Just before dusk, two Konoha shinobi arrived, a man and a woman. The man, Naruto recognized as one of the other jounin senseis, the one for Shikamaru's team. He was dark haired with a beard and wore a standard Konoha jounin uniform with a sash with the kanji for "Fire" on it. The woman had purplish hair done up in a poofy ponytail and wore a tan trench coat with only a mesh shirt and orange miniskirt underneath it. They introduced themselves as Sarutobi Asuma and Mitarashi Anko, a tokubetsu jounin.

"Hey, Asuma-sensei," said Naruto, "where are Shikamaru-san and Chouji-san?"

"Dad, thought that a wind user would be handy if we ran into Zabuza, since he favors the Hiding in the Mist Technique, but we decided not to bring my team. They're doing clan training while I'm gone."

"Are wind users rare?" asked Naruto.

"In Konoha, we are. I'm the only currently-active-jounin wind user. We have a small number of retired wind users. Most wind users come from Suna or elsewhere in Kaze no Kuni."

"I don't think Meizu here knows much, but you're welcome to try and see if you can get anything else out of him, Anko-san," said Kakashi.

"It will be my pleasure," she said as she licked a kunai and dragged the tied up missing nin away.

Kakashi ended up being correct. The only other thing that Anko got out of the surviving Demon Brother was that they were in fact working with Zabuza for Gatou, but they had strongly suspected that already.

The three jounin took the watches that night.

The next morning they set out again. Team 7 proceeded in the same formation as before. Asuma scouted ahead and Anko covered the rear. Both of them had one of Naruto's clones with them for communication. By evening they were a short distance from the fishing village where they would cross over to Nami. They camped again for the night. This time Kakashi had the genin take the watches like he had the first night.

In the morning, the three jounin discussed what the plan for deploying in Nami should be. According to Tazuna they would have a short hour walk from where they landed to his house. The jounin decided that Anko would scout the island with some of Naruto's clones, while Asuma would accompany Team 7.

Tazuna led them to a small cove where a fisherman was waiting for them. Team 7 entered the boat with Tazuna, while Asuma and Anko water-walked beside the boat. The strait that separated Nami no Kuni from Hi no Kuni was narrow, but foggy. It took them twenty minutes to cross with the fisherman paddling quietly. The only noteworthy thing to happen during the crossing was the first view of the bridge which loomed out of the fog.

"That's the bridge?" said Naruto. "Maybe you are more than an old drunk, after all."

"I told you, I'm the Super Bridge-Builder Tazuna, brat," said the bridge builder.

The fisherman hushed them both. "Quiet! Gatou has patrols."

They landed and Tazuna thanked the fisherman.

Anko split off from the group with five of Naruto's clones and the rest of them followed Tazuna's directions.

Before long, Naruto noticed something odd with her bloodline. "The fog has traces of chakra in it," she said.

Hinata turned hers on and said, "I see it too."

"We must be at the edges of the Hiding in the Mist Technique," said Kakashi. "We will most likely be facing Zabuza. He's a jounin, so let Asuma-kun and I handle him. You three stay with the client."

"I'll take lead on him, Kakashi-kun," said Asuma. "I was sent to take care of him, after all."

They continued into the mist, which gradually got thicker. After they had walked a few minutes. Hinata said, "I see two figures up ahead about 100 meters—just off of the path on the left. One of them has almost as much chakra as Asuma-sensei. The other has less, but still much more than Sasuke-san. The one with less chakra has a weird texture to it."

Naruto quickly found who she was talking about. "I see them too. This mist is really messing with my range."

Kakashi said, "We'll advance slowly, together. With someone like Zabuza, we don't want to get separated. When we get to 10 meters, I want you both to try and hit them with kunai or shuriken. The one with more chakra is almost certainly Zabuza. The other is likely an experienced chuunin or new jounin, possibly with a bloodline."

When they got to about 15 meters away from the other shinobi, Naruto made 20 Shadow Clones. When they got to about 10 meters, Naruto and Hinata looked at each other and then they started throwing kunai along with the 20 clones. The 2 shinobi either deflected or dodged all of the kunai. The one that was presumably Zabuza charged them while the other withdrew.

Naruto and Hinata both yelled, "Duck!" as a large cleaver-like sword spun through the air towards them. Kakashi pulled Tazuna down as everyone hit the deck. The sword embedded itself into a tree. Naruto saw Zabuza fly through the air and land on the sword. He was shirtless with bandages covering his lower face like a mask and a headband with a slashed Mist Badge at a jaunty angle.

The Konoha shinobi all climbed to their feet.

"Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist," said Kakashi.

"Saringan no Kakashi, the Copy Nin," said Zabuza. "That kunai barrage wasn't very neighborly."

"I didn't think you were a neighborly sort of guy, Zabuza," Kakashi responded.

