The three Genin huddled close together in the boat, slowly moving towards shore through the fog. Sakura's voice was barely a whisper of sound, "This fog is thick enough to cut with a kunai. I can't see past the bow of the boat."

Naruto chewed on the inside of her cheek, "Just out of curiosity, how would you rate your blind fighting abilities?"

The pinkette stared at the bottom of the boat between them, "I thought I was good- until I went up against Kakashi-sensei. So... good enough to take on opposing Genin, probably good enough to hamper Chuunin, but I didn't pose anything but a minor annoyance to a Jounin. Anything above that and I'm dead."

"Anything above that and we're all dead." Sasuke corrected.

Naruto gave him a narrow-eyed look, "You are just a bundle of sunshine, aren't you?"

"Just being realistic."

The blonde perched her chin on her fist and stared at him, "Well in the interest of being realistic, we will at least have the vengeful satisfaction of knowing our enemies' victory will be very short-lived and end in a satisfactory smear of gore at that point, ne?"

Every one of the other shinobi in the boat tensed uneasily at the mention of the Kyuubi. Sakura's shoulders dropped, "And you call Sasuke depressing?"

Naruto shrugged, "Just being realistic, right?"

Sakura puffed her cheeks out at the both of them, "I think I'd really rather we were optimistic at this point, thanks."

"Okay, then. We are going to be awesome, defeat an impossible opponent against all odds, and go home the heroes of the nation, with some sort of monument to commemorate our unbelievable achievements." Naruto paused for a minute, then: "Better?"

"Much."

"The Bridge is just ahead, we're close to our destination now."

Kakashi shook his head at his team, turning to their client, "Tazuna-san, there's something we need to talk about. I need to know why there are enemy shinobi after you, otherwise I'm afraid I'm going to have to call this mission complete when we drop you off at shore."

"The man who seeks my life is a very small man who casts a very long, very deadly, shadow."

"At dusk, even a small man casts a long shadow." Sakura said sagely.

Sasuke nodded before pulling out a kunai, "Shinobi fight in the depths of night."

"There are no shadows in the darkness." Naruto finished. She glanced over at their startled client before turning back to her team mates. The reasons didn't really matter to her at this point, she'd made a vow to herself that she'd see this mission through to the end. She wasn't going to return home a failure- she'd sooner return in a casket. She didn't have the attention to focus on the past when they had future enemies to consider. "Sakura, you know any offensive Earth Style Jutsu? Earth beats Water, and given our last two enemies came from Kiri..."

"Uh, no, not exactly. Sorry, it wasn't much of a concern for me at the time. My chakra reserves are practically non-existent, learning an offensive countermeasure to Water Style techniques wasn't on the list at all. I know Earth Spikes, but it's not that much different from your root version, Naru."

Sasuke shook his head, "It's not like any of us expected to be going up against enemies like this on a C-Rank. We need to focus on what we can do, then, and perfect it."

Naruto's head snapped up, "Sakura, do you know any offensive Earth Style Jutsu?"

"We just went over this, I-"

"No, I know you don't have the chakra; did you learn any of them anyway, despite knowing you wouldn't be able to use them?"

The other girl frowned at her, "I don't..." Her eyes lit up as she got it, then she shook her head, "No. But... I wonder. I bet, more chakra applied to the Earth Burrow Jutsu..."

Sasuke glowered at the bottom of the boat, "Fire Style is going to be useless in all this cloud soup."

Naruto's gaze went to the fog and the water beyond it, "Not necessarily... Kaachan always said if you couldn't make it with skill, the only choice is to compensate with power."

Sakura wasn't convinced, "That's all well and good, Naru, but if we end up going up against a too-strong opponent..."

She beamed over at the other girl comfortingly, "Hey, we didn't beat Kakashi-sensei by being stronger than him, right?"

"Did you catch that?"

The girls both looked at Sasuke, "No, what?"

"Builders have been leaving because of the attacks."

Sakura's head whipped around to their client, "Will we even have enough workers to complete the bridge?"

The weathered old man sighed, "At this point? It's hard to say."

Naruto frowned, "I can supply Shadow Clones to make up the difference. They wouldn't know any of the intricacies, but as more bodies for menial things, they'll work."

"The shore's just ahead."

They all turned forward as their destination came into sight, the land -so much as it was- beyond the stone wall completely different from the mist-filled waters they left behind them. Naruto's eyes widened and her team mates had to hold on the back of her jacket to keep her from falling out of the boat as she leaned out to better see the most amazing trees she'd ever laid eyes on.

"What kind of trees are those? I have to know. Just look at them. What an outstanding root system, raising them above the water like that... Excuse me, are we at low tide?"

