Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing!

Last time: An accident throws Gohan into the world of shinobi.

This time: The fight with Zabuza.

The day had started on a tense note. Naruto had managed to really piss Sasuke off and the Uchiha had made a biting remark that had the blond genin out to prove his stuff as a shinobi.

'I'll show him!' pounded through Naruto's head again and again. He hopped forward, scanning every little detail. He jumped at a small noise and whipped a shuriken at the source of the disturbance. The enemy had proven to be a rabbit.

"NARUTO YOU IDIOT!!" Sakura yelled, driving her fist into Naruto's head and sending the blond skidding, stopping a few feet from Gohan, eyes swirling.

While Gohan looked over Naruto for any major injuries, Kakashi was more interested in the rabbit, now very dead from Naruto's attack.

'Odd. That's a snowshoe hare. They should have brown coats this time of year not white. This one's been raised in captivity. That means it was sent here as a distraction!' He had just registered that this was a trap, and they had just waltzed right into it!

"GET DOWN!" Kakashi yelled, just as a huge disc of death spun from the trees behind them. Gohan saw the spinning sword clearly; his eyes being used to high speed combat. He had just enough time to grab Sakura and Naruto and throw them to the ground as Kakashi handled Tazuna and Sasuke.

The spinning blade slammed and stuck in a tree. Gohan picked himself up, snapping into a stance, ready to do battle with the shirtless figure now standing on the long hilt of the sword. The man was glaring back over his shoulder at them with flinty eyes and, though the bandages on the lower half of his face obscured it, a malicious blood-thirsty sneer.

'Just who is this guy?' Gohan wondered. His ki was fearsome, pressing around them like an unseen blanket. A hard hand on his shoulder made him look up at the owner. Kakashi glared down at him, his hirai-ate in the proper position, revealing his left eye. That side of his face had a vicious scar that ran vertically from his hairline down to the edge of the mask, but that was nothing compared to the eye itself. It was a vivid crimson, with three comma-like dots etched into the iris.

"Gohan," Kakashi rumbled, his personality doing a complete 180 from what it had been. This was the true Hatake Kakashi. Kakashi the former ANBU captain, who'd been in the shinobi world since he was a young child. "No. Let me handle this. Go protect Tazuna with the others."

"R-right." Gohan agreed, knowing that this was not the time to be arguing with the jounin, sprinted the distance to the bridge builder, taking up a position with the other three to keep this guy at bay. Between the four kids, they had every possible approach covered.

Cruel laughter floated over the break in the trees where the group was. They were on a dirt path that led to a small lake. The source of the laughing was the man on the sword.

"Hatake Kakashi. The infamous Copy Ninja. You're listed in the Mist Bingo Book as a wanted criminal." The bandages around the lower half of the man's face stretched and warped as the man grinned even bigger. He knelt on the sword's handle as easily as if he was on a sidewalk. He grabbed the handle, bracing his foot on the tree before pushing off and blurring out of sight. A disembodied voice drifted from the forest around them. "Kakashi, I'm going to enjoy killing you." The chilling statement was accompanied by another bout of chilling laughter.

"What the hell's going on here?" Naruto whispered to no one in particular.

"Momochi Zabuza, a missing-nin from the Mist village. They want him for an attempted coup de tat on the Mizukage. It failed and Zabuza was force to take a few loyal followers and flee. He's been on the run ever since." Kakashi answered, mismatched eyes scanning everywhere as an eerie mist began to roll in on the area.

Gohan felt his heart pounding like a drum against his ribs. He felt apprehensive about this, thrown into a battle that wasn't his, but his father and Piccolo would kill him if they ever found out that he could have made a difference and done nothing. A quick sweep with his senses had revealed nothing. Zabuza, it appeared, was just as adept at concealing ki as Piccolo or Cell were. It would be tough to pick him out when the missing-nin didn't want to be found. This mist wasn't helping matters any. Gohan couldn't see all that well, which meant his reaction time would be severely limited. That was obviously the point of this technique.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi's sharp voice startled every one as the mist began to blow away, coinciding with a sharp spike in Kakashi's ki that hit Gohan like a hammer. Clearly the masked shinobi was more skilled than he let on. The silver haired man continued, "Calm down. I will not allow my comrades to die. That is absolute." Sasuke was shaking like a leaf in the wind. Gohan figured that Kakashi had picked up on the boy's discomfort, even as he tried to locate their enemy. Shinobi, it appeared, had excellent situational awareness. Gohan would have to remember that in the future.

