"Hokage-sama?"
Mito was surprised when someone unexpected made her way into her office, though she was comforted by the sight of a familiar face. "What is it Pakkun? Did Kakashi's team already get in trouble on their mission?"
"Sort of. He wrote this down for you." The dog summon told her before giving her a letter.
Mito opened it and read it over twice before finally speaking. "Hmm, I see. The client intentionally lied about the severity of the mission in an effort to be cheap on the payment. Not the first time such a thing has happened."
There had been many clients in the past who had either lied about or underestimated the severity of their case. Most of the time the teams sent out could handle the situation but there had been a a few circumstances where members of the team had been killed because they were prepared for the wrong threat. Needless to say there were always repercussions for the client who had lied, not always being financial ones.
"And he requests either assistance if he continues or permission to return to Konoha if that cannot be done." The redhead woman looked at the sour-faced pug. "Where exactly was Kakashi when he summoned you?"
"Still within reasonable distance to Konoha but far away enough that you can't see it on the horizon from his current location."
Mito put a hand on her chin in thought. "The client says the main threat is a corrupt business tycoon who can hire ninja, but he failed to identify any known ones to give us an idea of what to expect. Such a man could be prepared for anything, except demons."
Mito thought about this for a second and looked at the little pug. "Does Kakashi really think he might not be able to handle this?"
"He said that if it was just him going he would not ask for any extra help, but considering he also has to watch out for his inexperienced students, he does not want to make that call all on his own and have you be on his case about it." The little dog said as he scratched himself from behind the ear.
"Well, I suppose that this could be a good opportunity to give a second team of genin a chance at a first mission. And with them backing each other up it will allow them to feel more comfortable and confident out there."
"Like a double date principle?" Pakkun asked.
"That's a pretty good analogy." Mito said before looking at the profiles of the new genin teams. "Go tell Kakashi a new team will show up today and to use the time until then to rest and train. First I need to decide which team will be best suited for going along."
Pakkun nodded and left, and Mito went over the profiles of the genin teams. 'Which would best help a kitsune, vampire, and banshee fight against any number of threats on an island?'
She thought about this tentatively for a moment, it was then that an idea popped into her head. She reached over to a pile of available teams and searched through the names until she found the one she was looking for.
After opening the file and scanning the information inside of it she smiled. "Perfect."
Kakashi was hanging upside from a tree branch like a bat. His feet firmly planted on the bark and his arms crossed as he looked down at his amazed students. Then suddenly he dropped down. Doing a quick flip he landed on his feet without evening flinching.
"And that's how you walk up trees." Kakashi said as he finished his demonstration. "While we wait for a response, I want you three to practice this here. Mark your progress with kunais."
"Umm... Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura said, then began to whisper so Tazuna, who was sitting on a rock and taking drinks from a flash just a few feet away wouldn't hear her clearly. "This is kind of moot for me. When I turn ethereal I can hover and float thru the air like a ghost. Climbing trees like this is really unnecessary for me."
"Maybe so, but this isn't just a skill Sakura. This is also a chakra control exercise and a chakra-building routine as well." Kakashi told her. "Keep this in mind, whenever I am teaching you one thing, I could also be teaching you two things you aren't yet seeing. You have to look at what's underneath the underneath."
Sakura just looked even more confused, thus Kakashi sighed and tried to explain it in another way.
"The bottoms of your feet are the hardest parts to channel chakra from, even for your kind. So by practicing this you get used to channeling your chakra in difficult circumstances, which will in turn make channeling it in more convenient ways all the easier. So this exercise means if you can handle this, you can handle any jutsu. That is the theory of course. Not to mention it allows you to safely empty your reserves and refill them, thus expanding them so you have more for later. Yes the increase is small but it's better than none and the progress does add up over time."
Sakura was about to ask another question but a loud thud interrupted her. They both turned and looked at the tree to see that Sasuke and Naruto were already trying to master the technique.
"Come on Sakura, join us." Naruto said as he dusted himself off, having already fallen down once. Sasuke fell down a moment later but he managed to land on his feet.
