Kakashi feels a dark chakra fill the air. It is not Zabuza's chakra. Then who's chakra is it? Kakashi glances over to where the kids are fighting. The ice mirrors are starting to glow red.
The Nine Tailed Fox.
What is happening over there? Is the seal coming undone? No! It can't be; Minato sensei's seal work is too good to just come undone. Kakashi needs to finish this fight and go calm Naruto down before more of the fox's chakra leaks out.
Kakashi pulls out his summoning scroll and wipes the blood from his hand onto it in a long line. "Zabuza," he says. "I'm a busy man. You're a busy man. So how about we go against the normal grain of shinobi battles and wrap this up quickly? No monologuing about our tragic pasts, no more gloating at each other: just one big move. Winner takes all." Kakashi uses chakra to roll the scroll back up and catches it in his thumbs, forming the appropriate hand sign for is jutsu.
"An intriguing idea," says Zabuza, recasting is Hidden Mist Jutsu. "What have you got hiding up that sleeve of yours, Kakashi of the Sharingan?"
Kakashi weaves the last hand signs and slams his hands down on the ground. Summoning Jutsu:" he says. "Earth Style: Fanged Vengeance."
"Stop showing off, Kakashi!" taunts Zabuza from his position in the mist. "You are trapped! I have the upper hand and you know it."
Kakashi hears his ninja hound summons leaping and bounding towards Zabuza. He can make out their shapes in the mist, but he does not need to see them to know where they are. "My eyes might not be of much use right now," he says grimly. "But when eyes fail, you can follow your nose - if your sense of smell is good enough, that is." The dogs have hold of Zabuza now, Kakashi knows this without seeing it. "My dogs and I can smell you clearly because I let my blood get on you." the fog starts to clear because of the dogs immobilizing Zabuza. "The mist is clearing," Kakashi adds in what he hopes is a suitably intimidating manner. "I can see your future. And your future is death."
With dogs biting his arms, legs and shoulders, Zabuza says, "You're bluffing."
"No," says Kakashi. "You are the one who is bluffing." Forgetting his earlier resolve to avoid superfluous chit-chat, Kakashi says, "The day you abandoned your village after the failed coup d'etat you branded yourself a wanted ninja. Your name was reported to all the other villages, including the Leaf. We know how you and a group of your mostly unknown followers tried to overthrow the Mizukage and failed. Now you are trying to gather funds for a second attempt. But in order to do that you sunk so low as to work for a man like Gato. The man he wants you to kill is the hope of this nation. This bridge is their ticket out of poverty. What kind of revolutionary are you, to destroy one nation in order to build another? Even if you were not my enemy, I would hate you."
Ox, rabbit, monkey: Kakashi forms the handsigns for his own jutsu. "Lightning Blade." He stares Zabuza dead in the eyes. "You do not follow the path a shinobi should tread."
"Shut up with your philosophical nonsense," growls Zabuza. "I am fighting for my own reasons, and I am not going to stop because of some tree-hugger!"
Zabuza has no idea how true that name is, Kakashi reflects. "I'll say this only once more," Kakashi taunts him. "Give up: your future is death!"
"No."
Kakashi charges.
Cold fear grips Haku as her formerly harmless opponent transforms. Naruto's eyes turn red and his pupils became slits. His teeth grow into fangs and the whisker-marks on his cheeks thicken into true whiskers. A bubbling cloak of red chakra surrounds Naruto.
"What is this chakra?" wonders Haku. "It is so different to Naruto - so dark and cold. What is he?"
The needles embedded in Naruto's body fly out and the wounds they made hiss as the strange chakra heals them. Naruto's finger nails grow into claws as crouches down on all fours like an animal.
Haku nearly turns and runs as Naruto turns and attacks her. But her determination to be useful to Zabuza wins out over her fear of this monster-boy.
Naruto leaps at Haku, breaking the mirror her real body is in and sending her flying. Haku is helpless to defend herself against Naruto as he attacks her with furious rage.
Haku realizes she should have retreated, analysed the new threat and acted accordingly. Now she will die by this boy's hand. Zabuza sensei must be so ashamed of her. Haku gives up in despair and lets Naruto pound her. Her mask cracks and starts falling off her face, a few pieces at a time.
Naruto charges at Haku, his fist pulled back, ready to punch her one last time. But then he stops short, his fist shaking a few centimeters from Haku's face. Haku's heart nearly stops in shock.
"You…" Naruto chokes out. "You're that girl I met the other day!"
Haku does not see why that would affect their battle. "Aren't you going to hit me?" She asks. "What happened to all that power you had just before?" It is gone, all of it: the chakra cloak, the fangs and claws, even his eyes are normal again. "I just killed your friend, but you stopped attacking me?"
