Chapter 7
Naruto vs Mifune
"You say you will place your precious people above all, including yourself, but yet when it comes down to it, can you really? Even if you do, do you have the power to protect them? Do you have what it takes?" Mifune stated emotionlessly as Naruto snapped out of his shock and glared at him with anger in his eyes.
"Why?! I thought you samurai were honorable! Where's the damn honor I heard about?!" He yelled towards Mifune. But said master swordsman ignored him and commanded the samurai to give a sword to Naruto.
"Prove to me that you can! Prove to me why Zabuza thought you had the potential to surpass me! Prove to me that you can protect your precious people!" Mifune drew his own sword and held it to Haku's neck "Or else he dies, the only way to save him, is to defeat me!"
Naruto's glare became harsher "I'll kill you!" he snarled in anger. Mifune merely laughed as he withdrew his sword from Haku and moved to the center of the room.
"Come, I'm waiting". Naruto grabbed the sword from the samurai and sped at Mifune, sword already in motion. With a roar of anger, he brought it down in an overhead strike.
Instead of blocking it, Mifune simply side-stepped the strike. However, Naruto learned from his prior training with Zabuza and used the swords momentum to swing it the other way, forcing Mifune to block. "Not bad, but if the is the best you can do, then you might as well give up."
"Shut up!" Naruto roared, a flicker of red dancing across his eyes.
For the next few minutes, Naruto slashed and hacked at Mifune. Though the attacks were powerful and wild, the trained samurai leader had little trouble defending. Dodging a kick here, parrying a stab there, blocking a slash here, deflecting a strike there. This cycle carried on until Naruto was out of breath.
"Stop moving!" he roared as he charged once more. He sent another devastating strike at the samurai, but instead of simply sidestepping it again, he sent his own strike, blocking and breaking Naruto's sword and throwing him back. Naruto landed on his back, still holding the handle of the now broken sword, the shards scattered around him.
"Pathetic, what happened to the 'unbreakable will' Zabuza spoke of? Were you being an experiment of Orochimaru a lie?" Mifune sneered, sheathing his sword "Guess Zabuza was wrong to put his trust in you". With that, something in Naruto snapped. Red chakra started flowing from him, first just a cloak, then a single tail sprouted.
On the sidelines, the samurai and Haku felt a wave of killing intent wash over them, the samurai's eyes widened, not expecting such power from a nine-year old while Haku, being exposed to the Demon of the Mist for so long, was not as shocked at the KI, though he wondered where the red chakra came from.
'I'm pretty sure that no normal ninja can call upon that much chakra… neither do I remember it being red for that matter'
'I'll lend you some of my power, but you are still too young and can't control my chakra. For now, I will do it for you'.
'Thanks fox' Naruto thought as he got up. The tail made of red chakra moved and receded back into the cloak. The cloak started thinning out, but instead of receding, it all moved and focused into Naruto's right hand, forming a katana.
The katana was about a meter long from hilt to the end of the blade, the handle was black and the blade… Mifune gasped. The blade was a blood red and gave off and aura of killing intent, it was as if the blade embodied the nine tailed demon itself.
Naruto looked up, his eyes red with a slit in the middle. "I will show you that Zabuza wasn't wrong to trust me!" And with that, Naruto sped at Mifune again, cracking the floor with the amount of force he used.
It was only due to his experience and his mastery of the "one-slash" that saved the samurai leader. The one-slash was based on the quick draw of the sword while moving at high speed. The user would move from a standstill to top speed in a fraction of a second. This combined with the quick drawing of the sword would kill most enemies before they could blink.
By mastering it, Mifune had trained himself in high speed movement. His eyes could process images quicker (not quite on the sharingan's level, but close) and his body could react in time. This combined with the quick draw helped him to keep track of Naruto while his quick drawing allowed him to just barely deflect the sword.
Naruto turned and attacked the samurai master again. His movements faster, his strikes stronger, and since his sword was made from the nine-tails chakra, it was able to withstand the strikes. Any chips that were made were instantly mended by the chakra. Even Mifune was hard pressed to defend against the onslaught.
Noticing that his blade was starting to crack, Mifune started dodging more often instead of blocking. This enraged Naruto even more, causing him to draw on more of demon fox's chakra. 'Careful Naruto, anymore and your body would be damaged beyond repair. You are only nine-years old after all'.
On the sidelines, Haku saw that Naruto was not only starting to attack with reckless abandon, but what worried him, was that Naruto started to sprout the cloak and another tail again. He saw some of Naruto's skin peel off like it was sunburned but it healed just as fast so he couldn't be sure.
'Moving and attacking at that speed will put a strain on anyone's body, if this carries on, he might not survive' Haku thought, worried.
Back at the fight, Naruto was panting heavily "stop running you coward!" he roared and charged again, though his movements were noticeably slower and he seemed to wince at every step. Finally Naruto got in a lucky shot and disarmed Mifune. He was preparing for another slash when Haku had enough.
"Naruto! Stop!" he shouted, dropping the transformation and revealing he was perfectly fine.
"Relax, I'm ok" he said. Naruto sighed in relief and lowered his sword "what? Oh... good... I'm just gonna crash here" he muttered as he fell asleep. The last thing he remembered was Haku shouting his name.
-Next Day-
Though Naruto woke up in an unfamiliar bed, he heard voices that sounded familiar. "… And I'm telling you Haku, I have a suspicion, but it's not my place to say".
Naruto groaned "I hope me being woken up by you two after going unconscious isn't going to be a normal thing."
"Good, you're up kid, Mifune wants to talk to you" came the gruff voice of Zabuza, already getting up and heading for the door.
