AN

Thank you for the review's and special thanks for telling me about my grammar mistakes, I for one have a hard time reading stories that have lots of faults and stuff so ill go back and spell/grammar check previous chapters when I feel like it. For now ill double check before uploading chapters.

How does magic even work? Chapter 13.

Even before waking up, her mind was already gathering information, no limbs felt restrained, her body was on the cold floor, no voices nearby. Her eyes fluttered open and darted around taking in the room she was in almost instantly.

Within a second she was on her feet and despite some pain in her head and back she walked over to the door. She opened it, only enough to peek through the little gap, and stopped to listen again. To the right of the door there seemed to be a patrol on their way to some other place, to the left she could hear many voices, though they were too far away to tell exact numbers.

With practiced ease she slid out the door and without a sound darted to the left towards the mass of people. Within ten seconds she was close enough to tell that there were around thirty guards in a room up ahead. She needed to get closer, they would only group up like this if they were guarding something important, or were having a meeting to talk about something that was important.

Soon enough she was so near that she could distinguish voices, 'it's working-' someone said '-ee that? Someone is standing on-' said another. Looking up ahead there was a large open set of doors, she hugged the wall and crept as close as she could while being sure she would not be noticed.

``Who is that? It doesn't look like any of the captains.´´

``OH! Look one of the traitors jumped onto the chain!´´

Naruko frowned, and slowly looked around the corner, where there should have been a wall there stood a large contraption, a cannon of some sort, but the soldiers in the room were mentioning a 'chain'. She had to get closer and find a point where she could scope things out.

All the soldiers in the room where looking up into the sky in the direction the cannon was pointing to. ALL of them were looking in that direction... she hesitated, could she be so bold as to just walk up next to them? She decided to try, lightly stepping into the room and casually strolling along the wall until she could see what they were looking at.

First the chain came into field of vision, then the floating island it was connected to, and lastly her trained eyes saw something that made her break out into a cold sweat. Standing on the chain was a man she knew all too well, Lord Zabuza, one of the highest ranking assassins in her organization. Then she identified the second person on the chain, though it was a little harder because he was covered in some dark.. stuff. It was the alternate version of herself, Naruto.

Bad... this was really, REALLY bad! Zabuza would only work this hard if he was contracted to kill someone, and in this case it was Naruto. Wait. Naruto had been using HER name to work for the king for a short while, but then... the one Zabuza was after would be her. So why was he after Naruto?

Something had happened while she was knocked out, but maybe she could save the situation, or rather save herself and her younger male version.

She took a deep breath and crouched down, sat still for a second measuring her strength then in an explosive motion jumped several meters up onto the chain cannon thing. Ignoring the yells of guards that were only now noticing her presence, she crouched and then burst up onto the chain.

As she ran she noticed that Zabuza and Naruto had already started fighting, somehow the little version of herself was parrying the mans sweeps and tried to counter with punches, she took notice that his hands were covered in black stuff, what was that?

When she felt that she was close enough to them to be heard she began shouting ``ZA- I mean.. LORD ZABUZA! PLEASE WAIT A LITTLE!´´ she continued hollering until the man jumped back a short distance and Naruto as well stepped back and crouched to keep his balance on the chain.

She froze for a second when she was finally able to see Zabuzas face, he was smiling, Zabuza and smiling was a really bad thing. She slowly walked closer ``Lord Zabuza... I can explain the situation... so please don't kill that boy just yet?´´ she felt herself start to shiver when Zabuza narrowed his eyes slightly at her.

``What are you saying Naruko? This is the kid that used your name to work for the king. Don't you know what a shame that is for us?´´ Naruko stuttered for a moment and Zabuza continued while turning back to Naruto ``By the way, I came here with two contracts, one to kill either you or whoever was using your name, and one other.´´

Naruko found her voice again and shouted frantically ``JUST WAIT! Zabuza that boy is the alternate version of me from the other world! He could help us!´´

``I don't fucking CARE! Naruko! If you interfere I will kill you too! Now sit the fuck down and shut up so I can kill this kid!´´

Naruko was torn, she wanted to help Naruto but if she did she would be killed. With a shaking sigh she crouched down on the chain and bowed her head. Zabuza gave a hmph at that and turned back to Naruto who quickly got up again and manipulated the strange darkness around him.

