"Alright!" Naruto yells in response as Sakura begins to giggle causing Zabuza to chuckle. "Finished? You really don't get it do you? I'll never be outdone by a pathetic excuse for a ninja like you." He continues to chuckle darkly. "You are full of surprises though. You moved fast enough I couldn't even see you." Hearing the difference in direction of his voice pushes Akari to press her blade further into his neck. "Try again!" He snaps as his clone bursts into water, drenching her jumper from the way she had held onto him. "Hey! that was a clone too!" Naruto calls out in shock as Akari suddenly drops to the ground causing Zabuza's blade to slice through the air above her. She had chosen this reaction due to the fact it was her only option. Even though it puts her in such a position she cannot react quickly. However, as Zabuza finishes his swing, Kakashi comes out of the mist. With a kick that would make anyone cringe he sends Zabuza sliding back and onto the water.
Akari kicks off of the ground so she can stand even before turning to look at Kakashi who was watching her. Thoughts clouding his gaze as he thinks about her ability to fight against Zabuza with nothing more than mere taijutsu. "Stay with Tazuna, Akari." Kakashi spoke, his voice light with a smile. Nodding to him Akari turns back around and closes the distance between the others and herself as she takes her place back in front of Tazuna again. "Give him hell Sensei." She utters as Kakashi runs for the water. "I see, you had already copied my water clone jutsu by the time you made your little speech. Very skillfully executed. You made your clone say those words to draw my attention. While you hid in the mist waiting for me to make my move." Zabuza grunts once he regains his footing and stops his slide.
"Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura. Back in formation." Akari orders with a glance around her at her team. With those words it took them only moments to return to their posts around Tazuna. "Uhh... Akari... About what's happening..." Sakura begins causing Akari to sigh. "Now's not the time Sakura. Focus on the mission." She informs the girl simply. "Well then at least tell us how you are so fast then?!" Sakura shouts with her annoyance as she glares ahead of her. "She weight trains." This time it was Sasuke who answers in such it tone it was as if Sakura should have realized that by now. "It seems that brat of yours, Kakashi, has potential... Pity, if she wasn't going to die today she may have one day become worthy enough to land a place in my bingo book."
"You are wrong, Zabuza. It is you who will die today." Kakashi's voice fills with his determination. Showing Zabuza that is exactly what is going to happen. For brief moments the fog grows dense enough to block the two jonin from view though the sounds of their fight could still be heard as they run over the water. Another gust of wind later and the fog is pushed back again bringing them into view. "He has great physical skill too." Sasuke's words draw Akari's gaze to him briefly as he glances in her direction. "Yeah, my arms still feel like jello." She agrees as she looks back toward the fight. Tension builds up around the genin as they worry for their Sensei and silently hope for him to win. They watch as Kakashi resurfaces in the water, but instead of pulling himself out, he lifts a hand looking down at it as if something was off. In that moment Zabuza shows up behind him standing on the water. "Ahh, fool." He claims before creating hand signs quickly enough they nearly looked like a blur. "Water prison Jutsu!" He calls just as his hands stop causing Kakashi to look back at him.
"No!" He calls just as the water around him rises out of the ocean and surrounds him in a sphere. "Sensei!" The majority of the genin call out with wide fearful eyes. "So much for the great Kakashi." Zabuza chuckles darkly. "I'll finish you off later. But first, your little brat and her friends have to be eliminated." As he said brat his gaze falls on Akari causing her to smirk when she steps forward and releases her kunai from her grip in a full-on throw. "Akari! What do you think you're doing?!" Sakura snaps at her nearly causing her to sigh. "Guys, when I distract Zabuza I need you to work together to get Kakashi out. He is our only chance." Akari utters out quietly as she watches Zabuza raise his left hand in a type of sign. The water next to him rose and created a mirror image of him that pulls his sword and blocks his actual body from her kunai. "Get it now?" She asks quietly without taking her eyes off Zabuza. "You need to force his real body to break contact with that water." This time she shifts glances from Sasuke to Naruto, just long enough to see them both nod.