"Too bad you'll have to break that promise, Kakashi," said a familiar voice from the center of the genin's defensive formation. There were shouts of surprise and shock from the three green warriors, but both Gohan and Kakashi whirled, trying to the find a way to help Tazuna. To the young Saiyan's eyes, Kakashi appeared paralyzed, just staring at them helplessly.

Zabuza swung his giant meat cleaver and bisected Tazuna at the chest. Gohan's eyes widened in horror as the two halves of the old man sprayed blood everywhere and thudded to the ground. Something splattered against Gohan's cheek and the half-Saiyan touched it with a trembling hand. He got a surprise, though, when he looked at it.

"Water?" he murmured, wondering how water had splashed him.

"What did you say?" Zabuza asked, having heard the young guardian's voice. "Did you say…"

"Water?" A third voice interrupted as cold steel touched Zabuza's neck. "Yes, he did."

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto and Sakura shouted together. Somehow, Kakashi had managed to substitute Tazuna with a Mizu Bunshin, hiding the real bridge builder safe in the brush of the forest-ringed lake. The real Tazuna scrambled out of some bushes a moment later.

A mirthless laugh split the chill misty air. Zabuza apparently found the fact that he was being held at knifepoint highly amusing. Kakashi held the kunai a little closer to the Mist-nin's neck

"What's so funny?" the Leaf jounin growled out. His Mist counterpart's laughter just redoubled, his sides shaking from it.

"You, Hatake." The other ninja gasped out. "You actually think that I'm real." With that, the man dissolved into nothing more than a splash of water.

'A Bunshin?' Kakashi yelled at himself, not believing that he'd fallen for such a simple trick. He hesitated for but a half-second, but it was enough.

"LOOK OUT!" Sakura's yell came too late. Zabuza was already behind him, swinging his sword. Kakashi had to act and he had to act fast! His gloved hands flew together, making a seal for a jutsu that he hoped would be able help him survive.

Zabuza's sword slashed Kakashi in half, and everyone had a look of horror, just before the blood and body parts turned into a spray of water that drenched the four kids at the scene.

"Another clone?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded. So this was what it was like to be involved in a battle with a real ninja? The blond suddenly realized that he had no place in this clash, and that thought scared the crap out of him.

Meanwhile, Kakashi burst out of the surface of the lake with a gasp, having made a successful getaway, but instantly realized that something wasn't right here. The water was dense, as if it was a solid and not liquid.

'Not good!' Kakashi thought desperately as a shadow fell over him. He twisted around the best he could and saw Zabuza looming over him, hands flying together to use a jutsu. His bandages warped as an insane grin lit up his features. This time, the grin was large enough to cause a gap in the wrappings and allowed Kakashi a glimpse of his mouth, complete with teeth filed to points. Clearly he took his name as the 'Demon of the Mist Village' very seriously.

"Suirou no Justu." Kakashi's mind went blank as he was enveloped in a bubble of chakra-enhanced water. This was definitely not good. How was he going to protect his squad and Tazuna in this condition? Oh well, at least Zabuza had to keep contact with the water prison to keep it active. Then the masked shinobi caught sight of a column of water that rose up to man height and began to take on a shape. Crap. This was about to get worse.

Gohan watched in horror as the water took on the shape of another Zabuza. One was bad enough, but two!? Come on! This was almost as unfair as Cell's regeneration ability! The situation was bad enough, what with Kakashi being trapped in that freaky bubble of water. It looked as though the original Zabuza had to be in constant contact with the bubble or the technique would dissipate, if the arm he had lodged in the bubble was anything to go by. Well, that made him an easy target for a ki attack! Gohan slipped into a familiar stance, cupping his hands at his side, the heels of his hands touching. No one noticed what the young Saiyan was up to, all attention being either on Kakashi or Tazuna, depending on which side you were on.

