could i get parcial credit?

I kept standing at the head of the ship until I finally saw the captain walk on deck and take over from the night helmsman, allowing me to ask my questions to the person most likely to know.

"Hey captain, I was wondering, where are we going, exactly?" I said as I walked up to him with a smile.

"we're headed for the land of waves, why?" he said.

"And where would you say Gato is?" I asked, smiling.

"Probably the land of noodles, it's where his company's headquarters are after all" the captain said.

"Well, that's a shame, I was really hoping to kill him as soon as possible" I said while pursuing my lips in annoyance.

"Wait, you want to murder Gato?" the captain said, tearing his eyes from the horizon to look at me.

"Well, it's really more of a tit for tat situation rather than cold-blooded murder, he did try to kill me first so really it's only fair that I do the same, and when you add being part of why my friend was killed, it practically becomes my responsibility to make it excruciatingly painful" I said, still with a smile.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" he said.

"I am, besides, don't you hate his guts? If anyone would want to see him dead, I figured it would be you" I said.

"I want him dead yes, but- I mean- are you sure you want to do it?" he said, worry leaking into his voice.

"Don't worry about it, besides, with what he's doing someone should get rid of him. I just happen to want him dead. Really, it's just a happy accident" I said, still smiling.

And with that I walked away, the soothing waves of the ocean making my mind more aware of the fact that I didn't sleep last night, the warm glow of the mid-April sun making the planks of the deck look like a very attractive sleeping spot.

Wait a moment. If it's April now, wouldn't that mean that Naruto and the others, or whoever ends up taking the mission in this timeline, should either be in or on their way to the land of waves by the time I arrive? And wouldn't that mean that Gato should be there as well? I can't wait to see part of the old group again, I wonder how things turned out after I left, I hope Sasuke didn't withdraw from the group, or maybe my leaving actually made him more active in the group, I did annoy him a quite a bit after all. Oh well, Either way there is nothing I can do about that, I can, however, prepare for Gato, I do have a couple of ideas after all.

And so, I slumped on the deck, passing out, but ready to create the best weapons imaginable... as soon as I got some sleep.

Two weeks later we sailed into the small harbor in what was, purely based on the fact that it had to have one, capital of the land of the waves. And it was, well, the only way to describe it was that someone saw the slums of some other city, thought it was the good district, and then spent several years of effort on coming up with a somehow worse place to live. And that was really the only way to describe it, a city that ranged from slum level to a true masterpiece of horrible living conditions.

"So, I guess this is why you hate Gato, he makes your crew extort his victims into paying exorbitant prices for food" I said, and he only nodded in response.

Then the long line of desperate people came into sight, standing in line to pay far too much for food, their bone-thin fingers gripping their purses like the lifeline that the meager amount of money was to these people. it made fury claw at my insides when I looked at Gato's grand work of misery, screaming at me to make him feel every bit of it.

"I guess this is goodbye for now, it was a pleasure to sail with you again, even if I did end up spending most of my time working on my new projects" I said, smiling.

"It was, but, allow me to give you a piece of advice before you go. Don't just ignore whatever happened the night we left the capital" he said, concern in his voice.

But he just didn't understand, he wasn't there to hear the screams, he doesn't know what Gato does to people, whatever I might be feeling doesn't matter when a man like that is free to do as he pleases, I reasoned to myself as I walked out the city, my new enchanted whip on my left hip. leaving it behind to go towards the town the bridge was built from. And after arriving I found myself looking around for the Tazuna house, it was easy to find as all I had to do was ask where the bridge-builder lived and after taking a swing by his house and seeing none of my friends there, I could only conclude that they weren't here yet. So, after that short investigation, I went down the road which would lead to the coast between the land of fire and the land of waves.

And so, there I was, happily walking down the road while eating the wrinkly, soft, too-old apple I bought for far too large a part of the money I looted from the Kiri shinobi's... With the money I looted, when suddenly, an incredibly thick mist rolled over me.

"Well, this either means that I've been found by the squad of hunter-nin which has absolutely been sent to kill me, or I'm just around the corner from Zabuza and Kakashi's fight... I never thought I would say this, but by god do I hope I'm trapped in the mist with the ultimate assassin"

I looked down at my whip, observing it to make sure the seal was still holding up fine.

[grasping whip

Tier: C

A whip crafted by repeatedly weaving long strips of leather around a leather core, with the whip getting thinner and thinner towards the end, allowing all the force of the whip being swung to travel from the base to the tip, making the smaller tip move at incredible speeds.

