Advent of Mokuzai

Chapter 19: The mission in Nami no Kuni (Part 3)

Naruto currently sat under the shade of a tree with a scroll laid out on his lap. It was a calm afternoon and not much had transpired since Kakashi had given each of the genins their own exercises to practice. While Sasuke and Sakura were guarding Tazuna on the bridge today, he had taken some time to go through some of his grandfather's notes on advanced Mokuton jutsu. He had to admit Hashirama Senju was in a class of his own when it came to ninjutsu, be it elemental manipulation or iryo ninjutsu. He glanced towards his bandaged right arm where Orochimaru had injected him with cells of the Shodai Hokage. From what he understood on his own, he was an anomaly. While he was not born a Senju, he had somehow managed to awaken a kekkei genkai which hadn't been seen since Hashirama. Although, it was not to say that he did not take pride in that. In a way he felt connected to all the Hokages of Konohagakure no Sato. And that little fact always brought a smile to his face. That's because, just like the past Hokages, he had an immense desire to protect Konoha and its citizens.

Although, he did feel conflicted at times. Mainly because of Sasuke. He was the first bond Naruto had formed outside of his family. And Naruto did not wish to lose that at any cost. Yet, he wasn't ignorant to the fact that Sasuke might leave the village in the future in pursuit of Itachi. The blonde knew Sasuke better than anyone else in the village and he considered himself more of a brother to him than Itachi could ever hope to be. He felt conflicted because he honestly wouldn't know what to do if Sasuke ever became a threat to Konoha. He was also aware to the fact that Sasuke and him would eventually become stronger than anyone else around. It wasn't arrogance or overconfidence, but he just knew it somehow. Would he be able to bring himself to kill Sasuke? Would he be able to talk Sasuke out of it? Or would he die fighting Sasuke? He honestly did not have an accurate answer to any of those questions. And it kind of annoyed him that, such questions kept popping up in his mind.

He shook his head to clear out his thoughts and brushed his hand through his long blonde hair. He chuckled lightly on realizing how similar his hair was to the Yondaime. Thinking of the Yondaime Hokage, Kakashi had told him yesterday that the rasengan was an incomplete technique.

Apparently, his father also wanted to add his elemental affinity to the rasengan, which would boost the jutsu rank from A to S-rank, easily making it a one-shot kill jutsu. While he was extremely proficient in suiton, futon, doton and raiton chakra, he had been unable to add any elemental natures to his rasengan. He had spent the whole of yesterday in trying to add his futon chakra to the rasengan and did not have any success at all. The moment he would add futon chakra to the rasengan, the sphere which contained the densely rotating chakra would destabilize, making the rasengan burst. He had been annoyed pretty much the whole night. However, Kakashi did mention that no one had been able to accomplish that feat as of yet. He was also surprised to learn that the Chidori which his sensei had created was a by product of him trying to add his raiton chakra to the rasengan. Although, Kakashi did also mention that successfully adding a chakra nature to the rasengan should not change the shape of the jutsu in any way.

"Do not fret over it so much. From what I know it took the Yondaime three years to create and master the rasengan, while you had done it in a matter of few days. Once you figure out the concept properly, you'll be able to perform it effortlessly." The Kyubi commented. Even the fox had been beginning to get annoyed due to Naruto's continuous anxiousness.

'Oh, Kyubi… you hardly talk nowadays. And I know… But, it's still frustrating, dattebayo!' Naruto thought and then suddenly blinked. He hadn't used that word in ages. Even the Sanbi snickered on hearing the trademark word of some of the Uzumaki. Kurama glanced towards his brethren briefly and raised an eyebrow. The Sanbi hardly ever reacted to any of Naruto's idiocies.

"Just relax. You have time to do all that. You don't have to complete all your objectives in a single day. Give yourself time to breathe and just focus on what you can do right now." The fox advised, resting his head on his paws. Naruto simply nodded and closed his eyes, feeling the nature around him. He was glad that the Toad Clan had agreed to teach him senjutsu. While he had not mastered the ability completely, he could sense the powerful chakra that flowed in the world and it always calmed him. It truly was invigorating to be able to feel such vast amount of chakra. And just like that, he felt his worries floating away into nothingness.

A few minutes later, Naruto opened his eyes when he felt Sasuke's presence close to him. Getting up from the ground, he turned around and came face to face with the Uchiha. Judging from the look on his face, Naruto knew what Sasuke wanted and got into his taijutsu stance. Somehow the blond knew this would be coming sooner or later. They hadn't had a good spar in quite a while and to be frank, no one gave him such a thrill in battle compared to his brother.

"Why now, Sasuke?" Naruto questioned honestly.

"I just want to see how far I have come since the academy. You're not afraid, are you?" Sasuke taunted as he activated his sharingan. Naruto smirked and made a 'come at me' motion with his hand.

Without any further ado, the two rushed at each other with extremely fast pace. The two met in the middle with their elbows colliding and a sudden gust of wind gathered around them. Naruto immediately propped down to make Sasuke lose his balance and went in for a leg sweep. However, having predicted the movement with his sharingan, Sasuke back flipped. Taking out a few shuriken, Sasuke threw them towards Naruto with impeccable speed and aim; all of them aimed towards the blonde's vital points. Naruto smirked and to Sasuke's surprise, the blonde in front of him disappeared into a cloud of smoke upon being hit by the multitude of shuriken.

Keeping his senses sharp, Sasuke promptly jumped high into the air when another Naruto appeared under him. Both their eye's met for a split second and the next moment, they began making quick hand seals.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu" Sasuke said, exhaling a large ball of fire from his mouth, aimed straight down towards Naruto.

"Suiton: Suishoha" Naruto said, as a vortex of water formed around him to block the incoming ball of fire.

As the two opposing jutsus collided, a dense steam formed in the area. While Sasuke had landed on a branch of a tree, Naruto still remained on the ground as he sensed for any chakra surges around him. The blonde waited patiently for a few moments, but nothing seemed to happen. Just as he was about to make a wood clone to gather necessary intel, he was surprised when he sensed multiple small fireballs raining down at him from behind.

'Smart of him to use the steam as cover to hide his movement. He knew I would counter his katon with my suiton jutsu.' Naruto thought amused. Making the necessary hand sings, Naruto erected a wooden barrier around him which took the blunt force of the small fireballs. While doing so, Naruto made a single hand sign and shunshined out of the area and appeared just behind the unsuspecting Uchiha.

While surprised by the sudden appearance, Sasuke kept his cool and managed to deflect the punch aimed to the back of his neck. While doing so, he aimed a knee to Naruto's stomach which connected with the blonde and made him fall off the branch. Sasuke quickly followed after him and then went for a drop kick. Upon seeing the maneuver, Naruto repositioned himself midair and promptly leapt away, the moment his feet touched the ground. Sasuke simply huffed in annoyance when his kick merely contacted the ground.

"Your sharingan has gotten quite powerful, Sasuke." Naruto commented as she straightened himself. He had a large smile on his face. He hadn't had this much fun in a long time. He indeed missed sparring with Sasuke. The Uchiha too similar feelings coursing through his mind.

"We should stop playing around Naruto. If you don't get serious, you might actually lose…" Sasuke replied with a smirk of his own. However, he narrowed his eyes when he saw Naruto's smirk widen. He kept his guard up when he saw the blonde make a single hand seal and he immediately fell to the ground, feeling a large amount of weight on his left hand.

"Who said I wasn't serious huh?" Naruto commented as he approached the downed Uchiha. Sasuke glared at the blonde and then glanced towards his left arm. He was astonished to see a seal on his arm. 'A seal? But when?' he wondered and as if on cue, he blinked in realization.

"That moment when I deflected your punch, you put the seal on me, didn't you?" Sasuke questioned with a serious look. While he was impressed with Naruto's skills in fuinjutsu, he'd be damned if he gave him any credit for it.

"That is correct, Sasuke. Wow, you are smart indeed." Naruto replied with a chuckle. While still maintaining the hand seal to keep the gravity seal on Sasuke's arm active, he walked towards Sasuke with a kunai in his hand. Sasuke simply stared at the blond as he walked proceeded forward. Just as Naruto was within a feet of Sasuke, the Uchiha channeled raiton throughout his whole body and directed a stream of lighting all around him which made Naruto jump away in surprise while also undoing the hand seal.