"Ka…me…ha…me…" He whispered softly, not wanting to draw Zabuza's attention to him. It wouldn't matter when the Kamehameha actually formed, but until then, best to remain as insignificant as possible.

"RUN!" Kakashi's yell stopped any thought of retaliation from all the children's minds. "This was over the moment I got caught! Take Tazuna and go! His water clone can only go so far!"

"Yeah right! And leave you here!?" Naruto shouted in return. "I'm not gonna let that happen!" The others nodded in agreement. Kakashi wanted to pull his hair out. These kids were going to be the death of him! Well, except for Gohan. The feel the kid was giving off at the moment just didn't compare to what the others looked like. His squad looked scared. His Sharingan could just pick up the trembling knees in all three of the genins. Gohan, on the other hand, had no shake whatsoever, as if he'd been down this road enough to not be afraid of confronting an enemy who was stronger than him.

"Dammit, Naruto! Just do what I say!" Kakashi's yell froze everyone solid. The masked jounin hardly ever yelled, much less swore, so to hear him doing it now made it even more shocking. "Take Tazuna and go! Complete the mission!"

"NO!" Naruto's defiant yell came as no surprise to anyone. "What about what you told us, huh!? You told us that if you abandon your friends you're worse than trash!" Gohan was watching the kid as if he'd never seen him before. This kid would be a great man. That was apparent to the slightly older child. Naruto would be in the same league as people like Piccolo and his dad. The club for people who could lay down their life for their friends and not think twice about it. The blonde's bright blue eyes blazed as he whipped out a kunai. "I'm gonna save him!"

Gohan's hand shot out and snagged the other kid by the scruff of his blazing orange jacket. A flick of his wrist had Naruto flying backward to a hard landing flat on his back.

"Gohan-kun!" Sakura's startled voice fell on deaf ears as the protector of the world stepped forward, moving to stand in front of the three genins and Tazuna.

The Zabuza clone began to laugh. "What's this? A kid who thinks he can take me on? Are you delusional kid?"

"You've lost it." Sasuke said in a low monotone. "You'll be killed. He's a jounin and you're just a kid with no obvious shinobi talent. Give up."

"Sasuke." Gohan said without turning around. "You don't know what I'm capable of. Just let me do this and don't interfere."

"Gohan-kun?" Now Sakura's voice held a note of question in it, as if she was seeing him for the first time. What was the other boy planning? Gohan felt nothing but the supreme confidence of a saiyan warrior. Now they would all see what he could do.

The water clone grabbed its sword and swung it off its back, waving it experimentally. The Bunshin grinned. This would be fun!

"GOHAN! NO! YOU CAN'T WIN!" Kakashi screamed as loud as he could. This kid was brave and resourceful, that much was obvious, but Kakashi had yet to see the newcomer use any type of genjutsu, taijutsu, or ninjutsu. Zabuza would slaughter him, even with a clone that had only twenty-five percent of his full strength.

"No. You're wrong. I can win." Though Gohan said it softly, it was heard as clearly as it would have been had he shouted it. The young half-saiyan could feel his heart beginning to pound at the prospect of a fight, as it always did. It was the heritage that flowed through his veins. Saiyans lived to fight, and Gohan, though he didn't enjoy it, was no different. Perhaps he didn't like the thought of hurting anyone, but he didn't mind matching his power with someone else in the ultimate test of survival.

Gohan tensed, digging deep within himself to pull at his ki. To everyone's surprise, the air around the Super Saiyan began to ripple, as if the kid was giving off a great heat.

"HAAAAAAAAA!!" Gohan's war cry split the sky and the ground underneath his feet began to crack, as if the earth itself could no longer support the weight of his power crushing down on it.

'What the hell?' Kakashi thought, 'Gohan's chakra just went through the roof! Who knew that that kid had so much! He's at least as strong and Zabuza and me!' Kakashi's mismatched eyes widened in shock a moment later as a blue flame-like aura burst into existence around the teen's body, surging wildly from the constant increase in Gohan's power level.

