After the run-in with Zabuza's partner, the jounin thought it best to leave either one of them or all the genin at Tazuna's house to protect Tsunami and Inari while the rest of the team accompanied Tazuna to the bridge.
Naruto and Hinata accompanied Tsunami into town once each so that she could buy a few things. They were appalled at the conditions the people of Nami were suffering under and could not wait to get rid of Gatou.
After the three genin had learned the Flicker, Kakashi brought out several small slips of paper. "These are chakra papers. They are used to find your primary chakra affinity. Unless you have a Bloodline Ability that balances two chakra natures, most shinobi will have one chakra nature that dominates." He held one slip in his right hand and channeled chakra through it which caused it to wrinkle. "When I channel my chakra through the paper it wrinkles. This means that my primary affinity is Lightning."
He pulled out another slip and repeated the procedure. This time the paper crumbled. "However, if I hold back my Lightning Chakra Nature, it crumbles signifying Earth. I personally have trained all five chakra natures, but Earth is my second best after my natural Lightning Affinity. Most jounin-level shinobi have at least two chakra natures they have trained. Having all five trained is rare—I did it because of my Sharingan. Eventually you'll probably want to do the same, Sasuke-kun. For you girls, it's not as important and you would probably be better off specializing in two or three, eventually. Using only one type of chakra nature can leave you susceptible to that nature's weaknesses. As a genin, you're not expected to be able to use elemental techniques, but you guys are advanced enough to start on your first.
"Each chakra nature can be mastered by doing elemental chakra manipulation. This allows you to manipulate each element directly and improves your ability to use techniques that utilize that chakra nature. Think of it as a specialized chakra control exercise."
Each of the genin used the paper. Naruto's split signifying Wind. Sasuke and Hinata's both burned signifying Fire.
Kakashi told Naruto, "Like Asuma said when he first arrived, Wind is rare in Hi no Kuni. Wind is actually my worst chakra nature, although I have mastered the basic manipulation exercises, so I'll have him start you on the Wind Chakra manipulation and have him teach you a Wind technique."
Kakashi told the other two, "Fire is the most common affinity in Hi no Kuni, so it's not surprising that the two of you have it. The Uchiha clan is especially famous for using Fire techniques. Anko is better at using Fire than I am, so I'll have her help me teach you two fire manipulation and teach Hinata a technique. Sasuke, I think you'd be better served by mastering the two techniques you know rather than learning a third."
Asuma taught Naruto the Leaf-Cutting Exercise which involved grinding two planes of wind together to created a blade of wind. He told her that Wind techniques generally came in three classes: pushing, cutting, and eroding techniques. Pushing were the easiest and eroding the hardest. He taught her a pushing technique called Great Breakthrough. It was the one he had used to clear Zabuza's fog technique.
By the end of the week, Naruto was able to cut a leaf quickly and easily. She had utilized Shadow Clones to get it down. After her improvement with the Flicker, she had figured out that they were very useful for learning as long as she did not dismiss too many at once. She also became proficient in the Great Breakthrough Technique. Asuma told her to expand the manipulation training by practicing making multiple Wind blades at once and by cutting harder materials, like a rock. The most difficult Wind training involved cutting a waterfall.
Susuke and Hinata also mastered the most basic part of Fire manipulation. Sasuke had a head start due to already being proficient in two Fire techniques. Hinata continued to be excellent in all forms of chakra manipulation. Hinata learned the Fireball Technique.
Kakashi told them about the way that Wind techniques could magnify Fire techniques which made for some interesting collaboration techniques, but told them to be careful so that it did not literally blow up in their faces.
About 10 days after Naruto's confrontation with Haku, they approached the bridge and noticed it was enshrouded by fog and piteous cries were coming from the workers. "Demons. . . Monsters. . ."
"Anko is going to be annoyed that she missed out again," commented Asuma.
"We're going to have to give her Gatou to placate her," Kakashi agreed.
