83Well here it is guys! Thanks for the patience! I'm truly sorry for not providing this update any sooner. I would say that I am busy, but I certainly had the time to do the chapter little by little everyday. Thing is, I like writing a whole chapter in one day, then revising in another day.
Thank you: Wow, you people are too kind you know that? When I put my poll up I was just expecting 10 votes at most but then when I checked it was 34 votes! You guys are so loving! T T Makes me feel sad that I gave you such a late updation. So the majority wants Zabuza and Haku to know Naruto, live and then go to Konoha! So you wish it, so shall it be.
Warnings: Definite Yaoi : Mentions Crossdressing : Appearance Changes : OOCness : Shounen-Ai
Reminder: Last reminder too. Again, this is not a Kakashi and Naruto pairing concerning romance. It may change to a close relationship of family or friendship, but never a romantic pairing.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did… well I would have to get to my fortress to hide from all of those homophobic asses.
This chapter will not have as much humor as it had in the other chapters. It will be a little more serious.
Puri = Kyuubi talking to Naruto
Puri = Anyone's thoughts
"Puri." = Talking aloud
Just for this chapter only: "Puri." = Memory (Only words, no pictures)
"I realized the most painful thing, that in this world, my existence was not needed" -Haku to Naruto
"Now Tazuna, can you explain to us now why there were two Chunin-level ninjas hired to go after you? Normally a C-rank mission doesn't entail assassins to be hired," Kakashi questioned with a stern glare.
The five were in a motorboat owned and currently directed by Kaji to the Land of Waves.
"And don't go spouting nonsense. I will abandon this mission if you don't give an adequate explanation. We were hired for a C-rank mission, not a high B-rank mission."
Tazuna's eyes widened, but then his facial expression turned sullen.
"The Land of Waves is not as it used to be anymore. Ever since Gatō, an extremely wealthy marine transporter, came, our country has been struggling economically. Gatō hires gangs and ninjas to smuggle in drugs and other contraband goods and takes over other companies and countries. Then one year ago, Gatō came and he used violence and wealth as his shield and he quickly took over the island's sea traffic and transportation. On this island, controlling the sea means ruling over the wealth, politics and peoples of the island. But the one thing Gatō is afraid of is the completion of the bridge that has been under construction for quite some time."
"I see, so as you being the one building the bridge, you're seen as one of his obstacles," Sakura inquired.
"Those ninjas were sent by Gatō then," Sasuke added in.
"Now we know that Gatō is a dangerous man, but that doesn't explain why you had to lie to us," Kakashi said.
"The Land of Waves is a poor country; even the feudal lord doesn't have much money. And neither can we afford a mission ranked B or above. If you leave now, I'll be killed for sure as I walk back home, but do not blame yourselves for my death. Only my cute eight-year old grandson will cry and cry for me. Let's not forget that my daughter will hold a grudge against Konoha ninjas and live a lonesome life with her son," Tazuna grinned.
"Well if you put it like that Tazuna-san…" Sakura softly replied.
"It can't be helped then Tazuna. We'll just have to see through this mission then," Kakashi happily said.
"That's good to hear." I won.
"Pathetic. You lot are all pathetic."
The occupants turned to stare at the culprit, Naruto.
Now that I think about it, he hasn't said anything the whole ride, Kakashi realized.
"What do you mean by that Naruto? Don't you feel sorry for the people of the Wave?" Sakura fiercely said while trying to keep it down. Even Sasuke stared in shock.
"We're supposed to be ninjas. As you continue to get deeper in the world of ninjas, you'll see all kinds of unfortunate times, but we can't aid in every one of them no matter how bad it may be. We can't continue to feel sympathy for another person. Ninjas are supposed to do their job with no unnecessary emotions tagged with it. If you can't see that and if you think that it's your job to help every unfortunate person, you should quit being a ninja," a monotone drone drawled, almost bored.
"Naruto, sometimes emotions are needed for a mission to be completed. Yes you're right Naruto, ninjas can't aid every singly unlucky person they meet, but if the mission is to save a country from poverty then we could aid every single person in that country," Kakashi responded as his two students thought over the words he and Naruto said.
