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CHAPTER THREE – Present day, human world, a few dozen kilometers from the Land of the Waves

Kakashi perfectly understood the intensity of the situation as he scanned the mist for Zabuza. The fight had always been and still remained his sole responsibility, but how easy it would be to make use of his chunin assistance. Naruto, he knew, must already know the location, but per his knowledge it would take that vital instant of speech. It could, by then, already be over. No, he had to ensure that victory came by means of his skills alone. So it startled him when Zabuza made a strange play by appearing directly in front of him. It had been a mere attempt at figuring him out, though, as a slash by Kakashi revealed him to be a mere water clone.

The real Zabuza at once came up behind Kakashi with a blade to his throat. "It's over," he uttered, then tried for the kill. Speed saved the jounin as he replaced himself at the last instant. Zabuza dodged a counterattack from a reappearing Kakashi and headed fort the old man. Materializing behind the bridge builder to avoid Naruto's blistering speed, he slashed and caught the copy nin, or rather, as a dripping revealed, caught a water clone. Damned Sharingan, he thought. Instantly he swung his giant blade around and nearly cleaved his opponent in half, except a last minute dodge prevented it. Good God he is fast! How can the blonde be faster than this

To divert his foe away, Zabuza vanished in a puff of smoke. Kakashi leapt towards the water in a desperate attempt to regather his strength. He knew something to be wrong the moment he landed. What the…? This water's heavy! Oh sh… Even before he could complete his thought process it happened. Zabuza popped up and a sphere of water surrounded and ensnared Kakashi. He turned to his team. "Run! Get out of here! If Zabuza wants to keep me inside this water prison, he'll have to stay here!"

Sasuke, not wanting to be a coward, turned t his immediate superior. "You got a plan, Naruto-sama?"

The blonde chunin grinned. NOW it was his time. "Yup. You're not afraid of getting wet, are you?" His answer came with a headshake. "Then let's go!" They charged for Zabuza. Sasuke went for the clone, Naruto went for the main body. Sasuke! Naruto telepathically thought. Do not speak, just hear my thoughts! I'm speaking to your mind via telepathy! And he outlined, silently, the plan.

Zabuza's clone regarded the genin in front of him. "Hi, there!" Sasuke cheerfully stated. With one move the missing nin swung his blade. However, it passed through the genin's neck without touching a thing. Genjutsu, he realized. "Now, did you actually think that you were gonna win?"

"Nice one," Sasuke complimented, guarded from sight by Naruto's illusion. "I have to land behind Zabuza at the same time as you're in front of him." Naruto understood. As they dashed for the lake's edge, Naruto cupped a hand and when Sasuke put his foot in it he got launched into the air.

"You must not be teaching them well if he thinks a simple illusion can get him close to me!" Zabuza sneered and prepared his blade with his free hand. Naruto unsheathed his own katana and met his foe's weapon halfway.

What the…? Zabuza thought. Sasuke made himself visible and drew a kunai, attempting to stab his opponent. The missing nin knew at once what had transpired, and knew his options were either to be impaled in the back by Sasuke's dagger, or to be allowed to move out of the attack zone at the expense of freeing Kakashi. He chose the lesser of two evils and vanished.

"Brilliant plan," Kakashi complimented.

All three, having succeeded, dashed for the old man, utilizing all of their speed to get there before Zabuza. Naruto heard rustling in the trees, but his primary concern was Tazuna. Sakura stood her ground as the members of her team made their way quickly to very close to her position. Zabuza popped up a fraction of a second later. Both Naruto and Kakashi seemed poised to wipe the floor with him.

Damn, Zabuza thought, as he found himself surrounded by his foes. Sakura and Sasuke quite possibly posed no threat at all, even as a cohesive unit. Naruto posed a more severe threat, however, but could be handled; only Kakashi could kill him easily. However, the three around him could make his escape from Kakashi, to say nothing of accomplishing his mission, virtually impossible. Panicking as he searched for an escape, he came to a horrible realization. I'm screwed; Kakashi won't make a mistake.

Silently, his train of thought came to a screeching halt as three distinct needles shoved themselves into his neck. At once he collapsed to the ground. A moment of perfect silence continued as the sight of the vanquished foe refused to register. They looked up to see a youthful, masked figure standing on a high tree branch. He couldn't possibly be older than the genin.

