"Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides." Laozi

.o0o0o0o0o.

The air outside Konoha wasn't quite what Naruto had expected. It was . . . plain. Having grown up in an urban environment his entire life, with the hustle and bustle of the village going on around him, Naruto had always imagined the outside world would be this open, fresh expanse. He had felt like Training Ground Forty-Four was the first step in that direction. Now, though, he was walking along an open, dirt path in the direction of Nami no Kuni, he could only be disappointed by the dullness of it. True, he had spotted a few plants he hadn't seen before and it had excited him for a while, but now he was back to dwelling on the monotony in silence.

They were here because after about a month of pointless chores that were called missions and what Hatake-sensei claimed was training, their sensei had deigned to give the team a C-rank mission. It was a hesitant decision; the man valued teamwork above all else and they didn't really have teamwork. But Team 7 was able to act as a cohesive unit when they had to.

It had been when he first got into reading that Naruto realized that the characterization of people he saw in his novels could easily translate over to real life. People had quirks and mannerisms that affected how they thought and acted. They had traits that could be counted on to influence decisions or choices despite what would otherwise be the logical option to take. All it took was a slight push in the right direction and Naruto could nudge people along the path he wanted.

Of course this worked better on some than others. Hatake-sensei, for instance, was a naturally cautious man, guarded in everything he did. It was hard to work out how he would react to a given stimulus or find a weakness to exploit. Likewise, the Hokage carefully measured every action he took—which was proper in a shinobi who had reached his age and rank. Fresh genin, on the other hand? That was a different matter.

Uchiha was simplicity itself to twist however Naruto pleased. It was as if there were the same threads Naruto used to control his puppets attached to the boy. All it took was making anything a challenge or question his abilities and the young Uchiha was tackling the subject faster than Tora on a ball of catnip laced with sleeping drugs (long story, that). Likewise allowing the boy to believe that he was leading and he could be counted on to cruise along in a straight line without stopping until redirection was needed.

Haruno was just as easy. She just needed to believe that something would aid her precious Uchiha-kun or that it would attract the attention of the object of her affection and she would gleefully jump off a cliff. It was almost pitiable and Naruto had considered trying to remedy this defect, but it was just too useful as it was. That said, he had begun taking steps to make her useful despite her problems. Her studies in the basics of iryōjutsu were coming along nicely.

Really, all that had been needed was showing the girl an applicable use of her powerful mind, near perfect chakra control, and her natural instinct to avoid conflict—at least those she didn't start. Naruto was surprised that Hatake-sensei hadn't done it himself. Quite honestly, with chakra control that refined, Haruno could easily gone on to any precision-based skill, from pinpoint ninjutsu support to genjutsu. It was her weak body and cowardly nature that drove her away from those paths. It helped that every time Naruto gave her a compliment on her progress, as slight as they were, the Uchiha looked at her with the same look of bland dispassion he always used.

Haruno took it to mean that Uchiha was interested in what she was doing and would drive herself harder. It was a good thing, too; while Naruto's control was well refined, it was not nearly at the level needed for medical techniques. He knew he would need to look into that sooner or later. The pleasant poetry to his mind was that the Uchiha was jealous; he hated seeing someone his own age surpass him in anything, even things he had no interest in. Uchiha believed he had to be the best at everything, even the things he didn't care about. It was a pathetically exploitable form of the superiority complex.

The best part of it all was that Hatake knew what Naruto was doing. The jōnin never came out and said anything, or even went beyond a disapproving look, but it was there in his half-lidded eye. Naruto didn't understand his problem. Under normal circumstances, Team Seven would be a horrific mess with two quiet loners, each powerful and disinclined to working with others, and a love-sick fangirl. It was Hatake's job to make them into a cohesive unit instead of merely three people assigned to a job together. For some reason, the jōnin seemed determined to go through the motions of teaching and no more. Naruto had decided that if Hatake-sensei wasn't going to take the initiative to mould them into a functional team, then he would have to take up the task.

