Here we go, new chapter, hot off the...keyboard...? Nonsensical jokes aside, I just can't win. Personal difficulties resulting in 24/7 pounding headaches, caught the same sickness I had before within a day of getting better, exhaustion, et cetera. But that's my life, so it's to be expected. Sorry if this seems delayed for that, but to make it up, I'll be giving you guys an extra something-or-other for Christmas time reading.
Obvious disclaimer is obvious, but I don't own anything here, from Naruto to Kingdom Hearts to any and all references I make. Enjoy.
As the mist fell and the battle between shinobi seemed to end as quickly as it began, the four Genin and Tazuna could only look on in shock at the speed with which the two combatants had fought. Before they could even process the events that had transpired right in front of their very eyes, Asuma addressed Zabuza, a stern look on his face that the younger shinobi rarely saw.
"It's over, Zabuza - give up before this gets any worse for you than it already is," he stated, light glinting off his trench knife, close enough to Zabuza's neck that he could almost feel the chill of the metal.
However, Asuma's warning went unheeded. Instead, Zabuza's jaw muscle shifted, and even with the bandages blocking view of his face, it was clear to Asuma that the rogue swordsman was smirking in regards to his statement. The reason for this became extremely clear to the Konoha Jounin almost instantly, and as he moved to turn, the Zabuza he had believed to be defeated suddenly turned to water. Before Asuma could complete his motion and prevent the maneuver he had anticipated, yet another Zabuza appeared and grabbed his extended arm, hurling him with tremendous force in the direction of the lake.
Caught off-guard and unable to right himself, Asuma quickly found himself submerged in the lake. As soon as he had control again, he swam up, only to be met with the sight of his opponent's palm pointed at him. Eyes widened as the water he was in rose up around his body, before coming together and imprisoning him in a bubble of chakra-infused water. Zabuza, left hand touching the water prison to keep him trapped, raised his free hand into a half-seal, summoning another water clone partway between himself and the Genin team, laughing darkly.
"Like I said, it's too late. You'll get to watch them die regardless!"
Unable to breathe, and thus speak, inside the water sphere, Asuma could only watch on, hoping the Genin would be wise and leave. To his horror, however, Naruto stepped out of formation with a look of dogged determination on his face, holding his wounded hand up for a brief moment before raising both into a hand-seal. Index and middle fingers of both hands were held up into a cross-shape, and the blonde glared at Zabuza and his clone.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he said, his tone flat, yet full of vigor. As soon as the name was called, dozens of clones of himself appeared and rushed the clone, while the real Naruto reached under his coat. His three teammates immediately understood his will to fight and closed their formation to make up for his gap, each keeping a watchful eye in every direction.
Completely surrounding the water clone, Naruto's own clone force attempted to dog-pile it, in an attempt to beat it down. Unfortunately, a single swing of the sword was all it took for the clone to dispel each and every one of the blonde Genin's miniature army, prompting a laugh from both creator and clone. Unbeknownst to him, though, this was just a ploy to distract him for a moment. In the same instant that the fake Zabuza had lost vision of them, Naruto pulled a massive, four-bladed weapon from his coat, and turned to hurl it towards his teammates.
"Tenten, go!" he shouted, and the brunette immediately knew what he wanted.
Without skipping a beat, she grabbed the weapon by the ring the blades were attached to, and with a flick of the wrist, fanned them out, revealing the weapon to be a massive throwing tool, the Fuuma Shuriken. With all her might she flung the massive tool at the clone, its monstrous form tearing through the air like a saw blade.
In less than a second the humongous bladed weapon had reached the water clone, but to everyone's shock, he caught it with little effort; that is, he caught the first one. Hidden within the shadow of the previous shuriken was a second, traveling perfectly to go unnoticed. Shocked by the sudden appearance of the secondary weapon, the clone turned and watched its path go straight towards the real Zabuza. Unable to deal with the shuriken in the same way as his clone, due to maintaining the water prison, the shirtless swordsman leapt over its path, his jaw shifting again to denote his smirk.
That is, until a large cloud of smoke engulfed the second shuriken, before parting and revealing Naruto hanging in mid-air, where the blade was previously. When Tenten had flung the first shuriken, Naruto quickly transformed and left a shadow clone in his place, having Tenten throw the fake shuriken in the path of the second with even greater force to catch up to it. With the clone occupied by the first and Zabuza stuck in the air, it was the perfect opportunity to strike.
Quickly slipping into his kunai pouch, the boy procured the items in question and hurled two at Zabuza. Now without any other options, the man canceled his technique and moved out of the way of the final attack. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he grabbed the handle of his sword and prepared to swing at the defenseless Naruto, but was interrupted by the sensation of sharp metal slamming into his ribcage. Glancing down quickly, he spotted Asuma burying his fist into his body, a heavy glare burning into Zabuza's gaze. Almost as soon as the sensation hit him he was sent flying backwards, and over the lake. Before splashing in as Asuma had before, the Demon righted himself, a blue haze appearing over his feet as they touched water, and he stood atop it.