"Well I guess it couldn't hurt to be prepared for the unlikely chance I'll ever be unable to turn ethereal, so sure." Sakura said before trying to run up a tree. Her reserves and control were different than they would have been had she remained human so she slipped on one step and came back down to the ground.
"Hey Sensei, wouldn't this be easier to do this if we were barefoot?" Naruto asked. "Aren't our shoes getting in the way of our chakra?"
That certainly got the other two genin curious. Even Tazuna glanced over at them in curiosity, not that he cared too much.
"To be perfectly honest, yes." Kakashi answered.
"Then why didn't-?"
"I wasn't finished Naruto." Kakashi stated, silencing his student. "It's true that the soles of your shoes are a barrier to your chakra, but they only slow the chakra, they don't stop it entirely. I did it with my shoes on after all and ninja shoes are designed with this in mind. You should do it with your shoes on because in battle you don't have time to take them off."
"Fair enough."
"Also have you ever tried getting splinters out of your feet? It takes forever." The one-eyed ninja said with a small chuckle while his students rolled their eyes.
The practice continued uninterrupted for a while, unless you counted occasional Tazuna's complaints about being bored and that they were in a hurry as an interruption. But after a while, signs of back-up could be seen.
"About time. I'm burning up here." Sasuke moaned, having taken a break from training to get out of the sunlight. He applied several layers of sunscreen on his slightly red skin. 'I hate sunburns.'
Naruto tried sniffing them out but they were downwind so he couldn't. Therefore he had to wait to see them, but he didn't have to wait long.
"Naruto!" A happy girl's voice shouted out followed by said girl running to him once she saw him.
'Oh no, not her.' Sakura worried.
Glad to see another friend, and knowing it was futile to resist, Naruto let himself get swept up in a glomp like hug from one of his admirers. "Good to see you too Yakumo."
"Hi Sasuke." Kaede said, holding a black umbrella umbrella with little skulls to keep the sun off her.
Sai was next to her but doing nothing. He just watched them silently, with a small smile on his face.
"An umbrella? Damn, I knew I forgot something." Sasuke lamented. Umbrellas were quite vital for vampires since it kept sun and rain off them, his own umbrella was a dark blue color with the Uchiha clan symbol on the fabric.
"You forgot your umbrella?" Kaede asked as she shook her head in disbelief and amusement. "How could you forget it? That's like Sai forgetting his paintbrush."
"I assumed where we were going there would be more cloud cover. I overlooked the trip to get there. I made a mistake, I'm not perfect." Sasuke admitted.
Kaede smiled. "We'll, I suppose we could walk together under my umbrella." She finished with a wink.
Sasuke felt blood rush to his pale cheeks.
"What's so important about an umbrella?" Tazuna whispered to Anko, the jounin that came with Yakumo, Kaede, and Sai.
"Those two sunburn easily." Anko admitted, then looked to Kakashi.
Kakashi smiled under his mask. "So… the Hokage sent the Viper of Konoha as back-up huh?"
Anko smiled right back, though hers seemed to be pretty scary. "Hokage-sama informed us of everything. The mission is B-rank at least with an increased likelihood of encountering any sort of missing nin hired to eliminate the client. Anything we don't already know?"
"No that pretty much sums it up."
"I just hope there's enough room back home for an extra team." Tazuna complained as he took another drink from his flask.
"I'm more concerned about sleeping arrangements." Anko said, pointing to Sakura who was arguing with Yakumo now, with poor Naruto in the middle, unsure about what to do.
'A boy with two girls fighting over him, and two vampires on an island nation. Sure, what could possibly go wrong?' Kakashi sarcastically asked himself.
All the while, Sai just stood there, ever silent and ever watching.
It had started to rain suddenly.
The storm clouds had appeared out of nowhere, covering the clear blue sky in a dark grey haze. It was Sasuke who felt the first rain drop, the simple little bit of water felt like a bee sting against his skin.
