As the corpse formerly known as Zabuza slumped to the ground, Team 7 relaxed just a little. After the Jōnin knelt to feel for a pulse and nodded, Team 7 (and Tazuna) relaxed a little more. There was still the matter of this new arrival, though.
The strange ally bowed in casual assent, saying "Thank you very much. I have been searching for the opportunity to kill Zabuza for quite some time."
"That mask..." Kakashi began, "You're a Hidden Mist hunter-nin."
Silent for a moment, the supposed hunter nin nodded.
"Impressive. You are correct."
Kakashi warily eyed the stranger who hopped down from his perch atop a tree branch. All the body posture of a trained killer, an adept assassin.
"Yes; my duty is to hunt down missing nin for the Hidden Mist."
It seemed that way from the mask covering his face, at any rate. No comment on the rest of his wardrobe...
Naruto cleared his throat, muttering aloud "Anybody else feeling odd about getting shown up by a single twerp?"
"You're one to talk, Naruto."
Naruto responded by poking Sakura in the forehead.
"Quiet, Pinky."
Kakashi put his hands on the two genins' shoulders.
"Naruto, I know how you feel, but..."
The man looked the boy in the lens.
"In this world, there exist kids younger than you- yet stronger than me."
The entire team gave Kakashi a funny look, having not been encouraged by his...performance. A cold bead of sweat rolled down the back of the instructor's neck.
When the hunter nin arrived next to Zabuza's body, he plucked it up by the arm, slinging the body haphazardly over his back.
"Your battle is now over," the strange ninja declared, "and now I must dispose of this body. Since it seems to be a body with many secrets."
With that, the hunter and his trophy vanished, leaving a cyclone of wind and detritus in their wake.
"He's gone," Sakura murmured, selfconsciously touching her lips for some reason.
A mild pause as the sudden end to the danger finally sank in. Naruto willfully broke the silence.
"Where can I learn a trick like that?"
"After me, shorty," Sasuke snorted, dodging the predictable swipe from the blond.
The Jōnin sighed, slipping his headband back over his eye.
"Now-" Kakashi said, assuming a more formal (for him) posture as leader of the group, "we have to get Tazuna back to his home."
The bridgebuilder, unable to contain himself, burst into laughter. It seemed that all the action (and sudden loss of all worries) had wound him up- now he seemed positively amiable.
"Super thanks, guys! Come over to my house and relax for a while!"
The group made to set out when Kakashi stumbled, quickly slumping toward the ground. Sasuke darted past his teammates, quickly bolstering his sensei with a strained grunt.
"Seems that...using the Sharingan even that much...was a lot."
Sasuke glanced toward his other male comrade.
"Naruto..."
The begoggled preteen crossed his arms with a sour expression on his face.
"I'm not helping you carry the dead weight. He sat pretty in that bubble for most of the damn fight- just cos he took us for granted."
The Jōnin sniffed.
"Well, Naruto," he began, a saccharine tint to his weary voice, "I hope your elite sensibilities will appreciate the exclusive aroma of urinal cakes..."
Naruto helped his precious instructor walk as the party made their way to Tazuna's village with an unmatched enthusiasm. He did so with the broadest smile and without a single wisecrack.
The vein on his temple throbbed prominently all the way to the bridgebuilder's house.
~xxx
"Are you alright, Sensei?"
As soon as the team had arrived at the Tazuna abode, they got treated to a warm, fairly fussy reception from the lady of the house, Tazuna's daughter. She'd introduced herself as Tsunami and seemed to radiate an aura of hopitality- particularly when it came to tending to the obviously eligible Kakashi-sensei.
Hands on her hips in a moderately attitudinal pose, she expressed triple the concern that she had for her other houseguests...and nintuple for the one newly returned resident, who had passed out sprawled under the kitchen table.
Kakashi, somewhat unused to this kind of attention (at least from civilians), gladly made himself at home in the first chair he'd laid eyes on. It was creakier than the Lord Hokage during his morning calisthenics and seemed to wobble unless he leaned just so to the left, but he didn't mind. As drained as he was, sitting in this chair was currently ten times better than sex.
"Oh yeah..." he said, the fabric of his mask rippling as he smiled weakly, "I just can't move for a day or so."
"What?" Sakura said, doe-eyed, "The Sharingan seems incredible, but if it puts that much strain on the body..."
"Who cares?" Naruto groaned from a nearby corner, "we beat off a fairly tough enemy, so we've got some time before the opposition rallies again."
