Alright then, two things before the start of the chapter...100 REVIEWS!! Celebrate! Okay, I'm done. But seriously folks, thank you so much for all of the feedback that you've given me. You are all the real reasons that I continue this story. I hope that you continue to send reviews and enjoy the story. So once again, thank you everyone.

Now that we have that out of the way, here's the second thing. As a heads up, I apologize for some unoriginality and crummy romance dialouge in this chapter, but I'll say it once again. It. Benifits. Later. In. The. Story. So there you go. But anyways, I hope you still enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did...well everything you read in my story would happen (I know, scarry, huh?).

Shikamaru was at war within his own mind. Actually, he supposed it was with his identity. After all, isn't this how he always lived, by running away? He was the biggest coward he knew. The only reason that he had become a ninja anyways was to have a little freedom. Wasn't that what he always wanted?

But today was different. He felt sick to his stomach not because he was in a fight this time. Instead, he was running away, like always. It's just this time, when he ran away he may have gotten himself out of danger, but not his team. They were still back there, facing two extremely dangerous shinobi. He couldn't help but feel like he was betraying them, even though he was specifically ordered by Kakashi to run with Tazuna.

"Damn hypocrite," Shikamaru grunted. 'Those who abandon their friends are worse than trash'. That's the first lesson that Kakashi had ever taught them. And now he told Shikamaru to do the very thing he had taught them not to do?! So much for all of that now.

Suddenly, another question popped into Shikamaru's head. What if his position had been replaced be someone else? He doubted Kakashi would run since he was their most powerful fighter by far. But what about Hinata? Would she just follow orders that willingly and leave Naruto to fend for himself? He knew without a doubt that Naruto would never abandon them. He would keep fighting and not leave until he died. Shikamaru guessed that was why he admired his annoying blonde teammate so much. The kid had heart. He would never leave Shikamaru alone on the battlefield, and now Shikamaru was doing that exact thing to Naruto.

"You're being awfully quite, Shikamaru," Tsunami said, sitting down on the bench that they had decided to rest at. Shikamaru couldn't blame them for being tired. They weren't ninja after all. Not to mention that Tazuna was an aging man and Tsunami was carrying her child in her arms.

"Its fine," Shikamaru lied. "Are you done resting? We need to get to the village as fast as we can."

"I'm a mother, Shikamaru," Tsunami said. "It's my job to know what children are feeling. Is there something you'd like to tell us?"

"It's nothing that we can help," Shikamaru said perhaps a little too harshly after seeing Tsunami draw back slightly. "The sooner we get to the village, the sooner that we're out of danger."

"You don't honestly believe that," Tazuna said, wiping his forehead with his shirt. "No offence Shikamaru, but even you say yourself that you aren't that good at fighting. I doubt that you actually expect yourself to beat those two ninja after us."

"But it's better than no bodyguard at all," Shikamaru retorted, though he wished that he felt as sure as he sounded.

"But you'll have a better chance of beating those two if you were with your team. And so will they," Tazuna said. Shikamaru looked from Tazuna to Tsunami, still holding Inari in her arms.

"I really…"

"Go," Tsunami said, smiling kindly at the lazy Nara. "Your team needs you. The village isn't that far away now. We'll be able to get back okay."

"I don't like this plan," Shikamaru said truthfully.

"But it's still what you want," Tazuna said putting an arm on Shikamaru's shoulder. "Don't worry about us. We'll be able to get back on our own from here. And even if they do get me, someone will take my place in the end and the bridge will continue to be built. Though you may not be able to see it often, there is some hope left in this town."

Shikamaru shook his head, though he couldn't help but smile as well. "Thank you…I'm just hoping that this will all turn out okay."

"It will," Tsunami said standing to her feet. "Just get going. Your team needs your help."

Shikamaru smiled at the two, and partially at himself. He was going into the most dangerous situation in his life, and he was happy about it. Shikamaru, the most logical student from the academy, was currently making no sense at all. He rubbed his temple with a smile still on his face. The only thing he could determine through all of this was that the whole world was going mad.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?"