The three genin could only watch in horrified fascination as their new friend's chakra did amazing things to the environment around him. Trees were bending backward, as if the giants wanted to be nowhere near the power that this mere kid was giving off. The cracked earth beneath his feet split again and gave way even more, making jagged spikes of rock. Gohan tensed once more before letting out an even louder yell than before. His chakra reacted in kind, blasting out from him and kicking up a wall of topsoil, small pebbles and made the lake on which Zabuza had Kakashi trapped writhe as if in a hurricane. Silence followed the roaring wind, and when the smoke finally cleared, Gohan stood there, bathed in the blue aura. Slowly, it began to fade and flicker, before it popped out of existence with a pulse of static electricity.

"I will say it once." Gohan said with more seriousness than he felt. He knew the thing in front of him was just a clone and he had no problem killing a copy. What did make him apprehensive was killing a human. Cell had been anything but, so Gohan's hands were still clean of any blood. Zabuza, on the other hand, was human. The young saiyan really didn't want to kill a human. "Let Kakashi go." Hard onyx eyes bored straight at the real Demon of the Hidden Mist, making the man shudder slightly.

"G-Gohan-kun?" Sakura couldn't believe what had happened just now. Gohan had released some enormous energy, so much so that it was visible to the naked eye. Was…Was this who he really was? Everything looked pretty tame now, but the aftermath of the release of chakra was still around, the abused ground beneath his feet, the windswept earth, and more than one blown over tree. Even the lake was still rippling from the force of the energy the new guy had let out.

"Sakura. You, Naruto and Sasuke protect Tazuna-san. I can handle this guy by myself," Gohan said with a dangerous voice. "Things are about to get ugly around here and I don't want to hurt some new friends of mine." Laughter met the saiyan's words.

"Yeah right. A little squirt like you is gonna handle me single handedly!? Don't underestimate me!" Zabuza's clone yelled before it sprinted straight for Gohan, who had his hands relaxed at his sides. The Mizu Bunshin leapt high into the air, his zanbatou cocked back to strike. Gohan did nothing as the sword came straight down, striking the ground with enough force to kick up a debris cloud.

"GOHAN!" Sakura screamed as Naruto and Sasuke just watched with horrified eyes. This Zabuza guy really didn't like to kid around! He'd just killed a thirteen-year-old boy without a second thought!

"Too bad, Kakashi." The real Zabuza said to the imprisoned Leaf-nin. "That kid really had some spunk. Shame he couldn't play longer." Kakashi only glared at the sadist Mist-nin, vowing to get out of this thrice-damned prison and make the bastard pay. No matter what it took, Momochi Zabuza would die!

The clone shouldered his sword. "Now." He said. "Who should I kill next?" The four that he had his sights set on gulped, trying to figure out a way to get rid of this annoying jutsu. A voice halted any plan that they might have come up with.

"You haven't killed anyone yet." The clone's eyes widened when he felt his sword rock a little. Its head snapped around and saw Son Gohan, in one piece and without a scratch, standing lightly on the edge of his blade as if it was a thing he did all the time.

Ignoring the cries of relief from Sakura and admiring whoops from Naruto, Gohan simply disappeared. Shocked looks passed between everyone at the sudden vanishing act. The clone didn't even have time to form a question before a fist slammed into his gut with enough force to split a mountain. Water sprayed everywhere as Gohan lowered his hand and turned to glare at Zabuza.

"One more time." He called to the Mist shinobi. "Let Kakashi go!" This time he actually got a reaction out of his enemy. Zabuza did what Gohan told him and pulled his arm out of the bubble that held Kakashi hostage. Except, instead of retreating as Gohan hoped, he charged straight for him like a runaway bull, Kakashi hot on his heels, trying to catch the other shinobi before he could get to Gohan. Sure the kid could handle a clone, but this was the real…

Zabuza made it to the half-saiyan and swung his sword in a flat arc! Damn! Kakashi was too late!

Gohan saw the sword incoming and casually raised a hand, palm out, to intercept the swing.

"Gohan-kun! NO! He'll slice your hand off!" Sakura yelled at the top of her lungs, trying to get the fourth teen in their group to at least dodge. Zabuza's sword made contact…with a ball of ki that formed in the saiyan hybrid's hand.

