Hello everyone! I apologize very dearly for taking so long to deliver this chapter after trying to churn them out faster. Things had gone really crazy the last couple of months, causing everything on my to-do list thrown out of order.
I hope you all will at least enjoy this chapter!
"Okay then." Sasuke said as they stared towards Kakashi at the far end. "Got a plan?"
Naruto gulped. "No."
"That's not exactly helpful in this situation, Naruto!" Sasuke shouted. "This is your idea!"
"It's my idea, I just didn't say I had a plan!" Naruto shouted back.
Meanwhile, Zabuza's clone laughed as he observed their squabble. "Pathetic. I'm tempted to bring you over to Kakashi, just to show him what a pathetic trio he has depended on!"
That got the two to shut up. "Naruto, we're wasting time. Kakashi's dying,"
"You're right." Naruto nodded. "Try to make a break for Kakashi-sensei. I'll distract him."
"I guess that's as good a plan as we're going to get." Sasuke agreed.
Naruto jumped forward, putting his fingers together. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" Naruto multiplied himself several times over.
They quickly leaped for him. "Ugh. Pathetic." Zabuza groaned. Grabbing the hilt of his sword, he made a mighty swipe, destroying all the bushins with a single swing of his sword. "Did you think I would honestly fall for such a stupid trick!" He looked to his left, watching Sasuke run across the rooftops. With one arm, Zabuza swung the sword like a boomerang, the massive blade spinning and gaining altitude.
"Shit!" The blade nearly clipped Sasuke's heel, forcing him to jump up and fall into the water. Sasuke quickly swam up to the surface, but ducked when the blade came back for another round. "I'm not going to reach Kakashi, not like this!" Sasuke dove under. His first instinct was to swim underwater to Kakashi, but he wasn't confident that he could make it there in time before he ran out of air.
"Just once I'd like for Plan A to work!" Naruto thought as he observed all his clones destroyed by Zabuza's one. The genin ran across the roofs as he observed the Zabuza clone. Could he approach him directly on the water? No, if his clones couldn't neither could he. And how could he even walk across the water? Another question, how was HE doing it!? Naruto, ignoring the questions in his head, jumped up and threw his shuriken at him. Zabuza easily caught the shuriken with one hand and bled a small amount of water.
"AUGH!" Naruto saw Sasuke surface from under the water; he must have swum under quite a distance, judging by how red his face was.
"What, were you taking a bath?" Naruto asked sarcastically, grabbing his hand and helping him up onto the roof.
"Oh, shut up!" Sasuke shouted back. "I knew that wouldn't work!"
"Chill, I'm just trying to get a feel for this." Naruto argued back.
"We know that the real Zabuza can't move beyond his current position." Sasuke said analytically. "However, that Mizu Bushin can't go too far away from his master. I don't know how it works, but most types of Bushin will crumble if they get too far away from their source of chakra."
"So, to stay alive, we have to stay out of the clone's range." Naruto reiterated. "But to save Kakashi, we have to go into the danger zone."
Sasuke nodded. "Pretty much."
"This sucks."
"Tell me about it." Sasuke agreed.
Zabuza's clone began to chuckle. "Well, you got one thing wrong." Suddenly, the clone disappeared, and reappeared right in Naruto and Sasuke's faces. "As long as there's a body of water, I can go wherever I want!"
"SHIT!" the two genin ducked under his blade, and scrambled for it.
"I just have a bad habit of playing with my prey! That's the only reason I stopped!" The two jumped to the next rooftop, Naruto grabbing Sakura and carrying her with him over his shoulder as the team made a break for it.
Inside Gato's building, the billionaire's henchmen scrambled as their building flooded, grabbing as many documents as they could and keep them above their heads, hoping to keep them dry. "What the heck is happening!?" Gato yelled as he stuffed as much of his cash into a briefcase.
"It must be Zabuza, sir! He's probably using his water techniques!"
"Well, did it kill Tazuna!?"
"I suppose we'll find out!" another shouted.
Haku stayed perched on a tree branch, (the tree having miraculously breaching the surface) observing the fight. It seemed it was in Zabuza's favor. However, as he looked at Naruto, he couldn't help but feel something strange. His ability was below average, as was his experience. But his determination to win was incredible. And that filled him with anxiety…
Sasuke reached into his left pocket and threw down a smoke bomb. The Mizu Clone went through the cloud, and saw they were out of sight. But he could sense their presence; they weren't far…
"This was the best you could do!?" Naruto whispered. Naruto and Sasuke quickly dove through a sunroof and hid inside a vacant hut, the attic mostly untouched by the flood. However, it was right below the Zabuza clone's feet. As much as they were hoping, there was no way he was that dumb and simply take off.
