"KILL"

"Hey, pick up your pace Sakura. You're walking way too slow."

"Yes Sasuke dear! Anything for you! By the way Kakashi Sensei, where are we going?"

"We are going to the land of waves. 2 days ago you called in sick so you wouldn't know this, but a certain someone decided it would be an absolutely lovely idea to barge in the Hokage office demanding for a harder job. Are you really that broke Naruto that you need to take harder jobs to make money...? I know Iruka is a teacher and all but-"

"Nah its not that- HEY! Don't disrespect him like that! It's just boring chasing after cats... I mean, if it was a Unicorn, then that's a different story, but a cat? No way!"

A bearded old man who was travelling with the group muttered to himself "Why are there goddamn kids doing this job? Huh... I half expect them to fool around... Kakashi is the only one I can rely on..."

Sasuke faked a cough and asked Kakashi, "So, just wondering, but, what if there are shinobi's involved in this mission? What happens then? Is that the kind of mission, us simple, frail and fragile Genins can take on...?" Tazuna winced at the question as Sasuke gave him a look that said "That's right bitch, I'm in control."

"No, that would be a B rank mission or higher which is out of our scope. C'mon, you learned that back in the academy."

"So... I guess this is a B rank mission after all then huh...?" Naruto said as he walked in front of the whole group. Sasuke was dumbstruck. He couldn't believe Naruto would do such a thing to the old man who was already sweating bullets. But then again, it was Naruto.

Kakashi looked at Naruto as a smile formed within his mask. He asked obliviously, "What do you mean Naruto...?"

Naruto still off guard turned to look at Kakashi and said "Oh, you know what I mean. There is no point trying to see their objectives. There would be simply no reason in attacking 3 Genins and a Jonin who are simply going to do their mission unless it's something related to the mission itself. Stop tryna have your cool moment and take them out already."

Kakashi asked in the most innocent voice he could muster up, "Take who out? To what? Dinner? Whatever could you possibly mean Naruto dear?"

"Oh shut it!" said Naruto as he pulled out 2 shurikens. Naruto continued walking a couple steps before throwing it at the puddle. Before the shuriken could have made contact with it, 2 people emerged from the water. The second the 2 popped up, they were met with Kakashi's and Sasuke's fists in their guts.

"What?! To be done in... by mere genins...!" said the two as they passed out.

"HEY! IM NO GENNIN! I'M NOT BOUTA LET YOU DISRESPECT ME LIKE THAT! IT TOOK ME TIME AND EFFORT TO REACH MY JONIN POSITION! Sure it wasn't much effort and much time but... THAT'S NOT THE POINT THOUGH!"

Tazuna stood there with his eyes as wide as a saucer. He could not believe what happened just now. A kid taking down someone double his size? A kid spotting something not noticeable to the average human?

Naruto put his hands behind his head as he sighed "Well, that was anticlimatic..."

"Goddammit Naruto... I know you were tired off listening Tazuna talk shit about you three, but that doesn't mean that you should mess my plan up. Now we have no way of knowing who they were targeting. Most probable suspect would be Tazuna, but there is still no guarantee-"

"Can't you use your eye?" said Sasuke as he casually started walking away from the whole scene. Kakashi felt like the buddha, enlightened. "Oh my god Sasuke, you are a genius!"

"I know, that was obvious this whole time. Feels great to be great."

Kakashi walked up the two and got the necessary information out of them. Kakashi confronted Tazuna about lying to them about the mission's specifics, and Tazuna used his trump card, guilt, to sway Kakashi into just going along with the mission. Sakura observed the drama unfold, but Sasuke was different.

He wasn't paying attention to it. He already knew what was to bound to happen. It all went by in a mere 3 sentan- seconds. What really was bugging him though was Naruto. Naruto seemed glum, depressed, and dare he think, frightened. It reminded Sasuke of how Naruto was the day of the bell test. Was it the note left by Shisui...? Or was it... something else...?

Sasuke finally after debating whether or not to confront Naruto about it, decided to ask Naruto what the hell is going on in his head.

"So Naruto... What's on your mind...?" Sasuke asked hoping Naruto would respond, but that seemed unlikely.

There was complete silence. Kakashi could tell there was something wrong.

"If we are lucky, nothing... but... the next few moments decide it all..." said the yellow haired boy as he looked straight.

The pinkette concerned said "Um... Naru-"

A kunai just shot by her face, about 2 cm away right from her face. Tazuna looked at Naruto in shock. Did he really try to kill the Pinkette?

"Tch, missed by mere centimeters." said the fishcake.

Kakashi seemed to notice something near where the kunai struck too. Sasuke knew straight up, something was up, and something was about to go down...

The angry old bridge builder yelled "Naruto! Is this how you respond when someone shows conce-"

"Shut it Tazuna, shit is going down... Sasuke, don't take this lightly, and that is coming straight from me..." said the blond in a menacing tone which caught even Kakashi off guard. Sasuke had no clue why, but he, a seasoned shinobi, felt something go down his spine.

"Alright then... whatever you say..." said the Uchiha as he got on his guard.

Kakashi thought it was weird for the two to get their guards up that high but decided to pay no attention to it and check out the spot the kunai hit. When he cleared the bush, he saw a white rabbit.

"NARUTO! Look what you did!" said the angry bitc- kunoichi.

"Calm down hoe, use your head... a snow rabbit... and it has white fur which should only be present in specific set environmental condition... meaning it was raised indoors... get where I'm going with this...?" said Naruto as he scanned the forest for a certain rogue mist ninja swordsman.

"Naruto is absolutely correct... be on your guard..." said the copy ninja as he pulled out a kunai.

