Hey guys, I'm back. Long time to update, I know, but a number of factors screwed me over. Finals are coming right around the corner and my ass isn't ready for them. That coupled with lack of motivation isn't the greatest of combos. But hey, 50 favourites, so long chapter is coming up! Hurray. Anyways, on with the show!
Story go!
Naruto saw that everyone was staring at them, bemused expressions for Tsunami and Tazuna, and jealousy and outright horror for Sakura and Kakashi.
"Hey guys!" he waved, "What's for dinner, I'm starved!"
Naruto was completely oblivious to the miracle that was happening. Kakashi just continued to stare. Naruto nudged Sasuke's side and pointed at Kakashi, uttering only one word, "Squirrel," before both of them erupted into uproarious laughter.
The shell shocked members of team Seven eventually got over their stupor, and things settled down. They all sat down to eat, Inari being absent, a fact that Tsunami apologized profusely about. After finishing the hearty meal Tazuna's daughter had prepared for them, the shinobi retired for the night.
Kakashi laid in his bed, thinking to himself. "Protecting the client should be easy enough now that Zabuza has been taken out of the equation." His thoughts strayed to the hunter-nin, who had disposed of the mercenary's body.
'Something's been bothering me, though...' Kakashi thought, 'It's almost as if...'
"Fuck."
The next morning, team Seven filed into place in front of Kakashi. The man seemed uncharacteristically serious, something that Sakura commented on, "Is there something wrong, Kakashi-sensei?"
"I've realized something grave. Sakura, what is the job of a hunter-nin?" the silver-haired jounin suddenly asked.
"The job of a hunter-nin is to track down and kill any missing-nin of their village, to prevent their enemies from discerning any secrets," she readily answered.
"Very good," he praised, "And once their target has been taken care of, what is their first task?"
"To dispose of the body," Sakura responded.
"And what did the hunter-nin do with Zabuza's body?"
"He left with it, but I don't see..." realization seemed to strike the girl, "Oh no..."
"Hold up, I don't quite catch what's going on," a certain idiot butted in.
"It means, Naruto, that Zabuza isn't dead," Kakashi informed him.
"Wait, not dead like zombies?"
"You're a fucking idiot..." Sasuke muttered.
"Not dead as in he was never killed. The hunter-nin was probably working for him," Kakashi said.
"Well fuck me sideways, we're going to have to fight him again, aren't we?" Naruto cursed.
"Yes, but from the wounds we inflicted on him, it'll take him at least a week to recover." Kakashi did a mental calculation.
"So we have at most a week of training to whoop Zabuza's tall ass once more?" was Naruto's decisively overly optimistic question.
"Indeed, but this time, he'll know our abilities and have a partner," Kakashi explained.
"Don't worry, Kakashi-sensei, I haven't show everything that I have up my sleeve," Naruto replied, rubbing his hands in a truly disturbing fashion while also laughing manically. His two teammates edged away from their demented partner, who had recently been going into bouts of psychotic mirth a bit too often for their taste.
That day, Kakashi drove them into the ground, testing their abilities to the very limit. Naruto and Sasuke had finally mastered the Tree Climbing exercise, with a lot of profanity being thrown about against trees and Mother Nature in general by the former. Their sensei then had them have spars as they stood on the tree barks and limbs, to train their endurance, their balance and to increase their chakra reserves and control. It was all great training really, but to Naruto, it was pure hell.
"Just because Zabuza isn't dead doesn't mean that he has to kill us," Naruto complained, rubbing his behind from the many times he fell. Explicit language was used in abundance during those times.
"If I don't do it, then Zabuza might actually kill you!" Kakashi said in a much too cheerful manner, appearing suddenly next to Naruto with a poof and an eye smile.
Naruto's shriek was one that Kakashi would never forget.
"Now then, you guys are making great progress in your training!" he said with a clap.
"I don't suppose that means you're going to give us a break, right?" Naruto groaned from the ground.
"Not a snowball's chance in hell!"
Naruto once again turned his face into the ground and screamed.
"That fucking brat, I swear I'm going to kill him slowly," Zabuza said through grated teeth. He was laying on a bed, covered from head to toe in bandages. It was quite comical, actually, an A-rank missing-nin reduced to being a cocoon. A cocoon that could kill you with its bare hands, but a ridiculous sight nonetheless.
"You've said that a thousand times, Master, now be still as I dress your wounds," a figure was sitting on a chair next to the bed, applying salves to the man's various burns and gashes.
The two were stashed in a hideout, recovering from their previous defeat.
"You have my thanks for getting me out of that tight spot, Haku, but did you have to be so rough?" Zabuza made a motion to rub his neck, but was stopped by a slap to the hand. He glared at the newly named Haku.
"It was the only way. I could only react so quickly and I valued your life over your comfort." Haku finished wrapping up the final bandage.
Zabuza merely grunted.
"I do not know why you continue with your dealings with Gato, Zabuza-san," Haku commented.
"You know fully well. To go against the client is to go against the shinobi code. Gato, however despicable he may be, will provide us with the funds and information that we need," Zabuza replied, remembering when the man had visited them a few days back.
Flashback
"How the mighty have fallen," a voice said from the doorway of their hideout, "Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist, has been degraded into such a state. It makes me wonder if you're really worth the price I'm paying you, if you can't even take care of a genin team."
"Gato..." Zabuza growled
"Yes, Gato," the newly named man said. Gato was a man of small stature, with brown hair and sporting sunglasses. He looked like a goblin had decided to go into business, but then again, a goblin was less crooked.
"Look at you," Gato sneered, "What a joke." He made to hit the injured man but was stopped by the vice-like grip of Haku, who had previously gone unnoticed.
"Why you... Let go of me!"
Haku responded by merely tightening his grip, snapping the business man's wrist.
"I'm going to kill you!" Gato screamed in pain, gesturing for his two body guards, who had been standing stupidly until then, to attack the boy. Haku didn't give them that chance, and in the blink of an eye, had both of their weapons at the respective throats of their owner.
"Enough," Zabuza intoned, "Stop this nonsense. I will take care of Kakashi and the bridge builder once I have recovered. I expect my payment to be ready when I do."
"It will be if you manage to kill them all..." Gato glared at Haku before turning to leave the building.
Flashback end
It still made Zabuza seethe with anger at the way Gato viewed his skills, but he was the client, and to attack the client is to go against the code. He would deal with it until his task was over. Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning his head, he saw that Haku was getting dressed.
"Where are you off to now?" he asked.
"We're out of medicine, there's a clearing not too far away that has the plants that I need. I'll be back by tomorrow morning," Haku answered before swiftly departing.
Zabuza was left to stew in his thoughts of revenge and dismemberment.
There were only 5 days until Zabuza's supposed recovery. Kakashi had delegated team Seven to Tsunami to help with some chores. The woman send them off to the town to get some supplies that she needed for the night's dinner. Glad to finally be free of their sensei's gruelling training, they happily complied. Their cheerfulness quickly disappeared once they saw the state of the town. Everywhere they looked, desolation and poverty seemed to surround them. Buildings were in ruins and rows upon rows of people lined the road, begging for food, water, money, anything really. The atmosphere was heavy with despair. There seemed to be no joy in the air, no playing children, no chatter or sounds that made a town be alive.
