Of the blade

by Caexah

a very different Naruto takes the spot light in this story, a blade user naruto. Naruto had taken a fascination in blades and fighting since his mother left him at the ophanage in Konoha when he was five. read as he grows in a new and interesting way. Naruto is not the kyuubi container. starts in wave.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything of real value.

Naruto was bleeding, but that was not what hurt the most this cold day, no, what hurt the most would be his pride.

He supposed that it was understandable that he was in this situation, he was strong and fast, he knew that, but it was not enough. He was surrounded on all sides by mirrors made by the enemy ice blood-line user, somehow the enemy could increase hit speed beyond what he could accurately deal with. He could still fight despite that, his senses was on an all time high, his awareness of the world around expanded even more than what he could archive before.

And he was wining slowly as his enemy exhausted himself to keep both the mirrors and speed, and it hurt his pride.

Mercy!

The enemy was showing mercy to him, and it hurt his pride!

He did not want mercy! He wanted an fight to the death! His honour and pride would demand no less.

Well him and Susuke and him, but nobody here really cared about Sasuke, neither him or the enemy, he was not an threat or even a deciding force in this battle.

But it hurt that the enemy did not kill when he had the chance to kill him. The only reason the enemy was slowly losing was because the Enemy just didn't try to kill them, all hits was towards areas that was not fatal to his life. It hurt Naruto that he was not taken seriously, he had long since decided to live and die by the sword.

He swung it around to block the Senbon, a type of ninja tool with the form of long needles with two pointy ends instead of one. Again the senbon was aimed at non-fatale areas.

His katana did not stand still as it blocked those behind him again, he did not know how the Enemy got around him so fast twice, but It did not matter as even more senbon come from the sides.

Naruto almost growled, and was tempted to draw his other sword, but he was better than that. His other sword was for serious fights where the enemy is serious, and not this half-hearted girl. The girl did come here to kill a man under his protection, and started to half-hearted fight. If the girl was not going to take him serious then he was not going to take her seriously neither.

He could keep up with the speed now, but he knew that he would have had much trouble to do so at the start of the battle, he had grown doing this fight, enormously. But the lack of killing intent from his enemy kept him from having as much fun as he could have had, it just isn't fun when you enemy aren't trying to kill you.

It was ironic that in some ways it was harder to fight his enemy because he was not using killing intent, it made it hard to sense when, where and how his opponent would attack.

It did not mean he would stop fighting, neither the enemy would kill them or the enemy would die. A simple truth.

Suddenly Sasuke's movement changed, he dodged one the waves of senbon absent-mindedly tossed towards him by the enemy named Haku from time to time that he could not dodge before. A glance from both Naruto and Haku was enough to figure out why, Sharingan.

Something that made both Naruto and Haku frown. Naruto because of the Sharingan has ability to copy what it see, included his swordsmanship. Haku because the fight just got harder for her, if the Uchiha could see her attacks and gained the foresight to avoid them then her chances to win this battle without killing was reduced to near zero.

Haku shifted her glance from the Uchiha boy to the blond one, she could easily admit the boy was strong, very much so for his age. It is no little feat to be able to block her needles, the concentration the boy must have to keep blocking them must be huge. There was however a thing that greatly worried the ice ninja, the fight has being going on for some time but in no case has the blond boy moved to attack, but only blocked and dodged.

He didn't even draw both his swords, but blocked the needles with the one he had drawn, in a way it insulted Haku that her enemy didn't even see her as a threat big enough to draw both his swords. Luckily one of the main reasons the boy did not move from his spot in the middle of the ice dome to attack was because of her needles. If the boy moved closer to one of the mirrors making up the dome, he would not be able to react in time to not get injured by her thrown needles.

She could not even use the Uchiha to draw the swordsman out of the safety zone because, even if they were supposed to be comrades they did not care about each other. Haku frowned at them even as she sent new senbons at them, she did not have much of a choice any more, she had to attack with the intent to kill or there would not chance she would win this fight.

But she had to ask something before that.

"why is that you do not save each other, or protect each other? Are you not comrades?" she hated ninja that did not care for the lives if their comrades, it sicked her each time she meet one, which was sadly more often than not.

"no, we are not comrades" answered the swordsman "while we may carry the symbol of Konoha, we are not comrades"

Sasuke was desperately trying to regain his breath, and did not answer.

Haku thought over the answer given to her, and asked another question.

"why do you carry the same symbol of loyalty if you are not comrades?"

"because we do not fight for the same thing or goal. We do not care for each other because we think different, our reason to fight is different"

"what do you fight for?"

"power" was the instantaneous answer.

"only power?" Haku was disappointed at the answer, she had hoped for something more.

"power is the only thing that really matters in this world" said the blond swordsman with conviction.

"that is not true, people also has hearts, feelings" Haku told her own conviction.

The blond started to laugh silently to himself, but Haku could clearly hear it.

"what it is that is so funny?!" Haku did not like what she saw as an insult to her belief.

"you say that feelings matter, that their hearts and their lives matter?"

"yes!"

"yet it is you that stamped over the feelings, the heart and the lives of those here in wave so openly. You are a hypocrite!" there was venom in the last word. Naruto hated those that said something and did something else themselves. Where was the pride, their beliefs and conviction in that?! Hypocrites are cowards that can not even face the world with their own face, and has to bear fake one.

Haku was felt insulted at the insult, which in a way was obvious, you get insulted by an insult. But Naruto was not done yet.

"you say feelings and life matters when you come here to kill the one that holds the hope of freedom from tyranny. You seek to kill the one a lot of lives are depending on, where are their feeling, hearts and life?!"

"..." Haku visible flinched at the words, but did not say anything to disprove them.

"They do not matter!" answered Naruto for Haku, she flinched again.

"..."

"They do not matter because they are not important!. Because they are too weak for anyone to notice, not worth the effort to save. I know that people are dying in the streets of hunger because of your actions against this country!"

Haku flinched again at the straightforward accusation.

"and they are dying because they are too weak to fight, they lack the will to fight for their miserable life, to do what was necessary to live. Because they was too weak" it was a simple view of the world, the strong live, the weak die. If you die you simply wasn't strong enough.

