Chapter 9

The Next Day, the Edge of Wave Country

"I know that your country is called the Land of Waves, but I didn't think that it was one big island." Why would someone want to live on an island like that? Cut off from the world, all alone.

"It is an archipelago, not just one island. We have the main island, the largest of them all and the closest to the mainland. The other islands are close enough to get between by short bridges I helped make. That is partly why I decided to make a bridge to the mainland."

Who knew, Tazuna is knowledgeable.

"We will have to sneak into Wave, I have a boat prepared for us. It should be right about here!"

Sure enough, there is a rowboat resting in the water.

"Come on fearless ninja, lets go. I stashed this boat here before I left the Land of Waves. We will have to row in, we need to avoid being seen by Gato's men." Wasn't there a boatman in cannon? He wants us to row? Not likely.

"You heard the man." Kakashi says as he pulls out his orange book. "Let's get in and then you four can start rowing."

"Wait? Four of us? But there is only three kids! Where's your fourth?"

"You are." Take that Tazuna! "Someone has to keep a lookout, and I am the most qualified for the job."

Sasuke looks scorned, "You just don't want to row Kakashi-sensei."

"I have no idea what you are talking about. We better get going!"

With a lot of grumbling, we pack into the rowboat and start paddling. After what feels like hours, Tazuna breaks the silence.

"We should be approaching the bridge now." Sure enough, the monolith appears in the fog.

"Wow that is huge!" Sakura exclaims.

"Just think, our names will be on that." I can't wait. My very own bridge.

"Hn." Sasuke interjects, "It's not that cool. It's just a bridge."

Tazuna actually looks offended. "It is more than a bridge! It is my country's hope!"

Without looking up from his book Kakashi scolds us. "Quiet. We are supposed to be sneaking into hostile territory. Talk later."

We made land after what felt like another 3 hours. I couldn't tell, the mist is blocking the sun out. We made good time, maybe we can even make it to Tazuna's house before sun down.

"Everyone down now!" Team 7 drops. Tazuna freezes in fear. The world's biggest blade is flying straight at him.

"Tazuna!" I yell while shooting out a chakra string and connecting it to his shoulder. I yank hard. There is no time for comfort to be taken into account.

Please be in time! Please be in time!

The monstrous blade sails over our heads, barely missing Tazuna and embeds itself into a tree.

Is that a man standing on it? Holy shit it is. That is Zabuza Momochi.

That is Zabuza Momochi.

He has his sword holder across his chest and back, black and white camouflage arm warmers, generic black shinobi pants and no shirt. He's exactly how I pictured him in my mind.

"Oh? Is that Copy Cat Kakashi before me? No wonder the Demon Brothers failed, you have a kill on sight order back in Mist. You're in the bingo book, Kakashi of the Sharingan, the man who copied over a thousand jutsu." Zabuza turns feral looking with blood lust. "Will I get to see the legendary eye in action?"

"Team 7, protect Tazuna. This opponent is beyond you." Kakashi steps forward.

"Please. Those Demon Brothers were easy. He can't be that much better."

We are dead. So very dead. Why Sasuke? Why did you taunt the man wielding a big scary sword?

"Not better than those scum? Do you know who I am kid?"

"Zabuza Momochi." I state. "Missing nin of Kirigakure. He held the rank of jonin before he defected, and he ran Kiri's assassination corps for the better part of a decade. You can't beat him Sasuke."

"You do know me! Good."

Fear. My limbs turn to lead. Run away. A cold hand grips my pounding heart. Flee for your life. I need to run. I am doing to die. I am going to DIE! RUNRUNRUNRUN-

"Sasuke! Alvarcus! Sakura! Calm down." Kakashi's voice yanks us out of that awful feeling.

Was that killing intent? It was terrible. I didn't just get scared, I thought I was as good as dead. No, I knew I was as good as dead. I knew there was no hope to run away. But Kakashi saved us.

"I need you three to protect Tazuna. If I have to engage an opponent of Zabuza's skill I can't be distracted. I taught you three to work together. Use those lessons, and we will get through this. Don't worry, I will protect you all with my life."

"What an inspiring speech." Zabuza kicks off the tree and lands on the lake. "Too bad that doesn't change anything. Hiding in the Mist jutsu!"

A thick fog – no mist – wafts through the air. Our visibility is shrinking at an alarming rate. Very soon our vision is limited to only a few meters.

"Eight points," Zabuza growls. His voice seems to come from everywhere. "Larynx. Spine. Liver. Lungs. Jugular. Subclavian artery. Kidneys. Heart. Now, which will be my kill point?"