"What the hell happened here?" Naruto asked. Which was positively the most idiotic thing our blond protagonist has ever asked.
"Gato happened," Tsunami answered, "He came out of nowhere to this town, and ruined the economy. He has an army of thugs who roam the streets, taxing the people they find, and beating up those who can't pay. The townsfolk barely make enough money to survive."
"What a fucking drag... Think they sell ramen here?" Naruto truly was an idiot.
"You brought enough instant ramen to feed an army, how can you possibly be out?" Sakura demanded to know. She had seen Naruto's stash of ramen, and quite honestly, it scared her. The sheer amount of money need to buy his supply must've been ridiculously high.
"And besides, we're in a town in ruins! People are probably dying." Sakura continued without turning around to face the boy. "Of course they aren't going to... sell... ramen..." She trailed off as she turned around, only to see Naruto stuffing what seemed to be a mountain of ramen, as an old man cried tears of joy in the background.
"Sorry, you were saying?" Naruto asked.
"I give up..." she muttered.
The group quickly finished their supply run and were heading back home. Naruto was waylaid in the back by a small child who wanted to show him a magic trick in exchange for a pack of ramen. Sasuke had stayed with him, to make certain that the blond boy didn't die from sheer amazement from a simple card trick.
Sakura and Tsunami were a ways ahead of them, when suddenly they were stopped by a group of men.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here, boys? Two pretty women, all alone?" one of them mockingly asked, "You girls should be careful. This town ain't what it used to be, you could run into some dangerous people." Here, the man, along with his friends chuckled.
Sakura tried to push past the group, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.
"Just where do you thing you're going?" the man asked.
'Shit,' Sakura though to herself, 'There's too many of them. I'd be able to take on one, maybe two of them, but eight? I need to stall for time.'
"Run, Tsunami!" she screamed as she slammed her palm into the jaw of the man, effectively fixing his rather unfortunate overbite. Tsunami scrambled away in the direction of the two boys.
"A fighter, eh?" another thug said, pulling out a knife, "I like it when they fight."
He lunged towards her, intent on slashing her face, but was stopped by Sakura's fist impacting into his face. The remaining six men looked at each other before jumping onto the girl. She put up a valiant fight, but was soon overwhelmed. They bustled her into a nearby alley.
"Hold her down, boys! This is going to be fun!" one of them said, before he was blown back by an explosion.
"And just what the fuck is going on here?" an unquestionably pissed Naruto asked rhetorically. His face was obscured by the alley's darkness, but his eyes seemed to shine. They shone in the darkness a brilliant and cold blue. They were the colour of an iceberg before it crashed into your ship. Unforgiving and frigid. His voice held unbridled rage. He was flanked by an equally angry Sasuke, with a distressed-looking Tsunami hiding in the background.
"So the girl has some boyfriends?" a goon commented, completely ignoring the face that one of their own was just sent flying.
Naruto levelled the man with a glare, before putting his hands up in a single sign.
He uttered a single word, "Destroy."
The beat down that ensued would instill a new found respect for Naruto in his two teammates, along with a bit of fear. He was merciless, indiscriminately using a mixture of explosive tags, clones and body parts to lay waste to the thugs.
Once the matter was taken care of, he turned to Sakura, his eyes immediately softening.
"Are you okay? They didn't do anything did they?" he asked, worried. Gone was the idiotic boy, in his place stood a trustworthy, loyal teammate instead.
"You stopped them before they could do anything." she buried her head into his shoulder. "Thank you," she sobbed.
Naruto was at a loss for words. He didn't know how to react, so he awkwardly patted her on the head.
"You little shit," one of the men on the ground groaned, before suddenly lunging at Sakura with a knife. Naruto reacted on instincts, throwing Sakura off of him. With one hand, he grabbed the man's hand, forcing him to drop the knife, with his other hand, he sought a kunai before plunging it into the man's chest.
Silence reigned in to alley, save for the dying gasps of the man. Naruto stared shell shocked at the kunai in his hand.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked quietly.
Her voice seemed to snap him out of his stupor. He dropped the kunai like it was made of hot lead and held his hands over his head.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..." he trailed on and on, rocking back and forth.
"Naruto," Sakura said again, this time a bit more firmly.
He snapped his head in her direction. His eyes were wild and terrified.
"Stay away!" he yelled before he broke off into a sprint.
"Naruto!"
Naruto ran into Tazuna's home, heading straight for his room, slamming the door shut. Kakashi was alarmed to see a bloody Naruto rush past him. He was about to go after him when the voices of Sakura and Tsunami stopped him.
"Kakashi-sensei! Have you seen Naruto?" Sakura asked, panting.
"He just ran by me, what happened?" Kakashi asked.
"He... He killed someone." Sakura had some trouble answering her teacher.
' Oh God no,' Kakashi thought, panicking, 'I was hoping this wouldn't happen until much later...'
His first instinct was to go see the boy immediately, but he had his other duties as a teacher to also attend to. Mainly being the well-being of Sakura and Sasuke.
"What happened, are you guys okay?"
"We're all fine. A group of men attacked me and Tsunami, but Naruto and Sasuke drove them off. One of them lunged at Naruto with a knife, and Naruto stabbed the man in the chest, killing him. Now go see Naruto, there's something wrong with him!" Sakura explained, before nearly pleading at the end.
"Right, of course." Kakashi set off to Naruto's room.
Kakashi knocked on the door before entering.
Naruto was curled up on his bed, unmoving.
"Hey kiddo, how are you doing?" Kakashi tentatively asked.
"Go away..." Naruto muttered.
"Naruto," Kakashi softly said, "It helps to talk."
"Talk about what?!" Naruto suddenly whirled upon the man, his face distraught. "That I killed a man? That I took away someone's life?! How am I supposed to talk about that?!"
Naruto tried to calm himself down but it was clear that he was on the verge of tears, "I killed someone, Kakashi. I took away somebody's son, somebody's father or husband or brother... I'm a murderer, a monster. I'm a monster!" Naruto broke down into tears.
Kakashi didn't know how to respond. Emotions were never his forte, and they quite frankly made him uncomfortable. But his student needed him, and he'd be damned if he walked away. He sat down next to the crying boy, rubbing hand on his back.
"You are not a monster, Naruto. The fact that you feel guilt and remorse proves that to me." Kakashi started to talk, "To feel shame at taking the life of another is only human. But you shouldn't feel ashamed for taking the life of the one you did. Remorseful, yes, but ashamed, never. It's always a shame for a living being to die, but you took their life to save another. They didn't deserve to live, because if they did, they would've continued on with their despicable ways. If you really were a monster, you would've enjoyed killing them, you wouldn't be feeling the way you are right now. So, I say again to you, Naruto, you are no monster." At the end of his little speech, Kakashi's voice turned hard as steel, firm in his belief.
After a brief moment of silence, Naruto spoke up.
