Without further ado...

Chapter 55: Human to the Bitter End

Naruto tensed as their assailant caught up with them almost instantaneously. He'd known there was a high chance they hadn't lost someone strong enough to be an Akatsuki by running past him, but still…

He'd kind of been hoping just one thing could go right for them today.

Tobi's singular exposed eye now glowed a faint red, and he looked to his side to see Sasuke breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating. He tapped the boy on his arm, and Sasuke was drawn out of his mind, though he still looked worse for wear.

"That's four Mangekyou." The man spoke quietly. "Itachi… he… he lied to me. I'm sure of it now."

Naruto wasn't quite sure why that would come as a surprise to his best friend, given the conduct of his brother's character being less than stellar, but he didn't voice that thought.

The S-Ranked Ninja charged a Jutsu, expelling it in a massive rain of fire. Before it could hit and annihilate their entire squad, they were forced to lower their altitudes, attempting to run by the Akatsuki underneath him in the tree line. Unfortunately, Tobi seemed to have accounted for that, for he simply melted into the branch below him, passing straight through it and landing in front of their group again, looking unfazed.

They were now only twenty or so feet from the ground, but they couldn't just give up. This time, it was the Jonin who tried to form a distraction, with the both of them charging at Tobi and trying to draw him into combat.

The man instead squatted down on the branch he'd been stood upon, placed his hand under his chin, and looked terribly bored as he allowed their respective blades to pass through him.

It seemed as if they had no chance of escaping the man, and yet the group tried anyways, taking to the ground of the forest below them and attempting to dash right past. They failed once more, as Tobi sunk through the tree he'd been standing upon, landing in front of their group and yawning into one of his hands.

Damnit, what the hell!? Naruto shouted angrily inside his head. How the hell do we beat a guy who can make himself stop existing!?

Tobi, who brushed some of the dirt and dust off of his outfit with a casual air, turned his eye on both Naruto and Gaara, and the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki flinched away from his gaze. It was an odd, almost indescribably primal feeling. It wasn't a fear he could describe, but simple a feeling in his chest. The Nine-Tails was…

Afraid.

He knew why, as well. The Nine-Tails had come out and told him earlier that very day, telling the tale of the one named Tobi, and how he'd placed the fox under a Genjutsu, one that made him assault the Leaf Village. He hadn't thought to ask what the Foxes will was regarding that matter, if he'd minded attacking the Leaf, or simply hadn't cared, but it wasn't like it mattered.

The only thing that mattered was that the man in front of them was staggeringly powerful, perhaps even more so than their entire group put together. A terrifying prospect, but not an unfair one. This was an organization that had collecting every Tailed-Beast as their mission, which would make them an enemy of almost every country on the face of the planet.

And that meant they were prepared for that eventuality.

"Still, I must admit, I didn't think you'd make it past Pain." He head swiveled from Naruto, to Sasuke and Sakura. "The three of you truly are an awfully potent combination. I'm sure you'd have been world-shakers yourselves one day."

A noise at the edge of the clearing caught their attention, and with a horrifying edge, Naruto turned to see just about the last people he'd wanted to.

Kisame, Itachi, and what seemed to be the man named 'Zetsu', judging from Sakura's report back in Tsunade's office. The three walked into their little clearing without much care, looking to all the world disinterested.

"Oh, You're here." Kisame spoke towards Tobi, and though Naruto tried to catch the other man's reaction to the shark's words, he narrowly missed it. "Oh, and the entourage as well, how's everybody doing?"

Their group backed into one another, forming a tight-knit circle around Dosu that wouldn't have been broken by half of the ninja in the world.

Of course, any of the ninja around them could've done it in a heartbeat.

Naruto noticed now, as he was forced to face Kisame, that the man actually had someone slung across his shoulder. A brief inspection had Naruto's eyes widening as he recognized the man there.

It was Kabuto.

From the looks of things, the sound ninja had had a pretty rough go of it. Even from what little Naruto could see of the man's outfit, most of it concealed behind Kisame's massive bulk, it had been ripped to near shreds. He assumed that had to do with fighting the shark, himself, and the man's sword, which ripped and tore at whatever it cut.

Naruto could understand that feeling, at least, since he'd been on that end of it himself.

He was brought back to focusing in on their group as Zaku, shoulder to shoulder with him on his right side, slipped slightly. He gazed however briefly down at the boy, but what he saw did the opposite of inspire confidence in him.

