A week had passed since the combined forces of teams seven and eight arrived in Wave, and to say that the attempts at team training for team seven were an unmitigated disaster would have been nice. Ino and Sakura individually were able to climb trees using their chakra, but Sasuke was straggling behind. When they the three were tied together at the waist and told to climb as one, they failed horribly, Sasuke's inability to regulate his chakra would cause the boy to fall after only a handful of steps, pulling his teammates with him. After their seventeenth fall from the low boughs of a tall oak, Sasuke got fed up with this training and demanded that Kakashi teach them something useful, or set up a sparing match against team eight.
“All they're doing is walking around town, they should be training!” He would argue, only for Kakashi to giggle perversely and ignore his pleas.
I suppose that it was this lack of communication between student and teacher that lead to Sasuke trying to pick a fight with `Naruto'.
“Dobe, I see you're off doing your weak little mission instead of training. There's no way you'll be able to beat me if you don't train more.”
Normally this would have provoked the blond into action, but Haran had spent a long time working on his chakra nature manipulation, and hadn't gotten very far, something he wasn't too used to. So he ignored the comment from the Uchiha and continued to walk back to Tsunami's house with his teammates.
This struck some kind of nerve with Sasuke; no one ignored him and got away with it. Except Kakashi every time he demanded some kind of alternative training, so there was one person who had ignored him, but after today, only half of the people who ignored him will have gotten away with it. Deciding to make the dobe pay attention, Sasuke charged Naruto's unprotected back. As he neared his target he was immediately stopped by a mass of Kikaichu that he plowed through without giving them any thought. On the other side of the wall of insects was Hinata who proceeded to close as many tenketsu as she could reach, which was a lot, and left the Uchiha on his stomach with no chakra left to continue his training. Haran had just kept walking; he hadn't even turned his back.
Kakashi saw the entire confrontation and rubbed his temples. There was no way that he would even consider nominating his team for the chuunin exams, Sasuke was too much of a lone wolf and there was no teamwork to be had at all. If it weren't for Sakura and Ino, who had improved greatly since he had take them under his wing, he would have disbanded his team when they returned, the village council be damned. Jumping down from his perch in a near-by tree, Kakashi walked over to Sasuke's limp body and checked to make sure he was alive. Hearing the boy groan in fatigue, the jounin sighed and called for Ino and Sakura to stop their training for the time being. No point in doing team training if one of your teammates is incapacitated. He picked Sasuke up and slung him across his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes and headed towards their lodgings also.
“Kakashi-sensei, shouldn't you speak to Kurenai about punishing Naruto? He did provoke Sasuke into attacking him.” Sakura ventured in an attempt to defend her crush.
Ino just looked at her friend and wondered if they were watching the same thing. Either Sakura needed to get her eyes checked, or she needed to get off whatever hallucinogenic drug she was on.
“No, Sakura, Sasuke brought this upon himself and he needs to deal with the consequences. If anyone should be punished it's him for attacking a fellow Konoha shinobi.” Kakashi replied, wondering why he had passed this team again.
This shut Sakura up for a moment, but she would come back louder and more annoying than ever before, he was sure of it.
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Things didn't get better for the remainder of their week. Every time Sasuke would even glimpse Naruto, he would try and attack the dobe to prove that he was stronger than the boy, only to be dealt with by Shino and Hinata before he even reached the blond. After the second day, team eight had decided to take an alternative route back to Tsunami's house, as to avoid the insane in the membrane Uchiha.
Haran was having little improvement over his chakra nature abilities, and was getting angry at himself over it. It's not like Hinata or Shino were having any better luck, but what little pride he had as a Hyuuga was beginning to rear its ugly head. As night fell, he decided to head back with his team before it got too dark. There was no point in staying out all night to work on a jounin level skill that wouldn't even be needed for this mission.
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The next day Team eight left early to get a jump on their espionage mission, and it was a good thing too. As they were passing the still unfinished bridge, a thick unnatural fog began to roll into the area. Immediately the team closed in together to better protect themselves.
There was no warning of the attack other than the hiss of Zabuza's sword as it was swung toward the team, which was ducked easily enough. The hard part was the follow up from an equally large sword that was wrapped in bandages.
