Building the Bond

!

It was late in the afternoon when Niamh and Tazuna got back to his house. Tazuna walked into his house while Niamh walked around to the back and see how the kids and their teacher are doing. When she got to the back she saw the three kids looked tired and worn out. Their pervert teacher was sitting on a chair reading that dirty book of his.

"I see that you're still reading that book of yours," Niamh said as she walked up to them.

"Niamh you're back!" Naruto shouted as he leaps up running over to her.

"Have you learned to walk on trees yet?" she asked him.

"Yup, I sure did, Sasuke is still learning," Naruto stated with a smile to punctuate it.

"I'll get it soon," Sasuke said.

"He only learned so fast because he had me give him some pointers," Sakura shouted out.

"Well get inside all of you, and lets have something to eat," Niamh said as she turned around and walked inside the house.

"Alright!" Naruto shouted bursting with excitement as he walked along sides her. "Can we have more of that Spam you have?"

"Sure why not," Niamh said. "As I promise, I'm going to start your training in my fighting style tomorrow."

"I'll make you proud!" Naruto said.

"Just as long you don't turn out like your pervert teacher I'll be proud of you no matter what," Niamh stated with a laugh.

"Hey! I'm not that big of a pervert!" Kakashi said with irritation that's evident in his voice. But that was just because both Niamh and Naturo started to laugh out loud as they walked into the house.

Inari saw the two laughing as they entered the house and started growling. "Why are you all laughing? Gatou's going to have you all killed!" He cried out, instantly ruining the mood.

Angered by the outburst Naruto stopped in his tracks and faced Inari, immediately cutting off Tsunami's scolding.

"Yeah? Just you watch! Gatou's gonna wish he'd never come here!" Naruto challenged back.

"Feh! Gatou will show you! He'll kill everyone! No one can stand up to him!" Inari sniveled and ran out of the room.

Naruto raised a fist.

"I'll show that brat something alright!" The blond boy intended on storming after the young kid to give him a piece of his mind when someone grabbed his hand, holding him back from going any further.

"Naruto stop it!" Niamh said in a firm voice as she held his arm. "He'll see when it's all over."

Naruto pulled his hand away sharply, still intent on giving that brat what for.

"Please don't, Naruto." This time it was Tsunami pleading.

"And why shouldn't, I?" he lashed out, turning to the older woman but calmed at seeing her downcast-look. The rest of team 7 entered the house wondering what was going on inside.

Tsunami hadn't even been facing him, but instead, positioned herself in front of a torn photograph hanging on the wall. A shaky hand had traced the torn area; her eyes were not-quite staring at the damaged object, but instead staring at something that was once there.

"There was a man in this picture once, just as there was once a man in our lives. She began. His name was Kaiza, a wanderer from place to place and had saved Inari from some bullies once."

Her hand reached into her pocket.

"It was only a visit to the Wave, but weeks became months and he came to call the Wave his home and was loved by all. Especially by my son; the time they'd spent together, nearly had Kaiza become Inari's father in all but blood."

Out of the pocket came a torn and crumpled piece of paper.

"He was so dedicated to our country; he had even gone as far as swimming through a flood to save some of the inhabited areas. He was held as a hero of our simple community and brought hope to a failing country."

The paper was smoothed and it filled the torn area of the photo perfectly. Another man filled the missing part of the photograph.

"You'd always hear him say as long as you have these two arms, she gestured to her own arms, you can protect your home."

She barked a pained laugh.

"I was to be wed again, with him one day." she sighed wistfully. But then her eyes hardened.

"But it wasn't meant to be... Because... Because Gatou came..." she faltered at this point.

Further attempts to continue had failed her words were torn away before she could even form them. Unable to stop the tears, she excused herself and exited the room, taking the rumpled piece of photograph with her.

Tazuna sighed and went to wipe his eyes, continuing where his daughter had left off. The memory had brought back terrible memories.

