Rise of the Copy-Ninja

One-shot: An alternate version of the Bridge events from the Naruto-Wave-arc.
Enjoy.

Legends:

Kyuubi/Inner Sakura: Meep Meep!!
Jutsu: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu
Thoughts/Whispering : Muahaha! Sharingan rocks!

Naruto raced towards his opponent Haku, confident of victory. He didn't really want to kill Haku, they were so much alike. Both knowing the same pain of being outcasts, hated and feared for something which was beyond their control. It just wasn't fair, that they had to meet on opposite sides of the battlefield.

But then...life never was fair was it?

Grasping his kunai tightly, Naruto remembered the chakra control exercise Kakashi-sensei had taught them. 'Lets get this over with' he thought. Pumping chakra through his legs, Naruto suddenly increased his speed.

Haku, who had just realised that Zabuza was in trouble and needed her, felt panic rise. The boy's speed had just doubled and he was moving too fast! She had to save Zabuza-sama!

Just as the boy reached her and made a stabbing motion towards her heart, Haku's left hand shot forward in a lightning fast motion, grabbing his wrist while twisting the left side of her body away and beginning to pull his arm with her, simultaneously pivoting with her right foot so her right hip intersected with his for leverage, while intending to use his momentum to throw him over her right shoulder. Timing it correctly, she yanked forward, expecting the boy to be thrown over her shoulder and into the ground.

Sadly, Naruto's reflexes, while not being honed to such a degree as hers, Zabuza's or Kakashi's were, were still quite impressive for his age. Combined with the fact that he had some of Kyuubi's instincts, made him very formidable in the reaction department.

And, for better or worse, react he did. The consequences of his decision, subconcious though it was, would plague him for a very long time to come.

After shaking himself out of his surprise, Naruto managed to pull back, even as Haku pulled forward, making it a contest in strength. Naruto won, and while pulling his arm out of Haku's he turned his kunai so he held it in a reverse grip and tried to slash her.

Haku, who was beginning to panic as the seconds went by, did something desperate. Taking advantage of Naruto's momentum once more, she let his arm begin to slip away, and even allowed him to get a good grip on his kunai. Then, when the opportunity presented itself, she swivelled her hips sideways and in one, fluid motion, grasped his wrist and threw all her weight and power behind it, effectively using Naruto's own hand and kunai to stab him.

Naruto, standing with his knees bent and his body lowered in a effort to gain stability and leverage had, unfortunately, put his face on level with his kunai, which was angled towards his right eye and was moving to fast for him to dodge fully.

Haku watched in fascinated horror as two centimeters of tempered steel entered into his right eyesocket. Seeing his face fill with pain, Haku felt guilt begin to rip through her, but squashed it mercilessly, knowing that if she didn't move now, Zabuza-sama might die. Quickly utilizing her one handed seals, she began her jutsu. As she disappeared, the whispered words "I'm sorry, Makyo Hyo Sho (Demonic Mirror Ice Crystals)" floated on the wind.

--The battle of Kakashi vs Zabuza--

Chirping filled the air as Kakashi moved in for the kill. He almost looked demonic as he came towards Zabuza, what with his one silver eye and one blood red eye staring at him, while the lightning chakra that was concentrated in his hand eerily created shadows all over his face one moment and illuminated it the next. It was with this litterally terrifying visage bearing down on him, that Zabuza had a very painful realisation for one with his size of pride.

That there was a very good reason Sharingan no Kakashi was feared throughout the shinobi world. Zabuza knew now, that if Kakashi hadn't been burdened by the three kids, he would have crushed him during the first fight.

Kakashi was preparing for the strike, targeting Zabuza's heart, when he saw a flicker of chakra from the corner of his eye and one of the Ice Mirror's he'd seen earlier form. The boy Haku, Zabuza's apprentice, was leaving the mirror and moving himself seemingly inbetween his master and Kakashi. Kakashi saw the boy's hand flick outwards, toward himself, throwing multiple senbon needles in a wide arc, having had no time to aim them. Using his Sharingan eye, Kakashi tracked them and took out as many as he could while trying to dodge, but was unable to stop all of the senbon from hitting him. Stumbling to his knees Kakashi hissed in pain.

As Haku had come out of the Ice Mirror, she'd had no time at all to aim the senbon at the scroll, so she'd been forced to just throw as many as she could in a wide arc hoping she'd hit the jutsu scroll that was holding Zabuza prisoner. She succeeded in hitting the scroll, however, she also managed to land several senbon in Kakashi's leg, making him stumble and falter for a split second.

It was during this split second that Zabuza took advantage of Kakashi's weakness. While Kakashi was busying recovering from his injured leg, Zabuza reached up and grasped his sword, pulling it out and attacking Kakashi in one gracefully executed attack.

Haku, who was standing in front of her master, felt the air move and dodged to the left, tucking her shoulders down and rolling across the ground, coming to her feet and turning back to witness the scene before her.

Kakashi also felt the air move, and looking up he saw the zanbato descending on him in a silver blurr. He immediately tried to move out of it's path, sadly however, he was still recovering not only from a injured leg but the backlash of a failed Chidori. The sword bit deep into his chest, throwing him against the side of the bridge. Blood sprayed everywhere, coating Zabuza liberally and some also getting on Haku, who flinched.

Gasping for breath, Kakashi looked down. The zanbato was lodged into his chest diagonally with the hilt sticking up by his face. Pain wracked his frame. Hearing someone calling his name he turned towards the voice "Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei! What happened!?" Naruto yelled, running over and crouching down by him. Naruto looked a mess, his blood covered jumpsuit torn all over the place, though his skin seemed fine and blemishless, 'Probably a side effect of the Kyuubi's power I felt a little while ago' Kakashi thought. What he most noticed though, was Naruto's empty right eye.

