The Bridge

"Man, this is taking forever," Naruto groused, placing yet another completed explosive note on the pile he had been working on. His mat was covered in ink splotches and smears, and he rubbed another smear on his face without realizing it when he rubbed his wrist against his cheek. "You guys done with your stacks yet?"

"All done," Nichiren said with a mischievous smile, his pile of explosive notes perfectly and neatly stacked into a single pile, not even a drop of ink out of place.

Sakura, whose wrist was starting to get sore from all the writing explosives, felt her eye twitch involuntarily. "You'd better teach us that jutsu when we get back home, Senpai."

"Wait," Naruto froze. Then he hit his head in exasperation before making a hand-sign. "Shadow-Clone jutsu!"

The smoke cleared as quickly as it appeared. Immediately, there were six Naruto's all grabbing writing utensils and notes to turn into bombs.

"Just your stack, Naruto," Kakashi called idly, his nose otherwise in his erotica. "Everyone else has to learn to do it themselves."

"Or learn a jutsu that does it for them," Sasuke replied, his notes completely done with not a splotch of ink anywhere.

All the Naruto's squinted, glaring at his teammate's red Sharingan eyes with disgust. "Those eyes upset me."

"You're just mad you don't have them," Sasuke sniffed with a proud expression.

"When did you copy that jutsu anyway?" Naruto asked with a frown. "Daisuke's been gone for over a month."

"Nichiren-senpai used it yesterday," Sasuke replied evenly.

Naruto groaned. "Riiiiight."

"Speaking of Daisuke-kun," Hisako started calmly. "What do we do if he actually shows up?"

"Fight him," Naruto said automatically.

"That's a terrible idea," Sakura reprimanded. "Sensei, what do you think we should do?"

"If Daisuke shows up," Kakashi began. "We do not fight him. We invite him to chat with us. We explain that he's been pardoned and tell him that Minato-sensei Hokage again. Then we see how the conversation goes."

"But Daisuke would listen better if we were fighting," Naruto protested.

"Daisuke's battle-hunger was mostly because of his desperation for progress," Kakashi rebutted. "Now that that's taken care of, I can't see him being that desperate for a fight, especially not with you."

The Naruto's groaned in stereo at that. The clones popped as the final note was completed, his stack finished.

"Kakashi-sensei is right, Naruto-kun," Hisako stated, pausing in the middle of writing one of her notes to look at the Genin. "Daisuke wasn't inherently violent; he just saw violence as a means to an end."

"I think he enjoyed popping his enemies a little too much to not be inherently violent," Nichiren argued back.

"Well, yeah, he enjoyed Taijutsu," Hisako rebutted, her frown growing sharper. "But come on, it took human trafficking to get him to start killing again."

"So, he's not inherently murderous," Nichiren said, shrugging.

"Yes." Hisako nodded in agreement. "Exactly."

"That means he still likes fighting," Nichiren pointed out.

"This discussion is pointless," Sasuke said, steepeling his fingers. "There's no point in fighting Daisuke, whether he's murderous or not. We can't win. So, talking is our best option."

"You can't talk Daisuke down," Naruto rebutted. "He's too stubborn. He twists himself into knots trying to justify whatever crazy position he's taken and the only way he'll change is if he gets it beaten into him that this is the way things are and trying to change it would send us back to the Warring States period!"

"Beating something into Daisuke is not something we can do, Naruto-kun," Kakashi said, rubbing his one eye. "Or were you not paying attention that night when he beat that contingent on ANBU without killing them?"

"It's the only thing that'll work, Sensei!" Naruto barked hotly.

Kakashi's eye narrowed. "Okay. How do you say we should beat Daisuke?"

"I," Naruto started, but paused, trying to find the right words.

Sakura made a move to say something, but Kakashi held up a hand to dissuade her.

"We can't beat him, we just shout at him that he's wrong and how he's wrong while we're fighting," Naruto finally said.

"Naruto," Kakashi began. "That's dumb."

"But Sensei…" Naruto began.

"Daisuke would just knock you out before you can say anything," Kakashi cut him off. "And you can't convince him to come back if you're unconscious."

Naruto folded his arms and started grumbling.

