Hello again! I bring with me chapter ten and the fight between Haku, Naruto, and Sasuke. I hope you all enjoy the chapter!
(Marshalanime does not own Naruto)
Running through town as fast as his legs could carry him the sound of Inari's feet hitting the wooden path echoed could be clearly herd. "Naruto and the others are fighting, risking their lives while we do nothing. We've gotta fight too!" Naruto said to himself. He had one goal in mind and he wouldn't stop until it was complete.
"Rasengan!" as the word left Naruto's mouth the powerful attack collided with the ice mirror, tearing through it and hitting the bridge below. It would've taken too much time to reenter the mirror and so to avoid being torn apart Haku leaped forward, rolling out of the way.
"Wh-What in the world was that?" Tazuna asked in disbelieve as they not only saw the destructive power of the rasengan but felt the shock-wave that spread out through the bridge.
"I... I don't know..." Sakura told the man after a moment, her eyes wide at the display. 'Since when, could Naruto do that?' the pinket wondered to herself.
Maintaining the barrier of golden chains around them Honoka looked on with a smirk. When she had met Kushina and Naruto the boy was in the process of learning the jutsu. It took him months but Naruto finally had the ability to use his father's jutsu.
"That jutsu, isn't it...?" Zabuza openly wondered as he watched the dust cloud slowly drift away.
'So, master Jiraiya has already taught him the rasengan. Looks like Sakura and Sasuke are going to have to up their training if they don't want to fall behind' Kakashi thought with a small smile hidden behind his mask. Looking back to Zabuza the silver haired jounin said "I take it this is the first time you've seen the rasengan".
"Why would a brat like that know the Fourth Hokage's jutsu!?" Zabuza demanded as his head shot back around to glare daggers at Kakashi. First it's the other brat who turns out to have the sharingan and now this?
"It's quite simple really, similarly to how the sharingan is Sasuke's birthright it could also be said that the rasengan is Naruto's" Kakashi told him and watched with a bit of amusement as the information sunk in for Zabuza.
"No... It can't be..." the man muttered. 'I had heard that the Fourth Hokage had had a son before he died, that would mean that... DAMN IT! We underestimated those brats!' Zabuza thought to himself before charging Kakashi. If they wanted to make it out of here alive they had to deal with them quickly.
'It's him...' Haku thought as she remained in the kneeling position she'd rolled into, staring at the blond as she recalled their encounter from the previous day. 'That strength... Yes, I can see your determination, your desire to protect those you care for' she thought as she watched Sasuke run out of her ice mirror dome through the opening Naruto had provided.
"So how long have you known that?" Sasuke asked, opting for this over thanking the blond for the save.
Naruto was going to answer that but one look at Sasuke had the blond telling him "What the hell happened to you? You look like you got your ass beat".
"Ghaa, shut it!" the Uchiha told him. Just because he slipped up a little doesn't mean he needs Naruto to point it out.
With Sasuke out of her jutsu there was no longer a need to have the ice mirrors up, they'd just eat away at her chakra if she left them. With a quite hand sign the girl released the jutsu, resulting in the mirrors cracking and falling to the ground before shattering into tiny particles of water and ice.
As the mirror fell down the mist rapidly grew thicker and thicker, to the point that it was difficult to see your own hand in front of your face. 'Zabuza is moving forward with the plan. I mustn't lose ground here' Haku thought as she pulled out more of her senbon.
Moving so their backs were pressed against on another as the mist thickened the two teens scanned the area for any possible attacks. "So, what'd I miss?" Naruto asked as he strained his eyes to see anything at all.
"Zabuza and Kakashi are are facing off while Sakura and Honoka protect Tazuna, but..." Sasuke was saying when his ears picked up on the sound of something cutting through the air. Pushing Naruto down the two of them rolled out of the way as a volley of senbon flew by. "The fake tracker from before is more than just show. She's got a kekkei genkai that manipulates ice and if we're not careful we're dead" Sasuke warned the blond as they laid low.
Looking around Naruto grew frustrated with his inability to see anything. "Ghaa! Then what do we do? We can't even tell were she is" Naruto told the Uchiha as Sasuke continued to scan the immediate aria with his sharingan even if it barely gave him an edge over Naruto in this situation.
'With the mist being this thick the sharingan is useless, and even the most powerful jutsu wont help if you can't hit your opponent' Haku thought to herself as she waited in the mist for the slightest of sounds to tell her where Sasuke and Naruto were. Picking up on the distinct sound of kunai moving through the air Haku pinpointed where the two were. 'Blindly lashing out wont help you' the girl thought to herself as one of the throwing knifes passed by her head.
Moving silently the young woman descended on the two konoha genin who were once more standing back to back. This time they were slowly moving in a circle and throwing kunai out into the mist. 'I'll end this now' Haku thought with senbon in hand as she came up on the pair. Throwing her arms out Haku sent the needles flying, puncturing the two precisely where she wanted.
As the sound of their bodies hitting the floor reached her ears Haku turned to go and help Zabuza. That is until the sound of popping came from their position. 'Clones? A distraction!' Haku thought as she looked back over her shoulder. Moving in time Haku managed to avoid the giant ball of fire that engulfed the immediate area.
After coming to a stop Haku pulled out a single senbon, readying herself for any possible attack they may launch. 'They threw kunai not to hit me, but to lure me into a trap. So, they've already figured it out. We're not using our eyes to fight but our ears' Haku concluded. 'Forgive me Zabuza, I may not be able to help you in your fight' the girl thought to herself.