"You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja? When you've hovered between life and death so many times it doesn't phase you then, you may be called a ninja. When you've become so deadly your profile has been entered into my bingo book, then you may have earned the title ninja." Zabuza's clone raises his left hand in another hand sign causing the mist to thicken again. "But to call upstarts like you ninja is a joke." He informs them as he vanishes into the mist again. Akari steps forward as she pulls another kunai and grips it firmly in her right hand. "I guess I'll start with you!" He declares as he rushes through the mist toward Akari. Once he gets close enough he was visible to her she watches as he steps forward swinging his sword to catch her. Akari jumps as she times his sword causing her feet to leave the ground moments before his sword would pass under her. Using his sword against him again she pushes her feet against it propelling herself forward. This time he was ready for it as he leaps back causing her blade to barely slice through the air directly in front of his face.
Releasing his blade with his left hand he throws his arm out to catch her. However, she raises her left arm as she coats it in chakra to reinforce her block. The moment his wrist brushes against her forearm she pushes it away, deflecting his strike and giving her enough time to land on the ground before leaping back away from him. "Listen, get the bridge builder and run! You can't win this fight! He's using all of his power to keep me in this prison so he can only fight you with his water clone, but the clone can't go far from his real body. If you get away from him he can't follow. Now run!" Kakashi's voice was panicked worried for their safety enough that he actually threatened to take Akari's attention off of the clone she is fighting. "Don't you remember Kakashi Sensei? Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum!" Akari calls out causing Kakashi's eyes to widen. She leaps back again avoiding another slice from Zabuza's sword. With a smirk, she waits for the blade to pass before propelling herself forward toward him. Using the sword's weakness against him as she takes the opening his swing gave to bury her kunai into the clone's abdomen. "Which is a good thing, because I hate rules." She comments hearing the real Zabuza call out in shock as Sasuke throws a windmill shuriken at him.
The jonin chuckles before he simply jumps to avoid the projectile, however, he grunts as his eyes catch the shuriken changing into Naruto with a puff of white smoke. In mid-air the blond smirks and turns throwing his kunai at Zabuza from a distance he wouldn't have time to create another water clone. Successfully forcing him to pull his hand out of the water prison in order to avoid Naruto's kunai. "Yeah! we did it!" Naruto calls out after he had landed in the water and resurfaces seeing Kakashi drenched but standing on the water with a look that could kill directed at Zabuza. "Good work Naruto!" Sakura calls out with a laugh and Akari steps back up to the bridge builder. "I knew you guys would come up with something." She comments with a smirk pulling Sasuke's gaze to her. "It was thanks to you for playing with his clone like that."
Unknown to the two talking they had no idea that Naruto was explaining their plan so Zabuza could understand what was going on. Admitting that before he had blocked her kunai, Akari had given them the objective of coming up with a way to get him to pull his arm from the water so Kakashi would be freed while she distracted Zabuza and his clone. The two Jonin glance toward the ones talking on the sideline in time to hear Sasuke's comment as she nearly laughs. "True, but you guys are the real heroes in this. Zabuza's sword has a major weakness. With its weight and length yes it makes for heavier blows with a longer reach, however. It slows him down just to wield it. So distracting him was simple." She shrugs as Sasuke shakes his head. "Simple for someone as fast as you are maybe." He groans before she holds up her right hand and shoots him a peace sign. "Just call me the violet blur then." So just in this mission, her walls are finally beginning to shake. Kakashi thought as he turns back to Zabuza ready to pick up where they had left off.
"Hn, Show off." Sasuke playfully snaps as she turns her back on Tazuna again. The sounds of Kakashi and Zabuza's fighting as it picks back up sound around them. Huh? Akari silently questions as she looks up to a branch on her left. A black-haired ninja with a white mask consisting of one lone red mark on his face wearing a blue and white battle kimono that billows in the breeze caused by the battling jonin. Is standing upon a branch watching the fight. For a split second as their hand rests against the tree the mask turns away from the battle and peers down at her. An anbu? She quietly questions. It doesn't make sense that one would be here right now and just watching the fight.