"When Gatou muscled in on the Wave Country. Our hero, Kaiza, had stood up to him. And Kaiza protected our country as hard as he could, with his two arms."

Then the aging architect tensed and grimaced fiercely.

"That bastard, Gatou, had Kaizas arms cut off in front of everyone."

His audience reacted to that. Sakura had flinched, Naruto swore under his breath and Sasuke gave narrow eyed looks. It disgusted Kakashi, but the jounin did not outwardly express it. As for Niamh a fire was lit that wouldn't be put out till she finished what she has to do to put an end to this, once and for all.

"Then he had Kaiza hung up at the town-square and was publicly executed, to be an example to everyone."

Tazuna took a swig of sake to rid himself of the taste in his mouth.

"Ever since then, the people of Wave have let Gatou do as he wishes, fearful for what Gatou would do to them. But there were still some of us who resisted."

Tazuna derisively took another sip.

"Without our bridge, the Wave will lose all hope." he finished gravely.

Naruto immediately headed towards the door to exit the house.

"Where are you going, Naruto?" Sakura asked loudly.

"I've got to go out and train to prove something..." he turned and gave a toothy grin to his audience.

"I've got to prove that there's always hope," he finished proudly.

"And you call me the show-off…" Sasuke snorted under his breath.

"Looks like I'm going to be training him sooner than I thought," Niamh said as she followed her student outside.

!

Outside –

Niamh stood in front of her new student. "Naruto for me to train you first need something besides those kunai you and the others use. She reached for her belt and pulls out a seven inch knife. This is a standard issue combat knife called a Ka-bar. You'll learn how to fight with this along with your gun once I see that you're skilled enough to use it."

"How about a knife like the one you have?" Naruto ask pointing to her bowie knife that was much larger.

"Its too big for someone like you to handle along with a heavy gun," Niamh smiled as she gave him the knife. "When you're bigger and stronger I might get you one. Beside that one is special."

"What's so special about this knife?" Naruto asked looking it over.

"First point the blade to that tree," Niamh said pointing to a nearby tree.

"Like this," Naruto said doing as she instructed him.

"Feel the small button on the side of the blade?"

"Yeah."

"Press it."

Naruto did so and to his surprise and for his team who had stepped out to watch, the blade of the knife suddenly was fired out of its handle and embedded itself into the trunk of the tree.

"What the...?" Was all that Naruto managed to say.

"It's a combination of a Ballistic knife. It's a knife with a detachable blade that can be expelled from the handle as a projectile commonly propelled by a spring-operated mechanism," Niamh explains. "It's useful to get the drop on your enemy."

"Interesting," Kakashi said as he saw how that kind of knife would be useful.

"You think she'll give me a knife like that one?" Sakura asked him.

"Maybe if you ask her nicely," he answered her.

"I wonder what other toys she has." Sasuke said as he saw the case and bags she has with her.

"She said that some of the things she has are dangerous and I shouldn't touch her stuff," Sakura said.

"Yeah like that knife," Kakashi said. "If she didn't tell Naruto about keeping the blade away from him; he might had press the switch the blade might have shot into his neck or something."

"We should get her to tell use about her equipment once she's done with Naruto's training," Susuke said.

"Sakura you ask her," Kakashi volunteered her.

"Why me?" she asked a little annoyed.

"Because she doesn't like me for some reason," he said as he reads his book.

"I can't imagine why," both of his students said as they stared at him flatly. (1)

!

The second day had Naruto being trained by Niamh, while Sasuke trained by himself. Both boys pushed themselves at the others expense. Niamh was teaching Naruto the basics of CQC, both of them used wooden knifes as she trained him. Naruto's hand-to-hand fighting skills combine with his ninjas skill made him quite hard to handle. But she wanted to teach him to use simple moves to take down his opponent and kill without using too many moves or fancy tricks.

Sakura volunteered to take place watching the bridge for Kakashi, so he could recover faster as he was still recovering from his fight with Zabuza since he used too much chakra during the fight. And Sakura quickly realized the task to be extremely long and tedious. Shed found herself distracted several times throughout the course, but was quick to correct her objective and focused on her task.