Seemingly out of thin air, a giant sword came spiraling towards them. Kakashi tackled Tazuna down and away as the sword came in flying in, and Sasuke carried Sakura away from the the path of the sword. Naruto however didn't seem so fortunate.

Naruto already had been distracted the whole time, and now, the sword came right at him. He put a kunai in the way of the blade in hope of slowing down it's momentum and deflecting the sword away, but it was to no avail. The sword cut through Naruto's kunai which unknown to Kakashi, and Sakura, was enveloped in a layer of wind chakra.

The other three watched in utter despair as they saw the blonde shinobi roll across the ground. Sasuke felt something crunch up in his heart. I looked at Naruto's seemingly lifeless body on the ground bleeding out and thought to himself, "No way... how... how could I let this happen...?"

He was cut off his trance after hearing the pinkette scream. The blade attached itself to a tree as a certain rouge mist shinobi landed on top of it. Kakashi and Sasuke both looked at Naruto's chest. They hoped that it would rise, but it didn't move at all. Kakashi focused his attention on the bigger threat at hand.

"No... It can't be... Zabuza..." Kakashi muttered as he pulled out a kunai. "On your guard... "

Sasuke: How could this happen...?! Naruto... he was... he was my... And now... he's gone... I don't think I can contain myself... This... this anger... this rage... I'LL FUCKIN STAB THAT BITCH!

"SASUKE!" Kakashi yelled as Sasuke lunged at Zabuza.

"Heh, foolish genin... you think you can take me down?" said Zabuza as sat down in a crisscross fashion underestimating his opponent.

"YOU BASTARD!" Sasuke launched a punch, but it got caught by Zabuza's palms midway. Zabuza took this opportunity to subdue the boy with his knee and said "Sit child. Now, lemme tell you a story about when I killed 100 anbu with my bare hands before I send you to sleep."

As Sasuke kneeled on the ground, his eyes turned red, and when it did, Zabuza mouthed these famous few last words.

"Oh... well shit... "

Sasuke trapped Zabuza in a tsukyomi before he even realized it what was going on.

The sky was bloodshot red, and jet black clouds roamed the sky. The terrain had giant boulders and rocks, but no sign of any human, or civilization as far as the eye could see. "ZA BU ZA! I'M COMING FOR YOU!" said a creepy little girl voice. Zabuza quickly reached for his blade only to realize, it was missing.

"WHAT?!" He then reached for his weapon pouch to pull out a kunai, only to realize, even that was missing. He turned around and he saw a mirror reflecting an image of a young 9 year old boy shook to his bones.

"Is... is that... me...?"

Suddenly, the boy's face morphed into a face of a girl with a kunai stuck in her head and bloodied face. Zabuza let out a shriek as he fell down to the ground in cold sweat. The mirror switched scenes and behind Zabuza, there was a large wooden pillar, and the same girl was bound to it. Zabuza felt his blood boil, and his heart ache. He ran there towards the pillar, but he seemed to only get farther away and getting sucked into a shroud of darkness.

He tripped over something and fell. He got back up and turned around, only to see the girl laying there, half concious, on the brink of death. Zabuza frantically ran to her side but she like a holographic image simply dissappaited. He turned around and saw a younger version of himself sitting beside the half dead girl crying and weeping.

"Don't cry... big brother..."

Apologies for the lateness, but don't expect my chapters to come out quite frequently now.

I am getting bombarded with a lot of comments (which I am extremely grateful for don't get me wrong) so Im making this announcement now. I am gonna have to limit myself to responding to the comments from the most recent chapters. Like, I'll respond to you, but only on the chapter which I published recently.

If you comment on let's say chapter 15 cuz that's where you are, and I posted 27, I'll respond to the ones on chapter 27, and not on chapter 15. So comment on the ones I post last if you want me to get to you.

ALSO, I made an instagram account, you all should go follow it! It's called Darealotaku and I will be doing a lotta stuff on there. For example, group chats, maybe direct chats, updates, teasers, spoilers, voting and more!

Also, A friend of mine has a youtube channel and I'll be featuring in it time to time. He makes skits and he is getting better! Go subscribe to him! Jib films

channel/UCzS_wubdXo3kZchOFsuTWVw

YEAH ALSO, IT MIGHT NOT BE GOOD ATM, BUT ITS GONNA GET BETTER CUZ IMA TELL HIM HOW TO FIX HIS VIDEOS AND STUFF

EDIT: (I posted the same thing on Chapter 7 so you can skip this if you'd like.) So, everything from chapter 9 to chapter 17 had been written a while back on Wattpad. I just never really posted them here. Last time I posted here was last year, 6 months ago. I'm not gonna apologize though. I already told you all that if you wanted to get the Chapter as soon as possible, read it on Wattpad. The only ones I am going to apologize to are the ones who had a GOOD reason which prevented them from going there. Im speaking to you directly that one person who left a review. I understand you might not have been able to find it. Because of that, I'll now post a link. You don't need to make an account there to read it. Just to write, vote on chps, pm, review and stuff.

www . wattpad 481255071-naruto-return-to-the-past-a-barren-wasteland

I broke the link down cuz if I don't, it'll not let me put it here.

TBH, I wasn't even gonna post it here anymore. This one time I did it was 100% on a whim. I'm not gonna make any false promises to y'all saying I'll update right away or every 2 months or anything. I APPRECIATE YOU TAKING YOUR TIME AND READING IT AND ALL, BUT I'M JUST LETTING YOU KNOW FACTS RN. I'm not saying I don't want you to read this as it comes out, or I don't value you all any more. I just don't get on Fanfiction any more. I interact WAYYYYYY MORE on wattpad with people than here. Another reason, this story here has 7000 views or something as compared to the one on Wattpad where it has OVER 50k! Yeah, so check that out. I might drop this whole account soon, or I might not. I LITERALLY don't know.