Chapter 21
Showdown at the bridge
A battle between elite Jonin is the perfect example of the difference between "normal" and "elite". Actions and reactions separated by mere split seconds. Jutsu casted within moments notice. No action was useless. No chakra was wasted. A deadly dance where a single slip would mean death.
Such was a battle between the Demon of the Mist and the Copy-nin.
As soon as Zabuza jumped off the bridge to join his Leaf opponent, He lifted his sword to block a quick attack. They separated and clashed again. Sword against kunai.
"Water style: glimmering water chains" Zabuza said, holding the tiger seal.
Kakashi showed an impressive acrobatic ability in dodging the chains that came up from underneath him and parrying the spiked tips away in those he couldn't dodge in time.
"lighting style: thunder birds" he said while weaving some hand seals in mid-air, upside down.
Instantly his hands were encased in lightning. He cocked his hands back and threw them forward. Bright sparks flew from his hands and flew in the direction of the chains. Some pierced through the chains and stopped the Jutsu and preventing Zabuza from taking advantage of his position. Others headed straight for Zabuza, forcing him to abandon his Jutsu and jump away.
As he jumped, he threw some kunai through the Jutsu and towards Kakashi.
This had two effects.
The first was the kunai, being made of metal, thus, attracting the lighting towards it and conducted it and stopped the Jutsu from following him.
The second was the kunai, now charged with lighting headed towards Kakashi. Essentially turning his Jutsu against him.
Kakashi was too busy dodging the kunai to notice Zabuza was behind him.
"water style: water prison Jutsu"
Xxxx
Kurenai was frustrated. This brat, who couldn't have been older than her genin, was keeping her on her toes. Sure, she was a Jonin, but the kid didn't seem to care. Her genjutsu would have possibly given her the advantage by distorting his senses, but those clones weren't giving her any chances to weave any hand seals. They weren't that hard to beat, a simple hit would be enough, but they never seemed to end! The quantity over quality was winning here.
Finally, she jumped away from the mass of clones and landed on top of some building crates that hadn't been opened yet. "I admit, you're pretty good- for a kid." She said, slightly out of breath. She scanned the crowed of clones, all in stances prepared to attack or defend. "but, now I'll show you why I'm called the Genjutsu Mistress back in the Leaf" she said, racing through hand seals. "genjutsu: burning hell" she said before starting another set. "genjutsu: false surroundings"
She smirked as the clones' battle stances faltered before bursting into water and completely drenching that part of the bridge. Leaving only one laying on the ground.
The Leaf Jonin jumped down on the ground, ignoring the loud splash of water. "now, time to end this" she said, pulling out a kunai.
Kurenai walked to the downed form of Naruto. "I commend you on a good battle" she said before thrusting down.
The kunai pierced his head and his life liquid gushed out. Only one problem. It was water.
Kurenai barely had time to be surprised before she was bonded by chains.
"I commend you on a good battle" Naruto said, quoting her words, "but you made 2 crucial mistakes." He held up a finger, "the first, was assuming that I would let down my guard when fighting a Jonin." He said before holding up another "the second, is stepping into water even when you know I am in league with Zabuza-sensei."
Kurenai's eyes widened. "this kid trained under Zabuza!" she thought. "no wonder he is so good!"
"now, to get you out the battle. I want to see the end of that Copy-nin" Naruto said, unsealing his sword.
Kurenai barely had time to admire the masterful carvings on the sheath before the sword was drawn and headed for her head. She flinched out of reflex and the sharp pain in her head was the last thing she knew before dropping.
Naruto sighed before resealing his sword. He had changed the trajectory of the sword at the last second and instead knocked her unconscious.
"Well, let's see how sensei is doing"
Xxxx
Haku was disappointed. From all the stories he had heard of the Uchiha clan and from this Uchiha's boasting he had expected an epic battle. Of course he was still a pacifist and preferred not to kill, but that didn't mean he didn't like a good battle.
"Stop running and fight me!" Sasuke screamed as Haku dodged another punch.
"You're blind" Haku said as he struck a nerve that rendered that arm limp.
Sasuke glared as he tried to get back feeling in his arm. As an Uchiha, being called blind was one of the worst insults he could get.
"I grow bored of this. I hope the Hyuga will be a better opponent. Haku said, readying a senbon that will paralyse him and be easier to knock him out.
Sasuke clenched his fists. Another insult that hit a nerve.
