I'm very sorry for the wait everyone! Things have been absolutely crazy, but I managed to get this chapter out for you! So please, enjoy!


Kakashi sat up on the edge of his bed. His aches and pains were still there, but he would have to live with it. Tossing up an apple, he threw several shuriken at it, cutting it up into 4 perfect quarters. "If things go south…I think I'll be able to handle myself." He got up, and without any obvious limp, walked towards the door. "I just hope that my team can say the same."

In the living room, Team 7 sat against the wall in meditative position. As Kakashi approached them, he smirked underneath his mask. "Hm. There might be hope for you all yet." "Take your pills. It's time."

Sakura and Sasuke opened their eyes and stood up. They rose…and looked back with their peripherals.

Naruto remained in his position. Sasuke's serious face soured. "…I think he's actually asleep."

Kakashi sighed. "…we still got a ways to go…"

Sakura lightly kicked his leg, and Naruto shot up. "Ah! I'm ready!" Naruto threw up his arms defensively, then relaxed when he saw no enemies. "Oh." Naruto rubbed his head. "Sorry."

"As long as you don't slack off during this next part, we should be good." Kakashi said. "I've a bad feeling today. We may be in for the fight of our lives."

Tazuna then showed up. "I have to go to the office. But my family can't stay here. Gato will make a move."

"Then we're in agreement." Kakashi nodded. "Here's what's going to happen…"


"Whaddya mean you won't attack the house!?" Gato screamed at Zabuza back in their hideout.

"Like I said." Zabuza said without missing a beat as he crossed his arms. "I won't be attacking the house because they won't BE at the house!"

Gato was rendered speechless for a moment. "Oh."

"Kakashi, and probably Tazuna himself, will have adopted a new tactic of protection. And one way or another, it will be their last." Zabuza explained.


Kakashi led the way to Tazuna's bridge, his family following close behind. "Kakashi will not let Tazuna and his family out of his sight now." Zabuza said. "Which is why they will go wherever he goes."


"That seems obvious." Gato said. "You sure he won't employ countermeasures of some kind?"

"Of course he will!" Zabuza answered. "He will use the most basic techniques of ninjutsu: Bushin…and Henge."

At the same time, Tazuna and his family followed Sasuke to a safe house on the West Side.

"So they're going to make a trio of fakes and take the family elsewhere?" Gato asked.

"Oh, you sell the White Fang short." Zabuza sneered. "There will be more than one group of fakes!"


Elsewhere, further downtown, the family followed Sakura.


And another batch of the family followed Sasuke into the woods.


"Strike them all at once!" Gato ordered at the revelation of this information.

Zabuza grinned. "Of course." He then looked behind Gato to address the samurai. "I will need a dozen to cover the west! And another dozen in the east!"

"Wait, what are you doing!?" Gato yelled. "These are my men, and I-"

"If I'm to find the real family, I need to work without distractions." Zabuza cut him off.

Gato growled. "Fine. But remember, I want them alive…for now. I will pay you the full fee."

"Agreed." Zabuza nodded. "I've already decided on my real prey anyhow." He turned to his right to address his apprentice. "Haku. The real family is located somewhere along these prime locations. Based on our last battle, I think you have what it takes to track them once the bushin are dispersed."

"Understood." He nodded under his mask.


"Man, I can't believe I'm stuck on guard duty while the others are out there fighting!" Naruto thought. However, he was smart enough not to say that out loud as he slammed a card on the floor. "Okay, so I placed a red card down."

Inari, in turn, said, "And I play a blue seven!" Inari held up a single card, smiling smugly in Naruto's face. "Wan!"

"Man, this game sucks!" Naruto sighed as he dropped his cards down.

"What's going to suck even more is if Gato catches us!" Tazuna yelled from a straw bundle he was sitting on, Tsunami seated next to him. Currently, they were in the sewers. They were able to avoid the filthy water and find a room with electricity, but the odor was hard to ignore. "I hope you're up to the job of protecting us!"

Naruto waved him off. "Don't worry about it! Kakashi-sensei's got everything under control!"


"And you're sure I can be protected!?" Tazuna growled, frustrated as he followed Kakashi to his office.

"Relax." Kakashi waved him off without looking. His nose was deep in his Icha Icha Paradise novel. "Everything is under control. I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Kakashi." Before he could look up, Zaubuza was on top of Kakashi and swung his mighty sword. Kakashi just barely managed to avoid getting the tip of his nose cut as he bent backwards. Zabuza landed and dragged across the road, his hand slowing him down. As soon as he stopped, he made a thrusting motion towards Tazuna.

