The next morning found Team Seven lining up for missions just after lunch. We had switched from morning missions and afternoon training, to morning training and afternoon missions a few weeks ago. But that wasn’t what was on my mind right now.

  Tazuna, that old drunk bridge builder, had entered Konoha yesterday and made a beeline straight to the request building. I wanted that mission, mostly because I knew the risk. That drunk lies, at least by omission, and it gets labeled as a C. The mission should be A, if not S considering who’s involved. Of course I never blamed him for lying. Just getting a C rank was expensive, and it was all they could afford; all the money the village had left.

  But now I needed to figure out how to get it. I didn’t want some other team to get the assignment. That might be disastrous depending on who it goes to. I wondered if I would have to throw a fit again to try and get that C rank mission? That’s pretty much how we got it last time. Just thinking about that possibility was embarrassing, and very out of character for my current self.

  When we entered the room and I locked eyes with Hiruzen, I knew something was up. To see the Hokage at the mission desk was a bit of a rarity. Especially in the afternoon. He should be neck deep in paperwork right now or avoiding said paperwork by having lunch. The fact he was doing so alone threw up quite a few red flags in my head.

  And on top of that…

  He looked bothered.

  However, what really made me concerned was the way his face shifted into one of contemplation when he laid eyes on us. Before I could even begin to question, he spoke, “Ah, Team Seven. Here for another mission?”

  “Correct, Hokage-sama,” Kakashi replied.

  “Good, good.” He glanced towards me before turning his attention to the stack of papers. “Now then, let’s see…”

  I decided now was my best shot. “Hokage-sama, if I may.”

  His hand froze and everyone looked at me. After a moment he nodded.

  “I believe Team Seven has done more than enough D Ranks to qualify for a C Rank, correct?” I asked, eying the stack of papers that I knew to be the one containing the mission that I wanted.

  My question was met with silence, and I looked at the old man, watching as he slowly began to tamp his pipe. He was thinking. After several quiet moments, he finally spoke, “I must say, Naruto-kun, your information network is truly impeccable.”

  That was ominous, but I wasn’t about to express I had no idea what he was talking about and simply watched him impassively.

  His attention turned from me before flicking to Sasuke for a moment, then to my Sensei. Ah, it had something to do with the Uchiha. Probably the council putting pressure on the old man. The two of them had a silent conversation with their eyes. I really hated when people did that. “Kakashi, do you believe they are ready for a C Rank?”

  In response, the cyclops man eye smiled. “I think so. While they do not mesh well as far as personalities go, their teamwork is good.” That jab was definitely at Sakura. Sasuke and I got along well enough, but her odd hatred of me and infatuation with the Uchiha made our team dynamic emotionally strained.

  The Hokage took a long drag from his pipe before nodding. “Alright.” He shifted slightly, moving away from the stack of D Ranks, and moved to the one next to it. He picked up a few of them, looking them over for a moment before he suddenly looked up at me.

  It was clear that both of us knew things the other didn’t. I really didn’t like this whole thing. The way we were dancing around each other. And yet I did my best to make my expression unreadable; did my best to give nothing away.

  Eventually he decided, and held out the piece of paper towards Kakashi. “I think a bodyguard is just the right kind of test. This one is guarding a bridge builder back to the Land of Waves, and protecting him while they finish construction.”

  This had to be another sort of fate thing. Or at least that’s what I would believe, because otherwise Hiruzen knew something. “Sounds good. Is our client nearby?”

  The Hokage nodded. “Yes, he’s in the reception area right now.”

  Kakashi nodded and turned back to us. “I’ll go and meet the client. The three of you will prepare for a few weeks of being out of the village and meet tomorrow at the South gate at eight.”

  All three of us nodded. “Hai, Sensei.”

  “Ah, Naruto-kun.” The voice of the Hokage stopped me in my tracks. “Before you leave, I’d like to have a discussion with you.”

  I stared at him for a few moments, waiting for the others to leave. Once we were alone, I stood to attention and waited.

  He was refilling his pipe now. If I didn’t know his tactics so well, I might have started to worry or become impatient. Him and his damn delaying tactics. “Before you go on this mission, I wanted to have you complete your tests,” he said as she shuffled through some things on his desk.

  That…was not what I expected him to say. “Tests?” I questioned.

  “Yes, clearly with your skills we need to- ah, here it is.” He pulled a folder out of a drawer and held it out to me.

  I didn’t hesitate to reach and take it.

  He gestured to a portion of the desk beside him that he had cleared off while searching. “You told Kakashi that you believed you were a fuinjutsu expert, and I am curious to see how far your skills have come.”

  Now it made sense. This was a sort of test, and he wanted to proctor it? I sat down where he indicated. “Is there a time limit?” I asked as I placed the folder in front of me.

  “Normally, but I don’t believe that will be necessary. Just complete it to the best of your abilities.” After saying that, he turned away and returned to his paperwork.

  Was he not going to hand out missions anymore? Or was he specifically waiting for us? Now that I was thinking about it, it was suspicious that there had been no other teams waiting, but I had just brushed it off as timing. Clearly I had miscalculated.

