Chapter XI
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
The tiny boat tipped and bobbed in the swells of water. The radio that was lying on the boat's planks hissed, reception poor through the cloying mist. "Are you ready? Are you in position?" Then louder, "Are you ignoring me, Zabuza?" The shirtless man paid it no mind. He spoke in a low voice to his companion.
"Well, are we ready, Haku?" He wasn't looking at her but was making sure that his sword was perfectly secure. It was a second or so until he realized the Haku had not answered. He glanced up to find her staring in his direction, a vague, dreamy look on her face. He waved a hand in front of her eyes. She blinked.
"Sorry, miles away."
Zabuza frowned, knowing how fatal distraction could be on the battlefield. Best to get whatever it was out of the way now. "Care to share?"
"No, it's alright." Zabuza gave a brief nod before twisting around to check on his sword once more. "Only," he looked up again, pretending that he hadn't been waiting for it. "You know, you're the only one in the entire world that I care for," Haku confessed. Zabuza knew it. This couldn't be that only thing on the girl's mind, or she wouldn't have troubled him with it at the moment. But she stood, irresolute, twisting a corner of her tunic and not meeting his eyes.
"And?" he prompted.
"And I was wondering, if I were to die in battle, as I might today, would you mourn for me? Would you remember me at all? Would you regret my passing?" This was the last thing he had expected. He hesitated, unsure of his true feelings. Haku must have thought that he did not want to answer, because she quickly slipped her mask over her face. "It's alright," she said quietly. "After all, I am your tool, and who in the wide world cries when a tool breaks?"
Naruto flattened himself to the wall, listening to the words being exchanged below.
"We have orders to take Tazuna's daughter on a little walk with us. You would be her, would you not?" It was an unfamiliar voice, clearly addressing Tsunami. There was a scream and a crashing noise, not unlike a table being kicked aside. Naruto began creeping down the stairs again, but froze when he heard Inari's familiar little voice.
"Mom! What's happening?"
Tsunami's wild reply. "Get out of here Inari! Run! They killed your father and I won't let them get you, too! Run away!"
The low, sneering voices of the interlopers. "Maybe we could take him instead. Might make an even better hostage."
"We only need one, and, anyway, it's probably better to take the one that they told us to get."
"I suppose you're right." There was a slight pause filled with the metallic swish and slither of a sword being drawn. "May as well kill him then," The second voice said hungrily.
"Wait!" Tsunami screamed. "If you leave the child alone, I'll go with you. I'll be your willing hostage and I won't hold back my information."
"Damn straight. You'll do that anyway," One of the intruders grunted. All the same, there was the sound of a sword being resheathed. There was a tramping sound. Naruto closed his eyes and counted three pairs of footsteps. After one moment, in which he was almost afraid that they had left, he slid down the rest of the stairs and stopped at the bottom, peering out.
Tsunami and her two captors were almost at the gaping hole in the wall. There was not a moment to lose. Naruto's fingers formed the familiar seal and a dozen identical shadow clones poofed into being. The intruders turned at the noise just in time to see more than fifty kunai and shuriken flying straight towards them. They dodged, one to either side, just to step in front of two air-borne shadow clones. The clones lashed out, sandals connecting to the backs of the assailants' heads. The swordsmen staggered forward before drawing swords and whipping around, catching only smoke on the ends of their blades.
The smoke confused them for a second, as it seemed thicker than usual. Then they saw the log lying behind them. They gave small murmurs of awe, until they were once again assaulted from behind, this time being battered in the ribs as well as being smashed in the back of the head. They gasped, feeling ribs fracture. Before they could react or raise their swords, they felt a constriction around their throats. Gasping, tiny blobs of light crawling across their vision, they crumpled, unconscious, framed by the gaping hole in the wall.
