Yuno in Naruto

"No, I've had it with these lame missions! I wanna go on a real mission, come on Grandpa Hokage. You know how much training Sasuke and I went through, you know how strong we are. Even Kakashi sensei can vouch for us. We've already done almost 20 D-Rank missions in the past week. Give us a better mission," Naruto said.

"Hmm," The Hokage said, straightening his beard. 'That's true, Naruto and Sasuke are already Chunin level. Given a couple of years, they can gain enough experience and become Jonin as well.'

"Alright, a new C-Rank mission came in. You are to escort a bridge builder back to his home in the land of waves and protect him until he finishes the bridge. Bring him in," The Hokage said.

"Really, awesome!" Naruto exclaimed

The door to the office opens and a drunk older man walks in, he looks at the team and says, "What is this? I asked for ninja to protect me, not these little brats."

"Hey, watch it. I may be short but I have no problem beating an o-" Naruto said, but was cut off by Kakashi.

"Hehe, sorry about that sir. You have nothing to worry about, my team here is very capable, if it makes you feel any better. I'm a Jonin, an elite ninja, I'll also be coming along on this mission." Kakashi said.

The bridge builder scoffs and takes another swig from his bottle.

"You know your mission, here are the details. You can leave tomorrow, I'll leave the rest to you Kakashi." The Hokage said.

"Yes sir," Kakashi said.

The next day, the team set off to the land of waves to accomplish the mission. They walked through many different environments and terrains. Eventually they walked past a puddle on the path, once Kakashi walked past the puddle, two ninjas suddenly jumped out of the water and attacked Kakashi. He was wrapped up in chains and cut up into chunks.

The ninja then changed their target to the bridge builder.

"Sakura! Protect Tazuna! Sasuke, with me," Naruto screamed.

He threw a kunai at one of the ninjas, who easily dodged it. Both ninjas who were attached together with a chain went for Naruto. But he easily held his ground against both and countered when he could. Suddenly, Sasuke appeared behind one of them and delivered a strong flying kick to his face. He immediately went limp and fell to the floor, the other ninja was distracted by this. Naruto took advantage of the distraction and incapacitated the other ninja.

Kakashi walked out of the forest and said, "Well, done team, nice teamwork all around. Good job taking the lead Naruto. Giving everyone a job and making sure the mission objective is safe," Kakashi said.

"Thanks," Naruto said.

"Wh- but how? I thought you were," Sakura said, but when she looked at where she thought Kakashi's remains were, she just saw chunks of wood. "Oh," she said.

"Now," Kakashi said, looking at the bridge builder, "Mr. Tazuna, I would like to speak with you." Kakashi said, looking at the bridge builder.

"Wha- what is it?" He asked, looking scared.

"Our attackers appeared to be Chunin level ninjas from the Mist. They are shinobi renowned for their willingness to fight on until their goal is achieved, even at the cost of their own lives. Obviously, they were watching and waiting for us. The sun is out and it hasn't rained for several days so there shouldn't have been any puddles on the ground."

"If you knew all that, why'd you let those creeps attack you?" Tazuna asked.

"I could have killed them at any time, but I wanted to find out who their real target was." Kakashi said, looking at Tazuna sharply.

"What do you mean?" He asked, confused.

"There hasn't been any word of shinobi seeking to take your life. The request that was relayed to the Hokage was to have an escort protect you against thieves and bandits. In any case, it's clear this is more of a B rank mission. You may have had your reasons, but it's never a good idea to conceal the facts when asking for help. The mission falls far beyond the scope of the job we were assigned." Kakashi said. 

"We're not good enough yet to handle something like this, can't we quit?" Sakura asks, nervously.

"This is complicated," Kakashi said, thinking of what to do.

Naruto looked at Kakashi incredulously.

Somewhere else...

"Failed?! What the hell do you mean failed!!? If you weren't supposed to be the best, I wouldn't have paid top dollar for your skills." A short man in a suit said.

The man he was yelling at picked up his giant sword and swung it at the man as if it weighed nothing.

"Kakashi sensei, if I may, we are more than qualified to take care of threats of this level. Besides this could be valuable experience for what to do when we are on high level missions and things go wrong."

"Still this is very dangerous, too much risk for too little reward. We're not a charity organization." Kakashi replied.

Naruto brought Kakashi to the side out of earshot of Tazuna and said, "True, but we get an IOU, if we help the land of waves develop we can get another source of seafood and access to products unique to the island. We'll have to actually go to the island and look around to access its potential, but it doesn't hurt to have more allies that are reliant on us."