Naruto didn't answer and instead murmured, "We're here."
You know what he says is true Kit. Though some emotions are best left out, some are best left alone.
Sometimes I wonder though, do I really want to feel these emotions?
Ki-
"Good luck Tazuna," Kaji said and he rowed away.
On the way to Tazuna's House
"Who are you?"
The group of five was peacefully walking down the path towards Tazuna's house.
Suddenly Sasuke threw a kunai at a nearby tree. Team 7 went into a defense position while Naruto walked casually towards the tree Sasuke threw the kunai at. He bent down and picked up a white rabbit, scared and trembling.
"Sasuke-kun, you scared the poor rabbit," Sakura scolded and put her kunai away.
A white rabbit, in the middle of spring? That doesn't make sense, unless it was kept indoors…
Just then Kakashi heard the unmistakable sound of a blade whirring towards them.
"Everyone, DUCK!" Kakashi shouted and pulled Tazuna down with him.
Not a second later an enormous blade came rushing towards them and stuck itself into a tree, missing all of its targets. The culprit appeared on the hilt of sword.
Kit! It's him! Ooh, look at those muscles!
Who? Naruto took a closer look at the stranger while stroking the rabbit, who was even more scared. His eyes widened not with fear, but with warmth and surprise.
"Oh my! You're Momochi Zabuza, the exiled ninja of the Hidden Village of Mis-" Kakashi was interrupted by a blur of yellow rushing towards Zabuza. He was too late to react. "Naruto!"
"A kindred soul, I've been watching you two for a very long time."
"Usagi-chan!" Naruto squealed and hugged Zabuza.
Zabuza AKA Usagi-chan, was a tall and muscular man with an intimidating aura surrounding him. He had pale skin accompanied with short, black, spiked hair. He was wearing his forehead protector sideways on his head, it looked as though it was keeping his hair out of his cold brown eyes. He was wearing bandages like a mask over the bottom half of his face. Far from a normal looking usagi, no hint of resemblance at all actually.
Though that wasn't what Naruto was looking at. No, he was in fact drooling at Zabuza's outfit. He was bare-chested, only covered by a belt to which he attached his Kubikiribōchō (his gigantic sword…hehe), while wearing baggy pants with the striped pattern typical of Kirigakure and mimetic wrist-warmers extending up to his elbows, with matching leg-warmers.
"I'm not your savior nor am I your tormentor."
"Naruto's glad you're here. Does that mean Ha-chan is here too?"
Naruto excitedly looked around, but he already knew where "Ha-chan" was located.
The rest of Team 7 and Tazuna gulped when they saw one of Zabuza's small eyebrow twitches.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that, Foxy?" Zabuza said, as he laid an arm around Naruto's shoulders. It almost looked like a hug to the onlookers.
"1,289 times and still counting!"
"You shouldn't disturb Zabuza-sama so much Naruto-kun. I'm afraid one day he will actually start to adopt some traits of a rabbit," a figure gently teased as they jumped out of a tree.
The figure had a slender frame and was quite short. They were wearing a moss green, striped turtle-neck sweater and a split skirt in matching color that reached down to his knees. On the outside of that, they wore a green blue short kimono with white edges, and around his waist a green brown obi, in the same fabric as his sweater, with a fringed trail. The stranger's black shoulder length hair was gathered in a white bun holder, while two locks of their hair fell loose framing their face, that were bound with metal hair cuffs at the ends. To finish it off they wore a white mask with thin, curved eye-holes and a red wavy design in place of the mouth, as well as the Kirigakure symbol on the forehead.
"Ha-chan!" Naruto exclaimed and hugged (tackled) them.
"Hello Naruto-kun. It's been a very long time since we've seen each other."
"Wait! When we'll we see you again?"
"Yes, where or where has my favorite toy been?" Zabuza grinned, showing off his sharp teeth, and hugged Naruto towards his body.
