Chapter two

Encounters in Wave

Stepping into a village wearing nothing but the scraps of your clothing and a couple of weapons and scrolls…at young ages no less, should have been seen as odd.

Stepping into wave's village... yes it was seen as odd, but only because of their weapons and scrolls. Their clothing oddly fit right in.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Naruto as the three made their way through the town. The place was a wreck; the people looked broken, wallowing in poverty forced upon them.

This was FAR from the image they had seen the last time they had passed through Wave. Sakura was looking around with wide sad eyes.

"They're scared of us," she muttered as they continued to walk. The people were indeed scared of them. They could see people hiding in corners, peeking fearfully from their homes and anyone they did manage to stumble upon outside quickly vanished.

Something was up. And if something was up… "dammit I can't in good conscious steal any clothes from these poor saps."

"W-what! You were going to steal!"

Naruto gave Sakura a deadpan look. "Well yeah, unless you have any money we can use to buy them?" When she didn't answer he shrugged. "Yeah I didn't think so. But that's all a moot point now isn't it?"

Before anyone could respond they were surrounded by several looking thugs wielding various weapons such as clubs, knives and katanas.

"Heh you three are quite ballsy, strolling around the village with such valuable looking items in your possession. Been holding out on Gato have ya?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow while Sakura suddenly looked a bit nervous and sought out Sasuke for comfort.

"Who the hell is Gato?" he asked. The thugs snorted in disbelief. These brats didn't know? Heh they'd know soon enough.

"That doesn't matter," began one thug. "What matters is what we're here for. Hand over the scrolls and the weapons and none of ya gets hurt." They puffed out their chests in a further attempt to look intimidating.

This made Naruto stare for thirty seconds, the sounds of crickets could be heard in the background.

Then he burst into laughter. Sakura began to giggle as well while Sasuke chuckled. Naturally this pissed off the thugs.

"Hey! Do you know who you're pissing off ya little bastards!"

Naruto looked over at Sasuke and Sakura. "Well guys I think we just solved our clothing issue."

"Are you kidding me! They freakin reek!" yelled Sakura.

"So wash em," was Naruto's careless reply. Sakura went to speak again but a club suddenly smashed into the top of Naruto's head. The wood splintered and broke in two and opened up a gash in the boy's skull.

"Itai! What the fuck man!" screamed Naruto as he clutched his throbbing skull. The thug who attacked gave a smug grin and began to talk some smack. "Serve you right you little- BAM!

Only to be interrupted by said blonde's foot smashing into his face, shattering his nose and breaking his face bones with a series of sickening crunches.

"Teme!" yelled Naruto. "Freakin die!"

He then drew Zanpakuto…

The people of wave would later arrive to find a pile of severely beaten Gato thugs moaning pathetically about a purple demon from hell. They would also notice that all of them were missing one or more article of clothing, all of their weapons AND their money. One guy would later die due to bone chunks lodging in his brain, and one random orphan boy would approach the thugs slowly and cautiously and nudge one of them with a foot. "Hey. You guys alive?" He'd get groans as answer. The kid would then pause, grin widely and yell, "You guys got knocked the fuck out!" then proceed to "loot" the rest of the thug's clothing and run off.

One guy did manage to avoid the beat down and ran off to tell his precious Gato-Sama what the hell he'd just seen.

(…)

Sakura couldn't help but giggle as Naruto furiously scrubbed the filth from his pilfered clothing in the sea on the edge of the beach. His head was wrapped up in strips of tan cloth and his eyebrow was still twitching furiously. Sasuke was sitting a bit further up the beach, basking in the sun but one could see the amused smile on his lips as well.

"Damn bandits. Who the hell do they think they're messing with? DAMMIT HAVE ANY OF THESE ASSHOLES EVER HEARD OF A FREAKIN BATH!" His head throbbed. "Fuck!" he exclaimed as he clutched his skull again. That damn club felt like it had nails in it!

Sakura's giggles increased in volume even as she played with the three katanas she'd jacked from the thugs. The swords were definitely of lower quality and wouldn't last more than ten minutes covered in her chakra infused blood but it was better than nothing right? Practice makes perfect after all. And now they had a bit of money. They could buy a meal instead of stealing it. Not that there was much to buy in Wave anyway. They were better off hunting actually.

"Ah ha! Yelled Naruto suddenly as he pulled a very clean looking pair of brown pants from the water, followed by a tight black shirt and a cloak. The purple tipped blonde looked to Sasuke. "Ya mind?" he asked, sounding expectant.

