Trip To Nami no Kuni

Early in the next morning, the genin of team seven were getting their first official mission as true shinobi. They were inside the mission center that was right next to the academy. Hiruzen and Iruka were there as well. They were the ones handing the missions to the new genin teams. Well, Hiruzen was the one doing it, since that was a custom Konoha had. The Hokage would hand the missions to every new genin team himself on their first day. Iruka was just in mission handling duty.

"Good morning to you all. Team seven, I have just the mission for you." Hiruzen said.

"Hey, old man. Give me a super cool mission. I want to save a country, a beautiful princess or something like that." Naruto said.

"Naruto, you're not supposed to talk to the Hokage like that." Sakura berated him, but what she said went though one ear and got out the other.

"Naruto, the missions are ranked just like shinobi are ranked. Genin get D ranks and some easy C ranks. Chunin get the harder C ranks and some B ranks. Tokubetsu Jounin get high B rank and normal A ranks. Jounin get Mid and High A ranks and some S ranked missions. S ranks are those that are most important and contains secret informations." Hiruzen explained. He then searched through the the missions and then handed one to Kakashi. Kakashi read the mission contents and explained it to his team.

"Listen up, for our first mission, we are to retrieve Tora. She is the cat belonging to the wife of the Damyo of the fire country. She has last been spotted near the food market. Let's head out and prepare." Kakashi said as he put the mission scroll inside his flak jacket.

———

"Target in sight. I'll start my approach. Over" Hiroki said into the communicator as he sped towards the cat with the red ribbon like a blur. He got the cat and a few seconds later the cat did something that no one expected. Instead of scratching Hiroki, it kept rubbing itself onto him while he rubbed and pet it back.

'That is an impressive speed for a genin. Even a chunin would have trouble with that kind of speed if he was to fight him.' Kakashi thought.

"Alright everyone. Mission is complete, let's return the cat to the Daymio's wife."

Team seven returned to the mission distribution center to return Tora. Once they got there, it took the daymio's wife a few minutes to arrive. When she did, she grabbed Tora and started hugging her and rubbing her face against the cat's. Everyone could see the suffering the cat was going through.

"Um. Excuse me ma'am." Hiroki said towards the Daymio's wife.

"Tora doesn't like what you are doing right now. She would prefer if you actually gave her some personal space. I'm pretty sure this is the reason why she ran away." Hiroki explained.

"Oooooh. It's just that I love her so much and want to smush her in love and kisses." The Daymio's wife said in a really exaggerated way while continuing to crush Tora. The cat then jumped towards Hiroki as a means of scape.

"See what I meant. Give her personal space and she should be coming to you. Not the other way around." Hiroki said as he pet Tora's head. "Here, take her and just carry her. Don't crush or suffocate her like you were doing just now." Hiroki then handed Tora to the Daymio's wife.

The Daymio's wife then payed for the mission and left while carrying Tora normally.

"Hey hey. Old man. Give us another mission." Naruto said to Hiruzen.

"Sigh. Alright. How about cleaning the yard of..."

"No. No way. I'm not going to do any chores. Give us a real mission."

"Then how about painting the fence..."

"No. No. No. No. A real mission. I won't accept anything other than that." Naruto said as he grumbled.

Hiruzen then shuffled through the mission scrolls until he found one.

"Oh. I found just the perfect one. It's an escort mission."

"Oh! Are we going to escort a princess, a king or some important shinobi?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"No. It's a bridge builder. You will escort him to the land of waves. It's a simple C-rank mission." Hiruzen explained.

Naruto was about to complain and Hiroki told him that it was okay. He also told the blond that if they didn't take it, there was a big chance that they would be cleaning rivers, painting fences and babysitting. So Naruto readily agreed to the mission.

"Call the client over. Tell him his mission has been accepted." Hiruzen said to one of the shinobi in the room.