As Naruto landed a bit far, he looked at Sasuke in pure surprise. The blonde had to commend him for thinking on the spot and it was certainly a brilliant counter. He had to maintain the hand seal to keep the gravity seal active. Applying seals in the midst of a battle was something he had not tried before. He would definitely need to work on that too later.

"So, do you want to finish this with one move?" Sasuke questioned as he stretched his limbs a bit. He had certainly enjoyed the fight, but he also knew an all-out fight between the two would certainly destroy the surrounding area. 'This the perfect time to see the result of training in that jutsu for the past three past days…' Sasuke thought. Making the necessary hand seals, lightning began crackling on the palm of his right hand. Sasuke smirked and then gazed towards Naruto who had a surprised look on his face.

"I didn't think you'd be able to master Kakashi-sensei's Chidori so fast. That's impressive Sasuke." Naruto remarked. He shook his head and chuckled. He shouldn't have expected any less from his rival. In their age group, Sasuke was the only one who could match him in terms of battle prowess. And there were times in the past when he truly believed that Sasuke was a tad better than him. Stretching out his right arm, Naruto started amassing chakra and it soon took a spherical form.

"Let's finish this, Sasuke…" Naruto said with a sudden serious tone. Quite frankly, he was intrigued as to which jutsu was stronger….

Sitting on top of a branch, quite far from the two genins, stood Kakashi. The moment Sasuke had left to find Naruto, he had followed him as he had an idea as to what Sasuke wanted to do. He wasn't entirely surprised by Sasuke's decision to test his strength against Naruto, soon after learning the Chidori. Even he was astonished at how quickly Sasuke had managed to learn his jutsu. Sasuke was indeed a true prodigy in every sense. As he spectated the fight between the two, he was immensely surprised as to how much his students had grown since the academy. But he also knew the two understood to not go all out unless they wished to destroy the surrounding. He always did know that neither of them ever showed their true strength and could only wonder as to how strong they might become in the future.

Kakashi was soon startled out of his thoughts when he saw Sasuke perform the hand seals and form a Chidori. He narrowed his eyes upon the Uchiha as he had explicitly told him never to use his jutsu on a Konoha shinobi. However, his eyes almost popped out of his sockets when he witnessed Naruto form a perfect rasengan on his left hand. 'This is getting out of hand. I need to stop them now.' Thought Kakashi and promptly jumped from the tree and made a bee line in their direction.

Soon enough Naruto and Sasuke rushed towards each other aiming to clash their respective jutsu against each other. Just as the two were about to clash, Kakashi suddenly appeared between the two clutched both their hands, stopping the two jutsus from making any contact. Sasuke glared towards his sensei for a few seconds, although the lighting sparkling on his hands died down as he freed his hand Kakashi's clutches. The rasengan in Naruto's hand vanished too as he glanced at the disappointed look on Kakashi's face. And it was this moment that the reality of the situation hit him. Kakashi's own two students were going to hit each other with their strongest jutsus, which would have likely ended up with one of them being either dead or highly injured.

"What do you think, you two are doing?" Kakashi questioned, as calmly as possible. Naruto felt ashamed for actually intending to use the rasengan on his own teammate.

"I'm sorry, sensei. I should have thought this through…" Naruto said dejectedly. Whereas, Sasuke just grunted and once again glared at his sensei. Yet, somewhere in his mind, even he knew that the result of the two jutsu clashing would indeed be catastrophic.

"Naruto get to Tazuna's place. Sasuke and I will return shortly." Kakashi stated in tone of finality. Naruto could only nod as he shunshined out of the area.

Once the two were alone, Kakashi eyed the Uchiha with a calculative gaze. "I did not expect this from you, Sasuke. You know very well that Chidori is an assassination jutsu and it is not meant to be used on any Konoha shinobi." Kakashi lectured with a strict voice.

"Naruto is not weak like the others, who can't handle the jutsu. I knew he would have a jutsu of his own." Sasuke replied.

"That is still not a good enough reason. I'm letting you off the hook this time but consider this a warning. The Chidori is not meant not meant to be used on your teammates, much less any other Konoha shinobi. Understood?" Kakashi said sternly.

"Fine, whatever." Sasuke replied with a grunt. Before Kakashi could say anything further, Sasuke made a single hand seal and shunshined out of the area. Seeing the Uchiha disappear, Kakashi released a tired sigh. He knew that Sasuke would be a handful, but he certainly did not expect this. He glanced up at the sky as a single thought raced through his mind.

'I wonder how you dealt with us, Minato-sensei…'

Tazuna's house

"Naruto! Where were you whole morning? Sasuke-kun and I had to guard the bridge while you were nowhere to be seen! Are you trying to get out of actually doing the mission?" Sakura stated upon seeing him enter the house.

She had been helping Tsunami prepare lunch for today. She immensely enjoyed being in the company of the older woman. Tsunami had told her a lot about Nami no Kuni and it's history. She was amazed to know that Nami no Kuni once used to be affiliated with a village called Uzoshiogakure, where the Uzumaki Clan once resided. Upon learning of the Uzumaki Clan, she remembered reading in a book once that the Shodai Hokage's wife was Mito Uzumaki. While she was slightly perplexed as to why there wasn't much information about the Uzumaki Clan in Konoha or the fact that she hadn't heard of any other Uzumaki, she didn't think about it too much.

"Oh, it's nothing like that Sakura. I was just training on my own, you see. Sasuke and you have been training too… so, I can't really fall behind, can I?" Naruto said rather defensively upon seeing Sakura crack her knuckles. He wasn't really afraid of getting hit by her per say, he just did not wish to. Sakura nodded upon hearing the explanation. The past few days Naruto indeed had been helping out here and there in the construction of the bridge with the use of his Kage Bunshin. And he was one of the most earnest people she knew in her life. She was glad that the two did not have any lingering awkwardness between each other.

"Well, it's good you have been training. I have already mastered the tree walking and water walking exercise. Kakashi-sensei says that I have extremely accurate chakra control. He told me that I should consider being an iryo ninja in the future. What do you think about it?" Sakura asked excitedly. She finally had a direction which she could pursue. While Sasuke and Naruto were mid to close range fighters, she could help the two from long range and support them with medical ninjutsu.

Naruto's face immediately lit up with happiness on hearing that, although he wasn't much surprised to learn about Sakura's impeccable chakra control. He mused it was mainly due to her small chakra reserves. He had abnormally large chakra reserves to begin with. Tsunade and Jiraiya had once told him, even without the Kyubi and Sanbi, his chakra reserves were comparable to that of a kage. However, he was glad to know that Kakashi-sensei had probed her in the direction of iryo ninjutsu. Personally, he held immense respect for iryo ninjas. While normal shinobi are taught to kill, iryo ninjas are taught to save lives. Moreover, since he learned iryo ninjutsu from his kaa-chan on a regular basis, he wondered if he could…

"Hey, Sakura, I could ask kaa-chan to help you out with iryo ninjutsu, you know. She has been teaching me about medicine from a young age and I'm quite decent in it. Not as good as her, but I can heal most injuries." Naruto said, surprising the pink-haired girl greatly. She was speechless for a few seconds, not knowing what to reply exactly. The legend about Tsunade Senju, the greatest medic in all of elemental nations was quite popular. And it was a dream of every kunoichi to one day be as strong as her.

"Really? You would do that for me?" She finally spoke, after realizing that she had been quiet for too long. Naruto chuckled on seeing the gob smacked expression on her face. He couldn't really blame her though. Her kaa-chan was just that awesome.

"Of course, we are friends after all!" Naruto replied with a big smile. He was simply glad that he could help her. Sakura was about to thank Naruto when both heard the door open and saw Sasuke enter with a grumpy expression etched on his face. Sakura immediately let go of her previous train of thoughts and rushed towards the Uchiha.

"Sasuke-kun, what happened? You seem quite distressed. Is everything okay?" She questioned genuinely.

"It's none of your business. You don't need to probe into everything that I do." Sasuke commented, not even giving her a glance as he was in no mood to entertain her right now. Sakura looked towards the ground dejectedly, unsure as to what had pissed off Sasuke. Moments later, Sasuke was on the receiving end of a rather light punch on his face, courtesy of Naruto.

"What the hell man? That's not how you treat a teammate. She didn't do anything, did she? Whatever happened, is between us. And keep it that way." Naruto yelled indignantly. There were times when the blonde would get infuriated by Sasuke's behavior. Most of the time, he did not voice his thought on the matter, but he couldn't let go of it now.

