Chapter 10: The battle for the bridge.
talking

thinking

biju/Boss summon talking

biju/Boss summon thinking

[Justu]

Days past as the two shinobi teams prepared for the inevitable confrontation with zabuza and his mysterious helper as well with gato, things had gone smoothly so far with the only issues being builders abandoning the bridge fearing the wrath of gato.

It was evening once again a week after team eleven had first arrived and the group was seated to dinner once again, throughout it the talk had been light and simple as they discussed what they would do when it came down to fighting. However at the end of the meal one member of the table had finally had enough.

"Why do you even bother trying, no matter how hard you train gato is just going to kill you anyway!" Inari yelled slamming his hands on the table, he didn't see the point of all this.

The shinobi stopped and looked at the boy, surprised by his outburst about them being killed.

"Kid we have a news flash for you, Gato is an egotistical midget nothing truly scary." Naruko said rolling her eyes.

"Oh yeah and what would you know, you shinobi don't even understand what he has done to this place and yet you still think you can beat him. No one can beat a man like him." Inari argued.

Naruko growled getting upset by this now, how could this kid talk like he had given up and lost all hope that the midget could actually be beaten. She was about to snap at him when Tenzo calmly began to speak.

"And that matters why?" Naruto said confusing Inari.

"You think just because he is surrounded by his bandits, just because he has all the money in the world, just because he has hurt other's we will simply give up and let him continue. Inari we don't care if he has all that, we are still going to continue to fight and going to keep trying to stop him even if it kills us because that is who we are." He said calmly before standing up and leaving, he needed some fresh air.

On his way out he stopped and looked at Inari one final time.

"Kaiza was the same type of man we are Inari, and do you think he would be sitting here giving up or would he be out there with us fighting the good fight. Think about that next time you decide to cry over his death." He said before leaving and closing the door behind him.

The room was silent after his departure, the shinobi were impressed by what he had to say and Tazuna and tsunami were grateful for the kind words to the man they had lost and Inari looked shaken, everything Naruto had said was exactly how Kaiza would have acted and here he was supposed to be the man of the house yet, he was crying and being a coward.

"He is right you Inari." Kushina said making the boy look at her.

"Giving up is not going to solve any problems for anyone and it sure as hell isn't a way to honor the dead, as long as you have something worth fighting for you should fight for it." Kushina finished, the rest of the meal was silent.

Naruto sighed as he stepped into the clearing he had found a few days back during training and began to practice his sword motions, he needed a way to vent without hurting someone or something and this was just the best way.

He didn't know why Inari's words had stung so hard or why he cared about them so much, maybe because he felt that it was on some level pathetic that the kid was just giving up when he still had his family, still had his grand father who was trying to make a difference.

He growled and began to add more power to the swings behind the sword and cut large gashes in the trees, Inari still had people who cared for him and he was just disrespecting them and he was disrespecting Kaiza for his sacrifice to try and keep the peoples spirits up.

Finally he let out a large yell as he cut a tree down the side and panted, his fury was cooled for a moment but, he still needed to vent to make sure he got it all out.

With a sigh he picked his sword up and made his way to another tree, the same process was repeated over and over again as night began to fall.

The next morning light shined through the canopy of tree's as Haku walked slowly through the forest in search of a specific herb, one she would need to help make the medicine for Zabuza.

As she cam into a particular clearing she was surprised to find the tree's were riddled with slash marks and large gashes, she had only seen damage like this when her master had been training and even still nothing had ever been to the extent she was seeing before her.

Slowly she made her way through the tree's until she came across a felled tree and a young boy sleeping with his back laying against it for support, she was surprised to see it was the same boy she had seen days before during the scuffle at the market and seeing his headband confirmed him a shinobi.

She debated on what to do, on the one hand she hated killing with a passion and actively tried to avoid it when she could, on the other hand judging by the damage he had done to the surrounding forest he would be a great threat to her master.

Her mind made up she slowly reached a hand out to grab his neck, however she barely got within an inch of his body when a hand shot up and grabbed her own making her gasp. Hard mismatched eyes stared into her own making her feel intimidated, like she was cornered by a large predator and had to tread carefully lest she be eaten.

"You know it's very rude to sneak up on a person, especially when they are asleep." He said with a hard tone as he gazed at her.

"Forgive me sir, I just wished to wake you up and make sure you were ok. It gets cold out here and I didn't want you to get sick from sleeping out in the open." Haku said simply, a good lie if any.