After a few minutes, the door of the room opened and a man around the age of fifty or sixty walked in. He was drinking sake directly from the bottle as it overflowed and dripped from his mouth. He then wiped it with his arms. He took a look at team seven and gave a scornful smile.

"Are you kidding me. Are these brats supposed to be shinobi? Konoha had better days. Hehe. Look at the shortest boy. He looks like the most stupid one of them." The old man said.

Naruto started laughing until he looked at Hiroki and Sasuke and noticed that the shortest one of the boys was him. He then sped towards the old man, but Kakashi stopped him midway.

"You can't hurt the client Naruto." Kakashi said. Naruto then went back to where he was.

"Ahem. This here is Tazuna, a master bridge builder. You will escort him to Nami no Kuni for the next few days." Hiruzen said.

"Alright. Let's get ready and leave after we have lunch. Pack bags with anything that you might need for a long trip. Our meeting point will be at the south gate of Konoha." Kakashi said as he dismissed his genin.

———

Two hours later, Hiroki was already standing in front of the southern gate of Konoha, waiting for the other members of his teams, together with Naruto. Naruto saw that something on Hiroki was different, but he didn't know exactly what it was.

"Hey, Hiroki."

"Huh? What is it, Naruto?"

"Something in you is different, but I can't put my finger on it." Naruto said as he was in a thinking pose.

"Oh. Haha. It's probably my tanto. I never had it with me since I didn't have the need to while in the academy. But now that we are true shinobi, I'll always have it with me." Hiroki said as he unsheathed his tanto and had a warm feeling in his heart and then sheathed it back.

"Where did you get it? Was it given to you by your parents?" Naruto asked.

"No. This was given by someone very important to me. I hope to see her again someday." Hiroki said with a happy smile while reminiscing Kushina. Naruto only looked at him and didn't say anything.

"Once we return from this mission, I'll teach you kenjutsu. Would you like that?" Hiroki asked Naruto and the blonde nodded his head.

'By doing this, I feel that I'm passing on your teachings to your son, Kushina-ne.' Hiroki thought.

Not long after, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi and Tazuna arrived, in that order.

"Since we're all here, we should start our journey. It'll probably take two to three days to arrive due to us having to move according to Tazuna's speed. Let's depart." Kakashi said as he stepped out from the gates and everyone followed.

After a few hours of traveling, the sun was still up and the weather was quite hot.

"Hey, Hiroki. Do you think we might fight against other shinobi while on this mission?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know. We're only supposed to escort Tazuna to Nami no Kuni, so the chance of us having to fight other shinobi is quite slim. But do keep your guard up at all times. We never know if an ambush will happen." Hiroki said that loud enough so everyone could hear, but enough for them not to imply anything. The only one he noticed had a reaction was Tazuna, who shook a little and he knew exactly why.

Not long after walking some more, Hiroki saw a puddle of water on the right side of the road. He looked at Kakashi, who was behind everyone, taking the role of rear guard. Kakashi noticed Hiroki looking at him and he smiled inside.

'He noticed it. I want to see what he will do.' Kakashi thought to himself.

Just as everyone finished passing the puddle, two silhouettes came out from it and sped towards Kakashi. The ones who were in front, heard the loud sound of running steps and looked at the back, where the sound was coming from. Just as they turned, they saw Kakashi's body turn into a pile of shredded pieces. The two silhouettes were two men that had two metal arms and claw and had a pointy chain strapping the metal arms of both.

"One down. The old man is next."

The one on the right said as he pounced towards Tazuna. Before he could come five meters close to Tazuna, he flew backwards from Hiroki kicking him on the face. The other one released the chain tying them together and continued going after Tazuna. Sasuke reacted fast and threw some shuriken at his enemy while weaving hand seals and blowing a huge fireball at him. Sakura took the opportunity to stay in front o Tazuna to protect him and Naruto then jumped in to help Sasuke.

The enemy shinobi tried dodging Sasuke's fire ball and he was successful, but Naruto's kunais hit him. One on his arm and three on the right leg. The enemy shinobi then felt four objects piercing him from behind and then he collapsed on the ground.