The rain started to fall hard a moment later. Tazuna wanted to keep moving, however both Kaede and Sasuke refused to move an inch. With only one umbrella between them, moving while staying dry would have been too slow to be worth it. When the sky had been clear it had been okay, as the two could afford to not be completely covered by the umbrella at all times, but in the rain they didn't have that luxury.
So both of them stood underneath Kaede's umbrella and hid under the foliage of a large tree for extra protection. The other genin were very understanding. For a vampire, any rain might as well have been acid rain.
Tazuna on the other hand was less understanding, shaking his head as he wiped water from his eyes. "Should have gone to Suna." He muttered.
"What was that?" Anko asked, turning her gaze to the older man.
"I came to Konoha under the impression that it had highly skilled ninja. But instead I find it full of kids. Kids who are afraid of some sunshine and a little rain. I could have gone to Suna and gotten some better nin-"
He did not get any further because Anko lifted the man effortlessly off the ground with just one hand and there was a smile on her face but an icy tone in her voice.
"You should know… that if you pulled the same shit at Suna like you did with us by cheating them out of money, they would have slit your throat and buried you in the sand. Not every village is generous enough to work out compromises like we are."
Tazuna could not suppress a shudder move through his body, Anko then drew him close and whispered into his ear. "Our Hokage was kind enough to forget the fact you deliberately underpaid us. She was even nice enough to send my team for extra support. If it had been me, I would have recalled the team, kept the money we already got, and told you to try your best not to die on your own. So be thankful we are not just leaving you high and dry. Now, a word to wise, relax and stop complaining so much. You will be live longer." She then set the man back on the ground and he immediately put some distance between himself and her.
Kakashi just stood there, watching and shaking his head. "I see you have not lost that whole 'scary touch' we have all come to know and love."
Anko simply shrugged. "I learned from the best." And she said no more.
The rain ended just as suddenly as it appeared. The heavy rain turned into a light drizzle and then it just stopped. Small rays of sunshine broke free from the cloud cover though the sky remained fairly hazy.
Despite the dampness of the environment, both Sasuke and Kaede let out a sigh of relief and came out from their cover.
"Can we get going now?" Tazuna grumbled.
It was only a single candle that illuminated the room.
"So, the demon brothers failed?" An older male voice asked, belonging to corrupt business tycoon Gato.
"Yes Gato." A younger voice said. "I witnessed their defeat personally."
"Hmph, of course they failed. An experienced jounin like Kakashi Hatake could have defeated them with his one eye closed. You should have known better, fool." Another male voice insisted.
Gato turned in the direction of the voice and glared through his dark glasses. "Are you suggesting that this is my fault?"
A sharp tone silenced him. "No, I am telling you that this is your fault. You're the one that decided to start out with the Demon Brothers, not me. I am also telling that it is now time for the true Demon of the Mist to deal with this. When it comes to me, two demons are not better than one."
There was a swiping sound through the air and suddenly the candle went out.
Three days later they were finally in Wave Country but not yet in Tazuna's home town.
Had it just been Kakashi and Anko traveling together they probably would have been in the town after just maybe two days. But because they were traveling with genin who were still new to extensive travel often required in the work of a ninja, they had to go at a more moderate pace. They also had to be cautious with Sasuke and Kaede on the boat ride, considering how harmful water was to them.
Because of these slight issues the trip had taken a bit longer than preferred. At least Sakura and Yakumo were no longer at each other's throats over their right to be near Naruto, however every now and again they would occasionally glare at each other. Sai just kept to himself.
"Keep your wits about kids. Now that we're actually here the odds of encountering a threat against Tazuna have increased. As well as the potential threat level." Anko warned.
Kakashi nodded. "It's likely the Demon Brothers were a test to see how well protected Tazuna is. The fact that we got him here will be a clear indication that someone stronger will come next."
"This isn't helping me." Tazuna complained before having a long drink from his flask.
"Sorry, but it is helping us." Kakashi replied.
Naruto and Yakumo were up front, their noses being the best so they had to take that position. Of course Yakumo was loving being this close to Naruto and being away from Sakura.
