Chapter 9

Naruto seemed to be a ghost for the rest of his shift watching the path to the bridge as he sat against the gate and rolled through what his clone had told him of its time tailing the girl from earlier that morning. She was so nice, they had a wonderful talk it was actually one of the most pleasant conversations that Naruto had ever had with anyone around his age ever. In just a small amount of time he had thought that he'd made a real friend, but then the clone had dispelled.

The clone he had sent to tail Haku to make sure that she made it home, wherever home was, safe and unbothered by any of Gato's men found something rather interesting as it shadowed Haku from a distance.

(Flashback – That Afternoon)

'Man Haku-chan lives way out of the way.' Naruto-clone thought to himself as he continued to shadow Haku, 'I guess it's a good thing that boss sent me after all, there was way too much of a chance of some jerk trying to do something to her with all of the ground she had to cover to get here.' The sounds of something being smashed clean through before a tree fell nearby alerted Naruto-clone and startled him, 'Oh, Haku-chan's dad must be a lumberjack or something. But didn't she say that he was supposed to be sick or something?'

Haku pouted and looked over in the direction that the tree fell from as she began to walk in that direction towards a man with camouflage pants and a sleeveless grey shirt. He had spiky brown hair and the lower half of his face was covered much like Kakashi's was only with bandages, "Zabuza-sama I told you to wait until tomorrow. You can still make yourself worse by being up and about today. Go lay back down."

'Zabuza?' Naruto-clone thought to himself, 'That's the name of the guy that tried to take out old man Tazuna and Team 7 isn't it? How does Haku-chan know him?' He stayed hidden and grit his teeth as he continued to listen.

"Haku…" Zabuza growled in warning, "Tomorrow is the day that we're to attack. I can't go into it all stiff and rusty. This is nothing. I've been in bed all week, I need to get readjusted with my full range of motion here. I'm sure Kakashi isn't just sitting around licking his wounds."

"About that." Haku said, setting her basket of herbs down nearby and walking over to Zabuza, "There are more ninja now. A complete team to go with the one already here. They were able to get reinforcements. From the looks of one of the ninja I met it seems to be another squad of genin however."

Zabuza began pacing around thoughtfully, "Hmm. The numbers have the potential to be a problem, but if they're anything like the squad that came with Kakashi they would mostly be cannon fodder if they were to openly get involved." He stopped and looked at Haku, "I'm going to assume that you came across one while you were gone."

Haku nodded, "Yes Zabuza-sama. A blonde Konoha genin."

"And you didn't just finish him off then and there?" Zabuza asked incredulously, "You're far too soft for your own good Haku."

"He had me in close quarters Zabuza-sama. I didn't have any weapons to fight with and he was more skilled than I am in close." Haku said, defending herself slightly, "I simply tried to get some information from him from that point forward. I didn't learn anything substantial though other than the added squad as our enemies." She fiddled with her kimono, getting the attention of Zabuza as he had never seen her show any kind of nervous tic before, "I will be ready for whatever occurs tomorrow however."

Zabuza kept a firm gaze on her for a moment before letting it drop. There was time to talk about it later, "Good. You're my secret weapon Haku. You know how useful you are to me and my overall ambition. I can tell that you don't want to kill this boy that you met but remember how close we are to our ambition Haku. With this money we're closer than ever to affording the means to fund a proper rebellion."

Haku nodded and walked over to pick her basket back up, "Of course Zabuza-sama. There's nothing at all to worry about. I know what this mission is to us and how important is is."

Naruto's Kage Bunshin held back from jumping out and shouting at Haku the first things that came to his mind, complete with obscene insults and angry name-calling. Instead he simply began walking away, thinking of what it had just seen before it got far enough away and dispelled.

(End Flashback)

Naruto shook his head clear of the thoughts that had played through his head for hours upon hours, 'Was all of that really just a trick? She seemed so sincere. I really thought she was a kind person. Was all of that just in my head?'

He frowned as he remembered the first lessons he had been drilled on during what he now affectionately referred to as 'Hell Week with Shiho-chan'. A ninja's job is to complete the mission. To cover their true emotions for the sake of professionalism and to snub out all weakness that could become a liability in the field. Success above ethics, personal morals, everything.

'What a bullshit rule.' Naruto scowled, 'I'll take that as a guideline. No one follows the rules to the letter anyway right? They were made to be broken.'

"So this is what you've been doing while we've been climbing that troublesome tree." Naruto turned his head up to see Shikamaru walking towards him with his hands in his pockets, "Well it seems a lot better then what I was doing that's for sure."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at his teammate, "I'm not doing anything at all Shikamaru."

Leaning against the gate that Naruto was sitting against, Shikamaru smirked, "I know. It's great isn't it?" Naruto rolled his eyes as the two settled into silence for a short while. Shikamaru's eyes kept moving to Naruto's face and took notice of the look of deep thought that seemed rather foreign on the blonde's face. However he chose not to speak on it, believing that anything he'd say would lead to a conversation that would be more trouble than it was worth.

Naruto finally let out a sigh and broke the still silence that was only filled by the sounds of faint construction work a ways away, "So you guys are done with tree climbing?" Shikamaru nodded, "It took you all long enough. Oh well, at least you guys finished before nightfall. So where's Chouji, I expected him to be with you."