Furthermore, the strips of this whip have been inscribed before the weaving process to make it more durable, and make it use a deviation of the tree walking exercise on anything the end touches to attach to anything]

It was a good tool, but it wasn't the primary weapon I worked on while sailing here, but while I had a blueprint, that weapon would take more time and a smithy to make, and I had no way to get access to a smithy.

So, after making sure that all eight of my senbon were securely attached to my right hip now that I no longer needed to disguise them, and readying my whip in my left hand, I walked deeper into the mist, searching for one of the most dangerous assassins in the shinobi world.

As I walked down the road, the only thing I could hear was the silence of the mist, at least, that was the case until I started hearing the sound of clashing blades and roaring tides of water. I quickly went in the direction of the battle until I reached a lake, at which point continuing in the direction of the battle became rather hard. So, I walked along the edge of the lake hoping to find an angle that let me see the ongoing battle until finally, I saw it. Standing and looking at the raging battle of epic proportions, their movements far faster than I could have imagined from just seeing the anime, the dance of blades, actions and reactions flowing in a whirlwind of unimaginable grace before me as water reached up from the lake bellow them into powerful steams and-

"Uh, who are you?" I suddenly heard Naruto ask from behind me, interrupting my internal narration of the ongoing battle.

"hello Naruto, it's great to see you, but please be quiet, I really do want to have a heartfelt reunion with you guys at some point in the near future, but it's just too rare to see this epic a battle and, well, we can reunite at any time, but like I said these battles are rare, so please don't ruin my first ever epic battle" I said, a slightly desperate whine going into my voice.

"How do you know my name" Naruto said suspiciously.

"How could I not, we have been friends for what, a little over four years? Of course, it's been a little under a year and a half since we last saw each other, but I'm pretty sure that me remembering your name is to be expected" I said, rolling my eyes at my friend, without tearing my eyes from the battle.

"Wait, but that would mean that you're... ANNO?" Sakura yelled, letting out the familiar shrill scream which still haunted me to this day.

I grabbed my ears in pain before responding, not to her untold question, of course, but to my own questions "did Sakura become a fangirl again after I left? And if so, did the disease spread to Ino?" I asked my clearly important question, without looking away, after all, what's more interesting, three widemouthed friends or a magic sword-wielding shinobi with a huge ancient magic sword fighting a guy using a magic eye to see slightly into the future and throw around the jutsu he copied before his opponent even knew he was going to use it?

"What are you doing here? when did you get here? what happened in the library after you split from the group? Why didn't you come back before now? Wh-" Sakura asked, each question following the one before leaving no time to actually answer her.

"shh... Sakura, I understand that you are curious, but, right now there are more important questions to ask" I said with an understanding and affectionate smile, finally looking away from the fight after realizing that it would probably last for longer than it did in the anime because of their clearly heightened power.

"Like what?" Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the fight, clearly thinking on what I could have noticed that we needed to deal with.

"Like, for example, if I were to, hypothetically, throw a rock at Zabuza and Kakashi ended up winning, could I claim credit for helping to defeat the demon of the mist? Or would I have to do at least, shall we say, five percent of the damage it takes to win? Or maybe it would just be a partial credit" I asked in a thoughtful tone while bending down and, very discreetly, picking up a rock and turning back to the battle.

"Anno?" Sakura said.

"Yeah?" I answered

"If you throw that rock and you end up making Zabuza focus on us, I will end you, okay?" she said while glaring at me.

"Okay then, forgive me for asking a completely hypothetical question" I said while, discreetly, letting the rock drop to the ground again.

We kept watching in with interest as the two fought in a vicious battle, Zabuza sending two streams of water with enough force to break a tree after Kakashi while simultaneously charging with an overhead slash. Kakashi used an air Jutsu to guide the streams into an exploding collision before they reached him, then swaying out of the sword's path and using two kunai to push at the back of the sword, unbalancing Zabuza as he ripped a long tear into the lake, Kakashi taking advantage by trying to elbow him in the face but missing when Zabuza simply dropped into the lake.

The battle went on for long minutes, each second feeling longer because of the knowledge that all of our lives probably depended on whether or not Kakashi won. But finally, Kakashi stood over Zabuza's unconscious body a little way away on the edge of the lake, ready to finish him off.

Then, after the fight cooled off and we felt somewhat safe in approaching the pair of incredibly dangerous shinobi, we walked up to them.

So, I did the natural thing, and walked up to the very tense shinobi while clapping "woo! uh, whistle noises!"

"Whistle noises?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, yeah, I never learned how to whistle so... whistle noises!" I explained with a smile.

Suddenly, Kakashi's harsh voice cut through our conversation "what are you doing here, traitor?" he said, narrowing his eyes at me, and surprising me with just how intimidating the Sharingan actually is.

