Why hello there.
This chapter is pretty much all fighting, which means I had a bit of trouble writing it. I've never been one to read action scenes in Fan-fictions, more-so skimming them for the more dialogue heavy sections, but I can see why they'd be interesting to some people.
So, basically what I'm saying is that I think the action in this chapter might be a little bit hard to follow, please forgive me.
Anyways, without further ado, shall we get into it?
Chapter 8: The Sharingan's Depths
A cut to Zabuza's left arm had drastically cut down on it's functions a while ago, and he was fairly sure his right arm didn't have that long either.
He barely dodged one of the ninja hounds' teeth, trying to counterattack and banish it, but was intercepted by another, nearly having his arm ripped off as it bit down. He wrenched it off with all his might, back-stepping several times as he created distance between him and the dogs.
He was losing, and pretty badly at that. He'd underestimated the man in front of him, the Hero of the Sharingan was far stronger than the assassin had thought he'd be.
And I heard Haku scream earlier.
He had been trying to break away from this fight to help his student for a few minutes now, but Kakashi was nothing if not persistent. It didn't help Zabuza that the man's summons were ruthless, easily keeping up with him at his top speeds, and able to track him by his scent when he disappeared into the mist.
From what he'd seen, he couldn't even kill them either. They'd disappeared into puffs of smoke after he hit them, and after he'd banished a few of them, Kakashi had simply summoned them again.
He was just about to exhaust his last contingency when he heard the roar.
He'd never experienced anything quite like it, a piercing, wailing sound that seemed to split the very air. It launched Kakashi's dogs back several feet, and even briefly stunned both of the Jonin. When Zabuza looked back towards his student's position, it was to see that the fog had been cleared out from the area.
Well, that's not good.
He could clearly see his student's Kekkei Genkai, which meant that Haku was, thankfully, still alive. They obviously hadn't been able to test it, but they had both theorized that the ice would melt were Haku to be killed.
Unfortunately, it seemed that roar had come from dead center in the middle of the mirrors.
An orange chakra, that seemed to radiate evil around it, filled the air, nearly suffocating Zabuza even from so far away. He dreaded to think what that much power must've been doing to his own student, and so, resigned to the fact that he was about to be getting much more than he bargained for today, ran backwards into the raging storm.
/-/
Haku was in pain in quite a lot of ways, not the least of which was the stab wound directly beneath his sternum.
It also didn't help that he'd killed one of the only people he'd thought was nice in the entire world.
He hadn't known Naruto very long, and in fact their interaction hadn't been a particularly long-winded one, they'd talked philosophy while Haku was gathering herbs for Zabuza's recovery. He himself had said that he lived for his master, whatever the man's intentions, he would always fight for him, and serve him.
Naruto had actually reflected his own philosophy. The boy had said that no matter what, at the end of the day, the only thing he really cared about were his friends. Well, it had been that, and becoming the Hokage, which Haku imagined was probably the Leaf's equivalent to the Mizukage. It was a big dream, but he thought it fit the boy quite nicely.
And then he'd shown just how committed he was to his friends, taking the kunai meant for the black-haired boy with his own body.
He hadn't been about to kill either of them, merely incapacitate them until his master could finish the leader off and assassinate the bridge-builder. At the same time, he could understand how the blonde boy had been unable to read the attack, thus assuming it a fatal blow.
He had nearly cried himself, watching the boy he'd just met die in his friends arms.
Still, he had had a job to do. Zabuza had been clear about one's emotions, they should never be shown on the battlefield, and so he'd been determined to finish the job, to knock the other boy out despite his feelings, and assist his master.
And then Naruto had gotten up.
It had been incredibly sudden, stunning Haku to the point where he'd nearly been killed by the boy he was fighting, having to form an icy dagger in his off hand to deflect the kunai the boy wielded.
And then Naruto had roared. It was far more powerful than anything he'd ever felt in his life. It had hit him with enough force to stop his assault, forcing him back into his own mirrors. The boy below him, the one with black hair and the glowing red eyes, had run over to his friend, looking ready to embrace the boy.
And he'd almost been killed for it, just barely managing to dodge the charging beast that dashed by him, crashing into one of Haku's mirrors as it failed to stop its own momentum.
His eyes widened as the ice shattered instantly.
/-/
Sasuke didn't really know what to feel.
On the one hand, Naruto seemed to be fully recovered, sprinting around the arena, and completely destroying their opponents hidden jutsu. That was certainly an improvement from when they'd been trapped inside a veritable hell of senbon.
On the other hand, Sasuke was fairly sure the boy was trying to kill him.
It was quite clear that something was wrong with his friend, but he had no idea how to approach the situation at all.
"What's going on!?"
Sasuke turned around, shocked at the sudden intrusion into his headspace, to find the masked boy they'd been fighting poking his head out of one of his mirrors. He couldn't see his expression, but figured the boy was just as shocked as he was.
"No idea! And why the hell are you asking me? Shouldn't you be trying to kill me?"
"No offense towards you, but I think that thing is going to kill you far faster than I will."
Sasuke grumbled quietly to himself but couldn't find a rebuttal.
"Yeah, so?"
The boy hesitated.
"I-"
"Haku!"
Ah, Sasuke thought, that's going from bad to worse.
Zabuza Momochi, the demon of the mist, charged forward, swinging his blade in a simplistic arc at Naruto. His friend, if he was even there anymore, didn't bother to dodge. The edge didn't pierce the boy's skin, instead simply knocking the creature back a few meters, landing on all fours with a hissing growl.