"I never thought about this side of being a shinobi," he said softly, "I always thought it was all about beating the bad guys and learning new jutsu... I never thought about how I would do that... How do you cope with it, Kakashi?"
"We all have our ways. Some like me, bury it by reading, others with training, or drinking. But don't think for a moment that we aren't affected by it. Believe me, we are..." Kakashi's voice suddenly took on a different tone, one of a man haunted by his past sins. "I have taken many lives, and I may not move on to the pure land, but I did so to save the lives of my comrades and village. And for that reason, I can live with the burden."
He didn't want to talk about the other horrors that the life of a shinobi brought. Seeing his comrades die off, one by one. Seeing countless civilians be killed. About seeing horrors unfold as he could only look on, powerless to do anything. No, he'd rather have Naruto live through it himself and have him to fall back on to be consoled.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Hmm, Naruto?"
"Thank you."
"No problem kiddo."
Dinner that night was subdued. Naruto had come down from his room, and was trying to be his normal self, with little success.
"So you finally realized your predicament?" Inari sneered, "Realized how futile it is to fight Gato? Heroes don't exist! You guys don't know true suffering, of losing a loved one."
A hand slammed down onto the table, silencing the boy. Naruto was staring hard at his hand, seemingly trying to get a hold of his words before shaking his head and storming out of the house. When Kakashi asked where he was going, he only said "Out."
Sakura and Sasuke made a motion to follow him, but were stopped by Kakashi shaking his head.
"What's wrong with him?" Inari scoffed.
"Aside from the fact that he just killed someone? Oh, not much," Sasuke growled in an unexpected show of emotions, "Naruto's an orphan. He never knew the touch of a loved one, or the compassion of a mother. You're lucky that you know your mother. And don't you dare talk to us about suffering or losing a loved one. I lost my whole clan in one night." Sasuke seethed in anger, before heading off for his room. Dinner, needless to say, was continued on in complete silence.
Naruto had gone off into the nearby forest, intent on blowing off some steam. Steam for Naruto meant blowing some shit up. And blow some shit up he did. Explosion after explosion rocked the previously tranquil night, before Naruto finally collapsed onto the grass, exhausted from the extensive use of chakra and from the day's events.
Haku was surprised to find that the clearing where he usually gathered his medicinal herbs was in complete chaos. Small fires were raging, craters pockmarked the ground and there seem to be several terrified and smocking chickens running around. In the middle of the fray was a blond boy, who seemed dead to the world, snoring away. Birds had taken domicile in his hair and a squirrel had taken over his kunai pouch. Haku approached the boy, curious as to who would be able to cause such devastation. He was startled to find that it was the same boy that had caused his master such grief. Glancing left and right, Haku's hands slowly reached for the boy, whether to wake up up or strangle him he knew not. He didn't have to decide, as Naruto's own hand suddenly grabbed Haku's.
'Such speed!' he thought, before noticing that Naruto wasn't even fully awake, 'His senses must be incredible.'
"Morning..." Naruto said with a yawn, before opening his eyes. He seemed to be perplexed by his surroundings, "Wait a minute, this isn't my room..."
He suddenly remembered what had happened last night, and also that he appeared to be holding somebody's hand in his own.
Following the hand to its owner, he was surprised to find that it belonged to a pretty girl.
"Sorry!" Naruto apologized, "I must've had a bad dream."
'It wasn't a bad dream...' Haku thought to himself on the inside. On the outside, however, he said, "It's fine! I was about to wake you up."
"Say, what's a girl like you doing out in the wild?" Naruto asked.
"Well, you see, I came here to gather some medicinal plants, my guardian has become very sick. This clearing usually has the plants that I need but..." Haku trailed off.
"But...? Oh, shit! Sorry!" Naruto apologized again, just noticing the destruction around him.
"Don't worry about it, there are plenty more plants around the clearing." Haky laughed.
"I'll help you gather some!" Naruto offered.
"I'd... like that," Haku accepted his offer.
As they gathered the herbs, Haku and Naruto engaged in idle chitchat.
"So, you're a shinobi, Naruto-san?" Haku asked. He already knew the answer to that question, but he needed to keep up with his disguise.
"You noticed?!" Naruto happily exclaimed, glad to have someone he could brag to. "My dream is to become Hokage of my village and prove to everyone how strong I am!"
Haku laughed again, before asking "Why do you fight, Naruto-san?"
"Why do I fight? I...Uh..." he was at a loss for words.
"I find that when you have someone who is dear to you and whom you want to protect, you can become much stronger," Haku said.
Naruto seemed to ponder on his words before smiling, "Yea, I guess I can see what you mean."
Haku got up from his crouched position, "Thank you for your help, Naruto-san, but I'm afraid I need to go, else my guardian will start to get worried."
"Bye, Haku!" Naruto yelled, waving.
Before exiting the clearing, Haku turned halfway towards Naruto and said, "By the way, I'm a guy."
He then disappeared without a trace.
"Wait, what!?" Naruto screamed, before slamming his head repetitively onto the trunk of a tree, all the while saying, "I'm a fucking idiot."
Naruto returned that morning different. He was still his usual self, but on closer inspection, one could see that some fundamental change had occurred. It would be the basis for his way of life, for his nindo and reason to live. Something that was starting to become more and more stark with every passing year. Compassion.
It was the night of the same day that Naruto had met Haku. Kakashi was relaxing on the roof of Tazuna's home, reading his porn- short novel. He was giggling perversely at the most recent antics of Hoshi when he was interrupted by the arrival of a certain blond boy.
"Hey Kakashi," Naruto greeted, fiddling with a scroll on his back.
Kakashi responded with a glance in his general direction, not pulling out his nose from his book.
"I've been thinking-," Naruto started.
"Always a dangerous thing, especially for you," Kakashi said.
"-of a way of dealing with Zabuza, or at least Gato." Naruto continued, completely ignoring his teacher's comments.
This got Kakashi's undivided attention. He snapped his book shut and turned to face his student.
"Well, you know how Gato has an army of thugs?"
"Hmm."
"Well, I was thinking, if we could take their numbers down, Gato's hold on the town will be greatly weakened."
"No can do," Kakashi rejected the idea immediately, "The goal of the mission is to guard Tazuna as he builds the bridge. Going after Gato is a completely different task."
"But what if Gato attacks the bridge with his thugs? We'll regret not having struck first. And what if he comes with both Zabuza and his army. We'd be neck deep in shit in an ocean of shit," Naruto countered.
"Even if we went after Gato, how would we deal with his facilities? It's bound to be huge..." Kakashi retorted.
"No need to worry, sensei," Naruto confidently said.
"I don't suppose you have a plan and prepared for it?" Kakashi skeptically asked.
Naruto jumped off the roof, walking a ways in front of the building before unfurling the scroll that was on his back and laying it on the ground.
He unsealed the contents, and disappeared in the giant cloud of smoke that suddenly appeared. Naruto's disembodied voice resonated across the night.
"I always come prepared."
As the smoke cloud dissipated, Kakashi nearly had a heart attack from the sight he beheld. From what was previously an empty front yard was now occupied by a veritable mountain of explosive tags. Its height easily rivalled that of the house, which in itself was no small feat. Sat upon all of this was Naruto, grinning widely at Kakashi's face.
