"Normal speech"

'Normal thoughts'

"Demon/Summon speech"

'Demon/Inner Sakura/Summon thoughts'

Jutsu name

(author comment) - not a lot of them

flashback/memory

~locations and transitions~

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

A single action can change your fate but would it be for the better or the worse, only time will show it

Chapter 19: A test of resolve

~6 AM after the shift~

Naruto was slowly making his way back to his tent since he still had a couple hours left until everyone else woke up. 'Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to have to do this a few more times in my life. At least it didn't hurt as much as last time…...not like it matters, it still hurt like HELL! Ugh'. once he made it to his tent he gingerly laid down on his side, on his sleeping bag and closed his eyes just to sleep 'I hate this….' he than slowly reached into his weapons pouch and pulled out the privacy seal 'I DIDN'T EVEN NEED TO USE THESE!...I guess I'll use this for next time….ugh…..next time' and with that Naruto went to sleep, too tired to even enter his mindscape

~Meanwhile at Zabuza's hideout~

Zabuza was sitting on his bed with his against the wall looking at Haku prepare whatever medical concoction he was using to ease the pain he still felt but the pain was now more like a small ache rather than pain "hey Haku how much longer until I can fight again"

Haku looked over to Zabuza, and after a few seconds answered "well you are almost fully healed. Two days until your burns are completely gone and I would recommend resting for a day or two longer so you are at full strength"

Zabuza nodded his head, never doubting Haku's assessment of these sorts of things and only had thoughts on his upcoming rematch 'you wont get off easily next time Kakashi'

Haku went back to what he was doing with different thoughts ' I am giving you all the time I can Naruto-san. I just hope you will have left by then'

"What a couple of useless shinobi. Why the hell did I even hire you if all you are going to do is lay about!"

Both of their thoughts were interrupted from a man with shaggy brown hair, wearing a pair of small, circular black glasses. He wore a black suit with a purple tie, closed toed shoes and leaning on an ornate cane

Haku scowled at the man as he said his name "Gato"

Gato was accompanied with two thugs dressed as samurai and armed with katanas. He walked up to the bed that Zabuza was sitting on as they both glared at each other "what the hell are you two wannabe shinobi doing. Your job was to kill that stupid bridge builder and not only is he still alive he is almost done with his damn bridge. If he gets that bridge up and running, I will lose my foothold on this land and lose a potential route for my business!"

Zabuza just scoffed at the small man. All he heard was a whiny bitch that isn't getting his way "what do I care about your smuggling business. Your paying us to do a job and we are going to do it. So stop your whining!"

Gato was furious at this, not getting the respect he thinks he deserves and lifted his cane in his right hand, ready to strike at the man but as his hand reached the height of the strike, two senbons pierced his hand

"ARGH" Gato had dropped his can and brought his hand in front of him to see that two senbon pierced through his hand. Before he could do anything else a hand grabbed his wrist and another roughly ripped out the senbon before the first hand twisted his wrist enough to break it "AAAAAHHHH"

The two samurai grabbed the hilt of their katanas and were about to charge but they only made one step till their heads were cut clean off and sent flying. Behind them was Zabuza crouched down, his sword in his hand with his arm stretched out.

Gato was on his knees gently holding his broken arm as he felt something hit his foot. Looking back he saw it was the head of one of his guards "waaahhhh". Looking up he saw Zabuza standing over him and he began to sweat

Zabuza looked down at Gato before he crouched down to meet the man's gaze "we will get the job done. Now leave before you lose something else"

Gato scrambled to his feet and made his way to the exit. Before he was out he turned to them and in a shaky voice he spoke "that old man will finish the bridge in a matter of days, I'm giving you two days to finish the job or you won't get paid!" and with that he left

Haku continued to scowl in the slimy mans direction until he looked at the bodies of the thugs "Zabuza, couldn't you have at least sent them out of the hideout. Now I have this mess to clean up"

Zabuza shrugged his shoulders "they were vermin that needed to be dealt with". Zabuza began to move his arm to test his mobility "well it still stings a bit but I should be able to fight soon. We strike in two days, be ready by then Haku".

He made his way to the bed missing Haku's small look of despair 'I'm sorry Naruto-san'

~9 AM~

Naruto hobbled into the house getting everyone's attention. Tsunami looked worried at the boy. After the rant he went did, she felt a bit of maternal protectiveness for the boy, seeing as how he ha live a hard life much like the rest of them but somewhat worse seeing as, from what she guessed, he was never treated kindly.

