Fates Web
Chapter Nine: The Wave Mission Part 2
Author Notes: Most of the wave arc is going to be centered from Naruto's perspective. Hinata will get plenty of screen time as well, so don't worry about that. The story won't deviate too terribly from canon until the Chunin exams are underway.
I want to apolgize if this chapter isn't really up to standard. I've been feeling a bit of the blues lately and it has me feeling creatively impaired.
III = Interlude/ character perspective switch.
Bold text = Inner voice/ something important speaking.
There will be no crossovers, or characters from other shows.
Zabuza was standing on the handle of his sword, the weapon currently embedded in a tall tree. "No wonder the demon brothers failed. Konohagakure's famous Sharingan No Kakashi, so we finally meet..."
Sasuke's eyes widened as he heard the name, 'Sharingan...? Impossible...'
"Momochi Zabuza... The Demon of the Bloody Mist." Kakashi returned.
Killing intent flooded the clearing and the genin froze. Naruto trembled as the bandaged nukenin gave a bloodthirsty glare towards them.
Sasuke trembled. 'This is the power of a Jounin!' He thought. Unable to endure the pressure any longer the boy lifted a kunai to his throat.
Sasuke offered Naruto a resigned smile, Naruto just looked at him in horror before grabbing a kunai and stabbing it into the back of his hand, and glared at Sasuke, "I-I won't run! I won't freeze up! With this kunai, I will protect the old man... I will protect all of you!" Naruto dug the kunai deeper into his hand, and closes his eyes, and grits his teeth.
The terrifying aura choking the group of genin disappeared as Naruto's words of encouragement countered the enemy ninja's intent. Sasuke took in deep gulps of breath and Dai fell to his knees in a heap.
Everyone watched Zabuza take the giant cleaver out of the tree with one hand
Zabuza chuckled, "Well spoken runt. I can tell you are the only one with balls on your team." The man hoisted his blade over his shoulder and glared, "Let's see if you can back up those words."
"Everyone, stay back! This isn't someone who you can fight. He's on an entirely different level from those other ninja you fought," Kakashi warned.
Dai, Sasuke, and Naruto all immediately surrounded Tazuna in a triangle formation while Kakashi stood ready to engage Zabuza in combat. The man lifted his Konoha headband to reveal a red eye with three tomoe surrounding the pupil. Naruto heard Sasuke gasp lightly and turned to see him with his eyes wide open in confusion.
Kakashi turned to Sasuke and nodded, before he charged towards Zabuza, who blocked using his Kubikiribocho.
"I'm sure you already know why I'm here. But before I kill the old man, I'll let him watch me kill you and your little genin," Zabuza said as he disappeared in a flicker, taking his sword with him.
Kakashi warned them, "Naruto, Sasuke, Dai! Protect the client!"
"Tsch, where did he go?" Dai said as a unnaturally thick mist rolled in. In front of him, Kakashi's outline disappeared, obscured in white chakra-laced fog.
"The spine, the pharynx , the pulmonary artery, the liver, the jugular veins, the clavicle, the kidney, and of course the heart... Which one should I go for?"
Naruto watched in helpless horror as Zabuza vanished out of sight and then appeared behind Sasuke, and in front of Tazuna, breaching their defenses.
"It's over brats!" Zabuza raised his Zanbato to cleave through the group of frightened children.
Zabuza lurched forward as a kunai impaled him from behind.
Zabuza glared, before his form turned to water and splashed over the group.
Naruto's eyes widened a small fraction. He watched as Zabuza reappeared behind Kakashi, his giant sword severing Kakashi's neck.
"Sensei!"
Right as Zabuza slit Kakashi's throat, it dissipated into a puddle on the ground and another Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza.
"It's over, Zabuza."
"I wonder about that..."
Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi again and held his sword up.
The nuke-nin swung his cleaver upwards vertically, trying to cut Kakashi in half. Kakashi was sliced in two, but once again the copy nin escaped death, being replaced by a splintered log.
Zabuza seemed to materialize next to Dai, grabbing him by the neck and pulling him away. Kakashi instantly chased after him, following his screams in the fog.
