Sakura was paying close attention to her surroundings … despite their early confidence, the decision to keep going on the mission was met with increased awareness that they might be dealing with more ninjas …
Especially now that they were close into the Wave’s territory, outside of the Fire country’s protection …
Sakura's top spot as the kunoichi of the year meant that she was the most competent graduated genin of her years … on the female side … she was, by definition, a competent genin …
Her eyes were trained on the surroundings, her ears kept listening for any noises that might surprise her …
To summarise, Sakura was very anxious … that's why when she heard a noise over the bushes, she tossed a Kunai in them …
[Jay] - … good aim … -
Sakura was mortified to find that she nailed a fluffy rabbit by the ears to a tree …
[Sakura] - Oh no … -
Seeing the poor creature squeak in pain and panic, Sakura ran towards it to at least take the Kunai out of it and let the cute thing flee back to the forest …
Despite the Academy teaching their students to hunt and cook their own food for survival training and to get them used to killing things, Sakura never really liked it …
Sakura slowly took her Kunai out of the rabbit's ears and freed it … but that's when something went wrong … She heard the tell tale noise of explosive tags ready to go off …
Kakashi appeared in front of her in a blur of motion, his feet moving through the air and kicking the rabbit away with such force that she could hear everything inside the poor creature crack …
And despite all that speed and force Kakashi put into making the Rabbit get as far as possible from Sakura … Sakura could still feel a solid impact at her side as the wave of air from the explosions smacked into her …
Her ears were ringing and she could see a splash of blood and rabbit gore clinging to her …
Sakura did her best to reorient herself, in the wake of the explosion … Jay's liberal use of the explosive tags he made himself gave Sakura some experience in how to deal with it …
Only for her to listen through the ringing of her ears, as Kakashi yelled for them to go down …
Trained instincts at the Academy took over as her body hugged the ground not a second too late as a gigantic sword came flying through where her torso was moments ago …
Sakura rolled to the side and jumped up and back towards her team as her eyes finally caught up to the man now standing on top of the sword stuck to a tree like a platform …
Chakra smashed against Sakura for a moment before Kakashi countered the pressure with his own … but in that small moment, Sakura saw herself being bisected by that sword …
[Kakashi] - Zabuza momochi … you know that your bingo book bounty just went up ? Kiri really wants their sword back and your corpse with it … that rebellion business of yours must be getting heated with all the new bounties coming out … -
[Zabuza] - Hatake Kakashi … I would never have guessed that Konoha's Killer Hound would take on a genin team … you're going soft … -
The Man jumped back into the ground, wrestling his sword out of the tree like nothing …
They were observing, sharp, looking for an opening, any opening …
He started walking, trying to circle around them …
In the wake of his steps, a pale dense mist formed and expanded to cover their surroundings like the inside of a cloud …
[Kakashi] - What can I say ? They grew on me … -
Kakashi flexed his chakra and a string of handseals made it so that a sizable air pocket formed around them, restoring some of their vision …
But they were close to the sea, with the water being very close to them … and with a big mass of water, ninjas versed in water release had a great leg up on the competition …
***
Sasuke took the initiative to toss some shurikens with ninja wire to try and score a hit … but as the shurikens sliced the air and curved towards their target … Instead of dodging, Zabuza punted the shurikens back using the side of his massive sword like a bat … each projectile coming back with twice the momentum, their wires tangling like a net in Sasuke's direction …
Sasuke's Sharingan helped him dodge and parry the projectile barrage of his own making … The disparity in strength was great, but Sasuke didn't cower, he already had some experience against overwhelming opponents by training with Kakashi and Itachi-nii …
While that was happening, Jay made sure to stay by the client, at least this time Tazuna was hidden properly keeping his back against the pallet of wood on the cart, cutting off at least one angle of attack … and it paid off …
***
Jay was constantly pushing out an aura of chakra to try and sense his surroundings … most sensorial jutsus sent out pulses of varying strengths and frequencies to detect the surroundings, using a constant blanket of chakra as a sensorial medium was incredibly inefficient, but it gave the ninja using it complete and almost instantaneous awareness of their surroundings …
Jay felt the mist mixing with chakra and coalescing into a form above them …
Jay tackled Tazuna out of the way before a sword fell down like a glilhotine right where they were …
[Jay] - HE IS MAKING WATER CLONES THROUGH THE MIST -
Jay yelled out to his teammates … Taking out of the storage something most ninjas would never use … a heavy chunk of flat steel with handles … a tower shield …
Jay couldn't keep pushing Tazuna out of the way of the attacks, the old man was almost hurt by that last tackle …
***
Sakura's ears stopped ringing and she finally got her bearings, retreating towards Sasuke's side to try and make an opening for Kakashi sensei …
Sakura could see that both jounin's were circling each other … but apparently Zabuza had an advantage, for he was still able to try and attack the client as Jay just yelled out for them …
The mist was muffling up the noises and making the light diffuse around them, it was hard to get a sense of distance and there were no shadows around them …
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Still, Sakura knew what she had to do …
Focusing her chakra and making the appropriate handseals, Sakura cast a genjutsu, just like many times before, a minor distraction …
Her genjutsu barely had time to take effect before it was immediately broken by Zabuza’s constant flexing of his own chakra, but it was enough to signal the start of the real fight …
***
Kakashi's mind was running on high gear despite what his outward appearance would suggest.
