Naruto: Team Sannin Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Lost Shadows

The moment they all saw the cat move, Team Sannin knew they had to react quick. "Times up." said Shinta as he focused his chakra into his staff, "Chakra Spear!", as he pierced his opponent. The big man he had been fighting took the attack and dropped to one knee, "Are you kidding me, what are you made of?"

Suddenly the person wearing the cat mask sprinted forward past Shinta. Naruto saw this and summoned several Shadow clones, "Stop them." ordered Naruto quickly before using a kunai to block another attack from Qrow's blade.

"Here we come!" shouted the squad of Shadow clones as they all jumped the person in the cat mask. The cat mask did no hand signs or take out a weapon as they deflected the first two clones attack before quickly destroying one of the clones with a well placed punch. "That won't work on all of us." said the rest of the clones jumped at them all at the sametime.

Though before any of them could land a blow each one was cut by a chakra slash, "Hurry up," said Corvus as he changed his naginata back into a katana and slashed the last clone.

The cat mask nodded before running towards team seven and the bridge builders. "Hey! What are you doing old man?" asked Qrow as he tried to slash Naruto again, "Don't give our bounty away."

Naruto saw the split second distraction and dashed to intercept the cat mask but Corvus landed between them. "Don't worry Qrow, the bounty isn't their target."

Shinta moved after the cat mask while also noticing that the big man he had been fighting was chasing after him, "Naomi tag out!"

Naomi instantly disengaged Saizu and jumped down off the crane, "You won't shake me off that easily." yelled Saizu as she jumped after Naomi, claws first, ready to strike.

"Oh I didn't forget you." said Naomi as she turned her head to Saizu revealing her smile, "Because you're in my trap now."

"What?"

Naomi twisted in the air revealing several strands of wire coming from her hands, Saizu had just enough time to follow the wire and notice that she was already trapped in a net, before Naomi tightened it around her, "Fleeing web" as Naomi focused her chakra into her muscles and swung the rouge kunoichi at the big man chasing Shinta.

Shinta wasn't looking but heard as the kunoichi crashed into his former opponent, "Thanks Naomi." as he chased after the cat mask.

"Get off of me." yelled the big man as he threw Saizu off of him and over the side of the bridge.

"You bastard!" yelled Saizu before she hit the water.

"Well that solves one problem." said Naomi as she landed in front of the big man, "Now to deal with you."

~o~

The cat mask jumped as it got close to team seven throwing several shuriken at them, Sai used his paint jutsu to block the shuriken as Sasuke jumped forward with a fireball jutsu, forcing the cat mask to jump back and away from the fireball, Shinta saw the opening and cam down on the cat mask with his staff ready for the kill, but in the last second the Cat mask turned and saw Shinta barley dodging the attack. Shinta narrowed his eyes at the cat mask, 'That should have hit, my window was perfect and the way they dodged...could it be?' Thought Shinta.

Shinta dashed forward swinging his staff fast and with precision to keep up the pressure, two things surprised Shinta, one his opponent was able to keep up with and two they were able to dodge each attack by a hair. Shinta picked up the speed and went faster forcing his opponent to use a kunai to defend.

'Now!' Shinta went for a spear stab and just as expected the cat mask deflected it, Shinta used his hand and quickly grabbed their arm, "Gotcha now." As Shinta pulled ripping the sleeve of his opponent, they also attempted to grab Shinta's arm.

In that moment the cat mask's hand wrapped around Shinta's arm it began to spasm and twitch irregularly. Even though their face wasn't visible it was clear they were confused as they looked at their hand.

"I knew it," Said Shinta as he ripped his opponent's sleeve along with a good portion of their arm causing their blood to splatter on the ground.

The cat mask jumped back holding their arm as their other hand was still shaking, Sasuke who was watching the fight along with team seven noticed the shaking, "That shaking..." he spoke quietly as he gritted his teeth, "That's the same when I tried it."

"huh, Sasuke?" asked Sakura with concern.

"When you tried it?" questioned Sai before he put it together. "Wait then is that?"

"It's hard to copy my reaper techniques, while other techniques require just precise amount of chakra and hand signs to make them work, reaper techniques require the body to be trained for such chakra control, you might be able to copy the amount of chakra and the movements but you can't mimic that level of precision of chakra with your sharingan." explained Shinta as he stared at the cat mask.

After he heard Shinta confirm it, Sasuke rushed forward, "ITACHIIIII!!!"

~o~

(a few minutes earlier)

Naomi was dodging the big man's attacks while countering with her own jabs aimed at his pressure points. 'What the hell is going on, he should have fallen several hits ago, all those punches were infused with chakra and aimed at his nerves, how is this big guy still standing, who is he?'

