Chapter 10: Disaster
Naruto was focused. The shade from the above leaves shielded him from the flashy rays of the morning sun. The Kongōseki Forest was rather peaceful despite the circumstances of the rest of the Land of Waves.
The sweat gathered around his eyebrows before dripping down into his blond hair and falling to the ground. With one hand he checked the straps on the weighted vest around his chest, ensuring they were snug. It weighed thirty pounds and made sticking to the bottom of the tree branch much more difficult.
Apparently, this was the first exercise you need to master in order to learn the Body Flicker Jutsu. Kakashi explained that sticking to a surface upside down with all the extra weight forces you to expend more chakra to stick. In doing so, it exercises the chakra pathways in the legs and makes it much easier to flood them with larger amounts of chakra which is necessary to perform the Body Flicker.
And it was definitely working on account of the excessive burn he felt welling up throughout both legs. They were totally exhausted. The worst part was that Naruto was going to have to keep adding weight for the exercise if he wanted his Body Flicker to continue to improve.
He looked beneath him to the forest below. Kakashi rested on a stump totally aloof to his surroundings as he read his book.
Several meters away from their distracted sensei, Sasuke seemed frustrated. He had hung a kunai from a tree limb and stood only a few meters away from it. He ran through hand signs, "Lightning Style: Thunderbolt!" Blue lightning crackled and popped between his palms and he swiftly thrust his arms forward toward the kunai and opened his hands releasing the pent-up bolt of plasma. It shot out in a dim strip of blue that struck the hanging kunai with a loud ping sound.
"You're going to need to add more power to it if you want the jutsu to actually harm anyone," Kakashi pointed out as he turned another page over in his book. Sasuke just looked at him with an indignant scowl and sped through the signs to do it again.
Naruto's blue eyes dashed over to Hinata who was drawing an arrow from her quiver. She wiped the sweat from her eyes before gently placing the arrow against the string of the bow and firmly pulling back. She took a moment to draw in a deep breath, aim, then release the arrow with a controlled exhale. It streaked across the air with whistling haste and pierced right through the target. When she examined the hit, a small smile curved onto her lips. It was her closest to a bullseye all day, and judging by the dozens of arrows that peppered the ground and surrounding trees, Hinata had certainly worked hard for that shot.
"Okay, Naruto, it's been an hour, you can drop down," Kakashi told him.
"Finally," Naruto celebrated before letting go from the tree branch, falling to the ground below, and massaging his legs to try and relieve all the tension.
"Since the chakra pathways in your legs are only just starting to be conditioned, the difference isn't going to be crazy," Kakashi explained. "Take the vest off and then try to perform the Body Flicker."
Naruto wriggled out of the vest and lobbed it onto the ground. He then focused as much chakra as he could into both of his legs. They began to wobble with intensity, it felt as if he was flexing all the muscles in his legs as hard as he could at once. When he had given them all the chakra they could handle, his right hand morphed into the release hand seal.
He felt all the chakra burst from his legs like an explosion. He was pushed forth with such speed that everything seemed like a blur. The winds lashed against his body and face with such intensity that he had to close his eyes and shield his face. His teeth were bared with fear, he wanted to choke up a gasp of shock but the intense gales wouldn't even permit him the ability to exhale. When all the overflowing chakra in his legs had finally depleted, Naruto's momentum abruptly stopped. He saw the complex shapes of the trees and the green color of the grass rush back into view. He couldn't stop himself from falling head first into the ground and skipping atop it until coming to a halt.
"Pretty good for your first time." Kakashi leaned over him, interrupting Naruto's sporadic, hollowed breaths.
Naruto's panicked, beady-eyed gaze shot up to meet his master who was fixing his headband over his left eye. He saw behind him a trail of white smoke that danced in the air and it was here that he noticed he had only moved about ten meters.
"You moved pretty fast, fast enough to catch a chūnin off guard. I could still catch you with though," Kakashi commended the boy from his crouched position. "All that smoke means you were inefficient with a lot of your built-up chakra. By the looks of it, you could've probably gotten twice as far twice as fast if you had perfect control," Kakashi speculated. "But as you improve with the jutsu you'll be going much farther with much greater speed, and I think you'll be able to get better at it very quickly," Kakashi said with an eye-smile.
"I couldn't see a thing, or where I was even going," Naruto trembled with sweat racing down his brow.
"Yeah, I should have warned you about that." Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Don't worry, it's a mix of estimating how much chakra you need to get somewhere and learning to keep your eyes open so they can focus," he assured his student. "Overall though, with all the chakra you were able to gather with your first use, even despite your inefficient use of it, you still displayed some of the best speed I've ever seen for a first-timer," Kakashi praised Naruto who developed a deep smirk on his lips. "Also, you can let go of the grass now."
"Huh – ?" Naruto looked at his hands and realized he had been gripping the grass so hard his knuckles were snow white. He abruptly let go and shot up to a sitting position. "I didn't realize," he looked away in embarrassment.
"It gets easier with experience," Kakashi lightened the mood. "But don't try this in a fight until you get a better grip on it," Kakashi instructed him. "You could get yourself or others killed by being reckless with it," he warned.
"A-Alright," Naruto said in understanding.
"Well anyways, it's about time we stop training and set up watch for Zabuza," Kakashi admitted and Sasuke and Hinata halted in their efforts. "He'll be here to negotiate anyti –"
"I'm here to negotiate now," Zabuza interjected from behind.