"Hn, whatever. Just don't disturb me right now. I'm going upstairs." Sasuke replied, after brushing himself off and heading to the room upstairs.

"Uhm… is everything alright?" Naruto and Sakura suddenly heard Tsunami's voice and the blonde felt a bit sad that she had to witness the scene.

"Don't worry about it Tsunami-san. Sasuke can be a prick at times. But he'll come around. It's always like that with him. Sometimes, you need to beat him to the ground to make a point clear." Naruto replied with a small smile. Tsunami just nodded and went back up call her father and son for lunch. A few minutes past Tsunami had gone to call her father, Kakashi entered the house to the scene of Naruto consoling Sakura with some comforting words. Yet again, he sighed as he understood what may have transpired during his absence.

"Sakura, is everything fine?" Kakashi questioned calmly upon nearing her. The young girl just nodded, not really wanting to talk about it. She was immensely glad that there was someone like Naruto on her team. She just wished that Sasuke could be a bit more considerate. She was aware, she was nowhere near as strong as Sasuke or Naruto, but she had made her resolve to not fall behind any more.

Two Days later

Team 8, which consisted of Hinata, Kiba, Shino and their jounin sensei, Kurenai Yuhi had just left Konoha to make their way towards Nami no Kuni to assist team seven in their mission. It was just about evening and would most likely reach their destination by tomorrow afternoon. It was just yesterday that they received a summon from the Sandaime Hokage that Kakashi's team seven needed an additional team to deal with their first C-Rank mission, which had apparently bumped up to an A-Rank.

While the three genins in team eight were not made aware of the entire detail for their support, Kurenai was genuinely surprised that Itachi Uchiha was involved. For someone like her, who was mostly reliant on genjutsu techniques, an opponent from the Uchiha Clan was not a good match up. While she was in no way weak, she knew where her limits lay. She was even more surprised to learn that Naruto had come out of a fight against Itachi without any injuries whatsoever. She shuddered to think what Tsunade would do if even a single scratch came upon her son from the rouge Uchiha.

She shook her head as she could not understand why Kakashi had even continued on with the mission. By all accounts, he should have returned to the village with his genin team. Now, both team seven and eight's genin were in potential risk. Although, she also knew why her team was mainly being sent as support. It was to ensure that the Senju and Uchiha heirs returned safely to the village.

"Kurenai-sensei, you look a little pale. Are you alright?" Hinata asked softly, upon seeing the worried look on her sensei's face.

"Uhh… yeah, don't worry about it, Hinata. I'm okay. How are you guys feelings though? This is your first mission outside the village too." Kurenai stated, clearing her thoughts.

"Of course, we are ready! We'll beat anyone we come up against." As usual, it was Kiba who stated his thoughts out loud before anyone else could. Hinata chuckled a bit on hearing Kiba's boisterous voice and even Kurenai gave a small smile. Although, there were times when Kiba often became quite a handful with his bash nature, he was quite caring about his teammates and friends.

"It would be illogical to think that we can beat anyone, Kiba. Based on our current skill level, we won't even be a match for a seasoned chunin in a one on one fight. We will have to first assess the situation and then take measures accordingly." Shino replied, while adjusting his shades into their proper place.

"Eh, come on man. Have some belief in our team. We are not that bad too…" Kiba replied with his head hung slightly low. Even though, he understood the logic in Shino's statement, he was just the kind of person who was filled with confidence and wanted to tackle every problem head on.

"I think… Shino-kun is right. This is only our second mission outside the village. Moreover, we have been called as a support for team seven. We have to assume that the situation is not that good for another team to be called…." Hinata also stated after hearing her two teammates. While she did share Kiba's sentiment, she had to agree with Shino's train of thoughts too.

While the three genins kept conversing with themselves, Kurenai could not help but smile. The three had matured well since their academy days and she now felt quite silly upon worrying unnecessarily. Unknown to others, Hinata was quite giddy on the inside to be going on this mission. This was the first time, Naruto and her, would on the same mission and she would even get to spend some time with him. Ever since the end of the academy, she hardly got to spend much time with Naruto. With all the team training and missions that everyone had to do, it was quite a difficult task indeed.

Next morning

Today morning, it was Naruto and Sasuke who were helping Tazuna on the bridge while Kakashi trained Sakura beside the lake, close to Tazuna's house. Even though most of the other bridge builders had opted out of helping due to Gato's fear, with Naruto's kage bunshin, about eighty percent of the bridge had been completed.

As usual, one could see several clones of Naruto doing several menial chores such as carrying heavy items from one place to another, making sure there are no weak spots on the underside of the bridge or carrying large logs of woods. Tazuna wiped some sweat off his forehead while he was cutting logs of wood into smaller pieces and then handing it off to his coworkers who then proceeded to put them into place and then hammer it down. The aged bridge builder looked all around him once and smiled fondly at his handy work.

'This bridge would certainly help us in getting free of Gato. And once that happens, the citizens will not have to live in fear anymore.' Tazuna thought proudly. He glanced towards the blond, who was standing on the side going through some scroll could not help but imagine how much of a help that kid had been. He would certainly repay the favor to Konoha one day when the time comes. Feeling the heat once again, Tazuna cursed as he had to get back to work. Although, he was glad that the bridge was almost complete, he cursed his old age for not being able to work for too long.

"Oye Tazuna-san, you need to put down the wood more firmly on this area." Yelled one of the clones, in the middle of the bridge. Tazuna immediately moved towards the clone and saw that the fitting was quite lose on one side.

"Ah, great more work…" Tazuna mumbled under his breath. As he went to fetch some extra tools from the toolbox, a slight mist began to roll into the surrounding area.

While Tazuna and the clones were working on the bridge, Naruto and Sasuke stood on the far side of the bridge, sitting silently among themselves. Sasuke glanced towards the Senju and saw him go through a scroll on Mokuton jutsus. He quirked an eyebrow, wondering as to where he could have gotten his hands on it. He was about to ask when he suddenly had a strange feeling wash over him. He saw as Naruto suddenly got up from his place and simply stared towards the far end of the bridge. The blond balled his fists and he could definitely feel the potent chakra build up inside of him. The action did not go unnoticed by anyone else in the bridge too.

"What do you sense, Naruto?" Sasuke questioned seriously. Even though he disagreed with many of Naruto's ideologies, he trusted the blonde's battle instinct more than anyone else's. And there were very few times when Naruto got this serious.

"Prepare for battle Sasuke… It looks like Zabuza has come few days prior to what we had guessed. And based on the chakra signatures, it looks like he has help too." Naruto whispered quietly. Sasuke promptly went on alert and kept his senses sharp for any sort of unusual movement around them.

Everyone one of the clones halted their movements and in one go, all of them disappeared without a single word. Tazuna and few of the other builders present glanced around themselves perplexedly, when suddenly, the slight mist surrounding them turned into an overwhelming killing intent. In a matter of a second, everything around the bridge was covered inside the dense mist. The few bridge builders huddled together in the middle of the bridge, not sure what the hell was going on.

Before Naruto could make a single hand seal for futon jutsu, Sasuke and him heard several screams coming from the middle of the bridge and the blonde instantly looked towards Sasuke. While Naruto made a single hand seal for his basic futon jutsu, Sasuke swiftly rushed towards the middle, with minuscule amount of lighting sparkling through his nerves to increase his speed.

"Futon: Daitoppa" Naruto stated and blew a large gust of wind from his mouth to clear out the mist. What he saw once the mist was cleared shocked him immensely. Sasuke stood atop several ice spikes with Tazuna and another builder lying unconscious in his arms. In an instant, Sasuke appeared beside him and he could see that there were several cuts on his legs and arms, which were bleeding quite profusely. Making five Mokuton bunshin this time, he silently ordered one of them to heal Sasuke, while Naruto turned his attention to the three people that stood on the far end of the bridge.

"That fake hunter-nin is the one with Hyoton kekkei genkai. He's quite fast too in covering at least two hundred meters with him as the epicenter." Sasuke informed in a pained voice. His sharingan had calculated all of that in the short amount of time he had noticed him weave hand sings along with watching the workings of the jutsu. However, he was a second too late in getting out of the way of the ice spikes. Some of the gashes in his legs were quite deep.

"I'm sure Kakashi-sensei has already received word about this, since he has a kage bunshin of mine with him. He should be arriving here any moment. My clone will heal you in a few seconds. Go to the side with my clone and he'll put Tazuna-san and Yoshimura-san inside a barrier, where they'll be safe." Naruto replied.

