Chapter 8- The Oath of Pain

****Ren's POV****

"You're finished." Kakashi-Sensei says holding the kunai to Zabuza's throat as I stand up thinking I don't know why but I have another bad feeling about this. While Naruto yells "Alright!" As if on cue Zabuza starts chuckling causing Kakashi-Sensei to question "Huh?" as I think That's why. "Finished? You really don't get it do you? Your technique is nothing but a crass imitation. I'll never be defeated by a mere copycat ninja like you. Hehehehe. You are full of surprises though. You'd already copied my water clone jutsu when you made your little speech. Very skillfully executed. You made your clone say those words to draw my attention. While you hid in the mist waiting for me to make a move…Nice try." Zabuza says before another Zabuza appears behind Kakashi-Sensei adding "But I'm not that easy to fool." The water clone explodes into water leaving the original behind Kakashi-Sensei causing Naruto to yell "Hey! That one's a clone too!" as Zabuza starts to swing his sword. Kakashi-Sensei dodges and the sword lands in the ground but Zabuza quickly uses it as leverage to kick Kakashi-Sensei with enough force to send him flying into the air.

He went flying! This isn't good. I think as my breathing started to speed up as I watch Zabuza pull the sword out of the ground and run after Kakashi-Sensei like it weighed nothing, my whole body telling me things were going bad, very bad. "Makibishi spikes." Zabuza says suddenly stopping and looking at the ground before adding "Trying to slow me down. Humph. Foolish." As Kakashi-Sensei fell into the water and Zabuza disappeared. "Sensei!" Naruto calls as I suddenly get the feeling I was being looked at. Looking in the direction it was coming I wonder Am I imagining that? Being faced with only trees while Sasuke says "He has great physical skill too." "Heh. Fool. Water prison jutsu!" I hear Zabuza say then so I whip my head in the direction it came from to see Kakashi-Sensei trapped in a large water bubble. "This prison is made of water but it's stronger than steel. It's hard to fight when you can't move. So much for the great Kakashi. I'll finish you off later. But first your little friends will have to be eliminated. Water Clone Jutsu!" Zabuza says before a water clone of Zabuza slowly appeared from the water and came on land. That's kind of cool…but now's not the time to be thinking that. I think as Zabuza says "You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja. When you've hovered between life and death so many times it doesn't faze you then you may be called a ninja. When you've become so deadly that your profile is entered in my bingo book. Then you may have earned the title of ninja." His clone does a hand sign then and the mist gets thinker again as he continues "But to call upstarts like you ninja is a joke." I then quickly pull Naruto back with me before he could get kicked away.

****Kakashi's POV****

"Looks like you've got an impressive brat in the group Kakashi. It's a shame he'll never reach his full potential." Zabuza says his eyes focused on Ren with only slight amusement in his eyes, and surprisingly no recognition, as she pulls Naruto back with her while his headband flies off from the kick that just barely hit it and I can't stop from growling "Don't you dare!" "Or what Kakashi? They're still just brats after all." Zabuza says as his clone steps on the headband so I yell out "Listen! Get the bridge builder and run1 You can't win this fight! He's using all his power to keep me in this prison! So he can only fight you with his water clone. But the clone can't go far from his real body! If you if you get away from him he can't follow! Now run!"

Unfortunately Ren just gives me her 'you can't be serious.' look while Sasuke slowly gets his determined one as he looks at the others. "We've got to do it!" He says then running forward and throwing shuriken at the water clone. The clone knocks them away with its sword as Sasuke jumps up to hit it only to get grabbed by the neck and thrown away. Ren manages to catch him before he hit the ground as Sakura calls "Sasuke no!" and Naruto starts trembling saying "He got Sasuke." He then turns to run but pauses looking at his hand that had gotten injured. Slowly Naruto stops trembling and stands up clenching his fists before suddenly running at Zabuza with a yell.

"Huh?! Naruto no!" I exclaim while Ren exclaims "Naruto! What are you doing?!" as Sakura exclaims "Ah! Naruto! What in the world are you doing?!" Naruto is quickly hit away and rolls on the ground to a stop in front of the others. Ren goes next to him and helps him get back up as Sakura exclaims "What are you thinking?! Charging at him by yourself! Even Sasuke couldn't get to him. We're only Genin. We can't defeat a Jounin. What'd you think you'd accomplish by that?!" before getting a surprised face because in his hand was the headband and Ren had said "To get back the headband giving to us by Iruka-Sensei. We'd do anything." While adjusting her own, a confident smirk on her face. Naruto then looks at Zabuza with a serious look saying "Hey you. The freak with no eyebrows." Which immediately earns a loud 'Pfft' from Ren as she covers her mouth and looks away and an angry twitch from Zabuza.

"Put this in your Bingo book…" Naruto continues, unaffected, "The ninja that will become Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves..." trailing off he takes a deep breath and puts on his headband adding "He never backs down" and tying it he finishes "His name is Naruto Uzumaki."

****3rd Person's POV****

Naruto…Ren… Kakashi thinks watching the two while Tazuna thinks I thought he was all talk. But this kids got guts. While looking at Naruto. "All right Sasuke, Ren. Listen up can you hear me?" Naruto questions so Ren stops laughing and responds "Yep." As Sasuke said "Yeah I hear you." "I've got a plan." Naruto says then causing Sasuke to think Huh? Now he's got a plan? This guy… before questioning "So you're finally thinking about teamwork huh?" Why do I have this feeling? Naruto is so determined...Sakura thinks looking at Naruto a bit amazed at his determination as Ren mutters "You can't say anything nice can you?" looking at Sasuke with a 'seriously?' look. Naruto then wipes the blood off his chin saying "All right guys. Let's go wild!"

