A/N: presenting like promised! not more than two months with one day left to spare, gosh this chapter took forever! But i'm looking forwards to the next one, i just really hate typing fight scenes whether they're canon or not...

Anyway, i noticed the other day how many people are reading and following and reviews and just everything! So i thank you all very much even though it takes me forever to type just one little short chapter for this story so i hope you enjoy the fruits of my hard work!

Chapter eight

Walking

Walking

More walking

... Is this all we do? This day is beginning to feel longer than one day. Yup, we finally made it to shore after following that giant ass bridge that felt like forever like everything else today... Please don't let this whole week take this long, I'll die if I have to climb trees for five to seven days and it feels like months. But one thing brightened my day as I hunched my shoulder evilly and tapped the tips of my fingers together, Kakashi was looking distraught. He knows that Gatoh would send jonin next to kill Tazuna since two mere chunin weren't enough.

"Naruto, you remind me of the babe..." I began to make conversation as he was having a one sided race with me to be in front.

"Babe?" Naruto asked.

"The babe with the power..." I continued on, trying not to laugh or give it away, luckily as a boy, emotions were so much easier to control, no wonder they are normally the better gamblers.

"Babe with the power what?" Naruto asked, I could hear in his voice he was getting slightly annoyed as I took a step ahead of him each time.

"The power of voodoo." I said the last word in a ghostly voice and if Naruto was an animal, you would have probably seen his hair stand on end... I forgot Naruto was extremely afraid of ghosts.

"Voodoo?"

"You do... remind me of the babe." I finished and Naruto growled.

"There's no damn babe around ya know teme now shut up." Naruto said and I smiled Sasuke's malicious smile as Naruto took a larger step ahead and I let him... I had my fun for the time being. "Hey Sasuke... What's that?!" Naruto yelled throwing a kunai into a bush as everyone but me tensed up.

"I'm going to go on a wild guess here and say it's a snowy rabbit." I said with a finger pointing up like a genius and my eyes closed. "Hey Kakashi-sensei, you be the tie breaker." I said to the already nervous man for what was to come.

"Sasuke-kun, why would you say something highly improbable?" Sakura asked as Kakashi stepped through the bushes. Kakashi looked down and I could literally see the aura coming off of Kakashi, he hated that I was right first of all plus Zabuza was near, he could probably tell that too.

"Because my dear Sakura-chan, it is not improbable." I said with a smirk and decided to caress her under her chin as she all but melted into a pile on the floor, drooling and with hearts in her eyes as I walked over nearer to Kakashi as did Naruto.

"I'm so sorry little rabbit!" Naruto cried, kneeling on the floor with the extremely shocked white rabbit in his arms as Sakura's face turned to humoured shock as her fingers twitched. I blinked at Naruto before I noticed Kakashi had moved off, trying to look all James Bond like, or a lone ranger but he was tense... Tight like a tiger! Cautious like the wind and smooth like the very water that flows.

"I just said that out loud didn't I?" I asked the bewildered Sakura who just sighed, almost like steam came out of her ears as she slumped, giving up trying to figure out the bizarre situation. "Oh by the way sen-sei... Maybe we should..."

"Everyone duck!" Kakashi ordered as we all dropped to our stomachs, a giant UFO flying over our heads before it made a huge gap and thunk into a nearby tree as one lone figure stood on its handle.

"Momochi Zabuza-sama sensei senpai san sama..." I spoke in a low and serious voice. "kun..." I added in a whisper as we stood up. The wind blew dramatically as his headband ties blew in the wind that conveniently began to blow as he looked over his shoulder at us and his back facing us just as dramatically. Why did the song 'Dead or Alive' by Bon Jovi come to mind right now, great now it's stuck in my head, oh well... Theme song no jutsu!

Naruto was shaking from both fear and excitement... or he swallowed a cell phone and now someone's calling it or... Maybe he was just a Chihuahua in disguise or maybe he was just constipated or...

"Oh my, my, you are Momochi Zabuza the exiled ninja of Kirigakure." Kakashi interrupted my musing of staring at Naruto, I suppose he was getting me back for interrupting his fun on graduation day when I kept interrupting him. Naruto tried running in before Kakashi held his hand out to stop him, yeah, we'd get our asses pwned right now if we even tried to fight him and get in the way. "You're in the way. Stay back everyone."

