14 Zabuza-I

Zabuza Momochi looked on impassively as Raiga tried his bit at intimidating the kids. The information given by Raiga had been spot on, though. Zabuza did not like that one bit.

In this treacherous life, he learned to not trust shit like that easily. Especially when a nutjob like Raiga is the one with working intel. Heck, he didn't want to work with the crazy asshole. But he knew that Raiga was trying to join a group that had been making a name for itself of late. And whatever Raiga was doing here was related to that shit. So, he didn't want to get in the way of any of that.

Life as a missing-nin was pretty shit as it was. Getting on the shitlist of other S-Class criminals was not worth the trouble.

The fact that the intel was right meant that Raiga was legit. Just like Zabuza was told, there in front of him was Sharingan Kakashi, and three snot-nosed brats.

"Hatake, I usually don't do this. But I'm giving you one chance and one chance only. Hand over the bridge builder to me, and I will let you be. Trust me, you have your hands full with Raiga. Give me my target, and I will go," he said, partly out of pity for the famous copy-nin out there.

Zabuza was not a soft bastard. But if it was one thing he hated, it was the other remaining mist swordsmen. They were supposed to be the elite of the village. But all of them turned out to be either cowards or traitors. He was the only one willing to stand against their nutjob of a Kage. They might have branded Zabuza a traitor, but he was not. He was loyal to his village, not to the monster they called the Mizukage.

So, he was willing to grant Kakashi this one mercy. Maybe on another day, he would have bided his time and killed both of the jonin here. Alas, thanks to what little he had known, he decided to just do his mission and leave. He was not particularly keen on fighting Raiga right now. The freak had somehow found a loyal tool who had a busted dojutsu.

He was also on edge because he knew that Raiga did not like him. This here was just a mission of convenience. The wielder of the Kiba blades had popped up out of nowhere and had made a deal with Zabuza. Once again, a result of the intel Raiga had gotten from the dangerous group he was trying to join.

Raiga laughed loudly and kept looking at the brats.

"Trying to play both sides, Zabuza? I don't mind. It's not like I will be having trouble with my mission," said the unhinged missing-nin.

Zabuza looked at the Konoha shinobi and saw that Kakashi already had his headband pulled up, Sharingan eye spinning menacingly.

"Zabuza Momochi and Raiga Kurosuki. I heard the seven swordsmen of the mist were disbanded. You having a little reunion? Should I expect Kisame to visit as well?" asked Kakashi, his voice not at all reflecting his tense posture.

"As if. I am done with that shithole of a group. No. I am here for these two. But I am having second thoughts," said Raiga as he pointed at the pink-haired brat and the blonde one.

"And why is that?" asked Kakashi as he glanced at Raiga briefly.

He then immediately switched his posture as Raiga's grin got wider.

"Genjutsu ain't working on me, bitch," chucked Raiga, as the bundle on his back ruffled a bit and red motes of chakra began swirling around him.

Zabuza instantly understood what had happened. Kakashi had placed Raiga on a genjutsu using the Sharingan, and the brat piggybacking Raiga had broken him out of it.

"Hey Zabuza, you have a bingo book, right?"

"Yes. What about it?" asked Zabuza as he prepared himself for a fight. It didn't look like they were giving up the bridge builder. He was here to do a mission, and he would do just that.

"Throw it over, will ya? It seems like my mission just got way more interesting," said Raiga.

Zabuza quickly complied as he threw the bingo book in a high arc. Raiga caught it without any issue.

As the nutjob started riffling through the book, Zabuza knew that Kakashi was setting something up. He wasn't worried though. This situation was completely in their favor. Not to mention Haku staying hidden in the foliage, waiting for the right opportunity.

"There we go. Hmm, I do see the resemblance. Hey kid, what's Itachi Uchiha to you?" asked Raiga abruptly.

In response, the black-haired kid froze for a moment and then began releasing a bit of killing intent, which felt pitiful, in Zabuza's opinion.

"That's all the confirmation I need. Fuck the mission," said Raiga as he threw the bingo book behind like it was trash.

Zabuza clicked his tongue in annoyance since the book was his. He didn't know what was up with Raiga. The nutjob was here to kidnap the Pink Butcher's sister and the blonde brat. Now, he seemingly gave that up in response to finding out about the Uchiha. Zabuza did not know what to expect anymore.

It was at that moment that Hatake shot towards Raiga, lightning buzzing in his palm.

"Sakura, shuriken wall," shouted the copy-nin as he tried to kill Raiga with his famous jutsu.

Zabuza didn't have time to do anything, as a wall of shuriken flew at him. Technically, it was a couple of shuriken and their clones. Cute.

He moved faster than the genin's jutsu and immediately landed in front of them. Just as he was about to swing his sword at them, two hands erupted from the ground and caught his ankles.

It was just a tad late though. He had seen it coming and had already returned to the tree, leaving a water clone behind on the ground.

"Not bad. But not good enough," he chuckled as the pink-haired girl unsheathed a wakizashi and ran it through his clone's neck right as Hatake's clone dragged him down the ground.

By then, Kakashi had a hand deep inside Raiga's chest, while several ninken were holding him in place. The holes in the ground indicated where they came from.

"Sasuke, Naruto, provide cover. Sakura, summon now. Retreat with the client," Kakashi shouted, as his students began running through hand seals.

The next instant, with a loud burst of smoke, the area was filled with clones of the blonde brat. At the same time, a large fireball headed toward Zabuza.

He easily dodged it, only to collide with a couple of shadow clones that shunshined right into him. Which was odd in itself, considering their relative levels of speed. They shouldn't have hit him. But the slight pain of the collision cleared the subtle genjutsu he had been subject to, which was altering his depth perception. It was so subtle that he hadn't noticed at first. Sharingan Kakashi was no joke, after all.

