"Normal speech"

'Normal thoughts'

"Demon/Summon speech"

'Demon/Inner Sakura/Summon thoughts'

Jutsu name

(author comment) - not a lot of them

flashback/memory

~locations and transitions~

=radio communications=

Edit note: fixed a mistake brought to my attention

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 17: Run in with the mist

The streets of Konoha were filled with the normal events. People shopping for groceries, store owners giving their greetings, kids playing and their parents watching their kids to make sure that the kids aren't hurt

This was disturbed by a brown blur being chased by a pink blur and a black/ blue blur. The blurs lost their target and split up to find it

=Cotton candy here, I have lost the target! Um….Ducky….do you have eyes on the target?=

=Hm!=

=Come on Ducky, heheheh, you know you have to respond to communications=

=I don't have eyes on the target "cotton candy" "lazy pervert". Why the hell did he get to choose the names for this!?=

=it's because he won the card game= lazy pervert spoke through the radio

=but he wins EVERY TIME! Next time I get to choose the names!= Ducky responded

=speaking of which, where is "Hunter"= Cotton candy asked

=not sure. Hunter do you copy?….Hunter?=

=...This is Hunter, I'm in pursuit of the target! Leading him to a trap=

=Hunter where are you? Target is dangerous and we need to engage as a team!= Lazy pervert commands

=...Hunter!=

=...got him! Dattebayo!=

= *sigh* give us your location so we can verify target=

~30 minutes later at the Hokage Office~

"OH TORA, you had me worried sick! Momma is so glad that you have returned!" spoke Madam Shijimi a corpulent woman with dark brown hair that she kept in three separate hair poofs. She was wearing pink lipstick, pink nail-polish and purple eye shadow as well as random colored rings on each finger.

Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto stood behind the scene of the woman who was squeezing the life out of a brown cat with a red ribbon on it's right ear. Each of them with some scratch marks on their skin and their cloths had rips all over. Each of them had their own thoughts about the scene in front of them

Sasuke who had a bandage on his right cheek and one eye closed due to a three clawed scratch over his left eye, scowled at the cat hoping it would catch fire 'that thing needs to burn!'

Sakura was holding her left arm and winced everytime she rubbed one of the many scratches she had on her arms 'If I ever get a pet, I'm getting a quiet bird'

Kakashi had his only visible eye covered with a bandage so he couldn't see anything around him which pissed him off since he couldn't read 'sounds like the cat is being suffocated…..good'

Naruto didn't have any visible injuries due to his healing ability but he was missing his sash and his clothes were ripped so much that he knew that he wouldn't be able to repair it 'I hate that cat so much I wouldn't even eat it!... I should go hunting again later.'

Madam Shijimi had given her thanks to the genin team and the Hokage as she left with the wiggling cat that looked like it was reaching out for help

Once she was gone the Hokage looked at the team and had to stifle a chuckle since this is a recurring mission and every genin hates it "well done team seven for completing the demon cat Tora mission, and in record time if I might add. Seeing that none of them were happy about what he said he continued "well you can go on to do another mission" he said as he pulled out several mission scrolls "well now lets see, there is gardening for Katami-san or painting a set of rooms for Toujou-san…."

Sasuke was furious at hearing that all the missions that were given to him were nothing but chores "NO! No more of these chores! I should be getting real missions not these useless tasks!"

Iruka who had been standing on the side and going through several mission scrolls stopped and looked angry at the Uchiha "Sasuke-kun you should respect the Hokage! He is the ones that offers the missions and it is not up to you on what mission you get. It is up to your sensei on what mission you get"

Sasuke looked over to Kakashi but the sensei didn't move and just stood there. It took Sasuke a second till he realized that his sensei at the moment couldn't see "Kakashi-sensei, we should be getting better missions! Not these chores!"

Kakashi turned his head to Sasuke and sighed at this "well I think they will do fine if they receive a C-rank mission"

Iruka was stunned by this "what? What makes you think they are ready for this?"

The Hokage was also curious about this, since he wasn't expecting one of the recent graduating teams to receive a C-rank mission at this time. He was expecting it to take a few more weeks until one of them got one

Kakashi took a breath and began "they have completed the required number of D-rank missions in order to take a C-rank and they would have gotten one a little sooner if it weren't for a few ….misplacement we had" he said as he put his hand on his back hip pouch where he kept his precious book, this time it was Icha Icha Violence.

Naruto was biting his lower lip and holding his breath trying not to laugh when he remembered the pranks he did against his sensei

The Hokage leaned back in his chair and thought about what Kakashi said. It was true that they finished the needed missions and it was a C-rank mission, so all they would deal with are bandits. It was something they could handle so he made his choice. Looking at Iruka he spoke "Iruka-san, we will be allowing them to take a C-rank mission, we will give them the missions we received two days ago"

Iruka was hesitant but he nodded his head "very well Hokage-sama. Would you like me to go retrieve the client?"

