8 Gato of Gato Company
"Zabuza-sama, let me see your injuries". After they camped, Haku remembered Zabuza received a direct kick when fighting the hunter-nin earlier.
"No need. Also stop calling me Zabuza-sama. You guys are my tools. Not my student. It's annoying".
? Haku doesn't really understand but just nods.
Shou also had a visible question mark on his head. Shou uses his Zabuza-translator skill and concludes maybe he had seen them as capable and as equal in footing to him as their skill reached what Zabuza expected.
"Yes. Zabuza-san. But your injury may get worse if left untreated. Let me check them".
"You are really annoying". Zabuza coldly snorted and took off his clothes.
Haku sees his side is bruised badly from the kick. He used medical technique to scan the area like X-ray.
"Your rib is a little cracked. You should have told me so I can heal you".
Zabuza just stays quiet and lets Haku use his medical Ninjutsu.
'You have nice muscles'. Haku commented seeing his body.
Zabuza has no comment. Shou also steals a look. When can he get as much muscle? Shou felt his body doesn't seem to be growing much despite the daily workout. Maybe it's just not his talent. Zabuza's body is lean with only hints of defined muscle lines. He had a question why most ninjas don't have 6-packs despite them doing all those exercises and stuffs. Maybe because a Shinobi use their feet and hands more instead of abdominal muscles? Also, that bruise looks bad. Zabuza really likes to act tough.
Zabuza looks at Shou, who is still wearing that weird mask looking into his direction. He had faced a quite a few hunter-nin around the times he defected. It really makes him go on an alert mode for a second seeing that.
"How long are you gonna wear that?". Zabuza asked in annoyance. Shou had been wearing them for hours.
'It's fun to wear them'. He felt a bit embarrassed with blush forming on his cheeks behind the mask.
He felt powerful with the mask on and it's like his confidence rose by 2 ranks with it but then maybe he's acting like a kid with symptoms of chunibyo?
"You both are annoying". Zabuza coldly said.
Shou gasped from behind his mask. I am annoying as well?? Haku just smiles hearing it.
...
A few months passed by. While doing missions usually Shou and Haku would stay far away and observe from afar while Zabuza acts like he's going solo. Zabuza thought of them as his secret weapons of sort and so, as a secret weapon they should only come out when he is in a predicament.
Really a villain mindset... they always save their most powerful move or trump card last. Shou felt good that Zabuza thought of them like one because it means he thinks they are powerful enough to be his trump card.
Their strategy is also for Shou and Haku to observe the enemy and gain intel on them from a wider point of view. At times the enemy may set traps or have weird unknown jutsu or kekkei genkai. Intel is important against such people.
When Zabuza is in a predicament they would appear to save him and often catch enemy by surprise. Well, 'saving' is inaccurate. It's more like they do not want Zabuza to injure himself too much.
Haku likes to act like he's some hunter-nin who wants to dispose of him. And Shou followed the act. Its just that most people are skeptical hearing their voices and seeing their height at first. To be an ANBU at such a young age?
It's not impossible; in fact even Chunin (which is already good for their age) might be eligible to become an ANBU and Kirigakure lacks manpower due to missing-nin here and there. But if they actually think about it; why would you send a Chunin to kill Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist? As for them being Jonin, its too much of a stretch.
More often than not their act does not succeed. Zabuza just watch as their act failed miserably but it does not matter since it still give an opening to him. The moment they use Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystal Technique they would always win easily afterwards.
Haku stopped the act at some point since their heights are really a giveaway that they are acting. Thinking about it, its quite embarrassing...
Shou decides to keep the mask on almost all the time when they are going out the mission as it boost his confidence. Zabuza stopped commenting on it since he liked it that much.
It's just that because Shou has better concealment skill as he specialized with sensor technique and that he is taught Silent Killing technique. His steps does not make much sounds due to his training and even at times Zabuza himself was startled as Shou appears out of nowhere with the mask on. He almost spat some curses and just glared at him for a second or two.
