2 Land of Waves

The next few weeks were spent doing D-Rank missions, which were a pain to complete. They were a waste of time that was supposed to help our teamwork, but they didn't really succeed at all.

My continuous consumption of minerals to make my body stronger had really started to show its progress. My lifting strength had increased a lot and I could lift 3 times my bodyweight already without chakra. Alongside that, I had finally finished reworking my brain so that I could accelerate the way I perceived the world. With it combined with my Sharingan, I would be able to react to most things, I just needed to get my body up to speed so that I could actually act on that reaction time.

In regards to the Lightning Chakra Armor, I had gotten it to the point that it was useable, but it was not an insanely strong defense yet. It would hold up to some hits, but it wasn't the almost unbreakable armor of the third Raikage yet. It did, however, massively increase my speed. I had managed to move past just the surface level defense and started incorporating the lightning into my body, increasing my reaction time and movement speed greatly.

I didn't solely focus on working on the Lightning Chakra Armor. It had taken a little convincing, but I had gotten Kakashi to teach me the Shunshin jutsu, so I was able to move around a lot quicker. I devoted some time to trying to make it as effective in combat as Shisui, but it was much more difficult than I thought it would be.

It was the latest mission to capture Tora's completion that led to Naruto finally saying he had enough.

"Gramps, give us a real mission, I'm tired of doing these chores."

I nodded my head at what he said, these D-rank missions were a waste of my time.

"Very well, call in Tazuna."

When he said that a drunk man came in and said "So this is who is supposed to be protecting me. A bunch of kids, at least the guy looks like he can handle himself."

"Hey who are you calling a bunch of kids." Naruto yelled.

"This is Tazuna, he is a bridge builder who wants protection from bandits on the way back to the Land of Waves."

"Alright, get your supplies and meet me at the gate at 8am." Kakashi said.

"Are you going to actually get there on time?" I asked not really expecting a straight answer.

"Of course, it is a mission after all."

I eyebrows raised, but I wasn't sure I believed he would.

The next day we all met up at the entrance to Konoha and headed out in the direction of the Land of Waves.

As we walked, Naruto asked about the Land of Waves and Sakura gave a quick history lesson. I tuned them out, though, and waited for the attack by the demon brothers. Eventually we came upon a suspicious puddle and I prepared myself. As we walked by, the brothers jumped out of the puddle and wrapped their chain weapon around Kakashi, appearing to shred him apart.

Reacting quickly, I formed hand signs.

'Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu'

I spit the fireball towards the brother closest to me, forcing him to jump back. Looking around, I noticed Naruto frozen in shock. Rushing towards the Demon Brother going to attack him, I threw a kunai at his arm, making him cry out in pain. I reached him and sent a quick to his head, knocking him out. My body had gotten to the point that it was as hard as a brick and incredibly dense, so it wasn't hard to knock him out when I attacked his head.

Turning towards the one I had shot the fireball at, I saw he was swinging his weapons towards me. Using the Shunshin, I appeared behind him and slit his throat. I felt a surge of disgust rush up inside of me at first, before I clamped down on it with my emotional control. I would need to deal with the emotions of my first kill later, but now wasn't the time for that.

Kakashi came out of the bushes around us.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're alive?" Sakura said.

"Yes, I substituted to see how you guys would handle yourselves."

Naruto and Sakura both looked down at that.

"It's alright, it was your first exposure to real combat. You'll improve with time. Sasuke, good work taking down the Demon Brothers, they're a pair of chunin."

'They're probably lower ranked chunin though. At the moment, I'm probably in the upper levels of genin, lower levels of chunin in strength. That's not good enough, but I also didn't need to use my sharingan against them at all.'

A nod was all I responded.

Kakashi turned towards the remaining Demon Brother and woke him up. Kakashi interrogated him, although it didn't take long for him to break with his brother dead. He told us that he was sent by Gato and was working with Zabuzua Momochi to attack the bridge builder.

Turning towards Tazuna, Kakashi said "So Tazuna, what do you have to say about that."

