NARUTO POV:
"You were right. He is dead" said a masked hunter ninja as he vanished and appeared beside the body of Zabuza which he had struck down using senbon at his neck.
Kakashi bent down and checked Zabuza' s pulse.
"He's dead" Kakashi confirmed.
"Now then, this body has many secrets so I will take it to spare your students the sight," he said in a neutral tone and vanished.
"Alright then team, We should be on our way. Naruto you're on carrying duty" Kakashi said with an eye smile as he covered his eye.
"What do you mean carr-SENSEI!" Naruto exclaimed as he caught an unconscious Kakashi.
He just looked at his teammates who just shrugged.
"That Sharingan is clearly implanted so it must take a lot of chakra to use so chakra exhaustion," Sakura said.
They shortly arrived at Tazuna' s house where they were welcomed by his daughter Tsunami who let them in and they placed Kakashi on a futon on the second floor.
"Well, now what?" Sakura asked as the trio sat around the table.
"Now I guess we prepare the shifts in which we will guard Tazuna," Sasuke said while Naruto made a couple of clones to place alarm seals around and in the house.
"I'm gonna go check out the town first," Naruto said as he got up.
"I'll go see if I can speed up sensei's recovery," Sakura said, getting up as well.
"I guess I'll sleep" Sasuke mumbled.
"Sensei's awake!" Sakura yelled from the room Kakashi was resting in.
Naruto and Sasuke, who had been sparring using bamboo swords in the yard, quickly dropped their swords and rushed to the room.
They entered a room to see Kakashi rubbing his normal eye and Sakura handing him a water bottle.
"Hi, team," Kakashi said with an eye smile.
"How ya feeling Sensei?" Naruto asked as he sat down on the floor along with Sasuke.
"Pretty good. How long was I out?"
"Around 4 and a half hours," Sasuke said.
"I need to tell you guys something," Kakashi said with a grave voice. "That Hunter-Nin who took away Zabuza was most likely fake, meaning Zabuza is probably alive."
The three genin' s eyes widened and Sasuke asked
"What makes you think that?"
"Standard Hunter-Nin procedure would be to at least cut Zabuza' s head off, moreover they used senbon, something which unless you're very proficient with, isn't that deadly."
"So what? We gotta beat them both now dattebayo!" Naruto said, grinning confidently.
"While usually, I would tell you guys to not be overconfident but I'm positive that if we go two-on-one for each of them we can win with medium effort," Kakashi said with an eye smile.
"Still wouldn't hurt to train , let me show you guys a little trick"
"SENSEI ALL THREE OF US HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO THIS FOR AT LEAST 5 YEARS NOW DATTEBAYO!" Naruto shouted to a Kakashi who had begun teaching them tree walking of all things.
"While I do agree, do you have to yell?" Sasuke complained, rubbing his ears.
"E-eh? Then I guess I can teach you the next step: water walki-"
"WE KNOW THAT AS WELL" Naruto yelled before getting a hard slap on the shoulder from Sakura, whose ears felt hurt now.
"Eh-Ehh?" Kakashi asked, flabbergasted that his little Genin knew something most learned at Chunin rank.
"I think it's best you know that together the three of us could last at least an hour with a Jonin in a fight, destroy them if we removed our weights and if Naruto went up to One tail" Sakura informed with a slight smile to their Sensei's reaction.
"I'll take your word for it then. I suppose you three have at least finished the first level of elemental manipulation training?" he asked, all semblance of his friendly teacher attitude replaced with the man who was in Anbu for 10 years.
"Yes" Sasuke said seriously.
"All three can use at least two C-rank Jutsu?"
"Yes, Naruto can go to the maximum of 1-tails in his chakra cloak, Sasuke's Sharingan has two Tomoe's and I can use basic medical ninjutsu." Sakura reported.
"Excellent" Kakashi said with a nod "Once we're back in the leaf village I'll have to conduct a test for you three to get an accurate idea, for now we'll work on endurance. Even though you three have strength and speed, you wouldn't last long in a fight lasting more than 2 hours individually."
"Well then, time to start training" he said with an eye smile, his lazy teacher attitude returning.
SAKURA POV:
The week had been pure torture for the trio, and that was saying something, considering the fact that they had been training under the supervision of Yamato. Not only was Yamato an elite Anbu, he was someone with the same ability as the first hokage: wood style, only a bit weaker.
All three had been forced to do 100 pushups, sprinting 15 miles, jumping jacks and various other physical exercises all while water walking.
Not only were their chakra reserves (Other than Naruto, who has more chakra than even the hokage) being pushed to the limit along with their physical limits.
They had been given the previous day off as it was most likely that Zabuza would attack today.
They walked through the town, looking around at the orphaned children, the crippled people and the hopelessness in all of their eyes.
"EEEK" Sakura yelled as she suddenly turned around, ready to pummel the pervert who had tried to touch her butt to see a kid, around 8 years old, holding her hand open and saying "Gimmee"
Sakura's gaze softened as she searched around in her pocket and handed the girl a few pieces of candy.
The girl grinned and ran away as she turned to looked at her teammates and said "We can't just leave these people like this!"
"That's what were here for. Once the bridge is built Gato won't be able to control the economy here and the people will be able to live happy lives again."
"But the experience will always stay" Naruto stiffly said, remembering Inari, Tazuna' s grandson, who was clearly traumatized from having to see his adoptive father be tortured and then executed.
"We can't give closure or an uplifting speech to everyone Naruto" Kakashi said with a sigh. "After all were just a bunch of Leaf shinobi who weren't even here when their hero was killed"
"The bridge seems to have much more mist than usual" Tazuna said absentmindedly but then stopped dead in his tracks as he saw an unconscious worker on the ground.
"They're here" Kakashi said as the mist covered them and his team entered a triangle shaped formation wordlessly.