Chapter 2: Scattering Waves
"I won't forgive you."
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
Naruto felt a surge of rage, deeper and more malicious than he had ever thought possible. He looked down at the prone body of his teammate and let the rage flow out of him. He would kill that masked boy. Destroy him utterly.
A powerful burst of chakra flooded through his body. It felt wrong, alien, somehow, and burned every part of him it touched. Naruto welcomed it. He could feel the power, the need to destroy everything.
And as quickly as it came, the foreign chakra left. A different chakra flowed through him, chilling by comparison. In its wake it left crystal clarity, replacing the rage with a cold and calculating calm. The sudden change startled Naruto, but he would have time to think on it later. First he needed to win.
He looked up at his opponent, who seemed shocked into inaction. Good. The quick burst of the Fox's chakra would do that to anyone, and he needed the time to think. It wouldn't last long, but it would have to be enough. He looked down again at Sasuke, this time more carefully. As he expected (Expected? How? He'd think on that later), Sasuke was still breathing, if only slightly.
He needed to get Sasuke to safety, protect Tazuna, defeat his opponent, and aid Kakashi-sensei if the opportunity presented itself. He wasn't sure how to beat the other boy, and it seemed he was running out of time to think. Well, first thing was first.
His opponent seemed to snap out of his shock and redoubled his attack. Naruto took the instant before the senbon arrived to grab a hold of Sasuke and replace the two of them with spare steel beams. Once out of the ice mirrors he formed a trio of shadow clones to protect Sasuke, then after a moment he formed another trio and sent them to protect Tazuna. The sudden chakra drain surprised him, but after a moment he decided it shouldn't. He didn't have the Fox's infinite supply any more (Wha? How did he know that? Later); he was operating entirely on his own supply now. Fortunately, that was still more than most Kages. He'd have to hold off on any more clones unless it was necessary, but he still had more than enough to fight with.
He turned to look back to the ice mirrors and saw them melting. His opponent would be coming soon, and he couldn't fight near Sasuke. Only one choice, then. Naruto ran as loudly as he could towards where he knew his opponent to be. He had to at least keep the boy busy until Kakashi finished with Zabuza. Winning was secondary, he knew.
...But if there was a chance to win, he was going to take it. And as he ran, the basics of a workable plan came to him. He smiled as he closed in on his opponent and attacked with a freshly-drawn kunai. The boy blocked, of course, but the force of the blow seemed to knock him back. Good. He needed to keep the boy on the defensive and prevent that ice mirror technique from reforming.
Naruto's senses warned him just in time, and he twisted to avoid a slew of senbon. They missed anything critical, but he still felt the needles pierce his flesh in a few areas. The new pain brought a reminder of all his older injuries, which seemed to have only partially healed with the small burst of demonic chakra.
"I thought you were dangerous there for a moment, but that feeling is gone now. What was that chakra? It didn't even feel human."
"That's none of your business," Naruto responded. "And it doesn't matter, it's only me now."
The masked boy nodded slightly, seemingly acknowledging and agreeing with Naruto's statement. And then it seemed the break was over, as the boy jumped back some and flew through a series of one handed seals.
Naruto whipped his kunai forward as quickly as he could and rushed towards the boy in a desperate attempt at preventing him from completing the technique. Fortunately, it seemed to work and the masked boy was forced to abandon the seal making to dodge both the kunai and Naruto's short, abrupt jab. Naruto pressed the attack, launching as many short, unpredictable strikes as he could, but the other boy was too fast. All of Naruto's attack were blocked, though not without cost. His opponent slid back under his attacks, and something cracked in his arm after a particularly brutal hit.
That seemed to force him to reconsider, and he jumped back while launching another handful of senbon. This time, Naruto blocked the ones aimed for his vitals and surged forwards again. But he wasn't fast enough and his opponent gained distance. It seemed it was time for a different tactic.
"You're not a bad person," Naruto stated while taking a more defensive stance. "I know you didn't kill Sasuke. You haven't killed your kindness, your good heart. We don't have to fight. We could even be friends. Just put down your weapons and we can talk this out."
The masked boy tilted his head in seeming confusion before speaking. "There can be no compromise. I am tasked with killing the bridge builder, and you with defending him. Unless you intend to give him up."
"You know I won't. But you can. Gato can't be trusted. Just stop fighting and I promise we'll let you go. Please. You spared my teammate's life, you can't be a bad person."
The masked boy shook his head and sighed. "There can be no surrender, for what it's worth I am truly sorry."
