Chapter 30: Infiltration Issues

Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of Kishimoto

Naruto was currently on the 10th Loop for his mission in Wave. In all, he made remarkable progress in the nine weeks he had on this mission compared to the months he had before it. He now had other Jutsus to use after all.

Not to mention the previous progress was merely Naruto training to get stronger and faster, which wasn't much compared to what Lee could do. From the repeated month after he graduated and was placed in Team 7, his speed had doubled.

Despite that claim being quite praiseworthy, all that really meant was that his average speed for a Genin was increased to match Sasuke's own speed which was the peak of a Genin. The less said about how ridiculously fast Lee was, the better.

He was faster than most Chunin already.

But still, as typical of Naruto, he had thought the most progress he had made was in his increased Jutsu library which was actually quite good compared to other Genin. Most learnt Elemental Jutsus when they reached Chunin and Naruto already had four of them!

"Man, it would be nice if I can get Kakashi-sensei to teach me some Jutsu for every element" said Naruto in a small daze thinking about it.

His Earth Jutsus were fine for support and his Fire Jutsus were fine for ranged attacks but he wondered what else he could do with the three other elements. He still needed a close range attack type Jutsu and a pure defence type Jutsu as well.

"Besides, learning even one Jutsu is enough to increase my strength several fold since I have Shadow Clones."

Even without the addition of new Jutsu for him to use, Naruto was already quite dangerous if you allow him to set up. A large number of Shadow Clones was impressive but durable. A large number of Shadow Clones that can burrow underground and drag you down was dangerous.

Add in ranged Fire Attacks and you have the beginning of an army killer.

Not to mention all the other less obvious techniques that Naruto had up his bag to keep himself alive and safer than normal. If he was to compare himself from before, his Ninjutsu would be at High Genin level compared to the Genin Level he had previously.

Due to the constant practise of Jutsus, his understanding of what Ninjutsu was increased a bit. This was mainly due to Naruto learning two Earth Jutsus, two Fire Jutsus and the Body Flicker Jutsu over this current checkpoint loop.

Besides that, the only thing that Naruto could think of that he had improved in compared to before this Wave mission was his skills in Fuinjutsu and his Traps skills even if the latter only grew thanks to the former.

Of the 10 Ranks of Fuinjutsu user could gain – Beginner 1-2, Intermediate 3-4, Advance 5-6, Master 7-10 – Naruto had finally breached into the Intermediate Stage of Fuinjutsu when he finally managed to create a proper Seal Key.

Not to mention that had had polished his explosive seals and storage seals as well as adding a couple more seals in with the traps. The Basic Water Protection Seal and Basic Fire Protection Seal were particularly useful when he researched them to use.

Needless to say, the chances of his stuff getting wet and any chance of getting burnt decreased dramatically when he learnt those two seals in particular. However Naruto had slow progress in learning the more offensive based seals like the Electric Shock Seal or the Combustion Flame Seal.

He had no idea on what was going on there but even with lots of Shadow Clones working on it, half the time the seals would either explode and the other half they would just fail and do nothing. It was frustrating work and Naruto didn't know what he was doing wrong.

"At my current rate…I can probably get to the Advance stage of Fuinjutsu in around 5 years or so" he grunted not that he knew it would really take that much time. It was likely to take even longer or it may even if unlikely take less time than what he estimated.

Finding how much time and effort it would take to master this branch of teaching, part of Naruto was indeed happy for the Time Loop, if only for the fact that his 'age' when mastering it would not be in the twenties or beyond.

"I got most of the basics down…which is why I can create some of the more complicated seals but after a certain point, I'm missing something that will let me reach the next level" Naruto moaned not sure what it was.

It seemed that he didn't have an exceptional talent in Fuinjutsu like some of his clan that could instantly unravel a seal or create some that bent reality itself. But that didn't disappoint him. People had things that they were good at and things they were not.

Fuinjutsu was a highly complicated area and would take a lifetime to master and there was a serious lacking of any masters after his clan was destroyed. It had taken a good idea of time to even comprehend the most basic seals that removed dirt, gathered small amounts of water and so on.

"But now…" Naruto said with the headquarters of Gato's base in sight, "Let's see if I can convince Gato not to harm Wave."

There was a vicious grin on Naruto's face as he said that.

"Two guards at the gate. Another four keeping a lookout on those two alone, another eight hidden for the windows" he muttered to himself seeing the formation of guards. He was approximately a hundred and fifty metres from Gato's base.

