key:

"talking"

'jutsu'

thinking

"flashback"

nonhuman

Preparing for Battle

"Are you alright, sensei?" The mature dark haired woman that was Tazuna's daughter questioned the immobilized sliver haired ninja. "No, but I will be… in about a week," He answered meekly avoiding her stern motherly gaze. "You should get a good rest, sensei" Sakura spoke calmly, this wasn't the first time her teacher had over exerted himself, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. "This time you took down your strongest foe yet… so we can probably relax for a while." Tazuna breathed with relief. "I wouldn't be so sure…" The pink haired shinobi sighed and all eyes were on her. "What are you talking about, Sakura-chan?" Naruto grinned and waited for the punch line of the joke. Unfortunately, it wasn't joke. "He's still alive." Sakura spoke grimly and kept her eyes down casted.


Just outside of the Village hidden in the mist, and hunter ninja had unwrapped his tool set and was about to begin his procedure. He was lowered his medical tool down to the corpse's face, "First, I'll remove the wrappings around the mouth and drain the blood, and then…" His words were cut short when the corpse suddenly came alive and grabbed the masked man's wrist. "Enough! I can do it myself…" Zabuza pulled his wrappings from his mouth, staring wide eyed at his partner, looking much like a demon. The deadly swordsman then sat up and spat out the blood in his mouth. "Awake already?" The young boy teased. "You have all the finesse… of a butcher." Zabuza spoke while ripping out the senbon needles in his neck. "Gently please, Zabuza, sir. You'll really die pulling them out like that." The student reprimanded his master. "How long are you going to wear that stupid mask?" Zabuza backfired. "Old habits die hard… plus, it was so useful for my act." Haku slowly removed his mask to reveal his beautiful feminine face.

"They'd have killed you if I hadn't intervened…" Haku packed up his hunter ninja gear silently. "If you were going to put me in momentary death, you didn't have to use my neck… you could have aimed for a safer acupuncture point." The nuke ninja spoke and then proceeded to cough up the remaining blood. "Your such a sadistic brat." Zabuza rewrapped the bandages around his mouth and throat. "Exactly." Haku giggled and Zabuza just stared at him in silence. "i didn't want to mar you perfect body, Zabuza, sir." The boy blushed then finished his explanation, "Then neck is less muscular, thus easier to hit the acupuncture point." Haku stood and stared at the sky for a moment, "Looks like the mist has cleared." "Next time, will you be alright?" Haku drew his attention back to his sitting master. "Next time, I'll break that sharingan spell!" Zabuza grumbled and Haku just smiled. "And what about the girl?" Zabuza head shot up at Haku's words and the boy continued, "She's different… she doesn't have the eyes of a child." Zabuza's mind flashed back to the sight of the young kunoichi's dangerous, determined stare and grinned behind his bandages. "What did you think of her, Haku?" Zabuza mused. " She kind of reminded me of you, Zabuza, sir." The image of the pink haired girl stained with blood and standing in a field of corpses seemed to please Zabuza to no end and his demonic grin widened disturbingly.


The room was silent, until Kakashi spoke up, "Hm.. I feel the same way." "What?" Naruto shouted hoping his teammates were just pulling his leg. "Shinobi hunters usually destroy the bodies of those they kill right on the spot, and there's a mystery surrounding the weapons the hunter used to dispatch his prey…" Kakashi explain and Sasuke's eyes darted open in realization. "Senbon needles are originally medical treatment tools for acupuncture and in the hands of someone with an intimate knowledge of the human anatomy they could easily be used to place a person in a near death state, meaning Zabuza is mostly likely still alive and that hunter ninja we saw is most likely his ally." Sakura finished Kakashi's explanation. "Yes, even if Zabuza is dead there are still other deadly ninja seeking Tazuna's life so we must be prepared. Perparation is a shinobi's most important skill." The jounin spoke and looked are the room to take in his team's reactions. He took a particular interest in Naruto's excited expression. "So when does training start, sensei?" Sakura asked and Kakashi grinned, "Immediately." "Sounds like fun!" Naruto raised his fist in excitement.

"Thats not fun." A small voice brought the room's attention to a young boy who had just entered the household. "Inari! Where have you been?" Tazuno shouted holding his arms out for a hug. Inari quickly complied and greeted his grandpa. "Inari, greet our guests properly. They are esteemed ninja who brought your grandpa home safe and sound." Tsunami reprimanded her son. "But mama, they're all gonna die." Inari whined. "What'd you say?!" Naruto shouted furiously. "No one can beat Gato and his men." Inari mumbled. "You brat-" Naruto wanted to the hit the boy so bad, but his was held back by his female teammate. "Listen up, I'm a super hero who will eventually become hokage. I don't know this Gato guy, but he definitely doesn't stand a chance against me!" Naruto yelled confidently while punching the air. "Hero? How dumb there's no such thing!" Inari shouted and stomped off to his room. Naruto immediately pursued to boy to give him a good chonk on the noggin, but stopped in his tracks in front of Inari room when he heard the boy sobbing from behind the door.


"So it's decided, training starts now!" Kakashi was now able to move around using crutches and had lead the team into the woods surrounding the Tazuna household. "Hell Yeah!" Naruto was pumped and ready for action. "But first, we should discuss chakra." Kakashi smiled. "Uh… right. So what's chakra again?" Naruto grumbled at the thought of actually having to acquire knowledge. "You don't know because you slept through every class you took!" Sakura's eyebrow twitched and she crossed her arms in frustration only to wince in pain at the sudden movement. Oh yeah, I forgot I was injured. She rubbed her should absently until she noticed her teammate's concerned stares. "I'm fine!" Sakura answered their unspoken question. The pink haired girl then continued to explain chakra to her blonde teammate. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Naruto grumbled and Sakura replied to his complaints with a shift punch in the head, "Ow! Sak-". "Were already know how to use jutsu, sensei." Sasuke swiftly cut Naruto off. "Wrong! None of you have fully mastered your chakra!" Kakashi lectured, and instantly received an annoyed look from his dark haired student. He's right… Sakura sighed and lifted her right arm to inspect her muscles or lack there of, I have a long way to go…

"Listen, now you are going to learn how to control your chakra properly, through very though training." kakashi spoke causing worried and confused looks to spread across his team's faces. "So how are we going do that?" Sakura asked knowing the answer. "How? We climb trees." Kakashi nearly laughed at his student's deadpan faces. What a waste of time… Naruto and Sasuke thought in perfect synchronization. "Listen, this isn't any normal tree climbing, you'll be climbing without using your hands." The silver haired ninja spoke as if reading his male student's minds. "Watch and learn," He spoke with a smile and then promptly began to casually walk up a tree, until he hung upside down from one of the high branches. "Focus your chakra toward the soles of your feet and use that energy to cling to the tree." Kakashi explained and he lectured on about the importance of having mastery of one's own chakra. At this point in the conversation Sakura's mind began to wander and she began to wonder about how she was able to go back in time, and how she could get back to her own time, did she even want to go back? "Sakura!" Her sensei's voice brought her out of her own thoughts and she noticed Naruto sprawled out face up on the ground under a tree like an upturned turtle and Sasuke was crouching under his tree having made a mark with his kunai about half way up the tree. She also notice Kakashi staring at her with a worried look in his eye, then she looked down to the kunai imbedded in the ground at her feet. "Sakura? I said go." Kakshi frowned at the girl who clearly had not been paying attention. "Sorry, sensei!" She quickly scrambled to pick up the kunai, how embarrassing. She looked up at the tree before her with a new found determination. Enough thinking, time to train! With that, she rushed at tree, ready for the challenge.