Chapter VIII

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Kakashi pulled his headband up, freeing his left eye. "Getting serious already, Kakashi? But then, I doubt you could even stand a chance in a one-on-one fight without your sharingan." Zabuza said, mockingly. "But this isn't a one-on-one fight. You've got those brats slowing you down and an old man to defend. You don't stand a chance."

Sasuke stood frozen. Sharingan? How was that possible? Just then, Kakashi's voice came back to the Uchiha. "You three, protect Tazuna. Let me handle this fight alone."

Naruto responded automatically, "No way!"

"Do not argue with me. We are in a combat situation and I am your superior. Do as I say. Do not interfere."

Zabuza laughed softly. "It seems you've bred these brats with an unusual amount of loyalty. Too bad it will cost them their lives." Suddenly, the shirtless man leaped, landing atop the water, sword at his back. "Ninpou, Hidden Mist no Jutsu," he whispered. Instantly a thick mist rolled forward, obscuring everything. Instinctively, the Konoha genin drew closer together, weapons drawn, backs to Tazuna. A teasing voice drifted out of the mist. "I could kill you in eight ways, though I daresay one would suffice. Which should I use this time?"

Sasuke's hands suddenly began to shake. He felt as if the mist was laced with the nastiest KI he had ever experienced. It was oppressive and weighty, bearing down on him with almost painful intensity. Sasuke knew that he was going to die, right then, before he had even attempted to kill Itachi. The thought of his brother and of his goal steadied him. He must live through this. It was his destiny to kill Itachi. He felt sickened. How could he have imagined that he would die here? He took a firmer grip on the kunai in his hand.

"Don't worry," Kakashi said. "I'll defend you."

"We'll see about that." The voice came right from the middle of the defensive formation. But as soon as they had heard the voice, all four of the genin had whipped around and as one, threw their kunai. Zabuza was on the point of drawing his massive sword when there were four dull thumps. He looked down to see the four kunai sticking out of his chest. "Not bad," he smirked, before dissolving into a puddle of water. A clone.

Cursing, they wheeled around to see Zabuza standing behind their sensei and in the process of swinging his sword up in a huge arc. Naruto just had time to yell "Behind you-!" when the blow fell. Kakashi did not have time to move, so as the blade slashed, he fell to streams of water. His own clone.

Zabuza's eyes widened as he felt a kunai pressed to his throat. "Don't move," Kakashi said. "I have you."

Zabuza smirked. "Are you sure? I know how you stole my water clone jutsu, but don't think you can outmaneuver me." As Kaka tried to slash down at the left side of Zabuza's neck, Zabuza dodged right, underneath the strike, leg snapping out and sending Kakashi flying into the water. As the Jounin landed with a splash, Zabuza appeared behind him, standing on the surface of the water and making signs. As Kakashi struggled up, Zabuza called "Water prison jutsu!" and a swirling sphere of water surrounded the gray-haired Jounin. "Now we'll take care of your so-called ninja team." Zabuza formed a one-handed seal and a water clone rose from the lake.

The clone moved so fast that Naruto did not see it coming and was taken unawares as he received a kick to the face. He reeled back but stayed on his feet. He waited a split second for his eyes to refocus before calling, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" The shadow clones attacked in several waves, the first jumping high and hurling down a rain of shuriken at the clone, which dispelled. As the first wave of clones came down, the second wave leapt up, hurling weapons at the true Zabuza. The eyebrowless man formed a wall of water clones between himself and the attack, getting himself drenched when the flying knives dispelled the clones. He hastily formed another wall of clones as Sasuke joined in, throwing barrages of fireballs from the bank. Through the fireballs came more weapons, thrown by Sakura and Oscar, weapons that hissed as the hot metal was imbedded in the water clones. It was all that Zabuza could do to try and maintain the water prison and keep a wall of clones between himself and the genin. He didn't have a chance to launch an offensive attack as his clones were dispelled no matter what he did. Suddenly, he felt something wrap around his ankles. He looked down in time to see the grinning faces of several of Naruto's shadow clones before they had violently broken his water-walking jutsu, yanking him beneath the surface of the water and forcing him to release his water prison jutsu if he didn't want to drown.

