They had just crossed over the border when Haruka noticed two chakra signatures following their little group. Had they entered almost any of Fire Countries other neighbors Haruka might have thought they were a simple patrol, but Wave didn't have a hidden village. There shouldn't be any other shinobi here and they most certainly shouldn't be tailing them.
'Two—signatures—low—mid—chunin—seven—o'clock,' Haruka tapped out, pretending to adjust the strap of her bag. Sasuke stiffened imperceptibly at her side, but kept walking. He clearly recognized the code, but likely didn't understand it. After what had happened during the bell test both Naruto and Sasuke had started to learn Konoha Standard, but there hadn't been an opportunity to use it again so she didn't know how far they had gotten. Not that the blond had even noticed that something was going on. Kakashi hadn't reacted either, but he very casually put his book away after another minute or so and subtly changed his posture.
Haruka couldn't tell how far exactly behind them the other two shinobi were, but they never seemed to get any closer. She had no idea what they were waiting for, but periodically updated Kakashi on their position anyway. Sometimes she coughed or tapped her foot on the ground as if to dislodge a stone, other times she fidgeted with her bag. Constantly coming up with new ways to disguise the coded communication was a little annoying, but Ibiki had been very insistent about how the way a cipher was used was as important as the cipher itself, and that while secrecy wasn't the same as security it also didn't hurt.
It made her feel a little paranoid considering that there were no chakra signatures, other than her teammates's, close enough that they would have seen her. In fact, she was reasonably certain that she could just have given her updates verbally without being overheard. Then again, if Kakashi didn't want her to sense him he could make it incredibly hard, to the point that she could only do it if she was actively looking and because of her familiarity with his chakra signature. So as long as they were moving she couldn't be sure that she would notice a shinobi with comparable skills in stealth, even if she was concentrating on it. And wasn't that a cheerful thought?
Sasuke got more unnerved every time she updated Kakashi, presumably because the jonin never reacted in any way. It got so bad that Haruka stepped on his foot at one point and then loudly apologized, which Tazuna used to launch into a spiel about how clumsy she was and that girls simply weren't meant to fight. He too was nervous, but in a completely different way. Sasuke had been alert and now that he knew—or suspected she supposed–that there would be trouble, the wait was stressful for him.
Tazuna on the other hand had been waiting for something since they had left the village and every day it didn't come he seemed more anxious. He wasn't just afraid of some bandits on the road either. If that had been the case he would have calmed down the closer they got to Wave. Not that it mattered now, the enemy was already here and they were too far from Konoha to head back.
"Down!" Kakashi shouted suddenly, taking Haruka completely off guard. She dropped like a stone, and a second later a giant sword sailed over her head and lodged itself into a tree at the edge of a small lake on the other side of the road. On its hilt stood a tall man with short, dark hair, the lower half of his face wrapped in bandages. He wore a sleeveless black shirt and loose trousers as well as striped, bluish gray arm and leg warmers. His hitai-ate proclaimed him as a shinobi of Kirigakure, but Haruka would have recognized him by the sword alone.
Kubikiribocho might look like an oversized cleaver, but it was a legendary weapon. One that the Demon of the Hidden Mist had stolen when he fled Kiri after a failed coup d'tat.
"Well, shit," Haruka said, while Kakashi started to banter with Zabuza fucking Momochi as if they were old friends or something. She knew he was giving them time to get a grip. It might even have worked if Zabuza hadn't drenched the whole area in suffocating killing intent at the same time the two chunin that had followed them for the past two hours or so burst out of the trees.
Naruto was completely frozen in place and would have been cut to pieces by a wicked looking chain if Sasuke hadn't intervened at the last moment. Both chunin had wild hair, horned hitai-ate and each wore a massive, clawed gauntlet to which one end of the bladed chain was attached. Unlike Zabuza, they were clearly not in the mood for banter.
"Protect Naruto and the client," Haruka shouted in Sasuke's direction. She didn't wait for an answer, just leaped over the chain in a burst of chakra enhanced speed. That thing might be deadly, but it also restricted their freedom of movement. Haruka didn't hesitate, shifting her weight around the instant she landed and slamming her right hand into the back of the guy that wasn't wearing a cloak. The solid chakra claws barely managed to form before they impacted, shredding cloth, skin, muscle and then bone. Haruka pulled back immediately, unwilling to stay in their range any longer than she absolutely had to.
