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'Ha!' Sakura thought derisively. 'Sword my foot! More like giant meat cleaver!'

Sakura looked up to see a strange grey man standing on the piece of metal that just almost took off her head and recognized him immediately.

'Momochi Zabuza,' she thought, eyes narrowing. This man was dangerous. So dangerous that even her sister wouldn't be able to defeat him easily.

They didn't stand a chance.

Helping Tazuna up, she halfheartedly listened to her sensei's introduction but instead thought of a plan that would help. Kakashi must have been strong if he was a jōnin, but her and her teammates, including Tazuna-san would just get in his way if he had to fight for Zabuza's defeat and try and protect them all. From the corner of her eye, she saw her blond teammate about to rush forward but the pink haired girl knocked him down harshly, glaring at him for his stupidity.

"Don't be an idiot right now, Naruto," she said to him seriously. "Do you honestly think you of all people could take on someone of Kaka-sensei's level?"

The blond looked properly chastised and she turned back to Kakashi and Zabuza, slightly surprised when she saw that the silver haired man's headband was up. She couldn't really see much because he was facing forward, but she had a feeling at the back of her mind that she knew what he hid on a daily basis.

"-Copy Ninja Kakashi," she caught. Wait, what? Copy Ninja? She knew that name! How could she not! It was in every single Bingo Book her sister had made her memorize! The guy had a bounty of over two hundred million ryō on his head and was rumored to be able to take on even the Raikage and survive!

Hold up! Did that mean that her sensei, the lazy, mean and sarcastic jackass that he was, was actually one of the most famous shinobi in the world?!

'Well, put me in a dress and call me Mei,' Sakura thought, shocked beyond belief. 'I'll be damned!'

That would mean that Kakashi was actually hiding the Sharingan all this time! She was such a fool! How could she not have remembered the tell-tail flyaway hair even if he was in his ANBU attire in the photo?

Stupid, that was what she was.

"Don't worry," Kakashi declared reassuringly, as if he could read her minds. "I'll protect you all with my life!"

"Enough talk," Zabuza stated impaitently. "Now we fight." He was irritated for the fight to end, and with a force which amazed even Sasuke, he hefted up Kubikiribōchō his shoulder quite easily.

Yes, enough talk, it was time to act.

"Doton: Doroku Gaeshi!" Sakura called out, slamming her gloved palms to the ground, and after a bit of rumbling that drew everyone's attention, a large defensive earth wall appeared in front of the four, blocking their view of the fight.

"Good thinking Sakura," they heard Kakashi's voice sound from the other side. "You guys should stay out of this."

"Where did you learn this?" Sasuke asked, sounding a tad bit envious.

"That doesn't matter right now," Sakura instructed in a serious voice. "I have a feeling that with two legendary ninja fighting, it's going to be rough. This wall isn't perfect and I'm sure that someone like Zabuza could destroy it without much effort, but it'll protect us from most attacks and debris. Just please be on your guard. Tazuna-san, it would be much easier for us if you sat down since you're taller than us."

The old man listened and Team 7 got into a defensive stance. Sakura had allowed a small hole when forming the wall so they could see what was going on, and at the moment, it was very intense.

The pink haired girl would have preferred it if she could have done the Doryūheki again but she didn't have the chakra for that. Well technically she did; her reserves weren't even halfway that, but who knows what could happen. She would rather conserve it, thank you very much.

"Looks like I'll have to deal with you first, Kakashi," Zabuza proclaimed before disappearing, much to the surprise of the group behind the wall and reappearing on the lake, one arm up with two fingers straight in front of his mouth as if he was creating some type of seal.

They watched as the air around them suddenly became thinner and the temperature descend rapidly.

"He's gathering a high-concentration of chakra at high-speed!" Sakura exclaimed worried. "He's preparing for a very powerful jutsu!"

"Kirigakure no Jutsu!" He called out before disappearing, leaving only a single leaf to fall onto the water.

Everyone watched surprised as the area suddenly became engulfed by a thick mist so heavy that one couldn't even see five feet ahead.