"The hell is up with this kid?" The assassin spoke, looking towards Sasuke like he'd have some magical answer.
Do I look like I know what's going on? Sasuke thought angrily, fists clenching on his weapons, which he hadn't so much as lowered from the two in front of him. My best friend's turned into some kind of monster; do you honestly expect me to-
"Sasuke!"
This time, it was his backup, as 4 or 5 ninja hounds came pouncing onto the scene, forming a protective unit around him. His sensei took the space beside him a second later, eyes hard as he looked from their assailants towards Naruto.
"Shit, Sasuke what happened to Naruto!?"
Their teacher sounded more serious than he had ever heard him before, looking towards him with his Sharingan blazing.
"The masked guy was about to kill me," He noticed the boy, whose name Zabuza had said was Haku, flinch slightly at the accusation. "But Naruto stepped in front of the Kunai instead, and… I thought he died, but-"
"Right, I've got it." Kakashi interrupted, looking appraisingly at the boy in front of them all, who was growling back and forth with the ninja hounds, seemingly in some sort of primal stand-off.
"Sasuke, what I'm about to tell you is technically classified. In reality, it's an open secret that most of the adults in the leaf village know." His Sensei turned towards him. "Naruto Uzumaki is the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-tailed fox."
…
Huh.
"After being fatally wounded, I'm assuming that his body was searching for anything it could find to save him, and winded up taking in some of the Nine-Tails' chakra. He seems to have absorbed far more than should be possible. His seal was supposed to be secure."
Wait… What?
"And why are you saying all of this in ear-shot of us?" Zabuza spoke up, drawing his massive blade onto his shoulder, and looking at them suspiciously. "The identity of the Nine-tailed fox's Jinchuuriki could be valuable information to the right people."
"Because right now, I don't even know if Naruto's going to survive this."
Sasuke's face blanched, and his heart skipped a beat. He'd barely been able to follow the past few minutes between the two, going back and forth between themselves, seemingly both sizing each other up and threatening one another all at once.
But…
"W-Wait, why wouldn't he survive!? Didn't the Nine-Tails chakra or whatever… revive him?"
Kakashi looked at him with a gentle expression, before his eyes widened, and he pulled him backwards. Just in time, as a chakra claw cut into the space he'd previously occupied, rending the very air with a wave of heat that hit Sasuke's face a second later.
The four of them dodged backwards, barely managing to avoid a few more attacks from the Nine-Tailed-Naruto.
"Go, Kakashi!" One of the Ninja hounds, a small, reddish brown dog, yelled out to his mentor, stepping in front of them with his entourage in tow. "We'll distract this guy, though we've only got a few minutes left before the summon ends!"
"That's fine, Pakkun," Kakashi spoke to the dog, practically carrying Sasuke backwards as they ran away from the creature. "Thank you for your help."
"Eh, no worries, but you'd better buy us some of the good treats after this!"
The dogs all pounced at once, dragging the form of Naruto to the floor. Just for a moment, Sasuke feared that they'd rip the boy apart, but he saw a second later that their teeth weren't even penetrating the thick, evil chakra that surrounded his body.
After Kakashi had created some distance, he created a few hand signs, and then brought his hands down onto the floor.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!"
A great barrier, that seemed to be made out of something other than the bridge they stood on, came into being in front of them, blocking one of the Jinchuuriki's next attacks.
"Sasuke I…" Kakashi looked back at him, sighed, and then continued. "The Nine-Tails' plan would most likely be to take over Naruto's body fully, and then reconstitute himself in it. His goal here is for Naruto to lose himself, gain all 9 of his tails, and fully summon himself into the outside world."
"W-well then what the hell do we do!? Can't we save him!?" Sasuke was aware his voice came out desperate, pleading, even. He didn't particularly care. This was his friends life on the line, the boy's life that he'd given for him.
Right now, his own didn't matter. He'd give anything, everything, to save his friend. To pay back the debt he Naruto.
Kakashi was silent for a few seconds, contemplating something as the wall in front of them shook and began to give under the Nine-Tails' assault. A second later the noises stopped again, replaced by the scraping, scratching, and growling of the dog's attacks.
"The far easier plan is to eliminate the threat in front of us. The Nine-Tails may make Naruto strong, but that's only brute strength. You've seen that, right Sasuke?"
He had, the boy had tried to kill him a few times, but they'd been instinctive moves, poorly thought out, easily dodged.
But…
"I… I would be able to kill him, even in that form."
Sasuke didn't even hesitate.
"What's the other plan?"
The man in front of him simply sighed, seemingly resigned to his fate, before he placed his hands in front of his Sharingan, making a modified 'tiger' sign. The man closed his eyes, concentrating hard.
"In the days of the warring states period, it was rumored that an Uchiha of immense power, a man known as Madara, once tamed the Nine-Tailed Fox with only his Sharingan's Genjutsu." Kakashi spoke calmly, but there was something in his voice that caused the hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck to stand up.
Doubt.
"I… I possess a powerful type of Sharingan, known as the Mangekyou Sharingan."
That sent a chill down Sasuke's spine. He'd heard about the Mangekyou from his brother, and that the only method of obtaining it was to kill your closest friend. He wasn't sure whether or not to take his brother at his word, but he had nothing else to go on.
"O-ok, so then you're going to cast a Genjutsu on Naruto to break him out of this?"
