Two pairs of feet scurried through the early-morning streets, kicking up dust as they walked. Sakura had never been out this early, so she couldn't help but let her eyes rest on the scenic and deathly quiet Konoha.

"Sakura, come on! We've only got an hour!" Perpetual-street urchin Naruto Uzumaki did not have the same appreciation for the barley sunlit streets, face swirling up with impatience.

"Oh, uh, okay." She began to follow him, focus still somewhat fixated on the suns caped city. She stayed in this trance until the bell of a convenience store door rung through the air, the cold wind from outside being replaced with the average conditions imposed by the inside of store.

"Hello, we only take cash, no vouchers." A man said robotically from behind the counter, eyes deep into a magazine. He looked…sickly. If it hadn't been for his regular tone of voice, Sakura would've thought he was about keel over and die right then and there.

It was Team 7's first mission. Well first proper mission, as Naruto put it. They'd spent the past few weeks tracking down lost hamsters and doing what was essentially community service at the senior center, where they had promptly gotten banned because Naruto had turned up the heating so high, he'd almost ended up killing half the residents (Kakashi had described it as "a few steps away from the sixth largest mass slaughter in Konoha history")

Now, they had been set on an escort mission to the land of waves, the pair of genin currently picking snackfood for the journey ahead.

"Hmmm…this one or…" Naruto held up two packets of instant ramen, one pork and one chicken. He had 700 ryo with him and each ramen pack cost 128 ryo, so…

Throwing the chicken packet down, Naruto scoped up a row's worth of the pork ramen, almost dropping them out of his arms as he stumbled around to the counter. The worker barley looked up from his magazine as five packs of ramen were placed onto the counter (which doubled as a scale)

Sakura quickly added her own stockpile consisting of six cans of drink and two large bags of crisps.

"That'll be however much it says on the little thing there." The worker mumbled, more interested in his magazine but even then, his focus on anything was menial. It said a lot that Naruto and Sakura actually deposited the money onto the table, instead of simply running off with the food.

The bell dinged again, as the door flung open and Sakura once again became transfixed by the shadowy, sun-tinged streets.

"Hey, what's up with you? Is there something in the air or whatever?" Naruto asked, folding his grocery bag in the meanwhile.

"No, it's just… I've never seen it this quiet before." She replied, eyes stilted in amazement.

"You get used to it." The Uzumaki said, quickly crawling up the side of a building, his footsteps on the brick prompting Sakura to once again snap out of her daze and follow him to the rooftops.

"How many times have you seen it like this?"

"Like, every day." He answered, the two of them beginning to make their way through the Konoha skyline, sun rising in the distance. "It's nice though, when you're out here early, it kinda' feels like you're the only person in the world."

Sakura agreed that that was a good summarization. It was rare to see such a highly-populated area so…empty. For the rest of the journey to Kakashi's meeting ground, she couldn't take her eyes off it.

Fwoosh!

The duo burst through a bunch of leaves, carefully landing on a patch of grass-stained dirt, sandals smudging with green. Sakura very quickly unfurled Kakashis last note, making sure they were at the right spot.

She needn't have checked, as Sasukes presence a few meters away confirmed that they were in the correct area. The Uchiha youth had solemnly sat himself on a protruding tree branch, one leg hanging downwards while the other extended the full length of the twig. His black eyes reflected the rising sun eerily well, small beams of light dancing through the treetops.

He shot the two a look of recognition (which is more than he'd give anyone else) before his attention shot back to the sunset. Even the slightest act of non-aggression confused Naruto, who was used to casual disdain from Sasuke.

He did not get the chance to dwell on this as more leaves rustled and fell to the ground. Kakashi emerged from the forest, with an old man slowly walking behind him. The Jonin's sudden appearance prompted Sasuke to hop down from his wooden perch, softly hitting the ground.

"Morning." Kakashi said, yawning tiredly through the mask. His back was taken up by a slim pack that strung over the soldiers. "This is Tazuna. He's a construction worker from the land of waves. Recent developments in his town have made him the target of a small bandit group. We'll be making sure he gets back safely." The man gave a small wave.

All three genin nodded their heads in comprehension, arms tingling with the excitement at the prospect of a real mission. Kakashi cracked his shoulder, loosening out for the long journey ahead.

"Are we ready to go?" He asked, to which Naruto was the first to respond with an over-excited:

"Yes!"

"Well, let's not waste any time then. Team Seven, it's time to depart!"

Naruto dashed out in front, sandals splashing into the residual rain water that had built up from the night before. Sakura followed close behind him, legs feeling numb from the overwhelming sense of adventure and intrigue. Sasuke even cracked a slight smile as he trailed the others with his hands in his pockets. This was the birth of a legend.

"Also, who brought the map?" Kakashi asked.

The question bought silence and stillness over team seven, every one expecting the other to say they had it, but not a single response filled the air. This waiting quickly turned into thinking, accusing glances being thrown around the quartet until Sasuke finally looked to Kakashi and said, 100% confidently.

"You were supposed to bring it."

Kakashi snorted loudly, before his mind began to race backwards to the day he announced the mission. It was him. He was meant to bring the map.

