Terrors of the Hidden Mist

Outskirts of the Land of Waves (2 Days Before Kamui's Return to Konoha)

This was not going well.

The mission started off rocky to say the least. First, they're assigned to guard a bridge builder who immediately questions their competency. Then, they're assaulted by two low-chunin-level missing ninjas.

That part was simple.

It would have been a serious problem for normal fresh genin, but their team wasn't that. The worrying part was that these shinobi were hired by business tycoon Gato. As it turns out, the man didn't want this bridge built, which immediately upgraded their mission to A-Rank.

While the man was a civilian and therefore, not a threat on his own, he was the CEO of one of the largest conglomerates in the Elemental Nations. The only saving grace was that he was cheap and wasn't fond of hiring shinobi. In fact, the only reason he's still alive is because he's in the pockets of multiple daimyos and is one of the largest suppliers of luxury goods on the continent.

Basically, there's a very high risk for targeting the man as a weaker nation would immediately be at war and a missing ninja would be immediately listed as a priority target. That's how important some of his products are to the wealthier members of the ruling class.

That's not necessarily a problem for Konoha, but it did heighten the risk significantly. All this was something Kakashi briefed them on once the full scope became clear. According to him, they were now expecting Jonin-level combatants.

As such, their sensei sent a request for reinforcements as soon as he learned the truth of the situation from their client, Tazuna the bridge builder.

Still, he let them decide amongst themselves whether they wanted to go on ahead or stay and wait for reinforcements. Sakura wanted to go back, worried that this may be above their level. Naruto was a little hesitant too. Well, he was until Sasuke goaded his brother on. Once Sasuke gave his support, Sakura did so as well to not disappoint him and Naruto didn't want to be seen as a coward.

Kakashi didn't say anything. He didn't advise them or even assert his role as the team's leader. He just smiled and went along with their admittedly stupid suggestion.

It didn't take long for them to realize it was possibly the stupidest decision they've ever made. Then again, it was only partially their fault. Who knew their sensei couldn't differentiate normal mist from a potent hidden mist jutsu? Who would expect fresh genin make a responsible decision on possibly engaging jonin-level ninjas?

As they journeyed closer to the Land of Waves, the humidity increased significantly, and a potent mist began to cloud their vision. The mist's thickness increased exponentially over time until, eventually, they could hardly see five feet in front of them. Kakashi's guard had clearly risen, but only to the level of what would be expected when in unfavorable terrain, not what would be employed for an imminent enemy.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a roll of what looked like conjoined explosive tags flew toward them.

"Scatter! Now!" Kakashi ordered with a level of panic neither brother had ever seen from him.

*BOOM!!!*

The explosion was deafening. Its range was at least a hundred feet in diameter, though that was a low ball.

"*Cough* *Cough*" Sasuke coughed, doing his best to regain his bearings. Looking up, he was stunned to see a massive crater covered with smoke and ash, though that was getting harder to see with the thickening mist. While the explosion blew away the nearby mist, it was filling back in at an unnaturally quick rate.

'Wait.' His sharingan activated. 'This isn't natural. There's chakra in the mist!'

"Naruto, Sakura, someone's causing this mist!" Sasuke shouted out.

Spotting Naruto in the distance, who had grabbed Tazuna during his dodge, Sasuke put every ounce of courage he had into body flickering to his side. Unfortunately, Sakura was on the other side of the clearing, making a similar maneuver much harder.

"It's the Hidden Mist Jutsu." Kakashi clarified, his hardened tone speaking to the seriousness of the situation.

"Outstanding deduction. I should give you a medal." A gravelly voice commented from the mist.

"Hmm… Konoha's slipping. Sending a team of VIPs like this on such an important mission. I wonder how your Hokage will feel when we send you home in pieces." A tomboyish feminine voice mocking stated.

"S-Sensei, do you know w-who they are?" Naruto asked, trying to hide the trembling in his voice.

Sakura was even worse. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. In fact, she was struggling just to take her next breath of air. Still, she was somewhat focused on trying to find the enemy ninjas.

