16NinjaFang1331: Thanks but quick question have you read all my fics cause I feel like you leave a comment on almost all of them?"
KakeruPB: Thanks but this chapter might just change those odds.
Chapter 6 Storm insight
In a small forest clearing, several shadows moved in the dead of night, each eyeing another shadow waiting to see what the other does first. Though soon all their attention moved to the loan figured that walked to the center of the clearing. "Calm down, I called all of you here for a reason," said Zabuza. "I have a job for all of you, a unique job one that will have benefits for all of us."
Laughter from his left got Zabuza's attention. "The mighty Zabubza asking for help," as a young man wearing a hoodie that resembles a shark, the rouge nin Kajika. "I thought it was fake or you're just admitting how pathetic you are."
"Kajika, the rouge nin who ran away from Kirikure after poisoning all of his superior officers," said Zabuza listing off info. "Don't worry, whoever is pulling your strings now will be happy to know this is a worthy endeavor."
"So then what's the prize," asked a man walking into the clearing with two blades on his back. "If you asked for all of us to come, then that means we are fighting a worthy foe with a good prize in the end."
"Ah, how correct you are and it is good to see a fellow seven ninja swordsman of the mist, Raiga Kurosuki the wilder of the twin blades of lightning, Kiba," said Zabuza greeting his fellow swordsman. "Indeed the prizes are good, if done right we can capture several unique individuals, including among others an Uzumaki."
This surprised the two of them, "An Uzumaki," said another voice as the three turned as another walked into the clearing. "Now that is interesting, I and my group are in," said a man with green hair and wearing a cloak. "I would be delighted to fight and speak with such a rare individual."
"Nowaki, leader of the Lightning group," said Zabuza. "Good to see at least one of you wants in."
"Count me in," said Raiga instantly.
"Me as well," said Kajika, "Bringing back an Uzumaki will surely please my lord."
"Who said that you get a claim to the Uzumaki?" asked Nowaki before noticing Zabuza unfazed. "The Uzumaki is a good price but I'm guessing there's more than just that if you expect all of us to walk away happy."
"Among the group with the Uzumaki, is also an Uchiha," his words caused even more surprised looks, "I'm not finished, there's also the son of the Reaper is with them being lead by the copy ninja Kakashi, the group also has three more shinobi, two Kunoichi and one shinobi two of which look interesting."
"That's quite a prize pool," said Raiga. "But they won't just drop their weapons and come quietly."
"That's why I lead with the Uzumaki," as he grabbed his blade. "The rumors are true, the moment my blade got close to the Uzumaki, it started to ripple and change. There is more power in our blades than even we realize, with the Uzumaki who knows what we all could accomplish, imagine a group of hundred warriors all wielding blades by an Uzumaki, we might not be able to share the brat, but what he can make for us is a different story."
Nowaki thought it over for a moment, "Intriguing, I could get behind that."
Kajika scowled, "While I would much rather have the Uzumaki for my lord but if I did get the Uchahi, that would still please my lord, but I want the first sword made by the Uzumaki for my lord, if we agree to that then my group is in."
"Deal," said Zabuza before turning to Raiga, "How about you?"
"I'm in, but during the fight, I want to face off against the Uzumaki, whether or not we succeed or not is of no concern to me, what I want is information that the Uzumaki can provide," said Raiga there was a silent pause afterward.
"I have no problem with you fighting the Uzumaki, as long as you don't kill him of course," said Nowaki.
"Out of everyone here, I am more trained to capture, than leave a bloody mess," said Raiga.
This just seemed to confuse Kajika and Nowaki but Zabuza on the other hand understood, "That does make sense, you are the man from a different era. That aside, are we all in agreement," They all nodded. "Then let's get down to the details."
~o~
Shinta kicked open the door to Tazuna's house as he dragged Sasuke in, "Hey don't kick the door in," Yelled Tsunami before noticing Sasuke. "Is he alright?"