"Oh jesus christ." Tazuna laid his face in his palms as the Konoha hall of records line slowly died down, Kakashi being placed at the very back. The old man and the genin of Team 7 had been sat in the itchy, slightly moist chairs that were glued to the back of the room.

Finally, with a ring of the bell, Kakashi reached reception, voice uncharacteristically polite as he talked to the lady at the desk.

"Uh, hello, do you have a…map of the land of waves I could borrow?"

"I do, can I have your registration number?"

Kakashi's eye became flushed with confusion.

"My what?"

"You're a jonin, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"You get a registration number that allows you to pull from public records, what's yours?"

It was now that Kakashi realized that maybe the long number he was given at the induction ceremony was more than just irrelevant data.

"…Can you go by name?"

"No sir, we only take registration numbers for higher-level documents."

"…My name's Kakashi Hatake."

"Sir, we need a number."

"But you know who I am right, I'm very high-ranking I- "

"I know who you are sir, but I need a number."

"Why? Why do you need a number if you know who I am?" Kakashi's voice became flushed with previously unknown panic, flashing glances back to his students.

"Because we need identification."

"My face? Is my face not identification enough for you?!"

"Sir, please stop making a fuss, the lines building up behind- "

"I'M- "Kakashi cleared his throat, realizing the presence of people lined up after him. "-not making a fuss. I just, quite frankly, think it's a bit silly that you have an apparent ANBU level lockdown on a map and you're standing here, giving me shit -"

"Sir, are you going to give me your registration number or not?"

Kakashi blankly starred at her for a bit, before sharply turning on his heel and waving the counterwoman off like she was nothing.

"It's fine, I know the way."

All of Team Seven as well as Tazuna let out a debilitating sigh at the show of absolute pointlessness they'd just witnessed. As Kakashi passed them, Sakura felt her inner-self echo with superiority.

Man, how'd he ever get to be a jonin? His memory skill must be AWFUL.

Brittle earth cracked under Narutos feet as the boy joyously walked forwards, kicking up dust behind him. They'd been walking for around an hour, and despite Kakashi's argument with the hall of records putting a slight dampener on things, the ecstatic feeling of being real ninja hadn't quite faded yet.

"Naruto, keep back." Kakashis voice crackled as said boy started to get too far ahead of the group

"Ah, why?!" Naruto complained, reluctantly slowing down his pace as they passed through the emerald hillsides.

"We're here to protect Tazuna from bandits, if you're not careful, they'll kill you instead."

Naruto may have "humphed" but his wide steps became noticeably slower and softer, kicking up small rocks instead of any dirt. His pace noticeably slowed, orange figure slouching backwards to meet Sakuras pink one.

"Hey, Sakura, you want to play I spy?" He said, eyes slanting sideways to the girl, who gladly took the opportunity to play a game over her current activity which had been picking her nails and adjusting her hair.

"Sure." She responded, expression perking up. This acknowledgment of endearment instantly lifted Narutos mood to his usual sunny self, breaking out into a toothy grin.

"Alright! I spy with my little eye, something beginning with S!" He exclaimed with a tone that was way too loud for a game of I spy.

Sakura's eyes darted upwards with a surprising amount of enthusiasm, as she almost immediately guessed "sky"

"Nope."

"Uh…" Her gaze drifted to the polar opposite of her initial answer, watching as small bits of orange dirt cracked under Tazuma's shoes.

"Sandals?"

Naruto stayed silent, eyes slightly widening into the abyss as an unbecoming reaction of shock adorned his features. This sudden reaction perplexed Sakura enough that she stayed silent in confusion, until Naruto suddenly turned to her with a goofy half-smile.

"What…what are those?" He asked, tone implying that he was one-hundred percent serious, the second-hand feeling of stupidity causing Sakura to completely pause. Seconds ticked down before she snapped back to the present, looking at Naruto with what could only be described as bafflement.

"…these." She motioned down to her feet, the Uzumakis eyes vibrating with surprise as he realized he'd not known the name of a piece of clothing he himself had been wearing for longer than he could remember.

"…I knew that, I was just testing you." Naruto sputtered, obviously lying.

"This is pitiful." Kakashi decided he would intrude on their game, shooting both genin a look of exasperation, the glance being all that was needed to fire Naruto back up again.

"Hey, if it's so pitiful, why don't you do better?!"

"I can, you're looking at the number five world ranked I Spy champion." The jonin said back, his lazy inflection being invaded with an undercurrent of proudness. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with T"

Both Naruto and Sakuras brains kicked into overdrive to try and decipher what the word could be. T…t….t…

T…T…T…T

The sun was going down, shining through the forest covered treetops that had become a staple of the path. The letter ran through Narutos head, quickly becoming the only thing he could think about. Sakura had long given up, but Naruto's sheer determination had left the game at a stagnant, T-shaped halt.

"It's turf Naruto." Kakashi finally said, not taking his eyes up from the treetops.

"Ah! So close!" The boy said back, having been stumped by the question for literal hours.

The small patch of forest they were in was exceedingly dangerous considering the circumstances and it itself had taken them around thirty minutes to traverse, one of the four ninjas having to scale the tree tops and look out for any potential signs of an ambush.