Inari was afraid of Naruto, after being yelled at by him but he also thought that the blonde shinobi could really help them. If he went through all that and still came out to help than maybe he could be the hero they needed

Tazuna glared at the boy. Not really hating the boy entirely but he was mad when one day he woke up to find that all of his sake was gone, even the ones he hid away. He couldn't even buy any to bring to the house since when he put them away in the cupboard the disappeared a few minutes later. He knew it was the blonde, he just didn't know how

Sakura looked concerned or her teammate since she has seen him this tired and beaten only once wondered what he had been doing to cause him to be this way but she didn't know how to ask

Sasuke just scowled thinking that the blonde was doing some sort of training and wanted to know what it was so he could use it

Naruto walked until he was in front of Tsunami before asking "is any of the food from yesterday still good?"

Tsunami nodded her head "y-yes the stew we made from the animals you hunted for us is till ready"

Naruto nodded his head "can I have the rest of it please?"

Tsunami smiled and went to the kitchen to heat up the pot up with Naruto following her

Kakashi watched the boy, from over his book, walk with Tsunami and was curious as to what the boy did during the night that could cause this, since he also remembered the time he came to the training ground like this. He shrugged the thought off before he went back to reading his book, thinking he could ask the boy later. As he was giggling perversely he didn't see Tsunami come up behind him with a frying pan

*BANG*

Kakashi now found his face on the table in front of him and a welt inflating on his head

Tsunami bent down and confiscated the book Kakashi dropped "I told you before not to read this around Inari-chan, so I will be taking this away"

Naruto was sitting at the table opposite of Kakashi with the pot next to him as he ate out of a bowl and he looked at Kakashi as the man turned his head to the side while still on the table and started to cry while muttering to himself "I can never read in peace anymore". Naruto just kept eating, and little by little he started feeling better as he ate

After Naruto finished the whole pot of stew, much to Tsunami's shock, Naruto got up and told everyone he will be outside training. He also told Tsunami he would go hunting again to replace the stew

~2 days later in the early morning~

Through these two days, Naruto spent his time training to get a bit more comfortable with his body. He found out that if he is able to eat a good amount of food, his body would stop hurting so much and he was now feeling back to normal…..or as normal as he could feel.

Though he now has a bad habit of sleeping in, as it was 10 AM and he was now in what was suppose to be Sasuke's bed, since Sasuke was force to sleep outside in the tent the previous night, snoring into the pillow, wearing a plain white shirt and boxers that had fox faces printed on all over them

The rest of Team seven were standing over his sleeping form as he continued to sleep. They all shook their head at him as they had tried to shake him awake but he just swatted their hands away…..well except Sasuke, he punched him in the face.

Kakashi turned to Sakura and Sasuke "let's just leave him for now. I'll leave a message with Tsunami-san to let him know that we are on guard duty for Tazuna-san at the bridge"

Sasuke gave his usual "hm" and walked out of the room as Kakashi and Sakura followed him leaving the blonde to sleep

~Tazuna's bridge~

As the group made it to the bridge, they all grew serious when the second they stepped on the bridge, Mist took over the area, which could only mean one thing…..Zabuza.

As they slowly made it to the area the workers were meant to be, they saw that most of them were on the ground. Sakura made her way to some of the downed workers and gave a sigh of relief seeing that they were all just unconscious.

Kakashi looked around to see if he could see Zabuza but saw nothing but he then heard someone speak "this way….copycat". Kakashi heard the voice further down the bridge and began walking "Tazuna, I would tell you to go back but I think you are safer with us"

As they made it further on the bridge they saw Zabuza standing in the center with the hunter-nin by his side. Kakashi walked a bit further with Sasuke walking with him as Sakura stood next to Tazuna. "Well Zabuza, looks like we will be finishing our fight this time"

Zabuza hefted his sword onto his shoulders looking over the group "where's the blonde gaki, he chicken out on this and head home?"