"He's just learning a hard lesson," said Shinta as he put Sasuke down on the couch. "Just because he has a new eye doesn't mean he can use it like he's hot shit." Sasuke raised his head giving Shinta a glare, Tsunami realizing that they had it handled went back to the kitchen. "Dude how many times do i have to tell you that Sharingan can't copy everything, especially not my reaper techniques, techniques that require a level of chakra control that can't be copied."
Sasuke kept giving him a glare before laying down on the couch about to fall asleep before Naomi walked in, "You didn't break him did you?" Sasuke raised his head to give her a glare. "I'm gonna take that you bruised his ego." that Sasuke put his head down and turned away from them. Naomi sighed, "Do you need any medical attention, I can patch you up before dinner?"
Sasuke gave no response, the two were about to give up when Naruto entered the room with a towel around his neck. "Come on Sasuke don't be a baby, if you want to get back to training as soon as possible you got to let someone patch you up, the faster you heal the faster you can head back out there."
Sasuke grumbled but sat up, "Fine, patch me up." He then noticed Naruto's hair was wet, "Did you just take a shower?"
"Yeah, I went and got a bunch of fish, I made about a hundred shadow clones to get them and Tsunami wasn't too happy with the smell," explained Naruto.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow as Naomi got to work using her medical ninjutsu on his arms, "Hundred...You gave the fish to the rest of the town didn't you?"
"Yep," said Naruto with pride. "I was able to get a lot, way more than we needed."
That actually gave Shinta a question, "Hey shouldn't the townsfolk be able to start fishing again? I mean with Gato in hiding how much control does he have over the town?"
"Not much from the look of things," said Naomi. "While you were training with Sasuke we went around town, apparently word has spread around town from Gato's other employees like his gardener and cook, that he's gone into hiding. The town is already buzzing with that news and people are already trying to see if they can either leave or call for help."
"That quick!" Said Sasuke surprised. "It's only been a little over a day."
Shinta hummed for a moment, "Let me guess, Gato pretty much paid his men in shit, didn't he."
"Yep," said Naruto, "I caught a few of his men who were supposed to be guarding his ports, not only ditching but grabbing whatever they could from his storage units and running like hell."
"Of course they are," said Shinta clearly hear of this situation before. "So many rich assholes, pay their close guards a lot of money everyone else gets shit, you wouldn't believe how many times I and my dad were able to kill people like Gato from just briding a servant or maid." As Shinta sighed, "This isn't good."
"Huh?" Sasuke was confused.
"I do apologize but shouldn't this be a good thing?" asked Sai as he entered the room. " With Gato on the run his grip on the land has loosened, along with most of his men running for the hills, this mission will go a lot more smoothly."
"Fraid not Sai," said Kakashi who was reading his book behind Sai. "Gato is now going to become desperate, he's invested too much time here, he's going to try something big now."
"Chances are it's going to be on the bridge," said Naruto as he thought the information over, "Shinta, how soon do you think until he tries something?"
"Tomorrow night, or the night after," said Shinta quickly.
"Yeah, that's what I guessed," as Naruto thought it over. "We're running low on time."
Kakashi closed his book, "From now on, we should focus on protecting the bridge, with Gato backed into a corner he'll get despite and send as many hired killers at us, most likely all at once, we all should be present on the bridge when that happens."
"No," said Naomi as she finished healing Sasuke, "In town today, I went by their clinic, the people need medical herbs, Gato took overall trade of medicine, it's part of the reason he took over the land so quickly, while thanks to Naruto's efforts the town is now well fed but they need medicine and chances are Gato might use them somehow."
"What!" Kakashi was somewhat surprised by this, he didn't expect any of them to worry about the townspeople and just focus on the mission. "I admire your willingness to help but we have a mission to protect the bridge builder, while I want to help, I think your teammates will agree that the mission comes first right now."
Naruto and Shinta looked at Kakashi before turning to each other before going back to Kakashi. "No!"
"WHAT!"
"Yeah, tomorrow, I can divide and conquer," said Naruto. "Make a hundred or so shadow clones, some will gather herbs and the others will spread the word to the town, I might be able to put up some temporary seals to protect them for about a week."
