Chapter 3: BRIDGNG the Gap…Or Not
After ignoring the attempts of my 'teammates' to get my attention and Bakakashi to glare through my head, I cheerfully selected the Wave escort mission.
I mused aloud explaining my supposed reasoning for my choice.
"Hmm, well a low priority escort mission is perfect for us. Bakakashi doesn't have to put in much effort. It's not very likely that we will encounter more than bandits or perhaps a low ranked Missing-Nin, if we are especially unlucky, and he can take care of anyone below A rank easily." I jerked my chin at the Cyclops who seemed torn between beaming at me for praising him or glaring at me for ruining his fun.
"In addition Haruno-san, Uchiha-san, and I not only get a chance to prove ourselves on a slightly higher ranked mission, but also acquire invaluable experience outside of Konoha. We'll take this one." I 'decided' with a firm nod.
"Well reasoned." Hiruzen intoned with a solemn nod, still trying to salvage his ruined dignity. No one was buying it.
Turning to Iruka he gave his order. "Alright, call in Tazuna-san."
Then a few minutes of awkward silence later, he stumbled in.
Drunk as a skunk and twice as smelly, Tazuna the bridge builder and hope of Nami no Kuni, the Land of the Waves. I have to say I was a bit excited to see Sasuke and Sakura's reactions to him.
"What the-!?" He exclaimed before belching slightly. "A bunch of snot-nosed brats are supposed to guard me?"
He punctuated his question with a sloppy gesticulation using a half empty sake bottle. "An emo, pretty boy who looks like he was sodomized recently, and a little girl who looks like she'd be a better stalker than a ninja with pi…is that really pink hair?"
Sasuke's face twisted in offended arrogance, making him look like he was constipated as a result of his recent sodomization, and Sakura had turned into actual stone, jaw literally on the floor. It was really kind of cool to see, one second she was flesh and the next stone.
"Well I suppose the blonde at least looks the part and isn't such a munchkin, and the scarecrow seems decent." Alternating between scratching his beard and ass, Tazuna shrugged as if to say Kakashi and I were fine by him.
"I am master bridge builder Tazuna and I must return to my country safely. I'm building a bridge there that will change our world, and I expect you to get me there safe…even if it means giving up your life." He stared at us seriously, though the drunken blush and moderate to severe slurring of his words lessened the effect somewhat.
"Mah mah Tazuna-san, no need to be so morbid. We'll get you there safely, Bakakashi here, despite being a lazy, good-for-nothing sensei, is one of the top ninjas in the village. Not to mention Uchiha-san was Rookie of the Year, Haruno-san can kill grown men with just her voice. And I am pretty strong myself you know." I gave Tazuna an eye-smile to help reassure him of our competence.
Kakashi eye-smiled at me and I had a feeling that I was forgiven my earlier trespasses. Sasuke looked haughty and arrogant as if it was only right that I acknowledged him for receiving a meaningless title.
And Sakura was still stone, but seemed to have cracked a bit and was being rained on by tiny cartoon storm clouds.
"Feh. Good enough for me. When do we leave?" The drunk managed to get out before attempting to drown himself with his sake bottle.
"Hokage-sama, I would request that you order us to leave tomorrow at 7 in the morning. Sharp." I cast my eyes at Kakashi to make it clear why I was doing this.
"It will let Tazuna-san have a nice night and sober up for the journey, let us pack and prepare ourselves, and by your order Bakakashi will have to show up on time to leave."
Jiji just looked at me for a second before smiling and going along with my idea, helping him with his paperwork seemed to have gone a really long way in getting into his good books.
"Kakashi-kun, you are ordered to be packed, ready to leave, and present wherever your team decides to meet at the appointed time of 7 tomorrow morning. You will then leave for your mission without delay or deliberate sabotage."
Hiruzen smirked at Kakashi, whose eye was wide and filled with horror and betrayal at the thought that he wouldn't be able to be late.
As we all left the Sandaime pulled out his own copy of Icha Icha and thought to himself.
"Maybe you're not so far from taking this hat from me after all Naruto-kun."
Looking at his shadow clones and the now almost overflowing completed bin of paperwork he compared it to the rapidly depleting bin holding his remaining work.
Hiruzen couldn't help but think that maybe holding on for a few more years wouldn't be so bad now that he knew the Yondaime's secret.
Maybe now he could get out and sneak some training in, his skills had certainly suffered from neglect. That sounded like a good idea to him…after he finished this chapter.
"Hehehehe. Ahhhh Makino-chan you're such a naughty little minx!" Shinobi throughout The Leaf suddenly began crying as they felt their respect for authority figures shatter.
Leaf kunoichi suddenly felt the compulsive need to visit the Hokage and bring many sharp objects with them.
The next day, 7 o'clock sharp, my team, a massively hung-over Tazuna, and I were already leaving the towering walls of Konoha behind us.
Kakashi was reading his book and complaining about having run into a black cat, which would surely bring us bad luck, and old, feeble ladies who needed help with groceries that he was prevented from providing.
Sasuke was keeping a wary eye on our surroundings as he took the point position, hoping to see some action.
He would see some, but that was all he would do.
I mean I did have to assert my dominance over all things teme didn't I?
Even if I didn't have the same adversarial relationship with him as retard Naruto originally did. (He was still a teme.)
Sakura, having recovered from her time as a statue, was obviously, staring at Sasuke with hearts in her eyes and drool on her chin.
Fangirl-itis is a horrible thing, and I would never wish it on any man…except Bakakashi. I really seem to have developed a grudge against him for not teaching me anything and just being a terrible sensei.
Maybe it has something to do with the Naruto part of me now knowing that he's my Tou-san's student and that he basically abandoned me to run off and drown in guilt instead of manning up and helping a child in need of him.
Meh, I don't care enough to really figure it out at the moment.
Everyone but me had a backpack and both my fellow Genin mocked me about forgetting my supplies, Kakashi however took a look at my sealing book and seemed to understand and approve of what I had done.
Little did the idiots know that I had everything I needed tucked away inside sealing scrolls that I made for myself. Making it so that I didn't need to carry a heavy and bulky backpack.
Heh, suckers.
The first time we made camp and I pulled out a tiny little scroll and unsealed a hammock, blankets, and various other comforts my teammates' eyes popped out of their heads.
This continued on more or less the same for the better part of two days and it was late morning during the second day that I finally saw what I was waiting for.
A puddle!
Yep, it was time to use my future knowledge to cheat again!
