Puppets of the Leaf

Puppets of the Leaf

Chapter 7

When Tazuna's home finally came within view, the three students were watching Kakashi nervously. He glanced back at them for a second before, finally unable to bear the looks, he asked. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

At any other time it would have made them all crash to the floor, because yes, he did actually have a mask on his face; however they all seemed to be extremely serious about something.

Sakura was the first to speak up. "Ano, Sensei, but what is wrong?"

Mentally, he stiffened. 'Could they…'

"What do you mean?"

"Something is bothering you, something bad. What is it?"

'How did they know?'

"What makes you say that?"

"Since that Mist Hunter-Nin took Zabuza away, you haven't taken out your book once." This was from their dark-haired teammate.

'…ohh…oops.'

Outwardly he sighed. "I see, well then yes. There was something definitely wrong with that. First it was the manner in which the Hunter nin disposed of the body."

Sakura looked at him questioningly, "Why? What was wrong with it?"

"The fact that we don't know. Hunter Nin usually dispose of a body at the scene. You see a ninja's body contains many secrets of the village, techniques medicines, and the like. If I were killed then someone would try to examine my Sharringan, and attempt to replicate it. It is the job of Hunter Ninja to keep these secrets from falling into the hands of a hostile, and sometimes allied, village."

They all fell silent as the information was taken in.

"Add to that the choice of weapons, as you probably know Naruto, Senbon are a medical tool, rarely used by ninja as weapons, it is very difficult to hit a vital spot for a killing blow, unless it was poisoned of course. However unless fired from some kind of launcher, like Naruto's puppets, the user would run the risk of poisoning him/herself."

Naruto nodded with the man's assessment of the weapon choice, he couldn't even count the amount of times he'd stuck himself with the things, putting his hand to sleep as a result, of the toxin used. It was part of the reason he didn't use poisons.

"So, you don't think Zabuza's dead?" The bridge builder looked sharply at the blonde, all color draining from his face.

Kakashi shook his head. "No, he isn't dead, he'll be back and next time he won't underestimate any of you."

There was a unified gulp from all three of the gennin. "Naruto, how long would that toxin, last before wearing off?" The boy thought about it for a minute, contemplating Zabuza's height, weight, as well as his own experiences with the paralysis.

"Well it's stronger than the stuff I used on that stupid cat so… maybe two or three days, till he'd be fully recovered."

Kakashi nodded his head. "I see. Also taking into account the debilitating effects of the senbon in his neck, we'll have a little less than a week. Mostly because he'll have to avoid medications since they don't know what you drugged him with."

They reached their destination without incident, and Kakashi proceeded to lay out a training regimen for them. When Zabuza came back, he wouldn't be alone. The Gennin would have to fight as well.

Kakashi watched with an amused smile as Sakura, rather loudly proclaimed her success in reaching a high branch of the tree. The others had only managed to make it about halfway up theirs, but these were the results he had expected. Sakura seemed to have near perfect control of her Chakra, now if only they could build up her reserves she'd be able to do something with it. She had originally seemed to be a natural Genjutsu user, however since she seemed to adopt the role of support for the others, and lacked the imagination it would take to come up with the illusions, he thought about getting her some medical training. It had certainly helped to have a medic on his own team.

The other two were making steady progress up the tree, both competing with the other and pushing each other to be better. Kakashi had no doubt that Sasuke saw Naruto as a rival. Naruto had always viewed the other boy as such, however Sasuke had only seemed to see it during their more recent missions, as Naruto had displayed more of his skills with his puppets.

In truth he had to admit the boy was becoming more skilled with them, often using misdirection, and combined with his Kage Bunshin, Naruto was definitely becoming formidable.

Sakura was about out of chakra, so Kakashi had her come down from the tree and return to the house. He told the others to work until they had exhausted their chakra, then return. If they hadn't mastered it by the end of the day then Sakura would accompany him to the bridge the next morning, while they continued to work on the exercise.

The thought of being left behind if Zabuza showed up that day… no, they were determined to master it that night.