Sakura pointed towards the houses, "We can't be, look there. The houses would be underwater at high tide if we were."

Their escort smiled at them, "Actually, yes, we are. The houses are built on floating platforms. They raise and lower with the tide."

Naruto turned back out to the view, "Fascinating. The roots must be completely submerged at high tide, but hold the trunk and branches above the water-level at low tide." She leaned over the boat again, though not to the extent of forcing her team mates to rescue her, and stared deeply at the cerulean tide, "...I wonder at the salinity of this water." And so saying, she reached down and scooped up a palmful of water into her mouth as Sakura face-palmed.

"Naruto, you can't just do that. Who knows what impurities are in that water?"

The blonde shrugged, "Doesn't matter. I've got an iron stomach thanks to what's inside of it."

And once again the levity in the atmosphere died a swift death at the reminder that she was carrying the bane of the Leaf Village in her gut. Their escort -their smuggler- dropped them on the pier with a farewell and 'try not to end up dead' before taking off. They turned and made their way away from the port and towards the forest separating them from Tazuna's home town. Naruto moved forward, Sasuke and Sakura falling into step with her, and felt a shiver go down her spine.

Feels like someone just walked over my grave... Hope I don't have reason to discover where it is on this trip...

She took a deep breath echoed by the rest of her cell, and the journey began.

Naruto wasn't sure what it was that made her stop in place. What it was that sent alarm bells ringing in her mind. It felt like... like she was being watched, watched with malicious intent. It was just like being back in the village again. So she acted on an instinct that had saved her from beatings before in the past. The kunai shot out to her left and her team was instantly on alert.

"Naruto?"

Kakashi took his cue from both Sakura and Sasuke going tense. They apparently trusted Naruto's senses, and he'd trust his Genin. He moved toward the underbrush where Naruto had tossed her blade and pushed it aside, revealing- a white rabbit.

Naruto was there in an instant, "Oh no! I'm sorry, little bunny, I'm sorry! Sakura?"

The pinkette let out a relieved sigh and knelt next to her, "It looks like it's just a little... shocked-" or utterly petrified because it was nearly skewered "-but I think it'll be just fine."

They all went on instant alert when Kakashi-sensei tensed and turned away, "Everybody down!" Their bodies reacted before their minds could interfere, Genin trained to obey their Jounin superiors until it was an automatic response. Sakura and Naruto, already knelt on the ground, lowered their bodies further and braced themselves. Sasuke grabbed their client and threw them both to the ground. Kakashi crouched in place, ducking low.

They had responded just in time as an enormous, cleaver-like blade soared just over their heads before imbedding itself deeply into the trunk of a tree. They stood up and Naruto turned towards where the sword rested in the tree, forcing her breathing not to hitch at the sight of the Shinobi perched upon the handle of the blade like it was the most natural and comfortable position in the world.

Those dark eyes pinned her in place and Naruto fought off the urge to shake like a leaf in the wind. The malevolence she'd sensed like a creeping taint; it had come from him.

Kakashi-sensei took a step forward closer to the enemy ninja, putting himself between the shinobi and Naruto and drawing his attention, "Well, if it isn't Zabuza Momochi, Missing Nin from the Hidden Mist village."

"Copy Ninja Kakashi Hatake, also known as Kakashi of the Sharingan- did I get that right?"

Sharingan? But isn't that...? Naruto glanced over at Sasuke, noting the slight tremble in his limbs as his ebony gaze bored into their sensei. The Uchiha bit the inside of his cheek and looked back at her, and without word or signal, Naruto knew they'd be talking about this later.

"It's a shame, huh?" Their attention was forcibly dragged back to the enemy shinobi, "But you'll have to hand over the old man."

It was part training, part instinct, that had all the Genin reacting, Naruto placing herself squarely in front of their client, Sasuke on her left and Sakura on her right.

Kakashi's smirk was visible through his mask, "I will, will I? You know what they say about being handed things you haven't worked for, right? It instills a sense of laziness and lack of work ethic."

Zabuza's caused his own bandages to move, "Far be it for us Missing Nin to be accused of lacking work ethic."

"I knew you'd see things my way." Kakashi reached up and pushed up his eye-hiding Hitai-ate, revealing a crimson orb with three tomoe.

"So that's the famous Sharingan, huh? The legendary eye that can see an opponent's technique and then copy it down to the smallest detail... I feel honored." Zabuza and his massive sword disappeared.

Naruto glanced around warily as they were engulfed in mist. A rolling fog bank. She hoped Sakura and Sasuke had taken their earlier talk about fighting in poor visual conditions seriously.