"...animal" said Haku, with slight disapproval in her voice.

"Cowardly hypocrite" Naruto coolly fired again, he wasn't a hypocrite, he knew many would see him as a animal, demon even, for his views, but if they wanted to change his view on things they had to disprove it first.

Sasuke was strangely silent as he observed the debate, and found himself somewhat agreeing with the swordsman view, it was clear that Haku lost the match of noble views.

"... I do not wish to kill you" said Haku, she was having trouble disproving what Naruto said, even to herself.

"yes I know, and I dislike you for being such a coward" said Naruto coldly to Haku "you are the indirect cause of many deaths here in wave, but you do not even have guts you kill people face to face... or should I say face to mask? Fake hunter-nin" Naruto finished the sentence sounded entirely to smug to Haku.

For some reason Haku did not think the swordsman referenced to the actual hunter-nin mask she had on, and more to her being too scarred to act her true self to the world. In a way Haku admired the world view of the blond, and silently wished to have the same courage to do as she liked, even as she hated the feeling of shame he brought fort from within her, he was right about her after all.

But she had already decided to follow Zabuza, even if that path lead her straight to hell.

"...are there no way I can convince you to surrender?"

"no, don't you get it? I do not want to back down because you are strong!" said Naruto, he was beginning to become inpatient waiting for the violence to start "I do not care if you were an angle or a demon, I just want to see where I stand in power and skill. You are a test for my power, nothing more, nothing less"

"...even if you get killed?"

"Then I just wasn't strong enough. After all... when the animal that calls itself human shred itself of their false civility and give in to their instincts, they are just that... animals, we are all animals in the end. And the oldest animal law says the weak die, while the strong survive"

Haku looked sadly at Naruto.

"you have a sad view on the world" she could not help but comment.

"...It is not my fault the world is such a wrong place to live, I am just being a realist, blame the gods or something" Naruto told her with air of a wise old man, with a sword.

"I will still have to kill you" said Haku

"we all have to die sometime" Naruto told Haku easily, with a enlightened expression on his face.

"very well, it seem that I can not change you option"

"it will take more than a hypocrite's words to change this swordsman's view" said Naruto confidently. "in fact, that you are even trying is disgusting, since you are here to kill, while we are here to protect. Never mind your current employer is widely known to deal in slavery, particularly in the sex slave trade"

Haku wanted to say something, but could not find words.

"you know, even if Kakashi is largely out of shape since the war, there is still a huge chance that your master is going to die fighting him, he is a war hero for a reason. Your only way of helping him is if you take me out" Sasuke was ignored "the only way of doing so is to kill me."

This was a hard fact, Haku would not be able to defeat Naruto if she did not taking him seriously, and give her all.

"I am tired of talking. I am a warrior, and I will be taken seriously, whatever you want to or not. Your jutsu has flaws, it takes a lot of chakra to maintain for a longer period of time, both your body and mind is unable to deal with the stress of the high speed you travel you do between the ice mirrors, and have to take breaks like this one to avoid the harmful consequences of the stress."

it unnerved Haku how Naruto could see through the jutsu so easily, at last the major parts of the jutsu.

"if I win this fight then if your master kill kakashi he would likely be so weak that I could kill him. You do obviously not hold you own life in high regard, but you do you master. So the fact is this, if you do not come at me with your all, I will kill you most precious person"

There was a break where the ultimatum was absorbed into Haku brain, and slowly began to understand what her opponent was saying, she did not like what her mind was saying. To be honest it was rare for ninjas to fight in a long time, the sheer concentration a fast phrased fight was not something that can be hold up for long. in most cases, there is a clear difference between the level of the ninja fighting and the weaker die, so most fights is not that long. In a way a ninja fight is a battle against mistakes on your own part, after all a skilled ninja only need that one mistake to kill.

The glorified fights that draw on for hours where the ninjas show off their secret jutsu, abilities and skills, are very rare in a world of assassinates.

However in a high level fight where both ninjas are aware of each other, and most of their jutsu, abilities and skills, then it can end up like the one between Kakashi and Zabuza, a guessing game.

They are taking it slow, guessing the extent of the abilities of the enemy and making up small plans. If one of them guess wrong the person is either wounded or killed by the other, again in most cases.

Both Kakashi and Zabuza are very skilled, and while Zabuza has the advantage in the mist he made and skills in the art of silent killing, Kakashi was not one of Konoha's top jonin for nothing.

There is a big chance that even if Zabuza won he could be badly wounded. Haku knew this.

"why are you doing this?" she asked even as she hardened her heart, she would not tolerate threats against her beloved master.

Naruto sensing the his enemy was finally going to be fighting him seriously, build up his chakra inside his body and began to 'change' it for better words, it was for a technique he himself made when he experimented with his chakra.

This would be the first time he used it in battle, and it was still unfinished, but all in all he through it would be an interesting test for it. His blood was almost beginning to sing inside his body in preparation of the fight. It took anything he had not to show his blood-lust in his body-language, however the air was charged with it, so much that Sasuke was having flashback to when his brother killed his clan. Naruto smiled a truly blood thirsty smile at the girl in the mirror.

"I do this because I want to. Nothing more, nothing less. In the end it all boil down to 'wants', you are the same you know, you fight because you want to"

He slide his sword back into it's sheath, but put his hands on the handles on both, ready to draw them at any time he wanted.

"I do not want to fight you" she said coolly, she was not one to get 'hot' when angry, but froze it down to a cold fury. Fitting for her element of ice.

"you want to fight me because I threaten your master, instead of convincing your master to retire from the missing-ninja career and just start a family somewhere hidden. In simple teams, you want to fight me instead of alternatives"

Sasuke was still not saying anything but smirked, and prepared himself for the upcoming fight.

"I can not go against Zabuza-sama" she said as it was a common fact.

"Enough!" said Naruto loudly "I do not care about your master, your history, your suffering and your feelings on matters, I want to fight and kill you, because it is want I want"

"Selfish" Haku spat out in disgust, she readied herself for the fight.

"hypocrite" Naruto spat out with enough disgust to rival that of Haku's, but keep his excited grin.

