Chapter 10: Second Date

"Hello." talking

'Hello.' thinking

"Hello." Kyuubi talking

'Hello.' Kyuubi thinking

*Knock* Sound effects

"Bunshin no Jutsu" Jutsu

"It's been a while indeed. Maki." replied Naruto.

Naruto slowly turned around to face Maki, who had just come out from the shadows of the trees into the open. Her black hair was longer than he remembered, and was loosely held in a ponytail as it fell on her back. She wore navy blue kosode and hakama, which were held together snugly by a sky blue obi, accentuating her curves. A katana hung from her waist, while ninja sandals adorned her feet. A Konoha hitai-te could be seen tied to her left arm.

"You seem... alive." said Maki, as she scrutinized Naruto with her piercing amber eyes. She tilted her head slightly as Naruto began chuckling.

"And you still have your bad sense of humor I see." said Naruto as he took a step forward, which caused Maki to reach for her sword. "There's no need for that." he said. "I don't mean you any harm."

"And I'm supposed to believe that?" asked Maki sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.

"Why shouldn't you?" asked Naruto ignorantly.

"Um, Hello? I killed you. Or tried to kill you. That makes you susceptible to wanting revenge." deadpanned Maki.

"Oh come on!" exclaimed Naruto, waving his arms around animatedly. "Who do you think I am? Sasuke?"

"Who's Sasuke?" asked Maki cluelessly.

"Ugh. Never mind." waved Naruto dismissively. "Anyway, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Oh, just on official work." replied Maki nonchalantly. "Didn't expect to meet one of my ex-missions here though."

"Indeed." condescended Naruto. "So. What are you going to do now?" he wondered.

"Hmm... How about killing you to remove the only blemish on my record?" said Maki as she drew her katana.

"Hey hey hey." Naruto waved his hands frantically. "Can't we settle this peacefully?"

"Nope." said Maki as she swung her sword.

"Wha! Naruto..."

"...don't you hang up on me! You frigging idiot!" exclaimed Misaki as Naruto cut off the communication. She stomped on the ground with anger, causing Tazuna to get frightened.

"I'm going to kill that moron!" roared Misaki.

Kakashi paused momentarily when he heard Misaki's roar, but was forced to hurriedly dodge a slash from Zabuza. Kakashi deftly wove his way through several ridiculously fast slashes by Zabuza, most of them by a hair's width. His sharingan was spinning rapidly to make out most of Zabuza's movements, who seemed to have taken quite a lesson from his previous beating by three genin, and had made sure to up his game.

And yet it couldn't completely overpower the sharingan, as Kakashi continued to dodge Zabuza's attacks, addind to his ire. This made him raise his offense more, and slashed at Kakashi with all his strength and speed, aiming to cleave Kakashi into half. This forced Kakashi to use a chakra enhanced jump to put some distance between them. The two stared at each other, trying to read and predict the others movement.

That lasted only a moment, as Zabuza stabbed his sword into the ground, before running through several handsigns, with Kakashi following suit. They formed to seals together, and yelled, with perfect unison...

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu"

The water from under the bridge swirled and rose up, with columns of water shooting up. The water converged on two points behind both Kakashi and Zabuza, before taking the form of dragons. The two water dragons seemed to size each other up for a fleeting moment, before charging and crashing into each other. Torrents of water crashed onto the bridge from the two jutsu, flooding the entire platform. The water swept over both the sides, and the excess water fell off like a waterfall from the unfinished end of the bridge.

"I suppose your reputation isn't unfounded, huh. Copy Ninja Kakashi." said an amused Zabuza.

"And neither is yours. Zabuza, Demon of the Bloody Mist." Kakashi fired back.

"Why thank you." said Zabuza with a mock bow. "But I must say, I'm actually very impressed with your students." Zabuza said appreciatively. "Not only is their teamwork good enough to take me on, their individual skills are pretty close to Haku, at least that brat's is." Zabuza motioned at Sasuke, who was standing horizontally on a pillar, with Haku standing on the other. Both of them had jumped there to escape from the torrents of water.