Zabuza expected this mission to be a piece of cake. He didn't expect them to put up this much of a fight. He didn't expect Raiga to fold like that.

This was immediately proven right, as the Raiga who seemed to have been speared by the Raikiri seemed to be nothing but an illusion.

Zabuza once more cursed Raiga for getting his hands on that Ranmaru brat.

Amidst all this, a cloud of smoke erupted in the middle, and it looked like the girl had summoned two beasts. Zabuza looked at the two identical polar bears, one wearing green, and the other blue. Knowing they were making a run for it, he rushed at them.

"Kiyo, Chiyo. Snowstorm!" shouted the girl, and the next moment, the bears began running through several hand seals.

Zabuza had to pull an emergency retreat, as he was almost engulfed by a wave of snow. The two bears spat out a massive wave of snow, which began to swirl and disrupt everything in its wake.

For a second, he was speechless, then he began laughing uproariously. What a surprise. And here he was thinking that he was the only one with a subordinate that dealt in ice and snow. Haku would actually have a nice synergy with those bears.

The kids thought they were sly, replacing themselves with transformed clones of the blonde brat and trying to run with the client. But they were too inexperienced to pull off something like that in front of Zabuza.

Before he could do anything though, a massive wind jutsu came from the place where Kakashi was fighting Raiga. Quite swiftly, it buffeted the snow all the faster and reduced visibility instantly.

Even though Zabuza was an expert at the Hidden Mist jutsu and silent killing in general, this specific obstacle took away one major sense that aided him. The loud roar of the wind and the buffeting snow was quite opposite to his usual method of obscurity. He reveled in the silence that came with the mist. Not this loud rush that drowned out all useful sound cues.

Alas, Kakashi was in for a nasty surprise, since he was unaware of Raiga's pet dojutsu user. Zabuza would wait for an opportunity.

And the opportunity came, when lighting struck from the skies, right into the center of the snowstorm. The snowstorm died out all of a sudden, and the two bears maintaining it disappeared with a pop. Standing in that place was Raiga, with his blades buzzing with lighting, obviously propped by the lightning that had struck from the clouds.

Zabuza got a good look at the two lightning users and saw that Kakashi still seemed to be in the lead. Raiga was bruised and had a bloody gash in his stomach, but seemed fine otherwise. It was just that he was coated by the red dust like chakra. It looked like the brat on Raiga's back was constantly shrouding him from Kakashi's eyes, but the kid was not used to such a high-level fight. And it showed. Against normal jonin, Raiga would have easily won by now. And without the brat, Kakashi would have bodied Raiga by now.

Kakashi Hatake had a lot of experience with his eye, and he seemed to be keeping up somewhat. Even though it looked like he was one step behind due to the nature of the kid's eyes. Those mutated eyes were a counter to other dojutsu, after all.

"The rumors really don't exaggerate when it comes to you. But it looks like we will have to postpone our bout for later. Sadly, I only have two hands. I can only carry two kids. Have fun, Zabuza," Raiga laughed in an unhinged manner, as he burst into red motes, disappearing at once.

The next moment, Zabuza was back in his old village. He was standing in his classroom, his classmates all dead around him as a result of the brutal graduation. They all groaned and slowly got up, looking back at Zabuza with baleful eyes.

Amateur hour. If he was a wet behind the ears genin, he would be terrified of this genjutsu. The kid was capable of looking into people's minds to some extent. It was a mixture of hidden cues and a lot of psychological mumbo jumbo. With such an ability, it was easy for someone's brain to be tricked into showing some of their worst memories, or some equally bad scenario. Too bad for him that the village had beaten out most of Zabuza's humanity.

He really hated the kid's eyes. The genjutsu created by that eye was annoying to the extreme. Even if one detected it, disputing it was not easy. Not by pulsing chakra at the very least.

He knew that this was not real. Inside the genjutsu, he was not holding his Kubikiribocho. But he knew that his body was holding it. He was a swordsman, a master of his craft. The blade was an extension of him. Even if he couldn't feel it, he knew the exact dimensions of the blade. It didn't take him long to swipe it through his left palm, breaking the genjutsu due to the small surge of pain.

Right on cue, he was back in his previous position, and Raiga was nowhere to be seen. So were the girl and the Uchiha brat. It looked like the kidnapping was a success.

Hatake seemed like he had broken through the genjutsu too, but he looked mighty pissed.

The killing intent rolling off of him was spectacular.

"Pakkun, take the pack and track them down," he roared, as the ninken disappeared without a word.

Well, Zabuza didn't care about the kids. The client was still there, and he had a mission to finish. Too bad that Hatake would once more be linked to dead teammates.

Alas, all mirth left him, the moment he felt a very distinct chakra signature to the side.

He immediately whirled around, to see the blonde brat clad in an all too familiar red shroud.

Zabuza's hackles raised, as his mind flashed through images of Yagura rampaging in a similar state.

"A Jinchuriki?" he hissed, as three tails sprouted behind the brat, who whirled around and glared at Zabuza with murderous eyes.

"God damn it," shouted the unflappable copy-nin, as he too got into a defensive stance.

The kid was definitely still under the genjutsu and was practically foaming at the mouth. The killing intent rolling off of him all but guaranteed that the fox got caught in the genjutsu as well.

"Fuck me, not again," Zabuza groaned, as the rabid Jinchuriki shot at him.

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A.N: Raiga may be a threat, but Ranmaru is the real danger when it comes to facing the two of them.

And off goes Naruto, already in a three-tailed state.

The next chapter will cover what is happening inside the village with the whole among us situation.

If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.