Mist and Demon?
The group was quiet as they walked to a boat waiting for them close to the river. A man who turned out to be a friend of Tazuna's greeted them. Sasuke had taken over talking with Tazuna at some point and offered to pay for the mission which was at least an A - rank. Tazuna had gone quiet before accepting his offer, which led to Sasuke burrowing Kakashi's ninken. Kakashi had radiated pride the whole time it happened and summoned Bull this time.
Sasuke, "That's a large dog."
Naruto, "Yeah."
Kyoko, "Anyone wanna snuggle all of a sudden?"
The large dog was a very sassy one in Kyoko's opinion, she did not know dogs could raise their eyebrows. He eyed the three of them before huffing in amusement and leaving after rumbling at Kakashi. Kakashi grumbled under his breath about nosy summons before moving ahead with the mission. Soon enough, they saw the bridge Tazuna was building and Kyoko was admittedly impressed. For a country that was economically compromised, it was doing well all things considered.
Naruto gave a whistle, "That is impressive."
Sasuke nodded, "Not bad."
Kyoko, "Yeah, guess you are not so helpless after all."
Tazuna puffed up a bit, "I can only hope to complete it soon."
Naruto threw a kunai, "Who's there?"
The rest of them became alert staring at the direction Naruto threw the kunai. The bushes stirred making them more tense and almost face plant when a white bunny of all things came out. Tazuna gave a relieved sigh though Kyoko was eyeing the bunny warily which made her teammates eye it too. Kakashi also realized a white bunny in the middle of summer was not normal and pushed them all down. They gave a squawk and the boat man screamed as a large sword went flying over them.
Kyoko gasped while Sasuke and Naruto froze at feeling a powerful killing intent directed towards them. The three of them struggled to remain standing under the onslaught of the intense intent, which felt suffocating. Kyoko notices Tazuna and the boat man was not doing any better and tried to snap out of it. Kakashi released a powerful 'Kai', to disperse the K I, and placed a hand on Kyoko. Kyoko looked at him with gratitude as she and the others tried to stop their trembling.
Kakashi was furious by what happened, his pups were trembling because of fear. He would not let their enemy get away with it, he would not let their enemies touch his students. Kakashi snapped his head up as a figure approached them through the thick mist. Naruto gasped on seeing the person while Kyoko was eyeing him with a lot of incredulity. He was powerful but they way he was clothed, something was fishy here.
Kakashi spat out, "Momoichi Zabuza, demon of the Mist."
Zabuza stepped out of the mist, "Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan. Heard you became stronger lately."
Kyoko blurted, "What are you wearing?"
Naruto pulled her sleeve, "I do not think now is the time nee - chan."
Sasuke nodded, "Yeah, come on, Tazuna - san. We can't stay here."
Kyoko, "No, I mean just look at him. Really look, that's not how a high ranking Shinobi should be. I expected better equipment."
Kakashi was amused, "You can criticize his life choices later Koko - tan. For now step back."
Kyoko, "Okay Sensei, but just now, well, things are not as simple as we thought here."
Kakashi engaged Zabuza and started to battle him, "I would appreciate it, if you could just go your way and we went our way."
Zabuza, "I don't think so, Hatake. It looks like you became soft. I heard you had become stronger. Maybe it was just a rumour."
Kakashi punched and broke a tree in half, "None of your business."
Zabuza eyed the broken tree, "Not bad."
Sasuke, "Kyoko, what's your thought process?"
Naruto, "Yeah, you were pretty annoyed and looked ready to tear into him."
Kyoko, "Just a feeling."
Tazuna felt dread, "What do you mean?"
Sasuke, "He is not the only one here, is he?"
Naruto looked at the trees, "There's another person out there?"
Kyoko, "That and I have a feeling that this guy is just a puppet."
Sasuke took out his katanas, "What? But he is an S - rank. Outside of their Kage, no one can control S - rank nin."
