Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto

Zabuza's Seven

Chapter 2: The end of One Life and The Start of Another

Pain was all Uzumaki Naruto could feel at the moment. He had several senbon sticking out of his body and numerous cuts that were leaking blood. The next thing he knew he was knocked to the ground by his team-mate to avoid another assault from his opponent, and he now felt the pain of hitting the concrete ground of the bridge.

As he struggled to get up he saw his opponent charging toward him and his team-mate rushing to stop him. Naruto, ignoring the pain running through his body summoned the last of his strength and threw himself in the line of fire and took the barrage of senbon head on, never wondering about who the attack was really meant for.

With the last of his strength gone, having been used up in that last desperate move the pain Naruto had overcome was back with a vengeance. His body was now riddled with senbon sticking out from every limb, his neck and torso. Struggling to breathe he coughed out a generous amount of blood. Knowing these would be his last moments he spoke his final words to his team-mate and began to let the sweet grip of death take away his pain.

He wouldn't feel the pain of his wounds, the pain of knowing he would never accomplish his dream of being Hokage, see his precious people again or that he had failed to protect them. After all the pain he would finally be at peace. Or so he thought. The pain of his old life was now almost gone. Soon he will know a new kind of pain.

ZzZzZzZ

It was the night after the battle on the bridge. Naruto lay on a funeral pyre suspended over a freshly dug grave lined with cloth. To his team-mates he was dead to the world but for a moment Uzumaki Naruto was slightly conscious.

'What happened, where am I, did I die?' For a brief time Naruto could form some coherent thoughts. 'I feel really sore. I can't move at all. If this is the afterlife it sucks. Then again I really don't know what I was expecting. Religion kind of conflicts with the ninja lifestyle.'

Obviously Naruto has never heard of Jashinism.

'At least it doesn't hurt anymore. I can rest now.'

That's when Sasuke and Sakura finished their prayers for Naruto to rest in peace and set the pyre ablaze.

Then the pain struck again. Naruto could no longer make a focused thought as the fire burned at his flesh. His skin and hair burned off, his orange jumpsuit turned to ash. All he could feel was a burning sensation spreading through his body.

Suddenly there was a feeling of warmth, unlike the fire it started from his belly and spread throughout the rest of him. Also, unlike the fire it felt good and took away the pain he felt. Then, once again he felt no more.

ZzZzZzZ

The sound of dripping water reverberated off the walls. Uzumaki Naruto lay in a shallow pool of water in what appeared to be a corridor lined with pipes. Some were rusty and leaking, others looked new and shiny. They appeared to have red water that flowed through them, all of it coming from one direction. There were also several doors, though where they lead was a mystery.

Naruto, having awoken pushed himself up and took stock of his surroundings. 'Now where am I? I've gone from being dead sore and unable to move to feeling like I was on fire, and now I'm soaking wet and it looks like I'm in a strange sewer. Maybe I was on fire and somebody sent me here to put it out? Nah, that can't be right. Still, I have no idea where I am so I should be careful.'

With that he began to look around while staying in his current spot. 'It looks like that strange red water is coming from deeper in here. Should I head for it's source or to wherever it's flowing towards?' Naruto pondered to himself. Deciding to investigate the source of the strange water he headed forward.

After some time he arrived at the source of the red water. Looming in front of him was an enormous set of steel bars, giving the appearance of a prison cell. A paper tag with 'seal' written on it was in the center of it. Naruto instantly knew there could only be one thing that would need a cell this large. The nine-tailed fox demon.

As if reading his thoughts a pair of giant, glowing red eyes appeared, followed by many sharp, grinning teeth. Naruto had come face to face with the source of all the suffering in his life, and ironically the only thing keeping him alive.

"So, my host finally came to visit me." The great demon bellowed out.

"You, you're the nine-tails," stammered Naruto. He just had a near death experience and was now standing before one of the strongest demons to ever walk the Earth.

Suddenly the fox sent one of it's arms through the gate, but the bars kept it from reaching Naruto. The fox growled and called out to Naruto.

"I'd like to devour you but the seal keeps me in place. Why don't you be a nice boy and tear it off. You don't have much longer to live anyway so let me put you out of your misery."

Naruto was panicking at first but seeing the seal keep the fox from getting to him helped him calm down. One thing about the fox's statement concerned him though.

"What do you mean I don't have much longer to live?" Yelled Naruto to the fox. Now that he knew the fox couldn't hurt him he found it easier to stand up to it.

"Isn't it obvious?" The fox asked. "You were beaten in battle, and in your vulnerable state your so called team took the opportunity to get rid of you once and for all. I'm sure you felt it, that burning sensation before you ended up here. They were burning you alive, making you suffer as much as they could before they left you to die."