"However, this is the end for him." said Zabuza gravely. Sasuke and Haku took that exact moment to charge at each other. They clashed right at the middle of the bridge. Both of them stood there, with their respective weapons clashed and struggling for dominance. Then, a sudden chill engrossed the bridge, as the water seemed to lose heat. Suddenly, the water around Sasuke and Haku rose up, engulfing them completely. The water then froze, leaving several slabs made of ice hanging around them.

"Now that Haku has become serious, I can't really slack off, can I?" said Zabuza, raising one hand to his mouth and the other above him. "Kirigakure no Jutsu."

'What's going on?' wondered Sasuke as he found himself surrounded by plenty of mirrors made of Ice. He watched in shock as Haku walked right into one of the mirrors, and was soon reflected on all of the mirrors.

"You managed to keep up to me before." Haku's voice reverberated through the dome. "Let's see if you can keep up now."

Naruto stepped back, dodging the sword slash that was aimed for his torso. He then ducked down a horizontal slash meant to behead him, before moving inside Maki's guard. He aimed a punch a Maki's head, who dodged it by moving her head to the side. Naruto's momentum made him move farther into Maki, who tried to kick him in the stomach. Naruto blocked the kick with his left hand, before jumping back and putting some distance between him and Maki.

"Come On!" groaned Naruto. "We don't have to fight."

"Yes we do." Maki said with conviction. She held her katana with her right hand, slashing down in thin air. Holding her katana to her side, she then charged at Naruto, who jumped backwards and found himself unable to retreat anymore due to a tree. Maki slashed upwards with her sword, which Naruto dodged by jumping sideways.

"Why?" exclaimed Naruto, as he threw a couple of shurikens at Maki, who deftly deflected them with her katana.

"Because... I hate you." Maki said with intense loathing. She accelerated at Naruto, who found it prudent to take out his kunais and began parrying Maki's attacks.

"Why? What did I ever do to you?" asked Naruto quizzically as he ducked under another slash.

"What did you do to me?!" roared Maki. "Because of you, I lost my reputation. Because of you, I don't have a clean record. You are the only failure I ever had. I get laughed at because of you. All. Because. You. Lived." Her words were punctuated by slashes from her katana, which Naruto barely managed to parry. With each slash, it became harder and harder for Naruto to react to Maki's speed, and finally succumbed to a surprise kick to his stomach that sent him flying to into a tree.

"Gah!" Naruto hit the tree with enough force to knock the air out from his lungs. His back arched on impact, before he slid down limply onto the ground. He managed to pull himself up to a sitting position, before doubling over a coughing up a lot of blood.

"Ara ara. Are you done already?" chided Maki as she walked up to a crouching Naruto. "And here I thought you were going to put up a better fight this time around."

'Is she bipolar?' Naruto thought as he tried hard to control his labored breathing. He lost it again though, when Maki kicked him over so that he was now out of breath and laying on his back.

"I wonder how I should kill you." muttered Maki, running a finger along the blade of her katana. "Running a sword through you didn't kill you last time. Maybe I should just behead you..." Maki was lost in making plans on how to kill Naruto, who seemed to lose color from his face with every new way mentioned.

"Hmm, oh well. Doesn't really matter. If you don't die i'll just kill you again." said Maki raising her katana above her head.

"Hii..." Naruto closed his eyes, waiting for the impact, being completely unable to move. But several seconds passed, but the attack never came. He slowly opened his eyes, and saw Maki facing away from him, with one hand placed on her ear.

"Huh!" Maki muttered. "Why... Oh fine... I understand." Maki turned around and faced Naruto with an extremely displeased look on her face. "You are one lucky bastard you know that." She said, leaning down to get her face close to Naruto's. "You get to live."

