Chapter 13

One week later

It has been one week since team 7 had fought against Zabuza and they knew that soon they would have to face him and his accomplice in battle. Inside the room, Naruto slept like a log in his futon. The previous day, he had trained extensively and assisted in the bridge's construction through the use of his 'shadow clone jutsu'. Kakashi and the rest of the team had gone to the bridge allowing Naruto to rest up.

Naruto awoke and found that no one was there except himself. He deduced that his team had left him here and had gone to the bridge. He heard screaming and fighting coming from downstairs so he immediately arose and got ready before sneaking outside through the window and moved down the wall. As he peered through the kitchen window, he saw Tsunami being taken with Inari yelling them to not take his mother away.

Inari charged at the attackers who were prepared to send him to the next world. They brought their blades downwards as Tsunami screamed in fright of losing her only child. Suddenly, they heard a metallic clang and looked to see that a kunai was blocking their blades as Naruto crouched down before them. In the hands of the other thug, Tsunami was replaced by a shadow clone who had performed the substitution jutsu at the last minute. Taking advantage of their momentary confusion, Naruto and the clone slammed their knees into the thugs' solar plexus and knocked the wind out of them. They then brought the thugs' heads to their knees as a sickening cracking sound was heard and both thugs were down for the count. Naruto then dispelled his clone and moved to Inari and his mother. He ruffled the young boy's hair as Tsunami thanked him. Instructing the mother-son duo to go somewhere safe, he left the house and headed towards the bridge.

With team 7- on the bridge

Kakashi and the other members of team seven, along with Tazuna had just arrived at the bridge where they found corpses belonging to the workers. All of a sudden, fog started rolling in and Kakashi immediately went on guard, which was mimicked by his two students. A chuckle was heard through the mist as two figures could now be seen.

"We meet again Kakashi, where is the other brat from last time?" asked Zabuza

"He'll be here. Don't worry, we'll entertain you until that time," was Kakashi's reply as he raised his hitae-ate.

Kakashi then ordered sakura to protect the bridge builder and sasuke to take the masked nin while he handles Zabuza.

"Look, your genin there is shaking with fear" said Zabuza as he laughed silently.

Fuming, sasuke responded that he was shaking out of excitement not fear. Kakashi and Zabuza disappeared into the mist as the masked nin and sasuke attacked each other with a senbon and kunai. While pressing with the senbon, Haku made one-handed handsigns and called out 'Thousand flying water needles of death'. The water rose around him forming several needles and moved to the arrogant uchiha. Sasuke channelled chakra to his feet and evaded the attack.

Haku swiftly went through some handsigns and called out 'ice style: demonic ice mirrors'. A dome of ice surrounded him and sasuke. As haku entered one mirror, he said "please give up, I don't wish to kill you. No one has escaped this alive."

At this sasuke responded "you cannot defeat me. Only an uchiha can defeat an uchiha." He then made handseals and shouted out 'fire style: great fireball jutsu'. The fireball collided with one of the mirror but had no effect. This stunned sasuke as haku informed him that such an attack would not be able to melt his ice mirrors and once again pleaded with him to surrender.

Sasuke refused to give up and even stated that his ability was below him and that of the sharingan. Haku sighed at this and began to bombard sasuke with senbon needles at fatal points on the body. However, sasuke was able to dodge them impressing haku until he stared into his foe's eyes.

Seeing his usually black eyes crimson red with one tomoe in each eye, he uttered "his eyes….." Confused by this, Sasuke looked into one of the nearby mirrors and saw that he had finally awakened his kekkei genkai- the sharingan. He smirked to himself, now he was invincible was the thought running through his head. He continued to dodge needles being thrown for a bit but was unable to keep up after a few minutes. Seeing his opponent on his knees gasping for breath, haku decided that it was time to end it and threw some poisoned senbon. Eyes widening as he knew he could not dodge in time, sasuke frantically looked around for a way out of his predicament. Suddenly he found a way.

Outside the dome, Naruto had arrived and saw that he could not enter as he gazed at the structure using his sharingan. "Sasuke" yelled out Naruto. Both Kakashi and Zabuza turned their heads to the dome of ice to see sasuke smirking at Naruto before going up in a poof and replacing himself with his teammate.

Naruto was inside the dome and was confused. One moment he was outside watching sasuke get killed, the next he was inside with a pain on the back of his head. He then fell forward. Kakashi widened his eye at the trick his genin pulled on his own teammate while Zabuza commented "that's low even for me. I had no idea that leaf shinobi had fallen this far."

Kakashi did not respond but internally, he was seething with rage. All of a sudden, all present felt a wave of malicious chakra and killing intent wash over the bridge.

Inside Naruto's mindscape

"So I have finally being visited by my jailor" said a deep rumbling voice. Naruto looked up and saw a cage with a paper on it with the kanji for seal written on it. "Kyuubi, where am I? Am I dead?" asked the boy as he saw the fox open his eyes and stare at him. The fox replied "no you aren't dead, but close to it if I had not interfered. After all, if you die then I die."

Wondering what had happened, Naruto moved to ask the fox. As if reading his mind, the nine tailed fox informed him that his teammate substituted himself with him to avoid his opponent's killing blow. He continued by saying "that cursed clan should have been eliminated ages ago."

