Disclaimer: I do not not own Naruto.

Chapter 7

Zabuza eyed the six people in front of him with a look of pronounced displeasure, but of course they couldn't tell this due to the bandages covering the lower half of his face. In theory the old drunk had only taken enough money to Konoha worthy of a C-rank, which by definition was worthy of either a Genin team or a couple of low-ranked Chuunin.

Indeed, a Genin team was what he had left with. That was fine.

Their Jonin sensei was the famed Copy-Nin. That was fine too.

No, what really made Zabuza feel as though Gato wasn't paying him enough was The Gold and The Silver, who were staring up at him, or rather the Kubikiribocho, with pure, unadulterated hatred.

The two had earned the nickname a while back, after the utter butchery of Raiga Kurosuki and his pack of bandits. Apparently, they had destroyed his famous swords at the very site of death, claiming they were but cheap imitations of the real thing. This meant they were likely from the Kusakabe Clan, and Zabuza assumed he would have been safe from such people provided he stayed the hell away from Water Country.

That obviously hadn't worked.

Kakashi observed the grim looks being exchanged by his new team-mates and the Demon of the Hidden Mist. He had heard, as all the noteworthy Konoha ninjas had, about their long standing grudge against the Kusakabe replicas, especially after what happened during their encounters with Raiga Kurosuki and Aoi Rokusho.

It seemed that, prior to beginning her legendary partnership with Naruto, Lisette had been cooped up somewhere obscure for a very long time. This had led her to be very enthusiastic about trying out all the little things the world had to offer. One of those new things happened to be the infamous 'Curry of Life'. Upon learning of the legendary dish from Gai, Lisette had asked Naruto to take her to try some. No sooner had the words left her mouth than Naruto was preparing a road trip, just for her.

Sometimes, Kakashi really envied their devotion to one another.

At any rate, the story went that the owners of the restaurant where the Curry was made had informed the two that Raiga was nearby, though what he was doing exactly Kakashi couldn't be bothered to remember. During the night, the pair had stolen from their sleeping quarters and utterly massacred his bandit group, slaughtering him and destroying his swords. The only survivor had been a young boy by the name of Ranmaru, who the duo a spared due to being a child. He had been left at the restaurant, and every visitor from then on had been regaled with tales of the tall young man with the eye patch and the short young girl with the white dress.

Aoi Rokusho, on the other hand, had been a total accident. They had simply stumbled across him as he escaped with the Nidaime's sword, and had methodically butchered him from there. While pieces of Rokusho were still being discovered to this day, they had, somewhat surprisingly, left the sword intact as a favor to the Sandaime, though on the condition that it never leave the vault again. If it did leave the vault, they had promised, it would be destroyed anyway, grandfatherly figure or no.

But none of this mattered, because they were about to go apeshit on this loser's ass and Kakashi had to make sure he and the rest of the team weren't killed in the crossfire.

Bullshit, I know.

Naruto began to move forwards, interrupting Kakashi's thoughts on Zabuza's imminent demise. Everyone present was silent as Naruto walked forward, stopping once he was halfway between his own group and the missing-nin. Slowly, he stretched his left arm out to the side, and the eyes of all were drawn to the odd, cross-shaped green crystal on the back of his hand as it dimly twinkled in what little light the fog allowed through.

Then the stone ignited with blinding green light, and Naruto was obscured from view.

Tenshin put the mirror away and began to rifle through his pockets.

"Now for your left arm."

Withdrawing his hand from his pockets, Tenshin pulled out a beautiful, glowing green crystal cut into the shape of a cross. Taking Naruto's left hand in his own, Tenshin pressed it into the back of his hand, immediately causing the child to begin screaming all over again.

As the stone touched his flesh, the skin around it began to smoke and peel away, leaving only scarlet muscle behind. As it reached the tips of his fingers, the nails began to blacken and twist into ebony talons, even as the degradation of his body's largest organ continued up to his shoulder. Finally the unbelievable pain ended, and Naruto forced himself to stop screaming.

"That," said Tenshin chirpily. "Was a substance known as Innocence, used in ages past to fight the enemies of God. The more you synchronize with it, the more powerful it will become. However, like the Eye of Aeon, it has a downside. Should you ever forsake God, and the path of good, you will become a Fallen One, and be lost forever."

Naruto just stared at him blankly, his brain numbed by agony. Dimly, he remembered that he was an atheist.

"I'll teach you how to use it later," said Tenshin, in that same annoyingly cheerful voice. He began to roll up his sleeves. "But now, your legs."

Naruto opened his single visible eye, shaking the memories from his skull.

His left arm was now longer than his body, and the skin (or what passed for skin) was replaced with peculiar white armor, strongly resembling some form of chitin. The arm was of normal width near his shoulder, but steadily widened until it reached his hand, at which point it became an enormous claw, seeming fully capable of crushing someone's head between it's talons. On the back of the immense, adamantine claw was engraved a glowing green cross, mirroring the gem that had been there before, and a similar glow emanated from his scapula joint where the claw met his body.

All in all, it looked rather badass.

