Author's Note: After this chapter, I'll finally be finished with the Land of Waves arc and done with what I consider to be the complete prologue for this story. Anyways, thanks to everyone who has been reading this story so far because it's kind of cool to think that someone's interested in the going-ons in this story as almost all of my stories usually bomb after a chapter or two. Now to reply to a few reviews, to ZaBuchar on Naruto's chakra: pretty much he can use it without any real danger to his own life because it's actually his chakra (he is a kitsune so it's not like he's drawing it from another). To Bassclone: Kaname's name is actually my way of paying homage to two of my favorite captains, Zaraki Kenpachi and Tōsen Kaname. Well now that little bit of joy expression is out of the way, time for the chapter.

"I…" indicates speech.

'I…' indicates inner thought.

"I..." indicates Kyuubi is speaker.

Chapter 9: Precious, Part II

"Naruto!" Hinata screamed in horror as she watched the fox's body getting peppered with a good twenty needles inside Haku's prison of mirrors and ice. Even with how powerful Naruto was becoming, even with his inhumanly fast healing ability, the boy was still brought to his knees by such a brutally effective move. After all, Haku knew where to throw the needles to cause the most damage to an opponent even despite her somewhat peaceful nature.

"Heh; it looks like even the girl's little inspirational figure is no match for Haku." Zabuza taunted almost merrily as he and Anko locked blades again, the clang of metal on metal filling the air around the bridge. When he had seen the kid appear suddenly and destroy all of Haku's needles of ice without almost any effort, the missing-nin from Kiri had to admit that he had become a little worried about just how strong this boy was. Zabuza had already witnessed Naruto take on a slice of his sword almost full force only a week ago and he was already back up to fighting strength so he did not know what to expect. However, as it turned out not even the boy could stand up to the kind of beating that Haku could dish out. "I can't honestly say I'm surprised."

"Don't count him… or me… out just yet." Anko spat as she knocked Zabuza back for just a second with a strong kick to the side of his body. Immediately she followed up by quickly performing five handsigns, gathering her chakra into her hands. 'Boar, dog, bird, monkey, and ram.' Biting down on her thumb and letting the blood flow freely, Anko slammed her hand down onto the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

'I've gotta say, I never thought I'd really have a reason to use her again. It's been a while since I've actually fought anyone while I was working as the chuunin proctor. But if Zabuza really wants to go ahead and think of me as the snake, I might as well go ahead and give him a little more reason to do so.' Anko thought for a moment as a massive cloud of white smoke encircled her. From within the acrid white plume something was stirring, a beast truly worthy of a battle like this that she had not called on for nearly ten years now. It was one of the most powerful weapons she had in the arsenal she had 

'inherited' from the psychopathic bastard of a man who had once trained her and probably the only thing she was okay with tying her to her previous life of being his little test subject. So as the white cloud began to clear away and reveal the azure-scaled serpent she had summoned, Anko could not help but smirk a little.

"Do you like her?" She asked in a twisted seductive voice as the last puff of smoke blew away. "She's a little gift I picked up from my ex-master before I went back to the Leaf, a baby Kyodaija that will one day grow maybe even as big as this bridge before she reaches maturity."

Zabuza's eyes went wide as he saw the massive monster of a snake that the jonin standing across from him had summoned. It was a gargantuan snake at least fifteen feet long and a good two feet thick at her thickest point, a beast of a reptile with scales the color of the same blue waters deep below the bridge. Curled up around her body like one gigantic set of vines, the coral blue serpent was a menacing looking fiend with a pointed head that stared at Zabuza's unmoving body coldly and flatly, watching him as though it was already picturing what he might taste like. Such an ice cold pair of slits for eyes sent a bitter shiver from the base of his neck all the way down his back to the very base of his spine. "Her name is Bara, the Blue Rose." Anko's voice rang in his ears as he stared at the beastly creature.

"End him." Anko whispered as the serpent slowly slithered up until its head was even with her own.

(I)

On the other side of the bridge, Naruto was struggling to climb to his feet once again. Due to Haku's nearly instantaneous method of attack, his body had been impaled by her senbon needles already close to thirty times and he still had no idea of how to possibly defend against the wickedly powerful ice manipulator. Thanks to his sense of smell, he could at least tell where she was when she was in one of the mirrors but she was jumping so ridiculously fast between each one of the twenty one sheets of ice it was confusing his nose and making it impossible for him to pinpoint her. So his mind raced desperately through all possible means of defense or attack he could muster, he just had to sit back and take each and every one of the agonizing attacks head on. And as Haku was a master at finding the best point to attack to put him down, even his advanced healing factor was becoming nothing more than a useless gesture.

