Chapter 87

"Thank you very much," said the sweet voice of the hunter-nin. "I've been waiting for the right moment to kill Zabuza."

"Uwah," Naruto bemoans, looking at the senbon and thinking, 'so, this is Haku.' "That's a hell of a shot."

"He's a Tracker-Nin, from Hidden Mist," Kakashi mildly states, happy his blond student isn't irrationally outraged by the impressive skill of someone who could be as young as Naruto himself.

"You're very knowledgeable," the Tracker-Nin comments.

Naruto and Naru-nii had discussed how to handle the situation enough to realize they needed more time. Neither one could come up with a plan that could readily convince Haku to not sacrifice himself for Zabuza, so they decided to just go with ignorance for the moment and taking the time to ask as many questions as they could in the hopes that a plan will form. So, Naruto takes the large sword from Zabuza's back and examines it as he asks, "do you think he had anyone he cared about? Someone who might be sad he's gone?"

"Zabuza Momochi killed over a hundred Academy students before becoming a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist," Haku calmly states from behind his mask. "He's murdered too many since then to have anyone he cares about."

"I doubt that," Naruto returns, knowing the truth and slowly lifting the sword. "I bet even Zabuza had someone he cared about. We're not just killing machines after all. We all have people we want to protect."

The quiet that followed is broken by a scoff from Sasuke. "Don't pretend that was protecting us, Dobe. I don't need your protection!"

"Sasuke," Kakashi admonishes.

"Ninja are tools," Haku tells Naruto. "They are the highly tuned instruments of death for the use of a village or a benefactor paying for their services."

"Nope!" Naruto calls loudly. "Friends aren't tools. We have purpose and it's got nothing to do with just killing."

"If you ever felt any loss at all, you'd know how stupid you sound," Sasuke retorts. "You think being an orphan means you know loss!" Though Naruto's angry enough to attack the last Uchiha, Kakashi deals with him instead.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi barks, grabbing Sasuke by the shoulder, though the avenger simply shrugs his Sensei's hand away before walking away.

As Naruto glares at the angered Uchiha, Haku walks to Zabuza, lifting the large adult by the injured arm. Naruto walks to the masked Haku and extends the handle of Kubikiribōchō. "For the person he cared about. Tell 'em Zabuza fought hard!"

"Naruto," Kakashi calls. "That weapon can earn you a lot of ryo if you keep it."

Though he wavers a little at the prospect of ryo and all the ramen it can buy, Naruto asserts, "this matters more than ryo, sensei. And besides, shinobi are more than tools."

Haku pauses for several moments, staring Naruto in his confident baby-blue eyes before eventually taking it. As Haku leaves, Naruto knows he'll see them again. Though he was really hoping to help Haku here and now, thoughts of Ji-chan and Iruka-sensei tell Naruto it'll take more than that. Still, Naruto is happy he told the masked boy the truth.

Lowering his headband, Kakashi wobbles on his feet before he drops to one knee. "Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura calls, running to check on him. Sasuke returns as Kakashi explains, "I used… my Sharingan… carelessly."

"We should go," Sakura states as she does her best to ease her sensei's physical exhaustion, though, Sakura feels like it's not nearly enough.

"Oi!" Naruto calls, and from out the trees at the other side of the clearing with the scorched radius from the clone's explosive notes, six Narutos and Tazuna-san walk toward them. Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke turn to the Tazuna-san next to them, who promptly grins before popping into white smoke. A clone of Naruto appears in its place before it dispels as well. As Naruto receives a small cache of memories, he notes no pain at all.

'It must be easier when there's not a whole day's worth of training to send back,' he guesses with a shrug. As a prankster, Naruto loves getting away with a hoax and smiles as he answers his team's bewildered looks. "You didn't think I'd actually risk the real old man in that little bet, did you?"

As Tazuna's primary defense, a confused Sakura asks, "when did you…"

"Before Kakashi-sensei cleared the fog," Naruto answers, thinking how helpful Naru-nii's been with details of what's supposed to happen on top of all the training he helps guide. With the help of his clones, Team Seven make it to Tazuna's home with their chakra exhausted Sensei.

NARUTO

Looking down at a cane-leaning Kakashi-sensei, the blond genin answers his surprised sensei, "I've been tree-walking for two months now. Why?"

"Well, I never taught you that, did I," Kakashi returns looking up a tall tree to the branch Naruto is hanging from the bottom of using solely his chakra to stick. Turning to Sakura, calmly tree-walking up a different, yet just as tall, tree, he adds, "I never taught either of you." Understanding the type of validation Sasuke needs to keep from losing mental and emotional balance, Kakashi tries to keep it light and inconsequential.

"Hmph! Sakura-chan is the smartest Kunoichi in our class and I'm not so dumb I can't pick up a scroll to figure out tree-walking," he proudly calls, though he would avoid scrolls if he can be told instead. "Maybe you'd notice your other students a bit more if you weren't giving Sasuke-teme private lessons!"

Surprised to hear the claim, Sakura asks her sensei, "what lessons," before realizing that it shouldn't matter to her if Sensei favors Sasuke-kun. 'Everyone should,' she thinks. 'He's the best!' Though, at the outraged face of Sasuke-kun, Sakura suddenly doesn't feel right about learning an ability he clearly hasn't yet and begins to walk back down to the forest floor. Something in her brain didn't feel right about that rationality and Sakura didn't like it. 'Sasuke-kun should be up here with us,' she mentally yells.

"Sakura is doing very well with her Iryō-ninjutsu and I've noticed your training as well, Naruto," Kakashi comments avoiding compliments to keep the third genin from seething. Truthfully, after he'd heard Sasuke's ambition to, 'kill a certain man,' Kakashi knew he had to keep a closer eye on the Uchiha than his others and felt the three genins worked out favorably for the avenger. If Naruto continued his growth beneath Sasuke and Sakura remains supportive, than chances were good Sasuke could turn out relatively balanced with time, and the Uchiha clan wouldn't die out.

"Whatever," Naruto calls back, sliding down the tree and meeting his team on the forest floor. "Since only one of us needs training, I guess I'll keep an eye on Tazuna-Jiji."

Noticing Sasuke fuming for feeling so left behind, Sakura can only think to say, "I'm sure Sasuke-kun will get it in no time," while Kakashi tells Naruto, "if you've mastered Tree-walking, we should at least try water-walking."

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