Tazuna had to struggle to keep himself from bolting away from the conflict going on before him. The five of them had made good distance in the short hours since they left Konoha. Along the way he and the blonde brat, Naruto, had traded numerous jibes and insults with one another. A loud mouthed brat the child may be, but he had a nearly limitless excitement about their trip. Excitement was something Tazuna hadn't seen in a very long time. Behind them the pink haired girl was trying to get the dark haired boy's attention, with limited success. While he was talking to her and interacting with her, Tazuna could tell it wasn't in the way Sakura was hoping for. And at the back of their group was the infamous silver haired jonin Kakashi 'The Copy Ninja' Hatake, reading a book as he followed. Tazuna was just starting to feel optimistic about this trip when the rattling of chains reached his ears. He and the children turned around just in time to see two men, wearing tattered black cloaks and strange gear covering their faces, tear Kakashi apart with a bladed chain that connected to large, clawed, gauntlets worn by each of them.
What happened afterwards occurred so damn fast that Tazuna would never really be sure if he actually saw everything that occurred. He saw the Uchiha boy pin their assailant's chain to a tree with a kunai and shuriken. That only slowed their attackers for a brief moment before they disconnected the chain from their gauntlets and attacked with renewed ferocity. Tazuna watched the two split up, one going after the loud mouth blonde and the other coming straight for him and Sakura, who had stuck by him during the ordeal. Tazuna flinched just as a blur of silver dashed past and caught the ninja by his throat. When the old bridge builder opened his eyes he was utterly stunned to see Kakashi standing there, completely unharmed, with the two ninja's necks held firmly under his arms.
"We need to talk." The jonin stated, his one eye glaring at Tazuna. After giving a few quick orders to his team he pulled Tazuna off to the side. "Those two were after you Tazuna. Anything you'd like to get off of your chest?"
'I choked.' Naruto fumed as he held his bleeding hand completely still. 'This was it, my first real battle. My first chance to show what I've learned. And I couldn't fucking do anything.' When the enemy ninja, who seemed to be from the Hidden Mist Village going by his headband, charged at him, Naruto found himself unable to move to defend himself. When the man slashed at him with his clawed gauntlet, Naruto frantically tried to block the attack and received a superficial wound on the back of his hand. Or so it seemed.
It was then that Kakashi decided to reveal that he was in fact still alive and had used a substitution jutsu to fool everyone. Kakashi quickly incapacitated the two Kiri Ninja and before long had them tied to a tree for interrogation.
"Sakura you passed basic first aid right?" the Jonin had asked as he and old man Tazuna went off to the side a little.
"Yes sensei."
"Then please see to Naruto's hand." And with that Kakashi started talking to Tazuna, with Sasuke watching the two enemy ninja intently. Carefully Sakura took Naruto's hand in hers and started cleaning the blood from his injury.
"Does that hurt?" She asked
Naruto was conflicted, on one hand he was extremely disappointed with himself for allowing this to happen in the first place. On the other it did get Sakura to actually touch him without it being in the form of a semi friendly, if hard, bonk on his head. While granted she wasn't as violent as she used to be towards him for the last few months she still hit him pretty hard on occasion. As it was he decided to play it cool.
"Not really." He said, "In fact I can't really feel it at all." Sakura seemed to perk up at this. For a second Naruto thought she was going say how cool it was that Naruto didn't even feel the pain and he blushed a little. Instead she pressed her thumb over the small wound.
"How about that do you feel this?" she asked, a frantic worry in her voice.
"Uh, n-no?" Naruto stammered. He couldn't feel it. In fact he couldn't even feel his whole hand.
"Shit." She cursed as she pulled a bandage from her first aid kit and tied it tightly around his forearm. "Sensei! I think Naruto's been poisoned!" Kakashi was over in a flash, relieving Sakura of her post and sending her to watch over their prisoners with Sasuke. Once she was gone Kakashi carefully examined the wound.
"Where does your feeling stop?" Kakashi asked, his voice calm and relaxed as ever.
"A-at about my wr-wrist." Naruto responded.
"Ok, good that means that Sakura's tourniquet is working." Kakashi said while examining Sakura's work before making some slight adjustments on its placement. "This'll slow the poisons progress, but we still need to get the poisoned blood out of your system.
"Can we do that here?" Naruto asked.
"Not easily, we'd have to make the wound bigger and bleed it out of you. It'd be better, and less painful, if we carried you back to the village for proper medical treatment." Kakashi continued speaking but Naruto had stopped listening after he said "carried you back." After all of the boasting Naruto did about being the greatest Hokage ever, he didn't think his pride could suffer a blow like having to be carried back to the village⦠a mere three hours after leaving on his first C-mission.
"As appealing as a ride to the village sounds Sensei," Naruto began as he pulled out his kunai, "I think I'll pass." And with that Naruto stabbed the kunai into the back of his hand. Blood splashed all over the ground as Naruto forced the once superficial wound into a sizable gash, all without a complaint. "Naruto Uzumaki is ready for duty."
"What do you mean they failed to kill him?" A short, hairy man stamped his cane onto the floor in irritation as pointed an accusing finger at a lone man lounging on a couch, obscured by the shadows. "You assured me that those two would be able to handle it with no problems."
