As Naruto had guessed, Gato had indeed appeared with his men at the estimated time. And as Tomoe had predicted correctly, they had expected that they only had to intimidate local populace and get what they wanted. Certainly they weren't expecting to be forced into a siege battle, which was why they were stunned by the place's quick transformation. Gato quickly recovered from his surprise, and started his psychological attack, telling the residents that whatever foolish idea they came up with, it was bound to fail and they would regret it so it would be better for them to just surrender anything that they have to him.

It would have probably worked if not for a very simple reason: the residents had Gato's food supply.

They had been skimping on food for a long time that the appearance of enough food to go around was like a gift from the heaven. And because of that, Tomoe had pre-emptively tied up Yakumo and gagged her when she saw the girl was about to say something to the people. It was very fortunate that she did that as they were quite susceptible to any suggestion at that point of time due to the extreme relief and gratitude that they felt. If left alone, the possessed Yakumo would have told them that they should show their gratitude to Jashins, or known as Evil Gods, since Idos who were in control of her at that time were evil beings and it was a logical conclusion that evil beings were supposed to pray to evil gods.

But it had to be pointed out that even though there were Evil Gods, there were no Good Gods, Atsushin, Yasashi no Kami, Ryoushin or whatever resembled that. There was that nice fellow who was known as Shinigami that was always called to eat anything that people didn't need such as a part of a tailed beast, a pair of hands or two troublesome and unhelpful Hokage souls, but he wasn't known to be a 'Good God'.

So, evil beings such as Hidan and Idos prayed to Evil Gods… and naturally good beings should pray to…?

But such a thought didn't occur to Tomoe, who was occupied with keeping close attention to Gato's prattle. The man was talking garbage, sure, but whatever that he didn't say was the she paying attention to, such as the way his eyes roaming around or the way his fingers twitched; those gave her insight to whatever the man was thinking.

Which isn't much though she could see that it would start soon.

-ToN-

-ToN-

"Finally," Gato said as he stood in front of the town with his men behind him, weapons at ready. "It's been quite a long time that I thought that he's all forgotten about this or decided to abandon it altogether. Fortunately he's just busy with various things that he couldn't spend some time coming up with ideas for this chapter."

"What are you talking about, boss?" a man with an orange-coloured Mohawk hair standing close behind him asked, brandishing his axe while smiling, few black teeth clearly visible.

"That's none of your business," the businessman scoffed, "You're just here to make me look more threatening."

Let it be known that the fee the image consultant, Kakuzu if he recalled the name correctly, charged was rather exorbitant to the point of being cut-throat. Still, the man did know his stuff, with the suggestions that he had given Gato had transformed the latter's image from a rather mild and meek looking man into a villain whose mere appearance annoyed everyone else. Case in point, Gato used to keep his hair short and neat, with it being combed every day. But Kakazu told him that it only made him look like an evil nerd. And being an evil nerd wasn't enough. In order to become a major dick, Gato had to have a hairstyle that vaguely suggestive of that said reproductive organ. Then he has to wear a highly impractical and ugly looking black rounded sunglasses so that his eyes couldn't be seen. To complete the overall persona, Gato has to wear a suit all the time even if the sun was blazing hot or the rain soaked his suit and making it harder for him to move around.

It was a pain to follow through but the overall image resulting from Gato following the consultant's advice was worth it. Actually, Kakuzu gave a somewhat better suggestion to be a villain but it was too difficult to follow. Gato was supposed to wear a black tuxedo, purple bow tie, a matching purple tall hat and bring along a parasol to wherever he went. Not only that he was supposed to be wearing a monocle and smoke through a long, thin tobacco pipe. To add to the effect, he was supposed to waddle instead of walking, squawking from time to time and change his name to one of a bird but that's was too much to follow, even for Gato.

He has never seen one but Gato was quite sure that changing his name into 'The Penguin' would make him sound dorky.

So Gato went with the second suggestion, dressing up as a dick and surrounding himself with dangerous looking idiots.

"Why don't you say something about raping women after we're through with this town?" Gato told the Mohawk.

"Nah. I don't look like it but I'm actually working as an activist for prevention of cruelty against women. I'd say we chop off everyone's head but that's because that way their deaths would be instantaneous instead of cruelly prolonging their agony."

"Hooh. That's a coincidence," a person with an eye patch on his right eye said, "I'm with SPCA."

"SPCA?" another asked.

"Yeah. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals." The man pointed at his eye patch. "Got this rescuing an injured tiger."

"A tiger? Wow, you travelled far. Let me guess, the tiger scratched your eye out?"

"Nah. It lost its parents when it was small and was raised by the woman who found it, so it's rather tame, as long as you remember to keep it well-fed. The tiger's owner who's a bombshell of a widow decided to reward me immensely, with all the buffet romp in her bed. Then my missus found out... and well…"

"Wait," Gato said, "The two of you do that kind of shit while not working for me?" he whirled around to stare at his men, "What is this? A boy scout party?"

A man scratched his scared face, "Since you mention about it, well, I do lead a scout troop now and then during…" he was elbowed by another one who hissed something somewhere along the line of telling him to shut up.

"Anyone else wanted to tell me that he is missing his stuffed animal?" the shipping magnate sneered.

A man more than twice Gato's height raised his hand slowly. "I miss Mr. Snuggles."