All of the genins' heads snapped onto Zabuza. Kakashi turned to face him. "Here on your own?" Kakashi implored with an inquisitive look.
"That's right," Zabuza confirmed. "A show of good faith," he explained through his bandage wrappings.
Kakashi sat back down on his log from before and gestured everyone over. "Come, let's all take a seat." Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata each claimed a spot next to their master and Zabuza took a seat opposite of Kakashi on a tree stump. "Now then, let's get down to business," Kakashi perched his arm over his knee.
"Right," Zabuza complied. "I'd like to start by saying that I wish for no conflict to arise between us and the Leaf," the swordsman clarified. "I take it that you all have put the bridge builder under your protection?"
"That is correct," Kakashi revealed. "Our mission is to protect him until he completes his bridge," he explained. "But I would also like to avoid any issues between us as well."
Zabuza frowned beneath his bandages. "I cannot allow him to complete that bridge," he asserted. "My people need Gatō's money to end Yagura's tyranny."
"And what about the bridge builder's people?" Kakashi queried with a sharp glare. "They all have to suffer under occupation for your cause? You don't think that is tyrannical?"
Zabuza's dark eyes shot to the ground in dejection. "It's horrible, I know," he admitted through a disgusted whisper. "But I have to provide for my people first and foremost over everyone else." He met Kakashi's gaze with determined confidence. "Yagura has been rounding up and killing all the people in the Land of Water with a kekkei genkai. Entire clans have been erased from existence and thousands have died because of him. He's genocidal and he must be stopped," Zabuza declared. "I'm not a saint but are we not the lesser of two evils?" he argued. "Gatō is crucial to our rebellion. Unless the Leaf is offering to replace him, my hands are tied. I cannot risk allowing Yagura to stay in power for even a second."
Kakashi interlocked his hands together and rested his chin on them as he contemplated. "I can attempt to reach out to the Land of Fire. Ask them to aid your rebellion," he proposed. "It'll take some time, and there are no guarantees they'll help you either."
Zabuza's eyes dimmed with a film of disappointment and he heaved a deep sigh. "What are we if not the tools of bigger powers?" he wondered. "I can't risk what I have from Gatō on something you can't guarantee. He knows you're here and he expects me to deal with you fast. I wanted to work this out, but it's not too late for you and your brats to leave," he calmly proposed.
Naruto shared a concerned look with Hinata who glared at Kakashi expectantly, meanwhile, Sasuke had a bug-eyed stare between Zabuza and his sensei for some unknown reason. "Unfortunately, I do intend to keep the bridge builder alive as much as he intends to complete the bridge." Kakashi sat up to fix his posture. "He's the only leader these people can still rely on. Imagine if the rebellion didn't have you?" Kakashi focused on the man before him. "You can still choose to let him live, to be better. We can make a good case for you in the Leaf, it would just require some time," Kakashi fought.
Zabuza frowned deeply. "I can't do that," he asserted. "If we are at odds, then I plan to finish this now," he declared, shooting up from the tree stump and gripping the handle of the sword on his back.
"That is unfortunate," Kakashi admitted. Zabuza unleashed his massive butcher knife with one swift pull. The spotted glare of the sun through the trees slid down the edge of the man-sized broadsword. Kakashi stood up, causing Naruto to jump to his feet as well.
"You sure you want your rugrats to get involved in this?" Zabuza waved his hand over the genin. "You know this fight is above their weight class."
Kakashi withdrew a kunai and twirled it around his finger. "Do they have a choice?" he beckoned. "I let them run for their lives into the forest and for all I know they get ambushed by your rebels," Kakashi pointed out, gripping the kunai in his hand. "They'll have to make do. And besides," he lifted the headband over his left eye revealing a blood-red Sharingan, "I'm not going to let you touch them."
"Their deaths are on you," Zabuza murmured under his breath. He reeled his sword back and swiped straight across at each of his enemies for a swift kill. Naruto's eyes widened at how fast the giant blade cut through the air. It was rocketing right toward his throat about to sever his head. He could never hope to react quickly enough to save himself.
Kakashi had already dropped to the ground, his palms planted into the firm dirt, and Naruto heard a whisper escape from under the man's mask before the ground opened up beneath Naruto and swallowed him whole, avoiding his imminent decapitation.
Darkness consumed him, as the earth around him groaned and shifted around him almost like it was swallowing him whole. He tried desperately to move his arms but they were pinned to his side, the massive weight of the dirt around him holding them in place. He clawed at the ground in panic to escape but it was to no avail when the light of the surface crashed down on top of him and the rushing winds assaulted his face. The ground spat him out, sending him falling back onto the surface again.
Naruto groaned. "What the hell was that?" He clambered to his knees before realizing that everything around him was different. "Kakashi-sensei?" he called into the forest for his teacher.
"Naruto," a voice whispered from behind him. He jumped to his feet and spun around with his hands up in defense, only letting his guard down when he realized it was Hinata. She looked as confused as him and was just as dirty too.
"Oh, Hinata," he exclaimed. "Where is Kakashi-sensei? We need to help him with that Zabuza bastard."