At the same time, Naruto himself fell into the lake, surfacing with a splutter to see his sudden plan's success. However, this was short-lived as he suddenly felt himself being pulled out of the water and flung back to land by none other than Asuma, standing and walking on water just as Zabuza had. Ino, Choji, Tazuna and Naruto all stared in amazement seeing the both of them doing the impossible, while Tenten was more focused on how this fight would continue.
"You're really getting on my nerves..." Zabuza stated, clutching his left side, where Asuma's strike connected. A thin stream of blood trickled down from beneath his hand, indicating that the serrated edge of the trench knife had indeed cut him, and pain in his voice indicated at least one rib had broken.
"Yeah, same can be said to you. I'm not letting you get out of here after threatening my team," responded Asuma, settling into his boxer-like stance. Neither shinobi budged from their spots, sizing each other up and looking for a potential opening.
And suddenly, both shinobi launched towards each other without warning, as though some hidden signal commanded them to move. Zabuza was first to attack, taking a massive vertical strike with his blade, looking to split Asuma in half. Faster than any of the Genin could process, Asuma side-stepped it, the cleaving blow creating an enormous wall of water the instant it connected. With this opening, Asuma took a giant swing with his right arm, looking for another body blow, only to be blocked by the flat of the sword, Zabuza moving it far faster than should be reasonably possible. On contact, the blade vibrated intensely and his foe visibly shifted to compensate, keying Asuma in that he could overpower Zabuza. Almost as soon as his fist met the sword, he began a savage assault on it, striking so quickly that he almost appeared to have multiple arms, each blow pushing Zabuza back and pushing his injuries more.
Tiring of Asuma's relentless assault, Zabuza finally met one of his blows with a hefty forward shove, sending the Jounin slightly off balance and giving him room to back up, placing his blade on his back at the same time, and quickly beginning to flash through hand seals. However, unwilling to give the assassin any room to get off a jutsu, Asuma quickly regained his footing and shot forward once more, prompting Zabuza to stop whatever technique he was planning to unleash and evade him. Without his sword out to block, he was left with only his bare hands, and understood fully that trying to trade blows with Asuma at this time would be suicide. Desperately trying to dodge the wall of pain that the bearded man was unleashing, he kept pushing himself, before a single wrong movement sent a wave of pain through him, his broken ribs stunning him for just long enough for Asuma to land a powerful blow to his stomach. In a display of defiance, Zabuza stayed on his feet, glaring at his enemy as he pulled back to end it with one last crushing punch.
The sound of something whistling through the air soon interrupted this plan, though, as a pair of senbon soon buried themselves in the side of Zabuza's neck. Stopping his strike, Asuma watched as the man swayed for a moment before dropping. Before he could fall into the water entirely, though, a newcomer caught his body, holding up the large man almost effortlessly. This new person wore a pinstriped outfit, notably the same as that worn in Kirigakure, with a green-and-white haori over it, held shut with a slightly worn brown sash. Simple platoon sandals covered otherwise bare feet, and green polish the same color as their haori coated both finger and toenails. Black hair was held in a bun with a white bun-holding cloth, with two locks falling around their face. Covering said face was a simple white mask, thin slits for eyeholes and the standard mark of Kirigakure shinobi placed on the forehead, carved directly into it. Red paint replaced the mouth portion of the mask, perfectly concealing their identity.
"Thank you for intercepting this man," the person stated, a fairly effeminate voice coming out, slightly muffled, from them. "I am an oinin, assigned to hunting down Momochi Zabuza. You have made my job much easier, and I thank you for this. Farewell."
With that curt statement and almost empty-feeling thanks, the hunter-nin vanished in an instant, taking Zabuza's body with them. Staring at the spot where they were, Asuma seemed to find something amiss, but decided to leave it be. With a single leap he returned to where his group was positioned, the four relaxing and the three left guarding Tazuna breaking formation.
"Asuma-sensei, what was that about?" asked Ino, a puzzled look on her face.
"That was a specially trained shinobi, usually assigned to tracking down and killing shinobi that abandon their villages," replied Asuma, rotating his arm and grunting. "I can explain more later, for now we should hurry to the village and try to get some rest. I haven't fought that hard in a while, and I can already feel it taking a toll on me."
Accepting that answer, Ino simply let it be, as Asuma gestured to Choji to give him a hand. Leaning some of his weight on the stronger of the Genin, as well as some extra help from a still-wet Naruto, the group started their trek back up again, taking as quick a pace as they could with the worn-down Asuma's condition. All the while, the exhausted Jounin held a somewhat concerned look on his face, as he pieced together everything that was wrong with what had transpired.
Okay, short chapter for the Zabuza battle. With very little information on how tough Asuma was at this point, I was having a lot of difficulty trying to figure out how this would go, and had to make it seem that I wasn't biased towards anyone. Pretty much boiled down to how I thought it would go following the original Kakashi battle with Asuma's style replaced.
Anyway, short chapter, not feeling well, but I have something else cooking to potentially satisfy readers, so keep an eye out. Hint hint: It's not another chapter of this, but something completely different, so check for a new story post by me sometime soon. Sorry again for it being short, but it's all I could manage with how awful I feel. Enjoy what I've got for now.