"But-"
"Give it a rest, Sakura-chan~," the begoggled genin said, waving his hand at her lazily, "We need to detox a little from all this stress. It's not good for anybody, least of all your future husband Sasuke-kun~."
A grunt of "Don't make me hit you" issued from just outside the door, earning a smirk from the blond.
"Wouldn't dream of it, sweetie."
Sweat rolled down the side of Sakura's temple- though whether this had more to do with the unusually silly atmosphere or the positively sweltering early summer heat was a toss-up.
"Er...by the way, Sensei," the young kunoichi started, "who was that masked kid?"
At that, the Jōnin leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
"That's the mask worn by the Hidden Mist's special hunter-nin team," he said, "They are also known as 'Body Erasers'."
Seeing the look of confusion from the majority of the room, Kakashi elaborated further.
"Their duty is to completely dispose of the body of missing nin without a trace."
The two females had themselves a hearty swallow apiece.
"A ninja's body has within it secrets of the village's ninjutsu, information on different chakra types, herbs, and other things that reveal things about a Hidden Village."
"For example, if I died," Kakashi continued, clenching his jaw gently, "the secrets of the Sharingan could be revealed. If you don't watch yourself, you could end up having even your jutsu stolen by the enemy."
"A ninja's body can reveal importan information.
"So, by killing and disposing of the missing nin who have abandoned their village, the hunter-nin protect the information from getting are the specialists who guard their village's secrets."
The Jōnin sighed sagging back in his chair, "No sound, no smell; that is a ninja's end."
Naruto smiled knowingly, lacing his fingers in a loose steeple. Sakura stared at her feet, considering the consequences (and thereby the possibility) of any one of her team dying and being used by some other hidden village.
A moment passed in complete silence. It ended with a contemplative Sasuke entering the house, breaking the spell. As if waiting for a cue, Tsunami made herself busy fixing up some food for her guests.
~xxx
Some time after they'd eaten and gone to bed, the team was quietly roused by Kakashi. Sakura had been allowed to sleep in the one modest guest room, the boys being made to sleep by the front and back doors, so it was rather easy for the Jōnin instructor to wake them all without disturbing the rest of the household.
It made for an interesting picture, Team 7 being led outside by their sensei, groggy and in their rumpled-up bedclothes. Somehow Kakashi outdid them all in disarray, although each of them could swear that the man had been wholly intact (and sitting upright in a chair) when they had gone to bed. The senior shinobi half-muttered something about plumbing and left it at that until the group was a fair distance away from Tazuna's residence.
Unsurprisingly, Naruto was the first to speak up.
"Nngh...what gives, sensei?"
"I've a feeling we've missed something," Kakashi declared.
The genin began to groan in unison, only to be cut off by a sharp gesture from their instructor. Kakashi held a finger up to his lips, signaling for silence. After a momentary pause as if waiting for further dissent, he continued.
"I want you to think about how the confrontation with Momochi Zabuza ended for a moment," Kakashi stated, his voice soft and unnervingly level.
All three of the junior nin frowned, a sense of unease starting to set in.
"What's wrong, Sensei?" Sakura piped up, squelching her query to a soft murmur when the addressed shot her an admonishing glare.
After another short moment of silence, the Jōnin continued:
"Body erasing teams usually dispose of the body of the person they killed right then and there."
"So..." Sakura began before trailing off, comprehension quickly replacing confusion on her face, "Oh."
The boys seemed to be catching on fairly quick as well. Good- this would make the talk go a lot faster.
"How did the masked boy dispose of the body?-"
"He didn't," Naruto asserted immediately.
Coughing into his fist as he glanced at either of his teammates, he added "For all intents and purposes, he might as well not have- as far as our intel would show."
"Yes~," Kakashi drawled, crossing his arms, "that would be a roundabout way of saying it. Even if the hunter nin needed proof of the disposal, all he'd have to do was take Zabuza's head."
The man turned half away from his students, sending them each a sidelong glance.
"Let us not forget the weapon he used to kill Zabuza."
The boys blinked as one. Naruto took hold of his own head, fingers combing through his hair as he squatted, Sasuke sufficing with clenching his fists.
"Shit!"
Kakashi raised the back of his hand at Sasuke, the Uchiha wincing at his error. However, they both relaxed as the Jōnin nodded slowly.
"Yes..."
Sakura folded her arms this time, cocking her head. The instructor sighed.
"What we had probably witnessed was a momentary death-"
Sakura's eyes widened.
