The Psychic, The Swordsman, and The Sorcerer
Chapter 12
None of the intellectual properties utilized in this fanfic belong to me. Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto, J K Rowling owns Harry Potter, Stan Lee created the X-Men, who are owned by Marvel, and Zorro was created by Johnston McCulley and is legally in the Public Domain, despite Zorro Production Inc. claiming otherwise. Other than that, there's not much else to say except that this chapter will begin with a Sai interlude, the results of which will be seen in the next chapter, as will the contents of Sasuke's letter. Fun Fact: In the classic stories and the Disney series, Bernardo would occasionally provide an alibi for Don Diego by dressing as Zorro when Diego was being detained.
Sai was very concerned. The clone that Naruto had used to keep his identity secret had been damaged and Sai had no way of making a duplicate that would resemble his boss. This was not good, as that meant that someone could figure out that he was Zorro by piecing together the fact that one was out on a mission and the other wasn't able to be found. How could Sai fix the matter and keep his boss' identity a secret?
Suddenly, a burst of inspiration took hold of the mute artist/valet. Rushing to Naruto's room, Sai quickly enacted his plan. Spiking his hair up, he quickly donned one of the blond's orange outfits. If the people needed to see Naruto Uzumaki, he would show them a Naruto Uzumaki.
Kakashi woke up in an interesting situation when he woke up at three in the morning. He was fairly certain, after all, that he hadn't been tied to a bed floating down a waterfall. As he broke his bonds and leapt to safety, he was treated to the sound of the bed being destroyed by the sharpened rocks below. He was glad that he had managed to escape, as there was no way that there could have been more to it.
It was therefore shocking to him when he noticed the giant x underneath his feet. How the beehive had been catapulted hard enough to break against his chest, he would never know, as his mind was more occupied with the bees that were attempting to sting him. Using Chidori to make the bees fly to their death, he was certain that the worst was behind him. Were it any other universe he would be right. With the bees gone, he'd felt safe enough to try to find his way back to the village, and he'd been rather close, with no incident coming his way. The loud growls he could hear behind him told him his trouble were far from over.
When he returned to the house at the crack of dawn, rather painfully injured, he quietly woke the client to get him ready to go, certain that he could sneak out and not deal with the monsters. To his misfortune, Sasuke was awake as he said, "Do I wake the others, Professor Kakashi?"
"No," Kakashi said, thinking quickly, "We need someone to guard the client's family. You and I will go with Tazuna."
"Yes sir," Sasuke responded. Inwardly, Kakashi smiled. At least Sasuke was marginally sane. Noticing a light mist ahead of them, Kakashi pushed the client behind him, realizing that Zabuza was going to make his move.
When Zorro entered the hallway, he noticed that Sakura was strangely silent as she floated towards the living room. Following her cue, he stepped silently before Sakura turned and mentally said, "Two mercenaries that work for Gato are currently trying to kidnap Tsunami and the kid, but the boy tried to save his mom. I think those men need a lesson in good manners."
Uncoiling his whip, Zorro grinned. This was the perfect way to start a morning. Charging into the room, he struck the two men in the eyes while Sakura launched a pair of small fireballs at the two blinded men.
Once they were freed from their bonds, Inari remarked, "You two took a long time to get here."
"Don't you know?" Sakura smirked before Zorro interrupted.
"Heroes always arrive in the nick of time," he grinned, handing the boy a small knife, " Search for a safe house for you both to stay in and do not leave there until we arrive to bring you home."
With that, the pair left, preparing for the next battle.
With Kakashi and Sasuke, things were going fairly well. While Kakashi was managing to fight Zabuza fairly well despite his many injuries from the events he would never recount until his dying day, the fake hunter nin had managed to trap the self-proclaimed wizard in a dome of ice, where the fake hunter nin was able to move quickly to evade any spell being cast. Fortunately, Sasuke had access to an Invisibility Cloak, however, which gave him the edge that he needed to keep from being hit by the senbon. As both of the people in the dome started to get tired, Sasuke was pleased to see a flash of red and orange steadily growing larger outside the dome. As he threw himself to the ground, Invisibility Cloak still hiding him as the ice dome dissipated into a steam that surprisingly didn't scald either of the combatants.
