Chapter 4 – It's my puddle, and I'll sit in it if I want to!
Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters do not belong to me
The air shifted, parting the mist enough to reveal a tall, muscular man - who had seemingly lost his shirt – balanced on top of the sword. His lower face was wrapped in bandages, adding to the increasing tension.
"Well, well, well, what have we here?" he mused, cold brown eyes fixed on the client.
Kakashi's eye narrowed.
"Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist. A-ranked missing-nin from Kiri. Swastika formation, this is far out of your league, so just worry about protecting the client and leave this to me."
"Oh, what's this? Sharingan no Kakashi? Our bingo books had you listed as 'Flee on Sight', but then again, word is that you've rather lost your touch." Zabuza smirked – probably? It was kinda hard to tell, what with the whole bandage-thing he had going on.
Kakashi shifted slightly, before moving further away from his genin.
"Maa, maa, there's really only one way to find out if that's true or not, ne?" Kakashi's head tilted to the side, before his visible eye hardened. "Are you prepared to face the consequences of finding out?"
Zabuza chuckled.
"We'll just have to see, won't we? Don't suppose you'll hand over the old man, seeing as he's the one with the contract? Let you and the genin go?"
Kakashi snorted.
"You've obviously not spent much time around Konoha Ninja, have you? See, we have this...I suppose you could call it a slight flaw? The thing is, we don't know when to give up." Kakashi chuckled, no doubt remembering previous missions, while his hand drifted up towards his hitai-ate.
"Oh, what's this? I get the honour of seeing the Sharingan straight off the bat?" Zabuza mused delightedly.
"Whatever happens, do NOT join this battle. To not interfere is the teamwork of this situation." Kakashi said firmly, while pushing up his hitai-ate to reveal a complete, three-tomoe'd blood-red eye, of the former Uchiha clan.
"WHAT ON EARTH? Am I the only one seeing this? WHAT'S wrong with sensei's eye?" Sakura shrieked in surprise, causing her teammates to face-fault.
Naruto sighed.
"Umm, Sakura-chan? That's the Sharingan, you know, what Kaka-sensei and Bandage-guy were just discussing, not to mention, it's the Uchiha clan's famous dojutsu, so I'm kinda surprised you don't know about it...though I AM curious as to how Sensei has one, last I knew, the Hatake clan wasn't related to the Uchiha," Naruto mused, his voice fading off, before seemingly focusing on a tree.
"I'd also like to know," Sasuke murmured, his eyes narrowing. "Although, you don't seem overly surprised about it, not to mention your apparent knowledge on the subject, ne, Naruto?" he continued in a quieter voice.
Said blond didn't even twitch, causing the raven to sigh slightly, thinking he hadn't heard.
The three young genin were abruptly brought out of their ensuing drama by the surrounding mist once again increasing, only this time the tension was so high, it could be cut with a kunai.
Glancing around nervously, Sasuke noticed that their client didn't appear to be affected, no doubt due to being a civilian. Sakura looked as though she was about to burst into tears – but then again, this was no doubt her first time experiencing Killer Intent, while Naruto looked like he was simply out for a stroll, surprisingly. The sheer absurdity caused Sasuke to relax further. Besides, next to That Man, this was simply an annoyance.
"Ka-Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura called out, tears starting to make their appearance.
Turning round to his genin, Kakashi gave an easy eye-smile.
"There's nothing to worry about, Sakura, I won't let my cute little genin die!"
The gathering tension only increased, as Zabuza's voice eerily called out, seeming to come from all around them.
"Eight points. Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian, kidney, heart. So many choices to choose from, so little...TIME!" The swordsman suddenly appeared inside their formation, followed by their sensei, who managed to block the gigantic sword with the metal plate on the back of his glove.
"Maa, maa, enough scaring the cute little genin. This is the end." Kakashi eye-smiled, before slicing Zabuza with his kunai, causing Sakura to cheer in victory while the boys sweat-dropped.
A moment later, water started gushing from the wound, before 'Zabuza' collapsed into a puddle.
"Wh-what?" Sakura stammered, staring at the spot.
"Water clone," Naruto supplied, before Zabuza's voice once again rang out through the mist.
"For you, it is."
Before the dark outline of the Mist Nin appeared behind Kakashi, slicing him in two as Sakura screamed.
"Oh, clever. Though how you managed to copy my water clone through the mist, I don't know.|" Zabuza mused, as 'Kakashi' turned back into water.
"Wouldn't you like to know," Kakashi drawled, as he re-appeared behind Zabuza, causing him to spin around, only to frown upon seeing the remnants of the surrounding mist disappearing.
Growling, Zabuza kicked out, sending Kakashi flying, before jumping out onto the water. Getting back to his feet, Kakashi raced over, intending to finish the fight as fast as possible, only to find that the closer he got to Zabuza, the slower he could go and the heavier the water became.
"Oh, Kakashi, Kakashi, Kakashi. Welcome to my domain!" Zabuza chuckled.
Realising his mistake, Kakashi tried to launch a fireball as a distraction so he could retreat back to land, only to get caught up in a sphere of water.
"You like it? I call this the 'Water Prison'. Once trapped, there's no escape." Zabuza stated proudly.
Kakashi paled, as Zabuza created another water clone with one hand, keeping the other firmly within the prison, and sent it towards the shore.
"With you no longer scurrying around, eliminating the bridge-builder will be easy." Zabuza mused.
"RUN! Take Tazuna, and run! Don't worry about me, just get out of here!" Kakashi yelled, panicking as the clone reached the shore.
Naruto frowned.
"Demo, Sensei, aren't you forgetting? 'Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash', and I for sure ain't gonna be called that!" Naruto proclaimed.
Zabuza chuckled darkly.
