There was not a moment of thought needed for Zabuza. With the cool wistfulness of a fisher cutting the line, he released the Water Prison holding his prize and leapt to the safety of open ground.
Gozu and Meizu nimbly spun to face the assassin, a sopping wet jonin dragging himself ashore in the background. Leaving little time to be wasted, they darted toward Zabuza. They surged across the ground, more like wraiths than demons. Even for these two, this level of passionlessness was…unsettling.
As the rogue readied his weapon, Meizu meeting his gaze as the nin raised his right arm to attack, something clicked- and it suddenly made sense.
Zabuza swung at his enemies' feet, catching them almost by surprise. The missing nin noted how Meizu pressed forward, ducking into the shadow of the blade as it came near him, while Gozu simply leapt back.
"Fools-"
Zabuza spun and caught Meizu with a spinning axe kick, sending the smaller nin tumbling past as he pulled the chain quickly taut behind him. Following suit, Gozu was jerked along by the chain, pulled into range by his overeager brother's uncontrolled blundering. The Mist shinobi almost playfully delivered a hook to the Demon Brother's face, putting the traitor on his ass with little effort.
The man backed up, hoisting his cleaver onto his shoulder, and pointed at the brothers in turn.
"You're both fools…you had some clever ideas, but that act was out of your league…you fakes."
"Gozu" wobbled to his feet as "Meizu" calmly went to help him, the latter seeming not too bothered by this turn of events. The duo's eyes met, and then turned toward the assassin, smoke erupting between them. In place of the Demon Brothers stood the two Leaf boys, neither too worse for wear.
"…How?" grunted the black haired one.
Zabuza managed a hoarse chuckle. "You mean you idiots didn't figure it out already?"
The real Mist nin shook his head, glowering at the genin. "Like I said- you're just playing ninja. Couldn't work like a team. Couldn't anticipate my movements. Couldn't even figure out that you were using the wrong gloves."
Sasuke blinked. "The…"
The blond genin put a hand in front of him. "My fault, I'm afraid."
Zabuza raised a hairless eyebrow.
"When I'd originally retrieved the equipment from the Demon Brothers, I quickly found out that their hands were not of equal size. That is-"
Naruto raised his right hand, clad in the only real piece of his missing nin disguise.
"-my hands were too big to fit in the left glove, belonging to the smaller brother. Instead, I had to make do with the bigger, right-handed brother's glove and hope that you'd pay more attention to my size rather than my accessorizing…"
The begoggled preteen shrugged noncommittally, sighing.
"Guess it didn't."
Zabuza was already sprinting toward the genin without a word, not caring for the explanations of rank amateurs. Naruto grinned despite the situation.
"Doesn't mean I'm harmless, though."
With an odd twitch of his gauntleted hand, Naruto released the chain and surged forward to meet the criminal ninja, surprising him.
The genin darted under Zabuza's sword as he swung again, quickly getting within inches of the enemy ninja. He swept with the claw, aiming immediately to rip out flesh. Zabuza countered with the blunt side of his brutal weapon, knocking the threatening arm aside and kicking the little punk back.
He sprawled in the dirt gracelessly, but Naruto rose up and charged again, a grim set in his jaw. Disregarding his own safety, the rabid boy leapt.
"I will teach you to fear me!" he roared, the missing nin's blade sweeping up to cut him in twain.
In a bizarre display of raw instinct, the boy contorted himself, twisting his body to avoid the attack. He fell inside Zabuza's guard, rearing his blond head up as he clawed a shallow uppercut across the nin's rippling torso.
The Demon of the Mist responded by slamming the pommel of his weighty blade into Naruto's skull, following up with a murderous haymaker, the full power of a killer born and bred behind his fist. Both attacks hit hard and true, knocking the genin silly across the clearing once more.
"Gutsy little-" the nin began, glaring down at the superficial wound given to him and the kid that gave it to him. A thrill of a dark memory pulsed in the back of his head, taking his mind away from the battle for but a second. Mother...the village...
A second was all that was needed for the other genin boy to make his move, utilizing the barbed chain still connected to his gauntlet. Unlike the first, though, this one was cautious, measuring his opponent as he felt out his very new weapon. A slight gash in the ground was all the warning the missing nin to hop out of range, readying his head-cutter to do battle yet again.
Then came a new threat from a behind, a dark blur signifying the Leaf Jōnin re-entering the fight. Under this much pressure, Zabuza decided this would be a good time to retreat, the ground getting too hot to take care of business efficiently. He leapt back further, ready to retreat. However, he hadn't figured on another surprise assault from the crazy genin, the blond tearing up the distance between them, claw on one hand and a vicious-looking billhook in the other.
Naruto cut the enemy nin off, aiming a high kick at the man's wheeling chest. It hit offcenter, but it was enough to kill the criminal shinobi's momentum, the man landing unsteadily on his feet. Sasuke and Kakashi caught up without a moment wasted, Sasuke whipping the chain around the rogue shinobi's legs. The Uchiha dug his heels in, grunting as he leaned back. Kakashi closed the rest of the distance, brandishing his kunai.
"This is the end, Momochi Zabuza-"
And then the missing nin was stabbed through the throat...
...with two needles.
As the light faded from the grim murderer's eyes, the party glanced across the clearing, toward the giggling assassin no longer hidden in the trees.
~xxx
Bah. This chapter's way too short/shitty
It's been some time, folks. I feel like I'm losing you.
Well, actually, I feel like I'm losing someone else, but that's a completely different matter. 2013 was a year of loss for lots of folks, it seems. Hope for 2014?...
Dead old friend, dead talents, dead stories.
I'm making sure I keep at least something alive, no matter what.
I plan to keep bringing you more, folks!
Review this bitch and make me happy!