Naruto giggled and had a dazed look on his face as he started at those bulging muscles.
Damn, no matter how many time I see those muscles, I still drool.
I agree.
Do you-
A small cough interrupted Naruto's and his special friend's daydreaming and all eyes went on,
"Yes Kaka-sensei?"
"Do you want to introduce us to your friends?"
"I don't know, do I?" Naruto tilted his head and looked up at his Usagi-chan to see a nod.
"Okay, if Usagi-chan wants me to, I'll do it!"
Naruto walked from Zabuza's hold and stood in the middle between his team (and Tazuna) and Zabuza with Ha-chan.
"When fate deems it right. Remember, a tool can also be a friend. While a friend can also be a tool."
Naruto sighed.
Get on with it Kit. The faster you're done with the intros the longer you can look at those muscles. And don't get me started on that grin! Woot look at those teeth. I wish I had those…
Naruto could practically see Kyuubi skulking in the corner of the cage. How he could fit his huge body in that small corner, is a mystery to Naruto.
"This is my team from Konoha. The man with the gray hair is my sensei, Hatake Kakashi, but you already knew that. The bubblegum hair-ed girl is one of my teammates, Haruno Sakura. And this semi-depressing boy is my other teammate, Uchiha Sasuke. Oh and the drunkard there is Tazuna, the person you're hired to kill I'm guessing," Naruto offhandedly said as he pointed to each person respectively to their names.
"Anyways, this beautiful (though they couldn't see it behind the mask) person is my Ha-chan, or Haku. And this hulk of a man is Momochi Zabuza," Naruto introduced with hearts in his eyes as he finished.
And what a hulk he is.
And what an eye candy he is.
And what a piece of meat he is.
And what a sex god he is.
And what a-
Naruto once again tuned Kyuubi out before it became an all out match of sexual labeling. (A/N: Trust me, those go on forever…because I'm perverted like that! :D)
"Why are you here anyways?" Naruto was curious as to why his companions were here.
"You could say we're companions."
"We were hired to kill Tazuna over there, but if you're hired to protect him, then I'll guess we don't need the money that much," Zabuza replied with a bored tone.
"Good, now you three can escort Tazuna here to his house. I'm going to go with Usagi-chan and Ha-chan to their hideout," Naruto instructed and poofed away along with his companions.
"To have some fun," Kakashi heard Naruto giggle.
At Usagi-chan's Hideout
A poof was heard and three figures appeared in the middle of the scarcely decorated room.
"Wow, I think you do need the money. I mean even if it's a hideout, you should at least make it at least a little more homely." Naruto tsked and sat on one of the two beds.
"Whatever, Haku, you can go shopping now. You said you wanted to go shop for some new fabric and nail polish. Why I let you buy that I would never know," Zabuza said.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm painting Ha-chan's nails. What else does it look like I'm doing?"
"Hai hai Zabuza-sama," Haku mocked and lazily walked out of the hideout in his casual outfit. He had his long hair loose and wore a pink sleeveless, low-cut kimono, with pale red edges and decorated with small plum-colored swirls that went to his ankles. Around his waist was a simple white obi tied in a bow, and he wore a pair of light brown sandals with dark straps. To add to his feminine appearance, he wore a dark choker around his neck.
"Ha-chan! Don't let those horny boys get near you!" Naruto yelled after Haku just before the door was shut.
Haku shook his head at Naruto's antics as he walked towards the village.
"So Usagi-chan, how was traveling without your favorite toy?" Naruto asked teasingly.
"It was very straining when you hear Haku constantly complaining about how he had no one to talk about with boys, nails, hair and all that stuff you gay ukes do."
Naruto laughed, not giggle, but laughed as he heard that.
"We missed you," Zabuza said after a moment.
Naruto stopped laughing as he stared at Zabuza, who stared right back.
"I missed you both too."
Naruto hugged Zabuza and snuggled in the warmth.
"I've never been hugged before."
"I felt very cold without you both near me. Kyuubi kept me company though, and it helped a lot."
Of course, who do you think I am?
