Chapter 23

Within moments I had reached my target who jumped away at the sight of my sudden approach, throwing three senbon at me in the process. Drawing my kunai, I easily deflected two of them away. The third hitting me in my wrist. A smile split my lips as I infused my chakra on the senbon, reinforcing it, then throwing it to a nearby branch.

The Kiri tracker mask as well as her attire remained the same, just as it had in her bingo book photo.

Haku Yuki. An unregistered shinobi who had an estimated mid chunin rank skills. Even as inexperienced as she was, she was still much more experienced than me. She was probably a couple years older than me, at least I think she is. She was much shorter than me. Probably about 155 cm (5 '0) compared to my 173 cm (5' 8).

"You one of Gato's dogs?" I asked, hoping to use her inexperience against her. Angering her would make her sloppy. A sloppy fight was an easy fight.

I wasn't surprised when she didn't answer me, instead sending out another round of senbon. I deflected them again, but that seemed to be her plan as she jumped from her previous spot while weaving hand signs.

Ah, shit here we go.

A mass of ice spikes were launched towards me, I jumped away, avoiding all of them easily before landing a couple dozen meters away. Both locked in another staredown.

She wasn't particularly fast, but she was smart and had good instincts. I could speed blitz her if I took off my weights, and I considered doing just that, not that I needed to, I was more than fast enough to take her down without taking off the weights.

My thoughts were interrupted by another flurry of senbon.

'Wood Release: Wood Shield.'

The wood on the branch beneath me extended up to wrap around me and block the senbon.

'Wood Release: Cutting Technique.'

A mass of spikes formed at the front of my shield, with a flex of my chakra they were launched at Haku.

Moving away from the shield, I saw Haku had made an ice mirror to protect herself. I eyed her, I was starting to get annoyed.

"Can you stop with the damn senbon?!"

The girl tilted her head, if I could see her face it might have been cute, but with that Kiri mask of hers it just looked creepy.

"I think it's time to end this." I frowned.

'Wood Release: Clone Jutsu.'

Four clones grew out of the branch beneath me and stood beside me, each doing some wacky pose for god knows why.

Haku stilled as she eyed the clones before jumping down to the forest ground and watching me.

I spent years preparing for battles against various canon threats, her included, and she had to be out of her fucking mind if she thought I was gonna hop down there and let her trap me in those ice mirrors of hers. Fuck that.

—

Kakashi

He rushed the jonin signature. Within a few seconds his kunai met the massive Executioner Blade.

Zabuza Momoichi. The Demon of the Mist. Definitely a deadly adversary.

Dashing backwards, he decided to gain some distance. Zabuza was a close ranged beast, and he'd be a fool to purposely engage him up close. Landing on a branch, he watched the demon smirk through his mask.

"Kakashi Hatake. Copy Ninja Kakashi. The man who copied 1000 jutsu. What an honor it is to be your killer."

Smug fuck.

"Who are you?"

That got the reaction Kakashi wanted. Zabuza had stilled, seething with rage.

"You know me, don't lie." At Kakashi's blank face, Zabuza continued. "If you really don't know, you're about to get real familiar." The missing Kiri nin dashed towards Kakashi and attempted to cleave off his head, the copy ninja easily ducking under the massive blade and drove his kunai towards his stomach before getting kicked away.

Fast.

He regained his balance and once again dashed backwards to avoid a downward slash.

As Kakashi eyed Zabuza, he knew he would need his sharingan for this foe. He was no joke, not one that should be underestimated at the very least.

"Why are you running, Copy Ninja? Ain't ya gonna break out that shiny eye of yours so we can really have some fun?" The demon of the Mist taunted, resting his sword on his shoulders. "Come at me you tree loving fuck!"

A crass demon. Honestly he expected this type of behavior from Iwa nin, not Kiri. Then again between the two, he didn't know which one was worse.

Nah, definitely Iwa. Fuck Iwa.

Once again Zabuza rushed Kakashi, this time though the copy ninja brought a hand to his headband and lifted it, revealing his sharingan to the world and easily blocking the attack with his kunai.

"There it is, that shiny eye of yours."

Dumbass.

"Look all you want."

He activated a small genjutsu, nothing major, Zabuza would see an overhead kunai slice but really…

The sharp pain Zabuza felt snapped him out of the genjutsu, a kunai lodged in his gut.

The Demon's instincts were good. Kakashi had been aiming for his heart, but his hand slapped redirected it at the last moment.

"Argh…genjutsu."

No shit.

"Seems that eye of yours has more to it than I thought." Zabuza chuckled out, his right arm touching around the kunai that was still lodged inside of him. He twirled the massive blade in his left hand, a showcase of his power.

"Now you know."

"Now I know." Zabuza agreed.

—

Naruko

Being stuck on guard duty while her boyfriend and sensei fought for their lives was absolutely not what she wanted!