"Don't go overboard… Naruto." Sasuke said, as he turned around and he along with the Mokuton bunshins made a beeline for the other end of the bridge. Naruto stood calmly as he stared down the three people that walked towards the center of the bridge and stopped. He was already aware of two people which were Zabuza and Haku. He felt a little let down that Haku had not taken his warning. He clenched his fists, knowing he might have to kill him if the situation arose.

However, it was the third person whose identity was unknown to him. The shinobi had blue eyes with a darker ripple around the pupil, waist-length green hair with the top two bangs falling down on his cheeks on each side and having dark, full lips. He also wore a grey hooded mantle with three red stripes. Under his mantle, the shinobi wore a dark-brown sleeveless vest falling to his knees where the inside was purple, light brown belt, a light grey pants. Similar to Zabuza, he also had bandages covering most of his body, his neck down to the chest, including his arms and shinbones.

"You really think, you can take us all alone, huh?" Zabuza stated with a maniacal grin. He took his large sword off his back swung it across him and placed it on ground, whilst holding it via the hilt.

"Is this the kid, you told me to be wary off? He doesn't look like much…" taunted the green haired shinobi. From his back, he took out twin swords which made Naruto quirk an eyebrow in confusion. A second later, his eyes widened as he realized that those were the Kiba, one of Kirigakure's most famous swords, mainly known for conducting raiton chakra.

"Raiga-sama, Naruto is from the Senju Clan and can also utilize the Mokuton kekkei genkai. And it's only fair to assume that he is well versed in other shinobi arts too. Anyone from the Senju Clan, be it adult or a child is not to be underestimated." Replied Haku, who had once again put a mask on his face.

"I shall not let you pass any further." Naruto stated and began amassing large quantities of chakra. A purple aura of chakra formed around him as he stared down at the three enemies.

"Ohhh… the kid's got some spunk… It will be fun to host his funeral." Raiga commented with a slight gleam in his eyes. Zabuza merely chuckled on hearing his friend's comment. "But you know the deal. The kid must not die." Zabuza stated seriously. Before the three could make any move, Kakashi appeared beside them along with Sakura and soon Sasuke stepped beside Naruto. Glancing behind himself, Naruto sighed in relief to know that Tazuna and Yoshimura would be safe inside the purple barrier. That was one of his most powerful barrier ninjutsu. A single touch on it would burn down the enemy to ashes.

"Ahh, nice of you to finally join us Kakashi. This wouldn't be fun with only the kids around. I will definitely get you for the last time." Zabuza stated smugly. While he could not kill the blonde Senju, he could definitely kill Kakashi and the other two kids.

"Are you that afraid of facing me alone, Zabuza? And if I'm not mistaken, that's Raiga Kurosuki, another former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the mist." Kakashi said, as he analyzed the situation before him carefully. He could have certainly taken out Zabuza on his own but with Raiga in the mix, it changes the gameplay completely. He believed Naruto and Sasuke would be able to handle the fake hunter nin but now each would have to take either the fake hunter nin or Raiga as their opponent while he dealt with Zabuza. He cursed at the fact that the support team was not here yet and that he believed Zabuza would actually wait a whole week before striking again.

"If you're wondering about the other Konoha team that's coming to Nami to Kuni, you don't need to worry about them. By the time they get here, you all will be long dead." Zabuza commented and proceeded to make ten water clones of himself. Raiga followed suit and made another ten water clones. Without any word, the twenty water clones rushed towards the group of Konoha shinobi.

Kakashi merely glanced towards Sasuke and the genin understood the message. Unsheathing his katana, he channeled raiton chakra through it, making it sparkle brightly. And in a blink of an eye, he cut through all twenty of the clones before returning back to his position. Sasuke smirked at his handiwork. He had definitely gotten faster in the past few days.

"Oh, would you look at that. Looks like you got some competition when in terms of speed, Haku." Zabuza chuckled, on seeing the impressive display.

While Naruto and Sasuke stood confidently, Sakura stood behind them with slightly shaky legs. She could feel the killer intent that was radiating in the area and it was much stronger than the one she had felt last time. As if on cue, Kakashi placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Why don't you go towards Tazuna-san and Yoshimura-san and stand guard beside them. And don't worry. All of us are going to go back alive to the village." Kakashi said with an eye smile. Sakura nodded hesitantly as she looked towards her teammates once before rushing back towards the purple barrier.

"Naruto, Sasuke. There will be no holding back now. While I deal with Zabuza, you two are going to have to deal with the fake hunter-nin and Raiga. Sasuke, you'll be taking on the fake hunter-nin and Naruto, you'll be taking on Raiga. I trust in you both enough to know that you'll be able to deal with them. Somehow, Zabuza was aware that we had a back up team on the way and I assume that's the only reason he chose to attack before the end of the week. Kill them if necessary. Understood?" Kakashi stated firmly as he lifted his forehead protector to reveal his fully matured sharingan. The two genins just nodded while keeping their eyes firmly placed on their targets.

While Zabuza stood his ground, Haku and Raiga rushed towards the three Konoha shinobi quickly. Similarly, Naruto and Sasuke also rushed towards them. While Haku clashed against Sasuke's katana with her kunai, Naruto clashed against Raiga's Kiba with his own kunai.

Meanwhile, Zabuza and Kakashi merely stared down at each other for a few moments before they too rushed at each other. Zabuza came upon Kakashi with an upper wing of his Kubikiribocho, which the Konoha jounin blocked with a kunai.

"Foolish move, Copycat." Zabuza smirked as he put forth more strength into his sword. Kakashi stared wide eyed, as Zabuza sword began cutting through his kunai. Just as the large sword was about the cleave his arms, he jumped back and began making hand seals for a katon jutsu.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu" Kakashi called, releasing a large ball of fire towards Zabuza. In retaliation, Zabuza began forming his own set of hand seal as he said, "Suiton: Suise no jutsu". A large torrent of water rose up from the water under the bridge from Zabuza's right and collided with the large fireball and soon enough, steam covered the area around the two shinobi.

"You never learn, do you? Suiton is my element, Kakashi. No matter how many suiton jutsu you copy, you'll never be as good as the original." Zabuza voice echoed through the mist. 'He laced his own chakra in the mist to thicken it. This is going to be a problem. It's just unfortunate that I don't know any futon jutsu.' Kakashi thought. Not one to be disheartened, Kakashi too smirked as he thought of an idea to end this battle quickly.

While Kakashi and Zabuza were battling it out, Naruto and Sasuke had decided to switch their opponents considering Haku and Raiga's chakra natures. Early on in the fight, the two had realized Haku's Hyoton ninjutsu was a mixture of Suiton and futon which was right up Naruto's alley and Raiga mostly used raiton nature manipulation, which Sasuke was more proficient in compared to Naruto.

"Haku, why didn't you take my advice and run away? You know the most likely outcome of our fight." Naruto stated with a somewhat somber look on his face. Sasuke quirked an eyebrow when he heard the blonde call the fake hunter-nin by his name and wondered if he had met the boy earlier.

"While I'm grateful that you let me get away the other morning, I cannot abandon Zabuza-sama. It does not matter how the world views him. To me, he's my master and I'm his tool. He has taken care of me since I was just a kid, and this is the only way I can repay the favor. I shall not abandon him when he needs my assistance." Haku replied passionately. And at that moment, Naruto realized how much Zabuza meant to him. He wondered if Zabuza himself knew how much Haku cared about him. That unflinching belief that Haku displayed in Zabuza was something which Naruto had come to respect.

Once again, Haku rushed towards the blonde with a kunai in a single hand. Naruto simply sighed and ran towards him. As their two kunais collided, Haku tried putting more strength behind his kunai, but Naruto was simply more powerful when it came to that regard. The blonde simply kept applying more pressure and just as Haku was about to lose balance, he made several one-handed seals.

'She can perform ninjutsu with a single hand?' Naruto thought flabbergasted.

"Let's see you dodge this." Haku remarked, quite confident that he would get the blonde with this. Even for some of veteran shinobi it was quite difficult to perform one handed seals, since it took extreme levels of chakra control.

"Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suisho". Haku stated as he created thousands of long water needles from the water surrounding them.

Sasuke ducked under Raiga's kick and aimed a punch towards his torso when he noticed that Raiga was aiming his twin swords towards his neck from both directions. Quickly placing his palms on the ground, Sasuke unleashed large amount of raiton chakra from his body which resulted in dense lighting being released in all directions from his body.