"While you do that I should be able to find a few of Gato's lackeys," said Shinta as he cracked his knuckles. "I make them sing like birds, maybe even get them to tell me where Gato hides the medicine and other cargo he's been keeping from the town."
Kakashi was about to say something before Naomi stopped him, "I'll be with you guys protecting the bridge and making sure the builders are all protected. With the best medic around I can make sure if they get injured they'll be up in no time."
Kakashi looked at the three and could tell they weren't going to budge, "Fine, you three do what you want you're, not my students."
The three of them smiled before they heard a tapping on the wall getting their attention, Sakura looked so exhausted you would have guessed she had run around the world. "Food's ready," she said in a quiet weak voice before turning back to the kitchen.
"What the fuck happen to her?" asked Naruto.
"She looks like one of those girls who got double-" Naomi stopped as she turned to look and see Inari poking his head around the corner. "You know what, forget what I was saying, what happened to her?"
"Started training her on two new jutsus, told her she could either A train with what I got or B dodge Shinta for another whole day," said Kakashi getting a laugh from Shinta. "She went to work very quickly after that, spent the whole day training to get them to work."
"Good, she might be able to help," said Naruto as he walked towards the kitchen, "Come on let's go and get some dinner."
~o~
Haku walked through the town in her regular kimono, surprised with just how much things have changed in the few days that Gato went into hiding, people were moving, some quicker than others. On her way to the town in the morning, she had originally planned to skirt around the town to the forest but got curious as she saw several boats leave the islands in a hurry. When she got into town she overheard several conversations of people heading out to get supplies while they could. 'Looks like these people are taking the opportunity while they can.' Thought Haku, 'I should move quickly and get the extra herbs, if we live through this battle, we'll probably need them, but before that..'
Haku walked out of the town and towards the house of the bridge builder but stopped the house was in view, Haku looked around. 'No one is watching me but I can tell this house is protected if get any closer I'll set off some sort of trap.' Haku looked around the area for a moment before deciding to proceed any further. 'Master Zabuza has changed his focus from the bridge builder, I shouldn't risk staying around here, I should grab the herbs and head back to Master Zabuza as soon as possible.'
As she made her way to the forest just outside of the town, she went to where the herbs were in the small forest clearing and noticed something, 'Some of the herbs have been picked.'
"Oh sorry," Haku then turned to see Naomi and several Narutos behind her. "We picked quite a few of them, it may not be much but the town needs them." Said Naomi.
"I see, you got them for the town," said Haku, keeping her face neutral. 'When did they get behind me, I never noticed them even for a second.' As Haku stood up and was about to walk away.
"Wait," said one Naruto that stepped forward reaching into a bag, "I think we can spare a few herbs."
"Oh thank you," as Haku was about to take the herbs.
"I think Shinta would be pissed if he didn't get a fair rematch with Zabuza."
Haku's eyes went wide before jumping back, pulling out a few senbon into her hand when suddenly she was unable to move. "What-" Haku quickly saw several lines of symbols appear on her limbs, she quickly realized that it was limiting her movement. "I'm caught in a seal." she followed the symbols to the ground, all the way to one of the Naruto clones that his hand in sign
"Yep," said Naruto as he held up the seal. "Got the idea from one of my old classmates, his clan may be lazy but they sure as hell know their stuff."
Haku felt the limit of the seal, 'I can't move fully but enough, if I play this right I might be able to escape.' As Haku narrowed her eyes on Naruto. "Come on, don't you want to fight me man to man? Drop the seal and let's fight."
Naomi raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying you're a guy?"
"Maybe I am," said Haku as she eyed Naruto. 'Come on, be stupid enough.'
Naruto gave the girl a deadpan look, "Do you really think either of us is that stupid miss…."
She paused for a moment, "Haku."
"Haku, I myself pretty much grew up in the underworld of our village, hell my main home I use is right next to a secret brothel, so I know a woman when I see one," said Naruto he then pointed to Naomi. "Don't even get me started on my friend here."