Naruto heart hammered in his chest, "Sasuke! Snap out of it!" Dai's screams were getting more distant. Sasuke stood frozen once again as Dai's screams faded. "Damn it!"
Naruto bit back a curse as another Zabuza appeared behind them. The clone raised its massive blade to separate their heads from their bodies.
"Game over!"
Naruto jumped back and flashed through a string of seals. 'I need to thank Sasuke later for letting me copy this from his clan library.' He thought.
"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!" Naruto overpowered the jutsu and launched a torrent of flames at the nuke-nin.
Said ninja just smirked and let the fireball consume him.
Sasuke seeing his teammate, which he considered inferior, kill the clone, finally broke him out of his trance.
Naruto checked on Tazuna to make sure he was ok. The man was pale and had a few singes but otherwise ok. "Sasuke, we have to find the real Zabuza."
"I know, you don't have to tell me twice!" Sasuke spat at him with slight jealousy, regaining some of his fighting spirit. "But we can't even see him! There's fog everywhere!"
Zabuza's voice rang out, "Two helpless little genin. All alone and ready for the slaughter. Oink Oink little piggies."
Tazuna looked at the two boys defending him. By the gods! They weren't even old enough to drink and they were protecting an old fool like him. He walked forward, pulling his straw hat off his head and yelling valiantly. "Enough! It's me you want! Just kill me and leave them alone."
"That's the spirit!" Zabuza cackled, appearing between Tazuna and the boys. "It's over!"
Naruto took out three shuriken and threw them at the man, forcing him to stop and deflect the sharp metal.
"Now, Sasuke!"
Sasuke charged forward with his own tightly gripped kunai , slamming it in-between Zabuza's ribs. Water splattered everywhere as it disintegrated from the attack.
Slowly the mist lessened enough that the two boys could see Kakashi and Dai laying into Zabuza. The mist ninja seemed hard pressed to dodge Dai's lightning jutsu while still staving off Kakashi's fast paced palm thrusts and kicks.
Sasuke simply watched as Kakashi sent a powerful kick to Zabuza's side as he was distracted, and Dai launched another 'False Darkness', keeping Zabuza from making any progress against the copy nin.
But like all things, something must give.
Zabuza landed a lucky kick and sent Kakashi into the lake near them. "Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu."
Quick as a snake, a globe of water ensnared Kakashi, trapping him inside the water. Said captive shot his team a panicked plea, "Run! He's too strong for you!"
Zabuza just laughed and made a single hand sign, another Zabuza came out of the lake and began stalking towards the four. With a hand sign the real Zabuza replaced himself with the clone and picked up his cleaver.
Dai glanced at Naruto and Sasuke, to which both of them nodded and Kakashi's heart sank. "No! Don't save me! Run!"
"You should listen to him runts. I love my meat fresh."
Naruto pointed a finger at the bandaged man, "Like hell I'll abandon my comrades. Don't you remember sensei? Breaking the rules makes me scum, but abandoning my friends makes me lower than scum!"
Kakashi groaned. He wished he could bang his head with something. He didn't want to sound like a hypocrite by telling his team to abandon him, but he didn't want them to die either.
Naruto smirked as his brows furrowed and Sasuke cracked an arrogant grin.
"Yosh! Let's take this guy down!"
"Do we have a plan?" Dai asked.
Naruto offered a wry smile and made a very familiar handsign, "Shadow Clone jutsu!" Over sixty clones appeared in a cloud of smoke that hid the three Genin from view. They all ran out of the smoke grinning brightly and charged at Zabuza to attack.
Zabuza sneered, "Hah, what's this gaki? A hundred times zero is still zero!"
Like a weed whacker the demon cut down the horde of blonds like grass, but he ignored one critical thing. After each clone dispelled it created a cloud of smoke and an audible pop that blinded the nuke nins sense of smell and sound.
Zabuza choked on the smoke and roared in anger, "Show yourself you little bastard!"
A giant windmill shuriken burst out of the cloud of smoke. Zabuza smirked and casually deflected the oversized weapon with a shriek of metal meeting metal. In a poof of smoke the shuriken unhenged into Naruto.
"Take this!"