There was a brief break where nothing but random background noise was heard, then both Naruto's and Haku's chakra spiked at the same time.

Haku was halfway out of her mirror when she sensed a massive energy release from the boy she was attacking, and instead of attacking head on she sent her senbon while moving to another mirror to observe in less time it takes some to blink.

Like a visual maelstrom of dark power it exploded out of the grinning boy, the power itself was in a black transparent colour that reminded Haku of ink, and it really didn't feel like chakra at all, like it was different somehow. It temporary hide Naruto's form behind it dark colour. The release made the air explode away from the boy in a violent wave of wind. Haku was not effected by the wind because she was inside a ice mirror when the wind hit her, the senbon she threw was blasted away easily. Sasuke on the other hand was unlike Haku not standing inside a ice mirror but almost right next to Naruto and got hit by the wind in full force, he had no time to react before the gale swept him of the ground and out in-between the ice mirrors and out of the dome, Haku seeing pass the mirror she was in filled him with senbon on his way out, where he unable to land properly and thus landed hard on the ground.

"uhg!" he was however still conscious despite the pain.

Again both Haku and Naruto ignored him.

"oh? Even with all your bravado, your still hiding away in your mirror? Pathetic" a different rough voice called out to Haku, though not so different that it was not reconcilable by Haku. It was unmistakable the blond boy's voice, but contained much more power and was a bit deeper.

Naruto was nonchalantly standing in the middle of the ice dome, but was changed a bit from before the power release. The change that seemed to just jump out into Haku was the eyes, they were not only slitted, but had changed colour to yellow, and were glowing. Naruto's eyes had changed into slitted glowing yellow eyes.

"hmmm? Nothing to say?" asked Naruto in a mocking tone, the deeper voice went nicely together with the evil looking eyes.

Another change was while the dark non-chakra-ish power had faded a little, it did not disappear, but was still strongly felt by Haku, she could even see it. It seemed like Naruto had some kind of dark aura around his body, the dark power was visible calmly smoking around his outline and got weaker the longer it was away from his body, while somehow stilled seemed ink-like in colour and movement, but still very transparent and weak ink.

"this aren't the time to be sleeping!" Naruto shouted as he pulled both his swords out of their sheath.

There was not any thing special about his swords except that the dark aura also hang around them, but that was not the swords themselves that did that. It was simply a side effect of Naruto transferring power into them.

He raced forward in speeds for above what he had shown before. Haku despite being surprised casted her senbon without delay or histeration at Naruto's head, certainty going for the kill. The senbon was dodged easily by Naruto as he changed his path to a zigzag pattern, always drawing more closely while dodging the continuous stream of senbons. Haku's hands blured as she threw even more senbon but they was all avoided, she moved out of the mirror to a new one, but this time Naruto could see her movements, even If she still was much faster than him due to her jutsu.

Naruto flared his power for a instant, to temporary amplify his speed for a short while, and moved toward the mirror in a straight line, this time blocking the senbon with his swords. His grin was far to gleeful for one that would have been dead if her haven't blocked the long needle-like objects.

As he come closer Haku moved to another mirror. Normally she would have stayed in the mirror as she thought they were invulnerable as long as she had chakra to strengthen them with. But there was nothing normal or ordinary about the energy her enemy gave off, and would not risk her life for the the chance really he could be injure her in there.

It was a second later proven the right choice on Haku's part. Naruto this time not brothering to stop decided to see if he could break one of the Ice mirrors, and took a swing at the one that Haku just abandoned, while a the same time blocking the senbon thrown by Haku from her new spot.

The mirror shattered into pieces almost right after Naruto's enhanced blade cut clean through it, the offensive cutting power simply overwhelmed the chakra resistance of the ice mirror in a instant. The sword cut through the ice while the still unnamed power blow it up after the sword travelled through, like the mirror shattered only as a after effect of the clean cut.

Haku was very grateful for trusting her own instinct that told her to move away.

Naruto knowing Haku use the ice mirrors to fast travel, decided to break them. He ran to the right and began to shatter all the mirrors he could. Which was much easiler said than done as Haku was inhuman fast at throwing those senbon, and deadly accurate too.

Senbon is almost useless as a weapon. They are small, do little damage and hard to throw. If they don't hit a fatal area they simply don't kill, not like kuay that makes the enemy bleed if hit. Haku however was a master at throwing senbon, targeting mostly the joints, intent on piercing right through them and limit Naruto's movement, before going in to kill the weakened prey. That is not to say there weren't a lot of senbon targeting more lethal body parts, like Naruto's head, eyes and spine.

But he could defend himself while destroying those mirrors, though he could not block or dodge anything still made he was not hit in any fatale areas. He was hit in non-fatale places, but avoided getting his joints hit and did therefore not even slow him down sightly.

Haku was in a pinch, the boy was destroying her mirrors faster than she can restore them. Her chakra was also running out fast. With her high chakra lunched speed, keeping the ice mirror jutsu active and restoring her destroyed mirrors at the same time she would run out of chakra far before Naruto would have used up all of his weird power.

And she knew it.

She lunched herself backward out of one of the last ice mirrors of the lowest circle to gain some space between her and her opponent, while she at the same time explosively cancelled her justu. Her ice mirrors exploded cursing small shards to be sent everywhere, Naruto sanding close to one of the ice mirrors instantly realised the danger of being pierced by hundreds of small ice shards.

Despite not having used this power or jutsu in a combat situation before he practised it countless times to get where he was, it all come naturally to him, like he was used to it. Naruto gathered his power in his swords, and swung them around in a circle, creating a whirlwind akin to the one there was when he first summoned the power in this battle, only much stronger and faster. The small ice shard never stood a chance and was swept away.

Someday he really wanted to get it on the level he could make something akin to firing a wind blade or creating a huge tornado like effect, but the almost solid wall of wind in a small area around him was good enough for now. Maybe when he had better control over what he called Aodha. Naruto had decided to call the new power that when he discovered how to make it, as it wasn't chakra after all.