Shino set his kikaichu to work clearing up the fog, a task that was quickly accomplished, revealing Zabuza and his accomplice, Hoshigaki Kisame. The later was dressed in full length black pants and a sea green shirt, which covered his arms completely. He had blue skin and resembled a shark, from the row of sharp teeth in his mouth, to the gills which adorned his cheeks. The amount of chakra that the new comer was releasing was insanely large, causing the Konoha shinobi to become wary of this opponent. Haran formed a shadow clone and had it run back to Kakashi, only for the clone be destroyed by a blast of water, courtesy of the new guy.
`Damn! He's fast!' Haran thought as he tried to come up with a new strategy. Settling on a method of general chaos, he created a multitude of shadow clones and once more sent them scattering towards Kakashi for help. Once more these were washed away by a wave.
“It's no fun if you go running for help kid.” Kisame joked.
“And it's no fun if you have your chakra.” Haran replied, causing Kisame's eye brow to rise up a bit. The idiot kids had some plan.
Team eight watched as Shino's kikai suddenly swarmed Kisame, only for the body to fall into a puddle of water.
“Shit!” Haran muttered as his byakugan registered Kisame attacking from their rear. The genin were forced to separate from their sensei as Zabuza took the opportunity to separate the team. From here on out it would be three genin against one of the most infamous ninja that Mist had ever produced.
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Kakashi woke up upon feeling the spike in chakra that accompanies a battle and was quickly running to catch up with team eight. He was waylaid by the appearance of an army of thugs, accompanied by Gato himself.
`Damn, team eight is in way over their heads and I get stuck here.' He thought as he started to take out men left and right. He was quickly aided by his team; Sasuke leapt into the fray a bit quickly, but thanks to his use of fire jutsu, was able to hold off the much larger force. Ino was using her family's shintenshin to wreak havoc among the rag tag group, as seemingly random men were suddenly set upon by their own neighbor. Sakura took up a guard post with Tsunami and their family.
Kakashi knew he had to save his energy for when he made it to the bridge, but he needed to get their quickly, else team eight be slaughtered. Deciding that he could use one large scale attack and still be in good shape to help out, he quickly flew into a large sequence of hand seals.
The water that surrounded the battle ground began to churn and bubble until it exploded over the land and swept the vast majority of the combatants away, leaving only a handful of guards and Gato himself. Knowing what could happen if he killed the fat business man, Kakashi was hesitant to kill him, but he realized that if he didn't finish the man than he wouldn't stop until he had control over the village. Liberating a katana from a fallen soldier, Kakashi made quick work of the remaining goons and the fat leader soon followed. Team seven was ecstatic that their mission was made many times easier, but didn't notice the look of worry that took its place on their sensei's face. They did notice when he suddenly ran off towards the bridge. Not knowing what to do, they hung around the house and made sure that no further attacks were made against the family of their client.
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Kurenai was worried about her team. There was no way that they could survive against the shark man, he was rated an S-class missing ninja, comparable to Uchiha Itachi, for his deeds which involved murdering daimyos and anyone foolish enough to get in his path.
She had her own problems though, as Zabuza had made a complete recovery since their last encounter, and had no motivation to run away this time. Kurenai was forced to continuously dodge that accursed sword of his. He was fast considering how large that oversized knife was, and if Kurenai hadn't been working to correct her flaw in taijutsu, she would have had a very difficult time in keeping away from his wild swings. At times, she thought she saw some kikaichu crawling over the bandage faced ninja, but they were few and would be rather ineffective in draining chakra. It was alright though; Shino would need all the help he could get.
Zabuza's specialty in silent killing made his ability to locate targets without his senses strong enough to the point where he was immune to many illusions, making Kurenai's job even harder.
The genin weren't faring any better than their sensei, even though it was apparent that Kisame was taking it easy on them. Shino's bugs couldn't get in close enough to leech his chakra away, and his sword kept either of the twins from getting too close. They had made one interesting observation. The sword had the ability to eat chakra, just like Shino's kikai. This came at the expense of a Kaiten performed by Haran. The sword initially stopped, but slowly it bit through until it forced the boy to duck underneath the blade, so as not to have his head removed.
The three actually had a plan, the problem was implementing it. Kisame was stronger, faster and had more experience than all three put together. He claimed he was smarter, though no one believed him. But for the time, all they could do was dodge and try to counter attack, and both actions were near impossible to pull off.