"Traitor? What do you mean by tra- ohhhh... right" - I smacked my forehead when I remembered - "I did comit treason that one time, didn't I?"

"You committed treason! When?" Naruto yelled in surprise.

"What do you mean when? You were there" I said.

"Wait, does that make me a traitor?" he said, worried that he somehow became a traitor without noticing.

"No, it was that time in the library, I committed treason because I went to the chunin floor, you just stole from the Genin floor, so you just committed 'behavior unbefitting a Konohagakure shinobi' which is a far lighter crime" I explained.

"Glad we're all on the same page" Kakashi said frostily.

"Oh, don't be such a stickler for rules Kakashi, at the absolute worst it was light treason, and even that only by a technicality" I said.

"Because you technically stole some knowledge on fuinjutsu, an area of chakra where Konoha is better than the other hidden villages specifically because we have some basic building blocks they don't know about which you stole. And by doing so risking the other hidden villages finding out about that knowledge and causing Konoha to lose one of its major advantages" Kakashi said dryly while glaring at me.

"Yep... exactly that technicallity" I said with a slightly awkward expression.

Kakashi turned away from me and went back to finishing off Zabuza, but just as he was about to plunge his knife into the back of his neck and separate his spinal cord, a flash of metal flew from the forest at Zabuza, until it stopped and revealed a senbon stuck in his neck. A figure dashed from the forest and stopped right in front of Kakashi, kneeling with a hand at Zabuza's neck, before standing to speak.

"I am a hunter-nin from kirikagure, thank you for dealing with Zabuza for me. I will be taking his corpse with me now" Haku said, doing an admirable imitation of a hunter-nin, of course, I watched the anime beyond this point and as such I knew it was actually haku, but still.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed a little before he schooled his features and smiled with his eyes, then, just as he was about to speak, I interrupted.

"I don't think you are" I said with a confident smirk.

Haku and Kakashi tensed, for separate reasons of course, but both turned to look at me.

"And why not?" Haku asked

"Because, if you were a real hunter-nin, you would be after me" I said, smirking in the smuggest way I could.

"Why would I be after you?" Haku asked.

"because, I know about the, shall we say, current state of affairs in kiri" I said, still smirking.

"Zabuza does as well, why would you be more important?" Haku asked.

"well, Zabuza is from kiri, so he is less likely to tell anyone else, and he became a missing-nin some time ago, so if he wanted to tell on kiri he would have done so by now. But me? I'm loyal to konoha... if you ignore my slight treason, and I only recently found out, with enough time to get a message to all the hunter-nin around telling them to look out for me. So" - quickly used my whip to pull Zabuza too ma and held a knife to his throat - "why not come with us quietly?"

We stood in a tense standoff for some time, and I could practically see Haku desperately thinking of ways to turn the situation around.

Then, I felt something crash into my left shoulder from behind, and before I could react haku made an ice mirror in front of him before I saw a flash of light from behind me and he reappeared with an unconscious Kakashi.

Right. I forgot that Kakashi fainted from chakra exhaustion.

"how about a trade, you give me Zabuza-sama and the bridge builder and I give you your sensei" Haku said.

"no" I immediately responded.

"How about just Zabuza for your sensei?" Haku asked, a slight desperation in his voice.

"still no" I said, and a tence silence settled over us.

"fine, I will simply free him later then" Haku said.

"You can try, but there are four of us, so I don't know how you're going to manage that" I said with a confident expression.

There was a tense silence for minutes as we stared at each other. Then Haku started slowly backing away with Kakashi, disappearing into the trees.

I suddenly felt a harsh smack against the back of my head.

"Ouch! What was that for?" I said indignantly.

"What the hell was that you moron!" Sakura yelled.

"It was a negotiation!" I cried out defensively.

"If it was a negotiation then why did you refuse to negotiate!" Sakura yelled.

"I never said I was any good at negotiating!" I yelled back

"Then why would you negotiate!" Sakura yelled.

"Because at the start of the negotiations we had a hostage, and they didn't, at that point, you don't need to be good at negotiating, you just need to say what you want!" I yelled.

"Then why did you keep negotiating? And why did you say no?" Sakura yelled.

"Because I was confused, and I couldn't just stop negotiating, so I doubled down! Okay?" I yelled

"BUT WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Sakura yelled in exasperation more than anger now.

"I DON'T KNOW!" I yelled.

"Enough! We just need to decide what to do now that we've already committed to and, apparently, doubled down on this path" Sasuke said, glaring at me like I was a moron... which was fair enough

"Now? Now it's just a good old game of hostage chicken" said with a smile.

"Anno's gonna get sensei killed, isn't he?" Naruto asked Sakura sadly.