That same night, while Kakashi was busy planning and working out everything for their assault on Gato's headquarters, Naruto was back in his clearing training his ass off and trying to grow his control over the Adamantine Sealing Chains technique. All around him were clones in various stages of progress, some trying to strengthen and lengthen the single chain they were now capable of performing, while others were working on trying to split the chain into many, and others were seeing if they could sprout the chains from other parts of the body. He had been going at it hard for several hours, and was really working himself to the bone, as he felt this technique was something precious to him and very personal.
Not only was it an Uzumaki Clan technique, but was one his mother was well known for according to Jiji and Kakashi, and therefore beyond important for him to master and use in order to be connected even more to her and his Clan. He had been getting a pretty steady stream of memories throughout the day of his clones exploring the Ruins of Uzushiogakure, and often falling prey to left over traps and seals as they explored every square inch of his Clan's home and legacy. He was determined to get this technique down, and help preserve and carry on the legacy of the Uzumaki Clan, and wanted these chains so badly to prove he belonged.
The Ruins of Uzushiogakure were beautiful in a desolate and sad kind of way, as it was easy to see from the remains how the city looked and functioned, and yet the obvious signs of destruction constantly brought back the emptiness of it being gone. There were a few spots among the Ruins that his clones felt there might be something else there, but were waiting until all their exploring was done before checking those places in case it triggered more defences. They did however find something that Naruto though was really cool and couldn't wait to get his real hands on, and that was an old Uzushiogakure hitai-ate pretty banged up, but definitely a memento he wanted.
It was nearing the time he usually turned in for the night, but something was keeping him outside in the clearing, almost a feeling that he needed to be there for something really important. So, he stayed and continued to train and push himself past the point of exhaustion, continually trying to improve on the chains with his steadily diminishing clones. Over the next hour, more and more of his clones popped as they too exhausted their chakra trying to pour their all into the sealing chains, until the original finally succumbed to his own tiredness and fatigue, and fell asleep right on the forest floor.
Naruto woke up in the early dawn to the feel and sound of another person in his clearing approaching his position on the forest floor just next to a large tree. He looked up as the figure approached and had a moment of total confusion, thinking he may still be dreaming at the beautiful looking girl around his age that was wearing a very pretty pink kimono and carrying a small basket tucked under her arm. She shyly lowered her head as Naruto continued to stare at her with an open mouth look of wonder, which finally made him realize he was probably making her uncomfortable, and quickly scrambled to his feet and shyly smiled back, while nervously running his hand behind his head.
"Um ...are you an angel?" Naruto asked almost in a whisper, still not entirely convinced he wasn't dreaming, as he had never seen someone so beautiful or prettily dressed before, and it made higher thought difficult.
"Hehe," came her wonderful tinkling laugh at his completely blunt and honest question, "no ninja-san ...I am Haku ...I was just collecting herbs for a sick friend."
"Haku," whispered Naruto with a dopey sort of grin, as he continued unashamedly staring at the slightly taller girl with very pretty dark brown hair, not knowing what to say, "d-do you ...need help?"
"No, thank you," she responded kindly, giving the blonde a smile that made the dopey grin on his face grow even more, "I must get back soon."
"Do you live around here?" asked Naruto, finally finding his voice after learning the beautiful girl might be soon leaving.
"I am visiting a friend," she replied calmly, not in the least seemingly bothered by the attention. "Can I ask you a question? ...um."
"I'm Naruto," he responded in the trailed off silence, "and, of course ...you can ask me anything."
"Why did you become a ninja?" came her soft voice, seemingly curious about the boy in front of her.
"To protect my precious people," answered Naruto honestly, after a short moment of thought.
"Then, that is why you are so strong," she continued quietly, but Naruto easily heard her and blushed to the roots of his hair at the genuine compliment from such a pretty girl. "Precious people are worth protecting with everything you have."
"Um ...yeah," grinned Naruto sheepishly, again running his hand in the back of his hair in nervousness, not used to receiving compliments.
