Chapter 6 - Demon of the Mist? Not so Much

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Somewhere in the Land of Waves]

Team 7 was making its way closer and closer to Tazuna's village, staying on their guard for anyone that might come for them the whole time. Kakashi was keeping cool throughout the trip though he stayed on his toes, so to speak, the whole time as well. Sakura was hoping that she wasn't going to have to fight anyone considering her skills weren't up to par with either Sasuke or her Sensei; she hadn't acknowledged Naruto strength yet, though he could care less about her acknowledgment. Sasuke didn't care if he might be forced to fight since he was an "elite" and, as such, he would be victorious against any opponent. Naruto, meanwhile, was actually hoping that he would get to fight a strong opponent. This was part of the reason why he became stronger in Las Noches; other than protecting those precious to him Naruto wanted to get stronger by fighting the strongest. Maybe it was a bit of his mentor Nnoitra Gilga was rubbing off on him or, more than likely, he was just frustrated by the lack of action in his previous "missions". The one thing that Naruto was certain of was that he had an itch to fight someone he could actually let loose on. Naruto was taken out of his train of thought when he heard something moving in a copse of nearby bushes. Naruto then leaped at the copse and unsheathed his zanpakuto, pointing the tip at the source of the disturbance. He was surprised to see that the culprit was nothing more a white rabbit which trembled as Naruto held his zanpakuto at it. Naruto put his blade baack into its sheath and picked up the little rabbit. Everyone else was wondering why he had lunge at a bush until they saw him emerge from the bushes with the rabbit in hand.

"False alarm, everyone; it was just this little guy here," said Naruto, giving a sheepish smile.

"Getting spooked by a little rabbit, loser?" Sasuke asked mockingly; the smirk that he had vanished when he saw that Naruto was giving him an angry scowl.

"Not as spooked you'll be if I drop you in Hueco Mundo for five minutes," Naruto said, to which Sasuke quickly, albeit reluctantly, back down in fear. Naruto not told his team much regarding his time training in Hueco Mundo to the members of his team; the stories he had told them, however, were terrifying enough for his teammates to wonder whether he had simply gone to hell for seven years.

"Naruto, don't you think there's something weird about this rabbit?" Kakashi asked; Naruto raised an eyebrow as he looked back down at the rabbit until he understood what Kakashi was talking about.

"This rabbit's coat is as white as snow. It's mid-summer so it should be grey. Someone's been keeping this rabbit someones indoors and cool," Naruto said as he saw Kakashi nod at him.

Before Kakashi could say another word, however, a huge sword came appeared from out of nowhere and came flying towards the group. Everyone ducked except for Naruto who, using his quick reflexes, managed to draw out his zanpakuto. He spun underneath the spinning blade and thrusted the blade into the hole of the sword as it passed by him, causing the blade to spin around his zanpakuto until it settled down towards the tsuba. Naruto pulled his zanpakuto out of the hole of the huge blade; Naruto saw that it was a very large sword that was in the form of an oversized butcher's knife.

"Not bad, kid; I didn't expect that you would be able to maneuver that fast," Zabuza said as he appeared from the shadows.

"This is quite a large blade you have here. Are you compensating for something?" Naruto asked Zabuza narrowed his eyes at him. (Rocker1600 Note: My other favorite funny moment).

"You better watch your mouth kid, or I'll show you how to really wield a blade," Zabuza warned Naruto, who simply grinned at him.

"Now that is something I'd like to see," Naruto said before he tossed the Executioner's Blade back to Zabuza.

"Be careful, Naruto. This is Zabuza Momochi, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He has been called The Demon of the Mist due to his brutality and bloodlust, so don't take him lightly," Kakashi warned to which Naruto replied by giving him a smirk.

"Don't worry about me, sensei. This guy lost this fight the moment I became his opponent," Naruto said as he unsheathed his zanpakuto and entered into his fighting stance.

"Don't push your luck with me, kid. You may have some skills but I've been handling a blade a lot longer than you have," Zabuza said as he took his stance as well.

"Then how 'bout you show me instead of talking me to death," Naruto said as he ran towards Zabuza.

"Gladly," Zabuza said as he swung his blade at Naruto's head.

