I do not own Naruto, this story is for entertainment purposes only.I came to terms with that a long time ago...(Sniffs)

Notice:Post time skip appearances!

A/N:Bit ofmild alteration here...basically for whatever reason I cannot think of the bridge Tazuna builds without overhead supports like a truss bridge or something similar to it despite its open air nature.

Son of Terumi

Chapter 3: ... of a misty bridge

Tazuna's home

He stood atop a tree branch as he tried to determine whether or it was planned to have one of their team members left behind at the house for a brief while. Judging from his mad dash he could only speculate the blond one may have slept in altogether.

But there was nothing to gain from it per se. If anything it gave him something to do after he got the drop on two ronin making their way to the house, neither being too discrete on what their purpose was in an idle chat. From a strategic standpoint he supposed he should've chided himself. After all he had no obligation to keep the architect's family safe unlike the Leaf team. If anything they would've made a wonderful distraction, heartless and cruel as it was, if the Leaf interfered with their own mission.

On the other hand they have more to benefit from than to lose if they didn't, provided of course that they weren't... opportunistic. Kakashi he could reasonably be sure wouldn't pull anything with two members of the Seven, three plus a non-member if they somehow were lucky enough to convince Zabuza and his cohort into a temporary at the least. Young blood such as genin, green as grass to boot if his summons wasn't duped into thinking that, were a little more of a gamble between hotshots, mavericks, and those who were scared witless; it was a little rare to find someone level headed within the rank of genin unless they spent just under a complete year in the role.

"Hsss!" Thunk!

Lazily he turned his attention to his miniscule partner who had wrapped its jaws around a senbon needle stuck to the bark, its butt end wrapped in parchment with what looked to be a hastily scribbled onto it. With some effort it pulled the senbon free and arched its head to offer it to the masked shinobi.

"Thank you." Taking the senbon and unwrapping its cargo from it, he perused the message contained within before turning to his companion. "Shall we?"

"Hss!"

XVX

Unfinished Bridge

Surprised as he was, though only by a narrow margin, she didn't get the drop on him. Nor has he been able to get the drop on her even when fighting her in his most dangerous element that helped serve to blind the Copy Cat's sharingan. And as it stood now he faced not one but two enemies within the mist, Kakashi being the less proficient of them all in keeping himself from the occasional mistake of shifting loose gravel as he stepped. But all three of them were ghosts nevertheless that could only spook one another as they circled one another like wolves.

What aid he could expect from Haku would have to wait till he was done toying with the black haired boy trapped within his dome of mirrors... it would've been far less irritating if he was aiming to kill the boy as opposed to crippling him for the time being.

Zttt!

Though muted in its brilliancy thanks to the dense vapors, there was no mistaking a blade of Kiba had came to life in a flurry of contained lightning. A screeching of metal sliding along concrete rung out in a pitch that grew louder with each passing second as the blade drew nearer, its glittering form becoming more clear as it came closer to reveal it spinning along to ground as if it was aimed to claim his feet. He jumped to the side, easily avoiding the sword and distraction as he brought his blade up tom block the hidden counterpart that was hoping to h catch him off guard.

Clang! Shiing!

Parrying it, he side stepped again to avoid a kunai and its quickly vanishing wielder as he retreated deeper into the mist.

Kit! Thwump!

He restrained himself from humming his otherwise unspoken question as he carefully stepped back into his man-made fog. In his silence he could swear he heard Haku mutter something about a "hyper shinobi" or something to that extent.

"Naruto Uzumaki is here!"

The blond one? He had been wondering where he went... No matter; between Haku and his current circumstance he had more pressing matters to worry himself with than some over anxious brat trying to prove himself in front of everybody.

His ear twitched as the sound of paper being carried by a light breeze fluttered into his ear...

"Son of a bitch..." He jumped back and did so again out of precaution.

BOOM!

Though in truth a hunch, once again caution kept him from harm's way much to his savage smirk. "I was wondering when you were going to show up." His grip tightened as he grinned a broader, feral grin beneath his mask. "In truth I was kind of worried..." Twisting on his heel, he brought his blade to decapitate anyone who was behind him. "Worried that I couldn't repay the favor!"

