Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mokuton ❯ Mission to The Wave ( Chapter 3 )

Mission to the Wave

Mokuton

Naruto sighed. Catching a cat and pulling weeds wasn't exactly his idea of training. He was patient, but still. At least the jinchuuriki could make up for it by training like crazy after their missions were over with. Sasuke and Sakura didn't have his patience and were unlikely to be able to do D-ranked missions for much longer. Naruto was right. It was a few minutes later when Sakura snapped.

The Sandaime was listing off the list of missions that were available when Sakura interrupted. “NO!! ABSOULOUTLY NOT!! GIVE US A REAL MISSION!!!”

Naruto had expected Sakura to get mad, but yell at the Hokage? `Where did that come from?' he wondered.

Sarutobi sighed. “Fine. I'll give you a C-ranked mission. You will be escorting a bridge-builder to the Land of the Waves. Please come in, Tazuna-san.” When the Hokage finished speaking, an old man came entered the room.

The jinchuuriki wrinkled his nose in disgust. He probably could have smelled the sake coming off of the man from a mile away. Tazuna looked around. “All I have to protect me are some brats? Is this really safe?” Sasuke's eyebrow twitched, Sakura looked disappointed, and Naruto didn't give any visible reaction. The blonde just flashed behind the bridge builder very quickly and said “Kakashi-sensei, can I go and pack? I assume you'll want us to meet at the West Gate.” before leaving the office. Tazuna jumped and said “Now I like the blonde, why couldn't the other two be more like him?” completely forgetting the fact that he had just bad-mouthed Naruto as well.

“Sakura, Sasuke, why don't you get ready as well. I have to talk to Kakashi about your mission. Iruka, I need you to leave as well.” Sarutobi suggested/ordered. Sasuke shrugged and Sakura nodded before they left as well, Tazuna with them. Iruka gave the Hokage a glance before leaving as well.

The Sandaime sighed and gave a puff to his pipe. “Kakashi, I lied about the mission rank.” The silver haired jounin raised his visible eyebrow, asking the Hokage to continue. “This is actually an A-rank mission. Tazuna is wanted dead by the powerful shipping figure, Gatou. These are the files we have on the shinobi after him.” The jounin nodded, and picked up the files titled Momochi Zabuza and the Demon Brothers.

“Any particular reason why you're sending a genin team fresh out of the academy on an A-rank mission?”

“They're far from normal, as you know. Sasuke needs to awaken his sharingan, and Naruto…Well, it's one of those things where you have to see it to believe it. You'll see on the mission.”

Kakashi wondered what his superior was talking about. The jounin shrugged and left to meet his team.

~

As Naruto passed a puddle of water on the trail, he looked for other signs on moisture. There were no clouds, and it hadn't rained for days in the area. The ground was dry and so was the grass. In other words, an ambush. The blonde looked back at his sensei and raised an eyebrow in question. Kakashi gave him a lazy eye-smile that told the jinchuuriki that he was going to end up doing all of the work. Naruto rolled his eyes and kept walking.

Just as he turned around, the infamous Demon Brothers appeared from the puddle of water. The pair wrapped their chain weapon around Kakashi and tugged. Their sensei was ripped apart, blood was everywhere. Sasuke and Sakura were completely out of it, and Naruto flinched before returning his attention to the enemy.

“One down.” the brothers called in unison.

The Demon Brothers leaped behind Naruto only to find their chain passed through nothing but air. The jinchuuriki had leapt high above the two shinobi, and landed behind the first of the mist ninjas. The blonde gave him a quick strike to the neck, and the man fell, never to rise again.

The second shinobi, significantly angered by the death of his brother, leapt at Naruto in a rage. The blonde sidestepped, and the claw that the shinobi was using as a weapon continued on its path to completely crush the neck of the mist nin. Blood spattered everywhere.

Sasuke and Sakura were just staring at their teammate, who had killed two chuunin-ranked shinobi without flinching. Naruto shook his head and looked down at his clothing. “Bah. Now I have to wash this. Icky stuff, blood is.” Sasuke's mouth twitched at the attempted ice-breaker. After he sensed that his teammates had relaxed, the blonde looked toward a certain tree and called “Oi, sensei, are you going to come out now?”

