Not long after Team 7 had left with Gaia-sensei and Sasuke, the door of Tazuna's house flew open.
Two swordsmen pushed their way inside, surprising Tsunami into letting the plate she was washing slip from her fingers and break.
As soon as they heard the bang, Benetto and Sakura were positioned in front of the thugs, kunai drawn.
The smaller one of them scoffed, "Are you kids really trying to stop us?"
Benetto would have liked to use a fire technique at that moment but with his luck we would probably accidentally torch down the house.
Luckily, Gaia-sensei had been instructing Sakura in genjutsu almost since their team first formed.
"What do you want?" Benetto asked, distracting them from the three hand seals that Sakura was forming.
"Step aside, kids, we're just gonna take Tazuna's daughter and no one has to get hurt."
Benetto let himself get pushed aside as the two thugs pushed into the house to find Tsunami.
They walked right past the woman in question.
"She's not here", the bigger of the two said.
"Damm it, she must have heard us and escaped out of one of the kitchen windows," remarked the other.
Without sparing a glance at the genin, they left the house to try and find Tsunami.
"How?" the woman asked, still shaking in fright.
"False Surrounding Technique," Sakura explained, "I made it seem like you're not here. They're not ninja, so they don't know how to combat genjutsu."
Tsunami looked like she hadn't completely understood it but didn't ask any more questions.
"We should head after them," Sakura suggested, "They might come back if they don't find her outside."
Benetto nodded, "Good idea, you okay with being backup?"
Sakura nodded as well, hiding her relief at not having to be the main offence.
"Let's go then," Benetto grinned and the two genin rushed outside after the thugs.
"What is this?" Tazuna asked as they arrived at the bridge.
All the other workers were either knocked out cold or dead.
"I see you couldn't wait to go another round," Kakashi spoke.
Suddenly, Zabuza was on the other side of the bridge with the hunter-nin from earlier at his side. They were surrounded by mist.
"I see you've still got those brats with you," the swordsman remarked.
At once, they were surrounded by Zabuza's clones.
The clones attacked but were quickly cut down by the Leaf ninja.
Kakashi's eye crinkled in a mocking smile, "The brats have proven quite useful."
"Yes," Zabuza remarked and turned to the hunter-nin, "It seems you got yourself some rivals, Haku," the last part was said too quietly for the Konoha nin to hear.
"So it seems."
"We were right then, it was all just an act," Gaia said.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
Rezaa explained to his teammate, "The hunter-nin is not an actual hunter-nin at all. He just wore the mask to trick us into surrendering Zabuza to him."
"Oh!"
Then the genin looked on with wide eyes as the mysterious shinobi spun around himself and whirled towards them in what seemed like a small tornado.
"Sasuke-kun, you're protecting Tazuna," Gaia ordered, "Team Kakashi, you're dealing with the fake hunter-nin."
Not waiting for a confirmation, Gaia and Kakashi both leapt past the other ninja to get to Zabuza.
The Hunter-nin dashed forward, attacking Rezaa with a long senbon needle. The Hatake blocked the attack with one of his kunai.
"We're not after you," the Hunter-nin said, his voice sounding very soft, "I don't want to have to kill you, step aside. You cannot keep up with my speed."
"I will not let you kill him," Rezaa denied.
"So be it," they formed seals with their free hand, "A Thousand Needles of Death!"
The water around them rose up into the air and morphed into sharp needle-like projectiles.
—
The two of them snuck up on the swordsmen, Benetto going through hands seals as fast as he could.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet!"
A jet of fire shot out towards the thugs. The smaller, grey-haired, one managed to escape but his companion wasn't quick enough.
Screaming, the tall man jumped into the nearby water to douse himself from the flames.
"You'll pay for that!" the grey-haired one yelled, unsheathing his sword.
Benetto ducked underneath his blow and pulled out a kunai to swipe at the guy's middle.
The thug jumped back and Benetto followed quickly, the two exchanging blows.
Sakura used this time to watch what the other man was doing. After killing the flames on him, he had dragged himself to the riverside and was not getting up.
They didn't have to fear him attacking them anymore.
Benetto hissed when his arm was cut but immediately used his opponent's smugness to his advantage and managed to disarm the thug, kicking the sword towards Sakura who quickly disposed of it in the ocean.
The grey-haired thug lifted his hands in surrender, "Hey now, I think that's enough. I'll leave."
Benetto narrowed his eyes, "You promise you won't harm this family anymore?"
"Yeah! I promise!"
Benetto stepped back to let the thug pass them. He was about to turn away when the thug moved towards him again.
He didn't even have time to react before Sakura was suddenly behind the thug.
"Cha!" she called out and punched him in the back of the head will full force.
The thug collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
Sakura looked down at him in surprise, "I didn't know I could do that."
Benetto laughed, "That was great! Let's tie them both up and go warn sensei about them."
The pink-haired kunoichi gave a determined nod and the two went to work.
—
The water needles shot towards Rezaa.
"Wind Release: Gale Palm!" Shao called out, he had his hands clapped together and released a gale of wind, knocking the water projectiles away from his teammate.
The water lost its form and splashed back onto the bridge.
"You're not as fast as you think you are," the Uchiha remarked.
"That was so cool, dattebayo!" Naruto called out, "You got to teach me that!"
"Naruto, concentrate," Shao reprimanded him.
"Yeah, yeah, but you gotta teach me that, alright?"
Shao sighed, "Fine, now concentrate."
They looked briefly to where Zabuza was fending off both Kakshi and Gaia before concentrating back on Rezaa, who had been engaging the false hunter-nin in a taijutsu battle.
Rezaa landed a hit on the enemy and started going through a series of hand seals. He had almost formed his third when his opponent formed a strange hand seal of their own.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this."
The Hatake watched with wide eyes as ice started forming out of thin air around him.
"Hidden Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors!"
Before he could move away, Rezaa was surrounded by several mirrors made of ice.
The hunter-nin stepped forward and their image was suddenly on all the mirrors.
Rezaa could vaguely hear his teammates exclaim from outside but all his attention was on his opponent.
"Now we can begin," their soft voice said, "and I will show you my true speed!"
From all directions, senbon started shooting at the young Hatake. He was trying to evade them as best he could but was impossible to dodge them all. Screaming, they cowered on the bridge, trying to protect any vital parts from the sharp needles.
When the barrage stopped, he looked up for a moment to see that his assailant had caught a kunai that one of his teammates had thrown before collapsing onto the cold bridge floor.