Chapter 15

Double-Tapped

Uzumaki Naruto is stunned into silence. Half a week of work on a single, brilliant trap. It's both the simplest and most complex design he's ever made, and the largest scale lethal effect he's ever produced. A true masterpiece that he pulled out of his ass.

And now, right before him, it stands sprung, yet ineffective. A single man no-sold his trap and now hangs from his sword with one arm in the kill zone without so much as a scratch, let alone the fatally crushed body he was banking on.

In most cases of his traps being duds, Naruto would be enraged. He'd pull the whole thing apart and berate the trap itself before berating himself for its faults and making something twice as effective.

In this case, all that can be found on Naruto's face is abject horror.

He stammers aimlessly and silently as his greatest trump card to date is proven a complete waste. It's a shame, really, to learn such a drastic lesson about shinobi life during such a critical mission.

You never open with your trump card.

"So…" Zabuza grumbles as he hangs there loosely. "Let's try this again."

Suddenly, the weight seals underneath the bridge break their chains and fall to the sea, and the two folded slabs fall back into place. Zabuza stands to the left of the split and rolls his shoulder. "Lesson one, kiddies. Learn to focus on multiple opponents at once."

Haku appears behind Sasuke and swings a backhanded kunai into his jugular- only to hit nothing as the genjutsu fades. She suspects as much, and the moment her toe touches the ground, she pulses chakra into it and leaps from the bridge and twenty feet into the air, clean over the fireball that nearly torches her from behind. She wheels around in the air and throws a scattering of senbon towards the fireball's origins, before falling off the bridge and into the water, where she simply disappears.

The incoming senbon are handled with a quick Mud Wall thanks to Naruto and replied to via Sakura casting another genjutsu that causes her and Tazuna to split into multiple faded images sent in separate directions. Somehow, every one of them was audible, despite being a genjutsu. They scatter to the far end of the bridge, but two are quickly intercepted by Haku leaping back onto the bridge and stabbing them both with a pair of kunai. As she suspected, they both disappear- but not by fading. They burst into smoke. "Damn…" She backs away and off the bridge again before running along the underside-

Only to find Sasuke intercepting her there. He runs upside-down and full-sprint, wielding his sword backhanded and aimed forth to stab with his arm crossing over his chest defensively. She barely ducks back from his first swing, arching back to plant her hands on the bridge and freeze one in place to hang there. She uses her free hand to produce an ice shield against the next swing, then dislodges herself and drops straight into the water and out of sight in a pencil dive.

Up on top of the bridge, Zabuza's water clones scatter and chase down the other clones while Haku is occupied. One by one, the water clones track down pairs of Sakura and Tazuna.

The first tracks his pair into the woods just past the bridge. That clone manages to just barely catch sight of them before a series of exploding tags buried just beneath the dirt goes off. The damage is enough to kill the clone instantly, but it's conscious long enough to see the pair it chased laugh at his demise and pop into plumes of smoke.

The second clone finds its prey huddled between two massive stacks of I-beams prepared for the bridge's construction. His attempts are quickly halted by a pair of seals tucked into two of the beams attracting them to each other and crushing him between them.

Three and four split up at a fork where two pairs of clones had separated. The water clone to the left steps on a cluster of exploding tags and splashes the surrounding forestry. The explosion manages to distract the clone that turned left just long enough to take a blow to the back of the head. He's reduced to a puddle with that one unseen strike.

Sakura sighs in relief and flicks the water off her kunai. "Damn good thing Naruto's clones can act so much like us. That spy training is scary flexible."

Tazuna grumbles and huffs, hunched over and wondering if he'll manage to catch his breath before he hurls. He can't recall having ever run that fast in his life, but mortal fear can motivate you to do some crazy things. "Are you sure there aren't more?"

She nods and casts a few layers of genjutsu to mask their location. "Yeah, I'm sure. He wouldn't make an unnecessary number of them, and he's really full of himself. That, and solid clones are expensive, no matter what kind they are."

"Wait, but…" He peeks up to her with haunted eyes. "How the hell does Naruto make so many?"

