Standard Disclaimers Apply

Author's Notes:
Yeah so here's a new chapter. I've been having some people ask me to make longer chapters andmy response to that is I can't. All my chapters are at a length that is comfortable to me and end where thay make sense to me. On a good note, this chapter is longer than the rest by quite a bit. This chapter just went on and on and actually was much longer than it is now. I split it into two chapters and I will post the next chapter faster than I normally would. Anyways, enjoy!

Chapter Five
Shadow Play

I can't protect you without holding a sword
I can't embrace you while holding a sword

-Bleach Vol. 5 Right Arm of the Giant-

Naruto was using the lull in activity while travelling in the small boat that would complete the last leg of the trip to the shores of Wave Country to assess all the extra knowledge he had gotten from his clone before he had dismissed it.

Oddly enough, he knew most of the techniques already thanks to the Kyuubi and most of the scroll was actually theory that if used properly would give you specific results. He was absorbing it thoroughly and preparing to use that knowledge to take care of the next encounter.

Using this new knowledge the new clone he would make would be perfect. Of course he would have to give up his shadow whenever he used this new clone but in doing so, his new clone would be on par power wise to Naruto. This clone could also take on damage and would only go away if killed or he was dismissed back into Naruto's shadow. He needed to concentrate if he wanted his clone to form at a point somewhere down the shore so that his team mates would not get suspicious. The plan was for the clone to subdue Haku while he accidentally took care of Zabuza, for good. However, Naruto's plans never seemed to go well.

"Hey Dobe!" said Sasuke breaking Naruto's concentration and breaking the connection with the still forming clone. Also, Naruto lost a lot more chakra than he should have. "You've been awfully quiet. Are you scared of the sea or something, scaredy cat?"

'He disrupted me for something as stupid as that! Damn it, I feel so drained. At this rate I will only be able to do things like I did last time in this fight. Sorry Haku, I'll have to rescue you next time. Damn it, all that chakra and no clone.'

"Shut up, Teme. I'm not scared of anything."

"Yeah, right." The rest of the boat ride was in silence until they came across the Bridge. Naruto just had to let out a "Whoa!" He remembered how they named the bridge after him and how it had been destroyed after the war started. He would make sure that this one would live on.

As they step onto the dock, nobody (not even Naruto) seemed to realise that Naruto was missing his shadow. They were walking along the path that Tazuna had shown them to get to his home and had just come into view of the lake that Naruto knew they fought Zabuza at. Naruto knew what he did last time and he was not ready to simplify things for himself so he had to do it that way. He took out a shuriken and threw it at the bushes feigning that there was something there.

Like before this lead to Naruto holding a scared white rabbit saying, "I didn't mean it. I'm sorry lil' rabbit" while Sasuke was looking at him in a superior way and Sakura giving him a lecture. Kakashi however was thinking that a white rabbit seemed out of place in the middle of the summer. He heard a faint rustling in the branches of a nearby tree.

"Everyone, get down!" shouted Kakashi. They were all able to make it in time before the large spinning sword cleaved them all in half. It had embedded itself in a tree and a very smug looking Zabuza was standing on it. Kakashi stopped Naruto from jumping into the battle after he had explained that this was Momochi Zabuza, a Missing-Nin of the Hidden Village of the Mist. Kakashi went to lift up his forehead protector.

"Team, surround and protect Tazuna. As for Zabuza, he will have to fight me first" said Kakashi, revealing to all (and Sasuke was especially surprised) his single Sharingan eye.

"Ah, I already get to see the famous Sharingan eye. I am honoured" stated Zabuza. After a quick explanation of the Sharingan and everyone was having their own thoughts, Zabuza dislodged his sword from the tree and landed on top of the water, and went on to perform his Hidden Mist technique, disappearing from sight into the mist.

After they heard Zabuza's intimidating speech about which part of the body he should strike on them, the large wave of killer intent could be felt. Kakashi and Naruto were unaffected but the others were paling visibly and even sweating.

"Don't worry guys, I'll protect you even if it kills me" said Kakashi comfortingly to his team. "I don't let my comrades die."