"We all want him to come back, Naruto," Sakura said kindly. "We do. We all owe him our lives. But I seriously doubt it'll happen today. Maybe sometime down the line when we see him again."

"Assuming we do see him again," Nichiren replied. "But we can start the process of getting him to come back."

Naruto just took a deep, disappointed breath. "This might be our only chance."

"Then we need to make sure we don't mess it up," Hisako said flatly. "Which means we shouldn't be hostile when we really don't need to be. Alright?"

"Fine," Naruto said.

"Stay inside the bridge supports," Kakashi ordered as they approached the bridge. "We'll use them as cover in case the enemy Ninja show up. Nichiren, Hisako? You're with me on guard duty. Keep watch for trouble. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, you're in charge of setting the explosive notes. We'll keep a tight formation, moving between sets of four columns at a time. You all understand?"

It was more than what was required, but they had enough notes to completely destroy the bridge and Kakashi thought it would be a shame to just let them go to waste.

"Yes, Sensei," Was the unified reply.

Kakashi actually felt proud. "Let's move."

The group dove for the bridge and ran to the underside. Kakashi uncovered his Sharingan and kept a sharp, sharp eye out. If whoever took Naruto shows up again, I need to be ready. I had the Sharingan out and I still didn't see through the Genjutsu…was it the enemy Ninja? I don't think so. Why would they kidnap Naruto just to encourage him to fulfill his mission?

He could feel the drain on his Chakra increase. Since he had spent so much time with his eye uncovered, he was going to need some bedrest when this mission was done, best case. Worst case, he would be completely bedridden, if they completed the mission.

What was most frustrating, beyond the mystery of Naruto's kidnapper, was the apparent enemies who were guarding the bridge, likely a cell of Ninja that specialized in combat at extreme distances. Kakashi couldn't copy or anticipate their moves if he couldn't see them, but they were free to attack him and his teams with impunity.

"Tag set," Sakura reported, jumping from one column to another.

Sasuke, and then Naruto, repeated the same statement, and the team as a whole was able to move to the next section of columns.

"Hisako. Nichiren. Report," Kakashi ordered, keeping an eye out on the ocean, looking for any hint of movement and indicated an incoming bombardment.

"Nothing," Hisako replied brusquely.

"I don't see anything," Nichiren also said from his position.

"Keep your eyes open," Kakashi replied.

This pattern of marking a section of four columns with explosives then hopping to the next one continued. With each completed milestone, Kakashi felt increasingly uneasy. Like there was someone around him that he didn't see and it was making him antsy.

"Hold it!" Hisako said abruptly. "I think I heard something."

Kakashi immediately felt tense and ready to go. If this cell of enemy Ninja wanted to fight in close quarters, he had a Chidori with their name on it. "Nichiren, go with her and do a sweep."

"Yes, Sensei," Nichiren nodded and went with his teammate.

"Cell 7, gather around behind me," Kakashi ordered.

Without a word, the three Genin moved in behind Kakashi, looking at each other and then at their sensei. They were all a little nervous, but this wasn't the first time they had been in a situation where their lives were in danger. All it took were some deep breaths and remembering that things could be much worse to be able to keep calm.

Sasuke's glaring Sharingan were memorizing every detail of the bridge itself, looking for weak-points and angles of attack. Naruto's fingers were moving nearly involuntarily to summon an army of clones to make anyone regret attacking them. Sakura hurriedly placed an explosive note on the column they were standing on. "Tag set."

Hisako and Nichiren came back soon after. Hisako looked frustrated and angry, while Nichiren just looked relieved.

"Report."

"It was just a seagull," Hisako grumbled. "Making some noise as it flew off the bridge."

The tension on Cell 7 evaporated immediately.

"Just a seagull." Naruto started laughing uncontrollably. "That's awesome!"

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Hisako looked away, across the ocean, her face slightly pink.

"Hisako, you didn't do anything wrong," Kakashi assured her with a hand on her shoulder. "They're just relieved we aren't under attack again. That's all."

"Yeah, don't worry, Hisako-senpai," Naruto said with some concern. "I didn't mean to make fun of you. Really."

"Thanks," Hisako said, rubbing the back of her head. "I needed that."

"Nice work on the Genjutsu, Masato," Rookie whispered as they stood on top of the bridge, multiple columns behind the group.

