n

n

nIt has been a day since Team Seven had been attacked. After reaching the sea, a man with a small boat ferried them over to the Land of Waves where they quickly disembarked and quietly made their way to a nearby forest to hide from possible observers.

nAfter the battle finished, Sasuke would occasionally glare at Naruto and the more time passed the more often he did so. Naruto has finally had enough and snapped.

n

"Sasuke, if you want to say something, then just do so. You, constantly glaring at me is getting annoying.

"

nThis, however, seemed to make Sasuke even more annoyed, nevertheless, he still answered Naruto.

n

"How did you manage to actually attack those two? While we were at the academy, you were one of the weakest in the class. How did you manage to get this much of a boost in strength?

"

nNaruto could only roll his eyes at how simple-minded Sasuke is.

n'Rather than being interested in my strength, he thinks that I used some kind of trick to suddenly power up and wants to do the same as well. Just how hungry for power is he?'

n

"The reason why I was one of the weakest in the academy, was because I wanted to be seen that way. I won't give you any details, but some… nasty things were happening in the background that prevented me from showing my real strength. Now that I have graduated, there no longer is a need to hide, so I am showing what I can do.

"

nSasuke only sneered at Naruto when he heard that Naruto was holding back. In his opinion, holding back was just stupid, especially if it makes people weaker than you make fun of you.

n'What a stupid lie. If Naruto actually had that kind of strength during his days at the academy, he would have obviously taught everyone that was mocking him a lesson. Guess he doesn't want to tell me how a loser like him suddenly got enough strength to almost match my own. Well, I wouldn't tell him a secret like that either, but I will get it out of him sooner rather than later.'

nSasuke was just about to give a snarky reply when Naruto's head snapped to the side and his eyes widened in surprise.

n

"Shinobi approaching. Jonin level.

"

nNaruto immediately took out two Kunai and placed himself between the approaching enemy and Tazuna while Sasuke and Sakura were only giving him weird looks. Kakashi still looked rather casual, but since he has actually put away the book he has been reading, he was clearly prepared for battle as well.

nAnother few seconds passed before Sakura started to speak.

n

"What are you raising a false alarm for like that, idi…

"

n

"

"DUCK!!!

"

"

nNaruto and Kakashi reacted pretty much simultaneously, Kakashi due to his vast experience on the battlefield and Naruto because of his superior sensing capability. Naruto pushed Tazuna's head down, while Kakashi did the same for Sakura, while Sasuke managed to duck in time on his own. Just a split second later, a huge sword came flying above their heads and then got stuck into a tree.

nMoments later a tall muscular man stepped onto the handle of the sword. He was shirtless, had black, short, spiky hair and barely visible eyebrows while covering his face with bandages.

nNaruto immediately grew tense when he saw that man.

n

"Kakashi-sensei seems like this B-rank mission just got upgraded to A-rank.

"

n

"That seems to be the case, Naruto. Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi, I didn't expect to encounter someone like him on this mission.

"

n

"Indeed. I didn't expect to meet the famous Sharingan Kakashi either. How about you just hand over the old man and we part ways without a conflict.

"

n

"Protect Tazuna. This one is in a completely different league. I will have to get serious.

"

nAfter he said that, Kakashi pulled up his headband and revealed his Sharingan.

n

"To think I would see the famous Sharingan, I am honored, but…

"

nZabuza vanished and reappeared on a nearby source of water.

n

"Let's see how great your Sharingan works, when you can't see properly Water Release: Hiding in Mist Technique.

"

nA dense mist immediately appeared and flooded the whole area, making it pretty much impossible to see further than a few meters ahead of yourself.

n

"Be careful, Zabuza is an expert in silent killing. Stay close together and protect each other. I will deal with him.

