The trees were veiled in the densest of mists, their trunks only shadows beyond the airborne water. Akira's dark blue eyes immediately shut tight after losing sight of Kakashi-sensei, hoping that her hearing would help her in this dense disadvantage. But it wasn't. Akira couldn't hear anything. It was driving her mad. Her hands gripped her swords tighter; anything tangible was going to keep her sane. She didn't want to reach that point again, the state she got into when she woke up from her nightmares. Akira didn't want her brain to shut down, her hands to get clammy or for her body to glisten in a cold sweat. She didn't want her eyes to be as wide as saucers, showing her fear, showing the Sharingan.

Suddenly, Akira opened her eyes as there was an explosion-like sound ahead of her. She was about to swing her sword down so that they were both pointing forward, but she relaxed when she saw it was only Kakashi-sensei clearing the mist around him with a jutsu. They could see him again, and relief washed over Akira. However, her nerves weren't settled. Akira looked at her sensei, and it was almost as if she could see the murderous aura around him. He was prepared to kill and that sent a chill down her spine. She hadn't seen someone with such ill intent in so long... Since Itachi.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi suddenly yelled.

Akira looked over towards her brother. He was pale, paler than usual and not in the good way. His eyes were wide, his skin was glistening with a cold sweat. He was in the state Akira didn't want to be in. She noticed the kunai in his hand, pointing at his own abdomen.

"Calm down," sensei continued. "I'll protect you with my life. All of you. I will not allow my comrades to die."

Kakashi turned his head around. Akira could tell he was smiling, trying to reassure the Genin behind him.

"Trust me."

Akira took a deep breath and nodded stiffly. Just then, Zabuza's voice rang in her ears:

"I wouldn't be so sure..."

Suddenly, there was a light gust of wind and Akira gasped, sensing something behind her. Without hesitation, Akira spun on the spot, the sword pointing forwards spinning with her. When she had turned a full 180 degrees, she was faced with Zabuza, who had stopped her blade with his hand. He smirked at her, but she smirked back. She threw her other sword into a nearby tree and, still holding the other, performed a simple hand seal easily accomplished with a free and an occupied hand.

"Lightning Blade Jutsu!" she yelled.

As Sakura and Naruto gasped, the blade of Akira's sword became blue and electrified, zapping Zabuza's hand and consequently his whole body. However, instead of Zabuza being electrified, he melted into water.

"It was just a water clone, sensei!" Akira shouted.

"You've got a feisty student, Copy Ninja," Zabuza growled, suddenly behind Kakashi. "And she cut my hand too. Maybe I should get rid of her first, instead of you."

Akira pulled her swords out the tree and spun them once in hand. She began to run at Zabuza again, but Sasuke held her back. For once he wasn't the one blindly going in for the kill.

Zabuza swung his broadsword, with a war cry and cut Kakashi in half. In took only seconds for Kakashi to turn into a puddle of water himself. Akira's eyes grew wide. Even in the thick mist, Kakashi's Sharingan eye was able to detect and copy Zabuza's Water Clone Jutsu. Now it was Kakashi's turn to be behind the Hidden Mist ninja. He put a kunai to Zabuza's throat.

"Don't move," Kakashi-sensei demanded. "Now it's over. You're finished."

Naruto and Sakura cheered, but they were cut short when Zabuza let out a low and dangerous laugh.

"Finished?" Zabuza said. "You really don't get it, do you? Your technique is nothing but a crass imitation. I'll never be defeated by a copy-cat ninja like you!" He laughed again. "You are full of surprises, though. You'd already made you Water Clone Jutsu when you made your little speech. You had your clone say those things to draw my attention, while you hid in the mist, waiting for me to make my move. Nice try..."

"Sensei, behind you!" Akira yelled, just as another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi.

Kakashi stabbed the Zabuza in front of him which turned into a puddle the second it was hit. Kakashi turned around and his Sharingan detected a swing from the broadsword so he ducked and dodged it in time. However, when the sword embedded itself in the ground, Zabuza pushed up against it and kicked Kakashi so hard he flew into the water. Zabuza followed him in.

"Sensei!" Naruto yelled.

