Naruto ducked as the huge head-cleaving sword swung around from out of the few swirls of mist remaining and embedded itself deep into the pillar, just above her head, and launched forward into a flurry of kicks that the opposing Jounin easily blocked before grabbing her by the arm and swinging her into the pillar with a bone-breaking crunch. She smiled at the Water Clone and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Zabuza -or the clone- barely had time to respond as sharp root spikes emerged from the smokecover the Shadow Clone left, trying to impale him. He jumped up high and held onto one of the pillars as the smoke cleared to see that the roots had come from another of the earth protrusions. The little blonde was using Shadow Clones to figure out where he was, then sending out roots that had grown inside her team mate's earth spikes. Clever.
The Clone-Zabuza's eyes narrowed as the pillars around him seemed to blur in the mist. He stepped back to the ground and hauled Kubikiribocho from the stone. He casually backhanded the pink girl that tried sneaking up on him from the pillars behind, swinging around wide with the greatsword and using all his strength to cleave through a ring of the earth spikes around him. They creaked as they slid against each other, before falling out against more of their fellows, leaving him in a ring of short stone 'stumps' and a clear area where it'd be impossible to sneak up on him from.
From the cardinal directions, he discovered, as the ground gave way below his feet in an eruption of blondes, smiling as they all reached for him. Kubikiribocho swung down into the group of clones to devastating effect and the small clearing he'd created exploded in smoke as they were forcefully dispelled. He used the sword to change his own position in midair as it embedded in the ground, spinning around to grab the black-haired brat's wrist above the kunai he'd been attempting to stab into the back of his neck.
The Water Clone ruthlessly wrenched the brat around by his arm and slammed him into the three feet of blade still sticking from the ground where Kubikiribocho was stuck. The brat's skin split cleanly in a diagonal crimson line from one shoulder to the opposite hip before there was another eruption of smoke and the sound of a split log hitting the ground resounded. He was a little too busy dealing with the above threat to notice that the few clones he hadn't taken out with the downward swing of his sword were still moving. Zabuza turned around to see the raven-brat and blonde one together in the hole the clones had made, just finishing a set of Hand Seals, "Fire Surround!"
The Zabuza clone fled into the pillar forest with the speed of a Jounin as the great wave of fire engulfed the clearing in a huge blaze of crimson flames that licked towards the sky.
"Earth Spikes!"
The pinkette's original Jutsu wasn't very refined, her 'spikes' were instead dull, nearly flat-topped pillars. Her second usage of it was not nearly so amateur as the first had been, the squared-off spikes of earth jutting from the pillars locking against each other perfectly in an earthen coffin of death, conical roots shooting from the secondary spikes themselves in an inescapable cocoon. The clone wasn't above the basics as the Genin seemed to think him, easily locking onto the signature of his Kubikiribocho and Substituting with the blade to get away.
He was, however, surprised not to find himself back in the clearing he'd created, but in another part of the stone forest. He snarled behind his wrappings and spread out his senses, feeling one of the brats close by. He disappeared in a blur of speed above the unsuspecting Genin and drove his fist into the pinkette's throat with a savage snap of the pest's neck, the green eyes widening in surprise even as the life faded from them.
He almost wanted to laugh at the wave of Killer Intent that came from behind him and turned around, his smile hidden behind the bandages as the blonde stepped out from behind one of the pillars. "Are you done playing, now, brat?"
"You call us fake shinobi. Well what does that make you, Clone?" Deep, angry, storm-blue eyes glared up at him and she rested her hand against the closest pillar, "Die, false-ninja!"
The area around wavered and the ground gave out under him. The Zabuza clone found himself back inside the same hole the blonde's Shadow Clones had caused earlier, only now the entire thing was filled with tiny strips of paper. His eyes widened as every tiny piece of confetti lit up yellow.
The force of the explosion was enough to shake the very earth, pillars screeching as sharp shards of stone grated against each other and the surrounding spikes.
On one side of an earthen cylinder, blue eyes popped open. With a small poof of smoke, the pillar turned into Naruto and she cautiously went to inspect the ground where she'd laid her trap. The hole in the ground had evolved into a crater, roots laying exposed and smoldering, the wet ground steaming from the heat of the explosion.
She had just enough time to widen her eyes and spin around in place as she was hit, tumbling into the crater and fighting for her life as a new Zabuza attempted to get a hold of her and break her neck. He did get a grip on her left arm and his eyes spoke murder as he bore down on it in a crushing grip she had no hope to counter.
Naruto's head threw back in instinctive reaction as she felt her arm snap, her pained scream echoing through the stone forest she'd helped create, bouncing from pillar to pillar. The Water Clone reached for her exposed throat with his free hand and the ground below them erupted, a swarm of other Narutos springing up to hug him and drag her underground.