Muahahaha, man I love knowing how things will happen before they actually do, it makes taking advantage of them so much easier.
That's why I'll try not to stray all that far from canon, although I won't stick to it exclusively if I see a way to benefit from changing something.
Sasuke walked by the puddle without so much as a glance. Some 'elite' he was hahaha, I would have noticed the puddle and sensed the enemies within even if I didn't know they were there.
Sakura and Tazuna followed obliviously behind the Uchiha. Kakashi gave it a lazy glance before looking away; pretending not to have noticed anything wrong, and I kept it in sight out of the corner of my eye.
When the Demon Brothers attacked it went down exactly as it did in canon. Up to the point when they finished 'killing' Kakashi.
Then it all went to shit for them.
Immediately I turned and threw several kunai at each of them to keep their attention occupied. However they were really unfortunate. They attempted to block them with their clawed gauntlets and continue charging towards us.
I had planed on capturing both of them alive, but wind chakra laced kunai have a tendency to cut through whatever is in their path. Needless to say things didn't go exactly as I planned.
That is especially the case when you have shadow clones throwing said wind chakra laced kunai as well.
Yep, I had made use of Hax no Jutsu again to help with scouting and to practice my still relatively average sensing skills. I had used wind chakra to enhance my kunai's cutting power because I didn't know how much I would need to take down a Chunin.
I had been training quite a bit, but had no one to truly compare to besides in Taijutsu, and Lee still beat me most of the time in that. And in the spirit of training and fairness, I never used anything that the handicapped boy couldn't, I.E. Nin or Genjutsu.
The first brother made to block the kunai going for his throat and avoid the others that passed by each side and above him to prevent him from moving anywhere without having to sacrifice positioning.
The kunai pierced straight through his gauntlet and then his throat, killing him in an instant, and continuing on to go through another tree.
Even as the first brother's body fell lifeless to the ground, the other brother was caught in the exact same situation.
He however was lucky enough that the kunai aimed for his throat struck his gauntlet at an odd angle and it was just enough to deflect the kunai into and through his shoulder.
The force of the blow and the crimson spray of his lifeblood spinning him around and allowing the kunai my clones had thrown to successfully pierce his knees and blow right through them as if they were wet tissue.
As he hit the dirt of the road screaming in agony and loss, my clones were able to quickly restrain him, not that he was in any shape to go anywhere regardless.
It hadn't been more than 3 seconds from beginning to end. However Sasuke was still in the act of running forward to engage the enemy Nin. It took him another moment or two to realize that I had already defeated both of them and killed one of them.
Sakura still was frozen with wide eyes, and Tazuna was crouched down with shock and fear on his face.
I took all of that in in a blink. Then I calmly walked to the edge of the path.
"Kakashi-sensei, permission to have a momentary lapse in composure due to my first kill?" I spoke to the air in a calm tone. However even I noticed the slight tremor in my voice.
A hand gently rested on my shoulder and I didn't even look, already knowing whom it belonged to. "Go ahead Naruto, let it out." The tone was serious for once, no sign of our playful, lazy, vengeful sensei held within.
I nodded once, bent over slightly and ripped my mask off my face before throwing up the light breakfast I had today in anticipation of this very occurrence. The heaves wracked my body until nothing but yellowish bile came from my empty stomach, and soon after even that was expelled.
Killing in my old world was something that didn't happen often and certainly not around anyone except criminals and soldiers, barring accidents. I knew as a shinobi I was a soldier now and so I had been trying to prepare for this.
I thought I would be ready. I mean, part of me grew up as Naruto and suffered all kinds of fucked up shit. The other part of me was pretty desensitized to violence; at least I thought so.
Video games you know?
It still took me by surprise. How…how easy it was to kill.
I expected to be revolted, retard Naruto certainly would have been.
I expected to be stunned and in shock, and I suppose I was a bit, but nothing unmanageable. I mean I monologue in my head all the time, so this wasn't anything totally unusual.
I expected to feel it as my soul was stained and a piece of me, perhaps the child in me had died. I had prepared to go through self-loathing and have to lean on Kakashi for wisdom and support.
Instead I felt…
Nothing.
It was easy. Killing was just so damn easy.
That's how I knew that any hope of following canon, beyond as a very general guideline, was just not going to happen. In the anime, the manga, whatever you preferred, Naruto didn't kill.
He simply didn't do it.
Hell he didn't even take part in killing someone up until Kakuzu and Hidan, excluding Haku and Zabuza. But those two weren't his fault. He did everything he could to keep them alive. That was on Kakashi and Gato.
I had just killed, and only my revulsion at my lack of response to the act caused any response at all. And that same revulsion was simply a conditioned response by half of what now made me, well, me.
I knew it wouldn't happen again next time, and it would only get easier each time until killing not bothering me no longer bothered me at all.
Spitting the nasty taste of half digested food and bitter bile from my mouth and rinsing with a canteen of water let me collect myself. I took a deep breath and accepted what I had done.
Raising my mask back into place, Kakashi's comforting and solid hand still clasped on my shoulder, I prepared myself to face my team and move towards the future. I couldn't afford to falter at this point, especially when I hadn't even made it past the beginning of my story.
I stood and turned back to my team and Tazuna. Giving Kakashi a quick nod of silent thanks before I addressed everyone. "Sorry about that, first time killing anyone, I promise it won't happen again!"
My chipper tone and eye-smile seemed to freak Tazuna and Sakura out for some reason. Sasuke was looking at me with wide eyes and a hint of something between respect and fear in his gaze before he regained his typically stoic demeanor.
Kakashi simply squeezed my shoulder and eye-smiled back before making his way to my clones and their prisoner, who had been knocked unconscious and had his wounds cauterized by Kakashi's own shadow clone. Funny, I hadn't noticed him making one.
All my clones saluted Kakashi before looking at me. Seeing my nod of acknowledgement, they returned to the trees and quickly disappeared from sight.
Tazuna and us Genin waited in silence as Kakashi interrogated the remaining Demon Brother.
Sakura kept stealing little glances at me, a conflicted look on her face, when she thought I wasn't looking. As if she wasn't sure if she wanted to deride and scream at me, or try to comfort me.
Maybe she was coming around? Probably not, but I could hold out hope that she would after this mission. After all she had already seen death close up, and would soon be meeting someone far more terrifying than the two I killed. Yes, I said two.
There was no way the second demon brother was going to live through his wounds, and even if he did, then he would be retrieved by Leaf ANBU and sent to T&I and tortured before he died.