Kurenai was finally able to cast a genjutsu that would affect the `demon of the mist', but it didn't leave her a lot of time to attack. Quickly rushing in with a kunai in her left hand, she was able to land what should have been a fatal blow to the nukenin's neck, but as soon as the edge pressed against his skin, he broke free of the illusion and managed to escape her attack at the last second. (For those BLEACH fans, think of Zaraki Kenpachi's fight against Tosen during the Soul Society arc)
Having lost her chance at the kill, Kurenai was pleasantly surprised when she saw a pack of dogs erupt from the still unfinished bridge and bite into Zabuza. This was followed quickly by Kakashi rushing in to finish what Kurenai started. This time Zabuza was able to shake free of the Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu (Earth type: Tracking Fang Technique) only after Kakashi had administered a fatal kunai slice to the man's jugular vein. Zabuza collapsed and began to bleed to death on the bridge.
Turning their attention to the genin, they were astounded to find that the three had Kisame on the ropes. When Kakashi had appeared, Kisame had been taken by surprise and took his eyes off of the genin for a crucial second. The twins had taken advantage of his lapse in concentration and both delivered their own Hakke Rokujūyon ShŠto the blue man's sword.
Seeing as the sword Samehada can eat chakra, it must have a chakra circulatory system to store and process that chakra. The twin's had been able to see the system and attacked it, disrupting the system and actually fracturing the blade by the end of their attack.
This was the scene that Kakashi and Kurenai found when they turned their attention to their charges, a sword less Kisame facing off against three of the most promising ninja in Konoha. Even without his weapon, Kisame was too fast for the genin to hit, but not for a lack of trying. Kakashi decided to stop the fight before any more damage could be done; all of the combatants had sustained injuries, shave wounds from the shark like skin of Samehada, as well as bruises from other attacks.
The copy ninja focused a lot of chakra into the palm of his hand until it became visible and began to make a screeching noise that sounded like a multitude of birds chirping. Rushing at the blue man and thrusting the newly formed Raikiri (Lightning blade) through the missing ninja's head, all parties involved were shocked to see `Kisame' turn into one of the corrupt men from the village.
“What was that?” Haran asked, hoping that Kakashi didn't see the combined jyuken offensive.
“It appears to be some kind of sacrificial technique that allows someone to make a puppet of themselves.” Kakashi stated after checking the body and making sure it wasn't just a puppet in the traditional sense.
As team eight began to stumble back towards their temporary house, the real Kisame was reporting on his fight.
“The jinchurriki is…different. He knows the jyuken, but does not seem to posses the byakugan. It is something that should be taken into account when we are hunting him.”
The eyes of the leader narrowed in thought as he dismissed the shark man with a wave of his hand.
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Team eight was welcomed back by just about everyone, with the exception of Sasuke, and had their wounds treated. They weren't serious, but they were numerous.
“Kakashi-sensei, what happened? Why did you run off like that?” Ino asked, as she looked over the state of the other team.
“Zabuza and an acquaintance of his made an appearance at the bridge and I had to help out. An A-class missing ninja is hard enough, but when you throw in an S-class one as well…things get complicated really fast.”
Upon hearing that team eight got to fight an even tougher opponent than Zabuza, Sasuke became mildly angry and gritted his teeth together before Sakura asked the question on everyone's mind.
“How did you guys manage to beat such strong opponents?”
In an unusual display of vocalization, Shino was the one to reply.
“We struck down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering.”
Team seven looked at the boy like he had grown three extra heads, while Haran and Hinata just fell to the ground in laughter at the quiet boys jab at the other team.”
Of course, Sasuke didn't take to this too well and stormed out of the room in a funk that is said to still float around the countryside to this day, causing pandemonium amongst the rabbits.
After a few days of rest, Team eight headed back to Konoha, their mission was complete, and due to the extra time they spent around town, they were able to secure a profitable alliance between Wave and Konoha.
As the gates of Konoha came into view, every member of the team considered the mission a complete success, not only had they brokered a trade deal, they had stopped the fat cat and helped the people gain control of their lives once more.
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(A/N: Hey! Sorry for those of you who were waiting for this last weekend, I just got so wrapped up in my other story (all 17 pages of it) I didn't have the time or energy to put into this last week. So here it is, the conclusion of the Wave arc, I hope you liked it, and I hope at least some of you get the vague movie and book references I made. (BTW if anyone can tell me where I got the pandemonium amongst the rabbit's line I'll send you a preview of the chuunin exams)Until next I write I look forward to your reviews, and I thank everyone who has previously reviewed!)