"Goodbye Naruto," waved the pretty Haku, "I hope to see you again."
"Me too," replied Naruto instantly as he watched the most beautiful girl he could ever remember seeing walk out of the clearing, "...bye Haku."
It took a few minutes after Haku left, for Naruto's brain to reboot and remember where he was, and that he fell asleep outside all night, and really needed to check in with Kakashi, and review the jumble of memories from the night. Rushing back to Tazuna's house, he was lucky it was just past dawn, and everyone was probably still asleep or just getting up and getting their day started. He waved at Tsunami as he passed through the house and headed upstairs to the room he shared with Sasuke and Kakashi, eager to check in and make sure he wasn't in too much trouble.
Luckily, Kakashi wasn't worried in the least, and simply reminded him that he could always use his clones to send messages to his team to let them know where he was, even if it was just to continue training or that you would be late. Naruto thought it somewhat ridiculous for Kakashi of all people to lecture someone on being late to anything, and thought of using one of his sensei's usual excuses but didn't want to press his luck. He promised to do better, before asking what the plan for today was, excited that maybe they were going to enact his plan to get rid of Gato and pay off Zabuza.
Kakashi then told Naruto and Sasuke, who was just getting up, that they were going to scout out Gato's later this afternoon after Tazuna's work day, and hopefully end the largest threat to their mission tonight. He then left to get Sakura up, and make sure she was also aware of their day's plan while the boys finished getting ready for breakfast. During breakfast, Kakashi told his team they would not be practicing too hard today, as they would need to be on top of their game this evening when they went forward with their plan.
Since they were planning to go after Gato later that day, Kakashi had the whole team on bridge guarding duty after making sure that Naruto's clones had the house and surrounding areas covered until they were ready to go. Naruto was relatively quiet most of the morning as he went through the countless memories of his thousands of clones that had expired over the night, most having just exhausted themselves continuing sealing chain training. There were also several memories of his clones that were still exploring the Ruins of Uzushiogakure, having actually found a small repository of scrolls, deep underground beneath a crumpled old structure.
They were only able to reach the underground labyrinth after several transformations into small animals that were able to navigate the small gaps in the destroyed structure until they reached a small half collapsed cavern deep underground. Inside they found an underground room which had been over half destroyed by the debris collapsing over it, but were able to rescue 14 separate scrolls from the seemingly old library. They hadn't found much of anything else that wasn't ravaged from weather or time, and were planning to move on and explore the surrounding areas as long as they had the chakra to continue on.
Of the almost two dozen clones that were still going, a group of six split off from the rest, with the recovered scrolls, to begin the trip back to the original to bring their amazing find. After having lost so many hundreds of clones just getting past the Whirlpools that gave this region their name, the Naruto clones were pretty confident that they could navigate their way back and forth relatively safely now. They knew how important anything they could recover from Uzushiogakure would be considered priceless to the original, and therefore were extra vigilant to keep the scroll safe and watch each others' backs the whole way.
Naruto also learned from his clones infiltrating Gato's thugs, that the businessman was visiting Zabuza's base today and had requested his two favorite mercenaries, Xian and Desdende to accompany him. While he was going to be gone, the Naruto clones were hoping to make a better internal assessment of defenses and where the business kept all his important financial documents and money to help with tonight's possible infiltration. They had not raised many eyebrows at all, as the many mercenaries pretty much stayed in smaller groups with those they knew previously, and Naruto's two were luckily not well liked by the others.
The day at the bridge was pretty normal and boring for the three genin of Team 7, who were all looking forward to tonight's possible mission for different reasons, but Naruto at least was able to spawn another couple batches of clones. He had been losing a lot more clones than usual as he pushed many of them to continue training on the sealing chains, and the trip to Uzushiogakure didn't help much either. He still had more than a thousand clones running all over the island keeping watch on Tazuna's house, the bridge, Gato Headquarters, and Zabuza's base, so most of those he summoned where sent to continue training his chakra control, taijutsu, and sealing chains.