"The needle weapon that hunter-nin used? Unless it hits a vital organ, the probabilities of inflicting a fatality are negligible. It's even utilized as a medical device in some areas in the world."
Here Naruto started to groan.
"Quiet. Hunter-nin know about the body's structure to an adept degree. Putting a person in a momentary deathlike state is probably feasible to such an expert."
Now all three genin looked on the border of a meltdown.
"Let's recap: First, he carried away the body of the much heavier Zabuza.
"Second, he used a weapon that has a low probability of killing.
"These are two points that indicate his motive- rather than killing Zabuza as we had been led to believe...
"-but to save him."
Naruto's groaning cut off as he finally imbalanced and planted his forehead in the dirt. Kakashi coughed in mild self-conscioiusness. Winding his proteges up like this certainly wasn't good karma...
"We can't ignore the possibility. In any event, we will prepare before it's too late- that's a crucial shinobi axiom."
"Plus," he added, "whether Zabuza is dead or alive, there's no assurances that this Gatō Tazuna told us about hasn't found himself some new muscle."
"Sensei," Sakura said, still reasonably on edge, "what do you mean preparing before it's too late? You can barely move."
The Jōnin chuckled. His pupils hesitatantly relaxed, offering their sensei a weak smile each.
"You guys will receive training."
"Huh? Training?"
"Enough talking, genin- head inside and get dressed. Meet me out near the edge of the forest over there. Now go! On the double!"
~xxx
"Now," Kakashi began, his tenor uncharacteristically upbeat, "A person put in a momentary death situation should take a while before their body returns to normal."
Naruto scuffed his sandal on the forest floor, humming.
"...Which, when we're talking about Zabuza, is a very good thing."
"Exactly."
The three genin had followed their sensei to a small clearing deep within the forest near Tazuna's neck of the woods (pardon the pun). So far, it was all seeming fairly Leaf Ninja-like, as far as hours-before-the-crack-of-dawn-smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-some-trees was concerned.
"Ok, we will now start the training."
Naruto didn't hide his enthusement upon hearing that, his rather toothy grin stretching from ear to ear. A bead of sweat rolled down Kakashi's temple.
"Before that, I want to talk to you about the shinobi resource- chakra."
The blond's smile shrunk a few spiky molars, cocking his head to the side.
"Don't we...already know how to do that? Isn't that something we learned with our bodies back in the Academy?"
"Naruto is right," Sasuke said, "We can already use jutsu."
"Not entirely right, guys," the Jōnin rebutted. Naruto's smile was replaced with a studious masque, the boy humming thoughtfully.
Kakashi sighed, saying "Listen...
"To release chakra means to bring out the physical and spiritual energy and mix them together within your body.
"Based on what jutsu you use, the type and amount of chakra will be different...and you guys are not using chakra effectively yet."
All three genin sighed in unison- and the synchronistic expressions of nihilistic bitching were starting to get under Kakashi's skin. However, he continued without missing a beat.
"Even if you are able to release a high amount of chakra..."
The Jōnin made a generic motion with his hands.
"...Unless you control it properly, the jutsu will be weakened or not work at all."
Kakashi glanced around the clearing with the aloof poise that had grown on his students.
"And by wasting energy, you won't be able to fight as long - this kind of weakness will appear without fail."
"So..." Naruto interjected, "what should we do?"
"Learn how to control chakra," Kakashi stated bluntly.
The Jōnin turned back to face his students.
"-through very tough training."
The genins' posture changed immediately, their interest piqued. Sakura decided to speak up for the group this time, her eyes belying a split reaction of curiosity and concern.
"What are we going to...do?"
"Hmm?" Kakashi hummed, leaning forward with a gleam in his eye.
"Why...tree climbing!"
~xxx
Hoo boy. A 24 hour update.
Don't expect me to return so quickly to regularity- I started immediately on this chapter after posting last night, continuing this morning and then finishing up tonight.
This was only accomplishable because of the delayed schedule I had today and being sent home from work early due to the rather sheezy weather conditions (having to work the day after bright and early, after all). After congested traffic and much physical exertion once I got home, I feel fairly spent- especially after having had to get off my ass to redo some things before I capped off the chappie.
Be very fucking greatful, you scions of bitches.
Review and vote in the new damn poll, why doncha? And enough buttkissing- I need me some con'crit'* now.
But seriously- God bless you li'l bastards. I hope to bring you all more of this soon.
*constructive criticism, in case you're that behind the times, retro hipster.