"Oi not all of them are like that. They aren't all bastards like sasuke!" said Naruto.

"Ah you are referring to that vixen that lives with you huh. Ahahahahaha how idiotic! That cursed clan would do anything for power, you will see. You have only been given an example by your uchiha teammate." Said the fox with an amused smile on his visage. He knew it would get under Naruto's skin.

Naruto became incensed. He was livid. How could the fox make such accusations about izumi. He immediately blew up.

"How dare you say those thigs about izumi you overgrown furball! I swear I will make you eat those words if you say something about her again." Exclaimed Naruto letting loose a huge amount of killing intent at the fox. This made the fox silently regard him and raise an eyebrow. This only amused him and his satisfied smile only served to infuriate Naruto more.

"As amusing as it is, I still need you to leave as I have stopped the damage temporarily. You will keep your awareness as my chakra flows within you. Afterwards, you are going to need serious medical attention as that senbon was poisoned by the ice wielder. Now begone!" said the fox as Naruto was ejected from his mindscape.

Out on the bridge

Naruto awakened, feeling quite powerful as demonic chakra receded back in his body. Everyone was gobsmacked that he was alive. His nails were longer and his eyes became red with a black slitted pupil in it. He turned to haku and before the ice wielder could react, he was punched through one of the mirrors and fell to the ground unconscious. A laugh was heard as gato appeared accompanied by several of his hired goons.

He gloated to Zabuza about how he was never going to pay him and just have him finished off here after his matchup on the bridge. Signalling for a truce, zabuza and team seven joined forces to take out the thugs present. Inari came soon with the townspeople and chased off the remaining goons. Naruto collapsed to the ground as soon as the fighting ended causing Kakashi to rush over and attempt to stabilize him. Knowing that Naruto would need the expert medics of Konoha, he immediately ordered team seven to gather their things that they were leaving immediately.

Kakashi summoned pakkun to send a message to the hokage to get medics ready at the gates. Soon the team left wave country for home at full speed while Tazuna decided to name the bridge 'The Great Naruto Bridge' in honor of the town's hero.

It took team seven half a day to reach Konoha as Kakashi pushed them past their limits. As they approached the gates, they saw the medics standing there along with the sandaime. He was concerned as soon as he got the message via pakkun and while he knew Kakashi should have abandoned the mission, he decided to focus on Naruto's recovery ad scolding Kakashi about it later on. The medical team took Naruto to the hospital immediately as they worked on him.

Two weeks later- Konoha hospital

Naruto flickered open his eyes as he stared around the room where he was currently situated. Seeing that he was in the hospital as he immediately recognized the white ceilings and smell of the room. Gazing at the clock, he saw the time being two in the morning. He attempted to sit up but that was proven futile as he found a weight on his chest and looked down. He was greeted by the sight of a dishevelled raven hair. His movement caused izumi to stir and wake up from her dream. The last two weeks had been strenuous for her. When an ANBU told her that the hokage wanted to see her, she got the distinctive feeling that something was wrong. Then the hokage had told her of Naruto's latest mission and about her brother's trick which resulted in Naruto being poisoned and being in the hospital. Hearing this, she immediately rushed to the hospital where she had been informed that Naruto had been poisoned and now was stable but in a coma and they were unsure as to when he was going to wake up.

As she looked into the room, she could feel her whole world crumbling around her as she gazed upon the form of the usually hyperactive redhead who was laying there lifeless connected to many machines. She had not left his side other than to go to the bathroom and getting food at the hospital cafeteria stubbornly refusing to leave. Sleep had also eluded her the entire time as her mind was full of worry. She had just dozed off when she felt movement under her. She opened her eyes to see two sapphire pools staring back at her. They gazed into each other's eyes for a moment later before she realized that he was awake and widened her eyes. She them proceeded to glomp him between her breasts almost suffocating him.

Naruto was trying to gasp for air but he was held in place by an iron grip. Finally, he was release from his fleshy prison and sucked in air in relief. He attempted to speak but his throat was hoarse which was rectified when izumi handed him a glass of water and heled him to drink it slowly. "I didn't realize you would miss me so much," he teased which earned him a bonk on the head. "What was that for?" he asked

"You stupid idiot you've been in a coma for two weeks now and that is the first thing you say to me when you first wake up?" said izumi as she was panting heavily at the end of her rant. Naruto looked down and noticed that her eyes were puffy from lack of sleep and screaming. He wrapped his arms around her as she cried into his shoulder before melting into his arms. He held her for a few more minutes before her cries subsided but didn't let go. She pulled away and rubbed his whisker marks as he purred which elicited a giggle from her. Realizing what he did, Naruto turned away with a blush on his face in embarrassment.

"Don't do that! I am not a cat, don't treat me like one." Said Naruto as he huffed leading to izumi to giggle even more. After a moment he joined in the laughter before she yawned. Telling her to return to sleep as it was still night, izumi placed her head on his chest and fell asleep without any trouble. Naruto wrapped one arm around her and caressed her hair with the other before falling asleep himself with a smile on his face.

To be continued