".. He's… a special case. He has more chakra than anyone I know, and he knows how to throw it around. He's wasteful, but he's getting better, and smarter." She grins. "He'll never be as smart as me, but his mind is a terrifying place, and nobody can top his unique brand of madness."

Back on the bridge, Naruto's blowing through handsigns as Zabuza approaches and billows mist like a steam engine on a warpath. The mist overtakes him halfway to Naruto, completely shrouding him, but Naruto finishes his signs on Hitsuji just as he's done inhaling. He screams out alongside a pressurized air wave. "ATSUGAI!" The solid blast of wind batters and scatters the mist, but there's no sign of Zabuza. Naruto takes a moment to peek out his surroundings, but his eyes widen as he turns around-

Thankfully, Kakashi's standing there to intercept Zabuza's blade with two kunai. The cyclops snorts and pushes the assassin back. "You're still weak from our last fight. All the blast damage must have almost ruined your right arm, didn't it?" Naruto scurried away and out of sight while Kakashi keeps Zabuza occupied.

Haku returns to the top of the bridge and rushes to Zabuza's aid, but Sasuke rushes into her path with his hands sparking. She ducks under his first swing and only feels the mild tingle of static before channeling ice into her arms and blocking the following elbow with her encased hand. Sasuke scoffs and pushes her off, tracking her movements with his two-tomoe eyes. At this point, he's developed chakra vision, and can easily tell that elemental chakra is being channeled into the ice. For it to resist his lightning, it must be composed of wind as well as water. Under that logic, they're at a stalement in taijutsu. His Mahiken and Meoruken are both cut off by one of her two elements, ensuring a stalemate in their jutsu in all cases. Hot against cold in equal power. Their combat styles couldn't be farther from each other, but they're almost equal- if not for the sudden stabbing pain Sasuke feels in his right shoulder when she jabs out. He blocked the jab, but she'd thrown a senbon at the same time. His right arm's mobility is cut down considerably. That gives her more than enough openings to slip in another on his right bicep. He attempts to block the third with his left arm, but he overextends and receives a senbon in his left elbow. Each strike and stab reduces his defenses and speed enough for her to soon stick his leg and back up to cast her favorite jutsu. The water scattered across the bridge by the mist's condensation and popped water clones converges and rises to form a dome of mirrors. She Produces one directly behind herself first and sinks into it in time to avoid a kunai Sasuke had thrown in desperation to interrupt her technique. It bounces harmlessly off the ice as several other mirrors form to surround Sasuke, locking him within the glacial cage. Though the bars are wide, he'll soon find it impossible to escape.

Zabuza growls and pushes Kakashi with all the strength he can muster, forcing him to shift one leg and adjust his stance to lean into Zabuza. This gives him an opening for a leg sweep, but Kakashi leaps over it. This allows him to slam Kakashi down with his blade, but he lands in a crouch and holds the blade up long enough to slip under it and off to his left, getting out from under the blade while Zabuza's balance is off. He attempts a sweep on the one leg Zabuza now stands on, but Zabuza stabs the ground and pulls himself away from Kakashi's range before cleaving a chunk of the bridge's surface off as he rips the blade up and swings it overhead onto Kakashi's outstretched leg. Kakashi spins his leg out of the way and crouches onto that foot before launching himself sideways along the flat of the blade and slashing at Zabuza's side. He attempts to sidestep the kunai, but takes a long and shallow cut along his right shoulder and some of his back. He ignores the pain and swings a 240 degree cleave as Kakashi lands behind him. Kakashi manages to leap past the blade's range, turning and skidding to face Zabuza before shifting through handsigns and raising a Mud Wall of his own. Zabuza growls and charges to get over the wall, but manages to instead land on a line of wire suspended an inch above the top of the wall, nearly imperceptible in these dimly lit conditions.

But Kakashi's sharingan could see it clear as day and knew Zabuza's best retreat route would be covered.