"You're trying to make one of us touch you," said Naomi looking at Haku, impressed.
This made Naruto confused. "Say what?"
"I've seen this before, I even had to do something similar a few years ago," explained Naomi, causing Haku to look nervous. "She can't move all that much so she wants us to get close and touch her, chances are she has some sort of nasty surprise genjutsu perhaps or some sort of trap in her clothes, no neither of those seem like you."
"A kekkei Genkai, she has a bloodline ability," said Naruto, piecing things together. "It's how she escaped before with Zabuza, if I had to guess from our brief encounter, it's ice-related."
"Ice is just cold water," said Naomi looking Haku up and down, "Or liquid in this case, if we got too close, spit, blood or any other bodily fluid she might be able to turn to ice." Haku closed her eyes, giving a sign of defeat. "Ah so that was it, we get too close or put our hand into your fun place and you freeze a finger and try to slip away."
"That was one idea I had," said Haku before pausing for a second. "How did you know who I was?"
"Aside from your hair and your voice, you got a little too close to the house," said Naruto before he nodded to the other clones who then disappeared. "I sent them ahead to the clinic, head back to the main you, I can take it from here."
Naomi nodded. "Good idea, I was running low on chakra anyway, I don't know how you keep this up so much."
"A lot of practice."
"Okay good luck," said Naomi before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"A shadow clone!" As Haku realized she was talking to a shadow clone, "I thought since you had all those clones around you she was the real one."
"Nope, that was a shadow clone, I taught her that one," said Naruto with a bit of pride.
"Just hurry up and kill me," said Haku ready to die, accepting the fact that she is caught and is welcoming death.
Naruto looked Haku in the eyes and thought it over for a moment, a bit conflicted on what to do. "You got that look," said Kurama inside Naruto. "You've killed before, Naruto, why is this one different?"
"I don't let's find out," said Naruto out loud earning a confused look from Haku before returning her movement. "Don't run, please."
Haku could feel that she could move again and could escape. "What are you doing, giving me a chance to die in battle?"
Naruto then dropped down into a sitting position. "Nope let's talk."
"What!"
"You heard me, I like to talk to you."
"Why?"
"I'm an Uzumaki, maybe even the last Uzumaki, but that's not the point, I want to be the strongest ninja in my village, to become the Hokage and make sure my village is a place where people like me, Sasuke and you can be without anyone trying to kill us or sell us. A place where we can rebuild what was lost and make it better. That's my goal in life, how about you?" Naruto asked, completely sincere.
Haku only stared at Naruto, not sure what she should do. "I don't have any goals like that, my only purpose is to protect Zabuza and be his tool when needed, that is my only purpose."
"Why is that?" asked Naruto.
Several flashes of Haku's life came back to her, "My life has been full of much suffering and master Zabuza was the only one that helped."
"I know someone similar," said Naruto as he started talking about his past, soon both telling their stories as they got to know each other.
~o~
At the bridge, Naomi flinched. "Okay well, that's unexpected."
"Did something happen to one of your shadow clones?" asked Kakashi.
"Yeah, the one I set with Naruto to collect the correct herbs ran into the shinobi hunter that took Zabuza away from the fight."
"What!" said Sakura as Sai and Sasuke looked at Naomi with surprise.
"She was out collecting herbs, most likely for Zabuza, Naruto was able to capture her with a seal, my clone dispersed because it ran out of chakra. Naruto should still have her."
"Well, then what is he going to do with her?" asked Sakura.
"The standard thing to do would be to take her to a secure location for interrogation," said Sai. "Tell me how are Naruto's torture tactics, are they as good as yours?"
"I don't know I-" Naomi froze in place as she got a wave of memories, "No way it can't be…"
Kakashi stepped forward, "Naomi is everything alright, did something happen to Naruto?"
Naomi collected herself before facing Kakashi. "No, this morning I made three clones, one to help out at the main clinic in town and two more to help Naruto to get the right plants, the other one that helped get plants with the clones saw something when it came back to town."
"Well what did it see?" asked Sasuke.
