The White Death of Konoha
Sorry if it's a bit confusing at the beginning, things will be cleared out few chapters later.
PROLOGUE
It was a dark, gloomy Monday evening in the western parts of the Hot Water Country. The sky was covered in clouds and thick mist hang in the air. Whilst at first, this would seem an innocent weather occurrence, but any Shinobi worth his salt could sense Chakra pulsing in the air, and note that the mist was artificial. If one such Shinobi were to follow that pulse, he would find himself near a largeish lake in a desolated countryside, far away from any settlements. At a first glance, it would seem that nothing was out of the ordinary, but once again, Chakra sensitive people could clearly see that several high-level Jutsus had been used in the area, recently. But then, one might notice the faint sound of metal clashing against metal, and take an even closer look. Should one do so, he might find himself treated to a rather extraordinary sight.
Two men were standing in the middle of a lake, as if the watery surface was ordinary earth.
They were both locked in a struggle, a contest of strength and endurance, as their respective weapons were locked against each other, and both sides attempted to overpower each other. The only movements were tiny, temporary shifts in balance as both sides gained and lost the advantage for a split second before returning to a deadlock.
One was a tall, muscular man with short, spiky black hair. He was shirtless, with only his toolbelt covering his upper body. He also wore a bandaged mask covering his lower face and a forehead protector with the marking of a Mist-nin with a long scrape running across it, marking him as a Missing-nin. He was holding a massive broadsword shaped like a giant butcher knife, with one hand down on the handle and another on the back side of the single-edged blade, allowing him to put more force into the effort.
His name was Zabuza Momochi.
The second was another tall man with a cloth-mask around his lower face, but that was where the similarities ended. His hair was white, and he was wearing a long, dark cloak with red clouds, a red interior, and a chin-high collar. He wore no headband of allegiance, and a long, jagged scar could be seen under the eyepatch that covered his left eye. He was armed with a pair of kunai, one on each hand, that were even now pressed against the blade of the other mans broadsword.
He was known to some as Kakashi Hatake, but many knew him by the moniker given to him by his enemies, the "White Death".
They were both Missing-nin, but one worked for an organization and another for himself.
In an instant, so quickly that even if you stared at the two of them without blinking, you might miss it entirely, both of the men simultaneously leapt back several feet, adjusted their weapons to one-handed grip or sheathed their off handed one, and formed a one-handed-seal. That both of them had executed the maneuver simultaneously, and what happened next, was testament to both the similarities in their fighting styles and how evenly matched they were.
Both of them channeled their Chakra into a jutsu that would incapacitate or simply distract their opponent from the follow-up blow that both were even now planning. With both of them exhausted from the battle before, they decided to use a jutsu that was just strong enough to be useful in this situation, and weak enough to not drain their already-drained reserves too much. Both of them also were skilled enough that they could execute their attacks in complete silence, but an observer well-versed in Shinobi arts might note that the Jutsus used were Static Shock Bullet and Condensed Water Spear.
Next to Zabuza, ripples could be seen on the lake's surface as water gathered in one place, before bursting from it in a pressurized blast of water that could easily take the head off from a grown man.
At the same time, Kakashi raised his open palm towards his foe, and crackling, white lightning Chakra gathered into his hand before blasting off in a flash of light.
The two Jutsus met in midair, lightning vaporizing water, and water soaking electricity, Both of them were of same strength, and in the end they cancelled each other out.
"Well well, Hatake. It looks like we're equally matched,"
"We'll see about that, Momochi,"
Kakashi vanished and reappeared in flashes of lightning as he Body-Flickered behind his opponent. He thrust the kunai in his left hand towards Zabuza's back counting on the slow movement of the broadsword to allow him to attack before the swordsman could retaliate.
Before the dagger could connect, Zabuza countered the attack by spinning around and raising his foot, diverting the blow with the metal plate mounted on both sides of his combat boots.
Balancing on one leg, the former Mist-nin brought his blade, Kubikiribocho, in an overhead blow aiming to bisect Kakashi straight down from the middle.
Kakashi countered by blocking it with his free hand, the massive broadsword digging into the metal of kunai, but the dagger held, even if only barely, despite being almost comically outsized by one of the near-legendary Swords of the Mist.
Kakashi, seeing that his blade wouldn't hold out for much longer, defused the situation by bringing his other Kunai to bear on Zabuza, forcing him to leap away. Kakashi glanced down on his Kunai, and noting the deep gash on the blade, dropped it. The near-useless weapon splashed against the lakes surface before sinking to the bottom.
There were already nearly four dozen such kunai, in addition to a katana that had been snapped in half and a tanto that had shattered entirely, only small fragments remaining of the blade.
This same pattern had repeated itself for quite some time. Neither of the combatants could overpower each other. Many combinations, ambushes and clever plans had been employed but so far none had succeeded.
Then, for some time the battle had turned into a Cat and Mouse where Cat and mouse exchanged places regularly, but in the end Zabuza's specialization in ambush was negated by Kakashi's keen senses and skill in avoiding ambushes.