Shikamaru smirked, "He headed back to the house to grab a bite to eat before coming here to meet me. He should still be a few minutes before showing up. Asuma headed back to the house with Chouji and Sasuke. They're probably going to rest."

XxX

(Meanwhile – At Tazuna's House)

Asuma sat on the porch with a small scowl on his face and a cigarette in his mouth, "I can't believe I've got to smoke outside… I'm a grown man, a high level shinobi… and I just got kicked outside by a housewife with a nice body, cute face, and a deceptively terrifying scowl." He put the cigarette to his mouth and took a deep intake, "*sigh* Just another day in the life…" He narrowed his eyes at someone dragging a body down the path and noticed that it was Naruto pulling a person behind him and stopping every few steps to slap the man in the head, "I really hope you didn't drag him all the way through town."

Naruto dropped the man in front of Asuma, "If I said I didn't would you give me a cigarette?"

"I'm not wasting a cigarette on a clone. Are you a clone?" Asuma asked, letting the smoke leak from his lips.

"No…" 'Naruto' said before Asuma raised his hand in a prepared flicking motion directed at his forehead, "Okay, I'm a clone… damn it. Anyway." Naruto-clone kicked at the man on the ground, eliciting a groan on pain from him, "Boss beat up a ton of these guys outside of the bridge building site and he caught this one and made me bring him to you. He said you might know what to do."

Asuma stared at the clone and then at the downed man before standing up and grabbing the man by his collar, "Okay, follow me." Asuma dragged the man to the front porch and opened the door, "Sasuke! If you want to learn something then meet me in the woods in ten minutes!"

"Alright." Sasuke said loud enough to be heard from inside.

With that, Asuma started dragging the man off of the porch and towards the woods they had just left. He gestured his head at Naruto to follow him as the blonde clone fell in step, grateful that he didn't have to keep dragging Gato's goon any further, "So are we going to interrogate him Asuma-sensei?"

"Yep." Asuma said without even looking down at Naruto, "Ino isn't here so we're going to have to do this the old fashioned way." He saw Naruto-clone facepalm at forgetting about Ino's Shintenshin no Jutsu, "Don't hit yourself too hard brat. I need you here to pick this stuff up, you're going to have to learn how to do this eventually." He looked back at the man who was still unconscious, "And you did a number on this guy so I don't think we'll have to do too much to get him to crack."

XxX

(With Naruto and Shikamaru)

By now Chouji had indeed made it to where Naruto and Shikamaru had stationed themselves, loaded down with snacks and had taken to joining them in their guarding of the bridge site. It didn't take long for Chouji to pick up on Naruto's melancholy mood as well, except unlike Shikamaru he was actually willing to ask about it, "Naruto what's the matter with you? Did Kakashi-sensei do one of his speeches that sounded like they were nice but he was really chewing you out? Because if he did I've got to say that we've all gotten at least one of those, there's no need to be down about it."

Naruto shook his head, "No it's just… Well I might as well tell you, it involves you all anyway. I can't wait until my shift is over and spring it on Asuma or Kakashi-sensei like that when you're just sitting here." This got both Chouji and Shikamaru somewhat on alert hearing that they were involved, "Alright, you know how you said you guys saw a hunter-ninja working with Zabuza that helped him get away"

Chouji nodded, "Yeah, he didn't seem any older than us, pretty small too, the guy didn't seem like he ate much, how did he carry Zabuza away so fast?"

Naruto almost chuckled, "That's because the hunter-ninja was a girl. Did they have black hair? Pretty soft spoken?" He got a nod from Chouji and whatever little humor he had faded, "Yeah… that's Haku-ch-… I mean that's Haku. I met her this morning in the woods, a clone tailed her home to keep her safe, he found out she was with Zabuza."

Shikamaru finally weighed in on the whole situation, "You said your clone followed her and found Zabuza. Do you know where that is exactly?"

Naruto looked over at his teammate, "Yeah. One of the things I'm really good at is remembering how to move through areas, directions and stuff like that." He looked over at Chouji who had his eyes locked on Shikamaru before he himself turned back to the lazy pineapple-haired boy, "You have a plan already don't you?"

Shikamaru shut his eyes and adjusted his position against the fence to make himself comfortable, "Ask me later…" He said dismissively, "Whatever it is we're going to do next is going to be a serious bother. I'd like to enjoy the little bit of downtime I'm getting between climbing that tree and what we're going to have to do about what you just told us."

"So you're not going to tell us?" Naruto asked, getting no response from Shikamaru.

Chouji patted the blonde on the shoulder, "You should know by now Naruto. He isn't going to tell us here because he'd just have to repeat it later with everyone else. We're going to have to wait until tonight." Naruto growled lowly, "Hey calm down. You're probably just cranky because you haven't eaten all day."

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, "I'm not pissed because I'm hungry Chouji." Naruto's stomach then growled in dispute, "But it sure isn't helping my mood any."

XxX

(With Asuma and Naruto-clone)

Asuma and Naruto-clone had quickly been joined in the woods by Sasuke after Naruto-clone had tied the man they dragged out there to a tree. Sasuke looked down at him and over at the eldest shinobi on the scene, "So what are we doing now?" He still had energy to burn after finishing tree climbing training and it didn't sit right with him to stay in the house and do nothing. Whatever Asuma had called him here for was good with him as long as it was productive.