That didn't stop the silver-haired man from trying to undo all of Naruto machinations. The man just didn't have the heart to be that manipulative to his genin, though. He would offer a counter-argument or opinion to the two subjects of Naruto's efforts now and again, but Uchiha's stubborn nature and one-track mind meant that he was disinclined to deviate from a set path because of someone else's ideas. And Haruno would follow the boy into the depths of the hells despite her own stubborn streak. Thanks to constant praise in the Academy, she was no more used to second-guessing herself or being criticized than Uchiha.

Naruto simply shrugged to himself. He was rather fond of the arrangement. His plan to get a good teacher had gone nowhere, considering Hatake's reluctance to teach them anything that wasn't focused on teamwork that they didn't have. But that just meant he was in the same place as in the Academy. Naruto had taught himself everything about puppetry so far, why should things change now. But he was a bit disappointed all the same.

"Uh . . . is that kid okay? He's been pretty quiet." The bridge builder they were assigned to escort leaned across to whisper to Haruno. He clearly thought or hoped that the blond wouldn't hear his words. The old man was being taken back to his native country. He'd initially been skeptical about the three kids guarding him, but he didn't want to upset even an amateur shinobi—he'd heard stories. Plus, there was this unsettling feeling from the hooded boy, as if everything going on around him were just background noise. It was hard to describe, but every time those cold, sleepy eyes passed over him, he felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Oh Naruto? He's just . . . ah . . . well . . ." Haruno blinked and then frowned, looking across at the young man trailing behind them in the rear position, a few steps in front of their sensei. Uchiha was taking point while she walked next to the client. Hatake-sensei had opted for the more loose formation due to the rank of the mission. "He's . . . well . . . Uzumaki is always like this." She rubbed the back of her head and smiled up at the old man in a way she hoped was cute. She was working on the smile for Uchiha-kun. "You get used to it."

Tazuna nodded slowly, not convinced, but unwilling to argue when he felt Naruto's gaze sweep over him. "Sure. Well, you seem pretty level-headed, at least. But seriously, are you guys powerful? I mean, can you protect me?"

Haruno seemed ready to answer, likely planning to laud Uchiha's prowess, but Hatake butted in. "I've already assured you, client-san, that my genin can handle bandits and the like. This is a C-rank mission, after all."

Haruno nodded happily. She could handle bandits. Those were just normal people without chakra and Uchiha would be there to protect her regardless. And just like that, her gaze drifted off as she let her fantasies take over, leaving a sighing Tazuna and Hatake looking on.

The entire group was lost in their own thoughts. Hatake's eye wandered, watching the world around them as they walked. As such, he was the only one to notice the suspiciously wet puddle in the middle of the path. It was also the reason that when the two figures rose out of their genjutsu-cover and wrapped the jōnin in a chain of shuriken, the rest of the group was shocked.

"Sense—" Haruno's cry was cut off when the two assailants pulled the chain taut and shredded Hatake's body into bloody offal. She froze, her mouth going dry. Her scream died in her throat and she couldn't even lift a hand to warn Uzumaki as the two darted forwards, wrapping the hooded genin and attempting the same attack.

Instead of the expected sound of flesh being torn asunder, there was a dull thud as of metal being embedded into wood. The two attackers looked at the boy in shock. "Uchiha, now." With a puff of smoke, the Naruto in front of everyone transformed into the smooth form of Dami. Uchiha appeared above it, kunai in hand and ready to throw it at one of the two whose headbands identified them as missing ninja from Kirigakure.

When the two moved to dodge, they found themselves stuck. What they had thought was a strange substitution was, in fact, a puppet. The articulated fingers of the wooden man were holding the shuriken-chain tightly, forcing them to detach from their weapon to escape.

"What's a puppeteer doing here?" one of them snarled behind his mask.

Uchiha's kunai managed to clip its target on the arm and he rushed in to pressure the missing ninja, keeping him busy while avoiding strikes from the vicious gauntlet. The other attacker looked for Naruto, only to be forced to move as Dami attacked. The puppet had gathered up the chain and was whipping it through the air, flicking it at the man who had to block the chain with his own gauntlet.

