Hinata made a last minute control of her backpack to be sure that she wasn't forgetting anything.

This was her first important mission, something that should have been classified as a B or A-rank, and she didn't want to fail her team mates or any of the other teams.

Kurenai-sensei had explained them the circumstances of this mission and how all the rookies took part in it, even... 'Naruto-kun.'

The Hyuuga girl blushed thinking of him, he was always so sure of himself, so relaxed and laid back about everything, like nothing could touch him, yet the same time he wasn't arrogant but nice and funny.

She really admired him and wanted to be more like him, but she just couldn't.

She had tried but she was always so nervous, and even if Neiji was helping her it was clear that both him and Hanabi were better than her at juuken.

She had once heard her uncle, Hizashi, telling her father that he shouldn't be disappointed because she could be better at other things and always improve.

Hiashi didn't answer him that night, he changed topic saying something about not trusting Kumo, but Hinata couldn't remember, she had stopped listening soon after. The only thing that she had got was that Kumo was apparently trying to acquire the Byakuugan.

Satisfied with her backpack, Hinata put it on her shoulder and went out the compound to reach the east gate, where her sensei had told her they would meet before leaving for Wave country.

She was determined not to let down anyone, and who knows, maybe this could be her chance to confess her feelings to Naruto.

In a couple of minutes she arrived at the gate were she spotted two other girls having a not-so-civil argument about Sasuke.

She didn't understand how they could be so fixated on him, he was always so cold with everyone.

Said Uchiha was brooding under a nearby tree, while Kiba was glaring at him. Not too far from them there were Kurenai and Asuma who were talking with each other. Kakashi, Shino, Chouji, Shikamaru, and more importantly Naruto were nowhere to be seen.

Hinata quietly sat down near Kiba, even if he was a little brash he still was her team mate and friend, and the only one she could hope to have a word with, at the moment.

After waiting for a minute or two they heard the noise of three people coming. Looking up they saw Shikamaru, Chouji and Naruto having a lively argument, which was a bit of a shock, after all they had never seen the young Nara put effort into anything before.

It was like having Shino laugh hysterically, it simply didn't happen.

"I think Shika is right Naruto, if the grass has been cut recently it tickles."

"But it's just that the point, it can give you a scratch on your back. Beside if the grass it's reeeally long it comes into the eyes and disturbs our cloud watching!"

Hearing that bit of their conversation Asuma slapped his face groaning.

He had a team with a bossy fangirl and two boys who argued on the length of the grass to lay when cloud watching.

What did he ever do to deserve this?

The only bright side was that his team won't cause troubles.

If the way the Inuzuka glared at the Uchiha was anything to go by, Kure-chan and Kakashi were the ones going to have lots of problems.

Shino was the next to arrive, he nodded at them all and sat down silently.

On the other hand Kakashi didn't come around until twenty minutes later with their client.

The copycat ninja scratched his head sheepishly when nine genins and two juonins glared at him.

Naruto and Shikamaru found it too troublesome to hold it against him. Maybe the young Senju will prank him later, though.

"He he he, sorry I'm late but Tazuna-san and I had to help and hold lady carrying her bags."

Naruto tilted his head to the side, it seems he didn't have to wait to mess a bit with the jounin, "I didn't know that you did D-ranks in your spare time. Do you need money?"

"What? No, it wasn't a mission."

Shikamaru grinned evilly at him, quickly catching on where Naruto was going, "You aren't saying that you performed a potential mission for free, are you? You'd be threatening our economy otherwise."

"Err, shouldn't we worry about our journey to Wave?" Kakashi said trying to avert the discussion. The two genins chuckled at him.

"All right smart asses," The one eyed Hatake called them, "if you're so clever, why don't you two come up with a plan of action?"

Asuma smirked, if there was something those two good at without doubt it was strategy.

When he tested Shikamaru it turned out that the boy was a real genius with an IQ over 200.

But when the boy told him that Naruto almost always beat him at shogi he was slightly scared.

He still hadn't had time to make Naruto do the test, but for him to be better than Shikamaru...

The young Senju spoke up first, "Well, I think we should separate, we are too many to safely guard Tazuna-san, we'd end up going into each other way."

"One team should go straight to Wave and wait there, so we're sure that once there, there won't be nasty surprise, and they must have a way to communicate with who rests to guard Tazuna-san, so that they can always come back to help in case the others have trouble." The Nara added.

