Chapter 8 - The Battle on the Bridge

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Tazuna's House, The Land of Waves]

Current Time...

Naruto, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion as a result of his practice fight with his Fraccioness, was in the guest room of Tazuna's house when he woke up. As he propped himself up and saw that his two Fracciones were still sleeping. Jango was sitting Indian style with his arms crossed and his back against the wall while he slept; Tiraran, meanwhile, was leaning against Jango's shoulder. Naruto smiled at his Fracciones apparent closeness; this was to be expected, however, as they had been very close even before they had become Arrancar and were actually the closest thing to siblings anyone in Hueco Mundo had ever seen. Naruto silently crept by the Arrancars and tip-toed his way out of the room so as to not to awake them as they had also been left exhausted from the training session.

Naruto made his way down stairs and found Tsunami washing dishes in the kitchen. Tazuna's daughter heard Naruto coming down the stairs and smiled at him when he appeared at the entrance.

"Well there's the sleeping warrior. I was wondering when you were gonna wake up," Tsunami said as she set down another dish before she grabbed another of the dirty one.

"Where is my team and sensei?" Naruto asked as Tsunami set a plate of breakfast out on the table for him.

"They left with my father to guard him while he works on the bridge. Your sensei thought it best for you and your Fracciones to rest up," Tsunami said as Naruto at his meal.

Naruto was finishing his meal when Inari walked in, his eyes still full of anguish and anger. He glanced at Naruto and was about to walk away when Naruto spoke to him.

"There is much anger in you. I understand why now, but you shouldn't be in such sorrow. Your father was a good man who was willing to die in order to stand up for what he believed in. You should be following in his footsteps instead of living in despair and fear," Naruto said; this caused Inari to stop in his tracks.

"My father stood up to a powerful man and died. I will not make such a stupid mistake like that," Inari said to which Naruto shook his head. He realized that the boy was going to need a rude wake-up call, so to speak, if his message to him was to reach him.

"Let me ask you something Inari. Do you that Gato will just go away if you just give up like that? Do you think that crying will make that "man" and his thugs disappear? Then you should think carefully before saying things like that," Naruto said with a very intense look in his eye and a calm and serious tone in his voice.

Naruto continued his little lecture as Inari looked at him, having been left speechless by the ninja's words. Tsunami, while still cleaning the dishes, payed very close attention to the conversation.

"Gato is indeed a powerful man but only because people like you let him have such power; he'll only go away when you are willing to stand up to him and refuse to let him push you around. You may be knocked down and you may even be killed but one thing is clear... you have to try, otherwise your dad will have died in vain," Naruto said.

Naruto then got up and went back up stairs after finishing his little lecture, leaving Inari to reflect on what he just said. When Naruto got to the guest room he opened the door quietly so as to not startle his Fracciones; Naruto, however, made a mistake when shut the door too quickly causing to two Arrancars to wake up from their slumber. Jango woke first, with Tiraran doing the same a second later and, when they did wake up, they looked right at each other before both jumped back in embarassment much to Naruto's amusement. Tiraran blushed heavily while Jango stood up straight and coughed a few times.

"Good morning Naruto-sama," Jango said while he tried to regain his composure.

"Good morning to you both," Naruto said, having decided to not embarrass his Fracciones any more than he had.

"What is the mission today, Naruto-sama?" Tiraran asked as she smiled promptly at her master.

"I guess we have to go to the bridge now and protect the bridge builder. Until he ha-," Naruto said before he was interrupted by the sound of a crash of some sort coming from down stairs.

Naruto held up his hand to keep his Fraccion still before whispering to them to wait for his order. Naruto then tip-toed downstairs to see what was happening. He found Tsunami being held hostage by two bandits while Inari was standing across from them.

"Why are you here?" Inari asked as one of the thugs, one of his eyes covered by an eye patch, held his mother hostage while the other thug, who had white hair, stood in Inari's way.

"Our boss wants us to kidnap you and your mommy so we have a bargaining chip in case that Zabuza guy fails to take out the bridge builder," the eye patch thug said; the flashed a psychotic grin as Inari grew angrier.

"No! I won't let you take her!" Inari said as he charged at the man only to be swatted away by the other thug.