Naruto saw this while fending off his two opponents and got an idea, "Alright try this one on for size, LEAPFROG!" yelled Naruto as he flew, threw several hand signs and rushed towards Qrow.

Qrow smiled and readied his sword, "Bring it on kid-" he was cut off as he felt something hit his side as he felt part of his body go numb, "What?" he looked down and saw Naomi and her fist in his side, "You?"

"Got you." said Naomi with a wink as she hit then gave him a few more chakra infused punches cutting off his muscles from his nervous system forcing him to fall, "Now it works."

Naruto ran past Naomi as the big man tried to attack her, "It's time for you to take a nap, Gale Palm!" as he sent a mass force of wind at the man sending him back and over the railing of the bridge. "That guy was stubborn, who the heck was he-" Naruto was taken out of his thoughts as he looked down and saw that there was now a katana sticking out of his chest.

"NARUTO!" yelled Naomi.

"You shouldn't have taken your eyes off of me, boy." said Corvus who was behind Naruto as he pulled his blade out of Naruto's back, "Maybe in the next life, you'll do better."

Naruto clutched his chest trying to stop the bleeding but he turned to Corvus with a smile on his face, "You should take your own advice, old man." before bursting in a puff of smoke.

"What a shadow clone!" yelled Corvus as he tried to move his feet to dodge whatever attack that was coming next but was unable to, he looked down and saw a seal around his feet. "My feet are sealed!"

"You know I only really started using this trick recently and it's already coming in handy," Came Naruto's voice as Naomi and Corvus soon looked to see Naruto with on knee down on the ground not too far away with a coloured cloak over his shoulder that matched the colour of the bridge. "I really gotta thank Shikamaru for this idea."

Corvus felt insulted when he saw the cloak, "You hid from me thanks to a blanket, but..but.."

Naruto couldn't help but laugh, "One thing I've come to realize is that a lot of veterans don't see the simple tricks coming, you guys always expect something big and flashy that you've forgotten one of the best tricks a ninja can have is miss direction."

Corvus took a deep breath to calm himself down, "I see, when you made several shadow clones earlier, you hid in the chaos and fooled me with a well made shadow clone while you waited for a moment to trap me, very clever boy, I admit defeat."

"Oh for fucks sake," whined Qrow from the ground.

"Naomi, let's put them to sleep before-" Naruto was cut off by a scream.

"ITACHIIIII!!!"

~o~

Sasuke rushed away from his post having forgotten about the bridge builders and the mission, he ignored his teammates cries to stay, his revenge had come and his brother was here. "Today you die, ITACHI!" he yelled before Shinta stopped him with his staff, using his chakra to stick Sasuke to the staff, "Let me go, Itachi has to die." as he tried to pull himself away from the staff,

"Cool it will you, unless your brother changed his gender, this isn't Itachi," said Shinta, "Ain't that right miss."

The cat mask tilted her head before asking, "What gave me away?" in a clearly feminine voice.

Sasuke stopped struggling as his rage washed away from the sound of the voice and replaced it with confusion, "What?"

"When I grabbed your arm it was thin, but there are some hell a lean guys out there but what mostly gave it away were your shoes, I saw them during our exchange, can't hide that." explained Shinta as he let Sasuke go.

The woman reached up and slowly removed the mask and her cloak that was hiding her identity. Sasuke couldn't believe what he was seeing, who he was looking at. "You died, we buried you, how are you alive, Izumi?"

Izumi Uchiha smiled at Sasuke, "It's so good to see you again Sasuke, I had hoped that one day we would see each other again, though I do wish it was under better circumstances."

"Who's that?" asked Sakura, who stayed behind with Sai.

"It must be another survivor of the Uchiha massacre." stated Sai.

"But I thought Itachi killed everyone but Sasuke."

"I know," said Sai, "That leaves only one conclusion."

"Did my brother spare you?" asked Sasuke.

"Yes," she said simply before a fond smile split across her face, "Ah I remember it like it was yesterday, me and Itachi running away together it was so romantic."

"Romantic?" As Sasuke felt the word was poison in his mouth, "He murdered our clan, our family."

Izumi blinked out of her day dream, "I know, he told me about it beforehand."

"...what?"

"He came to me before the massacre and told me he was planning to kill me first out of love, but when I asked if he needed any help he let me live."

Sasuke looked at her in horror, "You...you helped him!?"

Shinta whistled, "This bitch is crazy."

"That's love," said Izumi happily, "It was at the moment I offered to help, I realized, I love Itachi more than I loved the Uchiha. Now we're married and have kids together, this is actually my first mission in a while. I felt that my skills were getting rusty, so I accepted a small job to kill a simple old man, who would have guessed I would have run into you here."