  I opened the folder, trying to push the thoughts out of my mind and focus, but I couldn’t help myself. “The Council is demanding you to pad Sasuke’s portfolio,” I said rather plainly, using the time it took him to respond to begin my test.

  He slumped back in his chair slightly and breathed out a heavy sigh. Rather than answer my not-a-question, he gave one of his own, “You are keeping tabs on that bridge builder.”

  I worked through my test for several minutes, working on how to respond. “The Land of Waves has not made any requests of Konoha in two years. Their economy is in ruins because it has been taken over by a shipping magnate named Gato.”

  “That is quite a lot of information to have on a different country,” he said rather passively, though I could see the slight tightness of his brow as he thought over the implications. “There is a reason why you wanted this mission… Was it to gather information?”

  “Partly,” I agreed. I hesitated before the second part, and decided to not mention the other reasons I wanted to go. This room was most likely bugged, after all.

  But I had a feeling that he knew what I was not talking about as he just nodded. Silence fell between us as we both returned to work. Him knowing that I was watching Tazuna was a bit concerning, as it meant he knew some of my village disguises.

  After about two hours, I finished. It took Hiruzen about twenty minutes to go over my answers. And like I thought, I wasn’t quite at the level of master. “You are much farther along than I thought you’d be… At this rate, you’re going to be the youngest fuinjutsu master in Konoha’s history.”

  I sighed, nodding. “There’s only so much progress I can make on my own.”

  He nodded, rubbing his chin as he thought. “You’ve done an impressive job so far. When you return from your mission, would you like for me to put you in touch with a few masters?”

  That caught me off guard and I stared at him for a moment. “That… I would very much appreciate that, Hokage-sama.”

  There was that smile on his face. That smile so full of warmth that reminded me that even despite all his flaws and mistakes, he really did care about me. Rather than saying anything else, he dismissed me and returned to his paperwork.

  However, there was something else I wanted to discuss. “Anko Mitarashi,” I said slowly.

  His hands stopped and he glanced at me. He was silent for quite a while. “Yes? What about her?”

  “With your permission, Hokage-sama… I would like to examine her curse mark.” I had seen a lot of the research papers that Orochimaru had. And had even talked with him quite a lot. While I never trusted that old snake, I had still worked with him on numerous occasions. He was absolutely messed up in the head, but honestly… I can’t really say that I hate the guy. I would rather deal with him than Danzo.

  Of course that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to ruin as many of his plans as I could, but there were several that I needed him to complete. Which meant I couldn’t outright go against him. We would be at odds, until he sought me out and requested my help. I already had things in my possession that he would need in the future and I had no doubt he would figure out that I had them.

  But I could think about that later, right now I needed to focus on the Hokage and getting my hands on that seal. “And why would you want to do that?”

  “As…horrible a thing it is, it is still an extremely advanced seal.” I tried to keep my voice even, trying to push down my eagerness. I wanted to study that seal, that was true. But what I really wanted was the bit of Orochimaru’s consciousness inside it. Useless to me now, but extremely valuable in the future, and the earlier I got it the better.

  “Do you think you could reverse it?” His eyes flicked down to my stomach and I had to try really hard not to raise a hand to block his view. No one had examined my seal in a very long time, which was good because I don’t think they would like all the modifications I’ve done to it. Jiraiya would probably throw a fit.

  “I would have to examine it first,” I admitted. There was a chance that I could do nothing with it, and Anko would probably suffer in the future for it. “But I have come across…things, and believe I might be able to remove it.” I wanted to tell him that Danzo actually had enough information that could be used to reverse engineer it and find a proper way to neutralize the seal, but I was fairly certain he already knew.

  He stared at me for a long time, taking a slow drag from his pipe. “Very well. I will grant approval of anything you think you need to do, and I will inform Anko-san of your request. Although…it will be up to her if she accepts.”

  “With all due respect, Hokage-sama… Now that I have your permission, I am not going to give her a choice in the matter. Even if I have to comb The Forest of Death looking for her sorry ass and pin her down to do it,” I replied, giving him a rather cheeky smile.

  Thankfully, he chuckled at what he assumed was a joke. “I’ll be sure to let her know.”

  With that, he dismissed me again. Hopefully that would be enough to get her attention. Anko was good, and special type of Jonin known as a Tokubetsu. But that just meant she was highly specialized. Her specials were in infiltration and tracking, and supposedly torture, but that didn’t mean she was lacking in other departments. She was still a Jonin, after all. Unfortunately, with me antagonizing her like this, it was definitely going to end up in a fight. One that I was sure she wouldn’t take seriously and I could take advantage of that.

  Honestly, from what I know of her skills, being a Tokubetsu seems more like a deliberate choice, so that she gets the types of missions she likes.

  I stood outside the Hokage Tower for a moment, simply looking up at it for a moment as I thought over my immediate plans.

  “There are Root Anbu approaching,” Kurama suddenly said.

  The hairs on the back of my neck rose slightly before I immediately flashed to the Uchiha District. While it’s interesting that Kurama can discern the difference between Root and regular Anbu, it was not too useful. All Anbu were to be avoided as far as I was concerned. I could probably trust a few of them in case of emergencies, but Anbu as a whole was under Danzo’s control.