'Those two should be able to handle themselves, but still...' Kakashi's thoughts went to Naruto and Sasuke as he contemplated what his next move should be. With Honoka's barrier in place Tazuna should be safe from Zabuza attacks, giving him the option of aiding Naruto and Sasuke, but Zabuza would know that. If he just ran off without a plan then he'd risk putting them in even more danger by dragging Zabuza into their fight.
If that's the case he'll just have to finish things up with Zabuza first. Pulling a scroll from on of the pockets on his vest Kakashi tossed it into the air as he swiped a bit of blood from the gash Zabuza had left on his chest from the beginning of their fight. Catching the scroll Kakashi smoothly unraveling it with a swift motion of his hand before smearing his blood along the inside of the parchment.
"Zabuza, I don't mean to spoil your fun, I know how you like to stretch these things out, but how about we put an end to this now?" Kakashi asked into the thick mist as he twirled the unraveled scroll around his body. Finishing up the man tossed the scroll into the air in such a way that it rolled itself up before landing on a hand sign he'd formed. "Come on, what do you say? We're both busy people" Kakashi said.
"Hm, tempting. I'm wondering how you intend to back up such brave words. Show me Kakashi!" Zabuza's voice rang out from the mist.
Taking out another clone Haku was beginning to grow tired of this. After their first plan failed to catch her off guard they had moved on to flooding the area with shadow clones, utilizing the memory transferring ability they had to pinpoint her location every time she fought and defeated one. Every time one popped she'd have to move away quickly before being overwhelmed with many more clones. With all the noise they were making it was near impossible to tell the original from the others. The mist, while it hid her presence, was becoming a hindrance.
As she was working out what her next move should be Haku heard Naruto call out the name of his attack, the one that had destroyed her ice mirror, only this time she heard it from two different sources. Immediately after hearing him Haku was nearly blown over by the shock-wave that escaped the collision. As a result of this shock-wave the mist surrounding the teens was blown back and revealed to Haku what had happened. A short distance away she could two clones, each with its own rasengan. They had clashed their attacks and used the enormous power within that clash to blow away the mist.
"Found you!" Haku heard as the clones around her rushed to her location. She had already been surrounded while this mist was still thick, now that it's cleared there was nothing to stop them from launching a counter attack against her.
Lashing out with senbon Haku tried to take down each clone before it reached her while cutting out a path fro her to escape through. Her plan was working and soon she'd be in a safe position to continue the fight. Just a few more strikes and her opening would be clear, that was until the other boy showed up, having seen through her plan.
"Fire style: phoenix flower jutsu!" Sasuke called out before lifting his hand to his mouth and blowing out several small balls of fire. Weaving them through Naruto's clones the young Uchiha aimed them at Haku.
In order to avoid the flames Haku ran through several hand signs in order to summon forth an ice mirror to use as a shield. While she was save from fire Haku had been left open for the blond's attacks as she had been forced to stop her forward momentum. Spinning around Haku managed to parry the first clones strike and dispelled it but as they kept coming the girl was quickly overwhelmed.
With a left hook from one of the clones Haku was sent flying to the side but was stopped from going to far as another clone slide up under her and kicked her into the air. While in the air more than half a dozen more blonds jumped up after her, repeatedly punching and kicking her between them before finally one of them slammed his fist into her mask and sending her crashing back down to the ground.
Running over to her Naruto reached down to grab her by the back of her haori and flip her over as she pushed herself off the ground, her chipped and cracked mask falling to the ground in the process. 'Zabuza... I've failed you' Haku thought to herself as she watched Naruto's fist come towards her face.
She had excepted her fate, excepted the fact that she couldn't win this fight and that she was no longer of any use to Zabuza, so why? Why did he stop his fist less than an inch from hitting her and why was she so happy that he had stopped?
Pulling his hand back Naruto stared into Haku's eyes as Sasuke ran over to them. "Naruto, what are you doing? Why'd you stop, we have her right where we want her" Sasuke yelled, yet his words seemed to fall on deaf ears.
"It's you..." Naruto softly said as he let go of the girl and stood up. This didn't make any sense, how could that kind girl he'd met in the woods be the same masked shinobi helping Zabuza?
Keeping herself propped up on her elbows Haku stared at the blond for a moment before asking him "Why did you stop? Am I not your enemy?".
"Yeah... but..." Naruto responded as he took a step back. As the conversation they'd had ran through his head Naruto dropped down to sit with his legs crossed while scratching his head vigorously. "Ghua! What the hell's going on!?" the blond all put shouted to himself.
Obviously there was something Sasuke was missing as he looked between the fake tracker shinobi and his blond teammate. Glancing up to look further down the bridge Sasuke could see that the mist was still to thick to see past. Kakashi and Zabuza should still be fighting and they should wrap this up quickly so they could go and help their sensei.
Shaking his head Sasuke decided to leave things here to Naruto while he went over to where Kakashi and the others were. 'Don't mess this up Naruto' the young Uchiha thought with one last glance over his shoulder before he entered the thick mist around Kakashi and Zabuza.
"...Zabuza..." Naruto began as Haku watched him get his thoughts together. Looking into the girl's eyes once more the blond asked "How did a guy like Zabuza become so important to you?".
Staring into his eyes Haku started to recall memories from her path, good and bad. "There was a time when I had others who were important to me, my mother... and my father" Haku began, telling Naruto about her parents, the bloodline war that led her father to murdering her mother after finding out about their kekkei genkai, about how she was left a homeless orphan left out in the cold, and how Zabuza had found her and trained her to be his ultimate weapon. He had given her a purpose, a reason to live.