Chapter 9 - Operation: Save Kakashi-sensei!
Staring down an opponent who vastly outranked any of us Genin? We probably looked like the biggest idiots of the century. Standing together, using teamwork to overpower a larger opponent, and using our strength in numbers? We had to be considered totally badass.
Zabuza seemed like he already knew the outcome of this battle as he stared us down both as his Water Clone version who was prepared to face us, and as his original form who was keeping our sensei trapped in his Water Prison Jutsu. I knew of a plan that could work against this type of situation, but I wanted Naruto to figure it out. It was a variation of something we had already done before, and it would work. However, this was Naruto's moment to shine, and I would let him do just that, if only to prove that he has what it takes to be a great ninja.
"Ok," Naruto signaled that he had a plan. "Ready? Let's bring this guy down."
At this, Zabuza began to laugh in a very sinister manner. "Big words for such a little man. You think your plan's going to keep you in the game?"
I know that he was simply trying to put us on edge and make us doubt ourselves, but I couldn't help but feel a little terrified of our ordeal. I didn't care though. Looking to the two boys beside me, I felt that this was where I needed to be. More importantly, this is where I wanted to be, right by their sides, in the heat of battle, protecting their backs just like they will protect mine.
"What are you doing?! I told you to run! The fight was over the moment I got caught. Now, take off!" Kakashi-sensei yelled at us from his prison. "Your mission is not to prove how brave you are. It's to save the bridge builder. Stay on mission!"
Naruto looked behind him. "Bridge builder?"
Tazuna looked down for a moment, as if debating for a brief moment. Hisa was still around his neck, protecting him. I know that he didn't know how strong her shield was, but I hope that he had some faith in our abilities. "Well I – I guess this all happened because of me… Because of my desire to live… But I won't let that stand in your way now." Now, Tazuna raised his head and had the most courageous expression I had seen from him yet. But there was determination there as well. "Forget about me, and do what you have to do! Go ahead and fight to save your sensei!"
I couldn't help the smirk that made its way onto my face. From the small scoff I heard to my left, I guess Sasuke could hold it in either.
"Alright. You hear that?" Sasuke smirked.
Naruto's grin got even wider. "Yeah, ya'know. You ready?"
I silently nod in answer. I was ready to take this guy down and save Kakashi-sensei.
But he just had to laugh again. And this time, it was an even more menacing laugh than last time, but just as chilling.
"You really haven't learned anything, have you?" Zabuza seemed to pity our naïveté. "Still playing your little game – pretending to be ninja. When I was your age, this hand had already crushed many opponents."
Everyone except Hisa and I gasped. I looked over to Hisa. She was a small dragon, whose turquoise and golden scales shined even in this thick fog. She was not the typical dragon that I remember vaguely from the other world. She didn't have wings, and she looked much more similar to the dragons depicted in many Asian style artworks. Her red eyes were conveying their determination to help me, but they also held worry, knowing what this man Zabuza was capable of.
"Zabuza," both Kakashi-sensei and I remarked. "The demon…"
As the original made a comment to Kakashi-sensei about how he must have been in his Bingo Book as well, the clone version of Zabuza heard me and seemed surprised. "So the dragons mentioned me after all…"
Sure, the dragons did tell me about The Demon, but that wasn't all. My Mother, Tsubasa Morimoto, also mentioned the horrors of her childhood when I was a baby… This was something she always regretted having to do, and she apologized for her actions constantly.
Kakashi-sensei turned to us and began explaining. "Long ago, in the Village Hidden in the Mist, also known as Blood Mist Village, before a student could become a ninja, there was one final test."
"Do you know about the graduation exam?"
"What graduation exam?" Naruto questioned.
Zabuza laughed some more. I was really starting to hate the sound of his laugh, squashing down my fear.
"What's the big deal anyway? We had graduation tests too." Poor naïve Naruto…
Laughing again, Zabuza looked up at us all with what I could imagine to be an evil smirk on his bandaged face. "Did you have to kill the other students to pass?"
Naruto and Sasuke looked so horrified at the idea. I could hardly look at them as well. This was my clan's country of origin. My clan was soaked in blood. Even Mother…
"Imagine young ninja like you and the Morimoto clan – eating together, training together – and then comes the final exam. Only they changed the rules: kill or be killed. You can't stop while your opponent still breathes. He was your friend, shared your dreams. Now, it's him or you."