Sasuke sighed and gave a lazy hand motion. A small tree bare of leaves sprang up from the sand a second later. Naruto grinned. "Thanks," and hung his wet laundry from the tree. He then headed over to the last piece that would complete his outfit, a simple samurai style black chest plate and hung that from the tree as well. "Gonna miss the orange," he muttered, actually sounding sad. Sasuke snorted. "I won't."

"Of course you won't. You're a damn hater."

"I won't miss it either," said Sakura. "Why you wore that thing I'll never know."

"It's the same reason you dye your hair pink, Sakura-Chan."

"Dammit my hair is natural!"

"Uh huh, sure it is."

"Screw you!"

"I thought you wanted to screw Sasuke? Besides I'm like two years older than you, perhaps when it aint so awkward. Like when I'm twenty and you're eighteen."

A rock smashed into his head with the force of a train and sent him skipping across the water like a skipping stone…only to disappear in a puff of smoke.

Naruto thanked the Kamis above at least three times a day for the marvelous blessing he found in the scroll called Kage Bunshin.

"Jeez Sakura-Chan I thought we were past this point in our relationship. Sasuke's never gonna accept you at this rate. You're too violent."

He ducked under her left hook, idly noting the great rush of wind that blew his hair about like a twister and leapt away with a laugh.

"SHUT UP!" Naruto had to dodge the trio of katana flying at his face.

"And you just lost your weapons, Baka! Hahahahahaha!"

"ARRRRGGHHH!"

Sasuke just sighed and continued basking in the sun.

(-)

As they made their way towards the Wave with their client, a client who had nearly gotten them killed by the way with false info, team Gai opted to think more about the future. The info Tazuna had finally relieved, the TRUE info stated that he had run afoul with Gato of all people, an unbelievably wealthy man who ran numerous businesses, both well known and extremely shady. Apparently Gato didn't take too kindly to Tazuna's bridge to the main land and has hired this small group of missing ninjas consisting of the demon brothers, Momochi Zabuza and a skilled false hunter nin.

The only reason they continued onwards is because Konoha needed all the missions they could get and this particular team wasn't so weak and inexperienced that they couldn't handle it…hopefully. It was actually surprising when the bridge builder showed up looking for an escort. He'd obviously hadn't heard of the…"incident" of four months ago. Konoha needed to do this in order to gain at least one steady line of clients. Wave would no doubt become a pretty rich area once the bridge was completed and eventually someone would ask for Gato's ass to be taken out, something they could charge a nice sum for.

Fighting the demon brothers had been easy enough. Fighting Zabuza had nearly been a disaster. Luckily Gai sensei proved to be a bit stronger than Zabuza and had pulled out the win. The hunter nin that took his body revealed to them that he or she was an accomplice when instead of beheading the supposed corpse of Zabuza after dropping his ass with senbon needles, opted to take the body away instead.

After that, they made it to Wave and Tazuna's place with no incident where they met Tsunami and Inari and began to train a bit more for the coming conflict.

"It's useless," muttered the brooding little boy, gaining the attention of the Konoha ninjas.

"All that supposed training and determination is useless against Gato. He's too powerful. You'll die."

Neji simply crossed his arms while Tenten scoffed. "Unless Gato is an extremely powerful ninja, then he's no threat to us, especially against Gai-sensei." She shrugged. "So don't sweat it. We got this."

"Shut up!" he yelled shooting to his feet. "What do you know huh! Living your pampered life in your high and mighty ninja village! What do any of you know of suffering!"

He froze at the smoldering look given to him by Neji.

"More than you know gaki. So shut up."

The boy glared at him then rushed out the front door before anyone could think.

"Inari!" yelled Tsunami but it was too late. Tenten just sighed as Neji continued to eat his meal.

(-)

Gato was in the middle of scolding Zabuza for his apparent failure when a distraught looking thug barged in.

"G-gato!" he exclaimed as he breathed heavily and looking a bit scared. "There are…three strangers in the village!"

Gato resisted the urge to slap this idiot upside the face.

"Of course there are you dumbass! Tazuna hired some ninja to protect him!"

The thug, if possible looked even more scared. "N-no! These were just brats. There were three of them. They looked a bit lost and we thought they were citizens who were holding out on you because of their weapons. But those weren't kids. They were something else! Demons I tell you! DEMONS!" A slap to the face snapped him out of it.