Asuma pointed at the thug tied to a tree, "We're going to interrogate this guy and work the information of where Gato is and what his plans are out of him. And you two are going to be the ones to do it."

"Us?" Naruto-clone asked his sensei before he and Sasuke looked at each other and down at the thug, "How the hell are we going to do that?"

Asuma went off to the side and leaned against another tree, "You're going to do it anyway you want to, just leave him in one piece. If you can't do it I'll just have Ino pull it out of his head when she gets back later this evening." He pulled out another cigarette and sparked it up, "Get cracking."

Sasuke sighed and looked at the unconscious man, "Well we might as well get started. Wake him up Naruto."

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto-clone said before cracking his knuckles, "Should I be nice?" Sasuke shrugged, prompting Naruto to do the same before he slapped the man hard across the face.

"I thought you were going to be nice?" Sasuke said with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto-clone smirked, "That was me being nice. There are way worse ways to wake someone up." He noticed the man coming around and crouched down to his level, "Nice to see you awake again."

"Fucking brat…" The thug mumbled through his jaw that Naruto had injured earlier, "Why am I here?"

Sasuke moved forward, "Tell us everything you can about Gato. What he plans to do about us, what he plans to do with the bridge, where he is, everything."

The thug spit at Sasuke's feet, "Like I'm really going to tell you babyfaced runts anything. I get good money for what I do. I'll never turn on that."

Naruto-clone walked forward and poked his finger into the man's jaw eliciting a cry of pain from him, "Gato isn't going to pay you if you're gone. We can keep you here for as long as we want, and this is deep in the woods, at the part that no one goes to. You aren't going anywhere so you'd better tell us. We'll probably let you go."

Naruto-clone stopped pressing against the man's pained jaw and let him speak again, "You kids are all going to get hurt… bad. Walk on home boys."

"We can't." Naruto-clone and Sasuke both deadpanned at him before Sasuke spoke up, "You've got the west coast of the island all choked down and every port full of your goons. How are we supposed to leave even if we felt like it?"

A laugh came from the man tied to the tree, "Heh, tough luck for you both then junior. Now untie me and let me go. I've got to go drain the head if you know what I mean."

Naruto-clone and Sasuke both walked away from the man where the blonde of the pair started whispering, "Okay, I have no idea how to go about getting this guy to talk other than beating the crap out of him, and that'll take all night. We might as well wait for Ino if that's what we're going to do."

Sasuke scowled slightly. He didn't like the idea of not being able to do something. Some punk-ass thug tied to a tree wasn't going to hold out on him if he could help it. Sasuke began to think before an idea hit him, "Okay, I think I've got something. Just follow me on this one." Without waiting for an answer he went back over to the man tied to the tree and crouched in front of him with his elbows resting on his knees and one fist resting in his other hand in front of his mouth in a stoic stance, "Okay fine. We're going to let you go."

"Finally." The man said, "No matter how much you kicked my ass anyway I was never going to say anything."

Sasuke's mood and face were unchanging, slightly unnerving the man at the stone-cold gaze that a kid could have, "You can go on back to Gato and tell him that you were held by the enemy and that they let you go without you telling them anything at all. I'm sure that'll work out really well."

"W-What are you talking about kid?" The thug said, squirming in his bonds as if he could feel Sasuke's coal black eyes staring into his soul, "I didn't tell you anything."

Naruto-clone realized where Sasuke was going and decided to add in as well, "He won't know that. He'll think you talked even if you swear up and down that you didn't. He might even kill you anyway just because. He cut a man's arms off and strung him up in the center of town to be executed publicly, you don't think he'd just get rid of you if he didn't trust you?"

"And even if he doesn't…" Sasuke said before backing off and making a hand-seal. A puff of smoke came before Sasuke appearing before them in the exact appearance of the tied up thug, "We can just walk around town until someone notices this form. I think this can get you into some trouble with what we'll have it do, and then we'll turn you loose and see exactly how well off you'll be." Sasuke said in the man's voice.

Naruto-clone grinned ferally at the man who was now looking at them wide-eyed, "We can just ruin your life like this, or we can make sure that you're a dead man walking by letting Sasuke here sabotage some of Gato's attempts to shake villagers down, or even have him take down more than a few of Gato's others to make them think you've turned on them." Naruto moved forward and crouched down, grabbing the man by the hair, "Do you get it yet? We're ninja. We're the people you see right now, and we're the people you never see at all. We can ruin your life and get away with it because we were never there. We're head and shoulders better than you and you need to know it. Don't fuck with us. One of me kicked twenty of your asses without flinching."

The man's voice was now quivering. If what they said was true he was screwed no matter what he did, "And why should I even tell you anything huh? Either way I'm dead!"

Sasuke nodded as he straightened himself back up, "True, but if you tell us what we want to know we'll give you a fighting chance to run away before we act and your boss figures out what happened to you. By the time he realizes that you were the one that said anything it would be too late for him to do anything about you. You guys are nameless, faceless dumb muscle to him anyway. He doesn't know who you are."

Naruto-clone stood back up and dusted his legs off, "Then again if you don't tell us anything then we're going to do everything we just said we'd do to flush out more guys to interrogate, and then we're going to drop you in the middle of town and tell Gato's men exactly where you are. And then you won't even have a shot at getting away at all, the villagers won't help you, and you'll be all alone." Naruto-clone and Sasuke looked at each other and smirked, "But it's your choice."

