Despite all that had happened, the day was not yet over. As a matter of fact it had technically just begun. The sun had just finished fully coming up signifying that it was still rather early in the morning. Even though Naruto wanted to stay with his teammates after discovering that they were still alive and in one piece after the fight with Haku he couldn't, at least Asuma said he couldn't.
Gato never knew that Zabuza had tried tailing them back to Tazuna's home, therefore his men were still to attack the bridge. If it was needed, Naruto and Menma, even being spent both physically and emotionally had to be there to assist them if needed. Asuma could hold down things alone at the house, all it comprised was him securely restraining Haku, making sure Ino and Shikamaru were actually okay, and making sure Tsunami and Inari were safe from anymore attacks.
With that thought in mind, and with knowledge of their objective, Naruto and Menma kept themselves on the path towards the bridge hoping that their current physical deficiency due to battle fatigue, damage from Haku and Zabuza, and a lack of speed that was slowly fixing itself faster than he thought it ever should have wouldn't keep him from being useful just in case.
'I've still got more than enough fight in me if it comes down to it.' Naruto thought to himself as his feet hit the path again and again in his rush to the bridge.
'I'm interested to see how I'll be able to fight using Zabuza's Kubikiribōchō.' Menma thought will traveling to the bridge alongside Naruto.
XxX
(With Asuma)
Asuma returned to the house to find the front door cut down and thought back to the two men that Naruto had killed, 'Idiots...' As he walked inside he saw Inari crying in the corner of the living room only to have his wails silenced when Tsunami ran in and grabbed the young boy up in a hug. He let the two have a moment to themselves while he saw to his two students that had just seemingly come back from the dead, 'You two were very lucky.' He thought as he looked at the still unconscious Haku, 'Your opponent wasn't bloodthirsty and actually went out of their way to make sure you two weren't killed.'
After setting Ino and Shikamaru down in a room on two separate futons he tied up Haku and took her downstairs with him, setting her on the couch. Naruto had actually messed her up pretty badly in the forest. Her injuries weren't life-threatening, but she wasn't going to be any kind of threat until she got some treatment.
'The kid has no idea of what he even did.' Asuma thought, looking at Haku, He let out a sigh, he knew how things were supposed to go, but this was so narrow-sighted.
"Thank you."
Asuma turned his head towards the stairs to see Inari looking at him, his eyes still puffy from crying not too long ago. Asuma let out a grunt "For what? I wasn't the one that saved your mom kid. You should thank Menma and Naruto when he comes back. They're the ones that found her and beat the guys that took her."
Inari thought of Naruto, the guy that he had pissed off and had gotten to berate him the other day. That was one of the guys that had saved his mom and beaten those two scary guys with the swords, in one move? "How?" Inari asked Asuma. Naruto and Menma couldn't have been that much older than him, "How did those guys fight against those thugs like that?"
Letting out a sigh, Asuma walked to the stairs to head up and see how his genin were doing, "Well Naruto and Menma has a few problems themselves, pretty big ones. You lost your father, well Naruto and Menma never knew either of their parents. In fact, people in our village don't really like them at all. A lot of people see them as useless, or something they'd like to just forget exists. How would you like that? For people to try and deny the fact that you're an actual person and you exist just like they do?" Inari shook his head, "You probably can't imagine that because you've always had people that are happy to see you and love you, people to protect you. So you see, Menma and Naruto have more of a reason than you do to cry."
"Why don't they?" Inari asked.
Asuma shrugged, "Because they probably know that it won't change anything. Crying is useless and doesn't solve problems. The only time I've ever even heard of those kids crying is when they realized their teammates weren't dead..." At that, Asuma let a small smile come to his face, "But then again it's okay to cry when you're happy."
He walked past Inari to continue on upstairs when the boy called out to him again, "Wait, where are they now? They're on your team like those others aren't they?"
Asuma chuckled and ruffled his hair, "Well let's say that both their jobs aren't quite done yet. They still got to protect your grandpa, and they'll give it their all, just like with everything else they do.
"What?" Inari said with a confused face,
"Yeah." Asuma said as he made it the rest of the way upstairs, "The win's the most important part. I'd hate for him to be a ball of energy and fail." As he made it all the way upstairs and Inari went downstairs, Asuma found Tsunami leaning against the wall with a smile on her face, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." She assured him, "Naruto-kun was able to stop them before anything could happen at all. And thank you for talking with Inari like that. I'm sorry this has been so much trouble for all of you."
Asuma waved it off, "It's all a part of the job ma'am. And it's not over yet. If you think anything is off at all I want you to call for me. I'm going to be routinely patrolling the place and keeping an eye on my genin. The prisoner won't bother any of you. She's no threat." A grin came to his face, "I can think of a way to repay me though." He said, getting a rather shocked look from Tsunami by the sound of want in his tone.
She was about to call him out on it until he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his vest pocket and held it up with the same grin on his face and a thumbs up gesture. Tsunami shook her head with a humorous smile on her face, "Sorry Asuma-san. I would rather the inside of my house not smell like an ashtray. You can smoke outside." She laughed when his shoulders dropped in defeat, "You know the rules."
Asuma kicked at the ground and continued on to Ino and Shikamaru, looking dejected, "... my own students... even my clients don't give me any respect. Is it me?" He said to himself quietly, getting Tsunami to laugh a little more and driving Asuma further into depression.
XxX
(Bridge Under Construction)
Kakashi snapped his book shut as a boat started coming towards the unfinished edge of the bridge. He had utilized the mist jutsu he had copied from Zabuza during their last meeting as a bluff to cover that there was no battle going on. He had gotten Tazuna to get his workers to clear the bridge until the conflict was complete, but the remaining men with him working on the bridge didn't want to just leave. If they were planning to fight Gato over the bridge they would damn well be there for it.
After seeing Naruto and Menma put down a good number of them the previous day they found themselves fired up at the prospect of being able to get their own shot. The village had been stirring ever since the word of some kids that could replicate themselves beating down Gato's men came through.
Thus currently on the bridge it was Kakashi, Chouji, and Sasuke in front of Sakura who was slated with protecting Tazuna throughout whatever happened, and twenty of Tazuna's workers behind them.
"Taking quite a while with the job aren't you 'Demon of the Mist'?" Gato's voice said from within the rather sparse mist, however it was thick enough for him to not be able to make out much more than silhouettes that he mistook for Zabuza and Haku. When he eventually got close enough to see the masked face of Kakashi, who seemed to be smiling at him, his senses of self-preservation kicked in and he turned to run.
"Now that's not nice, first you mistake my identity and then you don't even say hello. Those are terrible manners." Kakashi said as he drew a handful of shuriken and threw them after Gato. However with the mist in his way, Kakashi mistook his position and wound up hitting three of Gato's hired men, only managing to cut the short man on his shoulder as he continued to run.
"Anyone who kills that ninja I'll give you 1 million ryo!" Gato yelled frantically, and that finally got his men in gear.
