Burning Cherry Blossoms
By
Ragnorokrising
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Chapter Three: Enter Zabuza Momochi
The group slowly traveled down the road. Naruto had Senbonzakura's Shikai floating around the forest incase someone attacked them. Five clones were stationed on both sides of the woods as well. Sasuke was repeating the hand signs for Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu, incase he needed it, and Soifon had a hand on her jacket, ready to remove it.
A few hours in, they passed by a puddle on the ground. Naruto stepped in it to wash his feet off and dipped a dirty kunai in it as well. Once he was finished, he ran to catch up to the ground. From the puddle rose to men with slashed head bands. They each had a gauntlet on their arms, one had his on the left while his brother had his on the right arm.
They rushed forward, showing a barbed chain connecting their gauntlets. They wrapped the chain around Kakashi, surprising the group, and pulled on the chain. Kakashi exploded into debree. Naruto pointed at one of the brothers and the petals flew forward. He swiped at them with his gauntlet but that did nothing. Naruto moved his fingers in a complex pattern and spears formed.
"Burn in hell." the spears pierced him in eight directions. Then a final spear flew down the center of his head. Naruto held the handle up and Senbonzakura was resealed.
The other brother had to dodge a blast of fire from Sasuke. Soifon used this as a cover and rushed in, her jacket floating in the air. She shot through the air, some kind of black and gold stinger on her hand, and tapped the man on the chest, the forehead, and the arms. Everywhere she touched, black butterflies appeared. She stabbed the black butterfly on his chest and it turned gold.
The man screamed and fell dead. The stinger turned back into Soifon's sword, which she sheathed. She grabbed her jacket as Kakashi came out.
"You know you didn't have to kill them." they all just shrugged as Tazuna rocked back and forth on the ground, muttering gibberish. Kakashi picked him up by the collar. "Explain, now."
"My country has been taken over by an evil man named Gato. He bought all the ships and ports. Now every ones starving. My bridge will bring my country back from poverty and he wants to stop me." he said, all in one breath. Kakashi dropped him and turned to the Genin.
"Well, this is now a high A-rank or low S-rank mission. Do we continue, or go back to Konoha and get reinforcements?"
"We go on." Naruto said. "We took this mission, and no matter the rank, we continue with it. But from this point, we run." Sasuke and Soifon agreed with Naruto. Kakashi grabbed Tazuna and put him on his back. Then he started to run.
(Five Minutes Later)
Naruto suddenly stopped running, forcing them all to stop. Kakashi put Tazuna down and Naruto drew a shuriken. He tossed it into the bushes. A white rabbit jumped into the air and ran away. But now everyone was on edge. Soifon and Naruto started to draw their swords when a whirling sound reached their ears.
"Everybody down, now!" they hit the floor as a giant zanbato buried itself into the wood of a large tree. A man with gray and blue striped pants and no shirt appeared on the sword.
"Ah, Kakashi of the Sharingan eye. I always wondered what it would be like to fight you."
"Zabuza Momochi, demon of the Hidden Mist. You're a very high rated criminal in the bingo book." said Kakashi. Zabuza laughed, but then he heard the sound of swords being drawn. He looked at Naruto and Soifon. Senbonzakura melted as Naruto whispered the release command and Soifon's stinger re-appeared.
"Are those… what I think they are?" he whispered. "Where did you brats get Zanpakutou?" Soifon's eyes grew wide in horror.
"You, you're one of the seven that stole Zanpakutou from Soul Society!" Soifon yelled.
"And you are, little girl?" Soifon started to glow with a soft blue light.
"I am Soifon, captain of the Second Squad and leader of the Stealth Squad but you may call me Death." she burst forward but Zabuza disappeared right as the stinger pierced the tree. He reappeared on the water.
"So you want to play, do you captain? Fine then." he held the sword high over his head. "Then let's fight little girl." a spiral of dark green energy swirled around the sword. Soifon started to rise into the air as lightning crashed around them. A dark mist floated in and made visibility limited. Soifon flew into the mist.
