key:
"talking"
'justu'
thinking
"flashback"
nonhuman
Bridge of Heroes
"Heh, we both… made it to the top," Naruto panted whiling leaning against an annoyed Sasuke for support. They had finally succeed in climbing to the top of their respected trees, the day before the big battle.
"Alright, starting tomorrow both of you will also help protect Tazuna," Kakashi smiled at the worn out boys.
"Why do you guys even bother! If you go up against Gato's men you'll be killed for sure!" Inari shouted out of no where, over the table toward Naruto with tears pouring out of his eyes.
"Stop being such crybaby, you idiot!" Naruto growled at the boy. With that, Inari got up and left the room, and Kakashi quickly followed. Sakura kept her eyes on the door, knowing at that moment her sensei was explaining Naruto's situation to the boy.
The next day Naruto overslept, and had a rude awakening once he realized that his team had left him behind. Thankfully, being left behind meant the boy was be able to save Tsunami and Inari from the two swordsmen sent by Gato to kidnap them.
While on the opposite side of the Village, the rest of his team and Tazuna were on the unfinished bridge surrounded by a dense mist. "Kakashi sensei, this mist…" Sakura warned her teacher and he nodded.
"Long time no see, Kakashi." A demonic voice sounded from everywhere at once and soon enough they were completely surrounded by Zubuza's water dopplegangers.
"Sasuke, they're all yours." Kakashi smiled and the Uchiha took out all of the mist ninja clones with little effort and a kunai in each hand. The clones reverted back to water.
"Not bad." Zabuza strolled up to Team 7 accompanied by the hunter ninja that had previously rescued him.
"It seems they were comrades after all." Kakashi mused looking at the masked boy.
"I'll fight him." Sasuke smirked at the challenge and Sakura just rolled her eyes at his manliness.
"The boy is pretty impressive." Haku turned to him master.
"I'm more interested in the girl then that kid." Zabuza's remark certainly caught Sakura and her male teammate's attention. Kakashi shifted his stance so in was in front of both Tazuna and Sakura.
"Haku, you take the brat," Zabuza motioned toward Sasuke. Haku nodded and vanished in a small whirlwind. The two were soon in battle and they were pretty evenly matched in speed, but Haku had a few tricks up his sleeves.
"A hero shows up at the last second!" Naruto smiled down at the boy, having just saved him and his mother from two thugs with swords. He didn't have any trouble beating the crap out of them with his shadow clones.
"Inari, I'm sorry I called you a crybaby yesterday…" The blonde started and scratched the back of his head intently, "You're a strong boy!" He finished and ruffled the boy's hair. Inari was trying hard no to cry, but he couldn't hold back the tears, "I… won't… cry…" Naruto laughed and crouched so the two were eye level.
"It's okay to cry when you're happy right?" Naruto flashed is signature fox grin.
"Now, I trust you'll take care of things here. While I help the others?" He grinned and Inari saluted him.
"Good boy!" The blondes shouted and waved before he leaped off towards the bridge.
'Water Jutsu: Thosand Needles of Death' Sasuke was able to dodge the hunter ninja's technique by suddenly push chakra into his feet and launching himself into the air. By doing this he was also able to surprise the young mist ninja and landed a turn kick to the jaw.
"You're fast, but I'm faster." Sasuke smirked.
"He he he…Haku was going easy on you so he wouldn't have to kill you, boy." Zabuza chuckled and shot his servant a perceptive glance.
"No more holding back…" Haku nodded and flashed through a couple of hand signs, 'Demonic Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors'. Now, Sasuke was in big trouble.
Kakashi moved to help the boy but was stopped by Zabuza, "Sorry, but I'm your opponent." Then he glanced over Kakashi shoulder to sneak a peek and the young konoichi, "Unless you want be to fight the girl in your place..."
Bastard, the copy ninja cursed his situation as the fog around he continued to dense until he couldn't see a foot in front of his face. "Now your sharingan is useless." Zabuza voice echoed around him, you're trapped in my genjutsu.
He turned away from the man who only thought he was fighting the real Zabuza.
It's safe to say that when Sakura saw Zabuza exit the dense mist and walked over towards Tazuna and her she almost peed the pants.
"What are you doing here? What'd you do with Kakashi sensei?" She positioned herself in front of bridge builder defensively, this isn't suppose to happen. The mist demon had just stopped two feet in front of the two when Tazuna spoke pushing Sakura aside. "If you're going to kill me kill me, but leave the girl out of this!" Tazuna spoke.
What the hell? Sakura stared at him, "No way, it's my duty to-" her words were cut off when Zabuza spoke.