[Kakashi] “This is bad, this is bad … a Jounin would already be bad but Zabuza isn't to be trifled with … That sword is not something my genins should be contending with, is not something most Chunins should be contending with …”
Kakashi gritted his teeth and kept circling, trying to find a better position, sinking his chakra into the earth under his feet to make sure his earth jutsus had a primer, Kakashi breathed out wind chakra to keep clear out the mist surrounding him at the same time he kept lightning chakra at the tip of his fingers …
[Kakashi] “ This will almost be like fighting Guy … “
When Kakashi felt Sakura's chakra reaching for Zabuza, that was the start of the battle.
[Kakashi] “ She got her bearings, good, now I can focus … “
Kakashi quickly lifted the bandana covering his surgically implanted eye and dashed towards his opponent.
***
The legendary swords of the mist were called as such because of their fame … Each sword was made with pure high quality chakra conducting metal, a fortune in itself …
But what differentiated them from normal swords were their abilities …
Fuinjutsu and forging techniques lost to the wars that were still being rediscovered … Spirits and Creatures bound to the metal with unique fuinjutsus … each blade did something legendary …
And now, Kakashi and his team encountered one of them … Kubikiribouchou, better known as the ‘Gore Drinker’ … each wound the sword made sapped the vitality of its victims, healing the sword and its wielder from damage, slowly, that absorbed vitality also made it so that the wielder of the blade became stronger … with each victim, the blade gained weight, size, more vitality … and its wielder gained even more strength to wield the heavy thing like it weighed nothing …
***
Sasuke and Sakura watched and waited for opportunities to offer support, Sasuke tossed kunais and shurikens with extreme precision, while Sakura kept using her genjutsu to try and distract Zabuza …
They kept looking back towards their last team member, the same team member that kept yelling at them to help Kakashi and not him …
While Sasuke and Sakura offered Kakashi support … Jay had to contend with the water clone trying to kill the client …
***
From Jay’s study of that category of jutsu, he knew better than most what the strengths and weaknesses of each flavor of the clone jutsu were …
Earth clones were incredibly durable, able to act as mobile shields that could hit with the weight of a bolder … they were also the slowest …
Water clones had increased agility, they could be almost as fast as the creator of the jutsu, they were as efficient as earth clones to maintain … they also required water to make and were a bit more unstable than their earth counterpart, making them easier to dispel …
Air clones were light and sharp, they could move in unexpected manners and almost float through the air, giving aerial support … they were perfect for those that liked to throw weapons … they were also very fragile, requiring constant maintenance in the form of chakra …
Fire clones were destructive and fast … they had a tendency to explode in a fireball of flames and were basically a bomb that could move faster than most ninjas … they also lasted moments, being treated more like a ‘controlled fireball jutsu’ than an actual clone …
Lighting clones were FAST … everything else about them was worse … they were a pain to control, they cost a lot of chakra, they could be extremely predictable and they lasted a second if that … but they were FAST, lightning fast …
But something that all those clones had in common, something that separated the Shadow Clone from any of them …
In general, clones had to be controlled … they required focus to puppet their motions, they required attention …
***
Jay told their team to focus on helping Kakashi, because as long as Jay could keep that water clone buzzy without dispelling it, it meant Zabuza was distracted controlling it, giving Kakashi more chances for openings …
Jay slammed his shield into the ground, focusing chakra into his feet to stick himself in position before flowing chakra through his body and clamping on it, using the kata Maito Guy taught him to strengthen the body, bracing for the blow …
The water clone bashed the gigantic sword against Jay's shield with enough force to dent the steel and rattle Jay's bones despite the reinforcement, but the blow was stopped and Tazuna was still safe …