"Yes Iruka-san, please tell the client that his request has been accepted"

Iruka nodded his head and walked out of the room to go get the client.

Most of Team seven were excited about getting a new mission but Naruto wasn't as excited. He was happy that his team were getting a better mission but he didn't really have anything against the D-rank missions for the most part 'I was kinda hoping for that gardening mission even if the woman hates me'

~20 minutes later~

Team seven were doing little things to pass the time, as they waited for the client. Sasuke was brooding in the corner, Sakura was sitting against the wall close by, Naruto was laying on the floor tossing a small red ball in the air and catching it, and Kakashi who removed his bandage was reading his book

The Hokage was smoking his pipe with a scentless tobacco since last time he used his normal tobacco, Naruto had pranked him for three days. He really wanted his normal set but he could handle it for now

Naruto kept tossing the ball until an odor hit his nose causing him to move both his hands to his nose and letting the ball hit the floor "argh! Damn it!". He started to roll around the floor talking about a strong smell that was burning his nose. Kakashi and Sakura went to check on their teammate but his rolling was making it hard to really tell if he was ok. After 4 minutes thankfully, he was able to get back on his feet and removed his hands but he had tears coming out of his eyes like he had just fell into a pile of onions. "The smell is getting stronger ugh!"

After a minute a knock on the door was heard and with a short "enter" the door was opened to show Iruka with a grey-haired, bespectacled man with a large beard and dark eyes. He wore a sleeveless v-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals and a towel around his neck. In his hand was a sake bottle and his face had a blush on it, obviously from being drunk.

The man looked at the group and his face grew angry and looked to the Hokage "this is the team that you got for me! You said I would be getting Shinobi, not a group for me to babysit" the man looked over the team and gave his opinion on each "the dark haired one looks like he would abandon me if he wanted, the pink one looks like she belongs in a store as a clerk (apologies if I offend) and …." he paused as he looked to Naruto who still had some tears flowing down his face "what's with the short blonde crybaby, someone take his bottle?"

Even if Naruto's nose was still burning, what the man said pissed him off and lunged at the man but was stopped by Kakashi grabbing the back of his jacket and lifting him in the air "maa Naruto-kun, please don't kill the client before we even take the mission, and please sir, my team is prepared to protect you from anything that might come after you"

The man looked at the one eyed shinobi "you better protect me with your life and then some. My name is Tazuna, the great bridge builder and I am expecting you to get me home safely" he said in a grand standing manner

Kakashi was about to answer when he heard a noise *RRRRIIIIIIPPPP* but he didn't know where it came from until he realized that Naruto seemed to lose a lot of weight. Turning his head to the hand that held Naruto he saw that the jacket that he grabbed ripped entirely and all that was in his hand was a piece of orange cloth. Looking down he saw that Naruto was on his hands and knees and was slowly turning his head towards Kakashi. The look in Naruto's eyes were promising the one eyes sensei suffering and no way to escape it. Wanting to get out of the situation he quickly spoke "well everyone we will meet at the north gate tomorrow at 8. Make sure to pack for a long mission. Ja ne!" and with that he poofed away

Naruto got up from the ground and removed the remainder of the jacket which were just the sleeves and some of the inner pockets, leaving his torso with just the anbu style shirt (think a tight black sleeveless turtleneck shirt) "week of pranks. Seven days of humiliation, I might take his wallet too so I can get a replacement" 'I can't go to Tenten's shop though, I know she is furious at me from the Hyuga thing'

The Hokage cleared his throat to get the remaining people's attention "well everyone, I believe we all know when you must be at the gate so you are all dismissed, except for Naruto and Iruka, I wish to speak with you two. After everyone had left, leaving Naruto and Iruka with him. "Ok Naruto-kun, this mission will be out of the village and I want to know if you are going to be ok out there?"

Naruto stood in front of Iruka and the Hokage and thought about what was asked of him "I think I should be ok Hokage-jiji. I can handle anything out there dattebayo!"

Iruka was worried about the boy but the enthusiasm that he was watching the boy give calmed down a bit "Naruto-kun are you sure you will be ok?"

Naruto nodded with a big grin on his face until he thought of something "oh Hokage-jiji! Do you have any more of those privacy tags? Just in case, you know"

The Hokage and Iruka immediately knew what they were for "NO!" were screamed by both causing Naruto to cover his ears. They waited until Naruto lowered his hands before they continued "You are not to do that again! You know what you went through the first time, why would you do it again?!"

Naruto dipped his head down a bit and spoke "I don't want to, I just want it just in case I have to and there is no other way". He lifted his head to look the Hokage in the eyes.

Hiruzen stared back at the boy but sighed in defeat as he pulled out 2 tags and held them out Naruto to take. As Naruto grabbed them he held them firm with a warning "Naruto-kun, please don't use these unless absolutely necessary. Is that understood?"