The two stared at each other, Naruto looking up from his position, while Maki looking down on him. One could feel the tension between them, and sparks could be seen flying around them. Then, the tension broke, as Maki huffed and turned around before walking away.

Naruto stared at the sky blankly for a few seconds, listening to Maki's departure. Soon, there was no more sound.

"Time for me to leave as well." said Naruto, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

The real Naruto was currently flying through the trees, his devil wings outstretched to the maximum. His eyes were scanning desperately for his target. His pupils had turned into slits from the magic he used to strengthen his vision. He was moving fast, flapping his wings to increase his speed. And yet, there was no sound from the flapping wings, due to magic being applied to them as well. He soon found his target, who had stopped in a clearing. Naruto swooped down into the undergrowth, before approaching the clearing on foot, hiding in the shrubs.

In the clearing, Maki stood with her right hand on her hips. She was facing away from Naruto, standing in front of another figure. Naruto couldn't see who it was, since the person was being hid from the view by Maki. Naruto craned his neck for a better view of the person, but crouched down immediately when Maki whipped her head around. Maki looked at where Naruto was suspiciously, before turning around to the person in front of her.

"Why did you call be back, Madoka-san?" said Maki in a displeased tone. "I could have killed him off." Maki shifted her position slightly to the left, revealing the beautiful figure of Kurokami Madoka.

*boink* Madoka lightly tapped Maki on the head. "And how many times do I have to remind you that you shouldn't go about killing comrades?" Madoka scolded her, causing Maki to lower her head in embarrassment.

"Uuuu..." pouted Maki. "But you know why I want to kill him."

"That doesn't mean you can actually kill him." lectured Madoka. "Show some moderation."

"Uuu... yes." Maki nodded.

"Anyway, did you do your job?" asked Madoka, changing the topic, sensing Maki's discomfort.

"Yes." said Maki, brightening immediately. "I 'stopped' the bandits from attacking the village." Maki made a victory sign with her hand while striking a cute pose.

'She really is bipolar.' thought Naruto, while Madoka sweat-dropped at Maki's antiques.

"Good. That means they won't be a problem anymore." Madoka praised Maki by patting her on the head, who seemed to melt from the touch.

"Ufun..." Maki smiled happily, nuzzling her head into Madoka's hand.

"Alright." siad Madoka, pulling her hand away, causing Maki to become teary eyed. "Time for you to go and accomplish your real mission."

This caused Maki to become happy again. "Yes." she said cheerfully. She bowed slightly to Madoka, before running away.

Madoka turned around, looking at Maki running away. She then slighly turned her head towards the direction of Naruto, who stiffened.

"Why don't you come out of your hiding place, Naruto-kun." said Madoka.

Naruto slowly got out of his hiding place, and walked out into the open. "How long have you known?" he said, dusting the leaves off that got stuck to him.

"From the very beginning." said Madoka, turning around to face Naruto. "I noticed you the moment Maki turned around suspiciously."

"Tch." Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance. "And here I thought I had managed to hide myself well."

"Oh, you did." Madoka complemented Naruto. "It's just that my sensory capabilities are better than your avaerage ninja."

"Whatever." Naruto waved Madoka off. "Anyway. I didn't know you were a Jounin."

"There are lots of things that you don't know about me." Madoka said with a small giggle. "So. What are you going to do now?"

"Hmm... I think I'll go back to my team now." said Naruto, turning around to leave. He took a couple of steps, before turning his head around. "You should keep a tighter leash on your servant. Someone might just accidentally kill her." And with that Naruto spread his devil wings and flew away.

"So, you figured it out..." muttered Madoka, a slightly crooked grin on her lips. "Interesting... Very Interesting... I wonder what else are you going to show to me, Naruto-kun. Kukuku... Kahahahaha!" Madoka suddenly burst out laughing, as devil wings sprouted from her back.