"Shut up! Fire style: grand fireball jutsu!" Sasuke screamed, finally getting feeling back in his arm.
Haku sighed. "is this the best you can do?" he asked, dodging the fireball.
"How dare yo-" Sasuke started but was suddenly stopped when Haku punched him in the solar plexus.
"Yes, yes, you are an Uchiha, you are the strongest, whatever" he said rolling his eyes before chopping him in the neck, hitting the vagus nerve. "Now go to sleep"
The Uchiha slumped to the ground, knocked out.
"Hyuga, your turn" Haku called, turning to the group guarding the bridge builder.
Hinata squeaked. She wasn't expecting to be called out like that. She wasn't anything special. Just average in just about everything. "of course" she mentally added "it was probably because I'm a Hyuga" she correctly guessed.
Shino stepped in front of her. "go wake up Sasuke. This masked-nin is not to be taken lightly. He easily took out our rookie of the year. Our chances would increase should we all work together."
Hinata nodded and raced off to wake him up.
Shino held out his arms. "allow me to be your opponent."
Haku gave a small bow. "Shino Aburame, correct? I am Haku Yuki. Pleased to meet you."
Shino gave a small nod of his own, "correct, please to meet you too." He said before letting the bugs out his coat. The bugs swarmed Haku, aiming to drain his chakra.
"Coming of winter" Haku said, releasing a pulse of chakra that froze the nearby water and caused all the bugs to drop out the air.
"You'll have to do better than that"
Shino sweated. Almost all of his techniques wouldn't work. As soon as his bugs gets close enough, Haku would freeze it. "However," he though, glancing to the side where Hinata was trying to wake the Uchiha up "I don't need to win. Just stall enough time." He looked back at Haku. The Aburame reached into his pouch. Even though he mainly used bugs, that didn't mean he couldn't use ninja tools.
He threw out a handful of kunai and shuriken. His aim wasn't the best, nor was he expecting for them to hit, but he hoped they would be enough distraction for Haku not to be able to mould chakra and freeze the bugs that followed.
Haku simply formed an ice mirror to block whatever shuriken was headed to hit him. He knew the Aburame weren't stupid and correctly guessed that the tools were a distraction. However he didn't plan for the distraction to be taken advantage of by a third party.
His head snapped to the side and his body followed. The ice mirror shattering as soon as he lost concentration.
Haku looked back. The Uchiha was back and he was weaving hand seals for a fireball. Haku grabbed a senbon out his pouch and threw it at the Uchiha, hitting his hand and preventing him from activating his jutsu. He rolled to the side to avoid a kunai with a paper bomb attached and used the momentum from the roll to stand up.
Hinata took advantage of him being off balance and went to disable his arm. Haku quickly rotated and used his palm to guide the deadly fingers past his body. He jumped back and weaved some hand seals. "ice style: ice gauntlets"
Hinata recovered from her stumble and aimed to hit Haku's back. She blinked when she made contact, but instead of the fabric she expected, she was met with what seemed to be a strong glove made of ice. She quickly disengaged to reassess the situation. Feeling a coldness in her fingers, she looked down in surprise. Her fingers that she used to hit Haku were turning blue.
Haku smirked. "I designed these gauntlets to spread my ice chakra into anything I touch. I can speed up the process by adding more chakra. A few seconds of touching this and your fingers will fall off from frostbite."
"you can't freeze anyone if you're toast! Fire style: grand fireball jutsu" Sasuke shouted and breathed a large fireball.
A mirror formed in front of Haku, "Enough. Demonic mirroring ice crystals."
Out of the mist, 21 thin blocks of ice formed around the team. Haku stepped into the mirror closest to him. "in here, my speed is 5 times faster. You have lost." He said.
The entire group was enveloped in a bright flash. Out of every mirror came dozens of senbon. The force of the senbon threw Sasuke and Hinata back. Shino dispersed, revealing that it was an insect clone the whole time.
Haku threw another wave of senbon. Again, the force threw them back. This time Hinata activated her Byakugan. "He's in that mirror" she said, pointing at a mirror just above them.
Sasuke spat out a fireball at the mirror she pointed.
Haku jumped out, just because his mirrors were able to withstand the fireball didn't mean he liked being in it when it hit.
He saw a light coming towards him out the corner of his eye and quickly ducked into another mirror to avoid being burned. When he looked back, he saw the eyes of the Uchiha had changed.
He had awoken his sharingan.