Kakashi sat at the diner table with Sakura and Tazuna's family, when the door opened and the two boys walked in, leaning on each other for support. Both were dirty and breathing heavily.

"We…both made it…all the way… to the top." Naruto proclaimed with a smile, to which Sasuke merely nodded.

Sakura congratulated them loudly, while a vision of himself, and his own best friend, practically his brother, floated across them. Kakashi shook off the ghosts from his past.

"Good work you two, sit and eat, then get some sleep. Tomorrow, we'll start something new."

Naruto came down the stairs to see Sakura going through a short series of hand seals. A slight green glow spread over her hands, and she let out a smile as she looked at Kakashi nodding his head in acknowledgement. "Hey, what technique is that?" Naruto came into the room and stood behind the pink-haired girl. "It's a medical Jutsu, capable of healing minor injuries. With practice it can be built up to major wounds as well." Kakashi sat with a hot cup of tea in his hand. In the back of his mind, Naruto wondered how the man was drinking it with a mask on.

"Wow that's awesome Sakura-chan, now you can fix him up when the Teme, accidentally cuts of his foot off with a Kunai." The boy's comment was rewarded with a lock of hair being cut off by one of the aforementioned throwing knives sailing past his head, courtesy of the raven-haired boy who'd just entered the room.

For a moment, Kakashi thought the girl would get some practice using her new skill, until the two boys smirked at each other and sat down. It seemed that they had evolved their relationship into a friendly rivalry, like the one he shared with Mighto Guy. Though he would die before admitting it, the odd ninja was one of his best friends.

After breakfast, he led the three of them out to the clearing they had adopted as their training field. "As I said yesterday, we are quickly ruining out of time. Sakura will come to the bridge with me today. I have some other things I want you two to work on here, where you wont kill anyone in the process. Starting tomorrow all of us will be going to the bridge, so make today count, it's all we have."

"Sensei, if we're pressed for time, shouldn't I stay here and practice also?"

"Sakura, we're going to a civilian construction site, trust me there will be plenty of opportunities for you to practice the healing technique. Now for you two, Naruto, the other day, I noticed that you were able to control both Blade and Kyu at once…"

"Not exactly sensei, I had to drop most of the strings I had on Blade and move them to Kyu. I barely had enough control to fire that senbon, and keep blade upright."

"I see. Then I want you to work on controlling two puppets at once. The skill will help out greatly during the inevitable fight."

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei," He saluted. "There's a training method in the latest scroll I got from Gi-san that should help." The blonde ran off to the edge of the trees and began to channel his chakra. When Kakashi turned back to his other students, he saw Sasuke rubbing his eyes in irritation. "You ok?" he asked knowingly.

"Hai, I just have something in my eyes, I'm fine." Kakashi smirked.

'He's close to it now. Hopefully this training will be enough to push him over the edge.'

"Ok then I have a new Jutsu for you to learn. As an Uchiha you have a natural affinity for Fire techniques, as I'm sure you already know." The boy nodded.

"Since you already know the grand fire ball, a C-ranked Jutsu, and the Phoenix flower, a B-ranked Jutsu, I'm going to teach you an A-ranked one, if for no other reason than because practicing it will build up you're stamina and chakra reserves. This alone will help when you finally unlock your bloodline."

At the mention of the Sharringan, the boy' head snapped up to meet the gaze of his instructor. "Kakashi-sensei, there's something I've been meaning to ask you…"

Kakashi held up a hand preventing him from continuing. "No, I'm not an Uchiha. However a good friend of mine was, before he was killed along time ago. And no I won't tell you anymore than that right now. Maybe after the mission, if you still want to know, but you'll have to survive this first. Now watch closely, I don't expect you to master this right away, but the training will help greatly."

With that he began a long series of hand seals ending with the Tiger. He raised his fingers to his mask and exhaled a large flame shaped into the form of a long dragon. "Katon: Karyuendan!" the dragon soared around them for a few moments before being dispelled.

For the next few minutes Kakashi showed the boy the signs needed and how to shape his chakra to perform it properly then went back to the house with Sakura to assume their guard duties.