"Good luck with that!" Kakashi said in a voice that sounded bright and honest before he pointed his fingers forward, "Sasuke, Chouji, straight ahead." This many bandits wouldn't have been enough to deal with Zabuza even if they had fought a full battle and he would have won. Zabuza would have massacred more than half of them before anyone by some stroke of divinity managed to put him down.
Sasuke nodded and quickly worked through a series of hand-seals before placing his fingers by his mouth, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!" From the genin's mouth erupted a roaring flame that cut through the mist and hit a large number of Gato's thugs who were lined up prepared to charge ahead to take down Kakashi and anyone else in their way, "Get Gato Chouji!"
The screams from those hit with the jutsu preceded Chouji's body expanding to that of a ball as he tucked his limbs into his clothes and began rolling, "Nikudan Sensha (Human Bullet Tank)!" He began to pick up momentum as he headed forward and knocked around any of Gato's men that managed to find themselves in his way, either by knocking them off of the bridge entirely or smashing them into the ground under him.
Kakashi quickly dealt with anyone that managed to get through the combined assault of his two students and still come forward. The entire time the mist from his jutsu was clearing up and the workers were able to get a clear view of what was happening, namely Gato's assault squad being broken down by three hired ninja.
XxX
As a series of cheers went up from everyone who could see what was happening, two blurs jumped over their heads and landed in front of Tazuna right by Sakura, "What's going on Sakura-chan? Did I miss much?"
Sakura quickly turned to her side to see Naruto and on her other side was Menma staring out at the fight between their comrades and Gato's men with his fists clenched, although he had a rather ragged appearance, she then looked at Naruto. "Naruto what happened? How did everything go with Zabuza?"
"Not good." He said with a frown, "We had to fight them when they didn't listen and tried to kill us. But it's okay. Ino and Shikamaru are kind of beat up, but we won, Menma was also able to kill Zabuza." Naruto's eyes narrowed on the scene in front of him, "And these are Gato's guys that we knew were coming today, right?"
Sakura nodded, "Yeah, just like you and Menma said they would." She couldn't see his eyes behind his goggles, but she could clearly tell that there was nothing goofy or fun about this Naruto at all, nothing like the one that had been throwing rocks at her and Ino, and nothing anywhere near like the one that had been constantly pestering her in the Academy. Just as she started to think on this, she saw him bounce on his toes and charge forward, prompting her to grab a hold of his arm, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where do you think you're going? Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun, and Chouji can handle this, help me watch out for Tazuna!"
Naruto turned towards her, his goggles obscuring his attempt at puppy-dog eyes, "But Sakura-chan I can still fight... I'm still so pissed off! You can watch him here can't you?"
"And what am I going to do if Gato has another jounin waiting to attack baka? I'm all alone!" Sakura said with a tick mark on her head, "Just calm down and wait it out!" She jerked him back to her side and ignored his pout at not being able to go fight or get a shot at Gato so she could focus back on staying alert despite how well things were going, "Just when you think the guy's starting to be a little bit cooler!" Her inner personality griped in her place.
"Fine..." Naruto said to her, watching Kakashi, Sasuke, and Chouji beat the rest of Gato's goons with next to no effort after they had already eliminated the bulk of them with ninjutsu beforehand. He looked at Menma briefly they nodded in unison for a second understanding what they were both thinking. They then formed their signature hand-seal and decided that at least they could help out support-style, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)." Over twenty clones formed and headed off down the bridge in case there was anyone that needed help.
XxX
Sasuke finished fighting his way towards the end of the bridge through Gato's men and found his boat leaving. The young avenger narrowed his eyes at the departing vessel and took out a kunai, "Oh no you don't..." He muttered as he started wrapping an explosive tag around the handle, setting it to begin burning down as he took aim and prepared to throw. His fireball wouldn't reach out that far, and even with the kunai he needed to have impeccable aim to hit.
"Stupid brats! That was my meal ticket!" A man shouted with a small club in his hand, breaking Sasuke's concentration. He smashed Sasuke's hand, knocking the kunai down onto the ground as it continued to burn. Sasuke looked at it and let out a gasp as it neared detonation time.
Shutting his eyes, Sasuke wondered why he hadn't been blown to bits after a few seconds even though he had heard the explosion. He hadn't even bothered to move. The ground he would have needed to cover in less than a second wouldn't have been possible for him. Opening his eyes, he found himself a decent distance away from the explosive tagged kunai that would have killed him, though he didn't understand what happened. All he saw was that he and the others had been reinforced by Naruto and Menma's clones who were using their rather short life spans to take advantage of Gato's men not seeing them coming in order to put them down fast before being dispelled.
XxX
Menma got his memory back from one of the first clones he had sent off and found that it had paid immediate dividends for the fight, as it kept Sasuke from injuring himself or maybe even killing himself by using Kawarimi to switch with him when he dropped his kunai, "Whew..." Menma exhaled in relief.
Sakura looked over at a relieved Menma with a raised eyebrow, "What happened?"
Menma shook his head, "Nothing, but that explosion at the end of the bridge almost had Sasuke in the middle of it."
Naruto heard Sakura gasp and quickly assuaged her fears, "It's okay. Our clone got him out, he's fine."
Sakura's face reflected the relief she felt. This was turning out well, very well. Zabuza had been defeated and was out of the way, no longer a threat, and Gato's attempt to cheapskate his way out of a deal with someone under his employ was failing epically.
XxX
Kakashi had to admit, his genin were working well. Then again, an opponent who wasn't Zabuza this time around probably seemed easy to them. Even with the numbers they were disorganized, and with seeing kids perform jutsu the little amount of a formation they could boast having quickly fell apart, especially when it became clear that Gato ditched them. And then when Naruto and Menma's clones came storming onto the scene with a vengeance and knowing what his clones had done to the last batch of thugs that came through, they had all but given up.
He quickly disposed of another of the few remaining thugs with a hard backhand strike to the face. Turning towards the site of an explosion on the bridge, Kakashi saw Sasuke running towards him, dodging the men in his way effortlessly and brutally kicking them to the ground without much thought. Once he reached Kakashi he stopped in front of his commander and spoke, anger underlying his usual rather stoic tone, "Gato's gone. He got away and he's too far to reach from here."
Kakashi sighed as that miniature headache was still around and walking about, but their mission wasn't to hunt down and kill Gato, it was to protect the bridge-builder, and they had done that. It would take time for Gato to re-amass a force that he felt comfortable with having them take them on, if he even decided to again. For now at least, everything was alright.
As he looked down at his broody-looking genin, Kakashi's words died in his throat. He instead gave Sasuke his notorious eye-smile, "It's alright Sasuke, the mission is still well in hand. Oh, and by the way, congratulations."
As Kakashi decided to do one last sweep of the bridge for injured enemies to capture, Sasuke wondered what he was talking about, and wouldn't know until his adrenaline died down and he looked into something that showed him his reflection, where he would see red eyes with a single tomoe centered around each pupil.