Another few years passes by. Missions becomes more and more difficult and threatening as Zabuza gain confidence in their abilities. Haku also have a growth spurt and grow taller.
Shou felt a little jealous that Haku is too much taller than him while he still look like a brat. His brother figure is going towards 'cute' though as he gets more mature over the year... Shou wonders if he too would look more cute than handsome when he hit his puberty like Haku. And his skin remained flawless as well. Is it the Yuki clan genetic?
...
Shou was doing pull up upside down while sticking his feet with chakra to a branch of a tree.
"99... 100. Huuh...".
Shou jumped and landed on the ground wiping his sweat. He looks meters away Haku is practicing throwing his needles. When it comes to throwing weapons, Haku is definitely better than him. To hit the exact acupuncture points are amazing.
He went to Haku to ask him to use his demonic mirror to attack him. He wanted to practice reacting.
"Haku, use your Demonic Mirror and attack me. I want to train my reaction".
'You might get hurt'. Haku doesn't think its a good idea.
"It's okay. Just don't hit my vitals it's fine".
Haku just nods. He weaved hand seals and used Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystal. The mirrors trapped him in a circular formation. He sees Haku reflection on the mirrors.
With a little focus, he can sense real Haku's body through the obvious chakra signal in one of the mirrors as his sensing skill improved a lot. At close distance it only takes a little scanning and he could lock them on at close range.
"Ready". Haku said.
Seeing Shou is ready, Haku moved from one mirror to another. As he moved, he threw his needles to Shou, avoiding his non vital spots.
As he sensed Haku's body, he can sense where he is going and therefore from where the needles come from. He dodged each time.
Predicting his movement, Shou throws wooden Shuriken at the path Haku is taking. After 10 rounds, he gets used to Haku's pattern and speed to a point the shuriken almost managed to hit Haku mid-flight.
"I will speed up". Haku uses more chakra and increases his speed by 1.5 times.
Shou frowned. Because although he knows where he is at any given time, Haku is simply too fast for him to actually do anything. But by the time he threw his shuriken, Haku had already moved to a new mirror moving in a different direction.
Ouch! Some of the needles hit him as he just can't keep up.
He still tried to throw his shuriken each time he felt Haku was about to move between mirrors and frantically dodges incoming needles at the same time. When Haku launches an attack, there is a window of vulnerability where Haku's body is out of the body – but his shuriken can only clash with his needles while Haku had already flashed to another mirror.
After more rounds, Shou ended up like a hedgehog. Haku controlled his strength so the needles didn't pierce deep. The 'sparring' stopped since Shou can't keep up anymore.
"Urgh...". Shou lay flat on the ground after Haku roughly plucked the ones from his back. It's really too difficult. What a bug jutsu. Is the only way to counter them is to destroy all mirrors all at once? Or perhaps, hold on until Haku runs out of chakra?
He thought of countermeasures. Haku speed is too fast. He does not think he can cast a jutsu and have time to weave hand seals when the mirrors are already there as it would leave him open to attacks.
So how does Sasuke freely use his Great Fireball Jutsu? It must be because Haku wanted to see it. Both of them had encountered many enemies and once they had to use their Demonic Mirror technique the enemy has no way to react if they are totally serious.
Haku plucked the needles one by one while Shou was thinking about it.
"You should train on something else. Our speed are too fast".
'Maybe...'. Shou thought of giving up on reacting since it seems unreasonable to react precisely without a Sharingan.
An AOE attack that can destroy all the mirrors are definitely one of definite way to deal with them. Or using a jutsu to trap them inside the mirror like surrounding them with strong flames or other AOE jutsus. And it must be seal-less or using only one or two seals if you are really fast.
And if someone from the outside comes to help they could cast a jutsu from a distance away and destroy the mirrors, creating a space for their friend to get out.
