The night was clear and the stars were out. Naruto was laying down on the branch he occupied and stared into the millions of shiny dots. He had taken up this habit right after they began the journey to the Wave. Naruto used this time to relax and sort out the massive jumble of memories that ran rampant through his mind. He stared up at the moon when a image flashed to the front of his mind. He seen a great battle being fought as the Sage confronted a massive beast with one eye. Then, just as fast as it appeared, the image was gone. Naruto sighed as the memory disappeared. After seeing that flash of an image he wanted to know more about what happened. He heard a sound down by the fire. He saw Sakura through one of his clone's eyes. He noticed her eyes were turned in the direction of the real one as she looked at his prone body. He noticed her subtle sigh before she returned her gaze to Sasuke and half-heartedly tried to start a conversation.
"Hn." The usual response took all of the wind out of Sakura's sails as she began to trace a pattern in the dirt while staring into the flames. He returned his gaze back to the sky while still listening for any sounds of an approaching enemy. The mission had shot up from a C-rank mission all the way to an A-rank with the appearance of the Demon Brothers. The blonde sighed as he thought back to that encounter.
-Flashback Begins-
Naruto still felt the waves excitement still coursing through his body. Although he didn't show it, the blonde was doing mental frontflips, backflips, hell even sideflips at the feeling of finally leaving Konoha for the first time. His demeanour suddenly changed to being completely alert on the inside while he displayed complete ignorance on the outside as he passed the "puddle". He noticed Kakashi's minute nod as he continued to read his book. At his signal, Naruto continued acting as though he didn't notice the two figures rise from the puddle. He played his part perfectly as he watched on in "shock" as the chain tore Kakashi to pieces. Sakura froze up and Sasuke took a step back as the two figures turned to the three genin. Naruto surprised everyone by smirking and stepping forward while he cracked his stiff neck.
"Finally! Something to do around here!" The blonde haired genin nearly bounced up and down in excitement. "Sakura please protect Tazuna-san. Sasuke protect Sakura." The Uchiha began to step forward to help Naruto fight when he felt an invisible force stop him. "You WILL listen to me and you WILL protect Sakura." The Uchiha didn't know why but he felt himself walk back to stand beside Sakura.
"Now then, shall we begin?" The Uzumaki smirked when the two men charged. Naruto yawned as the chain began to wrap around the bored genin. Sakura and Sasuke watched with a sort of sick fascination as Naruto smirked whe the chain began to get pulled together with the intention of slicing him apart.
"Naruto!"
"Shinra Tensei."
The invisible shockwave ripped the chain apart link by link and threw the two missin-nin into two trees. The forest shook as several trees collapsed due to missing their bases now. Naruto knew the fight wasn't over and had his katana in his hands before anyone knew he had moved. One of the two came from his left and Naruto dodged the pathetically slow attempt at a slash before he rammed the hilt of his blade into the ninja's stomach hard enough to make the man cough blood. Naruto planted his hand on the back of the doubled over ninja and leapt into the air, using the man as a balance and pivot point. Naruto bent his planted arm before h attempted to spring into the air using the man.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The wave forced the man into the ground as it propelled Naruto into the air. He brought his blade so the point lined up with the fallen man's chest and let gravity do the rest. From the speed he was falling it felt like butter as his blade slid effortlessly through the man. Without hesitation Naruto lifted his hand and pointed it at the dead man's comrade. He lifted his sword so it pointed right at the man before he spoke.
"Bansho Ten'in."
An invisible force pulled the man off of his feet and right towards his impending doom. The last emotion to cross the man's eyes was one that almost looked like he was begging for his life. Naruto ignored the look and pulled the man straight onto the blade. He dumped the corpse onto the ground and looked at it with disgust and turned to his comrades to speak.
"The only thing worse than choosing a mission over the lives of your friends is to abandon your village altogether. To kill your former friends for money and nothing more. Missing-nin are some of the lowest scum on this earth." He then turned to face the forest and spoke once more. "Ok Kakashi you can come on out."
-End Flashback-
Naruto was glad he had killed those two ex-Mist ninja but something felt wrong. He was glad yet he felt disgusted at himself and his actions. He needed to sort through the feelings and to do that required time. So he took the first post for the night. He noticed that Sasuke had fallen asleep during his little daydream and Sakura kept glancing at Naruto then back to Sasuke and then back again. She was biting her lower lip as if she was in deep thought. He thought she looked indecisive about something but he just let it go. It didn't matter. He still had his own problems to sort through. Sighing, he laid his head back down and slipped into sleep. If anything entered or even got near the camp, his Kage Bunshin would hold them off while he got to the area. Sadly, his Kage Bunshin were unable to hold the special doujutsu abilities that he had except for the linked vision. No matter what his clones seen he could see to.
Satisfied with his security grid, the blonde drifted off into a nice, deep sleep.
'Danger!'
The blonde genin snapped his head up to see a very angry Sakura approaching him.
"How many times do I have to tell this baka to WAKE UP!" She cocked her rage fueled fist back but halted the punch when his rippled blue eyes met her beautiful emerald eyes. She felt her anger just fall away under his sleepy gaze. She couldn't meet his eyes so instead her eyes locked onto his whiskers. Eventually she had traced and memorized each one. With her focus no longer being held she looked back into his eyes just in time to see a powerful emotion submerge deep within those blue doored vaults called eyes. With only a brief glimpse, she was unable to accurately analyze what she had just seen. She continued to puzzle over it until the blonde genin got up and stretched. He wore no shirt as he slept so Sakura was a little shocked to find herself running her eyes over his toned body. He was strong, really strong. All of the muscle he had was crammed into his lean form and seemed to just increase the definition of the muscles he already had. Her eyes eventually landed on the strange new markings on his chest that he would openly flaunt with the robe he had taken up wearing since then. She was so focused on the magatama that she failed to notice the growing smirk on his face.
"See anything you like Sakura-chan?" Her eyes snapped up to his and she noticed the laughter that continued to dance behind his eyes. Before she could clobber him Kakashi stepped in and spoke.
"Lets go everyone we have to make it there by today."
"Hai!"
The squad quickly got ready before they all took off.
After several hours of walking Naruto was sufficiently bored. He couldn't find anything to do either so he was literally stuck in his perpetual boredom. His eyes widened in excitement as entertainment flew their way in the form of a giant blade. The genin decided that he would play along this time and see how good his teammates were. He smiled as hit the ground while quickly pulling the others down with him.
(The fight goes the same as the show or manga because Naruto acts how he would've to test his team's skills.)
'Huh so Zabuza Momochi is after us too. This is going to be an interesting mission. It has gotta be an S-rank by now.' He glanced at the unconscious body of his teacher before turning his gaze on his slumbering team. They had finally reached Tazuna's house and after a quick meal everyone had passed out. Everyone except the blonde. He tossed and turned trying to get comfortable. Finally he sat up in a Lotus position to meditate in the hopes of calming himself to the point of exhaustion.
He opened his eyes and found himself standing before a massive cage held shut by a tag with the word "seal" on it.
A single red eye with a slit for a pupil opened and a rumbling voice caused the ground to vibrate.
"So the prisoner finally gets to meet the jailer."
A wickedly toothy grin was slowly revealed in the dark depths of the cage.