"Never mind," Gato said as he quickly squashed the insult that he has prepared for anyone who admitted; that man's hand could easily squash his head and Gato was very fond of his head.

"Don't worry boss," the Mohawk said in an assuring manner, "We're professionals. I promise you that at the end of the day, you will get your money's worth."

Gato wasn't one for raping since women being raped tend to be noisy and it would kill his mood. Besides, he had the money and for every one woman that wouldn't want him, there would be ten women throwing themselves at him. So if his people weren't into it, he wouldn't force the issue. "That's very assuring to hear. Now, let's go and kill some town people!"

With a thunderous cheer, the brigand advanced toward the town, intent on doing just that.

Gato did get his money's worth; more than double in fact. Since he chose the lowest tier package, i.e. the cheapest one, it was more than impressive.

Unfortunately for him, he chose the cheapest one.

-ToN-

-ToN-

Meanwhile, in Konoha,

Jiraiya looked at the machine and then at his teacher. "We have a video player? Even though we have no guns? Even muskets which should be quite logical given the fact that gunpowder was invented hundreds and hundreds of years before the first camera and the first television were made?"

"Mumble… mumble… chakra… mumble… image… lightning element… moving genjutsu… moving image…" Hiruzen explained while making a dismissing gesture with his hand.

"Why are you swatting the air even though there's nothing?"

"I'm hand-waving the technological discrepancies that existed. Besides it's not we can remove them out of the picture…"

"A pun there," Jiraiya pointed out.

"Unintended. As I was saying, simply pretending that they didn't exist hundreds of chapters later were really hypocritical, not since the first movie had film making as its main theme… then there's the television in one of the earlier chapters…"

"Whoa… stop! Stop! Let's not exceed the quota set for this one."

"There's no quota set. Besides, you're the one who started it."

Not wanting to admit him being the fault and at the same time wanting to focus on the matter at hand, since the faster he finishes, the faster he could go and observe girls bathing, Jiraiya switched on the video player which came to live and began showing images of Naruto standing opposite Kakashi. "Naruto?"

"The boy's team is currently in Wave, which is convenient for our meeting today."

So Hiruzen didn't want to him to return to Konoha while Naruto was there to reduce the chance of anyone linking his return to the boy. Why the need to be secretive though? He would have to wait to find out what about the reason. "This?" he said, gesturing to the video.

"A fight just after graduation. To make it short, Kakashi ended up fighting Naruto in order to get the boy for his team."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the short fight; a punch and that was it for Kakashi. "That…," he began slowly, "…is unusual."

"I find it strange as well," Hiruzen said while leaning back on his chair.

"So… the kid can do something like Rasengan, big deal" he said, referring to the way Naruto's hand was glowing when he punched Kakashi, "However it's not Rasengan, even if he's that man's boy."

"You have to admit that it's beyond a mere genin's capability."

"And that's why we have the so-called 'Genius' designation that we dole out like candy. Sure, I can see that the kid is a jerk in the making, attacking Kakashi without announcing his jutsu's name beforehand. What I want to know is what does it have to do with me?"

The Third Sandaime sighed. "Why don't you rewind the video slightly, say a few seconds prior, and watch it at a slower pace?"

Rewind the video, Jiraiya did.

"Pay attention to the moment when Naruto called out his 'Basuta-panchi'"

The younger, yet still old in age, man watched as Naruto slowly opened his mouth to called out his attack.

"Now. Freeze the frame."

The video was paused.

"Look at the wrist area." Hiruzen said, pointing to the hand that's connected with Kakashi's stomach.

"Move to the next frame."

Jiraiya saw a small ethereal golden ring appeared around the mentioned wrist.

"Now, advance the movie frame by frame,"

The toad summoner could see that the ring moved forward bit by bit until it finally hit Kakashi's stomach. Then the ring expanded into a golden-coloured explosion which was mostly absorbed by Kakashi at point blank. Even as the masked ninja began his upward and backward trajectory, the explosion continued expanded in his direction some more before finally dissipating into the air.

Jiraiya blinked before finally turning his head away from the screen.

"Tell me your opinion now," Hiruzen told him.

The younger man swallowed but found his mouth dry. "That is not a normal chakra."

"It's not, unless Naruto manage to manifest it out of thin air around his wrist area and then directed it to hit Kakashi but even then the explosion is not normal. Normally, an explosion will travel in all direction, but not the one Naruto produced. The one he caused was a directed one, ensuring maximum damage."

Jiraiya considered the remark. "So what did Orochimaru say about this?"

Even though Jiraiya had a pretty good impression of himself, ergo he's the most handsome, sexiest, cleverest, most dashing, most attractive and all of those positive superlative adjectives applied to him, he accepted that Orochimaru specialised more in ninjutsu compared to him, hence his friend was more knowledgeable than him in that area. So for Hiruzen to summon for him was a pleasant surprise, and good for his ego, but rather unexpected given that 'The Professor' knew that Orochimaru was better than him.

"Orochimaru… how do I say this…" Hiruzen got up from his seat and walked to an open window. "It's better that I just show you."

Jiraiya went to same window and look outside. He could see Orochimaru's building, with all those dark clouds and lightning above it, even though everywhere else was bright and sunny. Normal as usual, as normal as Orochimaru's building could be. What wasn't normal was the dark thick smoke floating out of the building while flames could be seen consuming parts of the building. Then the building crumbled to the ground in a matter of few seconds.

