Hey y'all! Welcome back for the next chappie for Chasms of Sixteen. Hopefully y'all are enjoying it so far. If not, then oh well, at least I tried I suppose. Hehes
I hope you all enjoy what happens this time. Please remember to favorite, follow, etc. along with leaving some nice reviews.
Chapter 12: Shockwave
"You forgot the femoral artery and Achilles tendon," comments the jinchurriki, diffusing the aura of doom that Zabuza has built up. "If the femoral artery if cut causes excessive bleeding to occur to swiftly kill the victim. If the Achilles tendon is cut you're pretty much screwed in a fight."
Without further adieu, Zabuza jumps to land in the middle of the defense formation Team 7 is in, preparing to sever the four in half, only to be blocked by Kakashi, "You bark too much for your own good, kid."
The three genin and one civilian immediately jump away from the two jounin, giving them room to fight. Water leaks out of the wound Kakashi has made in Zabuza's stomach before said missing-nin suddenly turns into a puddle of water. He reappears behind Kakashi, swinging his sword. The legendary Copy Ninja doesn't have time to dodge, being cut in half.
"Sensei!" Sakura screams out in alarm. Suddenly, the blood and flesh turns to water, making her feel like a fool.
"So, you already have copied my jutsu by the time you make your little speech," says Zabuza, seeing Kakashi materializing behind him as a kunai presses at his throat.
"Give up. It's over," Kakashi says, playing the part of the ultra-cool jounin while Zabuza merely smirks at him.
"Oh really?" Asks the enemy, doubting he really thinks it's going to be that easy of a victory.
Kakashi's visible eye widens as he slits the water clone's throat, spinning to defend against the opponent which has appeared behind him. He isn't fast enough though. Managing to kick him into the water pleases him greatly.
Good thing I'm able to escape into the lake, Kakashi thought. Hey wait, there's something wrong. This water's unusually dense…
He starts when a voice calls out, "Suirou no Jutsu!"
Mentally slapping himself on the forehead, Kakashi thought, Oh, right, he's a water ninja…
"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu," calls out Zabuza, forming a clone of himself in front of the three genin.
"You three! Run! You can't hope to beat Zabuza! He's using all of his power to hold me and his water clone can't go far from his body! Take the bridge builder and get the hell out of here before he kills you! Stay on mission!" Kakashi yells at his team.
Sorry sensei, no can do, Sasuke thought, "If we run then he'll just hunt us down to kill us later. Running stops being an option the moment you get caught.'
Without warning, Sasuke charges right at Zabuza, jumping into the air. The water clone easily blocks his attack to send him flying onto the ground. Stepping on the Uchiha's chest, he applies pressure so as to slowly crack the ribs located under his foot. Sasuke let out a scream of pain as he feels his ribs begin to give under the pressure.
"Leave Sasuke alone, you bastard," growls Naruto, charging the clone without a moment of hesitation.
The clone only smirks as he sends Naruto flying back along with Sasuke with him, "Pathetic. The three of you have forehead protectors as if you're ninja. But the word ninja refers to someone who has gone through numerous life and death situations. In other words, you may be able to call yourself a ninja when you become so deadly that your profile appears in my bingo book. When you hover on the line between life and death so many time that it ceases to faze you, then you may earn the title ninja. But to call upstarts like you ninja… Is a joke!"
The Zabuza clone forms a hand seal as he disappears again, only to reappear when he kicks Naruto in the stomach, sending the blonde genin flying with his headband flying off. The Zabuza clone smirks again as he steps on the metal plate.
"You need to listen to your sensei," says Zabuza, wondering why these genin are being so stubborn asi f they're hoping for a death sentence today. "There's no way a bunch of brats like you can ever hope to beat someone like me."
"That's what you think," glares Naruto, charging the clone as he's once again sent flying back, but this time his efforts are not in vain.
What he manages is to recover his headband, before he then proceeds to speak, "Hey, freak with no eyebrows, put this in your bingo book!"
"What is that?" Asks Zabuza, guessing he can appease him.
Naruto then begins tying his headband onto his forehead, looking up determinedly, "The future Hokage, he never gives up or backs down on his word! His name's Uzumaki Naruto!"
Sasuke smirks a little at his speech. It's something typical of the him to do like that. Sakura merely shakes her head at Naruto's foolishness. Kakashi cracks a small smile, knowing how Minato might be if he were around to hear him say those words.
"Alright guys! Let's go wild," announces Naruto. Grinning as he forms the ram seal to shout. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!'
Over fifty clones poof in around the missing-nin. All of them draw their kunai and shurriken.
Looking around, Zabuza says as if unimpressed, "Shadow clones. Impressive. But still not enough."
"I'll make you eat your words," one of the clones shouts as on some unknown signal all of them charge except their actions are to no avail.
The Zabuza clone quickly throws them off, popping many to send the real Naruto skidding. The only remaining blonde then pulls a fuuma shuriken out of his pack to throw it to Sasuke. Catching the large weapon, Sasuke recognizes the faint chakra signature coming off it.
