A/N: Welcome to the Waves Mission! Thank you for the reviews, favorites and follows!
DodemGM - Thank you for noticing! I love your analysis of Kimiko. Thank you for reading!
After a promise of dango and a "cool story" for Hikari and a reassurance that she will stay safe for her grandmother, Kimiko left her house with her pack. She had a spare set of clothes, rations, extra equipment, a medpack, a bedroll, and a super-tightly packed rain jacket.
She met up with Sasuke and Naruto at the gate, and patiently helped Naruto repack his bag because it was almost impressively unbalanced. They were joined by Tazuna, who drunkenly rolled his eyes at them. Their first meeting had not been pleasant, to put it nicely, but as Kimiko had reminded Naruto half an hour ago, he was the mission, and they didn't have to like the mission, just do the mission.
Kakashi-sensei joined them a minute later in a swirl of leaves, which Tazuna at least looked mildly impressed by. Kimiko hadn't left the village since she was a small child, and it was equally exciting and nerve-wracking as she left the safety of the village walls behind.
Those feelings quickly faded to boredom as they set their pace to Tazuna's best, which was "lumbering drunk". Kakashi-sensei tried to fill the time with some information about the Land of Waves, which did break up the monotony, especially when he started quizzing them on the information he had just given. Kakashi explained there wasn't anything else they could safely do to train, nor could he assign the usual "training punishments". On the off-chance they were attacked by bandits looking to hold Tazuna hostage, they had to be fully rested and ready to fight.
"Don't worry though," He added cheerfully, "I'll remember for after the mission." Naruto, who had gotten the most questions wrong, gulped nervously.
That night, Kakashi sat back and "guarded the client" as the three of them set up their campsite. Naruto was in charge of traps, Sasuke was in charge of the fire, and Kimiko set up the two tents that Kakashi-sensei had brought in a sealed scroll. They ate dinner, decided on watches, and fell asleep to the sound of the crackling fire.
Day two was uneventful and continued much the same way. Day three seemed to be the same. Kimiko was so bored that the sight of a puddle was the most interesting thing she had seen all morning. In fact, it was the first puddle she had seen since they had left Konoha. Strange.
As she looked at it, she felt…off. Like she shouldn't look at it. It made her skin tingle, and a moment later as they began to pass the puddle, she realized it wasn't necessarily her skin but her chakra. The puddle was made of chakra.
"Sensei - " she started to say, but she was interrupted by chains erupting from the water. She threw herself to the side, but she obviously wasn't the target. Kakashi let out a strangled noise as the chains wrapped around him, squeezed, pulled -
"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto yelled in horror as blood and flesh burst from the chains as Kakashi was torn into pieces. A cloud of smoke obscured the worst of the massacre, but Kimiko still stared in horror at where their sensei had been. Two men, dressed in dark colors and faces covered, appeared behind Naruto, and she snapped into action. There was no time to consider their chances, no time to process Kakashi-sensei's death, only time to react - and as a Konoha Genin, she was trained to protect her comrades.
Sasuke had already leaped into the air, a beautiful shuriken and kunai combo temporarily disabling the twin chains. He finished the move with a kick to both of their heads, forcing them to disengage the chains. Her hands were already going through the hand-signs for a genjutsu when one turned towards Tazuna, and the other one relaunched themselves at Naruto. She moved in front of Tazuna and caught Sasuke's eye as she finished her jutsu with a tiger seal.
"Naruto, FIGHT!" She shouted, hoping to shock him out of his stupor. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
A bright light appeared in front of her as a ball of fire roared towards the enemy ninja. He's a missing ninja from the Mist Village some part of her mind distantly recognized. The ninja cursed and leaped away - directly into the path of Sasuke's actual fireball.
"FU - " the ninja was sent to the ground in a ball of fire as Kimiko's genjutsu dissipated. It was simple enough - it was a sensory technique that only targeted the visual centers of the brain. He had seen a bright ball that Kimiko created, but he had also heard and felt the heat from Sasuke's actual fireball, and seen her tiger seal, and her pointless shouting out of her jutsu. They had only done it in practice, but it worked beautifully as he slammed into the ground, frantically patting at the flames and screaming in agony.
