Hey all im back with another episode of Naruto the Guardian , sorry for the long upload but i new job leaves me with little time to write so I don't know when the next chapter will be uploaded buuuuttt enjoy this one and tell me what yat think, Zabuza you know what to do.

Zabuza: hmph, fine Author doesn't own any person place or thing or event from Naruto all rights belong to Kishimoto.

Chapter 19- Unlikely Allies and Unknown Assailants

"Demonic Crystal Ice Mirrors"!

"Sasuke!"

Haku looked on in confusion what was going on? She was standing on some kind of bridge and she saw...herself? And she was fighting, but who? Some blond and black haired kid from the looks of it. She was winning apparently. Looking around she could also see Zabuza fighting some silver-haired jonin. But why are they fighting Leaf ninja, to begin with?

She watched as the blond covered himself in some orange chakra and easily broke through what she considered her strongest technique. 'But how? He was getting his ass handed to him just a minute ago.

Then her mask came off and the boy looked at her in surprise, "Haku?" He asked. But how did he know her name?

"H-hey Naruto-Kun." The wounded Haku replied.

"I know him?" She then watched as this other version of herself told Naruto about her past, but why? The sound of lightning crackling caught everyone's attention. Haku watched in horror as the Silver-haired ninja ran at Zabuza, intending to kill him only for the other Haku to jump in front of the attack and just before the lighting covered hand pierced her chest...

"HAKU" she snapped her eyes open, she was sweating and breathing hard. The form of Zabuza, very much alive and unharmed, lumbering over her. He had been shaking her.

'It was only a dream?' Haku looked at her hands, 'but it felt so real!'

"You good Haku? I taught you better than to sleep in." He sounded strict and stern, but she could hear a small bit of concern in his voice.

Haku quickly got to her feet "yes Zabuza-sama, I am sorry it won't happen again."

"It's fine" he responded in a gruff voice "come on, we have to find that bridge builder."

Now as our camera pans into view we can see the new Team Eight walking down an old dirt road. Many travel and travelers forging a clear path forward. The team is in a diamond formation, with Kurenai in the front, Hinata and Ino were on either side of Tazuna and Naruto was in the back. Naruto was obviously nervous, glancing every which way looking for a puddle.

Like last time it hadn't rained in a couple of weeks, and he expected Kurenai to be able to tell such an obvious genjutsu. But as of now, he had yet to see a puddle, and they had passed Gozu and Mezu's ambush spot miles ago. But his constant state of looking out had drawn the attention of Kurenai, who said over her shoulder "everything alright there Naruto?"

"Umm yeah Kurenai-sensei, it's just..." he paused for a second trying to figure out a way to tell them to be on the lookout for two ninjas without raising awareness to the fact he knew enemies were most likely around them.

"Go ahead Naruto, I believe there are no stupid questions one can ask."

"Right, didn't Tazuna-san ask for protection from this Gato guy because he might have hired thugs?"

"Your right I did boy, Gato has some serious money and no end to the line of idiots willing to take it."

"Ahh I understand, everybody hold" she turned to look at Hinata "Hinata would you be a dear and activate your Byakugan and see if anybody is following us? I wasn't going to worry about it until we crossed into Wave, but if it will help calm your nerves Naruto then let's go ahead."

Hinata's Byakugan! That would be perfect, it would see through any genjutsu easy. But he gave Kurenai a sour look for her comment about him being scared. While Hinata weaved her hand signs Naruto shrugged "hey I'm not scared of some random idiot, I just don't wanna be caught by surprise."

Before Kurenai could respond Hinata finished her hand signs "Byakugan!"

Tazuna took a step back in surprise as the veins around Hinata's eyes became more pronounced "what in Kami's name?"

Hinata was silent for a few minutes before her Byakugan deactivated and she took a breath "I didn't see anything within sixty meters Kurenai-sensei."

Kurenai smiled "good, I didn't expect there to be any trouble so soon. But you can never be too careful, let's continue marching on then."

