Chapter 4- Improvement

The five of us had stepped back and watched Kakashi battle it out with Zabuza until three needles suddenly pierced his neck and Kakashi was conforming the frozen pace of Zabuza's heart.

I recall feeling the absence of certainty, I had felt it then that maybe something was wrong when the masked boy had grabbed Zabuza's corpse and took off back into the forest. But I didn't have long to dwell on my thoughts when Kakashi suddenly collapsed to the ground falling unconscious.

I have to say I had been proud of myself, I didn't scream or freak out I had just said "Well shit now we have to carry him". Yea seriously that's what I said I have no clue where that sarcasm came from but even to this day I'm pretty damn proud of that.

I had looked to Tazuna to pick up Kakashi and drag him to his home. Like hell I was going to try to pick up a full grown man, no matter how strong I liked to think I was.

It hadn't taken too long to reach Tazuna's house where Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter helped us fix Kakashi up in a bed before we all ate and went to sleep.

The next day found us sitting by Kakashi as he explained his thoughts that Zabuza wasn't dead and the boy in the mask was his accomplice. Naruto begged Kakashi to teach all of us some Jutsu to prepare for the future fight that would take place a week after, as it was likely Zabuza would be out of commission for just about a week.

Kakashi never did end up teaching us any jutsu, but he did teach us how to climb up a tree. Yea no that really doesn't sound cool at all to you but to me back then it was amazing. Defying the laws of gravity and walking vertical up a tree with no hands was astonishing. That afternoon found all of us standing by trees with a kunai, ready to mark our progress.

Sakura had immediately ran up the tree showing her astounding chakra control, the boys were pretty jealous that all they could manage was a simple foot or two before they dropped back to the ground.

Me, well I was the last one to try the exercise I knew my chakra control was fairly good because using the Earth Style: Clone Wall jutsu required it, I mean I did have to transfer my chakra into the dirt and mold it into a copy of myself. But back to my attempt, I had been pretty scared of falling and hurting myself so I had settled on just one foot on the tree to see what it felt like when the chakra was moved to a certain spot in the body.

To be honest it was the most exhilarating thing to realize I was actually improving, I remember feeling the chakra in my feet and I started to ascend the tree, vertically.

I slowly made my way to the top before settling on the tree branch as I started to feel dizzy. I had thought 'damn I'm already out of chakra'. I had stayed up there for a while before Kakashi had boasted about Sakura and me, saying we were better than the Uchiha and had a better chance at becoming Hokage.

Sakura had told Kakashi to shut up and jumped down from her branch landing next to Kakashi as they looked at me in question "Why aren't you coming down" Sakura had called up.

I felt ashamed at my predicament but I still yelled "I-I ran out of chakra I don't think I can get down without falling" I had looked down folding my hands together I had felt like such a disappointment. But Kakashi had walked up the tree I was in and helped me down, I had honestly expected him to be annoyed but he told me with what I assumed was a smile as his face was obscured by his mask "You have chakra control down, we just need to work on your reserves".

After that I wasn't assigned to guard Tazuna, only Sakura was. No I was assigned to some chakra help with Kakashi. He had taken me a little away from where Sasuke and Naruto where training and had me tell him what it felt like when I was low on chakra, he had told me he needed to make sure it was actually chakra exhaustion and not something worse, like my chakra pathways being blocked.

I had explained that I felt dizzy and tired, feeling like I would fall over but the feeling would pass quickly and I would go back to feeling fine, just without the majority of my chakra.

Kakashi had looked at me before laughing, like I remember him just start laughing so hard saying that yes that was chakra exhaustion but the feeling of returning back to normal was chakra filling back up.

And that was the moment I learned I had normal chakra reserves and my body just produced chakra quickly. Yea, I was pretty dumb when I was 14.

He had asked me to produce my clones and show him how solid they were becoming "Earth Style: Earth Clone Wall" I had yelled aware that Sasuke and Naruto had abandoned their own training to watch what I was doing. After I had the hand signs done and my command spoken 10 clones popped up from the ground in a wall surrounding me.

I had been shocked, 10 clones I had produced 10 clones I spun around with a happy yell looking at how perfect my clones had looked.