"I have an idea of who they might be. That particular roll of explosives is quite famous; combined with the skillful use of the hidden mist jutsu, we'll have to assume that the weapon that attacked us is The Splatter, one of the seven ninja swords. If that's the case, the woman must be Mao, The Bloody Imp. I'm not clear on the other though." Kakashi stated evenly, internally panicking at the horrible situation they found themselves in.

'Sensei's going to kill me when we get back.' The jonin lamented.

"Oh…? Hear that, Mao? Cover's blown. How pathetic." The gravelly voice mocked.

"Shut up! Let's just kill these pricks! I call Pinky!"

Hearing that, Sakura tensed up and looked around frantically. Any composure she might have had was now non-existent.

"S-s-sensei…?" she stuttered out.

Kakashi turned to her direction, now realizing to his horror that Sakura had been separated from the group and hadn't regrouped like she should have. She was paralyzed in place and hadn't seized her opportunity when they were talking.

'Damn, I need to get to her now!' He thought as he turned to body-flicker in her direction, only for a roll of explosive tags to fly toward his other two students and the bridge builder.

"What the hell!?" Naruto shouted in surprise, getting Kakashi's attention.

'She got me!" Kakashi frustratedly thought, realizing he wouldn't have enough time to get back to his other students.

Realizing he needed to fight on multiple fronts he weaved through a few hand signs.

'Water Release: Water Clone Jutsu.' A water clone formed from the heavy mist and rushed to gather Sakura. The original rushed toward Naruto and Sasuke and glanced at Tazuna specifically.

'We need to retreat, but first, I need to secure Tazuna. I'll have to gamble on our reinforcements arriving on time!' Kakashi thought, already knowing how this needed to go.

'If they don't come soon though, we may not make it.' He thought somberly.

In his current physical condition, he could fight one of the mist's seven swordsmen by himself and barely come out on top. If he were by himself, he may even scratch out a win against two. Unfortunately, there were four 'hostages' that they could use against him. As long as he needed to worry about them, he stood no chance.

To counter the exploding roll of explosives Naruto and Sasuke weaved through a set of hand signs.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu" Sasuke called out as he released a large fireball about 15 feet in diameter.

"Wind Release: Fire-Feeding Stream" Naruto called out as he expelled a powerful and continuous stream of air at Sasuke's fireball, fueling it and increasing its temperature significantly.

'Combination Ninjutsu: Furious Fireball' They both thought. This combination was one of the many joint techniques they had come up with over the years. They often fought their siblings as a pair, so they had quite a few combination ninjutsu at their disposal.

The fireball collided with the exploding paper, generating a massive explosion that sent both them and Tazuna flying back. As for Mao, she was at a distance and therefore, unharmed.

"Impressive. I guess these kids aren't just playing ninja. My last attack has taken out teams of chunin on many occasions. It's one of the reasons these swords are so famous. Their destructive power is on another level." Mao commented from a different spot, having moved positions after her first attack.

Although they hadn't even touched Mao, it was still a win for the two boys. After all, they and the client were still alive, if beaten up.

Arriving in front of the downed trio, Kakashi took a defensive stance.

On the other side, a great sword shaped like a large butcher knife, the executioner's blade, flew in a diagonal shuriken-like spin, moving to split Sakura in half.

The best Sakura could do was pull her Kunai up in her defense, her mind too racked with fear to move out the way.

*Squish* *Clink*

"AAAHHH!!!" Sakura screamed in pain, as the sword had rent halfway into her left forearm and even a quarter into the opposite shoulder, almost lopping both off; her physical strength had meant nothing in the face of the sword's overwhelming momentum. If it weren't for Kakashi's kunai stopping the blow before it could go further, she would now be a cripple without the use of either arm.

"How pathetic." Zabuza body-flickered and grabbed his sword handle, opting to spare the pathetic kunoichi pretender, if only to enjoy this hunt just a little longer.

Despite his desire to check on his student, Kakashi focused on the rogue ninja in front of him. If he didn't, the man would be the death of them both.

It was hard though. His new student was screaming at the top of her lungs in agony, desperately holding her partially severed arm, no doubt trying to keep it attached. She probably hadn't noticed her shoulder suffering a similar injury since her arm was more visible to her fear-stricken self.