"Oh no you don't!" Naruto shouted as he jumped towards the assassin. Zabuza fought the forces driving him forward and twisted away from the orange genin. With a wide arc, he swung his blade and sliced Naruto in half. Of course, he was just a bushin, the two parts disappearing without leaving a drop of blood.

Sasuke leaped towards Zabuza, but the later grabbed the kid by the throat. Without dropping his sword, he squeezed; he could easily break the neck with one hand. Just as he was beginning to feel the bones crush, Sasuke also disappeared; another kage bushin. Sakura tried to stab him in the back, but Zabuza turned and back-handed Sakura away. He swung his sword over his head and stabbed Sakura right through the torso. She too disappeared in smoke. Without missing a beat, he threw his sword like a boomerang, decapitating Tazuna and taking a hair off of Kakashi. However, Tazuna also disappeared.

"I am relieved to see at least you are real." Zabuza said. "So, the orange one, eh?"

"The Kage Bushin is his specialty." Kakashi affirmed, smirking.

"But he can't cover the other two diversions now, can he?"

Kakashi's smirk didn't disappear under his mask. "You'd be surprised."


Tazuna fell to the floor as a samurai knocked him out with a bokken. However, he and the other three ninja disappeared. "What's this!?"

"Hey, where's the girl?!" One of the samurai had his katana embedded in a trash can when he thought he cut down the kunoichi.

Sakura looked down from above the shanty roofs, dropping a dozen smoke bombs. They erupted in pink smoke. The color was of her choice, but the other ingredients were standard for ninja: ash, peppers, and citrus pieces. All very irritable to the eyes. "Ah!" Sakura took them by surprise as she quickly knocked them out with well placed chops to the neck.

There may not have been much "honor" in hitting distracted opponents, but even she knew it was smarter to exploit every possible advantage and be safe (especially at her current level). "Shannaro!" Sakura cried in joy as she pumped her arm in joy at the sight of the downed samurai. "Oops!" She squeaked as she covered her mouth. "Idiot!" Her inner-self cried. "What if Sasuke-kun saw me?!" Forgetting about her self embarrassment, she took off, back to their agreed meeting spot. "I only hope they haven't found Naruto!"

However, she didn't notice as white hare watching the events. To most, they wouldn't pay it any heed. If they only noticed at this time of year, hares shouldn't have a white coat.


"Prepare to die, scum!" The samurai charged towards Tazuna as he cowered in fear. They didn't notice the two genin with him did the same, while their jonin didn't even bother looking in shock from his reading as he was stabbed from behind.

"Enough of this." The one genin who didn't react in fear, Sasuke, sighed. "I think we should drop the act." Suddenly, Tazuna and the others disappeared. Before they could register what happened, Sasuke already began his counter attack. "Goukakyu no Jutsu!" The samurai were all enveloped in flame and screamed in pain. Sasuke didn't pay them any mind as he finished them off with a kunai and taijutsu. Others retreated. Sasuke didn't bother chasing them; as far as he was concerned, his part in the plan was done. "Hmph. Weaklings…"

Sasuke stopped when he felt someone grab his ankle. Sasuke turned with his kunai ready, expecting an attacker, but the man was on the ground. The Uchiha's eyes widened in horror as he looked at the samurai. The burns were hard to look at, but it was his eyes that got to him. The pain, the fear. "Help me." He rasped. Sasuke felt his stomach churn. He fought down this sudden urgent instinct to scoop him up and run him to a doctor. "Please," he begged. "Help me." Sasuke's second thought was to put him out of his misery. But his weapon hand hesitated, and in the end, he ran off. He too did not see the hare.


"You'll never find Tazuna and his family!" Kakashi declared.

"Did you know rabbits and hairs can smell twice as good as a dog?" Zabuza asked out of nowhere.

"What?"

"People normally use dogs to track. But rabbits are much less conspicuous. And my apprentice, as it happens, has a contract with the hares."

Kakashi's lone eye widened. "Oh no…"

Turning around, he saw a white hare. It immediately bolted in the opposite direction, even faster than Kakashi could run.


Haku waited in seiza by a tree. Three hares approached him, then merging into one big hair, about the size of a dog. "Do you have a scent?"

"I do indeed."

"Lead the way then."

The hare took off, Haku running after it.


"After finding out your orange student could do Kage Bushin, I realized something. They are solid copies, and therefore have the same chemical make-up and odor of the original. Upon their dispersal, those markers are released into the air. I'd imagine by now, our men have got rid of the fakes. It's only a matter of time before Haku finds him."

