Okay, I'm back. I took note of your reviews and shall address them when possible. Oh, and to whoever described Senshi and Kyuubi playing poker through the cage bars, I totally agree! And, I'll try to make this chapter as long as I can.

On a side note: Instead of swearing to never have to be saved again, Naruto swore, -in his own mind, at least- to reach a level of strength where Senshi would not have to take over every time to save him. I'm telling you this now because I have no intention of mentioning it in the story.

Team 7, along with their charge, now found themselves in a thick fog. Except for the sounds of the waves against the side of the boat, all was silent. Another person was steering the boat from the rear, using an oar while keeping the outboard motor silent. Tazuna sat next to the driver, keeping his head low. Next to him sat Kakashi, then Sasuke, then Sakura, and Naruto sat at the front, staring into the pea soup.

The driver was the first to speak since entering the fog. "We should see the bridge soon." Indeed, within a minute, a massive shape emerged from the dense fog. It was a large bridge, well-built for being only half done. It was a structure that most likely looked normal, if not boring, in the daylight, ...but in the fog and silence, it had an ominous feel.

Naruto sat still in his seat. Behind him, Kakashi-sensei spoke with the old man about the ones who were after him. The blonde didn't catch most of it, but he did hear Tazuna admit that a 'super-dangerous' man was after his life. Some guy named Gatou. At this point, Naruto tuned out the conversation, thinking back on the earlier battle, instead. He was well aware that he had gone through the exact same training as Sasuke and Sakura, yet ...Senshi was able to make him do that... Naruto just couldn't think of any reason for his body to have developed as far as it had in so short a time. But he didn't dwell on it too long. After all, he finally had something to hold over Sasuke! He could fight when Sasuke was lost in a cloud of dust! The blonde just grinned to himself every time he thought about it.

/Don't get cocky.../

/Oh, shut up! .../ Of all the things Senshi did, butting into Naruto's private thoughts was the most annoying. True, he did come in handy every so often.

Naruto took a moment to look back at his teammates, and the first thing he saw was a pair of black eyes glaring at him from halfway down the boat. They closed a moment later. Apparently Sasuke was remembering the earlier battle, too. It would probably be a long while before he got over it.

A few minutes later, they reached a series of tunnels, all leading into the main port of Wave Country. Inside, the mist was gone, and the sun shone bright. All throughout the water stood trees, the roots of which held the foliage up out of the water. Buildings and shops surrounded the ports. All in all, it was a peaceful scene. From here, they all disembarked, watching as the driver of the boat pulled away, fired up the motor, and took off. Now, all they had to do was get the old man home. Thrills.

xxxxXxxxx

Which was how they found themselves walking through another forest, one that was smaller yet still just like the one back home. More than one of the members of Team 7 began thinking about this when a whooshing sound drew their attention. "Everyone, get down!" Kakashi yelled.

A massive spinning blade, several feet long, flew out of the nearby treetops, sailed low over their heads, and embedded itself in a tree trunk. They looked up in time to see a shinobi land lightly on the handle, his back facing the group. His face was half covered in bandages, and he wore his forehead protector sideways; the symbol of the Mist Village was clearly visible in the afternoon light. He glared back at the travelers over his shoulder, his gaze passing from person to person, stopping at Kakashi.

The silver-haired jounin spoke first. "Well, well. If it isn't the Hidden Mist's Missing-nin, Momochi Zabuza." Kakashi gave a half-smile under his mask. He looked back at his three Genin, noticing that Sasuke was reaching into his pack to pull out a weapon. "You three stay out of this. Surround and protect Tazuna. This guy's on a whole other level." Slowly, deliberately, he reached up to his own forehead protector, to the side that was always down over his left eye. "It will be a little tough unless I do this..."

"You appear to be Sharingan Kakashi." Zabuza spoke his first words to them.

/Sharingan! What?.../ Sasuke was suddenly very suprised. The Sharingan was supposed to be a bloodline skill unique to the Uchiha clan. How did Kakashi...?

