I took a deep breath as Zabuza continued to taunt Kakashi, regardless of the fact that the silver-haired shinobi had a kunai to his throat.

I glanced at the girl still standing next to me.  She was examining me out of the corner of her eye, seemingly wary of me and my panic attack from a few minutes ago.

"Do you know where Yugi-sensei is?"

She shook her in negation as a response to my whisper.  I sighed.

SPLASH.

Kakashi-sensei struggled to resurface from the depths of the water.  The struggle made me frown.  Why was team seven's sensei having trouble in the water?

My question was quickly answered when Zabuza flickered into sight behind the struggling Jonin.  Hand signs were made efficiently, and someone was held prisoner by Zabuza's jutsu.  But, it wasn't Kakashi.

Ayana made a move forward, but I grabbed her arm before she could get far.  But that didn't stop the scared scream from escaping her lips.

"YUGI-SENSEI!!!"

Yugi-sensei, as far as my observations go, had been watching from a well hidden location.  When he saw that his fellow Jonin was about to be trapped in that water prison, our sensei made the quick decision to implement the Substitution Jutsu.  Using said jutsu, Sensei was able to switch positions with the chakra-exhausted Kakashi with himself.  As smart of a move it was, it was also a very childish decision to make, if I were to have an opinion.

Ayana was struggling against my hold on her arm.

"Let go of me, Utagawa!  Sensei is in trouble!"

I tightened my grip on her arm and pulled her closer to whisper in her ear.

"I am well aware of that.  But as you said earlier, we need to keep a level head and not panic.  Sensei knew what he was doing when he performed the Substitution Jutsu.  Our job is to get him back.  But we won't be able to do that if we rush in without a plan."

She bristled up in my grip before taking a deep breath and calming herself down.  She looked at me with those eyes of hers, determination and intelligence swirling in their depths.  Ayana nodded silently and calmly.

We both turned our attention back to our captured sensei.

How will we get out of this mess?

Our sensei looked over at us with his calm violet eyes, and he locked eyes with me.  His gaze twitched down to my feet before jumping back to mine.  Hoping it was some kind of signal, I looked down at my feet, and spotted a card with some writing on it.

I bent over and picked it up.

Toshihiko.  If I am remembering what you said about wanting to become a ninjutsu master correctly, than you should be able to put this card to good use.  I will tell you more about it later, but for now, follow the instructions to use it.  I'm warning you, you must have extremely delicate chakra control in order to pull this jutsu off.  To activate the jutsu in this card, simply pump a small portion of your chakra into it with the card facing up in the palm of your hand.  To test if you are compatible, simply pump chakra from a single finger into the face-up card.  You will see the creature in the image move if you are compatible.  Good luck, my student.  Yugi-sensei.

Curiously, I flipped over the card and quickly scanned over the card.  It was small, and easily able to fit in the palm of my hand.  The background was a soft forest green with light blue swirls running through it.  There was an image of a birdman hanging off of a cliff with goggles on.  He was looking out away from the cliff, as if he was keeping watch over something.  Below the image, there were words scrolled out, and I assumed it was the creature in the image's name.  Mist Valley Watchman.

I placed my finger onto the image of the weird-looking guy.  I squinted my eyes as I concentrated.  I imagined the warmth that I always felt in my gut moving.  I push it up through my chest and down my right arm, into the pointer finger that was touching the image.  I shoved the warmth out of my finger and right into the card, and watched as the guy looked at me, smiled, and waved, before resuming his watchman duties in the image.

I blinked.  Okay then...

I looked up in time to see Naruto dash towards a copy of Zabuza.  He aimed a punch for the copy's leg, which was easily avoided, before Naruto stooped down, swiped something off of the ground, and darted back to his team.  He stumbled when he got back, and skid across the ground with the xtra force that he still had from moving so fast and trying to stop.  Sakura yelled at him.

"What were you thinking, tackling him by yourself!  You think you're so cool, but junior ninja like us can't-"

She cut herself off suddenly as she noticed that Naruto was slowly raising to his feet, the item he swiped from Zabuza's feet in view.  It was his headband.

Naruto was panting as he addressed Zabuza.

"Hey...You...What's life like with eyebrows, freak?"

Everyone except for my male teammate was silent, waiting for Naruto to continue.  Yusuke was trying to hold back his giggles.

"Got a new listing for your bingo book right here!!  A guy who is going to be the next Lord Hokage of Konohagakure Village."

He shakily straightened up, and lifted his arms and the headband towards his face.  The headband made contact with his forehead, and Naruto abruptly yanked back on the straps of the band before knotting it securely behind his head.  From my profile view of Naruto, I had to admit, he looked pretty dam cool in the moment, as he announced his name loud and proud for Zabuza to hear.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha Ninja!"

Everyone looked at him in shock, except me, of course.  I knew that the little idiot could have his astonishingly cool moments, and I was proud to witness one such cool moment in such a tense situation.

Naruto turned to us.  "Sasuke!  Listen up.  There's something that I want to tell you."

Sasuke jolted at his being addressed.  "What is it?"

Naruto smirked.  "I have a plan."

Sasuke huffed.  "So, it's time for some teamwork?"

I knew that smirk anywhere.

"Well, my dear partner in pranks, whatever it is you have planned, I want in.  And I'll add in a little trick I just got from Yugi-sensei."