In response to all of the PM's and reviews I'm getting, yes, I have seen XxXKyuubiNarutoXxX's story, and yes, I did start writing mine long before he started his. Please stop messaging me regarding this, I am working on talking with him about this issue!

Chapter 11: Battle! Mist Assassin Zabuza!

"Wow, it's huge!" Naruto said in awe. Team 7 and their employer were currently in a boat traveling up one of the many rivers of Wave country. "True, and that's why Gatouu considers it such a threat. A small bridge he can buy and control, but a bridge this size can be used for mass transport of people and goods, uncontrollable by any one person." Tazuna responded, noting with pleasure the look on the kids faces at their first sight of the bridge.

"Tazuna-san, we'll follow the part of the river with the most vegetation. It will make us harder to spot." The boat pilot commented to the elderly bridge builder.

"Won't that be harder to paddle through?" Sakura asked.

"Hai, but we have little choice, if we are spotted we are easy pray for enemies." The pilot answered.

"If we're going through vegetation, I can pull us along." Naruto said.

"I don't see how, unless you can walk on water and pull us with a rope." The pilot responded doubtfully.

"Nah, I got something much better in mind." Naruto answered. Without warning, the plants started to propel the boat along at a rapid pace.

"H-how is t-this possible?" the pilot asked, frightened.

"I can control plants; it doesn't matter where they are. I'm just making them push us along, it saves energy this way, and there's less chance we'll be heard if we aren't splashing around with paddles." The kitsune boy replied nonchalantly.

After five minutes of 'petal powered' travel, the group reached their destination, a small pier that Tazuna claimed was the closest to his home. After the ninja team had disembarked, the pilot started the motor at the back of his small boat and motored away.

"Now, let's get going." Itachi said. He wanted to get his team into some defensible position, he had no doubt that their enemies were already on the move and that they wouldn't hesitate to kill his three genin as well as himself to get what they wanted. Not that I couldn't handle just about anything that they throw at us, but I won't be able to do a damn thing if they try to attack the kids while I'm occupied with another opponent. Itachi thought, slightly worried.

As the group passed by a group of bushes, Sasuke and Naruto both threw a senbon into the brush at the same time. "Thought we saw someone there." Sasuke answered for both as his cousin and teammate checked the brush. Just below where the needles had struck into the tree trunk was a snow white rabbit, the needles mere centimeters above its head right between the ears. "Poor bunny, you shouldn't spook people like that." Sakura said as she scooped the rabbit up. That's a snow rabbit, but there only white when they haven't been in the sun for a long time. That means it was meant for kawarimi, they were right, someone was there! Itachi thought, the pieces falling into place in his mind.

"Everyone, down NOW!" Itachi ordered, tackling Sakura and Tazuna while Naruto and Sasuke both dove for the ground. In the space where their heads had just occupied a huge sword flew through the air like a shuriken, burying itself halfway in the tree trunk. "Excellent, it seems that you aren't an ordinary jonin or your team ordinary genin. I wandered how you managed to beat the Demon Brothers without taking any real injuries, but now it seems I'll be able to find out first hand!" said the figure who appeared on the sword's handle.

"Zabuza, ranked number twelve in the BINGO book, Hidden Mist's greatest assassin and one of their legendary 'Seven Swordsmen'. Damn, don't we get all the luck?" Naruto commented dryly as he and Sasuke stood back up. Naruto had already drawn his katana and Sasuke had pulled on a pair of fingerless gloves, both preparing to use their respective EX styles. "Team, go to swastika formation." Itachi ordered.

His team didn't miss a beat and instantly formed a protective triangle around Tazuna, all facing out. "Aniki, are you sure you want to fight him alone?" Sasuke asked.

"Don't think like that. This guy is on a completely different level than the two we fought earlier. Right now, our biggest concern is to protect Tazuna-san." Itachi said, never taking his eyes off his opponent.

"Hmm, it seems that you won't let me fulfill my objectives that easily, but I doubt that you'll be able to fight me and protect your little team all at the same time." Zabuza said.

"Don't have to, but you'll still be a little bit fun to fight unless I activate these." Itachi said, activating his normal Sharingan.

"Ahh, you must be Sharingan no Itachi, it truly is an honor!" Zabuza said, mildly impressed. With that, the nuke-nin flipped off the sword, pulling it from the trunk of the tree and landed in the middle of a small lake. "Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu." Zabuza said, raising one arm straight up. Mist started rolling off the lake, reducing visibility to zero. Damn, the killer intent rolling off of those two, I can't stand it! A jonin, determined to make his kill, knowing that your life is in his hands, you almost want to kill yourself just to end the suspense! Sasuke thought grimly, his hands balling into fists so tightly that if he wasn't gloved would have cut them open.

