My New Life is Harder Than Expected(Naruto SI-Waifu Catalog) (Patreon)

Chapter 14

“Hmph! I can’t believe my other half is sealed in such an idiot. At least we now know that your Defenses work though as I don’t feel anything from my other self.”

‘Quiet.’ I mentally shushed the rough voice speaking mentally to me and focused on the scene in front of me ignoring the grumble I heard from it in return.

“Naruto, Sasuke. Meet Akari Senju, a fellow Jonin like myself who will be lending us a hand in this mission.” Kakashi said taking the lead and introducing us. “I’m sure I don’t have to introduce you to your fellow classmates?”

“Hmph! We don’t need their help.” Sasuke said immediately with a scowl.

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” Naruto asked with a thoughtful expression on his whiskered face giving him the appearance of a fox.

“You probably saw him in the Academy idiot. Sensei is only a year older than us after all.” Hanabi responded coldly giving the blonde a disdainful look.

“WHAT!? Then does that mean that he’s just as strong as you Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto asked in an incredulous tone while looking at Kakashi for confirmation.

“I told you guys before remember?” Kakashi said with an eye smile. “In this world there are kids as young as you and yet stronger than me. It just so happens that Akari is such a person.”

“Wha? I refuse to believe that this wimpy looking guy is stronger than you, Kakashi-sensei! NO WAY! Dattebayo!” Naruto denied strongly with a shake of his head while pointing his finger rudely at me.

‘Now he’s done it.’

“What did you just say?” Hanabi immediately fired back with an angry frown on her face as she took a step forward menacingly. “For your information baka! Akari-sensei is the strongest Jonin in the village!”

“That’s right! Sensei is the strongest!” Hinata was quick to back up her sister with a small frown on her face even losing the small stutter in her voice.

“Yeah!”

I let out a sigh as immediately following that, Naruto started arguing back and forth with my students about who’s sensei was stronger with Sasuke surprisingly joining Naruto. Sakura was the only one who didn’t seem to care too much about the conversation and was in fact trying to calm the situation down but failing.

“Now as much as I appreciate you girls standing up for me, we do have to head to bed now.” I said finally stepping in and separating the two teams before things got physical, especially since I knew Hanabi much like her namesake had a short fuse.

“Akari is correct guys. With me fully healed now expect your training to get much tougher from now on.” Kakashi said standing beside me and doing his part to deescalate the situation.

Somewhat reluctantly the girls backed off and off and we finally made our way in the newly built home.

“Wait a minute…Kakashi-sensei, you’re all healed now?”

‘Idiot.’ I thought with a deadpan as I heard Sakura yell at the blonde before probably smacking him in the head based on the loud smack that was heard after that.

“…My other self must have it rough.”

=====

“So, what was the real reason Hokage-sama sent you here?” Kakashi asked quietly without looking up from the orange book he was reading. “Zabuza while strong, shouldn’t pose too much of a threat for me even with his little helper.”

“Looking for a traitor. I’ve managed to track them down to the ruins of Uzushio. I currently have one of my clones investigating the place.”

“Uzuhiogakure huh? I haven’t heard that name in a long time. Are you sure one clone will be enough though?”

“Positive. I’ve already marked the place so if one of my clones disappears, I’ll be there immediately. So, you don’t have to worry about me interfering in your scuffle unless things change.” I replied calmly to Kakashi as we stood back and watched our respective teams help out with the construction of the bridge.

Every now and then we could hear either Sakura or Hanabi either hitting or insulting Naruto for being an idiot which we both did our best to ignore.

“I’ll be taking the sword though. I know someone that will be pleased at its return.” I commented offhandedly thinking about a certain redhead.

“Fine by me.” Kakashi shrugged before walking off towards his team with a lazy wave back at me. “Now if you don’t mind, I’ll be relieving my team early today to get some training done. You don’t mind taking on things from here, right? Thanks.”

“Tsk, lazy ass.” I clicked my tongue in annoyance, as the man didn’t even wait for a response from me before he left.

=====

(A Day Later, Ruins of Uzushio)

‘Well, what do you know? So, this is where she was sealed. Makes sense I guess.’ I thought in a little surprise at the girl that had managed to take out one of my wood clones.