Clang!

Again the two zanbato met and found themselves deadlocked till the familiar crackle of Kiba trickled into his ear. Smirking once more he pushed the explosive blade back, charged, leapt onto the shoulders of the younger swordsman and launched himself forward, his heels kicking back and in turn propelling the shinobi under him forward in his own direction to meet the twin blades that were undoubtedly seeking Zabuza's back. While surely it was too much to hope a swordswoman of the Seven would accidently skewer her teammate, it could at least slow them down for a second or two.

And while not much, it was still a boon all the same if what he spotted wasn't a figment of his mind.

Upon landing, his legs spread, he dared to crouch after a quick, albeit futile, glance to see if anyone was nearby to inspect what looked to be a piece of paper creased into the bridge's pavement.

It was a bomb tag laying in wait.

Looking up, he narrowed his eyes and bite back an irritated growl upon spying another, and another, and what looked to be another in a growing sea of bomb tags if he were to guess within the mist.

"Well played..." He now had two options now that the battlefield was limited as it was: He could turn back and face them, and as it stood there was a good chance that Shibuki's wielder had a few tags planted there by now to further limit his movement, blast him apart if he wasn't careful. Or he could take to the top of the rafters since the mist made its underside rather impractical unless he was that keen of hearing or better yet could see within the fog to begin with... In either case it was a trap that ensured at least one of the two sword users were waiting for him.

His eyes came to squint as he could swear the mist from where he came from took a darker hue... an almost purple hue even.

"That better not be what I think it is..." Unfortunately he wasn't going to wait and find out if it was a hoax or in fact a cloud of poison coming at him like that tidal wave beforehand... probably another option stealing tactic from the Shibuki-brat. Still, as a shinobi, well played...

Up it was then where someone surely awaited him whilst another was ready to strike from below if he were to guess.

XVX

If he were to guess then both of them had finally shown up. He may not have kept an eye on her as he would've liked but he could surely guess she didn't take the time to lay out a small network of explosive tags that steadily grew into a bridge-wide cluster of them that would've blown off a god's foot if someone activated it...

He could only dare to think what it would mean for the bridge itself if someone activated them all at once. Though he had to wonder a little about its practicality— even if they detonated one by one, a single blast would surely annihilate a small patch, tearing it away piece by piece as each explosion destroyed the tags around the point of origin.

Regardless, it would certainly maim someone for life if not outright kill them.

Clash! Clang-clash! Shhhhhink!

From the sounds of it they took their fight to the highest tier the bridge could offer. But how many were having a danse macabre up there? Despite knowing better he peered into his surroundings in hopes of finding some clue as to what their strategy was.

He could only see what Zabuza had intended for him to see; even if he were to unveil the sharingan he would ultimately waste energy in the end.

"SASUKE!"

... Energy he could use to save his students from their own peril.

"Let's just hope these tags don't go that far back..." he muttered to himself as he cautiously wafted through the dense haze despite the apparent battle overhead.

XVX

Slash! ... Clatter!

It was her mistake to slice off virtually two thirds of his sword. While not as devastating as it would be in full size, it had greater speed now with so much of its weight gone. Combine that with the years on experience as both a swordsman and the wielder of the Kubikiribocho, its damaged form was still as dangerous as proven by slipping past her guard to strike deep enough to draw blood from beneath the protective cover of her jacket just before he retreated to avoid retaliation and to savor the fact that his blade was once more was taking the shape that it had lost, albeit incomplete, jagged and misshapen thanks to such a shallow cut drawing so little of her essence.

He could almost swear she spent half a second considering whether or not to be irritated or simply glare at him as she brought a sword to bear on him whilst a foot slide to the side, her other sword held aloft to her side in the meantime. Whatever the decision, it was all hidden underneath a mask, both figuratively and literally, save for that one spike as she ignored the growing splotch in her armor.

... He dared a glance towards the roving mists below in hopes of glinting something of a strategy that the other one had in mind aside from waiting.

"He's not coming."

"Hmmm?" She had everything but his full attention given what lurked below.