Hinata abruptly sucked in a deep breath and closed her pupilless eyes, throwing her hand up in a sign to focus her chakra. The veins around her temples and cheeks swelled with blood. Hinata opened her eyes and she adopted a very focused expression. "Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza are fighting about fifty meters to the northeast," she pointed to Naruto's right to give him a sense of what direction that is. Almost as if on queue, the clang of what must have been kunai against sword rang out through the trees from that direction.
"Then we can go help him," Naruto dusted himself off with a determined scowl and began running in Kakashi's direction.
"Not so fast," he heard Sasuke's voice ring out from the trees.
Naruto stopped in his tracks and faced the Uchiha down. "What do you mean 'not so fast'? We can't let Kakashi fight alone," he asserted.
Sasuke's face was pale and sweaty for some reason. He seemed deeply troubled and confused, yet he was also glaringly aware of something that Naruto hadn't realized himself. "Kakashi is the one who sent us here, idiot," Sasuke's eyes pierced Naruto with annoyance. "He got us away from the fighting for a reason."
Naruto's eyes widened in realization. Sasuke was right, but why would Kakashi do that? "Why would he get us away from the fighting?"
"We aren't strong enough to fight with Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza, Naruto," Hinata spoke up, her face awash with a thick film of apprehension.
"We'd probably only get in his way, we're just liabilities to him, and Zabuza is one one the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Didn't you see his sword? The Executioner's Blade," Sasuke stated with a troubled look.
Naruto grimaced. He didn't believe that Kakashi sent them all away to do nothing. Something about that didn't sit right with him. He felt that it was wrong to lay around doing nothing as Kakashi risked his life, and goodness knows if any of Zabuza's goons showed up. "No, Kakashi wants us to do something, he just doesn't want us to get directly involved," Naruto argued. "We can't just stand by and hope that he deals with it anyways. It's wrong."
"What are we supposed to do then?" Hinata quired.
"All of us have long-range attacks. We can still take potshots at Zabuza from the cover of the trees," Sasuke suggested.
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Naruto perked up. "Zabuza won't be able to focus if we can split his attention."
"I s-suppose that's true," Hinata shakily agreed through her timid frame.
"There's no time to argue, lead us to Kakashi and Zabuza," Naruto blurted out to the Hyūga to which she nodded her head and took off in a sprint.
As they sped through the trees, Naruto could hear the loud clanging of metal meeting metal blaring through the forest louder and louder until Hinata skidded to a stop. Naruto scanned the treeline, spotting Kakashi and Zabuza entrenched in a duel, dancing around attacks and swiftly riposting.
"They're about ten meters away," she explained.
"Take positions all around them, if we surround him, he'll be easier to pin down," Sasuke pointed out before he jumped into the trees above.
"You stay here and post up, Hinata," Naruto put his hands together and made a sign. "Clone Jutsu!" Three copies of Naruto poofed into existence and dashed into the surrounding forest. The real Naruto flashed a stern glance at Hinata. "With all of the angles we'll have on him, he isn't gonna know what hit him," he raced up into the trees and took point.
At the top, Sasuke offered him a nod to show he was ready to go, his clones were in place and Hinata had her bow drawn. He eyed Kakashi and Zabuza down below and clasped his hands together. They sped through a number of signs before he drew in a deep breath and he spat out a volley of wind bullets that soared at Zabuza's back. The first bullet connected, slicing into Zabuza's shoulder, the blood spurted into the air and Zabuza's head turned in surprise. Kakashi saw his opportunity and slashed into his chest with his kunai.
Zabuza jumped away, paying close attention to the other wind bullets that shot into the ground, kicking the dirt up into the air. He glanced into the trees at the direction the attack came from and scowled. He threw his sword up into a guard and Kakashi started his assault again. Naruto bared his teeth in frustration, pausing in the middle of preparation for his next attack. Zabuza was clever, he danced around Kakashi, putting him in the way of Naruto's fire.
He heard the snap of Hinata's bow string and the arrow weaved through the trees, being flung into Zabuza's other shoulder which forced out a grunt. His eyes dashed again to the treetops, right in Hinata's direction. Hinata frowned, "I wanted to get his arm so he couldn't use the sword anymore, but I'm still not accurate enough," she cursed and prepared the next arrow.
"It was a good hit for only picking it up yesterday," Naruto commended.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke's chest swelled and his cheeks puffed up, a stream of fire spewed from his lips and it grew into a flaming cloud.
It must've been the heat at his back that made Zabuza whirl around and scowl at the fireball. He brought his free hand up and ran through a few one-handed seals. "Water Style: Surging Wave!" The water spewed through his bandages and clashed with the flames. The water hissed and wailed, boiling into the bursting heat and scattering the jutsus into a cloud of thick mist that washed over the entire patch of forest and billowed into the trees.
Naruto squinted, trying his hardest to make his vision pierce through the mist. He felt the white steam rolling off of the water droplets that peppered the trees. It made his whole body clammy and the surroundings so humid it was difficult to breathe. An eerie quiet reigned over the forest. Naruto wanted to shout for Sasuke or Hinata but he knew that would give away his position and potentially put him in danger.
Naruto heard the snaps and groans of the trees below. First Sasuke and then Hinata gasped in shock as their trees crumbled to the misty earth beneath them. Naruto felt the adrenaline within spike as the hair on his body stood. His breath went shallow and he raced to the edge of the branches to search for his comrades below. A swift break at the base of the tree made his knees wobble to keep his balance. The wind picked up and he felt himself falling quickly. He could not see how close he was to the ground but he did his best to brace and slammed into the earth.
