Shou sprinted forward and dashed between the mirrors to where his teammate had fallen.

Checking the Hatake's pulse, he knew that he was still alive, just out cold.

The Uchiha had never wished for his clan's kekkei genkai as much as in this moment as he tried to predict what sides the opponent's attacks were coming from. Even without the sharingan, Shou was quick on his feet, even quicker than Rezaa, and able to deflect most needles coming at him and his unconscious teammate with his kunai.

"Yo!" he suddenly heard from beside him when the barrage of needles finally stopped.

"I came to save you!" Naruto grinned.

"Hn, you would have been more useful on the outside."

"What? What do you mean?"

Before he could reply, they were hit by another senbon attack.

"Man, I really wish Ben-chan was here. I bet he could melt these mirrors," Naruto complained as he failed to dodge most needles. Unlike his teammates, he didn't seem to be bothered at all by the scratches they were leaving on him.

—

Benetto and Sakura were making their way to the bridge when they ran into Kokomi.

"Kokomi?" Benetto asked, "What are you doing here?"

He suddenly noticed the shiba she was carrying in her arms. He'd never seen a dog that looked at him with such suspicion.

"You're with Hatake, aren't you?" she asked them.

Sakura furrowed her brows, "How do you know that? Who are you?"

"I have no time to explain, come with me."

—

Zabuza had replaced himself with a water clone and was aiming for Tazuna.

Sasuke noticed but was not quick enough to do anything as the executioner's blade was swung towards him.

"Zabuza-sensei!" a high voice called out, making the wordsman halt his blade.

An unfamiliar pink-haired girl had arrived with Sasuke's teammates in tow.

"What are you doing here?" Zabuza grunted.

The fight within the ice mirrors stopped as well as the leaf ninja wondered about the Demon of the Mist associating with a petite pink-haired girl with.. was that a puppy in her arms?

"It's Gato," Kokomi explained, "Gorou overheard him talking."

"He's planning on killing you and Haku to avoid having to pay us," Gorou explained.

A talking puppy, the Konoha-nin thought. Something like this had never been seen outside of the Inuzuka or Hatake family homes.

Meanwhile, the former kiri-nin had other things to worry about.

Zabuza cursed as he motioned Haku to release Kakashi's students. "I'm going to kill that bastard," he remarked.

"H-Haku?" Naruto questioned.

The masked nin inclined their head and took off the mask that had been covering their face.

"Is that the person you met in the woods?" Shou asked his teammate.

"Yes! The one I told you about!"

"Hn."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Zabuza turned to look at the two Konoha jonin, "It seems you are no longer my enemies. Lucky for you."

Kakashi vaguely heard Gaia retort something sarcastic as he made his way to where his son was lying on the bridge.

Upon inspecting him, he saw that most of his wounds were shallow.

"Is he okay?" Benetto asked.

Kakashi nodded, "He'll be fine."

"If you don't mind," Kokomi spoke up, "I could heal him."

"Really?" benetto asked, "That's so cool! We don't have any healers with us."

"Which is not something you tell your enemies," Kakashi said drily.

"But Kokomi-san isn't our enemy!"

The pink-haired girl gave a small smile before summoning up a water jellyfish to heal the Hatake.

"What is that?" Sakura asked, joining the four of them.

"I'm not entirely sure," the other pink-haired kunoichi admitted, "I call them water spirits. They come when I need them."

Just as she finished talking, Rezaa blinked awake and came face to face with Gorou.

"He's up!" the dog remarked.

Rezaa blinked again and turned to his father, "Did Akino have pups you didn't tell me about?"

"I'm not a pup!" Gorou argued. "I'm a better shinobi than you are!"

Rezaa stretched out his hand and started petting the ninken between his ears.

—

Kakashi ended up joining Zabuza and Haku in annihilating Gato and his men while Gaia and Kokomi remained with the genin and Gorou at the bridge.

It took the trio a couple of days to completely get rid of Gato's corporation, during which Tazuna offered them a roof over their head while they helped work on the bridge.

"Come on then," Zabuza said when they returned.

"Where are you going?" Naruto asked when Kokomi and Gorou joined Haku at Zabuza's side.

"We will continue to be mercenaries," Haku explained to him.

"But you don't have a village, so can't you come with us?" Benetto asked, having grown closer to Kokomi over the few days they spent together.

Zabuza lifted a thin eyebrow, "We're missing-nin, not puppies," he looked at Gorou, "at least most of us are."

"According to Konoha law," Sakura, who had also formed an easy friendship with Kokomi, chimed in, "As long as you are not currently affiliated with another village, you can request citizenship. And the pay as a leaf shinobi would be better than that of a missing-nin."

The swordsman glared down at the three genin.

"Maa," Kakashi remarked, "you can't just go around trying to recruit missing-nin."

"They are strong shinobi," Rezaa told his father, "It would be good for the village."

Kokomi, Kakashi figure, must be one hell of a friend to have if even Rezaa agreed to the idea. Then again, he had probably been persuaded by the puppy.

Kakashi sighed and looked at Gaia. The blue-haired jonin looked mostly amused.

Zabuza's gaze shifted to his own students who were both looking at him expectantly, trying to figure out what he would do.

On one hand, Zabuza was still planning on returning to Kiri to overthrow Yagura. On the other hand, the Konoha kunoichi was right, being a leaf-nin would pay a lot better.

Whatever.

"Let's go then," he grunted, pushing past Kakashi in the direction he knew Konoha to be.

What followed were numerous hours of having to listen to the brat in an orange jumpsuit prattle on about everything and nothing. How did he have so much energy?

He sure hoped Konoha would be worth it.