"So if you rhetorically get caught into some sort of, let's say... some sort of moist prison and useless to do anything, then can we interfere?" I asked as Kakashi's one eye glared back at me and I just raised an eyebrow in challenge... That bastard just continued to glare at me as he reached for his slanted headband and slowly pulled it up right before opening the blood red eye of the sharingan and I would swear he was smirking under that mask like a kid taunting another kid about having something the other didn't... That's exactly what he's doing isn't he? I pouted in annoyance and crossed my arms as he turned his attention back to the enemy.

"I'm guessing you're Sharingan no Kakashi then? Sorry but you'll need to hand over the old geezer." Zabuza said and I shrugged.

"Sorry, we're not plumbers and we don't carry old geezers with us, you must have the wrong people." I said with a sad sigh for him and the crickets chirped before Kakashi sighed exasperatedly.

"Just form the Swastika formation Sasuke... Naruto, Sakura." Kakashi commanded as we followed his orders, standing at the ready with Tazuna in the middle of children... This scene was wrong in so many ways, it should be the old protecting the young but this is the ninja world, where all the rules are screwed because we have chakra... Nice... "Protect Tazuna-san. Do not join the battle at all costs, that is teamwork for this battle."

"Teamwork my ass." I hissed under my breath as I held a kunai at the ready.

"I'm honoured that I can see the sharingan that I've heard about. It's scary to know that that eye can understand how an opponent's jutsu works and copy it." Zabuza said as mist began to fill the area and I tensed up... Even thought it was misty now, it suddenly felt as if I had just walked into a sauna as my skin began to break out into a sweat and I was scared, like your worst fear coming true... "When I was in Kirigakure's assassination squad, your information was listed in the bingo book I carried, asking for your capture. It also noted this... The man who has copied over 1000 jutsus, Copy Ninja Kakashi... Let's cut the chit chat here, I have to kill that geezer right away."

"Bitch please..." I said under my breath and I didn't care if that half a face mummy guy heard me.

"But Kakashi, it seems I have to defeat you first." Zabuza said.

'Yeah and if you two didn't pussy foot around each other in this first place, this whole mess would have been easier to clean up.' I sighed mentally as Zabuza dislodged his giant ass sword and disappeared into the mist, appearing on the water's surface before he disappeared again... Hey was that lake there before? I swear we were just walking that way...

The tension built up as the mist became heavy and thick around us and it was hard to draw in a breath... Exactly what Sasuke said the first time around, it was like you couldn't take any more pressure and felt as if death was the only way out as my hand surprisingly shook... This was new to me, in my old life I had faced death before and no, the car accident which I think threw me into all of this didn't count, or evading the police. A gun to your head would equate this very situation.

"Sasuke..." Kakashi called as I was snapped out of my flashback. "Don't worry, I don't let my comrades die." He said and I did smile slightly, this was the first time he wasn't being a first rate asshole.

Okay, so fast forwards, Zabuza appears in our formation, Kakashi rushes back towards us and pushes us out of the way before receiving a boot to the head and landing in that lake... Seriously, I swear that mass of water is getting closer... Oh sorry, back to the action scene at hand that everyone knows how it plays out. So Boot to the head, Kakashi in the water, thinks it feels strange and now he is trapped in a ball of water, or a moist prison like I said earlier.

"So sensei, can we act now that you got caught into the moist prison I mentioned earlier?" I shouted over to him, cutting off Zabuza's supposed victory speech.

"Are you brain damaged or something?" Zabuza finally asked with annoyance.

"Probably... You know, my mom did smoke and when I was born she traded me for a cup of coffee and a sandwich. By the way, don't you have some sort of speech to make, something like 'I now have you captain and you're little genin so hand over the old man and I'll let him go' or 'I'm going to cut you all up with my big ass sword' or something, I can't remember exactly." I sighed, rolling my eyes and crossing my arms, I did try to deepen and muffle my voice to copy Zabuza but I don't think it worked very well, I probably just sounded constipated...

"Your idiotic cockiness will get you into trouble one day and today might just be that day kid." Zabuza growled as he made a water shadow clone and it came towards us. "Now, I am going to get rid of you." Naruto and Kakashi probably had the same looks on their faces of fear as another Zabuza rose out of the water as if he was on an elevator… It was totally cool, I'm so going to learn how to do that! My inner me was dancing around and celebrating the fact Kakashi looked slightly serious for once… If it wasn't for the fact he was currently useless and trapped in a ball of water... Oh! And that stupid, stupid mask, I mean seriously, I can wear something like that for a minute yet alone most of my life, I mean come on!