"Finally got the bastard," the masked figure announced. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I shall take him to be disposed of." He regarded Kakashi directly. "Sorry if I stole your fun but I wanted the pleasure of killing Zabuza myself."

Sasuke stormed ahead of Sakura, with angered concern on his mind. "Now, just a minute!" he angrily screeched. "This guy can't be older than me," he gestured at the masked figure, "but he took down Zabuza, who wasn't exactly a pushover, in a second!" He kicked up some dirt. "I mean, are we that worthless?"

Completely ignoring the Uchiha, Naruto calmly and assuredly approached the kid. "You really helped out!" He extended his right arm. "Put 'er there!" Smirking beneath his mask, the child shook Naruto's hand in friendship. He felt a momentary prick and examined his palm on the withdraw. However he showed no signs of feeling it. "Be glad to help, we are!"

Hmm…the kid must've gone near one of the trees. He gave me a splinter, he thought. He took to heart his mission. But I'll take care of it when we're farther away. He wrapped Zabuza's limp arm around his neck. Summoning all of his speed, they were gone in a flash of smoke.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Sasuke, haven't you learned anything? Young, powerful shinobi are uncommon, not nonexistent. This probably won't be the last time you see a shinobi younger than you and as strong as me."

Sasuke moped left and right. He had grown sick of all these young prodigies. How come all his painful training didn't help? Of all the useless things to be; second in rank and skill to a loudmouth blonde just because of certain things. Naruto had an excuse: he was a full-blooded fox demon. But how did this new kid do it?

Sakura had an unrelated concern of Kakashi. "Sensei, that…guy…said Naruto was a demon…" She'd asked.

"Yeah," Kakashi revealed. "Hokage-sama's wife Kyuubi is one of ten legendary fox demons from hell. She is his mother. His biological father is an unspeakably powerful demon clan leader."

"So, Hokage-sama isn't his real dad?" She struggled to believe the information. "W…Wait. If his human body isn't his real one, what does he really look like?"

Kakashi looked upward. This stumped him; even he had only a verbal description. "Imagine, if you will," he tried to remember the chunin's words, "a blonde-furred fox with nine tails that's about ten feet tall." Both genin's eyes widened. "And he's not fully grown."

Sasuke stood with eyes wide and open-mouthed. "He's…he's not fully grown?" He knew he'd regret asking, but had to know. "How…how big'll he get?"

"Oh, probably about a hundred feet tall." Kakashi reconsidered. "In his demon form. As a human he can look like anything he wants." He turned to ask Naruto and found him not there. "Oh…crap." He knew at once the location of the blonde chunin. He also knew that in taking the course of action he'd chosen, he was forcing the others to stay out.

Haku, the masked figure, landed in a small circular clearing after carrying Zabuza about a kilometer from the fight zone. Gently he craned the limp Zabuza's neck upward slightly, making sure to pull the needles out carefully. As an afterthought, he clamped the edge of the splinter in between two fingernails and yanked it out with no pain. With better than surgical precision, he tended to the holes in the missing nin's neck. Groggily the ninja woke up. "You're a sadistic one, aren't you Haku?" The kid smiled and removed his mask.

"It did the trick, didn't it?" Zabuza let loose an uncharacteristic chuckle at the boy's words.

At least a dozen meters from them, a certain splinter invisibly morphed into the figure it had been originally. Cloaked by invisibility jutsu, Naruto stood up ever so quietly. Taking into use his stealth, he crept towards his prey; the child. If he could effectively eliminate the boy, the weakened Zabuza would be child's play.

"How were their defenses?" Haku's question seemed only natural.

"They can be quite the force when tamed up," he admitted, "but that jounin, Kakashi, I dunno, he's a powerful force. I saw him copying my moves." He rapped his fist. "Damn that Sharingan!"

Stilling his breath, Naruto crept, one step every time one of them began speaking. The change from silence to sound best hid footsteps at the beginning of speech rather than the middle or end. With unequaled silence he slid a calm hand into a kunai pocket. His feet seemed like lead weights as he moved very slowly. He slowed his heartbeat; any sound unnecessary had to be eliminated.

"I'm certain you'll break the Sharingan next time," Haku reaffirmed.