Naruto nodded, "And another team should walk slightly ahead to prevent eventual ambushes. So one in Wave, one ahead on the road, and one with Tazuna. How does that sound Kakashi-sensei?"

Said silver haired jounin and Kurenai looked at Asuma who was smiling at them.

The hell with their argument about the grass, he didn't mind any more as long as he could rub into the other senseis' faces how his students could come up with great plans.

However it seemed that a certain pink haired genin had different thoughts.

"What kind of plan is that? We should stay together, it's too dangerous to spilt up!"

"On the contrary Sakura-san," Shino said, "it's only logic to make sure that our destination is a safe place, and the two teams that travel could always regroup for the nights, while still remain separated during the day, making them smaller targets to avoid attention."

"And which team should get which role?" Ino asked her two team mates.

"I'd say that Hinata, Kiba, and Chouji should head to Wave because with the Byakuugan and Akamaru they should be able to tell if the place is safe and when we're coming."

Shikamaru reflected out loud, "Sasuke, Sakura, and Shino should travel ahead with the bugs controlling the path."

"Which would leave us with the old drunk." Naruto noted playing with a sake bottle in his hands.

It took Tazuna some seconds to realize that it was his bottle with his sake that kid had stolen. The fact that he also had a pack of cigarettes and what looked like pornographic books made quite the picture.

"Kurenai-sensei, we're surrounded by bad people with bad habits." The orange clad boy whined showing her all the things he had. The red eyed jounin shook her head with an half smile, at least it seemed Hinata won't have to worry about him developing one of those addictions, despite the bad examples her colleagues and client were providing.

"I can't believe we're following those two's plan! Wasn't using our numbers the whole point of sending three teams?" Sakura complained.

It was starting to get on Sasuke's nerves how she won't ever shut up, and the fact that Kakashi was peacefully reading his smut while Shino didn't seem all that affected while his bugs had made a bunshin of Tazuna wasn't improving his mood. He also had trouble accepting the fact they were indeed following the sleeping duo's plan, what made it so good?

He could have done better.

The only good thing was that, being in the scouting team, he'll be able to finally fight real opponents and show just how much more skilled he was compared to everyone else. And surely then Kakashi will realize that he was ready for serious stuff and will stop to force him doing stupid chores.

What Sasuke didn't notice during his mental rant was that the jounin had actually put away his precious orange book and was looking ahead at two small pools.

Glancing at his students he saw a brooding boy lost in his own world, a girl lost in her fantasies about said boy, and only Shino and his bugs who were aware that something was wrong.

Before he could say anything to warn his two distracted students however, two enemy ninjas wearing Kiri hitai-ate with horizontal slashes jumped out from the puddles and made a dash for Tazuna, who dissolved in a bunch of bugs.

Kakashi and Shino were already reacting while Sasuke was a little slower and Sakura went wide eyed and let out a scream of surprise before taking one or two steps back.

Kakashi limited himself at throwing a couple of kunai to keep one of the two enemies away from the Aburame because he wanted to see what his student could do, and soon Sasuke joined the fight too, so that both genin had one opponent.

Shino was using his insects to keep his enemy from coming to close while trying to dry his chakra reserves, while Sasuke engaged his adversary in taijutsu until he managed to send him flying towards his comrade with a kick to the head.

Kakashi however was all to aware that the missing nin had let himself getting hit and sprung into action.

Just when the kicked ninja was about to collide with his comrade, the missing-nin spun around, jumped over him, and attacked Shino, while at the same time the other launched a barrage of shuriken towards Sasuke.

It was obvious from how smoothly they moved to exchange their opponents that their teamwork wasn't the result of just a single job together.

The copy nin deflected half of the shuriken aimed for Sasuke with his own, confident that the Uchiha would dodge the others, and punched the nin who was about to hit Shino with his right hand while at the same time grabbing the other with his left and throwing him away. Sparing a glance towards Sasuke he saw he was ok except for a little scratch on his arm.

Their two assailant looked at them and then at each other.

"There are more ninja than expected," began the first one, "we should-"

"-retreat for now, and report this to the boss." The other finished.

They shushined out of there without giving Kakashi the time to stop them.

The copycat ninja relaxed his stance and motioned for his students to sit at the border of the street.

He would have stopped them or even chased them, but for now he'd rather not endanger his students.

Sasuke made to complain about the one eyed jounin decision, but he said that they had to inform Asuma about what happened, and went to look for the young Uchiha little wound.

