Hey Guys (term meant to be gender neutral).
Naruto wandered the streets of Genkai as he took in the sights the city had to offer. Fuu-sensei had given him a book on this which he read on the way, and had been quite surprised that the letters didn't seem to dance around that much. The trick Jiji taught him with the clones had been neat too, he could have them read more stuff even when he got bored.
From what he, or his clone had read this city was old…like way old. It had been a fishing town, which was reformed by a retired officer of the Fire Country's Navy. Over centuries, and especially due to the large deep basin where the harbour was made - this city had grown as the largest port in the country, and the second largest in the world after Isekai in Water Country.
Plus the place was huge. It was probably thrice the size of the village, and there were a lot more people on the streets than Naruto had ever seen in his life.
He really didn't know why he had to read so much boring stuff about the city, but figured it was just a part of Jiji's training - he had a weird way of teaching lessons.
Anyways, the book also said that there was a ton of cool stuff he could buy here that he wouldn't get anywhere else. Increased trade meant that more stuff came through here, and it meant he could probably find something nice for himself with all the money he had saved in the past few months.
Wandering around he came near a big shop with a lot of shiny jewellery. He was about to turn and look for a weapons shop, but stopped on his tracks when he saw a ramen stand.
He was still allowed one bowl right? He could atleast see how ramen here compared with Ichiraku's back home.
He sat on the stool and ordered a large bowl of his favourite miso with extra pork. Happily munching on the noodles he looked at the old couple that was running the shop, it reminded him a bit about Ichiraku.
Naruto didn't clearly remember the first time he had gone to Ichiraku's, but he remembered it as the only place that served him food with a smile. Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-neechan were super-nice to him, and even fed him for free sometimes when he was younger and didn't have much money on him.
His eyes fell on one of the servers as she tied her hair using a stylish looking clip, it made him remember how Ayame-neechan always just used an old ribbon to do hers.
…maybe he could get her something? Afterall she had been really nice to him and he felt like he should do something for her. The fact that he was in a city miles from Konoha certainly helped, he wouldn't be kicked out of any shop just for being himself.
In the end he ended up buying a set of hairclips from the jewellery shop he had crossed earlier, the weren't super-expensive but they weren't cheap either. He also ended up buying a few books from a roadside seller for Iruka-sensei, he liked to read. He even bought some stuff for himself, and even a gift for Danzo-Jiji.
Maybe he could get something for Kagome too, he couldn't get the image of her crying out of his head.
…
Kakashi looked on as his team stood at the port, Sasuke was looking at the ship they would be boarding, Sakura standing near him. Naruto for his part was standing by the side and seemed to be fidgeting with a hairclip of all things.
'Looks like I needn't worry too much,' Kakashi thought. Though he supposed that the blonde should be prepared for an eventual heartbreak, given that Sakura seemed to be completely enamoured by Sasuke.
…
Naruto looked on at the open sea, their mission was to accompany the ship to the 'exchange port', and from what he learnt from talking with the sailors they would be making the trade in the middle of the ocean. There was no 'port' technically at which they would exchange the cargo for money.
"…its how business operates in the seas kiddo," the sailor spoke, "You make a deal in International waters, it means you don't have to pay a penny in taxes and no regulations of any country apply either. Plus we only deal at the high seas with people we trust. The only downside is that we got plenty of pirates in the open waters too, that's why we hire you guys."
Naruto marvelled at the sheer genius of the traders, he had learnt about taxes from a few books and not having to pay them meant that these guys could make a hell lot more money than they could if the deal was made on land.
…but it also meant a greater chance for action, he was atleast a bit hopeful that he could get a chance to be cool somehow. Though not using all the stuff Jiji taught him sucked.
His wishes were soon answered.
…
Sasuke looked on as the second ship came near to them and dropped its anchor. A plank was lowered to make a makeshift bridge and the workers started moving the cargo from one ship to another.
That was when the dobe started acting funny.
He suddenly started running to the opposite site of the deck and started frantically looking at the water.
"Kakashi-sensei!" he shouted, "I think that there's something under the water!"
"It's called a fish dobe," Sasuke spoke as he looked at the shadow the blonde was pointing to, "What, you haven't seen one before?"
"Fishes don't stay at the same place for so much time teme!" Naruto spoke.
Sasuke felt something.
BOOM!
The deck shook as an explosion rocked the ship from under the water, suddenly people clad in black robes wearing breathers started crawling up from the ocean and onto the ship.
"Team!" Kakashi shouted, "Defend the cargo and the sailors! Get in the extended triangle formation and hold!"
…
Naruto felt a moment of overwhelming panic as a big guy wearing a breather appeared in front of him. He felt his body freeze as the guy drew a sword and swung it at his side.
Suddenly time slowed down.
Naruto didn't know what happened, one moment the guy was attacking him and suddenly his head was filled with memories of his fights with Ginko-sensei.
He noticed that the guy was swinging from his left, but he was nowhere near as fast as Ginko-sensei was…so he dodged the first strike easily.
The guy swung again, and this time Naruto parried it with a kunai.