'Damnit! Even if I were to try and escape the dome instead of fighting her, she's moving so fast that she could knock me back into the center of it before I made it out.' Naruto grimaced as another salvo of the razor sharp needles shot into his legs and arms. Already his body was becoming heavier and heavier as his blood fell freely onto the ground beneath him. 'I can't see her when she attacks because she's going too fast and there are too many mirrors to pinpoint her scent. Wait a minute, eliminate a few of the mirrors and I'll be able to find her easier or even drive her into a corner!'

Over his head, a flash of forest green and beige shot across the dome and peppered his exposed back with another ten needles, each and every one of them sending sharp waves of pain directly up and down his nervous system.

"Naruto!" Hinata shouted in fear again from just outside the prison of ice, her pupil-free eyes filled with a gripping fear that the boy she had always loved was going to be killed today.

"Stay back, Hinata!" He called out, holding his hand out to tell her to stop from trying to come in and rescue him. Even if he hadn't exactly been the brightest student in the Academy, Naruto wasn't stupid. If Hinata were to try and come in here, she would be welcoming her own death and that was not something he was anywhere close to being ready to accept, especially not so he could live. However, if he didn't do something soon he would be six feet deep and that would leave Haku to take her and Kaname out before killing Tazuna as well. So as his eyes darted back and forth across the twenty one mirrors in front of him, each one showing him Haku but without telling him whether she was real or illusion, he began to focus and think on how to beat the Kiri assassin. 'All that she's using is basic ice so if I can figure out a way to get rid of the ice, then no more mirrors… Fire!'

A sly smile crept across Naruto's face, giving way for the tiniest stream of his blood to roll down from the edges of it. The mirrors were made of ice so with enough fire, he could take them all down quickly and hopefully catch Haku up in the blaze as well. And thanks to the training he had done for the last week involving his shadow clones, he had the perfect blaze waiting.

Ever since Jiraiya had told him about just what he was, he had been thinking about the Kyuubi's power more and more. It was said to have been the Queen of the Bijuu, the true ruler of all demons because of its near limitless chakra and strength according to all the books he had received in the Academy. However, that didn't tell him a thing as to what he really was, just that he might have some fabled amount of power when he really began to become like his biological mother. So, in the brief hour between when he met Tazuna and when they left the village, he had asked his grandfather himself what he knew about the Kyuubi. The sannin's answers were mostly the same as everyone else's; it was a demon after all and they were not known for associating with the world of humans. However, he had told Naruto at least one good, important fact Naruto had never heard before: the Kyuubi was the embodiment of elemental fire. That meant that he was, too.

So with that knowledge in the back of his head, he had begun to experiment and train over the last week on a epically large amount of fire manipulation using what he knew about the fireball technique and his own shadow clones in-between training with Hinata on his chakra control and how to combine them without simply having clones performing the Goukakyu no Jutsu. He had wanted something that would provide the clones with a way to attack using a fire-based style but at the same time be able to defend themselves so they would not be dispelled as easily as his shadow clones. In the dead of night in the forest outside of Tazuna's house, he had thought long and hard on just how to accomplish his task and finally it came to him. The result was the first single jutsu that he had created himself. The problem though was the fact he had not had a chance to really test it out in a battle, not wanting to injure anyone. So now, Haku's mirrors were going to be his first real test subjects.

"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to try and defend yourself." Haku's cold and emotionless voice called twenty one times from all around him, unaware of what he was planning.

"Tell you what; I'll answer that question if you answer one for me first." Naruto replied simply with a forced chuckle, forcing himself to stand up fully straight despite the needles that were embedded deeply into his legs and back and the blood that was flowing from his body. For what he was about to do, he needed enough time to properly think and gather his chakra because, despite how much he had trained over the last week, he hadn't really finished up his studies on this new jutsu. It was complex at the very least and potentially deadly for both him and his opponent at the most so he had to make sure that he could figure everything out first. And if he could get this young girl from Kirigakure talking for 

even a minute, then he knew he could finish up his little plan. So as he began to gather as much chakra as he could from the deep wellspring within him, he said the only thing that was really on his mind regarding this girl. "Why exactly are you following someone like Zabuza? Even if you have a kekkai genkai, there are other villages beside the Mist that would have been proud to have as skilled of a ninja as you in them so why stick with a psycho like him?"