"We'll see about that" said Zabuza as he landed in the middle of the protective huddle around Tazuna, with his sword at the ready. Naruto had already sensed he was coming and had kicked his team mates out of the way and grabbed onto Tazuna's shirt while he jumped into the air dodging Zabuza. He landed with Tazuna in tow to where his team mates had landed after he had kicked them. He looked back to see that Kakashi had already stopped Zabuza's attack and Naruto did all that for no reason at all.

Zabuza had a kunai in his stomach but he then morphed into water. It was a water clone. Zabuza was behind Kakashi and swung his sword cleaving Kakashi in half. But it was yet again just a water clone. Thus started the fight of water clones which was ended when Kakashi was kicked into the lake and trapped in a water prison.

Naruto had remember the old plan and asked Sasuke for his help in his plan, but he refused and ran off to combat Zabuza on his own.

'The Dobe saved me back there. I can't be outdone by him. I'll defeat Zabuza on my own' thought Sasuke as he drew his kunai and lunged across the water straight at Zabuza only to be stopped when Zabuza wrapped his free hand around Sasuke's neck. The pressure was so much he couldn't move his arms. Sakura gasped at this and feared the end.

'O crap, I don't have enough energy to take on Zabuza without tapping some from Kyuubi and if I do everyone will know something is up from the weird feel that Kyuubi's Chakra gives off' he thought to himself. His eyes widened when he felt another Chakra signature in the area. 'Wait, now there are eight signatures; myself, Sakura, Kakashi, Zabuza, Sasuke, even the small one of Tazuna, Haku hiding in the trees but who is the other one. I'll know soon, it seems to be approaching here at a ridiculously fast rate.'

Naruto prepared himself into a fighting stance and waited for the worst. This was vastly different from the normal timeline and for once, Naruto didn't have the power of knowing what will happen to help him. What did happen, he was definitely not prepared for.

Zabuza was smiling under the wrappings that were covering the majority of his face. He had beaten the famous Copy Ninja Kakashi and was about to kill his team in front of him, starting with the one struggling in his free hand. He was applying more pressure to Sasuke's neck trying to snap it.

But before he could, a foot met the side of his face and he was sent flying to the opposing side of the lake releasing both Kakashi and Sasuke, who were caught by the mysterious owner of the foot and thrown to the shore where Naruto, Sakura and Tazuna were. The mysterious saviour jumped from his position in the middle of the lake to near the shore on the opposite side of where Zabuza landed. He landed atop the water with a practiced grace and held his head high.

The new arrival was as tall as Kakashi and seemed to be in his mid twenties. He was clothed in black trousers that were wrapped around the ankles with dark blue sandals on and a black fishnet shirt. On top of that was a short sleeve black jacket with two orange stripes going down the sleeves. Completing the look was a white sleeveless jacket that reached his knees with flame designs along the hem and a red spiral insignia on the back. The jacket was held together by two orange drawstrings that also draped across his shoulders onto his back holding in place the dark coloured scabbard of a ninjaken, a straight and shorter version of the samurai's katana. At his neck was some cloth similar to Kakashi's except at the moment it wasn't being worn. His long blond hair was being held up out of his face by a blank forehead protector. Many different thoughts were going through people's heads at the arrival of this individual.

'He looks strong. Damn it, there are so many people stronger than me. I have to get much stronger if I will have any chance of killing Itachi' thought Sasuke.

'Whoa, he sure is handsome. But not as much as my Sasuke-kun though' thought Sakura with a slight blush on her cheeks.

'What is he? I couldn't even sense him coming until I saw his foot connect with Zabuza's face. Also he looks so much like the Yondaime… but it can't be him' thought Kakashi.

'Wait he's wearing my exact style of clothes from before I made the time jump, but how could that be? One thing I do know is that, I've never handled a sword before. He does look familiar though' thought Naruto.

As the figure swivelled his head to look at Naruto's group, they could see his deep blue eyes and he said, "Sorry I didn't get here sooner. When I was dropped in Wave Country, I ended up fifteen miles down the shore. I'm here now though."

'Wait, could that mean that he could be my clone…' thought Naruto. 'But how, he doesn't look like me now and I didn't finish forming him.'