"I like you're spunk, kid. Congratulations, you've just earned first prize in the 'Who to Kill First' Contest. But first, you won't be needing this." Zabuza's clone grabbed Naruto's hitai-ate, before pushing the blond back. "After all, you're just a little boy, playing at being a ninja – you're not qualified if you haven't killed anyone."
"What?" Sakura blinked in surprise.
"Kiri genin exam." Kakashi explained. "Genin hopefuls are paired up on their first day at the Academy and do everything together; eat, sleep, train, etc. Then, for the graduation test, they're pitted against each other, with the survivor graduating. But, one year, there was only a single graduate. Some say the pressure sent him crazy, others say he was crazy all along."
Naruto snorted.
"That's great, an'all, but I'm going to become Hokage, dattebayo, and nothing, not even the Bloody Demon of the Mist is going to stand in my way!"
A cold wind swirled around them at the blond's declaration, and ice ran down the jounins' spines. Neither of them had used Zabuza's full title, so how did he know it? They weren't given time to contemplate, however, as the clearing they were in suddenly EXPLODED in orange.
"What the-" Zabuza began, before watching as the blonds all launched themselves at his clone.
Moving quickly, the clone set to work dispatching and tossing the clones back, creating a giant smokescreen for a couple of seconds.
"BAKA! What was that for?" Sakura demanded, only to stare in shock, along with everyone else, as Naruto proudly held up his hitai-ate.
"I can't lose this! Sensei gave this to me in recognition of who I am! It's important to the both of us!" Naruto grinned, before reaching into his pack and pulling out a closed fuma shuriken. "Sasuke!"
Blinking, Sasuke caught the weapon as it sailed towards him, before opening it out and changing his stance, fuma shuriken held in front of him. Waiting a moment to even his breathing and gather chakra to his legs, Sasuke jumped up, before throwing the large shuriken at the height of his ascent.
The water clone chuckled as it brought the sword up, intending to deflect the large, spinning piece of tempered steel, only to blink as said steel abruptly veered off to the left, as though it were attached to a wire – completely bypassing the clone, before returning to its original course.
"I see...so your genin have a couple of interesting techniques. It's still not enough, however." Zabuza chuckled as he caught the fuma shuriken, only to frown as Sasuke smirked.
"What..." Zabuza began, only to notice a second fuma shuriken that had been hiding in the first's shadow.
"The Shadow Shuriken Technique." Sasuke announced, his smirk widening. "What's it going to be? Your arm, or releasing Sensei?"
Zabuza chuckled, before simply jumping over the flying shuriken.
"Like I said, kid. You've got some interesting techniques, but I've got years on you – you're simply too young and inexperienced-"
Zabuza froze, as with a small popping sound and puff of smoke, the fuma shuriken transformed back into Naruto, who lost no time in launching a kunai at the back of Zabuza's unprotected arm. To add insult to injury, the blond clone on the shore grinned and waved cheekily before dispersing.
Left with no choice, Zabuza pulled his arm away to safety, releasing the jounin, before turning and attempting to slice the irritating genin – only to be intercepted by Kakashi and his equally-frustrating eye-smile.
"Good work, boys, now I'll just finish this, and we'll be on our way!"
"So the little genin got lucky." Zabuza snorted. "Doesn't mean you'll walk away."
"Actually, you were forced to release me – luck had nothing to do with it." Kakashi retorted. "But now it's my turn, and, just so you know, the same jutsu won't work on me twice."
Zabuza instantly went on the attack, beginning the sequence for a water dragon with Kakashi following. The Mist Nin was obviously surprised at how fast Kakashi could run through hand seals and recognise the sequences, as he finished just seconds after, leaving the two dragons battling for supremacy.
Frustrated, Zabuza began preparing another jutsu, only for Kakashi to catch him up with the hand seals – horse, rabbit, hare, rat, horse again.
"What's happening?" Zabuza demanded, staring across at his opponent as he tilted his head slightly to the left, watching as the Copy Nin followed. "It's like he's-"
"-Reading my mind!" Kakashi finished for him, a shadowy version of Zabuza appearing behind him.
Startled, Zabuza snorted.
"I almost forgot you were called the Copy Nin." He glared, before they both exclaimed in unison "Stop copying me, you bastard!"
The Copy Nin suddenly sped up his seals, before finishing.
"Water Style: Giant Waterfall."
A giant wall of water smashed into Zabuza, sweeping him back to shore, before he was slammed into a tree trunk. Naturally upon seeing this, Kakashi pinned his opponent in place with the use of some kunai through his limbs.
"How...?" Zabuza coughed. "Can you see the future?"
"Yes. And I see your death." Kakashi informed him, taking out another kunai as he made his way over.
Before Kakashi reached him, however, a couple of senbon hit Zabuza in the neck, causing him to slump over.
Frowning, Naruto spun around, searching for the new enemy.
"Thank you for wearing him down, I've been following him for weeks, waiting for a chance to strike." A soft voice called out from a nearby tree, causing the others to whip around.
"No problem," Kakashi eye-smiled, body deceptively relaxed, as the new-comer jumped down.
"Huh? How old are you, you look younger than us!" Sakura exclaimed, pointing.
Naruto snorted.
"Ne, Sakura-chan, just because Konoha's graduation age is twelve, doesn't mean the other Villages are the same. Besides, it's even possible to graduate the Academy early, provided the senseis and Hokage all agree."
Sakura blinked in shock.
"But, Sasuke-kun-" she began, only to fall silent as the new-comer reached Zabuza.
"Thank you, I'll be taking him now." The new-comer pulled Zabuza's arm over their shoulder, as Kakashi eye-smiled and waved them off.
"Ok, team, now that that's over," Kakashi began, only to collapse.