"I know a few Genjutsu, but the problem is that Madara never really left a guidebook on how to subvert the Nine-tails' will, hell, even the whole taming thing is just a story." His sensei wasn't looking too good, his legs were shaking slightly, and he was paling. "It doesn't help that I've only ever used my Mangekyou a handful of times, I'll need plenty of time to charge it."
Does that mean…
"You'd be buying me time, fighting against Naruto." Kakashi looked straight at him, eyes hard. "You'd have no real backup, no one coming to save you, all on your own, against the Nine-Tailed Fox's Jinchuuriki."
To say the thought scared Sasuke would've been an understatement. He was terrified, and physically shook in place, bracing himself on the ground with his still fully functioning right arm. His left arm was dull and numb from repeated attacks from the boy sitting across from them, looking down at the ground in silent thought.
"He wouldn't be alone."
All heads turned behind them, and Sasuke nearly shouted out as he looked upon the visage of Sakura, stood there with a determined expression on her face, kunai at the ready.
"Sakura!? Why aren't you guarding Tsunami's?" Kakashi spoke out, looking towards the girl with minor shock.
"I was, and then two mercenary guys showed up, wanting to kidnap her. I took them out and tied them up, gave them to the villagers, but they left to go and form a Militia, I think they're going to try and protect the bridge." Sakura explained, laying out the events of the last hour or so. "The bigger question is what the hell's going on here? I mean, I heard the ending part about the… Mangekyou Sharingan or whatever, but what is it we're fighting? Cause it doesn't seem to be those two!" she pointed to Zabuza and Haku, who were resting against the opposite side of the bridge, with the older man wrapping a bandage around his student's wounded sternum.
Sasuke almost wanted to feel bad about that, but then remembered that this whole thing was his fault, and that he'd been trying to kill them both.
Not feeling all that bad about that.
Sasuke and Kakashi gave the girl a brief rundown on what had happened, and on their objective, to try and distract Naruto while their Sensei charged up his Mangekyou to use a Genjutsu.
"Wait, hold on," Sakura spoke up when they'd finished, looking terribly worried. "Do you even know the Jutsu to break him out of this?"
Their sensei gave them a shrill, noncommittal laugh.
"Oh my god." Sakura muttered, kneeling down on the stone bridge, breathing heavily, eyes hardening every second. A moment or two later, she looked up, terribly afraid. "We're going to fight that thing," She gestured at the wall, which, as if on cue, shook terrifyingly under the strain of Naruto's attack. "On what might as well be a fairy tale."
"It's that or kill Naruto." Sasuke spoke up, speaking with none of his usual delicacy.
Doesn't she understand that we have no options here!?
Sakura bit her lip, looking away from him. It was, indeed, hard to weigh your entire life, the lives of your friends, and the lives of an entire village, on what was essentially a giant hunch.
But for Naruto, Sasuke would do it.
"Please, Sakura."
The girl sighed, before she stood up, looking towards him, and nodded.
"Alright."
Kakashi looked at the two of them with his right eye with what he could only describe as awe.
That or intense worry, it was somewhere in between.
"I…" The man trailed off, seemingly lost on what could possibly be said in such a situation. Instead, he simply shook his head, and looked back towards the stone wall, at the very least prepared. "Good luck you two."
They nodded, and a second later, the wall shot forwards.
It was shrinking as it did, seeming to lose mass as it pushed the raging beast on the other side of them towards the end of the bridge. It flung the creature off the end of the incomplete section, and both the muddy earth and the beast crashed into the waves below.
A second later, the One-tailed Naruto leapt back on to the bridge, eyes primal, filled with nothing but rage.
There were only a few meters, perhaps 4 or 5, between Sasuke and Sakura, and Kakashi, Zabuza, and Haku. A few of the Ninja hounds Kakashi had summoned, those left on the other side of the wall to distract the Nine-Tails, were still around, though they looked to be running out of steam themselves.
"Sorry kids, that's all we can do for ya'. Couple of my boys were already banished, I gotta go check up on them." The leader of the group, Pakkun, if he recalled correctly, spoke out, eyes guilty as he looked upon the two of them.
"That's fine, Thank you for everything." Sasuke spoke back, giving the canines a weak smile.
The dogs burst into smoke a moment later, all wearing that same expression of guilt. The Uchiha didn't much care, he hadn't been counting on them to win them this fight.
Hell, he'd been planning on doing it alone until Sakura showed up.
"What's the plan, Sasuke?" The girl in question looked towards him but didn't dare turn away from the threat in front of them, who appeared to still be sizing them up.
"Don't die." Sasuke didn't turn his gaze away from the beast in Naruto's body. He could feel something in the back of his skull, a faint tingling there. It clawed and itched, begging to be let free.
Well, Sasuke thought, I see no reason not to.
His vision heightened to a ridiculous state, so much so that he could see the individual movements of Naruto's body, could tell that the boy's seemingly skittish jolts were actually pained jittering. Could see that the aggressive look in his eyes was actually agony, a cry for help.
He felt himself grow angry, truly angry, for the second time that day.
So, this Nine-Tailed Fox thinks it can just take my best friend away? Sasuke seethed, drawing one of his last two shuriken into his weakened left hand. Use him for its own means?
Sasuke saw the exact moment when the creature charged, the movements in it's ankle beginning to propel it forward. He was already dodging the attack before the beast even realized it was attacking.
I won't let you!
