A Hero's Resolve by Tsukaria
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN DBZ OR NARUTO. IF I DID THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A SERIES INSTEAD.
WARNINGS: SLIGHTLY ANGTSY GOHAN AND I'LL BE USING THE ENGLISH NAMES FOR JUTSU COS I DON'T KNOW THE JAPPANESE ONES. SORRY...
A/N: Uh... hey all! Sorry i've been away for as long as I have... I Really did try to get this done sooner but college assignments really get you bogged down, you know? I got 62 of the poxy things to do and so far i've worked my way through 10 of them. Forensics courses are, in the words of Shikamaru "troublesome".
A big thanks to everyone who has reviewed and/or added this to their favourites and alerts lists. A special thanks to the anonomous person who lerft the 51st review! You gave me the motivation to continue writing this so thank you.
Previously....
Without waiting for an answer, the demon of the mist charged once again, blade poised to cleave the half saiyan in two.
"Water style: Water armor Jutsu!"
Zabuza's blade passed into the watery sheild and stopped dead in it's tracks
"What?!" The rouge exclaimed before he felt the cold metal blade of a Kunai against his throat
"It's over, Zabuza" Kakashi stated.
Chapter 10: Pride.
Zabuza glanced over his shoulder to see the remains of what he had originally thought to be Kakashi. What the Demon of the Mist saw though, was a clearly dead, cleanly cut (Zabuza expected no less as he sharpened his blade on a daily basis) wooden log.
"A substitution jutsu... can't believe I fell for that" Zabuza muttered to himself, releasing the grip on his blade in silent shock.
"An experienced shinobi such as yourself must know to never overlook the basics." Gohan plainly stated while dropping his jutsu, the loud clang of Zabuza's blade reverberating through the trees as it hit the ground "Such neglegence of this fact is why you are trapped while Kakashi-sensei is free to take yor life with a single movement." He finished drawing the attention of the trapped shinobi.
Zabuza was inwardly shocked at the lack of emotion in the raven-haired kid. Konoha is widely known as the 'softest' of the five great hidden villiages, yet this boy was as calm about being face-to-face with a shinobi of Zabuza's repute and skill level as someone from his former villiage. The rouge ninja swept his critical gaze over the hybrid, taking in the way the kid's eyes gared defiantly at him and glimpsing the dormant power laying just beneath the surface making Zabuza feel that he was in the eye of a massive hurricane, a storm that, should it's wielder wish it, envelop the whole planet with a simple flick of his hand.
Zabuza's eyes continued their silent assesment of the boy before him, his mind noting that the kid was incredibly well built for a child of his age from an 'enlightened' villiage such as Konoha, or from any villiage for that matter. The rouge came to the conclusion that this child had been training for a very long time, as if his life had depended on it on more than one occasion. Zabuza noticed a scar on the kid's lert arm, near the shoulder, that looked like the skin had almost been seared clean off the bone. This, coupled with the 'tatoo' on the boy's left cheek led the rouge to believe the kid had escaped from some sort of slavery trade as the scar looked suspiciously like the kid had been through some sort of torture, and then 'marked' by his captors. Zabuza felt a wave of unwelcome pity on the boys behalf, if that was the case.
The Demon of the Mist's eyes then fell to the kid's waist and noticed something odd about the fur 'belt' that was wrapped around it. Out of sudden morbid curiosity, Zabuza reached for it and was nearly shocked out of his skin when the 'belt' moved, almost unnoticably, away from his outstrecthed hand. 'A tail ' Zabuza realised 'Now this is unexpected.'
Deciding that it was now time to continue his mission, and ignoring the odd looks he was recieving from the Copycat's team, Zabuza decided it was time to end his little charade and burst out in maniacal laughter.
"I don't see what you find so funny about your position, Zabuza" Kakashi spoke, interrupting the rouge's laughter. Zabuza's attention was now firmly back on the silver-haired jounin who held a kunai against his throat.
"What I find so humorous, Kakashi, is you! You actually think i would let myself get into this position!" And with that said, 'Zabuza' dissolved into a puddle of water.
"Damn!" Kakashi cursed as he spun on the spot, while quickly performing the handsigns that would save his life and found himself staring down the Demon of the Mist, in all his bloodthristy glory.
A sudden shockwave blew Kakashi back towards his squad and his client and looked on in horrified shock as he noticed the scene that was taking place in the spot he had just occupied. He came to his senses quickly enough to grab a determined Naruto's arm before the blonde could rush off to his certain death and was suprised at the intensity of the glare that the usually joyful and carefree genin was directing at him.
"Let me go, Kakashi." Naruto growled and Kakashi noticed two things. One, that Naruto had omitted the '-sensei' that was usually attatched to his name when Naruto adressed him, meaning that Naruto was barely containing his anger. The other thing the jounin noticed was tat Naruto's eyes, usually a deep cerulean blue were now tainted with a menacing blood red and that the round pupils were now slitted in a way that made the boy look feral.