Shikamaru's body suddenly stiffened after hearing the voice. Slowly, he turned around to look down the path toward the town. Standing down the road were two men with long katanas held in their hands, both of them eyeing down Tazuna. One of the men was a very tall and bulky tanned man. His short brown hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and he wore an eye patch over his right eye. Beside him was a smaller but still frightening man who wore a black cap on his head with his white, straight hair falling down to his neck. He had two lines that went down below his eyes that made seemed to be there for nothing more than making him look more frightening.

"It's funny, old man," the shorter man said brandishing his sword in his right hand. "We were going to just go to your house and kill you since that good for nothing Zabuza guy wasn't doing his job, but you've gone and saved us the time of walking all the way there. You have no idea how grateful we are."

"Great," Shikamaru muttered. "Gatou's gotten impatient and he's decided to send these two to take care of us. As if things aren't bad enough."

"Hey, Zori, what about that kid there? That thing on his arm means that he's a ninja," the taller guy said pointing at Shikamaru with his long katana.

"Don't be an idiot," Zori said beginning to walk forward while the other man followed behind him. "He's just a kid, what harm can he do?"

"Shikamaru?" Tsunami muttered in fear while she took a step back in fear at the approaching men, making the two samurai grin mockingly. The Nara didn't answer though. He just needed to wait a second longer. In his mind, he cursed the fog that was still around because of Zabuza. It was obvious that the missing nin had a great amount of chakra to be able to have his jutsu take effect from such a long distance away. Good thing for Shikamaru that a small bit of light peeked through the mist, just enough for his jutsu. Unfortunately, the two weren't close enough to reach yet.

"You two are real tough guys, aren't you?" Shikamaru said. "But do you really think that you, some samurai mercenary scum, can take on a shinobi of Konoha?"

"Watch your mouth kid," the bigger man said, slightly quickening his pace. "This can either be quick and painless or…not," he said smirking.

"And besides," Zori said laughing. "Right behind us are about fifty other samurai along with Gatou himself. Even if you do escape us, you'll have to deal with the rest of our crew who are only thirty minutes behind us. Either way your dead, kid."

Shikamaru grinned back at the man, who's smile suddenly disappeared. "Thanks for the information," Shikamaru said, forming a seal. "If you hadn't said that, we would have just kept going down the road and ended up being killed. I guess that samurai are even more stupid than what they've said in the academy.

"Little punk," the taller man growled running straight at Shikamaru. "You'll pay for saying that."

"Too slow," Shikamaru said. "Kagemane no Jutsu!" Shikamaru's shadow suddenly shot forward at the two men, taking both by surprise. Before either of them could do anything about it, the shadow split into two and caught the two samurai right in their tracks.

"What the hell is this?" the man with the eye patch said. "My…body won't move!"

"Too bad," Shikamaru said shrugging, which the two men also did, much to both of their shock. "If you hadn't gone and announced yourselves, you might have been able to sneak up on us and take us by surprise. But you've got no one to blame but yourselves."

"I told you he was trouble," the eye patched man said to his partner.

"Shut up, Waraji!" Zori yelled back.

"Well, I really didn't want to use this much chakra…" Shikamaru said, bringing the attention back to him. "But since you two have pretty much no control over charka whatsoever, it probably won't be too hard." The shadow that had connected to the two men suddenly shot up their bodies and grabbed them by the throat. Both gagged from the unexpected attack, trying their best to break free from the shadow's grip. Waraji suddenly dropped his sword from his left hand and was released by the shadow, causing him to drop to the ground. Zori looked down in horror at his partner and looked one last time to Shikamaru while his eyes began to go dark from lack of oxygen. Finally, he too lost consciousness and fell face first into the ground.

"Sleep tight," Shikamaru said. He then looked back at Tazuna and Tsunami, who were both still white after the experience.

"Well, at least the kid didn't see that," Shikamaru said looking at Inari, who was also still knocked out. His face suddenly turned serious and he turned his head to look down the path that they were heading. "We're trapped," he said bluntly.