Several explosions of light started to show through the fog. Each time, a silhouette of Soifon striking Zabuza's sword was revealed. Kakashi started to make a set of hand seals as clones of Naruto guarded Tazuna.
"Wind Style: Heavenly Gust." Kakashi exhaled and a green wind started to expand around him. The mist started to evaporate as the green wind started to expand around them. Soon they could follow Soifon and Zabuza's fight. Soifon did a roll into the air above Zabuza and grabbed the wrist of her right hand with her left. Energy startle to crackle around her palm.
"White Lightning!" she yelled. A burst of lightning slammed into the water and zapped Zabuza, who jumped into the air quickly and waved his sword across the air. A wave of water exploded towards Soifon. She dropped to some kind of invisible platform beneath her and jumped towards him. Her stinger hit his arm but he grabbed her and threw her as far away as possible. She skidded to a stop next to Naruto.
"Wait, let me fight him Soifon. You're getting tired." said Kakashi. He pulled up his head band to reveal a red eye with three spinning tomoe. Sasuke gasped as Kakashi dashed across the water to a surprised Zabuza and did a round house kick. Zabuza took the hit and turned into water.
The real Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and stabbed him through the gut. He flung the body across the air to a tree, where he appeared. He swung his sword down and cut through Kakashi again. However, Kakashi turned to water and splashed against the forest floor.
Kakashi placed both feet on top of Zabuza's back and pushed him down into the water. Zabuza skid across the blue to a stop. He jumped back quickly as a ball of lightning flew from Kakashi's hand.
"Not bad Kakashi. Your reputation precedes you. But I was having more fun with the brat." Kakashi smiled and started making hand signs. Zabuza was doing the exact same hand signs in time with Kakashi.
"Water Style," they yelled together. "Water Dragon Jutsu." two huge reptilian beasts flowed into the air and attacked each other. They exploded into water and momentarily blocked Kakashi and Zabuza from view.
When they could be seen again. Kakashi had pulled a dagger out of some hidden pocket. A white chakra flowed around it. The dagger was pushing Zabuza steadily backwards to the point that he was almost past the shoreline.
"My students aren't the only ones with Zanpakutou. This is my family sword. It's been in its Shikai form for over a hundred years as it was passed from family member to family member." Kakashi kicked Zabuza's feet out from under him but the ex-Mist ninja landed on his feet with his sword in a reverse grip and swung the weapon towards Kakashi, who jumped onto the blade and used it as a spring board.
Zabuza stood up and brought the sword so far back it was behind him. Kakashi's eyes grew wide and he crossed his arms and the dagger in front of his face. Zabuza brought his sword from behind him and slammed it into the ground again, yelling "Howl to the blood moon, Kubikiri Houcho!" a long fissure ran into the water, which started to boil a strange green color.
Suddenly the water exploded and a giant wolf the size of a house came running towards Kakashi. Soifon appeared above the thing's back and stab it there twice. It exploded into golden water and fell back to the pond. Naruto, Sasuke, Soifon, and Kakashi, three of them with Shikai activated, surrounded Zabuza, who was lying against a tree.
"Can you…see the future?" he asked them.
"Yes, we can." said Soifon.
"And your future…" started Kakashi.
"Is death!" hissed Naruto. Senbonzakura started to flow forward but two long needles flew into Zabuza's neck.
"I'm sorry to stop your kill, but I've been looking for this man for a long time." they all turned to the speaker. A ninja dressed in a battle kimono and a mask with the Mist symbol on it dropped down next to Zabuza.
"Its okay everyone." said Kakashi. "It's just a hunter-nin here to get Zabuza's body." the hunter-nin bowed and disappeared with Zabuza's body and sword.
"Well, that was…fun." said Soifon. She and Kakashi smiled at each other. Naruto instantly knew something was wrong. He made a clone and get in front of Soifon while the clone stepped in front of Kakashi. They fell into the open arms of the Narutos and blacked out.