Naruto took out another Windmill shuriken and threw it to Sasuke, who grabbed it with excitement. The Uchiha flung it at Zabuza's clone. Since all focus was on Sasuke, no one noticed the second Shuriken underneath the firsts shadow.
Meanwhile Naruto himself charged at the Nukenin, who was being forced to either block the Shuriken, or dodge and let the attack pop the clone holding Kakashi. It wasn't a hard decision.
Zabuza slammed his blade into the ground and hid behind it as the first Shuriken bounced off the blade with a clang, however the second swerved around the blade, and headed straight for the enemy nins head. Zabuza suddenly realized there was a slight shine in the air, signifying that the Windmill Shuriken was being controlled by wires.
Naruto Finally reach the Jounin and threw out a hasty kick at the man's left shin, and managed to land it. The man grunted as the younger boys foot sunk into his side, however the pain quickly disappeared from his face, having been replaced with a savage grin.
"Bad move runt."
Naruto yelped as Zabuza grappled the boy and threw him into the incoming oversized shuriken, causing the boys head to crack open like a melon, or he would have if he didn't vanish in a poof.
Luckily, Naruto had counted on this and unhenged himself behind Zabuza as the latter was still overextended from killing the clone. The first Shuriken laying behind the Nukenin vanished as the henge was dispelled and Naruto came screaming out of it. " Got'cha!"
Now Zabuza was in a bind. He couldn't block the idiot kid from killing his clone while also evading that Uchiha brats wire controled Shuriken. Still, he moved to block both weapons, when a bolt of lightning appeared from behind him and violently bowled him over.
He had forgotten the third brat...
Naruto threw a kunai at the clone, forcing Zabuza to release the jutsu and free their Sensei.
Kakashi fell into the lake and glared at Zabuza, he sent a smile towards his students as he used his Doujutsu to copy Zabuza's hand signs. Soon, two giant water dragons formed behind each of the men and they went head to head while Naruto jogged over to Dai and Sasuke.
"Woah... Kakashi-Sensei is really strong!" Naruto stared in awe as Kakashi matched every single one of Zabuza's attacks without breaking a sweat.
Kakashi's water dragon overpowered the other, and sent a giant wave crashing towards the bandaged menace.
Fortunately, the wave knocked Zabuza out of the battle and sent him into a nearby tree. He looked up at Kakashi, once the wave was gone, with something akin to fear, "Can... can you see the future?"
Kakashi looked down at the swordsman with a stony frown, "Yes... and I foresee... your death!"
Suddenly, two senbon were lodged in the side of Zabuza's neck, Naruto watched this with shock.
Kakashi appeared calm and they all turned to the one who took Zabuza down.
Up above, on a tree branch, a person standing roughly five feet in height stood with an outstretched hand. The figure had long black hair, a slender frame and wore a Kirigakure Anbu mask that hid their identity. It was impossible to tell the persons gender but the ninja wore a brown striped shirt, and over that a green haori with white trimmings - and around his waist a green sash with a fringed trail wrapped around his waist twice. He also wore light-brown platoon sandals with straps in the same color as his kimono and nail polish on his fingernails and toenails in matching blue green color.
Naruto pointed an accusing finger in the boy's direction with an angry, and slightly suspicious, expression, "Who are you?!"
The boy tilted his head and raised his right hand in a peace sign, "I am a hunter nin. I have been hunting this man for quite some time. I must thank you for making my job easier."
Naruto watched as the boy threw one of Zabuza's arms over his shoulder and made a hand sign, "Once again, thank you... goodbye."
Kakashi watched the Anbu leave and once he was certain they were alone, he placed a hand on his headband and lowered it over his eye.
Naruto turned to face Tazuna, who hid behind Sasuke in fear, "What next?"
Kakashi sighed and smiled faintly at his team and his charge, "Alright! Let's head to Tazuna's an-"
Kakashi was cut off when he took one step and collapsed, his team gasped in shock and crouched down to see if he was alright.
Kakashi only chuckled sheepishly and laid on the ground, "Ah...the joys of chakra exhaustion."
Author Notes: Hey everyone I just wanted to ask what you think so far of the story. Is it enjoyable? Peace out!