As Team 8 departed the village, Naruto stayed in the rear with Yamato in the front, Shikamaru and Choji watching the flank and Ino shadowing Tazuna.
Tazuna still seemed doubtful about the ability of the Genin, but he had no choice.
After a decent chunk of walking, both Naruto and Yamato felt a presence in the ground, hiding.
Naruto signaled to Yamato that he felt something, but Yamato just nodded and kept quiet, indicating that he knew, and that he was going to let it play out.
They kept walking, Naruto made sure to keep a close eye on the Chakra signature.
But as expected, two enemy Shinobi jumped out of a nearby puddle into the air and shot a sharp chains at Naruto and tangled him up once he was entangled they tugged using their massive claw like looking mechanism and tore Naruto to shreds.
"Naruto!" screamed Ino
As the rest of the team fell into a defensive position, the 3 Genin surrounding Tazuna and Yamato in the front, ready to fight.
But to the shock of everyone but Yamato a puff of smoke appeared where Naruto stood.
And to the shock of the two enemy, Shinobi Naruto pierced his blade into the back of the right ninja before cutting through the flesh cutting upwards, splitting the upper torso in half.
Naruto then kicked the other Shinobi forward, landing him right in front of Yamato, who put his knee on the Enemy Shinobi's back, restraining him.
Ino, Shikamaru, Choji and Tazuna looked in shock as Naruto just cleaned his blade with a bit of water and when he decided it was clean he sheathed his sword.
"Snap out of it, and hand me a rope" ordered Yamato
Which brought everyone out of their trance, Choji handed Yamato his rope, which Yamato used to tie up the enemy Shinobi.
"I will kill you for killing my brother!" screamed the tied up Shinobi.
"Sure you will, if you want any chance of enacting revenge I would start talking, otherwise you will die." declared Yamato in a cold voice.
"I'm not telling you anything" declared the Enemy Shinobi
"Very well then, Ino interrogate him" ordered Yamato
Ino stepped up and put her hand onto the enemy Shinobi's forehead and began exploring his mind space.
She found out that hey were two rouge Shinobi from the hidden mist village and their target was to kill the bridge builder Tazuna for, but before she could find out she heard
"Ino exit his mind" muffled but still she followed the order.
She did it just in time to see a massive blade whirl and break through a stone wall and cut off the enemy Shinobi's head.
Yamato had picked her up and created distance between the new threat and them, while Choji did the same but instead he was holding Tazuna.
"I'll take him on, you guys form a defensive formation." instructed Yamato, dropping Ino onto her feet and jumping forwards to face their new opponent.
Ino took up the rear, while Shikamaru and Choji took up the flanks, with Naruto standing up front with Tazuna in the middle.
These little brats are actually protecting me, thought Tazuna.
Zabuza now stood in front of Yamato with his executioners lade slung across his back.
"Hm, a man with a big blade from the Hiden Mist, I wasn't expecting to meet Zabuza of the hidden mist on a C-Rank mission" said Yamato.
That name rang a bell in Naruto's head, but he couldn't quite place it.
As if Shikamru was reading Naruto's mind he explained "Zabuza Momochi a rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist classed at S-Rank, once a former member of the 7 ninja swordsmen of the mist wielding the Executioners Blade."
"The little brat is right, you know" said Zabuza with a small chuckle
"You took out 2 of my co-workers quite easily, so you may not be as easy of an opponent as I thought" said Zabuza.
Zabuza performed some quick hand signs when they were complete, a massive amount of mist surrounded the area.
"Shit" said Naruto we can't see in any of this.
"Keep a tight formation and keep your eyes peeled" said Shikamaru
The 4 Genin nodded.
With Yamato
I can barely see in any of this, I don't have access to a big enough fire style Jutsu to get rid of this mist, I need to stay on the defensive for now and keep my eyes peeled.
Just as he finished his thought the executioner's blade came swinging at him through the mist, he used a Kunai to block it before using his free hand to throw another Kunai at the source of the blade.
The sword and body just splashed into the ground as a puddle of water.
Tenzo predicted the next move and created a wooden dome behind him to block the attack, he heard the clunk of metal on wood as the executioners blade stuck itself into the dome, but to his horror the wood was getting cut, and the blade was about to pop through.
Yamato quickly countered by creating a very sharp wooden stake, impaling it through the body of Zabuza, but to his horror that also turned into a puddle as well, and before he knew it he felt the cold metal blade against his neck.
"Tough, luck" said Zabuza before driving his blade into Yamato's neck.
But to Zabuza's dismay, his sword cut off a wooden head.
"A wood style user and he was fighting me using a clone, this fight is getting interesting" said Zabuza
"I got you now" said Yamato, creating a wooden prison around Zabuza.
"You think that is all it takes to stop me?" asked Zabuza and sliced the prison open.
He jumped into the air with his blade, thrusting it down in the direction of Yamato.
