Chapter Twenty Nine: Land of the Waves

All Hiruzen wanted to do was retire. The thought crossed his mind so many times in the last ten years since he took on his second term as Hokage after the Yondaime passed that he had lost count.

He wanted to retire. But how could he, when there were no suitable successors in the village?

Minato had always been his top choice, despite his young age, not only for his performance during the war, but also the compassion that the man had for the village. Orochimaru exhibited a darkness in his heart that was unsuitable for Hokage position. Of his two remaining students, neither of them were in the village. Neither of them seemed particularly interested in becoming Hokage either.

That left the younger generation for Hiruzen to consider. In Minato's generation, all of the capable shinobis were either dead by this point, or heads of their respective clans. Shikaku Nara was a good choice, but the man thought that being Hokage was too troublesome. Then that left the generation after Minato's.

His son's generation.

Asuma had grown up stating that he would never follow his father's footsteps to become Hokage and Hiruzen was fine with that. The rest of his peers didn't seem too keen on taking the position either. Genma, Ebisu, and Raidou had gone their separate ways to attain the special jonin rank. As far as Hiruzen was aware, Ebisu had been solicited to be his grandson's private tutor. Genma and Raidou had taken up joining the border patrol after the Yondaime's passing. Gai's goal was to become jonin sensei, not Hokage. Kurenai was only a newly minted jonin.

That left the obvious: Kakashi and Rin. And if Hiruzen was honest with himself, in his will, he named either of those two to be his successor in the event that he died before another successor was declared.

Both of them were likely to reject the position, but ultimately would take it for the sake of the village. And Hiruzen would feel assured leaving the village in their capable hands simply because they shared the same mentality.

In fact, all of the members of Team Ro had the same mentality and that was what Hiruzen suspected to make them such a compatible team in the first place.

They would do anything to protect the future of the village.

When Team Seven came after another mission concerning the Daimyo's wife's lost cat and Naruto demanded for more exciting missions, that reminded Hiruzen that he was way too old for this job. Nearing seventy years old...all the man wanted to do was retire in peace. Not have to deal with genin haggling for better missions.

Hiruzen didn't miss the amused glance exchanged between Kakashi and Rin, who tagged along for some unknown reason, and noted the warm feeling in his chest upon seeing them. They had grown up. They had come a long way since their Anbu days. The darkness that once pervaded every aspect of their beings was gone.

Sasuke merely grunted his agreement to Naruto's request. Sakura even had the courage to speak up, in agreement to Naruto's claims, albeit she was a lot politer than Naruto had been.

Hiruzen sighed, glancing at Kakashi for his approval. After all, the man trusted Kakashi's judgment and in the event that anything went wrong, Kakashi was more than capable of protecting the three genins. And bringing all of them back alive.

Kakashi eyed the three brats in front of him. It was true that their skills were more polished than they had been fresh out of the Academy. It was true that their chakra control had improved enough where all three of them could fight on water, if needed. It was true that their team dynamic was good, still could be better, but it was a work in progress. It was true that they had completed their fair share of D ranked missions already.

But it was also true that Kakashi was bored supervising them on random D ranked missions around the village.

And that last reason alone was more than enough for him to agree to let his team take a C ranked mission, much to his team's delight.

"You're the best, Kakashi sensei!" Naruto shouted, leaping towards him to hug him. Kakashi side stepped, effectively avoiding the impending bone crushing hug. Naruto, to his credit, caught his balance before he was sent crashing head first into the wall.

"Maa, settle down. Listen to the details of the mission, Naruto." His right hand rested on top of Naruto's head, twisting the boy's head around so that Naruto was facing the Hokage once more.

"This is a C rank mission. You are in charge of escorting Tazuna san back to the Land of Waves and protecting him from bandits or wild animals that might attack."

Hiruzen turned towards one of his assistants. "Bring him in."

A drunk man pushed open the door and stepped inside. The straw hat on his head blocked half of his face. His right arm raised a bottle of tequila to his lips, downing another quarter of its contents.

