Naruto Broken Shinobi

chapter 4

Everybody was silent as they sat in a small boat being rowed through the morning mist. Naruto was sitting at the front of the boat while Kakashi was talking with Tazuna over their arrangements for staying and helping out when they should've gone home. Sasuke was eager to prove himself and smirked as he stared ahead into the thick mist. Sakura was just doing her best to avoid shivering at the thought of what they were up against. Eventually the boat landed and they all got off. The boatman wished them good luck before heading back, not wanting to get caught in what they expected to happen. "Eye's open everyone. If we're to be attacked again then now before we reach Tazuna's home would be their best bet." Kakashi ordered as they walked. Naruto took point in front of Tazuna while Kakashi was behind him and Sasuke and Sakura were to his left and right respectively.

As they were walking Naruto twitched and spun to the left and Sasuke also whipped out a kunai and tossed it into some bushes to the groups left side. There was a dull thud as the metal dug into flesh and Naruto walked over and held up a now dead rabbit. Sasuke sighed thinking his nerves were getting to him, as Sakura and Tazuna also let out breaths they didn't know they were holding. Naruto and Kakashi however scowled at the creature. "Correct me if I'm wrong sensei, but aren't rabbits supposed to be brown this time of year?"

"Yeah, they are. Which means- GET DOWN NOW!" Kakashi shouted as a large sword came spinning through above their heads and lodged itself into a tree behind them. They all got up and spun to face the blade as a man seemingly appeared on the blades' handle. He had spiky brown hair and his lower face was wrapped in bandages while he was shirtless with blue pants and blue camouflage styled arm warmers. He stared down at them impassively as they took note of the tilted Kiri headband on his forehead. "Mamochi Zabuza. The Demon of the Mist." Kakashi declared as he placed a hand by his headband, ready to move it out of the way and reveal his Sharingan if he needed to.

"Hatake Kakashi. The famed Copy Ninja. I feel honored. Last I heard you had a brat that got into the books. I take it he's one of the two boys behind you?" The man asked as if this was just a normal encounter and they weren't enemies. Naruto tossed the rabbit aside and stepped forward as he made a hand sign and five clones poofed into existence and took up stances near Tazuna. "Ah yes, blonde hair and whiskers. The Kurai Kitsune. Now I'm really liking this mission."

"You won't be getting Tazuna. I'm sure you understand that Zabuza." Kakashi kept his calm as he made sure to be ready for the slightest sign of movement from his enemy. Naruto was also standing a few feet behind him and was just as tense and ready. They had faced missing nin before and he knew the routine. Sasuke and Sakura backed up closer to Tazuna and the clones while staring at Zabuza, one with a scowl and the other with some fear she was attempting to hide.

"My reputation would plummet if I didn't at least try anyways. But you know that yourself Kakashi." Zabuza said as he flipped and pulled out his sword before landing on the ground and he held his sword out to the side, the large flat of the blade parallel to the ground. "Tell me, the two by the clones; are they newbies or just wimps?"

"Both." Naruto commented with a dark glare at Zabuza. Sasuke scowled at being called a wimp but made no comment. "But that doesn't mean you're going to touch them either Mamochi." Said nin just shrugged and looked over at the two to see their faces.

"I can see they don't really seem to trust you yet Blondie. Do they know what you did to get in the book? Hell, do they know what I did to get in the book?" Zabuza asked. Seeing them looked slightly confused but still wary towards him he chuckled. "Well how about a little story kiddies? Back in Kiri we had a very harsh graduation exam-"

"Classmates would be paired off to fight each other. To the death." Kakashi interrupted. "It was this practice that led to the moniker 'Bloody Mist' that Kiri still holds to some extent. Though they dropped the practice after one year when a single student slaughtered the entire graduating class single handedly." Zabuza sighed as he gave a very obvious grin underneath his bandages.