Kakashi bolted back towards the island. "Oh no you don't!" Zabuza made more signs, ending with the dragon. Kakashi found himself in a water prison again, but this time it was large enough to surround the bridge. Kakashi turned back to Zabuza. "I must exact my revenge." Zabuza twirled his giant sword, smiling under his mask. "You should feel honored. I never had to fight someone twice."

"Then I will make sure it is your last fight!" Kakashi pulled down his mask, revealing his sharingan eye.

"Ah ah." Zabuza warned him, closing his eyes. "I figured out what happened last time. It looked like you were copying me in real-time, to the point where you could see the future. That is impossible. Then, it hit me. You can't. What WAS happening, was YOU controlling me with that damn red eye of yours!" Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "Yes, you hypnotized me and controlled me like a puppet!" Despite the edge in his voice, he chuckled despite himself. "I must admit, I'm rather impressed. Anyone else would have assumed your strength supernatural. You truly used the ultimate tool of ninjutsu to its finest: deception."

"Careful." Kakashi warned him. "I just may have more uses for that tool."

"And I will make sure you don't get a chance to use any of it." Zabuza held his fingers up and drew his large sword behind him. A thick mist suddenly formed inside their bubble, and the swordsman was gone from Kakashi's sight. Kakashi charged, but by the time he got there, Zabuza was gone

Kakashi's senses were sharp, even for a jonin. However, none of that would help him here. His eyes, even the sharingan, couldn't pierce the fog. He knew he would never hear Zabuza; he was an expert assassin, too good to be caught by sound. Suddenly, Zabuza was behind him, and brought his sword down.


The hare took Haku deep into the park, passing the crucifix a certain Wave Islander was tortured, not that he was aware nor would he care.

The Hare suddenly stopped. "I'm sorry, kid. The trail ends here."

Haku looked around. They were in the field, nowhere to hide here. Unless…

Haku carefully scanned past the grass, until he found it: a manhole cover. "Thank you, Yukishi." Haku pulled out a carrot, which the hare gratefully accepted before returning to his home.

Haku eyed the manhole, his hands exuding a mist.


Naruto sighed as he leaned back on the wall. "So, do we have any way of knowing how it's going up there?" Tazuna asked. "I understand the need to hide, but if this goes on much longer, I may rather face Gato."

"Oh, the goons took out my clones, but Sasuke and Sakura-chan took care of them." Naruto answered nonchalantly. Tazuna's eyes widened. "I noticed whenever one of my clones are dispelled, I get all their memories." He replied.

Tazuna and Tsunami only looked at each other, stunned. "Wow." Was all he could say. "That sounds useful."

Inari sighed. "I guess you had to be useful for something to come here." Inari muttered.

"Inari!" Tsunami chastised him.

"It's alright." Naruto assured her, holding up his hand. He leaned forward, giving the kid a serious look. "I don't think it's me that's bothering you though, is it? It's this place. You feel antsy, being so close to your dad."

Inari seemed to shake a bit. "He died for nothing." Inari said, a hint of a sob escaping. "He took the fight right to Gato, and he died." Finally, Inari was beginning to really cry. "Why would he do that? Who cares about the bridge?!"

Tsunami tried to calm him down. "Inari, you know Papa loved us all…"

"Then why didn't he stay?!" Inari stood up and shouted at his mother. "Gato could have had the bridge, and we would have each other! Face it, Mom! He abandoned us!"

Before anymore could be said, Naruto got up and suddenly punched him across the face. Everyone was too stunned to react. Naruto calmed down, and breathed. "Look at your island! Don't you get it? If things continue as they are, you have no future. Your Dad thought of nothing but you and your mother, and took the situation in his hands the best way he knew how when it seemed there was no other option!" Naruto kneeled to his level, and rustled his head. "I'm sorry we weren't here for you guys before. But you can't let your pops' sacrifice go to waste; it's up to you to make his death worth something."

Inari only cried. Naruto inched forward, and awkwardly inched forward and hugged him. After a moment, he stepped back and smiled. "Feel better?" Inari sniffled, but nodded. Naruto was about to smile…but then he turned serious. "Someone's approaching." Naruto growled.

A few moments ago, he was itching for battle. Upon realizing the family was about to be attacked, he was furious with himself for wanting it. The sewer ceiling exploded, and everyone covered themselves. In the misty smoke, Naruto eyed his opponent: The Arctic Fox masked shinobi. "You."


I shall leave you all with this for now.

I remembered back when Naruto nearly killed a bunny, with Kakashi making note of its white coat. I figured this would be a good summon for Haku.

Also, Naruto's back at it with his talk no jutsu, I guess. I'm doing my best to keep this aspect of his character more grounded, and to tie it into him becoming a leader. Hope this works out!