Chapter 4: Steam

Team 7 along with an old man were walking down a long dirt path, heading to Water Country. Their mission was quite simple on paper: Defend and escort Tazuna the Bridge Builder to The Land of Waves and protect him from bandits and such while he finished building the bridge.

Naruto knew that the mission was going to be a lot more difficult soon, with the threat of the Demon Brothers as well as Zabuza and Haku, it would definitely be a tough fight and a difficult mission, but he was stronger than he was before, and he made it out alive and okay the last time. 

Though, he did secretly want to change things. A few things were on his list: 

1. Save Zabuza and Haku. They weren't truly bad people, they just were hired and had to do their jobs, it wasn't their fault they had to fight for a living. 

2. Train with Obito on mastering the Rasengan. Sure, he could use it, but it took about five seconds to form it with two clones assisting him with it, so he wanted it to be able to create one instantaneously without any help from the clones, but it would take a long time in order to do that. 

3. Try to deepen his bonds with his teammates. He would admit that it was his fault they were distant, he was distant as a whole, it was just hard. He had lost Kakashi and Sasuke to this time change, making them lost to him twice now, with Sakura remaining the same, but not the same Sakura. 

This Sakura was more determined and focused rather than idolizing Sasuke because Sasuke didn't exist, Sayuri did. 

Sayuri. . . 

His thoughts were conflicted about the girl. Sure, she was his teammate, but every time he saw her he can't help but get angry. She had taken the place of Sasuke in his eyes, somewhere deep inside him, no matter how dumb it was, he reasoned that she was the reason Sasuke wasn't alive, that is was somehow her fault that he wasn't alive anymore.

He knew it wasn't right, but that's just what he thought sometimes. 

And Obito. . .

"Hey Naruto," The Uchiha sensei called out to the blonde, breaking the boy's train of thought. "You okay?" Naruto glanced back at his team, having taken lead, hence being in front of the group. 

"I'm fine," He replied easily, lying through his teeth. "Just thinking of the possibilities of the world." Not so much as a lie, but definitely a hidden truth. 

"Quite endless my boy," Tazuna stated. "Especially for you ninja type and your magic voodoo stuff."

"Magic voodoo?" Obito stated comically. "We use chakra, magic doesn't exist." Tazuna shook his head.

"Brats like you are the reason why this world sucks," He said as he took a swig of his drink. "Magic does exist, it might not be what you guys use but it's definitely here." 

"I've lived for twenty-eight years," Obito began as he narrowed his eyes at the old man. "And I've never seen magic." Tazuna waved him off. 

"Maybe our magician is home, I'll show ya when we get to Wave." Obito ignored the statement, chalking it up to civilian illusionment. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw a puddle in the middle of the pathway, knowing what, or rather, who was in that genjutsu. 

Obito noticed Naruto tense up and felt a small frown appear on his face. How he had immediately known of the genjutsu in the middle of the road? This was supposed to be the dead last of his class, yet, he's shown the most strength on the team despite Sayuri graduating as the Rookie of the Year. 

That brought up more questions too. Like, how did he know the Rasengan? Or the fact that his father was Minato Namikaze? Or the name of his Mangekyou's ability? He knew far too much for Obito's liking. 

When he had taken it up with the Hokage, Hiruzen had just told him that Naruto had trained with Jiraiya in secret for a year, thus explaining how he knew of his father as well as the Rasengan, though, that didn't explain how he knew of Kamui. Obito had only told Hiruzen of the ability, and he doubted the man would leak such information to Jiraiya, who would leak it to a twelve-year-old, though, nothing was impossible. 

He readied a Replacement Jutsu, hoping to get ready for the upcoming attack only to be surprised as Naruto stopped walking as he signaled them to stop walking as well. Biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood, Naruto took out a small scroll before putting the blood on the said scroll, his sword spoofing in existence as he held it with his right hand. 

"Come on out! We know you're there!" He shouted, pointing the blade at the water. 

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Sakura said, annoyance laced in her voice as she narrowed her eyes at the blonde. "It's a puddle of water." 

As if to spite her for being wrong, the two figures dressed in dark blue and black emerged from the genjutsu water, earning a small shriek of surprise from Sakura. 

"I didn't think we'd be that easy to detect." One of them stated. 

"Meizu and Gozu, the Demon Brothers of the Bloody Mist, if you think that you can fool us with such a foolish genjutsu then you truly are stupid. It hasn't rained in weeks, what made you think water would've worked." Naruto stated. 

"Honestly," Obito chimed in as a kunai appeared in his right hand. "You should've made yourselves trees instead, there are a million trees." Naruto looked over to Obito with a raised eyebrow. 

"Is that an Avatar the Last Airbender reference?" Obito smirked. 

"Every day I find more reasons to like you, of course, it was my little student!" 

The brother named Gozu snorted. "Korra was better." 

"BLASPHEMY!" Naruto and Obito roared at the same time as they charged the brothers, with Obito getting past Naruto in a burst of speed as he kicked the Missing Ninja in the head, sending him flying forward. 