Naruto slowly straightened up, dispelling his clones. He gave a small bow in the direction of the log and Inari heard he murmur, "May the will of the Log be done," before the blonde boy turned to face Inari, who realized the log was in the same spot that his mother had been not a minute before. Had Naruto turned his mother into a log? But just then, he heard a slight groan and whirled around to see his mother lying on the floor behind him, relatively unharmed.
"She's fine," Naruto said reassuringly. "But more importantly, you're fine. Really. You were going to try to save her, weren't you? All that talk about how futile resistance is, but when push came to shove, you decided to stand up for your family." He grinned, satisfied. "I should have known you had it in you."
Inari stared at Naruto, aware that he owed his life to the blonde ninja. He remembered the scorching scorn of the night before, and compared it to the grudging praise he was receiving now. To his horror, the small boy felt his face burn and his eyes fill with tears, which spilled out over his face. "Oh," he said. "And I promised myself I wouldn't cry anymore!" The tears fell faster.
"It's alright to cry when you're happy," Naruto said. The grin faded from his face. "But now I have to go after my idiot team. Gah! I wish they had waited for me! Anyway, Take care of your mother. She needs you more than she knows." Inari nodded, mopping at his eyes. When he next looked, Naruto had gone.
Kakashi led Sasuke, Oscar, Tazuna and Sakura towards the bridge, narrowing his eye against the thick, obstructive mist rising off of the water. A small breath of wind drifted across the ground before them, temporarily providing a clear view. The genin, Tazuna, and Kakashi drew up short, aghast. A dozen bloody figures littered the ground. Losing barely a moment, Kakashi flitted around, testing the vitals of the men on the ground, putting the one live one that he found on one side, not deterred from his search. When he had determined that the total number of survivors amounted to one, Kakashi took that one and leaned over him, speaking swiftly and intently. "Who did this?"
The man sputtered and choked, clearly nearing the end of his life. "A…monster…" Kakashi's head shot up, eye widening as the ominous mist rolled in once again. He rose to his feet, signaling for his team to close in around Tazuna.
"Brace yourselves," his voice was low and tight.
Sasuke stiffened, his subconscious perceiving the threat before his body. Then he noticed the hatred pouring in on him in a kind of heavy clotted coldness, though his surroundings did not change temperature. The fist in which his kunai was clutched began to shake and jerk violently. He gasped silently, a humorless grin stretching his face.
A voice almost as cold as the killing intent spoke, seeming to emanate from everywhere at once. "Poor boy. It seems that he still isn't ready to face true fear." The mist abruptly sank, thickening along the ground and allowing them the sight of about a dozen identical clones of Zabuza standing in battle-ready stances around them, penning them in.
Sasuke smirked. "You're mistaken. Why should I fear you? I was shaking with anticipation."
Kakashi eye-smiled. "Go to it, Sasuke." Sasuke bared his teeth in a grin and was gone from his place in the ring instantly, returning in time to pose while the clones around them shredded and dissolved into waves of water.
While Sakura looked on in admiration, Oscar rolled his eyes. "Double show off." Now that the clones were no longer obstructing the view, all of them immediately saw the two figures standing a few dozen paces away; Zabuza and the masked hunter-nin who had claimed his apparently dead body.
"Seems like I've found a new toy for you to play with, Haku," Zabuza growled, not even flinching at the destruction of his clones.
"Thank you master! I was starting to think it was going to get boring," the hunter-nin at his side snickered. She tilted her head to one side. "I'll admit that I'm almost impressed, even if water clones do only have one tenth of the original's power."
Sasuke's eyes latched onto the masked girl. He stepped forward, breaking the circle that he had held with his comrades. "Fight me," he said, baldly.
"If you want to so bad," Sasuke barely had time to swing his arm up out of the way of Haku's blade, shocked at how fast she could move.
Haku was equally surprised when Sasuke swung his own blade back up, making it graze the back of her hand and spilling a fine shower of her blood.
