Puppeteers.

One who uses Chakra Threads in order to control a puppet to fight for them, require great control and concentration as well as spatial awareness. Taijutsu has always been a well-known weakness of their kind and Sabako was no exception. There were quite a few who have come up with methods of bypassing this weakness such as the use of puppet armor. She preferred to simply make sure to not allow the enemy to get close to her in the first place.

Something that was vexingly hard to do when she could barely see her own hands in front of her face and had a sleeping child to watch out for within her main tool of both offense and defense. She had also had to give up a few of her ranged options in order to make space for Julia.

Not that she could complain much considering if it wasn't for the said little girl she'd already be sleeping with the fishes. She was really regretting spending so much on her Buru-chan now and not bringing a secondary puppet. Specialization was well and good when she was on her home turf and with friends, allowing her to maximize her time to power pay off, but she now found it biting her in the ass in this unexpected situation.

The mist today was more than the previous two combined, but she comforted herself with the thoughts of how she only needed to last a couple more hours. Even wounded as she was she could take on a few chumps no problem, a puppet master didn't need to move much anyway so her combat abilities wasn't truly affected much.

And just like that, her notions of a false sense of security was utterly shattered as shouts of pain and agony echoed around her. Her heart raced and she barely managed to cover her mouth in time to prevent screaming in surprise. They couldn't stay here. She carefully suppressed her presence and turned around to run away from the source. It was too late.

The mist had considerably thickened without her notice, everywhere she turned was an almost solid wall of white.

"Come out and fight me if you have the balls!" She didn't think they actually would, but it might give her some much-needed info on her opponent. Was there just one? Were they female or male? If they'd just speak up maybe she could pinpoint their location.

No such luck, it was only the barely noticeable shifting of the mist that allowed her to duck in time to avoid being decapitated, as a giant cleaver of a sword spun like a metal Frisby of death. The blade dug deep into the earth as if it was made of tofu. Standing on top of the handle that stuck out proudly like the legendary Sword in the Stone was a young boy with short choppy black hair, bandages covered his neck and the bottom half of his face. His sleeveless tanktop revealed chiseled arms and his legs were covered in gray camouflage pants.

He stared at her and she felt something quivering inside underneath the weight of those dead brown eyes.

His headband denoted him as a Hidden Mist Shinobi and judging by how she couldn't even feel his presence even while he stood mere feet away from her she knew he was trouble. The fog that was momentarily blown away from the force of the sword soon crawled back, hiding the ninja back within its white embrace.

Sabako's hair stood up in the back of her neck. He was like a ghost and she couldn't afford to make a careless move.

Even as she tensed up and mentally prepared herself, eyes darting wildly, she didn't notice anything. There was no new smell or sounds, in fact, everything was eerily silent. Enough so that for a moment she wondered if she had hallucinated the entire encounter.

The boy soon put her worries to rest as something tried to slice her in half at the waist. It was all so sudden that she didn't even have enough to time react, much less block. Thankfully the hidden armor beneath her shirt proved enough to save her from outright dying and she only got a severe bruise and a possibly fractured rib. Instantly filing away the location the blow had came from she got on Buru and made haste in the other direction.

She was outmatched and they both knew it, so she had to get the fuck out of dodge.

Her eyes widened as that same boy somehow reappeared in front of her, his large sword that was taller than the average man in mid-swing. Her shock soon turned into a wicked grin as she made Buru increase his pace with its head down and horns aimed directed towards the one stupid enough to jump in front of a rampaging bull.

She had full confidence her Buru-kun could outmatch any shitty sword. That thing might be enough to overcompensate for something else, but strength clearly wasn't one of them in front of her beloved puppet's momentum.

And just as expected! The sword quickly shattered and the boy was crushed beneath Buru's hoofs, exploding into a splatter of blood. She grimaced slightly as it got onto her hair and face and wiped it off with the back of her hands. She sure hopes it wouldn't stain. Getting red... out.. It wasn't blood but instead water that drenched her sleeve.

"Oh shit... Oh fuck."

She didn't have time to do anything as a haunting echo was heard throughout the clearing. The voice was soft but clear as if he was standing right next to her and whispering in her ears.

"Water Prison Jutsu"

The water from the clone quickly wrapped around her and Buru, the surrounding mist quickly drained away to reinforce and condense the large sphere of water surrounding them both. The boy stepped out from behind her with his arm extended towards the Jutsu with his sword slung lazily across his broad shoulders. It felt like her body was being crushed underneath a pile of rocks rather than water and even moving her fingers took considerable efforts. Still, she persisted and attempted to activate the hidden weapons she had installed into Buru to no avail. It seems the sudden water pressure was interfering with its mechanisms. God damn, if she made it out of this then she was giving old man Teku an earful after this. All-terrain her nicely tanned and round ass!

She choked slightly as she remembered about the sleeping girl she had sleeping inside there. It was lightly that if the weapon system wasn't functioning then the latch might not either. Crap. So much for taking it easy and leaving it up to her, the girl is now going to die because of Sabako's stupidity and failure.

No. At the very least she'd let Julia live.

Time was ticking before they both suffocated to death, so Sabako quickly enhanced her body with as much Chakra as she could and reached for her thigh pouch. Of course, as quickly as she could in this instance meant at a snail's pace but she only needed a couple of inches. After a small eternity, she managed to reach her goal and pulled out a couple of paper bombs. A positive aspect of the dense mist and water prison was that it made it hard to see what the girl was doing. She crumpled the papers in her hand to hide the glow.

A shit-eating grin was plastered on her face as she braced herself for impact.

Zabuza never knew what hit him as suddenly an enormous explosion slammed into his frame and sent time crashing into and through every damn tree in his path. The Suna nin quickly resealed her puppet and performed CPR on the little girl. Unlike Sabako the girl was soundly sleeping during the battle and had ended up swallowing water in her surprise.

Thankfully you didn't need both arms to do chest compression or else they were both screwed.

"W-wah? Sabako? What the- What the fuck happened?"

"Heh, well good morning there, Sleeping Beauty. Sorry, it seems like I won't be able to keep my promise. I'm really tired right now so I think I'll take a nap myself. Lets... get ice cream... later, ok..?"

Her words were slurred as her vision blurred. She was out like a light before she hit the ground, her right arm missing from the biceps down, and her shirt drenched in blood from fragments of her armor shattering from the explosion and piercing her sides like a frag grenade.