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this chapter is more than 3000 word .
enjoy :)
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(With Team 7)
"Everyone remain vigilant, we are in hostile territory now. Make sure you all remain in formation around Tazuna." Kakashi said as his team formed back up around Tazuna, before they set off heading in land and in the direction of where Tazuna had said his house was.
Mito was using her sensory abilities almost constantly as she moved with her team. Kakashi had made to impress upon them all just how serious the mission was whilst they were travelling on the boat.
They had been travelling for about twenty minutes before Mito sensed something, with barely a thought she quickly took out a shuriken and tossed it into the bushes, even as she signaled for her team to come to a halt, her sensory ability had picked up a chakra signature on the edge of her range. This time she was taking no chances, she was going to make sure every member of her team knew what was happening.
Stalking forward and pushing the bushes aside she looked to see what she had hit. Instead of a person like she was expecting she instead saw a dead rabbit, her shuriken lodged in its throat.
"Mito, look what you have done!" Sakura yelled as she rushed forward breaking formation as she headed for the rabbit.
Mito however ignored her, her violet eyes instead looking around the silent forest. She could still sense the chakra presence, but couldn't quite triangulate on where it was. Closing her eyes she tried to extend her senses, pushing her abilities further than she had before. Opening them again a look of shock on her face she looked to Kakashi.
She had sensed the chakra she was searching for, but she had also sensed the very distant presence of for more chakra signatures.
'That bunny is white, but it's spring. The coat should be brown; this has been kept in a cage to be used for a substitution jutsu. They're already here.' Kakashi thought to himself, oblivious to what Mito had just sensed as he began sense around for chakra, though his abilities were a lot weaker than Mito's.
"Sakura get back in formation!" Kakashi called out even as he tried to sense for an enemy.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Mito called out ignoring Sakura as she tried to get Kakashi's attention. "There is a powerful chakra signature nearby and three others though they are further away!"
Kakashi's eye flashed to Mito at that, knowing for a fact that her sensory skills were better than his. He almost cursed himself as he heard that there were four possible enemies coming after Tazuna. Before he could reply though both he and Mito spun around, both looking at a tree branch before yelling simultaneously.
"Down!"
Hearing the command five people instantly hit the ground with Sakura being dragged by Mito since she was worrying over the dead rabbit.
They were all lucky they did to as all of them managed to narrowly avoid being hit by a huge flying sword that had just embedded itself into another tree just behind them. Looking up Mito, Kakashi and Sasuke all noticed that there was another in their presence as they instantly jumped back to their feet.
The man had spiky black hair with a scratched Kiri forehead protector, signifying that he like the two who attacked them before, was a Missing-nin from Kirigakure. He had bandages wrapped around his mouth which extended to his neck. He wore no shirt leaving his torso exposed to the elements, but on his legs and arms were long arm and leg warmers.
He wore striped Shinobi trousers that disappeared under his leg warmers and then gave way to his black Shinobi sandals.
Looking up Mito forgot about the other chakra signature drawing closer as she instead took stock of the man's before her and just how much chakra he had, it was just as much if not more than her Sensei, Kakashi. For a moment she began to take a step back slightly cowed by the amount of chakra his man was giving off. But then she found her resolve.
She Was Mito fucking Namikaze; she was the daughter of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, the sister of Naruto, Erza and Naruko Namikaze. She would never back down. With her resolve hardened Mito drew her kunai, even as she summoned nine shadow clones, eight of the clones taking up a defensive position around Tazuna as they did so, whilst the remaining clone dragged Sakura back into the defensive formation.
"Sasuke!" Mito called to the shocked looking Uchiha. "Get back into formation.
The raven haired boy glared at her for giving him a command but still did it anyway as he backed away from the man until he too had joined the diamond shaped defensive formation around Tazuna,.
Whilst this was happening Kakashi had narrowed his eyes at the newcomer as he heard how Mito took control of the team. 'Good job Mito.' He thought as he continued to glare down the Shinobi who had thrown the sword. His fingers twitching as he prepared to leap into action at any moment.
"Zabuza Momochi, Missing-nin of Kirigakure, this man is on a whole other level, get back and protect the client." he said to his team as he faced his opponent, his bored act dropping as he prepared himself for the fight to come.
"Kakashi no Sharingan, the Copy Ninja of Konoha. The man said to have copied over a thousand jutsu. No wonder, I doubt the Demon Brothers even stood a chance. But, the bridge builder is mine Kakashi." Zabuza replied as he looked down on the Konoha Shinobi from his perch in a tree.