"Damn it." Kakashi's water clone glared into Zabuza's eyes with his sharingan, which was spinning frantically.

Chuckling, Zabuza backed away into the mist, trying to escape.

Before he could though, a kunai approached from behind, almost outside of his blind spot.

Pausing his escape, he turned to deflect the Kunai when a hand came behind him.

'Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu.' The Kakashi clone grabbed Zabuza, trapping him in a prison.

Before he could celebrate, the captured Zabuza turned into a puddle of water and was absorbed into the prison.

'Almost had him!' the clone thought with frustration. What made it worse was that Sakura wasn't making the right moves to make his efforts worthwhile. She flailed and screamed in place, completely leaving herself vulnerable to future attacks.

He couldn't make a sustained offensive on Zabuza like this.

On the other side, the original Kakashi was having a similar, if different problem. Naruto and Sasuke were working well for their rank, but in this mist and with the bridge builder in tow, they were stuck, which meant Kakashi was also stuck guarding them.

"Kakashi of the sharingan, why do you have such a stupid name. You can barely even use that thing." Mao's voice could be heard from the mist. It spoke well of her capabilities that they still hadn't caught so much as a glance of her.

'Paper Release: Exploding Paper Shuriken'

'Shadow Shuriken Jutsu'

A deadly rain of paper bombs shaped into shuriken assaulted the group from five different directions.

Kakashi's eyes widened at the certain death coming his way.

Weaving through a quick set of hand signs, he slammed his right hand onto the ground.

'Earth Release Barrier: Triple-layered earth dome.' With that, a three-layered earth dome rose around the group.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* A hailstorm of explosions shook the barriers, slowly ripping them apart. If he hadn't put a quarter of his chakra into it, it wouldn't have lasted longer than the first volley. He had to hurry.

Keeping his right hand sustaining the barrier, Kakashi bit his left thumb and ran through a set of one-handed hand signs.

'Summoning: Earth Release: Fang Pursuit Jutsu!'

As the barrier came down, a puff of smoke exploded out of the ground revealing a pack of dogs. One large black bulldog and a host of smaller dogs.

"There's two mist shinobi. From the looks of it, they're both former seven ninja swordsmen of the mist. Find them."

The dogs nodded and scattered.

Although he hadn't marked the two, they were the only humans, other than him and his students in the area. Plus, they had a natural scent of blood wafting off their bodies. It may not be detectable by normal noses, but it's as clear as day for ninja hounds.

In the back, Naruto and Sasuke stood back. Their bodies were covered in burns wounds and ash. Although Kakashi's barrier prevented anything serious from happening, it didn't mean they weren't injured. Not only had a fraction of the heat scorched their skin, but a portion of the force still traveled through the barrier and had rattled them pretty badly.

As such, they had to stay back. It had been beaten into them repeatedly by their parents to know when they were in the way. With their limited experience, they were useless.

It was clear that Kakashi didn't want Naruto personally clearing the mist or he would have asked. The reality of the situation was that their best chance of making it out of this was to make themselves the smallest targets possible.

Almost in sync, both genin gripped their fists in frustration. They were useless. Worse, they were baggage. The best they could do was try keeping the escort alive.

Still, Naruto felt there was something he could do. It's something he had been practicing. A jutsu he learned in his dreams. He didn't remember the specifics outside of talking to a long-haired shadow man, but it was something he tried a little in practice. He wasn't all that good at it yet, but it was the only thing in his arsenal that would help here.

Logically, it was a bad move to use it before he finished training with it, but he didn't want to feel useless; he couldn't keep feeling useless.

"Don't feel too bad you two." Kakashi casually commented, his gaze still trained on the wall of mist. "These two are elite shinobi. Those swords they carry have only ever been wielded by A-Rank shinobi or higher. These two are not something you're prepared to face right now. That's not considering that the land of waves has a naturally high humidity, which empowers water-based ninjutsu. In short, aside from the land of water, this spot gives them the greatest terrain advantage they're ever going to get."

"Sensei." Naruto whispered.

"Yes Naruto?"

"I want to try something. As soon as your dogs find them, I think I have something that can hit them." Naruto quickly suggested, surprising both sharingan wielders.