"That's true enough. I'm going to have to ask you to hand of the Bridge Builder."

"Now, why would I do that?" responded Kakashi.

"Good," said Zabuza. "I prefer it this way."

The mist began to thicken and Naruto frowned as her Byakugan's range contracted. She could still see him as he snuck around, but the other shinobi was out of range. He made four clones, however, unlike Shadow Clones, she could clearly differentiate between them and him.

"Zabuza, is a master of Silent Killing," said Kakashi, "so stay alert and watchful."

"Silent Killing?" asked Naruto.

"There are eight targets. . ." Zabuza's voice came out of the fog. "Throat, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian, kidney, heart. . . Which should I chose?"

Asuma put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and asked, "Where?"

Naruto pointed and said, "There, about 5 meters. He's got four clones out there as well. I'm not sure what kind, but they aren't Shadow Clones or normal Clones."

Before she had finished talking, Asuma made five hand seals and muttered, "Great Breakthrough." The mist in front of him dispersed to show Zabuza holding his giant sword.

"What's this?" asked Zabuza, "A wind specialist? And the albino is a Hyuuga, too? It's like you were prepared for me. Well, it won't help you. And two sets of unsealed Hyuuga eyes. . . This is my lucky day."

Naruto saw Hinata shiver.

"You're Sarutobi Asuma, aren't you?" Zabuza continued. "You have a nice bounty in my Bingo Book. It's not as good as Kakashi's, but it will do nicely."

"You'd have to survive to collect," responded Asuma. He pulled out two trench knives and slipped his hands into them. Whitish psuedo-blades sprang from the knives. Asuma and Zabuza leapt at each other.

"The clones are circling around us, Sensei," said Naruto.

"They're almost certainly Water Clones," said Kakashi. "They're only a tenth as powerful as the real Zabuza, but they can use any Water Release Techniques he knows, so be careful."

While they had been talking, Zabuza swiped at Asuma with his giant blade. Asuma parried it with his left knife and then sheared through his opponent's blade close to the hilt with the white pseudo-blade protruding from his knife. Zabuza swore and then strapped the hilt onto his back.

"Whoa," said Naruto.

Kakashi said, "Asuma-kun's trench knives are made out of a special chakra-conducting metal which allows him to manifest wind chakra blades from his knives. I believe he calls the technique Flying Swallow. Wind chakra can be sharpened to a very high degree. I've seen him cut through just about anything."

Kakashi absently punctured two of the Water Clones that approached them with thrown kunais. They gushed water and dispelled.

Zabuza had leapt apart and flew through an extensive hand sign sequence. Asuma slipped his knives into wrist holsters and then slipped something into his mouth and did four hand signs and blew out a stream of ash or dust. This caused Zabusa to leap back farther.

Zabuza finished his technique roaring, "Water Dragon Bullet." An impressive water dragon formed around him and shot forward.

A spark from Asuma's mouth ignited the dust just as the dragon was entering the dust cloud, a formidable explosion blew the water dragon apart. Zabuza scowled.

The Kiri Missing Nin next did a short sequence of hand seals and high-velocity water globs shot from his mouth. Asuma retaliated with a high-velocity stream of air that contained dust or sand.

In the meantime, Kakashi had eliminated the remaining Water Clones much like he had the first ones. "Any other Clones?" he asked.

Both Naruto and Hinata said that there weren't. He moved off at an angle and began going through a long sequence of hand seals very rapidly. Asuma and Zabuza were still trading quick ninjutsu back and forth. Finally, Kakashi ended his sequence and another Water Dragon Bullet formed around him and leapt at Zabuza.

Zabuza swore and tried to leap away, but the dragon followed him and crashed into him, flinging him onto his back. Asuma took the opportunity to close on him and lunged at his shoulder with his Flying Swallow before he could roll away.

As Asuma was about to finish him off, a figure in a mask with an unmarked Mist Badge appeared next to the downed missing nin and said, "Thank you, I was. . ."

"That's his partner!" Naruto interrupted.

The partner grabbed Zabuza by the shoulder and disappeared in a swirl of water droplets.

"That person was wearing a Kiri Hunter-Nin Uniform," said Asuma.

"Hinata-chan and I saw her talking to him as we approached. Right, Hinata-chan?" Naruto explained.

Hinata nodded.

Kakashi explained, "Hunter nins are shinobi that the various villages send to track down missing nin and other people of interest. They can be sent on capture missions, but usually they kill their targets. If the missing nin is from their own village, they kill them and destroy them on the spot in order to prevent other villages from learning secrets from their bodies or information on techniques, bloodlines, or special tools."

The three genin nodded to show that they understood.

"How far are we from your house?" Kakashi asked Tazuna.

"About a thirty minute walk from here," Tazuna responded.

"Alright, let's go," said Kakashi.