19 Meeting the Demon in the Mist

The kunai and senbon are traveling fast enough that the three genin are still somewhat slow to react. Fortunately, none of the three hit their mark as both Anko and Kurenai grab one kunai each while Tora stands in front of the senbon, letting them hit and deflect of his full power chakra strengthened skin.

It was at this point that Tora expected a battle and grabbed a violet metal half-oni mask that was hidden under his clothes and started wearing it. It covered the bottom half of his face including his nose and had been modified to be able to help filter out poison, smoke, and other particles in the air.

"Do any of you detect anything?" Anko asks to everyone.

"I smell metal and oil that way." Kiba says and points at the direction for Hinata to look at.

Hinata nods and looks into the mist with her byakugan.

"Two figures sensei, one is very tall while the other is somewhat short. They are walking towards us now." Hinata says.

As the group look in that direction, a voice then comes from the mist.

"Well, what do you know, two Jounin I heard of, Anko Mitarashi and Kurenai Yuhi. And a genin squad consisting of an Aburame, Inuzuka, and Hyuga. Perfect for scouting. How's the other one Haku?" The first masculine voice says.

"He is hardy Zabuza-san, none of my senbon pierced his skin." A feminine voice answers him.

"Good, good, wearing a Hoshigakure headband on his arm too. I hope he can use the that clan's famed secret jutsu that I've heard so much about." The first voice replies.

The two figures then appear before the squad from Konoha and Tora immediately recognizes them due to their appearance in the original story. Anko however, with her position in the anbu letting her become a familiar with many of the famous shinobi of the other villages, speaks.

"Oh? Tall and muscular with bandages covering his face, camouflage arm and leg warmers, and holding a large Zanbato. Even without one of the mist's seven swords, became the captain of the Kiri Anbu's assasination squad and famed for his mastery of silent-killing. Currently a Kirigakure rebel, the demon of the hidden mist, Zabuza Momochi." Anko announces.

"Oh, I'm honored to be known to elite Konoha shinobi like the Snake mistress and Genjutsu princess... I hope you liked our greeting, we had to make sure our reinforcements would be useful." Zabuza greets them.

All the Konoha ninja tensed up at this. Kurenai and Anko frowned.

"I assume your the "help", Kakashi mentioned then?" Kurenai asked.

"Mhm, me, Haku, and two of my associates are here hunting another rogue missing-nin. Apparently that missing-nin was hired by some rich idiot called Gato to kill the head bridge builder of a bridge nearby." Zabuza explained in a relaxed but gruff voice.

"I see, what do you know about this missing-nin? Kakashi wrote that they were part of the Akatsuki." Anko asked.

"Yeah, he is. He's an old senior I used to know back in my days in Kiri. His name's Juzo Biwa, ex-member of the mist's seven swordsmen, he was supposed to pass down his sword to me but he went rogue before I could take it. A few months ago, he and another ex-member of the mist swordsmen went to Kirigakure to try and assassinate the Mizukage... It didn't end so well for them, Yagura caught wind of it and set-up an ambush, his partner Raiga got killed as fast as they arrived; so old Juzo ran here to try and rebuild. Us in the resistance thought this was the perfect time to get the guy's sword. Unfortunately, from what we could tell, he was able to find a bunch of other shinobi who have a bone to pick with both the Mizukage and us in the resistance." Zabuza further explained.

"Do you know how many they are now?" Kurenai nodded and then asked.

"Around two dozen experienced genin, and a bit more than half a dozen chunin. Should be easier now that we've got you two jounin. These brats though..." Zabuza thought for a moment before replying.

Zabuza then looked a the four genin in front of him and exuded killing intent to gauge their reaction. Though they tried their best, all three genin under Kurenai still visibly took a tense step back while Tora simply looked at him unaffected. After seeing this, Zabuza's eyes stopped on Tora before going back to Anko and Kurenai to continue their conversation.

"The three trackers are still babies, but we can use their abilities, so they'll probably be in the back. The older looking one will be good up front since he's the only one that looks to have killed before and won't freeze at the first sight of blood." Zabuza said.

Anko and Kurenai's eyes twitched at Zabuza's impromptu test of the four genin. They didn't appreciate the Kiri rebel scaring their genin like that.

"That was unnecessary, I suggest you avoid doing that in the future if you want to avoid problems." Kurenai said sternly.

"As much as I like scaring the kiddos, don't do that again if you want to keep living." Anko added with a scary smile.

Zabuza could only shrug before replying.

"Better find out now then on their deathbed, you leaf ninja need to stop babying your brats. It will get them killed." Zabuza said.

Zabuza then turned his attention to Tora.