Haku narrowed his eyes. Now that he had awoken his sharingan, Haku knew that the Uchiha just became a bigger threat and that if the battle was prolonged, the Uchiha would get stronger.
The time for playing around was over.
"Water style: water trumpet. Water style: glimmering water chains." He said, firing off two jutsu one after the other. The water chains were more of Naruto's jutsu, but he couldn't train with Naruto for 3 years and not learn anything. The first jutsu was to drench Sasuke and make water around him. The water chains then formed around Sasuke, binding him and sticking their sharp tips into the bridge.
Haku threw another senbon at the Uchiha, aiming to take him out, but it was stopped by Hinata who deflected it with a kunai. He dashed out his mirror and kicked her across the area of the mirrors before turning to the Uchiha. "I congratulate you on awakening your bloodline, now go to sleep" he said before sticking a senbon he formed out of ice into his neck.
Haku turned around to see Hinata about to disable his chakra with her gentle fist. He ducked and weaved her strikes before knocking her back with an uppercut. He panted from the short exchange and frowned. "I know I haven't exactly been chakra friendly but I should still have at least half my reserves left" he thought. It was then that he noticed the faint footsteps of insects on his body. "of course, The Aburame and his chakra eating bugs."
Haku let his ice mirrors drop while he sent a quick pulse of ice chakra, freezing all the bugs on his body. Spotting the bug user, he made some hand seals. "water style: water cage. Ice style: frost winds"
Unlike its prison counterpart, the water cage was not filled with water. It was simply a cage made of water pillars with an extremely dense roof made of water.
Frost winds was an original jutsu that Haku based off his other one, coming of winter. While that jutsu freezes objects with Haku as the origin, frost winds is an extremely cold wind that flash freezes anything it touches. The water cage wasn't really needed, but the Aburame were known to be extremely smart and it wouldn't be hard to believe that he would be able to escape. The cage was just an extra insurance.
He looked around. Sasuke was in false-death. Shino was frozen in a block of ice and Hinata looked to be unconscious. He nodded at his work before jumping off to joining Naruto in watching the Jonin battle.
Xxxx
Kiba was a tricky opponent. Even though he relied much on brute strength and had little finesse, the fact was that there weren't many people who had something she couldn't dodge to an acceptable extent. Out of all 5 senses, eyesight was the most used. Fu's fighting style relied on hitting quick and hard. For opponents who were fast, she blocked them then countered. For opponents who hit hard, she dodged. For opponents like Kiba, she would use both. Blinding them then dodging and attacking. However, Kiba wasn't like the others. Firstly, he had a dog who could apparently talk to him and warn him of danger and/or attack her to buy him time to recover. Secondly, he relied on smell as much as sight. And thirdly, he used a drill-like attack. This meant that any defence she put up wouldn't last very long. She was stuck against one of the worst opponents she could have. A near perfect counter to her style.
Of course, that didn't mean she didn't have any advantages. First and foremost, she had experience. From what she had seen, he had just entered the academy when she graduated and only graduated recently. Secondly, he seemed a bit reluctant to hit her. Whether this was because of his upbringing or something else, she didn't know or care. Any advantage was welcome in a shinobi battle. And finally, an advantage she liked exploiting in him, the fact he had reached puberty and was easily flustered.
Fu dodged another drill and turned around to see him panting. Not much of a surprise there. His technique seemed to use chakra and since he is only genin, he didn't have enough in his reserves to use it too many times.
"Are you tired already? That must be disappointing for your partner" Fu said, smirking behind her mask.
"oh, come on! Would you let it go already?" Kiba complained. "you know I didn't mean in that way!"
Fu laughed, "if you say so. Just wondering, just how does your partnership with Akamaru work? Are you like in business and he only tells you to watch out, or is there more?" Fu asked.
Kiba smirked, "We Inuzuka don't do business with our dogs, we train them and care for them. They are our partners for life. We eat, train, sleep and battle together."
Fu raised an eyebrow behind her mask, "they are your partners for life? You do everything together? Sounds like marriage to me."
"Oh come on! How many times do I have to tell you! It's not that kind of relationship!" Kiba whined.
"Yeah, yeah. So how do you battle with him?" Fu asked. "I imagine that there is a more effective way to battle with a dog."
Kiba reached into his pouch, "let me show you"
Fu watched in interest as he pulled a pill out his pouch.
"Akamaru, catch!"
