The next day Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi accompanied the bridge-builder to the bridge and Naruto stayed behind. He had suggested that since the bridge was almost finished that he would not be needed to protect Tazuna. He had said that he would love to help Tsunami with some of the house work. Of course Sasuke and Sakura knew what was really going on. This was the day that all of them had been waiting for. They were going to fight Zabuza and Haku today and they knew that Gatou would try to attack Tsunami and Inari when they had gone. So they left Naruto behind telling him that when he was done helping Tsunami that he should meet them at the bridge.

"So what do you need help with Tsunami-san?" asked Naruto when the others left.

Tsunami turned to him with a smile and said, "I really don't need all that much help. Perhaps you could help me with the dishes and then we can make lunches for you to take with you to the bridge."

"I'd be glad to help in any way possible Tsunami-san," replied Naruto as he walked over to the sink and began to wash the dishes.

This went on for a little while with Naruto washing the dishes and then handing them to Tsunami who dried them and put them where they belonged. While they washed they also talked about nothing in particular. Mostly it was Tsunami who came up with the topics that they discussed for a few moments before they would move on to another subject.

Finally Naruto looked up to the clock, smiled, and said, "It looks like you have visitors Tsunami-san." She gave him a confused look while he went to the front door. He opened it to reveal two samurai walking up to him.

"Well look here," said one of them, "it's a little brat." This one was taller with brown hair and his torso was uncovered showing his muscles.

"It's probably just that Inari kid," said the other one as they came to stand before them. This one was shorter than the other with grey hair and he wore a big jacket that hid his true figure. Naruto made no move to either disapprove or approve their theory. "Move aside kid. We're gonna have a little chat with your mommy."

Naruto moved aside to let them in just as Tsunami-san walked in drying her hands. "What do you want?" she asked rather rudely.

"We want you to come with us to the bridge," answered the dark-haired one.

"If you come quietly we won't kill your little Inari," said the blonde one.

"I refuse," said Tsunami as Inari walked into the room.

"Mom what's going on?" asked Inari as he went to her side.

The two samurai gasped as they realized their mistake. They reached down to take out their swords as they turned to face Naruto, but their hands only grasped thin air. Both looked down at their belts to find that their swords were missing and then looked at Naruto to see him holding two swords that he did not have before. "When did you get those," they both growled.

"Well," answered Naruto as he inspected the swords with a grin, "I got them when you walked in the door. You guys aren't very good samurai. I mean you didn't even notice that your swords were missing and you pay no attention to detail. If you had you would have realized immediately that I am not Inari and Tsunami-san is not my mother. Your swords aren't all that good either. I'd say that you stole them from a common sword shop," with this his grin turned into a glare much worse than the Uchiha's, "I'll have to ask you to surrender or I will use the swords to cut your heads from your shoulders."

Both of the Samurais' eyes widened in fear. They threw their hands in the air to show signs of their giving up. Naruto looked over to Tsunami and smiled, "Could you please get some rope." She did so and after only a moment they were tied up on Tsunami's floor.

"You know we can escape from these ropes," said the dark-haired one with a smirk.

Naruto just grinned and pointed to the left of them where there was a big pile of small weapons. "Where did you get those?" gasped the blonde one recognizing the weapons as the ones he and his partner had concealed inside their clothing.

"While I was tieing you up. You didn't think I'd leave you guys here with a way to escape and capture Tsunami-san while I was away did you?" answered Naruto before turning to Tsunami and saying, "Well my work here is done. Now I must go and join my friends at the bridge to protect Tazuna-san. We'll be back in a bit so could you please have some medical equipment ready just in case any of us get hurt." He only gave Tsunami-san enough time to nod before he sped off towards the bridge.

Team 7, not including Naruto, and Tazuna arrived at the bridge to find all of the bridge-builders unconscious. "What's going on?" yelled Tazuna.

Sakura and Sasuke immediately moved into defensive positions in order to protect the bridge-builder.

"What happened? Someone was here. Someone got to them!" gasped Tazuna

Both the genin were on high alert as the mist began to surround them. "Sorry I've kept you waiting brats. I see the blondie isn't here with you. I bet he's too afraid that I'd come," came Zabuza's voice out of the mist.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," was Sasuke's only answer as he was able to see Zabuza come out of the fog.