"What do we do then?" Tazuna asked. Shikamaru looked down to the ground, going over his options. If they went back, Zabuza would be there waiting for them. If they kept going, they would be ambushed and quite possibly killed. Shikamaru was sure that he had just burned out about one sixth of his chakra, and that was only with two guys. There was no way that he could take on fifty.

"Well first," Shikamaru said looking back at the two samurai, "we get rid of these two. If the group coming at us finds them, they'll know that we know they're coming. I'll hide these two while you make a break for it into the woods. Stay off the paths," he said sternly. "There are probably other samurai guarding the paths back to town and to the bridge. Stay put and stay hidden, my team and I will come and find you after all of this is done."

"So you're still going back?" Tazuna said smiling at Shikamaru. "Good. Your team is going to need all the help they can get."

"Don't remind me," Shikamaru sighed. "Alright, you two get going, I'll take care of those idiots," he said nodding his head at the two unconscious samurai.

"Alright. Good luck," Tazuna said grabbing his daughter's hand and pulling her into the forest.

"Don't do anything too risky," Tsunami said, over her shoulder.

Shikamaru waved back before turning back to the two men that lay on the ground a couple feet away from him. He needed to work quickly, he had already wasted enough time already. He needed to get back to his team, and fast.

Hinata and Naruto stood together back to back as Haku's jutsu began to take effect. The same ice blocks that had shielded Haku earlier in their fight were beginning to form around the two. This time though, they floated in mid air, held up by some unknown force of nature. Soon enough, they were trapped in. Ice walls surrounded them on all sides with only barely enough room apart for someone to escape through. There was even a mirror over their heads looking down at them, blocking an escape from above. Things weren't looking good.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata whispered, looking around at their prison. "What is this?"

"I don't have a clue, Hinata," Naruto said truthfully. "Just stay close to me. I'm not going to let Haku hurt you. I'll never let anybody hurt you, even if I have to die to achieve it."

Hinata looked from Naruto and then to Haku, who was also trapped in by the blocks of ice. He had been right. Naruto did want to protect her with his life. Hinata couldn't help but admit that she was happy that Naruto cared so much for her, but she was also scared that Naruto now knew about Haku. Did he reject the offer that Haku had talked about earlier? And if he did…were they now in more danger than they were before?

"It's not too late," Haku said taking a step backwards so that his back was against one of the ice walls. "You both can still join Zabuza-sama and live. It will be a hard life, but it is a life that you will both be able to live with each other. Leave Konoha behind and live."

"No way, Haku," Naruto growled. "And for your information, I'm not going to die here. Because I'm going to be Hokage someday, and I doubt they'll let me have the position if I become a missing nin."

"What about you, Hinata-san?" Haku asked. "Do you really want this? Do you really want it to end this way?"

"…I'm with Naruto-kun," Hinata said. "And though I do want to live with Naruto…for the rest of my life," she said turning to smile at her crush without a single tint of red in her face, "I know that if we leave Konoha, the Naruto that I know now would disappear. You don't understand Haku. It will tear him up from the inside out, and you know it. I'll just be with the person that was once Naruto, not the one that is standing beside me and protecting me. And I'll protect him too!"

"Hinata…" Naruto said, shocked by her words. He had not known that Hinata felt like this toward him. But now was not the time for these things. To get where they wanted to be, they first needed to get through the present. And Haku was the present.

"You heard it, Haku," Naruto said. "You'll never be able to take us away from Konoha. Not you, not Zabuza, not anybody!"

"You are both fools," Haku said closing his eyes. "You should have taken my offer. Now you cannot live." Haku suddenly jumped backwards into the ice block behind him. Naruto barely had enough time to see Haku appear in all the blocks around him before senbon needles suddenly began showering down on him in all directions.

Pain blinded himself from every emotion and sense he knew. He couldn't hear, couldn't think, there was only the constant senbon needles that whipped past him and impaled into his body.

The needles suddenly stopped flying and he found himself on the ground. Naruto struggled to lift himself to his knees, gripping his arm in pain, though he drew it back when his hand came into contact with the end of a needle that was stuck in his arm. He counted four in that arm alone. He couldn't guess how many were stuck in him right now. He looked over at Hinata and saw that she was in no better position than he was. She had only just barely started to lift herself up after the assault from Haku.