"This mist is getting thicker and thicker!" Naruto declared, pointing out the obvious.

"Nami no Kuni is surrounded by the ocean," Tazuna explained seriously, "and because of that, we're often subjected to such types of weather."

"No, that's not it," Sasuke corrected bluntly. "This mist isn't natural. It's chakra-generated."

"Kaka-sensei disappeared," the pink haired girl remarked, prompting everyone else to grow silent in apprehension.

"It's fine," Sasuke said trying to still remain calm. "Obviously he knows what he's doing."

It was silent awhile, everyone looking around and shifting nervously, not once dropping their guard.

Sakura had to wonder what they had gotten themselves in when the accepted to continue the mission. It wasn't that she wanted to quit, oh no, but this wasn't her first life or death situation (she had experienced tons of those) but the thing was, was her team really ready for this type of thing? Luna had warned her that missions could change in a spilt second but she had never really contemplated the dangers of a sudden change of plans.

The atmosphere was tense, and it seemed the silence would engulf them all but what she heard next made her wish that the silence never ended in the first place.

"Eight Points," an ominous voice cut through the stillness, startling everyone around her. "Larynx, Spine, Lungs, Liver, Jugular, Subclavian Artery, Kidneys, Heart…Hmm…so many choices. But which one should I choose…?"

'Yep,' she thought smirking despite herself. 'We're in some deep shit now.'

"W-what's he talking about?" Naruto asked nervously.

They were silent for a while, the blonds bright blue eyes looking at them anxiously before his black haired team mate turned his hard onyx eyes to him, staring him straight in the eyes.

"He's deciding where he wants to land the final and fatal strike," the Uchiha spat out as if he was utterly disgusted with how weak the human body actually was. "If he gets you in any of those places, you're dead in less time than it takes you to blink."

Naruto blinked, before widening eyes comically. He finally understood what was at stake when he decided to become a ninja. Kakashi was right, it really wasn't all fun and games.

Because one little mistake, could cost him his life.

It was a while, but eventually the mist started to clear up again, and the saw Kakashi sstanding there with his hand in some type of seal which they could not recognize.

"Can you feel that bloodlust?" Asked Sasuke, shaking slightly. "It's so prominent that it makes you want to take your own life." Sasuke breathed, already turning his kunai in on himself.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried, worried about her teammate. "Calm down!"

Yes, she could feel the bloodlust, and she too was terrified but she was doing her best to hold it in. She knew from the bottom of her heart that Kakashi would protect them with his life.

Suddenly, before anyone could react, Zabuza had appeared in front of her wall eye peering in menacingly then BAM! The whole thing was destroyed by his sword, leaving only a little under half of it left.

"What the-?!" Naruto exclaimed shocked, stumbling back in surprise but before anybody could do anything further, Kakashi had intercepted him, kunai in the demon's stomach.

They expected to see blood but instead they were greeted with the sight of water dripping down and a smirking Zabuza in front of them.

"A water clone! But then, where's the real Zabuz-" but the as if to answer her question, another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi as soon as the water clone fell to the ground destroyed.

"DIE!" The bandaged man shouted slicing Kakashi in half with his blade.

"Sensei!" Naruto cried only to see their teacher fall to the floor in a puddle. Actually, Sakura was pretty surprised. She half expected him to pull another Kawarimi on them

'He must've copied it with the Sharingan earlier,' Sakura thought to herself, more than impressed with her lazy teacher. 'Kaka-sensei is amazing! Even in this thick mist he can still do it!'

Looking to her right, she saw that even Sasuke was surprised. No surprise there, anyway.

'How?' Zabuza thought, taken aback. 'When the hell did he even have time to copy my jutsu?! I created this thick mist so that he couldn't see anything! Is the Sharingan that clear?'

It was surprising though, the mist was now so thick that no one could even see past their noses. Suddenly, Zabuza felt a sharper knife to his neck and froze, not moving an inch.

"It's over," Kakashi's menacing voice rang out.

