Chapter 14 – End of the Beginning
"That's why we endure. We are ninja. I will never forget." - Naruto
"What the-!" said Kiba as he looked at Naruto, looking for confirmation. Naruto, with his brows scrounged down, nodded to Kiba and proceeded to run towards the house, with Kiba following suit
As they approached the house, they saw two men holding Tsunami at the hair
"They aren't here and the boy got away" One of the man said to the other.
"No worries. We got this one. The boy was just an extra. Let's go"
"Let me go!" Tsunami struggled from her captors, before receiving a loud slap
"Shut up bitch! If it weren't for your old oto-chan, you wouldn't be in this situation!" The man holding her said to Tsunami. The other man was looking at her like an animal and grinned. Kiba and Akamaru growled.
"If you behave like a good little girl, perharps we won't make you scream too much when we get you to your new home" He said to Tsunami, who, when she heard what the man said had a look of terror and proceeded to struggle more. The man just looked at Tsunami like an animal and laughed
Naruto looked at the scene with distraught 'This weren't the guys that went here last time' Naruto thinks to himself 'And where is Inari?!'
Kiba, who couldn't bear to watch the scene anymore proceesed to throw a Kunai at one of the men
The unlucky man who received the Kunai was hit exactly as his neck
"Das! Damn it, who's there!"
"Unhand Tsunami-san, or else!" Kiba shouted to the man as he appeared in front of him. The man just looked at Kiba and laughed
"You're just one kid! You might have killed Das, but that was just lucky! What can you do against a master swordsman?!" The man shouted maniacally to Kiba
"How about two!" Naruto shouted as he showed himself from the treeline before suddenly appearing besides Kiba
The man looked at the two of them and laughed again, this time more insane than the last one "It still won't matter. Three, two or one it really won't matter, I still can kill you all!" The man shouted before unsheating his sword and ran towards them.
"That" Naruto looked at the Man with a grin "was a mistake" as suddenly two clones of Naruto hold the man at his arms, throwing his sword in the process. The man was pinned in the ground.
"Told ya, dattebayo!" Naruto said to the man before walking to the man and hitting him in the face knocking the man unconscious.
"How the hell?" said Kiba who looked in Naruto in amazement.
"Eh, I'll explain later, but we need to get to the bridge now!"
"I must say Kakashi, you have piqued my interest a lot." Zabuza said as he stood next to Haku
It had been 10 mins ago when Zabuza appeared at the bridge with Haku, just like the last time
"I must discourage that. I really am not an interesting guy" Kakashi said, in what would Gai would say, a very cool manner. He had shooed away Kurenai in butting in the fight not because he didn't want to raise her suspicions more. He wanted a fight he could control. Especially that he knew what he could do and what would happen.
Zabuza unsheated on his giant sword, but he didn't attack. Not because he was scared of Kakashi. He was interested in the genins he had. The speedy blonde, the black-haired one, and the strong pink girl. "Where's your genin Kakashi? I think if we would have a good rematch, your genin would add the extra challenge when I finally kill you"
Kakashi raised his brow at what Zabuza said "That seems unusual, that an enemy nin would request for more opponents, Zabuza" Kakashi said
"And a ninja wouldn't argue for more comrades, even if they were genins, Kakashi" Zabuza retorted to which Kakashi answered with a shoulder shrug "I have full confidence in myself that I could defeat you"
Zabuza laughed "Let's see about that". Zabuza spewed out a bunch of seals, with Kakashi the Copy Ninja copying him.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu"
Two water dragons formed that spanned 7 feet long and attacked each other, exploding into a watery mist. Suddenly Zabuza leaped towards Kakashi with his sword, with Kakashi dodging the attack whilst throwing a Kunai towards Zabuza, in which he had avoided.
Sparks flew and Jutsus copied, Sakura and Sasuke watched with the rest of team 8 with hidden interest. Hidden Interest with the meaning that they noticed how toned down Kakashi's Jutsus were. There they've realized what he was planning, and Sakura connected the dots.
'That's why he had been disappearing from the beginning when we got here'
Kakashi while he spewed out another Jutsu against Zabuza thought about he had done
Kakashi closed his book and stood up, which surprised Sakura "Where are you going Kaka-sensei?" As she saw the silver haired shinobi go to the door "Just...somewhere. I'll be back later." Kakashi said in a nonchalant manner as he raised his hand and waved before dissapearing in a swirl of leaves.