Zaku's entire posture was off. He was slumping as if exhausted, but Naruto knew the real reason he was nearly falling over. He'd been wounded badly by one of Pain's forms, taking a blow to the side of the head that had left him reeling, needing Kin to come in and bail him out. It was clear, however, that the boy had likely suffered a concussion at the very least. Hell, He was only barely holding his eyes open.

It didn't help that they were carrying around Dosu, who was, at this point, only a liability on their combat strength. They protected him because they knew if the enemy got their hands on him, held him hostage, demanded anything of them…

This was probably over.

"Itachi." Sasuke spat from off to his left, teeth grinding as he addressed his brother with complete disdain.

"Sasuke." Itachi murmured apathetically. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Sasuke practically hissed at the man's words, but was stopped by Zabuza, who elbowed the boy lightly in his stomach.

"Calm. No getting angry. Right now, anything that throws you off your game will get you and your friends killed."

Naruto saw Sasuke swallow, and whether he had been purging such thoughts from his mind, or was trying to cut down on his nerves, he couldn't tell.

"Right."

The Akatsuki around them didn't move, but Naruto had the sneaking suspicion that wasn't because they were nervous. If anything, they were taking this slow because they could. It wasn't like any of the Akatsuki, individually, could be matched by any of them. They'd only been able to match Deidara due to a stylistic difference in the man's Jutsu. Naruto had a feeling that if the man had been able to retain the distance he'd set for himself…

They wouldn't have had a chance.

"Right." Zabuza spoke up suddenly, startling Naruto back into action. "Here's the deal, you're going to follow my orders, exactly as I say them, and as soon as I say them, clear?"

A chorus of acknowledgements sounded out, and Zabuza took a single step backwards, briefly breaking formation. He explained his plan quietly, but Naruto was still on edge, still focusing hard on the ninja in front of them. It took merely ten seconds for the adult to finish speaking, and when he stepped forward once more, Naruto could tell he was prepared.

"This won't work on two of them." He spoke simply, before concentrating by bringing his hands together.

"Water Release: Hiding Mist Jutsu!"

Naruto's eyes widened as he considered the consequences of the assassin's technique. Sure, it would hide them from two members that were currently chasing them, Kisame, and Zetsu, assuming, of course, that the two didn't have any Sharingan they'd like to pull out of their asses as well, but, from what he understood of the eye, Genjutsu would have no effect at all on the Sharingan's sight.

Both Tobi and Itachi would have no issues at all in finding them.

He voiced said concerns to Sasuke off to his left, and received a confident smile in return. Naruto wasn't sure what to make of that, until, a moment later, his friend saw fit to explain.

"Zabuza really is experienced." Sasuke voiced out. "Sure, the Sharingan can see through this mist, in fact, I can see everyone in the vicinity with complete clarity, but it does something more important than that."

He turned to Naruto, offering the boy his best smirk.

"It cuts off sight lines, meaning visual Genjutsu, the kind Itachi is prophetic at using, are nearly useless!"

That, to be fair, did sound pretty great. Still, Naruto couldn't help but worry about how they were supposed to see, given that the Mist Jutsu didn't just affect enemies.

"Now that we've cut off their sight," Zabuza spoke, slapping the side of his leg with his left hand in what Naruto could only assume was an auditory cue. "We cut off their hearing. Once that's done, run backwards, and don't hesitate for a second. This will be the last time we're able to communicate before this is over." The man stopped for just a moment, seemingly thinking of what to say.

"Don't get killed."

A moment later, an odd sort of substance surrounded Naruto's ears. He felt the need to fight it, but a hand on his shoulder had him calming himself down. He turned to look at Sasuke beside him, who was attempting to steady him, and saw a brownish-orange object shoved into his ear.

"What is-" He spoke but realized a moment later that he could not hear anything. He realized on closer inspection that the odd, cork-looking object keeping them from hearing anything was a small amount of Gaara's sand, which he'd apparently formed earplugs with.

He couldn't be sure why the boy would do such a thing, at least, until a moment later, when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He barely managed to get a good visual on just what it was flying by him, before he recognized the object as a senbon with a bell tied to the end.

The plan finally clicked in his head, and without waiting a second longer, he followed Zabuza's last order, running backwards, and working through the idea in his mind, finding himself grinning widely.

Cutting off their opponents eyes would never have been enough, not when two of them were Sharingan users, and another was from the Mist Village himself. Hell, Naruto wouldn't have been surprised if Zabuza and Kisame had interacted at some point, or maybe even fought, both being members of the Seven Swords.