Surprised by the move, Raiga had to jump back and immediately pointed both his swords towards Sasuke and said, "Raiton: Raikyu". Four spheres of electrical energy were created at the tip of the two swords and then launched themselves towards Sasuke at high speed. Quickly thinking on his feet, Sasuke began channeling raiton chakra through his nerves and with impressive speed got out of the way. That was when he noticed Naruto's predicament. Quickly rushing towards him, Sasuke kicked Naruto out of the way and rushed towards Haku. Before Haku could realize what had happened the four spherical ball of energy hit him right in the face, launching him back.

"Not bad… not bad at all. Redirecting my attack towards Haku was a nice plan indeed. But, if you're thinking you two have won, I must say you're sadly mistaken." Raiga said out loud. By now, both Naruto and Sasuke were standing back to back, staring down at their enemies once again. True to Raiga's words, Haku had come out unscathed, as he had created an ice shield in front of himself before Raiga's jutsu could hit him.

"We need to take out Raiga before dealing with Haku. He's more flexible with long range ninjutsu which will be a pain in the ass to deal with. You up for it, Sasuke?" Naruto whispered to him. Sasuke simply smirked and said, "Don't think so lowly of the Uchiha… I'm ready when you are."

Both Haku and Raiga readied themselves the moment the two genins moved a single muscle. Instead of each taking a single opponent, both Naruto and Sasuke rushed towards Raiga with greater speed than before. While Naruto formed a rasengan in his hand, Sasuke had lightning crackling on the left palm of his hand. Upon seeing the two jutsus before his eyes, Raiga's eyes widened immensely as he held both his swords before him in anticipation. Just before the two were about to reach Raiga, to their surprise, an ice mirror formed in front of Raiga and Haku stepped out of it with two ice spikes held in each hand.

As he threw the two spikes towards the rushing genins, Naruto and Sasuke immediately stopped their jutsus along with halting in their tracks.

"Mokuton: Mokujoheki". Naruto promptly said as hundreds of roots from the grounds sprung forth and interlocked among each other to form a wooden wall. The blonde glanced towards Sasuke and the Uchiha understood the subtle message. Making a single hand seal for the shunshin no jutsu, Sasuke disappeared from view. Naruto made another Kage bunshin and made him transform into Sasuke as he undid his Mokuton jutsu.

"I certainly have to commend you two for putting up such an effort. It is certainly impressive for someone of your ages." Haku remarked as he took several needles in his hands. At the same time, Raiga now narrowed his eyes at the two so called genin in front of him. He had only heard legends about the two jutsu in the past, he witnessed just moments ago. But now that he knew that these kids could utilize such high level of ninjutsu, he would need to start taking this fight seriously.

However, before anyone else could make a move, a loud chirping noise was once again heard in the area. By the time Haku looked back to see the source, his eyes widened when he noticed a hand crackling in lighting, sticking out of Raiga's heart. Raiga himself had a horrified look etched on his face as his eyes darted down. All fighting on the bridge seemingly stopped. Even Zabuza and Kakashi looked towards the scene as one of the former swordsmen of the mist just fell onto the ground with copious amount of blood flowing out of his mouth. As Sasuke plunged his arm out of Raiga's chest, he gazed into Haku's eyes who took a step back upon seeing the red in his hands and the red in his eyes.

Zabuza scoffed upon seeing his long-time friend die because of such a pathetic misdirection. He was a shinobi who respected nothing but power and the will of a man. He knew Raiga had lost his will when he abandoned his own family in Kirigakure to become a missing ninja. He glanced towards Haku and saw the slight look of fear in his eyes.

"You're in the middle of a fight Haku. Never show mercy to your opponents. It's either killed or be killed." Zabuza said sharply. Haku immediately turned towards Zabuza and calmed down a little. Those words were something that Zabuza always told him. The countless of the times that the two of them had to fend off hunter ninja, the countless of times he had seen people die before him. But it had been ages since someone he knew personally had died right before his eyes.

"Stand down Haku. This will not end well for you, if you continue to fight." Naruto pleaded as he saw Haku's reaction to Raiga's death. He could tell that somewhere in his heart, Haku too wanted to live a normal life, far away from the life he currently lived.

Instead of replying, Haku began wielding a strange set of hand seals. Both, Naruto and Sasuke immediately rushed towards her, intending to stop her. However, moments before they could reach him, Haku had already finished the last of the hand seals.

"Hyoton Hijutsu: Makyo Hyosho" Several large mirrors, made of ice suddenly surrounded Naruto and Sasuke. But what shocked the two genins was when Haku stepped into one of the ice mirrors.

Upon seeing the jutsu, Kakashi began to worry a little. He had never seen a jutsu like that before and with his sharingan he could clearly see that the ice mirrors were laced with good amount of chakra. And that meant, the fake hunter-nin was aiming to kill Naruto and Sasuke with this one final move. Just as he was about to change direction to move towards them, he was once again stopped by Zabuza.

"You don't have time to worry about them, Kakashi. You have your hands full with me. But I must say that those two genin of yours are done for. Even I have trouble getting out of that jutsu." Zabuza said with a laugh.

"And I have told you not to underestimate my genin, Zabuza. You'll see soon what I meant by that. But, you're right. Let's get our little fight over with." Kakashi replied. While it was true, he was beginning to tire out, he still had more than enough to deal with Zabuza. Now that Raiga was out of the picture, he could focus entirely on his own fight.

Up until now, both Kakashi and Zabuza were at a stalemate. While Zabuza had gotten in more hits due to his greater physical strength and longer reach due to the Kubikiribocho, Kakashi was much swifter compared to the Kiri swordsman. This time when Zabuza swung his sword towards Kakashi, the Konoha jounin jumped atop the sword. Using the sword as a pedestal, Kakashi jumped behind Zabuza, and quickly made his own set of hand seals for the Chidori.

"Now, let me show you something that I created personally." Kakashi stated a bit out of breath. Zabuza eyed the jutsu, the same one that had killed his friend. As Kakashi moved his hand towards Zabuza, the Kiri missing ninja blocked it with his own sword. The sharpness of Kakashi's jutsu was enough to cut down the sword in two. Using Zabuza's momentary lapse in concentration due to his shock, Kakashi slid beside Zabuza and kneed him on his ribs, followed by a roundhouse kick to his neck. Letting go of his sword, Zabuza flew to the side and hit the side of the bridge roughly. However, to his surprise, the Zabuza he had hit simply burst into water upon contact. Kakashi once again kept his senses sharp as he felt the area around him thicken with mist.

"Watch and learn the way of the silent killing, Copy ninja Kakashi." Zabuza stated. Quickly thinking on his feet, Kakashi bit his thumb and went through several hand seals and placed his hand on the ground. Immediately, there was a poof of smoke and several dogs appeared around him. 'I should have just done this sooner…' Kakashi thought, a bit dumbly. It was also fortunate that he had a few splashes of Zabuza's blood on his jounin vest. Once the dogs smelled Zabuza's blood, it was only a matter of time before his summons would pinpoint the Kiri missing ninja's location.

Back with Naruto and Sasuke, the two were continuously dodging sharp ice senbons which were being launched by Haku. While the two genins had been able to dodge the attacks to a good extent but it felt like, the speed of the senbons being thrown, kept increasing gradually. Moreover, none of them could exactly locate Haku's location accurately since he kept travelling from one mirror to another, at a very fast pace.

Naruto back flipped to narrowly avoid four senbons and the moment his feet touched the ground, he cursed when he felt another senbon needle hit the back of his ankle. He already had two sticking on his right arm. Glancing towards Sasuke, he noticed that the Uchiha was faring slightly better than him. It was times like these that he envied Sasuke's sharingan. To be able to predict a move in advance was immensely powerful in the shinobi world.

"Katon: Hosenka no jutsu" Sasuke said, releasing a volley of small fireballs, which were sent flying in all directions towards the ice mirrors surrounding them. Although, when the fireballs hit the ice mirrors, they were merely dissipated into nothing. Sasuke was left speechless that his katon jutsu proved to be ineffective against Hyoton.

"I'm afraid that a katon jutsu of that level will do nothing against my Hyoton. These mirrors have my chakra infused into them which makes them quite sturdy." Haku replied, upon seeing Sasuke's reaction. "Now, let me show you the true power of this jutsu." He stated. And almost instantly, an image of Haku appeared in all of the mirrors surrounding them.