"Get a hold of yourself! You're a grown man! Show us that you have a pair jeez!" Yelled Gato.

Zabuza raised an amused nonexistent eyebrow.

"What did they look like?" he asked. The thug eyed the fearsome looking missing nin for a second before he began to speak. "Well…the leader had blond hair with purple tips…"

(-)

Inari ran and ran and ran some more, tearing through the village without a thought or a care as to where he was going. Just who did that white eyed ass wipe think he was? Looking down on him like that? He felt like crying. He was pretty close to crying actually.

Wham!

"Ow! What the heck?"

Inari, having just smashed his forehead into what felt like a damn wall, gasped as the voice spoke out. He looked up with wide eyes into the shining purple orbs of a blonde teenager. Inari froze in fear upon seeing the weapon, armor and cloak the guy was wearing, thinking he was one of Gato's thugs.

"Eh? What's a kid doin running around this late in the evening? You an orphan? Hmm you don't look like it."

Inari continued to stare. The blonde raised an eyebrow. "I aint one of those stupid bandits if that's what you think." he said. This snapped Inari out of it and he jumped to his feet.

"Who…who are you?" he asked.

The blonde chuckled. "Just a guy passing through really, who are you?"

The kid hesitated. "I-inari," he said. The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Inari? Heh imagine that."

"Hey what's that supposed to mean!"

The blonde waved him off. "Nothing much Kid. Relax."

"Oh…"

It got awkwardly silent for a second.

"So kid, wanna talk about it?"

Inari looked up at him, shocked. The blonde chuckled. "I saw you looking like you were ready to cry. C'mon kid spill. No use bottling up those emotions. "

Inari wanted to deny the mysterious blonde but relented.

"It's…just these ninjas…"

(-)

Gato suddenly felt a bit worried when Zabuza pulled out his bingo book and began to flip through the pages at a near frantic rate, looking both excited and shocked.

"Ah! Here we go," he said as he held the book out to the thug. "These the brats you saw?" he asked. When the thug grew pale and nodded, Gato felt the pit of his stomach drop. Any ninja in a bingo book was bound to be a threat and three of them? Here? And not working for him? Freaking crap! He turned to Zabuza.

"Who are they?" he asked.

Zabuza grinned and sat up, shaking the concerned hand of his apprentice from his shoulder.

"Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto, they are listed as B to A rank threats from Konohagakure no Sato with a warning to approach with caution." He paused. Perhaps for dramatic effect? Who knows?

"They left the village four months ago shortly after becoming genin and left Konoha in near ruins and chaos. They are the reason Konoha has lost so much of their so called prestige." He showed the pictures to Gato who actually laughed. "These brats? You had me all worked up over three damn kids?"

Zabuza growled. "Those three kids are powerful dumbass!" He said. "The day they left they not only gained extremely powerful bloodlines and weapons, they also took Konoha's scroll of sealing, the scroll containing all the kinjutsu, information and secrets of the most powerful ninja village in the world, and this is AFTER they killed several treasonous people including the infamous Shimura Danzo, Utakane Koharu and numerous ninja and civilians. They are NOT to be taken lightly!"

He pointed to their individual biologies and smirked. "Read."

And Gato did.

Uchiha Sasuke: B to A-class threat.

Age: 12

Rank: Genin.

Kekkei Genkai: New type of Sharingan and the Mokuton. Has the ability to steal more.

Weapons: Yata Mirror, Sword of Totsuka

Special notes: The sword of Totsuka is an extremely dangerous offensive weapon with the power to seal anything away and the yata mirror is the ultimate defensive weapon capable of blocking any attack without fail. Uchiha Sasuke also has the power to use the flames of Amaterasu, flame so hot they can burn for seven days and can burn regular fire.

Part of the Forlorn Three

Approach with great caution.

Haruno Sakura: presumed B class threat at minimum.

Age: 12

Rank: Genin

Kekkei genkai: Vampirism, allows her to suck the life blood from other living beings to increase her over all abilities.

Weapons: assumed she has none.

Special notes: Her physical power rivals or surpasses that of even Tsunade so assuming she is weak is foolish. It is also believed that she can manipulate blood.

Special characteristics are glowing hot pink feline eyes and fangs.

Approach with caution.

Part of the Forlorn Three

Uzumaki Naruto: B to A class threat

Age: 14

Rank: Genin

Weapons: Zanpakuto

Kekkei Genkai: None

Special notes. Uzumaki Naruto's weapon has the power to absorb the soul and add its power to its wielder in the form of a unique transformation and power boost. It is presumed that the more powerful the entity absorbed, the more power the transformation.