The area became quiet except for the sound of the water swirling in the water prison and the waves hitting the shore. This was quickly ruined by Naruto continuing "Okay. Ready? Let's bring this guy down." Which causes the Zabuza clone to chuckle darkly saying "Big words for such a little man. You think your plan is going to keep you in the game?""Well, this is the second time something like this has happened and we're still in the game." Ren says in a 'matter of fact' tone looking at Zabuza with a plain look causing him to smirk at her thinking What an amusing little brat he is. It really is a shame to kill one with so much potential but…causing the amused smirk to be replaced by an angry one as a small flash of pain and sorrow flashes in his eyes while he continued his thought Our Ren had had so much and is now dead. What's wrong with killing another?

This isn't good. Kakashi thinks then before yelling at the group of Genin "What are you doing?! I told you to run! This fight was over the moment I got caught! Now take off! Your mission is not to prove how brave you are! It's to save the bridge builder! Stay on mission!" "Bridge builder?" Naruto asks looking at Tazuna who slowly responds "Well I…I guess…This all happened because of me…because of my desire to live but I won't let that stand in your way now. Forget about me and do what you have to do! Go ahead and fight to save your sensei!"

Sasuke humps with a smirk on his face before questioning "All right you hear that?" earning a "Yeah! Believe it! You ready?" from Naruto which earns a "As I'll ever be." From Ren. Zabuza then starts to chuckle then laughed "You really haven't learned anything have you? Still playing your little game pretending to be ninja. When I was your age this hand already crushed many opponents." Tazuna, Sakura, Naruto, and Ren quickly got a surprised look and a bit of fear on their faces though Sasuke didn't express any type of emotion other than a slight eyebrow twitch.

"Zabuza the demon." Kakashi says earning a "So I was in your book too huh?" from Zabuza. "Long ago in the village hidden in the mist also known as blood mist village. Before a student could become a ninja there was on final test." Kakashi continued causing a dull pain in Ren's head, earning a wince that didn't go unnoticed by Sasuke who thought Is she okay? We need her for Naruto's plan. Or by Kakashi who thought I need to be careful of what I say. Who knows what will happen if the seal breaks.

"Hmm. Do you know about the graduation exam?" Zabuza questions causing Naruto to ask "What graduation exam?" Zabuza's only response is too chuckled darkly earning a "What's the big deal anyway? We had a graduation test too." From Naruto. "Did you have to annihilate the other students to pass?" Zabuza questions darkly causing the Genin's eyes to widen as he continues "Imagine young ninja like you eating together, training together, and then comes the final exam. Only they changed the rules. Kill or be killed. You can't stop while your opponent still breathes…he was your friend, shared your dreams, now it's him or you." "That's so cruel." Sakura practically cries, fear spreading on her face, while Ren mutters a "That's so not cool." A deep frown on her face.

"Ten years ago in the village hidden in the mist, the graduation exam changed. One year before a dark evil filled the school with terror." Kakashi starts causing Sakura to question "What's he saying? What evil? What kind of change? What caused the terror?" "Without pause or hesitation a young boy who was not even a ninja approached the class and took down a hundred other students." Kakashi finishes causing a moment of silence as the Genin processed this information before Zabuza glares at them and says "it…it felt so…good!" striking fear in them. Just then the clone hit Sasuke, sending him flying, earning a shocked sound from Naruto and a shout of "Sasuke!" from Sakura.

The clone was then about to bring his elbow down on Sasuke's stomach when Ren appeared at his side, grabbed him, and rolled them away from the attack. Without hesitation the clone whipped over and landed a kick into her side effectively kicking her away, into the trees, and earning a shouted "Ren!" from Naruto. The clone then slammed his foot into Sasuke's stomach, earning a mouthful of coughed up blood and cry of pain from the boy.

"You're nothing." Zabuza said then as his clone grabbed the hilt of his sword and continued crushing Sasuke into the ground. "Stop right there!" Naruto shouts then as he does a hand sign before shouting "Shadow clone jutsu!"

Many shadow clone Naruto's appeared around them causing Zabuza to think Oh shadow clones. And there's quite a few of them. As he glances around at them and the clone takes his foot off Sasuke. All the Naruto's prepare a kunai and state "Here we go." Then as Sasuke slowly gets up, slightly groaning in pain, before they all attack, piling up on the clone. But the pile is quickly thrown away by the clone swinging the large sword causing Tazuna to voice "His skills are too advanced. He's too powerful. There's no way to defeat him." As Sakura looks on in shock and horror.

Naruto clones start poofing away as they slide on the ground with one of them digging in his backpack saying "I'm not giving up. I've still got this!" before shouting "Sasuke!" as he threw a weapon at him. Sasuke quickly grabs it and immediately realizes it is actually Naruto causing him to spin around to grab a real weapon from his bag while thinking So that was your plan? Not bad Naruto.

"Huh?" the Zabuza clone questions a Sasuke opens then giant shuriken, holds it in front of his face, and announces "Demon wind shuriken! Windmill of shadows!" "A shuriken? You'll never touch me with that." The Zabuza clone says as Sasuke jumps into the air and throws it. But the Zabuza clone gets a surprised look as it passes him realizing it wasn't aimed at him but at the original.

****Zabuza's POV***

"So you pass the clone and aim from my real body. Smart. But not smart enough." I say catching it easily before becoming slightly surprised noticing the second one. A second shuriken in the shadow of the first! The shadow shuriken jutsu! I think watching it approach before jumping up out of the way of it, still keeping hold of the first and the water prison, and announcing "I told you a shuriken can't touch me."

That's when there's a poof behind me causing me to quickly look back and see the kid in orange shout "Eat this!" as he threw a kunai knife. These damn kids!