Chapter 12

Team 7 was currently on their way to Nami no Kuni via a boat they took after having walked to the shoreline. Thus far, their journey had been uneventful apart from the scuffle with the demon brothers. The ride was silent for the men while sakura kept pestering sasuke for dates or when she would be tired of this, she would turn to Naruto and ask about his relationship with izumi and to introduce her after they were back in the village. Usually Naruto would ignore her and she would shout and yell before Kakashi reprimanded her about behaviour in front of clients.

As they got of the boat and began walking, Naruto felt something enter his sensory range and threw a kunai into the bushes only for a white rabbit to jump out. "Naruto-baka stop trying to act cool like sasuke-kun. You almost killed the poor rabbit" screeched sakura. Ignoring her, Naruto took a closer look at the rabbit and thought to himself 'wait a minute…. It is summer so that rabbit should have brown skin but its skin is white so that means that it was raised indoors and most likely used for a….'

"Everyone get down!" shouted Kakashi and they all dropped to the ground as Naruto pulled tazuna with him. Just as this was done, a giant blade passed overhead and a man appeared on it as it stuck to a tree. Looking up, they saw that the man was wearing cow print pants, bandages over his mouth and was currently shirtless. (A.N. think zabuza from his canon appearance)

"Well well it's hatake Kakashi the copy ninja also known as Sharingan no Kakashi. Now it's clear why the demon brothers failed they were no match for you." Said the man while laughing. Meanwhile both Naruto and sasuke raised an eyebrow at the sharingan remark.

"Hmmmm… Zabuza Momochi the demon of the hidden mist, former kiri ninja and member of the seven swordsmen of kiri" said Kakashi. "Ah you know of me good. Now if you would be so kind as to hand over the bridge builder then I can leave." Said zabuza. "Sorry but my mission is to protect him so I would have to decline," said Kakashi as he raised his hitae-ate exposing an implanted red eye with three tomoe in it. At the sight, Naruto gasped and sasuke seethed at the sight of the sharingan in the hands of an outsider. "Oh the famous sharingan already eh…. I am quite honoured you think so highly of me." Said zabuza.

"Ninpo: kirigakure no jutsu" said zabuza as thick fog and a lot of KI washed over the soon to be battlefield. Naruto activated his sharingan under the seal and saw that it was no use as the fog was too thick and laced with chakra. "Be careful, he is a master at the art of silent killing." Warned Kakashi as he let out a wave of his own chakra and KI resulting in the mist being dispersed a bit.

"Eight points…liver, kidney, larynx, lungs, heart, bladder, neck or abdomen. Which shall I strike first?" a disembodied voice was heard as zabuza appeared in the middle of team 7 and tazuna and slashed his sword at tazuna which was blocked by Naruto who predicted it with his sharingan. Taken by surprise, zabuza kicked at his chest and sent him backwards as Kakashi took advantage and sliced zabuza's neck with his kunai only for zabuza to turn into water as another zabuza appeared and sliced through Kakashi who turned into water himself and reappeared behing him and placed his kunai by his neck. "It's over" said Kakashi coldly but zabuza turned to water as the original came behind him and kicked him into the lake.

"This water is quite heavy….." murmured Kakashi as zabuza appeared in fornt of him. Water style: water prison jutsu laughed zabuza as Kakashi was caught. "Damn it! You three, take the bridge builder and run! He can't move while the jutsu is active. It was over the minute I was caught." Yelled Kakashi.

Water style: water clone jutsu was heard as a zabuza doppelganger showed up to engage team 7. "tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu" exclaimed Naruto as twenty Naruto clones appeared. "oh the shadow clone jutsu huh… and there is quite a bit of them too" said zabuza as he doubled the amount of water clones present. As the clones engaged in taijutsu, Naruto used the chaos to use a sealless kawarimi to get into a nearby tree and began to form handseals ending in tiger "fire style: dragon flame jutsu" yelled out Naruto as zabuza's eyes widened at the sight of white flames coming towards him and he didn't have time to block and jumped back to avoid it breaking the water jutsu freeing Kakashi.

"Good job Naruto. Excellent plan in the heat of battle. I couldn't do better myself." Praised Kakashi. He had seen the substitution with his sharingan and this plan was an excellent one for konoha's prankster king from hell. "Heh.. I got distracted big deal." Said zabuza. "Don't flatter yourself," replied Kakashi, "you were forced to let go."

Then both ninjas began another exchange as Kakashi copied each of zabuza's movements and even completed some before him. Seeing this, zabuza could only wonder…..

"He could see the future." Said Kakashi.

"How did you…" began zabuza.

"know what you were thinking." Finished Kakashi and zabuza fumed.

"I'll show you copying you monkey" said zabuza as he flew through handseals as Kakashi began to copy them but this time ended his sequence before.

Water style: grate vortex jutsu came the voice of Kakashi as a huge water vortex formed from the lake and slammed into zabuza straight into a tree as he fell unconscious. Kakashi drew a kunai to finish the job when suddenly two senbon struck zabuza in the neck and a young boy with a kiri hunter nin mask appeared next to him. Checking for a pulse but finding none Kakashi nodded to the hunter who took zabuza's body and his blade and vanished.

