If you're here after getting a notif for a new chapter, refresh or try the website. Everything after 11 is glitchy for some reason. Half the time it'll show chapters 12, half the time it won't, there isn't really anything I can do to help on my end. If this never gets any better or it starts getting worse, I'll start cross-posting to AO3

"I don't think I'm ever going to get used to there being places without forests everywhere," Naruto admitted.

Sasuke wasn't as tree-minded as Naruto, but he couldn't help but agree. After spending his entire life in the Land of Fire, the new terrain of the Land of Mountain Streams was a weird adjustment.

As the name implied, the country was defined by its mountains, hills, and the streams and rivers running between them. There were still forests, many of them with the same species of trees as the Land of Fire, but they were thinner and far more spread apart than Sasuke was used to. It left him feeling vulnerable, even if he knew he could just escape into the mountains if someone were to attack.

"Wait until you see the Land of Wind," Kakashi said. How he could so casually walk across the water, carry a conversation, and read a book at the same time, Sasuke didn't know yet. One day, he would be the same… but without reading a smut book. "Though I suppose you would have a much easier time surviving there than most."

Naruto's face screwed up in thought for a few seconds. Sasuke prepared to remind him what the Land of Wind was, but then Naruto's face brightened up. "That's the desert country, right?" he asked. "With Sunagakure!"

"Wow, you actually remembered something for once. I'm almost impressed," Sasuke remarked.

"Well, I am impressed that you haven't electrocuted any of us yet," Naruto retorted. "I thought for sure you'd slip up and fry us all at least once when Bakashi-Sensei told us we'd be traveling over water."

Sasuke's eyes bled red for a second and he looked down at the water beneath their feet. "The water's so full of Mokuton chakra that I think you've started a new ecosystem," he observed dully, cutting off the chakra flow to his eyes. "If you were the one with Raiton, even Kakashi would be fried to death by now."

Naruto shrugged. "I can walk on water without letting Mokuton into my steps," he claimed. "But what's the point, y'know? Not a big deal if the plants get a little longer underwater. If anything I'm helping nature! It's an act of public service, really, like a free D-rank."

"While I otherwise wouldn't have a problem with that, Naruto," Kakashi chimed in, lowering his book to look over at them for a second, "right now, you're leaving a trail of Mokuton chakra, when most of the world believes Mokuton users don't exist. Until you make your big announcement at the exams, you should probably avoid doing that."

"Aww," Naruto whined, but when Sasuke looked down with his Sharingan again, the chakra in his steps only had a touch of Suiton. "I should've just gone with the original plan and told everyone when we became genin. This is too much waiting!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, cutting off the chakra flow to them again. "You can't change your mind now, the Hokage is planning on us revealing ourselves then."

Naruto sighed. "I know…" He linked his hands together behind his head and started looking up slightly. "Well, I still think it'll be worth the wait. Doesn't mean it doesn't feel like the wait is killing me."

"Just think about how fun it'll be when everyone sees your Mokuton at the exam," Sakura suggested. "Our classmates will never believe their eyes."

Naruto grinned. "Yeah! Maybe they'll even try and dispel it like it's a genjutsu like Sasuke and Bakashi-Sensei did!"

Sakura looked between Sasuke and Kakashi. "You both did?"

Kakashi shrugged. "It's a reasonable assumption. Doesn't hurt, as long as you aren't leaving yourself open."

"Hn," Sasuke agreed. "You didn't even know what Mokuton was, Naruto."

"For real?" Sakura asked, looking over in surprise.

Naruto blushed and looked away. "Hey! I get bored in class easily. And I couldn't get any scrolls until Sasuke got some for me!"

"You still could've tried to pay attention in class," Sasuke said dully.

"Meh, too late now." Before any of them could respond to that, Naruto's face lit up and he pointed forward excitedly. "Look! We're here!"

Sasuke's first thought was that Naruto was just trying to distract them, but when he looked forward he saw that Naruto was right.

The familiar flat and forested terrain of the Land of Fire had disappeared entirely hours ago, and they'd been traveling over the streams that ran between the mountains since. Most who lived in the Land of Mountain Streams traveled between towns by boat, unlike the Land of Fire where everyone traveled by foot or carriage, so it was definitely a good thing Kakashi had thought to teach them water walking.

Up ahead, Sasuke could see what looked to be a small marina in a gap between two mountains. They were still too far away for him to make out the sight with his natural vision, but channeling chakra to his eyes was barely a conscious thought, dying his vision red and sharpening the marina in the distance.

He'd only done it out of curiosity, and maybe a little because he was tired of Naruto sensing everything before anyone else could, so it was a bit of a surprise when the image sharpened and gave him a view of the marina's condition. Sakura said that she'd read up on the town they were visiting. It was supposed to be an important trade town for the country, if not as major as the ones in larger countries, and received enough business that it was decently wealthy.

The marina itself was large enough to support the town's status as a trade port, but the entire thing had been wrecked. Claw-like scrapes marred the paint, chunks were torn out of the walls, and bits of the docks were destroyed. It didn't look like the damage would be cripplingly bad for the town or extremely expensive to repair, or like the damage had been specifically targeted at the marina in any way, but there was still a temporary replacement dock already set up.