Naruto was in shock. 'They wouldn't do that, would they?' He questioned himself. He looked back on his memories of being in team seven, and of his team-mates, looking for something to convince himself they wouldn't do something like this.

"Oh they would." The fox said as if reading Naruto's thoughts, which it might be able to. "You know the boy in the mask can put people in a near death state and so should your team-mates. After a good night of rest you would be fine, especially with how fast you heal. They just wanted you out of the way."

The fox took a moment to let that thought sink in. Naruto appeared to be considering what the fox was saying. 'Yes, that's it. I will fill you with so much despair you will beg me to kill you and end it. If I can't harm you through the seal physically I'll crush you emotionally. Then I shall gain my freedom.' The fox continued his malicious manipulations.

"I bet that pink haired girl is glad you're out of the way. Always making a fool of yourself trying to get her to go on a date with you in a pathetic attempt at gaining attention. Would you even know what to do if you were on one? I bet you'd just eat ramen in that disgusting manner and talk about how you're going to be Hokage someday so everyone will have to be nice to you. I'm sure she'll be much happier without you constantly irritating her."

The fox was now targeting Naruto's dreams. Being reminded that he will never become Hokage or get Sakura to like him was dragging Naruto deeper into a pit of despair.

"I can easily see through your act. You don't really like that girl. It's all just another way of gaining the attention you so desperately crave. Or is it because if you get her to like you instead of that, Uchiha" at this point the fox growled out Uchiha, the name obviously poison to him, " it'll be a way to prove you're better then him since you'll never be a stronger ninja."

Naruto actually considered the fox's words. 'He's right, Sakura will never go out with me if all I am is just a annoyance to her. I really don't know what I would do on a date anyway. Maybe I did only like her because she liked Sasuke and I wanted to prove I was better then him.'

Naruto was barely standing before, but now he was on his hands and knees, his earlier courage in facing the fox waning. The fox knew he was close to breaking him. He began to tear into Naruto's faults, and with them his will to live.

"As for your dream of being Hokage, didn't you say you wanted to be Hokage so everyone would respect you? Bah, who would respect a brat like you! All you do is play pranks on the people you want to like you and run around in that orange eyesore yelling how you're going to be Hokage. You don't want their respect, the way you act is proof of that. You'll never be respected if you don't show any yourself. You just want them to stop ignoring you."

All Naruto could focus on now was the fox's words. 'Is the fox right? Do I really want their respect for a selfish reason like that?'

The fox continued to torment his host, deriving a sinister form of pleasure from doing so.

"So tell me, what have you done to work towards that goal? Did you study hard and be a good student at the academy? No, you weren't any good at schoolwork so instead of trying harder you just called it boring, said a great Hokage doesn't need to know any of it and spent your time playing pranks. It seems to me you didn't want to admit you were bad at something and quit. What happened to that never give up attitude?"

Naruto was almost at the end now. 'What if the fox is right? If I had been a better student I wouldn't be the dead-last and I wouldn't be on team seven. I might have even passed the graduation exam the first time. Instead I spent my time playing pranks on the people who I want to respect me. The fox is right, he's…'

Suddenly Naruto's eyes shot open wide in revelation. Naruto, who was a second away from giving into the demon's urges and on his hands and knees, shaking in despair slowly began to rise.

'What was I thinking?' Naruto asked of himself. 'I was actually listening to the nine-tailed fox demon. It's because of him that I went through my suffering. If it wasn't for him I'd be treated like any other kid.' Naruto, his resolve restored stood upright and faced his literal inner demon.

"I'm not listening to you anymore!" He shouted to the fox. "If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have those problems! So if I'm going to die I'll do it with a smile on my face knowing I'm taking you with me!"

"You insignificant little whelp!" The fox roared. "Do you really think that if you die I will too? Let's test that theory, shall we?" At that point the fox began pushing more of it's chakra through the seal, not just through the pipes but into Naruto himself.

"What are you doing?" Naruto yelled questioningly. He could feel the fox's chakra flowing through him, coursing through his body and filling him with power.

"I'm giving you some of my power. If you can handle it you'll live and recover must faster. If not, it'll consume you from the inside out. Either way is fine with me." The fox answered. "Let's see what you are made of."

All Naruto could focus on was the fox's chakra flowing in and around him. He had to get it under control before it destroyed him. His will to live back in full, Naruto concentrated on pushing back the fox's chakra.

'This feels easy somehow. Like it's natural for me to do this.' Naruto thought of how simple it was to reign in the fox's chakra. 'I feel better too, like it's power is restoring my strength and increasing it too.'

Naruto focused everything he had on one last push and fought the fox's remaining chakra back at it's source. Then his vision went black and he collapsed, disappearing from his mindscape and the fox's influence.