"What the funk happened there?"

"What you saw just now is the fifth accident in the last two weeks. Orochimaru seems to be afflicted with a severe of Naruto-ngitis lately so I think it's better to let him be." Hiruzen explained.

"Oh, unexplainable explosions at unexpected times… and they named it after a twelve year-old boy. Wow. Just… Wow."

"The real reason though is this," Hiruzen returned to his desk, took a file from a drawer and threw it to other person who caught it deftly. "Naruto's graduation evaluation," he said.

Jiraiya leafed through the report. It looked like a normal examination result, except that the examination taker was Naruto. The report showed normal proficiency with the three basic jutsus which were bunshin, kawarimi and henge. Two bunshins, slightly faster speed for kawarimi and a normal henge. Bla bla bla, normal. He then read through the section on taijutsu. Pretty academic form but due to the fact that the boy was fast, the academic form lethality was increased to the level that it was comparable to the taijutsus practiced by clans such as Hyuga and Uchiha. On weapon mastery, Naruto could throw a knife at such a speed that it could fully tore through two full-sized trees; though on that speed, the accuracy was so off that he was forbidden from doing so until he was no longer a threat to his compatriots.

Wait.

Something was not right.

Jiraiya reread the report, finally noticing what was off with it. "This report, it is doctored, isn't it?"

"Oh? And your reasoning for that?"

"Naruto performing two bunshins, that's bullshit!" Jiraiya said while smacking the report with the back of his hand. "He's not supposed to be able to perform such a low-chakra jutsu, not with the chakra level he's supposed to have. Why, I have a better chance of using an A-rank Suiton no jutsu to water a bonsai pot than he performing bunshins at his expected level of control. "

"That's the reason why I'm concerned," Hiruzen admitted. "I regret being busy at that time that I had no time to personally oversee the final examination and see what exactly had happened but as it is, the documents showed that two bunshins were produced without much of a problem. In a way, it's good that he could perform a normal jutsu just like other person, but at the same time I'm worried because it's as if he doesn't have a bijuu sealed inside him."

"You want me to recheck his seal?"

"No, not yet, at least not at the moment. Despite being his godfather, you're not always around so you wouldn't probably notice the fact that he's more observant than he looks. Even if we managed to drug him to sleep like the last time, I don't think it will escape his notice."

"So what? He'll just think that you're checking his health or something."

"As I said just now, he's observant. While he's a scatterbrain as well have an attention slightly better than a bird, he's not stupid and would know any attempt to bluff him. Besides, we don't need him to start thinking that there's a pedo… pedo-victor, I think, being at large in Konoha."

"Say what?"

"Anyway, rather than damaging his trust, I might as well tell him the truth. Which isn't what I'm thinking off and examining him is what I need to you to do instead is to relook at the seal diagram that you have copied from him and study it."

That was the real reason why his teacher had summoned him, which was to study Naruto's seal. As seals was one of his major domains of expertise, besides enemy intelligence, literary pornography and 'pervertism', it was natural that Hiruzen-sensei turned toward him. Besides, he did have a complete schematic of Naruto's seal even though he didn't understand it at all and didn't really make any effort to change that status as he was a busy man.

Writing pornographic novels was a time-consuming and a very challenging career.

"It would take some time to do that."

"Not that I don't appreciate your novels, Jiraiya or blaming you since in the hindsight I was supposed to come up with the order earlier, but if you studied the seal instead of writing your novels, you would probably have completed its analysis."

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, making sure that his teachercould see it. For someone known as 'The Professor', his teacher could be quite dense at seeing something out of the box, which somewhat limited the man in the field of seals that he could only use what he had learned instead of exploring their creation process.

Yes, Jiraiya wrote Icha-Icha series. Yes, he was a pervert. But writing pornography novels was, in many ways, similar to the study of seals. Coming up with an engaging novel? It's as difficult as conceptualising a new seal. For example, each sentence, each paragraph must be planned, just like one would do with every single stroke on a seal. Not only that, the author must ensure that each scene must be seen from the context of the whole story, just like each 'prose' must be inspected from the context of the whole seal. After the whole draft was completed, each part of the story then to be examined meticulously to remove unneeded parts or add new ones, just like a seal master do to a newly completed seal matrix.

If writing a novel was like analogous to inventing a new seal tag, then writing Icha-Icha series was akin to coming up with at least an A-Rank seal, since both would require the unyielding drive, powerful memory (it was bad authoring manners to simply rehash a scene in a previous novel), limitless imagination, unrestrained flexibility and endless upon endless experimentation.

Yes, Jiraiya wrote Icha-Icha series. Yes, he was a pervert.

But since he made his vocation a vacation, he couldn't care less about less about other people's opinion.

Take that newly-minted Jounin Yuuhi Kurenai who was a self-professed pervert hater and one of his novels' ardent detractors. The interesting part about a human is that he, or in this case she, would always seek to ensure that her behaviour is congruent at all time. By having a very strong negative vindication about his novels, Kurenai had shown that she was quite inflexible in her opinions about what is right and wrong. While good in one sense that it made her a strong kunoichi, that very same inflexible character had greatly inhibited her potential in genjutsu. Oh, he wasn't looking down on her.