Naruto flew hurriedly through the forest towards the bridge, trying to make up for the lost time. He pured some chakra into his communicator, and started talking.

"Oi, Misaki. Are you there?" Naruto asked. The next moment, his head snapped to side as a shouting voice came over from the other side.

"Naruto, you motherfucking bastard!" roared Misaki over the communicator. "How dare you cut off the communicator!"

"Calm down, Misaki." Naruto tried to appease her... "It couldn't be helped, you know."

"Calm down!" ... didn't really help. "How can I calm down when you first tell me that you are being ambushed and then cut off the communicator?"

"Because I never was ambushed in the first place?" Naruto said uncertainly.

"Heh?" asked a puzzled Misaki, "What do you mean by that?"

"I meant exactly what I said." replied Naruto, letting out a sigh of relief. "I had noticed the ambush long before I reached it. So I had switched with a clone and gave it the communicator. Then I made the clone do the talking. That's why I said not to worry."

"Is that so..." muttered Misaki, who was now slightly embarrassed at her previous outburst. "If that is the case, how are you talking to me now?" she asked in an attempt to shake of the embarrassment.

"I am using the spare communicator." replied Naruto. "Why? Didn't you notice?"

"..." Misaki didn't say anything as she finally realized that Naruto was using a spare communicator.

"Anyway... How's the situation there?" asked Naruto.

"Ah!" exclaimed Misaki, "Well... I suppose you could say that it's fine... or you could say that it isn't fine..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked a puzzled Naruto.

"Well..." Misaki hesitated. "Everyone is still alive, so you say that everything is fine... but..."

"But?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Um... How can I say this... Sasuke is currently inside a dome made of ice with the hunter nin, where as Zabuza used his mist technique, so I can't really see anything clearly..." Misaki muttered.

"Hooh... Is that so?" Naruto wondered. "I'll be there soon, so why don't you get Sasuke out of that ice cube.. or dome... or whatever."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" asked Misaki.

"Are you an idiot?" scolded Naruto, causing Misaki to flinch. "The area is covered in mist, isn't it. That means there is no sun. Add two and two, will you."

" ..." Misaki said in realization. "You want me to do 'that'."

"Yep. There's no need to hold back. Give them hell." said Naruto.

"Right."

Kakashi stood in the midst of the mist, waiting for Zabuza's next strike to happen. With almost zero visibility, he had been unable to pin point Zabuza's location even once. As such, he was left to sensing Zabuza's attacks and simply dodge them.

"You know Kakashi," Zabuza's voice reverberated through the entire area. "I didn't expect you to only dodge my attacks. I was expecting you to be... more aggressive, you know what I mean. If this continues on, I might decide that your silly little genins have surpassed you."

"Your ventriloquism is really getting on my nerve, you know that Zabuza." muttered Kakashi irritatedly. "But still, I might agree on the fact that my genins have the potential to surpass me. But they still have a long ways to go."

"I didn't really mean it as a complement, ya know." muttered Zabuza. He then swiftly and silently appeared behind Kakashi, his sword already in mid swing.

Kakashi realized immediately, and jumped over the horizontal slash. In the next moment he was forced to dodge a vertical slash in mid air. He didn't dodge it perfectly though, which he realized the moment he landed on his feet, as blood gushed out of a cut on his left shoulder.

"Gah!" a gasp of pain escaped from his mouth as Zabuza used his sword as a pivot to swing around and kicked Kakashi in the mid section, sending him flying. Kakashi flew a few good metres before skidding to a halt. He slowly pulled himself up, using his right hand to stop the blood flow from his wounded shoulder.

"This is beginning to become boring." said Zabuza, annoyed at Kakashi's seeming lack of skill. "If you don't take this seriously, you are soon going to get killed."

Kakashi pulled out a scroll from his weapons pouch. "You are right in that aspect, I guess." said Kakashi as he opened the scroll, before smearing some of his blood on the scroll. "I should live up to my reputation, or I might become 'late' Kakashi permanently."