Basically he was already dead. He just hadn't realized it yet.
Tazuna seemed caught between shock and fear, not surprising considering he had almost died, watched a 12-13 year old kill someone nearly effortlessly, and probably understood that his goose was cooked. Kakashi was on to him now.
Sasuke was keeping an eye on our surroundings, probably trying to spot my clones, while keeping track of me out of the corner of his eye. Hmm, was that out of respect and/or concern?
Nah, probably out of jealousy of my 'power', maybe some grudging respect, and a hint of wariness.
Me? Well I was once again imitating Kakashi and had buried my nose in my BINGO book. I had to be able to play off any knowledge about Zabuza and what was to come in the future after all.
I was definitely not distracting myself from the lack of guilt or remorse over my first kill and the guilt that came with not feeling anything except slightly disappointed that Chunin were so easy to kill. Even if the kill happened to be by virtue of surprise and them underestimating me.
Would Zabuza be as easy to kill?
Would every shinobi be this easy if I let them underestimate me? That…couldn't be the case right?
I mean A and S rank Shinobi would have to be good enough to recover and save themselves from death if the gap between us was big enough.
Granted I was probably close to, if not a, B rank shinobi in skill at this point and the Demon Brothers couldn't have been higher than C rank.
Still I couldn't help but feel that until I made a name for myself it really might all be this easy.
I guess I can't complain, especially since most of the people I will be killing will be after my life anyway.
It was only a few minutes later Kakashi walked back over.
"Sorry about letting you all think I was killed, but I needed to see who they were targeting." His eye narrowed as he looked at Tazuna. "Something you want to mention Tazuna-san?"
"Please! Please help me!" Tazuna immediately fell to his knees and groveled pathetically. "There is a man who wants me dead, so I can't finish building the bridge. He's choking Wave to death in his clutches and this bridge is our only hope to survive! You have to help me save my country, please!"
"So you knew that this mission would be higher than C rank, but chose to advertise it as such regardless. Probably because you can't afford to pay for more because of whomever the man strangling your country is. Well I can't blame you for trying to get help, but for putting my cute, little Genin in danger and lying to my Village and Hokage, I am beyond furious. We're heading home, this mission just escalated to at least a B rank mission. We're not equipped to handle this." Kakashi was ruthless with his words, his tone lazy but somehow severe.
"No please! Gato will be the death of us all, my daughter and grandson, the villagers, our entire country and way of life! You're my only hope, our only hope! Please, please, please!" Tazuna had broken down, begging as tears streamed freely down his face.
Sakura looked at the man with pity, clearly swayed by his plight.
Sasuke also seemed affected, but still remained mostly neutral. That was surprising considering that the man was begging us to save his family, something that I was sure would help turn Sasuke to his side.
Kakashi however was unaffected. "No. Especially not since you said the one who wants you dead is Gato. I'm assuming you mean the billionaire tycoon Gato. Anyone with that much money can afford to hire much better than the Demon Brothers. The next ninja we come across won't be a Chunin, but a Jonin like myself, and my Genin aren't ready for that."
The silver Cyclops shook his head with a sigh. "This mission is over, we're heading back to Konoha."
"But…are we really going to leave him, and an entire country, to die?" Sakura seemed incredulous, eyes flicking back and forth between Kakashi, Tazuna, and Sasuke, trying to get a grip on the situation.
"Yes, it isn't our mission to protect him from Missing-Nin, we aren't equipped for it, and he lied about the specifics of the mission. That put all of us at risk, regardless of his reasons for doing so." The Scarecrow retorted gravely.
"I believe we should continue the mission." I put forth my own opinion without looking up from my book.
"If I can take down two Chunin level shinobi without any effort and no prior warning beyond noticing a puddle where there shouldn't be one, then I think we can safely say that I'm at least a Chunin level shinobi. Sasuke is also probably around low Chunin level, and while Sakura is firmly in the Genin level, she IS at least a solid Genin."
I sighed and scratched the top of my head. "Then we have you Kakashi-sensei. Even if a Jonin level shinobi shows up we have the advantage, at the least I should be able to keep us from becoming a liability so that you can focus on the fight. This seems to be a good thing for us."
I said as I gestured to my fellow Genin who were looking at me as if I was an alien, or a Sado-Masochistic Silver-haired Jashinist…moving on. "We get to experience fighting or at least witnessing a fight on a completely different level, help and put a neighbor of Konoha in our debt, and understand that a mission is not always at it seems and learn to look underneath the underneath."
With a sigh Kakashi seemed to accept that I might have a point, even as Tazuna prostrated himself to me crying his thanks.
"Well, lets have a vote then. We are a team after all." Kakashi reluctantly compromised. "I vote we return to Konoha."
"Hn. Forward." Sasuke didn't even bother with sentences; his Uchiha pride wouldn't let him back down.
"I-I think we should help them as well." Sakura followed Sasuke's choice and her easily appealed to conscience. I'd need to beat that out of her at some point.
"I vote to continue the mission. However, Kakashi-sensei, you have a summoning contract if I'm not mistaken." I put forth my two-cents, or is that yen now, while adding a question.
"Hmm? Yes, I have the summoning contract for the Ninja Dogs of Konoha. Why do you ask Naruto?" He tilted his head slightly and looked at me quizzically. I don't know why he was acting like an idiot, but he had to know where I'm going with this…didn't he?
"Perfect, then you should send an update on the situation back to Hokage-sama along with our decision to continue the mission. Perhaps request backup and a retrieval of the remaining Demon Brother, just in case." I made my second real change to the mission from canon, first was killing the Demon Brothers, this time I'm playing it smart and calling for help.
"Good thinking Naruto. Okay, as we seem to be continuing the mission, everyone should take a minute to collect themselves and prepare while I send off my summon." Kakashi pricked his thumb with a kunai before going through the hand seals fast enough that I only managed to form a guess as to what they were.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu" As soon as his palm pressed against the ground there was a puff of white smoke.
"Hey Kakashi." Came the surprisingly deep voice of Pakkun. And by God was he adorable!
"Pakkun, I need you to take a message to the Hokage for me. Tell him that Team 7's mission has been raised to a B rank, possibly an A rank depending on what happens next. We will be continuing on the mission, but request additional back up of at least Tokubetsu Jonin level." Kakashi drawled in his usual lazy manner, which was an odd juxtaposition with the serious words he was speaking.