Kakashi walked towards his team and fell over unconscious halfway there. Sakura yelled out in concern but Naruto assured her that it was chakra exhaustion due to overuse of the sharingan. He deactivated his own sharingan as he began to feel the fatigue from the battle. He turned to tazuna, asked for directions to his home and hefted Kakashi to carry him. Not long after, they arrived to tazuna's home as he knocked the door and a woman came out.

"Father you've returned!" said the woman.

"Yes it was all thanks to these super ninjas" exclaimed tazuna.

"Excuse me miss, can we get a place to put our sensei to rest. He is exhausted from the fight before we came here," said Naruto. Tsunami- as they learnt her name was- guided them to a room where Naruto placed Kakashi down to rest. Afterwards, he made twenty clones to keep watch and secure the perimeter. At the sight of the clones, sasuke asked "What did you do dobe?" Naruto looked at him before replying, "I sent the clones out to do some scouting as well as securing the perimeter. If something happens the clone would dispel and I'll get the information." Then he left to sleep on the couch.

Sasuke hearing this and thinking izumi taught him that seethed and caused his blood to boil. He had to do something to get stronger but he would wait till he activated his sharingan and then he could copy all the jutsu he wanted.

Kakashi awoke and found himself to be in pain as the after effects of his battle came upon him. He looked around and saw sasuke taking care of him while Naruto slept in a futon. "How long have I been out?" he asked. "A few hours," replied sasuke and Kakashi nodded. "Shouldn't you keep a lookout for intruders?" inquired the injured sensei to which sasuke replied (with gritted teeth) that Naruto had created clones to do that task. Kakashi nodded proudly at his student's planning as it seemed that he always seemed to plan ahead in dangerous situations.

"Wake up Naruto and call sakura here, I have things to tell you all," ordered Kakashi and sasuke did as he was told. After everyone gathered, Kakashi told them that zabuza was still alive. This news was met with a bewildered look from sakura but Kakashi went on to explain how hunter nins usually operate when dealing with missing nins and that senbon can be used to induce a false death state. As he finished, sakura asked in a shaky voice what they were going to do and he eye smiled at her. "You are going to train of course," said the silver haired nin.

"Sensei what is some training going to do to help when you almost lost against zabuza and now there is that masked nin with him," said sakura. At this Kakashi replied that he underestimated zabuza and that next time he shall do no such thing as he intends to finish him by himself while they would take care of the masked nin. He further asked who was it that saved him last time but nobody said anything.

THE NEXT DAY

The next morning found team 7 outside in a clearing where Kakashi was explaining their training to them. "Today, my cute little genin, you are going to learn how to climb trees," said Kakashi. With a confused look on her face, sakura voiced out her thoughts," how can climbing trees help us sensei?" At this, the sensei of team 7 explained that the exercise helps in chakra control and building up reserves and also how to perform the exercise. "Sensei, I already know this exercise," said Naruto and sasuke stewed in rage as the dobe was ahead of him again while Kakashi just eye smiled. He then informed Naruto that he would be going to guard the bridge builder with him and instructed him to follow him. As they moved out of hearing range from the clearing, Naruto asked his sensei what he wanted to for quite some time. "Hey sensei, do you know any lightning manipulation exercises?" Kakashi looked at him in surprise and responded, "don't you think that that is a bit advanced for you Naruto and do you have a lightning affinity?" At this, Naruto responded that he had a strong lightning affinity but he had already completed fire manipulation exercises to which Kakashi nodded as he understood now why Naruto's fire jutsu packed such a punch. Deciding that there was no harm in it as lightning users were rare in Konoha as after the yondaime, he was the only one left besides the sandaime that had a lightning affinity. He went over to tazuna and got a lightbulb which he gave to his student. "Now then, this is the first lightning manipulation exercise. You have to light this bulb with your lightning nature chakra and keep it lit for ten minutes. I will not give you any jutsus until you complete this exercise as lightning is one of the most dangerous and offensive elements. Now get to it."

When they arrived back at tazuna's they saw a little kid by the name of inari. He was silent not that Naruto cared. Sasuke asked what training he did and when he found out demanded Kakashi to begin his training in elemental manipulation. However Kakashi refused stating that he needed to have better control of his chakra and that he did not have any chakra paper to check affinities. Sasuke just snorted and said he was going to sleep.

Naruto was startled when a crow suddenly entered and landed on his shoulder. However, he knew that it was from izumi. He took the scroll and read it. She told him that she was training for their next spar and to come home soon. He smiled warmly and began to write his response. He told her about his encounter with zabuza and included the three jutsu he copied from zabuza as he knew she had a water affinity. He also mentioned about zabuza's accomplice and how they would have to fight again in a couple days. He gave the letter to the crow who poofed away to deliver his letter.

Meanwhile, in Konoha, Izumi was in bed when the crow appeared with naruto's response. She took the letter, dismissed the crow and began to read. Her eyes widened when she read about zabuza and his accomplice. She was uneasy about his upcoming battle but raised her eyebrow at the ned of the letter when she saw a seal. She unsealed it and saw three scrolls containing the jutsu Naruto had copied, all three were high A rank techniques and she saw that they were extremely detailed. She laughed and hugged the scrolls tightly and thought only one thing… 'that idiot, he's on a mission and still thinks about me'

To be continued