AN: I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form, it all belongs to Kishimoto-dono

Chapter 7

As the three jonin stared at each other, a singe leaf that was floating down was the unofficial signal to begin.

Blurs of motion and the ringing of metal on metal was all that Tazuna's eyes were able to comprehend. The genin, meanwhile, were treated to a true shinobi battle, how the elite of their craft fought.

Kakashi and Kurenai were a combined flurry of kunai strikes and physical attacks while Zabuza deftly blocked the onslaught with his sword the Kubikiri Bocho (Decapitating Blade). At one point, the 'Demon of the Mist' was able to go on the offensive stunning the spectators with how easy he was able to handle the massive zanbato single-handedly. During the melee, Kurenai was able to duck away quick enough to flash through a set of four hand signs enacting one of her personal jutsus:

"Ninja Art: Fields of Haze Jutsu." She whispered into the wind.

As the genjutsu took hold, Zabuza's vision started blurring as if sweat was pouring into his eyes. The effects were strong enough to allow the Leaf ninja to hit Zabuza hard enough to knock him onto the lake.

"KAI" Zabuza finally shouted after realizing what had happened to obscure his eyes. 'I never even felt the signs of a genjutsu starting, she is better then I had heard about.'

"Very impressive, Ms. Yuuhi. I was unaware of when you caught me. However, I know hold the advantage in this fight."

As Zabuza was speaking, the two sensei's were rushing the missing mist shinobi until a sudden cry startled them.

"Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu"

The Leaf ninja's were to late to stop as their bodies were surrounded in a ball of water roughly 2.5 meters in diameter and as thick as syrup which halted all movement.

"Teams 7 & 8, get Tazuna out of here its over" Kakashi yelled to the young genin.

"No! We can't leave you sensei! Its like what you said the first day, 'Those who abandon their comrades are lower that rash.' Shika, plans?" Naruto called out as he began rushing towards the new battle ground.

"Hinata, Ino, & Kiba: flank around Tazuna to maximize your abilities and keep scouting for others; Choji and Naruto form a reverse delta formation. Go!" Shikamaru ordered without his usual lazy drawl.

Despite her current situation, Kurenai could not help but smile at the way her charges were handling the situation. No one questioned Naruto's belief of freeing their sensei's no matter what, Shikamaru's formation orders which while having no time to truly analyze all possibilities came up with the best possible combination of attack and defense forces. What surprised her the most was that Ino did not complain about anything as was her usual behavior.

The attack group began their maneuvers with Naruto calling forth five shadow clones, Choji was gathering chakra to prepare an attack based on what Zabuza did, and Shikamaru stayed towards the rear trying to plot out their next move and enhance their odds of recovering their ensnared leaders while eliminating their target.

Once the young students were near, Zabuza sent out two Mizu Bushin (Water clones) to engage the genin. Naruto and his clones began brawling with the clone on the left while Choji enacted one of his family jutsus known as the meat tank. All the water clone could do was dodge and escape from the rolling ball that was once the aspiring ninja.

During Naruto's fight against the clone, he managed to toss the lazy Nara some oversized shuriken known as windmill shuriken.

'Hn, nice plan Naruto, no doubt he thought of it on the fly. Now let's just see if it works.'

"Naruto, Choji, stop randomly attacking, if you want to win you have to create an opening." Shikamaru shouted to his comrades praying that they got the message he was hoping to relay to them.

While the attack group went to work against Zabuza, Hinata noted a figure sitting in the trees forty meters to their left. Trusting Kiba's nose to tell him of anything, she whispered to Ino:

"Ino watch out for the tree line forty meters out, twelve degrees left of here, someone with an ANBU style mask hiding in the trees"

"Got it."

Meanwhile back with Shikamaru's squad, the gamble worked as a small path was created straight towards the real Zabuza.

'Here goes nothing' the lazy genius thought to himself as he launched the weapons that Naruto tossed him earlier.

The shuriken went high over Zabuza's head.

The one in the shadows however went straight towards his legs and were easy to jump over.