The air was knocked out of his lungs. He attempted to roll onto his back but struggled, buried under the jagged, piercing branches. He wriggled out from under the felled tree, ignoring the scrapes and tears in his flesh and jumping to his feet. His eyes dashed all around his surroundings hoping to pinpoint his teammates or Kakashi but the fog was still too thick. He delicately placed his foot forward and felt his way around the forest floor until he heard the faint grunts of someone. It sounded like Sasuke.
He closed in on the noise and found another felled tree. Something about it caught his attention. At the trunk of the tree it was cut clean through but most puzzling of all was that the face of the trunk was painted blood red. Naruto ran his finger across the smooth surface and watched the crimson pool onto his fingertip. He scrutinized it closer, watching it run down into his palm with a stunted curiosity. 'What is this?' he wondered.
A faint footstep from beyond put him on alert and he jolted around with a kunai already pulled. The scowl on his face faded away with a deep sigh of relief. Hinata stood before him, the veins around her eyes bulging from her cheeks. She was flanked to her right by one of his clones. "It's just you, and you're alright. Thank goodness," Naruto rejoiced.
"This mist isn't natural. It's made from chakra, so even I can't see through it well," Hinata whispered. "But I found you two so we can hurry and regroup."
Naruto quirked his eyebrow. "What do you mean 'you two'?"
"Sasuke is buried underneath that tree," Hinata pointed directly to the felled tree at Naruto's side.
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Right, that's why I came over here but I forgot when you showed up," he explained as each of them approached the tree. "Let's get this thing off of him," Naruto asserted as he squatted down and gripped a sturdy branch of the tree. Hinata and his copy nodded and did the same. Their combined strength was enough to lift the top end of the tree off the ground just a foot or so.
"Thanks," Sasuke gasped from under the tree. "Thought I was going to die under this thing." He crawled out from underneath on his elbows. "Hinata," he called, "can you see Kakashi or Zabuza?"
"No," Hinata admitted. "Kakashi-sensei seems to have driven Zabuza away somewhere," she speculated. Each of them softly laid the tree back on the ground and Naruto took it upon himself to dispel his remaining clone.
"Naruto, use a wind jutsu and blow this fog away," Sasuke suggested as he dusted himself off.
Naruto's hands met each other in an assortment of seals and he gathered a deep breath in his chest. "Wind Style: Air Wave!" A wide gust of wind blew against the mist and punched holes into the blanket of fog. Rays of sunlight peeked through the tree canopies again and before long Naruto had scattered all of the blinding mists from the area.
"How odd," Hinata murmured. "These trees look like they're covered in blood. I hope Kakashi-sensei is okay," her mouth twitched into a pensive frown.
"I saw that too," Naruto chimed. "It looks like when Zabuza cut the trees down they started to bleed or something."
"That doesn't make any sense," Sasuke criticized. "But… it is strange," he managed to admit.
"Either way, we need to find Kakashi-sensei and then–"
Naruto's words died on his tongue. The ground beneath each of them began to tremble and shake. "What the hell is happening?!" Sasuke beckoned with urgency as he retrieved a fresh kunai.
"I-It's Kakashi-sensei," Hinata shakily explained.
Just then Kakashi's silver hair breached the earth and he looked at each of his students. "It seems that each of you is alright," he remarked as he crawled out of the ground and stood before them.
"Where the hell is Zabuza?" Naruto wondered. "Did you beat him?"
"I'm not the real Kakashi. I'm just a clone," he explained through the mask. "I was sent here to help organize you guys properly to help the real me take down Zabuza."
"So what do you want us to do?" Sasuke asked.
"Come with me," the Kakashi clone dashed into the forest in a sprint and each of the genin quickly followed. "I apologize for abruptly sending you all away from the fight earlier, I didn't have much of a choice," he explained as he raced through the deep foliage of the forest. "Now that we have the opportunity to talk, I can give you all a good plan of attack."
"What do you have in mind, sensei?" Naruto chirped between shallow gasps of breath trying to keep up.
"Your initial plan wasn't bad and it would have worked on a lesser ninja," the clone clarified. "However, you can't remain in one place at a time while attacking Zabuza. He will find you and he will try to kill you," Kakashi warned. "You also cannot directly face him. He is far too strong for all of you and punching above your weight class will make you a liability." Kakashi managed to adopt a stern aura that pierced through his mask and flat voice. "Naruto," he called, "you will assault him directly with your clones and stay at a distance with your real self." Naruto nodded in understanding.
"Hinata, whenever you're close enough to spot him with your Byakugan, I want you to break off from the group and find a clear shot at him from as far away as possible."
The Hyūga nodded in agreement and mouthed a barely audible "understood".
"Sasuke, his Water Style is far superior to your fire jutsus," Kakashi said plainly, ignoring a frustrated glare from the Uchiha. "You can't use Fire Style at all, it just feeds into his type of combat; he excels at stealth and assassination. You have to stick to ranged weapons or pull off a lightning jutsu to keep him on his toes. If you can zap him while he's preparing a water jutsu then that would be ideal."
"Alright," Sasuke accepted. "But, I have a question for you." Naruto caught the serious tone of the Uchiha's voice.
Kakashi glanced at him with a curious look. "Oh? And what is it?"
