"Concentrate. Lissten to my voice. Focuss your sensess. Reach out to your sisster: see what she seess, feel what she feelss, let your awareness join with herss…"

Slowly the young girl's sense of self faded and drifted through the mists. It swept down the cliff, through the trees, and across the water. All at once the sensation of gliding through water rippled over her skin and she knew the technique had succeeded. Her spine twisted as she slowly rose up the pillar that supported the end of the bridge. An itch in the back of her mind, less than a whisper, told her to pull back.

"It'ss dangerous to sstay in her form sister. You have formed the connection, now come back."

The girl's gaze widened and pulled out of the white snake's body, taking in the entire scene. She saw an unfinished bridge, shrouded in mist, and a distant town still asleep.

"You are improving young one. That is the farthest you have been able to manage that technique sso well."

Reaching up to her neck, Anko ran her hand along the jade cobra's body, feeling every smooth scale.

"Eye of the serpent is not often used at such a distance; it is harder to establish the connection."

"You mean harder to releasse the connection. Bai's body felt like your own."

Anko nodded, not wanting to discuss it further. Someone had used the Hidden Mist technique and this was the only option she had to penetrate it. The cold shadows in the mist began to light up, and even the smallest details of their characters were soon visible.

"Do you ssee him? The one Orochimaru sent us to watch?"

Uchiha Sasuke. Anko was well aware of Orochimaru's longstanding fascination with the Uchiha Clan, but was this boy worthy of the attention? That was what she was sent to find out. Tracking them from Konoha was an easy feat. A party of five travelers, two battle sites along their way to the Land of Waves, forest full of trees marked with horizontal scratches obviously from a chakra lesson. For a boy of twelve this Uchiha was both more, and significantly less than she had expected. His combat was fair, but his ninjutsu was severely lacking.

"I see him. He is fighting the boy in the facemask."

Anko pulled out her notebook and wrote down everything she saw. Orochimaru was always interested in the small details that others often missed. She had trained herself to look for those things, not only on her missions but in life as well.

Uchiha fights mask boy. Masked boy uses one-handed seals. Uchiha shows skill in taijutsu.

All at once her nose grew cold as she felt the air temperature drop significantly. She felt Bai curl up to maintain body heat while keeping an eye on the scene. Not letting surprise distract her, Anko continued her notes.

Boy in mask possesses ice kekkei genkai. Ice teleportation mirrors prove too much for Uchiha to follow. The other Kiri nin, though younger, stands his ground against Sharingan Kakashi. The other genin is of no worth, the third arrives but runs into the ice trap. Uchiha fire technique too weak against ice mirrors. Boy in orange shows high stamina, multiple shadow clones useless against ice mirrors.

Kakashi fights the other Kiri nin, who seems to be wielding the kubikiribucho despite his youth. Hidden Mist techniques give him the advantage over Kakashi.

"There, do you see it?" Qing hissed in her ear.

It was vague, easily overlooked but Anko sensed it. There was a strange heat blooming in the Uchiha's eyes.

"Sharingan?" Anko asked.

"The way he's able to follow the ice boy's movements, it can't be anything else."

For Anko the battle had been easy to follow. There was always a warmth to the mirror the ice boy hid in, it was subtle but she could sense him. Like any technique, it could be defeated as it is only as strong as the user.

Uchiha activates Sharingan. The Uchiha puts self in harms way to protect team mate.

A tremendous heat bloom erupted from the blonde team mate. It must have been a terrible chakra as it even caused Bai to abandon her position on the bridge. The white snake instead moved on top of the tower at the end of the incomplete bridge. From that position many new things came to Anko's awareness.

The new chakra has proven too much for the ice nin to handle, the blonde boy defeats him. Boy rises with a shattered mask, ice mirror technique fades. A dozen boats are slowly rowing towards the bridge. They are mercenaries by the look of them. A distant figure watches the battle with intent and is moving through the mists towards it. Kakashi pulls out a scroll, most likely a summoning scroll. Confirmed, a pack of dogs attacks the swordsman. The distant figure draws closer; the men in boats begin climbing up the bridge. Ice boy and Blondie converse. Kakashi uses chidori, intending to finish off the swordsman. Ice mirrors fly, the man jumps up the bridge…

Anko pulled back her sleeve and bit her thumb. Wiping the blood along her forearm she made the seals to reverse summon Bai. In a cloud of smoke the white serpent appeared coiled around her arm.

"Why did you call me back?" Bai asked while slithering up to rest on Anko's shoulder.

"It was getting too hot down there. See even now the mists disperse." Qing observed.

On the bridge the stranger revealed himself. He was a tall man with blue hair wearing a blue robe. The man's right eye was hidden behind a black patch. He strained himself as he grasped Kakashi's wrist in one hand, and the other hand on the ice boy.

"Our observation is done. We should leave now."

"No, I want to see how this ends." Anko said as she cast a camouflage technique and disappeared from sight.

Zabuza stumbled back as the dogs holding him disappeared in smoke. The momentary relief caused his concentration to waver which broke the Hidden Mist technique. It was not the feeling he had expected. Kakashi's lightning cutter was well known, a fitting way for any shinobi to die. The scene that met his eyes surprised him more than he cared to admit.