Naruto, "Unless they are paying them a hefty sum."
Kakashi took out his rinnengan when Zabuza was using his water jutsu to attack him. The Mist nin's eyes widened on seeing the rinnengan on Hatake's eye shocked by it. Sasuke was worried and shouted at Kakashi to end the battle as fast as possible. Kakashi smiled at them and dispelled the jutsu Zabuza was planning on attacking them with. It ate a lot of his chakra considering Zabuza was using a combination of three S - rank jutsus. Before Kakashi could attack however Zabuza was hit by senbon and he fell down.
A hunter nin appeared, "Thank you for distracting him. I was able to capture him."
Naruto, "Wait."
The hunter nin carried Zabuza up, "I must leave and dispose of this body."
Sasuke, "Don't let him escape."
Before they could do anything else however the hunter - nin had already disappeared from sight. Kyoko had a dark expression on her face as the nin disappeared. Sasuke gave an unhappy growl as he approached Kakashi and man handled him to sit. Kyoko joined him and checked their Sensei over and yep, he had eaten through more than half of his chakra. Naruto took out a seal that held a very specialized drink Kyoko had made a year ago.
His nee - chan simply called it Sting, it was a chakra based energy drink. Naruto handed the bottle to Sasuke who held it towards Kakashi silently demanding he drank it. Their Sensei did not put up any fuss and quietly drank the whole bottle down. Kyoko was checking over their client and the boat man, Takao, his name was. They were both okay, a bit traumatized by the attack but they were alright.
Sasuke, "You will need to rest after we reached the next settlement, Sensei. It's a miracle you are not out cold yet."
Kakashi smiled, "After you three fixed the chakra consumption problem, it has been easier to control how much chakra I put in."
Naruto muttered, "That's great and all but you are completely drained. And we need still have to reach a safe place before any of us are conducting any chakra transfer."
Sasuke, "Agreed! We cannot afford to put our guard down to do a transfer here."
Tazuna looked around, "We are very close to my house, so you can rest there."
Kyoko, "One room that can hold four people is good enough for us."
Tazuna paid the boat man with two bottles of sake, "I see, very well."
Sasuke, "I am surprised he still had two bottles of sake."
Kyoko, "Barter system, I guess?"
Naruto's clones returned with roughly made bed from wood, vines and leaves. The blond forced Kakashi to lay down on the make shift bed and the clones started to cart him off in the direction Tazuna showed them. They came across a clearing that had a broken gate making Kyoko frown as they followed Tazuna. The old man lead them to a house that was two storeys and knocked hollering for his daughter, Tsunami.
A woman with dark hair stepped out hugging him, "Father, thank goodness, I am so relieved to see you back alive."
Tazuna, "Tsunami, these people here kept me safe and brought me home. They need a room for their sensei."
Tsunami, "Of course, there is a room upstairs you can stay in. How long do you plan to stay?"
Kyoko, "Actually I am going to do a perimeter check. Make sure we were not followed by anyone else."
Sasuke, "I will be joining her after doing check up, so a room for two people will suffice."
Naruto nodded, "It will be just Sensei and myself here."
Tsunami, "Very well shinobi - san, I understand."
Kakashi, "Before you go, we need to plan our next move, so join me first."
Kyoko, "Understood Sensei."
Kakashi sat on the futon while Sasuke checked on his eye and the nerve endings connecting it to his brain. The Rinnengan was powerful alright but also dangerous to the user. The Uchiha clan had been very much speechless on learning about it. They only knew about the Sharingan turning into Mangekyō, not Sharingan turning into Rinnengan.
Sasuke, 'Itachi had even asked if he could get the Rinnengan to replace his Mangekyō but.... The problem would still be the same. I need to figure it out soon.'
Kakashi pat his head, "Focus Sasuke."
Sasuke nodded, "Right, so what have we learned?"
Kyoko, "Zabuza is a tool for another master mind. He is a distraction."