On a tree Naruto in the distance observed the place and frowned.

Despite how crummy Gato was, he or someone he knew had a pretty decent guard set up. To ensure that most including some moderately skilled ninjas wouldn't be able to get in his headquarters easily guards were placed in key location as bait while others observed them. Naruto had spent a good few days on studying Gato's guard rotation the best he could and found that there were 10 sets of rotation for the hundred mercenaries he had hired.

A tenth of those numbers constantly kept an eye out for intruders and invaders while another tenth was sent out to Wave to cause trouble and the rest stay in the headquarters patrolling and doing whatever Gato needed them to do.

Naruto dropped down from the trees, using no chakra at all but instead used some rope and a heavy weight to balance himself from falling to his possible death. A soft thud was heard as he landed as he cringed at his mistake.

Every small noise was a bad demerit and would only increase his chances to being caught. This would be even worse when he was in the base since he would be surrounded on all sides without a means of escape.

And inside with those mercenaries was Zabuza, Haku and other possible missing-nins that Gato had hired. Torture was an issue but Haku was unlikely to be one who enjoyed putting others in pain. He was more worried about any other Ninjas with them. He still didn't know if Gato hired more ninjas when the Demon Brothers was lost to him.

Other than the ninjas, Naruto thought he would have a decent time sneaking in. Naruto wasn't at all worried about the mercenary thugs but the ninjas? Being trained in chakra usage also resulted in the experienced and sensors being able to trace and track chakra usage.

A ninja naturally used chakra in everything they did from climbing walls to even jumping and moving a bit quicker as they willed. This instinct is ingrain to them to the point that even children who had their chakra unlocked in the Academy are able to unconsciously do this without thinking.

There were even some that were able to track the chakra system itself without the use of a Dojutsu. Such people were called sensors and were extremely rare, just as rare as those who wield Dojutsus. Part of Naruto wished he was one but he doubt he had that talent.

Creeping closer, Naruto decided that trying to get in from above or in the air was a bad idea. Too much visual on his body even in the night and there was a good chance if he was detected he would be fired at in the air. And even Naruto couldn't dodge in the air.

He needed another way in.

"If I use a Transformation Jutsu to try and sneak in, one of the ninjas would detect me, if I try to wall climb using chakra the same thing would happen. I literally have to sneak in without the use of chakra at all."

Using Jutsus was out even as a diversion since it would still notify the enemy that there was someone nearby even if they weren't sneaking in. They would boost their security for the night or week depending and that would only make things harder for Naruto.

Pinching his nose at the sheer difficulty of this task, it was no wonder why sabotage ninjas had the worse fatality rates of all ninjas. Sneaking into a place was hard enough, trying to do so and not be detected by other ninjas in an area with little chakra usage was a tall task. The difficulty would be just almost hard as trying to sneak into one of the Hidden Villages!

Plus this place was mainly devoid of any chakra usage which only made it so much easier for any ninjas even decent in chakra sensing would be able to tell that someone was using chakra! He wouldn't have this problem if he was in Konoha since pretty much every ninja there used chakra in one way or another often in moving a bit quicker.

Looking at what current equipment he had, there were only a few options he could use. One was to naturally find a second entrance. Gato is the type to have a back-up plan to escape promptly. Second was to get in with the other mercenaries in disguise.

Neither were good options he noticed. If he learnt Chakra Suppression which is a key skill for anyone who wanted to be remotely stealthy, he could've supressed his chakra to the point that he could go in using his ninja skills undetected.

"Damn, looks like I can't get rid of Gato until the time's right or he gets out of that place" he cursed before retreating.

He had little intentions of letting Gato off considering how much trouble the man caused for this mission. When Naruto guarded Tazuna's family more tightly using seals to which and ordinary thug wouldn't even get near the house, he sends an extra missing-nin after the mother and son.

"Gato will be removed…but there are too many people watching in that base and there are too many possible ninjas" he said. However he was in a Time Loop and anything he did didn't matter when it would reset after a while.

He still had a few days before the battle on the bridge. If he went in now and got detected and failed, then the battle may arrive earlier or Gato may turn his eyes to the rest of Wave and Naruto didn't want to think about a hundred thugs slaughtering the rest of Wave. No, judging by Gato's personality from his actions, he would want to make his plays without opposition and with certainty.

