Disclaimer: Obviously Naruto isn't mine, or I wouldn't be writing a FANfiction right now.

Author's Note: Here's the fight that I promised you! I should have posted it at Wednesday, November 2, 2005, but there was no Internet café opened because of Idul Fitri holiday. That left me wondering what I should do in my spare time.

Part Eleven

Sasuke stepped forward wanting a chance to test himself against an A-class missing-nin from the Mist, but his jounin sensei held out his hand and stopping him from walking further. The dark haired genin turned at Kakashi and gave him a death glare.

"Don't you want to see what Naruto capable of?" the jounin asked him. Sasuke thought of it for a moment before nodding and stepped back. The 4 people watched as the battle between their blonde teammate and Zabuza started.

The blonde genin disappeared from his spot above. The others wildly looking around, trying to locate the boy to no avail. Naruto reappeared in front of the shocked missing-nin who couldn't believe that he didn't hear the sound of his footsteps. With a reflex honed by his years of experience, Zabuza held out his arm to block the kick sent to his way. He succeeded blocking it, but he was pushed a meter from his original spot.

Zabuza quickly jumped and reached for his sword. As he took it, his eyes narrowed as he watched the smirking blonde intently. His opponent held out his finger and made a gesture for the older shinobi to come and get him if he could.

It seemed that the blonde genin wasn't just an ordinary sinobi. His eyes darted toward the others who kept their footings around Tazuna, protecting the bridge builder. It appeared that the copy-nin had no intention to help his genin student, but the Swordman of the Mist knew that if the situation went bad, the Konoha jounin would interfere.

Growling softly at the disadvantage he was in, Zabuza made 10 mizu bunshins around him and ordered them to attack the younger shinobi. "Mizu bunshin no jutsu," he said softly.

A second after he said it, the blond made a seal. "Kage bunshin no jutsu," Naruto whispered softly so Zabuza didn't hear him saying it, making the same number of shadow clones to fight off the water clones made by the missing-nin. "Your water clones are useless. You're just wasting your chakra. Give up or face the consequences," Naruto scrunched his eyebrows. "On the other hand…don't give up, because I will take pleasure torturing you," he said cheekily.

Zabuza scoffed. "You're a hundred years too early to say that, brat!" Both shinobis made a gesture and their clones clashed.

Zabuza's eyes narrowed further as he watched each of his water bunshin was destroyed by its opponent. A dawning realization came to his mind that right now he was facing a shinobi who could use this particular kinjutsu. He had seen this jutsu performed before in the Great War, but mostly the shinobi who could use this technique were adults who had more chakra than others, seeing that this jutsu needed much chakra to maintain. His water clone only had a tenth power of its original, but shadow clone had the same power of the original.

'This kid is good. He could actually be a match against Haku,' he thought.

"Hey brat, you're good," he complimented. The blond only shrugged indifferently. "Why did you join Konoha's shinobi rank when you're already strong and hate them?" he baited the genin. Zabuza's eyes caught the copy-nin stiffened at his question. "Why don't you come with me? You could be great under my tutelage."

"Naruto laughed in amusement. "Come with you? Under your tutelage? Did I hear you right or are you just plain senile? Who do you think you are? I'm not a fool. You're weaker than me. There's nothing you can teach me, beside the old man has offered me a better deal. Your time's up! You should pay for interrupting me rudely. It's unfortunate for you, a water user shinobi, to meet me," the blond smirked.

Zabuza was seething inside. How dare this imbecile said that he was weaker! The missing-nin made another batch of water clones and dispatched them to deal with the shadow clones. Even if his clones couldn't win against his shadow clones, he could use them as distraction. He dashed toward the blue-eyed genin. The missing-nin stiffened and jumped backward when he felt a weapon was thrown to his direction from his left. He watched Kakashi left his spot with a kunai on his hand. "I thought you didn't want to interfere with this battle," he stated.

"Your thought is wrong. I change my mind," was his only explanation.

"Don't interfere with this fight, Hatake!" Naruto snapped.

"You're a member of my team and I have a duty to help you, beside I'm your superior."

