I write this because Sasuke can't stand to remember this. That he had to watch helplessly from the side lines with a broken arm in the end. That I was pinned by my abject horror like an insect is stapled to a board.
I moved fast, a hand pressed to the back of the fake Tazuna to keep him low as we worked our way into the fog. My eyes locked onto our Sensei as he engaged Zabuza. I can hear the battle cries of my boys in the background but I can't dare pay attention to it for fear of my charge being killed. Zabuza appears out of the fog, his veins black and standing out against his skin and his muscles bulging as he holds his sword in one hand. The blade glints off the hints of light that can make it through the fog.
"Duty calls Copy-Nin, nothing personal!" Zabuza's words are slurred a bit, but his eyes clear and bloodshot as they zero in on Sensei. He nods, seeming to draw a tanto from nowhere before discarding it to the side and instead drawing a kunai that begins to crackle with electricity.
"Nothing personal Zabuza" The missing nin is on him in a flash, the stone bridge breaking underfoot from the raw muscle he's using to propel himself. The water clones of the previous fight having been abandoned for straight overwhelming power. Sensei is moving on the backfoot not even attempting to block as the massive sword carves it's way through stone as easily as it does the fog. I throw a kunai, the poison oak slime dripping off of the throwing blade and making it heavier, that lands far behind them. The sound of the blade clattering against broken stones is enough though to make Zabuza turn for half a second, Sensei performing a cartwheel to the side to nimbly move around the blade hovering by a hand and deliver a snap kick to his waist.
Both of them just seem to stand there for an eternity before Zabuza, even as the bandages around his mouth begin to grow red, grab's Sensei by the ankle and spins around throwing him at the third person who had been skulking up on the fight between the two titans. Sensei twists through the air like a cat, turning the throw into a drop kick to the new figures chest and manages to dodge the bright yellow blade he whips up in his defense.
"The fuck is wrong with the two of you?" The new figure doesn't get an answer, instead Zabuza charging forward sending more shards of broken stone behind him as he attempts to bisect the newcomer who manages to block the massive executioner's blade with his glowing one.
"The sword of the thunder god!" my head whips around as the fake Tazuna looks at the fight amazed, his eyes wide as saucers. "It's a missing Konoha artifact, having been stolen by spies. This is bad." I just kind of dumbly nod, choosing to take the odd stalemate as an opportunity to try and tag both of them with kunai. One lands squarely in Zabuza's shoulder blade, his black veins seeming to pulse and the muscles bulking up even more from where the poison oak enters his system. The other kunai skates by the thief, cutting along his hip and leaving just a razor thin line covered in green paste. Zabuza headbutts the man, forcing him to stumble back and drop his guard. Sensei tries to take advantage of the situation and attempts to slide a kunai in between some of the thief's ribs but he manages to twist around past the blade, nearly slamming his own lightning sword through Sensei's jaw.
Sensei has to throw himself at Zabuza's feet to avoid it, having to turn it into a handstand to deliver a kick to the man's jaw before he got curb stomped. Normally Zabuza would be sent stumbling backwards, but instead his head just snaps up giving a spray of blood. The thief is trying to rush forward ti slam the lightning blade into Sensei's exposed stomach. A small twist and Sensei has managed to wrap his legs around the thief's neck and is trying to snap it but just doesn't have the leverage. Zabuza looks down over his two opponents trapped by one another as he puts his sword behind him, screaming this time as his sword glows a blue color as he channels chakra into it and heaves it into an overhead two handed swing as he tries to bisect both in one foul cleave.
Sensei has to shove himself away lest he lose some limbs, slamming face first into the ground. There's a scuffle right behind me going past me and the fake Tazuna's hiding spot but I can't really bring myself to truly care about it at the moment. Zabuza and the thief have locked blades, the thief having to go down on a knee to help himself deal with the brunt of the overhead strike. I take my chance, sending four kunai into Zabuza's back and only barely noticing that I threw them in a diamond pattern as they dig rivets into his back.
His head half turns, a single bloodshot eye glaring at me as his muscles twist themselves around the blades in his back that may as well be mosquito bites for how little they hinder him. Sensei appears from the fog, sweeping both Zabuza's and the Thief's legs out from under them and sending both tumbling to the ground. The thief is up with a roll forward turning into a kneeling thrust as he tries to put a hole right through Sensei's neck, a hand of concentrated chakra slaps it to the side but I see the way it burns him anyway. His skin charring on his off hand from the lightning blade. He tucks the hurt hand, and arm, close to his chest as he dances backwards to avoid the follow up slash. Their scuffle gave Zabuza the time to stand up and retake his stance. The three of them slowly circling in an odd triangle waiting for another to make the first move.