As the mist began dissipating further Zabuza, Kakashi, Naruto and Haku could hear the female member of team seven yelling something about Saskue being alive, relieving Kakashi immensely. All of his students were alive. Admitedly, not in the best shape, and they probably wouldn't stay that way either, but he still felt relieved that they were okay. 'Wait, if Sakura is there, then wheres Tazuna I wonder?'

Not realising that he'd spoken aloud, Kakashi was interupted from his musing when Naruto answered his question "With her. They both went over to check on Sasuke". Staring at his Sensei for a moment, he finally asked with tears in his eyes "Kakashi-sensei, what should we do? How do we help you?".

Kakashi coughed up blood, shuddering as the pain intensified. Turning back to Naruto, he ignored the question and instead asked "Did either Tazuna or Sakura bother to check up on you?"

Shaking his head sadly, Naruto looked defeated. All the times he'd tried to get Sakura's attention, she'd just ignored him. Worse actually, she didn't even care about him enough as a comrade to even check up on him.

Zabuza and Haku looked on at the two talking. As bad as they both felt, they would complete their mission regardless. But before they did, they both felt that they could give them some breathing space, to talk things over before the Copy-nin passed away.

Suddenly, Kakashi's hand came up and ruffled his blonde students hair. Seeing Naruto look at him, he explained "Sakura is a selfish little girl. Don't even bother trying with her, she doesn't deserve it. She doesn't care about anyone but herself. She doesn't even care about Sasuke's feelings, otherwise she'd have left him alone a long time ago".

Naruto was about to reply to this when a bark of laughter cut through the air. Turning to look down to the unfinished part of the bridge, they saw a short, fat, graying man dressed in a black business suit leaning on a cane surrounded by almost fifty hired thugs." Well well, what do we have here? You actually managed to kill this Jonin fellow huh? And yet, you still haven't completed the job" Gatou sneered.

Puffing his chest out self-importantly, he continued "I guess I was right, you 'Shinobi' are all useless, and worthless". The mob behind him snickered and leered, hefting their weapons. "Well, I guess I won't be paying you at all huh Zabu-chan? So, what are you going to do now? Huh, come on, Mr. Baby Demon Zabuza".

Zabuza narrowed his eyes at hearing the taunts. Making a decision, he turned back to Kakashi "Hatake, I'm going to need my sword in a moment. I've got some trash to get rid of".

Kakashi, who could feel himself slipping away with each moment, nodded before turning to Naruto "Naruto, make a few Kage Bunshin's if you can please, and send them over to Tazuna, Sakura and Sasuke and bring them over here".

Naruto nodded, before making a familar seal and said "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu". With a pop, five clones came into existence, before running off towards the two other members of Team Seven and their cilent.

Meanwhile, Kakashi had turned to Haku and asked "Haku, may I ask a favor?"

"What can I do for you Hatake-san?"

"You have medic training, do you not?"

Nodding, Haku answered "Yes, I'm quite close to having advanced proficiency as a medic-nin."

"Good, because the favor I want to ask is, while your master is taking care of Gatou, could you to transplant my Sharingan eye into Naruto's now empty eyesocket?"

Haku's eyes widened, before she nodded. Naruto however simply gaped at his Sensei. After taking a breath, Naruto blurted out "Are you sure Kakashi-sensei? I mean you really sure you want to do that?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yes Naruto, I'm proud of you. You've finally started to mature" he said.

"Times up Hatake, Gatou is getting impatient. If I don't go to him now, he'll come to us" Zabuza interrupted.

Kakashi nodded, before saying his last words "Naruto, say goodbye to Sasuke and Sakura. Tell them I was proud to be the sensei of all three of you. As long as all three of you are willing to mature, stick together and put in the hard work, you three will be great someday". Ruffling Naruto's hair once more, Kakashi smiled. Seeing Zabuza reach down to get his sword back, Kakashi gritted his teeth and tensed.

Pain lanced through his body as Zabuza quickly yanked his sword out, blood pumping out of the newly vacated wound in his chest. Kakashi watched as everything gradually darkened around him, the last images he saw was Zabuza charging off while Haku bent down to begin the transplant, and then everything went dark.

A few moments later, blood flew through the air and the screams of Gatou and his men echoed throughout the entire town.

Authors Notes:

Yo,

Due to the fact that this fic was basically begun on a impulse, without much thought as to plot, or underlying purpose, I have decided to leave this as a One-shot showing an alternate version of the events on the Bridge during the Wave-arc.

I sincerely apologize to anyone who was actually looking forward to reading more, but I feel it's for the best, as I just couldn't come up with any viable plot.

Note:

I'm extremely grateful to the many messages I've recieved from people begging me to continue this. I assure you, it's a enormous cofidence booster, and has brought me back from my long hiatus from Fanfiction. I've begun writting many stories, but they're almost all only partly started.

I have binned them all, and begun again with fresh fervour. Thank you.

However, I will not be continuing this story, for two reasons. One, I simply have far too many different ideas swimming around my head at this current point and time. And literally HAVE to write these, they are bugging the hell out of me.

And two, I have given permission to gaisensei to write a sequel to this short little story, so the continuation and eventual story that could be spawned from this is entirely up to him and his efforts. He seems like a aspiring author of some talent who can probably make far more of it than I could.

I'm notorious for my procrastination. If I continued it, I'd probably only churn out a chapter per year, especially since I have recently enrolled as a student at a Broadcasting School, and for at least the next six months, I will be very caught up.

C.G (Crimson Genius)