"Blame the damn smoke bomb!" Sasuke hissed back. "I'm surprised it obscured his vision at all!"
Naruto began to panic inside. Kakashi was drowning, and Zabuza would probably find them in less time than that took. "Think, Naruto, think! We can't beat him directly, but there has to be something we can use! Think!..." Naruto then turned to Sasuke. "Do you have any weapons I don't know about that we could use?"
"I've got kunai."
"That's not going to work." Naruto moaned. "You might be better than me, but I tried. He'll only catch them."
"I've also got a windmill shuriken." Sasuke added.
Naruto's eyes piqued. "Windmill?" Sasuke pulled out a scroll, and a large single blade materialized. Sasuke picked it up by the open hole, and suddenly unfolded it into four curved giant blades, which indeed resembled a windmill. "Whoa."
Sasuke smirked, despite the situation. "It belonged to my Dad. Most shuriken is made out of scrap metal, meant to be discarded. This is specially forged to be fatal and designed to return to you…if you master it."
"And you did?"
Sasuke sighed. "I sure wish I did."
"Of course." Naruto sighed. He knew Sasuke was good, but even he had his limitations. "Just one time I wished you lived up to your hype!"
"Wait…" Sasuke said. "Naruto, can you transform into this?" he asked, holding it up to him.
"Yeah, but I don't know how much good it's going to do if he's just going to catch-" Naruto's eyes widened, and looked to Sasuke. They both had a moment of clarity as they both formulated the same plan of attack.
"Okay." Naruto said as he slinged Sakura's arm over his shoulder. "Come one. We probably have seconds- "
"Leave her." Sasuke said.
"What!?" Naruto hissed.
"Leave her." Sasuke repeated.
"I'm not abandoning her- "
"I'm not saying abandon her! As he is, she's dead weight. She'll slow us down, and if we die, who will protect her then!?" Naruto's eyes widened. "The safest place for her is right here. We need to keep Zabuza's attention on us."
Naruto looked at her. It was exhausting carrying her; had he been a second slower, Zabuza would have cleaved them both in two. Gently, Naruto set her back down, gently stroking her hair, he thought "Someday, I'll get stronger for you. I promise."
Suddenly, that giant cleaver for a sword came through the roof and landed right between the two. "We need to go, NOW!" Sasuke yelled as he dove through an open window. Naruto did the same, making sure to draw attention away from the hut AND Sakura.
The Zabuza clone turned to see Sasuke swimming across the water. He landed on the surface as if it were ground, and grabbed Sasuke by the neck, squeezing tightly. "Haku spoke so highly of you. And quite frankly, I was expecting more from you, Uchiha." He said. The clone didn't see Naruto drop from above and try to punch him. Naruto's hand went right through him and was caught, the water clone's body becoming as dense as slime, holding him. "Wait your turn, boy!" the clone shouted, content to keep Naruto trapped as he choked the life out of Sasuke
Naruto suddenly smirked. "Gotcha." When Naruto punched him, he had a crumpled up explosive tag in his fist. Naruto released it, and the clone's body exploded.
"NGH!" Immediately, the clone began to come apart, it's entire right side vaporized. However, it stopped its degradation as it began to suck up the water it was standing on, reconstructing its body.
"That won't stop him forever!" Sasuke shouted as the two broke into a swim.
"Well, let's not stay here forever!" Naruto answered.
Finally, the water clone finished putting itself back together, his body fully formed again. "Clever. I underestimated you two after all." He groaned. "I will not allow you two to get that close again."
"It's not you we want!" Sasuke shouted. Naruto and Sasuke stood atop another roof, Sasuke brandishing his windmill shuriken.
"A windmill shuriken." Zabuza observed, stroking his chin. "A rare weapon. I always wanted to learn how to use one. I'm almost tempted to ask you to teach me." The two said nothing, staring him down instead. "Still, if you think I'm going to let that thing get past me and to my core body, you're even more delusional than I could have imagined."
Naruto and Sasuke began to slide their feet. Naruto then eyed a trail of driftwood coming close. "You ready?" Naruto whispered.
"Yeah." Sasuke answered.