While he was happy the demon brothers were nowhere to be seen, that same fact brought many levels of discomfort to Naruto. Where were they? What changed to make them switch up their tactics? Something wasn't right here, and he had a bad feeling. 'Hey Kurama, any advice?'

"Stop looking for trouble where there is none kit. Hinata didn't see anything and if the Demon Brothers are going to ambush you, you'll know what to look for. Same for when Zabuza will try."

'Yeah I guess you're right, thanks Kurama, it's just, without Gozu and Mezu attacking Kurenai won't know Gato's hired missing ninja and then she won't ask for reinforcements from Konoha.'

"Guess you'll just have to pray to Kami that whoever Mei sends will be helpful enough."

Naruto sighed quietly, Kurama was right but he didn't like it. Either way, the ninja plus Tazuna continued traveling until the sun started setting which was when Kurenai decided it was time to set up camp. "Alright, you guys we will stop here for the night. Hinata" she turned around and tossed her a flask "we passed a stream a ways back, remember where it is?"

Hinata nodded "yes Kurenai-sensei."

"Good take Naruto and Ino's water tins and fill them up with some fresh water, please. Naruto, go with her and use your shadow clone jutsu to pick up some firewood for the night."

"You got it Kurenai-sensei!"

"And Ino" she looked over to the platinum blond who had sunk to the ground "we are going to set up camp while they're gone." Ino moaned as she got up and started setting up her tent. Her feet were killing her, they had been walking all day. Kurenai smiled and went over to help her. "We'll do some endurance training Ino, then this little walk we did will be a breeze."

"Ok Kurenai-sensei."

"So Ino, how's your training with Anko?" She was quick to notice Ino's skin pale considerably which was surprising for how exhausted she looked.

"Um...fine Kurenai-sensei."

Kurenai narrowed her eyes, was Ino blushing? "What do you mean just fine Ino?"

"Going great really-"

"Inooo.."

Suddenly Ino's eyes widened and she seemed to be looking at something in the distance "first rule of Anko's training-

"-don't talk about Anko's training" Kurenai finished with a sigh, maybe taking Ino to her best friend hadn't been such a good idea. "Fine, don't tell me about her training, but can you tell me what she's taught you?"

Ino shook her head coming back into focus "right, she's teaching me about regional plants that can be field made into basic poisons and remedies."

"Really? Here, stop with the tent for a second" Kurenai stood up and helped Ino to her feet "look around and see if you find anything you know and impress me."

Ino looked around before standing in front of Tazuna who had sat down on a log "can I help you girly?"

"Excuse me Tazuna-san" she kneeled down and picked up a small flower, it was round at the bottom and stretched up for maybe three inches and was purple that faded into white at the tips. "This is Memosa herbanas. We can boil this in water and make a sleep remedy, or mix it with some dark shade" she walked over and plucked a violet shaded flower "and make a semi-strong neurotoxin."

Kurenai whistled, Anko could be one hell of a teacher if she wanted to be. "Not bad Ino, I'll make a fire and you can show me that toxin."

With Naruto and Hinata

"So Naruto, tell me about Zabuza and Haku, you never talked about them much."

Naruto sighed and sat down on a fallen log, clones around him collecting firewood. "Zabuza was one of the deadly swordsmen of the Mist so it took everything Kakashi had to tale him down, especially since Haku came up with a strategy to overcome Kakashi's Sharingan."

"She sounds smart."

"He" Naruto clarified "and yes he was smart. Haku seemed like a genius with a tragic past, somewhat similar to mine. He grew up in Kiri during the civil war, and with a bloodline limit he was treated like less than dirt." Hinata gasped "yeah I understood his pain. Zabuza found him and trained him, and now Haku thinks he owes Zabuza his life."

"And what of Zabuza? Does he think that?"

"I don't think so, I believe Zabuza sees Haku like family, but Haku thinks he's a tool only good to be used and tossed aside when his usefulness ends."