"Meizu!" Gozu shouted as he glared at Obito. "You bastard!"

"What? He's not dead." Obito said as he took a couple of steps back. "Okay team, time for a surprise training exercise! Defeat this guy while protecting Tazuna while I tie up this one, alright?" 

"You have his laziness," Naruto muttered as he rushed the Chunin-level ninja, trying to hit him with his sword, but the man was just a tad bit faster than Naruto, narrowly avoiding the blade before he rushed forward, scrapping Naruto's skin with one his claws, getting a small hiss of pain from Naruto who jumped backward, putting some distance between the two. 

"Watch out dobe!" Sayuri shouted as she went through several hand seals in an instant. Putting her fingers against her lips, Sayuri blew out a large fireball that tumbled towards the Demon Brother, who dodged the fireball by rolling out of its path, it scorching the earth where he had just been standing. 

But before he could let out a relieved sigh, he cursed as he jumped back, several kunai hitting the ground beneath his, thrown by Sakura who had a determined look on her face. 

"This isn't looking good," He muttered. "I need to get Meizu and-" He was speaking before a steeled grey blade protruded from his chest. Coughing slightly, Meizu looked down at the blade, shock in his eyes. 

"I just punctured your lung," Naruto stated. "And," The blade began glowing a bright blue, chakra going through the metal as Meizu suddenly let out a loud yelp, his eyes widening, bloodshot with pain. "I just laced it with wind chakra and sent what was probably ten to twenty wind needles throughout your body, completely destroying the rest of your organs. You'll die in approximately eight seconds." 

Using his foot, Naruto pushed the Chunin ninja off of his blade, watching as he crumpled to the ground like a loose sack of potatoes. "And dead." Naruto finished, sealing his sword back into the scroll.

"Good job, Sakura-chan. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to beat him." 

"Why did you kill him?" A horrified Sakura got out, on the verge of throwing up at the sight of the corpse. Naruto rose an eyebrow. 

"What do you mean? He was the enemy, I took an opportunity." 

"You didn't need to kill him," Obito stated sternly, walking over to the corpse of Gozu. "You could've have knocked him out." 

"This is the shinobi world," Naruto stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "I'm not going to let some nobody live when they have the potential to come back and bite us in the ass later. Finish what you can do today rather than waiting for tomorrow, is that how the saying goes?" Obito sighed. 

"But still. . ." He trailed off as Meizu woke up, tied to a tree stump. Meizu looked over at the Leaf Ninja standing over his brother's now dead body and his eyes widened considerably before he began thrashing in his binds. 

"You killed my brother?! How dare you kill my little brother?!" Obito was about to walk over to Meizu, but Sayuri was already there, holding a kunai at his throat. 

"Who was your target? I assume the Bridge Builder but grudges exist within the shinobi world, so you may have been attacking us." 

"You better kill yourselves right now!" Meizu shouted. "I won't let you get away with this! I will kill every single last one of you!" 

"And thus the cycle of hatred continues," Naruto spoke breathlessly, shocking Obito. "Meizu of the Bloody Mist, you were hired to off this Bridge Builder here, weren't you? I could see it in your eyes." Meizu was quiet, seething silently, glaring at the blonde. 

"But that doesn't matter. I know your plan now. I can read your mind like an open book. Your usefulness has died out." Naruto approached the man with a kunai in hand, only to be stopped by Obito, who had a hand on his shoulder. 

"No. It's not right. I'll send a clone to go get some Chunin to pick him up and arrest him." Naruto shook his head. 

"He's a shinobi. I bet he's coming up with several plans to escape and hunt us down right now. This mission is unknown to us at the moment, there could be more of them ahead and we can't handle an attack at all sides, no matter how strong you are." 

"You need to learn to trust my own capabilities. I'm quite good at fighting large groups." Obito said before summoning a clone. "Now come on, we have to continue our mission." 

"Fine," Naruto spoke as he turned around and began walking back towards Wave. Sayuri put away her kunai and looked back at Meizu one last time, the look of rage in his eyes being familiar to the ones she held.

Revenge. 

But his rage couldn't compare to hers, it wasn't even close.

"You must learn to hate, let is fester within your entire being. Once you have enough hate, you will be strong enough to face me, little sister." Itachi Uchiha whispered as he held her by the throat against the wooden wall. Itachi made eye contact with her, his eyes suddenly morphing into a shuriken as blood poured down one of his eyes.

"Allow me to make sure you never forget, Tsukuyomi." 

Sayuri's hands balled into fists at the thought of Itachi, the bastard who stole her entire life from her. The bastard who made her an orphan. 

". . .uri, Sayuri!" Sakura said while lightly tapping the Uchiha on the shoulder, breaking her away from her thoughts as she looked at the pink-haired girl with confusion.

"What is it Sakura?" 

"Obito-sensei asked you a question. Geez, what is up with you and Naruto with spacing out?" Sayuri looked up to Obito and asked him to repeat the question. 

