Team Tragedy
A Naruto Fanfiction
Author: ElderxChildx6 Co-Author/Editor: EDelta88
Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. All rights reserved.
Team Tragedy (c) Me (ElderxChildx6)
Len Hatake (c) Me (ElderxChildx6)
Chapter 8: Battle at the Bridge
The fight on the bridge had gone on for a very long time. Three Naruto clones stayed close to Tazuna while Kakashi dealt with Zabuza and the boys faced off with the imposter.
The fight had been long and very difficult. Sasuke was getting pelted by senbon to the point that, had the situation been any less dire, Naruto would have been sorely tempted to make several jokes about how Sasuke's hedgehog based fashion statement. As it was, it was a near thing.
Naruto meanwhile had been circling the house of mirrors that Zabuza's accomplice had created, using a liberal applications of clones and explosives to provide enough of a distraction to keep Sasuke alive much to Tazuna's dismay. The poor bridge would never be the same… until Tazuna fixed it, of course.
As the fight continued, however, Naruto suddenly seemed to stop as his eyes widened with horror. His clones even staring down at the ground in fear as they stood around Tazuna. Sasuke, noticing this, looked at his teammate with confusion.
"Naruto, I hope you don't plan on standing there like that forever!" Sasuke called. "This guy isn't exactly easy to deal with over here!"
Naruto lifts his terror-filled gaze to look up at the raven-haired boy encircled in the mirrors. "...Gato sent someone to attack the house." he trailed off in a strained voice.
Sasuke looked at Naruto with even more puzzlement for a brief moment as he dodged another series of senbon before his eyes suddenly widened in realization.
"What happened?" Sasuke demanded, absently making note of the way their opponent had paused to listen to them.
"I don't know," Naruto replied nervously. "I think it only just happened. My second clone hasn't popped yet. That's a good thing right?"
"...It's going to have to be," Sasuke informed him. "There's not much we can do until we're done here."
"An interesting choice of words," the rogue hunter said in a calming tone. "Are you sure that you do not want to worry about this Len? Hearing those words makes it seem like you don't care, even though your reaction to hearing the news says otherwise."
Sasuke glared up at all the reflections of the rogue hunter. "Just because I said that, doesn't mean anything!" he growled.
"Oh?" The rogue hunter began, sounding amused. "Does that mean you do care?"
"How about you stop hiding behind those damn mirrors like the coward you're being and I'll show you!" Sasuke roared.
"Relinquishing an overwhelming disadvantage would be the very height of idiocy," the impostor deadpanned, seeming quite… unimpressed.
"And yet you pause from attacking when you know I'm distracted to listen in on my conversation with my teammate," Sasuke shot back. "Any other shinobi would have taken full advantage of the distraction and unleashed a barrage of attacks on their opponent. So why didn't you?"
"Why not? I am not being paid to kill you or your friends. I need only occupy you until Zabuza-sama has dealt with the bridge builder and then we can be on our way, killing you serves no purpose," the masked boy explained. Not that he would admit to such a blunder if it had indeed been the case but the gennin didn't need to know that.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were surprised to hear the information my teammate provided," Sasuke countered hotly as a devilish smirk spread across his features. "Does that mean Gato left out some information from you?"
"It was not any associate of ours that attacked your friend," the boy confirmed. "That said, it is not uncommon for one of our employers to act without informing us." Though, considering Gato's previous behavior… it may yet be cause for worry.
"Whatever you say…" Sasuke trailed off with a growl.
"Can we just get this finished so we can get back to Len, already!?" Naruto shouted from outside the dome of mirrors.
"I would really prefer you didn't," the boy replied. "While I sympathize with your situation, it's much more simple to keep you both here away from the bridge builder."
Naruto growled with irritation. "Of course you would!"
"But I wonder what would happen if Kakashi-sensei killed your precious Zabuza-sama," Sasuke said through clenched teeth.
"I find that unlikely given that we are quite literally in Zabuza-sama's element..." the boy replied, though with less conviction than he had given his previous statements. Given Hatake Kakashi's reputation… perhaps he should end this and aide Zabuza-sama.
"And thanks to Kakashi-sensei's Sharingan Eye, he's technically in his element, as well," Naruto shot back.
"...You Konoha shinobi are so strange," the faux Kiri ninja observed with a curious cock of his head. "You have however brought up a decent point. I should be helping Zabuza-sama deal with Hatake-san… I do not suppose I can convince you to surrender?"
"Hell no!" Sasuke growled. Glaring at every image of the Kiri ninja he could see without having to turn his head.
"Not a chance!" Naruto shouted.
"Pity," the boy sighed before flickering out of his mirrors in a hail of senbon.
Shit, not fast enough, Sasuke thought as he managed to dodge the worst of the barrage but felt the telltale sting of needles through his shoulders. If only I could react faster but there's no time. I need... Then he blinked, feeling like an idiot. "Oi, dobe! I could use a few meat shields in here if you don't mind!" he called deflecting another brace of senbon even as he felt another two stab into his leg.
Three more clones poofed into existence and raced inside the dome. Deflecting a few of the senbon that were thrown at them.
Poof!
Poof!
Poof!
"The way you spam those things in spars and you pull out three in a life or death situation!? What the fuck Naruto?!" Sasuke squawked… his potty mouth giving some indication of just how stressed he was at the moment.
"YOU SAID A FEW, SPIKEY!" Naruto yelled back. "SO I SENT A FEW! YOU WANT AN ARMY, YOU NEED TO SPECIFY THAT!"