By now, Naruto and Sasuke regrouped and once again were standing with their back facing each other. "Sasuke, I have a large scale jutsu which will be able to take down the ice mirrors in one ago, but I need a few seconds to complete the hand seals. Will you be able to cover me while I finish it?" Naruto asked.

"Get on with it already, loser." Sasuke replied while deflecting yet another barrage of senbons around him and Sasuke. Ignoring them remark, Naruto huffed and began forming several hand seals. As Haku saw what the blonde was doing, he immediately began focusing more of senbons towards Naruto in hopes of stopping him. Sasuke immediately noticed the change in tactics by Haku and appeared in front of Naruto to block out the senbons. However, his body was beginning show to signs of tiredness. And just as Naruto was about to finish his last strings of hand seals, his eyes widened when two senbon needles hit Sasuke straight in his neck. Time seemingly stopped for the blonde as his eyes could not believe what they were witnessing. This was not supposed to happen. Why didn't he move? Why didn't he save himself?

He stood rooted in his place, as Sasuke's body slowly moved towards the ground. However, he immediately moved to catch his brother as his body instead fell onto Naruto's arms. With wide eyes, Naruto stared at his brother, as his body slowly began to go limp.

"Why…? I could have deflected the attack had you dodged them…" Naruto whispered quietly. He placed his hand on Sasuke's shoulder to jerk him. The Uchiha gazed towards the blonde, but his vision was beginning to get hazy.

"Shut up… loser. You… look pathetic with that look… on your face." Sasuke said in a murmured breath. Naruto couldn't help with chuckle lightly even though a few tears were trekking their way down his cheeks. "I… didn't want to… see anyone else… close to me… die." Sasuke said in a very low voice. Yet again, Naruto's eyes widened on hearing those words. It had been ages since he had heard Sasuke refer to him someone close. His heart panicked when he noticed that the Uchiha was not opening his eyes anymore. He shook him awake, but it was to no avail.

"Is this your first time watching a comrade die?" Haku said, out loud. Based on watching the two fight the whole time, he had assumed that the Uchiha would do whatever necessary to protect the blonde. He couldn't understand why the young Senju was so important to everyone. But it was his mission to not lay a fatal wound on the blonde. And this was the only way he could have gotten the Uchiha out of the way and simply knock Naruto unconscious.

On hearing Haku's voice, Naruto felt something inside of him snap. He felt a strong surge of power rise inside of him as his anger slowly rose.

"He died a noble death. He sacrificed himself to protect someone he cared about. In the shinobi world, that's as noble a death one can get." Haku added, while looking at the scene before him sadly. Naruto remained quite for a few more seconds. But the moment his eyes landed on him, Haku's eyes widened to extreme proportions. He had never felt such sheer fear in his life. Looking into those red slit eyes, he could see his own death flashing before his eyes.

"Shut up." Naruto mumbled. But, the pain in his voice was quite evident. Red chakra soon began leaking out of him and covered his whole body. The senbons that were stuck to his body promptly flung out as his being forcefully pushed out. All his previous injuries began healing at an accelerating rate.

Everyone on the bridge could feel the ominous feeling that the chakra was radiating. The sheer power of the chakra was pushing down onto everyone.

'What is this feeling? I have never felt something like this… Sasuke-kun, Naruto… I hope you're alright.' Sakura thought while she stood in front of the purple barrier. The Mokuton bunshins standing on each corner of the barrier had their eyes narrowed towards the ice mirrors as they already knew what was going on with their original.

Even Zabuza and Kakashi momentary halted their steps upon feeling the ominous presence of the chakra.

'What the hell is this? Is this chakra? Is Kakashi doing this?" Zabuza thought frantically. However, he soon deduced that it was coming from behind him, where Haku was fighting the two genins. 'This is bijuu chakra… one of those two kids, has to be a jinchuriki.' Zabuza's eyes soon widened when he came to the realization of an important fact. 'Is that why Kisame and Itachi warned me not to kill Naruto Senju? That kid has to be the jinchuriki then. This is troubling. I need to finish up my fight quickly.'

Somewhat similar thoughts were also racing through Kakashi's mind. 'This is only a small percentage of Kyubi's chakra. It doesn't look like the seal has broken. But something drastic must have happened for Naruto to be forced to use Kyubi's chakra. I need to wrap this up quickly.' Kakashi thought. It was just then that one of his dogs signaled him that they had located Zabuza's location within the mist. Kakashi smirked as he knew this fight would soon be over.

With team 8

Team 8 had just crossed the border from Hi no Kuni into Nami no Kuni. With their current speed, Kurenai mused that they would reach the bridge builder's house in a couple of hours. Last night, the team had decided to set camp in the woods as they didn't want to garner any unnecessary attention.

With Hinata being a byakugan wielder, she travelled at the front of the group as her eyes provided a larger view of the area front of them and Shino stayed at back as his insects could cover their back and provide them with information about them being followed. While Kurenai and Kiba stayed to the sides to provide back up.

Just about then, everyone halted their steps when they felt the ominous feeling wash over. Kiba and Hinata visibly shuddered at the sensation, while Shino merely looked calm on the outside. However, his insects were going haywire on feeling the potent bijuu chakra. Kurenai's eyes widened as she realized what this feeling. She had felt this before when she was younger, on the day of the Yondaime Hokage's death.

She visibly panicked, already assuming the worst-case scenario. She looked towards her team and was not surprised to see the fear etched on their faces.

"What the hell is this!?" Kiba blurted out. Akamaru jumped on his arms and whimpered, unable to remain calm under this presence of this chakra. Even Shino had no answer to the question and could only agree with whatever his teammate was feeling. A morbid feeling developed in Hinata's mind as she wondered if Naruto was okay.

"Let's get going. We will need to quicken our pace. We need to reach the bridge as soon as possible." Kurenai urged as she already took off.

On the Bridge

'What is that red chakra? I have never seen or heard of anything like that. He's manifesting such dense chakra, compared to what he portrayed before.' Haku thought as a morbid feeling formed within him.

Haku panicked slightly on seeing Naruto's wound healing at an accelerating rate. He could not understand what was going on with the blonde. But he knew one thing that he needed to finish this soon. And just like before, he increased his pace even more and began travelling from one mirror to another while simultaneously throwing senbons from each direction towards the blonde. To his shock, the senbons merely deflected off the red chakra that surrounded Naruto.

"I will kill you in the worst way possible…" Naruto stated as he narrowed his eyes towards his target. At this point, he could not even think straight. All he could see was the source of his anger, his pain. And he simply wished to get rid of that from the face of this world.

Upon feeling the full force of the killing intent on himself, Haku stopped in his tracks as he found himself unable to move even an inch. In a blink of an eye, Naruto appeared in front of him, smashed his fist straight through the ice mirror, propelling Haku through the air. Before Haku could even attempt to get into another ice mirror, an arm made of red chakra appeared out of the red shroud surrounding Naruto and caught onto Haku's leg. And with practiced ease, Naruto flung him around through all the ice mirrors, immediately breaking them on contact. Soon after that, the arm that had ensnared Haku's leg began covering his whole body. And the next thing Haku knew was receiving a hard punch straight to his face, which pushed him towards the middle of the bridge.

By now, most of Haku's skin had burnt off due to the corrosive nature of the bijuu chakra. He was on the verge of unconsciousness when he hazily saw Naruto get on all fours. He noticed that his long blond hair appeared wilder in nature and his whisker marks seemed more blackened, most likely as a result of the red chakra.

'Forgive me, Zabuza-sama. I could not defeat my opponent. He is too strong for me…' Haku thought, accepting his fate that he would soon greet death. As soon as Naruto got on all fours, he rushed towards Haku and in less than a second, he was in front of him. The next moment, a red chakra claw formed on his right hand. Pouring all his strength into one move, Naruto slashed his chakra claw against Haku's neck, slitting his throat and killing him immediately. As the blood poured out of his neck and watching the life drain out of Haku's limp body, Naruto felt a sense of satisfaction. He had avenged Sasuke. He had avenged his brother.

Naruto stood up on his two legs, as the Kyubi's chakra began receding back into the seal. He stared at Haku's dead body for a few more seconds and turned around to walk back towards Sasuke.

Kneeling beside Sasuke's body, Naruto simply stared at his brother, not knowing what to think or to say. He could not comprehend the fact that Sasuke had died protecting him. Even though, he had killed Haku and felt a momentary sense of satisfaction, he realized that Sasuke was still dead. He placed his hand on his chest and clutched his heart upon feeling the pain.

