In the afternoon, Kakashi gave Naruto and Sasuke a new challenge: climb a tree without using their hands. There wasn't anything else for them to do until Kakashi recovered enough chakra or the magnate hiring mercenaries made another move, and it was as good time as any for them to learn to control their chakra output. He'd also discovered that Sakura was happy enough to stay in his sight as long as they could be outside.

Naruto had run full tilt at the tree before he had even finished explaining, and promptly declared it impossible.

"Naruto, you saw me and Kakashi and that other man walking on water yesterday," Sakura said, and for a moment she sounded a bit like the girl he had met last month. She went on to demonstrate the technique, walking up the nearest tree and out along a branch until she was hanging upside down like a bat. Her hair came loose from her coat, the many braids waving gently as she grinned down at them. It was as long as Sakura herself was tall in some places, but he could see that other braids were significantly shorter, and some chunks were neck length at most. He had seen enough of her clothes to understand where it had probably gone.

"Karin told me," she said, and even from the ground Kakashi could see her expression briefly blank at the mention of what was presumably another friend from 'Inside', "the trick is to keep the chakra at a constant output, not too weak but not too strong, either. And engage your core." She strolled further out the branch. "Works best the first time if you take it at a run."

The branch snapped, unable to carry her weight at the weaker point. Kakashi's stomach tensed, and he ran halfway up the tree and leapt out to catch her on instinct alone. He landed at a more controlled angle, with her in his arms, and Naruto whooped.

"Nice catch, Sensei!"

Sasuke made an unimpressed noise that Kakashi knew by now was actually his backwards way of showing approval.

Even with her long coat and overstuffed bag, Sakura was far too light in his arms. He put her down as gently as he could, and she laughed awkwardly. "Forgot they did that."

ⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵ

On the second day, mercenaries attacked the bridge.

All four ninjas had been escorting Tazuna that morning, which meant they were all there to witness the aftermath of the massacre that had taken place. Naruto was running a little low on chakra from his tree-climbing efforts and Kakashi still wasn't at one hundred percent either, but when an unnatural mist started curling over the half-finished bridge everyone formed up around him without hesitation. Even Sakura fell into step; a sign that she had trained in group combat as well as solo.

But then one of the mercenaries, voice carrying through the fog, made some crack about being jealous of the two guys that got to deal with Tazuna's pretty daughter instead of the Konoha nin, and Sakura had sprinted off before he'd had a chance to stop her.

Cursing silently, Kakashi turned his attention to the fight at hand. He didn't have enough chakra to send a shadow clone after her, so he'd just have to finish things quickly and hope she didn't do anything rash.

The same swordsman from before seemed to be leading the fight, and Kakashi quickly singled him out as the primary quarry. The rest of the band were small fry, more like thugs than actual mercenaries, and he was fairly confident that Naruto and Sasuke could thin the pack by themselves. The swordsman, Zabusa, immediately created water clones and tried to isolate the boys, but Kakashi came in close and cut off their lines of attack.

Once again, the man fought like someone who had nothing to lose. He was clearly a master swordsman, but there was an almost self-destructive recklessness to some of his attacks that left Kakashi reeling but also created several openings for his own attacks.

"You don't have to do this," he said, though it was probably futile. "You don't seem the type to kill innocent builders just for money."

Zabusa laughed hollowly. "Don't act high and mighty with me, Copy-nin. You've killed plenty of people, and I bet you've even enjoyed it sometimes."

Kakashi frowned, dodging a series of slashes that proved the man knew exactly where he was despite the mist. "That's why you're here? You enjoy killing?"

"I enjoy nothing. Not anymore." The last part was said so quietly that someone with worse hearing might not have heard it at all. Then the man stepped in close, face looming in front of Kakashi as he reached up and withdrew the cloth covering his mouth. His teeth were filed to points, showing that he was part of the blood mist tradition that were forced to murder their entire class in order to graduate.

"I may not enjoy killing, but as you can see I am very, very good at it."