Tazuna then went on about how the Wave was in danger and he needed to lie because they didn't have enough money to fund a mission like this, since it was likely B or A-class.

I didn't really care about his sob story, but I did want to fight Haku, so when Kakashi asked whether or not we should continue, I said "We should, we can't abandon our first real mission halfway though."

"Yeah Kakashi-sensei we've got to help the Land of Waves." Naruto exclaimed.

Sakura looked unsure, but in the end said "Yeah we need to help."

Kakashi hesitated before saying "Alright, let's keep going."

We continued to walk until we reached a shoreline, where a man was waiting in a boat to take us across. Once we reached the other side of the shore, we continued to walk until Naruto threw a kunai into the bushes.

"Naruto, what are you doing, don't scare me like that!" Sakura exclaimed.

"I thought I sensed something." Naruto said.

Looking to where he had thrown the kunai, a white rabbit jumped out of the bushes.

"Look what you did, you scared the poor rabbit." Sakura said. She picked it up and started cradling it, before Kakashi cried out "Everybody duck."

We all hit the ground, with me dragging the bridge builder to the ground too. A giant sword flew over our heads before embedding itself in the tree behind us. Suddenly, a man appeared on the blade.

"Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Hidden Mist." Kakashi said before lifting up his headband to reveal his single sharingan.

"Sharingan Kakashi, I get the honor of killing you when you're going all out it seems."

He put his hands into a sign.

"Water Style: Hidden Mist Jutsu." He slowly faded from view as the mist around us got even thicker.

"Protect Tazuna" Kakashi said to us.

"It's useless, was heard from right next to us as Zabuza swung towards Tazuna before Kakashi appeared next to us and struck him with his Kunai. Zabuza turned into water and fell to the ground, as another one appeared behind Kakashi and cut him in half, but Kakashi turned into water as well.

I activated my Sharingan so that I could copy some of the techniques the two of them would use. Kakashi charged towards Zabuza, but he dissolved into a pool of water and the real one appeared and threw Kakashi into the lake. As Kakashi tried to get out, Zabuza stood on the water and trapped him in a water prison.

"Run, get the bridge builder out of here." Kakashi yelled.

Stepping forward, I said "Do you really think he's going to just let us run while bringing a civilian with us. Our best chance is to get you free."

With that said, I formed hand signs and brought my hands to my mouth.

'Fire Style: Great Fire Ball Jutsu.'

The fireball roared to life and went towards the Zabuza standing on the water, but the clone got in the way and formed a water wall that created even more steam to make it harder to see. With the steam covering me, I made a shadow clone and used Naruto's advanced version of the henge to transform into a windmill shuriken.

'I wonder how no one ever realized he actually transforms instead of it just being an illusion. Was worth using my sharingan to copy.'

My clone picked me up and waited. The steam cleared and we could see Zabuza and his clone standing on the water. My clone took out a real windmill shuriken and layered it on my henge. Throwing the real one first, with my henge trailing in it's shadow, Zabuza's clone blocked the real one while I got past him and headed towards the real Zabuza. Much like the anime, he jumped over me and once I was past him, I cancelled the henge and shot another fireball.

Zabuza was forced to jump out of the way, freeing Kakashi, while I landed on the water using water walking.

From there, I dashed back to Naruto, Sakura, and Tazuna and watched as the rest of the fight turned out much like canon. I wasn't at the point where I could interfere in a Jonin fight, so I took the opportunity to activate my Sharingan and copy all of the jutsu they were using. I had gotten some pretty useful water style jutsu, so this fight was coming out to be beneficial.

Eventually, Kakashi won the fight and Zabuza was left incapacitated. Haku appeared and took Zabuza away, although I didn't bother saying anything to stop him. If I wanted to copy the Chidori before the Chunin Exams, I would need to be able to see Kakashi's fight with Zabuza on the bridge.

Kakashi collapsed soon after Haku left, so I carried him as we made our way to Tazuna's house. Once we got there, we were introduced to his daughter and her son. I put Kakashi in a bed upstairs to heal, while heading down to where everyone else was.

"We need to set up a rotation for watching Tazuna."