"I'll kill you later, old geezer…" He back handed the old man so launching him out of the way.
"Zabuza!" Sakura tightly gripped the arm his used to attack the bridge builder. Zabuza reacted by suddenly lifting Sakura up by the throat.
"You're the one have has business with girl." He smiled widely at her. "Join me."
"What?" She choked out, surprise clearly apparent on her face. "Serve me, girl…" He held her eyes and squeezed her throat so that she gasped, "…Or else."
"Or else what?" She spat at him.
By now Naruto had made his appearance in Haku's Ice Mirror Jutsu. "Yo! I came to save you! Naruto grined and waved.
"You total moron! Now we are both trapped in his jutsu, you idiot!" Sasuke had finally lost his patience with the dumb blonde.
"What'd you say? I come to save you and this is what i get?" Naruto yelled back at the Uchiha.
"Over here." Haku spoke to refocus the boys attentions.
Sasuke attempted to melt the ice with his 'Fire style: Fire ball Jutsu' but it failed. "You can't melt this ice with that level of fire." Haku explained and then roughed up the two genin up with a shower of senbon needles. Haku appeared to be everywhere at once, and Sasuke couldn't pinpoint where the real Haku was.
Naruto decided to go after every mirror with his shadow clones, but just ended up with more senbon needles sticking out of him.
"Zabuza!" Sasuke and Naruto recognized the distant voice immediately. Sakura, their Sakura was in danger.
"You have good reflexes, but you're at your limit." Haku moved to strike once more. He's coming… calm done… concentrate… and see through it! He saw through it and moved out of the way, feeling a strange sensation in his eyes. Haku was surprised by the boy's incomplete sharingan "I see you're an Uchiha… I can't fight for much longer..." He lauched his senbon needles toward a defenseless Naruto, "This is the end!"
Keeping a tight grip on her neck Zabuza brought the girl's face close so his warm breath touched her ear, "Or else I'll kill every last member of your team slowly in front of your eyes until you submit to me…" Zabuza grinned when the girl stopped struggling, but when her head shot up and her eyes locked with him, the pure hatred that burned within them made his blood run cold. A quick swipe of her hand grazed the wrist that held her up. There was a flash of searing pain and he instantly lost all the feeling in his right hand, 'Ninja art: Chakra Scalpel'. Zabuza growled at the pain and glared at the pink haired girl, now free from his grasp. There was a flash and the girl back fisted his jaw dislocating it with excellent precision, and a sudden heel kick pressed down on his collar snapping the bone and bringing him to his knees. Her hand shot out and gripped the now breathless and kneeling man's wounded jaw and brought his face close to her own. She tightened her grip cause scorching pain to shoot up his jaw and he stared into the young konoichi in horror.
"No one threatens me and my friends," Sakura voiced the words darkly and kicked the man in the gut, hard. The chakra she pushed in her kick sent the man flying and succeeded in fracturing three of the swordsman's ribs. He landed on his side twenty feet away from the girl and started coughing up blood. The mist started to lift because of Zabuza's break in concentration.
Surprisingly enough, the missing ninja had started laughing hysterically in response, and Sakura was wondering if the man had lost his marbles.
Naruto looked up wearily when a drop of blood fell on to face. The horrify sight of Sasuke covering blood and completely run through by needles shocked him.
"What's with that face….moron…" He looked at Naruto from the corner of his eye.
"Why?" Naruto want to know what had possessed the boy to sacrifice himself, "Why? I never asked for your help!" Naruto shouted at the foolish Uchiha.
"I don't know… my body moved on it's own…" He fell backwards into Naruto's arms unable to stand on his own.
"To die before killing my brother… pathetic… you better not die too, Naruto." Sasuke spared Naruto one more glance as his life's memories danced before eyes and hey let his heavy eyelids fall.
"He died to protect you, he deserves respect." Haru spoke to the now sobbing blonde.
"Shut up." Naruto's intimidating voice cause Haku to flinch. He looked up from his fallen comrade with the eyes of a beast, "I'll kill you!"
"What's so funny Zabuza?" Kakashi, now free from the mist ninja's genjutsu, questioned the man's sanity. Zabuza's psychotic laughter died down to a few chuckles. "That's quite the little demon you have on your team, Kakashi…" Zabuza kept his eyes fixed on the female genin that had kicked his ass. Kakashi looked from Zabuza to Sakura desperately wondering what had happened between the two, but three words brought his attention back to the nuke ninja.
