"I thought I'd seen the last of you lot." Nijimura glowered at the uneven line of genin standing in front of the main gates to Konohagakure.
"So did we," Haizaki scowled right back at him, getting an elbow in his side from Aomine and a nip at his leg from Satsuki at the blatant lack of respect.
"Why are you here, sensei?" Midorima narrowed his eyes at Nijimura. "Shouldn't you be at the Academy?"
"A chuunin gets assigned somewhere else for a while after we graduate a class," Nijimura said. "So we're not stuck with brats for too long and start getting homicidal or something."
"And yet you are here," Kuroko pointed out unexpectedly, reminding Nijimura of his existence. It was such a pity about his…everything; in this aspect at least Kuroko was the perfect ninja.
"I'm here," Nijimura affirmed. "The Hokage can't just randomly leave the village, but genin teams should still get to go out and do some missions outside of Konohagakure." He nodded at Akashi, Midorima, and Murasakibara.
"So you are joining us in place of Shirogane-sensei?" Akashi asked, though Nijimura could tell he wasn't really expecting an answer, he already knew what it would be.
"Alright!" Aomine shouted excitedly to Haizaki's scoff, Satsuki barking happily with him.
Ignoring the scuffle starting up beside him, Kuroko looked measuringly at Nijimura. "It is not like Sanada-sensei to be late, and our client isn't here either."
"Good riddance." Midorima sniffed. "He called us brats."
"The client's coming later," Nijimura said, dragging Aomine and Haizaki apart by the scruffs of their necks and nudging Satsuki off with one foot. "We called you kids out here early so we could brief you before he gets here. Just wait a bit; Sanada should be here any minute now." They didn't need to know that Sanada was late because he was convincing Root to let them take Akashi out of the village. Akashi didn't need any more special treatment, especially since half the ninja upper management wanted to kill him pre-emptively even though they still didn't know whether he had the Rinnegan or not. But none of this was information the genin needed or was allowed to know. Not yet.
"It is not like Sanada-sensei," Kuroko repeated. Not just him, but Midorima and Akashi were both looking at Nijimura consideringly too. Even the other three, for all that they didn't look like they cared, Nijimura could feel the curiosity and suspicion from them. Even the dog was looking at him distrustfully. This year's genin really were monsters.
Luckily, Sanada arrived just then, distracting their attention from Nijimura. "Let's get the debriefing started. As you all are aware already, this should be just a simple escort mission. But I'm sure you all noticed the discrepancy in the client's attitude. Which is why the Hokage agreed to supply two genin teams even though it's just a simple C mission. And why we want you all to be on your guard at all times."
Nijimura stared at the six genin one by one. Aomine was staring dumbly, as expected – despite his physical aptitude, Aomine was a crap ninja when it came to thinking like one. Haizaki, Kuroko, and Murasakibara all had a shrewd look on their faces at least, they're still young and inexperienced but they didn't need worrying over. Not like Midorima who was looking disdainful; how was such a smart kid so dumb sometimes, it was a mystery. Akashi was a mystery too, though in a totally different way; he looked like he suddenly understood everything, and Nijimura would dearly have liked to know just what he thought he understood.
He didn't ask, in the end, because Akashi's secrets were his own. Nijimura would take what he was willing to give, but it wasn't his place to demand more. Instead, Nijimura and Sanada went over what to look out for in more detail, and some basic strategies just in case. They tried to go over hand signals too, but Aomine, as usual, did not have the ability to retain them and Haizaki, as usual, did not have the inclination to retain them. Becoming genin didn't seem to have changed them at all.
It was a relief when their client finally arrived, ready to go. They left the village with Nijimura on point, taking Haizaki with him so he could keep an eye on the kid. Nijimura understood why Shirogane wanted to keep all the monsters together, but for all his merits – of which he had a lot Nijimura could attest, having been one of his students while he was a chuunin teacher at the Academy – Sanada could not keep Haizaki in line.
There was the faint sounds of another scuffle behind him, but by the time Nijimura turned around the order had been settled with Murasakibara and Aomine on either side of the bridge builder that was their client, Midorima and Akashi in front of them, and Sanada just behind. Kuroko was nowhere to be seen, which meant he had been sent on lookout – his lack of presence making him the perfect sentry and a good trump card for the element of surprise. It was a pity he didn't have the stamina, they'd have to draw him back in by lunch.
Luckily, nothing happened that first day, or the next few days. They'd taken it easy, not rushing to their destination despite their client's – Tazuna's – complaints. It wasn't out of laziness like he had accused them of, or because they didn't feel the need. They'd all felt the heavy presence of someone – several someones – spying on them; it was a gamble hoping the spies would show themselves if the escort party kept their pace slow, but they didn't have much of a choice with such untried genin as their taskforce.
It made for a jumpy journey. Nijimura and Sanada split the night watch between them in hopes of making the genin get some sleep; it didn't work. Satsuki gave up sleeping completely, taking short naps at random moments as if it could make up for the insomnia. Kuroko was the only one who slept until morning thanks to his lack of stamina, the other genin kept startling awake from the prickling of hidden eyes. After a while, Nijimura gave up on ordering them back to sleep; letting them stay up with him a while worked better in getting the adrenaline to drain out of them and allow them to rest.