Naruto's eyes softened and he released his grip on the girls arm.

"Sorry about that then, guess being a shinobi for long enough will make you a bit paranoid." He said sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head, in all fairness he probably should have asked who she was before he jumped to conclusions and threatened her.

"It's no trouble, I should have been more careful with you being a shinobi." Haku said with a smile before standing, Naruto copied her before stretching and relaxing his joints.

"So, what's a pretty girl like you doing way out here in the middle of the woods. You don't seem like the type who goes hunting?" Naruto asked looking her over, she was cute dressed up in a pink kimono but, she wasn't really his type.

"I'm out here picking herbs to make a medicine, my friend is sick and i'm trying to help him recover." Haku said showing him the basket.

"Oh, well in that case let me help out to make up for my mistake." Naruto offered, haku smiled in appreciation and nodded and together the two hunted for the herb.

"I never got you name by the way." Naruto said as they looked.

"Oh sorry, my name is haku." Haku said smiling at him which Naruto returned.

"Cool, call me Tenzo." He said still giving out his fake name, best to be sure then risk it.

Soon the duo found the herbs Haku was looking for and began to pick them by the bundle and put them in the basket Haku had brought along.

"So Tenzo, you're a shinobi right? Your headband says your from the hidden leaf and that's the only village I know that is close to this place." Haku asked him.

"Yeah I am, just graduated to genin a few months back. It's a pretty cool life if you can deal with the danger and the requirements that come with it." Naruto said.

Outwardly Haku nodded in understanding while inwardly he was slightly panicked at the revelation.

'A genin did all that damage, he truly must be a trained sword fighter if he can do that before he is even a jonin. And Zabuza did say that he was the son of the Red Dragon Empress so he must be skilled, ill have to worry Zabuza about him before we deal with them and the bridge builder.' He thought.

"Hey, Haku are you ok, you kind of spaced out there." Naruto said bringing Haku out of his thoughts, nodding to the brunette.

"Sorry, just thinking about something unimportant." He told him before pondering something.

"May I ask you a question Tenzo?" Haku asked.

"Sure, Haku." Naruto said nodding.

"Do you have someone precious to you that you wish to protect?" She asked.

"Yeah I do actually, I lot of people in fact like my family and friend's back home. Not to mention my team and my sensei here." Naruto said nodding.

"That's good, I always believed that you are only truly strong when you have someone you wish to protect and make sure they will always be there." Haku said, finally the two finished picking herbs and stood ready to part ways.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you Haku, I hope that friend of yours gets better real soon." Naruto said smiling at her one final time.

"It was nice to meet you as well Tenzo, I hope to see you again someday." Haku said, after that the two parted ways.

'Sooner then you think we will Haku, sooner then you think.' Naruto thought solemnly as he left.

After returning to the home and getting a very large, loud and long scolding from Kushina Naruto went to their given room and laid down to rest, the training the night before had left him drained so much to the point he even slept through to the next day.

"Mom, are you sure it's a good idea to leave Tenzo here by himself?" Mito asked as thy and team seven prepped to take Tazuna to the bridge, to many builder's had left and he needed the extra help from them to get the bridge finally finished on time.

"It will be all right mito, besides he still is recovering from the intense all night training he did yesterday and needs to get his chakra back up." Kushina said, she had found the sight where he had been cutting tree's and knew that Mira had taught him how to reinforce his blade with chakra to improve his strikes.

"If you're sure." Mito said consenting to this but, she still had a bad feeling about leaving him behind. A chill had passed through everyone the evening before and it was not something that left them feeling warm.

The group soon set out to the bridge, the plan was for team seven to keep a watch while team eleven and the two Sensei's helped out as much as they could with the bridge seeing how they were the only one's who could use shadow clones to speed up the work load.

When they arrived however the bridge was covered in a thick fog which made all of them on edge, traveling into it the soon found the bodies of wounded works.

"What happened here!" Tazuna demanded seeing his men were hurt, the shinobi stayed close to him as the fog seemed to thin out in front of him. Then the laugh came.

"Well, seems you were right Haku, they did send for reinforcements and what luck as well. Kushina Uzumaki, the Crimson Princess." Zabuza said as he and a masked figure stepped out of the mist.