"Kids these days, ignoring their elders." He muttered before continuing. "I asked if you believe we should continue the mission? It has been upgraded from a C-Rank all the way to a B-Rank bordering A-Rank if we run into any more trouble." 

Sayuri thought about it for a moment, ignoring the glare Naruto was sending her as well as the nervous gaze from Sakura and Tazuna. On one hand, she could continue on with the threat of a stronger enemy that would outclass her, and on the other, she could go back to the village and train to get stronger. 

But, experience always outclassed sheer power, so if she were to face a superior opponent, her growth would increase exponentially, making her stronger than she could get with just training. 

"I want to continue the mission." She concluded. Naruto's glare lightened, satisfied with the girl's answer. Obito sighed. 

"Okay, that makes it unanimous. We'll continue the mission." Tazuna bowed to the shinobi.

"I thank you all from the bottom of my heart, I'll make sure to send the proper funds when we are to able to generate the revenue." Naruto looked ahead, a faraway look in his eyes. 

"I think we can all agree that getting to Wave as soon as possible is the best choice," Naruto whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear. 

The three Genin, the one Jounin, and the old civilian finished crossing a large body of water in a small boat. They walked along the extended dirt path, one a mile or so away from Wave, but Naruto let out a small sigh.

He knew what was about to happen, and the pain in the neck it was going to be fighting Zabuza, and then, later on, fighting Haku. He had to devise a strategy to where they both survived without suffering any casualties on their side as well.

Lost in thought, Naruto didn't hear the loud shout from Obito to get down. A large sword came hurling, intent of cutting off his head, but he was saved as Sayuri tackled him to the ground. 

"Get in the game dobe, no time to lollygag!" She shouted as she pulled out a kunai, brandishing it as she looked at the area around them. Naruto stood up, looking at Sayuri with surprise. 

"Thank you." He wasn't going to lie, he would've died if it weren't for her. 

"Huh, you got lucky," Zabuza stated, standing on his sword, which was lodged into a tree. "Obito Uchiha of the Sharingan. Tell me, is it true you killed over twenty Mist Anbu Black Ops by yourself in the Third War?" Obito didn't say anything, but his Sharingan activated, the three tomoed doujutsu spinning slightly.

"Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Bloody Mist. You slaughtered your entire classroom and became a shinobi that way, and then defected after a failed rebellion against the Fourth Mizukage." Zabuza scowled at the last fact. 

"That won't matter. I've been hired to kill the Bridge Builder. Surrender him and I'll allow you all to go free." 

"Or," Naruto began. "I pay you in order to betray and kill Gato, plus, you get the entire bonus of whatever the hell he has." Zabuza seemed to contemplate the offer. 

"As much as I'd love to accept your offer, I'm pretty sure you can't match twenty million ryo," Zabuza said confidently. Naruto cursed. 

Zabuza was right, he had only taken a single million ryo with him on this trip, leaving the rest of his inherited wealth in a safe place of his apartment.  Naruto quickly pulled out his sword but was blinded as a heavy mist enveloped the area. 

"Guard Tazuna!" Obito ordered, getting serious now as the three Genin formed a triangle around the old man, their weapons drawn, ready for any attack. 

"Eight points; Larynx, Spine, Lungs, Liver, Jugular, Subclavian artery, Kidneys, Heart, which shall I choose to kill all of you?" 

"The spine," Naruto surprisingly answered. "But I like to paralyze rather than kill, especially when they can't walk." He said as he cut right through Zabuza, who turned into water. Expecting this, Naruto then turned around and hurled several shuriken in the direction of the lake, but Zabuza used his large sword as a shield. 

"Impressive, even if it only contains ten percent of my power, defeating a water clone is no small feat." Zabuza then picked up his blade and blocked a downward strike of a kunai from Obito. 

"Your fight is with me!" 

The fight between Obito and Zabuza was somewhat like the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza, Naruto thought, except it seemed that Obito had a bit more of an advantage chakra wise and was able to dish out attacks far easier than Zabuza. 

"Your future is death!" Obito said, ready to plunge the kunai into the man's chest, only to stop as several senbon needles impacted the rogue shinobi's neck, making his eyes roll up into his skull as he collapsed to the ground. 

"You were correct," A hunter ninja from Mist said as they stood over his body. "He did die." Obito deactivated his Sharingan, a little tired smile on his face. 

"Thanks, shinobi-san, I guess you will be taking the body with you?" The hunter ninja nodded. 

"There are many secrets this body holds, ones we would like to know as soon as possible. Thank you for wearing him down, goodbye." And with that, the hunter ninja along with Zabuza's body disappeared in a body flicker. 

"Well, I think that was the last of the trouble," Obito said, clapping his hands. "Let's get going now!" 

And done. Did this one is one sitting as well, holy shit I'm goated. 

Anyways, yeah. How was it? good? Bad? Tell me! 

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Til next time my lil demons!