A/N: Want to know what happened during all the big timeskips in the previous chapters? Then read my new side story, "Nowhere Slowly"—it's a series of drabbles and oneshots covering the many misadventures of Keiji and Company over the years! Featuring humorous moments, heartwarming moments, tearjerking moments, and much, much more!

I don't own Naruto. If I did, Kabuto would not have lived nearly as long as he did.

The next day went without any incident; things were actually going pretty well for once. Even so, I had a seriously bad feeling in my gut, like I forgot something important, but I couldn't put my finger on it. In any case, I still had to figure out a way to practice my speed, and the only way I could think of would be to ask Kakashi-sensei for help. If anyone could come up with a way to train while guarding someone, it would be him.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

The jounin was leaning against a post outside the house.

"Good morning, Keiji. Do you need something?"

"Do you know of any advanced flash-step techniques?"

He cocked his head at the question.

"I'm guessing you have a reason for asking me that. Does it have to do with the fight yesterday?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I wasn't fast enough to get out of the way of that kunai. I bet those guys aren't the only dangerous ninja we'll be fighting on this mission; I've always been good at those techniques, and I want to get faster."

"Well, that's going to be difficult to do when we're guarding Tazuna. But I think I might know something. How much do you know of how flash-step works?"

I scratched my head, trying to remember the specifics from the academy. "Er, I think it's about focusing chakra into your legs and the soles of your feet to increase the muscle power of your legs to help launch you at high speeds, while also creating a small cushion of air beneath your feet to reduce friction. For further distance and greater speed, you need more chakra, right?"

Kakashi nodded. "Good. I see you payed attention in the academy. But just using the most obvious applications of techniques doesn't always cut it out in the field. Sometimes, you need to get creative in order to get ahead. For example..."

He walked out into the front yard, beckoning me to follow him, then pointed to a small tree on the edge of the yard.

"Here's a little challenge for you that might help. See that? I want you to hit that tree without moving from this spot, and without using kunai or shuriken."

"What does this have to do with flash-stepping or speed?"

"That's for you to figure out on your own, Keiji. I have a patrol shift now; you can guard this area while you train. Have fun!"

Seriously? Why not just tell me to sand the floor and paint the fence, Mr. Miyagi?

Before I could say anything else, he flash-stepped away himself, leaving me to practice alone. Believe me, I tried my damndest to figure out the riddle. I knew it had to do with weaponizing the flash-step somehow, and that figuring that out would probably give me extra insight into how the basic technique worked that I could use as well. But try as I might, I couldn't think of the answer. By nightfall, I still hadn't figured it out, and I went inside, disheartened at my lack of progress. After dinner, I prepared to go to sleep in preparation for my next shift. I had just gone to Tazuna's room where all the others were sleeping and laid down on my bedroll when I had a sudden, frightening realization—I HAD forgotten something important after all.

Wait. In canon, the team didn't go straight from the Demon Brothers to Tazuna's house; they encountered Zabuza, fought him, and THEN went to his house! So why haven't we seen him yet? What changed?

The thought really frightened me, for obvious reasons. Zabuza was one of the most dangerous foes in the earlier part of the series; a pro assassin like him wouldn't stop chasing his target just because a couple of his minions lost. Hell, they lost in the series in much the same way they did this time around. Never before had "peace and quiet" terrified me so. Then I had another, equally terrifying realization:

Wait. There was one major difference yesterday: we coordinated a whole lot better in the fight than the team did in canon, partially as a result of me shaking Naru-nii out of his fear. Would that be enough to make Zabuza think we were more efficient than he thought, and make him decide to wait until later to attack? If so, the best time for him to make his move would be...

"Shit! ShitshitshitshitSHIT!"

Yup, that pretty much summed it all up perfectly. I ran as fast as I could to find Kakashi-sensei, who was currently on his shift. Problem was, how would I warn him without giving away my prior knowledge of what was to come? It turned out I didn't have to explain much. Normally I would add "fortunately" to the previous sentence.

This was absolutely NOT one of those times.

"Ah. It looks like the old man's bodyguards are more than slightly competent after all. And here I thought I was being quiet!"

Zabuza was climbing through a window... and was directly between me and the hallway toward the front door, where Kakashi was outside on guard. It took me everything I had not to completely freak out at being trapped by one of the single scariest opponents in the early episodes of the series.

"The others aren't too far away, you know. I only have to scream and—"

"You'd be dead before you even made a sound, kid—not that keeping quiet will save you. Nothing personal kid, but I'm going to have to take your life."

Before either of us could move, a blur slammed into Zabuza and sent him flying through the wall to the outside.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

The jounin didn't take his eye off his enemy as he spoke quickly and authoritatively. "Keiji! Wake up the others and get Tazuna out of here, now!"

"But—"

"THAT'S AN ORDER, HARUTANI!"

When your boss yells at you by your last name, it generally means that everyone is in big trouble. In spite of Kakashi's orders, I knew from canon that he was going to have a tough time of it initially, and that in canon the team had to help save him—and right now canon had already taken a pretty serious detour. This was no time to abandon him and risk getting an important character killed too early. So I ran to where the others were—but not to get Tazuna out.

