84 Chapter 84

'Why would Haku be with someone who thinks like that?'

'Because to Haku, Zabuza is like Iruka-sensei or Ji-chan. Zabuza was the first person to care for Haku and Haku will die to protect him.'

Naruto nods in understanding, making Sasuke look at him oddly. 'So how can I help him? I can't imagine anyone would ever make me change my mind about Ji-chan or Iruka-sensei.'

'You have to convince Haku that his existence DOES matter, and you have to convince Zabuza that shinobi CAN be more than tools or killing machines.'

'Yeah but how?'

'You'll figure it out,' Naru-nii simply states. 'You're me after all. I have faith in you.'

'Hmm,' Naruto's mind wiggles with suspicion at the puddle ahead.

'What?' Naru-nii asks.

'There's something weird about that puddle…'

With a lot of mirth in his voice, a humored Naru-nii asks, 'what's weird about it?'

'I don't know,' Naruto responds. 'I guess it's just weird to see a puddle all of a sudden.'

Hearing Naru-nii chuckle a bit, he then advises, 'well since you're on mission, you should definitely keep your eyes open, just in case.'

With too much energy to just wait and see, Naruto simply takes out a shuriken and tosses it with deft accuracy at the puddle. To Naruto's great surprise, a clawed hand shoots out of the dematerializing water, 'clanging' against Naruto's blocked shuriken.

'…Huh,' Naruto thought to which Naru-nii laughs and says, 'have fun using up that energy!'

Naruto didn't know what to expect from his first battle, but he's full of energy and he'd been sparring against multiple clones with Sakura's accurate tactics for weeks, making him rather calm. Despite the power aching to be released as a pair of ninja sprint toward them with deadly intent, Naruto thinks, 'thank Kami.' Without even acknowledging his team or sensei, Naruto crosses the middle and index of each hand and shouts, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Ten clones appear surrounded by thick smoke. In the distraction of the extra bodies and smoke, the sharp claws of the gauntlets cut in from the left and the right. Two clones are popped instantly, one by each attacker, yet Naruto only needed the physical extension of their weaponized hands for a couple of well-timed clones to grab each gauntlet, holding them inert for simultaneous strikes from the remaining Narutos to the body and face of both attackers. Naruto, himself felt such gratification driving the knuckles of his energized fist into the temple of one of the assassins, he wanted to do it again.

After Naruto had absorbed Sakura's pinpoint timing of attack from the clones she always commands, Naru-nii helped Naruto to quickly pick up on the trick to fighting multiple attackers at once: focus on his own openings while using his ears more than your eyes to read an attack. Shinobi ears can hear the shifting of dirt, splitting of air, metallic humming and even note the distance and timing by how fast sound reaches the ear. It's how Naruto fights all his clones two or three at a time. With Naru-nii's experienced guidance, Naruto eventually recognized a few of his own openings and learned to expect attacks and focus there.

These shinobi don't seem accustomed to such all-around continuous attack.

Like a Naruto-barrage, the second they turn one direction, a clone is striking at their blind spot. The assassins take out another two clones before two more clones throw kunai at the killer's heads, and as expected, the fast ninjas dodge, allowing Naruto and a clone to catch the thrown weapon in a sprint toward the killer's backs and stab them between the tenth and eleventh rib, directly into the liver.

Having experienced multiple times how a liver shot can incapacitate, the would-be assassins are shocked to stillness long enough for more cloned kunai to be brought up to their necks, threatening them with execution via severing the jugular.

With pressure firmly kept on the kunai in their liver, the assassins aren't in any immediate danger of bleeding out or a quick death as Kakashi calmly walks up to them, impassively congratulating his genin student. "Well done, Naruto," Kakashi says as he walks around the black-haired assassins. "Gōzu and Meizu, the Demon Brothers. Chūnin from Kirigakure."

'What did you guys do with the Demon Brothers?' Naruto asks, Naru-nii.

'Ya took care of them already,' Naru-nii asks more out of surprise. 'Man, I wish I could figure out how to see with this thing.'

'Yeah me too,' Naruto wistfully agrees.

'We just tied them to a tree,' Naru-nii recalls. 'I assume they were arrested since we never saw them again. Still, you should ask them who they're working for.'

In the deepest voice he could muster, Naruto asks, "who are you working for," while Kakashi and an irate Sasuke-teme are disarming and securing them.

"What makes you think they're working for anyone," Tazuna stiffly asks.

"Because they would've let us by if we weren't a target," Kakashi answers. "I think it's time you were open with us, Tazuna-san."

Tazuna, of course, explains the real circumstances of the mission. Team Seven were told of the destitute living conditions the people of Land of Wave is suffering due to the greed of a shipping magnate named Gatō and how he uses Gatō Company as a front for illegal dealings. "Gatō's effectively bankrupted our country with his company's monopoly on shipping and the only way to revitalize our economy is to build a bridge to the mainland."

"Naturally he wouldn't want this bridge to be built," Kakashi easily interprets. "Ma, ma, what to do… this is easily an A-Rank mission… It's likely to only get harder from here on out…"

"Please, we can't go back," Tazuna proclaims. "I have to continue! Everyone is depending on me to finish this bridge!"

After all the help Naru-nii's given Naruto, helping Haku has been the only request he's ever made, and truthfully, after hearing a bit about the supposedly girl-looking boy, Naruto would've helped him regardless of Naru-nii's request. So, Naruto shoulders his pack and easily chimes in, "we're wasting time, Kakashi-sensei. The faster we get there the faster we can help these people!"

INO

Ino was upset. No, she was angry. Outraged even. Kurenai-sensei and Ino had just left the second most popular grocery in the market—the same grocery she shops in, her clan shops in, most villagers shop in at least once or twice. While the number one grocer in the market has more product, they can be overpriced, which is why the number two spot will always have business. The number two grocer, Mitsuwa's, is also run by a retired shinobi which means active military receive discounts.

Kurenai explained the reconnaissance was a twofold plan, though she would only share the first, which was walking in the blond idiot's shoes. Ino didn't see the point, however, Kurenai mentioned Naruto—despite only earning genin rank pay—doesn't have the type of expenses that would keep him perpetually poor. So, Kurenai had entered the most popular of the grocer separately to observe, while Ino, henge'd as Naruto, shops for basics. Before Ino can get one thing in the basket, she's chased out with a broomstick… 'a broomstick, of all things!'

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