The second ninja, who was fighting Naruto - wait, where was the second ninja?
"Where did he go?" Sasuke demanded. Naruto was sucking on his bleeding hand and shrugged, mumbling, "He vanished."
She felt before she heard a shape appearing between her and Tazuna. "I'll gut you brats first for hurting my brother, and then I'll kill the stupid bridge builder!" A dark voice snarled. She turned around, drawing a kunai into her hand. She felt Sasuke move and throw himself in front of her even as the claw arm, already in motion, came down past his shoulder down, down, down towards her head in what would surely be a lethal move…
Thud. The threat vanished as Kakashi-sensei appeared, his arm so tightly wrapped around the enemy ninja's throat that he immediately passed out with a wheeze. It was then she noticed that the screaming had stopped, though whether the ninja was unconscious or dead she had no idea.
"Kakashi-sensei," She said with relief, and embarrassingly she felt tears well up in her eyes. She turned and hastily wiped them away, fighting to regain control of her emotions. She took a couple of deep breaths and felt the tightness in her throat ease.
"Thank you." She whispered to Sasuke, realizing he had thrown himself in front of her to protect her. He looked extremely uncomfortable, and just said, "hn" in response.
"Naruto, are you okay?" She asked, remembering he had been bleeding.
"Yeah…I just…he surprised me." Naruto stuttered, looking extremely shaken.
"Surprised you? What are you, a scaredy cat?" Sasuke snorted.
"Sasuke!" Naruto growled and started towards him, but Kakashi-sensei's voice made them all freeze. "Naruto, stop moving. Those claws had poison in them. If I had known you were going to freeze up, I would have intervened sooner." Naruto bit his lip and angrily looked at the ground, holding his hand carefully for Kakashi-sensei to inspect.
"While I treat Naruto's hand," Kakashi-sensei said, and Kimiko knew him well enough to know his casual voice was anything but, "why don't you enlighten us to why two Hidden Mist Chunin, far above the paygrade of a C-Rank mission, were after you?"
"Uh…well…" Tazuna stuttered, but whatever lie had been on his lips died at the look in their sensei's eyes. Tazuna sighed, and began to explain his story.
A/N: Am I lazy for not writing out the Wave story? Yes. Does anyone really need to read it again? No.
After Tazuna's explanation, Team 7 was in a bit of a predicament. On one hand, this was obviously no longer a C-Rank mission, and therefore unsafe for fresh Genin. On the other hand, Naruto's bleeding heart wouldn't let them turn back.
Of course, his bleeding heart wasn't enough to convince their sensei.
"Naruto, you have poison in your system. It would be unwise to continue with the mission." Kakashi-sensei pointed out mildly.
Instead of doing something reasonable, like agreeing, Naruto took his kunai and stabbed his wound, ripping it open and causing the blood to flow freely.
"Naruto, are you crazy?" Kimiko yelped.
"I won't back down and I won't turn away! These people need our help, and a little poison isn't going to stop me! I will not give up. The mission will continue!" He said passionately. Kimiko stared at him, mouth slightly open in surprise. Where was the goofy knucklehead that pranked the Hokage mountain, or fumbled to cook a simple meal, or called their Hokage Gramps? He looked so serious and confident.
"That's great and all, but now you're in danger of bleeding out and you messed up my bandage." Kakashi-sensei said, still casual as he ruined the moment entirely.
Naruto immediately grew pale and hastily moved over to Kakashi for another bandaging.
"You mean it? You'll…you'll help us?" Tazuna said, sounding choked with emotion.
"We're closer to the bridge than Konoha anyway. It's safer to reach a base location, and then request reinforcements." Kimiko said reasonably.
"And they need help!" Naruto reminded her, leaning past Kakashi to speak to her.
"Yes, and they need our help." Kimiko corrected herself sheepishly. "Who knows how bad the situation will get if we take the time to take Tazuna back. A day could really mean the difference to them."
"It will be a good chance to test our skills." Sasuke added.