Asuma let an approving smile come to his face as he saw the man hesitate to respond after Naruto-clone's final statement, 'And that's checkmate. Granted it was a guy that was some run of the mill punk, and Naruto probably already had him scared of him by the time he caught him, but that was still pretty good.' The man quickly started spilling what he knew in correspondence to Sasuke and Naruto-clone's questions, 'I should still have Ino go through the guy's head later.'

XxX

(Later That Evening)

In the living room of the house sat the two teams in their entirety. Asuma had just told them everything that Naruto and Sasuke had gotten from the thug of Gato, and Naruto had told all of the others what he had found out from his early morning interaction with Haku in the woods.

"So…" Ino started once all of the cards had been lain out for everyone to take note of, "You got within arm's reach of Zabuza's hunter-ninja and you didn't end up in a fight?" She asked to Naruto who looked away with his arms crossed.

Naruto let out an indignant snort, "It was early, I had just woken up, I didn't know she was the hunter-ninja, she was cute and nice, and I'm a gentleman." He grabbed at his hair and messed it all up, "What do you want from me? Kami, my head is spinning. I'm starting to hate my clones. The feedback is starting to piss me off." Naruto calmed himself and pulled his goggles down over his eyes so that he didn't have to directly meet anyone else's.

Kakashi chose to step in at this point, "Right… well now we know to be ready for tomorrow, and what have we learned from Gato's man?"

Sasuke spoke up after being more or less prompted to by Kakashi, "Gato's going to wait until after we're done fighting and then he's going to bring all of his manpower to finish off whoever wins. We know where he is though. It's not like he's really even hiding. He has a mansion that he's been constructing about 20 miles outside of town for the last year or so."

Shikamaru's brain was working overtime at this point, "So it's not even complete… That means that no matter how many men there are guarding the place inside or out there's going to be a way in." He then groaned slightly, "Is anyone here other than one of the jounin really good enough to get in and out without having the entire place try to tear them apart?"

The only person that raised their hands were Naruto and Ino, albeit slowly. Sakura looked at them both with a strange stare, "And why do you two think you can do that and get away?"

Ino and Naruto looked at each other before shrugging and answering simultaneously, "Shintenshin no Jutsu/Because I'm awesome." Ino looked over at Naruto and shook her head, "Of course you'd say that wouldn't you?"

Sakura let out a huff at Naruto's seemingly arrogant remark about himself, "And what exactly makes you so 'awesome' Naruto. I could accept Ino's reason, but other than raising an army of clones to fight them how would you get in and out unseen?"

"Aw come on Sakura-chan." Naruto said, "I'm not bad. I painted the Hokage Monument didn't I?"

Shikamaru scratched his head as he worked out his explanation, "And, well you just said it. Naruto can make a ton of Kage Bunshin to directly attack the place, and while that's happening the real Naruto and Ino under Shintenshin on some guy they wind up getting a hold of can move around inside under the guise of saying that she caught him outside and brought him to Gato for interrogation."

Sakura's eyes widened, "That's… actually not bad at all. But don't they just go away after one hit or something?"

Naruto nodded, "Well yeah, but that doesn't mean that they can't raise enough hell to come off as a threat at least." He then looked down, "But I'm more worried about the whole thing with Zabuza. We know where he is. What are we going to do about that?"

Asuma looked over at his male blonde student, "Send a clone and tell them about what Gato is going to do. Hopefully they won't destroy it and they'll give you a chance to explain." He sighed, "If they destroy it or don't believe us then it won't matter anyway."

A shake of the head from Naruto was his reply, "No… I think that if I'm going to go I should go myself. If I don't go then they definitely won't trust us once the clone gets dispelled." He then thought to himself, 'Maybe that whole thing with Haku wasn't a complete lie… maybe she'll listen to what I have to say at least.'

"That's really not a good idea Naruto." Shikamaru interjected, "Going all by yourself would just get you killed."

"If I don't go alone then they'll be suspicious and attack us before we get close enough to explain." Naruto tried to defend, "I've got to at least try to get them to trust me."

Asuma patted him on the shoulder, "If you go alone then that would make them more suspicious since they know that we would operate in a group. Zabuza would be the one to pick you off for sure then, not the Haku girl, and you would be wiped out in a second by someone of Zabuza's caliber. If you think you have to go then we'll go with you."

Kakashi looked over at his fellow jounin, "Are you sure about this Asuma? This is a very unnecessary risk to be taking the night before the attack is supposed to happen."

A nod and a grin came from Asuma, "I trust my kids. If Naruto says we can stop this without fighting then I believe him. Besides, we'd have to fight anyway even if he was wrong. Why not get it out of the way?"

Naruto jumped up out of his chair, "Yeah, absolutely this can work. They have to know that Gato is a total snake, they should know that he might have pulled something like this. It's not farfetched enough that they won't even think about it." He gave a grin to everyone sitting there, "I can promise that at least they'll hear it out."

"Well in that case." Asuma said, standing up as well, "You should get your things. Team 10, it's time to head out and get this over with. Take what you think you're going to need, and Naruto's going to be leading the way. He's the one who knows where the hideout is."

