Chapter 6: The Demon Zabuza, Part II
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"You fell for it. This is a prison which you can't escape from." Zabuza taunted the captive Kakashi trapped inside the water prison. Zabuza pushed his right hand into the sphere of water. "You give me a hard time when you're moving. I'll finish you off later, Kakashi. First, I'm going to get rid of them." Zabuza turned his attention to Team 7. "Mizu Buushin no Jutsu."
Out of the mist, another swordsman suddenly appeared in front of them, rising out of the water. "The three of you think you're ninja just because you have forehead protectors. But real ninja are people who have survived death many times." The clone spoke with derision. "In other words, you can call yourself ninja when your name appears in my bingo book." The clone made a hand seal and disappeared into the mist. "The three of you aren't ninja…"
Suddenly, Naruto went flying as Zabuza reappeared. He landed with a thud. "…You're just little kids."
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted. It's no use. With that speed, even with the Byakugan, how can we hit him?
"Everyone!" Kakashi shouted. "Take Tazuna-san and run! You can't win against him! He can't move as long as he has me trapped in this prison. He also can't use his Mizu Buushin once you get away from him. Run!"
Run? You must be joking. Sasuke thought furiously. Sooner or later, Zabuza would catch them and without Kakashi, they would be annihilated. The only way to survive was to free Kakashi and the only way to do that was to destroy the water clone in front of him. "We have to do it!" Sasuke charged forward. The clone put one hand on the hilt of his massive sword but didn't move. Sasuke threw shuriken, one after another as he closed in. The clone waited for the shuriken to come and then swung his sword like a baseball bat, deflecting them all with a wide swing. Sasuke suddenly jumped high. He can't bring that sword around in time. This is my only chance! "This is it!"
"Too easy." The clone reached out with his free hand and grabbed Sasuke's throat as Sasuke dove down. He held the struggling boy like some fish plucked out of a stream before throwing him away. Sasuke landed just like Naruto had. On the ground, Naruto watched in fear.
"Sasuke was…" Naruto looked the clone standing in front of him, feeling true terror. This is a jounin, a real ninja. I have to run. At this rate, we'll all be killed! He scrambled to get up. Unexpected pain shot up his left arm, distracting him from his fear. He looked at his bandaged left hand like it was something he had forgotten, something important.
That's right. I've already seen true terror. And I vowed on it…I vowed that I would never run away. Naruto looked at Zabuza again and noticed the forehead protector under the clone's feet, remembering that night when protected Iruka-sensei from that Mizuki bastard. And I am a ninja. Naruto looked at the clone with renewed determination. This bastard…I'll show him! Naruto charged forward fearlessly, shouting his battle cry.
"Idiot! Stop!" Kakashi shouted in alarm.
"Idiot." The clone said calmly. He wanted for the screaming kid to come and contemptuously kicked the idiot back to his weak and worthless teammates.
Naruto slowly got up again, feeling triumphant despite everything. The one trophy he wanted he now gripped in his left hand. "Hey, you no-browed freak…" He called out, tying its headband around his forehead. Zabuza looked at him in annoyance. "Put this in your bingo book. The man who will become the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, the Konoha ninja, Uzumaki Naruto!"
Nobody was laughing at Naruto this time. "Sasuke, lend me your ear for a second."
"What is it?" Sasuke asked.
"I have a plan." Naruto replied.
A plan, from him? It can't be helped. I'll have to trust him. "I can't believe you want to work as a team with me."
A plan? In that case, I want to help too. "Naruto-kun! This plan…" Hinata said without stuttering. "Please tell me what you want me to do!"
"Got it, Hinata. The three of us are freeing Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto declared. "Now, let's get wild!"
The clone just chuckled. "You all seem very full of yourselves, but do you even stand a chance?" I'll play a while longer. Then I'll end this.
This is bad… "What are the three of you doing? I told you to run!" Kakashi screamed at them. "The battle was already lost when I was captured! Hurry up and run! Our mission is to protect Tazuna-san. Did you forget that?!"
Team 7 felt themselves torn by Kakashi's words. It was true that they had an obligation to their client. Naruto looked pleadingly at Tazuna. "Old man…" He didn't say anymore but Tazuna understood him anyway. These kids are risking their lives for me, just because they care. Dammit.
"Don't worry. I'm the cause for this mess in the first place. And I'm not going to just worry about saving my own skin." Tazuna replied. "Sorry, everyone. Fight as much as you want." Team 7 brightened at the old man's permission.
"That's settled then." Sasuke told Kakashi.
"Are you ready?" Naruto asked Kakashi.
The clone of Zabuza looked at the three kids as they readied themselves and started to chuckle uncontrollably. "You really don't learn, do you?" He mocked them for their stupid naivety. "Still pretending to be ninja? When I was your age, my hands were already soaked in blood."
"The Demon Zabuza." Kakashi said quietly.