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted happily, fist pumping in the air. "You rock Kakashi-sensei!"

Sakura and Sasuke on the other hand took the time to actually think. Kakashi was good, but not that good and Sakura doubted that even he could end a fight with the Demon of the Mist so fast.

Something wasn't right…

Then suddenly Zabuza started laughing. A deep bone chilling laugh which made shivers run through the spectators' bodies.

'I knew it!' Sakura thought to herself. Clearly Zabuza was much stronger than he seemed.

"Do you really think it would be that easy to take me down?" Zabuza exclaimed, still laughing loudly then shocking everyone. "Why, you underestimate me! But good job, really! At one point you even managed to get me to take you seriously!"

He turned around and stabbed Kakashi right in the heart, yet once more, the silver haired jōnin turned to water.

"Yes, you really are the Copy Ninja as they say!" Zabuza declared before he quickly picked up his broad sword and swung it at the jōnin who ducked, making the sword fly right over him and landing buried in the ground.

Before he even had time to recover though, The swordsman leaned back for support and launched a fierce kick at his opponent, who back flipped a few times before landing on the water. Zabuza wasted no time, wrenching out his sword and following after the plotting ninja, but he came to an abrupt stop when he was almost skewered by a group of spikes that suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Hah! You thought you could get me with Makibishi Spikes?!" The grey man shouted, now getting angry at his opponents underestimation of his skills. "Who do you think I am?!"

Kakashi remained silent and instead tried taking a step forward, only to find that the water was dense and heavy.

'That's odd…' he thought, lifting his foot with great difficulty.

Then it all happened so fast that none of the genin could keep up.

Zabuza moved onto the lake in a flash, hands already moving quickly for the required handsigns. "Suiton: Suirō no Jutsu!" He called out and Kakashi's eye widened, understanding the rogue-nin's plan.

"Bad idea coming to the water," he mumbled just before he was encased by a big round ball of water.

Sakura and the others watched in horror from the sidelines, wondering what they were to do and if they were ever to live and see another day.

'What are we going to do?!' Sasuke thought panicking inwardly. 'It's us next!'

"Ha!" Zabuza boasted arrogantly, smirking so widely that you could see the outline of his teeth underneath the cloth. "Seems like you're not so great after all, huh?! I'll finish you off later. First though, I need to get rid of these brats of yours." He formed a seal with his other hand.

Everyone watched in fear as a clone rose up from a puddle of water, looking extremely menacing.

'One hand!' Naruto thought surprised. The blond had never seen anything like it. This Zabuza dude, whoever he was, was actually pretty cool! If you took away the fact that he was trying to kill them.

Sakura on the other hand was just wondering what the hell they were going to do. Well, it was obvious what they needed to do, question was, how would they do it. Momochi Zabuza was no push over, that was for sure, and she was sure that a couple of basic plans wouldn't even get him to lift a finger with effort. But if they didn't at least try then they would all be dead, like Sasuke said, in less time than it took to blink.

Honestly, what did they sign up for?

"Tch, you guys are a disgrace," she heard the man in question scoff, sounding more than repulsed. "You call yourselves ninja? In my day, you would even last three seconds!" The clone declared before disappearing and then suddenly appearing in front of them, kicking Naruto with enough force to send him flying many feet away.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, worried for her teammate.

But there was no time to ponder about his well being. From the corner of her eye, she noticed a fist flying towards her face. Sakura used a speed she didn't even know she possessed and quickly jumped out of the way, because surely that would most probably knock her head off and send it flying all the way back to Konoha with the speed the fist was travelling at.

What she did next was completely stupid and retarded, and if it did not work, could result in all their deaths. Her sister had told her not to use it unless it was extremely necessary because she did had not fully mastered it, and if she performed it wrong, well, they would all be crushed. But it would buy them some time to think of a plan whilst Zabuza was trying to escape from it. Not that it would hold long.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed her blond teammate shakily getting up and her black eyed teammate was also plotting something in his head. Yes, it would work. Hopefully, anyway. She would take her opportunity now when the clone was distracted or else she wouldn't get another chance.