He kicked and fought underwater, dispelling the offending shadow clones before rising to the surface to recreate his water walking technique. He was slightly disoriented, but that was enough. Kakashi struck him from behind, causing Zabuza to fall to his knees and slide forward. He swung around and faced Kakashi, six feet apart from him. He stood up, his hands already forming the first of a string of seals. Horrified and already mostly done with the jutsu, he came to realize that his adversary was copying him, matching him seal for seal. They both released at the same time, shouting "Water Dragon Blast Jutsu!" Two enormous twin dragons blasted from the water, one behind each Jounin. They collided in midair, canceling each other out and causing a deluge of water so thick, that both men were forced to their knees.

Zabuza lunged forward while his vision was still obscured. He brought up his sword and swung down, hoping to end the fight. Kakashi blocked. Evidently he had been able to track the movement. The two were pushed apart again. Kakashi began to imitate Zabuza, able to mimic his every move as he made them. Even able to read the lips, obscured as they were by bandages. Zabuza began to get worried. He realized that he was about to be caught on the wrong end of an explosion and dived away, but not fast enough or far enough. He was slammed into a tree and slumped to the ground.

After a moment of silence, in which everyone tried to comprehend what had happened, all of team seven, including Kakashi, closed in. Kakashi had bent down to check the other man's pulse when two tiny needles flew through the air and with barely a noise, lodged themselves through Zabuza's neck. His eyes came open and he stared blankly, before collapsing onto the ground, limp.

Everyone tilted their heads back, staring for the source of the needles. A Kiri hunter-nin stood on the branch above them. "Look at that," She said innocently. "He's dead. Thanks for the assist. I've been tracking him for weeks, waiting for an opportunity to take him out. I owe you guys." She dropped from the tree, waiting while Kakashi checked the limp man's pulse.

"He really is dead," Kakashi announced, standing up and backing off. Naruto felt decidedly cheated, but he said nothing, watching while the hunter-nin stooped and heaved the body over her shoulder with ill-diguised difficulty.

"Well," she said brightly, if a little breathlessly, "I'd best get his body back to my superiors. Thank you again." She put out one hand to form a seal, but was interrupted when Oscar dashed forward and seized her wrist.

"What are you doing?" He asked quietly. "Are you new at this or something?"

The hunter-nin looked at him. "Not exactly," she said. "Why?"

"Because you're making this harder for yourself than necessary."

"I don't think I understand."

"Well why are you taking the whole body? Anyone can see it's too heavy for you."

"How can you tell?" The hunter-nin asked, curiously.

"Well, your breath is coming harder than before, you're standing bowed over, your words are breathless and I can see that the muscles in your wrist are straining. Why not just take the head?"

"My superiors have asked for the entire body. I'm afraid their reasoning is classified."

Oscar frowned. "That doesn't sound right. "I was told that hunter-nins always take only the head of their quarry and burn the rest of the body on-site."

"This is a special case…"

"Ah," the dark boy's look of confusion cleared. "I know what's wrong. You're lying." Everyone tensed, the hunter-nin not excluded.

"In what way am I lying?" she asked stiffly.

"Well, it's either that or your superiors are not attending to this properly. If they knew that you would have to carry the entire body, they would have sent someone closer to the size of the body. That way, carrying and transporting it would be easier than it will be for you." His fingers tightened around her wrist. "So, like I said, either your superiors weren't thinking straight, or you're lying." The girl twisted her wrist, expertly breaking his grip and hurriedly formed a seal. She was gone in a puff of smoke. Oscar snapped his fingers. "Damn it. Now we'll never know why she wanted him."

Sakura shrugged. "No use crying over spilled milk," she pointed out.

"No," Oscar said thoughtfully. "Nor is there any sense crying over spilled orange juice. Spilled perfume however…well, that stuff was expensive!"

