I own my creations and nothing that could get me sued. NOTHING ok! Btw the weapons for certain ink faction characters will be colored a little differently bc ninjas and some other excuse to not let you imagine the awful colors they actually have.
Three days into the journey and Sasuke was sure he was going to go insane. Between Sakura's pestering and Tazuna's stench, Sasuke couldn't help but think he was cursed. It would make sense if I was cursed. Half my clan is dead, my mothers in a coma, and with the elders still around…life is a nightmare.
While his thoughts spiraled downward, Naruto was keeping a look out for bandits. He was hoping to get some experience in a real fight. "Don't mean to jinx it, but for crying out loud, where are the bad guys?!"
This was the catalyst for a 4 day long argument on safety, what it meant to be a ninja, and efficiency.
"I cant do another day of this! I thought you ninjas were supposed to be professional. Or at the very least quiet, THAT ONE over there oughta call her mouth a deadly weapon!" He said pointing at Sakura.
He was about to grouch on further but Kakashi stopped him with a raised hand.
"Tazuna san is right. The two of you shouldn't waste so much energy on arguments. Letting silly things like this distract you on a mission can lead to your death you must be care-" the Jōnin was interrupted with a blade through the chest. The group halted, Kakashi was flung off the blade into the bushes.
It was then they saw a chain connected to the blade leading back to a puddle. An obvious genjutsu since it was the middle of the dry season.
"F-ff formation F!" Naruto said. The rest of the group was a little slow to react but in seconds Sakura had her axes in hand and clones circling Tazuna. Naruto and Sasuke now stood side by side in front of the 'puddle'. Two ninjas jumped out of it connected by a chain swiping at the boys with claw like weapons. Naruto pulled Sasuke back and the two boys tried to come up with a plan.
"What should we do? Sakura is defending the client, we don't know if we can beat these guys, and Kakashi…" Sasuke shook his head.
"We can't worry about that. We have to care of these guys."
He had a point so Naruto agreed to go on the offensive. Sasuke started throwing kunai at the ninja on the left. Naruto in the meantime had summoned Cruel Altea, black lion heads with crimson fangs covered his hands and feet.
"Combo catalogue: 9th issue!" The feline heads shot off with Naruto's every punch and kick. When the returned to him Sasuke resumed his assault on the ninja. "Sasuke get ready! Uzumaki style: satellite ray!"
Sasuke narrowly avoided a beam of ice to the face. The attack landed directly on the ninja Sasuke was attacking leaving the ninja on the right stuck to a frozen block of ice.
"Now what are you doing here and why did you plan to attack us?" Naruto asked with a hand pointed at the enemy shinobis head.
"And what makes you think I'll talk huh?! Your sensei's dead and a bunch of Genin like you don't know SHIT about interrogation!" Naruto was about to respond when he heard a rustling in the bushes. "Sasuke get ready to attack, I've got things covered over here." He said.
"No need for that, after all Gōzu has a point none of you specialize in interrogation."
It didn't take long to realize it was Kakashi, very much alive and well. "Yes the importance of a good substitution and clone. The basics save lives after all. Now that your brothers dead what will we do with you…" the next few hours were spent checking the surrounding area and setting up camp. Kakashi had squeezed all the info he could out of Gōzu and dealt with him accordingly. He discussed the bounty system with Naruto when they were changing guard duty.
"I don't know much about all that stuff, but I won't pass up on the money. I owe him that much after all. There is one thing that concerns me about this. Well two things: is there more people like them coming and will the bounty guys accept a frozen body?"
In the morning before they left the campsite Kakashi informed the group of the situation. "To put it short we've been lied to. The rogue Chūnin were only the beginning, the mission may even be A rank now. Isn't that right Tazuna?" The old man looked down in shame.
"You're shinobi of the leaf and as such have a choice right now. We can leave and not get involved with whatever the client has willingly chosen not to tell us or we can still go in this mission and risk our lives for a lying drunk."
Before they could answer Tazuna said his piece. "Look I know that lying and all was bad but I couldn't afford that kind of help so yea! This evil man, Gato has completely taken over my home and if I don't get this bridge built Wave country will suffer for it. All I'm asking is that you see to it I finish my bridge, so we can have something to hope for." Kakashi looked back to his students for their answers. A unanimous look of resolve was plastered onto each Genin's face.