Waiting at the foot of the bridge were three figures, Zabuza, the hunter nin, and a man with spiky olive green hair wearing a black vest with bandages under it.
"Kurosaki Raiga, the Thunder of the Hidden Mist, former member of Kiri's Seven Swordsmen, A-rank missing nin," said Kakashi.
"This is your last chance to hand over the Bridge Builder, Konoha nin," said Zabuza.
"I'm afraid we can't do that," said Kakashi.
"Good," said Zabuza. "I was looking forward to a rematch with Neck-beard-san."
"You didn't get enough last time, No-brows-san?" retorted Asuma.
"I'll take Raiga," Kakashi told his genin. "Hinata and Sasuke, take the hunter nin. Naruto, guard the client." This was the protocol they had established when they had to fight a single hard target while guarding a client. If there were multiple targets, Hinata usually had guard duty. "Also, have your clones keep us Mist-free. Use a wide, low-power Great Breakthrough for that."
Naruto made clones to watch each of the fights and disperse the Mist and sent a pair back toward Tazuna's house. She tracked all of the fights, but mainly paid attention to Hinata and Sasuke's fight with the girl who had called herself Haku.
She noticed that she had a hard time following Raiga for some reason. It was like something was interfering with her Byakugan. Up till now she had seen through genjutsu quite easily with it. She wondered if Raiga had a Bloodline Ability.
Both of the jounin fights turned into stalemates. Zabuza had managed to get his giant sword back somehow. He was fighting much more carefully so that he did not break it again. Kakashi and Raiga both seemed to be able to predict each other's moves.
Hinata was doing pretty well against Haku with Sasuke backing her up. Both of the girls were nimble fighters. Naruto could tell that Haku was better, but Sasuke's help was making the fight even. Haku fought mainly with senbon needles some of which she made from her chakra, which Hinata was able to deflect with her chakra-coated hands. Haku was too fast for Hinata to get a clean strike on her and disable her tenketsu, but Hinata had manage to get a few glancing blows on her, which Naruto knew from experience were still painful. Sasuke had almost gotten Haku with his wire techniques, but she had managed to avoid them so far.
Finally, Haku seemed to pause and then release a large burst of chakra. Slabs of what appeared to be ice sprang up around her and then wrapped around to enclose Hinata and Sasuke in a dome of ice slabs. The slabs were suspended in the air and had narrow spaces between them. Naruto frowned and said to two of her clones, "Try and pull them out."
The clones concentrated but then shook their heads. One of her clones said, "It's no good, Boss. There's a bunch of chakra in the slabs. I can't get a lock on either of them."
"Same here," said the other.
"Try it again, closer," she said.
Both clones approached the domes, periodically trying to pull them out. Finally they were right outside the dome. They both shook their heads and dispelled.
Inside the dome, things were not going as well. Haku seemed to be able enter the slabs and to shoot her senbon from many of the slabs at once. Naruto could tell that Hinata was getting exhausted and was near the end of her endurance. Sasuke was doing better, but that was mainly because Haku seemed to be concentrating on Hinata.
Naruto decided that she had to help her friends. She made 20 clones and said to Tazuna, "My clones will take you to your house. Anko-san will protect you. I need to help my friends."
One of her clones Disguised herself as an adult version of herself so that she had the arm length and the height to carry Tazuna and picked him up. The other clones made a formation around her and they left with coordinated Flickers.
Naruto Flickered to the edge of the dome. She arrived in time to see Hinata drop due to exhaustion and blood loss.
"Hinata!" she yelled and ran into the dome and stopped next to Sasuke who was standing next to Hinata's prone form.
"What are you doing here, Dead Last?" said Sasuke. "Where's Tazuna?"
"Nice to see you too, Emo-chan," Naruto responded. "Sent him with some clones to Anko-san."
"Why are you doing this, Haku-chan?" said Naruto called to the fake hunter nin. "Don't you know that if the Bridge Builder dies then Gatou will destroy this whole country. Hundreds of people will suffer and die or worse?"