"It's clear." Sasukes voice came echoing down from the forest floor, his actual body trailing just seconds later, launching a patch of pine-scented leaves up in the air as he landed.

This announcement prompted Tazuna to let out a groan as he pushed himself up from the tree he'd been resting against, metal flask stirring with the sound of liquid.

"Hey, old man, I'm thirsty, can I have some?" Naruto asked, eyes fixated on the amber-lit flagon. "I promise I won't use my mouth!"

Tazuna grumbled something incoherent in response looking back at the genin with annoyed eyes. "How old are you?"

"13."

"Maybe it five years' time, kid." He replied, taking another bitter-scented swig from the flask before turning his attention to the journey in front of him.

Leaves began to crunch once again under the sound of five (more accurately three because Kakashi and Sasuke were essentially silent) pairs of feet walking through the forest.

Any light in the sky had well and truly faded, the collage of clouds being replaced by a horizon of stars beaming down on the group. They'd reached a clearing around twenty minutes ago, and had promptly set up camp, creating a circle of sleeping bags around a small, barley lit fire.

Conversation had lulled since Naruto had started eating, the boy too busy with stuffing his face with the instant ramen that he'd left the other four completely silent. At first, all had appreciated a welcome lack of Naruto's babbling, but soon realized that sitting down near a fireplace (when only Naruto and Sakura were actually eating anything) was basically pointless.

Sakura felt an unusual shiver run down her spine as she looked up from her ramen. She could tell from his posture that Sasuke was feeling it too.

"Cold huh?" She said, lamely smiling as she sat up on her sleeping bag.

"Not really." Tazuna basically barked back, cheeks noticeably tinged red as he took another gulp from his flask.

"We're nearing the land of waves, which means we're that much closer to water country. It makes sense that it's cold." Kakashi looked up at her with surprising interest.

"Is the land of waves in Konoha or…" She took a pause, letting Kakashi fill in the blanks.

"The land of waves is technically dead area, after a spat between the leaf and the mist broke into what was essentially civil-war."

Sakura shuffled, encouraging the man to continue as she watched with great interest.

"After the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, died under mysterious circumstances, the Third Mizukage Seiya Samina retook his position and claimed that the fourths death was a leaf conspiracy plot." Kakashi's eye glinted with what Sakura thought was uncharacteristic interest. "The land of waves had been leaf territory up to that point, but Samina quickly claimed the area in name of the mist, which of course, lead to a long, drawn out period of "almost war". If it wasn't for his death, and succession by Mei Terumi, it's entirely possible that the situation would've escalated to a fully-fledged third shinobi world war."

By the time he'd finished his ramble, Kakashi realized he'd completely lost track of where he was, simply talking over silence. Even Naruto's slurping had stopped, the boy staring back at Kakashi with atypical attention.

"Who killed the fourth?" Sasuke suddenly asked, his usually understated voice dripping with interest.

"It's still not known. To delve any further would be getting into conspiracies…" Kakashi attempted in vain to make it sound like he was not interested, the man realizing this himself as he quickly transitioned the conversation back on track. "What really matters is that the leaf and the mist agreed that the land of waves would be considered "no man's land" and it grew to become very self-sustaining, isn't that right Tazuna?"

The old man looked up from his flask and snorted in laughter, before taking yet another swig. Kakashis eye grew in slight questioning, only for Naruto to suck any attention away.

"That's pretty cool Kakashi-Sensei! How do you know all this stuff anyways?"

"Well, a lot of it was from school, but also my own study- "He paused as Narutos face shriveled up into a pout.

"That's not fair! We never learned any cool things in our history classes." The Uzumaki boy whined, crossing his arms in frustration.

"This is…basic stuff. If you weren't learning this than what were you learning?"

Naruto scratched his head in thought, mind moving backwards throughout the entire tenure of his school life.

"…We learnt about the lady who ate the fruit." He finally said, unimpressed that that was the only thing he could pull up. "Kagura…Otsosuni?"

"Kaguya Otsutsuki." Sakura corrected him; her alteration being accompanied by a small "tisk" of agreement from Sasuke.

"Didn't she, like, invent chakra?" Naruto asked, scratching through his hair.

"She was the first to popularize the use of it due to the high social status of the Otsutsuki family, but she did not invent it. The story of the "chakra fruit" is generally agreed to be an urban legend, especially since any illustrations of the "god tree" take obvious inspiration from the fire countries "tree of remembrance", which was grown when Kaguya was long dead."

All of the genin looked at him with even greater inquisitiveness than before, as Kakashi displayed an excitement and intrigue that was unbecoming of their perception of him.

"Have you guys learnt about The Sage of The Six Paths yet?" He asked.

"The Sage of The Six huh?" Naruto replied, giving Kakashi all the answer he needed.

"Oh boy, you have a lot to learn. There's a great stage play about this called the Creation of Chakra. Maybe after this mission is over, we can go see it…that is, if you make it out of this alive." Kakshis tone gave way to his usual black comedy, although all three of his students had been so surprised by his enthusiasm that the joke failed to have its usual edge.

