Assassin of the Mist

The fog was so thick, it was impossible to see through it. The Land of Waves was close as the bridge was nearby. Team 7 had been doing D-rank missions for some time now. It was a necessity for a genin to hone skills in order to become stronger. No doubt in it, Naruto complained about it every day. But they had no choice but to obey the Hokage's orders. For the time being, their mission is to escort Tazuna back to his village safely.

It did seem quite easy and Naruto finally stopped complaining since this was the first time he got out of the village. But well, their luck wasn't exactly brilliant. As they made their way to the Land of Waves, two chūnin-level Kiri-nin emerged from a puddle and bound Kakashi with shuriken-laced chains, before pulling and ripping him apart. With Kakashi "defeated", the duo turned their attention to Naruto, who froze up.

This was really unexpected. Y/N didn't expect the boy who learned a hidden ninja technique to become numb in the situation. But before she reached Naruto, Sasuke intervened and saved him already. The duo then split up, leaving one behind as the other charged at Tazuna. Y/N threw her shuriken towards him, but it was of no use. He easily deflected them away. She then ran towards him, to throw a kunai from a closer distance. Sakura stepped in front of Tazuna to defend him and Sasuke appeared in front of her to aid. Before anything further happened, Kakashi appeared and effortlessly defeated the duo, though Naruto did get a small scratch from one of their Metal Gauntlets, which contained poison.

It maddened Y/N when she knew about how Kakashi used the Body Replacement Technique to escape the duo's initial attack, suspecting an ambush when he discovered their puddle on a clear day.

Kakashi appreciated everyone except Naruto, and it looked like he was disheartened about it. He wasn't one to get things to him except if it came on the way of his goal. Kakashi later revealed that it was a B-rank mission. Sakura requested that they should go back as Naruto was injured.

But, Naruto did something that Y/N only heard of doing before. She never saw him do it in front of her eyes. He took a kunai and hit the area where he was poisoned to stop it.

He didn't want to jeopardize the mission.

Y/N looked at Naruto who patiently sat on the boat and looked out for any sign of the village. She didn't tell anyone about what she saw but she was sure that Kakashi definitely saw it happen - Naruto's hand healed on its own. She couldn't understand it. Why is the power that everyone feared to be so destructive healing Naruto in the first place? If Naruto got weak, wouldn't it be easier for the Nine-Tails to take over him? There were still some things that were unclear to her.

She decided to concentrate on Tazuna's words about the mission. In short, an extremely wealthy businessman called Gatō started controlling travel and shipping, and a bridge that was about to be built could put a stop to his exploitation. Tazuna was a bridge builder and as he came from a poor country, he could not afford any high-ranked missions.

Soon, they passed the bridge and arrived at the village.

"Okay, take me to my home. And by that, I mean in one piece," Tazuna said.

"Right," Kakashi said, starting to lead them to their destination.

Y/N walked slowly beside Naruto and looked at his bandaged hand. "Hey," she muttered in a low voice, "Are you feeling okay?"

"What?" Naruto said, "Oh you mean my hand? Yes! I'm doing great! I took the poison out!"

"You did?" she asked.

"Hey! You saw me there using my kunai, didn't you?" he said.

"Oh I know, I was just making sure," Y/N said.

Right, making sure if Naruto was aware of it. And turns out this thick-headed boy was completely oblivious. It surprised her how he wasn't aware of his injury getting healed. If he was injured like everyone else, there would still be a stinging feeling, right? If it felt completely fine, then there has to be something else.

Or maybe, Naruto's injuries healed since he was a kid. So he was completely unaware of how it really felt when someone gets stabbed. It takes a lot of time to heal, that's for sure.

"Hey, did you even get any sleep last night?" Naruto asked.

"Kind of...why?"

"You have dark circles," Sakura said and came closer to her. "I'll give you a homemade remedy for it! You can use it if you want!"

Y/N smiled at her and nodded her head. Sakura and her...were a lot different. They had a different way of thinking. And neither did know what topic to hold on to talk about unless it was about ninja or studies related. It really sucked, but Y/N didn't want to make her an enemy when they barely knew each other.

"Nightmares again?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah," Y/N answered.

"What do you even get nightmares about?"

Her heart started beating faster. What would she even tell him? She heard weird voices? Sounds cowardly. What if they make fun of how she was scared of such a small thing?

"Shut up, Naruto."

Y/N looked over at the emotionless raven-haired boy. Out of everyone else, she didn't him to be the one to speak up for her. But then again, Sasuke probably had more experience in this than she did. He looked over her once in a skeptical manner and then walked faster.

"Naruto!" Sakura punched his face, "You don't ask stuff like that!"

"Wait, why.." Naruto grumbled holding his head. Sakura looked at her apologetically as Y/N offered her a small smile.