"Stop talking…" I muttered.
But Kakashi-sensei didn't hear my plea. "Ten years ago, in the Village Hidden in the Mist, the graduation exam changed. One year before, a dark evil had filled the school with terror."
No one spoke, but I knew that in a sick way, everyone who didn't already know the story was interested in what happened. I could see Naruto visibly gulp.
"Without pause or hesitation, a young boy who was not even a ninja approached he class and took down over 100 other students," Kakashi-sensei finished.
Silence echoed in the clearing. It was so silent, that Zabuza's muttered words, which shouldn't have been heard, were as loud a bellowing siren. "It – it felt so – good!"
All of us on Team 7 flinched as he looked straight at us in murderous glee when he finished speaking. Naruto instinctively brought up his arm to defend himself from this demon. But it wasn't Naruto who should have brought up his guard.
It was Sasuke.
Sasuke was suddenly elbowed in the stomach from a speeding Zabuza and thrown into the air away from the rest of us. Naruto gasped in surprise and worry for his fellow teammate, and I called out Sasuke's name in horror. When Sasuke finally settled in the dirt, Zabuza had sped over to him again and drove his elbow once more into Sasuke's abdomen. This resulted in Sasuke spewing blood from his mouth, telling me that there were now some internal injuries.
"Sasuke!" I yelled in concern.
Standing up straight now, Zabuza slammed his foot down on the writhing Genin's stomach, seeming to enjoy the groans of pain that were coming from my teammate. Reaching behind his shoulder, Zabuza began to grip his large sword as if preparing for the final blow.
I grew angrier by the second as Zabuza deliberated with inflicting injury on the boy I saw as my brother. I could hear his cries of pain and I just felt the unbearably strong urge to charge at Zabuza.
"You're nothing," the Demon chuckled.
Time to go to work for a living!
"Stop right there!" Naruto exclaimed. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
All around Zabuza appeared many copies of Naruto, making Zabuza pause for a moment as he studied his situation. Deciding not to be outdone, I created some Water Clones as well, mixing them among all of Naruto's clones. Granted, my clones couldn't take as much of a beating like Naruto's Shadow Clones, but with my own vast chakra stores thanks to my clan, I was able to create just as many clones as Naruto. Together, we created quite the intimidating army for any other opponent, but Zabuza wasn't an ordinary opponent.
Naruto and I shared a quick glance at each other, and I nodded to our silent exchange. All of us took out kunai knives and prepared to face the rogue ninja before us.
"Here we go!" all of us clones said together.
We all leapt towards Zabuza with our kunai positioned to deal some damage to Zabuza. All of us were compacted around him to the point where we created a dome around the form of our opponent, leaving Sasuke in the clear. As the original, I had stayed behind and flashed Sasuke to a further distance from where the Clone Dome was.
Once Sasuke understood what had happened, he turned around to give me a thankful glance, but he paused for a moment and gave me a questioning expression. I simply winked at confused boy and waited until Zabuza retaliated against all of the clones of Naruto and I. All of us went flying away from the enemy and were skidding along the ground. My Water Clones exploded back into water almost immediately. I could see one of the many Narutos rummaging inside of his pack, looking for something in particular. He had a look on his face which clearly told anyone who knew him well that he wasn't about ready to give up.
"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled as he threw a foreign object to his teammate. I helped Sasuke get up quickly so that he could catch what had been thrown his way. As soon as Sasuke grabbed the object, he smirked and rotated himself around and brandish what Naruto had given to him.
Sasuke unfurled the weapon that had been given to him. This weapon now had four blades with a circular handle on the inside of the blade, revealing it to be an oversized shuriken, also known as a throwing star. "Demon Wind Shuriken, Windmill of Shadows!"
Zabuza didn't seem too impressed with this display though. "A shuriken? You'll never touch me with that."
Not deterred by Zabuza's words, Sasuke leapt up into the air, displaying a certain grace that we normally didn't see from him. Turning himself around in the air to create more momentum, Sasuke wound up the shuriken and threw it at Zabuza with all of his might.