"Sharingan!" Sasuke thought as he looked at his Sensei in confusion. Mito didn't even blink, she had known Kakashi for a long time, not well of course, but he had regularly visited their house. As such she knew he had a Sharingan, the bloodline of the Uchiha Clan hidden under his lopsided forehead protector.
Kakashi ignored his students stare as he lifted his lopsided headband to show his left eye, revealing an eye with a red iris, black pupil, and three black tomoes, seeing this Sasuke's hands clenched in anger. While Mito looked away and instead tried to focus on the other signatures she had sensed approaching.
"Sharingan? What does that do?" Sakura asked, she knew of the bloodline but she didn't know what it did.
"Ah, the Sharingan, I get to see it so early. I'm honored." Zabuza said mockingly even as he bent his legs slightly, preparing to lunge into action.
"It is said some eyes have the power to defeat any nin, gen, or taijutsu style. The Sharingan is one of these. But that's not all." Sasuke answered the slightest hints of smugness seeping into his voice as he spoke about his Clan's prized bloodline.
"That's right, the most feared ability of the Sharingan is that it can copy its opponent's abilities and make it their own." Zabuza finished. "When I was on Mist's assassination team, your name was one that was feared Kakashi, but it seems you have met your match, I need that bridge builder dead." He said as he jumped and grabbed his sword from the tree,
"It seems I will have to beat you first." Zabuza continued before he disappeared in a burst of speed. The three genin and nine shadow clones quickly tightened their protective formation around Tazuna with their kunai's out. Even as Mito continued to focus on her sensory ability.
Opening her eyes with shock and a slight amount of fear Mito called out to Kakashi. "Sensei the other three signatures are very close now!"
And they were Mito could feel them and what she felt truly frightened her. The closest signature was one that felt quite powerful; it radiated large amounts of chakra that were at least high chunin level.
The others though were the ones that truly frightened her. Two of the signature would rank at maybe mid-Jonin level, not as powerful as Kakashi's or Zabuza's but a lot more than Sakura and Sasuke possessed.
But it was the last one that frightened her, she knew that due to her having the Kyuubi sealed in her and her Uzumaki heritage that she possessed for more chakra than a normal person, more than even Kakashi had. But the approaching person possessed more than her, and unlike hers, this person's was completely controlled.
If she were to compare it in sheer density and power she would liken it to either he father's or Jiraiya's chakra.
Mito wished that she could be able to sense more about the incoming Shinobi, but her control over her sensory abilities were not at that level yet. Her mother had told her that with the right training she would soon be able to sense not just the nature of a person's chakra but also the nature of the person themselves. But that for Mito was still some ways away.
Looking up and once more engaging in the current situation, Mito's eyes widened as she realised that Zabuza was no longer visible, instead the area around them was slowly being covered by a chakra dense shroud of mist.
"Mito, Sasuke be on guard. This is Zabuza's Hidden Mist jutsu; he will use it to hide himself so he can strike us unseen." Kakashi spoke up, his main concern at the moment being over the powerful A-rank Shinobi facing him; though he was still wary about the three other presences Mito had alerted him to.
"There are eight choices on the human body that I could choose from." Zabuza's disembodied voice floated through the mist, an action that caused all the members of Team 7 to tense as they looked around. Mito's clones as nervous as the girl herself was.
"Liver, Lung, Spine, Clevical vein, Neck vein, Brain, Kidneys, and Heart. Which should I choose?" Zabuza continued to question from his position within the mist.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he looked into the mist, search for the disembodied voice, "Zabuza was a master of Silent killing. So remember keep on guard."
All of a sudden, the three genin felt the Killer Intent of both their sensei and enemy shoot up. Sasuke and Sakura began to shake as Mito felt a bead of sweat make its way down her face, she and her sister had been trained by their parents whilst they were still young, as such they had felt the full and terrifying fury of their mother Kushina Uzumaki, as such she was a lot more accustomed to KI than her teammates.
"So this is two Jonin doing battle?" Sasuke questioned, before he thought 'The air is so heavy; one could go mad in here. I almost want to end it just to be away from here.' Upon thinking this, his hand holding his kunai began to shake uncontrollably.
"Come on Sasuke it is time for you to man up. This is it; this is what we spent the last three years training for. Don't be a wuss at the first chance of real action." Mito spoke out through gritted teeth as her eyes flickered to Sasuke. Hoping to bait her teammate into finding his nerve.