For awhile neither of them could detect any kind of scents other then the occasional detection of a traveler or two who had passed by maybe a week or so ago. However, very suddenly both caught a scent that felt different for some reason and on impulse both threw a kunai into the bushes on their rights.
Seeing this the other ninja got ready for a threat to come out, but none did. "Check the bushes Sakura." Kakashi ordered.
Sakura nodded and went invisible, perfect for sneaking up on enemies. She found both the kunai, one was embedded in the trunk of a tree and the other had nearly killed a white rabbit. The poor little animal was passed out on the ground, slightly twitching. She looked at the kunai closest to it and saw that it belonged to Yakumo. She returned to her earthly state and emerged from the bushes carrying the little rabbit.
"Congratulations fox girl, you nearly skewered a poor animal." She said as she petted the still passed-out bunny.
"How was I supposed to know? Me and Naruto don't have a record of every single scent in the world. For all we know it could have been a person."
"Or maybe you could have used those enhanced ears to tell the difference between a movement of a bunny and the movement of a human being."
The two of them argued while Naruto tried to calm both of them down.
Kakashi however kept his eye on the bunny, something was off. 'That is a snow rabbit, their fur only turns white during the winter. It should be brown now. That means that this rabbit was raised indoors, away from sunlight. But there is no one living around here for miles so…'
Kakashi's good eye widened as he suddenly shouted "EVERYONE DOWN! NOW!"
It was out of instinct that they did that, and it was lucky that they did. Because at that moment a giant sword came spinning through the air. Had they remained standing when they did, it would have severed their heads from their bodies.
The enormous blade embedded itself into the trunk of a tree, actually going halfway through before it finally stopped.
The group slowly stood up, the young genin pretty shaken up by the fact they had almost lost their heads.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Sasuke said, voicing the unspoken question. All of the rookies were looking around trying to detect from which direction the sword had come from.
Anko immediately barked orders. "All of you take a defensive formation, protect Tazuna."
All of the genin immediately surrounded the old man, drawing their weapons and keeping themselves ready for a fight.
Then, they heard the voice. "1…2…3… huh only 8 of you? That hardly seems like a challenge. 18 would have been better."
The voice sounded like it was coming from all directions. None of them could pinpoint the location.
Kakashi however, kept his eye focused on the tree in which the sword had hit. He suddenly withdrew a kunai and threw it in that direction.
The weapon zoomed through the air and almost looked like it was going to hit bark but suddenly as if appearing out of thin-air, a man appeared and caught the kunai between his middle and index finger, holding it for a moment before tossing it to the ground.
The man stood on the hilt of the sword with perfect balance. "Still, I think you will all provide me with some marginal entertainment."
Both jounin were quick to recognize this man. "This has gotten bad." Kakashi told the genin. "This man is a wanted criminal in the bingo book with a very high threat level attached to himself. He's called Zabuza Momochi, AKA the Demon of the Mist."
Instead of looking bothered, all the genin looked amused. Even Sai, though whether or not he was just copying them was debatable. "Demon huh? Ooh I'm so scared." Naruto teased.
"What are we going to do? We've never fought a demon before." Yakumo asked sarcastically, getting a few laughs at the inside joke.
"Kids, he's called a demon for a reason. Not the same as you or the others but he's earned that title." Kakashi warned.
"And if you'd rather not see how, you'll hand over the bridge builder." Zabuza interjected.
"What's the matter? Can't fight when you're outnumbered?" Anko taunted, sensing he wanted to avoid a fight if he could.
Zabuza openly laughed hard. "Oh that's rich. I love it when I'm outnumbered. Makes me feel all nostalgic. You see, back in Kiri the genin test is having the kids kill each other and after a certain amount of time the ones who survive become true genin. When it was my turn, I was the only one who survived."
The rookies were starting to see why he was called a demon, and even though he was using a different definition than they did, that made it no less valid.