"Zabuza Momochi, I see you live up to your title of the Demon of the Bloody Mist." Kushina said drawing her katana off her belt, the red and gold blade gleamed even within the dense mist.

Zabuza didn't reply as he scanned through his opponent's.

"Look's like the black haired brat isn't even here. Pity, and I wanted to see if he lived up to the rumors I've heard about him. Oh well, guess ill just have to settle for the other brat's." Zabuza said drawing his decapitating knife and holding it outright.

"Pick an opponent Haku, and let's get this show on the road." He ordered as he rushed forward, Kushina and Kakashi ran to meet him. Making the choice for her Mito and Naruko rushed forward with Sasuke right behind him as Sai and Sakura stayed to protect the bridge builder as the battle began.

Meanwhile back at the house Tsunami was in the kitchen washing up from breakfast, it was odd not having the house full as it had been for the past week. She looked around and found she needed a hand so she turned towards the stairs.

"Inari, can you come help me with the dishes." She called out to him, he had gotten better since Naruto's speech and seemed more spirited now then he had been before making it feel like he was back to his old self.

"Coming mom." Imari called from upstair, Tsunami smiled as she continued until she heard the sound of tearing and looked to see the wall in the living room being cut down, outside were two of gato's top guards.

"You're coming with us lady, Gato wants you." Waraji said as they walked in, Tsunami screamed in fright.

Inari quickly rushed downstair's when he heard his mother scream and came across the two samurai trying to drag her away, enraged he rushed forward to save her.

"Leave her alone!" He yelled kicking one in the shin, the man growled and hopped on one foot before smacking Inari with the scabbard of his sword.

"Gato said we only needed one of the two, so I think we'll take the women and kill the little brat." Zori said drawing his sword.

"Don't you dare touch him, if you do i'll bit my tongue and kill myself." Tsunami yelled trying to get them to stop and buy time.

"Ha, go ahead." Zori said and raised his sword to cut inure in half, Tsunami screamed as the sword came down, however it was stopped by—of all thing's— and apple hitting the man in the head dazing.

"You know, i'm not the type of person who hates people without a reason. Most of the time I only hate idiots who attack others and anyone who tries to harm a women, you two dumbasses however have just reached the top of my shit list for doing those two things at the same time." Naruto said leaning against the counter in only a pair of sweatpants and munching on some fruit he swiped.

"Beat it kid, maybe you'll live then." Waraji said, Zori was still dazed by the apple to the head.

"Wow, you don't really understand the purpose of a threat do you. Oh well, might as well get this over and done with." Naruto said, faster then either of two thugs could blink Naruto moved forward and slammed his fist into Zori's gut winding him and properly taking him out of the fight.

"YOU BRAT!" Waraji yelled and slashed at him with his sword to cut him down, yet each time Naruto simply calmly moved out of the way and avoided the blow.

"Stand still!" Waraji ordered as he kept trying.

"Why do people always say that, what reason do I have to stand still and let you cut me in half?" Naruto asked ducking under another swing.

Waraji yelled and become reckless allowing for Naruto to slam a palm to his face knocking him back, taking advantage of the stuff he jumped up and kicked him in the face knocking him cold.

"And that is how we do things." Naruto said taking another bite of the fruit, only to get nearly tackled hugged from Inari.

"You save me and mom." The kid said.

"Of course I did, what did you think I was going to stand around and let you two be killed while I ate breakfast. Hell no, I will never do something like that in my life and you better believe it." Naruto said before walking over and tying up the two goons.

"What are you going to do?" Tsunami asked him.

"I'm gonna get some info out of these two clown's to see what Gato is really up too, the two of you better get out of here before more people show up or something." Naruto said his voice becoming serious so they could tell it would be better to listen to him.

The two nodded and quickly grabbed a few thing's, they knew it would be better to listen to the shinobi as they didn't really want to see how he would get the information he wanted out of the two.

After the two of them left Naruto secured the bindings on the two goons before slapping them awake.

"Good morning boys, so what's gato been up to." Naruto asked simply, when the two didn't reply he smirked.

As Tsunami and Inari left they could heard the sounds of screams coming from the house, but not scream's of pain, more like screams of pure horror and disgust about something.

Back at the bridge the battle was not going as well as hoped it would, Zabuza moved more then a match for Kakashi and Kushina to have to struggle with, The three teens were not doing much better as Haku had them trapped in a dome of ice mirror's and continuously pepper them with frozen needles.

