07. The Demon
I could feel the breeze that the clone's gigantic sword was making. I could smell the steel of the blade. My hearing was turned off to the world. I thought I could hear my teammates' cries, but they sounded far away, muted, their individual tones lost to the ambiance. I ducked and the blade skimmed over the top of my head, cutting off several pieces of dark brown hair that blew into the minuscule breeze.
My breathing shallowed, my heart thumping so loudly in my chest, I could hear it. The haze that had taken over me dissipated and my vision zoned in, creating tunnel vision. I could see the clone in detail. Could see its bulging muscles, its crazed eyes. Gripping the handles of my daggers tightly, I lunged forward, moving to plow my blades right into the clone's abdomen. But the clone was too quick. It side stepped me in a blur and the next series events took my mind a delayed several seconds to comprehend.
The clone brought back its fist and rammed it into the side of my face. My body immediately flew to the left, smashing against the ground at least ten feet away from the rest of my team. The immediate hit knocked the air of me and I bounced another foot before rolling a few more.
I found myself on my stomach, face-down in the dirt. My fingers dug into the earth as I moaned, raising my heavy head. My vision was clouded with black and white spots as the world seemed to turn around me, the picture hazy. My hearing was dulled, aside from a high-pitched whistling sound but after a moment, it was as though someone jacked the volume up and my hearing flooded back.
"Nakao!" Naruto and Sakura screamed my name, sounding desperately fearful.
My head fell back down to the earth, its weight becoming too much. My brain felt as though it was throbbing against my skull and it caused even my eyes to hurt. I closed them against the pain but it only seemed to make my head throb harder. Something warm and wet was trickling down my face. I tried to take a deep breathe through my nose and lifted my head again, only to find the clone was walking straight for me. It was walking leisurely, mocking me; showing me it knew not to be afraid of me, that I was a weak opponent and I could do nothing against his onslaught.
No! I screamed at myself. Get up! Get up! You will not die on your stomach!
I tried to push myself up on shaky arms. My body protested against this movement. It wanted to sleep; warning me I was injured, as though the pain in my head and ribs weren't enough. My skull was still throbbing. Heads injuries were the worst way to get injured in a fight. The brain was not as durable as the body. But I would not die like this. I was a ninja, no matter what Zabuza said. And if this was my time, then I would die on my feet.
"Don't fight him! Take the bridge builder and run!" I could hear Kakashi-sensei call from his water prison. "He's using all his power to keep me in this prison, so he can only fight you with his water clone, but his clone can't go too far from its original body, now run!"
I finally got me knees, palms against the ground to support my weight. My hair fell around my face. Kakashi's words ran through my head but I knew it was no use. The second we ran, Zabuza would kill Kakashi-sensei before he had a chance to defend himself. And then he'd track us down in no time at all and eliminate us all. He'd pick us all off with one swing of that enormous sword and Tazuna would last a millisecond more. Our only option was to rescue Kakashi-sensei.
I pushed myself off of my hands and rested back on my knees. The clone was nearly upon me now. His eyes were glinting in sickening excitement. His mouth was hidden behind the bandages wrapped around his face so I couldn't be sure, but the way the bandages wrinkled made me certain he was smirking devilishly. I frantically searched the area for my daggers, finding them just a foot away from me.
A blur from behind the clone caught my attention. The clone sensed the new arrival and turned around, relieving me of its focus. Sasuke was running at the clone, throwing shuriken as he advanced.
"Sasuke, no!" I screamed, but the Uchiha didn't listen.
Sasuke jumped up, coming down at the clone with a kunai in his hand. With no effort, the clone simply reached up, catching Sasuke by the throat. Sasuke cried out as the clone constricted its hold on his neck.
"Sasuke!" I cried, worry seeping into my bones. That idiot!
I scrambled to my feet, snatching up my blades as I did. A wave of dizziness slammed into me and I wavered, thinking I might lose the contents of my stomach. But I clamped my lips tight together and closed by eyes just for a moment to reorient myself. It was only slightly effective but effective enough that I was able to push down the dizziness and nausea and focus on the task at hand: rescue the idiot Uchiha.