The guy swung a third time, and this time Naruto could see that he had over-extended. Reacting out of pure instinct Naruto jumped as the hit missed, using the momentum from his jump Naruto kneed the guy right on his nose, it broke with a sickening crunch and the man fell down, unconscious.
'That was…too easy,' Naruto thought as he fell back onto the deck and ran over to his teammates. He was grateful for the fact that he was on the opposite side of the deck, and that in the chaos no one from his team seemed to have seen him do that.
"Alright, remember what Jiji said, you gotta do as you are supposed to do – as if you're not trained at all…" Naruto mumbled as he made the required hand seals for his technique, "Multi-shadow clone technique!"
Suddenly the deck was full of orange. The clones charged the enemies falling over each other as they did so, and in the chaos team 7 emerged victorious.
…
Kakashi looked over as his team tied up the remnants of the attackers. In a total there had been 10 people, all of them ex-fishermen who were led by a missing-nin from Kirigakure. The missing-nin had chosen to engage him while letting his underlings deal with the Genin.
From what he had learnt from the attackers, it had started out quite well, they had all used breathers that they had stolen from water country for their activities. They used to check on trading ships with a telescope from their hideout, and then park their own ship far away before getting underwater and damaging the ships with explosions, then they would overwhelm the ship and signal for their comrades to come over and finish what they had started.
It had worked quite well for sometime i.e. until today when they had tried to get their hands on a bigger ship to get more booty. Apparently the leader had failed to recognise him and they had made little changes in the plan even after knowing that this ship was under a shinobi guard.
He walked over to the deck and checked on the prisoners, his attention was drawn to one of the older, more burlier men who seemed to have taken a rather nasty knee to his nose.
'Looks like Sasuke got this one pretty hard,' Kakashi thought as he walked away. It was a good thing that no one in the team froze up.
He walked over to the captain, the ship was heading to land for repairs and Kakashi needed to talk to him about upgrading the mission rank considering the threats they had faced.
…
Naruto looked on as the ship neared a port, Kakashi-sensei had told them that the blast had damaged the ship quite a bit and that they would be docking for repairs in a port at Wave Country. Soon enough the ship was at the port and Kakashi-sensei gave them permission to wander around a bit.
Considering what he had seen at Genkai, Naruto had been expecting something similar, if not smaller in comparison from a city that was located at the harbour. But as soon as he left the docks, he was faced with a something completely unexpected.
As he moved around the city he could smell the decay, not physically but in the people's lives. Skinny children moved around the streets, there were quite a few beggars and the few shops Naruto saw didn't have much to offer. This was completely contrary to the docks, there were a lot of people there in expensive clothing, there were big ships full of goods and there was a big billboard of 'Gato Corporation' that hung on the top office.
If the docks had this much money, shouldn't the people living here be better off?
Just then Naruto felt some of the people around eyeing him, he knew the look and though he knew he could easily take them…he didn't want to cause trouble.
So he went into an alleyway and vanished.
…
"A week?" Kakashi asked.
"Yes, I'm afraid so Hatake-san," the captain spoke, "It will take some time for the ship to be repaired here considering this isn't a big port. But since the goods have already been delivered, you are relieved of your duties. You can hang around if you want though, we'll give you a lift back to Genkai."
Kakashi held his chin in his palm in silent contemplation, staying a week in an unknown location for an extended period of time was not something someone of his reputation could risk. The associated risks only increased if he considered his team.
"Thank you for the offer Shigaraki-san," Kakashi spoke, "But I think we'll hit the road."
Afterall by the time the ship would repaired, they could already be back home. He went over to his team and told them to pack up for a road journey. They would travel through Wave Country to the other side, then take a boat to Fire Country and run along to the village.
It was a simple rejig in the return process, quite routine in missions. They had managed to cover significant ground before he caught the scent of familiar blood.
…
Zabuza stared at the body of the co*cky leaf ninja that lay before him, the movement in his chest being the only indication that he was still alive.
'Not for long,' Zabuza thought, he had carved up the guy pretty good. His teammates had already been knocked out, now he just needed to get rid of him and the bridge builder and he could call it a day. He generally avoided killing shinobi these days as he had enough people after his head already, but this guy had pissed him off a lot more than the others.
Suddenly alarm bells rung in his mind, it was only due to the instincts honed through years of training that he was able to dodge the Kunai that had been aimed at his jugular.
That was when he saw the second Kunai, hidden in the shadow of the first one. He twisted his body at an unnatural angle and swung his sword at the ground to gain momentum for a higher jump. From that angle he saw a thin line of wire was attached to the second kunai…it was touching his skin. The wire began to glow an eerie white as electricity began to course through his body.
It was then that Zabuza exploded into a shower of water, and a thick mist enveloped the area.
…
Kakashi cursed under his breath as he let go of the wire in his hands, meeting someone like Momochi Zabuza was not something he had planned on this detour. He could have just let someone like that go by if not for the fact that a nearly dead Team of Konoha Shinobi lay at his feet. That was when Kakashi had decided to attack, he could not leave his comrades to die at the hands of such a man.
However his initial assault had failed, Zabuza had managed to substitute himself with a water clone and now he had lost the element of surprise.