"Thank you, Rookie," Masato nodded. "Everything is proceeding according to plan."

With the final set of explosives in place, the Shinobi leaped off of the bridge and onto the cliffside it was built into. They ran up the wall and returned to the thicket of trees they had sat in several days ago as they planned how to perform the mission.

"Nichiren, detonate the charges," Kakashi ordered.

"Wait," Naruto started, holding his hand up.

"What is it, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Do we have any way of protecting the Gato people back in the village?" Naruto asked with a frown. "Like move them to a different office or something? I think Gombei-sama would appreciate not losing people over this."

Kakashi considered it. "That's a good idea. We'll move them over after we're done demolishing the bridge as a courtesy."

"Thank you, Sensei," Naruto replied with a huge grin. "That means a lot to me."

"Okay. Anything else?" Kakashi asked, looking around at his students with an inquisitive eye.

Everyone shook their heads in the negative.

"Alright. Nichiren, if you'd do the honors?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes, Sensei," Nichiren nodded, and made a hand-sign.

At the same time, beneath the seas, an ice-ball filled to the brim with explosive notes prepared ahead of time triggered.

"Charges detonating," Nichiren reported.

Each and every single of the Shinobi looked on in shock as, instead of the bridge going up into dust in fire and glory, a massive column of water erupted from the ocean like a bomb had gone off.

The water fell back into the sea and the Shinobi still couldn't say anything. Until, eventually, the silence was broken.

"How?!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs, looking more than a little upset and annoyed. "Just…HOW?!"

"I don't know!" Hisako shouted back. "There wasn't anyone following us! I swear! Nichiren, wouldn't you be able to tell if the tags got moved?"

"Yeah," Nichiren replied quietly, looking more than a little uncertain as he stared at where the ocean exploded out with eyes that were bugging out of their sockets. "The tags didn't get moved…this doesn't make any sense."

"Because someone followed us and move all our tags out there!" Hisako barked in anger. "Somehow!"

"Ohoho! Their salty tears sustain me!"

That deep, manly voice pulled everyone out of their arguments and forced them to watch the ocean from the cliff. It sounded like it had come from down below and Hisako surged forward, kunai in hand with an expression of rage as she looked down the cliff.

There was no one there.

Hisako froze, then looked up. "Incoming!"

The ice shells rained down on the cliff, Hisako's legs getting encased in ice alongside the trees as she failed to move out of the way in time, falling face-first onto the ground with a grunt of pain. She hurriedly brought the pommel of one of her kunai down on the ice, making a large crack down the middle and allowing her to break free on her own.

"Take cover on the bridge!" Kakashi ordered, pointing down the bridge for emphasis. "Now!"

"They're moving onto the bridge," Captain Shizo briefed his team, collapsing the spyglass in his fins. "Everyone remember the plan?"

"Use ice-walls and domes to isolate the target from the other combatants," Rookie began with a smile. "Then perform the insertion. Once Daisuke has arrived, we can de-summon ourselves and let him handle his friends."

"Very good, Rookie," Captain Shizo said with a grin. "Commence glacier creation and remember: No explosive shells. Even if you see what looks like a great shot, we don't want to injure his friends if we can help it and if the bridge gets damaged the mission's a failure. Afterwards, we move in on the bridge."

"I knew they weren't moved," Nichiren said with a grin. "They tricked us!"

Each of the Shinobi were looking at the remains of the explosive notes, which had left a black smear of soot across the stone.

"So how did they contain the blast?" Sakura asked curiously, bending over from her horizontal position on the bridge to get a closer look, swiping a finger across the soot. "They didn't stop the blast, just weakened it."

"Well, maybe if we capture one, we can ask them," Nichiren suggested. "Of course, that would mean we'd need to see them first."

The sound of an explosion brought everyone back to full alert. Ahead of them, they saw an ice-wall had spontaneously erupted, completely sealing it off. Then more explosions sounded, created large chunks of ice on the bridge. Naruto nearly jumped off the bridge in shock as the opening he had been standing beside closed off.

"They're trying to seal us off!" Kakashi barked. "Everyone topside! Now!"

Everyone jumped and ran up to the top of the bridge, where they could see the ice shells raining down on the bridge, making large ice blocks and glaciers at random points on the bridge, obstructing movement.