"So what say you, shall we go blow some things up?" Naruto asked.
What could possibly go wrong?
A lot of things. A lot of fucking things could go wrong. Naruto and team Seven were running away from a pack of armed men, all brandishing objects of the sharp disposition and wanting to ram said objects with great relish into his young body. But perhaps that's getting ahead of the story.
Flashback
"This is a terrible plan," Sasuke said.
"Have faith in me, young grasshopper," Naruto replied, "I haven't nearly killed you that many times."
"The time with the gopher? That old lady? The mayonnaise?"
"Point taken."
Team Seven were hidden away near one of Gato's many bases for his thugs. It was tucked away in the forest that surrounded the town of the Land of Waves. It was once an abandoned warehouse, but Gato appropriated it and transformed it into his own post. Mercenaries were milling about in the base, doing mercenary stuff, which Naruto presumed to be counting stacks of cash and kicking puppies.
The original plan was to attack Gato's main base, but once Naruto saw the defences at the place, he quickly said "Fuck that noise" and decided to attack the branches. Gato had 4 or 5 bases dedicated to housing his army of thugs, and team Seven wanted to hit at least 2 of them. The plan was quite simple in theory. Naruto was to create a squad of clones who would henge into nondescript mercenaries and would go about the complexes, planting explosive tags as they went along. They would then dispel themselves and Naruto would blow the whole thing to kingdom come. That was the plan at least. Much like marriage, however, it looked great on paper but when put in practice shit rapidly hit the fan. All was going fine, Naruto had supplied his clones with enough tags to level a whole city block, so hitting a warehouse with that sheer amount of tags was slightly overkill.
But hey, go big or go home, right?
As was said, all was going well. That is until one of his clones was apprehended. A mercenary laughing in a downright psychotic manner is not exactly inconspicuous. Especially so when said mercenary has enough tags on his person that one could use the paper to make the most fucking amazing origami swan in existence.
So, the alarm was quickly raised and people were on high alert. Naruto decided to finish the deed with a bang so to speak.
He quickly poked his head out from his hiding spot and yelled,"This is for the puppies, you bumblefucks!"
His statement was quickly followed by him forming the ram seal and screaming "Boom!" in a child like manner.
Nothing happened.
"Aw, fucknuts!" he exclaimed, quickly reforming the seal several times.
The thugs, now informed of their targets location, were about to storm out of the complex, prepared to fuck some shit up.
"Naruto, you placed an amount of tags that's substantially higher than the norm! You're going to need to increase your chakra output by an exponential margin!" Sakura yelled.
"The fuck did you just say? Speak English, woman!" Naruto replied.
"Just increase the amount of chakra you're using!"
"Why didn't you just fucking say so?!"
Naruto formed the handseal once more and channelled a considerably larger amount of chakra. The results were... explosive to say the least.
"Aw hell yea, that's what I'm talking about!" Naruto exclaimed as he saw the detonations that were rocking the area with great enthusiasm. It was like the rocking chair of an old lady hopped up on several pounds of caffeine and cocaine.
Naruto had only used C-rank tags, sprinkled in with a few B-ranks, but since he didn't know how much chakra to use, he just decided to say "Fuck it" and send in as much as he could. Needless to say, he overloaded every single one of his seals. And there were a lot of seals, like, a fucking lot. So what happens when a positively shit-ton of tags become overloaded? Well, you get one hell of a fuckshow. The C-rank tags, who previously only had the power to make a foot wide crater, now wielded the power of a B-rank tag that could destroy everything in a radius of several meters. And wield it they did. The B-ranks for their part, well, they decided that go big or go home wasn't accurate enough. Rather, they decided to go fuck everything up or go home. And fuck everything up they did. When an overloaded B-rank tag blew up next to or near you, you got out of there, and you got out of there fast. To top it all off, Naruto had decided to plant an A-rank tag right bang in the middle of the complex, for redundancy's sake. Thankfully, most of the chakra was absorbed by the other tags, but that didn't stop it from engulfing the whole place in a fiery ball of redundant fire.
Slightly overkill.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on whose side you were on, a group of mercenaries had managed to escape the blast radius, and they wanted blood. They already knew where their quarry lay in hiding and sped off to attack them.
"Guys, we got a group of 20 heading towards us," Sasuke said nonchalantly.
"Fall back, there are too many for you guys to handle," Kakashi instructed his team. While usually, he'd be all up to maim and mutila- take care of them, he felt that his team, especially Naruto, wasn't ready, as much as he'd like to enact revenge on Gato's thugs.
They quickly retreated into the forest, where Naruto had had clones place a number of traps, all aimed to incapacitate rather than kill. Among them included a squadron of rabid and armed gophers and a sink, that exploded. He just knew that would come in handy sooner or later. Team Seven lost their pursuers, something about the screams being emitted from the forest told them they wouldn't be followed anytime soon.
They all stopped for a while to regain their breaths. Kakashi turned towards his student responsible for all of the carnage.
"Are you alright, Naruto?" the question in itself was quite innocent, but the underlying one wasn't missed by the blond. He had probably killed more people with that attack.
But Naruto put a front, if to reassure both himself and his team, "No need to worry, Sensei! I feel fine!"
Kakashi stared long and hard at the boy, before seemingly satisfied with his answer, he nodded his head.
"Well," Kakashi said, "Let's get going, we still have another base to take care of."
Base number 2 went off with nary a hitch, aside from a part where Naruto threw a chipmunk at a thug. Once their assault on Gato's army was finished, they all retired to Tazuna's house, to recuperate their forces. There was, after all, only 4 days, including today, until Zabuza's earliest recovery. Before Kakashi went off to bed, he stopped by Naruto's door. He was worried for Naruto. He heard noises coming from inside the room. The silver-haired cyclops placed his ear on the door, and distinctively heard the sound of sobbing. Although it was hard to do so, Kakashi decided to leave it be. The boy needed some time alone. Naruto would eventually come to terms with it, and learn how to deal with his inner demons, as much as it pained him to think about it. Such was the life of a shinobi.
"Those bastards! I'll kill them all!" Gato seethed. He was still reeling from the loss over half of his attack force. He didn't care about the loss of life, rather he was upset about the wasted money and lost power.
"You there!" he barked at one of his bodyguards, Zori, "When did Zabuza say that he would attack the bridge builder?"
"Four days from now," Zori replied.
"I'll show them why they shouldn't fuck with Gato," the midget for a man said, rubbing his hands together.
There was only a day left before Zabuza's comeback, and tensions were high. Team Seven had spent the past three days training and resting. They had also taken turns guarding Tazuna. It wouldn't do for them to go through so much trouble only to have their client be killed, now would it? When Tazuna discovered that Naruto could make a legion of clones that could work, he nearly cried tears of joy. Needless to say, he worked the clones to the metaphorical bones.
Naruto decided to spend the last day training his hardest. Slightly too hard, for after nearly twelve hours of gruelling training, he fell to the ground, fast asleep in the same clearing as last time.
It was the next morning, and the members of team Seven were starting to get worried.