Kakashi appeared in front of a building. A building which was too big to be in the Land of the Waves. At the entrance where guards who hadn't noticed Kakashi yet.
"Maa, should I really do this?" Kakashi said aloud. One of the guards noticed Kakashi and immediately noticed Hitai-ate.
"Konoha Shinobi! Evacuate the building and get the boss out of here!"The guard said as he unsheated his sword and went to attacked Kakashi. Kakashi, while dodging it, had left the weight of his left arm behind his back with a kunai in his hand. This resulted to the guard running into the kunai and dying right there and now.
Kakashi looked at the panicked guards with a bit of amusement. He wasn't amused because he thought they were puny or he was bloodthirsty. Or perharps he was. After all, they protect the biggest scum the people in Wave could ever face.
"One step further and you're dead!" One of the guards shouted to Kakashi. Kakashi raised a brow and took a step forwards.
"You better make sure that you fulfill that promise." Kakashi said like cold steel "or you won't make it out here with your lives"
2 hours later
Kakashi stood out the building and breathed in the cold air. He had done it. There was no turning back now.
Kakashi looked at the moon and wondered why he had done it. He had never tapped into his emotions. He had simply operated on what had been taught to him and imposed on him. Yet this situation proved that there had been a leak on that fortress he had made.
Then in his mind, he had made a plan to dismiss this emotional leak.
Or perharps this was the cause of it. His mind wandered into the face of a boy that had died by his hands. The same mission he's doing again. Then he remembered Rin, a memory he had never moved on from.
Then Kakashi made a conclusion.
It was tiring to be a Shinobi and he had been his entire waking life. Sometimes, tapping into raw emotions once in a lifetime would be alright.
Sakura watched the battle unfold between Zabuza and Kakashi, using jutsus that, in her past life was never used in this battle before. Kurenai simply watched and observed. Even though she was leader of a tracking team, in all reality, she had been taught how to retrieve information from simple observation. That's what she excelled on. That's how she learned about her students. And that's how she noticed Kakashi's change. Kurenai observed the little things and bring out the bigger picture and, from a man she had seen and talked to for years, even if it was just a mask, the little things like how Kakashi talked to his team to even how he walked, she digested this information.
"Are you tired Zabuza?" Kakashi said as he landed after his attack. Zabuza looked at Kakashi, then sheated his sword "It's a good fight Kakashi, but let's stop fooling around. I know you killed my employer, and for that, I have no more reason to kill you" as he turned around "It might seem stupid but I do have a code to follow. That's why I hadn't sent Haku to attack your students" Zabuza said before he walked away with Haku.
"That…was a surprise" Kakashi said as Kurenai and the rest put away their weapons.
Suddenly Naruto and Kiba came running in, panting as they had ran all the way
"Where's Zabuza?"Naruto asked in confusion as he saw no one attacking
"Gone"Kakashi replied "Because he had no more employer, it wasn't his duty to kill us anymore"
"So… we… ran…all…the…way…here for NOTHING?!" Kiba said as he panted from exhaustion, as Akamaru yipped in agreement.
"And why is his employer 'gone' Kakashi?" Kurenai asked to which Kakashi looked back with a shrug I haven't got the faintest clue" Kakashi said with an eye smile. Kurenai just breathed deeply and breathed her frustrations away. She wouldn't get answers from Kakashi anyway. "Let's… just finish the mission"
For all the while, a figure from the tree line watched the interaction with interest, most of all, Sasuke.
"You have grown… Sasuke" The figure said as he smiled lightly before another figure popped out.
"We aren't gonna attack them?" The other figure asked the first one.
"No… We'll tell Leader-sama that it isn't worth the resources and the attention to get the Jinchuuriki today" The figure said as he turned around and walked away
"Whatever you say… Itachi-san"
A/N: Yo! Sorry for not posting last week but I was occupied with real life, Christmas and all. Anyways, Merry Late Christmas everybody! The wave arc took a lot of time and I wanted to end it. I would have added another chapter and another if I didn't think that this would be too much. Anyways, next chapter would be the beginning of a new arc! Sayonarra!