Silence resumed, mixing with the naturally cold air and the warmth of the fire. The winds were louder than they were in Konoha, as leaves became detached from branches, swirling up into the dark nights sky.

"Kakashi-sensei…were you a leaf youth?" Sakura finally asked, much to the older mans surprise.

"…Yes, I was."

"Hold on, what's a leaf youth?" Naruto asked, rather frustrated at the appearance of another term he didn't recognize.

"It's like a Konoha patriots' group. My dad was one." Sakura explained, eyes strangely lonely as she spoke.

"The program was cut a month after I joined because of a lack of resources, but it did get me into Konoha politics. Believe it or not, I wanted to become a historian when I was younger." Kakashi laughed as he spoke, rubbing a hand against the back of his head.

"Why didn't you?" Sasukes dusky tone sucked any humor out of the air. The question caused Kakashi's expression to switch from humorous to puzzled, the jonin appearing completely lost in thought. Eventually, he regained his senses, leaning back slightly and closing his eye.

"Well…" His vision began to become shiny, as a wave of reminiscence washed over him.

"Kakashi, wait up!" A child-like voice boomed out, accompanied by a young boys' footsteps.

"Yeah, come on Kakashi, we're not all chunin like you!" A girl's voice followed, more joking than the former.

"…I felt like I had to." Kakashi finished, inviting vision back into his life as he opened his eye. The students would be lying if they said they hadn't spent at least a bit of time trying to figure out what he meant.

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!" Tazuna's loud, almost-choking snores began to ring out throughout the forest depths, snapping all of Team 7 outside their fireside chat.

"Well, maybe it's time to dim the lights." Kakashi said, with a slight yawn. "We've got a long day ahead tomorrow."

He raised a hand to the fire, and much like a neat party trick, simply extinguished it. The sound of four bodies clumping against their bedrolls was heard, quickly accompanied by the sound of one of them scrambling to get into a more comfortable position.

This action implied Naruto was annoyed, but more accurately, he was…warm…warm was the only thing that conveyed what he was feeling. Coiling the covers around himself like a tortilla, Naruto curled up into a ball, smile prominent as he drifted into slumber.

Maybe…this is what a family feels like.

Naruto awoke to the sound of chirping birds and the sensation of thick, cold air. His head was surprisingly clear considering what happened when he usually went to sleep. The fact that he hadn't had the "eye dream" alone was a victory in his mind.

Drowsily, he sat up and took in his surroundings. The sky was a strange mixture of blue, grey and white, the actual color of it being unmistakably bright, but it still looked…dark.

One of the sleeping bags was empty, prompting his eyes to go through a quick roll call of who was still asleep. Sakura, Kakashi and Tazuna were all still at least half-asleep, so that left…

Sasuke, similarly to when they departed, had seated himself on a tree branch, gaze fixated on the gradient-painted sky. Despite being no more than five meters away from Naruto, Sasuke looked a thousand years away. He was on a different level.

Naturally, Naruto picked up a pine cone and chucked it at him.

Sharp wood spattered in the air, as the back of the Uchihas hand connected with the thrown projectile.

"Hey Mr "I'm too cool to sleep", go back to bed!" Naruto shouted, apparently angry at the fact that Sasuke was an early riser. "How long ago did you get up anyway?"

For some reason, Sasuke took it upon himself to answer this. "20 minutes ago. I heard rustling in the bushes."

"Ha! It's probably a deer or a cat or something. 'Sides, you can't have been that sleepy if that woke you up."

"I'm not a big sleeper."

"I can tell, since you're getting woken up by a cat!"

This shouting match was cut short by the audible sound of leaves crinkling in the forest depths. Sasuke's eyes widened, maybe by a bit too much, as his visible discomfort caused Naruto's laughter to increase.

"Are you serious dude?! MEOOOOW!" The blonde lightly kicked at the bushes while he jeered, smile breaking through the cool morning air. Sasuke found no such humor in the situation, eyes laser focused on the forest depths.

"...Sasuke, quit being a baby!" Narutos previously comedic tone became slightly shaken at his rival's concentration. "It's just a ca- "

Leaves were torn as a sharp light glinted through the forest, its tip sharply reflecting against Narutos now enlarged eye. Through the forest-coated abyss shoot a sharp, metallic rope, the edge of which looked like a brutally razor-finned kunai.

Naruto wanted to move, to jump out of the way but an odd jam of memories caused him to freeze up…

The sound of the steel cutting through wind zipped through the air, as Naruto braced in terror for the cut.

His body did one thing, but his brain told him another…

Move.

Move.

Move.

"MOVE!" Sasuke's shattered through his thoughts like a sharp spear, as the Uchiha leapt from the tree-branch and grabbed onto Naruto in the air, dragging his teammate out of the deadly ropes path.

Naruto only fully snapped back to reality when he felt his head hit the ground, Sasuke not being able to nail his landing with the addition of hanging onto him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Sasuke yelled, obviously not expecting a response as he sharply stood back onto his feet to face the attacker, only to find out that the last word should've been pluralized.