"Pathetic!" Zabuza's voice snarled before with a swirl of mist he appeared near the genin. Twirling around Kakashi moved fast, his kunai already in hand as he turned to face Zabuza.
But by then Mito's reflexes had already kicked in, the slight chakra spike Zabuza caused with his appearance was all the warning she needed. As both her and three of her clones acted on instinct and thrust their kunai forward, impaling Zabuza in four different places.
Splash.
Zabuza's body turned into water before it broke apart, revealing itself to in fact be a water clone dispelled from Mito's strike; Mito though was trying to keep her resolve as she felt multiple spikes of chakra appearing from within the mist.
Zabuza soon made his presence known again as he appeared behind and slashed him with his blade. Only for Kakashi's body to turn to water revealing that he had also been a water clone.
"It's over." Kakashi said as he once again appeared behind Zabuza with a kunai to the man's neck.
"Ha you wish!" Zabuza muttered a smirk on his face behind his mask.
Before either of them could say or do anything else though they both moved in blurs, jumping apart as a sudden shower of shuriken landed where they had been stood previously.
'What!' Kakashi thought as he looked to where his team was still standing, a frown on his face as he realized that they had not been the ones who had interrupted the fight.
Zabuza also frowned as he looked at the shuriken embedded into the ground before he looked around. "Haku!" Zabuza shouted, only for a blur to appear next to him.
The Shinobi was dressed in a black kimono with blue trimming. The person's face was covered with a white mask with the symbol of Kirigakure on the top of it. Two bangs fell in front of the mask with the rest of it tied behind the person's back.
A scarf-like piece of cloth was tied as a belt around the person's waist and the person had sandals on. Since no skin could be shown nobody could tell what gender this person was at first glance.
"A Kirigakure Hunter-nin?" Kakashi as he backed away do he was once again in front of his team of genin.
Mito frowned at that, this she recognised was the high chunin level Shinobi that had been hanging around quite close to them. But Kakashi named them to be a Hunter-nin, a Shinobi who specialized in hunting down and killing rogue Shinobi.
Yet this Shinobi did not appear aggressive to Zabuza, who himself was a Missing-nin from Kirigakure, in fact the Hunter-nin almost seemed submissive and had appeared when Zabuza called.
"Yes Master Zabuza." The now named Haku replied in a bland and emotionless voice.
"Were you the one to interfere?" Zabuza asked as he kept a wary eye on Kakashi.
"No, I do not know where those shuriken came from." Haku replied calmly.
"You're not a real Hunter-nin are you?" Kakashi stated rhetorically as he assessed the newcomer.
"Oh, how truly astute of you Kakashi Hatake." A mocking female voice called out from the surrounding misty forest.
Hefting his large six foot sword Zabuza glared around him, looking for where the voice was coming from using his own limited sensory abilities to help, with Kakashi doing exactly the same thing.
Mito did the same, though with her abilities she soon locked onto the three power chakra signatures she had felt before. All three were here, all of them so close it was almost suffocating.
"Kakashi-sensei, they are…" Mito began, only to stop as a shuriken slammed into the ground at her feet.
"Kakashi Hatake, we will give you this one warning. Leave the area now and take your genin team with you. Do that and we won't have a problem?!" A different voice spoke out; this one was soft spoke and male.
"And how can I trust you if you won't even show your face!?" Kakashi called out as he continued trying to lock onto the voice, however due to Zabuza's Hidden Mist jutsu still being in effect he was finding that very difficult, even with the Sharingan.
"You are telling Kakashi to go, which mean you are most likely here for me!" Zabuza suddenly called out. "Kakashi has a high bounty than me which means you are not bounty hunters and the only reason someone would have to come after me if not for the bounty would be because of my old affiliation with Kirigakure. You are Hunter-nins are you not?"
"Oh he is a clever one isn't he?" The female voice spoke out again.
"True, but when has being clever ever saved someone's life?" A different male voice asked with this one filled with humour as if he found this entire situation hilarious.
"I will repeat what I said early, leave this place Kakashi, or what happens next will be on your head." The soft yet confident male voice spoke up again.
"And as I said, I will not trust your word until you reveal yourselves." Kakashi replied stubbornly, knowing as he did so that if he and his team were to retreat than it was possible these unknown Shinobi would attack them from behind. For all he knew they could be some of Zabuza's other accomplices.
"Then we have a stalemate." The same voice as before replied blandly.