Sakura fell slightly behind, barely managing to sidestep the monster's claws, but inadvertently gave it a clear path towards Kakashi. The both of their eyes widened, as the man in front of them became the target for the Nine-Tails' wrath.
Or, he would've, if not for the masked boy from earlier kicking Naruto aside, standing to step in front of Kakashi.
"Haku!?" The assassin of the mist cried out; eyes wide with shock. "What the hell are you doing!?"
"Zabuza sir," The boy replied, juking past another swipe by a hair's breadth, the chakra on the beast's claw's coming close enough still leave a cut on the masked ninja's skin. "I thought I killed this boy once already today, and found myself overcome with grief. I… I tried to hide it, to bury it like you said to… but…"
The boy dodged underneath a claw and sent a rising kick to the underside of the Nine-Tails' jaw, launching the creature back towards him and Sakura.
"I am sorry, Zabuza sir, but I do not think I could kill him again." The masked boy shook, and even from where Sasuke was stood, it was obvious the boy was crying, however much he tried to hide it.
The demon of the mist seemed frozen to the spot, unable to find anything to say, but a second or so later, the Nine-Tails' landed back onto the bridge, and shot past the two remaining members of Team 7, gunning towards Haku with all its rage.
It was intercepted by a massive great sword and buffeted back by the sheer force of the swing.
"Haku, you… I…" Zabuza Momochi seemed at a loss for words, sighing a second later, before swinging his sword back onto his shoulder and reaching down to briefly rufflle the boy's hair. The man turned back towards the beast, now between Team 7 and the two of them, and raised his sword. "I think we need to have a long talk after all of this is over."
To his surprise, the boy reached up and removed his mask, storing it away inside of his haori. The boy smiled a bit sadly, not quite able to meet his master's eyes.
"That sounds good, Zabuza sir."
Sasuke got his first good look at the boy's face, and he could say with fair certainty that he hadn't expected him to be quite so feminine. Still, he'd also seen the boy stab his best friend today, along with trying to murder an innocent bridge-builder for money, so he wasn't so foolish as to think that made him less intimidating.
"I'm about 40% of the way charged," Kakashi spoke up, looking up at Zabuza and Haku with some slight trepidation, before dismissing it. "If you guys really do want to help… well, we could use it."
"'Want to help' is a strong term," Zabuza spoke up, rolling his eyes as he forced his left hand to rise. Sasuke noticed that there was a large incision on that arm, likely given to him by their sensei. Still, he managed to bring his hand forth, and instantly, two copies of Zabuza, made from the waters surrounding the bridge, sprung into life. "I'm here because this brat asked me to be, there's no other reason. If this thing we're fighting ever threatens Haku's life, then I'll kill it without a second thought."
The boy in question seemed stunned, eyes widening as he looked up at the famed Demon of the mist.
"Zabuza, sir?"
"Like I said, we'll talk later, Brat. We've got work to do."
The assassin's clones went first, dashing towards the one-tailed Naruto with impressive speed, using their momentum to swing their blades with even greater force than normal. The beast took the blade's on with it's body, clinging to them after they hit, and drawing the clones towards him by their own swords. It cut them down a second later, much to the assassin's chagrin.
Even still, the Mist duo didn't stop moving for a second, as Haku had already brought out a small collection of Icy blades, hovering behind him in the air, and launching them towards their opponent.
Sasuke stood back, letting the two work in tandem without getting in their way. After their attack was over, he would intercede with his and Sakura's own, and allow the other two to cool down.
After all, this wasn't a battle they needed to win, they only needed to outlast their opponent. If they were still standing when Kakashi had fully charged his Mangekyou, then they would be victorious.
Saying it is a lot easier than doing it, though.
Naruto growled fiercely as he took the spiny icicles onto his arms, not piercing his bubbling chakra layer, but unable to move forwards whilst being pelted continuously. The beast ducked a moment later, practically prone on the ground as it avoided the remaining daggers, dashing forwards in an inhuman way.
Zabuza stepped forwards, kicking the beast straight in it's face, knocking it backwards as the Demon of the Mist looked towards Sakura and Sasuke, nodding towards them.
Our turn, then.
"Let's go, Sakura!"
"I'm here!"
He slid across the cold stone beneath him, kicking up at the disoriented Naruto with his left foot, using his right hand as a pivot to spin in midair, connecting a second kick to the side of the boy's jaw. The beast ground it's teeth together, trying to reach out and take Sasuke's leg, but was interrupted by a shuriken straight to the hand, with pinpoint accuracy, thrown by Sakura, who stood just a meter or two away.
The creature turned towards the source of distraction, but was this time met with a scorching ball of flame to the backside, Sasuke using about half of his remaining chakra for that attack. He didn't have much in the tank to begin with, still exhausted from fighting Haku earlier.
Naruto flew backwards, once again pushed to the edge of the bridge. He growled, sizing them up, but not making a move.
"This is going surprisingly well!" Sakura spoke up, smiling despite the situation.
Why would you say that?
A second later, the beast before them fell to the ground, clutching it's head. It squirmed and yelled, as a protrusion around it's backside began to grow outwards.
A second tail joined the first.
"Why would you say that!?" Sasuke screamed out, exasperated.
"I don't know!" His teammate screamed back, looking desperately back at Kakashi, who was still charging up his Jutsu. "Sensei, how much longer!?"
"I'm at around 60%, give me 2 more minutes!" The man shouted, impressively managing to keep his concentration even with Sakura's shouting.