A duck.
Wha-
Naruto tuned him out before he started ranting again.
"Sometimes I wish I could just continue to travel with you and Haku forever until we die. But then I remember Konoha and…" Naruto couldn't finish the sentence.
He never knew to this day what he felt towards his birth village. He knew he felt hate, of course he did, but he also felt… something. He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was what was keeping him from destroying the village. It wasn't love, it wasn't affection, and it would never be loyalty, so what was it?
You're thinking about the wrong part of Konoha. You're thinking about the village itself, Kit.
Naruto was startled from his thoughts when a hand caressed his cheek. He leant into the soft touch.
"When do you think is the best time to beat the shit out of this Gatō? I don't know why you didn't just beat him up and take all of his money," Naruto said.
"Now where would be the fun in that? I say me and Haku just betray him when he backstabs us. I know he wasn't gonna pay us from the start," Zabuza smirked at Naruto.
Naruto grinned deviously in return and pounced on his Usagi-chan.
"Now, what did I say about fun?"
"Neh, have you ever lived?"
Back with Team 7 and the Drunk
I don't know if I should be relieved or worried that Naruto knows Zabuza. Kakashi thought as he walked along his client and two students.
How does he know Zabuza is the question here. He shouldn't be able to know anyone outside of the village. Was the Anbu slacking off on their duties? I never saw Naruto leave the village when I was on duty. Were we just tricked? So many questions, not enough answers at all. No puzzle pieces that fit each other.
As Kakashi wondered about this mystery, his other little students too wondered about their mysterious teammate.
I never thought Naruto would know such a dangerous person! I wonder if Naruto knows anyone else outside of the village aside from those two. Sakura pondered as she unconsciously twirled a piece of her hair. Sakura, you have to remember that Naruto isn't the person you thought he was! She mentally scolded herself.
Uzumaki Naruto. Who are you? How come you're so different than what everyone else believed? How did you get so much power? The power to defeat him… Sasuke's pace started to slow down a little as his thoughts became more dark.
"Foolish little brother, if you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me. And yet survive in an unsightly way. Run, run and cling to life, and when you have the same eyes as mine, come to me.(1)" The words he said him echoed throughout his mind.
I need that power. I need to know where he got it! Blood trailed down Sasuke's hands as his nails embedded themselves into the palm of his hands.
Tazuna broke his protectors' thoughts as he announced that they arrived to their destination, his home.
As they entered the inn, they were greeted by his daughter, Tsunami.
"Welcome! Oh! You brought ninjas with you, good!"
"This is my beautiful daughter, Tsunami. Tsunami this is Kakashi, the sensei of the squad. The girl is Sakura and the boy is Sasuke. There is another teammate but he disappeared off to who knows where, his name is Naruto," Tazuna introduced.
"Hello! Thank you for protecting this drunk of a father! I appreciate it greatly!" Tsunami bowed in gratefulness.
Kakashi chuckled, "Can you please show us our rooms?"
"Of course, please follow me."
"They say home is where the heart is. But what if you won't have a heart?"
Back to the Naughty Pair -wiggles eyebrows-
Naruto was draped over Zabuza's chest as Zabuza gently caressed his back.
"So what did you do when I went back to Konoha?" Naruto softly questioned.
"Well, after you left, me and Haku set off to find some jobs for some money," Zabuza lazily answered.
"So nothing fun happened I guess?"
"Nope. Nothing exciting happened to us. No close encounters to death or big mobs to kill."
"Don't worry my Usagi-chan, now that your Chibi Kitsune is here, all disasters shall reap on us!" Naruto glomped his life-sized teddy bear and purred.
"I don't know if I should be excited or worried."
"You should feel grateful that you have such a wondrous being in your presence!"
Zabuza chuckled and continued to caress Naruto on the back. A comfortable silence descended on the two.
"So you want to keep the act up with Gatō and pretend you're all ready to kill us little Genins or do you just want to hang out with your favorite person in the whole wide world?"
And you wonder why some people think you two are an item.