Naomi opened her mouth to say something before closing it before making a hand sign and creating two more shadow clones. "You two stay here, if anything happens one of you disperse."
Kakashi then quickly grabbed the real Naomi's arm. "Naomi, what is going on?"
"I'm sorry but this is personal." as she slipped out of Kakashi's grip. "I'll tell you about it later." as she dashed off back to the town leaving the other shinobi behind.
Naomi quickly raced into the town jumping on the rooftops back to the point where her second clone disappeared, "It had to be around here, I know it, but I don't hear-" Naomi then saw a small crowd around a lone figure who looked up and saw Naomi. "Well well well, long time no see."
~o~
The giant sliding doors screeched as Shinta opened them, as he walked in he saw several of the crates, "See there all right there," said the man dangling from the end of Shinta's staff, this man was one of Gato's goons that Shinta had 'persuaded' to tell him where Gato was storing his stolen goods. "Now can you please let me go?"
Shinta swung his staff forward making the goon face him. "I don't know, is this all of it?"
"YES, YES this is it, the rest are decoys or have the stuff of little value." said the goon panicking.
"What I'm hearing is that there are more warehouses here that have stuff Gato stole," said Shinta as he walked back outside and jumped to the top of the warehouse giving them both a good view of the rest of the warehouses on the docks. "Tell me which ones have stuff now or I'm going to drop you."
They weren't at a height that would kill a person but it would still hurt a lot, but the goon didn't know. "OKAY OKAY, just look for the ones with a G painted on the side, that means it belongs to Gato and he puts a little bit into each warehouse to make sure if one hit he doesn't lose everything, but this one were on top of is the only one with medicine, it's the only warehouse that has a temperature control room for medicine, I swear."
Shinta was satisfied with the answers and brought his open hand to his mouth and made a whistle to the Naruto clones to come out of hiding. "Yo Naruto, this one has the medicine." the clones nodded before going down and grabbing the crates. "Man, having an army of you guys makes this a lot easier."
"So are you going to let me go?" asked the goon.
Shinta looked at the man and smiled. "Can you swim?" the man gulped, Shinta then pulled his staff back ready to toss the man into the waters, when he saw something move in the water. "Huh?" Shinta tracked the creature before grabbing the goon and tossing him to the side of the warehouse, sticking him there with a few shrunken. "You stay there."
Shinta then jumped down from the warehouse down to the dock looking at the water. "What's wrong?" asked a Naruto clone.
"See something?" asked another.
Shinta stared down at the figure in the water as the figure looked back, "Oh yeah, I think we got ourselves a spy." said Shinta as the figure dashed off in the water. "Time to go fishing," Shinta jumped onto the water using his chakra to walk on the water. "You two come with me."
The two clones nodded, while the other clones went back to the warehouse, the two clones quickly caught up with Shinta as he literally was running right above the figure on the water. "Whoever this is, they ain't normal," said Shinta as he reached back into his pouch and handed the clones some ninja wire, "I'm gonna make them stop, you wrap them up."
The clones nodded, Shinta then jumped into the air channeling his chakra into his staff, "Time to part the sea." as Shinta brought his staff down onto the water, causing the water to burst, making a brief crater in the water, as this happened the two Naruto clones dived into the water with the wire, the figure turned to one of the clones and shot a blast of pressurized water, Naruto was fast but not in the water as the shot was able to hit one of the clones but no both as the remaining clone was able to get close and wrap the wire around the figure before it swam away. The clone then breached the surface. "Did you get it?" asked Shinta.
"Yeah I wasn't able to get a clear look at it in the dark water but, I got it." the clone held up the other end of the wire before he started getting pulled down. "Whoa!"
Shinta lunged forward grabbing the clone's hand. "I gotcha." as he pulled the clone above the surface. "Did it break the line?"
"Hell, no, Naruto made that line," as he held the end of the wire. "There's even a seal on it so it can't be taken off for at least an hour."