Zabuza had finally gotten up after recovering from the effects of the blunt force trauma he received to his face. He looked around and saw the new arrival, figuring out that he was probably the one who had disrupted him in the process of killing. He shouted across the lake to him, "Who the hell are you?"

"Well, ever since I was born I never had a name, but I prefer to be called… Shadow" was his reply. He had a smug smirk on his lips and he glanced slightly at Naruto. This was all the confirmation Naruto needed. 'That's definitely my improved shadow clone, but how?'

"You honestly think you can defeat me. I am Momochi Zabuza, one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist and also known as the Demon. I'll crush you down" boasted Zabuza.

"I think that's hardly likely. You could barely handle Kakashi when he has only one Sharingan eye. How will you handle someone who has two?" And with that, Shadow's blue eyes grew darker and three black commas lined each iris.

Kakashi and Sasuke were both thinking the same thing. 'What? How could he have the Sharingan? All of the Uchiha's were murdered and the only people left with the bloodline limit are Itachi and Sasuke.' This new revelation just further proved Naruto's shadow clone theory.

Zabuza seeing the Sharingan instantly went on the offensive by conjuring ten water clones to charge down the lake at Shadow.

"Is that the best you can do? I don't even need my Sharingan to beat these." Shadow bent down to pick up one of the discarded shuriken that was nearby on the shore. He threw it at the centre clone and put his forefingers into an 'x' shape shouting, "Kage Shuriken Bushin no Jutsu!"

'Wait, that's a Konoha kinjutsu. How would he now that unless he was a Konoha ninja? I definitely know that he is not one of us and he doesn't match the description of any of our Missing-Nin. In fact, the only ninja he reminds me of was the fourth Hokage but he didn't have any surviving relatives and he died twelve years ago sealing the Kyuubi into Naruto' thought Kakashi.

The one shuriken became a hundred and totally decimated the water clones and Zabuza had barely blocked all the replicated shuriken that were coming his way. Zabuza decided to really get serious as he strapped his sword to his back and started going through some hand seals. Shadow, on the other side of the lake was going through the exact same hand seals.

At the same moment, they finished their hand seals and shouted, "Suiton Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" Simultaneously, two large dragons of water rose from the lake water and smashed into each other cancelling each other in a large explosion of water. When the water cleared, you could see the two combatants at the middle of the lake, both with their swords drawn fighting.

Being forced back by Zabuza's larger sword, Shadow put his hand to the base of his pure black blade and black Chakra leaked out into the sword causing the blade to grow larger in size. When their swords clashed again, Shadow's was a good three feet long and half the width of Zabuza's sword. Zabuza slashed at Shadow only for him to dissipate into a cloud of smoke.

'That's a shadow clone, like the ones Naruto is so fond of using. How would he know that though? I thought that it was a Hidden Leaf technique' thought Sasuke.

Shadow was now above him stabbing down into Zabuza's head. Unfortunately this was another water clone and the real Zabuza was behind him already slashing at his exposed back. Shadow was cleaved in half but fell into the lake as water. 'The damn bastard must have copied my water clone technique like Kakashi.'

Zabuza was caught unawares by a fist flying at him from the side and was thrown a way away. When he got back up, both of them had sheathed their swords (Shadow's one was back to its normal size). They circled each other and in perfect synchronisation stopped, raised their right arm to their chest in the shape of a seal and their left arm pointed upwards to only fall at their sides.

Zabuza was sweating now at the exertion he had to put forward in this fight and was a bit intimidated by how Shadow was copying his moves exactly like he knew they were coming. 'My movements… He's completely…'

"… reading them" finished Shadow aloud. Zabuza eyes widened at this. 'What? Is he reading my mind? Those…'

"… freaky eyes are really pissing me off, right?" finished Shadow again, the commas of his Sharingan started swirling slowly. Zabuza was visibly paling at this but he regained his composure.

"Hey, all you're doing is copying me…" Here, Shadow joined in as well. "You can't beat me, you monkey bastard."

"Damn it, I'll make it so you can never speak again" shouted Zabuza in desperation as he started the fast movement of hand seals that Shadow was copying. Zabuza could see a distorted image of himself behind Shadow.