After a while of training in their skills, Sasuke fell back onto the ground breathing heavily. He couldn't remember struggling this much to learn a Jutsu since his father tried to teach him, the Grand fireball. He looked over at his teammate and saw that he was suspended from a high branch by a handful of chakra strings; amazingly he seemed to be doing pull-ups on them. He seemed just as tired as Sasuke, which was odd since the blond usually had twice the endurance of Sasuke, and as he watched the boy began to tremble under the exertion, and fell to the ground.

"Ne, Doe." He called out to him. "Let's go get some food then come back to finish training, if I leave you here you're likely to kill yourself."

He smirked as Naruto threw him what was 'obviously' a hand sign for 'bird', and the two returned to the house, where, much to Naruto's delight, Tsunami made them some ramen.

When they returned to their training, Naruto took out both his white and purple scrolls, and summoned both Blade and his Kunoichi. Finally he brought his hands together in a seal and created six clones of himself. Naruto was attempting to utilize both of his two puppets, against his clones; however he was quickly over matched. They were built to use two completely different Fighting styles, and he just couldn't keep tack of everything that was happening around him. This especially became a problem when a clone managed to knock down his Kunoichi, all of the arrows that were in the quiver at her side fell out and she was effectively disarmed. He cursed as he called the combat to a halt. Together they gathered all of the lost arrows, and Naruto unsealed his toolkit. He handed both the kit and the puppet to a clone and had it set to work fixing the problem. Meanwhile, Naruto continued the sparring session, using Blade with only one hand, as he had been doing all throughout the session, however, now that his attention wasn't divided, he found it to be much easier, and saw the impact that the tree climbing had on his control.

After a couple of hours of this, Naruto was down to only three opponents, it was tough to destroy them because they all knew how the puppet worked as well. The three remaining clones began to attack in tandem, each covering for the others as a three man cell of gennin might, now going not just after the puppet but Naruto as well. Eventually two clones managed to pin down Blade, while the other launched itself off their backs at Naruto, Its fist drawn back to punch the boy. Before either could react though, an arrow pierced its chest and it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Three sets of blue eyes turned to look at another clone standing behind Kunoichi, with a satisfied look on his face. Naruto began looking for any obvious changes to the puppet, but was brought up short by a sudden realization. "Hey, wait a minute; you can control the puppets too?" He knew they were physical copies of him, but had no idea they could utilize Justus as well, Ideas began to swim pleasantly in his mind, the possibilities were endless.

"Yea I guess," the clone replied now examining the strings. "I wasn't even thinking about it at the time, but I did finish the modifications. The clone flexed his wrist and another arrow slid out of a small hole in its palm. The puppet caught it and knocked it onto the string of the bow, ready to fire, in one fluid motion.

The real Naruto smiled, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Another clone responded. "Um I think, technically, you did."

Naruto switched puppets with his clone, and gave Kyu to another. He then summoned another group of clones, and the melee began again, this time with much greater results.

Naruto watched from up in a tree as Blades attack was stopped by the Kunai held by two clones, The 'mask' that was now painted on rather than the cloth one from earlier, parted down the middle and snapped open to reveal two small cylinders which were already spinning at a high rate. The two clones registered shock at the action, as half a dozen senbon needles shot out and destroyed them. Naruto knew how they must have felt, even he had forgotten all about that feature, and he was the one who built it.

He grinned to himself as he caused Kunoichi to fire an arrow which destroyed two clones at once. He grin vanished however as several clones all turned to look at him at once, even some that were no where near to the two he destroyed. 'Crap not again! That's twice now, what the hell?!'

Earlier he had been spotted by one clone as he hid in a bush, he destroyed it and suddenly a bunch more jumped him, instantly finding his location, which he thought strange, but figured he had just given himself away when he attacked, now he knew that he hadn't.

Four clones charged his position, and he shot down three of them. Before he could target the last however he realized that he was now out of arrows. He directed Kunoichi to the side and brought her bow down on the clones head as it landed, dispelling it.

