Naruto was the first to arrive to the main gate of village, he found a spot just outside the large green doors under a tree to wait for his team. His body was still uncomfortably sore from yesterday's training, but his usual fast healing had finally kicked in and most of his cuts and bruises were gone. After going around few rounds against his clones that were trying to kill him, Naruto collapsed and didn't wake back up until this morning.

Next to arrive was Sasuke, the two shared a nod to show they were both ready for this mission. The young blonde noted that Sasuke seemed to be just as sore as he was, maybe if not more.

"You trained yesterday too, huh?"

Sasuke nodded. "I pushed myself to my limit. I needed to see I was ready for this."

Naruto nodded as well. That calmed a few worries that he was having about this mission. He wasn't worried for the mission itself but how his teammates would fair out in the real world. He knew all too well that the world they knew inside Konoha was vastly different from the one outside these walls.

Not surprising, Sakura wasn't too far behind Sasuke. She didn't seem sore in the slightest and both of Naruto and Sasuke noticed. This was something Naruto would have to speak to her about at some point soon. The blonde did notice that Sakura seemed to be looking at him a bit more, like she was trying to remember something. He didn't pay much attention to it after noticing.

After about an hour of waiting, Kakashi finally arrived with Tazuna in toe.

"Alright, let's head out."

-A few hours later-

Kakashi had been watching his team intently since leaving Konoha, everything was going as the jōnin thought it would. This was going to be a simple C-rank escort mission, there shouldn't be too much trouble that his genin team would get overwhelmed.

Sakura was instantly amazed by nearly everything she saw. The grey-haired sensei was aware that this was the first time the girl had left the village and expected this type of reaction. Sasuke appeared he didn't care about the surrounds and more focused on staying alert but Kakashi would catch Sasuke sight seeing very now and again. Naruto's reaction to being outside the village both confused and pleased Kakashi. Naruto had spent the first six years of his life mostly on the move with Jiraiya before he was suddenly left in Konoha, so Naruto seemed more relaxed then Kakashi had ever seen him. But Kakashi knew Naruto was completely aware of his surroundings and would react accordingly, despite not ever seeing the blonde's head turn to look at something.

Kakashi's battle tested eyes saw a small puddle in the middle of the road. The jōnin glanced at the sky and didn't see a single cloud, and he knew that there hasn't been any rain in the past few days.

'A water transformation. Not very clever for this time of year.'

Naruto noticed the puddle as well and signaled Kakashi with a slight whistle. His sensei glanced back, and the blonde softly shook his head. Kakashi understood the gesture and kept walking past the puddle, the three others seemed to be none the wiser.

Two men slowly rose from the puddle a few feet behind them. Both looked similar with the only real difference being that one had two fake horns while the other had only one on the center of his headband. They took off in a dead sprint and shot spiked chains out of their large metal gauntlets and ensnared Kakashi, seemingly tearing him to pieces.

"One down!" One of them called out.

"Kakashi sensei!" Sakura screamed as she stumbled back in fear, watching the two men shift their attention to Tazuna, who she happened to be next to.

Before the two men could make a move towards the client and pinkette, Naruto came down from above and landed a kick onto each of their heads. Sasuke reacted perfectly and hit a well-placed kick to the two horned man. Naruto went through a flurry of hand signs and slammed his hands on the ground.

"Doton: Ganchūrō no Jutsu!"

Large rock pillars shot up from the ground and trapped the two men. Naruto sighed as he stood from his kneeling position. He looked beyond the pillars and saw Sakura still shaking with fear.

"You okay, Sakura?"

Sakura took a moment to snap out of her trance before giving a nod towards her blonde teammate. The pinkette quickly turned to their black-haired teammate and ran to his side. "Are you okay, Sasuke? You did awesome!"

Naruto ignored Sakura's fangirling and proceeded to move closer to his prisoners. The two-rouge ninja continuously tried to escape but to no avail, they were trapped until Naruto would undo the jutsu. Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Kakashi.

"Not bad, Naruto. Smart move in capturing them."

"I was wondering when you'd come out of your hiding spot." Naruto quipped.

Kakashi gave an eye smile. "I'm glad to see you can handle yourself, Naruto. You as well Sasuke." Kakashi expected Sakura to not do as well as her male counterparts, something he'd have to work on with her. He turned his attention to the trapped rouge shinobi. "The Demon Brothers, Gōzu and Meizu."

The two brothers, despite being trapped and mostly immobile, flinched then jōnin spoke their names.

"Do you know these guys, Kakashi sensei?" Sakura questioned.