"Got it. I'll get that done, see ya Kakashi." Pakkun took off back towards Konoha with a nod of his tiny head.
Hopefully our reinforcements would arrive before Zabuza did. If not, I was confident that Kakashi and I could take him. I just had to make sure that we didn't actually kill him.
I had decided that I wanted him to either join Konoha or survive to help provide for the Mizu Bloodline Rebellion.
Anything I can do to mess with Obito and Madara, I will do. The end of the series battles were no joke, and hundreds, if not thousands, died in minutes. That's without mentioning Kaguya, mother crazy herself.
That was far into the future at this point though, it was best I focus on the here and now.
Speaking of, I'd better remove my weights in preparation for Zabuza's arrival.
There was still no sign of our backup as we entered Wave. All around us there was only fog, water, and the great bridge Tazuna was building.
Everyone was silent as we left the man and boat that had smuggled us into Nami no Kuni, trying to find anything out of place. The fog had cleared as we moved away from the sea and the sun was shining. My teammates had also let down their guards.
As we were nearing Tazuna's house my clones picked something up with their sensing skills and one dispelled to alert me.
I instantly threw a kunai into the bush where I was directed, knowing what we'd find.
Sakura let out a startled squawk, and everyone jumped and looked my way, kunai at hand. I simply went to retrieve my kunai and came back with a terrified snow rabbit. Sakura looked like she wanted to berate me, but thought better of it. She was probably remembering how I embarrassed her during our spar, or that I had my first kill recently.
I looked straight at Kakashi, ignoring everyone else. "It's the wrong color, meaning it was raised inside. Kawarimi."
His eye widened and he yelled out. "Get down!"
Luckily I was already pulling Sakura and Tazuna to the ground before he even finished his first word. He and Sasuke both hit the dirt in time for a giant buzz saw of screaming, metal, death to pass over all of our heads.
The sword, because it was a sword despite its ridiculous size, finished its flight by burying its blade into a tree and a form landed on its handle.
"Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist, A rank Missing-Nin from Kirigakure. Master of the silent assassination technique, my BINGO book says you have quite the bounty. Why is someone like you working for someone like Gato?" I spoke in a bored tone before anyone else could.
Besides a few short, speculative glances thrown my way everyone kept their eyes on Zabuza.
"Heh, not bad kid. You've done your Homework and you know who my employer is, but why I'm working for him doesn't matter to you. Leave the bridge builder and go, or you'll all die here." Zabuza looked over his shoulder as he delivered his ultimatum in a growl.
"You know we can't do that. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, protect Tazuna! I'll need to focus solely on him if I want to survive." We surrounded Tazuna while Kakashi slowly lifted his headband off his hidden eye.
"Kakashi of the Sharingan, it's an honor that you're already pulling out your trump card in order to fight me." Zabuza growled out. "However, it means nothing if you can't see me."
"Water Style: Hiding in the Mist" Mist rose up from the ground, thick and ominous, and soon obscured Zabuza and our surroundings from view.
That was when his KI hit us. It was suffocating; I could feel death breathing behind me. I could feel it stealing up upon me and slowly ripping my life from my body, making it impossible to breathe.
I abruptly realized that I wasn't breathing and desperately released my own KI in the hopes of mitigating the oppressive feeling of my own mortality.
Thankfully it worked to an extent, and I was able to suck in a gasping breath.
However even then I was severely shaken and no longer worried that killing A rank and above shinobi would be anywhere near easy. I didn't know if the KI affected me so much because I had never experienced it to this extent before, or because our levels were far more different than I had thought.
The rest of my team besides Kakashi were shaking in fear and Sasuke's kunai was inching towards his own throat until Kakashi made his dramatic promise to not let his comrades, us, die.
It would have been much more reassuring if I didn't know that his last team of comrades did die on him.
"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep." Zabuza snarled with laughter in his voice. "Eight points to choose from. Larynx, spine, liver, lungs, jugular, Subclavian artery, kidneys, and heart. Now which should I choose?"
Knowing what was coming I was already moving by the time Zabuza appeared in the middle of our formation. "It's over!" He crowed, but I had already buried my kunai in his throat as Kakashi sped towards us.
The Zabuza I had stabbed dissolved into water; showing it was a water clone, even as another Zabuza appeared to my left, ready to strike me down.
I avoided being bisected by Kubikiribocho by throwing myself to my right and rolling into a defensive stance, presenting my right side and making myself as small a target as possible, as Kakashi stabbed this new Zabuza in the gut while he was busy trying to see what color my insides were.
As that Zabuza also turned into water, revealed to be another water clone, yet again Zabuza materialized behind Kakashi. "Die!" He bellowed even as his sword screamed towards the Silver haired Jonin.
This one actually managed to separate my sensei from most of his torso and his legs.
Sakura screamed in terror and denial even as Kakashi's body dispersed into even more water, revealing him to be a water clone as well. He then appeared behind Zabuza with a kunai held to his throat.
"It was a good try, but not good enough. Now it's over." Kakashi spoke calmly, brimming with self-assurance.
"Impressive. You managed to copy my water clone, but you'll need to do better to trick me." Zabuza laughed condescendingly as Kakashi's eyes widened, even as the Zabuza in front of him dissolved into water once more.
Kakashi tried to turn and defend himself, but knew instantly that he wouldn't be able to make it in time.
A distinct lack of high-ranking missions, dedicated training, and conditioning had caused his edge to dull and he'd lost a step that he couldn't afford to lose.
However I knew what was coming, even if there were more water clones than I thought there would be. And damn there were a lot of water clones running around.
So before the only person who was stronger than me AND wanted me to stay safe was punted like football I was already moving.
Manipulating my chakra in a way I had done thousands of times, through my clones, I gathered it in my right hand and instantly converted it to wind nature chakra while shaping it into a keen edge.
Slashing my hand from above my head down to my waist I unleashed my technique.
"Beast Tearing Palm" A vertical wave of wind natured chakra formed with the sole purpose of tearing whatever might be unfortunate enough to make contact with it into tiny, tiny, blood splattered pieces was sent roaring at Zabuza.
He barely managed to react in time and prevent the loss of his leg, but it still managed to leave a deep gash on his foot as he whipped the appendage back and away from my technique and sensei.
"GRAH!" He screamed through clenched teeth, suppressing the undoubtedly excruciating pain of having all the skin and muscle on the bottom of his foot shorn off. Blood began to gush from the wound even as he tried to recover his balance.