Haku hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether or not to answer someone who was a complete stranger. She had not spoken about her life before Zabuza to anyone since she had been responsible for her own father's death; not even her own master knew the deep dark secrets she kept locked away in her adolescent mind. After he found her on the street, it was as though he was kind enough or simply smart enough not to ask about the first eight years of her life. After all, she had been a starving street urchin with a kekkai genkai so it was clear that something was not right in her life but he had never pressed the issue. However, if she was about to kill this young boy and his friends because Zabuza had asked it of her, a part of her wanted to be honest with him and just face her past for once. What would it hurt? "…When I was younger… I lost my family." Her voice took on a sad tone that he had not expected from someone who seemed so emotionless. "For a long time, I was forced to live out on the street even though I was only a child. Zabuza found me and… he saved me from what might have been. He gave me a purpose and reason to live… and I'm not going to forget that, despite whatever the world may think of him."

"So you became his 'weapon'." Naruto responded. Unlike most people's definition of the word, to a member of Kirigakure no Sato that word took on a meaning that inspired both fear and awe. A weapon was a ninja with a bloodline limit who dedicated him or herself solely to his or her master or to the village itself. Growing up in Kiri, Naruto had heard the word spoken in his schooling as a term of fear and hatred used to describe the kekkai genkai ninja of other lands who had helped to decimate Kiri and the Land of Waves during the Third Shinobi War. To call Haku such a term was something ominous and highly symbolic.

"…Yes. I became his weapon because he became my family…" She murmured. "He is my precious person."

Listening to her speak with such an open honesty to him like that, Naruto's mind became distanced from the reason he had got her talking as his eyes slowly glanced back to Hinata's unsure form standing beyond the veil of ice. Instead of focusing on how he was going to beat the ice-manipulator he was thinking about the relationships he was becoming involved in more and more each day. Even though it had only been about two weeks now since he had really begun to talk to her and become her friend, she was becoming someone he truly cared about. She was precious to him just like Zabuza was precious to Haku. Taking his mind off of Haku for a second, Naruto thought back to the previous evening and let every little detail come to him again; the smell of her fragrant lilac skin to the warmth that had emanated from her when he pulled her against him and especially the sense of… of peace and calm that she had filled him with as they had sat there and watched the moon. For him, those memories were precious and he would do anything to protect the person who had made them with him.

"Your… precious person…" Naruto replied in a voice of hallowed contemplation, watching Hinata out of the corner of his eye as she looked on at their battle.

"Does that satisfy your curiosity, Naruto?" Haku asked after a moment as her voice returned to its placid and uncaring tenor, noticing Naruto's crimson glowing eyes as they moved back to watch the 

young girl he was protecting. As she watched him from behind the porcelain of her mask, a part of her wished that Zabuza would just once show the same level of… of concern and caring in his eyes that she saw in this blonde-headed genin's. She didn't know what Naruto's story was or why he cared so much but she felt a kindred spirit burning within him, hidden just beneath the surface behind a pair of fiery red eyes.

"Yeah it does; and thanks for telling me the truth." Naruto replied simply as he brought his gaze back up to the mirror directly in front of him. Even though his mind might have gotten sidetracked with thoughts of Hinata while talking to the Kiri assassin, his instinctual brain had already formulated the best plan and worked everything out. Bringing up his face in a calm and confident smirk, Naruto stared directly into the mirror in front of him with an ice-cold and almost over-confident stare as he readied himself. Gathering all the chakra he could, his hands began to glow so faintly with a rose red veil that covered them just barely enough to be noticed. Without even giving his opponent a word of warning, Naruto's hands went into the familiar cross sign that he used when creating his shadow clones. "However, I'm not going to let you kill my friends just because you are trying to protect him. Though I can't deny I've killed people myself, I know that murder is not how you protect those closest to you. So I'm not letting you kill them."

"You don't realize something, Naruto; neither of them have the slightest chance of beating me. Nor do you." Haku responded coldly, still unaware of what he had planned.