"Where is he?!" Sakura yelled and asked in an interesting combo.
"He's probably asleep somewhere, exhausted from training," Sasuke replied, not knowing how close he was to the mark.
"It matters not, he'll catch up with us when he wakes up. Today, protecting Tazuna is our top priority," Kakashi said, seriously serious for once.
Team Seven headed off with Tazuna.
They immediately knew something was wrong when they saw the deep mist that had engulfed the unfinished bridge. Screams echoed in the air, and the sound of liquids could be heard hitting the ground. From the fog strolled out a figure, Zabuza.
"Man, I overslept!" Naruto yelled, dashing towards Tazuna's home, "Damn, Kakashi-sensei is going to kill me!"
When he arrived near Tazuna's house, he noticed the screams of terror, which were quite hard to miss. He hastened his speed.
It was supposed to be a normal day for Tsunami. Tazuna would go continue building the bridge and the shinobi would protect him. She would prepare the evening meal and that routine wold continue on until the bridge was completed. Well, that routine just about fucked out the window a few minutes ago. Two men, who she recognized to be Gato's personal bodyguards, Zori and Waraji, had captured her son and were holding him hostage.
"Hey now, if you come quietly with us, we won't hurt the boy," one of the two sneered, Zori. They had come to take Tsunami and Inari as bargaining chips in case Zabuza failed. Gato was a cautious man.
"If you lay a hand on a single hair of his, I'll bite my tongue off!" she proclaimed, and as if to prove her point, she put her tongue in between her teeth.
"Yeesh, calm down, lady. Here, you can take the boy, we need the two of you alive anyways," the other, Waraji said, pushing Inari roughly towards his mother. He then lunged at Tsunami, who shoved her son out of the way.
"Run, Inari! Find help!" she screamed as she was quickly captured.
"Yes, run little boy! Run like the coward that your 'hero' was!" Zori taunted.
Inari seemed torn, he wanted to save his mother, desperately so, but he was scared to do it. He was quickly forgotten by the two thugs, who turned their attention to their victim.
"You think the boss would mind if we-" whatever Waraji was going to say was disrupted by a rock hitting him on the back of the head.
"You little brat!" he fumed, "I'm going to kill you!"
He walked slowly towards the terrified boy that had thrown the rock, sword at the ready to behead him. Inari closed his eyes, waiting for his impending doom.
'Am I going to die? Just like he did?' he asked himself before an explosion expelled him out of his thoughts. Waraji had been hit with some sort of explosion, that launched him through the wall, his partner Zori having suffered a similar fate.
Where Waraji once stood was another figure, this one considerably shorter. Inari looked up from the floor.
"Yo!" Naruto said.
'Yes! Epic hero entrance, achieved!' he thought in his head.
Inari ran towards his mother, who seemed for the most part unharmed.
"Inari!" she exclaimed, engulfing her son in a tight hug.
Naruto slowly walked past the duo.
"Where are you going, Naruto?" Tsunami asked, still hugging her son.
"To kick some ass." Naruto replied not looking back.
Just as he was about to leave the building, he turned around.
"Oh, and Inari? Good job. You said before that heroes didn't exist. Well, when heroes cease to exist, it's up to people like us to take up their mantle, and I think you took the first step down that path." Naruto finished with a large grin plastered on his face before speeding off.
Inari was left with some serious thinking to do.
Back on the bridge, shit was going down, or at least it was about to.
Zabuza, flanked by the fake hunter-nin were facing off against team Seven sans Naruto.
"Oh, where is that blond haired brat? I was looking forward to disemboweling him..." Zabuza said.
"Naruto isn't your concern, your fight lies with me!" Kakashi said.
Zabuza and Haku slowly faded into the mist.
Suddenly, Zabuza's voice was heard all around them.
"Indeed it does," the group of water clones all intone at the same time before they were dispelled by the blade of a certain Uchiha.
"Oh my, the brat's improved," Zabuza commented idly, "Looks like you have a rival, Haku."
"Tch," Haku said, "It matters not. I will crush him."
He sped towards Sasuke, senbon at the ready, where he was quickly repelled by a kick to the stomach. Thrown a ways back, he got up to his feet, and was surprised to find that Sasuke was right in front of him. Dodging another kick aimed for his head, he quickly rolled backwards, throwing senbon needles in the hopes of catching his opponent off-guard. His hopes were quickly dashed as Sasuke retaliated by throwing his own shuriken, knocking the glorified chopsticks out of the air.
The two engaged in a match of taijutsu, where kicks and punches and headbutts were thrown about like they were going out of style. It eventually accumulated into a standstill, where both had their weapons interlocked.
"You have lost," Haku stated.
"Oh really? How so?" Sasuke sneered.
"The floor that you stand upon is covered in water, and one of your hands are occupied, leaving you open to jutsu attacks," Haku replied before speeding through a series of seals using only one of his hands.
'One handed seals!?' Kakashi thought, 'I've never seen anybody do that before!'
"Suiton release: Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death no Jutsu!"
From the water surrounding them, hundreds upon hundreds of senbon needles formed, all targeted towards Sasuke.
They launched themselves towards where he was stood, but did not meet their mark, for Sasuke jumped over the whole lot like some sort of black bunny driven mad by the desire to avenge his clan.
"Pathetic," he sneered.
"Impressive, I didn't expect an opponent of your calibre to be able to dodge that attack. But know this, I have the advantage in speed," Haku stated.
"I think not," a voice said from behind him.
Haku whirled around, startled to find Sasuke mere inches away, a kunai headed straight for his right eye.
Knocking the weapon out of his opponent's hand, he tried to back away, but a kick to the face knocked that notion, along with a tooth or two, out of the running.
'Haku lost in speed?!' Zabuza thought incredulous. He and Kakashi had been standing in the sidelines, watching their two students fight.
"I must end this fight soon, else Zabuza's mission will be hampered," Haku said, slowly forming a single handseal.
"Hyoton Release: Demonic Ice Mirrors," he intoned with finality.
From the very air itself, shapes of ice started to take form. A doom of ice rectangles suddenly surrounded Sasuke, trapping him.
Haku walked up to one of the mirrors, and as casually as if he was taking a stroll in the park he melded into it. An image of him took his place in the mirror, and was quickly followed by many others, all occupying their own mirror.
"Curses!" cursed Kakashi, running towards his student to save him from the impending danger. He was, however, stopped by the figure of Zabuza.
"Your opponent is me, Kakashi. If you try to run away, I'll kill the bridge builder and the girl," Zabuza growled.
"Sakura!" Kakashi barked, "Protect Tazuna at all costs! I'll handle Zabuza!"
Inside the ice dome of narcissism, Sasuke was having a bad time. A very bad time. As in multiple needles made of metal sticking out of his body bad. Haku had finally revealed his real speed.
With a flick of his wrists, he, along with all of his reflections, threw a veritable barrage of senbon needles. Sasuke looked like the result of a porcupine fucking a duck.
"Now, shall we get started?" Zabuza asked, unsheathing his large cleaver of exaggerated size.
"I beat you once, I can do it again," Kakashi replied, starting to unveil his Sharingan.