Naruto nodded his head with a serious look "hai Hokage-jiji". Naruto took them when the Hokage let them go and started making his way out but stopped when he heard Iruka speak

"Be careful out there Naruto"

Naruto looked back and smiled before giving a nod

~that night Naruto's mindscape~

Naruto sat in front of Kurama looking into his Tou-chan's eyes trying to win him over

"No"

"But Tou-chan!"

"No, I will not allow you to go through that again"

"Rama-tou-chan it's only in case we need to but I want you to help me if I have to…..please"

Kurama sat there looking at his kit and knew that at the moment, he wouldn't be able to get through his kits thick skull 'sometimes I hate how stubborn he can be'

"Fine kit but I will only allow it when necessary"

Naruto grumbled at this knowing that it was the best he was going to get so he agreed to it. After they came to this agreement Naruto hopped up to Rama's head and laid down before he started to talk about how his day went and Rama giving his teasing comments about him losing to a cat, and enjoying his time with his kit

~next morning 10:30~

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna were at the north gate waiting for their sensei but they weren't waiting long, since they had arrived ten minutes ago and that confused Tazuna.

"So why did we arrive hours after that silver haired guy told us to?" Tazuna asked wondering about why he was told by the blonde that there was a change in the time they need to arrive at the gate

Naruto looked over at his team before he looked back at Tazuna "our sensei has a habit of being up to three hours late and we don't want to stand here waiting for him so I sent a clone to tell you the time change"

Tazuna was a little confused about the "clone" bit but accepted it and started digging through his backpack, pulling out a sake bottle much to Naruto's displeasure

Naruto hated the smell of Alcohol, ever since he walked passed a bar with a bunch of drinkers in it, back when he was a kid "hey can you please not drink that…..or even open it"

Tazuna ignored what Naruto said and just opened the bottle and chugged it down, making Naruto hold his nose closed

After 26 minutes of waiting and Kakashi finally showed up with his usual "yo"

Before Sakura could say anything Naruto beat her to the punch "your late Kakashi-sensei, which is it this time? An old man, black cat or lost your favorite book again?"

Kakashi immediately placed his hand in his pouch and pulled it out and opened it to see if it was still his precious "phew still there…..anyway it was the black cat".

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all sighed and shake their head, since they were so tired of these excuses. Sasuke wanted to get the mission started so he started walking out of the gate being followed by Naruto and Sakura.

Kakashi and Tazuna stood there for a second before the both shrugged and walk off as well to catch up

~that night~

After traveling the whole day without any problems the team had set up camp with Naruto and Kakashi setting up the tent, Sasuke getting a fire set and Sakura getting the pot ready for them to use for cooking. During the traveling the team was bored, well mostly Sasuke and Sakura. Kakashi spent the time reading his precious Icha icha violence and Naruto midway started to read the book Anko gave him since he only didn't have anything else to do and Kurama told him to take it last night.

Kakashi had set up the tent meant for the team but was confused when he saw Naruto putting up his own tent "Naruto-kun? You do know that we have a team tent for us to use right? Why are you setting up another one?"

Naruto finished setting it up and turned to Kakashi "it's for me. I kinda like my own single tent since I used it alot in the forest of konoha". For obvious reasons Naruto didn't want his team to see his fox form as he slept. After Naruto had placed his pack in his tent he went to the fire and sat in front of it and started reading Anko's gift.

Sakura had finished getting the cooking set ready when a question popped into her head"Hey Kakashi-sensei, how long will it take for us to get to Wave country"

Kakashi looked up in thought, thinking on the question "well at the pace we are going…..hmm a day more or less"

Tazuna picked up from there after taking a swig of Alcohol "there is a boat we have to take to get to my home. I have a friend who will give us a ride"

Sakura nodded her head, thankful that the trip wouldn't take so long "well we should get something to eat since none of us have eaten all day"

The team were able to eat some soup that Sakura made with the help of Naruto who had some spices he uses when he is in the forest on his own. After everyone had eaten they decided who would be on the first lookout and the order they would go with. Naruto decided to be the first watch to avoid someone walking in on him as he slept, next would be Sakura, then Sasuke and last Kakashi, each with a two hour shift

~ 3 PM next day~

The group had been making good time getting to wave as they were now close to where they had to meet Tazuna's friend

Team seven were walking down the path with Sakura asking Tazuna if Wave had any shinobi in it and Kakashi giving her an explanation about how some villages don't have Shinobi of their own. Sasuke just kept his eyes on the road thinking on murdering his brother (not much else on his mind), Kakashi still reading his book (wonder how many times he has read it) and Naruto was holding his nose trying not to gag from the alcohol smell coming from Tazuna who kept drinking

As they kept walking, Naruto suddenly felt some ill intent coming from down the road and looked towards it. On the ground, a small puddle was seen in their way and it confused Naruto since he it hadn't rained in a while. Wanting to get confirmation he removed his hands from his nose to sniff the air to see if he could smell any moisture but he regretted the action and immediately put his hands back since all he could smell was the sake come from Tazuna

As they walked passed the puddle Kakashi took notice of it and decided to see where this event would lead to so he acted oblivious to the two rising shinobi coming from the very puddle they passed.