It became quickly apparent that Dami was not a combat puppet. The ninja he was fighting managed to duck under a swipe of the chain and lunged forwards, cleaving off an arm at the elbow. The chain fell limply as Dami was forced to treat it as a whip and let it fall. The ninja moved in to finish off the puppet, ignoring the destroyed arm. Which was why he was surprised for the short moment he had when the stump swung up and fired a kunai with a pneumatic hiss that punched the blade clean through his mask and buried it deep into the ninja's skull. The man dropped to the ground with a thump.

A few meters away, Uchiha was embroiled in his fight. Sweat ran down his forehead and he was panting, hard pressed by the number of times he had to break off an attack pattern to avoid the claws of the gauntlet. He finally managed to get a bit of breathing room and immediately flashed through hand seals. Uchiha's opponent dodged out of the way of the telegraphed attack, but was shocked by the grand fireball launched at him long enough that a knee was able to slam into the back of his head, sending him tumbling to the ground.

The entire fight had taken thirty seconds. After the quick, intense, brutal experience, there was a strange calm as the genin surveyed the field of battle. Naruto dropped out of the tree he had taken refuge in. What little of his face could be seen was devoid of emotion as he looked down at the corpse of the man he had killed.

"Hatake-sensei! You're alive!"

Naruto didn't even look up as Haruno exclaimed over the survival of the silver-haired man. He'd seen the man substitute out of the way, which was why he had swapped places with Dami.

"Of course," the jōnin sounded mildly hurt. "You don't think an attack like that could get me, do you?"

Naruto continued to stare at the body. It was the first human being he had ever killed, even if it was the indirect method of a puppet, and he wasn't sure what he should be feeling. It struck him that it was odd that he even had to think about it. It was supposed to be traumatic; that's what the books he'd read said. He'd taken the life of a sentient being, a fellow human.

Why, then, did he feel nothing? There wasn't a flicker of emotion in him. Oh there was the wondering if he could have ended the fight sooner and similar thoughts that a ninja was expected to have, but nothing else. He just stared with the clinical detachment he used when he dissected an animal on his workshop table. He picked out the way his victim had fell, noting the disposition of the joints and the way blood didn't drip much now that the heart had stopped.

"Naruto?" Naruto started as Hatake used his given name and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

The blond blinked once before the emptiness left his eyes, replaced by his customary blankness. He quickly shrugged off the jōnin's hand, but couldn't tear his gaze from the corpse. Why did he not feel any sort of shock? He knew he should feel something. Was he a freak?

"I'm fine." He was glad to find that his voice sounded normal. He didn't need to tip off his sensei that he was working through some sort of oddness.

"You did what you had to," said Hatake-sensei. "It's okay, you know."

That got Naruto to look up. He scowled, his eyes darkening for a moment. "I know. I said I'm fine."

Hatake hesitated a moment before quickly patting the top of Naruto's head, unhappy at how the hood kept him from ruffling the genin's hair. "Well, I'm here if you need to talk. A shinobi's first kill can be difficult."

Naruto's eye narrowed as he forced himself to look at places other than the body on the ground. It wasn't to avoid a disgusting sight or because it brought up uncomfortable emotions; he was worried that if he looked at the corpse again, he might stare for quite a while. He needed something to take his mind off it.

"They had bounties, didn't they?"

Hatake blinked in surprise as he looked down at the hooded genin. "Hm?"

Naruto pointed at the dead body without looking at it. "Bounties. They're nukenin, right? The Demon Brothers, if I'm remembering the description correctly."

Hatake hesitated before a smile crept into his eye. Shinobi all had coping mechanisms, after all. "You kept up to date with the Bingo Book?"

Naruto smirked under his scarf. "Why are you surprised? You gave me my first copy."

Hatake's smiling eye softened slightly. "You remembered?"

"Please. There are only so many shinobi with silver-white hair and only so many with your rather distinctive style. As far as I know, the only one other than you who meets the requirement has been dead two decades. I was young, not stupid."

Hatake chucked. "You never said anything."

Naruto didn't like having this sort of sentimental conversation, but it was better than staring at the somehow tempting cadaver. "Neither did you," he commented.