"Given your standing as a swordsmen of the Seven, despite your rogue status, it's only fitting that your end comes from the hands of another swordsmen."

He smirked and shook his head slightly. "My, my, the generations have changed indeed. Where the swordsmen I knew were sadistic, your own is eccentric if nothing else." He looked her in the 'eye' and grinned savagely. "And while it's no simple matter to become one of the Seven Swordsmen, it certainly takes more than one kid to take one of us down."

If it hit a nerve, it came in the form of lightning arcing from the blades in a spiteful light.

And then she was gone.

Rather than leap back, he leapt forward toward where she once stood and pivoted to find her standing next to his just abandoned spot, blade once more pointed at him and glowing exceptionally brighter than it had a second ago. He ducked to the side in time for a bolt of lightning to crack past him in a thunderous boom the moment before she disappeared again in a shunshin.

When she appeared again he had to stop himself from swinging at her out of reflex lest his zanbato once more got mutilated. Instead he ran the opposite way, a single hand going through the motions of a jutsu, whilst she pursued him, the crackling once more growing in its intensity.

Once more he pivoted...

"Water Release: Gunshot!"

Ripping through his bandage-mask, the globule of water rocketed towards the kunoichi who in turn leapt over it. Again his hands contorted, twisted, and shaped one handed seals as his now toothy, savage, grin with shark-like teeth greeting the world. "Water Release," he hissed in sadistic glee, "Water Dragon."

Fwoooooosh!

From the ocean beneath the bridge most relevant to Zabuza's side, a watery construct of a serpentine-dragon rose up with a watery bellow, turning its glowing eye on the airborne Mist kunoichi and soon afterwards its head to snarl at her; it moved to crush her with its near solid snout once it faced her.

Once more she leveled a sparking sword towards Zabuza's direction, its aim at the head of his construct however, and unleashed another bolt of lightning tearing its way through the air and hitting it dead on, destroying at least its head on impact. Even so it charged, albeit at a significantly reduced rate, till it came to a sluggish halt, its body losing what form it still had and drenching everything in its wake including its still grinning caster whose hand was at it again as she landed on her back atop the beam.

Without missing a beat she ran towards him once more with both swords at the ready.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!" From the dead remains of the original construct still on top of the bridge's truss came another, smaller version of the construct that rocketed toward her with its jaws wide open.

Like its bullet predecessor she leapt over it, only to add insult by landing atop of the construct and run along it in an unceasing advance towards her ever grinning target whose hand began to move much to her eye widening dismay. She moved to jump off only for her feet to become entraped by the thick, viscous material the water had abruptly become.

"Still green," her opponent chided with a mocking, low key chuckle that held a sinister edge. Like its larger counterpart, the head of the dragon turned towards her and bum rushed her even while she attempted to hack off the resistant, glue-like water that even stilled the lightning enhanced blades. During which, a virtual dome of mirrors made of ice began to materialize around her one at a time and in each one was an image of a shinobi in a battle kimono made ragged from a recent skirmish, fresh blood spatter coating his right shoulder, whose own mask bearing Kiri's symbol was sporting a heavy slanted crack that ran from the bottom of its left 'cheek' to the upper right of its 'forehead.'

"Sayonara, swordswoman."

In what was to be her last moments, she looked up to glare at him through her mask as the styled ice senbons and the dragon's head came...

POOF!

"HM?!" The swordsman's eyes darted to the source of the noise, the mists below, and growled as he awaited for her cohort to finally make his move, whatever it may be. He didn't have to wait long. Though a blur at first, a living breathing tower of teeth and scales rose up and ensnared both the kunoichi and part of the water dragon within its maw as it continued to rise at an angle from below. As it stilled and turned around, effectively ignoring the ramming from the water contruct's attack as if it were a guest of wind against a boulder,, its mouith opening to showcase a maw of teeth an and an otherwise aggravated kunoichi glaring down at him through her mask...

