Throughout the week, Naruto would go into the forest every night to train, whether it be solo or with one of his teammates. He offered to send a clone to spy some more on Zabuza, but Kakashi warned him that he shouldn't push his luck; Team 7 already knows what they need to know. Having faith in Kakashi's intuition, Naruto obeyed.

Meanwhile, Inari took Team 7's advice, and went around the Eastern Land of Waves, giving secret messages to adults aligned with Tazuna's company and the Western Land of Waves to get ready to revolt against Gato's regime, while also telling other children to tell their parents to resist Gato when the timing was right. This prompted those people ready to resist Gato to take up arms and wait. The local blacksmith even took his work home to keep his activity hidden from Gato's thugs.

Near the end of the week, Naruto had a genius idea: he gave each of Team 7's members, in addition to Tazuna's family, one marked kunai. All they had to do was focus their chakra into it (something that even civilians are capable of), and Naruto would know that they needed him.

8:30 A.M., 8 days since Team 7 arrived in the Land of Waves

Team 7, albeit without Naruto, were getting ready to take Tazuna to the bridge.

Before leaving the guest room, Sakura looked back at Naruto, who was still asleep. Naruto spent the last night training too intensely, as evidenced by the fact that he came back to Tazuna's house bruised and bloody, just barely having enough energy to take a shower and brush his teeth before going to bed and passing out. Team 7 decided to show him some leniency and let him sleep as long as he needed today.

Sakura whisked Naruto's hair away from his eyes, giving him a kiss on the cheek, right on one of the adorable whisker-like markings on his face. "Sleep tight.", she cooed, placing the blanket back over him. She took one more moment to appreciate the peaceful, unassuming look on his face and smiled, before finally leaving with Team 7.

11:00 A.M., Bridge

It seemed to be just another day on the bridge. The air was clear, the water was calm, and the workers were working. Naruto's clones were absent, but Tazuna's men were doing good work, even with their limited resources.

Everyone was calm.

All of a sudden, a thick fog was forming on the bridge. Kakashi was the first to understand what this meant.

He yelled, "IF YOU'RE NOT A SHINOBI, RETREAT! SAKURA, SASUKE, FOLLOW ME!", and everyone immediately did so.

Sakura and Sasuke went into Kakashi's direction, forming a protective circle around Tazuna.

Kakashi thought, "Just how long have you been planning this, Zabuza?", as he grabbed Tazuna's hand to lead him off the bridge.

Before Team 7 could leave the bridge, however, a massive sword landed right in front of them, blocking their way.

Kakashi ordered, "Sakura, focus your chakra into your eyes!"

She obeyed, and as she channeled her chakra, her eyes seemed to glow. She found that although she couldn't see clearly, she was able to visually comprehend the situation - her training in water jutsu paid off well for what little time she had! Kakashi was using the same trick to see, although he couldn't see much better, since he'd also activated his Sharingan.

In front of Team 7 stood Zabuza and a Zabuza clone, the real Zabuza holding his sword on his shoulder.

Behind Team 7 stood Haku, with her hunter ninja outfit and mask on, as she was unaware of Team 7's knowledge of her identity.

Zabuza laughed at Team 7, saying, "It took me days' worth of work and chakra to set up this mist, but it was all worth it to see the pitiful sight before me!", he pointed to Sasuke, "look, Haku, that one's trembling in fear!"

Sasuke smirked and replied, "It's not fear... It's excitement!"

Zabuza laughed again and retorted, "Eager to die, huh?"

Sasuke snapped back, "You must be, if you're trying to start a fight with us!"

Zabuza realized that his psychological warfare wouldn't work on Sasuke, so he turned to Sakura. "What about you?", he asked. "Think you're a match for my clone?"

Instead of saying anything, Sakura just tossed a kunai to land at the clone's feet, and it realized too late that the kunai was set to act as a thermite, emitting sparks that burned the clone until it dispelled.

Zabuza bought his sword down and narrowed his eyes.