"Impossible!" Zabuza shouted, bloodshot eyes wide, shocked that the boy had been able to channel chakra without the need for hand seals, and what's more, made the chakra visible and dense enough to stop a sword! Such a thing was unheard of!

Gohan made the ki go critical and explode, sending Zabuza's sword spinning out over the lake and sent the man wielding it flying backward. He didn't get very far, because the Z fighter grabbed his arm and pulled the older warrior into a vicious knee strike.

Zabuza felt the blow and saw stars as the wind was knocked out of him. He didn't get any time for a reprieve, though, because the kid followed up with a left back fist, spinning to add momentum and force to the strike. The missing-nin was sent screaming away, flying just a few feet from the ground, out over the lake and ripping an ice-white wake in his path because of the air his body displaced.

"No…Way." For once, Naruto was at a loss for words as a geyser of dirt erupted on the far side of the tiny lake the group had turned into a battlefield. Before the debris could settle, Zabuza tore from the cloud, sprinting across the water at Gohan intent on finishing him off, sword or no sword. Gohan let out a short kiai, his weird blue aura blasting into existence before he blazed off across the surface of the lake like a comet, speeding to a collision with his opponent.

"Now he can fly!?" Sakura yelled, holding her head. Seriously, how many amazing abilities was this kid about to pull out of his ass!?

"It would appear so." Kakashi said as he walked over to them, pulling his hirai-ate into its usual place, seeing no need to help Gohan. "And it also seems that our new friend Gohan has some rather unusual abilities that are at once similar to, and completely different from, what we're used to." A massive explosion of water sprayed up into the air, from which Zabuza emerged, tumbling like a rag doll, followed closely by a blue comet that could only be Gohan, both fighters streaking high into the air.

"It still doesn't explain how he does it." Sasuke stated bluntly, trying to keep the burning jealousy out of his voice. How had Gohan done it? What were his methods? And just how in the hell could he knock a jounin around like he was nothing!?

A condensation bubble erupted above them as Gohan hit Zabuza with a punch that exceeded the speed of sound, sending him screaming down from a few thousand feet up. Before he could impact, though, Gohan disappeared from sight up above and reappeared floating a few feet above the ground, unleashing a brutal roundhouse kick that connected soundly with Zabuza's ribs and sent the helpless man speeding off in another direction.

Zabuza finally managed to get his feet underneath him, despite the pain that surged through every inch of his body. As he skidded backward along the shoreline of the lake, he began making hand seals, hoping to buy himself a little breathing room.

Gohan was blazing toward the Mist-nin, drawing back for a punch that would probably knock Zabuza's head off if it connected. His fist rammed headlong into Zabuza's cranium. Which promptly exploded into a spray of water.

'Another of those water clone things!' Gohan realized, looking for the real man. A ki spike made him whirl and look out to the middle of the lake, where Zabuza stood, making seal after seal.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" Zabuza yelled as the water around him writhed and shot into the air a lot like Shenlong did when the Z fighters used the Dragon Balls to summon him, only it was made completely out of water. The water took on a dragon shape and locked its yellow eyes onto Gohan before letting out a shrieking roar and diving towards him.

"LOOK OUT!" All the spectators cried as the jutsu closed the distance. That was a very high rank jutsu and one that Gohan probably wouldn't be able to withstand. But, once again, Gohan displayed a weird way of thinking when he lowered himself into a stance and cupped his hands at his side once again. This time, everyone saw what he was doing, and heard what he was saying.

"Ka…me…ha…me…." He held the last syllable as a blue-white orb of ki burst into existence in between his cupped hands and began to shine with the intensity of a star, so much so that the people watching had to advert their eyes or risk being blinded.

Gohan stared down the dragon as it closed on him, fast. Finally it was at the range that it wouldn't be able to dodge. The star in his hands glowed just a little bit brighter, it distinctive high-pitched pulsing noise becoming even louder.

"HAAAAA!!" He shoved his hands forward and released the ki. A giant ball of blue energy, almost as large as Gohan himself, erupted from his cupped hands and blazed toward the dragon. The two techniques hit each other with full force and the dragon was blown apart by the overwhelming might of the Kamehameha. The attack lanced out over the water, throwing up walls of water on either side as it raced for Zabuza.

