Recently, I've gotten some confusion about the character growth. As to why Team Seven is so much stronger than their canon counterparts, I've always believed people have the capacity to learn whatever they damn well please. Add Kakashi's increased teachings, the use of Shadow Clones and its different variants, and you've got yourself a gold mine. Of course, Sasuke can't create nearly as many clones as Naruto, and Sakura can't create clones at all.

Chapter 8: Demon vs. Demon

The crystal ice mirrors surrounding Sasuke began to dissipate, confirming Haku's death. Sasuke held his throbbing arm. Kakashi had warned him before that performing a jutsu when haven't completely mastered can and usually will backfire. Sasuke's Chidori succeeded in killing Haku, but Sasuke was feeling acute stabbing pains in his arm, no doubt the after effects of an improper Chidori.

"Damn it. I didn't even need to use a Chidori, so why did I feel the need to use the strongest jutsu I have on someone who couldn't defend himself at the time?" Sasuke berated himself.

When Sasuke looked over to where the rest of his team was, he heard a distinct voice shout, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Sasuke had to cover his face because the wind was so strong. He couldn't help but smirk a bit.

'So he's finally decided to show up, huh?'

"Take it from me. You're no demon. Allow me to show you what a real demon can do." Naruto taunted while drawing his swords. "Hey Kakashi, you don't mind if I take a shot at this guy, right?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi seemed to think about it for a bit before nodding his approval with a smile. "You've made a lot of progress in such a short time. Besides, I let Sasuke fight his opponent on his own, so it's only fair I let you do the same. But if things take a turn for the worse, I'll have to interfere."

Zabuza appeared to be torn between being insulted or laughing in amusement. What he really wanted to do was kill the Uchiha for killing Haku, but now he had to deal with a child and afterwards, Kakashi. "Fine kid. I'll humor you." Zabuza said raising his sword.

Naruto started of by pointing one sword straight at Zabuza and channeling fire chakra to the blade and wind chakra behind it. Fire shot off the blade like a flamethrower straight at Zabuza. Zabuza used his massive sword as a shield and blocked the flame. Naruto burst stepped behind Zabuza and used his second sword to unleash a wind slash at Zabuza's back. Zabuza, sensing the attack, jumped into the air. Naruto flashed through hand signs and shouted, "Fire style: Fireball Jutsu!" A large fireball headed toward Zabuza, who's eyes widened in response.

Naruto smirked to himself as the fireball appeared to engulf Zabuza. His smirk fell when he sensed Zabuza behind him.

"Congratulations for defeating my water clone, kid." Zabuza mocked.

"You know, there's something I've been meaning to tell you since I got here. Gato's dead. I killed him, so you're not getting paid even if you do perform a miracle and beat us. You have no reason to fight us, but I'll still take you on anyway." Naruto stated darkly.

Naruto's teammates and even Zabuza seemed a bit shocked that Naruto managed to kill Gato, but ultimately, he didn't care. This fight stopped being about the monetary reward the second Haku was killed by the Uchiha.

"So? I'm still going to kill you and your teammates, brat. Nothing's changed." Zabuza declared as he jumped onto the surface of the water.

Naruto cursed to himself. Among all the things he's learned, water-walking was not one of them. Creating a dozen shadow clones, he ordered them to attack Zabuza. Each clone burst stepped and simultaneously attacked a different side. Zabuza expertly took them out, only receiving a few shallow cuts in the exchange. Zabuza created a line of water clones to guard him while he performed hand signs. Naruto sent more shadow clones at Zabuza, all the while, sending wind slashes at exposed water clones, dispelling them one by one.

Zabuza finished his hand signs and bellowed, "Water Style: Water Vortex Jutsu." The vortex blew through the water clones and headed for Naruto. Naruto created a line of clones and each of them performed the Wind Style: Great Breakthrough. Naruto, himself, blew a massive fireball from his mouth, that was enhanced by all the wind. The massive fire power was enough to evaporate the water. Steam was the result of the clash and it obstructed the two combatants from each other's view. Naruto decided to take advantage of the momentary blindness by commanding all of his clones to wrap an explosive tag around a kunai and throw it through the mist where they suspected Zabuza to be. Naruto channeled as much fire and wind chakra to his blade and swung it in a wide arc following the kunai. The flame from the sword detonated the tags and Naruto heard a massive explosion on the other side of the steam.

"We should start calling him the Elemental Swordsman from now on, huh?" Kakashi whispered to Sakura. Sakura nodded her head in response before footsteps caught her attention. She was met with the sight of Sasuke cradling his right arm.

"Sasuke are you alright? Why are you holding your arm like that?" Sakura questioned her crush.

"I'm fine. I defeated the phony tracker ninja with an imperfect Chidori. My arm is like this because of my own foolishness." Sasuke admitted, "How's Naruto doing against Zabuza?" Sasuke asked to no one in particular.

"He's doing pretty well. As soon as Zabuza steps foot on land, I suspect Naruto will finish the fight." Kakashi surmised. Sasuke and Sakura just watched on in interest.

"Think we got him?" One of the Naruto clones asked the original.

"Doubt it. He seems like the kind of stubborn bastard who just stay down." The real Naruto responded. Naruto's ears caught a subtle sound and suddenly he jumped to avoid a wide arc sword strike. His clones weren't so lucky.

