Tazuna told a sad story and Kakashi could barely be brought to care, he felt empathy, but it was overridden by anger. Someone who put his team in danger for their own desires, even if it was for a good cause, was not going to receive his good will.

So, he decided to leave it up to his genin, if they wanted to do this then the mission would continue and Kakashi would work out payment later. The other option was they would return and Tazuna would need to file his request properly, likely as an A rank mission. He looked at his genin who were waiting for him to say something, "Personally for putting you in danger, I'd be more than happy to send Tazuna away to deal with his own issues, but I'm going to leave this up to you guys. This mission is far more dangerous than we expected and we're dealing with someone who lied to you," he shot a look at Tazuna who had the decency to look ashamed, "but if you still want to continue, we'll do so until or unless we reach a point where I don't believe I can protect you."

Naruto with his sense of justice that came straight from his parentage was the first to speak, "We have to Kakashi-sensei, even if he's a big jerk." Kakashi could tell Naruto had to resist the urge to stick his tongue out at Tazuna.

Sasuke for his part didn't want to directly agree so he simply said, "I can handle an A rank mission." Kakashi resisted rolling his eyes. He could just say that he wanted to help, nobody was judging him.

"As long as you think we'll be able to do it then I think it's the right thing to do," Sakura added trying to look confident though Kakashi could see the slight worry under the surface.

"I promise I'll keep you safe," Kakashi spoke as seriously as he could and could see all three let go of some of the nervousness he knew was there. "Plus, with all the training we've done, who knows if you'll even need help."

"So much training," Naruto groaned earning a laugh from Sakura as everyone fell back into position and started to walk almost as if nothing happened. Of course, it was far from true, but if they were serious about doing the mission they needed to keep moving. If they needed to discuss more about what happened it could be done later. None of them seemed overly traumatized so it could probably wait until their next training session.

Before he fully put it on the back burner Kakashi did lean down to let Tazuna know how lucky he was and how thankful he should be that his team was so forgiving.

Things progressed fairly normally for some time, but Kakashi knew that was bound to change. Nothing had happened yet, but he could feel something coming. It was only a matter of when.

The, "when" came once they were finally getting close to their destination, a slight sound and vague scent were all the warning he needed to yell for everyone to get down. His genin had quick reflexes and dropped immediately, Kakashi roughly shoved Tazuna to the ground, for his own safety of course.

Everyone's eyes were drawn to the large blade embedded in a tree at the edge of the clearing they stood in, and moments after at the man standing on the blade. Kakashi recognized him without having to think, it was Zabuza. He should have his genin study the bingo book because none of them knew who he was, but they were able to sense the danger he posed.

Zabuza spoke first, "Kakashi, it's great luck that I get to meet you." Kakashi wasn't a fan of the pleasure in the man's voice. Kakashi didn't respond so Zabuza continued, "Back in the hidden mist there was a standing order to kill you on sight. I might have left that village, but it's still an honor to kill you. I always appreciate a good fight."

Kakashi did his best to look unaffected and honestly, he wasn't worried for himself, he knew he could win though Zabuza was by no means a pushover. He was concerned for his team who he commanded to fall back and guard Tazuna. "There was a reason for that order, let me show you why," Kakashi said lunging forward.

He had to make the first move simply based on what knowledge he had of Zabuza's reputation and the general hidden mist assassin's skill set. If given time Zabuza would likely use the hiding in the mist jutsu and possibly target his team and Tazuna. He needed to keep him fully occupied until he defeated him. He exposed his sharingan much to Zabuza's pleasure. He wanted a serious fight and Kakashi was willing to give it to him.

The fight was back and forth a mixture of taijutsu, kenjutsu, and quick use of water clones and neither seemed to have the upper hand. If it was simply hand to hand combat Kakashi could probably win, but Zabuza's blade made things more difficult. He ducked another swing and tried to make a strike, but Zabuza moved of his range.

He sent two water clones into the trees hidden from view and continued the game of tag it had descended into. Both clones threw volley's of shuriken and kunai from their hiding places forcing Zabuza to dodge. Kakashi correctly predicted his reaction and struck. He managed a glancing blow, but aside from a scratch above his eye little other damage was done. Kakashi dispelled the clones and faced Zabuza again preparing for a switch in pace.

Kakashi was going to have to rely on ninjutsu, he had the advantage in variety, but a disadvantage in terrain. With a body of water only a leap away Zabuza could easily employ all of his most powerful techniques. Zabuza must have had a similar thought because he jumped back onto the surface of the water.

Kakashi followed because if he was going to match him in water jutsu he didn't want any delay time in calling the water to himself. The moment he touched down he felt something was wrong. The water was already laced with chakra, Zabuza had prepared before their arrival. Before he could escape the water latched onto him and gave Zabuza time to use the water prison jutsu.