"You want specifics you nit picking nit wit?! Fine! I want the closest thing to a battalion you can manage and I want it yesterday!" Sasuke yelled… his temper slightly influenced by his attempts to cosplay as a porcupine.
Suddenly, as the sounds of multiple poofs are heard in the background, a good twenty Naruto clones appear inside the dome. With three more seeming to pile in whenever one was destroyed.
"THAT BETTER?!" The real Naruto called from outside of the dome.
"I said a legion! Not a platoon you bleach blond pea brain!" Sasuke yelled back even as he used the distraction of the additional clones to buy time while he attempted to locate his opponent.
"Well soooorry! If someone hadn't been a dumbass bastard and gotten himself caught I'd just blow this thing to hell but nooo~" Naruto sniped. "Someone just haaad to run in and solo the dungeon boss like a noob!"
"What the fuck are you even talking about?!" Sasuke called out.
"Wonderous things beyond your plebeian comprehension!" Naruto answered.
"...Very strange indeed," the faux hunter nin corrected as he watched the boys continue to bicker.
Sasuke continued to look around as he dodged the senbon. It was easier now that Naruto's clones were able to take most of them, instead. Faster, Sasuke! he growled in his thoughts. You have to be faster!
His eyes seemed to flicker back and forth between black and a crimson color as he tried to keep up with the rogue nin's movements.
'I can almost… there!' he thought, grinning viciously as he sped through his favorite set of hand seals. "Gokakyu no jutsu!"
"What?!" the imposter cried in surprise as he just barely dodged the fireball. He wasn't aiming for the mirrors. That was meant for me! But how? The human eye isn't capable of tracking anything going at the sort of speeds I'm… he wondered only for his thoughts to trail off as he noticed something strange about his opponent's eyes. "Ah, I see… so he is part of that clan. How tragic," he mused.
Sasuke glared at all the rogue nin images in front of him. "Shut up and fight me!" he shouted challengingly. "You no longer have the high ground!"
"Well, technically–"
"Shut UP, Naruto!" Sasuke roared.
"I sincerely wish you hadn't done that, Sasuke-kun," the hunter sighed, sounding genuinely depressed. "I am afraid that, now that you have acquired those eyes, I can no longer afford to drag out our fight."
Sasuke stiffened. "What?"
"I cannot risk stalling when there is the chance you will be able to catch me and jeopardize our mission," the boy explained as he readied several hand-fulls of senbon. "For what it's worth, I am sorry."
"Sasuke move!" Naruto screamed, sounding panicked as the air filled with the sound of hundreds of shadow clones coming into existence.
It wasn't enough.
Even with his newly awakened Sharingan and Naruto's personal army running interference the faux hunter nin was cutting through the clones with alarming ease and Sasuke wasn't fast enough to dodge all of the senbon that got through.
Suddenly, a Kunai with an exploding tag attached to it zipped out of the mist, smacking the hunter nin on his mask.
Boom!
When the smoke cleared, the hunter nin was back in the mirrors. His mask crumbling off of his face.
Sasuke's eyes widened as he looked up at the hunter nin that he had been fighting. "You?" he gasped as he studied his opponent's face. It had been that boy...the one he talked to when he was tree walking with Len and Naruto.
"Nicely done," Haku said as he pulled out more senbon. "But it won't happen, again."
"Bring it," Sasuke snarled, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his kunai. Naruto's distraction had been a lucky shot and they all knew it. So was he screwed? Probably. Was he going to admit it? Fuck no. He was going to die with a cocky smirk on his face and one last witty jab ringing in his opponent's head for the rest of ever… just as soon as he figured out what to say.
Without another word Haku leaped from his mirrors, running through a set of hand seals as water gathered in the air…
Only to change jutsu mid-motion and replace himself with a large shard of ice before ducking back into a mirror, dodging kunai all the way.
"Naruto, I don't know how you're doing that but whatever you do? Don't stop!" Sasuke called, the tension in his shoulders lessening just a little. Once was luck. Twice? A coincidence. But Naruto had hit their opponent once already and come close twice more.
"What?" Naruto called back confusedly. "I'm not doing any of this. I thought that was you!"
Sasuke blinked. "You're not throwing those?"
"I appreciate the vote of confidence but when the hell have I ever been that accurate?"
That's right, Sasuke thought. He hadn't even been close to being able to track Haku's movements before awakening his sharingan. So that would mean… But it can't be sensei, he reasoned as he watched Haku scan the mist around them. Kakashi would have just ended the fight rather than throw a few kunai. So then who– Sasuke wondered only for his eyes to go wide as something large and blindingly white appeared out of the mist...
And slammed directly into the mirror Haku was hiding in with the force of a meteor.
That was… that was the Gokakyu no jutsu, Sasuke thought, bewildered. But it had been white. Katon jutsu weren't white.
What in all the hells was going on?
A/N: Okay, so I know what at least one of you is thinking. Unfortunately, this is NOT the last chapter for the Wave arc. This chapter is really difficult, right now, and my boyfriend suggested that, since I do have a deadline to keep up with, to just post the chapter as it is, now, and then save the end for the next chapter that will be posted next Thursday or the Thursday after. I am sorry for those of you who were looking forward to this being the last chapter for the Wave arc and excited for the Chunin Exam chapters. They're going to have to be putt off for just a little bit longer.
Hopefully, the last part will be done quickly and will be posted next Thursday so that way I can get started on the Chunin Exam arc. Most of you are excited for it. And considering I am the author, so am So I'm sorry. I'll try to make it as painless as possible...although I might not succeed considering I couldn't finish the Wave arc in this chapter like I had originally wanted...=3=
Thank you all for your reviews and follows and favorites! They honestly mean the world to me.
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