"Play the hero and expect to get killed, kid" the white haired thug said as he brought up his sword as he prepared to kill Inari.

Inari closed his eyes and waited for the coming blow to end him before he suddeny heard the sound of a painful grunt and the collapse of a body to the floor. Inari opened his eyes and saw Naruto standing in front of him, his sword unsheahed, and the white haired thug on the floor dead, a stab wound located right where the thug's heart used to be.

"So you finally decided to stand up and fight, huh?" Naruto asked as he flashed a reassuring smiled at Inari who, not surprisingly, was shocked at seeing the scene before him.

"You little gaki!" the eye patch thug yelled before he tossed Tsunami to the floor and charged at Naruto.

Before he could even three steps towards Naruto, however, he stopped dead in his tracks with a pained expression on his face. Before anyone other than Naruto could react a black-colored blade suddenly pierced through the low-life's chest; once the sword was sowrd retracted from the thug's chest he collapsed to the ground, dead with a diagonal slash across his back to go with the stab wound. Jango and Tiraran, who were obviously the ones who took him down, stood behind the thug's corpse as they sheathed their zanpakutos.

"No other threat is in the vicinity of the house," Jango said in his calm and calculating manner.

Naruto went to check on Tsunami, only repsonding to Jango's statement once he confirmed that she was unharmed.

"Very well, then; you and Tiraran are to stay here and keep it that way. I'm going to the bridge as I suspect Zabuza and his associate are attacking my team and the bridge builder as we speak," Naruto, said as he walked towards the door.

"Please be careful out there, Naruto," Inari said as he stood next to his mother.

"You don't need to worry, Inari; you'll see me again," Naruto said before giving him a thumbs up.

The shinobi then proceeded to the bridge's construction site. As Naruto Flash-stepped towards the bridge he felt something he hadn't felt since he left Las Noches: excitement. Naruto felt the adrenaline pumping through him, and he loved it. He couldn't wait to get in on this fight as he now had a chance to display his skills. He could tell that his zanpakuto was also itching for a fight as he continued Shunpoing towards the battle.

[Construction Site for the Bridge, Land of Waves]

Meanwhile...

Things were not boding well for the rest of Team 7. Kakashi was battling Zabuza head on in zero visibility as he had been caught in the Swordsmen's Hidden Mist Jutsu. Sasuke was trying to fight Haku but was caught in her Crystal Ice Mirror jutsu. All the while Sakura was stuck giving what protection she could to Tazuna while the others fought though, to be prefectly blunt, Tazuna would die if either Kakashi or Sasuke fell in battle if Naruto doesn't arrive soon since Sakura no where near as capable in battle as her three teammates.

Zabuza swung down at Kakashi only to be blocked by a kunai in his hand.

"Where's the blonde kid, Kakashi? He's the one I really wanna fight right now," Zabuza said as he added pressure to his sword in an attempt to overpower Kakashi.

"He'll be here soon enough, Zabuza; until then, however, you'll just have to settle for me," Kakashi said as he broke out of the power struggle and went on the attack.

Sasuke, meanwhile, now looked like a human pincushion with all the senbon needles that now stuck out of him courtesy of Haku. Even now the Uchiha struggled to his feet in his current state though his arrongance was still as strong as it had been for the past five years.

"Why don't you just stay down? You will only get knocked down again and if you keep struggling I'll have no choice but to kill you," Haku said, as she was getting frustrated by her opponent's persistence.

"Shut up! An elite like myself will always prevail in the end," Sasuke said to which Haku sighed.

"If that's two you feel then I guess reasoning with you would be pointless," Haku said as she pulled out even more needles.

Haku threw a hand full of these needles at the Uchha which would've put the "prodigy" into a death trance had something not blokced the needles before they could hit Sasuke. Haku gasped at the sight of Naruto standing in the way of the needles, which were now on the ground in front of him; he had apparently blocked them with his own body without getting a scratch on him. The Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman sighed, as if he had been reluctant to save his teammate.

"As much as I didn't want to save him, the civilian council back home would have my head if I let their precious Uchiha die. But at least I finally get to see what your made of," Naruto said as a smile crossed his face.

"You hurt Zabuza-sama. You will pay for that," Haku said before she threw another barrage of needles right at Naruto.