Haku had to shield her eyes for the heavy wind even through she stood so far away, she had lunched herself at last 20 yards backwards. She frowned seeing her jutsu's last trick being overcome without a single injury so easily, but otherwise kept a cool head despite the desperate station she was in. Haku was running out of tricks.

They was both breathing hard now, tried because of their latest jutsu. For Haku it was making her remaining ice mirrors explode. For Naruto it was the wall of wind that took so much of his power.

Naruto decided to cancel his Aodha mode, it would soon run out by itself anyway, and it being forcefully cancelled was always so painful. He could not effort to get distracted by pain. Being distracted here could easily kill him.

The mode itself used Aodha to activate, and an continuous flow of it to keep it that way. The energy Aodha is produced by a chakra control exercise Naruto got wrong when he was younger, it do not produce itself. When in Aodha mode Naruto can not use chakra whatsoever, and he can therefore not produce more Aodha. So he need to cancel Aodha mode in order to make more Aodha out of his chakra.

He was already started to to fill his Aodha reserve if he should need it later. He could not just make a unlimited amount of Aodha, there was a limit on how much he could hold at a time without hurting himself.

Still this evened out the battle field, just like Naruto likes it. No fun if there isn't a challenge in it, even if beating up weaklings has it own charm. It was just so much more fun if they were really strong opponents. Strong people like Haku.

The girl in question sighed in relief. Haku knew that she did not have a chance of defeating her enemy if he keep that weird power armour of his active. Now there was at last a fighting chance for her to win, even if the battle was still in the boy's favour.

And really it was scary to have see those yellow eyes hunting you, she was glad that they went back to the deep blue they was before he did the unknown power cloak thing.

And the black aura thing was also gone, that had been downright freaky. As if the eyes wasn't bad enough.

Naruto was smiling confidently at Haku, he was really enjoying this fight.

"see, this is what I wanted, not the half-baked showery thrash from before. Only hard and fast killing and permanently crippling strikes, my instincts was working overtime to sense all of the danger, my body moving like by life depended on it, and the adrenaline flowing through my blood. Not that soft hearted thing you did before, you do not have the resolve to fight like that"

Haku frowned she was beginning to really dislike the boy before her, and not just because he threatened to kill her master.

"resolve to fight the way I do? What do you mean?"

"The same thing I said in the previous conversation. You are not true to yourself. You are not fighting at your highest" explained Naruto cryptically. Which annoyed Haku a lot.

"just say what you want to say!" she raised her voice, for some reason Naruto could easily got in under her cold façade. Her anger gone after the short but very intense battle she had.

"you are conflicted." Naruto seemed undisturbed by her anger, if anything he seemed a little amused by it.

"am not!" she shouted back.

Naruto just snorted "...right."

Haku glared.

"stop looking at me like that." said Naruto amused.

"I am not conflicted!"

"anyway, you don't want to fight and kill me" Naruto tried to bring them back in the matter before they ended talking about something completely unrelated.

"well daa, that's what I have been telling you about from the start" was her comeback.

"but you are willing to help indirectly kill a whole country for your master"

"ugk!"

"see, your conflicted" said Naruto in a matter of fact voice.

Haku sweat dropped "no, it don't see"

"sigh... your unknowingly limit your own power because even if you follow your master you know what he is doing is wrong. Chakra is made of a mix of both spiritual energy and body energy, if you do something you know is worng and personally don't want to, your spiritual energy loses power, creating an unbalance in your chakra. For people like us with fully activated chakra networks, we can't survive without always channelling a little bit of chakra all the time. The unbalance in your chakra will therefore always subtly affect you, even if you are not actively using a jutsu. Some of the affects can be, lower chakra control, less chakra generated, more chakra needed to jutsus, lower emotional control, slower reflexes, slower body, slower and more unstable mind, slower recovery rate from fatigue, and wounds heal at a slower rate" Naruto tried to explain again in another way.

"...oh..." said Haku wide eyed at the explanation, before giving a look of irritation, behind her mask "why didn't just say so from the start?"

Now Naruto looked at Haku in confusion "I thought I did?"

"no you didn't" replied Haku.

"I did. I said you were a hypocrite and that you are conflicted. It isn't my fault your too stupid to understand what I am saying to you" said Naruto plain, if a bit insulting tone.

To be honest Naruto was in bad position, there was drawbacks on using Aodha state. His body was in a sad state, he had pulled more muscles than he knew he had, and he was sure the some of his bones had crackled under the presser put on them by the wild force Aodha.

That was the main reason he was talking right now, he was buying time to have his chakra heal some of the damage, but it was slow going.

Another thing was the katana he used to destroy the ice ninja's mirrors was also cracked and was only held together with chakra, and before that he Aodha to keep it together. But even energy enhanced swords had their limits, and the sword was fast approaching it's. Not that he cared for the sword itself, he had taken it from to wannabe samurai that Ganto hire to kidnap their client's family. They did not need them where they went.

So he stood before an enemy with a broken body and damaged weapons, and he can not deny it excited him to be at such disadvantage. He would win this.

But sadly all good things come to an end.

A sudden loud noise that sounded like a thousand birds chirping at the same place and time. It as coming from within the mist, from where Kakashi and Zabuza was trying to kill each other.

Haku acted first, knowing that her master did not have anything that could curse that sound, and thus bus be his enemy doing. And it did not herald something good for her master.

"I'm sorry, but it seems like you would won't be able to claim this time" said said fully intending to get to her master and escape from here. Even if she was able to kill or maim the blond boy, the black haired one was getting up from where he landed, ready to take over where the blond left.

"wait!" Naruto forced his legs into a run, when he saw Haku distracted. Moving in for the kill, but was to slow as a massive chakra build up signalled the use of transport jutsu 'Shunshin no Jutsu' (Body Flicker Technique).

Haku's form disappeared with a swirl of water and disappeared into the mist faster than his eyes could follow.

Naruto sighed and dropped the cracked sword on the ground, where it shattered into pieces. It was an useless piece of metal now anyway.

He began to walk casually toward the loud noise, there was not much else he could do with his body this damaged. Well he could but the result was not worth the effort and the time healing his broken bones, and as much as he hate to admit it, both Kakashi and Zabuza was over her level of strength, at last for now.