The clone of Zabuza waited for the shuriken to make its move, but he was surprised when the weapon bypassed him all together and went straight for the original body. As, Zabuza was concerned with this, I executed a few hand signs as well and then went over to where Tazuna and Hisa were situated inside of her barrier, preparing for anything to come our way.
"So, you pass the clone and aim for my real body. Smart," Zabuza seemed to be impressed a little bit by us now.
"But not smart enough," he easily caught the shuriken with his left hand. I had to smirk at our opponent underestimating us Team 7.
As if sensing that this wasn't finished, Zabuza paused and looked up to see another shuriken coming his way. It was a shuriken that had hidden itself inside of the shadow of the first shuriken that Sasuke had thrown. This was known as the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu, which in my opinion was aptly named. My smirk grew wider. He didn't have any more hands to use to block this one.
To everyone's amazement, Zabuza was quick enough to leap over the second shuriken. He was smirking underneath the bandages as he exclaimed, "I told you a shuriken can't touch me!"
I could feel Tazuna stiffen behind me, but Sasuke and I just smirked at this.
POOF!
Naruto suddenly burst forth from a cloud of smoke right where the shuriken had just been flying through the air. Gasps of amazement could be heard from Tazuna, Hisa, and Kakashi-sensei as they witnessed the genius of Naruto as he prepared a kunai knife in his hand. Now Zabuza looked behind him as well when he heard the poof. His eyes widened in surprise as he laid eyes on the Genin that he was so sure had been over by Sasuke.
Throwing his kunai with all of his might, Naruto exclaimed, "EAT THIS!"
Quick as lightning, Zabuza dodged the attack by letting go of the Water Prison Jutsu, his hand coming out of the water completely. As the rogue ninja turned towards Naruto, I could see a faint line of blood along his cheek from where the kunai had grazed him, and I also saw a crazed look in his eyes.
Everyone gasped at seeing Zabuza dodge everything that was thrown at him. In his rage, our enemy was now preparing to throw Sasuke's shuriken that he had in his hand at Naruto now, and being in midair, he couldn't dodge this.
"I'LL DESTROY YOU!" Zabuza roared.
I would be more worried if I wasn't in on a little secret…
POOF!
From Zabuza's left hand, another cloud of smoke appeared. I emerged from the smoke holding onto the ninja's arm. Using the momentum that Zabuza had so graciously shared, I rotated myself counter-clockwise and brought out my leg towards his face.
Clocking him in the jaw with my enhanced strength, I smirked at my accomplishment, or rather, the accomplishment of all of us on Team 7. "CHECKMATE, IDIOT!"
Off balance now, there was nothing in Zabuza's hand to harm Naruto, but now I was too close to the crazed ninja. Just as I thought he was going to perform some acrobatic maneuver to attack me, an arm went around my form and held onto Zabuza's wrist. I fell to the ground at the feet of the person who had helped me out at a critical time.
Kakashi-sensei!
I had to smile at seeing him free from his imprisonment. His Sharingan was fully emblazoned with determination overflowing from him. I heard Zabuza gasp from surprise once again. He really needs to stop underestimating people.
Another gasp, this time for air, came from over by the river. "Is Akina okay!?"
Aww, I thought. Naruto's worried about me.
Flashing over to a safer distance from Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza, I went over to Sasuke who greeted me with a grin and then looked over to the other Akina who was situated by Tazuna and Hisa. The ironic thing about Water Clones is that while the element of water usually represents something that isn't limited and free flowing, the clones aren't so unlimited. Not only are they restrained from going too far away from the host body, they also have to share the same consciousness as the host body. In simpler terms, it's like having a one person puppet show. The more puppets you have, the harder it is to control all of them with perfect accuracy so that they operate with you instead of flopping around uselessly.
"She's fine, Naruto," Sasuke replied for me to the worried blond who was taking a swim. I could see a responding grin from the knucklehead who was more worried about me than I was.
"Naruto, that was an excellent plan," our sensei called out. "You've really grown, haven't you?"
A little snicker erupted from Naruto as he began to explain our plan. "I knew I couldn't beat him with my Shadow Clones. That was just to distract him. And Akina added in her Water Clones to distract him from her as well. While he fought the clones, I turned into a Demon Wind Shuriken, and Akina got Sasuke out of there. She then switched with one of her clones who had stayed clear and stuffed her transformed shuriken self into Sasuke's bag as well. He didn't know what to do, ya'know!"
