AN: To clear something up it's not Haku sending out clones. Haku is the one having to recover but Zabuza is the one who's out getting medicine. Some reviewers seemed to have that backwards, so I wanted to clarify.

Trickshot

Chapter 12

-Zabuza-

Steps carefully placed to make the sound a normal civilian would make rather than the silent steps of a killer, Zabuza riffled through his satchel full of medical herbs, fruits, and nuts. He'd been out for a few hours and had noticed signs of someone else doing the same.

Plucked plants.

Splattered blood from something or someone getting killed.

And the lingering presence of chakra in the air from someone doing jutsu.

The only question he had was if it was from the Konoha group or someone else. He wasn't aware of any other shinobi in the area but there were others with access to Chakra. Bounty hunters and even the occasional Ronin or Monk.

Stepping into a clearing where he hoped to find some herbs to fight infection, not liking the thought of Ink in Haku's bloodstream, he saw the blond archer brat.

Or a clone at least. His skills at a sensor were something he'd spent years refining to better his silent killing methods while in the hidden mist, and he'd gotten to the point that he could tell a Clone from a regular shinobi with ease. The solid clone, a surprising feat for a Genin, was busy dressing and harvesting a deer, probably the source of the blood he'd seen earlier.

"Quite the catch young Hunter." Zabuza smiled, putting on a friendly and approaching air, the kid giving him a bashful grin, having clearly heard his footsteps.

"Thanks." The blond smiled at him, not an ounce of suspicion in his eyes. Or if there was it was better hidden than Zabuza was used to seeing.

"Although I have to ask what a kid is doing out here alone." Zabuza put on a concerned mask. Killing a clone wouldn't do anything to help his mission and would just put his enemies more on edge. It did present an opportunity to gather intel though. "I hear there's a bandit king who took over the only village in the area. Are you trying to flee Wave?"

"I'm going to save it." The kid's expression was determined, Zabuza able to see an iron will at this genin's core.

"You seem a little young to be a war hero kid." Zabuza frowned, still not a fan of how young Genin were sent out to kill and die. He was a monster himself, but that was out of necessity, his emotions deadened out of necessity.

His village was wasting both lives and resources with their old system of having graduates fight to the death for the right to a headband. Years of effort and training that had been spent on the dead wasted.

So, he trained on his own in secret, picked the most vile graduating class he could, and slaughtered them all to prove a point.

And he'd gotten the change he'd wanted.

He'd climbed the ranks by throwing himself into training, using brutal methods to prove his points until he'd been seen as the one of the Mist's strongest. One of the Mist's most ruthless. He saw what he wanted changed and made a point to get things changed.

Eventually though Mist and its Kage reached a new level of problematic. Bloodline purges would do nothing but serve to weaken the Village, threatening its very existence. His coup had been to stop that before the village could be lost completely.

It was the first time his methods had failed him as he'd been forced to flee in disgrace.

Finding Haku had been the one benefit of this, an apprentice he could train to carry on his work. A legacy to leave behind.

Mist was lost and there was no stopping that. Even if those Rebels won their forces were too small to still be counted as a Major village at the end, same was true for the bloodline purgers.

He needed this payday to ensure his new dream would succeed.

"Quite the promise kid." Zabuza shook his head, "Sounds like a dangerous goal. I've been avoiding Gato and Wave for a reason."

"I'm not alone." The kid looked determined, even as he finished getting out the meat from the deer along with the hide, sealing those and the waste away separately.

"So, you've got more Hunters with you?" Zabuza continued to play dumb, noting the clone wasn't wearing a headband. Probably avoiding reflective metals if they were out hunting.

"Something like that." The kid gave him a cheeky grin, not being as easy to pry intel from as he'd hoped, "But did you need something?"

"Got a friend who hurt himself. I'm gathering some herbs so that his injury doesn't get infected." Zabuza rolled his eyes, feigning exasperation "I swear that idiot is more danger prone than a shinobi." The kid snorted bemused, marking one of the rare few times someone found him funny.

"Well, I saw some Fire-Root by the river over there." The kid pointed with the knife he'd been using to carve up the deer before working on cleaning the blade, "I got some but there's still plenty."

"Thanks kid." Zabuza nodded, giving a friendly grin as the kid set off, "Stay safe out there."

As the kid left, Zabuza made sure to carefully keep up his mask, not wanting to let it slip now that he knew someone else was in the area. Still, the fact that the kid was out collecting meat, leather, and medicinal herbs? He guessed they were trying to bolster the spirits of the people in Wave. It was a good plan to fight against Dato's methods, especially since Gato would be more careful about having his thugs try anything violent in town until the Konoha Shinobi were dead.

And if the kid was working to fix things at the town one day's worth of hunting wouldn't be anywhere near enough.

Looks like he'd be out 'hunting' while Haku recovered then.

-Guy-

Frowning, Guy looked back through the mission reports he'd filed on the last dozen missions he'd taken with his team. The issues with them were steadily growing worse and he was desperate for a solution.

Neji was even more waspish than before.

Lee was running himself ragged trying to get Tenten's acknowledgement.

And the markswoman of the group herself was distancing herself more and more. He'd even learned that she was often being seen training with the Uzumaki boy. "I suppose that's what she meant by costing someone their slot." He mused aloud with a frown, even as he remembered what had been revealed about the Academy. How its teachers were refusing to pointedly teach. And it wasn't like he'd demanded they fail the Uzumaki kid, he'd just requested that they have graduate regardless of the lack of Jutsu issue, that he'd be requesting the Hokage place the boy on his team. That wasn't something Lee could control and Jonin were allowed to make requests on who was in their teams.

"So how do I fix this." Gai frowned, trying to recapture the spark of a well-oiled machine his team had been before. Especially as the Chuunin exams were coming up, a competition he'd already given his word to the three that they'd be entered into.

"Wait, I got it!" Gai beamed happily as an idea struck him like a bolt of lightning.

Putting away the reports from the old missions, Gai rushed over to the mission selection office, entering to browse what was available.

"This is perfect!" Gai grinned as he found one that hadn't been taken yet. It was a week long escort mission, seeing a travelling merchant to the border to of the Land of Waterfalls to the North where they'd swap this Merchant band over to a team from Waterfall, collecting the team they'd be escorting back to Konoha. It was long enough that the group couldn't just 'get done and go home' like a basic bandit elimination job, and with his planned addendum, it should fix everything!

He'd put Lee in charge of the three during the mission.

Neji would learn how to take orders from his fellows and that he didn't always have to be the one giving out commands.

Tenten would see that Lee deserved his position on both their team and the Shinobi Corp.

Lee would get confidence in his ability as a Shinobi and an eventual ranked member of the Corp.

"This is perfect!" Gai quickly filled out the forms so his team would be able to go on the mission first thing come morning. He couldn't see how this could go wrong.