So that's your plan, he thought. Jumping in the air as he throws his own shuriken along with the one Naruto has passed him for both to go around the clone.
Zabuza manages to catch the first one, jumping over the second. He feels quite confident in his ability, but then the sight of the Uchiha smirking throws him off balance to make him replay the previous scene. Before he can arrive to any conclusions that might explain the expression on the usually stoic male's face, the shuriken that has been tossed behind him disappears in a poof of smoke to reveal Naruto. The trickster throws a barrage of kunai at the real Zabuza, forcing him to leap away from Kakashi to release the prison of water.
"You brat," growls out Zabuza, preparing to swing the fuuma shuriken at Naruto, only to be blocked by Kakashi instead.
"Your fight's with me," the jounin states, glaring daggers at him to even dare harming his comrades.
He straightens on the water, leaping away from Zabuza. Scowling, the Demon of the Mist begins gathering chakra for his attack. Taking advantage of the fact that the two are currently distracted, Naruto quietly swims to the shore to crawl out. His two teammates, and Tazuna all watch intently as the two high level jounin battle until finally Kakashi, using his sharingan, is able to gain the upper hand, overpowering Zabuza's waterfall jutsu, sending the missing-nin barreling back into the woods to be pinned against a tree. Throwing two kunai at him, Kakashi prepares to finish off Zabuza.
"C-Can you see the future?" Zabuza asks, scared of how Kakashi has been able to predict everything from the jutsu he's going to use to the words he's going to say.
"Yes," answers Kakashi firmly. "And your future… Is death!"
Before the jounin can land a finishing blow, though, two senbon impale Zabuza in the side of the neck, seeming to kill him. Suddenly, a hunter-nin appears on one of the tree branches. He has been so close to finishing him off too. Though it doesn't bother him if he's not the one to send him to the final burial ground.
"Who are you?" Sakura shouts in challenge.
"I am a hunter-nin from Kirigakure. I'm assigned to kill Zabuza. Thank you for incapacitating him for me."
"Stand down, Sakura. He's right," says Kakashi, assuring her that this guy seems to be telling the truth from what they can tell.
Jumping down to the forest floor, the hunter-nin says, "If you don't mind, I will now take this body to dispose of."
Shortly after that, he disappears in a swirl of leaves, transporting away. Kakashi soon turns his attention to head over to Tazuna's house, but collapses before he can go very far.
"Sensei!" Sakura calls out.
"He's fine. He just used up too much chakra," says Naruto, going over to help. "Come on; let's get him to Tazuna-san's house."
She nods, trying to pick up her sensei, but she's having trouble. Seeing this, Naruto assists to their sensei's other side, allowing the two genin to carry Kakashi to safety, Sasuke trailing behind with Tazuna taking the lead.
"Are you alright?" Tsunami asks when she sees the masked ninja waking up as he groans in response.
"What happened?"
"You passed out from chakra exhaustion," Sasuke replies as he's been passing by the doorway to see that his sensei is finally up, deciding to raise the issue of what's going on.
Before the raven can say anything, Kakashi orders, "Go find the others. I have something to tell the three of you."
"Hn," grunts Sasuke in confirmation, walking out of the room.
Ten minutes later all three members of Team 7 gathers in their sensei's room. Tazuna also comes in to join, curious of what this might be about in particular. Kakashi is able to sense a sixth presence beyond that of the five here, assuming it's the grandson that Tazuna has spoken of earlier.
"What do you want to tell us sensei?" Asks Naruto, anticipating what is to come next.
"I think that Zabuza might still be alive," he announces as everyone in the room gasps in disbelief.
"But how?" Wonders Sakura in shock.
"Now that I think about it, a hunter-nin is suppose to dispose the body on the spot, in order to help eliminate risk of the body's secrets getting out. That hunter-nin grabbed the body and left. I think he might have been on Zabuza's side all along…. The whole charade with him pretending to kill Zabuza is just that, a trick meant to throw us of course, and have us believe that the danger is over. It also serves to safely remove Zabuza from any danger he might be in," explains Kakashi to the group in here with him.
"Makes sense. So, are we going to train in case the two of them come back?" Questions the blonde.
"Hai. I won't be able to fight for a week, but I will be able to train you three. Meet me outside this house tomorrow morning," Kakashi tells his team sternly.
"Hatake-san, don't you think that you need to rest a bit longer in order to give your leg more time to heal?" Tsunami asks worriedly.
"No, but thank you for your concern. I'm a ninja and have had much more debilitating injuries than this," assures Kakashi.
"Alright…. Just be careful."
Oks, that's the end of chappie twelve. I apologize if it's a little short. Trust me, it's for a good reason. Mainly because I can't possibly revise a ten thousand word amount in one shot. I have to break it up into smaller chappies so I can update regularly enough.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed. The next chappie will be out shortly whenever it's finished being revised. Hopefully that won't be too long of a wait for it. Until then, please remember to review, darlings!