Hatake chuckled again and rubbed the back of his head. "Touché. Although I had merely hoped to inspire you to have a goal. I never imagined you would pick puppetry." He took the hint when Naruto shrugged and took a step away from the body. "And yes, they have bounties. It doesn't matter, though. It's too far a walk to the nearest office and that would count as a deviation from the mission even if it weren't. We can't save it for later, either, since I don't have a scroll with me I can seal them into."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and stared into the middle-distance. He didn't carry scrolls for sealing human bodies; they were far more complex than the ones he used to hold his puppets. There was no point in carrying things like that. That would teach him. He always carried a few spare scrolls with sealing matrixes on them, but he would modify them so they could hold corpses from now on. He hated the idea of leaving valuable resources lying around to rot.

"The best thing we can do right now is send a message back to Konoha for pickup." Hatake turned to Tazuna with dark look in his visible eye. "And in the meantime, Client-san, I think we will have a little . . . talk . . . about the rank of this mission. Don't you agree?" Tazuna gulped as the jōnin's hand landed on the man's shoulder and gripped it tightly, steering him off into the brush for a quiet word.

.o0o0o0o0o.

Despite Hatake's suggestion that they might end the mission there, he decided to continue onwards. The silver-haired jōnin had asked each of them what they felt before making his final decision. Naruto wanted to think it was inevitable. Uchiha would never back down from something like this—it was the first real challenge outside the safety of the village which would, therefore, let him push his limits. Haruno would follow in her sheeplike devotion to the Uchiha. Naruto thought that Hatake wouldn't abandon someone like the bridge-builder—especially with the sob-story the man spouted—given the jōnin's motto about standing by comrades.

Naruto, well, the young puppeteer wasn't going to give up this chance for anything. It was his first trip to another town and another nation. It was his first opportunity to make connections, meet people, begin a network. Akasuna was infamous for two things. One of them was his puppeteering, the other was the information network he was purported to have around the entirety of the Elemental Nations. Naruto had been eager to start a network of his own for years, and this was his chance to begin in a place that didn't know him and he had a blank slate.

He wasn't kidding himself, though. As much as he would like to tell himself that Hatake's decision was unavoidable, he knew that the man was still a jōnin of Konoha. The village did not take kindly to people cheating it. There had really only been two options available, and since they'd continued on, Naruto knew which one Tazuna had taken. It meant that the bridge-builder had agreed to some painful rewards for the village in exchange for the increased rank of the mission.

Asking the three genin what they wanted to do had been a smokescreen to hide from them that they were being marched into a dangerous situation at the order of their commander. By all rights, Hatake could have sent the man on his way without penalty. There would be public revelation later of just what it would cost Nami to get Konoha's help and it would include severe penalties for cheating. The village would want everyone to know that there were consequences.

On the other hand, Naruto was aware that his goal of an information network had a slight catch to it. He had no idea how to build one. Just like everything else about his chosen path, it would be trial and error. The important thing was that he would have the opportunity and, in an oppressed place like Nami that would soon be in the debt of his team, he would have just that.

There was also the part of him that had enjoyed that confrontation earlier and was eager for more. It was the part he tried to ignore as a childish impulse. Nevertheless, after the conflict, he was more aware of his surroundings. He did not want to get surprised again. And that was why, when Hatake gave the command to drop, he did so without thinking. It was just as well, since a massive, spinning blade whirled overhead, buzzing through the thin mist. It slammed into a nearby tree and stuck fast. A large, muscled man appeared on the blade, facing away from them.

.o0o0o0o0o.

"Well, well, well." Kakashi's voice was amused. "Momochi Zabuza, nukenin fro Kirigakure." The jōnin stepped forwards, his posture at ease. He raised one hand. "Stay out of this one, kids. Momochi is on a whole other level from those chūnin earlier." He blinked when he noticed a lack of a grayish form. "Uzumaki?"

There was a chortle from the man up the tree as he turned to face them. "What an amazing genin you have there, Sharingan no Kakashi." Uchiha's eyes widened at the moniker, his hand tightening around the grip of the kunai he held. "Running away at the first sign of a superior opponent. Smart, but cowardly."