Naruto turns his head to look at Sasuke. Then he punches Haku squarely in the face, sending her flying.
Haku pulls herself up again and tries to goad Naruto into action by saying, "That was weak punch compared to the ones you dealt me before. What happened to all that power?"
Naruto simply glares at Haku, panting.
Haku wipes the blood from her mouth and says, "Some people mistakenly believe that sparing an enemy is a kindness. They spare an enemy whose life is in their hands, but don't you see?" Naruto obviously doesn't so Haku continues. "It is an empty existence, to go on living after you have been defeated and lost your dream!"
"What?" asks Naruto, confused.
"Zabuza sensei has no use for a weak apprentice," explains Haku, smiling. "You have taken away my reason for living."
"WHAT?" Naruto shouts. "WHY WOULD YOU THROW AWAY YOUR LIFE FOR THAT WEIRDO?! HE'S A MERCENARY WHO DOESN'T CARE WHO HE WORKS FOR OR WHO HE HURTS! Is he really that precious to you?"
Naruto's words sting, but Haku pretends they do not. "Once I was precious to someone else," Haku says. "I had…" she has to force the word out. "...parents."
Naruto seems curious, so Haku continues, "I was born in a snowy village in the Land of Mist. My parents were good, kind people. But just as I was getting old enough to notice the world around me, something changed all that."
Naruto is hooked now. "What?" He asks. "What happened?"
"Blood," says Haku. "My blood."
"What?" Naruto is thoroughly lost, Haku can see that. She will have to be more direct.
"May father killed my mother then tried to kill me," says Haku.
"Why…?" Naruto looks understandably shocked.
"In the Land of Mist generations of war and violence turned the hearts of the people against those bearing a kekkei genkai bloodline," Haku explains. "Because our kekkai genkai were used for violent and bloody slaughter we were hailed as monsters, not heroes or even weapons. After the wars ended those bearing kekkei genkai were hunted down and killed. Only those who hid had any chance of survival. I am sure that the little girl I just killed knew the pain I speak of - the pain of bearing a feared and hated bloodline."
The look on Naruto's face tells Haku that Naruto knows what she is talking about on a personal level.
Haku continues: "My father learned that my mother came from a powerful clan of kekkei genkai users and that I inherited her gift. He killed her to protect himself from a non-existent threat. But when he turned on me...before I knew what I had done, my father was dead by my hand." Haku takes a deep breath. "And then I knew what I was. I was nothing. The most painful thing in the world is to be unwanted. Unneeded. Completely alone. Didn't you tell me you want to be Hokage? That there are people close to you? How much more would they mean to you if they took you in when none else wanted you?" Haku asks.
"Iruka niisan did," whispers Naruto. "Nobody else wanted me since I was born until Iruka niisan."
"Then you know how I felt when Zabuza found me and let me stay by his side," says Haku, tears leaking out of her eyes.
Haku sits on the cold ground, huddled up in a little ball, trying to keep warm. She knows that sooner or later she will either die of cold or hunger. A shinobi walks past her, then stops and turns to look at her. "Another unwanted kid. What a waste," the man says.
Haku sees something in the man's eyes that resonates with her. "We have the same eyes," she says, smiling. Might as well be friendly to the first person to pay her any attention. He will probably be the last.
The man regards her for a few seconds then says, "You might be useful. Why don't you come with me."
It is not really a question, but she does not care. Somebody wants her. She can be of use. Haku follows the strange man, ignoring everything her parents told her about stranger danger.
Some days later, the man, Zabuza leads Haku out of the village. Once they are clear of the houses he tells Haku, "We are leaving this land tonight. But I will return one day and conquer this land. To do that I need you, not to show me love or support but…"
"I know," Haku smiles up at him. "I am your tool. I will go where you go, fight alongside you and kill whomever you tell me to kill."
"Good girl," says Zabuza.
"Naruto," says Haku. "Kill me."
"No way!" objects Naruto. "Wanting to die just because I beat you is crazy! You should be wanting to get stronger…"
"I thought you of all people would understand," says Haku.
"Is there really no other way?" asks Naruto, a strange, cold look on his face.
"There is no other way," Haku assures him. "I am sorry you will have to bloody your hands because of me."
Naruto pulls out a kunai and charges Haku.
But the mist is clearing and Haku can see something she does not like. Zabuza is in danger. That attack will kill him. Haku deftly stops Naruto's attack and says, "I am sorry, but there is still one last way I can be of use to Zabuza." Then she throws herself between Zabuza and Kakashi's singing fist of lightning chakra.
Just as the jutsu begins to pierce her flesh, a cloaked figure pushes her away, across the bridge, and diverts Kakashi's jutsu into the bridge below his feet.
The pain in her chest causes Haku to fall into unconsciousness.