ZzZzZzZ

It was the morning after Naruto's burial. All that was left to show of it was a cross over a patch of freshly dug dirt. Standing before it were two people. One was tall with dark hair and had a massive sword at his back. The other was shorter with long, black hair that matched his kimono, the closest thing to funeral attire he had.

Momochi Zabuza stood by his apprentice, or tool if you asked him. This had been the kind hearted Haku's first kill, and it was someone he had gotten to know. Although Haku had been trained to kill should he have to and learned to control his emotions Zabuza could tell he was not taking it well.

He hoped by bringing him to Naruto's grave it would give him some closure so he could move on. With the funds acquired from Gato they would soon be ready to join the Mist rebellion forces and stage another deathblow against Yagura. There was a possibility Haku would be forced to kill again, even though it didn't seem to fit him at all.

Zabuza stood silently, but inside he had several thoughts about the boy he was paying his respects too.

'I don't know much about you kid, but Haku seems to think you were one of the good ones, someone like us. You said your dream was to be Hokage right? Well mine is to be Mizukage so I can respect ambition like that.'

Zabuza then took a moment to remember the short battle he had with Naruto

'I've never seen anyone make as many shadow clones as you could so had the power. That trick you pulled with the windmill shuriken was clever too. I still don't know how you turned into one. You had a lot of potential. Too bad Kakashi was wasting it. You would have done well in Mist. I could have done a lot with someone like you.'

With that thought Zabuza turned away and waited for Haku to finish his prayers.

Haku was remembering when he first met Naruto. He had gotten up and put on a pink dress he liked. Should anyone meet him they would think he was a girl and underestimate him. It had nothing to do with how good he looked in it, nothing at all.

He then left to collect herbs to make a medicinal balm. In a clearing he saw a boy, sleeping soundly. Haku took a closer look and saw a forehead protector with a leaf engraved on it. Haku then realized this boy was one of the ninjas hired to guard the bridge builder. He reached down and placed one of his hands at the boy's neck.

'You'll catch your death of cold, sleeping on the ground. That was the first thing I said to you.' Thought Haku, reminiscing on the events of three days prior. 'You helped me collect the herbs I was looking for. When I asked what you were doing here you said were training so all the people in your village would respect you, and to prove yourself to a certain someone.'

Haku then took a moment to remember how he met his certain someone before he continued.

'I asked you if there was anyone special in your life. You seem confused by the question. I told you that when people protect something truly precious to them, they truly can become as strong as they must be. You understood that perfectly. I knew you would become strong.'

Haku was glad he met someone who knew where true strength came from. It was ironic Haku, who had the ice release blood-line limit and was born in Water Country could possess a belief so close to the Leaf's will of fire. Haku's next memory of Naruto was a bit more humorous.

'I walked away after that, but I wish I had stayed. I would have liked to have seen the look on your face when I told you I was a boy.'

Haku's thoughts grew darker after that, as his next, and only other memories of Naruto were the ones before his death.

'I remember when you appeared on the bridge and joined the battle. You scratched my mask and knocked me out of my mirror with a shuriken. You really earned that title of the most unpredictable ninja.'

Haku's final memory of Naruto was the most painful.

'Instead of attacking from the outside and forcing me to divide my attention you entered my dome of ice mirrors to save your team-mate. Despite your best efforts neither of you could get out. I tried my best to disable the two of you so I wouldn't have to kill you, but the Uchiha began to keep up with my attacks as he awakened his sharingan.'

Haku took a moment to breath and remain calm. He needed to do this. There would be deadly consequences if he lost his composure in the middle of a battle. If he couldn't make his peace with Naruto's memory now he may never do so.

'I knew then there was only one thing I could do to end the fight. If it was prolonged I might lose, and if I lost I would be of no use to master Zabuza. I had to take the Uchiha out of the fight, but his skill would make it difficult to do so. I decided to use you as bait. If I went to attack you the Uchiha would step in to protect you and I would disable him.'

He was almost there. All Haku had to do was relive this memory one more time and he would be relieved of the burden of his guilt.

'I didn't expect you to be able to get up, much less throw yourself into the line of fire. I should have known better of the most unpredictable ninja. You really took my words to heart. You found that inner strength and used it to save someone precious to you.'

This was it, with a few parting words Haku would be free of Naruto's memory and could move on.

'I'm sorry about what I did that day, but I did what I had to do. It was unfortunate we met as enemies. Under other circumstances we could have been friends, or more. Goodbye, Naruto.'

With that Haku also turned away. Looking toward his master, Zabuza's face unreadable under his wraps, Haku began to ask what they were going to do next when they felt an unbelievable pressure upon them. It was like the killing intent Zabuza would inflict upon his enemies, only much darker. Zabuza knew what it was as he had felt it before, in the presence of the man he wanted to kill.