Kakashi frowned behind his mask. Uzumaki didn't strike him as the type to run just to escape. No, that one would have a plan of some kind. Kakashi couldn't think, though, of how a genin, no matter how skilled, would hope to be of assistance in a battle between jōnin. "Haruno, Uchiha, stay back and protect the bridge-builder." His fingers gripped his headband and lifted it, revealing a spinning sharingan in his left eye.

"Ah . . . it seems I get to see the famed sharingan in action. Perhaps I should feel honored?" Momochi's gruff voice slipped from behind his bandage-mask as the mist began to draw in, blocking line of sight. Kakashi didn't waste time, he didn't know what Uzumaki was doing, or if Momochi had accomplices. He had to act. "Hmm . . . I didn't think you would be so hasty to act, Hatake."

For the genin, it was a split second and then Kakshi was up on the blade next to Momochi, kunai locked with the nukenin's. Sparks flew as they matched their strengths. Momochi was the stronger, physically, but Kakashi's stolen sharingan could read every twitch of Momochi's muscles and let him compensate.

In a moment that reeked of grueling training, Momochi kicked his sword out from under them, spinning the blade with his foot and catching the grip in his hands. Instead of being caught by surprise, Kakashi bounced off the tree, avoiding the swipe that would have cut him in half at the middle. He twisted mid-air, catching his foot on the hilt of the blade and throwing off Momochi's balance, completing the motion with a scissor-kick striking the former Kiri jōnin in the chest. There was an underwhelming squelch as his foot passed though water from Momochi's substitution with water from further into the trees.

Kakashi didn't pass up the opportunity to move the fight farther from his genin. He easily caught up with Momochi, Konoha ninja being unsurpassed in trees. The two jōnin moved in flurried of motion, sparks flying where Kakashi deflected the deadly bulk of Momochi's gigantic blade with a simple kunai. Momochi was stronger, but Kakashi was significantly faster and had the precognitive abilities of his sharingan to let him make use of it.

"You know, Hatake," commented Momochi from a hidden spot in the mis, "as Kiri ANBU, I had a standing order to eliminate you on sight. Hatake Kakashi, Sharingan no Kakashi, the man said to have copied a thousand jutsu."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. There were more than a few of those orders, no doubt. "Fascinating," he replied. "In my years in ANBU, we never had such an order for you. You probably aren't dangerous enough." It was beginning to become a strain on him to keep his sharingan active, but with the mist up and fighting in Momochi's element, he needed the edge. Even if he only got glimpses when the blade cut through the enshrouding mist, it was enough to let him keep avoiding death.

Momochi's swings became more violent and Kakashi jumped back. Momochi landed on what he thought was a solid branch and found it snapping underfoot. Only long training let him hear the subtle click of a mechanism. It just barely allowed him to twist his body and swing his sword up between himself and the barrage of kunai that had been unleashed. Sprays of purple sent a chill through him—poison.

"Hmm . . ." this time his feet came down on a safe bough and he looked across at Hatake. "You couldn't have set up these traps while we fought."

The answering chuckle did nothing to reassure Momochi. "I think you'll find that it's the work of my 'cowardly' student."

Momochi looked around, suddenly more wary of things other than just the jōnin trying to kill him. "Interesting gaki."

.o0o0o0o0o.

Naruto was currently a few hundred meters away from the fight, crouched in a tree and remaining still and quiet. Chakra threads spread from the fingers of his left hand in webs. The patterns formed between his digits told him the story of the fight, showing where the combatants were, how they moved, what they did. Hatake's movements were marked by a lighter touch than the heavy Momochi, and most of the time, they were quicker, too. In a straight line, Momochi could be surprisingly fast, though.

He used his right index finger to tug one of the dozens of interlocking threads and a curse from the direction of the fight was the reward as kunai spat from a concealed launcher at exactly where Momochi had been about to land.

A drop of sweat rolled down the back of his neck. His mouth was dry. This was nothing like the fight with the Demon Brothers. Hatake was right; Momochi was in a whole other league. The clash of auras sent chills through him. He could feel their intent to harm bursting from their bodies and each time it washed over him, it gave him a rush of anxiety.