Sauske gritted his teeth, "Tell me where my bastard of a brother is or I will kill you."

Izumi's smile faded as she gave Sasuke a hollowed look, "Sasuke we are family now and I'd rather not hurt you but as his wife I will not accept you insulting him like that." as she activated her sharingan.

Sasuke activated his own, "I'm going to send both you and Itachi to hell."

While everyone was paying attention to the Uchiha in-laws the other rouge nin made their move, "HEY WE GOT INCOMING!" yelled Naomi. Suddenly a spinning blade of lightning came crashing down between Izumi and the others before redirecting it's aim at Naruto and Naomi.

Naomi got behind Naruto as he sent out a wave of chakra causing the spinning blade to change directions and head off to the side wear it was caught by its wielder Raiga who was crouching on the railing, "So Zabuza was right, using my blades on you won't work."

Naruto eyed the twin swords, "Those are the Kiba blades." Naruto glanced at the other end of the bridge where Shinta and Sasuke were still staring down at Izumi, and he couldn't see Kakashi and his opponent. "Naomi, go and help team seven, Kakashi is still busy with his fight there, going to need the backup."

Naomi was hesitate for a moment before heading off to team seven, "Be careful."

Shinta looked over and saw Raiga, "Dammit, he's here." He saw Izumi was also looking over at Naruto and Raiga.

'So that's the Uzumaki, huh, I wonder if I should bring him back to Itachi?' Wondered Izumi.

"Naruto be careful," shouted Shinta as he kept Izumi in front of him, "That guy was on my fathers list, he apparently came back from the dead."

"Came back from the dead?" wondered Naruto.

Raiga chuckled, "If you want to know, come and find out Uzumaki." as he jumped back down to the water.

Naruto went to the railing and saw that Raiga was down below standing on the water waiting for him, 'He has the advantage down there, but I ain't leaving without those swords.' as Naruto jumps down to the water.

"Did he just jump down!" asked Shinta as he turned to see that his friend had indeed jumped down to the water. "That idiot, I just said that guy was on my fathers list."

"Your fathers list?" repeated Izumi, "Oh right, I heard the Reaper's child was here, I'm guessing that means that man was important." She then quickly spun around raising a Kunai to block a strike from Shinta, "A shadow clone."

Shinta dashed forward with Sasuke, "Don't think Naruto is the only one who can do that."

With one hand Izumi went through a hand seal before spinning as embers emerged from her hands, making a circle of fire around her stopping Sasuke but not Shinta, "That won't stop me." as he used his staff to push through the fire putting her in attack range.

"It wasn't to stop you." said Izumi as she leaned back as on the opposite end of the circle a massive blade cut through.

Shinta quickly brought up his staff to block as he did he saw the blade as it lifted him off the ground and away from Izumi "The execution blade, Zabuza." as he pushed off the blade and it landed in the middle of the bridge.

Zabuza landed in front of his blade and pulled it from the ground and placed it on his shoulder, "Hey kid ready for an ass whooping."

Shinta smiled, "I think you forgot what happened the first time, asshole." as he got into a fighting stance, 'Shit this is not good, I can't fight this bastard and a rogue Uchiha at the same time, sorry Naomi but it looks like we got to leave team seven to you.'

Naomi looked at the situation, 'Just great, I'm on babysitting duty.' She looked over to see that Sasuke was struggling with Izumi, "Guess I'll go help out emo boy." She looked over at Sai and Sakura and could tell they were hesitating or at least Sakura was, "Stay there and protect the bridge builders, I'll help Sasuke."

"I'm afraid you'll be having issues of your own." came a voice.

Naomi stopped as several mirrors of ice appeared around her trapping , "Not good," Naomi quickly focused her chakra to her senses, "Sensory Max!"

It was a good thing she did so as several needles were then thrown from the mirrors, Naomi quickly reacted spinning around dodging the needles as they came, only stopping after the last one was thrown, Naomi then quickly spun around to face Haku who was hiding in a mirror of ice, "I should have guessed that wouldn't have worked, it is clear all three of you are incredible powerful shinobi."

"I thank you for the compliment," said Naomi as she began to make a plan, "So does that mean you don't believe you can beat me?"

Haku was silent for a moment, "Admittedly you are better than I am, but from what I can tell you are the weakest out of your team, so I should be able to hold you off for long enough for master Zabuza to deal with the reaper's son."

Naomi thought for a moment on Haku's words, "hmm I guess in a way, yes I am the weakest, in terms of strength, Shinta is far stronger than I am, Naruto is faster and has more tricks than me," she reached into her ninja pouch and pulled out what a appeared to be a small stick she raised to her face before un folding it to revealing it to be a small hand fan, "But I have my own tricks up my sleeve."