"So tell me something, if you're assigned to kill this man and you don't mind being in fights where you're outnumbered, why make the approach you've done?" Anko asked, letting a bit of her interrogator side out. "You made us an offer to avoid a fight and you've yet to make a direct move. Heck I suspect your sword attack was meant to miss us, as kenjutsu experts hate the idea of throwing their swords. So what's your real plan?"
Zabuza's expression was hidden by the bandages covering his face. "That's for me to know. And sadly the time for talk is over." He quickly jumped away while grabbing his sword and pulled it out of the tree. He landed on top of a nearby lake as if it were solid and stood there, the natural light haze of the area giving his nickname some momentary credibility.
"Stay here everyone." Kakashi ordered, suspecting Zabuza intended to use the water for more than just a place to stand. "Naruto, Sakura, Yakumo, Sai, be ready to act but wait first. Sasuke, Kaede, withhold unless absolutely necessary." The genin nodded. "Anko, you're with me." Kakashi finally said, knowing the enthusiastic woman would have done so anyway.
"Damn right. No way you're getting all the fun." She said, moving to stand beside him.
"Well it is a bit unfair to gang up on me like this," Zabuza said, though his tone clearly indicated he didn't mind the situation. "So how about I even the playing field a bit?" He did a quick series of hand signs. "Water Style Hidden Mist Jutsu." The area quickly became filled with thick fog, obscuring everyone's vision.
"Keep on your toes. Zabuza's rumored to be an expert in the silent killing style." Kakashi whispered. Anko didn't look worried at all, but put her hands together.
Within the fog Zabuza was creeping along quietly, not making a noise or disrupting the mist. He was even concealing his chakra, so there was no chance of sensing him in this cover. It wasn't a foolproof plan, but it had served him endlessly and so far he hadn't met a ninja yet that could find him in this fog before he wanted them to know he was there.
To his tremendous surprise, he felt someone grab him. 'What the hell? How could someone find me first?' He looked around but saw no one. Then suddenly Sakura faded into view, but she looked see-through like a ghost. And she was smiling.
"You're good at stealth, but I'm better." She said, stating a simple fact. As a banshee, she was one of the stealthiest demons in Konoha. So far only the one will-of-the-wisp demon back home was stealthier than her, but Sakura had a weapon that particular demon lacked, and she wasn't afraid to use it.
Right then Sakura screamed right in Zabuza's face, the volume alone hurting him in the point-blank range. The force of the scream was also blowing away the mist. The other genin and Tazuna had their ears covered thanks to her earlier warning before she went into the fog, but Zabuza, Kakashi, Anko, and the false hunter nin hiding in the trees weren't so lucky.
Compared to Zabuza, the other victims were getting off lucky. Their ears hurt like hell, but it would fade. Their balance was lost to them from the attack on their ear canals so Kakashi, Anko, and Haku both fell to the ground clutching their ears. Zabuza did the same but he was bleeding from his ears and felt like his internal organs were vibrating rapidly.
Sakura stopped and caught her breath, then looked to her teammates, motioning her hand for them to come to her. Sasuke and Naruto nodded and rushed forward.
With the fog gone everyone could see two snakes start to bite Zabuza where his arteries were closest to the skin. "Times like now I'm glad we don't have real ears." One snake said to the other.
"True, but that voice of hers could hurt you from the air pressure alone." The other snake replied.
'Must be summons of Anko-sensei.' The genin told themselves then each grabbed a kunai. They looked at each other and nodded, silently agreeing on a single objective. All three simultaneously thrust their kunais into Zabuza's chest, piercing into his lungs and heart, before twisting the weapons a bit for extra internal damage before pulling them out. That resulted in some blood gushing out of the wounds, and Sasuke began to consume some before it went cold.
Kaede immediately smelled human blood and her mouth watered. On impulse she darted forward and joined Sasuke in his feeding. Sakura and Naruto backed away to let them enjoy their food.
The others were starting to regain their senses after Sakura's scream and saw what the two vampires were doing. "You two finished?" Anko asked as her snakes came back to her.