The water pressed down on him from all sides restricting his movement greatly, escape wasn't impossible though it was difficult. Obviously, he couldn't use standard fire jutsu and he had no access to any solid earth, wind would have been useful if he had mastered it, which left water or lighting. Breaking the water prison with water required the one inside to be far more powerful with the water element than the sealer to work. Someone like the second Hokage could smash straight through this, Kakashi on the other hand could match Zabuza, but not overpower him. From the outside disrupting it with water style was much simpler because the power was focused on pushing inward so the chakra was least potent on the surface.

He knew one way to escape, but it'd do more damage to himself than Zabuza making the fight more difficult. If he released a strong current of electricity it would either disrupt the prison enough to break, throw off Zabuza's chakra control briefly, or injure his hand enough to release it, whichever came first. The big drawback was that at the same time the electricity would be lancing through Kakashi doing far more damage to him. If it came down to it, he would do what had to be done, but it looked like his team was planning something.

As much as he wanted to protect them, he knew it was time to give them a chance, if things looked bad or he was close to drowning he'd escape on his own.

"Kakashi sensei, is trapped," Naruto stated the obvious his voice and expression shifted between concern and anger.

"That's the water prison jutsu," Sakura informed them recognizing it from her own studies about water style. It wasn't something she could use yet, but knowledge was useful especially in a situation like this.

"What do you know about it, can Kakashi-sensei get out?" Sasuke asked her, his own apprehension much better concealed than Naruto's. Though the two had worked with him enough to notice the rough edge he always used to disguise his emotions.

"Not easily, we should just operate assuming he can't get out," Sakura began explaining the technique, "Zabuza needs to keep direct contact with the prison to keep it from breaking, so one possibility is separating him from it," Sakura offered though it didn't seem like an easy job considering the water clone that Zabuza had just formed.

"And the other?" Sasuke asked. He glanced away from the clone to Sakura for a moment.

She steeled herself and answered, "I should be able to break it if I can get in contact, if you two can cover me and I can get close I'll get him out." At both of their looks she continued, "Disrupting it from the outside is easier, with my own water style training I think I can give Kakashi a way out, even if I can't stop the jutsu. Obviously, I'm going to need both of your help.

"Are you sure about this?" Sasuke asked seriously, this wasn't the time to pretend they could do things they couldn't. Not that Sakura was the type to boast randomly.

Sakura only answered with one word, but her confidence was strong, "Yes."

"Alright, whatever you need, we'll handle it," Naruto answered without thought of questioning her.

After a moment of consideration Sasuke nodded, "Alright," and Sakura laid out her basic plan.

A decent amount of their plan relied on luck, but there were two possibilities of success. Either get Sakura to the prison to break it or have one of the boys reach Zabuza and force him to release the jutsu.

Sasuke put his recent work with Kakashi to work using the black smoke jutsu to flood the area in front of them in thick black smoke, Sakura layered a genjutsu over the jutsu creating a loud whistling sound which would hopefully keep Zabuza from hearing what came next.

With a few quick jutsu, a horde of Naruto clones went running directly at Zabuza and his clone with both Sasuke, Sakura, and the real Naruto hidden among them. Three clones hung back with two shadow clones transformed into Sasuke and Sakura.

Zabuza broke the genjutsu with little trouble and a flare of chakra dispelled the smoke, but it took just long enough for him not to see the swap. Realistically it made no sense for him to concern himself with that possibility. As far as he could see it was a group of clones charging at his water clone. Right before they reached the clone three broke off from the group and headed for the real Zabuza.

Kakashi watched in fascination at his team's risky move, three clones were headed towards him, though based on how they moved he was sure two of them were Sasuke and Sakura. They were only a few steps away when the water clone finished the last of Naruto's shadow clones and moved to block their way.

The two he believed were Naruto and Sasuke drew their weapons and went after the clone, Sakura in a completely unexpected move stopped walking on the water and dove under the surface of the water to keep the water clone from attacking her. It was reckless in a way he would never suggest and didn't attribute to Sakura, but it did work. It was crazy to go underwater when facing a foe whose affinity was water, but thankfully she was very close when she did so and the real Zabuza was forced to maintain his prison so his ability to use techniques was severely impaired, which she likely took into consideration.

He watched as she managed to place a hand on the bottom of the prison and fed her own chakra in trying to make a weak point for him. He focused his chakra on the place where her own was coming from and between the two they shattered jutsu. Zabuza had already been gearing up to respond, but Kakahsi sent a sharp kick to his gut knocking him back.

He grabbed her brought her to the surface and sent her off as he moved to finish the clone that was still bearing down on the boys who were looking a bit worse for the wear, but not out of commission. Rather than distract his focus from Zabuza he sent his own water clone to fight Zabuza's.

