A/N: h;is version was rejected by my BETA on grounds of V1 being "Smoother, and dealing with Zabuza in a better fashion".

Chapter 33 – V2

The Bloody Legend – V2

Naruto hissed as he got to his feet atop the still rippling surface of the ocean.

The cyclone that Zabuza had used was small, but it had been concentrated.

Luckily his Genesis Seal had half-healed him.

But half healed meant that it had expired. He was out of Genesis Energy.

"That's what I get for training so much." Naruto sighed. "Not much extra chakra to put away."

"Master! Master!" He heard as the ringing in his ears subsided.

That had been a goodly sized 'boom'.

Not bad.

As he looked up, he saw the sea of flames. And in it, he saw Shizuka waving one arm frantically.

"Master!"

Naruto sighed. He took two steps, shot off some handseals, spun, and released a moderate furyuu toppa that blew past the roof his crewmates were perched on – clearing a path from burning debris.

"Master!" Shizuka exclaimed as she hugged her liege to the valley of her busom with force that would be suffocating to all but the toad sage's heir. "I knew you would eradicate them. I was worried before – I was terrified you would die and leave me alone – but then that damn fool man told me he had made you angry. Kind gods die all the time, Master. But as an angry god, you are unstoppable."

"Puah!" Naruto exclaimed as he used his unoccupied hand to free himself from Shizuka's (literally) smothering embrace. "I'm no god, Shizuka." Naruto sighed. "And that's blasphemy." He pointed out helpfully.

Barkeep was both insensible and inconsolable, as he sobbed in a corner of the dilapidated roof. Kenta slapped Naruto on the back. "You did it then, lad? It's over?"

"His chakra was low, because he had just finished using a jutsu." Naruto explained. "And I nailed him from behind with a bit of a trick shot. And he's sick." Naruto shook his head. "And he's had a bar – or what's left of one – collapse on top of him. He should be dead. Most reasonable people would have the decency to just die."

As if on que, a grayed hand burst from the other end of the dilapidated roof, sending shingles flying.

Naruto looked on, unimpressed. "Pity no one's ever accused the man of being decent."

After a pause, he amended: "or reasonable."

It was then that the rest of Momochi Zabuza followed his hand and broke through the roof. He was covered in soot, and his clothes were torn and ragged. A thin steel cylinder – presumably part of bar stool shrapnel – protruded from his left shoulder.

He pulled with him from the wreckage his two tools. His sword remained miraculously intact, and Haku seemed alive as well – if unconscious.

"That…" the mist nin panted. "Wasn't half bad kid."

He stumbled and coughed as he said this, but righted himself soon afterwards through intelligent application of stubborn willfulness.

"Holy shit." Kenta breathed. "Just…. Holy shit."

"I know." Naruto replied. "I know."

And Kenta looked at him. At this child, so young, but standing so straight and unwavering in the face of this… thing that lurched towards them.

With burning debris surrounding them, on this broken roof, in the eye of a hurricane in this godless no-man's land…

Kenta saw this child stare down his seemingly immortal opponent and sigh.

"This ends now." Zabuza growled.

"Idiot." Naruto replied in a whisper. He shook Shizuka's grip on his arm free and stepped forwards. "You damn idiot. It's already over and you know it. Look at you. Your left arm's out of commission, and trying to one-hand that giant cleaver's going to be a joke. Taijutsu? It won't work on me. You're burned out." Naruto spat. "You're tired. Your sick."

"It's not over." Zabuza growled, lurching forwards, dragging his blade by his uninjured arm. "Not yet. Not like this!"

"It was over for you a long time ago!" Naruto yelled back, dashing forwards across the mangled roof, the blazing embers of ruined wood around them danced in his furied eyes. "You idiot!"

With a hulking lurch, Zabuza brought his swing down. No longer was it a beautiful arch of art and perfection. No longer did he flash like a minnow through the world.

It was just a hulking, lurching, chop.

And Naruto took it.

He didn't even grunt.

"Damn you…" Zabuza growled.

"You're not stronger than me." Naruto hissed back, staring at the larger man around the crossed arms he'd raised over his head. "You used to be. But that was long ago. It's over Zabuza. It's been over since you took that poison in. It's been over since you threw away your humanity. Fuck, Zabuza, men can't live on one emotion! And it doesn't make you a demon." He spat. "It doesn't make you fucking strong. That just makes you an animal!"