"Look at the Hoshi kid, couldn't care less. Textbook shinobi." Zabuza continued.

Tora only shrugged nonchalantly in response.

"Anyway, come on. Let's go meet with the copy ninja and his brats. The fool got hurt fighting Juzo while trying to protect his client and genin." Zabuza, not waiting for a response, starts walking back with Haku.

"Well kiddos, let's go. Don't mind the scary big knucklehead, I'm sure he's a softie deep down." Anko cracks a joke loud enough for Zabuza to hear.

Though he's facing away from them an irritated aura leaks out of Zabuza. This causes Anko to chuckle.

As they start walking, Hinata turns to Tora.

"Tora-kun is it true what that man said?" She asks.

Tora, with a complicated look on his face, answers.

"Yeah... When I was still in my village, a lot was expected of me... Don't worry too much about it, you'll cross that bridge when you get there. It gets better." Tora smiles to try to raise morale, but he didn't seem that happy. He still had a somewhat regretful voice.

"Hey, if you need anything man. Just yell, me and Akamaru got your back. " Kiba then said. Though he wasn't the best a reading situations, Kiba realized that Tora needed some support.

"Thanks man. Now let's keep walking before Anko hears us getting sappy." Tora said.

"Too late, aren't you two so sweet." Anko who overheard their conversation yells from in front of them.

The genin chuckle and continue walking forward.

(Flashback: A few days ago in the Mist.)

Naruto was repeatedly trying and failing to walk up a tree with his chakra control. He had done what Tora had suggested and abused his shadow clones to learn faster. However, it didn't make the training any less difficult. He was currently laying down due to exhaustion and looking up to the sky.

"Ah hello Naruto-kun, how's your chakra control doing so far?" A beautiful looking boy approached him.

Naruto looks over and sees the shinobi he had met a few days earlier. He smiles in recognition.

"Hi Haku-nii san! I'm having some trouble doing it, but I'm sure I'll get it in no time." Naruto replies.

Haku smiles back at him and then pauses for few moments.

"Naruto, it seems your exhausting yourself training so hard... Why is that?"

"Oh, it's because I want to become strong Haku-san."

"Well, why do you wish to be strong?"

Naruto then quieted for a few seconds and thought of the people close to him. Tsunade and Shizune who adopted and raised him, Mikoto, Itachi, Sasuke and the other Uchihas who treated him like family, and his other friends like Choji, Shikamaru, and Tora.

His thoughts focused when he thought of Tora, specifically how like Naruto, he experienced tragedy at a young age. It would have been so easy to shut Naruto out like the rest of the village, but he chose to befriend him instead. This realization made Naruto hold his first friend dear.

After learning the truth about Tora's past, Naruto began observing him deeper. It was after a few months of doing so that he realized that a majority of his first friend's smiles never reached his eyes. Naruto realized that although Tora was someone who smiled frequently, it was very rare for him to be truly happy.

He then remembered what he had asked Tora after he had his first meeting with Team 7.

"Tora, what's your dream in life?" Naruto asked.

"Mine?... To cherish what I have left and make sure no one takes them away from me." Tora replied, his usual smile disappearing there was both sorrow and an edge of darkness in his tone. It was one of the few times that Naruto had seen his friend's smile breaking.

After remembering this, Naruto shuddered, he remembered an early childhood memory he had of Tora that he had tried to forget. Naruto then shook his head and looked up at Haku.

"I want to be strong so I can protect the people who are precious to me, I want to be strong so those important to me won't worry about me. " Naruto said with conviction and a smile across his face.

"I see, then I'm sure there's no limit to how strong you can be." Haku replied with a smile. The boy then stood after gathering some nearby herbs.

"From what I've seen so far, your able to finally get the right balance of chakra on your feet when you first place your feet on the tree. However, I think you tend to lose that balance once you start walking up the tree. Next time, aside from just the start, try to focus on maintaining that balance you originally achieved all throughout the exercise." Haku then suggested with a smile before walking away.

Naruto nodded in understanding for a few moments before looking back at the tree. He was now more motivated to keep practicing and finally get this chakra-control exercise.

(End of Flashback)

Author's Corner

Hey Guys!

Thanks for reading!

In this chapter, we continued the new land of waves arc and had a short flashback. I also borrowed the idea of sometimes making side-stories of what happened years ago to better flesh-out the setting. I've made an extra short one which I'll release in a bit.

I unfortunately just got a swab-test recently saying I caught the disease that must not be named unless you want to get censored, which explains why I've been feeling terrible the past week. Sorry If end-up being late with uploads, the missed schoolwork is piling up since I got sick.

Take care of your self guys.