Kakashi recovered first. Moving in for the kill, his Sharingan eye was blazing with the desire to protect his comrades as the tomoe spun wildly.
I followed quickly on his heels.
Zabuza managed to fend off Kakashi's first blow, but while he was preoccupied I ducked under his giant blade and delivered a devastating slice to his hamstring on the opposite side of his previous wound before back flipping and springing away from the beast.
I was thanking all the gods in both my lives that I had learned some Ninjutsu in the time I had, and especially that I had learned the Hien from Asuma. Wind chakra weapons are such a cheat when you're a newbie.
No one expected a fresh-faced Genin to be able to use them, and they are dangerous enough that they can bring down the big boys if I got a good enough shot in.
Obviously demonstrated by my slaughter of the Demon Brothers, and my wounding and crippling of Zabuza.
With his mobility drastically reduced Zabuza was now taking a beating from Kakashi, who was unleashing a barrage of fire Jutsu, shuriken and kunai attacks, and Taijutsu assaults, he had cuts, contusions, and burns littering his body and blood pouring from the wounds we had inflicted upon him.
Still he was proving that he deserved his reputation, blurring through hand seals at a tremendous rate in order to unleash a, no doubt powerful, Jutsu.
However Kakashi wasn't known as the Copy-Ninja for nothing and equaled and then surpassed the speed of his hand seals.
Kakashi finished slightly before Zabuza did, but they both managed to unleash the technique.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu" The two water dragons went roaring at each other before colliding with the force of a raging hurricane, scattering waves, droplets of water, and debris everywhere.
Both Kakashi and Zabuza were panting at this point, however Zabuza was in distinctly worse shape with all the blood he had lost.
"Can-can you see the future? You knew what Jutsu I was going to use and beat me to it." Zabuza was freaking out, obviously unused to being the one taken by surprise and intimidated by the Sharingan's impressive reputation.
"Yes, and your future…is death. This is the end!" Kakashi shouted as he blurred though hand seals at a rate eclipsing anything I had seen before.
"Chidori" Suddenly the air was filled with the sound of hundreds of chirping birds, all singing at once, as his hand glowed a distinct and unearthly blue.
Then he vanished, moving with such speed that I momentarily lost sight of him before reappearing with his hand tearing through Zabuza's side as the Demon of the Mist somehow anticipated the attack and flung himself sideways.
He just barely managed to prevent Kakashi's technique from piercing through his heart.
There was a hole where flesh used to exist, burnt black by the electrical discharge of the A rank, assassination technique.
Zabuza slowly fell to the ground and began coughing up copious amounts of blood, unable to so much as move or speak.
I joined Kakashi as we made our way towards the downed Missing-Nin, side-by-side, ready to finish him off.
When senbon came flying out of the air to impale our enemy's neck, causing him to lose all signs of life and flop lifelessly to the ground.
Kakashi and I both whipped around and fell into defensive stances as another person appeared, dressed as a Kiri Hunter-Nin.
"I have been following him for quite some time and you gave me a chance to kill him. You have my thanks." The masked Hunter-Nin, who I knew to be Haku, picked up the body and hefted it on to his shoulder.
"Happy to help Hunter-san" Kakashi drawled while maintaining his ready stance, but I could see the exhaustion creeping over his visage. I remained silent, no need to mess up a good thing with everything going mostly according to canon except Zabuza a bit more banged up and Kakashi a bit less.
With a nod the fake Hunter-Nin disappeared with Zabuza over his shoulder. I immediately turned to Kakashi and yanked his Hitai-ate down to cover his Sharingan and tossed one of his arms over my shoulders.
"You Bakakashi! We had him. There was no need to use such a chakra intensive Jutsu, we could have just outlasted him and kept him busy with lower ranked Jutsu. Now you're going to be suffering from chakra exhaustion for the next few days." I berated my irresponsible sensei on his bonehead move.
"Although it's not as bad as it could be. At least you're still able to move and haven't passed out yet." Said moron chuckling weakly cut my Kakashi bashing short.
His tone was relaxed, but a hint of steely resolve lay underneath the surface. "You're right, but I can't help that I want to keep my precious students safe."
That shut me up. "Besides I couldn't let my student, the dead-last of his age group say he did more damage to Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist than I did, now could I?" He cheerily asked me as if I would agree with his reasoning.
"Idiotic, perverted, lazy, good-for-nothing Bakakashi. That's your reason? Moron." I muttered darkly, promising him pain in the future.
"Thank you Naruto." Once again Kakashi's tone had turned serious. "You had my back and covered me when I made a mistake that I could have paid for with all of our lives. You prevented that from happening, so thank you. And good job."
"Yeah…I guess. You're welcome, happy to help." I didn't know what to say to that. Retard Naruto was never good at receiving compliments and that seemed to have carried over to some extent.
"Sasuke, Sakura, bring Tazuna and lets hurry to his house. I'm exhausted and need to rest and recover." Kakashi ordered the remainder of our team and spurred them into action, finally.
Sasuke was fuming about his lack of use during the battle. Resentment and jealousy filled the air around him in a palpable cloud.
Tazuna quickly took the lead, hurrying to put distance between the emo with a power fetish and himself.
Even Sakura seems to realize that something bad was going on with Sasuke, and kept glancing between him and me worriedly.
When we reached Tazuna's house he hustled us inside where we were greeted by his daughter Tsunami, a beautiful woman who epitomized the phrase Yamato Nadeshiko. She kindly welcomed us into her home and showed me where I could leave Kakashi to rest for the night.
As I lowered him to the bed, he already seemed asleep so I turned and made to leave. He reached out and caught my arm.
"Thank you again Naruto, I might not have made it if it wasn't for you. You saved my life and most likely those of everyone else in the team." Kakashi began before his serious tone gave way to a small, tired smile.
"But you've grown remarkably Naruto. I know I haven't been responsible for much of it, but I really do believe that teamwork is the foundation to true strength as a team. Let Sasuke and Sakura know that they did well too." The infamous Copy-Nin then proceeded to pass out.
"Man, you really are a Bakakashi." I let out a put upon sigh. Then I threw my lackluster sensei a bone and gave him a solid jab, hoping it would spur him on.
"Like I would let anything happen to my comrades if I have the power to stop it. We're all lucky that I've been able to advance so far on my own initiative, Sasuke and Sakura would have been useless against him."
I ran a hand through my spiky, blond hair in mild exasperation and disappointment.