I had been training my team when I felt one of my clones being destroyed so I immediately teleported to the location after creating another clone to take over for me much to my teams’ confusion.

Seeing for myself just who had managed to take out my clone though, I wasn’t too bothered by it.

‘This actually saves me the trouble of searching for you.’

With those thoughts in my head, I finally revealed myself to the surprise of the girl who thought she had just killed me along with the traitor and one other person.

=====

(Following Morning)

“Are we not going to help them Sensei?”

I shook my head and denied Hinata’s words as we stood guard over Tazuna, the bridge builder and watched as Kakashi and his team duked it out with Zabuza and Haku.

While Kakashi seemed to be holding his own against Zabuza, Team 7 was having a hard time countering Haku and his Ice Release even after Sasuke had unlocked his Sharingan.

After I got back from the mission assigned to me, I had been immediately questioned by my team about where I had disappeared to. Luckily, they had quickly stopped pestering me when I mentioned that I was doing a secret mission for the Hokage.

I said absolutely nothing about the new resident back in my Demiplane still unconscious after our battle nor the 2 prisoners currently trapped in my Kamui dimension awaiting to be sold.

“If they want to grow stronger, they have to fight their own battles. If we intervene, instead of helping them, they will instead believe you’re looking down on them.” I explained.

Seeing that they were still not convinced I let out a small sigh and spoke again. “If they look like they’re in any real danger I’ll step in, okay?” I compromised getting happy nods from two of them and a reluctant one from the last.

True to my words about five minutes later I was forced to intervene when Sakura let out a piercing scream.

“SASUKE-KUN!!”

“Wait here!” I quickly ordered before disappearing in a blue flash and reappearing a moment later and setting 2 teens down.

“Sakura! Calm down, Sasuke is just unconscious!” I said to the distraught girl who hadn’t even noticed my presence until now, too busy crying over the unresponsive body of Sasuke who looked like a pincushion.

“Hinata, please apply first aid to Sasuke while I go retrieve Naruto.” I ordered before disappearing again in a flash. ‘And most importantly, before Haku dies protecting Zabuza and denies me of selling him and his master.’

Haku of course was still a Trap in this world so I felt absolutely nothing at selling him and Zabuza. Not to mention scoring some points with Mei when I tell her I found another sword of the Hidden Mist.

=====

(Naruto vs Haku Third POV)

Rage.

That was the only emotion currently present in Naruto Uzumaki’s face as he faced off against a member of the Yuki clan.

Further enhancing this rage, was a red/orange bubbly aura around the boy that could be seen with the naked eye and taking the shape of a fox. The boy’s features had also slightly changed with his eyes turning red and slitted, growing canines out of his mouth and his whiskers becoming more pronounced enhancing the boy’s appearance to that of a fox.

In almost no time at all the tables turned and Naruto was wiping the floor with his opponent that up until moments ago, was having great difficulty fighting against. The red/orange aura granted Naruto enhanced strength and speed which seemed to grow with each passing moment.

Finally with a mighty punch, Naruto sent his opponent flying and crashing against his own technique before skidding to a stop a few meters away from the blonde.

Before Naruto could move another step though, the boy’s menacing aura that seemed uncontrollable suddenly dissipated causing the blonde to trip and fall on his face at the sudden loss of his power up.

“H-Huh!? W-what the heck just happened?” asked the blonde in slight confusion.

“Calm down, Sasuke is not dead.” A calm voice responded behind the blonde revealing a tall teen with blue hair and golden eyes. “Besides, it seems we have company.”

Looking up from the ground, Naruto finally caught sight of the teen and blinked for a few moments trying to comprehend what was just said.

“W-what? What are you talking about, you heartless bastard!? I checked myself! Sasuke wasn’t breathing!”

=====

(Normal POV)

“Haah, can you please not yell so loudly? I can hear just fine.” I said with a touch of annoyance coloring my words at the blonde’s questions and absorbed the small branch I had created out of my bloodline to neutralize the fox’s power.

“Tsk, I still hate that accursed bloodline even if I know you’re not really a descendant of that man.” A grumpy voice complained in my head.

“Anyway, calm down Sasuke is just fine. Now focus! As I already said, we have company.” I said again keeping my gaze focused on the dozens of goons that were approaching the bridge with Gato at the front.