The jōnin shook his head. "Not personally no, they are listed in the Bingo Book as mid C-rank missing ninja. Their file description states that if you ever run into them that they were most likely hired to kill you." Kakashi's one visible eye glared at Tazuna. "Or someone you happen to be protecting."

Tazuna didn't hold out for long before letting out a sigh. "It seems I've found out."

Sakura looked at the elderly man then at her sensei. "What is Tazuna talking about, Kakashi sensei?"

"Think it through Sakura. After dealing with me, who did the ninja target next?"

Sakura thought about it for moment before responding. "They went after Tazuna before Naruto intervened."

Kakashi responded with a simple nod. He turned his attention back the trapped missing nin. "Who hired you to take out Tazuna and why?"

There was no response.

Kakashi sighed and turned to Naruto. The blonde needed no further instruction. He held the Doton hand sign and the large pillars began to move closer to each other, slowly crushing the rouge shinobi.

"Damn it! Stop already! We'll talk!" Meizu cried out.

-Unknown Location-

A short, fat man with brown spikey hair continuously readjusted his suit as he paced nervously. "I thought you said those two would be enough for the mission?! Where the hell are they? I hired you to kill the bridge builder, not send someone else to earn your pay!"

"Shut up before I kill you." A voice annoyingly retorted. A tall and noticeably muscularly man wearing blue pinstriped pants, black and white camouflage arm and shin guards, and skin tight black shirt. His greyish skin was followed by short black spikey hair. The man's face was completely covered by bandages from the arch of his nose down. His headband, from Kirigakure, slanted across his head, and held a monstrous sword with the blade resting on the floor.

With very little effort, the man picked up the sword with a single hand and pointed it at the short man. "Stop your bitching Gatō, I'll go myself this time and kill them all."

"Are you sure?" Gatō asked questioned. "It seems the enemy is rather skilled if they took down the Demon Brothers. And they'll be on high alert now."

"Who do you think I am? There's a reason I've been called the Demon of the Mist, Zabuzua Momochi. Consider them dead."

-With Team 7-

Kakashi let out a sigh after the Demon Brothers finished giving him everything he wanted to know. "This mission just went from a low C-rank to a high A-rank since we'll be dealing with Zabuzua Momochi."

Tazuna lowered his head. "I apologize for lying to you all. The truth is my country doesn't have the funds to pay for anything higher than your village's rate for a C-rank mission. Gatō's makeshift dictatorship destroyed our trading with other villages. He's also heavily involved with drugs and other illegal items. Our main problem is that he hires ninja to keep his company going, there isn't much the Land of Waves can do against him."

Sakura looked at Tazuna confusingly. "Why can't the Land of Waves just send some high-ranking ninja to take him out?"

"Not all countries have ninja, Sakura. Some have samurai, but some have no type of military at all. Meaning they have to outsource their military to other villages."

"We can't even do that, Gatō completely controls all exports. That's our land's only source of income. The bridge I'm building is the only way we can reconnect with the rest of the world and prosper once more."

Sasuke glanced at the elderly man. "So that's why Gatō hired them to kill you. If that bridge gets finished, then it'll ruin his hold over your town."

Tazuna kept his gaze to the ground. "Yes. And I'm the only one who knows how to create a bridge like the one we need, if I die then it'll never be completed."

Kakashi gave a small eye smile as he looked over his team. "It's up to you guys if we continue this mission or head back to the village and inform Lord Hokage. What do you guys think?"

Before anyone could voice their concerns, Naruto spoke up.

"There's no need for discussion, we're going to continue the mission. We are more than capable than holding our own against anyone we face. I don't even see why you would ask the question, sensei."

Kakashi did agree with his blonde student but he wanted to get a unanimous agreement because they had to feel ready. The only concern for the grey-haired was that Sakura wasn't physically strong enough to handle fighting someone of Zabuzua's caliber, her mental strength was second to none when compared to that of Naruto and Sasuke.

"Does everyone agree?"

The other two genin nodded, Sakura more furiously than Sasuke.

"We'll go through with the mission Tazuna."

Tazuna breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much. I'll make sure I find someway to repay you for the trouble I've caused."

Team 7 was about to begin their traveling once more before Sakura spoke up.

"What about them? We can't leave them in there, can we?" She pointed over to the two captured rouge shinobi that were still trapped in Naruto's jutsu.

Kakashi rubbed the bottom of his chin. "I suppose your right." He glanced over to Naruto. "What do you think Naruto? You were the one who captured them after all."

