"This mist is too thick, can any of you see anything?" asked Heero as his eyes tried and failed to pierce the veil around him.
"Even my queens are unable to smell anything," admitted Shino, wishing he'd been able to help in some way. With no information to go on though, he was simply out of his depth.
"I can make out how the mist moves, but it's impossible to spot details. There's just too much chakra in it," said Hinata, her eyes able to see the ebb and flow of the chakra infused mist, but unable to make out anything beyond a few wakes as shapes moved through it.
"So we just sit here and wait for Onee-sama to win? That's not really my style," said Naruto, audibly drawing his kunai, "just give me a target, and I'll take them down."
"We would risk hitting Kurenai sensei if we attacked right now. It would be most beneficial for her if we maintain the post she gave us," said Shino, the order implicit in his tone, and Naruto growled in frustration, but din't make any farther moves as they listened to their teacher and this man banter a bit, while the sound of the fight seemed to echo all around. Behind them, standing tall and proud was Tazuna. He knew this was to be his final moment. The kids were good, he would be the first to admit that, but Zabuza was on a whole other level. He would face his end on his feet, and staring death in the eye...the eye...
"Girl, you said you can see the mist moving, right?" asked the old man.
"I can, but thanks to that I can't see the chakra signatures of anyone else. It's all just a rolling haze," she said.
"Can you see the gaps in the mist then? Places where it isn't? If so, then you should be able to tell who is who by that, shouldn't you?" responded the old man, and Hinata, her eyes bulging a bit, cursed under her breath, and then refocused her vision, bringing into sharp focus the visions of the two combatants in the mist. With that info, she was able to start feeding Kurenai battle data. With her help, she saw her teacher injure the other man, only to have him counter her counter, the sound of the strike audible even through the mist, possibly because Zabuza wanted them to hear their hope die.
"Oneesama!" the two boys beside her blared out, their teeth clenching, and both assuming an attack stance by the look of them. Neither moved though. How could they attack, not knowing where to do so at.
"Naruto, pulse, as lightly as you can," said Heero at last, and the blonde boy seemed to pause for a second as he considered this, and then simply followed the instruction, gathering chakra for only a heartbeat in his chest, before pulsing it out. This pulse caused the mist around them to fade, and they could again see the world around them. Shocked, Hinata turned her eyes back on, and faced towards where Kurenai lay, waiting for Shino to order the attack.
"Shino, you and I will attack Zabuza. Your bugs and my Armor can hold off his attacks. Hinata, get clear with Tazuna, make sure he's safe, you can see threats coming the rest of us never would. Naruto, pulse as wide as you can, clear this whole thing up, maybe it will disrupt him like having a Genjutsu torn down, and at the very least we can see everything, then get Kurenai and run, before sending every clone you can to help," said Heero, and Shino only took a moment to think it over before nodding, giving them the go ahead. Heero repeated his plan in code phrases, shouted into the mist so that Kurenai would hear them coming, before Naruto pulsed.
Instantly they moved, Hinata grabbed Tazuna, her arms knocking him from his feet as she lifted him bodily and then leapt into the nearby brush and shrubs, trying to put as much distance between her and the fighting as she could, while still keeping her Byakugan active to see everything. Naruto, just as the pulse left his body, charged forward, he grabbed his teacher much as Hinata had Tazuna, and disappeared as well into the treeline, while Shino and Heero made a beeline straight for Zabuza.
The Missing-Nin was no fool, the instant his fog was gone, he knew he was about to be attacked, and even as he let go of his grip on his weapon, abandoning the sword for the moment, he began to run through a few handseals. His intent was to create a half a dozen water clones to send after his targets, but the speed of the two boys surprised him. The tall older one, with his sunglasses glinting in the sun as the mist completely cleared from overhead, and the shorter silver haired boy, both of them going straight for killing blows.
"Impressive," he complimented them, using subtle movements trained over a lifetime to dodge their first attacks, and then following up with a kick that scattered the pair, forcing them back. Instantly his hand found the hilt of his blade, and he drew it effortlessly from the ground, swinging it straight for the pair, hoping to get them in the first swing.
"Armor of the Tortoise!" shouted the silver hair, and suddenly a black outline seemed to grow around him, one that Kubikiribocho, his blade which could cleave through any armor he'd yet faced, failed to cut. Worse, the body seemed so confident in his armor that he grabbed at the blade, his hands wrapping around the edge and the back, and then yanking backwards with all his might, trying to wrest the weapon from Zabuza's grip. The Jonin was not to be disarmed by some Genin pup though, and instant Heero found himself flying as the older shinobi twisted his grip on his blade, and spun with it, causing his swing to arc over his head and then toss the one still gripping it away.