Just as the man and boy were about to begin fighting again the chain they stood on suddenly stopped. The three of them however maintained their speed and flew out into the air.

Naruko was used to falling from high places, it had been a big part of her training, and was quick to consider her options. They were around sixty or so meters up in the air, the area underneath them was composed of mostly rocks and sand, it was just outside the walls of the city. As she fell she calculated her impact point and realized that she would be fine as long as she landed on her feet.

The seconds before she hit the ground she tensed her legs as much as she could, she could feel the fabric of her pants tear slightly as she flexed her legs. Then she hit the sand, her legs absorbed the impact but it was still going to hurt for a few days.

She glanced at Zabuza and saw that he had done the same as her, then she looked around to find Naruto. He was nowhere to be seen, but that should be impossible he was falling just as quickly as herself and Zabuza. Then she heard a loud sound, something like scratching but much louder, she turned to the source of the sound and saw that Naruto had somehow changed his trajectory and landed on the side of the big wall that separated the city from the wild.

She looked at the form of Naruto who somehow hung on the side of a freaking wall, how did he do that, as far as she knew he had no tools that would allow him to do something like that. Or maybe it was that darkness that seemed to cling to him.

When Naruto began climbing up the wall, Zabuza rushed past her heading to the wall, she sighed and shook her legs for a second, that landing hurt a bit more than she cared to admit. Then she ran after the older assassin, no matter what she wanted to see this.

XOXOXOXOXOXXO

Naruto pulled himself up onto the wall with a grunt and stood up as fast as he could, and looked down onto the mess of buildings. The streets were not that well lit which made it the perfect battleground for him.

He looked back down and saw that both Zabuza and Naruko were quickly making their way up the wall as well. He took a deep breath and jumped over to a roof that was not too far away, and then drew some dark matter from the shadows underneath him. When he fell he had been forced to use most the darkness he had to create a platform, while it did not stop his fall It was enough to jump from it towards the wall. The little he had left he used around his fingers to get a grip on the vertical surface.

When he had enough he formed the darkness into a claymore, it was the weapon he had the most practice with so he would stick with it for now. For a second he considered calling out the name for it, but randomly yelling Oblivion claymore would make him feel stupid. Especially so since no one was there to hear it.

When Zabuza came up on top of the wall Naruto got into a stance holding his sword in front of him. But he was not prepared for what was about to happen, Zabuza with a wide smile simply jumped towards him and slammed his sword down on Naruto. Or he would have had Naruto not stepped aside, the boy countered with his sword while Zabuza's was still stuck in the roof, but was kicked in the stomach before he could hit.

Naruto managed to stop himself from falling of the roof and looked to Zabuza who pulled his sword up. This time Naruto darted forward, and Zabuza swung, this time trying to behead him, but Naruto dodged, he avoided the man's followup kick and managed to cut his waist slightly and then he dove out of the way before Zabuza could retaliate.

It continued this way several times more, Naruto scoring small cuts on Zabuza, while the man got kicks and punches on the agile boy. After this had happened eight times Naruto was forced to stop and catch his breath, the right side of his face was swelling from one of Zabuzas harsher hits.

The man was not it great condition either though, he had several cuts on his legs and waist, it was not bleeding a lot, but Naruto hoped it would at least slow the man down a bit. As he stood there he glanced at his claymore, it was hard to handle the large blade when he was doing hit and run attacks. He decided to change it, the weapons shape blurred and then shifted into a short katana.

``I knew it.´´ Naruto twitched and held his new weapon up at Zabuza who was now talking. ``I was wondering where you got that black sword from but it seems you made it... that's a nice little trick.´´

``...trick? You asshole this is my magic! Oblivion!´´ Zabuza seemed to get confused by his explanation.

``magic? You don't have any tools or lacryma on you that I can see, so how is it possible for you to do that?´´ As he talked Zabuza had began waking towards the boy, holding his sword ready by his side.