"Naru-nii! Sasuke-kun! Wake up, we're under attack!"

Both of my teammates quickly got out of their bedrolls and to their feet. Sasuke immediately moved toward Tazuna, who was in a state of mild panic. "Come on, old man. We need to get you out of here!"

I knew better; Haku was almost certainly nearby and waiting for us to take our charge outside and in the open where he could kill him. But I couldn't tell the others that.

"No! Uh, I mean, I think he'll be safer indoors—if the other guy has backup, they'll be waiting outside. Besides, Kakashi-sensei needs our help!"

Naru-nii and Sasuke paused for a few seconds, then both nodded in agreement. The Uchiha looked back toward Tazuna. "Change of plans. Stay in this room and lock the door. Don't leave the room, and don't open the door for anyone!"

We rushed to our leader's aid, and found both ninja locked in combat. Just in time, too—The fight was going more or less as canon had it, with Kakashi-sensei suddenly finding himself trapped by the water prison. The jounin turned to us, sharingan flaring.

"I thought I told you to take Tazuna and run! This one is too much for you!"

"Sorry to say this, but they won't get far. Feel free to watch your kids die!"

Zabuza created a water clone, which immediately charged at the three of us; we barely managed to dodge his attack. Naruto created several shadow-clones, and Sasuke readied his best jutsu. The best I could do was raise a kunai—and that only served to remind me of how out-of-place I was among the other two members of the team. As we began to fight the clone, I remembered something from canon—the water prison technique couldn't be sustained if Zabuza got hit while using it. Unfortunately, we were a good deal away from him, and the best we could do was defend against the clone.

Dammit, how the hell do we hit him from here? Think! Wait...

Yeah, this was the very kind of situation where solving the riddle would help. Naru-nii and Sasuke could try to use the fake shuriken trick from canon, but they would need more space in which to ready it. And this wasn't the wide-open area from canon; this was a small front yard surrounded by trees and a small lake. There wasn't any way they could pull out the shuriken and throw it at this close range in this small an area without the clone killing them!

I dodged a sword slash by inches, and felt the wind from the sheer force and speed of the swing—and that's when inspiration struck me. Flash-step used chakra to increase the speed at which your legs moved so that they pushed off the ground with greater force, while also forcing air beneath your feet. But what if you did that with your arm and fist? If you made a punch move fast enough...

Well, it's worth a shot.

Dodging strategically to place myself and the clone directly between me and the real Zabuza, I focused all my chakra into my right arm and hand, thrusting it out toward the clone. The clone got out of the way... and to the surprise of everyone, a small shockwave of air shot past it toward the real Zabuza.

Evidently, this technique wasn't something he had seen before, because the missing kiri-nin got hit by it, freeing Kakashi-sensei from the water prison. As Kakashi began his counterattack, Naru-nii and Sasuke finished off the distracted clone and turned to me.

"Keiji-nii, what was that? I barely saw your fist move!"

"I have to admit, that WAS kind of cool."

Okay, the two main characters just called me awesome. If we weren't in the middle of a fight, I would so be geeking out at thatokay, now Kakashi's doing his epic sharingan thing against Zabuza. Geeking out now.

"Holy shit! Did you SEE that?! That was so awesome!"

"Okay, maybe not as cool as him."

The fight finished off the same as canon: Kakashi-sensei kicks ass, Haku shows up and fakes Zabuza's death, Kakashi collapses from exhaustion, then we take him inside and he talks about his suspicion of Zabuza still being alive and how we need to train more. What interested me was that I now knew something extra about flash-step that I could use—the sheer speed of motion using that technique could be used in more ways than just movement.

Kakashi-sensei started to tell us the whole "spider-man tree climb" thing that he taught the team in canon, but before we began to train it, the jounin took me aside.

"You seem to have figured out the test from yesterday. The question is, do you want to take this further?"

There was only one correct answer here. "Absolutely!"

"Well, then I have something for you. I don't exactly like using these things for training—it reminds me too much of someone I really, really dislike."

You have never seen such eye-rolling. He took out a storage scroll, and with a puff of smoke revealed its contents.

"But, on the other hand, even I have to admit they can sometimes be pretty useful."

On the scroll were four metal bracelet-like objects. I almost immediately put together what they were for.

"Wear these weights as you practice the climbing technique with the others; it should help with your speed."

I never thought I would be so happy to torture myself with that kind of training. But I also knew that this would be the first step towards making myself a true asset to the team, and considering what was to come, I knew I would need all the training I could get in the short amount of time we had. Naru-nii and Sasuke were working hard to get better; if I was to catch up to them, I would have to work even harder. In the end, it was worth it, and in more ways than one...

Yes, I know, I completely suck at writing action scenes. I must have written and re-written this about ten times, but I didn't know how to make this work without rushing through it like that; my focus was on trying to develop Keiji's attempts to grow stronger, and I couldn't think of any other way to keep that in focus. Hopefully you'll forgive such a weak and poorly-written chapter, and hopefully I will get better at this kind of thing as time goes on. Especially since this arc has a lot more fighting left!