XxX

(Hours Later)

The only thing barely illuminating the forest that Naruto, Asuma, Shikamaru, and Ino were walking through at the moment was the faint wisps of light that would poke through the leaves and hit the ground. They had to say, it was a great hideout. There was a very little chance of light slipping through at all and that meant very bad things for anyone trying to navigate the area without previous knowledge of where it was.

"Are you sure you know where you're going Naruto?" Ino asked him in a hushed tone as they continued moving carefully through the woods, "I mean, shouldn't we be waiting for tomorrow when we know the attack is going to happen, or going after Gato himself to end the whole thing?"

Shikamaru had his eyes sharp and at attention in case of some sort of trap on the way, "Why wait to fight when we could possibly stop it now before it ever even happens. Either way we'd have to fight, at least this way we might not have to, or at least we can give them something to think about." Shikamaru nudged Naruto with his elbow, "You're going to want to start making those Kage Bunshin and have them start surrounding us for when they realize we're here."

Naruto shook his head with a determined look on his face, "No. That'll just spook them won't it? They'll definitely try to fight once they see that. I don't want to fight them at all."

"And you think I do?" Shikamaru said, "But if we don't and they attack anyway then my best plan isn't going to be worth a damn. You're tying my hands here Naruto."

"Sorry." Naruto said to him, not changing his tone, "But since I've been a ninja all I've seen the whole job being about is a lot of backstabbing, power plays at others expenses… I haven't seen anything honest or good about it yet." He shook his head, "I don't want to be one of those guys that are all about nothing but the mission. People are important too. More important."

'Damn it…' Shikamaru thought to himself with an audible sigh, 'This kid's going to get us all killed here… I should have just stayed home from that first mission to Kusa, what a troublesome mission.'

Naruto forced everyone to a stop when he recalled the area that his clone had stopped at, and nearby lay a fallen tree, evidence of Zabuza's attempt to get himself back up to speed. Taking a deep breath, Naruto took a few steps forward and inhaled deeply, "Haku!" He yelled, "Haku come out here! I know you're here and I know who you are! I just want to talk!" He walked a few more steps forward and kept yelling.

'Come on Naruto…' Asuma thought to himself, his eyes firmly on their surroundings, mostly out in front of them, 'Get back into formation kid. Don't make me have to go and get you.'

A mist began to settle over the area, something putting everyone on edge as they had all been told about how Zabuza fights. Naruto almost began to step back into line with everyone else before he found enough courage to stay out there, something that a chuckling voice found amusing, "That's very brave of you brat. Not very smart by any stretch of the imagination, but still very brave. Do you know who I am?"

The genin of the group felt the sensation of choking from the oppressive aura that had set over them. Ino couldn't even reach for a kunai in case they were attacked. Shikamaru wasn't that better off, but he at least was still thinking in overdrive, 'Come on Naruto, get back over here. This guy's going to cut you in half if you don't.'

Naruto bit on his tongue to keep himself from moving from his spot and to keep from shaking, "Y-Yeah, I know who you are. You're Momochi Zabuza. I came here to tell you something."

"Tell me something?" Zabuza said tauntingly, "Sorry kid, but I'm not the kind of guy that follows anyone's last words, wishes, requests, or anything like that."

"It's about you!" Naruto yelled, "It's about you and whatever it is that you have with Gato!" Naruto recomposed himself and started speaking to the open air again, "Look, I know you're going to attack tomorrow, or you were until we came here, but that's the thing. Gato's not going to pay you after you beat us and kill old man Tazuna, he's going to use a bunch of his own men to come in and finish off whoever's left, us or you. Go and confront him about it."

Zabuza's voice echoed out in laugher, "You certainly know more about ninja life than just the fighting part. That's a good little bit of deception kid. Trying to use me to find Gato's base itself and take out your problem at the head right there."

Naruto wanted to pull his hair out, "We already know where he is, we just don't want to fight you over this! He's not going to pay you so there's no reason for us to be enemies! I don't want to fight you." Naruto then hopped back as the ground in front of him took a deep gash from some huge weapon.

"You're damn right you don't want to fight me, but this isn't about me is it? This is about Haku."

"Fine…" Naruto said, trying to get his heart rate back down after almost potentially losing his legs, "You're right. I don't care about you, not really. I'm here because of Haku. Even if everything she said and did was because she didn't know how to kill me in the best and easiest way, I want to believe that she's actually that kind all the time. And someone like that doesn't need to get betrayed by some loser like Gato."

"Haku?" Zabuza called out, "Haku is my weapon brat. If I told her to right now she'd put you down without a second thought. She may be kind, but she can kill her heart just like any good shinobi can and she can get the job done. It doesn't matter if she was kind to you or not."

Naruto looked down, fists shaking, "Still… that shouldn't matter. This is the right thing to do. I told you what I had to say, if you want to try and kill us now go ahead. All I have to say is that you're really stupid if you're going to fight us after all of this." He then pointed his finger in a direction roughly at his 3 o'clock into the mist and trees, "I know you're there, you've been moving around the entire time." He then shifted to his 9 o'clock and pointed up in a tree, "I know you're there too Haku."