"Kakashi, what kind of animals attacked this town?" he asked, cutting off the chakra flow and looking back over at Kakashi. "The marina is in rough shape."

"Wasn't in the scroll." Kakashi's face was buried back in his smutty book, still walking as easily as if he was on land and watching where he was going. "I would guess mountain lions, wolves, maybe bears." He looked up and gave Sasuke an eye-smile. "Whatever animals they are, I'm sure you three will be more than able to handle it."

"Well, obviously!" Naruto exclaimed proudly. "This country was basically made for me!"

Sasuke gave him a questioning look, already expecting something stupid. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

Naruto grinned proudly. "It's the Land of Mountain Streams!" he said, like that explained everything. "Mountains and streams! Water and earth! It's perfect for my natures!"

Sasuke stared dully at Naruto. Eventually he just sighed and looked forward, about the same time Sakura said, "Naruto, water and earth are in every country. Water might be a little more rare in some places, but earth is definitely everywhere."

Naruto cocked his head to the side and looked over at her. "Well, yeah but…" he trailed off. Sasuke wasn't looking, but he could still feel the moment realization dawned on Naruto. "Woah, my natures are perfect for everywhere!"

"You didn't even think about the advantages of your own natures?" Sasuke asked dully.

Naruto stuck his tongue out. "You just wish you had thunderclouds and fire around to use constantly."

"I can just create fire and it'll spread if I need it to," Sasuke pointed out. "And thunderclouds…" He tilted his head in thought. "It might not be a bad idea to find a way to create those."

Kakashi looked up from his book and gave Sasuke a raised eyebrow. "That'd be a pretty difficult technique to pull off," he noted, "but it's not a bad idea. Might be a bit too much for you now, though."

Sasuke already had some idea about how exactly he could do it, but it would require a lot of fire. While he was sure he could create enough, he couldn't be sure whoever he was fighting wouldn't just put the fires out. Naruto definitely could. He would need some sort of special fire, then… The only thing he could think of was to add Fūton chakra, but it would be more difficult to add that to his Katon chakra than it was to add Raiton.

"Oh, wow, you weren't kidding when you said the marina was in rough shape!" Naruto exclaimed. They were still a pretty significant distance away, but his natural eyesight was uncannily sharp. "No wonder they called for help."

Sasuke smirked. "You scared?"

"Of course not!" Naruto shoved him, but it wasn't even hard enough to make Sasuke stumble. He probably didn't want to get electrocuted. "I'm not scared of some stupid animals."

"I wouldn't let a summon here you say that," Kakashi warned. "Some are very prideful."

"Ooo, summons?" Naruto asked. "I've been wondering about those! How do you get one? I've always thought it would be awesome to have-"

"Oh, wow, that place is wrecked," Sakura interrupted once the marina was in view. "Is it a targeted attack? If it is-"

"If it is, this goes beyond the scope of our assignment and we'll be returning to the village to send reinforcements." Kakashi didn't even look up from his book. "Targeted attacks implies summons, and that implies other ninja, which would make it a B-rank."

"If it is, I'm sure we can take a B-rank!" Naruto exclaimed. "Cmon, Sensei! You know how good we are!"

Sasuke grunted in agreement. "Even without my Sharingan, an average chuunin is no match for me." His target was… S-rank. A B-rank mission was nothing.

Like he could sense Sasuke's thoughts, Kakashi finally looked away from his book and met Sasuke's gaze. "Nothing good comes from taking on more than you can handle."

Sasuke crossed his arms and looked away, refocusing on the marina and letting the chakra flow to his eyes fade. They were close enough that the damage was obvious to his non-enhanced vision, but it really didn't look like it'd been targeted. Most of the damage to the dock was around the front of it, cutting off access without really damaging the structure at all, and the ends of the docks were entirely untouched. If it really were wild animals from the mountains, it made sense that they wouldn't venture out onto the docks just for the sake of destruction.

"Nothin' good comes from running away," Naruto argued stubbornly. "Even if we ran into something we couldn't handle, Sasuke and I could pull out our secret weapons and shock them to death if there's no other choice."

While they did plan to wait to reveal their kekkei genkai until the exams, in a life or death situation, it would be stupid to put secrecy over their lives, so Naruto actually had a point.

"And if anything is way too dangerous, you're here, Sensei," Sakura added. "You still haven't told us anything about yourself…" She trailed off expectantly, but Kakashi said nothing. "Well, we do know you're strong. Even for a jounin."

Kakashi sighed. "Kids… It doesn't even look like a targeted attack, so I don't know why you're still arguing." They reached the makeshift dock and he stepped onto it with a casual leap, without looking away from his book, even though the tide was low and the dock was a meter up. "I guess if we do run into anyone on this mission, I'll make a situational judgement." He looked back, eye hardened like it had been after their failure during the bell test. "And as your jounin-sensei, you'll be expected to listen to it."

The hardened eye sent shivers down Sasuke's back, reminding him eerily of another hardened glare, but he suppressed the urge to shiver as Kakashi turned forward and started walking. While both Naruto and Sakura did shiver, Sasuke jumped up to the dock with his hands in his pockets, following Kakashi without waiting for either of his teammates.