I made no reaction when Kakashi and Zabuza suddenly appeared not too far away from me with Zabuza coldly ordering Haku to get back on his feet.

“Seems we have to postpone our match for another time Kakashi.” Zabuza commented gruffly while keeping an eye on the approaching goons and eyeing me warily with the other.

“Seems that way.” Kakashi said calmly now standing by Naruto’s side only looking a little worse for wear with his Sharingan now covered up again to preserve chakra.

“Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke! He’s…”

“Relax Naruto. Akari is a medic ninja. If he says that Sasuke is alive, then he is.”

“Tsk, you failed again Haku.”

“A t-thousand apologies Zabuza-sama.” Haku said now back on his feet even if he looked ready to fall over at any moment.

“I’ll deal with you later…Gato! Is this what I think it is?” Zabuza yelled out across the bridge to the short and pudgy man who only smirked arrogantly in return.

“What do you think? It’s too expensive to hire shinobi of your caliber but now that you’re all exhausted, I can deal with two annoyances at once. Besides, that little bitch of yours needs to pay for what she did to me.” Gato threatened holding his left arm that was currently in a cast.

I quietly let out a small snort at the lecherous looks Gato and his men were all sending Haku. ‘Poor bastards, if they only knew.’

“I’ll just have to take my pay from your corpse then.” Zabuza growled menacingly letting out a murderous aura and hefting Kubikiribocho on his shoulder.

“G-get him, you fools! What am I paying you all this money for?”

“Haah, alright that’s enough. I’ll deal with this.” I said calmly flaring my chakra a bit causing Zabuza and Haku to flinch and turn towards me with wary eyes.

Not paying them any mind and ignoring the various eyes now on me, I casually stepped forward bringing confused stares from the goons at first before they burst out laughing.

“Hahahaha, does this pretty boy think he can take on all of us by himself?”

“Shinobi sure are arrogant.”

“Get him boys!”

Letting out a sigh at the irony of the situation, I clapped my hands and mentally said the name of my jutsu.

‘Suiton: Suidanha (Water Release: Severing Wave)’

From my mouth, a thin stream of extremely high-pressure water was released and with a slight turn of my head I aimed the jutsu at all the incoming opponents. Due to the pressure instead of just shoving them back, the jutsu actually went through every person as if they were made out of paper.

To the surprise of most watching, in a matter of moments all the enemies were suddenly reduced to chunks of meat as they were cut cleanly into ribbons by my technique.

Then with another water jutsu, I washed all the gore off the bridge making it look as if nothing had occurred at all.

Releasing the jutsu I ignored the sounds of puking that could suddenly be heard from several directions and turned towards Zabuza and Haku. Zabuza as could be expected of the man had a grim look on his face while Haku in contrast looked horrified at the scene and was currently holding his mouth to stop himself from puking.

“Now, should we continue where you and Kakashi left off?” I asked calmly.

“Tsk. Haku! Get ready!” Zabuza barked out at the boy as he held his sword in a defensive position while Haku snapped out of his trance and jumped to his side with his hands in a hand seal. “We’re in for a tough fight if the rumors are true about this guy taking out the last Mizukage.”

Before anything could happen though we were interrupted by a yell.

“W-Wh-WHY DID THE HECK DID YOU DO THAT? YOU MURDERED THEM ALL!”

I held the urge to let out a sigh of frustration and looked at the owner of the voice from the corner of my eye never quite taking my attention away from Zabuza and Haku. I was met the furious eyes of Naruto Uzumaki who still had a bit of drool in the corner of his mouth after puking his guts out.

“Isn’t the answer obvious? I took care of our would-be attackers.” I said calmly not feeling sorry about what I had done at all. After all, why should I feel sorry for pieces of trash that made a living by oppressing others? And that’s not even mentioning the looks of lust the pigs were sending Sakura and my student’s way which was not something I would allow.

“I know that! But why did you have to kill them!?” Naruto refuted back not backing down at all.

“Hmph! What a ridiculous thing to say considering what our profession is.” I said in dismissal looking away from the teen and focusing my attention back on Zabuza and Haku who tensed when they saw that.

“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Naruto asked before rashly marching in front of me and glaring up at me.