"Don't worry, Otouto. I won't let any of you die." Itachi said, reassuring his team.

"Do you really think you'll be able to do that?" a voice asked, seemingly from everywhere. "There are eight vital targets: throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, the jugular vein, the subclavian vein, kidneys and heart. Which vital, deadly target should I attack first?" Zabuza suddenly appeared in front of Tazuna, his sword ready to kill both the bridge builder and the genin in one slash. As he attempted to go through with that course of action a vine stopped his sword in midair and held it fast. What's going on! Zabuza thought.

"Surprised? Don't be, my student Naruto can control plants. It's an Absolute Defense!" Itachi said, appearing in front of Zabuza, kunai drawn. "Just watch this then!" Zabuza roared both himself and the sword turning into puddles of water. Kuso! Mizu Bunshin! Itachi cursed silently. "Aniki, behind you!" Naruto shouted. Itachi spun around, stabbing Zabuza in the gut with his kunai, the nuke-nin had been trying to attack Itachi from behind. Instead of blood pouring from the wound, water poured out, 'Zabuza' was nothing more than another Mizu Bunshin. "Look out!" Sasuke shouted, hoping that his brother would duck in time. He was too late, 'Itachi' was sliced in half, and 'Zabuza' was slain by a shuriken. Crap, he was able to copy my Mizu Bunshin technique in this fog! Zabuza cursed.

"Don't move, it's game over for you, Zabuza!" Itachi said, a kunai pressed to the nuke-nin's throat.

"Oh really? I don't think so!" replied the masked ninja, once again dissolving into water. Itachi leapt forward, barely dodging a downward slash from Zabuza. Unfortunately, this landed Itachi right in the middle of the river.

"I have you now! Suirou no Jutsu!" Zabuza shouted, trapping Itachi in a large sphere of water. Crap, I played right into his hand! It's all up to Sasuke and Naruto now! Itachi cursed.

Zabuza formed another Mizu Bunshin on land, who drew his sword and charged. "You really think that you can just trap my aniki and get away with it? You fool." Sasuke said, drawing a handful of senbon. Suddenly, the entire group sensed a massive amount of killer intent. Sasuke looked over at his cousin, and saw something seem to explode within him.

Naruto seemed to just disappear, then reappear an inch to Zabuza's left, fist reared back. "TAKE THIS!" He roared, punching the clone with all of his power. The clone went flying a good 60 feet. "Holy. Fuck." Zabuza said, quickly forming another clone. There's no possible way he could be that strong! The kid can't possibly be human! Zabuza thought, trying to assess his situation.

"Sakura, take Tazuna and run!" Sasuke ordered.

"Nani? Why should I?" the pink haired genin asked.

"Because he can't control the bunshin if it gets more than a certain distance away from his body. Go, Nii-chan and I can handle this." The raven haired boy said.

"But I thought we didn't abandon our comrades?" Sakura asked.

"You aren't abandoning us, you're making a tactical withdrawal, moving the enemies target out of his reach. Don't talk anymore, just run!"

Sakura did as ordered, and Sasuke prepared to back up his cousin.

Time for the old tried and true. Naruto thought, forming a hand seal. "Kage bunshin no jutsu." He said, causing fifty shadow clones to appear.

"Hmm, Kage Bunshins, and a lot of them." The clone said, looking mildly impressed. "Too bad, though, you can't beat me with just clones. Prepare yourself!" without further warning, the clone drew it's sword and rushed the clones.

"Bad move, Thousand Blade Tempest!" the clones shouted in unison, tossing up impact shuriken in the air. This does not look good. Zabuza thought, slightly worried. The clone rushed forward, slicing several Narutos in half and sending several more flying. "Nii-san, catch!" the 'real' Naruto shouted, tossing a folded fuuma shuriken to his cousin. An instant later the rest of the Narutos as well as the copy of Zabuza were pelted with 50,000 impact shuriken. Zabuza went wide eyed with surprise, he had never seen anyone use that particular technique with explosives before, and he could see that the results were rather hard to argue with. There was a rather large hole where his copy should have been, and there was only a single visible kage bunshin still standing.

"Prepare, yourself! Fuuma shuriken, Shadow Windmill!" Sasuke said, opening the shuriken. He flipped into the air for momentum and threw the windmill throwing star at the real Zabuza.

"Feh, unmodified shuriken are useless against me!" Zabuza said, catching the shuriken. And nearly got his arm ripped off for his troubles. Fuck! Just how strong are these kids!? He silently cursed. Looking up, he realized his troubles were just beginning. A second shuriken in the shadow of the first?! Zabuza jumped over the second throwing star, looking back to land to see a smirking Sasuke.

"At least your using your head as well as that brute strength, too bad you missed." Zabuza commented.

"Did he?" Itachi asked.