Hiroki's kick to the other's face had gotten him unconscious instantly as he hit a tree trunk. Hiroki had checked to see if he would be a threat before going to help Sasuke and Naruto. He saw that they had worked together and did a number on him. He then made four lightning senbo and threw them at his nervous system near his spine. They wouldn't do any permanent damage, but would paralyze him for quite some time.

"Hiroki, Sasuke, Naruto, what are we going to do? Kakashi-sensei is dead. Should we return to Konoha?" Sakura asked.

Hiroki then looked towards a tree to their left and started talking.

"Shouldn't you be coming out now Kakashi? Was the show good enough?" Hiroki asked.

"I'm impressed. You four managed to have total control of the situation in a small matter of time and neither of you froze "seeing" me die. Not only that, you took out two experienced chunin. These are the Hidden Mist Demon Brothers, Gozu and Meizu. Congratulations." Kakashi said as he came out from behind the tree Hiroki was looking at.

'So Hiroki is the one with the lightning affinity. Those senbons sure do a number.' He thought.

"Well then, care to tell us why two chunin shinobi are after you, Tazuna?" Kakashi asked as he eye smiled at the bridge builder. His smile did not indicate happiness one bit. It was quite the opposite.

Tazuna then told them the story about Gato having Nami no Kuni in the palm of his hands and how the bridge he was building got in the shipping Magnate business. Kakashi asked his team if they wanted to continue the mission and everyone agreed instantly. Each with their own reasons in mind. Kakashi then summoned a messenger bird and had it deliver a message telling Hiruzen to send some anbu to capture and question the demon brothers.

———

"Zabuza, the two little bastards you sent to kill that bridge builder failed. What are you going to do now? If you fail again, you can forget about getting your money." A short man wearing sun glasses said.

"Don't worry Gato. That will not happen again. Haku, get ready, we are going to take that old man's life." Zabuza said as he got up from the sofa he was sitting.

"And Gato, you better have my money ready." Zabuza said as he looked back at Gato and releasing his killing intent towards the short man.

———

Nearing the coast of the fire country, team seven were walking closer to the boat one of Tazuna's friend prepared for them.

Kakashi was reading his orange book. He flipped a page on it, but before starting to read it, he looked at Hiroki.

"Hiroki." Kakashi said.

"Huh? What is it Kakashi?"

"I noticed that you used that lightning senbon yesterday. And I remembered that you also used it against me in the survival exercise. You have really good chakra and shape control and your affinity to lightning chakra is also good. In the future, if you are able to awaken your Sharingan, I'll teach you my personal jutsu." Kakashi said.

'It seems that he intends to teach me Chidori. Either way, I don't need him teaching it to me, but if I use it without him doing so, there's a chance that people will suspect me.' Hiroki thought. He then looked at Kakashi and nodded.

"We arrived. That is my friend's boat. He'll take us across the sea to Nami no Kuni." Tazuna said.

Everyone hopped into the boat and after an hour or so of rowing and going through a thick curtain of fog, they arrived at the coast of Nami no Kuni. Tazuna thanked his friend and his friend drove the boat away.

"My house should be a short thirty minutes walk from here. We will arrive before noon. Let's go." Tazuna said.

'Zabuza and Haku should be ahead of us already. It will probably take us around ten minutes to encounter them.' Hiroki thought as he already prepared himself for a battle.

Just as Hiroki had calculated, ten minutes after they arrived at the shore, Naruto felt a movement in a bush and he threw a kunai where the movement came from. He then went towards the bush to check if he hit and then saw that it was just a white rabbit. Kakashi noticed that the white rabbit was one that normally lived in closure and it might have been used a substitute. He spread out his senses and was alarmed.

