"Give me the man," the terrifying ninja demands.
Kakashi stands his ground and blocks the view of Tazuna. He lifts his headband to reveal the Uchiha kekkei genkai: the Sharingan.
"I am not letting you take him, Zabuza," Kakashi replies.
Zabuza smirks under his mask. "What an honor to have a battle with Hatake Kakashi using his Sharingan. It would be a testament to my own skill if I were to kill you."
Sasuke is shocked; he never knew anyone outside his clan to have the bloodline. Looking at Kakashi, he wonders how the man got it. However, his thoughts are interrupted by mist obscuring his vision.
"Listen to me," Kakashi commands his team, "protect Tazuna. If the odds are out of my favor, I need you all to get away from here."
"But sensei-" Naruto starts before being cut off by Kakashi. "Do it!"
The team nods and moves into triangle formation around Tazuna. Their position falters when Zabuza appears right in the center. "Such efforts are futile," he says. When he is about to attack Tazuna with his sword, Kakashi runs back toward the group and stabs "Zabuza" in the stomach. The body falls into a puddle when the real Zabuza flickers behind Kakashi, who is sliced in half. Ironically, the body of "Kakashi" does the exact same thing, after copying Zabuza's technique. Zabuza rushes toward Kakashi, but the man appears behind him, taunting Zabuza that it was over for him.
However, Kakashi is grabbed by yet another Zabuza as the other drops into a puddle of water. Zabuza throws Kakashi into a lake and traps him within his Water Prison Technique. Kakashi looks out of the cage at his students.
"RUN," he shouts but they don't budge. Sakura understands that if they escape, then it will only be a cat-and-mouse game, and the team will eventually run out of stamina. Not to mention that their teacher will probably be dead. She stares at Naruto's hand, reminding her of his blood promise. She knows that he isn't leaving. Then she turns to Sasuke, who smirks at her. Naruto smiles at her and the kunoichi steps closer to Tazuna, who eyes the team in fear.
"Don't worry, they've got this," she reassures the man.
Naruto summons loads of shadow clones that surround the water clone. Zabuza's clone swings his sword and disperses all of them, forcing the last Naruto to take out a fuma shuriken, which he hands to Sasuke. Sasuke throws the weapon at Zabuza, who grabs it out of the air. Unknowingly, a second shuriken was hidden in the shadow of the first—Sasuke's Shadow Shuriken Technique—and Zabuza leaps over it. After the shuriken passes Zabuza, it transforms into Naruto, who hurls a kunai at him. Unable to maintain the prison, Zabuza dodges the object and ends his jutsu.
The fight between Kakashi and Zabuza proceeds as they use many water-based attacks against each other. Although Zabuza is a formidable opponent, Kakashi and his Sharingan allow for the upper hand. Kakashi almost delivers the ending hit when several senbon fly past him. A strangely masked ninja walks before them and picks up Zabuza's body.
"I was sent here to kill Zabuza. Thanks for giving me the opportunity," he says and disappears.
Kakashi sighs and turns back to the group. Sakura, anticipating what is to come, runs toward him. "Well, let's get goi-"He collapses into her arms. She gives him a once over and moves his headband over his scarred eye. Deciding that he was well enough for the team to continue, she slings him over her back and directs the group.
"Let's go."
In the back of her mind, she knows that Zabuza is not dead.
30 minutes later; in the woods
Sakura notices that Tazuna is tired. He is dragging backwards and sweating profusely. Kakashi also feels tense and is shaking. She orders the team to stop.
"We should make camp here. I know that all of you need rest after the fight."
They set up tents in the empty section of the forest. Sakura sets up her tent for Tazuna to sleep in. Naruto also takes a nap to restore his energy. Sasuke keeps lookout in case another enemy tries to approach them. After everything is in order, she checks on Kakashi, whom she placed in his respective place.