"Do you think I can't handle him on my own?" the demon vessel growled dangerously. A flash of red flickered from his eyes so fast that Zabuza thought that he was imagining it.

A scream of terror and 2 gasps from behind the silver haired jounin caught their attention. The 2 Leaf shinobis watched Sasuke fought against 4 water clones, while Tazuna was knocked unconscious. Sakura on the other hand, was being held by a water clone with a sharp kunai pressed against her throat.

"SAKURA!" Kakashi shouted. He wanted to smack himself for being so careless. Naruto only scowled.

"Don't you think you get the wrong target?" Naruto raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the knocked out Tazuna pointedly. Sasuke finished out the last clone with a spin kick. He growled in annoyance when he saw the trembling pink haired kunoichi being held as hostage.

"I don't think so. But he's only a client, while she's your teammate. Drop your weapons or she will die," the missing-nin warned.

Naruto started to laugh, slowly at first, before it became a full-blown laughter. After a minute of non-stop laughter and incredulous eyes sent on his way, Naruto stopped and opened his cold blue eyes. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the missing-nin seriously.

"Do you think I care for that useless girl? Go ahead, kill her. I won't stop you. She's a nuisance and it will be a great relief to have that burden lift from my shoulder, that way I don't have to do it on my own," the girl shivered at such coldness displayed by her uncaring teammate. The clone that held Sakura pressed the kunai a bit making her flinched as a drop of blood seeped out from the slice. Naruto watched it coldly, but a crazed smirk was plastered on his face. The real Zabuza stared at the boy and knew from right there that he wasn't joking. Sasuke and Kakashi tensed.

"NARUTO!"

The blond's eyes shifted to the silver haired jounin in annoyance. "What?" he snapped. "Save your lecture, Hatake. I don't need it and pay your attention to Zabuza instead of to the girl. If she still lives after this it would be a good experience for her and motivate her to become stronger so she won't be such a burden or better yet to stop being a shinobi. The world doesn't have a need for useless kunoichi. If not, well…too bad for her then, she just has to hope that she die painlessly," he smirked as his eyes turned to the other genin. "The advice could be applied to you too, Uchiha. There won't be anyone to save your 'noble' arse if you screwed this."

Sasuke sneered. "Nor will I save your sorry ass," the dark haired genin snapped harshly. He was ticked off by Naruto's statement. Both genins turned their attentions to the real Zabuza, leaving only Kakashi to worry about the pink haired girl. The girl sobbed quietly when she realized that she was abandoned by her teammates, and to make it worse one of them was her crush.

The kyuubi vessel took out 2 kunais from his pouch, twirled them for a moment before he channeled his chakra on the metals. The kunais were suddenly engulfed by red fire. The fire danced wildly before it solidified around the weapon, creating what looked like to be 2 blazing swords.

Sasuke watched the event take place in front of his eyes with wide eyes. He could feel the terrible heat emanating from the weapons. He gritted his teeth in envy and jealousy, wondering how a supposed dead last like him could do a thing he couldn't do. He was the heir of Uchiha clan, a fire user clan. It should be him who controlled the fire, not this boy whose heritage wasn't known!

Naruto gripped the scorching hot weapon on his palms without flinching. The metals were scorching red from absorbing and coming in contact with the hot fire around them. The blonde boy frowned. He needed to train his chakra control better. The weapons weren't supposed to look as if they would melt soon. It should look like as if nothing happened to the metals. Naruto had to hold back his blue fire from forming around the kunais, knowing that the weapons wouldn't be able to stand the heat. The weapons on his hands were barely able to handle the heat of his red fire as it was. Either he had to start improving his chakra control or he had to find better quality kunais.

A water clone near his right was slowly dissolved into air as the heat evaporated the water.

"So that was what you mean that a water user like me was unlucky to meet you," Zabuza stared at the weapons on his hands.

Naruto smirked. "It was fun to meet you, but I think I have to cut this meeting short. Let's dance!" the blonde boy dashed toward the missing-nin. His water clones ran to intercept their creator's assaulter.