"Everyone, get down." He said as he got Naruto and Sakura's head down while Sasuke ducked together with Tazuna as a huge sword came their way in circular motion, just like a large shuriken. Kakashi then noticed that the only one that didn't duck was Hiroki and the sword was less than a meter away from him.

'Hiroki. No.' Kakashi thought as he remembered a promise he made in the past. He closed his eyes and grit his teeth as he felt that he had failed.

"Thump." The sound rang out and everyone turned towards where it came from. When they did, they saw Hiroki perfectly fine while holding the huge sword with one hand. Their eyes bulged in surprise.

"Wow. Didn't expect to see one of the seven swordsmen of the mist here in Nami no Kuni. This is Kubikiribōchō so the one here must be Zabuza Momochi if I'm not wrong." Hiroki said as he looked towards where the sword came from and saw Zabuza standing up on a branch of a tree.

"Heh. No wonder the demon brothers weren't able to do the job. Kakashi, the copy cat ninja of Konoha was the one protecting the old man." Zabuza said as he saw Kakashi. He then looked at Hiroki and he was impressed to see the young boy not avoiding the attack, but instead, was able to grab the sword as it came cutting his way.

"Hey, kid. Return the sword before I kill you." Zabuza said as he released killing intent towards Hiroki, trying to make him feel pressured and scared. What he saw next startled him in a bad way.

"Oh. This sword here. Sure. I'll give it to you, Zabuza." Hiroki said as he smirked. The killing intent didn't even bother him one bit.

'Let me show you what true killing intent is.' Hiroki thought as he released fifty percent of his killing intent directly at Zabuza and only him.

"Here you go. You can have it back now."

Zabuza was stuck in place due to the killing intent he was feeling and Hiroki appeared in front of him in less than an instant and slashed the executioner blade with it's back side. It hit Zabuza from his right shoulder to the left side of his waist. Zabuza was sent many meters away from where he was as he hit trees and branches along the way. The executioner blade was right next to him when he stopped and Hiroki retracted his killing intent.

Kakashi seeing all of this happening, didn't know how to react. He didn't expect to see one genin level shinobi, specially one under him, being able to strike Zabuza with a clean hit. Not even that, he didn't expect that speed as well. It was something that not even chunin were able to accomplish. There were a handful of people he saw had a speed as fast as that.

"Hiroki, are you alright?" Kakashi asked.

"Hn. I'm alright. How about you guys? Let's not idle for long. We have to protect Tazuna. The blow I gave him won't keep him down for long." Hiroki said. The blow he had given Zabuza wasn't really a blow to incapacitate him. He only wanted to help Kakashi with the fight he would have and not suffer like he had in the original show.

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna got up and they circled him and protected him. After one minute, Zabuza got back up and was once again in front of them. He looked at Hiroki and he felt that he had to kill him no matter what and as fast as possible. He felt extreme anger for being played with and dread from the kid's killing intent.

"Kakashi, why don't you just hand over that old man and that kid and I'll just leave. There's no need to drag this on." Zabuza said as he pointed at Tazuna and Hiroki.

"Sorry, Zabuza. One is a client of Konoha and the other is a comrade. I won't be handing them over." Kakashi replied as he got into his fighting stance.

'I can't hold back in this fight.' He thought as he uncovered his right eye and a sharingan was seen by everyone.

When Sasuke saw that eye, he had numerous questions running in his mind. Specially why and how Kakashi had a sharingan.

"Hidden mist Jutsu." Zabuza said as mist started enveloping the area they were.

"Everyone, be careful. Zabuza is known for the silent killing technique." Kakashi warned them.

"Naruto. How about some wind to clear this?" Hiroki said as he looked at Naruto.

Naruto weaved hand seals and sucked in the air around him and then blew all of it out. A strong stream of wind came out and blew the fog away. At this time, Hiroki saw Zabuza was right behind Sakura and Tazuna. He then took out his tanto and dashed towards them as he saw Zabuza's sword coming down on the two.