Akari sighs and glances back to the fight before leaping away from the group as Naruto finally managed to get out of the water. Moving up into the tree behind the tracker her eyes settle unwavering from his form. "Hey! Akari?!" Naruto calls after her from the ground. Now that I'm up here... What am I supposed to do now? She silently questions herself as she watches him take in a slow breath before he turns around to face her. "I see, you noticed me even when your friends didn't." His cool voice flows from beneath his mask as he stares at her, watching for any sign of malicious movement. "I did." Akari finally said as he had just about thought she wouldn't speak to him from how long her silence had lasted. "I am a mist tracker ninja, Zabuza is what I'm after." He speaks up after a moment when she had made no move to figure out what he is doing here or to attack him. Haku could understand the look in her eyes though which are speaking volumes compared to the girl in front of him. She was confused as to why he is here. "Tracker ninja track down rogue ninja and eliminate them. They don't stand around watching a battle." She points out causing his movements to nearly stiffen. "You have friends watching you further off in the trees, did you know?" He manages to change the subject from how close the girl is to figuring out the real reason why he is here. Akari tilts her head in question before turning away from the boy to peer off over the trees.
Sure enough, they almost look like black dots but there they were. Two people were standing at the top of a tree facing the direction of the battle. This left Akari with another decision and more questions. Should she go and see who they are and what they want or should she remain here to watch the conspicuous boy behind her? Torn by these questions she glances back down as the tracker ninja sticks senbon needles into Zabuza's neck. Causing his body to hit the ground like a sack of bricks. Kakashi's gaze moves up to the trees, his eyes first finding Akari before they shift to the tracker ninja behind her. "You were right, it was his last battle." The ninja chuckles watching as the other genin and Tazuna move to run up closer to Kakashi from having avoided the last attack, which had crashed right where they had been originally standing. Kakashi jumps down from the tree branch he had ended up in and lands next to Zabuza to check his pulse. "No vital signs." He sighs before looking back up to the tracker and Akari as the boy bows.
"Thank you. I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time. Waiting for this chance to finally take him down." He speaks rather warmly causing Akari's lips to turn further down into a frown as she turns more to face the tracker, her right hand already slipping to her holster. "By your mask, you're a tracker ninja from the village hidden in the mist." Kakashi points out as the ninja stands up straight, his eye slits staring down at those on the ground. "Impressive, you're well informed." Naruto gasps and holds up his fists as he slides in front of Tazuna. "Ah! A tracker." He glares up at the ninja even as Sakura crosses her arms and narrows her eyes on the blond. "Naruto, you don't even know what that is." She snaps at him. "You missed the lesson on it as usual. Tracker ninja have a special role. Try coming to class sometime." She then frowns and looks back up at the ninja. "When a rogue ninja breaks away from his village, he carries all kinds of secrets with him. The secrets of his people. Tracker ninja are specially trained to hunt down the ninja and eliminate them. That way the secrets of his people, remain secrets."
"That is correct. I am a member of the elite tracker unit of the village hidden in the mist. It was my duty to stop Zabuza." Akari very nearly closes her eyes as she listens to the boy next to her. "Says the guy that sounds like he is lying." She mutters causing his mask to slightly turn in her direction, showing he had in fact heard her. Naruto runs forward as he growls in his frustration and confusion. "What is this?! Who do you think you are?!" He shouts up at the boy next to Akari causing Sasuke and Sakura to gasp. Naruto begins to pant with his building frustration as his shoulders rise and fall rapidly, his hands curling into fists at his sides. "Did you hear me?!"
"Easy Naruto. He's not our enemy." Kakashi speaks up mostly for the blond as he watches Akari move her gaze to him. With his words, she moves her hand away from her holster as Kakashi stands. "That's not the point. Did you see what he did just like that?! Zabuza was huge and powerful like some kind of monster." Naruto argues as Kakashi walks forward and stops next to him. "And this kid who is no bigger than me. He brought down Zabuza with one move like it was nothing. I mean, what does that make us? We're just fumbling around. We don't know anything! How can I accept that?!" He shouts as his blue eyes narrow on the masked ninja above them.