"We can't just leave those people to deal with this" Sakura said.
"Especially if people are alone with no real help. Tazuna may be a lying nasty old ditty drunk but I'm sure even he cares about what happens to his family...you do have one right?" Naruto asked at the end of his rant.
"OF COURSE I DO! So much for professionals. What makes you think I don't, HUH??!" The group turned their backs to him to continue the conversation, much to the annoyance of the bridge builder.
"If that's your choice then will do it but know that danger may be coming and like Naruto, you too may have to take a life. Going forward I want you to make sound decisions about everything with each other. If the situation is as Tazuna described it's very likely more assassins could be hired and pose a threat to us and the client. You won't have time to plan out team maneuvers or communicate on the battle field. You got lucky that it was only two mid level Chūnin. So are we clear about the mission moving forward?" The rest of team 7 nodded confidently.
"Alright then, let's go we've still got 4 days left to travel."
The first three days went by without issue. Wave country was so close that relaxing seemed possible. If not for the ever complaining old man and Sasukes brooding.
"It's only a few more days then I can get back to faction training. Although I might get lucky enough to show off!
"Rawrrr!!"
"Yes I hope so too." Just then there was a rustling in the bushes.
Sakura squealed, Sasuke snapped out of his brooding stupor, and Naruto (who claimed to be the level headed one) threw a kunai into the bushes. What should've been a great climax was ultimately a let down. A little rabbit hopped out of the bushes.
"Hn, nice going idiot it wasn't even a threat." Sasuke said.
"This guy can't be serious right now." Naruto thought. He closed his weapons pouch and turned away from the rabbit, but wasn't able zto continue his stride down the path.
"DUCK!" Kakashi yelled.
Grabbing his shoulder Kakashi pulled Naruto down. Woosh. A giant sword flew overhead and stuck itself in a tree. Team 7 jumped back from the weapons and went to guard Tazuna.
There was a puff of smoke and suddenly a bandaged shinobi with a scratched up, practically vandalized, hitai-ate. Even though most of his face was bandaged, the Genin could tell he was smiling at them with a crazed look in his eyes.
"Sensei what do we do?" Sakura whispered. She was obviously the most scared, but she still held her axes firmly. Not wanting to be a lability in this very real life or death situation. It wasn't like before when Kakashi let them deal with it in there own and through in a lesson or two. This guy had to be strong, maybe even strong enough to have their sensei worried.
"Zabuza Momochi, I guess we're even closer to wave than I thought. A rouge shinobi like you would be so foolish as to go into a major elemental nation and risk capture." Kakashi said in his nonchalant tone. This triggered a slightly annoyed response from the enemy ninja.
"Kakashi of the Sharingan, eh?!" At this Sasuke flinched a little.
"They say you copied over a thousand jutsu. Which of them do you think will help you defeat ME?" He jumped off the sword and puked it with him to a nearby lake. Kakashi lifted his hitai-ate and revealed a single Sharingan. Its red iris and three comma shaped marks around the pupil were a confirmation of the bloodline.
The enemy ninja had preformed some jutsu on the waters surface. Mist began to rise from the lake surrounding the team and effectively blinding them to anything the missing ninja might do. Kakashi let his chakra flare and in a quick movement stabbed at the group behind him. The kunai wasn't stained with enemy blood however, water leaked from the wound. Though a bit hard to see a figure if the same build came from the mist.
"SENSEI BEHIND YOU!" Sakura screeched. One swipe and their sensei was in two pieces. Pieces that burst like water balloons as they fell to the ground.
"That's a neat trick indeed." Zabuza said. Kakashi put a kunai to his throat telling him that it was over. "Too bad I'm not stupid though." Zabuza said from behind the other Jōnin.
This Zabuza was apparently another clone and mean to distract him. Kakashi was kicked off to the side and Zabuza ran off after him. He halted suddenly, ceasing his chase. "Makibishi spikes?" Lots of them littered the ground, which deterred the water clones from following. Meanwhile Kakashi was in the lake attempting to catch his breath and plan.
He was holding his head just above the surface but found he had to put a little more effort into wading in the water. "This water, why is it so heavy?" Kakashi said. That's when it happened.
"Suiton:water prison jutsu!" The water shot to Zabuzas hand and formed a ball around Kakashi.
"Shit, I wasn't expecting this level of skill. I've got no choice but wait until the battle forces him to free me." Thought Kakashi.