Sasuke wasn't quite sure if they could manage two minutes. As far as he'd seen, Naruto wasn't taking any damage, not that they were really trying to inflict it either. Still, it meant that even though they could knock him out of the fight for a moment, he'd always come back.
And now, he was dashing back towards them. Sasuke threw his shuriken, but the beast merely took the hit, ignoring it and swiping his nails towards Sakura.
They were blocked by Zabuza's blade, but the man was knocked backwards from the force of the blow.
Which was bad, because they'd been staying even in the fight through the assassin's brute strength, and if he couldn't hold the Nine-Tails, then none of them could.
Sasuke wouldn't lie, he was panicking a bit. Not for him, the Sharingan meant he saw all of Naruto's moves a second before the boy even started to make them, but it couldn't protect Sakura, or even the two people fighting with them. Right now, the balance of the four of them versus the nine-tails was being held, but without wanting to kill the boy, it was all they could do to hold that balance.
And the beast before them had no qualms at all with killing them.
Sasuke drew his last shuriken, turning it in his hand aimlessly, trying to distract himself from what lay before him.
It didn't really work.
The creature let out a short roar, briefly stunning all 4 of them, before it charged in recklessly, aiming straight at Zabuza. It couldn't quite connect the hit, as Haku deflected the Nine-Tails' outstretched hand, causing him to strike only air. The assassin didn't miss his window, chopping the boy with full force on the back of the neck.
It should have knocked the monster out, but instead, it merely rocketed him into the ground. Upon landing, the creature didn't hesitate, it simply spun in place. The monster's tails swept Sasuke's feet out from under him, and he realized with horrified panic that he was falling, and that the monster was going right for him.
It was hard to describe what happened to him next. It was as if, all of a sudden, the entirety of his life flashed before his eyes. His family, his friends, their deaths. It all came to him. what stuck with him, really, was his brother. The man's accursed eyes came back to him in that moment, glowing not with rage, or passion, but with boredom.
I need to kill him.
It was a simple thought, filled with the feelings his brother was unable to possess, unable to understand. He'd mocked Sasuke that night, all that time ago, to build up his hate, his grudge, and to seek him out when their eyes were the same.
How the hell would he kill him now, though? The Nine-Tails was about to run it's claws through his chest, killing him before he could even cry out for help. Another thought, a single, oddly confident thought, came to him.
I want to live.
No, that wasn't quite right.
I need to live.
That thought, no matter how straightforward, how primal in nature, made his eyes respond. He sent an idea to them.
Make this beast stop.
They complied.
Pain.
That was the first thing he felt. A coursing, sharp pain inside of his skull. The beast before him halted, seemingly held in place by invisible force. It vibrated slightly, as if dreaming fitfully, but whatever it was in Sasuke's Sharingan that kept it from moving didn't falter.
It's asleep?
It didn't make the pain any lesser, however, and Sasuke fell to his knees a second later. He didn't look away, though, couldn't afford to.
The Nine-Tails' chakra claws were only an inch from his face.
Pain
A horrid wave cut into skull, and he thought for a moment that the beast had carved into him. his head felt like it was going to collapse in on itself. He fell to the floor, completely spent, and the Nine-Tails above him awoke, raising it's claws once again to deliver a final blow.
A second later, a massive cleaver struck the monster's side, launching him across the bridge, where he landed in a heap, howling in rage.
"The hell, kid," Zabuza scooped him up with one arm, handing him over to who he could only assume was Sakura. "You didn't say you knew Genjutsu!"
"Didn't…" It was hard to speak, it felt like his mouth was filled to the brim with syrup. "Didn't know… I could."
The assassin gave him an odd look, but it was soon replaced by an exhausted grimace as the monster at the end of the bridge roared once more, and the man stood back up to full height, drawing his weapon back in front of him.
Sasuke hadn't seen when, but the weapon had cracked straight down the middle. It wasn't quite broken, but he imagined it didn't have long.
"Oi, copy ninja," Zabuza shouted out. "how much longer!?"
"I'm nearly ready!" Kakashi yelled back, head hung low, but with a determined expression on his features. "I need around 30 more seconds!"
The demon hissed, but complied, charging forward. Going on the offensive was probably the easiest way of keeping the beast off of Kakashi, but Sasuke could see at least one problem with that plan.
Namely, that the beast in front of them had gained another tail.
It was faster too, it seemed, as it darted past Zabuza, running straight at Haku. The ice user flinched but managed to bring his arms up in front of him in time to block the strike. It didn't help him much with the landing, though, as he skidded to a stop a few meters away, having been launched across the bridge. He didn't seem to be getting up, but was certainly alive, if the pained groaning was anything to go by.
Zabuza growled, and brought a kunai out of his pouch, pouncing on the beast from behind and slamming it down. He managed to score a small cut onto Naruto's back, even through the chakra, though when he pulled his left hand out, it was to find it oddly marked, almost as if it had been burned.
"I need 15 more seconds!" Kakashi called out, standing up for the first time in minutes, preparing to cast his Jutsu.
It wasn't much, but it brought some life back into Sasuke's features. He could feel Sakura, who was still holding him in her arms, rouse as well. They both rose, rushing in to join the fight.
Until Sasuke's legs gave out on him, that was.
"Sasuke!?" His teammate called out behind him, sounding horribly concerned.
"Help them, I'll be fine!"
It wouldn't do for her to worry about him now, not when they were so close.