XxX
(A Few Hours Later)
Other than the thugs that had been killed by Sasuke's initial fireball and the ones crushed by Chouji's family jutsu that wound up dying from those injuries, the defeated hired hands were all rounded up and captured by the group of ninja and processed to an area to be held by the overjoyed townspeople. The sight of the bridge workers leading the beaten up brutes that had been terrorizing them for well over a year brought everyone from their homes to cheer for the victory.
After finding a building to hold the men inside of, and no shortage of volunteers eager to guard them until a solution of what to do with them came up, the Konoha ninja decided to head back to Tazuna's house.
As the house came into sight, Naruto, with his goggles once again out of his face, had a rather tired smile on his face as he walked up the front porch, "Yeah... I did it. I'm a winner... all I do is win, all day long... dattebayo. Kami I'm tired." He said, opening the door and walking over to a couch where he immediately sat down, tilted his head back, and fell asleep. The others stared at him from behind the couch at the door before shrugging and heading upstairs.
Menma stared at his loudly snoring brother and shook his head, "Well, he hasn't gotten any sleep or rest of any kind in over twenty-four hours. I guess it was only a matter of time before he clocked out for the night... even though it's still light outside." His eyes then rested on the still unconscious Haku that had been lain out on the same couch that Naruto sat on, further on down, "And this is our hunter-ninja I see."
"You're back." Asuma said looking at Kakashi, walking downstairs without his flak jacket on, and a new shirt on, one with no blood or cuts in it, "I assume everything went well?"
Kakashi nodded, "As well as we could have expected. Although Gato didn't want to stick around once he realized that we weren't injured in the least. He left his men behind to cover him, and he wound up getting away."
"Oh well..." Asuma dismissed with a sigh, "He'll be back, and we'll be waiting. Besides, Naruto and Menma gleamed the location of his base on Wave out of one of his men the other day. If you're feeling antsy we can check it out. See if we can't nip this all in the bud while we have him on the ropes." He suggested to the masked ninja.
"Maybe..." Kakashi said thoughtfully, "We'll have to think about it."
Asuma accepted that. There was no reason to go all out after they basically broke the back of Gato's homegrown force of men and the missing-ninja he went out of his way to hire. Contacting more that were strong enough to beat them would take more time than he had. The bridge would be done in less than a week at this rate. He looked down at the sleeping Naruto and now sleeping Menma and smiled, "Those brats did good today. He did the lion's share of the fighting against the hunter nin and the other defeated Zabuza ." He said, gesturing towards Haku.
Kakashi raised his only visible eyebrow in shock, "That's... rather impressive. I'd give him some serious points for style if that were the case, because that would make this one hell of a day for a genin... or any ninja." He leveled a half-hearted glare at Asuma, 'Of course you would have been the one that strong-armed him onto your team instead of mine. I don't get any respect at all... well that is until I actually fight people, then I get respect. Or is that fear? Meh fear, respect, same difference.' He then turned his attention to Haku, "What do we do with her?"
Asuma replied quickly, as he had all day to think about what exactly to do, "She's our prisoner until the bridge is complete."
"Just until then?" Kakashi asked.
Asuma nodded, "By then the mission will be over. And even now, Gato won't be paying for Tazuna's assassination if he even stuck around. He knows what we're going to do, so he's either fortified his place on Nami no Kuni with the last of his men or he's cutting his losses and getting out of here."
Kakashi's vote leaned towards the latter. Unless he had another ninja of Zabuza's caliber lined up, and there was no way to swing that kind of contact in only a week, he would run. Sasuke neglected to mention which way Gato's boat was heading when he left. The man still had control of the sea lanes, so him hooking up with one of his supply ships on the way to the mainland was far from impossible. Still, five days wasn't enough for him to get a decent amount of any kind of force together. His criminal acts were supposed to be under the radar at large.
"He's gone from here." Kakashi confirmed, "Nami is only one place that he was trying to enforce complete control over because he saw an opportunity and could keep the place isolated so word never got out. He still has branches and branches of business elsewhere, though he may lose some face when the events of what happened here gets out to the public around the world." He said that, but he doubted it. Guys like Gato needed to be finished off or they would just cause trouble elsewhere. Oh well, there was always a chance that he would do something like this again, and he'd be waiting. Maybe if he were lucky enough someone else would get a shot at him and finish the worm for them.
"Good." Asuma said as he headed towards the front door to get some air, "Now I'm going to go into the forest, confirm Zabuza's dead, and scream in pain for a few minutes. Zabuza might have cracked some ribs during our fight, and doing your own stitches sucks because you can't use any painkillers."
"Have fun." Kakashi replied flippantly to his fellow jounin.
XxX
Sakura, Sasuke, and Chouji looked at a bed-ridden Ino with wide eyes after hearing what she said, "You're saying Naruto was the one that beat the hunter-ninja and Menma killed Zabuza?" Sakura asked in disbelief.
Ino nodded weakly. She and Shikamaru wouldn't be moving about freely for at least a full day due to their bodies having been in total shutdown for as long as they had been. Shikamaru didn't seem to have a problem with this at all, as it meant that he could catch up on his sleeping, which he was currently doing, and this left Ino to field all of the questions that the others, namely Sakura, had after she had gotten the low-down from the others on just what they had done at the bridge.
"How?" Chouji asked. He remembered Kakashi being exhausted and barely defeating Zabuza and what Kakashi said about that person being powerful, and how they were caught off-guard by the hunter-ninja when Zabuza was rescued.
Ino frowned, "I didn't see Menma's fight with the missing-nin. Me and Shikamaru didn't last that long after we freed Naruto from that weird dome of mirrors. The plan Shikamaru had was working perfectly, but we weren't able to completely keep her boxed in without Naruto there to keep up the pressure. She had injured him with tons of senbon and his muscles were shredded. I don't have any idea how he was able to win the way he was all on his own, even he said he wasn't able to move that fast, and she was seriously fast!"
Chouji looked over his sleeping best friend, "So you and Shikamaru are okay, right?" He said in a concerned manner. He wasn't even eating anything during Ino's explanation.
"Yeah." Ino said, "Shikamaru's just taking advantage of our bodies being useless for the time being and sleeping."
Sakura looked at the floor of the room apprehensively, "I don't really like Zabuza's hunter-ninja being in the same house as us. Even if she already was defeated..."
"Naruto beat her already." Sasuke said firmly, "It's over Sakura. She's not a threat anymore so it's nothing to worry about." He said, as he stood up to leave the room. He had heard all he needed to about what happened. All things considered it had been a relatively good day all around considering how it had started, especially for Sasuke. After his close call with the explosive tag he had managed to unlock his Sharingan. He still didn't know how he had gotten out of there, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
XxX
(Later That Night)
Naruto woke up suddenly, remembering that the last thing he did was crash out on the sofa once he got through with everything he had done for the last day and a half. He found that a blanket had been thrown over him and the lights in the room had all been turned out. The blonde genin cracked his neck, having had it hang backwards hours without moving and stretched out, bumping into something next to him on the couch.
It shifted slightly, but other than that didn't move. Naruto rubbed his eyes and looked to his side in the dark. Yawning, he quickly let out a pulse of his echolocation jutsu and saw Haku's form in his mind right next to him, tied up. From this range he could make out every last detail on her, and he knew that her eyes were open and she was wide awake, just like him.