~o~

Naruto stared down his opponent, his eyes were glued to the Kiba blades, "I want those blades back." as he let out a wave of Chakra.

The Kiba blades began to vibrate and react to Naruto's chakra, "So you really are an Uzumaki, the clan that made the legendary blades."

"Yeah and if Zabuza told you about me, then you should know that using an Uzumaki weapon against an Uzumaki is useless." stated Naruto, "Just hand them over."

"No not until I have my revenge," he then pointed both blades at Naruto, "I am giving you this one chance boy, unlock the Kiba blades, make it so I can kill an Uzumaki, if you do I will let you live."

Naruto gave him a confused look, "Why the hell would I do that?"

"If you won't do it willingly," Raiga then dashed forward, "I'll just make you unlock them by force."

"Fat chance," said Naruto as he let out some chakra forcing the Kiba blades to push away from him so they couldn't be used to attack, Raiga responded by flipping in the air and coming down on Naruto with a kick, Naruto backed away making several shadow clones surrounding Raiga, out of instinct the swordsman spun around trying to use Kiba to strike at Naruto with Lightning but each lightning strike missed each clone. "For the last time that isn't going to work."

Raiga greeted his teeth before acknowledging he wouldn't be able to use Kiba like he wanted. "These blades have been my main source of power for many years, my most trusted weapons," he then put both blades back in their sheaths as he did he heard the echoes of his hated enemy taunting him in his head. "Forgive me, Kiba but for our revenge please hold out just a little longer."

Naruto then felt something, 'Wait, are they crying?'

"Well boy," yelled Raiga, bringing him out of his thoughts. "Come and face me." as he took out two kunai in each hand.

Naruto glared at Raiga, "Get him." Each Naruto clone dashed forward, Raiga quickly spun around and intercepted the first one with a kick before turning again to face the next clone who blocked with his own kunai, Raiga quickly disengaged as he ducked under another aimed from behind and that didn't go unnoticed from Naruto, 'He just dodged two attacks from behind, a kekkei genkai, like the Byakugan? 'No, there's a solid delay between the clone's attack and his reaction time, as if someone has to tell him the attack is coming.' Naruto looked past the fighting and saw some bandits that were all dressed similarly standing on the water looking at the fight, he also noticed that there was one of them that was really struggling to stand on the water. 'That guy can't be the one helping, he can barely keep himself on the water, now that I think about it none of them are close enough to really do anything but watch, so it can't be one of them.' Naruto then felt another pair of eyes looking at him, 'Huh what was that, is there another person here?' He then noticed how Raiga was spinning, making sure nothing touched his back to be more specific his backpack. "Could it be?'

~o~

Above on the bridge, Shinta and Zabuza were furiously trading blows back and forth, Shinta was attack with a barrage of sticks from his staff while Zabuza blocked each strike, making sure he kept his eyes on Shinta and his hands. Shinta saw his eyes and made a quick strike aiming for Zabuza's head, in response he raised his massive blade to block the strike, Zabuza then saw that Shinta was no longer in front of him and quickly without thinking swung his sword behind him to block Shinta's sneak attack. "Dammit."

Zabuza turned his head to look at Shinta, "Nice try but you're not the only assassin here." as Zabuza pushed Shinta off his blade forcing Shinta to land on the railing of the bridge. "Standard assassin tactic, obscure the vision of your opponent and then attack from behind."

Shinta smiled at he rested his staff on his shoulder, "What can I say, old habits die hard."

"Indeed," said Zabuza before giving a light chuckle.

"What's so funny?"

"Old habits die hard, in this case if I used one of my jutsu's that I would regularly use to obscure everyone's vision, it would in fact give you the advantage." explained Zabuza as he pointed his blade at Shinta, "So now I need to rely on the old fashioned way of killing you by beating you to death in combat."

"Yeah that would be your best bet," said Shinta as he inwardly groaned, 'Dammit, I was hoping he would be stupid enough to activate that forbidden mist jutsu, I would be the one with the edge in low visibility. Just one well placed shot and I'd get him.'

"Time to make it even more in my favour," said Zabuza as he suddenly threw his blade at Shinta, as predicted Shinta quickly blocked the blade and was able to block Zabuza's follow up attack which was a powerful kick to the chest that sent them both over the edge. Shinta quickly used his chakra to grip the side of the bridge before flipping back to the underside of the bridge where Zabuza followed, catching his blade and attacking Shinta while both of them were standing upside down under the bridge. "Now then let's fight here." as their weapons clashed.

'I get it, he brought me down below to keep my aerial movement to a minimum, if I jump to avoid an attack, I'll fall into the water, where he would have the biggest advantage.' Shinta disengaged and used one hand for hand signs, "Nice try Zabs but you forgot one thing by brining me here."