Naruto frowned. So much for stalling. And there wasn't a whole lot he could to to fight the boy on equal footing. Sage mode was too dangerous (Sage Mode? Since when...? He shook himself out of the thought), summoning probably wouldn't be possible, and most of the other techniques he knew would kill his opponent outright. He didn't want to have to go that far.
So what did that leave? A handful of simple ninjutsu, his taijutsu, and shadow clones. Just like old times.
Haku watched the other boy with a mixture of fascination and worry. How did he suddenly get that much faster? What was that short burst of evil chakra, and why didn't it last? Naruto was an enigma, and fighting something you didn't understand could only ever be dangerous.
Haku moved to draw more senbon, and the other boy's face seemed to light up suddenly. That fleeting, open expression reminded Haku of why he didn't want this fight, and why he didn't want to kill the boy if he could avoid it. Naruto was so open, so friendly. How would he react if he found out about Haku's past? But no, it wasn't worth thinking about. In another life, perhaps, but not now.
Naruto brought his hands together into a cross, a seal that Haku remembered was for the shadow clone technique. This could be challenging. Multiple Naruto clones moving at his newly-enhanced speed would not be easy to defeat, and with his injured left arm, he would be at a reduced ability to dispel them. No matter. He watched the dozen or so clones charge while drawing more senbon. It shouldn't take much to disrupt the clones. Haku drew his right arm back swiftly to throw, but it met with sudden resistance.
His arm was caught, and he turned in surprise to find a Naruto holding painfully onto his wrist. How? He glanced back to where Naruto had been standing and saw a fist-sized rock bouncing off of the ground.
Body substitution! He should have seen that coming. He threw the senbon in his other hand at Naruto's face, forcing Naruto to duck while Haku simultaneously wrenched his arm free. Haku followed the motion by throwing senbon at Naruto's clones, but they had spread out and he only managed to dispel a few.
And then Haku found himself in another melee, this time outnumbered. Fortunately for him, he was still faster and the clones were easy to remove. Unfortunately, there were a lot of the clones, and they managed to get a number of glancing blows on Haku's body. He felt his clothes rip from a particularly vicious blow that just barely missed his chest, and then more on his arms as the clones tried to grapple.
Haku realized then that staying in melee was a mistake. He was only moderately faster than the clones, and their numbers were too much to fight in close quarters. Haku took a play from Naruto's actions and switched with a stray block of stone right as a clone's attack would have hit him. He watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the clone dispelled itself by breaking its fist on the block.
Now at a healthy distance, he started forming the seals to his ice mirror technique. While Naruto was almost as fast as his normal speed, Haku's enhanced speed would be far too much for him. And Haku could hit and run, attacking from range, which would once again tilt the battle in his favor.
He finished the seals and watched the familiar ice mirrors form. He took a moment to sigh in relief as the technique finished, but then saw one of the Naruto's smirk. Smirk! What was he up to? Haku got his answer when he saw two of the clones go through the seals for what looked to be the fireball technique.
"That won't work," Haku said. "Your teammate tried fire, remember? You may be stronger than him, but it's still not enough to defeat my ice."
"You're right, it's not. But this is."
Haku looked at the Naruto that had spoken, and saw it going through a few quick seals for a technique he didn't recognize. Then the other two clones released their fireballs, and the third released his technique.
Wind! Haku realized a moment before the techniques collided. This would be-
His world exploded into white, and he felt himself bouncing and skidding along the surface of the bridge. He slammed painfully into the railings and fell to the ground. Haku forced himself back to his feet as his senses slowly cleared.
He saw what looked like a war zone. Shattered bits of stone had gone flying in every direction, and Naruto was slumped against the opposite rail, groaning and semi-conscious. The explosion had temporarily dispelled the mist, and he could dimly see the outlines of Zabuza-sama and the copy-nin Kakashi, still fighting. Closer, he could see Tazuna struggling to stay conscious, kneeling on the ground and groaning while the pink-haired girl seemed unconscious at his feet. Haku looked back to Naruto and saw him slump forward onto the stonework, seemingly still fighting to stay conscious.
This was his chance. If he killed Tazuna now, it would end this whole fight without any further bloodshed. And he didn't know if he could win in an honest fight. Haku was still somewhat rattled from the explosion, but he could still hit his target from here. He went to draw a senbon from his sleeve, but his stash wasn't in his robes. Nor the backups he kept strapped to his chest. They must have gotten lost in the explosion. No matter, he'd just do this the hard way.
