…without further ado, Naruto slit the man's throat.
It was only then, of course, as Gato lay there at his feet with his already-gray skin paling further as blood escaped from his death-wound, that the clones he had sent to Haku and Sasuke decided to dismiss themselves and make it known that the two boys were making their way to intercept a possibly dangerous group by themselves.
Which, by the way, Gato could have told him (read: been forced to tell) the whereabouts of.
Fuck!
16
Naruto panicked, and as he did, cut his own bloody swath through the enemy back to Kakashi.
"Sasuke and Haku went after the back-up team." He shouted once he was close enough. "Find Zabuza! I'll take them all out at one time!" He was mad enough not to care that he'd wouldn't be able to help fight anymore after he did it, though. But then again, two Jounin should be able to handle the rest. Hopefully.
"What are you planning?" He heard Zabuza ask in a rough voice. He turned to see the man's approach out of the corner of his eye. Zabuza wasn't even out of breath and barely had a scratch on him.
"Watch and see. Hold them off for a second." Naruto said, backing the group up so that they were on the edges of the battle zone. It seemed that most of the mercenaries didn't even realize where their targets were, but were just waiting for their turn. For a moment he wondered when they'd realize their boss was dead, then he turned his attention inward, not paying attention to anything but Kyuu.
I need you to push your chakra against the seal.
Are you sure?
No, but this will happen sooner or later. It might as well happen now and let us make sure Sasuke stays alive.
…Alright. Kyuu sounded unsure, and worried, but she agreed with Naruto.
He visualized Kyuu's seal. It was no longer in the waterlogged sewer it had been in his childhood, but rather something like a wooden cage that held high-standing officials and daimyo. But then again, it was still a cage.
The seal itself lay on a square of wood in the middle of the cage, the fine rice paper only just beginning to crumble at the edges. He materialized a kunai into his hand and moved closer to the seal.
I only need a little chakra. We can finish it later, alright?
Alright.
Naruto then used his kunai and poked it into the center of the seal, leaving a small hole. Nothing happened for a moment and then…
As if the chakra had been flushed into his system, pain washed through him, and his body burned with Kyuu's chakra.
Immediately, he exited his mindscape and pushed his hands together. Consciously keeping the pain from his voice, he shouted to his teammates, who had taken up guarding positions for him. Sakura was already at his back, but Kakashi and Zabuza were right in his line of fire.
"Move behind me!" Naruto warned. The two men both jumped at the suddenness of his voice, but after exchanging looks, they did as he said.
So far, the mercenaries had been too wide spread for any kind of jutsu to be used with any real effect, but if he was willing to burn up his chakra, he could take the remaining hundred or so out in one go. He took a dear moment to muse at how glad he was he'd created so useful a jutsu, then he gathered his chakra.
"Kaze Kakuheki!" He shouted the name this time, as the burning chakra left him rapidly. His wind barrier encircled the entire width of the bridge, and even a bit further, starting inches in front of him and extending outwards in a circle. Even to him it was impressive; he rarely ever made it so large. It was semi-visible even though it was nearly translucent, extending upwards of twenty feet. It encircled the mercenaries and he allowed the walls to moderately slice at the skin and clothes of those who were foolish or daring enough to touch it, once again allowing it to slowly close in upon its captives.
Once the wall corralled them into a tight circle, he used his other jutsu, Kuuhaku, to suck to air from the barrier. He was unwilling to create a massacre in front of Sakura's young eyes, and while he had other jutsu he could use to capture, he didn't want to reveal his knowledge of them. So he used ones he knew Kakashi and Sakura already knew he knew and decided to wow Zabuza while he was at it.
So complicated, this time-travel thing.
He released both the jutsu once he was sure all the mercenaries were unconscious and he backed against the side of the bridge, breathing hard, watching the mercenaries fall to the ground bonelessly, one at a time. He had never focused Kyuu's chakra in this body, and it left his nerves tingling unpleasantly. He felt sick.
He heard a whistle. "Damn kid. That was a pretty interesting sight. Now I really want to know the details."
Naruto figured Zabuza was talking about his offer and he was glad that the man had enough sense to not speak about it in front of Kakashi and Sakura. Although Kakashi knew the gist of the deal already, he didn't want to have to explain anything more than he had to. He just allowed his lips to smirk in mild amusement at the man's compliment. When he didn't say anything in response to Zabuza, though, the quietest member of the group so far spoke up.
"Naruto? Are you okay?" He heard Sakura ask. He sighed and straightened up.
"Yeah, fine. We need to find Sasuke and Haku. Fast."
"Where did they go, anyway?" Zabuza asked with a growl.