Kakashi glanced back over his shoulder. "Sasuke can handle the girl. You two guard Tazuna," and with that, the silver-haired man darted off. Sakura dutifully withdrew a few more kunai, settling into a fighting stance. Oscar hovered for a moment; Kakashi's orders clear in his mind, before setting his face into a look of determination and racing off to aid Sasuke, just as Haku, undaunted by her deadlock, began to form one-handed seals. She called out the name of the jutsu just as Oscar was about to reach them.
"Hijutsu, Sensatsu Suisho!(Special Jutsu; Flying Water Needles!) Oscar covered his eyes as the water under his sandals froze into tiny senbon-like slivers of ice and shot upward. Therefore, he missed Sasuke's escape from the onslaught. Sasuke jumped clear over it, breaking the deadlock and forcing Haku to slide back. She came up out of her crouch, just to feel the blow that Oscar landed on her shoulder from behind, knocking her down again and driving the breath out of her in a small hiss. She darted to her left, avoiding the kick that the dark boy threw at the back of her head. As she came up from her crouch, she was faced with several kunai, thrown by Sasuke, that threatened to lodge in her throat, and was forced to duck. Sasuke landed in front of her and proceeded to engage her in a rapid-fire tussle that lasted less than a minute but had both participants silently panting by the end. Fast, Haku thought, appraisingly.
Zabuza watched coldly. How could it be possible that Haku would come at worst in a contest of raw speed and skill? No matter. "Haku," he said, "I actually think that you will need to use that jutsu if we do not want to be driven back."
Haku nodded, putting up a casual hand to adjust her mask before forming a two-handed seal. "Hijutsu, Makyo Hyosho! (Special Jutsu, Demonic Ice Mirrors!)" Haku saw Sasuke's head whip around as the slabs of ice formed around him, hanging in the air. She noticed, even if he didn't, his dark-eyed companion slip in through the gap between two mirrors. Oscar took up his position, back to back with Sasuke. Anyone else watching would have thought this the perfectly natural thing for him to do, but Haku noticed the hitch in Oscar's shoulders, which showed his discomfort with the arrangement. Haku smiled beneath her mask and stepped forward, leaning into the mirror in front of her so that her image appeared on the surface that faced inward. She projected the same image to all of the mirrors at once, scaring and confusing the two genin in the center.
On the outside, Kakashi dove forward, but Zabuza blocked his path. "You don't think I'll let you interfere, do you? Let them fight it out and by the time Haku has put your students out of action, you will be too."
Meanwhile, inside the cage of ice, Haku drew a senbon, mimicked by her multitude of reflections. Oscar and Sasuke had a split second's warning, in which Haku teased them, only throwing a single senbon to graze Sasuke's arm. Oscar's eyes tried to follow the projectile, but it went so fast that all he could see was the blood seeping through Sasuke's sleeve. His eyes flicked to all of the reflections, ready to dodge. "Sasuke!" he said.
"I know." When the reflections drew back their senbon to throw, both ducked, coving their eyes and faces, drawing kunai in a vain attempted to deflect a few needles, before they were engulfed in a veritable storm of senbon. The screams of pain could be heard from outside the cage.
"Tazuna-san," Sakura said, voice tight. "Let me go for a moment." She dashed forward and threw a kunai, aiming for the mask of one of the reflections that was angled so she could see it. The reflection leaned forward, breaking the surface of the mirror-smooth ice and assuming three dimensions in time to catch the kunai. Haku was too absorbed in her own smugness to catch the slight whistling sound on her left. She couldn't fail to ignore it, however, when a shuriken sliced through the center of her mask, knocking her out of the mirror and causing her to crumple. She looked up to see a blonde-haired, blue-eye boy smirking at her.
"Now that I'm here, we'll kick your asses for sure!" Kakashi sweatdropped. Not an especially stealthy entrance… Without pausing to respond to the jibe, Zabuza sent a few shuriken flying just as Haku did the same with senbon. Naruto crouched, kunai in hand, expecting for both attacks to reach him at any moment, but was confused when the two collided, falling harmlessly to the ground.
