What Could've Been

by Concentrated Awesomeness

Naruto gets pushed to his limit early on in life. The same could be said for Sasuke. Follow along as both go through hardships that test their sanity. The two have to rely on each other to prevent the darkness that could have been. More mature, God-like Naruto. Good Sasuke, probably also God-like or close to it. May have some pairing(s) later on in the story, but no yaoi.

16. Chapter 16

Welcome back for another chapter of What Could've been. I hope you all enjoy.

I bet you expected a disclaimer here huh?

Nope, it goes here this time: I don't own Naruto, it owns me.

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The week of training carried on without problem, save for the fact that the genin of team 8 went to bed at night praying for the death of team 7. The day before the bridge was to be finished, Kakashi was finally healed enough to fight. They had made their plan of attack, and now the only thing to do was wait.

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At the bridge, the next morning

As the group approached the bridge for their final day of building, they weren't really surprised to see a thick mist enveloping the area. As they drew nearer, they saw several unconscious men laying on the ground around the bridge.

"Well well Kakashi, it seems you called for help huh?" A voice rang out from somewhere within the mist.

"That I did Zabuza, we intend to stop you here."

"Another Jonin and a few more brats will make no difference. You will all die here if you don't surrender the bridge builder."

"Not gonna happen Zabuza." Kakashi replied in a fierce tone, far different from what most of the people there had heard him use before.

"Very well then, of course you know what comes next."

Kakashi gave no verbal reply this time, he just glanced towards Naruto who nodded back and flashed through a series of handseals.

"Futon: Daitoppa! Move!" Naruto yelled out as he exhaled a large gust of wind that cleared out the mist, revealing Zabuza, the hunter nin, and the Demon Brothers. As soon as the targets were visible teams 7 and 8 disappeared quickly to engage.

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Itachi appeared in front of Zabuza and launched a kick at his ribcage, only to have it blocked. Itachi quickly leapt back as Zabuza's massive sword came crashing down on the place where he was just standing.

"Zabuza this is an unnecessary fight, why don't you simply surrender?" said Itachi.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I have to kill the bridge builder to get paid, and I need the money to stage a rebellion and kill the Mizukage."

"Sigh. I'd rather not have to do it this way, but my mission is to protect him, and I will do so at all costs."

Itachi then began to go through hand seals before calling out "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu." As he spat out several small fireballs at Zabuza, who dodged or blocked them all.

"You'll have to do better than that against me Uchiha." Zabuza said as he began to do hand seals, while Itachi began to copy them in sync with his Sharingan.

"Suiton: Suiryuendan!" Both said at once as 2 large dragons rose from the water and began to clash against each other.

"Damn you and your Sharingan Uchiha!" Zabuza shouted as he lunged at Itachi with his sword.

Itachi quickly pulled out a kunai and parried the strike before jumping back once more, doing more hand seals.

"Suiton: Teppodama."(Gunshot) Itachi said as he fired out a large ball of water at Zabuza.

Zabuza jumped to the side to avoid the attack, only to jump again and narrowly miss a lightning covered fist via Kakashi.

"Chidori." Kakashi said as he recovered and leapt to Itachi's side.

"I was wondering when you would jump in Copy-Nin." Zabuza said as he began more hand seals, this time being copied by both Kakashi and Itachi.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" all 3 called at once as literally half of the river below rose up and shot towards each other.

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Naruto arrived in front of Haku and dropped into his ready stance, as Haku did the same and began to speak.

"I apologize for this, but if you won't hand over the bridge builder, I will be forced to kill you; It is Zabuza-sama's will." SHE (Goddammit Haku is a girl I don't care what anyone says!) said from behind her mask.

"I don't want to do this anymore than you, Hunter-san, but it is our mission to protect him, and we shall."

"I see. I will have to kill you then." Haku said as she began to do one handed hand seals.

"Sensatsu Suisho!" (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death) she said as a thousand needles of chilled water formed around Naruto before shooting towards him.

"Katon: Hi no Uzu." (Vortex of Flames) Naruto said as a vortex of flames erupted from the ground around his body, effectively evaporating the needles.

"Well done Konoha-nin." Haku said as the flames around Naruto died down.

"It's Naruto." Naruto said. "I think you should know the name of your opponent."