"I truly regret what is going to happen," Haku replied from the mirror-like surface of one of the slabs, "but I must serve my Precious Person's will. To further Zabuza-sama's dream, I will kill my heart and become a true shinobi." She paused and then continued with regret in her voiced. "I feel like we could have been friends, Naruto-san. I'm sorry."
"I won't let you do this, Haku-chan!" Naruto yelled. "You're too nice a person to blight your soul like this."
"I'm afraid it's too late for me, but for Zabuza-sama I would damn my soul to the deepest hell regardless."
"He doesn't deserve you!" Naruto shouted as the senbon began to rain down upon them."
Naruto and Sasuke quickly moved back to back, bracketing Hinata who lay between them at their feet. Each of them had a kunai in each hand to deflect the needles. Naruto, despite her near-360-degree field of view, could barely track the senbon due to their speed. Unlike Hinata, who had practiced with the Byakugan for years, Naruto was still getting used to seeing so much. The needles coming in on her left would distract her from the ones coming in on her right. Worse, she kept having to restrain herself from reacting to the needles coming in behind her toward Sasuke. Her only saving grace was that her regeneration and stamina was letting her ignore the strikes that did hit her.
"These senbon are made using my Hyouton Bloodline Ability," said Haku. "I will never run out. You should give up."
She could see and hear Sasuke struggling to deflect his needles, but he was keeping up for the most part. Suddenly, Sasuke's breathing became a lot smoother and his movements sharper and less frantic. She could see that he was concentrating chakra in his eyes. She smiled, happy for her pseudo-brother, that he had awoken his Bloodline Ability.
On the other hand, the blood loss was finally catching up to her. She was certain that if she got a moment to rest, she would be fine, but Haku was relentless with the senbon shower. She put more effort into trying to deflect them all.
"I see I must escalate matters," said Haku sorrowfully.
Spears of ice, several centimeters in diameter, rained down on them. There were not nearly as many of them, but they absolutely could not miss any and had to make sure to guard Hinata at their feet.
'I can't keep up,' Naruto thought as she barely deflected one and then had to stretch to get one coming in from the other side. 'Even seeing them coming isn't enough.'
She tried channeling more chakra to her eyes to see if it would help her distinguish the incoming missiles better. She felt a pulling on her forehead and then the field of view in front of her snapped into focus. She could see the trajectories of the incoming ice spears and see which ones would hit first. The view behind her remained as it had. Her perception of time sped up so that she noticed every detail in front of her. She began to move more efficiently as she now knew exactly how much to move in order to deflect the spears.
She began to hear Sasuke's breathing getting rougher. He was being worn down. Suddenly she saw Sasuke diving to intercept an ice spear that was coming in low. It looked like it would hit Hinata's head! Sasuke stopped it, but a second spear hit Sasuke in the thigh.
"It's up to you, Dead Last," Sasuke said. "I had hoped we could all go after Itachi together." He fainted from the shock.
Naruto felt rage bubble up inside of her. She vaguely heard Haku talking, but ignored her. It wasn't supposed to happen this way! She would not let Hinata and Sasuke die because she wasn't strong enough! She could feel a malicious chakra bubbling up with the rage. She wrenched the chakra from its source and made it her own. She expelled the chakra from her body and wrapped it around her. Her hair lengthened and bunched into ten tail-like strands. She roared and pushed out causing her hair to puncture the ten of the mirrors shattering them.
She vaguely registered Haku's gasp as she dropped to the ground and tried to back away. Two of Naruto's hair-tails shot forward and wrapped around the other kunoichi, binding her arms to her side.
Naruto struggled to get a handle on her rage. "Why?" she yelled. "Sasuke-kun was a bit of a jerk, but Hinata-chan was the kindest person I've ever met. She didn't deserve this! Neither of them did! Why are you doing this for him? A monster that would condemn an entire country to rape, death, and slavery?"