"Hey, wait up!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, turning around to scold him for being slow, and that was all that saved him from being drenched in water as Naruto went shooting out of the river on a wave. Sasuke flooded chakra to his legs and leapt back, just in time to avoid the wave crashing into where he'd been standing seconds before and soaking him alongside half the makeshift dock.

Naruto stumbled to a landing, half-soaked and eyes wide in obvious surprise, barely a meter in front of where Sasuke landed, splashing him with water by shaking it out of his hair. "What the actual-"

"You were putting Suiton chakra into your steps." Sasuke had noticed it before, but he hadn't felt the need to say anything. The result was a little funny. "Better than leaving a trail of chakra that isn't supposed to exist anymore, I guess."

"Says the one who can't resist the urge to show off his special eyes every chance he gets," Naruto retorted. "You just get away with it cause you can blink-"

"NARUTO!"

Naruto froze. Slowly, he turned around, and Sasuke followed his gaze to find Sakura standing on the end of the dock, soaked. She looked beyond pissed, worse than Sasuke had seen throughout their time as a team or even their entire time in the academy, though he hadn't paid much attention then.

"H-hey, Sakura," Naruto said nervously. "Heh, sorry about the-"

Before he could finish, Sakura darted forward fast enough that even Sasuke was a little surprised, and Naruto made a hasty retreat into the town.

That night, Naruto happily flopped onto a bed at the inn the town head had allowed them to stay at for the duration of their mission, back bouncing against the mattress.

As cool as his temporary Mokuton houses were, nothing beat an actual bed. Sure, he could sleep pretty much anywhere if he needed to and healed so fast that it never left him sore for long, but the comfort was still very appreciated. Even if he did still share a room with Sasuke…

"If you spend all night bouncing on that bed, don't blame me when I throw a kunai at you." Sasuke sat cross-legged on his bed closer to the bathroom, facing forward with his hands linked in his lap and eyes closed. "Just because you heal fast doesn't mean it won't hurt."

Ignoring the threat, Naruto sat up in his bed, legs dangling off the side. "What're you doing?" He'd noticed Sasuke sitting like that a few times now, but only since they'd graduated. Either it was a new development, or it was something he just hadn't noticed earlier for some reason.

"Meditating." Sasuke opened his eyes, blood red Sharingan shifting to look at Naruto. "I need to improve how long I can keep my Sharingan active, and until I can reveal it during the exams, this is my best option."

"Oh." Naruto pulled his legs up onto the bed, mimicking Sasuke and crossing them. "Does it do anything for people without weird eyes?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and looked forward again, Sharingan disappearing behind his eyelids. "It helps with stamina, which isn't exactly something you need, but learning some patience would be good for you. Maybe it'd teach you to wait for more than ten seconds before getting bored."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke. "I'm plenty good at being patient." Sasuke didn't even open an eye in response, so Naruto turned forward and mimicked the way Sasuke had his hands in his laps. "I'll show ya!" he declared. "So what do I gotta do, sit like this and just close my eyes?"

Sasuke grunted.

Naruto waited for more explanation, and when he didn't get any, he just shrugged and shut his eyes. What he was expecting to get out of meditation, he wasn't really sure, but since he wasn't tired enough to go to bed yet, he figured it probably couldn't hurt. How was someone supposed to meditate, though? Sasuke said it helped with stamina, so surely it had to have something to do with chakra…

Nodding confidently to himself, Naruto reached to mold his chakra. There was no telling what Mokuton would do to their room at the inn, and he didn't particularly feel like dealing with the mess that Suiton or Doton might leave, so he was careful not to let any of his natures slip into it. As a result, his senses stretched outwards.

Immediately, his teammates' chakra washed over him. Sasuke was just to his right, an increasingly violent thunderstorm of fiery chakra. While he didn't have as much of it as Naruto, there was an intensity to his chakra unlike anyone else Naruto had encountered, and he did have more of it than the vast majority of people. Definitely more than anyone else their age.

In the room they were both facing directly, with a locked door connected to theirs, Sakura's incomparably quiet chakra sat peacefully on her bed. There was a subtle, undeveloped earthen feel to it, overpowered by a hazy sensation that reminded Naruto of whenever Sasuke used Genjutsu on him. It seemed like she was already asleep after their long day of walking, and even asleep her chakra was contained and controlled in a way Naruto could barely manage awake.

On the other side of the wall facing Naruto and Sasuke's backs, a hum of lightning sat in the corner of the room. The lightning was deceptively quiet, belying the strength it held. Surprisingly, Kakashi seemed to only have around the same level of chakra as Sasuke, but there was no comparing the intensity of their Raiton chakra, at least not yet. They were yet to see Kakashi go all out, or even use his chakra nature, and Naruto had no idea what to expect when they finally did.

When he felt some sort of reaction in the quiet hum of lightning, he chose to move on, extending his senses further outward.

Unlike Konoha, where he could extend his senses to encompass the city and feel the chakra of more ninja than he would ever bother to count, the town they were staying in only had a population of a few hundred civilians. A handful of them had more chakra than most civilians, but nothing stood out as interesting the way things sometimes did in Konoha.