"He's not dead. Take out the senbon needles from his neck and pour some healing chakra into him. You'll see what I'm talking about." The Kyubi advised. While he wasn't shocked to see such carnage from the young blonde, he was certainly surprised to see that the Uchiha didn't hesitate to sacrifice himself to save his container. However, he doubted if this Haku guy could have actually killed Naruto. The fox was also aware as to why Naruto hesitated to go all out from the beginning. It was true that Naruto could have easily killed off Haku from the start, but that would have also destroyed a good portion of the bridge.

'Don't mess around now, Kyubi… this is not the time.' Naruto warned him, unable to control his emotions.

"I see no reason in lying to you now. If you wish to save the Uchiha, you have to heed my words. It's your choice. Think about it rationally anyway, your first encounter against Zabuza, the Haku guy had put Zabuza in a death-like state by putting senbon needles into specific veins of his neck. Look where the needles are lodged into Sasuke's neck." The Kyubi explained briefly.

Upon hearing the fox's words, Naruto's eyes widened immediately, and he quickly pulled out the needles from Sasuke's neck, followed by all the other places the needles were lodged in. After that, he placed both his palms on Sasuke's chest and began pouring healing chakra into him. Sasuke's body was soon enveloped in green chakra. Naruto's heart began pumping faster as he felt Sasuke's heartbeat stabilize.

While Zabuza got distracted by the loud destructive noise coming from Haku's direction, he didn't notice several of the dogs that had surrounded him. The very next moment, he was pinned to the ground when two dogs on each side had caught onto his arms and legs and rooted him to the place. Zabuza tried to free himself, but it was to no avail. However, what scared him most was Kakashi standing few feet away from him with the same jutsu coating his hand that had killed his friend.

"This is it, Zabuza. You won't be hurting any more people after today…" Kakashi said, glaring at the swordsman. Zabuza merely snarled at the fact that he was defeated, yet again. However, he would not give Kakashi the satisfaction of seeing a defeated face. He was a proud man and wasn't scared to die. At the very least, he would be dying in the midst of battle.

"Hah…" Zabuza laughed, slightly confusing Kakashi. "Give me your best shot, Kakashi. I'm not afraid to die." Zabuza said wildly.

Sparing one last glance at Zabuza, Kakashi rushed towards him and plunged his hand straight into Zabuza's heart. The next second, Zabuza's lifeless body also fell on the ground. Kakashi finally sighed in relief as he covered his sharingan eye with the forehead protector. He was certain that Haku was also taken care of, by now, judging from the fact that he could not sense Kyubi's chakra anymore.

The Konoha jounin was brought out his thoughts when he heard Sakura's footsteps behind him. He was glad that the pink-haired girl was alright and was unharmed during the fight. Sakura stopped right behind her sensei and gaped at the large hole on Zabuza's heart.

"Se… sensei, is he dead?" Sakura questioned meekly. She had never seen such a bloodied body in her life and almost felt like puking her guts out. However, the foremost thing on her mind right now were Sasuke and Naruto. Kakashi chose not to answer that question and edged her in the direction of his other two students. He could understand how worried Sakura must be and he couldn't help but place certain similarities between Rin and her.

As Kakashi and Sakura made their way towards the end of the bridge, both were horrified when they came across Haku's dead body. His neck was completely slashed open from one side and the face was severely wounded with blood gushing out from several places. Kakashi promptly urged Sakura to avoid staring at the body for too long and both just walked towards Naruto and Sasuke.

As soon as the two came in Kakashi and Sakura's view, the pink haired rushed towards her two teammates upon seeing Sasuke's body on the ground.

"Naruto, what happened to Sasuke-kun?" Sakura screamed uncharacteristically. It was then she noticed that Naruto had his eyes closed as he poured healing chakra into his body. Kakashi gazed towards Sasuke's neck and immediately knew the gist of what had happened. While he was glad that not much of Kyubi's chakra had leaked, he was worried about the seal being weakened.

A few minutes later, Naruto opened his eyes and swiped the sweat dripping from his forehead. He sighed in relief to know that Sasuke's condition was now stabilized. However, as soon as that thought came into his mind, a horrified look appeared on his face.

'Wh… what did I do?' Naruto thought, as his hands began to tremble lightly. He saw Sakura appear in front of him and check up on Sasuke. He even saw that she was saying something to him, but his mind could not focus on that. His whole body began trembling slightly as he realized that he had killed someone under the influence of hatred. He felt a comforting hand being placed on his shoulder and turned back to see his sensei.

"Kakashi-sensei… I… I killed him." Naruto whispered. He should have known better, should have analyzed the situation better. He never believed in needlessly killing people. But, in the midst of battle, watching his brother fall down, he wasn't able to control his rage. Haku's death did not bother him as much. What gave him the sinking feeling was the way he had killed Haku.

"It's alright. We'll talk about it once we are back in village, alright? Just be glad that everyone is alive." Kakashi said. And Naruto was glad for those words. Because he didn't think he would be able to talk about it for a while. He needed to get his emotions under control and think calmly.

Sakura kept glancing between her sensei and Naruto, unsure as to what the two were talking about. She wasn't able to view most of the fight because of the mist that surrounded Kakashi and Zabuza. And now finding Sasuke in an unconscious condition, she felt even more inadept. She wordlessly cursed herself as she understood the harsh reality of the shinobi world. She needed to become stronger if she wanted to stand beside her teammates. She didn't wish to feel helpless any longer.

"Sakura, let's take Sasuke, Tazuna-san and Yoshimura-san back to the house. We'll have them rest over there. And don't worry about a thing. I'm sure everyone has a learnt a valuable lesson during this mission, which will push you forward in improving yourself." Kakashi commented, on seeing the distressed look on her face. He could not fault her though. To some extent he blamed himself for not focusing much on her. But he would change that once they returned to the village.

While Kakashi picked up Sasuke, Naruto made two kage bunshin to pick up Tazuna and Yoshimura. Naruto's Mokuton bunshin had already dispelled since they didn't need to keep the barrier up, any longer. Kakashi was glad that all the fighting was seemingly over. He was immensely tired since had used his sharingan extensively during the fight.

Just as the Konoha shinobi were about to leave, they heard loud clapping echo from behind them. Upon turning back, they saw a short man wearing a black suit with purple tie and closed-toed shoes. He had shaggy brown hair and sported a pair of small, circular black glasses. Behind him, there were at least thirty to forty thugs and mercenaries, who held rusty kunai and katanas.

"Ah, you Konoha shinobi sure did the job for me. If you hadn't killed Zabuza and his accomplices, my people would have done it anyway. It's also good that you saved me the trouble of not paying them. Not like, I was going to anyway." The man boasted, as he took a few steps forward. He smirked upon seeing the dead bodies of Zabuza, Haku and Raiga. His gaze lingered a bit longer on Haku and enjoyed the fact that out of three, Haku's body was the most mutilated.

'Serves that bitch right, for hurting my hand the other day…' Gato thought with a small laugh. Naruto saw where the man was staring and based on his appearance and what he heard from him, he could only assume that the man was Gato. He felt sickened as he understood what the man must have been thinking.

"Kakashi-sensei, you and Sakura should stand back. I will finish this in an instant." Naruto said. Kakashi sighed, knowing what the blonde was talking about. He shook his head at the stupidity of the man, who supposedly controlled all business in Nami no Kuni.

Glancing back towards the Konoha shinobi, he quirked an eyebrow when he noticed that two of them turned back around and began walking while a lone kid was facing him and group of men. He laughed at the stupidity of the boy. He believed all the Konoha shinobi to be exhausted and expected his men to finish them off along with the bridge builder.

"Oh? You think you can take out my men all by yourself? You must be very stupid kid. I am Gato, the ruler of Nami no Kuni and no one tramples on my turf!" Gato boasted loudly. Even the men behind laughed out loud on seeing the courage that the kid was displaying.

Before the thugs could make another move though, an several arrow landed in front of Gato, who took a few steps back immediately in fear. Looking back, he was surprised to see most of townsmen holding several makeshift weapons led by a child of likely eight years old.

"You will not take another step into our town, Gato!" Inari yelled loudly. Several people standing behind him voiced their agreement as they raised their weapons into the air, in a show of their stand against Gato and his men. Gato scoffed at the display shown by these men. He still believed that the town was under his control and that his men will be able to deal with the Konoha shinobi without any issue.