But adding onto the mist with one of Kin's auditory Genjutsu, even a fairly weak one, would hopefully be enough to stall the Akatsuki for a small while. It didn't have to be a terribly long time, just long enough for them to put some distance between their two groups.

And luckily, it seemed like it was going to work.

At least, that was, until a hand grabbed onto Naruto's ankle from below him.

He hadn't been able to hear anything anyone was saying, nor, truly, could he make out distinct expressions on people's faces. Truthfully, the only thing he could see in the fog was Sasuke's back, as the boy ran ahead of him, unable to hear Naruto cry out for assistance as he looked down at the limb that had him.

It was Tobi's hand gripping him, sticking out of the ground in a way that seemed impossible. Naruto felt a fear building in his chest, and briefly, he panicked that he'd be left behind, unable for his friends to see or hear him as he was held back by the masked assailant. A moment later, however, a single senbon pierced through Tobi's hand, impacting into the ground.

In that very same instant, Naruto's leg passed right through it, and he realized with some annoyance that the man had merely activated his ability to phase through things. Still, at the very least, it seemed like he couldn't grab things and phase through them at the same time, for he had to pull his hand back, and Naruto watched as the limb, and any evidence Tobi had been there, disappeared back into the earth.

He looked up at Haku, who'd nailed the shot that probably saved his life, and gave the teen an honest nod, to which the ice-user replied simply with a smile.

He hesitated to say they were free of the Akatsuki's clutches when they exited out of the other side of the Mist cloud, since not a single one of them let up running, even if they might've been fine.

As they advanced past the mist cloud, and the Akatsuki didn't seem to be following, Gaara pulled his sand from everyone's ears, and, luckily enough, it seemed like the boy was able to remove any residue, for Naruto had been just a bit concerned he was going to have grains of the stuff in his ears for the next couple weeks.

They kept running for quite a while, none of them even remotely comfortable with stopping, but they were far from as fast as they should've been. Namely, they were constantly waiting for Kin and Dosu, the former of whom had been carrying the latter on her back this entire time, and was thusly slowed to a crawl compared to her usual speed.

It also didn't help that Sakura's transformation had finally faded from her body, and she'd nearly collapsed from the pain of both the injury on her arm and the couple of breaks to her ribs, which meant she, too, was being carried along on Anko's back. The Jonin, to be fair, was far better at ignoring the extra weight, but even she was slowed by a little as they tried to keep up their pace.

Naruto watched the front of the formation, trying to keep track of any changes in direction or intent, but mostly, all he saw was Zabuza's frustrated expression, trying to speed the group up, and, every time, slowing back down as either Kin or Anko, mostly Kin, needed the group to halt their pace.

"We're barely putting distance between us." Zabuza complained after another uninspiring spurt of movement. "The Akatsuki could've taken a fucking nap, and they'd still be on us within the next few minutes!"

"Well if you've got any better ideas, then feel free to provide!" Anko snapped back at the man. "We're doing the best that we can!"

The group was on edge, that much was clear. A minute or two passed by in relative silence, though it was exact opposite of a comfortable one. In truth, the only thing Naruto could really understand was that somehow, someone needed to make more distance for them, or they weren't getting away.

It only took another minute for the Akatsuki to catch them.

It was Tobi first, perhaps unsurprisingly, who phased out from the ground, jumping high into the air, and gunning directly for Naruto, bringing his hand out in an intimidating fashion. Naruto called the man on his bluff, however, for Haku's needles had hit the man's body at the perfect time for him to go right through, without being caught.

It didn't stop the man from gripping onto the back of Naruto's jacket, however, after he'd fully phased through Naruto's body. He panicked, letting out a small yelp as he was dragged down to the forest floor, and slammed into the ground below.

His vision swam from the impact, but he didn't allow his body to give up, even if it really, really wanted to. Luckily, his natural bulk had kept the fall from, well, killing him, and the Nine-Tails was healing the damage that had pierced through it.

Still, he was face to face with an Akatsuki, and what was worse, he was probably the strongest one.

"I don't think I'll be taking chances this time." The man said as his Sharingan appeared once more, forming the same pattern from earlier. "Rest easy, Naruto Uzumaki."

The man's eye tensed, and a moment later, the very world around him seemed to spin and ripple.

He wasn't quite sure how to describe the feeling, though, if he'd ever wondered what it felt like to be water spiraling down the drain, he now had a pretty good idea. Black ripples seemed to alter the very world around him, and Naruto had a bad feeling that if the man got to do… whatever it was he was trying to do fully, then he wasn't going to like the result.