It was exhilarating.

Naruto was terrified of the monsters fighting nearby, but he had never felt more alive. Even being a part of this clash felt like a privilege. He wasn't going to waste a moment of it. He stroked a chakra thread and an explosion ripped through the forest from a concealed explosive note he had buried inside a tree trunk. The detonation, if he had calculated correctly, should send splinters the size of his hand directly towards where Momochi had been planning to attack Hatake-sensei.

He used the noise of the explosion to move to a new position. He couldn't afford to underestimate jōnin. Being found was not really an option—not if he liked living.

.o0o0o0o0o.

"Rather annoying brat you have here, Hatake," Momochi growled as he leapt away from a second explosion coming on the heels of the first. Hatake managed to slide past him in mid-air, using his unbalanced state to cut his arm. He could feel blood trickling. He decided to land on the forest floor instead, the branches of the trees seemed to be sending death at him too much for his taste.

If Hatake would just let up a moment, the brat would be dead. The weird kid was moving, sure, but Momochi was a master of silent killing—he would be able to deal with it. But the damned silver-scarecrow wouldn't giving him even a moment to breathe, let alone hunt down a brat; every trap was giving the man another shot at killing him.

What Momochi didn't know was that Kakashi now knew were pretty much all the traps were. Once he had worked out it was Uzumaki, he was able to spot the threads of chakra, their glow hidden to sight, but not to the senses of the sharingan. Even so, Kakashi made a note to commend Uzumaki; the lad had hidden the threads under tree-limbs. It was hard to spot them in combat—and he knew what to look for and could see it.

A ripping sound accompanied Momochi suddenly losing his footing as a snare trap grabbed his foot and plucked him into the air. For a ninja of his skill, it was simple to twist his body and sever the line, but Kakashi took advantage and Momochi earned himself another small nick as he was forced to kick the jōnin away instead of using the sword whose current angle made it impossible to strike out with.

Kakashi hid his frown. He couldn't afford to let this go on forever. He was draining himself with the sharingan and this was far from his preferred method of engagement. Normally, the first time that Momochi would have known about Kakashi engaging in combat with him was when Kakashi's Chidori punched into his heart. Open combat was more tiring and Momochi had the edge in having trained his physical endurance to use that giant sword.

And then it suddenly wasn't a problem. From behind Momochi, a familiar and horribly welcome sight burst from the earth. Ramia whipped her body around Momochi while he was still upside down, catching him in the air. Kakashi savored the moment of shock on the jōnin's face—what could be seen of it behind the bandages—there was no way the man had expected this. Ramia's tail pressed against Momochi's neck, the open hole ready.

"What the hell?"

Kakashi landed nimbly and wiped sweat from his brow as he covered his sharingan. "Good work, Uzumaki. And thanks for the assist."

After a few moments of silence, there was a quick rustling and Uzumaki dropped out of the trees. To Kakashi's trained eyes, it was clear the boy was working to maintain his composure. His features were hidden between the mask and the goggles and the hood, but his posture was shaky. It made sense, since Momochi was currently staring at him with murder in his eyes.

And it was definitely bravado that made the young ninja hold up his hands, forcing the chakra threads connected to Ramia to become visible. The message that Uzumaki could strike with just his fingers was probably foolish, but understandable in one so young.

"Sorry about not telling you ahead of time, sensei."

Kakashi sighed and looked at his student. "It's alright, genin Uzumaki. Don't do it again, though. There is no way you could have known what you were getting into, trying to get involved in a fight between jōnin."

.o0o0o0o0o.

Naruto nodded at his sensei. He knew now just what it meant. It had been obvious that his traps would have been worthless had his sensei not been acting as primary aggressor in the fight. Ramia wouldn't have been enough if Momochi hadn't been tired already. It was a miracle that things had worked out the way they had.

Suddenly, Momochi's neck was covered in a thick layer of ice. Naruto's fingers twitched instinctively and the projectile loaded in Ramia's tail fired, slamming into the frozen water and failing to penetrate. His eyes widened; Ramia could punch through a tree with that weapon.