Ignoring my injuries, I forced myself to run forward, keeping my eyes trained on the clone. I pushed everything from my head aside from one thought: rescue Sasuke, rescue Sasuke, rescue Sasuke. With a grunt of effort, I flung myself onto the clone's back, wrapping my arms around its beefy neck. The clone called out in surprise and aggravation and began to move around erratically in an attempt to dislodge me. I attempted to hold on while trying to extract an arm to stab the clone…well, anywhere really.
The clone threw Sasuke away like a ragdoll and he flew through the air as I had done minutes before, smacking into the ground and rolling away as a cloud of dust rose up around the area of impact. Hands free, the clone now used them to grab hold of me. He pulled me over his massive shoulders, me swinging my legs the whole way in an attempt to kick him, and slammed me into the ground right in front of him.
I hit the ground hard against my spine, just below my cervical vertebrae. A couple more inches difference became the difference of having a severed neck and not having a severed neck. I rolled over myself, finding myself face-down in the dirt again. Cringing in pain, I found my body curling in on itself. I told my body to get up, get up and fight!, but my body was bruised and broken. And then I noticed, with a sense of panic, that the secure feeling of my blades in my hands, was missing!
"What are you doing!?" Kakashi-sensei's voice rang through the clearing. "This fight was over the moment I got caught! The mission was to protect the bridge builder, not to prove how brave you are! .mission!"
Naruto looked behind himself to Tazuna. "Sir?"
Tazuna glanced down at the ground for a minute before sighing. He looked back up. "I guess this all happened because of me, because of my desire to live…but I won't let that stand in your way. Do what you have to do; do what you must to save your sensei."
"You hear that?" Sasuke called to our sensei. I could hear the smirk in his voice. So at least he was okay.
With great effort, I uncurled my body. Weakly, I raised an arm into the air and rolled onto my back. My other arm was clutching weakly against my abdomen but I pushed as much airy attitude into my statement as I could manage. "Can I…Can I take the gold for that whole 'brave thing'?"
Zabuza's clone, who still hovered close to me, began to laugh. "You still don't get it, do you? When I was your age, my hands were already stained with blood."
"Zabuza, the Demon…" Kakashi-sensei automatically muttered.
"Ah, so I was in your book too," the original Zabuza commented, amused.
As the two were distracted, I shakily got to my knees again. Everything was throbbing; every body part, every organ. I glanced over my shoulder to the clone standing mere feet away, but his eyes were on Zabuza and Kakashi.
Kakashi-sensei began to explain; whether out of an attempt to scare us into listening, or out of teaching habit. "Years back, the Village Hidden in the Mist was also known as Blood Mist Village. It was called so because of the final exam taken to become a ninja."
Zabuza's eyes gleamed. "Oh, so you know about the graduation exam, do you?"
"The graduation exam?" Naruto echoed. Zabuza's clone only laughed in response. Naruto gave an angered cry. "What!? What is it!?"
"Fights to the death, with other students," Zabuza responded looking at my team. "Friends who had eaten at the same table with you, trained, and shared their dreams with you, were pinned against each other in fights to the death."
"Th-That's terrible," Sakura trembled. I felt goosebumps arise from my flesh.
Kakashi-sensei continued. "Ten years ago the graduation exam was forced to change."
"Change? Why?" Sakura asked timidly, as though she didn't know if she really wanted the answer.
Kakashi-sensei, again, had the answer. "Without pause or hesitation, a young boy who didn't even qualify for the exam, had killed over one hundred of that year's candidates."
The clone looked up, his eyes full of bloodlust and madness. "Fun times."
I wasn't prepared for the sudden movement. The clone was a mere flash of color and he was suddenly gone. With no doubt to where he'd gone, I whirled around in desperation to see my team. Nausea swept through me at my rapid movement, but the fear for my teammates triumphed over the feeling. I watched helplessly as the clone reappeared in a flicker in front of my three teammates and Tazuna and kneed Sasuke in the stomach so hard he flew away from the group.