He just sat there in the dark, not moving or saying anything, however by then he had also made it clear that he was awake as well. Eventually he heaved a deep sigh and spoke, "Haku... did you keep my team alive on purpose?"
"Yes." She said lowly.
Naruto could tell that her spirit was broken. When she saw Asuma walk over after the fight with Zabuza she knew what had happened. Naruto freaked out when he thought his friends were dead. He could only imagine how Haku felt knowing that unlike him her precious person was actually dead, no false-death state for him. Especially when Asuma left and actually confirmed his kill after they had all gotten back, but Naruto wasn't aware of that part.
"Thank you." That was all Naruto could really say to her. She could have killed his friends. It had probably taken more effort for her to find a way to simply incapacitate them instead of going for the kill.
"If you really were grateful..." Haku said in the same low tone as before, "...You would kill me Naruto-kun."
Naruto found himself getting rather angry at her again, "I told you already. I'm not going to kill you Haku. At first I was going to do it to be mean seeing as how you wanted to die, but I'm still not going to do it. What kind of way to repay you is that? You let them live and went against orders and in return I kill you. That sounds really great doesn't it?" He finished sarcastically.
"Zabuza-sama was all that I had, and he killed him." Haku said earnestly looking at the raven haired swordsman sleeping on the couch next to Naruto. Her voice starting to sound rather choked up as she gave him her story of how as a child her father had killed her mother and tried to kill her too due to her kekkei genkai, how she had managed to kill him in self-defense, and how she had roamed the streets before being found on the verge of death by Zabuza, "He was the only person in the world that acknowledged my existence and gave me a purpose, and now he's gone. Tell me Naruto-kun..." She said, and even without light in the room he could tell that she had turned her eyes to attempt to lock with his, "What am I supposed to do now?"
"Anything." Naruto answered immediately, "You can do anything you want Haku-chan." Naruto said, feeling his ire of her dying down now that everything was over, especially since everything she had known had been taken away because of this one mission, "I understand. But the difference between me and you is that if you had actually killed Ino and Shikamaru, I would have kept going... somehow. I'm not telling you to suck it up or get over it, how could I? I'm just saying, you're still alive, and living for a single person like that, while it might make you feel needed, what do you do when you fail? Look at you, you want me to kill you so you can follow Zabuza."
"I was his tool." She said, trying to defend her viewpoint on the matter, "I was a weapon only meant for Zabuza-sama to use for his goals. I'm not good for anything other than that."
He was really arguing a losing battle here. Haku was so completely devoted to Zabuza that without him there wasn't anything else to her. What could he do, get her someone else to live for? Who? Him? Yeah right.
If not a person then...
"Haku-chan..." Naruto said, getting her attention once more, "What exactly were Zabuza's goals? You said he needed you for them, but what exactly was he trying to do?" He almost didn't want to know. Zabuza had not been a particularly pleasant person to say the very least. Between fighting Team 7, shooting him down when he tried to warn him of Gato's treachery, tailing them home to take out Tazuna, and trying to kill them to top it all off he hadn't exactly endeared himself to Naruto... something that otherwise wasn't that hard to do the boy had to admit to himself. He certainly wouldn't be losing any sleep over Zabuza being put down once and for all. He was a right many notches above those scumbags Naruto had put six feet deep on the path to Tazuna's house, but far from a good person.
Haku sounded... eager? Eager to explain what made Zabuza tick it appeared. As if what she had to say would make Naruto believe that he was a wonderful person somehow, "Zabuza-sama's ambition was to kill the Mizukage and wrest control of Kirigakure from him." And there that went. Another notch dropped for Zabuza. Naruto never really needed to know that. Naruto could never even consider ever trying to take out Hokage-jiji, the man was a hero to him. But then Haku continued, "The country had been suffering unrest for quite some time. The barbaric practice of Academy students fighting one another to the death to become shinobi, and the encouragement of exterminating those with kekkei genkai like myself were just a few of the examples of the man's crimes. No one else would stand against him."
And that changed things. Hearing that Zabuza actually stood against something like that... that was actually pretty heavy. But then again if that was why he was fighting then why on earth was he helping Gato? That seemed rather counter-productive in the grand scheme of things didn't it?
"The money for assisting Gato was very good." Haku said, answering the question that Naruto never asked her in the first place as she continued to explain, "It would have served as a fantastic point of beginning to fund a possible return to Mizu no Kuni and another attempt at the Mizukage, possibly with far more assistance this time and a palpable chance at actually changing the regime."
Hearing how much happier in comparison Haku sounded when talking about Zabuza's ambition gave him an idea. If she was only living for Zabuza then why not live for Zabuza's ideal. He just had to make sure it wasn't something evil like he originally thought it was. Naruto put a hand on her and told her what he thought, "Hey, instead of trying to die because Zabuza isn't here anymore, why don't you try to carry out his dream for him in his place? Yeah, you could totally do that Haku-chan." He said in an encouraging manner.
"What?" Haku was rather shocked at the prospect. She had to admit that the idea had merit... and to finish up Zabuza's unfinished business would be something that she could do to find herself useful to her master even after his death. Still, how would she ever possibly pull that off? Not even Zabuza could do it, "I don't really think I could ever-."
A rather perturbed voice cut her off, "If Zabuza had told you that he wanted you to do that for him would you have said you could never do it?" Naruto fired back, stopping her from doubting her own capabilities any longer. Naruto knew that if Hokage-jiji had asked him to do something he would try it, no matter how big of a goal it was. Hell he already had a huge goal ahead of him, "It doesn't matter how long it takes Haku. That's the point of having a goal in life, to give it purpose, like me. I want to be Hokage, to protect everyone I care about, just like you said I should. Even I know that something like that won't happen for a long, long time, but I'll make it happen eventually! So you shouldn't say you can't flat out do it because you know it'll be hard. If it was what Zabuza really wanted do you think he would have just quit? Of course not. That's why he took this job, that's why he worked for Gato, that's why he fought us! Because he wasn't done with going for his goal."
Haku just lay there, still bound in place on the couch, thinking about what Naruto had just said. His voice sounded completely confident in the way that he truly believed what he was saying. There was no deceit in his tone. She couldn't find anything dishonest with how he was talking to her, and for a moment Haku flashed back to the boy in the forest she had first met. She had more or less betrayed him, and here he was trying to cheer her up and actually find her something to live for.
'This boy is one of a kind.' She thought to herself, 'He seems so kind and unassuming to those around him, but that power within him whenever he is angered is truly frightening. Like standing across from the devil himself in all of his fury.' Haku could only imagine the amount of power that she had felt earlier that morning, just packed inside of Naruto's twelve-year old body and couldn't comprehend it.
As she thought, Naruto chuckled slightly, "Besides, if I end up getting to be Hokage before you can beat the Mizukage then I'll just have to help you out won't I?" He said. She couldn't see him, but she could just tell that he had a grin on his face, "That's what friends do after all, right?"
