The fight between Senju Tobirama and Momochi Zabuza probably would've been the most one-sided fight in the history of fights during which Tobirama showed Zabuza what a true master of his element was capable of if a certain Uchiha Madara hadn't decided that he'd wanted his own back for his decapitation and butted in. For the first three seconds, the fight between the two Water users was a thing of beauty as Zabuza summoned a bunch of Water Clones and moved them into position and Tobirama flashed through the handsigns for a jutsu that had not been seen for generations. In the instant before Zabuza would've been caught in the jutsu and sent whirling disoriented and gasping for air only to breathe in water while his Water Clones were destroyed, a certain Kama wielding individual jumped into the fight and knocked Zabuza out of the path of the jutsu.

Not about to let Tobirama have all of the fun, Madara started beating the shit out of the Demon of the Mist. In the instant before Madara would've cut off Zabuza's arm and beaten him to death with it, a highly irritated Tobirama jumped into the fight and pulled the battered and partially broken Momochi Zabuza out of the path of Madara's attack. It was at this point that the fight against Momochi Zabuza who was no-longer capable of putting up much resistance turned into a fight over Momochi Zabuza.

Despite the fact that Madara was so old that his wrinkles had wrinkles, and the fact that the fires of his youth were banked taking the high of battle with them, Madara could fight exceedingly well when his dander was up and nobody could get Madara's dander up the way Tobirama could. With no fear of injury or death, there was no reason for Madara to hold anything back. It was for these reasons that Madara was a near-even match for Tobirama who had been nearing late middle-age at the time he'd died. For Madara, this was quite the comedown, as he had previously been an almost perfectly even match for Tobirama's much more talented brother Hashirama back when both men had been in their prime.

As the Nidaime Hokage and the co-founder of Konoha battled, Kakashi decided that discretion was the better part of valor, picked Tazuna up, signaled to his students that it was time to run for it, and ran. He could see all three students trailing after him out of the corner of his uncovered eye. It was as Naruto ran that a problem became immediately apparent. As Naruto followed, the fight between Tobirama and Madara which hadn't paused even once since it started despite the fact that it was being dragged followed with him.

Before he could make the decision to order Naruto to remain behind for the safety of his client and the people of Wave Country in general, Naruto seemed to had spotted this problem on his own, and stopped. Kakashi signaled his thanks to the boy, and signaled that he should find cover until the fight died down. He seriously regretted leaving his student behind, but it was the only thing he could do in the situation.

Relief spread across the faces of Tazuna and the two Genin that trailed after Kakashi after they had gotten some distance away from the battle zone. Kakashi didn't quite have the heart to disillusion them by pointing out that nowhere on the island was safe due to the high power of the massively destructive jutsu that the two Kage Level ninja were using, and the fact that the fight was moving due to the fact that Naruto was being forced to move in order to dodge. Instead, he focused on making his way to Tazuna's house where he and his team sans Naruto would find temporary respite from the current insanity that could potentially go on for ages considering the fact that the two combatants weren't limited by such mortal concerns as exhaustion, injuries, or death.

With everyone busy either fighting, running away from the fight, or ducking away from the fight while resolutely staying in the area so nowhere else gets destroyed, nobody noticed when a young ninja in a mask came in and dragged the wounded and now forgotten Momochi Zabuza away...

Gato watched the explosions in the distance from the safety of his treetop office with a sense of accomplishment. Just about everything that could go wrong with this mess of an island that pretentiously called itself Wave Country had gone wrong. First, the overly proud natives hadn't gone down as easily as they should've. Then, some "hero" had shown in their midst. While the execution of said hero had stopped all overt signs of rebellion, the natives tended to be rather passive-aggressive towards him and his men. Then, that Tazuna bastard had started building a bridge to the mainland which would cut into his shipping profits. Shipping profits that had gone way down here because none of the highly impoverished wastes of oxygen who were living on a piece of real-estate that was worth far more than the inhabitants' lives could afford to have anything shipped in. Now, it was starting to look like his luck in this place was going to change.