"As for you, Jounin, in the Assassination Unit of the Hidden Mist, we had standing orders to destroy you on sight. Your profile was in our Bingo Book, it called you... 'The man who had copied over a thousand Jutsu'. Kakashi, the Copy Ninja."

"Stay back and protect Tazuna, under no circumstances are you to engage Zabuza if it's at all possible to avoid, do I make myself clear?"

Their voices rose in a three-person harmony from their three-point formation around their client, "Right!"

The mist shifted enough for them to catch sight of Zabuza beyond Kakashi- standing on the water. Naruto wondered if that could be learned by anyone, or if it was a Kiri secret. The enemy Jounin raised one hand in the air and the other to form a Seal reminiscent of the Seal of Confrontation, "Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu." Water particles swirled up around his body and the mist thickened even further, shrouding everything in fog.

Naruto shifted, leaning back and feeling her team do the same until they touched shoulders. She had never even heard of someone being able to do that. That technique had a whole lot more refinement and power than Sakura's Sulphur Smoke Jutsu, like a finely honed blade compared to a rock. Just who were they dealing with?!

"Zabuza Momochi." Kakashi-sensei answered as if he'd read her mind, "The Ex-Leader of the Assassination Unit of the Village Hidden in the Mist, and a master of the Silent Killing technique."

Not only were they dealing with a Jounin, they were dealing with an Ex-Commander. Naruto tensed.

"I thought I was good- until I went up against Kakashi-sensei. So... good enough to take on opposing Genin, probably good enough to hamper Chuunin, but I didn't pose anything but a minor annoyance to a Jounin. Anything above that and I'm dead."

"Anything above that and we're all dead." Sasuke corrected.

Answering another question she hadn't asked, Kakashi-sensei continued on, "As the name suggests, Silent Killing happens in an instant, without sound or warning of any kind. It's so fast that you pass from this life without realizing what has happened."

Naruto smiled, "Don't even realize it, huh? Well, I can think of worse ways to die."

"There you go: Always look at the bright side. If we fail, we only lose our lives."

"How can you say that?!" Sakura shouted.

Her blonde team mate grinned at her, "Take it easy, Sakura-chan. At least it's not like the fate of the village rests on us or something, right?"

It was easy to talk- Naruto found it harder to keep quiet. When she felt nervous, when she was afraid, it was natural to talk it out. She was good at talking, could convince even Shikamaru to do something he thought was stupid if she really put some effort into it. She had never liked the quiet. The sounds of the birds in the trees, the wind whistling through her garden, the household waking up; all of it was comfort. Silence was unnatural, it spoke of danger.

Mist was silent. It clouded sight, it muffled sound; Naruto hated it. Tenseness, waiting, none of that was for her. She was a Kunoichi of doing things. Anything: Setting traps, making plans, talking; anything but being still and silent. This wasn't her place.

"Eight points."

Sakura shook, pressing closer to her team mates, "What's that?"

"Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart."

Naruto shook her head, stilling the trembling of her hand, "Awful chatty for a master of the Silent Killing technique, isn't he?"

Zabuza's laughter echoed through the mist, "Now, which will be my kill-point?"

Naruto couldn't help it: she could not keep her mouth shut, "Really? The liver? That's such an awkward spot, tucked up into and protected by the bottom of the ribcage. Wouldn't the common iliac artery be a far better choice?"

"Naruto!" Sakura's voice cut right through the mist scoldingly, "Could you kindly stop giving the enemy tips on how best to kill us?!"

She couldn't even apologize. Maybe Sakura didn't feel it, maybe she couldn't, but Naruto could. They were caught in the claws of a predator, for whom their lives meant nothing. Forgive her if she dealt with her anxiety through talking. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, "Seven points."

"Hmm?"

"Eyes, nose, throat, kidneys, groin, knees, instep." She took another breath and opened her eyes again, "You told us your points, it only seems right to return the favor. Those are mine."

Zabuza's laugh taunted them, "Oh, I like you, you're going to be fun to play with, aren't you?"

They could see Kakashi-sensei's arms move from behind, but not what he did with them. There was a pulse -no, a vortex- of chakra, and the area immediately surrounding them cleared of mist as it was pushed back. Naruto stared in awe. Could she do that? Her training was progressing, could she push back the mist like that with sheer chakra? And she had some seeds of a desert scrub that could probably drink in all the mist- more-so if the mist was chakra-fed.

Something in the air changed, a feeling, a weight descending upon them all, that choked the very breath from her lungs and made her stagger back against her friends. Wh-what is this? She'd felt nothing like this with the Chuunin they'd fought. That had gone too quick. This... they weren't being treated as a real threat yet, it was as that Jounin had said: he was playing with them.