"And what's that?"

"You also took away any bystanders that might get in the way." said Shinta, Fire release Blazing field, Shinta was then coated in fire before unleashing a wave of flames at Zabuza.

"Oh Shit!" yelled Zabuza as he tried to block the incoming wave.

~o~

Naomi was quickly moving left and right, dodging each one of Haku's needles, each dodge was making Haku more and more frustrated, 'What is with this girl, how does she have the stamina to keep up this pace, I haven't stopped for a single second but she is just dancing around my needles.'

'Come on, hurry up,' Thought Naomi as she kept spinning around dodging needle after needle, she was focusing her chakra into her eyes and ears to make sure she could keep track of every needle that was launched at her. 'My stamina's always been good but it's been awhile since I had to keep up a pace like this before, she's fast and her senbon are faster, I can't afford to get hit, not now, not when there are so many enemies nearby. I'm going to be needed as the only one here that knows anything about healing.'

Haku stopped for a moment to take a small breather in a mirror, 'Even though I have her trapped in my ring of mirrors, I haven't even so much as scratched her and I'm starting to get tired and starting to run low on chakra, I'm going to need to think of something to stop her before....before....what was I?' Haku felt something wrong as her head began to feel hazy and her vision slightly blurred. Haku stepped out of her mirror as she began to feel sluggish and her body felt heavy. "My..body?" she looked to see Naomi with her fan in hand smiling at her, "What did..you do...to me?"

"Oh relax it's a simple drug that causes paralysis, one big whiff and you won't be moving for a while," said Naomi as she flipped her fan over revealing a small paper square that Haku recognized, it was a paper folded into a small pocket, used to hold drugs. "Over the years I've grown quite the immunity over it."

"But...my mask?"

"This drug can get into your body via the skin, a little bit of Chakra and I can make it airborne, the rest is simple using my fan to push it in your direction." Said Naomi as Haku's ice mirrors began to melt around them, "This is my win."

Haku fell to her hands and knees as she tried her best to focus, but her head became increasingly cloudy, "No...I can't...fail.."

"Don't worry, when you wake up all of this will be over," as Naomi gave Haku a quick chop to the neck, knocking her out, "Now time to check on the others." She looked over and saw team seven, "Oh wow."

~o~

Sai and Sakura watched as Izumi practically played with Sasuke ever attack he tried on his sister in-law was countered, she wasn't even trying to fight him, she kept her distance and simple used a kunai to block his own and dodged whenever he tried a jutsu against her.

"Fireball jutsu” as he launch another fireball at Izumi.

Izumi jumped back away from the flame before darting around the attack and moving faster than Sasuke could counter and kicked him in the gut, "Sorry Sasuke, but Itachi can use that one better, but keep practising and you'll get there someday."

Sasuke grinded his teeth, "Shut up you damn traitor!' he yelled as he got up and tired again.

"This isn't good," said Sai, "Sasuke is clearly outmatched and he's too emotional to think straight."

"Sasuke," whispered Sakura as she worried for her crush, she watched Izumi's movements and saw something, "There's a pattern, but...would that help Sasuke if I told him, he's just attacking wildly, maybe if Kakashi sensei were here."

"Don't Sakura," said Sai, "I know you want to help but our mission is to protect the bridge builders, not to get involved in Uchiha affairs."

"Sai Sasuke's our teammate, not to mention a good fighter, if he dies it will just be us, and I don't think we can take on a rouge Uchiha on our own. We need to figure something out quick before...before..." Sakura trailed off as she felt her gut fill with dread.

"While your argument does have some valid logic, we can't leave our post, she would be too fast for us." pointed out Sai. "And she far more experienced than us."

Sakura blinked, "Too fast...that's it," she turned to Sai with an idea, "I have a plan."

Sasuke was breathing heavily after using his fireball jutsu for what felt like the hundredth time, 'Dammit I can't hit her.'

"My I'm actually somewhat impressed," said Izumi with a smile, "I didn't think you would be able to fire off that jutsu so many times, you have great stamina, I can see you've been practicing a lot, you still have a ways to go but I'm sure in a decade or two you'll be a worthy challenge for Itachi."

Sasuke felt several veins pop on his forehead as his rage screamed at him to kill her, "Izumi tell me where Itachi is and I won't kill you right here and now."

Izumi shook her head, "Sorry I can't do that, but maybe after I kill the bridge builder we can talk about my kids." Izumi then saw something flying towards her with her Sharingan, she quickly deflected the shuriken and stared at Sakura, "Oh right you do have teammates here, have you come to help Sasuke?"

"Yes." Sakura was nervous but she took a quick breath and charged forward.

"Sakura no!' Yelled Sasuke as he saw her rush to her death.