Hearing him call her a friend got Haku to widen her brown eyes in surprise. He really did forgive her. And knowing that, she couldn't fight down her own smile, even in the situation she was in, "Yes. That is what friends do Naruto-kun. I would be glad to accept your help in the future. But I have to become way stronger if I am ever to defeat the Mizukage."
"I will too." Naruto said, "A Hokage can't be weak can he?"
XxX
(The Next Day)
Asuma walked into the room his team used for lodging to find that Naruto wasn't there. He wasn't downstairs either, but Haku was right where he left her. Looking rather bored, but other than that she was fine. He'd have to see about having a doctor come up and check on her, that and make sure that Ino and Shikamaru wouldn't suffer any lasting effects from Haku's senbon putting them in a near-death state.
"Hello my temporarily invalid genin!" He said brightly, getting a groan out of Shikamaru and a yawn out of an awakening genin, "How are you feeling today?"
Ino sat up relatively easily and stretched her arms out, "I'm fine. A little stiff, but better than yesterday Asuma-sensei. How are things coming along with the bridge?"
Asuma smiled, "The villagers have some fire back in them, and by a little I mean a lot. It seems like all of them that are able want to work on it in some way. So are you up for guarding Tazuna today?"
"Yeah." Ino said, her hair down comfortably, "I guess I should make myself useful in some way on this mission..."
Asuma frowned at hearing her speak like that, "What are you talking about Ino? You've been incredibly useful so far. Why are you saying that?"
Ino shook her head, "I really haven't been. Not one of us helped Menma in his fight. The only fighting so far that we did either Naruto handled it all, or when I actually had to fight Haku I wound up getting beaten. We might as well face facts. Shikamaru and I might as well have not been there. Naruto beat her without any help."
'You were more of a catalyst than you'll ever know Ino.' Asuma turned to Shikamaru who was facing away from them in his futon, "And is that how you feel Shikamaru? You didn't dispute her, and don't play dead over there. I can tell you're awake." He said, getting a sigh from the pineapple-haired boy as he turned around.
Shikamaru had his usual bored expression on his face, "Well I won't say that we were useless. We did manage to get Naruto out of that tough scrape he was in inside of that dome. But in the end he was the one that got hurt doing all of the fighting. All that hunter-ninja did was disable us in one move once we were found out. In a head-on fight, Naruto was the only one that was a match."
"And?" Asuma said questioningly. He wanted to hear what Shikamaru had to say about the matter, "What does that mean to you?"
"It's troublesome..." Shikamaru complained, getting Ino to roll her eyes at hearing him use his catchphrase, "But letting Naruto and Menma handle all of the real fighting isn't fair to him. We saw what was happening to Naruto Asuma-sensei... he was getting torn apart in that dome, I don't know how he lasted the entire time. I got hit only a fifth of the times that he did and that was all I could take."
Ino held herself and shivered slightly, "He had so many of those needles in his body... all over. I took one of them and my entire body shut down and he stood up and fought looking like a porcupine. I can't believe it now that I'm thinking back on it." Her eyes hardened, "He's our teammate. We can't just use him and wait for him to set up Shikamaru's strategies for the checkmate. He's tough, but what if next time he fought someone with more power behind their attacks to go with the speed? How much would be too much?"
Asuma let her get out her frustrations and fears that she had after the fight with Haku before speaking, "You know, Naruto and Menma are the ones that thinks they failed you guys." That got the eyes of both Shikamaru and Ino to lock firmly onto him, as if they were willing him to elaborate, "They thought Haku killed you both at first and they knew that they were the muscle behind the team. When you both went down they felt like they were too weak, that they couldn't live up to the importance of their job."
"We're supposed to be a team." Ino insisted, "It's my fault that we're so unbalanced and have to rely on them for front-line fighting! They shouldn't blame themselves because I couldn't defend myself!"
Shikamaru sat and thought about his role on the team. He actually enjoyed it so far because Naruto and Menma were always willing to step up and do whatever task they had. He didn't want to say that they carried the bulk of the work because of him, but it was definitely disproportionate between Naruto and Menma who always seemed to do more than him. Even in the battle with Haku that seemed to be the case, and as much as it sucked to admit it that would wind up getting someone killed against an opponent that wasn't as merciful as Haku.
The laziest member of Team 10 sat up in his futon and rubbed the back of his neck, "Well... a good strategist fights on the field with his own soldiers. After all, if I feel good enough about a plan to send Naruto in I'd better be willing to step in there myself along with him." He let out a sigh, "And if I'm going to be able to keep up with that troublesome bastard I'd better start getting better at being more than just being number one at running away and hiding. So damn troublesome..."
Asuma looked at his students proudly and made a conscious thought to step up and start guiding them towards whatever they felt they needed to make them better ninja once they got home, 'And that's how you teach. Kurenai claims I'm not a good role model. What does she know anyway? My kids have great morals and common sense.'
XxX
(Forest Clearing Near Tazuna's House)
Naruto stood with his foot tapping the ground impatiently, "Come on, come on... let's get this show on the road. I want to kick your ass before breakfast is ready Sasuke-teme." Sakura, Menma, Chouji, and even Inari stood off to the side at the end of the clearing among the trees to watch from there.
"Yeah, whatever dobe." Sasuke said, stretching himself out to get ready before shoving his hands into his pockets, "We need a referee for this." He looked over at Sakura who seemed eager to volunteer and shook his head, she'd probably call the entire fight in his favor and disqualify Naruto for landing a punch, "Menma, how about it?"
Menma walked forward with his hands behind his head, "I don't think this is such a good idea you guys. What are you even fighting about?"
Naruto started shaking his arms and legs out to get ready to move them in the fight, "Nothing. Sasuke called me out a few days ago, I accepted, we're going to fight. What's to understand?"
Sasuke nodded in agreement, "It's just a little test. It's not a big deal, so don't worry about it. Apparently the dobe almost got himself killed yesterday and so did I, so who cares about a spar?" He looked over at Naruto, "Rules?"
Naruto stroked his chin in thought, "Everything is legal. No shots to the groin for obvious reasons, no explosive tags, duh. When Menma calls the fight that's it, no dispute. And to keep this from going all day long we need a time limit. 10 minutes?" Sasuke nodded, "Right, if it goes 10 minutes it's an automatic draw. We have all of the clearing, and can go into the trees a little bit. You know how far is too far, and if you go that far I'll be able to tell anyway and I'll call you on it."
"Agreed." Sasuke consented to the rules and set himself in his ready stance as did Naruto, "Ready whenever you are."
"I've been ready for almost a week." Naruto quipped before turning his eyes momentarily to Menma, "We're going to start when you say go."
Menma let out a sigh, "I still think this is a really bad idea, but you guys aren't going to listen to me anyway. Go!" He yelled before jumping back out of the way closer to Sakura and Inari.
At the same time, Naruto and Sasuke let fly with a kunai that flew past the other and towards the target. Both boys easily dodged and Sasuke spoke up, "You're throwing kunai dobe?"
Naruto pointed at him, "You did too, and besides, I knew you'd dodge. It wasn't supposed to hit you. Shikamaru says that the first move is always a feint."