The fight continued, and even though the boys were holding their own Kakashi once again found himself stymied by his own divided priorites. Unlike Zabusa, who fought like he had nothing to lose, he was often forced to sacrifice his position to protect Naruto and Sasuke.

Just as he was beginning to despair that the fight would never end unless someone made a fatal mistake (and there was a three in four chance of that mistake coming from their side), a cheer rang out from behind him, further down the bridge.

The mist cleared, and now everyone could see that the other mercenaries were being driven back by the townsfolk, who had gathered what weapons they could in order to defend the bridge. Then a woman with pink hair leaped clear over the crowd and sprinted to his side.

The thugs that were still standing no longer wanted to fight Naruto and Sasuke, so the boys also turned their attention to the swordmaster. Kakashi thought he might retreat again now that he was outnumbered, but it seemed Zabusa was determined to either win the fight or die trying.

And then Sakura opened her mouth.

"I knew a man with pointy teeth," she said, as calmly as if they were chatting over tea. "He never told me his name, but he said he did it to honour the man who gave him purpose."

"Sakura," Kakashi hissed at her, begging her to focus. If he had to cover for all three of his genin then he'd almost certainly die, the way Zabusa was currently fighting.

Zabusa grinned, showing off the teeth in question. "If you met someone with these teeth, you're lucky to be alive." He pointed to her with his sword. "Nobody lands a hit on me twice. You die first, pinkie."

"He could make real water, not just water-type jutsu." Sakura continued like she hadn't heard him. "And he said he could walk through mirrors, but he never got to show me that."

Zabusa's sword was at her throat before Kakashi could move to intercept, and his water clones had re-formed to stop any of the boys interfering. He leaned in close to Sakura, who met his gaze calmly.

"Where is he?"

"Oh, it is you?" She bounced on her heels, forcing the blade at her neck to make tiny adjustments in order to avoid hitting her. "This is amazing!"

"Where is Haku!" He repeated, louder. Sakura sobered.

"Haku, is it? He never told us his name. Unfortunately, he aged out a little while ago. Hard to say exactly when out here, but a week maybe? I'm pretty sure the man who took him wears a mask and has dark hair, distinctive clothes and an ocular jutsu. Seriously dangerous genjutsu; don't look him directly in the eye if you can help it."

Zabusa nodded once, a jerky movement like he was unfamiliar with the gesture, then to Kakashi's surprise he turned on his heel to leave. They were going to win after all.

"Wait!" Sakura called after the mercenary, who turned back warily. "You should know…he's going to look different. This is him now."

She formed the seals for a henge, and the pink-haired woman was replaced with a black-haired man. He had dark, soulful eyes ringed with crow's feet, and sharpened teeth.

"Time moves differently, where he kept us," the henge said, before dissipating.

Zabusa groaned softly. "I'll kill the man who took him."

"Please don't," Sakura said. "Teeth and I aren't the only ones who got taken, and The Others can't get out by themselves."

The villagers seemed to have noticed that the fight with their enemy had become a conversation, and were muttering to each other. "Sakura," Kakashi repeated, glancing meaningfully behind her.

Sakura nodded to show she understood. "You should leave now," she told the swordmaster. "But take this with you." She fished around in her bag before tossing him a coiled braid of black hair. "That's his. Might make tracking him easier, I don't know."

Zabusa examined the hair before tucking it carefully in his pocket. "Thank you," he said, the words sounding strange and stilted. Kakashi doubted he used them often.

"Good luck," Sakura raised a hand in farewell, and then all the Zabusas were collapsing into puddles. He was gone.

"Whew!" She brushed her hands together. "That was lucky!"

Naruto gave her an incredulous look. "So you weren't completely sure he knew your friend when you confronted him like that?"

She shrugged. "I knew Teeth's mentor was a swordmaster from Mist with pointy teeth, so it wasn't a total stab in the dark."

"He almost killed you," Sasuke pointed out, saving Kakashi from having to do it. That sword of Zabusa's had been razor sharp and far too close to her neck. It was a reckless move even if she was one hundred percent sure of his identity.

Once again Sakura shrugged. "He certainly would have tried."