Sakura made a hand sign, "Smokescreen." as she blew out a stream of smoke from her mouth covering all of them in a dense smoke.

Izumi was disappointed, "For any other opponent this might have worked, but for an Uchiha." Izumi quickly located Sakura with her Sharigan, "It's really useless." as she quickly brought her Kunai up and strike it down on Sakura.

She couldn't see the kunai but listened to her instincts and leaned back just far enough for the kunai to miss her.

Izumi blinked as she registered she missed, 'What in the split second right before my kunai struck her, she dodged it, does she have a kekkei genkai like the Byakugan?' wondered Izumi as she tried attacking again with Sakura dodging again by just a hair, 'My speed isn't being reduced and her dodge is slow. This girl is a rookie but has she fought someone faster than me?'

Sakura felt her lips curl into a smile, 'You're no where near as fast as Shinta,' as she remembered her training. "Ow" as Sakura fell to the ground clutching her shoulder that had a fresh bruise from Shinta's staff, "Are you trying to take out my arm."

This earned a laugh from Shinta, "Trust me if I wanted to take your arm off I would, but I ain't going to go easy on you either, you need to remember that pain."

"Why would I need to remember this pain?" asked Sakura.

"So you don't get hit again, I won't go in for the kill but if someone hits you like I did they aren't going to stop they are going to go in for the kill, especially if you tried to dodge like you did before."

"Like I did before, you mean when I jumped?" asked Sakura as she remembered how he tried hitting her legs and she tried to jump away.

Shinta nodded, "Yep, trying to jump is the easiest way to make yourself a target, if you don't have any moves to move yourself in midair or you're in some sort of clearing where there are no trees or anything to help you change your directions in mid air, never jump, it's the easiest way to make yourself dead."

'I really hope this idea works.' Thought Sakura as she quickly took a step back dodging another strike as they both moved out of the smoke, 'Now or never," Sakura brought her hands to mouth, "Water bullet jutsu." as a small but fast ball of water shot from her mouth at Izumi's feet, forcing the rogue kunoichi to jump. "NOW!"

Izumi realized that she had did exactly as what they wanted her to do, 'They wanted me to jump to get me in the air,' she looked over at Sasuke who was making a hand sign, 'To make me an easy target, clever but pointless, I'll just make a substitution.' as she tried to raise her hands, she couldn't as something wrapped around her arms, "Huh?" she looked down and saw a painted snake wrapping around her arms and stomach, "A Snake?" She then saw the last boy of Sasuke's team and saw the painters scroll, 'How did I miss his move, I should have seen it with my Sharigan.'

Sasuke smiled, 'I hate to admit it but they were right, the Sharingan isn't perfect, if you underestimate your opponent or focus too much on one and not the others, you can still be taken by surprise.' Sasuke then finished summoning all the chakra he could, "Take this, Fire Style Great Fire Ball Jutsu." as a massive ball of fire came from his mouth engulfing Izumi in a torrent of flames.

"HOLY SHIT!" yelled Tazuna and the other bridge builders as they watched the fight.

Sasuke stopped spewing fire as he watched the fireball, Sakura looked up at the flames, "We did it."

"Not yet." said Sasuke as he glared at the fireball with his sharingan.

A figure then jumped out the flame revealing a semi burnt Izumi, she landed in a crouching position while breathing heavily, "That hurt."

"It didn't work," said Sakura as she began to worry, "What are we going to do now."

"This doesn't look good." said Sai as he brought his brush out to paint.

"Oh Wow," said Naomi as she walked towards the group. "That was quite the impressive attack, Sasuke, you forced this one to use a majority of her chakra to block that attack, what was that, anyway some sort of bubble barrier jutsu?" asked Naomi to Izumi.

Izumi sighed, "Something like that. It's still a work in progress and I didn't think I would have to use it here of all places." Izumi then looked over and saw Haku on the ground, 'I also wasn't expecting their fight to be so quick, with my chakra as is, I should be able to handle this team as is but it might be a stretch.'

Suddenly a red portal appeared above them as two figures fell through hitting the ground with a thud, when the dust settled it revealed Kakashi with his Sharingan out, restraining Raven, by holding both arms behind her back. It was clear she was not happy about the situation, "How the hell did you know what I was going to do?"

"I'd admit you caught me off guard at first but let's just say I'm quite familiar with teleportation jutsus. Now while this has been fun, surrender you can't win." Said Kakashi as he increased the pressure on his hold.

Raven felt pain from the increase pressure, "Fuck you."

"So be it, Sai i'm going to need-" Kakashi wasn't able to finish his request for some wire when he looked up his eyes locked with everyone else as he quickly assessed the situation and saw Izumi's Sharingan, "An Uchihia!!! Wait what?"