While he held his breath ,regretting his failed escape, more water clones attacked the Genin of team seven. "I don't think Kakashi's coming back for a while. We need a plan." Naruto said.
"We don't know how this jutsu works discussing it right now may get us killed! We just need to act in response to sudden attacks." Sakura said.
"She is's right , damn it! We can't just be sitting ducks in his playground.How will I ever become strong enough to-" Sasukes thoughts were interrupted by the yelling voice of their sensei.
"Take Tazuna and run! He's too dangerous for you to handle!" Sasuke froze for a second there wasn't anything he could do. Maybe he should run away, at least he had the choice most ninja never got that.
"Fūton: air cannon!" Yelled Naruto.
Just as the mist was blown away from the group, a foot crashed into Naruto's face. He was sent tumbling to the right, Tazuna left wide open. The clone rushed towards the old bridge builder but halted when he heard a tell from above. Sasuke with kunai in hand dove down at the enemy ninja, only to be snatched out of the sky by his leg and slammed on the ground. The force was enough to make him bounce off of the forest floor where the water clone met him with a flying elbow.
The crushing blow was the following body slam that had blood spilling from the Uchihas mouth. Naruto wasn't back yet and Sasuke had the wind knocked out of him. He saw the clone of Zabuza raise his sword, preparing to decapitate the young Uchiha.
"Say goodbye brat! YOUR GONNA DIE!!" Sasuke knew he was right which only made it worse, all of his goals snatched away from him because he got cocky.
"He would love to see this." Were supposed to be Sasukes final thoughts but the the problem was his head was still on.
Not that he was complaining but Sasukes was pretty sure that he was going to die just a second ago. When he looked up he saw two ono blades holding up the blade.
"MOVE!" Sakura screamed at him.
"That's right I'm still on the floor." He thought rolling out of the way and running back to Tazuna.
Sakura was quick to follow though not by choice. As she struggled to stand Tazuna cowered behind them. The water clone ran forward, but that it mattered the mist was starting to fill the area again. Soon they wouldn't even be able to attempt running away. "Fuinjutsu: whirling barrier!" A spiral spread in the ground and chakra spun around the group. They turned to see Naruto behind them holding out a sealing tag. "Sakura take this it's the same seal as this one and should hold for a bit. I'm going to drop the barrier soon so it's important you place this on the ground and start pumping chakra into it. Not quickly or in big amounts or it'll fail and you won't be protected." Naruto said. Sakura nodded and took the tag from him. He then turned to Sasuke. "I have a plan but I need to know if you can handle it. He did obviously did a number on you." He said.
"Hn. I can handle any third rate plan you can come up with loser."
"Looks like your students are a bunch of idiots. Not that they would actually survive running away but they could've lived longer. How's it feel to watch your failure as a teacher be the reason your students DIE. Hahah- HUH!" The mist was once again gone and Zabuza didn't see any of his clones in the area. What he did see was the dark haired kid throwing a giant shuriken his way. As it fanned out whirling towards him he was able to get a read of their plan.
"So they wanted to free their sensei by forcing me to let go not bad but" he swung his giant sword at the flying weapon and deflected it. "I'm no second rate ninja that can be easily defeated!" A thought that was shattered with the following events.
A burst of smoke and a blast of wind strong enough to push him into the water he was currently standing on. Canceling Zabuza's jutsu and freeing Kakashi, who ordered his student to flee the area. Normally Zabuza wouldn't let something like that happen but he was being assaulted with his own techniques!
"That damn Sharingan, it's the real deal for sure. Not only is he copying my jutsu perfectly he even seems to predict them. It's so fast I can't keep up!" He had already tried the Suiton:Water Dragon jutsu, but it was no use he tried to break the stalemate with a powerful justsu he was sure could turn the tides in his favor.
"Suiton: Giant vortex jutsu!" And it was over for him.
Knocked into a tree and sprinkled with projectiles like some training dummy, Zabuza died. The odd thing was that a masked man from Kiri was the one to finish him off. "Thank you for the help. Kiri can rest easy now that one of its rouge ninja is dead and gone."
He picked up the body and hopped off. Kakashi was going to respond to the man but he quickly passed out after the fight. As it all went black for him, Tazuna guided the rest of team 7 to a boat that could take them the rest of the way. Of course the hardest part of the mission hadn't even begun.