With a push, Zabuza felt his sword forced back. With only one arm, he felt his strength falter and himself forced back.

Yet the old veteran turned with the momentum. Wounded and low on energy as he was, he created distance and spun into a hooked, spinning back-kick that landed perfectly across his opponent's jaw.

And there it rested, quietly.

No. Zabuza swore to himself. Not like this.

"You idiot." Naruto whispered, reaching up to his cheek and seizing the man by his ankle.

With a tug that lifted Zabuza off his feet, the man's stance was destroyed. He was lifted off his footing and dragged towards his opponent.

And Naruto reached up through the air with his left hand, and brought it down upon the demon of the mist with a blow that slammed Zabuza down with such force that it threatened to break the tiled roof that had already been through so much.

And Naruto crouched over the man, upon his wheezing chest, and stared hard into his eyes. "And humans kill animals, Zabuza. We hunt them."

"There was probably a boost of speed." Naruto said as he frowned down at the dying man. He imagined what would have happened inside that exploding bar. Zabuza, the more veteran between him and his too, realizing quickly that Naruto's fire dragon was part or some greater ploy. Him moving, quickly, to grab at the unaware Haku. "And reinforcement of your sword to act as a shield against the shrapnel." A shield for him, and himself, a shield for the girl.

For his tool.

"I knew you'd do it." Naruto explained. "I knew because you were too proud a swordsman not to care about your tools. Your cleaver breaks, you remake it right away and you brag about it. Haku's your tool too. Maybe your swords more important than her, or maybe not. Doesn't matter. Both tools… they're more important than your life. And I knew you'd do it, just like I knew you would expect a sly shot from a kid like me, until it was too late. You're too predictable Zabuza." Naruto shook his head. "You're just an animal."

Zabuza huffed and wheezed. His was a poison that slept in the heart. His was an ailment that crippled the bodies ability to create ATP on the spot. His mitochondria span around with nothing to work with, for his blood oxygenated so slowly with his weak heartbeat.

But he would not die with excuses on his lips. He was Momochi Zabuza, and he had embraced the thought of death ever since Haku had diagnosed him.

No, since he first picked up a kunai. Kill or be kill. Dog eat dog.

He had gone his whole life assuming death… was always just a part of it all.

"I…." Zabuza began. "Lived… always proud. When I killed my classmates, and when I killed all those others throughout the years… I was proud. Becauze Momochi Zabuza…the sewer rat… became the Demon of the Mist. He was reborn through blood and death, into someone that mattered! I was going to make that country mine… I was so close with the Leviathan! I was going to make it mine, and it was going to be reborn too… through blood and death of the weak and disobedient… into the best fucking country in the world."

Naruto frowned, but remained otherwise unmoved.

Zabuza glared directly into the eyes of the one who would presumably bring his bloody life to a close, and there in those cerulean orbs he found resolve and steel.

And with the last of his streangth, Zabuza commanded his flailing heart:

Beat.

Cry out.

Roar.

And for that brief moment, he was again the most powerful swordsman in the world.

Belatedly, with a flinch, Naruto noticed his neck in the noose of Kuchibi Koncho

"One hand…" Zabuza muttered in haggard breaths, "…is plenty."

And he dropped the handle from loose fingers. He stared blankly up at the sky.

It would have to do. It would have to be like this.

This death would have to do for the legend of Momochi Zabuza.

His legacy…

"You can have it…" He said in a strained and phantasmal voice. "…if you maintain her."

Naruto considered this man, who had killed himself to make a point. He considered all the anger and fear this man had instilled.

He considered the ruthlessness of this man's prideful ambition.

But, at least, to the end…

He was consistent.

"Fucking idiot." Naruto muttered. "Find your kingdom in Hell, Demon of the Mist. Let yourself reach peace in that inferno."

And the worst man in the world, Mamochi Zaubuza… died not with a bang.

Or a whimper.

He died with a chuckle.

Tada.

By the way, I was dissatisfied with V1, and that's why I wrote this version, V2. lol. But I had to go with my BETA's decision, because I didn't really know what to say about it. I couldn't figure out the relative values, and honestly I later realized my dissatisfaction with V1 wasn't due to V1 but due to what should I be doing after V1. And really, V2 didn't solve that in any fashion, and so I was dissatisfied there as well. In that sense, I went with the reader's opinion.