Tazuna eyed the three brats with suspicion. "You seriously expect these three gakis to be able to ensure my safety? Especially the shortest one over there, with an idiotic look on his face."

Rin covered up her laugh with her hand as she watched Naruto mentally connecting the dots as who Tazuna was talking about. When it finally dawned on him that it was him, Naruto began to scream insults at the bridge builder. Kakashi held him back from physically harming the client by grabbing onto the collar of his orange jacket.

"Ah, if it makes you feel better, I can join you for part of the mission. After all, there's an area near the Land of Waves that has some rare herbs that I would like to collect. Of course, if that's alright with you Hokage sama?"

In all of his years as Hokage and in the field as a shinobi, Hiruzen admittedly met his fair share of sly shinobis. Most of their intentions were obvious, most of the time to pawn off responsibilities onto their comrade and there were times when there was a mole in Konoha. Hiruzen wasn't quite sure of Rin's intentions; it had to much more than what she said it was, but the Hokage trusted her.

And whatever shady self assigned mission she was going to complete.

Hiruzen was too old for this.

The trek was unsurprisingly, uneventful, but Kakashi really hadn't expected much. At least it was an upgrade from D rank missions, where all he did was lounge in the shade while his genins completed menial tasks. At the very least, Kakashi got to leave the village.

For someone who went on missions after missions or was always kept busy even when he was in the village, the past two weeks had been boring. Teaching genin had only taken up a fraction of his day. His self wallowing at the memorial stone had even taken up more time than training his genin. It had been two weeks since the S rank mission and Kakashi was itching to leave the village again.

In fact, he had been particularly envious of Rin when she announced all of the short term missions outside of the village that she was going on. He contemplated asking her to switch positions with him, but knew that he couldn't replace her invaluable skillset.

Sigh. Maybe if he was a medical ninja he would be in high demand for missions all the time.

It had been awhile since he was solicited for C rank missions, but a mission was a mission.

"I'm going to split at the border of the Land of Fire," Rin informed him in a hushed voice. The genin didn't seem to be paying attention anyways, as Naruto was bickering with Tazuna while Sasuke shook his head in shame. Sakura profusely apologized on Naruto's behalf, while Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, jerking his head away from Tazuna. What a petulant child.

"Ah, I've been meaning to ask about that." Translation: What are you really up to?

"I have a crow that I need to intercept." Translation: Meeting with Itachi.

"I see. Be careful." Translation: Tell me about it when we both get home.

Neither jonins missed the puddle on the ground. Rin even purposely stepped on the puddle, wondering if the kids would notice. They didn't, too caught up in their antics to pay attention to their surroundings.

Rin shrugged as Kakashi pointed at the tree. Both of them performed the substitution jutsu, replacing themselves with a block of a log while their real bodies perched on top of a branch.

Right as Rin's substitution self took her second step away from the puddle, two shadows flew out of the puddle. One went for Rin, stabbing her in the back before joining his comrade in a combination to pull the chains around Kakashi, slicing him in half.

All three genins' eyes widened, but they didn't have time to be in shock. Sasuke was the first to recover from his shock, leaping into the air. With a well aimed shuriken, he pinned the length of their chain to the trunk of the tree. An extra kunai embedded itself into the trunk with a notable thunk, right in the middle of the shuriken. Landing on top of their metal plated arm guards, Sasuke kicked both of them in the head.

The Demon Brothers broke the chain attached to their arm guard. One of them charged straight for Naruto, who was still frozen in shock, managing to nick the blonde with his metal claw. The other went for Tazuna. Squashing all of her nerves, Sakura leapt in front of Tazuna, a kunai held in front of her. Her mind was reeling with numerous battle tactics and plans, but there was only one that came to mind.

Retreat.

Though they had numbers, the three genins were severely outclassed by the two older shinobis. There was no backup as far as Sakura knew, so logically their best option was to retreat.

Except Kakashi's first teachings flickered through her mind.

Those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum.