The white puppy jumped and caught the pill in its mouth before biting down. Within moments its fur turned form snow white to a rust red.
"Let's go Akamaru!" Kiba crouched, his hands touching the bridge. The red dog jumped and landed on his back "Man- beast clone"
A poof of smoke later, there stood two feral Kiba's crouched on top of each other.
"ok, so through transformation, he is now the same species, but aren't you a little young to do that?" Fu asked.
The bottom Kiba collapsed, causing the other to tumble down on top of him, dispelling the transformation. "come on!"
Fu took the opportunity while he was distracted to disappear and appear behind him and knock him out with the butt of her kunai. "alright, I've had enough fun." She said before looking at the growling Akamaru. "relax, I'm not going to kill him" she said with a roll of her eyes.
This seemed to satisfy the dog who then laid down. Fu smiled and sat next to him and started petting him
Xxxx
Zabuza looked at the captured Kakashi in front of him. "Now, stay still. I'm just going to dismember you. I think that I'll finish you off with a stab to the heart. It's the only fitting end for you after all." He said.
Another Zabuza appeared next to him "let's get started"
Just as he was about to swing his sword, the Kakashi in the prison turned to water.
"as you said, "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."" Kakashi said, quoting Zabuza's words from earlier.
Zabuza growled. "Just die!" he screamed, swinging his sword with all his might.
Once again, Kakashi turned to water. And another Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza.
"I've been wondering, you seem angrier than you should be. Almost as if you have a grudge against me. Any particular reason why? I'm sure your defeat earlier can't be the reason."
Zabuza gritted his teeth. "I don't expect you to remember. It has been 15 years. Does the day where I gained my nickname ring a bell?"
Kakashi thought for a moment, "15years, the warhad reached a standstill. It appears that I killed one of his friends or someone close to him. Ah yes, I remember now. It was a year after Obito died. Lord Third gave me an important S-ranked mission. It was to check up on unusual activity by the Mist Boarder. We encountered the Mist Shinobi and engaged. Kagemi died and I went on a killing spree because I failed to save another friend. I was stopped by a Mist Shinobi who did the same. When I was stopped, 10 Mist and 6 Leaf Shinobi were left. Hikari, Sumaru and Menma sacrificed themselves so Hayate,Gaiand I could escape and report."
Zabuza watched as realization dawned on Kakashi's face. "I see you remember. Now die and pay for your crimes!" he roared.
Kakashi jumped back before dashing in and locking blades with Zabuza. "You weren't the only one who lost someone that day! Kagemi was a dear friend of mine but you don't see me driven by revenge! People die in war! It's inavoidable!"
Zabuza sighed. He had always known that but never truly acknowledged it. Always burying it and ignoring his voice of reason.
"you're right, but that doesn't change the fact that we are on opposite sides of a mission now. You to protect and me to assassinate. That doesn't change."
Kakashi nodded. "It doesn't"
Zabuza glanced out the corner of his eye to see Naruto sitting on the side of the bridge. "Well, it appears the other Jonin is down for the count" Zabuza mused. Suddenly he was struck with a thought, "well that's ironic. The fact that the son of his sensei is on a different side to him and he doesn't know it. Ah poor Kakashi" Zabuza grinned behind his bandages.
The Jonin clashed again.
"You know that Gato is likely to betray you, right?" Kakashi grunted out.
"It doesn't matter. Even if he tries to catch me off guard, I'll just cleave him in half." Zabuza growled before they broke away again.
They both started on a long chain of hand seals. And just like their last battle, two dragons with glowing eyes and bodies of water rose from the lake and battled for dominance. Again, they proved to be equal and cancelled each other out.
Both Jonin panted. The battle had been long and taken its toll on them.
Suddenly, Zabuza smirked "and that makes two." He said.
It took a moment for Kakashi to understand, but when he did, his eyes widened. He looked to where the masked ninja Zabuza called Naruto, and sure enough, another masked figure had joined him in sitting on the side and observing the battle.
"Haku, take out the target."
Kakashi cursed when he saw the new figure jump away. He had no chance of stopping him. Even if he could manage to get away from Zabuza, Naruto would still get in the way and delay him long enough to Zabuza to catch up. His best hope was to take down Zabuza as fast as he could.
He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a scroll. He wiped some blood from a wound he got from Zabuza sometime in the battle and opening the scroll, he wiped the blood along the paper of the scroll before closing it and slamming it on the ground. "Summoning:Earth style: tracking fang"
The ground underneath them rumbled for a second before four dogs burst out and bit Zabuz's arms and legs, effectively immobilizing him.