Luckily, Haku bailed him out, firing off two senbon that both cut into the man's face. The boy's aim was superb, for it delayed Tobi just long enough for Zabuza to arrive, slamming his sword into the dirt, and directly into Tobi's face.

He'd stopped sucking Naruto in (For that was about the only thing he could think of that the man might've been trying for), and Zabuza reached his hand through the ninja, grabbing onto Naruto with his left hand, and, with an inordinate strength, he threw him back into the tree line.

Naruto sailed through the air, finding himself screaming a bit on instinct, until he was caught by Sasuke, who offered him a relieved gasp as they looked back down at the ground below.

Zabuza and Haku were good, but they weren't quite as good as Tobi. The man deflected their blows with twin rods which stuck out from his hands and stabbed them forward, quickly impaling the Mist Assassin in the chest. Zabuza managed to avoid the fatal blow, but wasn't quite able to fully dodge the attack, coming away with no small amount of blood from under his top.

He gave Haku a simple nod, and the two practically flew back into the tree line, their superior speed and coordination on full display.

The problem came in how they were surrounded once more barely a moment later, this time, by opponents a bit more immediately threatening.

Kisame Hoshigaki swung his blade down, cutting into the branch that Zabuza and Haku had landed upon, and nearly sending them falling down to the ground below. Luckily, their instincts seemed good enough to see the attack coming, for they managed to hop off of the doomed limb just before it's destruction.

"Yo, Assassin of the Mist!" Kisame shouted, smirking, and showing off his sharpened teeth. "Sorry I was held up earlier, Sasori finally arrived, so I'm off kid-carrying duty! We can duel to our hearts content now!"

Sasori? Is that that puppet guy? He got free that quick!? Naruto found himself panicking, but barely held himself together. No. We expected that the landslide would only hold them for a bit, it wasn't a permanent solution. I need to stay calm.

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm from the side and pulled them both away, and it was his turn to remember that, at the end of the day, every enemy here was after him.

But that didn't mean the Akatuski wouldn't be attacking his friends, either. As Zabuza and Haku ran to join them, the former narrowly dodged underneath a rod that Tobi had fired, letting it sail over his head. He moved to recover, to get back on his feet, but in the time it had taken him to do so, Haku had been placed under fire.

Kisame had him locked in close-range, utilizing his water Jutsu's, along with Samehada, to keep the teen right where he wanted him. It only took him a second to overwhelm Haku, and a second longer to bring his blade to bear, preparing to cut down his opponent.

Naruto let out a yell as he broke free from Sasuke, reaching into his pouch to try and find things he could throw at their assailant. Lamentably, as he reached into the cloth compartment, he found that only a single flash bomb remained, and it would do no good in the half second they had to save Haku.

No… No! He saved me over and over, and I can't do a thing for him!?

"Die, Kid!"

"Haku!"

A flash of movement, a bitter sound of flesh and steel colliding, and then silence.

/-/

Pain was the only thing he could comprehend, which was fairly surprising, given his tolerance to the stuff.

He'd tried to block the blow from hitting him and protect the boy at the same time, but, well, he'd had to choose one or the other in the end, and, well…

One of them had been far more important.

He coughed, and idly, he noticed a few droplets of blood land on the branch below him, which supported the weight of the three ninjas standing atop it.

"Za… buza?"

His vision swayed slightly as he looked towards Haku. His brat's face was almost purely white, pale to a degree he'd never seen. He tried to wash away the boy's concern but felt an agonizing ripping of his flesh from behind him, and turned his head instead towards their opponent.

"Heh…" Kisame grinned a bit madly, seeming to find amusement in his actions. "To think you, of all people, would shield another with your body."

The man ripped Samehada out from Zabuza's body, practically flaying his back and left arm apart. The Assassin of the Mist wretched violently, finding himself kneeling as the strength fled his body. He looked up, watching as Kisame moved to bring the blade down once more, but in some fiendish display of speed and strength, Haku was faster.

"GRAAAH!"

The boy's ice shot out from his body, eviscerating the battlefield, and forcing Kisame back. A moment later, without a care in the world for his reserves, Haku activated the ability once more, shooting massive glaciers out of his hands and forming a veritable mountain of ice.

After the obscene showing, the boy fell to his knees. The breath coming out from his mouth was cold, looking almost like mist in the warm day around them. Zabuza himself could feel a small kernel of pride springing up from within him, seeing how far his student had come.