Zabuza paused just as he was about to perform a seal with his hands, "What are you talking about brat?" he growled.

"You were about to make water clones to fight us," answered Sasuke. Zabuza's eyes widened a fraction of an inch in surprise which only Sasuke and Sakura saw.

"Come on even I saw that one coming. That seal that you were just about to perform is a dead give away," said Sakura.

Zabuza growled and performed the seal with no head to the warnings of the little genin. Immediately water clones surrounded the four of them. Sasuke just shrugged and before anyone could say anything the water clones had been destroyed and he was returning to his place to protect Tazuna.

"You caught me off guard last time, brat. I won't be defeated by you so easily this time," he hissed.

Sasuke smirked. "Of course you won't," he said smugly, "because this time I'm going to be fighting Haku." And with this he again ran forward with a simple shuriken in his hand.

He and Haku fought until they reached a stale mate where each had one hand occupied by defending themselves from the other's attack. "We want the bridge-builder, not you," said Haku without any hint of an emotion in his voice, "If you back down now, I won't have to kill you."

"Save it," was Sasuke's only answer.

"You're making a mistake. You won't be able to keep up with my speed," said Haku, "I've gained two key advantages."

"Yea. I know," answered Sasuke, "You're a ninja from the village hidden in the mist which makes it so that your element would be water and we're surrounded by water right now."

"But that's not the only advantage I've gained. I've blocked one of your hands. Therefore, you only have one free hand to defend yourself," with this he began making hand signs with only one hand. After only a moment he said, "Secret jutsu: Thousand needles of death," as he stomped his right foot on the ground making water splash into the air. The water began to shape shift into needles that surrounded the two of them. As soon as they were done forming the needles thrust forward to hit Sasuke as Haku jumped away, but their target was not met. Just before they had hit him Sasuke had thrown himself into the air.

From the air he threw three shuriken at Haku, which were dodged easily, then he appeared behind him. "You're not as fast as you think. I've fought people who are much faster than you are." Haku moved away and turned to try to hit Sasuke, but he blocked the needle with his kunai and threw another at Haku. Haku dropped to the floor to dodge the kunai, but he was to slow to dodge the kick to the face when it came towards him. He flew back a little ways while Sasuke just stood there and watched him fly. "Thought you were quicker, huh? Now what else are you wrong about?" said Sasuke with a smirk on his face. Sakura almost laughed when she remembered the first time. It had been a lot alike, but now was different because Sasuke knew his opponent and so he couldn't be caught off guard like he was last time.

"You made a big mistake insulting these ninjas and calling them brats. That's just guaranteed to bring out Sasuke's attitude," Kakashi said and Sakura almost laughed at Kakashi's assumption. Though it was true that Sasuke looked like he had a big attitude she and Naruto could see that he was having fun most of the time, and his attitude was nothing to them now. Right now he was only using the cocky attitude, which he never used now because he learned a long time ago that cockiness only led to death, because it was a joke to him that he was repeating everything that he had done in the past. He also wanted them to think that he was stupid enough to let cockiness get the best of him. "and he's the best young fighter of the Hidden Leave Village. And Sakura here is our sharpest mind. And, though he's not here right now Naruto has the best defense."

"Kakashi-sensei, you know you're not supposed to give away any information about the team. Even more so if you're bragging," scolded Sakura, "It puts the team in a dangerous situation because now the enemy can use our information to find our weakness." But Sakura really didn't care that Kakashi had said those words because she not that they were not correct. Kakashi was only really going off of what he saw in their school records. The truth was that, even though none of them showed it, they all knew at least a little of every subject, and that they were much stronger than even Kakashi knew, but she still had to scold him for giving away their information, even if it was incorrect, because that is almost the same as selling your teammates out.

"Get on with it Haku," growled Zabuza.

"Right," said Haku standing up. He began to let chakra seep out of his body into the air to cool it down. "I'm sorry it's come to this," he put his hands into a hand sign and ice began to form behind Sasuke, "Secret Jutsu," Sasuke was surrounded by mirrors made out of ice, "Crystal ice mirrors!"

"What is that?" asked Kakashi, "How does it work?"

They watched as Haku walked into one of the mirrors and his image appeared on the mirror's face. The rest of the mirrors reflected the very same image.