"I want her." Zabuza grinned widely and continued to stare at the girl with a crazy look in his eye. His insane gaze made Sakura shiver and Kakashi wanted to slit the man's throat on the spot, but a sudden burst of demonic chakra and a crashing noise brought the three shinobi's attention to the now collapsed and shattered ice mirrors. Haku and Naruto were just outside of the fallen jutsu that had returned to it's original liquid state and they were locked in a heated staring contest. Sakura immediately noticed the angry red chakra that swirl around her blonde friend. Then in an instant Naruto was gone, racing toward Haku with inhuman speed and his fist retracted ready to strike.
"Haku!" Zabuza shouted his voice, laced worry, didn't reach is comrade in time because Naruto was upon him in seconds. Naruto, however, never hit Haku he stopped his fist just before it collide with the beautiful boy's face.
By now Zabuza had disappeared and reappeared between a surprised Naruto and dazed Haku. He was about to slice the blonde genin in two when his blade was stopped just before reaching it's mark. Kakashi blocked the huge sword with the metal plate on his right glove and Sakura held Zabuza's left hand in placed with her smaller chakra strengthened hands so he couldn't complete the swing.
"Kakashi sensei, Sakura chan?" Naruto questioned his saviors, the kyuubi's chakra had retreated back inside him and he was a bit confused. Zabuza separated from the two leaf ninja and the enemies leaped away from each other.
"Sakura, I'll let you take care of Haku. Naruto watch Tazuna." Kakashi commanded and Naruto groaned in protest, Sakura was surprised that her sensei actually let her fight. Now, Zabuza had complete his mist jutsu and once more the bridge was cover and dense fog.
"Zabuza is mine." With that Kakashi raced into the fog after the swordsman.
"Naruto, take care of Tazuna." The pink haired girl reminded the boy and then disappeared.
She didn't have any problems locating Haku in the mist. "I don't want to fight you…" Haku spoke and frowned slightly, refusing to get into a fighting position.
"I know…" Sakura smiled and Haku eyes widened at her words, but their conversation didn't last long because a sudden spike of chakra caught their attention, Chidori.
"Go." Sakura said quickly and moved out of Haku's way. Haku was shocked by the girl's actions, but he quickly nodded, "Thank you." With that he disappeared to save his master. There was an instant explosion of energy that blew away the mist, and Sakura didn't have to turn to face the scene to know what happened.
Haku's blood was everywhere. It had splattered all over Zabuza and completely stained Kakashi who had completely run the boy through with his lightning jutsu. Haku coughed up a lot up blood, "Z-Zabuza sir…" he choked up his last words and tightly griped the silver haired shinobi's arm in an attempt to immobilize him. Kakashi was shocked by the boy's actions and Zabuza lifted his sword with is able hand to slice through both his enemy and fatally injured ally. His move, however, was too slow and Kakashi managed to pry his arm from the boy's body and move them both safely out of the way. He laid the dead boy on the wet ground and closed the kid's empty eyes his blood soaked hand. Haku could now rest in peace.
"Stop wasting time, Kakashi!" Zabuza roared toward the copy ninja his large weapon poised to strike. Kakashi easily countered with a low kick to the stomach, he disappeared and reappeared behind the wounded missing ninja.
"It's over, Zabuza!" He moved to strike the demon man in the back of the neck with his kunai. Zabuza turned instantly to attack the sliver haired jounin with his sword and in response Kakashi redirected his attack so his kunai buried itself into in Zabuza's left arm instead, paralyzing it. "Now both arms are useless, you can't even perform a seal." Kakashi spoking making known the Zabuza was fighting a losing battle.
"Oh, you're getting your ass kicked. How disappointing… Zabuza" And older voice drew the battling ninja's attention to a short man with sunglasses and a cane followed by a large group of thugs.
"Gato, why are you here? What's with all these men?" Zabuza growled at the short man.
"Zabuza, I'm going to have you killed here. I never planned on paying you any money." Gato sneered and there was a long silence.
"I'm sorry Kakashi, but I have no reason to fight you any more." Zabuza spoke without looking at the silver haired ninja.
"You're right." Kakashi slowly stood up from his crouch.
"Oh yeah…" Gato walked up to Haku's body. "I owe this bastard for breaking my arm." Gato smirked and kicked Haku's body sharply in the head.
"What are you doing? You bast-" The blonde was cut off when his female teammate appeared behind the short gangster.
"Don't you dare disrespect Haku!" Sakura thrusted Gato's face into the concrete and surprised everyone on the bridge, but none more than Zabuza Momochi.
"Zabuza! You better take care of these assholes!" The pink haired girl shouted at the deadly missing ninja.
"Hey kid… can I borrow a kunai?" Zabuza glanced at Naruto with tears in his eyes. Zabuza bit through his bandages and Naruto nodded. He threw the mist ninja a weapon and the man caught it with his teeth.