Two separate seals on opposite pillars noting the entrance of the bridge trigger at once. Both rapidly unseal a flurry of kunai that flank Zabuza from both sides and approach at the same speed Naruto would have thrown them. Of course, the spread is too small and they're far too slow to catch him, so he leaps off the wall unhindered-

Only to hear the distinct popping of a dropped henge behind him. His eyes go bloodshot as he peeks back to find the kunai becoming more of Naruto's clones and unleashing their own salvos of kunai. All the while, Kakashi is charging his own favorite jutsu twenty feet in front of Zabuza. Blue lightning sparks in his right hand and trails along the ground beneath him, arcing in random directions and spreading out to burn spastic patterns into the stone.

Sasuke ducks and weaves away from senbon salvo thrown so quickly even his sharingan has trouble perceiving them. He's at least managed to start working out a pattern in Haku's movements between mirrors, as her potential paths are limited and set. This allows him to predict her movements somewhat and avoid most attacks, but his body can't keep up with his eyes. The senbon piercing him continue to stack. The wounds aren't too bad, but the culmination is becoming debilitating. She's landing hits faster and more successively the longer this drags on. So far, attempting to attack the mirrors have proven useless, as once again, the combined water and wind chakra in this ice counteracts him flawlessly. "Damnit, dobe…" He ducks away from another set aimed at his face, but a senbon hidden in the shadow of another targets his left foot and pierces through to his sandals. He cringes and pulls that senbon free before leaping away from the next salvo. He's careful to only remove those that would debilitate him too much to salvage the fight, but at this rate, he knows he can't handle her on his own. "Get your ass in gear and find me a way out of this…"

No sooner than he says this does an explosion go off on the far end of the mirror cage. Although the mirror survives the blast, it does crack significantly and disconnect from the pattern of the structure, leaving a wider gap and a hole in the bridge beneath it. Sasuke rushes in to duck into the hole, but he knows she'll be on his tail. He leaps and spins as he breathes out a fireball, creating a burning barrier between himself and Haku. She'll be forced to either attempt passing through the flames to attack or lose him entirely.

She chooses option C and throws a volley of senbon through the fire. When it clears, she sees Sasuke kneeling with his back turned, senbon littering his legs. She approaches for a finishing blow, but he fades from sight and leaves an exploding tag underfoot. She barely backs away into the furthest mirror fast enough to escape being dismembered.

Zabuza swings his blade backwards and produces a concussive blast of air strong enough to deter Naruto's kunai before landing blade-first and doing a handstand on the pommel. As Kakashi leaps up to run Raikiri through him, Zabuza swings down and hides behind his blade, then runs through one-handed signs, ending on Mi, before ripping his blade from the bridge. Water condenses around the blade and fires off in a razor-thin arc. Kakashi rolls forwards in the air until he's upside-down and facing the water blade. His Raikiri cuts it in half and disrupts the jutsu, but the remainder of it blasts past him and cuts through Naruto's clones, save for six who'd been tucked behind Kakashi.

Once Kakashi lands, he bolts back in and swings at Zabuza's blade just as he swings in to cleave off the scarecrow's head. Zabuza realizes his mistake instantly and uses a burst of chakra at his feet to leap back, but Raikiri sends a shock down his blade and through his arm at the last moment.

Zabuza rapidly backs away with his right hand barely holding onto his sword. He knows well enough that one jutsu can be the turning point of any battle, but he's rarely been on the receiving end of that. He's killed a fair share of jounin, but challenged very few elites.

First time since leaving Kiri that he's had a real challenge.

But then there's the brat.

While Zabuza backs away towards more of the construction supplies on the unfinished end of the bridge, his ears pick up a collection of footsteps between the beams and crates of powdered concrete. The problem is, he can't tell how many. Even the best assassin's ears can't pick out a number from the staccato of a crowd they can't see.

The numbers hardly matter, though. As he runs chakra through his arm to soothe the numbing and spasms, he converts it to water chakra and runs hand signs again before switching his blade back-handed and firing another water blade without having to turn around. The arc is wide enough to catch any on the ground and kill them in one stroke, but that motion still slips him up enough for Kakashi to catch up. Once again, he's forced to expose part of his arsenal. He swings his blade out defensively, blocking Raikiri with the flat of the blade, but holds his own without being shocked this time. Kakashi's eyes narrow as his sharingan picks up the undeniable tint of wind chakra running through his sword. "Of course you picked up wind. Did Kushimaru teach you that?"