Out of the puddle came 2 shinobi each wearing Kiri hitai-ate

The first one was Gozu. Gozu had shoulder-length, wild dark-brown hair and dark eyes. He wore a rebreather that covers the lower half of his face and a large, clawed gauntlet on his right arm which had a chain coming out of it that had the other end attached to his partners own gauntlet. He wore a camouflage suit with bandages around his waist, dark-coloured, knee-length sandals and a ragged black cape. His Kiri hitai-ate had a single horn on it.

His partner was Meizu. Meizu wore the same outfit apart from the cape he wore which was gray in color and his chained gauntlet was on his left arm instead of the right and with a chain connecting to his partners gauntlet

Both rushed to the group without any of them noticing and when they were close enough they wrapped Kakashi in the spiked chains.

Everyone turned to see that Kakashi was in trouble but before any of them could act the two kiri Shinobi pulled on their chains and sliced Kakashi to pieces

Everyone was shocked to see Kakashi cut to ribbons so quickly and with no chance to counter.

Meizu chuckled at the shocked look from everyone, he looks to the fallen Sensei "one down" as his partner Gozu looks to the group "one to go" and they charged towards the group

Team seven was still in shock and Tazuna fell on his ass and slowly crawled backwards, seeing the two Kiri Shinobi heading their way.

Sakura was the first to react as she screamed "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

The scream knocked Naruto back into reality and looks to see the coming Shinobi and on instinct he tossed some shuriken at Meizu which cause him to slow down a bit to dodge them,which Naruto used to get close to him.

Meizu was shocked to see the blonde to move fast enough to reach him but seeing the blonde swinging his fist at him. Meizu brought up his gauntlet up to block the fist

Gozu saw that Meizu started to fight and went to help him since he figured that the faster they got rid of the kids the faster they could get to their intended target but if they got a chance they would kill the bridge builder. Rushing to Meizu he shifted his right arm to move the chain to create a loop the hovers over the blonde so he could pull it down on the kid to finish him off

Naruto saw that the chain had looped above his head and was dropping to wrap around him, moving back to try and avoid the chain he was hit by the claw of the gauntlet leaving 2 slashes going diagonally across his face and the chain dropped even faster around Naruto and in a quick motion tied him up and the blades started to hurt him as he tried to focus on not releasing the henge "urgh!"

Meizu and Gozu smirked under their masks and looked towards the group before Gozu speaks "give us the old man and we will give you your friend back". They saw that the pink haired girl was shaking doing her best to stay on her feet but they couldn't see the boy with black hair 'where did the other one go?'

He was answered when a fireball made its way towards all three of them. Both were about to un-loop the chain from the blonde to get away but found that said blonde grabbed the chain, keeping it from loosening and both looked back at the fireball as it hit them directly and cause an explosion.

Sasuke dropped from the trees and walked up to the still smoldering crater and smirked, knowing he took out two rogue shinobi on his own (-_-)

Sakura was shocked to see the fireball hit not only the two Kiri shinobi but Naruto as well "NARUTO!"

"Stop yelling! Kami and I thought you stopped doing that" was heard behind her and she turned to see Naruto standing there with his hands over his ears

Sakura and Tazuna were shocked to see the blonde standing in between them and not burnt to a crisp. Tazuna couldn't figure out how it happened "how the hell are you alive kid?!"

Naruto removed his hands from his ears and looked back at Tazuna "at the very last second I used the Kawarimi to switch places with something and thankfully it worked"

Sakura looked back at the crater then back at Naruto "what did you switch with?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders "don't know. I just switch with the thing that was on the ground". Naruto looked down to see that he was stepping in a small puddle, taking a sniff he covered his nose and his eyes started to water "I think I switched with Tazuna-sans sake bottle"

Sasuke made his way back to the group with the smirk still on his face just in time to hear Tazuna cry in despair "what the hell's wrong with him?" he asked just to see his teammates shake their head

Kakashi chose now to pop out from the bushes with an eye smile "looks like my cute genin team have made it through their first shinobi battle" he wiped away an imaginary tear "I'm so proud"

Everyone looked at Kakashi in shock not believing that he was alive. Sakura voiced their question "Kakashi-sensei!... how are you…...". Kakashi just pointed to where his body should have been and all they saw where chunks of wood and they made the connection of him using the Kawarimi to replace himself with a log. Kakashi went to the crater to see that the two Kiri shinobi both had burns on most of their body but were alive so he took out some ninja wire, pulled them out, removed their weapons and tied them to a tree. "Well done team, you took out the Demon brothers of the mist" Kakashi then turned his attention to Tazuna "now then…..tell me why you had shinobi after you when all we were expected to handle were bandits" he said in his normal tone but the threat was subtly there which cause Tazuna to gulp nervously