Letting his senses extend further, Naruto felt the thin forests that extended up the mountainsides surrounding the town. It wasn't the same as sensing chakra, and he couldn't feel them as clearly as he could feel the trees in Konoha, but there was still a tangible connection he could feel to plantlife along the mountains.

Admittedly, sensing the area aimlessly got boring fast, but Sasuke's stormy presence to his right reminded him why he'd started meditating in the first place. Plus, it was training, techn-

In the distance, kilometers to the east, chakra flared to life.

Naruto jolted, back straightening unconsciously, and narrowed his focus to the source of the chakra. The first thing he felt was a watery presence, with a Suiton affinity even stronger than his, but there was a faint thrum of electricity that seemed to disrupt it. The next was what he could only describe as an earthen abomination, a Doton affinity more intense than Naruto's, with Raiton, Katon, and Fūton somehow… attached.

Just the sensation felt unnatural. Whatever it was had multiple affinities, but they weren't combined the way Naruto's were, and they weren't complimentary the way Sasuke's were. Instead, the powerful Doton affinity was the obvious core, and the other three felt like they'd been taken somehow. Stolen.

A shiver shot down Naruto's back at the thought. He still remembered Sasuke's ominous threat about the lengths people would go to for a powerful affinity, and while he wasn't sure what those lengths were, he had a dark feeling there was one of those people just a few kilometers to the east.

Before he could dwell on that for long, more chakra caught his attention. It wasn't anywhere near as intense as the five chakra natures were, but it was nearer, and he could feel it getting closer and closer to the town.

The animals.

Eyes snapping open, Naruto jumped off his bed, glad he hadn't gotten changed yet. "The wild animals are coming!" he exclaimed.

Sasuke's eyes snapped open, head actually turning to Naruto. "You actually made use of the meditation?"

Naruto nodded, walking over to the door to Sakura's room and raising his fist to knock before pausing, rubbing the already-healed spot on the back of his head from when she'd caught up to him earlier. "I think the animals are gonna be here in, like, ten minutes?" He looked back at Sasuke, then over at the door to the hall. "I'll go wake Bakashi-sensei, so you can wake Sakura!"

Sasuke blinked at him, blood red fading back to black, and Naruto made a beeline to the door. He was out in the hall before Sasuke could say anything, walking down to Kakashi's door, only for Kakashi's door to open as soon as he neared it.

"Hey, Naruto," Kakashi said, giving him a one-eyed smile as he stepped out of his room and shut the door behind him. Like Naruto, he was still in his clothes from the day, even his forehead protector and, as always, mask. "Animals are on their way, huh?"

"Yep!" Naruto considered asking how Kakashi knew, but shrugged it off. "So, we get to start tonight?!"

Wait, was there something else he should mention…?

Naruto jumped before Kakashi could even answer his first question. "Oh, and I felt two really powerful chakra signatures fighting a few kilometers to the east!" he added, as Sasuke stepped out into the hall. "One had, like, a crazy strong Suiton affinity, and the other had a crazy strong Doton affinity and, um, somehow also had Fūton, Raiton, and Katon?"

Kakashi's casual one-eyed smile hardened into a narrowed eye. "Two ninja fighting?" He reached up and scratched his chin. "You say their affinities are strong, but what do you think about them?"

Even without extending his senses again, Naruto shivered at the memory of the earthen abomination. "Strong." The one with the Suiton affinity too… There was something different about them. It was like they didn't just have a Suiton affinity, but he had no idea what more it was.

"The fighting is probably what's been driving the animals to attack," Sasuke said, crossing his arms and leaning against the hallway wall between Naruto and Kakashi. "If they're powerful, it's possible there's been more than one fight, disrupting the animals' homes and sending them running away each time. This valley is the perfect place to hide from danger, so it makes sense they would run here."

"Ohhh." Naruto nodded along before he even finished processing what Sasuke said. A few seconds later, he summarized, "So the animals are getting scared because the fights are big and explosive."

"Most likely," Kakashi agreed. "It may be easiest to just raise a mud wall blocking the path they run through until the ninja are done fighting."

A short ways down the hall, another door opened, and Sakura stepped out of her room. Her hair had obviously been cleaned since Naruto accidentally doused her in the river water, and now it was done up in a ponytail. Otherwise, she was dressed normally, ready for the mission like the rest of them.

As she stepped over to join them, Naruto took a few steps closer to Kakashi, rubbing the back of his head again. "Hey, Sakura…"

"Naruto." She stopped next to Sasuke, giving Naruto a cold look. "The mission's starting?"

"Mhm." Kakashi looked between the three of them, visible eye unreadable as it landed on Naruto. "You lead the other two over to the part of the valley the animals are going to run to. I'm going to check out the ninja you mentioned."

It was Naruto's instinct to insist he wanted to check on the ninja too, but Kakashi disappeared before he could even make an attempt to argue his case.

"Ninja?" Sakura echoed confusedly, her earlier cold glare replaced by curiosity. "What happened?"

"We need to get going," Sasuke said, starting down the hall with his hands in his pockets. "Naruto can explain on the way."