Zabuza shook the sleepiness from the death trance out of his head. "Just a week," he knew. "Just a week then we'll kill 'em all."

Naruto, so close to Haku he could potently smell his sweat, slid a kunai into attack position above his head. It took him a whole minute to ready it. At once he saw his target. Primary carotid artery, a killing spot it was. The arm muscles tensed, ready for a go. With clenched teeth, he swung with all his might.

Wham; he found a katana in his abdomen.

It had been with such speed that he hadn't felt it at first. He'd barely seen it before it was over. The immediate moment before he would have dealt a fatal blow the boy drew his ninjato and impaled him. The masked Haku, but without mask, grinned as he sheathed his weapon. "Nice try," he complimented. "I would never have guessed it if Zabuza-san hadn't seen the outline of your invisibility jutsu." He put a cautioned hand behind him. "Stay down, Zabuza-san, I alone shall defeat him."

Naruto's chakra seeped out with his blood through the wound on his gut. A fatal injury for any mortal, he didn't fear the blood loss of the wound. He feared the loss of chakra. His demonic soul would take care of the wound. He made himself alert as a prison of ice mirrors rose up and surrounded him.

"This will be your final resting place, Uzumaki Naruto," his opponent stated. He barely had been alert when his foe zoomed at him. He almost took a needle to the throat if he had not ducked. From the opposing side came another attempt. Pumping every ounce of his chakra to his feet he bounded out of the way, although not before taking a needle to the leg. It had missed its target—a vital nerve—but had got him nonetheless.

Damn, he's too fast, Naruto realized. If I don't end this quick, I'll be dead. He dodged just fast enough to take a needle to the chest instead of the neck. I must end this right now. His opponent tore off from a mirror straight across from him, his target was a vital neck point. Mustering every possible bit of speed, Naruto created four shadow clones. Haku went straight for the main body. Landing, he knew he'd gotten close enough to end it. He swung his right arm to throw the needle.

It didn't even go halfway to launching. The main kage bunshin caught the wrist of Haku's arm. Not wasting a moment, he punched him furiously, straight in the kisser with a right hook. He felt his blow knock a tooth loose. He followed it up with a clockwise roundhouse kick with his right foot. A bit of blood accompanied the loose tooth as it left the mouth. All of his muscular arm strength he channeled into a double-fisted chest strike. "U!"

The other three clones got into place several feet from where Haku'd been launched. In perfect sync they all landed the same crouching upwards kick, shouting.

"Zu!"

"Ma!"

"Ki!"

The main Naruto took a running leap off the back of the first shadow clone. Angrily pumping chakra into his right palm, a familiar ball of spiraling blue chakra formed. It was the rasengan. Haku's eyes widened for ever a brief moment, as the injured blonde drove the sphere into his enemy's gut at full force. "SUPER NARUTO RENDAN!"

For a fleeting moment, the entire forest went silent. Zabuza saw what had transpired. "HAKU…!" But his cry fell on deaf ears. His breath was stilled. Naruto's heart stopped for an instant in anticipation. Then a loud explosion lit up the area for hundreds of meters around, and jerked Haku backwards, straight through a diamond-hard mirror. The explosion chucked him with such force that he found himself blasted through a four-foot thick tree. His hand twitched, perhaps from immediate response from the nervous system, and then it fell limp. Forever.

Injured, Naruto knelt to rest. He recalled his other enemy, almost too late. Zabuza jerked forward only to meet a kunai to the forehead. The chunin looked up. His savior had been Kakashi.

He smiled. "When did you plan on showing up?" Naruto's question brought a grin from the copy nin.

"I got lost on…"

Naruto cut him off. "Cut the shit. I know better. But thank you."

That evening, they once more camped for the evening. Naruto's battle wound had not bee at all serious afterward, so a feast on Zabuza and Haku's remains replenished him. Both genin watched in disgust as he cut the meat from the flesh, cooked and ate it. Sasuke had some rations left, so he abstained. Sakura, disgusted, initially declined but gave in out of hunger. Kakashi kept watch over Tazuna and the group in order to let his blonde subordinate sleep.

Kakashi patted the sleeping boy's head. Sleep, Naruto. You've proved yourself many times over. I'll be glad to write you the best recommendation you've ever got.