He didn't stay away long, Heero going straight back into the fight, while Shino began to cast about with his swarm. the kikai flew through the air without wings, trying to find a perch on the ninja who was their host's foe. Their tiny legs skittered in the air, and their pincers clacked together to create an awful racket, one that Zabuza recognized. Knowing that the touch of even a few of those bugs was going to drain him of yet more chakra, most of his own reserves having been wasted on the mist jutsu, he swung his blade at them. Somehow, despite only touching a few, the swarm found itself all touched by the sharp edge, and many an insect fell bisected to the ground, causing the normally taciturn insect-nin to growl a little at him.
The older ninja could only glare back before he had to hold his blade out, catching the attack of the still black outlined boy on it, the fist clanging against the metal, and then being followed up with a kick that Zabuza took to his midriff, before hurling the boy away again, this time as hard as he could into the brush, hoping to at least get himself some room to kill the insect user. Unfortunately for him, the instant the silver haired boy went into the brush, a hundred copies of the orange suited one burst out from it. Each had a kunai in hand, and all of them struck with them, forcing the Jonin back as quickly whirled his sword around, cutting into thrown kunai, which popped those clones who'd thrown them.
"Shadow clones?!" said the older ninja incredulously as he punched at one that got too close. He'd figured that they were just normal bushin when they'd come at him like that, but as more and more poured out of those woods, he came to realize that they were far more than that, and far more dangerous. Worse, his arm was starting to slow a bit, the small holes where senbons had found their mark bleeding profusely. Realizing that, he decided the best way to deal with this group of upstarts was just to overpower them completely, so he swung his sword around, forcing the shadow clones back, and then leapt into the nearby lake, already making handseals in rapid succession.
"Suiton, Great Waterfall!" he shouted as he landed, his chakra already focused into his feet, and instantly reacting with the water around him. Normally this would be the sort of attack to use against only a Jonin, or at least a group of Chuunin, but these kids had demanded more of him than he would have expected, and so he determined to just destroy them. About him, the water surged upwards one more, but rather than rising in a slow pillar, it surged high into the sky, and then fell again, arcing over the masked ninja, and then slamming hard into the woods in front of him. Said woods were hit like they had been struck by a flash flood, trunks and roots cracking in turn as trees were washed away.
"Heero! Naruto! Kurenai!" shouted the insect-nin as he rushed forward, doing a series of handseals himself. What he was doing, Zabuza didn't care, and instead drew his weapon, feeling the weight of the thing now with his nearly depleted chakra reserve. Surging forward like the water, he stuck with the full force of a tidal wave, hoping to at last score a kill he could watch in this fight. Only to have his attack thwarted as one of the orange boy's clones switched with the insect-nin at the last moment, causing it to puff out of existence, while the taller boy turned to face Zabuza, reminded of the fight he was in. Before he could launch another attack though, the silver haired boy, without his black outline, burst from another nearby brush, and struck, his fingertips shining white as he did so.
"Claws of the Tiger!" he screamed, and Zabuza raised his sword in defense. He recognized the style of technique, if not the technique itself. Chakra blades were a poor man's substitute for real steel. He'd defeated plenty of opponents who believed their power was the equal of his blade, and he aimed to prove this one wrong directly, slashing forward with his weapon as the boy came in range. The two blades met with a crackle of power, as the chakra of Zabuza, infused into his weapon, struck back against the power within Heero's blood, the white blades shining brighter and brighter as he pushed more of his chakra into them, until at last, one had to give. With a cracking sound like glass being stepped on, the Claws shattered, causing the boy's purple eyes to go wide, even as his hand screamed at him in pain.
"Gah!" cried out Heero, falling forward and rolling as he did so. This allowed him under Zabuza's counter strike, the older shinobi only just recovering his own footing, trying to skewer his foe. Of course, as Heero rolled, his right hand, the one that had held the blades, came into contact with the ground, and suddenly he was gripping his wrist with his left hand, the right telling him he had abused it, and now making him feel like he was burning inside. This moment of painful torture would have been brought to an end by the masked shinobi's blade, as he raised it high overhead and tried to bring it down and crack Heero's skull open, only to be met with raw earth as he brought it down, an orange blur in his face snaking its way around the strike, and then kicking Zabuza in the face, while in the distance of their battlefield, Heero was being helped to his feet by Shino.
"This battle is lost. Retreat has become our only option," said Shino as he tried to drag Heero away with him, only to have Heero toss him away, the boy staggering to turn around and face Zabuza again.
"You disagree," intoned the insect-nin as the silver haired boy stood there, his stance shaky at best, and at worst barely able to keep himself upright.