"Someone kill this bitch!" Gato pulled his broken, bloody face from the ground and pointed at his pink haired attacker.
With that, all of Gato's thugs moved to attack Sakura, and Gato retreated behind them. Kakashi appeared protectively in front of his female student, but before the mob could even reach him they were struck down by Zabuza, armed with only a kunai.
The demon of the mist reached the small leader in a matter of minutes despite the swords and various other weapons that were now embedded in his back.
"If you want to go to the same place as your friend then just go!" Gato yelled that the man slumped in front of him.
"Unfortunately, I'm not going to the same place as Haku…" Zabuza answered.
"What? You won't survive!" Gato breathed and Zabuza just laughed at the mob boss.
"Hah ha, Because you and I are going to hell, Gato!" Zabuza roared and ripped the man's head clean off with his small weapon. He let the kunai slip from his mouth as he gasped for air and limbed back toward the leaf ninja. His body gave out on him half way through the crowd of thugs and he collapsed into a bloody mess.
"Don't look away, Naruto. That's the end of man who lived a difficult life." Kakashi told the blonde without looking away from the man himself.
"Yeah…" Naruto agreed softly.
Sakura noticed Sasuke's seemingly dead body covered in needles twitch, and she moved to the Uchiha who was now attempting to sit up.
"Sakura?" Sasuke questioned her half wondering if she was dead as well. She held the boy to her chest gently as to not irritate his wounds, "You're okay," she whispered softly and smiled at the dazed raven haired boy. He had the strong urge to drift into a blissful sleep in the arms of his pink haired companion, but his eyes shoot open when he remember his other teammate. "What about Naruto?" The Uchiha huffed and tried to stand.
Sakura forced him to sit, "Naruto is fine, Haku is dead."
Sasuke gapped at her words, "Dead? Did Naruto kill him?"
"No. Haku sacrificed himself to save Zabuza from Kakashi sensei's jutsu." She smiled sadly at him, and he was about to question her expression, when she looked up towards Naruto and shouted, "He's alright! Sasuke's alive."
Naruto slowly turned towards them in disbelief and Sasuke waved akwardly at the blonde. Naruto partially bursted out in tears.
Of course the mist thugs had to ruin the moment. "Hey hey hey, don't forget about us!", "You ninjas killed our meal ticket!", "You guys are dead!", "We are gonna pillage this village!", "Yeah!" They all shouted and agreed amongst one another. "Get em'!" They charged at the tired leaf ninja.
"Damn this is bad, I used too much chakra." Kakashi mumbled concerned about how this new battle would pan out.
The rushing mob stopped when a harpoon landed in front of them.
Team 7 turned to find that the whole village had gathered behind them to support Tazuna and protect their village. They were led by none other then Inari who was wearing a cooking pot as a helmet and welding a toy crossbow, "A hero shows up at the last second!" Inari grinned.
"Inari!" Naruto shouted, pride stained his voice.
"Okay, I'll help out too!" Naruto summoned four shadow clones and Kakashi flowed his example, creating a whole army of Kakashi ninjas, "So… You want a piece of this?" The Kakashi's spoke as one.
"Hell no!" and with that the thugs retreated on to a small boat with their tails between their legs.
When they were gone the villagers cheer and Naruto and Kakashi released their jutsus.
"Looks like it's over, Kakashi…" Zabuza's voice was practically a whisper, but the silver haired jounin heard it none the less and made his way over to the fallen demon of the mist.
"I have a request…" Zabuza breathed and Kakashi's hand hovered above his head protector instinctively.
"I want… to see his face…" Zabuza could barely choke out the words. Kakashi slid his headband back over his sharingan eye and quickly complied with the missing ninja's final wish. It started to snowing, as Zabuza was being carried by to his partner. Haku, are you crying… He wondered, as his body was being set down just to the right of Haku, "Thanks… Kakashi, and… tell that girl… thank you for me," The copy ninja just nodded knowing exactly who he was referring to and left the two mist ninja to themselves.
"Let's go…" Kakashi turned and motioned for his students to follow and leave the two graves they had made for Zabuza and Haku.
They met up with Tazuna and his family just outside the village's gates. Naruto and Inari were both blubbering babies after their good byes.
Sakura smiled to herself as they crossed over the complete bridge, knowing it would soon be called The Great Naruto Bridge.
Author's note:
Yay, new longest chapter! I hope you guys like it and remember to review it! I like getting you guy's opinions on my work. Now on to the Chunin exams, What difficulties will Sakura face next? I promise you won't have to wait too long for the next update. So, till then... stay frosty! :D