At that point, Kakashi's body, which had been objecting to being made to stand up ever since he had begun in earnest to use the Sharingan, quit working altogether. He collapsed on the path.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura said. The four genin leaned over him. "Is he okay?" Sakura whispered.

"I dunno," Naruto said.

"Try hitting him with a rock," Oscar suggested. Before anyone even had time to sweatdrop, the dark boy had darted off and returned with a large rock, which he proceed to club his sensei over the head with. Kakashi moaned and curled up, clutching his head.

"He's fine," Oscar said, cheerfully. He caught his teammate's looks. "What?"

Kakashi woke up in Tazuna's house. Immediately, Tazuna's daughter Tsunami was standing over him. "Are you alright, sensei?"

Kakashi moaned. "I thought it was just from using the sharingan too much, but I seem to have a blinder of a headache."

Naruto piped up from out of Kakashi's limited range of vision, "Actually, that was Oscar's doing."

"Oh. Smack him for me, would you?"

"No problem," Naruto grinned and left the room. Kakashi closed his eye and listened. He was not disappointed. From elsewhere in the house, he heard a dull slap.

"Ow!" Oscar's voice was raised indignantly. "What was that for?"

Kakashi heard Naruto's voice reply. "'Try hitting him with a rock?'" Naruto reminded him.

"Oh yeah…"

After a day in bed, Kakashi was getting restive. Eventually, he had to get up no matter how his team objected. "No I will not get back in bed," Kakashi said. "Zabuza may still be out there, and I am not going to let you guys fight him again before I train you a little."

"What difference will that make?" Sakura asked.

"Maybe no difference at all, but maybe all the difference in the world," Kakashi replied cryptically.

"Anyway," Sakura continued, "You told us that Zabuza was dead, right? That hunter-nin killed him."

"He may not be dead," Oscar spoke up quietly.

Sakura rounded on him. "What? You kept that quiet?"

"Well, yeah. I wasn't sure if my doubts meant anything, but if sensei is worried, we should be too."

Sasuke stepped forward. "But how could he possibly be alive? He had no pulse."

Oscar waved a dismissive hand. "A good medic-nin could stop a pulse without killing the victim using certain poisons. Perhaps hunter-nins can do the same with senbon."

"I know they can," Kakashi said, grimly. "That's why I need to train you guys before Zabuza comes back. It will take him a little while to recover, but we need to start now."

"Yeah. That sounds great," Naruto said unenthusiastically.

"Try to contain your excitement, Naruto."

Just then, a small boy walked in, his hat pulled low over his eyes. He walked over to hug Tazuna and turned his eyes unlovingly toward the Konoha ninjas. "This is my grandson Inari," Tazuna said, affectionately. "Say hello to the shinobi, Inari, they protected me on my way here.

Inari regarded Naruto, eyes narrowed. Then, when everyone was sure that he wouldn't say anything, Inari spoke. "Leave Wave country. Gatou will kill you if you stay. This isn't your fight."

Naruto put his head on one side. "You're allowed to think that, but you're not going to stop us if all we want to do is help. If we get killed, oh well. Shinobi are killed all the time. Death is better than running away without helping when we know that something's wrong. For the record, though, we're not about to die. Gatou can throw everything he has at us, but it can never be enough. We already came out best in two of his attacks. Don't you think we might be lucky again?"

"Luck doesn't exist for hero-types like you. You'll be killed if you keep going. I'm leaving." Inari walked out, closing the door with a slap behind him.

Silence reigned. Sasuke and Sakura were astonished at how much Naruto had changed since the academy days. Normally, that would have expected Naruto to rise to Inari's bait and yell at the top of his lungs. They closely studied their teammate's face. It held disappointment, resentment, and weariness.

Kakashi stood in the small clearing in the trees behind Tazuna's house, propped up on crutches. "Alright, here's where we start training. I'm going to teach you tree climbing, so I need to say a bit about chakra first."

The members of team seven nodded eagerly, impatient to get started.