"This feeling, it's demonic chakra, but where is it coming from?" Zabuza said as he looked around, trying to find the source. He was apparently asking the question to himself, but said it loud enough for Haku to hear.

Haku was frightened. If his master was right, and he had no doubt he was, then they might be in the presence of a demon. Zabuza was clearly alarmed by this possibility. Most wouldn't be able to tell by looking at him but Haku had spent enough time with him to be able to tell.

"There isn't anyone else around, we checked thoroughly before we came here. It's just us and Naruto's grave." Haku was trying to help answer Zabuza's question, even if it wasn't directed at him. Zabuza, after hearing Haku's response turned back toward him, and at Naruto's grave.

'There's no way, it can't be, can it?' Zabuza thought to himself. 'No, I'm sure of it. That feeling of demonic chakra, it's coming from the grave. Nothing that's dead would give off this feeling, unless…' Zabuza's thoughts trailed off there. He had a few ideas of what was happening in that grave, and hoped his worst fears weren't about to come true.

"Haku, stand back and get ready with one of those demonic chakra suppression tags we were saving for Yagura." Zabuza ordered to his apprentice.

Haku moved away from the grave and searched through a storage scroll he had on him. He found the correct tag and took it out. It was something they had acquired from a black market dealer and were saving it to use on Yagura the next time they fought to prevent him from using the three-tailed turtle's chakra.

He passed it to Zabuza who stepped in front of the grave and used an earth technique to move the dirt aside and push up the casket below, or in this case the blankets wrapped around Naruto and the boy himself. When the shroud was freed from the ground it was immediately blown away by the demonic chakra pulsing out of Naruto.

What they saw was a fiery red chakra, whirling around Naruto like a maelstrom. The intensity from it kept them from getting close.

'I was right, the demonic chakra was coming from the kid. Either he's still alive and using it to save him, or he's dying and the demon is trying to break free.'

Zabuza had confirmed the source of the demonic chakra, although he didn't seem too happy about it. Before he could plan his next move the chakra storm seemed to calm down as it slowly began to recede into Naruto. Seeing his chance he slapped the demonic chakra suppression tag onto Naruto's forehead. With it in place the remaining red chakra finally dissipated completely.

"Whew, that was close." Said Zabuza with a sigh of relief. 'I was not looking forward to fighting another demon. Not only that, since this kid's from Konoha that means that the demon sealed in him can only be the nine-tailed fox. What's with this kid? There's something not right here, there has to be more to him.'

His interest piqued, Zabuza knew what he had to do. He moved over to Naruto and examined his body. Haku stayed back, not comfortable with what just happened.

'That's odd.' Zabuza thought as he surveyed Naruto. 'I thought his team-mates cremated him, but his body's pristine. No hair though.' Naruto's body did in fact appear pristine, and even a bit pale compared to before. Also, there wasn't a trace of any blond hair on him. 'Not only that, his clothes are gone. There's plenty of ashes here so something burned. I doubt they just burned his hair and clothes.'

Zabuza took a moment to ponder what that could mean. 'There's only thing I can think of that makes sense. They did cremate him, and the fire consumed his hair, clothes, skin, maybe even some of the flesh. For his body to appear as it does now, so pristine and pale it must mean he had somehow healed at an astonishing rate. It could be a blood-line that did so, and it used the demonic chakra as energy.'

Zabuza then leaned in to check Naruto's neck for a pulse and was surprised to find one. Not only that, the whisker marks that used to be on his cheeks were gone. Zabuza turned back to Haku and called out to him.

"It's okay Haku, he's fine. He has a pulse, and he's breathing, just slowly. You can come over now if you want to see him."

Haku appeared overjoyed, his emotional control momentarily forgotten. He was nearly broken-hearted over having finally taken a life, and of someone so much like him. Knowing Naruto was okay came as a great relief for him. Haku rushed forward and stood by Zabuza's side, overlooking Naruto.

Naruto was breathing slowly, lying on top of a fireproof blanket. Haku carefully rewrapped Naruto in it to preserve his modesty, or possibly out of his own embarrassment.

"What do we do now?" Haku asked Zabuza. He was glad Naruto was alive, but wasn't sure what Zabuza intended to do next.

"We take him with us." Was Zabuza's reply. By the happy look on Haku's face Zabuza could tell that pleased him. "There's a lot about this kid that's a mystery, and I intend on finding it out. Not only that, but his potential is going to waste. I hope I can put him to as much use as I did you and Kimimaro."

With that, Zabuza carefully picked up Naruto and set him aside. Putting his hands to the ground and using another earth technique the dirt receded into the hole, and the grave looked as it did before. No one should know Naruto was not in it.

Zabuza then lifted Naruto up again and with Haku left to return to his hideout. If Konoha was willing to throw away a perfectly good tool, then Zabuza would be the one to polish it, make it shine and use it to strike down his enemies.