"Are you sure Naruto? That's incredibly risky. I don't doubt you're strong, but if I leave this to you, we could squander the only opening we have so I'll ask you again." He paused and turned to look the boy in the eye. "Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked seriously, his sharingan seemingly boring into the boy's soul.

"Yes, Sensei." Naruto Stated, resolved.

Normally Kakashi wouldn't even consider this, but at this point, he was running out of chakra. While the boy wasn't capable of fighting at this level, he still had stupid levels of chakra. A jutsu from the boy powered by that could give him an opportunity to land a decisive blow with his lightning blade.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, trying to think of what his brother would be able to do in this situation. It was frustrating. He didn't have any options right now. None. He didn't have any jutsu that would work in this particular situation, especially with his sharingan blocked by the mist.

"Ahh! Get off me you stupid dogs! *Boom*" The group heard Mao screaming; they found her. It helped that she used The Splatter to escape the hounds.

"Now Naruto! Before she shakes them off!" Kakashi shouted.

"Right!" He loudly acknowledged.

"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

In an instant, the whole clearing was filled with Naruto's shadow clones. There were a stupid number in fact, over 400 hundred.

Seeing them, Sasuke grumbled, jealous of his brother's disgusting levels of chakra. Kakashi, on the other hand, let out a proud whistle.

'I can never get used to how much chakra that family has.

The first two hundred charged at Mao in waves of fifty, staggering to prevent too many of them from dying at once.

"You think you can take me out with numbers!? This may be annoying but don't think a few dogs will stop me from kicking your ass!" The now revealed Mao screamed.

Mao had neck-length black hair, chocolate brown eyes with diamond-shaped pupils, caramel-like skin, and wore a now tattered grey sleeveless vest with black shinobi pants and black shinobi sandals. As her namesake would suggest, she was short, very short. Specifically, she was a little more than four and a half feet tall. Her sword, The Splatter, looked like a large axe attached to a giant black scroll containing numerous explosive notes attached to each other, making up the scroll's 'paper'.

She was being continuously bit and held down in a small crater by Kakashi's ninja hounds to the point where she even had a hard time moving. Clearly, the explosion hadn't deterred the hounds.

As the clones reached within range of the struggling swordsmen, they started glowing and within moments explosions bombarded the field. Clone after clone exploded in a continuous barrage of destruction.

There was only one problem. Mao escaped. Seeing the waves of clones, Mao ignited Splatter with even greater strength to inflict serious damage to all the dogs around her at the price of serious damage to her arms. Unfortunately for the Konoha team, her arms were a lot sturdier than their pink-haired comrade's.

"Urg!! What the hell!? Who teaches a kid a stupid jutsu like that!?" Mao screamed in fury.

"I'm not done!" Naruto roared.

In the back of the clone group, the rest of the clones, including the real Naruto, got into one large line.

'Wood Release: Wood Bullet Barrage' In front of each clone, what looked like tree trunks grew out of the ground. They were shaped like cannons, having thick barrels made of wood.

Seeing this, Kakashi and Sasuke's eyes widened into saucers.

'Since when did the loser learn wood release!?' Sasuke thought in shock.

'Is sensei messing with me!? Shouldn't he have told me about something like this!?' was all Kakashi could think at the moment.

"Ready!? Fire!" And like that, a hail of wooden bullets pelted the area where Mao had blasted herself to. It was endless. Each bullet would destroy a tree; each impact would create a crater. It was a rain of death that would kill even groups of Jonin-level shinobi.

After a while, the rain stopped, and everything was silent.

The mist had been forcefully removed and in its place were dense clouds of dirt and dust.

Zabuza looked at the blond's handiwork with unadulterated shock.

"Damn kid. Ain't that a bit too much? I thought you Konoha shinobi were supposed to love trees?" Although he was distracted, so was Kakashi's water clone. They both just stood there in silence.

On the other side, Sasuke's eyes couldn't be any wider. Suddenly though, a spike of anger rushed through his mind. It wasn't necessarily at Naruto, but at his own weakness. They were supposed to be equals.

'How did he get so strong!?' He thought bitterly.

The original Kakashi was of a different opinion though. He was less focused on the jutsu and more focused on the victim.