"It's coming from over there!" Sasuke shouting, pointing to the ocean.

In the distance, they could see four small, distinct figures in the ocean and they were clearly where the ice-shells were coming from, launching them from over the massive distance between the bridge and them.

An ice shell landed right in front of Sasuke, knocking him on his behind as an ice-block materialized in front of him.

"Take cover!" Kakashi ordered, kneeling behind the wall of the bridge and quickly going through hand-signs. "Fire Style: Rocket Ball Technique!"

He stood up and took a deep breath, then spewed a small, compact missile of orange fire that flew at high-speeds toward the group. The raining of shells stopped as the group of enemies scattered to get away from the rocket. It detonated on the surface of the water in a large area, sending a column of mist into the sky.

Kakashi launched another, then another, then knelt down behind cover. He was panting heavily.

"Sensei, should we move off of the bridge?" Nichiren asked. "We're sitting ducks here!"

"If we do that, they might start using actual explosives," Hisako argued. "We might not be lucky enough to be frozen since they're obviously here to protect the bridge."

"So, what do we do then?" Nichiren asked incredulously. "Wait for them to freeze us then kill us?"

"Everyone!" Kakashi had caught his breath. "We're retreating off the bridge. Double time it! Now!"

Masato looked up at Captain Shizo. The entirety of Team 3 was sticking to the bridge's walls by their stomach.

The captain was frantically gesturing at Masato to do a Genjutsu.

On their target.

Masato thought for just a second, and then his claws flew into a series of hand-signs.

Naruto was just following everyone else, booking it at breakneck speeds as fast as he could behind his team, senpais and sensei. They might start attacking the town if we tried to go back there, so good thing we're not heading that way!

His legs were pumping as hard as they could, trying to get off the bridge so they could come up with a new plan. Personally, Naruto wanted to just swarm them with clones, but then they'd swim off into the ocean. This ticks me off! At least fight where we can see you!

The sound of an explosion behind him told him that the shells had started falling again. He was gritting his teeth in anger at the unfairness of it all. He was a Ninja! Ninja fought!

But then the sound of something hitting the ground caused Naruto to turn around and look over his shoulder.

It was Kakashi-sensei, on the ground and bleeding from several holes across his chest and legs.

"Sensei!" Naruto looked shocked. Then he looked behind him and saw everyone still running. "Wait. Kai!"

The group of everyone running disappeared. Leaving only Kakashi, who had been hit. Bad.

"Sensei!" Hisako screeched, running to his side. "Oh no!"

Kakashi was panting and coughing hard.

"Okay, relax everyone, I got this," Nichiren said, sliding to his sensei on his knees and grabbing his first aid kit. His hands were glowing with healing chakra as he pressed it to his sensei's wounds. "Sensei, just try to relax."

"You'll be able to fix him up completely, right?" Hisako asked quickly.

"Nope," Nichiren replied with the shake of his head. "But I can stop him from dying."

"Naruto, what were you doing?" Sakura asked, bringing up a fist to punch him…and then putting that fist down and taking a deep breath to let out her anger. "What happened?"

"I could've sworn I was following you guys!" Naruto, pointing at everyone. "You were all ahead of me!"

"Sounds like a Genjutu," Sasuke said darkly. "It sounds like they're close."

"Yeah, I noticed the rain of death stopped," Hisako said, her eyes narrowing. "Where are they?"

"Look, just keep them off of me while I'm working on Sensei," Nichiren said.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," A voice said from behind the group. "I wasn't trying to kill the guy. Just put him out of commission. Go ahead and keep working."

"Excellent shooting, captain!" Said another voice. "It seems that the bridge is undamaged."

They looked up and saw a group of…the strangest birds they ever saw. Black and white, with flippers instead of wings.

"What?" Sakura started, her eyes wide in confusion and fear. "Are those?"

Hisako's eyes narrowed in recognition, her fingers gripping her kunai tightly. "Penguins."

"Daisuke's summon animals," Nichiren explained. "Water birds."

"Oh." Sakura started. "Joy."

"You know what we are?" The leader of the group, a shorter bird whose head seemed flat. "Oh, yeah! I heard the Emperor met his Genin team. Nice!"