It was unexpected but not shocking to see that Haku had sacrificed herself to save her master, with her personalty and all. The shocking thing was that she was killed by being pierced by a hand covered in real lightning. It was from the hand the annoying loud sound was coming from. Haku did have a obsessional need to protect her master. It was a shame she died trough, while he did say he wanted to, and made serial serious killing strikes at her, he in a way respected the willpower and loyalty she showed.

Both Kakashi and Zabuza looked shocked at the girls appearance, before Zabuza snapped out of it and began to laugh.

"good job Haku, now hold him still!" he told the dead girl, as he swung his massive sword to cut both Haku and Kakashi, that had his hand stuck through Haku chest. The swing was a bit clumsy as one of Zabuza's arm was crippled with two kunai to the shoulder.

Kakashi avoided the slash and removed his hand from the girl. The man did not come of the fight unscathed with serial wounds in various places on his body.

Naruto wondered if he should step in to help fight Zabuza, but decided not to because of his own injures. He could maximum use the Aodha state for a minuet or so, before his bones would break and his muscles snap. He would wait and see, if Kakashi looked like he would need help he would step in.

Sasuke was also looking at the fight, not saying anything as usual.

As the fight when on Kakashi crippled Zabuza's other arm with another two kunai to that shoulder. Amazing enough Zabuza prepared to fight without his arm to the death. Which impressed Naruto a lot.

He wondered if he should take the gigantic sword after Zabuza was dead, but again decided not to, it was to large and heavy. He wanted some smaller than that one, but a at same time he disliked the flimsy that just did not feel right in his hands, and broke far too easy. If he could find a middle ground between them it would be best.

It was a shame that he did not have the money to buy one.

Amusing enough the solution come walking to him.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" asked a unknown smug voice from the end of the bridge. It was small person with a cane, his one hand looked like it was broken recently but was still healing. Behind the small man 50 or so bandits, mercenaries and samurai wannabes was also standing, looking just as smug as the small man.

Naruto blinked in surprise, how had he missed them assembling on the end of bridge, where they had climbed up from a boat using rope. He mean that now that he noticed them they was not exactly quiet.

"Gato" growled Zabuza at the short man "what are you doing here?"

'so that is Gato? The bane of wave? He is a little on the short side, thought he would be taller' thought Naruto in slight amusement, it was already clear to him what the man was here for. There was only two possibilities after all. Number one: backup for Zabuza. Number two: double-cross Zabuza and kill them all. Either way he would have to fight them.

"can't even kill a one man and his bunch of kids? You are useless. Good thing that I never intended to pay you in the end. But still was this all the feared Zabuza could do?" Gato said, sure of his superior standing of power, aka, having an army at his back and call.

"you interned to betray me?" Zabuza sounded angry.

"why, of course I did. From the very start no less. You demanded to much money for your work, that you couldn't even do properly" Gato sounded like he enjoyed the moment very much, he probably was afraid of Zabuza and loved the chance to lord over him.

Not that Naruto really cared. He was more interested in the weapons the army had with them, and they had a lot of different weapons. He was in particular eyeing some some the pole arms, like the Naginata and spears. Have not tried to held such a weapon before. He also eyed the European designed straight doubled edged swords, that looked more robust than the katana. Though many of them looked too unhandy to use and too heavy to swing, many of that had probably just brought the coolest weapons they could find.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Zabuza asking Kakashi to lend him a kunai, which he did.

Now armed with a kunai in his mouth, was about to charge.

"mind if I help?" asked Naruto with a excited smile on his face. He was healed enough that nothing would happen useless he went over his limits again. He would be in pain doing it, but it was not everyday you get to fight an army, and he did not want to miss it.

Zabuza looked him over a bit before grunting "do what you want brat!"

"Naruto!" said Kakashi

"what?"

"stay with the client!"

"why?" asked Naruto.

"He is the one they are out after!" said Kakashi.

"hm, you do that, and I will do something useful. Like getting a rid of the threat" Naruto told kakashi like he was a child "just go over there and let me do your work... again"

Naruto turned to Zabuza with a blood thirsty smile "ready!"

Zabuza just smiled and began to run fearless towards the army, despise that he could not use neither of his arms, with Naruto right behind him.

Naruto could not help but admire Zabuza, charging broken arms fearless into death.

"it is a good death you get Zabuza" said Naruto out so only Zabuza could hear, with a genuine smile on his lips, looking nothing like the bloodthirsty one from before "a warrior's death"

"I know" said Zabuza also with a genuine smile. "my only regret is now giving Haku a better life"

"she was happy following you to her end, she too died a good death" said Naruto softly "she will probably be waiting for you"

"yea... she would"

"enough of this! We are here for the fighting!" yelled Naruto as he speed up to his limit he sat he could run without harming himself.

Zabuza laughed to himself "Yea, a kid after my own heart!" as he too speed up. Both Naruto and Zabuza had their bloodthirsty smile back in full force.

"Naruto!" kakashi cursed that he was low on chakra, he had been fighting Zabuza for quite some time, and his Sharingan had consumed much of his chakra in that time, even if it was not a high profile, chakra heavy jutsu battle. He had to settle on scolding Naruto if he did come back alive. He wished he had not gotten so lax after leaving the ANBU.

Zabuza speed up and drove into the first line of enemies, he had only one goal, to kill the one that betrayed the contract, Gato, he did not have the energy to waste on the men, though he did kill quite a few as he ran past, but did also take some heavy wounds in the process.

Naruto having only one sword and a damaged body did not help the enemies as he broke the enemy line in wild swings that cut through the bodies in it's path, but held back so he did not have an enemy at his back, making use to keep them in font of him. It did that he had the space to avoid the attacks threw at him, and a clear way to retract if needed. He enjoyed battle, he was not suicidal. Still he slashed and stabbed anything moving within reach, while not pushing his body more than it could take.

Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Zabuza fall after having killed his former employer, Naruto thought the man was very impressive, more than he had seen of the other ninjas, he had single-handedly cut a clear path through 50 or so bandits, mercenaries and wannabe samurai, knowing he would die of it, with only a small kunai in his mouth and arms useless and crippled, weakened from a fight not even a minuet before.

