Kakashi had made it clear to remain silent. They had entered into the Land of Waves only a few minutes ago. The Mist was thick and the air was cool. They all could sense something was off though didn't know what. As their boat came under the bridge Tazuna was making, the children looked upon it in awe. It was clear now more than ever why he cared so much for his work.

As the boat came to a halt at the side of a bank the passengers got off quickly and quietly as Kakashi had them leave for Tazuna's home in a hurry so as to not get spotted by anyone. They followed the trail that Tazuna said led to his home as they all were looking for any sign of danger.

Kakashi was ready for any kind of trap as the group walked at a hurried pace. As they walked he felt as if something was very wrong though he didn't know what. He watched their surroundings though it was becoming increasingly harder through the mist as it seemed to get heavier. Wait!

"Everyone stop!" Kakashi said in a demanding whisper. They all did as they were told as they looked for any sign of danger, yet they couldn't see anything with the fog blocking their view. Kakashi knew what was happening as he began to reach for his headband.

A tree branch cracked in the distance as the three genin and Tazuna looked in that direction. Kakashi knew better.

Grabbing a kunai he blocked the sword that came down at Tazuna's head. The others were in shock as Kakashi kicked the man holding the sword away. He skidded to a halt as he snarled at Kakashi.

"The Demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi. What an unexpected surprise." The bandaged man chuckled as he brought the Executioner's Blade to sit on his shoulder. "So you remember me, Kakashi of the Sharingan." Sasuke's attention went to what the man said as he looked at his sensei.

"How couldn't I? In our last fight you nearly killed me." Both men stared down the other for a moment before they engaged, the genin protecting their client from harm.

XXX

It watched them fight. The battle wasn't anything special to it, it had fought far better fights. And will fight better fights in the future. It smiled at that. A part of it only scoffed at the idea, another just wanted to get this over with. It silenced them both. Their plans would begin, they needed to wait. All three however didn't want to wait though they all knew they had to. The sound of a body hitting the ground got its attention as it looked to see both sides retreating. It smiled again. The plan was finally beginning.

XXX

The group had a rough time with Zabuza, though they were relieved when the masked ninja had killed the man and taken him away. Unfortunately it was after that when Kakashi had fallen unconscious due to overusing his Sharingan and so they had to carry him to Tazuna's home so he could be treated. Once there they had met Tazuna's family and had learned of the masked ninja working with Zabuza. This gave Kakashi more of an incentive to train them in chakra control for when they were to meet Zabuza again.

Now the group was training on doing the tree walking exercise, or more accurately two of them were. Sakura had been a natural at it as she succeeded almost immediately. Kakashi was more than impressed as he congratulated her, though now he wondered what he should do. 'Should I have her do water walking now? I mean it is more advanced though I wonder if she could do it.'

He thought to himself about this while watching Naruto and Sasuke continue to struggle at the task given to them. He knew the dangers that were to come as these next two weeks would pass quickly. "Sakura, come with me. We'll get you started on the next stage of training while the boys keep trying." The girl nodded as she followed him to the bank of a lake.

They both stood by the water as Sakura looked to him in confusion. "Um Sensei, what are we doing here?" He smiled to himself as he looked at her. "You're going to try to walk on water." She looked at him in shock. "But Sensei, isn't that a little advanced?"

He nodded. "Normally it would be but I think you have what it takes. It's the same principle as tree walking but with you now having to stop the floor under you from collapsing. You think you got what it takes?" She looked back at the water for a moment before looking back at him with determination. "Yeah!"

"Good to hear." She felt a smack to her back as she fell into the water below. It was colder than ice and was much deeper than it appeared from the bank. She wasn't even able to stop herself from falling all the way in as she was soaking wet. "Oh and you can't leave until you can stay on the surface for a full minute by the way. So have fun until then." Kakashi smirked from under his mask as he left her to her task, her anger growing with each moment. 'Guy was right, teaching is fun."

XXX

Kakashi watched the sun begin to set as he stopped reading his book. A slight chill came over him as he looked to see nothing in the shadows. 'Somethings out there, but what?'

"NO I'M GOING FIRST!"

"LIKE HELL YOU ARE!" He groaned as he looked inside to see the kids now yelling at one another. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to have made it their goal to challenge themselves to be better than the other at everything. This had already backfired when they made a mess of themselves during dinner after overeating but now they were even fighting over who got to shower first.

"ARE YOU KIDDING I SHOULD GO FIRST, YOU BOTH AIMED AT ME!" And that definitely didn't help. Kakashi sighed to himself as he got in-between the three of them.

"Enough you three! You're embarrassing all of us! Sakura, you get the shower, you two can wash outside." he ignored the complaints for the boys as he ushered them out. Why was he the one that had to deal with this, he was injured after all. He sighed as he sat in bed, exhausted over the whole day. "Guy you were so wrong." He grumbled to himself as he fell asleep.