That alone had been enough for Sakura to continue to stand her ground, even as the enemy came closer. Right as the enemy's metal claw reached out to slice her, Sakura's green eyes roved for any weakness in the metal. She had settled for jamming her kunai right in between the second and third claw, when Sasuke appeared in front of her.

And that was when Kakashi decided it was time to interfere, easily leaping down from his spot in the trees. Then proceeded to lock both of the Demon Brothers in a chokehold, with enough force to knock them unconscious.

"Yo." A mixture of relief and unamusement flickered across the genin's faces. Meanwhile, Naruto was still staring at Kakashi in shock. He blinked twice, like he wasn't quite sure if what he was seeing was real.

"Wha- I thought you were dead!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Kakashi, while he made quick work of tying the two unconscious shinobis to the tree, using their own chains.

Kakashi merely cocked his head back. "Hmm, sorry Naruto. I could have easily taken them out by myself, but I had to see who the target was. And don't move around so much, you've been poisoned."

To which Naruto predictably began flailing around. As Rin jumped down from the trees, Kakashi shot her a wry look, pointing conspicuously at Naruto. She nodded, approaching the flailing boy to heal his wound.

"What do you mean who the ninjas were after?" Sakura questioned.

"Well, I wanted to see if they were after Tazuna or if they were after us. After all, Rin and I do have quite a big bounty on our heads. But it seems, Tazuna is the target."

"A C rank mission entails soliciting our aid against bandits or wild animals," Kakashi continued. "If this mission involves ninjas, then this is beyond the scope of this mission. This should be a B rank mission or higher. The real question is why did you lie?"

A visible drop of sweat slid down Tazuna's forehead. A now healed Naruto jumped into the conversation, despite only having caught the tail end of it.

"We can't turn back now! If we do, the old man will die!" Naruto yelled. "I don't care if this is beyond the scope of the mission. I won't ever give up, that's my ninja way!"

"A valiant effort, Naruto, but the next enemy shinobis that they will send will be jonin level. You aren't prepared to face them."

"Kakashi sensei is right, Naruto," Sakura interjected. "There's no way that we can win against jonin level shinobis. But Kakashi sensei, didn't you teach us that we shouldn't abandon our friends? We can't just abandon Tazuna san."

"Well…"

"Ah, just admit that these genins have you cornered," Rin said, chuckling lightly. "Take the mission. I'm sure with your skills, you'll be able to protect them. Besides just in case, I can always catch up with you after I finish my mission."

"Fine, but Tazuna san, you have a lot of explaining to do on the way."

Near the border of the Land of Fire, Rin split from the group. Tazuna had looked reluctant for her to go, perhaps he thought the next enemy shinobis would be too much for Team Seven to handle. However, Rin was confident that they would be alright. Although three of them were still fresh genins, they had determination and teamwork on their side. And well, Tazuna hadn't seen how easily Kakashi had taken out jonin level threats in the past.

Rin had. But just to be safe, she handed him three chakra vials, just in case he was pushed to the edge of chakra exhaustion as well as some healing crystals. Just in case the genins got hurt again.

The Uchiha hideout wasn't too far from here. A fifteen minute run through the trees. The real problem was how she would get through the traps. Although Rin was confident that she remembered where all the traps were, she didn't want to take any chances.

Turns out, Rin didn't have to worry about that. Both Itachi and Shisui's chakra signature was present in the cave. But they weren't the only ones in the vicinity. A foreign chakra signature was situated near the entrance of the cave, not close enough to be noticed by normal shinobi.

From her position she spotted half of its torso and its head. Split down the middle, one side of its face was black while the other was white. Around it, was a plant shaped shield? The rest of the body was covered by a black cloak with a red cloud shaped pattern. The strangest thing was that the body was half sunk into the trunk of the tree. And the foreign shinobi was staring intently at the entrance of the Uchiha hideout.

She waited another twenty minutes, but it seemed the shinobi had no intention of moving. Hmm, how could she sneak past him then?

If she went in as herself, then the enemy shinobi would instantly be suspicious especially if he knew that this was an Uchiha hideout. Rin contemplating henging into Izumi, but if that plant man was part of that S class organization that Itachi mentioned, she would blow away their covers.