Without any further warning Naruto sprang at Zabuza, swinging his claw in viciously. Zabuza jumped to meet him, pulling his sword out of the tree as he went. Sword and talon clashed in mid-air, sparks flying as the two were forced past one-another by their own momentum. Zabuza hit the ground skidding, but Naruto landed on the tree feet first, allowing for an immediate push-off that sent the already gashed and abused tree crashing and groaning to the ground. Unsteady from his landing, it was all Zabuza could do to block as Naruto delivered a viscous sequence of blows against his sword, the hits coming far faster and far stronger than such an awkward appendage had any right to have. Desperately holding him off with one hand, Zabuza made a few one-handed seals with his free hand.

"Suiton; Daibakufu no Jutsu!" During the first, furious exchange they had ended up standing over the water, allowing for the immense blast of water that blasted the blonde backwards for several feet. As the waves cleared, Naruto was revealed standing with his claw bent in front of him as a sort of shield, an incredibly flexible feat that he somehow managed to make look completely natural. He also didn't seem to be actually water-walking, but rather hovering just above the lake, a small hollow in the water directly below his feet. It was as if a steady stream of something was being ejected out the bottom of his feet. As he moved the cumbersome limb into a battle-ready position, Zabuza decided to make some witty banter, which he felt the fight had been lacking thus far.

However, before he even got the chance he was rudely interrupted by a tanto to the back, courtesy of Kakashi. "It's over!" he managed to say, right before the swordsman dissolved into water. Water Clone! But when did he-

Abruptly, a sphere of water formed around Naruto, blocking him off from everyone else. "Suiro no Jutsu!" gloated Zabuza. "Now that the strongest of you is out of the way-" Kakashi's eye twitched at this. "-I can take the rest of you down one by one." Yet again, he began making a series of one-handed seals. "Kirigakure no Jutsu!" Kakashi cursed as an unnatural mist sprang seemingly from nowhere, the chakra-infused particles of water rendering his Sharingan near useless.

Lisette gave a long-suffering sigh as Zabuza began to rant about all the different ways he would kill them. Ira did the same thing. Why were all men so childish.

Her thoughts flew to when she and Naruto first met, and how he had taken her dreams of freedom, crushed them into rubble and then granted them to her anew the very next day.

Well, maybe not all men.

She was broken out of her thoughts as Zabuza materialized out of nowhere, his zanbato swinging for Tazuna's head. With another sigh, Lisette casually pulled the blubbering man out the way, the sword embedding itself in the ground. Kakashi appeared in a similar fashion behind Zabuza's back and promptly slit his throat, revealing him to be another Water Clone. Another Zabuza popped up and crushed the Copy-Nin with his sword, revealing him to be a Water Clone as well, and Kakashi reappeared and stabbed him in the back of the head, revealing him to be a Water Clone too...

Lisette thought Naruto's fight was way more exciting.

When they weren't immediately attacked by another Water Clone, Lisette boredly snapped her fingers, the mist immediately dispersing as though an invisible shockwave had erupted from her body. As the fog cleared, a virtual army of Water Clones was revealed dotting the surface of the lake. The last thing they saw was her eyes turn completely green with slitted black pupils before she lazily swiped her arm at them. Gashes burning with green and black flames shredded their artificial bodies. As the clones dispersed, Lisette smirked up at the gob smacked missing-nin. "Are you going to bust your way out of their or not?"

Zabuza heard Naruto snort (one of the few noises he was still able to make) and looked down at his prisoner. Naruto had maneuvered his arm so the cross on the back of his claw was directly facing his captor. His eyes widened as it began to glow. "Oh shi-" The prison exploded with green energy, and the Demon of the Mist, badly burnt and barely able to lift his sword, had just managed to get away in time. As he regained his bearings, he caught sight of Kakashi and Naruto, side by side, walking across the surface of the lake towards him.

"Shall we go all out?" inquired Kakashi blandly, uncovering his Sharingan. Naruto grunted, obviously not caring either way, but removed his eye patch nonetheless.

He immediately found himself falling through a long golden tunnel, until-

Senbon needles flew out of the trees and embedded in Zabuza's neck, rendering him smoothly senseless. The owner of the needles, a teen-aged hunter-nin, jumped down from the treeline. "Thank you for your assistance, I have been tracking this man for several days now. Excuse me while I dispose of the body."

And then he was gone.

"Don't hunter-nin usually dispose of the body at the sight?" said Naruto, annoyed at the anticlimactic finale.

"Obviously," said Lisette out loud. "That wasn't a hunter-nin."

Kakashi's eyes widened in realization, and his palm met his forehead. "Sunnuva-"

Naruto blinked as the vision ended, and suddenly noticed the tell-tale signs of movement in the trees. Lunging forward, he grabbed Zabuza by the scruff and hurled him out the way, even as he deflected the incoming senbon with his claw. Following immediately after them, the young hunter-nin crashed into his claw with the force of a sledgehammer, managing to put an inordinate amount of force into the slim needles between his fingers. Not for the first time, Naruto was glad his claw was unbreakable.

As they broke off from one-another an odd mirror-like object made of ice appeared on the surface of the lake, into which the hunter-nin fell and disappeared. Naruto whipped around, only to watch as Zabuza was dragged safely into a mirror of his own.

At that moment Naruto missed his voice like nothing else, as he wanted nothing more than to have a good long swear.

"Naruto," blurted Kakashi. "Why the hell did you attack that hunter-nin?"

"Obviously," said Lisette out loud. "That wasn't a hunter-nin."

Kakashi's eyes widened in realization, and his palm met his forehead. "Sunnuva-"

For the small percentage of you who don't know, Naruto's arm comes from the D Gray Man series.