The ninja from my home village, with the exception of Yugi-sensei and Kakashi-sensei, were extremely confused by my statement.

"HOW DOES THAT EXPLAIN ANYTHING?!"

A certain blond's outburst brought the adult ninja all back from the frozen state that my declaration left them in.

Zabuza's voice caught my attention.  "Utagawa Nobunari...that name sounds oddly familiar...irritatingly familiar..."

I looked up at the swordsman, and he glared down back at me.

"Why?"

I thought for a moment.  

"Maybe you two clashed at some point?  Or an ancestor of yours and he have clashed?  I'm not too certain, unless ninja that had defected from your village are very famous, those are the only things that I could think of."

Zabuza was lost in thought again, and I was going to make a move to get back to my team, but the sight of my grandfather's headband still being in the clutches of the ninja kept me in my place in front of him. 

"Regardless, I would like to have the headband back.  It is special to me, and you have no use for it.  So, please, give it back."

My demand brought him out of his stupor.  Glancing between me and the headband, he shrugged and tossed it down to me.

As it fell into my hand, the ninja spoke.  "Sure.  You can have it back, but I'll be taking it again from your dead body after I kill you."

The instant my fingers wrapped around the soft material, I jumped back and up out of the bushes to regroup with my team.  The hand holding it flashed to the pouch on my leg, replacing the soft fabric with the hard fabric of the handle of a kunai.

I scanned the group of seven leaf ninja and the client, checking their conditions.  My team was staring at me, uncertainly.  Cell 7 were focused on the threat at hand, Yugi-sensei was in front of Tazuna with a kunai drawn.  Kakashi-sensei was poised and ready to strike with his left eye revealed.  The blood-red iris with black tomos gleamed as he kept his gaze on Tazuna, much like his team of genin.

I addressed the twins.  "When we survive this, I'll explain."

Ayana stepped up next to me, on my left.  "Everything?"

I nodded.

Yusuke stepped up to my right.  "We are going to hold you to it."

I smiled sheepishly.  "I wouldn't expect anything less from you two."

"Assume the manji battle formation!  Protect Mr. Tazuna."  Kakashi leaned forward into a more offensive stance.

"That is the kind of teamwork this situation demands.  All of you, stay out of the fight.  Okawara, if you would keep an eye on my 6 o'clock, it would be most appreciated."

Our sensei aknowledged his fellow sensei with an uncharacteristic smirk.  "Consider it covered, Hatake."  The gleam of red in Yugi-sensei's eyes, along with the eager blood-lust in his voice sent a shiver down my spine.  The silver haired man chuckled.

"Thanks."

The blood lust died down a little, but it was still bubbling under the surface of our short sensei.

Naruto's voice rang out in the tense silence.

"What the heck is that?!"

Sasuke glared at him before answering. 

"That is the mirror-wheel eye, or the Sharingan."  Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but Sasuke kept talking.  "Shinobi who have the Sharingan eye have mastered a form of ocular nijutsu.  It enables them to penetrate and see the reality behind any illusion or spell."  He paused to take a breath.  This is honestly the most that I have ever heard him talk, so I can only imagine how tiring it is to actually speak more than 5 words to a group of people.  "And it reflects the power of the magics they penetrate back on those who cast them!"

Everyone's attention was back on Kakashi's eye.  Except mine.  I had my eye on Sasuke.  His expression was a masked version of frustration that attempted to take the appearance of indifference.

"A mirror-wheel, or Sharingan, eye is one of several types used by the masters, and there's more..."  At this point, Sasuke's voice faded out, and Zabuza picked up from where he left off.  But only after Naruto's naive question for further explanation.

 "Heh-heh...exactly. There is indeed more. Most formidable of all is the acuity with which the Sharingan can discern and then duplicate its opponent's greatest skill.

"When I was an assassin for the Kirigakure, I possessed the usual bingo book - a kind of who's who of our enemies. It had quite the extensive write-up on you...including a mention of your impressive record...Including a mention of your impressive record..."

I glanced from Sasuke over to Kakashi.  The mist elegantly settled around us.  My teammates and mentors figures blurred as the thick fog floated in and out among us, like the yarn of a skilled weaver.  Zabuza's voice floated out among the mist.

"The man who had penetrated and copied over a thousand different techniques.  Kakashi the Mirror Ninja."

The tension among the Leaf ninja could cut diamond.  Team 7 eyed their sensei with varied looks of awe, shock, realization, and suspicion.

"Enough.  Pleasant as this conversation has been, the time for talk is over.  I'm on a very tight schedule to polish off the old man."