Asuma looked down at his laziest genin after hearing the positions of Zabuza and Haku, "You hear that Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru nodded silently, 'My shadow can only stretch to reach one, it can't branch off far enough to get them both yet. Ino's jutsu might be able to get the Haku person, but if she realizes it's coming and what it is she can move and we're out one of our side until Ino recovers. I swear Naruto, you're a logistical nightmare.'

Zabuza's voice sounded relatively displeased at being discovered, "Hmm, I didn't know the kid was a sensor. He's pretty good too even if I wasn't really trying."

"I don't even care anymore." Naruto said as he turned back and started walking towards his squad, "I told you what I knew, if you believe me or not I don't care. Fight us now or fight us tomorrow. I'm done with this." He said in an angry tone. His eyes flickered towards the tree that his sensory jutsu located Haku's silhouette for a moment before he let out another burst to reveal that she was still there, 'You could have at least come out and said something yourself.'

Asuma waited for Naruto to get back over to them before he grabbed him by the shoulder as they were walking away, "Don't ever do anything like that ever again. I know you could find him, but even if he had attacked could you have stopped him?" Naruto frowned at his sensei's stern tone and shook his head, "That means that I would have had to move in to keep you in one piece and that would have left your teammates exposed to the other one in hiding. That could have gotten us all killed."

"I'm sorry Asuma-sensei." Naruto said apologetically, "It's just-…" He stopped trying to reason it out and just kept walking in silence.

Ino kept looking behind them at the area where they were confronted, "So did it work? Did Naruto get through to them?"

"I don't know." Shikamaru admitted, "But they haven't attacked us yet. That has to count for something."

XxX

(Hours Later)

By now the sun had begun to rise as Naruto led them back through the forest to return to Tazuna's house. As an afterthought and because of the habit he had developed while they were moving about he let out a pulse of his jutsu and narrowed his eyes in anger, "Asuma-sensei… we're being followed. It's Zabuza and Haku-ch… Haku." He could feel himself getting angrier, "I'm sorry, my plan was so stupid."

Asuma let out a sigh, "You stood up for what you thought was the right thing to do. I can't be mad at you for that, and we were going to fight them today anyway. It's better we do it here than near Tazuna." Asuma took a pair of unique trench knives out; zigzag blades on each knuckle and a blade coming out of the end of each, 'I can fight Zabuza, but he's going to use his mist. With Naruto I would be able to find him no sweat, but I can't just break up the squad of genin with this Haku with him. Man I wish Kakashi and his kids were here.'

Shikamaru and Ino moved towards their third genin partner with the female of the team speaking to her fellow blonde, "This is going to be our first actual battle against another ninja. How are you feeling Naruto?" She asked apprehensively to the boy that seemed to be shaking slightly.

"Pissed." He replied, clinching his fists, "More pissed than scared. I'm not even that scared. I got you all into this, and now we're fighting the people I tried to warn."

Hearing the anger in his voice took the fear out of Ino's body. Naruto wasn't even flinching once he saw the mist begin creeping over them. This got her own confidence to increase, and looking at Shikamaru she could see that he wasn't about to waver either, "Then we'll just have to show them what a bad choice they made when we kick their asses."

"Kick whose ass little girl?"

Asuma wheeled around and blocked a slash from Zabuza's large sword with both of his trench knives, "Kids get back. I'll handle this! Worry about the other one drifting around somewhere."

"I know where she is!" Naruto yelled, running off in that direction, his teammates trailing behind, "Follow me, we'll be done soon Asuma-sensei!"

Asuma smirked, "I'm sure you will kid." He then focused on Zabuza, "So you're willing to be stupid about this? Naruto told you what you needed to know and you're still going through with the job."

"I can just complete the mission now and find Gato after I'm done." Zabuza said off-handedly, "If he's really going to not pay me then Haku and I will get rid of him, simple as that. Until then, I'm still under contract so to speak, and I'm not hedging my bets on some bleeding heart genin. This mission is more important than you know."

"You're damn right it is." Asuma growled back, "This bridge is the only way that these people can be free from Gato. We're not just fighting because it's our mission, this is the right thing to do." He pushed back and squared off against Zabuza, "Besides, my team won't lose to your fake hunter-ninja."

Zabuza laughed as he faded back into the mist, "Haku is far from a 'fake'. She's more than enough for your little team of baby ninja, just like me against you would be overkill. At least when I fought Kakashi I knew him from sight. I don't even know who you are."

Asuma chuckled, "Heh, I know I left Konoha for a few years but I thought I was pretty famous from what that bounty of mine said. Oh well." He made a set of hand-seals and kept the last one intact, "Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!" From Asuma came a rather powerful blast of wind that blew all of the mist away, leaving him in the far more visible early morning forest, "That's much better. It's going to be a beautiful day isn't it?"

Zabuza grumbled to himself lowly from his hiding place, "Yeah, beautiful. It'll be the last sunrise you'll ever see."

XxX

(With Team 10)

Naruto stopped with Ino and Shikamaru bringing up the rear, all prepared to fight. Naruto growled angrily at not only being deceived, but at being ignored and then taken advantage of as well, "Haku get out here!" Naruto and the others waited for a moment before he yelled again, "I know exactly where you are! Get out here!" Again, he got no response, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

A mess of Naruto clones went into the woods, before long the sound of multiple faint pops came from the foliage. Shikamaru hunched down, ready to move, "Here we go."

