Akane sat in the boat with her legs pulled up to her chest and bit her lip, watching her sensei speak in a hushed tone to the boat driver. They were pulling in with no engine. The mist gave them cover as they moved through the water. Akane strained her ears but couldn't even hear the sound of her own breathing after a while. There were no workers, pounding away on the unfinished bridge that Tazuna-san was supposed to be building. He'd said most people were too afraid to even show up to work. Sometimes-Tazuna admitted-they didn't show up because he couldn't pay them every month. But if the bridge was just built, he reasoned.

"I say we keep going," Akane had said after listening to the man tearfully tell them his story. She already knew it, but that was beside the point. Tenzo-sensei explained to her that going forward meant they might be facing stronger enemies. He should have known better than to think that she cared. The Nerd and Genji agreed with her. Weird, Kabuto never agreed with her about anything.

Akane sensed as far as she could manage as slowly as possible but she couldn't feel them. But they were incoming, weren't they? Or were they waiting? Akane couldn't remember and that made her queasy. Tenzo-sensei kept looking at her, would he be disappointed if she couldn't spot them? What if he lost faith in her and-

"INCOMING!" Akane screamed, lunging for Tazuna and yanking him out of the way of the huge sword that chopped their rowboat in half. Akane quickly grabbed Tazuna around the middle and lifted him on her back, stepping up on the water's surface. Standing with her team. Tenzo-sensei grabbed the old man from her and the four of them jumped onto the unfinished bridge. Akane looked down at the water and saw with a heavy heart that no one had thought to grab the boat driver. He floated on his stomach but quickly became obscured by the mist that shot up from below team twenty. It clouded everything and they instantly formed a protective circle around Tazuna.

Akane's heart beat in her chest hard enough she worried that her ribs might bruise. Kabuto shoulder checked her and spun Tazuna away from where he was standing. Just in time, a sword taller than the client's body was embedded in the dirt. Tenzo-sensei ordered them to create distance. They jumped back ten feet. Akane popped a soldier pill, she hadn't regained all her chakra from the day before. Kabuto pulled out his shiny silver scalpels and Akane wondered if he realized they were at a severe disadvantage when the swordsman materialized in the mist, standing on the hilt of his sword.

"You brats just don't know when to quit, do you?" A rough voice said, cold like a knife on the back of your neck. He laughed a bit, lowering himself into a sitting position on his leg. But Akane knew he was just as ready to go as he was standing. "You killed those brothers," the gray man said and Akane flinched. Kabuto's head snapped to her and she clenched her hands, swallowing thickly. The nukenin looked at her and she saw real hatred behind his eyes. She shoved the panic down and crouched into a ready position. "You're first kill?" The man asked, tilting his head to the side. "By the time I was your age, young lady, I'd killed a thousand people. Which one'd you kill?"

Akane swallowed the lump in her throat and rolled her shoulders. "To be honest, I never caught his name."

"The one you burned? You didn't know his name."

Akane wretched, covering her mouth. She could feel her scant breakfast rising in her throat. She didn't let the burning in her eyes turn to tears. "No…I didn't."

"Selfish…"

The only warning before Akane felt a punch to her gut that finally set her lunch free. Akane heard Tenzo-sensei and her teammates calling her name. He kneed her in the face and she flew twenty feet into the air, blood gushing from her nose. She blinked once, twice, and realized that Genji had grabbed her and broke what would have been a very painful fall. Zabuza followed them and bashed Genji in the throat with his elbow. Genji gasped and fell on top of Akane. Tenzo-sensei was there in the next few beats of Akane's heart, blocking a deadly downward swing of his mighty sword. Zabuza's muscles rippled and he hissed in pain.

"Right, forgot why I was here," Zabuza muttered and wrenched his sword out of the wood, but Tenzo kicked it back and punched Zabuza in the softest part of his face. His nose bled slower than Akane's did, but he still seemed pissed. He grabbed Tenzo by the head and slammed forehead into the sharper corner of the wood. Akane launched herself up and stuck her finger in between the beam and her teacher's head. He grunted and she screamed when her middle finger popped.

Kabuto slammed his scalpel through Zabuza's neck but it hardly seemed to phase the man who swat the teen away like he was a fly. Kabuto managed to recover in midair and threw a shuriken so fast that Akane's eyes couldn't follow it. It struck Zabuza between the eyes and he dissolved into a puddle of putrified water.