Thus, they had begun attempting to overwhelm each other with Kenjutsu and Taijutsu, which had led them to their current disposition. It was now a race of whether Kakashi would run out of weapons to block the Kubikiribocho and discard after they inevitably were ruined by the far larger weapon, or Zabuza would run out of stamina from swinging the massive broadsword around.
Currently, Kakashi was running on his last two Kunai, after which he'd have to resort to shuriken. Those could be used in close combat, but anybody stupid enough to even blocking with them wouldn't have survived long enough to learn to use them in the first place. In the opposite side, Zabuza was, at least from what Kakashi gathered from the sweat dripping into the lake, Zabuza was getting near his limit too.
The former Mist-nin began to form seals for a jutsu, his hands flashing through dozens of them until settling upon Tiger.
"Exploding Water Cannons!"
Three streams of water blasted towards Kakashi, joining into one massive torrent. Before they could reach him, Kakashi countered with a shield of lightning that vaporized the water, but Zabuza kept on adding Chakra.
'So, he goes for the risky tactic,' Kakashi thought as two more streams joined in on the onslaught, and his shield was beginning to falter. 'He's willing to risk being too exhausted to fight me if this attack fails. And so, the endgame begins.'
As the total count of the water cannons reached seven, the crackling shield of electricity burst into an impressive lightshow before shattering, and the massive torrent of water swept Kakashi away.
As the mass of water sped away, it began to weaken slow down as the distance between it and Zabuza increased. Finally, the torrent lost cohesion and fell apart before revealing Kakashi in the middle.
Large parts of the black-and-red cloak had been ripped off leaving Kakashi's chest bare, revealing the massive bruising he'd received from the water attack. There were splashes of blood in what remained of the cloak, and his right arm was bent in an unnatural angle.
Whilst the water fell off, Kakashi's body, in accordance to Newton's first law, continued to sail through the air… before being impaled upon Zabuza's sword that he'd simply pointed forward after Body Flickering to where he knew the Jutsu would deposit his masked foe.
Blood was now running freely, running down the length of Kubikiribocho and dripping into the water. The legendary sword had impaled Kakashi through the stomach, around half of it sticking from the back. The cloaked Shinobi coughed blood and the black mask turned red, and his hands dangled to the side.
"Not so equal after all, are we," Zabuza taunted.
"Yeah. You never stood a chance."
As he said this, Kakashi lifted his hand, and pulled the blade deeper into his body.
'Wait a second,' Zabuza thought. 'Something's amiss.'
He looked at the blade and seeing the chinks and nicks that the various weapons that Kakashi had wielded during the fight, and frowned.
'There's blood running all over Kubikiribocho, so why isn't it regenerating?"
Like the other weapons employed by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, his blade possessed a unique power, this being its ability to reform itself using the iron harvested from the blood of its victims. This regenerative process takes place almost instantaneously when the blade is in contact with blood, and is capable of bringing the weapon back to its original condition in short order. This meant that its wielder would never have to sharpen, repair or otherwise worry about his weapon.
So why wasn't it working now?
Suddenly, electricity began to crackle around Kakashi. As the sound grew in loudness and the lightning in intensity, Zabuza realized what was happening.
'Fuck!'
Zabuza attempted to leap away, but the electricity pulsing through Kubikiribocho had already cramped his hand muscles, and he was unable to release his hold on the handle.
In a flash of light along with the sound of a thunderclap, Kakashi dispersed into a mass of lightning that was then conducted through the metal blade straight into Zabuza.
Paralyzed, Zabuza could only watch as the real one burst from under the lake's surface, whilst the chirping of a thousand birds filled the watery battlefield.
"Chidori!"
This was not the only one of Kakashi's original techniques but it was the first and the one that he was renowned across the Elemental Countries for. Lightning danced in his hand as he prepared for the final blow.
As Zabuza saw his doom approaching, he knew it already too late, but he was never one to give up. He began to cycle his Chakra through his network in an attempt to invigorate himself, but it was no use.
It was testament to Zabuza's skill that he almost managed to dodge the Chidori, having thrown himself to the side, but it was no use. The Chakra filled hand ripped off a huge chunk from Zabuza's right shoulder and chest, sending blood everywhere and filling the air with the smell of burning flesh.
Zabuza slumped and began to sink underwater, his eyes glazing over. Just before the former Mist-nin was completely submerged, Kakashi reached down and grabbed his Hitai-ate as proof of his kill, and seizing the handle of Kubikiribocho from his hand.
Swinging the legendary sword over his back, Kakashi used what little remaining energy he had to drag himself back to the shore before summoning his Ninken to guard from intruders and falling down under a tree, his eyes barely holding open.
The last thing he sensed before darkness took him was the sight of his Ninken growling at a man, right side black and left white and with a cloak similar to his, that had appeared out of nowhere, and the words the man said to him before disappearing.
"Congratulations. After that final test you've been accepted as a full member of Akatsuki."