When Tazuna's work day was done, the genin were visibly excited to get into the mission they were hoping was going to take place, eager for action in Sasuke and Naruto's cases and eager for the largest threat to be taken care of for Sakura. Kakashi was almost back to full strength, and not looking forward to another fight with Zabuza and his accomplice, not knowing if his young genin team was really ready for a fight at that level yet, even if he was extraordinarily proud of the progress made by Naruto. After getting Tazuna home, Kakashi ordered Naruto to make sure his clones had the house covered, as he ordered them all to get ready for an assassination mission, not thinking his genin were really ready for it.
Within minutes, they were all gathered and ready to head out, going to use the approaching evening dusk to cover them getting into position and doing a final scout out of the area to make sure they had everything covered. For the next hour, they all got in place, met up with Naruto's clones, who had been watching Gato, and got all the information they could on defenses and numbers of mercenaries inside the large compound. Kakashi asked his genin if they would rather take on Gato or the mercenary barracks, as they would need to eliminate the entire group to ensure word didn't get out about their involvement, and so nobody stepped in after they left to take over Gato's company.
Naruto, who through his mercenary clones had heard too many horror stories of the atrocities most of these men committed and had no problem committing again, offered to take them, as they would at least be fighting against him. Gato was a complete non-combatant, and would be harder to convince himself to just outright kill him, as he was practically defenseless against real shinobi. He knew what some of the things he was going to be asked to do as a ninja of the Leaf, and knew it wasn't all about saving princesses, but he still wasn't really comfortable or ready to kill someone in cold blood.
Attacking the mercenaries would be different, they would be armed and most likely fighting back, and he could at least justify killing them in battle somewhat. With the nod from Kakashi, who had been looking at his genin, judging their readiness, the three genin all gave a deep breath, knowing what was coming. Kakashi laid out the plan, of them all sneaking in, with a shadow clone of his own going after Gato as it was more important he stayed near enough to protect his genin for what was sure to be a difficult mental task for them.
Naruto's mercenary clones had given them all the information they needed, and were also in on the plan to go after the other mercenaries, and were waiting for the arrival of Team 7 to begin. When Team 7 bypassed the outer gates and meager defences of Gato's compound by eliminating the very few guards, they made quick work sneaking in uncontested to reach the mercenary barracks without any incidents. Once they arrived, Sasuke barely waited for Naruto and Sakura to get in position before storming in the main entrance, in what was supposed to be a three pronged coordinated attack.
Instead, Sasuke going a bit early caused most of the mercenaries to instantly turn and focus on him, allowing both Naruto and Sakura to enter the rear entrance without many people paying much attention as they had all turned towards their teammate. Sasuke thankfully didn't open with a fireball as was his normal inclination, as inside of the barracks, it would have caused major confusion, and instead charged in with shuriken throwing in every direction. Naruto and Sakura started picking off those in the back of the room easily, as many had yet to turn and even see their entry, still focused mostly on Sasuke.
Shuriken were flying as it was an easier way for younger ninja to get acclimated to killing without having to be very up close and personal, or get blood on themselves or into the middle of chaos where they were less protected. Kakashi recommended this, as it had the least chance of having either of his rookie genin freeze up when they were too close to their first kills, and was working well as within the first two minutes at least twenty of the fifty mercenaries were lying on the floor bleeding out or dead. After that initial charge where they caught several of the mercenaries off guard, the large barracks had devolved into utter chaos as several of the remaining mercenaries now knew they were surrounded and backed into a corner and fighting for their very lives.
On the positive for the genin, Naruto's two clones sowed even more chaos and discord as they pulled out swords in the middle of the still large group of mercenaries, and began hacking away at the nearest thugs. Their switching of sides was just the distraction they needed, as another round of shuriken eliminated another ten, leaving just about two dozen more still fighting for their lives. Sasuke had pulled out a small tanto and had engaged those few directly in front of him, while Naruto had done the same, having run out of shuriken, and not wanting to get too destructive and risk hurting a teammate.