Student… no…

How far his… brat had come.

That's still not it…

"…za!"

His head swam with different thoughts, different ideas, things he wished he'd done differently. He might've asked himself why if he were more naïve.

"Zabuza!"

His gaze rose, and he met Haku's own. The boy was somehow even paler than he'd been before, looking almost albino, although his eyes were still a rich brown, despite the deep concern welling within them.

He grunted as he tried to push himself to his feet, but his left side simply wasn't working. He hazarded a guess that that was probably quite bad.

He growled out of his mouth, an almost feral thing that poured out of him on instinct. He forced himself to his feet with only his right side, letting his left arm, and most of the rest of him, hang limp and forgotten.

Blood pooled on the branch below them, but he couldn't worry about that. He had a single priority right now, one more important than any other.

"Haku." He managed to shove out of his mouth, despite the fact that his tongue felt like it had a lead weight tied to it. "Get back to the others."

"What!?" The boy sounded broken, and a piece of him couldn't take that, despite knowing what he had to do. "You want me to just leave you!? No, end of story! I'm not abandoning you!"

"Haku we don't have time for this!" He shouted with everything left in his body, forcing the voice that sounded so terribly foreign past his lips. "These people… can't be beat. You have to run and-"

"And what!? Leave you to die!" Haku couldn't accept his words, though it wasn't like he could blame him. "I'm staying. We've gone through hell and back together, I won't let it all end here!"

His brain keyed back into the sounds of combat all around them. They'd fallen into the background as his body tried to conserve energy, but now, he could make out the noise that used to rule over his life.

The noise of the battlefield.

It seemed so terribly at odds with Haku, a beacon of kindness and joy, to have existed in this place for nearly his entire life. It felt… wrong. Entirely so.

This… This isn't the life I wanted for you.

He looked towards Haku's face, and for the first time, he noticed the tears streaming down the boy's cheeks. There was still a primal piece of him, the one that had lived and breathed and relished the fields of war, that couldn't believe the sight before his eyes.

To think… someone could cry for me, of all people.

"Haku! Zabuza!"

He recognized the voice approaching them as belonging to Naruto Uzumaki, and he felt it was a bit ironic that he of all people was the person coming to their aide, after all this time.

For some reason, he was back on that damned bridge, remembering when Haku had jumped in to help save some Nine-Tailed kid from himself, and how he'd been dragged along with him. At the time, he never could have considered the path they'd end up taking.

Still, even now, he wasn't sure he'd have changed it.

A way to escape the scars of the Mist Village that he'd left in their wake, a way to give the both of them some peace, and a way to give Haku the normal life he deserved. The Leaf Village… it'd been good to them.

But he knew what he had to do.

"Alright, Haku." He muttered under his breath, watching as the boy at his side lit up with relief at his words. "You can stay and help me fight them off. Take point, I'll be right behind you."

Haku smiled, walking just in front of him and drawing a dozen senbon into the gaps in his fingers. He looked completely prepared to face hell alongside him, as he always had, since the moment they'd met.

Which only served to make his next action all the more difficult.

The hit to the back of the boy's neck was calculated, one he'd never had much use for in his time as an assassin, but one that'd been drilled into his head from practically minute one during his training. It was a surefire technique to knock someone out, without risking injuring them.

But he couldn't handle the betrayed look in Haku's eyes as the boy fell into his hold, supported only by his right arm, the strength of which he could feel fading by the moment.

"What are you-" Naruto Uzumaki shouted, seemingly worried for his friend, but it was as if in that moment, as he saw the left side of Zabuza's body, dead and unresponsive, he understood the answer to his own question, and an aghast expression overcame him.

"I'm sorry, Haku." He tore away at the bandages at his mouth, allowing them to fall away onto the boy's chest. With every ounce of emotion in his heart, he tried to give the most sincere smile he could, despite the teeth in his mouth that had been sharpened like knives, or the small scars on his lips from where he'd been attacked and maimed in the past. "But… Just this once, I can't allow you to come where I'm going."

Recognition bloomed in the boy's eyes, and he struggled in Zabuza's grip, attempting to escape from it, to escape from the fate that his eyes were closing, that he was slipping away into unconsciousness.

"Mas… ter… Don't…"

He fought against the emotions warring horrendously in his chest. He wanted to force himself up, to escape from the way he was feeling and run away, but he wouldn't do that to Haku. Not to him, to the only person who'd ever been worth a damned thing to him.