'Where is she? If she had been hit, Splatter should have detonated. If it had, there would be a fire at the very least.' He thought cautiously.

"Oww! Dude! That was intense!" Mao shouted comedically as she burst out from the ground. Then, her eyes focused on the now shocked Naruto. "Too bad. You're still wet behind the ears!" In a fluid motion, she was in front of the original Naruto, having body-flickered to close the distance before he did anything else.

One thing few remembered about Mao is that her eyes were Dojutsu. She was so rarely seen in combat that very few noticed. Her eyes allow her to see the soul of living beings. She can't do anything to them, but she can see them. Obstacles or distractions didn't faze her; it's why she was so proficient in the art of silent killing.

Without hesitation her blade sliced through Naruto's gut, cutting into his stomach. Before it could go even further though, a loud sound reminiscent of chirping birds could be heard from behind her. There, Kakashi had rushed with every ounce of speed he could muster to save the boy. In his hands, a thick concentration of blue lightening chakra was ready to impale the swordswoman.

Before Mao could be run through, she was gone; in her place was a perfectly shaped log. Luckily for the group, this gave Naruto enough time to remove the blade from his body. Before he could take any distance though…

*BOOOM!!!*

An explosion shot out from the blade, crashing into Naruto at point blank and sending his now limp body, along with a log that had replaced his sensei, flying.

Naruto's body hit the tree like a sack of meat, letting out a sickening slap.

"Naruto!" Sasuke and Kakashi shouted in terror.

Sasuke wanted to check on his friend; he wanted to believe in him, but he couldn't. He had to guard this stupid old man who lied to them. The man who'd held them in contempt for damn near the whole trip!

'Why!? Why couldn't I do anything!? Why!? Why!?' his thoughts raged like a tempest as his eyes shined a malevolent, piercing red light.

It wasn't just the anger from seeing his brother reduced to such a state or even being lied to by the old man; it was also the fact that his arrogance encouraged them to come here without waiting for reinforcements. His brother and even his useless teammate both had wanted to go back. It was his fault!!

He didn't notice it, but his chakra supply grew denser, darker as his mind surrendered to the chaos tormenting it. He was about to move, to destroy this bitch that dared kill his brother, to put her where she belonged, in the dirt.

He was about to try all these things when a crimson red shockwave exploded out, sending poisonous chakra out in an omni-directional wave.

Sasuke's thoughts stopped as he glimpsed his brother's broken body covered in this 'evil' chakra. Shock ruled his mind as he witnessed his brother's wounds heal at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Kakashi let out a breath of relief at his still living student, though he quickly realized that this presented another problem. How was he going to deal with a rampaging Naruto? The man hadn't ever dealt with a rampaging Jinchuriki since Kushina always kept the beast locked away. This was new territory; one he had hoped his sensei would be present for.

Mao's eyes widened as she noticed the boy's form be covered in a red, bubbling chakra that oozed hatred. His eyes had gone from their clear blue to a crimson red, his pupil replaced with foxlike slits. She knew this transformation well.

"Shit! Zabuza, help me out here! It's a Jinchuriki!" she screamed, realizing that she couldn't play around anymore.

Pushing chakra to her legs, she rushed at the boy, hoping to take him out before he could draw on more of the beast's chakra. Her companion was hot on her trail, ignoring the clone of Kakashi that tried his best to catch up.

Jinchuriki's needed to be killed quickly. The longer they're allowed to draw from their beast's chakra, the more dangerous they got. Considering these were leaf ninja, neither of these swordsmen wanted to find out how powerful this tailed beast was.

Before either could reach him though, a wave of black lightning came between them, dividing the battlefield in two. It was near instant, so fast that neither had time to register its presence before it had already passed. Its force was enough to carve a deep fissure between them, a chasm they couldn't see the bottom of.

The whole ordeal nearly gave Mao a heart attack. The speed was insane. Had it been aimed at her; she couldn't have dodged. She would have died right there.

Looking up, the girl saw a shadow in the trees. Two mangekyou sharingan blazed in a piercing crimson, their sights trained on her. The pattern was that of three lines swirling from the outside into a circle with a pupil in the center.

Mao gulped. She knew, 'We fucked up'.