"The three of you have headbands on as if you think you're ninjas. But ninja refers to someone who has gone through numerous life or death situations. In other words, you can call yourself ninja when you appear in my bingo book… You three aren't ninja." Zabuza said as he disappeared in the mist and I pulled out a little note pad and wrote that down. "What the hell are you doing now?" Zabuza holding Kakashi captive shouted at me with frustrated anger.

"What does it look like? I'm taking notes, you just gave me some very valuable information and FYI, everyone has to start somewhere but it's not like we can go around killing someone unless we have this headband on now can we? Just because we may be wearing a headband doesn't mean anything now if we were wearing one of those snazzy chunin jackets then maybe we're somewhere between useless like Sakura…"

"Hey!"

"… And the type of 'ninja' you're looking for, but again I say everyone has to start somewhere." I said back with irritation as I had finished with my writing and put the pad away and everyone had the same look again… Disbelief and worry.

"Ya know, even though you have a stupid point there… WILL YOU CONCENTRATE TEME!" Naruto yelled as I shivered and ducked on amazing instinct as there was a swoosh over my head and caught the glint of a blade in the corner of my eye, I was thankful Naruto yelled like a scared little girl, he alerted me Zabuza was right behind me. I felt so like Kakashi in that moment, that explains why he's such an ass and always avoiding attacks.

"First I'll deal with loud mouth over there…" Zabuza said as he appeared in front of Naruto and kneed him in the chin as his headband fell off and he skidded backwards. "But in the end, you're just kids."

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, oh how cliché, she always yells his name and does nothing wait… Why aren't I doing anything? I puffed out my chest and clenched my fists.

"I'll save you!"

"No! You must take Tazuna-san and run! He can't go anywhere as long as he has me in this water prison! You can't win against him so run!" Kakashi yelled with panic in his voice and I rolled my eyes.

"You've got to be kidding me… Three little, almost newly graduated genin trying to run away might have been possible but throw a civilian into the mix? Sensei, we're screwed without you, there's only one option… To save you Sensei!" I looked to my teammates and sighed… Both Sakura and Naruto were shaking like leaves and yes maybe I should be scared too but you'd feel invincible too if you went from normal human to ninja with inner peace… No, wait, not inner peace, what was that word again… Oh yes, inner Sasuke as I call him… It… Well my ninja senses! You get the point okay!

Back to the battle at plan… Okay so, I run in, Naruto feels pain and it turns into the power of friendship and caring for comrades, give us a ridiculously convoluted plan that involves throwing multiple shurikens so Naruto can sneak up behind Zabuza and attack him… Of course saving Kakashi (BOO!) But it has to be done and so I cringed, thinking about what I was going to do next… It's going to hurt… Here I go…

Datte-fucking-bayo

Oh wait, Naruto went first as he charged at him with a yell and Kakashi (quite pathetically) shouted at him to stop. Sure Naruto might have been kicked away but how the hell did he manage to snag his headband back, I swear this kid is the most talented ninja of all time, if he thought things through first? But this is the very reason why the manga and anime are called 'Naruto' is it not?

"Naruto! What were you thinking charging in on your own? Even Sasuke-kun is no match against him. Genin like ourselves have no way of defeating him no matter what we try." Sakura yelled at him.

"Well you were the one who told him to do something." I said to her and she blushed slightly and choked on her words, oh yeah, one point to me! "Besides, would you rather lay down and die of go out fighting? I came into this world kicking and screaming covered in blood… I plan to go out the same way. Am I right Naruto?" I asked with a smirk as he had battled to stand up and tied his headband back on.

"You got that right teme. Put this in your bingo book no brows… The man who'll become Hokage of Konoha one day, Konoha's number one ninja, Uzumaki Naruto! Sasuke, lend me your ear for a second, I have a plan!" Naruto said and I stepped up to him and vaguely listened to the plan, I of course knew what was going to happen but I needed the finer details and I nodded.

"Let's do this!"

"Let's go wild!" Naruto grinned.

"You seem quite confident but do you even have a chance of victory?" Zabuza asked and it took all of my will not to open my mouth about what we were going to do, it was genius!

"What are you all doing?! I told you to run away! The outcome of this battle was decided when I got captured! Our mission is to protect Tazuna-san, did you forget that?!" Kakashi yelled at us.