~20 minutes later~

Tazuna spent this time telling the team about Gato and his hold on Wave, draining all the resources they had and oppressing the people. He explained how the bridge they were building would be able to bring in new resource and trade routes that would bring Wave back on its feet, which would loosen the grip Gato has over them

Naruto was listening to all this and felt like he needed to help these people. He knew what it was like to be oppressed, he knew what it was like to have no hope of a better tomorrow and he hated to think that it was happening to others. He had made his decision before Tazuna even finished his story

Kakashi listened impassively, since he had seen places like this before. He shook his head knowing that this mission was no longer a c-rank mission. "By all rights we should abandon this mission since this is at least a B-rank and you have not paid for one"

Tazuna wanted to beg for their help since they were close to his home anyway but he was stopped when Naruto spoke up "Kakashi-sensei, we should continue the mission". Kakashi looked to Naruto wondering why he would want to continue a mission that might be beyond their abilities

"Dobe why should we go along with this? It's their problem not ours."

Sakura looked to Sasuke, after hearing the problems Wave were dealing with, she wanted to see if there was something they could do to help even if she felt like she couldn't help out much. Hearing Sasuke act like it was something minor and they shouldn't do anything confused her. He acted like it was below him and the way he attacked the Demon brothers with Naruto in the way concerned her. Looking down and thinking about what to do she glanced at Naruto, who had a determined look on his face regardless of him sweating and seeing that Naruto was ready to help she decided that she should also help even if Sasuke didn't want to "Sasuke-kun I also think that we help them."

Kakashi, looking at Sakura, raised an eyebrow in mild shock 'interesting I would have thought that she would agree with Sasuke-kun, not Naruto-kun. Wonder why she wants to keep going'

Sasuke scowled at Sakura making her flinch and she felt small under his glare "why should I listen to YOU. This guy thought he could fool us and he expects us to just say 'ok we will go'. NO, he should learn not to lie to his betters!"

Naruto wanted to punch Sasuke with everything he had, council be damned but he needed the Uchiha to continue the mission so he decided to play on his ego "hey teme! If we keep going, we might run into more rogue shinobi …..". Naruto could just feel his ego rising and knew that all that the only one left to convince was Kakashi

Kakashi could see that everyone on his team have chosen to keep the mission going and he was somewhat glad they all agreed to help out even if one of them is doing it for more selfish reasons so with a sigh of defeat he made his choice "alright, I suppose since everyone is so set on going we keep going, but I want you all to be on high alert, we don't know if those two were the last ones we will see" he then turned to Tazuna who started to have a hopeful look in his eyes "you should be happy we are still going with the mission"

Tazuna bowed down thanking them for helping him even though he lied about the mission. As Kakashi prepared to send a messenger dog for a pickup on the rogue shinobi, Naruto decided to sit down as his breathing was becoming heavier and his head and eye were in pain but he didn't know why. It was becoming harder to keep his henge up with how his head was burning, granted it wasn't the worst pain he has felt but it still hurt.

Sakura noticed Naruto's condition and walked up to him to see what was wrong "Naruto are you ok?". Naruto didn't respond and kept his eyes closed and his breathing got harder. She got worried and knelt down, moved his Hitai-ate and placed her hand on his forehead but pulled it back when it was literally burning "Kakashi something is wrong with Naruto!".

Kakashi hearing this looked over to Naruto and saw his condition making him rush to his student and looking him over

Naruto was in a state of half-consciousness and the conscious part was instinctively keeping up the henge while the rest of him had entered the mindscape

~Naruto's mindscape~

Naruto laid on the grassy field where he usually enters as Kurama stood over him and with his head tilted up and a look of concentration. Naruto opened his eyes and looked up while his eyelids drooped halfway and tiredly asked "Rama-tou-chan?...what are you doing?"

Kurama not looking at his kit responded "you've been poisoned kit. I am trying to expunge it but the wound is sealed and I can only keep it in one spot on the side of your face" looking down to his kit he continued "you need to wake up kit and give me an opening to let the poison out, try and cut in the same spot, it would let it out faster and I don't want to flow the poison through much of your body just to get it out"

Even though Naruto felt weak he heard everything and the idea of him being poisoned gave him a bit more energy and as quick as he could, left the mindscape

~real world~

Sakura and Kakashi were trying to figure out what had happened to Naruto while Sasuke stayed back with Tazuna. Naruto's eyes shot open, shocking both Sakura and Kakashi. He slowly grabbed a kunai from his pouch and brought it to his face and before Kakashi or Sakura could stop him he quickly swiped his cheek, and letting it bleed

Kakashi was shocked at the action and Sakura was stunned silent. Quickly Kakashi pulled out a bandage from one of his jacket pockets and was about to place it over the wound but Naruto grabbed his wrist and shook his head "Naruto, why did you do that to yourself? We need to seal the wound quickly"

Naruto just shook his head again and said "poison". Nodding in understand Kakashi stopped what he was doing, much to Sakura's confusion which Kakashi decided to clear up "it seems that the gauntlet that cut him was coated in poison. He is letting the poison bleed out of his system, pretty clever if you ask me"

Sakura was still concerned about her teammate "is there any way we can help him?"