Special notes B: He is Minato Namikaze's son.

Special notes C: Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. If it is confirmed that Uzumaki has used Zanpakuto on the Kyuubi, then assume he is an S ranked threat and do NOT piss him off.

Part of the Forlorn Three.

Gato had gone pale midway through reading Sakura's bio and when he was done, only had one thing to ask.

Even he had heard of things like the Kyuubi, the flames of Amaterasu and the strength of Tsunade of the Sannin. And knowing that people who possess these things were in HIS village? A DISASTER waiting to happen! Gato hadn't gotten where he was by being stupid…for the most part. And he knew there were only usually two options when dealing with this type of threat. Appeal to them and somehow get them on your side…or get the hell outta dodge.

"What…the HELL are people like that doing here!"

The Swordsman shrugged. "Beats me, they're probably here on vacation or something."

"This is no joking manner dammit! I aint paying you to b a jester!"

"Shut the hell up! We'll deal with it when the time comes! Forlorn three or not Tazuna will die got it?"

Gato just glared and stalked off.

Zabuza turned to his apprentice. "While you're out gathering herbs for me, seek out the forlorn three and talk to them. I want to know what they are doing here, and if possible what they plan on doing in the future."

The young woman suddenly looked unsure. "Zabuza-Sama…are…are you sure? Those three are…"

"Fuckin unstable threats that scare the shit out of me," is what she'd wanted to say. There was NO WAY…

Zabuza gave her a stern look. "Just do it."

She sighed in resignation. "Y-yes…Zabuza-Sama."

The demon of the mist gave a grin. The forlorn three… What a golden opportunity too large to pass up. And he was sure he could…appeal to them. They were after all, distraught children.

He suppressed an excited chuckle.

(-)

"Ah, so that's it," said Naruto as he and Inari sat on the dock watching the sunset.

Inari nodded. "Yeah…I just got so…well, mad. You know?"

Naruto smiled and ruffled the boy's hair. "Hey don't sweat it. Watching their dad get tortured and killed would traumatize any kid." Inari looked up at him with wide eyes. "It's okay to feel sad, or angry. Hell, I can understand why you would think this Gato jerk is unbeatable. He's got that kind of image planted in your mind and the minds of the villagers."

Inari looked down feeling slightly ashamed.

"But not to worry," he said. "Gato aint all that strong. Otherwise he wouldn't need a buncha panzy ass bandits and a desperate missing nin to watch over him." He smiled.

"And besides, Sasuke, Sakura and I are here. If Gato tries anything or shows himself while your ninja body guards are dealing with the enemy ninja we'll take him out. And if your bodyguards fail then we'll take care of the enemy ninja too."

Inari went to protest but he was cut off by Naruto. "No worries man. Now go on. Get back home your mom must be worried sick."

Overwhelmed, Inari could only nod dumbly and amble back towards his house. Naruto chuckled.

"Good kid," he said before he walked off. Sakura should be calm by now.

(-)

The next day found Zabuza's apprentice collecting herbs in the forest. She had began the task assigned to her first thing in the morning, though she had yet to find any signs of the Forlorn three or the ninjas guarding Tazuna. Truthfully, her heart went out to the Forlorn Three, even if they terrified her.

She had heard too many damn rumors and stories about that faithful day, not to mention seen their mugs posted in the bingo book as well as on fliers all over the darn world proclaiming a huge rewards and what not for anyone who could convince them to join one village or another NOT to be terrified of them!

Her own past life of suffering made for kindred spirits. Deep down, she knew she wanted to talk to them as much as for her own reason as Zabuza's. She wondered what they were like. Clearly they were less peaceful than she was…and clearly prone to snap at anytime. I mean really. Haruno Sakura had hunted down and killed her parents, DELIBERATELY while Sasuke was slaughtering old conniving ninja in the middle of the village for ALL to see, while Naruto was sucking the soul out of a TEACHER! She could never do something like that but she could understand why they did it. The story of the Forlorn Three was well known by everyone.

And she also knew that whatever Zabuza-Sama had planned for them just wasn't going to go as well as he seemed to believe. She just hoped things didn't turn out…too horribly. Zabuza tends to have a negative effect on people and she sure as hell didn't want to get on the bad side of the Forlorn Three. Finding out what getting her bloodline limit, soul or bodily fluids sucked out would feel like was definitely not on her to do list.