"Doton: Retsudo Tenshō," the pink haired girl whispered.

Everyone was surprised when the ground suddenly decided to break and spiral on itself, and Zabuza, who didn't expect the girl to know such a jutsu, was left vulnerable to the technique, but not completely.

"Shit!" The clone and its owner cried at the same time as the watched the fake Zabuza fall inside the whole and be crushed, water flowing out the cracks.

Sakura allowed a self satisfied smirk momentarily grace her face before quickly grabbing Sasuke and Tazuna and rushing to their now fully conscious teammate.

"I have a plan!" She and Sasuke exclaimed at the same time.

Kimimaro wasn't exactly sure whether or not his caretaker was in the right mind at the moment. Watching her set paper after paper on fire with a sadistic grin on her face made one wonder if the white haired girl was sane. It had been going on for some time now too. Two days actually, if he remembered correctly. Not that he actually ever forgot anything.

All he knew was that it had started with a very suspicious looking letter.

"Well pardon me Mei, if I do not want to go to your inauguration after you literally stabbed me in the stomach not even two weeks ago and left me to die! That is the third time you try and plan my demise. Yes, I know that I may have tried to kill you a few times, but that does not mean you have to do the same!"

The white haired boy raised an eyebrow a fraction of an inch, hinting at how surprised he actually was to hear this news.

Yes, he was aware of Luna's and Mei's differences, but he had only found out later because the day they had found him in mist, they had put aside their heated rivalry for a short period of time. Maybe that was why Lu-chan had come home with a giant hole in her stomach the other day. Yes, the yellow eyed girl was angry but only for a few days, so Kimimaro thought nothing of it.

But it had started again when one of the servants brought her an official looking scroll on Tuesday. Which was as he had stated before, exactly two days ago. And to make things worse, perhaps for Terumī Mei's own amusement even, the same document kept being given to Luna almost every hour! And since the servants were such thorough workers, they never rejected an official looking document, no matter how many times it came in.

Personally, Kimimaro wasn't used to this servants' thing anyway. Yes, when he was still with his clan he had them, or more like acted like one, so he didn't have much experience. He had seen how his father was waited on left right and center though. Luna it seemed didn't like them much either, despite her social status judging by the one time his guardian had almost attacked a maid who had quietly entered her bedroom to do the bed.

From that day on, no worker could even look at her without being glared at.

She even ranted about she couldn't even "take a crap without being waited on". Her words, not his, surprising as it sounded.

Either, they wouldn't be staying for much longer. They had only made a pit stop of one of her family's many holiday homes.

"Kimimaro," Luna spat out. "I have a mission for you."

Never mind, maybe they would be here for more time than necessary.

"Go find me Kenji," Luna instructed firmly. "I'm sure he'll be more than a satisfactory replacement. You gentlemen will both return here together when you find him. Also, when you arrive, make sure to give this report to Nii-sama. He will be curious about our doings and whereabouts. Do not tell him about the situation or he will refuse. You leave now."

And Kimimaro could only spare his Lu-chan one last worried glance before nodding his head in understanding and standing up from his place on her right hand.

He just hoped that his Lu-chan wouldn't burn down the manor before he arrived back. Kami knew that she was thinking it.

It was time. And hopefully, it would work out.

Vaguely, Sakura wondered if Kakashi was still alive or if he had drowned in there, because he sure was being silent. She and her team didn't have much time to plan, if one could call less than five minutes a long time and they had left Tazuna with a Naruto clone to protect him. Now it was time to commense with the plan.

"Well, well, not bad, Pinky," the real Zabuza said, creating another clone, no different from the last. "Not bad at all. It seems you have some serious potential."

"Pinky?" Sakura shouted in frustration. "Why does everyone call me that?! Ugh!"

"Sakura, now is not the time to be caring about some stupid nickname," Sasuke told her blunty to which she glared at him. "Your hair is pink. Deal with it."

