ch55 Traveling to the Land of Waves
The weather in the land of fire was hot and warm but the closer we got to our destination, the temperature got a little cooler and you could feel the humidity rise. I decided to not waste time so we just started running to our fist destination with little breaks just to replenish our fluids and to eat some snacks.
I was curious how team 7 handle the situation, in the cannon Kakashi was out of shape and just using his sharingan expended allot of chakra. But now everything was different as Kakashi was in top condition and his sharingan acted as his own not wasting excess chakra as before since he could de-active and activate at will as if he was a Uchiha himself.
The Hokage told us we may encounter them in the way since they departed yesterday. I wonder how his clash with Zabuza was. I suspect since the last time I met him he most likely had improve allot and is more powerful too compared to cannon. So at least Zabuza would put a fight against Kakashi but I don't expect him to be as tired as in the original fight.
My team looks a little uneasy and it's understandable since instead of a C-rank mission we ended with a B-rank possible A-rank depending of the circumstances. Also in this mission we are to eliminate targets that get in our way. Meaning my students will experience for the first time how to kill a person. Compared to Naruto on cannon who was lucky to not have to kill nobody till after he return 2 years after the chunnin exam.
Thanks to the chakra exercises I force to train daily, my team was already above the stage of walking on water so we didn't have to stop to get a boat to our destination. Cutting the time short as we departed early it just took us about 2 hours of running with some breaks in between. I did notice the terrain while we were dashing and located some areas that look went thought some kind of natural disaster. Most likely the spot where Kakashi and Zabuza ended up fighting.
Looks like Shikamaru also pick up on that there was a confrontation. He looking at me as we travel most likely was curious. Me as his teacher just told him that a confrontation happened there and that most likely it happened the day before. Insinuating that the fight was most likely between team 7 and some unknown ninjas.
This got Ino all rile up, as she demanded us to speed it up since she was worried that her friend Sakura was in danger. We complied but warned them that our mission was not to back them up since we had our own objective. First to meet up with Kimimaru the Sound Village Elite Jounnin, as he would inform us of the bases we would hit on the land of waves.
Finally we arrived to a location where I detected 3 gennins and 2 Jounnin charkras. As we arrived I saw Naruto and Sasuke helping out to build the bridge by carrying materials to the places needed. I saw Sakura just sitting down watching them work as the Bridge Builder was giving orders to Sasuke, Naruto and the remainder of the workers that didn't ran afraid from the threat of Gato. As we got closer I saw Kakashi talking with what looks was Kimimaru who was wearing a Hidden Sound headband on his forehead.
Looks like they were on alert the moment they felt our arrival, it may look like they still were on alert and Zabuza was still alive on this timeline as well. I noticed allot of differences when I was watching team 7 compared to cannon. One was that Naruto was using the shippuden outfit instead of all orange like the original with more black than orange. This Naruto also was at least 3 inches taller than the original since this Naruto was not malnourished and was fed well. In this timeline he still had his mother after all. Sasuke was not using his navy blue high collar shirt but a black one instead and on his back he carried a Machete blade kind of sword. Looks like this Sasuke train in swordsmanship earlier than on the cannon. While Sakura didn't use her marron uniform but a white one instead with the circle on the back painted in black as she also was wearing a white headband, the white uniform was mostly homage to her medical profession as a medic ninja.
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Asuma: "Yo! Kakashi, how are you doing?" I said as I took out a chocolate bar from one of my pockets on my jacket and toss it to Kakashi to catch.
Kakashi: "I am fine, got in a bit of trouble but luckily I had some assistance from a ninja from the land of Sound who was traveling. Since Sound village is a close ally since it was founded by one of ours, they didn't think twice but to help us. I could have handled it myself but at least with the back-up I had peace of mind not to worry about my students." He said as he caught my chocolate bar.
Kakashi: "And this is? A snack for me?" he said with a curious look.
Asuma: "It's from my old sensei Kokolate, even though he is retired and now married he still works at the chocolate store from his parents. As a favor for setting him up with her now wife Nanako Sarutobi he sends me his special S.N.I.C.K.E.R.S.-Bar once in a while. This are limited edition flavor and he as improve them since then. This chocolate bar can recover your chakra within 3 minutes of consumption. Use it as an emergency chakra pill. No side effects on this one." I said to him.
Kakashi: "Wow, thanks! You always get the best things, this would totally be a life saver in the future." He said as he stores it on one of his pockets on his Jounnin jacket.
Kakashi: "Also sorry for late introductions this is Kimimaru, he help me with an encounter I had against 2 rouge jounnins of the mist."
Kimimaru: "Hi, you must be Asuma Sarutobi my contact from Konoha right?" he said as he extended his hand for a handshake.
Kimimaru was using the same attire from the original, looks like the ninjas that where chunnin or above use this attire in the Hidden Sound village. The difference was that they would wear a type of purple jacket on top of their uniform that resemble the style of kumo, which had some pockets for weapons or to store scroll or equipment. Also Kimimaru look in better shape than the original cannon and his hair was longer and tied on an upward ponytail.
Asuma: "Yeah that's right and these little ones behind are my team 10, who will be also assisting on this mission. Also this is the scroll of the mission verification, can I have yours to verify you are indeed the contact we suppose to meet." I said as I return his handshake and delivering a copy of the mission as he took out his out and gave it to me to verify.
Once we verify it was legit and the codes confirm we finally started to discuss a little but not before resting. The bridge builder who was on site invited us to rest on his house but I decline since it was already full with team 7 people. But we did accept to have a meal as we would later depart further into the land of waves. Compare to team 7 mission to protect the bridge builder, we didn't so we would have to camp near the forest and decided we would depart in 2 days as we needed to gather the necessary supplies for a longer travels.
