Honor and Protection
prologue: The Master, the apprentice, and the passing of the mantle
Disclaimer:I do not own Naruto, it belongs to masashi kishimoto
A boy with blond unruly hair, whiskers, and fierce red eyes with slited pupils like a fox snarled as he punched the brown-haired hunter-nin in the head causing him to hit the ground and skid a few feet across the pavement of the bridge. The brown haired boy slowly stood up and stared at the blond, he subconciously stopped channeling chakra to his face to keep his mask on due to the concucsion he suffered from the blond's fist coupled with the impact of the bridge of his head causing the mask to fall to the ground with a small thud.
"H-Haku, wh-why?" The blond asked as his blood red eyes turned back into a deep ocean blue.
"For the same reason you fight Naruto, to help my precious person," Haku said "But since you have injured me I'm nothing more than a broken tool, so please kill me." Naruto shook his head no, and opened his mouth about to negotioiat with with haku. He closed his mouth as a large chirping noise filled the air and the mist that surrounded them thinned out enough for them to see their surroundings. Looking to where the sound was coming they saw Zabuza being held in place by a lot of nin-dogs while Kakashi went through three hand signs and lightning covered his right hand.
"Looks like I have one more use after all." The effeminent boy said before rushing towards the two men.
"Haku, NO!" Naruto yelled as he made a mad dash towards the soon to be dead boy. Kakashi ran at Zabuza, his lightning blade poised to kill. The world seemed to slow down as Haku suddenly appeared infront of Zabuza, the bridge went deadly silent as Kakashi's hand pierced through Haku's chest, Zabuza's eyes went wide as he saw his suroget son die and then get thrown to the far end of the bridge by Kakashi, a single tear fell from his eye before he readopted his stone like visage and the dogs holding him disappeared back to the summon realm.
"Aw, Haku what a useful tool." Zabuza said before they all heard a clapping noise and looked to the end of the bridge near where Haku's body landed.
"Well, well Zabuza, looks like your nothing more than a baby demon, I send you to kill an old man, three kids, and a jonin but instead your little 'tool' get kill, this for the arm you little bug," Gato said as he kicked Haku's body, once again sending it flying exept this time it landed near Naruto, "good thing I brought a back-up plan." He gestured to the two hundred thugs behind him before running to the back of the crowd.
"You know, from what Haku told me she looked up to you like a father and this is how you treat him! Like he's nothing more than a tool, a disposible weapon," Naruto yelled at the ex-mist swords man as Zabuza turned away from him, "when I was younger my grandfather figure bought me a book about famous people and groups throughout the Elemental Nations, when I read how the seven swordsmen of the bloody mist were the most powerful yet honorable men alive I decided that I wanted to be just like them, honorable yet strong enough to protect those close to me, but now I'm not so sure."
"Kid, stop talking," Zabuza said before turning around to show that he was crying. He took the bandages around his face off using his mouth due to the fact that his arms now hung limp and useless at his sides due to the combined effort of Kakashi's ninja dogs and the kunai that Kakashi jammed into his shoulders, "could you toss me a kunai?"
Naruto nodded and tossed a kunai to the man and he caught it in his teeth, all of which had been sharpened to a point. Zabuza turned back to the crowd of armed mecinaries with rage and anger heavy in his eyes before letting out an unearthly amount of killer intent causing the image of a demon's head to appear above him. He dashed into the crowd and started slashing at them with the kunai in his mouth as they stabbed him in the back with various weapons as he continued his path of death and destruction all the way to Gato, he jammed the kunai in his mouth into the corrupt buisness throught.
"Now, lets see if I'm going to be a baby demon in HELL!" Zabuza yelled before shoving Gato off the end of the bridge. As soon as the short man hit the water Zabuza turned around and headed to Haku's dead form, he made it out of the crowd and half way there before collapsing to the ground.
"Hey, you cost us our meal ticket, now we are going to kill you all and plunder the village!" A random mercinary yelled before an arrow landed between them and the ninja. Everyone on the bridge looked and saw that the entire village had banded together to get rid of the crowd of bandits and mercinaries. Naruto took the little distraction to use his favorite jutsu as he made a cross shape with both of his middle and pointer fingers.
"Kage Bushin No Jutsu!" (shadow clone technique) The blond yelled and thirty solid copies of him appeared on the bridge causing the crowd of bad people to turn tail and run. As soon as they were off the bridge Kakashi ran over to the unconcious body of one Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto walked over to the almost dead Zabuza.
"Can you put me over by Haku? I want to see him one last time," Zabuza said as the bond nodded and picked the man up with a little trouble, "kid, I was thinking about what you said and I want you to have my sword and Haku's mask as thanks for helping me see the truth." Naruto nodded before setting the man down next to his brown haired apprentice and collected the mask and sword, he lifted the giant slab of metal with little to no difficulty due to his kyuubi enhanced strength and walking back over to the master and apprentice/father and son pair in time to hear the man's last words.
"I wish I could go to the same place as you," Zabuza said before noticing it was snowing, "is this you? Are you crying Haku?" were the last words out of the proud swordsmen's mouth as the light faded from his eyes and he died.
Their funeral was quick but left a lasting impression on the people, and the bridge was finished later that week. Team seven now stood on the end of the bridge awaiting their send off. Kakashi stood there his nose in his book, Sakura was fawning over Sasuke, The lord of emo was brooding as usual, and Naruto had his new sword strapped to his back the same way Zabuza did and had Haku's mask on his right hip, a solmn look upon his face. The crowd of villagers and the ninja group said their goodbyes and went their seperate ways.
"What are we going to name the bridge Tanazuna-san?" One of the villagers asked and tanazuna mulled it over for a moment.
"A lot of blood has been spilled on this bridge and most of it good, so how about we name it 'The Great Hero Bridge'?" He asked and everyone cheered in aproval. As team seven headed towards the leaf village, Naruto could help but feel that his life was about to become more hectic than it ever has.
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