"Sasuke!"I called out hoarsely as he hit the ground on his back.
The clone followed relentlessly and almost too quickly to follow. No sooner had Sasuke smacked onto the earth that the clone was there and stomped his foot so hard onto Sasuke's abdomen that blood flew from his mouth. My eyes shook as he brought the foot down again, and again.
"Naruto!" I yelled out in desperation as I tried to force my own body to work. "Naruto, do something!"
Naruto's frozen body jerked and he turned to look at me with his mouth open.
"NOW!"
Naruto blinked and shook his head. "R-Right! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
At least a dozen Naruto's populated the area around Zabuza, distracting him. Cringing as I did so, I stumbled to my feet, ignoring the shooting pains from my head, back and ribs. I searched the ground for my daggers, yet again. Finding them, I snatched them up and sprinted as fast as I could to my teammates. I arrived just as Naruto's clones readied for attack. They all ran forward at once, jumping in the air for leverage and came down on Zabuza, encasing him in a dome.
I sprinted around them and dropped to my knees next to Sasuke. He had gotten to his knees but his body was shaking slightly. A trail of red blood ran from his mouth down his chin.
"Come on, let's go!"I whispered urgently, grabbing one of his arms and slinging it over my shoulder. I don't know whom was dragging whom, but together our injured bodies moved out of the immediate battle area just as Zabuza broke free with a shout, sending Naruto clones flying in all directions.
As the clones hit the ground, the disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The real Naruto skid against the ground, but the pain didn't seem to faze him. He had pulled of his backpack and was frantically searching inside.
"I'm not giving up; I've still got this! Sasuke!" Naruto grabbed a folded windmill shuriken out of his pack and threw it in our direction.
Sasuke reached up to grab it, spinning once as he did so, and taking it into his left hand. Sasuke was smirking and my eyebrows furrowed. What did Sasuke seem so confident about? What was a shuriken going to do against this monster? Was there something I was missing out on?
My concern proved to not be misplaced as the clone chuckled. "A shuriken? That thing can't touch me."
Sasuke ignored this and jumped into the air. Once he was high enough, he sent the shuriken rapidly spinning towards the clone. Just as it reached the clone, however, it curved, bypassing the clone and headed straight for the real Zabuza. My head perked up and I felt my heart jump in my chest.
"So, you sent the shuriken straight at me, eh? Smart, but not smart enough," the real Zabuza smirked, catching the shuriken in his one, unoccupied hand. Just as he did so however, another shuriken whizzed straight towards him.
Another shuriken in the shadow of the other one! I couldn't contain the hope that soared in my chest at that moment. Zabuza couldn't catch the second one! Not unless he released Kakashi-sensei.
I watched with baited breath while the shuriken reached Zabuza. Zabuza laughed in superiority and simply jumped upwards, letting the shuriken fly right beneath his feet. But out of the corner of my right eye, I saw Sasuke smirking. I watched as the shuriken went up in a puff of smoke and turned into Naruto.
Naruto smirked, throwing a kunai straight for Zabuza. "Eat this!"
I watched in astonishment as the kunai flew at Zabuza. His eyes widened as he debated what he should do. He dodged to his left, missing the kunai and only receiving a graze on his right cheek from it. But his right arm had detached from Kakashi-sensei's prison when he dodged and now, Kakashi-sensei was free. At the same time, Zabuza's clone disappeared in a splash of water.
Angrily, Zabuza turned around, his eyes glinting madly. As Naruto fell towards the water, Zabuza twirled the windmill shuriken in his hand rapidly.
"No, Naruto!" I called out as Zabuza moved to throw the shuriken.
There was a flash and suddenly, Kakashi-sensei was in front of Zabuza, blocking the shuriken blades from moving with the metal-plated glove on his right hand. Naruto fell harmlessly into the water, making a large splash.