Kakashi growled and ran to try and help Sasuke. "Wait!" yelled Sakura behind him, but she was too stop him as Zabuza appeared before him. "Darn it Kakashi. You're going to ruin everything."

"Now we'll begin," came Haku's voice from the mirror, "and I'll show you what speed really means." Needles began to be thrown towards Sasuke, but he merely blocked them by moving his kunai in their way until one exceptionally hard thrown needle knocked it out of his hand. At that point Sasuke just dodged all of the attacks by spinning and jumping over them.

"How is that possible?" gasped Haku, "No one can see my speed."

Sasuke looked up at the top mirror and Haku was able to see his eyes. The blood red color of his eyes gave Haku the feeling that this boy had seen more than his fair share of blood and death. "I can see you up there. Your speed is nothing to my eyes, and I know someone who can be even quicker than you. He's the only person who moves fast enough that not even I can see," Sasuke smirked. He performed a couple of hand signs and then made a circle with his thumb and forefinger and blew through it creating a large ball of fire. The fire engulfed the top mirror, but nothing happened.

"You cannot melt these mirrors. It is impossible," said Haku.

"Is it?" asked Sasuke, "Do you think that's true Naruto?"

Haku gasped as he noticed that Naruto was with them inside the house of mirrors. He hadn't even noticed the child come in.

"I think it's possible. You just need the right combination," he said, "Perhaps a little wind will help."

"Perhaps," answered Sasuke.

At this Naruto lifted his hand before him as chakra began to form in it. The chakra slowly compressed to form a ball. Then he moved his other hand close to the ball and began adding in wind energy. The ball expanded and took on the form of a giant shuriken. He held it between his hands as it began to expand until he could no longer hold it. The ball kept expanding until it encompassed the whole house of mirrors, but there was a ball within it that had no chakra that surrounded Sasuke and Naruto. "Now all's we need is that fire," said Naruto.

"Gladly," said Sasuke as he performed the fire ball jutsu again. As soon as the fire hit the wall of chakra the whole thing burst into flames. It attacked the mirrors with thousands of needles of chakra and with a burning fire.

When the jutsu cleared away all the mirrors were melting and cracked. They shattered into a million pieces and fell around them like a shower of silvery light. In the middle of the shower Haku fell to the ground. Naruto walked up to him and turned him over to find that his mask had cracked and fallen off. "Are you alright?" asked Naruto.

Haku just looked at him. "Why would you care?" he asked.

"I already told you. You could be precious to me," Naruto smiled, "Now let's help you up. Sakura will be able to heal you in a jiffy." He and Sasuke helped Haku up and walked over to where Tazuna was. Naruto was surprised to find Sakura there. "Why are you here Sakura? You should be fighting Zabuza right now. Where's Kakashi?"

"I'm sorry Naruto," answered Sakura as she kneeled down to heal Haku. "Kakashi ran off before I could stop him and I couldn't leave Tazuna-san here by himself."

Naruto's eyes widened. "What?" he gasped. He turned to Sasuke and said, "Don't let him leave here," before he disappeared.

"What's going on?" asked Sasuke.

"I don't know," answered Sakura, "Last time I was crying over your body at this moment."

Suddenly Haku gasped and tried to sit up. "Don't move," cried Sakura trying to force him to lay back down, "I haven't finished healing you yet."

"Zabuza-san is in danger," gasped Haku.

"Don't worry," said Sakura, "Naruto will save him."

"But he can't," said Haku, "I don't know why he can even still move."

"What do you mean?" asked Sasuke.

"I threw some poisoned needles at you just after the jutsu ended," said Haku.

"But I didn't get hit," said Sasuke.

"He was standing in front of you. He only needed to move a little to the side," said Haku.

"What?" gasped both Sasuke and Sakura.

Haku tried to get up again, "I'm sorry, but I have to save Zabuza-san."

This time it was Sasuke's turn to push Haku back down. "I can't let you do that. Naruto has trusted me to keep you here. Which means you aren't leaving."

"Sasuke look!" gasped Sakura, "The fog is clearing."