Kakashi shook his head "no he had something else he needed to do so we will be dealing with you"

Zabuza chuckled looking over to Haku "well don't think you will win this time"

Haku gave a small sigh of relief, seeing that Naruto wasn't there and was glad that they wouldn't have to fight "Zabuza-sama should I deal with the others as you deal with Kakashi-san"

Zabuza nodded his head "yeah deal with them but they won't be much of a challenge, it's the blonde that you would have been worried about since he came up with the strategy that got me stuck healing but too bad he isn't here". He then turned his head towards Kakashi "well Kakashi, shall we get this started"

Kakashi's answer was to launch himself to Zabuza pushing him back and began their battle

Sasuke just smirked at Haku and started running towards him, pulling out a kunai and swung it to Haku.

Haku pulled out a senbon and blocked the kunai "you shouldn't rush into a fight with someone you don't know anything about"

Sasuke just scoffed and pushed harder making Haku backflip away before they charged at each clashing again

Sakura stood with Tazuna on guard duty as the other two battled 'I hope you guys win this time'

~back with Naruto~

Naruto's eyes shot open when he felt ill intent right outside the house. Getting up quickly he heard someone downstairs kick the front door down and he bolted out the bedroom door and made it to the top of the stairs. He heard yelling from downstairs and he heard that there were three thugs harassing Inari and Tsunami but when he heard Inari yell out "leave my mom alone!" he jumped down the stairs, landing in a crouch position, he looked around and saw that one thug had Tsunami's wrist in his hand and pulling her out the door, another was about to kill Inari with a katana and the last one was following the one with Tsunami. As fast as he could he jumped at the one with Inari and sent the thug flying with a flying roundhouse, when he landed he turned and launched himself at the two thugs with Tsunami, coming from the followers back he sent his elbow to the back of his neck.

The thug holding Tsunami saw this happen and pulled the woman to him and brought out a dagger and brought it to her neck "stay where you are punk or else I'll slit her throat"

Naruto stopped moving and stared at the thug "you piece of shit! Why the hell would you take her hostage"

The thug just laughed "I was paid to take this woman anyway to get that old man to give up building the bridge. Who cares if I have a little 'fun' with her before I head there. The faster I get there the better chance I have to meet up with the mob Gato plans on using against that wannabe shinobi. Once we kill him and his partner at the bridge, we will be getting a bonus and then we can go do whatever we want in town".

Naruto scowled hard after hearing this "so Gato doesn't even honor the deals he made and you are nothing but a fucking puppet"

The thug held the knife tighter an pointed it to the blonde "listen hear you pathetic brat, I will…" whatever he was going to say was interrupted as Inari jumped onto the extended arm giving Naruto a clear shot at the thugs stomach. Naruto launched himself to him and buried his fist into his stomach

Inari landed on his butt looking at Naruto who stood up straight

Naruto looked at Inari as Tsunami went to check if her son was alright " you two alright?"

Tsunami looked at Naruto and nodded "yes Naruto-kun. Thank you"

Naruto looked at Inari and smiled "nice job Inari. That just shows that heroes still exist because what you did is what a hero would do"

Inari's eyes watered and he smiled "thanks Naruto-kun"

Naruto chuckled until a thought hit him "where is everyone?"

Tsunami got back up and turned to Naruto "They went to the bridge with my father to guard him"

Naruto remember what the thug said about a mob at the bridge "oh no! I gotta go help them". He grabbed the three knocked out thugs and tied them up and began to leave

Tsunami yelled out to Naruto before he was out the door and seeing him turn around she continued "shouldn't you get dressed before you go?"

Naruto looked down and saw that he was still only wearing a plain white shirt and his boxers "aaahh" and then he ran up the stairs to get dressed

~back at the bridge~

Sasuke found himself feeling like a pin cushion as his entire body was covered with senbons and surrounding him were mirrors with the image of the hunter-nin. "Why don't you come out and fight me?!"

The images of Haku shook their head "your arrogance astounds me. You started this fight believing that this would be an easy battle but after you started to lose you make demands that you believe will assist you". Haku than launched more senbons aiming to end this fight but was surprised to see him block a few of them. Taking a look at the black haired boy he noticed that his eyes had changed from pitch black to red with one tomoe in each eye 'a doujutsu? From the looks of it, it seems that it is an incomplete sharingan. So it seems that he truly is an Uchiha'. Pulling out some more senbon he got ready to attack once more to end this fight

Sasuke noticed that he could see things more clearly and was able to see the senbons coming towards him, seeing the hunter-nin pause he used the kunai in his hand to look at the reelection of his eyes 'finally! I have them! Now I can finish this fight'