Somewhere else...

"Do stop whining. There's nothing to worry about. I, with this neck-cleaving knife, will take the hit by myself." The man with the giant sword said.

The guard of the short man stepped forward and nervously said, "Yessir, but are you sure you really want to? The enemy has hired ninjas of tremendous skill! And besides, now that the demon brothers have tried and failed, they'll be on guard against further attempts."

"Remember whom you're talking to! I am Momochi Zabuza, the demon of the mist!" The man now known as Zabuza said, confidently.

Back with team 7...

While Kakashi and Naruto were speaking, Tazuna said, "Mr. Kakashi, I have something I need to say." When he saw that he had Kakashi's attention, he continued. "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 and your students were led to believe. There's a real scary man who wants to see me dead."

"Who is he?" Kakashi asked.

"You've probably heard of him. He's the marine transportation billionaire, Gato!"

Kakashi, shocked, asked for clarification, "You mean Gato, of Gato shipping and transport? THE Gato? They say he's the richest man in the world!!"

"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 ruining 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 Waves. He came under the guise of a business venture. Then the violence began, and in no time at all, he'd take over our entire marine transportation and shipping industry, and we all ended up under his thumb!

Gato now has a stranglehold on all forms of transportation, the lifeblood of an island nation, and all the wealth. The only thing he has to fear is that which has been underway for some time… The completion of the bridge!" Tazuna said.

"I see, and as the one in charge of building this bridge, you're very much in his way," Sakura said.

"Which means, the ninja sent to kill you were working for Gato." Sasuke said.

"Okay, if you knew all that, why didn't you tell us? We could've sent stronger ninjas better equipped to deal with this situation." Kakashi said.

"The land of Waves isn't a real prosperous land. Even our local lords are poor and I have no money at all. A B rank mission would have been a lot more than I could afford.

But if you all turn away from me now then I'm as good as dead. 

But oh well! That's not your concern! You won't be there to see my daughter and ten year old grandson cry all day like their hearts are breaking! OH! And you won't mind if my daughter vows eternal hatred of all the ninja of your village as she lives her life alone! HECK! Well, it's not your fault!"

Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura gave him an, 'are you serious?' look. Then Kakashi sighed and said, "Well, I suppose it can't be helped. We'll continue to protect you, at least until you return to your country!" Then he quietly said, "This is the worst mission-for-hire of all time."

'Gotcha!' Tazuna thought.

Naruto looked at Tazuna and said, "You know I was this close to sympathizing with you," while pinching his fingers together and walking past him.

Skip to when Tazuna and the team are on a small boat, making their way to the Land of Waves.

"Wow, this is some fog. I can barely see a thing," Sakura said.

"We'll be able to see the bridge in a minute. On the other side of it is the Land of Waves."

Once they got close to the bridge, the fog cleared up and the bridge came into view.

Naruto was amazed at the size of the bridge and exclaimed, "Whoa! It's HUGE!!"

The boatman angrily admonished Naruto, "Hey! Keep it down! This mist will keep us hidden. But from this point on, we have to turn off the engines and row. We'd be in big trouble if Gato caught us."

After rowing next to the bridge for a while the land of waves came into view, the boatman said, "We'll be there soon! 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 the mangroves."

"Tazuna looked at the boatman and said, "Thank you."

After rowing through the waterway for a bit, they came out of the other side and saw many mangroves growing out of the water and houses built on top of wooden platforms over the water.

Everyone was impressed by the views, but Naruto was the most vocal about it, "Wow!" He exclaimed.

The boatman dropped off the team and Tazuna on a small port on the side of a house and said, "This is as far as I go. Take care of yourself."

Tazuna looked back and said with a smile, "Thanks for taking such a risk, I know it was a lot to ask." The boatman did not respond and just drove off.

"Ok! Now if I can just make it home in one piece," Tazuna said.

"Yeah, yeah." Kakashi said.

'There's bound to be another attack, and next time they won't send Chunin, we'll probably face upper-level ninjas. Could this be any worse?' Kakashi thought.

Naruto and Sasuke were looking around, and making sure that they're journey was safe. Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi noticed some movement in the bushes. Naruto looked over and body flickered to it. He saw a white rabbit and brought it back to the team, "Hey guys check it out, I found this cute rabbit."

"Hey! Midget!! Don't disappear like that!" Tazuna yelled, angry and scared at the same time.

Kakashi looked at Naruto while he and Sakura pet the rabbit.