I smirked at Naruto's way of explaining things. He was so proud of himself, but I knew that he appreciated all of the help we gave as well. But it was his idea to use an altered version of our strategy from the bell test in this situation.
"I used one of the clones to transform into the shuriken. When I threw it to Sasuke, it looked like a real shuriken. Sasuke could tell it was me in a second, and put everything together from when Akina had given him a shuriken as well, but it was actually the real Akina while everyone else saw a Water Clone in her place. Sasuke spun around so no one could see and pulled out Akina who was now a shuriken. Now there were two shuriken. One was Akina. One was me.
"I hid in the shadow of the Akina shuriken, and our target was the real Zabuza. Of course, I knew that I couldn't fight Zabuza myself. That wasn't in the game plan. I wanted to get in there and break up his Water Prison. Akina was the one who came up with the idea to use herself as well so that she could try to use her enhanced Morimoto strength to knock out Zabuza, or at least knock him away from the Water Prison if the first plan didn't work. We didn't know his clone would be wrecked too. That was a bonus, ya'know!"
"Hn," Sasuke scoffed from beside me. "Don't brag. You just lucked out. Akina was the one who originally created this plan in the bell test, you just tweaked it."
"Why thank you for the high praise," I sarcastically thanked him in a snooty accent.
Tazuna wasn't amused though. "The whole thing was just a fluke!"
It really wasn't a fluke. Taking someone's original idea and constructing it to fulfill the needs of your current situation without conveying these changes with spoken words showed just how ingenious this whole plan truly was. And it shows just how far we have come together as a team since we first were brought into Team 7.
It pisses me off a little that all of us can have such flawless teamwork, and yet the two of them act like they hate each other. I know that they would be the best of friends if they just got over their need to be better than the other.
Hearing a scoff from near the river, I turned to see Zabuza not looking very pleased with this situation. "I got distracted and lost my grip on the Water Prison."
"Don't flatter yourself," Kakashi-sensei replied to the smug ninja. "You weren't distracted. You were forced to let go."
"Hn."
Don't go copying Sasuke now.
"Your technique worked on me once. But it won't work again. So what's it going to be?"
Cue the stare down between two highly skilled ninja. It was almost like watching a shootout in an Old Western film. I half expected the two of them to pull out their pistols any second now, and shoot the other down.
"Akina."
The simple hint from Sasuke made me remember that we need to be protecting the bridge builder. I know that Sasuke hadn't met Hisa yet, but I still puffed out my cheeks a little at the insult to me for leaving Tazuna in her care. I nodded to Hisa as I grabbed a hold of Sasuke's shoulder. Once I had done this, Hisa extended her barrier to just beyond where Sasuke and I were standing. However, this doesn't mean that we were pushed away. Because I was holding onto Sasuke, he wasn't affected by the change in the barrier, and being from the Morimoto clan, I was able to pass through Hisa's shields easily.
"Milady."
I turned to Hisa who still remained around Tazuna's neck. The other two were startled. It made sense when this was the first time that Hisa had spoken since being summoned.
"Lord Ryuujin and Lady Sora will be happy to know that you have grown to the point of being able to take on the Demon Zabuza Momochi."
I suppressed the need to sweat drop. While I really liked having Hisa around, she was always so formal with me and made me seem so much larger in life than I actually was. I looked back up at her before I replied back.
"Just please don't forget to mention that it was a team effort. Sasuke and Naruto helped out a lot too."
"But Milady was the one who came up with the plan first, and without you, they would have been killed since the plan would not have been executed properly without you present."
I groaned this time. "Hisa, you sort of missed the point. It was a plan that involved the entire team, and it worked. We got Kakashi-sensei out of the Water Prison."
Hisa seemed to be looking off into the distance, as if she didn't hear me. This dragon thinks way too highly of me…
"What's with all of the 'milady' stuff?" Sasuke asked.
Suddenly, Hisa turned back to Sasuke and hopped off of Tazuna's shoulder. She then grew in size to the point where she was as tall as an elephant. Lightning was erupting from her mouth as she looked down at Sasuke with malice. Oh, boy.