As Haku launch his Sensatsu Suishō (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death) he saw the Uchiha prepare to block them but knew that he wouldn't be able to block all of them. As the needles made their way to the boy, he caught sight of a horde of blonde, orange and black appear inside the ice dome and blocked the needles from all angles, even if some of them hit a target causing a few poofs of smoke '...oh no'

~with Naruto a few moments ago~

Naruto had made it to the bridge to see that his team were in the middle of a fight. Sakura was guarding Tazuna, Sasuke was in a dome of what looked like Ice panels and being covered in needles, and Kakashi was facing off with Zabuza and looked like Kakashi had gotten a gash going diagonally over his chest. Thinking on where he could help better he chose to help out his teammate since it looked like Sasuke was losing. Rushing towards the dome he made thirty clones and had half of them stay behind while the rest and himself went into the dome. Seeing needles head towards Sasuke, each of the clones pulled out kunais and made a circle around the Uchiha and blocked as many of the needles they could, even if a few were dispelled

Sasuke looked around him to see he was save by Naruto "damn it Dobe! I didn't need your help!"

The original looked back at his teammate and just deadpanned "Teme you look like I could throw a leaf on you and you would collapse" Naruto then felt something foul from the boy apart from his anger and then noticed that the Uchiha's eyes had changed into the Sharingan 'oh great, now he will be even more arrogant than before' taking a deep breath through his nose and turned back to face their opponent '...wait….' *sniff* *sniff* 'I know that smell. It smells like….water and …..flowers….no'. Dropping his arms and standing straighter he looked at the mirror in front of him and looked into the mask "please tell it's not you ….Haku"

All the images on the mirrors vanished leaving only the one in front of the blonde, as Haku pulled off his mask "yes it is me Naruto-san"

Naruto's clones all gaped as they dispelled leaving just Naruto Haku and Sasuke. Naruto walked up to the image slowly until he stood in front of the mirror "so the herbs you were gathering were for Zabuza than" seeing Haku nod he sighed "so you used me to help Zabuza than"

Haku smiled sadly "if I remember correctly you offered to help on your own"

Sasuke who was still standing in the center of the dome heard what was said and came to a conclusion "wait dobe, you helped the enemy!"

Naruto turned to look at Sasuke "it wasn't like I knew Haku was the hunter-nin I just helpe…"

Sasuke just walked up to Naruto and grabbed Naruto's collar "you helped them! It makes you a traitor"

Haku not liking their conversation being interrupted by the Uchiha used his speed to show up behind the Uchiha and sent an Ice needle into the back of the Uchiha's neck, knocking him out

Naruto watched his teammate collapse to the ground 'ouch! I think he fell on some of the needles'. Turning back to the mirror he spoke again "so you were hired by Gato to kill the bridge builder?"

Haku nodded "we took the job needing the money that Gato offered. I am helping Zabuza as a tool to reach his goal so I ask you to stand aside so I may complete my task"

Naruto hated what he heard "Haku, you are not a tool!" taking another deep breath he continued "I can't stand aside Haku. I made a promise to help Wave and I never go back on my word"

Haku felt his heart drop at the implications that the blonde made 'seems like it's time to say goodbye' and with this thought, the dome became filled with Haku's image once more

Naruto looked panicked this "wait Haku! There's something you need to know!" he yelled but it came unheard as he jumped back to avoid a set of needles. Finding himself standing over the prone body of Sasuke 'damn it!' making one clone and dispelling it, one of his clones that he made outside of the dome used the Kawarimi to switch with Sasuke, getting him next to Sakura and Tazuna, before dispelling itself and now Naruto and Haku were the only ones left in the dome. "Haku you have to listen to me!". He had to jump back to avoid the ice needles that impacted where he was. Bringing his fist up he yelled at one of the mirrors above him "Haku! Gato plans on betraying you" this action cost him as a set of needles hit him in the back "argh!"

Haku heard what Naruto said but did not drop his guard "clever using such a lie but if you expect me to show mercy than you will die" he said as he launched another set to the blonde

Naruto was still recovering from the last set that hit him and didn't move fast enough to dodge the next set and now his sides were now covered in ice needles. A little blood leaked from his mouth, feeling that some of them had pierced deeper than the others "ugh damn it Haku! I'm not trying to trick you, I heard one of the bandits he sent to Tazuna's house!"

Haku pulled out another set of needles "why should I believe what you say?"