"That's terrible Naruto-Kun."

Naruto looked away, it was a sad but true fact. "Yeah, it is Hina-chan. I hope this time I can save both of them."

Hinata laid a hand on Naruto's shoulder, she could understand why Naruto felt bad for this Haku person, they had a lot in common. "So this time we save him ok?"

Naruto nodded "hopefully I can convince Zabuza that Gato wants to betray him. Maybe that'll convince him of the truth-"

"AHHHHHHH"

a shrill scream pierced the air drawing the two's attention immediately, they recognized the sound of Ino's voice and without saying a word shot off towards their camp, Naruto taking the lead, was Zabuza attacking now? Shit!

When they got there they saw the limp, but breathing, blond and saw Kurenai being held by her neck, a small line of red running down her chin. Her attacker that was holding her however was a complete stranger. It was a man standing around five and a half feet with shaggy brown hair, he was wearing a coat similar to Kiba's however there was fur also around the shoulder area, there seemed to be some kind of Doberman like a dog behind him, growling at Kurenai and Naruto could barley see some form of red markings on his face.

The attacker was some kind of Inuzuka? The dog suddenly stopped and turned towards Naruto and Hinata and starter barking. The stranger said in a gruff voice "yeah I know, I smelled them coming" his eyes flicked over to the two "of course there are two more, a jonin and a genin squad protecting you old man? With the kind of money, Gato has you thought he would hire only bandits?" Tazuna was on his ass shaking, to scared to say anything.

Naruto pulled out his sword and Hinata got in her jyuken stance "a sword wielder huh? That's rare for Konoha, and a Hyuga so things did get a little more interesting after all." He dropped Kurenai, who started coughing "oy Kasamaru watch this bitch, if she starts weaving any hand signs bite her." The man turned towards the two and cracked his neck. "So who's first?"

Hinata charged ahead of Naruto, thrusting forward a palm strike. The Inuzuka stepped back dodging Hinata's first attack, deflecting her next two and stepped behind Hinata with a dash before pushing her, making her stumble forward as her momentum carried her. He didn't have a second to rest as he was dodging sword attacks from three different blondes.

His fingernails sharpened into claws in rapid succession two swings took out both of Naruto's clones and a third uppercut the real one. Upon seeing the smoke he smirked, "shadow clones huh? You really are an interesting one blondy."

Naruto huffed before getting into a defensive stance. This wasn't good, who was this man? What was he doing here instead of Zabuza? Suddenly the man started sniffing the air before ducking as a large butcher knife of a blade came flying through the air, chopping halfway through the tree, standing on top of it was none other than the bloody demon himself.

The man snarled backing up, "I know who you are and fighting you while dealing with the pipsqueaks would be annoying." He threw down a smoke bomb and vanished, his dog running away as well. Zabuza just scoffed, jumping down and pulling his blade from the tree, turning to the still-recovering Kurenai.

'Shit this is bad, we are in no way prepared to face him! Kurama can you give me some chakra I gonna need a boost?'

"I can give you a tails worth kit, the seal won't allow me to give you any more chakra without you manually pulling on it."

'And if I do that?'

"Three tails anymore would burn your chakra coils too much for me to heal, but regardless you'd go berserk for sure. You just can't handle that much of my chakra Kit, I'm sorry."

'Don't worry about it Kurama, I'll take a tails worth.'

Naruto took a breath before charging Zabuza, orange chakra swirling out of his stomach "Hinata cover me!" His voice dropped three octaves, but Hinata didn't question it. She reached into her pouch and started pelting away at Zabuza. He easily deflected them with the wider side of his blade but had to step to the side as Naruto lunged past him.

He grabbed Naruto's leg and in one fluid motion threw him to the side, but Naruto was quick to rebound off a tree, only to be met by Zabuza with a sturdy kick to the face. "Calm down brat I'm not your enemy. I was sent by Mei to assist you and 'handle' Gato."