…but it wasn't like all was lost. His attack had managed to create distance between Zabuza and the Leaf Shinobi, and while his team could tend to them he would take on Zabuza.
With that, Kakashi disappeared in a shushin, his Sharingan uncovered.
…
Sasuke felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his neck as his teammates made the manji formation around the fallen leaf shinobi, he was feeling overwhelmed from the sheer intent the fight between Kakashi and the swordsman was radiating.
'So this is the intent…of a Jonin,' Sasuke thought, 'What should I do, I can't take it anymore…'
"Sasuke, relax," Kakashi spoke, his chakra spiked and the oppressing feeling lessened, "I'll never let my comrades die."
Sasuke felt a bit more confident as he gripped his kunai, seeing anything at all was difficult in this mist and the enemy could be anywhere. Suddenly the dobe drew 2 kunai and swung them randomly in opposite directions, Sakura was about to call him on it when both were deflected and 2 Zabuzas emerged from the mist.
"It seems there's more to the blond shrimp than just an orange eyesore," the Zabuza on the left as both of them swung their large swords.
Thank goodness Kakashi was able to intercept them both, he formed a hand seal and water coalesced into a clone.
'So this is the power of the Sharingan,' Sasuke thought. But how did Kakashi get that eye? From what Sasuke knew Kakashi was in no way related to the Uchiha clan…
"I'm honoured that the mighty Sharingan is out so early," Zabuza spoke as he clashed his sword with Kakashi's kunai, "But I'm going to have to cut this short."
They separated with a clang as either side lost their water clone.
That was when Sasuke's view was filled with a sea of orange, the dobe had formed multiple clones, atleast 30 from what he counted and ordered them to attack. Some of the clones started attacking Zabuza head on, and were obliterated without even getting close, but they blocked his view. Some of them stayed near the team and started pelting him with Kunai and Shuriken.
"Oi Sasuke," the dobe spoke in a low voice as he passed a folded Fuma Shuriken to him. Sasuke held it in his hand and nearly balked at the weight of the thing.
That was when the Dobe's plan struck him.
'Damn,' Sasuke thought, 'He might be an idiot, but he is certainly devious.'
…
Zabuza grunted as he dodged another hail of shuriken from the clones of the orange-clad shrimp. It wasn't much, infact to someone like him it was nothing more than an annoyance.
But against a fight with someone like Kakashi of the Sharingan, even an annoyance could be deadly…and that was not mentioning that all the orange was blinding in close sight. Sure, the clones were easy to dismiss and it took little more than a flick of his wrist, but everytime he got sidetracked doing it, he gave Kakashi an opening. He couldn't even get the time to form water clones of his own as he had tired himself out a bit in taking care of that Chunin team protecting the bridge builder, he was a bit low on chakra and was nearing his limit.
He dismissed another clone and jumped into the air to dodge a Fuma Shuriken thrown by the kid in blue that would have cut off his head, but his troubles only increased as another Fuma Shuriken hidden in the shadow of the first one came into his vision. He curled his body in mid-air to avoid the second shuriken, but the moment it was behind him, it transformed into the orange shrimp and threw a kunai at him.
Reluctantly Zabuza let go of his sword, the difference in weight reduced his momentum and the kunai merely grazed the side of his chest instead of plunging through his heart. Using his now free-hand Zabuza made a single hand seal and shouted.
"Water Release: Surging Sea!"
A torrent of water escaped from his mouth, it took all the blonde's copies with it and forced Kakashi to backtrack a little.
'Now' Zabuza thought as he suddenly felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck and the world darkened.
…
"Thank you, I have been chasing after him since some time now," Haku spoke from behind the mask of the Hunter-nin Zabuza-sama had killed a few weeks ago, "I shall now be taking my leave."
With that Haku heaved Zabuza's body onto his shoulder and ran as fast as he could, away from the group of leaf ninja. He had a shot on the pink-haired genin and the bridge builder, but he was glad that he held back. Not only did it spare him from the horrors of taking a life, it also let him save his precious person.
'It will take some time for Zabuza-sama to heal,' Haku thought, 'We're nearly out of medicine as well, I'll have to make more once he has healed a bit.'
Those thoughts in his mind, Haku went over to their temporary hideout, when had the leaf Chunin called for backup?
…
Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief as he lowered his headband and closed his Sharingan. Though he had his doubts with respect to the Hunter-nin he knew it wasn't the time to call it. He had a trio of tired Genin and a group of highly injured, and possibly dead Chunin to protect.
He walked over to the injured Shinobi lying on the ground and felt his pulse, the guy was still alive…but barely. The other 2 chunin in the team weren't in good shape either, having been carved up in different ways by Zabuza's hands. They needed a place to wash their wounds and start preliminary medicinal procedures, staying outside would only make their conditions worse.
Out of the periphery of his vision, he saw a terrified old man walk out from behind a tree, a broken saké bottle in his hand held as a makeshift weapon.
"We are from the leaf village," Kakashi spoke pointing to his headband, "Are you the client for this mission?"
The old man nodded and lowered the bottle, "My name is Tazuna."
"We need a place where they can rest," Kakashi spoke gesturing towards the Chunin, "Do you know any such place nearby?"