What else would be inconspicuous? Animals. A cat.

With a simple transformation jutsu, Rin transformed herself into a cat, mirroring Momo's appearance. Satisfied with her appearance, she hopped down from the trees and began to dart across the clearing.

She felt the plant man's chakra flicker, but it died back down, probably upon seeing that it was just a stray animal. Rin successfully made it to the foot of the cave, but was hesitant to proceed any further in fear of the traps.

If she flickered her chakra to announce her appearance, then Itachi and Shisui would certainly feel it, as would the plant man. Another option was to transform back into her human self and whistle out the Anbu code for her identity, but from his position, the plant man would certainly spot her.

Genjutsu doused the entire front entrance of the cave. In the darkness, Rin spotted a silhouette jumping nimbly to avoid the traps. Once Shisui reached her, Rin hopped onto his hand, allowing him to take her to the back of the caves.

Itachi was sitting against the wall of the cave, the fire torches illuminating the shadows that stretched across his face. Besides him, Akemi and Momo were stretched out on the ground on either side of him. Momo shot her an unimpressed look when Rin hopped down from Shisui's shoulder.

"That was a poor transformation job," Momo commented. Rin promptly cancelled the transformation, reverting back to her human self.

"Ah sorry. It's been a while since I last saw you."

A while was an understatement. The last time had probably been the night of the massacre and even then, that had been in the dark. Since then, Akemi and Momo had taken up living at Izumi's place, darting in and out of sight as they pleased. When Rin went over, she had seen occasional streaks fly across the apartment, but nothing more than that.

Nothing really changed about them. They still looked the same and even exuded the same air of laziness to them, but could be lethal in combat if needed. And still ever loyal to their masters.

Shisui was busy forming the hand seals for a sound barrier. For the first time, Rin had gotten a good look at their clothes. Cloak with red shaped clouds.

"Your comrade is spying on you outside," Rin informed them. "The plant man."

"Ah Zetsu. He is the leader's right hand man and is often sent to spy on each of us to determine our loyalties. Guess it's our turn," Itachi explained. "But no matter. He is very susceptible to genjutsu and he cannot enter into the hideout without our permission."

Zetsu...the same man who had healed Obito's body with Hashirama cells? If that was the case, then was this organization the one that Obito had tried to start before his death?

"We joined an S rank criminal organization called the Akatsuki," Itachi began. "For the past couple of years since we've joined, Shisui and I have been trying to dig up their plans and figure out each of the other members' abilities. It seems that the Akatsuki has finally finished recruiting and will begin to execute their plans soon."

Everything was happening exactly just like Obito said it would.

"They're trying to collect the tailed beasts, aren't they?"

"How did you know?" Shisui demanded. "Have they already tried to attack you?"

Rin shook her head. "Remember the masked man behind the Kyuubi attack? He was the mastermind behind the organization and he told me all about his Eye of Moon plan. The masked man said he was going to create the perfect world and allow everyone to live out their dream world, but to do that, he needs all nine tailed beasts' chakra and the Rinnegan."

"Rinnegan?" Itachi repeated. "Our leader, Pein, has the Rinnegan. The masked man is dead though, so how…?

"I believe that he brainwashed this Pein person before the Kyuubi attack. Perhaps Pein is simply carrying on the plan, or there is another mastermind behind the scenes."

"How do you know all of this?" Shisui asked.

Rin hated to lie to them, but the masked man's identity was a secret that she was going to take to the grave. "The masked man told me. He probably didn't think that I would survive the battle. He mentioned extracting the sanbi from me."

"I see. Our current task is to find out who houses each tailed beast and gather information about each jinchuuriki's fighting styles," Shisui revealed. "Itachi and I are assigned to the nine tails since we are from Konoha. We won't be able to protect Naruto's identity since his identity is a well known fact in the village, so we wanted to warn you."

"The good news," Itachi added. "Is that we have to seal the tailed beasts in order, so Naruto will be last."