Naruto thought for a moment before reaching into his back pouch to pull out a small book. He flipped through the pages until he came to the one he was searching for. "These guys have a sizable bounty on their heads for being mid-level C-Rank missing shinobi. I think there is a collection office not to far from here, we could turn them in and let the people who want them deal with them. Plus, pocket the reward as compensation for unknowingly getting dealt a A-Rank mission."

Kakashi nodded. "Normally, I would be all for that, but we are on a bit of a tight schedule. I'm afraid we don't have the time for a detour."

"I can send my shadow clones while we push forward, they'll catch up once they've finished."

Kakashi thought over Naruto's plan. He saw no issue with it and nodded his head in agreement. Naruto nodded as well and created four shadow clones. "You know what to do."

The four clones nodded and made their way over to the bound missing ninja.

With the Demon Brothers being escorted by the team of clones, Tazuna, with Team Seven as his escort, continued their journey towards the Land of Waves. A few hours passed, and the team came to a lake with a docked boat. Tazuna informed that this boat was for them to enter the Land of Waves.

It didn't take very long for team of genin to realize the sudden decline in visibility as they departed from the wooden dock.

"I can't see a damn thing!" Sakura complained. She could barely see her teammates in the boat next to her, let alone what was in front of her.

"That's the Hidden Mist for you." Tazuna chuckled. "Everything is hidden in a thick mist."

"Is it always like this?" Sasuke questioned.

"More or less." The bridge builder shrugged. "Honestly, I've never seen the fog get this bad before, but I'm not surprised that it is."

Kakashi slightly lifted his head from his book, who somehow could read it despite the thick mist, and thought about the elder man's words. 'If he's lived here all his life and never seen the mist this dense…I'll have to keep my guard up.'

It didn't take much longer for Team Seven and Tazuna to reach the landing dock. They slowly walked further into the small town. Water was on either side of them and trees were growing out of the water made a nice view as you walked by. Naruto thought the scene was beautiful.

They came to a small forest that led towards the main part of the small town. The group suddenly stopped when a snow rabbit scurried across the path.

Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief. "It was just a rabbit."

Naruto immediately knew something was off. "It's the dead middle of summer, it doesn't make sense for a snow rabbit to be around. It's just like that puddle."

A giant sword flew across the clearing. Naruto sensed the danger and quickly grabbed Sakura and pulled her over out of the way while Sasuke did the same with Tazuna. Kakashi simply just dodged the blade entirely. The sword launched itself into a tree and, instantly, a large, tall man stood on the handle.

"Kakashi Hatake…what an honor it is to meet you."

Kakashi finally looked up from his book and placed it in his back pouch. "Zabuza Momochi, I've been wondering when you'd show up."

A small scoff escaped Zabuza's bandaged face. "I see the Demon Brother's didn't keep their mouth shut."

"It was the easiest interrogation I've ever been apart of."

The missing ninja looked over the three genin. "I must say, I'm shocked that your brats dodged my sword without your help."

Sakura felt a shiver run down her spine as she physically flinched at the gaze of Zabuza. Sasuke didn't let it show but he felt the same fear as his female teammate. Naruto stepped forward and stood next to his sensei.

"Hey sensei, mind if I take the lead?"

Not only were Sakura, Sasuke, and Tazuna shocked by Naruto's statement, Zabuza took the comment as an insult. A freaking genin wanting to take him alone?! Zabuza vanished and appeared behind Naruto with his massive sword in hand.

"I'll show you to not underestimate me!"

Zabuza, with blinding speed, brought the sword down and sliced Naruto completely in half. Before anyone could react to the sudden attack, the two halves of Naruto suddenly exploded. Both Kakashi and Zabuza emerged from the smoke cloud unharmed.

"An exploding shadow clone? That's some technique to teach a genin." Zabuza commented. "You must be a damn good teacher, Kakashi."

The grey-haired man let out a small chuckle. "I wish I could say I was, but Naruto is mostly self-taught."

Zabuza wanted to question the man more but was stopped by the same blonde that appeared in front of him, ready to strike. Naruto could hear Sakura's happy cries behind him, but he paid no mind to them as he and Zabuza exchanged blows.

The two dueled throughout the clearing as a very thick mist began to cover the surrounding area. Zabuza disengaged and disappeared into the mist. Naruto scanned the immediate area but couldn't see the S-Rank missing ninja. Naruto let out a sigh as he turned and headed back to his team, where he could hear his sensei's screams for him to return.

Kakashi let out the breath he had been holding when Naruto landed into the formation that Sakura and Sasuke had created to protect Tazuna. Kakashi looked back over his shoulder. "You guys stay here with Tazuna, I'll handle Zabuza."