Zabuza glared at Haku, who said, "I will take care of this child. Please grant me this." Zabuza stared for a second, before nodding wordlessly.
Naruto, meanwhile, had missed this exchange, instead running over to peer between the walls of mirrors. When he saw two of his teammates inside, he whispered, "I've come to help. Do you want me in there or should I fight from out here?"
Sasuke glanced up before going back to examining his wounds. "Stay there," he said in a low voice. "This place is a deathtrap. It's hard to fight from the inside, so you may be able to make more headway from there." Naruto gave a brief nod and vanished.
"I'm over here." The dark and the pale faces whipped around, spotting the image of Haku in the mirror. "Actually…" The voice came from a different mirror, "I'm here, too." Sasuke was bewildered. How could that girl have moved so fast? And without him detecting it, too…
Sasuke was scared for his life, but he was still going to try something. He drew in his chakra and formed a handseal. Glancing over, Oscar realized what was happening and threw himself flat as Sasuke called, "Goukakyuu no jutsu! (Grand Fireball Jutsu!)" A huge fireball practically filled the space, dramatically raising the temperature for a short time before the flames died out to reveal the ice smooth and untouched.
"It'll take more than that to melt this prison," Haku commented from above them, before flicking a few kunai at the pair. Oscar scrambled to his feet, bleeding and swearing under his breath. He stood back to back with his teammate once more, eyes playing over the mirrors while Sasuke did the same. "Are you trying to track me? I'm afraid it's impossible. Give up and I will bind you, but not kill you," Haku said.
"No," Sasuke said, and flicked his wrists, sending eight kunai flying; Oscar, a second late, sent his own kunai at the mirrors as well.
Haku bent her knees, her eyes on the projectiles. She spotted one headed for the her true form and sprang, bouncing from mirror to mirror, until she was sure that she had thoroughly confused the two genin, then she sent a barrage of senbon at them. She drew back, smiling under her mask. "My bloodline is the key to this jutsu. Because of it, I can move simply by reflecting my image from one mirror to another. You will not defeat me, but I will not kill you if you give up now." Her face hardened. "However, if you continue, you may become a threat to my master's plans, in which case, I will have no trouble personally putting a knife through your weak little bodies."
Outside, Zabuza caught the strains of Haku's words and realized that the end was nigh. His eyes latched onto Kakashi and noticed that the other had one hand up, ready to slide back the forehead protector and reveal the Sharingan. Zabuza plunged forward, arm outstretched, kunai held ready to cut out that Sharingan eye. Kakashi blocked…
Sasuke growled in frustration. He refused to believe that the ice mirror technique did not require a lot of chakra. She had to run out! And yet she showed barely a sign of exhaustion, let alone of chakra depletion. He looked down at Oscar, who appeared to be trying to make himself a smaller target be bending his knees slightly. The dark boy's eyes were flickering, bouncing from one surface to another as though trying to see in all directions at once. "Soon," Sasuke heard him breathe. "Just a brief-" Sasuke tensed, ready to dodge if necessary, only to feel a sharp, numbing pain in his knee. He looked down to see a senbon protruding from his knee. He reached down and dragged it out, gasping. It hurt more coming out than it had going in. He felt a tight grip on his ankle, heard the raged breathing and looked down to see Oscar lying face down, bleeding freely from more than two dozen puncture wounds in his back. Apparently, Haku had thrown many more than just the one needle. Oscar's brown eyes were still flickering, unrestful and slightly unfocused. "Don't do that," he said, still not looking at Sasuke.
"Do what?"