"And who is assigned to the third tails?"

"Akatsuki still believes that the sanbi is still located in Kiri," Shisui stated. "So Kisame, one of the former Seven Legendary Swordsman, is assigned to that."

"And do you know his abilities?"

"A bit," Itachi admitted. His hand reached into his cloak and pulled out a nondescript looking scroll. "All of the information that we have compiled is in this scroll. It's incomplete, but at least it's a start."

Rin took the scroll, pocketing it. "Don't worry about Naruto. Kakashi and I will look out for him."

"One more request," Itachi said. "Please look after Sasuke. Before Orochimaru defected from Akatsuki, he came after me because he wanted my eyes. I suspect that he will seek out Sasuke as his next target."

"Don't worry about it. Kakashi is Sasuke's jonin sensei, so he'll definitely protect him with his life."

And from there, the topic centered around Sasuke. And on Konoha's current state. Then the conversation shifted back to future communication strategies. Rin gave both of them a senbon, with a formula sealing wrapped around it, instructing them to throw it if they ever needed help. For a good measure, Rin also marked both of them on the back.

And then she spent a good hour healing both of their eyes, chiding them for their overuse of the Sharingan.

After all, Rin had a couple of hours to kill while she waited for the plant man to finally leave.

Zabuza intercepted Team Seven the moment they stepped onto shore. His Executioner Blade swung at Naruto, who was saved from having his head severed by Sakura, who quickly tackled him down. As the mist blanketed the area, Kakashi ordered the three genin in a triangle formation around their client.

Forehead protector pushed upward, Kakashi stood in the thick of the mist, trying to spot Zabuza's chakra signature while his eye copied the technique.

A clone. Kakashi quickly swapped his real body with a water clone as clone Zabuza held a kunai to his clone's neck.

"I know a hundred ways to kill a man," Zabuza's voice echoed all around them. "Just give it up. Look at your genin trembling in fear."

Clone Kakashi made a show of glancing back at his three genin. "Don't worry. I won't let my comrades die."

Clone Zabuza slit clone Kakashi's throat. His body turned into liquid, splashing onto the ground, while another clone of Kakashi's appeared behind Zabuza, holding a kunai to his back.

"Good, but not good enough," came Zabuza's mocking voice as his real body approached the two clones. Swinging his blade in a large arc, it cleanly sliced both clones in half. Both turned into a puddle of water, much to Zabuza's surprise.

"No matter, I'll go for your genin to force your real body to come out!"

Even with such a heavy blade, Zabuza ran at such speed towards the genin that the regular eye couldn't keep up. The three genins' eyes widened, two of their hands held a shaky kunai in front of them, while the third tried to fake a false sense of bravado. Right as Zabuza's blade was about to come down on them, a sword coated in white chakra intercepted the swing, stopping the blade momentum.

Clang.

Kakashi's foot moved to kick at Zabuza's torso. Anticipating the move, Zabuza leapt backwards, breaking his blade's contact with Kakashi's sword. Zabuza noted the slight nick in his Executioner's Blade with annoyance, but continued backwards until his feet touched the water.

Water was his territory.

Zabuza grinned as Kakashi stupidly followed him onto the water, leaving quite a distance between the two of them. Sheathing the sword back into his back, Zabuza began the hand sequence for a water dragon attack. From across the water, Kakashi mimicked him. Both executed the jutsu at the same time, the two water dragons clashing head to head. While Zabuza contemplated his next move, Kakashi ran through another set of hand seals, faster than the eye can see.

A large water wave formed just as the two water dragons dissipated back into droplets of water, crashing right into Zabuza. The force from the torrent of water carried him out of the water, back onto the land, before Zabuza's back crashed into the trunk of a tree. Four kunais followed, hitting its mark in each of his four limbs.

Kakashi raised a kunai, ready to slice Zabuza's neck when two senbons came from the left side, piercing Zabuza's neck. Blood splattered into the air as the large man fell face down onto the ground, landing with a loud thunk.