The man on the couch shrugged, "If the demon brothers failed then it's because the old man had better body guards than you insisted he could afford."
"Are you implying that it's my fault?"
"Not at all." The man lounging on the couch reached over the back of the couch to grab something the shorter man couldn't see. Then faster than the stocky man could follow the man on the couch brought a gigantic slab of sharpened metal, which should've too large for a man to lift, let alone with one arm, to bear in front of his face. "Those fools failed to deliver results. So Gato, when I deliver Tazuna's head to you on this sword, theirs will be right next to it." Gato flinched the large sword was pulled back to rest on the shoulder of its owner, The Demon of Kiri, Zabuza Momochi.
Sakura's stomach had flipped over and over so many times in the last few days that she was afraid that it would never sit right again. A B-Ranked mission. How could their simple C-Rank escort mission have changed so much in such a short amount of time? She thought back to only 2 days ago, after Naruto's little stunt, Tazuna had explained the situation to the team in full. His home land, The Land of Waves was never exactly the wealthiest of places but they had always made do with what they had. That was why the bridge they were building was so important. It would open up a new line of trade that help bring in more wealth for the country. But as it turned out a very influential man named Gato had a vested interest in limiting the amount of trade routes into the country. Tazuna however refused to be intimidated by the man and so decided to continue working to complete the bridge. He however wasn't stupid and figured that Gato would likely resort to unsavory measures to ensure he didn't succeed. So he traveled to Konoha to enlist the aid of their ninja seeing as The Land of Waves lacked its own ninja village.
As the little boat they were all riding in neared the shoreline, Sakura asked herself for what felt like the hundredth time why they weren't heading back to the village so a more experienced team of Chunin or even Jonin could handle this mission. However both Naruto and Sasuke assured Kakashi that they could handle it. Sakura had wanted to object but she just couldn't bring herself to let her cowardice drag Sasuke back. Ultimately Kakashi decided to continue the mission. "I'll just have to do more of the heavy lifting than I thought." Kakashi had said under his breath. The boat driver eyed the shoreline suspiciously as he brought his craft in to dock.
"This is as far as I can take you." He told his five passengers. "You'll have to walk the rest of the way."
Kakashi thanked the driver as he paid him while Sakura and her teammates stepped off the boat. "Which way?" Sakura asked, once they were all off and the boat was back in the water. Tazuna gestured to a road a few meters away and told them to follow it east.
"It should take us right home."
And just like when they set off for this mission the five of them walked into the unknown, however this time instead of a sense of wonder and adventure, the group was feeling a sense of dread and apprehension. The oppressive fog certainly wasn't helping the mood. Sakura still stuck close to Sasuke, though this time it was more for protection than flirting. Tazuna walked between Kakashi and Sasuke, for he figured they'd be the most able to keep him alive and well. Outwardly Kakashi and Sasuke were calm and indifferent as ever, but their eyes were taking in everything. And then there was Naruto, who was determined to make up for his earlier mishap, by constantly moving back and forth from the front of the group to the back to make sure that no one would be able to ambush them like earlier.
"Naruto would you please cut it out?" Sakura asked as the group stopped for a rest after a few hours. Naruto glanced at his teammate before replying.
"I'm just trying to make sure nobody gets the drop on us."
"Yeah well it's making me nervous."
"You should take it a little more slowly Naruto." Kakashi chimed in. "At this rate you'll be too tired to fight back if we are attacked."
Sakura was about to thank her sensei for agreeing with her when Naruto spun around and threw some shuriken into some bushes. "What are you doing?" Sakura almost shrieked as Naruto pulled a kunai from his leg harness.
"I heard something." Naruto whispered as he approached the bush. Sakura almost crouched low in case an enemy leapt out to attack them, but upon noticing that Sasuke and Kakashi didn't seem worried remained standing. When Naruto pulled back the bush Sakura was shocked to see a grey rabbit, pressing itself against a tree, with the kunai Naruto threw sticking out of the same tree just between the rabbit's ears.
"Naruto you idiot!" Sakura said, "You almost killed this adorable little bunny!" Even as she scolded him, Sakura couldn't help but find Naruto's pleading for the rabbit's forgiveness cute.
"You think it's someone's pet?" Naruto asked.
"What makes you say that?" Tazuna asked, "It's probably just a wild rabbit. There are tons of them around here."
"No, Naruto's right." Sasuke said, "Its fur's the wrong color for the season."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Rabbits grow a thick white fur coat during the winter." Sakura explained.
"So what?"
"It's almost winter right now." Sakura stated. "Its fur should be white right about now."
"But this rabbit's fur is still grey." Sasuke continued, "Which means this rabbit was probably kept indoors where it wouldn't have to grow the thicker fur to keep warm."
"So this little guy must've gotten out of his home." Naruto finished holding the rabbit in his arms, lightly petting it.