"The hell do you know about Kushi, huh?" Zabuza growls and forces Kakashi back, then starts a series of spinning swings with the dull edge of the blade on his shoulder, a defensive stance designed to force grappling range combatants back as the blade's range is slowly increased and becomes less defensive.

Kakashi backs off and drops his Raikiri, starting to feel the drain from using it for so long. "Well, he and the other six nearly killed me as a kid during the tail end of the war." He slices his thumb and runs five hand signs before palming the ground and conjuring his whole collection of hounds. "Starting to feel like outnumbering you as badly."

Zabuza's brow twitches. "You've gotta be shitting m-"

He freezes at the sound of the orange-clad brat snorting behind him. He peeks over his shoulder just enough to keep both sides in his peripherals and tenses up at the sight of a few dozen more clones staring him down from atop the supply crates and beam stacks. "Oh, he's outnumbered by a lot more than that." Another clone pipes up from the left. "Yeeaah, how many of us are there again?" One speaks up to his rear right. "I dunno, I lost track after that damn water blade. Think we can learn something like that?" "No, we are NOT copying teme's tryhard style. He can keep the swords, we weaponize FUN."

Zabuza growls and conjures another five water clones. "And how exactly do you 'fight with fun' when getting slaughtered?"

The clones snort and start to rush him, splitting up and taking all angles. He attempts to cut them down, but most of them back off before getting in his range. A few start doing somersaults in a circle around him. Others start flipping over each other in meaningless gymnastic routines, throwing in random variations at odd angles to draw his attention to odd directions. Veins emerge on his forehead as he's overcome with rage and relies on his Suigiri no Jutsu once more. He produces a full circular blade this time, cleaving them down around him at chest level, catching many leaping ones in the legs and severing their limbs in one fell stroke.

This leaves him surrounded by smoke and deafened by the clangs and snaps of his water crashing into the beams and crates, leaving him blind and deaf to the dogs approaching from all sides beneath the height of his attack. His sword arm is bitten by the mastiff and held in place, three get onto his legs and thighs, another two on his free arm, and Yoko leaps in and takes a bite of his shoulder, nearly into his neck. He barely grunts at the pain, but he knows he's debilitated entirely by this combination. Their combined bites could finish him off in an instant by tearing out several critical arteries, and he'd bleed out in a minute tops. "Ugh… Bested by a tree-hugging cyclops's kennel. Great." He peeks over his shoulder to the far end of the unfinished bridge. "… They're almost in place."

Kakashi nods as he slowly steps up with a kunai in hand. "The kids should be finishing up in a moment, then."

"Oh, we're done." Sasuke steps up with an unconscious Haku in tow, dragging her by the back of her robe and dropping her nearby. "That last blast knocked her out. Question now is what to do with these two."

Naruto taps on Sasuke's shoulder and points down the bridge with a shit-eating grin on his face, just as a very short and arrogant man in a pinstripe suit steps through the mist and into view. "That was quite the show! Never gotten to see ninja fight like this before. I'll have to hire some to entertain me more often, seeing as none of you will live long enough to give me a second performance." He pulls a cigar and a lighter from his pockets, taking a long drag. He billows smoke in their directions, giving the impression that if he had the guts to get close enough, he would have blown it in their faces.

Sakura and Tazuna manage to catch up at this point, and Tazuna clenches his fists at the sight of the redheaded dwarf. "Gato, you rat bastard. The hell are you doing here?"

"Cutting off loose ends." He flicks off the ashes and grinds them under his heel. As the fog starts to fade off, no longer supported by Zabuza's chakra, a horde of at least a hundred hired thugs can be seen standing twenty feet behind him. Malicious grins are barely hidden behind swords, knives, spears, and axes. "Honestly, I never got how you ninja could charge such absurd rates for your work when I could make so much more progress with less money, more men, and the promise of all the whores and coke they could ever want."