Shinta smiled "Plenty of time to reel in this fish." as he lowered his staff, the clone smiled as he put the line on the staff, Shinta then quickly rotate his staff with his chakra reeling the line, but the one on the other end started to struggle. "Oh looks like we got a fighter."
"Come Shinta, you got this, keep reeling it in." said the Naruto clone, as this chase turned into a fishing trip.
"Oh don't worry, this shark doesn't have anything on me, mate." as Shinta got close to reeling in the line they both saw a clearer picture of what they caught. "Wait is that," the creature then breached the surface and gave both Shinta and Naruto an angry look. "Uh, this is uh…"
The Naruto clone then looked at Shinta. "Should... should I tell the original or…"
They both looked at each other confused. "I guess we outa get back to dry land first and then figure out what to do with our new friend here."
"Okay but when we get back to the other clones, I'm going to disperse, the boss needs to hear about this one."
~o~
Naruto blinked as new memories appeared in his head. "Well that's interesting," said Naruto before looking at Haku and sighing. "Well looks like our talk is over, I need to get going. It was nice talking to you."
"Wait, that it?" asked Haku. "You're not going to kill me or take me with you?"
"Nah, you can go, I got a feeling we're going to see each other again," said Naruto as he started walking away. "And tell Zabuza he owes my friend a rematch."
Haku stilled had a senbon in hand and could have taken a shot on his back but she couldn't bring herself to do it, she could clearly see that the boy and his teammates were a threat but after talking to him, she couldn't bring herself to do it. "May we meet again Naruto." as she turned and walked away.
'She's really not going to attack,' thought Naruto as he felt her walk the other way. 'This information matches up with what Shinta told me about Zabuza's back story, hard to hate a guy who tried to kill that bastard of a Mizukage.'
'His beliefs do match up a bit with your own," said Kurama. "If he joined your side he could be a powerful ally, especially if we have to fight the Mizukage."
"Do you know the guy?" asked Naruto.
"Only that he's bloodthirsty man, who has killed several and implemented the system in his village where the students fight to the death. Also, he made it illegal for anyone to live if they have a Kekkai Genkai, it's not too hard to see why there's a civil war in Kirigakure right now."
Naruto hummed for a moment, "We'll see what can happen from all this later, for now, I'm going to go and check on that person Shinta found."
~o~
Gato was pacing in his hidden bunker awaiting one of his men after he went into hiding he heard about all of his low-ranking men ditching and how he was losing control over the town, he sent one of his men out to get hired help, the big ones.
Gato tensed as he heard a noise behind his armored door. "Boss!" yelled one of his men on the other side. "Boss I'm back and and please let me in, uh uh the sunsets on the rivers end, please let me in."
His man may have said the code phase but his panicking put Gato off. "Calm down what the hell is going on?"
"I went to get the mercenaries and well, he came to me, I don't know why but he's here."
"Who are you talking-" Gato didn't finish as the door was kicked down sending his man rolling inside. "What the hell that door was almost a foot thick how did-" Gato's voice froze in his throat as he saw the person walking in. Gato felt his piss flow down his pants as he saw someone that scared the shit out of him. "Wha...why….why are you here?"
"I had some spies following the legendary swordsman and they told me something interesting and on my way here, I saw this man asking for some hired help."
"Look, I'll leave, I'll run far from here, I'll go to Kumo, no Iwa. Just please let me go."
"Don't worry I'm not going to kill you, I just want you to tell me when the fighting is going to start."
Next Time: Making New Friends | You want to read this now just head over to my page. ~P-A-T-R-E-O-N~ Lorenzo the story teller. There you can read all chapters a head of time and my exclusive stories.
A/N: Okay so this was somewhat of a soft chapter, but it does lead into some big stuff I have plans, so remember these chapters cause it's going to come back in a big way. Also who do you think are our new friends are, stay tuned to find out.
Patrons: Re the Novice Artist | James Glenn Chandler | Just A Viewer | ZhaZee Vang | Weeb Supreme | Cortland |Eric | WildZappa | Jeffery Flumerfelt | HyperDragoonSV | OmgWAffLE3D | lightze
~Lorenzo the Story Teller