"That's where you're wrong." His body immediately swirled with red chakra as he spoke those four words. "KATON: NENSHOU BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

From outside the dome, Hinata watched in terrible awe at just what was taking place before her eyes. Instead of Naruto standing alone and injured in the center of the icy prison, the kitsune was now surrounded by nine clones that all looked more like a pack of horrifying monsters than the boy she secretly loved. Wearing ripped and burnt versions of the orange jumpsuit he was famous for back home, they each looked like the hounds of hell come to earth. Each one of them was the same size and build as Naruto but their skin was not like that of a normal being; it was dark gray like charcoal but there were little cracks that went up and down the bodies of each and every clone. Those little hairline cracks in their skin revealed a shocking and equally disturbing sight: the glow of crimson beneath the fractured skin. It was as if their bodies were burning inside and the skin that covered them was nothing more than a layer of molten rock that was ready to break open at any moment. However, all of this paled in comparison to the one thing that really got her attention more than anything else: their eyes.

The eyes of these nine... these nine burning clones as the technique had called them were nothing like Naruto's sparkling irises. Instead of a bright and vibrant sky blue or even the fierce red she had seen resting in his forehead, their eyes were hollow and empty sockets with the same crimson glow emanating from them like the cracks on their bodies. As she stared, she couldn't help but be afraid of these things that Naruto had summoned. Just what the hell were they?

"Haku. I'll give you one chance to stop this now and surrender. If you and Zabuza are willing to leave Tazuna alone for good, we'll be done here now." From the center of his circle of fiery clones, Naruto spoke with a more mature and adult voice than he had ever spoken with in his life. All through him, his body was healing and repairing itself as wave after wave of his kitsune chakra he had been gathering for his jutsu flowed freely at last. "Otherwise, I'm going to finish this; got it?"

"What… are those?" Haku asked as stunned as Hinata was as she stared at the ten clones. She knew the usual types of bunshin jutsu: shadow, water, sand and earth; but she had never heard or seen anything like what he had created. There was something almost sinister about these clones, something fierce and dark unlike the simple recreations that Zabuza created from the water. As she stared at the nine cracked and charcoal-colored faces from behind the safety of her porcelain mask and mirrors of ice, she felt a very unfamiliar shiver travel from the base of her spine all the way up her neck. The gripping fear of those creations she was seeing was something so base that she honestly didn't know how to react to them. This boy and his… creatures were truly and utterly terrifying.

"Hmm…" He smirked slightly as he thought about what he should call them. Though he had created this new jutsu and these were technically called burning clones, he had not really thought about a name for the technique. Yet as he stared at the mirrors, the perfect name came to him. "I guess you could call them… the Kyuubi."

"How… appropriate..." Haku replied, simply stunned.

"Ain't it?" Naruto's smirk grew a little more as he folded his arms over his chest. To Hinata it seemed as though he were shimmering and twisting like a mirage from where he stood in the midst of his nine fiery creations. She could already just barely feel the heat coming off of the clones from where she stood outside the ice dome, the tiniest little burn on the surface of her face like standing underneath the open sun for too long. Yet as she watched Naruto, she could not see the boy even barely flinch as he stood in the midst of what must have felt like a furnace to him. Was it a side-effect of his kitsune side or just his own personal determination in this fight, she wondered silently. "Now, I'll tell you what Haku. You give up and leave Hinata and everyone else alone and I promise to let you and Zabuza walk away from this bridge without another scratch."

"You make it sound like you have already won." Haku replied simply.

Hinata's eyes only caught the tiniest gleam of silver metal and tiniest flash of rose red for a moment before she realized what had happened. In the span of a split-second after she had finished talking, Haku had leapt from one of the mirrors to another, throwing what must have been an incredible amount of needles at each of the clones from almost every angle. The young Hyuga girl could tell this much by the amount of now molten-hot slag that peppered the ground all around the circle of ten clones, burning red hot like lava against the backdrop of the concrete of the bridge. Each of the needles had been so incredibly seared the moment they had broken through the skin of one of the clones that they were melted all the way through, leaving behind only Naruto's still unmoving form amidst a potential wildfire of his own creation.

"I-impossible!" Haku said, completely astounded at what she had seen.

"Fire melts steel. Steel, meet fire." Naruto said almost cheerfully as he sort of chuckled at his own juvenile humor. Hinata smiled inwardly as she watched him. With how he had been changing almost drastically into someone more mature and… and simply more adult than the boy she had silently watched everyday back in the Academy, a part of her was happy to see that he was still deep down the same knuckleheaded ninja that had defaced the entire Academy with lewd pictures of what Iruka-sensei might of looked like as a naked girl taped up throughout the grounds a year earlier with Kiba. It was good to see that he could still act his own age instead of acting like a… like a true ninja all the time. 