"Feints usually mean you do something afterwards Naruto." Sakura chimed in from her place on the sidelines.
"Not helping Sakura-chan!" Naruto said before forming his cross hand-seal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" In a puff of smoke, three clones formed and Naruto pointed at Sasuke, "Let's see what he's got!"
"Go Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted from the sidelines as Naruto's clones ran towards Sasuke, criss-crossing to try and disorient him. One slid low towards Sasuke with a sliding kick as a feint that was intended to get him off-balance.
'Those solid clones of his.' Sasuke thought as he quickly blocked the first kick and ducked a punch from the second one. A third came at him from his side and reached out to grab a hold of him, but Sasuke moved behind the second clone he had dodged and shoved him into the grabbing clone's path. Using this opening, he finished off the low attacking clone with a quick kick that dispelled it. He then punched the clone he had used as a weapon against the other one in the back and got rid of that one as well.
The final clone didn't waste his existence and threw a kick at Sasuke that he once again blocked. However it smirked when it channeled chakra to the bottom of its sandal and stuck fast to Sasuke's arm that he used to block with. Sasuke found that he couldn't get his arm off of the clone's leg as it used his arm as leverage to elevate and stand on him to deliver a series of stomps with the other leg down on Sasuke that he used his other arm to block, straining to hold Naruto's clone up with the first arm.
'Enough of this!' Sasuke thought as he let him arm go slack and drop the clone to the ground hard, dispelling it. Other than a few scuffs from Naruto's sandals on his arm-warmers, Sasuke didn't have any damage on him, 'Dobe's got some dangerous taijutsu. The real one won't be that easy to shake off. I know it.' He looked back where he left Naruto to see him wave at him.
"That was good teme." Naruto said before forming the ram hand-seal, "Let's try this." In a puff of smoke that completely obscured his body, Naruto seemed to disappear.
Sasuke's eyes widened, 'Was that a clone too? No, I had a clear view of him the whole time. He wouldn't have had a chance to switch with a clone and hide, so that means...' Sasuke palmed his face, "Fucking Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Jutsu). I've got to learn how to do that..." He mumbled before a smirk came to his face, "Well now it's as good a time as any to put this to the test." He said as he let his eyes activate the Sharingan, prepared for any move Naruto could and would make as he waited him out for a minute or two. All he needed was the sound of the slightest movement and he would turn his head and see anything coming his way, "Come on out dobe! There's nowhere you can hide where I won't find you!"
"Who's hiding?" A group of voices chorused simultaneously. From one side of the clearing, over a dozen Naruto's dropped from the trees, all cracking their knuckles and smirking, "You could take on three of us straightforward..." Another clone picked up where that single one had left off, "...But let's see how you can take boss's coordinated assault." He said as a few of the clones jumped into the air and threw shuriken at Sasuke to cover the approach of the infantry clones that began a rush towards Sasuke.
Sasuke quickly fished out a set of shuriken in each hand and took aim immediately, the second the clones jumped into the air his Sharingan had them pegged all the way, and by the time they reached the apex of their jumps and were prepared to let their weapons go they were already hit and dispelled by Sasuke's own.
The ground clones saw him release his shuriken, and without missing a beat or even checking to see if he hit his targets, Sasuke immediately rolled through his hand-seals for his next move, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!" From Sasuke came a towering fireball that hit the clones and roasted them into defeat, leaving behind a modest crater where it had hit them.
Sakura looked on at Sasuke handily dispatching Naruto's clones with his clan's signature ninjutsu, "Sasuke-kun is so cool! He beat all of those Narutos just like that!"
Chouji gulped in apprehension, "What if the real Naruto was in there?" He didn't want to have to explain to Kakashi and Asuma why Naruto was extra-crispy once they came back for breakfast.
"Menma stop the match!"
Everyone froze as Naruto walked casually from a hiding place from the trees and strolled over to Sasuke's crater where there were still remnants of flames flickering in it. Naruto fished a cigarette from his jacket pocket and used the fire from the ground to light it and take a long drag from it, exhaling in relief, "Okay... now I'm good." He said with a grin.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes and flicked a shuriken at Naruto, hitting him only for him to burst into smoke.
"Fucking stupid-ass clone." Naruto griped audibly as he rushed from his cover of the forest at Sasuke while other clones concealed in the foliage covered him with projectiles.
Sasuke dodged the weapons that he saw coming clearly, threw his own in return that got him the satisfying popping sounds of clones dropping like flies, and prepared for a fist-fight with the original who looked like he was through messing around. Instead of waiting for Naruto to try and make contact with that dangerous taijutsu of his, Sasuke shot a side kick at Naruto's stomach that hit him and forced Naruto to let off an 'oof' that sounded like music to Sasuke's ears.
'Teme kicks harder than Ino for sure.' Naruto thought as he latched onto Sasuke's leg and saw the realization in his eyes as he knew that Naruto had him right where he wanted him. Not accepting that Naruto had the clear advantage, Sasuke contorted his body and delivered a punch that hit Naruto on top of the head, forcing Naruto to click his teeth together when his jaw slammed shut. That was all well and good for Sasuke, but Naruto still had his leg.
'Damn! He's still stuck to me like glue!' Sasuke mused frantically as his eyes could clearly see, but do nothing about it, as Naruto still had him. He couldn't dodge, he was stuck, and no amount of blocking would save him for long. Naruto was clearly more physical than he was and could take one hell of a punch.
Naruto reached forward and swept out Sasuke's single standing leg with one of his own and sent the boy falling to the ground. Before he could even hit the dirt, Naruto already let go of Sasuke's leg and vaulted himself up, and when Sasuke hit the ground, Naruto landed on his stomach and sternum with both feet, driving the air out of Sasuke but not much more as he wasn't heavy enough to do more damage without jumping higher. Still, Naruto stuck a foot to Sasuke's chest and shot his other leg up for what was to be an axe kick to land on either his head or his chest, "Good to go!"
Sasuke saw him lift his leg for the follow-up strike and rolled to the side, knocking Naruto to the ground and allowing him to stand back up, only he found that even though he had stood back up, Naruto's foot was still stuck to his chest, and he saw the sole of Naruto's second shoe coming right at his grill in slow motion as it kicked the daylights out of him.
Sasuke stumbled back, but Naruto's foot remained attached to his chest, so all he was really doing was dragging Naruto across the ground, something Naruto had absolutely no problems with. And he found no relief or mercy from the blonde human-anchor as Naruto peppered his person with nasty up-kicks to any place on Sasuke that they could reach. Head, body, hell even legs... it didn't matter, Naruto's legs were like angry, violent pistons. And as long as he didn't kick Sasuke in the junk by accident it was all good.
One kick from Naruto got the inside of Sasuke's knee and dropped him to the ground on one leg. Sasuke saw Naruto cock his foot back for a particularly hard kick to the face that would have left him seeing stars if not knocked him out altogether. Sasuke only had one course of action, and he really didn't want to do this out here. Still it was either this, or get kicked in the face until ten minutes ran out or until he blacked out, whichever came first.