While Naruto caught Sakura up on the situation, the team made their way out of the inn and onto the streets of the town. Immediately, Naruto's eyes wandered across the wreckage he'd noticed on their way in, clearly visible even in the dark of night. He hadn't expected to have to defend the attack from the town on the first night, but he was quick to take off in the direction the animals were coming from, easily scaling buildings along the way with the help of the tree walking technique.

Heading east, Kakashi leapt silently from tree to tree, more than able to travel across the thinned trees as easily as he could the thick forests of the Land of Fire. Leaving Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura alone while he traveled kilometers away didn't sit right with him, but he knew they could handle most anything thrown at them. Kakashi couldn't just ignore the presence of two powerful ninja fighting so close to his mission; if nothing else, the Hokage would want information on the altercation.

Although he wasn't a sensor type like Naruto, it wasn't difficult to find the fight by traveling east. The herd of animals were still a few kilometers out from the town, and a quick glance confirmed they were more than weak enough for the kids to handle, so Kakashi didn't even stop when he came across them. A few more kilometers out from the town, the ground started to shake, and from there Kakashi only needed to find the epicenter.

He was careful to keep his chakra undetectable as he made his way to the combatting ninja. If Naruto considered them powerful, Kakashi wasn't about to underestimate them, and it would be best to avoid being dragged into a-

Alerted by instinct alone, Kakashi brought his hands together into the Tiger seal and used the Body Flicker to jump away.

He reappeared at the top of a nearby tree, just in time for a massive dragon made of lightning to come tearing through the forest where he'd been standing. When the lightning dragon crashed into the ground and disappeared, it left behind a sprawled figure inside a charred crater, electricity flickering along their body. They wore gray pants, a sleeveless black top with bandages around their neck, and had straight white hair, but Kakashi's eye was immediately drawn to the two oddly shaped swords in both of their hands.

Hiramekarei.

From the same direction the dragon had come from, a man strode out. He was tall, with tan skin and unusual green and orange eyes the only visible part of his face. A black mask attached to a gray hood covered the rest of his head, and on his forehead was a Takigakure forehead protector with the symbol crossed through. He wore tattered, battle-damaged black robes with what looked like some sort of red pattern, and his arms were covered in sutures where the sleeves of the robe ended, but he otherwise appeared mostly unharmed.

While the man approached, the form laying in the crater covered by lightning struggled to stand, stabbing his swords into the ground to support his weight. Every movement was an obvious work of effort, the lightning yet to disappear from his body, but he managed to push himself to his feet, raising his swords to defend against the robed man.

"Man, you're really this mad that I destroyed one of your spares?" Mangetsu Hozuki asked, his voice tired but with an obvious undercurrent of challenge. "I promise, it's not a big deal. You barely knew how to make use of that stolen Suiton affinity to begin with."

"I'll be glad to finally be rid of you." The man had a deep, gravely voice, and his tone made it clear he considered the fight over, even if he did stop a ways out of Hiramekarei's range. "I'll give you credit, you've put up a fight more than worthy of your bounty these past weeks, but you were doomed from the start."

Mangetsu grinned, shark-like teeth on display. "Oh, I'm just getting started. I'd tell you to get used to hearing my voice, but-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the other man shot forward, and Mangetsu was forced to defend against a powerful blow that sent him flying back two meters. As soon as he landed, the man was on him again, this time landing a clean blow to Mangetsu's side hard enough to send him flying into and through a tree next to the one Kakashi was hidden atop. One of his swords went flying from his hand, embedding itself into the ground at the foot of Kakashi's tree, but Mangetsu still quickly pushed himself back up to his feet, shifting his remaining sword into a two-handed grip.

"Like I was saying," Mangetsu continued, his voice increasingly strained. The lightning still crackled along his body, and Kakashi had a hunch it was more than just a simple attack. "You will be free of my voice, but only once I finally put you down. But first, please just tell me your name. I want to have some idea who I'm going to kill, because I don't think they'll give me a bounty for 'creepy tendril guy'."

At that, the man actually gave Mangetsu a considering look. "Kakuzu," he answered simply. "If you somehow managed to defeat me, you would get a large sum of money, but you don't have a hope of survival." He took a step forward, but Mangetsu held his position, gripping his half of Hiramekarei tightly. "When I first saw you, I only wanted the bounty on your head, but now I'll take your heart to replace the one you destroyed."

Kakuzu… The name was familiar. Kakashi searched his memory, mentally flipping through all of the Bingo Books he'd memorized over the years, and wanted to swear as soon as the information came to him.

S-rank. Visually, he didn't look significantly older than Kakashi, but he was supposedly a veteran with decades of experience. Mangetsu Hozuki was a danger in his own right, and Kakuzu had taken him down on his own, though it seemed the fight had at least been drawn out. He'd been after Mangetsu just for the bounty?

If that was true, then Naruto and Sasuke were both in unbelievable danger. The potential money someone could make off of the two of them… His best option would be to make a beeline for the genin and cancel the mission entirely, but he knew they would make too much of a fuss, even with their earlier agreement.

If there was no choice than to remain in the Land of Mountain Streams, then Kakashi's next best choice was his speciality: assassination. If he could kill Kakuzu and stop the situation from developing any further, his team would be safe and the mission could be completed without issue.