"Chakra is, simply put, energy. There are two components to chakra, physical and spiritual, as you know from your training with Jaitan-sensei." He received a round of impatient nods once again. "Well, I know that Jaitan-sensei has been working on chakra control with you, so this is something along those lines. What you have to do is channel chakra to your feet, enough to stick you to the side of the tree. You cannot use your hands. Observe," Kakashi used his crutches to hobble over to the nearest tree. He didn't stop when he reached the tree. Instead, he kept slowly hobbling straight up the tree trunk as if he were still on the ground. When he was standing upside down on the underside of a branch, he stopped, looking down at them. "Think you can do that? The trick is to constantly channel chakra to your feet so they stay stuck. Here," he drew four kunai and tossed them so that they landed at the genin's feet. "Use these to mark your progress on the tree. Go on." Kakashi crutched his way down from the high branch and stood back, watching his team. Three of them set off immediately. Naruto was only able to progress a few steps before his feet slipped off and gravity took hold of him, slamming him to the ground. He got up, undaunted. Sasuke was able to run up the tree a good deal farther than Naruto, but it was still nowhere as high as Kakashi had been. As he felt himself slip, the Uchiha reached down and made a slash in the trunk of the tree, marking his progress. Sakura, however, went straight up the tree, much as her sensei had done, and rammed her kunai into the trunk. She then sat on a high-up branch and called down, rather smug.

"Hey!" the rest of her team looked up. Naruto and Sasuke both seem frustrated that the girl had mastered the exercise before them. Oscar on the other hand…

Hadn't moved since Kakashi had thrown down those kunai. His sensei turned to him. "Oi, Oscar. Get a move on."

The dark boy turned a tortured face to the Jounin. "You want me to climb up there?" he asked, a quaver in his voice.

"Well I know it seems hard, but you'll get it if you-"

But Oscar waved an impatient hand. "I already know tree climbing. I'm not talking about that."

"Then what are you talking about?"

"I mean that," the dark boy pointed at Sakura, perched high above their heads in her tree, legs hanging down. "I don't do heights. Can't you just take my word that I can do it?"

"No. Just climb the tree and I won't make you do it again," the injured man said. "Go on."

Oscar bit his lip. Then he bent down and slowly pulled the kunai from the ground at his feet. He picked a tree and started walking toward it, dragging his feet as if he was heading to his own execution. When he reached the tree, he shut his eyes and set one foot on the trunk, followed by his other foot. Watched by his sensei and his teammates, he walked straight up the tree not pausing and not opening his eyes. When he reached a point a good deal higher than where Sakura sat in her tree, he chanced a glance downwards. He gave and audible gasp and scurried out onto the nearest branch, griping it with arms and legs. He rammed the kunai into the branch in order to cling harder. "Can I come down now?" he asked shakily.

"Sure. I'm convinced," Kakashi said. "You can come down."

There was a silence. "I can't."

Kakashi sighed. "Sakura, can you help Oscar out?"

Sakura stood up on her branch and walked out to the end. With a leap, she landed on a branch on Oscar's tree and walked briskly up the trunk to where her teammate sat, huddled. Naruto did not exactly see how Sakura got Oscar down, as he was too intent on getting higher on his own tree than Sasuke. He gathered from his brief spells on the ground, that it involved much hysterical, illogical argument and many reassurances. He pressed on with his own training.

A/N: arg! school starts tomorrow! Anyway, I think this was an okay stopping point, as I wanted to get this updated today after taking yesterday off. For any of you who have seen that movie Galaxy Quest, I hope you recognized the line I used about the rock. Log I love that movie!

PLEASE HANG IN THERE! THIS FIC WILL GET MUCH LESS BORING AND MORE FUNNY AFTER WAVE ARC! I PROMISE!

In other news, yes Oscar is afraid of heights. Also, I'm afraid that I didn't use that whole clever thing with Naruto henge'ing into a giant shuriken and having Sasuke throw him. Sorry 'bout that, but it just didn't fit. perhaps it can happen in a later fight... Anyway, I think that's it, so see ya! Wish me luck for high school! And to the rest of you starting school tomorrow, Luck ship and shore. Peace!