Elation flooded through me and I found myself letting out a relieved laugh. I turned a huge grin on Sasuke. "That was incredible, you guys!"
"Naruto, that was an excellent plan," Kakashi-sensei said, looking over to Naruto who had bobbed to the surface of the water.
Naruto laughed. "I just used the shadow clones to distract him. While he was busy with that, I turned into a shuriken and had my clone grab me. When it threw the shuriken, it looked like a real one! Of course, when Sasuke caught it, he noticed it was me in a second. He spun around so no one would see him grab his own shuriken. Then I hid in the shadow of his shuriken. Of course, I knew I couldn't beat Zabuza on my own, that wasn't in the game plan. I just wanted to break up his prison; I didn't know his clone would be destroyed too, that was a bonus!"
"Don't brag, you just got lucky," Sasuke smirked, closing his eyes and bowing his head.
I shot him a look and rolled my eyes but I was impressed. Their teamwork had been flawless. As much as they couldn't stand each other, they executed a maneuver never practiced without even speaking to each other.
"I got distracted and lost my grip on the water prison," Zabuza said angrily.
"No one like a sore loser, Zabuza!" I yelled out tauntingly, wiping away some dried blood that was itching my face. Had I learned my lesson on taunting people who could snap me like a twig? Apparently not; but my aching body was calling for justice.
Zabuza tried to turn a glare on me, but quickly found that he couldn't; Kakashi-sensei had him where he wanted him.
"Nakao's right, you were forced to let go," Kakashi-sensei smirked. "That same technique won't work on me twice, so what's it gunna be?"
The entire area silenced as the two jounin stared each other down. The same suffocating bloodlust from earlier filled the air.
"Nakao, Sakura," Sasuke glanced over at the two of us. "You know what to do."
"Hai," we chanted.
The three of us regrouped and returned to our formation in front of Tazuna. Naruto was still bobbing in the water near the jounins. I took the middle in front of Tazuna, with Sasuke and Sakura on either side of me.
We watched as Zabuza tried to force the shuriken down on Kakashi-sensei, but he fought back and knocked the shuriken out of Zabuza's hand. The two jounin then jumped away from each other, standing atop the water. Zabuza began a very long sequence of handsigns; Kakashi-sensei copied each one perfectly.
"Water Dragon Jutsu!" the two yelled together.
The water in front of them began to ripple and from the lake shot out two serpent-bodied dragons. They swirled around each other before attacking each other with teeth made of water. Water flew from the dragons like blood might on a living creature. The dragon's clashed together, becoming one big tidal wave.
I cursed, just glancing at Sasuke before I made to run off. "We have to get Naruto!"
But Sasuke grabbed my wrist and his eyes pierced me. "Are you crazy!?"
I made to respond but just then the massive waves rushed over Naruto and headed straight for our group. We planted our feet to the ground, throwing arms in front of our faces to shield ourselves from the harsh onslaught of pelting water.
As the waves dissipated and the chance of being swept away died, I desperately glanced back to the lake. Naruto was fine and was bobbing around in the water, his damp hair matted to his face. The jounins paid him no mind. Zabuza was pushing down on Kakashi-sensei with his sword, and Kakashi was pushing back with only a kunai. They struggled for a minute before jumping away from one another.
They began began to run in a circle, stopping directly in front of one another. At the same time, the two performed the same handsigns, calling out the same thing.
He's not just copying…he's doing it at the same time!
"How is that possible?" I breathed. From the corner of my eye, I glanced to Sasuke, but he watched the scene with equal bewilderment.
"…what I'm going to do next?" Kakashi-sensei suddenly said.
Zabuza's eyes widened.
"It makes you furious, doesn't it?" Kakashi-sensei asked.
He must be psyching Zabuza out. The Sharingan can't read his mind or see the future…But Zabuza doesn't know that…
"You're just copying me like a monkey!" Zabuza said angrily, his calm, confident demeanor long gone.
