The next morning. Land of the waves. –
The small group walked in near enough the same formation as the day before naruto walked in front with sakura and Sasuke, next came tazuna and bringing up the rear were Kakashi and Mari. Mari stopped walking suddenly her eyes widening slightly, seeing this Kakashi stopped his eyes searching the area around him. "There's someone nearby I can feel his emotions however much he tries to hide it." she whispered to Kakashi, who nodded slightly.
It seems she's already sensed me. Zabuza said his eyes resting on Mari for a moment before he launched his sword at them.
"Everyone get down now." Kakashi and Mari shouted at the same time, the blade narrowly missed Mari's head as she ducked.
"You three protect the target." Kakashi said to the three genin as mist surrounded them. "It looks like I'm getting serious. "He said pulling his head band up to reveal the sharingan beneath it.
Mari sensed what Zabuza was going to do and Drew her sword before disappearing and reappearing just in front of Zabuza. "Do you really think I wouldn't find you?" She said softly as she brought her sword up to deflect his strike.
Wow she's almost as fast as Kakashi sensei, where does she get this power from. Sakura thought as she watched the older women defend them from zabuza's attacks. "I will not let you near any of them!" Mari said as she brought up her hand and used her unusual power to push Zabuza back away from the group.
She's powerful to think that she not only blocked my original attack but also forced me back without touching me. She's going to be just as much of a problem as the copy Nin maybe more. He thought before attacking her, he stopped suddenly as someone put a kunai to his throat.
"So if it isn't Kakashi hatake the copy nin himself, finally sick of seeing the women fight your battles for you." Zabuza said smirking slightly when he saw the look in Mari's eye.
Mari stood in front of the genin and tazuna; she put her sword back in its sheath as she watched the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza.
"You three stay on your guard." She said to them as she looked around her for signs of an attack.
She watched as Zabuza threw Kakashi into the lake before he was placed inside zabuza's water prison technique.
"Great. There's no way we can leave Kakashi we wouldn't survive if we did." She murmured to herself as she watched a water clone appear in front of her.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu." She said as 5 copies of herself appeared beside her.
She drew her sword the five clones doing the same thing as they surrounded the clone.
"Sasuke I have an idea, lend me your ear." Naruto shouted.
Sasuke smirked before nodding; catching the shuriken naruto threw to him he smirked slightly before spinning around and pulling out one of his own.
He hurls the shuriken at the original Zabuza who catches it, before having to leap over the one in its wake. As the shuriken flies past him it turns back into naruto, who then throws a kunai at Zabuza in order to break the water prison Kakashi is in. As the prison breaks the water clone Mari was fighting vanishes. Mari's eyes widened slightly when she saw Zabuza aiming for naruto before disappearing, reappearing again behind naruto she grabs him and pulls him back in time.
"Your fight is with me, Zabuza." Kakashi snarled, before jumping backwards. He copied every technique that Zabuza did, just as he was about to strike the killer blow a hunter nin appeared striking Zabuza in the neck with a number of needles. The hunter Nin quickly disappeared taking zabuza's body with him.
Mari saw Kakashi about to collapse and vanished in a cloud of smoke; she reappeared and caught Kakashi before he hit the ground. She put one of his arms over her shoulder and looked at the others. "We need to get Kakashi somewhere he can rest." Mari said looking at the bridge builder as she spoke.
"My house isn't that far, it won't take long to get there." Tazuna said before taking the lead Sasuke at his side and Mari taking up the rear with Kakashi.
The bridge builders house, morning after the fight-
Kakashi opened his eyes slowly to see Mari asleep beside him her head resting on her arm. "Mari." He said softly groaning slightly as he reached out and touched her arm.
Mari jumped before opening her eyes and smiling at him "you're awake at last. You overdid it with the sharingan didn't you." She said, smiling slightly at the look on his face.
"You really helped there. If you hadn't have taken on Zabuza, then tazuna would have been dead now. There was no way that I'd have been able to get there on time." He said smiling at her beneath his mask his hand still on his arm. She blushed slightly when she realised that he hadn't taken his hand off yet before looking at him again. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw the look on his face, "we'll talk when we get back to Konoha." Kakashi said as naruto, sakura and Sasuke come in the room.
Ten minutes later-
"What?" naruto said loudly making Mari wince slightly.
"Naruto please keep it down, my head still hasn't recovered from the amount of times I had to use my ability." She said rubbing her forehead gently as she spoke, her face slightly pale.
"Yes naruto, I've been thinking about everything and it looks as though Zabuza may still be alive. Normally hunter Nin dispose of the body as soon as they kill them, this one went to the effort of taking the body with him." He said looking around at them all.
"What are we going to do Kakashi-sensei? We're no match for him." Sakura said "you're still weak from using your sharingan too much and Mari is still recovering as well." She looked at Mari suddenly, when she realised that the older kunoichi hadn't said anything for a while.
"Don't worry about me I just need to get some fresh air." Mari said before standing up and leaving the room, she smiled at Kakashi as she walked out.
"I may not have as much strength as normal but I can still train you." He said smiling at them all as he got to his feet.
-Half an hour later- clearing close to the house-
"Well you'll all be doing chakra training." Kakashi said as he leaned on a pair of crutches.
"What do we have to do?" sakura said looking at him from where she stood beneath one of the trees.
"You'll be climbing those trees using just your feet." Kakashi said smiling again at the expression on their faces.
"That's impossible." Sakura and naruto shouted together.
"No it's not." A familiar female voice said behind them, "As you've all probably guessed by now I come from a place a long way away from here. I can tell you this, nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it."
Mari smiled at the three of them before standing beside Kakashi her long platinum blond hair was loose from the plait she normally wore and billowed out slightly in the breeze.
"First you concentrate the chakra in your feet; you then walk up the tree. As it's your first try you might want to run." Kakashi said as he nodded at Mari. They both stood in silence as they watched the three genin train. After a while Kakashi sat down and gestured for Mari to sit next to him "so how are you feeling? I know you were having a few problems earlier." He said looking at her out of the corner of his eye as he took out his book.
"It felt as though my head was splitting in half. It happens whenever I move things with my mind to much. In the worse case scenarios I could go into a coma, that's why I only use it if I know that I won't be overusing it too much." She said softly before leaning back against the tree and closed her eyes for a moment. Her head suddenly fell on kakashi's shoulder as she fell asleep, the use of her of powers had used up more energy than she originally thought. "Mari-chan?" Kakashi said making sure she was just sleeping and not hurt.
Sakura sat in a branch of a tree across from Kakashi and Mari she smiled slightly as she watched Mari fall asleep her head falling onto kakashi's shoulder. They'd be good together. I wonder if it will ever happen. She thought before shouting down to draw attention to how high she was.
"Well done sakura. So it's the girl who has better chakra control." Kakashi said, he was trying not to move too much in case he disturbed Mari.
Mari moaned slightly as she began to wake up. That's weird what am i lying on? When did I fall asleep? She thought, she almost fell forwards when she saw how close she was to kakashi's face.