When she's around, he looked down, to appreciate her body, especially those mounds, but he didn't look down on her.

Her chakra control and manipulation was what made her famous, a genjutsu mistress whose skills were only dwarfed by Uchiha's very best. However, her strong stand on what was considered as right or wrong had made her less willing to experiment, less willing to search out for alternatives. So, while she could use available genjutsus to their greatest effects, she wasn't one to be depended upon do research and come up with new ones.

Sad, but true. Sure, she had a killer body to boot, but it was in the inside that was important as well.

Then a realisation hit him like Tsunade's punch to the head. He had been wondering about why it was easier for his teacher to master a lot of jutsus to the extent of being called 'God of Shinobi' even though he and the rest of his team members were more talented.

It was easier to master a lot of things if one doesn't focus on experimentation. To be fair, his master had come up with a number of jutsus but had spent more time on mastering available jutsus. On the other hands, the three of them researched more about their respective fields.

"You seem so deep in thought, Jiraiya." The words of his teacher brought him out of his personal musing. "Did I struck a low blow?"

"No, not really. You know sensei, it just struck me just now that the three of us… none of us really takes after you."

"It took all these years for you to finally realise that?"

What was implied was different from what he had realised. "Just forget it. You want me to see whether the seal was what caused the boy's attack to become like that?"

"Indeed."

It was what he expected Sarutobi-sensei to request from him. It was somewhat logical to think that the seal was what caused Naruto to exhibit that peculiarity.

However, that was the kind of thinking that differentiated the three of them with their teacher… they were willing to take risks and question the established principles, each one of them in their respective fields. Sure, Tsunade had degenerated considerably after the loss of her loved ones, but before that she was also the same.

"I will allocate a quarter of my time as well as ask the toads but no promise."

He had a hunch that it wasn't as straightforward as Hiruzen had surmised. Besides, it wasn't as if the latter was correct all the time. Case in point: Orochimaru's change of character a few years back. Hiruzen had come to the conclusion that Orochimaru changed tactic in order to make him a more viable tactic to be a Hokage. However, that was proven wrong when the snake summoner had declined the post when it was offered to him, leading the former to the thought that Orochimaru was disgruntled with the job.

But Jiraiya knew better. While his former team mate didn't give an outright answer when he prodded, the impression that he got was that Orochimaru lost interest. The man wasn't being a sour puss at being passed over for the position of Yondaime, but really lost interest for the position and looked it to be beneath him.

Whatever that changed the man, it had also caused Orochimaru to ceased to become a shinobi as well. No, the skills, knowledge and experience that made him known for being one out of the three who managed to survive against that Hanzo still made him a dangerous person to reckon with. But whenever he talk to the man lately, Jiraiya felt that the dynamics of their relationship had changed.

Orochimaru had stopped looking at him as if he was an idiot. While that was supposed to make him happy, at the same time it made him felt that Orochimaru no longer felt the need to compare to him, as if he didn't really matter anymore.

He had been chasing after Orochimaru, aspiring to be that genius' rival, gaining the man's recognition in the process, but it seemed that he would never stand on the same level with the man; it felt a bit lonely and melancholic to see that Orochimaru had a new field to pursue, one that Jiraiya knew he couldn't compete with.

Somehow, he had a hunch it had to do with Naruto.

Could it be that Naruto was the so-called…

No. The Great Toad Sage had withheld something but he did mention about a child of maelstrom being the avatar of chaos and Jiraiya couldn't help feeling that that other prophecy was connected more to Naruto rather the major one.

Unless it was necessary, he has no plan to tell his teacher about that though as the man already had a lot on his plate.

"Just wondering though, sensei. Let's say, hypothetically of course, that strange seal is totally restricts Kyuubi to the extent of Naruto can be considered as not really a jinchuuriki?"

Hiruzen looked Jiraiya in silence for a long time. "That would be troubling."

Jiraiya laughed loudly, a hand behind his head. "Indeed." Meanwhile he would have to examine another lead that the famed Sandaime failed to mention and probably didn't notice.

-ToN-

-ToN-

"After the suspense building up, I would expect at least a small paragraph covering what happened," Tomoe remarked as she surveyed the scene of injured men fleeing the place. "Lazy bastard. He could have written some fighting scene that show how good I really am at fighting but NOOOOO… A single part later and it already ended. He just have to omit that part and simply imply that the enemy was soundly defeated. Heck! No one was killed during the fight!"

"We managed to destroy their siege machines," Naruto said, "I'll want to examine them later on."

"THAT! THAT'S ALSO WHAT IRKS ME OFF!" Tomoe ranted. "They managed to bring in weird looking machines, menacingly evil with all those decorative skulls and spikes and all but then what happened?"

"We managed to destroy their siege machines?" Naruto repeated his statement but this time in questioning manner.

"YES! Even before the first arrow landed near the machines, the people operating them got out and ran away! When arrows finally hit the machines, they exploded; the defenders did not use flaming arrows, so how could the machines explode? And that particular big one was pelted by stones from slingshots! Did they put some explosive tags on them set to go off as soon as arrows or stones hit them? And don't get me started on those thugs managing to escape without getting killed or at least injured? What next? A five minutes segment that will end with me saying, 'Now you know, and knowing is half of the battle'? Do we have to start screaming 'Konoha-go!' every time we fight our enemies from now on?"

