'Please tell me I don't need to get involved immediately...' Ishiro thought to himself, jumping through the forest. 'I just hope Menma hasn't caused any problems, or the client has become a problem in of itself.' Ishiro opened the map given to him by the Third Hokage, before closing it and sighing. 'The Land of Waves, huh? It's been a while.'

-Team 7-

"Cereal is a soup!" Menma declared, while Akane grit her teeth.

"No, cereal is not a soup!" Akane argued.

"It is!" Menma argued back.

"It isn't!" Akane yelled back.

Kakashi came up behind the two, before smacking both of them on the back of their heads.

"Who cares if cereal is a soup! The client's safety is the main priority." Kakashi scolded, before turning to their client. "I'm sorry, Tazuna-san. My team has just become genin not long ago. They lack the experience and maturity."

"Bah! A group of kids." Tazuna mocked, taking a sip of his alcohol.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei. Is there supposed to be puddles of water on the bridge when there is no rain?" Dhuveena pointed out, noticing the puddles of water on the ground.

Suddenly, two shinobi emerged from the puddles, wrapping sharp chains around Kakashi, before tearing him in two halves.

"One down..." One of the two shinobi stated ominously. "Give us the bridge builder, or die with him."

"Nah, I'm not about that life." Akane replied casually.

The two shinobi turned their chains towards Menma, as he stood paralyzed in fear. The two shinobi barely grazed his hand, had Akane not intervened by jumping on the heads of the two shinobi. The battle had begun.

-With Ishiro-

Ishiro hid in a tree, looking down upon Team 7 as Kakashi got torn in half by the two shinobi. Suddenly, Kakashi appeared next to him.

"Hey Ishiro." Kakashi greeted. "So I assume this was your mission."

"Hello, Kakashi-sensei. I was instructed to only intervene when things get dicey." Ishiro replied. "I assume that means I now need to intervene."

"Well, I would've preferred to watch their performance in an actual combat situation, but I suppose you could help." Kakashi stated.

"Also, Kakashi-sensei, could you take the one on the left? I can't make clones effectively on a tree." Ishiro asked, to which Kakashi nodded. "Also, was that a clone or a substitution?"

-Team 7-

Akane ducked under the slash of one of the shinobi, as Dhuveena stood before Tazuna, ready to defend him when the two shinobi rushed forwards towards Team 7's client.

'Crap. I can't make it in time…' Akane thought to herself.

Before the two shinobi could proceed, however, Kakashi would appear, easily defeating the shinobi on the left with a well-timed kick. Seeing his comrade defeated so easily, the other shinobi trembled backwards in fear.

"Going somewhere?" Ishiro asked from behind the shinobi, twisting his arm back. Without hesitation, he broke the shinobi's arm from the shoulder joint, causing his victim to scream in pain. Before the shinobi could scream for long, Ishiro knocked the shinobi out with a swift chop to the back of his neck. "I think he's gonna be asleep for a while."

"Ishiro? Why are you here?" Dhuveena asked, receiving no answer.

"Nice work, Akane, Dhuveena, you two stayed calm. However, Menma, I'm disappointed in you. Your first instinct is to stand still in fear, and run away, you could've jeopardised the mission and left all your friends to die." Kakashi stated, before turning to Tazuna. "As for you, the two shinobi were targeting you, they were both chunin, so therefore this is no C-rank mission."

"Well, my village cannot afford a more expensive mission." Tazuna explained. "Do you know the business tycoon Gato?"

"One of the richest people in the world?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, well, the governor for the Land of Waves, which is where my village is located, is a puppet paid off by Gato." Tazuna explained. "I'm trying to build a bridge, if this bridge is built, we can cripple Gato's hold over our economy. Gato definitely does not want this, he controls many shinobi in the Land of Waves."

"Kakashi-sensei, I think we should withdraw from this mission." Akane suggested. "Not just for the outranking of this mission, but also because of the poison in Menma's wound."

"You raise a fair point." Kakashi stated. "What do the rest of you think?"

"I… I will not run away again." Menma declared, stabbing his hand with a kunai, attempting to bleed the poison out. "I say we continue."

"I guess we can continue…" Dhuveena stated.

"I'm tied to your team, so I have to do with what you guys decide." Ishiro explained. "Hold on Menma, this forest is full of herbs, I'll go get some."

"You guys realise that, if we go on we will face shinobi that could be far more powerful or skilled than most of you?" Kakashi warned, receiving no answer, he sighed. "Alright then, let's proceed."

Team 7 proceeded on their path towards Tazuna's village, minus Ishiro, who assured that he would catch up with them later on. On the way, Menma suddenly threw a kunai into a random bush, swearing he sensed something inside. Upon further inspection, it was a small snow rabbit.

'A rabbit like this is only found in cold countries, that means it could only be reared indoors…' Kakashi analysed in his thoughts, before lifting his head up. "Get down!"

All three genin and Tazuna did as they were told, as a large sword flew overhead and lodged itself in the trunk of a tree. Akane analysed the blade, noting its unique design and strange hole in the middle of the blade. Menma's eyes widened as Dhuveena looked up to the branch of a tree, noticing a man of tall stature peering down at them.

"Good afternoon. My name is Zabuza Momochi, a missing-nin from Kirigakure, and I would prefer for you to hand over the bridge builder without a fight." The ninja stated calmly, almost sadistically.

'This guy is serious, he's no ordinary chump.' Kakashi thought to himself. "Guys, stand back, and if anything happens to me, take Tazuna and run." Kakashi instructed, before lifting the left side of his headband obscuring his left eye, revealing a horizontal scar over the eye, the pupil of the eye red with three black commas inside the pupil.