He'd tried to sabotage the bridge project several times only for each attempt to mysteriously fail and the one responsible for the countersabotage to remain steadfastly hidden despite all attempts to unmask him. With sabotage out of the question, he had decided to resort to such crass methods as direct intimidation and outright daylight destruction to cow the bridgebuilder and his work crew. The damned bridgebuilder had responded to this intimidation by going to the impoverished Daimyo for funds and leaving to fetch ninjas.

He'd responded to this final insult by hiring ninjas that nobody in Wave could've afforded in a million years; ninjas who happened to be exceedingly disposable missing-nin who could be killed rather than paid and turned over their home village for their bounties. When two of the four ninja had vanished, he'd thought that there would be a problem. But, the explosions near one of the more popular smugglers' landings showed that the remaining ninja were going all out to earn the pay they would never live to receive.

As a massive wave of water crashed into a giant firestorm, the last two individuals he expected to see at that moment flew into the treehouse office through the next window over, the badly injured larger one being carried by the smaller one.

"If you're here," Gato said, stunned. "Then, what the hell is that?!"

Momochi Zabuza's loyal servant Haku glanced over his shoulder at the gigantic cloud of heated steam that was rapidly spreading over the island, shrugged, and said "Two of Uzumaki Naruto's teammates having an argument.".

"WHO THE HELL IS UZUMAKI NARUTO?!"

Tsunami peered out into the near-impenetrable mist which reduced visibility to almost zero worriedly watching for her father who was due home about now. For the most part, she knew that her vigil was futile, and that she would not see her father who had likely died in the explosions that were still booming in the distance today or at any time in the future. But, there was that small niggling hope that kept her standing in the doorway waiting to welcome her father home despite the explosions in the distance and the strange and sudden hot mist that had swept across everything, hiding the world from view.

As she watched, her thin thread of hope slowly dissolving into despair, a dark shape that didn't move like her father or anyone else she knew appeared and swiftly approached the house. After backing away from the door, slamming it and locking it, she turned to find Inari so she could grab him and run. If a stranger was approaching her home, it didn't mean anything good. Hopefully the locked door would provide a distraction that would buy her and her son a few seconds.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she could hear the rattling of a doorknob that had once only rarely needed locking, usually to keep nosy little children who might interrupt outside. As she climbed the stairs approaching her son's bedroom, the pounding on the door started. As she reached her son's bedroom, the pounding got more intense.

"Come on Tsunami!" a voice that sounded just like her father's yelled drunkenly. "With all of the shit I've gone through today, this is the last thing I need! Open the door!"

Tsunami wavered. Then she remembered all of the stories about how ninjas could turn themselves into your loved ones in order to trick you, and how people were killed or tricked into doing things by strangers who were wearing the faces and voices of people they were closest to. Becoming even more resolute in her decision to run, she snatched her son who was crying over the picture of his stepfather off of his bed, completely ignored his protests as she dragged him out of the room and down the stairs, and snatched a knife off of the kitchen table. Thus armed and laden with the most precious thing left in her life, she opened the back door, raced outside, and dragged her son to the woods ignoring the stranger who stood on her doorstep pounding on her door and yelling in her father's voice as she fled.

Tomorrow, she would smuggle herself and her son off of the island and make her way to the continent. Tonight however, she would hide. Hide and mourn the loss of her father whom she and Inari would return to avenge one day.

The rare Wave Country mangrove trees were nothing but kindling. The salt water swamp in which they grew was actually on fire. The earth of the coastal wetlands was glassed. There was a massive crater where there had been forest. A massive crater that had started filling up with salt water. Flaming salt water.

Neither combatant seemed to notice this. Madara was finally on the ground, and Tobirama was impaling him on a hastily constructed Earth spear in order to pin him there.

"I win!" Tobirama said. "Now where the hell is that asshole who took off my head?"

"Uh, I think he died." Naruto said as he crawled out of his hiding spot at the edge of the massive field of destruction.

"This is all your fault!" Tobirama said to Uchiha Madara who had broken off most of the shaft of the spear and was in the process of pulling himself off of the remaining section that was buried in his body.

"No," Madara yelled as he stood up and took a fighting stance. "It's yours!"