Sasuke wound his arm back, Zabuza's clone getting ready to defend, thinking he would able to handle anything coming his way. However, instead of throwing the windmill shuriken with his right, Sasuke swiped his left arm down as he dropped every smoke bomb he had in front of him. What's more, they were facing down wind; the air carried the smoke directly into the Zabuza clone. The water clone smirked. "Had I been the real me, this could have proven problematic." However, since the clone didn't feel pain, he simply turned to his left. He could faintly see the silhouette of Naruto running across the driftwood. "There!" Zabuza's clone jumped from the cloud with his sword held above his head. Naruto turned as he stared at him like a deer in gaslights. The Kubikiribocho came down on him, no time for the genin to get out of the way. He expected the surface to run with his blood, but instead all he got was a poof of smoke. "Damn! Another one!" Suddenly, a hand broke the surface and grabbed the flat of the blade. Sasuke jumped out and ran across the flat edge, managing to get past him. "Clever!" Zabuza reached for him, but Sasuke threw a flash tag in his face. Like the explosive tags, this paper would burst, but instead of flame, it would erupt into light. Though the clone couldn't feel pain, its vision was still disrupted. It still reached for Sasuke, but the prodigy jumped off to the left, away from the bushin's arm and landed in another tall tree.
The real Zabuza was in his sights. Looking to Kakashi inside the bubble, he stopped moving. "NO!" He had to act now, and hope that they weren't too late. "Zabuza, I've come for your head!" Sasuke jumped towards him, winding his hand back…and threw the giant blade. "Windmill Shuriken, YouFu!"
The windmill shuriken glided quickly, like a deadly frisbee. Still, Zabuza wasn't worried. "Valiant effort." As the giant shuriken was about to slice his jugular, he caught it by the hole in the center. He was about throw it back, but he caught the sight of a second windmill shuriken. "What!? He launched a second shuriken in the shadow of the first!?" It was close, but Zabuza bent back as the blade glided above him, only scratching his skin, and still held onto his Water Prison. The second shuriken skipped along the surface like a rock, before finally settling.
Sasuke, hanging by a branch, was right in the killer's sights. "YOU-!" Zabuza was about to throw the shuriken he held back at him.
Suddenly, the blades transformed into none other than Naruto Uzumaki himself! "I don't think so!" Naruto suddenly bit down on his hand.
"AUGH!" Naruto quickly made another clone before Zabuza threw him away.
This clone hugged him by the leg, and pulled out a kunai. "Let's give you a taste of one of Kakashi's techniques! One Thousand Years of Death!" He jammed the kunai right in the same place Kakashi assaulted him not long ago.
"AIIEEE!" On reflex, Zabuza threw his arms up in the air. With no contact, the bubble collapsed, releasing Kakashi. Seeing his chance, the real Naruto took a deep breath and dove under.
Naruto swam down frantically; he was doubtful the one clone would keep that monstrous assassin occupied for long. He only hoped it was long enough for him to reach Kakashi, which was proving more difficult than he anticipated; the debris from the flash flood and the sediment that was picked up by the sudden flash flood obstructed his vision. "Come on! Come on!" Naruto was running out of breath, but he didn't dare come up for air yet; if he didn't retrieve Kakashi now, he wouldn't get another chance. He caught sight of something that looked vaguely human. "Could it be-?" Naruto quickly swam towards it, pushing wood and trash out of the way. As he reached it, he felt around. Its soft composition was definitely human! Naruto quickly searched up to his head, and felt a mask over most of his face. "It's him!" Naruto quickly dragged him further away, knowing Zabuza destroyed his clone by now.
Naruto broke the surface, pushing Kakashi's head above water. He only hoped he hadn't drowned yet, or else they were all in deep trouble. Naruto struggled as he tried to set him up on a floating metal roof. "Please, Kakashi, wake up!" Naruto somehow managed to get his body on the debris, keeping his head up. "What do I do now?"
The genin suddenly felt someone grab him by the collar. Zabuza looked down at him, clearly enraged. "YOU LITTLE WRENCH!"
"AH!" Naruto was flung across the surface, bouncing along and bruising him before he finally settled. Naruto tried to treed water, but moving his left arm caused enormous pain; it seemed like it was dislocated.
Zabuza's feet landed in front of his face. "I underestimated you." Zabuza said, raising his sword. "I must commend you. Despite your demeanor, you are actually quite clever. And the power inside of you…such a shame it will go to WASTE!"
Naruto closed his eyes, for a moment, convinced that this was his last moment. When he felt nothing happen, he cautiously opened his eyes. Someone else stood between him and Zabuza. "KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto screamed in joy.
Kakashi smiled under his mask as he held back the Kubirobichou with his knuckles, the bleeding seemingly not bothering him. "I don't know how you did it, but well-done Naruto! I never could have imagined you and your teammates would be ready for this!"
"Don't get too cocky, Hatake!" Zabuza growled. "I won't underestimate your children again, and even though you live, your lungs are full of water! You no longer have the strength to keep up with me!"
"I thought you of all people would know…" Kakashi got in his adversary's face, practically centimeters away. The magatamas in his red eye spun. "…strength is just one of many tools a ninja has!"
And that's it for now. Not much, not much different from the original, but I hope you enjoyed it for what it was.