Kakashi finished bandaging Naruto and turned to appraise all of them. "You would all like to continue the mission, knowing it could be dangerous?" He looked directly at Kimiko when he said that, and unbidden the image of that clawed hand coming down at her flashed into her head. I was never in danger though, not really. She reminded herself. Kakashi-sensei was watching us the whole time.
"Yes, sensei." They chorused, Kimiko a beat behind but just as sure. Kakashi-sensei's eye lingered for a moment, and then moved on.
They continued to travel, now more wary of threats than ever. They took a boat, and Kimiko was shocked to feel Kakashi-sensei disappear entirely. For a second, she thought he had left, but her the eyes told her he was there. He had just suppressed his chakra to such a level she couldn't feel him anymore. It was both a comforting sign of his skill level, and disconcerting to stare at him and not "see" him with her other chakra sense.
After that harrowing and informative venture, they continued on land. The tension seemed to build the closer they got to Tazuna's village until Naruto panicked and threw a kunai into a bush. Startled, Kimiko drew her own kunai, moving towards Tazuna while her eyes darted around. A second later, a white rabbit hopped out of the bushes, looking terrified.
"Aww, little bunny rabbit! I'm sorry!" Naruto went to cuddle the poor creature.
"DUCK!" Kimiko felt Kakashi push her head down as they collapsed on the floor, Tazuna letting out a surprised grunt next to them as Kakashi's other hand brought him down. She felt the air displace over her head as a strange whooshing noise sounded above them and then the darkest chakra Kimiko had ever touched filled the area.
No longer needing to hide, the missing ninja casually stood on his massive blade that had come close to decapitating Team 7. He felt like a polluted river - a once sparkling stream that had become dark and jagged and twisted. It ate at her senses and she felt fear settling into her gut just from being near him. She hastily focused on her teammates, warm and familiar and bright, and his chakra moved to the edge of her senses, uncomfortable but not overwhelming as it had briefly been.
"Zabuza Momochi." Kakashi-sensei identified the strange man before them. "Rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist Village."
Naruto tensed and began to move, obviously burning with a desire to prove himself, but Kakashi's outstretched hand stopped him.
"You're in the way." He said coldly, never taking his eye off of his opponent.
"But, sensei - " Naruto began to protest, but Kakashi silenced him. "He's not like those other ninja. He's in a whole other league." Kimiko resisted the urge to shiver. She had never seen their sensei this serious. This would not be a battle for them to participate in.
"I'll need this." Kakashi said, more to himself than them, and slowly lifted up his headband. "Get in Manji formation. Do not disrupt this battle." Kimiko, Naruto and Sasuke sprang into action even as Zauba continued talking, unphased by their movements.
"Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja. Master of over one thousand jutsu. Kakashi of the Sharingan." One thousand jutsu? Kimiko looked at their sensei, shocked. His casual stance suddenly seemed more lethal, less like a lazy man and more like a hunting panther, ready to spring at its prey. Is our sensei really that powerful? And why is he lifting his headband?
She heard Sasuke give a sharp intake of breath - whatever the Sharingan was, it obviously meant something to him.
"Let's stop the chit-chat, shall we? I need to kill the bridge builder. And to do that, I'll have to go through you, Kakashi." The mist grew thicker as he quickly yanked the huge blade away and leaped to the river, where he vanished in the swirling mists.
At first, there was only silence. Kakashi-sensei positioned himself a few feet away, and Kimiko could barely make out the red swirl on his flak jacket. Zabuza's voice suddenly emerged from the mist, menacing and dark. "Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart. Which will be my attack point?" Despite her training telling her it was just a scare tactic, she felt his dark chakra suffuse into her system. It felt like any movement would mark her, signaling that she was his target, his prey, and she would enter the afterlife before she could blink. Her muscles locked up, and her breath began to come in short pants. Before she fully began on a destructive spiral, as everything in her body screamed she was about to die, a blast of warm chakra cleared the mist around them, revealing Kakashi-sensei.
"Don't worry," He turned to them with a genuine smile, and Kimiko felt her muscles unlock and oxygen find its way back into her lungs. "I'll protect you with my life."