However, a moment later his face dropped back to the same seriousness it had held when he first summoned his beasts. "Now, surrender."

"I will not! I am Zabuza's weapon and I strike down what he commands me to."

"Then you leave me no choice… Just remember I gave you a chance. Katon." Katon, fire release; Haku could not help but feel that such a word was dead on for what she was seeing now as she watched from a second-level mirror to her prey's right side. The moment that the blonde-headed shinobi she had told her secrets to had spoken that single solitary word, they had done something she was not prepared for in a million years. Each one of the ashen nine had opened up their mouths, revealing a set of bloodthirsty fangs blackened by soot and ash. As they opened their maws, red hot fires had poured from their devil-like jaws like a ripple of destruction that traveled outwards from where it all gathered together. Had she not leapt from the mirror she had been standing in when he spoke and transported into the one directly above him, she knew that there was no way she could have survived an attack of that magnitude. The nine separate spheres of red flames tore through the lowest level of mirrors like tissue paper; the ice she had conjured dissipated instantly as though it were simple water and this scared the living hell out of her. No one that she had fought so far had managed to fully destroy her ice, because of her kekkai genkai the ice could stand up to almost anything; yet these… these monsters had utterly demolished them in a mere second.

A moment after the clones opened their twisted, ash-gray lips they closed them again, the flares dying away instantly with them. It was a truly horrifying sight to see.

"Haku, I know you're still alive because there are still mirrors standing so I'm giving you one last chance to get out while you still can. You can't win." Hinata watched wordlessly as the clones broke their circle around the kitsune and took up positions behind him. Instead of a prepubescent boy that liked to prank the Academy instructors standing there, something was unmistakably different about him and it thrilled and excited her. His eyes were once again a shade of blood red but they had lost the intensity and terror that had rested in them; Naruto looked purely serene despite the extremely destructive force he had just created. The Kyuubi child's whiskers and jaw were finely defined and the fangs on the sides of his mouth were displayed prominently as he stared at one of the mirrors. Around him, a thin layer of red chakra swirled, making it appear as the orange jumpsuit he was wearing was actually red. To her, as he stood against the backdrop of the ash-skinned demons he had created, he looked almost like some sort of… divinity. "You know you can't."

(I)

From the corner of her eye, Anko watched her inhuman student's battle with pure amazement. Because of the fact that no one, not the Sandaime Hokage or Jiraiya or anyone else, really knew much about the Kyuubi other than the fact it had been immensely powerful and it was the Queen of the Bijuu, they honestly did not know what to predict concerning Naruto's own personal strength. All she could do was sit back and just watch as he grew into a power no one would see coming.

A swift and deadly swing of Zabuza's zanbatō only inches over where her head had been a second earlier brought her mind back to her own fight as she rolled down to the ground to avoid being carved up. The swordsman had slowly been becoming increasingly desperate in his attack strategy as she and her pet continued to pressure him. Having to fight on two fronts against two completely 

different types of enemies was slowly wearing him down and she knew it wouldn't be long before she had him. She just had to keep holding on.

"So what was that about Naruto being killed?" Anko taunted openly as she quickly launched one of the shuriken in her sleeves at Zabuza. Behind him, Bara was slithering rapidly across the concrete bridge as she prepared to lunge again.

The butcher from Kiri just glared at her as he readied himself, his dark eyes glowing with pure and untamed anger like that of a wild beast. Panting heavily as he did so, the mist murderer swung his sword in a wide arc in front of him, deflecting her knife out of the way rapidly before he leapt out of range of Bara's fangs. Twisting in the air like a top, Zabuza spun around with his blade still in hand as he tried to slash down at her from midair. Having been prepared this time, Anko easily rolled to her left to avoid the massive cleaver and then planted her foot squarely against the side of the sword. From the force of her kick, Zabuza lost his grip on his weapon for the briefest of instants as he fell away from her but he quickly regained his balance and grabbed the blade again.

(I)

Naruto just stood there silently for a moment, the searing heat-wave from the nine behind him radiating off his skin as he waited for the young assassin's reply.