Naruto leapt back as a series of long, metal needles slammed into the ground. The puppet master swore in the privacy of his head. He had missed that the missing ninja from Kiri had an ally hidden in the mist. It was too late to wonder how he had failed to spot the second target when he'd been working around the forests on the side of the road.

Moments later, more needles thunked into a tree behind him. He whirled, trying to pinpoint his new enemy, checking the web of Chakra threads he'd spread around like a net. That was when two needles impaled his hand, skewering straight through bone and out his right palm. What was worse, that had been the hand controlling Ramia.

Hatake's mismatched eyes widened as combat-grade senbon skewered the spot his young charge had occupied. He should have known that Momochi had an ally. Thanks to the precognition of the Sharingan, he was able to spot Ramia loosening its hold on Momochi. That wasn't something that his genin could handle.

Naruto heard a crackling sound and the cry of a thousand birds chirping at once. Then what resistance Ramia had been leaving on his mangled right hand vanished. It was just as well; it gave him one less thing to worry about.

He flicked his left index finger and a few of his remaining traps fired even as he felt needles pierce his shoulders. In moments, he found that his arms no longer responded to him. He couldn't see in the mist and now his only forms of offense were gone.

There was a cough from the mists as Naruto spun to the side, his legs propelling him away from jagged shards of ice that began to pepper the area he occupied. But someone had been hit by his poisons. The only one he'd used that was inhaled was among the better ones he'd managed to develop. He'd distilled resin from an otherwise harmless tree that grew prolifically in Konoha. When combined with human blood and simmered for several days, it became a paste that spewed clouds of colorless poison into the air when burned. It ate at the lungs and acted on nerves, slowing reaction time.

It wasn't a fast killer, though. Naruto had never planned on being in this circumstance. He had always expected that the reduced speed of a target and the distraction of lung-pain would be enough to give him an edge, not to kill his target itself.

There was a detached part of Naruto that noted that even though he was in greater danger this time, he had less of a rush from this combat. There was no burst of terrifying energy that made him aware that he wasn't at the level of the foe. This was just someone trying to kill him—someone at his level.

He was getting tired. There was only so long he could manage with needles in his arms. The pain wasn't an issue, but the blood loss was only slowly tapering off and he still wouldn't be able to use his arms until the things were removed. Extended combat was never something he'd trained for. Especially combat where he had no weapons.

A masked figure dropped from the trees in front of him and casually dodged his kick. It had a face of porcelain—blank and unadorned. The figure drew back a hand with a pair of needles in its hand. The chirping grew louder.

Then Hatake was behind the figure. Mostly. The jōnin's right hand was sticking out of the figure's chest, blood dripping from his fingers and the whole appendage cloaked in electricity. Bits of heart dangled from Hatake's digits. The jōnin tugged his hand free and, as the body fell, slammed his foot on the neck, snapping it with a crashing sound.

Naruto blinked. "Wasn't that overkill, Hatake-sensei?"

The man shook his head, tugging his headband back down over his whirling Sharingan. "No such thing, Uzumaki-genin. There is only dead and not dead. Enemies that are not dead had best be that way for a reason—or you must remedy the situation." He took a pondering step forwards and gripped the senbon in his genin's left shoulder. "This is going to hurt."

Naruto tried to shrug. "Not a problem." His voice was as empty of emotion as usual.

Hatake yanked the needles free and dropped them on the ground.

"So, sensei," murmured the young genin. "Who gets the bounty?"

His sensei didn't respond. Instead, the sliver-haired man fell on his face. Naruto wished he'd studied enough sealing to make his own body-seals. He sighed and pulled the remaining needles from his right shoulder and was about to toss them to the ground when he paused and looked them over.

They were ten inches long and made of heavy-grade steel. They were shaped like lengthened kunai, designed for throwing. He could use that. They would be able to better saturate an area. And they could be coated in poison. There was a smile on his hidden features for a moment. Ideas spun in his head.