'That's a snow hare. It's spring-time, so why is it still wearing its winter pelt? It's obviously a decoy that's been kept like a pet where there isn't a lot of sunshine.' Kakashi thought.

Some distance away, in a tree. Zabuza could be seen watching team 7. 'From what I see, this group is not equal in skill to the demon brothers. But their leader is Kakashi, the copy ninja of the Sharingan eye!' Zabuza grabbed the hilt of the sword on his back and jumped.

Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto all noticed, and Kakashi turned around and yelled, "Everyone take cover!"

Naruto grabbed Sakura and pulled her down, Sasuke tackled Tazuna to the ground and Kakashi dropped to the ground just in time to dodge the giant sword passing over their heads. The sword safely flew past them and hit a tree and got stuck there. Zabuza then appeared and stood on the hilt of the sword.

"Well, well, if it isn't Zabuza Momochi, the kid you ran away from the Land of Mist! No one interfere, everyone back off. This guy is on a different level from our previous opponents." Kakashi said.

The team listened and backed off, Kakashi then raised his hand and put on the part of his headband covering his eye. "If I have to face this guy, then I'll have to get a little serious." 

"Kakashi of the Sharingan eye, I presume? If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you surrender the old man?" Zabuza asked.

'He has the Sharingan?' Naruto and Sasuke thought, while Tazuna and Sakura looked confused.

"Assume the Manji battle formation! Protect Tazuna, I need you all to stay out of the fight. That's the best way you can help. And now, Zabuza, shall we?" Kakashi said, while revealing his eye.

No one on the team saw the eye, because Kakashi was facing Zabuza.

"Ah, to face the legendary Sharingan so early in our acquaintance, what an honor."

'The Sharingan is supposed to be unique only to a small number of the Uchiha clan, could he be…?' Sasuke thought.

"Enough. Pleasant as this conversation is, I'm on a very tight schedule to finish off the old man." Zabuza said. The team became more vigilant after hearing that and Kakashi stood between them and Zabuza. "But it looks like I'm going to have to kill you first, Kakashi."

Zabuza jumped and landed on the water with one hand raised high up in the air and another in front of his chest, both hands closed with the index and middle fingers raised up.

"Is he walking on water?!" Sakura exclaimed.

'Clever bastard, he's built up a fair concentration of chakra while we were speaking.' Kakashi thought.

"Hidden Mist Jutsu," Zabuza said.

'He's gone,' everyone thought.

"Keep your guard up everyone, Momochi Zabuza of the Hidden Mist Assassin Corps is a famous master of the art of silent killing. Letting your guard down around him buys you a direct trip to the pure lands. So all of you stay on your toes!"

"There are eight targets," Zabuza said.

"What! What was that!?" Sakura said.

"Throat. Spine, lungs, liver, the jugular vein, the subclavian artery, kidney, heart. So many choices, what vital, vulnerable place shall I choose? Heh-heh," Zabuza continued.

'This blood-lust. It's almost as much as Seishin's, but I can still move,' Sasuke thought, shaking from fear.

'Oni-chan put me under his blood-lust so many times, this is nothing,' Naruto thought.

"Guys, calm down. Even if he gets me, I'll still protect you guys. I will never let my comrades die!!" Kakashi said, with a smile.

"I wouldn't bet on that," Zabuza said, and appeared in the middle of the formation. "Game over," he said.

Kakashi immediately attacked Zabuza and stabbed him with a kunai, water dripped from the wound instead of blood. Another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and attacked, the clone exploded into water. Naruto and Sasuke both threw kunai and shuriken on the Zabuza behind Kakashi. Kakashi noticed that he was behind him a second later and attacked while he was distracted from the shuriken and kunai. Zabuza backed off and disappeared into the mist once again and reappeared behind Kakashi and sliced him in half only for the body to turn to water.

Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza with a Kunai to his neck. "Game over," he said.

"Heh heh heh, you think it's over? It will take more to defeat me than mimicking me like an ape, a lot more." Zabuza said.

"You copied my water clone jutsu and had it say something only you would say to ensure all my attention was on it while you hid in the mist. Too bad for you…" Then Zabuza's voice came from behind Kakashi, "I'm not that easy to fool."

The Zabuza in front of Kakashi turned into water and fell on the ground. Kakashi, frozen from shock, was late to react to the real Zabuza behind him. This gave Zabuza the chance to swing his sword at Kakashi, he dodged the sword by getting really close to the ground. Zabuza stopped the momentum of the sword by directing it to the ground and kicked Kakashi into the lake with his hand leaning on the hilt of the sword.