"Haku.", he commanded, "Take care of the mouthy boy, I've got Pinkie and Scarface!"

Haku obeyed her master, and she made a beeline to attack Sasuke, knocking him behind Zabuza. Sasuke trapped her arm and taunted, "Can't perform jutsu without both hands!".

He was wrong.

He was so wrong.

So wrong, in fact, that Haku almost sighed as she used her free hand to make hand signs.

Sasuke then found himself trapped in a mist-less dome of mirrors, each mirror displaying the image of Haku.

Sasuke reached for the three-pronged kunai in his pocket and channeled some chakra into it. "Get here quick, Naruto..."

Kakashi's eyes widened as he realized what was happening.

"That must be her bloodline limit, the crystal ice mirrors!"

Half an hour ago, Tazuna's house

Naruto finally woke up, after having slept for much too long.

Upon noticing that his team was gone, he checked the time and figured that they must've left without him.

So, he brushed his teeth and washed his face and got dressed, greeted Inari and Tsunami downstairs, then ate breakfast.

He went back upstairs to pack his weapons.

Naruto'd just gotten everything properly holstered when he heard screaming from downstairs.

It was Tsunami.

"Let go of my son!", she screamed. "He hasn't done anything!"

An unfamiliar voice spat back, "We know about what this kid's been doing! Causing trouble for Lord Gato all around! We're gonna have our fun with the both of youse, then you're gonna watch as we kill him! A fitting punishment on his end for being so insolent, and a fitting punishment for you for having raised the little shit to act like this! Now shut up!"

Naruto felt anger boiling up inside of himself, and he summoned some clones to spy around the house and figure out a battle tactic.

Once the clones dispelled, Naruto figured it out.

There were only two men downstairs, one dragging Inari, and the other dragging Tsunami.

He teleported to the fridge downstairs, and immediately threw shuriken at both men's arms, disarming them. He then threw a shuriken at Inari's captor's knee, and when the man dropped on the ground on the other knee, Naruto used his head as a springboard to kick the daylights out of the other man. Naruto relieved them of all their weapons, tied them up, and strapped them to a tree.

Naruto then walked back to Inari's house and ruffled his hair, telling him, "Kaiza would be proud of you, Inari."

Inari started tearing up, and he hugged Naruto as he cried.

Suddenly, Naruto felt that chakra was being channeled into one of his hiraishin marks, so he put Inari down, apologized for his haste, and teleported to the mark.

11:15 A.M., Bridge

Naruto had teleported to Sasuke's side, and upon seeing the trouble he was in, sighed.

Naruto looked at Sasuke. "I'm the one that's supposed to attract trouble, y'know.", he said.

He then began looking around, and seeing that Haku was in every mirror, decided to just speak at her rather than to her.

"Why are you doing this, Haku?", he asked.

Haku replied. "Just as you are getting strong to protect your precious people, I am doing this to serve lord Zabuza. Upon finding out about my mother's kekkei genkai, my father murdered her, which awakened the limit within myself. After awakening it, I murdered my father and began to live as a street urchin. I suffered for too long before Lord Zabuza found me and took me under his wing. Zabuza gave me life. In return, I'll perform my duty as his tool, until I die."

Naruto growled, "That's bullshit, Haku! You can't live your life as a tool for other people! You're an individual, with your own thoughts and feelings!"

Haku replied, "Well, I feel that I should remain subservient to Lord Zabuza!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "You're thinking wrong! If you only see yourself as a tool for Zabuza and act as such, you'll not only hurt yourself, but you'll hurt Zabuza too! Because you're gonna break one day, and you'll do something that betrays your status as a 'tool' - it's human nature!"

Haku didn't say anything more. Her rage just increased, and she furiously threw senbon at the boys.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was engaged in combat with Zabuza.

The mist had rendered water jutsu useless, fire jutsu ineffective, and Kakashi couldn't use earth jutsu because it might destroy the bridge. So, he settled for close-quarters combat, pitting his dual tanto against Zabuza's sword.

