Chapter 41 - Ice Flower

The group traveled for quite a while further until the surrounding lands became swampy and traversing by land became a rather hard procedure so that they were now on a boat going down a larger river.

"I swear these mosquitoes are going to kill me at some point.", complained Sakura and scratched her arm with an annoyed frown on her face.

"Then maybe you would stop complaining so much when that happens.", answered Sasuke with a deadpan expression. But he quickly slapped his own left arm because he got stung as well just now.

Kaito chuckled lightly and didn't say anything otherwise to that comment. Sometimes women are so unbearable it's like you get to have to take extra care for them.

"We are about there. You should be able to see the bridge by now.", mentioned the guy that steered the boat.

Soon they could see a huge unfinished bridge.

"Whoa, it's huge!!", shouted Naruto right at the get-go and the man from before got slightly frigthened.

"Hey, not so loud! Do you want others to hear us? Why do you think we use the mist for cover and don't ignite the engine?", complained the man.

Kakashi sighed but Naruto realized and remained silent.

They went along the bridge to a smaller one that looked like some kind of aquäduct. But who would need watering in this place?

Finally being able to get down from the boat at some small hut, the group went their separate ways from the boatsmen.

Kaito looked around rather suspiciously into the surrounding mangroves because he could sense chakra from nearby.

The sheer amount of it was a glaring difference and on another whole level then those two guys they met much sooner on their journey.

Instead of hiding, the person emitting that chakra was practically saying he was here. The chakra was basically everywhere. "There!!" Just at that moment, Naruto threw a shuriken into a bush.

Everyone looked in that direction and nothing came out of it.

"heh, must have been a rat...." Naruto tried to act cool as if nothing happened.

"Stop acting cool, you moron! There was nothing there!", growled Sakura at him

"Can we please not throw around shuriken like that?", commented Kakashi and knew Naruto tried to be useful but is overdoing it.

"You sure you sensed something there, brother?", asked Kaito and gave Kakashi and quick hand signal that he was also feeling someone close by.

Kakashi nodded to his signal.

"Hey, midget!! Stop acting like a idiot!!", shouted Tazuna with an annoyed voice.

But Naruto ignored him because he saw some shadow hush by this time and once again threw another shuriken.

"I said stop it!" Sakura this time hit Naruto on his head.

"Hey, I swear I saw something. There is definitely someone after us!"

Kakashi and Kaito both walked over to see a white bunny being scared for its dear life because the shuriken hit very close to its head on the tree behind it.

Naruto was apologizing to the bunny he nearly killed and made into dinner.

While also getting yelled at by Sakura the ominous feeling that Kaito felt grew and he could finally feel the exact location of the ninja that was hiding.

Taking the initiative, Kaito grabbed into his pocket and threw a kunai with an explosive tag into the direction he sensed the enemy. That made everyone not focused on it flinch.

"Now you are joning your brother in the shenanigans!?", shouted Sakura but seeing Kaito use a sign and hearing the explosion coming from the direction where he threw the kunai made her rethink her words.

"Well, well...." A voice sounded and a massive sword came flying down from the sky and landed stuck into the soil with its hilt upwards.

A man landed on the hilt in a crouching manner and looked at them. His short black hair was covered by the headprotector and his mouth was covered by white bandages. His upper body was free and the only remarkable other feature he had was arm and ankle sleeves that were in the color of marine camo with a grey colored pants.

"...The Copy-Ninja Kakashi Hatake and his little runt group. I must say that the sensor type over there is a quick thinker. Even scorched a little bit of my clothing. That explains how you survived the other guys ambush. Say, how come Konoha is sending such a high profile individual like yourself on a mission like this?"

"I wouldn't have expected Zabuza Momochi here. What does a missing-nin from Kiri do here? You working for Gatou?"

When Kakashi asked that question Naruto was about to engage Zabusa but Kakashi immedieately prevented him from it.

"You guys stay back and protect the client. This guy is a number too big for you. He is a Jounin missing-nin."

Then Kakashi sighed. "That I actually have to use this..:" With this left hand Kakashi slowly raised his head protector that covered the left eye and revealed a crimson-colored eye that had a black line around the pupil and in that line, three tomoe aligned themselves in a triangular pattern.

Zabuza narrowed his eyes and jumped down from the hilt taking his sword into his hand. His chakra started to rupture out into a vortex of malevolence.

Kaito who looked very closely at their exchange got sudden shivers and cold sweat run down his forehead. That was not only because the feeling he felt was so different from before but both Kakashi and Zabuza were emitting a cold bloodlust he had not felt his whole life.

And analyzing them with his observe skill only gave him question marks.

Kakashi Hatake lvl ?? - HP100% CP99%, Zabuza Momochi lvl ?? - HP100% CP100%

'You got to be kidding me! Did Kakashi screw with me in the bell test!? And what is about his consumption? I can see his Chakra go down by the second!' Kaito was really seeing how Kakashi his CP overall was diminising every few seconds by 1%.

"Fight me, Zabuza.", said Kakashi while staring down Zabuza.

"What an honor. I get to see the Sharingan from the start?", smirked Zabuza and prepared himself into a stance. Suddenly a demonic aura started to seep out of his body. "I think I dont need to hold back here...Not with both Jinchuriki with you. Don't you think so as well, Haku?"

"Yes, Zabuza-sama" A light voice resounded and Kaito's eyes enlarged because he could not feel the presence that was now right beside him on the left. His eyes wandered there but the only thing he could see is an ice pickle going straight for his head.

Of course, it hit and the others got shaken out of their relaxed atmosphere.

"Brother!!", shouted Naruto and gritted his teeth but at the same time Kaito's body went up in smoke and a log stayed where his body was.

"That was close....This is annoying...An Ice Kekkei Genkai? And in a damn water-heavy location as this...Sakura, keep Tazuna safe. Naruto, be careful and Sasuke, try not to underestimate this guy."

"Hoooh~? You must be well trained in anatomy to discern my gender?", asked the person clad in a kimono-like outfit and wearing a white and red hunting mask.

'Shit...What exactly is going on here? I thought my memories told me Haku is only getting involved later?' kaito was glaring at the new entry into the game.

Haku Yuki lvl 37 - HP100% CP99%

At least he was not as overpowered as the other two. But he should still be around High-Chunin to Special-Jounin level, if not actually reaching Low-Jounin.

Breathing in slowly and out Kaito actually smiled now. It was about time he could go all out. He wanted to see how much of a difference the chakra amount made that he got from the months since his graduation.