"Never mind! Concentrate!" Sasuke looked up to see more senbon flying and this time, they were aimed at vital points. He dodged, but only barely. His back arched at he felt several of the needles pierce his right arm and side. He retaliated by tossing kunai, but his aim was off and they just clattered harmlessly against the slabs of ice. He heard a whistling noise and dodged again, this time getting hit in the back. Nowhere life-threatening, but it still hurt like crazy. He spun around, eyes darting as Oscar's had been. This time, he was almost ready and only two senbon found their mark. He knew that he was by no mean winning, constantly reminded by the harsh ache in his muscles and the searing sting of his wounds. He needed a fast solution. He had to concentrate and see Haku's path. Focus. Dodge. Focus. And…there! He dove aside, dragging Oscar out of the way. He turned savagely and sent a knife flying, following it with his eyes. He knew he had aimed it right, though how he knew, he was not sure. Indeed, out of all of the attacks he had made, this one found its mark. It struck Haku's mask right along the fault line, cracking it deeper, forcing Haku to emerge completely from the mirror for an instant to pull it out. In that instant, Sasuke struck.
He slammed an elbow down on her shoulder hard enough to drop her to her knees. He then pulled a piece of wire from his pouch, wrapping it tightly around her throat. She struggled, gasping for air, but Sasuke stood on her wrists to keep her from removing the wire and she succumbed to unconsciousness.
Sasuke stowed the wire away, regarding his helpless foe. She had not wanted to kill him, so could he really find it in himself to kill her? He was alerted only by a cracking noise before he was pulled roughly aside. He looked back in time to see the ice mirrors collapsing. Tiredly, he saw that it was Oscar who had pulled him clear, and that the dark boy was also dragging the masked girl. "Why did you-" Sasuke was almost too tired to stay upright, let alone speak. Instead, he lifted one hand and pointed limply at Haku, idly observing the long needles still protruding from his arm as he did.
"I didn't want her to be crushed to death, did I? But now doesn't seem to be the moment. Here's Naruto."
Naruto was dashing over, blue eyes round and anxious at the state of his teammates, particularly Sasuke. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Are you okay? What can I do?" He looked properly into Sasuke's face. "Did you know that your eyes are red and black now?"
"Yeah, you should probably deactivate your Sharingan, Sasuke. It's draining your chakra and you need all of your energy not to pass out right now." Oscar directed his next words at Naruto. "Go and get Sakura."
As Naruto ran off, Sasuke sagged against Oscar, who pushed him upright impatiently. When he snatched a sideways look at Sasuke, to he saw the tired, grim smile. "What are you so happy about?"
"Have I really activated my Sharingan at last?" Sasuke asked.
"Yes. I probably wouldn't say that you had if you hadn't. Stop talking, you need to focus on staying conscious. And turn those off." As Naruto came running up with Sakura and Tazuna, Sasuke relaxed the flow of chakra to his eyes that he had not realized that he had been maintaining. He listened as Oscar gave Sakura his hurried instructions, "Don't touch the senbon unless you know how to remove them safely and keep him standing and out of harm's way at all costs. I'll take over guarding Tazuna, so don't worry about it." Sakura nodded and departed to find shelter, carefully leading Sasuke. "Naruto, you fill me in."
"Well, Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza are still fighting."
"Yeah, I can tell," the dark boy said sardonically, waving a hand toward the fighting men. "Kind of hard to miss. Anything else?"
"Well-" Naruto was cut short by a yell from his sensei.
"Raikiri! (Lightning Blade)!" Oscar sidestepped in front of Tazuna just in case, as the three of them watched a crackling aura of chakra appear around Kakashi's hand. Zabuza, almost invisible under the dog pile, still defiantly held up his sword. "Now you die," Kakashi declared.
"Well, Zabuza, is that true? Have I come all this way just to see you die? I suppose it's no loss. Even if I wasn't actually going to pay you, you proved yourself incapable of even the simplest mission." Kakashi and Zabuza turned, the former allowing the chakra gathered in his hand to be siphoned away. Gatou smiled coldly back at them, his amassed force of mercenaries glaringly obvious. He spoke to Kakashi. "By all means, kill Zabuza. Then I can have you killed."
The dogs that still draped Zabuza's frame dropped off and he straightened slowly. He glanced over at Kakashi. "Do you want some help?" the eyebrow-less man asked. "I was planning on it anyway."
