The Anbu's Flash

Chapter 18: Old Foes

Naruto travels hidden alongside Team 7. He stays away, jumping through the trees until he senses the chakra figures hidden in the distant forest. Slowly, they seem to be approaching the unsuspecting Genin. He comes to a full stop, scoping out their location before throwing a few kunai in their direction. They instantly slap them away with katanas, only for Naruto to appear directly in front of them.  Shock fills both their faces, and they try to jump backward, but are too slow. Naruto charges two Giant Rasengans while still in midair. They bring their swords up to deflect the blows, but Naruto has already flashed behind them using another Flying Raijin Kunai. The Rasengans plow directly into their backs, causing a massive explosion. They shoot forwards, huge circles of flesh each leaving their backs. The excess wind slices through dozens of trees around them, causing dirt to fly and dust to close around Naruto. Naruto's face is shrouded in darkness as he slowly walks toward the two men. One of them has a scar over their eye and an eyepatch, while the other wears a beanie with grey hair and has two tattoo lines going down under each eye. They howl in pain and stumble while trying to run away. Naruto doesn't stop moving toward them, and as soon as he does, he comes up in front of them and cross punches the two in the gut, before pulling out two kunai and placing them behind their necks as they fall backward. Deep cuts form on both of their necks, and Naruto begins to speak. "Who are you." He says not as a question, but as a command. They both stutter, not able to get any words out. Naruto retracts the Kunai, letting them fall on their obliterated backs. They grunt in pain. Naruto then throws the kunai directly next to their faces, cutting each of their ears before speaking dangerously. "Who. Are. You." He says. The one with grey hair speaks up. "We-we-we're Gato's henchmen!" He says quickly. "Why were you attacking these kids," Naruto says. "N-not the k-kids! Th-the bridge builder. We have orders to kill him!" The one with the eyepatch answers. As Naruto realizes that his anger was misplaced, a slight moment of surprise crosses his face, before instantly being replaced by a calculating look. "I see. Why?" He questions. "He-he's gonna overthrow Gato's control of the waves by building his bridge! T-that's why!" The grey-haired one tries to sit up but failed. Naruto picks his two kunai back up, and stabs each of them in the heart once, and then in the eye deep enough to reach the brain another time. "Alright." He remarks, before vanishing away using a Shunshin Jutsu.

--x--

Naruto appeared next to Kakashi in the back of Team 7. Naruto tapped his shoulder and passed him a scroll before disappearing. Kakashi's eye widens. "Tazuna. May I have a moment?" He says dangerously. Tazuna looks surprised, but agrees and walks to the back of the group with Kakashi. "Why did you lie about the ranking of this mission?" He asks Tazuna. "Wh-wha!? I did no such thing." Tazuna denies Kakashi's claim adamantly. "Mhm... And that is why there were trained shinobi after you?" Kakashi asks quietly. "What? Where!?" Tazuna suddenly looks around quickly, his eyes widening. Kakashi rolls his eye. "My friend already took care of them. You've got some explaining to do," Kakashi says sternly. "The request you put into the Lord Hokage was only that you would be given an escort to protect you from roaming bandits and the such. In any case, this is more than a C-Rank Mission." Tazuna looks down. "To protect you from normal dangers until the bridge would be a simple task, but if you expected to be the target of a ninja assault, then it is beyond question that it would be classified and priced as a mission for at least chunin level ninja. You may have had your reasons, but it's never a good idea to conceal the facts when asking for help. As it is, this task falls beyond the boundaries of the job we were assigned." Kakashi shakes his head and places his hand on his forehead before sighing. Although, it would be dishearting to my Genin if we just turned back around for no reason, and an Anbu level ninja is protecting us from the shadows." Tazuna's eyes widen. "Don't worry. A punishment will surely come to you later, but for now, you can rest easy." Kakashi sighs and Tazuna lets out a breath of relief. But before Kakashi can return to the group to tell them all what happened, Tazuna puts a hand on his shoulder. "Uh- There's something you should know, about the request for help I made to your village. As you guessed, this job is more dangerous than you were led to believe. There's a real scary man who wants to see me dead." Tazuna takes a breath. "Who is he?" Asks Kakashi. "You've probably heard of him. He's a billionaire in the field of marine transportation. His name is Gato!" Tazuna says fearfully. "You mean... Gato, of Gato shipping and transport? The Gato? They say he's the richest man in the world!" Says Kakashi, very surprised, with a hint of confusion. Tazuna begins. "That's the one. On the surface, he looks like a legitimate businessman. The truth is, he's a ruthless, murdering criminal who employs gangs and teams of Shinobi and traffics in drugs and contraband. He starts out taking over companies and ends up running entire countries. He lives by every low and vicious trade known to man. It was just one year ago that he set his sights on the land of the waves. He came under the guise of a business venture. Then the violence began, and in no time at all, he'd taken over our entire marine transportation and shipping industry, and we were all under his thumb! Gato now has a hold on all forms of transportation, the life of an island nation, and a hold on all the wealth. The only thing he has to fear is that which has been underway for some time. The completion of that bridge!" Tazuna finishes loudly, the rest of Team 7 now listening in. "I see... and as the architect of the bridge and overseer of its construction, you, Mr. Tazuna, are very much in his way." Deduces Sakura. "Hn. So the ninja who was trying to attack us were working for Gato then," Says Sayuri. Tazuna stays silent. Kakashi speaks up. "But... I still don't understand. If you knew you were the target of a ruthless thug with ninjas at his disposal, why didn't you tell us when you asked for our help?" Asks Kakashi, looking at the man quizzically. Tazuna sighs and looks away from the group. "The Land of Waves is no longer a real prosperous land. Even our local lords are poor. And I have no money at all. A B-ranked bodyguard would be a lot more than I could afford." Kakashi's eyes widen in understanding. "But if you all turn away from me now, then I'm as good as dead." He looks down. Kakashi shows an eye smile. "I already said don't worry about it, didn't I? We'll continue to protect you until your bridge is done. " Kakashi says, still smiling.