"I'm going to kill you for what you did to sensei," Hisako snarled, standing up.

"Eh, he's going to live," The leader shrugged. "Don't see the point of getting mad. Anyway. Men! Divide and conquer!"

"Mass Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto called, filling the bridge with an army of Naruto's, that surrounded everyone on every side.

"Emperor's left flipper," The tallest one said, looking at the army with wide, almost frightened eyes at all the clones.

"Get ahold of yourself, man!" The leader said with a glare. "They're just clones. Riku and Rookie, Ice cage. Masato, you and I are on Spin Maneuvers. Go!"

"Yes, captain!" The short…and slightly dumb one said with a salute, before he and the largest one sprayed Ice to make a hole in the wall of orange and dove straight off the bridge.

It had been a stroke of luck for Shizo to be able to take out their sensei, who was the main threat to the mission. After Masato had successfully separated the target with an expert Genjutsu, their Sensei had realized what happened nearly ten seconds after they all started running. The man had been so distracted that he didn't see the minor explosive the Shizo had spat at his feet and he paid the price.

Presumably, he was distracted because he didn't want to risk the target running off again. Emotional turmoil can ruin any mission, he knew, which he why he saved his turmoil and manly tears for the man cave.

But now they had to deal with the target's inexplicable ability to make an army from nothing. First thing to do was to restrict the area of operations to a manageable size to make large armies untenable. That was what Riku and Rookie were doing.

As for Shizo and Masato? Handling the army was their job.

The first thing they did was apply chakra to their claws to let themselves move quickly, and then they started spinning like a pair of buzz saws, zipping backwards into the army. The clones seemed to be mostly in favor of melee, not a shuriken or kunai among them. But the girl in the red jacket? Hisako, Shizo thought her name was? She had kunai and she probably knew how to throw them. The clones would make for good cover.

The sounds of clones popping filled the Captain's ears. Up above, he could barely make out the sound of ice forming over the din. Soon, though, he had to stop spinning and resort to spitting icicles all around.

"We've been cut off!" That was likely the younger girl, the one with pink hair. Shizo looked up and saw that the dome had been completed, and they were all encased in a relatively small dome, curtailing the targets ability to make an army.

With ice breath raining down from the top, the rest of the clones were popped. Riku and Rookie dropped from the ceiling, creating a wall of ice to give themselves cover. Shizo heard the tell-tale sign of senbon needles impacting the wall.

"Rookie, make a hole." Shizo dropped into a whispering yet authoritative demeanor that made his team stand up straight.

"Yes, Captain," Rookie said, following orders by drilling a hole through the ice wall with his beak.

"Riku, you're in charge of making sure the insertion is done," Shizo continued, heedless of the extra noise Rookie was making. "Masato and I will rain ice mortars down from above and catch them if they try to escape. Rookie, you provide distraction."

"What do we do?" Sakura asked.

Hisako growled, and looked to Nichiren. "How's Sensei?"

"Stabilized, but unconscious," Nichiren reported. "We need to get out of this dome. Sasuke, try a fireball and be quiet."

"Yes, Senpai," Sasuke said with a bow, immediately flying through hand signs. "Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique."

The spout of flames from Sasuke's mouth did the trick, quickly melting a hole in the dome. Sasuke offered a brief smirk of victory, even as he started panting.

"Sakura-chan, help me get sensei on this stretcher," Nichiren said, bringing a stretcher out of the storage scroll he had unfurled. "Then help me strap him down. We're leaving as fast as we can."

"Sasuke, Naruto? You'll be last in line," Hisako said. "Between the fireballs and clones, you'll be able to cover our retreat back to our base in the village. Do you understand?"

"They won't know what hit 'em!" Naruto said with a grin.

Sasuke simply nodded, and started the hand signs for another jutsu.

"Good," Hisako said.

"Okay, we're all done," Nichiren said. He and Sakura both grabbed their ends of the stretcher. "Move."

"You know what to do," Hisako said, looking up.

"Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto called loudly, and the dome was filled with Naruto's again.

Nichiren and Sakura were the first to go through the hole Sasuke made, bearing their wounded and unconscious sensei. Hisako backed out slowly, watching the ceiling and then hurriedly gesturing for Naruto and Sasuke to follow.