Kakashi shook his head as he saw that Naruto was looking a lot better "no, I'm not a medical shinobi so all I have are basic field training. All we can do is let Naruto be as his body gets rid of the poison"

Sakura didn't like the idea of not being useful at all. During the fight she didn't do anything and now that the fight was over she realised that she couldn't help in support either. She felt worthless

After a few minutes Naruto was back on his feet and ready to get moving and even when Kakashi and Sakura said they should rest a bit more, Naruto waved it off and started marching down the road

~2 hours later~

After the fight it didn't take long until they made it to the waterbank where they would meet Tazuna's friend that would take them across the water into Wave country. The boat ride was a short peaceful trip, the only thing that happened was Nauto fishing with a kunai and ninja wire much to the shock of Sakura and annoyance of Sasuke. Once they made it to the other side, Naruto gave most of the fish to Tazuna's friend and he kept one so he could eat later

Now the group was walking down a path surrounded by trees and bushes but their vision was blocked by mist that put Naruto on edge because not only did the mist block his sight a bit, the mist felt odd. After a bit more walking Naruto felt ill intent somewhere ahead of him and on instinct he threw a kunai where he felt it. He ran to where his kunai landed behind a bush, moving the bush aside he found a bunny that looked like it was traumatized for life

Sakura was startled from Naruto throwing the Kunai and Sasuke looked ready for a fight but when they saw him pull out a white bunny by the ears, they both deflated.

Sakura didn't need any more years removed from her life from fright "Naruto-baka Don't do that!". Sakura may have stopped calling him that but she still called him that every now and then out of reflex

Sasuke was mad at the blonde getting him worked up for nothing "hm, dobe"

Kakashi was analyzing the bunny, feeling that something was off 'that bunny…..is white. It shouldn't be that color, not at this time of year…..'

Naruto for his part thought of eating the bunny in a stew since he has had them before when hunting but his thoughts changed when he felt ill intent aimed at his group

"GET DOWN" yelled Kakashi making Sasuke drop down as Naruto pushed both Sakura and Tazuna to the ground as a massive sword spun in the air over their heads.

The sword kept flying in the air until it arched up and stuck itself high in a tree.

As the group were getting up from the ground they heard someone speak in a gravelly voice "well well, never thought this job would give me a fight like this". The voice forced everyone to look up to where the blade had stuck and saw a man standing on the hilt of the blade

Kakashi recognized the man from the bingo book "Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the mist and one of the Seven swordsmen of the mist"

Zabuza was a tall and noticeably muscular man with light grayish skin, short spiky black hair, dark brown eyes, and small eyebrows. He was wearing bandages like a mask over the bottom half of his face. He wore his Hitai-ate sideways on his head, he was shirtless, with his chest only covered by a belt to which he attached his Kubikiribōchō, wearing baggy pants with the striped pattern and mimetic wrist-warmers extending up to his elbows, with matching leg-warmers.

Zabuza chuckled "good to see that my reputation is still as good as ever, but you have a reputation just as good if not better, Copycat Kakashi or would you prefer Kakashi of the Sharingan"

When the genin heard this only two of them responded.

Sasuke looking over to Kakashi in shocked anger 'why is he called that!? He isn't an Uchiha so why is he called Kakashi of the Sharingan!?'

Naruto looked apprehensive when he heard the word "Sharingan". He didn't know why but he felt he should be wary of whatever it is

Kakashi knew he wouldn't be able to hold back on an enemy like this so he put his hand on the part of his Hitai-ate that covered his eye and lifted it to reveal his Sharingan eye

Sasuke scowled at his sensei 'how did he get that!?'

Naruto shook a bit in fear of the eye, he knew he had never seen it before but it felt oddly familiar. In his head he heard growling "kit be careful about that eye. I've felt it before". Naruto was startled when he heard Kurama in his head since he has never spoke to him this way

Naruto didn't get to think about it since Kakashi gave his command "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, protect Tazuna, Diamond formation. I will handle Zabuza"

Complying with the order all three of them got in formation with Naruto being in front of Tazuna, Sasuke being on the right and Sakura on the left

Zabuza chuckled darkly and dropping from his sword, he grabbed the handle and ripped it out of the tree "look at that. Kids pretending to be Ninja. Tell me kiddies, have you seen blood before?". After he said this he released his KI against them.

Each of them had different reactions to the KI. Sasuke's breathing became heavy and began to sweat, Sakura's legs started to wobble and was on the verge of collapsing, and Naruto stood still with wide eyes and arms dropped to his side

Sasuke was bringing a Kunai to his throat from the feeling he got from the KI 'make it stop! Make it STOP! I CAN'T HANDLE THIS FEELING! MAKE IT STOP!' he thought as images of his death popped in his head

Sakura had tears falling down her face 'I'm going to die. I shouldn't have become a kunoichi if this was what it was like…..why did I become one?'