Zabuza's statement cut through the stiff tension to replace it with frigid apprehension.  The genin that surrounded Tazuna stiffened up their stances.  A chill rolled up my spine, and the twist in my gut told me that everyone was too tense to properly assess the situation at hand.  I took a deep breath before opening my mouth, only to be interrupted by Zabuza.

"But, Kakashi, it looks like I'm going to have to kill you first."

In one fluid, practiced maneuver, Zabuza hopped off his blade, grabbed the handle, and kicked the tree, successfully removing the blade from the tree.  This instant action was followed by his disappearance and the thickening of the fog around us.

Naruto whirled arounf toward the lake on the edge of the clearing we were in.  "Over there!!!"

"Is he...walking on water?!"  Sakura quietly muttered.

Visible chakra and mist swirled around Zabuza's poised form.

"The finest of the ninja arts, the Kirigakure Jutsu."

The fog that swirled thickened to the point of concealing the rouge ninja.

Kakashi backed up to us, so that we could hear his quiet instructions. 

"He will come after me first...Momochi Zabuza, of the Kirigakure Assassin Corps, is a famous master of the art of silent killing."  The genin around me tensed.  "Leting your guard down around him buys you a direct trip to heaven. I haven't necessarily mastered every aspect of the Sharingan eye, so all of you stay on your toes!"

I interjected, finally saying what I wanted to say earlier.  "You guys are too tense.  Take a deep breath and clear your minds.  Let your senses take over your thoughts.  If you try to think and analyze the situation too much, you won't be able to react immediately, and you will end up frozen in shock and left unable to do anything."  I heard three breaths of air being blown out of the human bodies around me.  I shook my head slightly, knowing that the two who didn't were both too tense to heed my words.

"There are 8 targets."

Ayana started, and shifted closer to her brother.  "What?  Wha-what was that?!"

"Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, the jugular vein, the subclavian artery, kidney, heart.  So many choices.  What vital, what vulnerable place shall I choose?  Heh-heh."

The voice pushed us over the edge.  Kakashi glanced either way, seemingly tense, yet ready.  That got me thinking.  Where is Yugi-sensei?

I glanced around, not seeing or sensing him anywhere.  That made me more nervous than I was originally.  I know that he had said that he had Kakashi's back covered, but I found it almost hard to believe, since I couldn't find him.  In fact, I was borderline in a panic.  I know I told my teammates to calm down and assess their surroundings, but doing so only sent me into a panic. 

The panic I felt was well founded in the feeling of abandonment.  I vaguely heard Kakashi-sensei address Sasuke, but my panic deafened my ears. 

Flashes of my mother carrying me to a small, dark room, placing me in there, and locking me in crossed my mind.  I remember those moments clearly, since they were always followed by long moments of heated arguments between my mother and the man she called her husband.  They would go on for hours, and then they would pass by where I was hidden, and I would hear a door slam down the hall.  It would be the next morning, or the middle of the night, when my mother would finally open the door again.  But the damage has been done.  It happened a long time ago, and I understand now that she always did it to keep me from witnessing their arguments.  But to my young mind, I felt the abandonment, and the fear of being forgotten when that door would slam in the aftermath of their arguments.

My eyes blindly watched as Kakashi-sensei turned to give us a close-eyed smile.  Commotion broke out around me, but I was frozen in my fear and panic.  It wasn't until I was knocked to the ground by a heavy force that I become aware of events once again.

"Utagawa Toshihiko, snap out of it!"  A blurry mass of red filled my vision, and something was putting pressure on my chest.  "You were the one who told us to take a deep breath and relax.  Take your own damned advice, and take a deep breath!  Whatever is running through that head of yours needs to be pushed aside for the moment, and you need to come back to us!  Baka!"

My sight cleared and Ayana's urgent features came into focus.  My sluggish brain processed her words and the fire of desperation burned in her aqua eyes.  Those aqua eyes were brilliant, and I wanted to keep staring at them, but the message they were sending me told me that staring at them for too long wasn't the best idea right now. 

I sat up, and she slid down on to my lap before standing up and offering me a hand up.  I greatfully took it, and let her pull me to my feet.  Her hand was soft, but at the same time, firm.

She pulled me towards her to where her mouth was next to my ear.  "Once we have a moment, we need to talk about what the hell just happened."  She leaned back away from me.

Once I was solidly on my feet, we turned towards the commotion. 

Kakashi had a kunai at Zabuza's throat.

"Heh...You think it's over?  You just don't get it."  Kakashi's eyes widened at Zabuza's words.  "It will take more to defeat me than mimicking me like an ape.  A lot more."