Sakura was keeping back near the door, occasionally throwing out shuriken, and luckily taking out a few of the mercenaries as Naruto and Sasuke did the same from up close and personal. Kakashi was pleased with their planning and execution of the mission, knowing this was always a hard step for rookie genin, and pleased his kids didn't completely freeze up on him. It was a close call for Naruto, after a particularly quick block, he retaliated as his katas told him, and wasn't really prepared for removing the head of the nearby mercenary and getting partially soaked in the spray of the man's blood causing him to only momentarily freeze.
A warning from Sakura, who was primarily staying back, reminded him that now wasn't the time for a breakdown, and he quickly stamped down on any discomfort he had and continued with the task at hand. He knew that he couldn't let his teammates down, as they needed him to pull his weight, and so continued with his sword swings, trying not to look too closely at those he knew he killed. Within another two minutes, they were dispatching the last of the mercenaries, and Kakashi was going through the fallen and making sure they were all dead before moving on to the next one.
Not wanting to leave any evidence of their involvement, he had Naruto make some clones and try to find and remove all the shurikens they used as they would be burning the barracks to the ground when they were done and didn't want to leave any evidence behind that might survive the fire. While clones were doing that task, Kakashi was talking to all three genin and confirming how proud he was that they stuck with the plan and continued even in the face of discomfort. He promised them that they were doing a good thing, even if it was hard to stomach, protecting the people of Wave and Tazuna, who was their mission priority.
Naruto felt quite sick after witnessing and causing so many deaths, but was probably feeling even worse from having to retrieve shuriken and have the many memories of seeing all those killed repeated in his head after they dispelled, and threw up what little food he had in his stomach. Kakashi comforted him a bit more, but asked him to try and hold it together until they were all safely back at the house, and this little mission was over. It was another few minutes when Kakashi got the memories of his own clone having completed his task, and the four ninja of Konoha, got back to work cleaning out Gato's financial records and paperwork to bring back with them. Meanwhile they liberated millions upon millions of dollars in drug and blood money from a pair of safes, including several large shipments of drugs that were stored on his premises as well.
WIth everything they found and liberated, packed away in several storage scrolls and with Kakashi, the four ninja set fire to the compound and vanished into the darkening night, eager to put this mission behind them. For the genin, they would need to work through whatever guilt they had at making their first kills in Naruto and Sakura's cases, while Sasuke didn't really have too much of an issue, just glad to be able to cut loose and fight opponents. Kakashi was going to have a difficult mission debriefing to go through with the Hokage when this was all said and done, and a report to write up to cover everything that happened on their supposed C-Rank mission that was really anything but.
He just hoped that this mission, and the things they were forced to do, didn't completely destroy the innocence and happiness of his favorite blond genin, as he had really been showing amazing progress and didn't want that to stop or regress. When they returned to Tazuna's house, they were grateful for the familiarity, and the warm meal Tsunami left for them and somewhat mechanically continued as they had been before the evening's mission. Kakashi asked Naruto to provide some clones to help them go through all the paperwork and contracts Gato had stored in his safe, so they could try to learn of any other stashes of wealth or information that would help them remove his stain from Wave completely, and he was happy for the task.
The task helped him not think about everything that just happened, and how difficult it was mentally to deal with taking a life, while being relatively easy physically. It was hard to reconcile with the young blond who had always had such a rose colored view of shinobi, to be brutally reminded that they were in fact killers in every sense of the word. He spent a few long hours just staring off into space, thinking about and seeing the faces of those he killed, and wondered if it would ever get easier to deal with, or if he would eventually become truly desensitized to the killings.
Kakashi finally found the notice for how much Gato was supposed to pay to Zabuza for killing Tazuna, and made sure he set aside twice that amount as he and mostly Naruto's clones went through all the remaining documents. This cluster-fuck of a mission was actually going to turn out in his favor, as Gato had countless records and correspondence from various ninja, Daimyos, and Kages that would be a real boon to Konoha's information network. The amount of money he was also bringing back, and the various land deeds and business shares he was returning with would also be seen very positively in his favor, even after giving Wave a large chunk of much needed money to revive their economy.