Two masked faces leered back at him, beady eyes pointing out of the top of their jet-black rebreather while horns protruded from their forehead protectors.

"Sorry brother, I missed." One of them said, before he cut through the forest residue that was in front of him, revealing the razor-rope he threw was now spiraled around a sharp metal claw resting on his left arm.

"No matter…these two aren't important anyway." The other replied, a matching claw glinting on his right arm.

Sasukes senses began to simultaneously heighten and numb as he tried to formulate a plan of attack that didn't end with him being turned into shredded cheese. His eyes darted around the area, calculatedly picking out every battle variable he could spot.

"…Eck! What the hell?" Sakura's newly-awoken voice added yet another one onto the copious amount of them Sasuke had been able to spot.

"Sakura, stay back!" He yelled, only to realize the girl had become frozen in fear. He saw a glint in the right brother's eye, and immediately realized what he needed to do. Running towards her, he attempted to beat the chains path, hand's folding into signs.

The kunais razor-edges sliced through the water-vapor laced air, looking almost dull due to the lack of light.

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke yelled, feeling his mouth become alight as he let loose a massive sphere of fire in the brother's direction, the attack big enough to engulf both of them if they hadn't moved.

Unfortunately, they were fast and while the Uchiha had succeeded in keeping Sakura alive, one of them had set his sight on a defenseless, frozen Naruto, while the other leapt towards a sleeping Tazuna.

"Sakura, go after the old man!" Sasuke yelled, gaze focused on the attacker who was getting closer to Naruto.

"Uh, okay…" She replied, half-heartedly beginning to run up to the fireplace. In the meanwhile, Sasuke launched himself off the ground, hoping to stop the brother with the left gauntlet. He watched Naruto cower under the man, seemingly content with staying put and dying.

Sasuke wasn't even watching his technique, prioritizing travel speed over anything, as he watched the rebreather-wearing man hold the glove up to the air, eyes practically bleeding with willingness to kill the boy bellow him.

The Raven-haired boy raised a leg up, hoping to kick through the enemies' head, only for the sole of his foot to connect with the metal of the claw.

Sasukes eyes expanded in fear as the man's own met his. He'd had to act so fast he hadn't been prepared for a situation in which his kick didn't land perfectly, which was what he was facing right now. His foe began to let out cold breaths as he lightly pushed Sasuke through the air, before straightening his elbow in preparation to spike him with the blades of his claw.

Despite not even lasting a second, Sasukes time in the air felt like an hour.

"AAAAAAAAH!" A scream was heard as metal dug into flesh.

Sasuke felt his back hit the dirt softly. It took a couple of seconds for him to realize that there were no cuts or slashes adorning his body, and he was still in relatively one peace. Sharply, sitting up, his ears were greeted by the audible war cry as well as the smell of blood.

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" The older enemy screamed, eyes clutching closed as his body almost fell limp.

SLINKT!

SLINKT!

SLINKT

Sasuke felt his stomach drop as he saw a clearly scarred-out-of-his-mind Naruto jackhammering a kunai knife into the man's leg, "fight or flight" clearly kicking in. Though, despite the wounds, the man still mustered up the energy to quickly unleash a backhand to Naruto, sending him flying across the ground.

Letting out a small sigh of relief as the pain in his leg began to null, he turned his attention back to Sasuke, far too late in doing so as the Uchihas foot came cracking into his jaw, any light or consciousness fading from the man in an instant.

He hit the ground with a loud THUMP, Sasuke wasting no time before he yanked the gauntlet off the man's hand before he kicked it to the side, so even if the opponent was to wake up, he'd be completely unarmed. He wasn't even given a chance to rest for a second, however, before a series of shrieks erupted from the fireside.

Sakura emptied out her pockets, much to what could easily be described as either amusement or embarrassment from the other brother, who effortlessly dodged her sloppily thrown shuriken, kunai and explosive tags.

Finally, she retrieved one last smoke ball and threw it, somewhat successfully, as a building of steam began to cover the area. Now that he was even somewhat taken off his guard, the man's body seized up with concentrat-

BAM!

He felt at least a few bones in his face crack as an arm shot outwards through the mirage, connecting flush with his cheek and sending him to the floor outside the smoke ball's radius. His eyes darted upwards, only to observe a boot descending into his face before any vision he had left was blurred as he was flipped onto his stomach and his arms were pinned behind his back.

"The twin demon brothers…that one's Gozu." Kakashi's monotone voice sent shivers down the man's spine. "So, you must be Meizu."

All three genin had made their way back to the area at this point, fear slowly being converted to newfound curiosity.

"You've got it." Meizu groaned, even the movement of his mouth to talk sending a sensation of pain through his face. With this confirmation, Kakashi focus briefly departed towards his students and the body of the enemy that had just been taken down.

"Yikes, someone did a number on his leg. Much longer and that's going to be an amputation. Can any of you apply bandages?"

"I-I can." Sakura pointlessly raised her hand, voice still shaky from the events that had transpired. This shakiness almost caused her to drop the roll of dressings that Kakashi threw her way.