Naruto had no thoughts going through his head just the feeling of the KI overwhelming him, as the color of his eyes slowly faded

They all snapped out of their states when Kakashi spoke "everyone!" they all shook their heads and looked towards Kakashi "don't worry I promise to protect you all with my life, trust me"

Zabuza laughed at the declaration "oh you think that any of you will live to see the next day, sorry to say but you….."

He didn't get to finish his sentence as he felt a kunai pierce his back "you know...you talk to much" was heard behind Zabuza as the Kakashi in front of him disappeared in a poof of smoke

Zabuza's eyes widen a bit 'a clone huh…..not bad' he thought as he collapsed into a puddle of water

Kakashi was stunned seeing that Zabuza turned into water 'Mizu bunshin!' he thought before he jumped to his left to avoid a vertical slash from Zabuza who continued his assault forcing Kakashi further away from his team. Sidestepping a diagonal slash Kakashi grabbed the wrist and with his free hand pulled back, threw a punch to Zabuza's face but the fist was grabbed by Zabuza's free hand and they both stared into the others eyes

Zabuza smirked as they both fought to overpower the other "for a skilled shinobi like you, you sure made a rookie mistake"

Kakashi was confused about what he said until he realized that he was too far away from his team and the client 'NO!'. Kakashi tried to think of a way to get out of the standoff but if he let go and turned away he would be cut in the back and the position he was in wouldn't allow him to kick Zabuza hard enough away

Zabuza had no problem with how he was. he shifted his feet and pulled back the hand holding Kakashi's fist

Kakashi lost his balance and felt the hand holding Zabuza's wrist being pulled off and was suddenly thrown over Zabuza's shoulder

after Zabuza tossed Kakashi, he began to go through a long set of handsigns as fast as he could and unleashed his jutsu "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu"

Kakashi flipped in the air and landed in a sliding crouch. He lifted his head in time to see a water dragon charging at him. He was off balance and wouldn't be able to avoid the jutsu "shit"

~back with team 7 and Tazuna~

The team had their guard up but kept their eyes on the fight in the distance but the mist made it hard to clearly see. As they watch they suddenly heard someone speak "Hidden mist jutsu" and then the mist grew much thicker cutting off their vision entirely of the fight. Each pulling out a kunai, they got ready for anything as they kept shifting their eyes left and right

Naruto couldn't smell anything since the air smelled of moisture and he could still smell the sake from Tazuna. After a few seconds the hair on the back of his neck rose and he felt massive ill intent behind him. Quickly turning he saw, behind Tazuna, Zabuza lifting his arm to swing at all of them and on reflex tossed his kunai at the man, which hit the man since he was unable to block at such a close range. Sasuke and Sakura looked behind them just in time to see Zabuza turning into a puddle of water

"Dobe! What happened?"

"Don't know teme!"

They all heard the fight from Kakashi and Zabuza and each of them were hoping that Kakashi would be able to beat him, but their hopes were crushed when the heard "Water prison Jutsu"

The mist started to let up and they could see Kakashi was trapped in a bubble of water, with his head being the only thing that was free

Sakura was panicking at the sight "Kakashi-sensei!". She wanted to help out but couldn't think of anything

Zabuza knew he had won and in his good mood, thought to spare the green genin, since his job was only the bridge builder "well, looks like we each have something the other wants, so how bout it kids, give me the old man, I give you your sensei and we all leave happy, how about it?"

Naruto gritted his teeth, trying to think of anything they could do. Looking back at Tazuna he couldn't think of anything, he could see the fear in the man looking back at him and looked like he was afraid Naruto would give him up. Naruto felt like there was nothing they could do until a smell hit his nose and he came up with something. Looking to Sasuke, who looked like he hated the idea of losing, he gave his idea in a hushed tone "hey Teme, I have an Idea and I need your help" he said lowered himself and began unstrapping his sandals

Sasuke's scowl grew as he looked at Naruto "why should I listen to you Dobe? What kind of plan could you come up with anyway?"

Naruto just finished undoing his sandals and got ready "do you have a plan? if you do, I would like to hear it?!" Naruto said in a harsh whisper

Sasuke growled cause he didn't have anything so he reluctantly listened to the plan

Zabuza couldn't hear any of the whisper they were doing but felt amused at how they were coming up with a plan in the middle of the battle. While Kakashi began to yell at them, telling them to run which was ignored by them. Looking back at the genin he saw them start to make their move.