The first clone threw shurikens to Naruto, only to have him deflect those ninja weapons by twisting his kunai sword to make a shield. Naruto sliced the clone in two, the body part of the clone where his kunais touched evaporated. Naruto tilted his head to the left to avoid a kunai send on his way. "Not enough," the boy murmured. He channeled more chakra to the kunai on his right hand and slashed it horizontally. Hot air rippled from the sword and cut through 5 clones, while the rest jumped to avoid it. Knowing they had no chance to defeat him alone, all of them jumped with kunai on their hands.

Naruto grinned wickedly. He deepened his contact with the ground below. Red fire formed a circle around his feet before it started to rise to the air around him like tornado. The fire danced around his body catching the clones in the air and evaporated them. Naruto kept the fire a half meter around him to avoid his clothes being burnt. He himself didn't have a problem with fire, but his clothes would be burnt. And he didn't want to be naked in front of anyone else. "Got more?" an amused eyebrow raised toward Zabuza.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto watched from the corner of his eyes that Kakashi had saved Sakura, destroying the clone when its mind was elsewhere. He scoffed before he turned back to his opponent.

"It seems that you no longer have hostage," the blonde boy taunted.

"It doesn't matter. Kirigakure no jutsu," a thick mist covered the area.

"Your attempt is futile. I am used fighting in area with no light. Do you think a mere mist can stop me? Beside it can be dispatched easily. Though I haven't learned any wind jutsu yet, I have another method," the kyuubi vessel grabbed his wires from the pouch on his pants, attaching them to kunais and launched them to the trees for anchor. Tying one of the wires around his blazing kunai, he launched the rest of his wires to the air, each of them connected with others, supporting the weight of the blazing kunai. Feeling that the burning kunai was high enough, he channeled his chakra through the wires. The air above around the kunai became hot. Wind started to form as the air from the area with cooler temperature rose to the sky where hot air gathered. The mist was starting to dissipate.

"That's just one of the simple methods to counter your kirigakure no jutsu. Care to try other ways? I have enough spare time. Amuse me," Naruto said cheekily, as he stopped channeling his chakra. The fire stopped dancing around the now melted kunai, revealing scorched marks on it. The blonde genin tugged the wires; the kunais working as anchors tensed at they moved to unfurl the ties. The wires stiffened as the chakra channeled through them. Team 7 watched in disbelief as the wires moved as if they had lives on their own, even Kakashi stopped taking care of Sakura's wound. He couldn't believe that his sensei's son has reached this level.

Zabuza took a step back. He could handle many kunais simultaneously, but could he handle all of those 'living' wires that could move as if they had a mind on their own? He cursed inwardly. How could a genin boy like him have this kind of power? He should be an anbu or hunter-nin, not a mere genin! And to add his problem, he hadn't defeated the copy-nin yet. He needed more time to plan!

Just as he thought that, the wires slithered on the air like a snake toward him, kunais still dangling on their ends, aimed pointedly toward Naruto's opponent.

'Fast!' Zabuza braced himself. He slashed diagonally, hoping to cut the kunais from the wires. Naruto saw through this and channeled more chakra. A bluish chakra formed around the wires and shielded them from the cut. Zabuza's eyes widened as the wires met his blade head on. The kunais on the ends tensed and started to attack. Blood sprouted from all over the missing-nin's body as the kunais slashed him.

Zabuza gripped his sword tighter as he gritted his teeth. He deflected 4 kunais, but 2 of the wires curled around his sword. Red fire formed on the kunai and it channeled through the older-nin's blade. Shocked at the sudden hotness, the missing-nin released his grip from his sword and dropped to the floor. The wires around the blade threw the sword toward their controller. Naruto caught the Mist swordsman' sword with a smirk.

"You want to overthrow Mizukage with this ability? No wonder you failed," Naruto chuckled. "You're weak. I wonder if the rest of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist are as weak as you. I heard that the Mist Seven Swordsmen's' swords are special, each has unique power, but from what I saw, your sword is nothing special. Are you sure this sword is finished? Because it looks like ordinary sword for me, if only it has huge size to intimidate your opponent," Naruto planted the sword to the ground.