"Shut up temē," Naruto shot, trying to defend Sakura's 'honor' as he called it. "No one wanted to hear your opinion anyway."

"Yeah, well, I gave it anyway," Sasuke retorted hotly, making Sakura grow red with fury. "She needed a reality check if she's too stupid enough not to see that her hair is pink."

"Hey! Who are you calling stupid, you jackass!?" Sakura screamed. "I'm not the one with the chicken ass shaped hair. Actually, maybe I'll start calling you 'Sasgay'! Who knows how much time you spend on your 'glossy tresses' that every girl in the academy would fawn over!"

Sasuke was also getting mad now. They needed to concentrate on the plan!

"HAHA!" Naruto said, laughing and wiping a tear away. "Good one Sakura-chan! Sasgay! Haha! Why didn't I think of that?"

The Uchiha in question immediately rounded on him.

"Because you're too retarded to spell your own name, dobe," the onyx eyed boy sneered angrily.

"Hey, that was one time, temē!" Naruto shouted, shaking his fist at the other boy.

"M-maybe you guys should calm down," Tazuna said, trying to get them to remember that yes, they were still in a life or death situation.

"Oh, don't mind me," the masked enemy snorted, watching them all in amusement. "I find this quite entertaining, actually!"

"Dobe," Sasuke jeered tauntingly.

"Temē," Naruto shot back, getting more angry by the minute when looking at Sasuke's cool and composed face.

"Dobe,"

"Temē!" Naruto retorted with increasing volume.

"Dobe,"

"Guys, actually, you should calm down-"

"TEMĒ!" Naruto shouted angrily before launching such an unexpected punch at his black haired teammate that the Uchiha could not react, and was launched several feat backwords.

"Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, running to help her currently dazed teammate up.

"Well, that was unexpected," Zabuza said laughing

"Ha!" The blond haired boy shouted. "You think you're so tough! Well, you've got another thing coming! I'LL OPEN A CAN OF WHOOP-ASS ON YOU! TAJŪ KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" He summoned around fifty clones around him.

"Naruto, don't be an idiot!" Sakura exclaimed, slapping her forehead in exasperation.

What ever happened to the plan? Stick to the plan!

They watched in horror as in one fell swoop, all clones were wiped out with the meat cleaver and Naruto was also thrown backwards by it. That didn't stop him though, for he just got right up again and quickly pulled something out his backpack.

"Sasuke!' Naruto shouted across before throwing the object. "Catch!"

The black haired boy quickly snapped back into action and jumped high into the air to catch it. Then, not wasting a moments time, he threw it as hard as he could.

"Kagemane Shuriken no Jutsu!" He called out but Zabuza did not hear it. To everyones surprise, the windmill shuriken curved around the Zabuza clone, and headed toward the real Demon of the Mist.

"Very good," Zabuza stated, cathching the weapon in his hand. "You decided to neglect the clone and approach me directly. But shuriken won't take me down."

But once more, he was in for another surprise, because another shuriken appeared under that one, shocking Zabuza slightly.

"Oh?" He asked, jumping over it swiftly. "But it still didn't connect!" The grey man laughed arrogantly.

"Who said anything about it connec-" but the Naruto clone which was previously a shuriken was interrupted by a loud "SPLASH!". They all looked his way to see a shower of rain falling down and a dripping wet Kakashi standing right under it.

"Thanks for that, guys," Kakashi said seriously. "You really bought me some time to escape. But now it's time for me to finish him off."

'What?' Sakura thought confused. How could he have escaped? Zabuza claimed it was a hard as steel!

All that effort, for nothing!

"W-what?!" Zabuza asked, flabbergasted and surprised. "How the hell did you escape?" No one had ever, ever escaped from that water prison alive!

'Of course the first just had to be the damn Copy Ninja,' the grey man thought derisively.

"Thanks for almost killing my students, by the way," Kakashi said gratefully, making Zabuza stare at him like he was crazy. "Saves me the time of having to give them a reality check myself.

"Anyway, let's wrap this up, shall we?" The silver haired jōnin asked pleasantly and then he ran at Zabuza, kunai in hand but the missing-nin blocked with his sword.