Simultaneously, the two spoke. "You can't beat me with cheap tricks! I'll crush you!"
I was in awe. I'd read about mind tricks; my brother had all kinds of books on the shinobi arts. Getting into an opponent's head could give one the step up they needed. But I'd never seen it done so flawlessly.
Kakashi and Zabuza were performing the same handsigns at the same time. Zabuza's eyes were shaking and his obvious nerves threw off his sequence. With just this split second of hesitancy, Kakashi-sensei finished the jutsu.
"Water Vortex!"
In front of Kakashi, a vortex began to swirl into existence. It grew into a large typhoon and plowed straight into Zabuza, knocking him off of his feet. I lost sight of Zabuza in the large waves, but my eyes found Naruto, struggling and flailing in the water.
"Naruto!" I gasped, watching him flail helplessly in the untamable waves.
Naruto finally managed to grab onto a tree branch, holding on for dear life.
"Hold on, Naruto!" I called out to him. Naruto yelled something back, but his voice was lost amongst the deafening sound of roaring water. I imagined it was something along the lines of: "Hurry!"
I carefully ran along the outskirts of the lake where it was muddy and easy to lose footing. My feet kept sinking but I pushed through, my eyes trained on Naruto. When I reached him, I planted my feet as firmly as I could and thrusted out my hand. Carefully, Naruto grabbed it just as his other hand lost grip of the slippery branch. With a heave, I tugged him ashore and the acceleration caused us to fall backwards onto our backs. I hissed in pain as a sudden, sharp pain shot through my body.
"Nakao, are you okay!?" Naruto asked, concerned, scrambling to his knees so he could look me over.
"I'm fine," I said through gritted teeth, ignoring the pain as I struggled into a sitting position.
Naruto hopped to his feet, offering out his hand. I grabbed it firmly and let him pull me up.
In the meantime, Kakashi-sensei's jutsu pushed Zabuza's back up against a tree. Immediately afterwards, Kakashi-sensei threw several kunai at Zabuza. They dug through his limbs, nailing him to the tree. Zabuza cried out in pain as Kakashi-sensei kneeled on a tree branch above him.
"You're finished," Kakashi-sensei said as the water began to calm and ebb back to where the lake was originally.
Naruto and I rushed forward, followed closely by Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna. We still kept a few feet of distance between us and Zabuza. Zabuza paid us no mind as he struggled to glare up at Kakashi. "H-How? Can you see the future?"
"Yes, this is your last battle…ever," Kakashi-sensei said, holding up a kunai.
From seemingly nowhere, a moving object soared past me. My senses immediately detected the movement and I watched in surprise as two senbon flew smoothly into Zabuza's neck. Zabuza's eyes immediately fluttered shut and he fell forwards, knocking out the kunai pinning him to the tree, and hitting the ground.
The team gasped collectively as we swung around to visualize the direction the needles had come from. Standing on a high tree branch stood a slim figure, perhaps my height. They were wearing a white mask, painted with a red design. I squinted up at the figure.
"You're right…this was his last battle," the newcomer said. Their voice was soft and was hard to detect whether it was a female voice or a male voice.
Kakashi-sensei jumped down from his spot, squatting beside Zabuza's body. He put two fingers on his carotid, searching for a pulse. After a second, Kakashi-sensei shook his head. "No vital signs."
He glanced up and over to the newcomer. They bowed their head. "Thank you. I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time; waiting for the chance to finally take him down."
"From your mask, I see that you are a tracker ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist," Kakashi-sensei mused calmly.
"You are well informed," the tracker ninja confirmed.
"Ugh, a tracker!" Naruto clenched his hands into fists.
"Naruto, you don't even know what that is; try coming to class sometime," Sakura rolled her eyes.
"Naruto, trackers are specially trained ninja who hunt down rogue ninjas from their village. Their goal is to eliminate the rogue ninja so that the secrets of their village don't fall into the wrong hands and remain secrets," I explained, as though I could visualize the text I had read.