Kakashi turned back and lifted his headband from over his eye, revealing his Sharingan.

"I guess I better get serious." He said to himself as he faded away into the mist.

-With Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke-

The three genin couldn't see the battle between Kakashi and Zabuza but they sure could hear it. The clashing of steel and the occasional taunt made Naruto started to grow restless. He wanted to challenge himself against Zabuza to see how far he had come. He couldn't gauge his abilities good enough in that short bout. Fighting Jiraiya was one thing, that was training and the Sannin held everything back. This was real life; the possibility of death was high. Naruto felt an odd mixture of fear and excitement.

Sasuke kept his calm and collected demeanor as he continuously scanned the dense fog for any threat. He was ready, he had prepared for this. But there was still that lingering doubt that always plagued the young Uchiha. The doubt that he would somehow blunder and lose his chance for revenge against the man that took everything from him. Sasuke would not fall he laid dead at his feet!

Sakura was the most visibly shaken by what was happening around her. She knew of the risks that came with being a ninja but didn't expect to be fighting an S-Rank missing ninja on her first mission outside the village. She was anything but prepared for this! Sure, she felt safe with her teammates around but that still didn't drown out the fear.

Suddenly, the surrounding area grew silent. The sounds of the battle had stopped. The silence lasted a few minutes, making the team of genin and Tazuna worried for their sensei. Naruto didn't like it and decided to deal with the fog around them to figure out what was going on.

He went through a series of hand signs. "Kazakiri no Jutsu!" (Wind Burst technique)

All the fog instantly vanished as a quick, yet strong wave of wind washed away the fog in the area. Zabuza had trapped Kakashi in a chakra infused ball of water. There was a clone that stood in front of the real Zabuza, acting as the guard.

Sasuke gasped when he noticed the Sharingan in Kakashi's left eye. He stared at Kakashi in a mix of shock and confusion. 'How the hell does he have the Sharingan?! Kakashi isn't an Uchiha! That's not possible!'

Both Sakura and Tazuna, who knew of the Uchiha kekki genkai, had similar thoughts overrunning their brains. Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly when he noticed the scar running over the eye.

'Surgically implanted? There's not many medics that can transfer body parts like that. I wonder if this was her doing?'

Naruto didn't dwell on his thoughts about Kakashi's Sharingan but instead on how he would free his sensei from that water prison. The blonde took notice that Zabuza, the real one, had his hand placed in the ball itself, as if he was holding it together. That gave the clone reason to act as the guard. Maybe he could hold off the clone while Sasuke figured out a way to release Zabuza's hold on the water prison. But then Sakura would be left alone to protect Tazuna.

Naruto was thrown from his thoughts when Sasuke suddenly drew a windmill shuriken, specialty weapon for ninja. The two glanced at one another, a plan formulating instantly. Naruto smirked as he nodded, then pulled out a normal kunai.

"Now Naruto!"

The blonde threw the kunai as Sasuke also threw the giant shuriken. The clone simply sidestepped both weapons as they continued towards the real Zabuza. Zabuza merely dodged the kunai and caught the windmill shuriken.

"Ha! Is that all you got?!"

Zabuza was about to break into a bit of laughter but was grabbed at the back and thrown into a tree, pulling his hand from the jutsu and ultimately breaking Kakashi free. Zabuza didn't have much time to defend himself from Naruto's quick strikes. As the two fought for a second time, Zabuza noticed that it was a clone of the blonde that threw him.

'This gaki transformed a clone into a kunai? I never saw a hand sign. He must've preplanned it and transformed the clone beforehand…talk about thinking ahead.'

The real Naruto and the real Zabuza dueled once again as Kakashi quickly dealt with the Zabuza clone. Kakashi waited for an opening to engage Zabuza himself. Surprisingly, Naruto was holding his own against the rouge ninja. Zabuza jumped from Naruto and Kakashi saw his opening and followed him out onto the pond.

Sasuke and Sakura watched in amazement as Kakashi and Zabuza stood on the water as if it was solid ground. How was that even possible?!

The two charged at each other with the intent to end this once and for all. Zabuza with his sword and Kakashi with a simple kunai. The two fought for a while until something became very clear, Kakashi was copying Zabuza's every move. The swordsman ran to the right, but Kakashi followed him perfectly. Zabuza stopped and raised his hand while keeping his other hand to his front, preparing for a jutsu. Kakashi stood in the exact same stance.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!"