He was about to go and try to recover some of his spent arrows when the clone controlling Blade was also destroyed, he stiffened, and smiled as he remembered something vital. He twitched his wrist and another arrow dispensed itself out of the puppets thigh, and there were two more sets in her other arm and leg. Briefly he wondered how he knew that when he wasn't the one who installed them, he was beginning to understand how the clones had found him.

The training continued, with another clone picking up one of the puppets after its controller was destroyed, until just after dark, when Naruto finally called it to an end. He was exhausted, and his clones weren't faring any better. He had them assist in collecting all of the spent weapons, and ammunition, and sealed away the three puppets, then Naruto prepared to dispel the remaining clone, around fifteen of them, and tried to keep alert for any additional information he might receive, to confirm what he suspected about them. What he got was the equivalent of looking for a lit match in a dark room when someone turns on the sun. Naruto was immediately overwhelmed, and suffered an extreme case of vertigo. His world went dark and he fell to the ground.

"You'll catch cold if you sleep out here like this." Naruto groggily sat up at the sound of the angelic voice. He looked around him and found that an attractive girl, close to his own age, was kneeling next to him. He shook his head to clear the sleep from his mind, as the 'girl' laughed at his antics.

"What were you doing out here?"

"I was training."

"Training…are you some kind of ninja?"

The blonde nodded as he straitened his headband, drawing her attention to it.

"And is that a symbol of your home?"

"Yep it's the mark of the Hidden Leaf Village."

Naruto took a quick look at the suns position in the sky and saw that it was only an hour past sunrise. "Wow you're out here pretty early, how come?"

She smiled and held up a basket. "I'm gathering herbs to use in medicines."

Seeing that the basket was only partially full, Naruto volunteered his help in gathering the herbs, seeing as how she was nice enough to wake him up and there was no telling how long he would've slept there, maybe long enough to be found by an enemy ninja or something crazy like that. He picked it up pretty quick, having done something similar on a recent D-rank mission, not that he would ever admit to anyone that any of the Dumb Ranks missions might actually come in useful later in life. No Gennin would ever admit to that, it was an unspoken law among the younger generations.

They spent another ten minutes or so in silence gathering the plants, before the quiet was broken by the girl as she got up to leave.

"Naruto…why do you train so hard? Is it for you, or someone else?"

'Why do I train?' "What do you mean?"

"Well do you have someone in your life, who is precious to you?"

'someone...'

The boy was silent for a moment, he almost answered no, after all he was an orphan, and he had no family, except…

Images came to him of his teammates, Kakashi and Iruka-sensei, the old man, and even Chiyo-sensei. A small smile, full of emotion, touched his face.

"Yea, I do have people who are important to me."

She nodded. "True strength comes from our desire to protect those we hold dear to us. Naruto…I believe you will become truly strong. Let's meet again sometime."

As she walked away Naruto waved and called out, "Sure thing, thanks Haku-Chan."

At his comment she stopped and without turning replied, "By the way…I'm a boy."

Naruto, once again fell to the ground, as Sasuke was walking up him, having been searching for him since dawn.

"Who was that, Dobe?

Naruto smiled.

"Teme…I think she's just you're type."

When Sasuke got Naruto back to the house, he promptly fell asleep again. Kakashi had them place him into bed and asked Tsunami to let him sleep until he woke up on his own. And to have him meet them at the bridge when he did.

Only an hour after they left, Naruto came down the stairs, and entered the kitchen. After Tsunami delivered the message that had been left with her, he rushed out the door, highly upset that he had been left behind. He took a shortcut through the trees to get there faster and came across the remains of a wild boar. Looking around him Naruto could see jagged slash marks on the trees. From the looks of things, whoever had done his was heading in the direction of Tazuna's house.

"St…stops! I…w…won't let you take her!" The two swordsmen looked at the kid in amusement. The one with the hat, bent close to Tsunami's ear. "It's too bad lady, he might have lived a while longer."

"Inari! No…plea…" The second hit her in the head with the hilt of his sword, silencing her pleas.

"Mom!...Ugh!"