"You're right. This sword hasn't been finished yet," Zabuza stood up as he glared at the younger shinobi. Blood still dripped from his wounds.

"Really? That's interesting," Naruto's wires retreated. "You must be not much of a planner that you tried to overthrow Mizukage with unfinished sword," Naruto's eyes turned to the left when he felt Zabuza's subordinate who was being kept an eye on by his foxes, was readying himself for something.

Many senbons were thrown to Zabuza's body and imbedded themselves on his vital points. The missing-nin's eyes widened as he plummeted to the ground. Naruto raised his eyebrow. A soft yip from the forest told him that the missing-nin hasn't died yet. Naruto grinned at the subordinate's devious plan to trick him and the rest of team 7.

A shinobi with hunter-nin mask jumped to the ground where Zabuza was located. He took the missing-nin's body and was ready to jump when Naruto's wires coiled around him like a snake. The hunter-nin tensed as he turned around to face the blond.

"Where will you go with my prey's body?" he asked cheerfully.

"Naruto, stop it! He's a Mist hunter-nin. It was his duty to kill his village's rogue ninja," Kakashi told him.

"You might be right, Hatake, but Zabuza is my prey and I won't let him go easily. I was ready to finish him when this man interfered with my fight. If he wanted easy prey, he shouldn't take it from me. It would be a bad idea," inwardly Naruto chuckled at his acting. "If he wanted to play his part as a scavenger, then he should wait until I finish with Zabuza. I won't let him go away with my prize."

"If you want to get the money reward, you could ask the Mist administrative in Water country," the masked nin said. "I will tell them that Zabuza was killed by you."

"Empty words. How do I know that you will do it? No, I think I'll stick on my first plan. I'll use this dear product of mine to decompose his body and behead his head as a proof," a transparent glass tube with black liquid was in Naruto's finger. The hunter-nin stiffened, making Naruto chuckled harder inwardly.

Red slitted eyes opened inside Naruto's mind. The demon blinked before sighing in exasperation. Sometimes, it wondered who was saner between it and its vessel.

"You can't do that. Mist still needs information from his body."

"I don't give a damn. There's nothing written in the bingo book that said that Zabuza's body must be intact."

The hunter-nin was silent for a moment before he removed a brown leather pouch from his clothes. "There's half of the money reward amount here. You can get the rest in Mist administrative office. I will give you this if you let me go with his body."

"And what if I think to kill you, get your money, and get the reward full amount from Mist village?"

"You won't or you'll risk a war between Mist and Leaf," he said convincingly.

Naruto grinned. "Clever," the masked-nin threw the pouch only to be intercepted by one of the wires. After making sure that the pouch indeed contained money instead of trap, Naruto released the wires around the older nin's body. The black haired shinobi nodded before he vanished with Zabuza's body, leaving the tall man's sword beside Naruto.

Naruto chuckled. "I look forward for our next meeting, hunter-san," he muttered softly. The genin turned to face team 7. "Let's go, our job is finished here," he left the sword alone, knowing that Zabuza's subordinate would take the sword and hopefully got someone to finish the sword. He was so looking forward to fight against stronger Zabuza with a completed sword and his subordinate.

And when the time came, he wouldn't give them any mercy.

TBC…

I had to think for so long to make Zabuza and Haku could get away from team 7 and actually followed the canon story a bit. And for people who thought Sakura should've just died: she still has a role! I don't just made her real bad with no reason, you know. This story isn't a Sakura-bashing story.

You may think that I make Naruto super strong since Kakashi himself was knocked out in his fight against Zabuza, but I think that wasn't Kakashi's real capability. I thought that in canon, Kakashi was playing around and underestimating Zabuza. He could just use his own jutsu arsenal rather than exposing his sharingan to make Sasuke knew that he had sharingan and hoped that the genin would ask for his help.

Spoiler for later chapter: Gatou hires more missing-nin since he knows that Zabuza isn't enough. Kakashi actually train his students especially Sakura hard. Inari meets with Naruto. And the team Kakashi requested arrives.