*sigh* Now guys don't get all up on me for not updating in a month. Please. I had this chapter planned out and ready to be posted weeks ago, but I hate it. I still do really. Only this one part. And I don't want to update it because of that part but I have to get it over with to let the story go on right? Yeeeaaaaaa… Review! And if it sucks tell me. If it rocks, tell me. If it needs work, tell me. You get the idea. But, if it was the shittiest thing you read… don't bother. And by the way… SASUKE! YOUR TURN FOR THE DISCLAIMER!

Sasuke: -.-… Hn. OkamiAmatarasu2012-San doesn't own Narutotm. So don't sue her.

Ammy: Hey duck-butt-head! You finally spoke for more than 8 words!*starts running around him chanting it*

Sigh… well. Read on.

Chapter 10:

Sasuke slowly got up. By now, he knew that all his wounds were nowhere near fatal. They might not be able to kill him, but they hurt more than pushing himself to run with tree climbing. Just as he got up, another volley of blinding attacks struck him. This time was different though, he could see some of it and he avoided some of the blows.

'This boy...can he see me?' Haku thought. He launched another series of attacks and was surprised when even more of his blows missed.

'Just a little,' Sasuke thought, 'it is only a bit, but I can see it.' He kept himself up and waited for the next attack.

At this point, Kakashi was getting worried. Zabuza wasn't attacking. Most likely, he was letting the weakening chakra signature from Sasuke get Kakashi rattled enough so he could deliver a fatal blow. The mist cleared so he could see the ice mirrors again. 'Why...!' he saw a number of shuriken fly out of the mist and fly towards Sasuke. He moved to throw his own kunai, but a number of needles struck the shuriken and knocked them down.

"Haku?" Zabuza asked as he, or possibly a bushin, walked out of the mist.

"I want to fight this boy myself, Zabuza-san," Haku said, "allow me this bit of selfishness."

Zabuza regarded his young partner, then sighed, "you are really too soft. So be it." The mist covered everything again.

"I guess it's almost time to finish this," Zabuza said as the sound of his sword being drawn was heard.

"You're right," Kakashi said as he held his kunai up, ready for any blow.

Back in the ice mirrors, Sasuke dodged a blow and almost hit Haku, but the fake hunter jumped out of range and back into another mirror. He moved out again, only his face, and pulled back as a kunai almost hit him. A huge blast of smoke appeared outside of the mirrors and it broke open to reveal Naruto. "NARUTO OF THE LEAF APPEARS!" he yelled out. Kakashi smiled, 'he is the loudest, though I wonder if he is truly a ninja sometimes...'

Zabuza and Haku both thought of him being the loudest and most unpredictable and they knew it was true.

'This is good,' Sasuke thought as he pulled his sorry self off the ground, 'with my attacks from inside and Naruto's attacks from outside, we can-'

"Yo!" Naruto said, right in Sasuke's face, "I'm here to save you."

"Idiot!" Sasuke yelled, "why are you in here?"

"I'm saving you, what else?" Naruto said as if it was known to everyone but Sasuke.

"Idiot! A ninja doesn't walk into the middle of an enemy's jutsu," the heir yelled, "forget it! I don't care what happens to you anymore!"

Before the fight could continue, Haku attacked the two ninja from all directions. When it was over, both Naruto and Sasuke were barely able to stand. Another volley of attacks knocked Naruto down and out. Sasuke cursed the slow idiot, then focused on his own survival.

"If I have to," Haku said, "I will cut my heart and kill the two of you."

"What?" Sasuke asked, not understanding.

"I will kill my kind heart and become a true ninja," Haku said, "at that time, you and Naruto will die."

"Don't give up Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled, then added, with far less enthusiasm, "you too Naruto."

'Way too stuck up on him...' Zabuza, Kakashi and Haku thought.

"Don't egg them on Sakura," Kakashi warned. She was about to protest when he said, "that boy is already able to kill if he wants to. They aren't ready to kill an opponent on purpose, not yet."

Sasuke attempted to burn the mirrors apart with his fire jutsu, but it didn't work. 'This is a bloodline limit...of course a normal jutsu wouldn't work on it,' Sasuke thought. He started to get frustrated. First he couldn't do a thing after all his training, now he was being toyed with. His anger boiled.