"Two shuriken that were poorly aimed? Is that all that you as a student of Kakashi is able to manage? Old friend, I am disappoint…"

"Guess again Brow-less!" A voice shouted behind Zabuza.

"What?!"

"Gotcha, shadow possession a success."

The Demon of the mist found his head forcibly turned to the ground where he saw his shadow was connected to the young boy on the shore who was kneeling with his hands in the sign of the rat. As the boy stood, he moved his hand as if grabbing a kunai and pointed it to his chest. Zabuza became fully aware of the cold, hard metal situated right above his heart held by his own hand, identically like the shadow users.

"Release them or I will be forced to use this, you don't really have much of a choice. Checkmate." Shikamaru drawled out praying not to have to kill his sensei's friend.

"Guess I don't then. Kakashi, Kurenai-san, you've trained them well. I guess that our record is now…uk"

Two senbon needles pierced the missing ninja's neck, their trajectory from the trees.

"Thank you for the assistance in containing him. I have sought this one for some time and he has constantly eluded me." An androgynous voice coming from near Kiba stated.

"What the..? Where the…? Huh?" Kiba eloquently spoke.

"I am a hunter ninja from the mist. I observed the fight and struck at the most opportune moment."

As the strange Hunter spoke, Kakashi went over to his friend's body trying to find a sign of life.

'I've lost another one. Why does this happen?'

"Rest easy Zabuza, farewell my friend."

"Kakashi-sensei, why if Zabuza was your friend did you fight him so hard?" Ino solemnly asked.

"It was part of the mission. Ours was to protect Tazuna, his was to remove him. Kurenai answered for the obviously somber Kakashi.

"I did not enjoy it, but it was unfortunately necessary to ensure our mission. Remember what happened because if you have friends in other villages, this could happen for you as well." Kakashi added on.

"I must take the body now in order to prevent his secrets from leaking out." The strange ninja said while hefting Zabuza's body onto their shoulder with some difficulty.

"Go."

With that the hunter ninja vanished in a mirror of ice with but a brief chuckle as they disappeared.

'Wait a second. A mirror of ice?' Kakashi wondered.

"Kiba, what scent could you get off the Hunter Ninja?" Kakashi asked slowly, as if he already knew the answer to his question.

"Well, now that you mention it, kinda like snow and rabbits. Why?" Kiba answered, confusion etched into his voice.

Kurenai, Hinata, Shikamaru, & Naruto slowly bac ked away as Kakashi started shaking; anger and killing intent were rolling off of him in waves. Ino was the one to brave the sensei with a question.

"Kakashi-sensei, what is wrong?"

"HAKU, You little sonofa… He was about to say he lost and would've lost the bet if you hadn't interfered! I should've known that was you…"

Kakashi began his rant which continued into a lesson of language none present ever expected.

Two minutes in, Kurenai cast a genjutsu over the irate Jonin which drowned out the speech, leaving one embarrassed Kunoichi-sensei, three mortified genin, Kiba trying to understand what Kakashi said, Naruto taking notes for later use, Tazuna wondering if any of the threats were physically possible, and Shikamaru who fell asleep halfway through.

"Kurenai-sensei, what should we do about sensei? I've never seen him like this before and am afraid to go near him." Hinata informed her surrogate mother.

"I guess we need to tie him up and have the boys carry him to Tazuna's house. Ino, do you have any ninja wire?

Ino?

INO?"

Barely broken from her state of shock and stupor, the young mind walker simply handed the requested item to her sensei, not even glancing away from Kakashi who was now demonstrating his threats to the two missing ninja on a log.

"Naruto, Choji, & Kiba; it looks like you are going to have to be the ones to rope him. Consider this training." Kurenai ordered matter of factly.

After four rounds of rock paper scissors to determine who would go first, Kiba had the wire and began his assault. All the genin were reminded of the Tora missions.

After thirty minutes of struggling, One shadow possession, and Ino's mind replacement jutsu, Kakashi was finally subdued to where they could continue on with the mission.

Dragging their still grumbling sensei, the two teams and their client were able to arrive at their client's house where they would be staying for the rest of the week.