Strength of the Sage

Chapter 1

Summary: Sasuke wasn't the only one to uncover a kekkei genkai on team seven's mission to the land of the waves. Seeing his best friend and teammate on the brink of death die pushes Naruto to unlock an ability inherited from his mother that is rarely seen among the Uzumaki.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto tried his best not to show fear while trapped in the dome of ice mirrors. He could tell that Sasuke was thinking along the same lines, hiding his fear from shinobi that had them both at odds.

"Again Naruto" Sasuke shouted. Naruto quickly followed suit creating a dozen clones to rush the perimeter where they would be free. Barely an instant passed when they all disappeared with a pop, a look of bafflement once more plastered on Naruto's face.

'How is this even possible.' Naruto thought to himself. Him and Sasuke, who he would begrudgingly admit was quite a tough opponent, were completely outclassed by this shinobi, and he was not that much older than they were. 'If I get out of this alive, I need to get my ass into gear.'

Sasuke on the other hand was not thinking of the future, but his head was wrapped around their situation in the present. "Try it again. I think I can get him this time." Sasuke announced to his teammate who immediately responded to the request with a platoon of clones bursting out of the smoke.

'There he is." Sasuke thought before he blew a fireball at the offending shinobi, predicting where he would move.

Sasuke's eyes followed the fireball and watched as it glazed the side of the shinobi that he was trying to incapacitate. For an instant he thought it might have worked before the masked nin once more appeared in all of the mirrors.

"Damn it Sasuke this isn't working!" Naruto shouted as he held his left arm, which was bleeding now at an alarming rate.

"Don't die on me now dobe. I almost got him that time. One more time and I think I can put him down." Sasuke responded.

"If you say so teme." Naruto said as he noticed the scorched cloak Haku was wearing. Naruto had a newfound determination in his voice seeing that there was hope to get out of this yet.

Haku on the other hand was starting to sweat.

'That black haired boy can follow my movements even when I'm moving at this speed. I have to end this now before he pulls out another surprise. I won't let Zabuza-sama down.' Haku thought before emerging from the ice mirror once more at top speed.

Sasuke watched as the masked nin rushed towards Naruto, senbon in hand, his eyes and mind processing the fact that the enemy was moving in for a finishing blow at unprecedented speeds. Before he even had time to think about it, Sasuke grabbed his teammate by the collar of his jacket and pulled himself in front of Naruto.

In an instant it was over, Sasuke's body going numb and rapidly losing the strength to hold himself up due to the needles sticking out of his neck and joints.

Naruto rushed to catch his teammate, not sure what he just saw and experienced. Sasuke, his once sworn enemy had pulled him out of the way and sacrificed himself in order to save him.

"Why did you save me teme?" Naruto asked, his voice slightly wavering as he could feel his teammate's body giving out.

"I don't know. My body moved on its own." Sasuke responded before going completely limp and falling facedown onto the bridge.

"SASUKE" Naruto shouted as he shook the raven haired teen, hoping for any sign of response. Naruto's eyes began to tear up as he continued shaking. "SASUKE, DON'T MESS WITH ME. SASUKE!"

Haku watched from a distance, feeling a tinge of pity for the blonde. When Haku met Naruto, he seemed so happy, so harmless, and she never wanted to hurt the boy who acted kindly to her despite being a stranger, but there was nothing Haku wouldn't do for her master. Nothing. Zabuza had told her to take care of the genin, so that is exactly what she planned on doing. She wouldn't kill the boys because Zabuza hadn't asked her to, but she couldn't let them interfere with her master's fight.

Naruto suddenly stopped shaking the limp body of his comrade and turned to face Haku, his eyes no longer showing any signs of sadness. Instead, his eyes turned a blood red color, filled with rage and hate.

The air around him started spinning as if her were at the center of his own little tornado, although the pressure from the air around him was akin to that of a black hole, sucking the breath out of Haku's lungs even from several meters away.

'What the hell is this kid.' thought Haku as the aura surrounding Naruto began to solidify into storm of visible red chakra, lashing out wildly every couple of moments as if it were trying to show how uncontrollable it was.

After a couple excruciatingly suspenseful seconds passed the aura started to resemble that of a fox, and for an instant it was calm before the blonde boy spoke.

"I'm gonna kill you." The genin growled threateningly before the unexpected happened.

The monstrous red chakra was within seconds overshadowed by numerous gold chains that erupted from all over Naruto's body, effortlessly smashing the surrounding ice mirrors, including the one that Haku had just decided to take cover in.

The girl dressed in green was thrown out of the mirror with tremendous force landing in a heap on the bridge.

'I have to stop this kid, for Zabuza-sama's sake.' Haku thought desperately as she started weaving hand seals as fast as she possibly could. She only got about three seals in before a chain wrapped around her ankle and picked her up, only to smash her right back into the bridge.

That wasn't all though. Naruto had not moved from his position next to Sasuke's limp body, the chains doing all of the work for him. By the third time Haku was smashed into the bridge, she had already lost consciousness, but Naruto had neither the will, nor the self control to stop his assault on the enemy.

He continued to do this for an unprecedented amount of time before he stopped without warning.

Naruto didn't even spare the battered body of Haku a glance before he descended onto all fours and searched his surroundings for his other enemy, Zabuza. Naruto quickly deduced where he was through the fog and like a predator took off to deal with the man that had caused him and his team so much grief. Haku, still tethered to Naruto through the chain was dragged behind the boy like a rag doll as he approached his new prey.

o.o.o

Kakashi was nervous. As soon as he felt the oppressive presence on the bridge he recognised it. He could never forget what the chakra of the kyuubi felt like. The fear that he felt that day twelve years ago returned multiple times over as he imagined Naruto being corrupted by the chakra locked inside of him.