"Will you just shut up for five seconds you lazy perverted Cyclops bastard! Do you think we really didn't know that? We may be just kids and genin but we know that, we either stand here and fight or we lay down and die because there is no way in hell we'd be able to outrun him before he kills Tazuna and then us just for spite, making you watch as more of your loved ones die… Just shut up will you?" I said and closed my eyes as my teeth clenched and my fists curled tightly… Stupid feelings…

"Old man?" Naruto asked Tazuna.

"Don't worry, I caused all of this in the first place. I won't say that I want to survive no matter what… Sorry everyone, fight all you want!" Tazuna said valiantly, at least he was being honest now after our little Q and A about those chunin earlier.

"Are you ready?" Naruto questioned Zabuza cockily with a grin but Zabuza just began to laugh.

"You sure don't learn do you? Still pretending to be ninja… When I was your age my hands were already covered in blood." Zabuza boasted as everyone gasped but Kakashi and I.

"Look, no one cares that you killed an entire class of pre-genin and you weren't even a ninja… Your Bloody Kirigakure works differently than ours and maybe other villages now will you shut up too? I swear you jonin boast too much, this is why ANBU die so easily." I complained and Zabuza chuckled as Naruto and Sakura stared in horror.

"So even a lowly kid like yourself knows about me huh? But that was definitely fun." Shit…

I didn't even register the pain until I was nearly finished rolling along the floor, even then I didn't get time to register that before that pain intensified tenfold by the elbow I received in the same place and I got winded and blood flew out of my mouth. I'd never felt that intensity of pain before as I battled with my inner turmoil, it was like the slice of a knife and the jolt of falling, hundreds of times worse and at the same time as I battled to breath and ignore the angry sting of Zabuza's foot digging into my stomach still. Breathing hurt, even the thought of moving hurt as I was released and heard Naruto yelling, rattling in my brain like an echo… Clones duh!

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, breaking me out of my self-pity as I scrambled up and caught the demon windmill and turned, slipping the other one out of my bag, I had nearly forgotten it that morning until I ran over the Wave arc in my head and packed it awkwardly but it worked somehow as I allowed my inner self to focus as I had been learning over the last three months I had been here.

Who knows if I'll ever look as epic as Sasuke did back then as my fingers slipped through the rings expertly and separated the two blades, slipping my middle and ring finger in between to separate the two windmill shuriken. You could definitely feel warmth and life from the shuriken Naruto gave me…

"Windmill Shuriken, the Shadow Windmill." I focused on jumping up before I yelled with all my might, throwing both of them and letting the second one linger on my fingers just into the other one's shadow as it sped towards Zabuza with surprising accuracy saying this was me but I did have that odd talent of being able to throw perfectly when I wasn't aiming perfectly… Thank god because if I was concentrating, I probably would have missed. It sped past his clone and at the real one as he caught it and the other one came into sight. He jumped over the second one as it transformed and Naruto appeared, throwing a kunai for Zabuza's hand and he had to release the moist prison, releasing the kraken… Sorry Kakashi… Starts with the same letter…

To say Zabuza was thoroughly pissed would be an understatement as blood came from a cut just below his eye and he glared back at Naruto, already spinning the shuriken he caught earlier until Kakashi's hand stopped him… Bu right now I'd bet on Kakashi's rage rather than Zabuza's… That look was definitely a mother hen look of 'You tried to hurt my cubs and I'll kill you for sure this time' and it somehow made me smile, dammit, feelings again.

"Naruto, your plan was impressive. You have all definitely grown." Kakashi praised and Naruto giggled with victory.

"I used the shadow replication technique to hide the fact that I transformed into a windmill shuriken but I didn't do it to defeat Zabuza. I left one of my clones and transformed into a windmill shuriken then my clone threw me to Sasuke. He noticed it was me right after he caught it and took out his own to use the shadow windmill. I hid in the shadow of the real shuriken and went straight for Zabuza, I knew that I couldn't beat Zabuza just by that of course but I thought that if I could just break the water prison, maybe things would turn around., we were also able to get rid of the water clone so it was a success." Naruto boasted and I just smirked and hn'ed.

"I lost myself temporarily and cancelled the water prison jutsu…" Zabuza tried to cover.

"No, you didn't cancel the jutsu, you were forced to." Kakashi said and Zabuza growled. "Just let me tell you that the same jutsu won't work twice on me. What are you going to do now?!