Naruto slowly started backing up ``I can do this because I'm a mage... from Earthland... ya know?´´

Zabuza suddenly took a quick step froward and slashed towards Narutos feet, the boy jumped just in time to avoid it but had no defense against Zabuzas followup kick. The force behind it launched Naruto off the roof and down onto the street's below. ``hhmph.. so that's what she was talking about, he's not from our world.´´ he said to himself, and then a smile broke out on his face. ``interesting!´´

Naruto was lying on the street coughing, he had slammed into the wall of the opposite building on his way down and it had made his bruises hurt again. He forced himself to get back up on his feet and turned to Zabuza who had already jumped down and stood just a few meters away from him.

Before Zabuza began his next attack Naruto stole a glance at his surroundings, it was dark, the light that had come from the moon and various glowing crystals and plants on floating islands didn't reach down to where they were. In other words they were now in a place where Naruto could use all his power with little effort.

Zabuza charged and swung in a downward arc, Naruto stepped to the side just in time and tried to slash at Zabuza, but before he could hit the man simply dropped his sword and hit the boy's face as hard as he could. Naruto was sent flying a short distance and rolled with his landing, he stood up but almost fell back down again.

With unfocused eyes he turned to Zabuza who was laughing at him, then he said something that Naruto couldn't make out, his head was ringing too loudly. When he saw Zabuza yank his sword up again one word rang through his head, defense, something Erza had taught him a lot about.

When Zabuza attacked again a black wall stopped his sword before it could reach Naruto, but that was not enough to stop him, he simply took a step back gripped his sword with both hands and swung again. The dark wall broke into pieces with a sound like breaking glass, but when he came to the other side of it he was forced to stop again. Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

As Zabuza readied himself to counterattack Naruto shifted under a veil of darkness next to a crate by a house. He was waiting for his legs to stop shaking before he attacked again, as he sat there he felt magic beginning to flow up to his eyes again. And just like the time when he was on his way to Kusa he was suddenly able to see as though it was midday, he was even able to see a coin on the other side of the street.

Zabuza was shifting left and right, every move was measured to keep defensive and able to respond as quickly as possible. As his head started to feel a little better Naruto began analyzing the man before him. He noticed a few little things, such as that he left his back open most of the time, and that he seemed to limp a bit on his left leg.

His legs, maybe that would be his safest target, if he could take out his legs then he would be safe to just throw oblivion spears at the man. He readied himself and formed a short dagger in his hand, when Zabuza had his back fully turned to him he darted forward. Zabuza must have heard him but was too slow to turn around, Naruto came close and jammed the dagger into Zabuza's left thigh.

He was surprised however, the man made no sounds to indicate any pain, he just silently tried to cut him down and when Naruto backed up he just bent down and pulled the dagger out. Naruto absently felt the flow of magic to his eyes stop, and blinked as the world suddenly turned back to night.

Naruto shivered when the man turned back up and he was his face again, he was still smiling. How could he still smile, was he seriously having FUN right now? But then again, Naruto had to admit, he was actually having a little fun as well, he was fighting an opponent that could kill him if he slipped up but he still felt a little happy that he was doing so well.

This time Zabuza jumped forward, and swung towards Naruto's head, the boy dodged but was met by Zabuzas foot. The kick hit him square in the chest and with the force behind it sent Naruto down on his back.

Naruto looked up too late to dodge and was pinned to the ground by Zabuzas foot, the man took his sword in a reverse grip and aimed at Naruto's neck. ``look's like this is the end kid!´´ he shouted, still smiling widely.

CLING!

``Oblivion armor´´

Zabuza had a surprised look on his face as he looked at the black little arc that covered the boys neck, and somehow blocked his sword. Before he could gather his thoughts again Naruto shoved another dagger into his right leg this time and then slid out from under him.

Before Naruto could get away Zabuza managed to score a cut on his shoulder, it was not deep but it was painful, it cut open one of the bruises he got when he fell. The boy staggered away when the pain made him loose balance for a second, but he caught himself and looked back to Zabuza who had yet to move.

Naruto was silent for a while holding his aching shoulder, and Zabuza pulled the dagger out and tried to stand up again. But he was having a lot of trouble doing so, the damage was finally adding up.