"I'm like you and your friends," said Haku quietly, looking at the ground. "I have a Bloodline, except that I didn't know it when I was little. In Kiri and Mizu no Kuni, Bloodline holders are considered monsters. The Fourth Mizukage had us rounded up and slaughtered after one of the Bloodline clans revolted. My mother hid her Ability and married my father without telling him. One day I accidentally awoke my Ability and my father saw me use it. He accused my mother of being a demon and a monster. He rounded up the other villagers and they killed her in front of me. In my fear and anger my Bloodline activated again and I killed them all with ice spears. I ran and lived on the street in one of the bigger villages, hiding that I was a monster, and begging for months. Zabuza-sama took me in and rescued me. He taught me to be a shinobi and made me his tool. He gave me a purpose and for that I have served him."
She looked up at Naruto. "I am a broken tool now. Please kill me now that I am no longer of use to Zabuza-sama."
Naruto's heart broke. "Listen, Haku-chan. You aren't a monster or a tool. Certainly not for holding a Bloodline." She paused. "I've been treated like a monster most of my life, too. I've just recently gotten friends—real friends, not a master who treats me like a tool—it makes a big difference!"
They both heard shouting. Naruto looked around and noticed that Raiga was down, presumably dead. Asuma was holding the Wind blade sprouting from his trench knife to Zabuza's throat. Zabuza's right arm was sheared off at the elbow. Kakashi was leaning over Sasuke and Hinata. One of her clones was holding onto a short kid.
"Zabuza-sama!" Haku shouted. She tried to wiggle free.
Naruto increased the amount of chakra she had instinctively been channeling into her hair.
Suddenly clapping and jeering came out of the fog. Naruto saw a short, fat man leading a gang of thugs armed with clubs and swords. Only a few of them had active chakra systems.
The fat man, presumably Gatou, said, "Go on, finish them off. That way, I don't have to pay them." He laughed. "Not that I was planning to. It's so much better hiring missing nin. That way I can kill them and collect their bounties rather than paying them."
"We no longer have a quarrel, Asuma-san," said Zabuza.
"Agreed," said Asuma.
Zabuza undid his built and cinched it around his arm, just below the bicep. He picked up his sword left handed.
"No one double-crosses me and lives!" Zabuza roared as he charged into the thugs.
"A million ryou to the man that kills him!" Gatou screamed as he dived into the crowd.
A few of the thugs hesitantly stepped forward, but then merged back into the group as Zabuza charged forward. He only targeted the thugs directly in front of him, which allowed some of them to get strikes in. The thugs surrounding Gatou backed away and the fat man fell to the ground.
"I'll give you anything you want!" Gatou pleaded.
"Anything?" asked Zabuza.
"Yes!"
"I want you to die!" Zabuza roared as he cleaved Gatou's head from his body.
With the death of Gatou, the life seemed to drain out of Zabuza and he collapsed.
Naruto heard Haku sobbing quietly.
"He killed our meal ticket!" one of the thugs yelled. "Let's finish him off!"
Another yelled, "They can't get all of us!"
The thugs seemed to be gathering their courage. Naruto prepared to summon a bunch of Shadow Clones, when a crossbow bolt slammed into a random thug.
"You need to work on your aim, brat," she heard Anko call. A kunai slammed into the main rabble rouser right between the eyes. "That's how you do it!"
Naruto refocused her Byakugan and saw Anko, Inari, Tazuna, and Tsunami at the head of a mob of villagers armed with clubs, pitchforks, and a few crossbows.
The thugs started to run, with the villagers chasing after them. Naruto summoned 100 clones to help run them down.
"If I let you go, will you behave, Haku-chan?" Naruto asked.
"Yes, Naruto-san," the other girl said.
Naruto let go of the chakra she was holding and it faded. She looked at her hair which was now over twice as long as she was tall. She took a kunai and hacked it off at about waist length. She could get it fixed later, but for now she didn't want it dragging.
