Three hours later. The path to the land of the waves-
The group was walking slowly naruto, sakura and Sasuke walked ahead of tazuna. Mari walked at his side while Kakashi followed behind him.
Mari spotted the puddle as she walked past, and glanced at Kakashi before nodding slightly to show she had seen it as well.
She span around as two figures burst from the puddle, they wrapped a chain around him tearing him to shreds in front of them. She gasped before she felt his presence and smiled slightly. She grabbed the sword at her back and brought it down stopping the two attackers in their tracks as they went to attack naruto. "Your fight is with me." She growled "Sasuke, naruto sakura protect tazuna. There may be more of them." She saw them all nod out of the corner of her eye before turning to them both again. One of them swept his claw at her which she countered with her sword quickly, raising her other hand she flicked her wrist sending the other men flying into the tree behind them.
She saw him coming out of the corner of her eye and moved so fast her movements were a blur. "I told you the fight is with me." She said forcing him away from the group of genin and tazuna. Her eyes seemed to flash in the light as she fought them. Come on Kakashi? A little help here. She thought as they aimed for tazuna again.
Putting her sword away she raised both her hands "I will not let you pass." She said letting out a burst of energy that sent them flying backwards, hitting a tree with a sickening crash.
"I've done too much." She murmured before her eyes closed and she collapsed forwards.
A hand wrapped around her waist catching her before she hit the floor. "I'm sorry I didn't help sooner. I needed to know who they were targeting." He said in a whisper before laying her on the floor gently and moving to tie up the demon brothers.
"Mari!" sakura and naruto shouted running over to her as soon as Kakashi had the attackers tied up.
"She'll be alright, she just used up to much energy with that last attack." Kakashi said as he looked down at the younger ninja. "We need to keep moving." He said as he gently picked Mari up.
After 15 minutes he looked down when he heard her groan, he smiled slightly as she opened her eyes and looked at him. She groaned again and quickly closed her eyes. Kakashi stopped walking and gently put Mari down "we'll rest here a while, we need to let Mari get her energy back. I have a feeling we'll need her later." He said as he leaned against the tree next to where Mari lay. He looked at her for a moment before walking towards tazuna and pulling him to one side "I think you have a little explaining to do. Those missing-nin were after you." Kakashi said his eyes narrowing slightly before listening to his explanation. "This is now a B class mission maybe even an A. These are genin they're not trained for this level of mission." He added his eyes going to his student for a moment before going back to the bridge builder.
Suddenly he heard a shriek and looked around to see Mari sat up her face covered in sweat. "He's here I can feel him." She said as she felt Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder, she leant back slightly comforted by his touch. "I don't know how but he's here, nearby. He must have arrived at the same time as me."
"Well, if it isn't my little Maria, Shall we start were we left off or redo everything." A man's voice said from the trees, Mari froze in fear as a man with long black hair and black eyes stepped out from the trees.
Tazuna moved forwards and grabbed Mari before stepping back. "If she's with me then you're not breaking your orders to protect me." He said as naruto Sasuke and sakura surrounded them their kunai drawn.
Kakashi leapt forwards stabbing the man in the chest before jumping back again. "Chidori." He said as lightening engulfed his hand, he slammed it into the man's chest and sighed slightly before watching as he fell to the floor.
"He's dead." He said checking the man's pulse properly before stepping backwards. "You'll never have to worry about him again Mari."
Mari continued to shake for a few moments before closing her eyes; she could feel that his presence was no longer there "you're right. I'm sorry." She said as she rose to her feet shakily.
" there's nothing to be sorry about, if you attack one leaf ninja then you attack them all, if it wasn't for you then one of the people here could have been dead during the attack before." He said resting a hand on her shoulder before letting go and walking forwards. "Let's move out, we need to get to the land of waves as quickly as possible." Kakashi said.