Yamato side stepped out-of-the-way, leaving a small crater on the ground where he had just stood.
He could sense the mist around him starting to loosen up, increasing visibility, it seemed that Zabuza was channelling less chakra into creating the mist and more into fighting.
This allowed Yamato to see the rest of the team in a defensive formation around Tazuna.
But this moment of distraction cost him, he got hit with the side of the Executioners Blade, sending him flying into a nearby body of water.
He quickly channelled chakra into his body to keep himself on top of the water.
Zabuza used this chance to pounce, bringing his executioners blade down onto Yamato, who sidestepped the reckless but powerful attack and stabbed his Kunai into Zabuza, who once again dispersed into water.
And before Yamato could react, he was stuck in a water prison.
"I will let your Sensei go if you just give me the Builder" said Zabuza
"I don't want any problems with Leaf Shinobi, but I do need to kill that man that you are protecting, so make both of our lives easier" said Zabuza
"You three keep watching this old geezer, ill take care of him" declared Naruto and drew his Sword.
He jumped towards Zabuza and completed one hand sign, creating 2 clones of himself which surrounded Zabuza.
Naruto's eyes were no longer his normal light blue, instead they were red.
"Huh, you possess the Sharingan I thought you Uchiha brats were wiped out, but even with your fancy tricks you cannot beat me" scoffed Zabuza
"Try me" said Naruto
"Two of Naruto's clones jumped up in the air one released water out of his mouth with a strong current while the other performed hand signs and released a lightning bolt which connected with the water Jutsu and combined to make a raging wave of electricity which flew straight at Zabuza.
Zabuza jumped backwards to dodge the attack, but in turn released the Water Prison on Yamato.
But Naruto's third clone had used his Sharingan to anticipate the location he would jump to, and was standing behind Zabuza and held his blade and pressed it against Zabuzas Neck.
Yamato quickly performed the snake sign and entangled Zabuza in wood, binding him.
Once Zabuza was entangled, he sheathed his blade, and they walked back to shore.
There they met back up with their team.
"Good job on protecting Tazuna, and thank you, Naruto, for stepping in" said Yamato.
"Now to interrogate Zabuza though, Ino if you would do the honors" said Yamato
But before Ino got a chance to do anything, a few Senbon flew through the air into Zabuza's neck.
The team quickly created a defensive formation around Tazuna while Naruto and Yamato made a defensive formation around Zabuza.
Yamato checked for a pulse on Zabuza, but found none.
When they looked up at a nearby tree branch, they saw a girl in an ANBU mask disappear in a furl of leaves and reappear behind Naruto and Yamato and pick up Zabuzas lifeless body.
Before disappearing again.
"Hidden Mist ANBU must have been tracking Zabuza to retrieve his body to not let any secret village information out." explained Yamato.
"Hm, there is something off about it" said Shikamaru.
"What do you mean?" asked Yamato
"Why wouldn't the ANBU just burn the body right there? What's the point of taking the body with them, it just drags them down and there is no benefit of keeping the body by the time the ANBU make it back to the hidden mist they won't even be able to access the dead mind." explained Shikamaru.
"Im sure there is a reason behind it" said Yamato
But he kept that note in mind.
"But now to discuss a more important matter, Ino what did you find out from the 2 Shinobi before?" asked Yamato.
"Their target was Tazuna the bridge builder, in case that wasn't clear after the fight with Zabuza and they are 2 rogue ninjas from the hidden mist just like Zabuza" explained Ino
"Is that all?" asked Yamato
"Yes, I was cut short due to having to exit his mind" explained Ino
"Alright, so Tazuna why would high rank rogue ninja try and attack you? And why would you report this as a C-Rank mission, you clearly knew there would be ninja coming to attack you, after all if it was just bandits you wouldn't be that disappointed by a Genin team." asked Yamato.
"Fine I knew that there would be ninja coming against me, but I don't have the money to afford a mission quota higher than C-Rank and the land of waves need me" explained Tazuna
"Alright, we will be returning to the village now, and you will need to figure something out" said Yamato
"No, please if I don't get to the wave safely the entire wave will collapse the bridge im building is vital to the village" pleaded Tazuna
"Not my problem." said Yamato
"Come on Yamato, it will be good practice for us we where able to take of Zabuza we can surely take care of bringing the bridge builder all the way to the wave?" said Naruto
"Yeah I agree we should help him" said Choji
"I agree" said Ino
"Only if Shikamaru agrees will we go" said Yamato
"What a drag" said Shikamaru
"You lazy nara dog this man needs our help and you won't help him?" asked Ino with anger creeping into her voice.
"Fine" said Shikamaru
Women are scary he thought as he put his hands behind his head
"Alright, then lets get moving its getting dark" said Yamato.
A/N: A rather short chapter as I have been busy but the wave arc will continue next chapter.