"You're no Uchiha," Sasuke judged in a low but calm voice. "That Sharingan," he clarified, "where did you get it?" He seemed to eye Kakashi with a chilling scowl.
"Ah, my eye." Kakashi stared ahead, paying Sasuke little mind. "That's none of your concern, Sasuke," he brushed aside the question nonchalantly.
"What?" Sasuke blurted, taken aback. "You know of my history and the demise of my clan," the Uchiha spouted with a mean expression of indignance. "I deserve to know the origins of that Sharingan," he demanded, staring daggers into the back of Kakashi's head.
Kakashi remained silent, like Sasuke never even spoke to him. Naruto didn't quite understand what Sasuke was getting so aggressive over. He knew that he was the sole survivor of his clan but what was so important about Kakashi having a Sharingan? Naruto's anxious blue eyes swapped glances of concern between the stoic Kakashi, and Sasuke, who was grinding his teeth together with a glare that was trying everything in its power to decipher his sensei.
The tense silence between both parties felt overbearingly long. Sasuke became impatient. "How did you get the Sharingan?" he beckoned again. "Did you kill an Uchiha for it?" he pressed for the truth.
Kakashi refused to entertain his inquiries and kept pressing forward.
Another bout of silence swallowed the team. Hinata and Naruto each shared a slight frown. Sasuke's final question suddenly brought Kakashi under suspicion in Naruto's eyes. He hadn't understood where Sasuke was originally coming from but it was incriminating to see that Kakashi possessed one of the infamous eyes of the Uchiha. Naruto watched Kakashi with a glint of skepticism, knowing that an Uchiha would almost never give up one of their eyes to any outsider, but he then quickly brushed those thoughts aside. Kakashi wouldn't kill a fellow Leaf Ninja, definitely not for their eyes. Kakashi barely knew any of them and he still looked out for them. He was innocent in Naruto's mind.
Sasuke once again became aggravated with the quiet. "Did you steal it from somewhere?" This time the Uchiha didn't wait for his sensei. "Fine, you don't need to respond," he huffed. "I'll find out on my own," he declared. "I hope for your sake that I like the answers."
Naruto's eyes grew wide in shock and a scowl developed at the Uchiha. "You don't have to threaten him. He just saved your life," he argued.
"Anyone who spilled Uchiha blood is under threat – anyone who wronged them. They were my clan – my family!" he snapped. "Don't speak on something you don't know a damn thing about."
Naruto's face slouched into a slight frown. That last remark really pained him. The way it made his stomach turn over and his heart stop beating – it didn't sit right with him that Sasuke could say something like that without any regard for his feelings. But the truth was that Naruto knew he couldn't understand where Sasuke was coming from. Even still, he felt that the Uchiha's judgment was misplaced about Kakashi, who had only done right by all of them so far.
"Kakashi-sensei has done nothing but look out for us so far," he replied. "Zabuza would've taken your head off back there without his help but you're ready to throw all that away just 'cause he has an eye like yours? That isn't okay with me," he stated honestly.
"Guys, maybe you should both just leave it be and calm –"
"No," Sasuke interrupted Hinata. "If it isn't alright with you then do something about it, loser."
Naruto analyzed Sasuke with a critical eye. He didn't want to escalate things further, but it was obvious that Sasuke was already severely ticked off. Losing your cool in a battle like this couldn't be a good idea. "Your clan and stuff isn't my business, but I am telling you that you've probably got the wrong idea about Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said blankly, eliciting an indignant sneer from Sasuke. "Maybe you should wait until after the battle is over to ask him about it."
"Whatever," Sasuke said with a snide tone.
"Naruto, Sasuke," he softly began, "my original and Zabuza are battling just up ahead." The muffled clanging of metal rang in the distance and brought both boys to their senses. "It's time to fight," the clone notified them.
"It's time to break off and find your spot, Hinata," Kakashi instructed and Hinata branched off from her team and dashed into the bushes of the forest. "Naruto, Sasuke," he called, "stick to the plan."
Naruto's face hardened and he nodded his head in compliance.
"Whatever," Sasuke groaned dismissively at Kakashi.
"Great. You guys got it from here." Their sensei's clone dispelled into a wispy puff of white smoke. Naruto shared a stern glance with the Uchiha before each of them darted into the tops of separate trees.
From behind the cover of the green leaves, he saw Kakashi and Zabuza each race through an elaborate string of identical hand signs.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Emperor!"
"Water Style: Water Dragon Emperor!"
A spout of water danced around in each of their palms and expanded rapidly into two towering spirals of water. When they reached their maximum in the skies, the twisting cyclones of water began to take on definition and fashioned sharp scales along their backs and fins at their sides. At the edge of the cyclones, the waters contorted into a densely packed spear of rushing water that formed the distinct features of the dragon. Their swirling maws opened wide, revealing the threatening jagged teeth of the rapids.
The dragons faced off against each other and then Naruto's eyes were pried open by amazement at the sheer speed of the sea dragons and their ensuing collision. The waters slammed against each other with the quaking booms of twenty-meter waves crashing over each other. Naruto shielded his face from the downpour of water droplets that splashed in every direction, pelting and blemishing the bark of the trees with the cracking noise of fist-sized hail.
From the limiting peek through the cracks in his fingers and with his face turned away, Naruto caught a glimpse of Zabuza's dragon chomping down on the other's throat. Kakashi's eyes bulged with worry. He released the hand sign that maintained his jutsu and jumped onto the side of a tree.