So, the jutsu is best if you can trap all opponents in a closed space or for a one on one so you can have multiple mirrors to focus on a small area.
But then, given the speed, one demonic mirror is enough if the enemy is caught off guard like the hunter-nin from before.
...
Over the years even hunter-nin stop chasing after them because Haku and Shou had grown too powerful and only kept an eye on them from time to time. Not to mention Zabuza is already a powerful person.
Shou feels secure that they are both growing stronger. He feels glad to Zabuza for taking them in and that, they can live in security with their strength despite the harshness of shinobi world.
"Haku, Zabuza-san, I got these dangos. It's so popular and really nice".
Shou went to them with a Dango he bought while doing a mission by himself for a certain village.
Zabuza simply took them and ate one without much noise. Haku ate them with a smile.
"It's really good!". Haku exclaimed.
'Right? I was in line for 30 minutes for this...'.
Zabuza takes a look at Shou, seeing him smile and excited about mere dangos. And he looked at Haku, who too chewing happily on them. For Shou and Haku who were once poor and had to live like dogs in the streets for some times starving most of the times, food is one of the things they enjoyed.
Zabuza thought both of them have a pure heart and kind. And yet they can kill that heart to kill the enemy if need be. He liked his tools that way compared to a pure killing machine.
The dangos are too sweet for him however. He is not suited for this kind of sweetness.
His tools have grown really powerful. And his funds are on the roll as they take difficult missions together, easily fighting against Jonin level opponents once they use their secret technique.
Even beating him once he is trapped inside the mirrors. He tried and failed. Haku even turned him into a hedgehog as well - while avoiding his vitals at the same time. But he does not feel ashamed, instead he felt proud.
With both of them, his plan to take down the Mizukage and lead the change in Land of Water will surely succeed.
...
"Hmm? Zabuza-san, some people are coming to our base. 2 Jonin level guarding an ordinary person". Shou can sense their chakra volume as a sensor.
Zabuza nods. Normally it's a customer coming to their base to hire them.
They finally arrived and came in. A secretary who's also a part of Zabuza mercenary group lead them in. Shou sees the 2 Samurais, and the short guy they are protecting.
Oh. It's a samurai not a ninja, Shou said to himself. He is quite interested in samurai technique to use chakra to extend their blade. It can couple well with his speed.
But… this short guy and the two samurai looks so damn familiar… is it...?
"I am Gatō from Gatō company. I heard your group is dependable from an acquaintance. I need you to kill someone".
Gato looks at his guard, Waji. He nodded and went forward to give Zabuza a file that information on the target.
Zabuza reads the papers on the target. The target is Tazuna, an expert bridge builder who would build a bridge that upon completion will disrupt the monopoly of Gato Company.
Tazuna is aware of the danger and would hire ninjas to protect him that's why a ninja needs to be hired to kill Tazuna. It's a B-rank mission in payment.
It's still rare for someone to pay him this much to kill a regular person. And considering the poor economy of the target in question, his guards should at most be Chunin and most probably just Genin.
"Can you really do it?".
Zabuza looks at him with an annoyance.
"We are all elite ninjas here. It will be an easy task".
Zabuza assigned the task to Demon Brothers who are Chunin ninjas expert in assasination. These two brothers would be enough. Not to mention they don't really have to fight against the guards and go straight for the target.
Gato nods letting his bodyguard give the deposit money to Zabuza. Complete payment would be given once the mission is complete.
The demon brothers went to linger distance away from Konoha, hiding, and set their eyes on Tazuna. He is taking refuge in Konoha and so they wait for him, for a chance to kill.
In Konoha, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi are at the Mission Centre. They are about to take another mission but Naruto complained about how useless the genin missions (D rank) are; finding cats, weeding, cleaning, basically chores.
Naruto wanted a real mission and complained to Hiruzen, the Third Hokage.
"Sigh. I am going to get scolded later". Kakashi complained in his heart because of Naruto. He often sighed because of him.