Kakashi reached up and unveiled Obito's Sharingan, grateful he'd begun to sharpen his skills again after receiving the two most valuable genin in the world as students, and watched closely for an opening as Mangetsu continued to taunt Kakuzu.

Again, Kakuzu attacked, but Mangetsu managed to defend himself once more, batting away Kakuzu with a massive chakra blade that extended from Hiramekarei. Through Obito's eye, Kakashi saw the lightning crackling throughout Mangetsu's body had begun to weaken slightly, but the effect obviously wasn't going away any time soon. At the rate the fight was going, Mangetsu was going to be killed, even if he was putting up an impressive fight even at the very end.

The smartest move might've been to just wait for Kakuzu to finish off Mangetsu and assassinate him while his guard was down. It was a strategy he'd employed plenty in the ANBU, though it'd been a long while since he last needed to assassinate anyone in that way. Kakashi considered the option and quickly tossed it aside.

Konoha didn't have any current ties to Kiri, especially not the brand new Mizukage's administration, but Kakashi knew a current, loyal member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist would be invaluable to the Godaime. Saving Mangetsu could potentially ingratiate Kiri to Konoha, even if it was a bigger risk than Kakashi was wholly comfortable with. More than that, Kakuzu was someone who'd survived for decades, and a two-on-one was better than a one-on-one if Kakuzu avoided the initial blow.

As Kakashi watched, Kakuzu displayed a Doton jutsu to nullify the damage from most of Mangetsu's attacks. It was an obviously powerful ability, but Kakashi knew Raikiri would tear through it with ease. Naruto had told him one of the fighters possessed a powerful Suiton affinity, and the other a powerful Doton affinity, and Mangetsu was the obvious Suiton user. That meant he needed to watch out for Fūton, Katon, and Raiton from Kakuzu as well, but he had an advantage over Kakuzu's natural affinity.

"Okay… I guess I have to admit, this isn't the best situation for me." Mangetsu gave Kakuzu another sharky grin, but his attention was obviously on the other half of Hiramekarei. Kakuzu had placed himself between Mangetsu and it, and without interference, Mangetsu really would meet his end. "Ah… Just how much money exactly would it take for you to just screw off and leave me alone?"

Kakuzu was silent for a few seconds. "More than your bounty, and a heart with a Suiton affinity to replace the one you destroyed."

"Ah, damn." Mangetsu's grin fell, and he tightened his grip on the half of Hiramekarei in his hands. "It was worth a shot, I guess."

Kakuzu started to prepare a Raiton jutsu. "This is the end, you annoying, loud-mouthed shark," he growled lowly. He started to gather chakra, performing the Tiger, Snake, and Dog seals to finish Mangetsu off with what Kakashi recognized as Lightning Strike.

Kakuzu may have had decades of experience on him, but there were very few people in the world who could perform Raiton jutsu faster than Kakashi Hatake. His hands flashed through the Ox, Rabbit, and Monkey seals before Kakuzu could reach Dog, and Raikiri flared to life over his hand. To his credit, Kakuzu reacted to the sound of birds filling the clearing, but in the fraction of a second he had, Kakashi made it down the tree and behind his back.

Then, Kakashi's hand plunged through Kakuzu's chest like his earthen armor wasn't even there, instantly destroying his heart.

"H-How the hell," Kakuzu grunted, turning his head all the way to the side to catch a glimpse of Kakashi. "I couldn't even sense your approach…"

"Sorry about that." Kakashi didn't follow the remark with his usual eye smile, looking past Kakuzu to Mangetsu's defensive position in front of them. "Mangetsu-"

"Kakashi Hatake!" Mangetsu exclaimed. A look of relief briefly flashed across his face, but then his eyes went wide at Kakashi's hand still pierced through Kakuzu. "Watch out, he has multiple-!"

Before he could finish his warning, Kakuzu kicked Kakashi hard enough to send him crashing through a tree, hand yanking free of his chest.

It was only thanks to his long ingrained reflexes that Kakashi saved himself from intensive damage to his stomach and back, but even then a grunt of pain tore itself from his lungs as his back shattered the tree. He rolled into a landing on the other side as quickly as he could, one hand over his bruised stomach and the other pulling a kunai from his pouch, and readied himself as his Sharingan fell on Kakuzu.

He hadn't moved from his spot before Mangetsu, but his head did turn to face Kakashi. "Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja." His unusual green and red eyes narrowed, one hand clutching the spot where Kakashi's hand tore through him. "I didn't expect to run into you all the way out here, but it seems there are bounties crawling all over these lands. Yours may be even greater than my current prey's."

"A shame you'll never have the chance to cash it in." Kakashi narrowed his eye at Kakuzu's destroyed heart. He had multiple? Was that the origin of the multiple affinities Naruto described? Mangetsu had mentioned destroying one of Kakuzu's spares when Kakashi first started watching the fight. Most likely, that meant Kakuzu was down two hearts, but how many did he have in total?

"Don't underestimate him, Kakashi," Mangetsu warned. "I'm not sure who this guy is, but he's tough."

"Kakuzu, an S-rank missing ninja from Takigakure," Kakashi said. "He's been in bingo books for decades, but information is sparse."

Mangetsu's eyes widened briefly and he grit his teeth. "Shit, I thought the name sounded familiar."