Both Kakashi and Zabuza announced at the same time, the dragons began to swirl around the casters before colliding and resulting in a mist explosion. When the mist cleared, Kakashi and Zabuza were fighting hand to hand once more. It was clear Zabuza was having hard time keeping up with the Copy Cat.

"All you're doing is coping me you-"

"-You monkey bastard!"

Zabuza's eyes widened as he grit his teeth, growing tired of Kakashi's mind tricks. "I'm going to make it so you can never open that damn mouth of yours again!"

Kakashi snapped through another series of hand signs were too quick to follow. Zabuza was too distracted by Kakashi's Sharingan and the distilled image of himself that appeared behind Kakashi.

"Suiton: Mizu no bakuhatsu!"

Water surrounded Kakashi and Zabuza watched in utter shock as it exploded towards him. Zabuza slammed into a tree, hard. Before he could fall to the ground, Zabuza was pinned to the tree by kunai that were thrown by Kakashi.

"It's over…"

Zabuza looked up towards Kakashi, who was now crouching on a tree branch above him.

"Can you see the future, Kakashi?!"

Now emotionless, Kakashi stared at Zabuza. "Yeah…and you're dead."

The Copy Cat ninja raised his kunai to send Zabuza to the afterlife, but was a second too late because two senbon needles pierced the swordsman's neck. Kakashi watched closely as a hunter ninja appeared in front of Zabuza's dead body and let out a small chuckle.

"You're right…he did die."

The ninja started to pick up the lifeless body as the mysterious ninja looked at Kakashi.

"I've been waiting for my chance to kill Zabuza for while now. As one would think, he's not the easiest to track down. Let alone take down in a fight. I thank you. Now, please excuse me so I can dispose of the body."

Kakashi gave a nod as the hunter ninja turned to leave with the body in his arms. But the ninja was stopped when Naruto landed in the ninja's path with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought hunter ninja eliminated the body were it lies, no exception."

Kakashi's eyes shot wide open as the realization hit him. 'How did I miss that?'

The hunter ninja dropped Zabuza's body as he took a battle stance, Naruto smirked and followed suit.

"Let's go wild!"

Naruto charged at the ninja but was shocked to find the ninja was fast, really fast. In the blink of an eye, the hunter ninja was behind Naruto and ready to strike. The blonde spun around and blocked two senbon with his bare hands, the needles piercing through his hands completely. There was no time to draw a kunai, it was the only choice.

"No regard for your body I see. A rare thing to find in someone so young."

Naruto fully extended his arms, overpowering the masked hunter ninja. He may be fast but physical strength was his weakness. The sound of something rather heavy hitting the ground drew Naruto's attention momentarily away from the ninja. Kakashi was lying face down on the ground. Both Sakura and Sasuke were already running towards him.

The hunter ninja noticed the distraction and capitalized. He kicked Naruto in the stomach and pushed him. By the time Naruto recovered, the hunter ninja had already vanished with Zabuza's body.

"Damnit." Naruto sighed as he nursed his hand wounds. He clenched them slowly, trying to deal with the pain, as he walked over to his team, who were trying to help their sensei.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Simple chakra exhaustion, nothing serious." Sasuke answered.

Naruto nodded and studied his sensei now that he was closer to see the scar over his left eye. "So, it was implanted. It must take a lot out of him to use it like he did."

"That's amazing that someone could transfer an eyeball from one person to another. It must be difficult." Sakura said.

"You aren't wrong. Transferring body parts from person to person is highly advanced medical ninjutsu. Hell, basic medical ninjutsu is hard to understand. You need a very good teacher."

Sasuke looked at Naruto in confusion. "You sound like you're talking from experience."

Naruto looked lost in thought for a moment before shaking his head slightly, throwing whatever he was thinking about away. "No. Just going off some scrolls I read." That wasn't a complete lie.

"You know medical ninjutsu?" Sakura questioned.

Naruto shrugged as he covered his hand wounds with bandages. The healing factor of the Kyuubi was starting to kick in and the steam that followed was beginning to leak out of his wounds. Naruto thought best to not get into that subject with his teammates. "I wouldn't say I know medical ninjutsu, just familiar with out it works and able to perform self-aid when I need to."

Sakura and Sasuke wanted to question the blonde more, since they knew very little about him, but Tazuna walked up to them.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but I believe it would be best to leave this place and get somewhere safer. My house isn't too far from here, we can go there and recover."

Team 7 nodded, all agreeing that it was the best to get somewhere safe for their sensei to recover. Naruto created two shadow clones to carry Kakashi as the team followed Tazuna to his house up the road.