Frozen Hatred: Chapter 2 - Coming Back
"Speech"
Jutsu
'Thought'
Bijuu
"Naruto…"
"Haku."
For the first time during their battle emotion spread across Haku's face, it was pain. Not a physical pain but just as damaging, the pain of regret. "I am sorry, I am so sorry."
Naruto felt tears well within him, they were held in check only through an iron will cultivated through intense training. He clenched his jaw but held his tongue, Haku had yet to finish talking.
"I had no choice, Zabuza's will is all I have ever known that had any meaning to me. It still does." She looked up to Naruto in his tree, a ghostly figure of death in his black Konoha Anbu armor. Her face lost all hint of emotion, the steel-like visage of a killer taking the place of sadness. "I told you before Naruto, I would kill my own heart to carry out Zabuza's will, that has not changed. Even if I must...kill you… I will survive, for Zabuza…" Haku set herself back into a battle ready stance and waited.
Naruto's will broke some, just enough to let the tears flow. "I thought I loved you… I'm sorry."
***
Haku's eyes widened only the slightest bit before setting themselves back into their coldness. A sharp pain spread from a point in her lower back and she was launched full-bodied across the clearing they'd battled in. 'Clone!' she thought hearing the tell-tale puff of releasing chakra, Naruto appeared before her a fist cocked back and ready to deliver punishment. Haku didn't miss the wind chakra covering that fist and forced her body to turn in midair, Naruto's Wind Blade passed only inches from her body, a vicious gouge appeared along her thigh. It wasn't deadly but it would definitely hamper her movement. She finally skid to a halt near a tree on the other side of the clearing.
As she pulled herself up with the help of the tree she looked out. Naruto had not moved, he stood where he had been during his attack. He was looking down at something. Her blood she realized soon after.
"I spent the last three years thinking about this moment, it drove me to become strong, to be able to protect the village...and sensei." He drew a deep breath and sighed. "I was supposed to kill you without this sort of thing happening, but now, now that I'm here, I can only feel sadness for what I must do."
"Then don't, we can both leave now, walk away. No more blood has to be spilled here, not yours, not mine." Haku detested killing, she only did so when no other option presented itself, perhaps she could convince Naruto to leave.
"I can't! Don't you get that, one of us has to die here!" Naruto looked to the forest canopy, tears flowing freely. "I can't live with myself if I don't do something, anything, to bring them some peace." he turned his gaze back to the woman before him. "You killed Sasuke and Sakura...I can never forgive you."
'Naruto...what happened to you?' Haku thought as she looked at the blond teen, he still hadn't moved. A thought occurred to Haku, 'It was me, I did this to him. I took his precious people and made that happy child into a hate driven killer.'
"I swore to Zabuza-sama before his death that I would survive, and one day that Kirigakure would be free. I cannot die here Naruto, I am sorry." Haku formed handseals rapidly, gathering chakra in the necessary amounts to succeed in the jutsu to the scale she needed to. "Demonic Ice Mirrors." With that jutsu completed moisture from the ground, surrounding bodies of water and the air itself coalesced into dozens of ice mirrors all across the area. There must have been 50 at least. Haku slid silently into the nearest one. Naruto had still yet to move, not even considering stopping her.
***
Naruto was in turmoil. He had come here with the express intent to kill Haku, after three years of struggling for power and serving his village, it was supposed to have been simple and absolute. Even if he was forced to tap into the power of the Kyuubi itself. Now though it was all wrong, he was having trouble even with the thought of killing the woman let alone the act of it. The blood hadn't been the cause of his predicament, no blood was something he could handle. The feel of his chakra ripping through her flesh, even if indirect, made this all too real for him. Before now this time had been a goal, a fantasy to think about and indulge in. It hurt to think he could be so weak.
Haku, even now, was a gentle soul. He knew, that but how could it be true? Sasuke and Sakura were dead, killed at the hands of Haku and nobody knew why save Haku herself, Inari knew some but the whole story was beyond his comprehension at the time. 'That's it! I have to know, I must find out why Haku did it.' It was obvious now that he thought of it, the question had plagued most of his sleepless nights. He would find the answer from Haku, one way or another, that was a fact.