  In that moment of panic I almost went home, but I needed to check myself for tracking first. Thankfully there was nothing.

  So I returned home.

  Now came another problem. “Fu?” I called out, walking upstairs.

  I paused at the door to my fathers study, looking in at the girl passed out in the chair. Studying was definitely not her forte, but I could understand. I sighed before looking over at the second desk that was piled with letters.

  Annoyingly, I had yet to get a response from Han or Roshi, but Jufi said they were adamant about not knowing what I was talking about. So I was alright with giving them time.

  Gaara was still rather difficult at times, seemingly slipping back into the mindset that I wasn’t real and just some kind of elaborate trap. But when he wasn’t being annoyingly paranoid, he was fine. Still extremely antisocial, but that was more just him being awkward and not knowing how to talk to people. Which yeah, understandable… He at least didn’t seem to be suffering from some sort of psychosis like the first time I met him.

  The other problem was what was happening with Utakata and Yagura. There was something going on in Kirigakura, but I didn’t know what. Just another thing to send out a Shadow Clone to investigate.

  I moved over to one of the shelves, looking over the books for a moment. There wasn’t really anything I needed to prepare for the journey, since I had been ready for months. Everything was already stored away in my cloak. The most important thing were my teleportation anchors, and the scrolls filled with extra chakra. Which reminded me, I did need to leave one of those here for a clone that could keep an eye on Fu.

  That sounded kind of bad in my head.

  Finding the book I was looking for, I gently tossed it onto the back of Fu’s head. It was the heaviest book on the shelf.

  The girl bolted upright, immediately in a fighting stance before she got her bearings and stared at me. “Where the hell did you come from?”

  “My mother,” I said flatly.

  “I meant how did you sneak up on me?” she snapped, folding her arms and glaring at me for a moment before rubbing the bump on the back of her head.

  “Ninja,” was my simple response.

  She scoffed before slumping back into the chair. “Right. Fair.” She paused, looking at the little clock in the room. “You’re back rather early? What happened?”

  “I’ve got a mission,” I started to explain, leaning against the wall. “Escort and bodyguard. I’ll be gone for a few weeks. And I wanted to know if you wanted to stay here, or maybe stay with Mikoto-san?”

  Immediately she perked up. “That would be great! It’s so boring around here. There’s nothing to do but study or train.”

  I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “You can go out at any time, you just gotta ask.”

  Her face scrunched up. “But then I gotta have you or a clone tagging along or something.”

  “Oh, you don’t want to spend time with me?” I asked, trying to put as much hurt into my tone as I could. I even clutched my chest for emphasis. “I thought we were friends.”

  Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s just go see Mikoto-san.”

  I stared at her a moment before shaking my head. “You’ve only been here a few days, and you’re already tired of it?”

  “I’m not used to being cooped up,” she said with a huff, folding her arms and leaning the chair back slightly. “The villagers may not have been welcoming, but they didn’t restrict where I went.”

  That was something I could sympathize with. So I nodded, and held out my hand. “Let’s go see if Mikoto-san is okay with it.”

  Her face scrunched up as she stared at my hand. She really did not like teleporting. Eventually she sighed and took it, and I of course gave her no warning or time to brace before we were standing in the Uchiha District.

  She mocked a few dry heaves to show that she didn’t appreciate my joke. But I just grinned at her before the two of us made our way to the building.

  For once, when I knocked it wasn’t Sasuke that answered the door, but Mikoto. “Oh? Naruto-kun, Fu-chan. Are you looking for Sasuke-kun? He’s not here right now.”

  I shook my head. “Actually, Mikoto-san, we were here to see you. As you might already know, Team Seven is heading out of the village on a mission-”

  “Oh!” Her shout interrupted me and she clasped her hands together. “And you need someone to look after Fu-chan?”

  I smiled a bit sheepishly and rubbed the back of my neck. “She still doesn’t know her way around the village, and she would be really restricted while I was away. So if you don’t mind…”

  She waved a hand vaguely in the air. “Of course not! Fu-chan, please, come in, come in.” The older woman practically shoved me aside in order to take Fu’s hand.

  Fu gave me a concerned look, clearly unsure how to react to Mikoto’s enthusiasm. I just gave her a grin and flashed back home.

  Now that Fu was out of the way, I could start the long process of checking over my gear, and then start dismissing the majority of my clones. I would only leave two in the village, as I didn’t want to waste too many chakra scrolls. One would watch Fu, and the other would watch the house and take care of my plants. Ino would kill me if they all died.

  I had so much to check over. Maybe I really did not need to carry this much… But I never knew what I needed.

  Releasing the seal on my cloak and allowing it to spread to its full size, I summoned a dozen clones to help. Every seal needed to be checked, as well as effects and contents.

  “Boss, I really think we went overboard on this,” one of them commented, more amused than anything else. It was something I liked to talk about to myself sometimes. Just looking at it really did make it seem like I over prepared. I already had a few things to deal with Akutsuki members, though all of those were to allow me to flee since I doubted I could beat any of them in a straight fight. At least for now.