Kakashi also was teaching his students how to water walk and wanted for my team to also participate on his teachings. I didn't deny since having a refresher would be nice for them as also show off that they already know how to do it compared to Kakashi's team. Obviously Sakura was the one shinning on Kakashi's team as Naruto and Sasuke were having trouble with it. My team didn't had any problems since we had already cover this materials but I just increase their intensity training by boiling the water where my students were standing increasing the difficulty since this was the next step before trying running up a waterfall and then finally walking up a water fall.
Kakashi's team seeing me do that to my team with an evil smile as I tortured my students was priceless. Sasuke look like he ate a bug and Naruto got pump up not wanting to fall behind. So they tried harder on their water walking exercises.
For Kakashi this was normal and didn't mind it since he knew I was hard on my trainings but his team was different they needed more team bonding since they ended up infighting allot. After all my team been working on teamwork for years thanks to their parents close relations between the clans of Ino-Shika-Cho combo and adding Guy was not difficult since he was a team player too thanks to the adaptability of his dad Kakashi and the enthusiasm of his mom, Gal.
While the students were training Kakashi talk to me about their mission and how it got upgraded to protect the bridge builder as they finished the bridge. On their way here they had encountered 2 rouge mist chunnin like in the original but this time the one that handle the situation was Sasuke and Sakura, as Naruto was to scared that he froze up. Sasuke using his Uchiha sword style using his machete intercepted the demon brothers separating them and then clashing against one of them as the other rushed to the bridge builder.
At this moment Sakura took out a Kunai and envelop it in charka as she clash against the claw of the assailant with it and using her other hand glowing in blue as she release the chakra scalpel from her other hand aimed at the throat of the ninja she cut his arteries and trach from within without having to cut his skin from the outside. The Ninja died suffocated on his own blood as he drop to the floor. As this happened Sasuke had decapitated the other Demon brother with his machete.
(Naruto still get injured like in cannon, then cutting himself to bleed out the poison out, promising that he would not get scared like in the original.)
After this encounter they discovered this mission got more dangerous but the Bridge Builder convince him to keep going as he couldn't afford the upgrade but use sentimentalism to convince them.
While traveling they later got ambushed by 2 Mist Jounnin, one was Zabuza Momochi and the other one was a Mist Anbu. On this confrontation Kakashi assigned Naruto and Sakura to defend the Bridge Builder as Kakashi and Sasuke confronted Zabuza and the Anbu.
Sasuke was doing pretty well against the Anbu as Sasuke had the 2-tomoe sharingan for a big while now and could keep track of Haku. While this was going on Zabuza was fighting Kakashi but noticed his tactics were not working on him. Kakashi already knew how Zabuza fighting style was since I used to practice with Kakashi allot in the past.
Seeing they were in disadvantage, Zabuza told Haku to not to hold back using his Demon Ice Mirrors incapacitating Sasuke before he had time to read all his moves. After that Haku joined Zabuza as now Kakashi was having trouble to deal with both as Zabuza was the front liner as Haku was assisting with his Demonic Ice mirrors and attacking from blindspots with his sebons.
He could have been in big trouble if it wasn't for Kimimaru appearing on time managing to destroy some of the Ice mirrors with his Bone Pulse rising death trees jutsu. This alarm Zabuza and Haku, seeing Kakashi now had back up they had no other option but to flee.
While this was happening Naruto and Sakura where fighting about 12 water clones that Zabuza had previously release. Naruto uses his Bushin Kage jutsu and then transforming them into giant shurinkens as he releases them using, WindStyle: Wind Palm to boost them up to destroy the water clones of Zabuza. As Sakura was using Chakra Scapel with her taijutsu in combination with some shushin to surprise attack and eliminating some water clones on her own as she defended the Bridge Builder. Now they got stuck protecting him while they finish the bridge.
After he told me everything that happened, he indeed got lucky to get back up since his situation could have gone worst. That's why he was now training them on water walking to increase their battle prowess and allowing them to fight on water.
While I was there Kakashi wanted me to spar with him since I could copy or imitate the Demonic Ice Mirrors as he remembers me doing something similar in the chunnin exams. He also brought along Sasuke since he wanted him to get accustom fighting it while using the sharingan since he would most likely encounter with the Mist Anbu who defeated him who I suppose is Haku. So the rest of the day I ended sparring with both Kakashi and Sasuke as they try to defeat me using the Demonic Ice Mirrors. Obviously I didn't went easy since I also used ice sebons to attack like if I was Haku. This unnerved both Kakashi and Sasuke since it almost resembles a perfect copy of his attacks. Difference was that I also used a giant Ice Release: Kuribocho Sword which imitated Zabuzas sword but made of Ice as I also up it a notch fighting like Zabuza but like 3 times more faster and powerful. It was like I was toying with them Kakashi and Sasuke were using their sharingan, eventually they were finding the timing and loopholes I left on purpose for them to do counter attacks. Sasuke used his Machete sword really well as he also imbued chakra into it making it glow blue as Kakashi used his father's tanto which shine white thanks to his lighting chakra. Eventually they manage to give me trouble and beat me with team work as both sharpened their skills.
(Obviously I am holding back and am just training them to handle Zabuza and Haku. Kakashi kind of got the gist of it so he also didn't go full out except for Sasuke who was tired as hell after the sparing's we had.)
After that we had to bid farewell with Kakashi and their team 7 since we had our own mission as we took Kimimaru into our group as we advance deeper into the land of waves.