They walked over to where everyone was gathering by Sasuke and Hinata. They were both still unconscious.
"How are they, Sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Hinata-chan will recover just fine with some rest," Kakashi replied. "She's mainly just exhausted, with some blood loss. Sasuke is the same, but he also has the wound in his thigh. Luckily it's not very deep. With some stitches and some rest he'll be okay too. He just won't want to be walking for the next week."
"Can I go see Zabuza-sama, Naruto-san?" Haku asked.
Naruto looked at Kakashi who nodded.
"Okay, Haku-chan," she said.
Naruto and Asuma followed Haku over to where Zabuza lay. He opened his eyes as they approached.
"I'm sorry I was not a better tool, Zabuza-sama," Haku said quietly.
Zabuza chuckled. "Haku, you were a better tool than I deserved. If I were a better master, I would not have let you think that way. We live in a harsh world, but that doesn't mean you can't take joy for yourself in it. Find some friends. I considered you a daughter. If I had been a better man, I would have told you before I was on my death bed."
"Death bed? Surely not. . ." Haku protested.
"Let me go, Haku. A swordsman without an arm is useless. I refuse! Better to have gone down fighting." With that he closed his eyes and his breathing slowed and stopped.
Haku cried silently.
"Haku can come with us, right, Asuma-sensei?" Naruto asked.
Asuma hesitated, but then said, "It would probably be okay if her situation is what I think it is. We'd need to ask her some questions and then send ahead to ask Tousan. Since we need to wait for the bridge to finish and Sasuke-kun's leg to heal, we'd have the time."
Naruto's clones approached and she told them to start dispelling in groups of ten every two minutes while she sat down to meditate.
Asuma's fight had gone largely as his first fight with Zabuza: stalemate until Kakashi could help.
Kakashi's fight had been a stalemate until Kakashi had made a Shadow Clone to ask one of Naruto's clones to separate Raiga from the boy on his back. Naruto's clone had has a hard time locking onto the boy or even finding him with her Byakugan. She had tried sensing him with her eyes closed and finally found him with her chakra sense. Kakashi had made her practice Replacing her teammates without the Byakugan active and they'd discovered she could sense chakra, although it didn't have the range that her Byakugan did nor did it give her as much information—in most instances. Kakashi had said that her mother had been able to do this and that Naruto could train it to improve the range and the information it provided. With all the other things she wanted to do, Naruto had put it at a low priority. After separating Raiga and the boy, Kakashi had managed to overcome him. Evidently the boy had a Bloodline Ability that he had been using to help Raiga predict Kakashi's moves and that had hindered the Sharingan and Byakugan. Kakashi had fired off another Water Dragon Missle at Zabuza allowing Asuma to break the stalemate and then ran to check on Hinata and Sasuke.
The clones that had escorted Tazuna had arrived to find Anko interrogating two samurai rejects that had shown up to kidnap Tsunami or Inari. Inari had found his courage and convinced the others to allow him to round up the villagers to help.
Naruto stood up and rejoined the others with Haku following her. Sasuke and Hinata were both awake and had been told what had happened.
"I think we should debrief this evening or tomorrow," said Kakashi. "I'm sure the genin, at least, would like nothing better than a good nap."
"Sounds good to me," Naruto said and the others agreed.
"Anko, do you think you could secure Gatou's mansion with the forces Inari rounded up?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah, I think he had at least two thirds of them here at the bridge."
"Go ahead and do that before someone runs off with everything or they burn it to the ground."
Kakashi picked up Sasuke and Naruto and the others followed him back to Tazuna's house.
Author's Note: It's fanon to have Hinata have Water Affinity, but that doesn't have any basis in canon, but I didn't feel like following that convention added anything to my story. Narutopedia lists her as using Fire and Lightning, but doesn't specify which was her natural affinity. I decided it made sense for her to be Fire and no reason not to make her that.