"They left to find the back-ups my clone told you about." Naruto said, taking a soldier pill from his pouch. He grimaced. He hated the pills; they made you feel like you had energy when you really didn't, and there was hell to pay when they wore off. But he needed the energy now. He swallowed the pill and waved his hand at the group. He only hoped they'd find the two boys before something else happened.
xXx
Sasuke had been surprised at the initial movement of the wires. He'd been dodging them with all his focus for the last few minutes and could still barely see them, but he'd found that when he focused completely, when he ignored all other sounds and happenings around him and focused in on only the enemy and weapon in front of him, he could see the glint of the wire just a little bit easier.
The man in front of him seemed to be growing more anxious. Maybe he'd heard the gradual decrescendo of his men's voices from across the clearing. Maybe he'd never had an opponent last this long. Sasuke didn't care. He focused only on the man and his weapon.
His eyes itched as he parried the wire and wove around trees to close in on his opponent. His kunai gained another chip in the metal, but he managed to keep it from fracturing totally this time; he'd had to throw four down already in their ruined states.
The whistle of the wire met his ear yet again, along with the splintering, snapping sound of live wood being separated at its trunk. Next to him, the tree he taken shelter behind began to tilt towards him. He dove away from his would-be shelter just as the wire shot through the rest of the tree's bark. Had he stayed in place, he would have lost his head.
"Stay still, would ya', ya' brat!" The man had steadily gained more and more slang in his speech patterns. Sasuke suspected that his strategy was wearing the man's nerves down. In response to the man's statement, Sasuke pulled a paper bomb out and threw it at the man. Following the bomb were two shuriken attacked to a length of Sasuke's own razor wire, a variation on the same attack he'd used on one of the ninja that had been with the Demon Brothers.
As the bomb exploded in the man's face, Sasuke waited for his wires to pull tight and for the smoke to clear, but nothing happened. Having half-expected as much, Sasuke dropped the wire from his teeth and dove, once again, to the side. As his opponent's wire ripped through his bomb's smoke, Sasuke cursed and darted forward, hoping to catch his enemy unaware while his sight was still somewhat impaired.
Instead, he was thrown back by the explosion of what he guessed was the enemy's own bomb.
Sasuke's back hit a tree, knocking the breath out of him and causing his vision to swim at a hard knock to his head. After a second, his vision cleared and the man stood not ten steps from him.
"You're good, kid. Ya really are. But you're just a genin, right? It's ta' be expected. No hard feelin's, 'k? A man's gotta make his money." The man seemed to be breathing hard, but Sasuke couldn't tell how much chakra, or even just regular energy, the man had left. Without moving more than an inch, Sasuke slid his thumb into the ring of another kunai, disguising the movement with a harsh breath.
"You're going to go after the others on the bridge, aren't you?" he asked to gain time.
"Ya. But I don't see why it should matter. You won't care in a minute, anyways." The man grinned lopsidedly. It wasn't attractive. Sasuke smirked.
"I beg to differ." He replied in a low voice, just as he drove his feet deep into the ground. Instead of running straight at the man, which is what he would expect, Sasuke dove to his left, pulling the kunai from his sleeve. He spun it so that he was holding the blade in his hand and, getting a good grip on it, lashed his arm out in a wide circle, from right to left.
What the man hadn't seen before, or what Sasuke hadn't let him see, was that one of the wires attached to the shuriken he'd thrown earlier was also attached to the ring of the kunai in his hand, allowing Sasuke to retrieve the wire and shuriken any time he wished. Or, when he preferred, whip the wires around to latch on to his opponent's body and use the shuriken to dig into flesh and get a nice, good grip.
He aggressor cried out in surprise and at the sudden pain, dropping his own wire. Sasuke pulled hard on his wire and the man was thrown off-balance into a tree to his left. Mute, from shock, the man stared at Sasuke with slowly widening eyes. Sasuke smirked grimly.
"That's what you get for bringing stupidity to a ninja fight. You should learn to not underestimate others." Was all he said before he sent sparks of flame-filled chakra down his wire. "Ryuuka no Jutsu!" he said aloud and, in return for all the 'kid' comments, Sasuke let the man roast for a little while longer than was absolutely necessary.
He almost felt like he'd cheated. His brother, Itachi himself, during the few times he'd actually trained his little brother personally, had thoroughly taught Sasuke how to use razor wire and how to combat it. He knew how to use wire as a weapon better than most ninja knew how to use kunai. So, while he knew he wouldn't have been a match against someone that skilled in another weapon specialty, this man had had the bad luck of meeting Sasuke for an opponent. He, reluctantly, had his brother to thank for that.
As he gathered in his surroundings and let his wire loose, Sasuke wearily slid down the tree trunk his back was intimately familiar with after being blown back against it. He could see that Haku was almost done, and was just picking off the last of his targets.