A mist hunter nin was perched atop a nearby branch.

Two fingers were pressed against Zabuza's neck, checking for a pulse. Dead. The hunter nin hopped down from his spot, landing deftly in front of Zabuza's prone body.

"Thank you for weakening him."

Kakashi watched with narrowed eyes as the hunter nin proceeded to drape Zabuza's arm over his shoulder. With one hand, both of them disappeared in a swirl of wind.

There was something suspicious about the hunter nin, but Kakashi had three genins to get back to. Another fight was coming...and he would do well to prepare them for it.

For three days, Team Seven guarded Tazuna while he continued to build the bridge. As each day passed, more bridge builders continued to quit, out of fear of retribution. By the end, there were less than ten workers left.

Naruto put his shadow clones to use, aiding the construction workers in hauling over the supplies. Sasuke was left at home to protect Tazuna's family. Sakura was currently wandering through the town per Kakashi's instructions, to see if her observant eye could see anything amist.

The evening following their first encounter with Zabuza, Sakura had been the first to express her doubts that Zabuza was really dead. Although she didn't seem one hundred percent certain, Kakashi was actually impressed that she had caught on. Sasuke seemed interested in what Sakura had to say, while Naruto kept asking a dozen questions, mostly directed at Kakashi himself about whether or not he had actually killed Zabuza.

"Don't hunter nins only bring back the head? Why did the guy take back the entire body?" was Sakura's question.

Kakashi capitalized on the opportunity to remind Naruto once more that the 'boring' information became useful in times like this. That had effectively shut the blonde boy up and got him to sit still to study a scroll. The silence only lasted for an hour until Naruto began demanding that they go training.

Tree walking was the exercise that came to Kakashi's mind, but the three of them had already mastered it, so he set them to spar against each other instead. From time to time, Kakashi would give pointers, correcting their stances, exposing all of their openings, but he was proud to see that their form wasn't as sloppy as it had been before.

Perhaps it was time to actually teach them some D rank jutsus.

Kakashi motioned for the three of them to gather around, handing each of them a piece of chakra paper. Recognition flickered in Sasuke and Sakura's eyes, but Naruto stared blankly at it.

Kakashi sighed. "Maa, someone please explain to Naruto what this is."

Sasuke had been quick to jerk his head off to the side, so that left Sakura to explain to Naruto the purpose of the paper, before going on to the five chakra natures.

"So you're going to teach us a cool jutsu?" was all that Naruto got from the explanation.

Sasuke went first. The paper wrinkled, much to Kakashi's surprise. He had been expecting fire, but he supposed that lightning would give him an element of surprise to anyone who expected the Uchiha to utilize fire.

Naruto went second. The paper split in half. Like his father, I suppose.

Sakura's paper crumbled into ashes. Earth, how interesting.

Kakashi promptly handed each of them scrolls containing information about their specific chakra nature, which also contained starter jutsus of their element. Then he disappeared into a puff of smoke before he could hear Naruto's outraged cry of how simple the jutsus were.

Perhaps one day the blonde boy would learn that even the simplest, Academy level jutsus could be the difference between life and death.

The genins, predictably, spent the next three evenings practicing from the scrolls, each of them coming back completely exhausted of chakra. Kakashi briefly wondered if it had been a good idea to start them on a jutsu so early, perhaps teaching them to increase their chakra reserves would have been a better option. Still, it was too late, and Kakashi didn't dare to break his precious genins' concentration. Not when Naruto was focused on learning wind nature jutsus.

It was a very silent and peaceful three days.

On the fourth day, all of Team Seven was instructed to guard the bridge. It was close to being finished, which also meant it was the prime time for Zabuza to come back.

Kakashi's gut feeling was correct.

When Team Seven arrived at the bridge, all of the construction workers were slain. Kakashi pressed Rin's healing crystals into Sakura's hand, instructing her to check if there was anyone alive.

There was a loud chuckle.

"A futile attempt, Kakashi."

The two of them drew their respective weapons at the same time, but made no move to close the distance between them. The mist continued to thicken.

