'Thought'

"Kyuubi/HMitsuomi/Hollow/Phoenix/Dragon/Djinn talking"

'Kyuubi/HMitsuomi/Hollow/Zanpakuto/Phoenix/Dragon/Djinn thought'

"Jutsu/kido"

"Speaking"

"Zanpakuto talking"

Disclaimer: I DON'T own Naruto or any other anime used in this story.

Chapter 4 - Strange Flames

"Don't worry Kakashi-sensei I got him." Naruto said as he was about to run towards the guy on his sword until Kakashi stopped him.

"WHY?!" Naruto yelled in anger.

"Naruto, this man isn't like the ninja from the last time; he's at jonin or maybe higher." Kakashi explained.

"Yo Zabuza, never expected to see you here." Mitsuomi greeted.

'Indigo eyes… now where have I seen those color eyes before…' Zabuza thought as he's eyes widen in realization "Mitsuomi, is that you?"

"Yes it is." Mitsuomi said as Zabuza smirked.

"How do you know him?" Kakashi questioned.

"I met him some time before I returned to Konoha, but that's not important right now." Mitsuomi explained getting a nod from Kakashi 'There's one more person hiding in the trees, but there's no need to worry about that… yet'

"This guy is Zabuza Momochi, one of the seven swordsmen, and a rouge ninja from the Hidden Mist." Kakashi explained. Kakashi then grabbed his headband and was about to pull it up any second.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan." Zabuza said smirking.

"Manji formation guys, protect Tazuna and don't get into the fight. That is team work in this situation." Kakashi said, quickly all of them surrounded Tazuna with kunai's in their hands. While pulling up his headband revealing a sharingan making Sasuke's eyes pop out of their sockets.

"I feel so honored to have seen the sharingan so soon." Zabuza said chuckling.

"Sharingan, sharingan! What the heck is it that everybody keeps talking about?!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Sharingan… power of the light that the eye generates, and the pupil emanates. The user of the so called Visual Jutsu is said to possess the vision to see through all Genjutsu, Taijutsu, and Ninjutsu, and is able to deflect all of them. The sharingan is a unique type of eye to the user of the Visual Art. However, that is not the only power of the sharingan." Sasuke said.

"True, that is not all. The most frightening part is that the sharingan can copy anything it sees. When I use to be an Anbu for the Hidden Mist village I read in a bingo book about a man who has copied over one thousand jutsu. Kakashi the Copy Ninja." Zabuza said.

'Wrong. The most frightening part is the Mangekyo.' Mitsuomi thought.

"H-h-how?!" exclaimed Sakura.

"This will be easy if even one of your own students doubt you. Let's get the talking over with and let me kill the old man and… Mitsuomi." Zabuza said, walking on the water and started doing hand signs. "Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu." As the air around them got misty.

"Stay on guard. When he use to be an ANBU black op for the Hidden Mist he was known as the Silent killing master." Kakashi explained

'So he'll prove to be an interesting opponent.' Mitsuomi thought, a grin making its way into his face.

"Silent?" Naruto mumbled.

"As the name suggests it's a silent killing. Meaning that he kills you without a sound." Kakashi said.

"N-not even a chance to fight back…" Sakura said shaking a bit.

"Don't worry, if we fail, we only die." Kakashi said with a closed eye smile.

"How can you be so carefree?!" Sakura accused.

"Sakura, has it ever occurred to you that there are things worse than dying?" Mitsuomi asked looking her in the eye seriously.

"… What's worse than that?" Sakura asked.

"Watching people you care about so much killed in front of you. Or the people you care about getting put through so much shit that they want to die but can't." Mitsuomi said, causing Sakura to pale more then she already was. Mitsuomi and the rest also realized how much thicker the mist was getting.

"The mist is steadily getting thicker." Naruto noted the thought on everyone's mind.

"The Land of Waves is surrounded by water so mist can rise easily." Tazuna said as the mist got so thick that they lost sight of each other.

"Eight spots. The larynx, spine, lungs, liver, the jugular and the subclavian veins, the kidneys, and the heart. Now which vulnerable spot is good?" A voice said that was soon recognized by everyone as Zabuza.

Soon after everyone felt the killing intent from Zabuza. The killing intent only seemed to affect Sakura, Tazuna and Sasuke as Naruto was used to this type of killing intent from Mitsuomi.

"Sasuke. Don't worry; I'll protect you with my life. I will not allow my comrades to get killed." Kakashi said, as Sasuke seemed to relax and realized that he was about to kill himself.