"KICK HIS ASS SENSEI!" I yelled with a grin, yeah, I'm so failing as Sasuke right now. Kakashi knocked the windmill shuriken away as they jumped apart and began performing the same hand seals and ended in the bird seal as two water dragons rose and were equally matched as they formed hand seals again and Kakashi completed them as a giant wave washed Zabuza away before his limbs were paralyzed by shuriken… I almost felt like I was having a shower as the water washed over all of us and Kakashi landed in the tree above Zabuza.

"Why… Can you see the future?" Zabuza asked Kakashi.

"Yeah. You're going to die." Kakashi responded.

'Eventually.' I added in my head. Cue senbon needles into Zabuza's neck as he collapsed to the ground and we all watched in surprise, I mean seriously, it looked as if the guy really was dead!

"It was true… He did die." Haku said calmly.

"Do you know how unfair and anti-climactic that was for us?!" I yelled at Haku but he stood there, stupid mask again, he's probably doing a happy dance under there and wanting to laugh at how stupid we are. Kakashi jumped down next to the 'body' and checked his pulse as Naruto was climbing out of the water.

"He really is dead." Kakashi confirmed and Haku bowed.

"Thank you very much. I was looking for a chance to kill Zabuza."

"The mask… if I remember correctly you must be a hunter nin from Kirigakure." Kakashi confirmed and Naruto skidded over to us.

"A hunter nin?"

"You don't even know what a hunter nin is… We learned it in the academy. They are assassins that assassinate exiled ninja like Zabuza who, for some reason, go against the village they were born in. They do it to conceal any secrets of their village. That's common sense, you should study more." Sakura scolded.

'Yeah and you should eat and exercise more." I mentally sighed… Three more months… Just three more months until she starts to train more.

"Yes, I am a member of the pursuing ninja unit that hunt exiled ninja." Haku said as the wind dramatically picked up. Naruto was sad, angry and frustrated as he looked between Haku and Kakashi who was still crouched by Zabuza's body… poor kid, it's hard to understand, even for me… Who the hell dies from two senbon needles, seriously?!

"Who the hell are you?! Who are you?!" Naruto demanded.

"Calm down Naruto. He's not an enemy." Kakashi explained, standing and putting his hands in his pockets.

"That's not what I'm asking! But… Zabuza was killed! He… He was so strong but he was killed so easily by a kid that's not much different from me. We… We look like idiots. I can't accept this!" Naruto yelled at Kakashi as Kakashi battled to walk over to Naruto but he was covering it quite well but his movements were forced, oh I'm so going to rub this into his face, I get punched, kneed and ground into the floor and I'm still fine but he gets trapped in a ball of water and uses two jutsu and passes out, no one could miss the opportunity!

"I understand how you can't believe it. But this is real." Kakashi explained and put his hand on Naruto's head, I swear he was using him for balance. "In this world, there are kids who are younger than you and stronger than me." Kakashi explained as his eyes moved over to me and I just shrugged as Naruto glared at me… Dammit, so close to becoming friends, all gone down the drain because of him again, it's fine, I'm still able to get him back… Soon my revenge shall be released upon him…

"Your battle ends here for now. I must go dispose of the corpse. It's a body filled with secrets. If you'll excuse me." Haku said as he appeared next to Zabuza and picked him up before shunshinning away. Naruto ran to where Haku was as Kakashi slid his headband back over his eye.

"He's not around here anymore." Kakashi said and Naruto made a strangled noise of frustration as he knelt down and began punching the ground.

"What was that?! What were we… Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!" Naruto yelled in frustration before Kakashi caught his wrist.

"Things like this happen when you are a ninja. If you don't like it, make it up next time." Kakashi said and Naruto slumped over in defeat and Kakashi turned to us. "Our mission hasn't ended yet. We need to get Tazuna-san to his house."

"Sorry about that everyone. Just rest at my house!" Tazuna said.

"Good because we're going to need it in three…" Kakashi wavered slightly. "two…" Kakashi began to fall and I was having a mental argument. "One…" I had too much of a soft heart as I softened Kakashi's fall slightly.

"What… What happened?!" Sakura asked with panic.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"He's over used the sharingan, the idiot. NOT IT FOR CARRYING HIM!" I yelled and began to run even as my own body protested… I couldn't wait to rub this into his face!