Kakashi opened the door to the Hokage's office stepping in to see the stairs of four rather irritated looking shinobi.
"Kakashi Hatake" Greeted Tusnade flashing him a threatening grin. It wouldn't have seemed threatening to most people, to most people it would have seemed like a pleasant flash of teeth. But Kakashi knew how to see through deception.
"Sorry I'm late Lady Hokage I didn't have a clean mask to wear today so I had wash yesterdays before I could leave."
"Liar" growled Naruto his arms crossed over his chest. "Just admit it Kakashi Sensei you're terrible at keeping track of time maybe that mask of yours needs a watch."
Kakashi scratched the back of his head and smiled behind his mask he didn't think he could say anything to make the orange and black clad ninja believe him.
"Is he always this late to mission briefings?" asked Tenten with a smirk. The kunoichi had been sitting patiently in one of the chairs next to the Hyūga girl who had turned to quietly watch him and Naruto.
"You bet he is" said Naruto, "I bet you ten bowls of ramen he was busy reading one of his pervy books."
"That's enough Naruto" said Tusnade opening the file on her desk.
"We received a mission offer from the Land of Waves."
She explained pulling out a small stack of photographs handing them for people to pass around.
Kakashi browsed through the pictures one by one carefully looking over the scenes they depicted each picture depicted a vivid scene of carnage. Each victim's body seemed to have been killed in a variety of ways. A few of the bodies had purple faces with bile foaming from their mouths, while others had been burned disemboweled and decapitated, some pictures had piles of flesh sliced into ribbons.
As the pictures were passed around obvious signs of disgust turned everyone's faces. Hinata barely looked them over before immediately handing them over to Tenten who managed to stomach the gruesome scenes more than the Hyūga girl. Her brown eyes moved across the scenes taking everything in before handing them to Naruto who casually looked them over before handing them back to Tusnade.
"We've been asked to investigate these murders in the Land of Waves. It seems these murders have been popping up for the last six months as you can clearly see their far from usual whoever's been conducting these killings is clearly a skilled Shinobi. But that's not all… these killings have been causing… rumors to spring up."
"W-what kind of rumors?" asked Hinata clutching her hands to her chest.
Tusnade looked at her then over to Kakashi.
"They say… It's the Demon of the Mist."
Kakashi's eyes widened. "Zabuza!? Impossible I buried his body myself."
"Yeah I was there to help Kakashi bury that creep. He was about as dead as they come." Said Naruto his eyes wandering towards the stack of photographs on the desk.
"Do the victims have any similarities?" Asked Tenten.
"A few but very little, many of the murder victims were moderately wealthy and our sources say they were known criminals tied to local gangs."
"S-so what you're saying is this is some kind of vigilante?" asked Hinata.
Tusnade sighed. "That's what I thought at first but a few of those found dead had no apparent ties to any of the local gangs. A few of the bodies even belonged to retired individuals."
Naruto clenched his fist. "So why are we staying here we should get moving."
"Listen Naruto I want you four to travel to the Land of Waves and find out anything you can about these killings and whoever is behind them. And Naruto try not to start a fight until you have a scope of the situation."
Naruto gave her the thumbs up and grinned in response.
Kakashi looked over to the two the two girls on the newly formed team. He watched a thin smile form on Hinata's face obviously happy to be teamed up with Naruto. Tenten just nodded at Tusnade with a determined look in her eyes. He supposed it was good to have at least one focused person on this team. With all the various missions that were cropping up many of the teams where having to be split reformed and put together.
Sakura was currently accompanying Kiba and Shino in the Land of Stone, and Neji and Lee both were off on another in the Land of Wind.
Kakashi wasn't used to working with the two kunoichi his latest missions had all been solo with the occasional mission with Guy. Between the Hyūga's infatuation and reserved calm, and Naruto's obliviousness and bullheadedness he was sure he wouldn't be bored.
He looked over to Tenten and wondered how Guy's overlooked student would fare on this particular mission.
"That's all for now you four will leave tomorrow." Explained Tusnade.
"Kakashi please stay behind I wish to talk to you."
Kakashi watched as Naruto ran out eager to get ready for tommarow Hinata calmly shuffling into the hallway with Tenten.
Kakashi turned his gaze back to Tusnade as soon as he couldn't hear them talking in the hallways anymore.
"I suppose something is troubling you Hokage?" he asked looking down at the morbid pictures.
"Kakashi… are you absolutely sure Zabuza is dead?" she asked folding her hands and leaning on her desk.
"Well I suppose anything is possible… but I am as sure I can be that he isn't still alive. Like I said I buried his body next to Haku. It was quite a messy affair having to remove all those weapons from his back… but I wouldn't have felt right laying him to rest with them sticking out of him. Why would you think this is the work of ghosts? I didn't think you were the superstitious type Lady Hokage."
Tusnade looked outside to the stone faces of the Hokage. "I'm not the type to believe in ghosts… but I wasn't completely honest about a connection to the victims. Those retired men I mentioned… well they all used to work for the Gatō Company."
"What!?" that caught Kakashi's attention his mind raced back to the image of Zabuza plunging his lent kunai into the short chubby business man.
"That's right, after Gatō died his shipping company and criminal empire was in shambles despite the effort of the people of the Land of Waves they never completely managed to rid themselves of that scum. I think these criminals that ended up in body bags were a part of his criminal empire."
Kakashi folded his arms, "I'll keep this information at the forefront of my mind. It's possible Zabuza had more followers than we let on. But even if that's the case… these ninja are being strangely loyal to a criminal who's been dead for almost four years. And they have certainly waited quite a while for revenge."
"If your right Kakashi these shinobi pose a great threat… they could still be planning a coup in the Hidden Mist Village."
"Then let's just hope I'm wrong." He said opening the door to leave.
Tenten and Hinata sat in comfortable silence of their favorite tea house quietly enjoying their hot brew. In the four years since the Chūnin Exam they had become strong friends. Unlike many people Tenten respected Hinata's quiet disposition and having spent so much time around both Guy and Lee and having to deal with Neji's rather arrogant disposition it was refreshing to be with someone who was both quiet and modest. Though at times she wished she wouldn't be either but that was a work in progress.
Tenten thanked the waiter when their order of dumplings had arrived. She looked over the vacant faced girl in front of her and smiled noticing that her tea was getting cold. She smiled taking a bite of her dumplings.
"So… it will be interesting to be on a mission with Naruto wont it?" she asked pulling the girl out of her daydreaming. Hinata blushed; she had talked to Tenten about her feeling towards Naruto. She hadn't really spoken to anyone else with the exception of Kurenai but she had managed to figure out her feeling. Tenten was the only person she had actually confided in so far.
She smiled to herself. "Y-yes it will… I hope things go well for us. I hear Naruto's first real mission was in the Land of Waves… so it should be fun for him to return there."
Tenten flashed her friend a wicked grin. "Hinata… you know… if you ever want me to leave you alone with Naruto… just tell me and I'll slip away from you two."
Hinata turned an even darker red at the thought and Tenten giggled.
"I… I don't think I'm ready for anything like that." She stammered picking up her cup of cold tea and sipped in hiding her face behind her teacup.
"You never know Hinata this could be exactly the kind of break you need. If you want to be alone with him just scratch your nose to signal me and ill slip away and you two can forget all about me."
Hinata just blushed and didn't say anything she knew Tenten was just teasing her and trying to give her confidence a little jumpstart like she usually did. Tenten wasn't expecting her to take her too seriously though she did plan on leaving her and Naruto alone whenever she had the chance to. After all what are friends for.