He ran forward to finish Kakashi off but stopped because there were caltrops on the ground. As Kakashi landed in the water, Zabuza simply body flickered to avoid the caltrops and appeared behind Kakashi.

Kakashi's head came out of the lake, he lifted his arm and thought, 'Why is the water so heavy?'

Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and said, "Ha, gullible fool."

'Damn,' Kakashi thought.

'Water Prison Jutsu,' Zabuza thought.

"You running around makes it hard to do my job, I'll finish you later, after I've dealt with the others." Zabuza said.

'Water Clone Jutsu,' Zabuza thought.

The clone appeared in front of the team and said, "Heh heh heh… Little ninja wannabes. Trying so hard to fit in, you even wear a headband. But a true ninja is one who has crossed and recrossed the barrier between the lands of the living and the dead. Clothes don't make a shinobi, you need skills good enough to rate you in the bingo book before you deserve to be called a ninja. We don't call your kind "ninja." We call them…" The clone said.

Naruto and Sasuke shared a look and then nodded. "Sakura, stand next to the bridge builder and keep your guard up." Sasuke said.

The Zabuza clone disappeared into the mist and reappeared after kicking Naruto in the face. Naruto's headband stayed in place and he flew back. Zabuza stepped on Naruto's headband.

"Brats," The original finished.

Kakashi told them to run away as they don't have a chance at winning. Sasuke didn't listen and threw a couple of kunai at the clone. Zabuza just dodged some and deflected the rest. He ran towards Sasuke and kneed him in the stomach and sent him flying.

Naruto used that opportunity to make a bunch of wind clones to surround Zabuza. Some used wind style jutsu, others opted for melee attacks and others used combo attacks for further damage. The Zabuza clone moved quickly and managed to dodge a majority of the attacks but got overwhelmed and took a kunai to the back and turned back into water.

Sasuke, meanwhile, took off his backpack and pulled out a giant foldable shuriken. He threw it and it flew straight towards the real Zabuza, he just chuckled and grabbed the shuriken mid air like it was nothing. Out of nowhere a second Shuriken was revealed to be under the shadow of the first. Zabuza reacted quickly and jumped up to avoid it.

Zabuza mocked Sasuke for his apparent lack of skills but Sasuke simply smiled.

Suddenly, the shuriken turned into a puff of smoke and Naruto appeared in its place holding a kunai. Naruto threw the kunai at Zabuza's arm, he had no choice but to remove the hand that was keeping the water prison together. Zabuza was very angry and turned to throw the giant kunai at Naruto while he was in the air but Kakashi used his hand to stop the shuriken.

Naruto stood on top of the water, proud that his and Sasuke's plan worked. Kakashi stood in front of Zabuza, even more angry than Zabuza was moments ago for almost losing his comrades once again.

"The same trick won't work on me again, your move Zabuza." Kakashi said.

And mirroring Zabuza's actions, Kakashi leaped back and performed many hand signs and created, 'Water Style! Water Dragon Jutsu!'

Both justu's collided and water rained on the entire battlefield. Zabuza and Kakashi continued their fight but Zabuza started to get suspicious.

'All my moves and gestures, he sees…' Zabuza thought

"Through them all?" Kakashi finished. Making Zabuza think that his mind is being read. He looked at Kakashi and focused on his eye.

'Curse him! He's…' Zabuza thought

"Got that sickeningly evil look in his eye… right?" Kakashi guessed what Zabuza was thinking once again.

Zabuza, clearly shaken from thinking his mind is being read. Insulted Kakashi and performed more hand signs for another jutsu. But his mind was in disarray and he started to see himself in Kakashi's place.

Kakashi used this opportunity to finish Zabuza's jutsu before he could. 

'Water Style! Giant Waterfall!'

A massive tide of water stirred and flew towards Zabuza at high speed. He could not dodge and was struck head on. Once the water settled, Zabuza, clearly shaken from the events that just took place, stood there in shock.

"Can you see the future?" Zabuza asked.

"I foresee your death!" Kakashi said.

All of a sudden, two senbon needles flew from somewhere far and struck Zabuza in the neck.

A ninja appeared on a tree branch above Zabuza and said, "Heh heh, your prediction came true."

Kakashi appeared next to Zabuza and looked for a pulse, 'He's really dead' Kakashi thought.

"Thank you for your help. I hope you don't mind my interfering. But I wanted the satisfaction of putting Zabuza out of his misery myself!" The ninja said.