Finally, the jounin lifted his cover, allowing his hidden eye to be revealed. Unlike his right eye, which was black, this eye was red, with what appeared to be three black teardrops evenly spaced around the pupil. Also, while not visible, the new eye gave off a strange energy.

"Ah, I already get to see the famous Sharingan. I'm honored." Zabuza cackled.

Naruto was getting a little flustered. "Sharingan, Sharingan. What the hell is that?"

Sasuke began to explain (and I quote:) "Sharingan. A power borne in the eyes and released from the pupils. Some have an ability in their eyes, called Doujutsu, that can read all types of genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu, and can defeat them. The Sharingan is one of the types of pupil that give you this power. But that's not the only ability the Sharingan has."

"Exactly." Zabuza finished for him. "That's not all... What's even scarier is that you can read your opponent's techniques and copy them."

At this point, Naruto was speechless. Also, he sensed that Senshi was feeling the same way. /Did he say, ...copy techniques?../

/Yup. Remind you of anything? .../

/Yup.../ This was like one of the forbidden jutsu listed in the scroll. A technique that was not mentioned greatly, but was compared to the Uchiha's Sharingan.

The blonde's thoughts were interupted, however, by a sudden mist. Without warning, they were back in the boat. At least, that's how it looked. All three genin seemed to remember their mission at the same time, as they all took defensive positions around the old man. Kakashi and Zabuza glared at each other for a while, as if to say 'your move.'

The assasin moved first, freeing his sword and dashing out into the middle of the lake. Yes, the middle. He stood on the surface of the water, striking a pose while muttering something. He was releasing chakra at a high rate, and it all became mist. By now, the fog was so thick that the team had a hard time seeing each other and they were less than a foot away!

Silence overtook them once again. Then Kakashi briefly explained that Zabuza was an expert in the art of silent killing. You don't even know it until you're dead. Or something. Again, Naruto was tuning him out. He was thinking back, trying to remember just how it went...

Then Kakashi powered up. He simply leaned forward slightly, placed his hands in a seal, and focused. His body was then surrounded in an aura, which drove the mist away from the immediate area. Sasuke was ...well, not ready for this. The intesity of their powers... the danger just hanging in the air around him... it was almost too much. His body started shaking. He gripped his kunai tighter, full ready to end this madness.

"Sasuke." Kakashi's voice pierced the veil of tension. "Don't worry. I'll protect you guys even if it kills me." He looked back at them, smiling with just his eyes. "I don't let my comrades die."

Zabuza seemed to disagree. He landed smack dab in the middle of the group, which had been in a defensive formation to begin with. Several things happened in the next instant. The assasin rose, Kakashi turned, then jumped, the trio scattered, and they looked to find Kakashi standing with his own kunai buried in the gut of Zabuza. The odd part was that, instead of blood, ...water poured from the wound. Slowly, a form emerged from the mist directly behind Kakashi. It was ...Zabuza? The silver-haired shinobi turned, the first Zabuza dispersed back into it's original, water form, then the new Zabuza struck, swinging his giant blade around, and sliced Kakashi in half. The assasin's bandanges bunched up as he grinned beneath them.

That is, until Kakashi's remains also went into their original, water form. /A water clone? Impossible! How did he copy it through the mist?.../ The next thought was never finished before a kunai tip was felt against his throat.

"Don't move."

xxxxXxxxx

The candlelight only illuminated a few square feet, but that was all Sondaime needed. He was searching through a set of old books, one after another. His old eyes scanned every page, trying to find... well, he didn't know.

For the past few nights, the old man had found it difficult to sleep. The incident with Naruto had allowed a thought to enter his mind that just wouldn't leave. That, in addition to his curiousity, is what drove him into the Village's old library and storage facilily, trying to find clues as to who might have been summoned into Naruto, and why. Anything.