Their pervert of a sensei leaped down from the trees to look sheepishly at his charges. Naruto's eyebrow twitched at his expression. “Anyways…Would you mind telling us who lied about the mission rank? The involvement of shinobi makes this at least a B-rank…was it the old man, you, or the bridge builder?”

Kakashi took a minute to figure out who `the old man' was. The jounin sensei only figured it out because of the fact that he had read somewhere that Naruto had an extreme disregard for all signs of respect. “It was the Hokage and I who lied.”

“So why'd you stick a trio of genin on a B-rank mission? And, if I'm not mistaken, an A-rank as well?”

“I think your actions just answered that. If you can dispose of a pair of chuunin so easily, it would be interesting to see what you could do against somebody more powerful…”

“That's no excuse. What about Sasuke and Sakura?” Naruto pondered his own question before he came up with the answer. “Oh…Konoha needs Sasuke to awaken his sharingan, and an A-rank mission is likely to have deaths in it…so you want to wisen up Sakura to the real world? I guess I get it now…”

Kakashi's eyes crinkled up in a lazy smile. “Yep!”

~

It was later the next day when Naruto sensed a new set of attackers. He ran to catch up with Kakashi so he could notify the jounin of his finds.

“Ne, Kakashi-sensei?”

“What is it Naruto?”

“There are two people following us. One is your level, and the other has about average chuunin chakra. The part that worries me is that the one with the lower chakra has a Hyouton kekkai genkai… They're probably here to get Tazuna-san.”

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the new information. After training with Naruto for five months, he had to admit that his ability in sensing and hiding chakra was far above his own. To be able to tell what element the chakra had an affinity for was unheard of, but it was useful all the same. “What is the more powerful one's affinity?”

“Suiton.”

“Damn…”

Team 7 was near a lake, so it was a bad match-up for a user of water techniques and the jounin of the group. Naruto could easily nullify all water jutsu, but he decided to wait until Kakashi needed help. Naruto's eyes widened slightly and he yelled “EVERYONE! DUCK!!”

Naruto and Kakashi dropped immediately to the ground, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna just a few seconds from getting their heads decapitated by a huge spinning sword that flew over them, lodging into a tree. When the leaf nins looked up, they saw the missing-nin Momochi Zabuza standing on his sword.

“Everybody stay back, this guy is way out of your league.” The Copy Ninja ordered. The genin followed their orders and stepped back.

“Momochi Zabuza…The Demon of the Mist”

“Hatake Kakashi…The Copy Ninja of Konoha”

Naruto twitched. `Are they just going to exchange their names or are they actually going to fight?' he wondered.

“This is going to be a little difficult…” the silver haired jounin said as he lifted up his crooked headband, revealing his sharingan. “Unless I use this!”

“Kakashi of the Sharingan…I guess you finally decided to use it, ne sensei?” Naruto said.

Sakura had no clue what was going on, and Sasuke was still in shock that someone from outside of the Uchiha had a sharingan. Naruto rolled his eyes at his naivety. `Isn't it obvious that you can transplant doujutsus…seriously, isn't it obvious? Oh well…'

Zabuza made the first move. “Ninpou: Kirigakure special jutsu.” The sword wielder called out as he disappeared into the mist that was appearing.

The mokuton user sighed. If their sensei was any good, this mist shouldn't be a problem, and he knew that Kakashi was actually pretty famous. So, in other words, they wouldn't be in trouble unless Zabuza somehow slipped through his sensei's guard. Naruto decided to leave the mist where it was and watch the battle play out. `I shouldn't interfere…It could be the last thing I do.'

A disembodied voice floated to the ears of the genin who were in a protective circle around the bridge builder. “8 points…Lungs, heart, clavicle vein, jugular, kidneys, spine, brain, neck vein…So many options…” the voice said as Zabuza released a large amount of killing intent.

Sakura and Sasuke were sweating buckets at the killing intent, and Naruto was having a little bit of a problem holding it off.

`What an incredibly dangerous ki. It feels like if I make a move I'll be killed. This could drive a person crazy…The intensity of a jounin…It almost feels like my life is being squeezed…I can't take it…I'd almost rather die now and get it over with…' Sasuke thought, shuddering.