  “The masking arrays look fine,” another commented, pretending to wipe sweat off his brow.

  I rolled my eyes at their - my - antics. The masking arrays were probably the most important. If I didn’t have them, the arrays and all the different chakra nonsense I had going on with the cloak would light me up like a fireworks display. The main array was just to prevent the cloak from being damaged, and the fuinjutsu that I was the most proud of putting together.

  It was based on the same one that had protected Uzushiogakure, and would never have failed if not for betrayal. Which was awful to find out, and just another reason to despise Danzo. Even early in his career he was scum. It would have never fallen if Danzo hadn’t let saboteurs in…

  Shaking my head, I returned to focusing on my work. The other clones seemed to catch onto my bad mood, probably having similar thought trains, and we all worked in silence.

  Eventually I was satisfied and the clones dispelled. Some of the seals needed some repairs, specifically the section that had been struck by Kurotsuchi. I tsked, annoyed that I hadn’t immediately checked them over after that fight. That had been the first test run in actual combat, and I hadn’t even remembered to look for damage.

  They weren’t in danger of collapse, but damage build up could cause them to eventually fail. So I spent the next few hours fixing up the seals as I let clones throughout Konoha slowly dispel.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The next day felt so liberating.

  Blatantly walking down the street towards the South gate. Snow was practically buzzing with excitement at actually being worn through the village. I was specifically wearing my cloak tucked behind her scabbard, showing her off. Who knew a sword could preen? It was a good thing I was used to being bombarded by her emotions, otherwise I might have been overwhelmed. She had an extremely strong personality.

  Kurama and I had talked about it, and he believed that strengthening what he called her Ego was the only thing she was capable of doing while sealed away. She might have only had a small spark of intellect when first sealed. Which made me feel bad for her, as it was the equivalent of taking a child and locking them in an empty room and never letting them interact with anything.

  Honestly I was glad that she didn’t have the habit of lashing out. She just tended to bite if touched, something that Fu found out rather quickly.

  Oddly enough I was the first one to arrive, even though I was nearly forty minutes late. It seems that my teammates were taking advantage of our Sensei’s perpetual lateness.

  What really bothered me was the Anbu I could see standing at the gate. She wasn’t exactly hiding, but standing off to the side. This was an Anbu I recognized: Yugao Uzuki. She was fairly easy to recognize, with her purple hair and cat mask. Her mask had three wavy stripes, one on the forehead, and one on each cheek.

  I felt it the instant she looked at me. Even with her mask on, she wasn’t trying to hide her gaze.

  I didn’t know her very well, but she was the Captain of one of my tracker teams. Pretty good at fuinjutsu. Very good at kenjutsu. Trained by Hayate Gekko, a Tokubetsu Jonin specializing in stealth, tracking, and kenjutsu. Killed by Kabuto.

  And they were lovers.

  Oh, shit. Should I try and save him? She really never fully recovered from the loss, and it really hurt her career as a Konoichi.

  Oh shit I walked straight up to her while I was lost in thought. Now I was just standing in front of her, staring at her mask. She seemed… Not relaxed, but poised. Ready. I waited for a minute before I decided that I was going to just skip ahead and mess with her. “Is there something you wanted, Yugao-san?”

  Immediately I knew I hit my mark judging by the way her muscles tensed. For a moment I wondered if she was just not going to talk to me, or was struggling to organize her thoughts now that I’d thrown her off so much. “Hokage-sama asked that I inform you Anko-san said no.”

  I snorted. “That’s to be expected.” I folded my hands behind my head. If it was anyone but the Hokage, I would be suspicious of why he sent an Anbu. But I did that all the time. They were always nearby, and would do what I said without complaining where I could hear them. “Guess I’m going on a trip to The Forest of Death when I get back.” Honestly, I really wasn’t looking forward to that…

  Yugoa disappeared without responding.

  All I did was laugh softly, and then reach forward. After a moment of checking the wall, I pulled a concealed tag off. It wasn’t paranoia if they really were out to get you, right?

  It was a rather advanced tracking seal, one that was definitely done by a master. If I had leaned against the wall, as I had planned to do, it would have activated and started tracking my cloak. Annoyingly, it would have also started tracking any clone that had a copy of my cloak. Annoying, but it would have been found during my usual sweeps when checking for trackers.

  With a flick of the wrist, I snapped the tag onto a cart leaving the village. It wouldn’t take long for someone to figure out what happened, but it would at least confuse them for a moment. Just wish I could see the looks on their faces.

  The conclusion of who would do this was pretty obvious. This wasn’t Hiruzen’s style, so it was probably Danzo. Although, I doubt Yugoa did it knowingly… Seems like Danzo was finally making moves at me now that I had become an unknown variable.

  I really needed to figure out how to kill that guy.

  Fortunately this meant that Danzo couldn’t afford to put too many resources on me. He was not one to work in half-measures. He hated failing, and would rather burn extra resources to assure that his plans came through. My big worry now was him going after Fu… But thankfully she would have Mikoto as a deterrent, and hopefully that would be enough to make him hesitate.