As Kakashi feared it was poisoned, meaning they'll have to come back to have it looked over by a med-nin. Unless...

Some minutes later team 10 and their client came into view. Asuma had a worried look, he had felt some fight was going on.

"Kakashi, did something happened?"

"Yeah, there were two ninja waiting for us. I think I recognized them from the bingo book, they were the demon brothers, missing-nin from Kiri, ranked chuunin. They fled saying something about warning their boss about the fact that we're more than they expected."

"So the next time they'll be prepared to deal with two teams, but I doubt they know about Kurenai's team." Asuma reasoned.

"Yes, but the problem is that Sasuke got poisoned and needs to be treated."

This admission got shocked reaction from said genin and his two fan girls.

"WHAT?" the pink head screamed, "Why didn't you tell it sooner? You should have said this immediately, we need to go back!"

"Calm down Sakura, I didn't said it earlier because if he gets agitated the blood, and consequently the poison, will spread faster through his system. Besides I've been thinking that maybe Naruto could treat him, after all Rin said Tsunade-sama has taught you a bit about medicine?" Kakashi said tentatively.

Naruto shuddered and sat down in front of Sasuke motioning him to let him have a look on his arm, which the dark haired boy did begrudgingly and showing little trust in his exclassmate skills.

"Naruto, you better heal him, Sasuke-kun can't die before we got on our date!" Sakura proclaimed.

The whiskered genin looked at the Uchiha "Are you sure you want me to treat you? I mean, if you want so badly to get away from her, you have my support and understanding."

"Naruto! Stop being an idiot, and be serious for once. Is Sasuke-kun going to die?" a scared Ino yelled.

"Yes," Naruto said shocking everyone, "Every human being is going to die, it's just a matter of time. Anyway you can calm down, your obsession won't die because of this."

Kakashi and Asuma had to restrain the two kunoichi from beating him while he rummaged in his backpack.

Naruto took out a scroll and opened it smearing a little blood on a seal. Suddenly a bottle with a light blue liquid and a syringe appeared out of nowhere.

"I'm not totally sure of what poison has been used and don't have the time to do a specific antidote, but I do have an idea of what substances have been used, and this will no doubt be effective. However it isn't exactly cheap, so I expect to have a reimburse once this mission will be over."

Ino and Sakura got angry at that "How can you speak about money in a situation like this?"

"Hey, it's not like I've asked him to pay me, but this medicine is quite expansive, so the village will have to pay me back for it."

Kakashi decided to speak up to prevent a fight between the genins, "Don't worry Naruto, we'll mention this in our report. Now, is Sasuke all right? does he needs rest?"

"I'm fine!" the wannabe avenger shouted.

"Sasuke don't be reckless, in situations like this you have to listen to the medic-nin in charge of your treatment." the silver haired jounin reprimanded.

"He'll be all right, he shouldn't strain himself, but if we camp now and he sleeps all night tomorrow he'll be good as new and able to fight." Naruto answered putting his scroll back in his backpack.

Kakashi eyed him for a second before asking, "On a different note, are those storage scroll?"

"Yes, , Jiraiya kyoufu gave me them as birthday gifts."

The copy nin nodded before turning towards Auma, "Maybe it's better travel together from now on. Since we weren't able to stop them once they'll relay this info an attack will be inevitable and they'll know where to strike."

The other jounin nodded in acceptance and they began to camp, all the while Tazuna looked at the orange clad boy with new found interest.

He had heard that medic-nin where extremely rare, not only that, but together with seal masters and bloodline limit wielders they were the most wanted. To think this kid was already good enough to treat a poisoned wound with so little effort was amazing in his eyes.

Meanwhile Kakashi resolved to have a word with his team.

"Come here guys, I want to speak about what happened. Firstly it's about you Sakura, and you Sasuke. This mission isn't a walk during which you can reflect on the meaning of life, so I'm expecting you to be more aware of your surroundings from now on. Another thing is that there will be fights, I understand you've frozen up Sakura, after all it's our first mission like this, but next time you'll have to act to help your team, ok? Sasuke, you fought well, but you shouldn't be so reckless, you won't always bable to count on a medic-nin. Shino you did good enough, well done. Now go and rest, all of you."

Sasuke didn't seem to take being reprimanded too kindly, but didn't say anything. Sakura on the other hand was visibly embarrassed, although grateful that her sensei spoke with them away from the others.

She was also relieved by the fact that Kakashi-sensei didn't sound too disappointed but confident that they'll do better.