Haku had appeared through an ice mirror to his right. He stood intending to block the technique from hurting Zabuza, but he was not the only new addition to the scene. Standing stoically even as perspiration poured down his face, Ao stood between Kakashi and Haku. He strained himself: protecting Haku with one hand, and holding Kakashi's wrist with the other. The thousand birds faded and Haku fell to the ground in front of Zabuza.

"It is an honor to finally meet the famous 'Sharingan' Kakashi, though I had hoped for different circumstances." Ao released Kakashi's wrist and stood back. Kakashi righted himself and rubbed his right wrist with his off hand, soothing it after the iron grip.

"You have two advantages over me. You know my name, and you prevented my attack when you could have launched one of your own."

Ao swept his eyes over the scene and shook his head. "Yes I'm afraid that there is much to explain here. I am Ao of Kirigakure, advisor and teacher of these two youths you see before you. Ambitious and strong-willed they took on a job to prove themselves, not knowing that the job to assassinate Tazuna and prevent the building of the bridge had been rejected by the Jounin Council." Ao's eyes looked over the scene, stopping in particular on the wounded Uchiha boy. "I'm not certain how we can repay this."

"The Mizukage and the Council are too selective of the missions the village accepts." Zabuza would not take this silently. "Our income is already limited by our location, and this job paid well."

The fact that one eye was hidden behind a path did little to lessen the sternness of Ao's glare. "You lack the vision to know what is best for the village Zabuza. This bridge means trade; the ports on the east side of the island will finally be of use which will make this island a crucial hub for all trade from the southern islands. Gatou wanted to eliminate this threat to his interests in the northern mainland ports. The Council decided that the trade would benefit Kirigakure and the Water Country far more than a paltry purse from a thug would."

"We have company." Kakashi indicated with the nod of his head.

"That's one thing I hate about you shinobi, you take too long to do anything." Gatou, a weasel of a man appeared with a large group of sword-wielding men at his back. "I should have just done this from the start. This town has been nothing but trouble and I've decided to cut my losses." Turning to his mercenaries, Gatou instructed, "Kill them and burn the town to the ground. Take whatever loot you want." Then pointing to Haku with his one good arm, "But leave that one alive, I personally owe him one for breaking my arm."

"I feel personally responsible for this." Ao turned to the mob and pulled back his sleeves. "It may be a small courtesy, but allow me to deal with them."

As Ao threw himself at the mob of mercenaries, Zabuza fell to his knees and placed his hand on Haku's forehead. He as alive but unconscious. The blonde kid really did a number on Haku.

"He was going to sacrifice himself for you." The boy said from behind.

"So?" Zabuza said it as matter of fact. "You heard Haku's story. All he wanted was to be used. To have a place he belonged. He asked you to kill him and when your hand failed he sought Kakashi's."

"That's not what he wanted at all!" Too tired to dodge, Zabuza felt the younger boy's fist strike his jaw; but with no strength the punch was too weak to hurt. "You don't know how important you are to him. He was an orphan just like… just like… and you were his brother! You helped him regain something he thought he had lost forever… And he was going to give his life for you because he didn't want to lose that again."

"Zabuza, I'm sure Ao would say the same thing. Shinobi are not tools. You found and trained Haku, you gave his life some purpose, but that's not enough."

"You don't need to say any more. I think I understand. We have to be human first." Standing up, Zabuza grabbed his sword and slung it across his back before bending down again to lift Haku. The last remnants of Gatou's mercenaries jumped off the bridge to escape from Ao, who was already walking back dragging Gatou behind him.

"I'll let you give this one to the village for their justice. Are you ready to return Zabuza?"

"No, but today I've learned that there are worse fates than getting a lecture from the Mizukage."

"Very well." With a wave Ao acknowledged Kakashi, "I'm sure the two of us would have much to talk about, but I need to get these two back home to Kiri."

"It's probably better that way. I'll take care of the rest here."

The walk to the east docks was made easier when Haku woke up and could walk on his own. Ao had traveled as quickly as boat would allow him, and only barely made it in time. They traveled in silence until Ao's curiosity got the better of him.

"So, was this the only encounter you had with the Konoha nin?"

"No, we fought once before." Zabuza replayed the encounter in his mind. He should have known Gatou was up to no good when we learned that the Demon Brothers were also hired for the job. "We used one of our old coastal bases to recuperate after Kakashi defeated me the first time."

"You were beaten by Kakashi and survived to fight him a second time?"

"Haku forced me into a coma and then fooled Kakashi into thinking I was a missing nin."

"I imagine we will be in a lot of trouble when we get back." Haku said with a solemn tone.

"There is no avoiding punishment; but the fact that you are coming back to face it speaks well for you. I shall see what I can do for you two."

And just like that there was nothing more to say. Ao would not push them for anymore information, knowing the Jounin Council would press for every small detail. There was one thing on the edge of Zabuza's mind that still bothered him. He had always possessed a talent for knowing when he was being watched. Never before had he felt it while using his Hidden Mist technique, but today was different. He knew someone had been watching from a distance. Rather than trouble him, the thought was somehow… exciting.