[Jay] - COME ON PUSSY, THAT'S ALL YOU GOT ?! -
Jay yelled out loud, hoping to distract Zabuza even more as he braced himself for more blows … his body was already bruised from the vibrations, but nothing that he couldn't heal from …
[Jay] “ I have to thank Kurama for the chest that keeps on giving … “
Jay smirked as another blow made his shoulder pop out of place, only for Jay to force his muscles into putting it back on its socket …
[Jay] “ I also have to thank Guy for this technique … “
***
Kakashi dashed forwards, eyes trained on Zabuza as the world around him lost color and sounds became muted …
***
The Sharingan eye was something else … at its core, the eye did what most ninjas had to train their lives to achieve … the removal of the first limiter on the brain … the Limit on Focus …
Anyone is able to enter a state of hyperfocus sometimes, that state is mostly recognized as ‘the zone’ …
Your awareness was pushed to the limits, your perception of time slowed and hesitation disappeared from your mind … that's the zone … where a ninja could perform at their best … and something every Uchiha with an active Sharingan could enter at will …
But the eye pushed that limit further with chakra, the natural flow of chakra from the eyes to the brain enhanced the effect … the Sharingan tracked motion instinctively and in the enhanced state of hyperfocus it provided, that motion tracking became motion prediction …
The Uchiha’s prowess and almost unmatched skill in duels came from that …
***
Kakashi watched as Zabuza swung his sword like it was light … the hunk of metal slicing the air with deceptive speed … but Kakashi saw it all … bending forward, Kakashi let the sword pass above his head, close enough to cut some of Kakashi's hair …
Kakashi kept moving forward as Zabuza spun the sword around.
Zabuza let the sword momentum carry him away as Kakashi's fingers covered in dangerous sparks almost carved a chunk off his side …
But Zabuza swung his sword down towards the ground, smashing apart an earth spike that threatened to spear him while also disrupting another jutsu that tried to make his foot sink into the ground to make him get stuck …
Zabuza strung some handseals with his free hand, some of the mist saturated with his chakra condensed in droplets of incredibly compressed water that shot towards Kakashi …
***
Tazuna nursed the bruises formed when the Blond Gaki tackled him out of the way of that falling piece of steel …
Tazuna knew of the mercenaries trained to use chakra, hells, Tazuna had hired some of the stronger ones to help on the bridge construction, one worker able to move loads like a crane does wonders for how quickly someone can build a bridge … but seeing what those ‘super humans’ can do while fighting is an experience in awe and terror …
Tazuna could barely keep up with the noises, the Blond Gaki took out a sheet of metal in a puff of smoke and was weathering blows meant to bisect him … to make matters worse, the boy said that he was fighting a water clone … the real deal was fighting the Jounin with the other two kids …
The water clone kept doing the same thing, like an angry bull bashing at the obstacle in front of him until it yielded … and the Blond kid just took it …
Kid … Tazuna had to almost remind himself that they were kids … Kids that were fighting a monster that would almost certainly tear through everyone working on the bridge should the Hizao Family suspend their protection … Should the guards constantly fighting Gatoh’s mercenaries at bay falter …
For the second time in his life, Tazuna regretted being a powerless civilian as he cradled his arm and tried to limp out of the way … a single tackle and Tazuna was already almost out of commission …
***
Zabuza ground his teeth as he kept swinging his sword on circular motions made to create distance and keep his surroundings safe … The sides of the sword once more used as a makeshift shield to deflect the projectiles that the Gaki’s with Kakashi kept throwing at him … some were even explosive as a small chip on his sword attested to …
Kakashi was repeatedly getting in and out of his range, finding openings between Zabuza's circular motions to score glancing wounds with that annoying jutsu …
