𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝒀𝑶𝑼 | 𝑲.𝑰𝑵𝒁𝑼𝑲𝑨

|I{•------» [11] «------•}I|

Kakashi scanned his surroundings with a small, masked frown. The next attack, and he was more than certain there would be one, was sure to come in the company of high-ranked shinobi. Something he wasn't entirely certain was the right thing to expose his inexperienced genin to. He glanced at the girl behind him. 'It's easy for me to say that Ruka would handle herself and those around with ease, but the rest...' He glanced at Naruto, who was glaring at Sasuke, and Sakura, who tried to walk closer to him.

Naruto trailed closely behind the Konoha princess, his ocean blue eyes mirroring his sensei's vigorous scanning of their surroundings.

His blond head snapped around at the sudden sound of rustling behind him, and without a single second thought, he produced a kunai from the pouch around his waist and launched it into a bush a few feet away.

But no yelp, pain, or even the fall of a body was heard, and Naruto could do nothing but flush to his roots when his teammates' gazes landed on him.

Ruka glanced over her shoulder at the now violently blushing blond male with a small frown before sauntering towards the bush, reappearing moments later with a snow-white bunny rabbit sprawled across her palms. "Poor thing..."

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed with a growl, her hand slamming down onto the back of the Uzumaki's head with a resounding thud. "Look what you did, you idiot!"

"Ah, bunny!" Naruto yelped out as he grabbed the bunny from Ruka's hand and rubbed it against his face. "I'm so sorry, bunny!"

The Sarutobi's blue eyes flickered towards the frantic blond before her eyes hardened when the air lapsed into several beats of unkempt silence. Her head suddenly snapped around to exclaim, "Get down!"

The remaining team and the drunkard followed her gaze just in time to see a large and very sharp sword hurtling through the air straight towards them.

Sakura dove to the ground with a shriek, her hands covering her pink head as she burrowed her face into the ground. Naruto swiftly pulled a fumbling Tazuna to the ground, but it was Sasuke who somehow managed to miss the sword by only the slightest fraction.

Sasuke flushed to his very roots at the sight of the brunette sprawled out on top of him, so close that their escaped breaths mingled with every exhale. Ruka stared at him for a while due to their closeness before she leaped to her feet, coming to a stand beside Kakashi as if she had never been on the ground.

The duo's gazes zeroed in on the new figure lazily resting upon the sword, which was now embedded in the bark of a large tree. "Zabuza Momochi, was it?" Ruka smirked, remembering she had seen his face on far too many wanted posters not to know. "If I didn't already know you were a Hidden Mist rogue, I would have thought you were an amateur for using a snow rabbit in this wonderful sunny season."

Then Naruto launched himself out of his fighting stance towards Zabuza, and Ruka quickly latched onto his wrist and hauled him backward.

"Naruto," she glared at him, her grip on his wrist tightening as Zabuza suddenly released a throaty chuckle. "He's not like those Chunin from before."

Kakashi nodded in firm agreement as he moved his hands to latch onto either side of his lopsided headband, earning a questioning look from the princess. "Ruka is right

, he's out of your league, Naruto. You can't just go rushing into things."

Zabuza's lips twitched into a smirk as he studied the silver-haired Jounin, his gaze intently focused on the eye covered by the headband. "Kakashi of the Sharingan, I presume?"

His gaze drifted towards the brunette at the famous copycat ninja's side, and he instantly felt the smirk drop down to make way for the rather shocked parting of his lips, his eyes widening in tow.

"Ruka Sarutobi. The Leaf Village's princess. Quite dangerous to be sending the girl that caused the balance of the world to be altered."

"What?" Ruka whispered in confusion. 'Altered? What does it mean?' she asked herself.

The Hatake male growled at the intense gaze focused on the brunette as he surged forward to plant himself directly before her in a protective stance. He felt Ruka's surprised gaze boring into the back of his head. "Kakashi?"

"Protect Tazuna," he ordered her, as his one-eyed gaze remained trained on the smirking figure. "Keep them out of this, Ruka. Your goal is to keep Tazuna out of harm's way."

Ruka quickly moved back to stand before Tazuna as the silver-haired Jounin removed his lopsided headband to reveal the famous orb beneath.

"So I'll finally get to see the Sharingan in action," Zabuza's smirk widened to the point where he seemed entirely devilish, masked mouth and all.

Naruto gaped between the Hidden Mist shinobi and his teacher's left eye, his face contorted in obvious confusion. "Sharingan, Sharingan, everyone keeps saying that! Would someone please tell me what a Sharingan is?"

Sasuke began to explain the Sharingan bitterly, as he recited the words he knew by heart after countless years of studying and searching for anything there was to know about the Kekkei Genkai.

"You got it right, boy," Zabuza half-heartedly praised the raven-haired male, but the pleased grin underneath his masked face seemed more aimed at him. It was only when he spoke up again, "But the Sharingan can also analyze the opponent's attack and copy it down to the smallest detail."

Zabuza took the silver-haired male's shocked silence as the perfect cue to produce a rather large and thick green book from his pouch, waving it around. "You see, I know about your copycat Ninja. This book is filled with information about many ninjas, including you and Konoha's dearest princess." Ruka's eyes widened in shock. She was confused; she barely went on missions, and the fact that he knew about her...

"Plenty of rogue ninjas have been on a mission to kidnap you, especially when that amount of money is huge," Zabuza smirked at the princess, causing Kakashi to growl at him. "But the real dilemma here is that I've been paid a lot of money to kill that old man."

Zabuza removed his sword from the tree and, in one fell swoop, launched himself into a perfect landing on top of the misty waters before them, his hand flowing into a hand sign.

"But it seems I'll have to go through you and your princess first, Copycat Ninja."