"That mask is familiar, you're a shinobi hunter from the village hidden in the mist?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes, my job is to track down and deal with rogues and outlaws." The ninja said.

'Judging by his size and the sound of his voice, he couldn't be much older than my students and he's already a full-fledged shinobi hunter!' Kakashi thought.

Naruto and Sasuke had the same thought but chose not to say anything.

"Well I must be off now to dispose of the body," The ninja appeared beside Zabuza, took him and disappeared.

"Sigh, okay! We still have to escort Mr. Tazuna the rest of the way home. Let's put our best feet forward!" Kakashi said. He took one step and collapsed. 'I guess I used the Sharingan too much.'

Later that day Kakashi woke up and realized that Zabuza might still be alive. He explained to the team that senbon needles are deadly only if they hit a vital spot. If not then the mortality rate is surprisingly low. Tazuna was skeptical but Kakashi told him that, "preparation is a shinobi's most important skill."

But since Kakashi couldn't move, he decided to train his students to prepare them for a potential fight with Zabuza or any other Shinobi or thugs that Gato might hire. Naruto seemed excited about the possibility of fighting Zabuza again. Then Inari came in and said that they're all going to die.

The next morning Kakashi took team 7 to the forest and showed them how to walk on trees. They all did it on the first try, Kakashi didn't look all too surprised. They then walked over to a lake and this time he told them to walk on water. This time, Sakura had a bit more trouble. But she managed to do it on her second try, Naruto and Sasuke already knew how to do it so they didn't have any problem walking on water.

Now, Kakashi was stumped, he expected them to at least have some trouble in accomplishing the task. He had no choice but to teach them more advanced stuff.

"Okay, Naruto, Sasuke, I know you were taught by Seishin, but I didn't know that you already know how to water walk." Kakashi said.

"Seishin nee-san thought that the earlier we learn this stuff the better. He thought of it as the basics we have to learn to then be allowed to learn ninjutsu." Naruto said.

"Very well, what other stuff should I know about you guys. I don't want there to be any surprises between us when we're doing our jobs." Kakashi said.

"Well, I know how to make wind clones and some other wind style ninjutsu, like great breakthrough, wind blades, and coating my weapons and body in wind." Naruto said.

"I know a bunch of earth and lightning style ninjutsu mostly c rank, I also know this an A-rank jutsu called Chidori-"

"You know Chidori? How?" Kakashi said.

"Uh, that's a secret, I'm not supposed to say. Why? Do you know it?" Sasuke asked.

"Do I know it? I created that jutsu." Kakashi said. "Why can't you tell me where you learned it?"

"It's a super secret place in the village, ask Seishin-san, he's the one that told me about the place." Sasuke said.

Kakashi didn't look too happy with that answer, but he decided to ask Seishin about it when he got home.

"Okay, Sakura, you'll focus on learning defensive and offensive jutsu and using them as fast as possible in a fight. I'll have you go through drills where you protect a dummy from getting attacked by Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto and Sasuke, you both will fight against each other. I will let you know what you do wrong in the fight and what you could've done better. You both know many jutsu but you hardly used them during our fight against Zabuza." Kakashi said.

The next morning, Sakura was the only one that was protecting Tazuna on the bridge because Sasuke and Naruto exhausted themselves during their spar. During dinner, Both Naruto and Sasuke were eating really quickly, Inari got upset and shouted at them for trying to go against Gato. Tazuna told them what happened when Gato showed up and what happened to Tazuna's step father. Naruto got more motivated to train and show Inari that real heroes exist.

A couple of days later, on the sixth day of training, Naruto was lying down in the forest taking a nap. He was too exhausted to get back to Tazuna's house after his training and passed out on the forest floor.

Meanwhile, Haku was picking herbs nearby. A bird landed on his shoulder, he smiled and continued picking his herbs. Then the bird flew off and landed on Naruto's head, some more birds came and landed on him and around him. Haku saw his headband and recognized him. He approached Naruto and extended his hand towards Naruto's neck, but decided against it and woke him up.

"You'll catch a cold sleeping on the ground," Haku said.

A while later, Naruto could be seen helping Haku pick herbs.

"Hey, you're pretty good at that," Haku said.

"Thanks, I had to do this a lot when I started out in my job." Naruto said.

"I'm sorry to have imposed on you." Haku said.

"It's fine, I can't leave a girl doing such a difficult job so early in the morning." Naruto said.

"Look who's talking! What were you doing in the middle of nowhere at the crack of dawn?" Haku asked.

"Training!" Naruto said with enthusiasm.