Taking a short time to observe her technique from afar, Kakashi quickly returned his attention to the man underneath him, not even paying mind to Tazunas lazy awakening yawns (which were followed by awakening cries of confusion)

"Hey! What the hell is this about?!" He yelled, somehow not having been awakened by anything in the last 5 minutes.

"I'm asking the same question Tazuna, because these two don't look like they're from any bandit group I remember operating in the waves." Kakashi answered, tone infected with an underlying tone of suspicion.

The old man's name caused Meizu to desperately start shaking his head under Kakashis palm.

"Tazuna?! Tazuna the bridge builder?!" He shouted; voice almost squeaky with emotion. "Oh, you're a fucking dead man. Gatos gonna fucking kill you!"

"Gato?" Kakashi's eye was now firmly locked onto a now guilty-looking Tazuna instead of the enemy below him.

"Yeah, Gato. The man who rules the wave with an iron fist! He hired us to take out that conman over there. We weren't told that there was a fuckin' high level jonin protecting him."

"How much was offered?" That same jonin asked, much to Tazunas protest.

"I don't have to tell you a goddamn thing!" Meizu yelled back, somehow beginning to feel like he had any power in the situation.

The slamming of his face into the ground shattered both this notion and his rebreather, pieces of plastic now scattered across the dirt.

"I think you do."

"Okay, okay!" It didn't take much for Meizu to give in. "Gato offered us 3.6 million ryo each if we brought him back to the wave dead and 4 million if we brought him back alive."

"Wow, sounds like you're a hot ticket item Tazuna." Kakashi sarcastically joked, humor being watered down with the legitimate anger present in his voice. Taking a second to once again smash Meizus head against the floor (this time knocking him out), Kakashi sat upwards with a glare in his eye.

"I'll give you five minutes to explain."

"Yeah, what the hell's this about old man?!" Naruto yelled, looking like he'd fully recovered from nearly being killed, his accusing tone only being backed up by similar looks from Sasuke and a now returned Sakura

Tazuna sighed, realizing there was no way around this. "I'm a bridge builder from the land of waves. Recently, I started work on a project that would connect the wave to other developed trading villages…Konoha, Suna, Iwagakure and all that. Gato didn't like it and tried to have me killed. This was the only way I could have a chance of getting it built."

If anyone had been looking closer, they would've seen Kaashis harsh gaze defuse somewhat. "…Tell me more about Gato."

"He's a fuckin tyrant!" Tazuna finally yelled, voice gravelly with both his natural vocals and a distinct scent of alcohol. "He charged in off the back of the Leaf/Mist dispute and practically took the place over with his mob. Now he's syphoning away our money and our work, outsourcing it and raking in the profits while he uses the towns as a glorified drug ring!"

His outburst left Kakashi silent, although not at all shaken, the jonin finally turning around to face the trio of students behind him.

"Give us a minute…"

He began to walk away, the three genin following him quickly as Tazuna was left to sulk by himself.

Assuming a huddled position, Kakashi crouched down to face-level with children, vision fixed as blankly as ever.

"Well Kakashi-sensei, what are we going to do?" Sakura asked quietly.

"That's up to you to decide between yourselves. I won't hold it against you if you decide to abandon the mission."

Sasuke breathed a small sigh of relief, looking at his teacher with reassured eyes.

"Let's leave it, this is way out of our ballpa- "

"Hell no! We can't just leave the old man to die out here!" Narutos admittedly annoying shouting irritated Sasuke more than usual.

"I think we can Naruto, considering the two of you nearly died just five minutes ago."

"Hey, I saved your ass just before, don't you forget it!"

"In the slimmest sense of the word. I wouldn't have been put in the put in that situation if you could just muster up the courage to move." Sasuke kicked his usual chilly language up to freezing. "And you, Sakura? What were you doing?"

Sakuras eyes fell downcast.

"Hey, lay off!" Narutos hand aggressively pushed down against Sasukes chest, shoving his rival slightly.

"Woah, settle down." Kakashi said, almost half-heartedly.

"No, I'm not going to "lay off"." Sasuke said back, completely ignoring the older man to his side. "The path of the Uchiha is built on individuality and personal achievement, I retain any of that when I'm stuck with two dead weights."

"Say that again and I'll kick your ass!" The blonde yelled back, not exactly helping his case.

"I'll say it as many times as I want because you've made it abundantly clear you're all talk. All the times you scream about becoming the Hokage and you couldn't even get out of the way of an attack." Sasuke's tone became lethally venomous as opposed to him and Naruto's usual lax insult wars, something Kakashi took notice of.

"Calm down, both of you. Vote on what you want to do and we'll leave it at that."

"I want to take the old guy to the bridge and I want to help him build it!" Naruto yelled; eyes firmly fixated on the Uchiha.

"I want to abandon the mission and take Tazuna back with us if we have to."

Three pairs of eyes feel on one pair of teal ones.

"…Sakura?" Kakashi finally asked.

The girl felt her throat clutch in nervousness. She didn't know what to do, her inner-thoughts only further echoing this feeling.

Oh, come on! It's just like he said, you're basically useless. There's no point in continuing, you'll end up dead. And then wouldn't mum be sad?! Think of that!

"I want to help him build the bridge."