Naruto looked back up from the blood, a new determination spreading across his whole form, he looked to the mirror Haku had disappeared into noticing her absence from said mirror. A quick inspection of his immediate surroundings revealed that the woman had left the area and the trees of the forest blocked view of most of the mirrors, she could attack from anywhere.
Naruto, while remaining wary of attack, forced chakra to his legs and then kicked forward, moving at immense speeds rivaling that of shunshin. He skid to a stop less than a meter from his tanto but before he could retrieve it he had to move again, the dozen or so senbon aimed for his back left little choice. A quick glance back revealed an empty mirror, Haku was a monster when it came to speed. He was almost 10 meters from his weapon, time to use distraction to his advantage. He brought a very familiar seal to his chest before shouting.
***
"Shadow Clone!" and with that phrase a vast amount of chakra was used, almost half of what Haku could produce at full reserves, and nearly a hundred Narutos came into existence and sprinted in all directions across the forest. If that weren't bad enough, only seconds later those clones began to assault her mirrors. The original Naruto never moved from his spot in the clearing gazing silently out into the forest, possibly looking for her. Some of the clones were using powerful jutsu to attack, they burst from chakra expenditure of course, but that didn't mean the jutsu were weak. It was taking a huge amount of chakra to repair the mirrors and Haku was forced to let some be destroyed, she was down to around 45 now, with more bound to come down, luckily her own mirror hadn't been discovered yet and she took advantage of that. She moved to dispose of the clones attacking her mirrors, in all she lost 10 more mirrors and killed some 70 clones at least.
"Air Bullets!" Haku couldn't avoid all the spheres of wind chakra aimed for her and now had another injury to deal with in addition to the one on her thigh. A shallow cut appeared on her shoulder before she could dip back into the mirror. Again the wound wasn't deadly but it was irritating. Multiple air bullets she'd avoided burst upon the mirror and created large chips in the ice though they were quickly repaired.
"Damn." Haku heard as she exited the mirror from the back and moved toward another, she never made it. A Naruto slammed into her side before receiving a senbon to the neck and popping. But it had achieved what it meant to, Haku was off course and her nearest mirror was at least another 12 meters away, she abandoned the idea and released the jutsu.
"Hiding in the Mist Technique" Haku expelled a dense mist from her mouth that took only seconds to spread across the clearing and into the air, it concealed everything. 'I have him now.'
***
The mist hadn't been completely unexpected but it did make things much more difficult, it limited all of Naruto's senses greatly and though he was experienced with battle in low visibility environments the loss of his smell and hearing threw him off balance. He began molding chakra for a wind jutsu to blow the mist away. Senbon connected with his shoulder again, rendering it useless again. He ripped the senbon out and dashed in the direction they came from, it was extremely foolhardy but he was confident that assault was better than defense in this case. Haku was nowhere to be found, senbon sprouted from his back hitting several sensitive areas and locking some muscles, Naruto hissed in pain but continued on, plucking the senbon out as he went.
He searched for Haku, but he could find nothing, only occasionally being struck by senbon, most aimed for vital areas or places that would lock muscles or cause intense pain, he managed to avoid the very worst of it but was still littered with senbon when he went to his knees. It was confusing, why was he so tired? 'Poison.' he thought. Normally poison wouldn't have been an issue for him as his system cleaned it out very quickly, there must have been a lot. 'Damn senbon...' and with that Naruto's eyes began to close.
A/N:
Sorry if this seems rushed, I wanted to get something out and this was starting to bug me. So I have a few questions.
How long do you want chapter? Shorter at around 1k-2k or closer to 5k? Anything larger I'm not sure I can do at the moment.
Do you want me to include the Japanese names of jutsu? Is English okay? I plan on using quite a few custom jutsu and it's a pain to translate them correctly.
Fics I'm Reading:
A Drop of Poison – Angel of Snapdragons, you guys should really go check this out if you haven't or aren't, I love it.
Dancing with Demons – Daystar Clarion, I'm only up to chapter 16 but I like this one so far, it deserves a look if you haven't already.
I'm always looking for new fics to read and if you leave a recommendation (even if it's your fic) I'll try to check it out when I get a moment.
P.S.- I've been reading fanfics since I was like 10 or somewhere around that and I figured I'd give it a try myself. I'm having fun so far and the reviews some readers have left really brightened up my day when I read them, thank you. And the fact that people all over the world have at least seen my work means so much to me, thank you my multinational readers. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you.