"Are you okay, Hinata?" Naruto asked, crawling over quickly and grabbing Hinata by the shoulders.

"…I think so," Hinata said, standing to her feet with Naruto. "I…can still fight." It was obvious though that the attack had taken its toll on Hinata, and Naruto knew that the same went for him. Who knew how many more attacks like that they could stand.

We have got to get out of here! Naruto thought, looking around the 'room'. Who knew when Haku would strike next? Naruto was sure that he could have injured them worse than he had already. He was going easy on them, but there was no guarantee that he will again.

"Okay then," Naruto said, already quickly going through various seals. "Trapped or not, this stuff is still ice. And when there's heat, ice melts. Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!" Naruto poured as much energy as possible into the fireball. The flame hit and enveloped an entire ice block and with it Haku's reflection within it.

Naruto stopped the jutsu when he felt it was enough and fell to his knees from exhaustion. He guessed that he probably put a little too much chakra into the fire jutsu, but he knew it was worth it for getting free. He looked up and his mouth fell agape. The mirror still remained. It had hardly melted at all from his attack, the only signs that it had been was from the small amount of water that dripped off it now.

"You will need a much hotter flame than that to melt these mirrors," Haku said almost mockingly, making Naruto clench his teeth together. He wished that Haku would have told him that before he had used so much chakra trying to melt it.

Okay, destroying the mirrors by melting them is out of the question now…but what if they were hit? Or better yet, what if they were hit at two different angles? I doubt that I can get close enough to hit one even with my kage bushins, but perhaps Hinata can help, Naruto planned in his head.

"You need to try and break out of here, Hinata," Naruto said, crouching down and forming a seal with his two hands. "I'll distract him for a second while you try and destroy one with your jutsu. After your out, we'll figure out a way to beat this damn jutsu."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Hinata asked worriedly.

"Don't worry," Naruto said turning around and smiling at her. "Haku won't take me down that easily. I'll be fine." Hinata nodded back uncertainly, but still closed her eyes while she went through a couple new seals. After a moment, Hinata outstretched her arm and winced in slight pain as electricity began to run through her entire arm. Naruto looked back at Hinata, slightly impressed. Hinata had become a lot stronger in the last week. Looks like Kakashi was a better teacher than he thought.

"Here we go!" Naruto yelled. "Kage bushin no jutsu!"

Naruto and his ten kage bushins jumped up into the air at the mirrors while Hinata turned around and dashed towards the closest mirror to her. As soon as they did though, Haku's mirrors began to glow brightly and then followed once more a shower of needles in all directions. One at a time, each of the kage bushins disappeared, and then the original Naruto was the only one left and could do nothing but take the horrible onslaught of needles that surrounded him.

Through the pain, Naruto opened one of his eyes to look over at Hinata. His plan had worked! Haku had focused more on him than Hinata when they had attacked. Hinata was now drawing her arm back and hit it with all her might, adding a bit of jyuuken power to it as well for safe measure.

"Raiton: Ikazuchi Yari no Jutsu!" she yelled. A loud explosion of sound suddenly came from Hinata's attack, making Naruto smile. She did it! Naruto's hopes suddenly died out. The mirror hadn't budged, and there wasn't a crack on it. It was as if Hinata's attack hadn't affected it at all. Suddenly, Haku appeared out of the mirror in front of Hinata, and delivered a hard kick into her gut, sending her spiraling back besides Naruto.

"Damn, I thought that would have worked," Naruto muttered. "Hinata, are you okay?" he asked, kneeling down and grabbing her shoulders.

"…Yes. I'm sorry that I wasn't strong enough to get out…" Hinata said looking up at Naruto, looking ashamed.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Naruto said smiling sincerely at her. "We'll just have to find another way out of this."

"You will find that quite impossible," Haku said from his mirrors. "No one has been able to escape my icy prison before. Your lives are in my hands now. I could kill in a blink of an eye and you wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Why fight a fight that you cannot win?"