"The Sharingan? My, you really are a one trick pony. I've seen through your technique and I'll-"
Zabuza was suddenly cut off by two feet slamming into his face, accompanied by a cheerful "Ohayou, motherfucker!" followed by a large explosion.
"Who the hell..." Zabuza groaned from the spot that he had been blown away, before he caught sight of his surprise attacker. "You! I'm going to fucking kill you!"
"Me!" Naruto said, waving cheerfully.
"Naruto, as much as I'm relieved to see you, Sasuke needs your help more than I do," Kakashi said.
"Yosh, Kakashi-sensei! Mission: Save Sasuke's Sorry Ass is a go!" Naruto saluted before running off.
'He's too fast.' As much as he was loath to admit it, Sasuke might've found an opponent that was too strong for him. "But he isn't going all out on me, he's had plenty of chances to hit a vital spot, but he never toke them. Damnit!'
"Yo, Sasuke! Looks like you're in a tight spot!" Naruto greeted, crouching down to face the fallen boy.
"Naruto, what the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke asked, bewildered to see is missing teammate in front of him.
"I'm here to save you, of course!"
"By walking right into his technique?!" Sasuke yelled, "Do you ever use your brain!? You could assisted me from the outside!"
Naruto smacked a fist onto his open palm. "Right!" he said like it was the most logical thing.
"And you call yourself a shinobi..."
Haku, who had been watching the duo with interest, decided to catch their attention by throwing a few needles.
Sasuke decided to respond with a technique of his own.
"Katon release: Grand Fireball no Jutsu!"
A grand fireball, as the name would fucking suggest, spewed out of his mouth, swallowing everything in its path.
When the flames dissipated, Sasuke was stunned to see that his attack had barely any effect on the mirrors.
"That didn't do anything?!" Naruto yelled in astute observation.
"Attacks of that level are of no use against me," Haku stated from inside his mirror, his reflections having disappeared.
"Oh yeah? Well, try this on for size!" Naruto exclaimed, running towards the masked boy and slamming a piece of paper onto the mirror.
"Naruto, no!" Sasuke screamed, "The blast will be contained by the dome!"
But it was too late Naruto had already activated the explosive tag, and faster than the eye could blink, the explosion was upon them.
When the smoke cleared, the two could be clearly seen still standing, covered in soot and slightly singed, but alright for the most part. Thankfully, Naruto had only used a C-rank tag.
"You're a fucking idiot," Sasuke deadpanned.
"Well, sorry if I wanted to attack," Naruto retorted.
"I told you, you'll never be able to damage these mirrors," Haku said, breaking them out of their little dispute.
"Yeah, yeah yeah," Naruto replied. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Where one Naruto once stood, there were now a dozen of explosive-toting maniacs.
"Let's go!" Naruto screamed, and like a little kid named Billy who just won't fucking learn that touching the red part of the stove will burn you, he and his group of clones attacked Haku.
Haku, needless to say, beat the ever loving shit out of them. With blinding speed, he sped from one mirror to another, dispelling clone after clone until only the original was left.
Naruto fell to the ground, several senbons sticking out of various places.
"Fuck me, he's strong," he said.
"Yeah, no shit," Sasuke replied.
"The kid has a Kekkei Genkai, doesn't he?" Kakashi asked.
"Kekkei Genkai?" Sakura said, unfamiliar with the term.
"In a nutshell, it's a power passed down from ancestor to ancestor. Those who wield one are said to be incredibly strong, and it's impossible to copy the techniques, even with my Sharingan," Kakashi explained.
"Indeed he does," Zabuza chuckled darkly, "I've picked up a useful tool, haven't I?"
"Damnit!" Naruto yelled, "Who gives a damn if he has some power passed on from his father's ballsack! I can't die here, I have a dream to fulfil!"
"A dream, you say," Haku softly said before speaking up, "I do not want to kill you, shinobi-san, and if possible, I do not want to die. But if you force my hand, I will not hesitate to rid myself of my kind heart, and you with it. For I have a dream too, and just like you, I will defend it on this bridge with my life!"
Naruto and Sasuke were left slightly stunned by the masked boy's sudden speech, before a voice snapped them out of it.
"Sasuke, Naruto! Don't you lose to this guy!" Sakura yelled.
"Don't egg them on, Sakura," Kakashi coldly said, "Even if they somehow managed to defeat that boy's technique, there's no way that they can destroy their own hearts, and kill him, Naruto especially.
"Then what are you going to do, Kakashi?" Zabuza chuckled again.
"I'm going to end this before it starts," he declared, fully unveiling his Sharingan, but before he could utilize it, Zabuza had suddenly disappeared into the thick mist that had came out of nowhere.
"Hidden Mist no Jutsu," Kakashi could hear the sound of Zabuza's voice.
'Where did he go? I can barely see anything through this fog, even with my Sharingan!'
"A ninja's ultimate technique isn't something you should show to your enemies often," came the voice of Zabuza, distorted by the mist that muffled any sound.
"You should count yourself lucky, you're the only opponent to have seen it twice..." Kakashi said, slowly spinning in to cover his back.
"I'll also be your last opponent," Zabuza said, directly behind Kakashi, "I know the secret of your precious little Sharingan."
Kakashi barely had time to block the attack that followed that statement.
"You rely too heavily on your dojutsu, Kakashi," Zabuza sneered, "By taking away your eyesight and hearing, you are vulnerable."
Several shuriken were thrown towards Kakashi, who was hard pressed to deflect them.
"I am a master at the art of Silent Killing..." Zabuza trailed off.
'Relax... Who is he most likely to go after' Kakashi thought to himself, 'Shit!'
He suddenly broke off into a sprint towards his only female student. He could faintly make out the shape of Zabuza behind them, sword at the ready.
"Too late."
It was impossible for Kakashi to stop the attack, so he did the next best thing. He blocked it, with his fleshy and fragile body. Fuck that hurt.
"Weak, you are weak..." Zabuza taunted jumping backwards in case Kakashi retaliated.
Kakashi was standing still, eyes fixed on the ground. His voice, while quiet, could be heard across the bridge.
"Need I remind you that I was part of the ANBU black ops." His head abruptly snapped up towards Zabuza. "And I don't need my Sharingan to kick your ass!"
"Naruto, can you at least try to dodge his attacks?" Sasuke complained, "I can't always save you!"
"Oh, fuck right off, I took some hits for you too!" Naruto shot back.
The duo were looking worse for wear, their clothes were in tatters and both had senbons sticking out of nearly every body part and appendage. The two were at the limits of their abilities. Sasuke felt exhausted, he had used too much chakra and overexerted himself.
'He's fast, but I'm starting to be able to track his movements," Sasuke thought, focusing all of his attention on the boy.
Haku blurred from his spot in his mirror, preparing another attack.
"Now!" Sasuke yelled, tackling his teammate.
'He saw through my attack!?' were Haku's befuddled thoughts. No one had ever done that, not when he was using the full extent of his considerable speed.
Naruto had been sent flying backwards, knocked out cold, and Sasuke was panting in the middle of the dome. When Haku inspected the boy, something made him stop dead in his tracks, not that he was really moving.