I need to stay alert. Kakashi is here. I'll be fine. Just protect Tazuna. All I have to do is stand here.

"It's over." Zabuza appears in the middle of our group. With an insane gleam in his eye he swings Kubikiribocho. Kakashi rockets forward, kunai in hand, and stabs Zabuza in the gut.

"Nice try! But not good enough!" Another Zabuza appears behind Kakashi while the one he stabbed bursts into water.

"Die!" Zabuza brings Kubikiribocho down and cleaves Kakashi in half.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yells out, believing our sensei dead. Sasuke only tenses, ready to go to battle at a moments notice. I arm myself with a kunai.

A new Kakashi pops up behind Zabuza and holds a kunai to his throat. "Now it is over. Die."

That happened way too fast. That only took a few seconds!

Zabuza chuckles. "You copied my water clone! Impressive. But you'll need to do better to trick me!"

A third Zabuza appears behind Kakashi while the Zabuza at kunai point turns to water. Zabuza swings at Kakashi who dodges it, but gets hit with Zabuza's follow up kick.

"I can't believe he kicked Kakashi-sensei into the water!" Sakura says with a waiver in her voice. "That's so far away!"

No. I know what is going to happen next. Please no.

Kakashi breaks to surface of the water. Zabuza is standing over him with a crazy gleam in his eyes and his fingers on the final hand sign for a jutsu. I know what happens next.

"Water Prison Jutsu!" Zabuza's voice confirms my fears.

Shit. Shit shit shit. He got Kakashi.

"Everyone run! This battle ended the second he caught me! Go now! He can't follow you if he wants to keep me imprisoned!" Kakashi's voice is distorted by the water.

How did he speak while in a water prison? Questions for another time, preferably one where my life and my teammate's lives aren't in danger

"That is not an option. We can't run. Once he kills you he will just come for us. You said it yourself; he is way out of our league." I hate myself so much for saying this. "You are our only hope. We can't fight him."

"Just run! Go back to Konoha! Cover your tracks! GO!"

"Kakashi. He's a tracker. He was the best that the mist assassination corps had. Hell he is probably better than their current leader. Saving you is our only chance."

"No! I won't allow it! My team will not die because of me! Never again!"

Ignoring Kakashi, I turn to Sasuke and Sakura. "I have a plan. Will you two follow me?"

"Yes." Sakura sounds unsure, like she is only agreeing because it is the only choice.

"It better work." Sasuke is calm, that's good. I can depend on him.

"Alright. Sakura, stay with Tazuna. Sasuke and I will destroy the water clone. Sasuke, can you support me with ninjutsu?"

"Yes. What are you going to do?"

"Something incredibly stupid. I am going to engage the clone in taijutsu."

"That will never work. He will kill you."

"Not if you kill him first. I'll try to get him vulnerable to an attack. You fireball him."

"That can work for the clone. What's your plan to get Kakashi-sensei out?"

"One step at a time. We will deal with that later. He's not going anywhere."

"Done making your plan kiddies? I hate to tell you, it's not going to work. Your sensei is already dead. You are just delaying the inevitable."

"Oh shut up." I walk forward to the clone. "By the way, you are totally compensating with that sword. Do you have self esteem issues?" I really need to stop resorting to dark humor when I am out of my comfort zone. I keep pissing off monsters.

"Die!" With rage in his eyes clone Zabuza swings Kubikiribocho overhanded at me. I raise a kunai to deflect it. Our blades meet. His wins, the force of the blow rips my kunai out of my hands.

"Can't even hold onto your weapon runt?" The clone sidesteps a fireball from Sasuke. "How pathetic."

He swings at me horizontally. I drop while raising a new kunai to intercept his giant blade. My kunai goes flying to the other end of the clearing.

"Didn't learn? A puny kunai like that isn't going to stop my blade. You should just let me kill you. I promise to make it quick."

Fat chance of that happening. I draw another kunai. I only have three to go.

"You promise to make it quick? I hope you didn't tell your girlfriend that."

Clone-Zabuza roars as he thrusts Kubikiribocho at my gut. I sidestep and lose another kunai. Two left.

"Runt! I take it back! You are going to suffer! I'll skin you alive!"

Swinging his massive cleaver around Clone-Zabuza tries to slash me from hip to shoulder. I drop to the ground and a fireball flies over my head. Clone-Zabuza barely dodges a face full of fire.

"You're a clever one. You made me angry on purpose. You wanted me to focus on you so your pyromaniac teammate could get a lucky shot in. Nice try, but now I know your game. It won't work again. You missed your chance. Now what? Give me the bridge builder and you can go free. I don't care about some lousy leaf gennin."