The reactions were split, as Naruto's angered frown ballooned into a smile, while Sasuke's eyes began to simmer with anger.

"Unbelievable." He said, gritting his teeth to prevent himself from yelling. This time he froze, having what was presumably a mental freak out in his mind, before, with slightly jagged breaths, he looked up at his squad mates with pure distain. "Sakura, you've just booked us a four-person ticket for a suicide mission."

"You heard what he said Sasuke, the village is in disarray! If we could just- "Sakura started in unexpected flaring defiance only for it to be snuffed out just as fast as it arrived.

"If we could just what? Are you seriously suggesting we take part in a regime change? It's none of our business what goes on in the wave."

"Come on asshole, have some empathy!" Naruto yelled; fist thrown out in front of him, his own fire being contrasted by Sasuke's own rapidly dwindling one.

"I've spent too much of my time arguing with you. You're useless." He pointed at Sakura, almost feeling guilty as visible sadness pointed on her face.

"And you're an idiot…" His finger shifted to Naruto, although the insult was completely numbed via how many times the blonde had heard it. With that, Sasuke sharply turned on his heel and began to walk away "…And next time you're in a fight, try not to freeze up, because I'm not saving you again."

The words had a visible effect on Naruto, the boy letting out a frustrated growl in response, hands clenching as he tried desperately to think of something that would counter what his rival had said.

"…Hey, asshole!" He finally shouted, managing to at least get Sasuke to stop moving and turn his head backwards, sight fixated boredly on Naruto.

"What?"

The Uzumaki quickly grabbed a kunai from his belt, holding his hand up straight before he dragged the knife across his palm, leaving a deep line of blood pouring down like a low-pressure waterfall

Sasuke looked somewhat ill, Sakura looked about ready to puke. Even Kakashis eye slightly widened at the sight.

"I swear on my blood I'm not freezing up again! And not only that, I'm gonna' help the old man build his bridge and I'm gonna become Hokage! Dattebayo!"

Despite this display being absolutely stupid on paper, Sasuke was left completely speechless, quickly turning back around and walking away, murmuring "that's not even a real word."

"…Sakura, bandage that up please." Kakashi finally uttered, receiving a nod from the girl in response. With that taken care off, he began to walk towards the bed rolls, preparing to pack for the long day ahead.

"So I take it you'll be continuing to escort me?" Tazuna said, as the jonin began to tuck his bedding up.

"Yep."

"God, thank you so much. I don't know what I would've done if…" The older man began to offer his thanks, but they were swiftly rejected as Kakashi began to tie up the rest of his bed roll.

"I'd wouldn't recommend discarding that question so soon." Tossing the rolled-up mattress up onto his back, he turned to face Tazuna. "If any of my students are again put in danger like they were today, you're on your own."

Kakashi received no response and began to walk away, leaving the bridge builder to his own devices, which was the place he may have wanted to be the least right now. Tazuna knew he was doing the right thing for his nation but it felt…dirty.

It was situations like this that made you want to hit the bottle.

Any travelling that proceeded from here began to feel like a blur. Dampened fields, frigid riversides and small, dried out patches of forest all held little whimsey over the group, morale being at a complete low.

Sasuke walked out in-front of the group, not switching his instincts off for even a second. In fact, none of them did, except maybe Kakashi.

The sun began to set as they made their way through an enclosed area that connected to a small stream, any orange light from the sunset being completely washed out by the dark, rain filled clouds. They all went to bed quickly, as opposed to the chatter and conversation of the previous night.

A shower of droplets rained down upon them, making it hard to get any sleep. This wasn't an issue as much as those same droplets constantly hitting the nearby forest leaves, creating rustling sounds. The genin were kept up all night, eyes darting open at even the smallest whisper of the forest.

Then they hit what Naruto sometimes called "the 4AM breaking point". It was where you gave up any hope of falling asleep, and turned into a comatose slug on the mattress, lying there in wait for the time where it would be acceptable to get up.

That time came around two hours later, when Kakashi awoke, yawning loudly, which sent a sigh of relief jolting through the rest of Team 7, all of them collectively sitting up.

"Wow, you guys didn't get much sleep, did you?"

He was met with three nodding heads.

"Well, maybe you should've. We've got at least another day or two before we reach the land of waves." The older man began to crouch, retrieving a book from his back pocket and cracking the cover open, noticeably keeping it low down.

"Hey…what cha' reading Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, having observed his teacher's intention lowering of the book cover. The question yielded a slight pause.

"…It's an adult book." Kakashi finally said, seemingly more on edge than he was when he fought the demon brothers.

"Cool, like where people kill each other?"

"You could say that."

This interaction left his instincts so shot, that he didn't even notice Sakura's hand making a stealthy grab onto the spine of his book, ripping it out of his grasp. The older man let out a groan of embarrassment, as the girl's eyes scanned the page, finally reading out:

"…Icha Icha: Make Out Tactics."

The announcement of the title caused any and all noise to be vacuum-style sucked out of the area, silence befalling the early morning atmosphere. That is until Naruto realized what had been said.