Naruto just stood there as he pulled out a few of the needles "why would I lie about this!? I'm trying to save you! Gato plans on killing Zabuza with a mob!"

Haku hesitated for a second. He knew that Gato was scum but thought that he wouldn't be too stupid to go against them 'but he is the kind of scum to do that. And if what he says is true he could be waiting for us to be tired until he strikes'. Looking at Naruto he asked "what guarantee do I have from you, that you are telling me the truth?"

Naruto stood there and took a deep breath "I promise you that I am trying to save your life"

Haku looked into the boys azure blue eyes and saw nothing but determination and no lies. Dropping his raised hand that held his ice needles, and slowly walked out of the Ice mirror directly in front of the boy. Walking until they were directly in front of each other, he deactivated his Ice mirrors and stood there looking down at the injured boy "I hope you don't break your promises Naruto-san"

Naruto smiled at this and lifted his hand to give him a thumbs up "I never go back on my word, you can believe that Dattebayo!"

As the two of them stood there they both heard the sound of birds chirping. They both turned towards the sound and saw Zabuza ensnared by a bunch of dogs as Kakashi stood a bit away from him, with one hand held up with lightning in it and the other gripping the wrist of his other.

"Zabuza-sama!"

~a few minutes ago with Kakashi~

Kakashi was on the fence as he dodged another swing from Zabuza 'if I don't end this soon, I'll run out of chakra and be open for him to finish off'. Looking around he got a small glimpse of the ice dome Zabuza's partner made and even if he couldn't see who was in it due to the thick mist he saw that it was collapsing "looks like your partner is finished" 'though whether that's good for us or them has yet to be decided. Hope your ok Sasuke-kun'

Zabuza chuckled at hearing this while hidden in the mist "than that means that your little genin are done for, now all that's left is to end you"

Kakashi didn't like the idea of what Zabuza implied he pulled out a scroll from his breast pocket, wiped some of the blood on his torso onto his thumb, opened a good portion of the scroll, wiped the blood onto the paper, wrapped the scroll back up and held it in both of his hands as he made a hand sign "we will see which of us ends soon enough". He then slammed the scroll to the ground "Kuchiyose no Jutsu"

Zabuza was confused at the action since nothing was summoned, but kept his distance for the moment. After a few seconds he heard something cracking but couldn't see where it was coming from, it was only when it got loud that he looked down to see the ground around him was breaking. An instant afterwards the ground exploded and he found himself being restrained by a pack of dogs of different breeds "damn it! What the hell?!". The attack on him had caused him to lose focus on his mist jutsu and the area became clearer but still slightly misty

Kakashi stood some distance from Zabuza and from what he could see, his plan worked. After a few hand signs, Kakashi brought his hand down with the other holding the wrist. After a few seconds the sound of birds chirping could be heard as lightning appeared in his hand "it would seem it wasn't my end that was coming ….but yours"

Zabuza struggled, trying to remove the dogs that were biting down on almost every part of his body leaving only his chest and head free 'shit! I can't get free!'

Kakashi prepared his attack and gave one last look at his opponent "this is goodbye Zabuza". In the background he heard someone scream "Zabuza-sama" but paid it no mind and charged at him.

~Naruto and Haku~

Naruto stood back as he saw Haku scream and before he could do anything he saw Haku create an Ice mirror an jumped into it. Naruto immediately knew what Haku was about to do and scream

"HHAAAAKKKUUUUUUU!"

Kakashi thrusted his attack forward as his sharingan eye saw an Ice mirror pop up in between Zabuza and himself and when he saw the hunter-nin pop out of the mirror he heard something

"HHAAAAKKKUUUUUUU!"

Recognizing that voice he flinched 'Naruto!?'

*PIERCE* (not sure how to write out that sound)

*splash*

~with Sakura, Tazuna and Sasuke~

Sakura was removing some of the needles still stuck in Sasuke's body. She was glad that Naruto had come to help, and seeing Sasuke bloody and unconscious told her how bad the fight was but now that her second teammate was here, she felt like they could live through this. It wasn't until she heard a yell from within the mist

"HHAAAAKKKUUUUUUU!"

She tried to see where it came from but she couldn't see through the mist to see what happened. She recognized it as Naruto, and she became extremely worried when the clones that guarded her and the group all dispelled "what happened?"