"They took arrows to their knees, sensei," Shino remarked, not really understanding what his teacher was saying and so instead decided to point out that the enemy did not escape unscathed.

"That's my point! After this they'll renounce their evil ways and live quite lives as city guards, telling all adventurers that they used to be like the adventurers until they took arrows to their knees?"

She got three questioning stares for her rants. "Never mind," she uttered, eyeing few bold villagers who left their defensive position to go after Gato, who was the slowest to flee from the place; his men ran fast despite the arrows they had on their knees. "Oh well, at least one thing is done right; Gato is getting what he deserves."

-ToN-

-ToN-

A few hours later found the motley crew making their way to Tazuna's house to share the news with Kakashi's team and Tazuna. As the group approached bridge builder's house, they saw Tazuna's grandchild, sitting and brooding on a pier. The way he sat, face buried in his bended knees while his arms hugged the said knees, not caring about people and small animals nearby painted a dark and melancholic picture.

An older raven-haired boy and a silver-haired man who sat on the same pier, also brooding ruined that dark and melancholic picture.

"It seems that Uchiha-san is doing his favourite past time, Shino observed, "but what is baffling is the fact that Kakashi-san is also brooding instead of reading his orange-coloured book."

"Orange is the colour of cool!" Naruto quipped. "Stefan-Boltzmann law dictates the blue supergiant should have a higher temperature then a red or orange one, so orange is cooler!"

"Is that Stefan-Boltzmann an evil person?" The question came from Yakumo

Tomoe ignored the noises her team made and kept quiet.

A few minutes later found her seated in the dining room of Tazuna's abode and her body warmed by a mug of coffee. Of course it wasn't pure coffee but instead a mix of coffee and some root of an herb that bears purplish flowers by the name of chicory. However, she wasn't about to comment about it much since she knew that pure coffee powder was hard to come by in the area that the inhabitants had to mixed it with something else; at least they didn't mix coffee with burnt out woods like some places she had visited.

"So, why are you here?" Tazuna asked.

"Well, my team and I have basic information about Wave's condition, economy and whatnot, and we have come to the conclusion that you really need to scale back your bridge building, preferably to a more manageable size," Tomoe said as she set down her mug.

"NO!" Tazuna cried out defiantly and passionately. "The people of Wave needs this bridge as a symbol of courage for our people to rise and fight against Gato's oppression!"

"You continue on with the current plan, and the bridge would be the symbol of your people's descent into poverty and despair as your country will become bankrupt."

"It's Gato's fault that this country is in the current state."

"No, it's your dumb eight lanes-wide bridge though Gato did help making it worse. On a side note, the town people had defeated and captured him so if your country remains in dire strait, it wouldn't be his fault now."

"Gato's captured?" Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter asked hesitantly, not really believing what she has heard.

"Yup, currently the people there are trying to come up with what to do with him, which is why I have my team here to prevent them from giving ideas to them."

Shino's suggestion that Gato help Naruto in field testing was unnecessarily cruel, given the man didn't have the fortitude to survive whatever Naruto could come up with.

"So… that asshole who is ruining Wave is out of the way?" Tazuna asked.

"Yes, only you remain."

"Now it suddenly makes sense!" the bridge builder exclaimed, ignoring the insinuation that he was the only asshole left who caused Wave to be in such a dire strait.

"What does?"

Tazuna got up and walked up to the kitchen cabinet, "When I went to get some beer," he said while opening the door, "I found this instead."

The door opened, revealing a sulking Zabuza crouching inside the said cabinet.

The bridge builder then closed the door back gently. "I freaked out a few times, but after a few times," he reopened the door. "I got used to it."

Zabuza pulled back the door to close it.

"Sure, he's a demon and all that, but I don't think he really would have cared that much working for an asshole like Gato," Tazuna continued.

Tomoe rolled her eyes. "He's not."

"Then, why?"

"You really don't want to know."

"Okay," Tazuna acquiesced, "but I want to know how to get him out of the cabinet."

"That will cost you a B-rank fee, on credit, of course."

"Er, maybe I'll try squirting some vinegar around the place or feed him cornmeal. That will be more cost effective."

"Zabuza-san isn't some small ant, Tazuna-san,"

"More vinegar or lots and lots of cornmeal?"

-ToN-

-ToN-

She looked out of the windows of the inn where she was staying to see the impromptu celebration over the defeat of Gato. Well, despite some hiccups, it had been rather productive day. With the self-made tyrant out of the way, Wave would be free to reinvigorate its economy.

Tomoe frowned slightly as she recalled the study of field called 'macroeconomics' as taught by Naruto or rather 'Tails' who was possessing him at that time. While she had learned about the subject in the academy and in ANBU force, it was more limited in scope and focused on applicability to missions that she would undertake. For example, she would learn about what resources were available, will be produced and what will be imported by a particular region so if needed to be, she could sabotage the facilities involved.

Tails however, forced her to see beyond that small boundary and looked at economy as a big system that consists of regional economies being intertwined with each other, how an event in a particular region would affect everywhere else.

When she asked the anthropomorphic fox how it managed to learn such a complex topic, he answered that a villain in his world named Doctor Eggman had taught he and his friends about it in order to convince them that letting him take over the world was the right thing to do.