Naruto was surprised when Sasuke dropped his head, and wound up taking the kick right on the metal of his headband, 'Good defense...' He thought as he wasn't disheartened by this and prepared another kick. That plan went south when, quick as a flash, Sasuke apparently decided that getting kicked in the face at Naruto's leisure wasn't how he wanted to spend the rest of his morning and slipped out of his shirt before leaving Naruto with a parting kick; a low kick meant to sweep out the legs, but instead due to Naruto being on his back he wound up kicking Naruto right in the face.
After delivering the kick, Sasuke had never backpedaled away from someone so quickly in his entire life except for in the Academy away from his legions and legions of-.
He stopped thinking and turned towards the sidelines where Sakura was staring at him blankly. If he were closer he could have sworn that she was drooling a little bit. No way. She was a ninja no matter how much of a fan-girl she was. A ninja didn't drool while watching a fight. Naruto must have kicked him in the head harder than he thought.
Sasuke's lip and nose were busted and he had a pretty good shiner working over one of his eyes. The lesson of the day was, do not let Naruto lay so much as a finger on you or he would turn you into a fine pulp. How to fight without enough distance to stick and move was never covered in the Academy because ninja were supposed to be more nimble than others and able to avoid attacks from regular people, and Sasuke found that with no room to move, and with Naruto being just as fast as him apparently, when Naruto threw something it was almost guaranteed to hit because even if he could see it he still had to react to it. No sticking and moving for Naruto unless the sticking was him grabbing a hold of you, and the moving was him moving your jaw or rattling your brain with whatever he did next.
Naruto jumped back to his feet with a bloody lip and spit onto the ground. A smirk came to his face, one that was actually returned by Sasuke.
Sasuke prepared for the fight to keep going, "Just wait, I'm only getting started here. You've got good taijutsu, but let's see how you handle what else I've got for you."
Naruto chuckled, "I'm not even using my clones with my taijutsu. Wait until you get a load of that." They started walking towards each other slowly before steadily breaking into a run towards each other.
"Time!"
Sasuke slid to a stop in the grass and Naruto stepped over his own foot, falling to the ground on his face. Both boys looked over at Menma who had a firm look on his face, "That's time. The fight's over."
Inari looked between the two, "So who won?"
"I won." Naruto said with a rather bloody grin, "Or did me kicking him again and again not mean anything?"
Sasuke scoffed, "As if dobe. I was working your clones over, and there was no way I was going to let you get close enough to grab me again."
Menma shrugged in confusion and Sakura for once wasn't saying anything at all, no jumping to Sasuke's defense or anything. This was solely because Sasuke was only a few feet in front of her shirtless with sweat going down his chest. Yeah, she was no more good for the rest of the day with that picture in her head. And now in addition to having gone on a C-ranked mission that was upgraded to A-rank she had something else to brag about when she got home.
Sadly for Sakura, all good things come to an end, and Sasuke quickly noticed what the problem was. The young Uchiha ran back to grab his shirt and quickly threw it on, dusting off the shoeprint on the chest of it and casually walking back over.
Naruto rubbed his jaw, "Man that last kick snapped my head back. I didn't even see that one coming..." He tested opening and closing his mouth several times, flinching.
Sasuke wiped his nose and mouth, "I'm going to bruise like a tomato later..." He grumbled lowly.
The two looked at each other before looking away, 'Good fight teme/dobe.'
"Okay!" Chouji said in excitement, "Pissing contest over! Let's go back and get some food, I'm hungry!" He said, actually taking charge and blazing a trail back through the woods to Tazuna's house.
While Sakura preened over Sasuke, checking over the wounds on his face, Inari walked up to Naruto and fell into stride with him, "You won that fight Naruto."
Naruto looked down at Inari and saw the little boy smiling up at him, "At least someone called it right down the middle." He said, giving him a grin in return. Hey, the kid didn't hate him and wasn't moping around. That was definitely a start wasn't it?
XxX
(Five Days Later - Finished Bridge - Mainland Side)
The last five days were very low-key in comparison to the rest of the mission, especially Team 7 who hadn't had any other real missions to compare it to before this. Eventually the bridge wound up being built, and with the mission complete it was time for everyone to head home.
"You really have to leave so soon?" Inari said sadly to Naruto as he, his family, and a good number of the village and bridge workers came out to see the two teams of ninja off as they left.
Inari had tried to stick to Naruto like glue after what had happened with Naruto saving his mother. And the town had heard what had happened on the bridge from the workers; twice, once alone and once with help, one boy with powers of replication fought off Gato's goons. Seeing Kaiza's kid, the son of the hero of the country, reinvigorated back to his old happy self and hanging off of Naruto like a leech for five days did tons to improve the way Naruto was seen, especially when he took it upon himself to do things like use clones to try and fish for the people that were hungry, or even when his clones were helping to build the bridge from the underside just by sticking to it.
Naruto nodded, "Yeah. I've got to go back to my village, I've still got things I need to do myself, I can't just stay here forever." He gestured at the finished bridge, "Besides, you guys have the bridge now, no one's seen Gato since that day we beat his guys..." He then let out a chuckle, "...And you guys did wind up looting his place." A round of laughs came from the workers that had broken into his place and pretty much cleaned it out. He then noticed Inari with his head down, shaking slightly, "Hey, are you crying? It's alright to cry when you're happy you know."
"No!" Inari exclaimed, looking up and visibly holding back, "Why would you think I'm doing something like that? Are you going to cry?"
"Yeah right!" And he wasn't. Naruto had already cried once on this trip, and he was lucky no one saw it to call him out on it later. He was also lucky that his goggles were dark and thick enough that no one could see the water building in the corner of his eyes, and that they were currently over said eyes, "I was just trying to set up an excuse for you when you start bawling like a baby." He smirked when he knew that he had won by Inari turning away from him to hide sniffles. Yep, no one ever checked under the eyewear for tears.
Kakashi cut everything short, "Well it's about time we head home. Our job is done." Chouji and Sakura waved to everyone while Sasuke just gave them all a stiff nod and left it at that.
"Thank Kami." Shikamaru said, "I take back what I said about C-ranks being better. Give me a good, calm D-rank mission. It's far less trouble..."
"Goodbye!" Ino said happily, "And um, try not to let some short guy take control of your country again!"
Sakura nudged Ino with her elbow for saying that before she spoke as well, "If you ever need help again come back to Konoha! Maybe we'll come back, we'd be glad to!"
After saying a few more goodbyes, Kakashi and Asuma got the show on the road and began to lead their genin and even Haku with them towards Hi no Kuni and Konohagakure.
"So father." Tsunami said once the teams of shinobi were at the edge of sight, "The bridge isn't really complete yet. You still have to name it."
Tazuna looked at her, realizing she was right and tried thinking of a name, "I've got it! How about, 'The Super Awesome Great Bridge that Tazuna Built'?" He suggested, laughing raucously until he realized no one was going along with it, "No? Okay..."
"We need a name with strength to signify how strong this bridge is."