Naruto saw everything and his body just stopped. He stared wide eyed as Kakashi pulled his hand out of Haku, who dropped to the ground and he wheezed out "Haku….?". He heard nothing, he felt nothing, he just completely shut down, standing there staring at Haku's prone body, eyes closed and bloodied

Zabuza felt his anger flare and struggled against the dog summons and with every amount of strength he ripped himself out of most of the summons grip and swung at Kakashi forcing him to jump back with Zabuza following, leaving Haku where he laid.

They both landed close to Naruto but he didn't react to them as they clashed with Kunai blocking furious swipes from the massive sword.

In a quick motion Kakashi swerved into a spin when Zabuza's sword slid passed Kakashi's kunai and he moved his body to maneuver behind Zabuza and he quickly put the kunai to his neck "you lose Zabuza"

Before Zabuza could react he heard a slow clapping (cliche isn't it), further down the bridge. Turning his head he saw Gato walking towards them

Gato kept his slow clapping, even though it hurt the hand that was injured "so this is all the 'Demon of the mist'? I'm not impressed"

Zabuza growled at the man that was still walking towards them "Gato! What the hell are you doing here?" he asked not in concern but in sheer anger and disgust as he had a feeling why he might have been here

Gato made it standing a good ways away, feet away from Haku's body "I came to cut out my early investment, you see, you shinobi are too expensive and I decided to that I would get a cheaper force" as he said this, bandits came walking forward, coming out of the mist and after a few seconds, hundreds of bandits carry different weapons, swords, hammers, axes, a bat, …..sticks and all of them looked like they were ready to kill. "You see I only have to pay this group a fraction of what I had to pay you two. Now that you are weakened I can have these guys kill you and save myself a fortune. Gato walked forward a bit more and saw the fallen body of Haku "too bad this little shit is dead. I would have loved to see him die in front of me" and he kicked Haku in the side

Naruto didn't hear any of what Gato said, he didn't know what the conversation was about but his eyes continued to stare at Haku and when he saw Haku get kicked, something snapped.

His face of shock slowly shifted to anger 'how dare you'. His posture of standing straight slowly became a hunched crouch "how dare you". The color of his eyes began to fade and after a few seconds, all color left them leaving only the white and the began to give off a white light "HOW DARE YYOOOOOOOOOOUUUUU! YOU BASSTTAAAAARDDD". Red chakra exploded from his body, swirling wildly around him, shooting in random directions and a shockwave was unleashed

The shockwave knocked everyone off their feet and they all looked towards the red chakra that came from the boy. Kakashi had his eyes open wide in panic 'Naruto! Don't tell me the Kyuubi is breaking free!'. Getting back on his feet he tried to think of what to do "Naruto! You have to control yourself"

"RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHH"

Another shockwave forced him to cover his face and trying to keep on his feet.

Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna were blown away from the battle, and when the second shockwave hit, Tazuna and Sakura chose to stay down. Sasuke grunted in pain when his body moved but he remained unconscious

Naruto had his glowing white eyes (think of eyes from the Gargoyles show when they are pissed) on the shivering Gato that looked back into his eyes. All of the swirling red chakra suddenly got reabsorbed into his body. Steam began to rise from his feet, and he began to walk towards Gato with every step making the moisture under his feet to evaporate. After a few steps he stopped and growled at the man and then the skin on his face and arm peeled off showing black and red underneath, his nails grew long and whitened, the bones of his legs broke with a very audible *CRACK* before they reshaped into his fox legs with the fur growing back but red and black energy could be seen on the tips of some of the tufts of fur, five tails shot out of his tailbone and the energy covered four of them leaving only his center tail (the one with the black streak on it) covered in fur. The skin of his face and arms were now gone leaving his face black, eyes and mouth shining with white light and his mouth made of the energy teeth, his ears replaced with his fox ears covered in energy with the only thing left and his blonde hair remained but with streaks of the energy flowing through some of his spiky hair. His shirt began to sizzle as patches of it burned away and his jacket turned to ash, showing his arms were covered in fur and halfway up his biceps turned back into energy, and his sash disintegrated.

Gato began crying in fear and panicked as he scrambled away "m-m-monster! Get away from me!" turning to the bandits behind him he yelled "what are you idiots doing?! Kill it kill it, kill it!"