"Oh? Looks like you've heard of me." Zabuza answered from outside the water prison.
Kakashi turned to his students. They had to know just whom they were dealing with in order to know the danger they were in. Zabuza was an inhuman prodigy of murder, and totally beyond anything his students should have to face right now. "A long time ago, the Village of the Hidden Mist was called the Village of the Bloody Mist. There was a final test there for students before becoming a ninja."
"So you know about the final test." Zabuza said.
"Final test?" Naruto asked them, confused about where the conversation was going. Zabuza started chuckling again and it pissed Naruto off. "What's this final test?"
"Students killing students." Zabuza told him and watched smugly as the three kids suddenly squirmed. "Friends who ate from the same pot are separated and forced to fight each other to the death. These are people who helped each other, shared each other's dreams, competed together."
"That's awful." Hinata said to herself, riveted by Zabuza's tale of bloodshed as if it were a frightening horror story.
"Ten years ago, the Hidden Mist Village had to change its graduation exam." Kakashi explained. "Because the year before, a monster appeared." Zabuza chose to remain silent.
"A change?" Hinata asked in morbid curiosity. "What did the monster do?"
"A boy who had not even earned the right to become ninja killed more than one hundred of the candidates that year, and killed them all without hesitation." Kakashi explained to her and then simply looked to his left at Zabuza. Team 7 turned their eyes to the clone in front of them, as if waiting for an acknowledgement.
Finally, Zabuza spoke nostalgically. "That was fun." He turned his hard eyes toward the children in front of him. They shivered from the awful murderous intent in those eyes.
Before anyone could react, Zabuza charged forward and tackled Sasuke, sending him flying. When he landed, Zabuza was already waiting next to him and slammed his elbow straight into his midsection, knocking all the wind out of Sasuke. Zabuza planted his right foot on Sasuke's prone body and twisted it. "Die."
"Damn it!" Naruto screamed. "Kage Buushin no Jutsu!" Clones of Naruto soon surrounded the clone of Zabuza.
"Oh? Kage Buushin no Jutsu?" Zabuza asked conversationally. "Looks like you made quite a few of them."
"Here I come!" The clones shouted as one and pounced on the Zabuza clone, piling on top of Zabuza until there was only a mound of orange visible. For a moment, it held together. Then there was a great roar from within and clones were knocked back with one great swipe of Zabuza's sword. One after another, they fell to the earth and poofed out of existence. The real Naruto fell with them and skidded along the dirt. There's only one way to win now. Naruto tossed a black object at Sasuke as he got up. "Sasuke!"
Behind them, Hinata let out a small gasp of surprise. So that's the plan! Sasuke caught the spinning metal object and instantly felt it. I get it. I know what to do, Naruto. He unfolded the weapon into its true shape and held it in front of him "Fuuma Shuriken, the shadow windmill."
"A shuriken won't work on me." The Zabuza clone declared. Sasuke didn't bother answering and jumped out. With a scream and all the strength he could put into it, he threw the giant, four-bladed weapon. The clone simply waited patiently for it to come, but was surprised when the disc spun away from him.
"I see." The real Zabuza behind him said calmly. "This time you want to attack the real one." He calculated his timing and neatly plucked the shuriken out of its flight with his free hand. "But it's too easy for me!" Then he caught sight of a second shuriken, also heading right at him. A second shuriken was hidden in the shadow of the first one? Team 7 watched anxiously as the second shuriken spun toward Zabuza, who had both his hands occupied.
Zabuza hopped up with both legs and the second shuriken passed harmlessly under his feet. The right hand was carefully kept inside the water prison. "Still too easy." Sasuke smirked, so did Naruto. Behind Zabuza, there was a slight pop as Naruto shed his disguise. The shuriken poofed out of existence, revealing Naruto in mid-flight. Zabuza turned his head around in surprise.
"This is it!" He yelled and threw a kunai as hard as he could at the startled and unprepared Zabuza from behind. Zabuza saw the knife heading at him and did the first thing that came to mind and dodged. He knew the moment that his right hand slipped out of the water prison that the orange kid had fooled him, and that thought infuriated him. The kunai grazed his face just below his right eye and struck the Zabuza clone perfectly. It collapsed noisily into a puddle on the ground.
Now, it's my turn! Hinata threw her own Fuuma Shuriken. Zabuza's attention was fixed on Naruto. The captured shuriken he spun around his hand, letting it gather momentum and power. "You damned punk!" He almost didn't notice Hinata's shuriken until it was too late. "Another one?!" Zabuza quickly changed targets and let the shuriken loose to protect himself. The two shuriken clashed with each other loudly. Before Zabuza could recover any sense of self-control, a massive uppercut hit him in the jaw and sent him flying back. Zabuza angrily twisted in midair and landed on his feet, furiously glaring into Kakashi's sharingan eyes.
Kakashi looked at his right fist in satisfaction. "Now, shall we go for a second round?"
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To be Continued