The Thief has a broken nose, the blood running down his face and into his open mouth as he's trying to get gasps of breath. He doesn't seem to be keeping up quite as well as the two of them. Sensei is glancing between his opponents and his hand, trying to assess how bad the burn is, and what move he wants to make next. A new kunai is gripped in his hands, glowing blue as it's reinforced with chakra to try and give him even footing with the two swordsmen. Zabuza is playing the role of the hulking brute well. The kunai is his back having dislodged at some point and are weeping freely, his bloodshot eyes darting between his opponents as he white knuckle grips his sword waiting for any opportunity to carve into one of them.
Their stand off is interrupted by a small bag flying into the center of the space between, breaking open once it hits the ground and dozens of marbles scattering across the ground. I can hear the thief curse as he goes down hard on his face again, Zabuza trying to take advantage with a step forward and downward strike only to take Sensei's kunai to the ribs. A wet squelching sound can be heard as the chakra reinforced throwing knife cuts through skin and bone like clay.
Zabuza gives a roar, moving forward still, the kunai ripping through him every inch of the way as it goes from the front of his torso out and through the side. His blade carving down and taking a leg off of the Thief who only barely managed to throw himself out of the jaws of death. He's bleeding freely, his weapon forgotten as he screams trying to scramble away and staunch the bleeding at the same time. Sensei dives for the abandoned artifact, getting punted mid dive by Zabuza's boot. He goes rolling away his own mask getting stained with blood from the blow, Zabuza kicking the artifact over to the side where it disappears into the fog. I shift on the balls of my feet, glancing between the swirling fog and the fake Tazuna who's holding onto his onion cap.
A single explosion resounds across the bridge, followed by a scream as the wind buffets. The fog clearing for just a moment.
"Naruto!" It's like a moment frozen in time, Zabuza's accomplice having activated a suicide technique and launching the remains of his ribcage into Naruto's face at point blank range. The sacrificial lamb having been literally lifted into the air and pointed straight down onto my teammate. Both go down like a puppet with their strings cut, every cell in my body screaming to move over and check on him. I had only caught a glance of Sasuke, clutching his leg on the ground a ways away.
The cleared fog doesn't last long, once more blanketing the scene. Sensei is back up his breathing heavy and his headband having came off completely in rolling. His normally blue mask is stained a heavy purple color as his burned hand holds against one of his sides as it glows green. Zabuza snorts, not too differently from a bull as it's about to charge. Neither of them were expecting the water dragon to come crashing down in between them. The fog thinning, having supplied the water as the thief comes into view. His broken nose and bloody face contorted in rage as he tied a makeshift tourniquet of torn cloth around the missing leg, even as it's still gushing his lifeblood into a pool around him. His hands are still in the final hand sign of the jutsu, the force of it driving a hole through the bridge.
Everything shudders suddenly, the sound of wood breaking and stone shifting make Sensei and Zabuza freeze even as they try to get up. The three opponents look at each other nervously as the bridge settles back down, though all of them can feel the unsteadiness in the air. Many more moves like that and no one will win this fight. Then came the pressure.
Feeling like nothing more than a 500 Kilogram weight was put on each limb, and a 1000 Kilogram weight right onto the small of my back. I find myself blacking out a bit as I'm forced to my knees by it. Struggling to even breath as the air itself feels as though it's becoming acrid.
"Ḥ̴͈͠a̴̡̓ ̶̯́̕ḧ̷̲̟a̴̼̎̔ ̴̨̻̕͝h̸͙́̿ȁ̸̭̎ ̸̲̜͌h̵̨͐A̴̦̦̐̅ ̴̺̒h̴͚͆A̸͍̎͜ ̸̮͋͋Ḣ̷͓ȃ̷̻̠̇!̸͎̀" The laughter seems to rip its way across the cursed space of this bridge. The fake Tazuna slowly draws his own tanto, before cursing silently. I finally see why sensei tossed it away at the start of the fight, a single large gouge in the center of the blade making it brittle. The fog slowly fades to nothing at all, Tazuna standing up and seeming to weep silently as we look at the crumpled corpse of his accomplice. Yet that wasn't what held our horror.
