After getting off the boat, they walked in a forest. Naruto was trying to be a show off after being humiliated earlier, so he randomly threw a kunai which happened to hit a snow white bunny. A snow white bunny? Now, now, now, this is going to get interesting. Suddenly, a sword flew at Tazuna. It barely missed, hitting a tree beside him.

"Well, well, if it isn't Zabuza Momoichi. Rogue ninja from the hidden mist." Kakashi claimed, raising his defence.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan, did I get it right? Well, too bad for you, you'll have to hand over the old man."

"Zabuza, you've gone down to working for a guy like Gato? Are you serious? Never though I'd see you being so pathetic!" Itsuko laughed, walking over to the rogue, putting a hand on his shoulder. The team starred at her as if I was insane, talking to a criminal in such tone was like asking to be killed.

"Itsuko? I never thought I'd meet you here with a bunch of brats." He replied with a grin stuck onto his face.

Kakashi tilted up his forehead-protector, exposing his sharingan. "Now quick, manji formation! Protect the bridge builder. Stay out of this fight. I taught you teamwork and now's the time to use it." Kakashi ordered them. Itsuko and Zabuza were the only calm ones joking around.

Naruto tried to join Kakashi but only got yelled at. "Naruto, get back. This man is way off your league."

"Ah, looks like I get to see the Sharingan in action, what an honor." Zabuza said.

"Have you not seen enough? Stop being pathetic." Itsuko yawned once more. "By the way, where's Haku?"

"Everyone keeps saying sharingan, sharingan. Would someone please tell me what Sharingan is?" Naruto burst out, preventing Zabuza from answering my question.

"Sharingan, a power that resides in the eye. The user of this visual jutsu, can instantly see and comprehend any genjutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu and reflect back to the attacker. However there's much more to the Sharingan than that." Sasuke answered, sounding rather professional.

"You got it right boy, however the Sharingan can also analyze the opponent's attack and copy it to the smallest detail." Zabuza added on.

"Itsuko sensei! You're not going to help Kakashi sensei?" Sakura yelled at me with a slight furiousity mixed inside the question as she saw me slacking, sitting on a tree.

Itsuko thought nothing of her question. What kind of question was that? She doesn't need to make her move yet. Kakashi isn't a genin.

Not very long after the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza had begun, Kakashi got trapped inside Zabuza's water prison and was unable to move. Zabuza took advantage of that and sent a shadow clone after Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. He planned on taking Tazuna after getting rid of the genins.

He thought he knew Itsuko well, that she would not make her move and waste her energy on these petty business, naturally not calculating her into his plan.

"Go! Run! It's a clone, it can't be left too far from its original." Kakashi yelled to the rest of team 7. It was to be expected that they would run off, leaving Kakashi behind but that didn't happen. They remained and Naruto worked with Sasuke and saved Kakashi. They weren't passed by Kakashi for nothing. That was why Itsuko had told Kakashi, this was no ordinary team.

Kakashi was freed and he started to copy every move Zabuza was making. Using his sharingan, analyzing Zabuza's each and every hand sign, movement and jutsu, copying them. He even copied Zabuza's Water release: great waterfall technique before Zabuza could use it and shot it at him. With that Kakashi managed to defeat Zabuza.

Zabuza left weakened, Kakashi went to him, ready to finish him off but before he could do so, Haku appeared disguise as a Hunter-nin, and threw needles at Zabuza, taking him away after having Kakashi made sure he was dead.

"Haku, it seems that you're still loyal to him." Itsuko thought to herself. Haku had always been a handy pal of Zabuza's.

All of a sudden, from the corner of her eye, Itsuko saw Kakashi falling. She teleported over and caught him before his head hit the ground. Wouldn't want to have him injuring his head, that brain of his is something after all.

"Is he alright?" Tazuna asked with a worried expression.

"Does he look alright? He overused his sharingan." Itsuko replied, pointless questions.

Tazuna sighed, a worried expression crawled onto his face before we headed over to his place. Itsuko carried Kakashi on her shoulder. Tazuna looked at her as if she was inhuman. He wasn't exactly wrong to think that, how could a female younger and smaller than Kakashi carry him like it was nothing?

Itsuko rest him down in a room before leaving. Not very long after, Itsuko heard that Kakashi was gathering them. "I have news. Zabuza is alive."

Shocked was an understatement. It was to be expected since Kakashi had already checked that Zabuza was dead.

"Okay listen. Hunter-nin takes care of everything on the spot. They don't take the body away to take care of it. So we're suspecting that the hunter-nin was a fake." Kakashi tried to explain to the three of them who knew little about the procedures.

Itsuko yawned. "Took you long enough."

Kakashi kept quiet, looking down. He was clearly ashamed of himself. Naruto reacted wildly, "You barely helped at all! All you did was talk! You could've told Kakashi sensei earlier if you knew! We could've stopped their escape!"

"And what are you going to do about it? Kakashi is a previous anbu team captain. He is supposed to figure it out. As for me not helping you guys was because it was training for you all. What's training without some real stuff?"