Yu-chan! Where have you been?
… Where would I've been you no good fu-
"Yu-chan is constantly going on a rant today. Maybe he's frustrated with all the no-sex life."
Zabuza sweatdropped, moved Naruto to his side, and sat upright.
"I think me and Haku will just hang out with you're little groupie," Zabuza decided.
Naruto cheered and started to drag his companion out the door.
"I'm sure you don't have anything good in this pitiful place so we'll just leave. I already put down a note to tell Haku where to find us so he doesn't think we ran without him again."
Kyuubi, you done ranting?
-and then when I'm done castrating you I'm gonna-
Never mind.
Naruto jumped onto one of the trees, turned around and gave a suggestive wink.
"Come and catch me you big bad wolf." And started to jump away, towards what he assumed was Tazuna's house.
"Oh you naughty little fox."
"Don't you love the thrill of death?"
To Kaka-sensei and his long, long contemplation!
Kakashi was seen in his room with files scattered all around him. He told Sakura and Sasuke to take a short rest to recover some energy. He needed to research about his mysterious student.
He was currently looking through the file the academy recorded about Naruto.
It says Naruto had no talent whatsoever at Genjutsu and Ninjutsu. All of his attempts at any of the jutsus or dispelling a Genjutsu ended up in failure. That doesn't make sense, from what I got when I fought Naruto, he was more than proficient enough at Ninjutsu. I still don't know about Genjutsu though, but if he has that much control over his chakra, I'm sure he'll have no problem at Genjutsu, much less dispelling it.
As Kakashi continued to read through the files, he noticed a pattern, none of the evaluators were Iruka, and sounded very much bias to Naruto. Kakashi knew that Iruka was the only instructor at the academy who judged fairly and knew Naruto wasn't the Kyuubi.
Naruto's taijutsu is commendable really. Even if I was not in my best state, he still was better than the average Genin. He could even be better a Chunin! These files are utter crap and don't give me any information at all. They say the exact opposite of Naruto's skills. It disgusts me how stupid and biased these instructors are. I wouldn't want my child to be even near these leeches, considering if I ever settle down.
Kakashi threw the file in the pile where other useless and rejected files were.
He picked up the thickest file, it was personally written by the Hokage himself. He took out a group of papers at random and started to read.
"April 26 (2), Age 6. Naruto is a very curious child. He questions everything, and thinks about so many different things at different intervals that it's a hard job trying to keep up with him. What I noticed though was that he was most interested in Fuinjutsu and Ninjutsu pertaining to the healing element. So I gave into his pleadings and gave him some scrolls on both subjects in the beginner level. I taught him how to read and write as the instructors refused to teach him. I fired them and hired new ones, but the results were the same. It worries me on how all of these negative emotions towards him will affect Naruto's nature."
"March 1, Age 6. Naruto always have surprises in store for me. It seems that Naruto read through all the scrolls I gave him and showed me that aside from book knowledge, he can actually do the most basic healing jutsu and basic seals. At such a young age, he absorbs information much faster than the grown-men I have encountered! He is a like a sponge where he stores all of the information into a black hole. His curiousity is never sated, in fact, I'm sure that it just increases the more he's introduced to something! Naruto seems to have also made his own training regime for taijutsu. I can see the results already. It seems Naruto is aiming for a lithe build, for agility. He's using weights and with the seals he learned, made a seal that added weight to his arm! I gave him more beginner scrolls along with a few of intermediate scrolls. I was admittedly excited for what Naruto will think of next. Hopefully this will take him longer to learn."
Interesting, it seems Naruto showed more enthusiasm to learning when he was younger. Iruka always said Naruto fell asleep during his classes, no matter what they were learning. Maybe Naruto needs to be introduced to something he has genuine interest in it or what he decides is worth the effort.
Kakashi continued to read.