Kaede nodded. "Yeah, he's gone cold and the venom your snakes put in him kind of gave his blood an aftertaste anyway."
"Should we destroy the body?" Naruto asked, ready to conjure up some foxfire.
"No, we should send it to the research department. You'd be amazed what ninja can learn from the body of a dead enemy. That's why hunter ninja always destroy the body of their prey, to ensure the enemy can't learn anything from the missing nin." Kakashi instructed before preparing a storage seal to contain and preserve Zabuza's corpse until he could get it to Konoha. "Good job team, I guess that means you three get to collect the bounty on his head."
"Who pays for those bounties by the way?" Naruto asked, a question he had wondered since he heard about the bingo book.
"Whoever assigned them in the first place." Kakashi answered, having sealed Zabuza's body in a scroll for safe keeping. "Good work by the way. I guess Hokage-sama's idea of introducing genin to death early paid off."
One of the greatest hardships of a genin's career was the act of taking a life on the job. It was never an easy thing to do, but it was even harder for someone who hadn't yet. Often genin hesitated and it cost them their lives and/or their teammate's lives. And it wasn't something you could really prepare them for, that is, until Mito came up with a solution. To assist this problem and prevent prison overcrowding, Mito ordered it so that all official genin had to participate in a legal execution of a condemned criminal before they were eligible for C-rank missions or higher.
The criminals selected were the ones already considered ineligible for parole or already had a death sentence on them. Some of them weren't even from Konoha, but sent to her by the Fire Daimyo to properly eliminate them. Mito used them as an opportunity to teach new genin how to kill in a controlled environment and allow them to process the shock of the kill so that when it came time to do so on the job they'd be less likely to freeze up and endanger themselves or others.
For the demon children she made them kill two criminals, the first being killed in the style of a human and the second being killed in the style of a demon. This way the demon genin could kill both as themselves or without releasing their disguises.
Team Seven had done their first time a week after being formed, Kakashi not wanting to wait just before a C-rank mission to get the trauma out of their system. It worked, but Sakura managed to sneak into Naruto's room that night to make herself able to sleep at all. Hinata did the same when her team had to take the prerequisite to higher missions. Naruto had no complaints about either of them doing this, and if Kushina knew what the girls had done she didn't act like it.
"What just happened?" Tazuna asked, startled enough by the commotion that he didn't have a good grasp on it, which was good because it's what saved him from panicking at seeing two teens drink blood from a dying man.
"We just saved your cheap drunk ass from another assassin that's what just happened." Anko replied. "And let me tell you, that guy was no ordinary one. He was high caliber, a very serious threat."
Tazuna scoffed. "Couldn't have been that bad if those kids beat him."
"Old man, the only reason these kids beat him is because he didn't bother preparing himself against them." Anko chastised. "He committed one of the few things we shinobi consider to be a sin on the job, underestimating the enemy. You look at these kids and see just that, kids, which makes you think they're no real threat to you so you let your guard down regarding them. Zabuza did the same, and they took advantage of that. By the time Zabuza realized these kids had a few tricks that could hurt him it was too late to do anything but regret it."
"Alright alright, I don't need no ninja lesson, the results speak for themselves." Tazuna insisted. "Can we just get me home already?"
"Yes, assuming no more threats show up." Kakahsi said before signaling for the team to proceed.
Unfortunately, there was one more threat, but this threat did not reveal themselves.
'Damn them, damn them all to Hell for killing Zabuza-sama. I will avenge him.' Haku vowed while watching them leave, knowing he was ill-prepared to fight them at the moment. He would bide his time and wait for the right moment, but these Leaf nin would not make it out of Wave alive if he had anything to say about it.
(For once I'm going with a male Haku, to be different. Also, just this once I'm going to consider the option of changing this story to a harem for Naruto. If so, the girls for him will be Sakura, Hinata, Ino, and Yakumo but no more. If not, Naruto will get one girl who will not be named yet, at most two girls since by MY standards two girls is not a harem, but three or more is. Let me know what you think.)