From the woods in a blur flew Haku, right at Shikamaru and Ino before Naruto jumped in between her and them and took a swing at her with a kick that missed when Haku jumped away, "Naruto-kun…" She said as she stared down Naruto, backed by his team, "I really don't wish to fight you, but you're in the way of us and the bridge-builder."

"I already told you everything you had to know about your mission Haku." Naruto said to her coldly, "I told you that the guy paying you was going to stab you in the back once you completed it, I told you what was going to happen today once you tried attacking the bridge. You chose to do this anyway."

"There was nothing I could do." She said, her face obscured by a mask and her clothing a type that was what probably fooled Team 7 into believing that she was a hunter-ninja. That seemed to be what Haku was good at, deceiving people, people like him, "Zabuza-sama thought you were attempting to deceive him, and he had to take advantage of finding where Tazuna was without having to wait for him to get to the bridge."

Naruto's usually exuberant blue eyes didn't hold any speck of their usual kindness in them, "I don't have anything else to say to you Haku. We're going to beat you and you're going to fail. Then you'll see firsthand that you were wrong."

Haku pulled out a senbon, putting the rest of the team on edge, "I can't lose here. Zabuza-sama's ambition is resting on us obtaining the money that we need from this mission. Losing her would mean the end of his dream and I cannot allow that to happen. I'll kill you all if I have to, all to help Zabuza-sama with his dream. That is my job as his tool. For what it's worth Naruto-kun I hope you can forgive me for this, for what I did and what I'm about to do."

Shikamaru had his eyes locked firmly on Haku, "Naruto I need you to slow her down. She moves faster than my shadow can go. Ino won't be able to pick her off either if she stays moving at this same speed. Can you do it?"

Naruto punched his palm, "For sure. I know I can do it, just be ready, and if she gets past me before you can get her get ready to fight." Naruto took a breath and rushed at Haku, making a contingent of 4 clones to head in with him.

The senbon in Haku's hand found itself deposited through one of the clones, dispelling it, but with three clones and the original Naruto remaining she found herself in hot retreat to avoid Naruto and his clones who were actually pretty fast, 'He's not just sudden with his subtle movements like I saw yesterday morning, he's actually very fleet-footed!'

Shikamaru watched Naruto and his clones pursue Haku as he remained at the ready to engage with his jutsu, 'Naruto knew right off the bat when we were put on this team that he was the muscle, in every sense of the word. At first Ino and I were around his speed but he just rocketed past us on that front. Now he's the fastest and strongest of us, and with those clones he can prepare in advance I have tons of soldiers to work with, but now's not the time for a plan like that. There's no way to set it up and no way for all of those numbers to aptly take on a single opponent.'

Ino watched Naruto fight as well as another two of his clones found themselves vanquished by Haku's ranged attack, 'Naruto's really not nervous at all about fighting an enemy shinobi. Is he really that angry that he isn't scared at all? Well if he's not going to be scared then I won't be either. I just have to be ready to back him up. Shikamaru and I are no good in a close-up fight, and throwing any kind of weapon from here wouldn't help him at all.'

'I can't fucking get a hold on her.' Naruto thought to himself as he found Haku always just out of his reach. All he needed was a mere tap. Just his fingers brushing something on her would be all that he needed to slow her down enough to grab her and unleash hell on her up close, but she had clearly picked up something from the way he fought when they first met, because she knew that if he got a good hold on her it was game over, 'I need to cut her off, or corral her. Shikamaru can stop her and Ino can finish her, all I have to do is slow her down!'

"There's lots of moisture in the air for me to work with against you." Haku said to Naruto as she continued to stay just out of his reach, knowing that if he laid a hand on her he would quickly overpower her. She was also slowly leading him away from his team, but he was tougher to coerce away from them than she figured he would be. He would always jump back and force her to come towards him to continue engaging, "It's too bad Naruto-kun, but you and your team cannot defeat me if you're the only direct fighter that you have. Once I get rid of you they'll both fall easily enough."

Naruto and his last remaining clone were lunging at Haku with everything that they had in their arsenal to get close, but with Haku in a strict mode of backpedaling there was only so much that he could do. She was leading him, but where? His team was close by enough to keep her from trying to fight him directly, but she was still staying active. He slowly found himself catching up to her as he could swear that his fist almost hit her mask one time, 'Come on, a little closer and I can grab her.'

Haku could have gotten away from Naruto any time she wanted. He was fast, very fast for a new genin, very fast for any genin period, but the name of her game was speed all the way, and she had just been baiting him the entire time. She let him think he had been close to hitting her the entire time so that he wouldn't know where she was leading him. The day they met hadn't been the only day that week she had been in these woods, and on one of her excursions out that way she found a little something useful.

"That's close enough Naruto-kun." Haku said as she kicked it into second gear and got a good distance away from him before coming to a stop, "Now… Sensatsu Suishou (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death)!"

Naruto looked around and saw that he and his clone were now standing at the edge of a lake that Haku herself was standing atop, 'I chased her to a lake? And she even got me to stop short before I realized it!' An uncountable number of needles rose from the lake all pointing at him and his clone on all sides. Naruto's clone quickly grabbed Naruto and threw him into the air just as the needles came to bear and impaled the Kage Bunshin, ending its existence in a puff of smoke.

