Naruto: Jinchuriki of the Six Paths by X009

Chapter 15

An orange blur shot across the rooftops as the morning's sun shined on Konoha. Making no sound, the figure sped across the village. Naruto could hardly contain his excitement to find out what Jiraiya planned on teaching him. Back when they were training as a team, Jiraiya had mostly focused on helping him with sealing jutsu, from the intricacies of the art to suggesting he take up calligraphy to improve the accuracy and speed of his writing, and a few tips here and there when it came to other fields but for the most part he'd let Kakashi and Zabuza take over. Apparently, Zabuza's training was more harsh than what he would have suggested anyway and Kakashi was a living library of ninjutsu, even if he couldn't actually use 60% of them effectively.

This time around, the Sannin was directly taking the reins and Naruto couldn't wait to find out what he had in mind. Jiraiya had told him to meet him in a in a clearing near a waterfall just beyond the outskirts of the village. First though, he had to make a stop.

Soon enough he saw his destination, and wouldn't you know it just the person he wanted to talk to walked out of the building. Zabuza stood on the bottom step of the T and I HQ of the village, rubbing his head.

"Damn, glad that's over." The masked Jonin muttered. Aside from his discussions with Hiruzen, part of his probation required he report to Inoichi for evaluation, to ensure his loyalty was to the village and he wasn't secretly relaying information to the village of his birth.

Getting mind raped, suffice to say, and was not fun. Still, he couldn't deny it was an effective way to root out spies. He knew Kiri would love to get their hands on that kind of trick. It was a rare. Coveted ability and only a few villages, including Konoha, had such techniques.

"Yeah, well look at the bright side, you've only got another month to go." Anko supplied cheerfully as she leaned against the doorway.

"Is that supposed to be a comforting thought?" Zabuza turned and gave her a mildly annoyed stare.

Anko grinned cheekily. "Nope!"

Zabuza sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll be glad when this is all over and done with."

"Yeah, I'll bet. So, want to grab a bite? I want to hear about how this is done in Kiri." Her grin turned slightly bloodthirsty. "I bet there's a lot I can learn from them. Konoha interrogators are a bit too cerebral for my liking. Oh, that's fun too, and I'm damn good at it, but the other way's a lot more amusing."

Zabuza was about to reply before a familiar voice cut him off. "Hey, Zabuza!" The former mist jounin and the purple haired kunoichi turned to see Naruto land nearby.

The swordsman raised a non-existent brow and crossed his arms. "You came to find me here? Impatient, aren't you brat?"

"Hey, I've got a cram as much training into the next month as I can! We're up against some tough customers, you know?"

"So I heard." Zabuza replied before reaching into his pocket, pulling out two scrolls and tossing them to the blond. "There you go. That all you wanted?"

"Yep! Thanks a lot!"

"Don't sweat it. Not like I had anything better to do." Zabuza said. He was seriously chaffing under this probation, but what can you do? It's not like he blamed them for being cautious around a guy who betrayed their previous leader, no matter the reason.

"How ya doing, Anko?" Naruto turned to the snake summoner, who shrugged.

"Eh, Same old same old. Nice showing the other day, brat. I figured you'd make it to the last round."

"Thanks. So, how're those three we brought you?"

Anko chuckled, giving the boy a somewhat feral smirk. "Ah, I had some real fun with those saps. Poor shmucks, one of them actually thought his boss cared about him." Her expression became somewhat strained as she shook her head, her mouth widening into a self-depreciating smile and an undercurrent of anger and shame filling her tone at how she was taken in by him in her youth and how her attempt to recent stop him had failed so utterly. "Heh, what some people let themselves believe, huh?"