He dodged under a slash and picked up one of the fallen weapons from the dead hands that held it before. A war-axe and made upward swing at the one slashing, make a huge cut over the chest of the axe's victim. The war-axe felt wrong in his hand, unfamiliar and in a strange way unwilling, he threw it at another person with a crossbow, it buried itself deep in the man's head, cursing him to misfire, hitting nothing. He gracefully jumped over a trusted pole-arm, a spear, and slashed downwards, this time he buried his katana deep in a man, he landed on the chest of the man, and kicked off him, getting his sword lose, and out of range of nearby bandits.

He had killed 10 or so of them, and on his path Zabuza killed four or five.

The enemies looked at him wary, hesitating to attack, which was good as he had time to recover his lost breath.

It did not look good, his body can not take the stress, it is not trained enough. He could see it now, the many areas he could work on to become stronger, faster, deadlier, better, focused, more powerful, how to recover faster, how to heal himself in battle.

But his chakra reserve is beginning to run low, Aodha is also not full, he only had enough for a bit more than a small bust with the little control he had. Something to work on later. If only Kakashi was not so useless as an teacher, and anything else.

The enemy seem to have gained their courage, as three charged him. He raised his sword and met them, bocking and evading their weapons, then cutting the carrier of the weapons as he went past them. They died. But others followed their exampled and charged. So began the dance of death yet again. Halter and you die, hesitate and you die, too slow and you die, wrong step and you die. It was a deathly dance of ever changing steps, rhythms and forms, ever fully the same, never truly different. Their life on the edge of the blade... And Naruto would not have it any different as he laughed happily as he danced across the dance floor called the bloody battlefield. He thoroughly enjoyed himself even as his body grew weaker, his strikes become more precise and deathly in turn. He now had a double edged swords in one of his hands, thicker than the katana and just a bit longer. The other hand holding a short single edged wakizashi, that he shifted between holding in a back hand and for hand grip according to the situation, as he danced around people, spilling blood effortlessly. Sometimes he would throw the wakizashi in the air to get a two-handed grip on the long sword for more power, usually cutting right through the person in it's path.

The bandits are beginning to flee the battlefield, to the end of the bridge to use the rope to get down again. They turned their backs on Naruto, which made Naruto frown, it was no fun to cut them down with their backs turned, well it was, but not nearly as much as fighting him head on.

The last of them had escaped too the boat, but it left a sour taste in his mouth to let them get away like this. He would not let them!.

He lifted his long sword into the air, and began canalling Aodha into it and his arm, dark power gathered around his body for a brief moment, before it was forced into his sword.

His eyes shone gold as the sword was forced downward with more strength and speed than it had ever been moved before. A wave of power, or more like a vacuum of pressure, cut the the boat in half before those in it could react, much less evade it. The water itself was cut in half, for a brief moment a thin line could be seen that continued from water to land on the other side, the wave's ending could not be seen from where Naruto stood.

Then the boat collapsed from the cut, and the water filled the line. The screams from the escaping bandits as many with armour on was forced under the cruel waters, and many that tried to shout for help.

...crack... crack... crack.

Naruto's hand broke now he ran out of his Aodha that he used for holding his arm together. If he had not it would have broken in the swing. He dropped his sword, that was also destroyed by the force of the swing, and the power release used to make the swing.

He sighed, his lust for battle satisfied, he liked that sword.

Ignoring the pain in his broken arm, he walked over to the fallen Zabuza "Oi! Still alive?" Naruto knew the man was alive, but was he still conscious, the man was mortally wounded with weapons still sticking out his back, and if he fell asleep he would probably never wake up again. Naruto eyed one of the weapons sticking out the man's back, it look nice.

"yea... I'm alive for now" said Zabuza, the man was not stupid, he knew he did not have long to leve left.

"any last wish?" asked Naruto, wanting to send a man he come to greatly respect into the afterlife with a gift of sorts.

"only one... I wish to see Haku's face one last time before I die..." Zabuza softly requested.

Naruto sighed "sure, but it will probably be a rough ride with by broken arm" as he bent down to try to lift him with one arm. Someone interfered, Kakashi bent down and lifted the heavy man before Naruto could.

"I do it" he said seriously and solemn.

Naruto was silent for a bit before cracking a laugher.

"Kakashi you are carrying Zabuza with the princess carry, have you no shame?" said Naruto amused "don't tell me you plan to propose to a dying man whose heart already belong to another? If you are you then are a bit late for it, you could do before he was mortally wounded you know?"

You may not see it but Kakashi reddened behind his mask, but tried his best to keep up his solemn attitude. Zabuza laughed.

"I sure hope not, he suck too much"

naruto answered laughing "but isn't sucking a good skill in such a relationship?"

"shut it brat!" growled Zabuza.

"still... Kakashi you are certainly acting high and mighty for such a useless person, trying to make up for always being late, and not training us?... is it not working" said Naruto to Kakashi "you will always be remembered as the useless copy thing that was too late to anything."

Kakashu grimaced under his face mask, Naruto's comments hit a bit close to home.

"no, I am honouring my enemy's last wish, and please take it seriously" stated Kakashi still all serious like.

"Kakashi... you did not even help in our battle, except killing those easy pickings fleeing your way, away from me in terror. I just killed a bunch of hired muscles while enjoying it. I cut down fleeing enemies by stabbing them in the back. I massacred them mercilessly of their begging to be spared. I am as serious I will be a serious as I will ever take death" stated Naruto coldly.

"death is the end... it is there any of the thing you did in life, your sufferings, your struggles, your fought battles, the things you know, you anger, your hate, your happiness, your glory, your honour, your jutsu, your power, your money, your connections, your own power of will... become utterly useless! The death have no use for such pretty things, it is the end of the line. Death is fair, it comes to all, child, woman and man equally without exception, and they will undeniable be forgotten by the living, it is a fact."