Sasuke was in a pinch. No, a pinch would be understating his predicament. He was in real trouble. At first he had manage to match the hunter nin blow for blow, their speeds being on par. But the moment the hunter nin got inside the ice mirrors of his, the fight turned into a one sided affair. The speed with which the hunter nin moved through the mirrors was insane, and he was having a really hard time keeping up with him. And those senbon needles that seemed to be the weapon of choice for the hunter nin were extremely annoying. For some weird reason, he had yet to be hit on any vitals, even though you would be inclined to believe that Zabuza's apprentice would at least manage that much. This had turned him into a human porcupine, and was hindering him in his movements.

He was getting used to the speed, however. The only reason he still kept on being hit was because his body couldn't actually keep up with the speed, which frustrated him to no end. This hampered his ability to come up with a plan, and thus it hadn't been until now that Sasuke had a plan of action.

"Oh... you have a good expression there." the hunter nin's voice echoed through the dome. "Did you come up with a plan?"

"Ah.. Maybe." replied Sasuke, his signature arrogant smirk made way to his lips. "I wonder if you have an answer for this." and with that, he ran through several hand signs before breathing out a giant fireball out from his mouth.

"Katon Goukyaku no Jutsu."

The fireball hit the ice head on, causing a large amount of smoke to be created, disrupting his vision. Once the smoke cleared, it revealed a completely unharmed ice dome.

"And that was supposed to do what?" asked the hunter nin tilting his head to one side, not understanding Sasuke's actions.

"It served it's purpose." replied Sasuke, his grin becoming larger with each passing seconds, completely revealing his smugness. Next, he did something completely out of character. He rubbed his nose. "Nihi! Good Bye." and with that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What the..." the hunter nin couldn't finish his thought, as suddenly lots of gigantic balls of fire assaulted the dome from the outside, shattering the mirrors that held it in place. As more and more fireballs assaulted the dome, it exploded.

Kakashi ran through several hand signs, before placing his bloodied right hand on the scroll.

"Kuchiose no Jutsu."

With a puff of smoke, seven nin dogs appeared right in front of Kakashi.

"Oh, a summoning, huh." said Zabuza, impressed. "But still, unless you have something that can find me in this mist, its useless." He said, shaking his head, although no one noticed.

"Then it's a good thing that they can find you, right?" said Kakashi.

"Huh.. Ouch." Zabuza couldn't finish his sentence, as he felt a sharp pain in his legs. He looked down, to see a dog biting into his calf. This was followed by six more dogs, who bit into any possible parts of Zabuza they could find, effectively holding him in place.

"Dogs? But how did they find me?" asked Zabuza incredulously.

"The blood on your sword." replied Kakashi. Zabuza looked down to his sword, and foud its tip smeared completely in Kakashi's blood. "But even if I said I would live up to my reputation, I am not going to use any of my copied moves. Rather, I am going to use my original move against you. Be proud Zabuza. Not many can force me to use this move. You just placed yourself into a very very small list."

'What's he talking about?' thought Zabuza as he looked on into the mist, completely unable to move. It was then that he remembered Kakashi's original move, and at that same moment, he saw a bright blue light appeared before him, followed by the large chirping of birds. "Is he going to use.." he never did manage to finish his thought as an explosion occurred near the center of the bridge. A strong shock wave followed, that almost knocked Zabuza off his feet, and a couple of the nin dogs lost their grip for the moment. The mist cover was blown away by the shock wave, revealing the entire bridge.

"Haku." Zabuza called out immediately after realizing that the explosion came from the ice dome. He spotted Haku soon, who was now on the ground, knocked out by the force of the explosion. There was smoke coming out from him. Zabuza looked around, and found the two members of Kakashi's team standing in front of Tazuna, protecting him from the shock wave.