"I'll finish this get back," he ordered them not having time for thanks. Zabuza seemed furious and was already moving to cast his next jutsu which Kakashi managed to block now that he could move freely again. The three genin followed his orders without question falling back to the clearing with Tazuna, thankfully off the water.

The rest of the battle went far more smoothly, countering Zabuza's techniques and managing to get inside his head with genjutsu left him wide open. With a powerful water vortex jutsu he sent him flying through the forest. When he finally struck a tree and stopped moving Kakashi pinned him with kunai.

A hunter nin appearing out of nowhere and "killing" Zabuza with senbon was unexpected and unwelcome not that he voiced it. Zaubza would have been a good bounty, if he was being honest, and he wanted to make sure he was truly dead.

The appearance of the hunter ninja really rubbed him the wrong way, something was off about it. The issue was that nobody on the team was at one hundred percent and he didn't know if the possibly fake hunter had backup. If he were alone, he might take the gamble and follow at least for surveillance because he trusted himself to escape, but he couldn't guarantee the genin's safety if they pursued.

He tried to shove his worries to the back of his mind and let Tazuna take them to his home. They needed to work out payment anyway. Zabuza's corpse would have worked nicely, but it was probably morbid to be thinking of a dead man as a paycheck. Then again his compass for disturbing thoughts had been thrown off long ago.

Naruto was soaked, tired, and beat up, but he felt like they finally did something and he was happy. They helped someone, even if he was an old man who wasn't particularly kind. Sakura seemed relieved and Sasuke was his usual cold self, but he could tell Kakashi wasn't completely satisfied. He didn't look too hurt so it was probably something else.

"Is everything alright Kakashi-sensei?" He asked and was assured that things were fine, he was just deep in thought. Naruto didn't know if he completely believed that, but he was willing to fall into silence as the group walked to their destination which thankfully wasn't far.

It was odd, Naruto knew he had plenty of chakra left and it hadn't been too long since they last slept so he wasn't sure why he felt so tired. Without having to ask Kakashi answered his question.

"That was your first serious battle," he addressed all three of them, "I'm sure it took a toll on you physically, but more importantly mentally, there's almost a high or sense of enhanced focus when you fight. Afterwards it's like your body is coming off of it and forcing you to calm down, so you probably all feel exhausted. The transition in and out of danger becomes easier to deal with when you get more experience. Don't fight it, let yourself reset, we're out of danger for now."

Naruto wondered if Kakashi could read minds sometimes, it seemed that way when he fought Zabuza and he always seemed to be able to tell how the group was feeling. He noticed the, "for now", but he figured that was only because they hadn't dealt with Gato. He was pretty sure there weren't any more ninja like Zabuza hanging around.

Then again, he wasn't expecting Zabuza or their previous attackers so maybe his guesses weren't the most trustworthy.

Sasuke spoke up and asked something about something Naruto had been thinking about, "You were using a sharingan." It wasn't a question.

"I promise I'll tell you the full story tomorrow, but I didn't steal it if that's what you're worried about," Kakashi answered.

"I didn't say that," Sasuke replied.

"A close friend left me with it when he passed and I use it to protect the village and those I care about," Kakashi gave an abbreviated version though based on the considering look on Sasuke's face Naruto doubted it would be the last they spoke of it.

Personally he wanted to know more about Kakashi's past as well, but it wasn't the time.

It wasn't until they were settled in Tazuna's house that Kakashi saw fit to inform them that Zabuza could very well be alive and he had at least one ninja working with him. This all was based on the assumption that the hunter was fake, but as time passed Kakashi became surer.

"They were right there we should have gone after them," Naruto asserted the moment he heard the truth. He was indignant about the fact that Kakashi let Zabuza get away.

"This is why I didn't say anything, we had no idea of what we'd be walking into and you three weren't in shape to deal with what we might have come across. Naruto you can't just think about what you might be capable of, this is a team you need to consider everyone's safety," Kakashi wanted to get through to the boy and mentioning the safety of his teammates would likely do it. Naruto went everything with a good heart, but randomly chasing down "bad guys" wasn't always the right move.

Naruto went quiet after Kakashi spoke to him, taking a moment to consider things. Sasuke did the opposite and jumped on the point he was most offended by, "Are you saying we held you back?"

"You played a major role in defeating Zabuza and for that I'm grateful and proud of all three of you, but the fact is that if I wasn't concerned about your safety, I would have approached that entire situation differently. In any given mission together if we are put in a position where we fight ninja out of your league it's my job to protect you. Sometimes that means endangering myself where I wouldn't always need to," Kakashi explained, "This mission was to protect the bridge builder and we did, it wasn't to defeat Zabuza, and for a mission where we aren't being paid I'm not dragging you into unknown danger."