Wave was his profit and he wanted it to live if only under his management. That would meant that as long as he feels safe then he wouldn't make a move to keep himself safe. The day of the battle on the bridge would be when he would sneak into this place.

That time would be when he would feel the most safe when Zabuza and Haku were eliminating his enemies.

At that time, he would really see what cards Gato had to play.

Days later Naruto was kicking himself for not thinking of the simple solution. So what if he had more than enough chakra to make someone wary. So what if he couldn't use chakra at all in infiltrating the place?

"It's already near the end of the week anyway. Even if I do something and fail, I can just kill myself and restart the loop" Naruto figured. He never stopped to think what that kind of thinking would do to him.

He was too focused on what could be and not the other thing that seemed unimportant for him right now.

Any Ninjas inside the base knew that the only person who would dare try to get in this base was Kakashi and he was out of commission for a whole week like Zazuba for one. They wouldn't be paying attention to anyone trying to get in right now. Not to mention most of the people inside were mercenaries without proper ninja training.

It doesn't even account for the fact that Naruto had been doing stealth for pranks even before he had use of his chakra (Even if they were minor and NEVER this dangerous). He already knew the ins and out of sneaking into places well enough before he even learn his first Jutsu!

And despite Gato being a paranoid bastard with ninjas on hire, he was still in the end a civilian and with the same mindset as everyone else without Shinobi training. If you don't want anyone to get in, you make a shit tonne of traps to keep everyone out.

There is a good reason why Ninjas are known as the assassins of the world even more than actual 'Assassins' that try to do the same. The ability to climb on walls or walk on water would with enough stealth make more defences useless as civilian guards watched the openings and left the places that people naturally couldn't pass through.

A tall wall? Of course Ninjas would climb over it frequently! It's not like anyone is actually watching the stupidly thick and tall wall.

A fortress in a lake? Why would they need so many guards watching everywhere? It's not like people can walk on water!

Which was why Naruto deadpanned and was highly suspicious when he actually snuck into the base without any traps triggering on him or even existing for one even when he used some chakra to climb up the walls and into windows without a sound.

Chakra had an excellent sound canceller if you knew how to. Naruto didn't even need to be taught that at all and instead accidentally noticed one day and figured it would be a good way to reduce the amount of noise he made.

Of course by using chakra, other Ninjas were more likely to notice him either way but against civilians it is at least effective! Like right now as he literally crawled on the ceiling making his way into where Gato was…

Or at least he thought he was.

Hours passed without Naruto making a sound and he pretty much scouted a good portion of the base. Instead of being the traditional fortress like the ones in the Fire Capital he heard of which was a literal tower, the sections of the base was split into different buildings connected to each other.

This of course made it harder for Naruto to get from one building to another. But years of pranking did help with getting to locations in unconventional ways. After that, it was merely avoid areas near the two or more ninjas resided (like Gato would put his living quarters near them) and getting into Gato's office where all the good stuff was located at.

But when he got there.

"Why the fuck does Gato not have any paperwork on hiring goons? How does he hire people like this?" he wondered.

It was truly strange to Naruto who walked in more than often to the Third Hokage working through several stacks of paperwork in the past. He knew that paperwork was unavoidable when doing stuff even unofficially and if Gato didn't want paperwork then everybody was pretty much-

"Oh."

It was most likely that Gato hired people to do work then hired people to kill those people of and hired other people to off them as well. If Gato did this frequently, scratch that all the time then Gato was living off the fact that those he needed to pay were killed off at least half the time by another group.

It would be possible without him paying at least one group that he couldn't afford to off as well instead of straight up paying them. But then, how was Gato going to off Zabuza and Haku? Both were Ninjas and as Ninjas were, they were stronger than any old civilian no matter what training they had.

Chakra was just that powerful and there was a reason why Ninjas were still so dominant even after the Warring Clans Era where clans and Ninjas in general settled down in the Hidden Village System.

And Ninjas were downright expensive to hire in general, even the missing-nin kind for someone of Zabuza's capabilities.

And even among Ninjas, Jonin were the Elites of all Ninjas. Zabuza and Kakashi wouldn't just be taken down by any common Ninja out there. Which meant that the other missing-nin that Gato hired wouldn't be able to kill Zabuza. And if that nin came with a team, neither will they.

Naruto was confused how Gato would kill off Zabuza and Haku considering how much stronger ninjas were – even Genin – compared to normal civilians and-

"Oh."