  “Naruto?”

  I tensed slightly before I fully registered that someone had just said my name, turning slightly to see Sakura and Sasuke. The two of them were carrying quite large packs. “You’re late,” I said with a slight quirk of the corner of my mouth.

  Sakura immediately looked pissed. “We were here earlier, but when neither you or Kakashi-sensei showed up, we went to get breakfast.”

  My eyes snapped to Sasuke and I arched an eyebrow at him. He was making quite the effort to not look in my direction. “She followed me,” he said simply.

  I had to put a hand over my mouth to stifle my laughter. “Ah. I see.” That sounded right. But the interesting bit was him letting her follow him.

  Before either of them had a chance to say anything, a new voice joined the conversation, “Good, you’re all here.”

  Turning to find Kakashi standing next to another man. “These the brats?” he asked, taking a swig from a bottle. He was wearing a larger backpack than probably all of us combined - especially since I didn’t even have one - had a pointed straw hat covering his gray hair, a similarly colored goatee, and oval glasses. He was definitely shorter than I remembered… Or was I just taller? “Sure don’t look like much.”

  “Are you…drinking?” Sakura asked, her face scrunching slightly.

  “He’s got a lot on his mind,” I said simply, turning away. I wasn’t entirely sure why I was defending him, since he was walking us into what was probably a death trap. “The fate of his entire country is resting on his shoulders.”

  Everyone stared at me for a moment, and Tazuna started to sweat a bit. “Right…” Kakashi suddenly clapped his hands. “Let’s get going. It’ll take a few days to reach the Land of Waves.”

  With that, we started traveling.

  “Kurama. Are we being followed?” I asked, unsure of when the Demon Brothers actually started tracking us. I couldn’t sense them, but sensing was oddly difficult for me. So it was a good thing I had Kurama.

  “There’s an Anbu Team watching us leave, but they are keeping their distance and not following,” he replied, grumbling something else about being treated like a glorified radar.

  “Oh don’t be like that. You’re so much better at things, so of course I’m going to ask for your help,” I thought to him, trying to keep myself from smiling.

  All he did was grumble more in response.

  Glancing back at the group and focusing on their conversation, somehow they had gotten on the topic of Kage. I knew all this information, but I was trying to remember if that stuff was taught in the academy as Kakashi explained, “There are dozens of Ninja Villages, and not all of them have Kage.”

  “We learned about the five major countries and their villages, as well as some of our neighboring countries in the Academy,” Sakura said thoughtfully. Good thing she had been paying attention, because apparently my clone hadn’t been paying attention. Memory strengthening jutsu only worked if you actually listened to the information. “Konohagakure in the Land of Fire, Sunagakure in the Land of Wind, Kirigakure in the Land of Water, Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning, and Iwagakure in the Land of Earth.”

  “Correct,” Kakashi said with a nod. “And their Kage, in the same order, are Hokage, Kazekage, Mizukage, Raikage, and Tsuchikage.” I started to tune out at this point as he started to explain the minor countries and their villages, as well as which did and did not have Kage.

  Like that the day went on and we started to set up camp. “We’ll do standard watch rotation,” Kakashi said as he looked between us. “I’ll go first, followed by Sasuke, Sakura, and finally Naruto.”

  Last watch. That was troublesome. With a slight huff, I just sat down against a tree and got comfortable. Tents and sleeping rolls were a waste of time on missions like this involving long distance. But Sasuke and Sakura both had them and were setting them up, as well as Tazuna. Tazuna was to be expected though, he was a civilian.

  I laid Snow across my lap before pulling out a ramen bowl. Figuring out how to store hot food in a seal was actually kind of fun. Unfortunately it wouldn’t last longer than three weeks before the stasis portion wore off, but that was still a lot of ramen that I had gotten from Teuchi.

  It wasn’t long before I became aware that I had several pairs of eyes watching me eat.

  Looking up, I was met by the confused gazes of Tazuna, Sasuke, and Sakura. Kakashi just looked mildly amused. I paused my eating to ask, “What?”

  “Are you eating Ramen?” Sakura asked, as if the answer wasn’t obvious.

  All I could do was stare at her for a moment before I just shook my head and returned to eating. Everyone else had ration meals.

  It was after noon the next day when the light caught something that shouldn’t be there. My eyes narrowed slightly. “Puddle,” I said softly so that only the people around me could hear. It looked so out of place on the road that I was honestly baffled how we all had missed it in my previous life.

  Sakura rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we’re outside. Those happen when it rains.”

  My attention turned to her and I frowned. She certainly was book smart, but damn did she not have much ninja sense. Although Sasuke didn’t look any better off, he was at least taking note of me pointing it out. “It hasn’t rained in over a week,” I said flatly.

  She opened her mouth to keep arguing before stopping, apparently coming to some sort of conclusion. “And it’s been warm for the last few days. That’s kind of weird. Any puddles should have dried up?” She looked at Kakashi, hoping that he had an answer.

  I rested my hand on Snow’s hilt, and I saw Sasuke subtly draw a kunai. He wasn’t using a sword yet, but I was starting to think that he might not in this life. He only started doing that after he left the village… Damn I wish I had asked him why he started using a sword.