Unknown to her, he himself was glad that he managed to make her understand what he wanted without making her go into depression.

After all he was new at this teaching thing, and he wanted to be for them what Minato-sensei had been and still was for him. It wouldn't have been good if they started to think he didn't have faith in them or disliked them.

After that they joined team 10 and Tazuna, Ino and Sakura began to argue over Sasuke, but in a quiet way because Asuma seemed to be in a bad mood that Kakashi assumed was caused by lack of smoke.

Shino was is silent self, Shikamaru was laying back near Naruto who was reading an orange book... 'Wait, that's one of the three I've brought with me! I'm starting to think that Rin was telling the truth when she told me that he left sensei in his boxer. Oh my god, if Tsunade-sama hears of this...' the ex-anbu captain paled.

"Naruto, can I have back my book? I don't think your mother would like it if you read them, they're for mature readers."

"I know Kakashi-sensei, don't worry. Jiraiya thought it was his duty as a godfather to have me read his pieces of literature, so in reality I've already read these. You know when I said he gave me those storage scroll? Well, let's just said he's been very lucky that kaa-san hadn't controlled if there was something sealed in them. The one time kyoufu tried to give me one directly my mom wasn't really happy."

The legendary copy nin discretely turned green under his mask.

He had a suspicion that the fact the boy stole it wouldn't be a good enough excuse to save him from becoming grind meat. Thinking fast he saw only a way out of it, even if it pained him.

So he leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "You know what Naruto? You can read my books whenever you want BUT you have to swore me that even under torture you won't EVER say ANYONE that I let you."

"Not even my kaa-san?"

"Especially not to your mother. Deal?"

"Deal."

The two shook hands sealing their secret agreement. Naruto then took his sleeping bag from one of his scrolls, much to the irritation of a certain dark haired genin of team 7 who wondered why he himself didn't have storage scrolls, and laid down. His companions however sweat dropped when they saw that he was squeezing a sponge while trying to sleep.

Far away from the Konoha teams' camp, in a hidden based, the demon brothers were reporting their fight to their leader.

The man was sitting on a couch an holding a big sword, behind him was standing a boy with long dark brown hair an a anbu-like mask.

Just when their leader was about to say something, the door opened and a smaller man wearing a black business suitcame in, closely followed by twoarmed mercenaries.

"What's this that I've heard? It seems your two lapdog can't take care of an old drunk, Zabuza, I expected something better with how much I pay you." The little man said arrogantly.

Zabuza effortlessly lifted his huge zanbato and pointed it towards him, "Gato, it seems the target was guarded by more people than we thought, at least two teams from the leaf village. And one of his bodyguard is the famous copy-nin Hatake Kakashi. This will cost you three times what we initially agreed."

"What? That's ridic-" Gato's protests were interrupted by Zabuza pressing his sword farther towards him until it touched the little business man's neck, "Fine, but I'll give you the money only after you've completed the job." The swordsman grinned "No problem."

Once Gato left the room the masked boy, who saw the thoughtful expression of his master, took a couple of steps further and spoke up, "Zabuza-sama?"

"We are outnumbered. I'll need you to do a thing for me, Haku."

The next day two genin teams, their senseis, and one bridge builder took a boat to reach the island that was Wave country. It was foggy, which increased the chances of not being spotted, and they weren't using the engine.

They reached the island that was Wave without troubles. The genin kept looking at the incomplete bridge Tazuna and his men were working at, which was visible from where their boat had left them.

Tazuna was pleased by their curious and awed expression, "I bet you've never seen a bridge like this, have you?"

Of course they nodded, actually none of them had even left the village before, with one exception in the form of Naruto who spoke up, "Actually I have. When I was younger my mother, my sis and I have travelled a lot, but I must admit this is one of the bigger ones I've seen."

Sakura fought the impulse to say him to stop trying to look cooler than Sasuke-kun, after all everyone in their village knew that what he told about travelling with his mother was true, and Tsunade-sama was one of the legendary sannin, so it wasn't recommended saying something against her. She didn't know that should anyone insult Tsunade, the slug sannin and her temper were no longer what would doom them.

Their peaceful walk was abruptly interrupted when Asuma threw a kunai towards one of the bushes on the side of the road. Kakashi hurriedly went to see what was there but he found only a little white rabbit that seemed to want to flee as far away from them as he could.