Seeing the strategies that Gato had used in the past, it was likely that Gato would use the two and exhaust them before going into the kill. It was a risky plan since if they could escape, then revenge would be theirs. The sheer idiotic thinking that killing and scamming some mercenaries would carry over to Ninjas.

After shifting through some more papers using his Shadow Clones to speed the process up, Naruto snuck out of the base and left it there as if he wasn't there at all. What he knew really made Gato look like a bastard. And he would make sure the man would die.

"You want us to do what?!" Tazuna asked livid the moment Naruto suggested his solution that worked the last few times. Before now, he really hadn't explained things to Tazuna and the man deserved better than that.

Why did he even bother?

"I want you and your family to hide, somewhere away from here for safety" said Naruto, "I can make Shadow Clones and transform them to look like you all and it removes any need to protect you on the bridge or leave someone behind to protect Tsunami-san and Inari."

"But won't the traps you placed protect them?" Sakura asked. She looked much less depressed than before considering any outburst that knocked her confidence down hadn't come from him recently in any Loops.

Shaking his head Naruto answered, "I want to make sure all of them are safe. There is a chance that Gato might hire more people to capture them or outright kill them to make another statement."

The family of three flinched at that.

"You're a bit too paranoid aren't you dobe?" Sasuke smirked. Naruto saw the gleam that he was expecting the battle and was excited for it. Of course he would be the opposite in the middle of it when he realised Haku was toying with him.

An Ice Style Bloodline Limit on a bridge in a fog and over water?!

Even Kakashi would have trouble against such odds. Naruto wasn't even sure that Zabuza who specialised in battles in such environments would have any advantage over Haku in these conditions. Some Sharingan won't help if you can't escape the attacks from everywhere.

"We're ninjas" Naruto deadpanned, "We're supposed to be paranoid especially when there's a good chance these things might happen at any time."

"Mare mare, Naruto has a point. Gato does have the expense to hire more missing-nin but there's also a matter of pride with Zabuza. He wouldn't let someone else take the world he was hired to."

Huh, he didn't consider that.

"Gato has a poor history in paying those he hires. Most die to another group he hires later on" he replied.

Raising an eyebrow Kakashi asked, "How do you know that?"

Crap.

"Did you question some of Gato's thugs…no? You actually snuck into his base when Zabuza was there?!" he demanded.

Naruto sweated before making up a quick lie to which he wished was true, "I made a Shadow Clone to do the sneaking! I wasn't actually in the base but just near it where I could escape easily. I mean, my Shadow Clones made more Shadow Clones inside and they didn't notice anything!"

Sighing out in relief Kakashi said, "Just…don't do these kinds of risky things. Such actions are usually from B-rank missions and only are given to experienced Chunin or Jonin."

"I always been good at stealth and sneaking into things" grinned Naruto in response.

Looking at the two Tazuna suddenly asked again, "So what are we going to do about my family hiding?"

On the bridge, Naruto refined his control over the couple of Jutsu that he had over the week preparing. The Time Loops were helpful in allowing him to see things from cause and effect to the most minor detail but despite this, he had looked at things with the bigger picture most of the times and ignored the small details and what would happen as a result.

Namely, rather than using the mercenary thugs to try to take out Zabuza after the battle, he instead used them as a massive distraction by attacking Wave directly. With Sasuke fighting and probably losing to Haku, it was up to him and Sakura to protect wave.

He really didn't think that this would happen.

He really didn't think his infiltration actions would leave to this.

"Sakura! Get the civilians away from this area! I'll hold them back" he roared as he made dozens of Shadow Clones before making them charge at the mercenaries. Most died quickly due to the need to restraint the enemy but some leaped to the roof and started throwing weapons at them.

There were a total of 50 mercenaries that started killing people at random and they were quite spread out. If they grouped more closely then he could care of them easily with minimal damage. But if he threw out a couple grand fireballs, then he would be responsible for destroying Wave once and for all.

Furthermore if he used more Shadow Clones to swarm them, each Shadow Clone would have minimal chakra reserves and could only be considered fodder even in a battle of this level.

"Earth Style: Underground Projection Fish!"

Naruto immediately sunk to under the ground and moved quickly before using the Earth Style: Double Suicide Decapitation to drag a man down before snapping his neck before moving on. There was no way he was letting any of these scum go.