Naruto looked at the visage of Inari, proudly. The memory of his kage bunshin that had witnessed Inari trying to protect his mother even when the odds were stacked against him was quite fresh in his memory. Gazing at Inari's eyes, Naruto truly believed that Inari had left behind his fear and now truly understood why his father Kaiza stood against Gato. He could not let these people's hopes be squashed by someone like Gato. Turning towards the short man, Naruto felt sickened to see the smug look on his face.

"People of Wave, I'm proud to know to that you have finally realized that this town belongs to you all and not to a single man. It is not a single man who builds a village or a town. It's the people residing in it. Allow me to get rid of Gato, so you people can finally start rebuilding your life together, again." Naruto said out loud. Many of the people became quite passionate upon hearing Naruto's words. To some extent, even Kakashi and Sakura were quite shocked. She had never seen this side of Naruto and could only wonder if she did know the real Naruto at all.

Yet again, Gato laughed at the face of the Konoha shinobi and the populace of Nami no Kuni. "Men, kill the shinobi and anyone else who stands in my way. I have no use of people who won't stay under me." Gato ordered his men. The thugs gripped their weapons tightly and with a battle cry, rushed towards Naruto.

"Remember my name Gato. It's Naruto Senju. It's the last name you'll hear before you die." Naruto said seriously before quickly flowing through several sets of hand seals. The thugs that were rushing towards Naruto suddenly stopped in their tracks when they felt the ground beneath them shake.

"Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Kotan" Naruto whispered. Everyone stared wide eyed at the scene before them. In an instant, several large trees sprouted from the ground and sped through all the obstruction in their way. The thugs tried to run away but the sharp branches of the trees just pierced through them easily. In less than twenty seconds, a dense forest had grown right before everyone's eyes. All forty of the thugs lay dead on the ground, as they were unable to outrun the speed at which the trees sprouted and rushed after them.

Out of all the spectators, Kakashi and Sakura were the most shell shocked. The Konoha jounin had only seen another person capable of performing this jutsu. And even then, it was nowhere near the scale at which Naruto performed. Sakura could only stare at Naruto's back, as he seemingly grew an entire forest out of nowhere. While she knew that Naruto was capable of performing Mokuton, she didn't know how proficient he really was. And this was indeed an eye opener for her.

As soon as Naruto parted his hands, the trees before him parted too, as if making a way for him. At the end of it all, Gato could be seen hanging in the air with a branch of tree wrapped around his torso. The once arrogance which Gato portrayed had instantly changed into great fear upon seeing the blond walk towards him.

"Please! Please! Don't kill me. I will give you anything you want. Anything? Money? Women? Just name it!" Gato pleaded out of fear. Yet, Naruto did not utter a single word in response. His violet eyes bore deep into Gato's and the man felt as if he was being judged by Shinigami himself. This was not how he envisioned things would go. He had assumed after the fight with Zabuza, Haku and Raiga, the Konoha shinobi would be fatigued and would not be able to put up a fight. He tried to shake his body loose, but it was to no avail. The moment Naruto was a mere feet away from the businessman, was when all and any hope seemed to have left his eyes.

"You have taken the livelihood of the people of this town for long enough, Gato. You have separated families, killed people in public and it's because of you that Nami no Kuni can no longer progress in the shinobi world." Naruto stated. The people of Nami no Kuni watched the scene unfold with bated breath. For long they had wished for someone to give them hope to stand up against Gato, to make them rally against the one person who stood against them having a good life. And finally, that hope had come in the form of a young blonde Konoha shinobi.

Without any further ado, Naruto quickly took out a kunai from his pouch and slit the man's throat. For the next few seconds, Naruto simply stared at the man, as the life slowly drained out of him. He realized that it did not give him pleasure to take life, but to know that he had freed a small nation and given these people a chance to get their livelihood back gave him a feeling of tranquility. It was this moment, he realized that he would do whatever necessary to protect his own village and the people he cherished. It was this moment he felt like he understood a little of the sacrifice made by his father and birth mother.

'Whatever may it be… be it a lone man or an army, I will kill them all if it means to protect Konoha.' Naruto thought with his eyes closed. As he turned around to walk back to his team, he realized that the people had erupted into loud cheers in celebration of Gato's death. While he was glad that the people were in a joyous mood, he could not bring himself to smile too much.

Inari immediately ran up to the blonde and hugged him tightly. Everyone could see the tears freely flowing on his face and could not help but smile at the sight.

"Thank you, Naruto nii-chan. I know what it means to stand up for those you care now!" Inari cried out as he tightened the hug. Naruto was a bit startled by the gesture but did not push the kid away. His eyes then darted towards Tsunami who stood behind the kid, with a solemn smile on her face. She had just witnessed a young kid of twelve massacre a group of thugs. Even if Naruto was a shinobi, she assumed it wouldn't be too healthy for the mind.

Naruto patted Inari's head a few times and gave a smile to Tsunami in return. No words were needed to be spoken. They both understood what the other wanted to say and for now, that was enough.

"I'm glad you found the courage to stand up against Gato's men, Inari. And I know that in the years to come, you will become a beacon of hope for the people of Nami no Kuni." Naruto replied.

Once he joined his teammates, they promptly made their way to Tazuna's house, to get some much-needed rest. On their way back, Kakashi and Sakura kept glancing towards the blonde, since he was yet to utter a single word. While Sakura did find it strange that the usual chatty Naruto had not said anything, she did not think much about it. She believed with sometime, the blonde would bounce right back up. Her main concern right now was Sasuke, who was yet to wake up. On the other hand, Kakashi more or less knew what the blonde was thinking. One could never be the same after getting so many people's blood on their hand. While he did intend to have his genin's first kills during the first C-Rank mission, he didn't expect things to get this bloodied. At the very least, he was just content that no one was fatally injured.

About two hours later

The scene that the genins of team 8 and Kurenai came to, had shocked them immensely. All around them were scattered dead bodies of at least forty people. And judging from how damaged the bridge was, Kurenai realized that her team was already too late. She just hoped that everyone was okay. Otherwise, she knew, the Hokage, Tsunade or Jiraiya would not leave her alive for not reaching team seven in time.

"Hinata use your byakugan to check team seven's location, quickly. We need to hurry." Kurenai urged. And for once, no one made any remark about her worried tone. Even the usual goofy Kiba was mortified on seeing so much death before him. He had never once in his life come across so much destruction. He could only hope that his friends were alright. Shino had already sent out his kikaichu insects to scout out their surrounding area, in hopes of locating their fellow Konoha shinobi soon.

Out of all, Hinata was probably the most worried. She had never seen Naruto use such a vast Mokuton jutsu before. And she had a sinking feeling that Naruto would not be the same when she'd see him again. Making a single hand seal, the veins around her eyes became visible, as her vision became near 360 degrees. Quickly looking for the largest chakra signature, she momentarily sighed in relief when she found him.

"Sensei, team seven two miles to our two o' clock. We should be able to reach there in less than five minutes." Hinata said. And without waiting for a reply, the Hyuga heiress sprinted in said direction.

Author Notes: This chapter officially marks the end of the Wave arc. I know the chapter is very long. I personally wanted this mission to have a deep impact on Naruto's life and several of the choices he may make in the future. As I had said earlier, Zabuza and Haku were the people who inspired Naruto in the manga to make his nindo. That's one aspect which I did not want to change.

Also, I do realize that I have hyped up Naruto's and Sasuke's strength a lot since the beginning. And it won't be for vain. When the time comes, which will not be too far, the two will fight it out for real. No restraints at all. I just wanted to create a good enough story and feel, leading up to that point. Both Naruto and Sasuke have immense potential and using their full power without any hold back will certainly destroy a large portion of the land. I had stated this in the beginning of the story too, both Naruto and Sasuke will be become stronger than Asura, Hashirama and Indra, Madara respectively.

Next chapter might be a little fluffy, comparatively. The first quarter of the chapter will be devoted to the Konoha shinobi leaving Nami no Kuni. And from then it will be the start of the chunin exams. The pace of the story will definitely pick up from now. More characters will be introduced.

Please follow, favorite and review the story! I'm really glad I got back to this story, since I'm enjoying writing this now. My Naruto: Uchiha no densetsu story will also be updated soon enough. And it was really coincidental that I had stopped right at the chunin exam arc. My apologies for that.

Until next time!