Previously:

"I have a plan." Naruto stated confidently.

'He came up with a plan in this situation…?' Sasuke thought, furrowing his brow. "Hmph… teamwork, from you?" He said aloud.

"Today's just full of surprises, isn't it?" April quipped. She had a feeling she knew what Naruto's plan was if he was involving Sasuke, and she approved.

'What's this feeling?' Sakura wondered as she watched them, blushing. 'This is Naruto…'

"Now… Let's get wild…" Naruto said, grinning, as he wiped the blood from his mouth.

Chapter 14: Secret Plan

"A lot of arrogance… But do you even stand a chance?" Zabuza's clone asked them mockingly. These brats just didn't know when to quit.

'This is bad…' Kakashi thought. At this rate, Zabuza really was going to kill them! "What are you doing!!? Run away!!!" He yelled. "This fight was over the moment I was caught!! Our duty is to protect Tazuna-san!! Did you forget that!!?"

'Did you forget we've already been over this!!?' April wanted to yell back. "What do you want to do, Tazuna-san?" She asked instead, keeping her eyes fixed on the enemy. "You're the client…"

"Old man…" Naruto said, glancing back him.

"… Well…" Tazuna said slowly with his face hidden in the shadow of his wide hat. "I planted this seed myself. I'm not going to now say that I desire to live so much that I'd stop you. I'm sorry guys…" He apologized, raising his head. He had been particularly touched by Naruto's and April's words and actions. "Fight as much as you want." He told the kids with a cheeky grin.

"Thank you, Tazuna-san." April said gratefully as she and the boys smirked. "Sorry, Sensei, but that's the way it is. We're doing this."

"Hmph. You hear that?" Sasuke said coolly.

"You ready?" Naruto asked Zabuza cockily.

"Hah… Hahaha… You guys will never grow up." Zabuza's clone said, laughing at them.

"What!?" Naruto asked defensively, furrowing his brow.

"Going to keep 'playing' ninja, eh?" The clone asked sardonically. "When I was about your age…" He said, raising one of his hands. "These hands were already dyed red with blood."

"!!" Naruto and most of the others flinched and gulped nervously, but April wasn't surprised. He didn't look that much older than Kakashi, and they already knew that he and at least one of his friends had participated in the last ninja war, which would have started when they were only kids… If she had her math right.

"The Demon… Zabuza…" Kakashi said, furrowing his brow.

"Ah… So you've heard a little about it." The real Zabuza said.

"Long ago, the Hidden Mist village was also known as the Blood Mist village... In that village, there existed a final obstacle to becoming a ninja…" Kakashi said grimly.

"Hm… You even know about that graduation exam…" Zabuza commented.

"That graduation exam?" April asked, furrowing her brow. She didn't like where this was going.

"Heheh." Zabuza's clone just laughed.

"Hey, what's this graduation exam thing!?" Naruto demanded impatiently. The clone laughed again. Naruto grit his teeth.

"Fights to the death between students." The clone sneered, finally answering.

"!" April frowned and clenched her jaw, appalled. She knew it was naïve to think things like that wouldn't happen in this world, but she had hoped…

'Huh…?' Naruto thought as his eyes widened, stunned. The thought of something so horrible didn't even compute for him.

"…" Kakashi watched his students with concern. It was a harsh reality to face.

"Friends who have trained and eaten together at the same table are separated into groups of two and forced to fight… until one of them is killed." Zabuza explained, enjoying the shocked looks on their faces. "These are friends who have helped each other and shared dreams."

"… Terrible…" Sakura said quietly, horrified.

"Ten years ago, the Hidden Mist graduation exam was forced to change." Kakashi said. "This change came after the previous year… when a devil appeared."

"Change?" Sakura asked nervously. "What change?"

"What did this devil do?" April asked guardedly.

"Without pause or hesitation… a young boy, who was not even a ninja… had killed over a hundred students." Kakashi explained gravely.

"That was fun." Zabuza's clone remarked nostalgically.

"!" The others gasped as they were hit by a wave of terrible bloodlust. Without hesitation, the clone shot towards April and trust his elbows at her torso. Fortunately, April managed to deflect the blow without taking any damage by moving him off of her line using one arm, keeping it relaxed but full of energy to avoid possibly getting broken. Unfortunately, his next strike came a lot faster, and he followed through with a kick as he turned with the momentum of his first attack.

"!!" Naruto yelled, horrified as she slammed into the ground, and the clone rammed his elbow into her gut before she had a chance to recover.

"Guh!!" April winced in pain as she coughed up blood.

"April-chan!!" Sakura screamed as Sasuke clenched his jaw.