It came soon enough as Haku silently dropped from the mirror she had been hiding within, dropping to the ground without so much as a twitch through her body like a well-trained gymnast. As she landed, Naruto could finally smell her scent entirely instead of it being masked behind the indistinguishable odor of salt water. As much as Hinata's or Anko-sensei's individual aromas, Haku had a distinctly feminine fragrance to her that reminded him of hot green tea like his mom would sometimes make. However, it had been diluted and somewhat masked by the almost nauseating odor of dried blood, something that clung to her like a bad spirit as a reflection of the kind of life she had lived. As he was still coming to terms with his heightened senses and still learning more about just what he was becoming, it was still surprising to him to be able to almost taste the… the bouquet of peaceful tea and bloody murder that was emanating from her.

She stared at him for a moment before finally speaking, her voice still sounding rather hollow from behind the porcelain mask she wore. "I am sorry… but you and I both know that I cannot surrender without Zabuza."

"I'm not going to offer again." Naruto's voice was almost sad as he spoke that surefire omen that, even if his clones did not kill her, she would not be able to walk away from this battle unscarred if she turned away his chance for mercy. His eyes slowly faded from their intense crimson back to a more human shade of blue as he stared her down, his body easing up only slightly as he prepared for what might be their final exchange. Deep inside of him, the boy silently prayed that she was smart enough to just get out and leave Tazuna be because he really didn't want to have to hurt someone like her. It was one thing to end the life of a pair of sick bastards who wanted to hurt his friends in the worst possible way but to do something like what he did to them to a girl who had just been dealt a really shitty hand by whoever saw fit to run this universe. She didn't honestly deserve to be hurt or killed, despite the fact she was his enemy. So, he pleaded with her one last time to take his offer. "Please, just give up."

Watching the battle from the sidelines where she and Kaname still stood in front of Tazuna, Hinata could not help but feel even more admiration for Naruto as he stared down his opponent. She had seen him do… extraordinary things in the last two weeks since they had become teammates but this was something entirely different. He was showing care for someone's well-being and safety despite the fact had never even really met them. It was something that made her hold the kitsune child in an even greater level of regard than she already did. To her, he was proving more and more every day that he truly was something greater than a mere human.

Turning her attention to the Mist shinobi, Hinata patiently awaited her reply as well. However, Haku did not get the chance to answer this time.

Instead the only sound that was heard was metal hitting wood as a ship docked beneath them coupled with a loud and painful grunt from where Anko and Zabuza were dueling. Haku's eyes darted over immediately to her master as she heard him.

"Zabuza? ZABUZA!" Haku screamed as she broke away from Naruto and ran over to her master. The kitsune followed her frantic sprint with his eyes, the sight of Zabuza's body immediately a rather dark sight as it greeted his eyes. Instead of the powerful swordsman that instilled fears in a thousand different shinobi across the world, there was nothing more than a masked victim bleeding out on the hard concrete of the bridge. He was laying on his back with a single kunai stuck in his chest and snake bites running up and down his uncovered arms. Anko was just standing over him with a look of cold, calculating apathy as the snake that had bitten him curled up around her chest and body like a ridiculously long vine that was growing around her. Even to Naruto, who was slowly becoming more and more accustomed to the idea of having to take an opponent's life to win, her look seemed to be something purely inhuman… something purely monstrous.

"Right now, Zabuza, you are probably wondering what that dull burning sensation is in the pit of your stomach that is slowly creeping upward." Anko's words were darkly icy as she stared down at his body. Haku had lifted his head up and placed it upon her lap, gazing down at the swordsman from behind her mask. Zabuza was breathing heavily, each gasp labored and sounding almost agonizing to Naruto, a sign of his approaching demise. "Like other Kyodaija, Bara is a poisonous snake and what you are feeling are the effects of her venom. However, instead of simply poisoning you, what her venom does is slowly burn the inside of your throat as it works its way down your windpipe. Soon, your windpipe will be completely cracked and burned while the venom flows into your lungs and destroys them completely. Then, you will die."

"ZABUZA!" Haku was screaming as she watched her master, her ears just barely registering what Anko was saying.

Naruto's eyes were wide with an almost child-like shock as he looked upon the dying shinobi. The stench of blood and puke was emanating from him almost overpoweringly, making the kitsune boy feel nauseous as it filled his nostrils fully. All around them, the mist that Zabuza had conjured earlier was finally starting to fade as the Mist swordsman slowly began to lose his control over it, slowly revealing more and more of the seemingly endless stretch of concrete and steel back to the village they had all come from.

"Anko sensei?" The fox asked almost of sadness for what he was seeing, his eyes moving from Zabuza's pain-wrecked body to his emotionless instructor. She just turned to look at him without a word, her eyes revealing a 

side of her that he had not expected to see, a cold and battle-hardened side with eyes like those of a serpent. It was as if he were staring directly into the slit irises of her pet snake as the young instructor returned his gaze wordlessly for only a moment. However, she soon turned her attention back to her dying prey instead of him.