"Yeah duck-butt, we can't have you dying… yet, not until you've reconciled with her." Mitsuomi said with a slight grin on his face making Sasuke grunt but Mitsuomi could see the hidden smile he had on his face.

"I wonder about that…" Zabuza said popping up in between them and Tazuna. Kakashi and Mitsuomi quickly jumped at him stabbing him, it started spewing water as it was a water clone. Zabuza suddenly appeared behind Kakashi and swung his sword cutting Kakashi in half, but water just spewed everywhere. Zabuza kept the momentum going from cutting Kakashi and went straight for Mitsuomi, and brought his sword down slashing Mitsuomi in half.

"MITSUOMI!" everyone except Zabuza yelled wide eyed.

'I felt no flesh and there's no blood coming out of him. What the hell is going on?!' Zabuza thought, looking at the calm and emotionless Mitsuomi looking right back at him.

"Stop all the yelling, I'm okay you guys." Mitsuomi said walking through the blade as if he was just phasing through it, much to everyone except Zabuza's relief.

"Don't move." Kakashi said holding a kunai up to Zabuza's neck.

"I'm not a fool." Zabuza said randomly appearing and holding a kunai up to Kakashi's neck and the water clone broke.

"That one was a fake too!" Sakura exclaimed wide eyed.

Soon Kakashi was kicked into the lake, Zabuza grabbed his sword and was about to slice him in half when he noticed the sharp shuriken on the ground. Kakashi's head popped up out of the water, and then Zabuza went over there and trapped him in a water prison jutsu.

"You kids think you're ninjas. You're a ninja when you have hovered in between life and death numerous times, then you're worthy of being in my bingo book and being called Ninjas… like your worthless sensei Kakashi and Mitsuomi." Zabuza said, as the mist got a little thicker.

"Guys! Grab Tazuna and run! You have no chance against this guy!" Kakashi yelled at his genin.

"Shut up! The second you got trapped in there was the moment you lost authority over us. So just hang in there for a moment, I'll get you out." as two swords sheathed in their scabbards suddenly appeared on his back crossing each other in an 'X'. "It's my turn," Mitsuomi added.

Mitsuomi drew both swords from his scabbards, an aqua colored one-handed long sword in his left hand which gave off a light golden glow as soon as he drew it and a pitch black with trims of gray one-handed long sword in his right hand which gave off an eerie violet glow as soon as he drew it. The names of these swords were, Dark Repulser and Elucidator.

"Yeah, let's go at him together," Naruto said.

"Let me help too, Mitsuomi" Sasuke said.

"No, I'll fight him alone. He shouldn't be that tough of an opponent," Mitsuomi said with finality in voice, not wanting argue over it.

"What are you doing Mitsuomi?! Have you forgotten the mission was to protect Tazuna?!" Kakashi yelled.

"And what if I have forgotten about the mission? You can't do anything about it in the position you're in. Tazuna won't die that's if he stays behind me," Mitsuomi said, as he watched Tazuna suddenly move directly behind him.

"A-are you sure I won't die? Even though I shouldn't be thinking about my life right now. You can… fight as much as you like." Tazuna said, getting a nod from Mitsuomi and Naruto and Sasuke grinned.

"Bakas… you still haven't learned that you should stop playing ninja have you? When I was your age these hands were already stained with red blood." Zabuza said.

"Zabuza the demon." Kakashi gasped while Zabuza just chuckled. "Long ago the Hidden Mist had an exam all their students needed to pass. It was the biggest hurdle."

"So you heard of the Graduation Exam?" Zabuza asked amused.

"What the hell is this type of Graduation Exam?" Mitsuomi narrowed his eyes at him.

"The students kill each other." He said chuckling, everyone widened their eyes. "Classmates who shared rice from the same pot, formed pairs and tried to kill each other. It didn't end till one of them died."

"How cruel…" Sakura said almost burying her face in her hands.

"Ten years ago, the graduation exam forced to go under a mass reformation. That was because an evil demon appeared the year before. A boy with no scruples or hesitation killed over one hundred examinees." Kakashi said.

"That… sure was fun." Zabuza's water clone who randomly appeared said. The clone was about to attack Sasuke but was stopped when Mitsuomi appeared in front of him and slashed him deep across his stomach making it spew into water.

"As I said before, I'm your opponent." Mitsuomi said before using shunpo to appear in front of Zabuza and thrusted his sword forward making Zabuza jump back releasing his hold on the water prison jutsu.