"That is correct," they nodded. "I'm a member of the elite tracking unit of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. It was my duty to stop Zabuza."
Naruto suddenly ran forward. He looked between Zabuza and the boy several times. The more that he did so, the more growling was made in the back of his throat. Finally, he thrust a finger out at the boy. "Who do you think you are!?"
"Easy Naruto, he is not our enemy," Kakashi-sensei got to his feet.
"That's not the point!" Naruto rounded on Kakashi-sensei. "Did you see what he did, just like that!? Zabuza was huge and powerful! We worked really hard to take him down! And this kid, who is no bigger than me, comes and takes him down just like that! I mean, what does that make us!?"
Sakura looked towards the ground. Sasuke and I found ourselves glancing at one another. His face revealed nothing but mine betrayed the fact that Naruto had a very good point...Subconsciously, my hand reached to my face and gently palpated, feeling the swelling and bruising I'd obtained in the fight.
Kakashi-sensei walked over to Naruto, putting a hand on his head, his tone was soft. "Naruto, in this world, there are kids younger than you, but stronger than me."
Kakashi-sensei slowly turned his eyes over towards our group. I was standing beside Sasuke and noticed how Kakashi's eyes fell on him. But then, for split second, I thought I saw Kakashi's eyes flicker to me. I blinked, taken aback. It must have been a mistake. Sasuke was stronger than me; better trained. And with everything I'd witnessed Kakashi do today, I wondered if I'd ever be as good as him.
The kid disappeared in a small gust of wind, and reappeared in a similar one right next to Zabuza. With ease, he lifted the big lug's arm over his shoulder and glanced to our team. "Your struggle is over for now; I need to deal with the remains. There are many secrets in this body, they must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands. Please excuse me. Farewell."
The boy and Zabuza disappeared in a gust of wind. As Kakashi-sensei moved his headband back over his Sharingan, Naruto ran forwards, to the area the tracker ninja and Zabuza had just vacated. His face was contorted in rage and frustration.
"He's gone, Naruto. Let it go," Kakashi said softly.
Naruto gave an aggravated cry and fell to his knees. He proceeded to punching the ground in anger, over and over. I glanced to my teammates, but they only stared at Naruto in surprise. I sighed.
Slowly, I moved over to Naruto. Just as he pulled back his fist for another aim, I caught his arm, causing him to stop abruptly and turn his head to look at me.
"Naruto…it's over now. It's time to go," I said softly.
"But…Nakao," there was such disappointment in Naruto's sky blue eyes. Just the way he said my name revealed to me how deeply this had affected him.
I wanted him to know that I understood, and I tried to relay it through my eyes. But there was still so much to come, hours of training to be had. And right now, we still had a mission to finish. And so I gave him a small smile. "I'm sure there will be other bad guys to kill, Naruto…don't sweat it."
Naruto watched me for a long moment, the pain of failure and inadequacy still haunting his eyes. But he let out a soft sigh and took my outreaching hand to get to his feet. I cuffed him on the shoulder.
"Our mission still isn't complete. We still have to get the bridge builder to his bridge," Kakashi-sensei said after a long moment.
Tazuna let out a laugh. "Sorry I caused all this trouble, but you guys can rest up at my house."
"Oh thank god," I whispered to myself and I heard Naruto give a little chuckle from beside me.
"Alright, let's get a move out!" Kakashi-sensei announced. He turned his back on all of us, headed in the direction of Tazuna's house.
Kakashi-sensei got two steps away when he suddenly stopped and began to wobble. We all stopped as well, staring at Kakashi-sensei's back curiously. Without warning, Kakashi-sensei suddenly fell forward, face first into the ground.
Our entire team gasped, sprinting forward to our fallen teacher. "Kakashi-sensei? Kakashi-sensei!"
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Author's Note: I love action stories; so much room for cliff-hangers! Shout out to my fans who let me know how much they disagree! You are so appreciated! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday; or a wonderful week in general.