The jinchuuriki of the group noticed Sasuke's train of thought a recognized the waves of fear flowing off of him like a waterfall. `I have to remember…These two haven't had as experience with this sort of thing…' he thought. `Might as well block the ki for them…' At that, Naruto released a killing intent mixed with chakra to block the intent of the mist nin. “Guys, calm down. We aren't going to be the ones fighting.” the blonde said. Sasuke took a breath and managed to calm himself down. “Right.” The raven-haired genin responded.

“Don't worry.” Their jounin-sensei said. “I don't let my comrades die.”

“We'll see about that!”

Zabuza appeared inside of the circle of genin. “It's over.” The mist nin said cruelly, as he started to swing his sword where it would slice the three genin and Tazuna in half. Kakashi's eyes widened as he rushed to stop the sword's deadly path.

There were a few moments when there was a flurry of movement that Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna couldn't trace. When the fighters stopped moving, Zabuza's Decapitator was stopped by two kunai that Naruto was holding. The Demon himself looked surprised and amused at the same time. “My my, looks like one of the brats might actually be fun to toy with…”

“Your opponent is me!” the Copy Ninja called out as he drove a kunai through the Demon's stomach, pushing him away from the genin team.

Instead of blood dripping out of the wound, it was water. A few seconds later, `Zabuza' turned out to be a muzui bunshin. `Alright, so that one is a bunshin as well…The real Kakashi-sensei is behind Zabuza…Who is also a water clone…geez…' Naruto thought, analyzing the situation.

Sure enough, the blonde was right. When the Demon of the Mist swung his sword through their jounin sensei, the leaf shinobi dispersed into water droplets a second later. While this was happening, the real Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza and said “Stop! Don't move! It's over!!”

Sasuke stared on in amazement and Sakura giggled. `Kakashi-sensei really is awesome…' she thought.

Then the Demon himself started chuckling. “It's over? You don't get it…You'll never beat me with these monkey-like imitations!”

“…….”

“Hehe…But that was impressive of you. At that time…you had already copied the Water Clone Technique…You had your clone say those words…To attract my attention while you hid in the mist and watched me. Nice plan. But…I'm also not that easy…” Zabuza said as the real one finally appeared, behind Kakashi. Looking at his sensei's expression, Naruto almost groaned. `I thought he knew that one was a fake too…”

After that, the jounin had a taijutsu battle, (Read the manga if you want the full version…) the result being that Kakashi landed in the water. Naruto's eyes widened in shock. `Kakashi-sensei got knocked down?' Sakura thought, trying to make sense of what she had just seen. `He's also strong in taijutsu…' Sasuke observed.

`What?' Kakashi thought confused. `This water is heavy…

“Heh. Fool!” Zabuza said as he flashed through a series of seals. `Water Prison no Jutsu!' The water around the Konoha jounin swirled into an orb that acted as a prison for the silver-haired shinobi. `Damn…' was the only word running through the said jounin's brain. Zabuza chuckled again. “Now I have you in my inescapable special prison. It makes things tougher if you can't move, you know? Now…Kakashi, we can finish things later. First I'll take care of them.” The Demon said as he created a water clone. The clone appeared out of the water and stepped onto land.

“Hehe. Wearing hitai-ate and acting like real ninjas…But you know what? A real ninja is someone who has survived numerous brushes with death. Basically…Once you are good enough to be listed in my handbook…Then you can start calling yourself a ninja…You guys should not be referred to as ninjas…”

Naruto sensed Zabuza's kick, and was able to easily dodge it. Kakashi used this to try and get his charges to run.

“Guys! Take Tazuna and run! The water clone can't go very far from the original! This battle was over the moment I got caught!”

“Kakashi-sensei, we can't. If we leave, Zabuza will just finish you off and will then come after us. If we follow that course of option, our only future is death. The only way to complete the mission is to get you out of there so we can leave.” Naruto said. Sasuke nodded in agreement.

“Heh. You guys will never grow up. Going to keep playing ninja, eh? When I was about your age, these hands were already dyed red with blood.” Zabuza said, an insane glint in his eyes.

“Devil…Zabuza…” Naruto said.

“Ah…So you've heard a little bit about it.”

Naruto filled in his fellow genin on the story. “Long ago, in the Hidden Mist village, there was a final obstacle in becoming a ninja…”

“Hm…You even know about the graduation exam…You are very knowledgeable for a genin…”

“What's this exam graduation thingie?” Sakura asked.