Before he could blink the two men were standing over him with their swords poised to end his life. "Stupid brat." They brought their swords down on him and three pieces of a log fell to the floor.

"What the hell!" They turned to see an orange clad boy between them and their objective, and smirked. "Heh, just some dumb kid.

Naruto gestured behind them and a tall shadow loomed over the two. They slashed as they turned only for their swords to be met by the flat blades on the ends of the puppets arms. They had a moment to register shock and fear before falling to the ground in a heap as the puppets legs slashed out at them, slicing them deep across their midsections with similar blades as the ones on its arms.

The two were quite obviously dead, or would be soon enough from blood loss; however this fact didn't bother Naruto as much as killing the demon brother had. It still hadn't been an easy thing to do, Killing should never be easy, but he had come to terms with the fact that it was sometimes necessary, especially for a ninja, to protect others. "He turned and looked at Inari.

"She'll be ok. Get her into the house." He turned and started moving in the direction of the bridge, but stopped and looked back. "Hey, you did real good Inari. Your dad would be proud." And he left at top speed.

When he arrived at the foot of the bridge, he could barely see anything. The whole of the area was covered in a thick fog, which could only mean that Zabuza was back.

Closer to him Naruto to see a white dome, within which was the, fast moving form of his teammate, Sasuke. He appeared to be dodging some unknown attacker. Naruto hid on the side of the bridge, using his chakra to stick to it like in the tree-walking exercise, and created two clones. He then gave them Kyu and Kunoichi, telling the first to find Kakashi and try to help if possible, but to otherwise stay out of the way. The second he had find a high spot on the bridge and to cover everyone he could. Naruto, himself, sent Blade into the dome to join Sasuke in battle, setting himself up just outside the dome close enough that he could still see inside, and counting on the mist to hide him.

Sasuke was surprised when the dark shape of the puppet appeared in front of him and blocked the incoming senbon with its weapons and body.

"It's about time Dobe." He said with a smirk then began to explain, loudly what had happened sine they got to the bridge, as well as how he suspected the ice mirrors were working. Naruto created another clone and dispelled it immediately, so his clones would also know what was going on.

In response he felt the memories of the clone he gave Kyu too return to him and knew that it had been destroyed and Kyu was motionless near Sakura and Tazuna's. He didn't have time to think about that however as the mist 'ANBU' attacked again. After a few moments the attacks ceased and Naruto had lost sight of their opponent again. He quickly sent instructions to his other clone, via the create/dispel method, and was rewarded when the small screen attached to his inner forearm began to scan the area around the dome.

The view came in on the center of the dome itself and found the ninja hanging from the top of the dome ready to fall on Sasuke and the puppet. When he did fall, Sasuke was pushed aside by Blade as it caught the attack on its hand swords. The Mist Hunter Nin used the momentum to push himself clear of the attack. Naruto didn't give him a chance to regroup. The face mask on the puppet split down the middle and hinged open to reveal two small cylinders where its mouth was supposed to be. They started spinning rapidly in opposite directions and began to shoot out senbon needles of its own, at a rapid pace, and tracked the ninja's movements. As he escaped back into the mirrors a few of the needles bounced harmlessly off its surface.

Attacks continued like this for a few more minutes, and Naruto noticed his puppet responding more sluggishly as its joints were becoming clogged by the enemies' senbon, and he had used up his whole supply of them.

The attacks ceased, and Naruto could see, from the way Sasuke was looking around him almost frantically, that he had also lost sight of their opponent. Naruto updated his clones again and he watched as the small screen on his arm again began to search for the missing Nin.

Finally it zoomed in on a small orange blob outside of the dome. Naruto's blood ran cold, the blob was obviously him, and behind him another mirror and formed and sticking halfway out of it was their enemy; he was leaning down over him, nearly looking over his shoulder.

"I see, interesting, I was wondering how you were fighting so effectively form outside the mirrors." Naruto turned slowly and saw a sandaled foot coming at his head.

Beside Sasuke, Blade fell lifelessly to the ground as if his strings had been cut, and Naruto tumbled into the dome, with a smear of blood coming from his lip, and a needle sticking from his shoulder.