"Okay, fine!". Hiruzen smirked. This kid who can only express himself through pranks, so confident. He decides to just give it to him.
Kakashi team is surprised hearing Hiruzen agreed.
"If you insist... I will have you do a Rank C mission. You will be a bodyguard to someone".
Naruto is excited to hear that.
"Really?! Ah ha!". He's too excited for it.
"Who? Who? Is it Daimyo (feudal lord)!? Or a princess?!". This 12 year old Naruto is too excited.
"Don't get too hasty. I will introduce you now. Could you please come in?".
'Huh?'. Everyone in team Kakashi turned to their back.
The door opens revealing a drunk old man.
"What's this? It's just a bunch of brats!".
An old man with white frame glasses, grey hair, and connected moustache and beard spoke. He even had the time to drink from a bottle after he spoke so.
Gulp. Gulp gulp. Haaa. The alcohol hits good he thought. He looks at Naruto in particular after seeing the kids.
"Particularly you, the shortest one with an idiot face. Are you really a ninja?".
Naruto thought it was funny, haha who is the idiot ninja? He looked at Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura and Sasuke look at each other, then at Naruto. They measure with their minds and agreed Naruto is the shortest one and therefore the idiot.
Huh? Naruto blinked twice seeing Sasuke and Sakura looked at him.
Realising this Naruto gets mad and wanted to beat the old man but Kakashi stopped him.
Anyways, it's revealed Tazuna is a veteran bridge builder and he requests someone to protect him. It's classified as C rank with payment of 30,000 Ryo.
A genin team is enough since the mission is only to guard against ordinary bandits or beasts for the amount of payment and assigned rank.
At this time, the Demon Brothers are preparing for assassination near a road that Tazuna would definitely pass.
"Yosh! We are off!". Naruto is so excited since it's the first time he's leaving the village. And would go to visit an island too!
They started their journey to the Land of Waves an island East of Land of Fire. Land of Waves was once known as Land of Whirlpools before they got destroyed.
As they walked, they saw a puddle of water. Kakashi already noticed something is weird, because it didn't rain that day so where did this puddle of water come from? Obviously-
But he remains calm and decides to use this as a form of test and training for his student. Sasuke too noticed this peculiarity and is on alert.
As they passed by it, suddenly a figure jumped out of the water.
The demon brothers attack! The demon brothers had used transformation jutsu to appear like puddle of water!
The demon brothers use a chain weapon which is connected to each other's arms. The chain has sharp teeth and is like a chainsaw.
The enemy threw his brother to Kakashi, and tied him up with the chain weapon.
"What!?". Kakashi was acting surprised, followed by everyone opening their mouth in shock.
"The first one!". One of the assassins exclaimed.
The demon brothers pulled the chains tying his body up, shredding Kakashi's body to pieces.
Kyaaaa!!! Sakura screamed in horror.
"K-Kakashi sensei!". Naruto screamed as well.
The demon brothers immediately use body flicker, appearing behind Naruto.
"The second one...".
Naruto had sense of dread drowning him. His body is shaking with fear of death. As the chains were about to reach Naruto, Sasuke jumped and threw a shuriken and a Kunai accurately, pinning the chain to trees.
"Hm!?". The demon brothers are surprised. Because of the speed of reaction and accuracy of the little kid in blue. It's chunin level speed and reaction!
One of the demon brothers tried to pull the chains off the tree, but it can't come off. Sasuke calmly landed and stood on both of the chained arms and kicked both of their heads.
Kuh!
The demon brothers detach their chain weapon, directly ignoring Sasuke and go ahead to kill their target Tazuna.
One of them attacks Naruto, another one directly attacks Tazuna whose only protection is a little girl.
Why bother fighting Sasuke when you could ignore him and kill the target, completing the mission?
Sakura quickly stood in front of Tazuna to defend. She's scared but she held her Kunai firmly, ready to defend with her life.