After some grumbling about "damn eyebrow-less demons" and a few lost brain cells due to being hit on his head later… The trio of ninja arrived at the mansion of the samurai leader. "Is it wise to keep hitting him Zabuza? He doesn't have much more brain cells to lose."
"Yea… Hey!". Mifune was interrupted from reading his newspaper when the one official and two unofficial ninja came around the corner. Mifune's eyebrows rose when they saw Naruto being restrained by the other two.
"Come one guys! It's not like I'll attack him! Haku wasn't hurt so there is no need for me to hold a grudge!".
"Yeah… just to be safe kid" Zabuza drawled through his bandages. Cue more muttering from Naruto and a hit courtesy of Zabuza.
Seeing as he was going to go into another rant, Mifune decided to interfere "You heal fast Naruto, I wasn't expecting you to be out of hospital for another 2 days".
Naruto shrugged "I heal fast, one of the main reasons why Orochimaru was so interested in me".
Mifune nodded "One of them?".
"Yeah, though sometimes before I fall unconscious, I hear some mutters of 'immortality, blond bastard fourths, revenge and Uzumakis'".
"I see" Mifune pursed his lips then glancing at Zabuza who's eyes widened a fraction of a margin "Well, back to what I called you here for, I am a man of honor and since you passed my test, I will train you in the ways of the sword, and since you impressed me, managing to disarm me – no small feat for someone who is still a beginner, even if I wasn't going all out... I will teach you the technique that made me famous, the one-slash." One word summed up what was going through the blonde's head.
"Cool!".
Mifune chuckled "we will start your training tomorrow, be here at 8, Clear?"
Naruto saluted "Sir Yes sir!".
"Now off with you, I want to discuss some grown up stuff. Haku watch him and make sure he doesn't get into trouble".
"Yes Mifune-Sama" He replied causing Naruto to pout as they walked out the door.
"No fair, you're just as young as me!".
"But I'm still more mature than you."
"No you're not!".
"Yes I am!".
"Fem-boy!".
"Knucklehead!"
Mifune and Zabuza sighed as the two continued bickering as they left. Finally when they couldn't hear the boys anymore, Mifune turned to Zabuza.
"Now I believe that you had something to say?" he inquired.
"His parents" was the simple answer.
"What of them?"
"Don't act ignorant Mifune! I'm sure you've come to the same conclusion! He's the child of the Leaf's Red Hot-blooded Habanero and the Yellow flash!".
"How did you come to this conclusion?".
"Come on Mifune! Don't tell me you are going blind? Naruto is almost a carbon copy of the Namikaze and the only woman that he was rumored to be dating was Kushina Uzumaki! And it is no surprise that Orochimaru would hate him. They were both candidates for the position of Yondaime Hokage. If Namikaze had a child, Orochimaru would jump at the first chance to kidnap him because the Namikaze stole 'what was rightfully his'. And don't think I didn't feel that chakra yesterday. That was undoubtedly the chakra of a Biju. Naruto is a Jinchuriki, and not just any, the Jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox" By now Zabuza was pacing around and waving his hands in the air.
Mifune calmly offered him some tea "Here, some tea would calm you down". Zabuza took the offered cup and downed it in a single gulp before sitting back down. "Now that you're calm, what do you plan to do with this information? Last I heard, the Uzumaki were wiped out, a few survivors scattered across the elemental nations" Mifune asked/said as he sipped his own tea.
Zabuza stared at his empty cup "I gotta go and talk to an old acquaintance, back in Mist. I think I'll be gone for about a month, two at most. That should give you enough time to train Naruto in the way of the swords".
"It won't, even if I spend every hour training him to the ground, even with his dedication, it will take him at least a year to even reach an acceptable level".
"Then I'll leave you a scroll to teach him a technique that will possibly reduce the time to a month. Though I never used it too much myself. I only knew of it when I found the scroll off some dead Leaf Jonin back when I was still under Mist" He said, quickly jotting down a few notes for the technique before handing to Mifune.
Frowning at the "shortcut" but reading the scroll none the less. Mifune looked at Zabuza "but it says that it divides the user's chakra, isn't that dangerous?".
"Well, he's an Uzumaki isn't he? You know? The whole ton-of-chakra thing?".
"Very well then. When will you be leaving?" he asked, tucking the scroll in his robes.
"Tomorrow morning, once I tell him" Zabuza said, standing up again.
Mifune nodded, "What about Haku?"
"If it isn't too much trouble, I will leave him with you. I'll leave a scroll of ice techniques for him to learn".
"Ice? He has the bloodline?". Zabuza simply nodded
"Then I also have a scroll for him. Something I got off a missing nin trying to attack me, but that was before I became the leader. Tried to sell it, but no one would take it since they either couldn't use it or feared the fourth Mizukage and his 'bloodline purges'".
Zabuza nodded with a frown "We're still trying to overthrow him, one of the reasons I'm going back is to see how far the rebels have gotten".
"I see, then I will not keep you any longer. You will need the energy for the journey. I bid you safe travels" Mifune stood, holding out his hand.
"Till I return, Mifune" Zabuza grasped his hand with a hidden smirk.
AN: and that's a wrap! Sorry for the late chapter, I was studying for exams. Also just a notice to all, I'm gonna post another chapter (expect it Sunday the latest) before going on holiday till September. I won't be able to type but have no fear! ZVoltrin is going to type them and I'll find a way to post them.
Also if you hadn't noticed, I found a pic for the story! Gotta say it was a stroke of luck finding it ;).
Reviews:
(chapter 1) Banjo the Fox: thanks, though i'm not sure which way you meant by disgusting. maybe the gruesome way?
Wondering Knight: I'm trying, this is my first proper story after all
Yagura's sensei: thanks!
BlackDragonShinigami: here's the update
Noahendless: thanks, I plan to see this to the very end if it's the last thing I do!