The Mist Nin appeared in the mirror behind the blonde boy as he, shakily, got to his feet, holding up needles in preparation of a killing blow. When the attack was launched, Sasuke moved into the path of it, taking the bulk of the needles for his teammate.

Naruto caught him as he fell, a look of shock and horror covering his face.

"I g…guess, this is…as far…as I was able…to get…ehhh…Dobe." As the last of the boy's energy left him, Sasuke raised his hand and flicked Naruto in the forehead, and then he too fell as limp as the blondes puppet.

"A shame, about your friend, he wouldn't have had to die if you'd just stayed out of our way."

Naruto slowly turned to gaze at the ninja who was still hiding in the mirror, is vision was turning red, and a feral scream tore through the air. As Naruto slowly rose, he extended a hand towards his fallen puppet and chakra strings, as thick with chakra as two of the boy's fingers, and as red as the blood that flowed through his veins, grabbed hold of the puppet and the senbon seemed to tear out of it's joints as it rose into the air, with the red chakra pouring into its hollow body.

The enraged puppeteer swept his hand forward, and the puppet shot at the mirror at a speed it was previously incapable of reaching, its swords poised to attack and literally dripping with the evil chakra.

As the demonically enhanced metal slashed through the mirror, the pieces began to shatter under the force of the evil power emanating from the boy. The Hunter Nin fell from one of the larger shards of ice, once again trying to come at the boy from above. With out looking up Naruto flicked his wrist and Blade intercepted the attack by crashing into the Nin. It wrapped its arms and legs around his body effectively immobilizing him, and Naruto's fist connected with his face, freeing the Nin of his confines and sending him through the crumbling ice to roll along the ground for a few feet. The rest of the mirrors crashed to the ground as Naruto stalked towards him with Sasuke slung over the arms of the puppet.

When the Nin looked up at Naruto, his mask cracked and fell away. All at once the evil chakra vanished as a shocked expression spread over the blondes face. "Ha…ku…"

"Naruto, I too have someone who is precious to me. Someone I would give my life for."

Images of their earlier conversation danced through his mind, and distantly, he heard the chirping of a flock of birds.

Naruto barely noticed that the mist was now gone, too much had just happened. When Haku began to move in the direction of his sensei, it was by pure instinct that made Naruto try to stop him, but the effort was too slow, it looked as though Haku would intercept the attack, until he stumbled when an arrow grazed his leg, just above the knee.

The wound wasn't nearly enough to stop the boy, but it slowed him down by a about a full step, just enough it seemed for the boy to catch the attack with his bare hand and push it off course, right into Zabuza's, already useless, arm. While his own hand was annialated by the lightening.

"I am sorry Zabuza; I have failed you as your tool." When he spoke, much to the Leaf Jounins further surprise, Haku's voice was even and resigned, displaying none of the pain he must have been in.

"No, Haku. We're both still alive right now. You haven't failed me..."

The recoil of the Chidori had dispelled most of the dogs that were holding the jounin, and Kakashi released the rest. Now unsupported, Zabuza fell forward onto his knees. He looked t the charred, bloody stump of what was Haku's right hand. "Such a price to pay for my life Haku."

"I would pay that and more a thousand times over, if it will save you." The boy was so determined to continue to defend his master; he rose shakily to his feet and prepared to go into a series of seals. The attack never came as Zabuza suddenly lurched forward with a grunt of pain.

Haku caught him as he fell, eyes transfixed on the large curved sword that was sticking out of his back. All eyes turned to see a rather large man with a grin tossing a similar sword up and down with one hand. Next to him was the short form of Gato. The small man was currently handing the larger one a handful of coins. Zabuza managed to get himself turned around in Haku's arms and cast an enraged look over the assembled group of thugs. "Gato..."

Haku pulled aside the man's bandages to prevent him from choking on the blood that was now filling his mouth.

"I should thank you leaf ninja, for wearing him out for me so much. He was a rather costly asset to maintain. Even all of these men cost me half of what he would have. Maybe we can work out a finder's fee of some kind if you'll stay out of things from now on."

