On the bridge, the day had been calm until that moment. Too calm, even. As they say: before the storm comes the calm. And that was perfectly what described that day since they were very close to completing the bridge. There were only about 20 meters to go. They believed that the next day they would finish it. Those who had stayed until the end were even talking about the party they would have the next day, even with the poor conditions they had, they believed it was an event worth celebrating. It was hope returning to the island, to their beloved home.

The genins, still keeping an eye on the surroundings as instructed by the jounin, looked at the joy of the bridge workers and felt a twinge of happiness and pride for having chosen to continue the mission. Those people didn't deserve to go through so much hardship because of one man's greed, they just wanted to live their lives in peace and be happy with their families and friends.

"Hey, don't get distracted," Kakashi spoke up, drawing their attention. "So far things have gone well. I'm sure that Zabuza has recovered completely as well. So don't let your guard down just because things seem to be smooth so far."

"Okay." the Uchiha replied, turning back to a serious and much more focused expression.

"Sakura, don't lose sight of Tazuna, understand? Sasuke, watch out if anyone is acting suspicious or if they appear or disappear out of nowhere."

"We got it, sensei!" the pink-haired girl replied by nodding her head.

"Naruto." he turned to the clone. "If you notice anything strange, let us know," he spoke in a subdued tone, cautious so that only the team would hear, but without actually whispering. Since the clones were exact copies of the blond in this jutsu, they carried his abilities with them in a limited way. That is, they could sense the chakra around them, but the focus needed to do so was double or triple what the original needed to sense anything.

They discovered this through tests they did when the blond could already cope well with the presence of others using chakra without so much bother to him. The original goal at the beginning was to explain to the boy that the jutsu had other possibilities of use, such as for learning and obtaining information. That's how the jounin had the pleasant (?) surprise that the boy already knew about it somehow. So they just confirmed the possibility of the clones being able to sense their chakra and directions like the original or not.

The moment was good for the other two genins to clear up their doubts about the other's physical clone technique. Since they hadn't focused much on it since the rattle test, where they had their first contact with it. Before they were too focused on the missions and too distracted by the little inconsistencies and mysteries of the Uzumaki to remember to research or ask. However, the younger one used the jutsu sometimes in missions that required more physical work. Imagine their surprise that it was a rank B jutsu and that the other apparently could also perform its rank A variant.

"Okay." responded promptly, after all, all either of them wanted least was to fall into a trap by carelessness or something. But before he could even blink, the bridge was suddenly covered in fog.

It didn't take long for the ninja team to recognize the technique and its user. It hadn't really been too long since their last encounter for them to have really forgotten. In a matter of seconds, they remembered their roles, located the client, and put themselves in a defensive position after ordering everyone else to evacuate. If they stayed they would only be dead weight and would get in the way of them actually protecting the target from the enemy. And they were not considered important enough to be used as hostages in this situation. Those who would be were being guarded and protected by the original blond, and the sensei doubted that the enemy would send or have more shinobis to send after them when the biggest obstacle, himself, was on the bridge.

"Sakura," he spoke in an orderly tone, she knew what she had to do. The girl just nodded, moved closer to the builder, and performed the two jutsus she had learned in sequence. She hadn't put so much effort and dedication into learning both to avoid using them. Seeing this, the plane went into motion and confirming the state of everyone else the clone dispersed. So that the original knew the situation and came to do his part.

"It's been a while, Kakashi." a voice greeted from the middle of the mist, it had a hint of teasing in it. "I didn't think you had the courage to expose your precious students to such a life-and-death danger. Although you have so many stories and legends to your name, it's no wonder. They alone should have warned me that your blood is colder than it seems with your words of comfort and reassurance for them."

"Zabuza." -was all the Hatake spoke, acknowledging the other's presence without leaving his position or even appearing concerned.

"I see you've even taught them a trick or two. Since the pink-haired brat is nowhere apparent, neither is the old man, although I'm sure I saw them on the bridge before I launched my jutsu." the nukenin continued in the same tone. "But what can only two of you do against many? Like your little blond-haired boy did last time with me." this time several voices sounded at once, coming from all directions, surrounding them and getting closer, soon coming into their short field of vision.