With a light sigh, she gathered a bit more of the herbs needed for Zabuza's treatment. How…complicated all of this had suddenly become.

"Hmm? Who are you?"

Haku froze midway through picking an herb. Standing right in front of her was Uchiha Sasuke, the bloodline stealing member of the forlorn three. Where the hell did he come from! The boy was standing on a branch to a tree, looking down at Haku with surprised eyes. He was dressed in the clothing and armor of a bandit and his hair was noticeably longer than it was in his bingo book photo.

"U-Um…"

Haku immediately lost her ability to form a coherent sentence due to a sudden rush of anxiety at being stumbled upon by this potential foe with so little to defend herself.

The Uchiha eyed her a couple more seconds before he sighed and turned to leave, annoyed at her silence.

"W-wait,"

And paused as her voice finally gained enough volume to catch his attention.

"Hn?"

Haku knew that pausing would only drive him away, annoyed, so she manned up and spoke.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke's eyes promptly widened. "What the hell? When did I tell you my name? Who are you?"

Haku felt a bit of adrenalin course through her body as Sasuke stiffened up and narrowed her eyes at him. Then she relaxed when said Uchiha took a deep breath and seemed to relax. "Hn, I guess it's only natural you know my name. My…departure from Konoha wasn't at all subtle."

Haku found herself nodding.

"Indeed, Uchiha-San. You and the rest of the forlorn three are well known throughout the nations."

Her breath hitched when he tensed again and looked t her with those eyes…the mangekyo sharingan. She stared into those eyes and felt something within her pull towards him. It was…frightening. Them the Uchiha deactivated his eyes and seemed to materialize before her.

"Explain," he practically demanded. Haku could only nod and pull out a copy of the latest bingo book.

Where she had that thing hidden would forever b a mystery…

(-)

Sakura examined her arm with a thoughtful look upon her face while idly playing around with her swords. Her eyes trailed up and down the markings covering her limb and she unconsciously touched the cheek that was also marked. She was so different than she had been back then.

She had fully come to understand how useless she had been, wasting all of her career trying to gain the attention of Sasuke, competing with the other girls like a bunch of idiotic banshees. With a pang of anger and sadness, she jammed one of the swords into the ground.

Her parents could have just told her that! Sat her down, had a true Kunoichi come in and set her straight or something. But no they had let their greed get the better of them, resulting in all the crap that came next. Thinking about her parents still made her body ache with anger and sorrow.

Thinking about Danzo still made her shutter in fear. She would forever be at Sasuke's side, adoring him like a lowly fool adores a god because he had saved her from that hell. Naruto too. The two boys were her pillars of strength.

With a sigh, she dismissed her depressing thoughts and stood. No use sitting there pondering when she could be doing something more useful like figuring out what that hell happened to Wave.

"Ah, there you are. Calm now are you Sakura-Chan?" The pink haired girl looked up and saw Naruto ginning down at her from his position in a tree. She felt a flash of annoyance but quelled it with a sigh.

"Yeah, yeah," she said dismissively, making the purple tipped blonde grin. "So what's up?"

Naruto shrugged. "Not much, met a kid named Inari, found out what happened to this place and learned about a team of ninjas sent to protect someone named Tazuna."

Sakura's eyes took on a determined glint. "Explain," she said.

(-)

"So…that it, is it?" asked Sasuke as he handed the bingo book back to Haku while looking contemplative. His companions and he were called the Forlorn three? Why does it have to sound so badass yet so damn emo at the same time? Who comes up with these titles anyway?

Though being listed as an A rank threat was pretty flattering…even if it was true.

"Yes," she began. "Zabuza-Sama believes he can also work out a deal with you. Form a partnership if you will."

Sasuke nodded. However his thoughts were FAR from making any form of partnership with the hidden mist missing ninja. Are you kidding? With all the shit they'd recently been through? Like he's throwing out any trust that friggin soon! However he couldn't let opportunity like this slip by either, so while giving Haku a hungry look that made her shutter a bit, he spoke. "I'll talk to Naruto and Sakura about it and see what we come up with."

Then he was gone leaving Haku to silently lament. "Horrible Idea! This is a horrible idea! I just know it!" she thought.

Yes, even a loyal tool sometimes questions the intelligence of her wielder.

AN: Heh. Took me a while to get this out but its here now. I will TRY not to take so long with the next chapter.

Lemme know what you thought.