Sasuke wondered if Haku had slowed down, because he didn't have much of a problem following the other, older boy's movements. He certainly hadn't gotten used to them. After the first, initial glance at Haku's technique, all his focus had been on his own fight.
He winced as a headache began to pulsate behind his eyes. Dropping his gaze, he traced the line of the wire he'd dropped. He followed its curving path towards its arrogantly foolish victim. He didn't really see the man, but rather, he saw the time his brother had taught him the Dragon Fire Technique. And he remembered the ease with which he understood Itachi's patient explanations, over those of their father's. He remembered all his complaining every time his brother flicked his forehead and left to do "ninja stuff".
He shook his head.
No. He hated Itachi. Why should his brother keep such a special place in his memories? But then, why, why couldn't he summon that indelible hatred anymore? He could feel that biting anger. Oh, yes. He could still feel that much, running rampant through his veins, but…
No hatred.
He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. Ever since he'd befriended Naruto, or since Naruto had befriended him, he hadn't been able to wall his feelings up entirely anymore, and he felt like his hatred had escaped.
Yet…
He couldn't bring himself to mind all that much.
xXx
The next time he opened his eyes, he realized he must have slept for a bit. Not long, obviously, since he hadn't been woken by anything in particular. But, as he looked around, he saw that his opponent had been added to a neatly stacked pile. As he turned to his right and pulled himself to one knee, he was met by the sight of Haku's face, inches away from him.
He yelped (a squeak would never be said to pass the lips of an Uchiha), and fell backwards again. Haku's lips quirked into a small smile. He stood and offered his hand to the shocked Uchiha.
"Come on. We should go back soon. I was just about to wake you." The boy said.
Sasuke blinked and nodded, putting out his hand and grabbing for Haku's.
"How long was I…uh, asleep?" Sasuke asked embarrassedly as he was pulled to his feet, knowing he should never have let his guard fall so low.
"Not long, maybe five minutes. You looked like you hadn't slept well for a while, so I let you be while I tied them up."
"Ah, okay. Thanks." Sasuke nearly mumbled.
"You're welcome." Haku let the matter rest, thankfully.
They set off at a brisk pace to get back to the bridge, but they barely managed to make it to the edge of the clearing before Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, and Zabuza burst into it.
xXx
Kakashi watched Naruto very carefully as they made their way away from the bridge to find their two missing boys. The blond looked about ready to drop, and Kakashi had to remind himself that the only thing Naruto had trained back to even close to his original skill was his taijutsu. His chakra reserves, although of a monstrous size for his age, were nowhere near the reserves that could handle the level of jutsu he'd just performed.
The man-turned-boy must be very close to dropping from chakra exhaustion, especially after summoning even more shadow clones to take care of the scene on the bridge. Kakashi had objected, but Naruto had waved him off and the copy-ninja couldn't very well offer his own clones; they would be of no use since they weren't actually solid. And he couldn't create Shadow Clones either because, whatever he said, his own reserves still weren't actually replenished from his first fight with Zabuza.
So he settled with just watching Naruto for now. And he kept an eye on Zabuza as well, because until the hokage said something about it, he wouldn't act just on Naruto's word, regardless of how fond he'd grown of the blond in the past month and a half.
Naruto was still breathing a bit too hard by the time they'd left the bridge a while behind. They were jogging, following the trail the boys had sloppily left behind. It wasn't as if they'd had any reason to cover their tracks, but Kakashi mumbled under his breath about carelessness and he heard Zabuza doing the same.
Soon, the sickly-sweet, metallic scent of blood hit their noses and they increased their pace. Not a minute later found them busting through yet another layer of undergrowth and straight into a clearing marred by destruction. There were more than a few trees that had been knocked from their figurative feet, and there was a practical pyramid of ninja that had been built at the end of the clearing that was furthest away from them.
In the middle of the clearing, however, stood Haku and Sasuke. Kakashi would not lie and say he did not sigh in relief to see the both of them alive and well. He'd seen Haku cover Sasuke's back just as many times as he'd seen his student do the same back on the bridge. The two of them were looking only a bit worse for wear, although Sasuke looked much more tired than he had before.
Kakashi's attention, thusly satisfied that his student was well, was then turned to his companions. Zabuza looked about ready to rip Haku a new one for wandering off without his say-so, since he'd ensured the boy's well-being. However, being in front of strangers, he withheld his lecture. Sakura looked like she was about to cry from the relief of finding Sasuke alive and Naruto…
Well, Naruto just looked like all the strength had drained out of him in one go. When Kakashi looked closer, he could see the blond's pupils were dilated.
The boy suddenly heaved a great sigh. He slowly trudged the few paces that separated him and Sasuke, gaining everyone's eyes and attention. Then he slid his arms around the surprised Uchiha, hugged him tightly, and promptly passed out.