Recruiting Zabuza

Kakashi's battle against Zabuza was rather unusual. Zabuza was staying inside his mist, while occasionally throwing out an attack or two but never committing too heavily to it. Kakashi, meanwhile, was exclusively on the defense. There was nothing he could do about it. The mist was simply too thick for him to see anything properly. He could throw out a powerful jutsu, but that would leave him wide open, something which Zabuza would abuse. He could only wait for Zabuza to make a mistake and counterattack.

Things changed, however, when Kakashi felt Sasuke's chakra plumbed to almost zero. He could guess that either Anko or Yuna were nearby to help him, but both of them hid their presence too well for Kakashi to notice them. Although his senses were sharp, he wasn't a sensor after all.

'Guess I will try to distract him and then go for it.'

"Zabuza, we have been playing around for quite a while now, but it seems like things are getting dangerous for my team, so I've got to move."

"Hehe, do you think it is that easy? It might take me some time, but I will slowly wear you down inside my mist, and as soon as you become too stressed from always keeping your guard up you will make a mistake and I will finish you."

While Zabuza was monologuing, Kakashi took out a scroll, smeared his blood on it, went through some hand seals, and slammed it on the ground.

'No matter how you look at it, making your enemy monologue is still the best way to distract them. Here we go: [Summoning: Earth Style: Tracking Fang Technique]'

At first, nothing happened, but a few moments later the earth underneath Zabuza cracked, and a pack of dogs jumped out and sunk their teeth into Zabuza.

"Too bad, Zabuza. I got you. Now it is time to finish this."

Kakashi went through a few hand seals and then gathered huge amounts of lightning nature chakra in his hand. Moments later, the sound of chirping birds echoes over the battlefield while lightning surrounds Kakashi's hand.

Kakashi immediately charged Zabuza in an attempt to pierce his hand through Zabuza's heart, but moments before reaching Zabuza, an ice mirror popped up in front of him. Haku stepped out of it and wanted to block Kakashi's blow with her body.

Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise when Haku appeared in front of him, but he didn't bother to stop his attack.

'Although it isn't Zabuza, it is still an enemy, so it doesn't matter if I go for the kill.'

To Kakashi's surprise, however, another hand came out of the mirror, grabbed Haku by the clothes at the scruff of her neck, and pulled her aside, replacing her with Yuna. Before Kakashi could fully understand the situation, his hand pierced straight through Yuna's abdomen, inflicting a lethal wound.

Kakashi's face paled, especially when he remembered how similar this felt to when his hand pierced through Rin all those years ago. Despite the similarities, there was one point that certainly changed the atmosphere of the current situation.

"Haha, you are quite the bold man, Kakashi. The first time we fight you try to enter my backdoor and the next time, your huge thing hits me so hard that it pierces all the way through my abdomen."

The dogs that were holding Zabuza had already disappeared thanks to a few well-placed senbons by Haku, so instead of Kakashi Zabuza was the one to speak next.

"Although I don't understand the whole situation, thanks for saving me, I guess, and now...DIE!"

Zabuza swung his sword and tried to bisect Yuna and Kakashi at the same time. Kakashi panicked and wanted to grab Yuna and jump away, but when Yuna gave him an annoyed look, he stopped. He had no idea why he stopped, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Just when Zabuza's blade was about to reach Yuna, her chakra spiked for a split second and in this short moment, she caught Zabuza's sword with one hand. As soon as she did, the third tail she had grown just a moment ago vanished again.

Yuna couldn't help but look at Zabuza with some annoyance in her eyes.

"Can you pipe down for a moment? Can't you see I am having a conversation? Anyway Kakashi, why do you suddenly look like you killed someone you didn't want to kill?"

While Zabuza was completely dumbfounded by how easily Yuna caught his blade, Kakashi couldn't help but give an awkward stare at the hand that was still pierced through Yuna. The wound was definitely fatal, but if he were to pull his hand out, it would happen even faster, so he didn't move yet.

Yuna seemed to have finally realized why Kakashi was acting like this.

"Ah, I see. You are worried that you wounded me. Well, it is nothing but a flesh wound, so no worries."