"Zabuza will die, and be forgotten. As will all things be forgotten. Why waste time with the death? It is nothing special, it has happened countless times in the past, and will continue to happen countless times in the future. I am not going to be serious about something as trivial as death, and most will probably be at a better place" explained Naruto his viewpoint of death. It is the only true eventuality in life, you can avoid it for a time, but in the end you too will die and be forgotten by all.

Both Kakashi and Zabuza was silent... before Zabuza spoke up, his voice full of feelings "do you think I will be together with Haku in death? Brat?"

"perhaps... I do not know precisely what happen after death, but it is highly possible. A soul is a component of the human that is has always been an mystery, BUT a soul has power, this as been proven. If you want to be with Haka after death, then WILL it, and it will properly happen"

"thanks brat" Zabuza said as he was laid down besides the dead Haku. He turned and laid a hand on Haku's cheek in a loving manner. "if I could... I would go to... the same place... as you..." he was having difficult time breathing, and it slowly began to snow, and Zabuza wiped a tear that had mysteriously appeared on her face away from Haku dead face...

Naruto looked up at the snow "hmm, Haku had an ice blood-line and it is not the season for snow... it seems you was lucky Zabuza, Haku's soul is waiting for you to go the afterlife together"

Zabuza died with a smile looking at Haku's face.

"you are truly lucky Zabuza, having such a good death..." said Naruto softly.

XXXXXXooooo000ooooooXXXXXX

Naruto was sitting next to a blacksmith, asking about the trade. He had not found a weapon that to handle his power without taking damage, so he thought he would make his own. Meanwhile he would use Zabuza's blade to train with, the man had no use for it dead, and it was heavy.

He had upped his training even more, seeking to improve both strength, stamina, speed, and healing rate. Hurt like hell too, having his body repair itself after he pushed it to the ground. Of course the benefits fit the efforts out into it, as he was improving that much faster, it almost made up for the thieving annoyance using his newly awakened Sharingan to try steal his moves when he was training. He just about ready to beat Sasuke up, when he simply decided not to.

Despite the way it was obtained strength is strength, and power is power. Right now Sasuke was too weak to put up a proper fight, so he would wait to later when it would be worth it, and if the brat used his moves it would mean it was superior to whatever the great ninja clan Uchiha had.

Not bad for a clan-less orphan.

Well not orphan as having no parents, but orphan as abandoned by his parents, or better said his mother.

The great Uzumaki clan... the clan he could have been a member of if he was born female. It was a clan whose blood-line would only show in those that are female, no boy had never been reported with their blood-line, and are looked down on with spite within the clan, even by their own parents. It was rare that a boy is born with in the clan, as such it is mainly females that control it all, and because of their lack of blood line the males are looked upon as second rate clan-members.

Kushina was no exception, and had abandoned her son in Konoha when he was five years old, she did not have the time of the boy with her clan-leader duties and her more important child, a daughter with the bjiu kyuubi sealed with in her. She could neither ask her clan-members to look after a Boy, or abandon him. She chose the latter and never looked back.

Not that she could, as the Uzumaki clan was a wandering ninja clan, travelling the lands instead of belonging to a hidden ninja village.

But in the end his mother was not important, he was clan-less, nothing more nothing less. He just liked fighting, and other interesting things.

After the blacksmith blacksmith finished his explanation about his trade, he went to smite something so he could get an view of it. It was not something fancy, just a shovel, the man did not really have enough time or money after Gato's tyranny to carelessly use expensive metals to show him the blacksmith trade.

But still Naruto was interested, even if there was only a bit more than a week to the bridge was finished, and he had to leave Wave to go home to Konoha with the rest of team 7.

still this mission was a good success, he had money and weapons, something that he did not have in Konoha. The money the orphans get is truly pitiful, but after Kyuubi's attack it was to be expected. It was a good thing that his raid at Gato's place, the man sure kept a lot of money around him, and a lot of items that would be easy to sell that the right places. Who knew Gato was a collector of rare items?

He was also found the place Zabuza and Haku used as an hideout, a big tree house thing. It also seemed that Zabuza was gratherning money for something, most likely the rebellion against the Kage of one of the five big ninja villages, Kirigakure. But as he said before the dead has no use for it, he had. There was also an impressive amount of healing supplies, but Naruto ha no need for them and just delivered it to the local healer.

"sorry, have to leave soon" said the blacksmith "can't keep the family waiting for me"

"hm? Oh... that is fine" Naruto was standing in a trance like state as the blacksmith worked, and almost missed what the man said. "have to leave myself so there is no problem, have a good evening"

"back at yer" replied the man as Naruto left his shop.

So Naruto walked back to the place that his client lived, and was hosting him and his team. Naruto mentally snorted at the thought about the bunch of misfits that was his team. While they did not outright dislike each other, they all made sure each other knew they they did not like them, except for Sakura's fan-girlish obsession with her other male team member Sasuke.

Their team leader is the lazy jonin Kakashi, that is always late to meetings, and anything else. The man is also a worse hypocrite than Haku. He said that those who break the rules are scum, and those who abandon their team-mates are worse than scum, bah! The man break the rules, and abandon them to wait for him for hours. You simply can not trust the the lazy one-eyed porn-reading jonin to be anything near reliable. He do not even train his genin to become better ninja even if they ask. Overall an useless person.

Sakura is fan-girl. That means loud, weak, do not train, wasting her talents, ignore parts of reality, dumb, obsessive toward her target, slow, stinks of perfume, and more that will not be named. All these points are very bad for a ninja to have. She is also overall an useless person.

Sasuke an avenger with an lust for power, which is fine enough for naruto. Sasuke is silent and a loner which is also fine with naruto. To be honest the only thing that is annoying with Sasuke is the arrogance the boy can not back up, thinking he can demand anything, but it is not often the brat do so as he has an ego on the size of the moon, and it is beneath him to ask for help. The problem is Sasuke is largely controlled by his negative emotions and not the other way around. Not someone to trust one's back to if you want to keep living, but overall somewhat tolerable.

Naruto walked into the big house their client live in together with his daughter and grand-son. The house had been an inn long ago when Gato had not laid his evil eyes upon Wave country, and they had guests to the island that did not take what they wanted. Still unlike the client the daughter is a very responsible person so the former inn was still in good condition, unlike many of the other buildings in this poor country.