Getting a grip on himself, Kakashi fixed a stern gaze on the blonde genin who was attempting to struggle out of his grip.
"Naruto, calm down. Getting yourself killed won't help anyone!" Kakashi reprimanded
"I don't care!" Naruto yelled back at him "I'll make that bastard pay for this!" He continued his eyes focusing clearly on the scene where Zabuza currently stood.
Occupying the very spot Kakashi was in less than a minute ago, Gohan stood, unusually limp, his right hand placed weakly on top of the blade that had embedded itself deeply into his side while his left was hanging lifelessly at his side. The eyes which were normally full of a steely determination and a fathomless black that never seemed to end, were now dulled to a near lifeless pale grey, blurred with tears, and only a sadness that seemed to draw in the whole world was left. Gohan's chest heaved in the effort to keep breathing, but each rise and fall looked increadibly pained. Crimson blood leaked out of the massive wound and onto the ground, more with each beat of the hybrid's rapidly weakening heart.
Far off to the side, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna were each as shell-shocked as eachother, each of them pale as they looked on in horror, each thinking the same thing:
'No-one should have to die like this...'
Holding the blade that he knew was keeping the boy alive, Zabuza was unnerved by the feeling he was getting. Usually when he made a kill, he felt a satisfaction, an almost joyful feeling that he knew he should be feeling at this very moment.
But now...
Now, straring at the boy's back that was facing him, he was feeling somthing foreign, something new and he didn't like it, not one bit. It was remorse, guilt and regret.
Gohan's left hand lifted slowly and everyone's attention was drawn to it as it reached out for something, quivering at the effort to keep it there.
Naruto suddenly broke free of Kakashi's grip and raced towards the feeble half-saiyan, and grabbed the outstetched hand in his own, tears filling his once again ocean blue eyes. Gohan gave a weak smile and spoke ina a voice that was far too quietto even be called a whisper:
"Run, squirt, get out of here."
With that said, the eyes of the proud warrior started to fade.
Snapping back to reality and attempting to clear his head of the unusual feelings clawing at him, Zabuza put up a mask of indifference and slowly started to pull the blade from the hybrid's side.
Every inch the blade was moved felt like a lifetime of pain to the fallen warrior, and he was so weakened that he couldn't even voice his pain. When the blade was finally removed, Gohan collapsed weakly toward the ground, only to be caught by Naruto, who rested the hybrid's head gently in his lap, tears falling onto Gohan's hair and making it damp.
Kakashi rushed over and racked his brain for any jutsu he possesed in order to try to save the boy's life. Looking at Naruto for permission, who nodded desperately, he placed his hands over the wound, which glowed a soft green as the wound started to slowly heal up.
Zabuza looked towards the three other members of the group and found himself speaking, against his will:
"I'm sorry"
Those two words shocked him to the core and before the stunned group could say anything, he was caught with a powerful blow to the face and sent tumbling into the lake. When the rouge resurfaced, the glare, the unrestrained hate and malice he and sorrow he felt radiating in waves that could easily dwarf any tsunami, that was sent like a second blow at him burned it's way into Zabuza's very soul. For the first time in his life, Zabuza Momochi, The Demon of the Mist, S-class rouge ninja, Master of the silent killing technique and brutal murderer of hundreds upon hundreds of shinobi and civillian alike, was afraid. The fear he felt at this very moment was usually what he saw in his victim's eyes just before he delivered the final blow... No wonder they usually begged for their lives...
Sasuke, standing with Sakura and Tazuna, also felt the fear that was affecting everyone, all except...
Sasuke's eyes swiveled over towards Kakashi and the fallen Gohan and could see the slight smile on the hybrid's face, the deathly pale face looked almost serene and Sasuke had to wonder if Gohan had actually died.
Turning his gaze to the left, he noticed something odd about the enraged Naruto, some sort of energy (chakra, the Uchiha presumed, but it certainly didn't feel like Naruto's usual chakra), a deep red in colour swilrled around the blonde genin.
Naruto glared hatefully at the man who had dared to injure Gohan. He suddenly understood why Gohan got so angry whenever someone attempted to hurt the blonde. The rage he felt consumed him, made his blood boil to dangerous levels. Every fibre of Naruto's being was urging him on, telling him in no uncertain terms that this pathetic human before him deserved to die in the most painful of ways. He would put this human in front of him to death ever so agonisingly slowly that he would beg and grovel at his feet, begging for forgiveness... and then, Naruto would tear out the human's heart, rip off it's head and give them to the recovering Gohan as a present, proof that he had exacted his vengence... yes... that would be perfect.
Zabuza became highly unnerved at the crazed look the greiving boy's eyes took that promised his death.
Before the rouge could flee however, he felt very precice and very familiar needles sink into his neck before blissful darkness consumed his consiousness...
A/N: So what do you think? I didn't expect the chapter to turn out the way it did, if i'm honest and also i ended up doing my first character 'death' scene. Again, i'm not sure when the next chapter will be up so please be patient and thanks for reading!!
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