Shikamaru was the only one who saw Naruto left hand trembling slightly when he saw the rabbit, and as absurd as it may sound, the young Nara had the distinct impression that his friend was exercising a lot of self-control to not jump at the rabbit. 'And now that I think of it, why is its fur white? It's not winter yet' the pineapple boy thought.

"Everybody down!" Kakashi yelled.

Asuma pulled Tazuna to the ground while the genins ducked on their own except for Naruto.

He looked curiously behind him at the object that was speedily coming closer and closer before jumping over it.

When his feet touched the ground again the object, which was a huge zanbato, had embedded itself into a nearby tree, and on top of it stood a ninja with a slashed Kiri hitai-ate.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A bunch of useless genins, a former of the twelve ninja guardsmen, and Sharingan Kakashi." The missing-nin said, then he looked at Naruto, "You know kid, you're really lucky you managed to jump over my sword, it would have been safer to get down."

The orange clad boy grinned, "Sure, but that way it was easier to give you a present."

The swordsman eyed him suspiciously before caching on what he was implying.

Looking down, he saw an explosive note on his zanbato that was about to blast. In the little time he had, he used his speed to grab the sword and positioning it so that it wouldn't affect him.

Asuma murmured a "well done" before instructing his student to protect their client with the others while Kakashi addressed the missing-nin, "If it isn't the demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi, one of the seven swordsmen. I suppose you're working for Gato with the demon brothers?"

Shikamaru heard Naruto grumbling to himself, "Demon here, demon there, yadda yadda, what the hell?" He wasn't able to understand what else he was complaining about or why.

"Yeah, sorry, but the old man is mine." Zabuza said, "Meizu, Gouzu, I'll take Kakashi, you think about the other one."

"What about-"

"-the children who play ninja?" the two brothers asked.

Zabuza grinned evilly emitting his killing intent "We'll take care of them later, if they try anything kill them."

Sasuke began trembling in fear under the pressure, Shino's bugs buzzed angrily, Sakura and Ino were petrified, Shikamaru was sweating and Naruto...yawned loudly and rubbed his eye, temporally removing his goggles before putting them back without letting anyone see his eyes.

"Sorry. Hey Shika, knight in C3."

"I don't think now it's a good time for a game, Naruto." His team mate deadpanned.

"You won't do anything, Zabuza." Kakashi proclaimed lifting his hitai-ate and revealing his shraingan. Sasuke had a shocked expression at that, 'how can Kakashi-sensei have the sharingan?' he thought.

"I'm honoured to see that eye," Zabuza said sarcastically, "But it will be of no use. Kirigakure no jutsu" the demon of the hidden Mist called out. Suddenly a thick mist surrounded the entire area.

On the other side the last thing the genin saw was Asuma taking out his chakra-blades, then everything was covered from view.

Kakashi didn't like it one bit, Zabuza was a dangerous opponent and the thick mist was hindering the advantage the sharingan provided him.

He was confident that Asuma could hold his ground against two chuunin, even if their teamwork was great and it's been years since they became missing-nin with that rank, years in which they had no doubt trained to improve their skills.

Ok, Kakashi was worried, not only about himself and Asuma, but for their students as well. If they left their positions, if he or Asuma were defeated or left an opening for their opponents to go past them...

There were so much things that could go wrong.

The copy-nin wondered if his own sensei, Minato, had felt like this when he was teaching him, Rin, and Obito. 'No,' Kakashi thought 'I won't fail again, I swear Obito, I won't let another comrade die!'

Gathering his chakra he released it in a powerful pulse, partially dispersing the mist created by Zabuza's jutsu.

However he was still unable to see him. A sudden thought hit him, the target was Tazuna and he had left an opening while standing in the mist.

"Time to die old man!" Zabuza said bringing his sword down among the genins.

Before any of them could attempt anything, Kakashi appeared out of nowhere and stopped the swordsman stabbing him with his kunai, only for him to crumble in a mass of water.

"Mizu bunshin." The copycat mumbled, just before being slashed himself revealing that it was a mizu bunshin of Kakashi.

"Copying jutsu with this mist, I'm impressed. But it's not good enough!" Zabuza said kicking him hard.

Kakashi took the hit full force, he could have dodged, but not without endangering his and Asuma's students.

The one eyed jounin was sent in a pool of water.

Asuma wasn't having a good time, the demon brothers had a huge advantage fighting two on one, their teamwork was excellent, and the leaf-nin was restricted in his movements if he wanted to protect his client and students.