One of Naruto's clones popped and Naruto's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, there's only two of them! Where are-?"

Both Naruto and Sasuke's blood ran cold when they saw the entrance spontaneously freeze over.

"Ice Twister Technique!" Called one of the penguins, spinning out from around the wall they had erected, his mouth open and spewing a cold blizzard to pop all of the clones around him.

Hisako had to jump backwards to avoid the frozen shells from raining down on them. Those shells promptly exploded, resealing the hole that Sasuke had melted through and allowing the Penguins a clean path to slide down to the ground.

"Trying to escape, are we?" Their leader, only called the 'Captain' said with a smirk. "Clever, planning that out while we were planning ourselves."

"A delicious bit of irony," The tall one, Masato replied. "But I suppose we can let them get away, Captain. Our target is inside the dome."

The Captain hummed. "Good point!"

"We aren't abandoning them!" Sakura retorted hotly.

"So, who's the target?" Hisako asked with a glare. "It's Naruto, isn't it? What does Daisuke want with him?"

"That's the kid in orange?" The Captain asked with a shrug. "We're delivering a present! We're also protecting the bridge. So, if you're not going to leave, we're going to have to toss you overboard!"

"Try it!" Hisako snarled, spinning the kunai in her hands around her finger.

"I mean, with an invitation like that," the Captain started, the muscles around his beak curving into gigantic grin. "How could I refuse?"

Then the Captain jumped up on the wall of the bridge, balancing along the railing on his stomach. His claws flew into hand signs. Hisako hurriedly threw a handful of senbon at him, but he slid out of the way along the rail, ice shells shooting from his beak that forced Hisako to dodge backwards and run up the dome.

That's when she found Masato waiting for her, aiming a slap for the back of her head. Hisako dodged and spun around, going for a mad attack with the kunai in her hands.

The Captain hopped off the railing, dodging the shuriken that Nichiren and Sakura had sent his way by sliding across the bridge and hopping onto the railing on the other side. The Captain stopped when Sakura and Nichiren ran out of ammo. "Just to be clear, he's going to be fine?"

"Why do you care?" Sakura asked, looking positively livid.

"Because Daisuke wanted us to avoid killing people if we can avoid it." Was the response.

"Then why are we fighting?" Nichiren asked, looking confused and non-plussed.

"You trying to blow up the bridge?" The Captain asked with a raised eye-muscle.

"Oh. Right," Nichiren said, feeling dumb about missing something so basic.

"Well, I don't believe in messing with medics, and you're friends of our summoner, so we're going to leave the two of you alone," The Captain said with a smile. "Unless you try to get involved. Then you're fair game. Word of advice? Worry more about your sensei and not as much about the other guys."

With that, the Captain zipped off on the railing, hopping onto the dome and circling around.

"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Techni-" Sasuke began, taking a deep breath, only to stop with a gasp as he found his hands frozen before they could complete the final hand-sign.

The short and chubby penguin, who they had figured was 'Rookie' zipped up to Sasuke, picked him up by his arms, and started slapping the Genin across the face. Rapidly. With great force. "Don't! You! Go! Thinkin'! About! Escaping!"

"Hey, leave him alone!" A Naruto shouted, flanked by three others.

"Yeah, he's our friend!"

"Flippers off our pal!"

Then they were popped by an ice shell from above. Their Captain was spewing fire-support from above, popping large groups of clones one by one.

Sasuke brought his legs up and kicked the oversized bird in the through with both feet, knocking him away and letting Sasuke fall to the floor. His cheeks were pulsating red and sore from being slapped by penguin flipper. He turned around and slammed both of his hands on the ground, breaking the ice and allowing him to push himself to his feet.

Naruto, for his part, was now in a melee with the largest penguin in the group, who didn't talk, but had this strange staff that he was trying to stab Naruto with. It was orange and on the tip was a seal that glowed blue with chakra. What is that? Does it have chakra? It feels like it has chakra in it. Why does it feel so familiar?

The penguin spun the staff around, and Naruto ducked just in time to avoid getting clobbered over the head with it. But the Penguin spun around and brought the staff around a second time, smacking Naruto with the broad side of it and knocking him to the ground.

Naruto looked up and saw the penguin ready with the staff, and pulled it back to ram the end with the seal right into his stomach.