Still somewhat worried about how quiet the original Naruto was, he asked the blonde if he wanted to create three shadow clones henged into him and his teammates that would accompany his own shadow clone on a quick drop off to Zabuza. It would hopefully give him a chance to talk and settle the young genin a bit more, so he would hopefully be able to sleep through the night, as he knew that the first night after your first kill was usually the hardest. Naruto agreed, happy to be doing anything that might get his mind off the faces of those he killed, and soon an entire clone version of Team 7 was making their way towards Zabuza's base with the money they set aside in two even bags, wanting to get to the missing nin before he learned of Gato's demise.
They kept a pretty slow pace, as Kakashi's clone talked to the three genin clones comfortably, wanting to convince Naruto through his clones that it was good he felt something as otherwise, he would be worried about his psyche. He then talked about how so many ninja of the village dealt with their own demons, usually by practicing some outlandish behavior that helped them take their minds off the nature of their business. Naruto by now had met Guy and his declarations of Youth, witnessed Asuma's smoking, even the Hokage's smoking, not to mention Kakashi's own perverted nature and perpetual tardiness, which were all various coping mechanisms they developed to help them.
By the time they were approaching Zabuza's base, the clones had calmed down quite a bit, and seemed much more relaxed and back to normal, something Kakashi's clone was grateful for and hoped would translate to the original. They then had to get into a mission mindset, as even though they were clones, they needed to perform the next step of their mission flawlessly, to ensure they would get Zabuza's acceptance of their terms. If not, then the disrupting of the clones, would alert the originals that they had a problem coming, and to do everything in their power and time remaining to get ready for it.
Naruto's watching clones, that had been observing the well hidden base for the last few days, watched as clones of Kakashi and Prime Naruto approached the front door of the cave entrance cautiously. When they were relatively close Kakashi's clone set down the two bags of money, and had him and his "team" retreat back several meters to give Zabuza and his accomplice plenty of room. Kakashi then flared his chakra twice, almost like ringing a doorbell to let those inside know he was here, but was announcing his presence in order to talk before any fighting could or would take place.
"You've got some nerve coming here, Sharingan Kakashi," came the deep gruff voice of Zabuza, as he slowly emerged from the cave entrance, with his large ass sword on his back and looking intimidating as hell due to his muscled upper body and sword almost as long as he was tall.
"I've come to talk and make an offer," spoke the Kakashi clone slowly, but had to pause as another person came out of the cave entrance to stand at Zabuza's side.
"Haku?" gasped all three of the Naruto clones currently disguised as him and his teammates causing his clones to instantly hide Sasuke's and Sakura's reactions, as Naruto saw the familiar pretty girl walk up and stand a little behind and to the side of Zabuza, giving the Naruto clone a shy smile as both Zabuza's and Kakashi's attention were on her.
"You know this brat?" came the gruff voice of Zabuza directed at the pretty girl, no longer wearing a kimono, but a sensible and somewhat androgenous ninja outfit that made it much harder to tell she was a girl.
"Heh," laughed Naruto with a nervous gesture, as he touched the back of his head as he watched the interaction, waiting on Haku's response.
"Yes Zabuza-sama," replied the somewhat blushing girl, who hung her head a bit to hide her expression and embarrassment.
"You were collecting herbs for Zabuza?" came the realized question from Naruto, as he put the pieces together on their brief, but very meaningful interaction the other day. "He is your precious person?"
"Yes," mumbled Haku with a small voice, remembering back all those years, "he found and saved me from the bloodline purges."
"You have a bloodline?" asked Naruto completely honestly and without any sort of judgement, as he continued to stare fondly at the girl, "...that must be so cool?"
"Why are you here Kakashi?" came the growling voice of Zabuza, no longer patient, and not in the mood for whatever brand of crazy this blond kid injected into everything.