"Are you sure about that?" The voice echoed in Kimiko's ear. His sword was moving faster than she could blink as she desperately threw herself to the ground and -
Kakashi-sensei was there, kunai buried in his gut. Before she could feel any sense of relief, water instead of blood dripped from Zabuza's body.
What followed was an extremely confusing clone and deception game that ended with Kakashi getting kicked into the river and trapped. It all happened so quickly that Kimiko wasn't sure what happened, but the end result was clear: Kakashi-sensei couldn't protect them while he was trapped. Zabuza's water clone chuckled menacingly.
"Now the "Genin" are all alone." He said Genin with derision, like they didn't deserve the rank. " Leave the bridge-builder, and I might spare your pathetic lives."
"I'm tired of you talking down to us!" Naruto shouted. "Multi-Shadowclone Jutsu!" Twenty Naruto's phased into existence.
"Stop, Naruto! Take Tazuna and run! The clone can't get far from Zabuza!" Kakashi-sensei shouted, and Kimiko winced, knowing he had most likely used the last of his air to shout out his last warning, and was now most likely actively drowning, or close to it. She couldn't just leave him to drown. His first lesson had been to never abandon a comrade. Didn't he realize that applied to him too?
The Naruto clones, obviously thinking along the same lines, gave a shout and ran forward. Zabuza laughed and easily dispatched the clones, sending Naruto back in a spray of blood as his headband was ripped off his forehead. Kimiko darted forward and broke his fall, skidding backwards a few feet with the force of it. Sasuke stayed by Tazuna, looking as lost as she felt.
He's out of our league. She thought, accidentally brushing Naruto's injured hand as she set him down. It's like the bell test, only he isn't going to pull any punches.
Naruto was startled out of his fearful thoughts when Kimiko's hand brushed his, bringing back a stinging pain - the pain he had caused himself when he promised he wasn't going to quit. He balled his hand into a fist. His promise meant something. Kimiko and Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei - they meant something to him. He wasn't going to let it end here. He finally had his precious people.
With a battle cry, he launched himself and his clones forward, getting pushed back again - but this time, with his headband clutched in his hand.
"I am a ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves." Naruto declared, tying his headband tightly to his forehead. "We don't abandon our comrades. The people who do that are worse than trash. Right, guys?"
"Right!" Kimiko agreed, moving to stand by his side.
"You better have a plan, loser." Sasuke added, moving to stand by his other side.
"Save your sensei. Don't worry about me." Tazuna encouraged them from the back. Kakashi-sensei probably would have said something in protest, but he was too busy trying not to drown.
"Let's try this again. Multi-ShadowClone Jutsu!" His clones charged forward for a third time.
"You're beginning to annoy me brat." Zabuza scoffed, easily dispatching the clones. Kimiko added shuriken to the mix, attempting to find a weak point, but Zabuza blocked those as well. Naruto pulled a Demon Wind shuriken and threw it to Sasuke as Kimiko threw down a smoke bomb to cover his retreat. She wasn't sure what Naruto's plan was, but she hoped he had a really good one.
Sasuke caught the shuriken and flipped around, throwing the shuriken with expert skill past the water clone and towards the real Zabuza, who caught it with ease.
"You avoided the clone and went for the real me. Good idea, but - " He was interrupted as a bright light filled his vision. He canceled the basic genjutsu without having to sign, but the brief bit of light had covered the second shuriken heading towards him. They hid the first shuriken in the shadow of the second. Well, well, Kakashi has some clever Genin after all. They might have grown up to be something.
He leaped over the shuriken with a smirk, watching the kunoichi's face fall. If you were a little better with Genjutsu, that might have worked. Too bad the Leaf Village never pushed you hard enough.
He heard a puff of smoke behind him and his head whipped around to see the loud clone brat appear out of the shuriken and throw a kunai on a direct course to Zabuza's eye and into his brain.
"What!" He shouted in disbelief. He pulled his hand away from the water prison, just barely moving in time as the kunai nicked his cheek. They had drawn blood. The unblooded, coddled, baby-faced children has drawn his blood.