Zabuza looked behind him and found that the second shuriken had just transformed into Naruto, katana raised.

"EX Blade Style: Throw Blade!" Naruto shouted just before going under, sending the blade of energy between Zabuza and the water prison. Rather than lose his arm, Zabuza dropped the water prison technique and jumped backwards.

"Excellent performance, making me chose between losing my arm or dropping my jutsu. Still, no mimicking apes are going to defeat me!" Zabuza said.

"You didn't drop your jutsu; it was unraveled by the teamwork of brothers! But now, we have it out, no more tricks!" Itachi said, preparing to fight Zabuza once more.

"Feh, you think you can beat me? Then take this!" both Zabuza and Itachi started forming hand seals, ending on the rooster seal. "Suiton Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" they cried at the same time. Dragons made of water burst from the river behind each ninja, crashing into and canceling one another out. When the splash fell down, Zabuza and Itachi were deadlocked against one another, Zabuza with his giant sword and Itachi with his katana, each exerting the exact same amount of force into their weapons.

Crap, he's got that… Zabuza thought.

"Sickeningly evil glint in his eye, right?" Itachi finished.

Fuck, can he…

"Read my mind?" Itachi finished again.

"Feh, you're just a mimicking parrot, I'm the genuine article. I'll shut that beak of your's for good!" Zabuza said, jumping back.

"Very well then, lets see just how much of a genuine article you are!" Itachi replied.

Both started forming hand seals again, but Zabuza saw something that made him lock up completely. I-is that me? He thought, seeing a copy of himself appear behind Itachi. He didn't realize that Itachi had already finished the string of seals. "Suiton Daibakufu no Jutsu!" Itachi shouted, sending a large blast of water at the stunned nuke-nin.

"What, can you see the future?" the downed nin asked, staring up at Itachi.

"I foresee your death!" Itachi said, raising his katana.

Before Itachi could strike, two senbon struck Zabuza in the back of the neck, causing him to fall over. "It looks like your prediction came true, Zabuza really did die." Said a young feminine voice.

Naruto surfaced to see a young girl about his age in a Kiri hunter-nin mask with pigtails standing on a tree branch. Itachi walked over to Zabuza's body, checking for a pulse. He really is dead! A hunter nin that young, this seems fishy. Itachi thought, looking up at the girl.

"Gomen for taking away your kill, but I have been looking for a chance to kill Zabuza for several weeks now. Your work with him is done, and I must dispose of the body, lest it gives up our secrets." The girl said, picking up Zabuza and using a teleportation jutsu.

"Damn, a hunter nin. I guess that we only were able to help her finish her job, but we still have ours to do." Sasuke said, helping Naruto out of the water.

"Your right, lets go get Sakura and Tazuna and get to his house. Are you feeling alright Otouto?" Itachi asked Naruto.

"Mostly, just a headache. Didn't mean to use up all that emotional energy all at once." The kitsune boy replied weakly, supported by Sasuke's shoulder. Itachi nodded, he knew that there were downsides to berserker powers, and Naruto was feeling the aftereffects. "Don't worry too much, we'll get to Tazuna's house and then you can sleep." Itachi said.

"That was incredible! I thought you guys were just jokers when we left your village, now I can see that your much more than anything I had hoped for!" Tazuna exclaimed.

"We're not out of danger just yet, let's hurry on." Itachi said.

"Yes, of course." Tazuna agreed.

--Elsewhere—

The hunter-nin set Zabuza's body down on his side, carefully removing the senbon from his neck. Immediately after the needles where removed, Zabuza got back up.

"Damn, those kids are stronger than anyone could possibly guess just by looking at them. Haku, hand me my bottle." Zabuza said, sitting up and rubbing his neck.

"Zabuza-san, you really should cut back on your alcohol consumption." The girl replied, holding the bottle just out of reach.

"I know, but let me indulge in this vice just once. I'll need about three days to get back up to 100, but after that, we pay our little friends from out of town a visit." Zabuza said, taking the bottle from the girl.

I just hope that nothing bad happens to you between now and then. I can't stand the thought of losing my last precious person! Haku thought, eyeing the elder nin critically.

A/N: Well, you guys asked for bigger fight scenes, you got bigger fight scenes! I hadn't really planned on this, but I'm doing it any way, should Sasuke be paired with Haku? Also, just to clarify, Naruto is exhausted after going berserk because berserkers, instead of burning chakra for power, burn emotional energy, which is much more powerful but is in far less supply. Naruto can burn power from any emotion he felt powerfully within the last 24 hours. Next chapter will introduce a new power I thought up for Sasuke, as well as reveal a bit more of the back story of the members of the team. Voting ends on Wednesday, November 15. Please Read and Review! This is your one and only Shining Pheonix signing off.