He sighed and stood up before making another three hand seals. "be honoured, you will fall before my only original jutsu." He said, clutching his right hand. "chidori"
Zabuza watched in amazement. The lightning chakra was so concentrated, it was visible!
Just as Kakashi was about to dash towards Zabuza, he heard a scream that he recognized as Sakura's. He closed his eyes and let the jutsu fade. "It's over. I'm too late."
Zabuza sighed as the dogs disappeared in a poof of smoke. "that was a close one." He thought and looked at Kakashi. "My mission is complete and yours has failed. Let's go back up and stop the fighting" he said "more like my students beating up yours" he mentally added.
They jumped onto the bridge with a chakra enhanced leap and came upon a look of mass destruction. On one side, the bridge was flooded where Kurenai laid unconscious. On the other, Shino was trapped and frozen in a block of ice, Hinata was struggling to her feet and Sasuke was lying on the ground a few feet away. Close to the edge of the bridge, Tazuna's body lay between Sakura and Ami. Sakura looked on in shock while Ami was trying to shake him awake, apparently in denial.
"Hey Zabuza-sensei" Fu greeted from her seat. Unlike the others, she opted not to go and watch the Jonin battle and instead sat near the unconscious Kiba and petted Akamaru.
"I guess we not killing the copy-nin then?" Naruto asked, landing next to her.
"Of course not, can't you see sensei is standing next to him and not attacking him?" Haku asked, joining the group.
Before Naruto could have a chance to retort, a slow clapping was heard. "Well done Zabuza."
AN: yup, extremely long chapter. I wanted to wrap up the fights and just couldn't find a good place to stop after starting so don't expect chapters this long for the next few months- or until the next big fight.
I know I said that I would reveal Naruto's sharingan this chapter, but it appears that I was delayed. It will be revealed next chapter. That is set in stone... along with some other stuff… maybe I should start doing the same as some other authors and build a reader-proof bunk… and keep all the cats in there so someone (looks at Zeus501) would stop threatening them…
I'm starting school again in about 2 weeks from now, so after that I might skip some update weeks. I will do my best to keep up the "chapter per week" thing, but just in case life decides that I have too much free time…
I'm sure there was something else I wanted to say, but I can't seem to remember.
Reviews:
Noahendless: thanks a bunch!
Hikari Nova: ha, yeah, she is the "ice queen of the leaf" after all. And we both know the civilian council has too much power, no matter which fanfiction we read (unless it's those that have Danzo overtaking as Hokage or super strict Hiruzen that abolish it and rule with an iron fist). Well, prodigies like Itachi and Kakashi are rare (even though the Leaf was pumping them out like throwing candy) so it wasn't too farfetched to believe that the chances of encountering another was low, especially one that didn't come from a hidden village. And I also think that she made a huge mistake in neglecting the other shinobi arts. The only possible reason for her to even be jonin is that she was another "prodigy" in genjutsu. Besides that, I think that the rank suits her. We can admit she is slightly above special jonin (cause I'm reasonably sure she can beat Anko in a fight…) but nowhere near elite jonin. To me, to be elite jonin is to specialize in a field but still keep the other fields at an acceptable level (like Kakashi) or specialize in a field enough to cover the weakness not having the others would bring (Gai).
Zeus501: ehehehehe… I got plaaaans *smirks evily* that don't include Gaara dying… yet… also Kakashi wouldn't recognize Naruto because 1) he has never seen him before (remember Naruto was abducted as soon as he was born), so no whiskers won't help him at all, and 2) he hasn't removed his mask yet (in this chapter anyways).
NoaTheYaoiVampire: glad you enjoyed it.
BlackDragonShinigami: don't you think that's a little too extreme? ^.^ll
AnbuDragon90: I believe you misunderstood. In chapter 1, he saw Haku who he thought was a girl before passing out. Go back and read it carefully, you will see that he met the "girl" before he passed out and I did mention that Naruto had seen Kyubi before that day.
Thor94: eh, it's the world of ninja, missing nin gotta do whatever they can to earn money. And to Zabuza, he only cares about Mist, and this mission helped Mist financially (however small) and that was all he cared about.
Effectivesage: well.. Zabuza was already a Mist ninja… but yeah, the other 3 will be Mist ninja soon.
AndiDuel: in a few chapters (maybe 5)