Naruto was laughing like a maniac, the broken blade of his sword held loosely in his hand as it began to glow red not from heat but from chakra. The shattered remains of the mask the accomplice was wearing now resting on Naruto's face leaving all of his mouth and his left eye fully visible. An eye that's not full of the manic laughter that I expected to see, not fear, or any emotions that would make sense.
Pure. Unadulterated. Glee.
He looked over the three tiring and weakening Jonin. Then that eye slides over to me and I can't help but throw up, as something deep within tells me that my boy is nowhere in there. The eyes that normally just glance around sightlessly now burrowing into my very soul, with far more comprehension than could feasibly be within him.
"Uzumaki, put down that blade. Now!" Sensei snapped off the order, trying to get an angle to view both the hulking brute of Zabuza and of Naruto. My teammate had begun to move now, swaying like a drunkard as he walked as the broken sword seemed to repair itself. Shards of ice, bone, and blood all coming up and off the ground and clicking themselves into place as he stumbles forward.
"I̸'̷m̴ ̷n̴o̴t̴ ̸y̵o̵u̵r̶ ̵f̸u̴c̸k̷i̵n̴g̵ ̴b̵r̷a̴t̶ ̶M̴a̸y̴f̵l̴y̷.̵͉͋͆" Sensei stumbles back a few steps, shaking almost imperceptibly, nearly going into range of the thief as the man flops onto his side. Desperately trying to reach something or someone, light beginning to fade from his eyes as the bleeding of his leg is starting to slow.
"My son. I will avenge you." Those were the last words Zabuza ever spoke, his body charged with enough chakra that his muscles begin to steam as he burns himself out. Sending shards of stone behind him as the tip of the massive sword runs it's way through the bridge as though it's floating through water. Their blades crash together, one a village's artifact and the other a blade of nightmares.
Zabuza's feet buckle, before he slowly falls to the side. His legs fell the other direction as he was bisected at the torso. The blade of nightmares carving right through the executioner's blade as though it never existed. He laughed once more, stomping on Zabuza's face as gleefully as a child would stomp on a bug. That eye focused on me once more as he kicked the offending torso out of the way. Beginning to stumble his way over to me, the tip of his katana digging into the stone bridge as he moves. I glance over but Sensei seems frozen in time, the only thing still moving is his Sharinggan eye as it spins as widely as my heart beats. I think I surprised whatever had Naruto's body, as I wrench myself to my feet. Bile and breakfast sticking to my lips and chin, coating the front of my open shirt and looking it square in the eye.
The smile on Naruto's face is wrong, as though it's from an apex predator during a hunt as a clawed hand reaches out and takes my face by the chin as it yanks me forward. More so holding me up than me standing. What was worse though, was when it began to speak in a voice I knew better than my own.
"It's ok Sakura. He'll be back to you soon enough." You'd think my fear would've given way to anger, and on some level I think it did. However something in the very back of my brain, the part that had spent hundreds of years evolving by not making things bigger than itself angry took control. My knees didn't buckle, instead they just gave out completely as I lost control of myself. Curling into the fetal position as piss joined the puddle of vomit that I was in trying desperately to keep the thing that had Naruto in view for fear that it would swing its blade at me next.
He chuckles a bit, merely patting the top of my head with a clawed hand as he stands and begins to stumble drunkenly away. The air suddenly sounded with that of a cane striking on the ground. All of us slowly turned and looked to see a midget of a man with several dozen bandits behind him overlooking the scene in front of him. The midget lights a cigar using a match and puffs on it for a moment before leaning down and picking up the Sword of the Thunder God and tucking it into a pocket on his business suit.
"Well, I think it's time to cut this short before you damage my bridge any further. Thank you so much for the clean up." His cane taps twice on the ground as the bandits begin to move forward. Men and women who care little for anything other than their coin and own lives. Naruto's body releases another bone chilling laugh as his back arches before his head is nearly touching the same stone as his feet. His crimson red eye and slit pupil meet my eyes once more, as I try desperately to exert some control over myself.