  “Probably nothing,” Kakashi said with a shrug, but I could see the way he was paying attention to it. “Carts pass through here, so it might be a spill or horse piss.”

  Sakura scrunched her nose, and the whole group seemed to shift away from it. An interesting way to brush it off while also causing us all to be a bit more wary.

  We passed it without issue.

  Five paces.

  Ten paces.

  Fifteen.

  Almost at twenty paces there was the sudden rush, Kakashi seemingly being bound up in an instant with a spiked chain. The two rather rough looking nin having snared him, the chain connected to the large metal gauntlets they wore. “The first one,” declared the one with longer hair before the two pulled. In a rather grotesque display, Kakashi was rent asunder.

  Their eyes turned towards me, but I was already rushing at them, coming in low and delivering a swift kick to the gut of the left figure - Meizu if I remembered correctly - and sent him flying backwards.

  The chain kicked wildly into the air before a shuriken caught it, embedded it into a nearby tree, and then a kunai struck that, pinning it in place. Sasuke appeared above the other brother, which I was fairly sure was Gozu, and delivered an aerial roundhouse to his head that pitched him away in the opposite direction of his brother.

  The chain went taut before a snap released it from both gauntlets, the two giving up their combo weapon when they realized it was stuck.

  Both of them slid several meters further before coming up on their feet. With a single glance, they rushed at Tazuna. Sakura at least had enough wits about her to raise a kunai in preparation to die while at least trying to do something.

  However, before Sasuke or I could even move to intercept, Kakashi appeared and clotheslined both ninja, incapacitating them in an instant. Which tends to happen when you get your throat slammed at extremely high speeds and aren’t expecting it.

  With surprising ease and speed, the two were disarmed and tied to a tree. Kakashi dusting his hands after a job well done.

  “Sensei, you’re okay!” Sakura said, coming over to the man. Her legs were a bit wobbly, but none of us were going to comment on it.

  “Of course.” He gestured over to the pile of sticks and logs that were where he had supposedly been killed. “A simple replacement technique, and a slight genjutsu to sell the illusion. Good job everyone.”

  “Who are these guys, anyways?” Sasuke asked, looking over some of the gear that they had with them.

  “The Demon Brothers,” I answered, cutting Kakashi off before he had a chance. “Chunin Missing-nin from Kiri.” All attention was suddenly on me and I frowned. “They’re in the bingo book.”

  The one eyed ninja’s attention shifted to the old bridge builder. “Now then, I think we have something to discuss.”

  Tazuna, for his part, began to visibly sweat. But before he had a chance to even ask what he meant, one of the brothers had apparently woken up and just had one question to ask. “How did you detect us?”

  Kakashi looked at them with the sort of disappointed look that only a teacher could manage. “The chances of there being a puddle on such a hot day after several days of no rain, is very low.”

  “And even knowing that, you let the kids fight?” Tazuna said, frowning.

  He just shrugged. “Sure, I could have killed them without much effort. But… I needed to know who their target was.”

  “Hm?” Tazuna seemed to tense even more. “What do you mean?”

  “In other words, what I mean is I had to know if it was you they were after, or one of us Shinobi.” He turned too fully face the old man, giving him an extremely unimpressed look. “We haven’t heard anything about you being targeted by ninjas. We were supposed to defend you from gangs, thieves, and the like… But they were most certainly after you. Which makes this mission B Rank or higher.”

  Tazuna looked down, clearly ashamed. He knew he kept out a lot on that request.

  “This mission…is definitely too high for us,” Sakura said, “I think we should give up and head back to the village.”

  “Not happening,” I said firmly, turning towards the road. “We accepted the mission, we do the mission.”

  “But what if-”

  I sighed, looking at her. Just my gaze was enough to silence her. “Mission scopes change all the time. This is not the first time you’re going to be given the wrong information about a mission. Hell, some of the D Ranks we’ve done were of a completely different scope than what was on the paper. Are you going to quit and go home every time a mission doesn’t go exactly the way it says on a piece of paper?”

  She scowled at me. “Of course not. But this is far more than we signed up for.”

  “That’s life,” I said with a shrug and started walking down the road. “Now come on, we’ve still got a lot of ground to cover.”

  Unfortunately they apparently continued to talk and argue about it, so I walked slowly. If I had to, I would do this by myself. Now that was a thought. And a reminder of something that I had forgotten to do. I quickly went through a few hand signs and turned off the seals that were siphoning my chakra. In the unlikely event I fought Zabuza, I would need full reserves for Shadow Clones.

  While I was at it, I turned off the other seals.

  I stopped walking and looked back. I was out of sight of the others, I had gone a bit too far. With a slight flex of my chakra, I summoned five clones and had them scatter into the nearby trees. They would scout the area and check for anyone else.

  They were sure taking their time with whatever was going on, so I sat down against a tree and got comfortable. I shouldn’t get too far ahead of them.

  It was almost twenty minutes before I finally caught sight of the group coming down the road. I wouldn’t have noticed them until they got closer if Kurama hadn’t told me.