"It was just…a clone," Genji gasped, managing to pull himself off the ground.

"No!" Tenzo shouted and launched himself towards Tazuna, grabbing the old man like a princess and jumping into a tree when a paper bomb flew towards the space he was standing. Tenzo-sensei dropped him in a heap at his feet and looked at the tree-line, where evil laughter creeped into their ears. Akane felt like she was being hunted. Like she was a rabbit. But why was he a shark? Tenzo's eyes quickly scanned them all. "I need you all to trust me," he said quickly, in Konoha's tongue of origin. "Genji and Akane, you two need to take Tazuna and run. Kabuto and I are the only ones strong enough to fight this man."

"What?" Zabuza asked from the trees with a giggle. "Think I never learned?"

Akane wanted to argue, she wanted to stomp her feet, and demand her superior reconsider. But she could never disobey him when he looked at her like she was their last hope. Genji grabbed Tazuna and the two of them ran. They leapt over Zabuza's hidden spot into the trees and ran over the water, back towards the Land of Fire.

"No!" Tazuna shouted, slamming his fists into Genji's back. "My daughter! My grandson!"

They ignored him, following the scent towards a safe house that would take them twenty-nine hours to reach if they ran nonstop. Akane wondered if Tenzo would hold Zabuza off for that long. Or maybe the Nerd and Tenzo could manage to kill Zabuza?

Tazuna and his bridge were more trouble than they were worth and had severely lowered his chances of survival by not telling the mission desk how dangerous this mission really was. There were at least twelve people who could have ripped the nukenin apart. But all he had were a few embarrassingly veteran Genin.

Genji was scanning the trees with his eyes but didn't see his own reflection until it was too late. He slammed into the ice mirror and both he and the client plummeted. Akane grabbed the back of Tazuna's shirt and threw him into a bush then she twisted and planted her feet into a tree, using it as a springboard to launch herself at Genji and grab him and help him get to his feet. The two of them ran on the ground towards the bush and grabbed the old man. They ran, ran like hell, dodging ice mirrors as they went, most blending into the trees like perfect traps. Tazuna had pissed himself at some point. Genji stopped and turned around, yanking his sword from his sheath and deflecting twelve senbon, stopping them from killing all three of them.

A figure with their dark hair in a bun on their head and a white porcelain mask. Akane shivered and her hands flew through the signs, minding their position, and blasted a fireball towards the figure. Their new enemy melted and hundreds of senbon started to rain down on them from the trees. Haku moved so fast that Akane couldn't follow them with her eyes. "RUN!" She screamed, yanking Tazuna by the arm and pulling him off the path and through the trees. Genji jumped around them, blocking the thin metal from grazing them, though he caught a few to the fingers on his right hand and a few up his right leg.

"I guess Sensei was right," Genji gasped, swiping away another hailstorm. He seemed out of breath and wiped his forehead. Akane turned to say something and a circular disk of ice sliced through the air, severing Tazuna's head from his shoulders. Genji and Akane were silent as Tazuna fell to the ground. His knees hitting the leaves before the rest of him tipped backwards. His face-looking at them from where his head gazed at them from the dirt-didn't even look surprised.

"Mission complete," Haku said, jumping over them and grabbing Tazuna's head by his gray hair. They disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Akane looked at Genji who dropped to his knees and closed his eyes, clenching his hand into a fist.

Akane touched his shoulder. "Let's go back," she said.

Genji screamed and used a powerful burst of chakra into his feet to hit the ground running back towards where Haku and Zabuza were now teaming up to face their teacher. Akane ran desperately after him, making note of where the body was so the family would have something for later. But the faster he ran, the further behind Akane got until her could no longer see his back.

"I am the worst ninja ever!" Akane screamed.

Tenzo smashed Zabuza between two pillars of wood and Kabuto slashed over the man's throat. Tenzo noted once more the savagery of the young silver haired medic that rounded out his new team. But he was strong, Tenzo had to give him that. He had no more time to think, the captured one was another clone and something that certainly felt real slammed a fist full of water onto his face and stopped him from breathing.

Not ideal.