"You don't get it, do you, Haku?" Naruto asked laughing. "We don't quit. And we never will quit. If you don't like it, well then tough. I'll tell you what's really going to happen. We're going to brake out of here and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"We'll see about that, Uzumaki Naruto," Haku responded, once again activating his mirrors.

Kakashi leaned backwards, just barely dodging the kunai that was aimed directly for his middle forehead. Reluctantly, he admitted that it had come a little too close for comfort. He had now realized that he had come to rely perhaps too much on his Sharingan in difficult situations. But then again, he never thought that it could be rendered completely useless before.

"Damn mist," Kakashi cursed, once again looking into the blanket of thick fog that surrounded him.

"It's amazing how much easier your opponent is after you take one single ability away from them," Zabuza said from the fog. Kakashi dodged another kunai but was caught in the fire of shuriken which sunk deep into his skin. With a grunt, Kakashi yanked the shuriken out of his body and threw it in multiple directions around him randomly, hoping to land a hit. Instead, all he heard was each shuriken land ineffectively on the ground.

"You're getting desperate, Kakashi," Zabuza said. "What would have happened if you accidentally hit one of your students? I'm sure that you wouldn't be able to live with yourself. But don't worry, you won't live long anyways."

"Coward," Kakashi barked into the mist. "Why don't you come out of hiding and take me on yourself instead of attacking from a distance? Not man enough to fight me? Is this how one of the great Seven Swordsman fights?"

"Taunts won't work in this fight, Kakashi," Zabuza said, though he sounded more amused than angry. "You won't escape this time, and this mission that you have strived so hard to accomplish will be in vain."

"This fight isn't over," Kakashi yelled.

"On the contrary, it is," a deep voice said from behind him.

Kakashi turned around and saw Zabuza standing right behind him with his sword high up above his head. Zabuza looked down at him in a look of triumph, knowing that there was no escape the copy cat nin of Konoha. The worst part was that Kakashi knew it too. But before Zabuza could bring down his sword, three kunai appeared from the fog and embedded into the Demon of the Hidden Mist's shoulder, arm, and leg. Zabuza immediately jumped backwards to dodge any other attack that could be coming. Kakashi also jumped away to put some distance between him and Zabuza. Together, he and Zabuza looked toward the direction that the kunai had been thrown.

"You really don't think things through, do you?" a lazy and impassive voice said as a figure began appearing from the fog. "You never thought that, just maybe, Kakashi-sensei's students might have been a little on the rebellious side?"

"Shikamaru?" Kakashi asked as the Genin came into full view.

"Yo," he replied, waving lazily in his sensei's direction.

"I thought I told you to stick with the bridge builder," Kakashi said, but he couldn't be too angry. After all, Shikamaru had just saved his life…much to his shock.

"Those who abandon their friends are worse than trash, right?" Shikamaru yawned. Kakashi actually couldn't help but laugh. Shikamaru was such a smart ass, but Kakashi guessed that was what made the Nara such a valuable member of the team.

"So you gained an extra Genin punk," Zabuza said pulling out the kunai in his arm. "You know it's not going to make a difference. You're still going to die by the end of the day."

"You have underestimated my students and I one too many times," Kakashi said glaring over where Zabuza stood. "And have you forgotten, Zabuza? I have mastered over a thousand jutsu. It's only a matter of time before I figure one out that can defeat you."

"Then show me what you've got, Kakashi," Zabuza said, fading away once more into the mist.

"Things are looking bad," Shikamaru said as soon as Zabuza was completely gone. "Gatou has decided that Zabuza is taking up too much time and is coming here along with enough samurai to destroy the entire town, I ran into a couple of them on our path. Tazuna and his family should be safe for the time being, but I can't really say the same for us."

"Then it looks like I'm going to have to get a bit more serious," Kakashi said, cautiously looking around into the thick fog. "Stay close, Shikamaru. There's no telling where he's going to attack next. Leave the up close fighting to me, you stay back and help if I need it."

"Let's get this over with," Shikamaru said lazily. His sensei sighed bitterly, wishing that Shikamaru would be a little more worked up in life threatening situations.