"Brother!" One screamed, as the other fell to his knees and started to cough up blood. "I will kill you for this!"
The cloaked one pressed something on his gauntlet, dislodging the chain and then ran straight at her. Haruka was too busy dodging him to pay attention to anything else that happened around her. They hadn't expected her first attack, but now the moment of surprise was over and she wouldn't get another chance like that. Cloak guy was stronger and even a little faster than her. Not quite fast enough to slice her into ribbons, but then he didn't have to be. His gauntlet was laced with poison and every little scratch he gave her injected a bit more of it into her bloodstream. Her chakra might naturally burn poisons out and she could even strengthen that effect somewhat if she concentrated on it, but whatever it was, it worked fast and went for the nervous system. The poison might not outright kill her, but in time it would slow her down enough for him to finish the job.
She didn't have the luxury to draw the fight out and wait for an opening, which meant she had to make one. The next time he swiped for her Haruka didn't move back and away from him. Instead she dodged sideways and took a step closer. That stupid gauntlet might be lethal, but it was also his only defense and he clearly wasn't used to fighting without his brother to cover him. He did have a second hand however, so while Haruka managed to rip out his throat and avoid being sliced open by his right, the left had drawn a kunai and rammed it into her lower back. A moment later they both went down in a grotesque embrace.
She watched the rest of the fight half-dazed from the ground, while both of her opponents drowned in their own blood, gurgling and choking. It wouldn't be a fast death.
A thick mist had descended over the area at one point. A jutsu judging by the amount of chakra it was laced with. Kakashi was locked in battle with Zabuza, both eyes exposed. He was copying the other man's jutsu, openly mocking him at every turn. Slowed down by poison and pain it took Haruka's hazy mind a while to work out why. She knew for a fact Kakashi could use all five of the Basic Nature Transformations, he even had an affinity for lightning and both that or earth would have been more effective against Zabuza's water jutsu. But then the other jonin might have decided to go for easier prey first.
Kakashi was keeping Zabuza's attention on himself because Naruto and Sasuke were barely holding their own against a water clone. One of the bridge builder's arms was bleeding profusely, seemingly cut off below the elbow, and Naruto's face was splattered in fresh blood. The clone wouldn't be as strong as Zabuza himself, but he was definitely more of a challenge than the two chunin she had fought. Especially because the boys had to protect Tazuna and thus couldn't move as freely as they wanted to.
Then there was suddenly a loud splash and she saw Kakashi struggling to get on top of the water. Zabuza had used Kakashi's attempt to protect the boys to lure him closer to the lake. For a moment Haruka thought it would be fine, but then the water rose to form a bubble around Kakashi. It looked wobbly at first and then quickly smoothed out into a perfect sphere when Zabuza called out: "Water Prison!" The nukenin stuck his hand into the water, stabilizing it with his own chakra.
While she was distracted the Water Clone had gotten the upper hand in his fight, but now that Zabuza thought he had won it wasn't trying to kill the bridge builder anymore. Instead it took it's time, beating Naruto and Sasuke around like sand sacks. All the while the original proclaimed that they weren't fit to call themselves real ninja unless they were listed in a Bingo Book.
"Take Tazuna and run!" Kakashi shouted, somehow managing to talk despite being completely submerged in water. "You can't beat him, but as long as he keeps me in this prison he won't be able to follow you! The clones can't go far on their own, so just run!"
Great, Haruka thought because this really wasn't how she had envisioned her death. She'd always thought she'd either die in that damp cellar under Konoha, chained to a wall or operating table, or she'd get out and live. Getting out just to die afterwards had somehow never even occurred to her. How stupid was that? But Kakashi was right of course. This fight was over. Zabuza would likely kill them even if the boys decided to hand over the fucking bridge builder.
The Water Clone was laughing, one foot grinding Naruto's hitai-ate into the dust and outright mocking him. And then the blond ran, not away though, but rather straight at his enemy, screaming like a maniac. He got beaten back with one brutal strike that had him skidding across the ground. Naruto was shaking when he got back up, blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth, but he was also grinning and holding his hitai-ate in his left hand.