"We have come to pay you twice what Gato promised you," came the smooth voice of Kakashi, after getting over his own shock of Naruto knowing and having befriended the fake hunter nin and Zabuza's accomplice in the few short days in Wave.
"I don't go back on my word," grumbled Zabuza, "I made a deal with Gato and will see it carried out ...you can't buy me off."
"We killed Gato three hours ago," replied Kakashi, who instantly tensed as Zabuza's killing intent suddenly spiked very high and he was preparing to have to fight and delay one of the former Seven Swordsman of the Mist. "Instead of fighting you, Naruto here," he continued pointing out the young blond that was so familiar with Haku, "came up with the plan to eliminate the bigger threat to Wave, and so we came to settle our debt to you, as you were hired for a job that can no longer be completed or paid for. We found all of Gato's financial records, the amount promised to you, and have left twice the amount right here."
Zabuza's killing intent didn't lessen a bit through Kakashi's explanation, and the silver-haired jounin was preparing what distraction technique he might be able to pull off and slow down a pissed off Zabuza in case he attacked them. Luckily as clones, he wasn't too worried, but didn't really want the angry former Mist Jounin to be coming after him and his genin team, and hoped they could resolve the problem without dragging his team into a difficult fight. He didn't however account for his favorite blond genin to take the tense silence as an invitation to try and talk to the other side.
"I had shadow clones infiltrating his stupid mercenaries, they were told today after your meeting this morning to start planning for your removal," spoke Naruto without any fear in his voice, even if he was shaking a bit from the heavy dose of killing intent and the glare being sent his way by a large Zabuza, "he was planning to use the mercenaries to finish you off. After you took care of Tazuna and us, they would catch you tired and kill you instead of paying you ...it's a tactic he employed several times against missing nin according to his financial records."
"We have no quarrel with you," interjected Kakashi, trying to get Zabuza's attention and focus off Naruto, and try to get him to see reason, "and as an apology for terminating your mission ...we offer you financial compensation ...simple as that."
"And what if we want to increase our financial compensation with your head as a bounty?" asked a still tense and almost growling Zabuza as he looked over the four Konoha ninjas in front of him but focused mainly on Kakashi, and elevated his killing intent even more, causing the genin to all take a staggering step back.
"Then our clones will engage you and try to slow you down," answered Kakashi back calmly, and Naruto used that moment to have his hundred plus clones watching the surrounding area to all step out from their cover and slowly approach the group.
That caused Zabuza's head to quickly look all around him at the insane numbers of blond clones emerging from the woods, and wondering how this little runt had that much chakra or skill to create what he assumed were elemetal clones. Haku was no less surprised as she glanced all around at the countless numbers of Naruto clones all dressed differently, some with different hair, some even appearing to be different sizes and ages and wondered what was going on. Kakashi was pleased with Naruto's move, as it definitely demonstrated that they held superior numbers, and even if they were all clones, he knew how crafty Naruto could be, and welcomed their arrival as it increased the chances of being able to wound or slow down Zabuza and this Haku so the real them could engage.
"You think a few elemental clones of a fresh faced genin scare me?" mocked Zabuza, as he slowly raised his hand to the handle of his sword sitting above his shoulder, but thankfully didn't remove it or engage them and just kept his hand gripping the handle, as the Konoha clones tensed in anticipation, "I am the Demon of the Mist."
"They will provide the necessary numbers and distraction for me to take you out," spoke the Kakashi clone convincingly, flaring his own killing intent and lifting his hand to hold his hitai-ate and keeping it there, just as Zabuza was keeping his hand on his sword's handle.
The tense stare down lasted for several long moments as the two jounin levelled opponents continued to match stares and killing intent, both waiting for the other to make a move, and thankfully neither of them taking the chance. Naruto gave Haku a sad smile as the pretty girl was tense and ready to come to her precious person's defence at a moment's notice, and he had no intention of harming her permanently. He was trying to figure out the best way to neutralize Haku and maybe Zabuza after Kakashi's clone eventually was dispelled as his numbers would mean he could last much longer and continue attacking and harassing them if they decided to come after the originals.