Kakashi and Zabuza look between one another for a few moments before nodding and turning vicious glares on the rich runt. The dogs drop and reveal their bites had been intentionally shallow and barely damaged the man at all, and he stands tall and unhindered. "All we needed to hear, ya pint-sized prick." Behind them, Naruto and Sasuke draw their kunai and chokuto, and their injuries suddenly fade away to reveal pristine, unharmed bodies.

Gato's eyes narrow and his jaw slack. "The fuck's goin on here?..."

Sakura sighs in relief and hunches over as chakra exhaustion starts to kick in. "Genjutsu. Maintaining one for the length of the average shinobi battle isn't too difficult but it's exhausting. Fooling other shinobi is the hard part. Fooling civilians, though, is easy." She forces on a grin. "I hope you enjoyed our act."

Naruto snorts. "Oh, I'm sure it was to die for. Which is great, because that's our admission price!"

"Wait…" Gato's eyes dart around and slowly backs up. "You knew I was gonna do this? You set me up?!"

"Oh.." Kakashi hums to himself and smiles through his mask. "It's so much more than that! As we speak…
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A water chakra boosted kunai cleaves through another set of chains mounting a helpless woman to a wall. She slowly raises her weary eyes to see a caramel-skinned and scarred shinobi making his way down the line and freeing the girls one by one. She tries to speak, but he raises a hand to stop her. "Save your voice. Rest for now, put your energy into leaving once I can escort you all out. You'll all be going home soon, I promise." She's too dazed and tired to argue, but at least gathers enough of her wits to look around to the ten bodies littering the floor, all belonging to Gato's thugs posted in this room and outside the door. Only three had drawn their weapons by the time they were killed, and six had their pants down.

.

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Gato clenches his fists hard enough to crack knuckles. "Goddamnit… Fine, after my army kills you, I'll just have them recollect the whores and double our profits by taking more from the town! Besides, that was just one small source of income for me, I've got plenty more! My drug shipments make five times as much as the slaves do!"

Naruto snorts. "About that…" Suddenly, a few blasts can be heard down the shore, slowly growing louder, until ripples can be seen coming across the water through the fog. They cut off entirely for about two seconds before a much louder blast leaves no question as to what's just happened in the distance.

Sasuke chuckles and sighs at that wonderful sound. "Fireballs are great. Mixed with exploding seals, it's almost beautiful."

"Sasuke…" Naruto pats him on the back. "We've made something wonderful together."

"Enough." Kakashi cuts them off. "We'll discuss your brotherhood of pyromania later. For now, let's clean up here so we can go back to town and split the cash Jiraiya stole from his safe."

"You WHAT?!"

"Damn, shorty…" Zabuza hefts his blade over his shoulder and pulses a heavy dose of killing intent. Raw, cold hate rolls over Gato and crushes his spirit in an instant. Kakashi's dogs immediately cringe at the smell of him shitting himself. "You're complaining a lot about money for guy who's about to lose his head."

He visibly trembles even from fifty feet away, but manages to gather his wits just enough to turn, stumble and sprint away and towards his horde of hired hands. "GET OVER THERE AND KILL THE BASTARDS ALREADY!"

Just as Gato gets within thirty feet of his army of mooks, the bridge folds in half and crushes them all in one swift motion. Blood and bile splashes across Gato as he freezes up entirely and stares with mouth agape at the loss of his one hope of escape.

Zabuza is also rather stricken, and turns to face a chuckling Naruto. "What the fuck was that?"

"What?" He grins ear to ear and crosses his arms behind his head. "A trap that can only go off once is kind of inefficient, right?"

Kakashi stammers aimlessly for a moment, but hangs his head. "Just when I think I've caught up to your insanity. Alright, let's finish this up and get to cleaning the mess. Haku?"

