"Asylum? You're kidding me, right?" Naruto had retorted blandly as she stopped back towards Tazuna, Sharingan still active.

"It's been done before." Kakashi responded flatly. "Two teams. I'm guessing those two in the puddle were yours?"

"Surveillance." Zabuza nodded slightly, deciding to explain himself despite being amused at Naruto's glare. "What do you know about Mist, brat?"

"Civil war, bloodline purge, blahblahblah." Naruto shrugged. "What's that got to do with you?"

Sasuke sighed and sidled over to Naruto. Sometimes his wife could be particularly dense. "Naruto, you saw those two in the puddle, right?"

"Of course, Bastard." Naruto replied with a frown. "I'm not blind."

Sasuke sighed at that. "Break it down for me."

"I...oooh. I get it now." As if a flash of insight hit her.

"Care to explain it to the rest of us?" Ino demanded, ready to use a Jutsu just in case.

"Bloodlines." Shikamaru stated. "Kekkai Genkai are reviled by the Mizukage. They kill any they find."

"That's why you're a a Nuke-Nin?" Sakura brought up, wondering why they were having a conversation like this in the middle of the road.

"Of course not." Zabuza snorted, holding his giant sword on his shoulder. "They don't teach you brats much, do they?" A few of the six looked offended at that.

Before any of them could splutter out in indignation, Asuma spoke clearly. "My team is here as part of the Asylum escort. Did you inform your team of this?"

"Of course not." Zabuza shook his head. "They're expecting me to attack you any second. Mainly due to the fact that Gatou's watchers are still around." he paused a moment before continuing. "They had news of my two not going after the Bridge Builder before they got back. They'll think we're fighting right now."

"Let me get this straight. This is a double mission to escort the old man and protect him with his bridge, and to smuggle No-Brows to Konoha with his team. Six Genin or the first part, two Jounin for the second?" Naruto looked blankly at Kakashi, her Sharingan eyes rotating slowly.

"Correct." Kakashi rolled his sole visible eye.

"I hadn't expected Gato to send ninja after me..." Tazuna whispered, looking down at his bottle of half gone sake. "I thought it would be just thugs and mercs."

Asuma shrugged. "Well, two teams anyway. You want to head back to Konoha now?"

"Not yet. We need to take out Gato first." Kakashi shrugged and looked to Zabuza who nodded slightly and made a few handseals.

That's when the Mist came in and the Killing Intent started.

Five minutes later, Zabuza was gone, disappearing with his accomplice and all the kids breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for the Suiton, sensei." Naruto remarked, learning the Mist technique, the water prison, and the Water Dragon from that fight.

"He was a bit obvious with those, wasn't he?" Kakashi remarked, lowering his headband and covering his Sharingan, using Asuma for support do he didn't collapse.

"Sensei." Sasuke began.

"When we get back to Konoha, Sasuke." Ended the conversation before it really began, though Sasuke nodded begrudgingly at that fact.

"Tazuna, can you lead us to your home?" Asuma spoke quietly as the six Genin started to huddle together a bit.

Outside of Inari being a petulant brat and Naruto meeting Zabuza's apprentice Haku in the forest one morning, the rest of the mission was simple and easy. There was just a certain midget to deal with…

They sat, staring at each other from across the table. The two other occupants in the room were trying to edge away from the table as the two teens continued to stare, not sure if the situation was awkward, tense, or just plain out there.

They'd recently come back from the Country of Wave after their teams had been split up. Team Seven went on while Team 10 came back with four Mist-Nin. Things had been very simply for both teams. Team 10 received a slightly higher pay and finished their C-Rank there and then. Team Seven however stayed in Wave, dealt with a rich midget, and stole all the money and numbers to all of Gato's accounts.

The Four Mist-Nin were split up. The Demon Brothers finding a happy place within T&I under one Ibiki Morino while Zabuza and Haku were given residence, with permission, in the Uchiha District.

Specifically the same house that Naruto and Sasuke were living.

It was the end of the first week back and Zabuza and Haku were still getting used to the oddities of Konoha, and even the more inane oddities of the Uzumaki-Uchiha couple.

Sasuke and Naruto continued to stare for several moments longer until Naruto scrunched up her face, blinked and sneezed in one rapid motion.

Ha!" Sasuke crowed in exultation. "I get your homegrown tomatoes with every meal for a week."

"Laugh it up, loverboy." Naruto groused and smirked a couple seconds later before turning away from her husband and looking towards the newly minted Konoha-Nin. "How's things on your front? Got your new assignments already?"

"I'll be training various ninja in proper sword techniques around here." Zabuza grumbled, unwrapping the bandages about his face and finally digging into the food that Naruto had brought out. "I'm working with some Toukubetsu named Hayate or something."

Haku dipped his head slightly in acknowledgement as he nibbled slowly on his food. "Hokage-sama has requested an overview of my Hyouton skills and will oversee them personally."

"The Old Man's a Jutsu geek." Naruto shrugged it off as if it was nothing new as she wolfed down her own food quickly and then zipped up her orange jacket with a yawn. "Probably hasn't seen any ice techs in a while is all. He's cool like that."

"What about you two?" Haku asked with a soft voice, picking at his food slowly while completely ignoring the horrible pun.

"Oh, probably more stupid missions unless we can connive our way into a C-Rank again." Naruto shrugged, grabbing up her plate and just dumping it into the sink for later while grabbing a tomato from a bowl on the counter and tossing it to Sasuke across the room.

The last loyal Uchiha snagged it from the air without even looking up from his own breakfast. "Hopefully."

Naruto absently giggled, she'd been doing that sporadically ever since they got back. The look on Kaka-sensei's face when she offered to lend him the newest signed book was priceless. It wasn't fully edited and was in fact a pre-release that was subject to change but it was more than enough to make sure the Jounin didn't go half-cocked on Hokage-sama for toying with him.

Author's Note: Well, uh. Hi? Been a while. How's it going. Have an update. A shit update...but an update!

And there might even be more coming too!