"Retreat hasn't been an option since this guy started the fight. We win, or we die. Those are our choices. If we run, we'll just drag out the dying part," said Heero, and Shino, after a moment to think about it, agreed, drawing a kunai, ready to face his end with dignity, only to have Heero place his arm on his shoulder, pointing to the three Narutos currently fighting their enemy.
"Get Naruto to steal his kunai, and throw them at the ground, I want him in the air, so he can't dodge me," said Heero, and Shino nodded again, giving the order, and watching as, with a hand that would make the great thieves envious, the Narutos stole the kunai with the exploding tags on them, passing them between the them as even more poured from the tree line.
"What is your plan? Speed to stab him? Roar to destroy him?" asked Shino, wondering just what tactic he should use in conjunction with Heero's own attack.
"I'm going to use my Claws again, this time as a Katar, and slice into his blade. See the little cuts I made the first time?" he asked, and Shino looked closely at the blade, which currently stabbed into one of the Narutos, causing him to vanish in puff of smoke, and then swirled around to decapitate a half dozen more, their bodies vanishing as well. Of course, in the light from above, the glint of the steel edge did indeed have small nicks in it, tiny patches where it wasn't as smooth.
"Your hand was damaged the first time, are you sure you can do it again?" asked Shino in response.
"My right hand feels like it's on fire, and I doubt I'll be able to use it again for a few days. I still have my left though, and I'm confident it will work," he said, smirking at Shino, who merely nodded. He then gave orders to Naruto and Heero, telling the latter where to stand and then jump when the attack was launched, while informing the clones of exactly where to stab each kunai. Meanwhile, Zabuza kept the fight going, noticing how the other two weren't running, and hoping their attention was fully on him. He expected their Jonin was recovering as well, trying to pull herself back into this fight, but she had taken a big hit, and would need time to recover. Better, he saw a slight bit of white, that he gave a single handsign to, as he kept the dance with the orange clones up, the white bit vanishing an instant later.
In the woods, beside the line of destruction his master had forged, Haku raced along, his feet seemingly never touching the ground or the trees as he went. Every motion one of deliberate power, as he looked around for his target. Zabuza wasn't usually one to forgo the pleasure of a kill like this, so Haku knew this was serious, and it required his full attention. Finally, he found his enemy, a single girl and an old man, standing just far enough away that they could here the battle in the di9stance, if not see it, and they reacted to each pop of a clone as it echoed through the woods around them like it was stab to their own bodies. Haku, seeing them distracted like this, drew out his senbon needles, and waited for the opportunity to strike.
"Now!" Shino said, and Naruto launched the kunai with tags at Zabuza's feet, the clones grabbing onto the man as the weapons fell, as if to try and hold him in the blast. Zabuza, who hadn't noticed the kunai were not on his belt anymore, was surprised by this, and then he twisted his body in a spin, causing the clones to be scattered, as the far stronger Jonin pushed against them, and then kicked out, the force of his foot hitting them enough to pop all but three before he leapt into the air, getting just above the blast. Of course, as he went into the air, he saw that silver haired brat again, his left hand coming towards him, even as more of those chakra blades grew from the finger tips. With no way to dodge in the air, Zabuza had to hold out his own sword against this, his brain wondering why the boy held his hand like that, before the formally thin blades from his fingers formed into a far thicker one, and then slammed home against his blade with a crash like thunder.
"Please work," whispered Hinata as she looked towards the lake, her eyes with veins bulging from their sides. She had moved away from Tazuna by a meter and a half to get a better view with her Byakugan, and so, gasped when out of the brush burst the form of someone in an ANBU get up, who silently rushed at Tazuna, a shower of senbon needles flying from the figure's outstretched hands.
The lakeshore crackled with power as the two blades fought against each other, Zabuza silently cursing these kids. This should have been an easy fight, maybe taking a second to punch through the Genin's guards, and then just killing them. Even their sensei had been easier than he had expected, though he knew that to just be a mismatch set of skills. Genjutsu against his mist was a bad fit, after all. Still, this fight should have been over in less than a minute, not the protracted thing it had become, and he aimed to end this now, surging his chakra into his weapon, and was gratified as the boy's fingers began to tremble, the blade on his pinky braking with another glass like sound.
The sound of the blade breaking was matched by the sound of the senbon's soaring through the air, hitting home in Tazuna's chest, and causing the old man to crumple over, dead. Haku, the one who through the needles, allowed himself a smirk, as he pulled out some more, and dove for the girl next, her reaction speed far too slow to keep pace with him as he slashed at her with his needles like they were claws, ripping into her throat, and watching her fall.