"…" A vein throbbed on Kakashi's temple as he watched, trembling with rage.

"Die." The clone told April coldly with his foot planted on top of her as he reached for his sword. She glared up at him as she winced in pain, gritting her teeth to keep from crying out.

"!!!" Naruto gasped. 'Damn it!!!' He silently cursed as he formed a hand seal. 'Shadow Clone Jutsu!!'

"!!!" It was Zabuza's turn to be surprised. "Ah… shadow clones… and a large amount…" He remarked, glancing around to see that Naruto had him completely surrounded. April took advantage of this momentary distraction to grab Zabuza's leg with one hand and rabbit-punch his ankle with the other. "!!" It didn't take him down, but it surprised him enough to create an opening for her to roll out from under his heel. Time for her to make a strategic retreat! "You—!!"

"Here I come!!!" Naruto and his shadow clones yelled, launching themselves at him. As they rushed towards Zabuza's water clone, kunais drawn, and April slipped away, the water clone gripped the hilt of his sword.

"April, are you okay!!?" Sakura asked urgently as she rejoined them.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." April said, wiping the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. She'd had worse. "More importantly…" They all glanced back at the main event. For a brief moment, the water clone seemed to be trapped under the dog-pile of shadow clones, but then Zabuza's clone let out a mighty roar.

"Uraaah!!" He shouted, whipping Naruto's clones away with his sword in a fury of strikes.

'It's useless, he can't be beaten…!!' Tazuna thought, sweating nervously as he watched Naruto and his clones slide through the dirt, vanishing in poufs of smoke, until only the original was left.

"Don't worry, Tazuna-san." April said, almost as if she knew what he was thinking. "Naruto may act like a goofy kid most of the time, but once he makes up his mind, nothing can stop him!"

'This is the only way to defeat him!!!' Naruto thought, gritting his teeth, as he reached into his backpack. "Sasuke!!" He yelled, tossing his teammate a large, collapsible shuriken. Sasuke caught it with ease.

"!!" His eyes widened slightly with comprehension the moment his hand touched it. 'I see, so that's the plan. Good thinking, Naruto!!' Sasuke thought, though he never would have praised him so openly out loud. He spun around with the large shuriken in hand before thrusting it out in front of him to let it unfold. "Evil Wind Shuriken, Shadow Windmill!!"

"A shuriken won't work against me." Zabuza's clone said haughtily as Sasuke jumped and did a flip, throwing the weapon with all his might. "!!!" The clone gasped in surprise as the shuriken curved around him and kept going. "I see… You're aiming it at the real me, but…"

"That's not enough!!" Zabuza finished his clone's sentence as he used his free hand to catch the shuriken. "!!!" His eyes widened when he realized a second shuriken was coming at him. "Another one in the shuriken's shadow!?"

'That's the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu.' Kakashi thought.

'A second shuriken hiding in the blind spot…!?' Sakura thought, surprised. When did he…?

'As I suspected… They're going with that.' April thought, allowing herself a small smirk.

"!!" Kakashi said as the shuriken came within less than an inch from hitting its target.

"But!!" Zabuza said, jumping up to dodge it while still holding onto the water prison and other shuriken. 'Still not good enough.' He finished in his head, glaring at the brats in front of him.

'He dodged it!!' Sakura cried internally, flinching in shock. But the others weren't perturbed.

"Heh." Sasuke smirked. While Zabuza was still in the air, the shuriken he had just dodged vanished in a pouf, replaced by Naruto.

"!!" Tazuna gasped.

"Huh!?" Sakura exclaimed in surprise.

"!" Kakashi's eyes widened.

'Now!!!' Naruto thought, gripping his kunai tightly.

"!?" Zabuza said, surprised when he suddenly sensed someone behind him. As he turned his head to look, Naruto threw the kunai.

"Uraah!!"

Zabuza's eyes widened when he realized this attack couldn't be dodged so easily.

SLICE. SPLASH!

"!!" Zabuza's smooth brow scrunched up in anger as he had to pull his hand away from the water prison in order to be able to turn enough to avoid a lethal blow, and the kunai scraped past his cheek, drawing blood.

"!" Kakashi furrowed his brow as a vein throbbed on Zabuza's head. There was a dangerous, bloodthirsty look in the mist ninja's eye as he finished turning to face Naruto, wielding the first shuriken Sasuke had thrown at him.

"!" The others gasped in alarm when they realized Naruto, who was still falling towards the water, had no chance of dodging.

"Damn brat!!!" Zabuza snarled.

"!!!" Naruto exclaimed.