He snapped the man's neck no caring that he killed another person and moved on to continue to drag down another dozen enemies into the ground before killing them as well. After that Naruto went back above ground to see what the situation was like and how was Sakura evacuating the people of Wave.

What he saw was quite depressing and horrifying.

"Damnit! As if I'm going to let this go!" he shouted before an explosion from the south alerted him of a battle and one that included chakra meaning enemy ninjas now.

Leaping from roof to roof, Naruto almost instantly appeared at the new battlefield when he started to hear the screams. To be precise the screams of one Sakura Haruno trying to protect some children that were half her age. She had lost an arm and leg from the last time he saw her.

Naruto blinked once in surprise resulting in Sakura being tortured for longer and letting out another scream of pain.

Quickly regretting pausing for a split second, Naruto ran through the hand-seals and fired off a Grand Firebal at the ground at large. He noticed that there were three of them including the guy he killed once before as well.

Noticing the blazing flames that were coming towards them, the enemy team split off in three direction just as Naruto went through the hand-seals for the Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu that with him pumping more and more chakra into, were twice as large as normal as easily more than a dozen medium sized fireballs rained down.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he shouted creating another three shadow clones before dropping down to see if Sakura was all right while his shadow clones held the enemy away.

Despite his grievances with the girl, he knew what Kakashi would say and do to him if he abandoned her now. He wasn't going to become worse than trash especially since there were rules about helping your comrade right now.

Sakura's breath was shallow and the children that she was protecting skittered away from him rapidly as he came near. He frowned at that but continued and placed two fingers on Sakura's neck and confirming that she was alive.

There was so much blood everywhere.

"DAMNIT!"

However he had no skills in medical ninjutsu at all. While he had some bare basic knowledge on how to patch up minor wounds like scratches, he had no skill in even trying to save someone with large cut wounds all over her body and with weapons sticking out of her arms.

She was so pale.

And for the first time in a long time, Naruto felt worry for his pink-haired team-mate. She was not prepared. He should've tried to help her more. She was currently dying. He shouldn't have been so conceit that he was superior to her in every way that she was not needed. There was nothing he could do to help her.

When did he start to think that her life was worthless?

He felt some memories from his shadow clones eventually getting destroyed by the enemy as they tried to get even a few more civilians out of the battlefield and into safety. They failed and everyone there was killed as a result.

Three men leaped down a distance from him as he felt Sakura's last breath go through her. She was dead. This was the first time that he saw someone he knew die. Before it was so instantaneous when the Loop reset that he didn't consider what happened. He saw her in the same day that the Loop reset to.

"So the little brat is the last one?" one man asked. Naruto recognised him as the man who previously in another loop tried to kidnap Inari and Tsunami. He wondered if he found them this time especially when his team hid them.

The other two men reminded Naruto of those two brothers that were killed during the trip to Wave. The chunins called the Demon Brothers. They didn't have the large claws but still looked even more powerful than the two in some ways.

And so Naruto laughed brokenly.

"You have to be kidding me?! One insignificant change and this happens!"

Red Chakra seeped through his body as his hands grew to claws and his eyes went red. Last time…last time the corrosive chakra came due to his fear of death. This time it came from rage. Rage at the men in front of him. Rage against Gato who is the cause of all of this. And rage at himself for failing to stop all of this from happening.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

A/N:

Been a while since I uploaded. All the assignments and so on at stacking up together now. No time to even write when I have something due in a few days. But still, I managed to lump together this chapter.

So...Boruto Manga. Interesting start on a possible future where the plot of the movie apparently moved in a different direction where technology apparently surpasses Ninjutsu and any use of chakra.

There's just two problems. One: This is not Canon so I really don't care much about it. Second: The Art if shit. Seriously the guy who drew this was an assistant of Kishi that drew background and background characters. I've been fanfiction drawing series of Naruto that had the same quality as this.

Not to mention the art-style itself was so un-refined that I half expected Kishi somehow broke his hand, went on hiatus for years and came back to make Naruto the next HxH in art quality.

More than that, the art is a split between what should have a super realistic style like Gantz trying to be more cartoonish like Naruto and failing badly.

So my recommendations: Don't read.

Seriously, every female is suddenly flat especially Hinata for no reason, there are errors in character designs with characters looking different from anything what Kishi portrayed them in and most humorous is that Sasuke somehow went to a dimension where Harry Potter was a thing and remade his image into Snape.