Sasuke looked around to find what looked to be a big dark blob through the fog. He watched as the fog lifted to reveal Naruto standing in front of Zabuza with Kakashi's hand stuck in his chest as he held the blade of Zabuza's sword aside with a kunai. Both Zabuza and Kakashi had wide eyes as Naruto just stood there trying to catch his breath. "I said," Naruto gasped for air, "that we…weren't…going t-to…kill them," said Naruto as he coughed up blood.

Kakashi drew his hand out of Naruto and reached forward to catch him, but Naruto did not fall. "Naruto," Kakashi said, "Why?"

"Because…they deserve…to live. If for nothing else…than Haku deserves…to live a happy life…with the person he loves…more than anything in the world."

At this Zabuza's eyes widened and he looked over to see Haku staring at him and for the first time he could understand what the look in Haku's eyes were. That look was love. And then he realized that the reason he had taken Haku in was because he loved him. And at that moment he wanted to be by Haku's side more than anything in the world.

"Tell…your dogs…to get off him…Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto holding his hand against his chest where he was trying to stop the bleeding. The dogs disappeared and Naruto was happy to see that Zabuza went immediately to Haku's side to make sure he was all right. Kakashi watched as Naruto swayed, but he still did not fall. He wanted to move forward and help Naruto, but for some reason he couldn't move.

"I must say I'm disappointed in you Zabuza," came a voice. Everyone looked over to see Zabuza standing there with a whole bunch of thugs behind him.

Naruto turned to look at him with the deadliest look in his eyes. They were slitted like the fox's and it gave him and heir of deadly intent. "You," said Naruto, "I'm afraid…you can't live…any longer."

"Enough of this," yelled Gatou as he disappeared in the crowd of his thugs, "Kill them."

Before anyone could move to stop him Naruto was on the railing of the bridge running to the end of it where Gatou stood. Many of the thugs tried to stop him, but he just jumped over their attacks and continued going. When he reached the end of the railing he jumped off it and without missing a beat he ran straight at Gatou and thrust his clawed hands into Gatou's unprotected throat. Gatou's face was frozen in a look of shock as he fell to the ground without any life in his body.

Kakashi almost couldn't believe his eyes. If someone had told him that Naruto had done all of this than he would have laughed in their face. Naruto was the weakest link to the whole. This just made him wonder what the others could do. He watched as Sasuke took the same root that Naruto had in order to go and grab him. As soon as Sasuke reached him Naruto fainted and Sasuke brought him back to lay him in front of Sakura who immediately began to heal him. This also surprised Kakashi because he didn't know that she had already started training to be a medic nin.

"Is he going to be okay?" asked Haku as he sat up with Zabuza's help.

"He'll be fine," said Sakura, "Just a slight fever for a while."

"What about the poison?" asked Haku.

"What poison?" asked Kakashi as he was now standing with them.

"That's what the fever is from," answered Sakura, "Poison doesn't affect him the same way it affects a normal person." Haku nodded at this and Kakashi made a mental note that he would have to ask them about that later.

"Hey!" yelled one of the thugs while slamming a stick on the ground, "Yoohoo. Don't go getting to comfortable."

"This party ain't over yet. Who's gonna pay us now that Gatou's gone," said another.

"No way we're going to leave here empty handed," said the first one, "So we'll just have to hit that village and see what they've got for us." There was a chorus of "Yea," that ran throughout the thugs. "Get them."

The thugs moved forward only to be stopped by an arrow. "There's one thing your forgetting about. Before you set one foot into our village you have to go through all of us," yelled a man that they all recognized to be Inari's uncle. He was standing with a whole bunch of villagers behind him and a brave little Inari in front of him with the bow he had used to shoot the arrow.

Sasuke smirked and stood up. "Shadow clone jutsu," he said and twenty of him appeared on the bridge.

"I might have just enough chakra to help you out," said Kakashi as he did the same jutsu and twenty of him appeared saying, "Okay you still want to fight."

"No way," yelled one of the thugs as they ran to get on the boat.

"Victory!" yelled Inari and all the villagers celebrated.

After a couple of days and many insistent remarks from Naruto that he was fine and ready to go home team 7 and Zabuza and Haku headed home. They took the bridge which was again named the great Naruto bridge. Leaving a very happy Inari and a strong village to get back up on.

this is longer than i thought it would be, but oh well. sorry for taking so long. i had really bad writer's block.