"Enough talk." Kakuzu ran through a series of hand seals that Kakashi didn't recognize, beginning and ending in the Snake Seal, and slammed his hands against the ground in Mangetsu's direction. Kakashi memorized the seals and the flow of chakra as the earth shaped into an elaborate, solid stone prison around Mangetsu. "I'll just have to finish the shark later." He turned fully to Kakashi, anger burning in his eyes. "He's tricky to kill, but I shouldn't have any problem with you."

Kakashi eyed the earth prison for a few seconds. It was impressively reinforced, and would make a good tool for Naruto if Kakashi had the chance to teach it. He could destroy it with a powerful Raiton jutsu, but Mangetsu was obviously already in poor shape from lightning. Could he defeat Kakuzu on his own?

Kakuzu started to approach Kakashi and Kakashi held up his kunai, right eye closed and left eye taking in every detail of his opponent.

When Kakuzu suddenly rushed forward and attempted to strike Kakashi, Kakashi was ready. Kakuzu's fist was deflected by his forearm and Kakashi swung around with his other arm, driving his blade at Kakuzu's extended arm. Kakuzu's spare arm caught his before the kunai could break skin, so Kakashi dropped the kunai and caught it with his other hand, flowing a current of lightning and stabbing it into Kakuzu's side.

Kakuzu let out a grunt of pain. Not dropping the pressure, Kakashi swung his left into Kakuzu's opposite side, but Kakuzu's arm came to block it, sturdy as stone. Before Kakuzu could try to grab Kakashi's arm and keep him stationary, Kakashi fell backwards onto his free hand and sprung off it to land back on his feet. Then he was on Kakuzu again, slicing his kunai across Kakuzu's forearm and missing by a hair.

His years of experience clearly weren't for nothing. Before Kakashi could try and follow up on his attack, something sprang from Kakuzu's arm and wrested his kunai from his hand.

Immediately abandoning the weapon, Kakashi kicked off of Kakuzu's chest and jumped into the air, racing through the hand seals for the Great Fireball Jutsu. Katon chakra built in his chest and he held a hand up to his mouth, unleashing a massive fireball through his mask that even Sasuke would be impressed by.

Naruto might be a little less impressed by the three trees it destroyed.

When the fire cleared, a charred earth wall obscured where Kakuzu had been standing moments before, and Kakashi immediately scanned the clearing for any sign of movement. Seconds later, he felt the earth beneath his feet begin to shake ever so slightly. He immediately leapt away, landing on a low branch of a nearby tree, flashing through another set of seals the second his feet touched the wood.

As soon as Kakuzu appeared from the ground, Kakashi unleashed a Water Bullet with enough force to punch through another three trees. Kakuzu reacted in time to hold up his arms and block it with his Doton armor, but he was still pushed back meters into the ground. Without letting up, Kakashi sped through a series of ten seals and used a favored trick of Naruto to gather up the water he'd just shot and form it into a Water Shark Bullet.

Aside from Raikiri, it was the most chakra intensive jutsu he'd used in the fight yet. The shark that formed was large enough to eat both of them whole, and with a jerk of his hand he directed it to attack Kakuzu.

Next, while he kept his right hand occupied to attack Kakuzu with the shark jutsu, Kakashi channeled pure Raiton into his left hand. Without seals, the activation was a little more chakra inefficient than the first one he'd used, but Raikiri still flared to life across his hand.

It wasn't a combination he'd attempted before, but Sasuke's Lightning-Fireball Jutsu had given him a few ideas. A combination jutsu wasn't the same as a kekkei genkai; most of the time, affinities didn't like to mesh, and trying to combine them would only disrupt both jutsu. If the balance wasn't perfect, the jutsu would be inert at best, a waste of two jutsu worth of chakra in the middle of a fight. At worst, it could be volatile, blowing up in the face of whoever was foolish enough to attempt an imperfect jutsu in the middle of a fight.

But some things were easier when visible. With as much precision as he could manage while still holding the Water Shark Bullet, Kakashi turned Raikiri into the Lightning Beast Tracking Fang variant he'd only recently developed. Compared to the Raikiri he used to destroy Kakuzu's heart, the vaguely dog-shaped lightning that shot from his hand was relatively weak, but too much power would only get in the way.

The Raikiri variant shot after the watery shark in a burst of lightning, disappearing into its side with a flash.

For a second, nothing seemed to happen, and Kakashi felt his control over the jutsu falter. Then, lightning crackled to life throughout the shark, his control of the jutsu flaring back to life with it. He immediately felt the strain on his chakra reserves multiply, but the electrified shark was like an entirely new jutsu. It shot after Kakuzu so fast that Kakashi wasn't sure he could've controlled it without Obito's Sharingan, leaving a trail of electrified water in its wake.

Perhaps through experience alone, Kakuzu managed to dodge out of the way the first time the shark flew by, but he wasn't fast enough to escape the second time. In one bite, the shark swallowed him whole, trapping him inside of the electrified water.

The longer Kakashi held the jutsu, the greater the strain on his chakra reserves grew. If he were Naruto, he might've been able to trap Kakuzu inside the water for over an hour, but chakra reserves unfortunately weren't Kakashi's strongest point. Before he could waste too much chakra, Kakashi slammed the electrified shark through a row of trees, sending shards of wood slicing through the water, and finally crashed it into the ground.