"Shit, shit, shit! Aaagh!"
Sakura winced in sympathy, "I'm so sorry, Naru."
She ground her teeth, "Forget it. just to be expected dealing with an enemy J-Jounin... right?"
"You can't fight like this."
"I have to. Lash it to my side and let's go. Sasuke won't be able to hold him off long."
"Naruto-"
"Lash it. To. My side."
The Zabuza clone laughed as he blocked the rain of fire with Kubikiribocho, "Angry, huh? Good, hold onto that hate and come at me. Did you hear as her bones snapped in my hand? How far away were you when she screamed, boy? Did you see the way her face twisted in pain?"
Sasuke's dark eyes went cold and he blurred through his seals again, "Fire Style: Fire Surround!" The eight large fireballs didn't get the chance to spin out into a ring of fire because the Genin immediately launched into another set of Seals, "Fire Style: Fire Snake Jutsu!"
Zabuza's manic grin could be seen right through his bandages, "Water beats fire, brat." Time to show the upstarts just what a real ninja could really do. His hands moved so quick they blurred, "Water Style: Grand Geyser Jutsu!" The ground once again rumbled, but on no part due to the Genin, the underground rivers flowing below the surface responding to the Jounin's demand. The ground cracked around them under the pressure of the water below.
The black-haired brat stumbled but kept his footing as the earth finally gave way and huge geysers of water erupted, displacing stone pillars and soaking them both as it rained back down on them. The living flame the boy had been manipulating dying with a fierce, snake-like hiss as it drowned.
Zabuza's hands never stopped moving as he slid smoothly from one Jutsu to another, "Water Style: Clash of the Whirling Tides!" The already shin-deep water surged upward, waves created by his chakra crashing together and catching the brat up in their implacable hold. The dark-haired Genin gasped futilely as he was caught in the tides, opposing whirlpools forming around the Zabuza Clone, the miniature ocean he'd created easily picking up broken stone pillars and crashing them against those still standing with great cracks like thunder, the Genin crying out in pain as the force of the tides slammed him into one of the remaining pillars as well, dark eyes going wide as the broken remains of one of his own allies' stone spikes was sent on a collision course for him.
The crunch\crack! of impact was highly satisfying in itself- if it hadn't been for another damnable poof of smoke that was barely perceptible above it.
Zabuza's eyes narrowed as he spotted the boy on the top of one of the pillars, hacking up the water he'd swallowed. With a scowl hidden by his bandages, he held his arm out, the tides answering him and rushing toward the brat in a single grand wave. Then, at the height of its power, the wave- stopped.
The Zabuza clone frowned and tried to pull at the water. It was like digging at concrete with his bare hands. He turned around to see the blonde with her pink-haired team mate (alive?!) behind him. The small blonde's whole body glowed with the amount of chakra she put out, chakra that flooded out through all the water he'd summoned and held it unmoving, frozen in place and time.
Her eyes fairly crackled with the force of her chakra, "Yeah: I am done playing. Sasuke!"
With a blur and pop of smoke, the dark-haired boy was at her side in less than a second and his left hand moved perfectly in time with her uninjured right, "Fire Style: Heat Wave!" The water surrounding them all, already saturated with the girl's chakra, began to glow white. The clone had only an instant to watch the tell-tale poof as the three Substituted away, the moment the blonde was no longer in contact with the water causing it to move- and the world exploded in steam.
Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were unprepared for the sheer power in their explosion, the superheated steam blasting away every pillar that was still standing- including the ones they were taking cover behind. Sakura's ears popped painfully from the percussion as she was thrown through the air. The pillar crashed down with a bone-jarring thud near by as she hit the ground and slid through a muddy slurry from her Earth Spikes and the Clone's Water Style Jutsu.
Sasuke had the wherewithal to Substitute at the last moment with the partial remains of one pillar, landing in a crouch not far from Sakura, covered head to foot in blossoming bruises and cold mud, blood trickling down his back from the diagonal cut he'd gotten earlier in the fight.
Naruto sailed through the air and hit the water with barely-diminished momentum, skating across the surface like a thrown skipping stone, sound splashes marking when she made contact with the water surface. She sank into the actual lake, not far from Kakashi and the real Zabuza, both watching what had been the shore with wide eyes.
Zabuza laughed, "Those are some Genin you've got there, Kakashi! Too bad they just weren't quite-" He cut himself off and pulled his arm from the Water Prison just in time to avoid spear-like shoots of waterweed impaling his arm from below the surface of the water.