Despite the pain Naruto smiled and drew out a spear from the shadows ``Oblivion spear´´ when he had it fully formed he aimed for Zabuza and threw it as hard as he could. The thing that made this attack work for Naruto who had never really trained in any sort of spear usage, was the fact that he could sightly manipulate his magic telepathically. It was not strong but he could at least make the spear go slightly more towards his target.

Zabuza however was not going to be taken out by something like that, the spear was heading toward his torso so it was easy for him to bat it away with one arm. With the other arm he grabbed his sword, drew it back and then flung it in Naruto's direction, the massive sword spun like a giant buzz saw on it's flight to Naruto.

He was surprised by the sudden attack but still managed to defend with a wall of dark matter. After hearing the loud noise of the sword hitting the wall he let it disappear, but then he came face to face with Zabuza.

He had no time to react and was hit harshly in the face again, he hit a the ground and Zabuza pinned him down and continued hitting him both in the face and on his torso. Then a strange squelch sound came.

The older man sat still, he looked down and saw the hand cowered in black that was digging into his gut. ``Oblivion... claw´´ Naruto managed to say even though his face was feeling numb by now.

Zabuza went limp and Naruto barely managed to direct the mans fall to beside him instead of on top. Naruto as quickly as he could, which in his current condition was quite slow, got away from Zabuza. He staggered over the closest building, and leaned against the wall, then he slowly formed a blade in his hands.

He looked up expecting Zabuza to be getting up but was surprised to see he was still laying there. Naruto had no idea what to do now, had he won? Was this just a trap so Zabuza could kill him when he got close?

He looked over to the sword Zabuza had thrown, it was about two meters away from the assassin so there was probably no way for him to suddenly grab it. He sighed and slowly walked towards the man, his weapon always at the ready.

Suddenly someone landed not too far from them and Naruto barely suppressed a scream, when he saw that it was Naruko he relaxed a little. She looked from him to Zabuza and then walked over to the man, she slowly turned him over revealing the large pool of blood that had formed under the man.

Naruto's eyes went wide at the sight, that was way too much blood, his attention shifted to Zabuza who had started coughing. Naruko crouched down next to the man, but before she could say anything he grabbed her shirt and pulled her down. Naruto heard him whisper something like ``The second contract-´´ and the last words ``take care of it.´´

Naruko stood back up with a frown on her face, she left Zabuza and walked over to Naruto, she wordlessly put a hand on his shoulder and then with a powerful series of jumps managed to get up to the roof of the building.

``Naruto.´´

Naruto turned so fast that it made him stagger, he looked to Zabuza who had said his name, his actual name this time too. The man laughed at his reaction for a second before looking up at the night sky. ``looks like you won.´´

``huh?´´ Naruto was having trouble comprehending the situation at the moment, mostly because of the beating he had received.

Zabuza was not a patient man and angrily yelled at him ``I said you won brat!´´ he had to stop as he began coughing, when his coughing calmed down he said ``go take my sword kid, you've earned it... I guess.´´

As Naruto sceptically moved towards the sword Zabuza kept on talking ``It's a tradition that has been going with that sword for a few generations. If you kill the man who wields it you earn it.´´

Naruto who was trying to get the sword of the ground stopped when he heard that ``kill?´´ he looked to Zabuza with wide eyes.

Zabuza stared back at him with a blank face ``does it look like I'm walking back home kid?´´ Naruto looked around, most of the blood staining the ground was Zabuza's and that paired with the hole he had put in the mans gut, yeah that was not something people could survive.

``I guess I should tell you that, that sword is a magic tool, It can regenerate all damages to the blade by absorbing blood... you listening?´´ he looked to Naruto and his jaw dropped, the boy was crying. ``wh- what the hell! The fuck are YOU crying about?!´´

Naruto looked down at the giant sword and gripped it tightly ``I-... I didn't want to kill you... I just... I mean...´´ he had a hard time finding words.

But as Naruto cried Zabuza started laughing ``hahaha ha ha... what is this? You come at me with the eyes of a trained killer and now you're crying about killing me... pff! This is fucking ridiculous.´´

Naruto was sobbing at this point and Zabuza sighed ``Naruto! You are the man that beat me so show some fucking backbone or I'll look bad!´´

``b-but!´´ Naruto took a second to control his voice ``i just wanted to beat you... I didn't mean to...´´

Zabuza put a hand on his throat to feel for his pulse, he felt it slowing down, and sighed when Naruto continued stuttering. He decided that it was enough, he barely had any strength left in his body but he still managed to get up on his knees and hobble over to Naruto.