"DO YOU THINK THAT MILADY AKINA IS NOT WORTHY OF HER TITLE? IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK, PUNY MORTAL?!"
Lightning almost hit Sasuke as he took a step back from Hisa as she began to open her mouth, showing that she was about to unleash a large lightning attack on anyone who disrespected me at all. Sasuke seemed to sweat drop as he replied.
"Nope, no disrespect here. Milady and I are good friends. She just didn't mention that she had such a title…"
It took a moment for this information to sink in, but once it did, Hisa shrunk back to her previous size with a large smirk on her face. "That's what I thought!"
Face palming myself, I knew that I was never going to live this down from Sasuke later.
Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I could see Zabuza and Kakashi-sensei finally leaping away from each other to start their showdown. They both landed a good distance away on top of the water and began making hand signs. There were so many that they were both performing in perfect sync. It had to be because of Kakashi-sensei's Sharingan that he was able to simultaneously copy Zabuza's moves.
Once they had both done the last hand sign, they both called out their jutsu which happened to be the familiar Water Dragon Jutsu. With this completed, two swirling masses of water between them began to move in opposite directions until they began forming something. They were forming into two dragons which then proceeded to battle the other. Both dragons collided with each other, expelling large amounts of water from the river in every direction.
A large wave made its way over to us, and both Sasuke and Tazuna prepared themselves for the onslaught of water that never came. The barrier that Hisa created kept out all of the water, but it still looked funny to have water surrounding us up to my head at times and not be swept away by it.
Just as the waves cleared out, we could see that both Water Dragons were evenly matched with each other to the point where they were starting to collapse on each other. In the middle of the collapsing water, I could make out a battle of strength going on between Kakashi-sensei with a kunai and Zabuza who brandished his large assassin sword.
With grunts from the two of them after a long moment trying to outmatch the other in strength, both elite ninja leapt away from each other once more. I grew confused at what happened next though as Zabuza began running around in a circular motion from our sensei, but Sensei seemed to copy it exactly. It made it look like a 3-D mirror match. Now Zabuza stopped and raised his hands in the same way he had when he performed the Hidden Mist Jutsu at the beginning of this encounter, and again, Kakashi-sensei was copying every move as it happened with no delays in between.
"He's not just following," Tazuna announced. "He moves the same way at the same time."
Suddenly, I heard Kakashi-sensei say something that sounded like the end of a sentence, as if the two of them were having a silent conversation. Or, more likely, Kakashi-sensei was psyching out Zabuza by making him think that he can read minds. So it might just be lucky guesses.
"Ha!" Zabuza scoffed. "All you're doing is copying me like a monkey."
Then suddenly, they were talking together at the same time. "You can't beat me with cheap tricks. I'll crush you!"
Zabuza was getting furious now. "When I finish with you, you'll never open that monkey mouth again."
But then he just stopped. He was staring at Kakashi-sensei with an expression I can only describe as horrified, confused, and incredulous all rolled into one. He could seem to believe whatever it was that he thought was there beside our sensei.
It seemed that Zabuza was taking too long for Kakashi-sensei's tastes though since he finished out the rest of the hand signs for the jutsu and declared that it was a water style jutsu by the name of Giant Vortex. In front of Kakashi-sensei, the water suddenly shot from the river and created a spiral before him as it closed up, obscuring Zabuza's view of his opponent as it shot towards him.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Zabuza cried.
With that, the enemy was swept up in the strong current created by the Giant Vortex Jutsu, and more water comes at us from the river once more. Remembering that Naruto was in the river still, I grew worried for him.
"Naruto! Find something to grab onto!" I hollered, hoping that he would hear me over the roar of the water.
As the water cleared out from the jutsu, I could see that Naruto had grabbed onto a small, study tree at the river's edge on our side of it. I grinned knowing that he was okay now instead of potentially drowning.
Once the Kakashi-sensei's water circled back and cleared from our area, I focused my gaze on an area over by a large tree on the other side of the clearing where I could feel Zabuza's chakra coming from. Now that he was exhausted, there was nowhere for him to hide from my Sensor capabilities within this large clearing. He was bracing himself against the tree and looked like he didn't have much energy left in him to fight with. That was when Kakashi-sensei threw multiple kunai towards his enemy. Too drained to even notice the danger, Zabuza was unable to dodge any of the kunai directed his way. He hollered in pain as his mind and body registered the pain he was now in.