The criminal shinobi's eyes widened as the powerful light given off by the attack illuminated him, and then he was lost from view as the river of pure energy engulfed him.

"Get down!" Kakashi yelled, tackling his students to the ground as the Kamehameha exploded with enough force to make the ground jump then slam into them. They were enveloped by a hail of dirt, hurricane winds and rock a second later as Gohan's immense strike expended the last of its energy. Then the light began to fade and the debris shower subsided.

Finally, Kakashi felt secure enough to let his charges up. When they got their first look at the scene, their jaws dropped. Gohan was striding towards them with a massive crater and a billowing pillar of smoke as his backdrop. The young half-saiyan stopped and looked down at them before grinning sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

"Whoops. Sorry. I think I over did it a little. My control isn't as good as it used to be." The others just looked at him with unbelieving expressions, as if they had never seen a thirteen-year-old go toe to toe with a dangerous shinobi, kick his ass, and then finish the fight by vaporizing a lake and replacing it with a huge smoking crater. Gohan laughed nervously. "I guess I have some explaining to do, huh?"

"Just a little," Kakashi agreed before he stood and helped Tazuna up. "But it can wait until we get to Tazuna's village. Let's get their first and then we can decide what to do from there."

"Right." The four kids chorused and resumed their trek to the bridge builder's village.

On the other side of the column of smoke, a ornately dressed person who wore an equally ornate porcelain mask, supported a heavily injured and unresponsive Zabuza on his shoulder. He'd managed to rescue the missing-nin just before the elder shinobi could be vaporized by the unusual chakra attack from one of the Copy-Nin's students. Now Haku's first priority was to get his master to their hideout, provided for them by the corrupt business man who ran this entire country, and get Zabuza-san back on his feet in time to strike at the bridge builder before his masterpiece could be completed.

Haku made a weird hand seal and vanished in a swirl of wind and ice shards.

Finally, Team Seven made it to their destination with all members in one piece. Tazuna seemed to become a different man, walking with a spring in his step and greeting everyone he knew, although, the warriors of the group couldn't help but notice that the elderly man kept flicking a nervous glance at the bridge, fully visible now that the morning mist had dissipated. Eventually, the group arrived at a run-down shack that sat on a pier that stretched out over the water.

"Home sweet home!" Tazuna announced brightly before rushing inside. A squeal sounded almost the moment he walked in the door. When Team Seven entered, they saw Tazuna being hugged tightly by a much younger woman.

"Ah! May I introduce my daughter Tsunami?" The carpenter said with a distinct note of pride in her voice. Tsunami was a very pretty woman in her mid to late twenties. Like everyone in this little town, though, she was dressed in rough, homespun clothes that denoted a hard and unforgiving existence.

"Thank you for protecting my father. I'm sorry we had to lie about the mission statement." She said with a traditional bow.

"Don't worry about it, Tsunami-san." Kakashi said easily. "We've already been informed of the error and have decided to continue with the mission regardless." Tsunami bowed again before bustling off to get a dinner ready for her weary father and their guests. Seeing the woman occupied and Tazuna disappearing out the front door, Kakashi decided that it would be a good time to discuss some things with his students and visitor.

"Come on you four," he said. "We have some talking to do." The four shinobi dropped their backpacks in the guest room that Tazuna had given to them and then all the warriors left the house and followed Kakashi deep into the woods. It was close to a half hour before they finally stopped in a clearing that was ringed by redwoods just as big as the ones back in Fire Country.

"Okay. Now, Gohan, tell us just what the hell you did back there." The masked jounin said without preamble. He'd decided when they arrived here that he would take this matter straight to the source. Gohan shrugged,

"I didn't do anything that amazing. All I did was use some simple ki attacks." Utter silence followed his words. "What?"

"You can use ki?" Sasuke asked, trying to keep the jealousy from his voice. "That's impossible."

"Hey," Naruto said, clearly lost. He had his squint face on. "What's ki? It sounds a lot like chakra." Everyone else sighed, exasperated by the boy's thick skull.