Naruto visible flinched in surprise, Zabuza was their reinforcements? Kurenai stood up still coughing "he's right, look at his headband Naruto. Though I am surprised the Legendary Zabuza Momoichi is no longer a missing-nin?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Zabuza shrugged "the only reason I was a missing-nin in the first place was that I failed to assassinate Yagura. Now that he's no longer in power there was really no reason to be a missing ninja. At least that's what the new Mizukage thinks." Zabuza looked over his shoulder and shouted "Haku, you can come out now, these are the Leaf ninja Mei told us about."

From the bushes appeared Haku, wearing his mask "this is Haku, he's my student."

Kurenai whistled "you look like a hunter in you know that?"

"That was the original purpose Leaf-san."

"Oh right that reminds me, I am Kurenai Yuhi and this is my team, the blond girl is Ino and these two are Hinata and Naruto."

"Nice to meet you, hey kid" he looked at Naruto "what was that technique you used with the orange chakra? The way it felt was intense, is a gekke Genkai?"

Naruto faked a smile and said, "yeah it's a family bloodline thing sorry." He scratched the back of his head for added effect, the chakra fading away.

"Regardless you two charged me without hesitation, that takes guts. But your sword work requires more skill gaki."

Naruto sweat dropped, was he really about to get sword advice from Zabuza? Well, he was one of the Seven Deadly Swordsmen but at the same time he was known as Zabuza from the BLOODY Mist, might not be the kindest teacher. Naruto simply replied with "sorry I'm mostly self-taught, I don't have a proper teacher."

"So Zabuza I have a question" Kurenai stated, kneeling beside Ino checking her pulse "what exactly is your mission here?"

"I'll let Haku explain it to you, I'm going back to the camp to pack it up and bring it here, got it?"

Haku said nothing, his mask simply staring at the blond kid with the sword. That was the same blond from her dream, but how? She had never met him before..had she? And this time he had a sword, she didn't remember seeing that. "I'm sorry but have I seen you before Naruto-san?"

Naruto blinked in surprise, "um no, I don't think so? Unless you've been to the Leaf before and saw me there."

"No sorry, it's just.."

"You good Haku? Ever since that weird dream of yours, you've been out of it."

"I am fine Zabuza-sama, please go to the camp, I will explain our mission to Kurenai-san." He bowed and Naruto stared at him. Did he have a vision of the other timeline-like Lee? As Zabuza left Haku stood straight "right, Kurenai-san. Our mission is to get Gato to relinquish his power and hold over him."

"Gato's not that kind of man, he's a tyrant who relishes in the suffering of others."

"Yes, which is why Mei gave us the secondary objective of killing Gato should he not comply."

Kurenai narrowed her eyes "kill him? Why not take him back to Kiri?"

"Gato has the money, influence, and connections to make life very difficult for Kiri, even in prison. We have no way of knowing who he has on his payroll. Which is why our first objective is to find that out, and see how likely it is someone can replace him should something happen to him."

"So this is an assassination mission then, I had thought the new Mizukage was going to be different." Naruto stared at Kurenai, where was this boldness come from? Insulting the Mizukage in front of one of her ninja? And their only back up against that mysterious Inuzuka? What the hell?

But Haku only nodded "I had thought so too Kurenai-san, but please respect the fact we are not Leaf ninja and follow a different code than you do. It is no longer the bloody Mist it used to be, but we will defend it against any threat no matter what we have to do."

Naruto was confused, why did Kurenai have a problem with killing Gato? She was THE Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha, her whole shtick was killing people while they were busy dealing with her Illusions. New timeline new Kurenai maybe? Like what had happened with Ino?

Kurenai shrugged "I guess, I can't really tell you what to do, but anyways thanks for the assist, I need to talk to my student real quick." Kurenai placed a blanket. Under Ino, so she wasn't out cold on the ground and then dragged Naruto out of earshot of Haku. "What was that? I was told you weren't able to call upon the Ninetail's chakra by yourself?"