"March 10, Age 6. Although it took a longer time than it did to read the previous scrolls, Naruto still read at a faster pace and was able to do utilize them outside of books and papers. Naruto expressed that the healing Ninjutsus and the Fuinjutsu were very interesting to him, and that he couldn't wait to learn more about those two branches. He showed much creativity in those two subjects. For example, he wrote seals on a pair of pants with his blood and it let him put more items in it than the normal pocket. Why Fuinjutsu masters only applied seals on scrolls was a mystery to Naruto and now me too. Healing jutsu on the other hand made him do an experiment with a injured fish. He concluded that by applying more chakra with an even more controlled grip, it would help the healing process go faster. It was a success, but because most medic-nin did not have a huge chakra reserve (hence the reason why they have such good control in the first place), they could not do what Naruto did."
Amazing! To think that only a six year old came up with these ideas. Naruto knows more then he lets on. I wonder why the Hokage didn't appoint him as a Tokubetsu Jounin for Fuinjutsu or as a Medic-nin, figuring that Naruto would further research about the two branches.
Kakashi skimmed through the papers, noting how Naruto also took interest in Kekkai Genkai, poisons, and interrogation techniques.
He stopped though when he saw a few words that made his blood stop cold, "Betrayed...Blood massacre…didn't know what happened…empty and dull…wouldn't talk…different…trust…"
"October 10, Age 8. The Anbu I entrusted the safety of Naruto to betrayed me and let a mob free reign over Naruto. There were ninjas of all ranks and civilians that had joined in the attack. When the Anbu squad and I arrived on the scene, it was a plain blood massacre. There were corpses every where, most had their eyes opened in wide terror. Of what I don't know, but whatever it was, it was powerful and had left a pure stench of bloodlust in the air. There were claw marks on some corpses, burnt bodies here and there, body parts strewn all over. I didn't know what happened, or what could have made this horrible scene, but I was sure I didn't want to know. When I walked over to Naruto, his eyes, they were empty and dull, like the fire in them was extinguished. I asked him what happened, but he wouldn't talk. No matter how much I pleaded and asked, he wouldn't talk at all. Naruto didn't even twitch when I picked him up and it worried me greatly. After the report one of my most trusted Medic-nin gave me. I knew Naruto would be different. Much different then the ball of sunshine I knew personally. So many broken bones, bruises, loss of blood, not to mention the trauma it caused him mentally. I only hope that Naruto will still trust this old man who let him down him in the worst possible way.
The paper had tear marks at the bottom.
Kakashi was furious. How could they! How could they not see that what they scorn and ostracize is nothing but a small child? They may think that he is the Kyuubi, but now they had really done it. They gave the child a very good reason to betray this village and decimate it. Once the Hokage is gone, nothing could stop the child from destroying the village that broke his innocence (3). Kakashi knew Naruto held no love for the village. He knew the only reason why Naruto didn't leave the village yet was because of the Hokage.
Kakashi put the paper back into the file folder and put back all the files into the scroll the Hokage gave him. At least I know more my student. I have to be careful though, any member of the village, with the exception of the Hokage, is treading on very thin ice. Very thin.
"They all deserved the pain. They thought I was a monster, I became the monster. You reap what you sow afterall."
(1) When I re-read over those words Itachi said to Sasuke in canon…I was slightly creepy out by how obsessive it sounded with a hint to a one-sided incest love… o-o But I still love you Itachi!
(2) I don't know the actual year Naruto takes place in so I just feel as though not to even include any years in this story. If any of you do know, then please say in a review or pm me!
(3) Do not worry guys, none of the attackers raped Naruto. By innocence, Kakashi meant the outlook on life most children have.
Okay End! Thank you guys so much for being so patient! I love how none of you complained that the updations were slow, thank you so much! I hate it when people complain about slow updation, some people have a life and some people have things to do. But sorry again for the late updation! T T -bows repeatedly- I hope this chapter is satisfying; I'm actually satisfied with this chapter. Again, THANK YOU ALL so much for the alerts, favorites and reviews! It means so much to me, and gives me a motivation to not discontinue this story. I had stopped at some points with frustration, thinking I should just discontinue it, but then I think about you guys and I just keep on writing! Thanks for all the support. Puri~ -bows-