"Well even if you don't accept it... still, it did happen, Naruto." Kakashi speaks gently as he leans forward a bit and places his hand on top of Naruto's head, causing the boy to grunt and look up at him. "In this world, there are kids who are younger than you and yet, stronger than me." As he speaks Kakashi's gaze moves from Naruto and up to the two standing in the trees. His dark eye settles on Akari after shifting to her from the tracker next to her nearly causing her to stiffen. In a gust of wind and leaves the tracker disappears from the branch he was on and lands next to Zabuza's body. He then picks Zabuza up by pulling his arm over his shoulder, bearing the full dead weight of the man. "Your struggle is over, for now. I must deal with the remains. There are many secrets in this body. They must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands. Please excuse me. Farewell." The boy says before holding his hand up in a sign causing him to disappear in another gust of whirling wind and leaves.
Akari could feel eyes on her again so she moves her attention back to the two on the trees. However, this time, they were a bit closer. Close enough anyway she could tell that the dots were actually people. "Akari, we need to go." Kakashi calls drawing her attention back down to him. She gives him a single nod before leaping down to land next to him in time to catch him on her shoulder as he collapses. From the corner of her eye she peers at him to see exactly how out of it he is before she grabs his arm much as the boy had done with Zabuza. Shifting Kakashi's weight so she could more handle his size. Sasuke then steps up and takes Kakashi's other arm and pulls some of the weight onto his own shoulder. "Let's go, our first priority is Tazuna." She informs them causing Naruto and Sakura to grunt. "Lead the way bridge builder." Akari practically orders causing him to turn around before he starts walking back to his house. Every now and then as they walk, Akari couldn't help but glance up at the trees. The feeling of eyes are still very much apparent but she couldn't seem to pinpoint them now that she is on the ground without her Sharingan.
"When we get to your place, we will need to let Kakashi Sensei rest." She states simply watching the back of the grey-haired bridge builder, seeing his straw hat turn as he looks over his shoulder at her momentarily. "You are wondering if you have a room." He speaks his realization as he looks ahead of him again. "We have two rooms the four of you can use." He informs her drawing her to nod before she glances at her teammates around her. "Kakashi Sensei will get a room to himself, the four of us will share a room. This way, Kakashi Sensei will not be disturbed as he recovers." She states for them, watching for each one to give her a nod showing they understand. "Right." They take turns answering her instead of the silent nod she had expected.
"Until he wakes up, we will continue to follow our previous orders. The four of us will stay at Tazuna's side. Our top priority is his safety. If he goes to work on the bridge, Sakura, I want you to remain no more than five feet from him. Naruto I want you to take the North side of the bridge no more than six meters from him at all times. Sasuke you will take the south. I will take the west. Our jobs will be to watch for any and all possible threats. If one is spotted, immediately return to Tazuna's side and call out for the rest of us. Do not hesitate or wonder if you are right or wrong. Even if you are wrong about what you believe you see, it is still important that we all make it back to Tazuna so we may cover him. Once the situation is assessed, we will return to our posts to watch the vicinity."
Again she glances at the three around her as Tazuna listens to the orders she is giving her team. Seeing she is officially taking the role of team leader while their true leader is incapacitated. Showing a level of understanding he admittedly didn't think someone who could fight as she does is capable of. "Now, when Tazuna is home beyond when we are resting or eating, I want a similar formation as the bridge. Only I do not want any of us moving more than a meter away from his house. Sakura you will continue to remain at Tazuna's side. Do not leave the room he is in, if you do then stay just outside of the door but do not venture any further than that. We will all return to the house to eat then we will take up our posts again. For resting, I want at least one of us standing post so that the rest of us may be alerted to step in for battle. We will change shifts every four hours. Listen, guys, do not drop your guards for a moment. Remain focused and alert. If anything feels off at all, anything at all. No matter if you see anything or not. Wake the rest of the squad up. Do not take any unnecessary risks. We are stronger together."