I felt my eyebrow twitch slightly remembering how stubborn and annoying Naruto’s character was throughout the series. When I opened my mouth next, I wasn’t able to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“What do you think it means, you moron? Our official title is ‘Shinobi’. Do you even know what that word stands for? We are basically mercenaries for hire. Sometimes we are hired to do menial tasks, acting as escorts, gathering secret intel, retrieving a certain item or even assassinating a certain target.” I explained the basic duties of a Shinobi to the blond as knowing his personality, there was a very good possibility that he didn’t even know about it.

“Or what? Did you expect the life of a Shinobi to be all fun and games? To rescue Princesses and go on grand missions bringing fame to the village?” I asked sarcastically knowing I struck a nerve when I saw the blonde wince. “Tsk, those are the delusions of a child who doesn’t know how this world works. You should grow up.” I said harshly.

I chose to ignore the fact that Naruto’s life had been pretty much exactly what I had just described since once again we were not in a Shonen manga anymore and canon was already mostly fucked with the changes I had made and was planning to make in the future.

“Seems you haven’t learned anything from our previous battle brat.” Zabuza chimed in unexpectedly in support. “Shinobi are killers for hire. The sooner you learn this, the more you will grow as a Shinobi.”

Naruto not wanting to believe our words turned to Kakashi who had kept silent throughout our conversation and looked at him desperately. “Is it true Kakashi-sensei? Are Shinobi nothing but murderers who would do anything for money?”

Kakashi looked down at the blond with a blank expression before letting out a sigh and slumping his head forward a bit. “While I wouldn’t use those exact words, there is no denying that in the current Shinobi system it wouldn’t be wrong to call us mercenaries for hire.”

Naruto looked devastated at hearing those words with a few tears even escaping his eyes as he took a few steps back in shock away from us.

“No! I refuse to believe it! If all I have to look forward to in the future is becoming a murderer then I’ll just change the system. I’ll follow my own ninja way!” Naruto declared passionately bringing a small smile Kakashi and Haku’s way with myself and Zabuza the only ones unaffected knowing that was an impossible dream.

“Whatever, I think we’ve wasted enough time with this nonsense. I’m ending this.” I said blankly and took a step forward bringing everyone’s attention back to me again.

When Naruto noticed that, he took a step forward intending to intervene again before he froze with his eyes rolling into the back of his head and falling forward unconscious only to be caught by Kakashi before he could hit the ground.

“Haah, you didn’t have to go that far.” Kakashi admonished me lightly as he picked up Naruto in his arms and jumped back towards where the others were still watching our interaction.

“Whatever.” I said in return and continued walking directing my now active Sharingan eyes at the tense forms of Haku and Zabuza after putting Naruto to sleep with an illusion. “Now, shall we end this?”

“Let’s!” That was all I received in return from Zabuza before our forms blurred forward and we engaged in battle.

=====

(5 Minutes Later)

“It’s over.” I said walking back towards my team and team 7 with my proof of victory hanging over my shoulder in the form of the famous Kubikiribocho.

“Sensei!” That yell was all the time I had to react before 3 different colored missiles collided with me forcing me to take a step back to keep my balance.

“Whoa! Careful you idiots! Can’t you see the big ass sword in my hand?” I yelled in mock anger with my hand raised in the air along with the sword keeping it away from the girls.

“You were amazing Sensei~”

“Are you going to teach us how to fight like that too?”

“Hihihi I knew it! Sensei is the best~”

“So, after that grand speech you decided to let them go huh?” I heard Kakashi ask in an annoying tone as he walked our direction with his team and Tazuna beside him.

Sasuke and Naruto had gone back to glaring at me in a combination of anger and jealousy from what I could sense with Naruto even refusing to look at me, looking off to the side with a pout.

“Whatever.” I said in dismissal looking away from the man before I punched him in his smug face.

What Kakashi and everyone else was unaware of however was that before letting them go, I had Stamped Zabuza and Haku. Then in 3 days’ time they will suddenly vanish from existence never to be see again with none being the wiser thanks to the Gone and Forgotten perk and the nature of this world.

‘This way I won’t have Naruto nagging me all the way back to the village about killing those two.’ I thought silently in satisfaction knowing I had the last laugh in the end.