Another volley of super fast attacks were launched at Sasuke, but this time there wasn't a single hit. 'What happened?' Haku thought as he went to return to his mirror, but a shuriken almost hit him. He made it into another mirror. He looked at the heir and saw the boy's eyes had partially awakened. 'Sharingan,' Haku thought and started to come up with another strategy. He decided to test the genin's speed and flashed out and attempted to deliver a hard kick to his face, but Sasuke dodged it and almost landed a blow of his own. 'Too fast,' Haku thought as he retreated again, 'his eyes can track me now, though it isn't perfect yet.'

Sasuke was thinking along the same lines as he felt his already depleted chakra being sapped at an alarming rate. 'I can't hold this for too long,' he kept his eyes on the fake hunter. 'It seems he can move by projecting himself between mirrors by using their reflections,' he thought as he waited for the right moment. Haku didn't attack him, though he did throw needles from almost everywhere. His target was Naruto, and the realization caused Sasuke to cancel out his incomplete Sharingan and move to shield the dobe, but at that moment…

Naruto woke up to the sight of an Ammy pincushion, blocking Sasuke and Naruto. It wasn't funny at all, his teammate was mortally wounded.

"Why?" they asked in unison.

"Cause," Ammy croaked out, "you're my friends..." She tottered for a few moments as blood trickled out of her mouth, "I ..." she said as she fell back past the still shaken Sasuke and was caught by Naruto. "Naruto...Sasuke…don't die to this guy. The things I do for you guys..." Ammy's eyes fluttered closed and she was still.

"Right till the end," Haku said from the safety of his mirrors, "she protected you even to the end. She died a true shinobi."

"Shut up!"

Haku twitched as he felt the sudden, terrible spike of chakra that could only be described as evil. 'What is this?' he thought in a panic. He watched the orange-red chakra tear apart the ground in a spiral and then form what appeared to be some kind of demon's head, sort of like Zabuza's demon of the mist. He watched as the wounds on the short ninja's body healed and the needles that were already in him were forced out. Sasuke watched in a horrified fascination at his murderous chakra.

Sakura suddenly felt Ammy's chakra vanish just as suddenly as it appeared, then Naruto's...changed. It had always kind of made her think of a gentle, refreshing spring sun (Not that we will ever admit it!) but now it felt...evil, dark...bloodthirsty. A primal fear in her caused her to shake. The fear that gripped her when Kakashi and Zabuza fought the first time was nothing compared to what she felt now. 'What is this?' she thought, 'what's happening to you Naruto?'

Kakashi's mind went into a panic at the familiar feel of the Kyūbi's terrible chakra. 'Did the seal break?' he thought as he calmed down and felt it, 'no...It hasn't broken, but the seal isn't working properly anymore.' He pulled out a small scroll and cut his thumb with his kunai and drew a trail along the unfurled scroll. "Listen up Zabuza," he said as he formed a seal with the scroll resting on his hands, "I know it isn't your style, but I am going to end this here and now with only two jutsu. Not with copies, but with my own jutsu."

"Oh?" came Zabuza's curious voice, "and how will you do that?"

Back in the mirrors, Haku decided the best way to deal with Naruto was a dash by with needles being thrown into several places that would rob Naruto of movement. He tossed a few needles to mask his attack and moved. Naruto yelled at the needles, knocking them away with a burst of chakra. Haku didn't have time to adjust and abandoned his attack. He then used his mirrors to try to drop on Naruto from above, but Naruto dodged it with ease. 'How is this possible?' Haku thought as he tried to move to another mirror, 'changing chakra, gaining this reaction time, this sudden increase in...everything. It isn't possible! Not even bloodlines grant this sort of power!'

Naruto had obviously gotten bored of Haku and his mirrors since he grabbed Haku's arm and crushed it with inhuman strength. Haku tried to defend himself, but Naruto's chakra enforced fist smashed into his mask and sent him flying through his own mirrors to skid across the ground. His mirrors fell apart as Naruto rushed at the fake hunter's rising form. Haku's mask was falling apart. "Sorry Zabuza-san...I just can't defeat this boy..." Haku said sadly.

Just before Naruto's punch struck, everything faded as if it had never existed. He was back to being a normal genin, no longer an avatar of power and blood lust. "Why? Why for a man like that?" Naruto yelled.

"Because he acknowledged my existence," Haku said, "without him, I am useless."

'He's like me...' Naruto thought, 'but his special person wasn't a kind person like Iruka-sensei.'

