"Kakashi-sensei is late again!" Sakura moaned loudly. Sasuke and Naruto just sulked, standing and leaning close by their client. The old man Tazuna from the Land of Water. Eventually, even the patient old man grew restive and began to fidget and swear quietly under his breath.
"Hello Everybody!" Shouted a happy voice. All four of the waiting people turned and the three young genin all screamed,
"KAKASHI-SENSEI!?" The older Jonin was walking along through the gates with his stupid Itcha Itcha Paradise book in his left hand and a perfectly innocent look in his one visible eye.
"Sorry I was late! I took longer than expected packing!" Suddenly, Kakashi's blond student Naruto jumped up and screeched at the top of his lungs.
"All right! ROAD TRIP!" Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna and stared blankly at him. Naruto seethed and turned away from them, marching briskly down the road.
"Lets go already." Sasuke muttered impatiently. Before Kakashi could step forwards, a voice rang out.
"Kakashi!" There was a shadowy blur and a woman appeared in front of Kakashi, her hands in the sign of the bird. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all gaped at her.
As any normal leaf ninja would, she wore navy blue pants bandages from the mid calf down and a navy blue shirt with a flak jacket over it. Two gloves with hand guards were covering her small hands. There was a long, strange pouch on her right leg above her kunai pouch. The womans face was angular and beautiful. Her eyes however, were black and deep as wells. Chocolate brown hair cascaded down her back, it was straight. She was thin and lightly muscled but almost as tall as Kakashi, coming up to his eyes. All in all, Sasuke, Naruto and Tazuna were stunned by her beauty and perfect body. Sakura was looking from her to Sasuke with wide, stunned eyes.
"Huh?" Naruto was the first to speak. "Who are you? What do ya want?" The woman was looking critically at Kakashi and spared Naruto only a brief glance.
"The Third Hokage...found out some information and has temporarily assigned me to your squad for the remainder of this mission." They heard her speaking quietly to Kakashi. After a brief moment, she seemed to respond to a question although to quiet for any of them to hear.
"All right everybody! Lets head out!" Kakashi shouted joyfully. The woman smiled and ran after him. Slowly, Naruto and Sakura began to smile as well and happily trotted after them. Tazuna and Sasuke traveled a few steps behind them all, at their own speed.
"So...uh..." Naruto scratched his head. "Who are you?" The woman smiled and turned so that she was walking backwards. Reaching into one of the pockets on her jacket, she tossed Naruto a small booklet.
It fell open to her page. Almost nothing was revealed of her except her name and birthday, displaying her to be only one year younger than Kakashi.
"That doesn't help me at all!" Naruto whined extremely loudly. The woman turned and smiled at all the genin.
"My name is Shiranui Mizu. Special Jonin...little sister of the famous Shiranui Genma. I used to be on a genin team with lazy over here!" She jabbed her thumb at Kakashi who frowned at her.
"I'm not lazy." He didn't sound to convinced himself. The woman, Mizu laughed and Sakura instantly admired the woman. She was a powerful kunoichi like she one day hoped to be.
"None of his talent seems to have rubbed off on you." Sasuke muttered sourly from behind them all. In less then a second, it happened.
"Don't speak of what you do not understand!" She hissed quietly in his ear. When the others turned around in shock, Sasuke was lying flat on the ground with Mizu's boot on his chest. Mizu glanced quickly from Sasuke's eyes to her foot on his chest and almost immediately turned and leaped into the huge trees on either side of the pathway.
"Mizu!" Shouted Kakashi. There was no answer and all four of the remaining ninja saw her jump down from the branches onto the ground.
"What the hell was that for Sasuke?" Naruto roared angrily. "She outranks you by a whole lot! You'll probably get your throat slit tonight!"
"Its no use Naruto." Kakashi sighed. "She's not coming back." He sounded sullen and when Sakura turned towards him, his visible eye was scanning the trees worriedly. What was bothering him? Surely the other Jonin could fend for herself?
"So...master Kakashi?" Sakura asked almost nervously. "That...giant chakra signal heading back this way...is not...Shiranui-San?"
"Apparently not." Said Kakashi, drawing a kunai.
They attacked swiftly. Two strange looking men with rogue mist village headbands. Kakashi instantly threw several different kinds of weapons to gage their abilities. They were good. Not only did they deflect them, they sent them flying back towards the genin. Sakura was grazed by one of the knives but Naruto and Sasuke escaped unscathed.
One of the men leaped at Kakashi while the other focused his attacks on Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. Kakashi has his hands full defending both himself and Tazuna so when the giant and deadly windmill shuriken flew at a defenseless Sasuke, he could only watch in shock.
"Get out of the way you idiot!" And a gray blur collided with Sasuke, knocking him out of the way, only to be hit by it themselves. Blood splattered onto the ground and , everybody gasped. Mizu was in front of Sasuke, doubled over the horrendous blade of the demon wind shuriken that was embedded deeply into her stomach.