Haku moved at an alarming speed, but Sasuke was easily able to intercept him. Kunai clashed against senbon as the two danced around each other, trying to score a hit. Haku began to form seals with one hand, while his other countered Sasuke's kunai. Drawing from the water below the bridge, a plethora of ice needles formed from above. They rained down on Sasuke while Haku leapt out of the fray.

Sasuke escaped the ice needles unscathed. Leaping into the air, he threw shurikens one after another. Haku backflipped to avoid each one. Sasuke flash stepped to behind Haku. Spinning around, Haku used a kunai to block Sasuke's next attack, ducking as Sasuke's free hand tossed a kunai straight at him. Sasuke followed up with a kick, effectively knocking Haku backwards.

Ice mirrors appeared all around Sasuke.

Ice style? Kakashi questioned. One of Rin's kins?

He didn't have time to contemplate the matter any further as Zabuza met him head on, leaving him unable to aid his student. Kakashi shouted at Naruto to watch over the bridge builder and aid Sasuke while the blade met his sword.

Rin felt a flare of chakra coming from the direction of the bridge and made a move in that direction, but three chakra signatures were heading towards town. Deciding that Team Seven could hold their own, Rin darted off into the direction of town, gaining rapidly on the three chakra signatures.

Barging into the house through the window, Rin drop kicked the nearest nin, sending him crashing into the wall. A flick of a senbon, the man holding the kid hostage crumpled to the floor, freeing the kid in the process.

"Mom!" the kid shouted as the third nin dug his kunai deeper in the woman's throat.

"Don't move or this woman dies!" The empty threat was enough to stop the kid to his tracks while Rin eyed the nin in disinterest. All she had to do was stare at him while she waited for her clone to creep up behind him, knocking him out with a single blow to the back of the neck.

Nins? Bandits more likely.

"Are you alright?" Rin asked the two occupants in the room. They both shook their heads as Rin made quick work of tying them up.

"You're leaving?" the kid asked, fear present in his voice as he stared wide eyed at the kunoichi.

"There's fighting on the bridge. I'll need to go assist them."

"Fighting on the bridge?" the kid echoed. "My grandpa is there! But what if more scary men come back?"

Rin placed a hand on top of the kid's head, ruffling his hair. "Don't worry, I'll make sure your grandpa is safe. And I'm sure that you are strong enough to protect you and your mother if anyone else comes."

Determination flared in the kid's eyes. "You got it!"

Smiling at the boy, Rin left her clone with them as her real body teleported to her seal on Kakashi. Her aim had been a bit off, leading to her colliding against Kakashi's shoulders, knocking his swing off course. Her fast reflexes saved them both from being sliced in half.

"That was a terrible entrance," Kakashi murmured, rubbing his sore shoulder. "Zabuza Momochi, one of the Seven Legendary Swordsman in the Mist."

"Ah, I'll leave him to you," Rin said. "I'm going to go help the kiddos."

She heard the distinct sound of metal clashing against each other as she darted off through the mist, easily pinpointing Sakura's chakra standing off to the side. Naruto and Sasuke's chakra were side by side, surrounded by the enemy chakra.

Passing by Sakura, Rin skidded to a stop in front of the structure made of ice. Ice style? Naruto and Sasuke collapsed on top of each other, with a bunch of senbons piercing through their bodies. Her medically trained eye informed her that none of the vital organs were pierced, but the enemy didn't let up as a shadow flashed from mirror to mirror, senbon raining down on them from all directions.

Rin tossed a senbon into the fray, meeting its mark into the ground right next to the boys. Placing a marking on the outside of the mirror, Rin teleported into the mess, grabbed both boys by the collar of their shirt and jacket and teleported out of the mirror. Making her way back to Sakura, Rin pressed more healing crystals into the young girl's hand, instructing her to pick the needles out and heal them.

The ice structure crumbled behind her. Rin met the enemy nin head on, senbons crashing against senbon. Throughout their battle, she forced the hunter nin backwards. At the edge of the bridge, the hunter nin backflipped into the water below. Rin jumped down to join him, landing right as the water froze beneath the both of them.