"As long as you don't assume anything by it. The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend, after all."
"Of course. But Haku is unconscious and I'd really like to get out of here with my life."
"Well, I don't guarantee that, but you're welcome to help us. However, if you turn against me, if you betray any of us, I will not hesitate in killing you."
"Same here."
"Alright then."
Gatou had monitored the exchange with sneering indifference, before speaking, "You both talk as if you'll be able to take on my force. Fools. I will not allow it. Only you two will die today, and I'm making sure of it right now." He clicked his fingers and a dozen of the mercenaries stepped forward. With a slight grimace of effort, Zabuza formed a line of his water clones as Kakashi marshaled his summons. The battle commenced. After about two minutes of fierce fighting, Naruto joined in but had only managed to incapacitate one man before Kakashi ordered him to help protect Tazuna. After another minute, everyone suddenly froze, even Zabuza, who was within reach of Gatou himself. One of the men had sneaked out of the fray and returned dragging Haku's limp body. Zabuza could not take his eyes off of her. The man hauled her upright before pulling her mask off and slapping her hard across the face to bring her to.
When the mask had come off, Naruto's eyes had widened in recognition. The girl from the clearing! Had her precious person truly been Zabuza? He was brought back to the present by what the man holding Haku was saying. He now had a kunai held to her throat.
"I take it that this girl is something rather special, especially to you, Zabuza. Now, here are your three options; you can either try to kill that man in front of you," Zabuza's hands twitched in the air above Gatou's shoulder, "and I will slit this girl's pretty throat before you can even finish. Or you can surrender, and maybe I won't actually kill her in front of you."
Zabuza licked his lips. "What's the third option?" he asked, voice more than a little hoarse.
"Option three is you try to save your little girl, I kill her, I kill you, and Gatou lives to pay me that bonus he spoke about." The man grinned. "Your choice."
Zabuza's mind raced. He weighed the options. There were really only two. Kill Gatou and Haku would die, or try to save Haku and die himself. She wasn't very far away- but then he met Haku's clear, steady eyes, and knew that there was a third option. Hopefully, Kakashi would understand. Remaining perfectly still, he moved his eyes until he could see Kakashi, standing as frozen as he was. Apparently, Kakashi did understand. His hands were already coming together to form a seal. With any luck, he would choose right. There was pain in his eyes as he opened his mouth and blew hard, attracting the attention of those nearest. They barely had time to wonder about the floating black flecks of ash in the air,however, before Kakashi clicked his fingers, igniting the ash and seeming to release a truly catastrophic raging inferno, obliterating Gatou, Zabuza, Haku, her captor, and a good half of the remaining mercenaries.
There was a good twenty seconds or so of stillness while tiny fires flickered over the ground, playing across the charred and ashed remains. Kakashi swayed and all but collapsed, but luckily, the remaining handful of enemies ignored him for the most part. They were holding a whispered emergency council. Their employer was dead, so no one was getting paid. They had just come to the unanimous decision to loot the town, when Naruto, grinning and standing well back, drew their attention to the large angry mob of armed villagers standing on the bridge, ready to defend their town. Admittedly, many of them were all the more ready because they had found a force less than a third of the one they had been expecting. All the same, the expressions on those mercenaries' faces were a study as they cut and ran, diving into the water, thrashing and searching desperately for their boats. Inari beamed triumphantly from the head of the crowd.
A/N: okay, things to touch on- that jutsu that Kakashi used at the end was Katon: Haisekisho-Fire style: Ash Pile Burning. It was used by Asuma in Shippuden and here, Kakashi must have copied it earlier in order for my facts to check out.
Yes, Haku and Zabuza are dead and they probably won't reappear :(
The next chapter will probably be shorter and more relaxed and the next few dozen chapters will not adhere to canon :)
Yeah, please review...all that good stuff. Reactions are welcome!