His water dragon squirmed with discomfort from within the suffocating jaws of Zabuza's and then fell apart, losing its definition beyond more than a river of water in the sky. Zabuza then jumped into the air and planted his feet on the side of a tree just as Kakashi had, maintaining his menacing jutsu with intense focus. The floating river plunged to the earth with a deafening crash. Naruto felt rumblings from the ensuing flash flood of water rushing against the surrounding forest. To think that people could pull jutsu like this off casually was incredible.
Naruto's face was drenched from a panicked sweat watching Zabuza's dragon shoot forth at Kakashi. It ripped through the tree Kakashi stood on, peeling away the bark, branches, and leaves before snapping the tree from its rooted base. Kakashi managed to avoid a nasty death by dashing from one tree to another.
The dragon continued to tear through the forest, just inches from snapping Kakashi's feet off. Naruto gritted his teeth and threw his hands into a frenzy of rushed seals. His chest puffed up with the air flooding his lungs and the slicing bullets of wind whistled through the leaves.
Zabuza's ears twitched at the sound and his eyes broke out into a myriad of swift scans to locate the attack. One of the bullets just narrowly missed Zabuza's side and bored a hole into the tree. Zabuza swung around the tree into another one nearby and watched the other rounds of air get buried into the tree.
Chills crawled down Naruto's back seeing Zabuza trace the trajectory of his wind jutsu and decipher exactly where he was. He could hear the rustle of the leaves coupled with the snapping of trees get drowned out by the raging torrents. Naruto whirled around and faced down the intimidating visage of the Water Dragon Emperor.
He jumped away as quickly as he could and heard the tree behind him get swallowed up by the waters. He staved off the fearful feeling he had and focused on putting distance between himself and the dragon. He knew that as long as he could get away from Zabuza's sight, he wouldn't be able to follow Naruto accurately with the jutsu.
So Naruto dashed deeper into the forest, through the bushes and the leaves when an idea struck him. He held his hands together in a seal and a clone of him poofed into existence. It raced through the trees and in the opposite direction right towards Zabuza and it caught his eye.
Zabuza's dragon snapped onto the clone and Naruto was able to dive behind a felled tree where he watched closely. The clone began to string along some signs for a jutsu before the jaws of the water dragon clamped down around it and swallowed him up.
"Hehe," Naruto giggled and made one sign from behind the cover of the shadows. The clone curled up into a ball and then exploded. The sound of the boom was muffled under the enveloping rapids that splattered about in every direction like raindrops that pitter-pattered against the leaves. The dragon fell apart, the water quickly meeting the ground in a flooding mass that Naruto narrowly escaped by climbing up a tree.
Naruto then heard the faint whistle of a kunai spiraling through the air right at Zabuza's chest. Zabuza placed his blade before the kunai to block it but it was then suddenly zapped with a blue jacket of lightning chakra. Naruto followed the streak of lightning up to a focused Sasuke who was perched on a branch. The lightning-tipped kunai then buried itself into the great butcher knife with ease much to Zabuza's surprise. He flushed the blade with the protective coat of his chakra and barely stopped the kunai from piercing through it.
"Damn brats," Zabuza sneered, yanking the kunai out of his sword and throwing it away. The blade of his sword was then coated with a deep red, a liquid that gathered at the edge of the butcher knife and pooled there at the defiance of gravity. He reeled the Executioner's Blade back to prepare for a mighty swing.
Naruto tensed up at the sight of the crimson. The way it looked, there was something off about it; it was just so eerie. Zabuza swung the blade as hard as he could and Sasuke jolted from his tree of choice to the next. But Zabuza was halted mid-swing; Kakashi fought against his attack by pulling his arms back. The red substance at the edge of the blade then subsided, the sword seemingly absorbing it back into its structure.
"So it's true then," Kakashi said as he fought against Zabuza's strength. "The Executioner's Blade can sweat out the blood of its victims."
Naruto's face scrunched up into an expression of horror. 'How many people did it take to get all that blood?'
An arrow hissed through the air. Both Kakashi and Zabuza took note of it and broke apart to create distance. The area rang out with the splitting thump of the arrow shooting into the tree.
Naruto grimaced and made a new hand sign. 'What a sick bastard,' Naruto thought, detested by Zabuza's means of battle. Three clouds of white smoke puffed up into the air, made heavier by the wet atmosphere, out of each smoke cloud emerged a copy of Naruto that bolted into the forest for the Demon of the Mist.
Kakashi dashed back at Zabuza, swiping at his neck with his kunai. Zabuza ducked under the attack and shoved Kakashi away with the blunt edge of his blade just in time to intercept the first of Naruto's clones and swipe it away with a swift smack from the side of his sword. The next copy opened with a punch which Zabuza caught with the head-sized hole near the tip of his blade. The clone's blue eyes flew open with horror as Zabuza drug his blade through the air and slammed the trapped clone into the side of the tree. Naruto shuddered at the sound of the cracks of his clone's back against the surface. He prepared a single hand sign.
In that instant, his final clone jumped onto Zabuza's back, wrapped its legs around him, and hooked his arm under his chin in a rear naked choke. Zabuza only looked marginally frustrated and used his free hand to tear the clone's grip apart with ease. The clone struggled against him though, fighting with Zabuza's hand and avoiding getting grabbed. Zabuza finally got his hand around the clone's arm and began to tear him away when Naruto released his jutsu. His clone then subsequently exploded right on top of Zabuza and blew the tree he stood on apart with a dirty cloud of dust and smoke.