"We need a name that will let everyone know that this bridge will stand for a thousand years!"
"I've got it!" Inari yelled out excitedly, "How about 'The Great Naruto Bridge', for the strongest guy I know."
Tazuna looked out at the horizon for the disappearing the ninja as the people behind him began to chatter about the name. Apparently it was rather appropriate for more than one reason, especially considering what the country was called before this, to be named after that person, "Alright then. This bridge is now the Great Naruto Bridge. For the person that showed us all that having the courage to stand up is real strength!"
XxX
Asuma was walking alongside Kakashi ahead of the genin and Haku, "Okay Kakashi, you owe me for this mission so I'm going to need you to embellish the tale a bit." Kakashi lowered his book to give Asuma a skeptical glance, "It's nothing major, just when this story circulates to Kurenai I need you to confirm that Tazuna's daughter was very, very good-looking. Not an embellishment at all." Kakashi nodded in agreement, "I also need you to say how she was so into me and didn't want me to leave."
Kakashi made a sound to feign thought over the matter before giving him an eye-smile, "Nope!"
Asuma groaned, "Come on Kakashi, just because you're fine about staying single and not getting laid doesn't mean I have to be too. Prop me up a little here!"
"I get laid." Kakashi said off-handedly, disputing Asuma's remark but not going into further detail than that, "And what exactly do you think a relationship based off of a lie will bring you in the end hmm?"
"Kurenai." Asuma replied as if it were fact, "And she's a genjutsu mistress. If anyone can appreciate a well woven illusion it would be her wouldn't it?"
"Not directed around her, and not based about your machismo Asuma." Kakashi said, shooting his theory down.
Asuma ran a hand through his hair in defeat, knowing her wasn't going to get this out of Kakashi, "Fine... but you still owe me."
Once they reached a section in the path that split off into separate areas, Haku brought the convoy to a stop, "I'm afraid this is where we part ways." She said suddenly, making everyone realize she wasn't taking the path back to Konoha. Haku was in her casual pink kimono that she had met Naruto in the forest with so that travelling inconspicuously would be easier.
Naruto walked towards her, "You don't have to go Haku-chan. You could come back with us. You're not really a missing-ninja right? You said Zabuza never enlisted you."
Haku shook her head, "I can't begin my goal of fulfilling Zabuza-sama's ambition by going with you all to Konoha, at least not as far as I can see right now. I have to start from the ground up. Thank you all for allowing me to bury Zabuza-sama and retrieve his savings and supplies from our base. I hope our initial meeting hasn't left any of you with hard feelings. It was never meant to be personal."
"It was no big issue." Kakashi said to her. Haku had been completely compliant and docile while she had been a 'prisoner' under their watch. Even having her hands bound for the vast majority of the time wasn't too much of a bother for her.
Haku nodded to him and turned back to Naruto with a smile, "We are still friends Naruto-kun. Thank you for forgiving me and understanding why I did what I had to, but also understand why I can't come with you."
Naruto's frown turned into a small smile, "Sure. I understand, just make sure you stay in touch Haku-chan, and get stronger."
"I will..." She said with a small bow, "And you do the same. Make sure you can always keep your precious people safe and that will bring you happiness. For what it's worth I hope you see that you have a friend in me." She began to head down a separate path and turned around one more time, "Goodbye Konoha ninja, I hope the next time we meet will be under better circumstances, and I'm certain that they will be."
With that goodbye said to Haku, the teams set out towards home once more, only Naruto now held a serene smile on his face at having in his opinion helped a good person find something for themselves in life.
"Just look at him Kakashi, I'm so proud." Asuma said about Naruto with a grin on his face out loud so that he got everyone's attention, "His first time out of the village and he's already a world-wandering little heartbreaker. Turning enemy kunoichi into close friends after just one night."
"Textbook Icha-Icha..." Menma said, adding his own two cents into the teasing.
Kakashi then chimed in. "Hey wait a second Menma weren't you there when she was tied up all night when you were downstairs with her. You know this sounds like the part of the story with-."
"What?" Menma said in shock and embarrassment, "Are you kidding? Haku's a friend. There's no way that would ever happen."
Ino took this moment to jump in on her sensei's delight at messing with Menma, "That's right it won't happen. Menma knows that he's way more into his Ino-chan than the fake hunter-ninja."
"Right!" Menma exclaimed before realizing what he said, eyes darting over to Ino, "Wait damn it! I mean no, no! That's not what I meant! I still like-!"
Ino victoriously latched onto Menma's arm, "Ah Menma I knew it! You just can't help but love me can you? Sorry though, I'm taken." She sighed wistfully, "Sasuke-kun's still the only one for me."
Sakura got into Ino's face, "Oh here we go with this again! Get out of the way of true love Ino-pig! Sasuke-kun is mine!"
And as would become the theme of the two teams, Ino and Sakura began to argue all the way up the road. Menma, now forgotten by Ino's teasing, sighed in relief as he counted the buffer that was Uchiha Sasuke as a blessing in this instance. Asuma's hand found its way to Menma's shoulder as he took Menma's sigh as one of disappointment, "It's alright kid. Nice guys always finish last in things like this."
Menma did a double take and looked up at his bearded sensei who had a sagely look on his face, "Asuma-sensei what in the hell-?"
"I mean look at Sasuke." Asuma continued, gesturing towards the Uchiha who was trying to keep his cool and nursing a pulsing vein in his forehead as Ino and Sakura stood on either side of him and continued arguing. Naruto, Chouji and Shikamaru were just ignoring everything altogether as they hung out, "Doesn't give 'em the time of day, borderline treats 'em like crap, yet they flock to him. You know why?" At this point Menma was past the point of caring and shook his head with a dry look on his face, "Because no matter what they say girls don't want a nice guy. No goody two-shoes kid."
"It's true." Kakashi chimed in like clockwork, "The harder you try, the more she laughs in your face."
Asuma pointed to Kakashi for making a valid point, ignoring Menma's twitching eye in annoyance, "Nice guys finish last kid, not like me and Kakashi. We're studs."
"Studs?" Menma said questioningly, wanting nothing more than to move out of Asuma's iron grip.
Asuma nodded, "Quintessential studmuffins."
"The studliest." Kakashi confirmed, "And don't worry. If you stick with us you'll probably end up being a stud too. And that's not a bad thing Menma, that's a good thing."
Menma looked at the stoic masked man, and his cigarette-toking sensei and shook his head before turning his attention back ahead, "Whatever you say." He said, not really caring, just wanting the conversation to be over at this point in time.
XxX
(A Few Days Later - At a Port Town in Cha no Kuni)
Gato, sitting at a table in a rather posh looking hotel room, crushed a newspaper in his hands, "Great Naruto Bridge?" He said as if he were tasting acid, "Feh, I'd had it up to here with that Podunk little backwater country anyway." A grin came to his face, "There's always so many more places in the world just waiting for my 'investment'... and now that I know what works and what doesn't, and what not to do the next time, it should be far easier for me."
He laughed to himself and poured himself a glass of wine, "Yes... it's just good business after all."