"So basically, you were worried for us, but we did a good job," Sakura condensed everything and softened the message.

"Isn't that what I said?" Kakashi asked raising an eyebrow asking for any of them to refute him.

"Maybe try to word it a bit differently," she responded with a sigh and a bit of the tension in the room faded. Sasuke's glare relaxed a bit, but Naruto could tell he was still slightly put off by being considered, too weak to go after Zabuza.

"You know what we can do to make sure someday we can hunt down people like Zabuza without me having to worry?" Kakashi asked the three with a trace of humor.

"Train?" All three genin responded with sounding less than pleased. The response was accompanied by some eye rolling and head shaking.

"Yes, training," Kakahsi paused for a moment, "but that can wait until tomorrow. You three relax, chat, have some of the food our hosts were kind enough to provide. I still have a few conversations to handle. Try discussing different ways you could have approached the situation your choice was seriously risky, but successful."

Before he stepped out of the room he added, "Just try to remember everything I try to do is in your best interest, if you believe anything believe that."

He didn't look to see their expressions. He didn't think he needed to.

Kakashi had enough pull in Konoha to feel confident making his requests on how to pay the difference on the mission. Kakashi knew most people saw him as a likely candidate for being Hokage, the elders and the Hokage included, not that he fully agreed with them. However, that possibility led him to having access to information most others didn't, outside the elders, and he had essentially been given training to help lead the village should the time come. He wasn't given standard classes, but the Hokage often requested his help and opinions with village issues that a standard jonin shouldn't directly be involved with.

Obviously the Hokage would have to sign off on his offer, Kakashi couldn't officially speak for the village unless given permission. For now, his own approval and signature would be enough to get things rolling.

He ducked back into the room they were sleeping in to see all his genin already resting. They really were adorable, he decided to spend a little time meditating and planning lessons before settling into his own inevitably nightmare ridden sleep. Now his dreams featured his genin's faces on his dead friend's bodies, but he'd long since gotten used to nightmares.

He rose from his light sleep with the sun and took stock of his body, he was a bit sore, had a few wounds that weren't fully healed, and his chakra felt a bit lower than he liked. So overall it wasn't bad at all compared to some missions. He expected his genin would feel similar aside from Naruto so today would be a day focused on learning rather than conditioning. A calm day and a night of rest should be enough for all of them to recover aside from a few smaller wounds that needed either healing jutsu or time to heal fully.

Now that he had kids to take care of maybe he should look into it, especially since he always considered it a possibility for Sakura. He didn't want to admit that he was holding off because sometimes he felt like he was recreating his old team and he didn't want to superimpose his past on the present. He wanted to make them everything his original team couldn't be. He owed it to Obito, to Rin, to Minato, to his genin, and in some ways himself.

He was getting to introspective it was probably the last vestiges of sleep and his thoughts of his past that often accompanied it. Forcing himself to perk up he called out for his team to wake up.

Their reactions were enough to bring a smile to his face, not that anyone could see it. Naruto just rolled and bumped into a wall, Sakura jumped to her feet and nearly slipped, and Sasuke declared he was awake despite the fact that his eyes were still closed and he was barely sitting up.

He'd need to teach them to be able to get up and react at a moment's notice, but for now it was cute to watch them fumble around, though he was tactful enough not to say so aloud.

"I'll let you three get up and ready, I'll be outside stretching meet me there as soon as you can and we can talk about what we'll be doing for the time being,"

He went outside with the sounds of his struggling genin in the background and wondered if anyone could have imagined him here, he certainly never did.

A/N

Did I make things far more complex than necessary, of course. In canon the first round with Zabuza really only featured the genin slightly and Sakura didn't do anything, so I couldn't drag it out plus Kakashi was slowly drowning. The fight with Haku will be entirely focused on the genin and that should be next chapter.

I feel like people were hoping Sakura would unleash water techniques, but realistically she started learning recently and manipulating water is about where's she at, soon she'll be able to use basic techniques and by the chunin exams she'll be a force to be reckoned with.

You'll probably notice I skimmed over certain things, like most things involving Tazuna who I don't care for. That's mainly because this is focused on team 7, anything that remains canon compliant and doesn't matter in the long run is going to be mentioned, but not explored too deeply unless I think it'd be interesting to write/read. I also spend more time delving into the thoughts/feelings of the characters for the sake of growth rather than exposition that most people interested in Naruto already know. Overall I care more about the differences in this story rather than the similarities to the canon.

In terms of the original fight I found it weird when I watched it in terms of how Kakashi fought and how things played out so I altered things slightly so it made a bit more sense and added some descriptions of why he made certain moves. Also there was one line when he said something along the lines of, "the water is heavy", my take is that he fed chakra into the water earlier and activated it to create the prison.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.