It chinked as she tugged on the handle and the shuriken fell to the floor. Both of her arms rested in front of her face except for her eyes. She opened her eyes to reveal a glinting, angry well.
"Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto! Get behind me. Now." She hissed dangerously. They all stared at her in shock. "I said NOW!" She shouted loudly. Without hesitating again, all three of them stood behind her and watched in amazement. Eight kunai were held in between each of her fingers. With amazing accuracy, she threw them. They went racing towards the nervous attacker. Her and Kakashi's movements were completely synchronized and worked perfectly in unison. His own knives hit hers in mid-air and sent them at the vital points of their enemy. The two strange attackers were killed in seconds.
"Hehehehehe" A malevolent laugh rang through the battlefield. Mizu gasped and straightened up slowly.
"Kakashi!" She said sharply. The other Jonin barely nodded for he was beginning to lose his vision as a thick blanket of mist began to cover the clearing. Mizu instantaneously began forming hand signs.
"Ushi! Tatsu, Ne, Inu, Hitsuji, I, Tatsu, Ushi, Tora, Ne, Saru, Ushi!" She cried out going continually faster and faster using the same pattern until her hands became a blur and she stopped calling out the names of her hand signs. Her palm slammed onto the ground. "Summoning Jutsu! Abutenkai!" Jagged bolts of electricity slammed into the ground and created a burning crater in the ground. When the smoke cleared, it revealed an amazing creature.
A larger than life tiger with violently red and orange flashes of color on its body. Its red, cavernous mouth was filled with foot long razor sharp fangs. The tiger stamped one of its massive paws on the ground, wherever it stepped, the ground beneath its feet was scorched and burned. Mizu's face was emotionless as she stood there, her hands still in the sign of the ox.
"Secret Ninjutsu..." She murmured, placing her right hand over her stomach, coating it with her own sticky blood. "Night of the Tiger." A smothering darkness seemed to blow into the clearing. The maniacal laughing stopped quickly. Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura and Tazuna all stepped backwards a bit. The tiger had walked forwards into the darkness and disappeared. A ear-piercing scream resonated through the clearing. Mizu started and red flashes appeared before everybody's eyes. In a second, the darkness dissipated like steam. She gasped. A man stood around one meter away from her, blood pooling at his feet where her tiger had attacked him.
"How?..." She gasped. The man barely had a scratch. Even worse, both Kakashi and Mizu knew his face. "Zabuza Momochi..." She breathed out softly. The man laughed evilly and shifted the huge sword slung over his shoulder. Mizu's eyes flashed towards the genin and Kakashi. She flipped backwards just as Zabuza swung his mammoth sword. Grabbing both Sakura and Sasuke around their waists, she continued to jump, flip and shift back as Zabuza slowly advanced, swinging his sword at her. Naruto had disappeared.
Zabuza eyed her and then glanced at Kakashi. He seemed to be thinking about something.
"What...if I do this?" He growled, and appeared right behind Kakashi, his sword raised to strike.
"Kakashi!" Mizu cried out. Zabuza paused and began to laugh as he dodged Kakashi's punches.
Within seconds, the fight had escalated and for the first time, the three genin saw their sensei actually fighting with concentration. Kakashi began to tire and saw that Zabuza still had way too much chakra left for him to win the fight like this. He sighed loudly and reached mechanically up to his face.
"Well then..." He sighed again. "Meet my other eye." And he pushed up his headband, revealing it. The sharingan eye.
Sasuke struggled hard to escape from Mizu's grip but she wouldn't let go. He stared in shock at Kakashi's eye. The kekkai-genkai only possessed by his clan but...Kakashi wasn't from his clan! And the kekkai-genkai was only in his left eye! How did he get it?
"I foresee..." Kakashi said softly. "Your death." Zabuza started a jutsu and Kakashi began to use the sharingan to copy it exactly as he did it. Mizu grabbed a recently found Naruto by the scruff of his collar and hauled all the genin up onto a tree branch before grabbing Tazuna and tossing him up as well. A roaring tower of water reared up behind both Zabuza and Kakashi. Mizu felt weakness ebbing at her as she watched Kakashi move slightly. He was trapped and could only take out Zabuza with him.
"Only have a little chakra left!" Mizu whispered. "It...has to be enough." She brought her hands together and almost grinned. "Try and decapitate this." Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna all stared at her.
"Fire Style! Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Immense balls of fire shot at Zabuza. One grazed his side and four others passed through his water jutsu so hotly that the jutsu turned to steam just as Kakashi drew back his fist and punched him clear across the clearing, ending the fight.
Mizu felt her last reserve of chakra leave her along with most of her blood as one last kunai from Zabuza's hand found its way into her stomach. She fell from the tree branch towards the ground. The last thing she saw before she passed out, was Kakashi leaping towards her.
"What...?" Mizu said softly. Then she realized where she was. Kakashi was carrying her in his arms down the well worn pathway. The three genin and Tazuna walked in front of them slightly. Kakashi looked down at her a smiled.