Some of the bandits took short shaky steps forward with some of them stepping back

Naruto lifted his head and gave a screeching roar causing a few of the bandits to panic and run away. The movement was caught by Naruto, who in a rush of speed appeared in front of the running bandits and swiped his claw bisecting three of them and shredding the off arms, legs and heads of the rest.

The bandits that were staring at where the monster was turned around when they lost sight of it and saw it was now behind them ripping apart the runners

Naruto finished ripping the head off the head of the last of the runners and looked beyond the bandits and saw Gato 'Ga….TO!' in another burst of speed, sending a burst of wind through the bandits knocking all of them on each other and Naruto stood in front of Gato staring down at the man

Zabuza stood with Kakashi as they looked at the scene in front of them "Kakashi! What the hell is going on!"

Kakashi took a shaky breath looking at Naruto "...I think Gato has pissed him off"

Naruto looked over the man, and his instincts told him he should kill the man, slowly, painfully and watch every second of it. The man began to crawl away but Naruto grabbed his ankle hard with one of his tails, letting the energy burn his flesh

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"

Lifting the man to dangle upside down in front of him, he tilted his head in curiosity as the sunglasses on the man fell revealing the beady eyes of the man. Lifting his clawed hand he reached for the man's left eye, and slowly plunged his claws into the man's eyes socket

"AAAHHH AARRGH AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH"

Naruto slowly plucked out the eye and held it in his hand. He lowered his head to look at the eye like it was the first time he ever saw it. Closing his hand, he crushed the eye with an audible *squelch* and let the blood cover the fur of his hand. His jagged teeth of a mouth formed what could be called a smile of glee, he turned his head back to the dangling, screaming man until said man fell to the ground. Looking up to the tail used to hold the man up in confusion saw that the man's foot and ankle were still being held by it, but the man was on the ground, slowly crawling away as he whimpered. Naruto smiled again and sent the other three energy tails to grab the other ankle and both wrists, breaking the cast of his already broken wrist and brought him again in front of him and looked into the remaining eye of the crying man

Kakashi wanted to stop what he was seeing but he knew if he made any move Naruto might change targets

Sakura looked at the scene trying her best to stay conscious due to the pressure she felt. As she saw what happened to Naruto she couldn't understand what was happening. Her attention was brought somewhere else when she heard coughing and a splash of something, looking over her shoulder, she scramble over and began to think of what she could do to help

~Naruto's mindscape~

The forest of Naruto's mind were rotting, with shadows crawling through the grass and fields

"Kit! You need to stop"

Kurama was at the moment plowing through rotted trees trying to stop the smaller five tailed fox that erratically ran through the trees

"Kit! If you don't stop you'll lose yourself!"

Naruto's mind construct stopped and turned to Kurama but Kurama could see that the smaller fox's eyes had no color "oh no" and Naruto jumped to attack Kurama biting down on his ear "ugh! Don't make me do this kit!" shaking his head, he launched Naruto off his head.

Naruto rolled onto the ground and got up and ran on all fours to Kurama roaring as he leapt at the bigger fox

"Sorry kit" and Kurama swung his tail towards his kit

Naruto looked at the man drop without hands and feet as the man convulsed but stay alive. Naruto let go of the hand in his tail and moved it to the mans chest, and slowly pierced into his flesh

"*gurgle* ahh *gurgle*"

Naruto lifted the man with the tail, getting glee at seeing said man flail his stubs, blood flying everywhere, some of it landing on Naruto and evaporating from the energy.

Gato was in pain, from the loss of his eye his limbs and the stab, but the burning coming from said stab was increasing and spreading throughout his body "gack argh gaah" turning his one eye to the monster he slowly panicked a bit more as he saw it open its mouth and the last thing he saw was the white light of its mouth

Naruto bite down on the man's head before ripping it off. He tossed the head towards the bandits since none of them dared move for fear of getting the monsters attention. Naruto swung his tail, and tossed the body away and stood there looking around him. Unfortunately one of the bandits let out a gasp getting Naruto's attention. All the bandits panicked and began to run but Naruto thrusted his arms forward and they extended to the running bandits until it pierced through twenty of them, ten on each arm. The Bandits gurgled out screams as the burning caused them to turn to ash. Lowering his claws to the ground and getting a hold of it he pulled himself to the group and he began to tear them all apart. The sounds of screams could be heard by everyone on the bridge, so much so, that some of the unconscious workers started to wake up. Naruto now stood in a massive pool of blood and body parts, looking for something else to 'play' with. His eyes landed on Kakashi and a small voice in the back of his head spoke 'he did it' turning to face the ningen 'he killed him' he took a step forward 'end him' he flared his tails and crouched to all fours and growled