"Why will you not just accept your fate?" Haku asked. Naruto and Hinata had just begun to rise again to their feet once again after their fourth senbon attack. There were now many more senbon sticking out of their bodies and they both were panting heavily from chakra deprivation.

"Why do you keep asking the same damn question over and over again?" Naruto retorted back. "How long is it going to take you to realize that we're not going down?"

Haku truthfully didn't know anymore how long it was going to take. He was running out of chakra, the one drawback that came with his special jutsu. He could feel himself getting slower and slower. Hinata actually came very close to escaping, and Haku needed to grab her arm and toss her back in so she wouldn't escape. They had been more resilient than Haku had ever imagined.

Naruto stood at full height, trying to formulate another plan, but nothing could pop into his head. Everything he had tried has ended in failure. Each angle he had tried, each jutsu he had attempted was quickly countered and swung back at them. He really wished that Shikamaru was here. He would have been able to figure something out.

Hinata was not fairing as well as the either Naruto or Haku. She didn't have as much chakra as Naruto to spare and her stamina wasn't nearly as well developed as his. She knew that she was being a hassle again, just like she always has. Through her whole life she has held back both Sasuke and Naruto. She had expected them to kick her out of the group in a matter of days, but they still let her come along. No, they welcomed her. They thought of her as a friend and protected her. Well she was fed up with it. She made a vow that she will never hold back anyone again. With a bit of a struggle, she also stood to her feet and looked up at Haku defiantly.

"Naruto is right. You can't beat us, no matter how hard you try. No matter what happens, we'll always get back up and keep on trying," Hinata said, feeling more courageous than she had ever been in her entire life.

"Then this time you won't get up!" Haku shouted, jumping out of his mirror at them in full speed. She realized in horror that he was heading right toward Naruto, but only she could see it with her Byakugan. Naruto wouldn't be able to see it coming before it was too late.

"Naruto!" Hinata cried, pushing the blonde out of the way of the attack. When Naruto was out of the way she looked up and saw that instead of Naruto now, Haku was heading straight for her. Haku let the senbon in his hands fly. Hinata stood firmly as each of the senbon that had been thrown sank deep into her neck and chest. Suddenly, her body felt a whole lot heavier, and everything around her began to spin.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled, looking at Hinata sway on her feet. He barely had enough time to catch her before she fell to the ground. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was coming out slowly and softly.

"Speak to me, Hinata!" Naruto yelled, shaking Hinata in his arms. "You've got to wake up!" Naruto felt a sudden wave of relief when he saw her eyelids flicker open the slightest bit. He gasped in surprise when he saw her eyes though. Instead of the blank eyes of the Byakugan that he was used to seeing, her eyes were now normal, violet colored eyes. Hinata smiled up at him when she saw his surprise.

"You look so different, Naruto-kun," Hinata said before going into a fit of coughing. "It's funny, I feel like it's a lot easier to see you now without my Byakugan…."

"What's wrong with your eyes, Hinata?" Naruto asked. "Why did they change to purple?"

"…The Byakugan is sealed, Naruto," Hinata replied in an unusually calm voice. "I'm dying."

Naruto gasped and grabbed Hinata's hitae-ate and threw it away. He shook his head in disbelief when he saw that the caged bird seal that was on her forehead was glowing green, but with every passing moment the light was getting dimmer and along with it the seal.

"…You shouldn't have saved me," Naruto said, biting back the tears in his eyes. "You don't deserve to die here!"

"Neither do you," Hinata said, putting a hand on Naruto's cheek. "I made a promise to myself that I would help you achieve your goals of becoming Hokage. I always felt so horrible that I couldn't help you. I wasn't strong enough to train with you and I couldn't teach you any jutsu to help you get closer to your goal. Now, I've finally been able to fulfill my promise."

"There are more important things than me becoming Hokage!" Naruto yelled angrily.

"I know. I suppose I did it because…I later promised to protect you no matter what, just like you've always protected me. I'm glad that I have finally been of use to you though, Naruto-kun. I'm sorry that…I can't be there when you become Hokage."