"Sakura," Kakashi said, too lazy to explain things himself to the blond. Maybe they should get Naruto checked for ADHD. "Care to explain?"

"Sure. Okay Naruto, listen up because I'm only gonna go over this once. You what stamina is right?" Naruto nodded. "Good. The body possesses two types of energy, stamina, which our body uses whenever we do something strenuous like running. The second type of energy is spiritual energy, also known as ki or chi. Chakra is made by mixing both stamina and ki together and then using it for various jutsu through the use of hand seals. Follow me so far?"

"Yes!" The blond said, a hint of annoyance in his tone. "So Gohan uses chakra. What's the big deal?" A vein bulged out of Sakura's forehead.

"NO, YOU IDIOT! Gohan uses KI not chakra. It's two completely different things! Ki can also be called life energy! Using ki is a lot more dangerous than using chakra, because whenever you use a jutsu, essentially you are using part of your life force." The kunoichi raised a threatening fist. "Get it?" Naruto patted the air in a gesture of submission as Sakura's shadow loomed over him.

"Got it."

"Ki, despite the dangers of overuse, is also much stronger than chakra because ki is not mixed with stamina. It also has an advantage in that the user is not required to use hand seals." Kakashi added. "However, the drawback is that overuse results in death, and that the variety of techniques available to the user is very limited. Really the only difference between some of the ki techniques is the power that they possess."

"Overuse doesn't necessarily result in death." Gohan interrupted. "You have to willingly tap into your life force to use it. Ki, on the other hand, is the latent power within the body. Everyone has it, it's just a matter of finding and tapping it."

"So, what you're saying is that I could use ki?" Sasuke asked, trying to be nonchalant about it. This could be the key to killing Itachi! Kakashi was the one with the answer,

"No. Shinobi cannot use ki." At the puzzled looks he got, he continued. "Look at it this way, when you are first learning a technique, you practice and practice until the technique becomes second nature, right?" The four teens nodded, hanging on his every word. Kakashi continued,

"To unlearn what you have already become accustomed to is very difficult, and almost impossible. It is the same with ki and chakra. Before you became shinobi, you had the potential to use both ki and chakra. Now that you have been using chakra for a few years, your body has adapted to it. To learn to use ki now would be next to impossible. It goes the same way for a ki-user as well. Gohan here wouldn't be able to use a simple Bunshin jutsu, just as we wouldn't be able to use that technique that he used against Zabuza."

"So what happens to the ki we don't use?" Sakura asked, wondering what happened to all that unused energy.

"We shinobi haven't really been able to figure that out yet." Kakashi answered. "But the current hypothesis from many of the top medic-nins is that, over time, ki gradually develops into chakra reserves. Once all that ki has turned to chakra, you hit a glass ceiling and cannot become any stronger."

"So then how long do we have until we can't go any higher?" Sasuke asked. If this ki stuff ran out now he wouldn't be able to kill Itachi!

"It's only a theory and right now most of the evidence is speculation, but most of the experts say that the conversion rate is very very slow. It could take more than a lifetime for all of it to convert."

"Ki is also in great abundance." Gohan added. "Some of it is apparent right from the start, but most of the ki is hidden deep with in a person as hidden potential. Once they tap that potential, they can become exponentially stronger. I doubt that most shinobi use up all their potential in one life." Kakashi nodded in agreement. He noticed that they had been talking for so long that it was twilight.

"Time to go back." He said, standing up from the log he'd been sitting on. "We have some training to do tomorrow."

"Why, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. "Gohan killed Zabuza didn't he?" The masked jounin sighed. These kids still had a lot to learn.

"I doubt it. Zabuza is one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist. He won't die that easily. Besides, it's better to be safe than sorry right? Now come on. I'm hungry." His tone left no room for argument and the four teenagers followed after the Copy-nin.

And chapter two is finished. Read and review!

Glossary:

Mizu Bunshin no Justu (Water Clone Technique/Skill): The Mist's version of Kage Bunshin. Creates a clone out of water that is capable of attacking. Inferior to Kage Bunshin because it can only go so far from the creator, has only one quarter of the orginal's power, as opposed to half, and needs a source of water nearby for creation, unless the user happens to be the Nidaime Hokage.