Naruto landed back on the ground glaring at Haku who was calmly standing on the surface of the water. The boy didn't say a word, he simply reached inside of his open orange vest and pulled out a fuuma shuriken that he quickly unfolded to its full point before hefting it across the water.

Haku had her eyes beaded on it all the way through and jumped out of its path only for the shuriken to burst into smoke and out from it rushed Naruto. Before Haku's foot touched the surface of the water to land from her dodge, Naruto had grabbed a firm hold of her loose sleeve with a victorious smirk on her face, "Isn't this familiar? Only I'm not letting go this time!" A sharp yank on the sleeve pulled Haku towards him where he hit her in the body with a hard knee strike.

Haku doubled over his knee and let out a pained grunt, 'His raw physical strength is greater than mine. He's smaller than me but his frame packs a lot of muscle.' She thought to herself before she found herself jerked upright by the collar of her battle kimono with both of Naruto's hands. A hard headbutt was what met her that she could feel through the mask. Having had enough of getting beaten up, Haku freed herself from his grasp by ripping the collar of the kimono, revealing the dark-green turtle-neck sweater underneath.

She quickly got herself away from Naruto and looked down at the surface of the water where a line of shadow was trailing away from him.

XxX

In the bushes surrounding the lake, Shikamaru cursed to himself, "Damn it. I was too slow. Naruto had her for a good long time and I couldn't finish."

Ino was hidden along with him watching Naruto and Haku square off again, "Do you think he can get her again? That trick with him switching with a clone and transforming into the shuriken was one of his best ones that I've seen him practice."

Shikamaru grit his teeth, "He can do it Ino. Naruto isn't the kind of guy that's all tapped out of surprises at a time like this. He'll pull something off." Inside his head though was a different story, 'All by himself out there… this is seriously troublesome. He's the only one out of us that can fight directly like this though and I can't walk on the water even if I could. I just need to keep waiting and looking for an opening. Come on Naruto, just keep yourself out of trouble and reel her in again. I won't miss twice.'

Ino was barely able to keep herself hidden as she watched. She could walk on water just like Naruto could, but in a battle like this she knew she had next to no chance. Haku would have gotten her with the water needle technique she saw Naruto's clone help him avoid earlier, "What do we do Shikamaru? What do we do? How can we help him?"

Almost beginning to hyperventilate, Shikamaru calmed himself down and put his fingers together in a circle. He shut his eyes and began taking deep breaths, "I don't know. Give me a second. I'll come up with something." 'Come on. I'm no good to anyone if I panic. If my damn brain is all I'm good for to this team right now then I'd better get to using it.'

XxX

Haku's eyes watched the shadow on the surface of the water trail back to the foliage at the edge of the lake, "I can see that your team is trying to help you. I was right in assuming that you were the only direct combat type on your team. Along with being the sensor of the squad, that's a lot of responsibility Naruto-kun, you must be some shinobi."

Naruto chuckled humorlessly, "Dead-last of my year actually. I'm nothing but a glorified human shield for those guys. If they kick the bucket they have people that care about them. People will be sad if they die. Me on the other hand, I don't have anybody." He grinned but the way his face looked as he closed his eyes showed that his heart wasn't into it, "Sure… maybe three or four people would be sad for a little while if I died, but they'd get over it quick, they have lives and loved ones. That's why I don't have any problems with my role on the team, it is what it is. And I'll protect them if I have to."

"I'm glad to hear that." Haku said, "When I told you that true strength comes from protecting those that you hold dear I was being honest. I never lied to you once when we spoke. But I have someone to protect too, and his dream as well, and I cannot allow you to win here. After I finish you I will have to dispose of your teammates as well."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and formed his signature hand-seal, twenty Narutos popping up around him with the same looks on their faces, "Over my dead body Haku." He said determinedly.

Haku sighed and averted her eyes slightly, although Naruto couldn't see her face behind the mask, "I was afraid that you would say that Naruto-kun." She said reluctantly before making hand-seals and putting Naruto on guard. Quickly, a large dome of mirrors formed from the water and froze over, trapping Naruto and his clones inside, "Makyou Hyoushou (Demonic Ice Crystal Mirrors)." Haku entered one of the mirrors and her masked appearance appeared in all twenty-one of them, "Now I'll show you just how fast I really am."

How to Train Your Genin: Tip 6

Your genin must trust in you and be able to trust in others

It seems like an obvious thing to say, but it bears repeating as it is one of the most important things that any ninja should know. The name of the game for the most part in the ninja world is deception. Every shinobi is going to run across it, and it won't take long for a young ninja's mind to become jaded towards the idea of trust, even towards their comrades. This is one of the reasons that D-rank missions are run, so that trust can be forcefully built up by genin spending time together and sharing experiences.

As the senior ninja, and the first high-level shinobi that they'll be interacting with, the genin must know that you have their best interest at heart and that the things that you say are worth taking into account and being followed. The rapport that your young ninja builds with you as their sensei or with his/her teammates will be the basis of how they interact with any commanding officer or potential partner that they have for years to come, for the remainder of their careers even.

Be casual with them, let them be themselves, don't let them feel like they should hide things from you. Let them know that even though you're in control everything that you do is for their benefit, and that they must work as a unit to be successful. A ninja that cannot trust their own comrades is a ninja that will be a liability in high-stress or combat situations.