"You're finished," Kakashi-sensei announced.
By now, all of the water our sensei had used in his jutsu was receding back into the river where it belonged which left the remaining area free for us from Team 7 to make our way over to see what was happening from a safe distance. I made my way over to Naruto before Hisa even had time to let down the barrier and helped him to his feet. Naruto gave an appreciative grin and we both joined Sasuke beside Tazuna and Hisa as we stood, waiting for Kakashi-sensei to finish this fight.
"How?" Zabuza questioned. "Can you see into the future?"
There was no way that this was likely, but Kakashi-sensei continued the ruse that I was sure he was pulling when he answered Zabuza's question. "Yes. This is your last battle ever."
I was suddenly startled by the presence of another chakra signature when I saw two senbon, also called throwing needles, make their way through the air to Zabuza. With incredible accuracy, they hit two major points in his neck, causing the ninja to grunt before I could no longer feel his chakra at work. With a sinking feeling, I realized that this meant he must now be dead…
Everyone gasped at this turn of events, even Kakashi-sensei was surprised at this. We all turned to look into a tree that was off to the side of the clearing. This guy had to be fast if I was only able to sense him just as he attacked our enemy. At least, I assumed he was a guy, but his hairstyle of a covered bun at the back of his head with long bangs which reached to halfway down his torso framing his face, it made determining his gender a little harder than normal. By his stature though, I had to assume this was a young man.
Anyway, this person wore a short-sleeved, green haori jacket with white trim over what looked like dark tan pinstriped hakama pants which ended just after his knees. Underneath his haori, he also wore a matching dark tan long-sleeved shirt which also happened to be pinstriped. With a brown belt and a mask with red swirling designs indicating he was an ANBU, this stranger seemed very relaxed now that Zabuza was down.
"You were right," the ANBU chuckled with an innocent voice. "It was his last battle."
I could feel Naruto right next to me as he tensed up and was almost growling with frustration at what had just happened. However, I didn't pay a lot of attention to this right away since I could now see Kakashi-sensei jumping down from the tree he was in to Zabuza's body. He quickly checked the ninja's pulse at his neck. When Sensei was sure that there were no vital signs, he turned his gaze over to the stranger.
The guy bowed his head to Kakashi-sensei. "Thank you. I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time, waiting for this chance to finally take him down."
"By your mask, I see that you're a tracker ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist."
The ninja raised himself out of the boy. "Impressive. You're well informed."
It made sense. Killing Zabuza and he also was wearing a mask to show that he is ANBU… But I couldn't shake this feeling that something was off…
Naruto zoomed in front of us all as he exclaimed, "A tracker?!"
I could barely contain a small chuckle coming from me.
"Naruto, tracker ninja have a certain role that they play for their village. You were pulling a prank on the old man during this lesson, so it makes sense that you don't remember any of what we learned about tracker ninja."
Giving me a sheepish grin, Naruto paid attention as I quickly explained things to him. "When a ninja breaks away from their home village and become rogue, they take with them all kinds of secrets, secrets about his people. Trackers are specifically trained to hunt down these ninja and eliminate them. This is so that the secrets of the village remain secrets from other nations."
With a nod of understanding, Naruto was caught back up with what he needed to know right at this moment.
"That's correct. I'm a member of the elite tracking unit of the Village Hidden in the Mist. It was my duty to stop Zabuza."
Again, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong, but I also began to think that this guy was much younger than I was originally picturing him to be. Sure, he was short, but his voice held a certain youth to it as well. He might not be much older than we are now, and yet he is an elite ninja taking down rogues from his nation… This kid must be incredibly strong!
Before I could protest against it, Naruto went running towards the tree that the stranger was situated in. Stopping just before he was right under it, Naruto glared at the tracker ninja before him and then glanced back at Zabuza's body next to Kakashi-sensei. Looking back to the person on the tree branch, Naruto growled in frustration. I could tell that he could not believe what he had just seen as he took another look at the fallen ninja.