"Haku, you…" He tried to find the words, tried to find what he knew he needed to say before the boy passed out. He searched his very soul, and finally, as he bit down on his bottom lip and drew a few droplets of blood, he allowed himself to say the truth.

"You were… you were the best damn son I could've asked for."

Haku's eyes widened, and tears flowed down his face as his consciousness left him. He tried to ignore the feelings pooling in his stomach as he picked the boy up, and handed him over, as gingerly as he could, to Naruto Uzumaki, who'd been standing nearby the entire time. The boy looked incredibly miserable, likely understanding his intent.

"Take care of him. Tell the others to run as fast as their legs can carry them."

"And you?"

"You'd never make it carrying four weights along on your backs." He counted himself among them, knowing he'd only weigh down the group if they tried to take him with them, especially given he was an adult, weighing probably double Sakura, Haku, or that Dosu kid. "I'll buy you all some time." He smirked. "Don't wait up on me."

"But, I-"

"Get the hell out of here, kid!" He shouted at Naruto, hoping to break the boy out of his little pity party. "If something happens to Haku because you stuck around, then I'll kill the shit out of you, understood!?"

Naruto didn't flinch like he'd expected. Instead, the boy's lips upturned, forming a small, sad smile as he slung Haku around onto his back.

"Thank you for everything, sir."

He found himself laughing, despite everything. As he too rose in his spot, he found the strength in his body somehow returning now that he'd made his peace. He gripped onto the sword beside him and stabbed it harshly into the bark below.

"Likewise."

He was surprised to find he meant it.

Naruto practically flew from tree to tree, flying off into an area he could no longer see. Another form landed on a branch just in front of him, and he wasn't at all shocked to see Kisame Hoshigaki. He didn't doubt Haku's skill, not for a second, but he hadn't really expected someone of Kisame's caliber to be injured by so desperate of an attack.

"Whew, that kid of yours ain't bad! Nearly chopped my block off." The man was having fun, looking antsy to run up and attack him. Perhaps that was due to the fact that they were both of the seven, but for Zabuza himself, the man before him was of no significance. He had only one mission.

Buy them as much time as he could.

"Still, to think Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist Village, would lay down his life to save others…" To Kisame, this seemed like an unacceptable outcome. "I always pictured you as cold and robotic, killing any who stood in your way. The 'Demon to the bitter end' type, ya' get me?"

Funny. Zabuza cracked a smile. I always thought pictured the same thing.

"Perhaps that damned village made me soft." He answered instead. "Who knows?"

"Eh, guess it doesn't really matter either way." Kisame lifted his sword, effortlessly holding it up with one hand. "I just need to kill you."

The time for words had ended. He knew that no matter what he tried to say, even if he wanted to stall for time, the man across from him would simply charge in anyways, sword at the ready.

In the next instance of time, a wooden tail pierced through the space he'd been occupying, but he'd already been jumping backwards. Being this close to the edge had his instincts heightened to a ridiculous degree. On the floor beneath where he landed, a hand rose up from out of the wood. He was quicker, though, and through some strength for which he had no explanation, he managed to kick the limb, sending it flying back.

If the crack he heard while doing so was any indication, he had a feeling he'd broken the owner's wrist.

He finally stopped moving as three new figures arrived, one of them emerging from out of the wood below. He recognized all but one by appearance, and even the latter he knew the name of, thanks to the invasion team's reports from back during Danzo's assassination.

Tobi, Sasori, and Zetsu.

Against even one of them, he would've had a rough fight on his hands.

Heh. All of them at once… I suppose this'll be a decent enough challenge.

"My name is Zabuza Momochi." He spoke with a fervor that was absent in his body, for try as he might, he still couldn't get his left side to respond.

It didn't really matter; he wouldn't need it.

"I am a ninja… of the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

It was funny the odd sort of pride that statement brought about in him. Without Haku around, he was sure he wouldn't have given half a shit about the place. But seeing the way the boy's eyes filled with wonder, with excitement, with joy at the place they'd been taken in by…

Perhaps it had gotten to him more than he'd thought.

His thoughts drifted once more to Haku, to his son, the boy he'd picked up off of the streets of the Mist when neither of them had had anything. He liked to think they'd done pretty well, all things considered, with that they'd been given. Still, there was a small hope in his breast, a tiny, lingering will.

I hope you'll be better than I ever was, Haku.

"And as I live and breathe…"

Haku… Live. He prayed silently to no god in particular. Live and become the man I know you'll be.

"Not a single one of you… is getting past me!"

End Chapter 55

See you all next week!