The hearty swing of the Executioner's Blade parted the smoke and debris in the air and Zabuza jumped away to the next tree. He held his sword over his shoulder and put his other hand before him to examine it. Naruto saw it too, cuts that riddled the side of his face bled down his bandages which were also in tatters. His arm was sliced up all around and smoke rolled off his arm. At the end of his wrist, the blood gathered there and dripped down onto the ground where the forest soil soaked it up. Worst of all were his fingers which had been dislocated from the force of the blast. His thumb was bent backward, his index finger bent hard right at the tip, and his ring finger faced away from him when he bent his fingers toward him.
He used his mangled hand and pinched his middle finger to his bloody palm to pull the bandages down from his face, revealing the site of his razor-sharp teeth. Kakashi was already on top of him though, assaulting him with a maelstrom of swift strikes with his kunai. Zabuza narrowly avoided the attacks, slicing down at Kakashi, wielding the blade with his one good hand to keep distance. Blood pooled at the edge of his blade and he swung again at Kakashi.
The masked man's Sharingan flared red and he dashed away from the wide berth of blood and into another tree. Watching the sword's attack slice through the branches of the tree and soar into the clouds before falling back down on the green leaves like a storm of crimson. Zabuza shoved his thumb between his shark teeth and bit down, pulling away with his head and leveraging with his hand, the popping and cracking noise of Zabuza fixing his thumb back into place had Naruto fighting off a queasy feeling in his stomach.
"Don't let him fix his hand!" Kakashi bellowed an order as he threw his kunai right at Zabuza who was already getting his ring finger into his mouth. Just as Zabuza slipped away from Kakashi's kunai, Sasuke followed up with a trio of shuriken that Zabuza was able to dance between with ease. Another blaring arrow from Hinata met the blunt face of Zabuza's legendary sword. One of Naruto's remaining clones pounced at the one-handed man with a kick that Zabuza let roll off of his shoulder and then severed the clone in twain with a heavy upward swing of his sword only just in time to avoid the real Naruto's Great Breakthrough that ravaged the bark of the tree and severed the branches.
Zabuza fell to the muddy surface of the forest and halted, putting his middle finger in his mouth again, another finger restored with the coarse pops of the bone and ligaments. Naruto became overwhelmed with worry. Zabuza was close to fixing his hand. Without it, he couldn't perform jutsu and wield his sword at the same time. This advantage was too good to give up.
Kakashi shot in from his tree at blinding speed. His kunai glowed with the azure of lightning chakra. Zabuza placed his sword in front of his chest, which Kakashi's kunai pierced entirely through. The kunai's tip tore into the flesh of his chest and the lightning around the kunai began to arch around Zabuza's body. The lack of bandages revealed the pained expression that would have otherwise been hidden. He grunted with great effort while using his injured hand to support his blade. He managed a powerful front kick that knocked Kakashi's leg from under him and sent him tumbling into the mud.
Hinata was just on time to fling another arrow into the fray that Zabuza unexpectedly caught in his bicep. And then another arrow whistled into the environment that tipped Zabuza off to sprint away and up a tree. Naruto's last clone met him there with his hands locked into a sign. The real Naruto raced up a separate tree and copied his doppelganger's jutsu.
"Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullets!" both Narutos declared. Sharp rounds of wind blasted toward Zabuza from each side. One round sliced at his cheek, and another bore into his thigh as he hopped away.
Sasuke gripped an array of kunai, it took him a moment, but he was able to glove each one with a layer of lightning and then launched each one of them at the Demon of the Mist's back. The first kunai buried itself into Zabuza's shoulder and he yelled out in anguish before baring his teeth in anger. His body jolted sporadically from the electricity coursing through his body. His eyes flared with frustration and he twirled around, slapping the other incoming kunai away with a wave of his sword.
He dragged his bloody wrist across the length of one side of the Executioner's Blade and it gathered at the edges from end to end. He held his blade straight out to the side and swirled it all the way around in a circle. The blood severed all the trees in its path and immediately destroyed Naruto's clone. Zabuza spun around again and another wide attack of blood was flung into the forest that Naruto just barely avoided by dropping down into the mud below. Zabuza's third and final bloody twirl forced Sasuke to jump from his tree to evade.
Zabuza finally had created some breathing room and stood atop the bloody surface of one of the cleanly cut trees he had just severed. He put his index finger between his sharp teeth and clamped down. Naruto was shocked. How could he have avoided them well enough to ever get that kind of breathing room? Then he almost doubled over at the sight of Sasuke, his eyes blaring red with a dark circle orbiting each of his pupils, he rushed in with the help of well-placed wire. Kakashi had told them explicitly not to face Zabuza head-to-head.
Sasuke kicked at the man's gut and was blocked by the blunt side of the broadsword. He leveraged off of the sword to jump into the air and attempted to kick Zabuza in the mouth with his other foot which Zabuza danced underneath. Zabuza grabbed at the misplaced leg's ankle and yanked the Uchiha over his shoulder with his injured hand. Sasuke's face was wrought with agitation as Zabuza swung him over his shoulder and threw him into the sky.