"It is no use trying to escape this, please simply give up, I do not wish to have to kill you." Haku said solemnly as she looked at the three wounded teenager's, Naruko and Mito were doing decently well thanks to the fox inside them but, sasuke was proving to be more of a hindrance since they were forced to protect him and his reckless nature.

"I'm an elite you commoner, only an Uchiha can defeat me." Sasuke yelled and ran forward to attack again.

"Your blatant arrogance is truly starting to get on my nerves, you show no support for your comrades and you disregard their wellbeing over fighting me." Haku said genuinely upset at that, it was something she had absolutely no tolerance for and she showed that by sticking sasuke full of needles again.

"We need a plan to deal with this." Mito whispered while haku was distracted.

"I think I have one, her mirrors use chakra and if she has to repair them it takes more. You distract her and i'll try and damage her mirror's with a Rasengan." Naruko said.

Mito nodded and proceeded to try and escape again, an act that gained the attention of Haku he threw more needles that peppered Mito to the point it actually harmed her.

"You will not be leaving this place." Haku said to them distracted.

"What to be beat, [Rasengan]." Naruko yelled using the moment of distraction to slam her family jutsu into the mirror drilling and grinding the ice to dust. Unable to keep it up for long even with the high amount of chakra she had she jumped back and looked at her handy work, only to be shocked when the mirror still began to fix itself.

"A nice try, but I expected something like this. Goodbye to you thin." Haku said about to unleash another storm when everyone stopped, the wind started to whip passed them at harsh speeds and a mighty roar accompanied it that shattered the ice like it was nothing and tossed the four further back down the bridge.

Meanwhile over with three jonin Kushina panted as she and Zabuza exchanged blow after blow with their swords, she hadn't realized just how out of practice she was until she had come face to face with Zabuza. Kakashi wasn't fairing much better with the amount of chakra he was eating up by trying to use his sharingan.

"You two are actually pretty decent, here I thought dealing with a bunch of kids would have made you lazy." Zabuza taunted as another exchange was met, Kushina growled and pushed him away before trying to cut him down where he stood.

"Don't ever insult my girls, they are far better then you could ever hope to be." She said her swings seemingly becoming more accurate and deadly the more she strove to protect her students and daughter's.

'Damn, even if it's been a few years since the last time she's been in a sword fight, The Crimson Princess hasn't lost her fangs over the year's. I better finish this up quick otherwise I may not be able to keep up forever, not to mention kakashi isn't doing me in favors.' Zabuza thought as he dodged another attacked from the spy cat ninja.

Suddenly the three were forced to stop as the wind whipped around them and a roar moved over the land, Zabuza was forced to embed his sword in the ground to keep himself stable and Kushina and Kakashi weren't doing much better.

When the wind died down Zabuza saw the three brat's as well as Haku were laying at the other end of the bridge, the wind having shattered the ice mirror's of Haku's Jutsu.

"You say your brat's are as good as me, then let's put that to the test." Zabuza said turning and rushing at the four wounded teens fully intent to cut down the two girls.

"No!" Kushina yelled and rushed after him to try and stop him but, even as she did she knew he would reach them first.

Naruko and Mito saw the attack and tried to move out of the way but, they were far to injured and tired to get away from the attack.

"To late!" Zabuza yelled and swung his sword, Naruko and Mito closed their eyes and waited foe the end. But, it never came. Rather the sound of metal screeching against metal was heard.

Opening their eyes they saw Tenzo standing in front of them, his sword drawn and parallel to his body as he fully blocked the heavy swing of Zabuza's sword shocking the man. His eyes were shadowed by his hair and his form seemed to ripple as he gazed at the bandaged man with a feral like fury.

Then his form shattered like glass to reveal and new one, one of blond hair, whisker marks, and blue eyes and five words were spoken that left the bridge in a stunned silence.

"Don't. Ever. Touch. My. Sister's."

Hello ladies and gentlemen, it's me Tenzo.
So here it is, man I bet no one saw that coming ha. Naruto has revealed himself while defending his sisters and now we shall see what will be the consequences.
Now I know a lot of people wanted me to do a Kushina and Zabuza fight but, I feel it will be so much more interesting it we do Naruto and Zabuza for a time. The next chapter I will warn you is going to go off the beaten path, but hey it will be cool.
Anyway, that's it for now. Like, review, and all that. PEACE.