"Really? Are you some kind of ninja?" Haku asked.

"Why? Do you think I look like one? Because I am!" Naruto said.

"That's incredible! What are you training for?"

"To build up my strength," Naruto said.

"But you look so strong and manly already!" Haku said.

"Nope! Wrong! I need to be a lot stronger than this!" Naruto said.

"But… Why?" Haku asked.

"To become the Hokage one day! All the people who underestimated me will have to say, "He's the number one ninja!" and right at the moment, I want to show a certain person I know that I'm better than them." Naruto said.

"Do you have anyone special in your life?" Haku said. "When people are protecting something truly precious to them, they become as strong as they must be!"

Naruto looked at Haku, surprised. He then remembered Inari's story, and Kakashi protecting them. He smiled and said, "Yup! I know all about it!"

Haku stood up and walked away, "You WILL get stronger, I know we'll meet again." Haku said with a serious face.

"Also, you should know, I'm a boy." Haku said.

Naruto was shocked to the core, 'No way! He's even cuter than Hinata!' Naruto thought.

Throughout their training, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura took shifts protecting Tazuna while he worked.

Kakashi was almost fully recovered, that night, Naruto and Sasuke walked into the house exhausted and bruised from all their training. At the dinner table, Inari glared at Naruto and got reminded of his father. He started crying. Naruto noticed him and said, "What's wrong?"

"Why do you wear yourself out trying? No matter how hard you train, you'll never be a match for Gato's thugs! You act all cool, and you talk all tough but big strong guys like that are always too much for people weaker than they are! They'll destroy you!"

"Shut up! I'm not you, I'm not gonna lose!"

"Just watching you ticks me off! You go running your mouth when you don't know a thing! This isn't your town! And you don't know a thing about me. You're always clowning around and having fun. You don't know a thing about suffering or loneliness or what my life is like!"

That comment made Naruto angry, "So, you figure it's noble to star in a melodrama and treat everyone around you like guests at your pity party? It takes a really big man to sit around and cry, you big baby!"

"Naruto, you went too far!" Sakura said.

Naruto stood up and left the table.

A while later, Inari was sitting outside the house on the patio over the water. Kakashi came and said, "May I join you?"

He sat next to Inari and said, "You know, Naruto wasn't trying to be mean. He just lacks… finesse. Mr. Tazuna told us what happened to your father. Naruto grew up without a father, same as you. Both of his parents died the day he was born actually, but he was adopted by a lovely woman called Haruki who had a son of her own. She is one of the strongest people in our village but even she couldn't stop Naruto from feeling lonely or stop the villagers from hating him. You see, something big happened when Naruto was born and a lot of people were hurt because of it. People thought it was Naruto's fault and they hated him because of it. He didn't have any friends, and any memory without his family is a painful one."

"Really?" Inari asked.

"And in all the time I've known him, I've never seen him cry or use his troubles as an excuse to sulk or be a coward, not once. He always tries his hardest, hoping the people of the village will notice and give him a kind word or a pat on the back. That's his dream and he's risked his life for it. I think one day, he just got fed up with crying."

The next day, Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura left for the bridge while Naruto stayed in bed, sleeping. Having exhausted himself from the previous day's training.

When he woke up, he scrambled out of bed, got dressed, and ran out of the house. On the way to the bridge, he heard some noise. He activated his sensing mode and noticed some people heading towards the house, with weapons.

On the bridge, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura approached the construction site on the bridge and saw the workers passed out with cuts all over their bodies. All of a sudden, a mist appeared on the bridge and in the blink of an eye, several clones of Zabuza appeared around the team.

Sasuke, shaking with excitement, disappeared from his spot and reappeared once again. A moment later, the clones turned to water and fell on the floor. Sasuke challenged Haku and attacked.

Back at Tazuna's house, the two samurai guards of Gato broke through the wall of the house. Naruto arrived at the scene and saw the two samurai taking Tsunami away hostage. Inari then ran out of the house and stopped them. He then ran towards them screaming. One of the samurai put his hand on the hilt of his sword and sliced Inari into three pieces. But he turned into a log and fell onto the floor.

"Sorry, I'm late. But being a hero is all about showing up in the nick of time. Way to go, Inari!"

Naruto appeared behind the Samurai with Inari and his mom.

"Hey! Isn't that one of Tazuna's third-rate bodyguards?" One of the Samurai said to the other.

"Funny, coming from the pirate and fashionista. Really? What's with the beany and oversized coat? How do you even fight in that? And you, give me the name of your tattoo guy, so I can go and put him in jail to make sure he never gives another tattoo again." Naruto said.