Naruto looked away, but he opted to tell her a partial truth "I can't, but I can ask the Ninetail's to give it to me, and in dire situations, he will, and I figured going against the Demon of the Bloody Mist I might need the power boost."

Kurenai pinched the bridge of her nose "alright it's fine as long as the ninetails can't take over I guess. Speaking of Zabuza though, how did you know him? Genin and civilians aren't allowed to get Bingo Books."

Naruto stopped for a second "I have an old one I found back at my house. I memorized as many people in it as I could."

"That's fine Naruto, but you know I'm going to have to report that to the Hokage right?"

"I expect nothing less Kurenai-sensei, I have a question do you know who that Inuzuka was?"

Kurenai put a finger to her chin "well when Tsume-san rose to be clan leader of the Inzuka clan I remember several of the male members having a problem with it, and left the village altogether. So probably one of them, but I've never personally seen him before. He snuck upon us, I and he started to fight and Ino passed out of fright."

"Will she be ok?"

"Physically she's fine but she's gonna wake up scared and confused so we better prepare for that, plus when she wakes up we as a team is going to have to talk."

An hour later

Ino sat up rubbing her head, why did it hurt? Oh, right she remembers she fell. But why did she fall? Oh, the man...she gasped and started looking around and saw her team as well as two people she didn't recognize sitting around a fire. "Ah Ino your awake come over here" Ino walked over and sat next to Kurenai "these are Zabuza and Haku, they were sent by the Mizukage." Ino waved and Haku bowed, but she didn't get a response from Zabuza who was to busy munching on some jerky. She had to admit the sharp teeth were a little scary, the same with the giant sword on his back.

"So what are you going to do," the scary man asked.

She looked at Kurenai confused, and she was quick to answer the question "we were only told that Gato had hired bandits and mercenaries, not trained ninja. That brings this mission at the very least to a B rank, which Wave did not pay for, and what I believe you're not ready for. But I know how Naruto and Hinata feel about the problem so I decided to wait until you woke up to make a decision."

"How Naruto and Hinata feel?"

Naruto jumped in "the people of Wave are suffering because of Gato and they need help. They can't get rid of Gato because they're scared of him. Hinata and I want to help and with Zabuza and his apprentice here we can." Hinata nodded but said nothing biting into her own jerky, but looking resolved.

"Besides," the masked man said in a soft voice "your sensei was telling me about your training in poison. Wave has few doctors in it and with help from you and me, we may be able to help some people. And I would be happy to teach you somethings."

"So basically Kurenai-sensei we stay or we leave?"

Kurenai nodded "yes that's the gist of it."

"Is there any way we could call for back up?"

Tazuna spoke for the first time "unfortunately young lady no, if word of this gets back to the Leaf than this mission officially becomes a B rank mission, and the people of Wave is too poor to afford such a mission."

"If you don't want to risk your students Kurenai," Zabuza said in between bites "Haku and I can protect the bridge builder while doing our own investigation."

Kurenai shook her head "it's not the Leaf's way to leave when people are in trouble. Naruto and Hinata already know what they want" she turned back to Ino "but it's not fair to ask you to put yourself in danger just because they want to, which is why I'm giving you the choice Ino, what do you want to do?"

Ino looked down and grabbed the edge of her skirt. Honestly, just the thought of that man was enough to make her shake, but seeing the resolved look on Naruto's face and Hinata's as well...she hardened herself. She was a kunoichi of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. "I choose to stay Kurenai-sensei. Maybe with my herbal knowledge, I learned from Anko-sensei I can doctor some people."

Kurenai smirked, the girl had more iron in her than she thought "well there's your answer Zabuza. Tazuna we meet your boatman in the morning so get some rest. I assume you and your apprentice can water walk the distance?"

Zabuza made a gruff noise of affirmation, and Ino asked "water walk Kurenai-sensei?"

