Sorry for the delay, longer than usual this one. Within two days of this update I will be closing and changing the poll on my profile, so for those of you who haven't voted and want to should do so quickly. Also I would like to apologize for such a horrible chapter, here it is:

"Why are we in a boat again?" Batoru asked as they all sat in a relatively long boat while a man in the back rowed with a long pole. "Because we were attacked before we even reached the coast" Tazuna said matter-of-factly as they rowed through the fog.

"Hey name!" Batoru yelled at the person rowing causing him and Tazuna to cringe "Do you want Gato's men to know where we are?!" the person rowing demanded. "Honestly I don't care, even this brat could stop any and all of Gato's non-ninja thugs" Batoru responded jamming a thumb at the unconscious form of one Naruto Uzumaki "So unless you want to be referred to as The Rower for the rest of the time I'm in this country you'll tell me your name"

"Toshi Kurudomi" He responded hesitantly as he continued to carefully maneuver the boat. "Well then Toshi" Batoru said with a slight smirk as his pupils dilated for a few seconds before returning to normal "Turn on the motor" Tazuna and Toshi gaped at him. "Are you trying to get us killed?!" Tazuna demanded quietly, his voice conveying his anger.

"No I'm trying to get to your home before I run out of youkai, and reveal that I'm a demon. After all," Batoru said gaining an evil smile, made worse by the fact that he was essentially wearing Naruto's face, "It would be a shame if I was killed be your neighbors while I was trying to protect you from an A rank and S rank nukenin" "Yes" Tazuna agreed hastily after paling "That would be bad"

"So I repeat" Batoru said once more turning to Toshi who was gaping once more at the henged Oni in front of him "Turn on the motor" Toshi responded by gunning the motor to full. "Thank you" Batoru said watching the fog once more. "What kind of help did you get?" Toshi asked Tazuna quietly "I don't know" Tazuna answered truthfully.

After having reached the dock in Tazuna's small town and everyone save Toshi left the boat Toshi gunned the motor but not before saying to Tazuna sadly "I hope you know what you're doing" and with that the two teams of leaf nin and Tazuna were on their way. It was while walking down main street that anything of any importance happened: Sakura's dress was pulled on by a small child who's brown eyes and filthy face looked at her expectantly. She was about to give the child something when Batoru fell into step next to her with Naruto still on his shoulder and asked "How much money to you have?"

"Why do you care?" Sakura demanded sharply "Because" Batoru answered "In a situation like this if you give one person something, be it money or food, you'd better be ready to give everyone other beggar in town the same thing. And from looking around, there are a lot of beggars" At this Sakura faltered "But its the right thing to do" She said quietly at which Anko snorted "We are kunoichi, and like all ninja we don't follow a moral code. I mean after all you're technically a child soldier" Causing Sakura to gape "C-child s-soldier?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes child soldier, what you thought you'd just sit in the village and do nothing for the rest of your life? Unlike almost every other occupation in existence ninja do not have a fixed income. You get payed for the missions you complete, and if you don't train then on those missions you die, its as simple as that. That and the fact that in the event of a war you will undoubtedly be sent on suicide missions to ensure that our village as a whole survives" Anko said matter-of-factly making an exaggerated motion with her hand and smacking Kakashi in the face multiple times as well as causing everyone's eyes, save Kakashi and herself, to widen. "I would prefer it you didn't do that" Kakashi said quietly, completely unperturbed by the fact that Anko basically said that if Konoha went to war they would all probably die. "Oh you're awake?" Anko asked before dropping him on his face causing Tazuna, Sakura, and Kiba's eyes to widen even further "Then you can walk for yourself" She said before starting to walk off.

"Anko sensei... is that true?" Hinata asked poking her index fingers together in front of her chest nervously. "Is what true?" Anko asked turning to look at her over her right shoulder "Th-th-that if w-w-we were sent to... w-w-w-war we'd be sent to d-d-die" She stuttered shaking slightly "Its entirely possible" Anko said causing Ino to gap, Hinata's hands to fall to her sides, Kiba and Akamaru to whimper, Sakura to shake, Sasuke to glare, and Tazuna to turn to her sharply in surprise "But" Anko said before grinning widely "I intend to get you strong enough that in case we were to go to war, you'd not only survive, but you'd kick some serious ass!"

"While this is interesting and all" Batoru said leaning on a wall in exhaustion, dropping Naruto to the ground "But can we... leave before I... can't hold the henge..." He was cut off by a plume of smoke and he had returned to his own body "Anymore" He sweatdropped before lifting Naruto and dragging himself and Naruto over to the rest of them "Right shoulder blade. One inch below. Wipe blood" He said falling on his stomach. "B-batoru!" Ino said in surprise and kneeling at his side "He said to wipe blood and inch below his right shoulder blade? Why?" She asked turning to the nearest adult ninja, in this case being Kakashi. "Probably a seal" He said making no move to rise to his feet "It probably unseals something out of a pocket dimension that was created when the seal was made" Ino blinked before shrugging and doing as Batoru had said. A small pop later and a bottle of red pills were in her hand.