Tenzo tried to kick Zabuza and Kabuto countered when he missed, though he was starting to look worn out. Tenzo stepped in front of Kabuto and stopped the incoming swing of the sword, lashing out with his left leg, trying to land a kick in Zabuza's stomach. Instead, his foot sank into the water and Tenzo realized with horror that he couldn't pull it out. Kabuto yelled-getting Zabuza's attention-and stabbed the clone through the temple with a kunai. It turned into a puddle, three more taking its place.

Each one rushed Kabuto, one kicking him in the knee, almost snapping it back, if he hadn't been quick enough to jump away. The second grabbed him by his long hair and the third tried to disembowel him. Tenzo wrapped a beam around his student and yanked him away from the enemy. Kabuto grunted in pain and Tenzo winced in sympathy. Yes, he may have been rough and broken some of his ribs. But he put Kabuto down beside him and stepped in front of him again. Kabuto quickly got to work healing himself.

Zabuza's great blade whizzed through the air and Tenzo grabbed Kabuto by the shirt and saved them both. Zabuza kicked him in the gut and Tenzo knew instinctively that it was the real one. Tenzo pulled roots from the ground, destroying most of what remained of the unfinished bridge, and they wrapped around Zabuza, who laughed like a maniac, cutting them away, only struggling with one that wrapped around his neck for a moment. The roots followed and Tenzo kicked Zabuza in the stomach, back towards the ground that was starting the crumble, becoming a sloppy, muddly, salty death trap. Kabuto had jumped into the trees and grit his teeth. Though to be honest, Tenzo would rather that his student stayed out of the way.

It was time to get serious.

"Earth Style Wall!" Tenzo yelled and grinned in victory when Zabuza slammed through it. It was humid enough that mud stuck to his face, arms, and pants. Zabuza swung Kubikiribocho with a grunt, his body turned sideways. Tenzo dodged back, only being cut along his cheekbone. It might not even scar.

Zabuza's hands wound through hand signs and Kabuto tried to interrupt him and was rewarded with a knee to the gut and his face slammed into the ground. "Only an arrogant Konoha dog would fight a Kiri shinobi in the water." Zabuza gasped, then threw Kabuto by the hair towards Tenzo who caught him with a grunt. "Water Dragon Bullet!" He screamed and Tenzo was swallowed in the mouth of a water dragon and dragged down to the bottom of the sea, where he could only see the barest hints on the sun. He pushed Chakra out of every pore in his body and flew out of the water, hands flying through his own signs and grinned for a moment-like a madman. "Earth Style!" Only then did Zabuza see the ninja wire that Kabuto had managed to wind around his feet. But it was too late. "Pitch!" He lit a spark that flew down the line and engulfed the man in a pillar of flame.

He screamed, but doused himself in salt water, extinguishing the flame. But before another move could be made a second figure threw something wet at his chest. Tenzo looked down and saw the head of their client and dropped it into the mud. The figure crouched beside Zabuza and laid a gentle hand on his bicep. They looked at Tenzo through a porcelain mask. "You have failed your mission but your comrades are alive. There is no more reason to fight."

"How about because he's a fucking prick!" Zabuza snarled.

Tenzo looked at the head and something like bile rose in his throat. He wasn't used to the sting of failure.

Then Genji jumped from the trees and severed the figure's head from their shoulders.

And there could never be peace between them.

Zabuza screamed in rage, his burned skin tightening over his face, his bandages falling off his mouth. He lunged at Genji's throat, sinking his teeth into the right side of his neck, ripping his throat from his flesh.

"GENJI NO!" Tenzo screamed but Kabuto was faster, his hand glowing a bright green and he struck his hand through the nukenin's chest. He fell limp. Kabuto pulled his hand out. A gust of wind blew through the ruined coast, the bridge completely destroyed. The builder dead. They had failed.

Tenzo walked first to his student's fallen form. He was only nineteen, but he'd been in ANBU for six years and they'd been on the same mission for almost two. Tenzo had taught Otter the Silent Strike and the Silent Killing techniques. "And so your watch has ended," Tenzo said, looking at Kabuto, who stared at him blankly.

"It's not often I see another member get so emotional," the young man said.

"We need to collect Akane," Tenzo said, sealing their comrade in a scroll.

"I'm afraid that's not possible at the moment," Kabuto said with an innocent tilt to his head and Tenzo felt sick to his stomach when he saw Kabuto's glasses glint in the setting sun. "Lord Orochimaru wants a word with her."

What?

Darkness.