Kakashi felt small from Naruto facing him, he felt like he was prey in the eyes of a predator 'oh no'. He noticed Zabuza shuffle away from him 'coward'. His attention was brought back to Naruto when he heard the screeching roar and in an instant he lifted his arms to block a tail sent his way. Kakashi slid on his feet, feeling that his arms become numb 'damn it' he had to jump away as Naruto came from the air slamming his tails where he once stood. "Naruto! If you can hear me, you have to stop!" Kakashi used all of his reflexes and skill with the Sharingan to duck under a claw swipe,but although his eye saw it coming, his body couldn't react in time to avoid the knee to his stomach.

The hit sent him flying and he rolled on the ground until he was on his back "ugghh damn it! I don't have enough chakra use any high rank jutsu and I don't have any seals for him" opening his eyes he saw Naruto crouching directly in front of him and one of his claws coming up to his Sharingan eye 'shit' before he could move, he noticed that Naruto stopped all movement, even his tails stopped

~meanwhile in Naruto's mindscape~

Kurama slammed his claw onto a patch of black grass as a his kit dodged and began to climb on his arm. Naruto made his way to Kurama's face and swiped at the eye, blinding Kurama on one side "AARRGH! You little…" Kurama swung all of his tails creating a massive gust of wind sending Naruto away and crashing through a bunch of trees and leaving a crater where he landed. Kurama took this opportunity to quickly run up to the crater and reached in grabbing Naruto and trapped his kit inside both of his hands "now to end this!". Kurama began to pull on Naruto's chakra but Naruto wasn't letting up as Kurama could feel clawing and biting done on his hands "come on!". After a few more seconds a burst of red chakra exploded through the gaps of his fingers, and he lowered his hands down and opened them to see his kit unconscious and breathing heavily "damn gaki *sigh*. That should get him to stop his rampage". Kurama began to look around the area "now to wait for his mind to repair itself but I need to make sure he doesn't remember what he did"

~real world~

Naruto pulled back from Kakashi and grabbed his head as he gave a screeching roar

Kakashi looked at Naruto as he began to roll around in agony. The sound of the roars went on for a few minutes and began to die down

"SSSSCCCRREEEEEAAAAAAAGGGGGGGggggggghhhhhhh"

Kakashi saw that the energy that covered Naruto's body was receding and once it was done Naruto stood there with all the skin there was red while his arms still remained furry with claws, his legs still like a fox, ears still long and the five tails drooped down. Naruto then collapsed onto the ground as Kakashi still sat on his butt in shock.

Zabuza walked up to Kakashi and grabbed him by the collar "mind telling me what the hell the boy just did?! What the hell was all that?!"

Kakashi shook his head to get his bearing back and looked from Zabuza to Naruto before his face got serious "it doesn't concern you" getting out of Zabuza's grip he lowered his Hitai-ate and went to check on Naruto 'damn it! I thought Hokage-sama fixed this!'

"Kakashi-sensei I need your help!" Kakashi turned his head to see Sakura calling him over as she kneeled over someone. 'Damn it, Sasuke must be in real trouble. I should have enough chakra for one' putting his index and middle finger into a cross he called out Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and made one clone "make sure Naruto stays safe". Getting a nod from his clone, Kakashi made his way to Sakura

Zabuza scowled at the one leaving "Hey Kakashi, I'm not finished with you!" just to be stopped by the clone

Kakashi walked up behind Sakura "what is it Sakura-chan? Is Sasuke-kun ok?"

Sakura turned her head to look up at Kakashi "Sasuke-kun is fine. Just knocked out but" Sakura turned back "this guy is losing blood and if we don't help him soon he will die!"

Kakashi then looked to who she was helping and his eye widened when he saw who it was

The Hunter-nin

End of the chapter

It was always the plan to get Haku stabbed by Kakashi, the only hard part was choosing whether he lives or dies

Also before anyone says anything, NO it is NOT a hanyou Naruto. If I had to call it something it would be more of a mid shift, like he was in the middle of shifting back and just stopped. So he is still a bijuu. This will not last

now Kakashi is close to the truth and will he come up with an excuse to use for Sakura if Sakura asks

Please read and review