Zabuza chuckled. “Fights to the death between students.”

“Huh?!”

“Friends who have trained together and eaten at the same table were pitted against each other…Until one loses their life.”

“….Terrible…” Sakura murmured.

Naruto took a deep breath before finishing the story. “10 years ago, the graduation exam…was forced to change. This change came after the previous year…When a devil appeared.”

Sakura was confused. “…change...? What change? What did this devil do?”

“Without pause or hesitation…A boy who had not even qualified as a ninja…butchered over 100 of the students.”

“That…sure was fun…” Zabuza said, looking completely out of it.

“Bandage-head weirdo…”Naruto muttered under his breath.

Suddenly, Zabuza rushed at Sasuke, tossing him around like a rag doll. The Devil stomped on Sasuke, making the raven-haired shinobi cough up blood. “Sasuke-kun!!!” Sakura called, out worried for the Uchiha. Kakashi was very, very worried for his students. They didn't stand a chance if something didn't happen soon.

“Die.” Zabuza said.

`Damn it!' Naruto thought as he flashed through a series of seals. `Mokuton: Forest Genesis!'

Huge amounts of wood began to sprout out of the ground, intertwining and forming a large thicket of dense trees. One of the growing plants pierced Zabuza's water clone, shattering it.

All of the Shinobi present were surprised by the wood style jutsu. Kakashi felt his eyes bug out of their sockets. How could one of his students have a bloodline ability that he didn't know about?! It defied all logic. Sakura was in the same state of shock as her sensei, and Sasuke felt his respect for the blonde go up a couple of notches.

Naruto ran over to Sasuke, hand glowing teal with healing chakra. The blonde placed his hand on the Uchiha's chest, healing the broken ribs. “There. That should hold you until I have a chance to fix it properly.” Naruto said. “We need to find a way to get Kakashi-sensei out of that prison. I bet if we can make Zabuza let go, the jutsu will dissipate.”

“Alright, here's the plan…”

~

Sasuke leaped above the trees to get a good view of the battlefield. Zabuza was still on the lake, holding the Water Prison, and hadn't made a move yet. The raven-haired Uchiha snapped open a Fuuma Shuriken, and said “Fuuma Shuriken: Shadow Windmill!” before he threw it at the Demon of the Mist.

Zabuza smirked as he caught the shuriken. But, then he saw the second shuriken hiding in the shadow of the first. The mist jounin's eyes widened slightly, but he managed to dodge it at the last minute by jumping. Sasuke, who was on the shore, smirked. “Heh.”

The second shuriken puffed out of the henge to reveal Naruto, who landed on the water as easily as the jounin did. The blonde gave a cocky smile and flung a kunai at Zabuza, who dodged, freeing the silver-haired leaf shinobi.

~

“How? Can you see the future?”

“Yeah. You're going to die.”

Suddenly, out of nowhere, two senbon skewered Zabuza's neck. Naruto looked in the direction they had come from and saw a boy about his age wearing an Oinin mask. “Hehe. You're right. He's dead.” the child said. Kakashi looked at the newcomer and checked Zabuza's pulse. `……..He really is dead……'

“Thank you very much. I have been looking for the opportunity to kill Zabuza for a long time.”

“That mask…You're a Hidden Mist Hunter-nin…” Kakashi observed.

“Impressive……You are correct.”

“Hunter-nin?” Sakura asked.

“Yes. My duty is to hunt down and dispose of nukenin.”

`He's defiantly not a normal kid…' Kakashi observed.

The hunter-nin shunshined down to the body of the fallen swordsman. Naruto narrowed his eyes, something was defiantly off, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He shrugged and turned away as the boy left. The shinobi and their charge started to leave for Tazuna's house when the jounin of the group fell over. Naruto turned around quickly as his eyes widened. “Kakashi-sensei!”

The silver-haired leaf shinobi's eyes flickered closed, and Naruto checked his sensei's vitals. Seeing that he was alive, the blonde sighed in relief. Then, the more medical side of the jinchuuriki kicked in as he went over the possible complications of the jounin's condition of severe chakra exhaustion. None of them were pleasant. `Kami, please not again…' Naruto prayed. `Please…'

*Fuuko-chan*

Wow. That was…long…