As she looked over to her friend…should she call her that, perhaps sister or something else…she'd talk to Hinata about it later.

AH she was getting off track.

As she looked at Satsuki she could see the annoyance on her face. It was good to know that they both felt the same.

She could hear the echoes of a blade clash coming from Kakashi-sensei's battle. She hadn't heard anything at all from Lei's battle, it was awfully quiet over there. Her mind started to go to dangerous territory. She wasn't good at sensing chakra, Gramps said it was because of the fox, what if Lei…

"Stop worrying." Satsuki snapped her out of her mind. She locked eyes with the deep onyx eyes of the Uchiha. "Seriously, have you ever beaten Lei in a fight?"

"Uh…yeah." She frowned. She had used her clones and seals to overwhelm Lei a few times, even if he usually wins. How was this supposed to stop her from worrying?

"Then you know how hard it is to win against him." She explained which did make Naruko feel a lot better. If Lei lost, it wouldn't be minutes after he started a fight, no it took a lot more than that to bring him down. "They have a job and so do we even if we don't like it."

"Sorry to be such a bother." Mr. Tazuna said dryly.

"Don't apologize, Mr. Tazuna. It's not your fault." Naruko beamed at the man. The man looked at her, slight shock marred his features before they settled on a determined frown.

"If that kid does anything to hurt you, he'll face the wrath of Waves. Mark my words."

Eh, she didn't know how to feel about that. Lei was a good guy, and she wouldn't be happy if people hurt him.

"Thanks, Mr. Tazuna, but Lei would never hurt me." She said with absolute certainty.

"Never change. Naruko." Satsuki smiled. Mr. Tazuna nodded in agreement.

"I never planned on it, if I did, I may not end up accomplishing my dreams."

—

Lei

Haku booked it.

Fucking ran.

She saw my clones, jumped to the forest floor, saw I wasn't following her and said nope.

Now here I am, following behind her as she heads to Zabuza. I didn't mind her heading over to the massive sword wielding man. In fact, I preferred it. Seeing two high level jonin like Zabuza and Kakashi fighting would be very educational.

"Are you serious?" I groaned out, jumping from branch to branch. I was around ten meters behind her, so I'm sure she heard me. This entire time, she hadn't said a single word to me, which not only hurt my feelings, but made me feel like kicking her ass more. "Fuck you then."

We passed over Naruko, Satsuki, and Tazuna who gave us surprised looks, I just gave them a thumbs up and kept on keeping on.

It wasn't long before we reached Kakashi and Zabuza, I let out a low whistle at the sight of a kunai lodged deep in his body. Pulling that kunai out would be very problematic for him, honestly I was proud of Kakashi.

Why am I, the student, proud of my sensei for doing well?

"Hey, sensei." I landed beside him, Haku landing beside Zabuza, facing us.

"Lei." He greeted, not removing his eyes from the two threats. "You let her come over here." He pointed out.

"I did."

"Why?"

I didn't want to get trapped in her crystal ice mirrors, that's why, but I can't tell you that.

"The sight of her ass enticed me to follow."

A lie, I couldn't see her ass through those baggy clothes of hers, not that I would have looked at it either way. She wasn't much older than us after all.

My words were like gunfire to set off the shootout. Zabuza instantly rushed me, sword cocked back to take off my head.

I admit, I may have overstepped.

Kakashi pushed me out of the way, ducking under the swing in the process and counter attacking with his own kunai. I watched for a moment as they fought, my attention torn between two powerful jonin and Haku who was just staring at me.

"Sorry, It was a joke, I wasn't actually looking." I admitted, my attention focusing on her for a few moments before splitting again.

I didn't get an answer, but I didn't expect one anyways.

Kakashi very obviously had the upper hand as he dodged Zabuza's attacks with grace and fluidity. He wasn't nailing many attacks of his own, but some cuts here and there were gradually chipping away at his defenses.

My clones finally arrived beside me, they sure as fuck took their sweet time getting here.

"What held you up?" I turned my attention to Haku, making sure she wouldn't attack me or Kakashi by surprise.

"Explained the situation to Naruko, Satsuki, and the old man." One of them explained. That makes sense.

"Good job." I smiled, drawing my kunai again. As much as I didn't want to fight Haku, she was an enemy that had to be dealt with. I could only hope that didn't mean I would have to put her down permanently.

Haku twitched at my actions, drawing her own mass of senbon in one hand and holding up a hand sign in the other. It's about time we got a bit more serious.

As I was about to rush Haku my sensory chakra picked up a few people coming our way and fast. I prayed that they were our reinforcements.

Of course they weren't and I had to dodge a wind mass of wind bullets. Jumping back to another branch I analyzed my new opponents and resisted the urge to run the fuck away.

The ones on the left and right were two I didn't recognize, but they weren't the ones that had me worried.

Standing in the middle was a face I remembered from the bingo book and the anime, a missing Kiri nin with a stolen dojutsu. The byakugan.

Ao.