Kakashi took it upon himself to protect the legacy and the son of Minato-sensei, and now, both of those were in danger of being lost at once.

"Wh-What is that?" Zabuza asked in awe of the power he felt. The only time he felt anything comparable to this was when his childhood friend, Yagura had used the chakra of his bijuu, the Sanbi.

Kakashi made some distance from Zabuza and decided to play this to his advantage as much as he could.

"This is why your little companion never had a chance. Sasuke is an Uchiha, and so he could probably defeat the kid on his own, but Naruto…" he said, adding a chuckle to make Zabuza feel all the more intimidated, "Naruto has this."

Zabuza could feel the air getting thicker, and he knew in his heart that Haku stood no chance against this kind of monster. "N-n-no. That shouldn't be possible." He ran through all the bijuu and jinchuuriki in his head. "The kyuubi?" Zabuza asked in a half fearful, half inquisitive tone. It had to be a bijuu. There was no technique that could allow a shinobi exude this much power, genin or otherwise. This chakra had to be coming from a bijuu.

"I see you've deduced that much." Kakashi said, mustering up as much false confidence in his voice as he possibly could as his mind moved at light speed trying to think of ways he could get his team out of this mess safely.

Before he could think of any reasonable solutions a red streak appeared before him, one that his eyes could only follow due to his uncovered sharingan. As he took a closer look, Kakashi noticed the kunoichi chained behind the feral looking Naruto that did not appear to be in good shape at all.

'Is that Kushina-san's technique?" Kakashi thought in awe, while trying to wrap his head around the entire situation.

"N-Naruto. Are you okay?" Kakashi asked his student, hoping that he would somehow react to his voice, but to no avail.

"ZABUZA" Naruto growled/yelled looking at the jonin who was already quite immobile due to his drawn out battle with Kakashi. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT" he roared.

"I'm just doing my job brat." Zabuza responded, doing his best to keep his voice level.

"I DON'T CARE" Naruto yelled as he braced his claws and fangs and began to slowly make his way towards the enemy nuke-nin. Naruto's feral personality was determined to drag this out and make the man suffer for Sasuke's demise.

He approached step by step as Zabuza stood there, more or less defenseless due to all the wounds he had already collected on the day.

"Naruto don't do this. You don't have to take his life. You're too young." Kakashi called out, trying to reason with the boy.

No change in demeanor, Naruto kept approaching.

"Naruto please." Kakashi tried to beg again, but once more the boy ignored him.

"H-He's still alive."

Naruto stopped.

"What." The word came out almost indistinguishable from a growl.

"Your friend, he's still alive." Haku once more stated, not having enough energy to pick herself up from the ground.

"He's not my friend." Naruto whispered, to noone but himself.

"That's it Naruto, calm down." Kakashi tried to sooth as he cautiously approached his student.

"He's alive." Haku said one last time before she passed out into the realm of unconsciousness.

"You hear that Naruto. Sasuke's going to be fine. Just don't do anything rash." Kakashi said.

In a quick instant, another chain erupted from naruto's arm, quickly tightening to an uncomfortable level around Zabuza's chest.

"If your friend is lying, you both die." Naruto growled, albeit a bit calmer as he dragged the two shinobi behind him toward his fallen comrade.

o.o.o

Sakura could barely hold her breakfast in due to the oppressive power she felt spike up moments ago.

What made the fear and the anxiety of waiting worse was that the mist prevented her from seeing anything. She had no idea where Kakashi and Zabuza were, and she also didn't know where Sasuke and that shinobi were fighting.

To add icing to the cake, she also finally made the realization that if Zabuza got past Kakashi, or his nuke-nin pal got past Sasuke, she would stand absolutely no chance in preventing them from killing Tazuna or herself.

While waiting in her combination of self pity and fear, Sakura started to notice the mist rising and blowing away.

'Maybe now I'll be able to find Sasuke-kun and see if he's okay.' Sakura thought, a glint of cheer shining through her somber mood as the mist continued to clear up.

After a couple seconds she could notice a figure, or two making their way across the bridge.

'I-Is that Naruto?' She thought as she tried to recognise the figures.

She could see Naruto walking toward her, although he looked a little … well … menacing, with Kakashi by his side.

And then she caught a glimpse of a body Kakashi was carrying. Sasuke's body.

Tears started welling in her eyes. "Oh please no. Not Sasuke-kun." She muttered under her breath, barely audible.

She didn't even notice the two bodies being dragged behind Naruto before she burst into an uncontrollable bout of tears and sobs.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Chapter 1 done.

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Please give me any criticism or praise you have for my story. It's just a baby now but soon it will grow in length.

Let me know if you like the length of the chapter or if you want it longer. I don't really think I'll ne writing any chapters shorter than this one ever.

I currently have three different stories planned out start to finish but I decided to atleast get started on this one and make decent progress here before I even think of putting another one of my ideas on paper. I have the plot for this one planned for much after the timeskip, and I don't expect to be wavering from that plan for the most part, although I do always love additional ideas and advice for my writing.

I plan on making this story quite long as it is not a oneshot, but will progress somewhat similarly to the canon timeline (although the plot will not be canon from chapter 1 onwards).

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Dattebayo.