Zabuza sighed as he tried to stand. "Kakashi…It looks like our fight has ended. No hard feelings. I have a lot of respect for you and your brats."

The leaf Jounin covered his Sharringan. "Hai, It's been a while since I've had a fight of that caliber. What now?"

Zabuza straitened as much as possible with a large weapon sticking out of his back. "Now, I settle up with Gato." He tried to flex the fingers on his left arm, to no avail, and looked to his fallen sword forlornly. "It looks as though Kubikiri Hocho and I won't be crossing over together."

Everyone around him then stared with wide eyes as Zabuza's arm, seemingly of its own accord, reached to retrieve the blade from where it lay, and brought the large sword to eye level. As if in answer to the unasked question, lines of chakra began to thicken until they were about the thickness of a finger, and all could see that they were connected to several places along the mans arm.

"The nerves were damaged in the fight, so you're arm isn't receiving the signals your brain is sending. I can act as a bridge for them." Naruto walked up until he was next to where Kakashi was standing.

Zabuza flexed his arm again, testing out his restored mobility. The timing was a little off, but nothing he couldn't compensate for. "Thanks kid."

Haku in turn, bowed to the orange clad boy in thanks. "Anno, you're friend should regain consciousness soon, Naruto-san."

Naruto stood motionless and shocked at the news. "Sasuke…"

His surprise almost caused him to lose his concentration over what he was doing, but managed to hang on to the technique.

Haku turned and stood next to his master. Zabuza glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "Haku…"

"Both of your weapons will be crossing over with you to the other side. I will not fail you again."

Zabuza smiled. "I'd rather cross over with a friend, Haku. Tools won't do me much good where I'm likely to go."

The ice user looked away at his words, a single tear running down his face.

"How touching. Are you two ready to die yet?" Gato was eagerly tapping his cane in annoyance. They ignored him.

"How are you on chakra?"

"I have enough Zabuza-san."

The man's smile tightened. "Leave Gato till the end."

The boy began doing left-handed seals and stomped the ground next to him. As a large splash of water rose into the air, it froze and split into hundreds of needles, which shot out into the crowded mass of thugs, instantly killing the first two rows.

Immediately following the attack the two ran forward into the remaining enemies, killing as they went. All who stood before them fell in a shower of blood and screams. Zabuza hacked and slashed with his large blade, taking them out two and three at a time, while Haku was the picture of precision, killing them with single hits to their vital areas with his senbon needles. He was moving out ahead of the man, attempting to thin their numbers and clear a path to where Gato had retreated at the edge of the unfinished bridge.

As deadly and unstoppable as they were, the two weren't escaping unscathed. One thug managed to plunge his sword into Zabuza's stomach, a second put his spear into the man's back and a third stuck a knife in his side. Lost in his mad rage, Zabuza spun around and killed all three, and then some, in one vicious pass of his sword.

Blade, formally lying forgotten on the ground had been replaced by Kunoichi as Naruto's remaining clone sent it to join the fight. However, as it closed, Zabuza swiped it away with the flat side of his sword. "Stay out of it brat, you've done enough." The puppet returned to their side and the clone dispersed itself. Kakashi looked on with a sideways glance at his student. "You know when I said to practice using more than one puppet at once, that wasn't exactly what I meant."

Naruto smirked. "Yea but it works in a pinch."

Back in the fight, Haku had also received injuries similar to those of his master. He was losing his momentum, and knew that his time would soon come. They were almost at their target, and Haku leapt over the heads of several thugs, only for them to die at the hands of Zabuza as they watched Haku jump. When the boy landed, there was only one more person between him and the shouting Gato. The thug lunged forward with his spear as the boy landed in front of him, and the head of the spear plunged into Haku's stomach. The boy paused for a second looking at the man who was holding the weapon, then threw his last senbon into his forehead.

Gato watched with a satisfied smirk as both the henchman, and the Ice brat fell in death. His smug look turned to one of despair when he looked behind them at the oncoming form of The Demon of the Bloody Mist Village. Zabuza was charging strait at him, screaming his death cries and hefted his large blade over his head as he too leapt into the air.