Naruto walked back to Ramia. She lay there, a twisted pile of wood and metal. He scowled. She was completely wrecked. Something had punched straight through the joining of her tail and torso and had managed to blast out most of her chest as well. Mixed in was the mangled corpse of Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist.

He couldn't help a slight shiver within the confines of his coat. He was alone; all he had left was Dami. He had no combat puppet, he'd used most of his supplies to aid Hatake against Momochi. It was uncomfortable.

It took him time to drag Hatake back to Ramia's remains, and then to gather the masked ninja as well. Slowly, he extracted his puppet's parts from the corpse and set them aside. It was a painful process to see how much hadn't survived.

He had just finished when Hatake grunted and raised his head. "Ouch." The man sat up, instantly alert. "Go get the client and the rest of the team."

.o0o0o0o0o.

"Uzumaki-genin," murmured Hatake as the two of them walked at the front of the group towards Wave, the jōnin dragging behind him the giant blade Momochi had carried.

"Yes, Hatake-sensei?"

"I want you to take that battle as a lesson." Hatake looked over at his genin, his eye weary. "First: never play with an opponent. No matter how skilled you are, if you don't take things seriously, bad things can happen." He pointed to his covered eye. "I used this too much—I didn't end the fight quickly. And because of it, I almost got killed, which would have gotten you and your teammates killed as well. Do you understand me, Uzumaki-genin? Never toy with an enemy. Even idiots can get lucky."

Naruto nodded. "I understand, Hatake-sensei; risks are unacceptable. Do not let my pride get me killed."

"Good. Secondly, never take a prisoner stronger than you. Momochi was going to escape if you had tried to hold him there much longer. I killed him because he was at my mercy and I couldn't keep him captured while trying to help you." He saw Naruto's face twitch slightly, what little of it could be seen. "Always kill someone who you cannot beat in an unfair fight weighted in his favor. Take that to heart, Uzumaki-genin."

"Understood, Hatake-sensei." Naruto's voice was low and detached, with the formal inflection of a student to teacher. His body shifted, showing contrite thought. "I should have just cut his head off when Ramia took him. Keeping dangerous targets alive risks myself and others."

"Correct. Now, how long will it take you to get your puppet back to combat readiness?" When Naruto hesitated, Hatake continued. "I need to know how long I need to shift watches to ensure that we have sufficient coverage."

"I do not know, Hatake-sensei. It could be a day or two, or it could be longer."

"Expedite, Uzumaki-genin."

"Acknowledged."

.o0o0o0o0o.

Naruto twirled a senbon between his fingers as he walked. They were small. That was not the key factor with storage seals, but it was useful when considering groupings. By using a swarm of smaller objects, he might slide one past someone's guard. Something to consider.

(A/N John)

So we finally publish again and it's a chapter of Strings! We're been writing less because my schedule and Spoon's don't meet up as well and both of us have a lot of stuff we actually need to deal with now. Still, we're going to get some more work on Itachi in and we have a couple of other projects that managed to claim portions of our time. Depending, we may end up publishing some of them, although they are incomplete. I'm genuinely curious if people would prefer that we do that when we're working on longer side-projects (I refuse to publish a one-shot before it's done).

(A/N 2 John)

Somehow, Spoon has managed to get me in Naruto Online and this eats yet more time that I could spend writing or, better yet, being productive. Blame her for some of the drop in our writing as a result of her interference.

(A/N 3 John)

Not a lot else to say. Oh, right. Those of you familiar with the original version of this story will recall that Zabuza did not die here. While Zabuza is a highly capable ninja, Hatake Kakashi is one of the best ninja to ever live and the man was effectively at his mercy. He couldn't risk running off to help Naruto while Zabuza got free, so he took the chance Naruto would get hurt to ensure that a well-trained assassin wouldn't have the freedom to try and murder them.

(A/N 4 John)

As a result of that change, you'll notice something of a slight difference in how Kakashi and Naruto interact. Not exactly respectful, but Naruto is glad to take what advice is offered. Despite the man's appalling lack of actual teaching, the man is genuinely among the most capable ninja ever and any hints or advice he gives are worth considering when he's not harping on teamwork and actually talking nuts-and-bolts of the job.