"You should stop dwelling on what has already happened and train so that you can prevent something like it from happening again. You're powerful, but Zabuza had you dead to rights when he shouldn't have been able to touch you. Think on it and make your choice between the past and the present before the present becomes the past."
Without looking back I silently walked out of the room and gently closed the door behind me, not noticing the stream of tears trickling from Kakashi's single, uncovered eye as he stared unseeingly at the ceiling.
Dinner was quiet and short, all of us wanting to eat and get to sleep as soon as possible. The only notable occurrence was Inari's outburst about how we were going to die and that there was no such thing as heroes as he ran to his room. I easily ignored the brat.
Fun fact. Uchiha Sasuke snores really loudly AND I recorded it for future use. Muahahaha, take that for robbing me of my sleep asshole!
I awoke early, around 4 in the twilight between ungodly night and unholy morning, and before anyone else was up I had set about my morning routine. Making my morning ablutions and setting about making 800 shadow clones to work on increasing my most needed abilities.
100 of them immediately took off to keep working on my wind nature chakra transformation. The next group was made of 300 to power level my lightning nature chakra transformation, which, while it was coming along wasn't as advanced as my wind.
Thankfully both of these exercises counted as chakra control training, as I still felt I was using stupid amounts of chakra for my lower level techniques.
50 were to keep working on perfecting my Shurikenjutsu and Bukijutsu in general. The other 50 of this group would be cranking out some Fuinjutsu, which doubled as training and gaining supplies for me to use.
Another 50 swiftly began to run through my Goken katas at near combat speed, focusing on flowing from one stance and motion into the next while maintaining control as well as power and speed.
The other 50 were set to work on the speed and accuracy of my hand seals.
The second to last group of 100 clones Shunshined away to continue working on my shape transformation. If I hadn't taken so long shaping my chakra back when I attacked Zabuza with my Beast Tearing Palm then I may have been able to injure him more severely. Once again this should also help with my chakra control, thankfully.
The last 100 of them were to go through my current Jutsu repertoire and continue my path to mastery, as in reducing the number of hand seals and the amount of chakra I needed to actually use them.
I on the other hand would be solely focused on the physical aspect of my training, building up my speed and strength as much as possible in the next week or so in order to better compete with Haku's speed and try to contest Zabuza's strength.
I finished up pounding myself into the ground and dragged my drained carcass into the house at around 8 o'clock, for breakfast.
Everyone seemed surprised to see me enter from outside the house for whatever reason.
"Where were you?" Sasuke demanded of me, still seething with his jealousy of the 'power' I showed against Zabuza.
"Not your business, but I was training. Next time I want to take his leg off instead of merely grazing it." I responded evenly, but with a slightly vicious undertone, knowing that it would encourage him to push himself harder.
I deliberately looked at Sakura as I deliver a cruel barb. "Maybe the two of you should consider it so that you can actually provide Bakakashi and me with some help next time."
I was hoping that this would encourage her to take her training more seriously and work towards actually being a real kunoichi some time before Shippuden. If she even made it that far, which I was feeling more and more doubtful about.
"You can't expect us to go against a monster like that!" The banshee cried with offended sensibilities.
"You're right." I freely agreed with her, cutting her response off before it could truly begin. "However I can expect you not to freeze and be useless. Merely offering support and actually being able to keep a guard on the client while we do the actual fighting would be incredibly helpful."
"And Zabuza isn't a monster. Not even close. He's an A rank Missing-Nin, true. But A ranks are chumps compared to the real monsters." I whipped out my BINGO book and flipped it to a particular page before putting it right in her face.
"This is a real monster. Uchiha Itachi, S rank Missing-Nin. He slaughtered his entire clan in order to merely test his power and he killed all of them but one without even suffering an injury. Zabuza is a wannabe compared to him." I glanced at Sasuke and saw him seething, teeth gritted and intense hatred darkening his visage.
"That's why you need to train as hard as you can, any chance you get. Because if you think people like Zabuza are unsurpassable mountains, then you won't be able to even lift a finger if a real monster appears before you and threatens all you hold dear." I snapped the book shut and took my place at the dead quiet table.
"Besides, one day we'll have to help Sasuke-san get his revenge. As his teammates and maybe one day his friends, it will be our responsibility to make sure that he has his shot at Itachi, by taking care of anyone with him, as many times as he needs." My tone was rock solid and final, causing Sakura to blanch and swivel to look at 'her Sasuke-kun'.
Sasuke had frozen, his jealousy and hate having vanished at my words. Shock and disbelief clear in his posture and face.
"After all, we are all Shinobi of Konoha. We're all comrades." I looked up from my food and eye-smiled first at Sasuke and then at Tsunami. "The meal was delicious, thank you Tsunami-chan."
"Well said Naruto." Kakashi called out just as Tsunami blushed and said "Oh, thank you Naruto-kun."
"Speaking of training, I'll be teaching you something new in order to try and get you ready to face off against Zabuza again." Kakashi used my sermon as a segue.
"WHAT!?" Sakura returned to normal banshee form. "But Zabuza is dead isn't he? That Hunter-Nin finished him off!"
"No, I agree with Bakakashi. He used senbon, which are notoriously difficult to inflict fatal wounds with and instead of cutting off Zabuza's head and burning the body, or even just taking the Kubikiribocho; he took Zabuza's entire body.
That means that it's likely that Zabuza is alive and recovering right now and will attack again relatively soon, but with his accomplice this time." I relayed my future knowledge as my own conclusions, garnering a respectful and appreciative nod from Kakashi.
"Exactly, I would hazard to guess that Zabuza will try again within a week to ten days regardless of his health. And while you might not think that any amount of training done within a week will let you fight Zabuza evenly, and you are entirely correct, it will help increase the chances of your survival." Kakashi cut off Sakura's counter argument before it could even start.
Looks like I'm not the only one who wants her to grow stronger. I guess the fight with Zabuza and my words may have actually gotten through to the Copy-Nin.
Out in the forest Kakashi faced the three of us and waited for the inevitable question. Thankfully he didn't seem to need the crutch he used in canon, but it's also obvious that he was extremely fatigued.
"So what are you going to be teaching us Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked after waiting a few minutes for Kakashi to do anything. I guess I didn't fully fix him yet.
"I'm glad you asked Sakura! I'm going to teach you how to climb trees." Then he eye-smiled as the bastard waited for the standard response.
"But we already know how to climb trees." Sakura complained, shocked at the useless nature of Kakashi's training.
