{Somewhere in the Land of Waves}

{08:43 AM, 18th Mar 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

Ren stood behind Tazuna, he was concentrating on sensing as Tazuna and Hayate sensei talked with each other, while the story of the Land of Waves was touching it was not something where the two of them should meddle without backup.

'I don't know how much time we have before the next wave of enemies arrives, we should be on the way back to the Land of Fire right now instead of listening to Tazuna's sob story... if we could get back to the checkpoint in the Hamasaki Village we could wait for the backup to arrive and then complete the mission.' Ren thought.

Hayate's thoughts were along a similar line except he noticed another crucial problem that they had to deal with, 'We can't go back to the Land of Fire, at least not until we can clear out whoever is lurking around, if they are from Kiri too like the two chunins then they we may as well walk in on a deathtrap fighting them on the ocean.'

Water Ninjutsu was limited in versatility as most of the shinobi needed existing water to use it to reveal their full potential, so they were still a lot safer here on land where there was no water nearby, according to Tazuna there was a lake in front and Hayate was determined to stay away from that area.

"...and Gato has been oppressing us for the past year, children are begging for food on the streets and most of the farmers are forced to grow opium so there is a shortage of food." Tazuna kept explaining the situation as Hayate looked around. His priority target after many calculations right now was to go to Tazuna's Village.

'According to Tazuna, the Land of Waves can be directly connected to the Land of Fire and the Hamasaki Village with a bridge, so the distance between Land of Waves and Hamasaki Village should be shortest from his home.'

When the fisherman dropped them off in the Land of Waves, they circled the island until they were a couple of hours' journey away from the capital. While it was a precautionary method, Hayate reasoned that if they went back and started running on water from here they not only might run into more Kiri shinobi, but in addition to that the distance they would have to run on water would be larger.

"Ren, conserve your chakra and only do a short scan every couple of seconds," Hayate ordered before he turned to Tazuna once again, "Take us to your home, but take a path where there are no lake or other water sources nearby, we need to be as far away from water as possible to avoid large scale attacks."

The trio once again started moving along the beaten path but after a couple hundred meters Tazuna indicated for them to leave the trail they were currently on. "This path goes straight beside the lake, if we take a right here we can stay away from the lake but we would have to travel through the forest for a little bit before once again we would arrive at a clearing that connects back to the main road."

"Okay, make sure we are as far away from the lake as possible," Hayate instructed and they resumed their track through the forest, after a couple of minutes and no attacks Hayate calculated the distance they had traveled from the site of the first ambush and then ordered Ren, "Ren keep your sensing active for a few minutes."

He took a scroll out from his pouch and placed it on the ground, he channeled chakra through the trigger seal, and a messenger hawk was summoned from the seal matrix. Hayate then quickly wrote down the details of their encounter thus far, sealed the scroll, and placed it in the back pouch of the messenger hawk. The hawk flew high into the air using the cover of the forest, it kept gaining altitude till it was super high in the air and then began moving towards the Hamasaki Village.

'At least some backup should arrive in 1-2 hours, we just need to hold on until then...' Hayate thought and then he nodded to Ren to stop his continuous sensing.

The slow walk resumed once again, the atmosphere was tense and it remained so until a few more minutes. A very thin fog started covering the forest, and then they arrived at a nearby clearing and the visibility started declining slowly. Suddenly Hayate's senses screamed at him to dodge, he grabbed Tazuna and pushed him to the ground.

"Dodge!" Hayate shouted and at the same time, Ren sensed someone rushing at them from behind them. He was about to warn his sensei but then he saw a sword flying at them from afar.

'I can't catch it, the frequency of the rotation is too much to 100% guarantee that I would be able to perfectly determine where the handle may be...' Ren calculated, and just as he was about to dodge the sword, at the last moment he had an idea. He turned around and opened his inventory in the sword's path, he turned back and quickly focused on the moving sword.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The inventory screen was opened now he just had to guide the sword into it, the spinning sword slowed down but Ren still couldn't accurately predict where the handle might be, thankfully he didn't have to. Ren dropped down beneath the sword and as the passed over his head he used his open palm to knock at the very center of the spinning sword just as the sword was going to pass through the inventory.

Hayate watched the flying cleaver disappear out of thin air, he had already realized what that sword was as both the sword and its wielder were quite infamous. A small smile appeared at the corner of his mouth for a moment seeing Ren's actions, somehow he managed to give both of them a fighting chance.

'Lucky,' Hayate thought as he unsheathed his katana and looked at the Kiri missing-nin that appeared in the place where the sword ultimately would have struck a tree.