"W̷a̸t̷c̶h̵ ̴t̸h̶i̵s̷ ̵l̷i̴t̸t̸l̵e̴ ̴m̸a̸y̵f̶l̴i̴e̷s̵!̴" with that, Naruto's body suddenly jolted forward. The pressure in the air seemed to thin from their heavy weights as I tried to scramble into an upright position. 1 because I could finally make my limbs do what I told them to, and 2 because I had gotten my own piss in my mouth in a silent scream. I hear a gasp of pain from behind only giving a glance to see the fake Tazuna beginning to set Sasuke's broken arm, his eyes blazing with Sharingan as two small black dots circled his pupils in the red Iris'. I followed his gaze rather than comment, and watched as Naruto's body was nothing more but a puppet being guided through the slaughter. Cuts that would normally leave wounds carved through bodies. Piercing strikes that would cripple take out whole organs. His clawed hand moved swiftly and brutally as he used it to gut opponents. People stopped charging him after the first dozen bandits died in less than that many seconds.
Screams soon carried on the battlefield, as the thing began to hold the sword in Naruto's teeth as it ran on all fours. None of them were allowed to flee, instead being run down and ripped apart 1 by 1. Eventually there was only the midget, alone, surrounded by the corpses and a mist of blood that hadn't had the chance to settle to the ground as his pants had a similar stain to mine. He was trying to back up, tripping over the bodies, as Naruto's body laughed in front of him, his sword dragging behind him and leaving a thin white line in the red stained stone.
"I-i could give you anything you want! Money, women, power- J-just say the word, whatever you want!" Naruto's body cocked its head to the side, and while I can't see it I could just imagine the horrid grin spreading across his face without his consent. Suddenly, the sword spins around in his palm and buries itself into the midgets chest. He howls in desperate pain while trying to grab at the blade as he was lifted off the ground and up to eye level.
Naruto's body opened its mouth and rips out the midgets throat with his teeth. Blood spraying all over him and he laughs, that wrong laugh that seems to echo in my own head, once more. Dropping the blade and corpse he begins to make hand signs as he slowly turns around to face us before speaking to us in the voice of our friend once more.
"Not the last you've seen of me. My chains will slip in time mayflies. In the meantime this little mask will keep things i̷̞͐n̸̝͊t̶̩͆ȩ̸̎ȑ̸̗e̸̺͆s̸̟͆t̸̰̂į̷̎n̶̞̾g̸̬͋" The control it had over Naruto's voice seems to fail as it begins to laugh with a desperate, manic, energy once more as it moves his hands through their macabre dance of hand signs. Several of the corpses beginning to float in the air all centered around the final sacrifice, the sword still buried in his chest. They begin to slowly circle in the air as blood forms itself into seals midair as Naruto floats up. The mask begun to bubble on his face and the air around him seemed to warp in and out of reality. A single spark of black fire, and every drop of blood, every corpse was nothing but ash.
The mask turned into a black reflective material that left part of his mouth exposed and the left eye free to the air. Naruto crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut as Sensei moved slowly over to his prone form. A paper with seals on it is pasted onto Naruto's forehead and the mask was shoved into Sensei's kunai pouch before he began to carry my boy in our direction. The shadow clone got up and began to scavenge around, seeming to already know what it was looking for long before a word was uttered.
"Haruno, look inside the ash for the Sword of the Thunder God. We're taking that and the remnants of Zabuza's sword and returning to Konoha post haste." I slowly work myself to a standing position, Sasuke offering his shoulder for me to support myself on, even as his hoarse voice seems to whisper into the wind.
"What about Tazuna's protection Sensei?" he nods a bit, shifting Naruto in his grip to hold him better as he jerks his head back to the smoldering pile of ash.
"That was Gato, the shipping magnate that had been making life hell around here. He won't need anymore protecting and we've already gone above and beyond. We're done here." I slowly nod, forcing myself to walk towards the site of what looks like it belongs to a demonic ritual. Black ash that was once people lay in heaping piles. The small silver handle of the Konoha artifact was quickly found buried deep within a pile, scorched nearly beyond recognition but still functioning thank Kami.
Soon we were leaving Wave with Sensei carrying Naruto, the small seal on his forehead glowing a bright angry red. His shirt ruined and revealed a complicated looking seal on his stomach seeming to glow black despite that not being physically possible. Sensei's shadow clone carried the two pieces of Zabuza's sword. Me and Sasuke bring up the back half of our entourage, supporting each other silently on the journey as he seemed to stew in his own anger.
Now that all the chaos was over, I had only 1 question burning its way through the very core of my being. What the fuck happened to my Naruto, and how do I stop it from happening again.