"A summon?" he quietly asked himself aloud as he stared at the scaled, pasty creature that hissed at him as its thick, serpentine neck to the point its passenger calmly walked out of its mouth and onto the support once more where she faced him once more. It seemingly sneered at him with its milky white eyes, whether natural for it or genuinely useless in its function a mystery to be solved later if ever at all, as its streamlined, almost dragon-like head whose snout was much shorter, and rounded, rose up to snarl at the numerous images of Haku readying a trio of senbon in between the fingers of his clenched hand.

Again Zabuza eyed the mist below them with a critical air as he scowled... "It's bad enough with Kiba in play as it is." His gaze returned to her and he glowered as he relented at last, the Kubikiribocho, maimed as it was, rose up to challenge her as she began to advance on him, her own swords sparking to life once more.

All around them and utterly ignored were rising spires of ice, all of which converging in an high rising arch that bore a growing ball of ice that was sharpening itself into a cone shaped structure with a exceptionally sharp point aimed at the relatively still base of the beast's visible neck even as it rampaged in an attempt to destroy the sculptor's creator; if it was aware of the peril it was in or simply trying to eat him was anyone's guess. When the frozen supports were to give out however was his guess alone.

Crck! "Just a little more..."

The beast lunged at him once more as he jumped from yet another mirror that was soon to be destroyed, its maw of serrated teeth eagerly awaiting to rip him to pieces.

Crack!

Again it missed him, a mirror took the blow instead as it relentlessly perused him to another mirror with disturbing accuracy despite the numerous decoys.

CRACK!

"Yes!"

And down it went. It's target in perfect alignment in regards to its descent.

Smash!

A pained bellow escaped it, masterfully ignored by the two sword wielders as they began to attack and dodge one another when blocking wasn't much of an option for one of them. Though it didn't pierce, a notable patch of scales where the point landed were crushed, cracked, and disheveled from the impact alone with an ichor-like fluid oozing from the crushed scales.

It hissed, snapped its jaws, and snarled at Haku who at long last fell out of a mirror and onto his hands and knees as the mirror fell away to the fog below along, its duplicates following shortly thereafter...

It struck again without remorse, only vengeful glee.

Again Zabuza struck at her, only to succeed with a shallow cut on the jacket unlike its bloodied counterpart from before, the splotch itself incrementally increasing as the battle wore on.

Spoof!

Once more he risked a glance elsewhere to officially notice the serpent-beast's tower head had vanished, and what ice that still bore some semblance of a shape were left to melt on their own accord...

And someone was attempting to sneak up behind him, their approach, stealthy as it was, was much too loud to not notice within the newfound silence. In response he spun in place, his broken blade arched to cleave whoever it was behind him in half in a dead charge in the other direction only for his body and blade to pass through nothing but air as whoever it was behind him and leapt over him. Turning once more he growled at Kakashi as he brought the blade up defensively whilst his enemy was going through the motions of a two handed set of seals despite having a kunai in hand. Upon realizing the man was taking a deep breath, he jumped back in time to avoid being roasted alive by a colossal, short lived ball of fire.

"Damn it," he growled a moment later, especially upon noticing the sharingan was upon him once more.

XVX

A hand seemingly materialized out of nowhere with the sole purpose of clasping her shoulder from behind to keep her from chasing after Zabuza and the Copy Cat who assumed her offensive role. She jerked her head in the direction of the one who grabbed her, blade at the ready, and relaxed slightly upon seeing a familiar mask and handle of a blade sticking out from its slanted harness.

The two stared at each other in a silent 'conversation.' She nudged towards the other swordsman who just parried a kunai from the Leaf jonin and expertly parried another from another hand from lunging at the man to stab him. He shook his head, dug his wooden hand into a near invisible pocket in the back of his jacket and produced a small circular box which he handed to her. She 'glared' at him in return before relenting, ultimately taking the item and jumping off the support into the dissipating mist below them.

With a mild grunt, the wooden hand grasped and hefted the giant blade to rest on his shoulder as he languidly made his way towards the dueling pair just as Zabuza pushed Kakashi away from what was a unyielding clash of blades.

"Heh." He planted the back of the zanbato on his shoulder as he eyed the two. "Swapped out did ya?" He scoffed and looked towards his surroundings with a more critical eye. "... And I'm guessing your summon ate Haku." He scowled slightly as the sword was lowered from its current mounting. "What a waste..."