Zabuza's face was stoic as he looked at the Konoha Jonin in front of him with puzzled eyes, his eyes went over the place where the sword disappeared a couple of times before his eyes focused on the brat who was now standing once again and staring at him, his sword was still sheathed on his shoulders as he was holding his hands in a Ram seal.

'A chakra sensor, tch- just my luck... at least Haku should have stayed back outside of his range so he can intervene just in case. I might have to take out the brat first and get my sword back since it looked like he did something to the sword when it was going over his head...'

Ren used {observe} on Zabuza but all he got in return were question marks, realizing that the opponent in front of him currently outclassed him by quite a margin he took a standard defensive stance as he pulled out his sword.

'Let's not start with wind chakra just yet, Hayate sensei would engage him first anyway.' Ren thought as he waited, his chakra was ready to move at a moment's notice as both he and Hayate stood in front of Tazuna.

"Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist..." Hayate muttered as he looked at one of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen.

"So you have heard of me," Zabuza grinned as killing intent started leaking from him, Ren froze for a brief moment and Zabuza vanished at that exact moment. His senses screamed at him to duck but Hayate sensei arrived in front of him and used his sword to hold Zabuza's kunai swing in stalemate.

Ren recovered and ran from Hayate's right side disguising his attack with Hayate's body, his sword slashed at Zabuza who dodged backward and dashed away from Hayate's swing.

'He's faster than Hayate sensei by a bit but still, he had to use chakra augmentation to dodge because of the range advantage we get from our sword which makes sensing him a lot easier.' Ren thought, their situation wasn't dire right now but Ren knew the person he had sensed when they fought against the two chunin wasn't Zabuza so there might be another person lurking around them.

'Hmm the brat's better than I thought, he's fast too so I shouldn't mess around. Getting entangled with a squad of tree huggers is never a good idea and these two look in tune with each other.' Zabuza reasoned as he lifted his left hand up and concentrated his chakra into the puddles on the ground. While he may not be able to use most of his more destructive water-style jutsus, the hidden mist jutsu was enough for him to kill this small team.

The small amount of fog that was covering the clear started thickening once again, Zabuza's voice could be heard from all around the three of them, "Even without Kubikiribōchō do you think you brats could beat me?" Zabuza chuckled menacingly and Ren trapped his sword in between the Ram seal tracking where Zabuza was, " There are eight instant kill spots in your body... Larynx, Lungs, Spine, Liver, Heart, Kidneys, Jugular, and the Subclavian Artery. Which one would you protect."

The killing intent kept spiking again and again but this time Ren wasn't fazed, he continued to track Zabuza and kept muttering his location for Hayate sensei to hear, "120m 3 o'clock, 135m 6 o'clock, 150m 9 o'clock..." after that he vanished from his senses for a few seconds and a dark chuckle vibrated throughout the mist.

'This should work, I just need to provide sensei with a small advantage...' Ren thought as his plan was ready too, he had allowed Zabuza to sense his range to bait him for a reckless attack. He waited concentrating for a chance and at the same time, he molded a small amount of his chakra into wind chakra to use at a moment's notice.

"80m straight in front," Ren shouted as Zabuza rushed towards Ren, Hayate got ready to block the attack but Ren let go of the Ram seal and made morphed his fingers into the bird seal.

'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough'

He exhaled a burst of air that not only caught Zabuza straight in the face but also dispersed the fog around them, Zabuza managed to evade most of the ninjutsu but it clipped his left arm causing him to wince and it destabilized his momentum, Hayate's sword dug deep into his thigh as he jumped to avoid Ren's wind jutsu. Zabuza kicked Hayate away with his other leg and threw his kunai to create some space as he dashed back, both Hayate and Ren noticed that his speed was visibly slower as he retreated.

'That should be enough, with my sensing he won't recklessly charge at us and backup should arrive soon,' Ren thought, as soon as he saw that Hayate sensei managed to cleave his way into Zabuza's right thing the fight had become in their favor. Zabuza backed away as he used his right hand to check his injury, his face scrunched in pain.

"Good job Ren, now conserve your chakra this could turn into a battle of attrition..." Hayate whispered as the two of them stayed put not daring to take advantage of Zabuza's injury at all. Ren knew he was outclassed so he didn't even want to try to take the initiative, his main thoughts were focused on how could he help Hayate sensei.

'Now what would you do, will you retreat or fight on despite your disadvantage...' Hayate thought as he focused on Zabuza's movements.

...