'No way, the Sharingan!?' Haku thought, slightly panicking, 'That boy is dangerous, I need to finish this quickly. I can feel my own reserves diminishing, this technique takes a lot of chakra.'
Indeed, Sasuke now sported two bitchin' new ocular globes, his pupils had turned a dark red, and tomoe were circling them. His right eye had two, and his left, only one.
'This is incredible!' Sasuke thought to himself, 'I can see everything so much more clearly!'
Before he could further dwell upon his sudden clairvoyance, he saw Haku ready another assault, his hands wielding senbon needles. Without warning, he threw them, but not at Sasuke, but rather at his down blond friend.
'Shit!'
Naruto stirred slowly, struggling to open his eyes. When he did, he could weakly make out the figure of someone, standing above him.
"You always need saving don't you?" a voice brought him back fully to the land of the living.
"Sasuke!" Naruto cried out, before realizing what had happened.
Sasuke was stood above him, protecting him with his body. Senbon needles peppered his form, several having punctured his neck. He was spitting blood. Naruto was shocked to the very core.
"Why so surprised?" Sasuke softly said.
"You... saved me? But why?" Naruto asked.
"Why? Because we're teammates, and teammates look after each other... you moron..." Sasuke breathed out, "I always hated you, you know? You were always too happy, too loud, but some time down the road, my view of you changed."
Sasuke crumpled down onto the floor, landing on Naruto's knees,
"Why!?" Naruto screamed, on the verge of tears.
"I'm glad that I got to know you, Naruto," Sasuke murmured, "I made a promise to myself. That I wouldn't die until I killed my brother..."
"Don't you die too." Those were the last words of Sasuke Uchiha, last loyal Uchiha of Konohagakure, teammate, rival and friend, whose flame was extinguished much too soon.
"He was a shinobi that deserved respect. He fought valiantly and even when he knew it was a trap, he rushed to your side to save you," Haku said gently. "Was this your first death of a friend? Such is the life of a shinobi..."
Naruto was cradling Sasuke's head, gently rocking back and forth.
"Don't you die, don't you fucking die, Sasuke, you bastard!" he yelled, unable to cope with what had happened.
"Don't you die on me..." he finished softly. He had lost someone dear to him, few as they were, one of them had just left their ranks. It hurt. It hurt so badly that he couldn't breath. He had just lost one of his precious people, and the person who had killed him had the nerve to lecture him.
"Shut up..." he said quietly.
Shut the fuck up!" Naruto roared, "I'll kill you!"
Dark red chakra started to envelop his kneeling body, and he started to change. His nails lengthened and sharpened into razor sharp claws. His eyes become feral, his whisker marks deepened. The numerous cuts and gashes on his body healed at an exponential rate. An ominous atmosphere suddenly crashed down on the bridge, one that promised death and suffering.
'What is happening!?' though Haku, 'His power just went through the roof!'
Across the bridge, Kakashi and Zabuza briefly stopped their fight.
'This chakra? Can it be that the Nine-Tails!?' Kakashi was panicking.
"I'm sorry, Zabuza, but I'm afraid for benefit of both you and I, I'm going to have to end our battle," Kakashi said, taking out a scroll. He unfurled it with great speed with one hand, and with the other, he dipped his thumb in his blood, and ran it across the scroll.
"Summoning Technique!" he yelled.
Naruto gently put down Sasuke's prone body, before turning to fully face Haku, who felt a bead of cold sweat run down his back.
'Just what is this boy?!' he frantically thought, "His Killing Intent is insane!'
In an instant, Naruto was occupying the space in front of him, breaking effortlessly through the mirror that he was hiding in and knocking him out of it. In the next instant, Naruto's fist had been planted with extreme force onto his face, propelling him backwards.
Haku landed on his feet, his mask laying on the ground in shards.
'Zabuza-san... I am sorry... I cannot defeat this boy..." he thought dejectedly.
Naruto was rushing towards him, another fist aimed for his face. Death seemed unavoidable, and Haku closed his eyes, awaiting his release from this world. It did not come. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw Naruto, fist mere inches away from his face. He seemed to be back to normal.
"You're that person from the clearing, aren't you?" he asked, seeming to be torn between two decisions.
"Why do you not kill me?" Haku asked, "I killed your comrade, it is only fair that you do the same."
"Damnit!" screamed Naruto, punching Haku with all of his force.
"What happened to your power, Naruto? A punch like that will never kill me," Haku said.
"I... can't kill you..." Naruto said, arms falling to his sides.
"It would be better if you did..." Haku softly said, "With my defeat, you have taken away my reason for living... I live only to serve Zabuza-san, for he has saved my life. Zabuza-san has no need for a weak tool like me..."
"How can you say that!?" Naruto yelled, "How can you dedicate your entire life to that man? Does he really mean that much to you?"
Haku answered with a single word, "Yes."
"He gave me a reason to live. He gave me a place where I belong in this world. He came to me when my own father killed my mother because of her blood. For that, I owe him my life. But Zabuza has no need for weak tools, so..." Haku looked up to Naruto, "I beg of you, kill me."
Zabuza was in a jam, his limbs were constrained by a pack of dogs, their jaws locked onto his limbs.
"You're done, Zabuza. You can't move, and you can't escape my next jutsu," Kakashi simply stated, "I told you, I can see the future, and your corpse is all I see."
Kakashi started to form hand signs, before grabbing a hold of his right hand.
"Lightning blade!" he yelled out, and his hand was suddenly engulfed in pure blue chakra, taking the form of lightning.
'What the- I can see his chakra!' Zabuza thought.
"Now, die." Kakashi sped towards Zabuza, hand extended to stab him.
"If that's what you want, Haku..." Naruto walked towards the revealed boy, kunai in hand. He was about to stab it into his heart when it was suddenly deflected.
"I'm sorry, Naruto-san, but there is one more thing I need to do," Haku said before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
Kakashi's hand impacted into a body with a dull thud. Looking up, he was surprised to see that it wasn't the one of Zabuza, but rather the one of the fake hunter-nin. Looking into his eyes, he could see that he boy was already dead, or close to it. His fist was wrist deep into his chest.
"You did well, Haku," Zabuza said, "You were useful until the end, giving me this final chance!"
Zabuza swung his sword downwards, ready to slice both Kakashi and Haku in two.
Kakashi quickly jumped back, ripping his hand out of the boy's chest.
Naruto came running up to the two men, stopping at the edge.
"Naruto, stand back," Kakashi said, "This is my fight."
"Naruto! You're alright!" Sakura cried out in relief, "Where's Sasuke-kun?"
When Naruto looked down, she knew something was wrong. She started to shake.
"I'll come with you," Tazuna offered, "That way, you won't be going against your sensei's orders."
Sakura and Tazuna ran towards where Naruto had come from. She quickly arrived at the body of her self-proclaimed loved one.
Sinking to her knees, she fought back the tears. Feeling his cheek, she felt the cold and clammy skin of a dead man.
"He's cold... He's really gone..." she sobbed.