"Just take the money already," yelled Naruto, fed up with the silent stare down, and trying to de-escalate the tensions from both sides. "You are not going to be able to kill us and just walk away unscathed ...even if I am a genin, I am not going to go down easily ...and you have no more reason to fight us ...your mission is over ...your money is right there ...take it and everyone goes home happy."
"Your parents need to teach you better manners shrimp," growled Zabuza, as he glared at Naruto, but had to quickly turn back to Kakashi as an even larger amount of killing intent started pouring out of the furious CopyCat Kakashi making Zabuza widen his eyes in slight fear.
"You just signed your own death," growled Kakashi in a growing rage that had Zabuza even take a step back in fear at the growing amount of chakra in the area, wondering what just happened.
"Naruto?" asked a now fearful Haku, as she too felt the change in the atmosphere, and wondered what just happened.
"I never knew my parents," he answered solemnly into the quiet night, not sure how to react to someone blaming his parents for anything, "they died fighting the Kyuubi the day I was born."
"Kyuubi?" asked a curious and still scared Haku, as she realized they may be getting a fight for their own lives if Kakashi's growing anger was anything to go by, and not understanding exactly what they were talking about.
"The nine-tailed Bijuu," answered Naruto with a deprecating smile directed at the pretty girl, as even he realized that something had changed in the atmosphere of the group, after Zabuza insulted his parents in front of Kakashi, and wondered again how well his sensei knew his parents if that was his reaction. "The Demon I contain."
"What?" shouted Zabuza, finally taking his intense eyes off Kakashi for a moment to look at the kid that just claimed to be the jinkurichi of the largest and baddest of all the Bijuu, "...shit ...I'm sorry brat."
With those words, Kakashi's killing intent almost completely vanished and his clone staggered a fraction, though luckily everyone else was looking at Naruto at the time and didn't realize how close the shadow clone came to dissipating itself from overuse of chakra. Zabuza looked back over to a still tense Kakashi, and bowed his head slightly, and apologized for the unknown offense and for the silver-haired jounin not completely ending him exactly where he stood. Haku's still confused expression, had Zabuza sigh in defeat and release the hold he still had on his famous sword and give her a sincere look.
"He is the jinkurichi of the Nine-Tailed Fox," spoke Zabuza slowly to his pupil, as he still carefully kept an eye on both Kakashi and the now identified blond.
"Jinkurichi?" gasped Haku, quickly looking back at Naruto with tears forming in her beautiful brown eyes, knowing what that meant after hearing stories of Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage and others like him who held those demons inside of them, and couldn't believe the same was true of the sweet boy she met the other day who seemed so full of life.
"I don't want your pity," spoke Naruto a little forcefully, not sure how he felt about Haku knowing the truth and what she might now think of him, and causing Zabuza to give him a respectful nod of his head as he completely stood down and relaxed his posture.
"Fair enough," came the gravelly voice of Zabuza, who then turned to Kakashi and bowed slightly, "I apologize again Kakashi-san ...I will take your deal with my thanks."
"Good," answered Kakashi, who seemed to slump in relief before giving everyone a wave and turning to Naruto, "I'll let you explain ...bye."
"Damn it Kakashi," growled Naruto to the now empty spot, as his sensei's clone disappeared, having finally run out of chakra and causing both Zabuza and Haku to look all around them in shock, wondering where the elite ninja went. "Sorry ...we are all shadow clones."
Whatever reaction he was expecting, Zabuza's loud belly laugh wasn't it, and it took Naruto a moment to realize that the tension in the area had been squashed completely with the action. His surrounding watch clones, slowly retreated back into the woods, and Naruto let his two teammate clones disappear so his original would know exactly what had taken place as he smiled at the still laughing Zabuza and the confused looking Haku. It took a minute for Zabuza to catch his breath back and stop sniggering at the wonderfully executed prank played on them by the Konoha ninjas by using only clones, and he had to hand it to them ...they knew their stuff.