  Looking over, Tazuna looked properly scolded, but there was a hopeful tint to his expression. Sakura looked nervous, but determined, while Kakashi and Sasuke looked rather nonplussed.

  I lifted my hand, giving a slight wave as I returned the scroll I had been reading to my cloak before getting up. “Took you all long enough.”

  Sakura turned her sour expression towards me, but didn’t say anything. Kakashi however, spoke up, “We’ve agreed to at least escort him back to the Land of Waves, and see how the situation looks before making our decision. How does everything look from your side?” There was an interesting sort of glint to his eye, and he must have realized my seals were off. It was pretty obvious for people who knew me, and the way my chakra was slowly replenishing was another giveaway.

  However, I tsked at his words. He’d change his tune after a good fight with Zabuza. “Nothing around. I’ve got one clone scouting ahead, and four others searching the perimeter,” I decided to explain for the sake of my teammates and the old man.

  Kakashi just nodded and we began traveling again. He probably spotted one of my clones, since they’re trying to be fast rather than quiet.

  Days passed as we made our way to the coast. Thankfully no one was complaining about the travel, although conversations had mostly dried up. Kakashi was reading his little orange book as he walked, giggling slightly every now and then. I never understood the appeal of those smut books. The stories were okay, and the jokes were really good, but the details it got into were sometimes very unnecessary. Jiraiya had a habit of getting far too flowery in descriptions.

  Two pages dedicated to the figure of a woman was a bit much.

  I much preferred his first book: The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. And that wasn’t just because I was named after the main character. It was a genuinely interesting story, although a few sections definitely feel a bit flat. I can see why it didn’t sell well.

  Finally we reached the coast. And much like every other time I had ever seen the ocean, I couldn’t help but be amazed. There was just something about the vastness of it that made me feel small in a similar way to the forest around Konoha.

  “This way,” Tazuna said, leading us down a game trail and not towards the small fishing village the road led to.

  Eventually we came to a small inlet where a camp was set up. There was a man there as well, who jumped to his feet as we approached, dropping his fishing pole. “Tazuna! Are these…” his voice trailed off as he looked us over. “Kami you actually did it.”

  Tazuna pat the man on the shoulder. “How long before should leave?”

  “Fog should roll in soon, we’ll go in when it’s dark to help cover us,” he explained.

  “So we have some time,” Kakashi said as he leaned against a tree. “Try and get some rest, you might not get any on the boat.”

  I looked over at the small watercraft that looked…a lot smaller than I remembered. Would we all even fit on that? My eyes drifted over the water. Sakura and Sasuke started to make themselves comfortable, Sasuke moving once Sakura sat down in order to put more distance between himself and the girl.

  Holding back a laugh from their little interaction, I moved over towards the water. Water walking was harder the larger the body of water was. But without any of my seals I should be able to do it.

  Tentatively, I placed a foot onto the water, testing to see if I would sink. As I thought, it was a much higher strain on my chakra than the pond I normally practiced on. But it was doable.

  With a sudden leap, I propelled myself out over the water a dozen meters or so to get away from the waves crashing against the beach. It took me a moment to get my balance right, and I nearly fell over. That would have been embarrassing.

  Now that I was standing and confident in my footing, I mentally did the math. I could run to the Land of Waves without issue, or walk alongside the boat. Which is what I decided to do. It would be good training.

  Just before the fog started to roll in, we set off. I had to half run half skate in order to keep up with the boat when it was using its engine, but I knew as we got closer the cautious ferry man would not use it the entire time.

  Just after midnight he switched to rowing manually and I was able to simply walk alongside the boat. As I thought, we all would have barely fit. But with me not on board it let everyone else have a lot more room.

  “How are you able to do that?” Sasuke asked suddenly, watching me.

  “Water walking is one of the best ways to train your chakra control,” I started to explain, glancing at Kakashi to see if he was going to chime in or just let me explain.

  “Why don’t they teach that to us in the academy?” Sakura asked, leaning over the side of the boat slightly to get a better look at what I was doing.

  “Because it’s a fairly advanced technique. A lot of people don’t even start learning it until they’re Chunin, or have been Genin for a significant amount of time.” I didn’t even have to see her face to know she was giving me a skeptical look. “It requires pushing chakra to your feet, which is the hardest place to get it to go, and also constantly fluctuate it to balance out the shifting surface tension of the water.”

  “It’s a lot harder than it looks,” Kakashi added. “You have to factor in size, and even the temperature of the water.”

  I grimaced, remembering quite a few troublesome moments. “Hot water is the worst, and cold water isn’t much better.”

  “Salt water is the easiest,” The Jonin said, which is something that I actually didn’t know. “But the only sizable bodies of salt water are the ocean, the size and constantly shifting of oceans cancels that out, and so doing what Naruto is doing is considered one of the most difficult forms of water walking.”

  “What’s the most difficult?” the lone girl of the group asked.

  “Hot spring,” I said with a sigh, beating Kakashi to the answer.

  He just nodded in affirmation.

  Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by the boat driver. “We should be able to see the bridge soon… As soon as we’re past it, we’re officially in the Land of Waves…”

  Suddenly I was grinning. I always loved this bridge. I wasn’t sure if Tazuna would name it after me again when it was done, but it was just such an impressive sight.

  The shadowy shape of the bridge began to take shape in the fog, and it loomed over us. It was absolutely massive. The support pillars were like ancient trees, reaching to hold up the even more impressive length of stone and iron. Wide enough to hold a village, and when it was done it would take an entire day just to traverse one side to the other.

  No bridge like this had ever been attempted before, and nothing like it was ever attempted again.

  “That…is one hell of a bridge.” I couldn’t help but state the obvious.

  I was immediately shushed by the ferry man. “Keep it down,” he whisper hissed. “We’re trying to sneak in, that’s why we’re using the fog and traveling at night.”

  “Which reminds me,” Kakashi said, turning to Tazuna. “I think it’s about time for you to tell us who is after you and why.”

  I nearly tripped. They hadn’t discussed that already? What the hell had they been talking about that took them so long the other day? “The Gato Company,” I said flatly, beating Tazuna to the explanation. “He owns all the ports and shipping routes in the Land of Waves, but he’s more of a yakuza boss than a business man. Smuggling, drug trafficking, slave trading, you name an illegal business that needs a boat, Gato is your man.”

  Everyone was staring at me, Sakura and Tazuna had wide eyed expressions on their faces.

  Taking a deep breath, I looked at Kakashi for a moment before turning my focus back onto the massive structure above us. “This bridge is this country's last chance to escape his tyrannical monopoly.”

  “Why not just have someone assassinate Gato?” Sasuke asked, eyes narrowed at the bridge.

  “Money. Gato has all of it, and the people have none.” He looked a bit puzzled at that. “Who’s going to pay to have him killed? It would be at least a B Rank mission, but probably an A Rank considering that he likes to hire Missing-nin as mercenaries.”

  “That’s why we got attacked,” Sakura suddenly said, trying to keep her voice down. “They’re trying to keep Tazuna from completing the bridge. If it gets completed, then it breaks his monopoly.”

  “Which is why we can’t just quit this mission,” I said firmly, getting everyone’s attention again. “No Tazuna means no bridge, and no bridge means Wave dies.”

  The old man's hands clenched, and it looked like he was fighting back tears. Whether in grief or frustration I wasn’t sure. But after my declaration it was quiet. Even Kakashi seemed to be quietly calculating as we started to sail away from the bridge towards a place we could dock.

  As the shore started to come into view, I had just one more thing to add. “Whatever decision you all make, I’m staying.” Tazuna’s head snapped up and he stared at me, trying to comprehend what I was suggesting. But there was a certain wave of relief that he was giving off, even if it was mostly buried by apprehension.

  I didn’t give any of them a chance to respond as I shot towards the beach, wanting to get off the water as soon as possible. While there wasn’t much mental strain from going that distance, I wanted to be able to let my chakra recharge more before Zabuza showed up.

  After a few minutes, the boat finally arrived just as the morning sun started to get higher and the fog began to clear. “Okay, Tazuna.” The driver said, looking the old man over. “This is it for me. Consider my debt repaid.”

  All the old man did in response was nod, and the ferry man pushed off again, disappearing back into the fog. I couldn’t blame him. This bridge was a long shot, and the chances of being killed for helping Tazuna was probably looking more and more likely each day.

  “This way,” Tazuna said with a soft sigh. “We’ll head to my home, and in the morning I’ll get back to working. And you…” He stopped, his eyes flicking to me before he looked towards Kakashi. “You can make your decision then.”

  Kakashi gave him an eye smile. “Let’s get going then.”

  It wasn’t much longer before we came across a very familiar area. A painfully familiar place that I couldn’t forget even if I tried. With a flick of my wrist I sent a senbon into the brush beside us. “What the heck are you doing?!” Sakura shouted.

  “Thought I saw someone,” I said casually, looking over the bush to find… Yup, a white rabbit.

  “It’s just a rabbit,” Tazuna said with a sigh. “I didn’t realize you ninja were so jumpy.”

  But out of the corner of my eye I saw Kakashi suddenly get suspicious. It was a snow rabbit, but it only had a white coat in winter, and since it was summer… That meant that it was raised indoors.

  My hand snapped to Snow, and before I even fully registered the action I was already drawing her.

  “Everyone get down!” Kakashi suddenly shouted.

  With a two handed grip, I spun slightly and slashed upward. There was a ring of steel meeting steel, and I was nearly knocked clean off my feet by the weight of the blade and the force behind it. In the end I barely managed to deflect the thrown sword's trajectory, sending it spinning upwards and slamming into a tree a distance behind me.

  Appearing suddenly on the handle of the blade was a tall, well built man with bandages wrapping most of his face, leaving only his eyes visible beneath his headband.

  Kakashi raised his hand to the side to block any attempt to go forward. “Get back. This guy is nothing like those other ninja we faced…”

  I was more than keen to listen, leaping back towards Tazuna.

  “This guy…is going to be tricky…” Kakashi muttered, raising a hand and slowly lifting his headband to reveal his Sharingan.