Metal hit metal as Zabuza was recoiled back. He felt his hands and arms become numb and his eyes widened he saw the red eyes on Hiroki's face. 'An Uchiha?' He thought. He then dashed backwards.

"Hiroki, good work in protecting Sakura and Tazuna. You guys can rest easy now. I'll take care of him." Kakashi said as he took out a kunai and started fighting Zabuza.

———

The fight ended after some time when Haku interfered. She came out as a hunter nin that was after Zabuza for a long time, but Hiroki knew it was a lie. The fight was a little different from the original. Kakashi had the upper hand all the time and didn't suffer as he did. Clearing the fog was a great help in that.

When team seven saw Haku leaving with the unconscious Zabuza, Kakashi told them to continue towards their destination, Tazuna's house. Since Kakashi didn't suffer like in the original show, he didn't collapse.

As they were walking, Hiroki came closer to Kakashi and started talking to him. The sensei was reading his book and didn't take his eyes from.

"Was that the jutsu you were saying you would teach me?"

"Yeah. But you are not ready for that now..."

Kakashi was interrupted by the sound of birds chirping and a blue light shining around them. He took his eyes from his book and looked down and saw that Hiroki had a chidori in his right hand.

"Hiroki, how?" Kakashi asked. Everyone else other than Naruto in team seven had the same question in their minds.

"Well, I have lightning affinity and I have a good control in shaping chakra. I saw how you shaped your chakra and just copied that." Hiroki said calmly.

"Sigh. I guess I won't need to teach it to you now, but please hear me. You are not allowed to use this technique until you awaken your sharingan and you can never use it against a comrade." Kakashi said.

"Alright. I'll remember this. Either way. Don't you find it strange that the hunter nin didn't destroy Zabuza's body on the spot and took it away?" Hiroki said.

"Yeah. Only after the hunter nin took Zabuza, did I think of it. It must be one of Zabuza's comrades." Kakashi said to Hiroki. He then looked at everyone else and said: "Once we arrive at Tazuna's house, we will rest and the next day we will train. I'm sure they will come back and you have to be ready. You saw how that hunter nin was fast, so you'll need to be careful in fighting him." Kakashi said.

After thirty more minutes of walking, they arrived at Tazuna's house. Tazuna introduced his daughter, Tsunami and his grandson, Inari. The boy didn't talk to anyone and ran to his bedroom. Everyone had their dinner and freshened up and then went to sleep. Well, Hiroki faked his sleep and teleported to one Hiraishin seal he had placed right outside of Tazuna's house.

"Let's find out where Gato's hideout is. Once I know where it is, I'll take care of him on the night before Zabuza and Haku attacks everyone at the bridge." Hiroki said to himself as he entered sage mode and spread his senses around him while running and jumping above the roof of the buildings. He used his senses to sneak around the town and not be seen by anyone. Specially by Gato's henchmen.

"So this is where his hideout is." Hiroki smirked as he found where Gato stayed. It was a large area with many small buildings and walls around it. It had almost the size of a small clan compound. There were many guards patrolling the area. Hiroki observed them for a few minutes, placed a Hiraishin seal near the building and teleported back outside of Tazuna's house. When he arrived, he felt someone above, sitting on the roof of the house. Hiroki leapt up and saw that it was Kakashi. He was sitting down while looking at the sky.

"Where have you been, Hiroki?" Kakashi asked.

"I've been looking around the town. My parents always told me that I should look around the area of the places I would stay if I ever went on missions. They said it was the first thing a shinobi should do before feeling safe enough to sleep." Hiroki said as he made up an excuse.

"Huuum. Your parents were very wise. Did you see any of Gato's man?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah. I saw a few patrolling the town. But they weren't close to this house. I think they won't be doing anything to us or Tazuna's family while we are here. The only threats are Zabuza and that hunter nin." Hiroki said.

"That's good to hear. Let's go in. Tomorrow I'll teach you guys a few things." Kakashi said as he opened the window that lead to inside the house.