A chill goes down Gato's spine before the radiating cold of her presence even registers. He slowly looks to his left to find Haku standing beside him with a heartless, mile-long stare accompanied by a chilling smile. "I told you I'd do much more than break your arm if you slighted us again." She slowly leans in with senbon in hand, leaving Gato to cry out into the mist in his final moments, dying as he lived: Alone, yet surrounded by people who hate him with a passion.

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Naruto grumbles and shudders as he wanders back through the woods towards Tazuna's home. "Uuuugh… If I knew it'd be that messy, I would have use the poison gas trap instead…"

Kakashi shrugs. "Well, that's part of shinobi life, Naruto. I know it's the most blood I've seen at once, though, even during the war. It was quite the compact slaughter."

Zabuza hums and tilts his head a bit. "It was impressive especially for your age, but I've seen better. Hell, I've done better, though not quite in one stroke. For execution, I give it a nine."

Naruto sighs and hangs his head. "Well, glad my killing spree could be so highly rated by a world-class assassin."

Haku steps up and places her hand on his left shoulder. "Those were your first kills, weren't they?"

He nods shakily, leaning into Yoko as she sticks her head out of her perch in his hood and nuzzles him, but he jumps a bit when Sasuke joins him on his right. "Dobe, I get it. First kills are tough. First time seeing a man die is hard. I haven't gotten my first kill yet, but… I've seen seen plenty of death." He huffs. "… Just keep in mind those people would have gladly harmed completely innocent people if you hadn't killed them first. You infiltrated them, you know how bad they were."

Naruto nods once more and smiles somberly. "Yeah… Yeah, I guess it's not so bad, thinkin of it that way. It… still sucks, though."

Sakura chimes in with a surprisingly quiet tone, for her usual pitch anyway. "Naruto… yeah, it sucks. It really sucks. But I can already tell you're handling it well. Remember, we were all trained on how to handle the aftermath of a first kill, and… I can tell all your trap training and the animals helped prepare you for it. Yeah, there's a huge difference, but…"

Haku nods in agreement. "You're handling it wonderfully, Naruto. Just try not to be too hard on yourself, and focus on the positives."

"I couldn't put it better myself." Everyone looks up from their depressed comrade to see Jiraiya standing out front of Tazuna's house with Tsunami, Inari, and Hideki, surrounding a campfire he'd set up there. He presents a gentle smile for his godson and pulls him into a hug. "You'll be just fine, kiddo."

Sasuke and Sakura look to one another as a million questions run through their heads. Who is this guy? That headband is heavy evidence to one particular shinobi, a legendary hero of the village, but… how would he and Naruto know each other?

That estranged family moment is thrust aside though as Iruka returns and pushes the Sannin aside to pull his son into the tightest hug of his life. No words are shared, nor wasted. He simply sinks into his father's arms and buries his face, shivering and letting the silence speak for him. Nobody dares to interrupt them. Sasuke steps past them to check on Hideki, and Sakura joins Tsunami and Inari as she escorts Tazuna back to his family. The boy is shy and reserved at first, but eventually starts to ask how it all went, how they were able to come home safe, and who these two strangers following them are.

Speaking of the two strangers, Kakashi speaks to Zabuza in a tone so hushed that surely only the two of them, Jiraiya, and maybe Haku would hear him. "So, you still plan to take up my offer? I have a lot of sway back home, as does Naruto, surprisingly enough."

He grumbles and crosses his arms. "Oh, I already see why. Being that close to a Sannin isn't exactly an everyday thing, and I know exactly who your sensei was. It doesn't take much to put it together. The kid's gonna make waves one day." He sighs and hangs his head. ".. I'll consider it. You have about a week yet before he finishes the bridge and sends you all home anyway. When the time comes, I'll have answer." He slowly walks away to join Haku. "Becoming a treehugger never really crossed my mind, but it's better than running from Anbu forever."

Kakashi nods and pulls the latest Icha Icha from his pocket, focusing on the book to wind down from the day's ordeals, and to give the kids some time to sort out their issues their own way.

That short moment of peace is completely undone moments later when Naruto starts raging at Jiraiya about tearing down his security and seals so easily and demanding to know how he did it. The answers only manage to enrage the blonde bastard even more.