Then, to the groups surprise, both shinobi jumped away at the exact same moment and land on the water in the exact same position, hands making the same seals at precisely the right moment. It was like they were synched or something.

"What the hell?" The three heard Naruto ask confused.

"Tori!" Both shinobi ended together, before two twin water dragons rose up together

'How is he doing that?' Zabuza thought inwardly. 'Is there more to the Sharingan than we knew?' He panicked slightly when once more, Kakashi blocked his move as if he already knew it was going to happen.

Unknown to them all, a presence is secretly watching them, hidden in the shadows.

"It makes you furious, doesn't it?" Kakashi asked Zabuza, now finally finishing his warm up and getting serious. But he still didn't feel like he had stretched his muscles sufficiently. 'Oh well,' he thought, inwardly shrugging.

"You're just a second rate copycat!" Zabuza shouted, clearly nervous judging from his reaction. "All you know how to do is copy someone else's moves and use them as your own! You're like a damn circus monkey! I won't lose to someone like you! I'll crush you!" And then the rogue-nin started doing a fast series of hand seals. "…Saru, Mi…what?" He stopped in the middle of the combination, chakra receding immediately.

Was that him? No, it was just a shadow! Then it must have been an illusion…but he was still worr-

"Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu!" Kakashi called, finishing his own set of lightning fast seals and before anyone could do anything, a large wave of spiraling water came upon them.

"Ah!" Naruto and the others exclaimed, trying and failing to remain upright from the onslaught of water.

"WHAT?!" Zabuza shouted, clearly shaken up and confused. "HOW?! I WAS JUST ABOUT TO DO THE SAME JUTSU BUT HE BEAT ME TO IT!"

"You're finished," Kakashi stated, appearing before where the missing-nin was washed up against a tree.

"How?" Zabuza asked, wanting to at least know the answer before he died. "Can you see the future?"

"Yes," the jōnin sensei declared. "And your future is death."

However, not even two seconds later, three senbon needles flew out the trees and hit Zabuza's neck, killing him instantly.

'What now?' Sakura asked rolling her eyes.

"Heh, you're right," a new voice remarked, appearing in the tree above them. "His future was death."

"Judging from your mask, you are a hunter-nin for Kiri, no?" Kakashi asked the stranger.

The newcomer nodded. "Yes, and you have done me a great favor. I've been tracking this man for a long time now, waiting for the right moment to kill him. I thank you."

Kakashi nodded before walking forward, placing two fingers on the dead man's neck, confirming that yes indeed, he was dead. He looked up again, and the stranger disappeared in a swirl of leaves, appearing again behind the body.

"Thank you once more," the masked stranger said. "Now I must go and dispose of the body."

Before anyone could do anything about it, he was gone, not even leaving a single hair to indicate his presence. It was silent for a while, Kakashi adjusting his headband before a shocked exclamation broke the silence.

"What the hell?!" Naruto shouted in question. "Who was that guy?!"

"That guy was a hunter-nin," Sakura replied tiredly. "His job is to hunt down criminals and kill them before any secrets of their village can be revealed."

Still, the blond did not look satisfied.

"But he took down Zabuza so fast that we didn't even see what happened clearly, and he doesn't look that much older than us!" Naruto cried angrily. "What were we doing, playing?!"

"Well I was, I don't know about you guys," Kakashi snorted out. "But anyway, Naruto get used to it. There are many more stronger guys out there.

"So!" Kakashi proposed, the only cheerful one in the whole group. "How 'bout we get back on the road right?"

'I'm just glad we're still alive,' Sakura thought, trudging on exhaustedly.

Hey!

Quick note.

Not much to say! I put in some Kimimora and Luna action for ya all! Hope you enjoyed that!

I better be geting many reviews for this chappie hey! I spent so much time doing research and note taking! I also hope you liked the fight!

Yeah, thats it!

Thanks to my two reviewers!

Lots of love,

Bluetopianprincess^o^