"Hn." Sasuke threw out his own agreement. His eyes however remained fixed on me as I continued reading my Intermediate Sealing book.
"Without using your hands." Kakashi retorted in a chipper voice, obviously enjoying this.
"But that's impossible Kakashi-sensei!" Shrieked Sakura again. Damn it I need to break her of that and soon.
"Oh?" Amusement dripping from his voice Kakashi turned and placed one foot on the trunk of a tree and proceeded to walk up it as if it were flat ground before stopping on the underside of a branch and standing upside down.
"So this is impossible? Well I guess I don't need to teach it to you then. However if you do want to learn, you concentrate your chakra to your feet and use it to stick to the surface of the tree. Too much and you'll break the bark and push yourself off, too little and you'll just slide off and fall." Kakashi really did enjoy messing with his students.
Three kunai flew through the air and landed at our feet. "Use those to mark your progress, and you might want to take a running start." He proceeded to walk back down the tree and sit down with his smut.
"I'm done. I figured this out months ago." I drawled from my perch at the top of a tree, hanging upside down like a bat and still reading my book.
"I can also do the water walking exercise too." I volunteered. Just to crush any hopes he had of seeing me fall into water with my clothes on.
Anime tears streaming down his face Kakashi wailed into the air. "Why Naruto!? Why do you always take the joys of being a Jonin sensei from me!?"
"Huh? Did you say something Bakakashi?" I didn't even deign to look up from my book.
Somewhere a man in green spandex felt a warm glow in his heart. "YOSH SOMEONE'S FLAMES OF YOUTH HAVE EXPLODED ALL OVER MY ETERNAL RIVAL! IT MUST BE NARUTO-KUN! YOOOOOOOOOSH, I AM SO PROUD OF MY STUDENT THAT I WILL DO 10 MILLION PUSH UPS WITH A 10,000 KG BOULDER ON MY BACK TO CELEBRATE HIS YOUTH AND FAN MY OWN FLAMES TO AN INFERNO OF YOOOOOOOOOUTHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"YOOOOOOOOOOUTHHHHHHHH!" Parroted his mini clone.
The two others with them simply face-palmed, as the bandits they were about to ambush were now looking at them and knew exactly where they were.
A mini rainstorm immediately settled over Kakashi's head and began pouring on him as he crouched down and began drawing squiggles in the ground with a finger. "He used my thing against me…I want to be proud, but somehow I'm just devastated."
"Sakura." I got her attention. "When you get this, and you will get it before Sasuke."
Said emo scowled at the challenge to his Uchiha superiority before I explained my reasoning.
"That is because you have such miniscule reserves, which makes them exceptionally easy to control. Unlike Sasuke, who has higher than average reserves for a Genin. So once you have the exercise down you'll need to keep doing it in order to begin increasing your reserves to acceptable levels. I want you to walk up and down your tree until you feel exhausted. Then sit and rest until you've recovered, then repeat until Sasuke is finished for the day." I ended with a lazy wave before jumping down from my tree, batman style, and walking over to Kakashi.
Sasuke smirked at my supposed acknowledgement of him as an 'elite' while Sakura paled at the thought of doing so much work. However they both set about working on the exercise.
"You really aren't a good teacher are you?" I seriously asked Kakashi as I stood next to him and watched my fellow Genin train.
"No, I really am not." He responded agreeably.
"I have a lightning affinity." I began, knowing that he probably knew where I was going with this. "I'd like for you to teach me that Jutsu you used to carve up Zabuza. Chidori, was it?"
He nodded in confirmation of the name, if not acceptance of teaching me the technique.
"I'm already well into nature transformation and shape manipulation for both my wind and lightning affinities, and I think you've already realized that I'm more advanced skill wise and more mature mentally than the rest of my age group. So please teach me how to use that technique." I bowed my head in supplication and began to plan what I might have to do to convince him.
"Okay." Came the simple reply, causing me to fall over in surprise at how easily he accepted.
"Why?" I wanted to confirm why he's going to teach me an A rank assassination Jutsu as a Genin, without any convincing.
"As you said, you're already much more advanced than them," he lazily gestured at the other two who were struggling to tree-climb, "in a variety of ways."
He fixed his heavy lidded gaze on me and I felt a shiver go down my spine.
"And besides, you're the only one here besides me that has a chance of lasting more than a few seconds against Zabuza. That and you more than likely saved my life in that fight, holding you back when I could help you would be self-defeating."
A cheery eye-smile accompanied his next revelations. "We both know that you're far above most Chunin at this point anyway. I'd have to see what else you can do, but from what I've seen you could be approaching Tokubetsu to newly promoted Jonin levels soon if you can use more than one elemental nature type."
Actually I didn't know that.
I knew that my Taijutsu was definitely getting up there, that I had a decent assortment of wind Jutsu and a small repertoire of lightning Jutsu, and that my basics were rock solid. However I didn't really know how that all fit together and where that left me in regards to rank and overall strength.
Wow, the Kage Bunishin no Jutsu training method added to Uzumaki stamina and persistence (crazy), and the healing from being the Kyubi Jinchuriki really was SUPER HAX.
While I was lost in thought, also known as my inner monologue, I felt a spike of bloodlust and managed to dodge a kunai aimed at my head on pure instinct.
However the next instant I felt cold steel at my throat as a voice purred in my ear. "You're getting sloppy Blondie-kun. At least you managed to avoid my kunai, but sadly that means I'll have to cut you to taste that blood of yours that I like so much."
Staying perfectly still in order to not cut my own throat I merely sighed, I feel like I've been sighing a lot recently, and greeted my assailant. "Anko-chan, it's great to see you again. I'm so happy that the Hokage sent you as our backup." My monotone may have put lie to my statement though, as I could almost feel her pouting.
"Awww, you're no fun Blondie-kun. Not even a flinch. But I still have you this time!" My psychotic, sometime sensei (friend?) crowed in triumph.
"Do you?" I proceeded have a troop of clones surround her with kunai at her vitals. "That one you have is a clone too, so I guess that means you lose this one too Anko-chan." I waved from my new position by Kakashi's other side where I had ended up after substituting with the clone in front of her.
"So many Blondie-kuns! Are they all for me?" Anko's smile was predatory and extremely seductive. She leaned forward just enough to squish her breasts against my clone's back and began to rub herself against it all while giving the real me bedroom eyes. "I guess your clone gets to be the one to touch me then."