The Samurai got really angry and ran towards Naruto to attack. "Idiots," Naruto said. He ran towards the two and jumped over their sword swings and kicked them both in the face with a 180 split in the air. They both fell to the ground, unconscious.

Naruto turned around and gave a thumbs up with a smile on his face, "What'd you think, pretty cool right?"

"Yeah…" Inari said, with a dazed look. "Naruto, how'd you know those Samurai were coming?" Inari asked.

"I sensed some people going towards your house leaking, frankly, pitiful killing intent. So I came back to check on you guys and make sure you're alright. Anyway, I owe you an apology, Inari, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for calling you a baby, and it's not true, okay?" Naruto patted Inari's head, he gave him a big smile and said. "You're a big, strong boy!"

Inari started to cry, he wiped his tears and said, "Oh, no… I promised myself I wouldn't cry. Now you'll make fun of me again."

"No way," Naruto said, he remembered all the good times he's had with his family. "Nothing wrong with crying when you're happy!"

Naruto turned around to face the now tied up samurai and said, "So, if they attacked here, it means the bridge is probably a target too."

Naruto turned towards Inari and said, "You can handle things here, right?"

"Yeah," Inari said, still wiping his tears.

"Man, this "Hero" thing is a lot of work!" Naruto said, as he ran towards the bridge.

"You bet!" Inari responded.

On the bridge, Sasuke and Haku had a quick hand to hand combat bout to feel each other out. Sasuke easily beat Haku in all physical aspects and skill, once it was clear that the fight wasn't going in his favor the air on the bridge started to feel colder. Haku performed a hand seal and the water on the ground around Sasuke rose up and froze into several ice mirrors.

'Water Style: Ice Crystal Magic Mirror Technique!' Haku thought.

Haku stepped towards one of the mirrors and stepped inside it. Then images of Haku appeared on all of the mirrors surrounding Sasuke.

Kakashi immediately identified that Sasuke was in grave danger and moved to help him out but was intercepted by Zabuza.

"Let's not forget that I'm your enemy. Our children can play together, while my boy kills yours." Zabuza said.

Haku took out some senbons and attacked, it appeared as though hundreds of senbon were thrown at Sasuke from all angles. But none of them gave him anything more than a scratch.

All of a sudden, Sakura noticed Naruto hiding on the side of the bridge. He signed to her something and disappeared.

Sakura knew what to do, she ran towards where Sasuke was trapped and threw a kunai. Haku appeared and grabbed the kunai with ease. But a shuriken appeared behind him and nearly hit him but he moved out of the way and the shuriken simply scratched his mask. Several smoke bombs went off in the area and reduced visibility to near zero. Naruto, with his sensory abilities, could maneuver the area with ease. He appeared behind Haku and sliced his Achilles tendons to make sure he couldn't move and punched him in the face to knock him out. Then he ran towards Zabuza and attacked with a kunai, but he jumped out of the way at the last second and got out of the smoke.

Once the smoke cleared, Haku could be seen knocked out, bleeding from his feet. Sasuke standing with several cuts all over his body and the ice jutsu undone.

Once Zabuza saw this, he felt extremely angry. He suppressed his emotions and performed many hand signs. A thick mist covered the bridge, so thick that even Zabuza won't be able to see through it. Kakashi moved his headband to reveal his Sharingan, Zabuza threw many Kunai towards Kakashi but he deflected them all. No attack came after, Kakashi got worried and he quickly realized that Zabuza was going to attack Tazuna. He ran towards them and saw Zabuza mid swing, about to slice Sakura and Tazuna in half. Kakashi appeared in between them and parried the sword slightly but he still got a shallow cut on his chest.

Naruto and Sasuke moved to ambush Zabuza but the mist came back once again. Naruto noticed what was happening called out, "He's retreating!"

He wanted to pursue him but Kakashi said, "No! Don't run after him. It's best he retreats than to go through a drawn out fight. The bridge is nearly done anyway, it's best to let him leave than risk one of us getting hurt even more or dying."

Once the mist cleared out, Zabuza and Haku were gone. But, when one problem goes away, another appears. Gato climbed up on to the bridge with a bunch of thugs. He gave a pretty terrible villain monologue. At the end of it, he ordered his men to attack, but an arrow landed right in front of the crowd of thugs. Inari showed up on the other side of the bridge with practically all the villagers fully decked out in weapons. He yelled, "Stop where you are! This island is our home! One step further and you'll die where you stand!"