The needles collided with Naruto only to dropped onto the ground. Each needle simple made a "ding" sound when it hit with Naruto's body; not only did were the senbons unable to break skin the weapons were not even capable of tearing Naruto's outfit, which still looked spotless. Haku stopped her attack and looked at him with shock, though her mask hid her face.

"How are you doing that?" Haku asked as she had, not surprisingly, never see someone so durable in battle.

Naruto, before he replied, found himself going into a flashback of his training at Las Noches...

Flashback

[Unspecified Training Room, Las Noches, Hueco Mundo]

Five years before Naruto's return...

Naruto stood 10 yards from Nnoitra who had his usual grin sprouting on his face. Each drew their weapons and got prepared for battle with such precision that it appeared as if they were performing a choreographed dance.

"You ready, kid?" Nnoitra asked as he placed his scythe blade on his shoulders.

"Yes," Naruto said with a serious tone his voice.

"Then you can have the first shot," Nnoitra said before he made a hand motion for Naruto to come at him.

Naruto charged at Gilga and was soon above his head. He then proceeded to bring his blade down with extreme force. It cut across Nnoitra, but only created sparks as it came down, not being able to cut through the Espada. Naruto landed on his feet and jumped back away from Nnoitra. Nnoitra checked for a scar but found nothing. He then brought up his scythe and swung down at Naruto. Naruto took the hit and sparks flew, until Nnoitra's attack reached the boy's abdomen and a small cut. Naruto gasped and clutched his side as Nnoitra rested his scythe on his shoulder once again and shook his head.

"You have to get much stronger than that if you going to have a tough Hierro like mine," Nnoitra said as he stooding over a kneeling Naruto.

"Yes Nnoitra-sama," Naruto said as he bowed his head before the Espada.

End Flashback

"My teachers made sure I would be able to withstand any attack thrown my way. Now that I've answered your question, let us talk in the open; I'm getting a headache just staring at all these mirrors," Naruto said before he seemingly vanished into thin air.

Haku tried to locate him but was soon preoccupied when she saw that her mirrors suddenly shattered. Haku attemped to fix the broken mirrors but it take long for her to realize what was going on and, more importantly, that she was too slow to stop Naruto, who refused to let up his Shunpo, from destroying mirror after mirror. Haku barely managed to escape the last mirror before it was destroyed as well; Haku landed on her feet and prepared for a fight but was, to her horror, caught by her throat by Naruto. He lifted her off her feet and stared her in the eyes.

"Damn it Naruto, you should have just left her to me." Sasuke said as he got to his feet.

"Not now, Sasuke," Naruto said while he was still clutching Haku by the throat.

"I order you to let me finish her off you ba-," Sasuke said before Naruto sent the Uchiha flying with a backhand strike.

"Such an annoyance," Naruto said before he turned his attention back on Haku.

"What are you going to do to me?" Haku asked as she was, understandably, terrified of what a powerful opponent like Naruto would do to her. What he actually did surprised her, however.

"Nothing," Naruto replied before he released his grip on Haku; the Konoha shinobi turned his attention to the fight between Zabuza and Kakashi.

"Why? You had me right for the kill so why did spare me?" Haku asked; she was, naturally, curious as to why he would just let her live despite what she had done to his teammate.

"Because when you attacked me, I followed the spots you aimed for and I took a moment before that to see where you had struck my teammate. You didn't aim for anything vital in the human body. You weren't trying to kill me or Sasuke," Naruto said as he saw Haku look away in apparent shame.

"Killing isn't really my style," Haku said as if she was a little disappointed with her "weakness".

"The way I see it, you didn't try to kill me so I have no reason to kill you. Now if you don't mind it would appear as if my sensei is in need of my help," Naruto said as he disappeared yet again, leaving Haku to her thoughts.

Zabuza and Kakashi, meanwhile, were still locked in a intense battle. Zabuza brought up his sword to attack Kakashi yet again only to be blocked by Naruto's zanpakuto. Naruto smirked at the swordsman who, not to anyone's surprise at this point, was smirking underneath his bandages.

"You ready to finish what we started, kid?" Zabuza asked as he crossed swords with Naruto.

"What do you think? Let's finish this," Naruto said as he allowed his adrenaline to take over for this showdown.

Next Time – The Mist Settles