"Not bad, kid. You almost got me there." Zabuza remarked holding up his sword. 'A long range battle with this kid will just end in more draws. I wonder how good his close quarters skills are.' Zabuza pondered.

Naruto decided not to respond, instead, he burst stepped behind Zabuza and used his sword as a makeshift flamethrower and shot it out at Zabuza. As predicted, Zabuza held up his sword to block the flame, so Naruto threw his second sword, charged with wind chakra, at the center of Zabuza's blade where the flame was hitting. Zabuza responded by swinging his sword out, blocking the sword, and jumping to the side. By doing this, Zabuza narrowly avoided having the wind chakra empowered blade go through his sword and him.

Naruto created a dozen clones and commanded them to burst step around Zabuza to disorient him. Zabuza was distracted with the clones, and the clones managed many shallow strikes all over Zabuza's body. The true purpose was to occupy Zabuza and allow Naruto to perform something he had been working on during his week of training: special clones.

Taking a bit longer than usual to create the clones, Naruto sent them out to reinforce the clones he had sent out before. Zabuza was fending off the attacks of the clones, occasionally taking a swipe at them and dispelling a few of them at a time, but when Zabuza hit the special clones, they exploded with powerful fire. One exploded on Zabuza's arm. His sword flew out of his grip and his arm was essentially disabled. Zabuza, in a final effort to get away from the clone barrage, quickly created a mist. Due to the number of clones around, Naruto's sense of hearing wasn't any help in finding Zabuza in the mist, so the time it took Naruto to blow the mist away again, Zabuza escaped the clone onslaught and regained his bearings.

Zabuza's created as many water clones as he could muster, and after producing the clones, he started to pant in exhaustion. The water clones did well in protecting him. Naruto's shadow clones and Zabuza's water clones occupied each other. Zabuza looked over to where Naruto was and was surprised to find that he was no longer there. Frantically searching the battle field, Zabuza sighted Naruto standing beside the kubikiribōchō. Anger flowed through his body as Naruto retrieved the sword from the ground and took a few test swings.

"Not a bad sword you got here. I think I'll take this with me. A dead man doesn't have much use for a weapon anyway." Naruto taunted with a smirk while pointing the rather large sword at Zabuza. Zabuza let his rage control him as he charged at Naruto with a kunai. As fast as his feet would take him, he sped over to Naruto. Naruto smirked and closed his eyes. Zabuza was just about to thrust his kunai forward when he felt something stop him in place. Two remaining shadow clones had latched onto him. Zabuza struggled against his captors, but it was fruitless.

"Let's test this sword out." Naruto bellowed as he channeled fire and wind chakra to the massive sword and slammed the sword onto the ground. A tornado of fire shot out from the sword and slammed into Zabuza, and subsequently, the clones holding him. The fire tornado engulfed him.

"I'm definitely keeping this sword." Naruto grinned as he looked down at his new weapon. He could never gather that much power in his twin swords. Though, he would have to consider having the sword reforged since the blade was considerably larger than his body.

Naruto looked to where Zabuza was after the attack cleared. The body was charred and barely recognizable. Naruto crinkled his nose in disgust. His ears twitched as he heard his teammates approaching. Kakashi praised him for defeating such a high level shinobi, Sasuke seemed to inspect his new weapon, and Sakura tried to look anywhere but the charred remains of Zabuza. Naruto hid it well, but he was fairly exhausted. The amount of fireballs, massive gusts of wind, fire blasts, wind slashes, clones, and burst steps he performed and created really drained him and his poor chakra control didn't help at all. His gaze trailed to his new sword and his mood brightened slightly. He was excited to discover what he could do with this powerful weapon.

Team Seven had said their farewells to Tazuna and his family. Inari had clung to Naruto with barely restrained tears and Naruto had been completely fed up with it, but he didn't give any outward sign of annoyance, though he didn't reciprocate any of the little boy's affections. Naruto did like to think he wasn't a total asshole to strangers, at least not the ones who don't treat him like a monster. The ones who do... Naruto growled to himself.

As Team Seven began their journey back to Konoha, they engaged in minor conversations about their thoughts on the mission, their progress in training, Naruto's new sword, and Kakashi mentioned Naruto's new title as the Elemental Swordsman, but Naruto slowly drifted away in his thoughts. He thought of what he really desired, he briefly thought of his team, he thought about the Kyuubi, about what his life was and could be, and then his thoughts returned to what he really desired. Naruto slowly realized that he didn't really know what he desired anymore. Revenge didn't seem as enticing, yet he certainly didn't want to be a protector of anything that had to do with Konoha.

'So where the hell does that leave me?' Naruto thought in frustration. Truthfully, he didn't know what he was fighting for anymore. Naruto sure as hell wasn't ever going to forgive Konoha for his dreadful childhood, but he didn't know if he truly wanted revenge. Naruto took a deep, relaxing breath, and reevaluated his thoughts. If he were honest with himself, Naruto wanted acknowledgement, but not for the reasons he wanted when he was younger. Now, he wanted to be acknowledged for his strength, nothing more and nothing less. 'Screw being a protector, or a revenge-driven maniac.' Naruto smirked, his resolve was clear. He would be the most powerful shinobi and he would be feared.

I guess I should explain Naruto's special clones. He channels fire chakra while creating Shadow Clones. When the clone is destroyed, it burst into flames.

Review if you wanna be a cool mofo. Sorry about the short chapter, by the way, but school work's gotta get done.