All those years of training, gone to waste. Their tag battles, pointless. There was not a training situation possible that ever could have prepared them for this. Naruto trembled as she pressed back against her friends, her team mates. Sasuke was shaking, too, Sakura certainly no better, and Naruto hated herself just a little in that moment. She bit her cheek. Pointless! All that training- pathetic. All that work, all those years, and I can't even... I can't move. Her body wouldn't listen to her. She was held in place by the instinctual terror a mouse felt in the shadow of a hawk.

She glared at her hand. Move. Nothing changed, she stood still, trembling just as badly. I have to- Move! Her family flashed through her mind: Tousan smiling down at her and petting her hair, Ino-nee hugging her tightly and calling her sister... her mother's pained form leaning over her with a dai shuriken sticking from her back as she said she'd always love her no matter what. She couldn't let them down, she couldn't let Sakura and Sasuke down. If they didn't pull themselves together, Tazuna was going to end up dead, they were all going to end up dead.

Move! Her pinky finger twitched. Her hand slowly responded, inching closer to her face. "I... will not... give in!" The fleshy crunch of her teeth sinking deep into her hand made her team flinch, but Sasuke took his cue from her, turning his kunai around and digging it into the upper portion of his thigh until it drew blood. Naruto couldn't turn around and see Sakura, but she smelled the pinkette's blood on the air with Sasuke's and her own. The base sensation of pain washed the paralyzing terror away.

"I'm proud of you." Kakashi eye-smiled over his shoulder at them, "Even in this situation, you guys aren't giving up, huh? Don't worry so much, though, I won't let my comrades die, that's a promise."

"I wouldn't be so sure."

Another flash of ice-water rushed through her veins. That voice, it's coming from... Naruto didn't have to look behind her to know their enemy had slipped cleanly past their guard without any of them ever realizing.

Zabuza's breath nearly tickled her ear as he spoke, "It's over."

And then she felt familiar chakra wrapping around her own and a squeezing sensation she was more than experienced with. Without even a puff of smoke, she found herself Substituted with Kakashi-sensei, the sound of a blade piercing flesh sickening. Numbly, her mind continued on without her input. Or maybe the liver isn't such an inconvenient spot after all... But that liquid splash, that didn't sound like blood. Naruto knew, she would never forget the sound of it pouring out to soak the ground from the day before. That couldn't be blood, it wasn't nearly viscous enough, and it didn't smell like it, either.

Naruto turned around just in time to see 'Zabuza' turn dissolve into water, the real Zabuza directly behind their teacher, "DIE!"

For the second time in as many days, Naruto watched her sensei cleaved to pieces. It barely registered, and she wondered if she was getting used to seeing the people she cared about die. Then Kakashi turned to water as well and her perception tilted dangerously.

"See underneath the underneath."

"Trust me."

"I will not let my comrades die."

She needed to stop seeing things with her eyes alone and start trusting her team to do what they did best. Then... she would, too. Her hand slipped into one of her pouches while the Jounin were both distracted.

Kakashi appeared at Zabuza's back, a kunai held to the Mist-nin's throat, "Now it's over."

Naruto was really beginning to hate that man's laughter. He chuckled gleefully, "You don't get it, do you? Your techniques are just crass imitations. I'll never be taken down by a mere copy-cat like you." And he dissolved into water.

Storm blue eyes narrowed. Is this how annoying it is to fight me when I'm using Shadow Clones?

Their enemy appeared behind Kakashi-sensei again and swung his zanbatou, the Leaf Jounin crouching to avoid the decapitating strike, and the sword imbedded itself deep into the ground. Zabuza wasted no time in switching his grip on the handle of his blade and using it to add momentum and force to the lightning-fast kick he landed on Kakashi's jaw, sending him flying through the air- and into the lake.

The missing-nin went after their teacher, skidding to a stop before the makibishi spikes Naruto had pulled from her pouch and scattered on the ground when Kakashi had Substituted with her.

Naruto gritted her teeth, her trap had done nothing more than slow him down- and that not by much. She was beginning to question the effectiveness of using traps at all with how much good they'd done her going up against Jounin as she had. It just wasn't as valid a tactic as she'd hoped it would be back in the Academy.

Kakashi pushed back to the surface, eyes widening on the water as Zabuza flashed next to him, standing on the surface, and ran through Hand Seals, "Water Prison Jutsu!"

"No!" That amount of panic in their sensei's voice could never be a good thing.