"A mistake. You're in my territory now," the hunter nin pointed out.

"Oh really?"

With a one hand sign, the hunter nin summoned tendrils of ice from below. Rin followed suit having predicted the move, and countered with her own, the ice wrapping around each other until it came to a stand still. As she darted across the ice, the hunter nin rained ice needles down at her. A simple ice wall covered her back, the tips of the ice needles breaking upon the impact.

Rin reached the hunter nin, forcing the nin into hand to hand combat. She didn't relent, not giving the nin another opening to form any hand seals.

"How do you know ice style?" the hunter nin hissed from behind the mask.

"I should be asking you that. I am the heir of the technique."

The hunter nin froze, giving Rin the opening that she needed to slash her chakra scalpel down his face and torso. The mask cracked in half, the two pieces falling onto the ground.

Rin found herself staring at a familiar set of brown eyes. Just like her own.

"Yuki?" the hunter nin whispered.

Just as Rin was about to reply, the hunter nin's eyes slide in the direction of the bridge. Tossing out a hasty apology, the hunter nin teleported away from her. Rin followed, allowing the teleportation technique to pull her back to Kakashi's side.

Her feet landed on the bridge right in time for her to see Kakashi's Chidori slam right through the hunter nin's chest, who intercepted the blow for Zabuza.

Rin found herself screaming, "Wait!" as blood splattered all over Zabuza and Kakashi. Kakashi jerked his head backwards at the sound of her voice, but that was the opening that Zabuza needed to swing his blade, ready to slice through his own comrade and Kakashi. Kakashi's Sharingan registered the movement and he promptly teleported next to Rin, pulling the hunter nin along with him.

Two senbons later, one in each arm, Rin had effectively sliced through the tendons in both of his arms that allowed for movement. Zabuza froze, his blade slipping out of his grasp.

"How could you be so heartless to kill your own comrade?" Rin demanded.

"He was merely a tool," Zabuza stated through gritted teeth.

Before Rin could retort, an unfamiliar voice chimed in. "My, my, you really outdid yourself this time, Zabuza."

The owner of the voice belonged to a short man wearing small framed sunglasses with a cane in front of him. A group of bandits with mismatched weapons appeared behind him.

"It's a good thing that you are on your deathbed anyways," Gato continued. "Did you really think I was going to pay you? Besides, I have to get revenge on the boy for breaking my arm!"

Zabuza chuckled lightly. "Sorry, Kakashi. Our fight ends here."

Zabuza turned towards Gato as the small man began to run. "Hand me a kunai." Rin tossed a kunai to him. Zabuza caught it between his teeth as he began to run at the man, despite the bandits closing in on him.

Rin aided him from afar, her senbons hitting its mark and downing some of the bandits who tried to kill Zabuza.

"A kin?" Kakashi whispered quietly from beside her.

"I think so. He knew my name, my real name."

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Rin said sadly. "If I were in his position, I would have done the same to protect you."

A/N: Hi again!

Kind of long chapter because I really wanted to cram this entire arc into one instead of dragging it out. Not much has really diverged from canon, so I didn't think it was that important (and the original plan was to leave out this arc anyways) but I felt the connection between Haku and Rin had some significance since I alluded to it back then. Funny thing was that I planned to make Haku her "long lost brother" that Ichika mentioned and he became an orphan and was found by Zabuza (like canon) but then I found out he's supposed to be 15?! so I changed it so he's a kin who was part of a small group that was able to escape the devastation of Land of Ice. Then his canon background follows, found by Zabuza etc.

Not sure if I particularly like this chapter, but if there is one good thing that came out of it was that it forced me to rewatch the early episodes! Forgot how good they were! Too bad when I first started watching Naruto the first time, I was 11-12? so I didn't know how to savor it haha. When did you all start watching?

Next chapter is called Chunin Exams. It will feature more deviation from canon than Land of Waves arc, so I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for reading. Until next time!

-MM