Another blade broke a moment later, but it was at this point that Zabuza noticed his own sword wasn't doing so hot. The Claws of the Tiger were biting deep into the cut they had already made, and now were more than an inch inside his weapon. Growling like an animal, he pumped more chakra into the steel, trying to strengthen it against the assault. Whatever he had hoped though, it came to pass that with a sound like a 'shing' Heero's Claws cleaved through his blade, the metal rending down to a smooth edge, which separated into two pieces as it fell back to the ground, allowing the two shinobi at last to fall apart from each other, landing on the ground heavily.
Then Haku fell still. Not because of the sound, though that might have been enough if he'd heard it. Instead his stillness was one forced on him as the girl and the old man wavered and vanished like so many visions in the desert. He'd been tricked, his foes had used some Genjutsu on him, and before he could do anything, three figures emerged from the brush, the girl, the old man, and the woman whom Zabuza had taken down. Haku made ready to do battle with all of them, only to have the girl, her white eyes shining like furious stars, leaping forward at him as the tips of her fingers shone brightly with chakra.
"Eight Trigrams, Sixty-Four Palms!" she shouted, and then her arms vanished into blurs. Haku's speed was at least at Chuunin level, if not Jonin, and he was growing faster all the time, yet he couldn't see anything as the girl's hands touched him. He felt it though, as spikes of chakra went into his body, forcing closed his tenketsu. Each strike seemed to make the world a duller place, as colors became less bright, smells less sharp, and even sounds became muted. His sense of touch never wavered though, as each strike was like a knife, cutting into him, and causing his muscles to seize painfully. When it was at last over, and the girl stepped away, Haku found himself paralyzed, unable to do anything at all but look into the eyes of the three.
"Not bad kid, not bad at all," said Zabuza as he rose to his feet again, looking at his Kubikiribocho. The sword, which had slain a thousand men at least, was broken. The blade had been sliced clean, and while a master smith might be able to salvage it, a lesser one would just tell him to melt it down for scraps. Of course, he wouldn't do that. His blade was one of the Seven Swords of the Mist, and each possessed a power that went far beyond steel. Smiling, he began to flow chakra into the blade, intending on using this brats blood to reforge his weapon, it might even give the sword a new ability or two. So thinking, he swung the sword at the kid, only to stumble a bit as he did so.
"What the?" he asked, looking down at the thing in his hand. Of course, as he did, a dozen more of the orange ninja boy's clones attacked. Zabuza didn't even seem to feel them though, grabbing one by the throat easily, and then using it to beat the others off as he looked at the weapon in his hand. Focusing again, he tried to put chakra into it, only to have the blade simply hang there, limp in his hand. The energy went from him, into the steel, and then out again, the blade taking the chakra as ground would, no longer as one of the Seven should.
"Impossible!" he shouted, trying again, idly breaking the neck of the clone in his hand. He tried several times, barely registering the continued clone attacks, until, after almost a minute, he screamed. It was a scream born of rage, pain, and loss. This sword was part of him, part of his history, and his destiny. This was the symbol of his power, and now it was so much metal, unable to take in the chakra of its wielder. He saw red now, and his eyes focused through the clones towards the object of his new found rage, the silver haired boy, who was being helped away by three clones.
Zabuza struck like a thunderclap, the remains of his sword cutting through the clones around him, before he tossed it at the retreating boy, intending to slice him in two with the toss. The clones saw it coming, and leapt over the attack, but as they landed, they had to toss Heero forward, the silver haired boy continuing to stagger away as the clones tried to face their foe. The older shinobi would brook no resistance, his fist coming down like lead on the clones, all three popped in a single blow, Heero looking back at him, and seeing death in his eyes, only just able to summon his Armor, the black outline a few millimeters thick against his skin, before the overhead swing struck down at him.
The blow was enough that, with Heero's thin armor, he could feel it. His spine raged at him for the pressure, his knees nearly buckled, and the ground underneath his soles gave, as a blast of dust and debris spread out. When the cloud had spread out enough to allow one to see, Heero found himself almost to his knees down in the dirt, the blow having driven him into the earth like a spike for a tent. And then another blow landed, this one causing him to descend an inch more. Then another blow came, this one slower than before, weaker. And then another, and another, each successive blow having less and less power behind it, until Zabuza at last realized something was wrong, and looked behind him.
Behind him stood the insect-nin, and the orange boy, both staring at him with a bit of hate in their eyes. Following their gaze, Zabuza found his back covered by the taller boy's Kikai, the bugs digging their pincers and feelers into his flesh, and quickly gorging themselves on his chakra, which had already been drained by the battle. Realizing he was lost, but wanting to take them with him, he reached into his pouch, and tried to draw a kunai with an explosive tag on it, only to remember that the orange one had stolen those from him, and so he just turned to the silver haired boy, staring down at him, before his eyes rolled into the back his head, and fell forward, finally toppling the boy as he did so, both hitting the ground with a loud thump.