However, something unnerved her. At first she thought she was getting weird looks from the builders, but as time went on, one of the builders approached Tazuna. It was at this time that Sakura got her chance to see what these people saw in her.

"Boss, I want to go home early. I've got a family to think about and..." The man trailed off.

"Are you asking to quit?" Tazuna asked evenly.

The man had briefly glanced over Tazuna's shoulder to Sakura, meeting her eyes. "I can't do this anymore, boss."

Tazuna looked down at his clipboard and there was a silence so thick, that you could cut it with a knife.

"Goodbye, Giichi." He finally said.

And the exchange was over. Giichi left and that was that.

But in that simple glance, Sakura saw an emotion that spoke in volumes.

Fear.

The same look the rest of builders gave her.

And even when she and Tazuna entered the town to purchase food stuff, it became more pronounced as each new face looked her over once and recoiled.

After more or less receiving the same treatment from everyone, she turned to Tazuna for the answer.

"It's nothing." He brushed the subject off.

But he'd failed to meet her eyes.

!

The following days –

It wasn't long before the week had passed that was completely in tandem with the second day. The boys trained, the girl guarded and both teachers rehabilitated. Niamh taught the ninjas how to use the radio as they needed to keep in contact at all times. The one who guards Tazuna for the day carried one of her radios and call in if there was any kind of trouble. And Niamh began to teach Naruto in marksmanship by using the crossbow that Inari had. He wanted to use the gun but Niamh told him that she didn't want to waste the limited ammo she had with her.

However, the fractions of what each person had been assigned to, all had took to their work with more zeal than the day before. Everyone knew the stakes and with each passing day the tension grew to higher levels.

Kakashi had taken to slower but more deliberate forms of practice; mostly stretching all his muscles carefully and accordingly as to be in top form whenever the need would require of it. He silently admitted to himself the time he'd spent training his team had dulled his senses and responses. And though he would not regret taking a team, he also couldn't let his team down like he did in the previous confrontation with the missing ninja... and there's no telling of who Gatou was going to hire to replace the demon ninja of the mist. (2)

And Niamh was helping with their training as well. It also allowed him to watch the fighting form she used. He mostly saw that she was using combat skills combined with her gun which she kept empty for the training. Even when his team worked together they couldn't get past her defense as she would either block or with her knife and use her gun on her attacker. She would also use her gun as a club or block an incoming attack and go in for the kill with her knife. He never had seen a style of fighting that combined long and close quarter combat before. But again he had never seen a gun before. He continued to gather information on Niamh as he was sure he had not seen anything yet out of her before.

Sakura guarded Tazuna during the day and when she wasn't, she'd designate to train her stamina and her skills in hand-to-hand combat. In which Niamh was giving her a helping hand with her training. She knew she was lacking when it comes to full contact defensive procedures, but she was hoping she could use chakra to buffer her initial weakness and gradually work it out. This required absolute focus to achieve.

Sasuke had pushed himself to greater heights. Eventually, he would find himself doing fireballs jutsus whilst running, jumping, or climbing as the competition between himself and his blond teammate staggered to new levels as each attempted to out-do the other. He wanted to show Naruto that he was stronger than he was and didn't need a gun to fight with.

Naruto had strained his control. When he was alone, he'd switch between techniques and chakra control, as to put his reflexes into peak condition. He honed his tree-climbing so that in battle situations, he could call on the skill without a thought; and with Niamhs training he'd become much stronger and better at fighting. He in turn was helping her to learn how to use his chakra as she didn't want to be taught by Kakashi saying hell use the training to take peeks on her.

Everyone agreed on one thing: there was no margin for error.

And so, it wasn't long before the week had passed as each successive day proved to be on the same line of route for the last, only more difficult. The boys trained, the girl guarded and the teacher rehabilitated.

!