"Don't say that, Hinata-chan," Naruto pleaded.

"I'm sorry...Naruto-kun…" said closing her eyes. "And thank you for making me happy…"

Hinata's hand suddenly fell to the ground, and Naruto felt his heart suddenly stop. Naruto couldn't speak, couldn't breath, he couldn't even cry now. He suddenly felt empty inside. Hinata had died protecting him. She shouldn't have died though…She was too young. She had never hurt one person in her entire life. She was too pure to die. He should have protected her! But he couldn't.

I wasn't strong enough, Naruto thought to himself, punching the ground in frustration and sorrow. I couldn't stop this from happening. I'm just too weak…

You're right…you are too weak…

Naruto opened his eyes in shock, but found that there was no other person around him besides Haku, who was looking silently down at both Naruto and Hinata's dead body. But Naruto didn't pay attention to Haku. For some reason, all he wanted to know was where that voice had come from. It was the first time he had ever heard the voice, but Naruto couldn't help but think that it sounded vaguely familiar. But he could already tell that it wasn't friendly. It was...dark. And powerful.

Am I going crazy? What's happening…who was that? Naruto asked himself in his thoughts.

Your better half, the voice said once again, speaking out of nowhere. Naruto's eyes dashed around the area. He looked up to Haku to see if he too was looking around for the voice, but he made no sign of hearing anything. You're right you know, the voice continued, causing Naruto to become more fearful of this new power he sensed. She shouldn't have died. She was such a pure person. And you couldn't save her because in the end, you were just too weak.

Stop it! I'm sorry, Naruto pleaded. I tried my best.

But it wasn't good enough, was it? You want revenge don't you? You want to tear that kid apart for taking your precious Hinata away from you… Don't try and deny it. I know you better than you think, Uzumaki Naruto. Come now, do you want to see this boy suffer for what he did to Hinata?

…Yes, Naruto thought, clenching his fist in rage, not noticing that instead of normal, human hands, they had begun to change into what looked more like claws of a wild beast. He deserves to die for what he did! He had no right to kill her!

Then let go, the voice said. Let me help you and we can kill this whelp together! Just say so, and you will be able to do anything that you desire!

You're…the Kyuubi, aren't you?

It's a pleasure, Uzumaki Naruto. Now, will you accept my power? Do you want to avenge your poor little Hinata-chan?

…Yes…

Then let me show you what true power is, boy.

Slowly, red chakra suddenly began to pool out of Naruto. Haku, who had just gotten back inside his mirrors, was now looking at the blond in half horror and half amazement. He could tell it was the same energy as before from the battle at the lake. The energy had already nearly healed all of Naruto's wounds and the senbon that were embedded in his body had started to fall to the ground. But there was something different this time, Haku could tell. This energy was much stronger this time. And it was…wicked. He could feel the bloodlust coming from the energy, the killing intent nearly froze his insides.

"I'm going to rip you apart!" Naruto suddenly shouted, carefully setting Hinata's body onto the ground. With an inhuman yell, the red energy surrounding Naruto shot upwards like a rocket and broke through the ice mirror like a baseball through glass. Haku's mouth fell agape. No one had been able to break his ice mirrors before, not even Zabuza. To do so would be…inhuman.

Haku looked back down at Naruto in horror as shards from the broken mirror fell to the ground. Then Naruto looked up at him, and Haku knew what true fear was. The younger boy's eyes had turn blood red and his hands had become sharp like claws. Even the whisker marks on his face had changed. They looked wild and feral, giving Naruto's appearance an even more frightening look.

"Wha…what are you?" Haku asked.

"I'm going the one who's going to kill you…" Naruto leapt forward from his place beside Hinata and toward Haku. The fake hunter nin teleported quickly to another mirror before his previous one was broken into shards by Naruto like it was nothing more than a glass mirror. Slowly, Naruto turned around and faced the mirror that Haku had teleported to, and sneered savagely after seeing the look of fear on his face.

"I can't defeat this! This is too much, Haku thought in a panic. I…I can't win!"

Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Zabuza simultaneously turned their head, looking around in all directions. Shikamaru was looking around in fear. He had never felt anything like this before. It was inhuman. Insane! He had never been able to sense chakra energy before, and now he could nearly taste it in the air. He suddenly raised his arms as a powerful air blast nearly knocked him off his feet. What the hell was going on!?

"Is this some kind of trick, Kakashi?" Zabuza asked, looking directly at the Copy Nin, though he had already turned into a more defensive stance.

"Trust me, I only wish I could pull something like this off," Kakashi said still trying to find the source of where the energy was coming from. This was the most energy he had felt in one place for the last twelve years. The last place time he felt something like this was…

"Look!" Shikamaru yelled. Kakashi and Zabuza both looked in the direction that Shikamaru was pointing and opened their eyes wide. Red energy had completely covered the inside of a circle of floating blocks of ice and a lot of it was leaking over the blocks. All of them were too far away to see what was happening, but Kakashi knew right away.

No! This can't be! The seal has been opened. Not completely, but still cracked. This is bad, Kakashi thought, whipping out a summoning scroll and smearing it with a long line of blood from his thumb.

"That's coming from where Naruto and Hinata were fighting Haku," Shikamaru said, not paying attention to Kakashi at all.

"Shikamaru, stay where you are! Don't get close to that energy. I'll handle it. As for you Zabuza, I'm sorry that I can't play some more but I have some more important issues to attend to. Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu!" Kakashi drilled the scroll into the ground and a small circle of black writing surrounded him.

Zabuza was now once again looking straight at Kakashi with a smirk on his face. He had begun to worry slightly when he had heard Kakashi speak the summoning jutsu, but it was obvious that it had ended in a total and utter failure. Nothing had changed at all around Kakashi. Zabuza roared in anger and surprise as several dogs of many different sizes jumped out of the ground and attacked him. Before he could do anything, the dogs had him trapped and he couldn't shake them off, no matter how hard he tried. The particularly large bulldog on his shoulder bit down harder when he started to squirm and Zabuza could literally hear his shoulder braking.

"Always over confident, even at the very end," Kakashi said standing back to his full height. "Too bad you didn't know that I could summon my Nin Hounds under ground. Of course, it's too bad for you. For me, it's perfect."

Shikamaru looked around and saw that the mist around them had begun to disappear from around them. He could already see everything better than he had before.

"Now Zabuza, let's finish this once and for all!" Kakashi said, as he focused all his chakra toward his arm. "With the only jutsu that I have that isn't a copy. My jutsu!"

Cliff hanger, just the way I like it. Naruto's out of control against Haku and Kakashi has Zabuza right where he wants him. But will they be able to defeat both of them that easily? Find out next chapter.

Sorry people, but time's up. All suggestions for jutsu for both Zabuza and Haku are now done. But although that is true, I'm still accepting ideas for other shinobi. Remember, the Chunin Exams are just around the corner, and I have big plans for it. Ideas for jutsus will be appreciated. Well, until next time viewers.

Explanation time: I'm just going to clear up a couple of things. Compared how he is now, Naruto is not more powerful than he was when he fought Sasuke after he defected from Konoha. In the American anime at least (don't know about manga or Japanese version) Zabuza said that Naruto's power was stronger than Kakashi's, but I found that hard to believe. So I'm going to put my own twist on things. The power coming out of Naruto is indeed more powerful than either Kakashi or Zabuza, but Naruto's body cannot handle that much chakra all at once. So in other words, the chakra flows out of his body instead of staying inside so he doesn't explode with energy. So Naruto is probably mid to high Chunin rank power at most right now. So now that we've got that cleared up, on to writing the next chapter!

New Jutsu

Ikazuchi Yari no Jutsu (Thunder Spear Jutsu) - A mid level lightning attack named after the loud explosion that follows the attack. It is the lightning element equivalent to the Gokakyu no jutsu (Great Fireball Jutsu). With the addition of more chakra, the attack can become more damaging.
Inspired by Uwe Dierks, a very loyal reviewer of mine. Thanks!