Her tongue traced shapes on the skin of my clone's neck and eventually found his ear. That along with the stimulation of her breasts pushing and rubbing against his back and the dainty hand that reached around and fondled his manhood had him a blushing, erect, and very happy mess.
While my clone struggled not to moan in pleasure and desire, Anko continued speaking as if she wasn't even trying to give my clone a stiffy or the OTPHJ (over the pants hand job) of his short life. "I came to the Land of the Waves because I wanted to spend some quality time with my Blondie-kun and all I got was this stupid clone. Besides…" She paused and sped up her hand. "I thought I told you to call me Anko-nee?"
My clone burst.
Not in that way you pervert!
Okay, almost in that way…
But I was talking about how Anko drove her kunai through his neck just as he was about to finish. Talk about ultimate blue balls, and his memories transferred directly to me.
"Urgh!" Every other clone around doubled over as they sprouted sudden erections and were unexpectedly assaulted with massive blue balls and memories of death before release.
I was no exception, and found myself on the ground clutching my junk as it throbbed angrily.
Thankfully an appalled Sakura and a slightly curious Sasuke distracted Anko at that moment.
"Wh-who are you and what the Hell were you just doing to Naruto!?" The human siren screeched out in righteous fury and embarrassment. Sasuke just nodded as if including himself in her questions.
"Me?" Anko seemed genuinely shocked that they didn't know who she was. "I'm not only Blondie-kun's very own Nee-san. I am the extremely sexy and currently single Mitarashi Anko!" She struck a pose, hands on her hips and chest thrust out as if expecting praise and applause.
"Until Blondie-kun gets a bit older and decides that he'd like to learn about the snake in the cave. Then I'll be the extremely sexy and unfortunately for all things male and female, I don't discriminate, taken Mitarashi Anko." At this she started to run her hands over her body and wiggle a little bit as she licked her lips, causing each of my clones to flinch and grab his manhood in phantom pain and true arousal.
"Until he proposes and then I suppose I'd be the devastatingly sexy and happily married, but unfortunately no longer available to fuck like a dirty slut, Uzumaki Anko! Oh! But I'll be boinking Blondie-kun however he likes." Everyone sweat-dropped at this, not knowing what to say in response. I gave a longsuffering sigh again as my clones all popped and my pants grew even tighter.
"You're a bit late." I tried to get the conversation back on less perilous subjects. "I'll let one of my clones fill you in, Kakashi-sensei was about to teach me a new Jutsu so I'll talk to you later Anko-chan."
I motioned for Kakashi to join me as I created a new clone and begin to waddle away, as my pants were uncomfortably tight around my junk and restricted my movement.
Now as an aside, in my old, non-ninja, life, fanfiction authors liked to joke that Hinata liked and stalked Naruto because he was hung…I wouldn't be surprised if that was her reason. I could club a baby seal to death with this thing and I'm, like, 12.
Seriously.
"Oh, do you mind watching over those two while they train? They're doing tree climbing. Maybe you can provide some incentive for them to work harder?" I offered to the crazy, sexy, snake lady over my shoulder.
"Oh Blondie-kun, this is why I love you! You give me the best presents!" She cheered before turning to my teammates with a homicidal grin. "You better start working harder and moving faster, or else you'll have to learn how to do this with only one leg!"
The kunai and shuriken began to fly and screams rang through the air as Kakashi and I walked away.
"You…you are a wonderful student!" Kakashi gave me a 'thumbs up' as proud tears streamed from his visible eye.
That night while we were eating dinner, Anko was hanging off my side blabbing away happily about something or another.
Kakashi was busy reading his smut, and my teammates were nursing fresh bruises and cuts as they shoveled food into their mouths like they were starving to death, before both of their heads thunked down on the table.
I was reading my Sealing book, enjoying the feeling of Anko's leg pressing and rubbing against mine, subtly focusing on how her breasts felt when pushed up against my arm and shoulder, and lazily preventing her from either assailing my teammates with various weapons or sneaking her hand into my pants.
I was only 12 after all, and as much as I knew I would enjoy whatever she did to me, it was not to be done in front of others.
If we were alone I would probably (definitely) just let her do whatever she wanted and try to enjoy it as much as possible…and record it.
I would definitely record it.
Unfortunately I knew this atmosphere wouldn't last, and as I thought, it didn't.
"You're all going to die." Came a high pitched and petulant voice.
"Hmm? You say something pipsqueak?" I asked in my best Kakashi voice as Kakashi himself clenched his fist in victory at having passed on his 'thing' to the next generation.
"I said that you're all going to die!" He screamed at me. "You can't beat Gato, no one can! So you're all going to die. You aren't heroes, they don't exist!"
I mildly close my book with one hand, while with the other I soothingly took Anko's hand away from the sharp object she was about to launch and drew little patterns on the back of her hand and knuckles.
Kakashi was in shock as Anko practically melted against his student due to him rubbing her hand.
Anko!
The crazy, murderous, psychopathic, slutty, reprehensible, snake bitch of Konoha!
The woman who assaulted, slept around, and violently hurt people for amusement.
That Anko!
And now she sported a soft blush, was nuzzling his cute, little student's cheek, running her tongue over his neck, and had little pink hearts wafting off of her as she purred in contentment while giving him the 'you're getting lucky tonight' look.
What the Hell did Naruto do to her!?
Where he could get him some, and did it work on other women too?
I cleared my throat while I carefully crafted my response and thought about how much I wanted to dig at Inari.
"So in reverse order. You're right that we aren't heroes. We're shinobi, we kill heroes and villains and everything in between. You're wrong that heroes don't exist though, heroes are those who stand up for their beliefs and loved ones no matter the cost and they most certainty do exist. Regarding Gato. He's just a funny, little man with lots of money. As soon as we defeat Zabuza, the ninja that Gato hired, for the second time I might add, we will be able to kill Gato at any time we want. As for us dying."
I shrugged at this point. "It's possible, but that's the life we signed up for when we became shinobi. However at least we'll go out fighting for what we believe in and with friends at our side and not sitting at home whining about how hard our lives are and wishing failure and death on the family that only wants what is best for us. You see little boy, we are what stands between your grandfather, mother, village, country, and yourself and Gato. So if we die all of you will as well."
I softly brought Anko's hand up to my masked lips and planted a soft, short kiss on her palm that had her melting down into a puddle on the floor. "I'll be taking my leave now. I'll be outside training to work off some steam. Thank you for the wonderful meal Tsunami-chan."
With that I left and prepared to train through the night and meet Haku in the morning.