Sasuke grunts, "If anyone on our team is a pyromaniac, you're trying to cut him in half. That guy does not shut up about his fire whips."

"They would be soooooo cool! Kakashi! If we get out of this you have to teach me - oh shit!"

Clone-Zabuza throws his own kunai at me. I send it straight back to him with extra speed. He lazily steps to the side.

"Huh. That was interesting. Was that the magnet release? I didn't know you had a bloodline. Shame. You could have been great."

Wait what? I don't have the magnet release. Why would he assume that? All I did was throw his kunai back at him.

Without touching it.

Ah, yeah that probably looked like the magnet release.

"I'll still be great! You haven't even hit me yet!"

"Let's change that." Clone-Zabuza thrusts his sword at me. "Even if you have the magnet release, you won't be a problem! You can't use it on Kubikiribocho!"

I raise a kunai to defend myself from his weapon. My kunai sails out of my hand. One more left. I draw the final kunai.

"You have to be getting low on kunai. You're not quick enough to dodge me. How are you going to defend yourself when you run out?"

Clone-Zabuza dodges the biggest fireball yet, but it singes me.

"DAMMIT SASUKE! You're supposed to hit him not me!"

"Move next time."

"ARG!" I throw the final kunai at Clone-Zabuza. He lazily moves his head out of the way. Perfect. All kunai set.

I draw another kunai in each hand.

"Sasuke! Non-stop combat from here on out. I'm engaging until the clone dies. If you have a shot, take it. I don't care if I get burnt a little."

Sasuke smirks. "I understand. Good plan. When are you..."

"As soon as the clone dies. Preferably as soon as the clone dies violently. This guy is pissing me off."

"Oh? What's this? You've been holding back on me? Cheeky runts. That pisses me off!"

Clone-Zabuza swings his massive sword at my neck. I duck down, dodging completely for the first time since our fight started.

"So you were holding back! You couldn't dodge before! Wonderful! Maybe you are worth playing with!"

What follows next is a flurry of blows. I dodged the sword, he dodged my kunai stabs as Sasuke peppered us bother with fireballs.

This isn't working. I need to do something different. This is either going to work, or it is going to kill me.

On Clone-Zabuza's next swing I do something crazy. Something monumentally stupid. I raise my arm and extend chakra strings to Kubikiribocho in an attempt to stop it. I don't limit myself to making strings from just my fingers. I use my arms, my legs, my chest, my everything. Chakra strings doesn't give justice to the sheer magnitude of strings I used on the crazy sword. Hundreds. Thousands. I made an uncountable number of strings. I have to give Sasori props. Not only could he make a shit ton of strings but he was so good at micromanaging that he could use them to control 100 puppets. I could barely attach them all to one object less than a meter away from me.

My gamble worked.

"Huh? Why can't I move Kubikiribocho? Magnet release doesn't work on it! What are you -"

WOOSH! SPLASH!

Sasuke's fireball finally connected with the clone. Show time.

TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG

The five kunai that Clone-Zabuza knocked out of my hand fly towards the real Zabuza from different angles.

"Tch. Pesky runts." Zabuza disengages the water prison in favor of not being impaled. Kakashi bursts forth with a vengeance. He's beyond furious.

Kakashi destroys Zabuza. It isn't even close. Kakashi has Zabuza cornered, all but dead. Our sensei is taunting him, holding his victory over Zabuza. Kakashi wants Zabuza to be utterly broken when he finally ends his life.

SHINK

Zabuza falls over dead from three senbon to the back of his neck. I forgot about Haku.

"Thank you for providing an opening on my target, shinobi-san. Without you two fighting, I never would have had a chance of killing him." The masked kunoichi says.

White mask. Fancy yukata. Long black hair. Yep, this is Haku.

"I will take the body to dispose of now. You all have my thanks." Slinging the dead Zabuza over her shoulder, Haku shunshins away.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes Alvarcus?"

"Did some random hunter nin just steal our kill?"

"I believe so."

"Okay, so just to make sure I am not hallucinating, that was a kid. She didn't look any older than us."

"One of the hard lessons of the world: there are shinobi younger than you who are stronger than me. Remember that, and never underestimate someone."

How true is that. Haku could kick my ass. Oh hell, I have to fight her in a week.

"That was what let you win against Zabuza's clone. He underestimated your imagination and creativity."

"Hey, Alvarcus?" Oh good, Sakura is still alive. I wondered where she went. I couldn't really keep an eye on her during my fight. "How did you set your kunai traps up? Don't you have to touch the anchor points?"