"It's a technique were you use chakra to anchor yourself to water and by doing so your ability to walk on it without falling in, its a good chakra control exercise, but before I teach you that I'm going to teach you to tree walking wich is the same technique in principle but easier to accomplish."

"If it helps Kurenai-sensei, Hinata knows how to tree walk and she taught me."

Kurenai nodded "ok, have you two mastered water walking?"

"I can, but Naruto's is still shakey" Hinata giggled at Naruto's exaggerated sigh, even with shadow clones helping his chakra control was still shoddy.

"Well, Ino" Kurenai stretched her arms over her head "looks like Hinata and Naruto are ahead of the learning curb, so you and I are going to work on getting you caught up."

"Um.." Ino raised a finger "not that I mind but how much work are we talking about?"

Kurenai's evil chuckle did not fill her with confidence, she pulled out a kunai and threw it to the top of a nearby tree "when you reach that by walking up the tree then we've done enough work." She lead Ino over to the tree and started leading her through the same process did Kakashi did with team seven.

'Or well the OLD team seven, I guess.' Keeping track of what is vs. What was, was going to be difficult.

Hinata giggled "I remember Kurnai doing it with Shino and Kiba and me, it seems so weird to be watching it from the outside."

"Let me guess you got it first and Kiba last right? Tell me how many times he hit his face running up?"

She hit Naruto's arm playfully "stop it you." She glanced over to Zabuza and Haku who were off doing their own thing, mainly setting up their tents for the night. "That Haku guy thinks he knows you. Do you believe he had a vision like Lee?"

"Hard to say, not like I can straight up ask him without sounding like some mad man. Besides any vision he might have had would have been of him fighting Sasuke and Me. Or the meeting we had when I passed out in the forest and he found me looking to pick herbs after Zabuza and Kakashi-sensei's first battle."

"Speaking of the future, did Kami ever explain the dreams?"

Naruto sighed "from what I understand of what she told me because I was sent back in time, an alternate timeline has been created, and time itself is trying to merge this timeline and the old one together 'cus there's not meant to be more than one. She's keeping the merge from absolutely wrecking the world, and there's residual time energy seeping past her. Thus giving these people of the past a glimpse at a time that won't exist more much longer."

"Wow Naruto, impressive. You're not as dumb as you act sometimes, that sounded halfway smart."

Naruto lightly pushed her arm and laughed "hey now, I only had Kurama explain it to me seven times."

"Twelve times kit, and on the twelfth one I had to make it so easy a baby could explain."

Hinata looked down a little sad "so I guess that means there won't be anyone else getting their future memories back then? Just you, me, and Neji?"

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose, "probably if the future ceases to exist then I can't see her pulling anyone from if like she did for-"

"AHHHH" *Thump*

All four ninja turned to see Ino on her back and Kurenai standing over her "ah so close Ino, just another hour maybe two and you'll be a pro."

Ino rubbed her butt and got up groaning "ugh, I'm going to be soar tomorrow"

Naruto walked up "here Ino, try this" he set his foot flat against the tree when he felt his foot stick he placed his other foot "take it slow, one step at a time. It's how I finally managed it."

"Impressive Naruto, Hinata makes a pretty good teacher, go ahead and try it Ino."

Ino hesitantly placed a foot on the tree and then her other one. She slowly walked upwards, making jt halfway up the tree before her foot slipped and she fell. "Ahhh...huh?" She looked confused until she saw she had landed in Naruto's arms. He had caught her, she blushed and looked away "thanks Naruto" she mumbled.

He helped her to her feet "not a problem Ino."

He walked back over to Hinata who had a raised eyebrow "look at you being a hero in shiny armor. Careful she might fall for you was a blush even I would be proud of."

"Ha very funny Hinata" he leaned over and kissed her forehead "but you know I've got my eyes on you and you alone."

Hinata huffed "you better buster. I don't want any female on two legs thinking they can get in your pants once your heritage is made public.'