He was moving faster than the blonde genin could fall into the water, ready to saw his body in half with the same Demon Wind shuriken his teammate had thrown.
"I'll kill you!" In his anger, he made a fatal mistake. He turned his back on Kakashi, and the weapon came down with a clang on the metal plate of Kakashi's gloved hand, thrown out to protect his student. Panting from finally getting air and soaking wet, Zabuza turned to meet his red eye and felt the first trickle of fear enter his system that he had felt in a long time.
—
Kimiko and Sasuke hurried to pull Naruto from the raging waters after watching the fantastic battle, Tazina hustling along behind them. Kakashi-sensei had been pissed. He defeated his opponent quickly and with style, and she felt no sympathy as the four kunai thudded into Zabuza's body. Before Kakashi could strike the killing blow, and before Kimiko could decide whether she was going to look or not, two senbon flew through the air, striking Zabuza in the neck. He fell forward, dead.
Not another missing ninja. Kimiko thought desperately. A strange ninja appeared. Kimiko couldn't tell if they were male or female, but their shorter stature made Kimiko think they were around the same age.
"Thank you. I have been hunting him for some time." The voice that came behind the Mist mask was cool and collected.
"You're a hunter ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist." Kakashi-sensei identified, hopping down from the tree to take Zabuza's pulse.
"Yes, and now I will take him away to be disposed of. Truly, I am grateful for your help."
"Hey, hey, who is this?" Naruto demanded to know.
"I'll explain later." Kimiko promised, keeping a wary eye on the ninja. The Leaf Village and the Mist village had no treaty - this could dissolve into a fight if someone said the wrong thing. The ninja picked up Zabuza's body, and as their chakra flowed through them, Kimiko felt cold. Like her chakra was freezing around her. She was glad when the ninja was gone. She was tired of unfamiliar, creepy chakra today.
"He was, like, the same age as us! And he just killed Zabuza? What was that?" Naruto burst out as soon as the ninja was gone.
"Naruto, in this world, there are some people younger than you, and stronger than me." Kakashi-sensei sighed, relaxing back into his usual slouch.
"Let's head to Tazuna's house. Good work, team." He praised. They turned to go when Kimiko felt his chakra flutter. She turned to ask him what it meant, when he suddenly collapsed. She moved forward to break his fall and felt Sasuke move to her side and help her gently lower him onto his back.
"Sensei!" Naruto gasped.
"Naruto, guard Tazuna!" Sasuke snapped, taking charge. "That Mist ninja could still be around."
"I knew we couldn't trust him!" Naruto growled, creating Shadow Clones to surround Tazuna, taking the Whirlpool fightinf stance. Kimiko skimmed her hands down Kakashi-sensei's body, checking for the senbon that took down Zabuza as Sasuke listened for his breathing and heartbeat. Kimiko could barely feel his chakra; the normal storm felt more like a barely formed raincloud on the edge of her senses.
"His heartbeat is erratic, but it seems to be steadying. His breathing was ragged but is also becoming normal." Sasuke reported.
"I think…" Kimiko bit her lip. "I think it might just be chakra exhaustion." Sasuke nodded in agreement.
"Naruto, can your clones carry Kakashi?" Sasuke asked. Concern for their teacher was obviously more important than their rivalry, as Naruto just nodded and sent his clones to gently lift Kakashi-sensei's body.
"Tazuna, we hate to impose - " Kimiko began, but Tazuna waved them off.
"No, no, it is I who have a debt to you. We will go to my house. My daughter, Tsunami, will have your sensei up and about in no time." Tauna assured them. Sasuke stayed directly next to Tazuna, Naruto brought up the rear with his clones, and Kimiko stayed a few feet in front of the group, straining her chakra sensing to try and detect any threats.
The walk isn't boring anymore. Kimiko thought grimly. She only hoped they wouldn't let Kakashi-sensei down.
Ta-Da! That was harder to write than I thought. Team 7 has improved to somewhat face the Demon Brothers, but against Zabuza? Nothing but a crazy Naruto plan would work against him. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know it didn't deviate from Canon very much, but we are getting there. Please review, favorite and follow. I'm so excited to read what you guys think!