Well, they did beat the crap out of him in the end, but that was a very good study session, in Tail's opinion. Pity the others didn't think it that way, with 'Sonic' and 'Knuckle', whatever anthropomorphic animals they were, were only interested in jumping and punching down Eggman's base.

From what she had learned on the subject, Wave's liberation from its despot will bring some effect on the other regions' economy. For one, if it recovers, more materials and resources would be required, some of it the Fire Country will be happy to supply. Perhaps, if the population didn't hold any grudge, Team Zero could commissioned to help in the construction area. On the other hand, there were a lot of tobacco farms on the island, one of a very high quality compared to those grown every else. Tomoe suspected that wanting to control that supply was one of the reasons why Gato had vested interest in the place. With him out of the picture, the supply would probably resume.

She made a note to demand a crate of Wave's finest to present to her leader as a tribute. Nothing wrong getting all chummy with the big boss himself, so she might as well do it.

Deciding to continue her musing the next morning, she opened her wardrobe to get some pyjamas…

Only to see that Zabuza was inside there brooding.

Tomoe stared at him.

Zabuza kept brooding.

Tomoe continued staring at him.

Zabuza persisted in his brooding.

"…"

"… …"

"… … …"

Suddenly, there was a muffled tingling sound from Zabuza. He took out a clock and looked at it. "Okay, break time!" he said as he got out of the wardrobe and stretched his body, working out the kinks. "Damn, that's very tiring," he said as he clenched and unclenched his fist a few times while looking around, his gaze settling on a door. "You don't mind if I use the bathroom?"

Tomoe stared silently.

"Well, since there's no objection, I'll make myself at home," he said as he went to the said room to relief himself, only to reappear a few minutes later. "Ah, now that that's taken care off, I'll pop off some bar to tide me over until later" he said and fished out for a meal bar on his person.

"… … …"

"Okay, all done," the swordsmaster announced, after feeling satiated by his food, stretching a few more times for good measure. "Now to continue on," he said as he went back into the wardrobe, adopting the brooding position once more.

The silence continued for a few more minutes until Tomoe sighed in defeat. "Okay, I'm in the wrong. I admit it. If it's not for my team's meddling, both you and Kakashi's teams would the chance for a flashy rematch which is probably pointless in the grand scheme of things."

"You forgot to mention that Gato's probably going to betray me after the rematch and I would be too inept to find out about that plan before hand."

The former 'Shrew' of Kohona ANBU Force rolled her eyes. "That too. Tell you what, if I arranged for a fight between your team and Kakashi's, would you stop sulking and brooding around me?"

"Really?" Zabuza said, suddenly outside of the wardrobe, eyes twinkling. "You will do that?"

"Yes. Now get out of here and let me have my goodnight sleep. Tomorrow I'll tell Kakashi about it."

"Don't bother!" Zabuza said while jumping out of the window. "I will tell him myself. OH HAPPY DAY!"

Tomoe watched the man jumped, no, skipped on the rooftops, wondering that having exposed to Naruto and the chaos the surrounded him, she was finally beginning to lose her grip on her insanity.

Yes, insanity.

She shivered at that scary thought.

-ToN-

-ToN-

A few days later,

As he stood in front of everyone else in the living room of Tazuna's house, Kakashi read the letter and then set it down on a nearby table. "It seems that today is the day. Zabuza and his team will be waiting for us at Tazuna's bridge that would form a picturesque background for the upcoming fight," he said in a gravely manner.

Sakura muttered softly that her teacher had read the same thing more than five times already, even if it's the first time he did it in front of Tazuna's family.

"It's time. Sasuke, are you ready?"

"Aa." The young boy acknowledge as he put his hands in the pockets of his leather trousers; he was coolness personified.

"KYAA!"

Kakashi lowered a bloody Sai who had become his impromptu shield against the blood shooting out of nostrils of the two females in the house, Sakura and Tsunami, who despite her age was not immune to Sasuke's coolness.

"Sensei, I have a sudden urge to stab you with a lot of rusty kunais," the drenched boy said while smiling even though everyone could see that the smile was very strained. "Slowly, painfully."

"People who wouldn't protect their team mates are lower than scums," Kakashi replied sagely. "You would be guarding the house in case Gato sends someone here."

"I thought Gato was captured already?" Tsunami, who had more resilience that Sakura, as she was married twice, asked.

"Maybe few of the brigands decide to strike here to get revenge or ask for ransom."

"Will it be okay?" Tazuna asked, as he wiped off some blood off his face as he wasn't fast enough to escape the blood spurts.

"Don't worry, Tazuna, we'll protect you as you work on the bridge."

"Why should I be there instead of here?"

"Two reasons. First, there's a probability for any unaccounted enemy. While Sai is more than enough to take down normal brigands, he will have problems fighting against missing nins or other skilled mercenary. So, if you're with us, they would less likely to strike your home."

"But you said that they might be coming after my daughter and grandson."

"As I said just now, there's a very small probability of that happening as long as you're with us."

"Okay. So what's the second reason?"

"What's an epic fight without risking the life of an important person who would be not only be useless in the fight but also would impede the good guys?"

"Hn." Sasuke said, his hands still in his pockets. "For example, before the fight start, you could cling to Kakashi-sensei, begging him not to fight. Then Zabuza could take advantage of your restricting Kakashi-sensei to attack."