"His water jutsu are good, but so is his taijusu," Akira said, staring at the place Kakashi fell. Suddenly, his head popped back up, but no one had time to tell him Zabuza was in there with him. Zabuza flew out of the water producing numerous hand signs.

"Water Prison Jutsu!"

In a matter of seconds, Kakashi-sensei was trapped in a ball of water as strong as steel. Akira tensed; Kakashi couldn't help them anymore. They had to get him out of there.

"I'll deal with you later," Zabuza told Kakashi. "But first... I have to eliminate your little friends."

Zabuza made a one-handed sign and produced a water clone of himself that rose slowly and ominously out of the water.

"You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja? When you've hovered between life and death so many times it doesn't phase you, then you may be called a ninja. When you've become so deadly that your profile is in my bingo book, then you may earn the title of ninja. But to call upstarts like you, ninja... is a joke!"

Suddenly, the Zabuza clone disappeared into the mist again. Akira was on high alert. She cursed herself for not strengthening her sensory techniques. If she had, maybe she'd be able to sense Zabuza's clones as well. Just then, Naruto went flying back, his headband no longer on his forehead.

"You're just brats!"

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, sounding pained and scared.

"Listen! Get the bridge builder and run!" Kakashi said, voice distorted from the water prison. "You can't win this fight. He's using all his power to keep me in this prison, so he can only fight you with his water clone. But the clone can't go far from his real body. If you get away from him, he can't follow. Now, run!"

"Sure, that's the smart thing to do," Akira sighed looking down, "but..."

Memories from the bell test came flooding her mind. She remembered Kakashi-sensei talking about the enemy taking hostages, impossible decisions to make... Lives on the line. She glanced at Sasuke and smirked, gripping her swords tighter. The decision was clear to her.

Sasuke ran forward throwing shuriken at him before trying to attack him from above, but he was sent back violently. Naruto ran up to him as well, but he was only retrieving his headband. With a newfound confidence he erected a plan.

"What are you doing? Run!" Kakashi said. "The fight was over the moment I got caught!"

"People who leave their friends behind are worse than scum, sensei."

Kakashi's eyes widened and Akira shrugged, smirking. But her little moment was interrupted when the Zabuza clone tackled Sasuke, punching him the stomach and pinning him to the ground. He stomped on his stomach - Sasuke coughed up blood. Shaking with anger, Akira watched as Naruto rapidly performed the Shadow Clone jutsu. Her chest was heaving, breathing hard and heavy. When she looked up at the Zabuza clone, all she could see was red.

"Inazuma!" Akira bellowed.1

Suddenly, as Akira got into her stance, the tachi blades she was firmly holding, knuckles turning white, began to run with a current of yellow electricity, sparking and buzzing like a thousand fireflies in the dead of night. Then all the Naruto clones, as well as himself attacked and surrounded the Zabuza clone. As expected, the water clone pushed away all the Narutos, but as he slid back, he threw Sasuke a large unfoldable shuriken.

"So that was your plan?" Sasuke smirked. He glanced at his sister and she smiled at him and at Naruto. "Demon Wind Shuriken: Windmill of Shadows!"

"A shuriken?" the Zabuza clone chuckled. "You'll never get me with that."

Sasuke jumped high into the air and threw it at the Zabuza clone, but it deviated just before it hit him, heading straight for the real Zabuza. As it arrived, he caught it with ease and laughed, but the look of surprise on his face when he saw another shuriken coming was priceless. There were two shuriken, and this one had been hidden in the shadow of the other. Akira ran closer and jumped high into the air. She slashed her sword in the direction of the shuriken, charging it with the yellow lightning that was emanating from her tachi. As it was about to hit him, Zabuza jumped over it. But the shuriken suddenly disappeared and turned into Akira, blades still charged with the bright yellow lightning. Zabuza's eyes went wide. The girl shot a bolt of electricity at Zabuza. To dodge it, Zabuza removed his hand from the water prison holding Kakashi-sensei, but he was still hit a little, the burn on his face quite obvious. The bolt of lightning then continued on and hit the clone, destroying it in an instant. Zabuza turned around, the anger terrifyingly present in his eyes, and spinning the large shuriken in his hand as Akira, nearly defenseless, fell slowly closer towards the water he was so adept at using. Zabuza was about to throw the shuriken at her, but Kakashi, finally free, stopped the shuriken with the back of his hand, embedding the blade in it but ultimately stopping Zabuza from throwing it at Akira.