"Sasuke." the older Konoha ninja invited the smaller one to act. In the blink of an eye, he threw countless shurikens at all the visible Zabuzas all at vital points, this without any visible hesitation on the part of the brunette, who was until then a little nervous about the inevitable confrontation but managing to hide it until well for someone his age.

"It seems that you managed to predict that everyone was just water clones, I wonder if you trained that with the help of your teammate." he replied aloud. "But well, at least that means my little ninja won't get bored dealing with this brat." both Zabuza and the young masked ninja came close enough to be seen.

"I'll fight him. Don't underestimate me!" said the last part specifically to the masked boy, especially if Naruto's suspicions were correct and it was the same person they found in the woods. Just remembering the nerve with which he talked about true strength and everything else with him while fighting with someone who didn't seem to care about anyone made him deeply angry.

"If that's what you want." the boy spoke before emerging in front of him and with a powerful kick launching him away from his jounin. Soon the Uchiha boy discovered that besides the previous ability they knew of the other with senbons, he was also extremely fast. The only thing he had in his favor was that he was relatively used to practicing with his older brother whenever possible and this one was faster than the enemy, thanks to the training with their cousin, who was known for his speed being so great that there were residual illusions of him where he was before. And his brother was paranoid enough about his safety to always encourage him to improve and get faster.

As the two boys traded blows with their respective weapons the two jounins faced each other waiting for who would make the first move and start their fight.

"Do you really think your baby ninjas are ready for a real fight? Are they capable of doing whatever it takes to win a fight to the death? Do they even understand what that is? Soft children like them are never prepared to get their hands dirty." the former Mist shinobi spoke with a twinge of curiosity and disbelief. Konoha was not exactly known for encouraging such behavior, despite its history of winning and doing relatively well in wars. But it usually did so purely through power and skill.

"A sensei has a duty to prepare his team and believe that they will survive," Kakashi replied, not exposing an ounce of his inner worry, he would only be a little calmer to focus on his own fight when the Uzumaki arrived to support Sasuke.

Although the boy is doing well on his own so far. But the Momochi knew that Haku had the advantage on the spot, due to his Kekkei Genkai and the amount of water around them. That's what the Uchiha soon discovered when his opponent, using only one hand to make several seals, which surprised even the Hatake, transformed this water into ice needles and sent them in his direction. With nowhere to run in time, luckily he remembered the training he had gone through in the last few days and released enough chakra to repel the needles. It wasn't exactly a recommendable tactic because it was a waste of chakra, but it was better than letting the needles hit him. From that distance and with that speed they were capable of incapacitating him.

The two shinobis continued to watch the dispute over who was more agile and faster escalate, but without stopping to pay attention to the opponent. Both boys seemed to want to prove to each other who was the fastest, taking turns using weapons and taijutsu, when they finally disarmed the other. When at last the Uchiha seemed to be gaining the upper hand, with his clan's taijutsu, the long-haired boy performed another technique using the water around them, this time forming a large dome around the leaf genin and then solidifying into many mirrors before the user entered one of them.

"It's over for your boy. With this jutsu he's finished."

"Sasuke!" Kakashi exclaimed in alarm as he heard the boy scream in pain after a few seconds of silence. But the mist shinobi would attack and try to find where his target was and he couldn't afford to worry or do anything for the Uchiha now.

Sakura and Tazuna looked at everything nervously and worried, but they didn't dare, they couldn't, make a sound since they could be discovered. The pink one just prayed that her teammate and her crush were okay. She hoped that the other teammate would arrive soon so that the brunette wouldn't have to keep fighting alone. As tempted as she was to throw something in the direction of the enemy she couldn't, if she did she would reveal their direction and put the client at risk. All she could do was watch and wait.

Sasuke tried to use a fireball to melt the mirrors after noticing that there was no way out of there from the inside. It didn't work, the ice didn't even seem to be affected, at most they had blurred a bit. This disturbed Haku a little and forced him to slow down. Then a shower of kunais came at him from the outside. Most of them hit the mirror where he was standing, but he grabbed one in case he needed to defend himself. An orange figure passed by him and entered the dome.