An explosion of earth, lightning, and water followed, raining dirt and water down across the crater it formed while the fast-fading lightning charred trees and dirt in every direction.

When it was all over, Kakashi's breath started to come out heavier than he liked. If it were just two months ago, he might've been rusty enough that the combination jutsu chewed through his chakra reserves entirely; the two Raikiri alone would've been enough to leave him on half, and the combination jutsu might've left him low enough to risk chakra exhaustion alongside Obito's Sharingan. Thankfully, training himself when he wasn't busy reading or training his team made a marked difference, so it wasn't crippling exhaustion yet.

Conscious of his depleting reserves but not yet worried, he quickly approached the crater, keeping a close eye out for any movement as he did.

Kakuzu laid collapsed, face-up in the center of the crater, his tattered black and red robe in even worse shape than before. Charred bits of wood were splintered throughout his form, a particularly large piece stabbed through his leg, but as soon as Kakashi's eyes fell on him, he started to move. First, he grabbed the piece of wood lodged into his leg and tore it out without even a flinch, tossing it aside before doing the same with all the smaller pieces and pushing himself to his feet.

Pulling out another kunai, Kakashi stayed at the top of the crater and watched.

"Not… bad." Kakuzu looked up and met Kakashi's red, one-eyed gaze, green and orange eyes calculating. "I can see how you earned your bounty." Grabbing his tattered robe with one hand, Kakuzu yanked it off, revealing a body covered in stitches with a sleeveless black top. "It took that shark nearly an hour to make me use this in our first bout."

Before Kakashi could even try to anticipate what he would do, Kakuzu hunched over slightly and the stitches across his body started to strain. There was no back to his shirt. Instead, four masks were stitched into his back, two destroyed. A guttural groan of pain started to come from Kakuzu as the stitches stretched to their limit, coming undone all across his back. Then, enough to disturb even Kakashi, two of the masks tore free of his back, forming massive bodies made of countless thick, black threads.

As soon as the two monsters were free, Kakuzu straightened, the threads along his back redoing themselves into sutures.

"As good as you are, I can tell you don't have the stamina of Hozuki," Kakuzu continued. The two monsters stood on either side of him, one Raiton and the other Fūton. "After I take the bounty for your head, I'm going to find out just how much that eye of yours is worth on its own."

A/N:

Got another chapter finished in time, so I'm posting this today.

Rule one of Team Seven first C-rank missions:

Things will spiral out of control in the most dramatic way they can.

Originally, really wasn't sure what to do for the C-rank, bc I know a lot of people find Wave arcs too repetitive. This C-rank went through a LOT of changes even after I'd finished chapter 10 and started this one lol. I can't even remember when I decided Mangetsu would be fun to include, I think it was kind of just "Hm, what if they ran into a different Seven Swordsman?" Even after that, Kakuzu wasn't originally meant to be included either, but I wrote like the first third of this chapter and wasn't satisfied with the original idea, so I overhauled the plot into this

Kakashi's rust:

He's still a bit rusty here, mainly in terms of stamina, but since getting Naruto and Sasuke for students, he realized "Oh, great, my life is going to be so difficult" so he's been polishing his skills. Realistically, he probably invented Lightning Beast Tracking Fang between P1 and Shippuden, but I dont think it's really crazy for him to start working on it sooner under diff circumstances. Also, he doesn't want to be shown up by his own genin

Kirigakure Mizukage Timeline BS:

Naruto Shippuden episode 394, a filler when Sakura's keeping Naruto's heart beating, mentions that during a Shippuden-era Chunin Exams, Kirigakure isn't attending bc they're "mourning the death of the Yondaime". I'm pretty sure that doesn't have any actual relevance and is just filler, so I'm not really breaking canon here, just figuring out stuff that the Naruto timeline... really doesn't explain.

Here, Kirigakure has only recently gone under the reign of Mei as the Godaime Mizukage at this point (early p1). Hiramekarei is the only one of the Seven Swords that still belonged to Kiri by Shippuden, and considering Mangetsu was never referred to as a missing-nin and had a non-crossed forehead protector, him being the (inferred) previous wielder means I'm including him as part of the new Kirigakure admin. I'm going to end up adding a pretty significant amount of my own lore/background info to Kiri since there's a lot we don't know, and I'll stick to canon compliance where it exists, but I'll also be expanding on a lot.

Thank you for all the follows, favorites, and reviews! The story hit over 500 follows since I posted last chapter!

Another note:

Those automated spam reviews are making me lose my mind. Holy shit that's annoying.

Got a review about it so I'll just ask:

Does the "Bakashi-sensei" thing bother people? I just use it bc Naruto tends to call people the first nickname he thinks of (Bushy Brows, Bushier Brows, Pervy Sage, Octopops, Aloe Vera), and "Bakashi" being something I see people have Obito call Kakashi, I just figured it'd be fun tbh. If it is annoying to people, it's not really a big deal to stop doing/remove from unposted chapters (not gonna go back and edit every previous one bc editing chapters is annoying on ffn)