"I hate to break up your moment but" the two turned and saw Zabuza standing over them, his sword perched across his shoulder, the two rolled in opposite directions when Zabuza brought his blade down, smashing the log Hinata was sitting on in two.

"Haku" he called out over his shoulder "take the girl, I'm gonna test the gaki's sword work." Haku nodded throwing a barrage of senbon at Hinata forcing her to abandon her charge of Zabuza and jump away. Zabuza picked up Naruto's sword, which had been leaning against the log he broke and tossed it over to Naruto, who had recovered from his roll.

He caught it and drew it out of its sheath in one swift motion, getting in his father's uncompleted stance. He had both feet placed shoulder length apart, leaning on his back foot slightly, his left hand was stretch out in front of him and his sword was raised to be even with his head flat side facing the ground.

"Oh?" Zabuza said amused "that's an aggressive looking stance and one I haven't seen yet. You cook that yourself gaki?"

"Actually my father came up with it, but he never had time to complete it, but here's a surprise for you, shadow clone jutsu!" Two clones popped out into existence beside Naruto, all in the same stance.

"Shadow clones" Zabzua whistled "impressive gaki. Not bad at all, now let's see if the advantage of numbers helps you at all."

The three clones went straight for Zabuza, one leaping in the air bringing the blade down, the second lunging forward with a jab and the third one slid when it got close enough bringing his blade up, they all shouted in unison "Uzumaki First Style: Dragon Stance- Triple Sickle Slash!"

The three blades met Zazbuza at the same time, slicing right through him, making his body slosh down in a puddle of water. The three clones regrouped and stood back to back looking for the real Zabuza. From all around Zabuza's voice echoed "wow kid, nice technique, a little faster, and your attack might not be as predictable. Next time, my water clone won't let you hit it so easily."

Hinata flipped away, using the tree behind her as leverage as senbon embedded themselves into its bark. Seriously how many senbon did this guy have? He was fast, and his arsenal of throwing weapons and ice jutsu meant Hinata was having a hard time getting close to him. She pressed her back against another tree and flinched as a hail of ice senbon flew by her. His aim was nothing to scoff at either.

If only she could get close to him, Haku didn't seem like a good close-quarters fighter. She rolled out of her cover throwing three shurikens, colliding with more senton, and started running at Haku. Well, it was only a few years early but she had an idea. Haku leaped back and made some ice senbon.

Hinata pulled her arms back and as the new barrage came closer she thrust forward "Eight Trigrams: Air Palm!" A small gust of wind leaped forth from her hand and barely managed to push the senbon off course, but both enough one sliced through her jacket, leaving a small cut. She grinned, behind the mask, she could assume Haku was surprised by the maneuver, so was she.

Now that she had a way to deflect his weapons, Hinata ran forward with renewed vigor, "impressive Hyuga-san. But one technique won't be able to stop me." Haku stomped and tiny water droplets splashed into the air. Making one-handed signs, and the other to throw senbon to slow Hinata's rapid approach, the droplets turned first into ice, and second into thousands of tiny needles. "Ice Style: Two Thousand Needle Column!"

The small needles formed what looked like one large cylinder, before being launched at Hinata, Hinata stopped for a brief second, it's diameter was big enough she wouldn't be ae to jump or roll out of the way in time so she got into her juken stance. 'Well guess it's time to access my inner Naruto and improvise.' She took a deep breath, if this worked it would use more than half of her remain chakra, and if it didnt...well this was gonna hurt. She opened her eyes her byakugan going full force.

She leaped to meet the column head-on basically scream "Eight Trigrams: Lion Style: 128 Air Palms!" The chakra around her hand-formed small lion hands and she hit forward twice "2 palms!" The burst of air, strategically aimed at weak points in the chakra scattered the needle's, sending them flying to the side where they melted into water instantaneously.