Kakashi was sitting at the table reading as the client's beautiful daughter, which is at odds at the rough look the father has. Even Naruto that was only starting to step into the adult world was attracted to her. Though he was not a virgin any more. The title as the Hero of Wave and the one that killed Gato's private army got him a lot of positive female attention, he just took advance of of the discrete and some not so discrete offers by the female population. Even if he just graduated at the ninja school at 12.

The many uses of the ninja technique henge, or rather a more advanced version of his own making, never chased to amuse him. One such use was to appear older.

Well to call it the henge would be a lie, it was a kind of subtle manipulation of his flesh and bones that he learned after the battle on the bridge, and during his repair of his shattered right arm. It just hurts like you never would believe to remodel his body.

He did not really change any thing in front of his 'team', as he wanted to keep the ability secret as long as possible.

So he was still blond with rather long hair to mid back that seemed to fall in spikes that gave gave him a wild look. He was coated in rather lose comfortable brown shirt and pants that a common with poor civilians. Sadly he was still very short for his age, much to his secret annoyance as he could change it.

As Naruto walked in he greeted the beautiful Tsunami daughter of the client, who daughter of the client Tazuna.

"good evening Tsunami-san" he greeted politely, it would do him no favours to be rude after all.

He was rewarded with a beautiful smile from the black-haired woman "welcome back Naruto-kun, dinner with be on the table soon"

"do you need any help?" offered Naruto with a sight smile.

"no thanks Naruto-kun, I can do it myself. Can you get Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan? They should be out training"

Naruto mentally snorted, it was far more likely Sasuke trained with Sakura cheered him on. "Kakashi-san is much better as finding people than me, so why do he not make himself useful for once and get them?" he asked at Kakashi who was reading his infamous porn book again in pain view. Naruto would be willing bet the man was still a virgin.

He did not want to get his two team-mates, their personality could be a pain to deal with.

After the battle of the bridge, Sasuke had set his eyes on him as his rival, and sought to challenge to a fight each time they meet, which is in a way fine if he could understand the word 'no'. If Naruto was in the middle of something else and refused Sasuke's challenge, the damned brat would attack him anyway, and Kakashi let him.

At last it stopped, or toned down a bit, after Naruto got tired of the brat's attitude and demands and beat him into unconsciousness... or would have if Kakashi had not interfered and saved the brat. Kakashi scolded Naruto for his harmful attacks, but Naruto gave the same reason the man allowed Sasuke to attack him "it is good for training" in a icy voice as he starred the man into his one visible eye.

The attacks decided in quantity after that.

Sadly there was no laws against favouritism in Konoha. The jonin has full control over the genin under his command, to a certain decree of course.

As much as Konoha likes to call themselves free of sins to the public, there is a deep darkness there that is easy to spot if you know what to look after.

At last he was fast enough to break Sasuke's nose.

Sakura however was a loud useless piece of flesh. A one use meat-shield. Period.

"maa, maa, I am reading Naruto-kun, can you not get them?" Kakashi asked Naruto in a lazy manner, not taking his eyes from his book.

"you has read that book at last three time in the last four days. Either you get them or they do not get anything to eat" said Naruto as he sat down on a chair, looking bored at Kakashi. He had not being hiding his disgust of the man, and refused to mindlessly do his bidding. Naruto knew the man was playing favorites, and Kakashi knew Naruto knew. While there is no law against favouritism, it is still very frowned upon by many ninja and civilians, so if it come out Kakashi was playing favourites his would still be heavily punished because of politics, Konoha would not lose their good image for anything.

It put them in a bad situation for both of them.

For Kakashi because of possible demotion or being removed as the team-sensei, plus a big lose of respect of his jonin peers.

Naruto would be punished for bring a taint into public's view, which could mean him being silenced permanently. Konoha loves the sway being the 'good guys' brings.

This lead to the situation they is in now. Naruto ignoring all what Kakashi is saying, and doing what he want to. and Kakashi ignoring Naruto for the most part.

After a while the man ran off to get Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto rolled his eyes at the and muttered to himself "of course he would not let his star pupil hunger" if Naruto should be honest then Kakashi did not even train Sasuke that good, so it is not really star pupil, but Sasuke was the only person that Kakashi trains at all, period.

Kakashi was a lazy bastard.

Then Naruto shifted his thoughts to more delightful things, like which lovely lady he would try to seduce later. He had also gotten a taste for saki and had gotten a huge amount from Gato's base, so maybe he should just relax this evening and enjoy a bottle of saki. It is nice to be able to remove all the harmful effects of saki manually later so drinking was not a problem.

It was a good thing he was a ninja, and therefore a adult in the eyes of the law.

Now all he needed was to be promoted to chunin so he could leave Kakashi and his team behind.

To be honest he was disappointed with his ninja life... it was too easy, and not enough good battles or good challenges. Which was why he picked up saki and women as a hobby, something to help pass the time when he was not training, eagerly awaiting his next exciting battle or challenge.

At last he got the weapon he wanted... a naginata. Out of the weapons in his ownership it is the pole-arm type Naginata that he liked the best. However he was still too short to use a full sized one, so he had to use a long heavy pole of iron his size to practise fighting with a pole-arm type of weapon as he grow up a bit.

It did take him at lot of time cleaning Naginata up as the previous owner did obviously not take properly care of it. it was not of a good quality Naginata neither, apparently it was taken from a junk shop where it's previous owner probably thought it must have looked cool.

Despite it's stigma as a Lady's type of weapon, or not smart enough to know.

Naruto did not care neither way, it was his now.

He had so many ideas after his battles at the bridge, that he wanted to try out. Such as a weapon made entirely out of chakra or Aodha, though it was more likely it would be made out of Aodha as it was in many ways 'heavier' or more 'real' than chakra.

Or enhancing his weapons with seals to take more power.

He took out a note book from seemly nowhere to write down his ideas, details and knowledge, so he would not forget them. It disappeared to nowhere after he was done using it.

He would have change his plans for the night, training sounded more interesting to him right now. To try out his new idea...

sooo... what do you think?

please Review and tell me.