And when he got close enough he punched him, it was too weak to do any damage but it stopped the boys crying. Then he grabbed the boys collar and made him look him in the eye ``Naruto. I have killed more people than any of the other assassins in this world. Now remember... a man doesn't cry... about killing a monster.´´

Those were the last words of Zabuza.

Naruto stared at the now limp body before him, the only thing on his mind was those words. He didn't move until a light came down from the sky and began carrying him up, as he began floating he tightened his grip on the heavy sword, and even formed a few strings with his magic to make sure he would not drop it.

He looked down at the dead man and even though he had told him not to he started crying again, there was just no helping it.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Naruko looked down at her magic tool, a strangely shaped dagger, that was having it's lacryma literally sucked out of it. ``it looks like all the magic in this world is being sucked out...´´ she mused to herself.

``d-damnit! Cough. All my work! This cant be happening!´´ the speaker was a short man with a disfigured face.

Naruko looked down at the short man and sighed ``you are a surprisingly resilient guy, ya' know that Byro?´´ she bent down and slammed her dagger into the mans back, and when he stopped yelling in pain she whispered to him with a blank face ``it's annoying. Do me a favor and don't breathe anymore.´´

She stood back up and began walking away, but stopped and looked back at the now dead man ``you can keep that by the way, it's useless without it's magic right?´´

She continued walking and came to a window, when she looked out she saw the bigger streams of light that were carrying people up into the swirling clouds. Then she realized something ``AH! Oh noo~ Wendy is leaving! Ooooh... and I wanted to play with her soo much! I didn't even get to say goodbye! And give her a goodbye kiss!´´

She shouted about what she wanted to do to Wendy for a while, and finally stopped with a deep sigh. ``i guess I can go back home and play with little Moegi... mmmm but she's not as cute as wendy though!´´

when she was done moaning about the things she wanted to do she noticed that the streams of light were fading. ``I guess Naruto went back too... I hope hes alright.´´ she smirked and began walking ``I wonder what I should tell the boss when I get back?... meh ill just say I was the one who killed Zabuza. Maybe they'll start calling me Lord Naruko then. Hehe.´´

XOXOXOXOX

Omake. So you wont be so sad anymore.

As Naruto floated into the sky he decided to look around, he guessed that whatever was happening was bringing him back home so he might as well relax. He looked at the now changing landscape, floating islands and rivers were falling to the ground and OH MY GOD THERE WAS A CAT VERSION OF KAKASHI FLOATING UP NOT TOO FAR FROM HIM!

The cat version of kakashi had the same head and hairstyle, it even had the same eye patch. the cat noticed his staring and looked over to him ``what do you want boy?´´ he called.

Naruto had to cover his mouth to keep his laughter in, and managed to call back ``i-pff... I just wanted to know your name!´´

The cat stared at him with his one lazy eye for a few seconds before answering. ``My name is... Catkashi-´´ ``WAHAHAHHAAAA!´´

The cat now glared at Naruto who was outright laughing at him ``what is so funny boy!? Ill have you know I am-´´ he trailed off when his eye caught a wisp of light and he began swiping at it.

``AAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH GOD! HAHAHAA! PLEASE STOP! LAUGHING HURTS!´´

Catkashi noticed Naruto's even louder laughter and got angry ``Damn boy! Ill show you to laugh at me!´´ he brought his wings out and flew towards Naruto. When he came close he flipped and performed a vicious drop kick on Naruto. However he was a cat so Naruto could barely feel the attack through his clothes.

Narutos laughter grew to levels far beyond what they had been before and between his laughing he managed to choke out ``OOH NO... I... I'M GONNA PASS OUT!´´

Finally Naruto did loose consciousness but even then he would chuckle every now and then. Catkashi humphed at his good work and sat down on Naruto and pulled out an orange little book with a pair of cats chasing each other on the cover.