Again Zabuza chuckled- that part of Naruto's mind that just would not shut up wondering if he forced himself to get as much entertainment out of the little things because life as a Missing-nin lacked the comforts of basic interactions like joking with one's comrades. It was bad when her inane mental chatter managed to annoy herself, too. "This prison may be made of water, but it's stronger than steel. Hard to escape when you can't move around, huh?"

Naru knew her team mates would be thinking the same thing: no chance to escape or rescue him with a Substitution Jutsu, then, if the water was so saturated with his chakra. This was the epitome of what Kakashi-sensei had been trying to teach her for weeks: to have such control over her own chakra when diluted into the water that she could do things like this. The control, the form, it showed just how enormous the gap was between even prodigious Genin and an experienced Jounin that knew what he was doing.

"So much for the great Kakashi. I'll finish you off later, but first, your little friends will have to be eliminated." He made a half Seal with one hand, "Water Clone Jutsu."

Naruto fisted her injured hand and jumped back, her team reforming around Tazuna, "Sakura, is it even possible to do Jutsu with only one hand?"

Sasuke, dour as ever, grunted from beside her, "Well he just did it, didn't he?"

The other girl's voice shook, "I-I suppose. It'd take extreme chakra control, though."

Eyes matching the color of the water encasing their teacher took in the liquid prison. Yeah, I don't think chakra control is an issue with this guy.

"Listen!" They all turned to Kakashi, "I want you all to take Tazuna and run. So long as Zabuza has me captive here, he can't move or the Jutsu will break, and the Water Clone can't go far from the water source that spawned it. He's far too powerful for any of you! Return to the village, get back-up, that's an order!"

Naruto shook her head, "We can't do that... We can't! Shinobi who break the rules and disobey orders are scum, but those who abandon their friends and comrades are lower than scum."

Zabuza laughed at them, " 'Shinobi' you say. Look at you: children shivering in terror. You put on those headbands and play at being ninja, but that's all you're doing: playing. Real ninja have been on the edge between this world and the next so many times that it doesn't even faze them. Death is an old friend to real ninja, every action teetering on the brink. That's what it means to be a ninja."

Naruto's eyes were hidden by her bangs, "Is it? Is that really all there is to being a shinobi? Death and slaughter? To just keep on killing until there's nothing left, until death loses its meaning... Is that what it means to be a ninja? Because if it is... then I don't want to be a ninja."

Sakura gasped, Sasuke's head whipped around to stare at her, "Naruto?"

"I saw his eyes, as he died. And I know now. All the memories I've made, all the experiences I've gone through, all the bonds I've built up over the years; they had just as many, and they're gone now. I would do whatever I have to to protect my precious people again, even if it means death. But I don't ever want to become that cold, that someone else's life ending means nothing to me." Her hand tightened around the kunai, "So, either I have to stop being a ninja-" her head raised, piercing blue eyes on Zabuza's Water Clone, "-or I'll just have to change what it means to be a ninja!"

Sakura shook her head, Sasuke smirking at his team mate. "Apathy towards death, endless power; that isn't what being a shinobi is to us. Protecting those close to you..."

"Defending those who can't stand up for themselves." Sakura continued.

"Building your dreams from the ground up with hard work and effort, with your friends and family."

All three Genin fell into a closer defensive stance, "That is what being a shinobi means to me!"

Naruto's hands shot out to both of her team mates' free hands and flashed through separate seals on each side. Sakura and Sasuke's voices called out at almost the same time.

"Earth Style: Premature Burial!"

"Fire Style: Fire Surround!"

Naruto stomped her foot into the ground, hard, and the earth reacted like it was a great mud puddle, spikes -of... roots?- shooting up to try and skewer the Zabuza clone. The clone jumped back, unable to keep his eyes on the trio of Genin and the bridge builder -who disappeared below ground he knew not where- as a ring of eight large fireballs surrounded them, hiding them further. The fireballs spun quickly, turning into one grand ring of flames, then bloomed outward, swallowing everything in fire.

The Zabuza clone jumped over the rapidly expanding blaze, the heat searing even in the misted air- and burning off most of the mist as it went.

"Sakura, now!"

There was a moment of silence as the Genin obviously went through the Seals for whatever technique they were planning, then the little pinkette's voice rang out, "Earth Style: Earth Spikes!" The entire area between the young shinobi and the lake rippled like a liquid with a heavy stone dropped into it from on high. There was a rumble, then the ground exploded in movement, great earthen pillars rising up from every direction, some leaning precariously and some straight as they reached for the sky, even the shortest ones at least five yards overhead.

The small blonde's voice sounded out over the new battlefield, "Let's go wild!"

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I am absolutely evil enough to cut the chapter off here and leave the battle part for next time~

XXX