The constant noise made by Kakashi's chidori was a constant source of distraction, the flickering brightness of that lightning only adding to the problem …
To make matters worse, Zabuza was having to constantly circle his chakra to disrupt whatever genjutsu was being layered on him … fighting an elite Uchiha in a duel was as always a nightmare, and Kakashi was as close to an Uchiha as you could get, with his enormous experience acclimating with the eye …
Despite his Kubikiribouchou vitality reserves, Zabuza was slowly getting the worse of the exchanges … to make matters worse, the Gaki protecting his target was actually doing a good job of stalling …
Zabuza thought of dismissing the clone to better focus on his fight against Kakashi, but that would mean leaving Kakashi to receive another layer of support …
Damn tree huggers and their teamwork …
Zabuza thought about retreating, he could feel that Kakashi was starting to slow down, his chakra must have been taking a hit with all the jutsu they were swinging around … but despite the advantage in Stamina his sword gave him, Zabuza was the one on the back foot thanks to the constant distraction those genins were providing …
[Zabuza] “ If I make enough space, I can probably chuck my sword at them, they wouldn't be able to dodge … But that will leave me completely vulnerable … “
Zabuza smiled through his bandages … he would be vulnerable and probably die … if Kakashi took the opening instead of trying to save his genin …
***
Kakashi noticed a small change in Zabuza's stance, he was trying to gain more distance, circling around, trying an angle … but Kakashi wouldn't let him … Kakashi was slowly cornering his prey … the Killer Hound was smiling blood …
Dashing close, Kakashi dodged the sword that came flying at him … a desperate attempt by a cornered opponent …
Kakashi's eyes widened as his brain caught up with his reflexes …
Kakashi turned, palming a shuriken with ninja wire and throwing it towards the sword flying towards his genins that were caught off guard …
The lighter shuriken flew faster, the ninja wire tangling with the spinning sword …
Kakashi's arm strained and his chakra gripped with the force of trying to change the sword's direction …
With a grunt of effort, Kakashi was able to make the sword carve a trench into the ground, dangerously close to his genin … but they were safe …
Kakashi’s satisfaction was short lived, the injured Zabuza took that opening to kick Kakashi's ribs as he was off guard … Kakashi felt the force behind the strike crack his bones and punt him across the water … his body ragdolling for a moment as he tried to right himself on top of the water …
But before he could regain his footing, Kakashi felt a change in the water tension …
Zabuza was already halfway through the handseals needed for his jutsu, running towards a still dazzled Kakashi …
Zabuza absentmindedly dismissed his water clone to focus completely on what came next …
***
Water rose surrounding Kakashi in a globe before engulfing him …
Kakashi tried to flare his chakra to disrupt the jutsu before it took effect, but it was too late …
Kakashi tried to swim, but the water currents inside the bubble kept him stuck at the center … Kakashi stopped his motions to conserve energy and air and think …
He still had a card to play and get out of the prison … hopefully his genins would give him a better opening …
***
Jay watched as the water clone that was mindlessly bashing at his shield turned back into a puddle of water …
It was then that he heard Sakura's voice.
[Sakura] - KAKASHI-SENSEI, LOOK OUT ! -
Jay turned in time to see Kakashi’s body skipping across the water before Zabuza engulfed him on a globe of water …
[Jay] - … Water prison … -
Jay muttered before dropping his shield and turning to Tazuna.
[Jay] - Go, hide yourself… -
Jay ordered before dashing towards Sasuke and Sakura to plan on how to free their sensei … they all knew he probably had an ace up his sleeve, but was counting on them to give him the best opening …
***
Sasuke saw Jay arriving next to him …
[Sasuke] - What's the plan ? … -
Sakura felt her hands trembling as the smell of rabbit blood still clung to her …
[Sakura] - W … we need to do something … -
Jay looked around him and saw Zabuza's sword stuck to the ground …
[Jay] - … I have an idea … -
*** *** ***