It was a tough battle for both men.

Kakashi very nearly lost an arm and a leg, but managed to retaliate those amputation attempts by slicing Zabuza's limbs and chest. Although, these did not come without Kakashi sporting some wounds himself.

Kakashi managed to succeed on his two fronts: keeping Zabuza away from Tazuna, and finally, incapacitating the fatigued Zabuza.

Kakashi managed to slash Zabuza's bicep, rendering the arm useless, then stabbed him in the thigh, bringing him to his knees.

Kakashi himself collapsed from exhaustion soon after. "The mist must have some disorientation properties of its own..."

At the same time, Naruto and Sasuke were getting rained upon by senbon.

Both boys were on their knees, although Naruto seemed to be recovering faster. He was using shadow clones to try and distract Haku or destroy the mirrors, but they didn't last very long before getting dispelled.

Naruto knew he could use the hiraishin to escape with Sasuke, but that would put Kakashi, Sakura, and Tazuna in danger.

Naruto was thinking of new things to try, when Sasuke let out a blood-curdling scream.

Naruto looked towards his friend, and saw him holding his face. "Sasuke, don't pass out on me now!", he beckoned.

"I'm not passing out!", Sasuke replied. "I think I've just activated my Sharingan!"

Sasuke looked up and relayed what he was seeing to Naruto.

"She's not inside of every ice shield, she's just moving across them at superhuman speeds to give that illusion. That's how she's able to deflect all of our kunai that we throw at her!"

A light bulb lit up above Naruto's head. "Then, let's not throw kunai at her.", he quietly suggested.

"What do you mean, Naruto?", Sasuke asked.

Naruto whispered in Sasuke's ear, and Sasuke nodded, understanding Naruto's plan.

Then, Sasuke and Naruto each threw a three-pronged kunai between Haku's ice mirrors. Haku tried to stop the kunai, but couldn't, since she couldn't travel outside of the mirrors.

As soon as the kunai left the dome, Naruto grabbed Sasuke, focused his chakra onto him, and used the hiraishin to teleport to the kunai, grabbing both of them.

Naruto chuckled, "I found that I could do that when I thought about why my clothes stay on when I teleport and tested it out on a log."

As he said this, he and Sasuke began using their fists to smash the ice mirrors - they really were quite vulnerable without Haku defending them.

Soon enough, Haku figured that the mirrors were now useless, so she canceled the jutsu and got ready to fight.

She looked towards Zabuza, and saw him bleeding out, stumbling to the ground. She audibly gasped at the sight.

She couldn't lose Zabuza, without him, she had no purpose! She was just a tool, so she tried to make a break for him.

She was stopped by Naruto and Sasuke, who used their combined strength to drag Haku down to the floor and pin her to the ground. She screamed, "Let go of me! I must help Lord Zabuza!"

Naruto gave her a reality check and said, "He's as good as dead, Haku! He's gonna die, and you're just gonna have to keep living without him, just move forward! That's all you can do!"

The mist went away, and the weather was clear again. It wasn't even noon.

Just as Naruto finished his lecture, a large group of men began walking towards them from the unfinished end of the bridge.

It was Gato, his cronies, and their most-trusted personal bodyguards/military personnel.

Gato clapped his hands as he approached. "Well, well, well. Looks like you've made my job easier, Zabuza."

The ninja then stood up, coming closer together.

Zabuza questioned, "What the Hell does that mean, Gato?"

Gato sneerily laughed, "It means you're useless to me now! Seeing as you're all fatigued, I'll just kill all of you, and my troubles will end!", he looked to the males in the group. "Don't worry about your girls, we'll make sure they're well taken care of.". Gato and his men laughed at this.

Naruto stepped forward, kunai in his hand. "You good-for-nothing, two-bit, backstabbing bastard! I'LL KILL YOU!", he proclaimed.

Zabuza glanced at the boy, inspecting his body language. "This kid isn't ready to kill anybody..."