Naruto crossed his fingers to start his plan "Kage bunshin no Jutsu". Five clones popped up and two of them started running in opposite directions in a wide ark towards Zabuza while another two ran towards him

'Shadow clones eh? Kids got some skill if he has that under his belt' Zabuza made two Mizu bunshin to defend him and take out the clones. Much to his shock one of the ones heading directly toward him stopped halfway while the other fell on all fours and started moving much faster but it was still slow enough for his clone to block the claw strike aimed at him. Looking at both sides he saw that the one on his left stopped moving while the one on the right had jumped in the air looking like he was aiming a fist at him. The second water clone jumped to intercept. Zabuza kept his eyes on the two that remained a distance while his clones dealt with each other.

Suddenly the two clones that stood a distance away started running towards each other. Zabuza didn't understand what they were doing but when he heard one of the clones that remained by the pink haired girl and old man yell "NOW!" he kept his head turned to them. He kept staring at them until he felt himself shift a bit. As he watched he noticed that they were no longer there 'What?! Where did they go?!' he thought as he also noticed that the forest that was behind the two was now closer.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu"

Turning his head to look forward , he noticed that the waterball prison that he had Kakashi in was replaced with a massive fireball heading in his direction "WHAT THE HELL?!" and before he could jump out of the way, he was struck by it

Sasuke fell to the ground on his knees from where the fireball came from, trying to catch his breath. He lifted his head to look over where the clones were and saw that Zabuza's clones had collapsed leaving puddles, after which he turned to Sakura's side of the field and saw that Kakashi was standing where one of Naruto's clones were.

Naruto fell on his back smiling that his plan worked "phew it worked! Hah! How's that, we got both Kakashi-sensei back and hit Zabuza! I'm awesome Dattebayo!"

The plan Naruto came up with was to have two clones attack Zabuza to distract him while the other two stopped at a distance and then head to each other, with one using the Kawarimi to switch with Sasuke and the other switching with Zabuza. The switch with Sasuke would be when he is on the final hand sign for his jutsu

Kakashi was surprised to see such a maneuver, it was unorthodox and had some flaws but it was smart and tactical 'never would have thought about switching places with bunshin. How did he come up with that

As Naruto and Sasuke got back on their feet and Naruto's clones dispelled, they made their way back to where Kakashi, Sakura and Tazuna, but they stopped when they heard laughing coming from where the fireball hit

Zabuza was still standing, with his sword in front of him which he obviously used as a shield against the fireball. He lowered his sword to look at Kakashi and his team and in a strained voice spoke "not bad kid" he started to slowly limp out of the circle of fire "you actually got me with that. I underestimated you, but now it's time I got …" whatever he was about to say was stopped when two senbon needles hit him in the neck

Everyone was shocked to see a hunter nin drop down in directly in front of them "thank you for your assistance in taking him down. I have been after him for weeks now but was unable to defeat him"

Kakashi eyed the hunter nin a bit but was glad that the fight was over "a Kiri Hunter Nin huh. well it was no problem. Based on how tough he was to beat, it makes sense you would wait until he was vulnerable"

Naruto looked confused on what was going on so he turned to Sakura "hey Sakura what's a hunter nin?"

Sakura, although still shaken by the fight looked towards Naruto and answered "well from what we learned, they are Shinobi that are specifically hired to hunt down rogue shinobi and bring them back to claim the reward set on them"

"Oh"

"Hm Dobe"

As the hunter nin walked towards Zabuza, Kakashi looked towards his genin "that was a risky move you did there Naruto".

Naruto shrunk his head into his jacket feeling like he did something wrong and he didn't like that eye that Kakashi had. For some reason it felt familiar and not in a good way. Naruto didn't even know about the eye before this, so why does he feel this way? He felt a little better when he lowered his Hitai-ate to cover it up again

Kakashi then eye smiled "but it was also really clever and got me out of that sticky situation, how did you come up with it"

Naruto smiled at the praise and looked up at his sensei before his smile became a big grin "I got the idea when I smelled Tazuna's sake still on him. It reminded me of when I switched with his bottle during the fight with the demon brothers"

The hunter nin picked up Zabuza's body and turning to the group he lifted his hand in a wave "thank you again" and then shunshined away

Kakashi gave a heavy sigh and slumped his shoulders as he looked at Tazuna "how far away is your house?"

Tazuna looked at the tired looking Shinobi and said "not that far"

Kakashi nodded his head as he looked at his genin team "good. I'm leaving it to you guys to get us there because I'm about to….." and with that Kakashi fainted

Sakura rushed to Kakashi to see if he was ok only to see that he had fainted "he's ok but now what?"

Naruto slumped his shoulders knowing that they would have to drag their sensei to Tazuna's house so with a groan he made three clones "I should take his book again for making me carry him and for my jacket" and with that the team, Tazuna and an unconscious Kakashi made their way to Tazuna's house

Chapter end

Finally finished this chapter

I will admit this chapter felt long to me but I got it done

I feel like I made the fights short but when you think about it, if you use a good tactic fights end quickly, although I'm not sure about the fight with Zabuza

Well the Wave ark has started and they have had their first run in with Zabuza

The mist they were walking in wasn't the hidden mist jutsu, just a lesser level to just make the area misty

Please read and review