The next thing Haku knew, she was having to dodge a bola thrown by the masked swordsman, who leapt off of his black horse. Throwing a senbon at him, she was shocked to see him duck down and throw a knife that he pulled out of his left boot, stopping the senbon as it flew towards her. Haku immediately dodged, only to have to quickly put up an ice shield to block a blast of fire. Using her bloodline, Haku then created several small blades to lash out at her opponent, all thoughts of holding back gone in favor of the need to survive this fight. As she leapt out of the way of a red beam of light fired by the stick the boy in the cloak was wielding, she felt her mask crack slightly as the swordsman struck with his bullwhip, breaking Haku's concentration.
Noticing his tool/daughter figure was in dire straits, Zabuza knocked Kakashi aside with the flat of his blade. He was immediately greeted by a strangely cheerful Zorro, who said, "Ah, you look well for a man who died. Are you feeling well?"
Zabuza didn't respond to the younger swordsman, determined to get his assistant out of her current predicament. To his surprise, the pink haired girl, who'd been inspecting Haku throughout the battle put herself between the two orphans, holding her hands up as she said, "If we're done here, I think we've got something more important to deal with."
"You're not much of a demon, Zabuza," Gato said derisively, causing the adult swordsman and the jounin instructor who had planned on intervening if things started to go badly for his talented students to turn and see the businessman and his army of mercenaries, "I suppose I can have my men kill you now rather than wait for one of you to kill the other."
"A test of skill?" Zorro smirked, turning to face Zabuza as he created several shadow clones.
"We could've used kids like you back in Kiri," Zabuza nodded, "Gato's mine, though."
"Of course," the younger smirked, replacing his bullwhip as he drew his rapier, "Shall we?"
"It would probably be best," Haku said, preparing to throw several senbon and create a shield whenever necessary.
To everyone's surprise, rather than have them waste energy, Sakura struck at the men in the front with two streams of flame as she flew past them, causing them to leap away and form an easy path for Zabuza to reach Gato.
"Or Sakura could do that," Sasuke noted dryly as Zabuza charged at his panicked target.
With Gato fallen, his mercenaries seemed to not know how to react until one shouted, "Hey, that was the guy who paid us! What are we supposed to do now?"
"Let's raid the village!" one of the men called out, seeming to have forgotten the dangerous people between the group and the village. This statement was met with a crossbow bolt landing in front of the army. Turning to see what the commotion was, the group of shinobi were shocked to se the villagers of Wave standing there, all armed, as Inari cocked his crossbow.
"Go away," the boy said, aiming his weapon at one of the mercenaries.
With that, the army disbanded, returning to their boats as they fled as quickly as possible. Smirking at Inari, Zorro remarked, "You took quite a bit of time to arrive."
"Don't you know," the boy smiled, "Heroes always arrive in the nick of time."
"Truer words have never been said," the swordsman grinned, patting the boy on the head. Heading off, the boy greeted the older swordsman, who was fussing over his still-masked companion, "Hello again, Zabuza Momochi. Where will your quest take you next?"
"Not sure yet," Zabuza admitted, "This job was going to bring us even closer to the funding we needed, but now. . ."
"Why not go to Konoha?" he asked, "I have never faced as skilled an opponent with weapons as either of you, and I believe that you could do well there."
"I'd rather reclaim my home," Zabuza replied, before casting a glance at his protege, "But I suppose that could wait. Haku here could do well with a stable environment. Just give me some time to think about it."
Giving a whistle that could be heard from a great distance, Zorro smiled and said, "Very well, Zabuza Momochi and Haku. I hope that you will be able to find the stability she needs either way."
As the pair were struck dumb by the fact that Zorro knew Haku's gender, the young swordsman leapt onto Tornado and rode off, only pausing in front of a setting sun as Tornado kicked his front legs off the ground and Zorro thrust his sword into the air before riding off into said sunset.