--x--

Team 7 now makes its way through the water on a boat rowed by a local fisherman. Naruto follows close behind, using chakra to walk on the water. "We'll be there soon." The fisherman addresses Tazuna. "Tazuna, so far it looks like we've been overlooked. Just to be on the safe side we'll take an inland waterway through town to a point where we can make landfall under the cover of some mangroves." He says seriously, knowing the risks of getting caught. Tazuna looks up in gratitude. "Thank you."

Once they arrive, the man speaks up. "This is as far as I go. Take care of yourself." He says to the group. "Thanks for taking such a risk. I shouldn't have asked it." Says Tazuna, and the man speeds away in his boat. "Okay, now if I can just make it home in one piece..." Tazuna trails off. Kakashi rubs his forehead. 'There's bound to be another attack, and next time, they won't just send some henchmen. We'll probably face upper-level ninjas.' He thinks tiredly, wishing this mission would just end already. Suddenly, Sakura spins around and looks dangerously at a nearby bush. She throws two kunai straight into it, which makes thunk noises into what sounds like an animal. "Over there!" She proclaims boldly. Kakashi walks over to see a dead white rabbit stabbed against a tree. He looks over at Sakura, unimpressed. Sakura looks at it sheepishly. "It's just a rabbit!" Tazuna exclaims, clearly annoyed. "Don't go scaring us! Just calm down!" He says loudly at her. Sakura holds the bunny and begs its lifeless body to snap out of it. Sayuri just shakes her head. Kakashi begins thinking. 'That's a snow hare...' He thinks suspiciously. 'It's springtime, so why is it still wearing its winter pelt, since snow hare fur changes color with the seasons. In the winter, when there is little sunlight, the pelt is white. That hare is a decoy that's been kept indoors, where there isn't a lot of sunshine. This is it!' Kakashi begins looking around in the trees for the ninja responsible for leaving it. Meanwhile, a hidden Naruto has also caught on. Suddenly, a leaf branch is heard moving above. "Everybody get down!!'' Kakashi yells. A massive sword flies over their ducked heads and slams into a nearby tree. A tall shirtless man appears standing on top of it. Bandages covered his face and he wore striped pants with camo leg and arm warmers. Suddenly, Naruto flashed in front of the group. "I was wondering what happened to you, buddy!" Naruto grins. Shortly after Naruto had his clones travel back to the village with an arrested Zabuza and Haku after his first encounter with the two, Naruto felt that his clones has disappeared. He shrugged it off and assumed they had made it quickly back to the village. Though once returning he found that they had never made it there, and the two rouges were still at large. "Guess you guys really did escape, huh?" Naruto strolls over to a shocked Zabuza, who curses. "How long has it been? Huh?" Naruto twirls a kunai in his hand as he counts his fingers. "3... 4... 5... five years, huh?" He says still smiling. Zabuza pulls his sword out of the tree and drops to the ground in front of Naruto. "You know, I did say I would win next time we met, you little brat," Zabuza says menacingly. "Hey now. Don't start the fun without me Naruto." Kakashi walks over to stand beside Naruto. Zabuza looks surprised. "Kakashi of the Sharingan, I presume?" Zabuza asks. Kakashi says nothing as he lifts his headband to reveal a spinning Sharingan eye. "And you must be Zabuza Momochi. Demon of the Mist." Kakashi says. "Guess we were in each other's bingo books." Zabuza states. "Fall back Kakashi." Says Naruto sternly. "I can finish this guy on my own. Plus, we've got a score to settle." Naruto explains. Kakashi looks surprised, but nods. "Focus on protecting the old man from Zabuza's little friend," Naruto adds, before resuming his stance against the rogue ninja before him. "Alright Zabuza, let's see if you can back up that claim of yours," Naruto smirks.

To be continued...

Alright, so, to address some problems you might have already noticed... Zabuza. In canon Naruto, Zabuza only leaves his village about a year before the gang meets him in the Land of Waves arc. I didn't know this when I wrote the fifth chapter, and I considered rewriting the entire thing just to make canonical sense. But, I decided that keeping it in would be better for the story overall, so here we go. Fixing plotholes. Anyways, for this to make some sense, we'll say that Zabuza originally left the village once he had trained Haku, but after his defeat against Naruto, he returned and accepted his punishment with the village. He remained there until he left again for the same reasons as in Canon. I kind of messed up with that whole thing in chapter 5, but what's done is done. Also, if you couldn't tell, I'm going pretty much canon timeline from here on out, with minor excursions (Of course he won't go on team 7 missions all the time, that wouldn't make sense). Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the chapter nevertheless, and stay tuned for the next one. 

See ya next time Uchihas!