"I do," Tazuna spoke, "My house is not far away, they can rest there."
Kakashi nodded, the scroll he got from the lead Chunin's bag confirmed the identity of the man as their client. They needed to move fast.
He ordered his team to create stretchers from what they could find and had Tazuna lead them to his house. Once inside Kakashi had the Chunin laid down in one room and started his examination.
The girl on the team, Takamura Ginko was a medic and therefore he paid her the most attention. Kakashi had himself never delved deeply into the medical arts, only having copied some of the basics with his Sharingan, but that was more than enough to get Takamura up as her injuries were not that serious.
He then fed her a chakra pill and both of them worked on her teammates. They kept up the healing until they could, and then they collapsed from exhaustion.
…
Naruto looked around the room as he tucked in Kakashi-sensei and the other lady into a futon. Sensei said that he would be out for a few hours, so they had to keep a watch for enemies. Naruto formed a seal and a few clones appeared in the room, they exited from the room through the windows and moved around the house. He was a bit winded from making all those clones when they faced Zabuza, but nowhere as exhausted as Kakashi-sensei was.
Sasuke, being the 'oh so gracious one' had agreed to keep the first watch, but Naruto was sure he wouldn't mind backup if something was to come up.
With that he went to another room and collapsed into bed, this had been a long day.
…
Kakashi opened his eye to find himself in a room, a glass of water had been kept near his bedside for which he was grateful. He got up in a sitting position, but his entire body ached from the pain of having overexerted his chakra the last night.
"Sensei, you're awake," Sakura spoke as she came into his room.
"Yeah," Kakashi spoke, "Anything happen when I was out? What about the other team?"
"Nothing really," Sakura shook her head in response, "The guys on that team are still sleeping, Takamura-san awoke a few minutes ago but she's gone back to sleep again. Naruto is outside keeping watch."
Kakashi nodded, he picked up a few pills from his pouch and downed them with water, "I should be able to walk around again by this time tomorrow. Then we should probably start training."
"Training?" Sakura's eyes widened, "But sensei you're barely able to move…and why train right now? I mean can't we do that once we're back at the village?"
"Sakura," Kakashi spoke, "I'll explain everything tomorrow morning, until then you and your teammates rest well and keep watch around the house. Till then, let me rest."
With that Kakashi was out, and a confused Sakura went out to relay the message to her teammates.
…
Naruto sat on the roof as he thought over what Sakura spoke, why did they have to train at such a time?
Not that Naruto ever minded training, it was what he used to do day in and day out.
Afterall he had to be the Hokage and for that he had to work hard.
But training with Jiji had taught him a lot. The time he had spent training by himself for years was a far cry compared to what he had been doing with Jiji since the past few months. In the short span of time that Danzo-Jiji took over everything and forced him to do stuff in a 'structured manner' he had gotten far better than he had in an entire year by himself. He was much faster than when he was in the academy and he could now read many of the difficult words by himself as well. The letters didn't dance around like before, and when he had looked into the mirror a few days ago he had seen that his body was gaining the shape he had seen on a few guys in a manga he used to read.
So Naruto had accepted that working hard alone wasn't enough, you needed to do stuff in a particular and a really boring way of you wanted results, and that had to be done at the correct time in the correct way. It was pretty boring actually, but it gave results.
So why would they be training from tomorrow if Zabuza was already gone? They were hundreds of miles away from the village, protecting the other ninja who were badly injured and in need of almost constant care.
…unless there was some danger lurking around which Kakashi-sensei knew of. Maybe they needed to grow stronger to face something even worse than Zabuza?
Naruto shuddered at the thought but calmed down. He then made 10 clones who instantly moved away from the house and towards the city.
Afterall if there was one thing Danzo-Jiji had literally beaten into him it was mission protocol, and the first thing during any mission was to gather information.
…and the best way to gather information was his favourite technique.
The clones moved near the town and split off into groups of 2 each, they all transformed by taking up different identities – from a nondescript old man to cat. The slunk around the town till late into the night, eavesdropping onto conversations and using some of the money the original had given them to make random purchases and engage with shopkeepers. Then at night they started dispersing in small groups and relaying their memories to the original.
Before sleeping Naruto knew everything there was to this town…and had a splitting headache from all the different sets of memories his brain was fed.
…
(Next Morning)
Naruto looked on as Kakashi-sensei walked up the tree without using his hands. His surprise upon learning that Zabuza was still alive was momentarily blown over when he learnt that he was finally going to learn how to do the cool wall-walking thing.
'His control must be super good if he can do that even with the crutch,' Naruto thought as Kakashi explained the principle behind using chakra to do that.
Was he good enough to do it now? Fuu-sensei had said that he needed much better control before trying this, but that had been a few weeks ago and he had kept practicing all the exercises he had been told to.
Sakura caught onto it pretty quickly, reaching the top branch on her first attempt. Sasuke managed to get 3 steps before the bark exploded under his feet. Naruto himself managed 2 before the same thing happened with him and he did a backflip to the ground.
One thing Naruto noted was that unlike Fuu-sensei or Danzo-Jiji, Kakashi-sensei didn't stick around to give tips or check on them as much.