The last thing Gato saw on this earth was the true form of the Demon before him, seemingly bathed in the fires of hell, as the sun shone brightly behind him.

The Zanbato came down onto his head and cleaved the bastard cleanly in two. The remains fell into the water below and the area grew deathly silent.

The attacks ceased as the tyrant's death shocked the remaining thugs into a frozen stupor.

Naruto sagged and fell back to sit on the bridge, the technique had taken a lot out of him, and distantly he heard Zabuza's sword clatter to the ground. In truth using his chakra strings in that manner was something that was only mentioned in his latest scrolls; even then he had only glanced at it. The idea of controlling another living person against their will repulsed him in a way that killing hadn't even come close to. However he had never considered that he could use it on a willing person like he had with Zabuza.

It suddenly struck him that he had, actually helped the man who was until just recently an enemy, and that he didn't really think of Zabuza that way. Maybe it was the fact that he and Haku were so much alike, maybe it was because they were both thought of as demons, he couldn't be sure, but he did know that the two were now his comrades. You don't abandon comrades.

Zabuza turned and walked back towards where Haku had fallen. He could see right away that the boy was dead. Silent tears crawled down the Nuke-nins face. He didn't kid himself; he knew that he wouldn't go to the same place as his kind-hearted friend.

He sank to his knees beside the boy, at least determined to die next to him, as those few thugs who had survived surrounded them with angry looks on their faces. They began shouting angrily at them, "Bastards killed our meal ticket!" one shouted over the others. They all brandished their weapons, and prepared to descend on them. They drove forward and all that could be heard for a while was the sickening sounds of metal rending flesh and bone.

The mob stopped their onslaught, and stepped back with a communal gasp. Before them were the bodies of two of their own, two that had been killed earlier by the two ninja.

They began looking around in a panic and found their targets lying on the bridge near where the Leaf ninja were standing, The Jounin was leaning on the forgotten blade of his former enemy. Zabuza's chest was rising unsteadily. For the moment it looked as though all of the thugs were forgotten.

They took a step forward, and stopped as three Naruto's puffed into existence each controlling one of his three puppets. Just behind him he could hear Zabuza talking to his fallen friend and student. "Haku…you were always more than just a tool to me…though…I never understood.…Ne, Kakashi…"

The Leaf jounin knelt down beside them still leaning on the sword. "Hmm?"

"Do me a favor…burry me next to him…"

"Sure thing. You have my word."

"Thanks…take care of your brats…" He turned to look up at his former enemy and his eyes caught his sword. "…and my sword…you keep it… so I know that someone worthy wields it."

Kakashi's one visible eye widened considerably. "Zabuza…I will keep it well."

The man nodded and looked strait up to see snow falling from the sky. "Haku…are you doing that?"

With that the Demon of the Bloody Mist, was gone.

After the fight was over the rest of their time in the Wave country seemed to fly by.

Tazuna had a sudden flood of volunteers for the construction, and there were no further attempts to disrupt the project, since Gato was now dead. The Leaf Ninja buried Haku and Zabuza on a bluff overlooking the water. Kakashi had begun to wear the large sword given to him by his one-time enemy. "Getting used to the weight" he had told them.

Finally the bridge was finished and their mission was complete. As they made their way home, they discovered that the townspeople had decided to name the bridge after Naruto.

The boy was flattered of course, but he just wanted to get back to the village. The mission had been more than they bargained for, however, they had grown so much from the experience, both in skills and in their personalities. Besides Naruto was sure that after all they had gone through, the old man would owe him a few new scrolls.

AN: And there's chapter seven, Alot more puppet use than in the others. CHapter eight will be out soon as a filler for the upcomming Exams. I know some of you are looking forward to Naruto's encounter with Kankouro, so i hope it won't disapoint.

Kakashi getting Zabuza's sword...I was struck by a sudden vision of Kakashi dueling Kisami with it. grins evilly

Thanks allfor the reviews, please keep them comming.