Mitsuomi spared Kakashi a quick glance before he sped off toward Zabuza, slashing as soon he neared him. Zabuza met Mitsuomi's slash with a slash of his own. Zabuza began gritting his teeth together as felt himself being overpowered even though he was using both of his hands.

"That's a nice sword you have there. I hope you don't mind me taking it after I kill you." Mitsuomi said calmly with a smirk on his face.

"Ain't your swords good enough?" Zabuza countered with a slight grin.

"Don't underestimate the holy sword, Dark Repulser…" gesturing to the sword in his left hand which remained motionless for the moment. "… and the demon sword, Elucidator." Putting more force into the sword sending Zabuza back a bit. "And who said that I was taking the sword for myself?"

Zabuza didn't have time to ponder on the question as he was sent flying across by Mitsuomi. He managed find his footing on land, skidding across ground, edging closer towards the forest. Zabuza turned his gaze in front of him only to find it void of Mitsuomi.

"Where did he go?" Zabuza muttered, only to stiffen a moment later when he heard a voice behind him.

"Behind you." Zabuza turned around, readying his sword to cleave Mitsuomi from the waist down only to find it void of him… again.

"Too slow."

Mitsuomi brought the Elucidator down to cut Zabuza's arm off, but he barely managed to twist himself out of the way, avoiding the loss of his arm, albeit he received a deep cut across his back as the blood initially began squirting out but it digressed to leaking after a moment.

Zabuza began staggering backwards, barely holding onto his sword as Mitsuomi slowly made his way toward him.

"I'm surprised that you are still able to walk and hold your blade, let alone stand." Mitsuomi noted, swiping the blade as the blood flew onto the ground and Zabuza, making said person growl in anger.

Mitsuomi brought up his right hand, flipping the Elucidator so that the tip of the blade was now facing Zabuza and not the sky. "This is the end…" he was cut off when he noticed movement in the forest and out came three senbon.

Mitsuomi jumped back but his eyes widened slightly as Zabuza slumped as the senbon hit him in the neck. Although, his eyes narrowed at the hunter-nin that jumped out of the forest.

"He's dead." The Hunter-nin stated as he check his pulse. "I've got to thank you, I've been tracking Zabuza for months now, waiting for the right moment to take him down but thanks to you I managed to get one." The hunter-nin ended, preparing to pick Zabuza up.

"It was no…" Mitsuomi eyes narrowed instantly at what the hunter-nin was attempting. "What are you doing?" the hunter-nin stiffened and cursed under his breath. "Aren't hunter-nin-" Mitsuomi was cut off when the hunter-nin threw countless senbon at him in areas that made it near impossible to dodge them without getting hit by at least a few senbon.

Mitsuomi was about to launch his counter when he suddenly began to feel light headed and blood began leaking out of the corner of his mouth.

'Shit! At a time like this…' Mitsuomi activated his sharingan, the tomoe spinning wildly in eyes as he jumped back, letting go of the sword in his left hand and brought his left hand over to the wrist band on his right wrist, adding chakra into it.

A moment later a ring appeared; Mitsoumi hastily grabbed and put the ring onto his right hand middle finger, the senbon closing in on him.

Once Mitsuomi freed Kakashi from the water prison, Naruto rushed over to help his sensei, surprising the rest and his sensei that he too could walk on water.

"Are you okay, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, extending his hand making Kakashi take a hold of it.

"I'm okay, thanks to Mitsuomi." Kakashi replied, giving an eye smile.

Once Kakashi and Naruto made their way over to the rest, they both noticed that all of them were watching the fight between Mitsuomi and Zabuza intently. They turned around just in time to see Mitsuomi deliver a deep to Zabuza and couldn't help but sweatdrop when they heard Tazuna cheer loudly.

'And to think he was against having us guard him.' Naruto and Kakashi thought, as they continued to watch the fight.

The groups' eyes widened when the hunter-nin suddenly threw countless senbon Mitsuomi, their gaze focused intently as their eyes continued to widen as they noticed the senbon were closing in on him and were…

'IT STOPPPED?!' they all thought incredulously.

Kakashi, with his sharingan still out, narrowed his eyes at the ring on Mitsuomi's finger. 'Is it emitting a flame? What is that ring?' Kakashi questioned.

"That was a close call." Mitsuomi sighed, as he flicked his finger, sending the senbon flying forward as it deeply embedded themselves into the trees or the ground.

Mitsuomi gazed at the embedded senbon a for moment before turning his gaze to his teammates and client and saw them grinning at him and couldn't help but return with a small smile of his own before he felt legs give in, making him fall forward. He held out his hand to prevent his face from hitting the ground and began coughing up copious amounts of blood.