"I'm Haku. I appreciate the respect, Naruto."

Naruto simply nodded before phasing from existence, reappearing with his sword imbedded in a wall of ice in front of Haku. He jerked his sword out and leapt backwards just in time to avoid a flurry of well placed senbon, before he began doing hand seals.

"Raiton: Jibashi." Naruto said as he thrust a palm forward, releasing a large bolt of lightning. Haku dodged narrowly, but still received a jolt from the attack, giving Naruto just enough time to get in and slam his knee into her face hard enough to crack her mask.

As the pieces of the mask fell away, Naruto had to stop himself for just a moment to silence the warning bells going off in his head again. Elsewhere, Hinata found herself pissed off, but didn't know why exactly.

"You know, you are one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. It's a shame that we are on opposite sides." Naruto said to her as she climbed back up off the ground.

"Thank you for the compliment Naruto-san, I suppose I am glad to have you as my opponent. Honor is hard to find in a shinobi… Tell me Naruto-san, why do you fight?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment before responding "I fight for my village; to protect the people that I love. I intend to become the Hokage one day so that I may protect them all."

"Then you will become truly strong one day, fighting for your precious people will take you far."Haku said as she threw several senbon at Naruto, before disappearing from sight.

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Sasuke leapt down in front of Gozu and Meizu alongside Hinata, and without a word the demon brothers charged in at the pair with their chain.

Sasuke quickly threw a kunai into one of the rungs on the chain, stalling their advance, as he leapt over and kicked Gozu in the face.

Gozu flew back several feet before righting himself and landing on his feet just in time to dodge an axe kick from Sasuke, before throwing his own kick towards Sasuke.

Sasuke grabbed Gozu's leg and twisted around, slamming him into the ground before he leapt back and began to do hand seals. "Raiton: Jibashi!" he shouted as he launched a bolt of lightning at Gozu.

Gozu tried to get up and away fast enough, but didn't make it, and was knocked unconscious when the lightning passed through him.

After Sasuke first engaged Gozu; Hinata attacked Meizu with a jyuken strike to the chest, but he dodged it, and kicked Hinata in the ribs, knocking her back several feet.

Just as Hinata recovered, she had to dodge a slash from Meizu's clawed gauntlet, before she connected a palm to his stomach, forcing him back just a bit.

"Sen'eijashu Jyuken!" Hinata said as 2 snakes shot out of her sleeves and began to strike at Meizu, releasing a burst of chakra with every bite, like they were jyuken strikes.

Meizu dodged for just a moment before the snakes overcame him and he passed out from lack of chakra.

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The 3 walls of water collided, before Itachi and Kakashi's overpowered Zabuza's.

Zabuza tried to dodge, but didn't have enough time to move, and was collect into the raging stream of water, before slamming into the bridge.

"Damn those Sharingan! I think my fucking arm is broke! I'll fuckin kill-"

"Well well, couldn't get the job done, ayy Zabuza? No matter, I wasn't going to pay you anyways. Kill them all." Interrupted a short man in a black suit as he and an army of thugs walked onto the end of the bridge.

"The fuck did you just say?!" Roared Zabuza as he stood back up with his now deformed right arm. "Shit I can't even use my sword now!"

"Zabuza." Kakashi said as he threw a kunai blunt side first at Zabuza.

"Thanks." Zabuza answered as he caught the kunai with his good arm, before charging towards the crowd of thugs.

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Naruto blocked the senbon with his sword before jumping out of the way as Haku dropped an axe kick into the ground where he stood.

"Makyo Hyosho!" (Demonic Ice Mirrors) Haku said as the water from her thousand needles gathered up and formed into a dome of ice mirrors around Naruto. "No one has ever seen this technique and lived to tell the tale."

Suddenly, an image of Haku appeared in all of the mirrors as once. She then drew back a handful of senbon, but as she was about to throw them, she stopped and said "What? Zabuza-sama!" before dropping the technique and shunshinning to Kakashi and Itachi's side to see what was happening.

Naruto followed suit soon after, and said "What's going on here?"

"Gato betrayed Zabuza, so he is in the process of dying." Kakashi said cooly.

"Hmm." Naruto said as he watched Zabuza cut the bandits down without mercy. "Has your team killed yet Kakashi-sempai?"