"What do I-" Ino was cut off by Anko leaning over her shoulder. "Probably feed them to him" She commented but otherwise doing nothing. "Right" Ino nodded before taking a pill out and putting it in Batoru's mouth and forcing him to swallow it. A few seconds later his youkai physically spiked in an aura around his body and he opened his eyes. He stood, rehenged, took the bottle from Ino after thanking her, picked up Naruto and continued walking down the by now cleared street as if nothing had happened.

"What is with him!" Sakura complained "Trying to act cool and upstage Sasuke" (I may or may not try to redeem her... don't know yet) "Sakura" Sasuke said walking passed her "Shut up" Sakura's reaction was to cry waterfall tears and turn to the closest thing she thought she could vent her anger on, at this point it being Hinata seeing as Kiba had learned to stay away because her voice hurt both Akamaru's and his own ears. "This is your fault" Sakura spat completely ignoring Hinata's attempts to ask how "You trying to seduce my Sasuke is-" She was cut off by Ino slapping her in a similar way she had slapped Sasuke earlier that day. "Hinata has done nothing to prevent Sasuke from liking you, leave her out of this" She said following Batoru and dragging a blinking Hinata with her.

In the forest, several miles away;

'That was close' The 'hunter nin' thought with a sigh as they lay Kisame and Zabuza's bodies on the ground and pulling out a small pair of scissors from a folded medical kit. "Now to cut the bandages so the blood can drain" they said to themselves as they brought the scissors to Zabuza's neck, only for the 'dead' man to grab their hand and growl "Damn you're brutal" Zabuza sat up and ripped the senbon needles out of his neck "I swear you get some perverse pleasure from this, Haku. And take that mask off; its creepy" Haku removed the hunter mask to reveal a feminine face and smiled tilting their head slightly to the right "Should I remove Kisame's needles Zabuza?" Haku asked looking over at the shark like man and watched in a strange fascination as the needles slowly moved out of the man's neck

"No need" Zabuza said without turning int his fellow nukenin's direction "Samehada wouldn't let its wielder die so easily" Just after he said that Kisame bolted upright, turned to Haku and snarled "What the hell was that?!" Haku, much to Zabuza's amusement, didn't look all that fazed by Kisame which only caused him to get angrier. "That was me removing you from a situation that looked like you would lose" Haku said almost cheerfully. "What was that?" Kisame asked slowly, KI pouring off him like a tsunami "You thought I would lose?!" this caused Haku to cower in fear as a cloud covering the sun shrouded his face in shadow, the only visible part being his gleaming eyes

"Kisame knock it off" Zabuza said angrily, his voice "You may be able to have Samehada heal you, but I need to rely on Haku, so I would appreciate it if you didn't give her a heart attack" Kisame turned his glare to Zabuza, who met it with a glare of his own, before sending a wave of KI at Haku on last time. This time she did faint prompting Zabuza to sigh "Damn it Kisame, I said stop" "And I did!" Kisame laughed picking up Samehada and walking in the general direction of their closest base. Zabuza growled sheathing Kubikiribōchō and picking up Haku bridal style before following Kisame grumbling about 'Annoying fish people'.

Near Tazuna's home;

The group arrived at Tazuna's home without incident and Tazuna walked up to his door, opening it and calling out "Tsunami! Inari! I'm home" Soon a relieved looking woman with black hair wearing a pink blouse and blue skirt ran up to the man and hugged him "Father! Thank Kami your okay" Tazuna laughed at her reaction hugging her back "Its thanks to these super ninja!" He exclaimed dramatically when she released him "If it weren't for them I''d have surely died" Hearing this Tsunami turned to them and bowed slightly "Thank you for keeping my father safe" "Your welcome" Kakashi said from his place of leaning on Anko, a feat that had taken a lot of begging, promises, and the exchange of money.

"Who're these people?" A young voice asked from behind Tsunami "These are the brave ninja that protected your grandfather Inari" Tsunami said turning and revealing a small bucket hat and tan trouser wearing black haired boy. "Why? You're all going to die anyway" Inari said stalking off obviously mad about something.

"What's his problem?!" Sakura demanded in indignation clenching her fist in front of her almost non existent chest, though this could be attributed to the fact that she is only around 12 years old and was in the early stages of puberty, and her eyes turning white with anger. "He lost someone important to him" Tsunami said her eyes quickly flicking to a framed picture on the wall of Tazuna, Inari, Tsunami, and someone whose head looked to have been ripped out of the picture, this did not go unnoticed by Anko, Kakashi, or Batoru.

"Right" Kakashi said leaning against the door frame for support "Do you have enough room for us?" He asked in an attempt to derail the current conversation. It worked and Tsunami nodded backing up and gesturing for them to enter the house proper, before leading them to the part of the house that held the bedrooms. "The girls will be in this room and the boys will be in this one" Tsunami said pointing to the door to her right, then the one across the hall. "Dinner will be soon, please unpack anything you brought and come down soon please" With that she and Tazuna left the ninja to be settled in.

Again... this chapter is horrible and for that I apologize once more. Next chapter should be longer because I'll be covering training and the final battle against Zabuza and co.