Naruto, "That was no Hunter - nin, he was no doubt an acquaintance of Zabuza."
Kakashi nodded, "Now here's the question, should we get further involved with Wave or should we leave?"
Kyoko spoke, "I think I would like to avoid another Uzumaki incident."
Naruto, "Nee - chan?"
Kakashi, "So?"
Sasuke, "We will not abandon this place. But we need to be careful and make sure we do not end up starting a war."
Naruto looked down, "Damned if we do, damned if we don't, huh?"
Kyoko got up, "We will figure it out. We just have to be smart about it."
Sasuke got up as well, "We will secure this settlement in the mean time. Let's go."
Kakashi distracted Naruto who was a little sullen, "Naruto, how far is your training with your transformation jutsu and clone jutsu?"
Naruto, "Er, it's going well sensei. I have transformed into seven different types of people from different backgrounds, genders, identities, skin, eye and hair colour successfully. Iruka - sensei even helped make papers for three of them."
Kakashi nodded, "Good, use your shadow clones to make them and have them walk around the settlement. Find out how bad things are out there, Sasuke and Kyoko will take care of the security."
Naruto nodded, "Understood Sensei."
Sasuke and Kyoko went through the area especially the outskirts of the settlement and left clones there to keep an eye out. They set up many types of traps as well to help the clones out in keeping trouble out. The two of them worked till early morning not returning till it was time for breakfast. When they returned Naruto was in a meditative position and Kakashi told them about their plan. Kyoko nodded and offered to help Tsunami with the breakfast while Sasuke kept an eye on the blond.
Tsunami blinked seeing her in the kitchen, "I appreciate it, um.."
Kyoko, "Naiko, if you don't mind, Sasuke and I hunted while we were doing a recon. There's a large pig in one of our scrolls but we will not have the time to prepare it. I was hoping you would gather people to prepare it and distribute it as a community feast."
Tsunami, "Community feast? I suppose, I could. It will keep Inari busy too."
Kyoko, "Sometimes you just have to hold your head high up and show everyone you are not giving up first to make a change."
Tsunami hummed, "I will call a few of the men and women to help me out. How large is the boar?"
Kyoko, "At a rough glance, it reaches your shoulder. So it is pretty big."
Tsunami nodded and requested she leave the hunt in their backyard while Tsunami sent Inari to call some of the men and women. Kyoko noticed that Inari avoided them a lot and she understood, most of the civilian population avoided shinobi. Kakashi ordered both Sasuke and her to get some sleep while Naruto took over watching the settlement through his clones. The blond had the highest amount of chakra and stomach among them after all.
When Kyoko woke up it was to being used by a body pillow by Sasuke and very late in the evening. She got up waking Sasuke in the process and the two of them went downstairs where Naruto was waiting for them. According to the blond, Gato apparently sent people to the settlement sometimes to ruin their shops and to take women and children by force. Kyoko pursed her lips, that sounded like trafficking to her and jotted it down in her report.
Naruto, "Nee - chan, I want to help them but I do not know how to help."
Kyoko eyed him, "There is one way but you must strictly order your shadow clones to avoid fighting."
Kakashi eyed her, "What are you planning?"
Sasuke, "We can send one shadow clone each too if it's that necessary."
Kyoko nodded, "I was planning on letting the shadow clone be captured and taken to where ever the kidnapped people were taken. The ANBU have arrived yes?"
Bull popped in, "Present."
Sasuke, "Cool."
Kyoko, "Once our shadow clone pops we can separate into two groups. One with the ANBU to get the people out while the other stay for protection detail. Our Konoha no bunshin should have sped up the building."
Kakashi, "It did, Tazuna was grateful. He reckons they will finish by the end of the week."
Sasuke, "Cool, so we have a plan. We should probably be ready for a political back lash too."
Kyoko, "We will burn that bridge when we get there. I am not leaving children in the hands of a civilian Danzo wannabe."