A moment later, Naruto's blonde head popped up and she beamed even as she struggled to stay afloat with only one arm, "YATTA! Mission 'Rescue Kakashi-sensei': Complete!" The growling reigned in her excitement, Zabuza's blood dripping into the water from a shallow gash where he hadn't pulled his arm back quite fast enough to avoid all of her spears. He pulled the zanbatou from his back and moved for her, the great sword arcing down towards her head.
CLANG! Kakashi stood next to Naruto in the water, helping bolster her hold on the blocking... flower staff? "Naruto, that was very quick thinking. I applaud your team work, but I am curious..."
"The flower staff?" She asked.
"The flower staff." He confirmed.
"Did you know there are lotus flowers in this lake? They're all below, though. I think Zabuza was waiting for us here and raised the water-level of the lake before we got here. There are all sorts of good plants down there." Her gaze moved to the enemy Jounin attempting to cleave them in two, eyes closing on a foxy grin, "This staff may be made from a simple water flower, but it's stronger than steel." Saturated so completely with her chakra, the stem of the white lotus stood straight as a senbon and twice as strong. The bed of plantlife under her feet kept her from sinking deeper into the lake as she held out against the zanbatou- thanks mostly to Kakashi-sensei's strength and hold since she was still working with one arm.
Straining against the opposing force, Kakashi-sensei spared a moment to eye-smile at her, "I'm very proud of all of you."
Zabuza glared daggers at them, "I got distracted and lost my grip on the Water Prison-"
"Don't flatter yourself." Kakashi cut him off, "You were forced to let go. Your technique worked on me once, but it won't work again. So... What's it gonna be?"
Sakura and Sasuke pulled themselves up and fell into defensive stances, on the watch for more clones. Zabuza's muscles tensed as he put more effort into breaking their guard. Kakashi groaned at the effort of keeping the huge blade held back while Naruto sank several inches into the water, her woven plants below not solid enough to keep her up under the extra force.
"Naruto." Kakashi's voice came out strained, "Could I... borrow this for a minute?"
She had never tried to keep up a chakra connection to plants when she was no longer touching them or the earth. She could probably manage it- maybe. If she focused hard enough. She closed her eyes to better keep the feeling of the Lotus Staff, and slowly, one by one, uncurled her fingers from it. Her hand fell away and there was no pain, so she supposed it must have been working, but she could feel the strain of keeping it up when she wasn't touching. "Sure thing." Her own voice came out rough, and low, "Hurry, please."
"I will." With a deep grunt of effort, Kakashi let the staff tilt, the zanbatou sliding down toward the flower head, then heaved the opposite direction, twisting Zabuza's wrist and forcing him to let go of the handle. Without wasting a single movement, Kakashi spun the huge blade around the staff and sent it spinning away across the lake to sink below the surface.
The staff was dropped as well as Kakashi and Zabuza both jumped back away from each other. Naruto opened her eyes with a sigh of relief when she no longer had to hold the staff and it wilted like the simple plant it was, floating upon the surface of the lake before her.
Naruto watched in awe as Kakashi and Zabuza began going through Hand Seals at the same time, "Ushi, saru, u, ne, i, tori-" She lost track after the sixth Seal, and they both just kept going. They flicked through the Seals almost too fast to say them, the whole sequence (she estimated some thirty-plus) taking only about fifteen seconds, twenty on the outside. They ended together: "Tori! Water Dragon Jutsu!"
Twin dragons rose up behind the opposing Jounin and twined around one another in a beautiful -and deadly- display. The serpentine bodies wrapped around each other, biting and clashing, and ultimately destroying one another in a great rush of water. Naruto yelped as the wave of the dying water-constructs swamped her and pushed her under, tumbling and rolling ways that jostled her broken arm and made her bite her lip clean through to avoid sucking in a mouthful of water.
She washed up next to the shore- or what was left of it after the fights with geysers and water dragons, and hacked up the water that had managed to work its way into her lungs despite her attempts to the contrary.
She wasn't able to hold in her yelp that time as Sasuke pulled her up out of the water by the back of her jacket. The yelp was as much due to surprise as it was Fucking PAIN my arm is broken you bastard ow! She'd have throttled him if he wasn't the only thing holding her upright. She watched through watering eyes as the Jounin circled each other, "Should-" her breath was taken away by a throb from her arm, "Should we help...?"
Sakura was the one who answered, shaking her head, "We'd just get in the way."
It was a bitter truth, but they swallowed it and watched the final clash as Kakashi outmaneuvered Zabuza, "Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!"
Sakura raised them up on a small pillar of earth that was all she could manage with her own chakra as they watched the confrontation.
xxx
I didn't feel the need to write anymore, since beyond this point it's basically the same as it was in canon: Zabuza losing, Masked Hunter Nin taking him out, Kakashi fainting, ect. Barring plucking Tazuna from the ground like a daisy, nothing else new, and I didn't feel like transcribing what we all already know.
XXX