Sakura complied, running into the melee in front of the two of them, connecting her kunai with one of the boy's swinging tails, just barely managing to duck underneath of his claws.
"5 seconds!"
Sasuke watched it all in morbid fascination. At any moment, any of those three fighting Naruto could be killed. A single hit to a vital area could kill them.
This was that intense of a battle.
"4!"
The Nine-Tails charged at Haku's still body but was intercepted by Zabuza's cleaver. The hit was enough to break the blade in twain, sending the second piece flying off the edge of the bridge.
"3!"
Sakura brought her hands together, muttering something, before bringing her hands down onto the ground, and shouting "Earth Style: Mud Wall!"
Whether she'd picked it up off of Kakashi's technique earlier, or she had known it before hand, one couldn't deny that Sakura had chosen the perfect time to use her Jutsu. It was smaller than Kakashi's, and a bit less well packed, but it still took a potentially dangerous hit for the Demon of the Mist, breaking upon contact with the Nine-Tails' claws.
"2!"
The Nine-Tailed Fox, though some strange instinct, or perhaps actual intelligence, seemed to realize what it was they were trying to do, to seal it back away, and charged towards Kakashi. It dodged one blow from Zabuza, juked underneath another from Sakura, and even effortlessly broke apart the earth wall the girl spawned in front of it.
"1!"
Ah, there's that feeling again.
Naruto's face smiled, knowing it had won, claw's poised to take the head off of their mentor. Off of his own mentor.
His hand stopped an inch from the man's face.
Pain
It hurt quite a bit, but that wouldn't stop him now. He could hold the beast, he knew that. He'd done it earlier. He didn't have to manage it for very long, just a second.
Just one second.
"Mangekyou Sharingan!" Kakashi screamed, left eye finally revealing itself.
It was bloodshot, and the design of the eye had changed, now a swirling pattern reminiscent of a windmill.
It was as if all noise in the area died for just a moment. All of them, even the two from the mist, sat silently, waiting to see if their ace in the hole had come through.
A second later, the Nine-Tailed Fox let out a piercing howl, buffeting them all back. It scratched at the bridge below it, carving out giant chunks of the solid concrete as if it were made of butter. One tail left, then two. Finally, the third tail disappeared, and as the beast let out one final yell, it stilled, mouth still open towards the sky, trapped in a perpetual scream.
Sasuke wanted to collapse. Honestly, he probably needed to collapse, but that could wait. Right now, he needed to know if the boy in front of him, his best friend, was alright.
The boy's body fell the ground, completely limp. Kakashi was the first to him, being only a meter from him at the time of his collapse. He cradled Naruto in his arms, bringing his head up. Sasuke noticed that the man's left eye was leaking blood, running down his face where it dripped onto the blonde's face below him.
Sasuke felt terrified to ask, but also couldn't stop himself.
"I-Is he…?"
Kakashi looked up at him, and then, to Sasuke's immense relief, gave him an easy smile.
"He's alive."
Sasuke gave a small noise of acknowledgement. He looked over at everyone around, walking over to them in varying states of exhaustion, and nodded to himself.
His legs gave out a second later.
/-/
Sakura felt an odd sense of loneliness as she looked at her two teammates passed out next to one another.
Of course, she wasn't lonely because they were passed out, but more because of what had happened today.
They'd both given everything they'd had. They'd given blood, sweat, and tears, and what had she done?
Sat around a house, Sakura mentally grumbled, idly spinning a kunai on one finger. Capturing some random mooks.
Oh sure, she'd been able to bring out her new Jutsu, the mud wall, which Kakashi had taught her while they waited around on the bridge. It turned out that her primary release was Earth-type, so he'd decided to show her one of his 'favorites'. She appreciated it, honestly, and apparently she took to learning new Jutsu quite well.
It felt like empty praise, even if it maybe wasn't.
What had it all mattered? When Naruto's clone had shown up, they'd both agreed Sasuke was better for going to back the boy up, and so Sakura had waited behind.
Behind them, like she always was.
It didn't matter that she'd successfully protected those two at the house. Didn't matter that maybe her efforts would lead to the bridge getting rebuilt. None of it mattered.
Well, maybe it did, but not to her.
As she ground her teeth, thinking about this and that, she nearly missed the sound of someone clearing their throat in front of her. She looked up and was surprised to see the Icy ninja that they'd just fought with.
"Hello." The boy spoke out, smiling a bit sadly to her as he sat down, cross-legged, on the bridge.
"Its…" Sakura struggled to come up with the name. She'd heard it once while being stressed about Naruto, but she thought she could remember something that sounded vaguely correct. "Haku, right?"
"Indeed." The boy's smile became a bit more genuine, before he gazed down at the floor, drawing a small design in the rubble with his finger. "I… I don't really know how to say this…"
"I find it's almost always easier to just come out with it." Sakura spoke, not looking at him, but instead at the two Jonin a way's away, talking quietly to one another. It turned out that working together to not die made friends of the weirdest people. Kakashi was currently trying to reason with Zabuza about dropping his and Haku's current job.
It seemed to be going… well-ish.
"Oh… alright then." The boy in front of her squared his shoulders and stood back up to his full height. He bowed deeply, the front of his haori might as well have touched the floor. "I'm sorry for nearly killing your teammate."
Oh.
I actually didn't expect that.
"Uhm… Thanks."
The boy shuffled awkwardly for a moment or two, fiddled once with his robe, and then walked over to stand next to his master.