Something needs to be done. She can't keep losing her sleep, especially over trivial matters like nightmares. Besides, there will come a day when she has to talk about it. They were her closest people right now. She just wasn't...ready.

Well, if no one else, Kakashi would definitely understand right?

[ TIME SKIP ]

"Oh, I'm sorry little rabbit, I'm sorry!" Naruto apologized cuddling the rabbit which he suspected to be a rogue ninja hiding behind the bushes and following them on their way.

Y/N stared at the rabbit. For someone who spent most of her time training in the forest with her father, she knew it was a white snow rabbit. It was unusual since the ones with white fur only come out during winter when the days are short and there's little sunlight. She didn't know how it got out here unless it was raised indoor like a pet.

Something felt very wrong about the situation.

She walked towards her teacher and tugged on his sleeves. She was pretty sure he knew about the situation but in order to confirm her suspicions she needed to tell him about it. "Sensei?" she said in a small voice, "The rabbit-"

"Look out!" Kakashi shouted pulling her into safety but holding her head down to duck. A giant sword spun over them and a ninja appeared on the handle of the sword. "Well, well, if it isn't Zabuza Momochi, a rogue ninja from the village hidden in the mist."

As they talked to each other, Y/N heard the word 'sharingan' mentioned several times. If she wasn't incorrect, only the Uchihas have the dōjutsu. But his surname was different. And with all the stories she heard about the Uchiha massacre, she was sure Sasuke to be the only one left with it. She slowly walked to the back of Tazuna while the rest of the team took respective positions on front, left, and right.

"Now quick, protect the bridge builder and stay out of this fight. I taught you teamwork, now it's time to use it," Kakashi said, slowly revealing his left eye. Naruto, Sakura, and Tazuna looked pretty confused; and Sasuke filled in with little information he knew.

"Enough talking," Zabuza said, "I need to exterminate the old man. So, I'll have to eliminate you first, eh Kakashi? So be it."

Y/N couldn't see a single thing when her eyes were focused on observing the backside of Tazuna in case Zabuza came from behind. Slowly the mist around them started getting thicker.

"As the name suggests, the silent killing technique is used to kill silently in an instant. The Sharingan cannot fully neutralize it. So don't lower your guard," Kakashi said, "Well if we fail. We only lose our lives."

"How can you say that?" Sakura shouted.

"Well, you are an old man so you won't care but we are not!" Y/N shouted.

Every one of them was shivering in fear - even Sasuke. Y/N was a bit glad to be positioned on the backside or her knees would've given out.

"Sasuke! Calm down! I'll protect you with my life. I'll not allow my comrades to die, trust me," Kakashi said.

"Don't be so sure!" Zabuza said appearing in front of Tazuna.

[ TIME SKIP ]

Turns out Naruto still felt a bit of pain in his hand. Y/N realized healing his hand was fast but not fast enough for it to recover immediately.

"What are you doing? I told you to run! This fight was over the moment I got caught! Your mission is not to prove how brave you are, it's to stay on mission!" Kakashi shouted from inside of Zabuza's Water Prison Technique.

Zabuza was busy talking about his past. Y/N looked around and thought of the only way that the man could be defeated. By releasing their teacher and helping them. There was no doubt in the fact that genins were nothing compared to jounin. She quickly jumped towards the forest.

"Y/N! Where are you going!" Sakura shouted. Y/N could hear her two guy friends getting thrashed by the man. Fear crept into her heart as she apologized internally to them and started going near the water body. She crawled under the water, hoping to get unnoticed.

She could still hear them talk. Naruto shouted about shadow clone jutsu while Sasuke shouted something about shuriken. She needed to do something fast.

Creating a shadow clone of her own, she swam a little far behind where Zabuza was standing holding Kakashi in his prison jutsu. Her shadow clone quickly swam towards them and as it was almost near, she heard him shout, "You think you're being sneaky?"

This was followed by a slash on the shadow clone with the shuriken he caught with his left hand. Y/N's clone disappeared. Now it was her turn to move. If not anything, it will give her team enough time to come up with something.

Moving fast towards Zabuza, she took out her shuriken and threw it towards him. Zabuza quickly deflected it away. Her eyes spotted another shuriken coming towards them, so she quickly jumped out of the way to the right. Observing her eyes, Zabuza turned around and jumped up in time to avoid getting hit. Y/N was about to move forward again when a popping sound made her realize the plan Naruto and Sasuke devised.

The shuriken popped into Naruto, who threw a shuriken in Zabuza's direction, making him lose his hold on Kakashi. He spun the other shuriken in his hand and turned towards Naruto about to attack him when it stopped spinning.

Kakashi stood in front of him, hand on the shuriken.

"I got distracted and lost my grip on the water prison," Zabuza said.

"Don't fatter yourself. You weren't distracted, you were forced to let go," Kakashi said, "Your technique worked on me once. But it won't work again."