"Zabuza, where are you?"

"Hm?" In a rare moment of mutually supported peace in a battle, all three shinobi tore their gazes from one another to half stare, half glare depending on who is concerned, to an army of gathered thugs headed by a diminutive man in a business suit whose left hand was encased within a cast. It took said man a good minute or two to find the shinobi atop the bridge. "Ah, so that's where you ran off to," he sneered, a malicious grin accompanying it a second later.

"Gato," Zabuza growled. "What's the meaning of this?"

The man scoffed, his head lowering slightly as his grin got a little bigger. "Frankly there's been a change of plans. And according to those plans, you die right here." He 'tsked.' "Frankly you're just too damn expensive for my tastes, and considering you can't off an old man it just makes this decision all the sweeter." He looked at all that was in front of him with a pointed frown. "Where's that damn sidekick of yours?" he mumbled to himself.

A good number of the henchmen behind began to snicker in an audible cacophony.

The swordsman only sighed however. "Seems our fight is at an end, Kakashi. Since I'm no longer under Gato's employ, Tazuna's safe; we have no quarrel."

The Silver haired man cautiously regarded him for a moment before looking back to the mass of hired muscle. "Yeah... I suppose you're right," he admitted. He glance back to the swordsman as the latter turned himself to face the younger of the Mist shinobi present before jumping down and racing toward his students.

"If it were only that simple with you though," Zabuza grumbled as he slide into a battle stance, the blade arched behind his back whilst being gripped by one hand and a hand held at the ready, half of it clenched while only the index and middle finger remained upright, as the younger resumed his approach. From behind, the younger swordsman's partner crept up from the side of the structure, a sword of Kiba at the ready as she crept up on the man.

"You're still too green to get the drop on me."

Without warning he whipped himself around, his arm hooking around the kunoichi and bringing her into a tight embrace with her back to his chest and his blade to her throat as he turned back to her partner. "Drop your weapons onto the bridge below," he ordered with a sadistic grin. It was lost when Shibuki's wielder didn't comply, even after he hefted the blade up enough to force her to raise her chin lest she be cut by it. "I'm not inclined to repeat myself, boy!"

... He only sighed and slide into a stance Zabuza himself had taken just seconds before. "Unfortunately a lot of victories came from the deaths of comrades," he drawled.

"... Heh." He closed his eyes for a moment as he let loose a soft, dark chuckle. "And here I was worried they were making their shinobi soft over there after I left. The moment his eye opened to shoot the younger swordsman a bloodthirsty glare, his eyes widened in horror to find Kiba being poised in the kunoichi's grasp to skewer the both of them in one blow. Yet his dread didn't come from that fact alone, it came from the deduction.

"To think I let my guard down."

SCHIIINK! SCHIINK!

Not one but two blades of the twin swords pierced him, one going into his chest and out of his back whilst the other came in the opposite pattern.

There was no cry of pain. All he gave the world in return was a sad, sardonic smirk moments before the water clone in his clutch dissolved into a puddle that spilled onto the ground beneath the truss. "I guess the standards didn't full after all," he quietly muttered to no one in particular just as he dropped to his knees and his stomach soon afterwards when both swords were retrieved with callous proficiency. His sword nearly slide out of his grip as the life in his eyes slipped away and would've fallen to the concrete below were it not for its quick retrieval by the kunoichi.

Her partner sedately walked up to her, his sword resting on his shoulder once more, as she inspected the sword. "Shall we get going then?"

She turned the sword to the other side before holding it up slightly and subsequently hefting the broken blade to him. "I do believe the Mizukage would prefer it if we brought it back in pristine condition," she stated as he took the blade.

"You just love to put me to work," he sighed, earning an amused scoff from her as she directed her attention to Zabuza's corpse, her hand shifting in one seal after another while her teammate walked away, his own hand forming a seal of its own as he lazily looked to the now advancing mob below. Already they had crossed the threshold to his impromptu minefield.

"I just hope that doesn't kill all of them."

Immediately the swordsman's corpse was set ablaze just as an explosion rocked the air.