Chapter 26: Tension

Ao was waiting for us as soon as we arrived back in the land of water.

"Your back already?" Ao looked tense as he was looking over Zabuza and Haku

"Turns out that Zabuza was easier to convince than I thought he would be" I was still suspicous as I did think that it would take more than it would to get him to come but I wasn't complaining.

"Where's Mei?" Zabuza asked angrily.

Ao looked annoyed and said "follow me"

Ao took off quickly as the rest of us followed I could feel Zabuza on edge, I could see his hands twitch towards his sword a few times, each time my own hand would twitch towards my sword and he would freeze. I pretended not to notice Haku creating needles made of ice behind me whenever I moved.

"We are here" Ao said as we arrived at the entrance of a new cave. At the same time Mei appeared from the interior.

"Zabuza" Mei stared at Zabuza and I could feel her Chakra stiring.

"Mei, finally come to your senses about Yagura huh?" in a flash Mei had landed her fist on Zabuza and sent him flying out of the cave.

Haku jumped backwards and threw his Ice needles towards Mei's Chakra points. Ao was about to jump towards Haku when Mei let out a burst of Lava from her mouth, the ice evaporated within a second.

Haku landed in front of Zabuza ready to fight.

"Enough Haku" Zabuza shouted while rubbing his cheek which now had blood running from him mouth.

"Master?" Haku looked confused but dropped his needles.

"So you are a member of the Yuki clan? Light was right about you" Mei had obviously noticed that all of Haku's moves were aimed at non-lethal spots.

Haku looked at me curiously but I ignored him.

"I'm feeling a bit of tension here, anything I should know?" I asked Mei.

Mei was staring at Zabuza and Ao looked like he was sweat bullets while pretending to not hear anything.

"We were together for a while" Zabuza said while standing up.

"Until he started a half baked revolution against the Mizukage and became a rogue ninja" Mei said angrily.

"Just like you are doing now, I wasn't as blind as you were to who Yagura had become" Zabuza shouted back.

"Don't pretend you were doing it for anyone other than yourself and your own power"

Zabuza grabbed his sword and he and Haku jumped towards Mei and Ao.

Mei jumped towards Zabuza and Ao moved to intercept Haku.

*Boom*

I swung my sword down creating a huge crack in the ground and wall, both parties were hit with a gust of wind and clumps of earth separating the two.

"This is getting us nowhere, no matter who has done what in the past we have a common enemy and goal now. We need to free the hidden mist and defeat the Mizukage"

Mei seemed to calm down and let out a sigh. "You are right"

Zabuza stared at Mei for a good while, I could see the vein in his head disappear as time passed.

"Fine, come Haku" Zabuza headed for a corner of the cave a sat down.

"Coming master" Haku said and followed.

"How have your explotes been while I was away getting our two 'friends?'" I asked, I could feel a few new powerful chakra's around the base.

"We have managed to gather a few more jonin to help, as it stands our chances are about even" Mei moved over to a table showing a map of the land of water.

"So we need a plan to tip the balance to our side?" I looked over the map and could see the Mizukage was surrounded on all sides, I knew that it would be difficult to reach him but this seemed ridiculously hard.

"Exactly, we need a way to draw the Mizukage out so we can deal with him alone if possible, while our forces stop any reinforcements from interfering"

Mei and Ao spent the next couple of hours coming up with strategies for our plan of attack, Zabuza would occasionally comment with a angry yet truthful statement.

--- 6 days later ---

Over the last 6 days Mei had been busy with people coming and going, she had also spent some time trying to get closer to Haku with limited success. Zabuza and her would send each other 'looks' as they pasted each other, I would often tell them to just get a room but I was ignored.

I had also trained with Haku a little, improving my ice release and giving him a few tips on improving his chakra quality. I liked Haku from the anime he was always kind, so I didn't feel any regrets helping him improve.

Zabuza had mostly kept to himself resting and recovering from his battle with Kakashi.

Mei had all her people gathered together for the final preparations.

"So we are doing this tonight?" I asked Mei

"Yes, we have recieved some intel that Yagura will be heading to this island on the boarder of the land of fire and lightning." Mei moved her hand across the map to a small uninhabited island.

"And once he is there?" I asked.

"I will take care of him" Zabuza spoke up.

"No I will" Mei glared at him.

"Even I stand a better chance of defeating him than you do Zabuza"

"You want to take a shot then?" Zabuza asked with his usual angry tone.

"Honestly I'm not at that level yet, while I know I could escape if needed to I wouldn't be able to take him one on one" I knew that Mei must have been able to take on Yagura and win in the anime, so there was no reason for her not to take him on this time.

"At least your an honest brat" Zabuza reluctantly gave up.

"Ok I will need you all to hold off any reinforcements and backup he takes with him. I need each of you at these points agreed?" Mei looked around and everyone nodded.

After I pursuded Mei that I didn't need any men for backup, she distributed her men to the other groups, lead by, Ao, Zabuza & 2 others I didn't recognise.

Honestly I didn't like the thought of having people under me, plus I didn't have any experience commanding a force and I didn't have much experience fighting as a team.

[Light (Discarded Genius)

Body - Jonin - High

Chakra - Jonin - High

Bound Sword - Abilities - Getsuga Tenshou - Senbonzakura Kageyoshi - Locked (Kage Chakra Level Required)

Elements - Fire 72% - Water 82% - Earth 55% - Wind 58% - Lightning 56% - Yin 32% - Yang 62% - Storm Release 43% - Boil Release 15% - Lava Release 20% - Wood Release 10% - Ice Release 15%

Kekkei Genkai - Ao Sharingan (2-Tome)

Control - 98%

Allegiance - Self/Hidden Leaf/Hidden Cloud]