Channelling wind natured chakra through his chakra blades, he waited for them to launch an attack. It didn't took them long, and with a coordinated manoeuvre they tried to slice his head off with their metal claws.

Pity that they didn't know just how much sharper a weapon infused with wind chakra can be.

Blocking one strike with one hand, Asuma used his other to counterattack, and successfully destroyed the other's claws slicing it cleanly in half.

His triumph was short-lived however when the missing-nin whose strike he blocked used the momentum to go past him, and run toward Tazuna.

Asuma didn't waste time in running after him, realizing only when it was too late that he had been tricked.

The one who was nearing the bridge builder turned around and made to punch him, and even if the bearded jounin managed to dodge, he was hit by the other kick, which sent him in a the same pool where Kakashi landed.

Zabuza shushined on top of the water next to them and hastily made his handseals, "You fell for it, fools. Suirou no jutsu!"

The demon of the mist outstretched both his arms and two identical spheres of water appeared encasing the two leaf-nins.

'Shit,' Kakashi thought, 'we got careless'

"Guys," Asuma yelled, "take Tazuna and run, you have to get to his house!

'And warn Kurenai of this mess.' He added in his mind.

Zabuza laughed, "do you really think they'll make it? Meizu, Gouzu, kill them all."

The two brothers exchanged a glance before charging. Shino was about to order his insects to attack, but Naruto stopped him grabbing his arm.

"Wait, make them come closer." He whispered tilting his head slightly towards Shikamaru, who was ready to use his kage mane no justu as soon as they were near enough.

Their plan however was jeopardized by Sasuke eagerness to fight.

The Uchiha heir went to stop Meizu, who dodged him to let Gouzu punch the genin using the surprise element, while Meizu himself continued to run towards Tazuna and the others, just to stop abruptly when his and Shikamaru's extended shadow connected.

Part of Shino's bugs then proceeded to drain the immobilized enemy of his chakra, while the others were helping Sasuke.

Naruto grumbled to himself, "And there the rookie of the year demonstrated his greatness charging head on his opponent without any plan whatever. Fucking idiot doesn't even know the meaning of 'subtle'"

Deciding that he didn't care about the dark haired prick of team 7, Naruto made some handseals and murmured quietly "magen: sakasama.''

Zabuza, who was looking at what his two underlings, suddenly felt his head spin, like someone had just turned his world upside down. He lost balance and inadvertently released Kakashi and Asuma from their water prisons.

Gouzu seeing this tripped Sasuke up and went to grab his brother before fleeing. Zabuza was about to retreat himself, when Kakashi blocked him appearing in front of him, while Asuma was standing behind him.

"It seems that our children were able to force you and your lapdogs to retreat." Kakashi said.

"But unfortunately we can't let you leave" Asuma added.

The former member of the seven swordsmen of the Mist was in a very bad predicament, he wasn't only outnumbered, he was also already low on chakra from having sustained two water prisons.

He'll have to get away from there quickly.

The two jounin and one missing-nin tensed, ready to launch their attacks, when suddenly two senbons came out of nowhere and embedded themselves in Zabuza's neck. He fellon the ground motionless.

Looking at the trees Asuma saw what seemed to be an hunter-nin from Kiri, while Kakashi confirmed that Zabuza was indeed dead.

"I thank you for your assistance, I've been hunting him for a while now." The hunter-nin sounded young, and judging by his height he had to be around their students' age.

The masked ninja then shushined beside the body of the demon of the Mist, an put one arm around his shoulders,

"If you would excuse me now, I have a corpse to dispose of."

"Hey, buddy!" Naruto called.

Then, without further warning, he threw several kunai at Zabuza's body, just for the hunter nin to deflect them.

"Naruto, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Ino and Sakura screamed.

"Needles aren't usually used to kill opponents, they're the kind of weapons used by medic-nin to incapacitate their enemies.

While it's true that someone with a good aim and adequate knowledge can kill with one well placed senbon, the angle of those in Zabuza's neck indicate that our friend has put him in a momentary death state.

After all why wouldn't he dispose of the body here and now, or more importantly, why did he defended his corpse from my kunais?"

"Your observation skills are really good, my compliments." The fake hunter-nin said, "but now it's really time for me to leave."

With an handseal Zabuza and his accomplice vanished. "..."

"Well, shall we go?" Kakashi said covering his left sharingan eye and taking out his orange book, "lead the way Tazuna-san."