"Yeah you missed quite a bit," said Naomi as jabbed a thumb at Izumi, "This is Itachi's wife."

"WHAT?" yelled Kakashi clearly confused, "I was gone for five minutes."

"Where were you anyway?" asked Sai.

"Battle this one half way across the wave country, she kept transporting us all over the place after she tried to ditch me in the middle of the forest."

Izumi was now really not happy, 'This was supposed to be a simple mission to stretch my legs after giving birth a few months ago, battle Kakashi wasn't on the agenda, I can't believe I'm going to have to go back empty handed.'

~o~

Naruto was still battling Raiga who was still standing strong and was backing down at all, he had been able to cut down Naruto clones down to a quarter of what he had originally summoned. 'This guy is good, i thought he would just be a discount Zabuza but he's managed to take down my shadow clones without so much as a scratch, how is he not exhausted yet from all the moving, what's driving him in this fight, for some reason it sounds personal. Though one thing for sure the source of his power has to do something with that backpack of his, time to aim for it.' Naruto gave a nod to his clones who nodded back.

"Alright here we go," yelled two clones as they charged at Raiga from two different directions, Raiga had just stopped another clone and quickly shifted the next two as he did a third move from behind aiming directly for the backpack.

"They're aiming for the backpack," said a voice behind Raiga.

'So they noticed,' thought Raiga as an old memory crossed his mind, "Karashi!" as Raiga spun around dropping his kunai and throwing the backpack, "CATCH!"

"Huh?" said one of his men who Naruto assumed to be Karashi, the one that was barley keeping himself standing on the water.

Both Narutos hit Raiga in the sides, but Raiga took the pain and quickly grabbed the two clones and threw them into the water. "The rest of you protect him and go."

"Not happening," yelled the third clone of Naruto as he jumped after the backpack that was still in the air, "I don't know what this is but it's not getting away." as he threw a kunai at the bag, the split second the kunai left his hand the bag opened up revealing a child inside. "A KID!"

The real Naruto saw this causing his eyes to expand at the sight. "A KID, QUICK THROW ANOTHER KUNAI TO DEFLECT IT!"

Raiga quickly reached back and threw both Kiba blades in the air, "Kiba protect Ranmaru!"

The Kiba blades then flew the air like lightning and intercepted the kunai with plenty of time to spare. The boy Ranmaru was then safely caught by Karashi. "RAIGA!" yelled Ranmaru in a panic.

"HURRY UP AND GET OUT OF HERE!" yelled Raiga. "This is my fight."

This just left Naruto even more confused, 'What the hell is going on, who was the kid and why is this old bastard so hell bent on fighting me?' Naruto reached back and took a kunai with a seal on it. 'I'll ask him after he wakes up, this seal should be enough to knock him out.' thought Naruto as he threw the Kunai at the distracted Raiga.

"BOSS!" yelled Karashi as him and the other gang members saw the kunai heading right for Raiga.

Raiga twisted around to see the kunai right as the Kiba blades came back and deflected the kunai leaving Naruto stunned, "What?"

The kiba blades then began to spin around Raiga making the swordsman smile, "I told you they are my most trusted weapons or I should say they are my most trusted allies, it is thanks to them that I stand before you today, I will not part with them just yet."

Naruto looked at Raiga before glancing at his remaining two clones, at the same time all three of them threw kunai at the swordsman and just like before the two Kiba blades spun around Raiga deflect each kunai with bolts of lightning send the kunai flying away into the water. "They really are protecting you."

This caused the fight between Shinta and Zabuza to pause for a moment and got the attention from everyone else on top of the bridge. "Now something new." Commented Shinta.

"They're moving on their own," Zabuza looked at his own blade, "Are you alive?"

Naruto was a bit confused by this and asked a second party inside of him, "Karama, you seeing this?"

The fox hummed slightly, "Indeed, very impressive."

"Did that guy really come back from the dead, is that why he has such a connection with the blades?" asked Naruto.

Kurama looked down at Naruto, "You're far more of an expert on weapons then I am, so why are you asking me?"

"I'm asking because only someone who has wielded these weapons for a life time should be able to do that, unless of course they know someone with enough skill in sealing to make a connection between the two." explained Naruto.

"Ah so what your asking if he's ever died before." said Kurama, "If that's the case then no, he hasn't died before his soul and chakra have never left his body, I can see that but he is far older than he looks, I can tell from his chakra he is decades old."

"Decades old?" asked Naruto out loud as he looked at Raiga, "How old are you?"

Raiga laughed at the question, "I'm not sure after your clan stole my life away."

"Stole your life away? Have you fought an Uzumaki before?" asked Naruto.