"Well, well, well... This is quite surprising, right?" an unknown voice spoke. Everyone looked towards the origin of the voice, to find a stout man in a suit, with a walking stick in his hand.

"Gatou!?" exclaimed Tazuna.

"Ah! Tazuna, you seem to be still alive." said Gatou cheerfully. "That means Zabuza and his lackey failed. That takes a load off my chest you know. Now I don't have to worry about paying him." he said with an evil sneer on his lips.

"What is the meaning of this?" Zabuza roared.

"Ara. It's obvious, you know." said Gatou. "I'm not going to pay you. In fact, I am going to have you killed. Do you know how much bounty is on your head? That's why I brought an army, you know." Gatou pointed towards the incomplete end of the bridge. Everyone turned to look, and indeed, there were at least hundred bandits who had gathered at the end.

'This just got worse.' thought Kakashi, canceling his technique.

"Heh? What's this?" said Gatou, noticing Haku on the ground. "Isn't it Zabuza's lackey? Why is he on the ground? Did he die?" Gatou walked up to Haku's unconscious body and began poking him with his stick, "Hm... He's just unconscious." Gatou said, visibly disappointed.

Gatou then turned towards Zabuza. "But that's still fine. I can now do what I always wanted to do." he said, before pressing a switch on his stick, that released a hidden blade from its tip. He then stabbed the stick right into Haku's stomach. "I always wanted to kill this bitch." Gatou stirred the stick into Haku's stomach, before pulling it out crudely. He then stabbed again, this time right into Haku's throat. "Your lackey was very annoying, you know that, Zabuza." said Gatou as he pulled the stick out, before retracting the blade in. "Someone would have killed her..."

Gatou could never finish his sentence though as he suddenly coughed up a lot of blood. He felt a sharp, body numbing pain in his chest region. He looked down, and saw a blonde haired kid looking up at him with cold, emotionless blue eyes. For a fleeting moment, Gatou seemed to see himself burning in the pits of hell in his eyes. He was brought out of illusions when another sharp pain attacked his nerves, this time in his stomach. He looked down, and saw a kunai sticking into his chest from the front, while a katana was sticking into his stomach from the back. The kunai and katana were pulled out at the same time, as Gatou fell to the floor sideways.

"What in the hell..."

Omake

Andrew: Alright, another chapter done.

Naruto: Ahh...

Andrew: Hm. What happened to you?

Naruto: Nothing much. I just got bored with your cliffhangers.

Andrew (flinching): Eh! Is that so?

Naruto: Yup. Your cliffhangers are now so regular, that no one is surprised by it.

Andrew: No way... But even then you shouldn't be that depressed just by that.

Naruto: Tch. Saw through me, did you? Fine, fine. It's because we are having Madoka over at today's Chara Corner.

Andrew: What's wrong with that?

Naruto: She scares me. I mean she's insane you know. And that laugh clearly showed that.

Andrew: Ah... You would be scared, wouldn't you. Guess it can't be helped. You don't have to attend today's Chara Corner.

Naruto: Really? Then I am going to leave now. (leaves)

Andrew: So moving on. Let's welcome today's guest, Kurokami Madoka.

Madoka: Thank you for having me over.

Andrew: Nope. Pleasure's mine. And since we are running out of show time, we'll do this quick. Why did you pick Naruto to do the mission (whatever that is)?

Madoka: Because i would be entertaining if he did.

Andrew: Entertaining... huh... Well I suppose that seals that. Moving on to the announcement, next time, we are going to have our beloved, and by beloved I mean completely hated, Maki on our show. That's right. The person who killed (or supposedly killed) Naruto will show up. Hope you guys have lots of questions to ask her. Also, for the section after that, we will have either Naruto and Misaki who will answer the questions.

And Next Time, you guys will find out about Zabuza's fate. So drop a review down below. It's what makes us writers feel loved. Also gives us motivation to write. So good or bad, please, do review. Ja ne!