"No, this was our first C-Rank. Why?"

"Now would be a good time to get it over with."

"Good point. Team 8!"

"Yes sensei?" Shino, Sai, and Kiba all said in unison as they ran up.

"Go help Zabuza kill the bandits, but stay out of his way."

"Hai!" They all said before leaping off into the fray.

"Hinata-chan." Naruto said as Hinata and Sasuke walked up with the demon brothers tied up. "Why don't you go help them out?"

Hinata simply nodded before she ran off into the sea of blood, bugs, ink, and thugs.

"Well then, I suppose this means our mission is over, since Zabuza has no reason to fight with us anymore." Itachi said, earning nods from everyone else.

"Yes I think you're right Konoha-san, we have no more commitment to Gato. Though I don't know where we will go now."

"Hmm… You were never registered as a shinobi in Kiri, so you could come to Konoha and join our ranks."

"What of Zabuza-sama?"

"Well, unfortunately, he 'died' during the battle of the bridge, but I bet there is a spot in ANBU for Devil." Naruto replied with a small grin.

Haku smiled back a bit "I would like that, but it will be up to Zabuza-sama."

It wasn't long before Zabuza, Hinata, and team 8 came back, with Zabuza holding Gato's head in his good arm.

"Little bastard, I hope he is in the deepest level of hell." Zabuza said as he tossed the head over the edge of the bridge.

"So, Zabuza, what will you do now?" Kakashi asked after He, Naruto, Itachi, and Zabuza walked away from the group.

"Well, we no longer have a qualm with Konoha, I hope you understand that it was simply a job."

"Of course."

"As for what I'll do… I suppose we will continue travelling to look for more work."

"Would you be interested in returning to Konoha with us?"

"I'm a missing nin, I'd never be allowed there."

"Actually, we discussed it already. You would have to 'die' here, but I believe there is an open spot in our ANBU for someone of your skillset." Naruto said, deciding to jump in.

"Hmm… Are you sure it would be okay?"

"Absolutely, if you were in ANBU, no one would know your identity besides us and Haku." Itachi said.

"Then it sounds like a plan to me. What of the other brats though?"

"Kakashi, take your team and head back, and we will 'take care' of things here." Itachi said as Kakashi nodded and walked off.

"Zabuza, create a clone and substitute with it." Itachi said once Kakashi's team was almost out of sight.

Zabuza complied, and as soon as the substitution was done, Naruto drove a Futon Rasengan through the clone's chest, 'killing' him.

"Done." Naruto said cheerfully as Itachi and Zabuza both sweat-dropped. "Now then, let's get out of here."

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The next day, Tazuna completed the bridge with no more troubles, and team 7, along with Haku and Demon, left wave country.

They made the trip home with no troubles, and now found themselves in Hiruzen's office.

"Team 7 reporting in, Hokage-sama." Itachi said as they walked in.

"Well done. Who are your guests?" Hiruzen replied.

"This" Itachi said as he pointed at Haku. "Is Haku Yuki. She is a Hyoton Kekkai Genkai user, and this" He then pointed to Zabuza. "Is unofficially Zabuza Momoichi. We offered him a position in our ANBU, since he is a missing nin and can't be a regular Jonin."

"I see. That is fine with me, It will be nice to have you, Zabuza-san, Haku-san."

"We appreciate your hospitality, Hokage-sama. It will be an honor to serve under you. I do have some information you may like to hear concerning Kiri, or more specifically the Mizukage, but we can save that for later."

"Yes we can talk on that matter after you've all had time to rest." Hiruzen said as he fished through a drawer in his desk and came back with a set of keys. "Here is an apartment for yourself and Haku-san, if you two don't mind living together."

"That will be fine, thank you Hokage-sama." Zabuza said as he retrieved the keys from Hiruzen.

"You are all dismissed; Zabuza-san, please be here at 09:00 tomorrow morning. Kotestu." Hiruzen replied as said chunin appeared from nowhere.

"Please show these two to the shinobi apartment complex Kotetsu."

"Hai." Kotetsu replied as the group departed from the office.

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Kind of short, but that's just where it needs to end. Hope you all enjoyed, or at least aren't too enraged that I saved Zabuza and Haku. Anyways, review and all that good shit.