Finally, he found a potential clue. A surviving list of contributors to the techniques written in the Scroll of Seals. The first two names he recognized immedietly: Shodaime and Nidaime, the first and second Hokages. None of the other names looked familiar to him, but he decided to research them all anyway. Let's see... the next name on the list was ...Ishida Senshi. That was as good a name to start with as any.

xxxxXxxxx

"It's over, is it?" Zabuza smirked under his shroud. "You can't beat me with your monkey-like imitations. That was impressive, though; you had already copied my Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu and had your clone do the talking." Just then, another Zabuza appered behind the stunned Kakashi. "Nice plan, but... I'm also not that easy." With that, Kakashi's earler target dispersed into a large puddle of water. Kakashi turned, suprised, as his opponent swung his weapon again, missing this time, which forced the sword to travel all the way around and stick itself in the ground at the other end of the swing. The assasin reacted quickly, though, switching his grip on the handle and swinging his leg around, landing a powerful kick that sent the silver-haired shinobi flying into the water.

When he emerged a moment later, he looked at his hand. "What's this water? It's heavy..."

The assasin appeared behind him, flying through a series of seals before launching his Water Prison technique. Kakashi was now floating in the center of a large orb of water, trapped in a prison in which he couldn't move. "That was careless... now you're trapped in my special, inescappable prison." Zabuza stood on the water with one hand at his side, one holding the prison in place. "We can finish this later." He shifted his attention to the group of genin and one old man, holding one hand to his face. He then muttered "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu." and a clone rose from the lake in front of him. The clone walked towards the group a little, intending to tell the younger ninja all about how they shouldn't even call themselves ninja. They were too inexperienced. Yadda Yadda.

Well, he never even got one word out of his mouth before he noticed the blonde kid beginning a long series of hand seals. He then opened one eye and said

"Koriyugen."

His eye began to change. What began as a normal, dark blue eye began to glow, giving off a bluish-white light. The entire eye was now glowing ice-blue, due to all the chakra gathered that had been gathered into it.

Kakashi just stared from his watery prison. /What is THAT? I've never even heard of Koriyugen.../

Sasuke and Sakura only gaped from their respective positions, not sure what to think.

Zabuza was not concerned with the kid's eye, so much as what that eye was doing. Not a moment after the eye lit up, the real Zabuza had a funny feeling. Like there was a really thin ...layer of chakra sweeping over him. Something akin to having someone lightly blow against your bare skin. /What the hell? What is this kid doing?.../

Just as fast as it began, ...it stopped. Naruto's eye regained it's former color, and the other one opened, displaying for all to see that the technique was finished. Slowly, the blonde's expression shifted into one of confidence. So, that's how he does it...

The young shinobi stood strait, not saying anything. He raised one arm strait up, while bending the other inwards, both hands in the Seal of the Tiger. In other words, the pose Zabuza went into before using...

"Ninpou... Hidden Mist no Jutsu!" And with that, Naruto vanished into the fog.

Zabuza was definetly caught off guard with this. Kakashi's eye's almost bulged out of his head. /How the... he can copy jutsus TOO! ...But what the hell.../ The silver-haired jounin was too stunned by the current turn of events to think very strait. All at once, there was a voice right next to him. The voice belonged to Naruto... at least, to his body.

"Koriyugen. A forbidden jutsu listed in the Scroll of Seals. Using more chakra than a mission allows, the user focuses on the eyes, creating an effect simillar to the Sharingan. He then scans the opponent, learning all about their fighting style, their jutsus, ...in some cases, even unlocking the secrets of advanced bloodline techniques, or so I've heard. It was considered dangerous because it could become one of the most sought-after jutsus on earth, and it was considered forbidden because of the amount of chakra it ate up." A pause. "However, if only used it in one eye, the chakra usage is decreased by at least 40, but that also keeps me from scanning everything."

Kakashi looked around as best he could in his current state, then gave up. Naruto had used Zabuza's own vanishing technique; the blonde could be standing right in front of him for all he knew. He glanced over to see the real Zabuza frantically looking around, trying to figure out what was going on. /This is only going to get more interesting.../ he thought.

Well, was that worth the wait? Tell me what you think! I apologize for the longer delay in updates, but it appears to be worth it. The more stuff that happens, the longer I have to think about what I want to change, add, etc.

By all means, review! I must know what you think! ...I'm repeating myself, aren't I?