Naruto's ears perked up at the odd screech that echoed next to him, as if a thousand birds shrieked at once. His peripheral vision was overcome with a glowing blue and his head whirled around to Kakashi. He held around his hand a condensed ball of lightning that made Naruto's hair stand on end from ten feet away. He held in his eyes a battling combination of focus and worry. Then the gruesome sound of the final crack of Zabuza's finger boomed over Kakashi's technique and he had regained the full use of his hand.
Before Naruto could even begin to take it all in, Kakashi blitzed up the tree at Zabuza with incomprehensible speed. Zabuza jumped into the air and flashed through an array of seals. "Water Style: Flooding Torrential Downpour!"
The lightning in Kakashi's hand suddenly faded away and his intense speed slowed to a comparative crawl on the side of the tree. Kakashi couldn't risk getting anyone electrocuted with his lightning in a wave of rushing water.
Zabuza's jutsu poured from his mouth like a river that split off into a delta. Kakashi dashed between the blasts of water with haste. Each of the powerful streams of water shot into the forest floor, rising by inches each second.
Sasuke crashed into a tree and gasped in pain. Naruto caught the stubborn look on the Uchiha's face, the bloody glare in his Sharingan was as intimidating as ever. He jumped off the base of the tree directly at Zabuza. His hands flashed through hand signs and Naruto's face flooded with jaw-dropping disbelief.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" The thin stream of fire amassed into an enormous rolling boulder of flames that tumbled toward Zabuza.
Zabuza merely turned to face the cloud of fire. "It was a good try, Leaf Brats," he casually remarked. He began to string along hand signs and heaved. "Water Style: Streaming Water Gun!" The Demon of the Mist pointed his index and middle finger directly at the fireball and a stream of water burst forth from the tips of his fingers. The water clashed against intense flames. A hiss from the boiling water pierced through the area and heated steam rolled off the impact and settled into the forest below.
Naruto began to panic. All the mist gathering around was a horrible sign. Naruto felt it in his gut – this was a massive mistake. What's worse is that Sasuke was right on top of Zabuza and was going to be his first target. Naruto knew he had to do something.
He raced up the side of the tree without even thinking. The unsettling hiss of the superheated water faded away into the humid mists. Naruto could make out Zabuza preparing another bloody slash through the fog. 'I won't make it in time!' Naruto realized as he ran. He flooded as much chakra as he possibly could into his legs and formed the release hand sign before bursting forth with blinding speed so fast that the entire world blurred together.
When his sight returned he realized he was high in the air, right in front of Sasuke. He grabbed the Uchiha by the shirt and pulled him in. Naruto glanced at his back to see Zabuza swipe at both of them with a perfectly aimed slash of blood. Naruto forced his eyes shut and braced for the blood to cut into his flesh.
He felt an intense pressure grip his shoulder and suddenly all the chaos halted. The heavy, humid air was no longer hard to breathe. The wind as he was falling failed to blow around him. 'Did I die?' he wondered.
"Kakashi-sensei!" a voice called out.
'Hinata?' Naruto opened his blue eyes and realized he was no longer tens of meters high in the air. He was only a foot or so off the ground. He looked up and the emotionless glare of Kakashi greeted him from above.
"That is what a successful Body Flicker feels like," he casually pointed out to Naruto. He then let go of both Naruto and Sasuke who each stood on the ground, offering puzzled stares at one another.
"This is no time to dilly-dally," Kakashi shot in as he pulled his headband over his left eye. "We need to go now. We lost this fight," he revealed.
Naruto's face was colored with surprise but then a glance at the disheartening expressions of his teammates made him frown.
"Come on then," Kakashi pressed as he walked in front of them. "I'm not in any position to keep fighting." It was only then after getting to see Kakashi's back that Naruto's eyes bulged at the deep gash that was seeping blood from one shoulder blade to the opposite. Both Naruto and Sasuke couldn't help but share a glance of guilt before Kakashi burst into the trees with haste and each genin was made to follow.
'What a disaster.'
END
Author's Note
So here is chapter 10. I owe a big thank you to those who helped me with completing this bad boy like they have with all the others. I'd love to hear what you all think of it. What do you think of the first battle with Zabuza?
I hope that this chapter reaches you all in good health, and since this is the final chapter of this year, I'm praying you all have a nice Christmas and New Year's.
Review Replies
Daily Dae-Dae/Tavairus D. Hernandez – It's great to hear you're entertained so far and I'm grateful for the review. I hope I can keep you on your toes in terms of predictions, but I am interested in where you think the story is going from here.
Ashurahhhhh – It's good to see that the Waves arc is kicking off nicely for you so far. There are many other divergences from canon to come. Also yea, I've been sorta shedding light of the Mist Rebellion for a little while now. It's got a lot of focus heading its way later down the line. Awesome that you also are enjoying Zabuza so far too.
Kastra Pyrolux – I appreciate the kind review. And I'm happy you enjoy the more political aspect of the things going on here. I intend to put a lot more focus on fleshing out that side of the Shinobi World in general. I'm thrilled that you like how the characters are developing so far as well.
Alright it's about time to start wrapping this up. Chapter 11 "Real Progress" drops on January 6th, 12-1pm EST.
Review, follow, and favorite the fic, and I appreciate your time. Don't be afraid to reach out to me if you have questions, either in the replies or on the FFN app.
Godspeed,
Salt.