After that moment of happiness I looked to Kakashi waiting for him to see how sturdy they were. I was proud when the kunai he had thrown at one bounced off slightly before sinking into the ground.

"Yes!" I shouted before saying "sorry that was loud" I had been so happy I felt the slight dizziness and fatigue but it quickly went away as my chakra had been replenished. I had actually made 10 clones that was a new best. My fun was squished as Kakashi said "Make 10 more, while keeping the other ten strong"

I had stared at him like he was crazy but I yelled "Earth Style: Clone Wall" and 10 more clones appeared but I had almost fallen to the ground as the fatigue hit me once again, but much stronger as I was using chakra to create more clones while maintaining the ones I had already made.

But once again the kunai bounced off the clones and into the ground. "10 more!" Kakashi said and once more I found 10 more clones surrounding me. I didn't see much after that but I did see Naruto and Sasuke's shocked faces before my world had turned black as I had lost too much chakra at once.

I had found out that I had been unconscious for three hours. I cursed Kakashi I had never passed out before that ass decided to push my chakra too far. I sat up seeing that I was alone and headed to the kitchen where I heard everyone chatting.

I walked behind Kakashi and hit the back of his head pretty damn hard. I was pissed "What the hell man, you totally knew that was going to happen" he just looked at me while he rubbed the back of his head "You could have said no" I just gave him the nastiest look I could muster before sitting down at the table grabbing a bowl of delicious food.

Seriously to this day I still have not gotten used to the food we eat on missions, it's gross. I looked around noticing two boys were missing. 'They must be out training still.' I thought when suddenly they barged their way in grabbing copious amounts of food shoveling it in their mouths, food flying everywhere.

It was incredibly gross when they threw up everything they had just eaten calling their food intake a competition. I had laughed when Sakura smacked their heads saying "don't eat if you're just going to just throw it all up" I had a feeling she had seen some shit when she went with Tazuna to the bridge he was building. Though my mood changed when she suddenly asked about the torn picture on the wall. Yes Sakura was pretty smart most of the time but I slammed my head into the palm of my hand when I realized she had no common sense, at all. I realized everyone had turned to stare at me and my face started to feel warm, "continue" I had mumbled. That was when I hear the sad story of a man who sacrificed his life for the land of waves and little Inari Tsunami's young son.

The tale had made me want to cry. I remember feeling sorry for Inari and his family but the kid had gone a little too far saying we were all going to die. I mean at the least back then I would have been the only one to die, the rest of my team had some sense of ninja skills and come on, Kakashi was trained and he had already faced Zabuza before, may I remind you I think he had everything under control and he was merely testing us.

But forgetting that Inari had stormed out shortly after saying that and Kakashi had followed him. Naruto had disappeared back into the forest to train along with Sasuke. I had always thought those two would kill themselves with how much they trained back then.

The two had come back a few hours later stating they had reached to the top of their trees and abruptly fell the ground in a deep sleep.

I had laughed so hard going to grab Naruto and drag him up the stairs to his bed while Sakura had latched onto Sasuke to do the same. I dropped Naruto onto his bed and went to my own, Sakura gently laid Sasuke on his bed and she went to her own as well and with that we were out like a light.

The next morning we all geared up to head out with Tazuna to the bridge. All of us not including Naruto who had exhausted his chakra so much he was forced to sleep the day away.

We had arrived at the bridge seeing a lot of people lying there not moving. My eyes had widened and I had just been standing there staring. I mean sure I had seen corpses before, but not so many.

Zabuza and the masked boy had arrived and Sasuke had been shaking in excitement. He had sped off towards the masked boy so fast it was pretty unreal. Kakashi had told Sakura and me to guard Tazuna while he took on Zabuza. Watching the two fights was unreal and I had been in awe of how fast Sasuke was moving against the boy.

But suddenly the fight had a change of direction suddenly Sasuke was dodging the boys senbon and ice mirrors had sprung up and Sasuke was trapped. I had watched Kakashi try and reach Sasuke but it wasn't working, Zabuza said "Your fight is with me" and suddenly Kakashi was telling me to help Sasuke.

I didn't really know why because what could I have done. I actually showed myself what I could do and that was a lot more than I had thought.

