Battle of the Bridge!
Naruto's eyes widened at the scene he saw on bridge. Sakura was cradling an unconscious Sasuke, who looked like had lost one eye. At some distance from him, there was a half burnt corpse, which Naruto knew was Haku. Seeing the fire, he understood Sasuke had killed him. Zabuza also dead with hole in his chest.
"Naruto! Where were you?" Kakashi questioned.
"At Tazuna's. Gato had hired Raiga Kurosaki to bring in Tazuna's family. I have to deal with him." Naruto replied.
Kakashi was shocked "And you won?"
"I am here, am I not?" Naruto retorted a bit annoyed.
What are these kids now a days. Sasuke defeated Haku, who Zabuza admitted, surpassed him in combat, and Naruto had defeated one of seven swordsman of the mist. He then looked at Sakura who was being useless and loosing fat tears at Sasuke's condition, he ammended shaking his head "Never mind!"
"What happened here?" Naruto questioned.
"Well..." Kakashi started.
[Flashback]
Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura arrived at the bridge escorting Tazuna and were shocked to see the workers knocked out. Zabuza and the 'hunter nin' were already waiting for them.
"Kakashi, the time the outcome will be diffrent." Zabuza growled, his words laced with heavy Killer intent as he formed 5 'mizu bunshins (water clones)'.
"We will see about that." Kakashi replied but unlike his nonchalant self, he was serious.
Zabuza saw Sasuke shaking and scoffed "One of your gennin is shaking with fear and, you say such things with that much confidence."
Sasuke smirked "I am not shaking out of fear. I am shaking out of excitement."
Kakashi shook his head and delivered orders "Sakura stay back and protect Tazuna. Sasuke you will fight with me."
Sasuke nodded and in a burst of speed destroyed every clones of Zabuza, by running Kunai through them.
"Oho Haku! Looks like the brat will be match for your speed." Zabuza commented.
"Hai Zabuza-sama. But I will not loose." Haku spoke confidently.
Sasuke and Haku launched at each other clashing Sasuke's Kunai and Haku's senbon multiple times.
"Your one hand is occupied. You can't use ninjutsu. I have an upperhand." Haku said in monotone.
"It's same for you!" Sasuke shouted trying to gain upperhand in clash of weapons.
"Not quite" Haku said as he started one hand seals surprising Sasuke and Kakashi.
"Hijutsu: Sensatsu suisho (secret technique: thousand flying water needles of death)".
From the water puddle, water raised and change Shape into multiple needles, zooming towards Sasuke.
Sasuke focused chakra in his feet and jumped away, Haku doing the same.
"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu (fire style: Great fireball technique)". Sasuke sent a fireball evaporating each of Haku's water needles.
Haku himself had to jump back three times avoiding shurikens when he heard a voice "You seem like an idiot to me."
Sasuke kicked him towards Zabuza.
"Looks like I am better in speed than you." Sasuke taunted.
"You are going easy on him Haku. Don't be naive." Zabuza scolded.
"Hai Zabuza-sama. I will rectify it now." Haku accepted.
Sasuke jumped back as he saw water from the river came together and formed a mirror. He turned around and saw himself completly surrounded by similar mirrors.
"Hyoton: Makyo Hyosho (Ice style: Demonic mirroring ice crystals). Now, let me show you my speed." Haku announced as he entered a mirror.
Sasuke understood his situation was grim and he had to break out of there. 'Sharingan', he murmured and activated his red eyes with two tomoe in each.
Haku rained Ice senbons into Sasuke from all sides. Sasuke using his sharingan tried to defend himself bur he could only do so much with projectiles incoming from all sides.
Some of senbons injured him, being made up of ice, they started slowing Sasuke's speed down.
"Katon: Ryuka no jutsu (fire style: dragon flame technique)", Sasuke announced as he rotated, so that his fire could melt the ice and possibly find weak spot.
"It's of no use. The ics melts into water and I use my Hyoton chakra to re-freeze them into mirrors. Now please surrender." Haku spoke.
Of course Sasuke didn't believe her, he went on with his hand signs of pheonix fire technique, but replaced 'tiger' with 'horse' "Katon: Hoesenenka kodan (fire style: pheonix flame missiles)".
Sasuke had taken Naruto's word more seriously than Naruto himself had thought, and focused on gaining quality in techniques than quantity. He would think about applications of 'Katon' techniques he knew, and how to use it in diffrent situation. This was one of those.
Sasuke, after seeing one of his strongest technique not able to melt the mirror from inside, thought it must be weaker from outside, hence use of new technique.
The flames of Sasuke's jutsu rised in the air, escaping ice mirror confinement and slammed into mirrors from outside. Sasuke was of course right, the mirrors were vulnerable from outside. Alas, Haku said that and formed extra layer of mirrors facing outside, over the original confinement.
Sasuke cursed for not having a technique powerful enough to destroy that.
One more thing changed here. Naruto had thought that like last time he would go there and assist Sasuke to defeat Haku and maybe save him from death. What he forgot to count was, Haku had gone easy on them because she thought they were easy opponents. With Sasuke defeating her in start and using large scale techniques, Haku's interpretation of Sasuke's threat level changed and she went at it seriously.
Sasuke tried but couldn't defend himself from rain of ice senbons that hailed towards him. One of them peirced his left eye, destroying one of three sharingans left in leaf. Sasuke clutched his damaged eye and shouted in pain as he fell onto ground.
Haku thinking she had defeated him went over to him and looked into his open eyes "If only you have surrendered, you wouldn't have died."
He moved forward to finish his suffering but gasped as she felt herself getting riddled by Shurikens in vital spots. He looked down at her injured body and saw blood flowing out of them, and then looked back to Sasuke's still sharingan.
It pulsed and the scene Haku was witnessing cracked. Haku realised he had been tricked into Uchiha genjutsu. The pain had broken it but now the situation was completly changed.
Sasuke, who had his damaged eye closed, was holding strings connected to shurikens that riddled Haku's body "You were the toughest opponent I have faced ever since my brother. You will allways have my respect, even though I hate you for taking one of my sharingan. Katon: Karyuuendan (fire style: dragon flame bomb)".
The fire went through the string and burnt an already half dead Haku to crisp resulting in her ice mirrors to melt. Sasuke himself lost consciousness to chakra exhaustion.
[With Kakashi and Zabuza]
They were already engaged in deadly dance of Nin-Kenjutsu. With Zabuza using the Kubikiribocho, and Kakashi countering it with 'Raiton' enhanced Kunai.
"Looks like both of our students are down." Zabuza said grinning.
Kakashi felt sick at his words and it was only due to his hightend sense of hearing, he was sure Sasuke was alive, if only seriously injured. He understood he have to quickly deal with Zabuza, as Naruto may be in trouble as he had namaste arrived to the bridge after so much time.
"Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu (summoming: earth release: tracking fang technique)", Kakashi bit his finger and slammed his hand on the ground.
In few moments, the pack of ninja dogs Kakashi summoned moved underground and using their superior sense of smell, latched on to Zabuza completly immobilizing him.
"Zabuza, you told me my techniques are just cheap copies. I will finish you using my own original technique Raiton: chiddori (Lightning release: one thousand birds)".
Kakashi's hand was covered in lightning a in moments it tore through Zabuza's chest killing him unlike last time.
[Flashback end]
"So thats what happened." Kakashi finished recounting the tale. "Other than Sasuke loosing one of his eye, there were no casualties among us."
Naruto nodded but didn't say anything. He knew Gato would be arriving soon with his goons, and only Naruto have enough chakra to deal with them.