'Yes,' Hinata cheered to herself, as she proceeded with her attack. "Four palms...Eight palms...sixteen palms...thirty-two palms...sixty-four palms...one hundred and twenty-eight palms!" By the time she finished her technique, the cylinder had been completely demolished, Hinata herself was huffing, her new technique had taken more out of her than she was expecting.

"It's not over yet Hyuga-san" Hinata swung behind her, aiming for Haku's head, but in her weakened state Haku simply ducked under it, before kicking Hinata away. "Please forgive me" she pulled out a handful of senbon "but I think this fight is over now."

"WOAH" Naruto jumped away as Zabuza cut through the tree he had moved behind.

"Shouldn't we be helping him Kurenai-sensei?" Ino asked.

"Well if you want to then be my guest, while you were out I asked Zabuza to assess Naruto's kenjutsu. My own knowledge of the art is limited at best, and the only proficient people I know are Anbu black ops. Though I didn't say anything about attacking Hinata, if she can get some exercise out of this then it's not all bad.".

"So your just gonna stand there and let that maniac swing away at your student then?" Tazuna had opted to join Kurenai, away from the two sharp blades being swung around.

"If Ino wants to help Naruto then I'm not going to stop her, but I want to see the full potential of my student."

'Does she want me to?' Ino asked herself 'is this some kind of test?' Ino shook her head, her body was tired from the long walk and repeated falls from the tree, but Naruto needed her. She got on one knee and started making hand signs, ending with her hand making a triangle, with Zabuza's frame being in the center. She didn't see Kurenai's proud smile.

The only problem was that Zabuza and Naruto were moving too much for her to get a lock on the larger man. 'Come on Naruto, keep him still long enough for me to hit him.'

Naruto was vaguely aware of Ino's movement but couldn't turn to see her if he took his eyes off of Zabuza he would pay dearly. He needed to-*smash* Zabuza's cleaver landed in the spot were Naruto had previously been, going into the ground so much that it was actually stuck. Naruto took the opportunity to run up the blade and munge forward with a jab.

Zabuza moved his head out of the way and used his blade to throw Naruto away. "Not bad kid, are those Kiri sword styles your using?"

Naruto landed with a flip and grinned "yeah ran into a guy, Chojuro, gave me a scroll on blade work."

Zabuza chuckled "of course he would. But overall your power is still lacking" he pointed his sword at Naruto "you've got a long way to go before you can call yourself a swordsman." Naruto laughed "what's so funny kid."

"I can't beat you, true but you forgot one thing Zabuza."

"And what's that gaki?"

"I'm a Leaf Ninja, we work in teams!"

Zabuza looked over to his shoulder just in time to see Ino fall forward before his world went black, "where am I?" He shouted and a feminine voice responded.

"Inside your head Zabuza-san, Naruto now!"

When he came to Zabuza found himself tied to a tree, and Haku was there just about to cut him loose. "What happened?" He asked confused.

"My other student is a Yamanaka Zabuza-san."

He looked over to the skinny blond who was looking away bashfully. "Not bad blonde, but now that I know it won't happen again." He could see Hyuga lying on the ground unconscious. "How did your spar with the Hyuga go Haku?"

Kurenai listened with piqued interest, "yes please do tell."

"Hinata is a very capable and ingenious fighter. If one of her techniques hadn't taken most of her chakra out of her, she would have beaten me." Naruto smiled at Hinata. That was right, she was just as much a genius as any other Hyuga.

Somewhere in the Hyuga Compound Neji let out a monstrous sneeze. "Seriously," he said to himself "am I catching something?"

"And what of Naruto, Zabuza-sama?"

"Well," Zabuza replied, "honestly if he's telling the truth about being self-taught then he's got potential, all he needs is a good teacher to help him hone the basics, after that it'll just be practice and he might just be good enough to be on par with one of the Seven swordsmen."

All looked well as the group talked for a little while longer, unaware of the dangers they would soon face, and the powers they would soon awaken...

And that is that. Tell me what ya thought and have a good day or a great night ok? Until next time

Ja Ne!