"That or someone let it out." Kakashi speculated. Before anyone could ask him what he meant Kakashi was in motion, "Everyone get down!" he shouted as he dove forward, driving Sakura and Tazuna to the ground. As she fell to the ground Sakura saw a giant slab of metal spin by overhead. For brief moment Sakura imagined what would've happened if Kakashi hadn't moved her. It wasn't pretty. When Sakura was able to get back to her feet she looked at where the spinning piece of metal went. It was now lodged deep into a tree trunk, with a man standing on an elongated hilt sticking out of it.
'That thing's a sword?' Sakura thought while wondering what kind of monster could've thrown it like that.
"You're Zabuza Momochi." She heard Kakashi say, "The Demon of Kiri."
Zabuza stared down at the four Konoha shinobi and his primary target from atop his perch. At first he was a little disappointed with his prey. How could the Demon Brothers lose to only three genin and a single jonin? But that was when he recognized the jonin in question.
"Nice to finally meet you Kakashi Hatake." Zabuza replied. The three brats looked at their sensei confused.
"Do you know this guy sensei?" the pink haired girl asked. Zabuza and Kakashi glared at one another.
"Only by reputation." The Konoha jonin replied while stepping forward to place himself between Zabuza and his charges. "Zabuza Momochi, of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure. Stay back and keep Tazuna safe." Kakashi stepped forward and reached up to adjust his headband. "Leave this to me." Kakashi lifted his headband from his left eye, revealing a sharingan eye.
"The Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan Eye." Zabuza said once he saw the infamous red eye. "I've always wanted to fight the man who's copied more than a thousand jutsu." Zabuza could see the surprise and confusion of Kakashi's three brats. Smiling under his mask Zabuza knelt down and grabbed hold of his sword's hilt. With barely any effort he pulled the giant blade free from the trunk it was buried in as he dropped to the forest floor. The tree, now missing the thing keeping it balanced toppled over behind him as he landed. "I wonder if your sharingan can see in this mist." Zabuza said as he made two one handed tiger seals and held one in front of his chest and the other high above his head. The Hidden Mist jutsu. The fog thickened and in an instant Zabuza disappeared from sight.
The three children all took a defensive formation around the old man while Kakashi readied himself to move at a moment's notice. They all tried in vain to catch a glimpse of the Kiri ninja. Kakashi no doubt felt that he would be Zabuza's first target.
"I have eight targets." Zabuza said, his voice seeming to come from all angles. "Liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, neck vein, brain, kidneys, or the heart." The five of them all glanced around. "Which one should I cut out first?" At those words the dark haired child had started to tremble uncontrollably. Undoubtedly the boy was terrified at the thought that Zabuza could snuff out his life at a whim. Zabuza decided right then, he'd kill the boy last. Let him watch the fun.
"Don't worry." Kakashi said, soothingly. "I won't let you guys be hurt."
"Oh we'll see about that." Zabuza's voice said, from the middle of the group. Kakashi was in motion at once. Kunai in hand, he dove into Zabuza and plunged the knife into his gut.
A pair of eyes watched carefully as the battle between Kakashi Hatake and Zabuza Momochi unfolded before him. He wasn't surprised when Zabuza had exploded into drops of water. The water clone jutsu was always a favorite of the swordsman. Hidden high in the trees neither combatant had noticed him yet and the stranger was wondering if he should get involved. He ultimately decided to wait and see who'd win. After all, it wasn't everyday one got to watch two powerhouses like these go at it.
Kakashi wasn't surprised when the Zabuza he stabbed turned out to be a water clone. In fact he kind of expected it. Didn't make it any less annoying however. Kakashi glared at the puddle before him as Naruto shouted out a warning. As Kakashi turned, the giant sword wielded by Zabuza bit into his flesh and very quickly he found he was half the man he used to be. At least before Kakashi himself turned into water. Kakashi didn't give Zabuza much time to be annoyed as he appeared behind him and drove his kunai into the Kiri ninja's neck. Kakashi sighed as he noticed water flow from the wound instead of blood.
"We're going to be at this all day." Kakashi lamented as he yanked the knife out. The water clone fell apart as soon as the steel left it.
"Then how about we speed it up a bit?" Zabuza's asked from behind. Kakashi ducked just as Zabuza's sword passed over his head. He was unable to dodge the kick that followed however. Kakashi was lifted off the ground by the force of the kick and landed in a nearby lake. As he surfaced Kakashi noticed the water was weighing him down more than it should've. Suddenly Zabuza was right behind him flashing through hand seals. "Fool." He stated as the water around Kakashi formed into a sphere around him, trapping him inside. Kakashi quickly held his breath before the water flooded into his lungs, but the inside of the sphere was hollow. Confused Kakashi looked at Zabuza, who held his hand on the sphere.
"I don't want you to drown before I can kill all of your students in front of you." he stated, glaring at the three children protecting Tazuna. "I wonder, which of them will scream the loudest?" As he spoke a new water clone formed itself next to him.
Naruto and friends struggle to release Kakashi from Zabuza's jutsu. Next time The Sharingan Eye
Author's Note: Sorry for the prolonged abscence, I know that happens a lot with me but now I'm back in school and find myself with a very long wait between two of my classes. which means I actually have some time to write now. So hopefully I can get back into a chapter every week or two. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review for they let me know if I'm entertaining people. Have a wonderful time and God bless.