"What is this? Who do you think you are?!" Naruto cried as he pointed an accusing finger at the ninja in the tree.
Nothing was said as the boy continued to look down at Naruto from his perch.
"Did you hear me?" Naruto growled once more.
Kakashi-sensei moved to calm down the blond Genin. "Easy, Naruto. He's not our enemy."
"That's not the point! Did you see what he did, just like that?" He by now had turned around to try and explain to our sensei what he was talking about.
"Zabuza was huge and powerful, like some kind of monster. And this kid, who's no bigger than me, he brought down Zabuza with one move like it was nothing. I mean, what does that make us? We're just fumbling around. We don't know anything. How can I accept that?!"
"Well," Kakashi interrupted Naruto's tirade, "even if you don't accept it, still… it did happen, Naruto."
Not knowing how to respond to this, Naruto looked up at our sensei and growled in frustration at the situation as Kakashi-sensei placed a hand on his head in comfort. "In this world, there are kids who are younger than you and yet stronger than me."
I knew that this wouldn't please either Naruto or Sasuke who both looked away at this statement from Sensei. I understood their frustration though, because I felt it too. It made me want to get stronger so that I could face these types of opponents and help out my precious people.
My thoughts were interrupted when the tracker disappeared from the tree in a gust of wind and then reappeared by Zabuza's body. He went to pick up Zabuza's body and it almost looked funny to see the size difference between the two of them, or at least it would have if this were any other situation. Now that he had a proper hold on the body of the rogue ninja, the boy looked up to the rest of us as he brought his hand up in a hand sign.
"Your struggle is over for now. I must deal with the remains. There are many secrets in this body. They must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands. Please excuse me. Farewell."
With that, wind danced around the boy once again and then they were gone.
"He disappeared!"
Storming over to where the boy had just disappeared from, Naruto looked around frantically for any sign of where he had gone. There would be no trace though. I couldn't even sense the boy in the area anymore as I stretched my field of perception farther than the clearing. But Naruto didn't give up.
"Let it go," Kakashi-sensei advised.
Growling in anger, Naruto lowered himself to the ground. Balling his hands into fists, he started to pound the earth beneath him in rage and frustration as he roared to himself more than to the rest of us in the clearing. "What are we doing here? We're nothing! I can't believe it!"
More and more times, Naruto punched the ground. I wanted to go over to him and tell him to stop hurting himself. But I knew that I couldn't. This was something that I knew Naruto had to face himself, a struggle that he had to overcome in his own way, without my interference. This was one of those times when I felt so helpless because I was so useless in this situation, and many other situations to come with this type of life.
After watching this continue for a few moments, Kakashi-sensei went towards Naruto and grabbed his wrist before another punch could be thrown to the ground. "As ninja, the things we encounter are never easy. Save your anger for the next enemy."
While Naruto stopped, I think we all felt that this was a tough pill to swallow. We were just starting our ninja journey, and yet there were people who completely outclassed us. It was frustrating beyond belief.
"We haven't completed our mission yet," Kakashi-sensei remarked. "We still have to get the bridge builder to his bridge."
The subject now changed, we all let out a bit of our tension and Tazuna even laughed in response to Sensei's reminder. "Sorry I caused all this trouble for you. But you can rest at my house when we get to the village."
"Alright, let's get a move on."
And with that, we began to make our way to Tazuna's village so that he could help finish the bridge that would transform a nation. Before we could get far though, Kakashi-sensei froze in his tracks. I could see him shaking and then suddenly, he was falling.
Every one of us gasped at seeing Kakashi-sensei collapsing very suddenly. All of us rushed to our sensei's side as we tried to figure out what happened. I immediately fell to the ground to check on him and tried to shake him awake. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't wake him up.
"Kakashi-sensei!" we all yelled, wondering what was going on.
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Author's Note
Hey again! Thanks to the people that have been Followed and Favorited my story or even me. I also want to thank the people who reviewed last chapter. You guys are amazing!
Please leave a review below, it really helps motivate me to write more... :3
I'm going to challenge you guys to do 3 reviews for this chapter as well, and those that do are going to get a shout out in the next chapter. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!
Also, did anyone catch the Avengers reference that I put in?