"What are shadow clones?" asked Haku, as Zabuza's sniggering was reduced to the occasional giggle and shake of his head.
"Um ...a kinjutsu from my village," answered Naruto happily to the pretty girl he was just happy wasn't his enemy any longer, "our second Hokage created them ...they are physical clones that retain all their memories and experience when dispelled."
"So everything your clone does, the original you will know about?" asked Haku to clarify the explanation, having never heard of the skill and was amazed at the possibilities it would provide for scouting.
"And experience it," replied Naruto happily, "they can do just about anything the real me can ...except bleed. They can scout, train, practice jutsu, and all that experience gets returned to the original when they dispel ...it's by far my favorite technique."
"But why is it considered a kinjutsu?" asked Haku, still amazed at the techniques possibilities, and wondered why everyone in the Leaf didn't use them constantly, "people use elemental clones all the time."
"According to Jiji ...um the Third Hokage," replied Naruto with a sheepish grin after revealing the name he called the person considered one of the greatest shinobi to ever live, "the chakra costs are insane. Kakashi can really only perform four at a maximum, and the mental feedback when they dispel is supposed to be really disorienting and potentially dangerous ...to others at least."
"Wow," responded Haku in wonder, "and you can make more than Kakashi-san?"
"Apparently ...I have chakra to spare," replied Naruto with a shrug, "and the mental backlash isn't hard on me for some reason ...I can make over 2000 every couple of hours."
"Holy shit!" exclaimed Zabuza who was following the conversation between the two younger shinobi, and couldn't believe what he was hearing from this kid, and what it would mean in regards to his ability to learn and train at incomprehensible rates ...if he continued like this, he could grow to become one of the greatest shinobi ever, especially when you factored in his bijuu tenant.
"Wow," breathed out Haku slowly, as the implications of what Naruto was saying were starting to make sense, and couldn't believe how incredible that technique was, "can you show me?"
"Um ...not really a big spawning," replied a sheepish Naruto, again rubbing the back of his head with his hand at the look the pretty Haku was giving him, "I'm a clone ...and can only really spawn a few shadow clones before I'll run out of chakra too."
"Oh …" breathed out Haku slightly disappointed, which made the clone sad at the dejected look on her pretty face.
"But ...I'll show you what I can," answered the clone, not wanting that look to stay on Haku's face, and wanting it to go back to the one of wonder from earlier.
He then performed the standard cross seal and then two other complete duplicates where standing right next to him, who reached across the middle clone and fist bumped one another at the look of wonder Haku now had on her face. Feeling the desire to keep chatting with the nice and pretty girl, he continued explaining a bit more about the technique to his captive audience.
"Each clone splits your chakra about in half," he continued, "but I've gotten to the point that I can regulate how much chakra I pour into the technique to create as many or as few clones as I want. They are great to spar against too, as they can do everything I can, except they can only really take one good hit before dispelling but with the quantity I usually use them ...it's not really a problem for me, and they multiply the experience I get from every fight."
"Maybe we could spar some time?" asked a now blushing Haku, who Naruto thought looked breathtaking, and instantly agreed to come back tomorrow morning to do just that, which got another loud belly laugh from Zabuza, who had been eagerly watching the exchange between his young student and her new friend.
"It's too bad you can't travel with us," spoke Zabuza after he got over his chuckles, "a talent like you would be a good friend to have protecting our backs."
Naruto was looking at Zabuza in shock and a bit of pride at the compliment, having received so few of them growing up, and wondered for a moment what it would be like travelling with him and Haku, and had to tamp down on his blush at the idea. Instead, it planted a small seed in his mind about what his future held, and if he couldn't find some way to continue helping his new friends, as that is what they were now. They knew of his burden, and accepted him in spite of that, and in his book, that was something truly precious that he wanted to preserve and cherish.