After returning to the surface of water when she fell in, her hair now untied and messy, she gazed at the edge of the lake. Kakashi was staring murderously at Zabuza, his Sharingan eye analyzing every micro-movement he made.

"All of you... that was an excellent plan," Kakashi said. "You've really grown, haven't you?"

"I only made one clone and I ran to Naruto, transforming into the second shuriken when his clones were dog-piling Zabuza. All he had to do was give the shuriken to Sasuke - he'd recognize right away that it was a clone and pull out his own shuriken. Then there were two shuriken - one was real, one was me. Of course, we all knew we couldn't fight Zabuza himself, we just wanted to get you out of that water prison, sensei." Akira laughed. "I didn't know his clone would mess up, though. That's a bonus!"

"Don't gloat, you just lucked out," Sasuke said, smiling a little.

"So your whole thing was just a fluke!" Tazuna yelled.

"You can call it a fluke, but their teamwork was flawless," Sakura said. "They knew what to do even without talking about it."

"I got distracted and lost my grip on the water prison," Zabuza scoffed.

"Don't flatter yourself," Kakashi said dangerously. "You weren't distracted, you were forced to let go."

Zabuza glared at Kakashi, the shuriken still planted in his hand.

"Your technique worked on me once, it won't work again," Kakashi said. "So, what's it gonna be?"

"Sakura, Naruto, you know what to do," Sasuke said.

While Akira was in the water and Kakashi was having a silent stand-off with Zabuza, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura stood protectively in front of Tazuna in case the Hidden Mist Jōnin decided to attack again. Instead, Zabuza closed the shuriken until all four blades were digging into Kakashi's hand. He kept pushing down harder and harder until Kakashi swung his arm and threw the shuriken into the lake. Both of them flew back, staring at each other. But Kakashi-sensei had the Sharingan - in open water like this, he could see anything Zabuza did. Just then, Zabuza began making what was more than a dozen different hand signs and Kakashi, with the Sharingan, copied them at the same time Zabuza was performing it. Suddenly, two giant water dragons slithered out of the lake between them, intertwining themselves and attacking each other.

Akira screamed as a large wave swept her off and under the water. She struggled; the water was heavy, thick, it was laden with chakra and it made it harder to swim through it. Akira was just about to reach the surface when a large gush of water crashed down on top of her and sent her further down into the lake. Luckily, she'd reached far enough for her feet to touch the ground and so she pushed herself out of the water, coughing and sputtering water when her head broken the surface.

The water was calm on the surface as Zabuza and Kakashi were standing apart, circling each other as they easily walked on the water. Both men stopped at the same time and stared at each other. From where Akira was swimming she could clearly see the Sharingan in Kakashi's eye. Zabuza made another movement and Kakashi copied him at the same time he was doing it. Akira frowned. 'The Sharingan copies and replicates... it doesn't usually mimic, like a mirror image,' she thought.

"Going to do next?" Kakashi said.

Akira's eyes widened. Was he reading his mind? Kakashi stared at him, the Sharingan focused on every minute detail of Zabuza's movements, all the while making Zabuza's exact movement at the exact same time.

"It makes you furious, doesn't it?" Kakashi taunted.

"Ha! All you're doing is copying me, like a monkey," Zabuza scoffed.

"You can't beat me with cheap tricks!" they said in unison. "I'll crush you!"

Zabuza growled while everyone (save Kakashi) gasped. Kakashi had mastered the Sharingan just like an Uchiha would. He was using all of its abilities perfectly. He even managed to use it's genjutsu to distract Zabuza and predict, using the first few hand signs he'd made, the jutsu he was about to perform and use it on him. Kakashi created a vortex of water that swallowed Zabuza and created another wave - this time it sent Akira to shore where Sasuke pulled her out and ushered her back to Tazuna, Sakura and Naruto. But Zabuza was violently washed up against a tree and Kakashi added to his pain by throwing half a dozen kunai into his arms and legs.