…so he was pretty much by himself here.
'Alright,' Naruto thought, 'First thing Fuu-sensei said, chakra responds to emotion violently, so clear your mind.'
Naruto closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm down. He then stood still until his breathing normalised and then started tugging a bit at his chakra. Once he had the feeling of it flowing through his body he opened his eyes and looked at the tree.
'Ok,' Naruto thought, 'So if I have to stick to the tree, I gotta use my chakra like…glue. Too less glue and it won't stick, too much and it will get messy.'
With the image in his mind Naruto raced to the tree, he manged to get 7 steps this time before he had to jump back and get to the ground.
'Still a bit too much I guess,' Naruto thought as he again took a few deep breaths and ran to the tree. Just before he got near the tree, he saw the looks on the faces of his teammates.
Both were looking at him incredulously.
…
Sasuke saw the idiot run to the tree for the third time, and collapse on his third step as he let out a string of expletives about 'stupid trees.'
For a moment when the dobe got 7 steps he had almost thought that the idiot had it down, but he could clearly see that it had been a fluke.
The blonde kept trying for over half an hour, never getting more than 3 steps before he walked away talking about how 'some stupid exercise wasn't going to make him the Hokage.'
'What an idiot' Sasuke thought as he looked at the tree, his mark was already at 5 steps and he was sure that he would easily get this exercise.
…
Naruto kept walking until he stopped hearing the voices of his teammates, and then kept walking until he was sure he wasn't being tailed. Then he sat down in a meditative pose in a clearing and extended his senses to check his surroundings to a greater distance.
'Nope,' Naruto thought, 'No one in the radius of 200 metres.'
It was then he created 10 clones, it was just the amount he could handle now given that yesterday's information gathering had left him with a headache.
'Note to self,' Naruto thought, 'Using clones to do different things at the same time is way worse then having them all do the same thing.'
Fuu-sensei had said that using clones to do different things for training at the same time could lead to shizuka-shizuko…some kind of renia and that it was worse than any headache he could have. Naruto had therefore started out with 5 clones, and had been able to get to 10 but using them all to do different things had caused him quite the headache yesterday.
'I'll limit the spy-clones to 5 for today,' Naruto thought, he then signalled the clones to start the tree-walking exercise with him. All of then sat in a circle meditating for a few minutes before they all ran to a tree by themselves.
By evening, Naruto had managed to get to the top of the highest tree he could find. Fuu-sensei's tips about chakra, and all the crappy exercises he had been doing since weeks really helped.
Naruto grinned from the top as he looked down, he already had this down in the bag.
…did he?
'…you have not mastered a technique or an exercise until you are able to do it in your sleep. No technique is complete until it has been mastered, and everything is mastered through repeated practice. The simplest of techniques have so many uses that both you and your enemy could be using the same technique to a very different effect. So when you think that you have gained a technique, remember to always keep practicing it until it is instinctual, it is only then that you will be able to use it in a fight. Until then, you will not be taught anything else.'
Naruto remembered the speech Danzo-Jiji had given him when he had bragged about having already completed kunai balancing. That was when Jiji had put kunai on both his hands and asked him to repeat his success.
Needless to say that he failed miserably, and Jiji gave him a nice stern speech about learning everything about any technique before hurrying and moving to the next one.
'Kakashi-sensei didn't run up the tree did he?' Naruto thought, his team leader had walked up to the tree while holding his crutches. Naruto couldn't claim that he had got down tree-climbing until he could do the same.
"Alright then," Naruto spoke, "Let's try walking down now."
He got down 3 steps before his control slipped and he crashed onto the ground painfully.
"Ok," Naruto groaned as his clones laughed at him, "Next time, try walking up before walking down."
This was going to take some time.
…
Naruto continued practicing until evening, all his clones had already been dismissed either due to using too much chakra or falling down too hard while trying to walk up. Naruto sat down for a few minutes to catch his breath before he started walking back to where Kakashi-sensei had left them. It would take some time for the memories to completely 'assimilate' within his mind…whatever that meant. Fuu-sensei liked using difficult words a bit too much for his liking.
He stopped momentarily as he felt Kakashi-sensei was there too.
He wasn't going to get yelled at for leaving his teammates and training by himself, was he? Kakashi-sensei seemed oddly interested in keeping the three of them together most of the time.
He noticed that he couldn't sense Sakura there either. Did she leave?
It was then that he started channelling chakra to extend his senses, moving up a nearby tree he looked on as Sasuke got almost as high as he himself had sometime ago. Kakashi-sensei was actually hanging around there too. Naruto moved a bit closer before he could hear them.
…
"…alright Sasuke, that's enough for today," Kakashi spoke, "Seems like you'll have it down pretty soon."
"Hmph," Sasuke spoke, "Something like this is nothing."
"Alright-alright," Kakashi waved his hand dismissively, was he like this when he was a kid too?
"Now come with me, I'll show you a few agility exercises so that you'll be able to use the speed you have gained when you fight Zabuza's partner," Kakashi spoke, "and remember to do them everyday after your chakra control practice is done."
Sasuke smirked and followed him.