"It's best if you let it all out..." Tazuna gently said, "Pay me no heed..."
"I always scored highest in the Academy's written exams..." Sakura softly whispered, "A part of that test was to write down a shinobi saying... I must've memorized over a hundred of them... And one day... This question appeared... Write down shinobi saying #25, and I did, without question or hesitation... Do you know what that saying was? 'No matter what the situation, a shinobi must keep their emotions on the inside. You must make the mission your top priority and you must possess a heart that never shows...'" She finished in body racking sobs.
'The life of a shinobi seems to be a hard one...' Tazuna thought.
Zabuza and Kakashi were still going at it, and Zabuza was finally starting to feel fatigued. So, it was only natural that he couldn't react when Kakashi planted two kunai into his shoulders, disabling the use of his arms.
"It's over, without your arms, you are nothing," Kakashi coldly said.
They were about to engage once more in a fight when loud, slow clapping interrupted them. The mist cleared and at the end of the bridge was Gato, the little troll that he was, along with his army of mercenaries, His army was considerably weakened, what with the loss of almost half of its force. But there was still a veritable assload of them. More than a weakened Kakashi would be able to take on.
"So, this is the Demon of the Hidden Mist... You're more like a cute little baby devil..." Gato chuckled evilly.
"What is the meaning of this, Gato?" Zabuza growled.
"There's been a change of plan, Zabuza... Well actually, I wanted to do this from the very beginning. You see, I never planned on paying you, hiring missing-nin is an expensive business, Gato explained.
"So, I've devised a way of circumventing that. I make you shinobi fight until you are weakened, then I overwhelm you with sheer numbers."
"You bastard!" Zabuza roared. Turning to Kakashi, he said, "I'm sorry, Kakashi, but this fight is over. My business lies somewhere else now."
Gato walked up to Haku's corpse and kicked it, "I owe you this much, what for breaking my arm. Be grateful that you're already dead, or I would've tortured you for a very long time."
"You son of a bitch!" Naruto yelled, "What is wrong with you?"
He pointed an accusing finger at Zabuza.
"Do you not feel anything at all!? Haku fought for you! He sacrificed himself for you!"
"As any good tool should," Zabuza replied.
"You were his precious person, someone he was ready to die for! He loved you! And this is how you repay him?!" Naruto could feel drops of water fall from his eyes, blurring his eyesight.
Zabuza remained silent.
"He had no dream, he threw it away for you!"
"Kid..."
Naruto looked up from where he was looking at the ground.
"You don't... have to say anymore..." Tears were streaming down Zabuza's own face. "He didn't want to fight you guys. While he did fight for me, he also fought for you, for your dreams... He was too kind..."
Zabuza trailed off for a second before continuing, "I'm glad I got to face you guys in the end, because you may be right... A shinobi is still a human, no matter how hard we try, we cannot erase our emotions..."
"Let me borrow your kunai," Zabuza said with finality.
Naruto handed the tall, masked man one of his kunai, who took it in his mouth. He was about to charge forward into the fray of enemies when Naruto's voice stopped him.
"Zabuza, wait!" he yelled, "Let me clear a path for you."
Naruto walked up to one of the large blocks of stone that Tazuna used to build his bridge. Rummaging quickly through his pockets, he found what he was looking for. Smacking a piece of paper onto the back of the block, he turned towards the small army that was gathered and addressed them with a voice that was brimming with raw emotion. Grief, sadness, anger, rage.
"Listen up, fuckbrains! My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I...!" He formed a single hand sign , the one of the ram.
"Mow down motherfuckers like I own a lawn service! Mach Seal, activate!"
With those words, the block of stone erupted forward with a tremendous bang, going at speeds, as the name would suggest, that were near fucking insane. The wonders of an A-rank tag.
Needless to say, Gato barely had time to get out of the way before most of his mercenaries were ground into so much as a fine paste.
"Wh- What?" he stuttered before something else made him shit his pants. The sight of a bloody, and indubitably pissed off Zabuza with a kunai in his mouth. The thugs still alive were quick to react and stabbed Zabuza in the back with their weapons.
"Go on then, if you want to join your friend, then die," Gato stammered.
"I won't be joining Haku..." Zabuza growled.
"There's no way that you're going to survive so what do you..."
"No, you and I, my 'friend', are going to Hell together!" Zabuza roared before beheading Gato with only a kunai held in his mouth. He fell to the ground shortly after, finally succumbing to his injuries.
"Hey, you killed our paycheck!" a thug yelled out.
"Were going to kill you all, and then we're going to raid the village!" another said.
'Shit,' Kakashi thought, 'Even if there are fewer of them, I'm too weak, and Naruto and Sakura are in no condition to fight."
The decimated, but still numerous army was about to charge when the bolt of a crossbow stopped them. On the opposite site of the bridge, was Inari. Flanking him was almost all of the village, armed to the teeth and ready to defend their town with their lives.
"If you have a problem with our town, you can come discuss it with us!" he yelled.
The mercenaries quickly got cold feet at the sight of such a larger armed group and hightailed it out of there, not without meaningless threats of coming back, however.
The fight was over, their mission was nearly complete. Kakashi almost sunk to the ground in relief, but a voice called for him.
"Kakashi... I have one last request..." Zabuza breathed out, "Let me be by his side once more... Let me see his face one last time..."
"Of course," Kakashi gently said. With great care not to aggravate the already severe injuries, he carried Zabuza over to where Haku lay.
Zabuza turned his head to face his partner, "Hey Haku... You fought well today... You always a faithful weapon, always by my side..." Zabuza choked on his words, whether it was from his injuries or emotion would remain unknown, "I'd like for you to stay by my side until the end... But where you're going, there's no place for someone like me... So I guess this is goodbye... Goodbye Haku, my tool, partner... and friend."
A single tear streamed down from Haku's closed eyes, and heavy snowflakes started to form, falling to the ground like leaves in autumn. Thus, Zabuza and Haku died, Demon of the Hidden Mist, and last wielder of the Hyoton release. They died like they lived, together.
"Don't worry, Zabuza... I think you'll be joining with Haku in the great journey after..." Kakashi whispered.
And done! Hot balls, this was a long chapter. 11K words, fuck me sideways! Anyways, I hope this makes up for my lack of updates, but life suddenly reared up its ugly head and grabbed me by the balls, presenting me with exams and responsibilities, so don't expect a lot of updates this June (sorry!). I hope you guys enjoyed the story and the past few chapters so far, it's been a blast and a bit of a challenge to write. A lot of drastic changes happened in this chapter, and that's because I consider that the Wave Arc is one of the most important parts of Naruto's story. Anways blah blah blah, fucking with canon. Sorry if this chapter wasn't as 'humorous' as usual, but next chapter, I'll be back to normal, this was just a serious arc. Also, 50 favourites, hot damn, what the fuck is wrong with you people? We're all psychotic aren't we? But really, I can't express my thanks in a manner that does my gratitude justice. Thank your for all of your continued support! Anyways, you guys know what to do. Fave, follow, don't, leave a review or don't, I can't be assed to tell you what to do, but reviews are always welcome! Author, out!