"

nAlthough Kakashi sounded confident, in his mind he could only curse his bad luck again and again. Not only did he encounter a Jonin level threat on his first real mission with his team, but it is someone with a very effective counter against the Sharingan as well.

nAn oppressive silence descended onto the battlefield, while everyone was waiting for Zabuza's attack. Suddenly, Zabuza's voice seemed to echo over the battlefield from everywhere at the same time.

n

"8 choices. Liver, lungs, spine, cervical vein, neck vein, brain, kidneys, and heart. Which one should I go for?

"

nDense killing intent flooded the whole battlefield. Kakashi put his hands together in front of him and unleashed his own presence, causing it to violently clash with Zabuza's.

nFelling two very powerful wills clash against each other, Naruto quickly took a look at his two teammates and almost clicked his tongue in annoyance. Sakura was completely frozen up, which, truth be told, wasn't much of a surprise for Naruto. This kind of battle is not something a normal genin should experience, after all. Seeing that Sasuke was almost hyperventilating at the pressure, however, left Naruto quite disappointed.

n'Is that really all he amounts to? Nee-san told me about the tragedy of the Uchiha clan, so I am not really surprised at the way he acts in front of other people, but why is he so weak? Shouldn't he push himself with everything he's got? Take every opportunity he gets to improve his strength? Have an ironlike will that keeps pushing him forward? Why does his will crumble this easily?'

nWhat Naruto didn't understand was that he was the abnormal one. Or rather, the people around him were abnormal. Now that he has grown older, he understood just how ridiculous it was for Yuna to basically become his guardian at the age of three. He understood, just how miserable his life would have been without his sister who shouldered everything for him without a single complaint and allowed him to have a pretty normal childhood.

nThe second abnormal person he met was, naturally, Hinata. Instead of having her whole family killed like Sasuke, she was thrown away by her family instead. Left to die on the streets of Konoha. Naruto could still remember how Hinata was when she first arrived at their home. She was completely broken and pretty much incapable of speaking a full sentence. Despite that, she kept pushing herself and with the help of the twins, she managed to build herself up again. Every day she grew more and more confident and after a few months, she had reached a level where she basically didn't care about her previous family anymore.

nDue to constantly being together with these two people, Naruto actually got a rather weird image of people that went through some hardships in their life.

nWhile Naruto was contemplating Sasuke's reactions, the fight continued. Zabuza was still hidden, while Kakashi was still awaiting his surprise attack. Naruto, however, could easily track Zabuza's position inside the mist, and as soon as he noticed his intentions, his eyes widened.

n

"HIS TARGET IS TAZUNA!!!

"

nHe quickly informed Kakashi about the situation and then got into a position to defend himself. Moments later, Zabuza appeared in front of Team Seven and swung his cleaver in an attempt to behead Tazuna.

nNaruto appeared between the two and lifted two kunai to stop Zabuza's blow. As soon as Zabuza's sword hit Naruto's kunai, Naruto's feet dug into the ground as a groan escaped his lips. He was just about to activate Kurama's chakra when Kakashi appeared and attempted to stab Zabuza through the heart which Zabuza, unfortunately, managed to avoid.

n

"Are you alright, Naruto?

"

nNaruto slightly shook his hands to get the numbness out of them before he answered.

n

"Yeah, I am fine, but this guy hits really hard. If I wanted to fight him, I would probably need two or maybe even three tails.

"

nAlthough the other two members of Team Seven were rather confused by that statement, Kakashi, actually, knew what Naruto meant. Naruto had given Kakashi some information about his capabilities to make it easier to assign the appropriate roles to them in case of an emergency. That also meant that Kakashi was aware that

"three tails

" were currently still out of the question.

n

"Hehe, I am surprised, Kakashi. One of those brats actually seems to be pretty decent. Not only did he not freeze up after feeling my killing intent he even managed to stop one of my strikes.

"

n

"As one of the

"Demon Twins

", it is only natural for him to be capable of at least this much, but all of that doesn't really matter, since you will die today.

"

nAs soon as Kakashi finished that sentence, he pumped a massive amount of chakra into his left eye, which caused the Sharingan to spin like crazy.

n

"Let's finish this, Zabuza.

"

n