Haku charged Tazuna, intending to kill him bare-handed. In his peripheral vision, he could see Naruto regaining his feet. Haku had no time to waste, and he pushed for as much speed as possible, while careful to stay secure in his footing. In the few moments it took to close the gap, he saw that the pink haired girl was out of the fight completely and barely breathing. Tazuna wouldn't have been able to move in time even if he was a ninja. A civilian didn't stand a chance. And Naruto was still too far off to stop him.
The instant as he struck, everything went wrong. "Tazuna" looked up at him with a familiar smirk and caught Haku's wrist the instant before it would have pierced his skin. The disguised clone twisted Haku's arm painfully and put him in a suppression hold, locking his arms behind his back. He tried to fight back, but his head was still swimming from the explosion, and he couldn't get a good hit on the clone. The clone grabbed Haku's injured arm roughly, and the pain caused Haku's vision to narrow as he fought to stay conscious. He watched the pink-haired "girl" stand up with an identical smirk as the illusion faded. Haku watched, helpless, as Naruto thrust his glowing hand, fingers extended, into Haku's stomach. He groaned involuntarily as his world went black.
Kakashi and Zabuza both froze when the demonic chakra flowed over them. Kakashi spared a glance in the direction of his student, but couldn't see anything through the mist. This was bad, if the fox got loose- but just as suddenly as it came, the chakra disappeared.
That worried Kakashi almost as much as its existence in the first place. The disappearance of the Kyuubi's chakra meant that either Naruto got it under control or... well, he didn't want to think about the alternative. There would be time to worry about that later.
The fight resumed, and Kakashi realized that he was at a disadvantage. But he could bide his time, though the Sharingan wasted chakra faster than he would like. He sparred with Zabuza, waiting for an opening, or a stall in the fight when he could summon his nin-dogs.
His only warning was a large flow of chakra. His Sharingan identified the elements being gathered and he turned his head away while Zabuza looked towards the disturbance. And then the world exploded. The flash and concussion hit them simultaneously. He managed to stay on his feet; unfortunately so did Zabuza. The two of them both looked over to survey what happened as small fragments of ice and stone rained from the sky. Naruto and his opponent were both staggered, and Sakura looked to be knocked out, with Tazuna on his knees, barely conscious. Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. That worried Kakashi for a moment, until his transplanted Sharingan showed him that the two who appeared to be Sakura and Tazuna were under a henge.
So his students had something planned. Good. Kakashi looked back to Zabuza, who was blinking in an attempt to clear what was no doubt a large afterimage from his vision. His guard was still up, but his attention had wavered ever so slightly. It was the opening Kakashi had been waiting for. The mist was reforming from its temporary dispelling, so he didn't have much time.
He charged, forming the lightning cutter as he ran. Zabuza refocused on him, but it was too late to flee back into the still-scattered mist. Zabuza brought his sword up to block with surprising speed, and Kakashi was forced to abandon the killing blow for a hit to the shoulder. Flesh and blood burst out in a large area of Zabuza's back, obviously ruining his shoulder. Probably permanently.
Zabuza jumped back, forcing himself off of Kakashi's hand and just barely avoiding the chidori in his other hand as Kakashi swiped it at his throat. Zabuza slumped slightly and readjusted his grip on his sword as his damaged left shoulder and arm refused to respond.
With that injury, Zabuza wouldn't be able to defend himself properly. It was time to finally finish this. And apparently Zabuza thought the same, he charged towards Kakashi with his sword ready to strike.
But he was far too slow and clumsy now. It was an obvious move of desperation, trying to catch Kakashi off guard while he recovered from the chakra expenditure. It could have worked in theory, but it wasn't fast enough. Kakashi drew a kunai as he dodged the attack. He stepped forward inside Zabuza's guard and thrust the kunai through his throat, then wrenched it free as violently as he could manage. Zabuza dropped to his knees, gagging and sputtering blood. Kakashi jumped away as the mist cleared for good.
He glanced over towards his students' fight while still keeping his guard up, and saw Naruto running towards him. Naruto's opponent lay slumped on the ground while a clone sat on his back. He glanced around to see a number of Naruto clones climbing over the ledge back onto the bridge, presumably from where they were hiding. They were carrying Tazuna, Sakura, and Sasuke, and of the three only Sasuke seemed to be seriously injured.
He was impressed. But before he could say anything to Naruto another voice rang out.