"Or you could froze in the middle of an enemy attack, forcing Sasuke to risk his life to receive that attack," Kakashi also suggested.

"It suddenly occurred to me, instead of bodyguards, I should have requested for a mission to clear out the bandits. That way at least I don't have to be around when you guys fight," the bridge builder said as he got up to walk up to the main door.

"Come, Sasuke," he said as he gestured toward the prone Sakura.

"Hn." Maybe he could utilise Sakura like Kakashi did to Sai.

-ToN-

-ToN-

Zabuza looked at the apple on the palm of his hand. It seemed that his strength had returned already but just to be sure…

"An apple? Don't mind if I do," Ichigo said while taking the said fruit and bit into it. "Delicious! It's Fuji too, and with a good one like this is around 150 to 250 yen, we only buy them for gifts, except when there's 'Service Time' where everything's on discounts." he said with a half-full mouth.

Zabuza slowly clenched and unclenched his hand before gazing forlornly at the apple that was slowly being eaten away. He had planned for a demonstration of his might, damn it! Sure, there's only the three of them in the room at that moment, but at least the chance was there to crush the apple in a cool and stylish manner.

Well, there's the cooler crushing a rock act but that could be pretty difficult without the use of chakra.

"It seems that you're ready to fight Kakashi-san," Haku said. The girl was wearing a blue gown.

"What is that uniform you're wearing?"

"It's a combat uniform of a specialised female operative known as 'Meido-san'," she explained as she put on an apron.

"All I'm seeing is that you're wearing maid… forget it." A maid could be considered as a specialist, even though not in the same vein that Haku had imagined. Ever since she returned that day, she had ditched her previously gender-neutral cloth and instead opted for feminine dress. As a result, she had become an eye-candy for the thugs working Gato. But a rose by any other name still had thorns, especially when the said rose openly flaunted her thorns in front of them.

Long, metallic, pointy thorns.

"Whatever. Here's your mask," Zabuza said as he throw the said item to Haku.

"Thank you, Zabuza-sama," she said as she caught it. She then put it away and brought out a frilly headgear. "I almost forgot about it."

"How about you, Strawberry-kun?"

"Hoi!" Ichigo protested.

"Well, it seems that you're ready well." Zabuza hoisted his sword on his shoulder, walking slowly toward the door that would lead to his destined battle. "Well then, let us go."

And that day he would show Kakashi how a demon would fight.

-ToN-

-ToN-

Team 7 and their client stood in the middle of the half-completed bridge, waiting patiently for their opponents to take the offered chance to attack. Suddenly, mist began engulfing the whole place.

Kakakshi turned to look over his shoulder despite his vision being blocked by the said occurrence. This mist…"

He took a ready stance. "Sasuke, Sakura!"

The two gennins assumed defensive positions, their hands hovering over their weapon caches.

"It seems that he's coming."

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei, this is his Kirigakure technique, right?"

If it's not for the fact that he was in a serious situation, Kakashi would have pat her head to show his approval for her growth. Lessons that Kakashi had been hammering into his students were finally taking hold and Sakura had shown it by asking him an obvious and pointless question, something that only a skilled ninja would do.

"It seems that you have brought along those brat of yours," Zabuza taunted. "Why, one of them is even shaking again; how pitiful."

Multiple images of Zabuza appeared around the group, not doing anything threatening at all as they wait for the inevitable attack.

"Hm?" one of the Zabuzas closest to Sasuke mused while posing as if he was about to chop the Uchiha scion.

"I'm shaking because I'm excited," Sasuke said while smirking.

"Show your stuff, Sasuke," Kakashi said while smiling at him.

In a split second, Sasuke moved in to slash every one of them, revealing that they were Zabuza's Mizu bunshin as they disintegrated into water.

"Hooh… that is slightly interesting," Zabuza's voice continued to echo throughout the area. "The kid of seems to get stronger."

Suddenly there was a loud buzzing sound approaching the area.

"That sound…" Kakashi said, trying to analyse what it was.

The sound continue to get closer and closer while becoming louder and louder.

"SCATTER!" Kakashi commanded as he grabbed Tazuna and jumped away. His genins followed the order.

As he jumped away, he turned to back to see something crashed into the spot where he stood, kicking up a lot of dust and debris. When the commotion subsided, he could see three shadows, one of them was standing on something.

"You have done well, brat," Zabuza said, arms crossed, as he stood on the handle of his sword, looking down his opponents.

"I wasn't around when you fought Kakashi but are your duplicates that slow to move?" Ichigo, who was standing to his right asked incredulously.

"Well, a clone has a tenth of my power."

"I don't get it. So how does that translate to your clones being ten times slower than you? I mean, when the boy attacked, couldn't your clones kick him away?"

"A clone has a tenth of every ability I have," Zabuza corrected. "Besides, with a tenth of my power, it needs more time to move."

"But you said that your clone have a tenth of everything. So, wouldn't it basically have a tenth of your mass? If that's the case, then if the clone has only ten percent of your power but at the same time has ten percent of your mass, the sword included. So… wouldn't it move at the same speed as you but at a less momentum? That way, wouldn't it be able to evade that boy's attack or even better counterattack?"