As she said that, she pulled Kakashi's hand out of her abdomen and caused a huge amount of blood to spill on the ground. The moment Kakashi's hand was removed, massive amounts of red chakra started to gather at the wound and Yuna's flesh started to knit itself together at a visible speed.

Everyone looked dumbfounded at how the seemingly fatal wound was healed within seconds without even leaving a scar behind.

"See? Just a scratch. Anyway, let's get back to business. Zabuza, Haku you both are mercenaries, right? I am hiring both of you from today on. We will finish the contract as soon as we get back to Konoha."

Although Zabuza still had no clue what was going on and especially had no idea how someone could not only survive but instantly heal an injury like that, he was not someone who let go of his principles because of that.

"Gatou already hired me. No matter how much money you offer me, I will not break my contract with him."

Yuna nodded in understanding and, naturally, approved of Zabuza staying true to his principles.

"I am, of course, aware of that. If that was not the case, I wouldn't have bothered talking with you, after all. That is why let's welcome our special guest. He will arrive here in about 40 seconds."

Although Zabuza was rather baffled by whatever was happening right now, a short break was exactly what he needed to regather his thoughts and form a new strategy.

Kakashi on the other hand had a pretty good idea who that "special guest" was and could only shake his head.

'Just how much of this has Yuna planned? I guess that is why she saved that girl just moments ago. She seemed to be capable of ice jutsu. A rather unique find.'

Exactly 40 seconds later, a small man, followed by around 80 thuggish-looking men appeared on the bridge.

"Haha, you really are useless, Zabuza. Can't even take care of a bunch of brats."

Zabuza could more or less guess what this was about but asked anyway.

"Why are you here, Gatou? My fight still isn't over."

Gatou sneered at him and gave his answer.

"It is over since you will be dying now. No matter how strong you are, you can't fight against an army of almost 100 men."

Every shinobi present looked at Gatou like he was an idiot. An "army" of 100 people? That was something even a chunin might be capable of wiping out if he is careful.

Zabuza couldn't help but chuckle a little.

'How did that brat know Gatou would betray me? Well, it doesn't really matter. Since my contract is broken I might as well accept a new one. But there is no way I will work for a brat that is still green behind the ears, so I might as well throw out a test to see what she is capable of.'

A smirk appeared on Zabuza's face.

"Yuna, right? I accept working for you, but only if you can kill those thugs. Considering the strength you showed just now, that shouldn't be much of a problem, right."

Zabuza was, of course, banking on Yuna not being used to killing people and that this would put a bit of stress on her. Unfortunately for him, he was completely wrong.

"Oh, is that all? Alright."

Before Zabuza could fully understand the situation, Yuna started to gather an obscene amount of water nature chakra in her mouth and spat it out in an ark in front of her.

"[Water Style: Mountain Slicing High-Pressure Water Stream]"

A high-pressure stream of water shot out of Yuna's mouth. Its thickness wasn't even two centimeters, yet the moment it came into contact with one of Gatou's men they were sliced in two instantly. Yuna only moved her head once before everyone except for Gatou was cut in half.

The only reason why Gatou survived was that he was much shorter than everyone else. He only glanced back at his supposed "army" and as soon as he saw the gory mess, he fainted instantly.

"Well, Zabuza, there you go. I still have some use for Gatou, but the rest are dead. This should be fine, right?"

Zabuza, however, didn't say anything. He was simply staring at the massacre in front of him with wide eyes. Kakashi and Haku had similar reactions, the only one unaffected was Anko, who had already seen that jutsu before.

'Well, I know how they feel. A young girl casually shooting out a jutsu that might even reach S-rank sure is ridiculous. When I saw her use it, she only had one tail as a support. As expected, the power grows even more ridiculous if there are more tails. The "Mountain Cutting" part of the name might actually come true. I really need to get rid of this damned seal. I want to become stronger. I want to keep up. Just how interesting will the future be if I am beside Yuna? I can not fall too far behind. I want to stand next to her.'

Anko's desire to grow stronger was ignited and turned into a blazing inferno. She wanted to grow stronger, not to protect those close to her, not for revenge, not to prove a point, but simply because she thought that she would have the most fun this way.