Starting Over

Unexpected Visitor (updated)

Naruto sighed as he climbed out of the boat and onto the shore. The journey after running into the Demon Brothers was pretty much the same. As they crossed the sea they had been told Tazuna's sob story and when it seemed like Kakashi might abandon the mission once they reach the shore he brought up his daughter and how sad she would be if anything had happened to him. Basically, manipulating whatever emotions Kakashi had left from his life as a shinobi.

Naruto walked with his team and Tazuna towards Tazuna's house in silence. He was falling asleep on his feet he was so bored. He and Lee were good ones for falling asleep while walking and running. Naruto had even fallen asleep during a battle and when he woke up he had won.

Soon Naruto sensed Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist, well he was about to meet a real demon sort of. Naruto threw a kunai in the direction that Zabuza was. He hit him but then he disappeared. Naruto closed his eyes trying to sense the Jonin's chakra. Sakura's loud voice was very distracting. Then he found him. Kakashi caught on right away.

"Get down!" Naruto and Kakashi yelled. Kakashi pushing Tazuna to the ground as well. After that everything went pretty much the same. Except Naruto took a kunai and knocked the one Sasuke was holding out of his hands.

"If the killing intent is too much for you, you should look into a different career path." Sasuke quickly grabbed another kunai out of his pouch and nodded to Naruto who nodded back.

In the end Naruto let Kakashi do all of the work with the little bit of help he needed when he got himself trapped in the water prison. This battle made Naruto very aware of Kakashi's weaknesses how Kakashi needed to quickly work on improving himself if he was going to survive the upcoming battles. Naruto sighed he had had enough of this mission.

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When they arrived at Tazuna's house. His daughter came out and helped us get Kakashi inside.

The days pasted pretty much the same as last time. Slowly. As soon as Kakashi was better he started to train them. Naruto never really attended these training sessions, he would always send a clone in his place and go off and train on his own. 

The battle on the bridge came and Naruto had mixed feelings regarding the upcoming battle. He hadn't quite decided what he was going to do about Huku and Zabuza if he was going to let them survive or if it was best to let things play out as they had in the past. 

When Naruto arrived at the bridge Naruto he still hadn't decided on what to do about the missing nin. He did know that he wasn't going to fool around he was going to defeat Haku as fast as possible. The last thing he needed was for Sasuke to awaken his Sharingan. Naruto jumped into the battle between Haku and Sasuke. Naruto stood his ground waiting for Haku to make his move. 

When Haku finally left the safety of his mirrors  Naruto grabbed Haku.Not thinking Naruto had grabbed Haku's bare wrist.  Both Naruto and Haku dropped to the ground. This was definitely not something Naruto had planned for. 

Kakashi heard Naruto screaming and tried to get over to investigate. Zabuza stopped him before Kakashi could get away. He knew that something was wrong, he needed to make quick work of this battle.

Kakashi summoned his ninja hounds and sent them out in search of Zabuza. Within seconds they had him pinned down and Kakashi was preparing with a chidori in hand.

The mist was clearing and Naruto and Haku had both almost stopped screaming. Soon the screams stopped altogether. Haku looked at Naruto who was looking over as his Sensei was about to kill Zabuza. Haku managed to pull himself up and rushed to get in between Kakashi and Zabuza. He was hit by the chidori.

Naruto and Zabuza went through a similar speech to last time only this time Naruto calmly explained how he knew that is some twisted way Zabuza cared for Haku as more than just a tool. Zabuza killed Gato and then Kakashi and Naruto scared the cronies he had brought with him away. The rest of the mission was just as slow as it was the last time.

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Naruto was happy to finally be going home. He missed the Leaf Village, he missed his friends, and he most of all missed Hinata. They all stood on the finished bridge for a few minutes saying their final farewells. Naruto couldn't wait to get back. It was a lot faster now that the only one's traveling were ninja. Sakura still somehow managed to fawn over Sasuke the entire way, which in Naruto's opinion was quite a feat.

It took them less than a day to get back. Naruto was happy to see the village gates. He was looking forward to the Chunin exams and seeing Garra again. Naruto and his team were walking through the gates when Naruto was suddenly thrown back fifty feet.

"Hey what was that for!" Naruto yelled. Seeing Tsunade always brought out his immature side. He couldn't take anything serious around her and being thrown fifty feet back with a flick of her finger didn't help anything.

Naruto glared at her.

"What do you think it was for brat?" Tsunade asked rhetorically. "First you drag me back here and then you actually make me like this village so much that I want to protect it. Why do you do that? Now, I like the stupid village so much that I have paid off all of my debts and come back to stay." Tsunade yelled.

"Oh, so you actually like the Leaf Village now, huh." Naruto said in a teasing tone of voice.

"Why you little..."

"Tsunade!" Shizune interrupted. "We don't yell and hit little boys who haven't done anything!"

"Oh yes we do." Tsunade said before she tackled Naruto to the ground and grabbed his waist pouch. "Naruto, you are not supposed to have this stuff. The idiot isn't DEAD anymore! I won't tolerate you reading this trash!" She said as she pulled the two 'Make-Out' books out of Naruto's pouch.

"Come on Tsunade! I was going to get those signed when I see the old pervert." Naruto said.

"You were reading them and I know it." She screamed.

"At least I don't read them in front of children. I only read the other book that is in there." He said pointing to pouch which held his favorite book. Tsunade looked inside the pouch and pulled out the book. She sighed. This was one of her favorites too.

Naruto's team were all looking very confused. Sakura was looking at the blonde lady with a curious eye and Sasuke was glaring at her. This woman had just sent Naruto flying with the flick of her finger. He needed that power. Kakashi was looking at the pair. He wondered when Naruto had met Tsunade. She had been out of the village for longer than Naruto had even been alive. He couldn't help wonder who was the person that... wasn't dead? anymore. That comment was particularly interesting. Who could they be talking about.

"Kakashi, snap out of it!" Tsunade snapped, "your team and you have a report to make and I have pervert to track down." Tsunade said. Kakashi couldn't do anything but nod. He would file this information away with everything else that was weird about Naruto.

Naruto waved goodbye as he followed Kakashi and his two confused team mates towards the Hokage's tower. He turned back to her before she left and said, "Save some of him for me." And then disappeared with his team.