Naruto brought up his blade and met Zabuza's sword head-on. Naruto then proceeded to push back the Executioners blade before he made a vertical swing. Zabuza parried the strike beofe he spun around and swung vertically at Naruto, who simply ducked and landed a kick to Zabuza's chest,which sent him flying. Zabuza managed to recompose himself, but not before Naruto was already on top of him. Zabuza was barely able to bring up his sword in time to block Naruto's attack.

"I have to admit, I was expecting more from one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist," Naruto said in a rather insulting tone, putting Zabuza down even more with the fact that he was only fighting with one hand on the blade while the other hand was still in his pocket.

"Don't get overconfident so quickly," Zabuza said as he kept both hands on his sword.

Naruto raised an eyebrow before he saw someone running past them both and heading right for Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna. It was Zabuza, which meant Naruto was fighting a clone. Naruto immediately used his free hand to disarm the clone of the Executioner's blade and, in one swift and fluid motion, sliced off "Zabuza's" head. The real Zabuza, meanwhile, brought up his sword to try to slash through Kakashi, who had activated his Sharingan, to get to Tazuna. But as he was about to bring down his sword, Naruto grabbed Zabuza by his body strap.

"You should make sure that I'm taken care of before you focus on anyone else, baka!" Naruto said as he flung the Swordsman to the spot where he had been fighting Zabuza's clone.

"Very well, I was getting sick of you anyway," Zabuza said as he began forming multiple hand signs.

"He's got something big up his sleeve; luckily I got something up my sleeve for him, too," Naruto thought as he placed both hands on his Zanpakuto.

"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!" Zabuza yelled as a huge wall of water surged around him and barreled towards Naruto.

"Move, Naruto!" Kakashi yelled as he got the others out of the way; Naruto just stood there, however, as some powerful energy was building up in Naruto's blade, which took the form of a orange colored wave that resembled a crescent moon.

"Getsuga Tenshō!" Naruto yelled as he swung his sword and sent the massive wave of reiatsu flying.

The attack cut right through the wall of water as if it wasn't even there; Tazuna and the rest of Team 7 just looked on in shock as the attack then pushed right through Zabuza and sent him flying. He eventually smacked right into a tree back first. Zabuza then looked up and saw Naruto walking slowly towards him. Zabuza stood up, but was immediately pinned the tree by three kunai's, before he could do anything else. Kakashi then appeared on a tree branch above him.

"Nicely done, Naruto," Kakashi said, flashing his usual eye smile.

"Thanks. That's the same attack I used for my jutsu test back at the Academy," Naruto said; when he did the attack at the Academy it was, intentionally, much weaker than the one he just used right now and even then he was still using only a tiny fraction of the full power of that attack.

"Impressive. Anyways, I think it's time to finish him," Kakashi said as he pulled out a kunai.

"Agreed," Naruto said as he took out his zanpakuto in one hand.

"I am not gonna be put down by some little punk! You can ki-," Zabuza said before he was struck in the neck with three senbon needles.

"What the-?" Naruto asked before a Kirigakure hunter-nin appeared next to Zabuza.

"Thank you. If it had not been for your intervention and strength I don't think I would have taken Zabuza down," the hunter ninja said as he looked down at Zabuza.

"No prob, always happy to help someone with a problem," Naruto said as he sheathed his zanpakuto.

"Now then I will take him away and dispose of his remains," the hunter ninja said while picking Zabuza up off the ground.

"Don't you think you should take care of that now? I mean that is how you guys do things professionally in your department," Naruto asked as he suddenly got a little suspicious of the ninja.

"You're quite clever; the problem with that is that we hunter-nins also dispose of the body where can see us doing so. We'll definitely meet again, though," the hunter ninja said before taking off with Zabuza.

"That was an accomplice of Zabuza's. This fight isn't over yet," Naruto said, getting an agreeing from Kakashi.

"You're right, but for now let us get Tazuna to his village sothat he can do his job and we can do ours," Kakashi said before he walked back to Sakura and the others with Naruto next to him.

"This mission just keeps getting better and better," Naruto thought to himself as smiled with sheer excitement.

Next Time - Back Up from Las Noches