The day time wasn't much better. They kept the order of the first day, though Haizaki didn't have the equanimity to make trouble anymore. Behind them, instead of the silence of the first day's march, Aomine and Midorima were doing their best to interrogate their client, with Sanada cutting in every once in a while to keep their interrogations on the right path. They didn't have much of an effect on him; not just because their interrogation technique was weak, Tazuna was a hard nut to crack.
With the atmosphere the way it was, it was almost a relief getting attacked the moment they entered the Land of Waves proper. Or at least, it was a relief until Nijimura realised just who was attacking them. Who the hell did a simple bridge builder piss off that they'd send Zabuza of the Mist after him?
All of them had been ready for something, so at least their reflexes were just fine. Murasakibara and Midorima had immediately corralled Tazuna against a rock cropping, Murasakibara acting as a shield for the two of them while Midorima readied his specialty – projectiles. Aomine and Satsuki were properly covering Sanada and letting him go up against a clone of Zabuza, so he must have learned something after all, while Akashi had quietly faded into the bushes – though not good enough if Nijimura still noticed him.
Nijimura joined the fight with his own specialty of taijutsu while Sanada hung back with Aomine, Satsuki and Haizaki to look for the real Zabuza. Nijimura consciously tried not to look for Kuroko as he fought the clone; if they didn't know where the kid was, then Zabuza might not either.
Zabuza was good, better than Sanada or Nijimura, even just the clone gave Nijimura a lot of trouble. He was bleeding from several – luckily shallow – cuts by the end of it, and turned to find Sanada trapped in Zabuza's water prison with one clone fighting Aomine, Satsuki and Haizaki – who wouldn't be having nearly the trouble they were if they'd just work together, the idiots – and another starting to get through Murasakibara.
Nijimura quickly dashed towards the clone that was breaking Murasakibara's arm, distracting it at a crucial moment and allowing Midorima's shuriken to finally find their mark. As if counting on that timing, Akashi erupted out of the underbrush, just barely managing to score a thin line against Zabuza's back. Leaving Midorima to take care of first aid – for both Murasakibara's broken arm and the cut on his own forearm that was bleeding heavily – Nijimura went to cover Akashi while Sanada took the time to put himself together.
Even with all three of them working together, it was a hard fight. Nijimura kept to his taijutsu, knowing his pathetic ninjutsu and genjutsu would be worthless. Those he left to the others; Akashi setting up the small genjutsu that he was good at – unnoticeable little things that caused you to miss the target by just a few centimetres, that had you step just a little wrong, that made you not notice that one mistake in your hand seals, while Sanada covered him with ninjutsu – trying to evaporate as much of the water as possible.
Out of the corner of his eye, Nijimura saw that Kuroko had finally joined the battle with Aomine and Haizaki at some point – Satsuki having retired to where their client was, a heavy slash down one flank. The three of them working somewhat like a team, finally, with Haizaki using taijutsu to distract the clone – his sharingan eyes whirling as they kept him out of range of its attacks – while Aomine threw projectiles from between it and where Murasakibara and Midorima were surrounding Tazuna. Kuroko stayed out of sight, using the Nara family technique that he would have known as one of their branch houses to control the shadows and stop the clone's movements. It was too bad none of them was in any condition to come help out with the real Zabuza after they defeated the clone, but at least Nijimura didn't need to worry about them anymore.
On their side, they had managed to get rid of all the water Zabuza needed for his attacks, and incapacitate one of his legs thanks to a lucky combination of Akashi's genjutsu that made Zabuza overextend himself, Nijimura taking the chance to grab onto his leg, and Sanada's fire ninjutsu at point blank range.
It still wasn't enough. But then suddenly an arrow came flying, crunching through Zabuza's shoulder. He froze abruptly, and with a start Nijimura realised that Kuroko had sent his shadow with the arrow Midorima had released. It was chance that wasn't going to come again; but just as Sanada got ready to break Zabuza's neck, a number of senbon pierced it instead.
Eyeing the masked ninja towering over them, Nijimura really wished they didn't just have a group of genin here. None of them were in any position to fight someone new and fresh, not with Kuroko and Sanada facing chakra exhaustion, Murasakibara with a broken arm, Midorima, Aomine, and Satsuki all with slashed arteries, and Haizaki with at least two sprains he could see. The only ones still able to fight were Nijimura – who had lost enough blood that he knew his reaction time was slowing – and Akashi, who had long since lost all his weapons. Nijimura could see Sanada reaching the same conclusion as him, letting the masked ninja take Zabuza unchallenged even though they all knew Zabuza wasn't dead and the masked kid wasn't a hunter nin.
Nijimura waited until all the first aid had been done, Kuroko starting to nod off already and the others looking not much better as they came off the adrenaline high, before he turned to the white-faced Tazuna. Their client needed a very good explanation for why he was endangering the lives of Konohagakure ninja by not being upfront about just how dangerous the mission actually was – starting with the fact that Zabuza of the Mist of all people was involved. "Start talking."