"It's over," Kakashi-sensei said. He looked over at his students. "Are you all okay?"

"C-Cold!" Akira stuttered. "B-But alive."

"Come here," Sasuke said lazily, and he took his sister's hands in his.

"You're unusually warm, Sasuke."

"It's my nature type."

"Oh, right, I forgot," Akira laughed.

Sasuke didn't let go of one of her hands when she was warmed up. His sister smiled up at him. Sometimes he did things like this and Akira remembered that she had an amazing brother.

"How?" Zabuza said, his voice strained. "Can you... see into the future?"

"Yes," Kakashi said. "This is your last battle... ever."

But just as Kakashi-sensei removed a kunai from his pocket, most likely to kill Zabuza, two sharp needles flew out of nowhere and stabbed Zabuza in the neck. Akira gasped and looked in the direction from where the needles came from. Standing in a nearby tree was a slender figure. Their mask prevented Akira from telling whether it was a boy or a girl. They were wearing a long, brown and pinstriped outfit that stopped at the knees, covered in a haori the same colour as Akira's happi. Most of their long hair was gathered in a white bun holder, while two locks of hair fell loose framing their face, bound with metal hair cuffs at the ends. The wavy etching on the mask's forehead suggest that, just like Zabuza, they were from the Village Hidden in the Mist.

"You were right," the figure said. "It was his last fight."

Kakashi went over to Zabuza and pressed two fingers to his neck, checking his pulse.

"No vital signs," he sighed and looked over at the masked figure.

"Thank you," they said with a bow. "I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time, waiting for the chance to finally take him down."

"From your mask, I assume you're a tracker ninja from the Villaga Hidden in the Mist."

"Impressive. You are well informed."

"A tracker ninja!" Naruto said, taking a fighting stance.

"Naruto, you don't even know what that is!" Sakura complained. "You missed the lesson on it, as usual. Tracker ninja have a special role. Try coming to class sometime."

"When a rogue ninja breaks away from his village, he carries all sorts of secrets with him," Akira continued. "Trackers are specially trained to hunt down these ninja and eliminate them. That way, the secrets of their people remain secret."

"That's correct," the masked ninja said. "I'm a member of the elite tracking unit from the Village Hidden in the Mist. It was my duty to track Zabuza."

An elite tracker ninja? Judgin from their voice and height, Akira didn't think they were much older than she was. And yet, they were already an elite ninja. Akira's fists clenched. How could she have worked so hard, like Sasuke, like Naruto, and only be a Genin? She was an Uchiha - not just anybody. Why was this kid so much better than her? It seemed that Naruto shared her thoughts as he charged at the figure, staring angrily between them and Zabuza from the foot of the tree.

"What is this? Who do you think you are?" Naruto yelled. The figure said nothing. "Did you hear me?"

"Easy Naruto," Kakashi eased. "He's not our enemy."

"That's not the point! Did you see what he did, just like that? 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, even if you don't accept it... Still, it did happen, Naruto," Kakashi said, and he dropped his hand on Naruto's head. "In this world there are kids that are younger than you, and yet... stronger than me."

Akira looked up at the tracker ninja and nearly glared, but she contented herself with clenching her fists and her jaw, heading over near Kakashi to where Zabuza and her swords had washed up. She flicked the water off them and sheathed her blades just as the masked figured appeared beside Zabuza. They lifted him up with ease.

"Your struggle is over for now," the ninja said. "I must deal with the remains. There are many secrets in this body and they must not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. Please excuse me."

The Hidden Mist tracker then suddenly disappeared in a gust of wind, leaving all the genin shocked and irritated. Naruto ran to the spot he'd vanished from just as Kakashi covered his Sharingan with his bandanna. Akira gasped - Naruto began hitting the ground in frustration. She over to him and took his hands, looking him straight in the eyes.

"Let it go, Naruto," she said gently. "Save your anger for the next fight. Let's get Tazuna home, all right?"

Naruto nodded despite himself and stood, holding his hand out for Akira. But she didn't take it. Instead, she ran straight for Kakashi-sensei who was falling to the ground.

"Sensei!"

1: Inazuma can be translated to "lightning bug"