"Feeling better?" Mizu could only stare up at him weakly for a moment. She nodded slowly. Kakashi seemed relieved and Mizu's hand drifted to her stomach where she felt bandages wrapped tightly around her waist.
"Hn..." She indicated to the strange pouch on her leg and Kakashi opened it for her, pulling out one of its occupants and handing it to her before closing the pouch again. Kakashi caught up to his students and his client. They all glanced at her and saw her leaning her neck on Kakashi's arm, her head flung back over it, chewing on and rolling a senbon needle around in her mouth.
It was then that Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto all saw her extreme resemblance to her older brother Genma. They both retained perfect control over their senbon needles. No matter what the case. After ten minutes had passed without her opening her eyes, Naruto asked quietly.
"Is she asleep?"
"No. I'm awake." Mizu said slowly. When Kakashi moved his arm under her legs slightly, she winced loudly and he stopped.
"It wouldn't hurt if you hadn't jumped in front of me." Sasuke said suddenly. "I didn't ask you to save me." Mizu snickered derisively. "Why did you do it?" He added after a moment. Something strange happened. Mizu turned her head away from them to Kakashi's arm and agitatedly shifted in his arms despite the pain.
The silver haired Jonin glanced at her with a strange expression in his one visible eye. Naruto glared at Sasuke as if he had done something wrong.
"I..." Mizu spoke incredibly quietly. "Owe the Uchiha. A life." Sasuke narrowed his eyes. This woman had many secrets. Eventually, darkness began to creep over the tops of the trees and Kakashi decided to make camp.
Placing Mizu down gently he turned to start building a fire. She sat, staring into the flames until it roared so fiercely she had to shift backwards slightly. With one small hand, she reached into another pocket on her vest and pulled a small square of paper out.Haruno Sakura watched shyly from the other side of the fire. The woman she kept shooting glances at, she had it all. Beauty, power, intelligence. She had been staring at the paper for almost an hour with a sad expression on her face. Occasionally, she smiled softly only to have it flit away, fast as the wind. There was a sigh on the wind, only Sakura seemed to hear it. It seemed to whisper a name that she just couldn't hear quite properly.
"Mizu-San? I was just wondering if you were alright." Sakura had walked up to her and was standing beside her with a nervous look on her face. The woman shoved the piece of paper back in her pocket and smiled up at Sakura.
"I'm fine. Just thinking thats all." Sakura knelt down beside her.
"What are you thinking about?" She asked excitedly. "A man back in Konoha? Hmm?" Mizu looked slightly surprised.
"I...guess you could say that." She said with a confused look on her face. Sakura grinned and started asking her thousands of questions. Mizu was almost thrown off when the girl began to bombard her. Kakashi unknowingly saved her when he asked Sakura where Naruto and Sasuke had ran off to. She left to search for them.
Startled out of her reverie, Mizu shook her head slightly and stood up once more. Her eyes cleared of sadness as Kakashi smiled at her and asked if her side still hurt. She shook her head and smiled back.
"I think...I'm going to sleep outside tonight Kakashi." The silver-haired Jonin nodded carelessly and turned to walk into the forest. "Wait Kakashi!" He turned back to her. Without waiting for her to speak, Kakashi grabbed her and pulled her closer to him, his visible eye blank.
"I know what you were thinking earlier." Mizu trembled. "You did well. Its what he would've done Mizu." She pulled away from him and rubbed her eyes swiftly.
"Goodnight Kakashi...and thanks." She disappeared in a flash. Just then, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura came back to the camp, bickering loudly. Naruto squinted his eyes.
"Where's Mizu-San?" He skipped around, poking his head into all the tents, earning him an angry shout from the sleeping Tazuna.
"She's out in the forest somewhere." Kakashi reached for his Itcha Itcha book. "Don't worry about her. She likes to be alone sometimes." Naruto frowned but then shrugged. Sasuke however, looked to the tree tops and saw no sign of her. As soon as all the others had gone into their own tents, he leaped into the shadows.
"What are you doing here?" Mizu asked quietly. Not taking her eyes off the square of paper in her hand this time. Sasuke stood on the end of the giant tree branch she was sitting on. The Uchiha glanced at the paper in her hands and appeared behind her, looking at it over her shoulder. She turned it away from him but not before he got a good look at the people in the picture.
"Who are they?" He asked. For even his eyes were not very good in the darkness. Mizu didn't answer for a moment. Her black eyes weren't visible, for her brown bangs were putting her eyes in shadow.
"Look closely and tell me what you think." She turned and held the photo up to his eyes. Sasuke took only a minute on the first two people.
"Thats you on the end, and thats...the Fourth Hokage?" He seemed very surprised. Mizu realized that Kakashi probably hadn't told them anything about his past either. Sasuke stared at the next person for a bit longer. "Is...that Kakashi-Sensei?" Mizu smiled weakly and nodded.
"Yes. When he was ten years old. The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze was our sensei." Sasuke stared for almost ten minutes at the picture.
"And...who is he?" He finally said. Mizu turned away from Sasuke and put the picture away, out of sight.
"He is...my suffering."