"Why do we need to keep watching him, Zabuza's dead?" Naruto said.

"Zabuza didn't die, that hunter-nin was a fake. They are supposed to destroy the body immediately, not carry it away. Also, senbon aren't normally used to kill, but instead to incapacitate."

"So we still have to fight that Zabuza guy?" Sakura asked with a worried look on her face.

"Most likely not, Zabuza will have to recover which should give Kakashi time to recover as well. He'll fight Zabuza, but we'll probably have to deal with the Hunter-nin. I'll watch Tazuna for the first third of the day, then Naruto will, and Sakura will have the last shift."

Naruto and Sakura nodded their heads in acceptance, but it was later so everyone headed to bed, but I walked outside and into the forest.

Once I had gotten a little ways away, I finally stopped controlling my emotions, and let everything that I had felt when I had my first kill out, crying. It took a little while to regain my composure, but once I had, my drive was all the more defined. If people got in my way, I would take them out, permanently. I headed back to the house feeling even more determined and went to sleep.

The next day, I spent the morning watching Tazuna build his bridge, even if I knew he wasn't going to be attacked it was good practice for future escort missions. After my shift was over, Naruto came to the bridge to trade with me and said that Kakashi had woken up.

Heading back to the house, I went up the stairs to where Kakashi was. Opening the door, I found him sitting up on his futon, reading his book. When he saw me enter, he looked up and put his book down.

"Good Sasuke, I wanted to talk to you. You did well in the fight with Zabuza and planning what to do while I was unconscious. We'll stick to the shifts you've laid out, but I also need to train you all to fight the hunter-nin, so tomorrow Tazuna is going to stay in the house and we'll head to the woods to train."

"Alright, what are we going to be training on?" I asked.

"Naruto and Sakura need to learn tree-climbing, but since you clearly already know water-walking, I'll teach you jutsu to help you with your fight. I know you already have your sharingan activated, so that will make it a lot easier."

"Speaking of sharingan, how is it that someone who isn't from the Uchiha clan has one."

Kakashi took a second to respond before saying "It was a gift from a friend a long time ago."

I nodded my head and didn't ask anything else. Heading outside, I walked into the forest to continue training. There wasn't a body of water near me, so I couldn't practice the water jutsu I had copied during the fight. Instead, I wanted to refine my Lightning Chakra Mode as much as possible to help me deal with Haku's speed.

The rest of the day was spent working on it, with the time I was able to hold it increasing longer and longer as I practiced and then recovered my Chakra.

The next week passed in much the same manner. I would guard Tazuna for a little while, then train. Kakashi discovered that Naruto and Sakura already knew tree-climbing from the time we spent prior to the Genin exam, so he decided to do more specialized training. For me, I already knew the Uchiha taijutsu to go along with the Sharingan, so I didn't need immediate help in taijutsu. Kakashi took the time to teach me some some fire style jutsu, including the Phoenix Flower jutsu and the Dragon Flame Jutsu.

Naruto and Sakura both needed a better taijutsu style than the one the academy had taught them, but Kakashi didn't have the time to teach them an entirely new fighting style, so he just helped them learn more about openings and how to react to their opponent.

Throughout the week I continued working on my Lightning Release Chakra Mode, and I was now able to hold it long enough that it would actually be useful in the fight with Haku. My speed was no where near as fast as the Fourth Raikage, but it was still incredibly fast, especially since my body was strong so when I put a lot of power into my strides, leading to me covering more ground quicker.

The day finally arrived that Zabuza was likely to return. Naruto was asleep from training for so long, so we left him at the house and headed to the bridge. When we got there, we found it covered in mist and the bodies of the people building the bridge lay sprawled around.

Continuing to walk forward, Zabuza and Haku appeared in front of us.

"Haku, you take the genin, I want my rematch with Kakashi."

Haku nodded his head, moving to charge me. "Sakura, guard the bridge builder, I'll deal with the hunter-nin." Without turning to see if she had nodded, I dashed to the side, with Haku following after me until we were a little bit away from the jonin fight.

Not one for talking, I quickly formed hand signs.

'Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu.' Several smaller fireballs were sent towards Haku, which he dodges. I activated my sharingan and closed the distance between us, starting a taijutsu fight. Haku was fast, but I was easily able to keep up. Haku attempted to punch me, but I dodged and landed a solid punch to his gut, sending him skidding back.

"I'm surprised you're able to keep up with me, I guess I will have to take it up a notch."

Haku formed hand signs before saying "Ice Style: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals." A dome of ice formed around me, with the surface being highly reflective. Haku melted into the ice, and senbon began coming at me from every direction. My sharingan was able to keep up with Haku's movements, but he continued to get faster. The senbon were hitting my body, as I couldn't dodge all of them, but they weren't able to pierce my skin as it was incredibly strong at this point. Haku changed tactics and began layering several senbon onto one location, allowing them to pierce my skin.

With my absolute control of my body, I could heal broken bones in minutes, so when the senbon pierced my skin it was healed quickly.

'I can't just let him keep hammering me with blows, I've got to destroy the mirrors.'

My body was suddenly coated with Lightning, as I pumped more and more chakra into it. My hair stood on end and spread out. The senbon hit the lightning and fell down flat as they were unable to pierce it, even when they were layered together. Taking a step, I vanished and appeared in front of the mirror opposite me before throwing a punch, shattering it. In a flash, I sped around to each of the mirrors, breaking them one by one until I finally felt my fist connect with Haku, throwing him out of the mirror and onto the ground. Deactivating my Lightning Chakra Mode to conserve chakra, I walked towards Haku and pulled out a kunai to deliver the finishing blow.

Before the blow could connect, the chirping of birds was heard. Turning away from Haku, as I knew he would try to save Zabuza, I looked over at Kakashi with his fist crackling with lightning. I hadn't seen the hand signs, so I couldn't copy the jutsu.

'I guess I took too long with the fight. Or Kakashi was healthier so he finished it faster.'

Naruto took this moment to arrive at the bridge, looking around to see Haku on the ground. Kakashi charged forward, intent on delivering the finishing blow, but Haku sped in the way and took the blow instead. He fell to the ground dead, with his mask shattered. Naruto cried out in surprised upon seeing his face, but I ignored his reaction to instead look towards the opposite side of the bridge.

The mist cleared and we were able to see Gato with and army opposite us.

"So Zabuza, you couldn't even deal with a cyclops and a bunch of kids. Looks like your apprentice was even more useless."

Zabuza grit his teeth and swung his sword in an attempt to finish Kakashi, but Kakashi dodged out of the way.

From there, Naruto went on a spiel about Haku and Zabuza, but I was not in the mood to listen to that, so I ignored him and waited. Zabuza finally broke down crying and charged the army, taking them out and killing Gato. He died, laying next to Haku as Naruto watched on with tears in his eyes.

'Naruto is not ready for the ninja world. One death of an enemy has him this broken up, what happens when an ally dies.'

A big group of villagers took this opportunity to show up, when everything was already over. From there, we headed back to Tazuna's house, while Tazuna himself dealt with talking to all the villagers.

The rest of our time in the Land of Waves passed quickly. There was a celebration for the completion of the bridge once it was done, and we were getting ready to head back to Konoha. I was in the mirrors when I had used my Lightning Chakra Mode, so no one had been able to see me use it.

We left the Wave, although they didn't name the bridge "The Great Naruto Bridge." Instead, Naruto put forth the name "The Great Haku Bridge" which they apparently liked, ignoring the fact that Haku was almost one of the reasons it wasn't finished. I didn't care enough to point that out, however. Eventually we made it back to the gates of Konoha, and headed towards the Hokage's office for a debriefing.

Turns out, we got credit for an A-ranked mission for this, although we didn't get the pay for it, since the bridge builder didn't have the money to. We would get it later, once the Land of Waves got back on its feet.

The Hokage got mad at Kakashi for letting us continue an A-rank mission as Genin, but we finally left a little while later, with Kakashi telling us to meet him in two days at the training ground after we had rested.

I made my way back to my compound and continued to strengthen my body and then going to sleep for the night.