A couple of days later –

It was nearing the end of morning and Sakura sat perched on Kakashis legs, whilst Tazuna sat cross-legged on the jounins back. All three rose and lowered in a slow, but concentrated rhythm as Kakashi worked on doing one-finger push-ups with one hand, making sure to exercise and test all of his muscles and chakra circulation.

On the other hand, he'd been giving his mind a thorough work out as he was using his other hand to hold up a certain perverted novel to his face.

His musings had been interrupted as Tazuna spoke.

"I wanted to ask you earlier but..." Tazuna started off. "Why are you still here when I lied to you about this mission?"

"To abandon your duty is not courageous," Kakashi said effortlessly as he did another push up, almost as if rehearsed.

"Below the courageous, there is nothing."

"Those were the previous Hokages words."

"That is the way of th-"

He paused in mid-sentence as he'd felt a shift in weight on his legs. Looking over his shoulder, Kakashi found Sakura leaning over and craning her neck as if she was examining something that was being blocked from her point of view.

"Are you..." Kakashi squinted an accusing and slightly worried eye at his pink-haired student.

"Are you trying to see over my shoulder to read my book?"

Sakura gave a stammered denial and a fierce blush before reseating her position to hide her face behind Tazuna.

The older architect would then curiously look over Kakashis shoulder before shrinking back and blushing terribly too.

"That's it you're spending way too much time with him," Niamh said as she enters the room followed by Naruto and Sasuke. "I do not want you turning into a pervert as well Sakura."

"Hey!" Kakashi growls as it seems that Niamh goes out of her way to insult him whenever she had the chance.

"Let me guess you spent so much time training when you were younger that now as an adult you have no idea what to do with a woman," Niamh smirks at him.

"Hey, I've been with plenty of women," Kakashi replies.

"Paid women don't count," Niamh smirks as she enters Tsunamis room that she and Sakura are sharing.

"HEY!" Kakashi growls irritated.

"Don't worry it's very common that women get the better of men. My wife did it all the time," Tazuna laughs.

"Really?" Naruto ask.

"Yes and some women get the better of guys for years," Tazuna added. "It's called marriage."

"Here you go Naruto," Niamh said as she comes back holding the gun she had showed them a couple of days ago, a belt with a gun hostler on it and a small box in her other hand. "The Colt .45 Single-Action Army Revolver for you to use, and a box of bullets, there's six shots in the gun and twenty-four bullets in the box. Remember not to just fire wildly make your shots count like an arrow fired from crossbow."

"Yes, now I can be just like you!" Naruto shouted as he grabs for the gun but Niamh pulls it away from his gasp at the last second.

"Now, now Naruto remember that this isn't a toy for you to play around with whenever you like to. This is a weapon that can easily kill someone close to you if you're not careful. This model has a safety lock on it. It's a lock that prevents motion of the trigger, blocks the chamber or in any other way prevents the firearm from being discharged. And remember the four rules I taught you about guns."

"1. Always treat firearms as if they are loaded, not safetied, and ready to fire."

"2. Always point the muzzle away from anything and everything which you do not intend to fire upon."

"3. Always keep your fingers away from the trigger until you are ready to fire."

"4. Always be sure of your target and its surroundings." (3)

"Yes I remember!" Naruto said as he puts on the belt harness. The gun hostler is set on underside of his left arm.

"Good," Niamh said as she places the gun into its hostler with the handle pointing outwards. "You'll guys handle guarding Tazuna for today I'm going to be very busy."

"Where are you going?" said bridge builder ask.

"Going to pay a visit to someone," Niamh said as she left the house with her gear heading for the docks. 'Gatou, I'm coming for you.'

!

Authors Notes –

1 – Many of you say that Kakashi isn't that big of a pervert. But anyone who reads that much of the pervert toad masters dirty books he has to have something common with him.

2 – They all think that Zabuza is dead.

3 – Most accidents with guns is caused when people don't follow these simple to follow rules. Be careful with guns people!

!