"Pffttt…hahahahaha!" He started to laugh loudly, Sakuras much quieter giggles forming a perfect harmony of Kakashi's embarrassment, as the jonin clutched his face in his hands.

The team spirit began to pick up a little more after that, and by the time they had departed from the temporary campsite, Naruto and Sakura were already back to playing I spy, as the group lurched through the waterlogged forest depths, eventually emerging into a clearing.

"I Spy with my little eye, something beginning with P!"

"Puddles." Sakura guessed immediately.

"Yep."

It had been pretty obvious what it was due to the eye-catching nature of the biome they'd found themselves in. The rocky foundation of the area looked almost stamped in, as messy broken holes of stone ornamented the ground, each one having been filled up with residual rain water.

Naruto laughed to himself, as he childishly stomped in one of the puddles, sending small bits of water flying up into the air.

"I wonder what caused these." Sakura observed the miniature ponds with trivial interest.

"Probably the water countries natural lowering of…" Kakashi began to speak but something caught his eye. A thin layer of mist began to emanate from the surrounding forest, barley visible but relaying an aery sign of danger to the older man. Usually he'd ignore it, but considering their situation, and just who this could be, Kakashi was taking no chances.

"…Everyone stay still."

His lazy character became scarily serious as he wasted no time in brandishing a kunai. Sakura and Sasuke also immediately snapped to attention, something Naruto desperately wanted to replicate, but instead, he felt himself freeze up.

His lungs became heavy, and not just because of the mist that was covering more and more of the surrounding area by the second. He couldn't move. It was like he'd died or something, his limbs just wouldn't respond. Suddenly, a jolt of pain shot through his hand as he clutched down on his palms, left one feeling bandage.

"I swear on my blood I'm not freezing up again!"

The echo of his own words was enough to jolt him back to the situation at hand, lips curling into a half smile as he put his guard up.

"What the hell?!" Tazuna yelled, his glasses fogging up from the haze in the air. "What's going on."

Kakashi didn't waste time answering his question, instead simply holding up the back of his hand, index finger raised. Any unnecessary noise subsidized, the only things he could hear through the ever-growing smoke screen was the faint chirping of the birds in the distance.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing

SLING!

The smoke dispersed somewhat, as a hulking sword came crashing down against Kakashi, sparks flying off it as the jonin managed to block the attack with the kunai, getting pushed backwards in the process.

A fist flew outwards through the mist, only for Kakashi to dodge pass it, leaping up into the air to avoid a sword slash to the legs. The sound of metal being pressed reverberated through the mist, as Kakashis feet came pushing down against the sword, attempting to keep the weapon against the ground

Almost immediately upon contact with the sword however, Kakashi realized that it was far too large to keep pinned down, which was confirmed as the sword easily lifted off the rocky terrain with enough brute force to send Kakashi flying through the air, distortions rippling through the smokescreen.

His body hit the ground hard enough to leave small cracks in the stone, but if it had any effect on him, it was not visible, as the masked man began to immediately throw out hand signs, before uttering a chant of:

"Wind release: flowing wind spiral!"

A small sphere of condensed air appeared in Kakashis hands, quickly being thrown away like a baseball, upon which it imploded on itself, sending visible currents through the mist and blowing enough of it away to reveal Kakashis attacker, as well as give the rest of Team 7 a visual of what was going on.

In the open, stood a man with bandages thrown around his mouth and shoulders. His forehead protector was flung sideways over his head, as the paths of bindings trailed downwards to his black sleeveless shirt.

"Zabuza Momochi, demon of the mist." Kakashi finally said, voice not frightened, but gravely serious. "A missing nin worth 14.8 million ryo."

"Nice intro." Zabuza's voice lacked the same gravitas, posture slouched as his voice echoed with minor comedy. "Allow me to return the favor. You're Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja, but in terms of cash, he's the one I'm looking for."

He pointed a finger tip at Tazuna, all of his hand (sans the fingers) encompassed by a short black and white camo glove.

"Offers gone up on his head. He's worth enough to pay off that bounty you mentioned."

"Or enough to attempt to overthrow Kirigakure." Kakashi replied, not buying the excuse he had been presented.

"Smart." The missing-nin replied, tilting his head slightly. He was silent for a few seconds, sharp, cruel eyes borrowing into Kakashis smooth, calculating ones, before he finally stood up straight. "Say, it's hard to read your face behind that mask."

"That's kind of the point."

Although they were locked into a battle situation with a presumably deadly shinobi, the fact that Kakashi still retained some humor was at least a bit reassuring to the genin in attendance.

Zabuza shrugged, before fully brandishing his sword upwards and pointing it at his foe.

"Are we gonna stand her talking all day or are we going to fight?"

"…Could we stand here talking all day?"

Chuckling somewhat in response, Zabuza did not miss the true meaning of his foes words as he broke out into a sprint at Kakashi, sword glimmering demonically as the other ninja stayed in a defensive stance.

Closer and closer the attacker got, before Zabuza figured the distance was close enough to justify a sword attack. The silver weapon raised up, circular holes cutting through the left-over mist that radiated through the air.

Kakashis eye stayed locked on it as it drew nearer and nearer…

SLING!