Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I also don't own the internet, either. Too bad…

Naruto's feet felt numb and sticky. They'd been traveling for what now seemed like an eternity. The sun had gone from directly overhead to behind the hills in the west. The last streaks of daylight colored the horizon like spilled paints from a child's art project.

"How much further?" Naruto asked his sensei delicately, trying his utmost best not to nag or push the subject. The question had already come out of him three times that evening. If he didn't ask, no one would.

"We'll get there when we get there." Kakashi sighed irritably, rubbing his right temple. The jonin had constantly been on his guard after the morning's assault, and it was beginning to tax him physically. Not having eaten probably assisted his fatigue to where it was right then, too. "-and when we get there, I'm going to tell you."

"Naruto, stop asking that! It's sooo annoying!" Sakura ordered breathlessly from the rear. Ironically, for all of her attitude, she was still dragging almost as much as their client. Naruto almost felt sorry for her.

"Eh, Sakura-chan, I can carry you on my back if you'd like." he offered, stopping for a little while to let his teammate catch up.

"That's just weird, you know." Sasuke Uchiha commented while passing the blonde boy.

"I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Sakura-chan!" Naruto scowled indignantly, shaking his fist at the blue-clad back ahead of him while waiting for the pink-haired kunoichi's reply.

"Umm…no, thanks?" Sakura awkwardly communicated from behind a forced smile. Naruto was slightly relieved at the response. As kind as his offer had been, he was probably too tired to keep it up for long. To prove he understood, he gave a quick nod and started walking again.

The trek lasted well into the night. The group slept under the stars, taking watch in turns, and pressed on again at dawn's first light. The genins' bodies weren't used to the strenuous traveling, so Kakashi pulled off a rare act of mercy and allowed them a few breaks early on. As the second day moved on, however, he began to push them to move even faster.

Naruto noted that the environment was changing by that afternoon. It seemed colder, for one thing. For another, the plants took on a deeper hue of green. Fog settled in, making everything looked strangely bewitched. We must be getting close. Still, I'd better ask for good measure. "Sensei, how f-"

"Naaaruuuutooo! Don't you dare-!" Sakura interjected, her voice menacing. After a quick glance, the Uzumaki found that her body language matched. His legs subconsciously sped up to avoid the female's wrath, and consequently found themselves underwater with the rest of his body.

Kakashi put his palm to his face and waited for his student to surface. "A shinobi watches where he's going, Naruto! Come to think of it, nearly every rational human being does."

Naruto emerged from the waters, humiliated. "Yeah, yeah…" he mumbled, taking off his jacket and shaking it off as close to Sasuke as possible.

The Uchiha had anticipated this and moved out of the way of the flying droplets.

Tazuna, who had been staring into the distance at that point, shouted something into the fog. To the surprise of everyone but Naruto and the old man himself, there was actually a yell in return. Soon, a silhouette appeared through the mist.

"Pre-arranged transport?" Kakashi asked casually.

"Yes. A friend of mine who goes by Nibiro. He's gonna take us to the mainland." the builder replied, taking a swig from his seemingly bottomless flask of booze.

Naruto squinted to see the approaching boat. It was just as he had remembered it; shabby and without the motor running. Fun.

The next thing the boy knew, he was in the vessel with his team, staring into the dreary nothingness for over an hour. During that time, Kakashi had pried into the builder's situation and revealed the truth about Gato, and so forth. The conversation really didn't interest Naruto the second time around, but he had acted like he was listening.

Nibiro dropped them off eventually, saying that it was too dangerous for him to go farther. Tazuna thanked his friend and led the Konoha ninjas to shore.

It was at that point that Naruto began to get afraid. While it had taken him three times to stand up to the Demon Brothers, Zubaza was in a league of his own. Even Kakashi had struggled with the former ANBU elite. And, if memory served, Naruto had played a key part in getting them all out alive.

With things the way they were, there was no way that the encounter would go the same way as it had last time. It had been sheer dumb luck that had allowed his team to spot the eyebrow-less sociopath before(his dumb luck, in fact). There was no telling whether or not such a chance would present itself again.

The boy looked at his Bo-staff flatly. As amazing as it had been thus far, it wouldn't be able to make even a slight difference against Zubaza's giant blade. How the man held the sword escaped the young ninja's comprehension. Regardless of the reason, Naruto was still pretty sure the older man was compensating for something.

Why carry a sword that big, anyway? Sheesh…

Kakashi had begun the walk just as wary as Naruto, but for other reasons. He didn't know what to expect, to be sure. All he knew was that it was going to be more of a challenge than two chuunin. He had some peace of mind with knowing that his students could defend themselves for the most part. Naruto's display the day before had been… well, impressive. Whatever happened, he could be pretty confident that Tazuna would be in good hands.

On a lighter note, the made a mental note to get his blonde pupil scheduled for staff lessons when they returned to Konoha. The sloppy form the boy was using would eventually be problematic if left uncorrected.

On top of that, Naruto wasted too much chakra. Something had to be done about that.

As for Sakura, he would have to break her like a horse. That girl needed to shape up, and fast. She couldn't just expect to get by on brains alone. The ninja world wasn't like that. Intelligence was important, to be sure, but it had to be accompanied by some sort of specialty. She had to be able to defend herself! If Naruto hadn't been there for her in the last enemy encounter, she probably would have been killed.

Sasuke needed two things; a spanking and chakra control. It wasn't the boy's weakness, but it still wasn't his strong point. Maybe he could find some sort of training exercise that would benefit all three of his Genin. With that on his mind, he became a little lax on his guard. Too bad, because Zabuza was lying in wait less than a mile ahead.

Author's note: Wheeeee! It's Zubaza timebursts into the Hamtaro theme song