26. A Request From Mist

Author's Notes: Sorry for this taking so long. My computer kept crashing for some reason and I kept losing everything past the first scene. I probably should have saved after every paragraph, but I lost so little each time it completely slipped my mind.

Story Start: Hidden Leaf Village

After their second mission with Team 8, things had gotten a bit mundane for Naruto and Haku. Kairin and Tayuya had by that point fully settled into the Namikaze household, now renamed the Uzumaki Harbor, (And no, Naruto wasn't going to change the name) and they had all finally got to a point where they were no longer waiting five minutes outside of one of the two bathrooms waiting for someone to finish showering thus preventing a lot of irritation in the household. Conflicting shower times were pretty far from Naruto's mind though. He was looking through various Council documents in the study when an overhead seal that was part of a house wide system buzzed and a voice that was 'piped' in from the gate said "Chunnin Tachiko here with a summoning for Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze and Haku Yuki to report to the Hokage Office for mission assignment."

Turning his head upwards which was necessary for the seal to know to transmit his words, he said "Naruto hears message and acknowledges."

"Understood." The Chunnin said and the seal fell silent as the messenger left the gate region. Naruto stored the documents in their appropriate drawer before he stood up and made his way to the entrance hall, Haku joining him at the front door. There were no silly questions about whether the other knew what this was about, they would both learn briefly after all. Instead they silently walked down the path to the gate and once off the property boundaries the pair disappeared as Naruto joined the Slipstream

Scene Change: Hokage's Office

There was a rather interesting surprise of the swordsman variety awaiting the two shinobi in the Hokage's Office when they arrived. A surprise that had Haku taking a moment to keep himself from breaking professional protocol and hugging one of the three guests in the room. That didn't stop the surprise from appearing in his voice though as he asked "Zabuza-sensei, what are you doing here?"

"I should be insulted at the emphasis you put on that Haku, but considering my status when we parted ways I suppose it's understandable." Zabuza stated before he turned his gaze on Naruto and said "I trust you've been taking proper care of the kid, right brat?" The tone of his voice said that under no uncertain terms, Slipstream or not, if Naruto hadn't he was going to be getting a beating.

Naruto nodded and said "Of course I have, he's my teammate." Said to anyone else, the sheer obviousness of that fact would have come off as Naruto questioning their intelligence. Given that Zabuza had essentially raised Haku after finding him though, it was an acknowledgement of responsibility that had been transferred.

Haku huffed and said "I can take proper care of myself you know Zabuza-sensei, I'm not that little kid you found on the side of the road anymore."

Zabuza gave Haku a flat look and said "There's more than just cooking for and teaching shinobi skills to taking care of someone Haku. I know I'm not the best role model, but even you should know that."

Naruto resisted the urge to snicker at the 'heartless' swordsman's words and the slight flush of embarrassment on Haku's face. Turning his attention from Zabuza, and subsequently the Auburn haired woman who had been smirking at the interaction and the goggle wearing shinobi who had been gaping at said interaction, to his leader, he straightened and said "Lady Tsunade, you summoned us for a mission?"

"I did." Tsunade said straightening her already professional stance a little. Gesturing to her three guests, she said "Mei Terumi, the leader of the Mist Rebels has requested our aid. If we agree to lend said aid then they intend to make the final push into the Hidden Mist Village. They have come to us for one simple reason: The Mizukage is the Jnichuuriki of the Sanbi."

There was a stirring in the back of Naruto's mind as his own contained Tailed Beast took notice of Tsunade's words. After a second visit where Naruto had made it possible for the giant fox to share his senses and had turned the seal from a giant sewer to a massive forest complete with other animals in order to make his forced stay much more comfortable the pair hadn't had any further interaction. Naruto wasn't surprised that his leader's words had gotten his attention though. There had been a similar stirring when Gaara had shown what he was as well, though then Kyuubi had merely muttered 'Damn Tanuki Brat' before cutting off his side of the link, clearly annoyed. This time he heard 'Sanbi huh, well this should be interesting.'

Holding up a hand, Naruto said "Please give me a moment Lady Tsunade, there's something I want to check." Tsunade nodded and as Naruto turned his focus inwards he absently heard the other woman in the room ask "He's your Jinchuriki? I thought you suggested him due to him being your best Seal user currently in the village."

With a thought, Naruto appeared in the forest scape of his seal, standing on a low tree branch next to a sitting upright Kyuubi and said "Interested in sharing anything with me?"