"So, they've already lost? Pathetic. With as much as they wanted, I expected them to be able to handle a few Konoha nin. Or at least last a bit longer than this."
Kakashi glanced at the now probably dead form of Zabuza before turning to look at the newcomer. He couldn't be sure if the missing-nin was dead, but from that position it would be difficult to catch Kakashi off-guard. The newcomer was an affluent-looking man in a tailored suit and holding a cane. Behind him was a whole company of mercenaries and bandits, clearly itching for a fight. Kakashi's chakra reserves were unfortunately fairly low, and he wasn't confident of his ability to win while protecting his students. He glanced over as Naruto stopped beside him. Maybe Kakashi wouldn't have to win on his own.
"But I wasn't planning on paying them anyways, so I guess you get what you pay for," the man who must be Gato said with a shrug. "Stupid missing-nins, they didn't even kill Tazuna. Oh well." He turned slightly towards his hired thugs and said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Kill-"
He never got a chance to finish; his head was suddenly separated from his body by what Kakashi's Sharingan revealed to be a fine blade of air. Kakashi looked over in shock towards Naruto, who had his hand raised as wind chakra dissipated from his straightened fingers.
Kakashi could only stare as Naruto stepped forward, and with a perfectly calm expression said, "Any one of you that wants to fight me will meet the same fate. Leave, now, and don't go near the town. Harm no one. Do that, and I'll let you live. Otherwise..." Naruto looked meaningfully at the decapitated corpse of Gato.
Just a few seconds later, a crossbow bolt bounced off of the stone in front of the mercenaries. They turned to see the villagers assembled there with improvised weaponry and Inari in front. After a moment of silence, a single voice sounded out, "Screw this" as a man in the back fled. That seemed to open the floodgates, and all the mercenaries turned and bid a hasty retreat.
Kakashi finally let himself relax slightly at that and covered his Sharingan. The immediate danger was past. But there was obviously something off with Naruto. There was no way his genin knew elemental manipulation, especially not Naruto. His control simply wasn't good enough for it. As he watched, Naruto seemed to relax and run over to Inari as the two of them shouted nonsense about "heroes arriving late". The sudden change was startling in its difference. The boy seemed to be back to what Kakashi was used to.
Kakashi walked over and checked Zabuza. The swordsman was indeed dead. Kakashi then moved over to check on the others. One of Naruto's clones walked over to him and looked him in the eyes. It still had the same look that Naruto did earlier and it raised Kakashi's guard slightly.
Unnervingly, the clone seemed to pick up on that and relaxed his stance while raising his arms in a reassuring motion. "Haku is unconscious, I put a five elements seal on him. He'll probably regain consciousness soon, though, so you should probably tie him up. I don't have any wire on me. Sasuke is injured, but Haku avoided hitting critical areas and put him into a false death the same way he did with Zabuza. Another clone should have told Sakura that, and she should be tending to him right now. Tazuna and Sakura are uninjured."
The report was informative and professional, covering all of the immediate concerns. Except for one. The clone seemed to sense what Kakashi was about to say, and spoke again. "My actions will require a lot of explanation, I know. Don't be too hard on him, or, um, me," the clone seemed to flounder for a second before speaking again. "As I said, it's a long story. Talk to me once we're somewhere private, now's not really the time. I'm not being controlled by the fox, and I promise I won't cause any problems. Just wait until that conversation. Until then, I suggest you handle Haku and your other students. They're both going to be pretty shaken up, but for different reasons." And with that, the clone dispelled.
Kakashi looked up at the rest of the scene. The other clones all looked up and nodded at him before dispelling themselves. It was almost unnerving. And the Narutos, both the clone and the original, had spoken with such calm authority. It sounded like someone who was used to being obeyed, and expected it. It was not a tone that Kakashi was expecting from him. In fact, it sounded eerily like the boy's father.
That wasn't possible, was it? Minato-sensei had sacrificed himself to seal the Fox. But he had only sealed a part of the Fox, so maybe there was something of him in there? Kakashi shook himself, dispelling the line of thought. There was no point in settling on any theories yet, he'd have a better idea after that conversation. Until then, he'd wait and watch.
A/N: So there's chapter two. I'm not completely satisfied with it, and I may come back to edit it later. I'm mostly editing as I write, and I probably will go back through this (much) later to improve it. As always, constructive criticism is appreciated. Let me know what you think. The next chapter should be up by the end of the day next Sunday. Until then.