"Hey, teme. Are you okay?" Naruto asked, looking at the Uchiha, who took advantage of his enemy's distraction to remove the needles that had pierced him.

"You're late." he grumbled, taking the last one and throwing it on the ground.

"I know, but I had some setbacks before I came." the dark-haired boy quickly understood that this meant that as they had predicted, they had actually gone to attack the builder's family.

"Don't get distracted. He is able to move between mirrors very quickly and throw needles from all directions," he told him the current situation, the plan, and about the client, which the blond already knew because of the clone.

"Ok." he looked around trying to feel where the enemy was. "Sasuke, watch out." he shouted and threw them both aside, narrowly escaping a flurry of senbons.

"Huh? Were you able to dodge it?" the older boy commented intrigued. "It looks like you could even sense my attack. Let's see how much more you can do." now that the mirrors have defogged, he could see better and attack again. In a moment the genin were forced to dodge at all costs the needles that came at random.

"Well, well... Even the boy with sharp instincts arrived for the fight. I have to admit, Kakashi, your brats are brave. But they are no match for Haku. They're too newbies for that." he turned again to the leaf jounin, with a confident smile.

"That we'll see, Zabuza. We'll see about that." with the two boys together he was already more comfortable focusing on his own fight. "I think we can stop stalling now, don't you?"

"Let's do this." the other agreed, until then he had enjoyed himself with provocations and seeing the reactions of the other shinobi.

Kakashi quickly began to make several seals with his hands and launched a water jutsu, making the area where both were very wet, then raised where he was with a docton jutsu and then launched a raiton jutsu, electrifying the whole area in a way that would immobilize the opponent immediately if someone stepped on it. Too bad the nukenin at the moment he saw the jutsu lifting him had the good sense to jump from there too. But it was a sign that the silver one would take the fight seriously.

When the electricity ran out, Hatake advanced in order to prevent the opponent from drawing his sword, since this would allow him to have a greater range. In a ninjutsu battle he had a relatively better advantage because he had a larger arsenal and relied on his taijutsu, but he no longer had a sword like when he was much younger. Not to mention that the other's sword was bigger and heavier, worthy of a former Swordsman of the Mist. He would try not to use his sharingan too much this time so as not to exhaust himself so quickly, especially since both were more intent on completing their goals this time.

"Did you forget that I am a genius at silent assassinations?" the ninja with the stripes mask spoke up. "Do you really think a genjutsu like that of a child can stop me?" he started to move but was stopped by the platinum with the Sharingan on display since he had needed it to track the other and get to him in time.

"Sakura, move to position D. Your current location has been compromised!" he warned raising his voice, he knew that moving with the genjutsu active and taking it along was going to cost the girl, but they thought about maybe that is necessary during the fight. The sound of a sound bomb was her positive response that she had understood and used that to cover up the noise of the movement. "Don't forget that to get to them you'll have to go over my head, Zabuza. I may not have your hearing and my vision may be a little impaired because of the fog, but my sense of smell is good and I'll need a company to avoid you thinking you can go unnoticed." he jumped back, while the other was bewildered by the noise and summoned his ninkens briefly clarifying what they needed to do in an instant. It had been a while since they all had a good fight together. And they had some pretty cool combos in ninjutsu and taijutsus that it had been a few years since they had last been able to use.

"Do you think the plan is compromised?" Naruto asked his partner after hearing the whole situation from outside as they tried to cover each other's guard, standing with their backs to each other and protecting themselves with kunais.

"Sensei wouldn't be so calm if it was." he denied and dodged a few more needles while others grazed them. Although getting trapped in an ice dome was certainly not part of the plan. They needed to shut this jutsu down somehow, there they were practically at the mercy of the enemy boy and the Uchiha hated that situation. "Fire doesn't work on ice. That means it's a kind of kekkei genkai."

"I didn't expect you to pick it up so quickly. You must be the smart one in the group." Haku paused momentarily. It was hard to hold a conversation while being transported between mirrors. And for some reason, both boys had intrigued him in their conversation in the forest. They were like opposites of each other somehow, he couldn't explain.