Kakashi needed to get him ready to face whoever was wearing the Hunter-nin mask. The 2 male Chunin they had managed to save required almost round-the-clock attention of their teammate and it wasn't looking that any of them would be able to put up a fight when Zabuza showed up again.
He would have personally preferred to terminate the mission and return to the village. But it would take atleast 10 more days before the everyone in the other team could even walk, they needed Tazuna's place and abandoning a mission like this would only look bad for the village.
Plus, it could probably help Sasuke finally awaken his Sharingan. Whoever was with Zabuza should be a decent enough matchup.
…
Naruto for his part was seething in rage as he closed and opened his fist again and again. It was taking a lot of effort to not let his chakra flare at the scene he had just been a witness to.
He wanted to run to his teacher, and he wanted to rend the teme limb to limb and show them how awesome he was. Then Kakashi-sense would know who was the best!
Naruto took a step forward in their direction…and stopped.
By doing this, he would be breaking his promise to Danzo-Jiji…and Naruto was not one to break promises.
Plus as he had discussed with Jiji, Sasuke wasn't the only tough guy around and beating him would mean little in his quest to be the Hokage.
He had already abandoned the goal about beating the jerk, he was no longer chasing after it actively.
'Besides,' Naruto thought as he formed a cross-seal and 5 clones materialised, 'If the Jerk has his own tricks, I have mine.'
Naruto pointed to one clone, all of them nodded and disappeared into the forest towards their destination. Naruto had a pretty specific mission for them to accomplish after what he had learned yesterday.
…
Later at night, Naruto sat on the roof alone, letting the clones hit him with different memories yesterday had taught him to be prepared for them beforehand. This time he would try to sort out the memories like Fuu-sensei had taught him.
Moving around the town in different identities had been very informative. Naruto had learnt that exactly how Gato had managed to get this country into a vicegrip, and what he was currently doing to it now.
Gato had arrived on the scene a few years ago, and that that time he had been one of the 4 bigger players who were trading goods in and out of this country. Being a group of islands, Wave had been dependant on this trade for many necessities that weren't available on the islands itself.
It was sometime later that Gato started trading the goods on a nearly zero-commission basis and expanded rapidly. He managed to get a near monopoly on the trade with this country when he netted almost every government contract and bribed the nobles to get lower port rates compared to his competitors. The foreign traders had then reduced their business in the country, and Gato had brought every sea-worthy ship this small country had to offer.
Everything had still been normal.
It was then that things began to change, Gato had then started suddenly charging a higher commission for the goods he brought in, and got off without paying taxes from the agreements he had signed with the Nobility. Slowly he started charging more and more for even essential products, and when people started smuggling the products into the country he raised an army of mercenaries to protect his 'business rights assigned by the Lord of Wave Country.'
The position was so bad these days that people couldn't even eat what they grew themselves. All produce was to be compulsorily sold to Gato Corporation, who would then sell the same stuff to them for 3 times the price they had brought it. The Nobility itself could do little to oppose him, as their pockets were lined with his money and any brave soul that dared to oppose the man was put down by his henchmen…quite publicly. The people of Wave had never had a standing army due to the sea offering them a high level of natural protection, and therefore there was very little they could do when Gato bled them dry.
It was then that Tazuna-san's bridge had come into the picture. The country was presently in crisis as Gato controlled all the trade by controlling the sea, therefore a standing bridge with Fire Country would let the domestic traders get everything without Gato's involvement. The fact that this would be 'land-to-land' trading also meant that it would be outside Gato's agreement with the Wave Daimyo.
Which was why Gato was so insistent on the bridge not being completed. He couldn't touch the bridge directly, as it was technically state property and jointly owned by the Daimyo, but if he got Tazuna then the entire project would fall apart as there was no one else with that kind of expertise in this small country.
So Naruto sent his clones to the man himself, maybe he could learn something that could help them?
…
Sakura walked over to Tsunami-san's room, her eyes roving around the area. Kakashi-sensei had told her to keep running up and down the tree until she felt a tug at her coils, but she had been so terrified of the look Sasuke-kun gave her when she managed to climb up first that she chose to rest a bit early.
From what she knew, guys did not like girls who were better than them. If she completed the exercise before Sasuke, who knew how much he would hate her for it.
She dropped her bag in the room and looked out of the window, perhaps he would like the blue dress she got with her? Maybe she could wear it once he completed the exercise?
…
"…you did him pretty rough Haku." Zabuza spoke, their pipsqueak of a client had come in demanding the reasons for their failure in killing the bridge builder. Things had gone a bit overboard once he attempted to touch Zabuza and Haku broke his arm in return.
"He deserved it," Haku spoke, "Why must you lower yourself to serve someone like him Zabuza-sama?"
"We need the money," Zabuza spoke, the image of his failed coup fluttered before his eyes, "After this one we'll probably have enough to go back. I would rather take to bounty hunting, but being a hunter isn't easy when I have a big red spot painted on myself."
Haku nodded, though he did not like the idea of leaving Zabuza alone in this state they were running out of medicines and he would have to go out and collect a few herbs tomorrow.