The sound of marching footsteps caught Sakura's attention, and she turned to the source of the noise with a curious expression. She saw 40 or 50 men, all armed with swords or similar weapons, charging their way's up the bridge, laughing and jeering.
They came to a stop a way's away from their group, though every single one of them had already drawn a weapon, some a bit more subtly than others. Kakashi had a shuriken in the back of his left hand, concealed behind his leg. Zabuza had simply chosen to place his broken sword over his shoulder, holding it ominously.
Sakura saw more than a few men in the crowd shuffle nervously, though that all changed when a shrill voice sounded above them.
"Well, well, well." A small man, barely a meter in height, stepped in front of the rowdy band, smirking to himself like he was the beneficiary of some lucrative scheme, which he probably was. "What do we have here? Enemies consorting with one another? People under my payroll, actively betraying me?"
Gato looked back towards his men, laughing. All of them followed suit, though it wasn't hard to notice that half of them had to fake it.
"Y'know, the last person who did that is currently tied to a boulder, about a mile deep in the ocean." If it was possible, Sakura thought the man's smile grew even more heinous. He smacked his cane against the concrete bridge, the sound echoing off the water.
"Men," He spoke shrilly, pointing his cane out in front of him. "Kill them all."
The band shouted, but before they could so much as make a move, an icy dagger pierced directly into the shoulder of one of the front most mercenaries. The man screamed as he fell, landing on the ground in a heap. He'd live, but he was out of the fight.
Haku himself looked unfazed, summoning more daggers from behind him.
"This is the last of my chakra, Zabuza sir." The boy spoke quietly enough that the crowd couldn't hear him, looking oddly confident despite their situation.
"That's fine. Thanks, brat." The assassin brought his left hand in front of him, and even if it was badly burned from the Nine-Tails chakra, he was still able to form the signs for "Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu!"
A few more Zabuza's, perhaps 6 or 7, sprung up beside the man, each of them swinging their swords around them in an arc, and then slamming them into the bridge below them. Even with only half a blade, the concrete still cracked under the blow.
The men in front of them were stepping backwards now, actively frightened of pursuing their targets.
Sakura's Sensei looked to want to join in as well, and the man raised his hand in Naruto's trademarked Shadow Clone Jutsu sign, but he faltered. She could see the strain playing on the man's face and realized with a start that he'd just used a more powerful Sharingan, merely days after he'd recovered from using the less powerful version.
He had to be barely standing, most likely knowing that if he fell, the men would charge.
Sakura swallowed nothing at all, trying to keep herself calm. She put on her best brave face, and took a battle-ready stance, drawing her last kunai from her pack as she feigned preparedness.
The men looked to be nearly fully cowed now, looking backwards and seeing if they couldn't make a run for it.
"The hell are you doing!?" Their boss, Gato, shouted a second later, eyes roaming over the group of men. He drew his cane out and whacked the man on the floor, who had been stabbed by Haku's icy projectile earlier. "Get up. Get up!"
The man in question did manage to stand up, but only did so to take a step backwards, completely ignoring the angry man in front of him, and instead focusing on the 4 presumably battle-ready ninjas in front of him.
I have to admit, Sakura thought, smiling with more confidence then she really felt. This whole bluff thing isn't a bad plan.
They needed one last push, though, all of them could see that. The men were skittish but looked to still be grappling with the idea of losing their paychecks for the foreseeable future.
Luckily, it seemed Zabuza would be giving them all the motivation they needed. His clones drew their swords back, and, with more strength than Sakura had ever seen, hurled their blades towards the crowds.
They parted like a river, yelling desperately as they narrowly avoided the spinning blades, which cut deeply into the concrete where they landed, eventually melting back into the water that they were.
Sakura imagined that, had they seen them turn into water, these people wouldn't have been nearly as afraid. Unfortunately for them, however, they weren't really looking behind them very much at all, on account of running away with their tails between their legs.
They halted again, however, as an arrow impacted the ground just before them.
He was a small archer, barely shorter than Gato, and wielding a crossbow far too big for him, but Inari still managed to cut a mean figure.
It probably helped that he had a good hundred people behind him, all armed with what Sakura imagined was whatever they could find. She saw kitchen knives, frying pans, and even one particularly enthusiastic woman with a soup ladle.
"W-What the hell!?" One of Gato's mercenaries called out, taking a step back, and bumping into another equally as frightened man. "T-trapped on all sides!?"
"W-what do we do!?"
"The bridge! Jump off the bridge!"
"Yeah!"
The first to go was a swordsman, then a man wielding a glaive. The rest followed suit, jumping off the bridge in varying states of panic.
Zabuza, however, shot forward, apparently unsatisfied with how things had ended up. He charged into the crowd, and Sakura heard a faint scream, before he emerged, carrying a small businessman over his shoulder, looking awfully pleased with himself.
"Well, hello there, Gato." The assassin spoke up, and Sakura could tell even with the bandages that covered his face that he was smiling maliciously. "I actually have a question for you. My ears were damaged during my fight earlier, so I couldn't quite make out what you said…"
The man in question paled, his face going whiter than the clouds above them, looking for all the world a corpse.
Sakura feared he might soon become one.
"Would you mind repeating it for me?"
Gato let out a small squeak, and then fainted in the man's arms.
The demon of the mist snorted, taking the man by the back of his collar, and hauling him up, once more holding him behind his shoulder. He swung his sword around and placed it onto his back as well. It still fit in the holster he'd made for it, the blade cracking below where it connected into it.