"Please, Naruto-kun, kill me," Haku said, "If I am useless to Zabuza-San, then there is no point in living because his needing me is my life." His look told Naruto there wasn't another way, so the young genin drew his kunai and rushed the other boy.

Zabuza was wondering how Kakashi was going to attack when he heard a rumbling in the ground. He realized it a moment too late when some dogs bit down on him, immobilizing him.

"Say hello to my cute little nin-dogs," Kakashi said with a smile, "I told you the Sharingan wasn't my only weapon. I let you cut me so they could track my blood from your weapons. Like how you used your ears, I used their noses."

Zabuza knew that one of the dogs had bit the nerves in his left arm and it wouldn't move for a while. 'He caught me, again,' Zabuza thought, then resigned himself to his fate.

Kakashi formed some hand seals, then held one of his hands down as chakra formed around it. Kakashi formed a blade of lightning chakra. 'Visible chakra?' Zabuza thought, marveling at the technique. Kakashi ran at him.

"Raikiri!"

"Sorry Naruto-kun," Haku said as he caught Naruto's hand and shoved him away. A mirror formed and Haku jumped into it and his image vanished.

At the last moment, an ice mirror rose from the ground and Haku jumped in the way of Kakashi. The lightning jutsu pierced though his heart and Haku grabbed Kakashi's arm to prevent his retreat. Kakashi tried for a few moments to free himself, then realized Haku was dead and the quick summoning scroll had been damaged, cancelling his jutsu.

"Look at this wonderful opportunity that Haku left me," Zabuza said as he lifted his sword with his remaining good arm, "I guess he was useful in the end."

He swung his sword down, but hit nothing. Kakashi reappeared and lay Haku's corpse on the ground. "You can still move like that even when carrying a useless corpse?" Zabuza said. He rushed the silver haired man and attempted to strike again, but Kakashi dodged and slammed two kunai into Zabuza's good arm, rendering it useless.

"I told you once before," Kakashi said, "you will die."

"False predictions again," Zabuza said.

"He is quite right."

The ninja all looked to see Gato and his men surrounding them. The vile man had one of his hands in a cast, the one Haku had broken. He walked forward. "This is exactly how I do things," the old man explained, "I have the ninja weaken each other, and then I kill them off with numbers."

Zabuza stood a bit taller now, out of his battle stance and looking defeated. "Kakashi...I have no reason to fight you now," Zabuza said as he attempted to leave.

"What is wrong with you?" Naruto yelled.

"Naruto, He is no longer out enemy," Kakashi said.

"He is still my enemy!" Naruto yelled, "Haku loved you! You were his world, you were everything to him! This is how you treat him? Everything he did was for you!"

"Kid," Zabuza said.

"Shut up! I'm not through yet!" Naruto yelled back, "even when fighting us, all he cared about was you and how you acknowledged him! Why the hell did he have to meet you?"

"Kid!" Zabuza said more forcefully.

Naruto stopped and noticed that Zabuza was shaking. "You don't have...to say anymore," Zabuza said as tears trailed down his face.

"Touching," Gato said, "guess even Zabuza is nothing more than a baby devil." He then noticed Haku's body and was about to make his way over and kick it.

"That bastard..." Zabuza said as he saw Gato approach them, he then started to tear up the covering over his mouth. "Kid, Naruto! Can I borrow your kunai?" he asked as he finished.

"Yeah," Naruto said as he tossed it. He really didn't want the weapon since it reminded him of trying to kill a person.

A commotion caused Sakura to look and see Zabuza slaughtering Gato's men with a single kunai held in his mouth. He was getting badly wounded, but it was barely slowing him down. He reached Gato, smiling maniacally. "Let's both go to hell and see if even me, a baby devil can become a real devil!" he said as he swung the blade up and beheaded the old man, making the head ricochet off an exposed beam before it fell into the water. Zabuza fell down, finished. The ninja ran over to him, though Sakura just looked at Naruto.

"Sasuke-kun?" she asked. Naruto looked down and gestured back to where the mirrors had been, "No, Ammy-chan…". She ignored him and ran until she saw a silhouette overlooking a crumpled form of a person and she felt fear prick her heart. Tazuna pulled her over to Sasuke, to her relief. But when she looked at Ammy, she held back the tears that were threatening to overflow. "You can cry," Tazuna said. "I studied hard so I could be a ninja and I memorized all the rules... One of them is to not show your emotions," Sakura said as she cried 'I never got a chance to… to be her friend…'

'The life of a ninja, it isn't fair for a child,' Tazuna thought as he watched the girl cry. Sasuke looked like he was holding something back as well.