…
The Naruto clones jumped from branch to branch as the neared the location where Gato's Estate was located. A local guard had spewed a ton of details about the area once he was given a few pouches of country-made liquor yesterday and they hoped he was right. An hour later they neared the place and stared at it with wide eyes.
"I thought the guy was kidding when he said that Gato lives in a palace," a clone voiced their thoughts as they started at the massive white structure in front of them.
The building was, for lack of a better word, HUGE. The clones were willing to bet that it was even bigger than the Hokage tower, the palace was pure white on the outside and was surrounded by a massive garden with a bunch of fountains.
"How are we supposed to find the guy in this place?" A clone spoke, "I mean you know what the drunk said, that guy's shorter than us."
"We'll just have to look for the biggest room," the lead clone spoke, "C'mon we don't have much time, and boss is depending on us."
The clones disappeared into the foilage, the guy had told them that Gato had his own militia of over 50 people who guarded the place. Atleast 20 of them were always on guard, and anyone who even dared to step into the place was skewered with arrows.
The clones split into 2 teams and went in opposite directions once they came near the gate, they then met on the backside of the palace having covered the entire boundary wall.
"Nothing much on the east," a clone spoke, "There's 5 people on towers with arrows on the ready. One of them looked a bit tipsy, but I won't bet on it."
"Same in the west," the other clone spoke, "There are 4 towers, we saw that there's just 3 guys in the yard with swords. But the barracks of the others are nearby and we'll be swarmed if we try."
The lead clone tapped his foot in thought, there had to be some way inside. Suddenly they heard a noise and jumped up into the trees.
"…c'mon girl," a burly guy dragged a girl as he walked, her arms were tied up with ropes and she seemed to be crying, "Gato-sama likes 'em young. If you co-operate more who knows he might even tip you after the night, and then you can go back home to you mommy and even have some money on you."
The clones felt disgusted at the display, but smirked nonetheless. They had found a way in.
A quick chop to the neck, a small talk with the girl and they were in business. 2 of the clones transformed themselves, one into the man and another into Naruto's Oiroke form and they headed to the backdoor entrance.
…
Kigiri Mato, or clone #4 of the group who was currently transformed into the burly looking man knocked hard on the backdoor of the palace, a panel in the door slid and a pair of eyes was seen on the other side.
"A gift," Mato spoke, is the most hoarse voice he could muster, "For Gato-sama."
He yanked Clone #5 in the front, the eyes looked her over. The panel closed and the door opened.
…
A few moments later Mato walked back to where he had agreed to meet the clones. Gato could be many things but he could tell that the guy wasn't stingy, atleast when it came to buying women.
"We got it?" a voice asked from the trees.
"Yeah," Clone #4 transformed back, "He's in, we should get going now."
The remaining clones nodded and moved. The plan had been fairly simple, but they hoped it worked. If it all worked well they'd all be in in a matter of minutes.
…
Clone #5, or Satoshia Kimiko, as she had said ushered into a room and told to wait. Luckily the guard on duty was tipsy enough, and she was able to knock him out pretty easily and slink away.
Clone #5 then transformed back, the guards didn't have any equipment on them like his team's radio headsets, so no one in the palace actually new someone had come in. The guard that did would only know of it as a dream, considering he had been drunk enough. Moving out the clone took the bottle with him.
The clone moved slowly in the shadows like Kagebo had taught Boss. The orange jacket had been dropped for a Jute rucksack as the clone navigated his way, he had to get to the guard post fast.
…
The clones waited silently in the trees looking at the guard post. The 4th post on the eastern side was directly connected to the palace, and was the farthest from any other post as a result. Once they got in from there they could easily get into the palace with little problem.
All they had to do was wait and hope that Clone #5 was able to knock the guard out.
Their prayers were soon answered, Clone #5 had managed to get into the post easily and the guy was put down with little effort. Clone #5 then removed some of the bars from one side and the rest of the clones jumped in one by one. The bars were then put back in place and Clone #2 transformed back into the unconscious guard and picked up his weapons.
"I can stand for 30 minutes," Clone #2 spoke, "Then I'll run out of chakra, and someone will come to check when this guy isn't seen up here."
The rest of the clones nodded.
"Here," Clone #5 spoke, handing him the bottle of liquor, "Keep making him sip on this, that way they'll think that he was just drunk on duty."
Clone #2 nodded and took the bottle. The rest of the clones moved inside the palace as he took his position, they didn't have much time.
…
The clones moved inside the palace with Clone #5 at the head as he lead them through a passage.
"This leads back to the door," Clone #5 spoke, "The guard I knocked out didn't tell me where Gato met his girls, so we're in the dark from here on. Only thing I know is that he meets them late at night, so he's got to be around here somewhere."
The clones nodded and split up, they didn't have much time on their hands.
…
Naruto had been munching on a ration bar when the memories of his first clone hit him. Grateful for the fact that the teme and Kakashi-sensei weren't around in the room he created a clone to take his place and hopped onto the roof to meditate.
The good news was that his clones had managed to get into the place and were looking around, the bad news was that he only had 3 lookouts now that once clone was already busy pretending to be the guard and another had dismissed itself as 2 guards in the palace had started getting curious.