"MITSUOMI!" Everyone exclaimed, running towards him.

When they reached him, their eyes widened at the mini flood of blood Mitsuomi was creating and it kept growing as the blood just seemed to be flowing out of his mouth and nostrils.

"What's wrong with you, Mitsuomi?" Sasuke asked concerned.

What he got for an answer was another copious amount of blood released from Mitsuomi's mouth. Mitsuomi stayed on his hands and knees for a minute as silence reigned across the area as they all look on concerned for Mitsuomi.

'Maybe too much fighting in one day.' Mitsuomi thought, referring to the fight with Naruto, the Demon Brothers and Zabuza as he sat up, using his shirt to wipe the remnants of his blood off of his face and reached into his side pocket and brought out a can of cola.

He opened the can and began drinking from it, while holding out his right hand in front of him, their attention focused on the flame that was being emitted from the ring on his finger.

'Is that ring emitting flames?' Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura/Tazuna thought incredulously.

'That's the same flame he used to stop the senbon.' Kakashi noted a calculating look in his face as tried analyzing it with his sharingan.

Mitsuomi paid no mind to their gazes as he focused on coating the sword he dropped earlier with the same flame being emitted from the ring on his finger.

Once the sword was coated in the flame, he flicked his finger back and the sword came soaring, handle first towards, slowing down when it reached him and sheathed the sword on his back as well as the other.

"Wow! Was that telekinesis?" Sakura exclaimed excitingly.

Mitsuomi turned his gaze toward her answered her by sticking out his tongue while giving her an eyes smile.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Sakura asked a giddy expression on her face as she thought about how cool it would be to have a power like that.

Mitsuomi hummed in contemplation as he got to his feet, his sharingan deactivating as he did. Everyone's eyes widened as they watched as his eyes became a deep orange color and his pupil became red as well as it was shaped in a four pointed compass.

As Mitsuomi gazed at Sakura, he noticed that two colors cloaked her form. 'Red and yellow… So it's Storm and Sun… not bad.' He turned his gaze toward the others and noted that Naruto possessed the Sky and Kakashi and Sasuke both possessed Lightning.

"No, that would be impossible." Mitsoumi answered bluntly, walking past her leaving her and everyone else flabbergasted. "… and it goes for the rest of you guys too." He added in between taking drinks from his can of cola.

"What do you mean it would be impossible for us to learn it?" Kakashi inquired curiously.

"You and the rest do not possess that element." He answered vaguely. He noticed that they were all ready to question but he held his hand up, halting them. "Don't we have a mission to complete… so let's not get distracted." Getting nods from them in return.

"So what happened to Zabuza?" Sakura asked.

"He's still alive, but he'll be incapacitated for about 10 days. More importantly, that hunter-nin who appeared is an accomplice and we'd most likely deal with both of them next time." Mitsuomi explained, getting a nod of approval Kakashi proving that his theory was correct.

"So that means we'll have to fight him again and that fake hunter-nin?" Sakura pointed out, slightly scared at the prospect of fighting them.

"Yeah…" Kakashi was cut off when everything went black and he collapsed and passed out.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto and Sakura exclaimed and kneeled down next to him with the rest.

Mitsuomi sighed and brought Kakashi's headband over his sharingan eye, gaining questioning looks from everyone. Mitsuomi then explained the difference between being born with a Kekkei Genkai and having one implanted into you.

"So will Kakashi-sensei be alright?" Sakura inquired concerned.

"He'll be just fine, so don't worry about it." Mitsuomi answered smiling as he put his right hand on Kakashi's chest; his hand became engulfed in bright yellow flames.

"What are you doing?!" Sakura exclaimed.

"I'm just activating he's worn out cells to help with his recovery." He turned his head toward her. "And could you please not scream in my ear again." He stated more than questioned sweetly, the smile too was too sweet for Sakura's liking and gulped as a result.

"Y-yes."

Mitsuomi heard a dark chuckle in his head before it changed to one of someone shouting in pain.

'They're probably at it again…' he sighed. 'I sometimes feel bad for Mugetsu for having to go through all that.'

"How about, since all the trouble I've put you guys through so far you stay at my house. My daughter could probably help you guys out." Tazuna offered.

"Sure that sounds great." Mitsuomi replied.

"Well then, let's start going to my house." Tazuna said, as he and Mitsuomi began walking while Naruto supported Kakashi.

Sorry for the extremely late update… I'll try to improve on that.

So have any of you figured it out where the flames come from?

Stay in tune for the next chapter!

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