"Put this in your Bingo Book," he declared while he fastened the forehead protector back in place. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and one day I'm going to be Hokage!"
Haruka's eyes widened at that and if she could have she would have shaken her head. What an idiot. But at least he wasn't frozen in shock anymore or had given up, in fact he seemed to actually have a plan. She hoped it was a good one. If the boys weren't willing to do the reasonable thing they could at least make the Demon of the Mist regret picking this fight. Maybe Haruka wasn't thinking clearly anymore—she'd cite poison and blood loss if questioned—but Naruto's sudden confidence actually gave her hope that they might get out of this. Somehow.
Kakashi didn't seem to agree, the old pessimist. He screamed at them to run and protect Tazuna like they were supposed to, but that was a load of crap and he damn well knew it. The stupid bridge builder had forfeited any right to protection the second he'd lied about the difficulty of the mission. Not to mention that he would just slow the boys down and probably get them killed anyway.
"No man left behind!" Haruka rasped out as forcefully as she could manage. It wasn't quite a shout, but a lot louder than she had expected and more than enough to wipe the doubt Kakashi's order had created from Naruto's face. Tazuna would just have to deal. He certainly didn't deserve any better.
"Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum," Sasuke quoted in agreement. Explaining this whole illogical shit show to Sai was going to be fun, at least if she managed to live that long. Haruka coughed a little bit of blood while she silently laughed to herself. And then Zabuza started in on a monologue about how he had killed a hundred children or so by the time he was their age.
She'd read about that at some point. Kiri used to be called the Bloody Mist because their graduation exam involved students killing each other, and then one day a kid that wasn't even a student had slaughtered the whole graduating class. She hadn't known that that was Zabuza, but the tone in his voice as he told the story left no doubt in her mind. 'Devil,' they'd called the kid if she remembered correctly. That man really had a knack for menacing nicknames.
Naruto looked completely horrified, but it only lasted until the Water Clone slammed Sasuke into the ground. Then the area was suddenly filled with two dozen determined Shadow Clones. They swarmed their opponent, but were easily dismantled. It did give Naruto enough time to pull a fuma shuriken out of his back and throw it at Sasuke though. A fuma shuriken that Haruka had definitely not packed for him and that was thrumming with chakra. And while Zabuza and his clone were still distracted by the noise the many Naruto copies made, Sasuke pulled his own fuma shuriken out of his bag, very carefully placing it exactly over the first.
He dramatically held them up, bladed side perpendicular to the ground so that it looked like he was only holding one and then threw in a low arc. They flew past the Water Clone and straight for the original. Zabuza caught the first easily, and even though the one flying in its shadow visibly surprised him, he managed to jump over it anyway.
"Still not enough," the nukenin scoffed. Sasuke was smirking however and the second shuriken turned back into Naruto mid-air. The blond held a kunai in his hand, that he threw at Zabuza with a battle cry before he even hit the ground. The swordsman dodged that one too, albeit barely, readying the shuriken he had caught earlier, but Kakashi stopped him before he could let go of the weapon. The Water Prison had dissolved the second Zabuza was forced to move away from it, freeing their sensei.
There was murder in Kakashi's eyes and then two massive Water Dragons rose from the depth of the lake and slammed into each other. Haruka smiled when the water drenched her. Naruto was definitely her new favorite idiot and Sasuke made a surprisingly good sidekick.
Seems like sensei is done playing around, she thought. He wasn't just copying Zabuza's jutsus anymore. He was reading every single move and playing with his opponents mind, predicting his thoughts and voicing them out loud. He even worked a genjutsu in order to complete the charade. The nukenin was so shaken that even though both jonin started the next justu at about the same time, Kakashi finished it first.
The Water Explosion slammed Zabuza into a tree, ripping up the shoreline as it went. And just as Kakashi was about to finish him off two senbon pierced his neck. A masked shinobi appeared in the clearing before Zabuza's body even hit the floor. Haruka blinked at the newcomer a few times. She hadn't felt him at all. Was he that stealthy or was she more out of it than she had thought? The question became superfluous a second later, as darkness pressed in on her vision and she lost consciousness.