there's a chance, I don't really care". Neji's character arc is still in development, but there are two characters much better suited to progressing his arc. Trying to fit Naruto into the same role would just feel forced, at least to me, and if it feels forced to the writer it'll prob feel forced to the readers lol. He'll have a role to play, but he's not a driving force in beating some sense into Neji