…
Clone #1 cursed under his breath as it hung onto the ceiling and then dropped himself onto the chandelier. The guards weren't shinobi but they seemed to be quite aware of their surroundings. Clone #4 didn't really manage to get that far, and now it was just 3 of them.
'Plus we're low on chakra,' Clone#1 thought, though the dismissal of Clone #4 meant they all got a small boost it wasn't much considering most of the chakra had been dissipated. At the best he had 15 minutes before he would run out of gas.
"…doesn't look like anyone's around here boss," one of the guards on the ground spoke, "Maybe it was a cat?"
"All the more reason to get it," a big guy wearing a bandana spoke, "You know that Gato hates cats."
They looked around for a bit before another guy came in and called them for a meeting.
'That guy called him boss,' Clone #1 thought, 'He's got to be important.'
With that Clone #1 set off tailing them. They went thorough the palace to a bigger room which looked like an office. Clone #1 transformed into a cat and got in through the ventilation shaft. Once inside he was able to identify that the big guy was talking to someone behind the desk, he moved closer and sure enough it was Gato.
'I'm gonna have to do it,' Clone #1 then started extending his senses via chakra, though it would cut down his time by half the information should be worth it.
"…I get it what you are saying Gato-sama," the big guy spoke, "And its not like I mind splitting a few heads, but Momochi Zabuza and Hatake Kakashi are big names even in the Shinobi world. I'll need to call the entire guild, and I'm not sure even them we'd be enough."
The clone's eyes widened. This guy was planning on killing both Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza?
"Tch-Tch," Gato spoke, "Here I thought you're a tough guy Suiryou. Wouldn't you want to be famous as the guy who killed them both? Imagine the fame it would bring to you, I'll even let you keep that guy's big ass sword as a prize."
"But Gato-sama," Suiryou spoke, "What if they unite against us? Zabuza is known for killing his entire class as a kid, and Hatake is said to be the last surviving student of the Yellow Flash himself. It'll be a slaughter if they team up."
"Which is why," Gato grinned, "You leave them alone for now. Zabuza will do his job as he wants the money I have offered him for the bridge builder's head, and Hatake isn't going to let a mission fail on him. So we'll let them fight it out and tire each other…"
'This guy…' Clone #1 thought.
"…and keep your men on a boat some distance from the bridge. The brat with Zabuza can sense you coming, so don't come near until the mist has dissipated. By then Zabuza will be tired…or probably dead and Hatake will be on his last legs too. All you guys have to do after that is lop off their heads and take the Bridge Builder. Once he's gone you're free to do as you please. I'll pay you and your guys 20 million in cash, and 2 million extra to you personally for this. You can even keep the bounties of both those ninja and the stupid sword Zabuza swings around."
'Just a little more,' Clone #1 thought, he was nearly at his limit.
"…so what do you say?" Gato asked.
"You got a deal boss," Suiryou spoke, "I'll have more men come down in a few days on the other side at Kanashibari, and then…"
Poof!
..
"What was that?" Suiryou spoke as he nudged one of his men to check the ventilation shaft. The guy got up and checked, but nothing was found inside.
'Probably rats,' Suiryou thought as he delved into the details of Gato's plan.
By gods the guy was a shrimp, but Suiryou could see just how this guy had brought a country to its knees with his mind.
Hatake and Zabuza were dragons, and they were mere ants in comparison. But in this battle the ants would feast on a dragon's corpse.
…
Naruto nearly screamed as the memories from his clones hit him. His first action was to get up and move, he needed to warn Kakashi-sensei about everything.
They couldn't fight Zabuza, Gato was setting them up!
But Naruto stopped just as he was about to get down the stairs. One of the things he had been taught was to always be careful about how he used the skills Jiji taught him.
'Just what am I going to say?' Naruto thought, 'Hey there sensei, please don't fight Zabuza. Gato's calling in an army to kill you both once you've driven each other to the ground.'
Like that would work. From what he knew the situation would only have 2 possible outcomes:
Kakashi won't take him seriously and tell him to stop eating too much sugar.
Kakashi will take him seriously, and then make him spill just how he got all the information. He would have to tell Kakashi about his spying with clones, and then he was sure that Kakashi would make him talk about Danzo-Jiji too.
Neither scenario was pleasant.
'I'm alone on this one,' Naruto thought. He had to find some way out of this mess himself, he couldn't depend on anyone because he couldn't talk to anyone about what he knew. Still, he had to try and save his team, even if he didn't really like everyone on it.
Naruto tried to think, he even made a few clones to think about it and they spent the rest of the watch thinking about how they could get out of this mess.
It was after dismissing his clones that Naruto finally found an idea, it wasn't really a good one but it was all he had.
He would have to talk to Zabuza instead. The Missing-nin wasn't a part of the people he was supposed to hide his skills or status from as per Jiji's instructions, but it would still be tough to convince someone like him.
'I could use…that.' Naruto thought. Jiji had given it to him only to be used in a case of 'utmost emergency'…whatever that meant, but Naruto was sure that this situation qualified.
The plan was forming in his head, now he only needed to do one more thing.
Somehow find Zabuza, and convince him about going on with his plan.
See you soon. Stay safe.