"Ha…ku…" Zabuza was choking now, gasping for breath as he slowly began to choke on his own fluids.

From behind the group, near the edge of the bridge, there came a distinctive clang of footsteps over metal that interrupted Zabuza's last few words as the man behind all the carnage stepped out onto the bridge. All heads whipped around to try and find out who it was that was coming towards them but the figure was still obscured by the mist. Yet, even without seeing the man dressed in the black suit, Naruto knew who it was immediately. He could hear the pompous steps and smell the almost overwhelming stench of corrupted wealth and power upon the small man before he made out the man's figure through the slowly fading mist. Once Gato finally cleared the fog, all Naruto could do was be amazed that such a miniscule little worm was responsible for all the pain and misery of this entire village, responsible for the murders of dozens or maybe even hundreds of men and yet the man wore a placid and almost pleasant smile on his face that could make a Shinigami cringe. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of thin, wireframe sunglasses that just made him look even more like a pompous slug than a man. Wearing a pressed black suit of fine fabric with a black leather-wrapped katana at his waist, Naruto could tell the man loved to flaunt his ill gotten wealth and probably thought himself to be some sort of warrior even though he was nothing more than a worthless cretin.

"Well what do we have here? A half-rate ninja from the Land of Fire who likes to interfere with my plans and three annoying little kids who just don't seem to understand their place in the world…"

Naruto felt his blood boil and his chakra spike as he listened to the slug's words. Behind him, a small army of mercenaries and thugs were slowly gathering, all of them blissfully overconfident in their own abilities. He knew the man to be Gato even without him saying so simply by the way he carried himself, like the bastard had such a value in the world whereas everyone else existed to serve his purposes. Curling his lips up to bear the edges of his fangs, the kitsune boy was already looking forward to making him suffer for all the pain he had caused. And if those men tried to get in Naruto's way, they would suffer the same fate as their boss for their involvement with him. "Zabuza, you disappoint me greatly; I would have thought you would be capable of taking care of such a small nuisance but apparently I was mistaken… I guess it's all for the best though."

The smile never leaving his face, the man peered down from Zabuza's soon-to-be lifeless form and to the swordsman's companion as though he were measuring her up.

"Gato, you bastard! You're going to suffer for all you've done to the village!" Tazuna spat these simple words, his hands clenching into two balled-up fists as he stared down the cretin of a crime boss with steeled eyes. Naruto could feel the righteous indignation burning from the bridge builder without even turning to look at him and could smell the sheer hatred directed by everyone in their group towards Gato. Even with the army that the mob-style corporation magnate had brought with him, the fox knew that Gato would not be walking away from this bridge even if they had to grow through each and every thug to do so.

"Tazuna, I have to admit you have been an annoying little thorn in my side for far too long." Gato sounded as smooth as silk as he spoke. However, his eyes never left Zabuza and Haku as though he were far more interested in the two hired assassins than the bridge builder or Team Nine. "For that, I will deal with you soon enough. However, before I do I have some unfinished business to deal with. Zabuza, it's a shame you have to die right now because I was going to take a large amount of pleasure in killing you personally for all your relentless failure. After all your disrespect to me, I was going to let you die a slow and agonizing death because, after all, no one would care if I killed a pair of rogue ninja. In fact, as long as they never found out about your employment to me, the rest of the ninja in Kirigakure would probably view me as a trusted friend for eliminating you permanently. Did you really expect me to ever pay you or your fee?"

"You son of a bitch!" Haku roared, preparing to stand up. However, before she could rush off and get the revenge that she and her master so rightfully deserved for this betrayal, Zabuza's hand shot up to her hand to stop her.

"St…and me… up…" Zabuza commanded, sounding sicker and sicker with every syllable that he spoke. Pulling her porcelain mask off for the first time in front of Team Nine, Haku stared directly at her master with a pleading gaze as she knelt at his side. Naruto was surprised by how young she really was; he knew she was a teenager but she looked like she was only a few years older than him or Hinata. Her face was pale like that of a phantom but with a sad and refined grace to it, a kind of calm and peace that the lethality of her life did not portray. For some reason, the look on her face reminded him of Hinata as though looking at her was like seeing what she might look like three years down the road.