'That's impossible. Is that one of his genjutsu?' While Zabuza was distracted, Shadow went on to rapidly complete the rest of the hand seals Zabuza was planning to use, and shouted out, "Suiton Daibakufu no Jutsu!"

'What? That's impossible, I'm the one doing the hand seals, yet I can't keep up' thought Zabuza as a large tornado of water stuck him pushing him back until he was caught against a tree trunk. The force was so great, he was hurt all over.

"It's over for you" stated Shadow, drawing his sword and using the same technique as before poured black Chakra into it enlarging it to a katana's length.

"H-How would you know? Can you tell the future?" asked Zabuza, scared of the figure that had beaten him so easily.

"Che, something like that" answered Shadow as he charged down the lake at Zabuza, his sword dragging through the water creating a large path in the water. Before he could even reach him, two senbon needles flew through the air and went into Zabuza's neck. He fell to the ground with blood flying through the air as Shadow skidded to a stop.

"I guess you were right. It was over for him" stated a Hunter-Nin in an amused tone from his place in the trees. Shadow and Naruto knew it was Haku rescuing Zabuza but they weren't going to do anything about it at the moment. Shadow faced Haku and sheathed his sword back to its scabbard on his back.

"Well, since you're here, I'll just leave the rest up to you. A Mist Missing-Nin is Mist business, isn't it?" said Shadow referring to the Hidden Mist insignia on Haku's mask.

"Thank you very much; I have been searching for the opportunity to kill Zabuza for a long time."

Kakashi had gone up to Zabuza's limp form and check for a pulse. He checked for a pulse and found none. "He really is dead. That mask… you're a Hidden Mist Hunter-Nin, aren't you?"

"You are correct. I am a Hidden Mist Hunter-Nin" replied Haku.

"Hunter-Nin?" asked a confused Sakura.

"Yes, my duty is to hunt down Missing-Nins. I am a member of the Hidden Mist's Hunter-Nin team" explained Haku.

'From his voice and his height, he's probably not much older than me' thought Sasuke. Sasuke glanced at the lifeless form of Zabuza. 'Yet he's a Hunter-Nin and he killed Zabuza. He's not a normal kid.'

"Who the hell is he?" said Sakura.

"Don't worry, he's not an enemy" reassured Kakashi.

"No, I don't mean that. I mean, Zabuza… a guy that strong was defeated by a kid, a kid like us. We look stupid compared to that."

"I know how you feel, but this is the truth… In this world there are kids out there younger than you, yet stronger than me" explained Kakashi. There were looks of shock on the faces of Team Seven (Naruto was faking his shock).

"Well… It looks like you have everything covered. I must be going now" said Shadow.

"Wait! Who are you? Why did you save us?" asked Kakashi.

"Me? Well, like I said before, I don't have a name, I'm just a shadow. As for why I'm here saving your asses is because you were doing a lousy job of protecting Tazuna. He's important to the future of this country. You guys were pathetic and you expect yourselves to be able to protect him from the ninjas that will be sent after him?" answered Shadow as from his right side, his body disintegrated into black wisps that went with the wind. Naruto noticed that he hadn't a shadow before and that he was regaining one now.

"Che, just remember that I probably won't be here the next time to save you" Shadow warned before he completely disappeared. Naruto's shadow stopped growing now. Information about the techniques used in that fight exploded into his mind, probably from the clone. He couldn't use his own Sharingan before or the other would know but he still seemed to be able to copy those techniques.

Haku was now picking up Zabuza's body. "Your battle is now over… and now I must dispose of this body since it seems to be a body of many secrets. Farewell."

And with that, Haku and Zabuza disappeared in a small gust of wind leaving Team Seven and Tazuna to adjust to what just happened. After a minute, Kakashi walked up to Tazuna and stated in quite a menacing voice, "You and I have something very important to discuss."

End Chapter Five

Author's Notes:
And that's where I leave off. Alot of stuff like the explaination of Shadow, what the team are going to do and why Naruto decides to not off Zabuza now will be explained in the next chapter. This fight went on for a lot longer than I thought that it would do. I hope I did a decent job. I'm not too confident of my fight scenes. So tell me what you think in your reviews and if you can, could you give me some suggestions to improve my work as well. That would be much appreciated.

Hoping to write soon
Deranged Without Glasses