I raced over to the ice mirrors taking my kunai to the ice in an attempt to break it. Yea that didn't work. I had only been trying for a few minutes when Naruto, showed up. That boy could be a real moron sometimes.

He outright said the jutsu he was using then somehow he had grabbed onto me and pulled us both into the cold hell that was the masked boys mirror jutsu. I had heard Kakashi briefly say that it was a kekkei genkai like that of the Uchiha's sharingan. But back then I was still confused about what that really was.

With all of us inside of the mirrors we were all being assaulted with senbon. I remember I had immediately tried my earth clone wall jutsu but I couldn't perform it, I had realized, without the earth. We had been on the bridge with earth too far out of my reach. But I had suddenly had an idea.

Wood was something directly from the earth, so I had smoothed my chakra into the wood below and created my own wall of wood clones. I remember seeing Sasuke look at me in shock for a moment before returning his attention to the fight at hand. I had watched him gain his Sharingan and his speed was increased, he had suddenly been able to see everything with those eyes of his, and they weren't even fully developed.

I had blocked most of the senbon with my wood clone wall but I started to feel the fatigue. I had collapsed onto the ground trying to maintain the few wood clones I had left when I watched Sasuke block a large amount of senbon headed for Naruto. He had spoken "My body moved on its own." What I had thought were his last words. After that everything happened so fast.

Naruto was slamming the masked boy out of the mirrors with this sinister chakra that radiated out of his skin. But he was snapped out of his anger as he saw who the person was, someone not familiar to me but familiar to Naruto. His name had been Haku Yuki, like Sasuke he was the last of his clan.

He had given us his tragic story of how his father had tried to kill him because of his kekkei genkai, the ability to use ice mirrors. He had told Naruto he was ready to die before something changed. Zabuza had almost been wiped out by a flash of light forming in Kakashi's right hand.

The chidori I would later find out was the lights name, and that it wasn't light at all, but lightening in a pure chakra form.

Immediately seeing what was to become of the man that had saved his life and had given him a reason to live, he flashed in front of Kakashi and suddenly Haku's life was no more.

Zabuza's life followed shortly after. He had killed Gato and it was just time for him to join Haku. And I was left feeling as if I was missing something huge. Sasuke had woken up, Sakura had cried in relief, the villagers had gathered with the help of Inari and we had all scared off Gato's men.

We had stayed in the land of waves for 3 weeks waiting for Tazuna to complete the bridge. Just before heading back to the hidden leaf we had stopped by the graves of Zabuza and Haku, where suddenly Naruto spoke "I will not be a tool, I will create my own ninja way. To help those around me and I won't go back on my word! Believe it!"

I had made my own ninja way that day too. I would help protect every one of my friends no matter how difficult it would be.

We left with Naruto and Inari in tears. Tazuna had stated that the bridge would be called the great Naruto Bridge, a bridge that would stand for a very long time.

We had made it halfway home when Naruto suddenly said "Hey Fei how did you use wood jutsu like that? It was so cool could you teach me?" he had looked so hopeful but then Kakashi had interrupted in surprise "Wood style?"

I had explained that I just added chakra to the wood like I had done with the earth jutsu and the wood moved to create a couple of clones. He had looked pretty serious when he said "Fei, Wood jutsu has only ever been used by Hashirama Senju, the first Hokage."

I had looked at him in shock I had used a pretty high powered jutsu and I didn't even realize it. I remember seeing Naruto and Sasuke look pretty jealous when they heard that but I didn't even care because I was stronger than I had thought.

I had been pretty happy for the remainder of the trip home, excited in the fact that possibly I could use this Wood jutsu for something else.

Kakashi had immediately brought me to old man Sarutobi after we arrived in the village. Old man Sarutobi had been quite shocked after hearing I could use a sort of wood jutsu so he had asked me to show him right there in his office.

I had created 5 wood clones that stood in a circle around me and I knew I over did it when I fell to the ground after I overused my chakra. It seemed that wood took a lot more chakra than earth.

I fell unconscious and didn't wake up until the next day. I woke up to a familiar white ceiling, recalling what had happened I still shouted in happiness.