His condition remains as it was earlier, albeit a little worse. Sakura figures that the main source of his chakra exhaustion comes from his Sharingan. She takes off his headband and feels his forehead; it is warm but not flaming hot. Then she hovers her hand over his implanted eye, his face tensing up as she does so. She gathers healing chakra in her hand and lets it roll in waves into the feature. Kakashi relaxes as the pain lessens. Briefly, he wakes up.
"What's going on?" Kakashi asks.
"Everyone was getting tired so we had to stop. You're dehydrated, drink some water," commands Sakura. She passes him his canister and turns away. He chuckles at her bossiness, wondering who put her in charge. Kakashi attempts to sit up but his limbs fail him. Sakura looks over her shoulder upon hearing a thump. Irritated, Kakashi lies on his back and fakes a smile at his student. She strides over to him and gradually pushes his back up from his shoulders.
"Does this hurt?" Sakura questions him. Kakashi shakes his head. Changing position, she sits behind him to keep him steady. He grabs his bottle and chugs down the water.
"Thanks, Sakura," he slurs. She can tell that he is about to faint again so she stays in her spot. As he collapses again, she catches him again.
Sakura walks out of the tent to talk to Sasuke. Tazuna and Naruto are still asleep to her knowledge. Sasuke sees her approaching and directs his attention back to the perimeter. She hops onto the branch beside him and greets him.
"Everything clear?"
"Yes," he responds, "is Kakashi awake?"
"He was, but he went back to sleep."
"Hn," Sasuke mutters. Despite their curt interactions, Sasuke prefers to think that he is the one who knows Sakura best, or most, which doesn't say a lot. He knows her status and her family, but he knows little about them. He knows her wide range of abilities, but not her type. He even knows her relationships with other people, but could care less about who she actually likes hanging around.
They have quite the odd relationship. They don't particularly like one another, but Sasuke and Sakura will always be close. Sasuke doesn't realize how much he depends on her, although she was the one who stood by him. He looks at his powerful teammate, her face stern and eyes stone. He envies her all-around strength. She almost reminds him of his brother, but he refrains from comparing the two. Sasuke should not blame her for Itachi's actions since she was not involved with that incident. At least not to his knowledge.
While Sasuke muses over his relationship with Sakura, she broods anxiously over the inevitable encounter with Gato.
'You need to tell Hatake-sensei.'
'No way, he's going to end the mission and I don't want him to piece together who we are.'
'You really give a damn? Our life is at stake, he is the strongest ally we have, and the only other ones are our dumbass teammates.'
'They did well against Zabuza.'
'And what if Zabuza or that other ninja recognized you? What if he sends other shinobi to kidnap you? We are in their territory.'
'If he recognized me then Zabuza would have said something. The unknown ninja had the perfect opportunity to knock me out just like he did with Zabuza.'
'Stop believing everything will work out in our favor; it cost us our virginity. When you get fucked this time, don't be acting shocked.'
Sakura leaves Sasuke wordlessly as she heads back to Kakashi's tent, believing that no one will witness her loss of composure in there. Her eyebrows crinkle together in aggravation. She nearly reaches the site when Naruto stumbles into her path. He startles Sakura at his sudden appearance.
"Maa~ Sakura-chan, thanks for the stop. Kakashi-sensei was never gonna give us a break. Is he up?"
"Not at the moment. He was really tired from fighting and could barely move so he is still resting."
"Do you need some help taking him back?"
"No."
"Are you sure? If you're tired, I can help."
Sakura groans and struts toward Naruto. With ease, she lifts him off of his feet and over her shoulder. They return to his tent, and she puts him back on ground.
"I got it," she asserts. "We are leaving now. Put your tent away and get moving."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Naruto mocks and follows her orders.
Going back to Sasuke's tree, she shouts up to him,
"Uchiha-kun! Pack your things, we are moving out."
Sasuke grunts and hops down. Finally, Sakura marches to her tent where Tazuna opens the flap.
"Let's get going," she tells him. "How far away is your house?"
"Only about 15 minutes away. Your teacher still not up?"
"Nope." And she gets to packing.