"But that's really dangerous! We could've died back then."Sakura yelled, over exaggerating the situation.

"You're a shinobi. A shinobi puts his or her life on the line, whether it's for training or a mission. You chose to become a shinobi so stop whining and complaining before I decide that I should just kill all you pathetic little brats. Besides some of you actually have a good pricing above your heads." Itsuko glared. "If you're going to stand a chance against Zabuza. You're going to need to train. He won't be back for about a week or so."

-

Itsuko sat in her room, polishing my sword as she waited for them to finish chakra training. Unexpectedly, Sakura came to her first, claiming that she finished the practice.

"You're good at chakra control huh? Well then, let's get started." Itsuko placed her sword back into it's cover, hanging on her waist. "But Naruto and Sasuke aren't back yet? Shouldn't we wait for them?"

"No. This is individual training. Okay, I heard you're top in class? Let's give your analyzing skills a test."Itsuko ran towards her unarmed, facing slightly to the right. Sakura immediately held out a kunai and got her guards up, she focused more on her right side, even her kunai was held on the right side. As Itsuko was about to reach her, she suddenly ran to the left. Sakura couldn't react fast enough so Itsuko managed to run pass her with ease.

"In an actual fight, just allowing me run pass would cost your life." Itsuko stated.

"Itsuko sensei, you're really fast!" Sakura exclaimed in admiration.

"That was barely effort. One way you can practice is to chase after something like squirrels, hamsters or things that run really fast. It'll help train your analyzing skills and, speed if you chase after multiple of them at once. Well, that's all for now. I expect you to improve by next week." Itsuko gave some advice for training and left Sakura to train on her own.

Naruto and Sasuke came back at around 8pm. They took quite awhile but they haven't worked it out yet. They still can't get all the way up the tree. However they seemed to have developed a sense of rivalry because they even had a eating competition during dinner but in the end puked everything out.

After dinner Naruto was resting his head on the table. Seeing how hard Naruto worked with all those bruise Inari finally couldn't stand it.

"But why... All this stupid training is just a waste of time! Gato has a whole army and they'll beat you down and destroy you! No matter what you say, no matter what you do, the strong will always win and the weak will always lose!"

"Why don't you shut up. That may be how it works for you but not for me." Naruto said, not even bothering to look at Inari in the eye.

"Why don't you just be quiet! Just looking at you makes me sick! You're just butting in! Always laughing around, you don't know what it means to suffer and get treated like a jerk!"

With that Naruto snapped. "Listen to yourself, always complaining like some sorry little victim! You can whip for all day for all I care. You're nothing but a coward!" He glared at Inari and left the room after that.

"Naruto! You went too far." Sakura said.

But Naruto ignored Sakura and went on ahead anyways. After Inari left the room Kakashi went for him.

"Put yourself in his shoes. You've only lived a happy life so far. Have you suffered? Your parents love you and so does everyone else. But that's not the case for Naruto so just leave him be for once and stop being extra."

-

"Naruto suffered a lot too. What he said to you today may seem mean but he probably told himself that more than a thousand times." Kakashi calmly explained to Inari.

Itsuko went over and sat beside Inari.

"I'm just going to be straight foward with you. You don't know what it feels to suffer. Have you ever been treated like a disgrace by your parents even though you aren't one? No. Have you ever have an idiot protect you, doing hopeless things for you and you can do nothing to repay him even if you want to? No. You're experience is . You say you've been treated like a jerk? Well let me tell you, you have no idea at all of what a jerk is treated like."

"Captain... Well just don't get too depressed about it, Inari." Kakashi said, standing up to leave.

Inari was still crying in sadness after Kakashi left.

"Damn it, damn it all." Itsuko bit her lips, clenching my fist as she punched it onto the ground. "Just, stop, crying would you? It ticks me off. How I wish I can cry anytime I want like you can." She said, lifting my head, looking up at the stars. Fading hurt and sadness in her eyes.

"Why? Can't you?" Inari asked, sniffing a few times.

"No. I made a vow that night. That I'd never cry. Unless it's with someone he'd approve of, that's the only time I can cry."

"But why? Why make a vow like that? Also you can just go look for that person can't you?" Inari stopped crying, glancing over to me.

"Who knows where he is now. It'd probably be years before I see him again. It's even possible that I'd never see him again. Who knows what fate has installed for us." I stood up. "Until then, I'll just have to stay strong. You should get to bed soon, it's late. Crying won't cure anything, action would."

Inari stood up after me and headed inside with me. He went to his room as I went to mine.

"Itsuko sensei. Where were you?" Sakura asked.

Right. She has forgotten that Sakura was sharing a room with her. This was why she had always preferred to live alone. She had more privacy.

"Had a little talk, that's all." She said, getting herself ready for bed. Sakura was already ready for bed, but from the looks of it she was waiting for Itsuko. Making sure Sakura was asleep, Itsuko opened the window to stargaze as her mind wandered off. She always hated it but her mind was always active at night. These feelings made her feel weak and vulnerable. The wall she puts up no longer holds strong. And she hated it.