"Like the Sharingan of the Uchihas?" Naruto asked, suggesting the comparison.

"Exactly. Except that Konoha is not known for exterminating its clans like Kiri is. The Yuki clan, my clan, possessed ice manipulation. That's why almost all of them were hunted down and killed." he said to the two boys, who were horrified by the story. How could anyone do this? They were families, children, and someone's loved ones. It would take a lot of cold blood to order something like this.

"Zabuza rescued you, didn't he? He rescued you and took you with him when he left the village?" Sasuke assumed, remembering the other's words about important people.

"Zabuza-san gave me a reason to live. I will be eternally grateful for that. That's why I don't mind being just a weapon in his eyes." the other boy replied.

"He's just using you!" Naruto reacted immediately to the idea of someone being a weapon, nothing more. Since that day he hated that notion.

"And it's okay. I owe him my life." Haku replied calmly, to the horror of the two boys. How could he accept something like that so easily?

"This is wrong." the Uchiha spoke up. He knew that ninjas were military power and that to some extent they could be considered weapons, but they were people too. Not inanimate objects with no will of their own that could be discarded.

"It doesn't matter. What is important now is that you are in the way of his dream and therefore, as much as I don't want to, I will have to eliminate you. For his dream to come true I cannot hesitate." the Yuki reinforced and drew his weapons again. "I'm sorry, it's nothing personal. But you need to die here." he looked sincerely sorry for having to do that, at the same time it really didn't look like he was going to change his mind about it. So he launched the needles at a greater speed than he had done before as if he was really just taking the idea of seriously hurting them now.

The Uzumaki was still distracted by the words exchanged and the mention of the other being a weapon so he didn't notice they were coming towards him until too late. But someone else had noticed with a sharpness he hadn't possessed before and did something about it. With wide eyes, he saw in slow motion the ravenette boy next to him push him away and take the damage instead.

"Sasuke!" Naruto spoke up in a panic as he saw the amount of blood that was starting to pour out of the new wounds as the other fell into his arms, who tried to keep the needles from going in any further and went to the ground with him, completely ignoring how vulnerable the position left them. "Why? Why did you protect me?"

"Because you're my teammate, you idiot." he said, coughing up a little blood, much to the blond boy's distress. The ravenette remembered the first time his mother had carefully pointed out the other boy, told him how lonely he was, and encouraged him to try to be friends with him. Sasuke had no idea exactly why his mother cared so much about the Uzumaki a year before they were even classmates. But he promised himrself that if they survived he would try to find out more and really try to be friends with the other because it seemed like she was right after all. Naruto didn't have anyone, he had admitted it himself when he said he didn't understand the idea of getting strong to protect someone. He closed his eyes as he thought about this promise he had made and his determination to keep it.

"Sasuke... Sasuke!" he called again in desperation, shaking the other lightly to see if he would wake up, but not strong enough to make his injuries worse.

"He died to protect a friend. He is worthy of respect." the masked man spoke after a minute of silence.

"Shut up! -the Uzumaki shouted angrily. Who did the idiot think he was? It didn't make the slightest sense. Didn't he know that he would be more needed by others than Naruto himself?

"This is the life of a shinobi. Loss and death. Fulfilling orders. Shinobi are weapons that will be discarded at some point."

"No. Shut up." repeated.

"Shinobis are weapons." the more experienced one stated firmly.

"No... No," he shouted, which echoed through the place, refusing to listen. Refusing to believe it. He didn't want to think about it.

As his emotions intensified, the feeling inside the dome began to change, to the confusion and shock of his opponent who was watching everything in the mirror. The very air seemed to have changed as if a new presence was revealing itself, but there was nothing new there. Something oppressive and ominous was certainly present. It was coming from the blond boy, Haku noticed, that somehow the wounds were beginning to close.

Notes:

I still don't know what to think about the fight scenes outside that need improvement. Tell me what you think and how you think it can be improved! I would be very grateful.
Remembering: feedback is always good and welcome, I love to know what you think and your theories for what comes next. Questions are welcome too, although I won't answer them with spoilers, of course!
Hope to see you in the next chapters!
See you next week!