Tazuna looked back, incredibly moved and proud of his village and grandson.

"Inari!" Naruto said, happy to see Inari being so brave.

"Heh heh, showing up in the nick of time is what a hero is all about, you know?" Inari said, with a smile.

"Good one kid, mind if I join in?" Naruto said and performed a hand sign and tens of Wind clones appeared.

'Hmm, I can't make as many solid clones as Naruto but a bluff should be enough for these bozos.' Kakashi thought and hundreds of clones appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Now, shall we?" Kakashi said.

"Nevermind! "Run Away!" The thugs said and ran back to their ship. Gato was the only one left, he turned around to run away as well but Naruto appeared behind him. He gave him a neck chop and Gato fell to the floor, he was out cold.

The villagers celebrated while Sakura approached Sasuke to take out the couple of senbons stuck to his body, bandage him up, and stop all the bleeding.

Two weeks later, the bridge was complete and Team Seven was saying their goodbyes with Gato in their custody. Since Gato was running illegal businesses with his headquarters in the land of fire. Kakashi decided to take him back to the village and have the Hokage deal with him. Although his assets are but a drop in the bucket in the land of fires massive net worth, most of it belongs to the daimyo. Therefore, the money could be invested back into the village to boost it's economy.

"Thanks to you, our bridge has finally been completed, but it's going to be awfully dull around here once you're gone." Tazuna said.

"We've enjoyed your hospitality." Kakashi said.

"No problemo, Tazuna, my man! We'll come back to visit you again sometime!" Naruto said.

"You better," Inari said, holding back tears.

Seeing him about to cry, made Naruto almost cry as well. "So, um, anyway… Inari, don't let it get you down. It's okay to cry if you really want!" Naruto said.

"I'm not gonna cry!! But Na- Big brother, you can cry! Go ahead!" Inari said.

Naruto turned around and said, "Me? No way. See you."

"Oh," Inari said, he looked sad that Naruto was being so nonchalant.

Sakura on the other hand could see Naruto's face, tears and snot streaming down his face. She looked back and saw Inari was crying again and thought, 'Boneheads!'

Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari were standing by the bridge watching team seven leave.

"Oh yeah, we still haven't come up with a name for the bridge. There's only one name that I can think of." Tazuna said.

"What are you going to call it?" Tsunami asked.

"What about, The Great Naruto Bridge?" Tazuna said.

"Hee hee, It's a nice name dad." Tsunami said.

"All right–! Let's get home. My mom and brother are gonna take me out for ramen noodles to celebrate! And then, you know, I have to tell Konohamaru my epic tale of bravery and awesomeness!" Naruto said.

"Oh, uh okay. By the way, Sasuke, when we get back. Would you like to… go out with me?" Sakura shot her shot.

"Uh, no, thanks." Ooh, rejected.

"Hahahaha, that was hard to watch. De-nied! Hahaha" Naruto laughed at Sakura getting rejected.

"Naruto! Knock it off!" Sakura got angry and ran after Naruto when he saw how angry she was.

As they were walking away, Tazuna watched their backs.

"Are you sure about calling it that?" One of the project managers asked.

"Heh, quite sure. You see, I hope that in giving it that name, we'll ensure that it stands forever. Our bridge will become super famous all around the world as a symbol of triumph and endurance. That's what I hope and hopefully, that's how it'll be." Tazuna said.

__________

Damn, that was a hassle to write, this was a long chapter so I could get the land of ways arc over with and get to the Chunin exams. I also decided to keep Zabuza and Haku alive. It didn't make sense for Zabuza to stick around after Haku went down, he was outnumbered and outmatched. He'll also assume that Gato is dead when he doesn't show up to see Zabuza and complain to him about not completing the mission. I guess you can say that happened off screen. I have plans for Zabuza and Haku to join the revolution in the land of water, maybe even have him get married to Mei Terumi. I'll see what happens, it's not set in stone. He has no reason to go after Team seven now anyway, since he's not getting paid. I skipped over a lot of stuff, otherwise, this chapter would have been over 10k words. I don't like stories that have 20 chapters going over the land of waves arc or the Chunin exams arc and their story is only 25 chapters. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura will go through a lot of training. I'm going to make Kakashi actually do his job.

I'll probably do a chapter covering the written exam, the forest of death, and the preliminaries. Then another chapter on the training Kakashi will give to his team. Then another chapter going over the tournament and the start of Konoha Crush.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, hopefully I'll get on a more regular upload schedule. But no promises. Goodbye–!!