After a moment, Haku finally agreed to his demand and helped Zabuza shakily stand to his feet. Even with Bara's poison working its way through his system causing him to slowly suffocate and die, the steeled swordsman's eyes still burned with a fiery anger that just emanated from him like pure chakra. Grabbing his Zanbatō from the ground, he unsteadily used it as a walking stick as he began to slowly hobble his way toward Gato. Haku stood up as though she was going to follow him but he simply held his hand up to stop her, as though he was silently telling her that this was his battle and his opportunity for revenge considering Gato's unmerited betrayal. Across from him, the crime lord just smiled on with his sickening little smile as though he were completely unafraid of Zabuza even despite all the people man had fought and killed in his short life. Watching him slowly walk across the stretch of empty concrete toward Gato, Naruto felt a cool shiver run up his spine as he felt what remained of Zabuza's chakra spike up; he at least had some fight left in him before he died.

"G-Gato, no… one st…stabs me in the… back." He was about forty feet away when the Demon of the Hidden Mist finally spoke again. Continuing his slow dirge of a march toward the crime boss, Zabuza forced himself to stand up straight and walk without his sword as a crutch, holding it back over his shoulder as though he were preparing to swing.

"Oh Zabuza, my stupid little assassin; just what do you think you can do about it? You can hardly stand and it looks like you'll just be another corpse in a few minutes so you must know that you have no chance of beating back my guards to get to me." Every time Gato opened his mouth and spoke in that damn sickeningly silky voice of his Naruto wanted to end him that much more; no one who had caused as much suffering as he had merited the right to talk with such an ease. "If it's a quicker death you're wanting though, I'll be more than willing to oblige you. I swear you won't suffer much more; all you have to is ask me. Just go ahead and get down on your knees and say 'Gato, please end my pain' and I'll take care of you so you don't have to suffer any longer."

Zabuza stopped walking, now only about ten feet away from Gato who was standing in front of his guards with that same sadistic smile on his worm-like face. Despite how far he had made it already, the swordsman knew he would die very soon. It was getting harder and harder for him to draw a single breath as his lungs were slowly being destroyed with each and every gasp he made. He knew he would die surely so why bother dying in such pain, why not take up Gato's offer and just die? Thus with dark and hate-filled look burning in his eyes, Zabuza slowly sank to his knees as he stared down the crime lord.

"Gato… please… end… my p…pain." He breathed almost noiselessly, the dark glimmer never once leaving his face.

"My, what a good little dog you are, Zabuza. And here I thought you would never learn to do what's best for you." Gato stepped away from his guards with a bold look on his face, so completely sure of his own victory over the ninja he had betrayed. When he was only a foot away from Zabuza, he drew the katana he had tied to his waist and held it over his head as he prepared to kill the true swordsman as he said he would.

Naruto couldn't help but smirk a little at what he saw; it was good to see that the rich and powerful were just as stupid as everyone else sometimes. He had to fight back the urge to chuckle as he watched Zabuza leap up from where he knelt, using the very last bit of his strength to get off the ground and then swing his Zanbatō around, taking the vile magnate's head with it. As he collapsed to the ground, drained of the last ounce of life by his one final act of vengeance, the swordsman just stared at Gato's headless body as it fell limply to the ground. The crime lord was dead.

"He's killed the boss! He's killed the fucking boss!"

"Anko-sensei?" Naruto asked, not even turning to face his instructor as his hands shot into that classic cross-shape in front of his chest.

"Do what you have to, Naruto." Anko replied coldly, turning back towards Kaname, Hinata and Tazuna.

Haku looked back as she spoke, her eyes immediately illuminating with understanding of what he was about to do. These men, they were responsible for sending her and her master on this mission which meant to her that they were responsible for Zabuza's unwarranted death. To naruto, Team Nine's mission wasn't over as long as the villagers and Tazuna in particular were still in danger and Gato's men just being around would continue to put them in danger. Her hands quickly performing signs of their own, Haku just stood up fully to join him.

"Tajuu: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Author's Note: Well there you go. I'm finally done with this chapter a week after I thought I would be. You can thank writer's block combined with a mixture of putting in my time at work and a little bit of distraction thanks to my 360 for the delays. Anyways, I've already begun working on the next chapter, mostly in my head but with some of the ideas I've got already down on my hard drive. Expect it up probably within two to three weeks at the most, less if I get some serious free time to myself. Hope you enjoyed this one meanwhile. Review honestly and I'll see you all next time. Peace.