"Kurosaki-san, you forgot to factor in intelligence. Intelligence is also one-tenth as well," Haku pointed out.

"Oh!" Ichigo said as he put his fist on another hand's palm. "My bad, Zabuza. Forgot about that. But Haku, wouldn't the clones be slobbering and making mess of themselves at such a low level?"

"A rival has appeared for you, Haku." Zabuza said to the girl in a rather blatant effort to change the subject.

"It seems like it."

"It seems that you're not alone this time, Zabuza? As I had suspected, the Kiri hunter nin that took you out was working for you, isn't he?"

Sakura gasped though the gasp sounded like a crow choking on its dinner.

"I thought so," Sasuke said coolly.

"So the ninja was actually saving Zabuza instead of getting his body?" Tazuna asked.

"That's the only explanation that I can think off," Kakashi said, "given that the hunter nin was supposed to kill Zabuza. By the way, where is he?"

Zabuza had to control his feature not to glance toward the cosplaying Haku.

Sasuke took a step forward. "I will fight that man," he said while staring at Ichigo.

"So cool!" Sakura said in excitement while Kakashi muttered about her blindly supporting Sasuke's actions.

"Rejected!" Ichigo said while crossing his arms in front of him. "I'm here only to provide backup in case that other Jounin joins the fight… hey, I just realised that while the spelling is different, 'Jou' can also take the meaning of 'missy' instead of 'high'. Hence, Jounin can also mean 'woman ninja'! Get it? That Jounin is a jounin!"

Kakashi looked at the fuming Sasuke and then addressed Zabuza while pointing at Ichigo lazily, "Can't you tell your people to fight my genin? He need to show off how a simple exercise that should have been taught in the academy could make him ten times stronger than before."

"I understand and applaud your reasoning... though his employment clause did mention that he's to fight with any other chuunin or Jounin that tagged along. Since that 'oujou' is not here, he's not under any obligation to fight," Zabuza explained.

"Nice one!" Ichigo said.

'Ou' could be taken to mean 'high', so oujou could be taken to mean a 'high lady', a lady of a refined culture and high social standing. Meanwhile, as Ichigo mentioned earlier, Jounin meant 'high nin'. However, he did point out that it could be understood as 'woman nin'. Taking it even further, Zabuza used 'oujou' to refer to Tomoe not as refined lady but instead a skilled kunoichi; the contradiction between the two ideas made the wordplay even more ironic.

"Anyway…" Zabuza said while gesturing Haku with a turn of his head.

"Yes, goshujinsama!" Haku said as she spun toward Sasuke who immediately understood that he would have to fight her as well and reacted accordingly by bringing out his kunai.

To Sasuke's his shock, Haku stopped right behind him.

And barfed on the back of his cloth, right on the clan logo.

"What the hell?!" Sasuke growled as he turned toward his assailant. "That's dirty and gross!"

"Sorry," Haku apologised while wiping off her mouth with a handkerchief. "Spinning around just to approach you even though I could have simply dashed forward had caused me to feel queasy." She then dropped into a stance, "But shall we continue with our fight?"

"No. I have to change my cloth first."

-ToN-

-ToN-

Author's note.

1. 'Now you know, and knowing is half of the battle' is a reference to GI JOE: The Real American Heroes Series, is a series about, to quote the opening, "American's daring, highly trained special mission force. It's purpose, to defend human freedom against Cobra-a ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world." Since it's geared up to children, there were no deaths (except in the movie) so every time the bad guys fight GI JOE, the fight scene will have a) the bad guys leaving the vehicles before the vehicles were hit and destroyed (never mind that some vehicles were actually tanks that fought against rifle totting JOEs), b) bad guys piloting helicopters and aircraft that were destroyed would always parachute down safely, c) either the bad guys runs, or in case of grunts, surrender to the JOEs. In some editions, there's some public message about safety that has a JOE giving advice to children. The children will always say, "Now we know", to which the JOE would reply "Now you know, and knowing is half of the battle"

2. 'The arrow to the knee' is a reference from the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

3. The Sakura making that sound is inspired by the sound she made in the anime.

4. Stefan-Boltzmann law is used to determine how hot a sun is based on its colour.

5. I think it's fanon that Icha-icha series is a literary garbage. But, consider this objectively. Even though he's one of the famous sannins, if his writing isn't good, people wouldn't pay to buy the books just to read the porn, especially someone like Kakashi whose unmasked face cause people to have eye-hearts. After all, surely Jiraiya isn't the only erotica author in the world.

6. So many fics would have Naruto or someone else denouncing Icha-icha as trash, and those story would have Naruto being the righteous boy who declare himself as a non-pervert. The idea that Naruto is a non-pervert is certainly an acceptable one though it have to be pointed out that some of those stories have Naruto loudly proclaiming himself as a non-pervert but then in another scene (or even in the same scene) uses 'Oiroke no jutsu'. Rather ironic, really, since to understand the mind of a pervert, one would have to be a pervert first. In anime and manga, Naruto didn't really deny that he's a pervert even as he accused others as being perverts.

7. Regarding the two paragraph above, I do have to admit that I'm adopting the stereotypical view that Kurenai is a fervent anti-pervert.

8. Cornmeal is used to kill ants safely whereas vinegar is used to keep them away

9. Ichigo means strawberry in japanese.