The great fox huffed and said "Just that the fight you're going to be getting into should be more interesting than anything else you've gotten into. Seriously, do you know how boring it is to watch you effortlessly end fight after fight without your opponent being able to do anything?"

"I've had trouble with others before." Naruto pointed out.

The fox snorted and said "You fought zombiefied versions of your parents, both of who were professionally speaking 'bullshit class' when they were alive and another Uzumaki who had full control over his, again, 'bullshit class' chakra, those don't count."

"Fair enough." Naruto admitted before he crossed his arms and said "So what makes you think the Sanbi will provide a challenge? It's not like it's the Hachibi I'm facing, Sanbi is still in the bottom tier class for you guys."

"Because his specialty is defense. Good luck getting through THAT shell with only speed." Kyuubi said with a chuckle before he stood up and stretched before turning around and walking out of sight into the forest, still chuckling as he disappeared.

Naruto huffed and came out of his mindscape with rolled eyes and a muttered "Smartass, speed isn't all I've got going for me."

"I take it from your words that the fox didn't have anything helpful to say." Tsunade said with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto nodded and said "All he said was that the Sanbi has a tough shell that he doesn't think I will be able to handle."

"Will you be able to handle it?" The goggle guy asked nervously before flinching as all eyes turned to him. The swordsman muttered an apology and after a moment everyone turned to Naruto, the same question in their eyes.

Naruto shrugged and said "I have a few high tiered jutsu I can try. Course, if all else fails then I can just stick him in a barrier cannon and shoot his ass into outer space."

"You can do that?" Mei asked with a cocked head.

"I'd prefer to use other means due to the need for prep work, but yeah, I know a seal for that." Naruto said with a nod.

Tsunade shook her head with a chuckle and said "If it's an upgraded version of the seal I'm thinking of then I can believe it. Your mother once got so annoyed with Jiraiya that she used it to launch him from the Monument clear across the village and into the Main gates."

"Really now, that's quite a feat." Mei said with an amused smile.

Tsunade hummed and said "Getting back to business though. Naruto, I know you tend for low collateral on your missions, but given you're going against not only a Jinchuriki but a Kage as well I feel I need to stress this: Use whatever means necessary to take down your target but try to keep the infrastructure of the village intact." Naruto gave a firm nod showing he understood.

"Um, question." Haku said with a raised hand. At Tsunade's nod, he continued "Why can't Naruto just zip in and kill the Kage before he even knows he's there?"

"Naruto, care to explain?" Tsunade asked her fellow blond.

Naruto nodded and turning to Haku, he said "As you know, the name the Village Hidden in the Mist is quite literal." At Haku's nod he continued "If I go at my top speed with so much water vapor in the air it would be like having a tsunami compressed into a fire hose hitting me. True, I could use a chakra wedge in front to divert said water, but the force of pushing it to the side at such speeds could damage surrounding buildings, and the less buildings the new institution has to repair, the better off they will be both short term and long term."

"Ah, when you put it that way, it makes sense." Haku said with a nod.

Naruto chuckled and said "As often as we ignore them, the rules of physics do occasionally need to still be listened to."

"Indeed." Mei said with an amused twist of her lips before she turned serious and said "As amusing as this has been, we don't have time to dawdle. Pack everything you will need and meet us at the gate in one hour."

Tsunade nodded and said "You shall receive further details once you're at your destination, dismissed."

Naruto and Haku bowed before they quickly left the building and headed back to the Uzumaki Harbor. They had a mission to prepare for.

END

Author's Notes: Update Profile and a Poll that at the time of posting is in place for deciding one of the two stories that will be added to the roster after Flesh to Metal V2 is done is on my profile, take a look at both please.

I'm sorry for how short this is for how long it took to get out. Along with the aforementioned crashes, I had a few new Potential Story Ideas invade and there's another story that I'm working on and off for Dev Art. That and my schedule is STILL work one day off one day, and will be for at least the next two weeks which makes it hard to get anything done since I tend to sleep most of the first day I have off. It's funny, this was supposed to be my schedule months ago but now that it seems to be taking effect I find myself wishing for the days when I had multiple nights off consecutively. (Shrug) Oh well, nothing to it but to adapt I guess.

Anyway, next chapter we dive right into the Mist Rebellion and Naruto gets to show that being a speedster isn't the only thing he's good for. (And with luck next chapter after that just might have a guest star appearance that I've been wanting to write since the fifth chapter came out.)