Sasuke used body flicker to jump in front of Sakura. His speed is really fast surprising him again. But its useless! The enemy extends his claw to attack! Sasuke is ready to intercept it.
Suddenly Kakashi appears out of nowhere and elbow grabs the assassin. Due to momentum the opponent smashed his own neck and was instantly defeated. (This is also why having great vision when moving at high speed is important).
Gasp!
Naruto is shocked seeing Kakashi was alive and saves him in time. Naruto received a little injury on his hand however. Right after Kakashi flickered away and saved him.
Kakashi praised Sasuke and Sakura for their performance, then apologized to Naruto for not saving him earlier. He wanted to see Naruto's performance and was disappointed in his heart. But he kept it inside.
Naruto feels his own weakness, realising he can't do anything. And yet Sasuke can calmly react and even attack them back without a dust touching his cloth on his first battle.
Sasuke sees Naruto ugly expression and gets amused.
"Are you hurt... Scaredy cat?". Sasuke being an arrogant kid he is felt his superiority.
"Sasukeeee!". Naruto is mad being called a pu**y. He wants to beat him up!
Kakashi interjects by pointing out the opponent's claw is poisoned and he shouldn't move too much as he might die from it. Naruto is scared of dying and went quiet.
Putting that aside, Kakashi interrogates Tazuna. Because the enemies are not what they are paid for. 30,000 Ryo is enough only for C-ranked mission, in which the squad is supposed to protect from bandits or wild beasts.
It's revealed the real opponent is ninjas hired by Gato to kill them. In fact this is a B-rank or even could be passed as A-rank mission.
Sakura, upon learning this suggests to give up the mission since the opponents are out of their skill range. Kakashi also thought about it.
"Since Naruto is poisoned, he needs treatment. Should we give up the mission...?". Kakashi said disdainfully.
Naruto gritted his teeth. No! He doesn't want to give up!
His heart firmed at this moment. He wants to be Hokage! He can't give up just from this setback!
He stabs his poisoned hand with kunai. Everyone is shocked to see this.
Naruto hates it's always him that's weak. He had always trained hard every single day. He hates that he's weak and firmed his resolve to not be afraid or he coward. He won't lose to Sasuke. He swore on his bleeding hand he will protect the old man!
"The mission continues!". Naruto exclaimed his resolve to everyone.
But Kakashi break his mode by pointing out he would die if too much blood is lost. Naruto panicked like a brat would. Sakura complained about Naruto masochist behaviour while Kakashi is surprised seeing Naruto hand is already healing...
This is the power of Kyubi chakra...?
...
Meanwhile, in Zabuza mercenary base…
"Did you say you failed!?". Gato is mad after receiving the news from Zabuza.
"I paid a lot of money to hire you guys because you said you were elite ninjas!".
Zabuza is annoyed.
"Stop of your darned grumbling...". He pointed the large human sized blade to Gato. Gato is visibly scared.
"Next time, I will kill them with this Executioner blade myself". He calmly explains.
"It's really okay right? It seems the enemy hired a good ninja, and they might tighten the security too, it won't be easy...".
Zabuza is annoyed again.
"Just who do you think I am?!". After all he is Zabuza Momochi, who is called the Demon of the Hidden Mist, and one of the 7 swordsman, a former Elite ANBU too!
Now he will go ahead and see the opponent himself.
"Shou, Haku, let's go. Stay back and observe the enemy while I test them".
Zabuza, Haku and Shou went out to spy intel on the enemy first.
Shou felt a sense of palpitation and anxiety in his heart. Because... This mission involves Haku and Zabuza's death a week later. He knows the team is led by Kakashi of the Sharingan, 9 tails jinchuriki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke.
He's afraid and felt anxious over the future.
However, he strengthened his resolve. He will definitely ensure Zabuza and Haku stay alive. They are people he cared most now.
...