"Well," Zabuza spoke up, looking to be in a notably better mood than he was earlier. He reached his hand into the man's back pocket and pulled out a wallet that looked fit to burst. "I'd say that worked out surprisingly well."
Despite everything that had happened, Sakura found herself giggling slightly into her hand, and then full on laughing a second later. She laughed for a long, long time, even as she heard her teacher give a small chuckle as well, before he looked over to the two who'd worked with them today, eyes hardening.
"Now… what to do about all of this?" Kakashi spoke up, before he sighed a second later, putting away the shuriken that he'd been holding this entire time.
"Hmph." Zabuza himself gave a small laugh, though it was muted. "We know about that boy, and the secret he carries." The Demon of the Mist looked at the both of them, looking for the first time since Sakura met the man like he deserved that moniker. "You can't let us go."
"No," Kakashi spoke, gazing down at the floor, placing his right hand into his pocket. "I can't."
There was silence, and for a brief moment, Sakura thought they were about to fight these two again, in the state they were in.
Even she knew they wouldn't be winning that.
To her relief, Kakashi looked back up, smiling in a way that could be seen even from underneath his mask.
"So, I'd like to invite you two to come to the Leaf Village."
"What!?"
A second of looking around at everyone, who all stared back at her, made Sakura realize that it had been her who had screeched that out. She squirmed a little under the scrutiny, but still couldn't quite hide her shock.
Just like that!?
"I can't help but agree with the girl," Zabuza spoke up, expression a bit curious. "I can't help but think that it'd be far too easy for us to kill the four of you and be done with all this. Plus, I'd get to make a pretty penny off your bingo book entry, too."
It was Kakashi's turn to laugh this time, as he looked towards the man's student, who looked to be paling slightly at the notion of killing their new friends.
"I don't think you would."
"What!?" The assassin spoke up, surprised by the idea that Kakashi would think him incapable of murder.
"I said I don't think you would, or at least, I don't think your student would let you."
Zabuza looked down at his protégé, who couldn't quite meet the man's eyes.
"And what makes you think that this brat here calls the shots? He does what I say!"
Kakashi snorted.
"Doesn't seem like it to me."
"What!?" The Demon of the Mist sounded like a broken record, but even Sakura could see that her teacher's words were having an effect on the man.
Is he… blushing?
"I think you like that boy quite a bit more than you let on, and I think you know he thinks the world of you." Kakashi spoke, leaning back against the railing of the bridge. It seemed like a casual position, a show of trust, but Sakura could see the truth, that the man just couldn't stand up anymore in his condition. "I'm just thinking that… perhaps life in a village would be far easier than that of a mercenary."
Zabuza blinked, thought about everything that was happening, and then blinked again. He made a small noise, that seemed to Sakura to be the start of a retort, but it died before it could make it out of the man's mouth.
"To add to that, you won't be hunted by the Mist's tracking unit if you enter the Leaf Village, our barrier corps is one of the strongest in the world. You also wouldn't have to worry about money, being able to make it from missions and the like."
"Kakashi… You…" The assassin seemed caught between anger and contemplation. He was rapidly changing the focus of his gaze, from his student to her sensei, even looking to her once or twice.
"And, I think your kid there would appreciate not having to kill his new friends, am I right?" He gestured towards the boy to speak, though if he expected to get a word out of him, he was clearly mistaken. The ice user clammed up completely, his fact paling.
Zabuza looked down at his student, seeming to be thinking about a half a million things. He brought his hand up, almost wanting to place his hand on the boy's shoulder but decided against it at the last moment.
"Haku… what do you want to do?"
The ice user looked up at his master, bewildered by the question. If Sakura had to guess, she'd say that the boy didn't usually have agency in these things.
"Zabuza, sir?"
The man simply nodded towards his student, but otherwise not speaking as the boy looked down towards the ground, eyes a complicated mess of feelings.
"I…" Haku spoke quietly, rubbing his hands together nervously, before, with a deep breath, he steeled himself. "I don't want to hurt these people."
The Demon of the Mist looked down at his student, seemingly indifferent to the boy's decision. A second later, he brought his hand up onto the boy's head, and lightly ruffled his hair.
"Alright, I guess that's what we'll do, then."
Zabuza turned back towards Kakashi, sighed deeply, and then smiled tiredly.
"Well, you heard him. I suppose this makes us-"
Kakashi fell sideways, slumping down onto the ground, and somehow managing to land just next to Sasuke and Naruto, all three of them passed out from exertion.
"Uhm…" The assassin looked confused, as did Haku. They seemed a bit concerned as well, and Sakura felt that was fair. This wasn't the first time she'd seen this happen, though. Hell, it was the third time this week.
Still though, as she looked down at her comatose teammates, she realized with a pained groan that someone had to carry them back to Tazuna's place.
"Aw..." Sakura spoke, falling to her knees and massaging her face with her hands.
"Why me?"
End Chapter 8
Not a superdy-duperdy lot to say, so I'll keep it brief.
This is the first major change in the timeline, thanks to Naruto and Sasuke being better friends, and Naruto being better trained, the two are able to fight a bit differently, but still lose against Haku. It's definitely a different way, though.
I also wanted to make sure Sakura herself is more useful throughout this whole Fic, even if I love her character in the show. She especially never gets any help at all from Kakashi, so I wanted to add in some of that, with him teaching her the Mud Wall.
Alright, that's it from me, see you next week!