"I did something new. How my kunai traps work is that I attached, or primed, a string to the kunai, then I have to touch the anchor to set the strings. Prime, then anchor. That is how it works."

"You 'primed' your strings to the anchor points first didn't you? Then you anchored the strings to the kunai in your hand." Dammit Sasuke! Let me explain my technique!

"Well yeah. I don't know why I never thought of it before. It works the same either way, I make the strings elastic so that they pull the objects together. The heavier object doesn't move, and the lighter one gets launched."

"You made a taijutsu style that incorporates losing your weapons? That has to be the single most stupid thing I have ever heard. Who willingly gives up their weapons during a fight?" Way to make me feel good Kakashi.

"But that is just it! I didn't lose my weapons! Not once! Technically, at one point I was using seven kunai at once. My five trapped kunai, and the two I was holding."

"Hmm... I suppose you might be right. But you could run out of kunai in your pouch." Quit trying to poke holes in this Kakashi!

"Hello? Do you know me? Do you really think I didn't have chakra strings attached to those kunai to bring them back to me? Hell that is the first thing I do whenever I draw one! My kunai are retractable."

"Okay, you've obviously thought this out more than I expected. You and your chakra strings."

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei. I'm not that stupid."

"Glad to hear it. Now, the mission isn't over yet. We still need to get the bridge builder to his bridge."

Everyone looks to Tazuna. "He-he, sorry about all this. You can rest at my place when we get there!"

"Good. Let's go." With that, Kakashi starts to walk away. He freezes, his whole body tenses up, and he falls flat on his face.

"Kakashi-sensei!" We all rush over to him. Sakura starts to look over him for anything wrong.

"Pulse, check. Breathing, check. No life threatening wounds. What could be wrong with him?"

"Chakra exhaustion is my guess. Using the Sharingan can't be that easy, and he was throwing some high level jutsu around. Do you have anyway to check his chakra levels Sakura?"

"I know the theory, but I've never done it before. I could mess up and hurt him!"

"Sakura, breath. You can do it. You are the smartest kunoichi in our class after all! Besides, I'd rather know if it was chakra exhaustion or internal bleeding that caused this. I don't know about you, but I have no idea how to identify internal bleeding."

"Okay I can try." Sakura places her hand over Kakashi's heart, and she scrunches her face up in concentration. "It feels like... he has almost no chakra. I think. I'm getting the reactions that the books say I would get, but I can't know for sure."

"Good enough. I trust you. Now the real question: who's going to carry him? I vote Sasuke."

"Not happening. Make Tazuna do it. He did nothing the entire fight."

"I'm the client! You don't make clients do stuff like that!"

"Well..." I pause, not sure if I want to offer to do extra work. "I have always wanted to try puppetry, but I've never had a puppet to practice with before."

"You can't make Kakashi-sensei your puppet! That is wrong!"

"Fine, you carry him then Sakura."

"... If he gets mad at us, I am blaming you."

"Noted. Now lets see, how to do this?"

After five minutes of trial and error, I figure out how to move Kakashi around like a rag doll. It is not pretty, but it'll do. With that figured out, we head to Tazuna's house.

Night Time, At Tazuna's House

"This is your house?" Sasuke questions Tazuna. I can't blame him, Tazuna looks like a street bum. His house, on the other hand, looks very well kept and surprisingly large. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, brat! I am sure! Now let's get inside." Tazuna unlocks the door and we enter the house. "Tsunami and Inari are probably asleep. I'll show you to the guest bedrooms. Boys in one, girls in the other." He's going to enforce that rule? Fine, it's his house. I'll be okay with Sasuke and Kakashi, but Sakura all alone? That might be bad.

"Alright kid, put your sense in this room. Then you and pinky can use the one across the hallway." Sorry what?

"Tazuna?"

"What brat? You got a problem with that? You want your own room? Too damn bad! You have to share."

"No no, that's fine. It's just, you now I am a boy right?" Tazuna freezes. Slowly he looks me up and down.

"I'll be damned. This whole time I thought... never mind."

Must not maim the client. Must not maim the client. Must not maim the client.

Snicker. Giggle.

"Not. A. Word." Sakura and Sasuke look at each other, then burst out laughing.

"He does have a rather... slender build. Most commonly seen among kunoichi."

"Oh my Kami I can totally see it! He would be the prettiest girl ever! Just need to style his hair better, find some nice clothes and he could give me a run for my money!"

"I will kill you. They will never find the bodies. No one will know."

"Oh shut up brats and go to sleep." Tazuna orders. "I'll introduce you to my family tomorrow." We all go into our rooms and hit the hay. Stupid Tazuna.