"Hey, blondie!", Zabuza called.

Naruto turned around to look at the voice, only to see that Zabuza was swinging his sword at Sakura!

In a split-second decision, Naruto threw a kunai that hit Zabuza right in the side of his neck.

Sakura and Haku screamed, and Sasuke and Kakashi gasped, as Zabuza fell down.

Naruto ran and kneeled next to Zabuza's supine body.

"Why- Why'd you do that?!", Naruto demanded to know.

Zabuza smiled at Naruto. "It's quite simple, kid. You weren't ready to kill Gato. But now that you've killed me, you'll find that killing Gato will be easier. And the kill after that will be even easier. I learned that when I killed my classmates, y'know." Zabuza coughed up blood and turned to Haku. "Haku...", he said. "Take off that mask. Live your life on your own terms. Don't be a tool, be a person."

Naruto watched in horror as the life left Zabuza's eyes, though they stayed open.

Naruto couldn't believe it.

He shook Zabuza's body. "Come on, Zabuza, wake up! I can't kill you! I'm just a genin and you're a jonin, right?! How could I have killed you?!". He knew that his words were fruitless.

Naruto let out a primal scream of agony as he clutched the sides of his head and bought himself down to his elbows.

Sakura began to cry. It broke her heart to see Naruto like this." He wasn't even supposed to be here!", she thought, as the tears flowed freely down her face.

Haku wept, too. Not only at the loss of her master, but also at his last act and words - Zabuza had done something for other people's benefit for the first time in his life, and he'd only done it because he knew he was fated to die today. She removed her mask and placed it on Zabuza's chest as she cried for him.

Sasuke cried, too, unable to hold his tears back.

Kakashi stared at Naruto sympathetically.

Gato's voice rang out. "If you're done killing each other, I'll have my men finish the job now! Go get 'em, boys!"

Gato's men began to run, but immediately were paralyzed in fear by what they saw next.

Some sort of red chakra was surrounding Naruto's body.

As he turned around, it was clear that the whisker marks on his face had darkened, and his eyes turned red, with vertical slits for pupils.

"GATO.", the boy roared. "I'M REALLY GONNA KILL YOU NOW!"

Before anyone could react, Naruto dashed over to Gato, sliced his stomach open, then threw a kunai into the roof of his mouth and jumped back.

Gato gargled in pain as the blood ran up his throat.

He tried to scream, as the kunai embedded itself into his nerve fibers but right below the olfactory nerves, forcing him to smell the metal of his own blood as his stomach acid and intestines spilled onto the floor, maximizing the amount of pain that he felt.

It was then that dozens upon dozens of armed citizens began storming the bridge. The ninja moved to the side as the citizens chased Gato's men off the bridge.

Naruto started to calm down as he witnessed the whole ordeal, and reverted back to his normal self.

He followed the rest of the ninja and Tazuna off the bridge, and they stood at the port right next to it.

It was there that Naruto broke down in tears again. He just killed two people, and didn't even hesitate to do it!

Sakura hugged him, squeezing him tight and inviting him into the embrace.

Naruto slowly returned the hug, and continued to cry into Sakura's shoulder as she tried to comfort him, unable to hold back her own tears .

She told him, "You'll be okay, Naruto. Just let it all out."

And let it all out he did.

As Naruto cried, Kakashi turned to the others in the group.

He asked Haku, "Where will you go now?"

Haku, who was still carrying Zabuza, said, "I want to bury Lord Zabuza first. I don't know what I'm gonna do then..."

Kakashi then asked Tazuna and Sasuke, "You guys alright?"

Tazuna sadly nodded, and Sasuke cried as he said, "Yes."

Kakashi turned back to Haku. "You might want to come back with us to the village? Seeing as you've got nowhere to go, and you can start on a clean slate there. Just think about it, O.K.?"

Haku nodded.

This chapter was a bit... messed up. It'll be important for Naruto though. Now he knows that he can kill. What do you think?Please leave a review! It really does help me write better. Thanks!