"Yes," as Raiga remembered his fated battle with rage, "That man taunted me endlessly as we fought no matter how many times I tried to cut him down the Kiba blades would prevent me form attacking, but they kept me alive and saved after that bastard began turning me into a statue."

Naruto gasped slightly, "Gagoirusodo. The stone blade, but then that means you didn't die."

Raiga began to shake with rage, "No I was turned to stone for thirty years thanks to that Uzumaki bastard." he words shocked everyone. "Thirty years that bastard took away from me, thirty years from my wife, my sons, my village." yelled Raiga his voice filled with pain and rage, "I came back to my village to find it ruled by a tyrant, my wife had killed herself after both my sons had died in battle, I could have saved them if it wasn't for him, if that bastard hadn't taken me away from them."

Naruto could tell what he felt was true pain and loss in the man's voice, he could tell that he regretted what he could have done to save his family and his village but couldn't, Naruto couldn't think of any words to say other than "I'm sorry."

Raiga looked at Naruto, "I don't want your pity boy, I already wasted enough time feeling sorry for myself, what I want is revenge, I've spent the past few years since I got back to finding that bastard, I even worked for that monster of a Mizukage for a little while to get back my lost blades, I went rouge to get the money necessary to find him, I know he's alive, I've heard rumours of him and descriptions that match him perfectly."

"And you want to use the Kiba blades to kill him right."

"The Kiba blades are my greatest weapon, I want to show him their true power," Raiga looked at Naruto as he caught both blades, "undo the lock on the blades that keep them from attacking other Uzumaki, if you do we'll leave."

"HEY!" shouted Zabuza, "We have a contract to complete here."

"You have a contract Zabuza, not me," Pointed out Raiga, "Besides what would you rather have a pay day, of the power to kill the Mizukage."

Zabuza thought for a moment, on one hand he wanted a bit more but he could tell their small group was losing footing in this battle and the lightning group hadn't moved at all, "That could work, but you would owe me for making me break a contract."

Raiga scoffed, "Hardly, but after I get my revenge on that Uzumaki, I wouldn't mind ripping out the Mizukage's organs."

Zabuza released his chakra connecting him to the underside of the bridge and flipped down to land on top of the water, "Well kid, this battle can end right here and now if you unlock the power of our blades."

"Well that's not good." said Izumi as she overheard the agreement.

"Fucking bullshit," commented Raven who was still being held by Kakashi.

"Kakashi, sensei, is that a smart move?" asked Sai.

Kakashi was silent as he thought it over, "Wait does that mean it's over?" asked Tazuna.

Kakashi shook his head slightly. "Not yet, stay alert and keep an eye on her." as he looked at Izumi who was still standing where she was, during this standoff she was weighing her options.

Which caused Raven to get annoyed, "Hey don't ignore me."

Naruto was still debated if he should help them or not, 'On one hand it will end this mission and make it very easy, on the other hand it was kind of the plan but I wasn't expecting it to be this easy nor was I planning on giving power to two rouge nin, then again their only rogue due to their kage being an ass, on the personal side, I really don't want them to keep those swords, I'm suppose to bring them back to the village and return them to my clan, not to have them fully powered in the hands of two men I really don't trust.'

Shinta was still under the bridge looking down at the situation ready to pounce at a moment's notice, but as he was up there his instincts flared up like a firework, he looked up in the distance, "What in the..."

"Well kid, time is ticking," said Zabuza, "Besides I'm sure your village would understand, especially if it helps us get rid of the Mizukage." as he tried to persuade Naruto.

"NARUTO!!!" yelled Shinta, getting their attention.

"Still trying to kill me, you traitors truly need to be wiped from the face of the earth." came a calm but serious voice.

Everyone turned in the direction of the voice as the water shot up from the ocean and formed a massive water ball that was over twice the size of the bridge aimed right at them.

Naruto quickly realized there was no way to dodge the massive water ball and jumped in the air taking out a small scroll from his pocket and opened it, "Sealed technique, Chakra distortion, jutsu." a blast of chakra came out of the scroll hitting the massive ball of water, disrupting the chakra that kept its form in tacked.

The massive ball of water shattered and dropped back down to the ocean, the massive volume of water caused the waves to go crazy for a moment as the water settled. As the waves settled and the sea cleared, several boats could be seen, on the lead boat standing at the bow was a small person wearing dark green clothing and holding a long club that was almost their size that had hooks at each end, on one of the ends was the short fat man Gato who was severely beaten and bloodied. "My, I am impressed, I've never seen someone deal with my tidal wave ball like that before." the small man tossed Gato aside to another boat, "You're far better than I expected, boy. Surrender now, come quietly and my forces will spare you." said Yagura Karatachi, the Fourth Mizukage.