"Gato's dead!" a mercenary yelled, "guess we'll have to take our pay from the village...I wonder how much we can get?" The others started speaking of pillaging the village. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! No way!" Naruto yelled and created fifty blond ninjas. Kakashi sighed and created at least twenty. With these reinforcements and cloned midgets slashing/striking at them wildly, the mercenaries dropped their weapons and ran away. Naruto halted his attack and dispelled his clones, as did Kakashi.

"Kakashi..."

The ninja approached Zabuza, finding him still alive for the moment. "I want to be with Haku," Zabuza said. Kakashi picked him up and carried him over to the other ninja. He placed him next to the boy. "I'm sorry Haku," Zabuza said as he forced his hand to Haku's cheek, "I hope I can go to where you are going." He looked at Naruto, he opened his mouth to speak when-

"Ammy-chan! You're alive!" followed by the pained yelps of the Kaneko as the girl hugged her. "ITAI!" Kakashi laughed a bit, as did Zabuza. "Even in the end, you couldn't kill them," Zabuza chuckled. Ammy stood up with a lot of effort and walked over to the dying rouge-nin, pulling out the needles carefully. "Ammy don't over exert yourself…" "-pant-I'll deal."

"Ammy..." he said, his voice growing weaker, "take my sword, Kubikirihōchō, with you."

"What?" She yelped as she quickly looked at the sword, "that isn't possible. I-"

"I would rather hand it to someone like you rather than have some bastard steal it from my grave," Zabuza said with force, then coughed a few times, "take it. I know you can use it."

Ammy looked uncertainly at her fellow genin, then walked over to the sword. She gripped the handle and pulled it out of the ground, though she almost dropped it right away. She was barely able to hold it with two hands and couldn't even do anything with it, not to mention that she was badly injured.

"That sword she has... Solar Flare is a fire chakra blade that kills it's owner...if possessed...by the...unworthy," Zabuza struggled, he was weakening, "if she can master it, Kubikirihōchō should be easy to master with time." Zabuza smiled as Ammy managed to hold it so it could be carried over her shoulder. He looked up and saw snow falling. "Haku...are you crying?" he asked as he closed his eyes for the last time. A single tear rolled down Haku's face and fell into Zabuza's palm.

[A few days later]

The group was paying their final respect to Haku and Zabuza's graves. Ammy had wrapped the giant blade in a cloth and had rigged some belts to hold it on her back. She swore as she helped bury the two that she would do her best to master the weapon. It was actually amusing to see the girl carrying a weapon larger than her. Solar Flare was pushed through in the girl's belts.

"Is what he said true Sensei?" Sakura asked.

"About shinobi being tools?" Kakashi asked. Sakura nodded. "We are," Kakashi said, "but we still have hearts."

"I'll find my own way to be a ninja," Naruto growled.

Kakashi chuckled at that and turned his students to return to their village.

"Naruto!"

They turned to see Inari, trying his best to not cry.

"Inari, you can cry if you want," Naruto said as he too, tried to stop the tears.

"You can cry Naruto, it is alright," Inari assured.

Naruto turned away. "Later," he said, sounding cool. Sakura looked between the two, noticing they were both bawling the same way. 'Are they twin idiots?' she thought.

Sakura saw Sasuke and ran a little to catch up with him. "Sasuke-kun! How about we go for a date when we get home?" she asked, hopeful that the recent events would make him realize his love for her.

"Are you kidding? If you have time for dates, try to improve your pathetic skills," the heir said, "you really are worse than Naruto..."

"Shut up Sasuke-teme!" Naruto yelled, "if you want, we can go on a date Sakura-chan."

"No way!" Sakura yelled, stomping closer to Ammy. "Boys," Sakura growled.

She didn't say anything because she kind of agreed with Sasuke. Sakura really could use a bit..okay, a lot more practice with jutsu and such.

Ammy got caught up a bit from her oversized cargo. She pulled it free from a root and rushed to catch up with her team, only to trip on a protruding stone and get caught between the dirt road and the large sword on her back.

"Help~!" she wailed while flailing around pitifully.

sigh i had better chapters before... well hoped you liked it!

l

l

l

l

l

l

l

l Click it! i know you want to! :3

v